Happy Christmas readers, and because I wont have written again for another 6 days or so, Happy New Years (picture streamers and those blowing things going off!) . I hope all who read this have a great 2010, meet all their goals and expectations and simply love and live life!
I am sure gonna try.....well......for the next 12 weeks (90 odd days) there is going to be a complete focus on the race, but after that, its time to give some time back to the family, get my ducks in a row work wise. 2009 has been a year to forget with regards to work, and for 2010, the goals and KPI's I will have set will be of a completely differant nature to what they were in 2009, so here's hoping huh!
With regards to a year review for triathlon, training and racing, I think I will actually post that next week, so that should be some interesting writing on my behalf and hopefully reading for you!
Today I am actually pretty sore. Its kind of strange that I am, but funny, its the way this week felt started. I woke up on Monday morning, usual time to go for a swim (with jase), and I felt like I had some straps holding me in bed. I was absolutely wrecked, tired, sore and snuffed! I wanted to pull the pin on the session as I dont think I have felt that poor for months, but in the end, got my lazy arse moving (albeit it very gingerly) out of bed and downstairs and off to fetch Jase. Boy, thank goodness it was a recovery set because there was no way I would have been doing anything at threshold on Monday!
I cycled into work on Tuesday and met up with Matt Porta for a few leisurely laps of Centennial before taking on my swim set at lunchtime. Good set as well, and I got chatting to a new club member who did his first CCTri race on the Sunday....good to see another person out there challanging themselves and looking to improve. Its funny being asked for tips and advice when I am a mere infant to triathlon in terms of how long I have been doing it for. I have not even done 10 triathlons yet I think....but its also testiment to the guys around me whom have been so generous with their time, encouragement, abuse, advice, abuse, chit chat, support and of course....abuse! Vlad, Jase, Andrew M and Andrew C, Rollo, Matt, Steve 'Mad Dog', Jeffinator, the Angriest Little Man Alive (aka ALM or Allen), Smithy, Skinny Wiggle.......chaps, thanks for the input......its been awesome and long may it continue! Anyway, I hope this chap keeps coming abck to the club races and finds the same enjoyment I have in this sport and its community.
Back to the training for this week. I did the brick session again on Wednesday morning, loved that as always, was very happy to pull a split of 3.21 out for a 1km rep!! I swam wednesday night, and ran with jase on Thursday morning. I took Friday off for Xmas day, but boy was I tempted to get out there for an early morning run......I think a wise decision I did not, but the temptation was certainly there.
I ran with Andrew M at Trotters on Saturday morming. It was the monthly 10km Time trial, I was nervous after the last time trial which i really really struggled. Anyway, Andrew took off like an animal as usual, he is so strong in this distance. I guess I reeled him back in a bit, but I was never going to catch him...he ended up finishin in 39.15ish, with me about 39.30, so it was a good hit out. Into the surf afterwards for a very cold ocean swim, whereby I got numb fingers.....in the middle of December.....WTF! I finished the week off with a 135min Turbo Trainer session with a 13km run off the bike...great stuff....loved it! The run off the bike was all a botu focusing on keeping the HR low and not worrying too much about pace. I found it very hard to run that slow, very uncomfortable to be honest, but I am going to have to learn fast, because...in march, I wont be able to sustain even the pace I did today for 42kms, not after a 180km bike ride. Rollo's program for the next 4 weeks is geared exactly for that, running slow and long to ensure I can do it efficiently!
So in summery :
Swim : 5km (2hours)
Run : 50km (5hours)
Ride : 70km + 4hours TT
Total : 13hours
Apart from Monday, I loved every set!
As for new Years resoltuions...I never set myself any. In my opinion, if you want to make a change to your life, you dont need to roll into a new year to make that change...its a mind set thing, make the decision and stick to it. Easy! I know its not that simple all the time, but mostly it is. We have weak points in which we are susceptible to temptation or renegading on the decision we have made, but if you can find something which will help you get through the tough times...then what ever the change you have made will become easier. My plans, and I am making them public are this :
As of January 1st, cut out all crap I currently eat, these are lollies, chocolates (for some reason this is my problem at the moment), chips and maybe redbull kind of drinks...
As of the end of January, cut out grog....
These 2 challenges for me are to end when I finish the Iron Man in March, so both are short term, but both still hard in their own right...I am depriving myself of some of the finer things in life (not the finest, but they are amongst them), because I want to give myself every opportunity to get through the race and finish strong, and I want to be primed and at my best to give it a real crack! Hopefully with people out there knowing these 2 short term goals, I will not be tempted to endulge!
Anyway, all the best to everyone and your families, and until next year...........................
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Could it get worse?
Seriously,The last 3 days have been a disaster!. If you have read my last few blogs you would know that I have been pretty flat out at work, traveling a bit here and there, and putting some long hours in. This week was differant! For the good....hell no! I seem to be going through some real technical issues with our environment, and after starting the week rather nice and stable Thursday night I was called into work at 1am. Again on Friday night at 2am! And then just to top it off, I got my first DNF at the club race today because I rode one lap short! I was going reasonably well during the race, but the effects of a 22km lunchtime (32'c) run certainly took its toll. Why run at lunch? Because I was at bloody work until 10am and only when talking to Vlad on the way home he reminded me that the whole point of all this training is for March 28th, and the club race the next day was not the priority. That comment convinced me to run when I got home, even in th heat and humdity...The run was great. I got bloody burnt though :-(....next time I will have to remember soft tan cream!
So, apart from the crap week at work, lack of sleep again and the DNF, the week was marvelous! I loved the sets Rollo gives me to go through. Again, my mid week brick session is probably the hightlight! They hard like hell, but are such good fun! Also, an honourable mention should go to Jase and Matt this week who both on Thursday morning joined me for for a 6am start of 12 x 400m efforts! Honestly, the only other person who has been keen enough to do early morning sessions with me was Vlad, but he is taking a break for the time being, and concentrating on his running. It was good fun to have those 2 blokes running out there with me, hurting as well, and seeing them push hard. It was good to see Jase find that key to the hurt locker again, something he knows he needs to frequent a little more if he is to achieve his goal in March. I personally think he will. He has been enjoying the sessions with Andrew and I, and his company is most welcomed! It makes the journey, the race and the whole participation thing so much better!
So in summery this week :
Swim : 5km (2hours)
Bike : 4hours(All TT)
Run : 55km (5hours)
Total : 11hours
So, the lightest week I have had in a long time. I missed 2 swim sets because of work, which is why thats so low in terms of volume. I also missed the ocean swim I usually do on a Saturday, and then to top it off, I had a paltry 5hours of sleep between Thursday and Saturday!! Its a wonder why I have struggled this weekend with fatigue, tiredness and just being 'over' dealing with work! At least I have pretty much worked with the vendors and sorted the issues out, but still, pretty stressful!
I am looking forward to xmas, spending a few days with my family, not getting up at 3.50am each day to train (I will get up at 5am instead), and not going into the office either........very nice!
So, to all those who read this blog, have a great Xmas, keep safe, train and travel safe, and will be back again next week! 98 days to go now......whoa!
So, apart from the crap week at work, lack of sleep again and the DNF, the week was marvelous! I loved the sets Rollo gives me to go through. Again, my mid week brick session is probably the hightlight! They hard like hell, but are such good fun! Also, an honourable mention should go to Jase and Matt this week who both on Thursday morning joined me for for a 6am start of 12 x 400m efforts! Honestly, the only other person who has been keen enough to do early morning sessions with me was Vlad, but he is taking a break for the time being, and concentrating on his running. It was good fun to have those 2 blokes running out there with me, hurting as well, and seeing them push hard. It was good to see Jase find that key to the hurt locker again, something he knows he needs to frequent a little more if he is to achieve his goal in March. I personally think he will. He has been enjoying the sessions with Andrew and I, and his company is most welcomed! It makes the journey, the race and the whole participation thing so much better!
So in summery this week :
Swim : 5km (2hours)
Bike : 4hours(All TT)
Run : 55km (5hours)
Total : 11hours
So, the lightest week I have had in a long time. I missed 2 swim sets because of work, which is why thats so low in terms of volume. I also missed the ocean swim I usually do on a Saturday, and then to top it off, I had a paltry 5hours of sleep between Thursday and Saturday!! Its a wonder why I have struggled this weekend with fatigue, tiredness and just being 'over' dealing with work! At least I have pretty much worked with the vendors and sorted the issues out, but still, pretty stressful!
I am looking forward to xmas, spending a few days with my family, not getting up at 3.50am each day to train (I will get up at 5am instead), and not going into the office either........very nice!
So, to all those who read this blog, have a great Xmas, keep safe, train and travel safe, and will be back again next week! 98 days to go now......whoa!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Back to normality and Loving it!
After 2 weeks of disrupted weeks, having travelled to our remote offices in Melbourne & Perth, which disturbed my weekly routine (I am a man of routine...dont bugger it up because I get upset :-( (which by the way is weird, because outside of work I am a very relaxed person) but I guess that having the program from Rollo to follow means I can plan my week in advance and know what I was doing and when I could do it. Traveling made it difficult, and of course I was not able to do long rides either, which I really need! Remember, that bloody Iron Man ride is 180km....lets say that again....(in one of those darts commentators voices) ONE HUNDRED AND EEEEEEEIGHTY! kilometers!! Then, never mind the knackered legs, we are to get off that bike, rump bloody sore, legs buggered, hot, tired, thirsty, and run a measly marathon (42km). Having my week cut short to accommodate traveling really gave me the shits because I know what lies ahead, and it aint pretty!
Ah well, its my choice, and despite how the above sounds, I am so excited, nervous and looking forward to competing in the Iron Man. Not many people will do this in their life span, take on such a goal which requires such commitment from the person participating and their family (as in my case and most of the guys I know doing triathlon). I think my wife is over the early morning wake ups she gets every day now, I dont blame her, it must be annoying getting woken up at 4am Mon to Fri and at least 5am on weekends....she has been pretty patient. We must have double the amount of fabric washing liquid because everyday I have towels, cozzies, running and or cylcing gear, and sometimes 3 sets of the stuff from one day (brick session + recovery run)! The increase in expenditure to provide the fuel needed to keep me going means that any reduction in the money spent on beer previously is not being realised either....instead, I now scoff protien powder and other suppliments to keep my temple well oiled and rearing to go each day! My favourite though has to be No-Xplode! Its a pre exersice concoction which I have before my runs and swims. Not sure exactly what is in it, what it does, but it gets the consumer fired up and ready to rumble. A by product of this concoction is the almost instant bowel cleansing process one goes through within 30mins of drinking it. Its bloody funny being a seasoned user of it, to give Jase a dose on Thursday morning, and watch the reaction! I had a bloody good laugh at him, and even when we ran this morning, I was close to tears at his recollection of this rather woeful by product. Bugger eating deworming tablets, this stuff will clear your arse pipes with haste and vigor....and once done, you will emerge like a little jack Russel with that 'spring' in your step, ready to go, 2kgs lighter and grateful for having made it to the loo!!
Anyway, back to this weeks training. Rollo again provided a quality program. This time focused on the cycling as I had not done as much in the past 2 weeks because of my travels. I had the usual brick session on Wednesday morning which I love doing. Friday I had a straight 3.8km swim down at Andrew Boy Charlton pool. I have never swum that far in one go...thats 72laps of a 50m pool! I was excited about doing it, but also knew I would be pretty bored after 10mins of going up and down the lane. well, the swim lived up to expectations. I loved the fact that I did it, hating being in there, hated the salt water, and emerged about 54mins later. Not bad, given that would be a great time for me during the Iron Man! The 2XU V1 wetsuit was comfortable throughout, whcih was another test, so all in all, great fun...all done before 7am to!
On Saturday I went to work on the 4am train, the building was having a power outage, so I needed to be there. I dropped my bike off friday because I decided to ride home once done. Jase was to meet me at some point, him leaving home at 7.45am, me about 8.15 from the office. It meant we would meet about half way. I left a little late, and boy, that is the toughest ride I think I have done. Its pretty much uphill all the way, the first 48kms with a head wind. We actually did meet about halfway, and headed back to Gosford together. Finished the ride, and I must say, it was bloody good fun, but hard work!
Up again this morning at 5am, and off with Jase to do 2 hours of hill running. We chose to run offroad in the hills in Ourimbah for a change, which was good. 21kms later, just under 2hours of constant running we were done. It was good to run with jase as well. He has done a few Iron Man races himself, and will be there again in March! Its good to have good company, and the guys I have trained with have made it so so much easier and better for me. Vlad, Andrew, Andrew, Tim, Jase, Allen, Adrian & Rollo have all really made the journey so far great fun, kept me going with encouragement, advice and tips, and to these blokes I am most grateful! Its now realy 3months only left to prepare, which aint long......
So the week was as follows :
Swim : 7.2km (3hours)
Cycle : 100kms + 3.5hrs on TT (7.5hours)
Run : 35kms (4hours)
Total : 14.5hours (or there abouts)
You can see the low volume in the run for the past week. Its probably not a bad thing as my shin has been niggling me again. I will be applying deep heat etc to it and giving it a good working.
Lastly, Andrew and Jeff competed in the Canberra Half Iron Man today. I dont know all the details, but it was another hot and tough day out there apparently, but both came through in similar unofficial times. well done to them both, great efforts to be out there doing that.
until next week.....and more reports on No-Xplode!!
Ah well, its my choice, and despite how the above sounds, I am so excited, nervous and looking forward to competing in the Iron Man. Not many people will do this in their life span, take on such a goal which requires such commitment from the person participating and their family (as in my case and most of the guys I know doing triathlon). I think my wife is over the early morning wake ups she gets every day now, I dont blame her, it must be annoying getting woken up at 4am Mon to Fri and at least 5am on weekends....she has been pretty patient. We must have double the amount of fabric washing liquid because everyday I have towels, cozzies, running and or cylcing gear, and sometimes 3 sets of the stuff from one day (brick session + recovery run)! The increase in expenditure to provide the fuel needed to keep me going means that any reduction in the money spent on beer previously is not being realised either....instead, I now scoff protien powder and other suppliments to keep my temple well oiled and rearing to go each day! My favourite though has to be No-Xplode! Its a pre exersice concoction which I have before my runs and swims. Not sure exactly what is in it, what it does, but it gets the consumer fired up and ready to rumble. A by product of this concoction is the almost instant bowel cleansing process one goes through within 30mins of drinking it. Its bloody funny being a seasoned user of it, to give Jase a dose on Thursday morning, and watch the reaction! I had a bloody good laugh at him, and even when we ran this morning, I was close to tears at his recollection of this rather woeful by product. Bugger eating deworming tablets, this stuff will clear your arse pipes with haste and vigor....and once done, you will emerge like a little jack Russel with that 'spring' in your step, ready to go, 2kgs lighter and grateful for having made it to the loo!!
Anyway, back to this weeks training. Rollo again provided a quality program. This time focused on the cycling as I had not done as much in the past 2 weeks because of my travels. I had the usual brick session on Wednesday morning which I love doing. Friday I had a straight 3.8km swim down at Andrew Boy Charlton pool. I have never swum that far in one go...thats 72laps of a 50m pool! I was excited about doing it, but also knew I would be pretty bored after 10mins of going up and down the lane. well, the swim lived up to expectations. I loved the fact that I did it, hating being in there, hated the salt water, and emerged about 54mins later. Not bad, given that would be a great time for me during the Iron Man! The 2XU V1 wetsuit was comfortable throughout, whcih was another test, so all in all, great fun...all done before 7am to!
On Saturday I went to work on the 4am train, the building was having a power outage, so I needed to be there. I dropped my bike off friday because I decided to ride home once done. Jase was to meet me at some point, him leaving home at 7.45am, me about 8.15 from the office. It meant we would meet about half way. I left a little late, and boy, that is the toughest ride I think I have done. Its pretty much uphill all the way, the first 48kms with a head wind. We actually did meet about halfway, and headed back to Gosford together. Finished the ride, and I must say, it was bloody good fun, but hard work!
Up again this morning at 5am, and off with Jase to do 2 hours of hill running. We chose to run offroad in the hills in Ourimbah for a change, which was good. 21kms later, just under 2hours of constant running we were done. It was good to run with jase as well. He has done a few Iron Man races himself, and will be there again in March! Its good to have good company, and the guys I have trained with have made it so so much easier and better for me. Vlad, Andrew, Andrew, Tim, Jase, Allen, Adrian & Rollo have all really made the journey so far great fun, kept me going with encouragement, advice and tips, and to these blokes I am most grateful! Its now realy 3months only left to prepare, which aint long......
So the week was as follows :
Swim : 7.2km (3hours)
Cycle : 100kms + 3.5hrs on TT (7.5hours)
Run : 35kms (4hours)
Total : 14.5hours (or there abouts)
You can see the low volume in the run for the past week. Its probably not a bad thing as my shin has been niggling me again. I will be applying deep heat etc to it and giving it a good working.
Lastly, Andrew and Jeff competed in the Canberra Half Iron Man today. I dont know all the details, but it was another hot and tough day out there apparently, but both came through in similar unofficial times. well done to them both, great efforts to be out there doing that.
until next week.....and more reports on No-Xplode!!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Shattered and now Very concerned!
Boy oh Boy! I was lucky enough to go across to Perth this week for work, and then travel down to Busselton to watch the WA Iron Man. Firstly, I was up at 3am on Thursday morning, off to the airport. My flight was 6.10am. Arrived in Perth at 8am, straight to work, and finished in the office at about 8pm. I then met up with some old friends (Nikki and Tyron) who kindly had me for dinner, and I was back at my hotel around midnight (3am Sydney time so I pulled a 24hr day there). I then got up at 4am Perth time (7am Sydney) headed off to the office to make sure all the systems were okay for the start of the sydney office day. From there, I went and joined a swim session held by Ross Pedlow (Exceed Triathlon Coaching) at 6am. It was a pretty enjoyable set, nice to swim with others for once, I am usually on my own. Ross made the comment that he thought my swim stroke / style was, and I quote "Ugly, but it gets the job done!" I am not sure if I should be shattered about that, but hey, if I can swim with his fast boys, then I dont really care! I'll blame the waterpolo for the stroke style!
On Friday I finished up at the office just after lunch, and then off to meet Vlad and Adam in Busso. It was hot on Friday (34c) however it was going to be hotter for the race....deary me! Vlad, Adam and I had a pretty relaxing night, and we were up at 4am on Saturday and off to Transition. Vlad was nice and relaxed, and it was actually quite cold at 5am, the wind was leading us astray!
The Busso course looks awseome. The swim takes you out and around the pier...this thing is about 2km long!! jesus! The turning point looks miles away from the start. The best thing though is the water colour and clarity...absolutley stunning. After the gun went off and V;ad was out of the water and on the bike, Adam and I ran most of the run course (which is a 14km lap), and its was pretty flat, pretty exposed to wind and sun, and we discussed as we ran how we thought it was going to be a tough day later on. Little did we know exactly how much hotter it was to get.
Well, Vlad had a blinder on the bike, finishing the 180km leg in under 5hours, and started the run strongly, but unfortunately faded, sctruggled with cramping again and struggling with his breathing. (a similar condition in Kona I think) The poor bloke made it to around the 30km mark before he was taken into the medical tent and onto a drip. He lost 5kgs during the race! Thats just how tough it was out there! I reckon, and I am sure Adam and other athletes will back me here, 90% of the guys out there were walking, 9% a very tender shuffle, and maybe the odd one, and very few and far between were running. It was hot, and I mean HOT! The wind was hot and dry, and sun was burning, and we were struggling as spectators...never mind running a marathon.
Anyway, back to Perth last night, and onto the midnight flight to Sydney. A couple of hours of 'sleep' and driving home, so all up, in the past 3 days I have had no more than 6hours of sleep. through a few training sessions in as well amoungst that, flying to and from Perth, work and other items, this week has not been ideal for my training. The thing is, I still manage to get all the sessions in, bar my run today (I am absolutely buggered). I love the huuge brick I did on Wednesday morning as well.
I am looking forward to a solid week this week, because wathcing that race yesterday has reminded me how hard that race is, and just when you start thinking you might be slightly prepared, I have been reminded just how far I had to go in order to finish at Port in March. Vlad also kindly reminded me I really onl,y have 12 to 14 weeks of solid training left because of the taper before....in the scheme of things its not a long time at all.
So, in summery this week :
Swim : 10km (4 hours)
Ride : 3hours on TT
Run : 50kms (5hours)
Total : 12 hours
So fairly light, but not bad for the amount of time I had available to me.
Well done Tim and his Brother for finishing the race yesterday, and Vlad, you are an animal for being in so many Iron Man races in such a short space of time....mate, I hope you enjoy your retirement from IM, I am sure you could rest up until Port, and then it can be YOUR DAY!!! (you can spend most of it chasing me down...you must be tempted)
UNtil next week.....
On Friday I finished up at the office just after lunch, and then off to meet Vlad and Adam in Busso. It was hot on Friday (34c) however it was going to be hotter for the race....deary me! Vlad, Adam and I had a pretty relaxing night, and we were up at 4am on Saturday and off to Transition. Vlad was nice and relaxed, and it was actually quite cold at 5am, the wind was leading us astray!
The Busso course looks awseome. The swim takes you out and around the pier...this thing is about 2km long!! jesus! The turning point looks miles away from the start. The best thing though is the water colour and clarity...absolutley stunning. After the gun went off and V;ad was out of the water and on the bike, Adam and I ran most of the run course (which is a 14km lap), and its was pretty flat, pretty exposed to wind and sun, and we discussed as we ran how we thought it was going to be a tough day later on. Little did we know exactly how much hotter it was to get.
Well, Vlad had a blinder on the bike, finishing the 180km leg in under 5hours, and started the run strongly, but unfortunately faded, sctruggled with cramping again and struggling with his breathing. (a similar condition in Kona I think) The poor bloke made it to around the 30km mark before he was taken into the medical tent and onto a drip. He lost 5kgs during the race! Thats just how tough it was out there! I reckon, and I am sure Adam and other athletes will back me here, 90% of the guys out there were walking, 9% a very tender shuffle, and maybe the odd one, and very few and far between were running. It was hot, and I mean HOT! The wind was hot and dry, and sun was burning, and we were struggling as spectators...never mind running a marathon.
Anyway, back to Perth last night, and onto the midnight flight to Sydney. A couple of hours of 'sleep' and driving home, so all up, in the past 3 days I have had no more than 6hours of sleep. through a few training sessions in as well amoungst that, flying to and from Perth, work and other items, this week has not been ideal for my training. The thing is, I still manage to get all the sessions in, bar my run today (I am absolutely buggered). I love the huuge brick I did on Wednesday morning as well.
I am looking forward to a solid week this week, because wathcing that race yesterday has reminded me how hard that race is, and just when you start thinking you might be slightly prepared, I have been reminded just how far I had to go in order to finish at Port in March. Vlad also kindly reminded me I really onl,y have 12 to 14 weeks of solid training left because of the taper before....in the scheme of things its not a long time at all.
So, in summery this week :
Swim : 10km (4 hours)
Ride : 3hours on TT
Run : 50kms (5hours)
Total : 12 hours
So fairly light, but not bad for the amount of time I had available to me.
Well done Tim and his Brother for finishing the race yesterday, and Vlad, you are an animal for being in so many Iron Man races in such a short space of time....mate, I hope you enjoy your retirement from IM, I am sure you could rest up until Port, and then it can be YOUR DAY!!! (you can spend most of it chasing me down...you must be tempted)
UNtil next week.....
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Travelling Blues
Following a number of pretty intense weeks of training, this week was on paper slightly lighter.....looking back at it though, whilst a few of the sessions might not have been as long, there were a number which were really tough...the wednesday brick session was in there (which I love), an interval session on Thursday night, a 10km Time Trial on Saturday, and a long brick session today with Andrew.
I also travelled to Melbourne on Thursday for 2 days of work, a bit of a whirlwind trip, very stressfull work wise, not the work done in the office, but the stuff going on back in Sydney was not exactly helpful....so the interval set Thursday night was hard, in unfamiliar area, and after a long day of work and travel, so not ideal for me. I missed the swim on Friday, because I left my gear back home, but I had done a swim on Tuesday just in case something did actually prevent me from training on Friday, so that was okay. I was really tired on Friday anyway, as I did not sleep well at all. I was up before 6am as well....the body is now so used to being up early :-(
I arrived back in sydney late on friday night, and was up early to meet Andrew for a 5.30am start down at Terrigal, to run 3omins before the 10km TT. I knew as soon as I started running it was going to be a tough hard day at the office, my legs were heavy, my knees were tender, and just not my usual self...raring to go. Well, after about 3km into the race, I was actually considering pulling the pin, I was knackered, had nothing in the tank at all, tired, breathing fard and actually not enjoying myself at all. A few mental battle moments were had, and when I reminded myself that the Iron Man is going to be 4 x the distance, and probably 10 x the pain, I was able to soldier on.....but only running at around the 4min pace. Andrew and Smithy ran like legends and they were awesome to watch surging ahead. In the end, I came through the line in 39.46...nearly 2mins or so off my PB and I was dissapointed. The only good thing I can take from that run was the mental toughness I probably learnt, the run itself was probably my worst in terms of the enjoyment factor....and thats what it is all about, enjoying being out there.
The funny thing was, i got up at 4.50am this morning, felt pretty ordinary again, met up with Andrew and we were to ride 3hours (with hill repeats) and then 8km off the bike run. The ride started with my legs feeling very heavy again, but after about an hour, i was feel heaps better, and rea,lly enjoyed being out there. The hill repeats done with a very slow cadence were awesome...loved doing them, and the interesting thing was how far Andrew and I got up the hills, were were a fair few hundred meters further up the road than we were able to 3 months ago....shows how good the training is we do through Rollo...his programs are the business!
The run off the bike was good, I felt so much better than yesterday, enjoyed the run (even after 70 odd kms on the bike), it was hot, challanging surface with hills, but I loved it, so the week ended on a real high....thank goodness. The only issue is back to work tomorrow, and off to WA for a few days this week....so its going to be stressful again....makes you wander sometimes!
To sum the week up then :
Swim : 9kms (3hours)
Ride : 80kms + 2Hours on TT (5hours)
Run : 50kms (4.5hours)
TOTAL : 12.5hours
So a solid week of training, a pretty stressful week of work, and throw the traveling and heat into the mix, and it has made it pretty tough. Work wise, my least enjoyable week for quite a few months to be honest, and, given the number of hours I work, stressful weeks really take their toll on me, so lets hope this one coming is slightly better. I had not scheduled any time off over Xmas this year, but I am considering it seriously now....would be good to spend time at home with the family I think.
So, perth here I come. I am also going to Bussulton to wathc the Iron Man, Vlad and Tim will be competing in it so it will be good. Its going to be hectic for me travel wise, but I guess thats life sometimes.....so until then...
I also travelled to Melbourne on Thursday for 2 days of work, a bit of a whirlwind trip, very stressfull work wise, not the work done in the office, but the stuff going on back in Sydney was not exactly helpful....so the interval set Thursday night was hard, in unfamiliar area, and after a long day of work and travel, so not ideal for me. I missed the swim on Friday, because I left my gear back home, but I had done a swim on Tuesday just in case something did actually prevent me from training on Friday, so that was okay. I was really tired on Friday anyway, as I did not sleep well at all. I was up before 6am as well....the body is now so used to being up early :-(
I arrived back in sydney late on friday night, and was up early to meet Andrew for a 5.30am start down at Terrigal, to run 3omins before the 10km TT. I knew as soon as I started running it was going to be a tough hard day at the office, my legs were heavy, my knees were tender, and just not my usual self...raring to go. Well, after about 3km into the race, I was actually considering pulling the pin, I was knackered, had nothing in the tank at all, tired, breathing fard and actually not enjoying myself at all. A few mental battle moments were had, and when I reminded myself that the Iron Man is going to be 4 x the distance, and probably 10 x the pain, I was able to soldier on.....but only running at around the 4min pace. Andrew and Smithy ran like legends and they were awesome to watch surging ahead. In the end, I came through the line in 39.46...nearly 2mins or so off my PB and I was dissapointed. The only good thing I can take from that run was the mental toughness I probably learnt, the run itself was probably my worst in terms of the enjoyment factor....and thats what it is all about, enjoying being out there.
The funny thing was, i got up at 4.50am this morning, felt pretty ordinary again, met up with Andrew and we were to ride 3hours (with hill repeats) and then 8km off the bike run. The ride started with my legs feeling very heavy again, but after about an hour, i was feel heaps better, and rea,lly enjoyed being out there. The hill repeats done with a very slow cadence were awesome...loved doing them, and the interesting thing was how far Andrew and I got up the hills, were were a fair few hundred meters further up the road than we were able to 3 months ago....shows how good the training is we do through Rollo...his programs are the business!
The run off the bike was good, I felt so much better than yesterday, enjoyed the run (even after 70 odd kms on the bike), it was hot, challanging surface with hills, but I loved it, so the week ended on a real high....thank goodness. The only issue is back to work tomorrow, and off to WA for a few days this week....so its going to be stressful again....makes you wander sometimes!
To sum the week up then :
Swim : 9kms (3hours)
Ride : 80kms + 2Hours on TT (5hours)
Run : 50kms (4.5hours)
TOTAL : 12.5hours
So a solid week of training, a pretty stressful week of work, and throw the traveling and heat into the mix, and it has made it pretty tough. Work wise, my least enjoyable week for quite a few months to be honest, and, given the number of hours I work, stressful weeks really take their toll on me, so lets hope this one coming is slightly better. I had not scheduled any time off over Xmas this year, but I am considering it seriously now....would be good to spend time at home with the family I think.
So, perth here I come. I am also going to Bussulton to wathc the Iron Man, Vlad and Tim will be competing in it so it will be good. Its going to be hectic for me travel wise, but I guess thats life sometimes.....so until then...
Sunday, November 22, 2009
What a back drop!
I am sitting in the lounge room this evening, thankfully with air conditioning as its still bloody hot outside, with Aus Idol on (sssshhhh....my wife loves it, I just enjoy being in her company!) and boy, what a stage those guys have to sing on. With the opera house, bridge, harbour, darling harbour etc all around, it must be a huge night for all the singers there, from being pretty much no one 6months ago to be signing in front of millions with that back drop.....pretty lucky! They are just lucky the construction of the stage on thursday did not ruin Allan's (ALM) and my run because then there would have trouble!!
Talking about back drops and heat, we had the Central Coast Triathlon monthly race out at Summerland Point. That is also a pretty nice spot to be able to go up to and race at. Having not done too many triathlons and venues, I guess its a pretty uneducated opinion, but I still think its pretty good. Going on the number of competitors today, one has to wander if the venue is sustainable....if the club races continue to sell out and be in the demand they are. There were 150 today at least, a far cry from the 40 or 50 there 12 months ago, and the quality of those racing was pretty good to I think. The morning was pretty hot, although thankfully the sun really cranked it up more towards lunchtime, so by the time I got home it was 40 degrees.....Jase, Andrew, Tim and I rode to the race from The Entrance (35km), did the race and rode back again, and it was humid but not like this afternoon heat wise thank God! Vlad attended the race today, smashed it....come in 1st, he rode and ran like an animal! The only other person remotely close to his effort on the run was some young bloke who run me down with about 500m to go or so, and he flew past me....must have been running close to 3..20min per km splits. I kept seeing him gaining on me on the run, and I was hoping to hold him off, but he blew me away...strong! I think with the way Rollo is training me, the bike for me is only going to get stronger, and thats good, because it means I will come off the bike stronger and fresher...today I was hurting again, which in a sprint distance triathlon you expect that, but I was pretty tired and struggling to get into a rhythm....hopefully the brick sessions will continue to help me with that. Vlad finished in just over 60mins...which is incredible, blew the others away! Good on him!
I dont know the results as yet, but I think the boys I rode up with enjoyed themselves which was good. The other thing to note, is Jase, Andrew and I ran 22kms on Saturday as well, so its not as if we were fresh, but once again, it shows that the programs Rollo gives us work, there was no way 6months ago I woudl have been able to do a run like that the day before a race.....let alone ride up to the bloody thing in the morning!! The other thing to think about is just how tough Kona must be. If you asked me to go out and run just 10km at lunchtime today, i will have told you exactly where to stuff that idea! The race in Kona this year was way above that, and those poor buggers were riding and running in that heat....shit, its a wander so many finish to be honest!
This week was another great one in terms of training. I did some interval training with Vlad, jeez that guy can run....he was doing 2km efforts and I could hardly keep up with him doing half that distance....it will be good to see how fast he can really go when he focus's on one discipline only...he'll smash it! wednesday was an awesome brick session, did a good 2hours on thursday on the bike and then a great swim on friday morning with Vlad and his mate (his mate smashed me in the 800's....ah well)
I am off to Melbourne this week, so its going to be a bit of a disturned training week, whcih for someone like me who thrives on routine is going to be a menace, but hey, I'll cope! I'll just take my running gear and swimmmers with me (note to self, find a pool close by in Melbourne)
So, to sum up this week :
Swim : 9km (3hours)
Bike : 130kms (4hours + 2.5hrs TT)
Run : 45kms (4hours)
Total : 14.5hours
Again, another quality week of training for me, thoroughly enjoyable (most of the time) and ended in a great day out today with the boys at the race....
Thanks to the guys who organised the day today, it was pretty smooth and simple given the number of competitors, and the new Sprint distance was awesome!
Until next week!
Talking about back drops and heat, we had the Central Coast Triathlon monthly race out at Summerland Point. That is also a pretty nice spot to be able to go up to and race at. Having not done too many triathlons and venues, I guess its a pretty uneducated opinion, but I still think its pretty good. Going on the number of competitors today, one has to wander if the venue is sustainable....if the club races continue to sell out and be in the demand they are. There were 150 today at least, a far cry from the 40 or 50 there 12 months ago, and the quality of those racing was pretty good to I think. The morning was pretty hot, although thankfully the sun really cranked it up more towards lunchtime, so by the time I got home it was 40 degrees.....Jase, Andrew, Tim and I rode to the race from The Entrance (35km), did the race and rode back again, and it was humid but not like this afternoon heat wise thank God! Vlad attended the race today, smashed it....come in 1st, he rode and ran like an animal! The only other person remotely close to his effort on the run was some young bloke who run me down with about 500m to go or so, and he flew past me....must have been running close to 3..20min per km splits. I kept seeing him gaining on me on the run, and I was hoping to hold him off, but he blew me away...strong! I think with the way Rollo is training me, the bike for me is only going to get stronger, and thats good, because it means I will come off the bike stronger and fresher...today I was hurting again, which in a sprint distance triathlon you expect that, but I was pretty tired and struggling to get into a rhythm....hopefully the brick sessions will continue to help me with that. Vlad finished in just over 60mins...which is incredible, blew the others away! Good on him!
I dont know the results as yet, but I think the boys I rode up with enjoyed themselves which was good. The other thing to note, is Jase, Andrew and I ran 22kms on Saturday as well, so its not as if we were fresh, but once again, it shows that the programs Rollo gives us work, there was no way 6months ago I woudl have been able to do a run like that the day before a race.....let alone ride up to the bloody thing in the morning!! The other thing to think about is just how tough Kona must be. If you asked me to go out and run just 10km at lunchtime today, i will have told you exactly where to stuff that idea! The race in Kona this year was way above that, and those poor buggers were riding and running in that heat....shit, its a wander so many finish to be honest!
This week was another great one in terms of training. I did some interval training with Vlad, jeez that guy can run....he was doing 2km efforts and I could hardly keep up with him doing half that distance....it will be good to see how fast he can really go when he focus's on one discipline only...he'll smash it! wednesday was an awesome brick session, did a good 2hours on thursday on the bike and then a great swim on friday morning with Vlad and his mate (his mate smashed me in the 800's....ah well)
I am off to Melbourne this week, so its going to be a bit of a disturned training week, whcih for someone like me who thrives on routine is going to be a menace, but hey, I'll cope! I'll just take my running gear and swimmmers with me (note to self, find a pool close by in Melbourne)
So, to sum up this week :
Swim : 9km (3hours)
Bike : 130kms (4hours + 2.5hrs TT)
Run : 45kms (4hours)
Total : 14.5hours
Again, another quality week of training for me, thoroughly enjoyable (most of the time) and ended in a great day out today with the boys at the race....
Thanks to the guys who organised the day today, it was pretty smooth and simple given the number of competitors, and the new Sprint distance was awesome!
Until next week!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Who opened that locker again??
Boy this week has been another full on week, for training, for work, for everything really! Its been so full on right from Monday morning (6am). The Sunday night I did a whole host of changes to our citrix farm, somewhat tested them, and then essentially all night worried about it, so instead of going to swim at 6am, I went into work, and thank god I did as I had to undo all the work I did over the weekend. So, it was a stressful start, and I guess it did not improve much as the week went on.
It was my own fault though for not testing 100% which to be honest, was not like me at all, I fully understand the impact that poor change management and testing can have on the end users, so not sure what got into me. Mind you, as I type this, I am going through the same changes again....this time however, I am fully testing the new steps required.....so lets hope I go swimming tomorrow morning!
I did catch the swim up at lunchtime which was good and then Tuesday was a solid brick session, with a recovery run in the afternoon. Wednesday was a long run, which ended up being a half marathon run in 90mins, and a very tough swim at lunchtime! I then stayed back at work through to 7pm, and popped over Vlads 2XU Paddington store to listen in on one of his monthly workshops, this one delivered by Jamie Hunt (former pro) on what gear we should be buying as triathletes. It was fantastic! Really well delivered, Jamie's knowledge on the deisgn and materials which go into wetsuits and other clothing was excellent, and very very interesting the science that goes into the garments. He might work for 2XU but he delivered it in an unbiased manner....
I also met a chap whose name i wish I had got. He was it seemed an average triathlete like most of us are, although he had already done a number of Half Iron Man races and to his credit a full Iron Man in March. He was so excited about his achievements, so excited to share his experiences with me and so generous with his thoughts. He reminded me what training to Heart rate is all about and why we need and must do it (when the program stipulates this). Something I have not done well on my own of late which is why I visit that bloody pain locker more than I need to. He reminded me how important nutrition is on the bike, even for shorter endurance races, he reminded me that pacing is very important and to not get ahead of myself, and above all, its all about being out there, being able to train, race and enjoy the sport and other triathletes. His first Half Iron Man he pretty much felt like I did, very bad stitch and cramps, he however, ended up with kidney failure and in hospital (he did finish the race), but his story shows how careful we need to be and to ensure we have a proper nutriotion plan and to make sure it is followed during such a long race like Iron Man....the reminder has been saved and will be reviewed weekly on my long rides.....
I got home at 10.30pm, and was up at 3.30am and on the train to hornsby to get out there and ride in to meet Vlad to join him in his recovery ride, which is around centennial. The set was all about cadence for me, so it suited the flats. Well, I ended up doing nearly 80kms which was way too much, but it was pretty good fun and not particulary heavy on the legs. The lunchtime run which consisted of 6 x 1km efforts (done at between 3.30 and 3.46) were really really hard, especially in the heat at lnchtime. I was completely stuffed after that, and was pretty buggered on Friday as well, so the heat ook a whole lot out of me, and makes we wander if I should be doing more running in the afternoons now, to prepare myself for the heat as I will be running mid to late afternoon in March....Rollo - any thoughts??
Saturday Andrew and I ran for a touch over 2 hours, whcih was about 24kms! Today I was not able to join them on the long ride but I did get up at 5am, hoped on the Turbo Trainer for 140mins followed by a 12km run which was great....so all done before 9am, which was nice.
To summerise this week :
Swim - 6.5kms (2hours)
Run - 68kms (6hours)
Cycle - 105kms + 210mins(TT) = 7Hours
TOTAL = 15hours
I was short on the swim this week, which was due to time constraints and a bit of fatigue, but I think my swim is the least of my worries. Not that I am complacent about it, but its the one leg I can consider myself to be pretty reasonable in.
So I feel okay tonight, legs seem to be okay and ready to go for the next week, which ends in a club race....whicih should be fun!
Until then......ciao!
It was my own fault though for not testing 100% which to be honest, was not like me at all, I fully understand the impact that poor change management and testing can have on the end users, so not sure what got into me. Mind you, as I type this, I am going through the same changes again....this time however, I am fully testing the new steps required.....so lets hope I go swimming tomorrow morning!
I did catch the swim up at lunchtime which was good and then Tuesday was a solid brick session, with a recovery run in the afternoon. Wednesday was a long run, which ended up being a half marathon run in 90mins, and a very tough swim at lunchtime! I then stayed back at work through to 7pm, and popped over Vlads 2XU Paddington store to listen in on one of his monthly workshops, this one delivered by Jamie Hunt (former pro) on what gear we should be buying as triathletes. It was fantastic! Really well delivered, Jamie's knowledge on the deisgn and materials which go into wetsuits and other clothing was excellent, and very very interesting the science that goes into the garments. He might work for 2XU but he delivered it in an unbiased manner....
I also met a chap whose name i wish I had got. He was it seemed an average triathlete like most of us are, although he had already done a number of Half Iron Man races and to his credit a full Iron Man in March. He was so excited about his achievements, so excited to share his experiences with me and so generous with his thoughts. He reminded me what training to Heart rate is all about and why we need and must do it (when the program stipulates this). Something I have not done well on my own of late which is why I visit that bloody pain locker more than I need to. He reminded me how important nutrition is on the bike, even for shorter endurance races, he reminded me that pacing is very important and to not get ahead of myself, and above all, its all about being out there, being able to train, race and enjoy the sport and other triathletes. His first Half Iron Man he pretty much felt like I did, very bad stitch and cramps, he however, ended up with kidney failure and in hospital (he did finish the race), but his story shows how careful we need to be and to ensure we have a proper nutriotion plan and to make sure it is followed during such a long race like Iron Man....the reminder has been saved and will be reviewed weekly on my long rides.....
I got home at 10.30pm, and was up at 3.30am and on the train to hornsby to get out there and ride in to meet Vlad to join him in his recovery ride, which is around centennial. The set was all about cadence for me, so it suited the flats. Well, I ended up doing nearly 80kms which was way too much, but it was pretty good fun and not particulary heavy on the legs. The lunchtime run which consisted of 6 x 1km efforts (done at between 3.30 and 3.46) were really really hard, especially in the heat at lnchtime. I was completely stuffed after that, and was pretty buggered on Friday as well, so the heat ook a whole lot out of me, and makes we wander if I should be doing more running in the afternoons now, to prepare myself for the heat as I will be running mid to late afternoon in March....Rollo - any thoughts??
Saturday Andrew and I ran for a touch over 2 hours, whcih was about 24kms! Today I was not able to join them on the long ride but I did get up at 5am, hoped on the Turbo Trainer for 140mins followed by a 12km run which was great....so all done before 9am, which was nice.
To summerise this week :
Swim - 6.5kms (2hours)
Run - 68kms (6hours)
Cycle - 105kms + 210mins(TT) = 7Hours
TOTAL = 15hours
I was short on the swim this week, which was due to time constraints and a bit of fatigue, but I think my swim is the least of my worries. Not that I am complacent about it, but its the one leg I can consider myself to be pretty reasonable in.
So I feel okay tonight, legs seem to be okay and ready to go for the next week, which ends in a club race....whicih should be fun!
Until then......ciao!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Ignorance was Bliss!
However, having completed the Half Iron Man still just a week ago (cant believe its only been a week, it feels like 2 or 3 already), I was very excited and willing to tell my mates and those who were interested in how the race went for me. The unfortunate thing about the reditions is, you are constantly reminding yourself that you only have 5 months of training before the canon goes off for my target race...the Iron Man which is double what I went through last Sunday! Its not a long time at all, and has made me even more nervous for March! But, I am also sure Rollo will have be prepared and ready, and at least I know now that if you spend too much energy and resources on one leg of this race, you will pay for it somewhere, and it will hurt! I am still bitterly dissappointed with my run time, especially since its certainly stronger than my bike leg. Anyway, I learnt the hard way as I am sure everyone does. Still, it was very good to know that my bike is probably not as bad as I thought it was. I still cannot believe how Rollo had my time spot on..the man is really so good as a coach, and its also very comforting to know that there is someone building programs which have already produced the required results! Thanks Rollo!!
**Note to Rollo** Bring on the intensity mate, I dont want to cramp up or go through the pain like last week so pile it on!!
So, after the race on Sunday, I managed a whopping 3 beers....WTF! That was it! I then got up at 5.30am on Monday, did an easy 1km swim to loosen everything up and spent the day with the family swimming and loitering. It turned out Monday afternoon was the sorest I was to be which was good. I did nothing on Tuesday as we travelled back home, but at home was a program waiting for me....straight back into full training really. I even asked Rollo if he had sent me the right week! Legs were still too tender to run on Thursday, so I rode for 2hours with Vlad instead, nice and easy which was great. we swam at ABC pool together on Friday morning which was an awesome set. Andrew M and I ran together yesterday at Terrigal Trotters followed by an ocean swim in some huge swells! It was actually quite hectic. My fear of sharks was back, some floating bird scared the bejesus out of me, I think I left a log in the wet suit....:-(
The run was actually quite hilly, and at the end of the 18kms I could feel my legs were still fatigued. Andrew and I then rode 90kms this morning, pretty much all in the rain! we were soaked through, but it was good to be out again on the rode and knowing we were already well on our way to being prepared for March next year.
So not a big week in terms of training, but it was still full on given what was on both at home and work.
The summery :
Swim : 8.5km (3hours)
Bike : 70mins TT + 145kms (6hours)
Run : 18kms (100mins)
Total : 10.40hours
Not bad given I raced in a Half Iron Man on the Sunday, and its good, because come March 28th 2010, I am going to need to be 150% prepared both mentally and physically, and I still have a long way to go in both of these aspects!
**Note to Rollo** Bring on the intensity mate, I dont want to cramp up or go through the pain like last week so pile it on!!
So, after the race on Sunday, I managed a whopping 3 beers....WTF! That was it! I then got up at 5.30am on Monday, did an easy 1km swim to loosen everything up and spent the day with the family swimming and loitering. It turned out Monday afternoon was the sorest I was to be which was good. I did nothing on Tuesday as we travelled back home, but at home was a program waiting for me....straight back into full training really. I even asked Rollo if he had sent me the right week! Legs were still too tender to run on Thursday, so I rode for 2hours with Vlad instead, nice and easy which was great. we swam at ABC pool together on Friday morning which was an awesome set. Andrew M and I ran together yesterday at Terrigal Trotters followed by an ocean swim in some huge swells! It was actually quite hectic. My fear of sharks was back, some floating bird scared the bejesus out of me, I think I left a log in the wet suit....:-(
The run was actually quite hilly, and at the end of the 18kms I could feel my legs were still fatigued. Andrew and I then rode 90kms this morning, pretty much all in the rain! we were soaked through, but it was good to be out again on the rode and knowing we were already well on our way to being prepared for March next year.
So not a big week in terms of training, but it was still full on given what was on both at home and work.
The summery :
Swim : 8.5km (3hours)
Bike : 70mins TT + 145kms (6hours)
Run : 18kms (100mins)
Total : 10.40hours
Not bad given I raced in a Half Iron Man on the Sunday, and its good, because come March 28th 2010, I am going to need to be 150% prepared both mentally and physically, and I still have a long way to go in both of these aspects!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Iron Man March 2010 here I come!
Phew - done and dusted! Today was the Port Macquarie Half Iron Man race, which also acts as one of the full Iron Man qualification races in Australia, and my target race is the Iron Man here in Port Macquarie on the 28th of March 2010.
To say I was nervous from Saturday afternoon onwards would be an understatement, I was shitting myself. Especially after driving some of the cycle course which turns out to be pretty hilly for the first 10km or so (which was all I drove). So, armed with the thinking that the whole bike course consisted of hills only, and really worried about the cycle leg, I got up at 4am this morning, with my packed bag (I packed and unpacked this bag 3 or 4 times over the past 2 days) and headed off for Transition 1 (T1). I was there at 4.45am, one of the first athletes, christened one of the porta loo's with could very well have been some sort of abominable byproduct of nerves, chicken stir fry and 'Up n Go'! that out the way, I it was 5am, and the bike transition was open. It was awesome to see all that equipment, lined up, realising just how many athletes there were, and then, realising that the full Iron Man has double that number - sensational!!
I finished oggling at the bike porn, and started to get my gear sorted, checked, double checked, checked again, pumped my tyres up and went for a nervous run with andrew and jase. they were pretty relaxed which was good to see. 10mins warm up, back to T1, wetsuit on and into the water to get going. what felt like ages treading water, we were off for the 1.9km swim! I felt very comfortable throughout, except for the leach on my feet and ankles. Gave whoever it was a few boots to sort them out and remind them to do their own work, and I was out of the water in about 23mins. Not sure exact position, but apparently that was pretty much with the front group - great! And I felt fresh still! I was able to easily get into a rythm this time and stretch the stroke out.
Into T1, onto the bike and away we go. Through the hills, HR right up there, and already getting passed by the strong riders. It was great, about 20mins into the ride, you actually get onto a highway which is pretty much flat for 20kms or so, and I sat on about 37km/hr pretty much all the way back to the hills. There was some serious drafting going on, but the draft busters were out in full, and showed a fair few yellow cards throughout the day...I did not get one. This race I did none! 2nd lap I tried to back off to 33km/hr but actually ended up a little faster. Got really hectic cramps going up the steep Flinders hill, and knew I was going to have a tough run. I knew I had over extended myself on the ride and coupled with heat and cramping it was making me worried about running a whole 21km and finishing.
Into T2 with a bike split of about 2.34 (nearly 30mins faster than I had budgted for) couldn't find my runners because some muppet had put his bike in the wrong spot, about 40secs later, swearing at my socks because I had them on upsidedown, gels in the back pockets and we are off. 1st 4 kms at 4.10pace, feeling okay, but breathing heavy with cramps reminding me they are there, I come to the one and only hill on the course, slow down, and start to back the pace right off....I am feeling the fatigue and badly. I finish the 1st lap feeling knackered, over heating, cramping and now with a stitch which is inflicting pain in my gut which limits my ability to take deep breaths! 2nd lap was a dark one for me.....I was doubting my ability to finish, I walked a bit to try and relieve the cramps in the legs and gut, started taking in coke, High5, water at every aid station and pouring heaps of water over myself trying to cool off. My feet were on fire, my head was probably steaming, mouth dry, gut bloated, legs cramping, stomach sore, but with Rollo telling me I was looking strong (yeah right....) I soldiered on. Highlight of lap 2 was an Indian bloke (who looked like Jesus) with budgy smugglers on....what a site, but good on him for doing it. Lap 3, 4 Gels later, coke, High5, lots of cold water over me (my shoes were now sqwelching), stitch gone, cramping residing I was back to sub 5min/km (after being near 6min/km on lap 2) and feeling much much better. I was into a rythm for the 1ast time on the run, and now knew I was going to finish. The question was, in what time? I knew I would be close to 5hours, but it was not until 3km to go that Rollo said "sub 5 hour mate!" I picked the pace up, and like a horse, smelt the finish line. INto the finishers chute....had some ardvaark want to sprint, held him off and through the line in 4.47! WOW! I nearly shed a tear at the releif of finishing....Andrew M was a few mins (4.52) behind me, so a sensational race from him.
INto the medical / recovery tent. The ardvaark who wanted to race the last 100m was poked....needed to be carried in. Serves him right for making me sprint! Good on him for finishing though. A couple of gallons of coke, water melon and ice-cream and fruit salad and NAdrew and I were off to cool off in the water.
Just a quick note...in my opinion, the race organisers did a sensational job. There were 800 fantiastic volunteers (almost one per racer) made everything so smooth and easy. They were all so helpful, and friendly so alot of that experience is down to them making it so good. I will write to the organisers to say thanks, because I dont think people get told enough about the good things they do, we tend to focus on the negative, however, this was nothing but fantastic! Well done and thanks to them all!
Also a quick note thanks to all those who supported me : my family (obvisoulsy), Rollo and Mitchell, Eddie and his family, Tony and Renee, cheers to you all for yelling out and keeping me going.
Unofficially, I came in79th overall, and 24th in my age group which is beyond anything I thought I could do. This race certinaly shows I have a long long long long long way to go to be able to finish a full Iron Man, but Rollo, you have my trust sir! (he predicted I would do between 4.45 and 4.50), the mans knows my level better than I!
SO, the unofficial summery from the race, with my goals I said last week are :
Swim : 23mins (30mins)
Ride : 2hrs 34mins (3hrs 15mins)
Run : 108mins (100mins)
The run was a blow out because I pushed on the ride, but I learnt about that today!
I will post the official results next week, but all in all, a really satisfying day, and I am so pleased and grateful I was able to do it.
Brett
To say I was nervous from Saturday afternoon onwards would be an understatement, I was shitting myself. Especially after driving some of the cycle course which turns out to be pretty hilly for the first 10km or so (which was all I drove). So, armed with the thinking that the whole bike course consisted of hills only, and really worried about the cycle leg, I got up at 4am this morning, with my packed bag (I packed and unpacked this bag 3 or 4 times over the past 2 days) and headed off for Transition 1 (T1). I was there at 4.45am, one of the first athletes, christened one of the porta loo's with could very well have been some sort of abominable byproduct of nerves, chicken stir fry and 'Up n Go'! that out the way, I it was 5am, and the bike transition was open. It was awesome to see all that equipment, lined up, realising just how many athletes there were, and then, realising that the full Iron Man has double that number - sensational!!
I finished oggling at the bike porn, and started to get my gear sorted, checked, double checked, checked again, pumped my tyres up and went for a nervous run with andrew and jase. they were pretty relaxed which was good to see. 10mins warm up, back to T1, wetsuit on and into the water to get going. what felt like ages treading water, we were off for the 1.9km swim! I felt very comfortable throughout, except for the leach on my feet and ankles. Gave whoever it was a few boots to sort them out and remind them to do their own work, and I was out of the water in about 23mins. Not sure exact position, but apparently that was pretty much with the front group - great! And I felt fresh still! I was able to easily get into a rythm this time and stretch the stroke out.
Into T1, onto the bike and away we go. Through the hills, HR right up there, and already getting passed by the strong riders. It was great, about 20mins into the ride, you actually get onto a highway which is pretty much flat for 20kms or so, and I sat on about 37km/hr pretty much all the way back to the hills. There was some serious drafting going on, but the draft busters were out in full, and showed a fair few yellow cards throughout the day...I did not get one. This race I did none! 2nd lap I tried to back off to 33km/hr but actually ended up a little faster. Got really hectic cramps going up the steep Flinders hill, and knew I was going to have a tough run. I knew I had over extended myself on the ride and coupled with heat and cramping it was making me worried about running a whole 21km and finishing.
Into T2 with a bike split of about 2.34 (nearly 30mins faster than I had budgted for) couldn't find my runners because some muppet had put his bike in the wrong spot, about 40secs later, swearing at my socks because I had them on upsidedown, gels in the back pockets and we are off. 1st 4 kms at 4.10pace, feeling okay, but breathing heavy with cramps reminding me they are there, I come to the one and only hill on the course, slow down, and start to back the pace right off....I am feeling the fatigue and badly. I finish the 1st lap feeling knackered, over heating, cramping and now with a stitch which is inflicting pain in my gut which limits my ability to take deep breaths! 2nd lap was a dark one for me.....I was doubting my ability to finish, I walked a bit to try and relieve the cramps in the legs and gut, started taking in coke, High5, water at every aid station and pouring heaps of water over myself trying to cool off. My feet were on fire, my head was probably steaming, mouth dry, gut bloated, legs cramping, stomach sore, but with Rollo telling me I was looking strong (yeah right....) I soldiered on. Highlight of lap 2 was an Indian bloke (who looked like Jesus) with budgy smugglers on....what a site, but good on him for doing it. Lap 3, 4 Gels later, coke, High5, lots of cold water over me (my shoes were now sqwelching), stitch gone, cramping residing I was back to sub 5min/km (after being near 6min/km on lap 2) and feeling much much better. I was into a rythm for the 1ast time on the run, and now knew I was going to finish. The question was, in what time? I knew I would be close to 5hours, but it was not until 3km to go that Rollo said "sub 5 hour mate!" I picked the pace up, and like a horse, smelt the finish line. INto the finishers chute....had some ardvaark want to sprint, held him off and through the line in 4.47! WOW! I nearly shed a tear at the releif of finishing....Andrew M was a few mins (4.52) behind me, so a sensational race from him.
INto the medical / recovery tent. The ardvaark who wanted to race the last 100m was poked....needed to be carried in. Serves him right for making me sprint! Good on him for finishing though. A couple of gallons of coke, water melon and ice-cream and fruit salad and NAdrew and I were off to cool off in the water.
Just a quick note...in my opinion, the race organisers did a sensational job. There were 800 fantiastic volunteers (almost one per racer) made everything so smooth and easy. They were all so helpful, and friendly so alot of that experience is down to them making it so good. I will write to the organisers to say thanks, because I dont think people get told enough about the good things they do, we tend to focus on the negative, however, this was nothing but fantastic! Well done and thanks to them all!
Also a quick note thanks to all those who supported me : my family (obvisoulsy), Rollo and Mitchell, Eddie and his family, Tony and Renee, cheers to you all for yelling out and keeping me going.
Unofficially, I came in79th overall, and 24th in my age group which is beyond anything I thought I could do. This race certinaly shows I have a long long long long long way to go to be able to finish a full Iron Man, but Rollo, you have my trust sir! (he predicted I would do between 4.45 and 4.50), the mans knows my level better than I!
SO, the unofficial summery from the race, with my goals I said last week are :
Swim : 23mins (30mins)
Ride : 2hrs 34mins (3hrs 15mins)
Run : 108mins (100mins)
The run was a blow out because I pushed on the ride, but I learnt about that today!
I will post the official results next week, but all in all, a really satisfying day, and I am so pleased and grateful I was able to do it.
Brett
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Almost there now!
Today was a sad day for our little training group, Andew C (Eddie) came off his bike and has broken his colloar bone and will require surgery! This happened whilst he was riding with Andrew M, Jase and I on our last ride before all participating in the Port Macquaire Half Iron Man next week. Its a real shame, because he has put so much effort into this, and he has been looking forward to this for so long, and to seriously injure himself 1, just 1 week out is terrible! It shows how brittle we really are, and how very careful we need to be when out training....accidents happen so quickly. Whilst Eddie is devastated, his physical injury will heal, and he is already getting 'angry' for IM 2011....a slight hiccup for him in this journey for him, but he has all the motivation to continue on when he is able to and with greater enthusiasm! As I said to him, the boys will be waiting for his return and will be there to give him the support and encouragement to bring him back up to speed! Hang in there Eddie....
As for me this week, well, I had a bloody tough one, and so it should be given this coming week is a taper. Phew.....man, I have had some hard weeks of late, and a lighter one is most welcome. The highlights were tuesdays run, which was a 20km run with 2 x 10min efforts in the middle. When I run on my own, I keep the average pace at 4.30ish, and the efforts were at 3.40 so when I finished up, I was royally rooted! Good set though. The other really though set was a brick session on Thursday morning, which was 70mins on the TT with 5min efforts at 'hurting' levels, followed by a 8km run off the bike, 5km at race pace. I ran the 5km at 3.45 pace and by the end was sore and farked! My shin was giving me a little bit of grief, a niggle caused by me over running. Not that this is Rollo's fault, he tells me to run my longer runs much slower, but I seem to push a little more, so will have to try and follow the advice more in the future....that near half marathon on Tuesday has meant I have pretty much run 4 half marathons in under 2 weeks (all at just over 90mins as well)...plus all the riding and swimming and race pace efforts along the way....no wonder I had some fatigue in the legs!!!
I ran 100mins with Andrew M yesterday which was good, and we followed that up with our usual ocean swim off terrigal beach. It was crystal clear right out to the bouys which made my concerns over sharks a lot less...phew, now I could spot them coming from 50m away!!! And do what....I am still not sure, but at least I could panic for longer I guess! Andrew M suggested I could make history and be the first triathlete attacked by a shark at port this coming weekend, knowing my luck of those animals!!
The ride session today was great! Apart from seeing Eddie come off the bike and wathc him realise his Iron Man dream was over for 2010, which was really sad, the rest of the session was good. It was hard as we had a bunch of 10km efforts along the way to riding just a touch over 80km, and then running 8km off the bike, 4km at 4min pace, so it was really good. As always, i am so grateful to be able to do what I do, and seeing eddie come off and hurt himself made me very aware of really how grateful we should be!
So, the summer of this week is :
Swim : 8.5km (3hours)
Cycle : 130km + 2.5hours on TT - 8hours
Run : 55kms (4.5 hours)
Total : 15.5hours (ish)
One week to go, and man, am I looking forward to downing at least 2 beers for every hour it takes me to finish the Half Iron Man. Its been over 2 weeks since I have had a beer, and anyone who knows me, will know that for a normal person, that is probably the equivalent of 2 years....How many beers will I have next sunday night? Not sure. My wife reckons I will be tanked on 2 only, and if thats all it takes...great, but I think it will be a fair few more than that. I have an idea of the times I would like to achieve, so let me put them out there now. Firstly though, the goal is to simply finish, thats all I need to do, but if I am to put a time against each leg then it is :
1.9km Swim : 30mins
90km Cycle : 3.15hours (definitely a huge stretch for me)
21km Run 100mins
That should get me home in a touch over 5 hours, but there are a few things to consider. Those times are based on great conditions and probably a flat course. Port is not flat, so my cycle will be a lot slower than I would like, but thats also down to me not really being strong enough, but as i said in my last blog, put the stretch goals in, so they are!
Well, I have put my money where my mouth is, and we will see how I go next week. I am pretty nervous, mainly because of the bike, but I'll get a grip and get on with it soon enough....
On another note, Vlad has entered into the WA Iron Man in December, and I am going along to watch...it will be great to once again watch an Iron Man live, and to be able to provide Vlad and Skinny Wiggle support all the way over there.....
So, until next week, which will be my race report....have a good one, and Eddie, get well son!!
As for me this week, well, I had a bloody tough one, and so it should be given this coming week is a taper. Phew.....man, I have had some hard weeks of late, and a lighter one is most welcome. The highlights were tuesdays run, which was a 20km run with 2 x 10min efforts in the middle. When I run on my own, I keep the average pace at 4.30ish, and the efforts were at 3.40 so when I finished up, I was royally rooted! Good set though. The other really though set was a brick session on Thursday morning, which was 70mins on the TT with 5min efforts at 'hurting' levels, followed by a 8km run off the bike, 5km at race pace. I ran the 5km at 3.45 pace and by the end was sore and farked! My shin was giving me a little bit of grief, a niggle caused by me over running. Not that this is Rollo's fault, he tells me to run my longer runs much slower, but I seem to push a little more, so will have to try and follow the advice more in the future....that near half marathon on Tuesday has meant I have pretty much run 4 half marathons in under 2 weeks (all at just over 90mins as well)...plus all the riding and swimming and race pace efforts along the way....no wonder I had some fatigue in the legs!!!
I ran 100mins with Andrew M yesterday which was good, and we followed that up with our usual ocean swim off terrigal beach. It was crystal clear right out to the bouys which made my concerns over sharks a lot less...phew, now I could spot them coming from 50m away!!! And do what....I am still not sure, but at least I could panic for longer I guess! Andrew M suggested I could make history and be the first triathlete attacked by a shark at port this coming weekend, knowing my luck of those animals!!
The ride session today was great! Apart from seeing Eddie come off the bike and wathc him realise his Iron Man dream was over for 2010, which was really sad, the rest of the session was good. It was hard as we had a bunch of 10km efforts along the way to riding just a touch over 80km, and then running 8km off the bike, 4km at 4min pace, so it was really good. As always, i am so grateful to be able to do what I do, and seeing eddie come off and hurt himself made me very aware of really how grateful we should be!
So, the summer of this week is :
Swim : 8.5km (3hours)
Cycle : 130km + 2.5hours on TT - 8hours
Run : 55kms (4.5 hours)
Total : 15.5hours (ish)
One week to go, and man, am I looking forward to downing at least 2 beers for every hour it takes me to finish the Half Iron Man. Its been over 2 weeks since I have had a beer, and anyone who knows me, will know that for a normal person, that is probably the equivalent of 2 years....How many beers will I have next sunday night? Not sure. My wife reckons I will be tanked on 2 only, and if thats all it takes...great, but I think it will be a fair few more than that. I have an idea of the times I would like to achieve, so let me put them out there now. Firstly though, the goal is to simply finish, thats all I need to do, but if I am to put a time against each leg then it is :
1.9km Swim : 30mins
90km Cycle : 3.15hours (definitely a huge stretch for me)
21km Run 100mins
That should get me home in a touch over 5 hours, but there are a few things to consider. Those times are based on great conditions and probably a flat course. Port is not flat, so my cycle will be a lot slower than I would like, but thats also down to me not really being strong enough, but as i said in my last blog, put the stretch goals in, so they are!
Well, I have put my money where my mouth is, and we will see how I go next week. I am pretty nervous, mainly because of the bike, but I'll get a grip and get on with it soon enough....
On another note, Vlad has entered into the WA Iron Man in December, and I am going along to watch...it will be great to once again watch an Iron Man live, and to be able to provide Vlad and Skinny Wiggle support all the way over there.....
So, until next week, which will be my race report....have a good one, and Eddie, get well son!!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Have you been in the Pain Locker?
First things first, last week I said I was 1st out of the water in the Maitland triathlon, which I seriously believed, until the results were released and showed some bloke was 30 odd seconds out of transition ahead of me and the other 3 blokes I ran out with, so no way was I that long in transition, so this guy must be a serious fish...good on him! Still, I came 16th overall in that race, and 4th in my age group...just 4mins behind the guy who was first in the category, and the good thing is the improvement will all come from my bike...I am about 30% behind these guys, so improvments in this discipline will really make me more competitive, so I am stoked!
This last week has also been about the blogs from the Hawaii IronMan. Its been absolutely amazing reading some of the stories coming out of that race, some frmo pro's, others from plebs like me who went there to race against themselves and the course....truly inspiring and really driving home again how hard this Iron Man race is....and thats any of them, because each one no doubt has its own set of tough challanges, and of course, you will always have to deal with the internal battle you have, getting through the negative thoughts, the pain, the highs and lows, the belief or lack there of at times, unplanned issues during the race etc.....finishing this race is no gurantee at all, and the sooner I can prep myself for all of the above and how I will cope with each scenario the better!! For those of you who have some time and want to know how tough the Hawaii Iron Man was very every athlete competing, here are a few blogs worth reading (get a cuppa first, they are long...but very worth it)
We will start with my favourite blog report from Kona, this is the one to read in my opinion, sums up the race and experience so well, sensational & inspiring!
http://forums.transitions.org.au/index.php?showtopic=39636
2nd Favourite is from Macca (a Pro) and he writes this so well, and shows that the pro's do it tough out there to! This is another great read!
http://www.chrismccormack.com/blog/ironmanhawaii
This Blog is by a bloke who did not qualify but got in through the lottery system (maybe I could go this way ;-))
http://forums.transitions.org.au/index.php?showtopic=39729
This one is a kiwi who is pretty strong looking at his times....he did pretty well
http://forums.transitions.org.au/index.php?showtopic=39744
So it will take you a good 15mins to read through those blogs, but they are all very good and I enjoyed reading them. Gooneys certainly gave me a lot of inspiration and belief that I can become an Iron Man next year, with a lot of hard work (thanks Rollo), belief and commitment it shall be done! Oh, and a lot of time spent in the Pain Locker!!
Whats the pain locker I hear you ask! Great, glad you did!! Jason and I were discussing this last week on our run, and the funny thing is, Vlad and i had chatted about this as well..I think we called it something similar....and we were all in agreement, if you cant visit the pain locker often enough, you will not reap the rewards, and the stretch goals will always be slightly out of reach. You need to be prepared to commit to the training, not be scared about hammering yourself, and believe in the training and preparation you have done. I certainly know I visit that locker at every opportunity given and I think Rollo knows that, which is why the hard thing for me is holding back on the bike when all the other strong riders fly past. It happened last weekend, where for 8km of the ride I was pushing well beyond before realising I needed to back off, but luckily I was able to recover on that ride, but a longer ride might not be so forgiving, so I need to be careful....I cant wait to get some confidence on that bloody bike!!
So, Gooneys blog made me 'angry' for the training this week, it fired me up and I think I will use his blog to keep me really motivated over the coming months. It made me this week open the pain locker a few times (well - Rollos program called for it to be fair to), but I threw myself into each session with much vigor and love....because I love doing each one...I love the pushing, I love being out there, thinking about why I do this every day, picturing myself competing in the Half and Full Iron Man races, and really just appreciating that I am able to do this, and have the goals, motivation, time and support from those around me......I am going to be an Iron Man!
Let me put away the tissues and tell you about the past weeks training! I pulled up pretty well after the race last week. Let me put a pluggin in right now about the Compression pants from 2XU. I have worn them heaps this week, and I swear, they help you recover so quickly. My legs have been pummelled this week, and after each set I wore the long 2XU compression pants, and the next day, my legs were pretty much 100%. They really work, and if you want faster recovery timeframes, they are a must! I also use a lean protein to help me recover after each session, so between the pants and the protein, I am pretty much raring to go!
This week consisted of :
Swim - 11km (4hours)
Bike - 7 hours on the TT
Run - 67kms (5 hours)
Total - 15hours
I did 2 brick sessions this week as well, both of them 2 hours on the TT followed by a run. The one I did this morning was really good. I ran off the bike, and decided to mimic the club race I was missing by running hard for 5km and then backing off for the remainder of the run home (5.5km). The good thing is I ran the first 5km in 19min flat, and then the last 5.5km at just over 4min, so got through the 10km in 40mins....not bad for a training set! I was pretty tired at the end of 5km, but I back the pace off to a little over 4min per km and was able to sustain that pace very comfortably!
2 weeks to go to the Port Mac Half Iron man, I am very excited about it, and so is Jase, Eddie and Andrew. It will be awesome to race with these guys, because we do train a fair bit together so it will be good to share the time out there with them, knowing they are out there toughing it out just as I will be!
Safe training out there for all of ya...and if you read this Vlad...mate I am waiting for my week day training partner....c'mon my son!!!
This last week has also been about the blogs from the Hawaii IronMan. Its been absolutely amazing reading some of the stories coming out of that race, some frmo pro's, others from plebs like me who went there to race against themselves and the course....truly inspiring and really driving home again how hard this Iron Man race is....and thats any of them, because each one no doubt has its own set of tough challanges, and of course, you will always have to deal with the internal battle you have, getting through the negative thoughts, the pain, the highs and lows, the belief or lack there of at times, unplanned issues during the race etc.....finishing this race is no gurantee at all, and the sooner I can prep myself for all of the above and how I will cope with each scenario the better!! For those of you who have some time and want to know how tough the Hawaii Iron Man was very every athlete competing, here are a few blogs worth reading (get a cuppa first, they are long...but very worth it)
We will start with my favourite blog report from Kona, this is the one to read in my opinion, sums up the race and experience so well, sensational & inspiring!
http://forums.transitions.org.au/index.php?showtopic=39636
2nd Favourite is from Macca (a Pro) and he writes this so well, and shows that the pro's do it tough out there to! This is another great read!
http://www.chrismccormack.com/blog/ironmanhawaii
This Blog is by a bloke who did not qualify but got in through the lottery system (maybe I could go this way ;-))
http://forums.transitions.org.au/index.php?showtopic=39729
This one is a kiwi who is pretty strong looking at his times....he did pretty well
http://forums.transitions.org.au/index.php?showtopic=39744
So it will take you a good 15mins to read through those blogs, but they are all very good and I enjoyed reading them. Gooneys certainly gave me a lot of inspiration and belief that I can become an Iron Man next year, with a lot of hard work (thanks Rollo), belief and commitment it shall be done! Oh, and a lot of time spent in the Pain Locker!!
Whats the pain locker I hear you ask! Great, glad you did!! Jason and I were discussing this last week on our run, and the funny thing is, Vlad and i had chatted about this as well..I think we called it something similar....and we were all in agreement, if you cant visit the pain locker often enough, you will not reap the rewards, and the stretch goals will always be slightly out of reach. You need to be prepared to commit to the training, not be scared about hammering yourself, and believe in the training and preparation you have done. I certainly know I visit that locker at every opportunity given and I think Rollo knows that, which is why the hard thing for me is holding back on the bike when all the other strong riders fly past. It happened last weekend, where for 8km of the ride I was pushing well beyond before realising I needed to back off, but luckily I was able to recover on that ride, but a longer ride might not be so forgiving, so I need to be careful....I cant wait to get some confidence on that bloody bike!!
So, Gooneys blog made me 'angry' for the training this week, it fired me up and I think I will use his blog to keep me really motivated over the coming months. It made me this week open the pain locker a few times (well - Rollos program called for it to be fair to), but I threw myself into each session with much vigor and love....because I love doing each one...I love the pushing, I love being out there, thinking about why I do this every day, picturing myself competing in the Half and Full Iron Man races, and really just appreciating that I am able to do this, and have the goals, motivation, time and support from those around me......I am going to be an Iron Man!
Let me put away the tissues and tell you about the past weeks training! I pulled up pretty well after the race last week. Let me put a pluggin in right now about the Compression pants from 2XU. I have worn them heaps this week, and I swear, they help you recover so quickly. My legs have been pummelled this week, and after each set I wore the long 2XU compression pants, and the next day, my legs were pretty much 100%. They really work, and if you want faster recovery timeframes, they are a must! I also use a lean protein to help me recover after each session, so between the pants and the protein, I am pretty much raring to go!
This week consisted of :
Swim - 11km (4hours)
Bike - 7 hours on the TT
Run - 67kms (5 hours)
Total - 15hours
I did 2 brick sessions this week as well, both of them 2 hours on the TT followed by a run. The one I did this morning was really good. I ran off the bike, and decided to mimic the club race I was missing by running hard for 5km and then backing off for the remainder of the run home (5.5km). The good thing is I ran the first 5km in 19min flat, and then the last 5.5km at just over 4min, so got through the 10km in 40mins....not bad for a training set! I was pretty tired at the end of 5km, but I back the pace off to a little over 4min per km and was able to sustain that pace very comfortably!
2 weeks to go to the Port Mac Half Iron man, I am very excited about it, and so is Jase, Eddie and Andrew. It will be awesome to race with these guys, because we do train a fair bit together so it will be good to share the time out there with them, knowing they are out there toughing it out just as I will be!
Safe training out there for all of ya...and if you read this Vlad...mate I am waiting for my week day training partner....c'mon my son!!!
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Only 12months since my 1st triathlon!!
Todays blog has to really be about my mate Vlad Shatrov's effort in Hawaii! Today (well in Aus) was the Hawaiin IronMan race, and if you remember he has been training for that for really the past 18months or so, firstly qualifying at first go in Port Mac in April this year, and then training through winter to be able to finish the race today. He left Sydney on Monday morning, giving himself a few days to climatise (sure he would have liked more), but with his new 2XU shop, thats all the time he had to give. I think he could not done much more in terms of preparation, and you can see from the races leading up to this, how much he had done...2 x half marathon PB's and top placings were awesome! anyway, I dont have his report, and I will post that in next weeks blog, and I dont want to steal his thunder, but he finished in a little over 10hours, in very hot (+35 degrees) conditions, so its truly a great achievement for someone who has had some much else to deal with in the lead up to this race. Once he publishes his report, I will link it to mine, because it will be worth reading to try and understand how tough that race is. So, well done Vlad mate....a truly awesome effort mate, inspirational and an example of how with hard work and the right support, stretch goals are achievable....I look forward to having a few beers with you to celebrate your achievement!
Onto my past week now, it was a pretty tough one, but once again, very enjoyable. I did a huge brick session on Wednesday morning (70mins on the Turbo followed by a 6km run off the bike). The run felt so good, and I ran them at pretty much sub 4min pace, so was chuft. On Thursday morning, I had a 100min run, so I drove into work, headed off to centennial park for a few laps. The set also had a bunch of sprints in the middle so it was good. I ended up running 22kms at a pretty decent pace and keeping my HR low, so I was pleased. I felt good, although pretty fatigued in the afternoon. I swam again Frtiday morning with my wetsuit to continue the strenghtening and getting used to using it, before runnning 17km with Jason on Saturday morning. we spoke for most of the run
Today was the Maitland Mid Distance triathlon race which I had not done before, and was really excited as it was the 1ast one of the new season...the distances were 1.5km swim, 55km ride and 12km run. I felt pretty confident of finishing in around 3 to 3.5hours. I came out of the swim first overall (which I was surprised and chuft with), but only came out of transition in 3rd I think because I could not get the wetsuit off :-( (going to have to practice that..any advice anyone?), got absolutely hammered on the bike, I reckon 30 odd people passed me, probably more, and then ran the 12 odd kms at 4mnin pace, so was reallyt chuft with that. I felt pretty strong throughout the run, and in terms of the swim and run, I feel I will be able to hold that pace for the Half Iron Man in 3 weeks, however, no way on the bike! I averaged around the 35km/hr mark for the 55km, still got bludgeoned and was quite tired, so will not be able to hold that speed for 90km. Still, a good hit out, and thoroughly enjoyable. The race was realy well organised, a great turn out, and the course was pretty good to, the swim in a river, the run and ride through farmland, and pretty flat so it was a great race, I certainly enjoyed it.
So, all up this week :
Swim : 2.5hours (8kms)
Cycle : 3hours TT + 1.45hours (55km at race today)
Run : 5hours (62km)
Total : 12.15hours (or there abouts)
SO a pretty decent week, another enjoyable one to. I am pretty knackered, but it will be a drop in the ocean to how those guys who just finished the Hawaiin Man, they will be 100% satisfied, but pretty physically buggered.....and will be for the next few days to!
once again, well done Vlad on your effort mate, real,ly pleased for you!!
Onto my past week now, it was a pretty tough one, but once again, very enjoyable. I did a huge brick session on Wednesday morning (70mins on the Turbo followed by a 6km run off the bike). The run felt so good, and I ran them at pretty much sub 4min pace, so was chuft. On Thursday morning, I had a 100min run, so I drove into work, headed off to centennial park for a few laps. The set also had a bunch of sprints in the middle so it was good. I ended up running 22kms at a pretty decent pace and keeping my HR low, so I was pleased. I felt good, although pretty fatigued in the afternoon. I swam again Frtiday morning with my wetsuit to continue the strenghtening and getting used to using it, before runnning 17km with Jason on Saturday morning. we spoke for most of the run
Today was the Maitland Mid Distance triathlon race which I had not done before, and was really excited as it was the 1ast one of the new season...the distances were 1.5km swim, 55km ride and 12km run. I felt pretty confident of finishing in around 3 to 3.5hours. I came out of the swim first overall (which I was surprised and chuft with), but only came out of transition in 3rd I think because I could not get the wetsuit off :-( (going to have to practice that..any advice anyone?), got absolutely hammered on the bike, I reckon 30 odd people passed me, probably more, and then ran the 12 odd kms at 4mnin pace, so was reallyt chuft with that. I felt pretty strong throughout the run, and in terms of the swim and run, I feel I will be able to hold that pace for the Half Iron Man in 3 weeks, however, no way on the bike! I averaged around the 35km/hr mark for the 55km, still got bludgeoned and was quite tired, so will not be able to hold that speed for 90km. Still, a good hit out, and thoroughly enjoyable. The race was realy well organised, a great turn out, and the course was pretty good to, the swim in a river, the run and ride through farmland, and pretty flat so it was a great race, I certainly enjoyed it.
So, all up this week :
Swim : 2.5hours (8kms)
Cycle : 3hours TT + 1.45hours (55km at race today)
Run : 5hours (62km)
Total : 12.15hours (or there abouts)
SO a pretty decent week, another enjoyable one to. I am pretty knackered, but it will be a drop in the ocean to how those guys who just finished the Hawaiin Man, they will be 100% satisfied, but pretty physically buggered.....and will be for the next few days to!
once again, well done Vlad on your effort mate, real,ly pleased for you!!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
That Martian Weather :-(
Well, those bloody dust storms finally caught up with me this week. I thought I had scraped through training in those conditions twice with no effect on me, but alas, that was not to be! I trained in Tuesday morning and felt tight in the chest but dismissed it, but woke up on Wednesday morning to do the brick session and my chest was so tight, I could not fully breath in...it sucked! I dropped the session, and let Rollo know, and he told me to take a few days off, it was a recovery week anyway!
So, no training Wednesday, or Thursday, and then Vlad asked if I was coming to his last big swim set on friday morning before he flits off to Hawaii for one of the toughest races on earth! So, I though bugger it, I will join him and if I struggle will pull out. I also decided to use the wet suit for the first time in the pool as well, it was 5 x 800m session so the wettie would get some good mileage!
Firstly, let me tell you, that 2XU V1 wetsuit is bloody fast! No doubt about it! Man, I felt like I was swimming at the same sorts of speeds I was doing when I was playing waterpolo for Zimbabwe, and doing heaps of swimming. I have felt and thought it was fast in the ocean, but you cant really gauge how fast you are really going because of the currents, waves and constant checking for sharks (well I do anyway), but in the 50m pool....boy, I was racking up the 100m splits in some serious times and comfortably to. We did 4km all up, and whilst I would say I was pretty tired, I was very happy with my efforts and how I felt. I have scrimped and scratched for most of my triathlon gear over the past year, but Vlad, JO and 2XU sorted me with this suit, and boy, wearing quality gear really really makes a differance. The same thing applies to the 2XU run singlets and compression tights.....wearing good the good quality stuff really does make a differance and you can easily feel it, so I am very grateful for having some of this kit....cheers!
The above comments were not a sponsered plug in, not at all, although maybe if I get huuuge hits on this blog I can approach Vlad, but I had an interesting conversation with Miles from work on Monday. He was asking if I was promoting the sport or just my story through this blog..I was primarily telling my story, but he made me realise its my responsibility to not only tell my story, but to help other triathletes looking for things not to do or do, and any information I come across should be shared....to help promote the sport, promote any event or anyone who has the passion (like Vlad and Jo) and interest to keep the sport growing. So on that note...another plug in....for those Coasties...dont forget to sign up for the Central Coast Triathlon on the 18th by clicking here : Central Coast Tri Club
So, for those of you interested in following Vlads progress in Hawaii and during the race, the details can be found on his blog twitter here :
Twitter
Vlads Blog
Some more good news, Andrew Mildren competed in the Gold Coast Half Iron Man today, and he smashed it in 4.57 (apparently, if he posts a report I will link it to my blog next week), but it was somethign like a 60min PB for him...I knew he would do well, so a huge congrats to him! Sensational effort! Steve Mckellar also posted a sub 5hour race which is just fantastic. Testiment to Rollos coaching and programs he sets and delivers for each one of us.....he is truly doing a great job for all the guys on his programs!
So enough about all the others, onto me, so apart from missing 2 days, whcih felt like 2 weeks, I did train every other day, and it was a recovery week. Friday was a good swim set, Tuesday was a good bike set, I had a great run in the rain and wind with jase, Eddie and ALM (Angry Little Man or Allan Pearso) followed by an ocean swim, and then today, I was downstairs on the turbo trainer for an hour and decided because the rain had subsided I would go up to Calga and do the 43km Time Trial. I did it in 1hr 17 so thats a 2min PB, and to be honest, i felt crap the whole way. I thought I was well behind the last time I did one, so was pleasantly surprised. I ran 6km off the bike, and kept the pace at around 4.15 with the HR under 15o again, so felt strong on the run again. The issue is, I am not sure if I can sustain the pace I want for races such as the Half Iron Man on the bike, I am just not strong enough, so its going to be a challange holding back.'
To sum up this week then :
Swim : 10km (4hours)
Run : aprox 30km (2.5hours)
Cycle : 43km + 3hours on TT
Total 9.5hours
So you can easily see it was a recovery week in terms of volume, but remember, I was off for 2 days, so still managed to do some sessions!
Next week, I am competing in the Maitlaind Triathlon festival, its a 1.5km swim, 55km cycle and 12km run...should be fun and maybe a little tough. Nothing however on Vlads effort in Kona, I wish him all the best for the time he is over there and especially the race, I will post any updates on his efforts next week.'
Until then....
So, no training Wednesday, or Thursday, and then Vlad asked if I was coming to his last big swim set on friday morning before he flits off to Hawaii for one of the toughest races on earth! So, I though bugger it, I will join him and if I struggle will pull out. I also decided to use the wet suit for the first time in the pool as well, it was 5 x 800m session so the wettie would get some good mileage!
Firstly, let me tell you, that 2XU V1 wetsuit is bloody fast! No doubt about it! Man, I felt like I was swimming at the same sorts of speeds I was doing when I was playing waterpolo for Zimbabwe, and doing heaps of swimming. I have felt and thought it was fast in the ocean, but you cant really gauge how fast you are really going because of the currents, waves and constant checking for sharks (well I do anyway), but in the 50m pool....boy, I was racking up the 100m splits in some serious times and comfortably to. We did 4km all up, and whilst I would say I was pretty tired, I was very happy with my efforts and how I felt. I have scrimped and scratched for most of my triathlon gear over the past year, but Vlad, JO and 2XU sorted me with this suit, and boy, wearing quality gear really really makes a differance. The same thing applies to the 2XU run singlets and compression tights.....wearing good the good quality stuff really does make a differance and you can easily feel it, so I am very grateful for having some of this kit....cheers!
The above comments were not a sponsered plug in, not at all, although maybe if I get huuuge hits on this blog I can approach Vlad, but I had an interesting conversation with Miles from work on Monday. He was asking if I was promoting the sport or just my story through this blog..I was primarily telling my story, but he made me realise its my responsibility to not only tell my story, but to help other triathletes looking for things not to do or do, and any information I come across should be shared....to help promote the sport, promote any event or anyone who has the passion (like Vlad and Jo) and interest to keep the sport growing. So on that note...another plug in....for those Coasties...dont forget to sign up for the Central Coast Triathlon on the 18th by clicking here : Central Coast Tri Club
So, for those of you interested in following Vlads progress in Hawaii and during the race, the details can be found on his blog twitter here :
Vlads Blog
Some more good news, Andrew Mildren competed in the Gold Coast Half Iron Man today, and he smashed it in 4.57 (apparently, if he posts a report I will link it to my blog next week), but it was somethign like a 60min PB for him...I knew he would do well, so a huge congrats to him! Sensational effort! Steve Mckellar also posted a sub 5hour race which is just fantastic. Testiment to Rollos coaching and programs he sets and delivers for each one of us.....he is truly doing a great job for all the guys on his programs!
So enough about all the others, onto me, so apart from missing 2 days, whcih felt like 2 weeks, I did train every other day, and it was a recovery week. Friday was a good swim set, Tuesday was a good bike set, I had a great run in the rain and wind with jase, Eddie and ALM (Angry Little Man or Allan Pearso) followed by an ocean swim, and then today, I was downstairs on the turbo trainer for an hour and decided because the rain had subsided I would go up to Calga and do the 43km Time Trial. I did it in 1hr 17 so thats a 2min PB, and to be honest, i felt crap the whole way. I thought I was well behind the last time I did one, so was pleasantly surprised. I ran 6km off the bike, and kept the pace at around 4.15 with the HR under 15o again, so felt strong on the run again. The issue is, I am not sure if I can sustain the pace I want for races such as the Half Iron Man on the bike, I am just not strong enough, so its going to be a challange holding back.'
To sum up this week then :
Swim : 10km (4hours)
Run : aprox 30km (2.5hours)
Cycle : 43km + 3hours on TT
Total 9.5hours
So you can easily see it was a recovery week in terms of volume, but remember, I was off for 2 days, so still managed to do some sessions!
Next week, I am competing in the Maitlaind Triathlon festival, its a 1.5km swim, 55km cycle and 12km run...should be fun and maybe a little tough. Nothing however on Vlads effort in Kona, I wish him all the best for the time he is over there and especially the race, I will post any updates on his efforts next week.'
Until then....
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Life on Mars!
The biggest thing this week was the dust storm we had on Wednesday, bloody hell, what was that!! I actually got up to start my brick session that morning just after 4am, was on the bike for 75mins, opened the garage and the light around the street lights was red, unbelievable! 3km into the run I could taste and feel the grit in my teeth, and once home, I noticed my teeth were brown, and I was blowing brown gunk out of my nose! I was a little worried about the impact inhaling dust at those levels was going to have, but thankfully I have come through okay!
At least I know what it would be like for triathletes to train on Mars.....great to look at, crap to breath in! For once, I am sure most Sydney siders were jealous of those people roaming around with those masks on...I know I was!
Thursday morning was the last Bobbin head hill repeats with my mate Vlad. He is now tapering for the hardest race around...Hawaiin Iron Man (aka Kona). It was kind of sad as we have been doing these every Thursday for the past 3 months or so, through Winter, sub zero temperatures, wind, rain, fog, dealing with carcus's which smelt so bad they mad you gag as you rode past, Vlad nearly getting cleaned up on a corner ( I swear I saw his life pass in a flash, christ I shat myself, and he was calm as!), and now seeing all the bludgers out there now because its warm...where were you blouse's in winter huh???? I guess at least they are out there doing something, but they dont get the HTFU badges for missing the winter sessions!! I think however, I will probably do these repeats on my own at least once a month still, because the efforts really improved my strenght on the bike, however I still have a very very long way to go to be able to hold my own, and survive the Iron Man!
I was having Friday off this past week, so my Thursday at work was so full on I was not able to do the sun set (which was a tough interval set), so, not wanting to miss any sessions, i thought I would get up early on Friday, do my Thursday run set up at the Adcock Park Athletics track and then straight into the pool for the Friday swim set. Well, I did this. The run was a 20min warm up, followed by 15 x 400m, then warm down...I ran the 400ms between 1.20 and 1.25 with 1min rest between each one. It was really tough going, and made worse by the chill in the air at 5am! Straight into the swim for a tough 2.5km set, and I can tell you I was buggered!
Saturday was to one of the funnest sets I have done. Rollo set Eddie (Andrew C) and Jase and I a brick session consisting of 4 x 15km efforts on the bike with 3km run between each effort. All the efforts on bike and run were to be done at race pace ( and reiterared by Rollo - No Faster than IM race pace) He must have been aiming that comment at the other 2 blokes! Nature threw us a curve ball again, and we had windy and dusty conditions to deal with again, so we did 3 sets instead. I know my lungs were not feeling that great by the end of the 3rd set, but boy it was fun! Flat circuit with the wind behind for part of the lap and hitting over 40km an hour with no effort and holding that speed, it was awesome! Coming back into the wind was a bitch, but still....I felt great on the runs, kept my HR under 150 and was still running low 4min per km pace, and felt I could maintain that. In fact, each run I felt I got stronger and faster, so was really really chuft. After the 3rd set, I packed the bike away, and went over to Terrigal Beach to join Andrew M for a very rough ocean swim...man, the wind was howling, the waves were pretty big and it was a challange! we did it though, and as far as a training session for me can go....it was great fun, good learning experience and would be relaly chuft to do that again, minus the dust though! Saturday was almost a half Iron Man for me all up in terms of the distance and certainly longer in time (I hope ;-)) so am really happy with that.
I was up again at 4am this morning, doing some work on one of our production servers before doing 150mins on the turbo trainer to end another great week of training off. I am pretty tired tonight, but considering I have done some really hard sets since this week, including 2 huuuuuge brick sessions in 2 days, but this week is a recovery one so that will be good.
Andrew M is going to compete in the Gold Coast Half Iron Man this coming weekend, so all the best to him , he will smash it and do really really well! I look forward to hearing about how he goes.
In summery this week I have done :
Swim - 10km (3.5hours)
Run - 40km (3.5hours) (maybe a little more, but there abouts)
Cycle - 100km + 5 hours on TT (8 Hours)
Total - 14.5hours
That was truly 14.5hours of great fun, hard yakka, but every moment was enjoyable! I felt completely poked at times, but I find it easy to continue pushing myself, I find it easy to keep myself motivated, and I have this drive to be competitive, which I thought I didn't have, I dont consider myself competitive, but maybe thats because I have always played team sports, where as triathlon is all about yourself and what you do and how you do it, what you put in and what you want to get out...its all in your control, and I tell you what......I love it!!
For now, adious and hope your week ahead will be as fullfilling as this last one has been for me....sensational!!!!!
At least I know what it would be like for triathletes to train on Mars.....great to look at, crap to breath in! For once, I am sure most Sydney siders were jealous of those people roaming around with those masks on...I know I was!
Thursday morning was the last Bobbin head hill repeats with my mate Vlad. He is now tapering for the hardest race around...Hawaiin Iron Man (aka Kona). It was kind of sad as we have been doing these every Thursday for the past 3 months or so, through Winter, sub zero temperatures, wind, rain, fog, dealing with carcus's which smelt so bad they mad you gag as you rode past, Vlad nearly getting cleaned up on a corner ( I swear I saw his life pass in a flash, christ I shat myself, and he was calm as!), and now seeing all the bludgers out there now because its warm...where were you blouse's in winter huh???? I guess at least they are out there doing something, but they dont get the HTFU badges for missing the winter sessions!! I think however, I will probably do these repeats on my own at least once a month still, because the efforts really improved my strenght on the bike, however I still have a very very long way to go to be able to hold my own, and survive the Iron Man!
I was having Friday off this past week, so my Thursday at work was so full on I was not able to do the sun set (which was a tough interval set), so, not wanting to miss any sessions, i thought I would get up early on Friday, do my Thursday run set up at the Adcock Park Athletics track and then straight into the pool for the Friday swim set. Well, I did this. The run was a 20min warm up, followed by 15 x 400m, then warm down...I ran the 400ms between 1.20 and 1.25 with 1min rest between each one. It was really tough going, and made worse by the chill in the air at 5am! Straight into the swim for a tough 2.5km set, and I can tell you I was buggered!
Saturday was to one of the funnest sets I have done. Rollo set Eddie (Andrew C) and Jase and I a brick session consisting of 4 x 15km efforts on the bike with 3km run between each effort. All the efforts on bike and run were to be done at race pace ( and reiterared by Rollo - No Faster than IM race pace) He must have been aiming that comment at the other 2 blokes! Nature threw us a curve ball again, and we had windy and dusty conditions to deal with again, so we did 3 sets instead. I know my lungs were not feeling that great by the end of the 3rd set, but boy it was fun! Flat circuit with the wind behind for part of the lap and hitting over 40km an hour with no effort and holding that speed, it was awesome! Coming back into the wind was a bitch, but still....I felt great on the runs, kept my HR under 150 and was still running low 4min per km pace, and felt I could maintain that. In fact, each run I felt I got stronger and faster, so was really really chuft. After the 3rd set, I packed the bike away, and went over to Terrigal Beach to join Andrew M for a very rough ocean swim...man, the wind was howling, the waves were pretty big and it was a challange! we did it though, and as far as a training session for me can go....it was great fun, good learning experience and would be relaly chuft to do that again, minus the dust though! Saturday was almost a half Iron Man for me all up in terms of the distance and certainly longer in time (I hope ;-)) so am really happy with that.
I was up again at 4am this morning, doing some work on one of our production servers before doing 150mins on the turbo trainer to end another great week of training off. I am pretty tired tonight, but considering I have done some really hard sets since this week, including 2 huuuuuge brick sessions in 2 days, but this week is a recovery one so that will be good.
Andrew M is going to compete in the Gold Coast Half Iron Man this coming weekend, so all the best to him , he will smash it and do really really well! I look forward to hearing about how he goes.
In summery this week I have done :
Swim - 10km (3.5hours)
Run - 40km (3.5hours) (maybe a little more, but there abouts)
Cycle - 100km + 5 hours on TT (8 Hours)
Total - 14.5hours
That was truly 14.5hours of great fun, hard yakka, but every moment was enjoyable! I felt completely poked at times, but I find it easy to continue pushing myself, I find it easy to keep myself motivated, and I have this drive to be competitive, which I thought I didn't have, I dont consider myself competitive, but maybe thats because I have always played team sports, where as triathlon is all about yourself and what you do and how you do it, what you put in and what you want to get out...its all in your control, and I tell you what......I love it!!
For now, adious and hope your week ahead will be as fullfilling as this last one has been for me....sensational!!!!!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Half Marathon Anniversary!
Its been 12months since I ran my first half marathon. It was the blackmore's half marathon this time last year Miles, Deven and I ran our first, thinking we would run around 105mins.....Well, last year it was not to be, we were all a fair way off that time as well!
This time round however, with the training I am doing, a little more experience (as it was to be my 4th half in the past 12months). My goal for this race was 82mins - estactic; 84mins chuft; 86mins just satisfied. I honestly did not think I would run 82mins, i thought I would be closer to 84mnins, maybe 85 at worst.
Well, it was an early start, 6.20am and for the 1st 3kms I felt sluggish (although the watch showed I ran splits of 3.30, 3.37 and 3.30) I soon go into my rythm, and found myself with about 15odd other runners all at the same sort of pace. I went through the 10km mark at 38.20 (which is another PB for me), and finished the race in 82.42. To give you an idea of how chuft I am, I did this same race in 120mnins just 12months ago! Anyway, I came 65th overall, and 17th in my age category, so am well chuft. Even more impressive was Vlads effort, he came 6th in 70mnins (a PB for him as well) and 2nd in our age category. Andrew Mildren finished in 82.23, so he pipped me but what a great run by him! Evenm more impressive about andrew's and Vlads results were they both did big sessions on Saturday morning....where as I was unable to (but had a huge friday!). Well done to them both, really really great times and efforts. Vlad and I did just over 1km swim straight after the race today, which helped the aching muscles. The bad thing about that is I know I am back in that pool again tomorrow morning....as I have said before...no let up!
Vlad did a presentation on Compression gear and its benefits and how to use it on Firday night at his shop. It was great, and with a good attendance. Hopefully it gets bigger in the future, and with the topics he has planned, I think it will. He had some interesting stats on how compression helps athletes improve their overall performance and recovery, and I reckon it certainly does (I am sitting here typing this in my long compression pants, and my legs feel much better for it!
So apart from the Half marathon, it was pretty much business as usual in terms of training. Monday was a hectic swim set, tuesday I did my interval traning with Vlad (I died, and he was so strong), Thursday was the 2nd last Bobbin head hill repeats for Vlad and I, and Friday I tried fitting in Saturdays session as well as the other items.
So, all up this week was :
Swim - 11.5kms (4hours)
Run - 55kms (4.5hours)
Cycle - 80kms + 1hr Turbo (4hours)
Total - 12.5hours
So another enjoyable week done and dusted. Another PB for me, and its pretty much down to the program, and having the training partners I have...because without the guys I train with, I dont think I would be anywhere near where I am...so thanks to everyone I train with (particulary Vlad as he is actually dragging me along, and improving me). He has 2 weeks to go before going to hawaii for Kona....so exciting for him, and for us, his supporters.......
Thats it for now...done and dusted!
This time round however, with the training I am doing, a little more experience (as it was to be my 4th half in the past 12months). My goal for this race was 82mins - estactic; 84mins chuft; 86mins just satisfied. I honestly did not think I would run 82mins, i thought I would be closer to 84mnins, maybe 85 at worst.
Well, it was an early start, 6.20am and for the 1st 3kms I felt sluggish (although the watch showed I ran splits of 3.30, 3.37 and 3.30) I soon go into my rythm, and found myself with about 15odd other runners all at the same sort of pace. I went through the 10km mark at 38.20 (which is another PB for me), and finished the race in 82.42. To give you an idea of how chuft I am, I did this same race in 120mnins just 12months ago! Anyway, I came 65th overall, and 17th in my age category, so am well chuft. Even more impressive was Vlads effort, he came 6th in 70mnins (a PB for him as well) and 2nd in our age category. Andrew Mildren finished in 82.23, so he pipped me but what a great run by him! Evenm more impressive about andrew's and Vlads results were they both did big sessions on Saturday morning....where as I was unable to (but had a huge friday!). Well done to them both, really really great times and efforts. Vlad and I did just over 1km swim straight after the race today, which helped the aching muscles. The bad thing about that is I know I am back in that pool again tomorrow morning....as I have said before...no let up!
Vlad did a presentation on Compression gear and its benefits and how to use it on Firday night at his shop. It was great, and with a good attendance. Hopefully it gets bigger in the future, and with the topics he has planned, I think it will. He had some interesting stats on how compression helps athletes improve their overall performance and recovery, and I reckon it certainly does (I am sitting here typing this in my long compression pants, and my legs feel much better for it!
So apart from the Half marathon, it was pretty much business as usual in terms of training. Monday was a hectic swim set, tuesday I did my interval traning with Vlad (I died, and he was so strong), Thursday was the 2nd last Bobbin head hill repeats for Vlad and I, and Friday I tried fitting in Saturdays session as well as the other items.
So, all up this week was :
Swim - 11.5kms (4hours)
Run - 55kms (4.5hours)
Cycle - 80kms + 1hr Turbo (4hours)
Total - 12.5hours
So another enjoyable week done and dusted. Another PB for me, and its pretty much down to the program, and having the training partners I have...because without the guys I train with, I dont think I would be anywhere near where I am...so thanks to everyone I train with (particulary Vlad as he is actually dragging me along, and improving me). He has 2 weeks to go before going to hawaii for Kona....so exciting for him, and for us, his supporters.......
Thats it for now...done and dusted!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Show me the way to the pillow - please
Jesus, right at this moment I am on my 5th wind of the day. I am rooted! Its been a fantastic week of training, work has been flat out because my team is one short, and I dont think I could have trained any better this weekend than I did...so whilst I am farked, I am well chuft!
I did a great 18km run on tuesday, loved the turbo trainer session on wednesday, and actually got up on Thirsday to do hill repeats with Vlad! I must say, i love those sessions, its going to be tough though when he stops them after Kona (hawaii)...I guess I will have to continue them on my own, because I can clear as daylight see the benefits of that set. My cycling is really rather weak, but has come a long way in the last few months with this set being part of my schedule rollo gives me. I guess a large weekly dose of TTFU will assist me with this!
this weekend I trained with Andrew M (the animal no.2), we ran Trotters together for 19km on Saturday, before another 30min ocean swim, and then today, 100km ride (with 4 x 10km race pace efforts in the middle), and then straight off and running in some heat for 8km!!! Andrew took me down a loop where we got to see some aboriginal carvings.....crazy that these works of art are at our doorstep up here on the central coast, and I knew nothing about it.....reminded me of back in Zim with seeing the bushman's paintings....incredible to be looking at something someone did hundreds of years ago surviving the element.s There was a clear carving of a whale (yes a whale) and a bloke, some character dancing, and then a newer addition (within the last few months I am sure), a cock and balls......Andrew made the point that hundreds of years ago, teenagers then probably did the same thing.....funny thought huh! Sad the rock was defaced, but funny to think it was probably happening hundreds of years back! Can you imagine, the old boy getting up in the morniung and cursing the son for drawing some action porn shots on the rock!!! Its posisble - really!!
I also chucked in an extra swim session on Tuesday this week (hang on Rollo I will explain), I was not sure if I was going to be able to do the ocean swim on Satuday, so did a 2km effort instead on tuesday, which was done at a controlled pace, and in 27mins, breathing every 3 strokes so no flat out, and, more importantly, I got out feeling like I could have continued with that pace and swim for another 2km. I felt pretty good getting out so was chuft! Anyway, I got to do the swim yesterday which was great!!
So, to summerise this week :
Swim - 11km (4hours)
Run - 50km (4hours)
Cycle - 175km + 1Tt session (8hours)
Total - 16hours
Pretty full on week, but one I enjoyed biug time....
This week ends with the Blackmores Half Marathon, it was the 1st one I did ever back in 2008, so will be interesting to run this one again, hopefully this time healthy!
I did a great 18km run on tuesday, loved the turbo trainer session on wednesday, and actually got up on Thirsday to do hill repeats with Vlad! I must say, i love those sessions, its going to be tough though when he stops them after Kona (hawaii)...I guess I will have to continue them on my own, because I can clear as daylight see the benefits of that set. My cycling is really rather weak, but has come a long way in the last few months with this set being part of my schedule rollo gives me. I guess a large weekly dose of TTFU will assist me with this!
this weekend I trained with Andrew M (the animal no.2), we ran Trotters together for 19km on Saturday, before another 30min ocean swim, and then today, 100km ride (with 4 x 10km race pace efforts in the middle), and then straight off and running in some heat for 8km!!! Andrew took me down a loop where we got to see some aboriginal carvings.....crazy that these works of art are at our doorstep up here on the central coast, and I knew nothing about it.....reminded me of back in Zim with seeing the bushman's paintings....incredible to be looking at something someone did hundreds of years ago surviving the element.s There was a clear carving of a whale (yes a whale) and a bloke, some character dancing, and then a newer addition (within the last few months I am sure), a cock and balls......Andrew made the point that hundreds of years ago, teenagers then probably did the same thing.....funny thought huh! Sad the rock was defaced, but funny to think it was probably happening hundreds of years back! Can you imagine, the old boy getting up in the morniung and cursing the son for drawing some action porn shots on the rock!!! Its posisble - really!!
I also chucked in an extra swim session on Tuesday this week (hang on Rollo I will explain), I was not sure if I was going to be able to do the ocean swim on Satuday, so did a 2km effort instead on tuesday, which was done at a controlled pace, and in 27mins, breathing every 3 strokes so no flat out, and, more importantly, I got out feeling like I could have continued with that pace and swim for another 2km. I felt pretty good getting out so was chuft! Anyway, I got to do the swim yesterday which was great!!
So, to summerise this week :
Swim - 11km (4hours)
Run - 50km (4hours)
Cycle - 175km + 1Tt session (8hours)
Total - 16hours
Pretty full on week, but one I enjoyed biug time....
This week ends with the Blackmores Half Marathon, it was the 1st one I did ever back in 2008, so will be interesting to run this one again, hopefully this time healthy!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Another week down, another week closer to the Half Iron Man
I know the title states the obvious, but I am already excited about the 1st of November. I have a few races before then : the Blackmores Half Marathon, the Maitland Oylmpic distance Triathlon, a club duathlon, a club triahtlon, maybe a Calga Time Trial, but I am really only focused on the Half Iron Man....I am just looking at the other races as preparation for the big race. The funny thing is, the Maitland triathlon in October is not much shorter than the Half, so not only will it be a great indicator for me, and an eye opener, but a good test, as it will be the longest triathlon I would have done. Dont get me wrong, I am excited about every race, and I really mean that, bring them all on, but having that focus is great, because I dont take these races too seriously, and actually thoroughly enjoy each one....and.....am very grateful to be able to do them.
Onto some training details this past week. I had a recovery sort of week. It did not start well, i was unable to swim on Monday at all due to all sorts of things, however Tuesday was an enjoyable 16km run in the morning, followed by the monday swim session missed. Wednesday did a great turbo trainer session in the morning, followed by a brick swim / run session at lunchtime. I did not turn my alarm on on Thursday, so only woke at 4.30am and was supposed to meet Vlad at 5am, so missed that, ran lunchtime, and then Friday did the ride I missed on Thursday morning. Saturday morning was a 2hr run with Andrew, we then did a 30min ocean swim straight afterwards. Today I got up at 4,30am (fathers day) did 2hours on the turbo trainer and then ran 40mins off the bike, so I was stuffed this afternoon!
A huuuuuuuuuuge thanks to Vlad, Jo (his wife) and 2XU for sorting me out with a great V1 wetsuit. I have never worn one before, but it was very comfy, warm, and most importantly, felt very fast! Its going to take a few sessions to get used to swimming in a wetsuit, but I must say, it really did make me feel like I was swimming pretty quick....my fear of sharks could also be a factor in that speed, but hey, it was confortable. I am looking forward to more swims with the suit on.....
So this week, even though I was not able to follow the program as much as i wanted to, I did my best to fit it in where possible, I ended up with the following :
Swim - 2.5hrs (about 6km)
Run - 5hrs (60km)
Ride - 3hrs TT + 2hrs on road
So, a recovery week still had 12.5 hours (or there abouts) of training....thats pretty decent if you think about it, and if you were to try and understand the time obsticles I had to get over this week to achieve this you would appreciate why I am pretty chuft I managed that....now that I have actually typed it out, I actually wander how the hell I did it!
Rollo has the next few weeks building pretty nicely, and the program as usual looks great. I am looking forward to having a bit more time on my hands and not stressing to fit everything in this week, its going to be difficult because my team is one down at work, so its going to be flat out for the next 2 weeks.....I still refuse to train at night (unless desperate) os really its mornings and lunchtimes only for me!
Onto some training details this past week. I had a recovery sort of week. It did not start well, i was unable to swim on Monday at all due to all sorts of things, however Tuesday was an enjoyable 16km run in the morning, followed by the monday swim session missed. Wednesday did a great turbo trainer session in the morning, followed by a brick swim / run session at lunchtime. I did not turn my alarm on on Thursday, so only woke at 4.30am and was supposed to meet Vlad at 5am, so missed that, ran lunchtime, and then Friday did the ride I missed on Thursday morning. Saturday morning was a 2hr run with Andrew, we then did a 30min ocean swim straight afterwards. Today I got up at 4,30am (fathers day) did 2hours on the turbo trainer and then ran 40mins off the bike, so I was stuffed this afternoon!
A huuuuuuuuuuge thanks to Vlad, Jo (his wife) and 2XU for sorting me out with a great V1 wetsuit. I have never worn one before, but it was very comfy, warm, and most importantly, felt very fast! Its going to take a few sessions to get used to swimming in a wetsuit, but I must say, it really did make me feel like I was swimming pretty quick....my fear of sharks could also be a factor in that speed, but hey, it was confortable. I am looking forward to more swims with the suit on.....
So this week, even though I was not able to follow the program as much as i wanted to, I did my best to fit it in where possible, I ended up with the following :
Swim - 2.5hrs (about 6km)
Run - 5hrs (60km)
Ride - 3hrs TT + 2hrs on road
So, a recovery week still had 12.5 hours (or there abouts) of training....thats pretty decent if you think about it, and if you were to try and understand the time obsticles I had to get over this week to achieve this you would appreciate why I am pretty chuft I managed that....now that I have actually typed it out, I actually wander how the hell I did it!
Rollo has the next few weeks building pretty nicely, and the program as usual looks great. I am looking forward to having a bit more time on my hands and not stressing to fit everything in this week, its going to be difficult because my team is one down at work, so its going to be flat out for the next 2 weeks.....I still refuse to train at night (unless desperate) os really its mornings and lunchtimes only for me!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Did you order the recovery week sir??
Not I sir, I did not, but jesus, I have earnt it I reckon! Its been a tough last 3 weeks, but very very enjoyable! For those of you who read my weekly blogs will know each week is pretty full on in regards to the training, and you will know I love it. Tonight, I am sitting here, typing this out, with my legs feeling a tad heavy, but otherwise I am 100%! Rollo has a recovery week planned for me this one coming, which does not mean its 'light' its just slightly less intense I think, certainly less hours than the last few weeks, which I guess is a good thing. the body needs to be given the opportunity to heal and recover, and this is why good coaches such as Rollo build these in regularly. The only issue I have with recovery weeks is I think I might get a bit twitchy, feeling like I am not doing enough, or missing out or something along those lines....completing a recovery week can be just as challanging mentally as a heavy week in my opinion! last week I ran in the Pub to Pub if you remember, Vlad came 2nd, I came 21st which I am well chuft with. I also managed to get my photo in the Manly Daily newspaper, which is above (autograph requests can be emailed okay)
So, this week, ended in a really good weekend. yesterday I got the conditional go ahead from Rollo to run the Trotters 10km time trial, followed by 40mins after. I was keen for this as I have not done an official 10km TT since January, so my PB is 42mins. I have run sub 40mins in a few of my recent races, but thats not official, so was happy to not belt myself but run it hard. Well, I finished it in 39.31 so I am now officially in the sub 40min club for 10km....HURRAH!!
Today, I competed in the Central Coast Triathlon Club Monthly duathlon. Never done one of these before, but I gave it a crack, finished in 4th and was very happy with my bike leg....actually felt that I was holding my own out there today (still got lots to do though), but its good to see the results of the hard work. Once again, Rollo has my training spot on!
well done to Andrew Collins, and Jason Freney on their half marathon times today, Andrew did a huge PB (1.51) which is very deserving, and shows the training he is getting under Rollo is working, he is reaping the benefits to!
For this past week, in summery :
swim - 8.5km (3hours)
Ride - 110km (4.5hours)
Run - 4.5hours (aprox 50kms)
So 12 hours all up, which sounds quite low, but alot of it was quite intense, with interval training, brick sessions and 2 races.......time to focus on the next race of mine, which is the Blackmores Hlaf marathon. This was my first Half marathon ever, which I ran with Miles and Deven last year, and I ran it sick as a dog, and finished it in 2hours flat, so will be looking to beat that time at least ;-)
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Beers all round please!
Today, I have had more beers in one setting than I have had for the past 6months. How many, well, I am typing this whilst consuming....waiti for it.......6th! 6 beers! 18 months ago, I would have probably had by this time on a Sunday night....12, maybe a few more, maybe one or 2 less depending on how long dinner took to cook......some will still think 6 beers is heaps, for me not really, and i have had them over the last 4 hours...and..they are thoroughly deserved after the week i have had with my training. I also ran in the annual 'Pub to Pub' run today on Sydneys Northern Beaches. I ran it last year for the first time, and I think it was finished in 66mins....today.....52 or 53...not sure yet as official time has yet to be given. Let me tell you, it hurt! Its 13km, with an 800m odd beach run to start, and then quite undulating, with 2 really nasty hills, so its pretty tough. It was made tougher by the fact I rode 100km yesterday as well....so, to be honest, I think I could knock a couple of mins off that time with fresh legs, but I am chuft with my time! Michelle and Courtney were at the end to see me through which is always special! Gives you something to look forward to. Vlad the animal came 2nd out fo 3500, and his time was around the 45min mark....fast huh! well done Vlad!
As for the rest of the week, it was pretty full on again. Its been hard yakka from Monday onwards with no let up. It was challanging more mentally than physically to be honest.....its really hard to get out there, push yourself and foillow the program when you are tired, but I did it...
Tuesday I ran 20.3km in 82mins.......that was well on track for a Half marathon PB.....and Thursday was 4 x Bobbin Head Hill repeats with Vlad which were probably the highlights of the week in terms of training. I actually enjoyed those sessions. I rode into work from Gosford yesterday, and toiled from near Hornsby...think I might have got my nutrition wrong or something because there was not much in the legs. Still, the mental battle was tougher, I kept thinking, maybe I should just get the train in for the last part...but, then the famous arse kicking saying helped me along - "HTFU"!! No way could I really accept cutting the session short....so just kept going and eventually got there. Still, I did 90km in just over 3 hours....which is pretty good going for someone who struggled the last half of the ride. For those of you who know what route...you will understand how tough those hills are...
To summerise this week then :
Swim - 9.5kms (3.5hours)
Ride - 7.5hours (TT session + 150km)
Run - 4hours (55km)
Total - 15hours
I had a couple of brick sesssions there this week as well, so the training above was focused on strengthening, whcih is great.
So, here we go, another tough week coming up, I think its sligjhtly lighter than this past week, but in no means easier. Looking forward to kicking it off with a 2.7km swim tomorrow morning, and ending it with my first club duathlon (run / ride / run). I will be riding to the race from Rollo's, which i think is probably 40km odd, or more...will let you know next week, but it will be a hoot! Wish me luck!
As for the rest of the week, it was pretty full on again. Its been hard yakka from Monday onwards with no let up. It was challanging more mentally than physically to be honest.....its really hard to get out there, push yourself and foillow the program when you are tired, but I did it...
Tuesday I ran 20.3km in 82mins.......that was well on track for a Half marathon PB.....and Thursday was 4 x Bobbin Head Hill repeats with Vlad which were probably the highlights of the week in terms of training. I actually enjoyed those sessions. I rode into work from Gosford yesterday, and toiled from near Hornsby...think I might have got my nutrition wrong or something because there was not much in the legs. Still, the mental battle was tougher, I kept thinking, maybe I should just get the train in for the last part...but, then the famous arse kicking saying helped me along - "HTFU"!! No way could I really accept cutting the session short....so just kept going and eventually got there. Still, I did 90km in just over 3 hours....which is pretty good going for someone who struggled the last half of the ride. For those of you who know what route...you will understand how tough those hills are...
To summerise this week then :
Swim - 9.5kms (3.5hours)
Ride - 7.5hours (TT session + 150km)
Run - 4hours (55km)
Total - 15hours
I had a couple of brick sesssions there this week as well, so the training above was focused on strengthening, whcih is great.
So, here we go, another tough week coming up, I think its sligjhtly lighter than this past week, but in no means easier. Looking forward to kicking it off with a 2.7km swim tomorrow morning, and ending it with my first club duathlon (run / ride / run). I will be riding to the race from Rollo's, which i think is probably 40km odd, or more...will let you know next week, but it will be a hoot! Wish me luck!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Perfect Example much rest
Righto, well, tonight I am stuffed! I have had a few tough training days this week...and, basically no rest from the City to Surf either! Got up at the usual 4.50am on the monday and off the pool to do 5 x 500m sets....wTF! that was it for the Monday, but I had ride and run on Tuesday, long run Wednesday, including a decent swim pyramid and the the Bobbin Head hill repeats thursday, Friday the core set was a 2km race pace effort (26mins), Saturday I was up at 3.45am and on my way to work, then met up with a bunch of guys I met through Vlad and ran 2hours (They did 30kms, I did about 24km), and then, just to end off a pretty decent 7 days, I did 110km on the bike today...with plenty of hills to deal with...jesus, I am stuffed typing this!!!!
I must admit, it was tough getting up early this morning, I only got to bed at midnight because Michelle took me to the theatre to watch "The Producers" (great act BTW). But, once I got going, froze my arse off down Mooney Mooney hill, and then boiled that same frozen arse back up the hill because today was almost 10degrees above the normal average for this time of year.....just to make the ride more challanging, never mind the hills, lunatic motorbike riders (man those biys fly up the old pacific highway), and trying to make sure my nutrition was right, because I was really stuffed on the way back. Thank god for GU's because I am not sure if I would have coped up broooklyn bridge on the way back without one...I was pretty tired (no doubt the 2 hour run the day before had an impact)
So, onto better and more interesting news. Vlad opened his new 2XU Performance Store in Sydney yeasterday. OI popped in on the way home after work to say hi, and things seem to be going well. what a thing it must be, to come up with the idea, and then, 6months later its a reality! The shop looked awesome, and I was glad to have been a small part of the journey...probably hindering more than helping. Jo (Vlads wife) and him have really done so well, and I hope that they succeed in this, they really deserve it. Their product is excellent, and as a user, I can honestly say that the 2XU compression gear hands down beats any other product out there. Thats the point of this blog though, Vlad is the perfect example of having this goal, this chap has set goals in Iron Man and now his career and achieved them both. He has not let any obsticles get in the way, and that is an exmaple to follow....set the goal, make sure they are a stretch but (importantly) achievable.
So, onto this week, and the program is heavier than last weeks, so no rest for the wicked! It looks tough, but I love the way that Rollo deisgns it with specific goals in terms of strenght, endurance and race prep (dont know what happens with that yet). I cant talk highly enough of the programs that come through, and anyone who has specific goals with this sport (triathlon) and is new to it, you would be wise to engage in a coach, they really help!! (thanks Rollo).
So, to summerise this week :
Swim - 8.5km (aprox 3hours)
Run - 55km (5hours)
Cycle - 7hours (155km + TT session)
So, a grand total of 15hours of training this week, and I can assure you, after this mornings ride, I was feeling that volume. But, as Rollo says and knows, I have pulled up okay, aqnd even tonight I am ready for the next...pretty much recovered and ready to go! The magic of having a coach dish out the programs is the only way to go!
Last note, I said I finished the City to Surf in 54.40, I was wrong, the official time was 54.39...dont deprive me of my 1second! So, a confirmed 15min PB for me, and I think that outs me in the preferred athlete start for next year...what ever that means!
So, until next week, have a good one!
I must admit, it was tough getting up early this morning, I only got to bed at midnight because Michelle took me to the theatre to watch "The Producers" (great act BTW). But, once I got going, froze my arse off down Mooney Mooney hill, and then boiled that same frozen arse back up the hill because today was almost 10degrees above the normal average for this time of year.....just to make the ride more challanging, never mind the hills, lunatic motorbike riders (man those biys fly up the old pacific highway), and trying to make sure my nutrition was right, because I was really stuffed on the way back. Thank god for GU's because I am not sure if I would have coped up broooklyn bridge on the way back without one...I was pretty tired (no doubt the 2 hour run the day before had an impact)
So, onto better and more interesting news. Vlad opened his new 2XU Performance Store in Sydney yeasterday. OI popped in on the way home after work to say hi, and things seem to be going well. what a thing it must be, to come up with the idea, and then, 6months later its a reality! The shop looked awesome, and I was glad to have been a small part of the journey...probably hindering more than helping. Jo (Vlads wife) and him have really done so well, and I hope that they succeed in this, they really deserve it. Their product is excellent, and as a user, I can honestly say that the 2XU compression gear hands down beats any other product out there. Thats the point of this blog though, Vlad is the perfect example of having this goal, this chap has set goals in Iron Man and now his career and achieved them both. He has not let any obsticles get in the way, and that is an exmaple to follow....set the goal, make sure they are a stretch but (importantly) achievable.
So, onto this week, and the program is heavier than last weeks, so no rest for the wicked! It looks tough, but I love the way that Rollo deisgns it with specific goals in terms of strenght, endurance and race prep (dont know what happens with that yet). I cant talk highly enough of the programs that come through, and anyone who has specific goals with this sport (triathlon) and is new to it, you would be wise to engage in a coach, they really help!! (thanks Rollo).
So, to summerise this week :
Swim - 8.5km (aprox 3hours)
Run - 55km (5hours)
Cycle - 7hours (155km + TT session)
So, a grand total of 15hours of training this week, and I can assure you, after this mornings ride, I was feeling that volume. But, as Rollo says and knows, I have pulled up okay, aqnd even tonight I am ready for the next...pretty much recovered and ready to go! The magic of having a coach dish out the programs is the only way to go!
Last note, I said I finished the City to Surf in 54.40, I was wrong, the official time was 54.39...dont deprive me of my 1second! So, a confirmed 15min PB for me, and I think that outs me in the preferred athlete start for next year...what ever that means!
So, until next week, have a good one!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
City to Surf - 'Tick'!!
firstly I apologise for missing last weeks blog, something I thought I would not do...pretty fully on week before, with loads of training and work, so come sunday night, I never got a chance, and then I figured I would wait until today to update!
Well, this week was a 'light' week on the training front. The usual 3 swim sessions n Mon, wed and Friday, I had a great session with Vlad on Tuesday morning. The animal was doing 6km efforts at around the 3.30 per km pace which is incredible. I was joiing him for a kilometer here and there. He rain in the end 24odd km, this all before work. I probably ended up with about 17km with some sprints in between. Having not had them in my program for months, its kind of a nice change to be able to do them. They hurt like hell though!
Thursday I did some bobbin head hill repeats with Vlad again. I gave him some serious words of encouragement on the 1st one up, after which I did not see him on any of the others, so glad to have been of help! Seriously though, the guy is strong on the hills on that bike....I think though, I am coming along nicely. Its really tough I must say though, getting up at 3.45am, getting down to Turramurra, and on the bike for just after 5am. Its pretty freezing here still, and going down that bloody hill is really cold :-(. Vlad would vouch for my winging all the way down!
On that note, we did a Calga Time Trial the weekend before. Its a 43km ride, I surprised myself with the time I did (1.19, avg 33km). I was expecting to be much slower than that, so it was good to know that the progam Rollo sets for me is working.
So, onto one of my short term goals, which was the City to Surf today. A few blogs back, you might remember I set a goal of 56mins as my target. I was not 100% confident I would achieve that because of the hilly course, however, I knew I would not be far off. Anyway, I finished it in (according to my watch, so not official time yet, but it will be close) 54.40!! I also went through the 10km mark in 39.10 which is another PB) Considering I did it in 69mins last year, its pretty good improvement, and even better that I got under the 55min mark! WOOHOO! One very big tick for me I must say, not because it means anything else other than I was able to push through pain, up that hill, and really keep the pace pretty consistant all the way.....once again, shows the program is working for me, and shows I have good guys around me keeping me going!
Vlads 2XU shop opens next week, so after the race i helped him hand out flyers to all the finishers. There were so many people, it was awesome! I also wore 2XU gear, and it was pretty comfortable stuff! I hope the shop does really well, because Jo and him deserve it, and they are selling a bloody good product and its in line with something they are passionate about! (anyone in Sydney reading this, get down to Paddington next saturday to support them!) Vlad the crazy animal finished in 45odd mins....how good is that! Considering the guy who won it finished in 41mins, shows you how fast Vlad goes! Well done vlad!!
So, another week down, another PB down, another goal achieved, and I am really enjoying all the training and hard work. Really, its down to the support I have around me from the training Grant (Rollo) gives me to the boys who I train with (Vlad, Jase, Eddie, Al, Andrew, Skinny Wiggle) to name a few.
So just to keep in line with my summery, this week :
Swim - 8km (3 hours)
Run - 40km (4 hours)
Cycle - Aprox 4hours (Turbo trainer sessions and Bobbin Head hill reps)
Still 11 odd hours in total, and this was a light week! In saying that the intensity (apart from Tuesday and Thursday and Today) were much lighter. Remember, I have a pretty hectic life at work, long hours, and pretty much on the go from the time I get there, plus wanting to be there for my family, and it does not leave much time for anything else let alone training for an Iron Man.
Ahh..lastly, I am offically now in the Port Macquaire Half Iron Man in November. I paid for my place this past week, so no turning back now! Friggin fantastic!! Its not that long away either, 80 odd days to the longest race in my life! Bring it on!
well done to all the guys from Smart Salary for having a crack today as well.
Well, this week was a 'light' week on the training front. The usual 3 swim sessions n Mon, wed and Friday, I had a great session with Vlad on Tuesday morning. The animal was doing 6km efforts at around the 3.30 per km pace which is incredible. I was joiing him for a kilometer here and there. He rain in the end 24odd km, this all before work. I probably ended up with about 17km with some sprints in between. Having not had them in my program for months, its kind of a nice change to be able to do them. They hurt like hell though!
Thursday I did some bobbin head hill repeats with Vlad again. I gave him some serious words of encouragement on the 1st one up, after which I did not see him on any of the others, so glad to have been of help! Seriously though, the guy is strong on the hills on that bike....I think though, I am coming along nicely. Its really tough I must say though, getting up at 3.45am, getting down to Turramurra, and on the bike for just after 5am. Its pretty freezing here still, and going down that bloody hill is really cold :-(. Vlad would vouch for my winging all the way down!
On that note, we did a Calga Time Trial the weekend before. Its a 43km ride, I surprised myself with the time I did (1.19, avg 33km). I was expecting to be much slower than that, so it was good to know that the progam Rollo sets for me is working.
So, onto one of my short term goals, which was the City to Surf today. A few blogs back, you might remember I set a goal of 56mins as my target. I was not 100% confident I would achieve that because of the hilly course, however, I knew I would not be far off. Anyway, I finished it in (according to my watch, so not official time yet, but it will be close) 54.40!! I also went through the 10km mark in 39.10 which is another PB) Considering I did it in 69mins last year, its pretty good improvement, and even better that I got under the 55min mark! WOOHOO! One very big tick for me I must say, not because it means anything else other than I was able to push through pain, up that hill, and really keep the pace pretty consistant all the way.....once again, shows the program is working for me, and shows I have good guys around me keeping me going!
Vlads 2XU shop opens next week, so after the race i helped him hand out flyers to all the finishers. There were so many people, it was awesome! I also wore 2XU gear, and it was pretty comfortable stuff! I hope the shop does really well, because Jo and him deserve it, and they are selling a bloody good product and its in line with something they are passionate about! (anyone in Sydney reading this, get down to Paddington next saturday to support them!) Vlad the crazy animal finished in 45odd mins....how good is that! Considering the guy who won it finished in 41mins, shows you how fast Vlad goes! Well done vlad!!
So, another week down, another PB down, another goal achieved, and I am really enjoying all the training and hard work. Really, its down to the support I have around me from the training Grant (Rollo) gives me to the boys who I train with (Vlad, Jase, Eddie, Al, Andrew, Skinny Wiggle) to name a few.
So just to keep in line with my summery, this week :
Swim - 8km (3 hours)
Run - 40km (4 hours)
Cycle - Aprox 4hours (Turbo trainer sessions and Bobbin Head hill reps)
Still 11 odd hours in total, and this was a light week! In saying that the intensity (apart from Tuesday and Thursday and Today) were much lighter. Remember, I have a pretty hectic life at work, long hours, and pretty much on the go from the time I get there, plus wanting to be there for my family, and it does not leave much time for anything else let alone training for an Iron Man.
Ahh..lastly, I am offically now in the Port Macquaire Half Iron Man in November. I paid for my place this past week, so no turning back now! Friggin fantastic!! Its not that long away either, 80 odd days to the longest race in my life! Bring it on!
well done to all the guys from Smart Salary for having a crack today as well.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
14 weeks to the Half Iron Man!
ON Wednesday night, just before we began our swim session, Andrew informed me it was 14 weeks to go before the Port Macquarie Half Iron Man. That was actually a pretty big shock to be honest...14 weeks is so close. The counter on my blog says '98' days...whoa! I think 14 weeks sounds closer than 98 days, but we are down to a little over 3months now, so its all getting pretty scary! I am expecting to be completing the Half in around 6hours....I know I am capable of doing each leg on its own at a reasonable pace, bit put them all togther....that makes it a completely differant challange...so i am going to be conservative. Also, I have never done this distance before, so have no idea how to compete in it, but I am starting to get quite excited!
The program I had for this week was tough, but great. Also, very interestingly enough Tuesday lunchtime's run had sprints in it....I used to do a lunchtime run called "Pain in Domain" which is a 6.5km run, consisting of 13 sprints ranging between 50m to 750m....its pretty tough, and I have not done one for 4months. Well, I jumped in groups 3 which is a 28min session. I handled it nicely, was pretty much 2nd in the group the whole way. The interesting thing to note here is I have done no sprint work for 4months, and yet I am probably faster than what I was when I was doing these kind of sessions. Rollo's training technique really do work! (he has since suggested that I dont run Pain in Domain, but do more controlled speed work)
Thursday morning I met Vlad in Turramurra, our session was hill repeats up and down this hill on a notorius road called Bobbin Head. we started at 5.20am, pitch black and pretty bloody cold to! Thank God my dad had sent me some Thermal Gloves which saved me I reckon (along with all the other layers I had on...probably 10 or so:-)) Its pretty tough going up that hill, Vlad powered ahead of me each rep, in the large chain ring, which showed the gap between us on the bike....its almost as big as the gap on the run! If you read this Vlad...at least I'll give you a hiding in the swim....;-) (Pity he will pastl fly past me 10mins later!)
An interesting thing I saw on t.v this week was some english program about people losing weight. They had this bunch of middle aged woman doing activities around the house and garden which would help them burn fat. They did an hour of hedge cutting and burned 300 odd calories, and then followed that with a big cup of chips...what was the point I wandered? Now, the point of this was I actually checked my calorie consumption for my epic ride last weekend and it was near the 4000 mark. Thats nearly 2 days worth of food I burnt off in 1 ride. Follow that up with my half marathon which was probably close to 20o0 calories and you can begin to understand the effort involved in maintaining your body and energy requirements to compete in an endurance race (not just the Half Iron Man). This morning's 2 hour run in the hills was 1600 odd calories....learning to cater for myself during the longer races is critical to ensuring I am successfull in completing them all.
So, onto the summery for the week :
Swim - 8.5kms
Bike - 1 Turbo Trainer session (60mins) + 40km of Bobbin Head Hill repeats (1.40hrs) I also dropped my long ride on Saturday
Run - Aprox 48kms (4.5hours)
All up, even though I dropped the long ride I still managed about 10hours of training this week
So the week ended with a long hilly run at 5.30am this morning which I loved. I am looking forward to this weeks program, and, its just a fortnight to the City to Surf....no tapering for that for me...I will be running on tired legs apparently which is okay!
The program I had for this week was tough, but great. Also, very interestingly enough Tuesday lunchtime's run had sprints in it....I used to do a lunchtime run called "Pain in Domain" which is a 6.5km run, consisting of 13 sprints ranging between 50m to 750m....its pretty tough, and I have not done one for 4months. Well, I jumped in groups 3 which is a 28min session. I handled it nicely, was pretty much 2nd in the group the whole way. The interesting thing to note here is I have done no sprint work for 4months, and yet I am probably faster than what I was when I was doing these kind of sessions. Rollo's training technique really do work! (he has since suggested that I dont run Pain in Domain, but do more controlled speed work)
Thursday morning I met Vlad in Turramurra, our session was hill repeats up and down this hill on a notorius road called Bobbin Head. we started at 5.20am, pitch black and pretty bloody cold to! Thank God my dad had sent me some Thermal Gloves which saved me I reckon (along with all the other layers I had on...probably 10 or so:-)) Its pretty tough going up that hill, Vlad powered ahead of me each rep, in the large chain ring, which showed the gap between us on the bike....its almost as big as the gap on the run! If you read this Vlad...at least I'll give you a hiding in the swim....;-) (Pity he will pastl fly past me 10mins later!)
An interesting thing I saw on t.v this week was some english program about people losing weight. They had this bunch of middle aged woman doing activities around the house and garden which would help them burn fat. They did an hour of hedge cutting and burned 300 odd calories, and then followed that with a big cup of chips...what was the point I wandered? Now, the point of this was I actually checked my calorie consumption for my epic ride last weekend and it was near the 4000 mark. Thats nearly 2 days worth of food I burnt off in 1 ride. Follow that up with my half marathon which was probably close to 20o0 calories and you can begin to understand the effort involved in maintaining your body and energy requirements to compete in an endurance race (not just the Half Iron Man). This morning's 2 hour run in the hills was 1600 odd calories....learning to cater for myself during the longer races is critical to ensuring I am successfull in completing them all.
So, onto the summery for the week :
Swim - 8.5kms
Bike - 1 Turbo Trainer session (60mins) + 40km of Bobbin Head Hill repeats (1.40hrs) I also dropped my long ride on Saturday
Run - Aprox 48kms (4.5hours)
All up, even though I dropped the long ride I still managed about 10hours of training this week
So the week ended with a long hilly run at 5.30am this morning which I loved. I am looking forward to this weeks program, and, its just a fortnight to the City to Surf....no tapering for that for me...I will be running on tired legs apparently which is okay!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
What a week!
jeez, as I am typing I am in a phone queue, waiting to lodge a support request with VM because we have had more issues at work. I have had to deal with so many issues this week, it has been tougher mentally just trying to find the time and focus to actually complete the training at hand.....and tonight...more...due to external factors....and the worst thing is, the business does not see or care about that, they just know that we have had down time....and that we are responsible....being in IT is not much fun at times that I can tell you!
So, its a wonder I trained at all these week. I have had barely any sleep (I have a sick child as well - the poor thing up all night coughing), cars with loud alarms outside our house at 2am, and then still getting up at 4am each morning to bike, swim or run!
Well, get up and train I did, and I still feel I got quality sessions in towards the end of the week. Mondays 3.5km swim was really good, I felt strong throughout the set. I ran 17km on Wednesday mornig at 4am, got home and had frost on my beanie it was that cold....but it was a good run. Fridays swim set with Vlad was pretty tough but we got through it at lunchtime.
Saturday, i was at work at 5am to power off all our systems due to a building outage, and then back home. I then rode in from Gosford to work in Sydney, met Vlad along the way and we rode together for about 20mins which was great. he then went on to meet Jo at the top of Kariong Hill, and I soldiered on. Got to the office in a touch over 3 hours, (85km) but needed to do more, so rode a few laps around Centennial Park to finish off with a grand total of 110km for the day...my longest ride and I was well chuft with the effort.
Sunday morning I was up at 5am and on my way up to the Hunter Valley Half Marathon. I got there, must have been I think the 2nd one there, and man was there a cold wind blowing :-(.
I met up with Vlad and some of his mates who were running the 1okm race. My legs were a touch tired from the ride before, and I had a goal of 95mins or under for this race. Vlad wanted to win the thing and smash the record.
Well....we both achieved our goals. I finished in a solid 90mins, came 23rd overall (out of 400 odd) and Vlad the animal won it, in 73mins. He was 8mins clear of 2nd place, who incidently was only 9mins ahead of me.....so I think we were both chuft. I was pretty tired to be honest, but having done that ride, and followed it up with a hard and hilly run has given me some confidence about the half marathon in November.
So, in summery :
Swim - 8.5kms (3hours)
Run - 50km
Ride - 2.5hours on Turbo trainer + 4.5hours (110km)
So all up, I did about 14hours of training this week, and thats on top of probably close to 80hours of work all up.....i did miss my family this week that much I can tell you. I really had to push myself to train on the tuesday morning because of the issues at work, but I was able to get around that which is I suppose a good thing.
3 Weeks to the city to surf, I have a goal of about 56mins for that......tough ask, but you have to set tough goals....thats the whole point! Iron Man is probably one of the toughest things I will ever do in my life, which is why I am working so hard to prepare myself for it, so I can do it to the best I can...why esle would I want to participate in something so demanding and taxing on the body....the good thing is, I was able to push myself really far this weekend, with a tough swim, ride and run, all of which build the confidence I need.
Last thing....juat another congrats to the Vladinator for that awesome run...it was a tough course and he hammered all and sundry.....wonderful to watch!!!
So, its a wonder I trained at all these week. I have had barely any sleep (I have a sick child as well - the poor thing up all night coughing), cars with loud alarms outside our house at 2am, and then still getting up at 4am each morning to bike, swim or run!
Well, get up and train I did, and I still feel I got quality sessions in towards the end of the week. Mondays 3.5km swim was really good, I felt strong throughout the set. I ran 17km on Wednesday mornig at 4am, got home and had frost on my beanie it was that cold....but it was a good run. Fridays swim set with Vlad was pretty tough but we got through it at lunchtime.
Saturday, i was at work at 5am to power off all our systems due to a building outage, and then back home. I then rode in from Gosford to work in Sydney, met Vlad along the way and we rode together for about 20mins which was great. he then went on to meet Jo at the top of Kariong Hill, and I soldiered on. Got to the office in a touch over 3 hours, (85km) but needed to do more, so rode a few laps around Centennial Park to finish off with a grand total of 110km for the day...my longest ride and I was well chuft with the effort.
Sunday morning I was up at 5am and on my way up to the Hunter Valley Half Marathon. I got there, must have been I think the 2nd one there, and man was there a cold wind blowing :-(.
I met up with Vlad and some of his mates who were running the 1okm race. My legs were a touch tired from the ride before, and I had a goal of 95mins or under for this race. Vlad wanted to win the thing and smash the record.
Well....we both achieved our goals. I finished in a solid 90mins, came 23rd overall (out of 400 odd) and Vlad the animal won it, in 73mins. He was 8mins clear of 2nd place, who incidently was only 9mins ahead of me.....so I think we were both chuft. I was pretty tired to be honest, but having done that ride, and followed it up with a hard and hilly run has given me some confidence about the half marathon in November.
So, in summery :
Swim - 8.5kms (3hours)
Run - 50km
Ride - 2.5hours on Turbo trainer + 4.5hours (110km)
So all up, I did about 14hours of training this week, and thats on top of probably close to 80hours of work all up.....i did miss my family this week that much I can tell you. I really had to push myself to train on the tuesday morning because of the issues at work, but I was able to get around that which is I suppose a good thing.
3 Weeks to the city to surf, I have a goal of about 56mins for that......tough ask, but you have to set tough goals....thats the whole point! Iron Man is probably one of the toughest things I will ever do in my life, which is why I am working so hard to prepare myself for it, so I can do it to the best I can...why esle would I want to participate in something so demanding and taxing on the body....the good thing is, I was able to push myself really far this weekend, with a tough swim, ride and run, all of which build the confidence I need.
Last thing....juat another congrats to the Vladinator for that awesome run...it was a tough course and he hammered all and sundry.....wonderful to watch!!!
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