Fil is BACK!! Kind of.....

I was expecting a ripper of a ski today and after feeling quite bonked after hockey last night, resorted to some good sleep and fueled up with some advil, loads of a.m. water and an energy drink to prep. Watched the little farts gymnastics (Emms and Lauren are getting pretty good) and headed out to meet Fil at Chalet.

To my surprise Shawn was there as well...I recall telling him briefly about the meeting this morning and he gets kudos for makin it happen. So Fil looks a little sluggish....hacking and coughing....what's that green shit he's spitting out?!?!?! I quickly come to realize he's going through what I am hopefully getting over. Fueled up with some freshly baked Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies mmmmm and off we go. THe idea of doing the loop reverse was quickly squashed :( Pace was slow.....very slow for Fil...confirmed he was sufferring. After a fee km's I swapped out skiis with Shawn after the big climb on 3......will definitely be looking for some wooden planks for some retro fun :)

Ski was mellow to start and after confirming that Yes, Fil will not be rebounding, Shawn and I took off at a blistering pace....Good ski was had and about to bundle up the kiddies for a little sliding session. Tomorrow is a mellow ski with my beautiful wife and looking forward to a little chit chat without kids rattling scheming ideas all day long.

Time to pick it up a notch.....Monday and Wednesday's will be solid 1.5 to 2 hour spins and am aching to get outside on the mountain bike......No stats to report as I didn't bring HR strap or start GPS...last 5 k was a ripper, most likely threshold and first 5 can safely assume I was aerobic....the skiis are really feeling good...a tad more coordinated now ;)

Fatigue...FINALLY

Last night I had committed to an xc ski with a couple o boys, Frank and Shawn. The motivation was not further fueled after a big tumbler of vino with dinner....in all reality, the body was ready for a good ole fashioned SHUT DOWN. With a couple centimeters of new snow and temps in the "quite comfy" range...I decided to shift my locus of focus and pick the guys up for a ski :)

Once we engaged the bindings, started our GPS and heart rate monitors, the motivation quickly returned. This was definitely more of a mellow ski vs an all out slug fest that usually happens with Fil. Other than Shawn hitting the nitro over the final two km of climbing, heart rate was a blissfuly aerobic 130. Conditions were......mint....great glide and super warm.

Woke up this a.m. feeling a tad sluggish but decided it was also a good idea to get the 4 pm ice time in as last wknd felt great to get three games in as well. Cut down the new stick and anxious to try it out. Three guys on the bench lent to a good skate. Getting used to the crispness of this composite stick...not sure if I'm sold yet.

AND THEN IT HAPPENED....it set in right after the post game shower.....was actually noticable when taking off shin pads.....hip flexors felt...HEAVY. Walking to the car was in slooow motion.

Poured a pint of Winter Ale and stuffed my face with chicken and potatoes in a feeble attempt to refuel. Legs still feeling like sandbags....concern is this...Fil returns tonight and is jonesin for an XC ski tomorrow at 11. Looks like I'll have a date with Mr. Red bull and advil...after watching the kids jump and play in gymanastics. Fitness is inevitable at this stage of the game....sleep is pretty essential at this stage :) Mmmmmm this beer is going down well.

KINETIC TRAINER a KILLER

Considering Fil and Frank have not been attending Wednesday sessions, Molly and I have taken the liberty to "trial" their fancy schmancy Fluid trainer. As I narrated in past......quite a bit tougher.....comparable to tension 3-4 on our Tacx magnetic trainers.

Tonight was a smaller group of three total and Uphill Grind was the pick of the night. The Kinetic just trains pure power....a great workout once Molly and R decided to mount her carbon profile bars.....translated into a solid 20 minute warm-up for me :)

Stats:
1 hr 9 min
144 avg 180 bpm max
In zone 37 min; above 25 min (equals > 155 bpm) and 6 min below
754 Kcal
82 avg and 126 max CAD....hmm this translates into about 10 rpm slower than sessions with Tacx....time to crank up the tension on the magnetic once Fil gets back.....btw Fil....when is that???

Plan: night ski tomorrow night with Shawn so far...Hockey Friday and a little family time inclusive of xc ski with wifey on Sunday :) MMmmmmmm Jac bought reese pieces cups...yum

Made it through the wknd....Kinda

Without wife and kids and a restful sleep last Saturday night and some fresh fallen snow....only one option. Wake up Sunday and get an XC ski in prior to hockey at 1 pm. Nice and cold....resulting in some minimal glide buts lotsa grip. Bit the bullet and purchased a new stick and succommed to some post game beers that turned into one too many. Lesson learned is as follows...as my fitness improves there is a negative relationship with the amount of beer I can ingest......It's Tuesday and suffering STILL. Got a Monday spin in for an hour with the quads feeling like they were going to spasm for the first 15-20 minutes. Stats for Ski:

1 hr 15 min
6.99 avg Km/hr
730 cal
8.75 total km
138 avg HR 158 max (Timex says 942 cal) vs I phone....

Stats for Spin....not worth it as I was taking all the resistance off the trainer and just happy to be "upright"

Plan......NOTHING tonight...Wednesday spin, Thursday night ski, Friday rest and some activities over wknd.

Feeling Jipped

I was asked by an old buddy of mine to play in a hockey tournament this weekend. 60 bucks for three games...why not. We had two games on Saturday.......actually only one and I'll tell you why...First game was looking like talent on both sides of the team. Our guys were skating, breaking out, and back checking. Lost to last year's Champs, however, 4-3. Was looking forward to remainder of Tournament and that's when it all went..........a different course

I should have know from when I took my second shot that my old trusty aluminum (forget the pricey composites) broke in mid shaft with a slapshot in warm up....or the fact that the pace of the other team looked....ridiculously slow. Apparently, the boys we were playing kept drinking most of the afternoon and it showed. We popped three goals and things got chippy real fast. To save the drama report...a lot of mouth and some pushing, shoving, and crosschecking which eventually led to the ref and Linesmen, who were pretty freakin nervous at this point, to call the game with 6 minutes left and giving the win to the OTHER GUYS.

I chose to drive one of our guys to the hospital (4 stitches to the left upper cheek),to let the other boys blow off some steam by pounding some beers and hopefully they got all that shit out of their system to put their head in check for todays game. In anticipation that this may not happen....I'm punching in for a 10 k xc ski prior to, to ensure I get in a workout at least........

Plan for today recap....XC ski 10 k, buy a new freakin stick, and carb up for what I hope will be a good game against a team I used to play a regular game with. Let's see..

Hockey...four games in TWO DAYS

Hmmm haven't figured how to post from I-phone...anyways..After spending this morning posting some stuff on ebay like my old headlights for my A4 and some size 8 ladies cross country boots I bought for my wife in the effort of gaining some guilt free spending money for SC, I am prepping for a busy wknd of hockey.

I used to play quite competitively in my earlier years and have kept up with the game joining partial seasons in Mens leagues and pick up games, but, don't recall the last time I played 4 games in two days......should be a trip. All packed up and ready to play first game at 1. Apparently is a benfit tourney for Wolf island...will find out more as I was just recruited by an old buddy of mine from University days...good to catch up with some post game beeahs as the wife will be away for the evening...wish I could say I'll be firing it up...but common sense prevails.....will update later

Have Mercy!!!!!!

Still getting over this nagging cold and successfully punched in for an easy spin last night, only to prep for a MONSTER workout about 3 hours ago. As Fil and Frank were away for their own separate reasons..Fil due to geographical challenge and Frank getting a P90X session with his honey, Molly and I thought it would be a great idea to try out their Kinetic Trainers for.....comparison. Well a comparison was made alright..

After the quick transition to the new trainers and me losing the bet to molly about Randals expected attendance, we got spinning on these "Kinetic" trainers. My first impression was...holy shit..I must be tired from the last three days of training, this stupid sickness, and lack of sleep/recovery. The resistance felt.......HEAVY MAN. Molly quickly shared her distressed state with me and we nonverbally jousted with the option of hooking back up to our regular speedmatic TAXC trainers. This wasn't going to happen and I prepped for a killer workout to, HAVE MERCY, of all videos.

Recap on performance of trainer..it makes you pedal more efficient to reduce slippage from tire and definitely provides enough resistance for power training. Stats:

1 hour 5 min....punched out for two reasons...bloody tough and we we only committed to an hour pre session
149 avg HR 180 max
89 avg CAD and 110 max....110 MAX????? kudos to this trainer man....
790 Kcal

Plan....was going to night ski tomorrow night...BUT...I'm pulling the chute..rest and recovery for thursday and Friday for two reasons...One...I need to get over this cold and two, i am playing in a hockey tournament this wknd which includes two games saturday and potentially two games sunday.....anaerobic workout sessions for weekend set :)

Back to spin on Monday and so on and so on

Back to the basement....

It has become now, difficult, to have a "rest day". As such, I ensured kids were settled and got the green light from the wife to get a quick "recovery spin" in last night. I decided to bring the bike FROM the garage INTO the basement. You would think this is the way to do it eh? In the comfort, set up in front of a 55" HD TV, and watching a pretty cool movie, Inception.......actually, it was bloody hard to keep motivated.

What did I learn....the grungy surroundings of the garage works WAAAAYYYY more in my favour for motivation. I quickly recalled previous winter's experiences with the "sweet basement setup" and how bloody hard it was to clip in for a session. Thank-you for all those super motivated individuals (especially Molly and Fil) for keeping the mojo alive. Looking forward to tonights session....I think it may just be and Molly...once again..Molly gets KUDOS for being the most consistent "member"...Oh yeah...what does membership require.....a smile and some intensity....and they are all delivering more than expected ;) STATS:

1 hour 18 min or about 3/4 of the movie, "Inception"
132 Avg and 15 Max HR
avg CAD 89 and max 100 rpm

Plan...work and spin with a couple o crew post work....and it continues

A new week and a test of the lungs

Did I mention how happy I am that I have a bunch of people religiously coming to visit my garage to create a mist of steam and puddles of sweat on my garage floor twice a week......EXTREMELY!!! Let me tell you why.....

The "old John" would have quite happily chose yesterday as a recovery day to nurse this stupid cold and stay OFF of the Bike. The "new John" has created a failproof system for enabling consistency......much like a gym functions with membership. If ALL 7 members (I'll describe what constitutes membership later) were to arrive on the same day.......it would be cramped.....luckily, their are conflicting schedules that result in group sizes of 3 to 6 that fit nicely in the garage. Back to the failproof system........I essentially HAVE TO be present and participate to assist in faciliating the spin sessions.....GENIUS. So, even though I felt like absolute shit last night, I suited up with some arm warmers and thermal tights, fired back an advil and hotchocolate and readied for what I thought would be a super mild spin with the likes of Molly, Pat, Shawn and Frank.

Well it didn't take too long to realize that my lungs were feeling good....GREAT for that matter and that I was really enjoying the intervals without the fear of hacking uncontrollably. End result......50 plus minutes of intervals to the likes of "Suffarama". Stats:

51 min
150 avg; 180 max HR....felt s to the WEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeT
In Zone 110-155 = 30 min; above 20 min; below 1 min
613 Kcal
Avg CAD 81.....was spinning pretty slow during recovery intervals..........Max 136

What I should do........relax tonight as the echinacea seems to be working and prep for tomorrow's spin

What I hope to do......bring the bike INDOORS into the basement and get a recovery and technique session in to anything but the likes of Troy......he wears on my brain and that freaking background MUSIC......there may be hope for next year...Shawn apparently has some skills that include setting up and editing a CD that can mesh with the DVD's

Countdown to training camp in South Carolina....9 wks and two days OR 18 spins left (as per regular schedule...will add one or two more a week three weeks prior to) and as many XC skiis in that I can muster prior to........why........one word and it rhymes with Mommy and Manrahan ;)

9 k of bonding and skiing

It has begun..my wife and I are now two weeknds in of dropping the kids off and getting an XC ski in. Last Sunday, I intro'd her to a nice little 5 k of loop 1 and two loops of loop two with accompaniment from another guy, Shawn. I was pretty impressed with her piston like steady state ski with only one or two occasions of commenting on some breathlessness and feeling some hip flexor tightness.

Today's agenda was fourfold....one...get the kiddies tired out by skating at the market square prior to dropping them off to the folkds...two..to get me breathing more than what I had for Saturday and sunday due to this stupid cold. Two kids in daycare and can't remembering the last time I had a good night's sleep compliments to our 2 year old are the culprits....three...getting a full loop in of little cat to confirm distance with the I-phone GPS app....and 4...to see if Jac had it in her to increase her endurance.

Well, she surprised me....one tough woman...second time out and just shy of 9 k. What we did learn was that for an hour and a half of xc skiing we need SNACKS!!!!! It was a feeding frenzy once we arrived at the folks to pick up the kids and enjoy a warm meal...mmmm homemade pasta and this kind of fruit cake (better than it sounds) that is soaked in some kind of sugary solution...Stats sans HR monitor..why...I'm still sick and was going to just ENJOY the outing with my little woman ;)

1 hr 35 min
8.78 km
5.51 avg km/hr
913 cal

really it was just about getting out and the conditions are becoming....MIIIiiiint. Now, hope for sleep and recovery from this cold for tomorrow's spin :)

Hit with a wiffle ball bat!! aRGGGH

So much for my plan to get a ski in today....head cold to the extreme, sniffling and suffering all last night. Weather also looking quite crazy out there. Lots o snow for tomorrow's mellow ski with wifey and intro to Lauren..hoping little cat has gear that she can rent to try it out...

First Night XC Ski

Last night was the first of hopefully many night skiis at Little Cat with the mangy crew consisting of Fil and Shawn. Tempo was quickly established and was quite happy that Fil is turning into a data geek equipped with his heart rate monitor. Unfortunately, my i-phone stopped recording data after a km in......luckily I've got back up data from Timex...Stats:

12 km (estimate)
1 hr 16 min
In zone 9 min 40 s
avg HR 155....right at threshold baby...need to repeat lactate threshold test..
Peak 183 bpm; Min 73 bpm
1196 Calories
recover HR in 3 min dropped from 163 to 116...no bad

The boys decided to meet up for a beer post ski and I chose wisely at 11 pm at night to get me ass back home to rest as much as I could....given I seem to have a bit of a cold surfacing

Plan..chill with the wife, kiddies and a parent session...hoping to introduce Lauren (5 yr) to some xc skiing this wknd....hope she bites ;)

And then there were 3....

The one thing about hosting spin sessions in one's garage is that, of the potential 7 riders, at LEAST one will be making the weekly committments to suit up and inhale the toxic fumes that have accumulated within the semi insulated space. This translates into one thing for me......CONSISTENCY!!

Mr. Gilmour decided to bless us with his presence on Wednesday evening, donning his usual matching warm-up suit, and Fil demonstrating his usual demeanor which is comparable to a caged feril greyhound looking to release into a run.

Looking for the "Uphill Grind" was unsuccessful so we popped in Zoots Challenge which included over an hour of sustained high cadence off the saddle spins and lots of tempo work. Fil had hammered out a 12 k XC ski earlier and Pat's fitness raised some suspicion whether he was closet spinning in a secret location OTHER than this garage. Will add stats from this session later..Stats:

57 min
140 bpm avg and 176 max HR
In zone 39 min; above 9 min; below 8 min
564 Kcal
Avg CAD 91; Max 153 (yeah)

What did I learn from this.....the sustained virtual threshold training NEEDS to be altered with more of these tempo and intensity sessions. Felt great.

Solo Night Ski.....creeeeeeepy

Decided early in the day that I was going to commit to strapping on the planks and exploring around a local golf course this evening....wasn't sure if this was going to happen as I hadn't "authorized it" with the wife...she is still under the impression that Mond, Wednesdays, Fridays are ENOUGH time for working out...She could sense my self talk by my nonverbal gesturing and frequent glances outside...I picked my moment and got the nod....Yeehaw

Arrived at Cataraqui Golf course and prepped my HR monitor/phone for stats just to get a quick baseline for a solo 5 k of just friggin around. There were well established tracks but my confidence in wayfinding around this kind of creepy dark golf course kept me in the high plains. Nothing exciting, just shy of 5 k of swooshing and slapping around:

Phone stats:
40 min 37 sec
7.33 avg Km/hr
398 cal

Timex Stats:
147 bpm avg hr; 165 max; min 71 bpm
583 cal (i like the watch cal better ;)

Plan - Intense but short sub hour anaerobic interval spin tomorrow

Monday Spin....kinda crazy attendance Jan 10th

Monday's spin had Randal, Molly, Shawn, Frank, Fil and Myself in attendance to continue with the incessant cranking of pedals to the likes of Coach Troy. This workout was pretty much aerobic subthreshold virtual spin through Tucson Arizona. Hard to behave during these sessions. I do admit that I am using some mental imagery that may include substituting Coach troy for another cyclist whose name does start with a T........there is some yelling at the screen.......occasionally :)
Stats:
1 hr 38 min
141 bpm avg; 177 max
In zone - 1 hr 1 min; above 18 min; below 18 min
937 Kcal
91 avg Cad; 120 max

Wednesday Spin will be a bit more interval and anaerobic I think......pends on group. Repeat lacatate Threshold testing next Monday

Playing Catch up - Sunday

Sunday January 8th we dropped the kids off at the folks to enable wifey and myself to throw the skis in the car and hit the local trails at Little Cataraqui. What was supposed to be a rendezvous with another four ended up being one that goes by the name Shawn.

We quickly applied some wax to shawns pretty cool retro xc gear and off we went. Just a mellow 5 km. Was really impressed with Jac as she ticker taped along the entire time looking like a bit of a skiier. This will set the tone for Future Sundays....bring more snacks/water and get the km's up with her. Dowloaded a new app for the phone...pretty cool...here's stats:

5.07 km
52 min 31 s ski time
5.79 avg Km/Hr
479 cal

Plan get a spin in Monday, Night Ski Tues, Spin Wed, Night Ski (epic) Thursday, hockey Wednesday, Rest Sat, Ski with Jac Sunday......and repeat :)

nice hour 45 of threshold training

January 5th, day after my first attempt at running we (Frank & Fil) joined me in the sweat shop for a session extra ordinaire...Frank had purchased a couple of cycling vids over the break and was jonesin to try them. We figured the climbing vid of virtual Mt Lemmon climb would be a good choice. After a good 20 minute warm-up passing intermittently passing around some chocolate covered coffee beans (thanks Molly) we got into errrrr.

So for anyone happening to come across this blog, let me quickly describe what is happening here..We have our bikes attached to resistance trainers on our rear wheel. Some magnetic resistance and others fluid type resistance. Essentially the resistance is guided by our gearing and also with the added resistance from the magnetic cable resistanc (mine and molly's). This video required an hour plus of slow cadence (80 rpm) climbing (virtually) in a gearing that was one away from the toughest possible. The last 10 minutes of the video required an all out effort and resulted in some pretty good stats as a result:

1 hour 45 min
144 avg HR 180 max
In zone 1 hr 13 min; above 24 min; below 7 min
1143 Kcal
81 avg Cad....right on the money baby..max 112

Thursday was a chill day and Friday had an hour of hockey to work on that good old fashioned hand eye foot coordination :) Today was jammed full of kiddy activities inclusive of Gymnastics and then brunch with friends and then quickly transformed to sliding. I had a blast at the hill with the kids.....ensured I did some wind sprints pulling the little suckers up the hill :)

Tomorrow...drop the kiddies off at folks and meet a whole wack of people for an xc ski at the local trails..just downloaded a cool app on my phone which should give me some data (although mellow as will be with wife and friends) of XC ski. Next week should be a great opp to crank things up a notch with the addition of some night skiiiis as well as some potential outdoor rides in the snow ;)

Running from WHAT!?!?!?!?!

It happened....awoke at 3 am to the sight of snow and lots of it coming down to blanket the gray and dismal landscape. Too excited to sleep by 4:30 I got up and shovelled the driveway and brushed off my car to find that it was the nice and fluffy kind....more excited I decided to try my way of running...this AFTER showering and shaving. Knew I had 30 minutes before crunching the potential for being late for work so.....plugged in and off I went.

First off.....fresh snow always looks great at early dawn....no early sign of sun but dawn nonetheless. Lungs felt great...actually, but know I am NOT a runner and opted for the "old man shuffle" End result a 31:45 minute run with an avg HR of 132 bpm and max of 148..niiiiice. Great way to start the day and the first day BACK to work. Tonight........snowing like a BANSHEE so hoping to entice the kids to some sled pulling and watch the snow pile for some XC skiing later this week *fingers crossed*

Plan - SPin tomorrow night.....kick everyone out in time for WJH game...Go CANADA GO!!!

World Juniors

A couple of msg's from the "crew" clearly indicated that today was not "the day" to start the new year.....'nough said....junior hockey and sipping a rum and coke....the last for the next three months...eeeesh..Let's Go CANADA..LET's GO!!!!!!!!!!!

Recovery Dayyyyyy :)

Yesterday was a treat, riding out of doors on the road bike, with plus 8 degree temperature. No toe warmers and a good sweat on was a great way to start the new year. What wasn't a treat was the aftermath that a bunch of sand/salt and sludge did to my road bike. A thorough cleaning was performed and readied myself for a commitment for a morning garage spin for recovery. Frank was the only member of the crew who bit the bait and later found out he already had a P90x early morning workout....now THAT's committment ;)

We just decided to throw on some heart rate monitors and plug into a new video he bought over christmas break...actually a great climbing video, but kept intensity to below threshold vs the 90% he was barking throughout. Prefer this one to the uphill grind as the scenery is OUT vs IN a studio. Pretty mellow...see stats:

1 hr 16 min
126 avg 155 max HR
In zone (110-155 bpm) 56 min; below 19 min TRUE recover stats ;)
578 Kcal
Avg CAD 86 max 96

Finished the session and toyed with idea of continuing on with a spin tomorrow, made some loose plans and....to my surprise......my wife had a sandwich (chicken salad/avocado) ready to devour, HOWEVER.....Lauren(5 yr old), her friend Jordan, and the little copycat/Emma(2 year old)also decided they wanted a "bite".....so.....half a sandwich was good.

Frank shared his goal of weight loss which further sealed my deal....plan on losing 8-10 pounds pre-trip to get ready for the CLIIIIiiiiiimbs in South Carolina. Should be an easy task.....Right ;)

So...if no spin takers tomorrow....will try my hand at running.....why......why not

Bring on the NEW YeEEAR...BRING IT!!

Not too much to say about last night....we were all poooped after our drive back from New Brunswick...(see pic to right of extreme focus) the house all crashed around 11 pm....I had an agenda..the road bike was all prepped with cool weather gear all laid out in the spare room for a quick donning to bring the new year on "right note".

Weather was favourable with a risk of rain. I phone dialed in to some radio and off i went with a quick stop at the convenience store to load up with a starbucks energy drink (mistake....) and a gatorade to supplement the water bottle of water equipped on the bike. Heart rate was looking pretty good and the goal quickly turned into a ride that surpassed distance of Tommy :) All I kept in my head was sloooow and steady....aero base building. Didn't take too long for all of the sand/slop to quickly gather in my drivetrain and along the entire backside of me...fenders would be a good idea....actually, converting that peugot to a shitty weather ride is now a sealed deal.

I decided to keep going straight into Camden vs cutting right to begin my turnaround from travels north of Kingston...why...because after Tommy giving me the "heads up" about the expectations for speed, distance, and vertical in SC....it's time to purge every bit of slackness out of the system to prep for this season. Other than a quick pick of the bike it was a sustained spin which has resulted in a niiiice bit of fatique. So it began....the stats:

2 hr 57 min
155 avg HR (riiiight at lactate threshold)
181 max HR
"In zone" 1 hr 22 min
Above zone/anaerobic 1 hour 34 min
2281 KCal
Distance 77.8 km
Avg speed 26.4 max 49.3 km/hr
Avg CAD 94 Max CAD 110

I will consider this a "moderate to hard day" and choose to use tomorrow on the trainer to keep things more "recover"...thinking Coach troy's recovery and Technique vid. Monday will be back to previous schedule with intensity and carry on with Mon, Wed, Sun spins and hope to GOD some snow falls to get the XC skiing/riding in.