28/11/2011

Last week...last week...what happened last week...
Actually last week was a fairly decent week in terms of workouts. Last Sunday I did some spinning with TNT, and WOULD have span again on Thursday night, but I kinda got my location mixed up and ended up at the wrong Gold's Gym. I ended up doing some spinning on my own, but I was using a Startrac eSpinner, which is hands-down the best stationary bike I've ever been on. The seat post post and bike stem are fully adjustable, it has a built-in fan, a cadence meter, Ipod dock, and best of all....a VIDEO SCREEN! The screen lets you follow a virtual coach on a number of workouts. All I had to do was choose one, and then follow along, keeping my cadence within certain zones.

I managed to squeeze in a couple runs during lunch (graphs posted below), but time is a little tight because I do want to get in some cross-training also, for which I take a Yoga class once a week and also do some weight-lifting. I think that going forward I might do my cross-training at lunch, and do my runs as soon as I get home from work.  I didn't make it into the pool unfortunately, due to other commitments.

Movember is coming to end, which means that pretty soon I'm going to start bothering everyone I know to make donations to Team in Training in my name. Raising almost $5K isn't gonna be easy, so I had better get started.

That's all for now.

Keep Tri-ing!

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21/11/2011

Weekly Recap:

So this week was fairly good, and I’m managing to start to ramp up my training sessions. I began the week with an hour-long bike ride with TNT. Oh, and that was outside... In November... In Canada. Ok fine it was a fairly warm day, but still at 9AM its not exactly sizzling regardless. This ride focused on some basic drills , like biking one-handed and bike control, and our coach tried to make sure we kept up a good cadence.

We also had our first swim training, which involved some solid drills. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get the lanes opened up at the pool, so we were stick swimming the width (only about 12M), so it was hard to really get a good rhythm going. Nonetheless it’s good to get in the water as often as possible, especially considering that swimming is definitely my weakness in the Tri.

Of course I kept running this week, including a solid outdoor run, where I tried to focus on cadence, as our TNT coach instructed. Whadaya know it actually helps, and I found that the run went a lot easier than usual! My time wasn’t anything fantastic (around 58 mins for 10K), but I found that I was a lot less tired than I usually am at that distance. I found it a little hard to keep track though and count my cadence, but lo and behold on Wednesday I finally got my Garmin SDM4 foot pod!

This little gadget syncs up with my Global Trainer via ANT+ and can keep track of my speed, distance, and cadence whether or not I have a GPS signal. This means that I can better track my workouts digitally during the winter, as well as now being able to make sure I stay as close as possible to the suggested 90RPM running cadence.

Last note, my TNT group did some SPINNING for the first time. Unfortunately it’s getting too cold to bike outdoors, so spinning is the only option left to train our biking legs. Thanks to Gold’s Gym for giving us a discount on entrance. Most spinning sessions going forward are going to be early Sunday morning. As in 7AM early. Oh well that’s the life of a triathlete, right?

That’s all for now,

Keep Tri-ing!

PS. Simply because I can, I will sometimes post statistics from my workouts, obtained from my watch.

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14/11/2011

Ok so just a quick weekly post since I just made one a few days though. Yesterday was my second group ride with my Team in Training group (I'll be posting the stats on the Training page soon). We did a nice 27K though, and it was good to get back into exercise after a week on the road. This week is going to be the start of swim training for me with the coach and next week we will probably start indoor spinning due to it being so damn cold outside.

Don't forget to donate to my Team in Training page here.

Thanks, and keep Tri-ing!

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09/11/2011

Weekly update
Ok so I think the format that will work best is a weekly update on the past weeks training overall, and maybe a look at the upcoming week. Of course, my detailed training results will be posted on the “Training” page of this blog. Going forward, I will do my best to post these weekly updates on either Sunday afternoon or Monday at the latest. This week unfortunately my training is non-existent as I am travelling for seminars and have absolutely no spare time to even go for a run. Excuses, Excuses, I know, but there’s not much I can do.

I do have some big news though…Last week I went to an information seminar for Team in Training (TNT) Canada, and it looks like I will be training with them for the St. Anthony’s Triathlon in St. Petersburg, Florida at the end of April 2012. For those of you who aren’t familiar with TNT, it is a division of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada, and its participants fundraise to find a cure or treatment for various cancers. While fundraising, participants simultaneously train to compete in various endurance sporting events. Triathlon is relatively new to TNT, but seems like a great fit for me! I get some hands-on training and support an amazing cause.

In order to participate though, I will need to raise at least $5,000. Not easy to say the least but I think it’s doable. If you want to donate through me, I will be posting a link to my individual TNT website. All donations over $20 are issued tax receipts.

For more information check out

www.teamintraining.ca

Thanks, and keep Tri-ing!

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