Sunday Trifecta

A perfect Sunday trifecta: - swim, run, EAT.

Swim
It was kick day in the LETC house of pain. 45 minutes of kicking: with fins, without fins, with kickboards, without kickboards, one fin only ... pretty much any combination the coaches could think of. I'm surprised we didn't have to balance them on our heads for 100m.

We then did half an hour of increasing intensity, finishing with 200m at all out pace (or some technical term that almost but didn't quite mean all out). I predicted 3:40 and did 3:32 so not bad.

Run
I had 1:45 on the schedule and intended to go out easy but got caught up in an interesting discussion with some of the newer folks. The wheels came off 40 minutes in, not my smartest moment but I'll take it as a learning experience.

After the run I had to scoot home so that I could complete my prescribed post-workout nutrition (like I'd forget that!), ice bath and nap in time to get dessert and head to Amy & Brian's for their Superbowl bash.

While delaying getting into the ice bath, an activity I'm highly skilled at, I took pictures of the birds that have invaded the neighbourhood with the coming of spring. These suckers are LOUD! They're also tearing up everyone's lawn in their search for grubs.


My picture of the day, however, is of one of the East Van locals who can be found in the neighbourhood in any season of the year.

Don't mess with guys - they're smarter than most people and they hang out in gangs called murders.

EAT (aka watching the Superbowl)
The game was good to watch but, as usual, took second place to the company. And the food.

Amy & Brian put on a fantastic spread, as usual, and the other guests brought great food too. I was too disorganized to cook something impressive so I just brought cookies (they were really good though!).

I may not have wowed 'em with my cookies but I stunned everyone with the tale of my culinary adventure of the previous evening. Apparently I'm the only one who'd heard of cinnamon bun french toast. I'd seen this delicacy in a Denny's type restaurant in the States years ago and filed it away in the "ridiculous but potentially yummy recipes" part of my brain.

This weekend I had cinnamon buns that had gone a bit stale and decided to slice them up, dip them in eggy milk with a splash of vanilla and fry them. I was a little leary of what they'd be like. Holy smokes they were good! Even better smothered in maple syrup.

The Past Week and a Bit

For the long weekend I went on a nice little walk the some friends - gaining 1050m in elevation over 6.5 km of trail described as "mostly well blazed but at times can resemble little more than a route and is often no more than 2 boots wide. Often, you're left balancing yourself precariously to get up a section with a large drop on one side of you. Its prudent to exercise caution." Yeah, a bit of a scramble, made more challenging by the two days worth of food and booze I had packed poorly in my backpack (note to self, next time don't put the wine, eggs, and other heavy stuff at the top of the pack).

Turns out that triathlon training does not prepare you for hiking, especially four hours of hiking downhill. Three days after hiking down I was still hobbling and hurting.

The upside of the crazy hike is it keeps most people away from a truly beautiful spot. No, wait, we don't want any more people up there. Lake Lovely Water is ugly and smells like poo - don't go!!

Masters swimming is back on after a two week break. The YWCA pool was closed so I've been taking a break from swimming, unless you count my hurried dip into a glacial lake on the long weekend. Paul was away on Wednesday so Peter, who teaches the TI method, took his place. It was an awesome session, the technique work was great and I have a totally new understanding of the body roll. You use the hip roll to drive your arm into the water and instead of going faster by speeding up your arms, you speed up your hips and let your stroke catch up. Very different way of thinking of things. Now we just have to see if it'll make me faster.

This weekend I have a very leisurely ride with the ladies, then a leisurely coffee, a nap and a movie with a friend. A nice mellow day.

Today I played my first game with my fall ultimate team. Yes, I played ultimate. After saying I'm done, retired, etc. for the past few years, I somehow ended up on a team this fall. I did swim beforehand as 1) I was excited about the new techniques Peter taught and wanted to try them out and 2) I was scared I'd forgotten everything I knew about ulti so I wanted to do one sport today that I'm reasonably competent at. Turns out I haven't forgotten everything about ulti, although it helped to have some seriously kick ass teammates!

What else? Oh yeah, Team Pink got me drunk on Friday and conned me into signing up for a race.

My Kebab House

A good friend who just returned from the World Ultimate Club Championships in Perth sent me this.

(For those who're wondering about the relevance, "Alto" is a nickname used by about, um, well, one person I know. It's my blog, I can be as obscure as I want!)

First Post - Packing, Procrastinating, Head Colds and Ulti Updates

Not an auspicious start to my blog - I'm recovering from an horrific sinus cold and haven't been able to work out for a week. I'm supposed to be packing in preparation for my move but somehow I'm creating a blog instead.

It's a beautiful day and I'm itching to get outside and do something active - must take care to go easy and as I don't want to get sick and sit out another week.

Aside from recovering from a cold, where am I now in my training? I'm not being terribly scientific at the moment, I'm calling it "base building" as I'm trying to maintain fitness and build a bit of skill/strength. I'm in a masters swim program two days a week with a fantastic instructor, Paul Cross, and am loving that. I'm doing Pilates once a week to keep up my core strength and trying to get out to run three times a week as I'm doing a half marathon in November. Somehow biking is the one thing I miss out on, and that's really where I'm weakest. I really should be in the gym doing some stregth work too (where do people find the time??). Once I'm moved and over this cold I'll be back out on my bike and better able to figure out my schedule.

In non-triathlon news - big shocker at UPA Club Championships as Fury beat Riot. The Seattle powerhouse finally goes down! The Open final is 8-6 Sockeye over Furious. C'mon boys, bring back another title!