Base phase week three "End of week three"

Yea! I made it to the end and am so proud of my self!
This was a hard week with everything being kicked up a notch, and it has pushed me farther than I ever imagined I could go. Having a bit of a burn out at the end of week two I somehow started to feel pretty good again around Wednesday, although tired after most of the workouts I guess that's really par for the course!
Friday morning came way too fast for me man, we were up at 5:00 am to make the pool in town, Our workout consisted of 1800m total 300m warm up, 8x25m mixed drills, the main set was 8x100-25 easy -25 hard, 8x25 kick and 300m cool down; near the end of the main set I was starting to fade a bit, never mind the start, and was relieved once the kick session was done so I could just coast on the last 300m, OK well maybe next Fridays am swim will be better , I think my body was in shock! and not quite awake yet, it was kind like zombie mode or something..he he.
It was a treat to come home after work and just go do our run right away and we put our feet up for the rest of the day afterwards, Tammy and I were both a little sluggish from the early am swim but we pushed through another workout .
On Saturday morning the roads were wet and we thought it would be better to wait until the roads dried up a bit. Well 1:00pm rolled around and I could have went down for a nap, but we kicked our self's out of the house and onto the bikes for an awesome ride around Yellow point and the sun even came out! it was nice; we did about 1:55 min ride it was supposed to be 2 full hours but managed to cover about 49km so overall that was good for us. I felt fairly refreshed throughout the ride, and am starting to get used to my new aero bottle too, also the gel flask is real handy, no more trying to rip open a gel mid ride and squeeze it down and chase with water.
We did our gym workout soon after arriving home, it too went well for me and I just could not figure out why I felt so good! but hey I'm not complaining. My body is responding well with the strength training and I can see a remarkable difference compared to last year in overall fitness level and strength.
O yea last day! and it started with an endurance swim up at Nanaimo's pool. We got there at around 10am and the Riptides had a swim meet going at the far end of the pool so we only had 25m lengths instead of 50m but this was also fine. Today's total was 2100m with a 300m warm up 1500m main set and 300m cool down; I had a tough time getting my goggles adjusted so they wouldn't leak and had a hard time finding any rhythm. Soon after I started my main set I fell into a groove and just paced through it the whole way and stopped once to sip some go juice, and finally the cool down I did 150m using the pull buoy and the last 150m free style. my total time for that workout was 51:25 ya hoo! and I feel many improvements at this point and its hard to see them week to week but looking back to last year at this time I've come a long way and will continue to strive for more.
And last but not least my run, we headed up to Westwood lake under beautiful sunny skies around 12 degrees and did a double loop completing 12 km in total. It was just so nice out there today with lots of people walking the trails and of course running; we settled into a nice steady pace that I felt totally at ease with and again I felt pretty darn amazing and almost fit like! considering the pounding my body has taken over the last three weeks. And now we enter recovery week which is going to be a great treat for our body's, and minds to just sort of take it all in and recount the highs and lows of this wonderful journey to my first half ironman.

Base phase week three "The lunar eclipse"

Well so far this week has been tough! but I think I'm gona make it all right.

Today we both managed to get home early enough with plenty of daylight left for a road ride; it sure was fantastic to get out there instead of being stuck on the trainer again. My sore leg seemed pretty good and I did not really have that over trained feeling in fact I felt Awesome ! our ride lasted 1:10 and we managed to get 31km out of that but it was actually 5 min. short but I was haulin butt because I had to go pee so bad and just wanted to get home!

Wednesdays run went well as I decided to back off a bit because of my leg, yes a wise thing to do and I was happy with the effort I gave; we did about 8.5km 45 min run with 8x30 sec. sprints and I'm starting to like doing these, huh? I must be loosin it or what! ha ha. It was really cool as we did our run at around 6:00pm with the lunar eclipse well under way for us to view as we ran.

Along the way something I realized and was reminded of as I was watching the moon, is that there are powerfull foreces at work in the universe and that I can't controll them all and I have to step back once in awhile let things happen the way they are supossed to, also that I am so fortunate to be able to do what I am in this short space and time and must not take it for granted.

Not sure where that came from totaly but thats how I felt on that run.

Well best get off to bed now I can hear Gary in my head" oh Ivan your sleep is so important when your training" yes your right Gar! he he and besides we have an early morning swim at 6:00 am. I'll post again on Sunday which marks the end of week three.

Base phase week two "End of week two"

The end of week two has arrived today and I'm thankfull for that, I really need that rest day on Monday!

It has been hard these past couple of days, maybe on the verge of over trained, we skipped fridays swim and did weights instead and today I only did the endurance swim and not the run; I have been sore most of the week and it has shown in my running of course my weakest sport, but even on Saturday's brick I was a bit slugish and even ended up walking for a few minutes untill I could refocuss my mind and energy to finish without stopping, which I did. The ride portion I felt that I was also not having a great day, having stayed behind Tammy most of the ride. So not running today was decided at Gary's last night after we watched the 2007 Ironman in Kona, and it felt good not to run today because it just took some pressure off knowing I'll have a few extra much needed days of rest from running.

My endurance swim went very well today we did 2000m ...250m warm up 1500 main set and 250m cool down that took me 53 min. and I felt great about that! I had finished up before Tam and did another 350m of drills . In the main set I only stopped briefly to sip some Gatorade and felt good the whole time and settled into a nice relaxed rhythm and just tried to feel my complete stroke, Tam said I looked like a swan in the water all gracefull ! I think I was just really relaxed and that seems to be the key to find your sweet spot and it feels like you could go on forever.

So now I am preparing for week three and again things are ramped up a little bit more, I know that I jumped in head first on this training program at level 4 out of 10 it is pretty ambitious and hopefully this is doable for me as I am learning that sometimes it takes more than just a I can attitude but I will give it my best and shoot for the stars; and if I have to back things off a little I am ok with that because it will give my body more of a chance to adjust to the workload.

Having said all that I am just still learning what it means and takes to be a triathlete and I am enjoying the highs and lows of the journey so far and I am excited to continuie posting my progress!

Base phase week two

Well so far this week has been going well, tough at times to get going and some of the training seems to catch up with me a bit but I'm hangin in there! We missed todays swim but swaped it for some weights and besides we want a good workout at the pool on Sunday (2000m). My run today was a little slower than I hoped for and cut it a bit short in favor of going up Symonds st , some pain in my leg and groin forced me to hold back and I'm glad I did, I am learning to listen to my body.
On Saturday I get to to my first brick and am looking forward to that, and it will be nice for Tammy she gets to try out her new drive train and road bars and Profile jammers, the bike is almost new again! wow talk about spoiled hey... he he. I guess thats all for now and will probably post on Sun. or Mon. for end of week two.

Base phase week one "End of week one first endurance swim"

Today marks the end of week one and it has been great! I know that week two starts to ramp up the workload a bit more but I am sure I will adjust fine although it is diffucult to train 6 days a week all done after work .

On Saturday we got to hit the road with the bikes and managed to stay pretty dry, my fitness level on the bike is way beyond where I thought it would be, thanks to the fluid trainer we bought in November and coach Troy. We road for a steady 1:45 and felt fine upon finishing; also made sure I hydrated and ate on the bike to help ensure the fuel I'm takeing reacts well with my system.

Later that evening Tam and I did our work out in the basement, I love it down there, it was a bit tough to get going but managed to get warmed up quickley , I have a hard time being motavated in the gym but with Tammy being a certified weight trainer I am in really good hands, wow how lucky is that to have your own personal trainer/wife in house? he he... finished up our weight training with some yoga streching that stuff is something that I plan to do a lot more of as we progress, I thought that I was fairly flexable but with the little bit I've done so far shows me that my right knee needs alot of work...three and half years ago I tore my MCL and it took two years to get it back to the point where I could start to run full time, last year was my fist full year as a runner approxamently 650km.

Well sunday morning came fast and I draged my but out of bed a 8:45 ...I stay up too late and love sleeping! ha. Had a nice bowl Kashi cerial 7 grains of yumminess, actually new to me and after I ate it hoped that it woudn't give me any tummie troubles, most things don't I have ironguts! We had to pick up Gary on the way out his van had a flat and he caught us just in time to give him a ride to his race (cedar 12km) and wished him well. Todays swim was an endurance one of 1800m , 300m warm up 1200m -5-10 second rest every 100 and 300m cool down ,I felt realativly strong the whole swim, maybe a little soreness from last nights weight session, and I was looking forward to it all weekend.

After the swim we headed straight up to Westwood lake for a doubble loop of the lake, on the way up I downed a power gel and water to prepair for the run and again make sure my system reacts well with different fuels. The first lap went verry good I felt strong and energetic, at the 6km mark it was turn around and knew I would have to dig in for the final lap as I was feeling the effects of the past weeks training load. I had to back of a couple of times to make sure I wouldn't fade too much, with Tam there I managed to keep pace with her fairley well and finished feeling like I did when I finished my first half marathon last year (Landsend) . I was surprised to hit the stop watch with a time of 1:05:51 woo hoo for me this was awesome considering the laod of work this week and it was trail!

It has been a great week for me, learning, building, and enjoying my accomplishments....knowing that I must maintain a mental attitude of "I CAN!" to help me through this adventure towards my first half ironman.

Base phase week one "Day three the frozen rain"

Now I'm begining to understand why they call it ironman! , if you make it through the training you should be able to finish the race after all this training.
Today was a test in itself , after dinner Tam and I geared up and headed out for our fartlek with 6x 30 sec. sprints, at first I thought a little bit of rain wont hurt but by the time we finished our 2km warmup I surendered my gloves to Tam cause her hands were frozen; it was much colder than expected and was starting to half freeze rain/ sleet and by the time we got ready to start lap two back by our house the wind picked up and was blowing frozen rain into our faces, needless to say at that point in time my running form was shot! , but we soldiered on with freezing fore arms fingers ect. All I could think about was something like Gary would say on our rainy bike rides was this is to build character ( Gary is one of our tri buddies and mentors ) well I tell you tonight we had to be really crazy or very determend to be out there... I think the latter...ha!

It was sure nice to hit the pool after that run with a 1500m workout with much less traffic in the lane than my last swim so I got much more from this one. Over all I feel pretty good so far and I will post on Monday 11th (rest day) which will mark the end of week one.

Base phase week one "First day training"

Today I began day 1 of a 20 week program desinged to help me fulfill my quest to complete my first half ironman.

Got home from work at about 5:10pm , Tammy my wife said she was going to duck out of the run today but insisted I still go, I am geting used to these little runs by myself now and then anyways; decided to eat a half bar for fuel.. I was starving! and slipped on my run gear and headed out for my run of 6km. I felt really good on the run and managed to keep a good steady pace today. Tam had my dinner ready when I got home.. nice... then after din we got to lounge around before heading of to the pool.

We arrived at the pool side with only one person in the lane, that was nice until about 20 min later there were 8 people in one lane at various speeds, kind of frustrating cause I was in the middle of doing 8x100 25 easy 25 fast, so I did not get the full potential of this workout but made the best of it anyways ; small town Ladysmith pool is fine at times but for our serious workouts we may head to Nanaimo

Overall the training for my first day went well and I'm so excited that it has begun!