Getting better

12 k on ski. No tips, and a smoother stroke. 1:21. Faulco ride with Luke. Solid effort on the hills. 3:41 for the Mac road climb is 20sec of late April, but thoroughly respectable. Good day, most tired I've been since early May. W

Close to the end for Clive

Visited travel agent today. Holiday for 2013 ready to be booked up now.>>>>>> I read Clive James' interview with BBC4 today. It ain't good, to the point where the combination of leukemia and emphysema is likely to prevent him from ever being able to get back to Oz. Love an expat who still sounds like he comes from Kogarah rather than a mystery island in the mid-Atlantic,and Unreliable Memoirs remains my favorite ever read.>>>>>> Rest day Tuesday following a nasty head ache day, and 10k on the ski today. A few close calls but no spills. I don't think my balance has improved much, but I have at least become relaxed enogh not to worry about rolling. No speed, but a comfortable and very njoyable late afternoon paddle.

A little house husband

Two weeks of house husband coming. Awesome stuff. Decided to trim all the trees and get rid of the woody weeds today. Who'd have though a privet would look so much like a seedling Jacaranda. Anyway, chain sawed it off - right at the base - gawd a chain saw is a fun peace of kit. Mrs J is suggesting I should use the time off to do more cycling rather than killing her plants, but I've got the bug now, and can't wait to have a go at "stuff" inside the house tomorrow. Really like the idea of ripping out the kitchen an rebuilding it myself - how hard can it be. May have to be a surprise for Mez, as she is resisting the idea.... Strongly. >>>>>>> Took in an post-lunch Faulco via the service roads. Still a favorite, especially in winter when climbing doesn't leave you drowned in sweat and gasping super-heated air. All the training intensity of over boiled pasta mind you, but still a brilliant way to spend 2 hours.

Soleus strain

The stiff soleus that I had yesterday packed it in during warm up for the duathlon today. Ice and rest and surf ski practice. No pain from cycling so will use the running hiatus to get some balance and bike miles going.

Last day on the job

Last day at The 7 today. Nice enough send off, and I'll miss a goodly few of them. It's probably a shame that you can't take the best of the folks you work with around the place with you. But like everywhere there were a couple who made you wonder, and wonder, and"."..........??. Personally I wouldn't entrust the Westlink chief engineer with a project to redesign Freddy the Fish's tank ornaments, less alone a f}#%ing traffic interchange. Nice enough chap, don't get me wrong, but g-a-w-d! there are origami rosettes that are better decision makers. 12 easy k this morning before work. Achilles a bit rough, but a calf massage and some Difflam Gel will probably get me through is one. Winter Solstace Festival and a duatlon in the afternoon tomorrow. Promises to be a good one. Need to get back on the sensible eating plan NOW.

Here Comes the Fat Controller

12k in 52:58 = 4:24. 4:14 for 11k if I take out the Santuary Drive climb. Run with Luke, best tempo I've held for donkeys. Still had a goodly sum left as well - damn freaking happy with that. Apple and raspberry crumble with vanilla bean ice cream to celebrate. A bit sore, so will stay easy for the rest of the week for conservation's sake. Hopefully 35k solid bike in the morning and 20 easy bike at lunch tomorrow. Blackmores in under 90 - Look out Thomas, here comes the Fat Controller.

Stayed out of the water for the first time

Surf ski stayed upright on the weekend for the first time, but I am still hopelessly slow and unstable – 42:38 for 6k is around 8.4kph, and entry level appears to be about 10kph. Not even sure that I was that much faster than last week’s 45:16 if you adjust for the swim component. 

To make 10kph in 8 weeks will require an average improvement of just over 2% per week, which would seem optimistic – though I am (rather obviously) at the beginner end of the learning curve.

Mt Portal run on Sunday with Ads and Luke. Always a nice run but highlighted a whole world of general weakness in my lower body, and was quite sore yesterday, including a bit of roughness around the Achilles. Took a rest day Monday and a gym session this morning in an attempt to straighten things out. Will get Brett over this week which always helps.

Progress still happening.

A good weekend ahead:

Ø  Winter Magic Festival Saturday morning

Ø  Club duathlon Saturday afternoon

Ø  Ski paddle Sunday morning

Ø  RJ Taekwondo gradings midday

Ø  Sunday afternoon Faulco ride – depending on the effort level is always either good training OR a good way to close a winter weekend – but never both.

Nearly cracked 50

12.25k easy before work this morning. Legs flattened by 10x100 on Wednesday night. Looks such an easy session on paper, but when you have done no effort work for a long time, it sunk in a lot more than I expected, and still sluggish two days later. Co-ordination a problem too – God what was happening there, arms and legs everywhere – technique was rougher than a Paul Adams wrong’un.

12 this morning gives me 49.3km from 5 runs for the week. Still growing slowly in both quality and quantity. Now to get the bike restarted. Had planned to do the PCC ITT this Sunday, but the TT bike hasn’t turned a wheel since IM, and I have done virtually no effort work, nor any distance either. Will give the TT a miss and take RJ to archery at Homebush instead.

Will relaunch my ski-paddling career again this weekend. Hopefully will stay dry, but the odds are Old Rowley-like.

I've matured fully nought....

Planned 75min Warrimoo loop with Paddy turned to muck this morning. First a flat for Paddy and then a busted spoke for me. The wheel buckled and wouldn’t turn so I had to call the 1300-MEZZA collection service. There are few things in life that she loves more than 6:30am collection on a weekday when she is trying to get ready for work, though her gratitude was well concealed.

Got out a Tuesday night benchmark run last night – Standard 12k course including GWH and Sanctuary hills – 55:26, an improvement of 3:50 minutes (6.5%) on my effort of three weeks ago. Gotta be happy with that, damn pleased in fact.

I have been meaning to make the effort to do Parkrun for a while now and thought the opportunity might arise last weekend, as we stayed in the city Friday night, but couldn’t get out there. I notice in the results that Tripp, one of the groomsmen from our wedding has been running each week, 21.32 last week for the 5k. Glad I didn’t go out, I couldn’t run that at the moment on a tight, slow course – and it would have been unbearable getting rolled by him.

But now I know he’s there, it’s given my training motivation a huge kick along. I’ll roll up in a few weeks, psyched out of my little pea-brain, act surprised to see him, suggest a coffee and cake after an easy 5k stroll, and then give it full gas, being prepared to swim in a sea of lactic acid for the win. Hopefully it’ll be enough, because failure just wouldn’t be an option – he’s the most punishing winner I’ve ever known. We’ve raced a few times over the years, the first was down George Street between Margaret and Grosvenor for a bet – I think we were probably 19ish. He was faster, but I got the chocolates when he wasn’t prepared to take on a bolshy taxi trying to turn into Grosvenor on a red light – no ticker – 1-nil poof!. The last time was when we were 26ish (21 years ago! crap, time flies) at Hensley Park in a 400. He smacked me that day, and I’ve had to live with the burden ever since. But muscle mass is no friend in a 5k, and I will own the big fella’s ass by the end of July.

Ahhh, 26years, and clearly I’ve matured fully nought – I am Homer Simpson. Long live a life of trivial immaturity.

Long weekend boxed and bowed

Reasonably quiet for a long weekend. Sunday 1hr bike: 2x hills, 2xcc laps (17:35 on roadie was better than I am entitled to at the moment) Monday- ditched the W2G, weather miserable. 30min gym > 30min turbo > 30min outdoor run as a brick @ 4:40s. ...... Not glorious but thoroughly ok.

Learning to paddle in winter

Saturday- 2nd paddle of the new ski today. 6km with three dips into the Nepean. More a paddle/swim brick session. I actually don't think I'm going to get the hang of this thing before Akuna. The first roll I had today was when a dick-head kid sent his model speed boat into my path down near the boat ramp. I tried to avoid it, lost balance and flipped straight over. When I tried to climb back on I went straight over the top and in the other side. Damn kid, was laughing his guts up too - father apologized, but I suspect I'm doing the rounds of the cheeky little f#%^er's Facebook by now. Was freezing by the time I got home. A nice 13k run in 4:40's tonight to save the day.

Stuff going OK

Entered the PTC Du for 23^rd June.  Woodford to Glenbrook is the following day, and will enter that a bit closer to race day. Feel that if I get through that weekend in good working order I’ll be able to set up well for a good spring.

Thu 7th: Lunch time run 8k in 36:45 = 4:35. Capped with 4:11 for the last.

Wed 6^th: AM gym / PM 60min on rollers with 6 x 1min high resistance intervals

Stuff going OK.

Melbourne marathon..???

Still mulling over the idea of Melbourne Marathon in October. On the one hand….. on the other hand…..

Missed my AM bike session this morning. A bit banged up for some reason, almost a hang-over feeling – only deprived of the good bits. 40min in the gym instead, possibly better for my general tightness in any case.

Will get out rain, hail shine tonight for some bike hills – promise to self.

Currently listening to the Community Relations Manager here and the dude from the RMS argue about cycle usage and safety on the M7 shared path. One wants to put speed humps and chicanes every 500m, the other wants a 20k speed limit. Neither considering the effect that such “solutions” would have on driving people onto the main carriageway – where we definitely don’t want them. If there was a stock exchange for intellectual capital these two would be trading junk bonds.

Mind you some junk bond trading wouldn’t be such a bad thing at the moment - Everyone is wise after the event, but in what universe did anyone really believe that the common Euro was a good idea. The whole glorious function of a floating currency is to let a country’s exports become more competitive when they come under capital pressures, and to bring them back when the champagne overflowed. Like communism for the capitalists. Poor Greeks and Spanish are trying to survive on tourism for cash but having the cost of their destinations driven up by the German industrial miracle. Conversely the Krauts have flourished on the back of an extended period of undervaluation, but are now whinging like bastards at having to prop them up. It’s a dog’s breakfast – take the hit – sell Greece to Roman Abromanovich and stop screwing with my superannuation.

Day Dreamin' for the Dolimiti

Latest advertising blurb from the Garda Bike Hotel arrived by email today. I’m sure that there are just times when you are more susceptible to such things, but what a place! – no idea how I will ever be able to manufacture an opportunity to get back there, but certainly not something to lose sight of – easily the most glorious part of the planet that I’ve seen.

Lunch run today. 8k @ 4:52s. Cruising speed seems to be dipping under 5min now. Probably need to search out a bit of a test race to see where it is all at. Achilles issues are still present but not making a big issue of themselves.

Plans to recommence some weekly bike go-hard tomorrow may get scuttled by the weather. Really looking forward to bringing Bubba back from holidays – never thought I’d say that.

W

Progress - Baby Steps

Sunday ..... AM 14k include 4x850m hill reps. 4:14, 4:08, 3:56, 3:55. Smashed..... PM 3k ski paddle in 26min..... Monday..... AM 40min gym. ...... PM 7.5k easy with a 4k press in the middle. 17:17 = 4:18/k. Will take that happily and keep chugging forward...... World is good.

Blazing Paddles

I relaunched the new (second hand) “Custom Kayaks – Horizon” surf ski in the river Saturday afternoon (cold, dark, drizzly) to try and get some practice / balance under my belt before attempting the harbor again. It’s a temperamental cow, so tippy that the first priority of every stroke seems simply to stabilize the boat and keep from rolling over (quite unsuccessfully).

I paddled the 3km from the Rowing Club up to the M4 bridge, but I was so shaky that anyone strolling along the bank may well have felt their heart warmed - seeing someone attempt to paddle a kayak with such a debilitating affliction. I couldn’t even turn my head to the side to see how far from the bank I was, else I lost balance and went into a series of mad paniced movements – throwing my feet outside the ski for stability, and rushing a clipped set of staccato paddle strokes simply to try and remain upright. To the river fouls perched on the overhanging branches, it must have been like watching a fireworks display - erratic and mildy amusing, but you're never 100% sure someone isn't going to get hurt.

When I got home I extrapolated my time for the 3km distance (assuming no fatigue at all) to the full 12k that the Go Natural Akuna Bay Multisport will be raced over, then compared it to the prior year results to see how I would have gone. Ouch! Turns out I’m f%$#king hopeless – hardly a shock, but the disappointment was still hard to hide.

12 weeks to develop sufficient balance to at least not unduly burden the race organiser’s safety crew – will worry about speed later.

Taking one up the date from Mike Tyson

Made the late call this morning to sneak out for an MTB with Paddy. Overcast but mild, the usual loop from our place > zig-zag, Glenbrook Ranger station, Euroka, Bennetts Ridge, Oaks Hut, single track and back. Unbelievably good fortune to have such a cracking 2hr ride as a "standard" on the doorstep. ........ Mountain biking only really works for me when it's overcast. The softer more even light eliminates the shadows which, for the visually challenged, largely camouflage the drops, rocks and crevices that are the very point of being on a mountain bike in first place. Which isn't to say I have the requisite bike skills to negotiate any significant obstacles in any case, just that it's nice to at least get the opportunity to brace and look for landing strip......... As opposed to the more common scenario, being when the handlebars suddenly bounce outside the line of the bike, the seat delivers a Mike Tyson punch to the jaxy, and I get a refresher course in Newton's Laws - His Third, when the bike and I head in opposite though collinear directions with equal force, followed by his First - where I remain at a constant velocity until being acted upon by an external force. Most commonly a tree root. ........ Damn nice ride today. ..... Fri am, 5x3min hill reps on roadie / pm 8k easy. Sat. 40k MTB. Hard to beat.

What's Your Frequency Kenneth

I hate the one month’s notice period. It’s always awkward, and at the moment made more so by the fact that we have had four people resign in the space of a month, and in a staff of ten that’s like the co-pilot parachuting out of a A380 – the thing still flies and probably without incident - but that doesn’t stop people reacting just a tad.

The Governor here, has reacted also, primarily by wedging his index fingers as far as they will go into his auditory canal, closing his eyes like a dog with its head out the car window, and humming REM songs until the problem goes away. Or at least his version thereof – which is to go on a three day conference, his second in the two weeks since the resignations started flowing. If he had gone on more conferences earlier, perhaps the departure lounge might currently look more like Mildura Regional than Heathrow, because while he is a decent guy, F&^$!! he’s annoying to be around.

Thursday: Gym in the morning. Rollers tonight. Still chuggin’.

Oh #%+=, we're off to Nannas, f+*^, f<>£,...

Not a great day. Had to shorten and slow my run due to sore, tight calves and the desire to exercise some caution at this point.

Worse still we received an invitation to visit my mother for a BBQ on the weekend. Invitation of course conveying a theoretically optional element that in practice is only the thinnest of veneers. RJ suffers the most, his still-developing jaws are never a match for those sinewy, cheap beef fillets she over-cooks and then slices into strips so tough you could rappel from them, with the gravy accompaniment serving more as a lubricant than a flavor enhancer.

On our last visit RJ made the most valiant of attempts to swallow a piece he had been masticating on for two full ad-breaks of The Voice. The first I knew of his struggle for oxygen was a reddening face and a gurgling sound that I initially mistook for his attempt to mimic one of Delta's show-stopper high notes. She always asks him whether he liked his dinner, and his desire to preserve his Nan's feelings always results in a hearty smile and thumbs up. Which of course perpetuates his discomfort across successive visits.

At least to-date I've been able to shelter him from her famous apricot chicken, which may well have been a contributing factor in the great North African famine of 1998. It wasn't so much a shortage of food as a fundamental unwillingness to ingest the apricot chicken my mother sent in aid packages.

Don't have the heart to tell him we're going back so soon. Tuesday: gym in the morning, 7.5 easy in the evening.

Boring training / good training

13k today(mon). No watch, just trying to find a pulse. 50k very easy km on Sunday 75min MTB + 35min bush run Sat. Nothing spectacular, but finding some much needed consistency.

Thanks Sweetie

3 month gym membership expires this weekend. Think I’ll renew for 6 months to get me through winter, as it seems to help in keeping everything in working order. Not to mention that Brooke would be heart-broken if she didn’t get to see me at least a couple of mornings a week. I know this because when she scans my card, I always get a “thanks sweetie” – obviously a greeting she reserves solely for me. I’m thinking of giving her a ghetto-cool “yo bitch” in return, just to show her that I’m hip to the ways of the young peeps, but won’t do so until I’ve practiced enough to make it look and sound authentic. Wouldn’t want to sound like a middle-aged, pasty-white, try-hard, heaven forbid!

Set to collect my ski from Dale on Sunday – hyper-pumped. Dale said on the phone that we can meet at Manly Beach and he will take me for a paddle to be sure I like it and that it fits properly. After his exploits as reported in the SMH, I do hope he isn’t planning on starting at Manly beach and heading east. Possibly he wants to help me out, or possibly he just doesn’t want some bogan from Penrith coming to his Clontarf home on a casing exercise.

Still hung over from IM I suspect. Every session seems to leave me banged up for a day or so, but will keep chugging away slowly.

Just a short gym session this morning – a quick sweetie then off to work.

First proper dusting of cold for the season

Getting cold in the mornings now for riding. In a perfect world you would:

Ø  Ride in summer

Ø  Run in winter

Ø  Swim in ………………….. the spa.

2.8 degrees on the Garmin when I headed out at 6:00 this morning for an easy roll with Paddy. With the air flowing past at (and fairly leisurely) 28kph, it was damn cold, and the skin on my ankles burned in the shower afterwards.

Burning stinging skin or the mind numbing monotony of the turbo-trainer. It’s a choice that could suck the enthusiasm out of a 6 month old puppy.

Wed: 40 easy k’s banked.

Tick Tock

Tick tock - Getting back into the rhythm of training again. Surprisingly motivated and ticking off the sessions. Have a plan again to try and lock up a bit of structure and deduce the hap-hazard approach to training that I slip into from time to time.

Ø  Running is coming along slowly

Ø  Need to get back into some regular pump on the bike. Still keen to do the PCC TT 17 June.

Monday: Took a rest day due to working late.

Tuesday 40min gym + 12km (31:00 out @5:10, 28:15 back at 4:43).

Brett over tonight to do some body straightening.

Think I might settle for a cheap slow ski. No use buying an F1 that I can’t drive.

Keep drumming in the rules

Need to get to the mindset where getting injured is a mistake and not just an unfortunate turn of luck.

Keep with the rules

1 . Stay healthy

Ø  Gym – keep straightening out the body, range of movement work and strengthening.

Ø  Massage – once every three weeks

Ø  Keep with the fish oil - seems to help keep down the inflammation.

2. Be patient building speed.

Ø  Concentrate on building inherent running speed at rhythm

Ø  No intervals until there is some reasonable distance from last injury.

3. Be patient in building the distance. 1k a week to the long run

4. Be structured – For now

Ø  1 x long run (14 + 1k per week)

Ø  1 x long tempo (12 Tuesday run)

Ø  1 x short tempo (7.2)

Ø  2 x easy (2 x 8 = 16)

Ø  Total baseline = around 50 and growing.

5. Be frequent – at least 5 runs a week

6. Try to keep some of it on softer surfaces.

If ain't coming easy

Solid run last (sunday) night. 7.2 at tempo (around 4:50 at the moment) with 8k (at inherent cadence - around 5:25) tacked on to make up the 15k "long run" in my program. Left em a bit battered and sore, but its done, and will keep building on that.

Everyting slow by around 30 seconds. would like tempo to be around 4:20 and easy to sit around 4:55.

Weekend included a reasonably leisurely trip around Greendale and then a Faulco with Brendan sunday morning. His first road ride. Did OK too - though the Faulco "wall" was a bit nasty for him. Hope he sticks with it.

Still looking at skis. Too many options for my meagre brain.

A bit too soon to jump back in

Suspect I jumped back into trying to train a little quick. Tuesday’s run flattened me. Feel borderline fluey. Even the weights sessions are banging me up a bit.

47 tomorrow. MJ has planned Yum Cha lunch. Looking forward to the whole weekend in fact.

An easy Saturday ride of 70ish.

Sunday is an intro ride for Brendan of around 30 with coffee chaser.

Might top and tail the weekend with a Sunday afternoon kayak paddle with RJ.

W

Day 2 - Project Dennis

Since Monday update; Monday PM 45min on the rollers @ something like 92rpm Tuesday PM 1st week of 12k tempo benchmark. 59:16. Winter training goals locked in: 1. Parra duathlon series 2. A spring Half < 90min 3. A kuna multi

Project Dennis Denuto

I reckon everyone has at some point owned one of those old 1980s Victa mowers with the dodgy rip cord. The ones where every time you wheel it out of the shed you wonder whether today will be “the day”. The day when you rip and rip on the cord with by full Dennis Denuto accompaniment and still nothing but a splutter.

And then, just as you start to calculate whether there is enough head room on the Visa card to get a newy, bang!, she fires up. Smoke fllods into the atmosphere and re-opens the ozone hole, petrol fumes give you a Perkins Paste high, and the backfiring sends the dog scurrying into witness protection. She’s off and running, and in the end, does a pretty tidy job. And then you turn her off again, and wonder. Will next time be “the time”.

I’ve worked out that I am that old Victa. So here marks the commencement of a new project, “Project Dennis Denuto – It’s about the vibe”.

The goal of the project is the make sure the old Victa doesn’t get put back into the shed and neglected over winter just because there isn’t any grass to mow. Pizza and pancake launch is now complete – here we go.

Sat 12 May:  65k easy in the morning with Mango and Paddy.

Sat 12 May:  7k in the afternoon with Luke at something like 5:20s

Sun 13 May: 12k @ 5:25

Mon 14 May: am Gym

Will try and put some structure in place over the remainder of this week, and try to find a goal with sufficient valence to make the plan happen.

Epilogue

The final post for this blog - so will try to choose words carefully.

Firstly race day: I would like to have executed better and gotten the finer points right. It was a clumbsy and poor T1 and then had to dismount in the first 200m of bike to get shoes on properly was collectively a waste of at least 4 minutes - avoidable and stupid. That said, everything else on race day was close to perfect.

Glad I chose to race-it rather than simply try to complete, which had become a consideration in my mind over the last few weeks leading up. But I'm satisfied that I pushed right up against my capability all day, concentrated well, and didn't walk, even though the temptation was overwhelming at times from km 10 onwards in the run. Very very happy with the way I approached the day. It was very uncomfortable physically and mentally, right from the melee of fists and feet when the musket sounds to the end when I was just totalled on the run.

10:47 isn't what it might have been with some good run training, but is hours ahead of what it could have been three weeks out. Feel like I can hang my hat on it with some pride. 26th out of 195 in my group. good enough.

The journey: The whole process is one of compromise. Family, lifestyle, money, work etc. People talk about the limited time they have available to train, but I am not sympathetic to the point as it is always a choice - a trade off. And it is optional where you want to pitch - some sacrifice more along the way, and get more back on race day - some less. I tried to land in the middle somewhere and be as fair as I could be to family, work, finances, lifestyle etc. I probably got more back on race day than I was entitled to.

The only time where there is no compromise is race day. All you can really do is drain every drop out of it, hope for an even hand from luck and brace yourself for the hurt, because it does hurt rather badly.

On the whole, Ironman was an unbelievably rewarding experience for me. 4:30am alarms, chilling morning rides, desperately trying to make up lost time with the family, etc etc., yet through all this not a single temper tantrum among any the boys, good humor and effort the whole journey, great family support from Mez and RJ, and happy included families  for everyone in our group. Couldn't possibly hope for a better bunch of guys - worked hard, at some point everyone spent time suffering the hands of the others, and it drove all of us towards a strong race day - along the way you could just feel a result growing for everyone.

The learning: There are plenty.

I think the most salient is that including your family beats asking them to tolerate your indulgence. The more they are an importnt part, the more they will enjoy the ride.

Its an adventure, and you hould see it as such. There is always a risk of it turning to muck, and those risks are part of the adventure itself. If it all went smoothly, it wouldn;t be as worthwhile.

You can't manufacture an adventure. Everytime you throw out the seeds, some will die in the ground, but some will germinate into life-markers and experiences that you will take to the grave. The essential incredients however are the same - great friends, a goal that is not attainable in the short term but which can be worked towards, with a prize at the end that is valuable. Study, travel, sport, work, family - doesn't matter - good people, meaningful goal, and a journey. It works.

Next: A rest. Some time with Merry and RJ. Find some more seeds, throw em out there, see what grows.

W

Looking forward to the rear view mirror

T-3. Off to Port tonight.

I thought atthe start that getting to the start line would be harder than the bit between start and finish lines, and at least I've (pretty much) established part A of that analysis.

Weighed in at 77.7kg this morning, lowest I’ve been for donkeys. Could have been even better if I had watched my diet a bit more, but it’s good enough in any case, and no time for woulda coulda shoulda's.

Achilles still isn’t playing ball, but I have been able to shuffle a couple of 6-8k’ers at around 6:15/k, so who knows. If I can manage to shuffle out 16-20k over the course of the day, I would be well pleased (all things considered).

Swim has been improving, and 49:16 for 3k in the pool has given me a monster confidence boost that I will at least be able to retrun back to shore in a healthy state – baring kicks, punches, gulps of sea water and sharks. A year ago I was hoping to break 1:16 (2min / 100m pace) but have improved enough so that I’ll be disappointed if I can’t sneak in under 1:08.

My bike is in reasonable shape. Longest ride only 160, but I’m comfortable enough with that. Cross winds are the biggest risk to a decent day for me, as I am a complete pussy and don’t ride them at all well. Equally I don’t want to be too concerned about things I can't control.

Nutrition requirements will need some last minute cramming, as I haven’t really settled this in my mind yet, which I know is somewhat suboptimal.

Have racked up $14.889 of expenditure to date, and that will get blown even further if I decide to embark on a last minute course of stanozolol. Extraordinary really – for such a patently amateur weekend warrior. Professional or amateur, all sports seems to be big business for someone. In professional sport, it’s the athlete, in amateur sports it’s the promoter/bike shop/physio etc. Yet even professional sports is nothing more than folks getting together to play games. Like hop-scotch, only where the best hop-scotch player in the world gets $5m a year, a cocaine habit and an endless supply hookers.

But for some reason it really does matter, this trip to a seaside resort for a swim, ride and shuffle along the shoreline with 1,500 like minded accountants, labourers, tradies etc. It really shouldn’t matter – but it does, and I will bust my ass on Sunday to get the best result possible. I expect that it will hurt so much that if anyone else shaped-up to inflict the same level of discomfort upon me I’d shout for the fuzz. Maybe it’s one of those things that reveals itself more gradually, like those old gelatin/silver photographs developing in the dark room.

Or maybe some things are just clearer in the rear-view mirror.

W

Just the facts son

17 week preparation

Ave weekly swim distance 4.4km  

Ave weekly bike distance 253.2km

Ave Weekly run distance 11.6km

Starting weight 84.4kg

Current weight 78.2

Weight loss 6.2kg   7.3% of total body mass

Will it be enough? Almost certainly not, but then again enough is almost always n+1, so it'll do.


 

Time for a Prediction

The last of the BIG weekends now locked away. Two weeks to go now. All that really needs to be avoided is snotty nosed kids, sneezing co-workers and overindulgence.

A lot of guys suggesting that this is the finish of the “serious bit” of the training block – though I must admit to not having felt like this was a particularly “serious” preparation (completely structureless due to injuries etc) – something that I am quite sure I’ll come to regret 12 days. The upside is that I am carrying virtually no residual fatigue and can probably shorten the traditional two weeks taper to 7 days.

Wiseman’s Ferry ride (yesterday) is a VERY pleasant way to spend a few hours. It includes a fairly gentle climb for 15 or so km starting at Riverside Oaks golf course, and then a steep descent down to the ferry. Thereafter the road hugs the river and snakes it’s way back to the Lower Portland car ferry (Long Punt). Cliffs on the left, river on the right, and bugger all cars for what feels like about 15km or so. Then it’s over the punt to a small but testing enough 4%ish / 2km climb and a long 12km ish tt’able scoot back towards Wilborforce. Again, very low traffic and a decent enough road surface for even the most poorly sighted biker.

Will definitely do it again soon, but more as a gran fondo than a training ride. Would much prefer it on a roadie than a TT bike also, and would probably include a scurry across East Kurrajong Rd for coffee and morning tea at Kurrajong village. Perfect preparation for a cyclo-jaunt next year.

Swam 49:57 for 3k in the pool in a wet-suit on Friday. Huge confidence giver – 5 minutes better than I was expecting. I had been aiming for an IM swim of 1:12, but realistically would now be disappointed with anything worse than 1:10.

To Do:

Ø  Still some time left to tidy up the swim a bit more, as I’m still very much on the steep part of the learning curve, and recovery is short on even the hardest of swim sessions.

Ø  Will have a balls-out 50k tt on Wednesday to try and put a nice confidence-lock my biking.

Ø  Will try to get in a couple of 5km downhill shuffles to prepare the hips and quads for what is going to be a freakin’ painful, and painfully slow, end to the day on the 6^th.

Time for a prediction? Will happily take anything under 13hrs, but here goes:

	Best Possible	Goal	Disappointing	Will be a very quiet drive home in the car	Fuck I'm lost – send for help
Swim	01:05:00	01:07:30	01:12:00	01:15:00	>>
T1	00:04:30	00:05:30	00:06:30	00:07:30	>>
Exit T1	01:09:30	01:13:00	01:18:30	01:22:30	>>
Bike	05:32:00	05:43:00	05:55:00	06:10:00	>>
	(32.5)	(31.5)	(30.5)		>>
T2	00:03:00	00:04:00	00:05:00	00:06:00	>>
Exit T2	06:44:30	07:00:00	07:18:30	07:38:30	>>
Run	04:45:00	05:37:00	06:15:00	06:30:00	>>
	(6:46 - 85% @ 6:15)	(8:00)	(8:52)
	11:29:30	12:37:00	13:33:30	14:08:30	>>

Still chuggin towards the finishing shute.

W