my old man knees

So, Wednesday night I did about 1hr run with Rich&Keith, and they were going a bit faster than I would've preferred. Of course, I didn't say anything. By the time I was in bed my *other* (left) knee was hurting. WTF? I've never had knee problems! -note: I forgot, I had twisted my left ankle during the run...

Last night, relatively easy swim. 1200mWUP split in 400s, mainset 2x(400aerobic, 300pace(1000m), 100ez). Even though I started the workout with my legs feeling like logs during the kick sets, I was feeling VERY comfortable for the main set. Reaching far, pulling a lot. The warmup was also nice since Keith was giving me a huge draft to suck myself into...

Bikes: I'm torn about what to do for the winter. I say I want to ride through winter but I'm a wuss. Will I really do it? Do I bother fixing up Gravy's bike? (the rear rim is finished -that's why its so wobbly-up/down its out of shape) Do I buy that boulder bike sitting in the shop? Do I recommision the old GT? AND, to top things off, I have thoughts of building up a tri bike again. A used road frame Aegis could be within reach, as well as my LBS carrying a brand that has a "real" tri bike. (Its 76degrees). Of course before all this, I need a new job first...

100

Did you want to live to 100? I don't know if I would....if your no longer able to take care of yourself at 80 and you live another 20 years. I wonder, do those go by fast or, are they the longest 20 years of your life. Maybe at that age you just forget about yesterday and the day before.....
If I live to be that old I hope I have someone with me to help me remember the days, and look forward to to more days.

ok, ok

I'll give this thing a try, to see if I like.... I'm just wondering if we can comment about each other's training too... Is it ok if I'd like to do peterborough half???
I'd be racing against WOMEN....not men!
I promise I'll give it a try!

the frustrations begin

well, believe it or not, I was actually looking forward to doing the 5km time trial on the track tomorrow. After seeing my good 'ol physiotherapist though, I won't. (And to top things off, I had a huuge poutine after my dinner). Last week, after the run (hills) and the biking on Saturday my knee was hurting. Got some ultrasound and that stint machine (ooh, involuntary muscle action) and diagnosis: inflamation. (ie. too much too soon) sigh... I just want to get back to routine!

swim

drills drills drills. Not sure why but C keeps me on finger drag all the time. First it was the left arm, now the right. Damnit. I got to stretch on deck beforehand for a change, and that helped things but by 20:11 my gas light was blinking. Where's my endurance?

catching up for the weekend

friday night - hill repeats, mctavish from doc.p to pine x4, then the long way x4 felt good, but in the evening my right knee was hurting

sat - went for a ride in the city on the cindercone, about 3hrs total. by the end I was pretty tired - sore back?

sun - swim, main set 4x150's, on 2'40first set, managed to do it with <5sec rest, then 2'50 on second set. 50 all out afterwards 38" feeling good overall.

-afternoon easy run, 1hr. Felt good -lafontaine -> mt royal I think I found a new running buddy - Neil. Pretty cool :)

Didn't fit in any weight work, but I definitely feel the need. I suppose if I were really up to it, I could later tonight - but I'll take a pass to rest up for tomorrow's swim. Endurance wise, I feel good - the swim is coming back to me, I was able to push the 50 and felt comfortable. The run too, it never hurt so I'm pretty happy. Hopefully I'll be able to start adding up the mileage. I better stretch tonight.

less than eight months left

This is my training log, and diary for the 05-06 season.
summer02: montreal sprint tri, half-marathon
summer03-04: olympic distance
summer05: ottawa-kingston, bike race (gatineau grand prix), guelph olympic

Its been four years of training and I'm always striving for something new. I would never have imagined that I would even think about doing an Ironman back then, but its a goal that feels more and more attainable.

This season was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. At the end of last summer I was battling my plantar fasciitis, but was feeling incredible on the bike ever since I got a custom built Serotta Colorado III. I took the fall easy, around December I started to get involved with my current gf, 'becca. Training became pretty lax around this period (my own choice). Races starting popping up and I kept making excuses to not go. My favourite race in Guelph coincided with a friend's wedding, and so my usual start to the season didn't materialize. I also wanted to focus so badly on the Ottawa-Kingston ride in June that I spent A LOT of time biking and neglected the swim & run. The flip side was that I felt strong and extremely confident during Ottawa-Kingston. Aside from the brutal heat on the first day, my legs never felt tired and I was always able to push the pace, and flying up the climbs.

Thanks to the encouragement of 'becca and our bike coach, I found myself at the start of the Ottawa Grand Prix, in the novice category, two laps around Gatineau's 21km loop. I didn't warm up enough/properly and once the start gun went off I was anaerobic - big time. I knew I was climbing strong, and with good form but I had no idea how long it would last. I managed to hang onto a peloton for about one lap, before getting dropped. All in all though, it was exciting and something totally different from what I was used to.

Guelph 2 on the other hand was amazing. I had never done the race in September but with my sister in the area, I decided to try it. The swim went well 32:34/2:11, I was experiencing back pain near the end of the bike portion but I always felt within limits (but managed 1:07:34/34.6) and then 8km into the run, I ran out of steam. Nothing major, but enough for me to drop pace enough for a 48:20 run, about 4 minutes slower than my standalone 10km time.

All in all, injury free season, with definite improvements. Much more comfortable in open water than ever, stronger bike, (even though I didn't use my aerobars OR race wheels), and half decent run considering I barely did any.

What did I learn?

I need goals, and planned races. I have a hard time going at threshold, I'll take a stab at longer distances for next year. I need to really bust my ass on core and gain some upper body muscle mass; my swim times are 10x slower open water than in the pool. Must run more, as well as bricks.

Next year's goal: Muskoka, then Peterborough Half-ironman

thursday

biked in to work, felt ok.
swim: main set 5x200 even@fastest. I was feeling like crap after the third. 3:15/20/25/22/23 average 21, although I was in the draft for the first set. Definitely lost some endurance in the pool.

My "lots of base running" has not been materializing. sigh...