Coughs and sniffles

Yes I have been full of the body aches, coughing, sniffling, headaches, everything that goes along with having a cold. Normally when I get sick I still train, push through, and end up being sick for 2 weeks instead of taking a few days off.

So THIS TIME I decided to listen to my body...chill out for a few days. I can feel it breaking up in my lungs already on day 3. It makes for a boring day with no training, but I think I will recover faster this way??

Also after I had that horrific swim on Sunday that was more than enough to let me know to rest instead of train. On the other hand I did get caught up on laundry and have been watching a lot of movies!

Stay warm my friends....Brrr....when is spring coming?????

Some days you have it, some you don't

Hey Gang,



Thursday nights spin class went surprisingly well. My legs were pretty tired during warm up, but when we got going I was still able to bump it up and get the intensity to where it should be. This was our last MAP session for a bit so we (Clare and I) bumped it up a bit and managed to hang on until the end of class. I have found that I improved over the last month in doing these!

Friday Chad and I rented movies and chilled out for the night. I slept like the dead and woke up Saturday morning feeling better than I had in a long time. Once I got up and got Rexy organised I hopped on the bike for 1:45 followed by a 20 min run. The entire time I felt really good! The rest of the day was spent shopping on 17th with a girlfriend, going out for dinner, and watching more movies.

Sunday morning I felt like I was up a the crack of dawn to get my run in. I have never seen so many running groups in my entire life. I have been running in that area for 3 years and never seen so many people out....there were a couple of groups with 30-40 people in them! My run was not so great...it took me 45 min to feel normal...blah. I was very happy to be home at 90 min!

Nolan and I were busy at work on Sunday and when I got home I crashed for an hour...I love napping!

Swimming last night was tough. I felt like I was swimming through tar...my arms were not so happy. I suffered through the whole thing. I woke up this morning with a very big headache and a very sore throat. I hope I didn't catch my co-workers cold, because she has been sick for over a week!

Oh and in Rexy news she ate one of my gloves...not just any glove...one of those long ones that come up to your elbows...oh yeah. I caught her while she had the second one half way down. Get this, she pulled them out from a drawer. A couple of minutes later she had a sock...from the laundry hamper! Lucky for us she threw up the glove in the middle of the night. Oh the fun!

Sometimes I wonder....

I know 2 blog posts in 2 days....amazing isn't it! Yesterday I woke up feeling like death, sooooo tired, sore throat (2nd morning with a sore throat), and a headache, all in all not a good way to start a day. Which brings me to my blog title; all of my clients are sick lately, so sick that they can't go to work BUT they still come in to see me. What the EFF???? Why oh why would you come in so you can give me your germs. In my personal opinion if you are too sick to go to work...you shouldn't be out running errands. On the other hand it is good that they come in for accountability, but I still don't want your germs. So I am hoping that my immune system is up to the challenge of fighting this off!

Once I finally dragged myself out the door for my run I managed to pull out a good one. I find what exercise does for your body amazing. I felt 100% better after I ran yesterday, even though my mean coach gave me 5 x 3 min intervals on a 2 min rest after doing intense MAP work on the bike the night before:):):) That's okay, nothing I can't handle....it went much better than the hill work after MAP intervals...that was a peel me off the pavement workout!

Last night for swimming I ate some not so good soup....and boy oh boy did I pay for it. My stomach was screaming at me. There was one point when Chad and I were at the wall and he asked me not to throw up on him! I did feel really good in the water last night though. After warm up (with NO golf...Yay!), we did 5x100m, with long rest, then 4x25 @ 95-100% effort and then a 500m time trial. I had never done a 500m TT so I wasn't sure what to expect in the end I went a little too easy...would have been a good pace for 1000m TT, but I finished in 9:30min.

Tonight I have spin class, more MAP work....all 2 min sets this time I think. Ouch ouch ouch!

Blog Slacker

Hey,

I know I have been slacking at updating my blog, but when one gets busy it is hard to keep up. Last week was a good training week, well from what I can remember anyway.

The bigger news is that Chad signed up for the Calgary 70.3! I am super excited for him...someone has to be because he seems kind of indifferent about it right now! Maybe it is the holly shit stage where you are wondering why you just signed up for something like that. I know I felt that way after I signed up for Ironman!

Spin class has been going well, the MAP stuff seems to be getting better....still hurts...just a more conditioned hurt now! Last night was a gooder with short hard stuff at the end. Clare and I were the only brave ones to go for a run after, and it felt good!

Running has been good as well. I have noticed in the last couple months that I can pick up the pace a bit on my log runs without my heart rate going through the roof! It is always nice when you can see your training paying off!

Last weekend we went up to Edmonton, I am getting better every time I go up there;I get more workouts in. It is hard to get motivated to run outside at -20 sometimes! Visiting family is soo much easier....and warmer!

Today I have a run and swim on the agenda. Greg mentioned last night something about a time trial at swimming tonight....I hope he was just kidding about that!

Happy Training everyone!

This morning....

I will start this story off by telling you that I am not much of a morning person. So much so that it takes me a couple of hours to feel "awake."

Rexy as you know is getting quite mischievous of late. I was in the shower this morning thinking to myself that she was being such a good dog...not trying to climb into the shower or anything. That was short lived. I looked out to see her with the roll of toilette paper....the one I had left within her reach because I was half asleep when I woke up....crap. There was toilette paper EVERYWHERE! So here I am running around the house...naked...soaking wet...shampoo in my hair...trying to get all of the pieces of toilette paper before she eats it all (then I would have another issue to deal with entirely:). Remember we live downtown with giant windows....what a good start to a Monday!

I had a relatively boring weekend, but a productive one! I managed to get my blood work done, had my landlord over to fix our closet, lots of time spent at the dog park, family dinners and the like.

Today I have a short run and swimming to get done....and hopefully some groceries. I am glad I spent a lot of time outside this weekend...the snow is supposed to come back tomorrow :(

Holy Crap

I am tuckered right out. After Tuesday I thought the rest of the week's training wouldn't be quite as challenging...I was wrong.

Wednesday I went for my hilly run, not very hard to find hills considering I work in an area called North hill. It was a good challenge and left me with that very familiar leg acheyness(I don't think that is a word) I get, I suppose 60 min of continuous hills will do that to a person. By swimming that night I knew it would be a tough one to make it through. We were standing on the pool deck and Greg said only 60 minutes then you get to go to bed. With that thought I figured I had better get the party started. We did a very deceiving workout; after warm-ups and golf we did 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 and back down. We were supposed to do 2-250's but I didn't understand the workout and by the time Greg explained in to me I was on my way back down and at 150...oh well. I think the water had extra resistance that night though, I could not get my arms to do what I wanted them to. I struggled my way through and was so happy when I got to go into the hottub afterwards. Ahhhh, Thursday spin class wouldn't be as tough as Tuesday right???

Wrongo. As soon as we did warmups at spin class and did the "easier" 15/15's (15sec fast, 15 slow) I knew we were in for a gooder. Last night MAP's weren't quite as bad for a couple of reasons: the first being I went into an easier gear so I could keep my cadence up where it should be, and the second was that we started out with the longer sets and they got shorter and shorter. I did better with not guzzeling water in between sets so I didn't feel like I was gonna heave this time around.

After I got home last night Chad and I took Rexy to the dog park, 30 min of walking was hard work. I think I have done a number to my legs this week and I am so happy all I have to do today is walk the dog!

There is more swimming, biking, and running to be done this weekend though.

Have a good weekend!

Ouch my legs....and lungs....

On Monday I went for a run from work. I have heard everyone complaining about the roads, sidewalks and how bad it is everywhere in the city. I was right in there with everyone else, but a run in the NW on Monday showed me that downtown I have it easy. I think I should have brought my skates to go down the road. I was stepping very gingerly along the sidewalks on Monday. I can not believe the difference in the road conditions....suburbia has it way worse than I do! After I hopped, skipped, and jumped my way through the neighborhood I had a pretty good run.

Last night there was a pain train rollin' through tri-it and I was on it. We did our first workout with MAP intervals (max aerobic power). Ouch, ouch, ouch. The first set was 6x 1 min with 2 min rest. That wasn't too bad, I was able to keep my cadence above 100 no problem. It was the next set that was 5 x 1:30 that was awful. I think it was around the third set that I started to feel nauseous....you almost had your first puker Greg! My heart rate was reading 170....but it felt WAY harder than that, like 180 at least. During the 2 min of rest my heart rate didn't go back down below 150 bpm. By the end I could barely hold 90 cadence throughout the set! Afterwards I went for a transition run with Mark and Mark. They were taking it easy while I was givener to keep up to them. I made it the full 5km with them and went home to collapse on the couch. That was a burnin' workout.

Once I got home I realised we had no cable....we have had free for cable in like 3 years...took them awhile to figure that one out hey? So I layed on the couch with my feet propped up, Rexy laying on top of me, and stared at the ceiling. To tired to care to move. I was in this position for a good hour or so, until Chad came home to take Rexy for a walk and I went to bed!

My hilly run today should be fun and hopefully tonight we will do long slow sets in the pool with lots of pull! Next week should be interesting with the 2 min MAP sets....bring it on Greg!

Long time, no blog

Wow, it has almost been a week since I updated last...that doesn't happen often!

This is Rexy chewing on my bike shoe...that thing was out if my gym bag for about 30 seconds before she grabbed it and ran away! Notice the chewed up water bottle in the background too!

Here's how last week went:

Tuesday: Time trial. I am not going to lie, it wasn't what I expected and didn't go the way I planned. First off I started in the wrong gear which led to me going why in the hell is my heart rate so high and why am I pedaling so slow....hmmm. It only took me a few minutes to figure that out. Once I did it didn't get any better. Man o man it was a tough one. I couldn't get my legs to go fast enough. Oh well, live and learn. I did have the sweat drips rollin though, holly crap. we were about 3/4 of the way through and I was so focused I didn't even notice Greg standing there trying to check what my heart rate was at!

Wednesday: I woke up to some very very tired legs. I rolled myself out of bed....way too late and ran around to get to work on time. I got to work and after about an hour I called my co-worker to see where she was. Yeah not coming in....thanks for the heads up! The rest of the day was crazy busy, I hardly got a chance to eat, missed my run, and no one else was really a team player that day.

I made it to my swim that night (after I had a nap:) and tried my very best to convince everyone to go for a drink. I almost had them, but then Chad and Greg jumped in the pool. After standing there for a couple of minutes (and watching Darryl jump in), I eventually jumped in and worked out some of my frustration from the day.

Thursday: I left in the afternoon to get my run in that I missed. It was awesome; although it was freaking windy for the first half I was having a great time. The last 20 min of my run I had to change pace every 2-3 min. This combined with working on my leg turnover; I felt like I was tearing up the trails. There were times I may have bumped it up a little too much, as I could hardly breathe...but it was awesome. That is one reason why I do all of this training, because when you have training sessions like this it all becomes worth it!

That night I had a nutrition talk to go to so I missed spin class and I didn't get home until after 9pm...by that time I was too pooped out to get on the trainer.

Friday: I went to the doc to see what is going on and why I am so tired/feeling crappy. Lets just say he didn't tell me anything I hadn't figured out on my own. He said I may be slightly anemic and I just need to rest more. I find this amazing. He didn't ask me ANYTHING about my lifestyle, eating habits, stress, work, etc. I have IBS and Eczema, both of which have been really inflamed lately. He rushed me in and out of there and that was that, I was in there for 5 mins....just long enough for him to check my blood pressure. He wouldn't tell me what it was when I asked and told me it was "fine." I have to go and get blood work done, which he will probably tell me to "rest" again and toss me out the door.

I understand that we don't have enough health care professionals, but I don't think that it should be allowed not to hear people out. Usually when people have multiple symptoms, they are being caused by one thing. So instead of me having 5, 5 min appointments, lets do one 15-20 min one and figure out what the hell is going on and then I won't be back again. Does this make sense??? I know it has to do with billing, blah, blah, blah. While you are doing the usual stuff in there can't you hear what else the patient has to say at least to make the diagnosis easier????? Okay, I am done my rant about the health care system. Maybe it is because I had the same small town doctor for 20 years and he always addressed the issue and got it dealt with.

Anyway, my weekend was good. I biked, ran, and swam. All of them were good quality training, and nothing too eventful happened! Chad did swim 3.8 km so I am trying to convince him to do a half this summer....I may need some help with that one!

Have a great week of training everyone!