Coach Mary wanted me to do a couple of practice races—a sprint and a “standard” leading up to Barrelman, but my schedule for the summer means they’re earlier than maybe either of us wanted.
Am I ready to swim 750 m, bike 20 km, and run/walk 5 m. No. Can I? Meh, probably: it meets my 70% threshold for doing anything.
Big concerns?
Haven’t biked outside or on my outside bike since last year
Haven’t swum in open water or in my wetsuit since last year
The coming weekend sucks for training because of some important and unmovable personal things. I’ve otherwise cleared my schedule and asked Mary to redraw the week so I can get my key workouts done.
Mona and I have watched the first two episodes of the British series Dept. Q; it’s darker than we usually watch but we’re compelled to find out what happens next.
This has resulted in my rerereading the first two novellas (All Systems Red and Artificial Condition), which (IMO) make a single good read. I am as far as it’s possible to be from an expert on autism but (based on this 3rd reading) I think Murderbot’s problems (as it itself says) are depression and anxiety—and learning how to be a free agent, choosing for itself.
That’s what the internist told me at my first colonoscopy 32 years ago. Every 5 years, more or less, I’ve had one, without incident. So I guess I’ll have another in 2030, if I’m still around (which I fervently hope).
My week has been particularly pleasing precisely because the prep for and recovery from the scope is pretty tough. Thursday, the day after, my HR during my two workouts was awful high. But I did it.
A deliberate red card
I have friends who think you do every workout set. I kind of agree, but not always. My coach had set an easy walk/run two days after my colonoscopy. But Thursday’s workouts left me whacked, so I quite deliberately took TrainingPeaks’ red card so I’d be ready for the weekend—and I was proved right.
“More rides are ruined by bad weather forecasts than by bad weather”
A randonneur told that to me twenty-some years ago, and he was right. We had a horrific weather forecast; we were under a Freezing Rain Warning, with centimetres of accumulation possible. It seemed like my hope and goal of riding outside for the first time in 2025 was not safe for Saturday.
In the event, of course, Saturday was cool and wet, but not scary—until late in the afternoon. Sunday’s early-morning walk saw lots of slipperiness.
Friends can attest that since I finished Ironman Florida in 2009 I’ve wanted to do another. To a certain extent I’ve been unlucky. And here I am, thundering to my 72nd birthday, but, you know, I still want to do another. So here’s my goal beyond my goal. First, let me finish a half-Ironman under the cutoff. Then, let’s push toward a full Ironman, with the goal just to finish under the cutoff.
As I remarked last week I don’t think U.S. events are in my future until the Administration’s attitude to Canada and Canadians improves, and I don’t think an overseas trip is practical. That leaves Ironman Canada, a 5½hr drive from home, in a city I know very well. I haven’t told my coach; she’ll read it here first.
To be very very clear this is the stretchiest of stretch goals. Let’s get through the half-Ironman first. But I can see it, a glittering prize, like a mountain, in the distance.
Next week
5 workouts in 5 days, but the long ride and long run (not so long by others’ standards but still) are the longest yet in this macrocycle. I’m also getting some fillings on my rest day, but my new dentist seems really skillful. Pretty much looking forward to a good week (not to the fillings).
In Uncategorized on 2025 February 23 Sunday at 14:00:26
TL; DR
Recap: a good week
But one orange card!
Getting fat(ter)
Cutting down on caffeine: It’s great and I hate it
Finding a genre of music I hate but I’m listening to it
Recap
Good week. One non-green card but I earned it (see next). Did a couple of hard workouts. CTL climbing. Coach is good at figuring out what I can do.
Yellow card!
Users of TrainingPeaks will know about colour-coded workout cards. I’ve been pretty darn good (pats self on back) about having a lot of green cards. Got an orange card (worse than a yellow card) this week:
Trying to do a hard-ish treadmill workout after a rough hour and a quarter shovelling my car out of 50 cm≅20 in of snow; just had nothing in me and stepped off. I’m not happy about it; I’m inclined to credit the depletion from the snow shovelling but Coach Mary may have a point about nutrition (next section).
Fat manatee
In 2009 I did the only Ironman I finished. I trained hard. I gained weight.
I struggle to have enough in my gut and my blood to fuel a good workout. Having too little is a harrowing experience so I’ve tended to “eat ahead” so I can finish the workout. I’m now the heaviest I’ve ever been and I’m not any taller than I was at age 14.
I am working with a nutritionist but this seems like the hardest of nuts to crack (pun unintended just fell in there).
Three espressos
TL; DR: Cut my caffeine consumption 25%. It’s great and I hate it.
Long story: I didn’t start drinking coffee until my 21st birthday. My parents were heavy drinkers of instant coffee mixed with condensed milk—yuck—so I didn’t develop the habit at home. In my last year of university my girlfriend took me out to a birthday lunch at a prix fixe restaurant. I decided to try the included coffee but to have it black so I could add cream and sugar to taste. I never did that; I’ve never drunk anything but black unsweetened coffee.
I used to drink a lot. I would percolate a pot at home and bring it to work in a huge Thermos.
Then I got used to having several mugs of the brewed coffee at work.
Then I discovered the caffè americano. Even when I was home I would get all my coffee from Starbucks: 3 triple caffè americanos a day, that’s 9 shots of espresso. Eventually I got a superautomatic espresso machine that would make a near-equivalent, the caffè crema.
You can see the pattern here: snazzier coffee but actually less caffeine.
When the pandemic hit my coffee consumption dropped. (So did my alcohol consumption but that’s a story for another day.) For the last several years I’ve had 4 caffè crema a day—very approximately 250 mg of caffeine, less than a single large coffee from Tim Horton’s.
The nutritionist I’ve been consulting asked me if I could try having just three shots of espresso a day. Sure, I said.
It’s been 3 weeks. The good? Even though I’ve almost always had my last caffeine before lunch, cutting down 25% has made it easier to get to sleep early—and I hadn’t thought I was having any problems at all. And the nutritionist is right: my gut seems happier.
The bad: mostly just the craving. I so want that 4th shot. The nutritionist said I could have it when I “needed” it, but so far I haven’t crossed that threshold.
I will not give up caffeine. The boost in the morning is awesome. But 3 shots/day seems to be my new normal.
Low fidelity?
“blend hip hop beats and jazzy vibes and serve it chilled” would normally be words that would send me rushing to change stations. If there’s any music that gets me irritated it’s cool jazz, and as a Boomer I’m generally unenthused about hip-hop (tho’ there are some songs I like).
But here I am listening to Lola’s “lofi study & focus” playlist on Spotify—and liking it, at least when I’m working at my desk. Fills that aural space but doesn’t engage me or spin up any emotions. Sounds terrible but it seems to work.
(For working out, housework etc. I still like much more active, engaging music.)
In Uncategorized on 2025 February 2 Sunday at 16:49:04
Stock photo, of course. Why is there nothing written on her sticky notes?
TL; DR
Signed up for two triathlons
Longest trainer ride in ages
Highest 5-minute power ever?
Unhappy treadmill walk/run
First personal training session in years
Shallow thoughts: craving v. resistance; more surrendering to the plan; trying to stay away from the news
Next week: news about my toe; more personal training; Super Bowl
Signing up
I’ve been resisting signing up for my “A” event; I feel it puts a box around me. I am paying attention to whether it gets close to selling out. I don’t mind paying a higher registration fee not to have that box around me.
But at Coach Mary’s behest I did sign up for a sprint triathlon in June and an Olympic in July.
For June I’m signed up for Rose City, which is in Mona’s hometown. I did this race a few years ago, so I’m familiar with the course. And the swim and transition area are precisely the same as Barrelman’s. We’ve even reserved a room at a semi-skeezy Travelodge next door to a Tim Hortons—which was exactly our arrangement when I did the race before.
I’ll be doing this race a week after we return from our two-week drive to and from Nova Scotia. Doing what I expect to be fairly heavy training during that trip will be a challenge!
Going long
Friday saw my longest trainer ride since (checks TrainingPeaks) Nov. 17. Nothing special but as much as TrainingPeaks Virtual looks like a Zwift copy I rather like it.
I do not look like this guy—in case you were wondering. But that is our treadmill model.
Saturday saw me set out on my longest treadmill workout ever—but my knee wouldn’t let me do it. Sometimes I can soft-walk it out; but it didn’t work. Monday is another go at it, but I was surprised at how much the “bad” run dispirited me.
But there’s no such thing as a “bad” workout, right? Every one is a lesson? I think the lesson here is
Do more deliberate floorwork before a walk/run
Keep at my work with physio and trainer to build flexibility/mobility
I’ve got the power
I was set a short trainer workout on Sunday. Lots of easy riding but 5×(30″ flat out with 30″ easy). For some reason TrainingPeaks asserted I set my all-time record for 5′ power:
Can TrainingPeaks make a mistake? I know to most of my tri friends 152 W over 5 minutes isn’t anything special, but still. (BTW all-time = the 4⅓ years I’ve had a smart trainer.)
Going heavy
Is it even safe to lift 55 lb dumbbells? (25 kg in new money)
First personal trainer session, just getting a measure of how much weight I can handle for 10 to 12 reps. Still left me pretty sore the next day.
I crave ice cream, especially butterscotch ripple with caramel sauce (as pictured). But when I have a bowl I feel bloated and gross.
In the cobra pose—ready to strike
I resist doing floorwork; say to myself, I’ll do it in a minute—but the minute never comes. Yet when I do it I feel great: loose, light, ready.
Why is that? I dunno. It takes a conscious act to remind myself of how I feel afterwards for both the craving and the resistance.
More surrender
Three more steps on this long path of surrender, of leaving overthinking/overcontrol behind:
A few days ago I realized I could close the panel on TrainingPeaks’ calendar that summarizes your training load and gives you TP’s one-number-to-rule-them-all fitness score. I don’t need to know! And if I know it I’ll fuss about whether it’s improving fast enough. That’s my coach’s job.
When Coach Mary suggested I sign up for the Olympic in late July I noted it was right after a two-week motoring trip. She asked if I thought I could do it, and I replied it was up to her. If she thought I it was feasible, it was.
In my daybook (which sort of follows the Bullet Journal methodology) I make each day’s workout a to-do, with very little notation, often not even the length of the workout.
Staying away from the news
The front page of Saturday’s edition of Canada’s largest-circulation newspaper
Especially in Canada the new American administration is imposing a lot of uncertainty. On top of that (as the pic above shows) we’re having a general election at the provincial level (my American friends can think of that as a state election). And at the federal level we’re in a weird interregnum with Parliament prorogued, the unpopular Prime Minister in a lame-duck phase, an intra-party election for his replacement, and a general election a near prospect.
I’ve been a regular news follower for, well, decades. When I was a tween(!) my parents kept their subscription to The Globe and Mail because I read it. But nowadays I dunno. I’m focusing on sports and on triathlon. Not listening to political podcasts, even from my favourite commentators. Staying away from Twitter, er, X, where years of my curation have led to a feed mostly full of happy/interesting things; but now there’s too much unpleasantness and uncertainty. I’m rereading a Poirot novel right now. I guess I’m just … surrendering.
Next week: Feb. 3-9
Looks like a quiet week on all fronts (except the political; see above). Will have my first “real” personal training session, even if I don’t have a black T shirt. Mona and I are going with friends to a concert by the Lightfoot Band, so we’ll hear a lot of Gordon Lightfoot’s music. (Along with my indifference to ice hockey, my not particularly liking Lightfoot’s music does put my Canadianness into question.)
Speaking of not being Canadian, Sunday is the Super Bowl, 6:30 p.m. in my time zone. I will actually watch the game, and do chores during the halftime show. Am looking forward, tho’: not rooting for either team, but hoping for a competitive, well played game.
In Uncategorized on 2025 January 26 Sunday at 14:42:53
Kimberlee tells me that your mantra doesn’t have to make sense to other people. That’s good, because I can’t even explain it to myself. Physio Phil caught sight of my Road ID and asked what SURRENDER TO THE PLAN meant. Been thinking of that question for days; here’s my first cut at at an answer.
I am a planner. Give me a goal and I’m awesome (if I do say so myself) at breaking down the work to the goal into steps, identifying constraints, setting intermediate milestones, and all the guff that got PMP after my name.
The controlled anxiety that lets me be a good (I think) project manager doesn’t seem to work well for my triathlon journey. This year I’m doing something different. I have a coach I trust. She agreed the goal was feasible. She writes the plan. Every week or two she gives me the schedule for the coming weeks. I do what I can to execute. The only “planning” I do is to look at the coming few days and figure out when, where, and how I’ll do the workouts. As I wrote last week I don’t even want to know my training plan for the coming months. I’ll take it one bite at a time and not worry about the coming bites. I am surrendering to the plan.
Bonus Taylor Knibb content: After I wrote the above I watched Bob Babbitt’s post-win interview with Taylor Knibb at the Ironman 70.3 world championships. I loved what she said: “it’s kind of … like Christmas every week when [my coach] puts the training in and then I get to see what I get to do”.
Purely at a technical level—does she use TrainingPeaks? I mean, lots of pros do and I’d like to think we have that (if nothing else!) in common. Seriously, though, does that mean that she doesn’t concern herself with the arc (mesocycles, macrocycles) of her training? Just agrees with her coach and manager and family what races she’ll do, and lets her coach work out the plan and schedule? If so, that’s awesome.
33 weeks to go: Jan. 20-26/25
In response to last week’s blog my friend Tony wrote to me that “eating an elephant is hard”.
This week’s serving of elephant saw my first uses of TrainingPeaks Virtual (formerly IndieVelo). I was going to use Zwift rather than FulGaz, because Coach Mary had sent me a structured workout and I’ve found the real-world courses of FulGaz don’t mesh well with a structured workout. Reading Ray Maker’s articles on TrainingPeaks’ acquisition of IndieVelo and Rouvy’s acquisition of FulGaz made me think that TPV might be pretty good for doing coach-set structured workouts—and so it was. I did a free ride Sunday and that saw me climbing lots of hills; I guess an unscheduled strength workout. But so far I like it.
(As a gratuitous aside I will say that how Ironman handled the sale of FulGaz to Rouvy doesn’t speak well of the new administration’s managerial competence—especially in a company whose core value proposition to customers is operational excellence.)
(Stock photos are so funny.) Big win for me: I actually ran for a few minutes, albeit on a treadmill as breaks during ærobic walks. Didn’t get too dizzy or bored or anything and nothing hurt. Very happy. It does help watching narrative TV, I think:
My injured toe got stepped on early Saturday which messed up my training—didn’t want to put the unhappy toe under the pressure of a shoe, or even my weight more than necessary. Otherwise the toe is still healing slower than expected. After 5 weeks it should be fully healed but here we are, with seepage and sloughing off of skin. Yuck. Except when it’s stepped on it doesn’t stop me from walking, running, cycling on the trainer, or doing strength work (see below)—but no swimming.
Over all I lost a day this week (see paragraph above) but altogether a good week: progress.
After I publish this post looking forward to 7 hours of top-notch NFL football. Who ya got?
Next week: Jan. 27–Feb. 2/25
Finally got the fitness assessment (sic) that was prerequisite to starting strength work. First session with the personal trainer is Thursday at the Pan Am Sports Centre’s gym.
I didn’t think the trainer and I had a thorough enough discussion about my goals, so I emailed this to him afterwards:
I’m interested in a strength programme for two key reasons:
To support my triathlon goals, specifically to do a half-Ironman later this year
To fight back the effects of age, and just generally to be better able to cope with daily life (lifting things etc.)
I don’t think I’m very interested in flexibility, but I am very interested in mobility (strength through range of motion).
I have a triathlon coach who sets me ærobic workouts—swimming, cycling, and walking/running. These are the core disciplines; strength is in support. Right now we’re ramping up; last week I did 3¾hrs of ærobic workouts, but there’ll be more, probably topping out at something like 12hrs weekly in late summer.
I’m not at all interested in addressing weight/body composition in personal training.
To be frank I’m uncomfortable in a gym; I’ve never liked going to a gym by myself; I have no confidence in my competence. In the 40 years I’ve been doing “sport” (I started late) I’ve always done ærobic things, and mostly by myself.
Richard Nelson is a management consultant living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He’s married and has a 46-year-old stepson, a 44-year-old daughter with a PhD in forestry, and three granddaughters, aged 28, 10, and 4. His principal hobby is training for Ironman triathlons, despite his lack of talent: he finished Ironman ... Continue reading →
Road of Iron 