Weighed in at 87.6kg yesterday, though body fat is down to 17.6%. Still heading in the right direction, though a little slower after the last week sitting on my arse in Canberra. It’s getting dark so bloody early now. Obviously an hour of that is as a result of gaining an hour, but it seems like it’s getting darker almost 2 hours earlier. 3 weeks ago it was dusk around 19:45. Now it’s 18:00. I can’t ride my bike now until I get some lights. I was going to get some heavy-duty liights which would do duty off-road as well, but I reckon I’ll stick with the brightest flashers I can find for the moment.

Well I’m down in Canberra this week and training is out the window. It’s dark a LOT earlier down here, so that rules out cycling after work as I haven’t gotten around to buying a set of lights for the bike. I decided I’d get up this morning and go for a cycle. Set the alarm for 6.40, dressed, hopped on the bike and set of down the street. Second problem: it was bloody freezing! Here’s me dressed for usual daytime weather of 20C plus and it was less than 10C. A quick about turn and back into bed. I’m going for a run in the gym tonight which will have to do.

Weigh-in on Monday: 87.2kg

Up bright and early for a swim this morning. Went pretty well. Quite slow compared to what I’m used to, but that’s only to be expected at this stage of the game. Left the bike at home as I’m off to the movies after work. It will give my legs a break as well.

200 FS easy
20 * 50 FS on 60 (avg: 41, stroke count: 34)
200 FS easy

B: 20km – R: 3.3km – S: 1400m

Just another exercise day today. I’ve just finished my run and it felt pretty good. My calves were a little sore at the start and I was tempted to stop just in case I was going to aggravate them, but I continued on. I ceased trying a Pose-type style, which is known to strain the calves initially, and reverted to a shuffle style and all went well. I’ll have to take my bike out and use the bike computer to measure out some of the run route so I’ve a rough idea how far I’m going.

B: 40km – R: 6.6km

Back on the bike today for the commute. A bit windy this morning, but my legs felt fine after last night’s run, so it wasn’t too bad. Cycling home was quite good. I was trying to practise pedalling correctly, applying power all the way around the stroke, rather than just pressing down. It felt easier for a while, then my hamstrings got sore, probably because they’re not used to doing much work on the bike.

B: 20km – R: 3.3km

I wanted to figure out how quickly I could burn a kilo of fat by doing various amounts of exercise. I found a site which gave a lot of figures for the caloric cost of various forms of activity. So, I messed around in Excel a bit and did up a spreadsheet which allows you to enter how many hours a day of each activity you do, and it will tell you how many weeks it will take you to burn off a kilo of fat, assuming that you stick to the schedule and that you don’t eat more to compensate for increased activity. It also points out that having too great a defecit between the amount you eat and the amount you burn off is also not healthy.

Anyway, if you want to use it you can download it from here. Naturally, you will need Excel to use it.

No cycling today, mainly because it was blowing up a storm when I was supposed to leave the house and I hate cycling in big winds. Got the bus instead. Went for a run when I got home which was fun since it was still very windy. Upped the run to 5W/5R * 3 and it felt pretty good. Legs were tired by the end of it though. Now that I’ve got 3 sections to the run I’ll gradually start increasing the middle section as the weeks go by. The first can stay at 5mins and serve as a warm-up and the final 5mins can be a warm-down. Lots of stretching should mean that I’ll remain injury-free.

R: 3.3km

My legs are still tired this morning after all the work from last week. I plan on concentrating on my swimming and running for a couple of weeks now. I’ll still be cycling, though not as much as last week.

Since I was a swimmer as a kid, I never played football or rugby, so my legs aren’t very well suited to the additional stresses placed on them while running. I used to get shin splints after running 200m for the bus! I want to learn to run properly, so I’ve ordered a book on Pose Running which was recommended to me by the guy at The Runner’s Shop in Clovelly, where I bought my shoes.

Obviously everyone can run. It’s just something you learn at a very early age. What I want to learn is proper running technique, and more importantly how to run while putting as little stress as possible on my legs. That should lead to nice, efficient and injury-free running.

Weigh-in: 87.6kg

Struggled out of bed this morning. Was not looking forward to cycling anywhere, but forced myself to do it. I’ve finally cracked the 100km in a week barrier. Tried doing a swim before work as well, but gave up after 400m as I was drained.

B: 102km – R: 4.4km – S: 1400m

Did three laps of Centennial Park with Greg and then another run along the cliffs. Am almost at 100km for the week.

B: 92km – R: 4.4km – S: 1000m

Did another couple of laps of the park with Niall on the way home. Tired now ;-)

B: 62km – R: 2.2km – S: 1000m

Well, I did it. I managed to get out of bed in time to go for a swim, even if it was only 1km. I found that my arms get tired quite quickly, so I guess I’ll just have top stick with it for the moment. Got myself a 20-visit pass which should last me at least 6 weeks, assuming I stick to 3 swims a week.

B: 41km – R: 2.2km – S: 1000m

Got this week off to a good start. Did a couple of laps of Centennial Park as part of the commute home, then went for a run once I made it home. The run is along the cliffs, passing Australia’s first Lighthouse, and sure beats trudging through the streets of Canberra! Maybe that’s why the run felt reasonably good today, or it could have been the fact that my legs were well warmed up after the 21km cycle home.

I’ve just rung the Cook & Phillip Pool to see if they have lap swimming in the morning and they do, starting from 6am. If I can get up around 7, then I’ll cycle in and have a small swim. It’s about time I got back in the water.

B: 31km – R: 2.2km

Down to 86.6kg this morning.

Hit the park on the way home for a couple of laps with Niall, so the cycling is going well. Needed to do a couple more laps tonight to hit 100km for the week, but it was raining when I was supposed to leave the house this morning, and thunderstorms were forecast, so I got the bus instead. 5mins into the bus ride the blue sky came out. I should have cycled after all. Bloody typical!

I’ve been a bit slack on the running front this week (in that I’ve done none). I’ll have to make up for it at the weekend and go running on Saturday and Sunday.

B: 71km

Weighed in at 88.0kg this morning, 300g more that the last time. However, since my body fat is down to 18% that means my legs must be muscling up from all the cycling ;-)

B: 25km

Went for another ride around the lake last night. I left work late, so I didn’t have time to do a full lap before it got dark (should really buy some lights) but I still got a 21.2kmh ride in, with an average speed of 29kmh which was pretty good. It felt quite easy as well. The only downside to riding at dusk was the clouds of midges at various parts of the trip. Had to make sure I closed my mouth before passing through the cloud!

On a positive note, when I get around to doing a triathlon I’d be aiming to average 30kmh or so on the bike, so I shouldn’t have too much trouble doing that based on last night’s ride, especially if I was on a road bike rather than an MTB. Now all I have to do is learn to run!

Went for another run last night. Same as last time, 5min walk, 5min run, twice. It’s surprisingly taxing on my lungs. I was breathing quite heavily after the 5mins, whereas I was fine all during the 1hr 17min bike ride on Tuesday even though I was moving at a pretty quick pace. I also don’t remember being this out of breath while running on the treadmill before. Maybe it’s something to do with running outside. Maybe I’m running too fast since I’ve no way of guaging my speed. It feels like I’m just going fast enough to ‘run’ as distinct from ‘loping from side to side’.

B: 33.5km – R: 4.4km

Got a good ride in last night after work: around Lake Burley Griffin. It was 33.5km from the hotel, around the lake and back to the hotel, at an average speed of 27.2kmh overall, and 28.1kmh if I exclude the hotel to lake and lake to hotel bits. It’s quite a nice ride, hugging the side of the lake most of the way around, passing Old Parliament House, The Governor General’s house and the National Museum of Australia. It’s a tarmac bike track almost all the way around and is mainly flat. The last 20% of the ride was into the wind but it wasn’t too strong. By the end of it my lower back was a bit sore & my legs were a little tired, but other than that it was plain sailing. I’ll hopefully do it again on Thursday.

B: 33.5km – R: 2.2km

Went for my first run in the real world (rather on a treadmill) tonight. 5mins walk, 5mins run, twice. It felt easy enough on my legs, but was still surprisingly tiring, given that I wasn’t exactly going fast. My legs felt a little sore afterwards, so it’s going to be a long road to get up to 3 30min runs a week. Still, it’s a start.

R: 2.2km