OK...Wed to Sun update.....back up to speed

OK...this might be a bit of a longer entry, but it'll get everyone back up to speed on the last 5 days

Wednesday:

5000m swim in the morning. The main set was 100,200,300,400,500 Pull and then we repeated it again. Nothing special, just a long aerobic set this morning. The harder workouts were coming in the afternoon :)

we met as a group at Starbucks, and rolled out for our bike workout. After 30' warm-up, it was into 2 separate big loops along Saanich road, each about 21-22 mins each. The first round was tough as Kyle and I were never in the group (Kyle had flatted) and Kyle was able to bridge into the group, and I didn't quite make it, riding solo most of the way...though Joel did drop back to assist with some motor pacing which was nice. the second interval went a lot better, as I stayed in for the whole interval, Simon was on the front most of the time, he's riding really strong right now.
We rode back easy for 20' and then hit one more interval roughly 7 mins long, and then straight into a 2km run off the bike. The run felt good, settled into a rhythm, ran roughly 6:40 for the 2km which I was happy with. We then continued on with the main part of the run workout being: 4 X 90", 4 X 60", 4 X 30", 4 X 15" all fast with equal rest.

Thursday:

A double run day again for me. 40' ez run in the morning, legs were sore from the hard efforts yesterday. Rode for 90' on the trainer, as it looked like it was going to rain. I had an appointment with Dr Hasagawa today, got some new exercises to strengthen my right leg.
A 40' ez run on the treadmill later in the day followed by a soak in the hot tub ended the day.

Friday:

5000m this morning in the pool. I swam like Blah. Felt really crappy in the water, and it showed in my swimming. Just another down day in the pool. I could tell right away during warm-up. Just had to get through the workout, and get it done. Main Set was 4 X (50 fast, 150 ez, 100 fast, 200 ez, 150 fast, 250 ez)

Had a 60' ride with stomps throughout....and an ez 40' run on the treadmill.

Saturday:

Big workout today. Some hard bike intervals, straight into the Tim Don track special.

We rode the ring road at U Vic (almost 2km in length). The workout was 3 X (3 loops working together, 1 loop TT effort) w. 5' ez riding in between each interval. The group was AP, Kyle, Andrew, Kirsten and myself. Good group efforts on the bike, all three intervals were over 41km/hr

#1 336 W avg, 41.3km/hr
#2 340 W avg, 41.9km/hr
#3 330 W avg, 41.7km/hr

We had roughly 5 mins or so to get changed out of our bike stuff, and into our running stuff before tackling the Tim Don special.

32 X 200 on the track as (3 on 60", 1 on 90")

A tough run off the bike, took a few for the legs to come around. Managed to hold 35's for the whole set, pretty decent, didn't fall off at the end. I'd like to hold 34's for all 32...that will come.

Sunday:

40' ez run this morning...legs really really sore from yesterday...loosened up a bit during the run.
Long group ride today. 75km in total....legs were pretty trashed from yesterday.

5000m in the pool as the last workout (We swam SCM today)
Main set was 30 X 100 threshold effort

1-10 Pull on 1:25 (Held 1:10's)
11-20 5 paddles, 5 swim on 1:20 (Held 1:10's)
21-30 Swim on 1:20 (Held 1:07's, last was 1:04)

Totals for the Week

Swim: 23,000 m
Bike: 328 km
Run: 80 km

Sorry

Sorry for the lapse again in blog postings
Workouts have been tough this week, an easy day tomorrow, so I will update the blog on Monday

Mon/Tues

Monday was pretty uneventful. Monday's seem to be our active rest type of day. 3000m in the pool in the morning, and a 60' spin in the afternoon. AP, Colin and I went to see Fracture at the movies today. We had free movie passes from boxes of Oatmeal Crisp cereal. The movie was alright, a bit slow."

Tuesday:
A good swim this morning. 5000m in total, with the main set being 2 X (2 x 100 race opening speed on 2', 8 x 100 mid race pace on 1:40). I felt really sluggish on the first time through the set(1:06's for the first two, 1:10's for the 8), and we all took of the drag suits for the second round.
Somehow I felt better on the second go round. I guess I swam through the sluggishness. The second round was 1:04's for the openers, and Simon and I worked our way down to the last 4 holding 1:05-06's. Felt good.

From there we headed down to Beacon Hill Park for our run workout. 40' easy base running to start out, then we regrouped for 2 loops on the Figure 8 loop at tempo. This week was way better than last week, though Simon, Kyle, and Colin negative split the run and I didn't. I ran the first loop in 9:10, and the 2nd loop in 9:20, so the running is coming around. Two weeks ago my lap times were 9:30, 9:39. This was a bit easier with the guys to run with.

A 2 hr ride ended off the day of training.

Finally some Pics are up....

The stairs we walk down every day to ice in the ocean 400m from our place

Chillin in the ocean....you'll notice the toque on to stay warm...

View to the right on the beach in our cove..

View to the left from out in the water...

View from the stairs...

Well...I've finally posted some pics. These were taken this evening when AP and I headed down to ice in the ocean. The beach was at low tide, normally the water level is about 10 ft higher up the beach...it's pretty cool.

Today turned out to be a solid day of training. We met over near Royal Roads University for our long group run. We (Kyle, Simon, Adam, Colin, Andrew and I) headed out along some trails and into the Royal Roads trails. We retraced some of the route from the Gut Buster a few weeks ago, a solid run, some decent hills, 90' in total.

Back home for some breakfast, and then AP and I headed out for our 90' ride with 10 stomps interspersed throughout. We rode the seaside trail loop, down along the waterfront, and through the downtown core and back home. It was a beautiful day and there were lots of people out enjoying the sun.

We finished off the day in the pool with 4200m.
After 1000m of warm-up, it was into the main set: 4 X 800 - broken up in various ways

1) 20 X 25 (3 fast, 1 ez) 100 fast (1:03) 200 ez
2) 10 X 50 (3 fast, 2 ez) 100 fast (1:04) 200 ez
3) 6 X 100 on 1:30 mid race pace (1:09-10's) 200 ez
4) 3 X 200 (1-3) on 3:00 (2:33, 2:24, 2:07) 200 ez

Felt good in the pool today....everyone is swimming really well...makes for good workouts everyday....gotta be ready to swim every workout.

Totals for the Week:

Swim: 21,100m
Bike: 269 km
Run: 96 km

Three Good Days of Workouts....

Well...we're back into the swing of things again here in Vic. The workouts are starting to pick up now, and we're starting to back the workouts up (which is something I'm gonna have to get good at).

Thursday:

Thursday are now a day off of swimming for me, and instead, have become double run days.
A 60' run this morning, nice and easy from my place down to Mt Doug a bit through Mt Doug, and then back home to my place.
I had a 60' easy ride, in which I left from my place, and ended up over at Commonwealth pool, where I did my 40' run off the bike on the treadmill. I'm starting to do my second runs on the treadmill as it takes some of the pounding off my legs. While at Commonwealth, I also took advantage of being there and had a nice soak in the hot tub, and then iced my legs in the ocean when AP and I got back to our place.
I also had an appointment with Dr Hasagawa today, he said I'm looking better, just gotta keep doing my little exercises everyday to strengthen my stabilizer muscles in my feet and hips.

Friday:

Back in the pool today. 5000m in total, with 1000m warm-up, and the main set being 12 X 300.

4 X 300 Pull w. paddles on 4:30 (held 4:00's)
4 X 300 Pull Buoy only on 4:15 (held 3:55 or so)
4 X 300 Swim on 4:00 (3:50,3:45,3:45,3:40)

Our second workout of the day was a key run workout up at Thetis Lake. We did our warm-up on the roughly 5km loop, then it was a loop at tempo effort. The loop is a good one. It's more of a strength loop, with lots of up and down sections. I felt pretty good, a bit tight, but ran pretty well I think. Colin and I were 17:55 for our tempo.

From there we jogged down to the Goose trail, where we continued the workout with 10 X 400 on 2' mapped out on the trail. The odd numbers were run on a slightly uphill grade, with the even numbers being a bit quicker coming back on the slight downhill. I held 1:10-11's on the odds, and 1:06's on the evens. I was happy with the times at the end of the workout. A total of 17km including our warm-up and warm-down. Simon was flying on the 400's. To give you an example, on our third to last one, he cranked out a smoking 54! I felt like I was flying, and I ran 1:04 for that one.

A nice long soak in the ocean later on in the evening to sooth my sore legs. One of these days I'll bring my camera down to the ocean with me to show the beauty of the cove where we ice.

Saturday:

Another double run day. 40' this morning once I woke up. It was good to get a nice easy 40' trot in this morning. The legs were really sore from yesterday, but I kind of ran out of it by the end of the 40'. It was so peaceful out running this morning, I ran a couple loops near the ocean, simply amazing.

We met at the Starbucks at 11am for our group ride. We were minus Kirsten this morning, as she has come down with an infection in her big toe from Ishigaki. No running or riding for a couple days, as she let's the antibiotics do their work. We told Kirsten where we were going to ride, and she said we'd be going right by her place at the end of the ride. She promised us she'd make us some cookies for a snack.

We headed out and up the peninsula towards the Highlands. We rode by the airport, and up and around Sidney. Sidney is where the ferry comes in from Vancouver. From there it was back towards Vic. We swung by Kirsten's place, trying to figure out what type of cookies she had made. Turns out she didn't have time to make us any, but she did have some Hershey's Kisses for us....which hit the spot!

90.2km
3hr 2 min
185 Watts average

From there, AP and I headed straight over to the pool. AP had a swim he had to fit in, and Colin and I had a 40' run off the bike we had to get done. Legs were stiff for the first 5 mins or so, but I quickly ran out of it. 5 miles on the treadmill. Done and done for the day.

I'm now sitting here having finished a nice chicken stir-fry, watching some racing under the lights. That's right...NASCAR. First race of the year being run under the lights at night. I love how everything is 3 hrs earlier on the Left coast!!

Tomorrow brings a 90' long run, a 90' ride with Stomps, and a hard 4km swim to finish the day.

I've been a bit slow with the postings....

OK, for those of you that read this daily, sorry for going 5 days without posting! Here's a recap since Sunday of training.

Sunday:
After sleeping in a bit after the late night of watching the WC, I headed over to Commonwealth to do my long run. I opted for the treadmill to take some of the pounding off the legs. 11.5 miles, 90 mins. Felt pretty good running, had the tune going, and watched people in the pool.
Later in the day was our swim back at Commonwealth. Today was a buoy swim. We took the lane ropes out for the 4 lanes that we had (LCM) and suspended 3 big orange swim buoys that are normally used in races. We swam roughly 2000m practicing turning around the buoys, good practice, was a bit tough with the number of people we had though...but it'll simulate races.

Monday:
A pretty uneventful day training wise. Monday's are usually our east/recovery type days. 3400m in the pool, just rolling through, get it done.
I had an appointment with Dr Rob Hasagawa (a great chiro/ART guy here in Vic). He's going to have his hands full with me!
I headed up to the airport to pick Kyle up after his long trip home from Japan. Ended up waiting around for an hour at the airport as their flight from Vancouver was delayed. An easy 75' ride with stomps ended the day.

Tuesday:
We had our whole group back together today, with most of them having woken up early Tuesday as they were still trying to get off of Japan time. We swam 4000m with the main set looking like this:
2 X (3 X 400, 6 X50 alt drill, swim)
Felt pretty good today, cruised the first round, and got down to 4:42 for the final 400 swim.

Next up I had a bike fit at Fort Street Cycle. While in Flagstaff, both Simon and Jordan suggested that I should get onto a zero off-set seat post, as it would put me in a more aggressive riding position. So, that's what I had done at Fort Street. In addition, we lowered my stem by 10mm or so, and put a shim between my cleat and shoe on each shoe. This will help my knee track properly while I'm riding. Looking forward to seeing how this feels after a few rides.

Andrew and I had a run workout down at Beacon Hill in the afternoon, 3 loops of the figure 8 loop at tempo effort. I felt good on the first loop, and then my hips locked up on me on the second and third loops.

Wednesday:
4500m long aerobic in the pool this morning. Main set was 3 X 800 (easy, med, fast)
Not the greatest feeling in the pool today, but got through the workout. We had Lauren Groves back in Vic today as well, and she's training with us now as well.
Group ride was next up, starting at noon. We met at the switch cross road, and AP and I rode through 15 min of rain to get there. No one else got wet. Weird. Anyways, 2hr 50 min base ride, couple of decent hills thrown in. 78km touring around Vic, with Simon as the Tour Guide.
An easy40' run later on completed the day.

One Late Night....

Well....the rain was gone for Saturday, which was great news, as we had almost a 4hr ride on tap.

We met at Pac Sport, and 9 of us headed out for the ride. I knew straight off the bat that it was going to be a rough ride for me. My legs just weren't very responsive. The ride itself was awesome! We headed out along the coast, and up towards East Sooke. Craig met us there with the car, and he was sporting some cookies for us! I grabbed a coke that I had in my bag in his car, which helped for the ride back.

Once back home, I had a 20' run off the bike. The running legs felt a lot better than the riding legs did!

Ride Stats:
114km
3:55
198 W

Now comes the long night. The Ishigaki World Cup started at 9pm our time.
AP and I sat in front of the computer from 9pm until 2am following the Women's and then the Men's race. It seemed like it there were some tough conditions....and after chatting with Colin, it was really windy on the bike as well!

Lots of great results from the Canadians ! Jill and Kirsten started the day out with an 11th and 12th place finish. Jill had a great swim coming out in the Top 5.

The men started at midnight our time, and it was a great race. Colin led the field through 750m, coming out of the water in 4th place. Paul and Simon also made it out of the water in the top 10. A small group of 3 athletes got off the front on the bike, with a group of 15 forming behind it.
Simon and Brent McMahon battled to 8th and 9th place finishes, while Kyle and Colin both cracked the Top 20.

Canadian Women:
11th Jill Savege
12th Kirsten Sweetland
20th Kathy Tremblay
26th Christine Jeffrey
DNF Carolyn Murray
DNF Lauren Groves

Canadian Men:
8th: Simon Whitfield
9th: Brent McMahon
17th: Kyle Jones
19th: Colin Jenkins
DNF Paul Tichelaar

Friday

Friday we were scheduled for a 2000m hard swim at the pool.

I felt pretty good during the 2000, and I was able to negative split the swim, which is something I usually don't do. Through the 1000 in 12:20, coming home in 12:05. 5000m total in the pool.

300 mix, 200 pull, 8 X 50 kick, 200 Fr
12 X 50 (blast, fast, ez)
2000 TT (24:25)
200 ez
20 X 50 (alt 4 Fr on 45", 4 Kick on 60")
300 ez

We ended up having some decent rain move through on Friday, so rather than doing my run workout out at Elk Lake, where it was going to be pretty mucky, I opted to hit the dry settings of the treadmill.

Here's the workout (total was 70' of running, roughly 10 miles)

6 x 90 secs w/ 2 mins (10.5 mph, 2% incline)
6 x 60 secs w/ 60 secs (11 mph, 2%)
6 x 30 secs w/ 30 secs (12 mph, 2%)
6 x 15 secs w/ 15 secs (12 mph, 2%)

I ended the day with an easy 60' spin the the trainer later at night, to help flush out some of the stiffness in the legs.

Wed/Thurs

Our group is gone now to Japan, so it's AP, Andrew, and myself. Over the next few days, we'll be joining in for workouts with some of the other groups here at the NTC.

AP and I had a swim at Crystal this morning, 5000m in total.

600 warm-up
16 X 50 on 55" every 4th fast
8 X 400 w. 30" rest. 6 pull, 2 swim
400 warm-down

Later in the day, we hooked up with Pat Kelly's group for a good bike workout. We did a loop out along W Saanich Rd and the workout was 4 X 12' hard effort, with 4' easy in between efforts.
Legs weren't quite there...and paid a price on the hills as a result. Power numbers dropped off as well (though each interval was never the same, so power #'s should be a bit different) (317 W, 299 W, 298 W, 276W). Once we were back to our place, I had a 20' run off the bike.

Thursday was a big run day for me. Day off swimming (which was nice). I met Adam at Pac Sport at 8:30 and we headed out for a 60' run. It's been great weather here for running lately, the air's a bit crisp, and the scenery is awesome! Adam took me on some cool trails out near Camosun College. A quick stretch afterwards on the pool deck, then home for food.

Next up was a 75' ride with 8 X 20" stomps throughout the ride. I ended the day with my second run, which ended up being 50'. That was my first day of two longer runs, I could definitely feel it in the second run!

I was also able to suck it up today and take the plunge into the ocean for a soak. I made it the full 10' today in the ocean. The first 2-3 mins are the hardest part by far. As tough as it is to get into the water, my legs will thank me for it!

Getting Organized and Settled

Well...I've now been in my new digs in Vic for a week now. The first week was kinda a wash, due to my sickness, so I wasn't able to get much accomplished. I've been trying to get organized in the last couple of days, as I've felt better.

Monday:
We had an easy 3km swim over at Commonwealth pool. Caught up with Ironman Canada Champ Jasper Blake there, it was great to see Jazz...the nicest guy you'll ever meet...and pretty talented to boot! I headed out for a 40' run over through Mt Doug which is really close to us. The run trails there are supposed to be pretty sweet. I stuck to the lower trails, didn't want to get lost!

Monday was also a big day to get things. I had a $50 gift certificate to Great Canadian Superstore, so I headed a bit out of Vic to Langford to get some stuff from there. Amongst my purchases: a bunch of bulk staples that I'll need for here, an ice pack, extra pillow, and some other groceries.

Tuesday:
This morning was a 5km swim down at Crystal. Kyle, Simon, and Colin swam 3000m then headed out to pack their final things and then off to the airport for the flight to Ishigaki.
The main set this morning was three rounds of the following:

4 X 100 mid race pace effort on 1:40 (held 1:09-1:10) 200 easy
We then finished off the 5000m by doing 2 X 800 pull neg split with 60" rest in between. Felt good in the pool, which was a first in about one week!

Andrew and I then headed down to Beacon Hill park for our run workout.

20' warm-up, followed by 6 X 50m strides to get loosened up.
It was then into the main effort, a double loop of the figure 8 loop at tempo. Felt pretty good running this morning, I think this will be a good benchmark figure for future workouts on the loop. 9:30 for the first loop, 9:39 for the second loop, so pretty consistent.

From the run workout, I drove Kyle up to the airport, so that he could catch his flight to Japan.
A second easy 30' run was the last workout of the day.

Next on my list to get done, is to get a new seatpost for my bike, and get rocking on that.

Feeling Better!

Taking Friday off completely seemed to help me, as I awoke Saturday morning feeling a fair bit better. Lying around in bed all day on Friday was pretty boring!

I did a 2hr ride in the rain with Andrew McCartney as well as a nice easy run. Wasn't feeling 100%, but it was good to get some activity in!

Sunday morning I felt better as well. I started out the morning with a 30' trot before breakfast, then rode over toward Durance Lake to meet up for the bike workout. For some reason, my SRM didn't record all of my data today, which I'm pissed about, as I would have liked to have had the data from the climbs we did.

The first part of the workout was 3 full climbs up the Durance Lake hill (roughly 5 min climbs on average).

The first was moderate, the second was moderate with 2 sprints, and the third one was hard the whole way. I took the first two to get going, and on the third one I was able to hang with Simon, Kyle, Colin until about 2:45 of the interval, when Kyle launched an attack and spit me out the back.

Then we did 3 half climbs, the same pattern (all roughly 2 min or so in length). We ended the workout with 3 X 3km on the flats rolling through on the front. All in all, I was pretty happy with the way I was able to ride today, despite feeling crappy a couple days ago.

We ended the day with 4000m in the pool

1000m total warm-up
3 X 800 was the main set, broken as:
#1: 10 X 50 on 60" (25 sprint, 25 easy), 100 sprint, 200 easy
#2: 6 X 100 mid race pace on 1:30, 200 easy
#3: 3 X 200 on 2:40 mid race pace 200 easy

I felt kinda crappy in the pool...kinda par for my way of swimming I guess. Today was a down day.

Kyle, Colin, Simon, Jill and Joel leave Tuesday morning to head to the 2nd World Cup of the season in Ishigaki Japan. Everyone is looking good, and ready to rock.

Still Fighting...

Well...It's Friday, and I'm still battling my head cold. It seemed to get a bit worse the last day or so. I didn't go swimming this morning, instead lying in bed resting. I'm feeling congested, and feeling a lot of nasal pressure. I'm also feeling pretty lethargic, I'm hoping this goes away soon!

Right now I'm watching live streaming on my computer from tsn.ca of Amen Corner at The Masters, which is my favorite golf tourney of the year. Pretty neat feature.

Now, on to the training from the last few days.

Wednesday morning turned out to be a short recovery type swim for the group. We covered 3000m which was nice, as I wasn't feeling great swimming.

The main workout of the day was a motor pacing effort on the bike, followed by a hard 3 km run off the bike, and then a 3km easy warm down. This was my first time doing the motor pacing, and I wasn't used to the methods of rolling through and where to work hard, and where to let off. I tried to mimic what Colin was doing in front of me, which seemed to help. I was feeling like I had no energy on the bike, and got dropped halfway through the loop. I rode the rest of the loop solo. This happened on the second and third loops as well. The run off the bike felt alright, better than the ride that's for sure.

Thursday morning was a pyramid type main set in the pool. Again I felt like crap. 5000m in total with the main set being 100,200,300,400,500 all getting progressively faster. Then a 200 easy, and repeat again. I couldn't wait for workout to end.

Anyways, that's all I've got right now...the weather out here has been great...I know all of you in Ontario don't really want to hear that now!

Back at it

Well...last night was a tough one to watch....down 11 at the half, every time the Buckeyes seemed to close the gap down in the 2nd half, Florida would hit a clutch 3 pt'er and build the lead up again. Oh well....hopefully Oden and Conley stay at Ohio St.....but I'm pretty sure Oden will leave for the $$$ the NBA will be offering.

Back to the training.

Got into Vic yesterday afternoon, and headed out for a 90' ride with Colin and AP. We did the seaside loop, which was a great ride. You get to see a lot of different areas of Vic while riding.

I've been battling a bit of a nasal cold since yesterday morning. I got a good night's sleep last night, and I'll be going to bed early tonight as well. Felt stuffed up this morning, and could feel it during workouts.

We had a speed workout this morning at the pool.

400 warm-up, 4 X 100 IM, 200 kick, 6 X 50 (25 fast, 25 easy), 100 easy

2 X 100 blast on 2:00 - opening race speed
8 X 100 on 1:45 - mid race pace

We did this set twice. Fell off a lot on the 2nd round, wasn't feeling that great in the water.
We warmed down, and the total workout was 4100m

We had about 30' or so after the swim until we started our 2nd workout, a 60' run down at Beacon Hill park. We started out with 40' including some strides, then we had a 10' tempo effort, followed by 10' easy cool down.

AP had a second swim today, so we headed over to Commonwealth Pool, and while he did his 3000m swim, I hit the steam room, sauna, and hot tub, in an attempt to help clear up my sinuses. Hopefully, I can get rid of this head cold pretty quickly, and get back to normal!!

Back to Victoria

It seems like just yesterday, that I flew back to Toronto for my dad’s birthday, as well as to pick up more stuff I would need out in Victoria. 5 nights sure can go quickly.

It was great to be home, see the family, relax a little bit, while still getting some training in. We had the whole family up on Saturday night, and each night I was home was a great dinner….stuff I wouldn’t do out in Victoria!

I’m writing this aboard Air Canada, high above somewhere over Canada. I’m now back to Victoria for the summer, and looking forward, and feeling refreshed, to some great training coming up.

Later on today, I’ll be moving into the place that AP and I are renting out, two rooms in a basement, fully furnished, all ready to go, and only minutes away from the ocean for easy access to ice baths post workout. I’m told the water doesn’t get much above 50 F or so.

April looks like it will bring a couple of running races (Vancouver Sun 10km April 15^th, and the Times-Colonist 10km in Victoria April 29^th). I’m looking to start my triathlon racing in the month of May.

I hope to get some pictures up of the new digs, and of the ocean nearby.

I’ll leave you all with a big good luck to THE Ohio St Buckeyes who are battling the Florida Gators tonite for the NCAA title. Time for some payback from that football title game.