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The Germany Journals (Ger-nals?) Part 2

This was the day we would make the trip from Frankfurt to Berlin.  While my wife and I packed, my brother took Shark Boy outside.  The next thing I knew, he’s asking me: “You know your son can ride a bike, right?”


To rewind a bit, Shark Boy does a great job on his glider bike and can balance and steer no problem.  Still when we’ve tried to move him up to a regular bike, he’s stayed fixated on the idea that he needs training wheels.  He even threw a fit when he saw me remove them from his new Ultimate Spider Man bike.  Getting him to ride it has been semi-successful, but he still didn’t seem that close to being able to go it alone.  A couple of days watching his older cousin ride a bike, and away we go!  Swimming … biking … can Kids Of Steel be far away?


Before our train departure, we walked around downtown Frankfurt for a bit, which I recommend for those that like modern architecture and/or high-end clothing stores and had some lunch.



Sandcastles in downtown Frankfurt.


The Inter City Express is a world famous fast train – I was excited to show it to Shark Boy after he’d read about it in books; although we were on it last year he didn’t notice much – a stomach bug had turned him into a near-zombie.


We had a cabin “reserved” – the 8 Euro extra charge didn’t make much of a difference as we had company the entire 4 hour trip.  I guess the train was too full – I’d have thought two small children would have been more of a deterrent to solo travellers. It turns out, you can only reserve the seats you sit it, which makes a certain amount of sense, I guess.


I spent most of the train ride carrying the Lightning Kid through the cars of the train (including ones that were identified as ‘QUIET’) from one end to the other.  Someday I’m going to write a post about all the calories I burn on the kids that I don’t get to count…Both boys fell asleep with all of 45 minutes left on the train ride.  Still we arrived in Berlin (Spandau Station) excited to start the next phase in our adventure.


A little too excited in the boys’ case! The new environment seemed to be an over-stimulation which combined with their over-tiredness to make for a very late, tedious bedtime routine – bad news for their jet lag adjustment.


DAY 6:


Thanks to our hosts taking the boys on first thing in the morning, I had a bit of a sleep-in .  We took them into Tegel for some shopping – riding a double-decker bus is a big draw for Shark By and the Lightning Kid seemed to like it too.  The effects of the night before were felt heavily as the kids seemed to need lunch and their nap times an hour or two earlier than expected and hopes for getting a run in while they napped in tandem were dashed.  I took the Lighting Kid to my favourite playground in the stroller.  I hadn’t changed out of my jeans but my plan B was successful – he fell asleep on the way there.  I used the park benches and playground for

  • Incline Push-ups
  • Tricep Dips
  • Negative Phase Pull-ups
  • Squats
  • Single-leg lunges on the swings
  • Inch worms (on the train set – plank across two ‘cars’, then bring feet forward to the car your hands are on, move your hands forward into another plank, etc.)
  • Planks
  • Side Planks
Tricep dips on one of the ‘train’ cars



I was doing a side plank on a park bench, looking at a (rare) blue sky, listening to the birds chirp and thinking about how peaceful it all was when I heard “WAAAAAAH!” – the Lightning Kid woke up.   Still, everybody had gotten what they needed: fresh air and exercise for me, sleep for everyone else.  We had a very pleasant rest of the afternoon as a family.


DAY 7:


I don’t really want to write about this day.  The only undertaking was a trip into town for a few things and the promise of ice cream.  It was a nightmare as the kids’ nap and eating schedules were still off, so there were a lot of tantrums and screaming.  AND THE ICE CREAM CAFE’S MACHINE BROKE DOWN SO I COULDN’T GET SPAGHETTI ICE CREAM!


Side note 1: If you don’t know spaghetti ice cream, it’s soft ice cream pushed through a press to come out in noodles, coated in strawberry sauce and either grated coconut or white chocolate and the whole pile hides a little mound of whipped cream.


Side note 2: I might as well take the opportunity here to talk about one of my favourite things here in Germany.  When a house uses radiators for heat, it’s hard to stay warm if you’re in the wrong spot and we’ve had unseasonably cold (and wet) weather here this trip.  The plus side is these incredibly practical radiators in the bathrooms (and sometimes in a front hall).  Back home, between swims, gym workouts and showers not to mention regular hygiene I go through a lot of towels so I’d love it if I had one of these that could not only quick dry a used towel, but warm it too.



DAY 8:


In spite of continuing cold and rainy weather we braved a trip to the forest playground – Shark Boy rode his bike the entire way there while my wife chased him and I pushed the Lightning Kid in the stroller through the drizzle.  He fell asleep again before we got there and while Shark Boy played with his mother I snuck in a few push-ups, step-ups and tricep dips.  The playground is somewhat sheltered by the trees but when the Lightning Kid woke up and the rain worsened we opted to return home.  After an early lunch we got the kids down for a tandem nap and instead of the run I wanted to do, I did a living room workout instead.
  • Push Ups (100 Push Up workout 5 sets – 20, 30, 18, 18, 34)
  • Negative Phase Pull-ups
  • Lunges with 3 kg dumbbells overhead
  • Side Planks

I also developed and exercise with
  • no weights/equipment
  • functional compound movement
  • whole-body muscle recruitment


My idea is to create an alternative burpee (my wife dubbed my creation “burpees for engineers” finding them somewhat complex).  I’ll share it in a future post, but for now let’s stay on topic.


We had arranged for an afternoon playdate for Shark Boy with a friend of my wife’s and her 4 year-old son that afternoon at the same time that my father-in-law was having visitors who came by boat.  What ended up happening was that he was effectively kidnapped (I’m sure there’s a term for nautical abductions) for a few hours and our poor 4 year-old visitor had to split his time between the 19 month-old Lightning Kid and the grown-ups. Yuck!

Luckily Shark Boy came back in time for them to spend a good hour or two torturing me with silly faces.  We watched the all-important Champions League (soccer) final between two German teams: Bayern Muenchen versus Borussia Dortmund being cheered on by my wife and I respectively.  What can I say? She sure can pick a winner – she married me didn’t she?

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Mothers’ Day

There’s two important mothers who have helped make me the man I am today, and if part of who I am is a triathlete, then they’re a big part of that too. Let’s do this in chronological order…

My mother was born in immediate post-war Germany, so she started off tough, as you can imagine. I know one story where her mother took her three daughters (my mother being the youngest) to pick potatoes from a field just so they’d have something to eat. My mother ended up with shoes full of blood – she couldn’t have been more than 3 or 4 years old. She grew up without a father thanks to the war, and my grandmother, my aunts and her had to move around a fair bit. Still, somehow they muddled through.

Athletically her side of the family has been very tennis-centric. It’s amazing to watch my mom play tennis (especially since she wins a lot) – no hard or fancy shots, she just hustles for the ball, and returns it consistently, grinding her opponents down. I haven’t stepped on a court in years, nor seen her play recently, but I bet it’s still the same. Growing up, we didn’t just have tennis though. I can remember being in Scouts (everything from Cubs to Venturers), piano lessons, soccer, judo, diving, softball… the list goes on and on. On weekends we’d bike as a family or cross-country ski or hike at the cottage. We were a multi-disciplinarian, multi-sport family, so now, I’m a multi-disciplinarian, multi-sport man.
When I met my wife, I was immediately impressed by how many pies she had her fingers in (figuratively speaking, you understand).  She was working full-time in a marketing executive position, volunteering with a Young Executives of Canada subcommittee of the German-Canadian Chamber of Commerce, teaching special needs kids to ski, all while maintaining an active social life and close ties to her family.  She even seemed game to take on training for a half-marathon with me, so that’s what we did.

Getting to know someone as a friend and better through running (or another form of training, I suppose) till the point where you’re starting to fall in love with them is something I’d wish for anyone who tries to lead a physically active lifestyle.  Running, exercise and physical challenges have always been part of our relationship, and now they’re part of our family life too.  Bringing triathlon into any relationship takes the support of your partner and it can mean outright sacrifice too; so I’m lucky to not only have her in my life to do all those little things that make swimming, biking and running possible, but also that she enjoys similar pursuits and I get the chance to return the favour sometimes.  For the second year in a row, I will be taking care of our sons on Mother’s Day while she runs the Sporting Life 10K… and we’ll be all waiting for her at the finish line (this year I even did the race kit pickup!).

The Human Totem Pole from last year

 Happy Mother’s Day (or Mothers’ Day… there could be more than 1 mother in your life!) How have the Mothers in your life shape your healthy lifestyle?

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Recapping the #FitFluentialTO Get-Together/Tweetup

It’s hard for me to write about an event that I know will be covered by others (and they’ll do a better job of it too) and since this was a social event rather than a training session or a race, it’s even more out of my wheelhouse, but here goes nothing…

Saturday May 4th (happy Star Wars Day!) was the eve of the Goodlife Toronto Marathon, and several Fitfluential Ambassadors were getting together to welcome Brian, the Pavement Runner to town and wish him good luck on the race.  The whole thing was put together by Krysten, the Darwinian Fail.  They’re both great sources of leadership and inspiration in the running community, so any meeting of the minds between the two was sure to be the place to be!

The choice of venue/activity was carbo-loading at the Old Spaghetti factory; I don’t need a race as an excuse to eat pasta… let’s hope this doesn’t set my DietBet back too far!  One of my blogger heroes, Janice the Fitness Cheerleader got in touch and we carpooled to downtown Toronto for the event.  (You’ll notice I always include their blogger name – luckily my brain managed to stick to actual given names, but my instinct was always to use online handles, like they were superheroes with secret identities or something!)

We sat at the end of the table and were soon joined by Phaedra from Blisters and Black Toenails who organized the great #BostonStrongTO run, in short, another online running community leader (do you see a pattern yet?).  Go to her blog for another recap of the night.



It was the first time I’d met people who I only knew online in real-life (unless I count the old days of internet dating *shudder*).  I have to admit there’s an underlying awkward vibe that goes largely unacknowledged, but I think everyone feels it all the same.  The good news is that the crowd is so like-minded in their interests – running, social media, triathlon, blogging, health and wellness that good conversation is pretty much non-stop.  There was just a lot of warm, fuzzy feelings as everyone wanted to support the racers, who wanted to support the community of Boston.  If you weren’t racing, you still had training or wellness or blogging goals that everyone wanted you to be able to achieve too.  I even learned about a couple of kids Tri events that bear further looking into…

Phaedra not only beat me to the punch on the recap, but also did a great job of collecting links.  I hereby hijack that list, and add to it…

Christina:  The Athletarian
Kierston:  Candy Fit
Lisa:  ElleSeeFit

and without blogs, but on twitter: Derek
I’ll be spending the rest of the evening adding those to my Feedly (Google Reader Replacement), you should do the same and follow them on Twitter or whatever too.  If you were there that night and I forgot you (or know someone fitting that description), please leave a link in the comments!

EDIT: Holy Cow! I nearly forgot the best part! We all got little loot bags of  Clif Energy Products to take home.  I’ll bet I’m set for race season…


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Felicitous Friday: Week in Review

Another week has gone by with enough interesting developments to merit a recap post!


  • On Tuesday I did a new record for longest swim workout using the ‘Ladder’ workout from Meals And Miles’ Swim Workouts Compilation.  That was before breakfast, and I made it to a Gravity Machine class for lunch.  If I had one more workout/form of exercise, I could have called it another Trifecta Tuesday, but since I didn’t, we’ll call it a #FAIL 😉
  • Those two workouts made me a little sore for Wednesday, but it was some of the nicest weather we’d had all year, so wild horses weren’t going to keep me from doing a Burbathlon! I wasn’t too intense on upper body strength exercises, but I did fit in lunges with a park swing, box jumps on a bench, push-ups, step-ups on a stump, balance beam on a few logs, as well as jumping and (simple-)vaulting some logs and a baseball diamond fence.

    It starts with a hill and a path into the woods….
    The Big Hill to Climb
    Dips in the trail…


    This pic was taken in a colder season… but you can see the lunge with a swing.

  • That all left me too sore on Thursday to do my planned workouts, so recovery it was… especially since I neglected to wear compression or foam-roll the night before.
  • Friday is a day of excitement.  I tried out a bike workout hack that I’ve had rolling around in my head for a while, but you’ll have to wait to see it..  The rest of the weekend is jam-packed with activities and get togethers including initial planning this year’s Levac Attack and a Fitfluential Tweet-Up (or whatever we call get-togethers of online friends) to welcome Pavement Runner to Toronto, where he’ll be doing the Goodlife Toronto Marathon.


How was your week? Is your weekend full of fitness and excitement?

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Pin-It Party Link-Up

Lindsay from the Lean Grean Bean had the wonderful idea to leverage a little Pinterest and help a bunch of bloggers bring attention to some of their older posts.  Blame me or my equipment, but I generally don’t have the most jaw-dropping pictures… I do know that visuals are important in blogs, as walls of text turn people off.

I picked 5 posts based on 1.) they had to have a ‘Pinnable’ image and 2.) they represent the real heart of what this blog is about.  Here are my 5 posts:

Now that I look at them, there’s not a lot of triathlon representation, which is the main theme of this blog.  Well, my triathlon posts either don’t have good images (that originate from me), or just don’t have the level of originality that I want to present today; e.g. race recaps – I swam, I biked then I ran.  So did everyone else.  The posts above, though? They have that special Iron Rogue brand of crazy.  So go ahead an pin an image!  You can find me on Pinterest here.  And be sure to go to Lean Green Bean for other great posts on fitness and wellness.  I’ll even put a few links in the comment section!

EDIT: Can’t put links in the comments, so here’s some of the other participants I’ve visited:
Itz Linz
Coffee, Cake and Cardio
Family Fitness Food
Fit 2 Flex
Let’s Walk and Talk/

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A Training Plan For Me

When I started making my plan to do a half-marathon at the beginning of the year, I wanted a plan that would build up my running endurance with a lot of cross-training, and I came up with (somewhat wonky) plan.   What I should have done, was gone digging in my bookshelf for this:




The Runner’s World Guide To Cross-Training.  It’s got great information on why cross-training is important for runners, some good strength exercises and stretches, but what I was most interested in was the sample programs they have.  I looked at the Advanced 10K/Half-Marathon Program:



DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
DAY 6
DAY 7
WEEK 1 BASE 1
EASY X
EASY RUN
EASY RUN OR EASY X STRENGTH
EASY RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
EASY RUN OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK 2 BASE2
OFF
EASY RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
EASY RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
EASY RUN OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK 3 BASE 3
EASY X
EASY RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
EASY RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
EASY RUN OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK 4 BASE 4 RECOVERY
OFF
EASY RUN + STRIDES
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
FARTLEK
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
EASY RUN OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK 5 BASE 5
EASY X
EASY RUN + STRIDES
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
FARTLEK
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
EASY RUN OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK6 BASE6
EASY X
EASY RUN + STRIDES
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
FARTLEK
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
EASY RUN OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK 7 BUILD 1
EASY X
AT RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
FARTLEK
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
EASY RUN OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK 8 BUILD 2 RECOVERY
EASY X
AT RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
FARTLEK
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
EASY RUN OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK 9 BUILD 3
EASY X
AT RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
SI RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
EASY RUN OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK 10 BUILD 4
EASY X
AT RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
SI RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE RUN OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR RUN | STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK 11 BUILD 5 RECOVERY
OFF
AT RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
SI RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
EASY RUN OR EASY X STRENGTH
5K RACE
WEEK 12 BUILD 6
EASY X
AT RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
SI RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE RUN OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR RUN | STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK 13 BUILD 7
EASY X
AT RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LI RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE RUN OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR RUN | STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK 14 BUILD 8 RECOVERY
OFF
AT RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
EASY RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
10 K RACE
WEEK 15 BUILD 9
EASY X
AT RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LI RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE RUN OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR RUN | STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK 16 BUILD 10
EASY X
MP RUN (10)
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LI RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE RUN OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR RUN | STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK 17 PEAK 1 RECOVERY
OFF
AT RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
EASY RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
10 K RACE
WEEK 18 PEAK 2
EASY X
AT RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LI RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK 19 PEAK 3
EASY X
MP RUN (12)
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
MI RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE RUN OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR RUN | STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK 20 PEAK 4 RECOVERY
OFF
EASY RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
MI RUN
EASY RUN + STRIDES
EASY RUN OR EASY X
10 K RACE OR HALF MARATHON
WEEK 21 PEAK 5
EASY X
AT RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
MI RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE RUN OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR RUN | STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK 22 PEAK 6
EASY X
AT RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
MI RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG RUN
WEEK 23 PEAK 7
OFF
AT RUN
EASY RUN STRENGTH
MI RUN
EASY RUN OR EASY X
EASY RUN OR EASY X
ENDURANCE RUN
WEEK 24 PEAK 8 RECOVERY
OFF
EASY RUN
EASY RUN AND/OR EASY X
EASY RUN
RACE PREP
OFF
10 K RACE OR HALF MARATHON


Some definitions for this plan –
X REFERS TO CROSS-TRAINING OF SOME KIND (BIKE, ELLIPTICAL, SWIM, ETC.)
EASY=30 TO 60 MIN AT RECOVERY PACE
FARTLEK=40 TO 60 MIN WITH 6-10 30 SEC SPEED BURSTS
AT RUN=12 TO 40 MIN (NO MORE THAN 20 AT A TIME) OF WORK AT ANEROBIC THRESHOLD
SI RUN=SPEED INTERVALS 8-12X
ENDURANCE=MODERATE TO HIGH FOR 1 HOUR
LI RUN= 4-7x LACTATE INTERVALS 4-5 MIN AT AEROBIC CAPACITY
MP RUN= MARATHON PACE
MI RUN=MIXED INTERVALS (SPEED AND LACTATE)
STRIDES=4 TO 6 SPEED-INTENSITY RUNS OF ABOUT 100 YARDS, SEPARATED BY RECOVERY JOGS

It’s not worth going into too much detail in this plan, since what I really need to work on is my cycling.  I’m coming down from half-marathon conditioning, so my running should take a back burner.  What if I could take that plan and substitute a bike ride or spin for every run?

If I do a simple Find-Replace on it, and change the word “RUN” to “BIKE” and change the STRIDES Drill with Tabatas, I get this:


DAY 1
DAY 2
DAY 3
DAY 4
DAY 5
DAY 6
DAY 7
WEEK 1 BASE 1
EASY X
EASY BIKE
EASY BIKE OR EASY X STRENGTH
EASY BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK 2 BASE2
OFF
EASY BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
EASY BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK 3 BASE 3
EASY X
EASY BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
EASY BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK 4 BASE 4 RECOVERY
OFF
EASY BIKE + TABATA
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
FARTLEK
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK 5 BASE 5
EASY X
EASY BIKE + TABATA
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
FARTLEK
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK6 BASE6
EASY X
EASY BIKE + TABATA
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
FARTLEK
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK 7 BUILD 1
EASY X
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
FARTLEK
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK 8 BUILD 2 RECOVERY
EASY X
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
FARTLEK
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK 9 BUILD 3
EASY X
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
SI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK 10 BUILD 4
EASY X
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
SI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE BIKE OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR BIKE | STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK 11 BUILD 5 RECOVERY
OFF
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
SI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE OR EASY X STRENGTH
5K RACE
WEEK 12 BUILD 6
EASY X
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
SI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE BIKE OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR BIKE | STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK 13 BUILD 7
EASY X
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE BIKE OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR BIKE | STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK 14 BUILD 8 RECOVERY
OFF
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
EASY BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
10 K RACE
WEEK 15 BUILD 9
EASY X
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE BIKE OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR BIKE | STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK 16 BUILD 10
EASY X
MP BIKE (30)
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE BIKE OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR BIKE | STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK 17 PEAK 1 RECOVERY
OFF
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
EASY BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
10 K RACE
WEEK 18 PEAK 2
EASY X
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK 19 PEAK 3
EASY X
MP BIKE (35)
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
MI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE BIKE OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR BIKE | STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK 20 PEAK 4 RECOVERY
OFF
EASY BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
MI BIKE
EASY BIKE + TABATA
EASY BIKE OR EASY X
10 K RACE OR HALF MARATHON
WEEK 21 PEAK 5
EASY X
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
MI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE BIKE OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR BIKE | STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK 22 PEAK 6
EASY X
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
MI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
WEEK 23 PEAK 7
OFF
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE STRENGTH
MI BIKE
EASY BIKE OR EASY X
EASY BIKE OR EASY X
ENDURANCE BIKE
WEEK 24 PEAK 8 RECOVERY
OFF
EASY BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE
RACE PREP
OFF
10 K RACE OR HALF MARATHON


Now I have a 24 week program for bike performance that shouldn’t leave my swim nor run in the cold.  Is that what I’ve been doing?



First of all, if the Bracebridge Triathlon is my big target, I have less than 24 weeks (I started playing with this in early March!) and the program should look more like this starting this week.


Mon
Tues
Wed
Thur
Fri
Sat
Sun
Week Ending on Date
WEEK 1 BUILD 1
EASY X
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
SI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE BIKE OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR BIKE | STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
5/5/2013
WEEK 2 BUILD 2 RECOVERY
OFF
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
SI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE OR EASY X STRENGTH
5K RACE
5/12/2013
WEEK 3 BUILD 3
EASY X
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
SI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE BIKE OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR BIKE | STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
5/19/2013
WEEK 4 BUILD 4
EASY X
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE BIKE OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR BIKE | STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
5/26/2013
WEEK 5 BUILD 5 RECOVERY
OFF
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
EASY BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
10 K RACE
6/2/2013
WEEK 6 BUILD 6
EASY X
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE BIKE OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR BIKE | STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
6/9/2013
WEEK 7 BUILD 7
EASY X
MP BIKE (30)
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE BIKE OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR BIKE | STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
6/16/2013
WEEK 8 PEAK 1 RECOVERY
OFF
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
EASY BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
10 K RACE
6/23/2013
WEEK 9 PEAK 2
EASY X
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
6/30/2013
WEEK 10 PEAK 3
EASY X
MP BIKE (35)
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
MI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE BIKE OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR BIKE | STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
7/7/2013
WEEK 11 PEAK 4 RECOVERY
OFF
EASY BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
MI BIKE
EASY BIKE + TABATA
EASY BIKE OR EASY X
10 K RACE OR HALF MARATHON
7/14/2013
WEEK 21 PEAK 5
EASY X
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
MI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
ENDURANCE BIKE OR X + OPTIONAL EASY X OR BIKE | STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
7/21/2013
WEEK 22 PEAK 6
EASY X
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
MI BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X STRENGTH
LONG BIKE
7/28/2013
WEEK 23 PEAK 7
OFF
AT BIKE
EASY BIKE STRENGTH
MI BIKE
EASY BIKE OR EASY X
EASY BIKE OR EASY X
ENDURANCE BIKE
8/4/2013
WEEK 24 PEAK 8 RECOVERY
OFF
EASY BIKE
EASY BIKE AND/OR EASY X
EASY BIKE
RACE PREP
OFF
10 K RACE OR HALF MARATHON
8/11/2013


Looking back at April, I seem to be on a bike (usually my trainer or a Spin Class) about 3 times a week, with a swim and a run or strength session (including Crossfit).  The Long/Endurance rides are probably the biggest gap, and overall training volume could be higher (what else is new?)…. but I’m not too far off the general profile of what’s laid out.

If I’m honest, I probably won’t be getting any closer to the strict lines laid out by this program in the run up to the race season, but it’s nice to have a reference to consult in terms of what I can/should do.  I think working on the bike is the way to go for me: my swim seems strong, and working my legs on the bike will pay dividends into my run, so that I don’t have to do it as often overall (though I can’t neglect it completely).

Besides not having a plan at all, what’s the craziest variation on a formal training plan you’ve ever had?

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Updates for the End of the Week

Wednesday: I wanted to add a little to my workout, which was planned to be a spin on the stationary bike (since the weather was lousy).  I came across this workout in my Twitter feed from Shannon of Badass Fitness.  They say good swimming comes from the core, so doing this circuit before the bike seemed like a good substitute for a swim-bike brick (without getting wet… unless you count sweat).


Thursday: I started shoring up my race calendar for the year, especially the triathlons (I’ll have to do a Race Calendar post and page soon).  I signed up for the Bracebridge Triathlon (a redemption race from last year) and the Muskoka 5i50 (again).

I also went to SquareOne Crossfit for the WOD.  It was Snatch focused (I promised myself I wouldn’t laugh…) and that worried me a little.  I was eager to learn, but I knew it was highly technical and I had no experience.  I probably even under-estimated it, as it involved every part of the body in complex, compound movements.  I practiced with just a PVC pipe, then a bar, then a bar with 10 pound plates (for a total of a mere 35 pounds) just to get the form down.  I found I’d either do a good ‘jump’ where you rise from the first squatted position to get the bar flying up high, but not get good positioning under the bar for the latter squat, or the reverse – I’d drop nice and low, but before really fully popping my hips out.





So I don’t have much to show for the one-rep max, but for the AMRAP part I got 6 complete rounds of 10 body-weight squats and 5 burpees in 4 minutes
.

The WOD
That one guy always forgets to count…

That session was a lot like my first, where I wasn’t completely demolished by the end, because working on skill meant taking a lighter weight. I’m glad, because the snatches frankly terrified me. Lower back, shoulders, knees are all ripe for injury on that move from what I could tell… plus there’s always the chance you’ll pull the bar into your face or drop it on your own head. If I’m smart (I’m not) I’ll work on practising the moves for my muscle memory.

Friday: As of this morning, I have lost 4.8 lbs in my DietBet which puts me about 59% of the way there 8 days in. Basically, I’m counting calories. I’m an engineer, and I believe in the laws of thermodynamics. When calories burned > calories ingested, weight comes off, and every other kind of weight loss trick is merely gaming that system. It also helps me to know just how much I can get away with during the day. I don’t have a cheat day or cheat food really because this is a temporary measure (the whole explanation is here). So booze and sweets are off the menu (some of Shark Boy’s ice cream may have fallen into my mouth on Sunday) and I try to keep portions under control with small healthy snacks (cottage cheese, fruits, veggies) between meals.

Posted on

Updates for the End of the Week

Wednesday: I wanted to add a little to my workout, which was planned to be a spin on the stationary bike (since the weather was lousy).  I came across this workout in my Twitter feed from Shannon of Badass Fitness.  They say good swimming comes from the core, so doing this circuit before the bike seemed like a good substitute for a swim-bike brick (without getting wet… unless you count sweat).


Thursday: I started shoring up my race calendar for the year, especially the triathlons (I’ll have to do a Race Calendar post and page soon).  I signed up for the Bracebridge Triathlon (a redemption race from last year) and the Muskoka 5i50 (again).

I also went to SquareOne Crossfit for the WOD.  It was Snatch focused (I promised myself I wouldn’t laugh…) and that worried me a little.  I was eager to learn, but I knew it was highly technical and I had no experience.  I probably even under-estimated it, as it involved every part of the body in complex, compound movements.  I practiced with just a PVC pipe, then a bar, then a bar with 10 pound plates (for a total of a mere 35 pounds) just to get the form down.  I found I’d either do a good ‘jump’ where you rise from the first squatted position to get the bar flying up high, but not get good positioning under the bar for the latter squat, or the reverse – I’d drop nice and low, but before really fully popping my hips out.





So I don’t have much to show for the one-rep max, but for the AMRAP part I got 6 complete rounds of 10 body-weight squats and 5 burpees in 4 minutes
.

The WOD
That one guy always forgets to count…

That session was a lot like my first, where I wasn’t completely demolished by the end, because working on skill meant taking a lighter weight. I’m glad, because the snatches frankly terrified me. Lower back, shoulders, knees are all ripe for injury on that move from what I could tell… plus there’s always the chance you’ll pull the bar into your face or drop it on your own head. If I’m smart (I’m not) I’ll work on practising the moves for my muscle memory.

Friday: As of this morning, I have lost 4.8 lbs in my DietBet which puts me about 59% of the way there 8 days in. Basically, I’m counting calories. I’m an engineer, and I believe in the laws of thermodynamics. When calories burned > calories ingested, weight comes off, and every other kind of weight loss trick is merely gaming that system. It also helps me to know just how much I can get away with during the day. I don’t have a cheat day or cheat food really because this is a temporary measure (the whole explanation is here). So booze and sweets are off the menu (some of Shark Boy’s ice cream may have fallen into my mouth on Sunday) and I try to keep portions under control with small healthy snacks (cottage cheese, fruits, veggies) between meals.

Posted on

Swim Workout Hack: Swim with 100 Pushups

Introduction

I started doing Burbathlon as a way to cheat on time, and hybridize two workouts: strength training and running.  The end result has a cardiovascular profile similar to interval work, yet I get a better variety of muscular challenges than I’d get from either the gym or the trail alone. I thought about extending the concept to other triathlon disciplines: thus was born the #WorkoutHack.


Swim Workout Hack

I’ve been using the 100 Push-ups app for Android lately, and I’ve been a lot more consistent about getting the workouts in 3 times a week than when I first wrote about 100 Push-ups.  This past Tuesday, I was running really late and the situation was made worse by the fact that I (temporarily thankfully) lost my wallet.  By the time I got to the pool, I knew a full length workout wasn’t in the cards.  That was OK, because the idea of doing a more high-intensity interval type workout had been kicking around in my brain for a while.  These kinds of workouts are all the range, since they promise great caloric burn and metabolic boosting in little time, as long as you’re willing to put up with some painful intensity.  Before I describe the intervals part, let me just fill you in on how I worked up to it:

  • 250m warm-up
  • 100m set concentrating on good form especially on the follow-through of my stroke.
  • 100m fist swim; swim with fists closed, the idea being that after doing this, you get a better ‘feel’ for the water.
  • 100m with open hands again – the ‘follow-up’


The idea was that I would then do my 100 push-ups workout for the day.  These workouts give you a set of prescribed push-ups reps to do, then either a 60 or 90 second rest, depending on what part of the program you are in.  I wanted to swim an interval during the rest period; if they gave me 60 seconds, I’d do 50m, if they gave me 90 seconds I’d try for 100m – which is a little fast for me.

On Sunday, I had performed the ‘exhaustion test’ for the end of Week 4: you simply perform as many consecutive push-ups as you can.  The test should be performed within 48 hours of the last workout of the week, yet still rested from that workout.  I scored 42 push-ups.  Which, for Week 5, Day 1, put me here:


Set
Reps
Rest
1
36
60 seconds
2
40
60 seconds
3
30
60 seconds
4
24
60 seconds
5
>40
60 seconds

That was… a little tough for me.  What’s worse, is that I had also been playing around with swimming unfueled; I don’t eat breakfast before my swims.  The idea is exercise in a carbohydrate-depleted state might increase the capacity of the muscle cells to burn fuels aerobically.  I only do this on my swims, and so far it’s been OK as long as I eat right after the workout (and a bit of a time saver in the mornings).  It was not a good idea on this day however, and I ended up doing this:


Set
Reps
Rest
1
30
50m swim
2
23
50m swim
3
20
50m swim
4
19
50m swim
5
16
50m swim

That’s still 108 push-ups, so I’m not ashamed, but my advice to you if you try it (or to myself for future attempts):

  1. Pick a workout that you think you can do, don’t try this when you’re at a new horizon in the program

  2. Fuel beforehand.

That`s about a 30 minute, 750m workout that left me tired (the warm-up was omitted from my Garmin tracking by mistake). Workouts where you are tired (but still going) are the bread and butter of the triathlete`s regimen, after all.



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#BostonStrongTO (West End) Recap

I woke up on April 22nd and looked at the newspaper.  The Boston bombing and subsequent aftermath and investigation etc. still dominated the headlines.  “It’s been a week… only 7 days.” I thought to myself.  It felt like longer, so much had happened in those seven days, yet I still hadn’t had the chance to really commemorate the victims, the survivors, and runners of every stripe.  Until that day.  I’d been looking forward to this for the past few days – the ever awesome PavementRunner kicked off a #BostonStrong event for any city that felt like it, and Phaedra from Blisters And Black Toenails took up the organizational torch.  While I had run a mile with the boys the day after the bombing, I still wanted to do this one because:

  1. Running with other people, especially those united in a message like this one, really underscores how running is a community, and frankly, too much of how I engage with that community is merely over the internet, and not in person
  2. High Park is pretty.

Evening events are ones I often have to skip since they collide with dinner and bedtime for the kids, but both my wife and I are runners, and we both feel emotionally affected by the tragedy, so while wrapping the entire family up in this thing wasn’t quite a no-brainer, it was something we both wanted.

I found myself getting inspired, and the next thing I knew, I was plotting a way to add a soundtrack to the event.  I packed a stereo we used to stick in the back of our Chariot to blast out music during the Levac Attack, and I knew I had a Neil Diamond CD so we could play Sweet Caroline (the unofficial Red Sox anthem) and I grabbed a few extra Dropkick Murphys songs for the iPod (which docks into the stereo).  I modified a #BostonStrong bib Phaedra provided to use the numbers 416 and 905 (the most common area codes for the Greater Toronto Area), and figured we’d attach them to the stroller.
Represent!

After picking up the family and heading over to the Grenadier Restaurant parking lot.  People were asked to wear the Blue and Yellow of the Boston Marathon; in our case, my wife wore the yellow, and I wore the blue – both from previous years of the Sporting Life 10K (which she is doing again this year).  I was a little surprised to see how many people had actual Boston Marathon gear on… these were serious runners who had qualified and run the world’s most prestigious marathon in the past.

When the official start time hit, Phaedra thanked everyone for coming, and mentioned how we were all in solidarity of those that wouldn’t have been able to finish their marathons.  It was a short speech, and soon the mass of blue and yellow was off.  It took us an extra 10 seconds to get the kids strapped in, so we were at the back, and we were not going to be gaining much ground on the group.  Phaedra hung back at the first curve to make sure we were doing alright, but overall, the group was leaving us behind.  I had thought the course was meant to take us North out of High Park for a few blocks, but just shy of the entrance the pack turned back making the route a nice loop back.  The loop closed back near the restaurant making one lap just over a mile, which was where we lost sight of everybody.  

Courtesy of Blistersandblacktoenails.blogspot.com


I’m not going to lie, that irked me a little bit; maybe everyone who runs Boston is fast, but I thought the idea of being in it together was an important one, and I had come a fair distance and kept my kids up past their regular dinner and bedtimes for this, hoping that the crowd would provide them a little bit of distraction.  Still, as a family, we were going to stick this out and finish our planned 5k.  It’s their loss, since they didn’t get to hear my sweet tunes.



Shark Boy is 3 years old and had a lot of questions about what we were doing, and that in addition to the natural inquisitiveness of that age, is not shy about garnishing his investigations with the ubiquitous “why?”.  I tried to explain that Boston was a city, and a lot of people were sad there, and we wanted to show them that they didn’t have to be – sue me for trying to keep things simple, and some details I simply didn’t want him being exposed to.  The next thing I know, I’m saying that some bad men had hurt a lot of people; I still thought I was within safe territory, but then he asked HOW the bad men had hurt the people.  Oof.

The way it was working out, it would take 3 laps to finish the 5km.  The Lightning Kid was starting to get impatient (i.e. tired, fussy, hungry) with the whole thing, and the last lap was pretty much a torture of screaming.  We split up so I could get him back to the parking lot faster, while Shark Boy tried his hand at running about a half kilometer.  His enthusiasm warmed my heart with pride, but I think we need to teach him about pacing if he wants to last as long as a kilometer.  He also needs to learn about watching his step, since he tripped within the first 10 strides.  He would have made better time if he hadn’t stopped for “hug breaks” with his mother; I can’t hold that against him, in fact, he may have discovered a new running method! Imagine instead of walk breaks or water stations along a race, you could get a hug from your mom… maybe you’d get a personal best!

The Grenadier Restaurant kept their cafe/snack bar section open long enough to feed us, and then we packed it all in and got the kids home for a late bedtime routine.  I’m still sad and sorry for what happened on April 15th 2013, but if I can take a little solace in something that came from that day, it’s that it gave me an opportunity to make April 22nd 2013 a special day.

For a recap from within ‘the pack’ head over to Blisters and Black Toenails.