slowdad

Balls of Steel - I wish I had some

The last couple of weeks have been fairly busy.  A few long rides on the trainer. Well, long by my standards.  And a few hours of skiing up at Hardwood hills.

Unfortunately my ski speed is pretty slow.  I'm about 30% slower than I was "back in the day" and it makes me a little bit sad, and a bit worried about my Gatineau experience 2 weekends from now.  Baring any miracles it's going to be a long weekend.

Today I was hoping to go for a 4 hour ski, to follow up on the 3 hours classic I did yesterday.

I woke up early, which means late to my lovely wife, grabbed a coffee and some Gatorade and headed for the snow belt north of Barrie.

With the ipod in I cruised along in a fairly uneventful manner, enjoying the scenery, which was easy at my speed.

All in all the day wouldn't be worth writing about but at 2 hours, 26 minutes, and 13 seconds, according to my handy dandy heart-rate monitor, I experienced a sensation that I won't forget for a very long time.

As I eased down a curving section of the trail, happy to be passing a few folks taking a quick break trail-side, I decided that it was time to take a drink.

Drinking fluids is a task that most humans can accomplish with ease. In fact, I believe that most people can accomplish the task while moving under their own power.  Even though I'd had almost a full bottle by that time I proved that I am a danger to my self.

As I grabbed for the bottle, strapped around my waist I decided to reach around with the opposite hand, my left.

Now, any experienced, or not experienced, skier will tell you, you should never put the tips of your poles in front of you.  They tend to get caught, and throw you off balance. Always keep them behind you and stop with your skis.

And so, it was with some nervousness that I saw my left pole swing around to my front.  But I was not worried, I have a fair number of miles of skiing under my belt and rarely fall, except for yesterday when I stepped on a leaf and that and a combination of my grip wax which seemed tuned perfectly for "Oak leaves stuck in trail" sent me onto my face.

So I kept reaching for the sweet syrup that is Gatorade.

And then I heard, and felt, an explosion so powerful I thought I had been shot.

My feet flew forward, my upper body snapped in the same direction.  And my groin stayed perfectly still.

Bang. 

I felt like I had been shot back in time.  Or hit by a cannon as in some twisted road-runner cartoon.

As I fell to the ground I remember seeing a piece of the pole flying, making it's escape.

And I stopped my watch, writhing on the ground, begging for death.  I have not felt anywhere near that much pain since having a vasectomy, which is rather ironic. 

I heard voices.  Men squeamishly asking if I was ok. I was proud I did not vomit.

I got up after a few minutes and managed to ski back, fortunately mainly downhill.

The good news is that I got a new pair of poles out of the deal. The bad news is that my wife isn't happy that I got new pair of poles out of the deal, despite the fact that they aren't nearly top of the line, but more mid-grade. 

So here's the damage. You'll notice it broke into 3 pieces which is probably a good thing as it meant I didn't skewer myself in the process.

I'm going to miss these poles.  I don't know what they say.  All I know is that they came out of Russia for a couple years in the '90's and they were a very affordable pair of carbon poles that carried me through many loppets and biathlon races.

I managed to ski another 12 km loop with my new poles, putting me up around 45 km for the day.  Not what I wanted but a worthy effort.

Lessons Learned Today

Some things I learned today.  Some of them relearned.

Today the family went of it's usual cross country ski outing. The kids were off with Jackrabbits, and mom and dad went off for some quiet time amongst the trees.

It was fairly standard but I picked up a few tidbits.

1. Eating tofu curry prior to a long ski is a bad idea.

2. Kids always say they don't want to do whatever is coming up.

3. Kids don't want to leave whatever it was they just said they didn't want to do.

4. Trying to catch people ahead of you on the trail in the first 15 minutes of a 2.5 hour ski is a bad idea.

5. Having the people you just caught leave you behind because you're knackered is kind of embarrassing.

6. You don't win points with the wife by saying you're going to ski alone.

7. 2.5 hours is a long time on roughly one bottle of water and a mouthful of carboom.

8. I can drink a carton of chocolate milk in about 1.5 seconds. I can eat a chocolate cookie in half that time.

9. Bring a spare change of clothes next time.

After today's ski I realize that the Gatineau Loppet is going to be a tough go as my legs started to give by about 2 hours.  Fortunately the last half is net downhill but I think it's going to be wobbly.

Gimme some Sugar

Well at the very least I feel like I am back on the wagon, or, if not on the actual wagon, I am back, chasing it and trying to get back on.  Forward progress.

This past weekend was pretty good, with some cross country skiing, and a bike ride through the crazy streets of the big smoke.

Skiing at zero degrees C is fun, although my wife was rather embarrassed that I wore the one piece race suit.  Middle aged men should not normally wear one piece purpleish spandex even if it is made by Sugoi.  The 5 pounds I want to lose is being carried in a donut shape that surrounds my belly button.  The kids find it amusing which is some kind of consolation.

Cycling at zero degrees is not normally super fun, but the 2 hour ride on Sunday was nice.  The main problem was the drivers.  I am fairly certain that there was a competition in town that involved cell phones, right hand turns, and stopping in the bike lane. Unfortunately for their game, they failed to run us off the road and no points were scored.

It was nice to be out riding in January, and managing to keep up with my fatigued riding partner was even better.  I even put in a short burst up a hill at the end that let me get at least 15 meters ahead at the expense of my heart turning into a vibrator.  It was very sexy.

I've managed to go to the gym and put in a couple of hours on the trainer.  And my legs feel like driftwood.

Today's spin on the trainer, an hour easy, felt like a 3 hour ride.  I've been trying to cut out sugar during the past few days.  Exactly 27 minutes into my ride I gave up, ate some chocolate chips, and drank a ginger-ale.  I figure I expended just about the same amount of energy that I consumed. 

Getting a handle on this eating thing is tough.

But, I watched a video of the Kona Ironman Triathlon.  Watching people finish that race was very motivating.  People with no legs, people with transplanted hearts, people who are 80.  It makes you keep turning the pedals when you see someone at mile 100 with no legs at a higher cadence.

I'm not special, I'm just some guy who gave up exercise for 10 years and decided that wasn't a strategy for success.

Skis pointed in the right direction

 

Some Inspiration to just get out there and enjoy winte

Spindly Arms and Quick Kids

Today was a good day.  Kinda cold to start off with, at about -18 deg C in the shadows, but good none-the-less.

We took the kids out for their first go at Jackrabbits, the massively popular program for young kids who's parents demand performance.  Sorta like Timbits Hockey.  

Actually, Jackrabbits is a billion times cooler than Timbits. Afterall, why put your kids into a sport sponsored by a sphere made of fat and sugar that's made at one end of the country and reheated at the other end.  The Timbit, while very tasty, especially the sourdough ones, represents all that is wrong with our society.

But I digress.  Not much is cooler than Jackrabbit Johannsen, who was winning ski races in 1890, a guy who introduced Canada to cross country skiing, lived to 111, and swam in freezing cold winter water well into his later years.

So today was the kids first day in this awesome program and they were really doing well, and having loads of fun.  I should have taken pictures but went off on a 45 min ski once they got settled.

I stuck to the flats.

We had lunch.

Then I went out for another 1:15 and got turned around and ended up on the harder trail.  Probably a good thing but my arms felt like the arms of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.  That is, not useful for much of anything.

I struggled back and the kids were out skiing again, the youngest having been "upgraded" to the next level 'cause he totally destroyed the other kids with his big engine.  Or his ability to get up on his own.

I totally can't wait until I can draft behind them.

Kids and Fitness - More Anecdotes

Recently I've been thwarted by my normally robust technology.  My desktop decided to ruin my record of never having a machine go down, thus depriving me of my proven method of manipulating photos I've taken to make them appear like I'm an awesome photographer.  Actually I caused the problem and this is why there are no pictures of my kids cross country skiing next to the paragraph below. 

This weekend, we managed to both get our flu shots, and get out on to some snow for the first time up at Hardwood Hills. I managed to get out for almost exactly 30 minutes myself and really put the hammer down.  This allowed my to pass at least 2 couples who were out for a leisurely afternoon in the forest.  

The kids seemed to have a lot more fun than they did last year.

Last year each of them couldn't really get up on their own on skis. Now both of them, 4 and 6, were just fine, and could manage the downhills without falling at the bottom of every one.  (Why is it that there must be a turn, even a gradual one, at the bottom of every downhill on a XC course?)  I'm not sure where this improvement came from, but it was welcome by everyone.

They both spent about 90 minutes or so, poking around the easy loop, and generally messing around. Cookies followed and all was well.

As time goes on I'm becoming more and more of a believer in getting kids active early in the morning.  As demonstrated by this weekend, and by watching their behavior this week and last, it's apparent that they are much better and paying attention, and not flying into furious fits, after they've done something physical.

It seems the activity doesn't have to be very stressful, just walking 10 minutes to the babysitters seems to do the trick, with some 30 second intervals thrown in of course. 

If the kids don't get some activity, meltdowns happen sooner, dinner time is more chaotic, and they fight with each other more.

It seems better if the activity is a bit longer making the effect last, but it makes me think that there would be some benefit to schools doing phys ed early in the mornings rather than the almost never that seems to happen.

Or parents could walk their kids to school.

Do kids who walk to school do better?  That's a google search for tomorrow.

But I'm guessing that many parents wouldn't buy in, as evidenced by the parent who, upon entering a store, that they had driven to, (as I had), looked at their young kid, and said to their spouse, "Lets be quick, I don't want her to have to walk much."

Easy Week - May it be the last for a while

If I get in an hour run tomorrow I'll just have 4 hours of training time in this week. Barely enough to compensate for the extra cookies and Halloween "treats" I've managed to put back. I don't count the 2 hours in the gym over two lunch hours.

At least my knee is feeling better.

Today I took to the track to get in an hour of fairly easy rollerskiing. At this point my arms are very much my limiting factor.  Hopefully there'll be some significant snow in the snow belt next weekend and I can start blowing any discretionary income on trail passes and wax.

The kids were very well behaved out at the track, and played soccer for most of the hour, stopping only to stage an 800m race between my wife and I.  Please don't tell her how hard I had to work to beat her.

While I was skiing I was thinking that we, as parents need to get more creative to get our children entertained while we demonstrate an active lifestyle.  Skiing circles around them while they kicked around the ball was fine but I really admired the guy I saw the other day riding his road bike, with all the carbon he could muster, towing two kids in the trailer.

I'll need to do a top 10 list...

Cool Pic of the Day

I need some snow in my life.  In 11 weeks I'll be looking something like this, but... slower.

Tentative Goals for 2010

Right now I'm at a bit of a cross roads in terms of training.  And if anyone out there has any advice that would be fabulous.  What I'd really like to do is outsource/opensource my training program and data so that anyone could make tweaks based on my results but I fear that will never happen. 

I need a training plan wiki! Hmm, there's an idea in there somewhere.

I would hire a coach but I'm sure the effort of finding one who can help me through cycling, skiing, running, and being slow, will be more work than actually grinding through the training plan.

Goals

Right now I only have a couple major goals on my calendar right now, and they're pretty far off. But here they are.  This is not my bucket list, but stuff I've committed to doing, at least to myself.

Gatineau Loppet - February 2010 - 53km Classic ski marathon, followed the next day by the 53km classic.  I'm just going for the finish in both and to set a baseline time.  I've done this before, when I was much younger and could do 100 situps in 2 minutes.  Now I can't.  But, I think I'll be able to cruise through in a respectable time with some hard work prior.

Around the Bay 30km - March 2010 - Classic running event in Hamilton.  It's "Older than Boston" which is what it says on the shirt.  It's the only reason I'm doing it.  People wear these shirts like badges around Toronto.  Just going for the finish, but I don't want to hurt too much along the way.  Gotta fit in some running over the winter.

370Km Ride - Summer 2010 - I want to ride from Toronto to Smiths Falls.  Why? Why not. It's a suitably epic distance and I get to hang out at the cottage afterward. I figure it'll take me 15 hours if I borrow some fancy aero wheels.

Haliburton Hilly Hundred - Sept 2010 - Is this thing still on?  No info on the intertubes anywhere.  Anyway, it's a super hilly 260km ride, that is apparently well supported. Out in the middle of nowhere. 

CycloCross Races - Fall 2010 - I would like to embarrass myself as a lesson to my kids.  If you don't train hard while you're young you'll look like a fool when you turn 35 and decide now's the time! I enjoy racing, at least I seem to remember liking it. So I'll do a couple of these.

That's not a lot in my opinion, and fortunately, most of them require lots of long slow distance base building.  I'll probably throw in a couple 10km runs, but I'd really like to have something better to do with my weekends.

So..

Next Post I'll lay out my tentative weekly plan.  It needs some serious revisionism.