Stir Crazy!

Ack! I hate being sidelined with this hip injury! I'm going mental with all this time off.

I think I've figured out why I like to exercise so much: it helps to curb my urge to eat out of boredom; it makes me feel less guilty when I do eat because I know I am burning off calories; what I do eat feels more fulfilling because I'm actually hungry from exercising.

So, after four days of inactivity, I'm starting to go stir crazy. I feel undernournished because I'm not able to eat as many calories as I'm used to - only about 400-600 fewer, but that's still a fair amount. Jeez, come the weekend, I can easily burn an additional 1,000 calories on a long run. I actually feel physically hungry (in a deprived kind of way), which is a different kind of hunger I feel after exercising.

I've been following the calorie recommendations made by Nutr!diary.com, so I know I've been eating enough, but what I've found is that I struggle to take in enough calories on the days I exercise, and struggle not to consume too many on the days that I don't. I just can't figure it out.

And the scales have not been cooperating lately, either. I weigh myself twice per week - Mondays and Fridays - and as of Monday's weigh-in I'm only half a pound down from where I started. Tomorrow is another weigh-in day, so we'll see what the number is looking like.

I've been really good about sticking to my Boot Camp plan. I can almost count on one hand the number of times I've "cheated" in the last two(plus) weeks:

I had one sip of wine last Friday night when I was making stew for dinner. I tasted it before using it to cook with. The rest of the bottle has been sitting on my counter - untouched - for the last week. I've had no other alcohol since Sunday, September 11th.

I had a slice of cake last week at a going-away party for a colleague. I also had one oatmeal-raisin cookie at another going-away event this week.

I skipped a couple of workouts, mostly because of scheduling conflicts. I still managed to work out a minimum of five days a week, and on some days I had two workouts (until this week, that is).

I have not been successful in eliminating refined carbs from my diet. Many of the frozen entrees I eat have noodles made with white flour or white rice. I also had mashed potatoes the other night.

So, I don't know what else I have to do differently to see some movement on the scales!

Most of my colleagues are golfing tomorrow afternoon so I think I'll leave work early and head to the gym for a workout. My left arm is a bit sore from the tetanus shot I got on Monday. It feels like I've been punched in the arm. I just really need to move and get my blood pumping. Even though I was sore, I felt pretty good at floor hockey on Tuesday night.

Wish me luck!

Boot Camp - Week Two Update

Well, I've been reeeeeeealy good with Boot Camp over the last two weeks and what do I have to show for it?? Basically, NOTHING!

I weighed in this morning and the numbers on the scale were flashing between 169 and 172, finally settling on 171. That's pretty much where I started two weeks ago! Grrrr.

I've had some challenges logging all my food, but I've been consistently under my daily calorie allowances and I only "cheated" once or twice (although still didn't go over my daily quota), so I'm not sure what's going on. Pfft!

My wounds are healing pretty well. I went to the walk-in clinic today and they cleaned and dressed it properly and gave me a tetanus shot, just to be safe. I also had a phone call from a police officer to say that I had filled out the wrong form to report the incident and that I should have had a statement taken by an officer as it's considered a traffic accident. So now I have to go back into the station to file the report. Maybe tomorrow.

I took it easy and didn't do any exercise today. I won't go to the gym again tomorrow, but I do have to play floor hockey tomorrow night as we are short on women and I don't want our team to lose by default.

Crash!

Not once, but TWICE today on my bike. I'm fine, for the most part. Here's the story.

I left home early (just before 7AM) while it was still a bit dark and a little rainy. I was heading downtown to watch my friends doing a marathon/half-marathon. After cheering people on near the start, I decided to ride out to the east end (not too far from home, actually) so that I could cheer H on there. On my way, I hit a set of wet, slippery, angled train tracks and went down. My bike just slid out from underneath me and I ended up with some lovely road rash on the underside of my forearm and my hip. No biggie - it stung a bit, but no major damage.

After the race, I was riding home along my normal route when a van cut me off. I was beside a parked car in the right-hand lane and he tried to scoot into my lane ahead of me to pass a car (on the right) in front of him. I yelled at him and held onto the side of the van to try and let him know I was there, but he just kept merging and forcing me to the right. I lost control and went down hard this time, on the same side as last time. In the split second that I lay there on the ground, I was hoping to GUS that I wouldn't actually get hit/run over while I was on the ground.

My travel coffee mug that had been in my water-bottle cage on the bike went flying and a car rode over it to a really loud BANG. Nice.

The driver of the van stopped to see if I was OK but when I said, "Well, you HIT ME" he totally denied it and claimed that it was MY fault! I told him he cut me off and he said that I vered out into traffic from behind a parked car. Whatever!

I told him I was taking down his licence plate number. I didn't have a pen, so I memorized it and repeated it in my head for the 3K ride to the police station. I was also pissed because there were two public transit drivers standing on the corner waiting for the streetcar and neither one of them came over to see if I was OK. The only people who said anything to me was the couple who were double-riding on the bike path when I finally caught up to them at the next lights.

I rode to the police station and filed my report. I don't know if anything will come of it, but at least it will be on file. Based on the fact that he didn't actually hit me and he did stop, the most he can probably be charged with (if anything) is careless driving. Because from what I could tell, he moved into the right hand lane to pass a car that was turning left in front of him - and passing on the right is a no-no (even though we all do it, including me).

When I got home I took a shower, cleaned and iced my injuries (I have a very large scrape on my hip that has swollen up to look like it has a small nerf football underneath the skin). I also have a large bump on my elbow. Oww. I fell asleep on the couch watching something mindless on TV. I hope I can sleep tonight - I don't like napping in the middle of the day.

So, I'm going to take the next couple of days off from riding to work. It's just as well because it's supposed to rain for the next couple of days and I don't like to commute in the rain. I'll probably also stay home from the gym for a couple of days, too.

I think I rode about 30K today - from home to downtown and back - twice. I'm feeling pretty good after my long run yesterday, so I'm feeling optimistic about my race in November (as long as I don't have any lingering injuries from my two falls today).

Success!

Still have the throat thing - it's not getting any better, nor is it getting any worse. Things were busy at work last week, so if I have time this week I'll pop into a clinic and see what the deal is. Normally this kind of throat thing (which I get whenever I am sick) migrates into my lungs, which it hasn't this time. It seems to have stalled where it is. But it feels like I have this wad of phlegm (sorry!) stuffed up in the back of my throat where it connects to my nasal passages. I don't actually feel much pain until I swallow (or yawn, which is weird).

I had a great run this morning! I met up with CL, whom I haven't run with in ages, and we headed out for a planned 15K run. I made a wrong turn (which I never do!) so the route ended up being 16K (10 miles) in the end. We did it in 1:52, including a stop at the variety store to get some dried fruit bars as I had forgotten my Gu (energy gels).

After running I did my laundry and then went on a shopping excursion. Well, I now FINALLY fit into size 12 jeans!!! I tried on one pair and they were just that little bit too tight and was quite distraught. My size 14s are falling off me and sagging in the butt and, as we all know, jeans have to make your butt look good - that's the whole point of jeans! Anyway, I went back and got two more pairs in a different style and to my surprise they fit! I was totally stoked! I also bought some new boots in a sort of oxblood colour - they're very nice.

So I'm off to meet my fellow runners for a little pre-race carbo loading (well, not me since I'm not running tomorrow). I've met some of them before, but some of them I've only "met" on-line, so that will be cool.

I haven't done too well with my food journaling this weekend, but I'm fairly confident that I haven't gone over my allowed calories for the day. I ran for 110 minutes this morning, which accounts for well over 1,000 calories burned, so I'm not too worried about overeating today.

Sick & Tired

I woke up with a sore throat the other morning. Normally that means that I will get a full-blown chest cold within a couple of days, but as of today it hasn't migrated the way it normally does. I'm also suffering from allergies right now, so I'm not sure if the sore throat is allergy-related or a cold. It's not getting any better and it kind of feels like a swollen lump in the back of my throat. Gag.

I'm also totally wiped out. Today was my off day from working out, so I took the streetcar to work instead of riding my bike. I was also teaching for the third day in a row and I still have to teach tomorrow (all day on my feet). On the way home, the streetcar short-turned, so I had to walk the rest of the way home. I wasn't wearing proper walking shoes, so I ended up with blisters. Ack! But I did use it as an opportunity to pop into the local bike shop and buy a light for my bike that I really should have had for a while since it's been dark when riding to work in the morning. I have a rear light that flashes red, but not a headlight. But now I do!

I'm back to the gym tomorrow morning. Normally I would plan to run on Friday, but I have to do my long run on Saturday because I'm going down to watch H run the marathon on Sunday, as well as a bunch of other friends who are doing the half-marathon. That means I won't get a long bike ride in this weekend. I'll have to e-mail FS tomorrow and let her know I won't be there.

Speaking of running, I had a great (but hard) run last night. I had planned to run hard but the weather was very hot and sticky, so it was particularly unpleasant. I tried to keep up with the group who are faster runners than I am, but I was always a few hundred feet behind them. But it was good motivation for me to keep pushing the pace. I tracked my pace over one kilometer and it was 5:25/km (8:42/mile) and I kept that pace up for about 5K of my 6K run, so very fast for me overall. My hip is feeling OK today, which is also good.

I'm totally wiped, though. I was supposed to do laundry after work but when I got home my couch was calling my name and I just couldn't drag myself off it. Laundry will have to wait. I actually fell asleep for about 30 minutes while watching TV, which is so not like me, especially at that time of day. I guess I'm just not fully recovered from my race three weeks ago, so these last two weeks of training has been tough on me. Other than riding down to watch the race on Sunday, I'll take that as a second rest day this week because I need it.

Other than the workouts being tough on my body, Boot Camp is going pretty well. I'm getting the eating and food journaling under control, so that's good. Maybe I'm splitting hairs, but the little slips I've had food-wise this week I'm filing under "cutting myself some slack". As long as I'm under my daily quota of calories (and I always have been), then I'm not too worried about it. And I've been good about not eating mindlessly. I've been 100% OP in my abstinence from alcohol and I've had many opportunities to cave on that.

Tomorrow is my mid-week weigh-in, so I hope to see a happy number. If not, no biggie - I've still got my official weigh-in on Monday.

Two Pounds

So, my week of diligence with Boot Camp yielded a two-pound loss. I think. Since I wanted to be a damn ostrich and bury my head in the sand, I never weighed in last Monday as I normally do. I'd had a bad couple of days with food, alcohol and sweets, so I decided not to start my week off on a low note if I didn't like the number I saw, so I chose to ignore it. So, based on the last weigh-in I had done the week before (172), I decided to use that as my baseline, which brings me in with a two-pound loss for the week.

That's actually pretty good - right on target. I'm hoping for an average weight-loss of about 1.5 pounds per week until December, so two pounds in the first week is just fine, considering I'll probably have some weeks where I don't lose anything.

I'm feeling quite good after my long run yesterday. No lingering pain, just the normal post-long-run sore butt, etc. It's good to be back!

Like Internet Dating??

I ran this morning. Woo! I did 13K (8 miles) in about 90 minutes (nice and slow, just as planned). I had great energy and didn't feel any pain in my hip (or anywhere else for that matter). Success! I'm very optimistic now that I'll be able to run the Half-Mararthon I had considered doing in early November.

I ran with two guys whom I'd never ran with before; in fact, I had never even met them before! I'm part of an on-line running discussion board/club and some of us live in the same neighbourhood, so we planned to meet for a run today. We had never met in person and had only ever communicated on-line (just like internet dating). It was kind of weird at first, but then we were just three runners out for a Sunday jog. Turns out that one of the guys works for the same company I do and that when I move we'll literally be neighbours (my apartment will overlook his back yard). What a small world!

Boot Camp Report: Day Seven

Well, things didn't go exactly as planned this week, but it wasn't a total disaster. On the plus side:

- I made 90% of my workout goals (the other 10% falls under the "cutting myself some slack" category - see yesterday's entry).
- I abstained from alcohol
- I ate 75% well
- I journalled as well as I could (given the tools I have at my disposal)

On the minus side:

I didn't eat enough calories a couple of times this week, mostly due to the extra calorie expenditure from exercise.

I ate some dessert twice this week. First at our office pot-luck lunch, then last night at a party I was at. But the plus side was that it didn't derail me and I didn't use my slips as an excuse to over-indulge; I got right back on track.

I'm finding eating out very difficult, especially from a calorie-counting point-of-view. I think this week might be easier as I'll have a more regular schedule without all the nights out.

I didn't cut out refined carbs as well as I had hoped. I'm still working on how to do that when I don't always have control over what I eat due to eating out.

All in all, I'd rate myself an 8.5 out of 10 for this week, so I'm pretty happy about that. I didn't officially weigh in last Monday (mostly because I didn't want to know how bad things got during my week "off"), so my weigh-in tomorrow will be my new benchmark. I did get on the scales Thursday or Friday morning this week and was at 170.5, so that's the benchmark I am working from.

Only 20.5 pounds to go!

Slack

As I was lying in bed this morning (instead of going out for the bike ride I had planned), I started to think about "slack". By not going cycling, was I "slacking off", or merely cutting myself some "slack" after a tough workout week?

I decided that I would call this "cutting myself some slack", rather than "slacking off", especially if I used the time productively to clean my apartment (I couldn't let myself off the hook entirely). So that's what I did; I spent the morning cleaning while catching up on episodes of Oprah and The O.C. that I had taped this week. I then had a bite of lunch, cleared out my recycling bin and went grocery shopping.

So, Week One of Boot Camp didn't go exactly as planned. I grossly under-ate a couple of days this week and over-ate a couple of days. In the end, I probably ended up even. What I've figured from journalling my food all week is that I need to eat more on days when I'm exercising, but to cut back on days when I don't. Doesn't sound like rocket science, but I hadn't really thought about how to allocate myself calories on a daily basis. Anyway, I'm cutting myself some slack on this front as I'm trying to get more comfortable with how many calories I am actually consuming.

The thing I find hard is calculating calories when I eat out. I'm also very grateful for the mandatory food lables so that when I eat a packaged food I'll always know the number of calories.

On a completely unrelated matter, I had a weird experience when taking out my recyling this afternoon. As I got to the large bins outside my apartment building this man on a bike with a big basket on the back came over to the bin. He was looking to take returnable bottles and cans for the deposit money. He offered to hold the lid of the bin open while I dumped my stuff, but I felt really weird throwing stuff out and then having him pick over my trash. I asked him what he was looking for and he pointed to the beer cans I had in one of my bags. I only had five cans, so I gave them to him directly, even though he said to just throw them in and he'd pick them out. Then he asked me if he could also have the plastic liquor store bags I had used to transport my empties. Sure, why not. Sigh. I just felt kind of awkward and weird about the whole process.

Also completely unrelated, I went to see U2 in concert last night. Two words: OUT-STANDING! I saw them last time they were here -- about three years ago -- and this show didn't disappoint. The coolest/oddest thing was that since indoor spaces are (supposed to be) smoke-free, people don't have lighters the way they used to, so there wasn't any of the traditional "lighter holding". What Bono encouraged people to do instead was open up and hold up their cell phones! The whole place lit up with all the little LCD screens! Then he gave us all the Prime Minister's phone number so that we could program it into our phones and call him and ask him to forgive third world debt. Very cool.

I'm off to a party this evening and then running with some new friends tomorrow morning. It will be my first long run since my race two weeks ago, so I hope I can keep up! I've never actually met these two guys I'm going to be running with tomorrow. We're part of an on-line running discussion forum/club and we live in the same neighbourhood, so we decided to meet up for a run tomorrow morning.

Boot Camp - Day Two Update

OK, so I made it though Day Two. And I've found an on-line food log (nutrid1ary). Looks like I'm not eating ENOUGH! Granted, I was very diligent with my food over the last two days, but when you break down the numbers it looks like this (of course, these are estimates):


+ Basal Metabolic Rate: 1518 kcal
+ General Activity: 863 kcal
+ Extra Activity and Exercise: 682 kcal
- Weight Loss Goal: 750 kcal
Day Quota: 2313 kcal
- Consumed: 1550 kcal
Calories Left: 763 kcal

OK, so as of right now (10:31PM), I am still 763 calories BELOW what they reccommend for me! I am certainly NOT going to consume those calories now as it's too close to bed, but I guess I'll have to throw in some extra food at lunch or for snacks tomorrow. To be honest, I did find myself to be very hungry all day, so that's not a good thing. I'm just worried that if I eat all the calories they tell me to eat (2300) that it will be too much and I won't lose weight.

I'm going out for dinner with some friends tomorrow, so I shouldn't have a problem consuming extra calories tomorrow.

Boot Camp

When I talk about Boot Camp, many people are intrigued as to what I mean by that. I adopted this concept from Oprah back in January of ’03, the year I began training for Ironman. The goal of Boot Camp is to “shock” your metabolism and get it revved up, with the goal of losing weight. This is especially important for me since my body seems to stubbornly hold onto weight and not let it go!

Back in ’03 I was successful in losing 10 pounds over a 6-week period and kept most of it off for the balance of the year. Since IM training is so grueling, I did not want to be “dieting” while training as my body needs food to recover. I just wanted to make sure that I didn’t gain any weight during training, which can easily happen as my appetite increases more than my metabolism does.

Six weeks is a LONG TIME to focus on one thing and restrict yourself so much. This time, I am trying to do it for 13 weeks, but that might be a little ambitious. I’ll have to reevaluate after six and see how I feel, mentally and physically.

The goal of this Boot Camp: Lose 20 pounds

Since I’m going to be training for Ironman Canada next year, I don’t want to be hauling any more weight up those mountains than I have to. That’s the reason why I took this year to train and try to lose weight because I didn’t want to do another Ironman at my previous weight (I think I was about 178 back then). In the 18 months after Ironman, my weight went back up to about 182 after the Christmas season. I was successful between January and March of this year when I lost 12 pounds in about eight weeks.

I’m being realistic about my weight-loss goal, though. I’d LOVE to lose 20 pounds in the next 13 weeks, but I don’t know if that’s possible. I’m entering virgin fat-loss territory as I’ve never weighed less than I weigh now (except on the way up, that is). If I could lose 12-15 pounds I would be very happy, but 20 is the goal. Based on my height, bone structure and musculature, I think I would be very healthy at 150-153 pounds (still enough to maintain my Athena status in races). The lowest I’ve been since I started trying to lose weight is 168 (a couple of months ago) and I’m around 172 right now (after vacation and recent debauchery).

My rules of Boot Camp are:

1. No alcohol (empty calories that slow down the metabolism). This can be hard when there are many social activities going on all through the fall. When I did Boot Camp the first time it was right after New Year’s so it wasn’t too hard as there weren’t many parties in January.

2. Sleep: Get seven hours of sleep per night, which usually isn’t a problem.

3. No junk food: this includes chips, popcorn, sweets, desserts, etc. This part is VERY HARD for me.

4. Journal all food: this is new to this incarnation of Boot Camp. I’m trying to see if writing down everything I eat will make a difference in what/how much I eat.

5. Portion control: also new this time. Trying to keep portion sizes smaller and eat fewer calories all around. My goal is to eat 1800-2000 calories per day. I may have to eat frozen entrees for lunch to help achieve this goal.

6. Cutting out refined carbs, especially the “white stuff”: This is also new for me this time, so I’ll have to ease into it. Meaning: no sugar, potatoes, white rice, white bread, etc. The goal is to eat whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean meats and dairy. I don’t have a problem with the fruit/veggie thing as I love both. Cutting out the “starch” will be a tough thing. I actually like whole-wheat pasta, so that’s a good thing.

7. No eating after dinner and finish dinner by 7:30PM each night. Effectively, this results in a 12-hour fast every day as I don’t normally have breakfast until about 7AM (later on days when I exercise in the morning). The reasoning behind this is that I don’t want to go to bed with food in my stomach as my metabolism is slower at night. This might be tough when I am doing evening workouts as I don’t always get a chance to finish them by 7:30. I might have to make the odd exception and allow myself a post-workout snack (for recovery) even if it’s after 7:30.

8. Water: drink a minimum of 1L of water per day, with the goal being 2L (not including water consumed during exercise, which is usually about 500mL per hour). I have a 1L refillable water bottle that I keep with me at work, so I try to get through that by the time lunch is over and then work through a second one the rest of the day. It’s pretty hard because I hate having to pee all the time and when I’m teaching I don’t always have the flexibility to go when the urge strikes.

9. Vitamins: I take the following supplements daily:
Multi-vitamin (Jameson’s Level 3 high-potency)
1000mg Time-released Vitamin C (immune support)
400IU Vitamin E (anti-oxidant)
Calcium/Magnesium (for bones)
Glucosamine/Condroitin (for joints)
500mcg GTF Chromium (helps regulate blood sugar)

10. Workouts: Exercise six days a week (always allow myself one full rest day).

a) Strength and cardio four mornings a week. I find that I do best when I exercise early in the day. Depending on my work schedule (i.e., teaching), I may not have time to do more than 45 minutes of exercise in the morning, but the goal is 60 minutes (total), four times a week – roughly 30 minutes of strength and 30 minutes of cardio (elliptical, most likely).

b) Sport-specific workouts four evenings per week. Right now, this will be a combination of activities including: running, cycling, swimming, yoga and floor-hockey, depending on the day and the week. No fixed schedule yet.

c) Long (two-hour-ish) bike ride on Saturdays

d) Long (60- to 100-minute) run on Sundays

*************

So, that's it! How'd I do today?

Well, I didn't go to the gym this morning because I had a tiring day yesterday at the football game and I needed my beauty sleep. I did ride my bike to/from work and I went to the gym after work and did 35 minutes on the elliptical trainer (and then rode home).

On the food side, I did OK. I wrote everything down, although I'm not sure how to easily calculate the total number of calories I consumed. I did well on water, too. I'm almost to the 2L mark and I also drank 500mL of mineral water with dinner and that counts, too. The only slip was that I had an avocado and just HAD to make guacamole with it. That, in and of itself isn't bad as the only fat is what's in the avocado itself (no added fat). And I ate it with a chicken breast and some sliced tomato (with 1 tsp olive oil and 1 tsp Balsamic vinegar). So what was the slip, you ask? Well, I did have a handful of baked tortilla chips with my dinner (they just go so well with the guac!). I had a peach and a 100-calorie soy pudding for dessert. And now I'm done eating for the day.

I hope to be able to drag my ass out of bed and get to the gym early enough tomorrow morning that I can get in some cardio before my Gravity class.

Day one down; 90 more to go!

Back on the road

You just can't keep a girl down. I know that I was supposed to take this week off as "recovery" post-race, but I just HAD to go out for a bike ride this morning.

I seriously miss exercise when I don't get it. I love being out on my bike in the cool, late summer air. I met an old training partner of mine, FS, and we rode for about an hour and 40 minutes. And other than quick reports on how my summer of training and racing went (she was injured and didn't do any training/racing), we settled into a lovely ride where we talked about life, her recent breakup, and all things non-triathlon related. It was lovely!

For the most part, the trees haven't yet begun to change colours. There was one that had, but it stuck out amongst a row of still-green trees. And that fall smell hasn't really started yet, either. But the sun was a little lower in the sky, so it's starting to feel like fall is on the way.

Not being a student or a parent, I always think it odd that everyone says that summer is over once Labour Day comes. We still have three weeks of summer left after Labour Day, folks! Nothing really changes for me after the first of September: I'm still wearing sleeveless tops and open-toed sandals, and I still had to put sunblock on today before my ride.

Tonight, I am meeting some friends for "post-season" drinks. Meaning: post-triathlon-season, since it's effectively over for all of us now. There are still one or two races left (this weekend and next), but most of my friends and I are done for the year.

I'm staying over at a friend's place tonight as we are both going to the Bills game tomorrow morning and the bus leaves at 6:30AM. He lives closer to the pick-up location than I do and we're both going to be at this party tonight, which is just down the street from his place. I thought it very nice of him to offer to let me stay over (I just hope his girlfriend - who is also a friend of mine - doesn't mind!).

Full report on the party bus & football game to follow, but probably not until Monday.

Happy last-two-weeks-of-summer!

August Workout Stats

Swimming: 9 km (6 miles) in 3 hrs, 13 mins
Cycling: 508.50 km (316 miles) in 22 hrs, 2 mins
Running: 21.67 km (13.5 miles) in 2 hrs, 22 mins
Elliptical: 15.72 km (9.75 miles) in 1 hr, 30 mins
Strength: 2hrs 25min
Walking: 8.85 km (5.5 miles) in 1 hr, 20 mins

Days in August: 31
Days exercised: 19
Time exercised: 32 hours, 52 minutes
Average time per day exercised: 1 hour, 43 minutes
Averaged over 31 days: 1 hour, 4 minutes per day
Estimated number of calories burned (based on average of 700 cals/hr): 23,000
Equivalent calories in pounds (div by 3,500): 6.6
Pounds lost (or gained): effectively none

And I do this because??

And a few photos...

This is me at my friends' wedding in August.



This is me (one of many self-portraits I took on my trip) after signing up for Ironman next year. I stood in line for 3.5 hours in the pouring rain and now, $575 later, I am all signed up! Yikes!


And me at Yellow Lake just outside Penticton.

Back to Work

Blech! All good vacations must come to an end. *sigh*

Actually, it wasn't too hard to get up this morning and I even managed to convince myself to ride my bike to work. I am on a self-imposed exercise hiaitus (I know that would be very easy for some people, but not for me). I need to let my body heal from all the torture I've put it through the last couple of months as I trained for my final race of the season. But I don't really count riding to work as "working out"; I consider it the environmentally and fiscally responsible thing to do, considering the price of gas right now. Yikes! I might have to take public transit on Thursday as it's supposed to rain. I'm certainly more of a fair weather bike commuter.

The somewhat good news is that I didn't gain a ton of weight on vacation. I'm actually back down to my recent "normal" weight of 171 or so. I'm watching what I eat this week, but without doing deliberate exercise I'm not expecting to see a loss this week. But Boot Camp starts again next Monday, September 12th, so there will be no slacking after that. I'd like to lose 15 pounds by my birthday (early December), maintain over the Christmas holidays, and then lose another 5 pounds in January. I'm entering uncharted territory with this weight loss goal as I haven't been lower than my current weight in recent memory (certainly not in the last 15-20 years). Good luck to me!

Saturday evening is "off season" drinks with the Triathlon gang. Then, I'm off to Buffal0 for a football game on Sunday! We're taking a chartered bus down and going to have a full-blown tailgate party. Goodness, I feel all 23-years-old again! Hope there'll be some cute boys! Ha ha.

I also start floor hockey again in two weeks. Can't wait for that!

So, the fall social season is starting to wind up. Woo!

By the way...

I've had to turn on "word verification" to post comments. Quite coincidental that I just read an article this morning about "splogging" and now I have just suffered my first bout. So, my friends, please do comment. Spammers, F-You!

Race Report

This past weekend I did my final goal race of the season. It was a Half-Ironman Tritathlon, which consists of a 2K swim (1.2 miles), 90K bike (56 miles) and 21K run (13 miles). I've done this distance once before, three years ago. I had big hopes going into this race because I had done so well in my race in Kingston five weeks ago. But due to myt hip injury/pain, I had not run in almost two weeks. Plus, having been on vacation for six days the week before meant that I didn't do any training during that time. Here's how things played out:

Thursday evening: Had a mild panic attack when I realized that I had left my wetsuit at home in Toronto. Made a frantic call to my best friend H (who was enroute from Boston to TO) to see if she could get it from my place (she's the only one with a spare key) and leave it for my friend EW to pick up before he left on Friday. Plan B was to source a wetsuit from a friend of a friend in Ottawa. Plan C was to do the swim sans wetsuit, which would have been a bit of a challenge. I'm a strong swimmer, but I've become quite dependent (more mentally than physically) on the wetsuit.

Friday evening: Met some friends for an early dinner/drinks. Some of us had never actually met in person as we belong to the same on-line running board. When I got back to I&G's place where I was staying, EW and the wetsuit arrive. Phew!

Saturday morning: Woke up at 5:45. Ate breakfast and waited for EW to be ready to go. Loaded our gear into the car and off we went. Got to the transition area around 7AM and got set up. I had been having a debate with myself over whether or not to do a full change of clothes after the swim as I'd been having some issues from riding in wet cycling shorts. Decided to do the full change, so I set up right near the women's change tent. Since we were there so early, just milled about getting body marked, etc. Chatted with a few friends and put some posters up for our "on-line" team. Got into my wetsuit around 8:40 and headed down to the beach. Got in the water so that I could readjust it around the shoulders. Took a few strokes and noticed how brown and murky the water was. Blech!

The gun went off at 9AM sharp. It was a weird course and with the sun it was hard to spot the buoys. Had to readjust my goggles three times - first, because they had fogged up (despite the anti-fog stuff I put in the night before), then twice more because they had filled up with water. After the first turn I found a nice clear patch of water to swim in (clear of other swimmers, that is). That lap seemed to be finished much sooner, so when I made the final turn for the beach I knew I was almost home free. My 2K swim time in K-town was 41 minutes, so I would have been happy to have a time in and around that today. As I got out of the water I hit the lap split on my watch and looked down: 38:29! Holy Crap!! That's one fast swim for me! It was a short run up to the T-zone from there. I grabbed my little bag of clothes and went into the change tent. I was the only person who had elected to change. No matter, I sucked back a Gu and headed out on my way.

It was a loooooong run in bike shoes from the T-zone to the mount line - probably 300m or so (and that's tough to do in cycling shoes with cleats on the bottom). Got on my bike and headed out on the course. I thought I hit the lap split on my watch but apparently I didn't, so I don't know what my (insanely long) transition time was. Out onto the bike course my plan was to just do reconnaisance for the first lap and try to get my heart rate back down to below 150. Well, that plan didn't work and it was in the 155-157 zone most of the first two laps. That was baaaaaaad for me because by the time lap 3 came along I was toast. I spent most of Lap 2 trying to distance myself from the try-a-triers (these are people who were doing a much shorter distance race than I was and who are generally less experienced) who were riding in little packs (uh, that's called DRAFTING!). Again, I used more energy that I had wanted to. Laps 3 & 4 were nasty. I was really struggling. Laps 5 & 6 were OK as I knew I was almost done.

Since I had had difficulty with the transition run earlier in my bike shoes I decided to try something different this time (normally it's not a good idea to do anything new on race day). I actually got my feet out of my shoes while still on the bike (my shoes were still clipped into the pedals) and run in my socks. That actually worked out pretty well except for some of the rocky bits of the path. I might do that again, depending on what the terrain is like. A quick change then off onto the run.

My legs felt surprisingly good considering how bad I felt on the bike. I settled into a pace and as I passed a guy who was on his second lap he said to me, "Nice pace!" I replied, "It's only my first lap!" Well, he paced off me that entire lap (my first, his second) but always managed to pass me when I took my walk breaks every 10 minutes. I always passed him again once I started running, but towards the end of the lap I had created such a gap that he was unable to catch me, even when I was walking.

All the athletes have markings on their bodies to indicate their age and the race they are in (presumably so that you can try to catch/pass someone who is in your age group). So, on the back of my left leg was written 1/2 T (for Half Ironman triathlon) and on my right, 42 (for my age as of December 31st). Plus, since my age was circled, it meant that I was in the Athena category, which is for women who weigh more than 150 pounds (yes, we have our own division!). The male equivalent is called Clydesdale and their weight cutoff is 200 pounds. There are no secrets in triathlon! On the way back to finish the first lap this young guy (34 on his leg) ran past me and said, "Hey, you're running more like a 24-year-old than a 42-year-old!" Gee, thanks!! That made my day!

As lap two started, the skies opened up. It was a nice break to have the sun go away and the first sprinkling of rain was very refreshing. But when it started for a second time it was a torrential downpour! I was soaked to the bone, but felt quite refreshed (memories of Lake Placid in 2003). As I made the final turn at the furthest point, I said thanks to Volunteer George who had been standing there all day. At first he was startled to see that I knew his name, but I pointed out to him that he was wearing a name tag! I pretty much kept up with my 10:1 (run:walk) the whole way, except in the final lap where the 1s were more like 2s and I walked some of the water stations. I did remember to hit the lap timer on the run, so my first half was done in 1:10 and the second half in 1:19. I'm a bit disappointed in that time, but I've since found out that the run course was likely 23K as opposed to 21K, so I don't feel so bad. And my sore hip held up beautifully - I was barely aware of it, so the two weeks off probably did the trick.

Finishing time by my watch was 6:50:30, but the Sportstats web site has me down as 6:53:48, so not sure how that happened. There's no indication that I got a penalty. My swim and run times are the same, it's my bike + T1 +T2 time that is off. After the race, I scarfed down a burger and some pasta salad, got my medal and headed home. The results weren't posted yet (not for my time, at least), but it turns out that I was first in my category (Athena 40+). This time there were two in my category and there was one other Athena (39-) and I beat her, too! Woo!

My time was five minutes slower than when I did this same race three years ago, but the race was set up in a different location, so the longer runs in/out of the transition zone had an impact on that. Plus, if it's true that the run course was long then that would also account for it.

What I learned:

I always try to learn something from every experience. Here are this year's learnings:

1. Always use a checklist, even if it's your 100th race! It's easy to get complacent about pre-race prep when you've done it so many times. Forgetting my wetsuit was a reminder that I have to continue to do this.

2. That I have come a long way in remaining calm under pressure in the face of having to do the swim without a wetsuit if it came to that.

3. There's a difference between Goals and Expectations. I was listening to talk by a local triathlete who was giving a lecture to the Triathlon Clinic talking about how our expectations can be affected by so many things outside of our control: weather, the course being mis-measured, mechanical difficulties, other competitors, etc. Therefore, "finishing time" is more of an expectation than a goal because there are so many things outside of our control that can affect that (could be said for "scale weight" as well). Goals, on the other hand, we can control to some degree. I felt really strong on the swim and the run, which is what I wanted to do, so that goal was achieved. I did not achieve my goal of riding within my heart rate limit and I am just glad that it didn't have a negative impact on my run (which it very well could have).

4. That losing weight really had had an impact on my performance this year, especially on the run.

I'm Back!

Ack! Been away on vacation for almost two weeks. No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth. Was in BC for 6 days, home for less than 48 hours then off to Ottawa for three days. I'm home now and will post all the news that is fit to print within the next couple of days.

Under the category of "How'd that happen?", I actually LOST weight while on vacation, despite the fact that I barely was able to exercise while away! Yes, I lost about three pounds, but I had PMS before I left, so that might account for it. Anyway, I'll have to weigh in again tomorrow morning to see if my weight has stayed the same.

Under the category of "My final race of the season", I again won my category (that being the fat-chicks-over-40 category, aka Athena 40+), but this time there were two of us in the category. And I even beat the only Fat Chick Under 40, too! Full race report to follow...

Nothing too exciting happened while on vacation. I did keep a paper journal while away, so if I get a chance I'll post some exerpts here.

Time for bed (zzzzzz). Thank god tomorrow is a holiday and I don't have to go back to work for another day!