noattentionspan

The count down seems to be going a bit quicker lately. Oddly though, this isn’t concerning me overly right now. Next panic attack on schedule for something like 4 weeks from the first race of the season.

That would be the UBC triathlon. I really sucked at this race when I did it the first time. My swim was slower than expected, my bike was ok, my run sucked rocks. Total time: 3:05:40.3. For the breakdown, transition 1 time is included in the swim, transition 2 in the bike.

Swim: 41:34
Bike: 1:23:38
Run: 1:00:29

Well, this year I should see about 6 minutes come off the swim and T1 time. Remembering the way they did the race, the T1 time is a bit longer than it could be just due to the way you leave the pool and where you have to go to get to the bike. I expect to hit the swim in about 32 minutes max and no more than 4 minutes for transition.

The bike + T2 isn’t that bad actually, but I do expect to take a minute or two off. I’m aiming for sub 1:20 on the bike and that second transition should take no more than 90 seconds.

The run I figure I’ll drop 5 minutes on anyway. On Sunday, not in race mode and doing 10:1s I hit a 56:20 10km after a 50km ride (a very slow 50km ride mind you). I know I’m capable of doing better for race day.

So my goal for UBC? 2:55:00 or less. In my quiet space I want 2:50:00 but I know that’s pushing it, I’ll have to be bringing my A game for that.

Leaving the house I knew I’d forgotten something, in the car driving away I realized it was my lunch. Clearly this is a sign that the salad I was bringing wasn’t in the cards. But I pulled over at Safeway, bought a salad, a bag of oranges and a couple of books off the discount rack. How’s that for healthy decision making?

The work Sun Run group was out again today, this time actually covering a bit of ground. Well, not a lot, but over 5.5km so at least we are improving. 9×3:1 with warm-up and cool down. This is the first week with only 1 minute walk breaks but the guys handled it very well.

I ended the night hanging over at Rik’s place shooting the shit with both him and Joel (from the office). Was nice to just hang out with the guys and chat about anything and everything. There was a bunch of math involved too

Nutrition was weird today, I just couldn’t get enough to eat or drink. I ate and ate (as evidenced below), drank tea and a couple of litres of water (no pop ). But every time I turned around I wanted more food. Weird feeling.

Breakfast:
- Quaker breakfast bar

Snack (0):
- Orange

Snack (1):
- 50g container of cinnamon hearts

Lunch:
- BLT Caeser salad in a bag
- Wunderbar Chocolate bar
- Crunchie Chocolate bar

Snack (2):
- Mr. Big Chocolate bar
- 50g container of cinnamon hearts
- Orange

— End of work

Snack (3):
- Small bowl of chili (thanks Sheryl) with cheese

Dinner:
- 6 slices of pizza (4 medium, 2 small)

Snack (4):
- Shared a large bag of chips with 2 other guys.

A sheer act of will was required to get up from a nap after work and head to the pool, but I’m glad I did.

2500m today in a weird set, but it felt right.

4x (100m pull with paddles: 500m pull)
100m free

The 500m sets were at 2:10/100m or faster pace and the 100m pull with paddles sets were all on 1:50+/100m

That last free sucked wind a bit though being a 2:09. I felt like I was flailing my feet and that was making it worse. Oh well.

I did get off my ass and train and that’s what counts. Some girl I was sharing the lane with even commented on my elbow form. A couple of hundred meters later I thought to question if she was flirting, but by the time I was done my set she was heading for the showers. Sometimes I’m dense. But perhaps she was just commenting on my elbows

Nutrition started today with requiring a conscious act of will to eat. I simply didn’t want breakfast. Which, when I think of the rest of the day is amazing. I simply could not stop eating today. The annoying thing is that this is a “recovery” day. Ah well.

Breakfast:
- Yogurt with granola

— Start work

Snack (0):
- Can of OJ
- Large sour candy… didn’t taste good though, don’t mix these with OJ

Snack (1):
- Orange

Snack (2):
- 2 medium slices of leftover pizza

Lunch:
- BLT Caeser salad in a bag

Snack (3):
- 2 medium slices of leftover pizza
- 1 1/2 Large sour candies (better when not mixed with OJ)

Snack (4):
- C is for cookie, that’s good enough for me… C is for cookie, that’s good enough for me… C is for cookie, that’s good enough for me, oh Cookie Cookie Cookie starts with C. Half a dozen or so cookies spread throughout the day.
- Approximately 1.75l of water

Snack (5):
- Leftover lime seasoned tortilla chips

— End work

Dinner:
- 3 medium slices of leftover pizza

Snack (6):
- Gel before swimming

Snack (7):
- A few slices of cheese (garlic Havarti)
- 1 small Quaker chewy granola bar
- 1 small kids pudding

0444 and the watch alarm goes off. — kill it
0450 and the clock alarm goes off. — snooze
0459 and the snooze alarm goes off. — snooze
0508 and the snooze alarm goes off. — look at time and panic!

Thus started my morning. By 0530 I was down at the RunningRoom climbing on my bike and getting ready to go for a projected 59km jaunt out to UBC and back.

We made decent time for the first 25km or so, but once we were across the Skybridge at Cambie and onto 70th we started to slow down as a group. At 49th we made the decision to turn back at 41st in order to get back within a 2.5 hour ride window.

So at 41st, the start of the UBC Endowment Lands, we hung a sharp right off of SW Marine Drive and onto 41st proper and then zig zagged our way back to the store, but our speed bled off drastically. We finished up at 51.6km and 2:19:54. blah. Even with the ride yesterday I could easily have gone much faster and farther and still run.

Back at the store it was time to change shoes, drop a layer and head out on a run. From the start my left shin/calf was bothering me a bit. I loosened up my shoe which often provides relief, but made the decision to turn around and do a 10km instead of the projected 14. It’s only 20 something minutes difference, but I don’t want to hurt myself and I know that cranking it up on that shin will having me sitting on the sidelines faster than anything.

Total run was 10.7km and 1:00:00.

I have no stress whatsoever about the UBC triathlon coming up in May. I know I can do 1500m in the pool without a problem. 40km on the bike is no biggy. And 10km running, no worries at all.

I not even really stressed about the half iron races at Oliver or Osoyoos. 1.9km in the water is fine, I’m actually looking forward to that. 90km on the bike? Tough for me right now, but not crippling and I have a lot more training to do. Half marathon (21.1km) after the bike? Again, no stress. Oh it will be hard, but I’m not worried about doing it or doing it well.

My stress is reserved, today, for Ironman Canada. Why? Before we went out on the run today I was chatting with the marathon group who were heading out for 29km. And that seemed far. The idea of heading out on a 29km run after only 50km on the bike didn’t appeal at all. Just running 29km without biking seemed far. So, it bugged me, whattcha gonna do?

Nutrition was pretty good right up until ordering pizza for dinner. Even then it wasn’t horrible, not really.

Snack (0):
- 1/2 power bar before riding

Snack (1):
- 2 gels while riding
- 1/2 bottle of Cytomax while riding

Snack (2):
- 1 gel while running
- 1/2 bottle of Cytomax while running

Snack (3):
- 1/2 power bar

Lunch:
- 1, 2 egg omelet with cheese
- Orange (the one that I didn’t eat last night)

Dinner:
- 5 medium slices of pizza
- 10 wings (1/2 wings, so really only 5)

Out for a ride with the Tri Cities Triathlon Club this morning. I’ve been a member for the past couple of years, but I rarely go out and ride with them, usually only a few times a year.

Mostly I’m a lazy ass as folks who know me know.

We had a rather relaxing 41km at a mellow pace (@24km/h), a true beginner ride. Given that I’m doing a bike/run brick tomorrow, I’m pretty happy that it was mellow.

Out and about for a while and then off to the pool with Miranda and her friend. Instead of Canada Games we decided to head out to the Coquitlam Aquatic Center (CAC). I had a lane all to myself and the kids played in the wave section and had fun on the overhead pulley.

2km straight apart from a quick drink every 500m. Total time, 43:19. Average, 2:10/100m. Not as fast as I did the other day, but it was steady after the first 500m which was a bit quicker (2:06/100m).

And then, food damn it. Absolutely required. Barring food though, I found an A&W and took the kids in for a bite. Calories were required.

It’s 8:30 at night now and I am going to log off, organize my gear and crash. I’m bagged with no Coke.

Nutrition today could have been better, but it could have been worse. NO POP Consequently, not enough calories for the day. I might suffer for that in the morning.

Breakfast:
- Granola and yogurt

Snack (0):
- 1/2 bottle Cytomax while riding
- 1 gel while riding

Snack (1):
- Large Tea at Starbucks

Snack (2):
- 1/2 bottle Cytomax while swimming

Dinner (at A&W):
- 1 Uncle Burger
- 1 Mozza Burger
- 1 Large Fries

Snack (3):
- Orange

Oh my god, I actually did some exercise this morning! Up early, packed Miranda over to her mom’s and I was out the door and to the pool. And once at the pool… I floundered about for a bit trying to remember what the fuck I was doing.

Seriously useless swim this morning. The swim was supposed to be a fairly intense 3.4km jaunt with 300m warm-up/cool down and a series of 7×400 sets in pyramid fashion (8×50, 4×100, 2×200, 1×400, 2×200, 4×100,8×50). It took me 700m just to warm up to the point where I could get a lane without needing to check my breathing. I was almost 1km in before I figured out how to flip turn again and even after that 1 in 4 was ending up with me sputtering. Recently I was thrilled to realize that I was down to a 2 minute, 100m pace over the long distance, today I was over 40 minutes to get the first 1500m done. And so, looking at the time and realizing I was not going to get the full set in, I killed it after 1500m, did a 100m cool down and went home with only a single mile complete (1600m). Less than half my intended set. UG.

Still, a crappy swim beats sitting on my ass eating chocolate bars and drinking coke for breakfast, right? (someone, somewhere, please agree).

Tonight marks the end of pop, again Cold turkey on the weekend, no Coca Cola.

I’m going to be in a VERY bad mood by Sunday night if I don’t get a lot of exercise, lol.

Nutrition

Snack (0):
- Gel before swimming

Breakfast:
- Granola and yogurt (holy shit, I ate something for breaky, woo hooo)

— start work

Snack (1):
- Can of Coke

Lunch:
- Burger with cheese and bacon, and fries
- Can of Coke

Snack (2-4): (I was doing a FEMA Incident Command System course, caffeine was required)
- Can of Coke x3

— end work

Dinner:
- Sausages, onions, peppers and cheese.
- Side salad
- @1.5l Coke

To sleep perchance to dream. And I did, and it was good. Sleep that is. I passed out on the couch watching TV last night so I never wound up having the last glass of Coke I wrote down on the blog, which was good. Clearly I needed the sleep. And I slept right through not waking until just after 7.

Of course that meant no spinning and now 3 days off of exercise this week. Sooo weird.

I have things organized so that if I get up in the morning I can get a swim in. I’m heading to bed now and setting the alarm.

Nutrition sucked. Dinner was okay, but no breaky led to overeating at lunch on crap food and drinking too much pop. The problem with Coke is that it quenches thirst with the first drink, but leaves your mouth pasty and icky after the last. Best way to get that taste out of the mouth… grab another. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Breakfast:
- nadda

— start work

Snack (0):
- Can of OJ

Lunch:
- 6 slices of pizza (medium sized)
- 6 chicken wing pieces (1/2 wing each)
- Can of Coke

Snack (1):
- Can of Coke

Snack (2&3):
- 2 cans of Coke

— end of work

Dinner:
- Bowl of Caesar salad
- 2 Roast beef, cheese, mayo and mustard sandwiches
- Glass of Coke

Snack (4)
- Glass of Coke

soooo tired.

SFA done for exercise today. A great week last week, a nothing week this. ug. I’ll set up the bike on the trainer before bed tonight though and try and get some sleep so I can get in at least 30 minutes in the morning, hopefully up early enough for much more.

I’m using Miranda as my excuse for not swimming, but in reality I haven’t looked really hard for a solution this week. Motivation in general has been crap and I’m not sure why.

On a side note I have wound up getting caught up in the caffeine dependency cycle again and while I can continue this way for a while, I know I have to just stop and deal with the crash eventually or it will chew up my training time. Perhaps eod tomorrow and taper in to the evening. I need to have no caffeine in my system for the weekend or I’ll have a hard time getting enough sleep in to handle the amount of training I want to do.

Let’s see how that goes, eh?

Nutrition was crap today, started with no breakfast (up late, super tired from crappy sleep), continued in the crap mode all day, ended with crap.

Seriously, how do I train at all given the shit that I eat?

Breakfast:
- nadda

— start of work

Snack (0):
- Can of Coke

Lunch:
- BBQ beef on a bun with baked potato
- Can of Coke
- Mr. Big chocolate bar

Snack (1):
- Can of Coke

Snack (2):
- Can of Coke

— end of work

Snack (3):
- 1 stuffed hotdog (hotdog weiner split open, piled about 3cm high with mixed mashed potatoes and yams, topped with melted cheese)

Dinner:
- Potluck, 1 plate
- Cake, 2 pieces

Snack (4):
- Glass of Coke (who needs sleep anyway, bah!)

Sun Run training week 4 today at the office. The 3 diehards on my work team were out with me and we managed 4.5km in a good session of 6×3:2 with warm up and cool down. I noticed that my calf was a little stiff on the start but it started to feel better as we went along, so I’m feeling comfortable that it is healing.

I stopped at MEC today to pick up little turtle lights to strap to the race bike. Turns out that I need lights when we want to start a long ride at 5 or 6 AM on a Sunday morning. Go figure eh?

Gaming with the guys tonight and had a great session where we did absolutely nothing but still had a lot of fun. Unfortunately I was sleepy so dosed up on Coke and hence can’t sleep. Caffeine is great in small quantities.

Nutrition sucked rocks today. My friend Elizabeth things I’m addicted to Coke. It’s not a far off guess, ug. Clearly I need to just stop drinking the stuff, again. Tomorrow though eh? Right now I need the caffeine to stay up past 3pm arggggg. And of course I can’t sleep at night. What a fun roller coaster.

Breakfast:
- Granola with yogurt

— start of work

Snack (0):
- 2 cans of Coke (2 in the morning before lunch)

Lunch:
- 2 medium sized plates of Nachos Grande (ground beef, corn, salsa, cheese, tortilla chips)
- Can of Coke

Snack (1)
- Can of Coke
- Handful of jujubes (totally blaming Craig, again)

— end of work

Snack (2)
- Glass of Coke

Dinner: (at D&D)
- 5 slices of pizza
- Some chips and dip
- Some M&Ms + Smarties (not a bad mix actually)
- 1 l Coke

Snack (3)
- Glass of Coke

So that’s the start of my last 6 months of training before race day. I’ll be in taper mode for the last month, so I really only have about 5 months of training left. In that time I’ll race at UBC (May), in Oliver (June) and in Osoyoos (July). I’ll even jog through the Sun Run (May).

What in he hell have I gotten myself into?

Nutrition had great food intermixed with crap snacks. Sadly this is the norm. I really need to get the snacking thing under control but other than the obvious am not sure how to manage this.

Breakfast:
- Carnation Instant Breakfast

Snack (0):
- 2 cans of Coke
- Large sour sucker (Craig’s fault!)

Lunch (0):
- Chicken breast over rice
- Can of Coke
- Aero bar
- Wunderbar

Lunch (1): (yes, I had my lunch split into two)
- Chicken breast over rice
- Can of Coke
- Jujubes that Craig (also totally all his fault) had on his desk

Snack (1):
- Can of Coke

Dinner:
- Roast beef, roast veggies, roast potatoes and gravy
- extra small plate of leftover roast beef, veggies and gravy
- Can of Coke

Snack (2):
- 2 cans of Coke
- 1 small glass of Coke

{to the tune of the Canadian National Anthem… duh!}

Go Canada! Our hockey teams are gold!
True patriot love for players young and old

Our curling skips with eyes of blue
Whose rocks hook down the sheet

Luge, sleigh or skate, Oh crap we’re fast
We simply can’t be beat

Ski or board we fly
Bumps or jumps and air

Go Canada we’ll beat anyone anywhere
Go Canada we’ll beat anyone anywhere

—–

My contribution to the fun

SW