Ridding outside sure is different from riding inside and is most definitely better!
Got outside for my first ride of the season and it was almost a perfect day for it. Little bit of a chilly wind but once you got going you didn't feel it at all. Went out with my girlfriend and did 21.67 Km in 1:19. It was a nice gentle ride just to enjoy being outside and on our bikes. Plus around these parts there is a tonne of gravel on the roads and paths still so you are being just a little more cautious than usual. Nothing worse than washing out on a corner!
Also today officially marks my first full month of training! Yup that's right it has now been 4 weeks into my training and I am really noticing a difference in all three disciplines. I am really looking forward to my next 4 weeks as everything starts to get a little more challenging. So here is to me and one month down. I really hope that a year from now I am still making these posts and am continuing to train for triathlons. I hope that you have enjoyed my first month of excitement and stick around to see what happens!
SYL
Zap
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Long weekend
The Easter long weekend is upon us and a Happy Easter to all!
Thursday night was a nice swim. Did the 8 X 25M with 10 seconds rest between for my main interval set and did a 50M warm up and cool down. Felt ok but it had been a long haul of a week at work and I was starting to feel it. Knocked the swim off though without too much trouble and felt quite good at the end of it! Starting to really see the benefits of the cross training.
Had a great run today out in the sun with a beautiful temperature of 15C. In other words and absolutely perfect day for a run. Did a route that had some good rolling hills with a few good climbs and descents and I took them on and won. Went for 40 minutes and did a total of 5.36 Km plus a 20 minute walk for an additional 1.12 Km. The drawback of running a new route is sometimes the walk at the end is a little longer than you would expect. Also ran with my girlfriend so that made it an even better run. Nice to have someone to run with so you can have a bit of a chit chat. Makes the run go by a little faster.
Tomorrow I am on the bike and I think that I am going to make it my first ride outside of the year. The weather is suppose to be about the same as today so that will make it another perfect day to be outside!
Talk to you tomorrow.
SYL
Zap
Thursday night was a nice swim. Did the 8 X 25M with 10 seconds rest between for my main interval set and did a 50M warm up and cool down. Felt ok but it had been a long haul of a week at work and I was starting to feel it. Knocked the swim off though without too much trouble and felt quite good at the end of it! Starting to really see the benefits of the cross training.
Had a great run today out in the sun with a beautiful temperature of 15C. In other words and absolutely perfect day for a run. Did a route that had some good rolling hills with a few good climbs and descents and I took them on and won. Went for 40 minutes and did a total of 5.36 Km plus a 20 minute walk for an additional 1.12 Km. The drawback of running a new route is sometimes the walk at the end is a little longer than you would expect. Also ran with my girlfriend so that made it an even better run. Nice to have someone to run with so you can have a bit of a chit chat. Makes the run go by a little faster.
Tomorrow I am on the bike and I think that I am going to make it my first ride outside of the year. The weather is suppose to be about the same as today so that will make it another perfect day to be outside!
Talk to you tomorrow.
SYL
Zap
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Another two days
That's another two days of training knocked off and I'm feeling pretty damn good! Last night I made my way to the pool for a nice swim before I went to my EMBA board meeting and tonight I hit the bike for a great ride!
The swim was a whopping 300M that started with a 50M warm up, followed by 4X50M with 15 seconds of rest between and closed out with a nice relaxing 50M cool down. I did my swim in the Olympic pool and I sucked slough water the hole time. I helped shovel by hand 14M of fillcrete at work during the day so my arms were a little on the tired time. But never the less I got my swim in and I am happy with that!
On to the bike! I hate riding the trainer! The good news is that I should be riding outside starting next week. I might even try it on Sunday weather permitting. But I did do 0:32:06 at a good average of 90 RPM for 17 KM with an average heart rate of 125 BPM. All in all I am pretty happy with that but I can't wait to get outside and actually ride on the road!
I like to be able to track my heart rate now. I think that that is a very important thing to do when you are training for triathlon. Let's me know what my target heart rates are for all disciplines and helps me get them to work together.
Well enough with boring you for yet another night. I'm off to my bed. Have a great day tomorrow!
SYL
Zap
The swim was a whopping 300M that started with a 50M warm up, followed by 4X50M with 15 seconds of rest between and closed out with a nice relaxing 50M cool down. I did my swim in the Olympic pool and I sucked slough water the hole time. I helped shovel by hand 14M of fillcrete at work during the day so my arms were a little on the tired time. But never the less I got my swim in and I am happy with that!
On to the bike! I hate riding the trainer! The good news is that I should be riding outside starting next week. I might even try it on Sunday weather permitting. But I did do 0:32:06 at a good average of 90 RPM for 17 KM with an average heart rate of 125 BPM. All in all I am pretty happy with that but I can't wait to get outside and actually ride on the road!
I like to be able to track my heart rate now. I think that that is a very important thing to do when you are training for triathlon. Let's me know what my target heart rates are for all disciplines and helps me get them to work together.
Well enough with boring you for yet another night. I'm off to my bed. Have a great day tomorrow!
SYL
Zap
Monday, April 6, 2009
Need a better week
Another week down. That is three weeks complete in my 11 week program and overall I am about 85% happy with myself. The main reason that I am not happy with myself is due to missing both my rides last week.
Wednesday I decided to go for a walk with my girlfriend which in all reality isn't a bad thing. It was a nice brisk walk and did do 3.88Km in 50 minutes so it wasn't a wasted day. As for Sunday's ride I went for a walk to scope out a trail site for the EMBA (http://www.edmmtnbike.ca/) trail days in June. So that wasn't exactly the most physically demanding hike but I guess at the very least it was better than nothing. But I really should have gone for my ride in the evening even if I was a little on the tired side.
But as for the rest of the week it was great. My numbers for the week go as follows.
Run (distance/time): 7.97 Km / 0:59.0
Bike (distance/time): Didn't do anything this week
Swim (distance/time): 550 M / will be starting to keep time this week
So all in all it was a good week.
As for the start of this week I had to move my Tuesday run to tonight (Monday) because I have a meeting Tuesday night with EMBA. No big deal I can still get my swim done before my meeting tomorrow night but I just wouldn't have had time to do my run and swim.
I have starting to use my girlfriends Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS for my runs and hopefully for my rides when get a cadence meter. I will hopefully do a revue of the Garmin too. But the nice thing is I can now track my runs exactly and my heart rate which is awesome.
So for tonight I ran 3Km in exactly 0:20:11 with an average heart rate of 160BPM. More info that you need but suffer and read it!
Well that is enough crap for you tonight.. Stay tuned for more drivle!
SYL
Zap
Wednesday I decided to go for a walk with my girlfriend which in all reality isn't a bad thing. It was a nice brisk walk and did do 3.88Km in 50 minutes so it wasn't a wasted day. As for Sunday's ride I went for a walk to scope out a trail site for the EMBA (http://www.edmmtnbike.ca/) trail days in June. So that wasn't exactly the most physically demanding hike but I guess at the very least it was better than nothing. But I really should have gone for my ride in the evening even if I was a little on the tired side.
But as for the rest of the week it was great. My numbers for the week go as follows.
Run (distance/time): 7.97 Km / 0:59.0
Bike (distance/time): Didn't do anything this week
Swim (distance/time): 550 M / will be starting to keep time this week
So all in all it was a good week.
As for the start of this week I had to move my Tuesday run to tonight (Monday) because I have a meeting Tuesday night with EMBA. No big deal I can still get my swim done before my meeting tomorrow night but I just wouldn't have had time to do my run and swim.
I have starting to use my girlfriends Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS for my runs and hopefully for my rides when get a cadence meter. I will hopefully do a revue of the Garmin too. But the nice thing is I can now track my runs exactly and my heart rate which is awesome.
So for tonight I ran 3Km in exactly 0:20:11 with an average heart rate of 160BPM. More info that you need but suffer and read it!
Well that is enough crap for you tonight.. Stay tuned for more drivle!
SYL
Zap
Saturday, April 4, 2009
WOOHOO Running Outside
I really hope that the end of winter is finally here and the warm weather they are calling for for the next week is real. I am sick of winter and we have just endured almost 6 months of it here. To add insult to injury it has been a good winter too. And by good I mean bad. It was cold, snowy and long! But alas the spring like weather is starting and hopefully it will stay!
Today was the first day in a long time that I have ran outside. Yes I know I can dress warm enough to run outside when it is -30 but just remember I am a carpenter and I work outside all winter. So after working outside at -30 all day the last thing that I want to do is run outside. Therefore I run inside where it is warm. But today was a different story.
My girlfriend and I decided to run together outside in the balmy +3C. It was sunny and really a perfect day for a run. So the result was a 30 minute run with a 9 minute cooldown for a total distance of 4.77 Km. That was a nice run. Some hills and some flats and I felt really really good at the end.
It's amazing how the different disciplines of triathlon really work together and make you stronger. It doesn't seem like you do alot of distance through the week and then at the end you are doing something and realize how it is all adding together. It's really kinda cool.
Also going to start using a Garmin Forerunner 305 with GPS and heart rate so I will be able to track and post things a little more accurately for my runs and my rides. Will have to start wearing a watch in the pool too so I can see if I am getting any faster or not.
Well that's it for tonight. I'll bore you some more tomorrow!
SYL
Zap
Today was the first day in a long time that I have ran outside. Yes I know I can dress warm enough to run outside when it is -30 but just remember I am a carpenter and I work outside all winter. So after working outside at -30 all day the last thing that I want to do is run outside. Therefore I run inside where it is warm. But today was a different story.
My girlfriend and I decided to run together outside in the balmy +3C. It was sunny and really a perfect day for a run. So the result was a 30 minute run with a 9 minute cooldown for a total distance of 4.77 Km. That was a nice run. Some hills and some flats and I felt really really good at the end.
It's amazing how the different disciplines of triathlon really work together and make you stronger. It doesn't seem like you do alot of distance through the week and then at the end you are doing something and realize how it is all adding together. It's really kinda cool.
Also going to start using a Garmin Forerunner 305 with GPS and heart rate so I will be able to track and post things a little more accurately for my runs and my rides. Will have to start wearing a watch in the pool too so I can see if I am getting any faster or not.
Well that's it for tonight. I'll bore you some more tomorrow!
SYL
Zap
Thursday, April 2, 2009
It's Thursday right!?!
Well I don't know about everyone else out there but man am I glad tomorrow is Friday! I've had just about enough of this week. I hate when spring comes only because of the mud! It is such a pain in the ass to lug 50 lbs of mud around on your boots and to be covered in the stuff at the end of the day! But there isn't much I can do about that for now. Besides it does make my day one big long leg workout. Think positive or some crap like that!
On to my actual training for the evening. Did a 300 M swim tonight and followed my training plan to a T. Turns out it works quite well. Tonight was a 50 M warm up followed by 8 X 25 M with 10 seconds of rest between, followed by a 50 M cool down. Makes sense. An easy way to get your distance up without sacrificing speed. Looked ahead in my training program and it follows this type of system right through. Of course the distances start to increase but you get the idea.
After the swim I did a 30 minute walk for a distance of 2.6 Km. It was actually really nice and relaxing. The walk is a way to do active recovery and to tell you the truth it really helped. This 30 minute walk turns up once a week from now on and I like it. It totally loosened everything up tonight and allowed me to do an awesome stretch after. Nice to just listen to some tunes and relax.
So over all I must admit that I am really enjoying my training. It takes my mind off of things like work and it is really just relaxing. I hope to start my weight training next week and I will be sure to keep you up to date on that too. I am really looking forward to adding another dimension to my training. I also think this training is becoming a habit also becoming a little bit of an addiction. I know it sounds stupid but I fell pretty awesome after my workouts and I am really starting to crave that every night. So hopefully that continues and drives me to get better!
SYL
Zap
On to my actual training for the evening. Did a 300 M swim tonight and followed my training plan to a T. Turns out it works quite well. Tonight was a 50 M warm up followed by 8 X 25 M with 10 seconds of rest between, followed by a 50 M cool down. Makes sense. An easy way to get your distance up without sacrificing speed. Looked ahead in my training program and it follows this type of system right through. Of course the distances start to increase but you get the idea.
After the swim I did a 30 minute walk for a distance of 2.6 Km. It was actually really nice and relaxing. The walk is a way to do active recovery and to tell you the truth it really helped. This 30 minute walk turns up once a week from now on and I like it. It totally loosened everything up tonight and allowed me to do an awesome stretch after. Nice to just listen to some tunes and relax.
So over all I must admit that I am really enjoying my training. It takes my mind off of things like work and it is really just relaxing. I hope to start my weight training next week and I will be sure to keep you up to date on that too. I am really looking forward to adding another dimension to my training. I also think this training is becoming a habit also becoming a little bit of an addiction. I know it sounds stupid but I fell pretty awesome after my workouts and I am really starting to crave that every night. So hopefully that continues and drives me to get better!
SYL
Zap
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Yes I am late again
Well I wanted to post some stuff on Monday and then again yesterday but as you can see it is now Wednesday and I am just getting my act together and posting now.
So I'll start with what I wanted to post on Monday. Monday's are becoming my check up day. It is the day that I weight myself and check my heart rate and all that exciting stuff, so here are the results of that.
Weight: 246 lbs that is now 9 lbs that I have lost. Not bad for two weeks of training, but I am sure how hard I have been working at work has something to do with it. Not to mention the diet that my girlfriend has me following.
Resting heart rate: 60 that hasn't changed and probably won't for awhile.
Body fat: 28.5 so that is .6% that I am down. I can deal with that.
Now on to Tuesdays entry. Did a 250M swim that went really well. Starting to feel a little stronger in the water which is nice. Really starting to follow my training plan for my water work. I skipped ahead and it looks like it really makes sense and ramps up at the right time. Just need to figure out how to kick or I am toast.
My run went really well too. Did 3.2 Km in 20 minutes. I'm pretty happy with that, especially considering I did that right after my swim. On days that I swim and then run I really have to stretch my calves quickly before I run or else I get a really nasty knot in each of them about a minute into my run. Ran on the track at Kinsmen and it wasn't really busy so it made for a great run. Over all I am really happy with all my training.
As for today, I went for a really nice 50 minute walk with my girlfriend. It was really nice. Winter is slowly starting to let go here so it was nice to just get out for an evening walk without having to put on 20 layers of clothes so you do freeze to death. Was suppose to do a 10 Km ride tonight and I might make that up somewhere this week but I am sure that all in all the walk was good for me too.
Work this week has been very labour intense so I am sure that is helping to my overall training. I try to remember when I am working hard that it is just exercise and that it is only helping me to obtain my fitness goals. Ya I know it doesn't really help but it sounds good!
Have a great night and a fantastic day tomorrow.
SYL
Zap
So I'll start with what I wanted to post on Monday. Monday's are becoming my check up day. It is the day that I weight myself and check my heart rate and all that exciting stuff, so here are the results of that.
Weight: 246 lbs that is now 9 lbs that I have lost. Not bad for two weeks of training, but I am sure how hard I have been working at work has something to do with it. Not to mention the diet that my girlfriend has me following.
Resting heart rate: 60 that hasn't changed and probably won't for awhile.
Body fat: 28.5 so that is .6% that I am down. I can deal with that.
Now on to Tuesdays entry. Did a 250M swim that went really well. Starting to feel a little stronger in the water which is nice. Really starting to follow my training plan for my water work. I skipped ahead and it looks like it really makes sense and ramps up at the right time. Just need to figure out how to kick or I am toast.
My run went really well too. Did 3.2 Km in 20 minutes. I'm pretty happy with that, especially considering I did that right after my swim. On days that I swim and then run I really have to stretch my calves quickly before I run or else I get a really nasty knot in each of them about a minute into my run. Ran on the track at Kinsmen and it wasn't really busy so it made for a great run. Over all I am really happy with all my training.
As for today, I went for a really nice 50 minute walk with my girlfriend. It was really nice. Winter is slowly starting to let go here so it was nice to just get out for an evening walk without having to put on 20 layers of clothes so you do freeze to death. Was suppose to do a 10 Km ride tonight and I might make that up somewhere this week but I am sure that all in all the walk was good for me too.
Work this week has been very labour intense so I am sure that is helping to my overall training. I try to remember when I am working hard that it is just exercise and that it is only helping me to obtain my fitness goals. Ya I know it doesn't really help but it sounds good!
Have a great night and a fantastic day tomorrow.
SYL
Zap
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