Vancouver: Day 6, Sore Knees

Today: 14.55km, 1500m swim

When I sprinted the last 100m to so to my house this morning, I couldn't believe that I had actually finished the run that I had planned for myself last night. I looked at the elevation profile of the 14.55km route (AFTER I got back), and more than 3/4 of the whole thing was uphill--damn hills. I know they're good for me, but dammit, why do they have to hurt so much? My knees aren't just scolding, they're screaming bloody murder right now. Still trying to decide whether I'll go to yoga class considering how tired I am right now. Anyways, one day left here, and then it's back to Kingston. Thankfully, I only had to suffer through one day of rain; I don't know how people around here put up with months and months of nonstop drizzle.

Going to visit the grampasaurus in a few mins...a bit scary to think that this is probably the last time I'll talk to him. The finality of the whole situation will likely not sink in until I'm back in Kingston in my empty house.

Vancouver: Day 5, St. Michael's Hospital

Today: 45min spin, 4.5km run, 2100m swim

Went to see gramps again today. It's funny how radical the difference is between his good and bad days. I brought my camera with me thinking it'd be good to take some pictures, but after the first few, it just felt really tacky. It was interesting to see how we situated ourselves in the room in a triangle as if we were somehow supporting him as he coughed and weakly pawed at the cups of water on his side-table. Again, it's like when my mother's father died--I wasn't really close to him either, so when all that happened, it was more trying to understand what was happening to my mother than truly mourning my grandfather. It's weird whenever he says goodbye, because I think we all collectively wince on the inside, and wonder whether there's a double meaning to that.

Vancouver: Day 4, Canada Games Pool

Today: 8.16km, 2250m swim, 90mins yoga


That photo was taken outside my house early yesterday morning before going to spin at Bonsor, the ghetto community centre near my house, with a pool that more closely resembles a sewage tank than anything else...I think I'd rather swim in Lake Ontario since the raw sewage is at least offset with the feeling of being outside. I'm actually really glad I didn't swim yesterday and gave it a rest; as a result of a brief, one-day haiatus, I had a really kick-ass swim today, with 3x500m, then 2x200m hard, 150m recovery and 2x100m with flipturns. Sweet! I'm in love: the Canada Games Pool is quite possibly the most self-contained body of water I've ever swum in. Not only was it not too cold, not too hot, nicely lit and clean, I had a whole lane to myself for the entire hour. Never mind the random pingpong balls floating around, I was just so happy to be swimming well, surrounded by other people IN THEIR OWN LANES that also enjoy swimming. I might actually be starting to like this part of triathlon--we'll see.

Vancouver: Day 3, Shooze

Today: 70min spin
Skipped a day of swimming for the first time in 3 weeks...I feel a little guilty, but it was just far too complicated to try to squeeze it in between shopping with progenitors and visiting family. Anyways, got a beautiful new pair of running shoes, Nike Shox 2:45. In August, I settled for the Max Moto 2, but it still wasn't even close to the shoes I had been using before--those things were the stuff of legend. Taking them out for a spin tomorrow morning, so I suppose I'll have to wait to make the final verdict.

I went to a camera store in Aberdeen Centre and asked for black and white film: the girl at the counter told me to go to London Drugs.

A Cry Against Injustice

Have you ever noticed how small the women's section is compared to the men's in sporting goods stores? I went shopping for new running shoes today with mumsies and daddy-oh, and reached a whole new level of frustration by what would seem to be a very obvious example of systemic sexism. Although I have no doubt that there are more female athletes now than ever before, I'm still appalled by how deeply gender roles are entrenched in our culture--and in this case, within the context of fashion and sporting equipment. I've never been a huge fan of "women only" anythings, but dammit, you'd think that people would at least recognize the fact that women participate in athletic pursuits as well. In every store except for the Nike Store, the men's shoe section was at least twice as large as the women's, and often, weren't even labelled "Men's." At Athlete's World and Foot Locker, the shoe categories were Basketball, Leisure, Running, Cross Training, Women's and Kid's. Ridiculous. Not to mention, the only shoes they carried in their minimal "Women's" section were pink, white and baby blue Nike Shox and walking shoes masquerading as athletic footwear. Anyways, that's my rant. I was really looking forward to trying on some of the sick shoes that had been reviewed in this month's issue of Runner's World, but I suppose that will have to wait for either a) me to get to West Broadway or b) store merchandisers to eschew their notions of the athletic goods market composition.

Vancouver: Day 2, Stanley Park Seawall

Today: 13.65km around Stanley Park and Vancouver West End, 1800m swim (3x500m, 3x100m with flipturns)

Just about to go running, thought I'd post the route for the sake of posting the route--and also because it looks cool on the map since it's surrounded by water.

Vancouver: Day 1, swimming & yoga

Today: 1500m swim + flipturns, 90mins yoga

So who would've thought that it'd be sunny when I got here? The sunlight is so warm and definitely a welcome change from the gloomy snow, ice and clouds of Kingston. I was waiting for the bus this morning after doing some groceries at the mall, and just leaned against the wall with my eyes closed and enjoying the feeling of being warm. I wish I had a camera or something. This more than makes up for the grossness of the Bonsor pool (it's WARM, disgustingly warm actually--makes me wonder if I'm going to get some sort of bizarre bacterial infection).

Just killing some time before catching the bus to do a drop-in yoga class on Commercial Drive (or maybe Metrotown); I haven't been able to go for two weeks due to conflicts, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Hopefully the weather holds up, I'd like to try a long run out at Stanley Park, around the seawall...it'll probably be really windy, but it's not like the wind ever stops blowing in K-town anyways. In any case, enough bitching about people going to Cuba, the Dominican or Florida--I'm getting plenty of sun, and it's perfect weather for running outside too. :)

Happyhappyhappyhappy! Look what the sun does!

Killing time, without remorse

Today: 13.97km, 1500m swim

It's just a little past 8 and I'm killing some time while I wait for a 1:00am bus to take me to Pearson International where I'll catch a flight at 7am to Vancouver.

One of the things that gets me through my run is a nice, substantial and well-worked wad of chewing gum. It's something that started during the summer completely by accident, but it definitely helps to absorb some of the tension in my jaw when I clench my teeth or whatnot. Anyways, I used to be an avid chewer of Dentyne Ice (Shiver), but found Excel (Peppermint) to be a good balance between crunchy outer shell and soft inner chewing material. Imagine my surprise when, earlier this month, I noticed something new on the shelves at the Tuck Shoppe (in the JDUC): Excel Voltage. Intrigued, I bought a pack, and although I was turned off by the relatively strong flavour at first, I've found that it lasts a bit longer than other Excel gum, and also stays softer while I'm pounding the pavement on a cold morning. On Tuesday I tried one of the other flavours, Fuse, which turns out to be a weird cherry flavour reminiscent of Halls or Robitussen DM. Tonight I'll be trying out the Charge and Shock flavours. Shock has an orange foil package--wonder if that means what I think it means.

This morning after my run, I was absolutely famished, probably due to the fact that having run out of reasons to eat real food, I've been eating lots and lots of banana chips. Anyways, heated up half a banana (sliced) with a tablespoon of cottage cheese and some rice krispies. Yummy and kept me awake during a particularly engaging Art History class.

I'm looking forward to going to hot yoga tomorrow; apparently there's a studio about a 15-minute walk from my house. Right now I'm trying to convince my sister over MSN to come along.

Tonight Kingston is covered in a solid sheet of ice: so glad I'm not running in this tomorrow morning!

Ottawa Half-Marathon

Today: 1300m swim plus flipturns
Took it easy today; after passing out cold last night at around 10:30, I figured it'd be a good idea to give it a rest. All registered for the Ottawa Half on May 28...I'll be staying in a hostel that is 1.3km away from the start line according to Google Maps.

Heading home tomorrow night/Friday morning. Not sure how I feel about it yet; all I know for sure right now is that I'm going to get in as much training outdoors as I can while I'm in Vancouver since the weather's so mild. That said, it was a beautiful day today, and I'm regretting not going for a run or something. The snow is gone, gone, GONE! Woohoo!

Happy Valentine's Day and Bonkapotamus

Today: 8.71km, 1300m swim with flipturns

So it's crapentine's day and goshdarnit, I feel pretty crappy. I think I'm starting to bonk...such a weird sensation, the gradual bonk, instead of the brick wall I've hit before, it's just this gradual decline in my energy level and gradual increase in my irritability-ness. Everything seemed like it existed for the sole purpose of pissing me off; I think what tipped me off that it was something wrong with me and not with the universe in general was when I was drinking coffee with Cam and the guys next to me were bothering me because they were sitting with their elbows on newspapers. So tired I wasn't hungry and started crying for no reason. Think I need a nap, real bad. Oh yeah, note to self: don't run IN snow, that is, don't run in a anything more than a few centimeters of snow, it's just not worth the misery.

Running in snow

Today: 13.97km; 2000m swim + flipturns

Fantastic run, even better swim...I'm going to sleep really really well tonight. It was interesting running in snow for the first time ever. It slowed me down to a 6:00/km pace, but I suppose that's not too bad considering the degree of slippage I had to put up with on the hill on King Street. Kind of neat how quickly everything changes in the morning: I left my house when it was still dark out and not snowing; it started snowing, got bright, stopped snowing and turned sunny all while I was running.

I think I've figured out the secret to the first part of a flipturn: it's not the forceful kind of bend that I had been doing before...after watching people for the past few weeks, it almost looks like they just kind of fall forward. Just need to get the timing right though.

Recovery blahblahblah

Today: 1500m swim

So, day after first race in a while and I don't feel too shabby. It's so tempting to lapse back into slug-mode, but I really want to keep up this training while I'm still in a groove. Run tomorrow, so going to bed early tonight.

Top of the middle!

Today: Race day!

Don't really feel like blogging about it, but I might as well put something. Finished 12 overall, rookies and vets together.

Swim: 30 lengths
Bike: 5.41 miles
Run: 24.5 laps

4th place rookie from Queen's, 2nd fastest rookie run time! Woohoooooooooo!!!!!

I really really need a drink or something.

1 Day - Tapering

Today: 500m swim, 10min bike, 10 min run

Got up for 6:45am this morning and got ready to practice transitioning from swim-bike-run. The whole thing went pretty smoothly: ran out of the changeroom and into the pool, swam 500m. Climbed out and threw on my new triathlon top, shorts, shoes and ran to the cardio room. Pedaling the grannybike's a little weird after riding my own bike/spin bikes for over a year now, but other than that, the bike/run parts were pretty unremarkable. I'm pretty pooped right now, but I'll have the rest of the day and tomorrow morning to rest.

Getting a little nervous, but Cam, Calvin and Alvin have been so incredibly encouraging, and that along with improving my swimming over the past month makes me feel quite a bit better. Well, we'll see. All packed, and munching on nanerchips before we take off for the T-dot. I suppose I should aim to get to bed by 11:30, maybe do some stretching beforehand. Haha, it's kinda funny how much I'm looking forward to having a bagel for breakfast tomorrow.

Chickpea Balls

Yep, I cut 'em right off the chickpeas, no anaesthetic.

Chickpea Balls

1 19oz can of chickpeas, almost completely drained
1/4 cup of crumbled herb tofu
1/4 white onion, diced
handful of cilantro, finely shredded
1 Tbsp Tahini
1 large eggwhite, beaten
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup breadcrumbs plus extra
olive oil

Tziki (sp?)
Slices of tomato

Empty chickpeas into a bowl and mash with a fork, spoon or potato masher until pasty, add in tofu, onion and cilantro and salt and mash, mash, mash.
Stir in tahini--make sure you stir it in the jar, and get all the gunk at the bottom of the jar.
Stir in the eggwhite and mash everything around again.
Add in the breadcrumbs gradually until the mixture starts to feel stiff, kinda like hamburger meat when it's ready to get shaped into patties.

Heat up a pan (medium-high heat) and splash some oil in the bottom, swirl around. Taking a tablespoon or a tablespoon and a half at a time, form rough balls (no point in rolling them between your palms, you'll just get dirty hands) and drop them in the hot pan. Swirl the oil around so that they sizzle and roll the balls around so they brown evenly on all sides. Makes about 20 balls...good leftovers!

I served this with tziki and slices of tomato and a small spinach salad...apparently it's a Renee-sized meal and needs a bit more to be really substantial (aside from eating a ridiculous number of chickpea balls). Mmmmm, the cilantro really does it!

2 days -- Golden Cockroach Day

Today: 7km run, 1500m swim

Got up at 6:30 and waited for the sun to rise a bit before going running...did the ol'
J-loop; haven't run that route since October! Anyways, now I'm suffering from minor frostbite that probably wasn't helped by wearing thin black dresspants all day.

The Golden Cockroach press conference went off with a only a few minor complications, such as the double-booked lower ceilidh...but in the end, the JDUC was packed and it seemd like Rabs and Keecher enjoyed their 15 respective minutes of fame. Don't know what I'd do without the Sheevs-meister and his big GMC Jimmy.

Managed to get downtown to buy a pair of tight spandexy shorts and a waterbottle before hitting the pool for an easy 1500m (2x600m and 3x100m), no flipturns. Can't wait to get home and make some chickpea burgers...I'm thinking of modifying the recipe somewhat, so we'll see how they turn out.

3 days and I've definitely hit work-out depression

Today: 1800m swim, 1.5 hours spinning

Incredible, incredible swim today! I think it really makes a difference if it's the first thing I do that day...was more than a little worried that I wouldn't be able to make it swimming today, considering how late I needed to sleep in. Anyways, it was an effortless 3x500m and 3x100m with 10 mins of flipturns afterwards.

Had my first spin class with Kelvin/Calvin, the legendary hardcore spin instructor/cyclist. Not suprisingly, I can see why people like his class...pretty ridiculous, but very motivational, haha. "Get off your bike! You wrecked! Get off!" Yeah, that was fun...but not exactly what I'd like to do before going back to work to hang up posters the day before the Golden Cockroach press conference.

Had a short chat with Lesley Liu in the hallway outside the office...it's the last day of voting and the scrutineers are upstairs counting ballots. In a few hours, we'll have a new AMS exec! My fingers are crossed for the underdogs. Anyways, I'm definitely hitting workout depression. I can't wait for Friday when I can just relax and not think about squishing in two workouts during the course of the day...tomorrow's going to be a bit tricky since I have an 8:30, and then afterwards I have to make sure the GC shiz goes down without a hitch.

Time for beddybyes.

4 days, and my knees hurt

Today: 40min spin, 1500m swim

So I managed to do it: got up at 6:30 and started spinning at 6:55 outside on my porch...it's a bit slanty, so after a few minutes I moved the setup on to the walkway, but still off the sidewalk. It was nice watching the sun rise and having the garbage collection guy ask me if I was getting anywhere. A chick on the tri team walked by and she probably thinks that I'm either a) nuts or b) pretentious as hell. Whatever, I didn't want to wake up the rest of the house pandering to my selfish athletic endeavours.

Swimming was pretty unremarkable, working on flipturns, but I don't think I'm doing 'em right...somehow, I don't think they should be as violent or splashy as I'm making them.

Stuff's starting to get rather hectic with the Golden Cockroach shizz...so far it seems to be going on track, but we'll see...not looking forward to the last-minute complications that are bound to happen. Also not too enthused about postering--blah.

Time to play some Super Mario World (badly).

5 days to Hart House

Today: 8.7K, 1500m swim

OK, so just need to stick with it for a few more days. Quite happy with my swim, finally have the limp-noodle thing down. On the other hand, I'm getting the sense that there are quite a few people getting fed up with me leaving in the middle of the day to swim/work-out...so not only am I hating what I'm going, people hate me for doing something I'd rather not be doing in the first place. Bah!

Let's see if I'll actually do what I'm planning to do tomorrow morning.

The early bird gets...sore knees

Today: 13.92km (about 0:05:00/km) and 1500m swimming

So I woke up this morning at about 5:45am and drank a cup of hot chocolate hoping it would put me to sleep--to no avail. According to my handydandy Mac Dashboard weather widget, it was about 4 degrees, so I decided to go for a run.

I don't think I've ever fully expressed the true depth of my love for Sue and Paul's Gmap Pedometer. Paul is training for a marathon and uses something akin to a Google Map to plot out routes. Double-click on a point on the map to record a point and each turn you make, plot another point. It measures the distance in metric or imperial measures and also plots an elevation profile (although I have yet to determine how accurate it is).

Anyways, at 6am, I plotted out a tentative 11km route, but once I got out to Portsmouth Village, I decided to scrap the whole plan and just see how far I could (reasonably) go without hurting myself and also given the incredibly windy conditions. So I found myself running up past Saint Lawrence College and out to Bath Road instead of turning right at Portsmouth Ave. and then right again at Johnson. Here's the actual route map. For the last Johnson-King-Barrie loop, I had a fellow runner on my tail--for some reason I was feeling particularly competitive and sprinted past him/her farther up on Johnson, but had to keep a pretty painful pace to stay ahead. Oh well, it's like practice for next week I suppose.

Note about the routes: at the end of both, there is one more short 2k loop that goes down Johnson to King, right at King to Barrie, right at Barrie to Earl. I think that shallow hill on Barrie is the most painful part of the whole thing. :)

On Again, Off Again

Today: 1.5 hours spinning, 1400m swim (4x200m, 6x100m; about 1:50/100m)

Like a fairweather friend--or maybe just a bad one--I find myself returning to The Blog a week before my next race. Swimming for at least a half hour every day (with about 5 days off in total) since January 9, I'm feeling a bit better about my stroke and also going significantly faster than I had been. I always say this, but I'll say it again: it never ceases to amaze me how much my performance hinges on visualization and mental focus. Timing my strokes in the water to take advantage of momentum instead of fighting against it has made it painfully obvious how much I depend on visualizing myself swimming quickly--nuts eh?

Hart House triathlon coming up on February 11: 15 min swim/15 min bike/15 min run...shouldn't be too challenging, except maybe the bike part and making sure I squeeze in at least 750m during the swim. I'll be working on sprint sets this week in the hopes that I may be able to push it during the last few minutes of the swim.

As for running, a new PB: 14km in 1:10 (or thereabouts). That night, my legs were sore down into the bone...it's a good feeling.

Otherwise, things are going great. Mailed my grad applications to York and Concordia, checking the status of my application several times a day. Job's wrapping up and with AMS elections underway, I'm starting to get that familiar winding-down feeling. The finality of everything I'm experiencing right now hits me in waves mostly; it's not that I ever forget that this is the last time I'll get to see things like AMS elections or QMP or Charity Ball, it just takes a while for it to sink in.

I suppose in some ways, things are going too well, and I've gotten too comfortable......which inevitably leads to an emotional low due to the several pounds I usually pack on while I'm happy, which in turn leads to an emotional high due to the intense period of working out that ensues to work off the aforementioned pudge...and so the cycle begins again. Anyways, I think I'm starting to find some balance--I just need to keep this working out twice a day thing. Twice, minimum. To keep me sane.

Pancakes for dinner tonight, but not just any ol' pancakes, 'Naner Oatmeal pancakes with real maple syrup.

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp baking soda
cinnamon
3/4 cup plain yogurt
3/4 milk
2 eggs
0.5 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup melted butter
2-3 overripe bananananananas, smushed

Whisk dry stuff together, whisk wet stuff together, then whisk until just mixed. Fold in butter and bananas until just mixed, then slap 'em on a pan with a little bit of oil! Yum. Real dense, I just needed one.

I'm going to walk home in the rain, wearing my duct-taped shoes and cursing my ball-and-socket joints. 1.5 hour spin and 1400m swimming in one day--not too shabby I don't think. Time for some art history reading, and maybe Java while I wait for Drunky to stumble back to my place, haha.