End of a good week

Today is:

am swim as:
1000m warm up, drills, kick, swim and pull
3 times the folowing as main set:
2 by 50m = 25 sprint, 25 easy on 1:15
2 by 100 at GRP on 1:35
300 at GRP on 5:00
400 pull/paddles on 6:45

Afternoon bike is 3 hours mountain ride, high cadence, 70% effort

The week has flown by. I worked a fair bit more this week than I usually do so I am tired. No rest for the wicked though. Two more days then an easy one on Monday.

Wednesday training

Started up with a swim this am:

300 swim, 200 drill, 400 as 50 kick, 50 boardflap, 300 pull as warmup

4 by 50 as 25 hard, 25 easy first 10 meters of hard = dry eyes; on 1:30
4 by 50 as 25 easy, 25 hard first 10 meters of easy = underwater; on 1:30

2 times following as mainset:
100 Goal race pace(GRP)per 100m pace time for John is 1:24 over 1500m; 10 sec rest (r1)
150 GRP; 15 sec r1
200 GRP; 20 sec r1
250 GRP; 100 easy (lactic flush)
(2nd set I did pull, less pace)

2 by 500m pull/paddles long and slow focus on stroke length and streamline
total swim mileage 4000m

My legs are pretty shattered today from having done some really good bike mileage in the last two days. I decided to not ride today and went for a 40 min easy run with my training partner Dawn. This was our first post-surgery run together and the pace was ok. We brought her dog, so I would get plenty of opportunities to catch my breath whenever nature called.

All things considered I'm pretty happy with how quickly my fitness is coming back. May 8th will be three months post-surgery and hopefully I will be back up to regular run volume by then. I'm already at regular bike and swim volume, of sorts. Bike volume will increase 25% in May and then another 15% on top in June. By late June, should be peaking towards 17-18 hours on the bike weekly.

Tomorrow I have a Dr's appointment; let's hope all is well in the infection department (he's an infection specialist). Then it will be another three hours on the bike; let's hope its not raining.

Feels like summer

Today was a beautiful day in paradise. Temperatures up to around 20 degrees celsius, which I'm not positive but I think is close to 70-80F. Regardless, gorgeous, and I spent it doing what I love to do on days like today: riding my bike.

But not before the morning swim:

500 warm up
3 by 100 kick on 2:00
3 by 200 swim/pull on 3:20
4 by 100 as 50 kick, 50 board flap drill
500 pull paddles
5 by 100 kick with fins
400 pull paddles
300 ez warm down = 3500 total.

I'm also playing around with some different nutritional products right now. I am trying to address some of the symptoms of IBS; I think diet is going to be a huge factor in my long term maintanence of my health.

I find the times that I tend to eat less than ideally are when I'm snacking hungry. Then I tend to grab what I call junk carbs - quick sources of food like: rice crackers, stoned wheat thins, wheat free toast etc. I'm experimenting with a more complete meal replacement product that is completely vegan and made with whole plant nutrients. I chose this product because it is alkaline, which maintains the body's PH balance, and aids in digestion. This is key for dealing with the symptoms of IBS. I'll let you know how it goes.

I had a really good 3:45 ride today with a friend of mine who is a local Cat 2 racer. I was able to keep up for the most part; since this was a chatty ride anyway, much to my praise.

When I ride that kind of time - we probably rode about 80k or so - I have to eat. So I tried one of my new vegan bars and it worked great: enough energy to get me through the volume and easy on my belly. I also use up alot of water and usually some carbohydrate replacement beverage like gatorade or eload.

Tomorrow is a bike and run day, so I will be following my programmed 2 hour mountain ride followed immediately by about 30 minutes of easy pace running.

Ah... development

Went for a ride this afternoon after work. I had a three hour mountain bike ride programmed so I decided to head out into the back roads around Victoria and visit some of my favourite trails.

About an hour into my ride I came across something totally unexpected: a road, or the beginnings of one, where no road should be. Victoria is experiencing an unprecendented housing boom. Every available pocket of land is being bought up to be built up. I am all for people having somewhere to live. But I wonder why they want to live in this area that I ride in.

Our best area for mountain biking in Victoria is known as The Dump. It isn't some clever name dreamt up by extreme dudes on extreme bikes. No, in our case its literal. We ride on the city's garbage dump. Or right beside it would be more accurate. Why on earth would anyone want to develop this land?

I won't continue my anti-development diatribe. But I will say that I don't get it, and I hope the development will be small and cyclist friendly.

At any rate, I was successful in not letting it spoil my 3 hour ride.

Back to the pool tomorrow morning, then a run before work; most likely 7 or 8 kilometers. If I am feeling good after work in the afternoon, I'll jump on the bike for an easy 1.5 hour: spin the legs out etc.

I'm off to make dinner now; tonight is sauteed brocolli and pork with tons of ginger and garlic and I think I'll make a sweet bell pepper salad with madarin orange ginger sauce. Or maybe it will all get kicked into a big stir-fry - yah, that's what I'm eating.

When fear is unfounded

After three days of training pretty hard, I programmed a fairly easy day today.

Had to get up and drive a friend to the airport very early, so came home and went back to bed until I woke up (I am embarrased by what time that was). Anyway, back to training.

Today was my first run day in over two months. The February surgery put a real damper in my plans. I had managed to get back into the water and out on the bike about two weeks earlier than I thought I could. But I was afraid to run too soon. I figured all the up-down motions would really cause some hurt and/or trauma to my healing intestines.

I figured an easy 5 kilometers was a good place to start; I also figured an easy pace would be around 5 minutes per kilometer. I plugged myself into my ipod and went with no expectations.

Right out my front door is the beginning of a 5K loop around the campus of the University of Victoria. I started my watch to time me, just out of curiosity; there was no plan to maintain a particular pace.

The run felt ok for having been away for so long. I jogged the cobwebs out of my legs and then settled into a fairly comfortable zone. The next think I knew I was back at my starting point. I checked my watch: 20:40. I checked my watch again.

I am surprised because that pace is almost a minute per kilometer faster than I thought would be comfortable for me. I guess my fears about running were unfounded: no pain, no cramps, no discomfort, no lack of speed, and I felt like I could have carried on for another 5K at least.

I will follow this run up with a few more between now and this time next week, hopefully getting back into cruising my local 12K route as I was back in January.

There is a big 10K race here next weekend - over 10,000 participants; that gives me 10 days to 'ease' into it. I guess I'll sign up with no expectations other than the pleasure of being back at it again!

Wednesday: Just gotta get thru it

Swam this morning.

1000 meter warm up as 200 swim/ 200 drill (catch up and finger drag)/ 200 pull/ 200 kick/ 200 pull.

4 by 50 (25 all out effort, 25 easy)
3 by 100 goal race pace (GRP) on 1:45
300 pull/paddles

4 by 50 same as above
3 by 100 GRP pull on 1:45
300 pull/paddles
total 2500 meters

Last night's design meeting was impressive; or more accurately, the founder of Lululemon was impressive. Down-to-earth, honest, open and appreciative of the participant's time: this guy knows how to run a business. This is the same person who founded Westbeach, the surfwear shop - now he has Lululemon and a store that has hemp clothing. His businesses definitely demonstrate his commitment to the environment and also to healthy, active lifestyles. If you are familiar with Lululemon's yoga pants you will be appreciative of his efforts.

Nice crowd there last night, including the current women's Xterra world champion. I love living in Victoria; its amazing who we get to rub shoulders with.

Well off to start my 3 hour mountain bike ride. It's a bit overcast here today, so I am expecting to get wet this afternoon. Hopefully I'll find some good trails to push myself up; though my legs are tired, still trying to get used to multiple decent mileage days. Have to remind myself that three weeks from now I'll look back at this week as very little volume.

Tuesday training

Busy day today:

up at 6:30am and in the water by 7:30. Did:

5 by 500 as:
300 pull, 200 swim warm up
5 by 100 at moderate effort on 1:45 (worked out to be about 10-12 seconds rest, I'm swimming really slow right now)
500 pull with paddles
5 by 100 pull moderate effort on 1:45
500 pull with paddles warm down
total 2500 meters

Spent the morning researching irritable bowel syndrome and diets to help control some of the symptoms. Some really interesting stuff. Just google it of you're curious; I was especially interested in the alternative treatments.

Had an appointment this afternoon until 3 ish so didn't get on my bike until then. Rode pretty decent pace for 2.5 hours.

Off tonight to a Lululemon design meeting; apparently they're getting into the triathlon market. This is the company that made yoga pants fashionable. Should be interesting. I'll keep you posted on the good stuff.

Here we go...

For the next 15 weeks or so, Rob Hill and I will be ramping up our training for the 2006 TransRockies Adventure Race. This blog will serve as our online training journal so you can follow along with the crazy bike mileage and weight sessions that we will be doing... oh, and as always, I'm sure Rob will still be climbing, and I will still be hitting the H2O for some swims.

John will be posting the prescribed bike and swim workouts, and Rob will throw in the weight training sessions.

Week One
Monday: two hour bike, moderate pace - base training.
Tuesday: two and a half hour bike, same as above.
Wednesday: three hour bike, choose a hilly route, keep heart rate at 70% of max on hills.

Back at it again

Well I am happy to say that I am healing well and back at training. I have been swimming and cycling regularly and will start running again next week.

Ostomy | Athlete.com has undergone a major overhaul. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the new site, so don't be shy.

I read something recently that said if you want to get your blog read more frequently all you had to do was mention Pamela Anderson's Breasts. I think it is a shame for other sites to have to stoop to such a low-level to get read.

Ok you caught me, I am pretty low-stooping, I know. But really its just part of an experiment to see if what I read is really true; you can't believe everything you read these days.

I have obviously had too much time on my hands lately.

I was at the local Victoria Cycling League race last night... man those people were flying. My training partner Dawn won the girls event. The Cat 1,2 men were givin' er... dudes taking off the front all race long. Can't wait to be back in shape enough to join in the fun. 'Course I'll likely be shrapnel off the back of the pack for the first few races. Feels like startin' anew all over again.

No complaints from me really though... considering everything I've been through in the past couple of months I can't be complaining about being on my bike even if I am outa shape a little.