Yvette, I haven't included the running in the MTD because there is probably more walking than running involved. Perhaps if I called it "gait" ;-) And yes Gnome, it certainly was cool enough for me. :-0 It took me 3 hours on the bike until I could feel my toes again!
Another busy half-week. I must say I'm looking forward to the race being over, if only so that I can read the papers on the weekend without throwing them out unread. On the other hand, I will miss having the ability to eat chocolate every day and not gain weight ;-)
Mon: Headed out at 6am for a run. Covered 4.08km including a walk to warm-up & cool down with 3 x 7min runs w/90sec walk recovery in 29:01mins. Carly (my pilates/physio) last Friday suggested that I pull back on the running this week as one of my glutes is being recalcitrant and doesn't really want to come to the (running) party at the moment.
I then managed to get to swim squad again for a fantastic session. I feel like I'm swimming really well at the moment :-) 3.16km.
Tue: as with last week, this is a scheduled rest day. But given the uncertainty of my workload at the moment, I decided to take advantage of some spare time during the day to get my strength session done. Relatively easy session, primarily focused on some mobilisers, shoulder & glute work as per Carly's instructions & trying out different stuff I'm learning as part of my study.
Wed: headed to the pool this morning for a 2km swim which included 1.4km non-stop at the start in 29:10. I was a bit disappointed with the time. But quickly gave myself an upper cut when I reminded myself that I'm in a heavy training block at the moment, I probably swum an extra 50m due to a goldfish moment somewhere around lap 38 and that I've swum 5.1km in the last 36 hours!
So that bring June to an end - I can't believe how quickly this year is passing by!
Swim - 16.8km
Bike - 542.2km (!)
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
7...
After a recovery week from training, tonnes of sleep, a much needed weekend off work, catching up on my (much neglected) study & lots of chocolate, I actually felt human again at the start of the week.
Mon: Headed out at 6am for a run. Covered 5km including a walk to warm-up & cool down with 3 x 9min runs w/90sec walk recovery in 35:39. I still wouldn't say that running is comfortable but its getting closer. Unfortunately some tightness crept into my left hip (my old nemesis) later in the day. Bah humbug.
After work I made it to swim squad for the first time in a couple of weeks. Finished the session with about 3.1km in total; my longest swim in quite a while. I've got some work to do in the next 8 weeks...
Tue: a scheduled rest day. But given how uncertain and busy work has been of late, I decided to get my sessions done when I can. So I headed to the gym at lunch for my strength session. Glutes & legs very unhappy with me afterwards.
Wed: packed up work at 10pm last night so that I could get up in time to get this session done at 5am :-0
71mins bike session on the windtrainer including 3 x 12min of low cadence, simulated hill climbing. As I write this on Sunday, I had forgotten exactly how far this was but 28.4km is ringing a bell for some reason...
Thu: another day, another run. Same session as Monday in fact; covered 5km including a (walk) warm-up and 3 x 9mins run w/90sec walk recovery in under 37mins. Hip pulled up a bit tight later in the day. Bah humbug. I also had to run the last 9min interval without my glasses on as I managed to fog them up thanks to a combination of a pea soup fog & my heavy, rather laboured breathing. Somehow I managed not to fall over; it was a close call though.
Then it was off to the pool at work at lunch for a swim which included another 10 x 100m on 2:10 (in addition to the 10 x 100m on 2:10 I did on Monday night at squad). I was pleased with my splits for this swim. They were very consistent & give me some confidence that I'm not going to drown at Yeppoon ;-) 2.6k in total
Fri: 45mins pilates with Carly.
Sat: 2hr ride on the program for today so I decided to head to Richmond and back. This has become my standard 'short/long ride' as it is a relatively flat route but with large sections of dead road surface like the Yeppoon course. I really struggled to get myself out of bed - even at 8.30am - to do this after another long week and working until 11pm last night. But I'm very glad that I did. It was one of those sessions when you get a glimpse of the fact that all the hard work might just be paying off. I managed to keep up a good pace throughout the whole ride, helped by the fact that there was no head wind coming home (a head wind is common on the return trip). Finished with 47.6k in 1:58. Av. 24.2k/h!
Sun: t'was a bit of a struggle to get out of bed for this session on a cold morning. The (revised) program said a 4:15 to 4:30 ride at a maximum of 95km. Today's route was a tough one (for me) - Lapstone Hill (ouch!) to Blaxland, down the hill via Mitchells Pass, back onto the M4 then onto Mulgoa Road (which is a dead surface) and then out & back along Greendale Rd (more dead surface) and then home via the Northern Rd.
This was the first time I've ridden Lapstone Hill on my second ride of the weekend; I've always done it as my first ride on fresh legs. I also don't think that I've spent as much time on dead surfaces as I did today; it really messes with your head & body. Finished with 90.3km in 4:12. Av. 21.4k/h
I'm feeling rather tired this afternoon while I type this. No chance for a nana nap though, I have to work before heading over to Ma & Pa's for a baked dinner tonight :-) But I am pleased with my week. I've managed to do all of my programmed sessions for the first time in a long time - almost 12 hours training in total!
MTD:
Swim - 11.7km
Bike - 542.2km (no wonder I'm tired!)
Mon: Headed out at 6am for a run. Covered 5km including a walk to warm-up & cool down with 3 x 9min runs w/90sec walk recovery in 35:39. I still wouldn't say that running is comfortable but its getting closer. Unfortunately some tightness crept into my left hip (my old nemesis) later in the day. Bah humbug.
After work I made it to swim squad for the first time in a couple of weeks. Finished the session with about 3.1km in total; my longest swim in quite a while. I've got some work to do in the next 8 weeks...
Tue: a scheduled rest day. But given how uncertain and busy work has been of late, I decided to get my sessions done when I can. So I headed to the gym at lunch for my strength session. Glutes & legs very unhappy with me afterwards.
Wed: packed up work at 10pm last night so that I could get up in time to get this session done at 5am :-0
71mins bike session on the windtrainer including 3 x 12min of low cadence, simulated hill climbing. As I write this on Sunday, I had forgotten exactly how far this was but 28.4km is ringing a bell for some reason...
Thu: another day, another run. Same session as Monday in fact; covered 5km including a (walk) warm-up and 3 x 9mins run w/90sec walk recovery in under 37mins. Hip pulled up a bit tight later in the day. Bah humbug. I also had to run the last 9min interval without my glasses on as I managed to fog them up thanks to a combination of a pea soup fog & my heavy, rather laboured breathing. Somehow I managed not to fall over; it was a close call though.
Then it was off to the pool at work at lunch for a swim which included another 10 x 100m on 2:10 (in addition to the 10 x 100m on 2:10 I did on Monday night at squad). I was pleased with my splits for this swim. They were very consistent & give me some confidence that I'm not going to drown at Yeppoon ;-) 2.6k in total
Fri: 45mins pilates with Carly.
Sat: 2hr ride on the program for today so I decided to head to Richmond and back. This has become my standard 'short/long ride' as it is a relatively flat route but with large sections of dead road surface like the Yeppoon course. I really struggled to get myself out of bed - even at 8.30am - to do this after another long week and working until 11pm last night. But I'm very glad that I did. It was one of those sessions when you get a glimpse of the fact that all the hard work might just be paying off. I managed to keep up a good pace throughout the whole ride, helped by the fact that there was no head wind coming home (a head wind is common on the return trip). Finished with 47.6k in 1:58. Av. 24.2k/h!
Sun: t'was a bit of a struggle to get out of bed for this session on a cold morning. The (revised) program said a 4:15 to 4:30 ride at a maximum of 95km. Today's route was a tough one (for me) - Lapstone Hill (ouch!) to Blaxland, down the hill via Mitchells Pass, back onto the M4 then onto Mulgoa Road (which is a dead surface) and then out & back along Greendale Rd (more dead surface) and then home via the Northern Rd.
This was the first time I've ridden Lapstone Hill on my second ride of the weekend; I've always done it as my first ride on fresh legs. I also don't think that I've spent as much time on dead surfaces as I did today; it really messes with your head & body. Finished with 90.3km in 4:12. Av. 21.4k/h
I'm feeling rather tired this afternoon while I type this. No chance for a nana nap though, I have to work before heading over to Ma & Pa's for a baked dinner tonight :-) But I am pleased with my week. I've managed to do all of my programmed sessions for the first time in a long time - almost 12 hours training in total!
MTD:
Swim - 11.7km
Bike - 542.2km (no wonder I'm tired!)
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Recovery (apparently)...
After Monday's big ride, the rest of this week has been a recovery week (from training). If only I could have a recovery week from work I might actually recover!
Tue: massage + (scheduled) rest day
Wed: worked until midnight so no AM session. Instead I headed to the gym at work at lunch for a short strength session.
Thu: (unscheduled) rest. Worked until 1:30am on Wed night. Blah.
Fri: 1hr pilates with Carly in the AM.
Sat: thanks to 9.5 hrs sleep, I woke feeling human for the first time since Monday. Headed out on my 3 hr ride on my lonesome which started with Chain O Ponds Rd (the local version of Port Mac's Matthew Flinders Drive) and finished with some time on the M4 with plenty of time on dead roads in between. Finished with 72.6k in 3:09 (av. 23k/h). Funny to think that a 70km ride is my long ride on my recovery week.
After some stretching, food, rest & a shower, I headed to the pool to catch up on the mid-week swim I had missed due to work. A relatively easy 1.8km in the pool rounded out the day (and week for that matter).
Tomorrow (Sunday) is a (scheduled) rest day which I'm spending doing my CPR refresher starting at 8.30am before spending the day catching up on some much needed (and neglected) study.
MTD:
Swim - 6.05km
Bike - 375.9km
Tue: massage + (scheduled) rest day
Wed: worked until midnight so no AM session. Instead I headed to the gym at work at lunch for a short strength session.
Thu: (unscheduled) rest. Worked until 1:30am on Wed night. Blah.
Fri: 1hr pilates with Carly in the AM.
Sat: thanks to 9.5 hrs sleep, I woke feeling human for the first time since Monday. Headed out on my 3 hr ride on my lonesome which started with Chain O Ponds Rd (the local version of Port Mac's Matthew Flinders Drive) and finished with some time on the M4 with plenty of time on dead roads in between. Finished with 72.6k in 3:09 (av. 23k/h). Funny to think that a 70km ride is my long ride on my recovery week.
After some stretching, food, rest & a shower, I headed to the pool to catch up on the mid-week swim I had missed due to work. A relatively easy 1.8km in the pool rounded out the day (and week for that matter).
Tomorrow (Sunday) is a (scheduled) rest day which I'm spending doing my CPR refresher starting at 8.30am before spending the day catching up on some much needed (and neglected) study.
MTD:
Swim - 6.05km
Bike - 375.9km
Monday, June 14, 2010
Alpe d'Hawkesbury
Very true Ewen - but here is something not-so-dull for you; today I did my first 100km ride :-)
R & I headed out today on a long ride on a new route (for me). Leaving home at the very chilly hour at 8am, it took me almost 2 hours of riding before I was able to feel my toes again.
We headed north towards Richmond for about an hour before turning off & heading to Springwood via Yarramundi. This is a tough ride; about 11km in total uphill. The first climb was probably the toughest & then the switchbacks kicked in. About 11kms later we arrived at Springwood & started the long roll downhill, interrupted briefly by a quick stop at the Golden Arches at Blaxland for a pit-stop, water bottle refill and hash brown :-)
Back on the flat & we headed along the M4 to the Northern Rd where R turned left & headed for home while I went south for about 1:30 out & back to make up the extra time. The "outbound" section was probably the toughest section mentally of the whole ride but physically I felt really good throughout it.
I arrived home after 4:33 with 100.5km on the clock :-) Much to my surprise, I felt really good this afternoon; much better than I have felt after recent rides. I tried to drink a lot more than I normally do which certainly seems to have helped. Not to mention the effects on recovery of mum's baked dinner :-)
MTD:
Swim - 4.25k
Bike - 303.3k
R & I headed out today on a long ride on a new route (for me). Leaving home at the very chilly hour at 8am, it took me almost 2 hours of riding before I was able to feel my toes again.
We headed north towards Richmond for about an hour before turning off & heading to Springwood via Yarramundi. This is a tough ride; about 11km in total uphill. The first climb was probably the toughest & then the switchbacks kicked in. About 11kms later we arrived at Springwood & started the long roll downhill, interrupted briefly by a quick stop at the Golden Arches at Blaxland for a pit-stop, water bottle refill and hash brown :-)
Back on the flat & we headed along the M4 to the Northern Rd where R turned left & headed for home while I went south for about 1:30 out & back to make up the extra time. The "outbound" section was probably the toughest section mentally of the whole ride but physically I felt really good throughout it.
I arrived home after 4:33 with 100.5km on the clock :-) Much to my surprise, I felt really good this afternoon; much better than I have felt after recent rides. I tried to drink a lot more than I normally do which certainly seems to have helped. Not to mention the effects on recovery of mum's baked dinner :-)
MTD:
Swim - 4.25k
Bike - 303.3k
Sunday, June 13, 2010
9....
What a week. The earliest I've stopped working this week is 9.30pm & two nights I worked until after 11.3pm (and I've worked about 5hrs each day of the (long) weekend so far). Far too much work & food and far too little sleep & training. It's 9 weeks to race day today; I'm determined to nail every session from here on in. We'll see if work lets me do this..
Mon: up at 4.45am for a run, this time around the (cold) streets. 3 x 8mins (for the first time) w/2min walk recovery. I actually felt reasonably comfortable running so long as I was on a dead flat stretch of road. Anything resembling an incline or even false flat sent the HR skyrocketing. 4.3k in 30:23 for my shuffle/walk outing. Missed swim squad because of work.
Tue: rest (scheduled)
Wed: rest (unscheduled).
Thu: short strength session at lunch, more for my mental health than physical one. Trying to suppress panic about being under prepared for the 25% IM.
Fri: headed out at the decadent hour of 6am on the coldest morning of winter so far (the first time for frost/ice on the windscreen) for a run. Another 3 x 8min run w/ 1:30-2min recovery in between. I won't go so far as to say it was 'comfortable' but my first comfortable run this comeback is getting close...
Sat: after 9.5hrs of sleep, I woke actually feeling human for perhaps the first time this week; yippee! We were lucky enough to have company on my 2hr short/long ride today with Gnome & TA heading west for a visit. Out & back along the Northern Road for a relatively easy ride followed (of course) by breakfast. Thanks for making the effort to travel; lovely to catch up with you as always (*waves*). 45.4k. 1:57. 23.2k/h
Sun: the long weekend gave me an opportunity to swap sessions around. So I did my usual run / swim from Monday & will ride long tomorrow. After 10hrs sleep (still catching up), I took the opportunity to drive down to the river to run/walk the 2 bridges loop; Penrith's version of the Bay run but the people are much friendlier ;-P It's a 6.7km loop so I walked for 5mins to warm up then did 3 x 9mins run w/ 90sec walk recovery. HR was a tad higher than normal but this was no doubt due to the different terrain (one side of the river is footpath & the other side dirt tracks with smaller rolling inclines) and a touch of vanity fartlek.
Headed home for some breakfast & a stretch before heading to the pool for a 2km swim which started with 1.2km (23:47) to simulate a race (ie no warm up). This swim left me feeling comfortable that I'm not going to drown during the HIM swim but even more confident that I'll be able to achieve the goal I set for myself for the swim leg at Nepean this year; it's a sekrit.
Afterwards it was home again for a(nother) shower then R & I headed to Max Brenner at Blacktown where i had a chocolate souffle - for my lunch :-D
MTD:
Swim - 4.25k
Bike - 202.8k
Mon: up at 4.45am for a run, this time around the (cold) streets. 3 x 8mins (for the first time) w/2min walk recovery. I actually felt reasonably comfortable running so long as I was on a dead flat stretch of road. Anything resembling an incline or even false flat sent the HR skyrocketing. 4.3k in 30:23 for my shuffle/walk outing. Missed swim squad because of work.
Tue: rest (scheduled)
Wed: rest (unscheduled).
Thu: short strength session at lunch, more for my mental health than physical one. Trying to suppress panic about being under prepared for the 25% IM.
Fri: headed out at the decadent hour of 6am on the coldest morning of winter so far (the first time for frost/ice on the windscreen) for a run. Another 3 x 8min run w/ 1:30-2min recovery in between. I won't go so far as to say it was 'comfortable' but my first comfortable run this comeback is getting close...
Sat: after 9.5hrs of sleep, I woke actually feeling human for perhaps the first time this week; yippee! We were lucky enough to have company on my 2hr short/long ride today with Gnome & TA heading west for a visit. Out & back along the Northern Road for a relatively easy ride followed (of course) by breakfast. Thanks for making the effort to travel; lovely to catch up with you as always (*waves*). 45.4k. 1:57. 23.2k/h
Sun: the long weekend gave me an opportunity to swap sessions around. So I did my usual run / swim from Monday & will ride long tomorrow. After 10hrs sleep (still catching up), I took the opportunity to drive down to the river to run/walk the 2 bridges loop; Penrith's version of the Bay run but the people are much friendlier ;-P It's a 6.7km loop so I walked for 5mins to warm up then did 3 x 9mins run w/ 90sec walk recovery. HR was a tad higher than normal but this was no doubt due to the different terrain (one side of the river is footpath & the other side dirt tracks with smaller rolling inclines) and a touch of vanity fartlek.
Headed home for some breakfast & a stretch before heading to the pool for a 2km swim which started with 1.2km (23:47) to simulate a race (ie no warm up). This swim left me feeling comfortable that I'm not going to drown during the HIM swim but even more confident that I'll be able to achieve the goal I set for myself for the swim leg at Nepean this year; it's a sekrit.
Afterwards it was home again for a(nother) shower then R & I headed to Max Brenner at Blacktown where i had a chocolate souffle - for my lunch :-D
MTD:
Swim - 4.25k
Bike - 202.8k
Sunday, June 06, 2010
1-Mississippi, 2-Mississippi
Clearly I should check the date before I post. I had thought that last Sunday was the last day of May. Opps.
Mon: up at 5am to head to the gym for a run on the treadmill & a bit of pilates. Today's run was 3 x 7mins (for the first time) with a 2min walk recovery. As always a struggle though particularly this time as I was feeling rather fatigued through my glutes / legs after yesterday's long ride.
Then it was off to swim squad. I managed to leave my watch at home and, being somewhat unable to read the clock on the wall, had to resort to the time counting method used by young girls the world over; 1-Mississippi, 2-Mississippi, 3-Mississippi... Probably my hardest, and best, swim session in a while. I seem to have found my mojo at the bottom of the pool. 3km.
So THAT brings May to an end with 15.4k in the pool.
Tues: Pilates, otherwise rest
Wed: up at 5am to get my swim (2.25km) in before work. I felt a bit flat in the water & fatigued in the shoulders. Not a bad swim; 'relatively' easy in that there was very little in the way of hard stuff (thankfully). Pilates in the PM
Thu: up at 5.15am again (ouch!) to get my 46min windtrainer session done before work. A solid session including 2 x 8min at AT (ouchy). Tired now. 17.3k Then at lunch I headed to the gym at work for a short strength/core session for some leg work on the bosu & cable machine.
Fri: 45mins of butt & shoulder blasting pilates with Carly. I was supposed to run but blah.
Sat: after the horrid weather on Friday, I was surprised to wake on Saturday to a clear blue sky. I may have been secretly hoping for more cr*p weather so I could go back to bed. But there was no way I was wasting such a beautiful day so I headed out on my long ride (4hrs), again by myself, about 7.30am.
This time I headed out along the Northern Road then home via the loop along Cobbity Rd. I have only done Cobbity starting from Luddenham (which is about 50mins ride from home), never actually starting at home. Cobbity is the hardest ride I've done locally yet. It's 110mins ride to get there. And then Cobitty itself is about 50mins of truly dead roads & 7 rolling hills which only get longer and harder the further you go. I felt reasonably good on the bike, even on the hilly bits, but was hit by fatigue once I got home. Legs felt very dead in the evening; even the tiramisu I had for dessert on my hot date didn't help! 4:12:44. 92.6k. Av. 22k/h
Sun: crawled into bed about 1am after staying up to watch Sam Stosur play in the final of the French Open. So it was almost (the decadent time of) 8.30am by the time I headed out for a 2 hour "mid-week" long ride. Again the weather forecasters got it wrong so I had the pleasure of another blue sky ride.
For a change of scenery, I headed out along Castlereagh Rd towards Richmond. This is a beautiful, yet challenging, ride with the mountains running parallel to the road. The road itself is basically flat with alternating patches of dead road to make you work hard & then (short) patches of nice road surface as a reward. A head wind on the return trip added to the work load, so much so that I ended up with a 10mins positive split - yikes! 2:10. 47.5k. Av. 21.9k/h. Then gained back every calorie I worked off this weekend at a wonderful lunch with great friends :-D
MTD:
Swim - 2.25k
Bike - 157.4k
Mon: up at 5am to head to the gym for a run on the treadmill & a bit of pilates. Today's run was 3 x 7mins (for the first time) with a 2min walk recovery. As always a struggle though particularly this time as I was feeling rather fatigued through my glutes / legs after yesterday's long ride.
Then it was off to swim squad. I managed to leave my watch at home and, being somewhat unable to read the clock on the wall, had to resort to the time counting method used by young girls the world over; 1-Mississippi, 2-Mississippi, 3-Mississippi... Probably my hardest, and best, swim session in a while. I seem to have found my mojo at the bottom of the pool. 3km.
So THAT brings May to an end with 15.4k in the pool.
Tues: Pilates, otherwise rest
Wed: up at 5am to get my swim (2.25km) in before work. I felt a bit flat in the water & fatigued in the shoulders. Not a bad swim; 'relatively' easy in that there was very little in the way of hard stuff (thankfully). Pilates in the PM
Thu: up at 5.15am again (ouch!) to get my 46min windtrainer session done before work. A solid session including 2 x 8min at AT (ouchy). Tired now. 17.3k Then at lunch I headed to the gym at work for a short strength/core session for some leg work on the bosu & cable machine.
Fri: 45mins of butt & shoulder blasting pilates with Carly. I was supposed to run but blah.
Sat: after the horrid weather on Friday, I was surprised to wake on Saturday to a clear blue sky. I may have been secretly hoping for more cr*p weather so I could go back to bed. But there was no way I was wasting such a beautiful day so I headed out on my long ride (4hrs), again by myself, about 7.30am.
This time I headed out along the Northern Road then home via the loop along Cobbity Rd. I have only done Cobbity starting from Luddenham (which is about 50mins ride from home), never actually starting at home. Cobbity is the hardest ride I've done locally yet. It's 110mins ride to get there. And then Cobitty itself is about 50mins of truly dead roads & 7 rolling hills which only get longer and harder the further you go. I felt reasonably good on the bike, even on the hilly bits, but was hit by fatigue once I got home. Legs felt very dead in the evening; even the tiramisu I had for dessert on my hot date didn't help! 4:12:44. 92.6k. Av. 22k/h
Sun: crawled into bed about 1am after staying up to watch Sam Stosur play in the final of the French Open. So it was almost (the decadent time of) 8.30am by the time I headed out for a 2 hour "mid-week" long ride. Again the weather forecasters got it wrong so I had the pleasure of another blue sky ride.
For a change of scenery, I headed out along Castlereagh Rd towards Richmond. This is a beautiful, yet challenging, ride with the mountains running parallel to the road. The road itself is basically flat with alternating patches of dead road to make you work hard & then (short) patches of nice road surface as a reward. A head wind on the return trip added to the work load, so much so that I ended up with a 10mins positive split - yikes! 2:10. 47.5k. Av. 21.9k/h. Then gained back every calorie I worked off this weekend at a wonderful lunch with great friends :-D
MTD:
Swim - 2.25k
Bike - 157.4k
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