TDF

Map my workouts

After watching the TDF and putting my bike workouts in a contest through Map my Ride, I decided to start posting again :) I think it'll be mostly raw data but at least I will be posting.

What have I been up to you ask? Well as I call it floating, spinning, and jogging. I am loving all 3 sports and I am slowly getting better at all 3. Muskoka is not too far off and I already feel confident that I can do it!

Ottawa to Hearst

First day of travel on the way out to the Yukon.
Pretty scenic route. We passed through a lot of little towns and cities that I have never seen of heard of. Not much stopping, other than for fuel and pee breaks (Maui included).

We had one major stop ... quite a necessity. Seems that the tire pressure looked low on the rear passenger side of the truck, we decided to monitor it, along with the fact that we hit a large pot hole and jumped off one of the mesh straps holding the vehicle on the trailer. We pulled off at the first gas station that had a air hose and put some air in. The outside tire had 115 psi and a very large chunk of rubber out of it and the inside tire looked find, but we couldn't get a good PSI readin kept say 15psi. As luck would have just then the area manager for Uhaul came in the same station so Mike went and chatted with him. He came over and gave it a look. He said the tire with the chunk out of it was fine but confirmed the inside had absolutely no air in it. W e are lucky we didn't loose that outside tire to the pothole or we would have been down shits creek without a paddle.

To make a long story short it is fixed now we lost about 125km of travelling ...we'll make it up today.

Time to get back on the road Again! I got lots of pictures ...even one of a beaver. I'll try to post them soon!

Tattoo preview

Here is just a preview, only the lines are drawn... there will be a lot of shading.

Union Station

First visit to Union station. I thought it was really nice at first, but then had the unfortunate visit to the dirty restrooms - totally changed my mind about the place. At that the bathrooms were very cool, by cool I mean old and would have been a pleasure if clean.

I had 2 hours before my next train. The nice "train stewardess" from my Windsor train told me not to wait in line for the Ottawa train because the seatin was pre-arranged. So I started to wander a bit and ended up at the base of the CN tower. I have been there 2x previous and have never been up. There will be another chance in the future, it was very foggy and I was not going to pay $26 to go look down at fog. So I took a few pictures instead.

I headed back to Union Station, wandered around a bit more. Watched a couple in a photoshoot of some kind, and all of the ppl around trying not to get in there way but had to. Then it was off to Gate 25 train 44 to Ottawa. There I met a line of a couple hundred ppl. It was only 11:30 and the train didn't board until 11:45 so I found a comfy spot to sit and did just what the nice "train stewardess" said "Don't wait in line!"
I sat there while hundreds of ppl stood in line. After about 15 minutes I heard a guy say to his wife "look at that guy, all relaxed just sitting there..."
I smiled and let out a little chuckle.
Next thing you know the line was moving...slowly at first. I thought well I had better get up. I ended up being the last person in lineand made it to the train on time!
The trip to Ottawa was again uneventful,and quiet. Again I napped and read my Triathlete magazine.
Tomorrow will be a day of packing and getting ready for the 7 day ride to Whitehorse!

misc pics

Trip to Whitehorse

Sunday April 26th,2009


I'm calling it starting out at sea level. Woke up at 4:00am and got moving. We were out of the door by 5:00 and stopped to get a much needed tim's coffee (although it tasted burnt;definetly more than 20 minutes old).
We made it to the Via station early enough to sit and talk for a while. I am very suprised at how few ppl take the train from Windsor to Toronto, maybe 10. Becca and I said our goodbyes and I boarded the train. Not even a minute on the train and my phone goes off "look outside"
there she was looking beautiful in her scrubs waving goodbye.
I spent several of the next few hours falling in and out of sleep, one time deep enough that when I woke up my mouth was wide open and I was drooling. It was a pretty uneventful trip, just the usual stops to let ppl on and off. Didn't really talk to anyone except for the odd text from Becca....the odd 30 messages (ok I did initiate some of them). Final tally Becca 30 me 44, just between Windsor and Toronto.

Big Adventure

Tomorrow I will be embarking on a great adventure! I am traveling from Ottawa , Ontario to WhiteHorse, YT with a friend and a 100lb Bernese mountain Dog!

Stay tuned as I will be blogging my adventure!

If ou get a chance check out http://cabinfeveradventures.com/ there is another link on the side bar!

Jake and Me

As the Martians invaded Dearborn on Saturday my 9 year old son ran his first 5km of the season. With only 5 training runs under his belt before the race he belted out a 32:41. He came 4th in his age group.
The morning was cold and windy. We arrived 2 hours early to the expo to pick our race packages. The technical are probably the coolest I have seen. All around outside and inside the expo were Aliens, in the trees on the parking meters - all over the place.

The course was out and back. It was nice a few rolling hills. About a mile into the run Jake got a cramp that he said felt like someone shot him...and since we were technically in Detroit I had to take a look around. I didn't hear any weapons discharge so I taught Jake how to slow down his breathing and breathe into his stomach. This helped a whole bunch. He was able to practise this through the rest of the race and only stopped one other time to sip some water at the turn around.

He was feeling much better towards the end of the race and was picking off people left and right. We decided that at a certain point about 250 meters from the finish that he would "bring it in strong" Boy did he ever, he was off like a shot...I took a video of it :). Before anyone makes a comment I do sound like a Psycho Dad, but I was really excited for him! Yes I was getting out of breath trying to catch him! BTW his goal time was 33:00.

Great week of training...

it will only get better!

Totals so far
Workouts: 7
Total Time: 06:21:01
Total Dist.: 47.4 Mi
Cal. Burned: 5078

Considering I missed a swim workout on Tuesday and still have a bike, swim and run workout planned for The weekend I am pretty happy with these stats. In the summer these numbers will at least double coming up to Muskoka. Right now I am just following a sprint distance triathlon training program, to get ready for the Belle River Triathlon. My focus will change mid April when my training will start for Muskoka!

Rain or shine

Had a brick workout- a 1 hour bike ride and 10 minute run right after. Woke up and saw that it was raining. I figured I would put it off and wait til later. I could just do it on the trainer, cause you know it is dangerous out there in the rain. Then the words of my Wife sounded again.
"It could rain on race day!"
That is all it took. I was soon getting ready to go get wet. Needless to say I went out for my wet, cold, windy bike ride. Then when I got back I stripped down to my "tri" shorts and hit the road running.
This was my 1st brick workout this year and found it funny how crazy it is coming off the bike into the run. Your legs feel so different, like they were someone elses. I had to do everything in my power to conciously slow myself down. I looked at Garmin and I was running a 6:22 Mile pace...way too fast for a "relaxed" pace. Once I got myself slowed a bit it was smooth travelling...anyone can run for 10 minutes!

Group Bike ride

Met a few ppl on BT for a group ride on Saturday morning. There ended up being five of us eventhough the weather was a tad chilly. We rode out to Stoney point and back then went for a coffee at timmies!
It was really great meeting some new people and hopefully we get an even bigger turnout as the weather gets better!

I ♥ bike

Took Blue out for a 1hour ride this afternoon. Very fast. Very fun. Very comfortable. I made the right decision to get this one!

I ♥ bike.

Push on

Looked like a good morning for a run since I was supposed to run last night and didn't out of sheer laziness. Even this morning I was going to wake up a the crack of dawn to get it done. I even put out my clothes and charged Garmin. Still when the alarm went off at 6AM I shut it off and hopped back into bed.

This week is the start of a new program. This is the week where and when I say I am going to really get into it and do it all - no skipping workouts. Why would I skip them anyhow, I'm feeling good... get er done.

So we get up. Everyone in the house is running just a tad late.... they manage to get out of the house on time, they are gone. Nobody left but Joey and me. I sit down at the computer and send Jaymie Gurl a txt message, I can do that now cause we got her a cell phone for when she goes away to school. She wasn't out of the house for 2 minutes... I love it a new way to keep in touch with her ever busier life. I check my email. Run aroound the house picking up the endless mess. Play puzzles with Joey. Doorbell rings! Hey it's Kelly, she is picking up my wetsuit to put a new zipper in it for me cause I am too fat, and tried to force the zipper too much.

Great now my wetsuit will be fixed just in time for the Ice to melt off the lake and wait another 2 months before my first open water swim. Yeah!

Procrastinate. Tidy up the kitchen. Head to the bedroom. Better put this running stuff on, may be this will give me the motivation to head out the door. Get it on and about a 1000 things go through my mind. Now I have to get Joey dressed. Where is that Ipod? Oh yeah Becca mentioned something about maybe I should use my handy dandy bike pump and put the right amount of pressure in the tires on the stroller. About a half hour later Joey is dawning his coat.

"Joey, do you want to go for a stroller ride?"

"No.....I want to go for a stroller run Daddy!"

Well that does it we are heading out.

Joey gets under his protective rain/wind cover and we are off. We walk to the end of the street and the running begins. First I take it easy and feel really good, Garmin confirms I am taking it easy. It is supposed to be a "moderate 35 minute run with 6 X 30 second fartleks sprinkled in" so I bump it up to a moderate pace. Stroller is handling very well. Who would of thought that by pumping the tires up from 20lbs to the 40lbs they are supposed to be at would make that much of a difference...Who...Knew?

We make our way down my standard 5km loop but I can't just do that I am running for 35 minutes that is at least 4 miles. So I start arguing with myself on what the best way to.

"Well I'll turn at St. Charles head down to 11th to Notre Dame then to Ducharme then come around back West along the lake road to Timmies for a coffee. That will add the extra mile."

"No, run down to the Marina go East along the lake road, back West down Old Tecumseh to Timmies for a coffee. That will add the extra mile."

While I argue with my self I run right past St. Charles to the end of the Marina, turn around head back towards the Lake road and head West the total opposite direction that I wanted to head. As I am doing this I look at my watch and think that may be I should start doing my fartleks.

I am now on Caille Ave instead of Lakeview drive as I run my first 30 sec Fartlek 5:25 pace..not too shabby. As I recover, I notice how beautiful of a day it is and my mind wanders off. I am breathing fine again and head off for another 30sec killer fartlek. I continue on and at the end of #4 fartlek I have this overwhelming urge to check Garmin. Hmmmm 35 minutes has passed. How can that be I've only done 4 Fartleks and I am still heading away from home. Better turn around. I could walk back, but then I really would not have finished my run. I still had 2 Fartleks to go. So I push on and finish the Fartleks ending up running for 45 minute instead of 35. You know I really feel good about no abandoning the last 2 and finishing up my run.

We walk to timmies for a coffee. I sit down still sweating and wearing winter running gear in the store. We leave after a coffee and an apple juice for Joey and walk the mile home. I wonder why I am so cold. Couldn't be sitting there sweating for 15 minutes in tim hortons, having a warm coffee and then heading back out into the 34 degree weather could it?

All told it was a great run that I could have easily put off. I am sticking to this schedule, even if it means shuffling the workouts around.

Nothing

Busy day yesterday didn't get a chance to do anything...actually by the time I did have a chance to do anything I was so tired, I didn't do anything.

Today's big plan is ride my bike. I've got to ride for about an hour and do some simulated hill repeats. Joey and I will probably go for a nice walk today too. He already told me he wants to ride in the wagon and it is terribly windy out there so I'm sure that will be a workout in itself.

Tomorrow morning is back to master's with Mike to do some swimming. Then a run in the afternoon. I should actually run some hills...may be if Joey is up to it we will hit Malden Park on the way home from visiting Grandma!