Got the bus home this evening and when I walked up the end of my street I saw a few people looking out to sea. I turned around to see some whales breaching, so I ran home, grabbed my camera and managed to get a couple of shots. Spent the next 15 minutes watching them travel down the coast towards Bondi.

I’ve noticed that as my training weeks progress I get more and more tired, so that by the weekend I’m exhausted. This implies that I’m not getting enough food, but at the same time I’m not losing much weight, which implies that I am getting enough food. I decided to read up on post-exercise nutrition to see if I could be doing something a bit better immediately after exercising that would refuel me for my next session.

Turns out that there’s plenty written on the subject, though a lot of it is related to weight lifting and is more relevant to bodybuilders. However, there’s adequate evidence from endurance sources like Peak Performance Online (a brilliant training resource), CyclingNews and the Australian Institute of Sport which say essentially the same thing: that for an hour or two post-exercise your body is ready to suck up carbs to replenish muscle glycogen stores and protein to repair muscle damage. The guidelines recommend up to 1.5g of carbs (CHO) per kilo bodyweight, or to replace some of the CHO with protein (PRO) if you suspect muscle damage, eg: from weights or a long run.

Now the important part is you need to get the CHO and PRO into your bloodstream fast, so eating some lean meat isn’t going to cut it, as it will take two hours to digest by which time your optimum window is gone. So, for CHO you need maltodextrin powder and for PRO you need hydrolysed whey protein. Maltodextrin is very cheap ($10/kg) but the hydrolysed whey protein is a bit more expensive ($45/kg), though you need much less of it so it will last longer than the maltodextrin. The basic plan is to have 1.2g CHO/kg (102g) after a cycle in to work in the morning (about 1hr) and then 1g CHO/kg (85g) and 0.4g PRO/kg (34g) in the evening after a run. You mix it up in water (4ml/g) and drink half straight away then the other half after about 40mins.

I’ve ordered my stocks and I’m going to try it out and see if it makes any difference.

No training for the last two weeks, so got some catching up to do. At least I had two events instead, so I wasn’t completely lazy. Got the ferry in to work yesterday then cycled home. I had inteded going for a run but my legs were still a bit tired after the Gong ride, so I decided to wait until today before getting back into running. When I woke up this morning it was pissing rain, so that put paid to my cycle today.

I got my lunch-time swim in yesterday though, and while I felt really crap at the start of the session I was much better by the end of it. I’m restricting myself to 2km sessions at the moment to save my energy for running and cycling.

400 FS
100/200/300/200/100 FS, 15secs rest
300 Pull
4 * 25K/75 FS on 2:00 (1:35)
Total: 2000m

S: 2000m – B: 15km

Last year Citibank announced a product called Ready Credit, which is basically a credit card, but with the fancy feature of 4.9% interest on balance transfers until you have it paid off. No six month limit or anything. Since ING is paying 5.4% on their savings account, only paying 4.9% on a loan was a bloody bargain, so I signed up, transferred my outstanding balances and ditched all but my daily card. I never bought anything using the Citibank card (and chopped off the magnetic stripe so I couldn’t!) and just made the regular monthly repayment.

Today I get a letter saying that they’ve decided to introduce a $160 “credit facility fee”, payable on Dec 1st, but that if I spend $1000 before then I won’t have to pay it! That’s practically fucking extortion. Oh well, time to move credit providers.

Myself and Kevin met up this morning to do the annual Sydney To The Gong ride. As the construction of a new bridge is yet to finish past the Royal National Park, the route didn’t actually go to Wollongong, but turned back inland and finished up back at Sutherland. I rode from home to the start at St. Peters, then from St. Peters to Sutherland, via the Royal, then got the train back to Bondi Junction and cycled home from there for a total distance of 100.8km.

The first 30km of the ride were a bit scary as there were quite a lot of people who were riding all over the road, making it a bit dangerous trying to pass them. Once we got out towards the Royal things thinned out a bit and it was much better from then on. I’d never ridden in the Royal, and as it is quite hilly I was curious to see how I’d go. It turned out to be not as bad as I’d expected and while there were some long uphills they weren’t too much trouble. They were hard, but not uncomfortably so. Once I’d settled in to a good rhythm I was OK.

After reaching Stanwell Tops, the ride back to Sutherland was relatively straightforward. Undulating, but no serious hills. Even still, when we got to the end I was glad of the rest. Had a burger, kicked back in the sun for a while before heading home. Good fun.

B: 100.8km

The clocks went forward on Saturday night, meaning that I lost an hour of sleep. No big deal you say, so did everyone else. True, but everyone else didn’t have to get up at 5:10, meaning that I was effectively getting up at 4:10. I wasn’t too happy about that, but as Becs was picking me up at 6:00 I had no choice. Having loaded the bikes and gear in to the Pajero, it was off to collect Niall and Team BND was ready to hit the road for the TEVA Sydney adventure race (AR).

The event was being held in Belanglo State Forest, scene of Ivan Milat’s backpacker murders back in the early 90’s which was a comforting thought. I was unaware of this piece of trivia, but every Aussie I’d mentioned the race to commented on it straight away.

Myself and Becs had done the Kathmandu AR back in June, which was a two-person team event. This one required teams of three, so we drafted Niallo in as he’d previously expressed an interest. Having recently run a 3:28:59 marathon we figured he could be the pack horse for the team. As it turned out, we distributed the load fairly equally and he only had to carry a bit of nylon rope.

It had pissed down for our last race and we had hopes this one would be a little drier. I checked the rain radar in the morning and while it was raining lightly in Sydney, it looked like the rain clouds were passing north of the race location, itself 130km south of Sydney. However, there were plenty of grey coulds around when we arrived, and sure enough it started pissing rain shortly after the start.

The race was set up as two bike/run/bike legs, with a number of checkpoints throughout each leg. Some checkpoints were mere locations, where you looked for a coloured flag, and stamped your card with the punch hanging it. Others involved completing a challenge before receiving your stamp from an official. Challenges ranged from the bizarre to the straightforward, for example;

• Three Wise Monkeys Becs stood in an obstacle course, Niall stood 5 metres behind her, and I stood a further 5 metres behind Niall. The obstacle course contained a stuffed monkey, two small poles stuck in the ground, a toy crocodile, an upturned bucket and a broom handle. I had a card with instructions on it telling Becs what to do (see photo above). The instructions for Becs were roughly as follows;

  – Bend down on one knee and bow to the monkey god.

  – Pick up the monkey and place it on your right shoulder. It must remain there at all times

  – Walk around the left pole. You are not to touch the crocodile at any time, nor are you to step outside your team’s square.

  – Pick up the broom handle, and use it to manoeuver the crocodile outside the square

  – Walk to the upturned bucket and place the monkey on top of it

  – Bow down to the monkey god

  Now, this all sounds very easy. However, Becs had to wear a blindfold and I wasn’t allowed to talk, so I had to mime the instructions to Niall, who could then speak them on to Becs.

• VO2Max Blow up enough balloons to make a stack which touches a rope hung about eight feet off the ground (see photo above).

• Navigate on foot around an area to pick up 4 out of 5 checkpoints

• Build a sculpture using swimming pool noodles (flotation devices for kids to play with)

We failed our first challenge (throwing two eggs into a bucket of water without breaking them) and had to do a penalty run through an obstacle course to get our stamp. After that it was off on the bikes for a straightforward ride to a couple of checkpoint before ditching them for the run leg. The first run leg saw us being given a new map with five points marked on it. We had to visit 4 out of these 5 points using our compass and terrain-reading skills to figure out where to go. The first three were OK, but the last took up a bit longer, partly due to the map disintegrating in our hands due to the torrential rain.

Having compeleted that section we were then faced with a music trivia quiz/crossword before being allowed back on the bikes for some more fast riding between checkpoints to complete the end of leg one. This was when we had to complete the Three Wise Monkeys challenge mentioned above. We made a balls of the first attempt, and after completing a penalty run, we got through on the second effort.

Out we went on the second leg. The constant rain and copious mud was starting to take its toll on my bike and I was having awful trouble shifting gears without severe effort. My disc brakes were also squealing very loud in protest at all the gunk they had to deal with, so when we reached the last run leg they were glad of the rest.

This run leg involved copying the checkpoint from an official’s map, navigating to that checkpoint, stamping your form to prove you’d been there, then reading the next location off a map at the checkpoint, navigating to that and so on. After racking up four checkpoints it was back to pick up the bikes for the final bike leg. It was long, muddy and the crap weather was starting to piss us off, so I was looking forward to the end. We reached checkpoint 20 where we had to use our rope to carry a basketball, then throw it over a ten foot high rope, without touching the ball with our hands. That was the final obstacle and it was a fast 1.5km ride to the finish line, where we began stuffing our faces straight away at the post race BBQ. Our final time was 4hr43mins according to my watch.

Overall it was good fun, though I think we’re all looking forward to doing a race in the dry!

Update: The official results are out and we finished in 4:43:53, 19th out of 42 Mixed teams, and 34th out of 80 overall.

S: 2000m – B: 41.4km – R: 10km

Met up with Niall this morning for a few laps around Centennial Park on the way into work. Cycled via Military Road, Bondi, Bondi Road and then into the park via Queen’s Park and did a couple of laps before Niall showed up. We rode four laps together then I headed off into work while Niall stayed to do another lap. Total distance was 38.1km, and then another 10.2km on the way home this evening.

My lunchtime swim was OK. I was the only person there, so wasn’t that keen on doing a full session.

400 FS
100/200/300/200/100 FS, 15sec rest
7 * 100 FS on 1:45 (1:30)
Total: 2000m

My legs are still feeling good, so I got another run in after getting home. Did 5 laps this time for a total distance of 4.2km.

4.2km, 22:49.4
4:26.2, 142
4:29.0, 151
4:33.9, 151
4:37.8, 151
4:42.2, 152
HR @ 1min: 118

S: 4700m – B: 49.1km – R: 10.9km

I was supposed to hit the gym this morning, but didn’t bother after having a couple of beers at Hurricane’s last night. Got another good run in this evening though which I’m pretty happy with. No calf issues either which is a bonus.

3.35km, 18:13.8
4:27.8, 137
4:30.8, 148
4:34.5, 150
4:40.7, 151
HR @ 1min: 112

S: 2700m – R: 6.7km

I’ve been reading up a bit more on heart rate training and the general consensus for the aerobic training zone appears to be 60-75% of maximum heart rate. If you stay in that range, you’re working fully aerobically and won’t build up any lactic acid, so it’s ideal for long, slow distance work, which is what I’m doing (execpt I haven’t got to the long part yet).

The most accurate formula for determining heart rates without an actual test is the Karvonen Formula: x% HR = RestingHR + ((MaxHR – RestingHR) * x%), where RestingHR is your heart rate as soon as you wake up in the morning. In my case, my max is 190, my resting is 40, so my 60-75% zone is between 130 and 153.

I stuck those values into my HR monitor last night and went for my usual run around the local park. I’d previously thought that a HR of 145 marked the top of my aerobic zone, and when using that limit my laps averaged around 5:10. Last night I reeled off a 4:30, 4:36, 4:38 and 4:40. Not a bad return for only an extra 8 heart beats!

3.35km, 18:25.5
4:30.0, 141
4:36.5, 150
4:38.5, 151
4:40.5, 152
HR @ 1min: 116

After that it was off to Hurricane’s in Bondi for Joe’s birthday. I keep forgetting just how good their steaks are! Mmmmm! Delicious! Danny & Rachel were there too, and Danny had just proposed earlier that evening. Turns out that they’re getting married in Mount Maunganui the weekend after Graham’s wedding, so we might end up holidaying in NZ a little longer.

S: 2700m – R: 3.35km

My swim on Monday lunchtime wasn’t too great. I was still feeling a bit tired after the bike ride on Sunday, so was prett sluggish in the water. Luckily enough it was a fairly cruisey session. I think our coach is running out of ideas though, as she was stumped as to what session to put up on the board for us. I think it would probably help if she prepared a session before arriving and didn’t have to think itup on the spot.

400 FS
8 * 50 FS as {
    2 on 60
    2 on 55
    2 on 50
    2 on 45 }
400 Pull
3 * 3 * 100 on 2:00/1:50/1:40
400 Free
200 Pull
5 * 40 Kick on 1:20 (60)
Total: 2700m

S: 2700m