What Kind of bike should YOU buy?

I dont need any more bikes. Lorrie would kill me if I bought more bikes so this is for those of you who arent sure what kind of ride to get. Summer is almost here. Do you have your self powered road machine? What kind of bike should I buy is a seminar to answer all your questions about what kind of bike you may want. There are so many different bikes out there you may not know where to start. Register in advance for Tuesday April 5th @ 6pm and come see the experts form Bikes & Beyond at the Wellness Institute. $5.00 Its a great way to check out some of the new gear and learn a bit about whats out there in the way of bikes! Hope to see some of you out there. Paul

SUPER HUMAN

I am feeling SUPER HUMAN... Training is going well. I have not yet been outside on my bike so this weekend I will not be sitting in the basement for 6hrs on the trainer. I will be out at Birds Hill park on MY BIKE! I will take to Madone out to see the road.

I was out yesterday doing my long run. Lorrie is injured and has to BIKE ONLY says the doctor and physio so she wanted to get on her cyclo cross bike and burn up the pavement while I was pounding it.

My run started from home as I left the house I said to Lorrie "when you are done getting ready give me a call and pick me up and we can go to the park together. I got further than I thought by the time she called and made my way down main st, over redwood, down Henderson/Assinaboine Dr. down Old Prichard Farm Rd, and that's where she got me. Once we entered the park I was dropped off at the gates to continue my run. I got to the east side of the park and ran the hills 4 times each. I was feeling great so I started running back towards the car (parked at chickadee) I passed the car and saw Lorrie heading back to it. I asked her if she was done and leaving and if so to pick me up on the way out of the park I had a mile to go! She said sure. Well I said a mile and she heard a while! So as I ran to the park exit the miles passed and so did time. I made it over the 59 overpass and started running down 59 and back to town. I thought wow this has been a while so I called her... No answer. 1 mile later I called again... No answer. By this time I was getting cold. The sun was almost down and I had no head lamp. Finlay Lorrie called and said "where are you" I said "at Garvin rd." I asked what happened to her and she said "You said you still wanted to run a while so I went to the stables to use the washroom and stretch". Total distance was 20.5 miles. I only wanted to do 15 yesterday...

Today I felt great. Not sore, not too tired but all I had to do was my swim tonight. 45 min in both hamstrings cramped up and I couldn't move. If you have had cramps before you know that you can be paralyzed by this. Well I sank to the bottom of the pool and two 10 year old boys saved me. I was happy to see them until one of them said "you know you really shouldn't be swimming in the deep end alone if you aren't experienced" I thought you little bastard... I said it was a cramp in both legs and I couldn't move. I dint think they believed me.

After that the lifeguard asked me if I was OK. I said yes just a cramp so I tried to continue the swim... The left leg went and I grabbed on to the lane rope so I didn't have to have the 10 year old's rescue me again. After that I got out of the pool and said that's it.... Home to drink loads of water and get to bed.

38 days left... What more fun can be ahead of me?

I hope your training is going well and has no cramps involved.

Paul

Quote #1

Well there have been days that you feel on top of the world and your workouts are AMAZING. They come to and end and you feel like you can keep going, and going, and going... Other days you feel like there is nothing in the tank. Sometimes you cant even keep your eyes open and you think that sitting on the couch will make you feel better. Once you are sitting you still feel out of it, you still feel tired, and that little voice says "you should have done something; I'm sure you would have felt better by now".

Nine times out of ten I find this happens. After 10-12 hrs of training others its hard to force yourself to get on a bike or hammer out a tempo run but when you get changed, have that pre-workout snack, and throw on that Ironman video or your latest ipod playlist something kicks in. Once you get going most times you think "Wow this feels great " or "I'm glad I did this".

You will always feel better after getting up and being active and if for some reason it feels terrible then at least you tried and that couch is still there.

I am always thinking about quotes and things to keep me motivated so I have decided to post some on here in hopes of having you remember one of them when you are having one of those days that make you want to sit on the bench.

Today's workout was a 1hr bike (tempo) and 20 min on the TRX full body with a focus on core.

Have a great day and happy training.

"Some times the hardest part about getting your run in is lacing up your shoes".

Paul Dyck

Photo from: CP stationary bike race @ The Wellness (The Warriors of Wellness came in 1st place and beat the second and third place teams by over 80km's) Motivational writings for me from the Jekat's placed on my aerobars to "inspire me". Thank You

54 Days to race day

Holey S#!% only 54 days left until race day. I have one month of long training days left and 3 weeks of taper following that. the final week before race day will be spent out in St George Utah checking out the course, getting in a few workouts, checking over all my gear, and making sure I am relaxed and ready to go. I tend to stay relaxed before events so I hope I can maintain this ability this time around. Lorrie and I will be driving out the end of April and taking 2-3 days to get out there. We plan on bringing out our mountain bikes for after the race. I hear there is AWESOME mountain biking out there.


Is training on track? Well if I said it was 100% on track I would be ling to myself. Am I OK with that... Of course I am. I have to be. Is it the end of the world? NO! I took 3 days off last week with hopes of recovering and feeling like I had more energy. After the 3 days off I felt like I wanted to get back to working out. I didn't pick up where I left off otherwise I would be back to being burnt out, run down, and tired.

I got back into my workouts by doing some shorter rides and runs and a good swim. Yes I was still beat afterwards but felt good overall and still wanted more at the end of the workout (except for the Tribalistic workout on Sunday).

For my workouts back I started with...

Thursday 45 min on the bike with 5 min tempo 2 min recovery x6 followed by a 15 min transition run on the treadmill.

Friday was another bike 1 hr of Tempo, Threshold, and some Vo2 sets (felt good and strong) followed that up with a 45 min full body strength training session

Saturday morning was a 3km swim at North End Centennial pool (1st time in a 50m pool since... Not sure) Followed by a 1.5hr ride @ home on the trainer followed by 25 min of pain in the CP bike race (Avg HR was 178 Max 192) This was it and I was cooked at the end of the day.

Sunday was Tribalistic's indoor Brick workout without the brick! 2hrs on the bike with some tempo, Vo2, Standing, and sprints... Oh what fun! I was ready to quit 25 min before the end of the workout. I felt run down and beat again so i just finished off at the back of the pack.

I feel rested and like I could do something today but Monday is a scheduled rest day and I am going to leave it like that!

Keep Training

Paul

Motivation

Its always good to see a video that makes you want more from yourself!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5Kn77T54GI&feature=player_embedded

Feeling Like Aluminum

Well sometimes you feel like you are on top of the world. Training is on track, recovery is great, you feel like you can just keep going, and going, and going... This week is not one of those weeks.

I have noticed for the past week and a bit workouts are forced and even though some of them turn out great others turn out less than good. Now I knew that training for an Ironman on May 7th would be hard to do indoors. I didn't realize that it would be this hard. I have not been out on my bike (outdoors) since October 2010, my long runs have been outside in -30 - -40c all of my swims have been in a 25m pool, and all of my rides have been on an indoor trainer (up to 6hrs).

All of this is beginning to take its toll on the mind and the body and we are only 62days out from race day! the last 3 weeks of the plan are a taper so I have 5 weeks of hard training left to go before I can back off and regenerate.

This sport awards consistency. If you are consistent and you stay focused you will succeed. For those that are all over the place with their training or are what I call "weekend warriors". Im sure you know a few. Those are the people who train hard and all out on the weekend or enter a race on NO training and have to recover for a week (and thats only for the ones who dont hurt themselves in the event). THEY WILL HURT!

I train consistently and focus on recovery as much as possible. Some techniques include

1. Eating before and after a workout so I am not running on empty

2. Taking a full rest day once a week

3. Backing off when I feel run down or breaking up the workout into 2 manageable workouts

4. Backing off training volume every 3 weeks to allow the body to recover (you get stronger and faster when you recover as long as you stress you body enough during training)

5. Mixing up workouts so you don't run yourself into the ground. Less pounding on the body means quicker recovery.

6. Getting in naps or the sleep I need... Well this one suffers the most. I know I should be getting to bed earlier especially since I am up @ 5am 5 days a week. Going to bed @ 11 is not good for recovery. This is my one downfall.

Am I worried about a loss of fitness with the 3-5 days I am taking off? NO! The body doesnt turn to goo when you take a few rest days. You may feel lazy because you are used to working out almost every day. This is my second day off and I am already starting to miss it so thats a good thing. Its a good thing I have an unfinished bathroom to work on (two of them if you must know).

Speaking of bathrooms I will go work on the basement now. Im sure that will make Lorrie happy.

Recovery day 2 almost over... Still feeling tired but looking forward to a good rest tonight!

Paul