Week In Review

Monday - Rest Day
Tuesday - 2500 meter swim in the AM ; 6km run in the PM
Wednesday - Started to ride the computrainer challenge ride, but part way into the ride I heard these strange, what sounded like electrical, noises. Finally determined that it was tire melting on the drum of the CT. Brought a quick end to the ride.
Thursday - 9 km rum
Friday - 2100 meter swim. Was going to attempt to re-do Wednesday's ride, but by the time I got home, mounted a new tire, fished out a new tube ... it was late.
Saturday - Rode and easy hour on the CT, then did the Challenge ride, and rode an easy cool down watching my spin scan trying to even out my pedal stroke
Sunday - 14 km run

TOTAL
Swim: 4600 meters
Bike: 52 km
Run: 30 km
Total hours: 7:00

Good news for today is that I finally finished the sleeve on the Banff sweater!! After a lot of procrastination (mostly laziness) I finished it last night. Since it is a raglan sleeve is just got faster as the stitches decreased. I will hopefully cast on the second sleeve this evening. I might just finish this thing yet. I have eye on a knit 'coat' for my next project, but am also considering socks.

Week in Review

I know, review is usually a Monday activity, but, well, ....

Monday - Yoga Class
Tuesday - Morning: 1800 meter swim ; Evening: 7.25 km run
Wednesday - Blood Lactate test on the CT
Thursday - nothing, ditched the run due to freezing rain
Friday - 2350 meter swim
Saturday - the first 70 km of the Ironman Canada course including Richter's Pass
Sunday - 17.75 km run ; first go at the stretching DVD

4150 meters swimming
70 km of cycling
25 km of running
10h 30m total training time

I didn't get as much knitting done as I had hoped. I had even planned out how many rows I needed to do each day to finish the sleeve. But Friday night I felt like I was coming down with another cold. It never really turned into anything, but made me feel a little wiped out over the weekend. So I didn't accomplish as much as I had hoped.

This week is a bit lighter. About the same amount of swimming, but a slightly shorter weekend ride and run. So there is hope for me yet.

bruised fingers...

Last night I was the lucky receipient of a blood lactate test. What is that you ask? Well........ It is a test that determines what level of exercise intensity (by HR) corresponds to your body's ability to get rid of lactic acid. Lactic acid is that substance that makes you 'feel the burn'. Your body always creates lactic acid, even at rest, but at lowe intensity activity it is produced and flushed from your body in lovely equilibrium. But as your intensity increases, and more LA is produced eventually your body can no longer flush it out at the same rate. If you keep pushing the intensity eventually fatigue will set in and you will no longer be able to continue.

So if you can determine where (intensity wise) in the point at which your body moves from coping to not coping you can peg the intensity at which you should persue aerobic exercise in order to reap the benefits of a strong cardio-vascular system. This is obviously the number one goal when training for an endurance event. In order to find this tipping point you have to examine the lactate in your blood at various levels of intensity.

The test has two parts

1) The ramp test. We set the wattage on the computrainer to 75 watts and started pedaling at 90 RPM. At set intervals the person running the test ups the watts by 5. You keep at this until you can no longer sustain the set RPM. Your heart rate is recorded at each interval. Basically what you are doing is gradually flooding the body with lactate. As soon as you hit your peak (the point at which you can continue), the watts are dropped way down and a blood sample is taken via a finger prick. Obviously at this point your lactate is high.

2) The steady HR portion. For the next part you ride based on Heart Rate. So if your peak HR was 180, you pedal easy until you drop 40 beats to 140. Three minutes pass while you enjoy the fact that things have gotten a lot easier. Then another blood sample is taken. You can compare this one to the first to see how much lactate your body has managed to flush now that the stress has been removed. For the next three minutes you ride at a heart rate of 145. Another sample is taken. Then you ride at 150 and another sample is taken. As your heart rate (intensity) increases, the lactate will begin to increase again.

If you charted the lactate amounts from both tests you would see a kind of U shape where the lactate was high, then drops and then goes back up again. When you plot the results you will be able to find the point (or heart rate) at which that lactate accumulation began. If you exercise below that point, lactate won't accumulate and cause fatigue. So if you are training for an endurance event and want to say, ride for 4+ hours, you can aim to maintain your HR below this point to fend off fatigue.

It really was all kind of fascinating. I am sure that I have made descriptive errors in the science, but that is the best way I can describe it. If you feel the need to get techno-geeky you can read all about the procedure here.

Knitting? What's that. Sadly my knitting has fallen to the wayside a bit, but I did manage one row on the sleeve this morning. Hoping for some more tonight, and DEFINITELY more this weekend. In fact, you heard it here first, but I am going to finish that sleeve this weekend if it kills me!

Twisted Stitches

When learning to knit, the first thing one should really learn how to do is fix mistakes. I never really learned to fix mistakes so making mistakes when knitting really stresses me out because sometimes it seems easier just to start over. So I started on the first sleeve of the Banff sweater. It has the same wide ribbing at the bottom as the body. Except it does this kind of funky hourglass shape thing at the cuff. So there is some decreasing and increasing within the pattern of the ribbing. I miraculously made it through the decrease unscathed, but when I made my increase I did it the way that leaves you with a hole. So it looked icky. So I had to tear it back. When I put the stitches back on the needle they got twisted, so now there is a noticeable defect along one row of the cuff. But I don't have the heart to tear it all the way out.

Weekend was fairly uneventful but felt busy. Did a three hour ride on Saturday. Rode a computrainer course call "The Big Dipper". It is basically a nice 1% downhill section, then a long 2.2% uphill, a very small downhill, another long 2.2% uphill with the crest of the hill at 3%, a small downhill, another 2.2% climb, and then a lovely 15% downhill with a bit of flat to the finish. The whole thing is 11.23km. I rode it 6 times. The climbs aren't really climbs, they are just 'inclines', but the load is enough to give you a bit of strength work and work at keeping your HR in check. After the ride I headed out to buy some new running shoes.

Saturday I did my long run of 18km. I can now safely say that eating McDonalds for breakfast before your long run is not a good idea! Even if you wait three hours afterwards. For the first half of the run I had a cramp in my side, and it was hard to eat/drink on the run because I was still feeling so icky full that the thought of ingesting anything was just making me feel ill. Never again, not even if we have coupons for free breakfast sandwhiches!

Monday was my last yoga class. While I am a bit sad not to be going back for the next session, I feel like I want to save a bit of money. I bought a stretching DVD that I will do instead. Maybe next session I will go back to the yoga.

Finally, I started this week off with my sports medicine guy telling me I have cuboid syndrome. I know, sounds more like a math problem than a foot pain. After wearing some heels (I NEVER wear heels) I started to get some pain on the outside edge of my foot. It got better, than worse, then better. My chiropractor was a bit stumped. So I went in to see the other guy and this is what he told me. He seems to think it will go away quickly.

The universe took me down a notch

So I had a great swim workout this morning. Did some warm up laps with some swimming, some kicking and some drills. Then the main set was 5 x 100 fast, 50 kick. Repeat this 3 times. Focus was on strong swimming with solid form, not fast arms. Well, I did all of the 100s in under 1:50. Which for most is not fast, but for me is excellent. I was very pleased and feeling very confident. I showered and got dressed and when I got outside it was snowing. There was a light dusting on the ground and the roads looked a little 'greasy'. So as I am riding to work I am reminding myself not to pick up any speed and be cautious when braking. And I am. Until I am like 2 blocks from work and I guess I just braked too hard or too fast and sure enough my rear wheel slides under me and I go skidding a little ways on my knee and elbow. This has happened to me a few times this winter, so I just pick up up the bike, hop back on and get moving. I managed to skin my elbow despite three layers of clothing (it's like the clothing version of rug burn!) and my knee is going to have a nice bruise. Well, at least it isn't skirt weather!

Tonight is my blessed night of rest. I'm going to knit and watch more Sex and the City. I am still working the ribbing on the first sleeve. It's been a slow week of knitting due to some busy evenings. The ribbing on the sleeve also decreases and then increases again so I have been slow on the pattern because I have to keep slowing down to make sure I am making the right stitch. Hopefully I will get some solid knitting time in this weekend.

Well, now I have a vest

Yes, I finished the front of the Banff sweater! It looks great and miracles of miracles it matches the back! So I cast on the first sleeve yesterday. Since the decorative decrease on the front and back (for the sleeves) had stitches that were purled through the back of the loop, I now know this to be possible. So when I worked the first row of the sleeve in ribbing I knit and purled into the backs of the stitches. Surprise! No holes! I wish i had done that for the front and back, but it is too late now. The holes aren't that big and are only on the purl stitches of the first row.

Had a reasonable full weekend of training. On Saturday I rode the computrainer for 2 hours and 45 minutes. I did a loop and a half of a course called "Coeur D'Alene triathlon". I don't think it has anything to do with the Coeur D'Alene Ironman, but I could be wrong. The course was made up of three decent sized hills with some nice downhill sections. On Sunday I ran 16K in some not-so-nice windy weather. But at least I got out there and got it done. Runs are getting progressively longer, next weekend the schedule calls for 18K. I'm hoping for some nice weather.

One Goal Down...

I have been trying to make sure I fill in the 'Weekly Goal' section of my training log on Sunday or Monday of each week. This week my goals were:

1. Practice bi-lateral breathing (breathing to left and right when swimming, as in every three strokes) during warm up and cool down
2. Doing some form of strength training three times in the week
3. Drinking at least a litre of water at work each day

So I completed goal number 2 today. I lifted weights at the gym twice and then this morning I went and did a stability ball class. The bi-lateral breathing thing is sort of happening, I just find it so hard! The water thing is not too much of an issue.

Last night I was scheduled to ride the Escape from Alcatraz bike course on the computrainer. Escape to Alcatraz is a triathlon known for it's very cold swim from a boat in the middle of the water, a pretty hilly bike course and the infamous 'sand stairs' on the run.
Well, the bike course is indeed hilly. The computrainer was registering inclines above 20% on some sections. Unfortunately I don't really have enough gears to climb well above about 6.5%. So this was a challenge. You basically just pedal really really really slow. If I were actually on the course I would have likely fallen over from lack of momentum! But the downhill sections were pretty sweet.

I'm scheduled to run with the group tonight and then do a little bit of speed work on my own - 2 x five minutes at 5K effort. Hope the weather holds!