Only in Amsterdam

Great interview with Simon.

SQW Interview

Treadmills, Trainers and lots of Snow

Well this weekend wasn't too much fun training wise.

We got a ton of snow over the weekend. To stay on top of the white stuff I had to shoveled in bursts to try and limit the effect on my back and arms. I think I ended up heading out to shovel 3 or 4 times and picked the shovel up on my way out to do other things a few times to stay on top of it.

There was still too much snow on the roads to run outside on Sunday so I headed to the gym to try and get my long run it. I was a little nervous about how 90min on the tready would go. The first 30min wasn't too bad but then the boredom set in. It was one of those session where you are checking your watch every 90 sec. Yikes! I got through it though.

Monday didn't bring any relief from the boredom of indoor training. Monday nights workout was 120min on the trainer. I used the old Action Flic trick to get through this one. I rented Shooter figuring it wouldn't have to much of a plot since it starred Mark Walberg. I have to say thank you to Mark since it got me through the 2 hours with little difficulty. Nice to have the 2hour session firmly in hand before ramping things up.

This is where I have been slacking so this kind of puts me back on track with my New Years goals.

Christmas is only 7 days away. Looking forward to some good eats.

Fitness is building

Walking from the pool to work the other morning I realised that my fitness is building.
It is always hard this time a year to have confidence that the training you are doing is enough or appropriate. The key though is to not overreach. You can't go hard all year round and expect to improve and this my friends is not the time for hard.
Right now the focus is consistency always keeping in mind the need to stay healthy. Being off sick for two weeks sets you back four to six. My consistency has been a bit off but I have fought off a couple colds and keep getting a little bit fitter each week. So all in all I am winning the battle.
With all the colds and flu that float around this time a year it is even more important to pay attention to sleep and eating. Working in retail I often feel bombarded with germs. There isn't much I can do to avoid it other than washing my hands regularly. If you can avoid getting sick you increase your chances of staying consistent.

A little update of where I am at with a couple things.

Long continuous swim is at 2000m.
Long Ride is now 2 hours (trainer).
Long Run is now up 84min.

I am more or less on track for my New Years Goals.
Riding has been a bit behind but so long as I can progress from here I will be on track.

Here is something to think about.

Winter is back.

Well it's official! Winter is back!

That white stuff is everywhere. I guess the weather people in all their infinite wisdom are calling for a colder than normal winter this year. What the hell does that mean? I have no idea what normal is anymore. Last year we were still riding outside in December.

Yesterday was the first run in the snow. Em and I headed out after spending quite a few hours purging stuff from our den. Man does it feel good to be organized. Order makes everything seem so much more possible. Oops back to that run. Pace times are out the window now until the footing improves a bit. I think I ended up running around 7min/km. It was nice to be out none the less.

There is an excellent article that Alan Couzens has written on his blog. I recommend checking it out. There is actually a lot of great advise on his site.

Christmas is now only a few weeks away. I am really looking forward to having both our families together again. It will be the first Christmas officially as family. I can't wait for all the good food and good times.

Things are still looking good for hitting the training milestones to start the new year. A little behind on the bike but I should be able to still pull it off.