September Start up

It has been a while since I posted.  I did not take a break from working out but I did take a break from running.  It seems that my fast switch from the run to the bike for the tour challenge aggravated my runners knee. I have been doing heel dips like crazy to strengthen the stabilizing muscles and alleviate the pain.  It seems to be getting better so maybe it is working.

I found out that I have a hard time logging workouts and updating the blog when I am taking an ad hoc attitude towards workouts. This is not a good excuse, it just makes it clearer that I need to have a challenge, a race target, or an achievable goal to motivate myself.  I am still working on that.

I have signed up for sailing lessons for the month of September.  This will put me on the reservoir in one of those dinky little boats for one full day a week for 4 weeks. And I have been looking for a TRX class to figure out if that is a good way to workout, especially on the go.

Mean while I have been researching the 5:2 diet and have given Intermittent Fasting a serious attempt.  There is a significant body of research that indicates this is a great method for improving overall health and longevity as well as losing excess body fat.

For the first time ever I have attempted to embed a Vimeo video below. I HOPE IT Works! This is a BBC documentary that reviews some of the research on the 5:2 (five days normal eating, 2 severely calorie restricted days every week).

 

Eat, Fast and Live Longer - Horizon from Steve Hartman on Vimeo.

I also found this ebook by Dr.  John M. Berardi from Precision Nutrition. This has a really good overview of the concepts and then documents one persons trials with various formats of fasting.

In the end I have chosen to follow a one day ( 24 hours) a week fasting regime.  I stop eating at 10:00 on Saturday night and then consume only water or tea until 10:00 Sunday night.

I have completed 3 weeks of this regime so far.  I am finding it difficult to prepare meals for the family while not eating myself but overall it seems that the body adjusts to the hungry feeling and it goes in waves.  I find that drinking a hot beverage really helps with those hunger pangs.

I can not comment on the effectiveness in terms of health or longevity impacts. I have noticed a significant loosening in my trousers and figure I have lost in between 7 & 10 pounds in the three weeks.  Part of this is due to a change in what I have been eating on top of the fasting.

Not much else to report. I will return to more regular blogging.

Plod On.

Two Wheel Tuesday

It was still a little chilly today (19 C, 65F) but a beautiful sunny day. A perfect day for a run or in my case a ride.

I started my ride as twilight was approaching and it was starting to cool off. I stopped about halfway through the ride to take some pictures. The light was golden and the shadows were long making for some stark pictures.

This is looking towards downtown over the Mount Royal University sports fields.

This is Glenmore trail looking east.

For my ride I started riding west with a plan and then switched to another plan and then switched to yet another plan.  Eventually I ended up riding almost straight south and back on a relatively flat route.

I don’t know if I am weak as a rider but I do not seem to get the same aerobic workout riding as I do running. When I run I feel it in my throat, lungs and legs at the same intensity, when I ride I feel it in my legs and do not seem to be able to stress my lungs as much. maybe this will change as I ride more.

It was a good ride 15 km in 40:30 on a great night.

Plod On.

Stopping Sunday

This is the last day of all the challenges.  First there was the Streak to the Beach from April 1 – July 1, then the Runner’s World Summer Streak from Memorial Day to Independence Day, and finally the “Le Tour Challenge” From June 30 to July 21. I guess it is time to pause and reconsider the next challenge, maybe pick a race and start training for it. Any Suggestions?

Today was another perfect summers day. The temperatures were in the mid 20’s, sunny with a slight breeze.  Does it get any better.  I did start to cloud over at supper time, but that is OK. It waited until after our late afternoon stroll down the newly uncovered gravel bars beachcombing for lost treasure, and our trip to Peter’s Drive in for a very fattening dinner.

This is a view from the yacht club looking back towards the bluff that I took the pictures from on Wednesday.

And just a picture of the boats on the hard.

The route I chose for today’s long ride shared a lot of the route from Wednesday’s ride but when I hit the reservoir I turned right instead of left and rode the south side of the lake. At the end of the ride I instead of taking a direct route home I extended and headed towards downtown on the river pathways

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It was quite the ride navigating around (sometimes through)  the closed pathways that were either totally or partially washed out from the flood.  There was a lot of devastation.

It was the longest ride I have done this year and it ended on a very steep uphill climb on fairly tired legs. Not the best planning on my part. (My legs are feeling it tonight.)

My Stage 21 ride was 38.5 km in 1:49:11 to end my “Le Tour Challenge”.

I have been doing a daily challenge since April. I’m done. Now what?

Plod On.

Slacker Saturday

Today was a fun day, the full first day together as a family since my daughter went to her “sleepover” camp last week.  So what did we do? We spent the morning at a local amusement park enjoying the sun and mind spinning rides.

Well the kids had fun anyway, until round 2 of the bumper cars when one got hit too hard and tears ensued.

Right about supper time I headed out for a ride.  The plan was to go about 10 km at a moderate pace.  I think I might be a little too competitive for that, when map my run starts giving me split paces I start speeding up!

Tomorrow is the last day of the tour.  There were some big moves today in the fight for second place and a very exciting finish.  My Stage 20 Le Tour Challenge ride was 10.3 km in 28:15.

Plod On.

Trying Thursday

Another perfect day in paradise, temps in the mid 70’s, sunny. Can’t get any better.  My legs were tired from the ride yesterday and I was feeling  it in every step.

My plan was to do an easy ride minimizing the hills and keeping flat as much as possible.  That meant a north / south route.

I encountered a significant obstacle in the early part of the ride.  There was a house in the center of the street blocking both sidewalks. This was kind of a surprise, they were getting ready to move the house and had it trailered up and moved into the street. The real move must have been set to happen in the dead of night.

I rode 12.5 km in 35:58 on my ride for Stage 18 of Le Tour Challenge.

Only three more days left in the tour.

Plod on.

Wet Wednesday

I thought it was a perfect day for a ride today, slightly cloudy and 20 C (70 F) with not much wind. So I decided to saddle up at lunch time and get my ride in before it got hot.

It sounded like a good plan but little did I know that the rains would start about 20 minutes into the ride and continue for most of the remainder.  I was soaked by the time I got back, and my legs looked well tanned until I had my shower and the mud washed off.

The route that I decided started on a gradual downhill that ran south to the reservoir then along the reservoir followed by a hard ride up the hill and home.

I used the panorama feature on the iPhone to capture the headwaters where the Elbow river flows into the reservoir.

This is a picture of the right hand side of the panorama in regular mode.

Quite the difference eh?

This is a look across the water to the sailing school that my son is attending for the next 3.5 weeks.  I don’t think his boat is out there.

It is really one big boat 22’ Catalina and the small boats I think are Opti’s.

My lunchtime ride in the rain was my Stage 17 of Le Tour Challenge (only 13 km shorter today). I rode 24 km in 1:08:40.

Longest ride of this year and my legs are letting me know it.

Plod on.

Twilight Tuesday

It was perfect weather today, the sun was shining, the temperatures were in the mid 20’s and there was no wind. Perfect tanning weather.

We took the dog down to the river for a swim tonight and witnessed first hand how the main channel was changed in the flood. We walked down a gravel bar that was not there a month ago and beachcombed the debris looking for treasures unearthed by the raging waters. Side note there were a lot of shovels.

The sun was setting when we got home. I climbed on my bike and did my Stage 16 of Le Tour Challenge albeit mine was 160 km shorter than The Tour. I rode 8 km in 23:16. 

An easy ride but I kept my tour streak alive.

Plod on.

Testy Tuesday

It was a beautiful day today, sunny not a cloud in the sky, temperatures approaching 26 C. A perfect day.  I put on my cowboy duds to show my stampede spirit and drove the kids to camp. 

Somewhere on the drive I got this great idea that I should stand in the river in my shit kickers then let the leather dry while I was wearing them. I would end up with great fitting boots and say goodbye to sore feet.  So that is what I did.

It was not such a bright idea.  I was impressed that the  boots were close to waterproof  and my feet did not get really wet immediately.  The leather did seem to stretch but it was not fun walking around with wettish feet all day and I did get a blister on my heel.

I decided that running with the blister might not be the best plan so just before dinner I decided to go on a longer ride.  I chose a route I have thought about doing but have never done. It gave a different view of downtown.

There was a stage of the tour today and for stage 10 of the “letour challenge” I rode 17.1 km in 52:24 minutes. It was an interesting route, the first 5 km were into a strong headwind (not fun), then a km in single lane construction, then some pretty steep uphill sections and finally home.

An interesting day.

Plod On.

Stoic Sunday

Saturday was another rest day from running. It is amazing how easy it is to fall out of the habit once the goal is achieved. There was a stage of the tour so there was day 8 of “le tour challenge”. I rode 15.25 km in 47:32 minutes. It was an interesting ride and on a quiet route that was thick with traffic due to an unexpected road closure.

This morning I got up a little early and headed out the door for my run.  I ran part of the route that I biked on Saturday then did some creative zig zagging to get home.

 

There is a significant uphill (50 m) and a major intersection to cross, I spent 3 minutes waiting for lights.  I took it easy and tried to pace myself for the entire run. I ended up running 6.7 miles in 1:00:23 including stoppages for lights so not a bad slow run on a new route.

I missed watching Stage 9 of le tour this morning, but that did not stop me from an easy ride for day 9 of  “le tour challenge”. I rode 7.75 km in 25:12 minutes. This was an easy ride at well off my normal pace. My legs are feeling the cumulative impacts due to going from not riding at all to riding every day. I also cajoled my son into a ride and he does not ride as fast as me.

An easy couple of days with a mix of workouts.

Plod On

Finicky Friday

With no running challenges I took a rest day from running. It was a little weird not having to think about when or where I wanted to run or what kind of effort it should be or how far …

I’m going to have to give some serious to the running schedule I want to keep for the next few months.  I may cut back on the frequency of the runs and up the distances.  Who knows.

Today the Calgary Stampede kicked off with the parade through downtown and the opening of the rodeo and Stampede Grounds. I did not go to the grounds instead headed off to see my daughter perform in a mini version of the musical nunsense.  It was fabulous.

Over the dinner hour the thunderstorms moved in and we were hammered by rain.

This rain barrel sits under the downspout from on gutter on the house and it filled to overflowing with water in less than 10 minutes. The storm continued for almost an hour.  The TV was reporting flash floods and closed roads again.  But it did clear off enough for me to get on the bike later in the evening. 

It was stage 7 of the tour this morning and hence day 7 of “le tour challenge”. I rode 12 km in 32:14 minutes at 9:30 PM. It was cool enough that I wore a jacket and the roads were still slick from the rain. 

An rest day with a cross training workout.

Plod On