The surprise I was holding back on is that I am leaving for China in less than 2 weeks! Alex is going there on business, so I'm tagging along. In total we'll spend close to 5 weeks in China, starting in Shanghai where his business engagements are. We'll have about a week and a half after his business is complete to tour the country until we leave from Beijing.
I'm hoping to train a lot while he's busy at work so you'll definitively be along for the journey. Hopefully I can find some nice running routes even if Shanghai may not be the best place for a runner with all the traffic. If you are interested in following me with my non training activities, I've set up a new blog: Buzzing In Shanghai.
Lots of preparation to do, so that explains my lack of training this week. I have a charity race tomorrow where I'm hoping to make my department proud in a 4 way contest for the title of the healthiest department (I think that's what the bragging right is called!)
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Super Swim
After more than 2 weeks without swimming, I wasn't sure what to expect today. I thought the swim would be though and slow. On the contrary, I was pleasantly surprised. Since I don't seem to find the time to go as often as before, I changed my sets to be a bit longer, hopefully that will come out to the same in the end.
So my new sets of 900m took me about 16 and 20 minutes. Very impressive! I had a cool-down of 270m of breast stroke in there as well. I'm very satisfied. The goal over the winter is to move to sets of 1500m so I can be ready next year if I want to move on to Olympic triathlon distance.
I feel really good right now. I don't think I ever got this nice of an endorphin buzz from swimming before.
So my new sets of 900m took me about 16 and 20 minutes. Very impressive! I had a cool-down of 270m of breast stroke in there as well. I'm very satisfied. The goal over the winter is to move to sets of 1500m so I can be ready next year if I want to move on to Olympic triathlon distance.
I feel really good right now. I don't think I ever got this nice of an endorphin buzz from swimming before.
Monday, September 21, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Giving Back
Not competing in this year's army run gave me an opportunity to experience the event from another point of view: that of a volunteer. Life as a volunteer at a race is quite different. While I did have to wakeup even earlier than if I was racing (shift started at 6:30am), I did sleep much better without the excitement/anxiety of an upcoming race.
My day started with a short run (~3.5km) to the bus stop, since local buses don't run on weekends where I live, especially that early on Sundays. I got to the bus stop just in time for the first bus of the day. Woohoo.
When I got to the site, I was surprised to see so many volunteers out there already. The sweat check was run by the same person who runs the sweat check for the Ottawa race weekend, a much bigger event, so we knew we were in good hands. The volunteer crew consisted mostly of high school students earning their community credits under the Ontario school system. Some were really productive and engaged, while some other were clearly there just to get easy credits. One of the kid there was really impressive always getting bags before even being asked and moving so quickly nobody could keep track of him. Good job! Another young girl was interested in studying kinesiology and thought the event was really good to get closer to her interests.
Our tent was pretty big and divided into two areas, one for the 5km where I worked in the first half of the shift and another one for the half marathon where everyone worked to retrieve bags after the 5k was all done since there were so many of them:
The numbering system worked well enough even if it wasn't always perfect. To my knowledge we didn't lose a bag and the most it took us to locate one must have been about a minute with an average time of under 15 seconds.
Experiencing the event from this perspective was awesome. It felt almost as good as competing. Seeing all those runners happy and beaming from their performance or consoling the ones that didn't do as well as they wanted was quite an experience. I don't think I ever met so many runners in a day. I met colleagues (current and former), friends, family of friends, even the guy that sold me my last pair of shoes. Some of the girls working beside me thought I knew everyone until I pointed out that I was simply reading their names from their bib :)
Thanks to all the athletes that were nice and thankful for our work and congratulations to everyone for their amazing performances!
My day started with a short run (~3.5km) to the bus stop, since local buses don't run on weekends where I live, especially that early on Sundays. I got to the bus stop just in time for the first bus of the day. Woohoo.
When I got to the site, I was surprised to see so many volunteers out there already. The sweat check was run by the same person who runs the sweat check for the Ottawa race weekend, a much bigger event, so we knew we were in good hands. The volunteer crew consisted mostly of high school students earning their community credits under the Ontario school system. Some were really productive and engaged, while some other were clearly there just to get easy credits. One of the kid there was really impressive always getting bags before even being asked and moving so quickly nobody could keep track of him. Good job! Another young girl was interested in studying kinesiology and thought the event was really good to get closer to her interests.
Our tent was pretty big and divided into two areas, one for the 5km where I worked in the first half of the shift and another one for the half marathon where everyone worked to retrieve bags after the 5k was all done since there were so many of them:
The numbering system worked well enough even if it wasn't always perfect. To my knowledge we didn't lose a bag and the most it took us to locate one must have been about a minute with an average time of under 15 seconds.Experiencing the event from this perspective was awesome. It felt almost as good as competing. Seeing all those runners happy and beaming from their performance or consoling the ones that didn't do as well as they wanted was quite an experience. I don't think I ever met so many runners in a day. I met colleagues (current and former), friends, family of friends, even the guy that sold me my last pair of shoes. Some of the girls working beside me thought I knew everyone until I pointed out that I was simply reading their names from their bib :)
Thanks to all the athletes that were nice and thankful for our work and congratulations to everyone for their amazing performances!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Inspired by the Mels
I got out of bed today and saw that it was a beautiful sunny day. I knew I had to go for a run. Then as I woke up a bit more and checked on my emails, I saw the weather report: 6 degrees! BRRRrrrr. This would be one cold training session this early in the fall. I proceeded to stall and procrastinate in the hopes that I would miss my window of opportunity to run and move on with the remainder of the day. Fortunately, it wasn't so. You can tell I'm obsessed about Endorphins and how to release them when even my procrastination is workout related. My wasting time online consisted of checking up on Ray's 310xt review and ShirleyPerly's crazy goal of 2 irons in 2 weeks among other blogs and articles I follow.
I decided to take some inspiration from the two Mels I follow.
Mel 2nd chances is an amazing athlete that recovered from a brain surgery and almost completed a marathon. Now she is into Triathlons. In recent days, her son Terron has lost his dad and yet he will still attempt his first Triathlon and dedicate it to his father. I am amazed and touched. Best of luck to Terron and my thoughts to the wonderful mom, staying strong during these trying times! Goosebumps and everything when I think of you Mel!
The other Mel that inspired me is all the way in Australia. She describes herself as trying to run, however she got past the trying and is now quite succesful with her first 6km completed earlier this week. Good work Mel! Reading about her running beginnings makes me think back of when I started running a few years ago and how exciting it was. It still is quite exciting but in a different way now. I get excited about better times and new gear, where when I first started I was happy just finishing a run. To honor Mel, I made my workout today a 6km run! :)
When I got out what hit me right away is how chilly the air was. Fortunately the sun was really strong and warm so it compensated somewhat. After stretching and making sure I was ready to go, I turned on the tunes and hit the pavement at what I expected would be an easy 5m/km pace. The music didn't agree with that and Oforia's Delirious got me pumped and completely out of my comfort range. I amazed myself at how long I could sustain the improvised tempo run. Look at all that beautiful green on the heatmap from RunSaturday:
I kept the engines on full steam until the 5km mark and then allowed myself a little bit a a breather in the last stretch (you can see it in blue on the map, I love this thing!). My 5km time was 21:30, the breakdown for each km:
I decided to take some inspiration from the two Mels I follow.
Mel 2nd chances is an amazing athlete that recovered from a brain surgery and almost completed a marathon. Now she is into Triathlons. In recent days, her son Terron has lost his dad and yet he will still attempt his first Triathlon and dedicate it to his father. I am amazed and touched. Best of luck to Terron and my thoughts to the wonderful mom, staying strong during these trying times! Goosebumps and everything when I think of you Mel!
The other Mel that inspired me is all the way in Australia. She describes herself as trying to run, however she got past the trying and is now quite succesful with her first 6km completed earlier this week. Good work Mel! Reading about her running beginnings makes me think back of when I started running a few years ago and how exciting it was. It still is quite exciting but in a different way now. I get excited about better times and new gear, where when I first started I was happy just finishing a run. To honor Mel, I made my workout today a 6km run! :)
When I got out what hit me right away is how chilly the air was. Fortunately the sun was really strong and warm so it compensated somewhat. After stretching and making sure I was ready to go, I turned on the tunes and hit the pavement at what I expected would be an easy 5m/km pace. The music didn't agree with that and Oforia's Delirious got me pumped and completely out of my comfort range. I amazed myself at how long I could sustain the improvised tempo run. Look at all that beautiful green on the heatmap from RunSaturday:
I kept the engines on full steam until the 5km mark and then allowed myself a little bit a a breather in the last stretch (you can see it in blue on the map, I love this thing!). My 5km time was 21:30, the breakdown for each km:- 4:12
- 4:21
- 4:10
- 4:19
- 4:27
- 5:05
Friday, September 18, 2009
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.
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.
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