Merry Christmas

Hard to believe where time goes. Over the past week, it was a mix of psychotic Christmas shopping, training and spending time with good friends who made the journey over to Oz to see us..Okay maybe the Great Barrier Reef's unbelievable diving might have helped, but good all the same to see them. Thanks Kat and David, it was great to have you as guests in our new house, our, 0.00000001% of Australia we now own.

Santa was good to our house with the kids getting spoiled rotten, as to be expected. I looked under the tree but it seems my aero helmet and race wheels I asked Santa for must have fallen out of his sleigh somewhere on his great journey around the world.

My time lately has definitely changed from the swim focus of late and into the bike. Over two weeks, I made it out for 14 and 10 hours respectively on the bike for just over 700kms. Would have been more, but last Sunday my alarm went off at the usual 4am and all I heard was rain...A quick text to one of the IMA group which read "raining good here. going back to bed" It was really nice to sleep in on a Sunday. I pulled myself out of bed around 7am, still raining, but lighter now. I grabbed my shoes and headed out the door for a run instead. I will run in the rain any day before riding in it.

I can honestly say my time in the saddle is starting to pay off as a ride of 2 hours now seems short. I may not have the speed of others out there, but I do feel my endurance is definately on the rise, which is an awesome feeling.

This current week has more of the same, no swimming but time in the saddle, about another 15 hours to be precise. A few libations to ring in the New Year and a recovery week to follow. After that, 12 weeks to Ironman HOLY SHIT! 12 weeks, is that like the 12 step program thing with AA? Maybe, for crazy people who want to push themselves to new levels.

All the best to all and may 2009 bring you everything you wish for.

Cheers
Richard

On the road again

Last week when I typed my blog, I didn't think the title would be taken so literally. The focus of the week was to keep building mileage on the bike which was done. How much you say? Well......I spent over 13 hours in the saddle and rode just under 400km. Throw in some runs and a couple of swims, it was a big week.

With the Christmas week now here, I do get a couple of breaks, Christmas morning I get off, and a self imposed extra break last night. I was feeling tired from a big weekend of riding and the Squad Christmas Olympics.

Olympics you say? This was a continuation of the swim carnival last month and was a load of fun. Again, it was the Aussie's, Kiwi's and the Rest of the World. The Olympics were held out at Redcliffe beach and included:

Swimming, Tug-o-War, Flags, Boogie board race, Ironman/Ironwoman race and beach sprint relay.

Well getting there early this time (learned enough from the swim carinval) I got to choose what I would do. Everyone had to do the Tug-o-War and beach sprint and everyone had to do at least one other event. For me it would include, Boogie board race out to the buoy and back and Flags. The boogie board race was fun, but choppy conditions made it that much more interesting...

Here I am going in.


Not too bad I think, and ended up coming out in the middle of the pack.

Flags..Now that was fun. There were 12 guys and 11 flags. You start chin on you hands and with your back to the flags. When starting, you need to run through the sand and grab one of the flags to continue. No holding allowed but you can put your shoulder into someone if you get ahead of them...Much like a good body check into the boards in hockey. The event goes until it's 2 against 1 flag. All in all I was very impressed on how I did and ended up making it further than the 4 Aussie team members, but not the Kiwi's. Here's some pics from flags.

The Starting position


Heading in for a flag


Success


Later on getting a flag after a group tackled each other


It was a ton of fun with the Kiwi's coming out on top, with ROTW right behind. Congrats Kiwi's.

Hard to believe the way this month has flown by and Christmas just a few days away. Merry Christmas to all and may your New Year be filled with solid training and great finishes....

Richard

Back in the saddle again

Wow!! Who knew moving, painting, reno's and work would get in the way...HA!

I started out the month continuing my mega swim routine, but it quickly came to a head, I couldn't burn the candle at both ends (and in a few other locations too) and keep my sanity. So....strength training it was. Okay you can call it painting and moving, but I challenge you to paint for 5 straight days and have fresh arms..That really hurt. Throw in lugging around more boxes than toes and fingers on a daily basis, and you have yourself one hell of a workout program.

All things considered, I think a few less KM's on the road/trails and water now are much better than closer IMA. I made it out for the Friday morning spin class last week and am keeping up with the program. A good run on Monday in new shoes to kick start the week. (Being the tech-ie I am, I purchased the new Zoot triathlon specific shoes and so far so good). Tuesday was a ride and swim. Swim....

All my program said was squad swim....I said nothing about a time trial! I was already there and changed, so into the pool I went. A good warm-up and a some drills, and off I went. For the first time in a TT, I went out strong and quickly got into a good rythum. Going out with 10 seconds between, I was the last of the 6 going. After 200m I had caught the person in front of me. In another 100m I had caught the next person. I was feeling good, going well and really felt strong for the whole TT. Now not to Aussie standards, but by Canadian standards, I think I did well. 800m in 15:10. The good parts, I feel stronger and more confident in the water, and I know I can go faster. The bad, I now need to transfer this "pool speed" to the open water. Easier said than done, but I know I can get there.

Good bike rides Wednesday 3 hours before work and an hour to get home. More to come this week.

That's about it, so I have to get going on work stuff (working from home today) as we have our benchtop and final kitchen things going in.

Cheers
Richard