There is also a pretty cool section of photo's showing Lance Armstrong's comeback effort, check out the shape he is in. That guy is going to need to lose some upper body weight to get back into grand tour fitness, he looks more like a hockey player than a cyclist.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Internet Findings
There is also a pretty cool section of photo's showing Lance Armstrong's comeback effort, check out the shape he is in. That guy is going to need to lose some upper body weight to get back into grand tour fitness, he looks more like a hockey player than a cyclist.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
RunningRunningRunningRunningRunning
I went back to practice once again today with the goal to complete the whole thing.
The beauty of being the run coach is that you can decide how long a practice is!
Tonights practice started out with a Fartlek workout, roughly a 500m square block where the north south side you ran hard, while the east west sides you ran easy.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Rollers Update
So far so good. I've gotten used to them quite quickly. There is a very quick learning curve, once you get the confidence that you aren't going to fall they are quite simple.
In my first half hour on them I managed to get my water bottle, reach my back pocket to fiddle with my iPod and ride with one leg, then finally no hands. I've ridden for 30 minutes each day since getting them and have simply been working on these skills as along with simple balance.
One of the concerns I had in getting rollers was that I was told you can't do power workouts, you can only spin all the time. This turns out to be only partly true. Fair enough I can't do standing climbing exercises, however, if you drop your bike into the heaviest gear, you can definitely break out a heavy sweat. Some intervals I've been doing have been 5 minutes trying to keep the bike speed above 50kph, and I'll tell you, rollers can make your legs burn.
That being said, there will be a lot of good time trial action going on this winter where I can work on maintaining a constant effort for extended periods of time. I'll just have to work on explosive power at the gym.
17 Days till Christmas!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
First Time on Rollers
To many of you who hoped I would fall and make a fool of myself, well I'll just let you watch and see what happens. I think you may be laughing once or twice.
Enjoy
Now that I'm done playing on the internet, I think I'll actually go use them for a while
Youtube cut off my HEAD! Oh well, worst things have happened
Rollers
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Favorite Swim Workouts
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the 15X100m set, but that can be hard to motivate yourself at times.
So the first one is take your 1500m race pace and add 15/10/5 seconds to that.
(For example, my race pace is 1:30/100m)
So your interval is
1:45/1:40/1:35 repeat.
What I like about this workout is that even though you are swimming hard the whole time, it feels almost like a fartlek workout. And instead of being 15X100 you think of it more as 5X300 broken up.
Finally a new training update!
This week I finally got back in the pool. It was really difficult at first, but now that I'm a few days in its really great to start working out again. Every winter I go into a slump with my training, last years was nearly 4 month long. This year I knew that after the marathon I was going to be psychologically wiped, but didn't think it would hit me this hard. I haven't really tried running yet, but I still don't think my foot is back to par, I really need to get it checked out. The beauty of triathlon is that I can simply keep putting that off and focus on biking and swimming and there isn't TOO much loss.
Back to the pool.
I went back to my first swim with the club on Tuesday, and let me tell you, it was HARD. I was in terrible shape. Instead of swimming I was simply sinking. I felt like that mouse in the photo holding to the wall for dear life. At the end of race season I was comfortably holding 1:30/100 meters in all of my sets. This week going back, I was struggling to hit 1:30's high and sometimes edged above 1:40. I was skipping sets and doing my own thing. Turns out 6 weeks out of the pool can really do a number on your fitness.
With embarrassment in mind, I went swimming Wednesday over lunch. I wanted to get a good strong workout in, but my arms were so dead from Tuesday that I just sneaked in 1000 meters and called it a day.
Thursday I braved practice again which was 21X100 main set broken up into different paces. The end being 6X100 @ 1:35. This should have been an easy set, but I was just sneaking in around 1:33 and not getting nearly enough rest in those 2 seconds that I would have to skip again.
The plus side to this is that even though it was only two days, Tuesday to Thursday there was a drastic difference in my fitness.
I went swimming again today and did a 2.5k workout, and was finally comfortably able to make my sets on 1:35. It always surprises me how quickly it will come back. Sure I'm still a long way off from where I was in the summer, but I can consider this my build phase for the coming season, get some good ground work in. My goal for next summer is to hit 1:25/100 meters open water over 2k, this is quite a bit faster than I'm at today but with some effort I think it can come.
Anyways, off to sleep, on that note I'm going swimming in the morning. Going to try and get as much fitness in before I get fat and lazy over the holidays when I'm back home with Mom cooking for me! I can't wait!
Take it easy
Thursday, November 20, 2008
1000 Hits
Monday, November 17, 2008
Subscribe To Vincent's Ramblings
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Looking forward to 2009
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
CRAZY FUNNY!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Long Days in Lab
Monday, October 27, 2008
I just want this pain to go away.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Tempting
Man, my presentation for tomorrow is never going to be finished if I keep this up.
Motivating Blog
Monday, October 20, 2008
About Time
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Pre Marathon Thoughts
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Nearly Killed By a Carrot
Monday, October 6, 2008
Potential Cause of Leg Injury
Marathon October 12th
Friday, October 3, 2008
Easy Week/Two Week Challenge
Monday, September 29, 2008
Throwing Down the Gauntlet, Marathon Training Complete.
I figure I have postponed this long enough, I'm throwing down the gauntlet. So here it is; my goal for the marathon is 2:59:59 or better.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Marathon Update
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Sorry!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Rough Weekend
Hope everyone had a great weekend, and wish me luck at physio tomorrow morning.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
T-10 Day Countdown
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Transition Workshop
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
I'll be back soon I promise
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Rhymes with Honk
Km 13 – Riding up the hill towards prospect point, I start to laugh with Facundo that my legs are still stiff from last nights Seymore adventure and that I need to loosen up for the rest of my ride. The weather is perfect and my spirits are high.
An uneventful trip out towards Horseshoe bay where Kevin surges up a few hills, but I am content with sitting on his wheel and just following, realizing that this is going to be a long day in the saddle, pacing my effort is going to be my key to success.
My growing impatience with taking it easy starts to wear on me. I accelerate out of a long sweeping descent arriving at the marina before the final 2km climb up to our turnaround. Deciding to keep the sustained effort up the hill I plod along, Facundo catapults himself by with ease and I try and respond. Kevin who was riding a fair bit behind after the descent slowly climbs his way back to me and passes. I’m thinking to myself Kevin is having a good day. We have a fairly quick first hour on the bike, however, due to city and park traffic it still takes an hour and ten minutes to get to Horseshoe bay, 34km of my day finished.
The plan to the day was survival, to do this nutrition was a must, I have packed with me a plethora of energy foods, Cliff bars, Powergels and a handful of chocolate chip peanut butter cookies Lilia made me. While waiting for the guys to take a nature break is mow down on some food.
Riding back from Horseshoe bay is always fun, it’s a net downhill, and although there are two long accents, they are followed by really long gradual descents where you can carry some great speed.
Riding between the two, I plan poorly for a climb and am in a heavy gear. I always forget about this climb. Kevin passes me and I joke about my stupidity. I give them some distance figuring I will simply make it up over the next few km. A fellow cyclist passes me on the flat and I click onto his wheel with the hope he will pull me back to my friends. Man both Facundo and Kevin are riding strong today. After about 5km they still have 15-20 seconds on me and I can’t close it down. I finally catch up as we reach the town at a light. Gulping down water I fiddle with my speedometer – 45km, I hope they don’t try and up the pace, I’m struggling. Last nights ride is beginning to take its toll.
Passing under the Lions Gate bridge I have my first Powergel, Vanilla YUM, I’m leading out until Lonsdale, where once again they pull away on a steady hill, taking advantage of congestion on the road I’m able to make up ground once more. I’m regretting my 90k Seymore ride last night.
I am stealing time whenever I can, noticing that Kevin and Facundo are sitting up and chatting behind me, I don’t waste the effort, head down, constant motion, I pull 200 then 500 meters ahead of them, not hard just, trying to bank time for when they start to motor. This may not have been to my advantage. The two close in on me fairly quickly once they start up again.
Determined not to slow them down I jump between them and aggressively draft off Facundo, not letting this Argentinean motor pull away from me. Realizing that he has a train following him, he decides this is a good time to open up, 41kph, 43kph, 45kph, our speed keeps creeping up on the flat. Never ceasing, riding steady 4% inclines at 38-40kph. Its taking all my effort just to hold on. Usually we do pulls like this for 1-3km. I keep on eye on the speedometer, 4km, he’s still holding strong, he must let up soon, arriving on Dollarton Road, we hit a rough patch of pavement, his speed is steady, mine slows drastically, my spinning isn’t sufficient to hold the power, I think to myself how difficult it must be for the pros when they hit the cobbled sections during the Paris-Roubaix. I apply the same strategy to my modest ride, heaving gearing low cadence over rough patches for better stability and power transfer. I crawl back to the Argentineans wheel, my eyes focused on only one thing, maintaining that 3-4 inches between wheels so as to not have to expend any more energy than required. 7km, he still hasn’t let up, staring down at his wheel in a trance, I should watching the road, BAM pothole, that one hurt a little bit, but no accident, this wakes me up a little. I look back at my wheel, Kevin is also holding on, looking strong but later confessing that he agrees the Argentinean bastard is a monster for putting us through such paces. Kevin has staying power, 1 hour, 4 hours, 6 hours, he hold steady, more than I can say for myself.
We reach the end of the big hill on Dollarton, I’ve survived, its downhill to Deep Cove. The Argentinean Monster takes off, and I decide to sit up and initiate conversation with Kevin, offering an excuse for myself to slow down. Getting to Deep Cove my legs are spent. I’ve finished both water bottles and eat my second Cliff Bar, no more cookies left, those I finished early. A very lengthy bathroom break to recover, I refill my bottles. For anyone interested, there is a culture center in Deep Cove, has a great public bathroom, not concern of sneaking into Starbucks or restaurants.
68km – I’ve realized my long ride isn’t going to happen, 180km is unlikely, and getting home is going to be a struggle. I confess at the cost of my ego to the guys that I can no longer hold the pace we came out in (the devastation, my pride, oh God!).
Kevin and Facundo are leading me home, they’re helping me on my way. I no longer have to refer to them by nicknames, that Argentinean bastard is once more Facundo. The ride back is uneventful. Not all to much talking on my behalf, Kevin and Facundo ride ahead of me breaking the wind (hehehe, but really now, I was drafting well).
Passing through Stanley Park I decide that since I am not riding the Richmond loop, that maybe I will go for a run instead. Derek was eager to exercise today, writing an essay has that effect on people, so I agreed compromised the ride for a run. This probably wasn’t the best idea. I’m now passing through Vancouver and I’m fading fast, sucking back Power gels so close to home, I’ve never done this before. But this time wasn’t for pleasure, it was necessity, without them I was going to bonk hard. Facundo turns off at his house and Kevin rides back with me up Dunbar. I’m at 97km. Almost there.
Riding up Dunbar I am holding a measly 12kph, my normal pace is to big gear it up at 25-30kph. This hurts. I crawl back to my place and consume as much sugars and fats as I can. Lilia, I ate 11 of your cookies, delicious!
20-minute recuperation and I was feeling good. I know I had avoided catastrophy. I hop back on my bike and ride out to meet Derek at UBC. This was going to be an epic brick workout.
Now before I describe my run, WHAT WAS I THINKING? GOING FOR A RUN WITH A GOOD RUNNER ON FRESH LEGS. I’m an idiot.
The run was really good actually, it was 1:30 PM and the sun was at its strongest, running into the woods we take refuge from the sun. I’m feeling good, we are holding a steady pace. And roughly 45 minutes and 10k later we arrive back at Dereks. Day complete. I stumble back onto my bike and make my way home to spend the rest of the day eating and Napping.
Thanks for reading.