Went for a 10min run after getting home from work, then did a little bit of weights after that. I’ve also found a convenient swim squad at a reasonable price. It’s in the Cook & Phillip pool near work. They have sessions from 5:30 – 7:00am Mon – Fri, 12:00 – 1:00 Mon, Wed & Fri, and 6:30 – 7:30pm Mon, Wed and Thurs. I can go to as many of those sessions as I want for $115 per month, which is only a little more than it would cost me to do 3-4 swim session per week on my own. They typically swim around 3000m/hr so it will force me to do a bit more than I’m doing now. I’m looking forward to it.

R: 10mins – W: 1 session

Check this out! I found this site, BikeNames.com, ordered a set of stickers, and here they are on my bike. Looks bloody good for $5 ;-)

Not really feeling like doing any training this week. I’m just exhausted, possibly from some low-grade cold or something. Got up for a swim yeaterday morning and just felt totally drained, so went back to bed. Went for a 2omin run last night which went OK, then made it to the pool for a swim this morning. Did 200m and realised that I had no energy, so got out and went into work. I’ve decided I’m taking the rest of the week off until my bike ride on Saturday morning. Rest, recuperate and push the training schedule out by one week.

OK, Fat Club has been going for a month, so here’s the progress:

OK, that’s the week’s training over, so here’s the report:

I’m just going to ignore the run targets from now on and just start from an even lower level and do my own thing in my own time. I’ll bump the swimming and bike to make up for it though.

Went for another ride down to La Perouse with the BRAT group, then did some hill work in the park afterwards. Quite a few more came on the LP ride than last week, though we were a little better organised on the road this time. Still some communication issues, but as Ian pointed out, we’re still the only group he has had that has not crashed. Hopefully those words won’t jinx us. The hill work was tough: 5 laps, the first was 39 ring sitting down, 2nd was 39 ring standing up, 3rd & 4th were the same except in the 53, and the last was in the highest gear (53-12) and just get up the hill. I found the standing up ones really hard, apart from the 53-12. The sitting was easy enough though. All in all another good session, though I’ve done something to my right knee, which isn’t good. I think it was caused by the stand-up hill climbs, though I can’t be sure. Either way, I’ve a couple of days before I’m next on the bike.

B: 141.7km – S: 3600m – R: 20min

Well that didn’t go very well at all. Just attempted to go for a 20min run, but knew within the first 200m that my knees were having none of it. I think I’m going to have to go back to basics on the run. Forget about 4 runs per week and just do two, spaced well apart, then build up gradually from there, maybe even adopting a run/walk protocol at first. Also, no more running on paths/roads – only grass or something soft – as that just seems to be asking for trouble. The question now becomes where do I find a grassy area that is within walking distance, and doesn’t involve running around in small circles? I think I’ll also have to up the swimming & cycling distances to make up for the lack of running.

Got another three laps around Centennial Park in on the way home last night, then headed out for dinner with John and Sarah. Was feeling a bit tired this morning, so postponed the swim until lunch-time. Turns out I’m about 4secs/100m faster, presumably because I’ve woken up properly. I still reckon morning swims are better as they’re less crowded though. That’s my swimming done for the week too. I’m looking forward to Sunday when I can sit on my arse all day and do f*ck all! Tired…

200,300,200,300,200 FS, 30s rest (Pace: 1:22)
Total: 1200m

B: 71.7km – S: 3600m – R: 20min

Went for a run when I got home last night, and this time I got the full 20mins done without any knee issues. Someone told me that it takes 1 day per km to recover fully from a marathon. Coincidentally, yesterday was 10 days since I did my 10K. I doubt the same rule normally applies to a 10K, but given my untrained running state, it probably does in this instance.

Got out of bed for a bike ride this morning. I had no issues with the new pump, unlike Tuesday morning, so it was off to CP for 3.5 laps before continuing on to work. Made it just in time as there were a couple of spits of rain as I pulled up outside the office. It has warmed up considerably in the last few days so my new arm warmers are almost out of a job!

B: 50.3km – S: 2400m – R: 20min

Went into Cheeky Monkey on the way home from work yesterday to change the bike pump I bought at the weekend, then did three laps around Centennial Park before heading off.

Got up this morning with a bit of a hangover and hit the pool. There were a couple of people in my lane at the start, but they all disappeared shortly afterwards. I had the whole lane to myself for a while until some silly cow got in and started doing breaststroke, despite the fact that the lane is clearly marked “Fast Lane – Freestyle Only” – she only had another seven lanes to choose from!

200,300,200,300,200 FS, 30s rest   (Pace: 1:27)
Total: 1200m

B: 27km – S: 2400m

The second week of the training plan starts today. Targets for this week are:

Swim: 3600m

Bike: 90mins

Run: 80mins

Once again, the run will be the issue and I’ll end up doing way more than necessary on the bike, so it should balance out nicely.

Made it to the pool nice and early this morning for the first swim of the week.

200,300,200,300,200 FS, 30s rest   (Pace: 1:26/100)

S: 1200m

Picked up the Sunday Telegraph this afternoon as it had the result of last week’s 10K race. Myself and Jacqui got the same time crossing the finish line, but since she was a bit keen to get going, and crossed the start line two seconds before me, I beat her by two seconds on adjusted time! I did 1:05:47 for 5126th place, and she did 1:05:49 for 5127th. Both times were a little faster than I thought we had done too., which was a little faster than I thought we had done. Niall finished 297th in 43:16, just outside his best of 42:48. Gotta be happy with that!

Went for a short run this afternoon. It was supposed to be 20mins, but I stopped after 17 as my left knee is still acting up. Not sure what is wrong with it, but it’s the same knee I twisted at the start of the snowboard season, so I’m assuming it’s related to that. I’ll take it easy on the running for another week and see what happens. If it’s still the same I’ll head back to the physio who looked at it after snowboarding.

Anyway, that finished the first week of the training plan.

B: 130.9km – S: 3000m – R: 29min

If you ever find yourself buying bike shorts, make sure that the chamois pad does not have any stitching, or seams as part of the pad itself. If it does, like my ones, you’ll end up with a nice raw arse after a long ride.

Got up at 5:50 this morning to give myself time for some breakfast before meeting at Centennial Park for the ride to La Perouse at 7.00. It was a pretty easy ride, with about 9 of us in the group. We had a couple of sprint efforts on the way back before joining up with the regular beginner’s group ride at 8:00 bacin in the park. The focus was back to hard efforts with easy laps in between, and a couple of bits of hill work thrown in for good measure. I’m pleased to report that the new bike made a huge difference; so much faster! I can’t wait to get a speedo onto it and get some numbers. Total for the morning was 70km, so the bacon & egg roll was well deserved.

B: 130.9km – S: 3000m – R: 12min

Well, two weeks ago my iPod fell off my lap while I was on the bus home. Two days after that it stopped working, just over a month since it came out of warranty. No choice but to send it back to Apple and eat the $380 projected cost to fix it. Well, I got it back yesterday and Apple replaced it “under warranty” ;-)

I’m either a lucky bastard, or they had a look at their records and realised how much gear I’ve bought from them over the last few years and decided to reward a valued customer. Either way it’s happy days!

Nathan came back from London yesterday, so we met up for a few beers down in Rose Bay. Struggled a bit getting out of bed this morning as a result, but made the early bus and got into the pool around 7.40. Did the usual easy 1km session, then strolled across Hyde Park into work. It’s starting to warm up nicely in the morning too – summer’s on the way!

5 * 200 FS, 30sec rest (Avg: 2:54)

Felt a little sluggish, though it’s probably just a combination of being a bit dehydrated and the fact that it’s early in the morning instead of lunch-time when I did my other sessions. That’s my target of 3km of swimming for this week achieved too, which is a bonus.

B: 60.9km – S: 3000m – R: 12mins

Met up with Niall on the way home last night for a few laps of the park. Headed over to Cheeky Monkey to get a new rear light, as I didn’t have one which would fit on the aero seatpost! Got that sorted out and cruised around the park a couple of times. I was taking it nice and easy when Niall announced that we were going 34kmh! I didn’t even notice and thought we were taking it easy. Doing 30kmh on the MTB would have required a bit of effort – the bloody bike’s a rocket ;-) We slowed it down a bit after that.

B: 60.9km – S: 2000m – R: 12mins

Today was the day for a cycle, so I decided to do a few laps of Centennial Park on the way into work. The mornings are starting to warm up now, though my eyes were still watering a bit on the speedy downhill from Vaucluse! My winter top won’t be needed for much longer. Cruised around the park for 2.5 laps (9.5km) practising my spinning, then headed on into work. I’m starting to get a bit more comfortable on the bike as I get used to the fact that it’s a lot twitchier than the MTB. It’s at most half the weight, and the tyres are a lot skinnier, so it’s only to be expected. It’s also a lot quieter and so much stiffer, so there’s no creaks from a flexing frame like I used to have on the MTB. Despite the fact that I’m missing some of the lower gears I had on the MTB, climbing is a lot easier that I thought it would be. I presume it’s because the frame is stiffer so there’s no waste in the power transfer from pedal to wheel. Anyway, it’s all good ;-)

B: 39.5km – S: 2000m – R: 12mins

Just back from what was supposed to be my first run of the week. My legs felt OK walking around today so I figured I’d be OK to go running this evening. Rather than focussing on speed, or distance, from now on I’m just going to go out and run for a certain time at a pace I find reasonably comfortable, which is usually 10-11kmh. I had a 20min run down on the training plan for today, so I set the timer on the watch for 10mins and set off on an out-and-back run. I managed about 12mins of it before I stopped, as it became increasingly apparent that my legs weren’t ready for it. I’ve a bike ride scheduled for tomorrow evening, so that should loosen them out a bit, then I can try again on Friday.

B: 10km – S: 2000m – R: 12mins