Saturday, June 27, 2009

The Journey begins

My last week of training began with a run in the evening arounf the neighbourhood .It was a 50 min run in the drab darkness with rain for company.Then on to swim squad .I did a 2.5km session .
Tuesday was a spin round the river with a sprint at pointwalter which i manage dto keep up with and as the sessions had progressively reduced I felt quite geared up and it felt good going hard.There was no rain as well.
On wednesday morning it rained in the morning so i skipped the swim session but went in the evening and it rained as well.Did another 2.5 km session.

Thursday was a rest day and on friday 26 june 2009 I ran an easy 40 min session and then swamafter that.did 2.2km .

Saturday morning before the flight ,instead of riding outside I did a WT session for 2 hrs covering 72km.Watched the IM Kona 2005 race and part of the tough love spinervals session by coach troy.

Flew off to singapore late morning...it was a cold and wet day.Thankfully all the training was done before the wet weather.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The End Is Near....



The week commencing 15 June was the second week of my taper.I had my swim session in the morning and we did approximately2.5km with some drills .

In the evening I had a run of 1.10 mins and again it was cold and got dark way too quickly but i felt I was managing a comfortable pace and not feeling too bad.

Tuesday I had my usual session with the group riding . we all met at Shelley where it was an hour of hard riding .It was dark for most of it and the group started of with approximately 12 riders before a few fell off.I kept up the pace and took my turn at the front for most of the ride till the end.My computer had us averaging 40.5kph for the hour.I ended up doing 75km for the morning and very pleased with how I felt for the whole session which was strong.

Wednesday 17 June 2009 I had a swim session and again did about 2.5km. It was cold and surreal with the steam coming from the pool as swimmers just moved up and down the lanes.
I try to focus on my stroke all the time and feel Iam moving more comfortably in the water .Ross believes I have to build my strength to get a more powerful stroke in my swim which will make me move faster thru the water.

In the evening I ran for an hour with 3 x 4min efforts and 4 mins easy run in between . ran round the neighbourhood.

Thursday 18 June turned out to be a rest day as it was wet and I stayed in instead of a 2 hr high cadence ride.
On friday I skipped the swim and did a run in the evening...running easy for an 1.15.

Saturday 20 june 2009 was to be my last longish ride but with the weather being what it was ....foul I ended up on the computrainer doing the IM Germany course for 1.45
I only stopped cause my son Jonathan kept interrupting the session and he wanted my laptop to watch his DVDs .

I ended up doing another short ride on sunday just to get a little more volume of riding in but it was a cold and wet day and after an hour I headed home.It was pointless and I had already done some fairly long rides. Probably not as many or as long as I wanted.
reading Gordo's recent training article on Xtri ...I really need to be riding 150% of the race distance and just under my aerobic threshold .Easier said than done but the results of some of the athletes he has trained with look equally impressive.But it will take time and as iam only in my 3rd year of tris I think I have a long way to go before I have built up my cycling and running legs.

Iam disappointed that I have not dropped as much weight and I probably go into IM Austria at 74 kg 5 kgs more than I wanted...although most friends have said I have lost weight.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

The Taper Begins

8 june 2009
The monday began with a sleep in ...but did do a 1.30 run in the arvo before the NCTC meeting .I was quite hungry and had a hungry jacks meal complete with ice cream during the meeting ...some tri-diet?
Did manage a comfortable run in the cold.Ran from the ofice to Jojos in Nedlands.

9June
Usual tuesday ride but back to 1.5 hrs hard plus the ride to nedlands and back .did 71km and managed to keep up the pace .The rest of the group were doing drills.
Managed 50km in the 1.5hr

felt good and would have been able to go harder if I had someone to chase during that cold and mostly in the dark ride...which was partly spent dodging cars .Hardest thing was keeping focused and the speed up in the dark and cold.

10 June
swim training in the morning...managed 2.5km and its always hard in the morning getting motivated.Iam not a morning person but since training for Tris I have adapted somewhat.
Did interval training in the evening but had a cramping pain in the stomach and cut short the run .Did an hour with 4 x 4min efforts.
Thursday was a wet day so i skipped my 2 hr ride at high cadence.
On friday I ran in the evening for 1.15 easy and did the swim session in the evening as well.
400 free
50 drill 50 free x 4=400
3x 400 50 firm 50 easy 100ast 100 easy 50fast 50 firm.
warm down 300m

sat 13 June

Long ride was 150km .started late because it was exceedingly cold and did not fancy climbing hills again in the dark.
went thru helena valley and mundaring to kalamunda and down whelspool road and leach hwy and Mt Henry and freo and back to Subiaco and then noranda a total o 140plus kms
The screw in my bidon cage came off so had to hold it together with bands from a fellow cyclist who kindly helped out .It was quite cold and from helena Valley to Mundaring and Kalamunda the Fog hugging the ground was quite thick .I could not see the cars.
I did see more cyclist on the road and felt good ..kept up the nutrition and legs were not hurting as bad .I even had 2 mars bars and that helped .I believe i ate atleast 75g of carbohydrates per hour and dranks about 550ml per hr .had 2 pee stops .Climbings the hills was slow but kept my heart rate at thresshold or below for most of the ride.
I ran for 30 mins off the bike and felt strong so i should be able to keep up to the 6min km for the first 20 km ..its whether i can manage the pace for the whole 42 km .

sunday was a rest day and had a good sleep in .I was feeling quite tired and learnt one valuable lesson the recovery days were just as important.

Fortunately iam not carrying any injuries ,just the aches and pains of a very long training programme.Still a bit of groin pain but not a hinderance to any activity.

2 more weeks before the full taper.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Easy Week

1 June 2009
It is 35 days to Ironman Austria and Iam now over the last hard block of training although the taper still has a few long rides and some intense workouts as it should be after reading Chukie v article on the taper ,unless I am training mark allens training regime of 20-40 hrs a week .

Monday was a public holiday and I met up with Tony at Cott to swim .we did the swim past Blue duck Cafe and back .Close to 2km.In the evening i did a 1h20 min easy run round light street park .

Tuseday morning had th eusual ride is was cool but no rain during the ride.Started of with rod and Julianna and the fast group caught up with us after the first lap and then we hung on to them and did a few turns at the front as well.felt good and reasonably strong .it was suppose to be an easy 2 hr ride but managed to keep up.Aerages 35kpg with the slow ride out to nedlands .Was averaging close to 40kph on the 2.5 laps after the 2 groups merged.

wed turned out to be a rest day as swimming was cancelled and I could not run because the weather was foul so I ran on thursday doing a 1 hr run with 6 x 1min effforts.
On friday did a swim session in the morning .
Sat had an easy long ride of 120km but ended doing 111km .Got up late as i did not sleep muchthe night before .Started off at 4.50am and rode to subiaco then on to west perth and across the city to Tomato lake off orrong road and from there the group of chevron riders headed to kalamunda up whelshpool road and then a loop round kalamunda although we got up to the observatory at Bickley and then turned round back the same way before heading back to kalamunda.Had coffee and then down zig zag and back to orrong road and home .
Ran for an hour in the afternoon .

Full Taper begins from 8 June .

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Steve Larsen/Mongoose Bicycle TV Ads 1999 1 of 2

On May 19, 2009 former world class cyclist and triathlete Steve Larsen left us suddenly at the age of 39. And while he's widely known and defined by his athletic legacy, his accolades, awards and accomplishments are really just a small glimpse of Steve the person. These are six of the 12 Steve Larsen TV ads for Mongoose Bikes that aired throughout the 1999 Tour de France on ESPN. What I love about these first six--the more casual spots--is that you get some sense of who Steve was off the bike. The ads were created by Rudy Magnani, Justin Daab and Brian Riley at Magnani Continuum Marketing. I worked at Mongoose at the time and played a small role in their creation...and was lucky enough to work with Steve--something for which I will forever be proud.
- Dongoose
May 27, 2009

See http://rememberstevelarsen.com/