Week 4 – ending 31/07/11 – Man Cold Epidemic

Paul's Week 4 – ending 31/07/11 – Man Cold Epidemic

Time to start giving these weeks a title (about 5 guys in the office have succumbed to the dread Man Cold this week)

Swim – n/a

Bike – 40k (1 x spin class)

Run – 28k (1 x interval run, 1 x long run)

Total –  3:36 hours

Monday – Spin Class

Gill’s class tonight. I got there 30 mins before start so went in and setup with my headphones and turned legs over...could feel Sundays bike ride in them and didn’t think my efforts would be 100%. Got thru ok and managed a few spikes on the heart rate. Man cold making me sweat buckets, hopefully flushing it out

dist – 40k (according to fancy Livestrong computer...huhumm..yeah ok)

avg hr – 132

max hr – 151

Tuesday –  AM Interval Run – PM Swim

Bad start to the day – rippingly sore throat on waking up, mixed a skim milk & sustagen pre-workout drink, opened up shaker thing and went all over the kitchen floor....great !!

Interval Run

3 x 7' Threshold Run --- wu 10' (incl 20" strides) - 3 x 7' threshold 5k pace (8' + 4' full recoveries) - 7' cool down

Watch reset itself again 3/4 of way thru efforts...peeved off as I had the footpod on and wouldn’t have minded seeing pace...oh well – to be a slave to technology I suppose

Held good pace, bit dicey running in the dark on the efforts. Back at work showered and clocked in by 6.45am

dist – 10k

avg hr – 141 ??

max hr – n/a

Hi-light today ..so far is my lunch of:

1 cup of brown rice

1 small tin 3 bean mix

1 boiled egg white

1 slice multigrain bread

Was going to have just a egg sandwich but found all theses ‘condiments’ in my drawer !! ......didn’t taste too bad actually !

PM – No Swim L

Swim didn’t happen – Shell rang to say Bridie not swimming, still trying to shake her cold poor bugger... thought I’d still go as had all my gear and psyched myself up during the day ...but during the car ride I thought better off not as I could feel the Man Cold taking a little firmer grip on me

Luckily I didn’t as my arvo went downhill again, in bed by 8pm feeling pretty crap

No big loss on these swim sets – again, early days..just hate planning things and they don’t happen

Wednesday –  No Ride.. L Man Cold + Sore Throat – can hardly swallow

Peeved off as weather was the best it’s going to be this week and just couldn’t get the body motivation to get out on the bike. Had all my gear out and bike ready to go but  joints were feeling a bit sore so thought I’d play it safe.

I know they say anything above the neck is ok to exercise but just didn’t want to chance it. As usual, got to work and could’ve probably coped out as felt pretty good...sore throat still. See if tomoro’s planned ‘swapped out’ long run (I’ve swapped out a few long runs from a usual Sunday to Thursday to run on fresh legs)

Thursday – No Long Run... L Man Cold Recovery – day 2

Had planned the swapped out long run for this arvo – along Melville Beach which would’ve been nice in the rain and wind !! ..So, the first swapped out run has been double crossed and swapped back to Sunday

I’m a true believer of if a session is missed due to un-foreseen circumstances then you should let it go and not try and make it up but in this early stage of the program I’m happy to shift things around. I actually like PJ’s coached weeks where he is just given a number of sessions to do and he fits them in where best suited, whereas typical @nal me I’ve got the whole program planned right up to the minute I walk out the door race morning !!

One hi-light for today – Entourage is back on so my Thursday nights will be complete again, but will have to pass on the beer & bourbon I think.....not feeling it this week...that may change with short notice

Friday – rest day

Dropped Polar off at Runners World to be sent for inspection..not holding out much hope but will see what they say. Caught up with Phabbie, had a good chat, haven’t seen the crew for a few weeks and probably won’t for another few

Saturday – still crook, still wet....3 hour ride planned – was never going to happen

Sunday – Long Run – I’m back !!

Decided to do whatever it took to get at least one session in this weekend. This Man Cold thing was just getting pathetic !

Got out early as if I had left it til the arvo when the weather was supposedly getting better I knew would be too hard and the arvo CBF syndrome is a serious threat.

Good solid run – very bloody windy & very dark rain clouds above, ......smiled as I hit the 5k mark thinking I done my utmost perfect timing to beat the bands of stormy raining that was buffering the coast, but alas thought too soon and got absolutely drenched for the next 3k

....turned at 9k and with now the wind behind me and in a lull in the weather flew back along the coast. Then it happened – the dreaded nipple rash on the coolmax sports top that was – one minute dry, then wet, then dry again, then wet....oh’ how some things are always forgotten from years ago !!

Slight discomfort but lesson learnt for any wet runs later in program (as I’m sure there’ll be a few)

Spent the morning putting up curtains in the lounge/home theatre – come up bloody awesome..just in time for a family movie session at 2pm that went thru til 8pm !! J

Man Cold abated – feeling pretty good. Zinc tablets and high dosing multi vitamin may have worked ??

dist – 18k

avg hr – n/a

max hr – n/a

Planning this week’s session to work around 1 x swim squad meeting, more wet weather being forecast and also working from home later in week as Shell is in Melbourne for 5 days ! Should be a interesting week and weekend – the kids are gunna love having Grumpy Boot Camp Commander bossing them around !!! Stay tuned

Cheers

Paul

4. Dazz Weekly Wrap - 31/7/11

This week I revelled in the media stories about Cadel's awesome win in the TdF last Sunday night. I also slept in and went to bed early! It was a tough tour! The mainstream media jumped on and there were so many 'experts' coming out of the woodwork. But if it raises awareness of cycling a bit in Australia and gives, what is still considered by many as a fringe sport - more coverage, then thats a great thing. Last weekend was fantastic. One of the best for a long time! Cadel's big win and then the mighty West Coast Eagles 1 point win over the dockers was icing on the cake. Monday was great. Oh yeah, and I finally succumbed to the pressure and bought an iPad. They are great!


Training was just so-so this week. Nothing really special or any highlights. Got 4 runs and 3 rides done. Had my 1st ride on the spin bike at work - which was pretty good, until the seat worked it self loose. It was so quite and smooth and gave a real good feel of a constant effort. I certainly got a good little work out from it. I made it to the RW ride yesterday and we did all the little hills in Mosman Park, including the Coombe etc. I drove into Matthews Netball centre and parked the car there, as I has netball Dad duties to perform. It was a good solid hit out. Only about 6 of us turned up. The weather, which has been terrible, was actually pretty good - until the last 5min! Then it dumped down on us BIG TIME! I got soaked and rolled into the coffee shop very wet. It was good to catch up with Stenchy, Lindy and Dave who have only just got back from IM Niece etc. Sounds like it was a very tough race.

So my modest weekly totals were:

Run : 31km
Ride: 99km
Time: 6:20hrs

I think there is only 2 weeks (from 16 total) of my Out Season program left, then I spend 2 weeks 'transitioning' before the 12 week Race Prep phase at the start of September. Starting to get serious soon...yikes!

Week 3 - ending 24/07/11

Swim – 1.5k ( 1 x session)

Bike – 150k (  2 spin class,  1 road session )

Run – 24k ( 1x interval sessions, 1 x long run)

Total –  7:37 hours

Monday – Double Spin Class

No Bridie swim squad pick up today, she’s trying to shake a chest cold so decided to add some time on to planned session. Seemed like a good idea at the time, by the end of the second hour my feet were killing me from the strap pedals...

First class with Dirk - some good high intensity intervals, plenty of climbing. Second class with Mark – bit more sedate than first session which was good...form dropped in last half hour. Nice steady efforts though, suited me since the fatigue was kicking in

See heart rate graph showing the spikes and the obvious efforts between the two classes.

Think I’ll do these longer spin sessions at home – 90min..... might be a bit more family friendly, didn’t get sorted for shower and dinner until after 8.30 then missed Aiden going to bed

avg hr – 131

max hr – 159

Tuesday – 50 min interval run, out to Mt Henry – last one for a few weeks. Need to mix it up a bit next week. New pb on the gauntlet run – 2.25 (previous: 2.40 & 2.29)

Bloody watch reset back to zero after run so no data saved (bit of a glitch on the Polar which will have to get sorted one day !)

Rest day tomoro and recovery swim Thursday so hopefully some le tour watching with falling asleep

avg hr – n/a

max hr – n/a

Wednesday – recovery day

Still early days in program but decided to put some extra recovery days in to try and keep things fresh. A little twitchy going into today not having anything to do but glad for it by the arvo, felt pretty fresh.

Tho’ day de-generated later as I got myself primed to watch the tour (even had a cup of black tea to see if that will keep my awake, first one in years – and appeared to do the trick).

On sitting down I made the mistake of going past the beer fridge and just had to crack one open whilst watching Cadel, Andy and C**natthedoor battle it out....that then turned to another beer ....and then after getting on the texts from Daz and PJ (from Italy) getting fired up about the racing.....then it happened....... maybe just a handful chips ?? it had to be done...oh well

So, guilt’s of letting my mid-week snacking get away from me – have been damn pretty good over the last 3 weeks (tho’ we won’t mention the 5 biscuits I had with that said cup of tea !!)

dist – n/a

avg hr – n/a

max hr – n/a

Thursday –

AM - Recovery Swim.

Good little quick session – tweaked from the EN Cult. 200 wu, 8 x 100 (50 hard/50 easy) 30’ RI, 8 x 50 (25 hard/25 easy) 15’ RI 100 cd – 1500 total

Some good splits for each of the 50 hard set – 45.1, 45.0, 46.8, 46.7, 46.4, 46.2, 45.4 & avg 46-48 for the 25’s

PM – n/a

Another late night watching Tour, 4 hours sleep......bring on Alpe D’Huez and the TT on Saturday ( but more importantly bring on normal sleeping patterns..)

Friday – rest day. Waay too many beers watching Alpe D’Huez...very foggy

Saturday – Long Run. Swapped out long run to Saturday due to late nights and wet roads (and a slight hangover – nothing like a tempo run will sort out). Good solid run tho’ a slight niggle in my right ankle at about 8k, will have to keep an eye on that one.

Took Bridie and a friend rock-climbing at The Rockface gym in Northbridge – girls had a great time. I got stiff neck looking up the time !!

Another late night watching the tour – unbelievable TT from Cadel. Some great texts from the guys and some funny facebook commentary as well

dist – 14k

avg hr – 143

max hr – 165

Sunday – Long Ride. Mindarie – Cottesloe – Loop -- approx 90k. Watch still playing up but think I’ve sussed out why trip computer is not working

Hooked up with Daz at Scarborough at 7.30am as we both agreed 1. a sleep in was called for and more importantly 2.we had to celebrate Cadel’s unreal TT ride that put him in yellow and partly secured the win (the parade to Paris was all that was left to do)

High-light for the ride down was seeing some gates on a new house in Mullaloo – they’ve got the Tardis set into the wrought iron – very cool...forgot to get a pic on way back will try and get one next time I’m down that way

Worked around the house after a great breakfast of porridge, 2 bacon sandwiches and a chai tea......... started to feel like crap by about 6pm (did have a couple of beers watching a movie, so was a little sleepy) had to go the bed at 8pm – Shell woke me up at 11pm to watch the tour – had second thoughts rolled over, but then thought better for it so got up and watched the last 10k and presentations – awesome stuff...very jealous of PJ being there. Great seeing a Aussie on top of the podium – and a thoroughly deserved winner. 

All finished and just about to go back to bed but then noticed the Busso 70.3 was on One HD finishing at 1.00am – arrgghh..... I hadn’t had a chance to watch this yet as our dvd recorder is not HD, so I thought stuff it, a late start tomoro and stayed up to watch it !

Great production and good to see some familiar faces in the show !! tho’ didn’t see any of the fellow three amigos...

dist – approx 90k

avg hr – 151

max hr – 157

Monday post note - as I write this I can fee a man cold creeping up, hopefully doesn’t amount to anything...possibly not enough rest last week and been also in contact with a fair few people who have had the coughs and splutters, will see if it affects training

Cheers

Paul

3. Weekly Wrap - 24/7/11

Well - what a week! Cadel Evans is poised to be officially crowned the winner of the TdF tonight! Amazing. Unreal. Incredible. Fantastic. Words fail me! It has been a long 3 weeks of sleep deprivation and it is all worth it. I have been hoping and believing this could happen since 2007. I have never stopped believing that Cadel could one day do it. Admittedly, my faith was shaken a bit in 2009, briefly. Then he won the Worlds and signed up for a new team. 2010 was tough as he broke his elbow and this year it has all gone (nearly) exactly to plan! I am so stoked!

My training has suffered a bit due to late nights and wet, cold and dark mornings...but no more excuses! It's time to put a little more focus on training. Work has just started to ease off in the last few days also. So I am going to start again.

This week had 2 x non exercise days.

Run : 31km
Ride : 113km
Total Time : 6:26hrs

The highlight was certainly the 85k ride I did with Paul this morning. He rode down to Scarborough and then we rode down to Swanny and then back up to his place in Mindarie and then I raced home from there. It was great to have some company, even though I didn't feel very strong on the bike and would have liked a bit more sleep! My running seems to be going well. I purchased a new pair of Kayano 17s from Phab on Thursday and they feel so nice. My interval work is hopefully paying off. My goal is to run a sub 20' 5k TT next month.

My weekend would be perfect if the Eagles can manage a win today against the Dockers! Lisa and I have had the house to ourselves all weekend and it has been great! Peaceful, quiet and tidy. We had dinner out on Friday, take away curry last night and have generally just behaved like 20-somethings who don't have kids! A nice change. Plus of course, watching the Tour each night. Lisa even got interested when Schleck went on the attack with 60km to go before the ascent of the Galibier! So I had some company for my late night vigils!

What a week, what a July. Cadel - what a champion!

Week 2 - ending 17/07/11

Week 2

Swim – 1.8k (1 x session -- 42 mins)

Bike – 93k ( 1 x spin class, 1 x road sessions, 1 x home spin session)

Run – 29.6k (2 x interval sessions, 1 x long run)

Total – 6.45 hours

This week’s pics are my two forms of bike transport – one green machine and the other is the new Ikea Spin Bike Work Station Range ..milk crates are so bloody versatile it’s not funny – and had to get them all matching ;0)

Will post pic of TT bike later in program once it comes out of the dust......it is featured in the pic above hanging on the wall, along with the rest of the crap in the garage that’s either going to the salvos or just in the way in the house, so it's moved along the line and ends up on the garage floor.....wonder if we’ll ever have a neat and tidy garage ??

Monday – Spin class in the evening. Still getting used to the new Livestrong bikes at the Arena – too bloody quiet.... 5 years on the same old V Spin ones is a little hard to let go (lucky I got one of my own at home !!)

avg hr – 132

max hr – 161

Tuesday – 45 min run, intervals out to Mt Henry. New pb on the gauntlet run*

*I have now dubbed my sprint along the eastern side of Mt Henry ‘the gauntlet run’ why? Cos at 5.30am running in the dark and being stuck on a bridge has that certain Hollywood movie thriller-esque feel about it ??..ah, maybe not

avg hr – 148

max hr – 167

Wednesday – Stock Road/Reserve St Repeats.

Was a little hard rolling the opposite way this morning than the past 4 or 5 years and not do a mid week RTR 52.4km. Only just getting used to riding on a Wednesday let own changing the routine to include a different route !

Rode out to Left Bank, then return to 2 full loops of Stock Road with efforts along Burke Drive at each loop. Back to work for a obligatory Mt Henry cool down. Legs & mind felt good for the change, thought the boys would’ve been proud of me mixing it up !!

dist – 49k

avg hr – 137

max hr – 159

Thursday –

AM - 40 min tempo run out to Majestic again – this time with 3 hill repeats. Still feels like this run is being held back, early days early days

PM – EN Cult Swim Set (Daz’s Endurance Nation Scientology mates) 40 min 1.8k

warm up

main set 1 -- 100,200,300,200,100 20' RI

main set 2 -- 3 x 100 20' RI

cool down

Friday – rest day.

5 hours at Challenge Stadium for States Swim Carnival – Bridester in Arena under 12’s relays, they managed 4^th

In hindsight should’ve ridden to work Friday and got picked up, weather was great and could’ve got a road session in

Saturday –

Home Spin Session - Spinervals No Slackers Allowed.......eventually managed only 60 min 

Think I spent more time organising my ipod than actual working efforts but still managed to get the hr up a few times and even sweated enough to put the fan on !!

Had planned a 90 min spin session at home as forecast was for rain (which we did get) and also had a early start at day two of States at Challenge

Bridie just missed out on a pb in 50m breaststroke – good effort tho’. Another 4 hour sitting, got there at 8am left at 12

Long course to come -- great !

– have started to note the avg hr’s for these spin sessions especially, as I tend to slack off at home

avg hr – 124

max hr – 154

Sunday – Long run – 60 min with Ellie pacing on her bike. Great to spend some one on one time with her, giving the poor little bugger some grief lately. She’s the bike rider of the family – loves getting out on her bike. Will do more of these sessions with the kids (might be a while til Aiden’s up for it tho’ !!)

Arvo was spent at friends new place down in Secret Harbour – 200k round trip, worth every kilometre !

All pretty stuffed by the time we got home and surprise surprise – asleep on the couch....bed by 9pm

dist – 12k

avg hr – 134

max hr – 151

Cheers

Paul

2. Weekly Wrap - 17/7/11

This last week had some highs and lows. TdF fatigue set in, aided and abetted by fighting off a man cold for 3 or 4 days and another very busy and stressful week at work. So I missed one session (Thu ride) and skipped the Saturday RW group ride to do my own thang. But it was really good to catch up on a bit of sleep on a couple of days. Sometimes it is all too easy to forget that rest is super important to any exercise program and it is during that time that you actually get fitter...A missed session here or there won't make any long term difference.


Ride: 68km
Run 37km


The highlight was undoubtedly my solo hills ride yesterday. I had to go to the folks house for dinner, so I took my bike up to Lesmurdie in the car and set off from there. I went over to Bickley and up to the Observatory and then back up to Kalamunda via Mundaring Weir Rd. From there I went down to the bottom of the Zig Zag railway (1st time ever of riding down), turned around and pretended I was TT'ing up Alpe D'uez ( I was just 15k short and 6% flatter!) The weirdest thing happened as I was on the 2nd switch back, a little dog came bursting out of the bush and chased me for about 300m, as I accelerated up to 37km/h!!! I finally dropped the little mutt and continued on my way! My average speed for the 3.5km was 29km/h.

So I am looking forward to a better week this week and a few more kays on the bike. It's still 4 weeks until I start back in the pool and transition over to my tri training schedule. I must admit to being so busy, that I have barely given it any thought...

Re the TdF, I am so hoping to see Cadel on the podium in Paris, I am just not sure which step he will be on. He is looking good so far, but the peleton is yet to hit the Alps - which is where the real race will unfold.

Tough session!

Today was one of the toughest little runs I have done for months! It was full of pain... It started OK, but the legs still felt a bit heavy from the last few sessions and the weekend. I did about 2.5k w/up and then hit it. All intervals were supposed to be done at zone 5 (flat out) pace. The schedule was 4x200, 2x800, 4x200 and 2x400. All with full recoveries between each. The 200s started OK, but then the 800s were upon me. These are a nasty distance at this pace/effort and by about 500m you feel like you are going to explode. My HR got to around 88-89% of max towards the end of each one. They were so hard. The next set of 200s were not completed at quite the same pace as the 1st lot! The avg went from 3:47 pace to 4:05pace! Then just to really do me in, a couple of 400's. I was shattered. This was one of those sessions that you put away in the memory bank for later, when you really need it and have to dig deep...

Week 1 - ending 10/7/11

Swim – 1.3k (1 x session -- 32 mins)

Bike – 147k ( 1 x spin class, 2 x road sessions)

Run – 28k (2 x interval sessions, 1 x long run)

Total – 7.5 hours

First official post for weekly totals and summary. Not sure how format will follow – will see what the other guys post and try to keep along same lines

Bit of shock to the system ramping training hours back to a level of not ‘just turning the legs’ over or ‘just going out for a 10k run’, but something a little more structured

Admittedly the break from the Busselton 70.3 was pretty short (most of May and all of June) but it is good to be back and feeling the expected commitment that is needed to start this all off. Especially the way it needs to carry on for the rest of the year, as it’s only going to get harder and harder to get out the door when fatigue and the CBF’s kick in. I have been a little bit excited about getting it all going as it’s been 5 years since winter training has had any specific goals and targets, so should be a interesting first few weeks

Perth weather has and hasn’t helped this week – no rain which is absolutely great, so no excuses....... but the pay off from that is clear skies - no cloud cover and sub 5 degree celsius mornings. Pretty darn cold and the older I get the more staying warm is becoming a issue

For the record I intend to do the bare minimum of wet weather riding this campaign, which is why I have purchased a spin bike (one with the heavy fly wheel) and have it setup in the garage with a home computer in front with loads of Spinervals and Ironman dvd’s on offer

I’m committed to replacing any wet road session with this setup and have targeted a minimum 60 min or 90 min per session with plans for a least 1 or 2 Spinervals Tough Love dvd hit outs later in the year (sounds like a dodgy 70’s porn movie title but this is a 3 hour wind trainer session that is good for the soul and get’s the mindset right for a possible 6 hour IM ride)....could’ve swore I was in a time slip medium when I did that session in 2006

Will post a picture of set up later – my car now lives out in the cold and weather for now

Have also purchased a set Ayup lights that will certainly improve the early morning starts until that early summer daylight returns to our shores (daylight saving rightfully canned the other year) – best bike lights on the market (great Australian company selling to the world) check them out  http://www.ayup-lights.com/

So week basically panned out as follows:

Monday –
Spin class in the evening

Tuesday –
45 min run, intervals out to Mt Henry. Very bloody cold

Wednesday –
RTR (Round The River) ride – usual 52.4k – at a 29 avg ( I think – my speed sensor needs batteries replacing so no official data this week) Even colder !!

Thursday – 
am 35 min run, out to Majestic Point with 2 x hill repeats. Still bloody cold !

pm Swim – 1.3k

These Thursday night sessions are thrown in here this early in the program just because I am down at the pool picking Bridie up after her squad swim, so I figure I'll do a few laps

A classic moment this week – I’ve hopped into the public lane and the squad were in the next lanes doing some timed long course stuff (usually they’re in lanes 6, 7 & 8 – so a few lanes away if I’m swimming)

So, what did my charming daughter do on one of her runs... bloody little cow took off after me on a 50m freestyle sprint and beat me to the end by a few seconds !! ...was very cool watching her swim alongside and watching her take off, but not cool seeing her waiting at the deep end smirking away !! 

...........then she has the cheek to tell me later she doesn’t go hard at training, she saves that for racing !!

It gets better – cos I’m talking to her at each lap end, the lifeguard has a word to her coach about a strange man talking to the kids – Bridie says, ‘ ah that’s just my dad’ !! ha ha !! lucky I didn’t get kicked out and black listed !!

Friday –
rest day

Saturday –
70k Runners World ride. Daz’s special ride out to Reabold Hill with a figure 8 around Bold Park then out to Waratah loops for 2.5 mins hard and 2.5 mins recovery. Managed to fit 2 loops in, basically ran out of time. Great to catch up with the crew at breakfast and have a few laughs as always. Good hit out ride that the legs fatigued pretty much near the end.

Walk with Rani the Freak Dog in the arvo, then a 45 min nanna nap. Hall Pass on the big screen at home – one of the funniest movies we’ve seen in ages. Le Tour then le’ bed at midnight

Sunday –
easy 60 min run, out along coast with my old school Quinns Road hill climb, back for breakie and then to the movies to watch Cars 2 with Aiden, home for the arvo then asleep on the couch being serenaded by Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen with Le Tour on tv. Great weekend !

For record purposes had a ocular migraine near end of the movie possibly brought on by the copious amounts of Skittles I had ingested on a empty stomach ?? who knows, but have now learnt the warning signs and carry a couple of Nurofen with me – tho’ chewing on a dry tablet (we’d finished all our drink) wasn’t ideal but nipped the headache pretty much within the half hour. Usual washed out feeling after but came good around dinner

Til next post..

Cheers

Paul

Week 1 - ending 10/7/11

Well the first 'official' training week is done and dusted for me. Although I am still in the middle of my Out Season program, so nothing has really changed yet - except jotting down a few points for our Blog. It was a hard week - very busy at work (end of year), late nights watching the TdF and some intense training sessions too! Managed about 33k of running and 126k of riding.

It has been pretty cold and dry this week, so I have had to rug up for cycling. Better than getting soaked I guess, although we do need the rain here in Perth. The toughest sessions were the Mount Street hill repeats at the SRG Boot Camp and Saturdays cycle. My legs are cactus!

Boot Camp is a bit of fun with the guys/gals from work, but I really put in some big efforts and did 8 repeats up Mount St with a time range of 1:34 to 1:40 per effort. When I got up on Sat to go riding my legs were sore and tired still. I knew it was going to be a tough ride before I turned a peddle! Rat rocked up at my house (early) and then later Andre joined us for his 1st ever RW ride. We did some hill work around Reabold Hill/Bold Pk etc and then some 2.5' VO2 max type efforts around Victoria Ave/Waratah. The RW crew bitched and moaned about the new route and gave me stick at every opportunity! But I think most enjoyed a bit of a different route and a hard hit out. During the z5 efforts, I pushed as hard as I could, but felt like someone was holding the back of seat! The legs felt so weak. In looking at my HR data later, I was averaging 88-90% of max HR for most of time. So that is Ok, as that was the goal.

One of the non-tri highlights of the week was the mighty West Coast Eagles big 8 point win over the top of the table Cats! Awesome result. Was really stoked to be there to see it...