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

Bought my MTB in to City Bike Depot last night for one of their ‘learn to service your own bike’ sessions and it was excellent. The basic deal is that you pay for a normal service, and then pay an extra $50 for you to take part in that service, one on one. You get shown how to do everything and you’re made to do stuff to ensure you understood it properly. In my case I learned how to:

- recable front & rear derailleurs, including a couple of tips on cable routing, cable type etc.

- ensure smooth shifting & what all those tiny screw adjustments actually do

- bleed hydro disc brakes & replace calipers

- remove, grease & replace bottom bracket

- remove, grease & replace rear cassette

- regrease & settle wheel hubs

- true wheels

I also got general tips on what needs greasing and what doesn’t, what types of grease to use on what components and things to check on a regular basis, and things which are more ‘set & forget’. They’ll also answer any other bike-related questions you want answers for. I learned shitloads and would be quite happy doing 90% of my own servicing from now on, so it’ll save me that $50 in no time.

Oh yeah, they also do it for road/tri bikes as well, not just MTBs. It just so happened that it was my MTB needing a service.

I was supposed to cycle in and out of work yesterday, with a few bonus laps around the park to total 50-60km but circumstances got in the way again. I was also supposed to go to the Open-Air Cinema with Jacqui, but I had to can that too. I’d forgotten that I’d book my MTB in for a service, and paid the extra to be shown how to service my own bike. Given that I’d been supposed to do this in November, except I’d forgotten about it then too and had never shown up, I figured I’d better go along this time. Just as well I’d set a reminder in my phone!

Anyway, what that meant was that I had to bring the MTB in to work, and since it had no front brake pads, cycling wasn’t a smart option. To compensate for missing out on the road cycle, I jumped on the indoor trainer in the morning for 30min session before going to work.

10mins cycle

5 * 20secs Single Leg Drills

5 mins cycle

Total: ~15km

S: 2600m – B: 15km – R: 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

Woke up this morning for my first ride of 2006. Shit weather, recently rained, internal argument ensued:

Get up you lazy bastard, you said you’d train consistently this year…

Weather’s crap, I’ll just stay in bed and ride on Saturday…

You need time on the new aerobars!

But it’s wet…

Nope, the ground’s dry…

Oh, OK then, I’ll go the long way in to work, but I’m skipping the laps around CP…

OK.

Hit the road, get down to Bondi and notice that I’ve got my first puncture since I got my bike over a year ago. Oh well, better change the tube and keep going. Get the wheel off, the tyre off and the tube out. Open up the tool bag only to see that I’ve a 650C tube for some reason, whereas I need a 700C one?? I’ve no pump, only CO2 canisters, so I can’t pump up the old tube and patch the puncture. Oh well, that’s the end of that then.

Ring Jacqui to get her to pick me up on her way in to work, then retire to the Tratt across the road for a coffee and some buttermilk pancakes! Every cloud has a silver lining ;-)

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

Got a decent swim in today which was basically the same as the squad session from this morning which I wasn’t at. Once again, Kim’s too lazy to think up her own session. I didn’t mind too much, though it was a bit odd repeating the warm-up because she thought it was part of the main set??

300 FS
300 K
300 Pull
3 * {
    75 effort
    25 back
    300 FS, every second 50 as drill }, 45s rest
300 FS
300 K
300 Pull
Total: 3000m

S: 3000m – B: 30.2km

Cycled home from work last night, met up with Niall and did a few laps around the park. Hadn’t been on the bike for a couple of weeks, but it felt pretty good. I was also trying out my new saddle which has a bit more padding than my last one. It’s not too bad, but still a bit stiff, though I expect it will get a bit more comfortable as I wear it in.

B: 30.2km

Chris (Kamahl from Transitions) decided to enter a team into the Canberra Half Ironman at the weekend as he wanted to do the bike leg. I volunteered for the swim and Michelle plumped for the run. It was the first triathlon I had been to and I had a great time. I got the easy option and was only doing the swim. Chris lent me his wetsuit for my first time swimming in a wettie and it’s unbelievable how buoyant they are! I’d done a 2km swim during the week in a reasonably comfortable 29:30, so I figured I’d manage around 28ish for the 1.9km assuming there were no navigation errors.

The teams started in the last wave with the M35-39 group, so I got up front right from the gun and settled into a nice rhythm with one or two other guys. There was a group of about 5 ahead of us, but they were going much faster than I wanted to, so I let them go. Swimming in a full wettie was quite tough. My shoulders got tired fairly quickly, so when I buy my own one I reckon I’ll go the long john style to give me some freedom around the shoulders.

Water was fully brown, so couldn’t see a thing around me, but all went well and I managed to stay upright once I hit the ramp to exit the lake. Forgot to stop my watch, figuring that the 500m or so run to transition counted as part of my swim time, but I did look down shortly after leaving the water to see 25:36 on the clock, so I reckon I swam around 25:15 or so. Was pretty happy with that given that I was aiming for around 28! Average HR was 174!! Didn’t feel that hard though, but the run to tranisiton nearly killed me! I was bloody delighted to hand over to Chris, thinking to myself “how can these guys be heading off for 90km bike & a half marathon” and “I need to do more than 4km swimming a week”

Chris’s bike computer didn’t start, but we reckon he rode around 2:25. He said it was a very tough course. Constantly up and down, with no flats to settle into. Everyone else seems to agree. Michelle ran about 2:20 which she was happy with.

While everyone else was doing the hard work I farted around taking pictures.

Back into training this week for my first full triathlon at the weekend.

S: 5200m

Got a full swim session in yesterday and felt pretty good. It bore a remarkable similarity to Monday’s session and we did tell Kim she has to make more of an effort. Somehow I doubt it will make much difference though. I had planned to go for another short run when I got home, but it was starting to rain so I didn’t bother.

400 FS
4 * 200 FS on 3:15 (2:55)
3 * {
    50 K,
    250 FS,
    100 BC } 1min rest
2 * 200 Pull on 3:15 (2:55)
Total: 2800m

S: 5000m – R: 3.2km

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

I got fed up still being congested post-flu and not exercising as a result, so I decided I’d get back in the pool and see what happened. Either the water would help clear things up once and for all, or I’d suffer a relapse. James, the fast swimmer, was back for good now that he’s managed to get himself a working visa for Australia so there was no slacking off. He’s about 10secs/100m faster than me which is good as it will force me to do a bit more work in future, and give me someone to drag off.

400 FS
200 Pull
100/200/300/200 FS, 15s rest
Total: 1400m

The sessions have been getting increasingly predictable since our coach doesn’t really have a clue. I’d made the mistake of giving her a few ideas of different sets a month or two ago thinking it would encourage her to experiment a bit, but she just uses the same set over and over. The 100/200/300/200/100 is mine, and I originally suggested it as an alternative warn-up, but now we keep getting it as a main set. I told her she’d have to start coming up with more varied sessions and that she should talk to the morning coach and get some ideas from him. Hopefully things will improve shortly.

S: 1400m

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

After watching the whales last night I headed off for an evening run. I decided to head up to Christisson Park and just run for 30mins with the aim of keeping an even pace. I ran anti-clockwise for 15mins, then turned around and ran clockwise for another 15 and tried to cover the same distance. I managed a total of 5.25km quite comfortably without any complaints from my legs.

Laps:
4:39.6 – 142
4:45.4 – 150
4:49.8 – 152
1:20.5
4:47.8 – 152
4:57.3 – 152
4:49.0 – 155
HR @ 1min: 120

My CHO + PRO supplies had arrived, so when I got home I put my plan into action. Mixed up a bottle, drank half immediately then the other half 40mins later. Didn’t feel tired all night, and felt much better when I woke up this morning. It’s too early to tell from one sample, but the potential looks good.

Finally, jumped on the bike for a ride this morning and headed in to City Bike Depot who offer free coffee and croissants to cycle commuters on the second Wednesday of every month. Free breakfast – mmmmm!

S: 2000m – B: 31.1km – R: 5.25km

I’ve noticed that as my training weeks progress I get more and more tired, so that by the weekend I’m exhausted. This implies that I’m not getting enough food, but at the same time I’m not losing much weight, which implies that I am getting enough food. I decided to read up on post-exercise nutrition to see if I could be doing something a bit better immediately after exercising that would refuel me for my next session.

Turns out that there’s plenty written on the subject, though a lot of it is related to weight lifting and is more relevant to bodybuilders. However, there’s adequate evidence from endurance sources like Peak Performance Online (a brilliant training resource), CyclingNews and the Australian Institute of Sport which say essentially the same thing: that for an hour or two post-exercise your body is ready to suck up carbs to replenish muscle glycogen stores and protein to repair muscle damage. The guidelines recommend up to 1.5g of carbs (CHO) per kilo bodyweight, or to replace some of the CHO with protein (PRO) if you suspect muscle damage, eg: from weights or a long run.

Now the important part is you need to get the CHO and PRO into your bloodstream fast, so eating some lean meat isn’t going to cut it, as it will take two hours to digest by which time your optimum window is gone. So, for CHO you need maltodextrin powder and for PRO you need hydrolysed whey protein. Maltodextrin is very cheap ($10/kg) but the hydrolysed whey protein is a bit more expensive ($45/kg), though you need much less of it so it will last longer than the maltodextrin. The basic plan is to have 1.2g CHO/kg (102g) after a cycle in to work in the morning (about 1hr) and then 1g CHO/kg (85g) and 0.4g PRO/kg (34g) in the evening after a run. You mix it up in water (4ml/g) and drink half straight away then the other half after about 40mins.

I’ve ordered my stocks and I’m going to try it out and see if it makes any difference.

No training for the last two weeks, so got some catching up to do. At least I had two events instead, so I wasn’t completely lazy. Got the ferry in to work yesterday then cycled home. I had inteded going for a run but my legs were still a bit tired after the Gong ride, so I decided to wait until today before getting back into running. When I woke up this morning it was pissing rain, so that put paid to my cycle today.

I got my lunch-time swim in yesterday though, and while I felt really crap at the start of the session I was much better by the end of it. I’m restricting myself to 2km sessions at the moment to save my energy for running and cycling.

400 FS
100/200/300/200/100 FS, 15secs rest
300 Pull
4 * 25K/75 FS on 2:00 (1:35)
Total: 2000m

S: 2000m – B: 15km

Myself and Kevin met up this morning to do the annual Sydney To The Gong ride. As the construction of a new bridge is yet to finish past the Royal National Park, the route didn’t actually go to Wollongong, but turned back inland and finished up back at Sutherland. I rode from home to the start at St. Peters, then from St. Peters to Sutherland, via the Royal, then got the train back to Bondi Junction and cycled home from there for a total distance of 100.8km.

The first 30km of the ride were a bit scary as there were quite a lot of people who were riding all over the road, making it a bit dangerous trying to pass them. Once we got out towards the Royal things thinned out a bit and it was much better from then on. I’d never ridden in the Royal, and as it is quite hilly I was curious to see how I’d go. It turned out to be not as bad as I’d expected and while there were some long uphills they weren’t too much trouble. They were hard, but not uncomfortably so. Once I’d settled in to a good rhythm I was OK.

After reaching Stanwell Tops, the ride back to Sutherland was relatively straightforward. Undulating, but no serious hills. Even still, when we got to the end I was glad of the rest. Had a burger, kicked back in the sun for a while before heading home. Good fun.

B: 100.8km

The clocks went forward on Saturday night, meaning that I lost an hour of sleep. No big deal you say, so did everyone else. True, but everyone else didn’t have to get up at 5:10, meaning that I was effectively getting up at 4:10. I wasn’t too happy about that, but as Becs was picking me up at 6:00 I had no choice. Having loaded the bikes and gear in to the Pajero, it was off to collect Niall and Team BND was ready to hit the road for the TEVA Sydney adventure race (AR).

The event was being held in Belanglo State Forest, scene of Ivan Milat’s backpacker murders back in the early 90’s which was a comforting thought. I was unaware of this piece of trivia, but every Aussie I’d mentioned the race to commented on it straight away.

Myself and Becs had done the Kathmandu AR back in June, which was a two-person team event. This one required teams of three, so we drafted Niallo in as he’d previously expressed an interest. Having recently run a 3:28:59 marathon we figured he could be the pack horse for the team. As it turned out, we distributed the load fairly equally and he only had to carry a bit of nylon rope.

It had pissed down for our last race and we had hopes this one would be a little drier. I checked the rain radar in the morning and while it was raining lightly in Sydney, it looked like the rain clouds were passing north of the race location, itself 130km south of Sydney. However, there were plenty of grey coulds around when we arrived, and sure enough it started pissing rain shortly after the start.

The race was set up as two bike/run/bike legs, with a number of checkpoints throughout each leg. Some checkpoints were mere locations, where you looked for a coloured flag, and stamped your card with the punch hanging it. Others involved completing a challenge before receiving your stamp from an official. Challenges ranged from the bizarre to the straightforward, for example;

• Three Wise Monkeys Becs stood in an obstacle course, Niall stood 5 metres behind her, and I stood a further 5 metres behind Niall. The obstacle course contained a stuffed monkey, two small poles stuck in the ground, a toy crocodile, an upturned bucket and a broom handle. I had a card with instructions on it telling Becs what to do (see photo above). The instructions for Becs were roughly as follows;

  – Bend down on one knee and bow to the monkey god.

  – Pick up the monkey and place it on your right shoulder. It must remain there at all times

  – Walk around the left pole. You are not to touch the crocodile at any time, nor are you to step outside your team’s square.

  – Pick up the broom handle, and use it to manoeuver the crocodile outside the square

  – Walk to the upturned bucket and place the monkey on top of it

  – Bow down to the monkey god

  Now, this all sounds very easy. However, Becs had to wear a blindfold and I wasn’t allowed to talk, so I had to mime the instructions to Niall, who could then speak them on to Becs.

• VO2Max Blow up enough balloons to make a stack which touches a rope hung about eight feet off the ground (see photo above).

• Navigate on foot around an area to pick up 4 out of 5 checkpoints

• Build a sculpture using swimming pool noodles (flotation devices for kids to play with)

We failed our first challenge (throwing two eggs into a bucket of water without breaking them) and had to do a penalty run through an obstacle course to get our stamp. After that it was off on the bikes for a straightforward ride to a couple of checkpoint before ditching them for the run leg. The first run leg saw us being given a new map with five points marked on it. We had to visit 4 out of these 5 points using our compass and terrain-reading skills to figure out where to go. The first three were OK, but the last took up a bit longer, partly due to the map disintegrating in our hands due to the torrential rain.

Having compeleted that section we were then faced with a music trivia quiz/crossword before being allowed back on the bikes for some more fast riding between checkpoints to complete the end of leg one. This was when we had to complete the Three Wise Monkeys challenge mentioned above. We made a balls of the first attempt, and after completing a penalty run, we got through on the second effort.

Out we went on the second leg. The constant rain and copious mud was starting to take its toll on my bike and I was having awful trouble shifting gears without severe effort. My disc brakes were also squealing very loud in protest at all the gunk they had to deal with, so when we reached the last run leg they were glad of the rest.

This run leg involved copying the checkpoint from an official’s map, navigating to that checkpoint, stamping your form to prove you’d been there, then reading the next location off a map at the checkpoint, navigating to that and so on. After racking up four checkpoints it was back to pick up the bikes for the final bike leg. It was long, muddy and the crap weather was starting to piss us off, so I was looking forward to the end. We reached checkpoint 20 where we had to use our rope to carry a basketball, then throw it over a ten foot high rope, without touching the ball with our hands. That was the final obstacle and it was a fast 1.5km ride to the finish line, where we began stuffing our faces straight away at the post race BBQ. Our final time was 4hr43mins according to my watch.

Overall it was good fun, though I think we’re all looking forward to doing a race in the dry!

Update: The official results are out and we finished in 4:43:53, 19th out of 42 Mixed teams, and 34th out of 80 overall.

S: 2000m – B: 41.4km – R: 10km