The week that was (and could have been better!)

Despite only being in the early stages of the Christmas season, I'm quickly finding out how tough it is going to be to stick to my workouts for the next couple of weeks. My gym closed down for a week for some kind of renovation, so I haven't been able to swim since last Tuesday. I did some modification to the off-season program, and managed to at least get a workout of some kind in on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Running outside has been a challenge lately, since people in my area seem unable to shovel the sidewalks in front of their houses. The slipping and sliding make it difficult to keep a steady heart rate... I'm constantly worried about going down in a heap and pulling a groin, or something. Plus, you know... people would laugh, and that would suck. Missed a workout this week... I made Thursday my scheduled day off instead of the normal Monday since it was my staff Christmas party... and today just happened to be a kick-ass blizzard, which kind of threw my outside running plans in the crapper... and no gym to fall back on with the ongoing renovations. So it looks like today just became my day off for the week, with a re-scheduled run tomorrow. Truthfully, I don't know how much energy I would have had for today's run... last night there was a gathering at my future in-laws' place. I don't even want to think about how many empty calories were ingested through various solids and liquids. Oh, we all took plenty of liquids. This was, of course, a "pre-Christmas" party, with the actual Christmas party happening next Saturday. The parties at their place are always a really fun time, but with me and my zero grams of willpower, they aren't exactly helping the whole triathlon cause. Have to make a solid effort this week to stay on track and be redeemed. Time to suck it up, princess.

Watching Kona

NBC finally aired the Hawaii Ironman on Saturday. I love watching it every year... between the coverage of the professionals' results and profiles of age groupers, it makes for some good watching. I mean, it combines two of my much loved pastimes: watching TV and triathlon! With the race being in October I already knew all the results before it was shown on television, but it didn't matter. It was still very exciting and very emotional. I am very moved -- as I was last year and in '05 -- from the story of John "Blazeman" Blais, a man with ALS who completed the event in 2005. As he predicted in '05, he was forced to watch the race from a wheelchair in 2006 as the disease slowly but surely took over his body. The world lost John Blais in May of this year at the age of 35, but his story lives on. Kudos to NBC for mentioning him and showing some clips in this year's broadcast (I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt, and believing that they aired it to promote awareness, NOT to help win an Emmy). Google "John Blais ALS" for a lot more information.

Muskoka 70.3!!

Well, I am now slated to compete in my first half-ironman triathlon... the Muskoka 70.3 on September 14, 2008. The race is actually sold out, but by signing up for a weekend training camp in June I received an entry into the race. Did I mention the camp is put on by Lisa Bentley? The same Lisa Bentley who has won eleven Ironman titles. How cool is that? So now I'm nervous and excited about both the camp and the race. Originally I had something resembling a plan for 2008. It involved some sprint races and was supposed to culminate in an Olympic tri in August. Suddenly that Olympic triathlon has turned into a final tune-up race for Muskoka. Doing a half IM was the furthest thing from my mind for 2008. I figured I would seriously consider one in '09, maybe leading to a full IM the year after that. Well, all bets are off now... the next 11 months or so will tell me what I'm made of. I'm very much looking forward to the challenge. Signing up for the race has (not surprisingly) already started to give motivation, even though I'll only being doing off-season workouts until mid-January. I won't actually start my 20-week plan for Muskoka until the end of April. Even so, I doubt I'm going to miss too many sessions before then. I always feel guilty if I miss a workout, but now the idea of missing one just scares the crap out of me. The idea of finishing strong in Muskoka got me out of bed Sunday morning after waaaay too many drinks the night before. Who would've thought a 10k on a cold Sunday morning would be just the thing to drive away that hungover feeling. Now that I think about it... with all this increased distance soon to come my way, I just might have to think about a new bike. Now that's something to think about!

Good toe... plus my mental problems

Well, this week I biked, I swam, and I ran, and the toe seemed to hold up pretty good. So much for having an excuse to sit on the couch. They say that mental preparation is often overlooked in a training program. Well, based on my indoor trainer use so far, I'm going to have quite a few opportunities to toughen up my brain this winter. I've never owned an indoor bike trainer before, and I just got this one a couple of weeks ago. I'm finding that I am having a lot of trouble staying focused while spinning away. Even watching a sports talk show hasn't really helped -- I thought for sure that would make the time go by quickly. I get bored and I start watching the clock, counting the minutes. I'm worried because I'm only in the early stages of my off-season program, which means I'm not even cycling for all that long yet. What happens when the time in the saddle starts to increase? I have recently obtained a couple of "spinerval" base building DVDs, so maybe that will help. I really, really want my bike segments to be better in 2008, so slacking off on the cycling workouts wouldn't exactly help that cause. Another bike workout tonight, so we'll see how things go.

Broken toe! (maybe)

It would appear I have broken the little toe on my left foot. Well, it's broken according to all the medical experts in the accounting department where I work. It only happened last night before bed, so I don't know how it will affect my biking and running. It doesn't hurt too much, but it actually hurts more with shoes on than off -- that could be trouble. Although, my running shoes are softer and more flexible than the shoes I wear at work, so maybe it won't be too bad. The cycling shoes might be another story... they are relatively tight. But then again, maybe the tight, non-flexing shoe will keep it from moving around. Trying to be an optimist here.


Indoor trainer workout scheduled for tonight after work, so I'll know soon enough.

Swim Saturday, long run Sunday

I love doing swim workouts on Saturdays... there are very few people (if any) using the pool, and those who do use it are actually swimming laps. This is a contrast from the lunch hour swims I'm sometimes forced into during the week -- the pool is packed with Floaters. Floaters are people, mostly women, who just kind of hang around and float in place and socialize. Seems the only time they can do this is when the pool schedule specifically says "laps." I mean, they don't even walk back and forth to try and disguise it as exercise. Do something... grab some water weights are pretend to move them around. And they give me dirty looks because I'm trying to swim laps?? I hate the Floaters. Long live the Saturday afternoon swim. Today was my long run. Well, long for me, anyway, at about 10k. Temperature was about seasonal, somewhere around 6 degrees, but it was quite windy... my face seems to have suffered a little windburn. The 12 week off-season program I'm on now doesn't actually have long runs scheduled, but I figure with the half marathon slated for May, I should do one per week and slowly add mileage. I try to maintain a nice, slow pace, so hopefully it doesn't turn out to be too much. Most of the workouts I'm doing right now are base building at fairly slow paces, so I don't think overtraining is a big concern at this point. Now I think it's time for me to spend a little quality time on the couch, perhaps watching football.

Tonight's treadmill workout -- LT test!

Well, at least people say that's what it is. I'm skeptical, but we'll see. It's the 30 minute time trial method -- used for both running and biking -- that I've read so much about: after a warm-up, start the treadmill at, say, a RPE of 8 for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes start recording your heart rate and get an average over the last 20 minutes. This average should be close to your lactate threshold, which can then be used to determine proper HR training zones. People with fancy letters after their name have endorsed this method... so it has to be right, right? Yeah. Like I said, skeptical. I'd like to get an accurate recording of my LT threshold so I can use my HR monitor for zone training this winter. Supposedly this test is the next best thing to a professional test done in a lab. In those tests they actually take blood every so often and measure the amount of lactate in it. When there is a spike in the lactate, you've gone anaerobic. Holy science, Batman. Anyway, word is that a HR monitor is the key for proper training intensity. Now that I finally have one I'd like to put it to good use. So, we'll see what I can come up with in the test tonight.

2008 race goals

I was trying to put together a list of goals, both general and specific, for the 2008 season.

Event	Goal	2007 best and/or comments
Half-marathon	Under 2 hours	First time in 2008
10k	Under 50:00	53:24
5k	Under 22:30	24:55
Swim - sprint race (750m)	2:00/100m	2:09/100m
Bike - sprint race (20k)	Avg. 30km/h	Avg. 28.5 km/h
Run - sprint race (5k)	Under 5:00/km	5:24/km
Sprint triathlon - overall	1:25:00	1:32:58
Olympic triathlon - overall	Under 3 hrs.	First time in 2008

Most of the road races should come in the early part of the spring or in late fall. The half-marathon is on Mother's Day, which falls on May 11 next year. I'll likely add a duathlon or two in there as well. Victoria's Duathlon in May and the Niagara-on-the-Lake Duathlon in September. Both are part of the Subaru Series, to which I am partial.

I'll be entered in at least 2 sprints of the same distance (750m, 20k, 5k) -- one in each of June and July -- and the Olympic is in early August. The last two years I've started the tri season in Milton, doing the try-a-tri there. I'd like to do it again this year -- and since the other races I'll be in will be new to me, running the same course in Milton will give me a really good chance to see what kind of progress I've made.

I've got some equipment I'm going to talk about in a future post... I don't know if I'd call it a review, but I guess it's something like that.

First post ever! (a brief triathlon history, if you will)

Can you feel the excitement? You can, can't you? My first ever blog post. Yeah... we all have shivers. Of course, there's a good chance that no one other than me will ever read this... maybe that's why it kind of feels like I'm talking to myself or some imaginary friend. If you happen to find yourself reading this and are looking for triathlon advice or training tips and hints, this might not be your best bet... at least, not yet. I'm brand new to the blog game, and I'm relatively new to the tri game, having completed a handful of try-a-tri events in '05 & '06. This led to a couple of sprint distance events this past summer. I think it is safe to say I'm hooked and will continue to participate (notice the word used was "participate" and not "compete") in the future. My hope is a winter of solid work will bring me closer to a "compete" level. As it stands at the end of the 2007 season, I'm a consistent mid- to back-of-pack guy. This was expected, since I didn't exactly kill myself during training. In fact, I never really liked to use the word "training" because it seemed to be too serious of a word. I didn't want to take triathlon too seriously... it was supposed to be something fun to do on the occasional weekend, while keeping myself in relatively good shape. Some success was had there, as I managed to knock off somewhere between 10 and 15 pounds compared to last summer. I've kind of hit a plateau, likely because I continue to stuff junk food in my face like it's going out of style. I know it wouldn't have happened without the race preparation, though... jogging with the exclusive purpose of losing weight has never worked for me. I've never been able to stick with it. But triathlon race prep gives me multiple reasons to go for that run, bike, or swim after work, instead of just hitting the couch and watching PTI. For instance, I like the idea of a strong finish. Check that - I like the idea of seeing the finish. I know what it feels like to be in a race and not be physically prepared. One word: Pain. It hurts. It hurts me. Preparing for the race helps to alleviate this. If all else fails, I think in financial terms... ie - I paid for the damn race, I'm not missing it, therefore must train. However, I think the Serious Factor might have been moved up a notch. I am currently on a 12-week off-season training program... my first real attempt at using a pre-established program. This will bring me to mid-January, at which time I will begin a modified half-marathon training program - modified to fit swim and bike workouts in, without having to work out three times a day (as it stands, the longest I've ever run is 10k). That will take me to early May, at which time I will begin training in earnest for my main summer goal: an Olympic triathlon on the August long weekend. I really want to do well, and not just by my own prior-race standards, and I think I've finally set myself up to get closer to that goal. I know I'll never win a race... I mean, you should see how in-shape the winning dudes are at these races. I suppose it could be a possibility. But I'm just not ready or willing to a) work out three times a day, six days a week, and b) face the idea of attending a backyard BBQ next summer and not having the option of tossing a handful of party mix down the hatch to be chased with a beer. I don't mind training hard, but it is still supposed to be fun... not a job. I've already got one of those, and one is enough. It's really meant to enhance my life - it has and will hopefully continue to do so into the future.