Author: gfox (old content)

Explosion Composure

Walking down to the pool tonight I was tired, not feeling like swimming, and still tasting french fry and Bacon Explosion burps (reminder, don’t go to Pig BBQ the day I go swimming).

Still I perservered. I got in the water and swam. The first 100m felt horrible, and I was on the verge of cramping. I took a quick breather, regained my composure and steeled myself for doing 500m.

Strange thing was that the more I swam, the better I started to feel. I still didn’t do more than 100m without taking a break, but my breaks got shorter, I started feeling stronger, my cramp went away, my breathing evened out. I felt pretty good.

I stopped when I reached 750m. Pretty proud of that. As I finished I took a glance at the hot tub. Woohoo, it wasn’t jam packed. I soaked for a few minutes, showered up, then headed home.

Occupants Turning

People in Victoria are silly. We have a drawbridge downtown, and when it goes up, some of the traffic heading into our out of downtown can get backed up.

Friday was an example of this. Where I was stopped on Esquimalt Ave, I could see the bridge in its up position. There were quite a few cars waiting, but it wasn’t going to be long.

In my experience, if you get caught in the bridge traffic, it is better to sit and wait it out, rather than drive out to the Bay St bridge. Still, I see lots of people turning around and heading to the other bridge. I don’t get it.

Chill out. Turn off the car. Talk with the other occupants. Listen to the radio. Be patient.

On Friday I laughed at many of these impatient people. I saw one Mini Cooper pull a U turn in the middle of the road and head to the gas station next to me. Next thing I know he comes peeling out of there to cut in front of me. Weirdo. As the bridge was on its way down I saw at least three cars pull out of their spots in line and turn around, or head to Bay St. Simply meant I got to my destination a little quicker.

It would be handy if the blue bridge got its own twitter account though. Imagine receiving a tweet before you were about to head out and know the bridge was going to go up. You could conceivably save some time this way by choosing an alternate route, or just wait for the subsequent tweet saying the bridge was going down. I wonder if I could make that happen?

Hungry Stats

I got out for a great ride today. I went out by myself, but I felt strong the entire ride (except for the final hill on Old Esquimalt Rd). Last week I waited too long before I started eating a Clif Bar which was a bad idea. Today I started replenishing my energy before I felt hungry. Maybe that had something to do with it.

The ride was a little longer than last week, which is good, and I got to see lots of different parts of the city. Maybe next week I will head out the peninsula a little bit. I haven’t been out there in a while.

My route:

View Tour de Vic training Jan 22, 2011 in a larger map

Some stats:
Total Distance: 47.20 km (29.3 mi)
Total Time: 2:09:04
Moving Time: 2:01:00
Average Speed: 21.94 km/h (13.6 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 23.41 km/h (14.5 mi/h)
Max Speed: 49.50 km/h (30.8 mi/h)
Min Elevation: -21 m (-69 ft)
Max Elevation: 66 m (218 ft)
Elevation Gain: 493 m (1617 ft)
Max Grade: 12 %
Min Grade: -10 %
Recorded: Sat Jan 22 10:44:22 PST 2011
Activity type: –

Once again I used My Tracks to record the route. I actually started recording in my backyard, but for some reason it didn’t start until a little way down the road, strange.

Jelly Burn

Wow, I forgot how much a good trainer session makes you sweat, and turns your legs to jelly pretty quickly.

Tonight I rode for 35 minutes, a 25 minute spin with 5 minute warm up and cool downs on either end. It had been a while since I had last used it, and even though I thought I was all set up, the one thing I forgot was the strap to my HRM. That device really helps me keep the tempo up since I can see exactly how hard I am working. Without that I tried timing my revolutions and trying to keep it up pretty high.

I did one standing stint (something I haven’t done much of on the trainer). That sure made the quads burn.

Stunning Regularity

Tonight’s sunset was amazing. Stunning. Beautiful. I would have missed it, had it not been for my son noticing it (he’s not even 5 yet and can appreciate a nice sunset). After watching the colors for I was really wishing I had the foresight to be down on the water to take some pictures. As it was I had the kids by myself so I zipped outside for a couple pics with my phone. Better than nothing.

The kids were wanting to color a bit, so Elliot actually made a picture of the sunset. He had layers of purple, blue, orange, and red. I was super impressed with his effort. With increasing regularity I am finding myself amazed by his skills, insight, abilities, and thought processes.

Cardio Sloppy

Swimming. It’s been a while. I was going once a week, but that stopped over the Christmas break. Now that I am going to be part of the Tour de Victoria I am going to need to do lots of training. Swimming is going to be a part of my cardio training.

Tonight I made my return to the pool. I wasn’t sure what it was going to feel like, but I started off slow and picked up my pace throughout the swim. I would swim 100m then take a breather and a water break. Nearing the end of my swim I could feel tired, but I also noticed my swimming stroke got more and more sloppy, and I kept gulping in water. Yeuck. In total I swam 600m.

While I was swimming there was some water exercise class going on in the pool beside me. They finished up just before I did, which was a bummer. The class basically emptied into the hot tub, and I really didn’t feel like hanging out in a crowded hot tub. Off to the showers for me.

Under Fast

Last Monday we had Heart spayed. While she was under, we also had a lump on her eyelid removed, her teeth cleaned, nails trimmed, and a vaccine shot. A lot to get done all at once, but it made the most sense. They gave her a T3 while she was recovering and she had a reaction to that (explosive diarrhea).

Monday night she was not a happy camper, and all throughout the day on Tuesday she groaning and shivering with pain (despite being on pain killers). By Wednesday she was feeling a little better and by Friday she was back to her normal self.

Normal except for having to wear a cone when she is alone. She is a menace with that thing, but at least she is on the mend. Trouble is she is not allowed a lot of exercise right now, and with being 4, she kind of wants to get out and do something. Like run. Really fast.

Starting tomorrow she will start getting regular walks again and by next weekend she can go off leash again. We are looking forward to that. The spaz that greets us by running into our knees with a plastic cone is not enjoyable.

Training Slow

Today was my first training ride for the Tour de Victoria. Sue and I both signed up for the race as a means to encourage ourselves to get fit again. That and the race sounded like a lot of fun.

I rode with a couple buddies today and it definitely pushed me a little bit. If I had been on my own I would have knocked off earlier and it wouldn’t have been as good a workout. I only felt like I held back my friends near the end. It was a slow ride for them (one of them is training for Ironman and the other has done Ironman), which suited me perfectly.

Our route:


View Tour de Vic Training Jan 15, 2011 in a larger map

Some stats:
Total Distance: 45.17 km (28.1 mi)
Total Time: 2:06:56
Moving Time: 2:01:39
Average Speed: 21.35 km/h (13.3 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 22.28 km/h (13.8 mi/h)
Max Speed: 45.90 km/h (28.5 mi/h)

I used the My Tracks app to create the map and stats. Pretty neat way to record my progress I think.