WHOA...BLINDSIDED!!

Last week I was completely prepared to begin the increase in my training miles. All went well with the miles, swim felt good, got through some cold weather, stood up by my training partner, flat tire, and got through it only to be blindsided by something I hadn't prepared for. My diet. It's been about 8 months since my last peak training miles period and I forgot what the increase in training time does to the diet. I was so hungry this week, I couldn't get enough to eat, and because I wasn't prepared for it I ate everything I could get my hands on...good and bad.

I had planned out my meals to be good healthy meals but didn't take in to consideration the increased calorie need, so I compensated by making a trip to the cafeteria every day, and an extra trip to the kitchen every evening. Because I was not prepared, nothing in the snack department was healthy!

This week is going to be different, I am prepared and it's all fruit, vegetables, and nuts for snacks!

Cheers

154 DAYS!!! 22 WEEKS!!!

I was looking at my training plan this morning and doing some fine tuning. I realized it's 22 weeks, 154 days to ironman. Things are getting serious now! Up to this point I have basically been riding and running for the fun of it. Sticking to a regular schedule but mainly trying to enjoy what I'm doing and trying to be creative. My plan was to become more disciplined and calculated at 23 weeks. This week I began with my official program.

1600 m in the pool on Sunday(4 sets of 400m) followed by a 45 min track workout.
Monday I rode to work (by myself in the cold and dark). 50 km of hill work.
Tuesday was a 12km, 1 hour run.
Wednesday I spent 90 minutes on the trainer before work doing endurance work.
Thursday was another 2000m in the pool.
Friday was our regular group ride. 70 km with the first half hill work then steady state, and I was able to avoid the urge to hammer it out with the hammerheads and stick to my own workout leading the middle of the packers.
Saturday is an off day, but I have a basketball game.

This week I will add in my long run as this week was an easy week. I will also get back to some yoga this week and 2 sessions in the weight room.

Overall I felt good, but HUNGRY! I couldn't seem to eat enough to make me happy!

The other issue I had this week was that my training partner bailed on me 4 of the 5 mornings. This was a good thing as it was a little test of my willpower early on. All 4 mornings I made the right choice and feel good about it!

So this is the first week of official scheduled training and I will say if anything I feel like I'm ahead of schedule. Scheduleling is still going to take some tweaking. Everything I did this week with the exception of Sundays run I did before school. This is what works best for my family and what I would prefer to do, but there just isn't going to be enough time as the hours increase. As well, swimming is still up in the air as we are trying to find the place that works best to swim. Jaz has been very supportive and that's great so all will work out.

Cheers for now.

SOLITUDE!

O.k., so it's 5:00 am, cold, windy, dark and no one else has shown up to ride.

I'm only a couple blocks from home and could crawl back in to my warm bed for another hour, or even jump on the trainer?!?

It's only mid January and most of the world isn't able to put quality miles on their bike yet!!

You know what...it is only January and most of the world isn't able to put quality miles on the bike so why not take advantage of it!!

An abreviated version of the conversation I had with myself this morning. In the end I decided to head out and had one of the best rides I've had for a while.

One of the things I like best about riding is the solitude I seem to find after about an hour on the bike. It doesn't seem to matter if it's solo or riding with a group. It just seems it's better solo. A couple hours on the bike and I go through a few different phases. I start out by just enjoying/appreciating everything around me. Then I go inside myself and sort out/organize my day, my schedule, solve problems. I seem to be able to think more clearly after I've been on the bike for an hour or so, everything slows down for me. Then things start to go silent. My mind quiets down, everything slows down and no matter what is going on around me I seem to find peace. Then If I get to the next phase I begin to notice things around me again, only different than the start of the ride...rather than just seeing things I seem to be able to see through things, rather than see the people on the street, see into the lives of people on the street. When the ride is over, I feel sometimes like I've been on a vacation!

This morning was like that only better. There is something about the solitude of a solo ride that is multiplied by 1000 when it's in the dark. The world gets smaller around you and becomes you and the little area of light in your headlight or under the streetlight. I got in about 55km this morning in 2 hours, most of it uphill and finished at school with enough time to sit in my office and have coffee before anyone else arrived. I felt completely at peace when school started, and not even the class of 'meatheads' I had to cover for could take that away!

Back to the reason I decided to head out...quality miles outside on the bike in the middle of winter! That's quality ironman miles!

Cheers

SOME PICTURES OF ANAKA IN INDIA.

HOME SAFE & SOUND

We made it home from India in one piece. The last week was eventful.

I spent an evening volunteering at a rescue house for street kids. This house was for girls. I took Anaka along and they loved her. She was a great source of entertainment as well. I spent most of the evening reading to kids and helping them with homework.

The New Years Day triathlon took place. I managed to talk 2 others who were staying at the same place to also take part. We 'rented' three bikes (100 rupees (2 dollars)). They were interesting bikes, I could hardly lift mine! We swam for 20 minutes, then biked about 8 km followed by a 5 km run. It was all in good fun.

The following day I came down with something and had a fever for two days and a lack of energy. I carried on with events, but didn't feel great.

A couple days before we were scheduled to come home I took the motorbike I had rented out to take some pictures and was run off the road by a guy not paying attention. I was o.k. with some scrapes on my arm and leg, by big toe has turned black and blue and two of my fingers and thumb are cut up pretty bad, but I am o.k luckily. The bike was also banged up, but I was able to continue riding it.

The trip home turned out to be longer than we thought as we were delayed in Jordan Airport for and additional 5 hours. Jordan airport is no place to be stranded as there is NOTHING to do!

Now we are home and start school tomorrow. Tomorrow morning the fun and games are over as training for Ironman Switzerland gets sserious. It will be 6 months of dedicated training!!

Cheers for now