Tag: Tour de Victoria Training

Weather Workouts

Today was another great ride. I was cold all day, so getting on my bike and heading out in the slightly rainy weather was not making me happy. Still, I forced myself out, and once I got out of Esquimalt, the rain stopped.

I rode for about 45 minutes before meeting up with a friend of mine. Together we rode for another 1.5 hours. In total I was out for approximately 2:15. I felt pretty good the whole time and am looking forward to some hill workouts when we get back to town. The distance was around 47.2 km.

I say around since I can’t embed the map like I have been. Google Maps have changed their API’s, so the My Tracks app no longer works the way I want it to. Time to investigate something new.

The other issue I had is that after my swim on Tuesday, I forgot my best (and favorite) water bottle in the change room. This leaves me with a shortage of bottles to take riding. I only had one with me today, and I would have preferred to take two.

Groove Swim

Great swim tonight. I ate a good dinner, then helped get the kids ready for bed. As I walked down to the pool I was hoping the swim would feel good.

In the water, right from the first stroke I felt strong. I swam my first 200m without stopping. The only issue here was that I had to change lanes a couple times. The lady in the slower lane was really, really slow, and the guys in the fast lane were really, really fast. Once the lady left I stayed in the slower lane and got in the groove.

I then did another 200m sprint followed by a quick break. I ended with a 200m sprint, a very short break, then another 100m swim. I know I could have kept going, but I had a few things to do this evening, and I was still pretty proud of how I felt throughout the swim.

I really do need some new swim trunks though. The ones I have waistband elastic is shot, and the shorts are too big. I have to be careful how hard I push off the wall since I have felt them slip a little.

I skipped the hot tub tonight and had a nice shower instead.

Longer Water

Today was another training day. After dropping the car off at Campus Honda, I set out on a ride. I was trying to make it a little longer and was hoping to make it to 2.5 hours in length. As I started out I was feeling a little cold, but my legs felt strong. Before I left home I had planned to ride Oldfield Road out to Keating, then back along West Saanich Road.

This route actually took a lot less time than I thought, so I had to extend my loop a little through downtown, then along the water. In the end, it wasn’t as long as I had hoped, but I felt strong the entire ride, and could have kept going.


View Tour de Vic training, Jan 27, 2011 in a larger map

Some stats on the ride:

Total Distance: 48.61 km (30.2 mi)
Total Time: 2:11:54
Moving Time: 2:04:53
Average Speed: 22.11 km/h (13.7 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 23.35 km/h (14.5 mi/h)
Max Speed: 56.70 km/h (35.2 mi/h)
Min Elevation: -15 m (-48 ft)
Max Elevation: 111 m (365 ft)
Elevation Gain: 637 m (2090 ft)
Max Grade: 14 %
Min Grade: -15 %
Recorded: Thu Jan 27 09:57:34 PST 2011
Activity type: cycling

I need to find some nice hills to train on I think. Hill repeats would be a good thing.

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.

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.

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.

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.