Saturday, March 19, 2011

GRANT-A-LOPE

I've just started my photography course at Mount Royal - 2 of 8 classes completed. I felt I needed a different mind set from all of my gym activity.

So.... each week the instructor gives the class an assignment - this week is "motion". Since I know Grant is a phenomenal runner, I asked him if I could take his photo while he's on the treadmill. He said yes, so here it is - Grant at 14 km/h at various aperture and shutter speeds, with the focal length (42mm) and ISO (3200) constant. See photos here. I think I know how to make people disappear......

Happy training, Ciao Cindy

(I was this close to getting outside on my mountain bike this week)

Friday, March 4, 2011

More Lessons Learned....

Still in the "middle" of training, but getting closer to race season!
It's also time to sign up for a new set of "spring" (I use that term loosely these days) classes with the Talisman Tri Club.

So....
I learned that being a "class junkie" isn't always the best way to train. I was so excited about the swim/run class Grant was coaching that I felt I needed to do both sessions, in addition to my bike classes (2) and the workouts I do on my own. What was I thinking?
It lead to: Sat - intense bike, Sun - long run, Mon - another intense bike, Tues - swim/run, Wed - my own workout, Thur - swim/run, and Fri - total exhaustion.

Having 5-6 workouts in a week is not uncommon and I've done that in the past with comprehensive coaching packages through the ETS program at the Talisman. My error this last semester was the intensity of the workouts in the coached classes that I signed up for. It was overkill, of my own doing. I didn't have much balance, just a lot of really intense workouts that left me burnt out. This isn't good either as it's hard on this old body, and I've missed a few of my coached workouts. I'm disappointed in myself for not training smarter.

I'm going to try to have a more balanced workout schedule this next semester. I'm still going to do 2 bike classes (Tri Club Sat and ETS Tues) b/c I don't have a trainer at home and I love these classes. I'm only going to sign up for 1 run/swim class and that leaves me with time to complete a brick on my own and try to get in 2 other swims as well as a long run, tempo run.

I'm enjoying Grant's swim/run classes this semester. I feel my running is really improving and I don't do the "fat girl shuffle" so much any more (at least not until I'm tired). It sounds odd to me that I need to "learn to run", but there really is a lot to learn and Grant has been a great coach and helped me improve. Thanks Grant. I even had another person at the gym give me a compliment on how much my running has improved since I started walking on the track in 2005. This person and I deduced we had been members about the same amount of time, although she took the year off with the roof replacement. I think her compliment about made my year!

In regard to balance, I've got my photography class starting next week. I'm looking forward to that too. The other thing I've been spending too much time on is following several blogs by people that are doing the Tour d'Afrique bike race/ride from Cairo to Cape Town over 4 months. It looks amazing and hard. I want to sell my condo tomorrow and do something like this....

Ok happy training & cheers, Cindy


(PS - I have now downloaded enough songs on my iPod nano to last a whole bike class, but I think most of them were too slow... Then as they're playing I kept thinking - Oh, I really like this song, then I remembered I picked it.)