noattentionspan

Today I drove. That’s pretty well it actually.

A slow morning around the house, enjoying myself just puttering about and getting packed up.

Had everything ready to go but lost the cat (still hasn’t turned up) and forgot my bike pump.

Out to Chilliwack for a snack and some gas, the on the road again and heading east and then north.

Kelowna was a nice stop for a bedroll mattress (been meaning to get one) and a lantern (that I have to charge, oops), and then south to Penticton.

A stop at the Bike Barn for some new tri shorts and a bike pump (critically required and on sale), then out to the campground where I have managed to secure a rather sad little overflow spot for the night. Jackie and George will be sharing the area with me tomorrow and Sunday though.

Dinner, a trip to Starbucks for the internet connection, and that’s been my day.

Relaxing, not really, but enjoyable for the most part anyway.

S

Nutrition

1000
- Can of Dr Pepper (140 cal)
- 3 small candies

1230
- 6″ Cold Cut Combo from Subway

1330
- Can of Coke (160 cal)

1630
- Vitamin water

1830
- Tortillas with salsa and guacamole
- Chicken enchilladas with rice and refried beans

1915
- Jones Soda (180 cal)

I just thought I’d quickly add a minor blip notice here… 30 DAYS UNTIL IRONMAN CANADA!

I’m totally more excited than terrified this morning and that just rocks!

Just bloody awesome!

S

When you start the day with a 2000m swim it’s hard to be stressed about anything as the day progresses. Perhaps it’s just the subtle feeling of heavy muscles in the arms and shoulders, or it’s just being that bit more tired and mellow, but whatever it is I like it.

And the work day was one that would have caused stress if it could. A hot fix needed to be prepared, tested and released. The testing was going well but a couple of weird errors came up and had us chasing our tales up until 5pm, straight through lunch and the company all hands meeting.

End of the day though we did ship and I once again booted downtown at 5pm’ish. It wasn’t so bad though and I managed to get to Granville Island and on the dinner cruise ship without any problems and with plenty of time to spare.

Still I was pretty relaxed and not really in a party mode, but I had some great conversations and wound up driving someone new to the company back to the office. Turns out we’ve lived in a couple of the same cities, although at different times, and we had some good laughs chatting about that.

Packing now for Penticton and a LONG weekend of training. woo hoo!

Nutrition and Exercise

0730
- Gel (100 cal)
- 2000m swim (300m pull warm-up, 3×500m pull with paddles, 150m pull, 50m free)

— start of work

0900
- 2 blueberry scone pastries
- 2 egg omelet with cheese, bacon and ham
- Can of Apple Juice (160 cal)

1200
- Pork Souvilaki pasta salad

1415
- Wunderbar (310 cal)

1430
- Can of Coke (160 cal)

1515
- 3 HUGE slices of pizza (that weren’t very good actually)

— end of work

1900
- Beef kabob
- 2 Chicken kabobs
- Vegetable kabob
- Rice, pasta, salad

So, it seems like having a plan in the morning is a good thing. With the plan in place I worked on achieving all goals.

Of course, I have a plan for today and I’m even looking forward to most of it, how about that?

1. Pick up bike from Speed Theory after work! Totally looking forward to having the bike back and it NOT creaking with a problem in the bottom bracket.
2. Home and feed/water pets.
3. Short tempo run at Running Room. Not even remotely looking forward to this one actually. I have a blister on my toe and my legs are heavy. Still, I need to do SOMETHING at a speed above the crawl I was at last night, ya know? I would hate for my legs to get into the habit of doing that speed.
4. Meet with Caite the swim instructor at the pool for a stroke clinic lesson. I booked this after running into her at the pool last week and I’m really looking forward to having someone help me fix what I’m doing wrong. I don’t need to get a lot faster (although it would be nice), but I would love to get a bit faster and a lot more efficient. Would be nice too if I could add my legs into the mix without slowing down, eh?
5. Eat. Nachos Grande baby Looking forward to that too, even if it will be at 10pm when I finally get home from training.

— end of the day

Well, 1 and 2 worked like a charm. Assuming that you count the drive down to get the bike and the drive back as charming. I personally describe them as fucking frustrating and annoying. But hey, I don’t commute much anymore and I’m happy about that.

3 was a right-off though as I didn’t get back from the bike pick-up until 6:35. You know what though, I was surprisingly okay with that. I didn’t feel the need to run at all and only would have gone because I was supposed to.

5 jumped the queue since I was going to be home for a bit, what the heck right?

So #4, meet with Caite at the pool and get some instruction. That went well, if somewhat unexpected.

Here’s the thing, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. It leads to making assumptions based on faulty logic. An example? Sure thing.

Fact 1: With a pull buoy between my legs (effectively removing them from the equation) I swim 5 to 10 seconds faster per 100m than without (when I have full use of my legs).
Fact 2: When using a kickboard (hands at the top, arms in position on the board to the elbow) I swim almost 50 seconds slower per 100m.
Conclusion: Something is wrong with my kick.

That’s the conclusion I drew from the two facts and it’s bugged me for ages. I’ve been convinced that my legs simply don’t work in the water. Of course they work wonderfully on the bike and while running.

I hit the pool tonight convinced that Caite was going to watch my swimming, have an “aha!” moment and say something like “change your kick this way” and that would be that. Of course I was going to have to work at implementing what she said, but I’m okay with that right?

She came up after I’d done my warm-up and was doing a series of 100m sets, alternating pull and freestyle. Of course I was on a pull set when she came up. She left to get changed and came back when I was, again, on a pull set. No biggy, she hadn’t seen the horror that was my legs yet, but she had a suggestion for my arms.

Turns out I have been placing my hands a bit instead of driving them into the water. The result is that while I am pushing into the water I’m doing it too far past my head and so I’m losing some momentum and shortening my stroke (and consequently reducing my power).

No biggy, I dropped the pull buoy and went for 100m free focusing on getting my hand entry better. I knew now that she’d see the leg action and this would be it, I would be faster from here in.

I finished breathing a bit heavy, she sat there thinking for a minute and asked “what did you think was wrong with your kick?”. This floored me, what did I THINK was wrong? Everything right?

I talked about the pull buoy and how I’m faster with it than without. I talked about how I go slower and am more out of breath when I am kicking.

She responded by telling me I kick too much. Hence I’m out of breath, hence my breathing is off, hence I’m slower. So, off I went for a 200m free stretch focusing on getting my hands in the water at the right time/place and only kicking once per stroke instead of just hammering as I had been.

I forgot half the time either the hands or the feet, but it was a bit better. Then she was done with my feet, more to be done with my stroke.

So, I tried to stick to alternating pull and free, but I might as well have done the next 500m pull because every lap there was something to fix.

Here’s my list:
1. Hand entry into the water, get it closer to the head and drive the hand in with the thumb down and pinky up by the end of the stroke.
2. Slow down the kick, just keep the ass up and kick enough to stay in the right position. Watch that I don’t start churning the legs when I get tired.
3. Finish the stroke. Turns out I’ve not been finishing the stroke at the end. Concentrate on flicking the fingers at the end of the stroke to get that last bit of power.
4. Sculling works, S strokes work too, same principal. When I get tired I tend to drive my arm straight down and not put any curve at all. This reduces power.
5. Cup the hand slightly instead of working with a flat surface which, on twist, loses the water more than a cupped hand.
6. Finish the stroke near the thighs, drag the thumb by the thigh on the way to the flick.

Yeah, one item in there about my kick. Five about my stroke.

So, I have a bunch of work to do, obviously. But I CAN do it.

Caite, btw, was awesome. In addition to helping me out and talking me through not only what to fix, but why, she explained the mechanics of the stroke. This worked for me. It gives me something to think about and it makes more sense to me when I hear things.

While she was explaining about the S stroke, I quickly understood the purpose of the sculling drills I’d learned ages ago and never applied. I understood WHY people say to keep high elbows once I understood why sculling and S stroke are the same damned principal.

Those finger drag drills… I never knew why people did them, but knowing where to drive the hand in and how to finish the stroke, I now get it.

Oh, and she wouldn’t take money for the session. She just wanted to help.

How awesome is that?

Bedtime for bonzo.

Nutrition and Exercise

— start of work

1000
- 4 pack of Peak Freen’s cookies
- Can of OJ (160 cal)

1200
- Burger with cheese and fries

— end of work

1830
- Plate of Nachos Grande

2000
- @2000m swimming (at least 2km, might have been a bit more, I lost count so rounded down)

2200
- 591ml Dr Pepper (240 cal)
- 710ml PowerAde (160 cal)

I have a plan for my run tonight, but admittedly it’s only half baked.

1. Leave work and get home
2. Feed/water pets and let them out to roam about
3. Get food in me and get ready to run
4. Bus to train station, train to bus, bus to UBC
5. Run in the trails with False Creek group @10km
6. Run home @22km

This would have me starting the run home from UBC at about 7:30 or 8pm at the latest. Even going slow I’m still home by 10ish, perhaps as late as 10:30.

We’ll see if I think better of this plan and don’t do it by the time I head running at UBC.

At anytime I can pull the plug and hop on a bus that will get me to the train that will get me to the bus that will get me home to my shower.

So, why would I do this anyway? A couple of reasons really. I have to run a freaking marathon at the end of Ironman. A MARATHON. I’ve only run two of those, neither of them were perfect, neither of them had me coming close to my goals. One of them was disastrous.

I’ve long believed that the idea of running a maximum of 30 or 32km in training for a 42.2km run is ludicrous. You wouldn’t train for a 10km run by only running 7.5km would you? Well, you might if your goal was to finish, but you wouldn’t if your goal was to do well and to do and be your best.

I know I lose steam when I get out into the long distances. I get bored to start with. I get mentally beat up, and physically my body gets sore and tired. My very best half marathon races have been when I was training above 21.1km. When I KNEW my body could take it for the distance and the time.

Mentally, if nothing else, it’s important to me to do a couple of longer runs, get my body up into the big numbers and see how it does. Then I will KNOW that I can do it without falling apart.

I imagine that with more marathon races I would be less stressed about this. I would have done the distance 5 or 6 times or considerably more, and I would be confident that I could hit my target and hold it together until the race was done, not until I was done

Barring that though, I want to push myself a little bit, get really tired and want to quit, but keep going (when safe to do so). Simple as that.

Second, I failed my run on the weekend. 20km into a scheduled 30km run I bailed. And, if I really want to be honest, I bailed about 11km in. I just kept moving for 9 more km. So, I need the extra distance. Easy as that.

So, that’s the plan, let’s see how it goes.

— end of day

Steps 1-4 above went off without a hitch.
Step 5 was close, I had one almost trip that yanked a little on my right ass and hamstring, but nothing serious. 8.15km.
Step 6 was also close. I. DID. NOT. QUIT. Oh, I wanted to. I even lied to myself and said that I would if I could only get to the next mark. 21km exactly from the Ranger Station to where I had parked my car at Royal Oak Skytrain Station.

I was sore (I am sore) and tired. I have a couple of blisters. My glute and hamstring on the right are aching. I was bored.

I didn’t quit

Total for the day, 29.15km.

I’ve done farther than that in training without a hitch and certainly faster than I did it tonight.

But 2 days ago I was biking 140 and running 20. I didn’t need a recovery break to do this. At the end I COULD have gone more (but I sure didn’t want to).

There was no fanfare as I pulled up along side my car and the garmin beeped for 21km, except for the fanfare in my mind.

I’m overall happy. And sore. And tired.

Stretch, more liquid, bed.

One last thing… What did I do to get myself closer to the start and finish lines of Ironman Canada today? I didn’t quit.

Nutrition and Exercise

0745
- Vector and skim milk

1100
- Large container pork souvilaki pasta salad

1325
- Mars Bar (240 cal)

1600
- Pudding Cup (100 cal)

— end of work

1800
- Gu Chomps (8 of them, 2 servings)

1830
- 8.15km trail run at UBC
- Gel after run

1930
- 21km run from UBC to Royal Oak Skytrain Station
- Gel during Run

2230
- Vitamin water

2300
- Bowl of pork souvilaki pasta salad
- Glass of juice

So, my big contribution to training today was to bring the bike in to Speed Theory to get the bottom bracket replaced. Although they are booking starting next week they agreed to slip it in this week and will have it done before I head up to Penticton for the BIG BRICK training.

My other contribution was getting some shit done around the house with the help of Sheryl. Seems that my massage skills are remembered well enough to trade for house cleaning help

Oh, and finally, I took today off of training. It matters a lot I think, that I took today to do something other than training.

I’m reflecting more about the epic fail during the run yesterday and I’m having a hard time being upset with myself really. I screwed up my nutrition, and I likely shouldn’t have run on Saturday (not 18.8km anyway). Other than that though the day was a success. And like any good failure, I learned something from the event.

1. I’m getting smarter. In years/months/weeks past I would have continued, dropping to a walk or a crawl before giving up on a training run. I would have hoped to recover from training in time to race. I knew enough to stop when it wasn’t right to continue. The race is critical, not a single training session.
2. Electrolytes and salt replacement pills are NOT optional on hot days. Water, and more water, make the problem worse even thought it seems to help at first.
3. I have a LOT more in the tank for the bike. I’m looking forward to testing this theory on the bike course this next weekend.
4. Running slow is possible, but it’s not always easier. There is a certain speed below which my legs just do not cooperate. I either need to train and find this gear or get stronger so I can avoid using it. I know which of those I want

S

Nutrition

— start of work

0930
- Pudding cup (100 cal)

1200
- Chicken strips and fries

1500
- 5-Alive Juice (160 cal)

— end of work

1900
- Bombay chicken pasta salad (a la Safeway)

2300
- Souvilaki pork pasta salad

So, today was a Brick day, it was incredibly successful, and an abject failure at all the same time. Thus is the wonder that is training

The plan was for a 140km bike to be followed by a 30km run. The ride went well with a few minor hiccups. The run started well and went downhill after 10km. Not literally, that would have been nice, figuratively and it wasn’t so nice at all.

The ride started going from South to North Burnaby and going around SFU on the Barnet Highway and out to Port Moody. From there we booted along and out along Ioco and up into the parking turnaround area at White Pine beach which is at Sasamat Lake.

Back out of the lake and down and around Coquitlam before heading over to Pitt Meadows to do the airport loop and then into Maple Ridge and the ride back over the bridge and down the Mary Hill Bypass. We did the Poco Trail (or part of it) before getting onto 7B and through it to United.

Up into New West via 8th and then climbing again to 16th in Burnaby. Imperial out to Fraser in Vancouver, down to Kent and over the Cambie Skytrain Bridge. From there, back to the store. Just a touch over 140km. The pace was mellow and I wasn’t feeling any adverse reaction to the heat or the ride itself.

I even had a chance to try out my new sperm helmet and it was pretty decent. When you twist your head sideways to look back it auto corrects and pushes your head forward and down. And it SOUNDS fast when you get a good flow going by your head. All and all, a good thing. Think faster, be faster, right?

A slow transition and then back over the Queensborough Bridge and west along River Rd. 10km went by nice and smoothly but then all of a sudden I was drained.

I had been having some chest muscle pain since about 4km which had dropped to a dull throb, but my body just couldn’t keep up with the demands I was making on it.

At 13km or so we stopped for a water refill. This was a lifesaver, but if anything it exacerbated the problem the rest of my body was having. No electrolytes, no salt. At the time though, it just didn’t matter, I needed cold or at least luke warm water.

At 14km I knew I was done, it was just a matter of how far I was going to make it before I stopped. Over the Knight St Bridge I was fading fast and everything was coming undone. We met up with George at 18.5km and I said it was over. Then I had more water, felt better for a minute and decided to push through for a bit.

1km later and the only thing keeping me going was the knowledge that George was just ahead and I could finally quit. So, 20km into the run I was done and getting a drive back to the store.

Could I have kept going for the remaining 7km? Not at a run. I would have needed an extended walk break and to be honest, I would have needed some nutrients to do more than a walk/run. So, let’s say no to that eh?

Ah well, I learned a lot:

1. Running 20km yesterday was fun, but stupid
2. Electrolyte supplements are required, not optional
3. Salt pills are critically required, period

By the end of the run my glute was sore, I was still having pains in the chest area. My right calf and quad were both doing light spasms.

Hats off, btw, to Jackie and Aislynn who pushed through the heat and finished the 27km. More than I was doing today!

I’m closer to Ironman today. Damn straight!

Nutrition and Exercise

0615
- Bowl of porridge

0700
- 140km brick ride.
- 1 Gu Chomps
- 1.5 24oz bottles of 1.5 scoop Cytomax (210 cal)
- 1.5 bags of Sharkies (210 cal)
- 1.5 bags Shot Blox
- 1 gel

1330
- 20km brick run.
- 3 gels

1700
- 1l Chocolate Milk
- 1/2 591ml Coke (300 cal)

1800
- Bowl of pasta salad

1845
- Nuun electrolyte tab in water

2000
- 1/2lb burger with cheese (homemade burger, damned good!)

It’s been simply ages since I’ve had the opportunity to get out and run with Anne-Marie, Mary and Michael from the old Rackets & Runners crowd, but today we laced up at the False Creek Community Center and headed off into the morning. We were joined by Charlie (also from R&R) and Cas to round us out to 6 and off we went.

This wasn’t a hard and fast run, it was more a chance for me to run with old run buddies and catch up as well as put on some extra distance. I’ve been stressed about my run volume lately (last couple of months) and am worried about the 30km tomorrow, so I wanted to get a run in today and mentally prepare myself for a longer run tomorrow. Mission accomplished!

On a side note, I recall Michael from the group telling me, shortly after I had signed up for Ironman, that I should get ready for the real expenses to start now that I’d signed up. He estimated $5,000, only because I already had a bike. He wasn’t including race wheels.

I thought he was a) joking, b) nuts. He was neither.

Down to MEC today to pick up the gels and shot blocks that I will eat over the next 2 weeks and weekends — $100. Yup, even buying them at 65% the price you pay in the regular store isn’t enough to make this cheap. If I’m stingy on my nutrition during the weeks, I should be able to stretch it to 3 weekends.

And I’ll need to do that because I’ll be spending my paycheque covering the credit card to pay off the Aero (read here, sperm shaped) helmet. Yup, 1 brand spanking new Louis Garneau Rocket Air sperm hat from our friends down at Speed Theory.

I was only heading down there to drop off my rear training wheel so that they can replace the bearing, but somehow I walked out with a helmet, Gu Chomps and a quick release mounting bracket for the Garmin 310XT (officially an accessory for my accessory).

And the day kept going for race and training related purchases.

By the time the day was over, the list looks something like this; helmet, mounting bracket, gu chomps, cliff shots, cliff gels, new run shorts (I have been thrashing the one pair I own washing them as often as I do) and finally fingerless bike gloves (mine are thrashed, I’ve had them for 5 years, AND they have fingers and boil my hands on long rides).

Last night, contemplating the bearing problem in the training wheel, and the click in the bottom bracket, I wanted to just say fuck it and buy a new bike. Dumb, I know. But I wanted to.

I didn’t. Today, in Speed Theory I was looking at the Cervelo P3 Frameset. See, I have a Cervelo bike with a Dur-ace component set. I could purchase the frameset and swap out my equipment. This would fix neither the bearing problem nor the bottom bracket, BUT, I would have a shiny new bike

I didn’t do that either. I’m either growing up or realizing that I’m broke, one or the other.

Besides, the 2006 Cervelo Dual (purchased new in 2007) has gotten me this far, it’s going to get me through Ironman as well.

After Iron… well, that’s a different thing. If I’m going to keep going in this sport I’m going to upgrade the bike, it really isn’t a question. The question is what I’m going to upgrade to, and when.

Nutrition and Exercise

So, while I haven’t been marking it down, I’ve also been drinking lots of water and some Diet Coke. No calories so no sense in recording it, right?

I need to watch this as the caffeine is NOT a good plan if over done. ug.

0645
- Vector and milk

0730
- 18.8km run with the False Creek group.
- 1/2 bag of Sharkies while running (70 cal)

1000
- Jones Soda
- Iced Tea / Lemonade

1230
- Slice of Cake

1400
- Fat Burger (2 patties, bacon) and fries
- Breath mint

1700
- Glass of Juice

2030
- 2 bowls of pasta salad (souvilaki pork, pasta, sauces)

Taxation, gotta love it.

In 2008 I jumped on the technological bandwagon (I’m such a Luddite in general) and eFiled my taxes through a tax company. All went well, or at least as well as expected when you are justifying the money you made and paid all through the year, and desperately trying to ensure that they don’t go and take more.

In any case, I filed, I stopped thinking about it.

Oh, and I moved.

In August of 2009 a letter was sent to my old address past the time when it would be forwarded to my new address.

I didn’t respond to the letter that I’ve never seen. Go figure.

The government decided that since I never responded to a request for information that, lo and behold, I had actually submitted in the paper form of my return but which was not included in the eFile form, they should re-evaluate my claim. In December of 2009 they did exactly that.

They decided that I should not be able to claim my daughter as my dependent without a Schedule 5 (the missing paperwork from above) so they took her out and decided that I owe them money. Not a small amount. More than enough to by more race wheels! Not that I need more race wheels, but you know what I’m saying, right?

Anyway, they sent me a letter (to the same address) to tell me that I owed them money. I didn’t respond to this letter that I never received either. Amazing.

So they sent my new bill, the one I knew nothing about, to collections in the government. Guess what, this arm of the government had NO problem tracking me down. Ah joy!

Anyway, I’ll have to jump through some hoops, but this will probably all get resolved in a month or so. I’m sure I won’t get an apology, but I don’t really want one, I just want them to go away.

I’m crawling back into my fucking cave though, no more of that eFile shit for me, Luddite and proud!

Nutrition and Exercise

— start of work

0900
- Pudding cup (100 cal)

1200
- 3 pieces of bbq chicken (red chicken)
- small amount of potatoes
- pudding cup (100 cal)

1400
- Wunderbar (310 cal)
- Large sour candy (90 cal)

1530
- Bag of chips (210 cal)

— end of work

1800
- small bombay chicken pasta salad
- small potato salad

2100
- 3 cookies

2300
- small bits of cake with icing
- piece of cake

Bit of a weird day today all told, but all around not so bad.

Miranda’s bus was about 45 minutes late coming in and when it arrived she wasn’t feeling well (tired and a bit sick). I brought her home instead of to the office and worked from there for the rest of the afternoon. This was rather productive though as I managed to work through an excel sheet that I’m doing for regression testing which was good.

After work I made us some bbq chicken, and as Miranda was feeling okay I brought her, a friend and Gabrielle up to Sasamat to meet Ray and go for a swim. Well, I went for a swim, the girls played on the beach. The swim itself was okay, but my stomach was in turmoil at the 500m mark and I had to find shore by the canoes, ug.

A look at my nutrition explains this, of course, crappy day for eating for me.

After the swim we all piled in the car and went out to Mission to drop Gabrielle off at her mum’s. That went well, but the trip home turned into an exercise in frustration. A flipped semi west bound on the number 1 just east of 200th. Rocking good times!

It took 50 minutes to get from 232nd to 200th. That’s normally a 5 minute drive!

Ah well, home again and time for a shower and a lot of sleep.

S

Nutrition and Exercise

1130
- Medium bag of chips
- Sweet Marie
- Aero Bar

1500
- Cookie dough

1530
- Salami Sandwich with Cheese

1600
- 3 or 4 cookies

1745
- 1 1/2 pieces of chicken
- potatoes

1900
- 2.3km swim at Sasamat (2km swim with extra bad sighting and a bathroom stop at the canoes)

2000
- 3 or 4 cookies

2145
- 1/2 medium bag beef jerky

2345
- 2 cookies