Week Seven: Festive Special

Well, it turned out that week seven ended up being a bit of a reduced week. I didn't realize how busy I was at the tail end of the week and as a result, I was not able to hit all of my workouts. I spent a good amount of time celebrating the year with friends though, so that is always a plus!

On Friday night, some of the mum's I've met through my older son's hockey teams got together for dinner and drinks. The company was awesome of course, as was the food, but the restaurant took over 2 hours to bring out our mains! Unfortunately, quite a few ladies didn't make the trip down the road to the bar for last call. But I did!

Long run may not go well tomorrow. #drinkingmanhattans

A photo posted by Nicole (@macnic05) on Dec 18, 2015 at 8:41pm PST

Saturday evening, we had our team hockey Christmas party. It ended up being at our house and it was so much fun! At one point, almost all of the kids (and parents) were pulling out their "Whip-Nae-Nae"

Hockey Party. #merrychristmas

A video posted by Nicole (@macnic05) on Dec 19, 2015 at 5:20pm PST

As a result of two big nights (aka not a lot of sleep), I didn't get in any swimming this week! And I also didn't do any strength training, not even a single push-up! I'm finished work on the 23rd though and don't go back until January 4th, so I hope to fit in a lot more during the office closure period. Here's how this week shook out:

Monday: Off
Tuesday: 8 minute test on Trainer Road. My FTP went from 160 to 193. I'm ready to work! 21.9km total in 1hr
Wednesday: Off - my calves were sore in the AM and no time in the PM/at lunch
Thursday: 9k in the AM, running and 45 minutes with Goddard (17.3km) in the PM as I wasn't sure if I'd fit it in on Friday before my dinner with the ladies.
Friday: I got home early after driving downtown to work (and paying way too much to park for six hours), so I asked Zindine for an easy TR workout. He came through with Carter. Except I picked the +1 version and made the 45 minutes a lot harder on myself! I rode 45 minutes for 17.6km
Saturday: I fit in a 7k run, mid-morning between hockey and shopping and cleaning up a bit before the party
Sunday: More hockey for both boys and a mission to get my nails done resulted in a "long run" of only 9k. But my nails look good!

Christmas nails > long run. 🎅💅 #justrun #likeagirl

A photo posted by Nicole (@macnic05) on Dec 20, 2015 at 2:18pm PST

Totals for the week:
Run: 25.1km
Cycling: 56.8km

Total: 81.9km, 4h51m25s.

Despite the fact that its Christmas this week, I think my mileage will see increases for my last off season week! If my calves cooperate - they are so tight. I need to ensure I get on fixing that before more problems (PF!) arise!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday's to everyone!

Week Six of Off Season!

Sailing right along in this off season thing! I've made a firm decision this week in regards to swimming and took a foot off in terms of cycling, but I still managed to fit in what I wanted.

In terms of swimming, I had originally planned to get to the 9pm lane swim on Thursday nights. After four weeks of thinking that this would happen and not, I decided that the stress and guilt of planning for this swim time wasn't worth it. I will likely NEVER make it to a 9pm anything on a week night. Let's face it, in order to get a good 7 hours sleep, I will need to be in bed most nights by 930pm at the latest. That swim time just doesn't fit with my lifestyle. And I'm not even training for a triathlon. Letting that go and realizing that I may only make a swim time once a week if I'm lucky really gave me some extra energy to go and attack things again. In the end, I swam on both Saturday and Sunday as my sons both had hockey schedules which cooperated with the lane swim times. The thing is, when I swim, I really enjoy it.

In terms of cycling, this was the final week of my sweet spot base building plan and I decided to skip the final 90 minute spin. I just wasn't feeling it and I wanted to take some extra time back for myself (and sleep, let's be honest). In the end, this was the right decision as I was able to attack my long run on Saturday and due to running with some speedier friends, the back half of the run was rather quick!

Here is how week six shook out:

Monday: TR Black - a consistent effort for an hour. Not all out, but no lovely 60% breaks either

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: Slept in. Ran 7k at the gym at lunch with 5x2 mins fast, 2 mins slow (Coach Phaedra special), this felt great! In the evening, I was supposed to repeat TR Black, but instead I used my home selector weights to fit in my strength training.

Thursday: 8k early AM run before meeting friends/colleagues for breakfast prior to work. My stomach was slouchy like I had drank too much so I kept it easy.

Seriously, this weather is awesome!

Friday: After work, I hit the trainer for the second Black session of the week. This time, I was prepared and it felt better. Then, I met up with a whole bunch of my running friends for dinner and left with a sweet pair of #runnerd socks (no photo, sorry)

Once I retake the FTP test, something tells me I won't be so off target

Saturday: Long run day! While I was supposed to meet up with Sam, Ivanka, and Amy at my place at 7, only Ivanka showed as the others were not feeling well. We left right at 7am and ran about 5k to Kelly's place (fellow hockey mum), where she joined in. Around 10k, Henro joined us and the foursome was complete. Once we met up with Henro, our pace dropped to about 5:30/km, but it felt good and we kept up the conversation. I love running with people it makes the time fly. Ivanka and I ran 20k total with Kelly putting in her longest run ever at 15k and Henro continued past my house and home to his own place for 14k. Great day (no photos! - that was Sam's job!).

After I got home and showered, I noted that Alasdair's hockey practice and lane swim time were at the same time, same place! With no time to spare, I made the decision to go swimming. This worked out well and I swam for 1,000m - feeling good the entire time.

Lying swim cap

Sunday: The day started slow when I turned off my alarm and decided not to run. HAHA. I knew I wanted to get back to lunch lane swim, so I ate a bigger than normal breakfast and then headed out to church and to get groceries with Fergus while my husband took Alasdair to hockey. After everyone was home, it was time to swim. I planned to be in the pool for an hour and I did. I managed to swim 50m at a time (HUGE!) and ended up with 1,200m.

I got home in time to dry off and eat before changing again into running gear. I ended up getting my run in, taking the long way to Fergus' 2:30pm hockey game. YAY for fitting everything in!!! And we put up our Christmas tree!

Total distance for the week: 84.96k, lower than "usual" this off season, but I skipped about 45k on the bike (two rides) and that was the right thing for me.

Total time: 7h16m59s - YAY for fitting it all in!

This week should be interesting. I need to decide if I'm going to take another easy bike week or re-take my FTP test (which is highly anticipated among my pushy triathlete friends). Seeing as longer mid-week runs will start in two weeks, I should likely up my run distance as well in individual runs. Finally, I would love to get back in the pool twice. Oh, and strength training. Ya. I guess I shouldn't forget about that.

Have a great week!

Off Season, Weeks 4 & 5: One step forward, Two steps back...

So, weeks four and five have come along in the off season! I had a bit of a lag last week, but such is life. Week four was pretty special! I got back into the pool with a coach and I got in a great run with the girls!

Monday: TR Tunnabora. This started with Isolated Leg Drills which I hate, but I did this in the living room as my husband was away and I brought the trainer up to watch TV while I rode.

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday: 30 minutes strength training in the afternoon, TR Geiger in PM. I really pushed myself in this one.

Thursday: Treadmill lunch run with 1.5 miles at BQ pace just for some leg speed. I didn't want to do this, but got it in! Total was 5 miles.

Friday: TR Warlow. 1.5 hours of workout before heading to book club to undo it all with wine and appetizers.

Saturday: 18.5k with Sam and Ivanka in Burlington. Great times! So great to run with people again! Then 40 minutes easy spinning with TR Recess.

Sunday: Irina came out to Milton and coached me through lane swim. What a difference in my speed by the end! I need to find more time to swim. Then I rounded out the week with a 6.61k run.

First an awesome coached swim with this beauty (including her entire bag of tricks), and then a lovely catch up over coffee. Endurance sport has brought such amazing people into my life. I am such a lucky gal! #swimbikerun #likeagirl

A photo posted by Nicole (@macnic05) on Nov 29, 2015 at 8:24am PST

Total: 122.62km and 8h10m29s of training. Whew!

Week five started out just as strong! But life and the BLAHS just got in the way!

Monday: Once again, my husband was away, so the trainer came up to the living room and I rode while my boys and I watched Nightmare Before Christmas for the first time. Cute movie and a perfect length for a 1 hour trainer ride.

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday: Alasdair had a 6am hockey practice, but my dad was picking him up to bring him back to my folks and feed him breakfast/get him to school. So after I dropped him off, I went for a quick 5k run. At lunch, I hit the gym for more Strength trainer, but I really didn't want to do anything. I used the machines for this session and was there for 35 minutes total. That night, I switched up my trainer ride and rode the 90 minute Palisade ride. Whew!

Thursday: I finally got out for an early morning run! 8k easy and steady which was simple after the hard bike the night before!

Seriously you guys! December 2nd, no hat, no gloves! 5k in the books. #justrun #likeagirl

A photo posted by Nicole (@macnic05) on Dec 2, 2015 at 3:38am PST

Friday: I had the day off because we were hosting our annual Christmas party on Saturday and I wanted to do the majority of running around. The problem is, I couldn't bring myself to get out for my planned long run. I did my running around and missed lane swim. So, I hopped on the bike for the 1 hour Tallac workout in TR. At least I did something.

Saturday: Sigh. My alarm, which I had thought I set correctly, didn't go off. No long run. I did manage a 6k run after my party running around was completed.

Revoy girls #selfie

A photo posted by Nicole (@macnic05) on Dec 5, 2015 at 4:29pm PST

Sunday: HAHAHA. I was a bit of a zombie on only 5.5 hours sleep but I did ride 40 minutes recovery on the bike.

Total: 111.11km, and 6k34m36s of training. Whew. Not quite the 111.13 that Sam did though.

This week, I am REALLY hoping to hit the pool twice! The long run needs to be at least 20k and I'm in the final week of my Trainer Road plan! Let's hope the piles of left over food and wine at my house don't derail me throughout the week! After that, its time to build up a bit harder before distance training begins!

More Off-Season, More sleep

Off-season continues to truck along in these parts. As mentioned last week, one of the things I've been trying to keep on top of in this off-season is my quality sleep. Let's face it, I'm a busy person. I commute 2.5 hours a day and I'm frequently attending my son's sporting events at the hockey rink. Fitting in quality workouts mean that I need to get up early at times. Even on the weekend. 0430 alarms are not new for me.

One of the best features of my Fitbit Flex is that I can set it to track my sleep. Once my sleep is activated, the Flex will also track my sleep, restlessness and awake time (when Fergus comes into my room at 3am and has me take him back to his room). I set my goal of 7 hours of sleep this off season. I've been trying to follow this religiously and thus far, I'm doing well (don't look at Saturday night, I stayed up too late reading and we had to be up early for a hockey game).

Quality sleep allows for good workouts and a repaired body. You can Google the studies yourself, but you know its true. The goal in off-season is to set up good habits which will see me through the spring season strong and healthy. Sleep will go a long way towards hitting these goals.

Last week went really, really well! I'm still in love with the trainer and have rediscovered my love for the pool!

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: TR - Ericsson, 60 minutes - Single Leg Drills and Spin-Ups at 5am YAY!

Wednesday: 8k run, early AM

Thursday: 30 minutes free-weights at lunch, TR - Carson, 60 minutes PM - hill drills! Finally got my big ring on!

Friday: Early AM 15k long run. My son was in a hockey tournament Friday, Saturday, Sunday. They came in third.

Saturday: TR- Eclispe. 90 minutes of riding with 60 of that in the sweet spot. This was tough.

Sunday-Funday: Ignoring all my advice about better sleep yielding more energy and better results:

40 minutes free ride on the trainer
35 minutes of swimming
7k running

So, last week was a win! I hit my goal of increasing my run distance and getting back into the pool. I also didn't skip my weight training (but I wanted to!). Not a bad week, not at all:

7 hours, 36 minutes of activity
1.2k of swimming
30k of running
89.5k of cycling

This is without a doubt, the best off season I've had.

Off Season, Week Two

Well, off season, week two has come and gone and I'm quite happy with the way it all went down.

My huge focus this week was eating better and getting quality calories in. While I think I did a good job, my scale had me UP in weight this morning. Frustrated doesn't even begin to explain how I feel. I feel like I made good choices all week. I logged everything on My Fitness Pal. I was at or under my calorie goal the entire week. Sigh. Back to the drawing board I guess.

Thank you for breakfast, Google!

In terms of workouts, I met my arbitrary goal of increasing my run mileages this week and I managed to get my strength workout in at the gym as well. Man, do I dislike lifting weights. I know its good for me though. I really will need that core and upper body strength to push through the final stages of the marathon (if I run one again in the spring - jury is still out). 

2016 Around the Bay race is on the schedule for sure

I hit all of the bike trainer rides this week and even added a fourth, 30 minute recovery ride on Sunday. To say that I am enjoying the trainer would be understating it. I love that I can get up on it and get a workout done at any time (even at 5am like this morning). I love that Trainer Road does all the work for me. It has built the program and workouts, I just need to select the next one on the list and start to spin. 

Next investment? Aero bars. 

In other exciting news, my husband even got HIS road bike up on the trainer for a quick spin to test it out. I'm really hoping we can both improve and include date rides in our summer plans moving forward. We'll likely need to modify our roof rack in that case. 

Our truck on the right. We only have one bike attachment currently
(and two road bikes, one real mountain bike, one mum bike and two kid bikes).

All in all, it was a great week depsite the number on the scale going in the wrong direction.

Monday: 1hr TrainerRoad Goddard, PM. Introduction to Isolated Leg Drills. They suck

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: 30 minutes lifting weights, upper body and abs at lunch, 1hr Trainer Road Monitor, PM

Thursday: 7.25k run in the AM

Friday: 1.5hrs TrainerRoad Antelope, PM

Saturday: 12.11k run in the late AM. Glorious day!

Sunday: 7k recovery run in the late AM on another beauty day and then 30 minute free ride on TrainerRoad, early PM

Total: 113.17k, 6hr58minutes.

Let's see if I can actually make it to the pool this week as well!

I'm really happy with this big change in routine this off season. Part of that is because I'm really watching my sleep as well. More on that in another post. 

And now for something completely different

Ahh, the off season. Realistically, this is my 5th off season since I starting running distance races in 2011. Every off season sees me with the same basic goals: Get in more strength training, Lose weight.

2015 will be no different of course. Based on being pretty lazy during the summer, I'm at my highest weight since my post partum season in 2011, so dropping the weight is a major priority. So much so, that I'm currently on a 56 day streak on MyFitnessPal, tracking my food (and booze) intake. I don't track my water (but I drink it) and I never track my cup of morning coffee (I use some cream, but no sugar). I'll friend anyone within reason as I'm an open book about stuff like this (I started at 142lbs), so find me as macnic.

But what of the difference for this particular off season? Well, it started with this:

That, my friends, is a Fluid Force bike trainer and last week, I started a six week base building program on Trainer Road. Trainer Road is the program that so many of my triathlete friends use, that I had to give it a try.  Emma was kind to give me a code to get my first month free, as well as continually encourage and help me figure out the static bike thing. Irina and her husband, Zindine have also given me loads of pointers and tips. I'm a lucky gal. I fully feel that sticking to this program will make me a stronger runner at the end of the six weeks.

I can now post fancy graphs that mean nothing to non-trainer people!

My first week is completed and I'm happy with how it went. Of course running is still in the mix and swimming will also be added. I still have to figure out how I'll make the weight training part of the mix, but these things have a way of working themselves out.

Monday: 1hr bike trainer - FTP test to set up my program
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: 1hr bike trainer, first workout of the plan
Thursday: 7k run in the AM, I felt great!
Friday: 1.5 hrs on the bike trainer before work. I'm particularly proud of that one
Saturday: 12k Group run with Zindine, Sam, Hockey mum Kelly and Irina on her mum-bike
Sunday: 6k glorious run in the early AM with the first frost.

Total: 101km on the week. Not a bad start to off season! And I lost a tiny bit of weight. I really hope to be under 140lbs by next week. I just have to stay away from the Halloween candy!

So, biking, friends and salad. Its what the off season is about for me this time around.

Photo by Irina

Off Season Update

For the first time in three years, I've not started January with a new marathon plan! Instead, I've extended the off-season and don't begin training until January 26th! Phaedra has already sent me the first three weeks of my plan and as a result, I've decided to try to mimic what's going to happen so that I'm ready and able to hit the training ground running (so to speak. HA).

The most important thing I decided to do was return to Tuesday Treadmill Tempo runs! I haven't run a tempo run in ages. Seriously, likely not since September have I had the desire to speed up. In fact, I've been worried where I'd land when I got back into serious training and I've been happy to note, that certain things are coming together nicely.

I've been smart as well! I started slowly with just 2k at tempo pace as seen above. This week, I increased to 3k. Next week brings 4k at 8:00/mi (5:00/km) and that should set me up nicely for the first official week of training for the Ottawa Marathon.

In other proactive news, I went back to the Physio office and had a visit with the massage therapist there. Its funny, most people heard I was going for a massage and were jealous. Little did they know how painful this type of massage actually is. Despite that, I'm committed to going to see Katherine at least once a month to ensure that I can keep my Plantar Fasciitis at bay. We all know that I don't need another season devoted to injury.

This week, I finally, finally hit all of my planned workouts!

Monday I hopped on my home spin bike (boring as it was!) and got a 30 minute ride in with some spurts of hard tension and standing riding. After that, I threw down 3x10 military push-ups in my bedroom. Project Guns is ON!!! For real this time. HA!

Tuesday was the treadmill tempo as described above with 3k at pace, Wednesday I got in an easy 5k (on the treadmill again) before girls night. Thursday was an unplanned rest day just due to having so much to do at work, and with kids (and the fact that I rolled over and reset my alarm for an hour later). That meant that on Friday, I got another 5k easy after work and followed that up with a bunch of upper body weights. I'm not lifting much yet (10lbs, 15lbs), but I don't want to hurt myself so I'm going slow. I finally got out on Saturday morning. I was planning to do my long run, but the weather was -20c and I had a lot going on (hair cut, Alasdair had hockey, some friends coming over for dinner), so I decided to switch up days. This run felt like complete crap, but no matter what, I couldn't slow my legs down and ended up with a 5:30/km pace on average. Switching runs was an easy decision as I knew that Patty had planned to do her long run on Sunday as well.

I met up with her at 7am this morning with a slight hangover and very little clothing (it was 6c!!!) and we ran a lovely (if slippery due to black ice) route of Burlington Trail and Road. What a way to cap off a great week and finally get to 40km again!

Runners Make the Best Friends!

This week, I still hope to get all 8 workouts in, but I may cut the long run distance slightly. It will really depend on how my foot holds up (so far, its okay. I'm a bit sore after long runs, but nothing more). I'm excited to be back into a routine and am really looking forward to the plan and working with Phaedra soon! This means that I shall return to this blog with more regularity!

I hope you've also enjoyed the beginning of the year and any training plan you are (or are not) working on.

Don't forget to click the LINK to donate to my Wishes for Olivia campaign to raise money for Make-A-Wish Canada.

The Off Season!

Oh hey!

It's the off season!

Yep. I'm done for 2014.

My next race isn't until March 2015!!!

I can hardly believe it myself. I won't be in formal training for anything until January when my cycle kicks up again. This doesn't mean that I'm going to take any time off, but I am going to to ease myself along without worrying too much about hitting ALL. THE. WORKOUTS.

Off season? New SHOES!

Let's be honest. I was burned out last year when I started my plan at the end of November. I was eager to start and hit workouts but by March I was DONE with training.

And of course, let us not forget the Plantar Fasciitis which was the biggest KILL-JOY of the entire season.

Speaking of which, this past Sunday, I felt the foot flare up again. Nothing too bad, but something to get checked out. I spent last night with my heating pad and I'm going to try to get into physio this week for sure.

I took the entire week off after Hamilton and hit last week eager and ready to train again. And I was super surprised with how it all turned out:

Monday: 7k in 38:57. Okay, a lovely little pace. Must be the early morning or the week off or the cold or something. Core work in the evening.

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: 5k at Goodlife after a day long off-site meeting and before a Leafs game in a corporate box with my client. I kept increasing the pace ever km and ended up with my final KM at sub-BQ pace. 27:11

Thursday: Rest

Friday: NO MEETINGS!!! The return of the lunch run. I hit the gym again. Ladder up: 8k with each mile faster: 6.4, 6.6, 6.8. 7.0, 7.2. Things felt great. Right where off season should be.

I need to cut my bangs or grown them or just rock this awesome ponytail forever

Saturday: CRAZY day, hockey, hockey pictures, hockey game, surprise 40th party for a friend. I fit in 5.15k around the block after watching KONA and I almost managed a progression: 5:35-5:24-5:20-5:06-5:08. Total: 27:19. Feeling so good!

Sunday: MORE HOCKEY PHOTOS. Then my mum fed me breakfast. Then, fueled on bacon and eggs and pancakes and memories of KONA, I went out for my long run of 11k. I realized around 9.5k that if I pushed, I'd finish in an hour. I pushed harder, ran a 4:59 final KM split and finished 59:33. Then I went to our town Santa Parade and then grocery shopping. Its all so EXHAUSTING

Off season week one: 36.16k in 3:18:18 and one session of core. I hope to get in more this week. In fact, the rest of off season looks like this:

Click for larger

Oh, you probably want to know about my 2015 plans too, eh? Well, come back again sometime and I'll tell you. Likely within the next week. Let's just say that this Saturday's workout will set up a lot of them.

Run Streak

I have run every day since November 9th.

Kilometers

Not too shabby!

The idea for my run streak came about during the summer of embrace the suck Jack Daniel's Running Formula training that saw me run upwards of six days in a row at times. I often felt so good that I didn't want to take the rest day, but I did because I was training hard.

My "off season" was delayed when I decided to run the Road2Hope Half Marathon but I knew that with easy running ahead of me, I'd decide to go out on a streak.

As you can see, I've not run exceptionally long in terms of distance, but I've had some amazing runs.

In daylight!

Early in the morning!

On the trails with friends:

And in some BRIGHT clothing (cheeky wee tag on my New Balance Tights):

I've even run in a skirt!

Today felt a big sluggish even though I managed a 5:49 pace per KM (9:23/mi). I'm really enjoying getting these runs in and I don't know how long I will continue to run everyday. It won't last forever, I can tell you that. My spring marathon training ramp up starts on Monday and I'm targeting to get up to 68k/wk in the next two weeks. I think I'll need the rest! My original goal was 15 days which I'll hit tomorrow and then I'll see how I feel. Right now I'm fighting a cold and that may be my undoing. 

In all, I'm glad I decided to take on this adventure. I've had a lot of fun so far and have honestly been amazed by how easy the running has been.

Hope your off season or training is keeping you well!

No, I haven't fallen off of the planet

I've just been busy.

Work has been MADNESS all of November. I've been in back to back meetings all day long and then I've been coming home and putting in another 2-3 hours just to catch up.

It is a good thing that my knee really bothered me after the Hamilton Half Marathon as it forced me to take a bit of a break and I didn't beat myself up about it.

This means that my November stats are not that pretty:

# of runs: 7
Total KM: 54.67
Races: Hamilton Half Marathon
Total time running: 5:32:22
Fitness classes: 4, my fave being BodyPump followed closely by Gravity - both are strength training classes.

I'm going to continue to try to get to those fitness classes throughout December and I'm slowing starting to build up my mileage again as my knee is no longer bothering me. My goal is to hit around 30k a week with two fitness classes until marathon training begins in January.

I'll also try not to be such a stranger!

Cheers!

The off season

I've started the off season.

My first ever.

Seeing as this is the first year that I've really run and trained and seeing as I've kept it up all year, I'm really glad to have made it to this point.

My goals for the next two months are as follows:

1) Lose those last 10 pounds (which means resisting the Halloween leftovers after supper).

2) Strength train to build up my leg muscles so that my knees don't get injured. Strength train to build my core for better running form and everything else that goes with having a better core.

3) Run at least three times a week - A shortie (5-6k), a mid-tempo (6-9k) and a LSD (16k or more)

Right now, my left knee is still a bit off as a result of the race and I felt it during a run yesterday. I'm going to work on goal one and two over the next two weeks and hope that the knee heals much like it did in the summer when I first felt this problem.

Marathon (!) training begins January 5th!