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!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
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!!!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Whats that you say? A 'recovery' week.....must have a differant meaning!!
This week Rollo sent through a 'recovery' week for me to follow, and looking at it, it certainly on paper looked lighter than previous weeks, however I still had some pretty tough sessions to follow....namely the swims (okay they might not be as tough as the others for me, but one has to remember, just because the swim is my strongest leg does not make the training easier for me....plus Rollo expects me to be doing the splits quite aggressively). I did 3km again, mostly with the pull bouy, which incidenly does not make my swimming easier, it in fact slows me down, and I crossed my legs toegther so was dragging them for most of the 3km at near threshold, I was rather fecked by the end.
Tuesday night I had a strenght test with Rollo at his place. I was expecting to do the test runing, but the cheeky bugger had me on the bike...probably because he knows this is my weakest discipline. The test is called 'Conconi', and essentially I had to cycle on the Turbo Trainer, increasing the power output at given intervals, and see how far I could go whilst maintaining a cadence of 90rpm....well, 14odd mins later I was finished...literally, I was breathing heavily, steaming, and completely farked. I got to 360watts and was done....not bad I think, especially since I have only been riding since January, but it does mean I hhave a lot more strenght work comeing my way....i.e more hills :-(
To give you an idea though, I think the riders on the Tour de france can get to 600 or 700watts, dont quote me but its some ludicrious number like that, which really shows you how incredible athletes they are, how much training they must do, how much they must hurt through each day of the race, and really how strong and fit they must be! Its also not so surprising how mich drug use has been found lately with the riders because its really super natural what they do....if you dont follow cycling, you should really watch this race (I have only just got into it since Triathlon) and I am truly amazed.
Anyway, back to my average jo's week, and I did a run and swim on wednesday. I atually felt really sick on Wednesday night, nearly spewed in the pool, was pretty much up all night with a really high HR - weird, took all my will power on thursday to get on the turbo trainer, and Friday a great swim at lunchtime (enjoyed it for once) and then went to Terrigal Trotters on Saturday and ran with Freney. We pretty much for the entire 80mins talked about the Iron Man and the experience. Freney has done a couple, this year he had to pull out during the urn because of Kidney issues...just shows how this race can f*ck you) Freney, Andrew M (strong bugger, he can ride and run so he will do well), Smithy and 'Skinny Wiggle' (aka Tim - so called because the blouse did the wiggles finger pointing thing at the end of the IM this year + he is skinny!). We did hill repeats agian around Mooney Mooney which is always tough. The good thing is we are all getting higher up the hill on each 8min repeat so Rollo's training is certainly paying off! In Rollo we trust!
So a busy week at work, busy week at home, and a pretty decent bunch of training sessions (apart from Wednesday night) it was another enjoyable week, and another one less to go before the Half Iron Man....its coming quickly now....I think around 3months....jeez!!
So, in summery :
Swim - 2.5 hours (aprox 8.5km)
Run - 2.5hours (aprox 26km) (thats a very low week for me and I felt it was a light one to!)
Cycle - 5.5hours (aprox 70km today rest on Turbo Trainer)
So you can see, I still did a fair bit even though it was a recovery week.
I am looking forward to this week, some more challanging sessions, with a ride from home to work on Saturday (probably about 100km of hills), and then sunday I am running in the Hunter Valley Half Marathon. I am using it as a training run, so will not be out to hammer it, but I am guessing between 95mins and 105mins would be good....will just have to check with Rollo about what he wants me to keep the HR at, polus its apparently a hilly course, so quite tough. Vlad will be doing it to, he could very well win this based on last years time, so I will let you know how that goes for him.
Tuesday night I had a strenght test with Rollo at his place. I was expecting to do the test runing, but the cheeky bugger had me on the bike...probably because he knows this is my weakest discipline. The test is called 'Conconi', and essentially I had to cycle on the Turbo Trainer, increasing the power output at given intervals, and see how far I could go whilst maintaining a cadence of 90rpm....well, 14odd mins later I was finished...literally, I was breathing heavily, steaming, and completely farked. I got to 360watts and was done....not bad I think, especially since I have only been riding since January, but it does mean I hhave a lot more strenght work comeing my way....i.e more hills :-(
To give you an idea though, I think the riders on the Tour de france can get to 600 or 700watts, dont quote me but its some ludicrious number like that, which really shows you how incredible athletes they are, how much training they must do, how much they must hurt through each day of the race, and really how strong and fit they must be! Its also not so surprising how mich drug use has been found lately with the riders because its really super natural what they do....if you dont follow cycling, you should really watch this race (I have only just got into it since Triathlon) and I am truly amazed.
Anyway, back to my average jo's week, and I did a run and swim on wednesday. I atually felt really sick on Wednesday night, nearly spewed in the pool, was pretty much up all night with a really high HR - weird, took all my will power on thursday to get on the turbo trainer, and Friday a great swim at lunchtime (enjoyed it for once) and then went to Terrigal Trotters on Saturday and ran with Freney. We pretty much for the entire 80mins talked about the Iron Man and the experience. Freney has done a couple, this year he had to pull out during the urn because of Kidney issues...just shows how this race can f*ck you) Freney, Andrew M (strong bugger, he can ride and run so he will do well), Smithy and 'Skinny Wiggle' (aka Tim - so called because the blouse did the wiggles finger pointing thing at the end of the IM this year + he is skinny!). We did hill repeats agian around Mooney Mooney which is always tough. The good thing is we are all getting higher up the hill on each 8min repeat so Rollo's training is certainly paying off! In Rollo we trust!
So a busy week at work, busy week at home, and a pretty decent bunch of training sessions (apart from Wednesday night) it was another enjoyable week, and another one less to go before the Half Iron Man....its coming quickly now....I think around 3months....jeez!!
So, in summery :
Swim - 2.5 hours (aprox 8.5km)
Run - 2.5hours (aprox 26km) (thats a very low week for me and I felt it was a light one to!)
Cycle - 5.5hours (aprox 70km today rest on Turbo Trainer)
So you can see, I still did a fair bit even though it was a recovery week.
I am looking forward to this week, some more challanging sessions, with a ride from home to work on Saturday (probably about 100km of hills), and then sunday I am running in the Hunter Valley Half Marathon. I am using it as a training run, so will not be out to hammer it, but I am guessing between 95mins and 105mins would be good....will just have to check with Rollo about what he wants me to keep the HR at, polus its apparently a hilly course, so quite tough. Vlad will be doing it to, he could very well win this based on last years time, so I will let you know how that goes for him.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Pretty Tough week!
This week has been great! I recovered from the crap cold (although still had one nostril clogged up each morning), pasted it back to my wife Michelle...shame is so snuffed at the moment....no whinging either unlike me....itrs true, us blokes are real whiners when we get sick....hopless!
Anyway, this week was my always going to be pretty heavy as next week is my recovery...meaning I am probably going to do at the most, 1 session a day, and even that will be done with 'recovery' in mind. I must say, the coach Rollo is building the right sessions for me. I thoroughly enjoy each one he sets, and look forward to seeing what he has in store for me in the week ahead....which is why I already know this week is a recovery. The thing I am loking forward to this week is the HR test I missed 2 weeks ago (because of the cold)...its going to be interesting to see if anything changes in my HR zones, not that it matters much. I think Rollo feels I run too fast during my LSD runs...but my HR has been pretty low of late, given the pace I have managed. I am certainly starting to feel confident that completing the Iron Man, within the time frame I am hoping to is achievable. After watching the real deal and the pain and effort it took back in April, I was doubtful, but I think I am building my core strenght quite nicely under Rollo's guidence and, this week, I even had a dream about me running through the finishing chute......not had one of those before...I think about that moment all the time when I run.....inbetween thinking about my girls (all 3 of them), work, wondering how the other boys are going....how the hell Vlad did it so well, how am I going to get through the ride (this is my weakest leg of the 3 by a very long way, and I think the hardest mentally as well)......but I do, I try and picture me getting of that bike, running, and going up that chute...I am sure all triathletes doing the Iron Man do this when they train, they woudl have to....its such an epic race for everyone, including the pro's....they might have heaps more time to train, best equipment etc, but they push their bodies for the entire 8hoursish to points us age groupers probably could not imagine....just watch a few of the Iron Man Dvd's and see how they hurt....pretty incredible that anyone does this race actually!!
Well, back to this week, and its has been a really good one. I missed my wednesday swim session, but of the 3 disciplines its the one I can afford to miss every now and again...I did another couple of turbo trainer sessions, on tuesday adjusting my bike to fit me better (rollo will help me really get it set up right this coming week with the aerobars), an early morning 16.5km run before work on Thursday and a really tough and enjoyable swim session on friday morning!
I had to switch my training sessions around this weekend which meant it was all on my own again, I better get used to this for the Iron Man as I think there are long periods during the race when you are out there on your own, cycling through or just trying to get through the run....well, I did hill repeats again up Mooney, and then a just under 2hour undulating run this morning...the legs are knackered to say the least. both sessions were quality, the run once again felt great, and if I work the pace out, it was around the 4.45 per km, for a hilly training run is pretty good for me....Rollo did insist I run to the top of certain HR zones so it was a challanging run and the hills around Gosford are quite tough to.
So, in summery :
Swim - 6km (missed a session0
Cylcing - 2.5 hours on the TT plus 3.5 hours on road (just under 90km including hill repeats)
Run - 60km
Looking forward to the reduced work load this coming week, although I might be raring to get going again by mid week no doubt.
A special mention must go to Allan (aka: ALM - Angry Little Man) for a PB at this weekends Gold Coast Marathon....he finished in 3.25ish, which is really a great effort....well done my son!
Anyway, this week was my always going to be pretty heavy as next week is my recovery...meaning I am probably going to do at the most, 1 session a day, and even that will be done with 'recovery' in mind. I must say, the coach Rollo is building the right sessions for me. I thoroughly enjoy each one he sets, and look forward to seeing what he has in store for me in the week ahead....which is why I already know this week is a recovery. The thing I am loking forward to this week is the HR test I missed 2 weeks ago (because of the cold)...its going to be interesting to see if anything changes in my HR zones, not that it matters much. I think Rollo feels I run too fast during my LSD runs...but my HR has been pretty low of late, given the pace I have managed. I am certainly starting to feel confident that completing the Iron Man, within the time frame I am hoping to is achievable. After watching the real deal and the pain and effort it took back in April, I was doubtful, but I think I am building my core strenght quite nicely under Rollo's guidence and, this week, I even had a dream about me running through the finishing chute......not had one of those before...I think about that moment all the time when I run.....inbetween thinking about my girls (all 3 of them), work, wondering how the other boys are going....how the hell Vlad did it so well, how am I going to get through the ride (this is my weakest leg of the 3 by a very long way, and I think the hardest mentally as well)......but I do, I try and picture me getting of that bike, running, and going up that chute...I am sure all triathletes doing the Iron Man do this when they train, they woudl have to....its such an epic race for everyone, including the pro's....they might have heaps more time to train, best equipment etc, but they push their bodies for the entire 8hoursish to points us age groupers probably could not imagine....just watch a few of the Iron Man Dvd's and see how they hurt....pretty incredible that anyone does this race actually!!
Well, back to this week, and its has been a really good one. I missed my wednesday swim session, but of the 3 disciplines its the one I can afford to miss every now and again...I did another couple of turbo trainer sessions, on tuesday adjusting my bike to fit me better (rollo will help me really get it set up right this coming week with the aerobars), an early morning 16.5km run before work on Thursday and a really tough and enjoyable swim session on friday morning!
I had to switch my training sessions around this weekend which meant it was all on my own again, I better get used to this for the Iron Man as I think there are long periods during the race when you are out there on your own, cycling through or just trying to get through the run....well, I did hill repeats again up Mooney, and then a just under 2hour undulating run this morning...the legs are knackered to say the least. both sessions were quality, the run once again felt great, and if I work the pace out, it was around the 4.45 per km, for a hilly training run is pretty good for me....Rollo did insist I run to the top of certain HR zones so it was a challanging run and the hills around Gosford are quite tough to.
So, in summery :
Swim - 6km (missed a session0
Cylcing - 2.5 hours on the TT plus 3.5 hours on road (just under 90km including hill repeats)
Run - 60km
Looking forward to the reduced work load this coming week, although I might be raring to get going again by mid week no doubt.
A special mention must go to Allan (aka: ALM - Angry Little Man) for a PB at this weekends Gold Coast Marathon....he finished in 3.25ish, which is really a great effort....well done my son!
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