Couple of firsts

Since we got a 40inch flat screen last week I get the hand-me-down 27 incher for the basement. Yayyyy I get tv for my riding. Most times I findmusic helps me more to ride, but the tv is nice somtimes too! In fact sometimes I just watch sports on the tv with my ipod blasting some rockin tunes in my ear. That's ultimately the best combo. Saturday we went shopping in the morning/afternoon so I did my long ride in the evening. Anyways I planned togo over 3 hours. The hardest thing I find with long workouts and races is visualizing the finish. It's hard to get on the trainer knowing you'll be on that sucker for 3 hours plus. I have to learn to break it up into shows or somthing. Anyways sat. night is hockey night in Canada, so I put on the hockey game and watched Edmonton loose boooooo (yes I'm a Edmonton/Calgary fan, YES IT IS POSSIBLE!!!) but it helped accomplish the goal. It helped me get through 3:20of riding time, that's a new indoor ride record for me. When I got off I wasn't as sore as I thought I'd be, I could have easily gone to 4hours +. That'sa good sign as I probably will be riding up to 5 hours before spring.

Last night Greg and I met at the pool. I planned on doing another benchmark swim Chuckie style. Yayyyyy Greg agreed to do the same thing. He's just a touchfaster than me so I knew it'd help to push me, also make it hurt more. I hoped I wouldn't go to hard at the start. We did a longer warmup than I'm usedto, he convinced me that I should. I didn't want to loose the form feel, but agreed to do a bit more drill. It really payed off. We started the 400 and I right away dropped a body length behind him, but really fought to stay in contact. First 100, got to the wall 1:32, woahhhh little too quick I'm gonna really pay for that later!! For the next 100s I couldn't get the splits since I had to really push hard off the walls to keep on Greg(I wasn't swimmingin his draft, in the lane next to him) so I managed to keep just a touch behind him. Wow what a difference it makes to have that carrot dangling jussssstbarely out of reach. We finished and I saw 6:26!! The last bench mark 400 had been 6:42. NICCCCCCCCCe HIGH FIVVVVVE(in that Borat voice). I was toast,in the last 100m my arms were starting to get numb from the Oxygen debt, lol. I had kept up with Greg, but I don't think he was going quite as hardas I was. So we did a 100m easy and he wanted to do a 200 and 100 TT as well. So I figured I would go along although I didn't expect too much. The 200mwent ok it hurt a lot and my arms felt like lead so I dropped back 5 secs by the end I think to Greg. My time was 3:11, not bad. Then 100m easy and into the 100m tt. I pushed off the wall and immediately I knew my arms were back. YOu know that feeling where you know it's go time!! I stayed beside Gregthe whole time even moved ahead at times. I felt so strong, weird how in the 200 I was destroyed but somehow felt strong again for the 100. We came into the wall exactly side by side. 1:25!!!! that might not be fast for some, but that's huge huge huge for me. I've never done that fast a 100 and aftertwo tts already!! Wow that felt good.

Today I think I'll be doing another hour FTP test for Chuckie, he wants me to keep a more steady pace through-out. The first time I did it I shifted up 20min in so this time I'll try to keep that upper gear for the whole hour around 250-255W. That's going to hurt, I'llneed the ipod tunes definatly. I'll let you know how it goes. Cheers,

DP

Another video

Here's another video, bwahahahahahahaha.

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/5824441/

The next time someone tells you you can't do somthing...

"You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin' themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it. Period." Chris Gartner - Pursuit of Happiness

I don't know about you, but most people don't tell me I can't do somthing, the only one that does that occasionally is myself. I think the quote still applies.

Had a good ride yesterday. I got my new trainer, it's a new Kurt Kinetic. It has a power meter on the computer, it's not super accurate and doesn't actually measure power. It calculates it based on my weight, speed, and maybe cadence. It should be close enough for my purposes since there is no grade, or wind in my basement other than the occasional wind comin from the backside of my cycling shorts. Anyways I wasted no time in climbin aboard the pain train. I don't think I've ever hurt so much as I did yesterday. I basically did an hour ALL out. This is done to get a FTP(functional threshold power) number, which ends up being the average power that I can do over the course of an hour. I really didn't know what to expect and had to guess at what gear/effort I should start at. Anyways I think it went well, started out at about 230W and worked it up to nearly a sprint at the end 346W for an average of 251W. I was hoping for around that so I'm really happy. I'm not too sure how accurate this is, but as long as I keep the conditions the same and do the test on the same meter I'll know how I improve over the course of the winter.

DP

Good laugh!

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/5749137/

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/5781753/

Freakin hilarious if you're sick of all the techno talk on slowtwitch. JUST GET OUT AND TRAIN ALREADY!!!

Ups and Downs

On thursday I twisted my ankle/heel on the edge of the pavement. It didn't bother me too much then other than a sharp pain, but I could finish the run, I completely forgot about it. Then that night it flared up so badly it woke me up and I couldn't sleep anymore with the pain. I could barely put any weight on it in the morning, but by evening friday it was almost completely gone. That morning I honestly thought I may have a stress fracture. I took a few days off of running and it's completely gone, big big PHEW!!!

Yesterday I had an awesome run. I did another "benchmark" workout from Chuckie. I've figured out my LTHR in the past and from what I read this number shouldn't really ever change, even as your fitness changes. It's a misconception, one maybe some of you will not believe, but it's true. Once you find your LTHR(Lactate Threshold Heart Rate) and it's accurate(maybe tested a few times) it should never change. As you get more fit you'll be able to go faster but the way I understand it is that your heart still runs out of oxygen and you start storing Lactic Acid at around the same Heart Rate. Anyways my LT is 168 so for the test I'm to run 5 miles sticking at 90% of this which would be 151 bpm for me. Sounds tough but it's not actually too bad. I did the test and could really have kept runnning at the same pace for a while longer. I had wanted to do it on the track at the Talisman, but when I got there I saw the track was reserved. Aughhhh that's frustrating, oh well I'll have to use the tready for it. Not sure if the results would be as accurate, but I got a damn good run out of it. One surprising thing was that my pace basically stayed the same, it's supposed to kind of tail off because of dehydration. The good thing about the treadmill is I could keep within a beat of the 151 target. It might be harder to keep the same pace on the track. Did the 5 miles in 34:46, it's like a comfortable hard, if that makes sense. Here are the mile splits;

1 - 6:44 (had to crank it up to like 9.4mph at first to get the heart rate up quick, then dialed it back to 8.4-8.7 for the rest of the run)
2 - 6:59
3 - 7:01
4 - 6:59
5 - 7:00


In other news I've been able to do a few morning rides this week, I'm really pumped about that. I just need to go to bed earlier and it helps a lot to make sure the house is warm when I wake up, easier to get up. My new trainer should be here soon soon, I'm still riding the borrowed one. I bought a skewer that's round so I can clamp my bike in properly with out it leaning as much. I had no idea they made these things specifically for the trainer, the one I bought is made by tacx(a trainer manufacturer). Cheers,

DP

What the heck happened???

Last night I got home, took a short nap and went for my regular run. I dressed up appropriately, checked the weather hmmm -11. Hadn't run in that this year yet, but hey the first digit is a one, how bad can it be??? Well it was cold for me, seriously what happened? I come from manitoba, I'm supposed to be tough!! I worked outside framed houses in -50 weather at times(that includes the windchill) got home and would go for a run. And I did that regularly, some weeks I ran every night after work. It was hard, I remember coming home thinking all I want to do is warm up, yet knowing I'd have to go back outside for a cold.... bitter cold run. I lived in the country too, the roads were pitch black. One particular week I did 10 miles each day and the minimum temp was -25(just temp). There was one day I remember not being able to make it home, I had to call home from a neighbors' for my dad to come pick me up. I usually ran with wind first, but that day I underestimated the wind chill and ran with wind first. I tried to turn back again into the wind, but I just couldn't, my face froze. I also one time got stuck in a huge snow storm. It started out ok, running in the tree'd area, but as soon as I turned and headed out of the tree line the storm started. At one point I couldn't see the road at all, I was basically running on feel. Had to alternate running forward and backwards to give my face a break from the pelting snow. Made it home that time with icycles hanging from my face. But yesterday...... I really realized how much Calgary has wussified me. I need to go find me a framing job again...

Here's the toe nail, enjoy

Lots going on

Hey,

Well a few things have been going on. First off, on friday after the snow fall and ice came I went out for a run in the evening like I usually do. Most times I have no problems with snow and ice even. Nope, not this time. I didn't even get a 1/4 mile from my house and down I go right on the sidewalk. Jammed my wrist slightly and fell pretty much right on my elbow. Well after rolling around on the ground a bit, I got up hopped around for a bit I just assumed my run was over. The adrenaline had come and gone making me feel dizzy/weak. So I walked home, good thing it was close. Anyways at home I got this overwhelming sense of HTFU stubbornness. Just ask Lisa it's not just in running, stubborn like an ass sometimes!!! Oh well I turned around and went for my run, I actually had a really good run. I was much more careful, although I couldn't really do anything about that mishap, there was ice under a bit of snow. Didn't see the ice, if I see it no problems I can run on glare ice, but you know you plant differently when running on ice.

My toe nail decided to come off finally, I'll post a pic of that just so I have a shot at grossest blog of the week(as long as keith doesn't post some more bloody teeth pictures hee hee j/k keith) The toe nail got blue/black from the Calgary 70.3 race. I guess my shoes weren't done up tightly enough so the toes kept getting mashed into the front of the toe box. It was weird cause the nail actually grew for awhile I even had to trim it once, but then all of a sudden it died and a new one started to take it's place.

I've been riding/running alot and on today's ride my trainer decided to break!!! I'm really pissed about that cause the thought of going with out a trainer for a week(that's the time it'll take to order the one I want from the states) really stresses me out. Does anyone in Calgary have an extra trainer I could borrow for a few days??? If not I guess I'll have to run each day to make up for it. The handle on it broke, the part that tightens the roller against the tire. The trainer hasn't been the greatest for awhile, it's really tough to get my bike into it straight. My bike often leans a tiny bit, it really drives me crazy cause I wonder if somtimes it's all just in my head. So I think I'll order the kurt kinetic road trainer, it has a power meter on it so I can start gauging that and getting a little more nerdy in the triathlon world.

On to other news... For IM CDA it looks as though I may be working with a new coach. Chuckie V has agreed to take me on as an athlete. I've had a couple of awesome years with Greg I cannot thank him enough for 2 big PBs, he's taught me so much and for that I'll always be thankful. Well you might ask if somthing isn't broke why fix?? Well I just want to try somthing new and Greg and I will always be friends, who knows we may hook up in the future again. If there's one thing I've learnt with my training, it's to always keep things fresh. I won't get into anymore details other than I am extremely excited to work with Chuckie, scared, but excited. For those that don't know he's a IMC winner and former pro cyclist. WTF have I got myself into?????

EDIT: I almost forgot I wanted to share something else. I went to the pool today, specially after my trainer broke 20min into my ride. I was pretty ticked, so I had to get a solid workout. Chuckie hasn't officially started coaching till Jan, but a couple instructions he's given me was to A) start blogging on www.triblogs.com (btw it's a really cool free website to blog your workouts and for your coach/mentor to checkup on what you're doing)
B) get in the pool to swim more!!!
C) Complete his "benchmark" 400m TT

Got A done immediately, I've been tracking workouts now for 3 weeks. B) weeeeeeelll I'm swimming twice a week, Chuckie wants 2 hard ones, or 3 easy/technique swims. So I'm kinda inbetween. I'm workin on it. Maybe this week I'll get 3 in. Anyways the reason I re-opened this post. I went to the pool today pissed about the trainer, btw I got a buzz cut which is important for this story. I felt pretty good, smooth and cutting through the water, it's amazing what a lil hair loss will do to your stream lining. So I got the warmup done and managed to pull off a pretty good 400 tt. Actually amazing, I nearly held the 1:40 pace, first 100 was 1:38, then 1:41, and 3:22(200), for a total of 6:42. I was just hoping to be under 7 so I'm really pumped about that, maybe I can get close to 1 hour this year???