Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Week 21 & 22


Sharing the Road

These past 2 weeks of training have been very light as I tried to recover from a sore left knee and just general fatigue and tiredness. Rather than just recounting my sessions that I did do , the past weekend gone by ,  usually filled with activity and following friends and triathletes online at the Ironman World championships took a very steep dive emotionally with the news of another death of a cyclist , a triathlete and someone I knew in the triathlon community.

I did not know Brynt personally but I knew Katey his girlfriend and had seen him on many occasions at triathlons , at the cafe and with Katey riding in the hills on my rides earlier in the year before Ironman Melbourne and right at the beginning when Exceed (even before Exceed was a Tri Club) we would meet up at Tiger Lils Cafe and Katey and Brynt would be having breakfast there . It hits home how vulnerable we are on the road. I use the same route , less so now , when heading to the hills and so do all my friends and club mates ,  and I am sure many other cyclist ride the same roads on their way to Kalamunda and the Hills . I felt tired on Saturday and opted to not ride and take my dog to the beach. On Sunday I did the ATTA time trial as 2000 triathletes were racing in Kona and as I checked my Facebook page , news of Brynt's death was being posted.  

The rest of the Sunday just felt numb . I didn't really feel like following the World Championships and everything else felt less important . Whilst I can't pretend to express or know the pain his family and loved ones are going through , it was closer to home than the stories I read of cyclist or motorist killed each week on our road. I blogged about the senseless deaths of cyclist last year ( Cycling: the beauty and the tragedy 17 May 2013) and the need for at least some laws to ensure motorist give cyclist the space to avoid tragedy .We always come off second best . Any law won't prevent all deaths and particularly the stupidity of people driving and breaking the current laws be it texting ,using their mobile phones or drink driving . But I believe in more protection because lives are being lost through senseless and dangerous driving . Education is certainly a factor and the aggression of some motorist vs cyclist needs to be stopped by both sides . I have seen motorist and cyclist acting badly . I am a car user and I am conscious of cyclist because I have and I am in their shoes. I wish as the blogger Kristy Muir in her piece Clip into Our Shoes ( http://theperformanceproject.com.au/clip-into-our-shoes/ ) expressed it , we only want to share the road and we all want to get home safely .

 In other parts of the world it isn't a tough ask. This past week here in Perth , One family , a Partner , a Community can't say that for one of its own .

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Week 20





Guardian of the Galaxy - Spirit in the sky

An easy week  beginning of September 22 as I skipped a number of session this week just from fatigue and work.

Monday

A run of 8km easy at Lunchtime.

Tuesday

Ran again at Lunchtime an easy 7km and then did a wind trainer session with the suffer fest DVD for 1.15 doing 40kms .

Wednesday

I ran in the evening a round Kings park but did not do intervals just kept the pace up just above threshold. Ran 10kms

Thursday
 Missed the bike session and just did my Cross fit session .It was a hard work out.There was an interesting piece on building atheletism with such workouts ( Why You Need to Be Doing Burpees from the Outside Magazine ) Anything with burpees in it is hard. I was quite sore the next day .I managed a run at lunch with an easy 7km run as well and a short 4km run with Molly before Cross fit.



Friday

An easy run of  8 km and then a swim in the evening .I had an easy 500m swim and another 500m then 800 with PB and then 700 without  and 500 to finish .Total 3km.

Saturday
Saturday's Cross fit session

I decided to skip riding.The weather was foul and just had a rest .Did attend the cross fit session.

Sunday

Rest Day ...weather wasn't the best so just caught up with Trevor and Les for coffee.

Week 19


After wind trainer session

The time is rolling by quickly. I have had two lighter weeks partly just out of circumstances and feel .

The week beginning 8 September was week 19 since I started preparation at least for Busselton be it at a very informal and relaxed pace. Little swimming and a bit more bike and running but nothing like the hours from past programmes as the blog will attest. This is a very uch minimalist approach to training for my sanity , health and probably well being and longevity in the sport. grinding out miles and hours may help but probably in the long run it will lead to injury and for me just turning away from the sport.

Monday
 as expected an easy run at Lunch time of 8 km . Kept the HR to under threshold and ran at about 6min -6.15 pace.Not fast but I wasn't struggling either.

Tuesday

I ran again in the afternoon just 7km and then in the evening did a session on the spin bike for 1.10 - a sufferfest dvd trying to keep my heart rate above threshold.I did take the breaks offered but by and large kept the heart rate going .Rode 40km

Wednesday

I ran an interval session and did 10km with 5 x 1km and 2 x 500m at below 5 minute pace. In the evening I swam by myself finishing a steady 2.5km with a 500m warm up and then 700,600 , 500 and cool down 200m .

Thursday

Rode in the morning at Kings Park doing a high cadence session for about 30 minutes and then managed just 4 climbs on lovekin before I had to head back to the city for work. In the evening it was a hard cross fit session .

Friday

Got a short easy run in of 7km and then decided to skip the swim.

Saturday

Had a hard 2.5 hr wind trainer session with the sufferfest DVDs . 85 kms of sweating as it was warm . went through 3 T shirts and was pretty tired after the session. cross fit in the evening was  just that little tougher with the legs tired.
Saturday's WOD

Sunday
I was supposed to be swimming but the weather was not ideal so I ran earlier , an easy 7km along the coast and fortunately we skipped the swim as the rain came as we were having coffee at Daisies in Cottesloe.

Total
Swim: 1hr or 2.5km
Bike: 5.5 hrs or 150km
Run: 4 hrs or 40km
cross fit : 2hrs
Total: 12 hrs