Cycled home last night and then headed out for a run. I was adopting my current tactic of keeping my HR below 150 and just cruising along, but my times indicated I was running a bit faster than usual. I’d also noticed that my HR was very low when I hopped on the bike to cycle home, but I just assumed that the strap was a bit loose on my chest and thought no more of it. However, with my run HR being a bit lower, and me making sure the chest strap had a proper connection, I was left wondering what was causing my lower HR… and the only thing I could come up with was all the altitude training I’d done in Canberra last week ;-)

Legs feel pretty good this morning, so I’ll just do a shorter run of around 3km this evening, then do another 6-7km on Wednesday and see how that goes.

That’s rubbish BTW, as Canberra’s only at 600m or so, and there’s no real physioloigcal effect below about 1500m

B: 32km – R: 6.5km

That was another good week in Canberra. Myself and Tom went back up to Majura for another two hour ride on Wednesday night with Paul. I took Thursday off exercise to give my legs a break, and went out to watch V for Vendetta instead. Good movie, very political, really drilled home the “fight for your rights before they’re gone” theme. Followed that up with some Belgian beers in Debacle.

Friday morning saw me out for a 7.5km (45mins) run before checking out of the hotel. John offered to put us up on Friday night, so we headed over to his place after work to drag him out for his first proper MTB ride. Tom had him worried with tales of going over the handlebars, but I explained that that was a skill Tom and Kev were nurturing, whereas myself and Niall preferred not to fall off.

Majura was the logical place to take John for his first outing, both because it was close to home and because it’s bloody good, so off we went around 5pm. John was a bit worried that his bike wouldn’t be up to scratch but we assured him it would be fine, and sure enough, once we got to the trails he had a great time. It was pretty easy to tell, since about half way through the evening’s riding he was talking about getting “a good bike” and giving his current one to Sarah! Time will tell. Made it home around 7.30, then did the take-out and DVD thing.

Our plan for Saturday morning was to get up early and head out to ride the MONT 24hr course at Kowen Forest. We finally got going at 10.30, not really as early as planned, but the weather was a bit iffy anyway. It had all cleared up by the time we got there, to be greeted by a bloody big climb to start the 6km ride to even get to the trail. It was soon apparent that we were almost the only people out there, and also that the course doesn’t get a whole lot of use, since there was very little signposting. We soon regretted our laziness in not printing off a trail map as we couldn’t find it anywhere, and after an hour of riding around (still having fun though) we decided to call it a day.

So, we managed to get around 8hrs of MTBing in over the week which was pretty good. The clocks went forward as we went out of daylight savings this morning, so the next time we’re in Canberra the early sunsets will rob us of decent riding time… unless I shell out $500 for a set of HID lights to turn night into day!

B: 95.2km – R: 18km

I’m down in Canberra again this week, and have had a good start to the week. Got up for a run on Tuesday morning. Canberra’s a bit cooler than Sydney in the mornings, but not so cold that I had to rug up (yet), so it was nice to get out and not be dripping sweat like an evening run. Cruised around for ~5.5km in 33mins.

Last night, myself and Tom headed up to Majura Pines for two hours of quality MTBing, getting home just before dark, then it was up again this morning for another run. Felt a bit more tired today after the MTBing, but took a different route for a total of ~5km in 29mins. More MTBing to come tonight as well. ;-)

B: 24.8km – R: 10.5km

Rode home last night, which was pretty straightforward, then went out for a run. Took things easy again, and just ran for 16min (~3km) to play it safe. All went well again, so I think I’ll stick to the easy stufff for the time being.

Rode in to work this morning and it was wet again. It’s been like this for the last week which is a bit unusual. Managed to get a puncture too, so I think it’s time to buy some new tyres. The ones I have on the bike are lightweight race tyres I bought for the triathlon back in January, so are not really suitable for day-to-day commuting. I’ll need something a little more puncture resistant, and maybe with a little bit of tread, as these are full slicks and have shag all grip in the rain!

B: 30.9km – R: 7.5km

Had a chat about my running woes with Niall at lunch yesterday and he mentioned that he used to have a similar problem and was recommended some foot specific stretches. I gave it a shot when I got home, doing the stretches and generally warming my feet up before heading out for the run.

I also decided to take it easy, running with a HR around 140, rather than the usual 155, and all seemed to go well. I ran for 26mins (~4.5km) and didn’t have any problems with my foot at all. I think I’ll keep doing short, slow runs for a week or two before getting back into the longer stuff, and hopefully that will settle things down. It plays havoc with the half-marathon plans, but my time goal was a luxury anyway – nice to have, but not really necessary for my first attempt – so I won’t miss it.

I rode in to work this morning as well, and it was wet/damp again. It’s starting to get dark in the mornings too, so I’m soon going to need a good set of lights. I can probably postpone any purchase for a couple of weeks once daylight savings kicks in in April.

B: 11km – R: 4.5km

I picked my bike up from Kevin’s place on Monday night and started commuting by bike again on Wednesday and Thursday. No laps of the park, just straight in and out of work. I’m also going to take the aerobars off tomorrow, and revert to normal roadie positioning, as I don’t have any races for the forseeable future.

Got home last night and went out for what was supposed to be a 6km run only to have the same shit flare up from Monday. I stopped a couple of times to try out different lacing patterns in an attempt to alleviate the discomfort but none worked, so I abandoned after about 2km. I’m not going to run for the rest of the week and just rest and stretch and start again on Monday. Hopefully that will be enough to solve the problem. If it’s not, then the whole half marathon plan could be out the window ;-(

B: 45km – R: 5.3km

Headed off for a 5km run this evening but had to cut it short because my right foot was hurting. I’m not sure what was causing it, but any time I’ve had it before it was just my laces being too tight, but that was certainly not the case this time. Decided it was better to be safe than sorry, so will do a lot of stretching before my next scheduled run on Wednesday.

R: 3.2km

I got a good long run in on Friday. We were going to Macmasters Beach for the weekend with Jacqui’s family, so I decided to move my long run forward from Saturday to make sure I got it done.

Ran from the top of my road, down to the golf course, then did almost two laps of that, for a total running time of 55mins. The plan called for a 9.6km run, and I’d done 50mins last week, so I figured 55mins should be sufficient. My HR was pretty high at the end of it (around 170) but I think that was mainly because I was pretty dehydrated by then. I’ll have to start bringing some water with me on the long runs.

When I got home I fired up Google Earth and measured the run at 9.7km. It’s 2km from my house to the golf course, then each lap is 4.25km, and the I stopped 800m short of completing the the second lap.

I spent the weekend recovering as my quads and achilles were both reasonably tight. Lots of stretching and taking it easy.

R: 15km

I got a couple of runs in last week while in Canberra, culminating in a 50min run on Friday which went pretty well. My lower legs were pretty sore after it, and by the time I’d finished all the MTBing over the weekend my quads were pretty sore too, so I skipped my Monday run.

I ventured out last night and decided to take it easy for 30mins. The plan I’m following called for a 5km run, but I decided to keep my average HR around 150 and to see how far I could go inside the half hour. It turned out to be 5.3km this week, but the intention is to use this as kind of a test session as the weeks progress.

R: 5.3km

Well after the holidays in NZ, and kicking back and relaxing after the triathlon in January, training started again this week. Myself, Niall and possibly Kevin are going to do the SMH Half Marathon in May, so I downloaded one of Hal Higdon’s training programs and started it this week.

Monday and Wednesday saw me running around the streets of Canberra for a little over 5km each time, and I’ve another 5km this evening followed by approx. 8km tomorrow morning. Since myself and Tom are in Canberra for work this week, I’m also getting quite a bit of mountain biking in around Mount Majura and with Kev & Niall coming down tomorrow morning to experience MTBing Canberra style, it’s going to be a pretty hectic weekend.

R: 11.2km – B: 57km

When I first noticed the sport of triathlon and decided it was something I wanted to do, an Olympic Distance (1.5/40/10) was my goal. After doing my first tri at Kurnell in December (.75/20/5) I got straight on the net and entered the Canberra OD with Kev. The race was yesterday…

I hadn’t done a whole lot of training between Kurnell and New Year, but had got three decent weeks in since then, so I was fairly confident. I’d also bought my first set of aerobars, but my longest ride actually on the bars was only 15km, though I could tell they were fast. I’d got my weekly long run up to 9km too, so I was reasonably confident the run would be OK.

Drove down on Saturday and saw quite a few cars heading down with bikes inside or on top. Stopped at the servo in Marulan and noticed quite a few cars with the Watch For Cyclists stickers attached too. We were staying in John’s place so rocked up there, watched Kev do some last minute drivetrain clean & lube, went down and registered and then drove a lap of the bike course to see what we were in for. Looked nice and fast. No hills, but a couple of undulations around the back. That set our mind at ease a bit.

Up the next morning and plenty of butterflies. Both of us were novices at the distance so had no idea of what to expect, but we decided to set very rough goals anyway:

Me: 2h 25 – 22 swim, 1:13 bike, 50 run.

Kev: 2h 40 – 30 swim, 1:25 bike, 45 run.

The lake was 27C, so it was no wetsuit which I was delighted about, as I don’t own a wettie and can swim well anyway. Once I had pumped my tyres, got my gear organised and had visited the jacks, the nerves disappeared and it was all calm before the start. I decided to cruise the swim and use it as my warm-up, so once the gun went off I got myself in a bit of clear space and settled in to it. Pretty uneventful, but came out of the water in 24:52 with an AvHR of 159! Too slow and too high a HR, what’s up? Ran up to transition and my hamstrings were close to cramping too which worried me a little. Through transition in 3:19 which is bloody slow, but I can’t do that shoes on the bike thing yet so had to fart around a bit putting them on.

Out on the bike, onto the bars and off we go. It took a few kms to shake of the ‘impending cramp’ feeling and after that all was well. I settled in to a nice rhythm on the first lap with a HR hovering around 160 which was roughly what I had intended. Had a gel around Parliament House after the undulations and went through 20km in 34:30 which I was very happy with as it felt pretty easy. Decided to pick up the pace a little on the second lap, since I now knew what to expect, so held 40km/h+ all along Parkes Way and the Tuggeranong Freeway to the Cotter Rd turnoff (apart from the couple of undulations that is). I got out of the saddle to stretch my legs & back on some of the climbs around the back of the course, had another gel, then finished the lap strongly for a 33min split and an on-the-bike time of 1:07:30 (35.5kmh) which is smoking for me. Aerobars rock!

Legs felt good too, or at least I thought they did. Threw my trainers on and was about to take off on the run when I got that ‘almost cramp’ thing again, so stopped for a quick stretch. Another 2:30 in transition, so probably some free time improvements to be had there. Once out on the run I was suffering! Felt really shit, legs were like lead and stomach was on the verge of cramping. The race map had indicated only two drinks stations on the run, and both were marked as very close to the start so I was quite worried as to whether I’d survive. I walked the aid stations and knocked back water & sports drink then started trundling away again. At that stage I was wondering whether I was going to finish or not. The sun beating down didn’t help either.

Around about the 3km mark I had a lightbulb moment, the fog cleared and the benefits of reading Transitions came to the fore. I remembered that the first bit of the run was supposed to feel like shit, with crap legs etc. etc., so once I knew that then things improved. Well, when I say ‘improved’ I don’t mean that I got any faster, or that I started feeling great or anything that dramatic, I just realised that this was how things were supposed to be.

I was just plodding along and seemed to be running around 6min/km, so I was looking at an hour run split which I wasn’t happy about. The run was a plain out-and-back course, so I was hanging for the turnaround point so at least I’d no longer be running away from the finish and I could tell myself it would all be over soon. Finally I rounded a corner, I could see it 400m away and I got to it in 26:15 (AvHR: 171) which was a bit better than I’d expected. I now had 5km spread out before me and I knew where the aid stations were (there were actually more than two) so it became a matter of running to the next station, stopping, drinking, throwing water over myself, and setting off for the next one. I had long ago adopted a 2/2 breathing pattern (breathe in for 2 footfalls, out for 2), trying to suck in as much oxygen as possible and now I added a little mantra of “Light, Relaxed” to try and take my mind off things. “Light” as in ‘run light on your feet’ which was a bit of a joke as I was in serious plod mode, and “Relaxed” as in ‘run relaxed’ which I had at least some hope of achieving, especially since by this stage I just wanted the damn thing over with and didn’t give a toss about anything else. Anyway, this is getting very long winded, so a summary of the last 3km involved cramps, stretching and more plodding. I crossed the line in 2:32:15 by my watch, with the second half of the run taking 27:45 (AvHR: 176) giving me a run split of 54mins.

Myself and Tom did a First Aid Course back in December and it came in handy now. I was getting dizzy, so I knew that was a sign that I was dehydrated, a bit overheated, had stopped running too quickly and that I’d faint if I didn’t do something about it. The quickest way to cool someone down is to ice the groin and neck as there’s major blood vessels near the surface, so I threw some ice down my shorts, lay down, raised my legs and leaned them against a tree to make it easier to get blood to my head. John had come down to watch the finish, so he plied me with drinks and a few minutes later I was fine and could stretch my rapidly seizing legs. The two of us walked back to wait for Kev come in. I could see him in the distance and knew it was getting close to 3 hours, so I shouted at him to hurry up. “What’s the hurry?” came the reply, but he got moving once I told him the time. He crossed the line in 2:59:15 or so.

So, the end result was that neither of us got close to our predicted times. Kev split 40 for the swim, 1:27 for the bike and transitions and 52 for the run. I managed 24, 1:13 and 54. It was a lot harder than either of us expected. Kev has decided to concentrate on swimming and I need to do a lot more running. Training for the half marathon should sort that out!

HR Data Graph

Update: Official Results

Me: 188th – 2:32:16 – 24:53 / 1:13:23 / 53:59

Kev: 331st – 2:59:18 – 40:10 / 1:27:05 / 52:02

S: 4000m – B: 62.1km – R: 10km

Tuesday was supposed to be a bike day, but it got rained off. I jumped on the indoor trainer with the intention of getting a half hour done before work, but Jacqui was leaving early so it got reduced to 10mins.

Got a good run in last night. It was quite cool which helped. Similar course to last week: home, lap of golf course, back down Newcastle St., up Dover St. and back to the garage. 8.7km all up, in 46:25 with an average HR of 151. Felt good the whole way and could have run a fe more km, but there’s no need to rush these things. I’ve decided that I’m going to train for the Sydney Half Marathon in May so I’ve got plenty of time.

Cycled in to work via Centennial this morning. Uneventful.

S: 2600m – B: 26.3km – R: 8.7km

I finished my week’s training with a 4.5km run after work yeaterday, followed by a long bike ride this morning. I’d intended riding to La Perouse and back, with a few laps of the park on the way, but when I got to the park it was starting to drizzle, so I figured I’d be more sensible to stay off the roads and just do laps of the park. It also meant I could stay on the aerobars for longer and have the added bonus of not having to worry about avoiding potholes while on them, which might be an issue since I’ve only ridden on them once before.

I decided to do one hot lap on the bars, then one easy lap, then repeat, managing 9.5 laps in total before heading home. The hot laps were pretty good, with my fastest one being 6:16.5 (3.8km), which is an average of 36.5km/h, or about 4km/h faster than my previous best. The great thing about it was that I wasn’t killing myself, so it all augurs well for a faster bike split at the next Kurnell.

S: 5200m – B: 120.3km – R: 17.5km

Collected my MTB from the bike shop and rode home last night, then headed out for my long run. Normally I do all my running on grass, but this time I decided to hit the roads/streets and see how it went. Wanting to run on grass restricts me to my local park, and doing laps of there gets a bit boring after a while. It’s fine for my short (5km) runs on Monday and Friday, but longer runs there would do my head in.

The aim was to run for around 45mins, so I started from the top of my street, then down to Rose Bay North, one lap of the golf course and then back up towards my road, finishing at the BP garage half-way up the hill to suck down a can of Solo! Felt pretty good throughout the run, though my knees were starting to tighten up towards the end of it. Did a bit of stretching afterwards and they feel fine this morning. Tried to keep the pulse in the low 160s, on the flat bits anyway. Once I got to the gradual hill up to the garage at the end it slowly crept up to a high of 177. Total time was 42:45 with an estimated distance of 7.5km.

I was supposed to go for a bike ride before work this morning, but when I woke up around 6 it was soaking wet outside so I went back to bed for a while. Got up at 7.30 and the roads were almost dry, so I cycled in via Centennial Park, but didn’t do any laps as I was later than I’d intended. Will have to do a few on the way home instead.

S: 2600m – B: 39.5km – R: 12.5km

A bit of catching up to do here. Last Friday night I went for a 5km run:

Lap, AvHR
4:24.0, 139
4:33.0, 150
4:35.0, 155
4:39.8, 158
4:38.9, 160
4:33.8, 163
1min: 125</pre></blockquote><p/><p/>I skipped my bike ride on Saturday morning as I wasn't feeling it up to it. Hit the pool today at lunchtime and felt pretty good, then went for a run this evening. <p/><p/><blockquote class="session"><pre>400 FS<p/>3 * {<p/>    100 K on 2:00  (1:47)<p/>    200 FS on 3:20 (2:46)<p/>    100 BC on 2:00 (1:40) }<p/>2 * {<p/>    4 * 75H/25E on 1:40<p/>    100 IM on 2:00 }<p/>Total: 2600m</pre></blockquote><p/><p/><blockquote class="session"><pre>Lap, AvHR<p/>4:35.2, 142<p/>4:39.1, 153<p/>4:38.5, 157<p/>4:40.9, 159<p/>4:39.0, 162<p/>4:35.8, 164<p/>1min: 127

S: 2600m – R: 5km

I’ve been doing a bit of reading up on training theories after the Kurnell race, with a view to figuring out what I need to do in preparation for longer distances. The secret is that the most important sessions are one long run and one long ride per week. Up to now I’ve been doing a few shorter sessions and probably not scheduling sessions very well either, so I’ve a new rough outline for a training week:

M: Swim (Lunch), Short Run (Eve)
T: Bike in & out via CP
W: Long Run (Eve)
T: Bike in & out via CP
F: Swim (Lunch), Short Run (Eve)
S: Long Bike (AM)

So, with than in mind, I got back into the swing of things this evening and went out for a 5K run. Felt pretty good and was running a bit quicker than normal, but that was probably due to the fact that it was a bit cooler than usual. Either way it was a good start to the year.

Lap,    AvHR
4:28.6, 136
4:34.5, 149
4:35.0, 153
4:43.9, 156
4:36.8, 158
4:37.4, 161
@1min: 116

Now I’ve just got to stick to the program ;-)

R: 5km

Since I’ve always been a bit apprehensive about my running, I decided after Kurnell that over the Christmas period I’d head up to Centennial Park and try to run as far as I could. The plan was to run at a reasonably relaxed pace, and to stop when my legs were struggling.

Yesterday was the day and I managed 12km, but the last 3km was a struggle as my left knee was quite a bit sore. I had hoped to get to around 14km, but my knee just wasn’t up to it. Still, it’s 2km longer than I’ve ever run before, and 5km longer than I’ve ever run in training so it’s certainly progress. My knee was giving me trouble all day yesterday, especially going down stairs, but it’s fine today. My legs muscles are wrecked though!

R: 12km

In preparation for the race at the weekend I decided to head out and do a comfortable 5km to see how it felt. Went pretty well, staying nice an easy for the first five laps, breathing on a 4-in/4-out pattern. I find if I can stick to that pattern I know I’m running well within myself. I switched to a 3/3 pattern for the last lap and wound the pace up and again it was no real problem. I reckon I could have sped up a lap earlier without killing myself for the finish, so if I’m feeling OK after the swim and bike on Sunday I’ll pick up the pace from about 2km out and see what happens.

Lap Time, Avg HR
4:43.6, 141
4:49.9, 151
4:51.5, 154
4:58.9, 154
4:47.0, 157
4:01.1, 166
HR @ 1min: 128

S: 3000m – B: 30.2km – R: 5km

I got back to exercising yesterday after finally getting rid of the remnants of the flu, or at least getting to the point where I was sick of sitting around waiting for them to disappear. Went for a swim at lunch and stayed in for most of the session. I had got the latest list of squad times and learned that there was a session on today as well, so I got out early yesterday with the intention of swimming today as well, only to be told that the brochure had it wrong and the Tuesday session didn’t exist.

400 FS
4 * 200 FS on 3:30 (2:52)
4 * 100 IM on 1:45 (1:30)
3 * 200 Pull on 3:30 (3:03)
Total: 2200m

I also went for a short run when I got home. I decided to just go 3.2km and leave it at that, and I was pretty glad I did. I could still feel a bit of crap in my lungs and, although my legs were OK, I didn’t want to overdo it this week. Feel OK this morning though, so I might do another short run this evening.

S: 2200m – R: 3.2km

OK, a bit to catch up on. Wednesday lunchtime saw me in the pool for another swim session. I can’t remember what the session was, but did my usual 2km. Went for another run on Wednesday evening, following the same protocol as Tuesday. Managed a total of 5.35km this time, though went out fractionally too fast on the first half and I was pretty tired too. Felt a bit harder that Tuesday’s run.

Laps:
4:30 – 145
4:43 – 153
4:44 – 156
1:58
4:51 – 156
4:51 – 159
4:46 – 161
HR @ 1min: 122

The short lap is from the end of the 3rd lap until 15mins, at which point I turn around and run back to the start of the lap and proceed as normal.

Cycled home from work today and did a couple of laps of Centennial Park. I’d been out for a few beers on Thursday with Kev, Lisa, Chantal and Franciska, having our Sydney-Gong reunion so wasn’t that keen to get on the bike, but I felt surprisingly good. Came home and went out for another run, same deal as Wednesday (5.45km). Felt great too.

Laps:
4:25 – 142
4:40 – 151
4:42 – 153
2:16
4:42 – 155
4:40 – 156
4:32 – 160
HR @ 1min: 121

S: 4000m – B: 69.3km – R: 16km