So I've been busy. Now that I'm in my second rest week (week 8 out of 33), I have some time to get my blog on! Tonight- A new tool for you to see how my training is coming along... Since my training started in the first week of the year, this little table displays both my YTD and my Ironman totals. I update it weekly and it automatically updates. Kinda nerdy, I know.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Obsession and Passion
Greetings friends, family and strangers! :) I just wanted to share with you my bike obsession. Yes, its an obsession. I won't sugar coat it. I'm so damn obsessed and here's evidence. All the bicycles I've owned in the past 4 years. It all began with a 1980's Raleigh 10 speed that I bought for $75 at Revolutions Community Bike Shop. I was photographing a live band at the 5th anniversary party of the bike shop and the director struck up a conversation with me and talked me into buying this bike, along with a year-long membership to the shop. Here I learned how to take apart a bike and build it up again. This was the beginning. Now I have all the tools to do it myself and I've become quite proficient at the art of bicycle building. I just wish I had a bigger space to work. Oh, well. Anyways, gotta go to bed..
Night!
Night!
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| This is where it all started... 80's Raleigh Record, converted into a fixed gear RIP |
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| A year later, with mustache bars, fenders and snow tires. RIP |
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| Found this bike abandoned on the side of the road. Stripped it, built it up and sold it. Sold. |
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| Found this GT Rage with 105 STI shifters and nice parts for 50 bucks at a thrift store. Sold the frame, components and wheels separately for a grand total of $300!!! |
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| Oh, Shirley. This is the bike that I traveled on for two months from Canada to Mexico. A good one. Sold it though. |
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| Ol' Pinky. RIP |
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| I had this fine steed for about 5 months. Sold it to subsidize my unemployedness in my first few months in Canada. |
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| My triathlon bike. |
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| A Bianchi frame I found in an alleyway. Gave it to my friend Kirk in Portland and he built it up for his brother in Hawaii. Aloha! |
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| My first cyclocross bike. it was too small... |
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| So I bought this one... Then I sold it after racing it a few times. |
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| I really miss this old Raleigh Marathon. I bought this frame to replace my first bike. Then sold it to a guy taller than I. And I think it might be a little to small for him. He looked like Abe Lincoln. |
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| Ah, the Rocky Mountain that is as light as a feather, climbs like a monkey and makes me drool. I'm selling it to pay for my new triathlon race bike. :) |
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| My current commuter. Miyata touring frame, surly fork. Badass pinkness. This is the replacement frame for Mr. Pink, may his soul rest in bike-heavenly peace. Oh, this bike is SOLID! |
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| Ironman bike for Kellen. Just wait till you see the tri-spoke front wheel I'm acquiring. |
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| My current winter training/commuter. Got the frame for free from Cannondale rep, some guy at the factory wasn't paying attention and welded one of the cable stops on backwards. quick and easy fix and I have a rad (fender-able) bike! |
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| The bike I know best. This bike took me from Seattle to Portland (200mi or 320k) in 11 hours. 7 bike races in 2009. Such a great bike! |
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| My living room/bedroom/yoga studio/bike shop |
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| Our bike room. Only one is mine. Before I bought some hooks, this room was a nightmare. I love organized bike closets. |
Monday, January 24, 2011
Root Veg Soup!!!
I love to make enough food to last a few days. Large hearty soups seem to feed me the longest. I'm always hungry and when I have to go to school all day and if I don't take time to pack a lunch or two, well, it gets rather expensive. Plus, the food options at school are kinda slim. It's either Sprouts or Pendulum. Sprouts, a 100% volunteer run cafe and grocery store, makes soups from local produce and ingredients. Soup is less than 4 bucks. If you are late, you miss out on the wonderful hand made breads and if you come even later, you miss out on soup. No soup for you!!! If late, I go to Pendulum, and get some bean salad of some sort and my favorite dish they serve- Hominy Salad! Yum!! Know what Hominy is? even better, do you know what pazole is? I had my first pazole at a restaurant in Portland I worked at. It was the staff/family-style dinner of the evening. Yum! And just recently I wrote a love poem to the creator of the most wonderful vegan pazole at Whole Foods. I don't remember what was in it, I just remember it was the most amazing soup ever! I truly did write love poem the the chef. :) (the love poem wasn't directed at the chef. It's the soup I have undying love for)
Here's what I cooked for the next few days and a midnight snack for tonight:
Hearty root veg dreams for me.
Here's what I cooked for the next few days and a midnight snack for tonight:
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| Sauteed onions, celery, carrot, cumin, coriander in olive oil. Then added yams and sweet pots. garlic and ginger... MMM |
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| Then I added some water and french lentils. Quinoa to boot! Its going to be a very rounded soup. |
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Hearty root veg dreams for me.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
End of 3rd week...
So, this week's standings:
Bike: 72k - 3:45 (two of three workouts were on trainer, so i didn't actually go anywhere)
Run: 44k - 3:43
Swim: 5700m - 2:55
Total time - 10 hours 48 minutes.
A new breakthrough- Yin Yoga! Last night I took a 7pm class of Yin style yoga which focuses on deep long stretches as opposed to strengthening and lengthening of the muscles. Hatha and power flow classes are full of standing poses and you generally break a sweat and are constantly engaging muscles. Good for toning and getting a nice butt. haha. Yin poses are all on the mat, using lots of different props to allow full relaxation into each pose. Poses we did: child's pose(10 minutes), pigeon pose (5 minutes each side), Supta Baddha Konasana (my fav, 10 mintues) and a spine twist for a bit. I felt so relaxed and my troublesome core muscles loved me! Can't wait to go again!
This week's workouts were terrific! I felt very strong in the pool. Tonight I did my first swim with hand paddles. Here is a wiki explaining what they do. It was quite interesting and most certainly felt more arm muscles engaging and I bet I'll be sore tomorrow.
Monday- rest day!
Tuesday- Second VO2 max test - 10k TT and an evening swim
Wednesday- Run- Hill repeats - brutal 10% - 4x5 minutes
Thursday- Run- Fartleks and Evening swim with UBC (a whole hour of Hypoxic drills- less and less oxygen intake, to build anaerobic ability, very hard!!!)
Friday- Bike - indoor technique drills - hard power drills for an hour with an off the bike 3 minute wall sit and 36 explosive vertical jumps in the middle)
Saturday- Bike w/ UBC Triathlon club - 2hr30min long and easy ride - zones 1-2, which feels like riding with grandma, kinda
Sunday - Run- 1hr45min long and easy run @ 4:40/k pace (which I was very excited about due to lack of pestering knee pain- Finally!!! Back to normal!! thanks foam roller!) and a 2k evening swim
Starting tomorrow: rest week!!! No workouts over 30 minutes and hot tubbin! :) Oh, and a XC ski night on Friday!
Just so you know. There is a growing number of us UBC Triathlon club members who are doing Ironman Canada. I think there is about 7 of us. We have rented out a house for the weekend just outside of Penticton, BC. So, there will be lots of team support, solidarity and general hoorah! Very exciting!
Soon I'll post pictures of my bike(s) haha
Oh, and I thought I might close with a couple photos of a UBC Tri Club party I went to last night...
Bike: 72k - 3:45 (two of three workouts were on trainer, so i didn't actually go anywhere)
Run: 44k - 3:43
Swim: 5700m - 2:55
Total time - 10 hours 48 minutes.
A new breakthrough- Yin Yoga! Last night I took a 7pm class of Yin style yoga which focuses on deep long stretches as opposed to strengthening and lengthening of the muscles. Hatha and power flow classes are full of standing poses and you generally break a sweat and are constantly engaging muscles. Good for toning and getting a nice butt. haha. Yin poses are all on the mat, using lots of different props to allow full relaxation into each pose. Poses we did: child's pose(10 minutes), pigeon pose (5 minutes each side), Supta Baddha Konasana (my fav, 10 mintues) and a spine twist for a bit. I felt so relaxed and my troublesome core muscles loved me! Can't wait to go again!
This week's workouts were terrific! I felt very strong in the pool. Tonight I did my first swim with hand paddles. Here is a wiki explaining what they do. It was quite interesting and most certainly felt more arm muscles engaging and I bet I'll be sore tomorrow.
Monday- rest day!
Tuesday- Second VO2 max test - 10k TT and an evening swim
Wednesday- Run- Hill repeats - brutal 10% - 4x5 minutes
Thursday- Run- Fartleks and Evening swim with UBC (a whole hour of Hypoxic drills- less and less oxygen intake, to build anaerobic ability, very hard!!!)
Friday- Bike - indoor technique drills - hard power drills for an hour with an off the bike 3 minute wall sit and 36 explosive vertical jumps in the middle)
Saturday- Bike w/ UBC Triathlon club - 2hr30min long and easy ride - zones 1-2, which feels like riding with grandma, kinda
Sunday - Run- 1hr45min long and easy run @ 4:40/k pace (which I was very excited about due to lack of pestering knee pain- Finally!!! Back to normal!! thanks foam roller!) and a 2k evening swim
Starting tomorrow: rest week!!! No workouts over 30 minutes and hot tubbin! :) Oh, and a XC ski night on Friday!
Just so you know. There is a growing number of us UBC Triathlon club members who are doing Ironman Canada. I think there is about 7 of us. We have rented out a house for the weekend just outside of Penticton, BC. So, there will be lots of team support, solidarity and general hoorah! Very exciting!
Soon I'll post pictures of my bike(s) haha
Oh, and I thought I might close with a couple photos of a UBC Tri Club party I went to last night...
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| this is one on my favorite types of pics to take. Jumping!!! |
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| Can you find me in this photo? |
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Second $50 dollar installment...
So, today was part two of three in the UBC study involving triathletes and cyclists. Once again, I have 50 big ones in my pocket and somewhat wobbly legs. This time I got some pictures and a video to illustrate the scene.
Oh, and I'm sporting my new UBC Triathlon Club cycling kit. Team Solidarity!!!
And here's a video explaining the 6 minutes of hell I talked about in the previous post...
The 10K time trial went well. I rode it just over 15 minutes, which is pretty standard for me. They have this cool computer software that simulates green fields and mountains with trees that appear out of nowhere to break up the 10k of hell. My legs were burning. Max power- 480, average power 280..
One more installment to come. Swimming tonight. Nighty Night!
One more installment to come. Swimming tonight. Nighty Night!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Week 2 completed!
I'm am officially finished with my second week of Ironman training!!! My first week was quite casual and the last week... well, it was amazing. This week I did 9 workouts! Three in each discipline. My bike rides were all done on my indoor trainer, one was a VO2 max test (more about that below), a power workout and a 2:20 ride while watching a very exciting movie. For my runs, I ran a 60 minute hill training workout, a 50 minute "fartlek" workout and a 105 minute/19k LSD (long slow distance). I swam just under 6000 meters. One more "build" week of and then a rest week- Hot Tub and yoga! :)
I feel a new confidence in the pool! My thursday night swim practice with UBC Triathlon Club was amazing, swam 2000m and felt solid. Now I just have to get faster, which, I've been told comes when you swim 3 or more days per week. So, 3 days a week for the next 33 weeks... Oh, I counted how many weeks of training I have total of 33 weeks of training! Two down! :)
As for the VO2 max test... The Human Kinetics program at UBC is doing a study on the potential advantageous and/or unfair effects of Salbutamol, an drug used by asthmatics(and maybe non-asthmatics). The World Anti-Doping Agency is bankrolling this study and I'm a participant. I wish I could tell you the names of the tests they performed on me, but I can't. Test 1: They had me take full inhalations and exhalations into a computer to see my lung capacity. Inhale as deep as possible and then exhale as fast as possible and hold for 6 seconds, trying ever so hard to squeeze an impossible extra amount out. Test 2: I hyperventilated for 6 whole minutes, breathing a "dry" mixture of air. That was by far more painful and difficult then any exercise I did this week. My throat was burning and 6 minutes felt like an eternity. Full breaths in and out at a very high cadence. Test 3: Repeat of Test 1, but in 5 minute intervals for 20 minutes. This is to see if I have Exercise Induced Asthma (which I don't), which can have a delayed onset.
Then, my favorite part: The VO2 max bicycle test. This is a great scene from American Flyers with Mr. Costner, sport a magnificent mustache. I envy his athletic and mustache ability... The test I took was on a bike of course and I had a big air mask strapped to my face.
According to Wiki - "world class male athletes, cyclists and cross-country skiers typically exceed 75 ml/kg/min and a rare few may exceed 85 ml/kg/min". I scored 78!! What does that mean? It means I have athletic potential. It also doesn't really mean much. My coach said its something to brag about, thats it. :) Well, I've been tooting my own horn. My good friend and training partner scored a 63, just barely enough to participate in the study, but is a stronger, faster athlete..
On the next two tuesdays, I'll be at the lab again, on the bike, with the mask on. But I'll be doing two 10k time trials. On both tests, I'll be given an inhaler that will or will not contain the drug Salbutamol. Neither I or the facilitator will know, making it a double blind study. The reason they want experienced elite cyclists for the study is for consistency in the time trials. Both time trials have to be pretty close in time to be useful. An inexperienced cyclist might have minutes of variation. Then they will measure the O2 levels I'm breathing out and see if there is an advantage.
Oh, and I get paid $50 each test! :) Cash money always wins. Maybe I'll get her to take a picture tomorrow of the bike setup and me and the tubes...
One more thing, a very funny and accurate animation:
I feel a new confidence in the pool! My thursday night swim practice with UBC Triathlon Club was amazing, swam 2000m and felt solid. Now I just have to get faster, which, I've been told comes when you swim 3 or more days per week. So, 3 days a week for the next 33 weeks... Oh, I counted how many weeks of training I have total of 33 weeks of training! Two down! :)
As for the VO2 max test... The Human Kinetics program at UBC is doing a study on the potential advantageous and/or unfair effects of Salbutamol, an drug used by asthmatics(and maybe non-asthmatics). The World Anti-Doping Agency is bankrolling this study and I'm a participant. I wish I could tell you the names of the tests they performed on me, but I can't. Test 1: They had me take full inhalations and exhalations into a computer to see my lung capacity. Inhale as deep as possible and then exhale as fast as possible and hold for 6 seconds, trying ever so hard to squeeze an impossible extra amount out. Test 2: I hyperventilated for 6 whole minutes, breathing a "dry" mixture of air. That was by far more painful and difficult then any exercise I did this week. My throat was burning and 6 minutes felt like an eternity. Full breaths in and out at a very high cadence. Test 3: Repeat of Test 1, but in 5 minute intervals for 20 minutes. This is to see if I have Exercise Induced Asthma (which I don't), which can have a delayed onset.
Then, my favorite part: The VO2 max bicycle test. This is a great scene from American Flyers with Mr. Costner, sport a magnificent mustache. I envy his athletic and mustache ability... The test I took was on a bike of course and I had a big air mask strapped to my face.
According to Wiki - "world class male athletes, cyclists and cross-country skiers typically exceed 75 ml/kg/min and a rare few may exceed 85 ml/kg/min". I scored 78!! What does that mean? It means I have athletic potential. It also doesn't really mean much. My coach said its something to brag about, thats it. :) Well, I've been tooting my own horn. My good friend and training partner scored a 63, just barely enough to participate in the study, but is a stronger, faster athlete..
On the next two tuesdays, I'll be at the lab again, on the bike, with the mask on. But I'll be doing two 10k time trials. On both tests, I'll be given an inhaler that will or will not contain the drug Salbutamol. Neither I or the facilitator will know, making it a double blind study. The reason they want experienced elite cyclists for the study is for consistency in the time trials. Both time trials have to be pretty close in time to be useful. An inexperienced cyclist might have minutes of variation. Then they will measure the O2 levels I'm breathing out and see if there is an advantage.
Oh, and I get paid $50 each test! :) Cash money always wins. Maybe I'll get her to take a picture tomorrow of the bike setup and me and the tubes...
One more thing, a very funny and accurate animation:
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The Beginning
Welcome to my new blog! My last blogging experience was a couple years ago when I rode my touring bike from Vancouver, BC (where I live now) to San Diego, CA/Tijuana, Mexico. Since then I've gravitated to a faster moving interest in bicycles and am now throwing in running and dreadful swimming. I spent the summer of 2009 doing a lot of road biking in Portland. Some cyclocross and gold tights, 200 miles from Seattle to Portland in one day and a mountain bike race on a road bike equiped with knobby tires.
Then I moved to Vancouver, BC and for some strange reason decided that I wanted to learn how to swim. I really stunk and sometimes still stink at swimming. I'm slow. But I've come leaps and bounds since my first few weeks in the pool. Hiring a swim coach was a smart move. He also helped me train for my first 70.3 or Half Ironman that took place last summer in Lake Stevens, WA. I also did two olympic and one sprint distance triathlon. I'll upload a super cool section with all my PB's(personal best) soon..
I've been trying to get this blog up and running for quite a while. This is hopefully going to be a log of my adventures in Ironman Canada training, nutrition and whatever else I feel like talking about..
I'm training for Ironman Canada, which takes place in Penticton, BC on August 28th. For those who don't know the distance of an Ironman: 3.8k swim/180k bike/42.2k run or 2.4m/112m/26.2 for my US friends.. I've hired CMS coaching (husband and wife duo) to coach me for the next eight months.
I'm also attending UBC full time. Thats going to be fun juggling 3 classes(luckily all on tuesday, wednesday and thursday) and full time Ironman training- 9 workouts per week. Three of each discipline, with one day off. I'm learning that I have to pack my lunch(es) and backpack the night prior or I'm totally lost all day. Today I forgot my running clothes and had to scavenge the UBC Triathlon Club office for some lost and found stuff.
Ok, I just had to get this started, afterall, this is my first week of training. Wish me luck!
Then I moved to Vancouver, BC and for some strange reason decided that I wanted to learn how to swim. I really stunk and sometimes still stink at swimming. I'm slow. But I've come leaps and bounds since my first few weeks in the pool. Hiring a swim coach was a smart move. He also helped me train for my first 70.3 or Half Ironman that took place last summer in Lake Stevens, WA. I also did two olympic and one sprint distance triathlon. I'll upload a super cool section with all my PB's(personal best) soon..
I've been trying to get this blog up and running for quite a while. This is hopefully going to be a log of my adventures in Ironman Canada training, nutrition and whatever else I feel like talking about..
I'm training for Ironman Canada, which takes place in Penticton, BC on August 28th. For those who don't know the distance of an Ironman: 3.8k swim/180k bike/42.2k run or 2.4m/112m/26.2 for my US friends.. I've hired CMS coaching (husband and wife duo) to coach me for the next eight months.
I'm also attending UBC full time. Thats going to be fun juggling 3 classes(luckily all on tuesday, wednesday and thursday) and full time Ironman training- 9 workouts per week. Three of each discipline, with one day off. I'm learning that I have to pack my lunch(es) and backpack the night prior or I'm totally lost all day. Today I forgot my running clothes and had to scavenge the UBC Triathlon Club office for some lost and found stuff.
Ok, I just had to get this started, afterall, this is my first week of training. Wish me luck!
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