Its been now 10 days since I last posted and therefore there has been lots of training, a couple of social events, the usual work, and a couple of very nice weather days!
When I came back from Mexico 20 days ago my plantar fasciitis was still bothering me quite a bit. The initial excruciating pain felt in the mornings or after running had subsided to a mild pain before the trip, and therefore over the course of 4 weeks (part in Mexico) I was able to build to about 3.5 hrs of running. The pain was not getting any worse than a mild discomfort but was not getting any better either. The pain would let me run, but would not allow for quality, any sort of speed work, no uneven terrains, no hills. If I did any of those then the excruciating pain will come back more often than not. So, what good was it to run like that? Once again I decided to take time off when I came back from Mexico to let things heal, and I once again researched thousands of places and sites and talked to people to see what else I could do to help that I didn’t try yet. During the 10 days off running I once again started to get desperate as its been about 3 months of very very poor and inconsistent running. Plantar fasciitis was causing me excruciating physical pain, why not also put myself through excruciating psychological pain and start water running? I had done it in the past and lasted 2 sessions, but I was willing to give it another shot. The following day after the swim in the morning I put my ipod shuffle under the swim cap and I went for it, 30 min. The following day 30 min. Following day no swimming and therefore no running either, but the day after again 30min. Its been now 6 times in 8 days that I manage to do it. At the same time I started jogging again this week, and it has not hurt at all. I am stretching the heck out of my calves and Achilles tendons, doing some eccentric calf raises which seem to help lots, massaging/icing frequently, shoes with very little use, and going very very easy. I cant afford to re injure, its either no pain at all or stop. So far no pain at all, 15 min / day for 6 days, and 2.5hr of water running. Next week I will be doing 20 min / day, very easy pace, and only 2 hrs of water running. Following week…. you get the idea…
Aside from running, cycling and swimming are going well. I was very tired for a good stretch as I was loosing quite a bit of weight I put on since September. Now that I am back on track and calories in = calories out (ie, no deficit) I feel much better than before. On Saturday 16th Martina and I went for an amazing sunny ride as I mentioned on the previous blog, then the weather turned nasty and lots lots of rain. Come the following Saturday and Sunday the weather was once again very nice and we were able to ride out both days. On Saturday Martina, Ryan and I went to Horseshoe Bay after swimming and it was a good ride, with some harder pieces through the rollers. Sunday Ryan and I drilled it around Richmond and were feeling it in the afternoon and well into Monday. Swimming is going well. Although I am not swimming much “faster” than before, I do feel that technique is getting better. Once I stop lifting weights 3 times a week and being constantly sore and tired I will speed up significantly (that’s the plan anyways).
On the social side, Friday we went for AYCE sushi with the guys at work; Sunday we went for AYCE sushi with Enej, Jason, Andra and Stefan; yesterday there was a Baguel-off at work where 3 people brought bagels from their favorite places in North Van, Kits, and Montreal and we did some tasting all day long (well, more than tasting as we all ended up stuffed with bagels). On the weekend Kamal might be over to attend a power seminar at speed theory and then go for a ride with the boys.
Today is my day off and after a 25hr week I want to do nothing but watch tv and eat a delicious dinner after work (which almost included crepes at Andra and Stefans place but got cancelled due to scheduling issues, next time!)
Facundo
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Mexico Part 3
As promised, here are the best pictures from the trip (and the trip inside the trip) =P
Facundo
Ps: Today Martina and I went for a 3hr ride in the sunshine and 7C! It was as good as it gets this time of the year, so thank you "El Niño" for giving us a break =)
Dad trying out the new cycling kit Santa left on his bed
Picture for the record before heading down
I really hoped that thing was safe. It was quite high and long
The shorter of 3 sections
The cabins at the resort
Dad rock climbing for the first time ever
Riding in the valley
Dad climbing at 160bpm, somehow still managed a smile
Heading to the top of the mountain while beating the truck up
I do not want you in my sock
Village at the top of the mountain
According to our tests it is still within its usable life (and probably ridden by the kids)
View of the strip where the resort was located from the top of the mountain
Back in Tampico, riding the long quiet road until there is no more road to ride
Servicing moms bike
Facundo
Ps: Today Martina and I went for a 3hr ride in the sunshine and 7C! It was as good as it gets this time of the year, so thank you "El Niño" for giving us a break =)
Friday, January 15, 2010
Mexico Part 2
On Sunday January 3rd we went back home in Tampico as dad had to start a new project on Monday, and 5 days was more than enough in a town that size (with the weather conditions as they were, had it been sunny and warm then its a different story). Work hours for my dad (and many people working in offices in Mexico) are 8-2pm and 4-6pm. They are oddly split -very uneven to my liking- but at least it does allow time to go home, eat, take a nap. So Monday morning dad went off to work and I had 6 hours to smash myself. 1.5hr swim, 1.5hr gym, 1hr run and then dad was home for lunch. Napped and during his 2 hours in the afternoon I went for a 1hr ride. Smashed: check. Tuesday morning I wanted to go for a long ride, but definitely was not going to ride 1 gazillion 2.1km loops in the University so I asked dad for directions to a nice road out of the city with little traffic. It was going to be fun/kamikaze to ride 40 min each way in the city to get to the quiet road, but I like kamikaze so I went for it, well worth it. Aside from doing some mountain biking through potholes and dodging some crazy buses it was easy to get there and the road was quiet, new pavement (until there was no pavement at all), and great scenery. I rode 1:40 there and then headed back, getting there was easy but getting back I kinda got lost and had to call dad to figure out where I was. Once again, lunch, nap, and 1hr run in the afternoon.
Wednesday mom was coming back from Vancouver, so most of the training got done in the morning. Swim 1.5, gym 1.5, bike 1. We drove to the airport (5 minutes away), got mom, had dinner, bed. Thursday we woke up and the weather was getting worse and worse. Temperature was dropping, northern cold winds, rainy. Well... there goes the idea of riding again 3hrs on the nice quiet road. I switched that for 2hrs of core, weights at home and a swim. With mom around the house was not so boring when dad was working so I worked out more at home. Mom doing her yoga, pilates, me core doing core, hip, glutes strenghening with all my bands and stretch cords. On Friday we decided to watch Avatar in the afternoon and I liked it. Mom liked it as well and dad put up with "non real" stuff... He enjoyed it but I am sure he would have rather watched a movie on the History of the Mayans or something like that (not because he is boring but because fiction makes no sense to him). In the movie we (mostly I) went through a Jumbo Caramel Popcorn thing, so delicious! To cap it off we went to a restaurant for pizza afterwards.
Saturday was my second to last day in Mexico and it got colder and colder, hitting 6.9C at one point in time. Mmmmm am I in Mexico or what? Having no heaters in the house we did what most people did, wear more clothes, shut the kitchen doors and hang out there with the oven on and open. Easily 10C difference between the kitchen and anywhere else in the house. Mom slept covered with 5 blankets, I had 3 but slept with sweatpants and 2 long sleeve shirts. Weather was not good for anything but hitting the gym, running on the treadmill and going for AYCE meat for dinner. We finished just in time to have ice cream from a coffee shop inside a supermarket that has one of the best ice creams in town. Yes, cold, but never say no to ice cream. Well aparently all this eating has left some damage on my parents treadmill, a not so massive 80kg me running at 4:20min/km managed to break the board under the belt, I guess its not used to that kind of abuse. Anyways, I think has now been replaced and the bill should be getting here shortly =P
Sunday I took the day off, and came back to Vancouver. Since then its all been back to normal, swimming in the mornings, work and training in the afternoon. I am really looking forward to this weekend to get some free time and a nap. I dont really like them (naps) but dad forced me to "try" them the 2 weeks I was there. If I fall asleep quickly and wake up springy I love them, great tool. If I take 45 minutes to fall asleep and 45 minutes to engage my brain afterwards for a 1hr nap, then 2.5 hr ordeal is just not effective from a time standpoint. It also makes harder going to sleep at night so some more time wasted in there....
That is all from this trip, now I just have to dowload pictures and put them up which most likely happen during the weekend. Thanks dad and mom for everything down there, eventhough mom was not there most of the time her freezer (which is her 3rd son) was and was very very full with very delicious home made food.
Later
Facundo
Wednesday mom was coming back from Vancouver, so most of the training got done in the morning. Swim 1.5, gym 1.5, bike 1. We drove to the airport (5 minutes away), got mom, had dinner, bed. Thursday we woke up and the weather was getting worse and worse. Temperature was dropping, northern cold winds, rainy. Well... there goes the idea of riding again 3hrs on the nice quiet road. I switched that for 2hrs of core, weights at home and a swim. With mom around the house was not so boring when dad was working so I worked out more at home. Mom doing her yoga, pilates, me core doing core, hip, glutes strenghening with all my bands and stretch cords. On Friday we decided to watch Avatar in the afternoon and I liked it. Mom liked it as well and dad put up with "non real" stuff... He enjoyed it but I am sure he would have rather watched a movie on the History of the Mayans or something like that (not because he is boring but because fiction makes no sense to him). In the movie we (mostly I) went through a Jumbo Caramel Popcorn thing, so delicious! To cap it off we went to a restaurant for pizza afterwards.
Saturday was my second to last day in Mexico and it got colder and colder, hitting 6.9C at one point in time. Mmmmm am I in Mexico or what? Having no heaters in the house we did what most people did, wear more clothes, shut the kitchen doors and hang out there with the oven on and open. Easily 10C difference between the kitchen and anywhere else in the house. Mom slept covered with 5 blankets, I had 3 but slept with sweatpants and 2 long sleeve shirts. Weather was not good for anything but hitting the gym, running on the treadmill and going for AYCE meat for dinner. We finished just in time to have ice cream from a coffee shop inside a supermarket that has one of the best ice creams in town. Yes, cold, but never say no to ice cream. Well aparently all this eating has left some damage on my parents treadmill, a not so massive 80kg me running at 4:20min/km managed to break the board under the belt, I guess its not used to that kind of abuse. Anyways, I think has now been replaced and the bill should be getting here shortly =P
Sunday I took the day off, and came back to Vancouver. Since then its all been back to normal, swimming in the mornings, work and training in the afternoon. I am really looking forward to this weekend to get some free time and a nap. I dont really like them (naps) but dad forced me to "try" them the 2 weeks I was there. If I fall asleep quickly and wake up springy I love them, great tool. If I take 45 minutes to fall asleep and 45 minutes to engage my brain afterwards for a 1hr nap, then 2.5 hr ordeal is just not effective from a time standpoint. It also makes harder going to sleep at night so some more time wasted in there....
That is all from this trip, now I just have to dowload pictures and put them up which most likely happen during the weekend. Thanks dad and mom for everything down there, eventhough mom was not there most of the time her freezer (which is her 3rd son) was and was very very full with very delicious home made food.
Later
Facundo
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Mexico Part 1
Its been a while since I updated the blog, so its time to get to it. 3 days after my birthday (last post) I was off to Mexico for 16 days returning to Vancouver this Monday at 2am. The time in Mexico was great, the weather was not what I was expecting (or for that matter anyone in Mexico), but still had a great time with dad and mom when she came back. Training was also good despite rainy and windy days not so different from what we are used to…
I flew to Mexico overnight on Christmas eve and got to Tampico by 11am on Christmas Day. The flight was good, but what I thought to be a good choice (overnight flight) turned out to be a torture as I barely slept. Needless to say I needed a massive nap when I got home. I spent the next 5 days until the 30th in Tampico, training, eating, sleeping, and hanging out with that as he worked from home most of the time.
Training involved swimming in the only decent pool in the city which is heated with solar panels. As the weather was cloudy and rainy there was not much heat available and the water temperature was at a constant 22-23C. This temperature was not so bad without a wetsuit (it was not pleasant either) and I still managed to swim 6k most days. Besides the pool there was a gym where I could do strength training anytime. Cycling in the city is a big risk, streets are not nearly as smooth with huge potholes in many places, drivers and specially taxis are in a mad rush always, not everyone obeys all traffic lights, etc. Therefore for the first 5 days cycling was done inside the university campus in a 2.1km loop with lots of turns (not a boring square). The circuit was pretty fun, there was no traffic or people as classes were finished, and there was plenty of shortcuts to allow dad to “cheat” and make me work hard -really hard sometimes- to catch him. It was good times and after I got used to the handling of dads road bike (he was using moms) I practiced lots of high speed cornering, accelerations, etc.
During this time I gave “moms freezer” a good run for the money and cleared lots of home made raviolis, pies, roasts, bread. Basically anything that she makes and I love was on jeopardy. Dad was also happy to have someone to take care of the defrosting and cooking/warming up process, but to him moms home made goodies are the usual, lucky him…
On the 30th we headed up to an Adventure Resort about 3 hours away from Tampico. The resort is on a town called Gomez Farias, which is as small as mmmm… imagine something small, like a 10-12 block strip, one pharmacy, a couple of pantries, 2 or 3 bars, no gas station for 30km, one big plaza in the middle, one police truck… get the picture? Well, kind of like that... (I forgot to mention that there was cellphone reception only within 100m of the town entrance rock arch.) The town is located about 700m above sea level and its in the middle of a forest, I will post some pictures as its kind of hard to describe it.
Anyways, so the resort was all inclusive as there were not many places to go and eat other than the other 2 hotel restaurants in town. Included in the package was zip lining (700m of lines), basic mountain bikes to ride on trails, kayak, rock climbing, and rappel. You could also rent ATVs to go around the forest, or 1hr horseback rides.
Out of the 5 days in the resort, 2 were glorious, 3 were cold, windy, overcast, foggy. I guess you can expect that 700m up in the forest with a bunch of mountains around. As far as training was concerned I was a little more relaxed and there was less structure. I would do what I could when I could. I manage to get in a couple of good runs around town and in the trails, 3 bike rides around the area including some huge rollers and a 6km 6% climb (roughly), no swims, lots of dryland strengthening with therabands, ankle weights, core exercises, etc. Aside from that we rock climbed a couple of times, played ping pong every night, went on an off road adventure in the truck (its ok mom, no damage) to a village up the mountain, ate lots and lots of food in the buffet (at least I did, dad was more “normal”). We wanted to go kayaking one day but it was not available, the following day was way too cold and then we had to leave. Despite that it was very good times, something different, spending new years between ping pong matches (not kidding).
Pictures and Part 2 to come.
I flew to Mexico overnight on Christmas eve and got to Tampico by 11am on Christmas Day. The flight was good, but what I thought to be a good choice (overnight flight) turned out to be a torture as I barely slept. Needless to say I needed a massive nap when I got home. I spent the next 5 days until the 30th in Tampico, training, eating, sleeping, and hanging out with that as he worked from home most of the time.
Training involved swimming in the only decent pool in the city which is heated with solar panels. As the weather was cloudy and rainy there was not much heat available and the water temperature was at a constant 22-23C. This temperature was not so bad without a wetsuit (it was not pleasant either) and I still managed to swim 6k most days. Besides the pool there was a gym where I could do strength training anytime. Cycling in the city is a big risk, streets are not nearly as smooth with huge potholes in many places, drivers and specially taxis are in a mad rush always, not everyone obeys all traffic lights, etc. Therefore for the first 5 days cycling was done inside the university campus in a 2.1km loop with lots of turns (not a boring square). The circuit was pretty fun, there was no traffic or people as classes were finished, and there was plenty of shortcuts to allow dad to “cheat” and make me work hard -really hard sometimes- to catch him. It was good times and after I got used to the handling of dads road bike (he was using moms) I practiced lots of high speed cornering, accelerations, etc.
During this time I gave “moms freezer” a good run for the money and cleared lots of home made raviolis, pies, roasts, bread. Basically anything that she makes and I love was on jeopardy. Dad was also happy to have someone to take care of the defrosting and cooking/warming up process, but to him moms home made goodies are the usual, lucky him…
On the 30th we headed up to an Adventure Resort about 3 hours away from Tampico. The resort is on a town called Gomez Farias, which is as small as mmmm… imagine something small, like a 10-12 block strip, one pharmacy, a couple of pantries, 2 or 3 bars, no gas station for 30km, one big plaza in the middle, one police truck… get the picture? Well, kind of like that... (I forgot to mention that there was cellphone reception only within 100m of the town entrance rock arch.) The town is located about 700m above sea level and its in the middle of a forest, I will post some pictures as its kind of hard to describe it.
Anyways, so the resort was all inclusive as there were not many places to go and eat other than the other 2 hotel restaurants in town. Included in the package was zip lining (700m of lines), basic mountain bikes to ride on trails, kayak, rock climbing, and rappel. You could also rent ATVs to go around the forest, or 1hr horseback rides.
Out of the 5 days in the resort, 2 were glorious, 3 were cold, windy, overcast, foggy. I guess you can expect that 700m up in the forest with a bunch of mountains around. As far as training was concerned I was a little more relaxed and there was less structure. I would do what I could when I could. I manage to get in a couple of good runs around town and in the trails, 3 bike rides around the area including some huge rollers and a 6km 6% climb (roughly), no swims, lots of dryland strengthening with therabands, ankle weights, core exercises, etc. Aside from that we rock climbed a couple of times, played ping pong every night, went on an off road adventure in the truck (its ok mom, no damage) to a village up the mountain, ate lots and lots of food in the buffet (at least I did, dad was more “normal”). We wanted to go kayaking one day but it was not available, the following day was way too cold and then we had to leave. Despite that it was very good times, something different, spending new years between ping pong matches (not kidding).
Pictures and Part 2 to come.
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