I broke 90 again!!

Snow snow go away!! Meh, for now it can snow, but I'd prefer some riding weather for Sunday. Got a important ride to do and it has to be outdoors. Oh well as my Mom used to say if you got nothing good to say don't say anything at all right? Well I do have somthing good to say. Notice I haven't talked about swimming for awhile, hence the saying, I had nothing good to say. lol Lately I've just shut off my brain and gone throughthe motions for swimming, just getting the work done. Yesterday I finally had a good swim, in maybe 2 months? In that time I not only "seemed to" not improve but at times I'd even swim slower. I say seemed because I don't know for sure, those swims may still have been doing somthing. I'm sure Chuckie would say they are doing something regardless if I see improvement each swim. But hey, in a couple of months you should see some improvement, but not me!!

Anywho getting back to yesterday. The workout was broken 300s x 9. Some pull with the bouy, leg strap, and paddles, a hundred and a 50 cruise immediatly after the 100 near all out. So I did the first 300, when I got to the 100 I felt strangely strong in the water. Hmmmm the water's actually moving me when I apply more pressure. The other thing I noticed was that I could breathe smoothly and I wasn't gasping like I often do. So I check the time at the end and see 1:34. Wow that's not super speedy, definatly not for some of you fish, but I'll take it!!! If I can only hold that time for the 100s I will be laughing. So I get to the next and get to the wall, wtf? 1:31, then 1:28, and finally 1:26!! I was stoked about that, still feeling strong, like I could actually go 95% like the workout demanded. Eventually the times slowed back down to 1:30, but I held that for the last two. There is still some hope for this fish, and as I said to Chuckie in an email I really needed that confidence boost to enjoy swimming again. Over and out, enjoy the snow fellow Calgarians.

Police Half RR

My race report starts on Saturday. I had a long ride to do, couldn't do it outside as it was raining/snowing so I hit up the trainer. It's really hard to change mentally from an outdoor ride to a indoor trainer ride.I did eventually get onto the bike, and broke it up into a 3 hour ride and a 2 hour one after. With a short change my shirt/fill water bottles break. I didn't quite make it 5 hours, my legs got really grumpy at the 4 hour markand soon after I got off the trainer. I just couldn't go any further. The quads were super sore and then it I switched from long ride mode to recovery mode, we still have a half marathon to run this weekend!!! So I marched upstairswith a couple trays of ice, cranked open the cold water into the tub. It took me three attempts to get into the water minus the ice. Good thing Lisa couldn't hear me wimpering like a little girl!! ha ha So after a few attemptslots of groaning, some bad words, and a lot of teeth gritting I got in(that sounds so bad). Hmmm that's not too bad so I grabbed the ice and dumped them both in. Still not too bad, once you're in adding the ice gradually drops the temp so it's not as bad. So I sat there for 15min. Have you guys ever tried this? Hardest thing ever, but most helpful ever!!!! I knew this and figured this was my only chance at some decent running legs for tomorrow.

Sunday I woke up bright and early. For once Lisa actually slept through my alarm, usually she hears it before I do. She was signed up for the 5k so she would not just be spectating, but also running. She did awesome by the way and managed to run 3/4 of it!!! So we got there with plenty of time to spare, I found Curtis, saw a couple of other friends, didn't see Dan(sorry Dan). The start was right in front of the doors this year. Hardly had time to cool offbefore the gun. Away we went, Curtis took off and I lost sight of him till maybe a 1/4 mile in. It took me awhile to get into my pace, I made sure to ease into it. After maybe a mile and a bit I caught Curtis, we said a few words, butsurprisingly not much. Even while running side by side(we've run probably a million miles like this) somtimes there just isn't much to say. Eventually I moved on and set my sights on the people in front of me. I hit 5k in 20:45 and eventually 10k in around 42. Kept checking my pace/hr/effort and I was dead on. The running temp was perfect and only a tiny bit of snow on the course at one spot. I only took in a mouth full of water/gaterade at each station. When I could manage the math I saw 6:45 average which is right where I wanted to be. Just ahead of the 90min pace barrier. I had the Garmin there but don't use the pace feature so I still had to do the math in my head. The pacing I find bounces around too much. I gradually picked up the pace(at least the effort) probably right till the 10k mark, then just held it. At about9 miles we hit the bigger hill by weaselhead park. I timed it perfectly cause I had just caught 3-4 runners, I really needed the mental boost there so I just tucked behind them. So I shifted down the effort slightly, it really helped to tuck inliterally RIGHT on their heels. I found myself crowding them, I guess they felt it too cause they parted and I accellerated through the group over the top of the hill. After a gravel section there is a long slow downhill false flat. I thought for sure one or two of them would get me back but they never did. In fact out of the tons that I passed I don't think one single person passed me during the race. You'd think maybe that I started outtoo far back? But my first mile was well under 7 so it didn't slow me down at all. I felt strong the whole race, not till maybe the last 3-4 km and especially the last 2k where I really wished to just be done already. Thenwe hit the last straight away heading across crowchild and that was probably the hardest spot mentally. I saw the one mile to go sign and looked one last time at the watch, hmmmm 7:35 I think I had to run the last mile providedI don't have a meltdown the sub 90 should be mine!! I eased back on the throttle a touch, but turned on the gas again as I approached the college(finish line). I caught another group of runners and tucked in behind them as we roundedthe corner to enter the school campus, here's where we hit the head wind and I latched onto the group. I tried picking it up here but then I felt the urge to vomit so I just held the pace. I think I ended up beating all of these guysjust cause I started out behind them and the chip virtually placed me ahead of them. :P How's that for cheap eh? Crossed the finish line and in about 30seconds start my coughing ritual. This time it's so bad I started rhetching/dry heaving, all that came up was a mouth full of gaterade I had earlier. But after a few tries it seemed to help ease the coughing. It's like a coughing fit I do, attack of some sort, it's not pretty. Kind of embarrassing. Lisa wouldn'teven come near me, can you blame her? Felt the heavy quads from the ride the day before, but other than that the ice bath really worked!! And this is the first time I've ever broken 90 min on that course(probably done it 6 times)!!! So I was pretty happy, no pictures because my photographer(wife) did the 5k. She was so worried about being last and she wasn't even close to that!! So all in all a good day for the Penner Clan,

DP

Hills

I did hills yesterday. It was windy again. I think I'll just have to go ahead and expect wind every day I ride, that way when it is calm it'll be a pleasant surprise. Other than that it was beautiful out. I know we're supposed to be getting some rain in the next few days and I'll do my best not to complain, because so far the spring has been great for training!!

So I parked at the co-op just off of Crowchild(RockyRidge is closed so I can't park at the Church). It was a south wind, but I still seemed to get some tail wind on the way to Cochrane. Oh oh, I was hoping the wind wouldn't beagainst me for climbing. Great for some extra resistance right??? I did 4x Cochrane, good for my first real climbing day. I climbed the hill on monday, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I forgot my hr monitor yesterday. This way I could predict my effort/heartrate. Anyways it ended up being a cross/head wind going up, so it def. made a difference and my times were slower than last year. But that's ok, I'm glad I got X4 in, or 40 minutes threshold as the Coach ordered. The third was my slowest and the last I def. put my greatest effort in although it wasn't the fastest either. All in all did ok. I feel I'm already getting stronger with the "outdoor riding". Cheers,

DP

Back on track

After a slight hicup this past weekend(I did little training) I'm back on track. I got less than 10 weeks to go before the big day. Now's the time to really crank it up and I'm excited to really see what this body is made up of. Chuckie has said that before the end we'd take a look into the bucket, just a peak. http://gosonja.com/index.php/the-bucket/ Probably one of the best posts ever written for anyone who trains hard and has a coach. You may as well book mark that blog, she writes so well and has the most amazing attitude. Anyways enough about that, this blog is about me!! So for those 10 weeks(2 of which are taper and a few rest weeks) I'll need to focus on my rest and nutrition, if I have these two nailed my motivation/energy levels will stay where they need to be and I"ll absorb everything.

I had a good ride yesterday, but man oh man I got more work to do. Indoor riding is great, but there is nothing like riding on the roads to get you fit. It's like two different sports. I'll def. be concentrating on the riding while the weather is good. Maybe I can even slip in some easy spins on the road bike? As long as they don't affect the key workouts I've been given the ok from the boss. Read his latest post on MORE!!!

Today I got a massage, hard run, and a swim. Maybe I can even fit in a easy spin. Oh yeah almost forgot I'm doing the police half marathon this weekend, however as I mentioned(I think I wrote about this) I won't be tapering for it. I need the weekend long ride. This will be a new experience for me, I don't think I've ever not tapered at all!!! ie. done some long/hard training the day before. I'll let you know how that goes. My running's been going really well lately I still think I'll run well, but who knows. Anywho, laterz, oh and congratz to Kelly on the Boston finish. Well done!!

DP out

How do you know that your life revolves around IM!?!?!?!?

When you get your bday cake and there's a giant Mdot on the top. Yep, that's right folks I'm officially over the hill and more importantly into the 35-39 age Bracket. Had an awesome bday party with Just one good buddy of mine, and his family. It was long over due that we had Curtis over for a bbq, yummmmmy. Oh but don't read too much into that, I still had time for nearly 3 hours of training yesterday. Did a swim right after work, then rode the trainer for 1.5 hours after my belly had digested most of the ice cream cake. It was an easy spin so nothing to make me puke or anything. In the pool earlier it was nice to do short fast intervals, 80x25 the main set. It made me feel fast to keep up and actually pass some of the kids from the Cascade swim club, boy oh boy do they ever kick my ass if I'm doing longer stuff.

The weekend was supposed to be a big cycling block, outdoor cycling that is. But as Mother nature so often does, she throws a bunch of cooler weather at us and I'm forced to ride the trainer. On Sat. I waited till 1:30 and it was still only 3 degrees and no sun so I decided to ride indoors. I find I really need to prepare mentally for the tough workouts and to have to change plans majorly like that really hurts. It seems all I did on the weekend was ride the trainer, 4.5 hours sat. and 5 sun. OUCH!!!

This weekend's weather looks better, I probably shouldn't even mention this in my blog as I'm sure now Mother Nature will thwart yet another attempt to ride outside. Overall the spring has been good, lots better than last year I've had tons more outdoor riding then a few springs now. But I need more, more more more!!! I was gonna go for a big sub 90min half mary at the police half this year, but Coach wants me to do a long ride Sat. He asked me how important the half mary was, my response "It's ALL about IM cda, what ever I gotta do I'll do it!!!" aside from jumping off a bridge, although if I had it in writing that I'd get a slot for that I might consider it, hmmmmm. Who knows maybe I'll still go sub 90, my running is so strong right now it's never been this good even just before other IMs and we have 2.5 months to go!!!! Time to really crank up the volumn, how much can my body take?? By the end of this build up, I will know, that's for sure.

I've learned so much about myself this year. I've learned that yes I can do more than I've ever done before(I thought that same thing last year). I've learned that it's much harder to train through mental break down than physical. Mind over matter right? But if there's no mind.... then what? I've learned that I just could never do this full time, although some may consider 20 hours a week full time already?? It's gonna go up from there and one thing's for sure, before the end I will probably hate this sport many times over. How do pros/elites train sooo friggen much and absolutely love their job??? I think it takes a certain type of person, I am not that person, I hate it lots of times. But that's ok, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel and when I cross the finish line it'll all be worth it!! If it sounds like I'm burnt out, don't worry I'm really not. I do burn out at times, but I also recover really quickly and Chuckie makes sure of that!!

Maybe the reason I don't enjoy it as much as others, and burn out so easily mentally is that I don't actually swim/bike/run for the fun of it? Let me explain, I started running because of how it made me feel. I had low self esteem, and absolutely LOVE the endorphins and feeling of euphoria that you get from running, somtimes in cycling and once in awhile in the pool. I also like to push myself, challenge myself, every time I finish a hard workout or finish somthing in X amount of time(perhaps faster than the time before) I feel good. Isn't that normal? But I'm thinking more of you actually enjoy the workout itself. Not me, in 95% of my workouts the moment I start I'm already looking forward to finishing and feeling gooooooooooooood. I am addicted to it, I want more. Will finishing in kona be any different than a cda or a IMC finish? Maybe not, but why not find out for sure? ;)

Wind/Dirt/Snow Storm

I went for a short spin this afternoon when this blew in. Holy crap I was by the Glenmore dog park when I got hit by a wind/dirt/snow storm(no I'm not kidding all 3 at once) I couldn't see 2 feet in front of me dirt mixed with snow and my road bike was nearly at a 45 degree angle with the cross wind. I honestly thought the wind was more like 80km per hour, but who knows exactly. Here's a pic of the weather report.


Maybe I'll do my long run later on the treadmill. :P

The week summary, Happy April fools!!

Hey all,

I think we're through all the windy weather eh? The weekend had lots of it, but oh well makes us stronger right? First off Saturday, Curtis and I did a 12 mile aerobic test on the track. I was instructed to stay at 145bpm with a cap at 150bpm. So I did that and managed to keep the pace just above 7s. I had to hold back most of the run, except for at the end when some fatigue starts to creep in. It was a good confidence boost for the half mary comin up. 90 minutes this year??? I think I have a really good shot. Did a 2 hour spin that night too.

Sunday we went out for a longer ride. It was supposed to be 4 hours, but we cut it a bit shorter since the wind was brutal, plus I was short on time. On the way out the wind really picked up, gusting over 60kmph. Just past the round about on the way to Bragg creek this group of say 10 cyclists come by me. They're not moving much faster than me, maybe 20kmph? So I get sucked along for a bit. Curtis is further back I knew I shouldn't, but I gave in to temptation. It was like a shelter in the storm(literal), and these guys instantly welcomed me into the fold so I rode with them for a couple km. They soon had to turn off and I wasn't about to change the course with out telling Curtis so I bid them farewell and continued. It wasn't much of a break, but it really helped to raise my spirits. Curtis wasn't too happy rolling into Bragg Creek, but really he did amazing for this being his what second outdoor ride since IMC 08? So we stopped for a bit at the store, Curtis's family drove up there to meet us so that was nice. We rode on a bit, maybe half way to Elbow falls and turned around. I think I had 1:45 or so to get out there, figured it would be at least 1:15 going back to get at least 3 hours, but I was sadly mistaken. The tail wind comin back made for a really quick return. At the point where you exit the tree'd area I was in my top gear spun out at just over 60kmph on flat ground. Some tail wind eh? That's not even pushing hard, the return was just over an hour.

The brick run after was tough, we have this loop that we do near the parking area for this particular ride. It has a big hill on it, but we had the wind at our backs for the way up. Coming back though with the wind in our faces on a few of the laps it nearly stopped me cold. Maybe this is how it feels like to ride/run in Crows Nest area Julie??? Oh well the run ended, I figured it would be slow, but it surprised the heck out of me when I saw the average pace. My running is so strong right now, I love it!!

In other news I had a bad day tuesday. I was supposed to do a mod-hard ride and I missed it. We went out to dinner and I had some really really greasy calomari sp? I love that stuff, but not this greasy, anyways my stomach was soo upset from it there's no way I could ride. Soooo I had to write Chuckie my confessional. I felt so guilty, I've missed workouts before but I think this is my first "bad reason" workout. Booooooo on me. That's it, starting today no more eating crap. Time to fuel up with GOOD FOOD!!! What's weird though is my weight actually went down again. I was at 165 yesterday, that's last year's IM weight. I'd like to loose 10 more before cda, that should be easy, well maybe not so easy since you guys all know how the last 10 pounds are. I'll have to really want it. Cheers,

DP