Once again -and it seems every year a little bit faster- December 21 comes around and its time to get “officially” one year older (the day before you are still one year older but you don’t tell anyone the truth). This year everything lined up pretty nicely: a) my birthday landed on a Monday so Sunday was prefect to get together with friends, b) I am still here as usually I am gone for holidays with my parents somewhere warm, c) mom is visiting for a couple of weeks, d) I was in very good spirits. All this things combined together and after many many years I decided to have most of my closes friends over to celebrate my birthday, just like when we were 10 or so. I was telling my mom that I could not remember last time we put out a birthday party like that, but we were glad we did as I had a really great time.
Anyone that knows my mom knows that she loves cooking, especially for us and friends, and when I told her about inviting people over she was instantly into “cooking mode”. I wanted to make it simple, just because I did not want her to work like crazy, but sometimes with mom it does not work that way. She pulled out quesadillas to start, home made pizzas, and 2 cakes (yes, 1 was not enough). Needless to say I was stuffed at the end. Food was great, I love my moms cooking and I think everyone really liked it as well, THANKS MOM! And obviously thanks to all the people that came, great times!
That was Sunday, but my birthday was Monday, how could I not celebrate again Monday? To start off the day I woke up at 5:00 to have a 5:45 Monday swim, nice way to start the birthday with 2x400, 3x300, 4x200 and 5x500 with different torture instruments. Then 5x100 on 2:00, and when you see that you know its going to hurt… Swim was good and I got to work after. At work once again I had ridiculous amounts of cheesecake, banana bread, and all sort of goodies that came as a Christmas/Birthday Package Deal. I was stuffed once again and the 50 min run in the afternoon was less than pleasant, but still had to get that done. I did not give a second thought when I was eating like there was no tomorrow (weak of my part) and therefore I did not deserve a birthday “off the hook” pass either.
Aside from that everything is going well. Starting to run again after a while very slowly ~5/km to test out the waters for a week or 2. I think the plantar faciitis is very slowly going away but I am being very careful and aware of it at all times while jogging to make sure I can feel any changes, major discomfort, or whatever. Swimming is going very well and cycling as well. I am getting more and more workouts in using the power meter and I am loving them.
The next 2/3 days will be very busy and I will be heading off to Mexico on the 24th. In between now and then I have to fit 3 days of work (until Thursday), 9 hrs of training, one trip to MEC, a birthday party, 16 hrs of sleep, and packing for the trip amongst others. Basically, no time to waste… Ohh well, I think I will very much enjoy 16 days in Mexico so all the cramming will be well worth it =)
Facundo
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Warm Mexico!
Well, warmer than Vancouver that is for sure. The last 2 weeks (ignoring yesterday and today) have been dry dry dry and sunny, but COLD. Still not nearly as bad as last year (yet) when it was -13 and felt like -19 at 5am while riding my MTB to the pool in 10cm of snow… Yesterday we were supposed to get a big dump of snow ~15cm but did not happen. Now its 5 degrees so its probably not happening soon either and in 9 days I am off to Mexico so maybe this year I skip the whole deal.
2 weeks in Mexico will be great to recharge. Although I still feel pretty energized from my trip to Australia (I better be after 2 months of “slacking around”), its always nice to get a break. My mom is coming over here, getting into Vancouver today at 9pm, and staying over the holidays with my brother. He will get his wisdom teeth removed so mom will take care of “her little boy”. I instead leave to Mexico to take care of the not so little dad, but who would really appreciate to eat food that has not been overcooked/dried or at least was not his fault =P (I am just kidding dad, I know I know… you would manage just fine, only if you really really haddd to =)
Training is going pretty well except for running. Long story short, Plantar Fasciitis. I am slowly getting into running again and this week is the “testing” week, it took 3 weeks to go away (will see if completely gone pretty soon) and I do not want it to come back. Very very hard to get rid of, I tried everything.
So, that was the not so good part of training, biking, swimming and gym are going very very good. Last week I did a bunch of tests on the powermeter to establish some training zones, threshold power, etc and this week I have been training based on the results. Easy rides easy, hard rides close to threshold power, some intervals, big gear, everything. I really like it and being an engineer I really like to see data, graphs, numbers, understand what they mean, adjust, repeat, and so on.
Swimming is also going really good, the 2 new coaches are great and their workouts are absolutely great. This week is speed week and everyone is out there hammering, we are going to get fast, no doubt about it. They are also working with most of us on technique and that will also make a huge difference, even if we are not “stronger” than last year.
Gym is helping lots I think; I am following a 3 month strength training plan and then their “maintenance” plan will kick in February. I feel is making a big difference in swimming, even though I might be tired and sore some practices, when I am not I can really swim harder (and its only been 1 month…). Last year I did not run for 6 weeks in a row pretty much because of a weird lower leg injury. During that time I went to the gym to do leg/hip/core strengthening and everything that would not bother the injury. After that it took me a while to get my HR under control when running, but I was much much stronger and I could feel that right away. Hopefully this year the same happens with swimming and running after the strength program and I can take both to the next level.
Anyways, that is it for now. Tomorrow home made food mmmmmmmm…
Vince: I am still on stage 6... getting through them at a pace that would leave some for nasty january/february
2 weeks in Mexico will be great to recharge. Although I still feel pretty energized from my trip to Australia (I better be after 2 months of “slacking around”), its always nice to get a break. My mom is coming over here, getting into Vancouver today at 9pm, and staying over the holidays with my brother. He will get his wisdom teeth removed so mom will take care of “her little boy”. I instead leave to Mexico to take care of the not so little dad, but who would really appreciate to eat food that has not been overcooked/dried or at least was not his fault =P (I am just kidding dad, I know I know… you would manage just fine, only if you really really haddd to =)
Training is going pretty well except for running. Long story short, Plantar Fasciitis. I am slowly getting into running again and this week is the “testing” week, it took 3 weeks to go away (will see if completely gone pretty soon) and I do not want it to come back. Very very hard to get rid of, I tried everything.
So, that was the not so good part of training, biking, swimming and gym are going very very good. Last week I did a bunch of tests on the powermeter to establish some training zones, threshold power, etc and this week I have been training based on the results. Easy rides easy, hard rides close to threshold power, some intervals, big gear, everything. I really like it and being an engineer I really like to see data, graphs, numbers, understand what they mean, adjust, repeat, and so on.
Swimming is also going really good, the 2 new coaches are great and their workouts are absolutely great. This week is speed week and everyone is out there hammering, we are going to get fast, no doubt about it. They are also working with most of us on technique and that will also make a huge difference, even if we are not “stronger” than last year.
Gym is helping lots I think; I am following a 3 month strength training plan and then their “maintenance” plan will kick in February. I feel is making a big difference in swimming, even though I might be tired and sore some practices, when I am not I can really swim harder (and its only been 1 month…). Last year I did not run for 6 weeks in a row pretty much because of a weird lower leg injury. During that time I went to the gym to do leg/hip/core strengthening and everything that would not bother the injury. After that it took me a while to get my HR under control when running, but I was much much stronger and I could feel that right away. Hopefully this year the same happens with swimming and running after the strength program and I can take both to the next level.
Anyways, that is it for now. Tomorrow home made food mmmmmmmm…
Vince: I am still on stage 6... getting through them at a pace that would leave some for nasty january/february
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
