Let me just be "lazy"

Yup, there's something to be said about being uber busy ... running on adrenalin, always trying to fit one more thing, feeling too hyper to sleep, needing to relax, not getting enough sleep, and definitely, oh too definitely not being able to fit in all the training necessary for an Ironman ...

SIGH.

I figure if I don't have time to train properly, I don't have time to blog properly either ... but here goes with my past week in training. No breakdown, sorry ... who's got the time?

Swimming 2200 m (over two days)

Cycling 155 km (over four days)

Running 17 km (one day)

Looking at this, I realise only now that I did not have a day off ... but I must admit that two of those days included 25 km cycling only 'cause I rode my bike to rehearsal. I'm not sure if that really counts but I figured my confidence needed the boost. My legs certainly felt it ... there's a good headwind for the last half going there and it's almost all uphill coming home.

I'm also surprised I was able to pull off that run as I hadn't ran for two weeks ... guess this old body of mine ain't as unfit as I thought ...

Increasing cycling mileage = tired legs

I cycled a hefty 193 km this week, from Sunday to Saturday and have not yet recuperated. Serves me right to increase my mileage that much. What helped was that my play rehearsals have moved into a warehouse west of downtown where a stage has been built to simulate the stage we will be performing on.

So with that said, here's my week in review.

Monday
- cycled 45 km, swam 1500 m

Tuesday
- cycled 55 km, including a long break at GB's for a fantastic steak supper and work on Operation Triumph stuff

Wednesday
- only 25 km cycling to my rehearsal ... it was a busy day what with the encore presentation of Jonathan Clark's fantastic slide show presentation Soul Travel, India!

Thursday
- day off, yay!

Friday
- more cycling, 45 km, including up and over our mountain via Camilien Houde again

Saturday
- short 6km run ... my knee hurt a bit, maybe because of all the cycling!

There's something about being uber-busy that makes it just way too easy to distract myself away from proper training. Sigh.

Did I just lose a week?

Got back from Toronto and was up to my wahoosie catching up with Operation Triumph, play rehearsals, and life in general. Only thing I seemed to manage was a lack of sleep and cycling to rehearsal. But of course, rehearsal being only a measly 3km away this week meant a grand total of barely nothing in terms of cycling mileage ... so I don't think I'm going to count that 6 km/day I've been doing.

Friday, I managed to finally slip in a short 1600 yard swim. Let me convert this for you ... a grand total of 1.46304 m according to the handy conversion calculator on WorldWideMetric.

Saturday, I slipped in a 13k run. Ouch! I hadn't run for 2 weeks and my legs were sore the day afterwards!

Sunday, I cycled 23k, but this was up and over our mountain via Camilien Houde, the steep road that the cars snake through. I think the grade is 7-10% depending on which part of the road. I was surprised to make it in one go without having to stop to recuperate or whine or curse. I'm in better shape though than the first time I attempted this climb two years ago when I trained for Ironman Canada in 2006. Yay!

Feels good to get back to training after my post-Toronto catch-up session :-)

Visiting Mom

When it FINALLY hit me that I would lose my mother to an incurable cancer, my heart and soul cried out in anguish and that "little girl" inside of me, with insecure, selfish, little girl needs of love and affection, awakened and wailed.

I realised how much I still needed my mother. And though it will be difficult, I know that the inevitability is that I will have to let go, ready or not.

So, for every day that I still have my mother, I will love her as deeply and tenderly as I can. Some people have bitterness and resentment towards their parents during their adult life. I feel none of this towards my mother and realise that life is too short for blame. Could haves, would haves, should haves. None of this means anything in the face of death. No point in ruminating over what wasn't perfect, for the Universe knows I was far from it.

And so, I was very happy to visit my mother in Toronto. Thank you Jonathan Clark for taking this beautiful series of shots.

Thursday, May 1

No training for this little girl today. It was a travelling day. Besides, after Jonathan's Soul Travel, India show, I had too many loose ends to take care of which resulted in another night of almost no sleep. I opted for some zzz's in the car. It's nice having a second driver!

My mom was really excited about my visit, and upon my arrival, I promptly took her out for supper at a Chinese buffet she hadn't visited for a long while. Lots of choice, maybe too much ... we happily ate like PIGS! For dessert, I had a green tea rice ball, mango jello, almond jello, and some red bean soup.



Friday, May 2

Pissy rain day. Popped by my cousin's house to visit her newborn fraternal twins ... a little boy and a little girl ... how adorable! Good thing Grandma, her mother, is there to help!



Then I took my mom out for our ritual dim sum and afterwards ran around with her grocery shopping, a luxury for her since she can't get out on her own.

I slipped out after supper for a quick swim. Toronto is renown for the distances between places, and the available pool was no exception. It took me almost half an hour to get there! Was it worth it for the measly 1000 m that I swam before the pool closed? You betcha! Felt good to train again ...

Saturday, May 3

Another pissy rain day, but today, I had committed to cycling.

It was miserable, cold and very wet, at times even torrential, but I really wanted to cycle some of the rollers just outside Toronto. I gave up looking for a place to relieve myself in the thick of the rain and while adjusting my aerobars at some intersection, I promptly went there, where I was standing, happily knowing that the rain would hide my, ahem, urgency.

I arrived home after cycling 55 km to a wonderful plate of my mom's fried rice. This has got to be one of my #1 comfort foods and I could have eaten unlimited plates of it!

The afternoon brought more shopping, including this really cool Chinese herb place.

Sunday, May 4

What I had in rain yesterday, I had in wind today. I headed out again to the rollers to do some more cycling. At one point, while going downhill, I could only hit 22km/h. Pretty dismal headwind. Needless to say I was pretty spent and very happy to finally make it back home after a 45 km cycle.

I came home to my mom's pork bone and tofu leaf soup. Another favourite comfort food.

That evening, we gathered up the relatives and had a BBQ feast at my cousin's ... My mom and I were happy to see everyone all together, it had been so long for both of us.

Monday, May 5

Travel day back to Montreal, no time to train.

Jonathan met up with us in the morning and we visited ZS (pics above), a friend of my mother's who had shared a hospital room with her for a few months during her recovery from the fall she had had before Christmas.

ZS, you are a beautiful woman, inside and out. Thank you for being so kind to my mother. My mother was thrilled to be reunited with you.

Oh Mom ... It's always so hard to say good-bye ...

The food, don't forget the food ...

The ridiculously busy periods of my life seem to get longer and more intense, giving me very little time to stop and breathe and just do nothing.

Recently, it's been one of those times ... and since I don't follow a training schedule yet or keep a formal log, it's quite tough trying to remember what I did when. I try my best to remember, but who knows, maybe I did diddly-squat and just want to believe that I'd been a good little triathlete girl and actually trained for the day.

Today, the day that I am writing this, which you don't really know since I can change the publish date of a post on Blogger, I am sure of only two things and neither have to do with training.

1) The spicy minced pork eggplant dish with broccoli and jasmine-scented rice that I made the other day was incredibly tasty and I could for sure eat it again now. I have fallen in love with melt-in-your mouth eggplant, especially the eggplant and basil at my favourite Thai restaurant, Phaya Thai. (Shh, their secret is to deep fry it first!)


2) Jonathan Clark presented yet another fantastic photo expostion - Soul Travel, India - the third in a spectacular slide show series hosted by Operation Triumph. Check it out to see more pics.