And a new year begins

OK, it is a new year, not the time for new years resolutions of course, just that it denotes the start of racing season in the spring, and an end of off-searson, and the beginning of training for this new racing season.

Overall goals for the new year?
- healthy and happy
- chase that 3 hour marathon, through move volume of slow running, and specific speed and high-intensity training
- chase that top finish in the lethbridge sprint triathon..
And have fun doing it all.

First race will be the St Pats day race.  Lets get training

Bike Day

Today is bike day.  I rode slightly less than 20km to work, yummy chinese food at lunch, and will ride again after work.  Lets finish off the day with a swim class and then not enough sleep.  Of course, I am joking, I will try to get lots of sleep, but it just never seems to work out that way

Tri Resistance day 2

Another good hard workout.  Interesting how the muscles are sore, and the tendons are twangy before the class, but when we use them, they loosen up and feel better.... that just means they are going to hurt later.

Set 1
Calf Raises (I did them as Calf Drops, as this is a workout my physio gave me) 20/side
Squats 115lb x 20
Deadlifts 80lb x 20
Repeat 3 times

Set 2
Hamstring curls, 90lbsx20
Adductor 130 lbs x 20
Abductor 130 lbs x 20
repeat 3 times

Set 3
boatman, hold 5 seconds x 12
pilates swiss ball crunch, 8x/side
repeat twice

Then lots of stretching a rolling...  I will feel this tomorrow and friday for sure

Swim Fit gets started

Swam last night with the swim fit group a shawnessy YMCA.  My technique is still OKish, but my swim fitness has some hard work ahead of it...

Lots of kewl people in this class, and a lot more kids out than we usually see.   It will be interesting to see how many stick with it.

First run in a month

I was expecting this to be a painful run, and it did not disappoint.  As I said earlier, after spending the summer being fat and lazy (or perhaps being lazy and getting fat), and first runs are always a bear.

So the plan was, easy pace, and several stops for stretching.   My heart rate was too high for the speed I was going, but it all felt better after the first stretching break.  Then I notice that now my breathing is too hard for the speed and heart rate, and I fought to get it under control.  Forced myself to keep runing to the next agreed walking point (under Crowchild, as Rob has said, the sattelites can't track you there anyway), and did some more stretching on the far side.

As I get ready to start the run, I see someone running on the adjoining pathway, wearing the same shirt, from this years police half marathon.  Its always a good intro line to say "Nice Shirt", so I started running and caught up.  Turned out to be Norm, who is part of the Triathlon Resistance weightlifting group.  He was finishing a 16k workout, and wanted to keep it at about a 5 minute pace, or slightly over. Perfect I thought, as we ran along.  Pretty soon, we are at, and holding, a 4:30 pace.  I mention this several times, and yet we keep it up as the pace feels not so bad. 

I forced us to slow down for about 1k, then we picked it back up to that pace and faster for the end.

Ended up being a great run, 7ish Km in 39 minutes, that included the stretching breaks.  Great pace, and good hard run for the first one back.  Hope that I dont have to pay too much for this later.

Triathlon Resistance for Sept 10

This was the first class back for the new session, with only Norm and Myself as attendees.  Give the workout, it should have been easy, so there ya go.

First set
Box Jumps x 15
Chest fly on swiss ball - 20lbs x 20
Dead Lift w/ dumbbells 40lb x 20
Shoulder Press 15lbs x 20

Second set
Side Crunch on Bosu - 20 each side
Assisted pullups x 20

Ahh, there was one other in this set that I cant recall

third set.
This weird planky thing, where you start on hands and knees, curl your toes under, and raise knees off the ground by an inch.  hold that for 60 seconds
pointers, with opposite arm and leg, 5 second hold, 1 minute total

Time to get back to work

And we are back.  After a tough spring of racing, combine with some personal lose to deal with, I took the summer off to drink beer, eat burgers and fries, and generally gain weight.  Now that fall is arriving, its time to get back into the swing of things, get the training underway, set some goals, and as Nike says," Just Do It".