Where to Mountain Bike

• Smith Creek
• Rose Valley
• Crawford Falls at Myra Bellevue
• Knox Mountain

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There are camping sites at Kentucky-Alleyne Provincial Park, which were all full. There were also day-use parking spots, but all of those were full too. We scored a spot on the main road before the turnoff to Kentucky Lake. Since we weren’t sure what to expect, we thew on our hiking shoes and decided to go have a look around.

Kentucky Lake was the closest off the main highway, and our parking spot. So we walked down toward the water. There is pretty much no beach, so we decided to hike around the lake instead of lounging by the water. You’d definitely want to bring some floating devices like a SUP, floatie, or kayak.

The hike around Kentucky Lake was absolutely stunning, with views of the water the entire time. It’s about a 5km hike around the lake. It’s not technical at all, and the trail is well worn. There were a few spots where people had brought their own chairs, or fishing gear, and enjoying themselves in the water. It was easy to physical distance, and we lucked out with not running into anyone except for a couple near the end of the hike.

There seemed to be 2 main areas to access the water. There were people who set up their stuff like they were at the beach, but it just looked crowded and unsavory. I wanted to dip my legs into the water but it was simply too crowded so we decided to leave. On the way out, we checked out the other lake, Alleyne Lake. It was even more crowded! I snapped a quick picture because I liked the view and how you could see the golden hills in the distance. Both lakes were absolutely stunning, and we’d like to go back to get on the water.

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I love training, and I love racing. There’s magic in putting in the work that nobody sees. The days, the weeks, the months. I was looking forward to putting some very special bibs this year. 2020 was going to be THE year. But just like in racing, we’re all just going to have to deal with adversity and adapt. Because with every struggle, there is growth. My Ironman training continues, but we’ve dialed back the duration. Training is now mostly to keep me healthy, physically, and mentally. And I’ve decided to keep up with my coach because I also like how the training routine and structure to our days.

My perspective for races is that the big day aka race day, it’s really a victory lap. There is so much work involved in getting to race day like balancing schedules, the training itself, staying healthy, and being able to show up to that start line in peak physical condition.. those are all nothing to scoff it. It’s a bit strange now to continue training even though there aren’t any races in the near future. So now we’re pivoting to training for life in general. Movement is medicine. It feels good to sweat, so we’re just going to keep it up. It’s easier to get back into a run if you slow down to a jog, compared to starting from a standstill. So that’s our M.O. for now. We’re going to keep our bodies moving, so when things pick back up again, we are ready.

How are you keeping yourself moving?

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Set up new training goals

Our new training goals were to simply stick to our weekly schedule. Now that we no longer have races to train for, the could technically mean no more weekly training schedules or workouts. But it doesn’t mean we have to stop. We have chosen to stick to our weekly training schedule, but made sure to dial back the intensity and mileage. We have dialed back because we don’t want to be constantly stressing our immune systems with hard workouts all of the time.  

Challenging ourselves with time trials

I wish I had started doing time trials earlier in my racing “career”. This is such a fun way of being able to measure and see a measurable growth in your fitness. Every few weeks in my training rides, I’m asked by my coach to put down 20-minute “best-effort” so I make sure to hustle to try and beat my previous numbers. If I didn’t have these mini-trials/challenges, we’d probably pick something like improving our 5km time or getting a personal best time for a particular workout. 

Variety in our workouts

We are huge fans of the Peloton app and find there is plenty of variety in all the different workouts offered. It’s one place to go to find different workouts with different instructors. It is subscription-based but well worth the money. There are also other apps like Nike Training Club, Adidas Training app that also offer great workouts for free. The Lululemon website has lots of free content like yoga classes.

Use social media and challenges

We are big fans of “badges” and “achievements”, both physical with race medals as well as digital. We mostly use Strava to keep up with different challenges. Justin wears an Apple Watch to keep track of his activity and closes his rings on the daily. If you repeat rides on Peloton, you have the option of racing your previous rides! And you can also aim for personal best via output for different ride durations.  

Just keep swimming…

We have been following this approach since March, and it has kept us moving! We are really excited to see the visible improvements in run times as well as strength gains. We cannot control a lot of what is happening to us, but we can control how we react. Movement and fitness is something we have the ability to take charge of.

We’ve also been extra careful with current and new workouts. RMTs and physios aren’t currently accessible, so we’re making sure to exercise with caution. A few weeks ago, I was doing my usual workout. I must have been feeling pretty good afterward, so I think I may have skipped my post-workout stretches and also slept funny later that night. The combination created some neck pain that lasted a few days, which was really stressful. I did a lot of stretching and had to incorporate a heat pack and Biofreeze for a number of days, and the pain finally went away. But it was a great reminder to be cautious with our workouts.

Thoughts? Let us know below!

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It’s been an interesting week, to say the least, and while things have stopped changing at breakneck speed, we are still evolving by the minute. Here is my latest training recap for Ironman Canada 2020, sans swim workouts. If you missed last week, find that recap here. Not a day passed when I decided to stop going to the pool because of this pandemic, they announced facility closures across the city. My coach gave me bodyweight workouts to substitute for the swim sessions, and nothing has changed with the bike and run sessions. I am still grieving the loss of my June 70.3 race, and I frankly don’t expect Ironman Canada in August to proceed as planned.

SWIM

2 bodyweight sessions in place of the swim sessions. I was given the Oiselle Dirty Dozen workout, as well as another bodyweight workout. The Oiselle Dirty Dozen workout looks innocent enough until you actually do it and then cry inside. My coach had scheduled 45 minutes for the Dirty Dozen workout, which I thought would be plenty of time. I did a quick 5-minute run for a warmup and proceeded to do the workout.

I’m proud to say I did 2 rounds of the entire Dirty Dozen workout. I didn’t realize how many pushups I ended up doing until after the workout. The sheer number of pushups and the fact that I didn’t stretch enough afterward left me in pain for days. The next time I see that workout, I will put aside my ego and just do the best I can. I know I wasn’t maintaining proper form. The second bodyweight workout of the week was much easier, but it had jump squats in it! I love and hate jump squats. They’re hard as hell but build so much leg strength.

BIKE

2 sessions, my weekly heavy intervals session and another 2-hour session with a 20 minute FTP test. I’ve been able to increase my resistance week after week during my heavy intervals session. However, I did notice some knee pain starting to crop up during this last session. I have a feeling I was not activating my glutes enough, and not focussed enough on a 360 smooth pedal stroke. I told my coach about it, and she told me to dial back the resistance for next time.

My 2-hour bike session was a tough one. I decided to ride later in the afternoon at an hour or so after lunch. There was a 20-minute segment calling for “solid race cadence” so I put on a 20-minute Peloton FTP test class for motivation. I like playing it because they split the 20 minutes into 4 sections of 5 minutes. They also give you instructions on when to raise the resistance and move into higher power zones. It was a real struggle in the last 5 minutes, but I made my way through it. I was thrilled to see in TrainingPeaks that I had hit an all-time best for my 20-minute peak power!

RUN

2 sessions, my favorite varying hills session, and a 90-minute long run. I love the shorter run session because it’s basically 30-second intervals at varying inclines. It’s such a quick and snappy workout. The long-run was a bit of a mental struggle. I wasn’t in a great mood to start the day and was dreading the workout. It was an easy one, just plenty of 3-minute intervals at half marathon pace. I ran it a little faster the last time I did the same workout. I decided because I was a little stressed out today, to run it a couple of points slower so that I wouldn’t be taxing my body as much.

Something finally clicked after 2/3 of the intervals and I was finally comfortable in my workout. It was a long time to run and mentally struggle, but it’s days like this that build mental strength. I was listening to an instructor the other day who was telling us that we’re always going to be physically capable, it’s the mind that requires training. I wholeheartedly agree, so I just kept repeating positive mantras to myself. “Make this your best effort yet” is one of my latest favorite mantras.

Overall Thoughts

This latest Ironman training recap thing might be one of the last few that I will get to do! Races in June are getting canceled. At the time of writing this blog post, we haven’t hit the peak of the pandemic, and so that leaves a lot of uncertainty as to what the summer will look like. I am bracing myself for Ironman Canada to be canceled. I don’t see it getting rescheduled to a later date in 2020. There is a lot of work that goes into a race of that magnitude, and given the size of the community in Penticton, I just don’t think a postponement is feasible.

My overall optimism on Ironman training and my outlook in this pandemic is wavering a bit today. I need to remind myself that there are so many factors outside of my control, and we’re just doing the best we can at this moment. I am grateful for everything I do have, and everything I get to do still.

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Change into your work clothes

Studies have shown that what you wear affects your psychological processes. Going through the motion of getting ready in the morning and changing out of your pajamas will help you feel like you’re going to work and help you be more productive. Keeping a routine is key to your productivity. Also, should you end up on a video conference call, you won’t be caught in your pajamas.

Create a separate workspace

If you don’t have a spare room to use for an impromptu home office, you probably have a dining table or other flat surface that you can work on. Although it looks glamourous when visualizing it in your head, there isn’t much work you can accomplish sitting the couch or in bed, so I avoid working from there altogether. Couches do offer a nice change of scenery but that depends on the task at hand. It’s best to replicate a work station similar to the one you might have at the office.

Having a dedicated workspace also helps create a distinction between your work and personal time. It’s important to be mindful and create that separation. You have your dedicated work hours in an office– there’s no reason why it should be any different at home.

Schedule everything into your calendar, especially your lunch breaks

Scheduling helps with many things, but it especially helps create a distinction between work and personal time. It will get you up and away from your workspace, and it’ll help you master your schedule too.

Scheduling everything into your calendar helps communicate to your team members where you are or what you’re doing. I’ve always worked at organizations where our calendars are open and visible to anyone at the company. If a colleague wants to book a call with me, they can easily check my calendar.

Natural breaks that happen in the office, like getting up to get a glass of water, going over to chat with a colleague won’t happen, so I find it easiest to schedule these small breaks into the calendar too. It helps to keep a sense of normalcy and routine when working somewhere different.

When you start to schedule everything into your calendar, you begin to master time management. You can start to schedule your priorities, as well as plan for downtime and your personal time. Remember: if you don’t make time, you won’t have time.

Over-communicate and learn to use all your communication channels effectively

When you are using Slack or other instant messaging platforms, don’t leave the recipient hanging with a “hey, you there?” If they respond immediately, great! If they don’t, type out your whole message for them to review and get back to you. Share as much information as you can, and try to think of any follow-up questions they may have for you, and leave that too.

If the text conversation is not getting you the answer you need, hop on a video conference call. It will save you so much time. For difficult conversations, video conference calls are a must. Text will not give you the context you need to proceed accordingly.

Regularly schedule video calls with your colleagues and for your meetings. If your organization has video conferencing tools, use them! Further, practice seeing yourself on camera and checking your camera surroundings. A lot of communication is non-verbal, so it helps to turn on that video camera. If you don’t want to look at yourself, minimize the panel that shows your video. Remember, you are still part of that conversation or meeting, and so this is another reason why it’s important to change into your work clothes.

Pro tip: if you get to use Zoom, there is a “Touch Up My Appearance” feature hidden in the menus. You’re welcome.

The purpose of email doesn’t really change if you’re in the office or you are a remote worker. If I can’t reach someone via instant message, I will also send an email to them outlining that I messaged them on Slack and rehash the message. It helps to over-communicate because it makes it easier for the recipient to respond in their preferred channel and ultimately helps you in getting what you need faster.

Explore collaboration tools

I love new technology and finding ways to be able to do my work better, faster, easier. There is no shortage of tools out there today to help individuals and teams collaborate and get work done. In my recent roles, I’ve been able to collaborate with existing tools like chat, email, and apps within Google Drive/Microsoft OneDrive.

I love using Vidyard’s free screen recording tool for asynchronous communication. You can do easy screen recordings, and also include a talking bubble on the bottom left of the screen for personalization. Trello has a free version of their Kaban-style list-making tool. I firmly believe successful collaboration across remote and dispersed teams can be done with the right tools and mindset. There’s so much technology available for free or with trials, why not explore something new?

Eat lunch away from your desk

If you have to work at your dining table this might be tricky, but close your laptop and put your work away while you eat lunch. Multitasking is not in style. You also need to give yourself a mental break from work. This allows you to ultimately come back to your tasks more productive. Try to go for a walk on your lunch break. I don’t participate in 10,000 step challenges, but I know when I’m working in an office versus working remotely, I don’t get nearly enough steps into the day.

Limit distractions

As opposed to working in a shared office space, remote work allows you to eliminate the distractions around you. Turn off the TV and stay away from the fridge. Eliminating distractions or working in an environment of your preference means that you can focus better and get “deep work” done. Deep work is a practice of eliminating distractions, so you can focus better on demanding tasks and produce high-quality work and results. Anything that requires problem-solving or complexity is demanding on your cognitive abilities, and that work is best done without distraction. Try scheduling in some time into your calendar and practice “deep work”.

Practice positive intent

Remember to be kind to one another. Everyone is trying to do the best they can with what they have. We are all operating to the best of our abilities. Practice positive intent and believe that everyone is doing the best they can with what they have. We are all in this together.

Hopefully you found some gems from this list. Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and if you have any tips and tricks to add!

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Given what is happening around the world and in our communities, we saw a lot of race cancellations happen this week. Boston, Ironmans, and many other races got postponed or canceled. I had a sneaking suspicion that postponements/cancellations would be happening for races in May and beyond. So I started to think about how to deal with canceled races and began to temper my expectations with my own calendar. I think because we’ve raced for years now, our mental fortitude has helped. We also have an inclination for positivity and optimism. This post outlines how we’re trying to adapt in these uncertain times with race postponement and cancellations.

When I set up my race calendar for 2020, I was planning on hitting a half marathon personal best at the BMO Vancouver Marathon. It would’ve been perfect because it would have been the 10th anniversary of me running that race. The race means a lot to me for a variety of reasons, so the list goes on. It was my “A” race, and it got canceled this week. My “B” race in June just got canceled too. I’m a little sad about that one since it was further away and serving as my warmup triathlon race to Ironman Canada.

I will work through my feelings and get over it. I think because we’ve raced for years, that has helped with mental fortitude. We’ve trained ourselves to look on the bright side, and remain optimistic in the face of uncertainty. We’ve been forced to adapt when we didn’t want to. We also have had races where things have happened, like severe weather warnings or even threats of the swim leg in a triathlon being canceled at the 11th hour. Things just happen, so these are some things we do to work through it.

“We not me” mentality

This pandemic requires a “we not me” mentality. This is bigger than our races. And don’t get me wrong, I totally see you and the time you spent training, and all the sacrifices you’ve made. However, race postponements and cancellations are beyond your control. Race organizers have a responsibility to ensure the safety of their racers, and they’re looking out for our best interests. They are looking out for us, as we should be looking out for each other.

Acknowledge your emotions

I’ve had a lot of practice with “acknowledging emotions” lately, given that I’ve recently lost my mom to cancer. We are losing our opportunity to race. Acknowledge your feelings and work through the grief. I don’t think it’s cheesy to work through the 5 stages of grief, as it is absolutely fitting for this situation. The Kübler-Ross model is really popular and covers grief and loss through the stages of denial, anger, depression, bargaining, and acceptance. In my experience, my grief and loss process didn’t follow their exact order, but I did experience them all. Lean into your emotions. Just like how we take care of our physical selves, acknowledging our emotions can help with mental health and moving forward.

Adapt

This is why I love racing. Have you ever trained so long and so hard for something, and then come race day, everything goes sideways? Or maybe it was during a training cycle, and things come up that are outside of your control. If it hasn’t happened to you yet, consider yourself very lucky!

I was training for my second marathon. Marathon training cycles are typically 16-20 weeks. There were so many soggy and miserable long runs. I was always a basket case if there was a threat of me missing a key workout, like the 32km/20 mile long runs. Then came race day. I made it to the start line as healthy as I could be. Everything started off without a hitch, and then maybe 10km into the race my stomach started hurting and wouldn’t let up throughout the rest of the race. I was devastated. 30+ km is a long way to run upset about not having the race you planned and trained for.

There are some things in life we cannot control, no matter how hard we plan and try. Sometimes you can see it coming, some times you can’t and will get absolutely blindsided. The only thing we can control is our reaction. Everything that is happening right now is beyond your control. Practice letting it go.

Practice Gratitude

Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.

Oprah Winfrey

When things don’t go my way, I like to think about the things that have gone right. I like to look on the bright side of things and to adopt an attitude for gratitude. What does that look like when dealing with canceled races? I have been thinking about how I’ve been getting much stronger I’ve been getting with all this training. How I’m physically and mentally healthy. How much time I’ll get back into my calendar hehe.

We do have some experience with being trapped indoors for extended periods of time, given that we’ve lived in areas that get inundated with forest fire smoke in the summers. We usually stay inside when the air quality starts to deteriorate. Those experiences have served us well. But like physical fitness, we constantly have to train our mental fitness too. Everything that is happening right now is going to test us, and it’s a lot easier to cope when you flip your outlook and practice gratitude.

What are you doing to cope with your race cancellations? Let me know in the comments.

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My Ironman Canada training sessions went very well this week. We also started to see many race cancellations this week. My “A” race in May was canceled. One of my 2020 goals was to achieve a sub 2 hour personal best at the half marathon distance. More on the race cancellations in an upcoming post. I had a work trip that got canceled, so I was able to complete all my training sessions. If you missed last weeks recap, you can find that here!

Swim

2 swims, one was 2800m and the other at 2500m. 2800m is the furthest I’ve ever swam in one session, and I believe it’s the second time I’ve ever done it! According to Strava, the last time I swam that distance was in 2015. It’s like I don’t even believe it myself that I swam that distance. I felt really good with that 2800m swim. I think it could’ve been due to the good amount of pasta I had eaten the night before. It’s making me think I should be adding more carbs into my diet. Eating a ton of carbs makes me super bloated, but I don’t care about that anymore. I really liked how strong I felt on my swim and I am chalking it up to the carbs.

Bike

2 sessions, heavy intervals and a 2 hour 40 minute ride! Nothing to write about with the heavy intervals ride, only that we added a few more intervals. My 2 hour 40 minute ride was a bit of a workout. We had gone out for dinner the night before. I had also gone out for lunch with a friend. It must have been something I ate that set a bad tone throughout my body for the next day. I woke up with a headache, and my stomach felt off all day. The feelings hadn’t going away by the time I got on the bike for my workout.

I felt fine to be riding my bike and for that amount of time. The mental challenge ended up being trying to reconcile my brain wanting to ride more comfortably and a bit harder, my body wouldn’t have any of it. My legs weren’t turning over as fast as they could, and I generally felt sluggish. I felt breathless for more than half of the ride, which was weird to me. I drank almost 3 bottles of water, and only had a few wine gums.

When I uploaded the numbers into Training Peaks, it let me know I hit some peak performances. That was really surprising to me. I haven’t asked my coach if it’s meaningful to be able to hold higher heart rates over time, but I hit a few of those. Like, x beats per minute over a 90 minute period. I hit a new 90-minute peak for power too, so that was nice to see. All in all, I’m happy to have gotten that ride over with.

Run

2 sessions, a hills intervals run, and a 1 hour 40 minute hilly long run. I’ve been tracking my (treadmill) speeds, and this run was done marginally faster. It’s been really nice to see my run speeds improve. I know we were doing a bunch of work before my last half marathon in October, and with all of this consistency and strength work, I am confident my road running speeds will improve when it’s time to get on the road.

Since my half marathon in May got canceled, we are looking at the Kelowna Wine Half in June, and then Seawheeze in August for our only half marathons and road races. Recently, Justin and I have decided to lay off on so much running. We are loving all of the cycling we have been doing on our Peleton. We’ve learned the hard way of how to stay healthy and strong as runners too, so I’d like to think we know what we are doing. But we’re going to scale back on road running so that we can keep our bodies healthier for longer.

Overall

It is probably going to be a while before my Ironman Canada training recap will include swimming again, considering what is happening around the world and in our community. They haven’t closed down the pools yet, but I let my coach know that I didn’t want to head out for any more swims at our pools for a while. Unfortunately, the lake is still too cold to go swimming in, and thermal wetsuits are really expensive!

Despite the upset on my long ride, I think I should be able to hit a new 90km personal best at a half ironman race. My warmup race for Ironman Canada is a local race in June, but I am not holding my breath on it happening. I’m going to write another post on my feelings about our races being canceled. Other than that, we’re just working on sticking to our training routines as much as we can!

The post Ironman Canada Training Recap – 24 Weeks appeared first on The Lifestyle Of Us.

Swim

2 sessions at 2700m each. I am super proud of this week’s efforts. The first swim took me around 1h 20min to complete, I forgot my Garmin so that’s an estimate. My next swim was much faster, at around 1h 7min. I was resigned to spending just as much time at the pool as my first swim this week and was happy to see how much quicker I was able to get the same distance done. To be fair, I had different workouts for each swim, and really it doesn’t matter how long it takes me during training as we weren’t doing time trials. But considering how swimming is not exactly my forte, it just really pleases me. I’m getting close to swimming the farthest I’ve ever swum in a single session.

Bike

2 sessions, my heavy intervals session, and 2 hour 15 minute long ride. The heavy intervals sessions is now marginally longer, at 1 hour 10 minutes. It’s a nice workout. My long ride was a good one, and similar to last week where we had a “mad effort” segment. It was only 10 minutes vs. the 20-minute segment. I did the best I could and tried to drop some higher efforts at the end. We went to mail a letter the other day, and there were Haribo candies on sale that caught our eye. I had a craving, so we picked up a few packages. I ended snacking on quite a few for my long ride and thought it made for some good fuel.

Run

2 sessions. One Moneghetti session, and one long run session at 2 hours. Moneghetti workouts help build endurance and speed. I enjoy this weekday workout a lot because it feels snappy. It’s a little Fartlek-y in a ladder format, so it feels snappy. This long run consisted of 18 3 minute half marathon pace intervals. My long run is after my long ride, so I thought it was going to be hurtsville.

The long run was surprisingly not terrible! I felt pretty strong throughout my long run, with the exception of my last 2 intervals where it felt like I was developing a side cramp. I didn’t feel thirsty, but I must have been dehydrated. Just like my long ride, I also snacked on some Haribo candies. I ended up doing about 15 minutes of stretching after my run. It felt like my hips and legs really needed it, and I’m glad I did. I don’t think I stretched enough after my long ride, so I made sure to spend some extra time on my hamstrings.

Overall Thoughts

In terms of this Ironman Canada training recap, this felt like another good training week. I was thrilled and proud of how far I am now swimming. I’ve been trying to keep the calories up, as well as keeping up with hydration. Hydration was my focus from last week, and I think I did a decent effort. But I know the night before my long ride, I indulged in a few cocktails and didn’t drink as much water as I could have. It seemed to turn out fine because I was able to put out a pretty good effort. Though I did end up going to bed really early that day. And then I got a little crampy on my long run the next day. It looks like I’ll have to keep working on hydration.

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26 weeks to Ironman Canada. If you missed last week’s Ironman Canada Training Recap, you can find it here. I had a work trip that ended up shortening my longer weekend workouts, as well as gave me 2 rest days for the week. I felt pretty good after traveling all day to get to my destination last week. My hotel had Peloton bikes, so I had the luxury of doing my workouts on one. The treadmills were also high quality, which made for nice running. There was a decently sized lap pool for me to do my swims, but we didn’t bother with any swim workouts while I was away for work.

Swim

Only 1 session. I skipped my second swim, because we had a friend drop into town, and decided to spend the day entertaining her and taking a rest day. Originally, we thought we would take her skiing or cross-country skiing, and that would’ve been my workout for the day. We ended up just hanging out all late morning and afternoon. And after she took off, Justin and I decided to keep it a rest day.

I also got a new swim toy, a new pull buoy from Eney Buoy! I had a 2500m swim and felt pretty good throughout. The Eney Buoy is bigger and floatier and helps keep my legs higher in the water. I’ve also tried to start breathing bilaterally more. My coach said I don’t need to breathe bilaterally, but it is a good skill to have. When I started to pay attention, I realized that I could get more frequent breathes if I did bilateral breathing. So I’m going to try to keep it up for the next few swims and see how it goes. It felt like I was able to swim faster. So we shall see how it all goes. I’m also due to record more videos for my coach to review.

Ride

2 sessions, my weekly heavy intervals session, as well as a long ride. I had a 20-minute race effort close to the end of my 2-hour ride, after a bunch of 5 minute heavier efforts. I wanted some motivation through that segment, so I put on a 20 minute FTP test with Olivia on my phone. The first 10 minutes went by really fast, and so did the next 5. The last 5 became a bit of a mental struggle, but I powered through. I really wanted to see some high numbers for my watts and output. 

I wasn’t sure how hard to push on the 20-minute race effort. After a little bit of mental wrestling, I decided that it would be a waste of time if I didn’t give the 20 minute my true best. That last 5 minutes of the 20-minute effort got ugly. And I told my coach that. She told me that we were doing this for mental strength. There will be times when I’m out on the race course, and this is one of those moments where I can remind myself how strong I am and how I can push through. 

Run

2 sessions, Fartleks session, and a 90-minute long run. My speed session was decent. It was the last day of my work trip and I was getting a bit tired from talking all day and the lack of sleep. I ran all the work segments and walked a bit of the easy segments. I forgot to wear my heart rate monitor, but I think I put in a good effort and close to my desired half marathon pace. 

My long run was 90 minutes and a hilly one at that. My warmup paces are starting to get a little faster. And I ran all the hills and flats at the same speed. The long run felt pretty good, even though I walked a few times. I took one gel, and a bottle of water. The gel was a Honey Stinger, and a pretty tasty one. I had the Fruit Punch flavor, and it tasted just like honey. We might have to pick some up for future training runs and races.

Overall Thoughts

My work trip was busy with very long days. However, I am very happy with how the week went. While I was gone, I didn’t skip a single workout and was able to put out efforts that I am proud of. Something I do want to work on is better hydration. Last week, I am sure I did not drink enough water. And with all the air travel and work, I know I didn’t take in enough water throughout the days. And even now with being home, I’m still not hydrating very well.

I’m also trying to figure out how I feel about “skipping” that one swim, which ended up giving me 2 rest days this week. My coach also said it was fine because it was a lower volume week for me anyway. And I don’t feel guilty as it was a day well spent. It might have been possible to get out for a swim after we sent out a friend off. But Justin hadn’t taken a rest day in a while, so I think it was that was a day well spent. We’re not in the thick of Ironman training just yet, and I don’t want to neglect other areas of my life.

I hope you enjoyed reading this Ironman Canada Training Recap. We’ve got plenty more coming up.

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