Training Log Archive: wilsmith

Swim at Bracebridge with Katta. Mix of 200m plus 100m intervals. And a little bit of warmup too. Felt a bit tired from yesterday, but had no choice. Only one other swim day possible before we leave for Spain. Unless I get into the Bay. Brrrrr. The ice left on Saturday, but it's still bloody cold! Not sure I could manage it even with wetsuit, neoprene swim cap, booties, and gloves!

Anyway, I'll try to work on swim-specific strength. My technique wasn't about to magically improve much anyway, but I had been hoping to swim a bit more before racing season opens!

Just an exploratory ride around CIL lands to check on snow. Very nearly all gone now, except for north-facing or shaded drifts, and places where snow machines really packed it down. Definitely everything will be gone from here in a week if we get all the rain that is forecast over the next little while. Yay - no snow. Boo - lots of rain.

C • CIL 9

First section of our inaugural Lost Sole Off Road Challenge duathlon at GNSCC. Tough conditions underfoot - sand and melting snow base. Fastest was to run at the edge of the trail whenever possible, even if it seemed like it was in a ditch. Led it out at 4:00 pace and at the 1k turnaround I got suddenly gapped by a 17yo Tri talent from Bracebridge. Spent the next km trying to hang in and stay within 20-30m of him. Tough!

C • Congrats! 8

The MTB portion of the duathlon. Six loops of 2.5km, of which 80% was dirt road and 20% was snowy rocky trail. Rolling hills. Fairly steady solid effort, trying to reel in the Kid, who had brought a cyclocross bike. Definitely a better choice overall given the course. He opened up a bit faster than I did but never got more than 40 seconds ahead. On laps 4 and 5 I was taking a bit of time back on him and was starting to feel confident that old guy endurance would soon overtake youthful exuberance. Unfortunately, he miscounted and started the second run after only 5 loops. Bummer. I had been looking forward to chasing him down in the 10k. They eventually made him ride an extra loop after the first half of the run, to make it more fair (at least we all covered the same distance then). Anyway, made it through the ride with no serious mishaps. Kept it pegged in the top end of Z4.

The second run portion. Toughest 10k I've done in a long while. At least since Maui. Very soft underfoot with mud and snow. Didn't feel very springy off the bike, especially with the footing as it was. Spent the first half grumbling about the lap miscount in the MTB. Then at the lapping they told me the Kid was out riding his last bike lap, and the race was on. I knew I had some sort of lead, likely at least a minute or two, but wasn't 100% certain if he was capable of catching me of not, despite his looking tired on the last of the bike. The usual race paranoia I guess. Kept it steady until 2k to go, at which point I was sure I'd be able to run hard and stay in front if need be. Ended up winning by over 6 minutes, so it might not have even mattered if he had done his final bike lap or not. Would've been close, anyway.

Lovely weather, sunny and 10-12C (which did make the trails soft...). Glad to be out for the day.

Hans beat me by a good 2 minutes on the run course. But I'll use the "he didn't have to run/bike beforehand" excuse... Pretty weak, I know. But I just couldn't do it much faster today.

Decent race simulation for Spain, I guess. Clearly I need to taper more, though. Felt tired from the start today.

Warmup and setting up for the race.

More trips around tomorrow's course to get GPS distances. The 2k is almost exactly 2k. The long run loop was 5.1k, so the run will be two laps and be 10.2k instead of 8k. The bike loop is 2.5k, so probably 6 laps needed.

Easy jog with Hans to stretch a little before tomorrow. My legs actually feel tired, but it's ok. Not expecting real competition tomorrow but will aim to give it a solid blast of intensity anyway.

Event: NAOC2014 SML training weekend
 

Just an easy MTB ride in the AM. Overslept, time crunched, so no chance for more. I'd have ridden to work but needed to have MTB in car at work, to get out to GNSCC this evening and prepare for Sunday's race.

Checking out the trails for Sunday. Hanging and marking the route. Not much mud, but sections packed snow in places. Slowly disappearing though. Was out for 2+ hours, discounted 50% to allow for stoppage.

One month until Xterra Spain. Ice still on the Bay, snow still in the forest. Yikes. Heat acclimatization will be, um, interesting...

Run in with Tyson. More leisurely than yesterday but still sweating by the end of it. Frustrating to see all the puddles frozen over again though. When will it end???

Halo bench plus TRX.

Run into work. Cold - around freezing. Sigh.

Was sort of a structured fartlek - alternating kms of faster versus cruising. At least it started out that way. Sort of degenerated into alternating between 4:05 and 4:25 kms so not much differentiation in speed.

Glad to get sub-60 minutes on the run today though. Dressed in winter tights, jacket, toque and gloves plus carrying a backpack, I'll take it.

Nice little MTB after work. Chilly and windy, but sunny at least. Still no dice on melting snow. Sigh.

Racing hardtail seems to be back on track (I reassembled the BB and bearings over the long weekend, didn't test until now). Slight creak under heavy load, maybe it'll bed in tighter, or maybe it'll need a bit of a tweak.

Halo bench plus TRX. Abbreviated versions of both, but enough to feel sore...

Nice swim workout with Tim. Main problem was that we were indoors, instead of out in the Bay or on a lake. Everything still ice covered. Sigh.

Tried out my new Lava pants. Wowzers, what a difference! Just like wearing a wetsuit. Keeps my body pretty level. Incredible difference in speed. Easy to do 25m in under 20 seconds now. Pretty much like using a pull buoy I guess. I had been wondering how much faster I could expect to be with a wetsuit. I think this gives a decent idea - and I'm satisfied.

12 x 25m sprints on 60 seconds. Then 8 x 200m on 5 minutes. And then some random laps before and after. A good day, my first swim in a fair little while.