Went along to the swim session yesterday only to discover that our coach had decided to introduce heart-rate based training. In order for thsi to work we needed to know our maximum HR, so we had to do a 100m sprint and take our pulse afterwards. I managed 190, off a 1:05 100m Free. Only 12 seconds slower than my best ;-)

I’m not going to bother with the HR stuff, as I can swim 1:30/100m pace on a HR around 125bpm, but upping that to 150bpm only takes me to 1:25 pace, so it’s not really worth the extra effort, especially since I’ll be down around 1:25 pace in a couple of weeks anyway.

400 FS warm up
100 Sprint – 1:05 (HR: 190)
4 * 100 FS on 1:50
3 * 200 FS on 3:30
3 * 100 FS on 1:50
2 * 200 FS on 3:30
2 * 100 FS on 1:50
Total: 2400m

I cycled home as well, then went straight out for a run. I was only doing four laps of the park this time, for a total of 3.2km, again at a nice and relaxed pace. I can feel it in my legs this morning though, particularly the bottom of my calves. Still, today’s my day off, so I should be fine tomorrow.

S: 4900m – B: 30km – R: 9km – W: 1 session

Yesterday morning saw me up bright and early and straight into the gym for my only weights session of the week. I finished my weights program before going to NZ, but I’ve decided to do just one session per week for maintenance, so that I don’t lose the gains I made while doing the full program. It’s only one set of between 6 to 10 reps of heavy weights. If I get to 10 reps, then I have to increase the weight and build the reps back up to 10. It means the session is very quick, usually only taking 20mins or so, excluding the 1.6km warm-up run.

In the evening I managed my first outdoor run in a while. I did three runs on the hotel treadmill last week while in Canberra, as I knew I’d have to run outside this week and figured that the treadmill would be a good warm-up. Easier on the knees too. I ran five laps, which is about 4.2km, taking it nice and easy with an average HR around 145. I’m going for the slow and steady option for the moment, running each 840m lap around 5:05, instead of 4:40 last year, hoping it will be easier on my legs until the weight comes down!

S: 2500m – B: 15km – R: 5.8km – W: 1 session

Back from Canberra now, so I can get back into a proper week’s training schedule. Cycled in to work via the ferry, then hit the pool for my lunchtime swim session. Felt good throughout.

400 FS
4 * 100 IM on 1:45 (1:31)
400 Pull
8 * 50 FS on 50 (:45)
4 * 100 Pull on 1:45 (1:30)
10 * 50 FS on 50 (:43)
Total: 2500m

I’ve spent 20 years breathing almost exclusively to my right, so I’ve been working on breathing to my left over the last two weeks,in order to balance up my stroke a bit more. It felt pretty weird at first, but I’m starting to get the hang of it. My stroke still feels a little awkward while breathing left, but I’m fine-tuning it all the time. I’m limiting myself to 2500m per session at the moment so as to leave me enough energy for cycling and running. Last year I was doing too much swimming and not enough of the other two, hence the artificial limit for the moment.

I cycled home yesterday evening, which was rocket fast as I had the wind behind me.

S: 2500m – B: 15km

I’m down in Canberra this week and work is pretty busy, so I haven’t been posting much. Nonetheless, the exercise regime has continued as follows:

Monday: 3km run.

Tuesday AM: 1.6km run, Weights + 1km swim.

Tuesday PM: 3.4km run

Thursday AM: 2km swim

My achilles are a bit sore after the running, but I took yesterday off so I’ll be ready to get another run in when I get back to the hotel this evening.

S: 3000m – R: 8km – W: 1 session

Yesterday’s pool sessions was a bit better than Monday’s. It felt a little easier, though my IM times are about 10secs slower than a few months ago, so there’s a long way to go yet. I’ve decided (after 20 odd years of swimming) to start breathing to my left as much as possible, in order to balance out my stroke a bit and I can feel myself developing the loping style indicative of a strong bias to one side.

2 * {
    150 FS
    2 * 100 Rev. IM
    2 * 50 BC }
12 * 50 FS as {
    4 on 55
    4 on 50
    4 on 45 }
6 * 100 IM on 2:00 (1:37)
2 * 200 FS
Total: 2500m

S: 4500m – B: 15km – R: 1.6km – W: 1 session

Cycled home from work last night and really noticed the fact that I hadn’t been on the bike in a couple of weeks. Decided not to do any laps of the park until I get a couple of weeks under my belt. No point killing myself in the first week and then fading in the second week. As it was I was tired by 10pm anyway.

Jumped out of bed early this morning and hopped on the bus into the gym. After a quick 1.6km warm-up run I hit the weights. Having completed my weights program before heading off to NZ, I’m now doing what’s called a Strength Maintenance program. It’s basically the same exercises as the regular session, with heavy weights, but instead of doing 4 sets of 6 reps, I’m only doing one. Once I can manage 10 reps I’ll up the weight and drop back to 6. I’ll only be doing one session per week, as the general idea is not really to gain strength, but rather not to lose any gains already made. It’s almost like a regular taper, where you can cut out 80% of the work as long as you maintain the intensity.

S: 2000m – B: 15km – R: 1.6km – W: 1 session

There has been a ban on exercise in place since we came back from NZ in order to allow the Irish entrants in Fat Club: This Time It’s Personal (TTIP) to fly home and get organised. The ban expired this morning, so it was time to hop on the bike in to work. Since I had a few ferry trips remaining on my pass, I decided to use them up and cruise the harbour, leaving the cycling until the way home.

It was a beautiful winter’s morning, with a low sun on a glassy harbour, and I couldn’t help thinking what a wonderful way it is to start the morning, so I’m going to do it all the time (well on the three days per week I’m going to cycle) and save the cycling for the evening. I’ll need to add in some laps around Centennial Park on the way home to make up for it, but I reckon it’s worth it. I’ll have to bring the camera along one morning and take a few snaps, to drive home my point and convince any skeptics!

Anyway, it was also time to get back in the pool at lunch-time and that was interesting. Stroke felt good, though I was tired pretty quickly. It will take me two weeks to get back into it, so I pulled the plug after 2km today.

200 FS warm up
4 * {50K/100FS}
400 Pull
300 Choice
8 * 50 FS as {
    2 on 60
    2 on 55
    2 on 50
    2 on 45}
100 swim down
Total: 2000m

S: 2000m

After the usual weight gain while in NZ we’ve decided to attempt another Fat Club. It worked briefly last year, losing 5kg by Christmas, but one thing led to another and I’m now back to where I was at this time last year. The one positive is that at least I’m fitter and stronger.

Looking back on what worked, and what didn’t, over the last year reveals that volume of work done is the greatest predictor of weight loss, so it’s back to square one and I’ll be gradually building up the amount of work done every week. This is effectively my third attempt at consistent weight loss, so if this one fails I’ll just have to accept that I’m still lazy and inconsistent, and just let the inevitable slide towards middle aged fatness continue.

Weighed in at 89.9kg this morning…

Weighed in at 89.6kg yesterday morning, so I stacked on 1.2kg in NZ. Not as bad as the 2kg I was expecting but still bad enough to be keen to start exercising again. I’m out for dinner again tonight before Sean, Aisling and Dave head back to Ireland tomorrow, so since tomorrow will mark the official end of the holiday I might celebrate with a swim.

I’ve just had my first weekend snowboarding this season and it was great fun. Myself, Tom and Dave went down to Perisher for two days. Saturday was crystal clear skies and decent snow. Pretty hard packed with a bit of cover over the top. I managed to fall twice within 5 minutes of putting the board on, but after that it was all good and I was getting some nice fast carves in.

Dave’s a skiing novice, having only done one week in St. Anton last year, so we cruised around the easy slopes for most of the weekend, with Tom giving him tips and correcting mistakes. He made pretty rapid progress, such that we were coming down Interceptor by Sunday afternoon. He also signed up for a private lesson with Franz The Austrian yesterday which went really well, so he’ll be flying by the time we get abck down there on Friday.

This time I’ll take my new camera out and get some action shots. I decided to leave it in the hotel last weekend until I got my technique dialled in. No point falling over on the new camera all the time!

Oh yeah, got up this morning and got a weight session in too.

W: 1 session

Commuted to work on the bike today and I remembered to go for a swim as well. Quite uneventful. Felt reasonably OK given that I was still a bit stiff from weights yesterday.

800 FS
5 * 100 IM on 1:50 (1:32)
10 * 50 FS {
    4 @ 60
    4 @ 55
    2 @ 50 }
5 * 100 Rev. IM on 2:00 (1:34)
10 * 50 FS {
    4 @ 60
    4 @ 55
    2 @ 50 }
Total: 2800m

Only a weights session tomorrow and then it’s snow time! Dave’s arriving from Ireland tomorrow morning, then himself, Tom and myself are heading down to the snow on Friday.

S: 2800m – B: 52.6km – R: 2.5km – W: 1 session

Rode home from work last night and did two laps of the park. I forgot to go swimming yesterday lunchtime though; I only remembered at 12.30 by which time it was too late. I could have run over and got 40mins in maybe, but decided to wait until Wednesday instead.

There was a rest day in the Tour so I got to bed at a reasonable hour, but still struggled getting out of bed this morning. Yesterday morning was also bloody freezing, so I decided it was time to take out the windproof fleece bike top today and it worked a treat. I was nice and toasty while whizzing down the hill on Old South Head Road on the way to the ferry.

I got a good weights session in just now. It’s good to see progress being made, and little increments over last week show that I’m getting a bit stronger. Only two weeks to go and then I can relax a bit, enjoy the snowboarding season and then get stuck into aerobic exercise after that. I’m cycling home this evening too, though won’t be doing any laps of the park today.

B: 37.6km – R: 2.5km – W: 1 session

The final part of the weights program, the heavy lifting bit, started this week. I wasn’t able to go to the gym on Monday, so I started on Wednesday instead, and went again today. I’m really noticing the difference now, as my muscles are sore all the time now, especially my quads. Only a couple more weeks to go and I’m done though, so I cam put up with it until then. I’ve also done two 2.5km runs as warm-ups before the weights, but I missed out on the Monday swim session.

I’ve started commuting by bike again as it’s just less hassle than public transport, especially since I’m getting up a bit later due to staying up late to watch the Tour de France live on SBS. I cycle down to Rose Bay and get the ferry in in the morning’s as I’m too tired to deal with climbing the hill up to Bondi Junction. In the evening I cycle all the way home, with a few optional laps around Centennial Park depending on how I feel and how dark it is. I think I’ll just go straight home today ;-)

B: 56.4km – R: 5km – W: 2 sessions

Rode in and out of work on Wednesday, including a few laps of the park. This time I was on my own, rather than riding at the back of a bunch and it required a bit more effort for a bit less speed. Did a weights session yesterday which went pretty well, and preceded it with a 2.5km warm-up run. This afternoon it was time for a swim which didn’t go too well. I just felt really sluggish and couldn’t get any feel for the water and just got quite tired quite quickly. It’s probably a combination of not being in the water for the previous three weeks, going to the Friday session instead of Monday (fresh after the weekend) and being a bit stiff after weights yesterday.

100 BC/ 200 FS/ 100 BC
3 * 200 FS on 2:50 (2:45)
4 * 50 FS on 60 (45)
3 * 50 FS on 55 (45)
3 * 50 FS on 50 (45)
400 FS on 6:00 (5:55)
300 Swim Down
Total: 2200m

S: 2200m – B: 45.2km – R: 2.5km – W: 2 sessions

Got back into the gym yesterday for a weights session. Only one month to go until I’m finished the program too. I’m down to two sets of nine reps with reasonably heavy weights. Next week it jumps to four sets of nine and that’s when it’s going to start to hurt.

Rode home last night and did a couple of laps of Centennial Park in the dark. Just as I arrived the regular bunch was passing by, so I tagged on the back, figuring it would be a bit safer with 40-odd riders than going it solo in the pitch black. I had my HR monitor on so it will be interesting to compare speed & HR in the bunch against me riding around on my own.

B: 22.6km – W: 1 session

I decided to take the week off last week to recover from the adventure race, doing nothing apart from a 35min trainer session on Friday, but i’m starting back today. I had intended cycling in to work yesterday but realised that I had no bike light, so I postponed cycling until today, and bought myself a new, super-bright front LED.

Inspired partly by the

Just had a quick look and the official results are now online. We came 21st out of 40 in the Mixed catogory, and 73rd out of 150 overall with an official time of 4:31.03. Turns out the team in 20th only beat us by two seconds!

Lessons learned for the next one:

1. Attach the bike repair kits & pump to the bike. Do not carry it around in your backpack.

2. Get a much smaller backpack and only carry the bare essentials.

3. Do LOTS more run training!

I did my first ever adventure race at the weekend and it was great fun. It was a team event, each team consisting of two people, so Becs got roped into being my teammate and we entered in the Mixed category. Given that neither of us had ever done an event before, we enrolled in the training day which was held the day before the race.

Saturday morning dawned to a light drizzle which put a bit of a dampener on things, but we drove down to the Royal National Park with only a vague idea of what lay in store for us. We knew it was a training day, but I wasn’t sure whether they’d have us running around all day or not. As it turned out it was quite relaxed. We spent the morning learning the basics of navigation; how to use a compass, plot your location on a map and then navigate to your destination. We wouldn’t actually need much navigation skills for the race, but they’ll come in handy at some stage in the future. We also got plenty of tips for route planning, and got advised to arrive early so we’d have plenty of time to annotate our map with our chosen route and some navigation clues.

After that it was a spot of lunch, followed by the rudiment of mountain biking (which I already knew) and the basics of kayaking. Having been on the kayaking course previously I thought I was well prepared, but as the kayak we’d be using in the race was only half the length of a sea kayak, and also inflatable, it spun on a dime, so most of the what we’d learnt on the kayaking course no longer applied. If we tried using the ‘torso rotation’ method of paddling, the kayak just spun underneath us! It had rained on and off all day, so I ended up soaking wet and freezing by the time I got home. I’d have to prepare better for race day!

The alarm went off on race day at 5:20 and I could hear the rain outside. “OK,” I thought to myself, “it’s going to be a mud fest!” After a quick bowl of cereal I packed up my gear, making sure I brought a complete change of clothes for after the race. Becs picked me up a little after 6:00 and we made it down to the Royal shortly after 7:00, dropped off our bikes at the bike transition, then got a great park near the start and registered nice and early. We picked the map and race instructions out of the bag and headed back to the car to plot our route around the course.

8:40 saw us standing in the rain listening to the race briefing, feeling surprisingly relaxed. Probably worrying more about the weather than the race itself! The gun went off at 8:56 and we sauntered off at the back of the pack. Our first checkpoint was about 1.5km up the Hacking River and we had to row to get there. I started off the rowing, though launching the boat amongst about 10-15 other teams meant that the first few minutes were spent trying not to crash into someone. Becs navigated out to the checkpoint which was a lot further than it had looked on the map and it took us about half an hour to reach it. We punched our card, then turned to head back to the boat shed. We considered swapping places and letting Becs row for a bit, but decided against trying to swap places for fear of ending up in the water. I’d remembered that the current flows fastest in the centre of the river, so we did our best to stay away from the banks and it only took about 20mins to get back to the boat shed.

The second section was all running, with a further three checkpoints to navigate to. Our preparation in the car paid off as we knew almost exactly where we were going, though as it involved gaining and then losing about 100m in altitude, my legs weren’t too happy with the whole operation. Carrying about 5kg of stuff in my backpack didn’t really help either. I was pretty pleased after nabbing the 4th checkpoint until I realised we had to run back up to the Visitor’s Centre to start the bike legs. Anyone who has driven into the Royal National Park knows that the hill down to the weir is bloody steep, so can imagine having to run back up it. The road was off-limits, so we had to use and adjacent walking trail which consisted mostly of steps. I decided from the start that I was going to walk it and Becs was happy to oblige, though I suspect I was holding her up as trailwalking is her strong point.

By this stage we’d been going for almost two hours and I was feeling a bit tired. I’d been drinking water regularly and had eaten a Mars & a breakfast bar, but it was now time to bring out the heavy artillery in the form of a Gu Energy Gel. It was quite tasty, but I didn’t get any sugar rush from it. However, I soon forgot about being tired and it was only an hour later that I realised that I’d been charging around the place without issue, so they obviously work very well!

We finally made it to the bike transition at the Visitor’s Centre, checked in with the course marshalls and jumped on the bikes for the MTB leg. There was mud everywhere so we had a great time charging through the puddles and just getting completely spattered with dirt. Becs took a turn at navigating, but I ruied it a bit by taking off down what I thought was the right track, but turned out to be the wrong one. Luckily we didn’t end up too far from our desired destination so we didn’t really lose any time.

There was one tricky section of the course which was a steep downhill. Given the conditions you’d fall over if you went too slow, but you couldn’t go too fast either as there were other teams walking uphill towards us. We made it down at a reasonable pace without issue, clicked off our 7th checkpoint and started the long walk up the hill on the other side. Cycling up wasn’t really an option as there was so much mud it was almost impossible to get traction. The 8th checkpoint was at the school near Grays Point, where we ditched the bikes and ran (well walked) through suburbia to the local boat ramp for the kayaing leg, stopping en route to explain to some kids what was going on. After all, there were plenty of mud-covered lunatics running back and forth through their streets.

The kayak leg was a pain in the arse as the kayaks were inflatable. The recommendation was to put the heavier person in the back, so that left Becs up front. Given the weight difference between us the boat actually bent in the middle! Ideally we should have been kneeling up and leaning slightly forward, but I wasn’t able to kneel due to my recurring foot issue. It hadn’t been bothering me during the race, but it seems to be triggered by stretching my foot, so sitting on it was almost certain to aggravate the problem. I ended up sitting on my arse, in probably the least efficient paddling position. Thankfully the leg was only about 30mins long, after which we ran back to the school, picked up the bikes and entered the great unknown.

In an effort to prevent any cheating, the last six checkpoints were not marked on competitor’s maps and had to be acquired on course. As we picked up the bikes, the course marshall showed us his map with the next checkpoint marked on it and we were off. It was now just one long MTB dirt fest to the finish. At each remaining checkpoint there was the hole punch to mark your control card, and a map with the next checkpoint marked on it. We flew around the rest of the course, apart from a hiccup at checkpoint 12, where some kind soul had stolen both the hole punch and the map showing the location of checkpoint 13. Thankfully some volunteers were on hand to explain the situation and point out CP13 on our map.

CP13, CP14 and CP15 followed in rapid succession, with us passing a couple of mixed teams en route. CP15 was the last checkpoint, and all that remained was to ride to the road and speed downhill back to the weir. There was another mixed team right in front of us, so we hammered downhill and managed to pass them. We dumped our bikes in the last bike transition, shouted our team number to the marshalls and asked “Is that it? Are we finished?”. The response was “What does your course card tell you to do.” Unfortunately it said we had to run back to where we’d started the race, a distance of about 1km. Off we went, but my knees were in bits at this stage and my run more closely resembled a hobble. The teams we’d passed on the downhill sauntered past us and there was nothing we could do. We crossed the line with big grins on our faces with my watch reading 4hrs 34mins. Happy Days ;-)

We’ll definitely do another one.

Did a second 30min stint on the indoor trainer when I got home on Wednesday night. Same drill as last time: 10min warmup, some one legged drills and finish off with another 10mins cycling. Had another gym session first thing yesterday morning and felt surprisingly good. Normally I’m a bit sluggish in the morning.

Wk11: S: 2000m – B: 30km – W: 2 sessions

Got up this morning to do some training on my indoor trainer. I had spent last week playing around with it and making a few adjustments to my cleat positions, so I was ready for a straight training ride today. I was aiming for 30 minutes to start off with, so after a 10min warm-up I started doing a few one-legged cycling drills.

The basic idea is to cycle with one leg (obviously), which sounds a lot easier than it actually is. It’s amazing how tired your leg becomes when you have to lift it over the top of the pedal cycle, so my original intention of doing 5mins on each leg got rapidly downgraded to 2 * 1min each. I guess I’ll have to build that up slowly. In case you’re wondering, the reason you’d do these drills in the first place is to teach you to lift your leg at the bottom of the pedal stroke. This means that the opposite leg, which is on the down stroke, now has less work to do, leading to a more effficient pedal stroke and a faster cyclist. I completed the session with another 10mins steady cycling.

Lunchtime swim: did the whole session as pull, since my foot is still annoying me.

200 FS Warm Up
8 * 50 on 1:00 (40)
4 * 50 Catch on 1:00 (45)
5 * {
    100 Catch on 2:00 (1:35)
    100 FS on 2:00 (1:24) }
200 Cool Down
Total: 2000m

Wk11: S: 2000m – B: 15km – W: 1 session