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