Mind Blown

It’s funny how one benign comment from a coach can change your world.

I’ve joined the triathlon club, as I’ve mentioned before. I’m doing the spin class about once a week. I’ve enjoyed it for the fitness and cardio aspect, but that’s about it. Our coach keeps saying we should have our RPM (speed of how fast we rotate the pedals) between 90-110. “90” is a magic number I’ve heard before related to my running cadence. But I’m always at low 80s when I measure my cadence. It’s just my natural pace. I decided to ask the coach about it, and he said:

“It’s easier for a cyclist to become a runner than a runner to become a cyclist.”

Mind.

Blown.

Suddenly, this is not just cardio and fitness. Cycling is about TRAINING. The friendly gal next to me offered me a more concrete example. She used to be a distance runner with a cadence in the high 70s, low 80s as well. “Work on your cadence here [in spin],” she said, “before getting your tension/power up. You’ll run the fastest times you’ve ever run before just from that alone.”

Alright, running world! I’m going to spend these next few months learning to increase my cadence, and then watch out!

-48C

Another day, another cycle. To assist me in getting a good workout I wore two pairs of bike shorts and regular exercise shorts over top (for vanity…have you seen what bike shorts look like?) I felt like I was walking around on a saddle, but at least my poor bottom wasn’t nearly as sore during and after the spin class.

I should mention that wind chill is making this week hit temperatures of -48C. 48 DEGREES BELOW ZERO. The kind of day where the tears froze in my eyes as I walked the dog around the block and I refused to pick up the mail in case my fumbling with the mailbox key resulted in me losing my fingers to frostbite. All I wanted to do was curl up inside with a blanket and a mug of hot chocolate. It hasn’t exactly been a motivating week to trudge out to exercise. Yet there I am, as keen as keeners can be.  But not keen enough to risk an outdoor run just yet.

Breaking Barriers

The Sunday morning swim has become a favourite of my husband and I.
First, it's morning! Finally a workout at a reasonable time of day!
Second, the pool is 50m (not the usual 25m). Bring on the endurance!
Third, it's usually pretty quiet, meaning we get the lane to ourselves.

I don't know what it was, but this morning I could not get my rhythm. Every breath I took had me swallowing lots of water along with it. My legs kept sinking and dragging my butt down and I felt more like a flopping fish than a swimmer.

650m in I decided maybe I was going too slow to keep my form. I picked up the pace which helped raise my legs up and finally found my rhythm. More or less. I was doing 300m/10min, meaning I was looking at doing a new PB of 1800m distance.l by the end of the hour.

But in the last 10min, that no longer felt good enough. It felt like I would fall short of 2k, rather than swim longer than 1700m (my previous PB).

So I pushed myself up a gear and started swimming a bit faster to get the distance done  before the clock ran out. At 9am I was at my final lap. The lifeguards at the other end of the pool warned me they were moving the bulkhead to shorten the pool length down to 25m.

"I just have 50m to go!" I pleaded and they waved me on. Success!

2000m, done and dusted. I've broken the 2k barrier and did it in 60min. Well, okay. More like 63 minutes. But still, won't be long until I've done it in sub-60!

Footage

I’m starting to like the swim. Pool swim, that is. I’ve been going consistently twice a week in my mind. In reality I’ve probably gone less than 20 times since I started up the swim part of the triathlon club in August. But one thing I have become consistent at is swimming 1500m (minimum) in every 1-hour practice. I even got as far as 1700m once. Woohoo!

The other night when I went to swim practice I got videoed. Ulp! I’m apprehensive about seeing that footage. I know it will be good for me to see how I actually look when I swim, but ulp!

I haven’t reviewed the final product yet so I’m not sure how I will receive it, but hopefully my technique isn’t too shocking.

Tri-ing a New Challenge

I set myself the lofty goal to train for a full triathlon this year. I would have liked to change the word “triathlon” to “marathon” but given the lack of running groups up here and my lack of motivation to train solo, triathlon seems more likely. I say “train” not “race” because I have no idea if the race is a realistic goal. I have picked a race out to work towards: Chinook Race. It’s in Calgary on June 17^th. So I can put that in my calendar and decide if it’s feasible. And as for the marathon, who knows…Maybe I’ll find a poor sucker friend who is willing to run 30k+ with me on the long run days and actually do a marathon this year. Hahahaha!

Day 1: I went back to spin class.

If there is one thing that worries me about the triathlon it’s the bike portion. And the swim portion. Okay, that’s 2/3 of the triathlon sport, but at least I’m confident I can run 10k!

The bike portion is 40k. I figure that will take me two hours to complete at most if I’m conditioned. And if it’s not hilly or bad weather conditions. But what better way to get started on the bike then in spin class! It’s much harder to fall off a spin bike than an actual bike*.

I lasted a grand total of 50 minutes before I threw in the towel and called it a night. My back hurt, my butt hurt, and for whatever reason my right knee hurt. I did a lot of stretches and hobbled home. Not defeated…just taking my time and easing into the training. T-165 days to go.

*Harder, but not impossible. Yes, I have fallen off a spin bike before! And not a graceful fall. I’m talking “lurching-forward-over-the-handlebars-and-knocking-my-water-bottle-into-the-instructor-while-sitting-at-the-front-of-the-class” falling off. I now prefer to sit at the back and away from other people.

The Struggle is Real

Some days, the struggle is real. The struggle is awful. Some days, the struggle wins.

But it was not this day.

On Sunday, my friend Steph and I strategized to run a 12k rather than the 18k the Running Room group was going to do. I forgot my watch, unfortunately. I didn’t think it would be a big deal. I honestly didn’t. Just run, I told myself, you don’t need to know the time or distance. The group will know, and that’s enough. Ha!

I chattered desperately at first, determined to not be thinking about the time – or distance – that we were running. When we had reached what I was sure would be close to our turning point [6k], I asked how far we’d run.

“3.3k!” One girl chirped.

That was when the grimness set in. I stopped focusing on chatting and started to focus on gritting down for the other 9k. Steph, myself, and another runner split off around 6k so we could head back. Every step was a challenge. I would hold out for as long as I could before blurting out, “when’s the next walking break?”.

Steph – bless her heart – would look at her phone whenever I asked about a walking break and say, “riiight…NOW.” I don’t know if it really was or wasn’t. I didn’t want to know if we were walking every 10 minutes (as we were meant to do) or every 5 minutes just to appease me, or even every 15 minutes because I was the only one keeping track of when we could walk next. I told my buddies I couldn’t keep the pace and needed to slow down and – bless their hearts – they slowed down right with me. And kept talking. And kept me running. I felt ashamed, and apologized profusely to my running buddies for holding them back. “I’m just not feeling it. I’m really struggling today.”

They wouldn’t accept my apology and refused me the right to make it. “You’re fine.” They told me. “We’re still running a good pace and everyone has those days.” I knew it was true, but I still hate it when one of Those Days happens to me!

When I asked our mileage and heard we had done just over 9k, I perked up considerably. 3k left, 3k left, 3k left! And in the end it was less than 3k, as we only did 11.5km. But I did it! Even when the struggle wanted to beat me down and stomp all over me. Sure, the middle 6k were awful, but I did it.

Any Hill Will Do*

I looked outside, drew back the curtain
To see for certain what I thought I knew
And in my mind, my weakness praying
But a strong voice saying
Any hill will do

I wore my hat, with a white lining
Bright sunshine shining, wonderful and new
And in the east, the dawn was dancing
And I kept on chanting
Any hill will do

A long long hill, but not so steep
And so I ran my five repeats
My breath was coming out like panting
I was almost done!

Keep running fast, I kept on saying
Energy fading, and my strength is too
So up I ran, five times repeated
Till I was depleted
Any hill will do

*For best effects, listen to the soundtrack Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, get two friends (or strangers!) to wave their arms behind you and provide the back-up vocals while you sing this song to the tune of "Any Dream Will Do", by Andrew Lloyd Webber.