Training begins...

After the 2009 race season there was a nice break before the Ironman training would begin. Awwww, two weeks later it began...lol! Between October and January I maintained my fitness level by swimming 2 days per week, cycling 3 days per week, and running 3 days per week. The idea is to build on your distance gradually and allow time for recovery. I am following a schedule through the Toronto Triathlon Club that builds on distance for three weeks followed by a recovery week. In the Fall I purchased a trainer so that I could cycle indoors through the winter. The contraption fastens to the back of my bike so that it is stationary while having the benefits of riding your own bike indoors. How nice not to worry about the weather conditions and hop on my bike in the comfort of my own living room! As a very essential training tool I watched episodes of Sex and the City to pass the time. After many hours of cycling and watching 94 episodes, as well as, the movie I am unfortunately no closer to understanding the male gender. Now I have moved onto other movies and TV series, I'm hooked on Dexter currently so if anyone has beyond season 2 I would like to borrow, pretty please? Thanks Dave lending me all your DVD's!

By the new year in January 2010 everything became a strategy! Mornings are consumed with training and preparing meals for the day. The night before has been all about packing for the upcoming day. Sometimes I get tired just thinking about, now it is like second nature. Schedules, schedules, and more schedules! One morning I was BBQ'ing at 7:30 am so that I had a nice hearty lunch for the day and a dinner packed for swim that night. Eating has become an event in itself trying to ingest the appropriate amount of carbs or the proper amount of protein and when it is most effective to eat it. Each day I set off with a bag of groceries to fuel me for the day with snacks and meals. The bonus part of training sooo much is that you get to eat every 2 hours and the food is endless....glorious!

The newest addition to my racing passion is a carbon fiber Kuota K-Factor tri bike nicknamed after the profession and very skilled cyclist Mario Cipollini. We call him Chip for short. Given my track record of being accident prone I am certain that this will be a well suited name.


The winter training has been much better than I expected. With the mild weather conditions and lack of snow the outdoor running has been spectacular. Swimming has been consistant from a great coach that constantly encourages strength and technique. I have been able to bank hours on the bike in my living room during the week. Our long rides on Saturdays have been at a very top secret location in Toronto that I am unable to disclose...lol! The cycling group are amazing and extremely motivating with an unfortunate lack of skill in selecting movies. The first part of our workouts usually begin with watching some sort of movie that did not make it into any top listing for theatres and are based on corny humour or some mission to destroy the world with zombies. After the joy of watching something like "Black Dynamite" we continue the remainder of the workout on a simulated course in different zones.

Our training has slowly increased from around 9 hours per week to now doing 14 hours per week and it will only go up....YIKES!!! Overall feeling fit and great!