Phase 1 Complete

	GOAL	STATUS	TO DO
1	Start exercising	Done
2	Get to the IM entries date without getting an injury	Done
3	Assuming 2 – Get an entry in	Done
4	By the end of July
4a	-       Be running consistently – injury free	Done - 3-4 runs per week for the last 4 weeks. No current injuries. Long run out to 21km	Right on track Just keep doing it.
	-       Be able to complete a 3hr ride	Done	All good, but time to start getting longer rides in more frequently
	-       Be able to hold the TT position for 1hr	Not done. Currently can stay in position for about 20minutes. But at least riding consistently on the TT bike.	Keep working on flexibility and power from the TT position
	-       Start swimming	FAIL - Have touched water twice.	Get into a swim squad. Will be embarrassing, but so too will sinking to the bottom of the Port Mac river
	-       Get strong / put some distance into the injuries	Done – Have been regular at the gym twice a week. Feel good.	Keep doing it.
5	Have a base that can be used as a starting point to start and build some mileage and intensity

Started this thing on 4th April. Phase 1 Complete. Score - 7/10 running, 6/10 bike, strength 7/10, diet 3/10, swimming is a just a fail. Overall very solid.

Here comes the chubby accountant

I note that I haven't updated my progress since 12th July. Time slips by rapidly at the best of times, but seemingly, in the best of times it slips away even faster. And progress has been very pleasing of late.

Most significantly I nailed by first 90 min run in ....... a freaking long time on Sunday. Trying to think, but possibly even three years ago was the last occasion in the Woodford to Glenbrook. In any case, a super effort up to Glenbrook and back. No injuries, not undue fatigue, and surpassingly stable technique. Very nice milestone to hit.

A check of the training diary reveals that I have only missed 2 days since 12th July, and those were a combination of Le Tour fatigue, work commitments and a concerted effort to articulately express my dissatisfaction to Mia FReedman over her comments in relation to Cadel and Le tour. In the end my concentration span got the better of me, and I had to settle for Tweeting "F#$% off idiot".

Have flirted with "twice a day" training, but I'm really not there yet, and it just left me as flat as three week old Coke. Twice a day will have to wait a while. (But suddenly I feel like a Coke. Lucky I didn't write that I was rooted....)

No long rides yet, but plenty of intensity and some decent trainer sessions. Gym measures continue to progress also.

Swimming however remains an estranged lover. Ah.... its a stormy relationship we share.

Have lost only 200 grams to date, and that was probably the filling that embedded itself into the Pascal chocolate eclair last week. Retarded weight loss may also be explained by a rediscovered love of rhubarb and apple pie,....... and ice cream. Haven't had it for years, and with absence the heart really does grow much fonder. Now I can't get to sleep without it.

All in all, feel like the boat has started to float.

Here comes the chubby accountant

Today brought to you by...pharcque moi

Today is brought to you by the number 298.

That's 298 days until IM. PharcqueMoi!!!!

Mindfulness

How good is the word “mindfulness”

Quoted from the net with reference to its Buddist context - Enlightenment is a state of being in which delusion has been overcome, abandoned and is absent from the mind. Mindfulness, which is an attentive awareness of the reality of things (especially of the present moment) is an antidote to delusion and is considered as such a 'power'. This faculty becomes a power in particular when it is coupled with clear comprehension of whatever is taking place

There is a book that I saw last weekend in the Springwood bookshop called Mindful Walking. I might check it out a bit further, and try to adapt to running and riding. Not possibly to be practicing mindfulness while swimming, as I would probably end up losing concentration and sucking down a nasty chlorinated shot of watery clear comprehension, and nobody needs that level of reality.

W

Where do you put your nuts

Giddy up - Training is starting to come together. Swimming, running, TT-riding , gyming, stretching and massaging. All a bit shorter than I’d hoped to be by now, but it’s all happening non-the-less, and I have the Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) to prove it.

Dawned on me yesterday that I have grown to quite like Bubba the TT bike, with the only outstanding issue of any consequence being “where do you put your nuts?” There’s no compartment on board, and there really needs to be. If I can’t solve this issue over the next 298 days they’ll have to send a squirrel in on a post race recovery mission.

Weekend of a solid 65min run, and two solid, though shortish windy and cold TT-bike sessions, including a session of hill repeats. Something about getting out there in crap conditions that helps to convince myself that I’m serious about this thing.

Ran from home to the RAAF base and return on Saturday with Shano, with three efforts. Easy for him - but left me with no alternative but to retire for a post run sleep. Nasty case of DOMS followed also.

I do however love a case of atomic-DOMS in the quads, hips and calves. Historically the recovery cycle has generally left me noticeably stronger by the time the next b/t run occurs. Will aim for 90 min this Saturday. A 90 would be very comforting to my fragile emotional state at this point.

I suspect that I’ll feel like I’m finally out of the starting gates if can hit next weekend’s targets:

Ø  Sat 90min run incl 3 x efforts, with at least 50% on soft surface

Ø  Sun 4hour ride on TT bike with 3xTT efforts.

Get set,

W

Chasing Happy Feet

Calf finally seems all good again, and got out for “an easy” around the Yarra and the Tan yesterday morning. How good is a run around the Tan at dawn. Billions of people out, plenty of activity along the river - don’t get much better.

Actually, it does get better, much better, because it would be much better if I wasn’t just about the slowest person on the whole f’king path. I started about 40m behind a chubby bloke who was shuffling along in a pair of Dunlop Volleys, that I was pretty keen to charge past him nice and early. Silouetted against the low rising sun, I felt like I was trying to chase a f’king emperor penguin back into the Yarra. Never passed him – victory to Happy Feet. But at least I'm uninjured.

Numbers for the week are good enough. Two very short swims in the hotel in Melbourne, 4 bike sessions, 2 x gym and a recommencement of running. Not great – but I’ll take it for now.

W