and I'm exhausted. Good thing I'm not racing. Still cheering for a grand total of 17 hours needs a fair stock of endurance & energy, something I'm lacking right now. I made it to Port Mac only one day behind schedule thankfully. I've spent most of my time working & studying since I got here but I've managed to get out for a ride, a swim & some time at Cold Rock. Yes, I've got the priorities right ;-)
Mon: my busiest day of the week. Up at 4.30pm to study before work & then I'm not normally home before 10pm due to swim squad. However I left swim squad early due to a slight niggle in my shoulder. Nothing serious; just a few tight muscles I think. I'm not particularly surprised given that I've been spending far too long hunched over a desk in the last few weeks & haven't done a solid strength session in a month or two. 1km
Tue: headed to the gym before work for some sekrit training & a few back exercises to help relieve the pressure at the front of my shoulder. No pilates; home from work too late.
Wed & Thu: surely sitting on my butt either at work or in the car constitutes exercise....
Fri: up early for a visit to the gym for an upper body strength session before driving up to Port Mac where R & Mini Mango had already settled into our apartment (they arrived on Thursday).
Sat: dragged myself out of bed just in time to inhale a slice of toast and ride from Flynns Beach along the IM bike course to the race HQ in time to see MiniMango before the start of the 5km fun run (she & R had left while I was still in bed). After her race, I got back on the bike & rode part of the IM course, back up Pacific Drive, along MFD & out of town. I turned around once the rolling hills of Port Mac flattened out past the golf course & headed for home.
Matthew Flinders Drive has been a real mental struggle/block for me. For those who haven't seen it, it is a very short but sharp 2 'stage' hill. After the first short, steep climb, you turn right into a side street & get a (short) reprieve before turning left for the final (and slightly steeper) kicker up to the top. Before I arrived in Port, I honestly still wasn't sure whether I was going to attempt it. But when I arrived here on Friday afternoon, MiniMango told me that she had ridden it yesterday. She's 14 & rides her bike about once a month. Talk about throwing down the gauntlet! So I decided to take it on, (trying) to stay strong mentally, break it into the 2 stages & trusting that I had ridden uphill for much longer than this little pimple. And I did it! I was a bit ugly but I got there. I would have loved to have seen my HR at the top but unfortunately Garmin Electra wasn't picking it up today. Yah me! 70mins. 25.57km
Much of the day was pretty standard for IM-eve: perving on bikes, catching up with friends, visiting the expo and eating at Cold Rock. At 3pm, MiniMango & I headed to Flynn's Beach for a swim with TA & Gnome, Owly & Miners, which turned into a short swim & lots of splashing about in the waves talking ;-) Throw in a bit of work & a quick visit to the CR dinner & it was a lovely day. At the very least, I'm all carbo-loaded for tomorrow's uber effort ;-)
MTD:
Swim - 5.5km
Bike - 157.2k
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Tapering..
Ewen, I'm not particularly nervous about the 90km ride. It's the 1.9km swim beforehand that has me worried.. :-O
Well the scales keep going down despite the (continued) lack of exercise this month. Though unfortunately I suspect it is simply muscle loss as the amount of exercise I am doing - or the lack thereof - and the amount of stress hormones pacing through my body at the moment won't be helping. This week I feel like I've been living in a constant state of low level anxiety in connection with work. Not good.
Mon: 5am - alarm; 5.30am - gym; 9am - Auburn; 10am - Chullora; 12.30pm - CBD; 3pm - Rhodes; 7pm - Penrith; 7.30pm - Emu Plains (swim squad); 11pm - exhausted & in bed. A return to swim squad after several weeks absence. Given the session was largely structured for those tapering for IM, I asked for, and got, lots of drills. A bit of a breakthrough night for me; a couple of fast 100s with surprisingly little effort & a much improved catch. Happy days :-) 2.5k
Tues - Sat: pilates, otherwise rest & far too much work.
Sun: headed out with R for what is becoming our Sunday morning ritual; a long ride with a visit to Coffee Club by the Nepean River for coffee and (today) a chocolate chip muffin before heading home. It almost ended badly when a stick managed to fly up & jam itself between my wheel & front fork (!). I think my heart stopped there for a minute. But thankfully I was able to stop before it did any damage. Otherwise it was a great way to start the day. Not to mention the great view when drafting ;-P R is looking very fit, strong & ready for the IM next weekend. Turned out to be my longest ride in months; much needed given the lack of exercise this week. 2.16. 54.1k. 23.8k av. 149HR av.
The week ahead will be frantic. R & MiniMango are heading to Port Mac on Thursday. However I have to attend a seminar on Thursday so I'll be heading up on Friday at the earliest or even possibly Saturday depending on work :-(( Aside from a teleconference on Monday, hopefully I won't have to work too much or (even worse) come back early. Fingers crossed, remote access, wireless wifi & a mobile phone will suffice. Privatisations wait for no IM...
MTD:
Swim - 4.5k
Bike - 131.7k
Well the scales keep going down despite the (continued) lack of exercise this month. Though unfortunately I suspect it is simply muscle loss as the amount of exercise I am doing - or the lack thereof - and the amount of stress hormones pacing through my body at the moment won't be helping. This week I feel like I've been living in a constant state of low level anxiety in connection with work. Not good.
Mon: 5am - alarm; 5.30am - gym; 9am - Auburn; 10am - Chullora; 12.30pm - CBD; 3pm - Rhodes; 7pm - Penrith; 7.30pm - Emu Plains (swim squad); 11pm - exhausted & in bed. A return to swim squad after several weeks absence. Given the session was largely structured for those tapering for IM, I asked for, and got, lots of drills. A bit of a breakthrough night for me; a couple of fast 100s with surprisingly little effort & a much improved catch. Happy days :-) 2.5k
Tues - Sat: pilates, otherwise rest & far too much work.
Sun: headed out with R for what is becoming our Sunday morning ritual; a long ride with a visit to Coffee Club by the Nepean River for coffee and (today) a chocolate chip muffin before heading home. It almost ended badly when a stick managed to fly up & jam itself between my wheel & front fork (!). I think my heart stopped there for a minute. But thankfully I was able to stop before it did any damage. Otherwise it was a great way to start the day. Not to mention the great view when drafting ;-P R is looking very fit, strong & ready for the IM next weekend. Turned out to be my longest ride in months; much needed given the lack of exercise this week. 2.16. 54.1k. 23.8k av. 149HR av.
The week ahead will be frantic. R & MiniMango are heading to Port Mac on Thursday. However I have to attend a seminar on Thursday so I'll be heading up on Friday at the earliest or even possibly Saturday depending on work :-(( Aside from a teleconference on Monday, hopefully I won't have to work too much or (even worse) come back early. Fingers crossed, remote access, wireless wifi & a mobile phone will suffice. Privatisations wait for no IM...
MTD:
Swim - 4.5k
Bike - 131.7k
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Congratulations!
Congratulations!
Your team (Team Mango Jelly) has been accepted to compete in the 10th anniversary Capricorn Half Ironman Triathlon, as part of the Ultimate Aussie Team Challenge.
This race is based within the Rydges Capricorn Resort, Yeppoon, Central QLD on the weekend of 15-16th August 2009.
It's official. No turning back now - yikes!!!
Your team (Team Mango Jelly) has been accepted to compete in the 10th anniversary Capricorn Half Ironman Triathlon, as part of the Ultimate Aussie Team Challenge.
This race is based within the Rydges Capricorn Resort, Yeppoon, Central QLD on the weekend of 15-16th August 2009.
It's official. No turning back now - yikes!!!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
The uninteresting, interesting week..
Geoff, I'll try and have an uninteresting week to make it interesting for you ;-)
Mon: rest (day surgery)
Tue: pilates + rest (stoopid work)
Wed: woke at 3.30am thinking about work & couldn't go back to sleep. So getting up at 4.30am to do a bike session was actually pretty easy for once. 30mins bike on the trainer incl. 3 x 5mins efforts w/ 5min w/u & c/d. Nice to get moving again. 11.6k. 40mins pilates w/ Carly later in the afternoon.
Thu: very short strength session + pilates in the gym at lunch.
Fri / Sat: rest (if a day of spectating at Six Foot can be considered rest)
Sun: went out about 7.30am with R for a ride; our first ride together in months. Headed out to the M4 & then up Lapstone Hill to Blaxland - my first time up the 'hill' & in the process set a new HR max of 191 according to Garmin Electra - before coming back down via Mitchells Pass. It's clear that R is in taper mode; he suggested that we stop for coffee & banana bread at the Coffee Club down by the Nepean River on the way home. I like the way he thinks ;-) I had really enjoyable morning - a shame though that I have had to spend the rest of the day working. 34.1k in 1.41. Av. 20.1k/h
Work is going to be really feral for a few (several) months now that the project I was employed to do has finally been given the green light. Professionally for me, this is huge. But I've worked too hard on my bike & swim fitness & strength over the last 12 months to let it go. Hopefully I'll be able to find some semblance of a routine in order to get some training done...
MTD:
Swim - 2km
Bike - 77.6km
Mon: rest (day surgery)
Tue: pilates + rest (stoopid work)
Wed: woke at 3.30am thinking about work & couldn't go back to sleep. So getting up at 4.30am to do a bike session was actually pretty easy for once. 30mins bike on the trainer incl. 3 x 5mins efforts w/ 5min w/u & c/d. Nice to get moving again. 11.6k. 40mins pilates w/ Carly later in the afternoon.
Thu: very short strength session + pilates in the gym at lunch.
Fri / Sat: rest (if a day of spectating at Six Foot can be considered rest)
Sun: went out about 7.30am with R for a ride; our first ride together in months. Headed out to the M4 & then up Lapstone Hill to Blaxland - my first time up the 'hill' & in the process set a new HR max of 191 according to Garmin Electra - before coming back down via Mitchells Pass. It's clear that R is in taper mode; he suggested that we stop for coffee & banana bread at the Coffee Club down by the Nepean River on the way home. I like the way he thinks ;-) I had really enjoyable morning - a shame though that I have had to spend the rest of the day working. 34.1k in 1.41. Av. 20.1k/h
Work is going to be really feral for a few (several) months now that the project I was employed to do has finally been given the green light. Professionally for me, this is huge. But I've worked too hard on my bike & swim fitness & strength over the last 12 months to let it go. Hopefully I'll be able to find some semblance of a routine in order to get some training done...
MTD:
Swim - 2km
Bike - 77.6km
Sunday, March 07, 2010
The times they are a'changing...
Yet another interesting week. Come to think of it, they all tend to be 'interesting' for one reason or another! Work has turned feral which will mean some very long hours in the weeks (months) ahead. We also only have 1 car at the moment as mine is in for repairs (with no idea of when I'm getting it back) which has thrown out both of our routines and training plans.
Mon: 30mins pilates, otherwise rest. Missed swim squad as I got caught at work.
Tue: dragged myself out of the office mid-afternoon for a good 2km swim. After so much inactivity over the last week & spending far too long sitting on my ar$e at work in recent days, I really enjoyed it.
Wed: 45min of butt-destroying pilates with Carly. Progress is going really well :-)
Thu: more pilates. Stoopid work.
Fri: escaped from the office at lunch (yippee) for 45min strength session. All is right with the world again. Ahhhhh :-)
Sat: "rest" if you can call getting up at 4.15am to be at Coogee by 6am to volunteer at Wild Women on Top's 50k/100k Coastrek event which started at Palm Beach on Friday morning & ended at Coogee on Saturday afternoon. A great day spent with some fantastic day in a beautiful place. Nice :-)
Sun: 1:20 ride from Wallacia out & back along (undulating & completely and utterly dead) Greendale Road. 31.96km. 22.7k.h
Hopefully a bit more training during the week ahead of a visit to Jenolan Caves - unfortunately by car - next weekend.
MTD:
Swim - 2km
Bike - 31.9km
Mon: 30mins pilates, otherwise rest. Missed swim squad as I got caught at work.
Tue: dragged myself out of the office mid-afternoon for a good 2km swim. After so much inactivity over the last week & spending far too long sitting on my ar$e at work in recent days, I really enjoyed it.
Wed: 45min of butt-destroying pilates with Carly. Progress is going really well :-)
Thu: more pilates. Stoopid work.
Fri: escaped from the office at lunch (yippee) for 45min strength session. All is right with the world again. Ahhhhh :-)
Sat: "rest" if you can call getting up at 4.15am to be at Coogee by 6am to volunteer at Wild Women on Top's 50k/100k Coastrek event which started at Palm Beach on Friday morning & ended at Coogee on Saturday afternoon. A great day spent with some fantastic day in a beautiful place. Nice :-)
Sun: 1:20 ride from Wallacia out & back along (undulating & completely and utterly dead) Greendale Road. 31.96km. 22.7k.h
Hopefully a bit more training during the week ahead of a visit to Jenolan Caves - unfortunately by car - next weekend.
MTD:
Swim - 2km
Bike - 31.9km
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)