Weekend Update

Having the North Shore race on Monday meant that Saturday and Sunday were going to be a little more relaxing than normal. 3 day weekends are usually better than the normal 2 day weekend, but having the race on Monday, training was more relaxed as well...

Saturday started off with the morning swim from 6:30 to 8am. I wanted to work hard but not over do it, so the plan was to do most of it easy, relaxed, working on the stroke, and then go out hard a couple of times to get me ready for Monday. After the swim I went home and applied the same concept to running; 40 min on the treadmill with 15wu, 6x2min (1min 3:15/km, 1min 5:00/km), and then 8 min cool down. At 10am was time for a second breakfast and the famous bike repair/cleaning/tuning/check before a race. About 3 hrs later that was all done, including setting Draft legal bars on my training bike (I did not want to race on my new bike), truing the rear wheel, cleaning the whole drive train (cassette included), and so on. I kind of enjoy doing all that, but I always find it very very time consuming and tiring. After lunch I went out for a 2 hr ride to North Vancouver to pick up the race package and buy new flippers at Team Aquatic Supplies with a Race gift certificate that I HAD to use before expiry. At home I got all race stuff sorted out and packed, had dinner and went to bed early.

Sunday was awesome! Waking up with 14 degrees and sunny skies already makes it a great happy day. After a power breakfast involving 8 pancakes, bananas, strawberries, nutella, maple syrup, chocolate milk and lots of peanut butter I was ready for an easy 1hr ride with some race efforts. The ride did not feel great, I was kind of tired despite an easy day on Saturday, but it was expected after a couple of really hard weeks of training. I kept telling myself that the fitness was there, the power was there, and on Monday I was going to flip the switch and go. After the ride and lunch I headed to Kits pool, which finally opened this weekend. It was like 20 degrees and sunny, and I just wanted to get my 1hr swim over with to sleep in the sun. Said and done, 1hr nap in the grass. The swim did not feel great either, but using the same tactics I used earlier in the day I did not panic. The fitness is there, the power is there, and on Monday I will flip the switch and go… I was feeling very tired while making pasta and salmon for dinner, but was relaxed and feeling ready to race. Thanks to a day in the sun I went to bed early and had a good sleep before the race.

The race report will come later on today or tomorrow. I am tired of writing and therefore I assume you might be tired of reading. Ohh, I also watched lots of the Giro online while cooking, preparing stuff, fixing the bike, etc. Universalsports.com lets you watch the whole stage (all of them) online on demand any day anytime for free. Crazy! Nothing is free anymore, but this is… Can’t wait for Stage 10 today.