Training Log Archive: carbon

Distance and elevation a bit of a guess. I have to go back and find an old log for this route. I did a quick search and couldn't find it. Long story short, this was a pretty good run as I was only 3 minutes slower than Mike and Becca who both felt that they were working it. It's funny how you get a sense that people must be waaay ahead when they pull away just a little, but I timed the gaps today and it was only a minute in one spot and two in another. I can still feel some missing fitness but now I can sustain a steadier effort than a few weeks back. I can also run more of the climbs so I'm feeling good about things. The last few days of endurance work has built up so I was happy with today's effort.

Becca and I waited for the temps to warm up before heading out so by the time we started it was about 8C which wasn't bad. We rode around the Bearspaw area. At first there was no wind which is unusual for an afternoon ride. It picked up quite a bit towards the end of the ride so it was harder work the second half. We pretty much rode double file the whole time so we could chat so not a lot of drafting going on. I forgot to turn my Suunto on, so I don;t know the elevation gain for this ride.

A run on Nose Hill with Becca. The weather was sooo depressing when I woke up. Wet snow was coming down pretty hard and it was windy. I wouldn't have gone out on my own so I'm glad I had made plans to meet someone. In the end I had a great run and felt like I could run for much longer. That's a nice sign as that must mean I'm starting to get fitter. I will do another trail run on Sunday. Maybe Bragg Creek, although I think the Kananaskis are getting more snow today than we are. It said rain down low and snow up high. Tomorrow we are hoping for a road ride. I may switch the activity depending on weather and Becca's availability.

This session was all about puck control and passing drills. Many drills are in motion so I try to work on skating tips from my Wednesday session as well. The scrimmage tonight was really fun. Me and this young girl clicked and had some nice plays going.

This was another good session. I'm already noticing improvements in my skating, although I was struggling with a drill to work on the outside edge on my right leg (one legged glide skate in tight patters using the outside edge). I did great on the left but need some more work to bring the right leg up to the same level. My stationary wrist shot is also coming along and I now more consistently can hit the general area that I'm aiming for, although I have a long way to go with all shooting still. By the time we hit the 15 minute scrimmage I had so much technical skate and stick handling advice in my head that I hardly do anything. One of the coaches came up to me and told me just to have fun and when I did I ripped it (well, in very relative terms).

These sessions run late into the evening and I had a lot of trouble falling asleep. I only managed to get about 2.5hrs of sleep which isn't nearly enough to feel good for work.

A very good session with consistent work pretty much all the way through. We only changed are once it it was quick. Lots of running tonight. First a bunch on the small track, then many repeats on the longer stairs witn a focus of bringing the arm back all the way at the right height and bringing the hip forward with a good knee drive, plus opening the chest, two inches shorter, look up etc. etc. I'm noticing that my base fitness isn't what it usually is but I'm managing well anyway. We did a bunch of new technique exercises that I had never done before and that was really fun. The last 30 minutes we finished with a strength routine where each exercise was split witn running up the stairs five times.