Para- Olympics..

Pictures from CNN.COM

I have touched on the subject of motivation and inspiration from time to time , particularly when I felt it really hard to get motivated .

The Olympics was inspiring and the para Olympics even more so. When you see armless swimmers swim faster than able bodied swimmers , wheelchair basketball , blind hand ball , there is little if no excuse I can find for my lack of motivation .

But , and there is always one. Whilst I am inspired and motivated , I acknowledge the many with a disability who strive for the equality that these  Para-Olympians  have shown the world  they are capable of.

Brazillian Hobbles to 100m finish

Driven to destiny

Blind Paralympic sports silence spirited London crowds

That is why the Olympians are the best from their countries. What is hard to understand and bottle is the drive to overcome. If that trait could be harnessed and directed and inculcated , then the human race would be a force to reckon with. That is the inspiration of watching the para-Olympians , they show the world that it isn't what we see , it isn't their disability that makes them any more or less ,it is their ability to harness what they have and their energy to focus on one goal.

But aside from the para Olympics , there are many with a disability who in their quiet ways live their lives and have victories a long the way . That is the inspiration we do not see.Their will to keep fighting against many odds with the support of family and carers who provide much with so little .

What I do is a sport and sometimes fun. What the many with a disability do is live their life as best they can. Making it a World of equal opportunity and respect for those with a disability is the least we can do .

Spring Training

Wet Weather in Perth from Perth.now

Monday Morning is always a tough start but I just fell asleep instantly on Sunday night and got up at 3.30 am but managed to dose off for another hour and a half before getting up for swimming. Made it and the water was quite nice.

I did a 600m warm up with some medleys and then 300m drills and then the main set was 200m easy , 100mfast ,100m easy ,100m fast , 50m easy and 50m fast x 2 plus 200m but we did an extra 100m and then a 200m cool down .A total of 2.5km.

Had a physio session in the afternoon at 4pm and when I got home it was bucketing down so no run this evening.

Tuesday was supposed to be a 90 minute hard session. It was raining and howling and despite the 14 brave souls who faced the conditions , I didn't. I am afraid I don't have the stomach for braving the elements.Truth is , I can't afford another fall on my already compromised shoulder.

I will have a make up session as the weather is expected to be better on the weekend.I did do my run session in the new gym attached to my  new office building .I was by myself and it was a good hard session. Ran 11km with 12 x 500m at  mainly threshold and just above threshold session.

Wednesday ,I was at the pool early enough.Did a 400m warm up with PB and 400m drills with the PB and then  the main set was  100m threshold , 200m medley , 400m threshold , 500m medium/threshold , 400m threshold , 100m threshold and a 100m cool down .a total of 2.6km.

Thursday , I was up early and parked at  my new offices before riding to Nedlands for a Brick session.A big turnout  of Exceed triathletes and we did a 5km loop with a 1km run , four times.I was last to finish with a few stopping after 3  turns. The first ride/run was horrendous , I was gagging and wheezing a fair bit in the cold morning air but felt a lot better in the next ride/bike . We all rode back to the city and I got lost as we were at a new cafe on Queens Street.James happened to be heading to the cafe after the ride and so I found the place.

Venn cafe

in the evening it was an easy 1.5hr run which was approximately 14 km. it was a little hard with the legs feeling a little tired after the morning brick session.

Friday was suppose to be a swim session but I slept in and then went for Physio .

Saturday is a long training day.

Mountain Bike Ride (More Pictures)

At the Bridge over the falls at John Forest National Park

The Old railway line

At the start of the Trail

Fixing the Puncture at Helena Valley

The wattles were in Full Bloom

Tim Tam Brownies

Guildford Town Bakery

Enjoying the Coffee after the Ride

Fathers Day Mountain Bike Ride

On the Heritage Trail heading up to Mundaring

With the lack of rainfall the waterfall wasn't as Impressive

Tim taking pictures

The trail of wattles

At the Guildford Town bakery enjoying Coffee

Untitled by cookejohn at Garmin Connect - Details

Although it was a rest day , I had missed my Tuesday session so I did a mountain bike ride this morning.it was suppose to be a bit of a recovery ride but Tim's route turned out to be a bit longer than I wanted it and midway I got a puncture.Fortunately it was at Helena valley near a Garage and got the tyre changed and pumped . It was a little taxing on the tired legs but after Helena Valley we turned off the heritage trail towards Mundaring and then it was a fast downhill ride back to Guildford for coffee .It was 3.5 hours on the bike so pretty slow going.

But the scenery and company made for a nice morning out .

For the week:

Cycling: 10.20 hrs or 220km
Run:  3.5hrs or 35km
swim: 2 hrs or 4.8km
Total: 15.5hrs

The Beginning of Spring

Mundaring Weir covered in Fog

No view of the resevoir

Zig-Zag Kalamunda looking towards Perth in the distance

The Zig-Zag Track ...You can only ride down

I was out alone today for the Hills ride and it has been a while since I went out by myself.It was the first day of spring and unfortunately Bryce was not well.I did my regular hills loop of 90kms .It was slow but I felt better. There were patches where I was slow and the roads were wet and there was a lot of sand and dirt on the roads In Mundaring Weir as there was a Water treatment project underway.

It was very foggy in the valley and I could not see the reservoir. otherwise it was a really nice day.

The highlight was riding the last hill up to Kalamunda and managing to get passed by some cyclist but I hung on to pass 2 of them.

Did the 90kms in 4 hours but it was a slow hard ride. The legs felt OK after the ride so i must be feeling better. The neck and shoulder were sore  though after the ride. Went to bed in the evening and I was out in minutes.


Untitled by cookejohn at Garmin Connect - Details

 

The First Win

Triathletes compete in the biking portion of the Ironman competition. Aug. 26, 2012

Purchase Image Zoom

Bree Wee of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, celebrates her victory in the women's division of the Ironman Louisville competition on Sunday. / Maggie Huber/Special to The Courier-Journal

At last weeks Ironman Louisville , Bree Wee won her first Ironman as a Pro. She had already won the 25-29 age group category in her inaugural Ironman Hawaii race and broke Kate Major's 2002 record as  fastest amateur female.

I was at Ironman Japan 2008 when she came in 2nd . Since then it has been tough I assume but I regularly visit her website and read about her training.it seems like it was more fun than training  but I am sure with her times she was putting in the hours. The sport is a hard taskmaster and very unforgiving and for the pros I am full of admiration as they put in a huge effort for very little gain. It is more love of the sport than financial security.

This past week Bree who was 2nd in japan in 2008 won her first IM race .

Bree Wee Claims first IM Victory

Bree Wee.blog Ironman-louisville-race-reflection

Her blog and her enthusiasm is inspiring and what makes this sport unique. It was a great victory and one that is well deserved. I hope she has many more .

Slowly Rebuilding

My training weeks don't start well . I slept in on Monday with really tired legs after the workout on the weekend. I missed my swim session but did my evening run .It was 9km at an easy pace.just a touch quicker than last week but I felt good.

It was a good evening run along the Swan river. I then met up with a friend from Singapore and his wife for dinner and so got home rather late. It was back to setting up for tomorrow's ride and run. Unfortunately , it rained in the morning and I slept in. Still have an ongoing fear of riding in the wet  and getting sick. In the evening it was run training with 2km warm-up and then did 6 x 1km at threshold pace Ran with the exceed group and so I had someone I could pace off. The first run was done at 4.35 pace and I slowed down to 4.49 and 4.50 pace and managed to keep that steady . It was a slow 2 plus km  cool down after the session.

Wednesday , I got to the pool and did a reasonable session. It was a warm up of 600m with some drills and then 16 x 100 m at various paces. Then just did a cool down of 200m although the last 100 of the 16 was really slow. All up did about 2.4km

In the evening it was a wind trainer session whilst watching 2 episodes of the Good Wife season 1 .Riveting Stuff. Had a 10 minute warm up and then 5 x 10minutes at slow and big chain ring with 3 minutes recovery followed by 10 minutes cool down.Total time was just over 1.20.

I had to get up early on Thursday and it was hard after the session the night before , the legs were stiff .Got to Nedlands and did a loop round the River with Exceed. I managed to stay with the slower group and we got passed by the faster group as they took a longer ride and caught us at Canning Hwy.

Got back to Perth after doing 4 x 10 minute efforts along the way. It was a great morning and a good ride.

In the evening I had my 15km run easy with hills.I again ran round Kings Park but ran to the university and came back through the Park with  its undulating paths.There were a few people about but it was not as busy as last week . The view of the City was great as I finished my run and did the last 2km.

Friday morning I was too tired to get to swim training and I had a Physio appointment for my shoulder.It was a n interesting assessment and I had a scan showing the hot spots where there is higher nerve activity on my right side to compensate for my left weakness. I had some manipulation and whilst the shoulder was sore I had more mobility. Hopefully something will fix the shoulder and arm soon.Swim session was good , still had a sore shoulder but managed to finish the session.Did 2.4km with a 400m warm up and 300 m kick board and then 2 x 200m at threshold , 400m medium ,200m at threshold and finishing with a 100m cool down. Anita filling in for Ross was actually very encouraging and I felt a lot more comfortable in the water although still breathing to the left only rather than bilateral breathing because of the weak left arm.