Myself, Marc, Kevin and Billy had signed up for The Gong Ride on Sunday morning, so I had to cut the Budgie 100 celebrations short and get to bed early to try and avoid a hangover. Sunday was another day of shit weather, though pulling out of the race wasn’t an option as I knew Marc would ride regardless and it was also the 25th Anniversary ride.

This didn’t deter Billy, who phoned in from his warm bed to say he wouldn’t be getting up. We found out later that day that he’d just got engaged (and Lisa pregnant – not that morning obviously) so while people might construe that as an excuse, his prior form would indicate that he’d have stayed in bed regardless.

Out the door at 5.30am, drive to Centennial Park to meet Marc, get the bike out of the boot and ride to the start of the event. Kev showed up a little later and we were ready to start around 7am. The target was to ride the 90km in under four hours, so we needed an average pace of 22.5km/h. With the numbers of people doing the event estimated at up to 10,000 there was always going to be some congestion en route, and it turned into a pretty slow start until we got out past Cronulla and things thinned out a bit.

It was raining on and off, and the wind was in our face the whole way, so the four hour target didn’t look feasible. I was tempted by the muffin stop at Loftus Oval, but Marc was determined to break four hours and didn’t want to stop. The event held personal significance for him as his Dad has MS, so I was more than happy to have him set the pace. Shortly after Loftus Oval we were joined by those who had signed up for the 56km option and the pace dropped off again as we tried weaving through the crowds.

We entered the National Park at Waterfall and had to wait for a motorcycle escort down the steep hill into the park. There’d been accidents on this stretch in previous years, so everyone was forced to slow down. Once at the bottom we had plenty of climbing ahead of us until we exited the park at Otford. Despite having done the ride with Kev last year, I was suprised when we arrived at Otford without too much climbing at all. My memory had obviously exaggerated the severity of the climbs!

We were now out on the exposed coast road and the wind & rain were still present. We got held up again waiting for a police motorcycle to escort us down Bald Hill to Stanwell Park, but once that was over it was a realtively flat run to Woollongong. By the 15km marker I was getting pretty fed up with the day as the weather was starting to piss me off, so I decided to leave Marc and Kev behind and get the final 15km over with as quickly as possible.

By this time we were riding on a bike path instead of the road, so our speeds were down a bit, but I found a big mountain biker to draft off for a few kilometres and then was on my own for the remainder. The finish seemed to take an age to reach and once it was finally in sight I rounded a corner only to find one final hill to climb and after that it was all over!

A quick massage later and we were off to find a pub and reward ourselves with beer and food. The total time for me was 4h12m, but once stoppages had been removed it was 3h50. Both Kev and Marc also made it under four hours, coming in at 3h57 and 3h58 respectively.

Marc’s Photos

I’m taking it a bit easier this week in the run up to the Budgie 100 and the Gong Ride this weekend. Did nothing on Monday as I had to bring the car in for a service, so no sysling commute. Ty was up from Canberra on Tuesday so I skipped my swim session and went for lunch with him instead. Cycled in and out yesterday and today, then went for a short run on the way to today’s swim session.

400 FS WU
5 * 100 FS on 1:40 (1:22)
3 * 200 FS Pull + Paddles on 3:30 (2:53)
6 * 50 IM Order on 60 (47)
Cramps
Total: 1800m

Got cramps about 40mins into the session, which always seems to happen to me. Obviously not hydrated enough before starting, and the extremely salty water doesn’t help either.

S: 1.8km – B: 33.3km – R: 4km

A good effort this week. Forgot to write as I went along, so here’s a summary.

Bike: Mon AM around the park with Marc, Wed. AM around the park solo, Fri AM to work via La Perouse, again solo. Marc was supposed to come along but baby troubles intervened.

Swim: Tuesday lunch, Mark was in Tasmania and backup coach was a no-show, so did my own thing. Skipped Thurs lunch as was pretty tired.

Run: One run on the way to Tuesday’s swim. Uphill bits buggered my calves. Will have to avoid, or walk them next week.

400 Various WU
2 * 100 FS on 1:40 (1:23)
2 * 200 FS on 3:10 (2:52)
2 * 300 FS on 4:50 (4:34)
2 * 200 FS on 3:10 (2:55)
2 * 100 FS on 1:40 (1:25)
100 Easy
8 * 50 FS Pull w/ Paddles on 50 (42)
Total: 2700m

S: 2.7km – B: 157.6km – R: 4.5km

I’ve been cycling in and out of work for the past few weeks and it’s getting better now that the frequency of the occasional week of rain has dropped. I managed 136km last week, and the same again this week which I was happy enough with, especially since I missed out on cycling on Monday evening and Tuesday morning. Looking back on my training logs they’re some of the biggest weeks I’ve ever done, which suprised me. Maybe I haven’t trained as much as I thought in the past?

I’m off to Canberra next week, so will have to do some running in the hotel instead. Then it’s back into the pool next week for two reasons:

1. my mates have started the ‘Budgie 100’, where we all race each other over 100m Free, and I haven’t swum since January

2. I’ll need something to do once I get to Canada and there’s a pool in Fernie. I won’t have a bike and it will be too cold to run. Besides, my legs will be wrecked from all the snowboarding anyway.

In the meantime, I’ll keep cycling.

B: 136km

It’s fitness time again in preparation for the Canadian boarding season! TEN+ weeks of solid snowboarding in some of the best powder in the world, starting on December 27th, means I’ve got about three months to get super-fit. I’m not going to bother running for a while as I’m still carrying a few extra post-winter kilos, so I’ve been back out on the bike for the last two weeks.

So far it’s just cycling in and out of work, but I’ll be adding a few laps of Centennial to my daily commute after my trip to Canberra next week, and myself and Kevin are planning a trip down to ride the hills in the Royal National Park shortly which should be a good workout.

B: 60km

I’d started exercising again this week after yet another unforced layoff. Decided to alternate run and bike days for the forseeable future. Nothing hectic, just get out and do roughly 30mins a day and take it from there.

Went for a run in Centennial Park on Tuesday and it was great. The weather’s getting better as the days get longer, so it was a perfect 21C and great light as the sun started setting. All went well and I was quite enthusiatic about exercise again.

Wednesday saw me head out on the bike for a lap of a slightly hill course around the back streets of Vaucluse. Again, nice temperature and a bit of sun and all was well with the world.

I returned to Centennial yesterday for another run and now it’s all gone pear shaped. The weather was a bit colder due to wind chill, but I did my usual run without issue, only to find my right knee giving me all sorts of trouble last night. Any squat/lunge type of movement causes pain, as the tendon attaching to the lower front of my patella seems to be inflamed. I didn’t do anything stupid, or any obvious trip, so I’m at a loss to explain it.

No more running for a while though ;-(

B: 11.3km – R: 8km

After a few weeks sitting around doing nothing, I decided to get back into it last week. I cleaned off the bike and started cycling home from work again. There was no point cycling is as I’ve been exhausted due to staying up late watching either the Tour de France or the World Cup, so I bought myself a ten journey ferry ticket and will use that for two weeks of mornings. I’ve started doing some core and stability work, and I’m going to add running to the mix this week as well and see how that goes.

B: 52.5km, Core * 3

Was down in Canberra this week, but didn’t bring the MTB as it’s now dark by 5.30 and I don’t have a good enough set of lights. It’s also bloody cold down there now. After the massage on Monday I decided to make this a recovery week after building up the run distances over the last three weeks.

Did nothing while in Canberra, but got up on Saturday and went for a 14km run which was reasonably hilly. I abandoned the 150 HR limit and pushed it a little harder, finishing up in 1:19:30 (AvHR 157) which was decent enough.

This morning I clambered out of bed and headed off to La Perouse on the bike, via Centennial Park. Did a few quick laps of the Oil Refinery circuit, then back to La Perouse, and home via CP again. All up, 69.7km.

B: 69.7km – R: 14km

This week is shaping up to be a huge run week for me. Went for a 5.8km run last night just to loosen out after the longer commute run on Wednesday, then just did another cruisy 5km this evening. I’m doing all my running keeping my HR under 150, and despite this I’m running as fast as I was 6 weeks ago when my HR would top out around 165, so I’m slowly getting fitter.

I’ve racked up 28km so far this week, and with my long run still to come tomorrow morning, I should top 40km for the week. Up until the beginning of April I’d never run more than 20km in a week, so I’ll be pretty happy if I reach 40. The aim will be to run around that distance that consistently, week in, week out.

Didn’t get much cycling in this week though. Just cycled in and out of work today, with a few laps of the park thrown in for good measure.

Update: Just noticed that coincidentally, by completing my 5km run tonight, I’ve equalled the total distance I ran for the whole of last year… 218km.

B: 33.7km – R: 28km

I ran in to work this morning.

Back when I started doing more exercise, I had to think about how I was going to fit it all in. The logical way was to make the daily commute part of my exercise program, so that’s largely what I did, cycling in to work where possible. I’d thought about one day running in to work as well, but it always seemed to be off in the distant future as running was never my strong point. However, after my long run on Saturday I realised that I’d have no trouble doing the run commute, so I resolved to give it a go this morning.

As usual, the first few kilometres weren’t great, with my lower legs doing their normal complaining while they warmed up. Although it doesn’t happen on every run, I’m used it now and can tell if it reaches the point where it warrants cutting the run short, which it rarely does. I ran down Old South Head, then Dover Rd., along the harbour-front by Rose Bay, then through the back streets of Double Bay to Edgecliff, then through Kings X, down William Street and finished up with a stretch in Hyde Park. All up it was around 9.3km in 51:28.

It was a tough run on the legs, as it’s basically all hills. I ran them all apart from the top 100m of the one from Double Bay up to Edgecliff and the final 150m into the X, as my legs were pretty tired from the hill cycling session I did on the way home yesterday. I plan on doing a run commute once per week, though I think next week I’ll try running via Bondi Junction and Oxford St. as it’s much flatter… well apart from that bit on Old South Head Road which I may walk to play it safe.

B: 74km – R: 13.9km

Cycled in and out of work yesterday, then went for a run. My calves are still a little sore after Saturday’s long run, but I still managed to get 4.6km in before it became clear that it wasn’t going to go away once I’d warmed up properly. I cycled in again this morning, but I won’t bother running this evening to give my legs more time to recover.

B: 42.4km – R: 4.6km

Apart from Tuesday, when I took the day off as I had stuff to collect my car from Tom’s, I’ve been cycling in every day and doing two laps of Centennial Park on the way in. Yesterday I cycled home via New South Head Road (NSHR), instead of the usual Oxford St., and while it’s shorter, it’s quite a bit hillier. I rode up NSHR to Vaucluse as well which I hadn’t done before as I always figured it was really steep. Turns out that it’s not too bad, and has the advantage of being a reasonably consistent slope, so I could settle in to a rhythm. It certainly feels easier than riding up Old South Head Road (OSHR) in the morning, though that could be a morning/evening thing rather than any significant difference between the grades.

Went for a run last night when I got home. 7.3km in 42:47 with an average HR of 149, right where I wanted it. After the usual 15mins of feeling weird until my legs warm-up, things settled down and it was a pretty easy run, with me having to force myself to slow down and keep my HR under 150. While my legs were pretty tired this morning, there’s nothing actually sore, so I plan on going for a short run this evening, taking tomorrow off, then getting up for a longer run of around 10-11km on Saturday. The race is in 6 weeks, so I really need to start building my long run up. If I can do 10km this weekend without too much issue, and then add 2km per week, then I should be fine.

B: 81km – R: 13.8km

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

Well Autumn has well and truly arrived. I took advantage of the clocks going forward to get up early, setting my alarm for 6am on the grounds that my body still reckons it’s 7am so it will be easier to get up (and it was). Rode in to work and had to wear the winter bike gear (tights & arm-warmers) for the first time. Felt pretty sluggish going up the hill on Old South Head Road which was probably a combination of a legacy of all the MTBing from last week, the couple of beers I had yesterday and the fact that I was lugging my laptop, attendant cabling and a change of clothes around. Did a couple of laps around Centennial Park as well, though cut it short as the weight of my backpack was starting to annoy my lower back.

Entries to the Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon opened this morning, so when I got in to work, I bit the bullet and actually entered. There’s no going back now!

B: 21.3km

Managed to cycle home last night without any pucture issues. Every time I stopped at lights, I was paying close attention to the back wheel, as I’d used a CO₂ cannister to pump it up, and I’ve heard that the CO₂ slowly leaks out and you should pump it up with air at the earliest opportunity. The roads were still full of crap washed out by the recent rains, but I made it home without another puncture.

I got on to ProBikeKit yesterday and ordered myself some commuter tyres. They’re slower and more durable than my current race ones, and they’re supposed to be good in wet weather as well. $110 to buy two tyres and two tubes, and have them shipped from the UK to Australia. The two tyres on their own would probably cost me $160 in a shop here! They should arrive next week while I’m in Canberra, ready to go on the bike the week after that.

B: 41.2km – R: 7.3km

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

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

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