Challenging times

April has been the month of challenges and coach sure knows how to throw those at me. First, every Saturday ride has been over 2.5h long and they have become increasingly harder. Last week for example, he asked me to do the Trainer Road "Cathedral" workout. He said to stay in Zone 2, so I dialed it down a bit to 95% effort, but I still ended in Zone 3-4 as I tried to keep my cadence nice and high. You can see all details here.

Earlier in the week, I had to do a 1h30 workout where the key word was "hard" with 1h block of non-interrupted sufferfest in the middle. I settled somewhere around 160-165 watts and stayed there while my heart rate was slowly making its way up. I managed not to throw up, yay!

However on Monday, the first Max VO2 ride appeared on my schedule. Name "Abbot". And it BROKE me. 120-140% FTP intervals, 2 minutes long each with just 1 minute recovery in between? No way, Jose. This was the perfect challenge for me. I did the best I could, the first 6 intervals were ok, but the last 6, forget it. I could only hold that kind of power for 1min, then faded. Next time, maybe... In the end I managed to beat two of my personal records, but my legs were kaput. See for yourself, I am sharing my pain, am I not nice?

Pretty much the same story in running. My long runs now have tempo intervals in the middle, and each one of them is harder than the previous one. Something like : 2km easy-5km 1/2 marathon pace (5:45min/km)-5km 10k pace(5:30min/km)-2km easy. This happened just yesterday. I managed to read the instructions wrong and thought that the second tempo interval was 5k (5:15min/km) pace. So what do I do? I go all out, after a 7km of hard running. I was pretty delirious in the end. I don't remember much afterwards, but somehow I made it back home and then I passed out on the couch. Look at the pretty graphs! They brought my memory and sweat back.

I really need to pay more attention. This was the second time in a week that I misread this instructions. The run before ended in a tempo as well, even though coach had said "easy". Oops, totally missed that. I didn't really know what I needed to do anyway, I thought I'd go by feel, I wasn't even wearing my heart monitor. All I could remember was 10k and hilly route. I had already done some hills on Wednesday, so I wasn't very motivated to go hard. Legs decided otherwise, so I just followed.

In swimming, what can I say? I have 4 types of workouts that I need to do, each with detailed sets that I printed out and put in a ziploc plastic bag which I take to the pool. One of the workouts is "go long for as long as you can without interruption". That's my favorite one. I don't need to think too much, I just put my head down and swim. The watch counts the laps for me, I get out when I hear the whistle. It went exactly like that and I managed to swim 2km uninterrupted. Major win for me, I had never done this in the pool, unassisted (without a pull buoy). To put it in perspective for you, I could only swim for 100m without a pull buoy 2 months ago. I was elated, and a bit dizzy too.

Look at this, one block, no gaps!! Wooohooo! My speed is still that of a turtle, but at least I know I can make the cutoff times. Plus, I don't do flip turns and underwater dolphin swim, so I get to do the entire length of the pool wall to wall, with pretty much a full stop at each length. This adds significant time, I am sure that in a lake I'm going to be faster than this. I remember last year, my 1500m at Toronto Triathlon Festival was done in 35:55min, so I anticipate to do the 2000m somewhere around 45-48min. I may not have improved my speed much since last year, but boy, my confidence got a huge boost!

I expect some crash and burn sometime soon, but for now, I am riding the wave, baby! I can do this!

The good, the bad and the ugly

While there are good moments in life, there are also the bad and the ugly ones that keep on raising up to the surface like stubborn zits. How's that for a visual. Ugh, I hate zits. Not even sure Windex could cure those. But, fact is, days have been tough around here. Work induced stress has been hitting new highs and the only escape have been my workouts. I really feel blessed to have started working with a local coach, a wonderful human being who I can look in the eye and know that he understands. He created for me a new program, and while challenging, it pushes my body and mind to places where I need to get in order to feel good about myself, to know that I CAN. I also get to see my coach twice a week, and that is very rewarding, there is something about him that makes me calm and focused.

So, going forward, I will be swimming a bit more, riding a bit harder, running a little longer to a total of 12h of training a week. This week for example, I have already been in the pool twice and did a group spin with the tri club, followed by 20 minutes of Cross Fit that left me on my knees, literally. I also did a hill repeats workout and a tempo run. The weekend will have one more swim session, as well as a 2h aerobic ride and a 20km run.

But back to the Cross Fit session. What on earth are those and since when they've become so popular? On tired legs, it was pretty brutal. Here's what we did:

3 rounds of 1 min per station, max reps, 20 sec in between stations.

• Medicine ball squat to press (launching ball against the wall)
• Dumbbell squat overhead swing
• Dumbbell plank row (tricky to balance on the dumbbells) - did those on my knees
• Skipping rope
• Burpees

Followed by stretches, thankyouverymuch! Last but not least, I had to haul my bike and very heavy trainer across the parking lot in 3 inches of slush. Even with the curveball thrown by the weather, I'm glad that I made it out to attend this class. Hamstrings and glutes are a bit sore, but it's the good kind of pain. Today is rest day and it's so very WELCOME!

Now for the ugly, yesterday's swim session turned into a total meltdown. I started crying halfway through the main set after swallowing water with each breath and soon I felt my goggles filling up with tears. Drowning inside and out. I could not shake the feelings of frustration and disappointment felt in the office, even if midday I'd managed to escape for an hour and do 9km of tempo run on the treadmill. It was just too much to bear, the emotional toll finally hit me like a ton of bricks. Today my son is sick with the flu and while I am a bit scared that I won't be spared, I don't despair. That's some fine poetry right there, folks. 

In better news, it looks like the weight loss is going well, I have 2.5 more pounds to lose to meet the DietBet goal, and 2.5 weeks to go. This is going to happen, with 12h of training and no indulging, I'm pretty confident that I'll get my money back and some more.

In the end, there are some strong forces that keep on trying to put me down, but so far so good, with help from coach, my kids and my husband, I've managed to get back up. Don't ever neglect your support system, it's a life saver in more ways than you know. 

Life is good

It's Sunday, I finished my 2h long run, had an ice bath, then pizza for lunch. I even had a haircut. Life is good.

Yesterday, I did a killer bike ride on my trainer, 3 intervals of 20 min each, called Eclipse. Nothing to do with Twilight. I switched on my TV for the first time in 2 months, watched Ellen, then Argo. Life is good.

On Friday, my work demo setup worked and I shipped it, and we had celebratory beer at the office. It totally turned the week's mood around, so I celebrated some more with a run outside in the snow. Life is good.

Thursday, I met with a local coach from my tri club. I am going to see him at least twice a week and he's going to cook a brand new training plan for me to finish Ironman Muskoka 70.3 later this year. Life is good.

Wednesday I did another bike workout on my trainer, called Ericsson. Nothing to do with the phones. I found my sweet spot. Workout data got botched in the upload, but I managed to fix it after upgrading to the latest software version. Life is good.

Tuesday I was alive and kicking, despite the lack of energy. Life is good.

Monday I accepted a DietBet challenge to lose 5.6lb in 4 weeks. I put in $30. If I succeed, I share $20,000 and some change with as many other winners out of 683 (as of today), so at worst, I lose $30, at best, I win them back and some more. Life is good.

I found on eBay the same set of Gap scarf and hat that I had since 2003, but lost sometime in the last month. Life is awesome!

There is good in everything, you just have to look for it. It's called positive thinking. Train at it everyday.

Legendary Weekend

So I'm not quite sure who really initiated this, but I suspect it's part of Lance's come back to triathlon. A 3 day training weekend for 50 lucky (read very rich) people who can afford spending $25000 to swim, bike and run along (or far behind) Lance Armstrong, Craig Alexander, Chrissie Wellington, Greg Welch, Dave Scott and Jimmy Riccitello. This sounds like a journey in Olympus among Greek Gods.

Want to be part of it? Break the bank here. But you'll also have to submit a "brief expression of interest form" which may or may not qualify you, despite your $$$. Sounds like a dream vacation? Yeah, well, in another life, for me anyway. Have fun!