Out With The Boys!

I think the thought of being 'out with the boys' for most people entails a night of binge drinking, strip clubs and streaking. Well for us athletes it meant 2kms of swimming and a 17km run right after. That may sound a little boring for most people but I like to think that I am getting better with age, not worse. In my opinion most people have this perception that you need to 'slow down' as you get older and I will admit that at some point your body will force you to do so but why not take advantage of the times when we are 'fast' when we have them. I've been battling this feeling of having a lingering flu since the end of January and it's been incredibly frustrating. However I'm learning that my body will tell me when it's ready to train again and there is absolutely no use in getting frustrated or upset with bad workouts. The progress will come but it doesn't come all at once.

I can already feel myself getting stronger as the days start to get longer and warmer, last weekend I had a race and although I struggled through most of it, it was sooo nice to race again. I forgot how much I love it. My running seems to be at least on par with last year and I'm slowly feeling better and better in the water as I start to rack up the kms. Biking has been the tough one for me, I've worked very hard at maintaining my fitness on the bike but the weather and travel has limited my riding time. I just need a good block of training in May and I'll be right back in the 'zone.'

Back to this weekend's activities, Amber and I went for a cruiser ride through the streets of GP with about 20 people from Ernies on Saturday and it was a nice change of pace. Just lounging around on some huge heavy bikes looking like an eco-friendly motorcycle gang, it was cool.
I made a plan to get together with Robert and Dennis that night for our swim-run session on Sunday morning 8am. Now you have to know Robert and Dennis to know that Sunday at 8am is not a good time to start training but they are obviously committed because they were both there, bright and early. Robert even beat me to the pool, wow. Both of them had their morning grumpy pants on (but I live with the queen of morning grumpy pants so I was used to it) I just tried to be as energetic as possible and they seemed to perk up pretty quickly after that. Robert wanted to keep the swim to 45 minutes so I agreed but I was going to make it HURT. Sure we can keep it to 45 minutes but that means we are going to pack in 90 minutes worth of swimming in a 45 minute session. I started off easy with 500m warm up and 500m paddles and then gave them a choice, descending ladder (400-300-200-100) at race pace or 5 x 200m at race pace. They didn't like either choice because they tried to negotiate me down to 10 x 100m at race pace but I wouldn't budge. I wanted them to really feel the effort after 100m how your body is dying for O2 and you need to keep your form as your arms and legs are getting heavier. So they reluctantly agreed to the 5 x 200m set. The first couple went off fairly well, they were definitely a struggle but we made it through them, after the 3rd I could tell I my body was feeling the effects of pushing that hard with very little oxygen. By the end of the 4th set Robert was done and I was barely hanging on for the 5th one, if those guys hadn't been there I probably would have called it a day after the third. We just need a few more of those efforts, with a little longer distance, and we'll be ready for Hinton in 5 weeks.

Then we headed out to the trails for a 90 minute easy run it was great weather for running, cool but sunny and we all had a blast talking about Ironman training, racing, bikes, run gear, etc. Usual athlete talk, I loved every minute of it. I have to thank Robert, Dennis and Amber for keeping the training fun this year, I usually do a lot of my training alone because a lot of times I just try to fit it in whenever possible but so far this year it's been great meeting them for whatever their workouts call for, hard bike, easy run, whatever it's all been great. It's really important to keep the fun in my workouts because last year after racing a lot, I was feeling a little burnt out. Now everything I do I'm just doing because I love to be outside on my bike or running the trails with Amber. I know Amber and I have different race goals this year but I don't think it's going to be a problem, she knows I need to be on my bike and I know she needs to be running the trails plus it's great to get together later and swap stories. It's going to be a fantastic summer!