TBN Monthly Marathon Whitby

42km + and additional easy 8km today at the TBN Monthly Marathon. Came in at about 1:50 for the Marathon. Still tired from the week's workouts, missed a few turns.

WHAT I ATE TODAY:
Flax Bagel and Light Cream Cheese, Apple, Granola Bar, Gatorade, Power Gel, Gyoza, Deep Fried Calimari, Cheese Quesadilia, Bacon Chedder 1/2 Pound Burger, Ministrone, French Fries, Pomegranite/Tangerine Frappaccino, Bulgogi Beef, rice, kimchi.

Tara's Birthday

I taught BODY COMBAT at St Clair at noon today with Tanya. It took me a while to warm up, the skate up the hill was kind of tough. I'm finding this release to be relatively easy now despite the initial soreness with the slow kick track. I still need to learn the first half.

WHAT I ATE TODAY:
Flax Bagel with Cream Cheese, 2 banana, Booster Juice with Warrior Boost, Tuna Sandwich, Cheese and Crackers, strawberries, Orangina, Gazpatcho, bread, pita, Steak, asparagus, potatoes, chocolate torte.

It's supposed to RAIN today!

Hopefully the rain will cool things down. It's been really warm in my apartment.

I did BODY PUMP at noon hour at Manulife. Heather was teaching it and even though her cues are a bit late, I really like her dry sense of humor and attitude. It was an old release that felt relatively easy. I kept all the weights the same except for lunges. I was really feeling tight and sore in the calf and ankle/shin of my right leg, so I took the weight down to 10kg.

WHAT I ATE TODAY:
High Impact Acai Booster Juice, Tuna Fish sandwiches on Flax bread with pickle and mayo, 2 pickles, Gazpatcho Soup (from the restaurant), Salmon, veggies, potatoes in cream sauce, frites/onion deep fried, pepsi, tropical smoothie.

Exhausted.

Went to inline practice tonight. It was nice that the temperature is finally settling down a little bit, I didn't really notice the heat tonight at all. It's pretty obvious that my body is pretty physically exhausted from my training and cross training over the past few days. I kind of wish I woke up in time to go to Yoga this morning, although I was glad to have done Body Flow last night.

I managed to get through all the drills, I didn't bring my Garmin with me to keep track of my lap times. I skated to practice. Still don't know how far the distance is between my house and the track, but it does make for a good warm-up. I need to stretch more.

Today's Inline Workout (on the 400m track):

• 8 warmup laps.
  
• 1000m (2 1/2 laps) sprints x9. 3 minute breaks in between and a longer break half-way.
  
• 15 starts. 5 @ 50%. 5 @ 75%. 5 @100%
  
• 5 laps reverse direction warmdown. Slow pace doing right crossovers.
  

My body felt like it was in slow motion today. Normally I can keep up with Camilo and Travis a bit longer, but today I was getting left behind around the first corner. I definately am not getting enough power on my crossover strides, it's probably the left leg push that is ineffective. I'm going to estimate that my times for the 1,000 meter sprints were well over 2 minutes. I'm not sure if it makes a difference whether I was using my oldest set of wheels and bearings.

I'm still working on my arm movements on the sprints and on the starts in particular.

Generally feeling stiff and tired.

WHAT I ATE TODAY:
Sour licorice, 2 Flax Bagel with light cream cheese, orange juice, 2 pickles, peanut butter sandwhich on Flax bread, 2 Booster Juices, Gatorade, Naan Bread, Rice, Lamb Masala, Butter Chicken, Saag Paneer, Mango Lassi.

I am obviously needing more vegetables in my diet. Too much sugar.

BODY PUMP and BODY FLOW New Releases.

I went and did the BODY PUMP and BODY FLOW new releases this evening at McCaul.

Bettina's Pump class was amusing as always. I found a few of the tracks challenging, including the chest, biceps and lunges. I brought my weights back up to the normal ratios that I had been doing prior to my taper for the inline races. I'm not sure whether this new release is more difficult or I'm just feeling it because I've taken a break for a few weeks (and brought my weights down for the one class I did last week).

The right shoulder was feeling a bit strained on the chest and biceps tracks.

The amount of weight for each track is as follows:

• Warmup: 10 kg
  
• Squats: 32 kg
  
• Chest: 12 kg
  
• Clean and Press: 15 kg
  
• Triceps: 10 kg
  
• Biceps: 7 kg
  
• Lunges: 15 kg

What I would ideally like to do as a goal over the summer is increase my Biceps to 9kg. I'm sure I can be increasing my squats as well, perhaps I'll try adding 2 kg next week. I also need to make sure that I'm working the shoulder blades up and squeezing them together on the Dead Row during the Clean and Press track. For the Chest Track I need to be focusing on getting the shoulders up off the riser and squeezing the chest on the upwards push.

Sharon's Flow class immediately following also had some pretty tricky moves. Checking in on my body, upper back, shoulders and lower back are feeling pretty tight. I also appear to have an ongoing injury in the right ankle/shin and the bottom of the right foot.

We went out for chinese afterwards and ate relatively healthy (for Chinese food).

I have to make sure that I am getting plenty of rest and lots of water. I got a good nights sleep last night and will need to go to be early tonight. My body is physically exhausted, no doubt I'm also feeling the effects of last nights' inline practice.

WHAT I ATE TODAY:
Banana, Flax Bagel and light cream cheese, Gazpatcho Soup with olives, a few peas, strawberry/banana smoothie, hot and sour soup, shanghai noodles, choi sum, chinese broccoli, bowl of white rice, clam in black bean sauce, sour licorice, orange juice.

Inline Skating for Transportation around Toronto

I'm still debating whether I should start logging in the amount of inline skating I do as a means of transportation around Toronto.

I am doing less skating as transportation than previous years (many times opting to make full use of TTC day-passes). I don't know if it's because I am more tired from my workout regimens, or that I just don't want to be covered in sweat and having to carry my inline skates around with me.

Today for example I skated to the gym at Manulife and back, and then I skated out to the Lansdowne track for practice. The skate to Manulife was not really a significant distance and I was on my rec skates. Although I was carrying heavy groceries in my backpack on the way back as an x-factor to the workout potential. I should at least take my Garmin and see what the distance is when I skate to practice, and perhaps I can count that as part of the warm-up.

Heatwave Part Quatre!

The heatwave continues!

I did the BODY COMBAT release at noon hour with Tanya and that went well. Sweated Buckets, but I was well hydrated.

Practice today was tough due to the heat. I was pretty exhausted from yesterday's activities and this morning's BODY COMBAT class. Camilo and Leo really pushed me today and really focused on certain technical issues with me.

Today's Inline Workout (on the 400m track):

• 13 laps to start increasing from 57s/lap to about 50s/lap.
  
• 2 laps with a 100m sprint at the end (12x with a break half way). Total of 24 laps.
  
• 15 starts. 5 @ 50%. 5 @ 75%. 5 @100%
  

Technical issues I needed to work on:

• Increase my stride to full extension on the push.
  
• limit the shoulder movement to a side-to-side. Upward shoulder movement wastes energy.
  
• Work on my glide/recovery. It does not service me to increase the number of strides I take just to keep up if I am losing my form and technique.
  
• On the start-sprints across the finish line, use my arm swing more. Exaggerate to get the full motion and power. The opposite wrist should swing up to the corner of the brim of my helmet. The back arm should straighten out.
  
• Hawking at the finish.
  

I grabbed some Pho with Carolyn afterwards. It's nice to have one of my friends as an inline buddy from outside of the skating world.

WHAT I ATE TODAY:
Crackers, apple, half a pint of grape tomatoes, banana, chicken quesadilia, Booster Juice, 3 pickles, Gazpatcho Soup with olives and hot sauce, Gatorade, Slurpee, Pho Noodle Soup with Rare Beef and Beef Balls, two cold springrolls with shrimp, Orange Vietnamese Milkshake, Strawberry Vietnamese Milkshake, 2 deep fried banana with chocolate.

SCORCHER!

Carolyn and I managed to get started on our inline skating around 10:30 am. It was already pretty warm.

We skated from the West Beaches to Port credit in exactly an hour. Approximately 18 km+ benchmark and we had a small break.

We finished off at a Cora's just past Clarkson on Lakeshore W in Mississauga. The hills past Port Credit were killer and the heat and humidity were pretty extreme. We slowed down the pace.

Total Distance: 26.87
Total Time: 1:40

Jen and I went climbing in the early evening. Due to the heat in the gym, we took it easy and I only did four climbs.

WHAT I ATE TODAY:
Banana, Honey Oat Bagel with light cream cheese, Gatorade, Strawberry Smoothie, Fresh Berry Fruit Juice, fully loaded omelette with meats and cheese, huge fruit crepe with custard and cream, Carribbean Soup, Coconut Bread, Carribbean veggies, Salmon, Mashed potatos, veggies.

I definately ate too much today.

TOMORROW'S GAME PLAN:
I will be teaching BODY COMBAT at noon. I'll get up early to practice in the morning. It looks like anothe scorcher tomorrow, but I'll go to Inline Practice in the evening.

Come Back Baby! Combat Baby!

I taught BODY COMBAT today up in the Markham Steeles/Woodbine Club. Stacey had asked for help after her original launched partner backed out. Two of us confirmed with her and two others showed up as well. It was really fun having a Combat Class with 5 instructors.

WHAT I ATE TODAY:
Banana, 1/2 Chocolate Peanut Butter Power Bar, Honey Wheat Bagel with Light Cream Cheese, Green Tea Nestea, Chocolate Banana Bread Donut, Jugo Juice Mango Smoothie with Powerzone shot, Korean BBQ Beef and Chicken, macaroni salade, Kimchee, Spicy Rice Cake with Seafood, Egg coated Zucchini, Rice, Barley tea, fried dumpling.

TOMORROW'S GAME PLAN:
A long distance inline Skate. It's supposed to go up to 34 degrees, so hopefully an early start will help. Everyone is in Montreal for the 24hr relay.