Another month down, 7 to go..

As the body is recovering from a 4 hour ride this morning, I must say, I've been pretty happy with my training and my commitment level thus far. I have been on program now for two months (no not training freaks version of AA) and really progressing well. Even with being sick this month, I still had a solid month again with some big totals. Here she be.

Running 112.5 km, total time: 10:05 hours
Cycling 727km, total time: 26:02 hours
Swimming 21km, total time: 8:55 hours
Core strengthening: 1:30 hours

roughly 46.5 hours of training this past month, not too bad..

The biggest thing I have to work on is my core exercises. This is the thing that can help put me at a higher level of fitness, but for some reason, I seem to miss the odd session. How can I get my 4 pack (not even thinking of trying for a 6 pack unless it's in the form of beer) without core workouts?? This is something I will try and work on over the next month.

As I head into week two of four in program, I have some big miles this week and top it off next Sunday with the Bridge to Brisbane 10km road race. Just me and 15,000-20,000 of my closest running friends.

My first "A" race of the year is coming up in just over a month, the Gold Coast 70.3. I really want to do well, but today as we were riding, I learned some terrible news... Triathlon Australia has changed their wetsuit rules from 24 degrees down to 22 degrees. This means my first big race of the season will be a non wetsuit swim. YIKES!! I've just over the past month become comfortable swimming in the ocean and now I have to learn to feel comfortable without the wetsuit. Lots of training sessions at Redcliffe will happen in the next month then. That or I have to purchase an entire truckload of ice and dump it in the water just before they take the temperature, but that might be a dead giveaway with all the ice cubes floating around.

Pretty boring post this week but hey, they can't all be good ;-)

Until next week.

Cheers
Richard

The best part of program....Recovery week...and a sign up

This past week was truly welcome....recovery week.

With the cold I had, seeming to want to stick around, I was really happy to see this past week as a rest week. I wasn't fully up to par but I did take is somewhat easy, not doing a few of the scheduled events in lieu of more rest. The better part of this week was two fold, the Tuesday morning 3km running time trial and Noosa on the weekend to cheer on Colleen (and sneak in a swim or two).

The Tuesday morning time trial was one I was hoping would go well. My last running tt was in a time of 10:57, or just around a 3:40ish min/km pace. I really wanted to see if my feeling well running would account for a good time. Well, I headed out after our warm up and was quickly out front. I had a couple of people hot on my heels but it was about running my tt not worrying about the others. The course was a two loop course with a slight up hill to start each lap. At the first turn around point, I still had someone hot on my heels but I was running how I wanted to. At about the 1km mark there is a bit of an uphill and that was enough for me to break away and be on my own. By the time I hit the end of the first loop, I had opened a good 300m ish gap. I heard my split, 5:18. I didn't want to slow down so I kept the turnover the same. As I rounded the turn around point, I knew I was moving. Up the little hill and then down the 400m small hill to the finish. Mark was screaming for me to pick it up so I could break the 10:30. I picked it up and ran hard in...10:32 was my time. I had negative split and had ran my last lap in 5:14.

I was very happy with my time.

The other big this was going to Noosa to watch Colleen in her first 1/2 marathon since having Vaughn. I have never seen her train so well before for a race, so I knew she was going to bust a good time. Out the door she headed out at 6:15 for the 6:30am start, our resort was 200m from the start line. As soon as Vaughn got up, me and the kids would head down to cheer her on. Unfortunately today was the day he slept in. As soon as he was up, a quick feed and milk for him and out the door. He had slept until 7:15. Colleen was hoping for a pb (current one was 1:53) so we rush over to the turn around area. We got there just as the 1:50 pacer came by, we had missed her. Some of the squad were there too, so we joined up and waited for all to cross the line. With 1:45 on the clock, I told Alyssa to keep an eye out for mom, as she could be coming through anytime. Waiting nervously, I was watching the clock, 1:46, 1:47, 1:48.. I had guess she was good for a 1:49 so I crossed my fingers. Just then, I hear them call her name out, there she was, arms raised and looking strong, 1:48:5X, she had smashed her PB by 5 minutes!!! 5 minutes, holy crap all her solid training paid off. I don't know who was happier, her or me? She went through the shoot, and met up with us, were we gave her a huge hug!! She wanted a coffee and a shower, fair enough. We went back, she changed and off we headed for some breakfast...A 5 minute PB, holy crap!!

While up at Noosa, I did mange to get an ocean swim in on Saturday and Sunday with Rusty from the squad. These were great for me, building my confidence in the open water and allowing me to experiment with what does and doesn't work in the water. Two 2200m + swims in under 45 minutes, all good.

Now then.. last week with my head in a fog I forgot to tell all, I am signed up officially for Ironman Australia.... Here's the e-mail..

2009 IRONMAN AUSTRALIA Registration Confirmation

Richard
CONGRATULATIONS! Your entry has been fully processed
and accepted. You are in the race! We look forward to welcoming you to
Port Macquarie for the 2009 event. Please ensure that you read and fully
understand the contents of the Competitor Information Booklet - available
on the website.

This was followed up by going through over 200+ places to stay, finally finding a place for the week, all good.

That's about it for now, back to some solid training over the next few weeks.
Catch you all soon!

Richard

The good, the bad and the ugly

From the title you can tell is was a week of mixed emotions. This was was week 3 of 4 in program, which means one last week of hard training then a recovery week next week. Man do I need that recovery week.

Might as well try and throw a positive spin on the whole thing and go in reverse order.

The Ugly.......
Vaughn was kind enough to share his wicked cold with the entire house. I have not had so much snot production in my life!! (okay gross, I know but now you get the idea of how ugly the week has been). It started about Tuesday and last night was the first night I've actually slept fairly solid. Apparently Colleen got up a few times last night with Vaughn I didn't even hear them. Thanks for letting me sleep dear! With this lovely head cold, I have been drained of energy and had to cut back some of my training this week :-( which brings me to the bad....

The Bad......
I fought on Thursday to stay at work because that night was the first swim time trial I have done with the squad so I really wanted to see how I was doing on my swimming. Some good drugs to clear the head a bit and I survived long enough to make it to swimming. Saturday I stayed home and didn't ride the brick workout that was in the plan (3 hour ride and 30 minute run) and then today I was to ride to the time trial and then another 90 minutes afterwards. All I managed to do was the Time trial.

The above was in response to my running on Friday, when out at lunch I hear "Hey you Ruddy Canadian!!". It was Mark, the head coach of the squad. Finding out I was sick, he gave me what for and told me to head back to work, shower and take it easy. I wasn't to burn myself out with a time trial on Sunday. I did a little more workout and headed back to the office (Mark didn't know where my office was..hehehe)

The Good.......

I guess you could say the best part is my cold is starting to subside and hopefully be gone in a few days as I have a 3km running time trial on Tuesday morning... time will tell....

My swim time trial was probably the thing I was looking forward to the whole week, hence me staying at work. After a good warm up it was time for the 800m TT. We were 5 to a lane, which surprisingly worked out okay. I went out strong but not full out as I didn't want to crash 200m in. I kept a strong pace and tried to pick it up just a bit every 100m. With 100m to go, I was pushing it hard while trying to keep my heart from exploding....touch the wall, look up at the coach in anticipation....14:20 he calls out. I had to look around he wasn't talking to someone else... Nope no one else stopped at the wall. Holy shit I smashed my anticipated target of breaking 16 minutes! This was totally worth staying at work for!

This morning, I had the 20km bike time trial. I've put alot of km's on the bike since my last time trial back in early April, where I managed a respectable 31:41 time (37.8 km/hr average). I was hoping to drop some good time off this goal, but was conservative with my expectations due to how I was feeling. After a warm up, we lined up at the start line in groups of 3. I was in the second group with John (aka powerhouse) and Tim (aka Mr. Ironman). We started 30 seconds behind the first group and wanted to ride strong and not get passed by some of the other riders playing possum behind us. This was a non drafting time trial so we had to do this on our own, no cheating.

16 & 3/4 laps around the track would mark 20km for us. My goal was to ride strong, but not blow up by lap 3. The three of us were fairly evenly matched today, as we rode fairly close together through the 20km. I'd be out front, then John, then Tim, all within 50 meters of each other through the ride. Feeling somewhat okay, (other than trying to cough up a lung a few times) my goal was not to let the others get away from me. 16 down, 3/4 lap to go. Stay aero, high cadence, and push through it.. I kept saying this to myself. As we made the final turn I was spinning well and made my break from the others, I was behind them but wanted to go hard. As we turned onto the straight, I was in a good position and gear, now time to hit it as hard as I could. I swung to the inside and kept my head down. Someone called out "sprinter left" which caught John's attention. He stands up and I thought to myself, I'm done now, but I had a good head of steam and managed to hold him off. Total time, 31:18. I had dropped 23 seconds off my last time for an average of 38.3 km/hr. Not too bad.

Even though this week has been rough, it did give me some snap shots that my training is paying off. I really want to do well at the Gold Coast 70.3 in October, so keeping my fingers crossed, I have a chance at setting a new PB.

Until next week, from the runny nose Canuck in Brisbane.

Cheers

Noosa camp

This past week was a build up for the Noosa camp this weekend, a weekend of mileage.

The weekend started at 5:30am Friday morning with a spin class. Follow that up with a weekend on the bike and in the ocean. Here's the weekend in review.

Saturday
5:15am start for a century ride taking about 3:40 hours
11:30am meet at the Noosa surf club and head out for a 2300m swim 47 minutes
4:00pm a 10km tempo run 45minutes

Sunday
5:15am start for a century ride taking about 3:40 hours
11:30am meet at the Noosa surf club and head out for a 2300m swim 48 minutes

Yes, for my friends back home take heed "Janice, I'm hot on your heals now in the water!!"

The two ocean water swims were, for me, a great turning point in my training. The water has been my nemesis and now, I'm actually winning the battle. For comparison, last June at the Prestige 1/2IM, I had my best open water swim in a total of 47 minutes for 1900m. Now I've done that but added 400m. That would put me at just under 39 minutes for a 1900m swim. Things are on the right track!

Here's the swim course

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2155001

Things are getting better with the bike too, with back to back 100km rides and feeling good on both. Now don't get me wrong, I was feeling tired in the legs for the second ride, but it was totally within my capabilities.

This next week will be a good one with a time trial in the pool on Thursday night, a 20km bike TT on Sunday morning and a 3km running TT the following Tuesday.

Totals are getting up there too, with already 40+kms running, just under 10km in the water and over 350km on the bike, a good start to the month.

Boring post this week, but I'm very tired and need some good sleep.

Catch you all later.
Richard

8 more months to Ironman

Looking at the countdown clock, this week will roll over the 8 months to Ironman. Lots has happened in the past few months, but things are progressing well. The next few months will get me ready for my first Australian half ironman in early October.

July was the first full month of me being on program and as I look at my totals for the month, I cannot believe the totals, both for time and distance. For the month of July, my totals were as follows:

Swimming 16.3 km 6:45 hours in the pool
Running 135.1km for just over 12 hours
Cycling 934km for just over 34 hours
Core workout 2:40 hours

roughly 55.5 hours for the month

Throw in some inline skating too and you have a busy month.

For cycling, that is the about the same distance as riding from Calgary to Vancouver, and I even think I had the elevation in there for a couple of the mountain passes.

The highlight, if you want to call it that, was today's ride with the squad. Program had me cycling to the ride, which meant I was up at 4:30am and out the door at 5 to make the 45 minute cycle down to the Chaulk Hotel where we typically meet. Our ride was out to Samford again (NW part of Brisbane), but for shits and giggles, Byron, the cycling coach, took us around the back side of Mt. Nebo and up a trail called Goat Track Road.

Now with a name like that, you know it is going to be fun. The worst part of the ride today, was the fact that there was only 4 of us out there and I was the weakest rider. By the time we started the hills, the extra time on the bike was starting to show. When we actually turned onto Goat Track Road, we regrouped and had to read the signs...

Can't ride down, but up is okay? What's with that? Can't they read the other points on the sign?!?!?!?!


Then there was the powerhouse gang I rode with.....I don't know if it was coincidence but they were all Kiwi's...hmmm. Does that mean Aussies know how brutal this road is, or are we the only crazy ones????



I did manage to survive, but only with the others stopping to let me catch up. Darn those Kiwi's are fast. I had to ride to training and home again, with a combined time of 3.5 to 4.5 hours. I did manage to, but it hurt like hell. All in all, I managed to survive and road approximately 120km today. Not bad, but need to work on a few things... The first I think, would be to get some of those lightweight Aussie's out there to share the pain on a ride like this ;-)

All good. This coming week is another strength week, with the weekend being a training camp up at Noosa. Sad, that I am training to train. Man am I nuts.

That's about it for now.
Until next week

Cheers
Richard