Cross training + speedwork

Running only about 30-35 kms per week, I find myself with some extra energy and free time over what my marathon training schedule was requiring so I decided to start cross training again. When I was in the Caribbean, I swam a lot and when I came back I started to miss it so I got a membership at my local pool and started swimming twice a week.
I'm also looking forward to summer and biking outdoors so I started getting ready for it and dusted the stationary bike and started using it once or twice a week when the weather outside is not appealing enough for a run. Hopefully with a late fall marathon in mind, I will be able to enjoy a bit more physical exercise for fun this summer, last summer's intense marathon training left me too tired and time stretched to do any biking or hiking for leisure.

I know where you think this is going :) There is no triathlon planned in my immediate future but I'll keep all options open...

I've also started assessing my speed and where the bronchitis and training hiatus has left me. The bad news is that I have lost some speed. The good news is that I am still fairly fast by everyone's standards. My intervals sessions that were challenging me at 4:15m/km with 5:00m/km rest for 6 sets in October are now challenging me at 4:30m/km with 5:30m/km rest for 3 sets. I can't wait for the snow to melt at the track so I can really get at it and get my speed back.

I think I am better off than I was at this time last year. I'm not expecting to get back to my previous speeds in time for Montreal in April even if I aim at a new PR there. There is plenty of time to gear up for my A goal race in May where I hope to break 1h35 for the half in Ottawa.

Training without a goal

It feels kinda weird to train without a definitive goal in mind. I've always had a race coming up helping me push myself to the limit. Whenever I'd feel a bit down, I'd think of myself crossing the finish line and meeting my goal. That always boosted my energy levels and allowed me to push just a bit harder. While I'm pretty sure that my next race will be a marathon, I still haven't decided for sure or set a time goal. Watching Marlene redeem herself tomorrow and rip the STWM apart will surely push me over the edge. Good luck Marlene!

Training this week was pretty easy. On Thursday, I was planning a 10k at lunch, however the schedule quickly filled up. I still managed to get out for a nice 5k in which I did a bit of stairwork (5 repeats of 27 stairs, not bad!)
I think I may have started out a bit too fast with km times of 4:02, 4:26, 4:35, 5:15 and 5:18.

Then on Friday I biked to work. It was really cold again so I layered up. I just can't seem to go very fast with all those layers. My times were 1:03 and 56m. I'm thinking that I will be lucky if I ride once or twice more this year. My schedule over the next 2 weeks is incredibly busy and then I have a surprise for everyone that will definitively make commuting to work impossible for the following 5 weeks (stay tuned!).

I think I had a good riding season this year. It was definitively different than last year's especially since I was trying to throw in some short distance running and lots of swimming in the mix. My training plan for the winter is to keep swimming, hopefully at least once a week and increase the running to meet a marathon objective that remains to be set and do some biking on the trainer when I need to catch up with television or if the weather is truly horrible.

In the mix on Friday was Vatos Loco's Welcome 2 da barrio and Vibrasphere's Echo.

How did I ever do this?

I was getting ready to bike in to work this morning when I looked at the weather report: 5 degrees with mist! It was a cold commute for sure. The whole way I was thinking how crazy I must have been last year to ride in until the 12th of November! It's not even October yet and I'm already willing to hang the hat until warmer weather! My motivation last year was a little bit higher due to the bad bus service my new community was receiving. The bus service is much better this year so maybe I'll cave in earlier and just call it a season when Autumn is here tomorrow ;)

The commutes were reasonable today at 1h01m each. It takes a while to dress up with so many layers and I just can't seem to get the kind of speeds I used to get with all the layers and the cold all around. Maybe the gears need a special cold weather grease? Anyways, the weather forecast for the remainder of the week is predicting warmer temperatures so I think I have a few more rides to work in store before I put the bike in storage.

In the mix today is the awesome Lost Finger's Rendez-Vous Rose and Yann Perreau's Un serpent sous les fleurs.

Colder and Darker

I rode to work twice this week. Both commutes were pretty uninspiring at about an hour for each leg. It's getting harder and harder to get motivated with the colder weather moving in, I have to plan more time to get dressed and the extra clothing does add a certain amount of discomfort while riding.

While I do love to sit and watch a sunrise, starting out in the dark and having the sun rise while I am riding is not really as romantic as it sounds :)

Yesterday, I asked myself why I was still doing this, riding from a distance most would consider a fair drive in their cars. Today, as I sit in the bus, I wish I had ignored the empty threat of rain and chosen the bike instead of the sleepy bus.

Okay, my whine is over ;) For those interested I'll be volunteering at the sweat check for the army run. Come and say hi, I'll be wearing my red Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon shirt from last year's race.

I am a triathlete!

It's official now! I am a triathlete! I have new respect for people that do this all the time, it's hard stuff!! I think I rocked my first race by meeting both my goal of 1h45 (8s over!) and also beating my friend that was also racing to the finish line by 21 seconds! It may sound like an exciting close call but due to the staggering at the beginning of the race, I actually had to wait 5 minutes to find out!!!
So let's start from the beginning. We got up at 5:30am and started packing up. After breakfast, I worked on my nutrition plan, mixing a heavy sports drink for the bike part and a lighter one for the run (just how I like it :). I also got a bottle with water for my spare on the bike in case I get really thirsty and loaded my running belt with a gel pack in case I needed a boost. We packed the bike and all my bags in the van and left in somewhat of a hurry, not knowing how much time I would need to get my transition zone prepared and do the body marking.

This is where I unknowingly took a cue from Judi and forgot a whole bunch of stuff at home. About 20 minutes into the drive, I realized that I did not pack my swimming goggles. It's funny because I actually woke up during the night, knowing that I forgot, but too lazy to get out of bed to pack them in the bag. I'll remember for sure I thought in the wee hours of the night. After rationalizing that at 7am on a Saturday morning, all stores were closed and that turning back would definitively make me late for the race, I decided to try my luck with the on site vendors. That worked out quite well since I got a pair of [probably overprice] goggles that I was told are the best non fogging goggles in the business. When it came time to unpack the bike, I looked and saw something missing.... My water bottles!! Shock! Horror!! They stayed in the kitchen with my running belt. I had brought a couple of bottles of Powerade for after the race so that would have to do for me. The vendors again saved me where I got 2 new bottles for my bike to hold said Powerade for a dollar each! I set up my transition zone a few times, practicing/simulating what I would do and make sure everything I needed was easily accessible and in the right order.
It's too bad I don't get the transition time from the chip because I think I did fairly well and I am pretty proud of my setup, especially for a first timer.

Next up was body marking which was pretty easy since there were lots of black markers and Alex was happy to use indelible ink on me :) We then headed to the beach after a quick stop to the washroom. I was really relieved that the water wasn't as cold as I had feared. Relative to the chilly morning air, the water was quite comfortable. I tried to listen to the instructions but I couldn't make sense of them, it sounded so complicated. What had I got myself into? I got the important bits from other participants and was determined to follow them since they seemed to know where they were going. Note to organizers: Just tell me in plain language what to do, no need to spend five minutes on it. Run into the water, swim to buoy A, turn around and head to buoy B, then buoy C and come back to the beach. It was actually pretty simple once you got into the water.
I was now ready to start my adventure. Just in time for the countdown:5, 4, 3, 2, 1. I did nothing at 1. I waited for everyone else to get their stuff over with and followed them into the water thinking I would be one of the slowest swimmers anyways. After a few seconds of being a deer in the headlight, and asking myself why I am doing this, I jumped in. Ran as far as I could and then settled into a breast stroke. The journey to the first buoy was chaotic, everyone seeking their place and paddling over each other. After the first buoy, things weren't getting much better. I even swam backstroke for a bit trying to get my bearings. Looking around, I wasn't the only lost soul.

As the crowd thinned up a bit, I finally got into a groove and started my crawl. I think I was pretty fast, judging by my breathing, I would say I never pushed that hard while in the pool. When I reached buoy 2, there was ample room to swim around unencumbered. I started heading to buoy 3 and I had such confidence at that point that I didn't even slow down to look where I was going. OOPS! I was zigzagging and almost collided with the second wave of swimmers. I adjusted my trajectory and got back into the groove only to look out of the water and realize I had overshot and was swimming away from the course towards the middle of the bay! I got back on the right trajectory and having learned from my mistake, looked out every 30 seconds or so to ensure I was going where I was supposed to. I reached buoy 3 and turned heading towards the beach. Even then, I was a bit too much to the left of the beach but I made it in time to see Alex, my mom and her boyfriend cheering for me! What a wonderful sight out of the water. It gave me the boost I needed to run the 500m or so to the transition zone.
Open water swimming is quite different from the pool. I think it's faster and there's currents you have to be mindful of. There's also no markings or rope to lead you in a straight line. And at Mooney's bay in particular, there was a lot of weeds. Even in the middle of the course, they would reach up all the way and sometimes if I dug in too deep while swimming, my hands would get tangled with seaweeds. Swimming was the part I was the most afraid of, because of water temperature, speed issues and not knowing how deep it is. It turns out that in retrospect, it was probably the funnest and most pleasurable part of my race.
I headed to the transition zone and quickly changed into my shoes and put on a shirt. There didn't seem to be a real sense of urgency to the transition as I had expected, maybe I was late to the party. My head was still spinning from the swim so I took it easy but I don't think I took too much time to get ready to head off on the bike.
I was quite surprised by how much running there was to the bike portion. The area is grass and rocky so I had to carry the bike for parts of it to be faster. That could definitively be better in some future races. I attempted (and succeded somewhat) a fly mount where I ran to get some speed, put all my weight on the handlebars and jumped on the saddle. I probably saved about 5 seconds for doing that but the pain that it caused me was probably not worth the extra time. I'm sure I looked like a total pro if anyone was watching ;)

Once I got on the bike course, the first thing I noticed is the wind. Thankfully, I had lots of training under windy conditions so it didn't faze me too much. However, after putting in a good effort for the swim, I found it hard to get the bike into the higher gears. The Garmin says my average speed was 32.3km/h. I still managed to pass quite a few people on my first lap but nowhere near as much as I had hoped I would. Some guys (and even girls, yes, I got chicked a few times!!!) would pass me as if I was standing there doing nothing. They had the expensive bikes and the waterdrop helmets so I didn't challenge them too much for it. During the second part of my first loop however, someone name Nicholas passed me and that was too much, I decided that I would not allow him. I passed him back. We played this game back and forth for about 8km.
Once I was into the second loop, I started passing more people. Laggards from the swim that were in their first loop perhaps? I didn't think there could be that many people behind me after my less than stellar swim. I finally allowed Nicholas to pass me not able to put in the effort to keep challenging him. I was really glad to approach the end of the second loop. I had been looking forward to the run for the whole race.
I quickly transitioned into running (ie: dumped bike, dumped helmet, pick up hat, drink a bit and run away from the mess :). Ouch. My legs were heavy. Everyone says it, I've even experienced it in training a few times, but I can never be fully prepared for it. I just couldn't get any speed at all :( As much as I would push the machine, there would be no response. The run was embarrassing really. I call myself a runner. I love running. And yet everyone was passing me. Boys, Girls, Men, Women. I even joked about it with some girl on the course when she was challenging me and she said that if I didn't like being chicked, I should just run faster :) I was happy when I saw the finishing stretch where Alex was waiting for me.
After seeing Alex, I managed to get some more energy and somewhat sprint to the finish where my mom and her boyfriend were waiting for me. Coming up to the finish line, I was relieved to see the clock turn from 1:44:59 to 1:45:00. Despite the pain and the perceived slow spell that hit me today, I had accomplished my goal. I waited impatiently at the finish line for my friend to whom I had issued a challenge to cross. He started 5 minutes after me, so he had to come in at least 5 minutes after. He finallly showed up 5m21s after me, so that makes it a pretty tight race even if only for the clock.
For those that like graphs, here is the speed chart for my bike course:
You can clearly see the bits where I had headwind and the parts where it turned into a tailwind. I think having Nicholas challenged me helped a bit as well, I do much better competing against someone than being on an empty course. The run was also touch and go:
My first Triathlon was a lot of fun but also a lot of work. It's too soon really to take a decision about my future. If I had to choose today, I would stick with running. It's simpler, requires less equipment and generally easier to manage in the schedule. If I am to continue doing triathlons, I think it's obvious that I need to invest a bit in a crucial piece of equipment: a racing bike. I could probably shave a few minutes off my bike time by simply getting better gear. I think I would also go for a longer event such as an olympic distance. It would also be more even on the bike vs running portion. I would need to do lots of brick training also to get my running to where I don't get passed by everyone and their cousins. I felt that Triahtlons, especially sprint type events are more geared towards attention deficit disorder and strategy masters while running is more about being focused on the end goal. Triathlons are much more fun to watch however, so if I want to please my family and friends when they come and watch me at races, Triathlons is definitively the way to go.

Bare Bones

In an effort to cheat the clock out of a few more seconds, I decided to take my fully loaded commuter bike and make one more change to it before the race. The new tires really help me get some more speed so I figured that taking a bit of weight off may help even more. Here's the bike with the usual accessories:
I removed the lights, the speedometer thing that I use to secure the garmin on (I'll be wearing it on my arm for the tri), the saddle rack and the fenders. The bike looks even faster now even if it can no way compare to some of the elite bikes that will show up for sure this weekend.
I also took some time to refresh the lube on it even if it didn't really require it. All I have to do now is pedal hard and get a good time! Here are the parts that I will no doubt reinstall once I start commuting again after the race:
I'm not sure how much they weight but I'm told by people that know much more than I do that every ounce counts!

49m35s !?!

This morning, a combination of good tailwind (10-15km/h) and good timing at the traffic lights created the ideal condition for a new speed record. I managed to get to work in 49m35s. I felt strong!!!
The ride home was a bit slower since the wind was still going strong but at just over an hour, it's still a very respectable time. I think I will do well at the race with my new tires.

I think I will ride to work again tomorrow if the weather is good and then maybe a run on Friday or Saturday if I can squeeze it in. Then taper will start. I'm not quite sure how I should do taper for a Triathlon, maybe an easy ride and a short swim just to loosen up near the end of the week?

In the mix today: Matsuri's Forever Psychedelic and Hom-Mega's debut Full On.

Fast commute

Wow, my new tires were showing off their speed today. It's the first time I see some orange on the heatmap:
This would have been a new record time had it not been for the bad timing at the lights on Carling and the traffic getting into downtown. At least I can comfort myself that there won't be lights at the race and while there may be quite a bit of bike traffic, it should be easier to handle. The official time was 52:40, 10 seconds slower than my fastest commute yet.

The ride home was pretty windy (15km/h) but I still managed to do it under an hour!

Boom's Double Dipped and Phantasm's Eternal Frequencies in the mix.

Reversed Brick

Yesterday I brought my bike to the shop to have a look at the peppergrinder crank and at the same time to tune it up and outfit it with faster tires for the race.

So today, when they called me to say it was ready, I decided to have a kind of reversed brick workout. I ran from work (a respectable ~5km) to my friendly local bike store to pick up my refreshed bike and ride it home.
I was really happy to see my bike all tuned up. It looked way different with the slim tires. I was assured that they would be much faster and that they were made of Kevlar so I wouldn't get as many punctures as the alternatives. They also replaced my "bottom bracket" since the old one was rusted out, creating the grinding noises. I'm really satisfied with the work they did, they always have outstanding service.

On the way home, I was really impressed by how much differently the bike handles with the new tires. I didn't really believe them when they told me I would be much faster but they were right!!! Look at all that green on the speed heatmap:
Truth be told, I wasn't even really pushing it since I was pretty beat after a full day's work and the 5k run. I can't wait to see how it turns out on the race course, after careful tapering and proper nutrition. The bike seems much more nervous now and I can feel every little nook and cranny in the road surface. Hopefully I will have a few opportunities to ride to work next week to get used to it before I officially start my taper.

In the mix today was Distance to Goa 7 and Dream Creation's Sound of Freedom.

Peppergrinder

It's a bit hard for me to get back in the beat after a break in the schedule. I rode to work last Friday and then again yesterday but I haven't taken the time to go out for a run or swim this weekend. I could blame the extremely hot weather that prompted the city to issue a heat warning, but really to be honest it's just plain laziness.

On Friday and then again yesterday, my bike started to make some funny noises. Kinda like a peppergrinder when I pedal hard. I think it's the crank that is giving up. So I made an appointment with my friendly local bike shop to have it checked out and also get the bike ready for race day (~2 weeks away now).

Triathlon Simulation

Yesterday after work, I set out on simulating a Triathlon. I decided to do the full distance of my Sprint race in a few weeks.
So I headed over to the pool to get started and did my 750m. 15m30s is a pretty good time for the swim, I was doing well. The almost 6 minutes transition was partly because my shoes were in a locker and my bike was also locked to a post. I'm sure that I can do much better at the race. I was very surprised at how light headed I felt rushing out of the pool. Having experienced it now will probably help me do better and realize that it's normal when I do the triathlon for real.

Then for the bike portion (30km, 1h15). I seemed to catch all the red lights! Didn't those guys know I was being timed? I can't say I'm completely satisfied with the bike portion, I thought I would be much faster. Still, I am encouraged by the speed of the few segments where I did not have to stop at a light.
My transition into the run (5km, 25m52s) was pretty smooth. It could have been faster but I think I managed to do pretty well. The run was a bit though. Slogging through what would usually be a routine easy distance was very humbling. I tried to kick it with no juices left in the tank. Thankfully I had some beautiful positively uplifting music to carry me through. What a relief it was when I finally reached my goal. The Endorphin lemon had been squeezed dried and a sense of accomplishment coursed through my veins as I began my stretching.
Overall, I'm a bit disappointed by the 2h05m total time. I'm really glad I did this simulation to know more what to expect. I realize now that I will have to work extra hard to get my 1h45m goal. I can probably shave off 15m on the bike portion on account of traffic alone. Making sure I have smooth transitions and proper tapering/fueling should take care of the rest.

Yesterday's practice run also served to validate my wardrobe strategy of wearing my swimming jammers the whole way.

Surprisingly enough, while I am a bit sore today, nothing really hurts. I'm taking this as a positive sign that I have finally adjusted to triathlon training after a bout of various overuse injuries.

In the mix today was Big Wigs and Astralasia's Something Somewhere.

All done!

Phew it was a tough week. Short weeks are always the toughest. Trying to cram a full week's worth in less days and figure out what to do with training as well. Three days in a row is enough for riding to work so I'm calling it a week :)
Both commutes were so-so today with 56m and 1h06m. Still, I chugged along, that's what counts.

I'll be really busy over the next few days so I probably won't have time to update. I will update you on the weekend's activities when I have some time.

In the mix today was Synthetic's 100% pure and the relaxing Myosotis's ambient collection.

1 Month!

When I looked at the date this morning, I realized that my next race is in exactly one month! I'm pretty excited since it will be my first Triathlon.
I think I'm ready and I planned on taking it easy this morning while riding in. However the 10km/h tailwind had other plans. I effortlessly (relatively of course!) turned in a very decent 52m50s. Only 20 seconds shy of my fastest ever commute.
On the way back, the wind was still going strong so I was pretty happy with the 1h04m considering the 20km/h headwind.

I'm not quite sure what kind of tapering strategy I will use for the triathlon. While I feel well trained, I still haven't had a simulation training session where I do all three sports in sequence. Hopefully I have some time next week for that. Then I should start hanging back a bit and relaxing the training slowly to make sure my muscles can recover and be ready for a peak performance at the race.

In the mix in the morning was Space Tribe's awesome 2000 OD and on the way back the more relaxed Bliss Point from Exogenic records.

Wet Again?!?

I biked to work this morning under cloudy skies. The tailwind made it an easy commute in about 58 minutes. The lunch time was quite pleasant, sunny as well as hot and humid. On the way home however, it was quite a different story. Reading the Environment Canada made me think twice about biking home. Their warning was:

Severe thunderstorm watch for
Ottawa North - Kanata - Orléans continued

Conditions are favourable for severe thunderstorms to develop this afternoon with damaging winds..Large hail and brief torrential downpours.

This is an alert to the potential development of severe thunderstorms with large hail and damaging winds.

Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements. If threatening weather approaches take immediate safety precautions.

I'm not quite sure what kind of safety precautions they refer to. Uncertain of whether it was safe or not, I called Alex, since he works close to home. My abridged conversation:

[Me] - Is it raining already in Kanata?
[Alex] - No. You can make it.
[Me] - Is it windy?
[Alex] - No. You can make it.
[Me] - Are there dark clouds on the horizons?
[Alex] - Yes, but if you hurry you can make it.

So, trusting him more than I really should have, I suited up quickly and rushed home. 15 minutes later, I rode into the storm!
The Ploc Ploc Ploc of the raindrops of my helmet (huge and kinda cold but not really hale) reminded me of camping. I got through the worst of the storm in about 15 minutes. After that, the rain was more normal, no longer acupuncture grade. I still managed to get home in about 1h06m so I'm kinda happy. The worst part about biking in the rain today was when I got splashed with water that had been sitting on the ground for a while, all hot and dirty. Yuck! I got home and cleaned up my bike, I'm spending a lot of time cleaning and lubing the bike this year!

I will know next time that Alex's window actually faces east (I should've known that already!) and that he didn't really calculate that it would take me an hour to get home, lol.

In the good news department, the leg is doing super good. Stretching is back to normal and everything feels great. Thanks for all your positive thoughts, I'm sure they helped the speedy recovery!

In the mix this morning was Tristan's Audiodrome and in the rain, I was saved by Delerium's super saccharine Odyssey Remix.

Isn't this Friday already?

Phew. This is a long week. I'm not sure why. It must be the long weekend coming. I so need a long weekend. Looks like the weather will be gorgeous, at least for us folks in Ottawa.

So yesterday I went swimming at Goulbourn pool. It was the most chaotic swim ever, lots of people, all swimming different speeds and lots of people just hanging around at the end of the lane. As @selves mentionned, this is a great opportunity to test my swimming skills when there's lots of people around. I felt like world war 2, fighting for a piece of wall to turn on while everybody just sat there chatting and taking up valuable wall space. I ran into a guy a few times, I think we didn't have the same understanding of what coming back in the middle lane means. I still managed decent times with 16 minutes and 18 minutes for each of my 750m sets.

As I was finishing up the swim, I started to feel a cramp coming on. When I got out of the pool, my right leg muscle, must have been the soleus or gastrocnemius, froze on the "ON" position. It HURTS! Kind like a pinch that won't go away. After a few seconds (or was it minutes) it relaxed a bit but it still is sensitive even today.
So today the weather is gorgeous. I couldn't resist biking to work. I decided I could justify it if I took it easy and made it a "recovery" ride. I think it helped loosen the stuck muscle from yesterday. The commutes times weren't that bad at over 59 minutes and 1h10 on the way back (I did do a detour to run an errand).

Not sure what I'll do tomorrow. If I feel like it I'll ride to work again, otherwise I'll stop at the pool downtown on my way home. That one always has lots of room and everyone is pretty much the same pace.

In the mix today is Transwave's Helium and Sandman's Psychotoons.

52:30 + Brick!

Wow what a day. I felt so strong this morning. Whenever that happens, I always try to look back at what happened to cause such power. I did go to bed at a reasonable time yesterday and Alex did make some very delectable seafood pad thai so that may have played quite a role. So my commute was the fastest ever with an average speed of 31.9km/h. Thanks to MotionBased for the number crunching. I'll be sad to see that website go, hopefully they will change their plans to shutdown uploads at the end of the week.
Before anybody thinks that yesterday's winds kept going to make me go faster, think again. I checked and the weather network reports no winds at 7am this morning (with 6km S and 8km SW at 6am and 8am). That creates quite the benchmark to try to beat from now on. I'll have to go even harder. I'm pretty happy also about the even-ness of my speed throughout the ride. Thanks to RunSaturday for the speed heatmap. Hopefully they can eventually figure out a way to give me moving time and average moving speed.
The commute home was uneventful. I didn't push too too hard since I knew what was coming next: the Brick! Now, I don't know why it's called a brick. Maybe Bike + Run + ICK = BRICK? Or maybe it's the feel of your feet while running making them as heavy as bricks. Anyways, after biking my 25km in 1h04m (with sidewinds of 20km/h thank you very much for asking), I started out on a run. It took me about 2 minutes to transfer to my running shoes. I guess I should work on that before the race.

The first 300 meters of the run were great. I felt so bouncy in my running shoes and I thought that every bad thing I had heard about Brick runs was false. After 300 meters however, reality set in. My legs felt as if they were made of concrete. At kilometer 1 I was panting and feeling the pain. By kilometer 2 I was about call it quits (and I'm not usually a quitter!). Finally, at kilometer 3, I actually caught my rythm and was starting to have a bit of fun. However, regardless of all my efforts, I wasn't able to pick up the pace. It's as if there was no one in the engine room to add more coal to the boiler. I kept trying to get faster but the legs wouldn't follow my instructions. Definitively a new feeling for me. I still managed an overall pace of 4:51m/km which I think is pretty respectable for a first try.
My body doesn't feel too sore (yet?) so I'm thinking that I can push it a bit more. I still feel great and powerful like I did this morning although I also feel a bit drained and exhausted at the same time.

So with this Brick run, I think I can confirm my goal of finishing my Sprint tri in less than 1h45m. It gives me about 20 minutes for the swim (it gets messy with so many people), 55 minutes for the bike and 25 minutes for the run. With two transitions of 2m30s it should be feasible to meet the 1h45m mark. Of course, I may totally blow that goal out of the water being a race and all.

In the mix today was Thomas Fersen's 3 petits tours and Saiko-Pod's Phutures and Options.

Oh, and before I forget, I'd like to thank M-Rah for answering my questions (first two on this post) on her blog, Vegging Out. If you have any personal training type questions, feel free to leave some comments on her blog, she picks the most interesting questions and answers them every Sunday (or Monday when she can't get around to it on the Sunday!)

Monday Already?

Is it Monday already? I wasn't prepared for a Monday!!! I had a meeting real early today too so I woke up extra early to schedule some buffer time to make it for sure. Morning commute was about 1h02 and when I came home there were some grey clouds and crazy wind gusts of up to 39km/h. Does that mean I really put in the effort for 60km/h if I managed to hold 20km/h? hehehe.

No time for fancy graphics tonight, sorry. I took the same route as usual. When I came home I realized I needed to true my wheel and pump the tires a bit. I've been neglecting my bike lately.

What's for tomorrow? More biking! Yeah. And if I feel right maybe even a Brick run after. Now that I said it, I think I *have* to do it :)

In the mix today was a throwback in time with 24 hour party people and musician activists Les Cowboys Fringants with La Grand-Messe.

Wet!

I had a pretty easy ride this morning, being Friday and all I didn't want to push it too much. I got to work in a little under 1h03 minutes. On the way home I was happy to have a good back wind until I hit the torrential downpour and my ride turned into what a friend calls aquacycling. The "puddles" were sometimes a few inches deep. The upside of it is that once you are wet, you don't get wetter ;) You can actually see when the downpour started on the map where the route turns darker blue.
I actually had some fun riding home today in a twisted kind of way. I remembered the days, long gone now, when I was a kid playing in the warm rain and jumping in puddles. I also get a kick of people looking at me and shaking their heads in disbelief. When I got home, some of the neighbors were playing outside in their water coats, and we shared a smile about how beautiful life can be in those little moments that no one else knows about. Phew, getting philosophical here. Back to the buzz, I think this workout counts as double :) I was planning on going swimming tomorrow but I may have had my fill of water for a while, hehehe.

In the mix today was Infected Mushroom's The Gathering and Amadou and Mariam's Dimanche a Bamako, that is until my music player decided it wasn't waterproof and shut down. Hopefully it will work again once it dries up.

Negative Split

Okay, it's not really a negative split since it's actually two different workouts but I think this is the first time that the commute home is faster than the commute in the morning. I had a bit of help from the wind in the afternoon and I'm happy to report that while I got a bit damp this morning I didn't get wet.
Lots of green on the way home, I like that. The morning commute took about 1h01 and the way home was more speedy at 56 minutes.

Tomorrow is swimming since the schedule is getting too tight again. A noteworthy fact is that if MotionBased was actually working for me today, this would be my 203rd bike entry. Why is this significant? Because I also have 203 runs in MotionBased. So I am now evenly trained between runs and rides since I got my Garmin a few years ago. Not unlike other bloggers out there, I am also drooling over a new model of the Garmin but will wait to see what happens with Garmin connect before I jump in.

In the mix was Infected Mushroom's The Gathering. However because of power failure, most of the ride was actually to the sound of traffic.

Windy!

The winds really are against me. This article in a local newspaper proves it! At least I won't worry about sounding crazy anymore.

The commute to work was pretty quick, especially for a Friday.
Again I averaged about 30km/h. I had to stop for a bit because of a power failure in my music machine. Thankfully I had a spare battery so I could keep the tunes going. The way back faced some pretty heavy and gusty winds of up to 31km/h so I didn't go so fast with a total time of a little under 1h10m.

Here is a comparison (I am addicted to RunSaturday's speed heatmap, can you tell yet?) between a windy and non windy commute. Almost 15 minutes difference between the two, it's wild. If Dave is still reading, sorry buddy, sometimes I have to geek out with the analysis/stats.
Tomorrow is most likely a rest day unless the forecasted rain doesn't show up in which case I may go running. I got to do more running, I miss it. But with the daily commutes, it's hard to fit it in.

French first lady Carla Bruni's Comme si de rien n'était and Jean Leloup's La mygale jaune in the mix.