Category Archives: winter training

3 easy ways to have fun on the bike trainer indoors!

  By Crystal Clarke | October 15, 2016 - 3:33 pm | , , ,
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This week is the first week in a long time that I’ve been following a training plan. I have created a plan and am slowly adjusting my life around work and training. For the next 10 months my fun is going to be swimming, biking and running. Luckily, I’m very much enjoying these again and actually think of them as fun. Isn’t that what sports are all about? Having fun! I’ve had to figure out how to make this off-season training fun. The biggest struggle I’ve had with winter training is the indoor cycling on the trainer. I’ve never minded … Keep reading →

Week 14

  By Crystal Clarke | April 8, 2013 - 10:29 am | , , , , , , , , , ,
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14 weeks. 14 weeks until my A-race of 2013. Holy S**t. When I counted the weeks this morning I had a little jump of panic. Why? Well, let me just tell you why. The past few months I have been more active than I have been since the marathons last spring. That really isn’t saying a lot since I did almost zero activity from June to December. The reasons for that were numerous: burn-out (2 years of straight training will do that), a knee injury, a lot of various family issues from my brother being in an accident to my … Keep reading →

Recovering

  By Crystal Clarke | March 12, 2011 - 12:35 pm | , , , , ,
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This week was one of recovering. I wasn’t just recovering from running the race, but also from being so cold. My core body just doesn’t seem to want to get warm. I don’t think I was hypothermic at the race on Sunday, but I think it has affected my body’s ability to regulate its temperature since then. Since the race I have been re-thinking my goal to do the Saskatchewan Marathon at the end of May. It’s not so much that I don’t think I can train for the race, it’s the recovery time after. This past week has been … Keep reading →

An Easy Week

  By Crystal Clarke | February 1, 2011 - 10:10 pm | , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Having fun on the trainer!

Last week somehow turned into a rest week. I guess it makes sense after the week before’s pummeling of my body. On Sunday after the swim it kind of shut down. I could feel myself lagging in the water. I felt ill. Somehow I made it through the swim and spent the rest of the day on the couch. Actually, I spent Monday there too (other than going to work). I thought I had the flu that was going around, but since it didn’t turn into anything more than an upset stomach and sore muscles I guess it was “just” soreness from … Keep reading →

Farewell December!

  By Crystal Clarke | January 1, 2011 - 11:04 am | , , , , , , , ,
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December is always a difficult month to be motivated to train. It is busy with parties and family gatherings, not to mention buying presents and preparing for the holiday season. This December I was working in retail and it was BUUUUSY! Also, I had two clients have babies in the early part of the month and it really messed up my sleep schedule. Both births went really well with minor complications and both moms and babies are happy and healthy after their natural birth. I did manage to get in the odd run thanks to my good friend, Kelly. She … Keep reading →

Do not underestimate dehydration!

  By Crystal Clarke | November 24, 2010 - 7:47 pm | , , , ,
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Today my friend and I went for a run and accidentally* ran off-and-on for two hours (we shopped in there for about 20 minutes). It was -27 degrees Celsius with the windchill (about -20 without it) and we had planned for a 30-45 minute run. I had eaten at 5:30am and we started running around 9am. I had not drank any water between there because I was busy**. At the end of the “run” we ate some food and I went home. I hardly drank any water after the run at all. By the way, we ran a little over … Keep reading →

The Dreaded Trainer: Week 1

  By Crystal Clarke | November 22, 2010 - 4:52 pm | , , , , ,
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Last week was my first week becoming re-acquainted with my dreaded bike wind trainer. I haven’t put my bike on it for about a year and a half, after taking last winter off completely. On Wednesday I had my first indoor bike session of the 17-weeks to Spring coached program that I’m taking and coaching (on Thursdays). In this program we bring our own bikes and wind trainers. The worst part is transporting the bike and the wind trainer from far to building and up a huge flight of stairs. I know that it’ll get easier, but last week was … Keep reading →

A Saturday Morning Simu-Ride

  By Crystal Clarke | March 21, 2009 - 11:56 am | , , ,
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Getting up at 6am on a Saturday is not generally my idea of a good time, but when one is training for Ironman it just has to be done. Luckily, I wasn’t the only one and met 9 other people to get together for a 3-hour ride. One of the guys in the club has the Ironman Coeur d’Alene bike course on his CompuTrainer. So while one person road the course (this morning it was my buddy Peter), the rest of us watched the profile of the course as well as the video of the actual route that was projected … Keep reading →

Active Recovery and Food

  By Crystal Clarke | March 19, 2009 - 12:30 pm | , , , , ,
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On Monday I biked to work in a snow/rain storm in the name of active recovery. I knew that I wouldn’t have the energy to do anything more than that after work. On Tuesday, I took my pup for a much-needed walk in the morning and then for a nice, chilled out run/walk in the evening. I realized on this walk/run that this was what active recovery felt like! And I have to admit that on Wednesday morning, my DOMS (ie. delayed onset muscle soreness) felt much better. My massage later that day also helped! It probably also helped that … Keep reading →

My Weekend with Simon Lessing

  By Crystal Clarke | March 17, 2009 - 2:28 pm | , ,
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It’s true that I have not trained as much this winter as I had hoped I would. I would even say that the past couple of months I have been in a negative rut, physically, emotionally, and mentally… all very closely related of course. Last week I decided at the last-minute that I was going to sign up for a clinic that the local triathlon club has organized. It was a little out of my budget, but I decided that I could cut back on other things to make it work for me financially. So I spent my weekend with … Keep reading →