I guess a blog update is in order. I've had a 'not-bad' week so far.
Monday - sucked as far as eating was concerned. I didn't get organized on Sunday night and then once I starting "eating crap", I didn't stop. I did do a good strength workout Monday night though.
Tuesday - eating was excellent. Healthy breakfast and lunch, not perfect but ok supper (in a rush), NO BEER or SNACKIES at the bar after volleyball that night, and only one small chocolate. Approx 1400-1500 calories. (Here's Tuesday's food and exercise log at Sparkpeople.com where I will be logging my intake for the next few weeks as I get my eatig habits back on track.) I went for a 4.1 km run after work, then played volleyball (not too vigorously :) in the evening.
Wednesday - Another good eating day, so far. I'm starving right now and trying hard not to cave to cravings. Luckily it's 10:30 pm and I need to go to bed. Click here for today's food log. I went to the YMCA and did my first swim in 3 months this afternoon. I was VERY tired all day but made myself go, with a little help from my friends on Twitter. I was amazed that after the first 4 lengths, I felt like I hadn't been away from the pool. I guess it's like riding a bicycle. Yay!
The Kelownagurl Tris Podcast
On the podcasting front - I have been recording bits and pieces all week and will spend some time putting it together this weekend with the hope to post Episode 3 on Sunday afternoon/evening. I continue to waver between confidence and insecurity throughout this whole thing though. Idiot. I hate that aspect of my personality. Ah well, soldier on, and continue to do things that scare the shit out of me... :)
If you've listened to my first two episodes and have any suggestions, questions, ideas for things you'd like to hear, or comments, please email me! I've had a few requests to talk about cycling/bikes for beginner triathletes but I welcome any other ideas.
For now, you can download, and even subscribe to, the Kelownagurl Tris Podcast at http://drop.io/kelownagirl. I hope to get the hosting thing set up this weekend and get linked to itunes ASAP. Thanks for your patience and encouragement!
Big thanks to Dan (@blackfonzie of 4 Feet Running Podcast) and Nigel (@Nigelrunner of Running with the Reaper Podcast) for their wonderful technical support. Also to Rob (@Ultradad of the Ultradad Podcast) for answering my many questions. And a big thank you to Chris Russell (@cyktrussell of the Run Run Live Podcast) for his kind shoutout on Episode 49 of his podcast. You guys are awesome!! I also want to thank the many people who sent me emails, DM's, twitter messages, and comments at drop.io with nice things to say about my first attempts. It made a HUGE difference - thank you!
Update: I also have to add a big hug to the Scarborough Dude who gave me a wonderful plug on his podcast Dicksnjanes this week. Thank you so much, and YES! get on that bike this spring! I will hold you to that! (I love his podcast but if you decide to give it a listen, be forewarned that he uses the F word frequently, LOL... :)
Kelownagurl: Off and Running in all Directions
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
January 4th
The end of a two week vacation....
I spent a good part of it a school today, getting organized for the week. While I was at school, I recorded an second episode for my podcast and then spent several hours playing around with it in Garageband. I'm still learning the program and I ended up messing up the whole thing so I had to start over after dinner. By the time I was done, I was sick of listening to it and barely had the courage to upload it.
I've been looking into the various options for hosting a podcast, most are reasonably priced or even free. Given my tendency to insecurity, I may go with the free version in case it doesn't work out and nobody ever listens.... :)
All of this will be moving to a permanent home in the next few weeks. I bought an Olympus VN5200PC voice recorder and I'm going to order a Giant Squid lapel mic as soon as I can. I hope to be able to put out a podcast every Sunday night. That'll give me time to record some audio during the week, and edit it on the weekend.
What'll it be about? Me - mostly swim, bike, run, healthy eating - all from from a newbie woman's perspective, but also thrown into the mix - my life - teaching, being a mom and a wife, my dogs, my cat... who knows?
So, here's the link to Kelownagurl Tris Podcast Episode #2. http://drop.io/kelownagirl
Show Notes:
• I review my rough training plan for the next 2-3 months.
• I mention:
http://beginnertriathlete.com
and
http://swimplan.com
• I interview my husband, Erik, about his goals for 2009.
I spent a good part of it a school today, getting organized for the week. While I was at school, I recorded an second episode for my podcast and then spent several hours playing around with it in Garageband. I'm still learning the program and I ended up messing up the whole thing so I had to start over after dinner. By the time I was done, I was sick of listening to it and barely had the courage to upload it.
I've been looking into the various options for hosting a podcast, most are reasonably priced or even free. Given my tendency to insecurity, I may go with the free version in case it doesn't work out and nobody ever listens.... :)
All of this will be moving to a permanent home in the next few weeks. I bought an Olympus VN5200PC voice recorder and I'm going to order a Giant Squid lapel mic as soon as I can. I hope to be able to put out a podcast every Sunday night. That'll give me time to record some audio during the week, and edit it on the weekend.
What'll it be about? Me - mostly swim, bike, run, healthy eating - all from from a newbie woman's perspective, but also thrown into the mix - my life - teaching, being a mom and a wife, my dogs, my cat... who knows?
So, here's the link to Kelownagurl Tris Podcast Episode #2. http://drop.io/kelownagirl
Show Notes:
• I review my rough training plan for the next 2-3 months.
• I mention:
http://beginnertriathlete.com
and
http://swimplan.com
• I interview my husband, Erik, about his goals for 2009.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
January 3rd
Well, my first podcast seems to have gone over fairly well. I had lots of positive comments from my friends and didn't receive any hate mail so it's all good!
I bought an Olympus VN-5200 PC today (a digital voice recorder) so I can record away from my home computer. I think it could come in handy for all sorts of things besides podcasting. I took with me on a run today and put the audio together for Episode #2 but I wasn't happy with it so I have not posted it yet. I am going to listen to it again on my ipod tonight and see how it sounds but I'm pretty sure I'm going to re-record it once more and try to speak more slowly and more clearly. And I'll try not to sniff so much. It's cold and I always have a runny nose when I run, what can I say? :)
I will eventually upload my podcast to a hosting site and connect with itunes, but for now, you can download (or even subscribe on itunes via "dropcast") by going to http://drop.io/kelownagirl (note the "i" in girl).
I hope to upload Episode #2 later this week.
A huge thank you to everyone who has listened and sent me feedback! I'm working on the volume issue - I know that for some of you, the volume is a bit low. Hopefully I can tweak the problems over the next week or so.
Thanks ffor listening and feel free to email me constructive criticism at kelownagurl@gmail.com
Workout
My workout today? A 4.7 km run in 39:20. Still trying to stay slow and steady, taking walk breaks to avoid shin pain.
Oh, and I did the new 200 Situps Challenge exhaustion test. 100 crunches before I got tied (and bored). I've been doing 5 sets of 2-30 crunches for a long time so this should be much easier for me than doing 100 pushups. (I am once again repeating Week 5 for the pushups challenge.)
I bought an Olympus VN-5200 PC today (a digital voice recorder) so I can record away from my home computer. I think it could come in handy for all sorts of things besides podcasting. I took with me on a run today and put the audio together for Episode #2 but I wasn't happy with it so I have not posted it yet. I am going to listen to it again on my ipod tonight and see how it sounds but I'm pretty sure I'm going to re-record it once more and try to speak more slowly and more clearly. And I'll try not to sniff so much. It's cold and I always have a runny nose when I run, what can I say? :)
I will eventually upload my podcast to a hosting site and connect with itunes, but for now, you can download (or even subscribe on itunes via "dropcast") by going to http://drop.io/kelownagirl (note the "i" in girl).
I hope to upload Episode #2 later this week.
A huge thank you to everyone who has listened and sent me feedback! I'm working on the volume issue - I know that for some of you, the volume is a bit low. Hopefully I can tweak the problems over the next week or so.
Thanks ffor listening and feel free to email me constructive criticism at kelownagurl@gmail.com
Workout
My workout today? A 4.7 km run in 39:20. Still trying to stay slow and steady, taking walk breaks to avoid shin pain.
Oh, and I did the new 200 Situps Challenge exhaustion test. 100 crunches before I got tied (and bored). I've been doing 5 sets of 2-30 crunches for a long time so this should be much easier for me than doing 100 pushups. (I am once again repeating Week 5 for the pushups challenge.)
Friday, January 2, 2009
January 2nd ~ goals and such
Really, my goals for this upcoming year are pretty simple - continue with what I've been doing for the past year or two, and build on that. It's been working for me!
I am constantly adapting my goals to match reality so I am pretty flexible but I have to start somewhere so today I will outline my rough plan for the year, and start figuring out my training plan for the next month or so.
If you read my blog, you probably know that last year, my goal has to been to gradually increase my running mileage after my triathlon so that I could run a half marathon in the fall. Well that just didn't happen - my body still fights even small increases in speed and distance, and I'm just not going to be able to focus on a half iron triathlon for 2009.
I did a lot of thinking over the past 6 weeks and have decided that my strength really does seem to be in the shorter races - 5ks, and sprint triathlons. If I move to longer distances, I will be able to finish them but I won't be competitive. I figure I only have a couple of years to be competitive in racing so maybe right now I will focus on getting faster instead of going further.
It hard to believe that I will be able make any dramatic gains as I have the past few years, but even cutting off a few minutes would make me hapy at this point. Although it would be nice to podium, I'm mostly interested in just improving my time from August 2008. Making the podium is beyond my control - it really just depends on who races next year.
If I had done the same time for the sprint in 2007, I would have been in first place in my age group (the winning time for my age group in 2007 was 1:37:09.) In 2008, my goal was to do 1:35 and I surprised myself by coming in at 1:30. But the winning times for the 45-49 age group in 2008 were 1:13:20 (and she came in 4th overall!) followed by 1:17:01 and 1:27:26. There's no way I could come close to the first two times, but I might be able to be closer to 1:25 if I worked hard. Anyway, my goal is to PR the race, regardless of who will be racing against me.
So - I want to do 2-3 sprint triathlons next summer - possibly the Oliver Sprint in May, and maybe one other as a warm up. My "A" race will definitely the Apple Triatlon at the end of August.
I will also do a few 5-10k running races throughout the season, some to race and some for fun as a training run. They are always good to help work out the nerves.
As far as health and fitness goes, I need to lose 5 lbs again, and get back into my healthy eating habits. That's not too hard to do. I try to eat healthy all year long but I relax and enjoy life when I'm on holiday - March break, Christmas, and on and off throughout the summer. I also allow myself one day a week to eat out or have less healthy meals - because I think mental health is just as important as physical health.
The Nitty Gritty
1. Focus on increasing speed and strength. PR in sprint triathlon.
2. Continue to work up core and upper body strength, as well as balancing out my leg strength by doing some of the exercises my PT recommended. Do pushups, crunches, upper body weights at home, core (plank etc, stability ball, yoga), squats and other lower body exercises.
3. Swim 2-3X a week. Take another set of lessons. Focus on form and start to increase speed. New pool opens in April. - can't wait! Get in the lake earlier.
4. Run 3X a week. Follow a roughly similar to Galloway's 25 minute 5k plan. More on that later.
5. Ride the trainer 2X a week in zone 2, as well as intervals and drills until end of February. Get outside on mountain bike as soonas weather allows and back on road bike as soon as roads allow.
6. Eat mediterranean style diet - fruits, veg, whole grains, lean meat (more fish and poultry, less red meat), nuts and seeds, good fats.
7. Drink more water and green tea. Wine on weekends. One cup of coffee per day (with cream and sugar)
8. Take Vitamin C and E, glucosamine, calcium, and fish oil.
9. Enjoy life!
******************
Today - I'm feeling pretty good after my ride yesterday but my knees are a bit sore so I don't think I'll run today. I'm also stiff in the shoulders and have a sore butt but all are survivable. I'll do some kind of workout later today - probably upper body strength.
"Podcast"
Update: OK, I didn't get around to working out but I did do a one-shot podcast recording tonight. I just sat there and talked steady for 25 minutes with a little intro and outro (?) music. I was tempted to cut and paste and re-record but decided that once I started trying to 'fix' things, I'd never stop. Hopefully, most of it is tolerable and hopefully, if I do more 'episodes' later, they'll get better.
For this first episode I just talked about who I am, where I've come from, and a little about where I'm going. I guess I'm thinking I'd like to do a podcast with a woman's perspective on triathlon, fitness, and life in general, and yet still interesting enough for male triathletes or runners to listen to as well.
I listened to it once and didn't cringe too much so I guess I'm just going to throw it out there and see what happens.
Oh, and the sound isn't perfect. I need to learn to stay closer to the mic and I have to figure out the volume settings a bit better because sometimes I fade out a bit. Sorry about that. Maybe first time podcasts aren't always that great right? LOL...
To download, just go to http://drop.io/kelownagirl (note it's kelownagirl with an "i". Just to be confusing.)
(There I go, scaring the crap outta myself again. :)
No use putting money out for libsyn or podbean until I know this is something I can actually do. LOL...
I am constantly adapting my goals to match reality so I am pretty flexible but I have to start somewhere so today I will outline my rough plan for the year, and start figuring out my training plan for the next month or so.
If you read my blog, you probably know that last year, my goal has to been to gradually increase my running mileage after my triathlon so that I could run a half marathon in the fall. Well that just didn't happen - my body still fights even small increases in speed and distance, and I'm just not going to be able to focus on a half iron triathlon for 2009.
I did a lot of thinking over the past 6 weeks and have decided that my strength really does seem to be in the shorter races - 5ks, and sprint triathlons. If I move to longer distances, I will be able to finish them but I won't be competitive. I figure I only have a couple of years to be competitive in racing so maybe right now I will focus on getting faster instead of going further.
It hard to believe that I will be able make any dramatic gains as I have the past few years, but even cutting off a few minutes would make me hapy at this point. Although it would be nice to podium, I'm mostly interested in just improving my time from August 2008. Making the podium is beyond my control - it really just depends on who races next year.
If I had done the same time for the sprint in 2007, I would have been in first place in my age group (the winning time for my age group in 2007 was 1:37:09.) In 2008, my goal was to do 1:35 and I surprised myself by coming in at 1:30. But the winning times for the 45-49 age group in 2008 were 1:13:20 (and she came in 4th overall!) followed by 1:17:01 and 1:27:26. There's no way I could come close to the first two times, but I might be able to be closer to 1:25 if I worked hard. Anyway, my goal is to PR the race, regardless of who will be racing against me.
So - I want to do 2-3 sprint triathlons next summer - possibly the Oliver Sprint in May, and maybe one other as a warm up. My "A" race will definitely the Apple Triatlon at the end of August.
I will also do a few 5-10k running races throughout the season, some to race and some for fun as a training run. They are always good to help work out the nerves.
As far as health and fitness goes, I need to lose 5 lbs again, and get back into my healthy eating habits. That's not too hard to do. I try to eat healthy all year long but I relax and enjoy life when I'm on holiday - March break, Christmas, and on and off throughout the summer. I also allow myself one day a week to eat out or have less healthy meals - because I think mental health is just as important as physical health.
The Nitty Gritty
1. Focus on increasing speed and strength. PR in sprint triathlon.
2. Continue to work up core and upper body strength, as well as balancing out my leg strength by doing some of the exercises my PT recommended. Do pushups, crunches, upper body weights at home, core (plank etc, stability ball, yoga), squats and other lower body exercises.
3. Swim 2-3X a week. Take another set of lessons. Focus on form and start to increase speed. New pool opens in April. - can't wait! Get in the lake earlier.
4. Run 3X a week. Follow a roughly similar to Galloway's 25 minute 5k plan. More on that later.
5. Ride the trainer 2X a week in zone 2, as well as intervals and drills until end of February. Get outside on mountain bike as soonas weather allows and back on road bike as soon as roads allow.
6. Eat mediterranean style diet - fruits, veg, whole grains, lean meat (more fish and poultry, less red meat), nuts and seeds, good fats.
7. Drink more water and green tea. Wine on weekends. One cup of coffee per day (with cream and sugar)
8. Take Vitamin C and E, glucosamine, calcium, and fish oil.
9. Enjoy life!
******************
Today - I'm feeling pretty good after my ride yesterday but my knees are a bit sore so I don't think I'll run today. I'm also stiff in the shoulders and have a sore butt but all are survivable. I'll do some kind of workout later today - probably upper body strength.
"Podcast"
Update: OK, I didn't get around to working out but I did do a one-shot podcast recording tonight. I just sat there and talked steady for 25 minutes with a little intro and outro (?) music. I was tempted to cut and paste and re-record but decided that once I started trying to 'fix' things, I'd never stop. Hopefully, most of it is tolerable and hopefully, if I do more 'episodes' later, they'll get better.
For this first episode I just talked about who I am, where I've come from, and a little about where I'm going. I guess I'm thinking I'd like to do a podcast with a woman's perspective on triathlon, fitness, and life in general, and yet still interesting enough for male triathletes or runners to listen to as well.
I listened to it once and didn't cringe too much so I guess I'm just going to throw it out there and see what happens.
Oh, and the sound isn't perfect. I need to learn to stay closer to the mic and I have to figure out the volume settings a bit better because sometimes I fade out a bit. Sorry about that. Maybe first time podcasts aren't always that great right? LOL...
To download, just go to http://drop.io/kelownagirl (note it's kelownagirl with an "i". Just to be confusing.)
(There I go, scaring the crap outta myself again. :)
No use putting money out for libsyn or podbean until I know this is something I can actually do. LOL...
Thursday, January 1, 2009
January 1st, 2009!
Wow, a whole new year to play with! How cool is that?
I got up late-ish again this morning (9:30+?) and had coffee and breakfast. By 11am I was in my bike gear and challenging my hubby to a 100km trainer ride extraordinaire! We each have a CycleOps 2 Fluid trainer side by sidein the basement so we got all set up with water bottles, snacks, and movies and hit the pedals. Every 10km, I posted my progress on twitter and it was fun reading the encouraging comments on the itouch as we rode.
I had one gel after the first hour and then after 50km, I stopped to stretch a bit and grab a snack (a bowl of cold mashed potatoes and salt, and a couple of cookies) and then I was back on the bike. We watched Ironman (the movie, not the race) and then The Perfect Storm. By the 70km mark, my butt was pretty sore and I ran out of chamois cream but I kept at it. The last 20 km got harder and the final 10km were actually painful on my quads. I could normally do a 100km ride without too much trouble, especially when I'm sticking around 25 kmh, and zone 2 HR, but I only rode 40km in December and not a whole lot more than that in the two months previous, so it was a bit of a stretch to do 100km straight.
That's what I like - a challenge!!!
I definitely wouldn't have gone past 50km if Erik wasn't riding alongside me, and if I wasn't tweeting my progress as I went, because the committment forced me to keep on going. It was a great way to start the new year!
I still haven't got my goals and training plan written down yet but I think I'll be able to get that done tomorrow some time.
I do know I want to swim 2X a week, ride the trainer 2X a week, and run 3X a week, plus do strength, core, and yoga exercises. Part of the strength workout will be to continue the Pushups Challenge and start the 200 Situps Challenge. I just have to figure out how to fit it all in.
I also need to get back to healthy eating, drink more water, take my vitamins, get more sleep, and lose 5lbs. That's not too much to ask is it?
Of course not!!! :)
I got up late-ish again this morning (9:30+?) and had coffee and breakfast. By 11am I was in my bike gear and challenging my hubby to a 100km trainer ride extraordinaire! We each have a CycleOps 2 Fluid trainer side by sidein the basement so we got all set up with water bottles, snacks, and movies and hit the pedals. Every 10km, I posted my progress on twitter and it was fun reading the encouraging comments on the itouch as we rode.
I had one gel after the first hour and then after 50km, I stopped to stretch a bit and grab a snack (a bowl of cold mashed potatoes and salt, and a couple of cookies) and then I was back on the bike. We watched Ironman (the movie, not the race) and then The Perfect Storm. By the 70km mark, my butt was pretty sore and I ran out of chamois cream but I kept at it. The last 20 km got harder and the final 10km were actually painful on my quads. I could normally do a 100km ride without too much trouble, especially when I'm sticking around 25 kmh, and zone 2 HR, but I only rode 40km in December and not a whole lot more than that in the two months previous, so it was a bit of a stretch to do 100km straight.
That's what I like - a challenge!!!
I definitely wouldn't have gone past 50km if Erik wasn't riding alongside me, and if I wasn't tweeting my progress as I went, because the committment forced me to keep on going. It was a great way to start the new year!
I still haven't got my goals and training plan written down yet but I think I'll be able to get that done tomorrow some time.
I do know I want to swim 2X a week, ride the trainer 2X a week, and run 3X a week, plus do strength, core, and yoga exercises. Part of the strength workout will be to continue the Pushups Challenge and start the 200 Situps Challenge. I just have to figure out how to fit it all in.
I also need to get back to healthy eating, drink more water, take my vitamins, get more sleep, and lose 5lbs. That's not too much to ask is it?
Of course not!!! :)
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