In preparation for the Budgie 100, a 100m Free challenge race amongst a few friends in a couple of weeks, I figured I should get back in a swimming pool and try and get a feel for things again. Not having swum since January means I’m a bit rusty.

Had a look around and decided to join the lunchtime squad sessions at Boy Charlton Pool since they are coached by Mark Newton who knows his stuff and and usually produces a decent workout. The squads I went to last year were a bit useless as the coach knew less than I did and usually churned out almost the same session, week in, week out.

So, I went along for my first session yesterday and it was great. Spending your lunchtime swimming in a heated outdoor pool, in 30C under a blazing sun, is a great way to train. I arrived a bit late as I’d got sidetracked at work, and there was a bit of a problem finding Mark as I was expecting someone walking up and down the bank, not leading the lane. Once that was sorted out it was a pretty easy session.

300 Free
5 * 200 Free on 3:30 (3:10)
100 Free/100 Back Relax
8 * 50 on 1:00 (37)
4 * 100 Free Paddles on 1:40 (1:20)
Total: 2300m

I took it pretty easy, as while I’m reasonably aerobically fit, my arms aren’t used to doing any work at all, so they were the weakest link. Still, swimming in salt water helps as it makes me about 5s/100m faster than a pool.

I’ve signed up for Tuesday & Thursday lunchtimes and I reckon I’ll run to and from the session next week and not bother having a shower until I get back to work.

S: 2300m

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

Myself, Tom, Kevin, Marc, Billy and Lisa made plans to go mountain biking on Sunday in the Blue Mountains. This was before the torrential rain that’s been dousing Sydney for the last week had arrived, so there was a little apprehension as to whether the day would go ahead or not. A decision was made on Saturday night that we were going regardless, though after a night of the worst rain I’ve yet encountered in Sydney, Billy & Lisa decided to pull out.

The rest of us packed all our warm clothes and hit the road for the two hour drive to Blackheath. After some coffee and choc-chip cookies to prepare, we drove to the start of the trail and set about getting the bikes ready. It was still raining lightly, so there was no doubt we were going to get absolutely soaked, however, as Marc had never been MTBing before, and his relatively new bike still looked very nice and shiny, this was a good thing. It would be a proper introduction to dirt!

We’d deliberately chosen a relatively easy ride which led to Hanging Rock, a picturesque lookout over the Blue Mountains featuring a huge rock which looks like it could fall off at any minute. The ride out there was good fun, with lots of water bars to launch ourselves off, though doing so got me a puncture, so there was a brief outage while I got that fixed. Marc was enjoying himself, and his regular bike commute to work meant he had no problems on the fitness front. Indeed, he was fitter than the rest of us since we’d only recently started riding again.

Once out at the lookout, myself and Kev elected to make the jump across to the rock itself. Tom was the photogrpaher, and Marc decided that he would skip the jump since he’s the only one of us with the responsibilites of fatherhood. The jump itself is only about a metre wide and you could easily cross it with a single large stride, but while facing the gap you can see a drop of a few hundred metres into the valley on either side. It’s this drop, coupled with the fact that the point you’re aiming for isn’t flat, which tends to concentrate the mind and make the task a good deal harder than it really is.

Once across, you can walk out to the tip of the rock for a photo opportunity, but here’s the thing: the rock itself is roughly triangular in shape, so as you move towards the tip, you get closer and closer to the massive drop on either side. The result of this is that you reach a point (well I did anyway) where your legs refuse to go any further – they literally start buckling to force you to stop moving – without any concious decision on your part. Clearly my subsconcious mind had mutinied. It’s quite a funny experience!

Back on solid land we retraced our steps back to the car, arriving cold and wet. We’d another short ride planned, so we quickly packed up, stopped in Blackheath for a brief, warming lunch, then continued on to Linden. The ride to Hanging Rock was entirely on fire trail, but the Linden ride had quite a bit of singletrack which was the reason for its inclusion – to give Marc a taste of the real thing.

Torrential rain on the way to Linden almost had myself and Tom pulling the plug, but it had passed by the time we got there. Once back out on the bikes we warmed up again and, after some short fire trail, were soon enjoying ourselves on overgrown singletrack. The other three missed the benefits of my long tights as their legs got whipped by the undergrowth, but that wasn’t going to curtail the fun. We rode for about 40 minutes before deciding that we’d better turn back so we’d make it home to Sydney at a reasonble hour. Once back at the car we deemed Marc’s bike to be an official mountain bike, and took a photo of it covered in mud to prove the point. All in all, a bloody good day despite the crap weather ;-)

Photos

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

After an abortive return to running the week before last, I finally got going again this week. The weather was crap all last week; rain stopped play as it were, or at least provided a convenient excuse for sitting on the couch eating all those Ferrero Rocher that Jacqui brought home! Couple that with distorted sleeping patterns brought on by World Cup fever and you have a recipe for lethargy.

however, I’ve an adventure race in two weeks so i figured I should really get going again. Went for a short run on Tuesday evening and another on last night, 3.1 and 4.2kms repsectively. Took it nice and easy, just to get back into the flow of things. Today’s a day off, then I’ll try and maintain a two days on, one day off ratio.

R: 7.3km

After a week off, I got back out for a run last night. Straight away it was immediately obvious that I should have done a lot more stretching after the race… ok, I should have done some stretching. I had planned to cruise around for 5km, but decided to call it a day at just under 4km. No need to rush back in to these things.

R: 3.7km

Just checked the offical results from the half marathon and I’m down (Bib# 371) as doing a 1:51:59, so I cracked the 1:52 mark after all.

My legs are slowly getting back to normal after the race. My quads are still a bit sore, as are my calves, but the rest is OK. I’m going to head over to Rozelle at the weekend to visit the Running Science store. It’s a shoe shop staffed by podiatrists and physios where a free video & treadmill analysis is provided. They’ll then analyse the way I run and recommend the correct shoe for me. I don’t have any issues with my current shoes, but hey, why turn down free video analysis, and it’s a good preventive measure as I start running more.

I want to start running around 40km per week consistently, and then maybe have another go at a half marathon in September. If I stick with the plan, which is usually a big if where I’m concerned (consistency isn’t my strong point), I think a sub-1:40 could be on the cards. That call will probably be a bit ambitious once the race gets closer and I get more of an idea of just what is involved, but I’ll cross that bridge if I come to it.

Race day dawned with a mild panic as I realised there were no buses from my place in to town at 6am, so I had to wake Jacqui and get her to give me a lift to North Bondi. I’d arranged to meet Kev in Martin Place at 6.30 before walking over to the start on Hickson Road. By the time we’d done the obligatory trip to the Portaloo, some stretching and dropped off our gear to be picked up after the race, it was almost time to get going and we only had to hang around for 5-10mins.

I lingered in mid-pack, away from the front as I was realistically hoping for a time around 1:55 to 2:00 so there was no point getting in everyone’s way. Kev had moved up closer to the front as he was aiming for a time around the 1:35 mark. The gun went, the crowd surged forward and I was off on the longest run of my life. It felt like I was going backwards as wave after wave of people passed me by, but I knew roughly what pace I should be running at and had resolved to be fairly conservative for the first half of the race. My aim was first to run the whole distance, and second to break the 2 hour mark.

Within the first two kms I was ruing the fact that I hadn’t gone for a quick piss before the start, so I had to hold it until the 5km mark. The first time up the hill at Hunter St. wasn’t too bad, then it was down to Mrs. Macquarie’s chair and a much needed pit-stop. All was well then and I could relax and get on with the race. People were still going past me, but I stuck to my plan. The second hill on the course was up Argyle St. which was easier than Hunter. The 9km marker was at the top, which was great as I knew that it was flat, or slightly downhill, until the finish.

I went through the 10km mark in 55:16 which was right on target. If I hadn’t had a toilet stop it would have been around 53:40 which would have been the fastest 10K I’d ever run. I was still feeling good at this stage so it was time to pick up the pace a little bit. At the 12km mark Kev shouted to me. His hip problem had cropped up again and he was out of the race, but cheered me on as I went past. Niall was out on the course a couple of kms later and I had a quick chat to him as I went up Hunter St. for the last time.

By the time I got to the 15km mark my knees and my right hip flexor were starting to twinge a little bit, but it was nothing serious. I’d less than 6km to go, so I resolved to pick things up again and hold a constant pace until the top of the Argyle St. hill, at which point I’d 2.1km to go and it was all downhill or flat at least. Kev was there to cheer me up Argyle St., and once at the top I knuckled down to finish strongly. By this time I was passing a lot of people who had passed me at the start of the race which helped a lot mentally.

I was feeling pretty tired by this stage, but I still felt way better than I had for the 10km run at the end of the Canberra triathlon so I knew I could push myself harder still. I continued winding up the pace, corssing the line at what felt liek a sprint, but what was probably nowhere naer it. Final time on my watch: 1:52:00.2, or almost three minutes faster than I had hoped to do, so I was pretty happy. I’ll have to wait a couple of days for the official results, so hopefully I get rounded down to 1:51:59 ;-)

I met up with Kev, then headed back to Bondi for breakfast with John, Tom & the guys who’d all been out watching Munster win the European Cup last night, then it was home for a wash, a beer, then in to the Opera Bar to help Malachi celebrate her birthday. My legs are slowly seizing up, but it’s nothing serious and they’ll be back to normal in a day or two. All in all, I’m happy with a good result.

R: 25.1km

I’ve a couple of runs I haven’t written up lately. The first dates back to May 2nd. I went to run in to work and had to stop halfway because my left foot was hurting. I had a bit of a feel to see if it was anything serious, and noticed that it was a pain around the knuckle beside my little toe. I had noticed twinges in it before, and had thought nothing of it, but it flared up a lot that morning so I decided I’d better take some time off and let it clear up. It was probably a result of me doing too much mileage too soon.

I took a week off, then got back into it a little last week. Went for two runs on Wednesday, 3km in the morning and 4.5km that afternoon, then followed that up with 6.3km on Thursday. I had planned to get another longer run in at the weekend, but a poker night with beers on Friday, followed by more beers to watch the FA Cup on Saturday put paid to that. However, given that I won $80 on Friday, and Liverpool won on Saturday I’m pretty happy anyway.

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

Well I got up early and headed out on my long run without issue, leaving the house at 7.05. Not bad for a Saturday morning. I’d run a semi-hilly 14.6km last week, so the plan for this week was to avoid all hills and see if I could get up around 18km. My legs are starting to feel the cumulative effects of lots of mileage (for me anyway) so I was a bit unsure of how they’d cope with yet another “longest run I’ve ever done”.

I opted to run laps of the golf course as it’s a known distance (4.25km) and fairly flat, and after the usual 15-20 minutes of grumbling, the legs settled down and it was plain sailing. I stopped down at the Rose Bay ferry for a quick slurp of water every lap to keep myself hydrated, and I’d brought along an energy gel left over from my last triathlon which I took on the third lap to give me a bit of a boost.

I was feeling good, so the idea of keeping going and aiming for a half marathon (21.1km) cropped up and I decided to go for it. I had to think a bit and try and figure out how to add on enough to make up the distance without leaving me further from home, so I elected to run down, then back up, Newcastle Street, finishing with a time of 1:57:10 which I was happy enough with, especially as I’d been restricting my HR to a max. of 150, and had averaged 146.

My legs were bloody exhausted, so I did my usual post-long run thing of stopping off at the garage for some coke & Gatorade to get some sugar in to me then began the walk home. Once back at the ranch, I fired up Google Earth to measure how far I’d really run (isn’t technology great!), to discover it was only 20.75km! Damn!

Oh well, even if I didn’t knock off the 21.1km it’s still 6km further than I’ve run before, and at least I now know that I’ll have no problem finishing the race in a couple of weeks.

Thankfully I’ve booked a massage for Monday. I reckon my legs will need it!

B: 33.7km – R: 48.8km

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

After having a few days off, and getting on the beers over Easter, it was time to get back out for a run last night. I’d intended aiming for around 6km, but mis-counted my laps and ended up running 7.3km (41:07). Felt pretty good, though when I got home I noticed that my left shin was a little tender. My first thought was ‘stress fracture’, but then it had been fine during the run so that couldn’t be it. I figured it must be down to only doing a brief stretching session before heading out and decided to see how it was this morning.

Woke up and it felt fine. Did a proper stretching routine, got my stuff together and headed out the door for the run to work. I decided against going the New South Head Road way like last week as it was too hilly, so I headed for Bondi Junction. The hill up Birriga Road was always going to be the toughest part of the run as it was the only real uphill, so I just got stuck in to it and saw my HR rise to 168. After that it was relatively plain sailing for the rest of the way in to town, via Moore Park Road and Oxford St., for a total of ~10.3km in 58:51. I’ll have to measure the route on the bike tomorrow to be sure.

The shin issue I’d noticed last night showed up a lot fainter than last night, despite it being a longer run, so presumably it’s not serious. I’m not going for another run until tomorrow evening at the earliest, so that should be enough rest to clear it up. Running’s going well at the moment, and if all goes to plan I should crack 40km this week.

R: 17.6km

Went out for another long run this morning. I usually do them on Saturdays, but given that we’re off to Graeme’s for a BBQ and there’s likely to be a few beers had, I figured I should get the run out of the way today. I ran 13.25km last weekend, so I decided to aim for 15km today. Looking around for a route to run, I settled on the Vaucluse Variation (large GIF), one of the Sydney Striders’ routes.

As it turned out it was a bit too much. I decide to run it in reverse, and all went well until around the 10km mark, by which stage I was almost at Neilsens Park. I’d run up Heartbreak Hill which was a killer on the legs, and from then on it was slightly uphill, then slightly downhill, which never gave my legs a chance to rest. I hadn’t brought a map of the route with me, so after Neilsens I couldn’t remember exactly where to go. I ended up improvising, and chose to run up Villare Lower Road which is bloody steep. Just what the legs didn’t need! A quick detour down to the lighthouse and back to finish up at the shops for a much needed bottle of coke. I now understand what they meant when their ads claimed “Can’t beat the feeling”… there’s nothing like an ice cold coke at the end of a long run!

Another week’s long run finished without incident, in this case 14.6km (1:24:55). Fractionally short of the 15km I was aiming for, but it was a lot hillier than I expected, and it’s still further than I’ve ever run before, so I’m happy.

B: 74km – R: 28.5km

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

Well, I got up for my long run this morning, setting off at 8am. Headed down Military Road to Bondi, then up Curlewis, down Newcastle to Rose Bay, along the promenade then back up O’Sullivan, down Newcastle again and up Albermarle. I decided to keep my HR under 150 and just see how things went and basically just run until I felt that characteristic tightness in my knees which signifies that I should stop soon or it will take a few days to recover. All up it was 13.25km in just under 1:19 which I was pretty happy with.

I had hoped for 10km or so, which would have given me just enough time to build up for the half marathon, so 13km+ was great and I now know that, barring injury, I’ll have no worries finishing the race. On the other hand, my original, somewhat fanciful, notion of running a 1:45 has been shown to be just that: fanciful. Realistically, I’ll be aiming for a sub-2hr finish time.

My legs feel fine now, but tomorrow will reveal how tough the run really was. This run also put me over 30km for the week, which is the first time I’ve run over 30km in a week. Actually, it’s the first time I’ve run over 20km in a week!

B: 92.5km – R: 30.6km

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