Rest Day

No workout planned today.  Maybe a bit of YogaX, but maybe not.  Nothing on the MTC (McGill Triathlon Club) plan.

First week with McGill Tri Club

So, I found what is going to be taking taking up most of my free time in the near future.  This week, I started working out with the McGill Triathlon Club.  It is a lot of time to put in, but it is going to be awesome, and it is going to help me get a lot better, and force me to stick with my training over the winter.  Here is a breakdown of the week:

Race Report #2

Alright, so, as I did last time, I am posting my race results a week late.  Sorry, like I said, I am going to try to get better at posting sooner.  I am not going to go into all the detail that I did for the last one, but I will still give the rankings and times for each discipline.


Pre-Race


Coming into this race, I felt a LOT less prepared than I did for my last race.  I felt like I hadn't put in the same time/effort that I had.  I wasn't sure if it was because I had built up my base fitness more, so doing the same amount of work felt easier, or if I just didn't put as much in for this one as I did last time.  


As discussed in my previous post, I also had a LOT on my mind for this race, so I was very nervous for the race.

Visit to the Doc

Alright, so I'm terrible at this.  I haven't posted since my last race, and here I am, posting my new race report.  I promise, I will try to get better at this.  I will make 2 posts tonight, and 1 more tomorrow.  It's a start, trying to make up for a month.


Alright, so here is a bit of a back story.  2 weeks ago, the week before my race, I did a mile swim at the Morrison Lake Regatta.  It was a good warm up for my race.  It went well.  I didn't really have a plan, a desired time, etc.  I didn't even know how long the swim actually was.  I decided just to go and swim, finish, and whatever happens happens.  Looking at a map afterwards, I estimate that it was about 1250m.  The swim went well, and I was the 3rd person out of the water, behind a real life swimmer, and someone who, this past weekend, completed a half Ironman.  My time was around 23'45", if I recall correctly.  Pretty uneventful swim.  What happened afterwards, however, caused some concern.

First Triathlon Ever!

So, this weekend was, as everyone knows from my oft-updated blog, my first race, Joe's Team Triathlon in support of the Princess Margret Hospital Foundation.  

First off, I want to thank absolutely everyone who supported me, whether through donations, helping me out, listening to me talk their ear off about triathlons or giving me words of encouragement and advice.  I managed to raise over $2600, surpassing my goal of $2500 and joining "Joe's Dream Team".  So thanks again.

Now, here's the exciting stuff!  My official results were found today (thanks, Brad!), and they are after the jump:

Day 4 - Didn't happen

So yesterday was supposed to be day 4...  But that didn't happen.  I was going to do Insanity Pure Cardio and Insane Abs with a friend last night.  He hadn't gotten back to me, so I decided to take a nap instead, as I was exhausted.  When he said he wasn't going to come, I decided that I wasn't going to do it, as my nap had just made me more tired.  So instead, I took an early night, got an ok sleep, and am now rested for the weekend (which is supposed to be terrible, weather wise).

I'll make up for the missed workouts this weekend, don't you worry.  Maybe I'll throw an extra one in there, just as a punishment.

I know, you can't wait to hear about them.

Your Armchair Ironman

Day 4 - 60 Minute Bike Ride in Zone 1

So today was a pretty good bike ride at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.  The circuit is the race track where the F1 of Montreal, and the Indycar races are held.  It's a 4km loop, including some uphills, downhills, and plenty of straightaways.  The track was pretty busy today, with a lot of people going a lot faster than me, and lots of group rides going on.  It sort of motivated me to join a group.  I may look into the local tri club, Les Chickens.  I will look into them seriously this weekend, but I do know that they are a very francophone group, so we will see how that goes.

Info about the ride after the jump.

Training has officially started & Some news

So this week marks week 1 of my 6 week training plan leading up to my first tri on July 10th.  Here is a quick breakdown of how it's gone so far.

Day 1 - Sunday, May 30, 2010 - Rest Day


Rest day.  I love this plan!  How do you start with a rest day?  Went miniputting up in Laval, and am seriously considering going to SkyVenture, an indoor skydiving simulation.  They are also building an indoor surf wave, which will be awesome when it opens.  All in all, good day.  Went to Bofinger for dinner, so that wasn't the MOST healthy, but it was delicious.

Day 2 after the jump...

Less than 2 Months Left...

And 2 weeks until my official training plan commences.  I am really looking forward to getting into it, and am almost dreading what some of the weeks look like.  There are going to be a LOT of long days to be had over the next couple of months.  I have a lot planned to get ready for this race, and hopefully, it'll lead me in the right direction.  Right now, I think that a realistic time for me to aim for is around 1:45.  Hopefully, over the next 8 weeks, I can aim for a lot lower than that, in the 1:25-1:30 range.  I'll keep updating that as time goes by, so keep checking back for a good idea of how good I'm feeling about my race time.

This weekend was a great weekend, training wise.  I managed to get out for 2 runs (8 and 10k run/walks) on Friday and Saturday nights, and a nice, long, 36km bike ride on Sunday morning.  Turns out I don't know how to find the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, which is a race track in Montreal where cyclists can go to train, while avoiding the congestion on the bike paths.  This weekend, I'll make another attempt to find it.  Fingers crossed!

My thoughts and prayers go out to the unfortunate cyclists who fell victim to an accident on a provincial highway here in Quebec.  Please, please please ride safe.  It is not always enough to follow the rules of the road, when others may not be following them.  Always ride defensively!

Your Armchair Ironman

I have to do WHAT?!?!?!

Swim?  Are you kidding me?  When did THAT become part of a triathlon?

Well, if you haven't already guessed, I started swimming today.  For the first time in YEARS, I went lap swimming.  And man, was it more than I remember.  A friend set up a swim training program for me.  Here's how it broke down:

100m warm up (any stroke)
4x50m front crawl, 15 second rests between sets
4x50m flutter kick, 10 second rests
4x50m front crawl, 10 second rests
4x50m arms only, 10 second rests
100m cool down, any stroke

So, if you did the math, that is 1000m of swimming.  After not having swam in a really, really long time.  It hurt, a lot.  Afterwards, taking a shower, I could barely wash my shoulders.  That is how much it hurt.  But it was a really good work out.  Far enough to push me, but not so far that I won't be going again tomorrow.

I have decided that this week, I am focusing on swimming because, from the triathlon that I am doing in July, I won a swim lesson with a former Ironman swim record holder.  And this lesson happens to be next Tuesday. I don't want to embarrass myself, so...  off to the pool I go!  My plan is to swim at least 5 times between now and the lesson.  Here's hoping!

Other than that, training has been going fairly well.  I had a minor (week long) setback with my foot, but I am back now.  I went for a nice 30km bike ride on Saturday, and will likely head out for another one or two this coming weekend, as well as getting back on the running wagon.

There is a little more than 2 months before my race.  It's time to start getting serious.  I'll keep updating this as the days go on.  Come late May, I will be on an actual training plan, so I'll be updating much more frequently.

On to the next swim.  Here's to not being able to lift your arms.

Your Armchair Ironman