Nice little bookend to the week

Friday pm - a nice short 35k at 31.5kph to round the week out 273k for the week on bike 7.2 for run - leg rooted again 3.6k in 3 swim sessions 1x gym

I'm a freakin' FISH

Thursday PM Gym.

Friday am: 2 x 750m at the lake 12:52, 13:04. Very FREAKING AWESOME going - I'm a fish

W

Time to be a big boy in the pool

Wed 22^nd: 1.5k at the pool. 1k in 18:38, then 5 x 50 with 50 rec

Really is time I graduated to be a big boy on this front, you know, intervals sets, bands, paddles, stop peeing in the pool.

Well Solid

Solid morning ride with Shano today.

5:00AM kick-off [That’s 5’o’#$%^ing’clock)

72k total in 2:14 = 32.2kph.

Very solid middle 5 laps left me on the scrap heap. Averaged 34.33kph for 47.8km. Given there are some corners and slow bits where you need to watch for traffic when crossing, that is well solid.

Lap No	Cum Time	Lap Time	Distance	Speed
1	00:16:30	00:16:30	9.56	34.76
2	00:32:45	00:16:15	9.56	35.30
3	00:49:10	00:16:25	9.56	34.94
4	01:06:30	00:17:20	9.56	33.09
5	01:23:32	00:17:02	9.56	33.68
	01:23:32	01:23:32	47.8	34.33
Total Session 7laps of 9.56km = 66.92 + 5 too and from = 71.9km, 2:14 ride time = 32.2kph

Lazy Fat Wally

Lazy fat wally - Slept in Monday morning. Rain in the afternoon. Had to settle for a 9:30PM wind trainer session. No so much a training session as an uncomfortable place to sit for an hour. Indoor lazy pointless spinning

Tuesday morning. 5:45 – 6:00. Outdoors lazy pointless spinning.

17 Weekends to Go

Week 5 kicked off – Depending on whether the taper will be 1 or 2 weekends, there are now 17 or 18 weekends of training left.

Saturday

Ø  101 km – Turf farms then up to springwood and back. I like this format of putting a hill onto the end of a tempo ride, as this leaves any potential blow ups to the end of the ride – point being that if you crack early or mid ride, the remainder, as well as being a miserable suffer-fest, is probably also poor training.

Ø  PM Saturday 7.2k – calf buggered again. Seems to be improving to the point where I can locate the precise problem, which wasn’t possible previously when the whole muscle was a big ball of scar tissue. In any case, I will rack the runners for a couple of weeks now, and use the Christmas period to get some good long rides in and get some swim strength going, which I have never attempted to do previously.

Sunday:

Actually felt quite good after yesterday’s ride, but both my Sunday ride and swim were tragic, so the hangover effect was real.

Ø  35 easy kms with a couple of 10 min tempo intervals

Ø  600m in 100m intervals with Riley at Glenbrook pool.

just fluffing about

Thursday - Still sore inthe thighs. Easy 7.2k in 40:03
Friday - 1.9k in the pool including a lazy 1.5 in the middle at 28:30. Sloppy but done

Very soft double day

On the back of this mornings whimsy swim, I get to tick off my first double day since mid last week, though soft as. Pm- 5.5k in 28:30. Calf a little tender but under control. Quads still sore, and actually worse for the "recovery" run. Not the way its meant to be, but all good non-the-less.

Back at it

Tues 13^th - Wed 14^th

Still recovering from the weekend, and the thighs are still quite shredded.

Tried to sneak a swim in last night after work but forgot my goggles. Had to settle for a 9:00 – 10:00PM spin on the wind trainer instead to get things started again after Canberra. It’s probably an unfortunate thing, but I suspect the wind trainer sessions are actually good training, and I could feel my stroke smooth out across the session. In any case, they’re never enjoyable, but a tick in the box, and I am back into it.

Tuesday Night – Easy spin for 60 min.

Wednesday morning. 1500m in the pool. No clocks – no intensity. Just trying to relax, get flat in the water, get the elbow bent early, pull straight and roll along. Same as last night I that there’s no real motivation returning yet, but its done and I keep moving forward.

W

The Need for LSD

Having not entered Huski, Sunday’s HIM was the last long event that I will have in preparation for the IM. Accordingly, it is important to extensively over-analyse the outcome, draw implications (real and perceived), and adapt the Cunning Plan accordingly. The take away as I saw it from Sunday was:

THE SWIM

The problem:

Ø  Tri-swims are not pool swims. There is a pace pressure from the start - to hold position, ensure you don’t get swum over, and hold the feet of the people in front etc.

Ø  While I still have plenty of work to do in the pool – strength, technique, fitness etc – pool swimming isn’t going to be enough for someone with my limited swimming background.

Ø  Worse - I don’t think I can plan to just cruise the swim, because you can’t cruise while thrashing about in the washing machine.

Ø  Finally, I simply get sick of being in the water. This is probably a mental side effect to the fact my “long sessions” to date are jump in, swim 1500, go home. Short sessions are not even this.

What needs to change in the Plan:

Ø  Don’t know, no idea whatsoever – but I need to get some exposure to that feeling of “fuck! I am about to drown in this”

Ø  I also need to go longer distances under pace pressure, at least for the first 500m or so. Might use the Friday lake swim as a chance to go hard for 500 and limp home, but even this isn’t particularly long.

Ø  Need to suck it up in training and stay the distance. Really shouldn’t wind up any session in less than an hour from here on. That really is ugly though.

THE BIKE

The Problem:

Ø  My lower back was starting to tighten significantly on Sunday (not sure if this was because I held the aero position longer than before OR whether it was the carry forward of the fatigue in those muscles from the swim – OR both OR something else), The same thing happened on my only other longish tri 6 years ago.

Ø  I am probably generating enough force to ride an acceptable bike leg, but I am not “enduring”

Ø  “Enduring” meaning, holding a reasonable force, ON THE AEROS, for an extended period, and still being able to stand up straight at the end in preparation for running.

Ø  “Enduring” must by definition also include ensuring that I complete the ride with the full quota of skin on the undercarriage. Another 90km would have seen enough damage to my fuselage to abort the flight.

What needs to change in the Plan:

Ø  Do some swims preceding long race-pace rides – sounds horrible really, but may end up being the only effective method of dealing with this

·         Where (laps of somewhere like turf farms? etc, more Cobbity?) – Don’t know – needs some thought

·         When (Blocks now to get some momentum and capitalise on the last weekend’s race OR consistency across Saturdays etc OR both) – Don’t know – but it seems as though the long “pleasure rides” in the bunch on the roadie are going to have to go on hold for 21 weeks.

Ø  Be more consistent at riding in the aero position, even when commuting, or doing easy laps with Pat. Hopefully this will bring about some adaptation in the my back muscles – or alternatively, fuck me completely.

Ø  Review saddle choice or HTFU.

Ø  Yoga, pilates, some other new-age funky business. If this is going to be a strategy, I need to start reasonably soon to enable the necessary adaptation.

THE RUN

The Problem:

Ø  Seemingly any attempt to run strongly is resulting in injury > hence no miles in the legs

Ø  No miles = no endurance/strength

Ø  No faster training means running slowly in races.

Ø  Can tolerate running slowly in an ironman tri, but CAN’T tolerate not enduring – else it will be a long walk

What needs to change in the Plan:

Ø  All running now turned into lamentable LSD - Long slow distance miles. No alternative I suspect – Fark I hate LSD, Hate hate hate.

Canberra Half and disk wheels

Friday – 25km on the M7 path. Alway7s wondered what $$$ spends give up what advantage, and whether a disk made much. IT DOES, it is a freakin’ awesome.

Gave the (borrowed) HED disk a whirl. What a weapon. Flying along the path, though only loosely in control whenever any winds came up. Though I would end up wrapped around the steel railings a few time. Awesome stuff though, like an amusement park ride.

Saturday – Rest day

Sunday – Canberra Half

A decent race in the end.

Felt horribly uncomfortable in the water. Bought new goggles the day before (beginner’s mistake) and didn’t have them tight enough. Leaked like crazy, to the point where I was worried my contacts would float off inside, and I’d be stuck in the middle of the lake wondering which way the shore was. Ended up floating on my back a few times to adjust. Post race, the time was OKish, compared to the normal benchmarks. Technique was everywhere also. All the things I have been working on in the swim went out the window.

Would like to be able to go back in time and have that swim again, but execution is something you learn. Definitely need to address this though, somehow.

Bike started in the middle of the storm, and it was pretty dangerous really. Even thought of bailing out. Hung in though and speed came pretty easily. Scary in parts, and the course is ridiculously narrow in places, was yelling “on your right” a lot. In the end I was reasonably happy with the ride, but of concern is that I didn’t really “endure”. I was fading on the last lap even though I hadn’t really gone that hard on the first two laps. Long rides under pressure are needed here I suspect, but that is hardly an epiphany.

Run was what I expected. Slow. Intention was to start running and see if calf held up. Actually felt quite reasonable rolling around at 5:30, but even this got very hard by the end. No expectation of staying strong here though. There is no escaping the need for some miles. Won’t be able to / attempt to go any harder than 5:15/5:30 for 20 weeks, but need to be ale to hold it down for 3.5 hours.

All in all, not a bad day. Will take it and keep chugging.

W

Needles!

Haven't had a chance to score Week 3 yet. Friday last - slept in and missed the lake swim. 1.2 in the pool instead. 30k easy in the evening Sat: 96k turf farms plus Warrimoo. Nice ride, not on the rivet, and possibly the perfect ride for where I'm at at the moment. Sun: Am- gym Pm- 1k in the pool as pairs of 50s with 15 sec rec. 1:15 between pairs. 1k in total. Stroke seems rooted to 49-50 per lap at 44-46seconds. Mon- rest. Just decided to take a day out. Tues- Am- Warrimoo for a hilly 26k Pm- tippy toed 5.5k in 30:30=5:30 per k. Cranking. Suspect this is my running life for the next 20weeks. Visited Rob Standen - he pulled the needles out again. It's a weird feeling that, but if it on roves beneficial I won't complain.

A Little Rogered

Out for a ride this morning. Had to settle for an easy hour, as I was just buggered. Pm 1.5 k in the pool. Seemed easy, and right on the nose at28:00. Locking the sessions away. Not long, not intense, but tapping them out. Great wor "rogered", though must be a bugger if your name is Roger. W