Oh look a hill...Let's run up it with snow shoes on!

Been a few days with lots of stretching. The foot is feeling much better. Took it out for a test on the snow shoes.

Found this. Decided to run up it a bunch of times. Good Fun. That was at the end of a couple hours in deep heavy snow. The temperature was great for being out. Way better than the last snow shoe. But the heavy snow made things pretty slow going.

This picture doesn't really do it justice. You can't see the top!





In other news. I picked up a sampler pack of beer. It contained beers that I have had before, but I did try something new. I tried my hand at pouring a Black and Tan.

Here's my result. It was much better before I took the photo. A little slow getting the camera out. Not too bad for my first try I thought. Not a huge fan of Guiness but this certainly made it much better in my opinion.

Stupid Injury

My thoughts on training lately are quite different than in the past. In an early time of the year I would be trying to get in long hours of slow work. I've come to realize the benefits of some shorter work that is slightly above the aerobic threshold. My choice for this work is usually running. I find this accomplishes a couple of things. One, a great workout without spending a whole lot of time. Two, it's cross training so you get to use muscles that you don't normally use in cycling.

Then comes the problem. I haven't been running as much recently as I was last year while training for the half marathon. Which has now put me out of commission for a couple of days. I put in a relatively quick 10km this past Sunday. Felt great, decent time for my current fitness.

By the end of the day Monday, I pretty much could put any pressure of my left heal. The pain I was experiencing is due to an inflamed Plantar Fascia. Not so much pain as just annoying. Most of Monday night was spent stretching that out as much as I could. I can walk on it again today. Just not full pressure. I might give it a try on the trainer tonight. Perhaps I'll be running again by the weekend.

All for now,
Rody

Something different for a change

I had every intention of going XC Skiing this past weekend. Right up till about Friday when I looked at the weather forecast. If it was going to be that cold, skiing would not be that much fun. Not wanting to spend that much time on the trainer or sit in the gym, I called in a favour.

I have a friend of mine that has been offering snow shoes to me for quite sometime. I thought this weekend would be a perfect time to give that a go.



What a great decision for this weekend. Saturday I was out in the morning. Pretty cold but I dressed right.


Sunday rolls around and I still have the snow shoes in my possession. Might as well go out again. Another 3hr day on the snow shoes. Great. A little colder Sunday. It was about -16 Celsius when I headed out. I had company for this trip though, so the cold wasn't much of a problem. Used the old Camel Back under the jacket trick to keep it from freezing. The tube did freeze up during the last half hour. I can deal with that.


Needless to say it was a great weekend on the training front. It was base endurance all weekend long. Muscles were starting to fatigue right at the end. Perfect. I'll take Monday night off and be back in the gym for Tuesday.

Rody

Late Start

It's taken a broken arm, broken finger and two years of inconsistent training, but I'm ready to go again.

Last year was interesting. I ran two half marathons and participated in a bunch on MTB races. One of the half marathons went well, everything else.... Let's just say I participated. There's a lot to be said for training.

The last couple of months my brain has started to talk about being in shape and racing again. It's going to be a late start and there are several pounds that need to be shed. I'm confident that I can make a dint in the gut that has grown out in front of me though.

Wish me luck and watch for more updates.
Rody