“Working” at home

Last night’s swimming lesson with Coach Kelvin lasted until nearly 22:30, and it was almost 23:00 by the time I got home. So I let myself “sleep in” this morning—it was 6:45 when I glanced out the bedroom window. Today was garbage day, and we’re supposed to have our stuff at the curb by 7:00 but I decided it just wasn’t very important today, and snuggled back under the covers.

In due course, I had my mandatory mug of coffee; I actually did put the garbage out before the truck came by; Monado went to work; and I did a bit of work in my home office. And then I realized it was 11:00, I was still in my warm-ups, and I hadn’t showered or shaved. I had no meetings today, so I just e-mailed my secretary and my team that I was, ahem, “working at home”.

Not sure how much work I got done—but at least my training for Ironman Wisconsin is on track!

After a post-lunch nap, I got on my bike and did my “A” work-out for the day. According to Coach Steve: “Cycle 90" total with 2 x 20" tempo low cadence cycling (70-75rpm max, stay seated)” (for some reason, Steve uses a double-tick for minutes). Pretty straightforward: the old Trek went into the ergotrainer, and off I went, with the 2004 Giro d’Italia for entertainment (hence the picture of Damiano Cunego).

Two digressions here. First, I had the Giro d’Italia (or rather the first DVD of it) through zip.ca, which I’ve been very happy with.

Secondly, seeing Cunego and his teammates in their bright-red Sæco kit reminds me that my Sæeco Superautomatica coffeemaker needs to find its way to the local Sæeco office at the edge of the universe (Steeles Avenue!!!) sometime soon. It is not a happy coffeemaker, which makes me not a happy coffeedrinker.

I’ve been drinking Gatorade Endurance the last few trainer rides, the official drink of the U.S. Ironman races. I had to order it from Performance Bicycle (because it’s not available in Canada), but I actually think I like it better than the usual Gatorade.

Anyway, about halfway through the bottle I wondered what was wrong with it, and I realized it was soapy—I’d decanted it into a bike bottle not entirely rinsed of soap. Sigh. Just cold water from the cooler, I guess.

So a pretty easy ride as I watched a highly abridged three-year-old bike race unfold. It reminded me how much I enjoyed the much longer live or pseudo-live coverage of the Tour de France on the Outdoor Life Network. Somehow the hours spent watching very little happen seemed, well, more interesting than the twenty minutes, or sometimes less, I got per stage on the DVD.

I capped a reasonably easy day with my core strength work-out. Coach Steve has set one for his athletes, but I kind of liked the one in the March 2007 issue of Bicycling, so I’ve been doing it the last couple of weeks. As the article hinted, it’s hard, and I’m reminded how much better my core was when I was doing Pilates once or twice a week.

Anyway, the end of the day had me packing my swim kit for my 7:00 swim group (yawn!). It’s coming up on 21:00, so time to get to bed, and read the April issue of Bicycling, their annual buyer’s guide. Thus I will dream of carbon and aluminium and cool wheels.