Since Ty and Andrew were supposed to be coming up from Canberra today (since postponed until tomorrow) I decided to ride in to work and do a couple of laps of Centennial Park on the way, leave the bike in work and then cycle home tomorrow. This would mean that instead of having Thursday as my rest day, I’d have from Wednesday lunchtime until Thursday evening which wouldn’t be ideal, but wouldn’t be too bad either.

I rode down by Bondi, then up Bondi Road, entered Centennial Park via the Queen’s Park gates, then did two laps, exited on to Moore Park Road and proceeded in to town. My legs were a bit dead after the heavy weights yesterday morning and the longer than usual run yesterday evening, but once my HR had calmed down after the hill at the bottom of Bondi Road all was well. Total distance: 23.8km, Average HR: 138, Average Speed: 25.2km/h.

The lunchtime swim was supposed to be little more than a chance to stretch out the stiffness from yesterday’s weights but our coach decided to throw in some 100s on 1:35, about 15secs faster than we normally do them, probably because some of the slower swimmers weren’t here today. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be though.

400 warm up
4 * 100 FS on 1:45 (1:72)
4 * 100 IM on 1:30 (1:32)
2 * 8 * 50 as {
    2 on 60,
    2 on 55,
    2 on 50
    2 on 45}
400 Pull (6:10)
4 * 100 FS on 1:35 (1:25)
100 cool down
Total: 2900m

Anyway, now that the Canberra lads have decided not to come to Sydney until tomorrow after all, I can cycle home tonight and possibly go for a short run, depending on how my legs feel. It also means that I have tomorrow completely off too! Whew!

S: 2900m – B: 23.8km – R: 6.6km – W: 1 session

I finished the week off yesterday with a cycle home from work and then a quick run. Felt pretty good on the run too, and even this morning there’s no stiffness or soreness, so maybe I’m getting used to this running lark? Probably not ;-) All in all, it’s been a good week. Didn’t miss any training I had planned to do and I feel ready to continue building more in next week. In the meantime, myself and Jacqui are off to Melbourne for the weekend.

S: 4900m – B: 45km – R: 12.2km – W: 1 session

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

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 back in Sydney and winter is well and truly over. Myself and Jacqui walked down to Nielsen’s Bay for breakfast and it was roasting. As soon as I got home I changed into shorts, the first short-wearing day post-winter. It only took 10 days!

Anyway, before going for breakfast I did a session on the indoor trainer while watching the Superbikes in Assen. I had also done a 4km run on the hotel treadmill on Thursday evening, rounding up my training for the week.

S: 3000m – B: 15km – R: 12km – 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

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

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

I was down in Canberra this week, so it was a bit of a rest week. Got two weights sessions in. Had hoped to get a third one in on Friday, but as Ed invited us around to his place to have a few beers and say bon voyage for his trip to Paris on Thursday night, and since I’d been up at 4.30am on Thursday morning to watch the excellent Liverpool victory in the Champions League, I wasn’t that keen on getting out of bed at 6.30am on Friday.

I went kayaking all day yesterday with Simon and Becs, so I was totally exhausted by last night. Went to bed early and got up for a bike ride this morning. Met up with a bunch of people from Transitions for quite a few laps of Centennial Park followed by a coffee and lots of triathlon discussion. I’m tired now, so it will probably be off to bed early tonight, ready for the gym in the morning.

Wk8: B: 61.4km – W: 2 sessions

I got back on the bike yesterday after a bit of a layoff. I had prepared on Wednesday by buying a dayglo yellow sleveless vest so I’d stand out like a sore thumb in trafffic. It’s certainly bright! I had intended cycling in to work and doing a few laps in Centennial Park on the way, but by the time I had rounded up all my bike gear it was too late, so I just cycled down to the ferry.

Did a few laps around CP on the way home instead, with the intention of keeping my HR below 140, but I was going relatively quick at an average HR of 120 which I was quite suprised about, so I just stuck at that. Once home I got organised and went out for a run, but only got half-way through it before my leg started seizing up a bit. I should probably have stretched after getting off the bike. I’d also done a run the previous evening which was probably a factor as well.

Crawled out of bed this morning and went ot the gym. Wasn’t particularly keen, but by the time the bus got into town I’d woken up a bit more. Hopefully I can get a run in tonight, and one more tomorrow morning and then the week is over.

Wk6: S: 2900m – B: 33.6km – R: 8km – W: 3 sessions

Had a good week down in Canberra last week. Matt had organised a work golf day for Friday, so we hit the driving range on Tuesday night to get some practice in. Wednesday night saw myself & Paul bring Daniel out for his first MTB ride, which he enjoyed immensely. I got a puncture right at the end, so had to walk home as, while I had a spare tube, it was for my old bike and didn’t have the right valve to fit through the hole in the rim. Even though Daniel walked with me it still took ages as we wandered the meandering back streets of Canberra in the pitch black. We made it eventually.

I bought new tubes on Thursday, then ended up riding around Majura for 2.5hrs on my own which was great fun. I was bloody exhausted at the end, so a kangarro steak washed down with few Belgian beers in Debacle worked a treat. Friday was the golf day and after getting off to a shocking start with an 11 on the first hole I settled down into relatively normal play, finishing up with a 57 for the 9 holes. Myself and Tom have decided to get some regular driving range practice and round of golf in this year, having hardly played at all last year.

B: 55km (MTB)

Got some good cycling in yesterday. Cycled in and out of work, then met up with a few Transitions people for a couple of laps of Centennial Park. Kept a pretty good pace going and arrived home pretty tired.

Just got back from sqim squad and things are definitely getting tougher. The new fast guy, James, was joined by his equally fast girlfriend, Vicki, so the pace is not going to slow down at all. Turns out they both went to the World Masters Games in Itlay last year ;-)

400 warm up
3 * 400 FS on 6:25 (5:40)
200 FS
2 * {
    2 * 100 IM on 2:00 (1:25)
    2 * 100 BC/FS on 1:45 (1:28)
    2 * 100 FS on 1:40 (1:21)
    2 * 100 FS on 1:30 (1:22) }
Total: 3400m

Also cycled 15km in and out of work.

S: 5800m – B: 49km

Myself, Kevin, Niall and Billy went up to the Blue Mountains for a bit of mountain bike riding yesterday. I left home at 7.25 and cycled up to Niall’s, got the bikes in the car, waited for Kev to arrive and then left in convoy for Newtown to pick up Billy. After messing around for a bit in the warren of streets that is Newtown, we finally got on the road and drove straight to Blackheath.

As Billy hadn’t been MTBing before we had chosen to do two shorter routes, rather than one long one. It also helped that none of us had been on these rides before. The first of the two was a 14km out-and-back to Hanging Rock (pictured above). As you can see from the picture, the rock (on the right) has almost separated from the main land mass, on the left. There’s a one metre jump to get across onto the rock, which you’d think would be piss easy. However, there’s really only one place to cross, and as you stand there contemplating the jump, about 1.5 metres to your right is a looong drop into the valley below. Basically, if you screw up the jump, you’d probably have time to ring someone and deliver a parting message before you hit the valley floor. It’s amazing how this fact managed to change the perspective on what should be a walk in the park.

You have to walk down a steep track to get to the jump point, and on the way down I was thinking to myself “I’m just going to walk up to it and do it”. However, as I approached the edge, and started noticing the drop my legs started to get the wobbles! It’s quite funny really as it’s obviously your subconcious’s way of saying ’you’re going to kill yourself’. After a bit of hesitation, we all made the jump and hung around for a bit to admire the view before jumping back onto the ‘mainland’ and climbing back up the track to our bikes. Everyone was a little hyper from the adrenaline rush which made the steep climb a little easier. Rode back the car, had some food and then headed for Faulconbridge.

This was another out-and-back route, this time 8km each way, ending in another spectacular lookout. There were no jumps required, just a 270^o view of heavily wooded valleys with a river running through the one at our feet. I keep meaning to bring my camera/video on these trips, but in the early morning rush I usually forget it. Yesterday was one day when I definitely regretted not having it, though I suspect we’ll end up doing those rides again.

PS: I downloaded the photo above from the web, so that’s not one of us sitting right out at the edge. Maybe next time!

S: 6600m – B: 88km (30km MTB) – 2 weights/core