Life happens - we all know that. But we get set in our daily routines, fall into our comfort zones, and become a slave to the grind. And when life does happen, we're thrown off and get stressed, uncomfortable, and perhaps even panicked.
For me, life is happening. This time, I'm the one causing it, but that doesn't make it much easier. I've been rather comfortable with my place personally and professionally, and I'm removing that balance for now...looking for a better situation. Eventually, I'll get it.
But it's this stuff that I find hard because my decisions affect those around me. Well, at least they have the potential of affecting them. For me, getting up at 4:30am for a long workout is easier than fitting it in the middle of the day because I feel like I should be at home with family, or doing things that need to be done.
For me, this is just another test, one that I need to explore and experience, rather than wall up and avoid until it absolutely must be dealt with. This needs to be just another thing in my day, not an excuse to affect the things I need to do and want to do.
Let the test begin.
About Me
- cdnhollywood
- Husband, father, professional, and beginner triathlete learning about the sport, himself, and how to balance life to fit it all in.
Friday, 20 January, 2012
Thursday, 19 January, 2012
T-minus 7 months to Ironman Mont Tremblant!
Time flies when you are having fun! I cannot believe we are down to only 7 months now. A bit more than a month and the real training starts!
The main training plan for me starts March 5 if I remember correctly. To try to boost my base I have been doing Troy Jacobson's Super 6 plan which ends in about 3 weeks. I haven't followed it to the letter but fairly closely - I am allowing the swim to replace some if the workouts, and some of the rides have been a bit shorter than prescribed. But overall things are improving nicely. My bike endurance is increasing, my swim is taking shape quite well, and my heart rate seems to have dropped a bit already. I am actually getting used to waking around 5am and consider it a luxury to sleep to 6 or 6:30.
I am still a bit concerned about my running, not some much in ability but in ability to improve. I have tried to get good quality base runs in, but find I hit my lactate threshold early on and tend to run zone 3/4 a lot. Hitting zone 2 in the run is tough for me. I am still talking with my swim coach about some run coaching too and should get more details on that soon. Hopefully time and money will allow that coaching to occur too, because if it's anything like the swim coaching I am getting, I will drop a pile of time in a race. :)
One recent wrinkle for the run is the weather. We gave had a very easy winter so far and now we have to pay our dues. It has been much colder - I am okay with that - and we got a pile of freezing rain...twice. That is the part I hate. The most recent rain and snow mix left and inch-thick crust on everything. Some was slippery, and some was not. Every step is like a toss of the dice! It seems better out today so I may try a short run, and hopefully the crews have been generous with the salt and gravel. Fingers crossed!
I am feeling quite positive so far this year, and I am looking forward to this journey we are on towards race day. It's time to book the vacation days (praying my wife can get the time off) and call to confirm the hotel booking (don't need that kind of headache on race week). I will gave to get my bike in for a checkup since I haven't done that in the three years I have owned it, and double check the stick of bottles, gel and protein powder.
We are getting close! Should be a fun ride.
The main training plan for me starts March 5 if I remember correctly. To try to boost my base I have been doing Troy Jacobson's Super 6 plan which ends in about 3 weeks. I haven't followed it to the letter but fairly closely - I am allowing the swim to replace some if the workouts, and some of the rides have been a bit shorter than prescribed. But overall things are improving nicely. My bike endurance is increasing, my swim is taking shape quite well, and my heart rate seems to have dropped a bit already. I am actually getting used to waking around 5am and consider it a luxury to sleep to 6 or 6:30.
I am still a bit concerned about my running, not some much in ability but in ability to improve. I have tried to get good quality base runs in, but find I hit my lactate threshold early on and tend to run zone 3/4 a lot. Hitting zone 2 in the run is tough for me. I am still talking with my swim coach about some run coaching too and should get more details on that soon. Hopefully time and money will allow that coaching to occur too, because if it's anything like the swim coaching I am getting, I will drop a pile of time in a race. :)
One recent wrinkle for the run is the weather. We gave had a very easy winter so far and now we have to pay our dues. It has been much colder - I am okay with that - and we got a pile of freezing rain...twice. That is the part I hate. The most recent rain and snow mix left and inch-thick crust on everything. Some was slippery, and some was not. Every step is like a toss of the dice! It seems better out today so I may try a short run, and hopefully the crews have been generous with the salt and gravel. Fingers crossed!
I am feeling quite positive so far this year, and I am looking forward to this journey we are on towards race day. It's time to book the vacation days (praying my wife can get the time off) and call to confirm the hotel booking (don't need that kind of headache on race week). I will gave to get my bike in for a checkup since I haven't done that in the three years I have owned it, and double check the stick of bottles, gel and protein powder.
We are getting close! Should be a fun ride.
Thursday, 12 January, 2012
Saturday, 7 January, 2012
Better zones, better workout
After determining better estimates for my lactate threshold, I did my first bike workout with that new information. It was a bigger effort today, even if I didn't get up early enough for the full 2h20 of Spinervals 30.0, I still got 1h45 in.
And let me tell you, it was a LOT harder with the new HR zones defined. I was a little shocked at how different everything felt, but pumped at the same time when I realized that there's still a lot of room for improvement - even at 40.
The goal of the workout was intervals at Zone 3 - aerobic endurance, where your body's flirting with muscle breakdown to make enough energy to keep going. This is the "grey zone" where you don't want to be training too often, but once in a while it's okay.
Well today it was so hard to get into Z3! I really, REALLY had to push it all along to get there - I was so surprised at the difference. I was sweating buckets, and my legs were pumped and tired pretty early into the workout. I could feel the strength getting removed from me, and looked forward the strength building up once I recovered.
The other workout for today is a 30min run which might not happen thanks to the freezing rain that's been pelting us on and off today. I'd love to get an easy run in, but I won't risk an ankle for it. The weather forecast is showing some much colder weather coming along, and while I like things warmer, you can always run when it's that cold - even when it's REALLY cold.
Or maybe I'll just hide at home and do a BodyRock workout...or finish painting the workout room...or spend time with the family. Perhaps I'll play things by ear today. ;)
And let me tell you, it was a LOT harder with the new HR zones defined. I was a little shocked at how different everything felt, but pumped at the same time when I realized that there's still a lot of room for improvement - even at 40.
The goal of the workout was intervals at Zone 3 - aerobic endurance, where your body's flirting with muscle breakdown to make enough energy to keep going. This is the "grey zone" where you don't want to be training too often, but once in a while it's okay.
Well today it was so hard to get into Z3! I really, REALLY had to push it all along to get there - I was so surprised at the difference. I was sweating buckets, and my legs were pumped and tired pretty early into the workout. I could feel the strength getting removed from me, and looked forward the strength building up once I recovered.
The other workout for today is a 30min run which might not happen thanks to the freezing rain that's been pelting us on and off today. I'd love to get an easy run in, but I won't risk an ankle for it. The weather forecast is showing some much colder weather coming along, and while I like things warmer, you can always run when it's that cold - even when it's REALLY cold.
Or maybe I'll just hide at home and do a BodyRock workout...or finish painting the workout room...or spend time with the family. Perhaps I'll play things by ear today. ;)
Thursday, 5 January, 2012
2012: The year of MY Ironman
2011 was a crazy, all-over-the-place year for me. Quite frankly, I didn't deal with it well many times, and there's honestly a part of me that is more than happy that year's done. But I hate saying that because there was a lot of good and fun that happened in 2011...why is it always harder to remember the good through the bad? Even with all the challenges we faced, we persevered and we're better for it.
Now there was one thing that I did last year that strongly impacts me and my family this year: I signed up for my first Ironman race. A dream I've had for many years will come to fruition this year in August, in Mont Tremblant. I've got a plan (two actually - one for now from Troy Jacobson, and one that starts in March and goes for 6 months), a new swim coach, and possibly a new running coach (still figuring that out). This is a dream I've had for many years, with the seed planted back in 2003 when I watched the NBC Ironman World Championship Recap with amazement. If I knew then what I know now....
And up to this point, all that talk and ego about being a triathlete, a runner, a persistent athlete that goes out in the heat and in the cold (well, most days) - all that feels unimportant now in a strange way. I've trained, I've raced, I've sweated and I've suffered. I've gotten up early and stayed up late to get workouts in. And I'm proud of all that - it's what got me to the point of being able to register for an iron distance triathlon. But now I feel like I did many times before: when I signed up for my first triathlon; when I signed up for my first olympic distance tri; when I signed up for my first 5k, 10k, half- and full marathon; when I signed up for my first half-iron tri. I feel the excitement, fear, confusion, the "everything" of facing a new big challenge head on.
My wife got me a Garmin Forerunner 305 for Christmas this year. I think it was her way of ushering the "new" in more ways than one. My Polar 625X was old and worn, the chest strap broken and stained - but it still worked. Why change it? It's still good enough. But, as always, she knew better, and she knew it on many levels. A new tool for me, with new features that encouraged a new way to apply my stats so I could train smarter. The HRM has made me revisit how I train, how I measure myself through the different efforts, what I decide to focus on. After years of racing and training, nothing has really changed in terms of performance and desire. Getting the Forerunner has changed that for me.
A key example - my lactate threshold. This is an important number for many reasons, including defining your intensity zones across all activities. If you don't know your LT, you don't really know if you're training too hard or too soft. And if you don't race often, you don't know if you're improving either. Well, on January 1 of the new year, I did a hard-effort run around my neighborhood, suffering through much of the run but pushing to see where I was on that day. Skip ahead to today, where Coach Troy's plan for the day was a bike set that (with one of his DVDs) allowed you to determine your LT. I don't have that DVD (yet...) but found that if you do a 30min time-trial and give it your all for the full duration, the average HR for the last 20min is a good estimate. So that's what I did on the bike today, and what I did with the stats from the New Year's Day run. Previously, I guessed my LT was at about 155bpm. Today I found that on the bike it's 170, and on the run it's 165ish. That's a HUGE difference. And I can take that to the training bank and adjust my training accordingly.
Even my workout area is fresh and new. In the new house we bought last year, there was a spare room in the basement that was a music room before. It's now become our workout room (my wife insists it is *my* workout room :D) and it's got freshened up. I've got room for up to 4 bikes now, but with the 2 in there now, I've still got a pile of room for weights, yoga, stretching, or a play space when my daughter wants to be in the same room as me. I'll be spending a fair bit of time in that room, so we didn't mind putting a bit of effort into it to make it truly ours.
Talk is cheap, sure. And I've added a pile of it above. I'm a good talker, a good complainer, a good whiner, and I can be a terrific victim when I want to. But by signing up for this event, I'm putting my money where my mouth is and I won't let myself down, my family down, my friends down. I'm going to do the very best I can each and every day leading up to that event in August where I will see what I truly am possible of achieving. Just like the good stuff we forget about in our daily lives, I think I've forgotten just how good I really am - perhaps the daily grind drums that out of you. But it's still there - it's always been there - and I'm going to celebrate it again and again.
This is my year, my race, my Ironman. And the best thing about it is that I'm sharing it with my family and my friends. Without them, I'm just another guy. I may wear the medal, but we'll all have earned it.
And that excites me to no end.
Now there was one thing that I did last year that strongly impacts me and my family this year: I signed up for my first Ironman race. A dream I've had for many years will come to fruition this year in August, in Mont Tremblant. I've got a plan (two actually - one for now from Troy Jacobson, and one that starts in March and goes for 6 months), a new swim coach, and possibly a new running coach (still figuring that out). This is a dream I've had for many years, with the seed planted back in 2003 when I watched the NBC Ironman World Championship Recap with amazement. If I knew then what I know now....
And up to this point, all that talk and ego about being a triathlete, a runner, a persistent athlete that goes out in the heat and in the cold (well, most days) - all that feels unimportant now in a strange way. I've trained, I've raced, I've sweated and I've suffered. I've gotten up early and stayed up late to get workouts in. And I'm proud of all that - it's what got me to the point of being able to register for an iron distance triathlon. But now I feel like I did many times before: when I signed up for my first triathlon; when I signed up for my first olympic distance tri; when I signed up for my first 5k, 10k, half- and full marathon; when I signed up for my first half-iron tri. I feel the excitement, fear, confusion, the "everything" of facing a new big challenge head on.
My wife got me a Garmin Forerunner 305 for Christmas this year. I think it was her way of ushering the "new" in more ways than one. My Polar 625X was old and worn, the chest strap broken and stained - but it still worked. Why change it? It's still good enough. But, as always, she knew better, and she knew it on many levels. A new tool for me, with new features that encouraged a new way to apply my stats so I could train smarter. The HRM has made me revisit how I train, how I measure myself through the different efforts, what I decide to focus on. After years of racing and training, nothing has really changed in terms of performance and desire. Getting the Forerunner has changed that for me.
A key example - my lactate threshold. This is an important number for many reasons, including defining your intensity zones across all activities. If you don't know your LT, you don't really know if you're training too hard or too soft. And if you don't race often, you don't know if you're improving either. Well, on January 1 of the new year, I did a hard-effort run around my neighborhood, suffering through much of the run but pushing to see where I was on that day. Skip ahead to today, where Coach Troy's plan for the day was a bike set that (with one of his DVDs) allowed you to determine your LT. I don't have that DVD (yet...) but found that if you do a 30min time-trial and give it your all for the full duration, the average HR for the last 20min is a good estimate. So that's what I did on the bike today, and what I did with the stats from the New Year's Day run. Previously, I guessed my LT was at about 155bpm. Today I found that on the bike it's 170, and on the run it's 165ish. That's a HUGE difference. And I can take that to the training bank and adjust my training accordingly.
 |
| The nearly done workout area...well, part of it. |
Talk is cheap, sure. And I've added a pile of it above. I'm a good talker, a good complainer, a good whiner, and I can be a terrific victim when I want to. But by signing up for this event, I'm putting my money where my mouth is and I won't let myself down, my family down, my friends down. I'm going to do the very best I can each and every day leading up to that event in August where I will see what I truly am possible of achieving. Just like the good stuff we forget about in our daily lives, I think I've forgotten just how good I really am - perhaps the daily grind drums that out of you. But it's still there - it's always been there - and I'm going to celebrate it again and again.
This is my year, my race, my Ironman. And the best thing about it is that I'm sharing it with my family and my friends. Without them, I'm just another guy. I may wear the medal, but we'll all have earned it.
And that excites me to no end.
Wednesday, 4 January, 2012
My daughter's got it figured out already
Friday, 16 December, 2011
T-minus 8 months, 3 days
Holy crap it's the middle of December already! Hard to believe. It seems like the older I get the faster time passes me by.
Even with all the goings-on lately, my mind is getting more and more focused for this Ironman gig. My swim is getting solid thanks to Greg (who I hope to bring aboard as a run coach too), the workout room has been reorganized, and I'm experimenting with TrainingPeaks.com and my new Garmin Forerunner 305. And the weather here in Ottawa has been extremely conducive to training, with temperatures above freezing for the most part and no snow or ice on the pathways...yet.
My good buddy Scott tripped over a video that he let me know about, and I've gotta tell ya, it hit me hard. I knew exactly what he was getting at, and the speech made me think long and hard about my personal thoughts of myself - perhaps even my beliefs in myself. I never expected a video to hit me that hard, but this one really did. And I'm glad for that. It made me rethink things I hadn't thought about for years, face things that I had tucked away a long time ago. And it made me think about how I can approach things differently. Change is good. That speech is going up on my workout room wall, and I'm going to read it every day.
Week 1 of 24 starts March 5, 2012. That's when things get serious, when start the real journey to completing an Ironman. And on that day, I want to feel prepared as best as possible, with some "habits" in place. I want my weekly volumes around 3hrs each for running, cycling and swimming. I want to be used to having one workout session 6 days out of 7. I want to be eating healthy, stretching regularly. I want to have good base fitness in place to work hard for 24 more weeks. And I want to be happy through it all - with my family. Those are a lot of goals to have, and I don't mind. Goals are just dreams with a plan, and we all want to reach our dreams.
My goals are in sight, and I feel like I'm taking the first steps towards them. Feels good.
Even with all the goings-on lately, my mind is getting more and more focused for this Ironman gig. My swim is getting solid thanks to Greg (who I hope to bring aboard as a run coach too), the workout room has been reorganized, and I'm experimenting with TrainingPeaks.com and my new Garmin Forerunner 305. And the weather here in Ottawa has been extremely conducive to training, with temperatures above freezing for the most part and no snow or ice on the pathways...yet.
My good buddy Scott tripped over a video that he let me know about, and I've gotta tell ya, it hit me hard. I knew exactly what he was getting at, and the speech made me think long and hard about my personal thoughts of myself - perhaps even my beliefs in myself. I never expected a video to hit me that hard, but this one really did. And I'm glad for that. It made me rethink things I hadn't thought about for years, face things that I had tucked away a long time ago. And it made me think about how I can approach things differently. Change is good. That speech is going up on my workout room wall, and I'm going to read it every day.
Week 1 of 24 starts March 5, 2012. That's when things get serious, when start the real journey to completing an Ironman. And on that day, I want to feel prepared as best as possible, with some "habits" in place. I want my weekly volumes around 3hrs each for running, cycling and swimming. I want to be used to having one workout session 6 days out of 7. I want to be eating healthy, stretching regularly. I want to have good base fitness in place to work hard for 24 more weeks. And I want to be happy through it all - with my family. Those are a lot of goals to have, and I don't mind. Goals are just dreams with a plan, and we all want to reach our dreams.
My goals are in sight, and I feel like I'm taking the first steps towards them. Feels good.
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