Too much food & not enough sleep has been the theme of this week (*yikes*)
Tue & Wed: rest. Too much work & socialising. Too little sleep, exercise or packing...
Thu: despite still lacking sleep, I got up & did a short 35min windtrainer session on the bike in the garage followed by pilates exercises which I haven't done for a while. T'was a reasonably easy aerobic session which probably did much more for my mental state than my physical one. Far too many social engagements lately has left me feeling fat & yuk. 14.16km. Thursday also saw my last day in my role based at Rhodes. This has been, by far, the most difficult, demanding & stressful role in my life. The next chapter begins with a slightly different role in a related company on January 10 for a few months until I get my PT business up & running. Until then, it's holidays :-)))
Fri: up early again (*yawn*) on the first day of my holidays (*yippee*) for a 1.5km open water swim at the Regatta Centre at 6am. A pretty good swim; I felt reasonably good the whole time. No doubt the spare tyre around my waist at the moment is helping with buoyancy ;-) After breakfast I headed out on my short 25min walk/shuffle. Nothing to report other than the lack of 'run fitness' continues.
Sat: rest (Xmas Day). A wonderful day spent with my family including my brother & his g/f who are home for Christmas & my Nan whose condition - she has Parkinsons - has deteriorated greatly in the last few months. I think most of us realised that it would probably be our last Christmas together :-( Despite that, it was a special day.
Heading out for a mini walk/shuffle tomorrow (Sunday) morning before the start of 2 weeks of road trips for me; off to Canberra tomorrow for another day of Christmas excess with the Mango family before I head onto Mt Beauty in Victoria for 6 days at a tri camp with TA which I should - I hope - managed to lose some of the weight I have stacked on over the last month :-(
MTD:
Swim: 4.95km
Bike: 312.86km
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
5....
I have a feeling I have miscounted the weeks until the ride. There is a reason I am a lawyer & not an accountant...
Wow. What a week it has been. I'm (almost) sick of the sight of food - and it's not even Christmas yet - and I'm exhausted. So just another typical lead in to Christmas basically ....
It's hard to believe that I forgot to mention anything in my previous post ;-) I did! I dropped my bike (aka Javier, Spartacus, Tenzing depending on my mood) in at the best bike shop in the world for a service after my ride last Sunday as he has been acting a little strangely lately. Turns out he had reason to be grumpy. My handle bar was bent quite significantly. The right hood (the top of the brake for the non-cyclists out there) was about 5cm lower than the left one. No wonder I've been getting a few aches & pains in my right leg recently :-O
Mon: 25mins walk/shuffle. As its been almost 2 weeks since my last walk/shuffle I decided to be sensible & take the short loop today. What little run fitness I had has certainly disappeared now. At lunch it was off to the pool for a 2.3km swim which included 6 x 200m at 70% then 4 x 100m at 80%. The additional spare tyre I seem to be carrying around my waist at the moment certainly has improved my buoyancy and body position in the water. Unfortunately it couldn't save my arms falling off during the 100m efforts...
To round out the day, I walked the 2.5km from my office to the ANZ Stadium at Homebush where I met R to attend the U2 concert :D
Tue: 14mins R&R (recovery & regen). I really wanted to do a strength session - not only do I lurve them but I also hate some changes in my body that I have noticed since my sessions have been inconsistent. However the rational side of my brain accepted that tired legs & less than 5 hours sleep is a sign the mind may be willing but the body is not. Yah for me for listening to my body!
Wed: (unscheduled) rest day. Stuffed up my train & therefore missed my last ever session with Carly. I am very sad to see her heading back to Perth :-( I did however manage to get to the bike shop in time to pick up Javier et al from the bike shop with a straight handle bar (yippee!) as well as get a much needed massage trying to straighten out my poor body after riding a wonky bike for so long.
Thu: 25mins brick session consisting of 20mins easy spin on the bike, quick shoe change then a 4 mins mostly downhill run (which is no doubt the only reason I managed to run for 4 mins straight).
Fri: rather than go to work, I called the office & told them I wouldn't be coming in, and instead spent the morning sightseeing in the Blue Mountains with my 'baby' brother, his g/f and their friend who arrived from Canada for Christmas on Thursday. After walking half way down, and then back up, the stairs at Wentworth Falls and having a steak sandwich for lunch, it suddenly occurred to me that it probably wasn't the best way to prepare for the Club Tri later in the evening - oh well. Turns out it works for me.
The club race started at 5pm. I again did the 'enticer' distance; this time 250m swim / 10k bike / 2 km run. There are no (official) splits for each of the legs but my official finishing time was 37:14.
I had a reasonably good swim; I looked up at one stage & could see heaps of people ahead of me which left me thinking that I was swimming slowly (which is what I do at the start of my normal (pool) swims). Apparently I wasn't as my watch read 4:32 as I got out of the water - about 30sec faster than during the Nepean enticer last weekend. The bike leg was largely uneventful except for when Mini Mango overtook me and I went into a mental meltdown for about 5mins. I can't begin to tell you how much it gets up my nose given how little she rides; something I know I need to work on as she is only going to get faster as she is starting to train seriously ;-) The run hurt my lungs; I must have been up above 90% the whole time. But I did manage to run a whole kilometre without stopping to walk. It is probably the first time I have done that during this comeback. I have a l-o-n-g way to go before the HIM in May though....
Sat: "rest" (if you consider Christmas shopping, a facial, a guest for afternoon tea & then dinner at a local restaurant with my family, a "rest")
Sun: A l-o-n-g day. A 5hr ride on my program today & no company so I set off on my own just before 6am for the Cobbity / Greendale loop. Within 15mins I had managed to ride over, and impale in my rear wheel, a 4 inch nail in my rear tyre. Time to change my tyres I think...
Otherwise it was an uneventful ride which actually seemed to pass quite quickly. I am feeling a bit frustrated by my riding at the moment. I am still seeing 21-21k/h on the same parts of the Northern Rd & 8-9k/h on the same hills on Cobbity that I was seeing at the start of the year. I am certainly getting fitter & I am building up more endurance. But it isn't translating to increased speed. Grrrrr. Anyhoo, it turned out to be my longest ride ever both in time & distance; 113.9km in 5:07 (22.2k/h)
Then it was off to the Bon Jovi concert at the SFS with my mum. I had thought that my legs would be protesting this given we were 'seated' in the mosh pit & I knew that we would be standing for much of it. We ended up standing for the entire 2.5 hour show. But I discovered that 2.5hrs on your feet dancing along to the music is a perfect way to keep the blood flowing through your legs; my legs feel fantastic! None of the 'dead legs' I experienced after last week's ride!
Mon: no run this morning; stayed up too late talking & raiding the mini-bar with Mum at the Sir Stamford Hotel at Circular Quay where we stayed after the show :-) Swim squad after work. I stopped counting the distance somewhere in the torturous laps where Michael was breaking down butterfly & *trying* to teach us. Let's say 2km for the sake of it. Did I mention it was torture??
Tue: rest
An easy week ahead before TA & I head off to tri camp in Victoria next week. Feeling very nervous about the whole thing, particularly about seeing the hills that are part of the Alpine Classic course :-O
MTD:
Swim: 3.45km
Bike: 298.7km
Wow. What a week it has been. I'm (almost) sick of the sight of food - and it's not even Christmas yet - and I'm exhausted. So just another typical lead in to Christmas basically ....
It's hard to believe that I forgot to mention anything in my previous post ;-) I did! I dropped my bike (aka Javier, Spartacus, Tenzing depending on my mood) in at the best bike shop in the world for a service after my ride last Sunday as he has been acting a little strangely lately. Turns out he had reason to be grumpy. My handle bar was bent quite significantly. The right hood (the top of the brake for the non-cyclists out there) was about 5cm lower than the left one. No wonder I've been getting a few aches & pains in my right leg recently :-O
Mon: 25mins walk/shuffle. As its been almost 2 weeks since my last walk/shuffle I decided to be sensible & take the short loop today. What little run fitness I had has certainly disappeared now. At lunch it was off to the pool for a 2.3km swim which included 6 x 200m at 70% then 4 x 100m at 80%. The additional spare tyre I seem to be carrying around my waist at the moment certainly has improved my buoyancy and body position in the water. Unfortunately it couldn't save my arms falling off during the 100m efforts...
To round out the day, I walked the 2.5km from my office to the ANZ Stadium at Homebush where I met R to attend the U2 concert :D
Tue: 14mins R&R (recovery & regen). I really wanted to do a strength session - not only do I lurve them but I also hate some changes in my body that I have noticed since my sessions have been inconsistent. However the rational side of my brain accepted that tired legs & less than 5 hours sleep is a sign the mind may be willing but the body is not. Yah for me for listening to my body!
Wed: (unscheduled) rest day. Stuffed up my train & therefore missed my last ever session with Carly. I am very sad to see her heading back to Perth :-( I did however manage to get to the bike shop in time to pick up Javier et al from the bike shop with a straight handle bar (yippee!) as well as get a much needed massage trying to straighten out my poor body after riding a wonky bike for so long.
Thu: 25mins brick session consisting of 20mins easy spin on the bike, quick shoe change then a 4 mins mostly downhill run (which is no doubt the only reason I managed to run for 4 mins straight).
Fri: rather than go to work, I called the office & told them I wouldn't be coming in, and instead spent the morning sightseeing in the Blue Mountains with my 'baby' brother, his g/f and their friend who arrived from Canada for Christmas on Thursday. After walking half way down, and then back up, the stairs at Wentworth Falls and having a steak sandwich for lunch, it suddenly occurred to me that it probably wasn't the best way to prepare for the Club Tri later in the evening - oh well. Turns out it works for me.
The club race started at 5pm. I again did the 'enticer' distance; this time 250m swim / 10k bike / 2 km run. There are no (official) splits for each of the legs but my official finishing time was 37:14.
I had a reasonably good swim; I looked up at one stage & could see heaps of people ahead of me which left me thinking that I was swimming slowly (which is what I do at the start of my normal (pool) swims). Apparently I wasn't as my watch read 4:32 as I got out of the water - about 30sec faster than during the Nepean enticer last weekend. The bike leg was largely uneventful except for when Mini Mango overtook me and I went into a mental meltdown for about 5mins. I can't begin to tell you how much it gets up my nose given how little she rides; something I know I need to work on as she is only going to get faster as she is starting to train seriously ;-) The run hurt my lungs; I must have been up above 90% the whole time. But I did manage to run a whole kilometre without stopping to walk. It is probably the first time I have done that during this comeback. I have a l-o-n-g way to go before the HIM in May though....
Sat: "rest" (if you consider Christmas shopping, a facial, a guest for afternoon tea & then dinner at a local restaurant with my family, a "rest")
Sun: A l-o-n-g day. A 5hr ride on my program today & no company so I set off on my own just before 6am for the Cobbity / Greendale loop. Within 15mins I had managed to ride over, and impale in my rear wheel, a 4 inch nail in my rear tyre. Time to change my tyres I think...
Otherwise it was an uneventful ride which actually seemed to pass quite quickly. I am feeling a bit frustrated by my riding at the moment. I am still seeing 21-21k/h on the same parts of the Northern Rd & 8-9k/h on the same hills on Cobbity that I was seeing at the start of the year. I am certainly getting fitter & I am building up more endurance. But it isn't translating to increased speed. Grrrrr. Anyhoo, it turned out to be my longest ride ever both in time & distance; 113.9km in 5:07 (22.2k/h)
Then it was off to the Bon Jovi concert at the SFS with my mum. I had thought that my legs would be protesting this given we were 'seated' in the mosh pit & I knew that we would be standing for much of it. We ended up standing for the entire 2.5 hour show. But I discovered that 2.5hrs on your feet dancing along to the music is a perfect way to keep the blood flowing through your legs; my legs feel fantastic! None of the 'dead legs' I experienced after last week's ride!
Mon: no run this morning; stayed up too late talking & raiding the mini-bar with Mum at the Sir Stamford Hotel at Circular Quay where we stayed after the show :-) Swim squad after work. I stopped counting the distance somewhere in the torturous laps where Michael was breaking down butterfly & *trying* to teach us. Let's say 2km for the sake of it. Did I mention it was torture??
Tue: rest
An easy week ahead before TA & I head off to tri camp in Victoria next week. Feeling very nervous about the whole thing, particularly about seeing the hills that are part of the Alpine Classic course :-O
MTD:
Swim: 3.45km
Bike: 298.7km
Sunday, December 12, 2010
6... (Holy moly)
Wow, 2 weeks since my last update & so much has happened so apologies in advance for the l-o-n-g post. I can't believe that it is now only 6 weeks until the Alpine Classic. Far. Out.
Mon: unscheduled rest day due to (stoopid) work
Tue: after last Friday's run, my *good* hip was sore (WTF!). I decided to go back to my mini walk/shuffle (25mins) loop. Then lunch saw a 2km swim to make up for the fact that I missed swim squad last night
Wed: Back on the windtrainer (for the last time in a week) for Spinervals Uphill Grind DVD (45mins)
Thu: rest (travelling to Queenstown)
Fri-Sun: spent 3 days at a PT mentorship program run. Amazing, amazing time. It has really changed my whole view about how I see the body & how I can use the tools I now have to help clients make the changes they want to make. I've basically been learning how to read the feedback the body gives us & how to feed it intelligent movement; the movement it needs to function optimally. Unfortunately few of us - myself included - actually listen to it. A big lesson for me personally is not just the importance of rest and recovery but why from hormonal
level and how lifestyle stress (sleeping, nutrition, mental & emotional stress) can completely undermine our best (training) intentions & efforts. I think the hardest part is now going to be practising what I preach. It has been a brilliant time spent surrounded by passionate people whose brains I picked incessantly between sessions.
Friday was spent largely in the board room of the beautiful resort hosting it learning about the systems and science behind why & how we do things (with some practical 'challenges' thrown in). Saturday morning was another morning spent on the theory. Then after lunch it was off on a short drive to the local sporting grounds 'playing' for 1.5hrs in the sun with reaction, agility, quickness drills (amongst many other things) before heading inside to the pool for a 45mins rest and recovery session
Sunday was spent applying the tools we learnt over the weekend before heading to the 'beach' by the lake for a play with the ViPR
Mon: one spare day in Queenstown & there was only one thing to do; head to the hills. I had organised a climb to the summit of the Remarkables which tower over Queenstown-
The weather didn't look promising when I woke on Monday morning. The lake and mountains were blanketed in low clouds & rain had settled over the town so we made the decision to push back our start by 2 hrs until 10am; as the sun didn't set until 10pm we weren't likely to be short on daylight. I must admit that part of me was hoping it would be cancelled as I was feeling very tired after a big weekend. But by the time 10am rolled around, the weather had started to clear so we set off.
After a spectacular drive up to the ski field, we had about 700m in elevation gain to get to the summit. This took about 4 hours of rock hopping, rock scrambling, ice climbing up a narrow chute & then traversing a narrow ridge to the summit. I took a little bit of a tumble at one stage which seems to have upset my dodgy ankle (ie, the one I just about destroyed before my o/s travels about 2 years ago) but otherwise it was a great day.
The low cloud remained all day obscuring any view except for a short window about 20mins after we arrived on the summit so I could get the obligatory summit photos.
It was great to get my 'mountain fix' and start making plans for a return in the not too distant future.
Tue: rest (travel home)
Wed: rest - 9hrs sleep, day off work spent unpacking, tidying up & writing business plans :-)
Thu: up at 5am for a 70min windtrainer session in the garage. It was nice to get back on the bike after not having ridden it for a week. 27.19km.
Fri: R, Mini Mango & I were up at 5.20am to head down to the Regatta Centre for an open water swim with the Panthers Tri Club. Covered about 1.2km in total, slowing increasing the distance ahead of my next big 'swim' event; the 2km Cole Classic swim in February.
Sat: after Ma's baked dinner on Friday night, I was up early in order to meet Tiger Angel at Hornsby at 6.30am for a 4.5 hour long ride. It was cool in the shade when we started but quickly warmed up. A tough, hot & hilly ride. I can't say I feel more confident about the Alpine Classic after the ride but at least I don't feel less confident :-O 89.3km in 4:27
Sun: another day, another ride - this time 95mins. I really struggled with the decision about which way to go; whether to take the flatter (easier) route or ride up Lapstone Hill to Blaxland. In the end my bike steered itself in the direction of Lapstone Hill; it seems the prospect of the Alpine Classic being only 6 weeks away is making Tenzing, my bike, nervous too. Finished with 33.01km in 1:33 making a total 1,353m in elevation gain on the bike this weekend. No wonder my legs are tired today!
With the silly season ahead, it's going to be a tiring week. But I have 2 weeks off work from Christmas Eve to look forward to :-D
November total
Swim: 15.5km
Bike: 402.1km
MTD:
Swim: 1.2km
Bike: 168.1km
Mon: unscheduled rest day due to (stoopid) work
Tue: after last Friday's run, my *good* hip was sore (WTF!). I decided to go back to my mini walk/shuffle (25mins) loop. Then lunch saw a 2km swim to make up for the fact that I missed swim squad last night
Wed: Back on the windtrainer (for the last time in a week) for Spinervals Uphill Grind DVD (45mins)
Thu: rest (travelling to Queenstown)
Fri-Sun: spent 3 days at a PT mentorship program run. Amazing, amazing time. It has really changed my whole view about how I see the body & how I can use the tools I now have to help clients make the changes they want to make. I've basically been learning how to read the feedback the body gives us & how to feed it intelligent movement; the movement it needs to function optimally. Unfortunately few of us - myself included - actually listen to it. A big lesson for me personally is not just the importance of rest and recovery but why from hormonal
level and how lifestyle stress (sleeping, nutrition, mental & emotional stress) can completely undermine our best (training) intentions & efforts. I think the hardest part is now going to be practising what I preach. It has been a brilliant time spent surrounded by passionate people whose brains I picked incessantly between sessions.
Friday was spent largely in the board room of the beautiful resort hosting it learning about the systems and science behind why & how we do things (with some practical 'challenges' thrown in). Saturday morning was another morning spent on the theory. Then after lunch it was off on a short drive to the local sporting grounds 'playing' for 1.5hrs in the sun with reaction, agility, quickness drills (amongst many other things) before heading inside to the pool for a 45mins rest and recovery session
Sunday was spent applying the tools we learnt over the weekend before heading to the 'beach' by the lake for a play with the ViPR
Mon: one spare day in Queenstown & there was only one thing to do; head to the hills. I had organised a climb to the summit of the Remarkables which tower over Queenstown-
The weather didn't look promising when I woke on Monday morning. The lake and mountains were blanketed in low clouds & rain had settled over the town so we made the decision to push back our start by 2 hrs until 10am; as the sun didn't set until 10pm we weren't likely to be short on daylight. I must admit that part of me was hoping it would be cancelled as I was feeling very tired after a big weekend. But by the time 10am rolled around, the weather had started to clear so we set off.
After a spectacular drive up to the ski field, we had about 700m in elevation gain to get to the summit. This took about 4 hours of rock hopping, rock scrambling, ice climbing up a narrow chute & then traversing a narrow ridge to the summit. I took a little bit of a tumble at one stage which seems to have upset my dodgy ankle (ie, the one I just about destroyed before my o/s travels about 2 years ago) but otherwise it was a great day.
The low cloud remained all day obscuring any view except for a short window about 20mins after we arrived on the summit so I could get the obligatory summit photos.
It was great to get my 'mountain fix' and start making plans for a return in the not too distant future.
Tue: rest (travel home)
Wed: rest - 9hrs sleep, day off work spent unpacking, tidying up & writing business plans :-)
Thu: up at 5am for a 70min windtrainer session in the garage. It was nice to get back on the bike after not having ridden it for a week. 27.19km.
Fri: R, Mini Mango & I were up at 5.20am to head down to the Regatta Centre for an open water swim with the Panthers Tri Club. Covered about 1.2km in total, slowing increasing the distance ahead of my next big 'swim' event; the 2km Cole Classic swim in February.
Sat: after Ma's baked dinner on Friday night, I was up early in order to meet Tiger Angel at Hornsby at 6.30am for a 4.5 hour long ride. It was cool in the shade when we started but quickly warmed up. A tough, hot & hilly ride. I can't say I feel more confident about the Alpine Classic after the ride but at least I don't feel less confident :-O 89.3km in 4:27
Sun: another day, another ride - this time 95mins. I really struggled with the decision about which way to go; whether to take the flatter (easier) route or ride up Lapstone Hill to Blaxland. In the end my bike steered itself in the direction of Lapstone Hill; it seems the prospect of the Alpine Classic being only 6 weeks away is making Tenzing, my bike, nervous too. Finished with 33.01km in 1:33 making a total 1,353m in elevation gain on the bike this weekend. No wonder my legs are tired today!
With the silly season ahead, it's going to be a tiring week. But I have 2 weeks off work from Christmas Eve to look forward to :-D
November total
Swim: 15.5km
Bike: 402.1km
MTD:
Swim: 1.2km
Bike: 168.1km
Sunday, November 28, 2010
8...
A(nother) busy week. Work has been busy but steady & will shortly wind down (*yippee*). Thankfully this means that I will also be working on a part time basis from mid-December which will give me a wonderful opportunity to get my business officially up & running (*yippee*).
Mon: a short 25min walk/shuffle today. Probably more walking than shuffling but as I haven't run - sorry, I meant shuffled - much in recent weeks, I took it very easy today. Swim squad after work was a solid session with 8 x 50m breaststroke kick (ie, no arms) and later 4 x 200m, each one successively faster. Ouchy! 2.45km
Tue: I had planned to go to the gym straight from work but managed to leave my gym bag at home. Stoopid. So rather than waste time travelling to/from the gym, I decided to spend some time 'playing' with ViPR instead. 25mins in total consisting of sets of 45sec effort & then 45sec recovery. A short but solid session.
Wed: 60mins pilates with Carly.
Thu: a big-ish day of training for me. 70min interval session on the windtrainer at 5am. My legs felt flat & as such I probably didn't work as hard as I did last time. Oh well, it got done. 24.5k before my cadence sensor on my bike died at the 58min mark. Then at lunch it was off to the pool for a 2km swim. It was a solid session and finally I felt like I am starting to swim well again.
Fri: a 45mins walk/shuffle along my usual route. I haven't done this distance in several weeks now so I took it very easily with only short 'shuffles' intervals and regular walks.
Sat: up early for my 4hr long ride before a busy weekend. I set out from home just before 7am for the ride out along Cobbity Rd. I haven't done this ride since June & so was very uncertain as to how it would go. Cobbity is a bit like a roller coaster; the initial hills are short & sharp. Each hill then seems to get longer & harder until the last hill makes you feel like someone is trying to remove your lungs via your nose (*apologies for anyone eating whilst reading this*).
The last time I did was ride was on June 5. I didn't feel like I was riding up the hills any faster - I certainly saw 9km/h more than once - but I certainly felt like I was recovering faster from the hills. Despite the lack of big mileage lately, when I checked my stats when I got home I was very pleased to see that I did this ride 9mins faster than I last time. Beautiful weather for a hard ride. 92.7km in 4:03 (av. 22.8k/h)
Sun: an overnight trip to Newcastle for my aunt's surprise birthday, and the logistics associated with it, meant I wasn't able to ride this morning. By the time we got back to Sydney it was raining, so I headed to the windtrainer in the garage for my 80mins ride. So I did the first 80mins of one of the aerobic endurance Spinervals DVDs that I recently added to our collection followed by a 5min cool down. A (very) solid, and sweaty, session - tiring but good :-) 36.7km in 1:25.
A recovery week to look forward to now after another solid training block. Oh, and a trip to New Zealand ;-D
MTD:
Swim: 13.5km
Bike: 402.1km
Mon: a short 25min walk/shuffle today. Probably more walking than shuffling but as I haven't run - sorry, I meant shuffled - much in recent weeks, I took it very easy today. Swim squad after work was a solid session with 8 x 50m breaststroke kick (ie, no arms) and later 4 x 200m, each one successively faster. Ouchy! 2.45km
Tue: I had planned to go to the gym straight from work but managed to leave my gym bag at home. Stoopid. So rather than waste time travelling to/from the gym, I decided to spend some time 'playing' with ViPR instead. 25mins in total consisting of sets of 45sec effort & then 45sec recovery. A short but solid session.
Wed: 60mins pilates with Carly.
Thu: a big-ish day of training for me. 70min interval session on the windtrainer at 5am. My legs felt flat & as such I probably didn't work as hard as I did last time. Oh well, it got done. 24.5k before my cadence sensor on my bike died at the 58min mark. Then at lunch it was off to the pool for a 2km swim. It was a solid session and finally I felt like I am starting to swim well again.
Fri: a 45mins walk/shuffle along my usual route. I haven't done this distance in several weeks now so I took it very easily with only short 'shuffles' intervals and regular walks.
Sat: up early for my 4hr long ride before a busy weekend. I set out from home just before 7am for the ride out along Cobbity Rd. I haven't done this ride since June & so was very uncertain as to how it would go. Cobbity is a bit like a roller coaster; the initial hills are short & sharp. Each hill then seems to get longer & harder until the last hill makes you feel like someone is trying to remove your lungs via your nose (*apologies for anyone eating whilst reading this*).
The last time I did was ride was on June 5. I didn't feel like I was riding up the hills any faster - I certainly saw 9km/h more than once - but I certainly felt like I was recovering faster from the hills. Despite the lack of big mileage lately, when I checked my stats when I got home I was very pleased to see that I did this ride 9mins faster than I last time. Beautiful weather for a hard ride. 92.7km in 4:03 (av. 22.8k/h)
Sun: an overnight trip to Newcastle for my aunt's surprise birthday, and the logistics associated with it, meant I wasn't able to ride this morning. By the time we got back to Sydney it was raining, so I headed to the windtrainer in the garage for my 80mins ride. So I did the first 80mins of one of the aerobic endurance Spinervals DVDs that I recently added to our collection followed by a 5min cool down. A (very) solid, and sweaty, session - tiring but good :-) 36.7km in 1:25.
A recovery week to look forward to now after another solid training block. Oh, and a trip to New Zealand ;-D
MTD:
Swim: 13.5km
Bike: 402.1km
Sunday, November 21, 2010
9...
Thanks everyone :-) It's not hard too miss racing Ewen when you've forgotten what it's like. In fact I have often distanced myself (even further) from racing by choosing not to spectate at races that R participates in. Constantly getting ask why you aren't racing gets a bit old after a while - not to mention after 2.5 years!
I wouldn't say I am back in the game Chris. My 'run' leg revealed that I have a heck of a long way to go in terms of being able to control momentum, particularly when running off the bike. This is going to be crucial if I am to remain injury free as the distance (hopefully) increases over the next few months. But at least I am getting a much better awareness of how my body functions (or doesn't as the case may be!)
I felt incredibly tired earlier in the week but working from home on Thursday & then taking Friday off work helped to make me feel human again.
Mon: swim squad after work was a relatively easy one as most of the squad was backing up from the Nepean Tri the day before (2.45km)
Tue: rest
Wed: 60min pilates w/ Carly
Thu: 8hrs of sleep - unheard of on a school night - and I was feeling almost human again. This allowed me to smack myself during the Spinervals "Big Gear Strength" DVD on the windtrainer in that garage at 6am. 56min including 3 x 10 lunges. 20.6k
Fri: an early start despite being a day off work (yippee!) in order to head down to the Regatta Centre for an open water swim. 1km only today as it was my longest open water swim since Yeppoon in August; the distance will slowly increase over coming weeks.
Sat: after weeks of cr*p weather, I was very relieved to see a beautiful clear blue sky when I got up. With a 3.5 long hour ride on the program & only 9 weeks until Alpine Classic, there was only one thing to do; psych myself up & head for the hills! First I went headed out towards Richmond (which is flat & dead) before turning off onto Springwood Road for the trip up the 'hill' to Springwood. The first part of this is tough; a short steep incline followed by lots of switchbacks but then it eases off.
Once I got to Springwood, I had some extra time to make up so I turned right & headed further up the mountain. I discovered that is a vortex between Linden & Woodford; it turns out there is nowhere to turn around so you get sucked along the highway all the way to Woodford. Of course, this also has to be one of the hilliest sections - go figure!
I was surprised how reasonable I felt - I won't say I was feeling good - when I got to Woodford (el. 609m). It put both my goal of riding to Katoomba this summer and Alpine Classic in sharper focus.
Finished with 82.3k in 3:46 (21.8k/h av - aver HR145)
Sun: after my mum's surprise 60th birthday party last night, I wasn't too enthusiastic about getting out of bed this morning for my ride. But another beautiful clear blue sky made the decision a bit easier. 80min ride on the program today so I did an out & back along Northern Rd which is basically flat with a detour via Chain O Ponds Rd which is like the local equivalent of Matthew Flinders Drive in Port Macquarie but on steroids. Legs were feeling a bit flat & without much speed in them. So aside from Chain O Ponds, I just focused on keeping my cadence steady & disregarding speed. Finished with 30.8km in 1:19.
The next 6 weeks are incredibly hectic so time to focus on looking after myself as much as possible
MTD:
Swim: 9.05km
Bike: 247.3km
I wouldn't say I am back in the game Chris. My 'run' leg revealed that I have a heck of a long way to go in terms of being able to control momentum, particularly when running off the bike. This is going to be crucial if I am to remain injury free as the distance (hopefully) increases over the next few months. But at least I am getting a much better awareness of how my body functions (or doesn't as the case may be!)
I felt incredibly tired earlier in the week but working from home on Thursday & then taking Friday off work helped to make me feel human again.
Mon: swim squad after work was a relatively easy one as most of the squad was backing up from the Nepean Tri the day before (2.45km)
Tue: rest
Wed: 60min pilates w/ Carly
Thu: 8hrs of sleep - unheard of on a school night - and I was feeling almost human again. This allowed me to smack myself during the Spinervals "Big Gear Strength" DVD on the windtrainer in that garage at 6am. 56min including 3 x 10 lunges. 20.6k
Fri: an early start despite being a day off work (yippee!) in order to head down to the Regatta Centre for an open water swim. 1km only today as it was my longest open water swim since Yeppoon in August; the distance will slowly increase over coming weeks.
Sat: after weeks of cr*p weather, I was very relieved to see a beautiful clear blue sky when I got up. With a 3.5 long hour ride on the program & only 9 weeks until Alpine Classic, there was only one thing to do; psych myself up & head for the hills! First I went headed out towards Richmond (which is flat & dead) before turning off onto Springwood Road for the trip up the 'hill' to Springwood. The first part of this is tough; a short steep incline followed by lots of switchbacks but then it eases off.
Once I got to Springwood, I had some extra time to make up so I turned right & headed further up the mountain. I discovered that is a vortex between Linden & Woodford; it turns out there is nowhere to turn around so you get sucked along the highway all the way to Woodford. Of course, this also has to be one of the hilliest sections - go figure!
I was surprised how reasonable I felt - I won't say I was feeling good - when I got to Woodford (el. 609m). It put both my goal of riding to Katoomba this summer and Alpine Classic in sharper focus.
Finished with 82.3k in 3:46 (21.8k/h av - aver HR145)Sun: after my mum's surprise 60th birthday party last night, I wasn't too enthusiastic about getting out of bed this morning for my ride. But another beautiful clear blue sky made the decision a bit easier. 80min ride on the program today so I did an out & back along Northern Rd which is basically flat with a detour via Chain O Ponds Rd which is like the local equivalent of Matthew Flinders Drive in Port Macquarie but on steroids. Legs were feeling a bit flat & without much speed in them. So aside from Chain O Ponds, I just focused on keeping my cadence steady & disregarding speed. Finished with 30.8km in 1:19.
The next 6 weeks are incredibly hectic so time to focus on looking after myself as much as possible
MTD:
Swim: 9.05km
Bike: 247.3km
Monday, November 15, 2010
10 (farkkkk) .....
Ewen, it wasn't just my first triathlon in 2.5 years but my first race of any kind. Last one was the 10km at Bush Capital in Canberra in July 2008, not long before I took time off work to go travelling. Seems like a lifetime ago now...
A strange week. The start of the week was relatively quiet; the second half absolutely feral with work. I also took custody of another 2 Spinervals DVDs as I contemplated last week. I needed a couple of good aerobic, 'long ride equivalent' DVDs given the effect that La Nina is having (and will probably continue to have) on the weather at the moment.
Tue: rest
Wed: 60mins pilates w/Carly including a few acupuncture needles in my hip to settle down some tightness. I haven't mentioned it previously but the needles are part of my management plan. I get a couple in my hip every second week at the moment. And provided I don't go too crazy with the running, they seem to be the best / quickest way to settle any tightness I get.
Thu: 70mins on the windtrainer in the garage (28.5km) at stoopid o'clock doing my own thing while I watched R torture himself doing another Spinervals intervals DVD. And then at lunch a 2km swim in the pool at work
Fri: rest
Sat: with the race being at 4pm meant that I could have a much needed sleep-in after a rough week at work. Of course the downside is that you spend the day watching the clock & (seemingly) counting down the minutes until the race.
I could go into all the details suffice to say that I was happy with my swim (5:02),
A strange week. The start of the week was relatively quiet; the second half absolutely feral with work. I also took custody of another 2 Spinervals DVDs as I contemplated last week. I needed a couple of good aerobic, 'long ride equivalent' DVDs given the effect that La Nina is having (and will probably continue to have) on the weather at the moment.
Tue: rest
Wed: 60mins pilates w/Carly including a few acupuncture needles in my hip to settle down some tightness. I haven't mentioned it previously but the needles are part of my management plan. I get a couple in my hip every second week at the moment. And provided I don't go too crazy with the running, they seem to be the best / quickest way to settle any tightness I get.
Thu: 70mins on the windtrainer in the garage (28.5km) at stoopid o'clock doing my own thing while I watched R torture himself doing another Spinervals intervals DVD. And then at lunch a 2km swim in the pool at work
Fri: rest
Sat: with the race being at 4pm meant that I could have a much needed sleep-in after a rough week at work. Of course the downside is that you spend the day watching the clock & (seemingly) counting down the minutes until the race.
I could go into all the details suffice to say that I was happy with my swim (5:02),
reasonably happy with my bike though perhaps I went a bit too hard on the first lap because I had forgotten (!) that I had to run afterwards (23:26 official time incl T1 & T2/20:20 bike computer) & the run (14:52) was a case of survival. I couldn't get my heart rate down when I got off the bike so I probably walked more than I ran in the first 1.25km. But thankfully in the 2nd half another competitor & I worked together to run to a certain point, take a quick walk break before running again. I have no doubt that I ran further thanks to him than I otherwise would have. Still I was very disappointed with my run. 6min/km pace average is a good result given how little I run so I should be happy. Of course I'm not - no surprises there ;-)
It was nice to have so much encouragement out on the course; hopefully no one saw me walking :0
I did get very down when I got home, checked my results to discover that Mini Mango, who spends a grand total of 2 hr every month on her bike, had a faster bike split than me. Farkkkk. I know I shouldn't compare myself to someone 20 yrs younger & far more genetically gifted
than me. But I do.
So official time was 43:21 & 26th/68 in my category (20-30 women). Looking to my last race in March 2008 - also an enticer - made for an interesting comparison (bearing in mind a slightly different course with timing taken in different places)
2008
Swim: 6:23 (1:21 improvement since then!)
Bike: 21:22 (over 2mins slower. What. The. Farkkk)
Run: 14:12 (only 40sec slower - pleasantly surprising)
And yes, I know I am too hard on myself...
Sun: rest - if you can call spending the day on your feet in the hot weather cheering on your friends & family ;-) My hip pulled up fine. Though how much of that was due to the (precautionary) voltarin & red wine chaser (or alternatively the celebratory triple choc muffin
w/ ice cream) I'm not too sure :-)
Getting very nervous about Alpine Classic now....
MTD:
Swim: 5.6km
Bike: 113.6km
Run:: 2.5km :-)
Monday, November 08, 2010
11...
A long post - apologies in advance!
Thanks to Ewen for fixing my blog header. I love this photo. I took it from the front of seat of a bus on the trip from the town of Arica on the coast at the northen end of Chile up to La Paz in Bolivia in 2005. It brings back fond memories of a great trip; my first into the mountains :-)
Barb, you will love Yeppoon - it's a fantastic event! I hope to do it again next year.
My attempt to self-diagnose the problem in my jaw Sunday week was w-a-y off the mark; a visit to both the dentist & doctor on Tuesday revealed that the primary cause of the problem was an ear infection but I also have a slight issue with my bite. I asked someone to take me out the back & shoot me but they refused. The ear infection meant that there was no swimming later in the week. It was, thankfully, a recovery week so it simply meant a slightly easier week than normal
Mon: after last Friday's walk/shuffle debacle, I decided to leave the watch at home during today's walk/shuffle and run all the downhills, some of the flats, none of the uphills / inclines / false flats & generally not beat myself up over how much, or how little, I ran. Needless to say, I was in a much better head space when I returned home. As much as I am struggling to get back my "run fitness", I need also to remember that I haven't run since July 2008 - yep, almost 2 1/2 years now - so all my ligaments & tendons are going to take time to get back to full (run) strength. 45mins in total.
After work it was off to swim squad for about 2.5kms of torture. I wasn't pushing myself as much as I probably should have been but it was still a hard session. I say "about" 2.5km because I lost count when the hard efforts started. And then the bungy cords come out.. :-O The session also left me thinking that perhaps my tooth problem was in fact an ear infection because I couldn't put my ear plug in because my ear was a bit swollen nor could I rest my swimming cap on my ear (like I normally do). Turns out I was right :-)
Tue: back on the bike this morning for another windtrainer session, this time the "Suffer-O-Rama" Spinervals DVD. Certainly a case of false advertising with this DVD; it says it goes for 45min but in fact went for 53min. But there was no false advertising in its name; there was plenty of suffering. 21.8km. Av. 24.8km. Av.HR 143. Spent what felt like the rest of the day either waiting for, or seeing, both a doctor and dentist.
Wed: 60min pilates w/ Carly. She has given me the ok to (slowly) increase the duration of the shuffling component of my walk / shuffles. Someone needs to tell my aerobic fitness that...
Thu: rest. I had planned to get up for a run but I've been feeling very tired this week (not surprising given that my body is fighting off my ear infection) so I turned off the alarm & went back to sleep.
Fri: A day off work to celebrate one year since the best day of my life...
But before the celebrating could start, there was hard work to do; a 2.5hour ride which, due to Sydney's inclement weather, was spent in the garage on the windtrainer with R & Coach Troy to keep me company. If anything this session gave me an excuse to go buy more Coach Troy Spinervals DVDs; if only so that I had an aerobic/base building type DVD which was more appropriate to replicate a long ride rather than the torturous one we did which was full of (hard) efforts & intervals. Finished with 53.3km in 2:15 for 23.7k/h av. Then it was off to Lilianfels at Katoomba for a lovely weekend
Sat: rest
Sun: after returning from the mountains, I was feeling rather guilty about the amount of food I consumed. So - while it wasn't on my program - I took myself off the gym after we arrived home. I figured that after 2 days of laying around eating, drinking, sleeping, talking, reading, eating & drinking, I was sufficiently recovered. 45min strength session.
Mon: another enjoyable (approx.) 45min walk/shuffle this morning sans-watch. The only time I have gone without Garmin Elektra over the last 4 years has been on those rare occasions when I forgot to charge her or she refused to play. So it's rather liberating to train without her reminding me of how slow I run (or ride for that matter).
Then it was off to swim squad after work for session with James (B+) today. 2.85km in total including quite a bit of speedy stuff. I think that maybe, just maybe, I might be getting closer to that place where I left my swimming form after Yeppoon. The fitness is still lacking but it's slowly returning.
The training this week isn't too heavy due to being entered in the enticer race (250m/10km/2.5km) at the Nepean Triathlon event on Saturday. The distance hardly seems worth getting out of bed for. But it's a bit special for me. It's hard to believe but this will be my first race of any kind in which me, myself & I will do the whole event AND cross the finish line since July 2008. Yep, almost 2.5 years. I'm a bit nervous; not about the race itself but about how my hip will pull up afterwards. Keep your fingers crossed for me please! Edit: as an aside, I know 2.5km is very far but let's just say I have't run 2.5km non-stop yet. Probably only half that. So it will be a true walk/shuffle during the race!
MTD:
Swim: 5.35km
Bike: 75.1km
Thanks to Ewen for fixing my blog header. I love this photo. I took it from the front of seat of a bus on the trip from the town of Arica on the coast at the northen end of Chile up to La Paz in Bolivia in 2005. It brings back fond memories of a great trip; my first into the mountains :-)
Barb, you will love Yeppoon - it's a fantastic event! I hope to do it again next year.
My attempt to self-diagnose the problem in my jaw Sunday week was w-a-y off the mark; a visit to both the dentist & doctor on Tuesday revealed that the primary cause of the problem was an ear infection but I also have a slight issue with my bite. I asked someone to take me out the back & shoot me but they refused. The ear infection meant that there was no swimming later in the week. It was, thankfully, a recovery week so it simply meant a slightly easier week than normal
Mon: after last Friday's walk/shuffle debacle, I decided to leave the watch at home during today's walk/shuffle and run all the downhills, some of the flats, none of the uphills / inclines / false flats & generally not beat myself up over how much, or how little, I ran. Needless to say, I was in a much better head space when I returned home. As much as I am struggling to get back my "run fitness", I need also to remember that I haven't run since July 2008 - yep, almost 2 1/2 years now - so all my ligaments & tendons are going to take time to get back to full (run) strength. 45mins in total.
After work it was off to swim squad for about 2.5kms of torture. I wasn't pushing myself as much as I probably should have been but it was still a hard session. I say "about" 2.5km because I lost count when the hard efforts started. And then the bungy cords come out.. :-O The session also left me thinking that perhaps my tooth problem was in fact an ear infection because I couldn't put my ear plug in because my ear was a bit swollen nor could I rest my swimming cap on my ear (like I normally do). Turns out I was right :-)
Tue: back on the bike this morning for another windtrainer session, this time the "Suffer-O-Rama" Spinervals DVD. Certainly a case of false advertising with this DVD; it says it goes for 45min but in fact went for 53min. But there was no false advertising in its name; there was plenty of suffering. 21.8km. Av. 24.8km. Av.HR 143. Spent what felt like the rest of the day either waiting for, or seeing, both a doctor and dentist.
Wed: 60min pilates w/ Carly. She has given me the ok to (slowly) increase the duration of the shuffling component of my walk / shuffles. Someone needs to tell my aerobic fitness that...
Thu: rest. I had planned to get up for a run but I've been feeling very tired this week (not surprising given that my body is fighting off my ear infection) so I turned off the alarm & went back to sleep.
Fri: A day off work to celebrate one year since the best day of my life...
But before the celebrating could start, there was hard work to do; a 2.5hour ride which, due to Sydney's inclement weather, was spent in the garage on the windtrainer with R & Coach Troy to keep me company. If anything this session gave me an excuse to go buy more Coach Troy Spinervals DVDs; if only so that I had an aerobic/base building type DVD which was more appropriate to replicate a long ride rather than the torturous one we did which was full of (hard) efforts & intervals. Finished with 53.3km in 2:15 for 23.7k/h av. Then it was off to Lilianfels at Katoomba for a lovely weekend
Sat: rest
Sun: after returning from the mountains, I was feeling rather guilty about the amount of food I consumed. So - while it wasn't on my program - I took myself off the gym after we arrived home. I figured that after 2 days of laying around eating, drinking, sleeping, talking, reading, eating & drinking, I was sufficiently recovered. 45min strength session.
Mon: another enjoyable (approx.) 45min walk/shuffle this morning sans-watch. The only time I have gone without Garmin Elektra over the last 4 years has been on those rare occasions when I forgot to charge her or she refused to play. So it's rather liberating to train without her reminding me of how slow I run (or ride for that matter).
Then it was off to swim squad after work for session with James (B+) today. 2.85km in total including quite a bit of speedy stuff. I think that maybe, just maybe, I might be getting closer to that place where I left my swimming form after Yeppoon. The fitness is still lacking but it's slowly returning.
The training this week isn't too heavy due to being entered in the enticer race (250m/10km/2.5km) at the Nepean Triathlon event on Saturday. The distance hardly seems worth getting out of bed for. But it's a bit special for me. It's hard to believe but this will be my first race of any kind in which me, myself & I will do the whole event AND cross the finish line since July 2008. Yep, almost 2.5 years. I'm a bit nervous; not about the race itself but about how my hip will pull up afterwards. Keep your fingers crossed for me please! Edit: as an aside, I know 2.5km is very far but let's just say I have't run 2.5km non-stop yet. Probably only half that. So it will be a true walk/shuffle during the race!
MTD:
Swim: 5.35km
Bike: 75.1km
Sunday, October 31, 2010
12...
Ewen, the ViPR I suspect is also very useful for creating holes in ceilings. No I havent done it yet but I have come close a few times ;-)
Mon: I fought a close battle with the doona monster when the alarm went off at 5am but I eventually defeated it - just ;-) R & I got up & did a 43mins Spinverals DVD on the windtrainer in the garage which R 'found' on the interweb called 'No Slackers Allowed'. It must have been one of the first they made; the fluro steel bikes and mullets circa-1980 helped to distract me from the pain in my legs! BTW if you get a chance, ask R how he went during the high cadence sprints. Let me give you a hint; 'ka-boom' :-D 17.1km
After work, I made it out of the office - just - in time to get to swim squad. 2.9km later & I was one sleepy gal.
Tue: spent 5mins in the sun in the morning playing with ViPR trying to mobilise my thoracic spine & keep my shoulders happy after swim squad last night, otherwise rest.
Wed: 60mins pilates w/ Carly in the morning.
Thu: had to cancel a massage with Tigger due to a meeting at work - which, in turn, got cancelled on Wednesday evening (of course!) - so instead I headed to the gym for a 40mins strength session. I lurve strength training. I love it more than anything else I do including all that triathlon-related 'cardio' stuff. It's a shame there aren't more days in the week to do more of it :-(
Fri: dragged myself out of bed for a walk/shuffle. Let's just say that I should have stayed there. I ran a total of about 7mins and then walked home close to tears. In a very bad head space at the moment in terms of my running, how slowly it is progressing & frustration at my body. Got home & investigated the date by which I need to withdraw from the HIM/70.3 race next May (28 February 2011 is the answer to that question). 35mins in total. Then a 2km swim in the pool at work during lunch.
Sat: 80min ride out & back towards Richmond on a gorgeous spring day. Only downside to this ride was that I came very close to being a hood ornament on a Holden Commodore. It was a mistake on the driver's part; he didn't see me. I think he was more shaken up by it than I was. Finished w/ 31.6km. Av. 23.8k/h Followed it up with 10mins playing w/ my ViPR in the garage & then 30mins of stretching & SMR.
Sun: a bad night sleep thanks to a tooth ache :-( so I dragged myself out of bed when the alarm went off at stoopid-o'clock so I could meet Sue at Hornsby at 7.30am for a 3.5 hour ride. None of our rides seem to be uneventful of late. Today it was an overturned car at the top of Brooklyn Hill near Pie In The Sky and not much later Sue exerted so much force after a brief stop that she broke a spoke on her back wheel. Thankfully 2 very kind gentlemen came to our rescue & fixed it for us which allowed us to continue our ride up to discover the cafe at Mt White & return to Hornsby. Finished w/ 69.7km. Av. 22.0k/h in 3:09. I am very nervous about how much work I have to do over the next 12 weeks so it was nice to have a solid start :-)
Next week brings a recovery week after my first solid block of training since Yeppoon. My tooth ache this evening - possibly a wisdom tooth misbehaving - is my only real concern right now. I'm doped up to the eyes on Nurofen Plus this evening. The red wine chaser is also helping ;-) Hopefully it won't interrupt my training too much over the next little while. Fingers crossed!
End of month:
Swim: 17.2km
Bike: 336.3km
Mon: I fought a close battle with the doona monster when the alarm went off at 5am but I eventually defeated it - just ;-) R & I got up & did a 43mins Spinverals DVD on the windtrainer in the garage which R 'found' on the interweb called 'No Slackers Allowed'. It must have been one of the first they made; the fluro steel bikes and mullets circa-1980 helped to distract me from the pain in my legs! BTW if you get a chance, ask R how he went during the high cadence sprints. Let me give you a hint; 'ka-boom' :-D 17.1km
After work, I made it out of the office - just - in time to get to swim squad. 2.9km later & I was one sleepy gal.
Tue: spent 5mins in the sun in the morning playing with ViPR trying to mobilise my thoracic spine & keep my shoulders happy after swim squad last night, otherwise rest.
Wed: 60mins pilates w/ Carly in the morning.
Thu: had to cancel a massage with Tigger due to a meeting at work - which, in turn, got cancelled on Wednesday evening (of course!) - so instead I headed to the gym for a 40mins strength session. I lurve strength training. I love it more than anything else I do including all that triathlon-related 'cardio' stuff. It's a shame there aren't more days in the week to do more of it :-(
Fri: dragged myself out of bed for a walk/shuffle. Let's just say that I should have stayed there. I ran a total of about 7mins and then walked home close to tears. In a very bad head space at the moment in terms of my running, how slowly it is progressing & frustration at my body. Got home & investigated the date by which I need to withdraw from the HIM/70.3 race next May (28 February 2011 is the answer to that question). 35mins in total. Then a 2km swim in the pool at work during lunch.
Sat: 80min ride out & back towards Richmond on a gorgeous spring day. Only downside to this ride was that I came very close to being a hood ornament on a Holden Commodore. It was a mistake on the driver's part; he didn't see me. I think he was more shaken up by it than I was. Finished w/ 31.6km. Av. 23.8k/h Followed it up with 10mins playing w/ my ViPR in the garage & then 30mins of stretching & SMR.
Sun: a bad night sleep thanks to a tooth ache :-( so I dragged myself out of bed when the alarm went off at stoopid-o'clock so I could meet Sue at Hornsby at 7.30am for a 3.5 hour ride. None of our rides seem to be uneventful of late. Today it was an overturned car at the top of Brooklyn Hill near Pie In The Sky and not much later Sue exerted so much force after a brief stop that she broke a spoke on her back wheel. Thankfully 2 very kind gentlemen came to our rescue & fixed it for us which allowed us to continue our ride up to discover the cafe at Mt White & return to Hornsby. Finished w/ 69.7km. Av. 22.0k/h in 3:09. I am very nervous about how much work I have to do over the next 12 weeks so it was nice to have a solid start :-)
Next week brings a recovery week after my first solid block of training since Yeppoon. My tooth ache this evening - possibly a wisdom tooth misbehaving - is my only real concern right now. I'm doped up to the eyes on Nurofen Plus this evening. The red wine chaser is also helping ;-) Hopefully it won't interrupt my training too much over the next little while. Fingers crossed!
End of month:
Swim: 17.2km
Bike: 336.3km
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Girl, you'll be a woman soon...
A break from my usual post title in honour of Neil Diamond after watching a story on him on Sunday Night this evening. I grew up listening to Neil Diamond courtesy of my folks. That probably explains a few things.. ;-)
Mon: 43min walk/shuffle. I am looking forward to the day that shuffling for more than 4mins at a time isn't hard work....
Then it was off to swim squad after work for the first time in about 3 weeks. Nasty! It's amazing how quickly you can lose your technique & feel for the water. 2.65km
Tue: rest
Wed: 37mins bike session on the windtrainer in the garage before work. Nice easy but hard session. 15.2k
Thu: was supposed to run today but a few aches & pains over the last few days reminded me that I have continued to increase my running component of my walk/shuffles for weeks without an easy session (opps). So I skipped this morning's run & spent 30mins in the garage playing with my ViPR. Lots of short hard efforts with short recovery. Tough but good session :-) I am amazed at the changes that these sessions immediately have on my body. I notice a huge improvement in my shoulders in particular after these sessions.
Fri: 60mins pilates w/ Carly during which session she told me she was leaving (*sob*). I will be very sad to see her go. Not only has she put me back together after I spent 6 weeks with a belt holding my pelvis together in August/September last year. But she has also allowed me to pick her brain about all things anatomy, training & biomechanics related as my study has continued & developed
Sat: a reasonable sleep-in and then off for a ride on a glorious Sydney morning. Warm weather + clear sky = bliss! 70mins ride out & back towards Richmond. 29.8k. 1:11. Av. 25k/h
After a snack, it was off to the pool for a 2km swim where I was reminded that I hate going to the pool at 11am for the next 6 months; kids everywhere doing stoopid things like swimming across the lane ahead of you with complete disregard as to what is going on around them. Grrrr.
Sun: a forced rest day after a migraine last night floored me. Today was spent moping around the house feeling flat, tired & hungover sans alcohol :-(
I must admit that I am getting a bit nervous about the Alpine Classic at the moment. My training hasn't been consistent for one reason or another in weeks & I really need to get some consistent, long & hilly hours in the saddle soon otherwise things are going to be painful come January 23...
MTD:
Swim - 12.3km
Bike - 220.9km
Mon: 43min walk/shuffle. I am looking forward to the day that shuffling for more than 4mins at a time isn't hard work....
Then it was off to swim squad after work for the first time in about 3 weeks. Nasty! It's amazing how quickly you can lose your technique & feel for the water. 2.65km
Tue: rest
Wed: 37mins bike session on the windtrainer in the garage before work. Nice easy but hard session. 15.2k
Thu: was supposed to run today but a few aches & pains over the last few days reminded me that I have continued to increase my running component of my walk/shuffles for weeks without an easy session (opps). So I skipped this morning's run & spent 30mins in the garage playing with my ViPR. Lots of short hard efforts with short recovery. Tough but good session :-) I am amazed at the changes that these sessions immediately have on my body. I notice a huge improvement in my shoulders in particular after these sessions.
Fri: 60mins pilates w/ Carly during which session she told me she was leaving (*sob*). I will be very sad to see her go. Not only has she put me back together after I spent 6 weeks with a belt holding my pelvis together in August/September last year. But she has also allowed me to pick her brain about all things anatomy, training & biomechanics related as my study has continued & developed
Sat: a reasonable sleep-in and then off for a ride on a glorious Sydney morning. Warm weather + clear sky = bliss! 70mins ride out & back towards Richmond. 29.8k. 1:11. Av. 25k/h
After a snack, it was off to the pool for a 2km swim where I was reminded that I hate going to the pool at 11am for the next 6 months; kids everywhere doing stoopid things like swimming across the lane ahead of you with complete disregard as to what is going on around them. Grrrr.
Sun: a forced rest day after a migraine last night floored me. Today was spent moping around the house feeling flat, tired & hungover sans alcohol :-(
I must admit that I am getting a bit nervous about the Alpine Classic at the moment. My training hasn't been consistent for one reason or another in weeks & I really need to get some consistent, long & hilly hours in the saddle soon otherwise things are going to be painful come January 23...
MTD:
Swim - 12.3km
Bike - 220.9km
Sunday, October 17, 2010
14...
Mon: 45mins walk/shuffle before work then 60mins pilates w/ Carly after work; I would normally go to squad tonight but this was a pilates session to make up for one I previously missed. It was a lovely surprise to see Mr & Mrs K when I arrived :-)
Tue: rest
Wed: My usual 60mins pilates class with Carly.
Thu: 38mins windtrainer session on the bike this morning in the garage whilst watching the Chilean miner with the wife & girlfriend be rescued. Unfortunately it didn't prove to as 'exciting' as I had hoped ;-) 14.9km
Fri: 40mins walk/shuffle this morning. I had planned to do a slightly longer session than on Monday but I was feeling tired & struggling to maintain good form so I decided to pull the pin slightly earlier than slip back into old (read: bad) habits.
Sat: I had a 60mins ride on the program for today but woke to the sound of high winds so I rolled over & went back to sleep :-) Once I dragged myself out of bed, it was off to the garage with Coach Troy for his 'big gear strength' DVD, 56mins of glute & quad torture :-D 22.2km. 26.3k/h. Afterwards I played with my ViPR for about 15mins before crawling into the house. I was supposed to do a swim in the afternoon but spent much of it working :-(
Sun: I had a 2.5 hr ride on the program today so I joined TA's group at Seven Hills for a ride out towards Richmond. 3hr 15mins riding time, 78kms, 2 toilet stops, 1 flat tyre & 1 broken chain later - neither of which was mine thankfully - we arrived back to the car. This was a tough ride mentally given that at one stage we were within about 10km of my home, but 40kms from my car ;-) But as TA said at one stage, it was nice to know that we could do a 78km ride off minimal training in recent weeks (in TA's case) or months (in mine). Thanks TA! 78.3km. 3:15. Av. 24.1k/h
Another busy week ahead - but is there any other kind?
MTD:
Swim - 7.7km
Bike - 175.9km
Tue: rest
Wed: My usual 60mins pilates class with Carly.
Thu: 38mins windtrainer session on the bike this morning in the garage whilst watching the Chilean miner with the wife & girlfriend be rescued. Unfortunately it didn't prove to as 'exciting' as I had hoped ;-) 14.9km
Fri: 40mins walk/shuffle this morning. I had planned to do a slightly longer session than on Monday but I was feeling tired & struggling to maintain good form so I decided to pull the pin slightly earlier than slip back into old (read: bad) habits.
Sat: I had a 60mins ride on the program for today but woke to the sound of high winds so I rolled over & went back to sleep :-) Once I dragged myself out of bed, it was off to the garage with Coach Troy for his 'big gear strength' DVD, 56mins of glute & quad torture :-D 22.2km. 26.3k/h. Afterwards I played with my ViPR for about 15mins before crawling into the house. I was supposed to do a swim in the afternoon but spent much of it working :-(
Sun: I had a 2.5 hr ride on the program today so I joined TA's group at Seven Hills for a ride out towards Richmond. 3hr 15mins riding time, 78kms, 2 toilet stops, 1 flat tyre & 1 broken chain later - neither of which was mine thankfully - we arrived back to the car. This was a tough ride mentally given that at one stage we were within about 10km of my home, but 40kms from my car ;-) But as TA said at one stage, it was nice to know that we could do a 78km ride off minimal training in recent weeks (in TA's case) or months (in mine). Thanks TA! 78.3km. 3:15. Av. 24.1k/h
Another busy week ahead - but is there any other kind?
MTD:
Swim - 7.7km
Bike - 175.9km
Sunday, October 10, 2010
15...
A huge week in many ways, not least because my Certificate IV in Fitness (Personal Training) arrived in the mail. Gee, you can get anything off the back of a Weetbix box these days... ;-)
(Public holiday) Monday: as it was raining (again/still), I decided to skip a windtrainer session in the garage & go to my spiritual home instead; the gym. I have changed the way I'm doing my strength work at the moment in order to gain as much strength as I can over the next 10 weeks (in the hope I can convert it to power in the weeks that follow so I can get up those mountains in Vic in December & January a tad easier)...
Tue: up at 5am early for another 40mins walk/shuffle, a 2.6km swim at lunch & a 7 hour meeting at work which ended at 10pm made for a long day
Wed: 60mins pilates w/ Carly (& another long day at work on no more than 5 hours sleep - nasty!)
Thu: a very sweaty 65min bike session on the windtrainer in the garage after a whole 8 hours sleep; what a luxury! 27.5km (av. 25.1k/h)
Fri: another 40mins walk/shuffle, very humid in the mornings at the moment. Another 2.6km swim at lunch & another slightly grumpy shoulder; this time my right shoulder - the good one. Swimming clearly doesn't agree with my shoulders. Or more to the point, it doesn't agree with the shoulders of someone who spends so many hours, slumped, I mean seated at a computer ;-)
Sat: I spent Saturday doing a ViPR Master Trainer certification course which basically consisted of getting my HR up whilst throwing the ViPR around a large room; needless to say lots of fun! The ViPR is an amazing tool for functional strength and mobility; can't wait to torture myself - and my prospective clients - with it ;-)
Sun: Kona baby! With the Hawaii Ironman on this morning and a Team PIS member racing, there was no way I was heading out for a ride. Besides it was raining & I was spending the day caring for my nan who has Parkinsons. So I watched the coverage from Kona, ate Tim Tams and did some study instead :-)
MTD:
Swim: 7.7km
Bike: 60.55km
(Public holiday) Monday: as it was raining (again/still), I decided to skip a windtrainer session in the garage & go to my spiritual home instead; the gym. I have changed the way I'm doing my strength work at the moment in order to gain as much strength as I can over the next 10 weeks (in the hope I can convert it to power in the weeks that follow so I can get up those mountains in Vic in December & January a tad easier)...
Tue: up at 5am early for another 40mins walk/shuffle, a 2.6km swim at lunch & a 7 hour meeting at work which ended at 10pm made for a long day
Wed: 60mins pilates w/ Carly (& another long day at work on no more than 5 hours sleep - nasty!)
Thu: a very sweaty 65min bike session on the windtrainer in the garage after a whole 8 hours sleep; what a luxury! 27.5km (av. 25.1k/h)
Fri: another 40mins walk/shuffle, very humid in the mornings at the moment. Another 2.6km swim at lunch & another slightly grumpy shoulder; this time my right shoulder - the good one. Swimming clearly doesn't agree with my shoulders. Or more to the point, it doesn't agree with the shoulders of someone who spends so many hours, slumped, I mean seated at a computer ;-)
Sat: I spent Saturday doing a ViPR Master Trainer certification course which basically consisted of getting my HR up whilst throwing the ViPR around a large room; needless to say lots of fun! The ViPR is an amazing tool for functional strength and mobility; can't wait to torture myself - and my prospective clients - with it ;-)
Sun: Kona baby! With the Hawaii Ironman on this morning and a Team PIS member racing, there was no way I was heading out for a ride. Besides it was raining & I was spending the day caring for my nan who has Parkinsons. So I watched the coverage from Kona, ate Tim Tams and did some study instead :-)
MTD:
Swim: 7.7km
Bike: 60.55km
Sunday, October 03, 2010
16....
And so the countdown starts again... :-))
Mon: I slept sooo heavily on Sunday night (which is really unusual for me) but still woke feeling tired. It was a bit of a struggle to drag myself out for my 40min walk/shuffle but I'm glad I did.
Swim squad on Monday night saw the return of B+ to take the session which, I must admit, brings with it a sense of dread probably as the sessions tend to be hard, hard work. And work hard I did. Our session was probably only 2km in length. But a great one in terms of (difficult) drills, learning about body position in the water & understanding what my 'standard' swim times should now be. I also discovered what it feels like to want to throw up in the pool courtesy of some butterfly which sent my HR & lactate levels through the roof .
Tue: rest
Wed: 60mins pilates w/ Carly
Thu: this week at work was slightly less demanding (before it ramps up again with 6 weeks of hell starting from next week). So I was able to take Thursday & Friday off work to make it an extra l-o-n-g weekend :-)) So a big sleep-in this morning was followed by another Spinervals DVD on the windtrainer in the garage, this time with R for company (who was working from home). Remind me not to do so again on an empty stomach after not eating for 14 hours. Farkkkk. 45mins video called "Uphill Grind" designed to improve your climbing skills. Ouchy, ouchy, ouchy. 45mins. 19.4k. Av. Av. 25.7k/h
Thursday of course saw the end of the month; my lowest training month in a l-o-n-g time..
Swim: 4.5km
Bike: 156.4km
Fri: another sleep-in (yippee) followed by some lazy time on the couch & then a swim. My swims at the moment are not particularly enjoyable; they are hard work. It has been a great lesson in how quickly you can lose fitness & technique. Throw in leaking goggles & school holidays (ie, kids swimming across the lane in front of me); did I mention it wasn't that much fun? ;-) 2.5km in total
Sat: R & I had planned a 3hr long ride along the Old Pacific Highway today. But heavy rain put an end to it early. We set out from Hornsby about 8.30am, heading down the Old Pacific Highway before turning off at Berowa Waters Rd for the (fast) roll 4km downhill to the ferry. A quick toilet stop & then it was time to turn about & head back up the hill which I managed in about 19mins.
Arriving back at the top of the 'hill' I was surprised to see the sky largely filled with heavy, dark clouds & the smell of rain in the air. And not just rain clouds; storm clouds that had me thinking "this is not good". So we turned right & headed for home, cutting our ride short. Of course, the rain started shortly thereafter & didn't cease most of the afternoon. It was fun riding in the rain for the first 15mins until I wasn't able to see the road through my glasses & got cold. 30 (long) minutes later we were back at the car drenched & trying to dry off while the rain tumbled down. C'est la vie. It was the right decision to make; we could not have got any wetter had we continued our ride but the risk of would only have gone up. As it was, I had to rely on my mountain biking skills to go over the top of a branch that was on the road when R braked at the wrong time coming down hill & gave me nowhere else to go. 1:31:26. 33.05k. Av. 21.7k/h
Sun: another sleep-in (I'm getting used to them now!) followed by a 40mins walk/shuffle in the pouring rain..
MTD:
Swim - 2.5km
Bike - 33.05km
Mon: I slept sooo heavily on Sunday night (which is really unusual for me) but still woke feeling tired. It was a bit of a struggle to drag myself out for my 40min walk/shuffle but I'm glad I did.
Swim squad on Monday night saw the return of B+ to take the session which, I must admit, brings with it a sense of dread probably as the sessions tend to be hard, hard work. And work hard I did. Our session was probably only 2km in length. But a great one in terms of (difficult) drills, learning about body position in the water & understanding what my 'standard' swim times should now be. I also discovered what it feels like to want to throw up in the pool courtesy of some butterfly which sent my HR & lactate levels through the roof .
Tue: rest
Wed: 60mins pilates w/ Carly
Thu: this week at work was slightly less demanding (before it ramps up again with 6 weeks of hell starting from next week). So I was able to take Thursday & Friday off work to make it an extra l-o-n-g weekend :-)) So a big sleep-in this morning was followed by another Spinervals DVD on the windtrainer in the garage, this time with R for company (who was working from home). Remind me not to do so again on an empty stomach after not eating for 14 hours. Farkkkk. 45mins video called "Uphill Grind" designed to improve your climbing skills. Ouchy, ouchy, ouchy. 45mins. 19.4k. Av. Av. 25.7k/h
Thursday of course saw the end of the month; my lowest training month in a l-o-n-g time..
Swim: 4.5km
Bike: 156.4km
Fri: another sleep-in (yippee) followed by some lazy time on the couch & then a swim. My swims at the moment are not particularly enjoyable; they are hard work. It has been a great lesson in how quickly you can lose fitness & technique. Throw in leaking goggles & school holidays (ie, kids swimming across the lane in front of me); did I mention it wasn't that much fun? ;-) 2.5km in total
Sat: R & I had planned a 3hr long ride along the Old Pacific Highway today. But heavy rain put an end to it early. We set out from Hornsby about 8.30am, heading down the Old Pacific Highway before turning off at Berowa Waters Rd for the (fast) roll 4km downhill to the ferry. A quick toilet stop & then it was time to turn about & head back up the hill which I managed in about 19mins.
Arriving back at the top of the 'hill' I was surprised to see the sky largely filled with heavy, dark clouds & the smell of rain in the air. And not just rain clouds; storm clouds that had me thinking "this is not good". So we turned right & headed for home, cutting our ride short. Of course, the rain started shortly thereafter & didn't cease most of the afternoon. It was fun riding in the rain for the first 15mins until I wasn't able to see the road through my glasses & got cold. 30 (long) minutes later we were back at the car drenched & trying to dry off while the rain tumbled down. C'est la vie. It was the right decision to make; we could not have got any wetter had we continued our ride but the risk of would only have gone up. As it was, I had to rely on my mountain biking skills to go over the top of a branch that was on the road when R braked at the wrong time coming down hill & gave me nowhere else to go. 1:31:26. 33.05k. Av. 21.7k/h
Sun: another sleep-in (I'm getting used to them now!) followed by a 40mins walk/shuffle in the pouring rain..
MTD:
Swim - 2.5km
Bike - 33.05km
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Please allow me to introduce myself...
Wow! I can't believe that I haven't updated my blog in 3 weeks now. In the 5 years since this blog was 'born', the only other time(s) I have gone so long without an update has been when I've been high on a mountain somewhere well away from modern technology.
I wish I had been on a mountain.
I have been instead swamped by a work-related tsunami. Basically until this weekend, I worked for 28 days straight. Lots of long days and nights working until midnight & beyond. Throw in lots of adrenaline, cortisol (the 'fight' hormone in the 'fight or flight response'), nowhere near enough sleep and tonnes of coffee & my poor body has been taking a beating (mentally & physically). It has been, by far, the most difficult period of my working life to date.
So here is a quick recap of the last 3 weeks:
Week 1 (Mon 6 - Sun 12):
Wednesday & Friday were 60mins pilates with Carly.
Saturday morning I headed out for my first walk/shuffle in quite a few weeks (6 x 1min).
Sunday morning saw only my second ride in 4 weeks; 2 hours out & back with R along the Northern Road. I was worried about how much fitness I had lost after 4 weeks of very little training. But I was really pleased with the ride; in fact it turned out to my fastest ever ride over that course. Even R commented on how much faster I was! There is something to be said for working late, doing no exercise & getting no sleep ;-) 51km. Av. 24.9k/h
Week 2 (Mon 13 - Sun 19):
Monday, Wednesday & Saturdays - walk/shuffles
Thursday - a solid strength session in the gym
Friday - my first Spinervals DVD. For those who haven't had the 'pleasure' (and I use that word loosely), Spinervals is a series of bike windtrainer sessions on DVD lead by "Coach Troy" who has a rather annoying North American habit - apologies to any North American readers - of saying "good jawb" all the freaking time. I am however willing to ignore the annoyance factor given that the vid kicked my ar$e. I honestly have never worked harder on the windtrainer before, nor have I felt like I was going to throw up due to my friend lactic acid on the windtrainer before. Now I am strangely looking forward to doing another one. Yes, I am a sadistic ;-) 52mins 22.7km including 3 x 20 lunges.
Week 3 (Mon 20 - Sun 26):
Monday - massage + return to swim squad after 5 weeks off. Remind me never to take so long out of the pool again. I've lost fitness but (more importantly) technique & my 'feel' for the water. I felt like I was spinning my 'wheels' the whole time. Hopefully it will come back quickly. 2.5km
Tuesday & Saturday - walk/shuffle
Sunday - long ride. 2.5 hours out & back along the Northern Road by myself. This one felt a bit harder than my last ride - not particularly surprising given it was only my 3rd ride in 6 weeks - but the average pace revealed that the last (fast) ride wasn't a fluke. 63.3km. 2:33. 24.8k/h av.
The next phase in my project at work starts tomorrow but I will (hopefully) take a lesser role in it which will (hopefully) mean less hours at work & a return to a decent training load. It was 17 weeks today until my next BHAG goal. I have a lot of work to do in the next few weeks but I'm looking forward to getting back into it :-)
MTD:
Swim - 2.5km
Bike - 137km
I wish I had been on a mountain.
I have been instead swamped by a work-related tsunami. Basically until this weekend, I worked for 28 days straight. Lots of long days and nights working until midnight & beyond. Throw in lots of adrenaline, cortisol (the 'fight' hormone in the 'fight or flight response'), nowhere near enough sleep and tonnes of coffee & my poor body has been taking a beating (mentally & physically). It has been, by far, the most difficult period of my working life to date.
So here is a quick recap of the last 3 weeks:
Week 1 (Mon 6 - Sun 12):
Wednesday & Friday were 60mins pilates with Carly.
Saturday morning I headed out for my first walk/shuffle in quite a few weeks (6 x 1min).
Sunday morning saw only my second ride in 4 weeks; 2 hours out & back with R along the Northern Road. I was worried about how much fitness I had lost after 4 weeks of very little training. But I was really pleased with the ride; in fact it turned out to my fastest ever ride over that course. Even R commented on how much faster I was! There is something to be said for working late, doing no exercise & getting no sleep ;-) 51km. Av. 24.9k/h
Week 2 (Mon 13 - Sun 19):
Monday, Wednesday & Saturdays - walk/shuffles
Thursday - a solid strength session in the gym
Friday - my first Spinervals DVD. For those who haven't had the 'pleasure' (and I use that word loosely), Spinervals is a series of bike windtrainer sessions on DVD lead by "Coach Troy" who has a rather annoying North American habit - apologies to any North American readers - of saying "good jawb" all the freaking time. I am however willing to ignore the annoyance factor given that the vid kicked my ar$e. I honestly have never worked harder on the windtrainer before, nor have I felt like I was going to throw up due to my friend lactic acid on the windtrainer before. Now I am strangely looking forward to doing another one. Yes, I am a sadistic ;-) 52mins 22.7km including 3 x 20 lunges.
Week 3 (Mon 20 - Sun 26):
Monday - massage + return to swim squad after 5 weeks off. Remind me never to take so long out of the pool again. I've lost fitness but (more importantly) technique & my 'feel' for the water. I felt like I was spinning my 'wheels' the whole time. Hopefully it will come back quickly. 2.5km
Tuesday & Saturday - walk/shuffle
Sunday - long ride. 2.5 hours out & back along the Northern Road by myself. This one felt a bit harder than my last ride - not particularly surprising given it was only my 3rd ride in 6 weeks - but the average pace revealed that the last (fast) ride wasn't a fluke. 63.3km. 2:33. 24.8k/h av.
The next phase in my project at work starts tomorrow but I will (hopefully) take a lesser role in it which will (hopefully) mean less hours at work & a return to a decent training load. It was 17 weeks today until my next BHAG goal. I have a lot of work to do in the next few weeks but I'm looking forward to getting back into it :-)
MTD:
Swim - 2.5km
Bike - 137km
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Race of the season...
apparently.... :-D
Edit: bugger. The link appears to be ok when I click on it. Go to
http://forums.transitions.org.au/index.php?showforum=2
and scroll down the threads until you find the one called "Race of the Season - Mango vs Mrs Mango". At the moment (Thursday PM), the thread is still on the first page...
Edit: bugger. The link appears to be ok when I click on it. Go to
http://forums.transitions.org.au/index.php?showforum=2
and scroll down the threads until you find the one called "Race of the Season - Mango vs Mrs Mango". At the moment (Thursday PM), the thread is still on the first page...
Sunday, September 05, 2010
Zero, zip, nada
Have been sick since Sunday & on antibiotics (as well as my first ever Ventolin puffer) since Tuesday so no exercise at all since my ride last Sunday.
Throw in working until midnight on Wednesday & Thursday, until 10pm on Saturday and spending all day in the gym today doing my final practical assessment for my Cert IV (PT) and to say it's been a $hit week is probably an understatement.
There has been some upsides; I have booked flights to Queenstown in December to attend a PT mentorship and managed to include an extra day whilst I'm there to squeeze in some ice climbing :-)) I am also only a few written assessments away from (finally) being a PT so there has been a faint glimpse of a light at the end of the tunnel..
Anyhoo, had better get back to it. A couple of hours work before I can sleep...
Throw in working until midnight on Wednesday & Thursday, until 10pm on Saturday and spending all day in the gym today doing my final practical assessment for my Cert IV (PT) and to say it's been a $hit week is probably an understatement.
There has been some upsides; I have booked flights to Queenstown in December to attend a PT mentorship and managed to include an extra day whilst I'm there to squeeze in some ice climbing :-)) I am also only a few written assessments away from (finally) being a PT so there has been a faint glimpse of a light at the end of the tunnel..
Anyhoo, had better get back to it. A couple of hours work before I can sleep...
Sunday, August 29, 2010
For my next trick...
So with the return to more structured planning, my thoughts have turned to my next events. So over the next months I am planning to do:
- the 100km ride at Fitz's Challenge, a "participation ride" (ie, not a race) in the Brindabellas outside Canberra at the end of October;
- the enticer triathlon (250m/10km/2.5km) at the Nepean Triathlon in November which will (fingers crossed) be my first race of any kind in over 2 years!
And then January 2011 brings my next BIG adventure - the 130km ride at the Alpine Classic in Bright, Victoria.
Falls Creek, by bike, here I come!
Found: 1 x mojo
Another week sans-program meant a relatively cruisy week & somewhat different from my usual training week -
Mon: headed out early for a short walk / shuffle-run thingy. I'm trying to focus on maintaining my core position and on striking with more of my forefoot. Its exhausting! No swim squad tonight :-))
Tue: rest - if you can call getting up at 5am to study, rest
Wed: 60mins pilates with Carly. I've now joined the "athlete's (group) program" (LOL) rather than the one-on-one session I was previously doing. Only problem is that I need to be on the train at 6am :-0
Thu: headed to the gym this morning for a playout - aka a strength session. Not a hard session; just really a play with movement patterns and variations ahead of my Cert IV prac assessment in the coming weeks. Besides, the big burly bodybuilder dudes with NFI & very unbalanced bodies were hogging the squat rack :-(
Fri: headed out early for another short walk / shuffle-run thingy. Ugly.
Sat: went to the gym mid-afternoon for another playout ;-) Slightly harder session than on Thursday but still really just playing with movement patterns and exercise progressions & regressions. Perhaps a few too many squats though...
Sun: 2 weeks since the race and I haven't looked at my bike - until today. And what a lovely way to get back on the bike; a planned 2hr ride along the M7 bikepath with my fav training buddies :-) Relatively cruisy ride with some great views ;-) though the hills made me realise that I had left my legs in the gym yesterday. Lovely day to get back on the bike & start planning the season ahead. 1:41. 39.3km. 23.3k/h av.
Unfortunately this afternoon I feel like I'm coming down with a bit of a cold so I had a nana nap. I never nana nap. The training mojo must be back ;-)
Madam Cirquey, although I have accommodation booked, I haven't actually entered my next big adventure yet. Thanks for the reminder. Stay tuned....
MTD:
Swim: 12.7km
Bike: 258.1km
Mon: headed out early for a short walk / shuffle-run thingy. I'm trying to focus on maintaining my core position and on striking with more of my forefoot. Its exhausting! No swim squad tonight :-))
Tue: rest - if you can call getting up at 5am to study, rest
Wed: 60mins pilates with Carly. I've now joined the "athlete's (group) program" (LOL) rather than the one-on-one session I was previously doing. Only problem is that I need to be on the train at 6am :-0
Thu: headed to the gym this morning for a playout - aka a strength session. Not a hard session; just really a play with movement patterns and variations ahead of my Cert IV prac assessment in the coming weeks. Besides, the big burly bodybuilder dudes with NFI & very unbalanced bodies were hogging the squat rack :-(
Fri: headed out early for another short walk / shuffle-run thingy. Ugly.
Sat: went to the gym mid-afternoon for another playout ;-) Slightly harder session than on Thursday but still really just playing with movement patterns and exercise progressions & regressions. Perhaps a few too many squats though...
Sun: 2 weeks since the race and I haven't looked at my bike - until today. And what a lovely way to get back on the bike; a planned 2hr ride along the M7 bikepath with my fav training buddies :-) Relatively cruisy ride with some great views ;-) though the hills made me realise that I had left my legs in the gym yesterday. Lovely day to get back on the bike & start planning the season ahead. 1:41. 39.3km. 23.3k/h av.
Unfortunately this afternoon I feel like I'm coming down with a bit of a cold so I had a nana nap. I never nana nap. The training mojo must be back ;-)
Madam Cirquey, although I have accommodation booked, I haven't actually entered my next big adventure yet. Thanks for the reminder. Stay tuned....
MTD:
Swim: 12.7km
Bike: 258.1km
Sunday, August 22, 2010
+ 1
Thanks to everyone for your comments. I appreciate it.
Scott, I don't recall meeting him but the name rings a bell. And I'm not sure if the place is open for breakfast but it was called Megalomania and it was fine (dining) :-D
Nothing to report this week except resting (aside from a walk / shuffle to the polling station on Saturday morning and playing in the gym during my Cert IV prac assessment today) and eating f-a-r too much cr*p food.
Back on track this coming week & into some easy training. Which reminds me, time to enter my next adventure... :-D
Scott, I don't recall meeting him but the name rings a bell. And I'm not sure if the place is open for breakfast but it was called Megalomania and it was fine (dining) :-D
Nothing to report this week except resting (aside from a walk / shuffle to the polling station on Saturday morning and playing in the gym during my Cert IV prac assessment today) and eating f-a-r too much cr*p food.
Back on track this coming week & into some easy training. Which reminds me, time to enter my next adventure... :-D
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
We have lift-off !
Executive summary: I did it! 1.9km swim followed by 90km on the bike in 4:23, about 12min faster than I had anticipated :-D
Full story: [get yourself your preferred beverage & a comfy seat – you could be a while!]
Well, where to start? I had a good sleep and woke feeling rested. I felt really relaxed much to my surprise. One of the many great things about this race is the fact it took a grand total of 3mins to walk from our wing of the resort to transition :-)
After a quick set up (by which time it was 6.30am), it was off to the restaurant for breakfast (another 3mins walk). By 7am we were back at transition for the pre-race briefing where we were told the swim would be flat & current-assisted. Talk about false advertising but we will get to that....
After the briefing it was off on the l-o-n-g 1.8km walk down the beach to the race start.
Chatting to other Panthers/PIS members on the walk helped to distract me from the fact that I was going to have to swim all the way back! The first wave started at 8am and my wave didn’t start until 8.40am so I had plenty of time to chat, relax, pull on the wettie and go for a mini-warm up swim (which was my first hint that the current wasn’t quite behaving itself).
Soon it was time to start & I lined up in my usual spot at the back of the pack.
We swam out about 200m out before turning left and heading north for 1.5km. I was one of the last to turn at the buoy (as usual). But I soon settled into my rhythm and started slowly but surely picking people off including a couple of men from the waves that started 3-6min before me. I love ‘chicking’ men :-) The swim certainly wasn’t current assisted – the RD later confirmed that the current turned against us and that the latter waves, ie mine, would have been most affected. No joke. I also found the swell difficult to adjust to; it was rolling in on my right. It would sometimes catch me in the middle of my stroke and cause me to rotate too far, almost onto my side.
Soon enough thankfully the last buoy came into sight and I turned toward the beach. I touched down, got to feet, looked at my watch & saw 43:xx. Fark. About 5mins slower than I had hoped. A swear word or two later, I put it behind me and set out for the run across the beach (about 350m),
up the sand dune,
up the stairs
and into transition.
A quick transition and I was out on the first of 5 laps of the bike course. The bike course was ‘granular’, a rough road surface which can take quite a bit out of you due to the vibrations coming up through the bike and the fact that you need to work harder to keep the bike going at the same speed as on a smooth / hot mix surface. Lots of people complain about the bike surface on this course. I just trained for it :-) My bike split would have been the second slowest in my AG but I am still very pleased with it – I kept my splits consistent, my energy levels high & (unlike previous races) I didn’t let the fact that I was passed by what felt like the entire field affect me mentally.
I was surprised at how quickly the bike leg went. Soon I was on my last lap and headed back to transition where I gave R the timing chip & got a kiss in return before he set out for a run in what was by now rather warm conditions while I headed for ice cream and fruit salad in the recovery area which I consumed while standing in the (cold) swimming pool – bliss!
R blitzed his run; his split was the 6th fastest out of all 43 teams
and Team Mango Jelly finished its HIM debut in 5:58.
Another 4mins walk back to the room – we were a bit tired so it took us a tad longer – for a shower before the BBQ and presentation in the gardens. Unfortunately at this time we realised that there had been a bit of a miscommunication between us as to where sunscreen needed to be applied on my back. Large sections of my back haven’t been as sunburnt since I was a kid – very ouchy :-(
The BBQ in the gardens while watching the presentation ceremony, a celebratory cocktail & a nice dinner rounded out the day nicely!
The results were published on Monday revealed that the swim was, in fact, a slow one for most people including the pros. My swim split would have put me in the middle of my age group so I feel pleased with my swim (now). My bike split was slow – it would have been the second slowest in my age group – but I was pleased as it was 12mins faster than I had hoped :-D Let’s just say there is plenty to work on (especially my bike speed)
Monday was spent relaxing around the pool and celebrating R’s 41st birthday.
We managed to find what probably is the only fine dining restaurant in Yeppoon which (much to my surprise) turned out to be open on a Monday night for a fantastic dinner – and dessert!
Home to Sydney on Tuesday morning and already dreaming of new adventures!
Watch times:
43:xx swim
3:33:11 bike / av. 25.1k/h (goal was 3:45)
Official times:
45:51 swim
3:38 bike (including T1 &T2)
1:34 run
Total: 5:58 and 15/24 mixed teams
Thanks to everyone for your support over the last 16 weeks; I really appreciate it!
Full story: [get yourself your preferred beverage & a comfy seat – you could be a while!]
Well, where to start? I had a good sleep and woke feeling rested. I felt really relaxed much to my surprise. One of the many great things about this race is the fact it took a grand total of 3mins to walk from our wing of the resort to transition :-)
After a quick set up (by which time it was 6.30am), it was off to the restaurant for breakfast (another 3mins walk). By 7am we were back at transition for the pre-race briefing where we were told the swim would be flat & current-assisted. Talk about false advertising but we will get to that....
After the briefing it was off on the l-o-n-g 1.8km walk down the beach to the race start.
Chatting to other Panthers/PIS members on the walk helped to distract me from the fact that I was going to have to swim all the way back! The first wave started at 8am and my wave didn’t start until 8.40am so I had plenty of time to chat, relax, pull on the wettie and go for a mini-warm up swim (which was my first hint that the current wasn’t quite behaving itself).
Soon it was time to start & I lined up in my usual spot at the back of the pack.
We swam out about 200m out before turning left and heading north for 1.5km. I was one of the last to turn at the buoy (as usual). But I soon settled into my rhythm and started slowly but surely picking people off including a couple of men from the waves that started 3-6min before me. I love ‘chicking’ men :-) The swim certainly wasn’t current assisted – the RD later confirmed that the current turned against us and that the latter waves, ie mine, would have been most affected. No joke. I also found the swell difficult to adjust to; it was rolling in on my right. It would sometimes catch me in the middle of my stroke and cause me to rotate too far, almost onto my side.
Soon enough thankfully the last buoy came into sight and I turned toward the beach. I touched down, got to feet, looked at my watch & saw 43:xx. Fark. About 5mins slower than I had hoped. A swear word or two later, I put it behind me and set out for the run across the beach (about 350m),
up the sand dune,
up the stairs
and into transition.
A quick transition and I was out on the first of 5 laps of the bike course. The bike course was ‘granular’, a rough road surface which can take quite a bit out of you due to the vibrations coming up through the bike and the fact that you need to work harder to keep the bike going at the same speed as on a smooth / hot mix surface. Lots of people complain about the bike surface on this course. I just trained for it :-) My bike split would have been the second slowest in my AG but I am still very pleased with it – I kept my splits consistent, my energy levels high & (unlike previous races) I didn’t let the fact that I was passed by what felt like the entire field affect me mentally.
I was surprised at how quickly the bike leg went. Soon I was on my last lap and headed back to transition where I gave R the timing chip & got a kiss in return before he set out for a run in what was by now rather warm conditions while I headed for ice cream and fruit salad in the recovery area which I consumed while standing in the (cold) swimming pool – bliss!
R blitzed his run; his split was the 6th fastest out of all 43 teams
and Team Mango Jelly finished its HIM debut in 5:58.
Another 4mins walk back to the room – we were a bit tired so it took us a tad longer – for a shower before the BBQ and presentation in the gardens. Unfortunately at this time we realised that there had been a bit of a miscommunication between us as to where sunscreen needed to be applied on my back. Large sections of my back haven’t been as sunburnt since I was a kid – very ouchy :-(
The BBQ in the gardens while watching the presentation ceremony, a celebratory cocktail & a nice dinner rounded out the day nicely!
The results were published on Monday revealed that the swim was, in fact, a slow one for most people including the pros. My swim split would have put me in the middle of my age group so I feel pleased with my swim (now). My bike split was slow – it would have been the second slowest in my age group – but I was pleased as it was 12mins faster than I had hoped :-D Let’s just say there is plenty to work on (especially my bike speed)
Monday was spent relaxing around the pool and celebrating R’s 41st birthday.
We managed to find what probably is the only fine dining restaurant in Yeppoon which (much to my surprise) turned out to be open on a Monday night for a fantastic dinner – and dessert!
Home to Sydney on Tuesday morning and already dreaming of new adventures!
Watch times:
43:xx swim
3:33:11 bike / av. 25.1k/h (goal was 3:45)
Official times:
45:51 swim
3:38 bike (including T1 &T2)
1:34 run
Total: 5:58 and 15/24 mixed teams
Thanks to everyone for your support over the last 16 weeks; I really appreciate it!
Saturday, August 14, 2010
T'was the night before Christmas...
Who ever has a great taper? I suspect that there is no such thing as a perfect taper & this one certainly wasn't. As I mentioned in my previous post, this week has been characterised by too much work, too many late nights, too much stress & too little sleep. Of course, I also feel like I'm the size of a water buffalo & am convinced that I have put back on all the weight I lost during the training. So it's been just your typical taper I suppose ;-P
Mon: no run & no sleep-in either. Up at 5.15am to study. I felt smashed all day; no doubt the fact that I worked almost all of the weekend didn't help.
Swim squad after work. Yet another hard swim. I didn't feel particularly comfortable; I felt like I was low in the water (ie, sinking). Bring on the wetsuit! (3.1km). And then I got home about 10.30pm and worked for 2 hours & slept for about 6hr. Yep, taper is going well.
Tue: easy 30mins spin on the bike on the trainer to turn the legs over. 9.6km
Wed: 45mins pilates with Carly in the morning
Thu: rest. I did have a swim on the program but work took priority. Interestingly I was completely comfortable with missing my final swim, no doubt because I was so exhausted from such a $hit week at work and at least in part because I knew that it wouldn't actually add to my fitness levels. I've come along way; in years past missing this session would have really messed with my head
Fri: rest. A day off work - yippee! - travelling to Yeppoon. The race up here is based at the Rydges resort. And when I say 'based', I mean based. Transition is set up in one of the gardens of the resort and the run leg goes straight through the centre of the resort, including over the bridge over the main swimming pool. I have been feeling a tad nervous prior to arriving now but now I am (surprisingly) relaxed. It's hard not to be relaxed here!
Sat: 10 hours of much needed sleep last night - yippee! Headed to breakfast, then lazed around our room for a while before heading out with another Panthers/PIS athlete for a little mini-ride (20mins) along part of the course. Then back to the room for more laziness before heading down to expo - which is situation a grand total of 65 steps from the entrance to our building - to register and shop. More laziness this afternoon before we heading downstairs to the carbo/pasta party tonight.
Thanks to everyone for your comments / emails / messages / SMS. I truly appreciate it! I am feeling really relaxed and ready :-)
Mon: no run & no sleep-in either. Up at 5.15am to study. I felt smashed all day; no doubt the fact that I worked almost all of the weekend didn't help.
Swim squad after work. Yet another hard swim. I didn't feel particularly comfortable; I felt like I was low in the water (ie, sinking). Bring on the wetsuit! (3.1km). And then I got home about 10.30pm and worked for 2 hours & slept for about 6hr. Yep, taper is going well.
Tue: easy 30mins spin on the bike on the trainer to turn the legs over. 9.6km
Wed: 45mins pilates with Carly in the morning
Thu: rest. I did have a swim on the program but work took priority. Interestingly I was completely comfortable with missing my final swim, no doubt because I was so exhausted from such a $hit week at work and at least in part because I knew that it wouldn't actually add to my fitness levels. I've come along way; in years past missing this session would have really messed with my head
Fri: rest. A day off work - yippee! - travelling to Yeppoon. The race up here is based at the Rydges resort. And when I say 'based', I mean based. Transition is set up in one of the gardens of the resort and the run leg goes straight through the centre of the resort, including over the bridge over the main swimming pool. I have been feeling a tad nervous prior to arriving now but now I am (surprisingly) relaxed. It's hard not to be relaxed here!
Sat: 10 hours of much needed sleep last night - yippee! Headed to breakfast, then lazed around our room for a while before heading out with another Panthers/PIS athlete for a little mini-ride (20mins) along part of the course. Then back to the room for more laziness before heading down to expo - which is situation a grand total of 65 steps from the entrance to our building - to register and shop. More laziness this afternoon before we heading downstairs to the carbo/pasta party tonight.
Thanks to everyone for your comments / emails / messages / SMS. I truly appreciate it! I am feeling really relaxed and ready :-)
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