Monday swim

I think I'm going to start adding my thoughts onto nancy's virtual cycling blog, not here. I'm just going to use this as a workout journal. Dull dull dull.

Todays workout as posted:
200m warmup
100m breastroke legs only, 100m arms only Repeat 3 times
100m back stroke legs only, 100m arms only Repeat 3 times
2x100m breaststroke, 2x100m back stroke
400m front crawl: 200 fast/200 slow
200m cooldown
Total: 2400m

I did only 2 repeats of the breast stroke and back stroke drills and skipped a few bits here and there, and about 100m of front crawl
Total distance: 1250m
Shorter than usual, but I worked hard. I've managed to 'get' the breast stroke arms, which is moving me faster but I'm working harder (pushing more water).

Friday workout

Today's swim workout was easier than usual. Maybe I'm just getting better!

200m warmup
200m freestyle
400m stroke of your choice, followed by 100m arms only and 100m legs only in that stroke
800m divided into 100m pieces of front crawl, breast stroke, back crawl
200m cooldown
Total: 2000m

I only did 300m of front crawl, followed by 100m arms only and 50m legs only
Then I did 100m front crawl, breast stroke, back crawl and about 50m cooldown.
Total 1200m

I'll be moving over to Nancy's virtual cycling tour blog at http://vcycle.blogspot.com/

Ciao!

How to move your arms

Today I had a swimming epiphany. We had to do several lengths of arms only. While doing front crawl arms, on one stroke I rolled to my non-breathing side WAY more than usual. And it was WAY easier to life that arm out of the water for the next pull. Duh.

Today's workout as posted:
200m warmup,
10 x 50m front crawl (1 fast 1 slow), 10 x 50m breast stroke
5x 50m legs only, 5x 50m arms only
2x 100m back crawl, 100m back crawl legs only, 100m back crawl arms only
200m cooldown
Total 2300m

I did the warmup, 6x50 front, 6x50 breast,3x 50 legs, 3x 50 arms, 100m back crawl, 50m legs, 50m arms, 100m cooldown
total: 1400m

Total journey: 51.4km http://tinyurl.com/b4pu5

attrition already

I can't believe how few people showed up for swimming today. Nancy and I had the 'slow' lane to ourselves. Oh well, more space for me!

Today's posted workout:
200m warmup
300m front crawl
300m breast stroke
300m back stroke
100m each front crawl, breast stroke, back stroke (legs only)
100m each front crawl, breast stroke, back stroke (arms only)
200m cooldown
for a total of 1900m

Yeah right. I dropped the 300m to 200m for each stroke and skipped the cooldown. I may have done more than 200m front crawl (who counts all the time???). So I managed 1400m.

Get on yer bike

I managed to squeak out another 10.8 miles on the stationary bike at the Y today, while DH took the kids swimming. He ran to the Y, then tagged me for the kids. This works out well.

The rest of my weights workout was allright, but not great. 3 swim workouts have tired my arms a bit. Hopefully todays weights won't affect tomorrow's swim too much. I'm tired and I could have eaten my car dash on the drive home.

Total travelled today: cycling 17.3km (10.8 miles)
Total journey: 46.8km (29.2 miles)
This takes me back down the other side of the Malahat, past Mill Bay and along the highway almost to Cobble Hill.

http://tinyurl.com/dvfea

Let's walk to school

Son #2 and I arrived home about 15 minutes before #1 finished school. Hey! Let's walk to the school and pick him up instead of taking the school bus.

I grabbed the double jogging stroller and off we went. It's tough to make it on time when you have 10 minutes to cover a 15 minute walk. However, the bus waits for 10 after school ends. #1 son jumped off the bus and ran straight to the playground, with #2 toddling after him.

After a bit of a fight with some other kids, mom hauled #1 off the playground and headed home. Pushing 2 kids weighing 80 pounds total is a bit of a fight, so I was happy when #1 decided walking was a better idea.

The walk home took a least 2.5 times the walk out.

Total distance covered: 2.4km (1.5 miles)
Total journey: 29.5 km (18.4 miles)
http://tinyurl.com/7u2ft

P.S. Great. Just great. I have BLISTERS on the bottoms of my feet from walking in my snowboots. I have NEVER had a blister from running. One 15 minute walk and I get them. I'm SO happy. NOT!

Swimming up the hill

Slacker girl hasn't done any spinning for a week. Bad girl!

Today's swim workout: 300m warmup
front crawl: 50m slow, 100m medium, 50m fast - 3 sets of this
breast stroke: same
backstroke: same
cooldown: 50m arms only, 50m legs only, 200m ?? (missed this bit)
Total: 2400m or 96 lengths

I managed 300m warmup, 400m front crawl, 400m breast stroke, 400m backstroke or 1500m

Well, I think that's what I did. My ability to count was limited today. Duh!


Total journey: 27.1 km or 16.9 miles - still climbing the Malahat!
http://tinyurl.com/dpbs6

mapping the journey

http://tinyurl.com/8dm8w shows where I am now.
(thanks Ellie!)

Up the hill

I'm starting up the hill of the Malahat. Hmmm... checking the weather, it's +9 and light rain in Sooke (worst weather of the whole island) and +7 and light clouds in Victoria. I'll guess it's cloudy and +8 where I am and hope for no rain.

25.6km or 16 miles travelled.

(I think I'd better get on my bike again)

Swim, swim and swim some more

Today's swim workout was easy. Well, easy to remember without looking at the board. Not so easy to swim

Using any stroke you choose:

200m warmup
25m, then 30 seconds rest
50m, then 30 seconds rest
75m... , 100m... , 125m..., 150m..., 175m...
200m then 1 minute rest (woohoo!)
175m, 125m, 100m, 75m, 50m, 25m
200m cooldown


I got to the 125m on the way back down when time ran out, which is 1400m. And I got to that *zone* where you can just keep swimming forever and ever and ever. It's nice to find that zone again because it means I know I can finish anything if I keep plodding along.

And we had 5 in our lane today. One got a headache and left early. One only swims breaststroke with a W-I-D-E kick. One thinks she's *so* much faster and passes, but tries to pass whether or not someone is coming the other way. Rude! and the last is my friend Nancy (who is, of course, perfect!).

And my arms weren't nearly so tired today, but my hamstring was cramping as I left the locker room. Ouch!

Changing paths

I think I'm going to change my route back to the TransCanada Highway.

Distance travelled is now 24.2km, which puts me just at the north edge of Goldstream Provincial Park, and the bottom of the 'dreaded Malahat'.

The Malahat is a mountain that sits right on the edge of Finlayson Arm of Patricia Bay (pat bay). The highway goes up and over the edge of the mountain and gets some of the worst weather. The locals have an unreasonable fear of driving this road, especially in bad weather.

I'm tired

I'd forgotten how tiring swimming is.

The entire workout was:
200m warmup
1. 200m front crawl
2. 200m your choice
3. 200m breast stroke
4. 200m your choice
5. 200m backstroke
(repeat 1-5)
200m cooldown

Yeah right!

I managed the warmup, 1-5 (once) and a bit of cooldown. That's 1300m or 1.3 km covered.

I refuse to lift more than a plate of cookies for the rest of the day!

Getting wet

I'll be leaving for the pool in a few minutes. I hesitated about registering for this class (3 x 1 hour/week), but realized that other than the cost of babysitting, the reason was laziness. Who wants to do more work than they have to?

I *know* I'm not going to do nearly as much swimming on my own. So last night I packed my stuff, packed the diaper bag, snack bags, and found the emergency info cards. I even remembered my library books (same building). And I convinced one of my friends to sign up too! We used to swim together regularly the last time I was tri-training.

It will be interesting to see what I need to change in my swim stroke. It has improved considerably since I last had any coaching (long incubation period!).

Swimming

So should I take the ferry or swim across to Vancouver??

I've registered for a swim class that's pretty much like a masters swim club, so I may not be joking about the swim. Somehow though, swimming in +4C water doesn't really appeal to me.

I think I'll ride my bike onto the ferry and race the cars off at the other end. Can you pronounce Tsawwassen?

And the journey begins...

Today I sweated out 10.8 miles on the stationary bike at the Y. My timing for arrival was pretty good. The Satruday morning crowd was thinning out and was mostly gone by the time I finished my ride, so the weight machines were available as I needed them (I hate waiting). I squeezed out 1 mile on the treadmill after.

If I count my walking as well, I can move a bit farther down the road:

Jan 3: 30 min walk, about 2km
Jan 4: 30 min walk, about 2 km
Jan 5,6: total slacker
Jan 7: 10.8 miles cycling, 1 mile walking

I guess I'd better decide on units. I'll do the Canadian thing and count in kilometres (gee Tess, what's a kilometre :) ) with miles in brackets so my American friends can save their brain cells for more worthy tasks.

2006 total: 22.9km (14.3 miles)
cycling: 17.3 km (10.8 miles)
walking/running: 5.6 km (3.5 miles)

Starting point: Beacon Hill Park, Mile Zero - Victoria, BC
Current location: Pat Bay highway, nearly at Sidney BC (almost exactly 10km from the ferry terminal)

Let's see...

Now I'm wondering if any of my friends who blog have me in their blogline notifier???

Ah, the need for attention! It happens to all of us. :)

Slacker

I'm not really feeling motivated about cycling today. I didn't go for my daily 30 minute walk either today or yesterday.

Either I spin at the gym or outside on my big clunker mountain bike on roads that might have ice.

Sigh. What a choice.

Ack!

Do I really have a blog now?? Don't expect any brilliance.