noattentionspan

My legs feel surprisingly good today. That bit of swimming after the climb was exactly what I needed obviously. Of course we’ll see how they feel after running tonight, or during running I suppose.

And tomorrow of course is the Canada Day Populaire. 1km for each year of Confederation. Last year was 142km, this year, 143km. Gotta love simple math. Of course last year I wound up weaving a bit and finished 145km instead. Go figure.

I’ll be riding with folks I know this year which will be nice, there were some lonely stretches last year. And, post ride I’ll get a bit of a run in with other folks who are equally nuts. Gotta like that eh?

— later in the day

So, my legs weren’t feeling great during or after the run this evening. I know some days you just have to learn to run through not feeling good (no pain, just felt blah) but I’ve been feeling like that a LOT lately. Running just isn’t fun right now.

Still, I was happy that I finished the run even though it was pretty slow for a tempo run, but it had a HUGE hill climb to start and I just never recovered from that.

Tonight is the last night with pop, I’ve decided, yet again. A clean break and Canada Day tomorrow seems like a good enough excuse. There have been days where more than 50% of my caloric intake has come from Coca Cola. What the hell is this doing for my training?

blah.

So, no more. At least not until Ironman is in the bag.

Now, sleep.

S

Nutrition and Exercise

0800
- Granola and yogurt

— start of work

0930
- 2 donuts

1100
- Can of Coke

1130
- Chicken wrap and Caesar salad
- Chicken salad sandwich on grain bread

1345
- Can of Coke

1545
- large sour candy
- Can of Coke (literally falling asleep at my desk)

1615
- 3 small candies (100cal)

— end of work

1815
- Gel (90 cal)

1830 – Tempo Run
- 10.66km tempo run out of the Burnaby Running Room. I felt like crap climbing and even though I picked up the speed in the last few km to a solid tempo pace I never felt really good about how I was running. So much for the legs feeling okay after yesterday.

2000
- 591ml Coke

2200
- Bacon Cheese Burger with Fries at Denny’s
- 1 1/2 glasses of Coke

I’ve decided I need a plan today, so, here it is… we’ll see how far along I get.

- Work (0830 – 1630) — DONE
- Get bike (1700) — DONE
- Climb Seymour (1800) — DONE
- Hit Canadian Tire (2000)? — NOT SO DONE
- Swim (2030) — DONE
- Eat (2200)? — DONE (earlier though and I didn’t have a meal after swimming, just pop)

I had to take off from work at 3:45 today to get to Port Moody and pick up my bike from the shop. There is a part coming in that I will need to get put in place eventually, but for now they’ve handled the squeak.

This is a great thing and kept me from becoming homicidal during the climb up Mt Seymour with Quinton and Ray this evening. Quinton took off like a billy goat and finished the climb in 59 minutes. Ray wasn’t far behind at 67 minutes and I held up the tail end at 71 minutes (just a bit under actually).

Regardless of how long it took me I’m proud of the effort I put in to the climb. No doubt about it, that was tough work. Oh, I know I can do it faster, and I will break an hour without doubt in my head, but I did a good job and I didn’t quit.

Digging deep and looking for motivation I realized that the fact that I CAN do this IS motivation. Shit, I just climbed a mountain. 915m elevation gain in 13.2km. Average grade, 6.9%, give or take. Average speed up, 11.1km/h. And so what if it’s slow? Once again with feeling: SHIT, I just climbed a mountain on my bike!

After the climb Quinton and I hit A&W for some quick calories and then were off to Canada Games for a bit of a swim. I really just wanted to get to my zen place and so did 4×500m pull. I don’t have to think or work, I just have to swim. It was wonderful and my body feels great as a result.

S

Nutrition and Exercise

Breakfast (0730)
- Carnation Instant Breakfast with 1% milk

— start of work

Snack (0900)
- Quaker Dark Chocolate Chunk fiber and omega 3 bar (150 cal)
- Can of Coke (160 cal)

Lunch (1130)
- Chicken salad sandwich on grain bread
- Can of Coke (160 cal)

Snack (1330)
- Large sour candy (80 cal)
- Can of Coke (160 cal)

Snack (1500)
- Small bag of trail mix (140 cal)
- Can of Coke (160 cal)

— end of work

Snack (1745)
- Quaker Dark Chocolate Chunk fiber and omega 3 bar (150 cal)
- 6 Cliff shot blocks (200 cal)

Mt Seymour Bike Climb
- 13km up, 13km down.

Dinner (2000)
- Mozza Burger from A&W

Zen Swim Session
- 4×500m pull

Snack (2230)
- 1l Coke (almost done with the stuff)

Motivation is just through the floor today. No energy to do much of anything.

This is, of course, exacerbated by absolutely shitty nutrition. Again though, I just can’t seem to get myself interested in eating much of anything, let alone something good for me.

I did manage to get something decent cooked and eaten for dinner, but the motivation is just lost. It’s going to make climbing Seymour tomorrow a bit more difficult if I can’t get my head out of my ass and get going

I do know that this is just a phase in a long training cycle, it’s something temporary and something that I can get past.

Right now though I feel like I’m just going through the motions somewhat.

Time off would help mellow me out, but the less I do the more I lose motivation.

I probably just need to get laid or something. Bah.

Nutrition in the past week or so has sucked incredibly badly. I am rarely eating and when I do eat I’m eating crap. Around half my calories daily are coming from pop. Point in fact, it might be enough to survive on, but it’s making doing stuff much more difficult than it could.

It has gotten to the point where I couldn’t stand up quickly at work today without getting dizzy.

So, I think I’ll start with a breakfast tomorrow and a swim. Something zen and relaxing. A couple of thousand meters with the pull buoy and no speed.

S

Nutrition

— start of work

4 Cans of Coke
1 Crunchie Bar
1 Thin Sensations snack
Chicken Strips and Fries

— end of work

2l Coke
1 handful caramelized walnuts
2 bowls pasta with sausage, tomato sauce and cheese

For those of you looking for the links… here you go.

Full Results here: http://www.canadarunningseries.com/results/2010/svhm/half.htm

Official Pictures here: http://www.asiorders.com/view_event.asp?EVENTID=59991

Garmin route map and my race details here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/38381240

0700 is a rather early time to start a race, particularly on a wet and rainy day. I woke up but just couldn’t get much food into my system. Dressed and out the door at 0600 and out to get Anne-Marie, we arrived at UBC at 0630, a mere 30 minutes before race start.

George was waiting at the parking lot with his van and he drove us the km or so to the start line where we found all of our friends and merged with the pack of 4000+ other folks who were doing the half.

The early start and running a bit late through off my normal pre-race rituals. I just didn’t take this seriously enough to make sure I had the time to do everything I needed to do. Usually I arrive early enough to get 2 or even 3 pee breaks, consume a gel 15 minutes before start, spend a minute or two just staring into myself and getting ready mentally. This morning I just hopped out of the van, chatted with folks and started running.

The first km took us down a 20m drop to Marine and by the third we were back at the start line. The fourth had us back down to Marine and heading entirely the wrong direction to the 5km mark and a turn around back up Marine. 5km in 25:59. Average pace at this point was 5:12/km and about bang on for hitting a sub 1:50:00 race.

The trip up Marine led to the top of the large 73m drop down to Spanish Banks. By this point I was following Jackie and Kerstin and stopping for 1 minute walk breaks when they did. My Garmin was clicking over the kms within 50 or 100m of the markers and I worked to stay to the shortest route through the various twists and turns even though this meant spending more time down the camber of the road. The second 5km passed in 25:33, a slight increase with an average pace of 5:07/km and attributable to the rather large hill

That gave me 10km in 51:32 and an average of 5:09/km. I was well on pace now and feeling okay.

The next 5km is where things started to fall apart. I was slowing down a bit through the flats without feeling much worse, but when I hit the 20m climb at just past 13km I started to tank. I remember looking at the 14km marker and feeling alright, but then immediately after that I started to feel like crap. The third 5km took me 26:59 with an average pace of 5:24/km.

It was all about digging deep through this section. I felt like crap but knew I needed to just keep going. I passed Jackie and was following Kerstin when I ran into Heather who was cheering on the side. Down along 4th I was running with Ray for a bit and I was feeling very low, not a lot left in the tank. Jackie pulled ahead of me again at 16km and I followed her from then until the end of the race. I certainly would have fallen farther behind if Jackie hadn’t been right there for me to follow.

This is the place in the race where the mental meanies were beating me up. Every km I was falling farther and farther behind my goal time. I wasn’t horribly stressed about it, I knew it was just a training race, but I still felt like I was letting myself down.

The fourth 5km stretch went by in 26:58 for an average pace of… 5:24/km. That gave me a second 10km in 53:57 for an average pace of 5:24. Go figure. 20km mark in 1:45:29 with an average pace of 5:17/km. That second 10km was almost 2 and a half minutes slower than the first, that mentally hurt. In a lot of ways I might have been better not to be looking at the clock at all. The mental meanies are worse when they have raw numbers to work with, eh?

The last 1.31km (yeah, either it was off or I was weaving, go figure) took a total of 6:38 for a pace of 5:03/km. Clearly I still had some kick left, but not a lot, I should have been in the 4:30s. I also couldn’t catch Jackie here, not that I was really trying. I did close some distance between us, but not enough to overtake.

I crossed the finish line in 1:52:18 on my Garmin. Not something I can complain about. Average pace 5:16/km.

The numbers from the official results have a slightly different story, but not by a lot:

Overall: 1026/3761 finishers (I don’t know the total start numbers)
Gender: 700/1619 (Male)
Division: 97/212 (Men 35-39)
Gun Time: 1:53:08
Chip Time: 1:52:15
Gun Time Average Pace: 5:20

I should be more excited about tomorrows’ race, but I just can’t bring myself to care much. To be honest I never should have registered in the first place, but at the time it seemed like something fun to do and the son Curtis was going to be doing it with, so what the heck.

Unfortunately, Curt didn’t bother training for this one and he can’t run, so I blew the race entry fee for him and now I’m just less enthused.

Ah well, I know that once I get out there I’ll be feeling more into things.

Went for a bike ride today, running late as usual. Biked to the store and missed everyone by 5 minutes. It took me until near the end of Coquitlam to catch the group I usually ride with. For a change they were riding longer than I wanted to go (given I’d done 15km to get to the store) so I went over the Golden Ears and then turned back.

A heavy creak in the bike had me asking George to lube up the bottom bracket, but 1km into the ride home from the store it was still there so I turned back and left the bike. Turns out that the rear cassette needed some adjustment. I’ll get the bike on Tuesday before doing some hill climbing and all should be good.

Alright, I have to be up in 6 hours to get to the race, so it’s bed time.

Night all, race report due tomorrow.

S

Nutrition and Exercise

I don’t think I ate enough today, now that I think about it. Likely explains why I’ve been so blah and lifeless. Need to get back on track nutrition wise.

Breakfast
- 1/2 Breakfast bar

Bike Ride (84km – 3:11)
- Home to Tri3 Sports, out and over the Golden Ears bridge, back to Tri3.

Food while riding
- 1 package Shot Blocks (6 blocks)
- 1 bottle Power-Ade
- 1 Dip Bar

Food after riding
- 6 Peperoni sticks
- 2/3 l Coke
- 1/2 Breakfast bar

So, I was pretty happy with myself for not missing a single day in a LONG time. Then, of course, the domain needed re-registration. Ah well, shit happens.

I did use being dark as an excuse to eat a lot of crap, after all, I didn’t have to account for it all, right?

Today was release day at work. Work that started months ago on three distinct code lines shipped this afternoon in three products that all work together. It has been a monumental task getting everything completed.

Miranda was hanging with a friend tonight so I dragged my lazy, pop filled ass to the pool for a bit of a swim.

300m free warm-up. As always I felt like I was racing my heart here and working hard.
10×100m alt pull/free. These felt good. Even the free 100s were faster than my usual.
5×200m pull and paddles. These were just hard.
500m pull. This was nice, very relaxing.
200m free cool down. This actually felt good, but it turned out I was moving like a snail. It just wasn’t hard.

Nutrition and Exercise

Friday

— start of work

Over the course of the work day:
- 4 cans of Coke
- 3 hot dogs
- 1 Mars Bar
- 1 Mr Big

— end of work

Snack (1800)
- Aero bar
- Can of Coke

Dinner (2300)
- 1 plate of multi-grain tortillas, salsa, cheese
- Glass of Coke

—–

Thursday (this is my best recollection)

Lunch
- Mixed potluck food. 1.5 full plates.

Snack
- Aero bar

Dinner
- Plate of Cowboy Pie

Other
- at a guess, 2l Coke

Seems I forgot to renew my domain and it went into a 36 hour holding period.

OOPS.

bah humbug.

Back again.

S

I left work a bit early to pick Miranda up from school today, she had her big field trip to the PNE. Seems she had a bit of fun, gotta like it. She rode rides that scared her and left her feeling queasy, she laughed with her friends, she had money left over (that one I don’t get). All and all a successfully fun day for a 10 year old.

After work Miranda and I dutifully trucked on down to the Running Room tonight for a quick tempo run. She hung out in the store and helped out while I went up Byrne and around New West Secondary before coming back to the store.

The pace was easy at first as we went up the hill, Jackie, Marc, Eddie and I. We kept it mellow through the 5km of basically flat stuff at the top of the hill. Not a real tempo run, trying to stay in the easy zone and getting ready for the race on Sunday. Coming down the hill it picked up and brought the average pace down a bit to make up for the hill in the first place.

All and all it was a good run, not too fast but quick enough to keep the blood moving. Made me happy.

Home from the run and it was time to do some cooking for the pot luck at work tomorrow. Cowboy Pie, hmmm hmmmm good. I love pot luck lunches and dinners. Any excuse to cook for a large group and make people smile. The whole act of cooking is just one that I find enjoyable. No measurement, no stress or strain. Just a bit of this and a bit of that and some stuff that makes sense in my head. Sometimes it even works. Of course now my kitchen is a bloody mess and I only managed to wash enough dishes to make dirty again. Go figure.

Nutrition and Exercise

Breakfast (0845)
- Wrap with ham, egg, cheese and salsa

— start of work

Snack (1100)
- Can of Coke (160cal)

Lunch (1230)
- Burger with fries
- Can of Coke (160cal)

Snack (1545)
- Can of Coke (160cal)

— end of work

Snack (1815)
- Gel

Tempo Run
- 10.25km run. Up for 2.5, flat for 5, down for 2.5.

Snack (2145)
- 2 glasses of Coke

Snack (2300-2345)
- 2 glasses of Coke

Motivation to get ready for Osoyoos is cranking up. I really want to not only beat the time I did in 2007, but to simply crush it. Using Oliver as an example, I KNOW I can do better than I have done before. There is still a bit of training to be done to make this all work, but at this stage of the game most of the work is more mental than physical.

I need to KNOW that I can climb those hills, that I will not be intimidated by Richter (I’ve beat it before damn it), that the Seven Bitches as the rollers after are called will not affect me in the least.

And I need to know that I will simply kick ass on the run after the bike.

So, hill training tonight on SFU. Was aiming for 3 repeats, but wound up chatting with folks and only doing 2. However, I biked to/from SFU so I wound up doing extra hills, into North Burnaby and then back into South Burnaby. Nothing like being on opposite sides of a valley eh?

Chatting with Jackie about the Scotiabank half marathon race this coming weekend as well. She’d like to do 10:1s for the run and push a 1:45-1:50 time. I was going to ease off, but what the heck. This will give me the mental confidence to excel at Osoyoos.

Nutrition and Exercise

What the hell, I’ve totally gotten back into drinking pop and this needs to stop! Everything has gone downhill the past week. Breakfast is an after thought, pop is a first thought, candy is being eaten and portion sizes are increasing. bah.

— start of work.

Breakfast (0930)
- Quaker Breakfast Bar

Snack (1030)
- Can of Coke (160cal)

Lunch (1230)
- Plate of ravioli with cheese and garlic, with 4 cheese alfredo sauce and chicken souvilaki (leftovers)
- Can of Coke (160cal)
- 3 small candies (100cal)

Snack (1500)
- Mr Big Bar (300cal)

Snack (1815)
- Gel before biking

Hill Repeats 38.5km – 2 hours (1830)
- South to North Burnaby
- 2x SFU climb
- North to South Burnaby

Dinner (2145)
- 1.5 plates of multi-grain tortilla chips, salsa and cheese

Breathe with me.

Relax.

Take a moment.

69 days is a LONG time right? Good enough. Crisis averted.

Dragged myself to the pool tonight with M&M who were going to play while I put in some distance. My plan was to do a warm-up, 30×100m, cool down. Reasonable, right? In the 300m free warm-up my heart rate just went a racing. As soon as I started trying to kick with my feet things just went for shit and I fought every meter.

I made it through the warm-up and then 10×100m, but each free set my heart would race and my speed would drop. Finally I said screw it and just did 2×500m pull. Heart rate down, speed okay (2:00/100m), relaxed. Not zen like I had been getting in the water, but at least relaxed. I WILL get a private lesson or two in the coming weeks to figure out what the hell I’m doing wrong with my feet/legs.

Something in my head made me want to try a couple of hundred meters kicking with the flippers. It failed.

So, I need to get back on the swim path and start ramping up my training again. Second half ironman in three weeks. Gotta like it.

Nutrition and Exercise

— start of work

Breakfast (0930):
- Yogurt granola bar (150cal)

Snack (1015):
- 3 small candies (100cal)

Lunch (1200):
- Rib eye steak, onions, peppers, carrots, potatoes, asparagus (left overs)
- Can of Coke (160cal)

Snack (1430)
- Mars Bar (260cal)

Snack (1630)
- Mars Bar (260cal)
- Can of Coke (160cal)

— end of work

Swimming (1830)
- 2.5km total distance
– 300m warmup
– 10×100m alt pull/free
– 2x 500m pull
– 100m flip
– 2x 50m flip and kickboard

Dinner (2130)
- Ravioli with cheese and garlic, 4 cheese sauce, souvilaki chicken
- 591ml Coke