Monday, November 30, 2009

Trauma and Insanity

Yes, perhaps a little dramatic for a title, but let me explain.
On Saturday my son complained that his tooth hurt. So I had a quick look and to my horror it looked awful! There was literally a hole in it, so I could only assume a filling had come out. I've had this happen before so I knew it could be painful. First thing this morning we called the dentist to get him in. At 2:15 he went in, at 2:35 I had a call saying he had an infected tooth and they couldn't save the tooth, it would have to be pulled :( Shortly later, Lar called and I could hear Eamon in the background crying for me. He was literally hysterical! Poor kid, it took 4 times the regular dosage of Novocain and he was still in terrible pain. The only way to settle him for the 30 minute drive home was for me to sing him a lullaby that I sang to him when he was a baby.

My day was pretty hectic all around, and for some reason my ipod alarm didn't go off (I think I had turned the volume off.... doh! such a love hate relationship) so I didn't get in my a.m. workout. How about lunchtime? Nope, had to run a noon hour workshop... are you kidding me?!?!?! Sigh.

But on the training note, we met with our coach on Friday morning. How exciting. He's only giving us the 1st week of training, because we go for our fitness testing next week. Then after the "honeymoon" stage we'll be getting our training plans monthly, but will be meeting up for coached swimming sessions. Did I mention he's a fabulous swimmer?!?!?! I believe he was 2nd out of the water for Ironman Canada 2009. Just a bit intimidating. But ego aside, it can't hurt to get some help in the pool. Tomorrow is a swim day, by ourselves and then again Friday morning nice and early at 6:30.

So life with the kids is busy, pre-school snack day tomorrow, Eamon's 8th bday party on Friday (taking the boys to the climbing wall), and ballet recital next week, plus Christmas bake sale to get ready for. I'm also doing a few last minute contract projects (yes yes I do extra work on top of my full time job?!?!?! tsk tsk), and all the other things in life are keeping me on my toes.
Wish I could just train, it'd be hard but simple :)

Monday, November 23, 2009

On the road again....

Tomorrow I head out of town for a few days, should be fun though as I get to travel with a co-worker, that also happens to be my training partner. Coincidence? I think not :) Wondering how much training chat we can squeeze into the first 2 hours of our drive tomorrow! And also plan to get some Christmas shopping in.

For the first time in a long while, I managed to drag my butt out of bed this a.m. for an early morning workout! I know it's important to cross train, so I did my own mini circuit workout with skipping rope, pushups, crunches, lunges, squats etc. I'll pay for it later no doubt. By lunch time I was starving, but otherwise my energy level has been really good! So great to get it done and out of the way! And such a beautiful day today, hard to believe it is late November!

So for the rest of this week . . . should be able to get in a swim tomorrow, as for Wed/Thurs. hard to say, although both hotels have exercise facilities, but maybe a run on Wed. or Thurs.
Friday, meeting with Shawn to start training planning :)
Have I selected my races?!?!?! Yup.
May 2010: Splash Pedal Gasp
June 13, 2010: Wasa Lake Tri [open water]
July 2010: Swam the Dam (Magrath Tri)[open water]
August 2010: Lake Chaparral (Calgary)[open water]

Sept or October, 1/2 marathon, haven't yet selected.

I've also called to schedule the fitness testing, just waiting to hear back. I hope I don't throw up, Lar keeps mentioning how the pro hockey players are just puking their guts out after their V02max testing!!!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Cleaning House

Confession. I paid to have my house cleaned.
How is it that I can take something as wonderful as coming home to a nicely cleaned house (that I didn't have to do), and feel guilty about it??? The inner monologue was something like "I suck, I can't even do my own house cleaning". So, I was feeling a bit like a failure yesterday and to top it off my run was also crap :( I set out for my long run yesterday and had to cut it shorter because my left hamstring is really tight and sore and it just wasn't "working" itself out. GRRR I hate stopping a workout, even if I know I should. But I did find a cheaper alternative to massage therapy .... having my son walk on my sore hamstring :) He thought it was fun, and I thought it felt great :) I'm also full swing into a cold, so my sinuses are waging war. Sigh. Sniffle. Sniffle.

I've confirmed a meeting time with Shawn to set up my training plan (next Friday) and have the go ahead to set up my fitness testing. Hope my attitude is better by then. Reminds me of lyrics to "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus (yeah a teenie bopper song, but great lyrics). "A little voice inside my head, saying, you'll never make it".

One of my assignments before meeting with Shawn is to decide on some goal races. Should be fun :) Will be traveling for work next week, so I'll have a fair bit of time to plan that out and think it through. Oh, and yesterday I was chatting with two people I know that are going to be doing Calgary Ironman 70.3, it was so exciting! I told them I'd be volunteering so I'd watch for them on the course. I think it's awesome how many people are crazy about triathlons.

Well off to drive home, get supper and get the kids off to their activities...have to admit, it'll be great to go home to a nicely cleaned house :)
Feeling better already ;)

Monday, November 16, 2009

The road to hell....

...is paved with good intentions. I thought that would be a fitting title for my blog today. I had planned to get up at 5:50 this a.m. to do a cardio circuit (skipping, pushups etc.). I had my workout clothes all set, my freshly synced iPod, water bottle etc. It's almost funny, because I've joked before that if my kids are going to get sick, it always happens at 4:00 a.m.

No word of a lie, at 3:59 Brynn comes in because she wasn't feeling well (and when I saw the time, I actually laughed). After a short while she went back to bed without incident. I had a hard time going to sleep in the first place (my head wouldn't turn off) I even listened to all of the newest "Milkthecowbaby Triathlon" podcast, and I think by then it was 11:40 p.m. :( Still couldn't sleep! Needless to say, I shut the early alarm off!

I packed my gym bag and plan to do some speed work at the track during lunch. Speaking of that, I just wanted to say how lucky I am. Here at work we have a brilliant athletic facility!!! Huge weight room with lots of cardio equipment, an indoor climbing wall and a 200m indoor track!! Love it. Plus, with a locker and towel service, it's quite convenient. Errr maybe too convenient when the alarm rings so early, although I do prefer to do my workouts in the a.m. as then I have more time, plus it starts the day off great.

Will report back when I'm done .... snack time first.

So I'm back. Great workout, was a bit pressed for time at the end and would have liked to get in more stretching because my left hamstring is bugging me a bit. I did a slow warm up, and it was SO hard, others on the track were trotting quite well, and it took almost all I had in me to not start off running :( Silly competitive nature (s'okay, got to blow past some runners when I was doing my sprints). I did a 5 minute quick walking warm up (sigh), then did a moderate 1km, then I did 200m of super quick sprints (of course a relative term) and then 200m of walk, and I did that 5 times, and then a 1km cool down, followed by some stretching and rolling on a foam roller. I LOVE that thing!!! So hey "Santa" I really really really want one for xmas.
I was thinking I might do a "Dear Santa" blog post, with photos :) hehehe

Saturday, November 14, 2009

iPod killer???

I think that's going to be my new nickname. To say the least Lar has already declared "you realize you can't use my ipod, right?". I'm not sure what is up... my iTouch pooched on Wednesday, so I reclaimed my nano that I'd passed on to my son. Today, the screen went blank!?!?!?!? What gives? The only similarities . . . I used it running and was listening to a podcast, now both screens are white?!?!?! At least I can return the iTouch. Sigh.

Went for another long run today, not sure if that was too good with only 2 days in between my last long run! Of course the ipod quit on me with about 2.5 kms still to go, oh well, need to get used to running without it eventually :) I felt pretty good, it was a beautiful day for a run. At first it was lightly snowing but then it just was gorgeous blue skies and hardly any wind. I could feel my left hamstring tightening up :( I'll be sure to stretch it nice and good and will likely take tomorrow as a rest day, since I've done 6 consecutive days this week (Mon., run, Tues. swim, Wed,. long run, Thursday swim, Friday 30 min spin and some stretching).

So here are the details . . .
10.52 kms
1 hour 15 mins including a 5 min warm up walk, and a circle back to house to get headband/ear warmers (my ears were getting cold).
It was a pretty basic run, my usual back road route, but lengthened out some. I loved that I had enough energy to go quicker for the last km, makes me wonder how fast I could do it if I knew how to pace myself correctly *grin*

Good news, I'll be speaking to Shawn via telephone on Monday to set up our first meeting time :) Yay... I don't want that triathlete Training Journal to go to waste.

Lar started his Martial Arts class today :) Yay! I'm pretty sure he really liked it, despite almost passing out and almost throwing up!!! I asked him if he wanted some ibuprofin for his aches and he declined saying he earned the hurt so he was going to "enjoy" it, and then he went for a good soak in the hot tub. Too funny! We'll see if he changes his tune tomorrow!

Also, something cool happened last night. I was re-watching the Ironman Canada and since I was pretty tired I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but I actually saw Erin337 (from erinleetriathlon.com and Tri n Reality podcast). I wasn't sure so I checked out her race number on her blog, and yep it was her. I found that pretty cool, especially since she looked so happy, when she was racing.

Anyways, I'm off to play with the kids, Brynn is currently snapping the little spring door stopper on my office door, I think that's her hint... not that she's usually subtle about her hints. And Eamon has just recently returned from playing road hockey with the neighbours, so much fun!!! Really what I want to do is crawl up and take a nap, guess that'll have to wait for about 90 minutes (read =>>> bedtime!).

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Theme song for the day . ...

There's a bit of irony in my title today. First, because my itouch died last night so I didn't have any music.
But really I was thinking that I should select a theme song for today. It was a strange day, because at work it felt like a Monday (with the holiday yesterday) but I was super high energy, so I kept thinking of zippy and quick songs. Could it be my mind was playing my workout playlist as a tribute to my fallen itouch?!?!? Whatever the reason I felt GREAT today. My legs were tired from my run yesterday but I just felt overall good. Even though I left my beautifully crafted coffee on the counter this morning, even though my water bottle leaked in my bag, even though it was a swim day. Actually I enjoyed my swim today, right after I get over the shock of plunging into the cool water of the university pool.

On my way home I stopped by Costco to return my itouch, but I'd forgotten the ear buds, silly me. But I'm glad that I'll be able to return it. Drove home, without my podcasts *sigh*, quickly made supper (wraps, nice and easy). Now we're just headed out to AWANA with the kids.

I'm not sure if it's the return to "training" that's got me in a good mood, but I'll take it and I'll even get up tomorrow at 5:50 a.m. to do a circuit. Well that's the plan anyway!

So happy pseudo-Monday, but I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Lest we forget

Today is Remembrance Day, and it was a nice break in the middle of the week, and we took full advantage. Slept in (well until 8:25) took the kids to a movie, hit Starbucks and then I went for a nice 10 km run!!!!

On the way back home from the movie (we live about 40 kms outside of the city) I noticed a road I hadn't really paid much attention to, but it was country paved and looked like a good running route. So, even though it was blustery windy out and cool, I headed out on a new route. Yay, the Garmin was all charged up. I walked the first 5 minutes to warm up my knees because I knew my knee was a bit sore. And off I went....remember it was super windy! I started off to the north and then headed east, which kept me from running straight into the wind. At about 5 km I dropped one of my gloves and had to turn around a bit to fetch it, and HOLY crap the wind was brutal. It was pretty clear that the return portion of my run would suck. Luckily I had my cell phone so I decided that I would run until I reached 8 km then would call Lar to come fetch me :) What a guy . . . . he calls me back and says, are you sure you gave me the right directions because I've driven a long way... hehehehe. It was starting to get a dark and so he flashed his lights and I said I could see him. So by the time I'd gotten in the car I was just shy of 10km.

It was a really good run and I was happy to go as far as I did.
Here's what it looked like . .
9.91 km
1:09:17, not too bad since I walked the first 5 minutes.
Average HR 139 (is that too low???), or is that good for a long run.
Max HR 153
785 calories



Exciting thing on Larry's radar . . . he's thinking of joining a martial arts class. I think it'll be great for him :)

As for me, I'm still wanting to complete at least 4 tris this coming summer, and a 1/2 marathon in the Fall. After today's 10 km run, I'm pretty sure I can do the 1/2 marathon with the right training plan.

Think I'll email Shawn tomorrow ;)

Monday, November 9, 2009

From zero to two

From no posts, to two in one day :)
I was super excited to leave work a bit early so I could hit the road and get in a run. It's been a long time, and wow could I tell. I felt pretty good today, just a slight headache and a lot more energy.
It always amazes me how a short hiatus can come back to haunt you. It was super windy and quite a slog, but I made it through and felt good just knowing I'd actually gone out! Started off rough, as the Garmin decided it wasn't going to work (lost all it's battery charge). So I just headed out on my usual 5 km route. I missed having the constant reminder to maintain pace.

Tomorrow is a swim day at noon, and Stacey's not been feeling too well, so I hope she'll join me. I'm not really following a training schedule right now other than trying to get 2 of each (swim, bike, run) per week and maybe a circuit too. I'm hoping to sit down with Shawn soon and set out a training plan :)

Next season's goals . . . .
4 tri's
1/2 marathon (in the Fall)

Off to put my son to bed! Then a bit of R&R.

Where to begin?

I see my last post was a long long time ago.
Have I given up on Triathlon? Have I completely dropped off the face of the earth?
Nope, but wow I've been busy since my last post, including 3 races :)

Recently I've taken up listening to podcasts during my travel to work (1 hour daily commute) and for work (various trips about)! They're great! I've really taken to "The Age Grouper" and "Erin337" and through this I can definitely see the value in keeping a "log" of how things are going with the training. Plus it's just down right entertaining and inspiring!

Recently, I contacted a local triathlete, an Ironman and owner of a local run shop. I had recently received my "Triathlon Training Diary" by Joe Friel, and am not really certain how to go about setting myself up for next season. He's graciously agreed to help (yipee!!!!!) and has even suggested getting some testing done (such as VO2 max etc.).

As for my training, to be honest it's been a bit "slow". Seems I've been fighting some kind of cold, and my energy level has been pretty low, and I spent most of last week traveling for work (Saskatoon, Calgary and Fort McMurray). That means, during the last 3 weeks I've only fit in 2 swims. I'm going to get in a run today, and I feel motivated and excited to do it!

I'm going to try and "back date" a few posts so I can have a personal record of my 3 races this past season. Will see how that goes!!!