Colleen Johnston is planning to do the Becel Ride for Heart and then a sprint triathlon.
Ten years ago, Colleen Johnston, the group head, finance, and chief financial officer of TD Bank Financial Group, was inactive. Her exercise routine amounted to riding her family and career in tandem. Suddenly, on the advice of her doctor, she made one small healthy change in her lifestyle. Now, the 51-year-old is following a training plan for a sprint triathlon and gearing up to ride in the Becel Ride for Heart on June 6.
My goal:
"The immediate goal is riding in the Becel Ride for Heart. The other goal is training for a sprint triathlon in July. I have broad goals around wellness, maintaining energy and a healthy weight."
My workout:
"Last year, I did three-quarters of a sprint, which is a 750-metre swim, 20K bike and 5K run. Now, I want to complete it. In November, 2009, I started taking swimming lessons to learn the basic strokes with a flutter board. I take occasional swim lessons, but I have a coach with a program that includes twice-weekly individual workouts of swimming, biking and running."
My lifestyle:
"I travel 20 per cent of the time. Otherwise, I'm working, on average, 11-hour days, so the intense exercise is best first thing in the morning. I'm up at 5 a.m. and I do running at home on the treadmill or I'll go outside when the weather's good. I bike or take spin classes in the gym. And I have two pools I go to.
"I'll eat half a banana, do the run, and then eat cereal and fruits. I need something easy to eat so that I'm not training on an empty stomach.
"For years, I've been hearing about the midafternoon snack, but, for me, I can't be eating a muffin in a meeting. So I eat a cashew or peanut-butter Larabar; they combine fruit and nuts, which is better than pure carbs."
My motivation:
"I'm doing the Becel Ride for Heart [which raises money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation]because my younger brother had a stroke six years ago at the age of 43. He's spent thousands of hours in physical therapy rebuilding his body. We're riding in the event together; it's our third year."
"But 10 years ago I was inactive," adds the mother of two daughters, 18 and 21. "I was focused on family and my career and then, in 2000, stress was taking its toll on me, and I had various physical symptoms. My doctor advised walking at a good pace every day for 30 minutes - the best advice I ever had. I lost 25 pounds since that visit. Now, I'm consciously trying to maintain the benefits and discovering exercise is an outlet for stress."
My anthem:
"I have about 20 songs on my iPod Shuffle. Journey songs go a long way, and I like I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas."
My challenge:
"My audacious goal was to learn to swim because I hadn't been swimming in 40 years."
The critique
According to Zach Weston, a kinesiologist and clinical exercise physiologist, Ms. Johnston has a good balance of intensity for anaerobic conditioning, which she needs to build upon to confidently finish the sprint triathlon. Mr. Weston was provided her complete training program as background for his critique and he offers three improvements to help her ride smarter, stronger, faster.
Switch to high-intensity training
Ms. Johnston needs to improve her tolerance of high-intensity effort by alternating short bursts of maximal work followed by low-intensity recovery, Mr. Weston advises. "Interval training will help her to have the extra kick to maintain speed for climbing hills on both the bike and run portions of the race, not to mention the short sprint out of the water, which quite often involves an uphill run."
He suggests conditioning with hill training, and he offers examples he uses with his clients preparing for a sprint triathlon:
Find a hill that is approximately 30 to 40 metres long and has a 6-per-cent grade or more.
Perform a warm-up run to the hill (about 5 to 15 minutes).
Sprint up the hill as fast as possible with good arm and leg action. Walk down odd-numbered repetitions and jog down even repetitions. Repeat 10 times.
Jog home and stretch.
Improve cycling technique
A spin class is good for intensity, but the exercise is often mistaken for cycling training - and spinning is not cycling, says Mr. Weston, a faculty member in the department of kinesiology at Wilfrid Laurier University. "Technique and efficiency is what will separate good cyclists from inefficient mashers on the bike, and a spin bike is not optimal for learning good form." He recommends that Ms. Johnston use her bike on an indoor trainer or on a computrainer at a specialized facility, such as the Endurance Lab and WattsUp Cycling with Adam Johnson in Toronto.
Monitor heart rate
Finally, Mr. Weston says Ms. Johnston would benefit from a VO2 metabolic exercise test with a certified kinesiologist. "This will inform Colleen where her sustainable training intensity should be for various distances."
He also suggests that Ms. Johnston consider wearing a heart-rate monitor. "The heart-rate monitor will also provide the combined impact of the effects of weather conditions and race intensity on her body, adding that if it's hot and humid, the heart rate will climb faster in an effort to try and thermo-regulate and dissipate heat through increased sweating," Mr. Weston says.
Not only will this training tool ensure Ms. Johnston runs "her" race at the right pace, but it will also prevent her from getting carried away in the excitement of competition resulting in her pushing too hard too early, and then deflating her performance. These small changes create a no-pressure feeling so she can trust in her training and enjoy the thrill of competition to achieve her personal best.
Special to The Globe and Mail