Sick Again

"No one ever finds life worth living—he has to make it worth living."
— Unknown

Despite a reasonable start to the week as I get ready for the start of my training program , I have succumbed once again to the flu.Not too bad and just a dry hacking cough and the usual aches and pains.I managed one swim session and the Tuesday and Thursday bike ride.got the sore throat on Wednesday but thought i would just get over it in a day.How wrong. Thursday i rode to kings Park and did a few loops and then went to work and after work rode to the Gym did a 30 min thread mill session and then rode home . Felt Ok but by Friday morning was unwell and had to skip my Saturday ride and just rest although I spent a whole day at a planning session for the volunteer group Iam president of at the moment.Made a welcome change to my Saturday mornings.I also got to watch the hamburg leg of the ITU race and that was really quite exciting despite the race always coming down to the run and who was the fastest runner.

With a week to the Painathon there is a bit of deja vu in my preparation this year , ie. there is none. Fortunately it is really just a long training day and hopefully I will be well by then and able to finish the race ...probably in the dark as I think it is harder than an IM race and more so with the preparation I have had. But I have had sponsorship of 500 dollars so I have to finish the race for the sake of the sponsorship.

At least I seem to be getting the sick periods out of the way in the beginning.

http://www.triathlon.org/news/article/gomez_runs_to_hamburg_win/
Link to the ITU Hamburg race.

SYDNEY

I have been slack for the past 10 days. With a trip to Sydney last week ,I did little training but lots of walking and had a fun week in sydney exploring the harbour city with the kids .

Lots of rides on the Sydney ferries , meeting up with old classmate , musical wicked and just enjoying the wonderful weather as we walked round and visited the usual tourist sites and the many museums .

Came back feeling more rested and caught up on the sleep . we stayed at SwissHotel Sydney which was in central Sydney and next to the Sydney Tower and a few blocks from the monorail system .It was handy and breakfast was included so we all had a great late breakfast each morning before walking it off during the day.

Got back to training again this week , 20 weeks to Ironman Busselton . Had a slight cold but otherwise Iam slowly trying to get back to a more regular system of fixed sessions before I start my ironman Programme.

Rainy Days

I had a very slack week .It was a busy Monday and Tuesday so I did not manage any training.On Wednesday , I ran at Lunch and in the vening for 1.5 hrs and then did the swim session ,the standard 2.4km. On Thursday Perth was expecting a storm front so I decided to give the ride a miss but in the end the rain only started in the afternoon and continued.

I swam on Friday for an hour and a half , was raining in the evening but it did not feel too bad in the water. did about 2.8km with a number of drills .


On Saturday morning ,I bit the bullet and decided to ride the Painathon familiarisation course starting at the causeway for challenges 6 to 10. I started off late at 7am and within 10 minutes it began to rain.I had my yellow flouro rain jacket and quickly got it on .It did not really keep the rain off.I met Michael P who was taking anyone interested through the cycle route to the Painathon challenge.One other racer showed up.We started off at 7.45tam and within 15minutes it started to rain and continued off and on for all 5 hours .We rode out to Campesic Road in the Swan valley about 35km from Perth and then to the Zig-Zag in kalamunda and then to Bickley reservoir .Michael made a wrong turn and we climbed up Kalamunda Road for about 15 minutes before we turned back and came down the road and found the right turn off.Got to Bickley Reservoir, had a short break and a banana.I had 1.5 bottles,with 1 bottle of electrolyte and just a banana and a bar for the whole ride.Managed to survive although I was feeling tired after 3.5 hours of riding.

From bickley it was a 20km ride to Canning Bridge via Albany Hwy which was very busy.We skirted round Albany Hwy by going through the side roads and made it onto Manning road and then onto Canning Bridge.from there it was a short ride back to Kings Park.I rode home and did 123km in 4.5 hours.The bike was a mess and everything was wet.

After today's ride ,the Painathon on 1 August is going to be very tough especially if it rains .but should be a good training session all the same.

Death Valley- Long & Lonely Road

The ongoing theme for the week was "COLD". Saturday was no different.I was to meet the Chevron Group who were riding out to Death Valley on Saturday morning .I mixed up my times and obviously did not read the email properly .

All,

This Saturday Weather Permitting we, and I’m hoping you, are going to ride to Death Valley. If you would like to come along and see/feel the elevations please read on...

Meet here at the base of QV1 by the waterfall for a 6.00am departure. From here we’ll head out to Guildford and up the Toodyay Rd. (see map))

This will be a great opportunity to build some strength for the next Cyclo Sportif event in Pinjarra at the end of July.

The ride will be an easy pace and we will wait at the top of each climb to re-group. Tell your loved ones you’ll be back around 11:00am

Round trip will be approximately 120kms so please bring food, gels etc and two bottle of drink. It’ll be a cool start so wear layers so you can shed them as it warms up. Also bring at least one spare tube and make sure your tyres have plenty of wear remaining on them.

Please feel free to invite others who enjoy a challenging ride.

See you there.

Well I rocked up at 6.25 am after cyclying fom home and it was bitterly cold despite the warm weather gear and the gloves.It was not thick enough. Dropped one water bottle so I had one bottle of electrolyte as well.No one around and rang Tony to find out they had left after waiting for 15 minutes. I decided to just ride the route on my own.

The climb up Toodyay Road was a little nerve biting with the trucks zooming along and the sun glare probably blinding the drivers who would not be able to see me on the edge.But I survived.Once I had turned off onto O'Brien's road it was so quiet.There were no cars and absolutely nothing was moving.As I rolled up and down the rolling hills , nothing stirred. I eventually got up to a point called Eagles's Nest and there is a B&B stop which seemed full of cars in the driveway but deadly quiet , and below in the valley was the mist hanging low . By now as I raced down the hill , my hands and feet were so cold they were hurting .My ears were exposed and they were just as painful. The bad news ...whether I liked it , I had to keep going as there was no way out of the ride and it is called death valley for the simple reason it has no mobile coverage.

About 2.5 hours into the ride I managed to catch up with the back of the Chevron group and then stayed with them till we got back to Toodyay Road. We all regrouped several times during the ride and just before the end saw several young kangaroos bounding across the road .One unfortunate joey tried to dart across the road but then saw us and took a tumble before scampering away. All the other animals were probably too cold to be moving about.

The ride down Redhill was fast and a little nerve wrecking but we all made it down OK.We all (there were 6 of us) rode down and the fast group that had gone on to Gidgigannup rode past us as we headed down the hill.We rode back to the city via Guildford and I turned off at Bayswater and headed home .Legs were tired but not sore.Managed 122km at just under 25kph. Not very fast but I managed to keep my heart rate as low as possible.

That night I was asleep by 10pm and did not wake from a very deep sleep till 7am . there is alot to be said about a bike ride in the hills. I did an easy 45 min run late Sunday morning .


At the end of Death Valley turn right to head back down Toodyay Road


After the ride I felt pretty comfortable at where I am at early in the training cycle and where to go from here . Most of all , despite the cold , if anything I felt good and alive for just being able to ride and feel every fibre of myself as I raced down each hill. Riding is a great destresser and I see so much more around me .
You don't have to stop to smell the roses ...just ride past them.

A NICE DAY

View from Left Bank

I commenced my July training full of enthusiasm conscious that IMWA is 5 months away and starting too early may lead to a lack of motivation and tiredness just when I need to muster the strength for the last solid block of training before Busso.

But it was nice to be able to get out of bed and despite the cold get to swim training with a drizzle and still feel good and enthused. Just hope it last .

Swimming was good fun today.Whilst it was cold , the water was nice. Did an 800m warm up. 100m medley then a 400m time trial which I did in about 8.35 . Not sure if that is a PB though? Then a slow 300m before 6 x 100m at medium, firm and 50 backstroke ,50 free thrown in.

Did 2.4km with a 200 m cool down.Cycled to the pool than on to work.As the firm was having lunch to celebrate the end of the financial year , we all went down to the Left Bank .I rode down and had a great lunch ending at 4.30 and then caught a lift to the city .I then rode back. Did a 47km ride nice and slow.

This week I have done Swim 2hrs
Bike 4.45
run 2.35

Tomorrow , I head for the hills again and then a long slow run on Sunday.

Today was a great day, despite the drizzle in the morning , the ride round the river in the afternoon was as good as it gets. The sun was out and it was warm , there was little traffic and the sky was clear . I had a lovely card from a client , chocolates and cake as a gift and finally lunch with colleagues was just the icing on the cake.

Ad Hoc Training

The week is nearly over and has passed rapidly.

It been a busy one and I do not know where the time has gone .Work has been busy and have tried to fit in my training schedule which at the moment is ad hoc.

On Monday I skipped swimming and just rested in the day and ran for an hour in the evening . Did the sand trails in kings Park again and it was cold and dark. On Tuesday , back to the hour hard ride at Nedlands and managed to go a little faster but largely thanks to a bigger group.Managed to stay with the group for the first 10 km lap and then lost the faster riders .I caught up with Rod and we worked together for the second lap and in the third lap I caught up with the group again and stayed with them till the end. Felt much better than last week and was an average speed of 31.5 including my slow ride out to Nedlands.

On Wednesday , I ran at lunch time for 45 mins and after work did a quick 35 min session and then a swim session .Lots of drills and kicking ...ouch. This morning , it was too cold to cycle ALONE to Fremantle so I just did the work circuit and ran on the threadmill at Gym on the way home .Total time of 1.40m . Nothing taxing.

Last week was about 13 hours and this week I plan to do a long hills ride and a long run on Sunday.

Nothing like a bit of chaotic planning . I will start my training program in August after a short discussion with Ross. so I still have July to relax. sort off with the Painathon coming and City to surf in 2 months.Weight is marginally down at 75 to 75.5kg .

Got a n email from jone re the Painathon and hope to start fundraising tomorrow starting with my office but if anyone out in Internet land wish to pledge /sponsor my attempt please send me a comment with a contact.

G'day P-Team,

With August 1st approaching i'm glad to say from both an organisational, entry and volunteer point of view the event is yet again coming together. Half Painathletes and Solo Painathletes are now level pegging for numbers (~25 each) so we've got a good crowd already with alot of time to go. Plenty of newbies who have little idea what they're in for, a number of returns from hiatus and the few who have the guts to handle this form of physical stress year in, year out.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spread the word
I encourage you all to get the word out. Painathlon is a little bit viral, news of it reaches far and wide by word of mouth, tri-club newsletters and other means. Our main aim is to get to the people who are likely to give it a go.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The reason
It is easy to get lost amongst the excitement of trying something crazy but the reason I set this event up was to fundraise grants for Variety kids who may never be able to complete an ordeal such as the Painathlon due to their physical disadvantages. Even if you each get just your mum, a friend and a workmate to sponsor you, it will make the effort that much more meaningful when you're busting your gut up a challenge.
Although completing 10/10 challenges within the cutoff is an elite achievement in itself and worthy of major athletic kudos, you'll note prize money is not a feature. Beyond basic running costs, every excess cent of entry fee's goes toward Variety. Our team and all the volunteers are all unpaid.
As an incentive, we offer a Painathlon Sportsfever shirt to all those who can raise $250 and hand in/transfer it before the event start.

Finally , read Chuckie V's great blog on training:

The Work Week Part Two: Captain Plan It
http://chuckiev.blogspot.com/2010/06/work-week-part-two-captain-plan-it.html

As I've already proposed in my last blog, IT IS ONLY QUALITY TRAINING IF IT ELICITS QUALITY RESULTS, and those, of course, are defined entirely by the individual. (Recall that "training" is preparation for something else, not a goal in and of itself.) So "quality" can be a number of things: hard efforts, easy efforts, no efforts, sleep...you name it. In training everything is affected by everything else (i.e., the holism of training), so quality's ultimate definition comes down to what occurs at the finish line (i.e., the bottom line), and whether it makes YOU happy with your performance…or not.

So much to learn and absorb , so little brain matter .