3 weeks to go FTP run focus

Week 4 PJ ‘s Summary
3 weeks of run focus to go. Up the anti in the pool too. Some hard sessions to bring the swim fitness up. A hint of season change has lifted the enthusiasm for training as well. My long run will be on Wednesday again this week with the City to Surf on Sunday. After 3 weeks back I feel my bike power is almost there, improving anyway. Some bike and run testing this week too. Coach Fluro will be unveiling some pace guide lines that he has knocked up for us to work to. Now the training hours are sneeking up I’m finding some gear is getting worn out and needs replacing. New Garmin HR strap last week, Pair of 2XU compression tights and my run shoes have almost 600k’s in them so they are up for renewal as well. Expensive sport ours !!!
Monday
Evening the plan was to run some 2k TT’s for Fluro’s new guide lines. I wanted flat terrain so I drove down to Point Walter and the plan was to run east to Point Dundas out 30 min and back. It was a beautiful still evening with a slight chill. I was happy with the paces I could hold. Hard to hold form at the end. Home by 6pm legs feeling good. I slept in compression tights as a precaution.
Tuesday
A nice morning greeted us for “World Champs” this morning. A good turn out too unlike last week. The plan was to target breakaways and “Run the Gauntlet “ at the end. This is a Fluroism where his pupils peel off the group, turn left at Christchurch before the Subway go up Barnfield Rd and Railway St and past North Cott Primary School otherwise dubbed “the Princess Highway” in lieu of the traditional Curtain Ave route. The aim is to work together to try and beat the group back to Freo. Wow the pace was on. I don’t know about target the breakaways I was just hanging on !! close to dropping a few times but hung on to “Run the Gauntlet” with 4 others, Fluro, Total Tri Dave, Rob Mac and Rosco. He rode hard at the front and we got on to Curtain Ave ahead of the group. I just hung on along Leighton and followed Fluro’s wheel for the last sprint. A perfect lead out and I just headed him at the end. 34.4 k/hr average speed for RTR ride. We managed to hold the group off. Coffee at the Vanilla Bean to celebrate.
Easy aerobic threshold run 30 mins only for the evening. Ran from home down past Kardinya Primary and around Morris Buzzacott Oval and back home. One of the flattest runs I can find from home !!
Wednesday
Long run this morning from work along the River out and back towards Point Walter. Plan was 1 ½ hour AeT run. 5:30am I left work. On my own so I put some tunes on. SW wind with a real bite to it clear and fine though . I wore my gloves again. Cold wind was cutting right through me and I had Tri suit on and running top over that. 45 minutes put me about 1k onto Attadale Reserve and about 2k east of Point Walter. Heading back it was getting light so it became easier to check my HR was staying in low zone 2. Much warmer too with a tail wind. Uneventful run back. Legs good.
A strength set in the pool tonight. It included 3x200m with paddles and I had left mine at home…. doh !! as that was the core of the session I left work earlier and shot home to pick them up first. Not very busy so good. 1.8k all up.
Thursday
Some testing for out bike intervals this morning. I was the first to rock up. Rick turns up in the car with his TT bike but the dick had left the front wheel at home !! One way of getting out of intervals !! The plan was a 5 min TT @ max then a 20 min TT @ best effort. Fluro was keen to get Rick’s power hub rear wheel on my bike. I just thought fook….pressure is on !! Rick couldn’t remember how to get my 310XT to read the power so I used his 310XT as we needed to crack on.Tom had Fluro’s wheel on. The first effort hurt like hell. We started right near Canning Highway and the 5 minutes were up halfway up the Point Walter hill. Legs and lungs were burning and back and kidney’s were killing too wtf ??? easy back for the big one which was to be out and back twice. I backed off a bit for this baby. Still a fair effort though. Alex, Tom and Rob Mac came passed me sooo strong though. I don’t know how far behind they started but they were flying. All done and wheels swapped back it was time for coffee. Rick made the comment that he didn’t think he had the power data. I hope he was taking the piss because I didn’t want to repeat that lot !! I headed down to East Freo with the boys. I don’t normally on a Thursday but figured I deserved it. Fluro not a happy chappy as one of his students managed to spill his coffee all over his laptop at school and wrecked it. He has lost all his school work, photo’s, coaching programs etc. Kids !!! should be able to recover off the hard drive though. They are a sealed unit. Legs were cooked and we have some run testing to do in the evening !!!
Point Walter was the venue for our run tests this evening. I rocked up and Fluro was explaining his new pace charts to Dave Wrighton. Fluro was inspired to write these up as there has been too much testosterone displayed at run intervals. Everyone has been doing them too fast resulting in Rob Mac doing a hammie 4 weeks out from Busso 70.3 in May. Dave headed out to do his 5k run test and Rob and I had 6-8/400m to do @ 3k pace then a 20 min tempo run @ 10k pace. Rob was nursing a slight groin strain so he ran at my pace. After 3/400’s I was feeling very tight in the left hammie so we did one more and called it quits. Fluro was happy with our decision because he was getting eaten alive by mossies whilst recording our times. This was a hard day’s training and my legs were totally toasted. Jenn was out for the evening so Sam and I settled down and watched “Apocalypse Now”. Great movie hadn’t seen it for many years. The beer fridge got a good shake as well.

Friday
I pulled up surprisingly well this morning. Bit foggy from the beer but legs not too bad. Normally rest day Friday but I opted to swim in the afternoon in order to fit 3 swims in for the week. The pool was pretty quiet and I bashed out a short sprint set 1.1k total.
I joined up at www.strava.com a great on line tracking system for Garmin users, even I Phone and Android compatible. This takes your files and compares your rides with others and rates your performance against any course in the world. You can set up groups and follow other riders as per facebook. Fluro has set up our group as 3FC and can see all the rides we do and monitor our progress. No hiding ! Come on Amigos get on it !!!

Saturday
Plan was only 2 – 2 1/2 hour ride today so I opted to drive down to the Left Bank and ride down to Troppo’s to do the Freo ride. Numbers were down a bit so Group 1 and 2 joined to do the Jandakot Loop ride. I love this ride. You are out in the country so no traffic lights and miminal traffic. The course is challenging too quite undulating in places. It was cold but fine. As expected the Group 1 guys pushed the pace at the front and riders were dropping off the back. I was OK until the Winterfold Road hill sprint in Sampson heading back to Freo where me and four others got dropped. Get’s me every time that sprint! It really takes the sting out of your legs at the end of the ride. The boys don’t ease up after the climb they just hammer it through to Carrington Street so if the hill doesn’t get you the sprint will. 72.3k all up at 33.1 k/hr average. Coffee and awesome berry muffin at Troppo’s but it wasn’t enough. I cooked up a large eggs and beans when I got home.
I got down to the pool at 2:50 pm and pushed out an endurance set. 3.4k all up.
Home for the Rugby at 5:30pm. Waaayyyy too much beer as it was an exciting and close game. Bubbles for Jenn and burgers and chips at half time as well !! text messages from Phabbie indicated he was getting more and more agitated as the game went on. In the end he opted to take the dog for a walk !! 5 points to the Wobblies but they deserved the win. Certainly a game of 2 halves. AB’s just a bit slow to get going on the day. Bring on the World Cup.

Sunday
City to Surf run this morning. The plan was to treat this as an Aet run and not to race it. Just soak up the atmosphere and have fun. I certainly did that. Conditions were perfect for running slightly overcast and warm. Hooked up with buddy Kat and her son Jack and also fellow Amigo Rat and his daughter Bridie. A quick catch up with Spider as well. We did see Monkey Marko warming up in front of the big screen. I guessed he was parading around like a peacock in case some demented girl might show an inkling of interest. The place was heaving 42,000 runners and walkers… awesome. We all started together but half way up Malcom Street said good bye to the Mannings as Jack was on a mission. He got over the top of the hill and was off !!! I looked down at the Garmin and he is on 4:40 pace down King’s Park Rd !! Kat and I were pissing ourselves laughing !! Kat tried to explain to him that he needed to pace himself, eventually he slowed up a bit as the distance got to him. He was hurting, walked a few of the hills but never complained and whenever I told him the diminishing kilometer count he kicked into action. With 500m to go he put the after burners on I was struggling to hang on !!! finished on 1hr 13 min for the 12k. Not bad for an 11 year old with no training. I got home at 12pm not bad for public transport. Had time to do some odd jobs around home and sort the pool. The reluctant dog got a bath (amazing the way she hides as soon as the water starts running in the laundry tub). Roast beef in the Weber with roast whole garlic and onions, roast potatoes and a Weber apple pie. More beer…..sweet.
I’m happy with my week’s training. It was tough but I pulled up well. I need to book some massages up soon though especially as the long stuff is starting in 2 weeks. I thought I would book one a month from now on.
11hrs 30min all up. Swim 6.3k, Bike 126.83k, Run 51.88k

Paul’s Week 8 – ending 28/08/11 – 2 Strikes City To Surf

Paul’s Week 8 – ending 28/08/11 – 2 Strikes City To Surf

Swim – 3.4k (1 x session)

Bike – 57k (1 x spin class,1 x road session )

Run – 22.4k (1 x interval session, 1 x long/aerobic WALK !! )

Total –  8:10 hours

Monday – Spin Class

Couldn’t get a spin bike before class for the extra 45 minutes I planned so had to settle for a gumby trainer machine in the gym...really got to get these sessions sorted for the road...maybe from next week – plan looks pretty good to swap these out now from the spin sessions.

Ben’s class tonight, not too bad...assume he’s still learning so was a little dis-jointed but has promise. Heart rate chart doesn’t look as pathetic this week – couple of spikes and recovers, had tried to tell myself to hit some form throughout the class.

Maybe it is a good time to for a change..

time – 1:35

avg hr – 123

max hr – 152

Crap evening on getting home after land session with the Arena swim kids...had dinner then was just about to treat myself with some banana and ice cream (we all got one banana each this week in the shopping woo-hoo !!) as I scooped I noticed some really pretty coloured icicles...hang on, they aren’t in the ice cream – it’s my bloody vision !! Another ocular migraine was kicking in...wtf..no warning, nothing !!

I usually get a loss of peripheral vision, uneasiness then the fancy coloured light swirl scooting around my eyes !!.... but this time ...nah, straight to the coloured bits ! this must mean I’m ether getting worse or...they are getting more manageable ??..... who knows...let’s see when the next one comes.

According to my diary I’ve had one every 3rd week lately...anyways now that I know I’m not going to die from an attack and my brain isn’t going to explode I actually find them quite amusing.....still wash me out a fair bit after but am safe in the knowledge that the sensation only lasts for about 30 mins and can carry on as normal afterwards – amazing what internet research can do to alleviate fears, especially when you read something and go ‘man, that is exactly what I am experiencing’

Tuesday – Steady State Run

With feeling like crap last night I wasn’t too enthused to run this morning but went thru the motions of getting ready. Funny, cos I actually don’t really remember anything about Sunday’s run either – just know it was windy and hard...no finer details - maybe this was going to be one of those days........

Again, surprised myself and had a good run, got some good form and hit the planned targets

Session was:

15’ WU

3 x 2km TT HIM efforts with 1k RI

– which I roughly calculated to 9.00 on (2 x 4.30) and 5.00 off – I don’t really know my pace targets for effort running pretty much go by feel

Well, put the foot pod on the Polar for the first time in about 4 years and low and behold – I hit the pace requirements pretty spot on, which I was pretty happy with. Goal was to run at a controlled fast pace without losing form which I am more than happy did accomplish, finished strong and into a little bit of daylight so things are looking pretty darn good !!

Additional Rest Day tomoro which I am looking forward to and even tho’ it’s fine weather and a perfect day for riding I really don’t have any trouble holding back and resting when needed

dist – 12k

time – 1:00

avg hr – 138

max hr – 155

Wednesday – Recovery Day

Rest day more like crap day ! Felt really good mentally and physically in the morning and was glad for the mid week break but by the time 3pm came I was itching to go and do something and starting getting the guilt’s about not getting out for a session. Roads were wet again this morning so probably would’ve flagged ride anyways. Asleep on couch by 9pm again – I think the body is just so used to sleeping in doesn’t matter if I’m fully recovered or not, it goes into shut down mode !

Thursday – Recovery Swim

Endurance Set

400 free,

Main set 

1000 free buoy 

800 paddle and buoy 

600 buoy 

400 free TT 

200 paddles and buoy  

take a  20-30 RI 

3400 total

Felt average this morning probably due to over rest and also hadn’t swam for over a week. Was interested to see how the form went after about 2.5k...dropped a touch but wasn’t too bad. Happy to crack the 3.0k session but took almost hour and 10 so will have to trim these back to an hour only so I get into work at a reasonable time to get some decent hours in and then run when program tick over in two weeks.

Am thinking of locking morning swims on Tuesday with a interval run in arvo and then Thursday will be long run in the morning before work and a easy swim in the afternoon. Will swap these around a couple of times to keep it fresh.

Good to see the Arena Swim squad going thru their drills – pretty sure Bridie has a little while to go before she’s mixing it with them.....plus she’s a lot like Shelley and doesn’t do mornings – whereas Ellie, is way too much like me - cheery and chirpy once the birds are up.......well, for now until the teenage years approach

dist – 3.4k

time – 1:07

Entourage and 2 episodes of Suits and way too many drinks.....this Thursday night weekend heart starter is getting out of control.....4-5 hours sleep – not good. Crap week all round for snacking as well...gotta get my head sorted and core/strength program needs to get going too

Friday – rest day

Beer count –  0 !! 3 weeks an counting

Saturday – Ride – Hill Repeats

This morning’s ride consisted of all work being done at Reabold doing the Runners World figure 8’s. Each circuit taking approx 14-15 mins with efforts climbing the path side and then out to Wembley Golf Course and back again. Had planned to add an extra hour onto this session spinning down to Shelley Loop and back after grabbing a quick drink with the crew, but got to the Narrows and noticed a significant bump coming from my back tyre.

Stopped to check and a section of the side wall was bulging out and was looking like a bad teenagers pimple – ready to blow at any time ! Let a touch of air out and limped back to Runners World where my car was parked, deflated and re-pumped and everything appeared all ok. Not sure what was wrong with it as I hadn’t touched that tube or tyre for about 2 months from my last flat tyre, so bit strange. The only thing I can think is maybe the cold air pumping them up this morning had an effect ?? Anyways, replaced tube when I got home just in case and hopefully all ok now

dist – 57k

time – 2:45

avg speed – 26.1 km/h

avg hr – 130

max hr – 167

Had my first massage in 4 years at 11.30, man – bit of a love/hate feeling there..Scott (the masseuse !) said he’d go medium as hadn’t really had a massage before...... all I can say is I’d hate to see hard. Got him to work on my lower back as it’s been pretty tight since starting the program. I am used to a tight back most days and assume it’s a bike positioning thing but typical me will ignore it for the most part and pretend it’s not there. Really should get the road bike checked for setup but will see what happens when switching over to TT bike in the next week or so

Felt pretty washed out but strangely good afterwards and sat at netball drinking plenty of water..!!

Bridie’s team got thumped but they still played well right upto the end – only one more game to go, the girls have done really well after going up a grade and hopefully will all be teamed together for Spring netball.

Lazy arvo again – managed a 30 min nap, and a couple of drinks only as was picking up Bridie from the Blue Light Disco at 9pm. So funny going to pick them up from these discos, I know it’s going to be the same in about 7 years time only it will be from the nightclubs and they’ll be p1ssed as newts !! The hall they have it is an absolute mess as you walk in to collect your kids with loads of red faced tweenies, fog from the smoke machine, sweat and white noise everywhere ! She’ll sleep well as she had a 6am start at swimming and will be up for City To Surf in the morning

Sunday – City To Surf – walk with Bridester

Well, another City To Surf to forget.

Day started out really good, we got the train in and only had a 5 minute wait then off we go. Bridester did well to jog most of the way and we had a few walking sections but am proud as punch of her as she never really complains and as far as I know she enjoys being part of a massive community event. The only drag is we walk another 3k to meet Shelley to pick us up due to the road closures..that after a 1 hour 45 walk/jog/run. Once again we pb’d which was great and probably due to her last 2k finish effort – ran the whole way...hopefully this is something she will do for the rest of her time is she so decides, be great to see her doing it when she’s in her twenties and who knows kicking my butt at some stage (I am pretty sure that will happen as it is happening in the pool already !)

dist – 12k

time – 1:42

Well the reason to forget this one (again) is last year on course Shell rang to say that Indy our 15 year old Labrador hadn’t got off her bed for breakfast (not like a Labrador) and she wasn’t looking too good. Well we got home and in short it was time to say goodbye to the old girl

So this year me and Bridie had Indy in our hearts and was thinking of her as rode on the train into the city......

Anyways, we got to the Perry Lakes 4k section this time and Shell rang to say that my dad had collapsed and they were rushing him to St Charlies....great.... tried not to panic and realised that wasn’t much that could be done right there and then so we finished, got picked up and Shell dropped me down to the hospital

Well, he’s ok at the moment (at writing) they think he may have had a heart attack, he smacked his head on the railing where he collapsed so they were checking that out as well – he had the cheek to tell the ambo’s that Joany (his partner) had thumped him....so he hadn’t lost his sense of humour which is typical of me old man !! Joany rang later to say he was getting more tests and may have torn his meniscus in his knee as well ! So the poor old bugger has a few thing going on. Will check in later and see how he’s doing.....pretty humbling as we’ve been down this path before with dad and he’s always bounced back so fingers crossed he’s ok this time too. Good to see Gail and Dennis too, been too long since we’ve spoken

Just read about the guy who had a heart attack on the finish line, very sobering and very sad..............life’s bloody short........

Cheers

Paul

8. Dazz 28/8/11 - Nearly kick off time!

My week started with a nice lunchtime swim on a lovely sunny day. It is great to be able to duck out for a swim at lunchtime. Shame that I can't do it all through IM training, as the distances get a bit long for my lunch hour... It feels good to be back in the water, even if I feel slow. I thrashed through 1300m and felt pretty happy for my 2nd swim back.

Tuesday and Thursday I did the standard bike interval ride, a bit over an hour of riding with 2 lots of 20' or 15' at zone 4. On Thursday I timed my self to do a couple of laps of the Reabold Hill figure 8's and clocked a 13:40 and 13:29, as I thought we might be riding there with RW on Sat and I wanted a benchmark.

Wednesday was my interval run and I did 3 x 1.2k at an avg pace of 4:07 min/km. Mentally, it seems anything less than 1.6km is relatively easy. As I seem to do some many intervals of 1.6k.

Then Friday had a great pre-work swim. It was one of those mornings when there was a heap of misty steam coming off the pool. Had a lane to myself and chugged along for a pleasant mile.

On Sat I spun in to RW with Andre and picked up the Bernster on the way. We then went back to the Bold Park/Reabold Hill area to do the figure 8's. The mission was to do 20 pedal strokes seated and then 20 standing, going up Zamia trail. That was hard work! I don't know how the pros can stand up for so long whilst climbing. I found I was changing down 2-3 gears for the standing sections, but it was fatiguing still. I kind of rode with Big Greg for the 1st few laps, then decided I wasn't here for a chit chat and took off. I did the last 2 figure 8's solo but couldn't get close to the 13:29 I did on Thu, as the legs were a bit shot by then and only managed 13:50. But I was pretty satisfied with the hit out still.

Sunday was my long run of the week. I had 90min scheduled with 2 x 1.6k efforts.But I had to take Isabel to the C2S course, as she was helping out with the Girls Guides at an aid station on Perry Lakes drive. I was glad not to be running the Half Mara this year. I hate that course! So many painful memories over the years!!! So I grabbed a takeaway coffee on the way home and then set off. I ran the outwards leg at a solid clip and then slotted the intervals in on the way back. Avg pace for the run was 4:42 pace for 19k. The legs felt OK too. It was great weather for running.

So, I now start to transition into my IM Race Prep phase over the next week. Almost time to pull the trigger and start training specifically for IM. I cant wait either!

So totals for the week;
Swim: 2.9k
Ride: 143k
Run: 39k
Time: 9:02 hrs

PJ's Week ending 21-8-2011

Week 3 PJ ‘s Summary
4 weeks to go with FTP run focus. High quality, fast intervals sessions and I will be looking to really consolidate my short range power. This week is gonna hurt !!! I have had to shift my long run to Wednesday this week as I have to marshall for the Marathon Club on Sunday morning at their club race the Cottlesloe Cup. I have a 50 min fast run to do so will do that at Cott after the race. My lower back has had a few sharp pains, I assume it’s something to do with starting swimming up. Not nearly as bad as the other Amigos have been suffering though. My right knee has been giving me a little bit of pain too when it is loaded up. I will monitor this and hope it doesn’t become an issue. It became apparent when riding in Adelaide in January and although it was there during training for the Busso 70.3 it never stopped me training or racing or got very bad.

Monday
An evening 30 minute form run with 4 strides, from home, around Morris Buzzacott Oval and back home. This is the flattest run I can find around our place !! There was a front going through so it was cold, windy and wet. I had left my run shoes outside to dry after Sunday’s long run then forgot to bring them inside. Doh !! wore them anyway. I got back home and my hands were like ice blocks. Should have worn gloves !!
Tuesday
I slept like crap last night. Got to bed at 10pm and then I was awake and ready to go at 3:30am. Not happy about this as I have been really fatigued since Saturday night and needed it. I could hear the rain and wind outside. The last of the front was still coming through…bugger. I rocked up to “World Champs” and did a 15 minute warm up outside the Left Bank . Fluro rocked up and one other guy. We rolled out just after 5:30am and Fluro cranked it up. A strong tail wind took us toward East Freo. By then we had picked up Tom, Stuart, Alex and Rob Mac. Great…all the fast guys !! so 7 all up instead of the usual 20 or so. It blew and it rained and the pace was really on. I got dropped at the end of Bourke Drive but got on again on Canning Hwy. My legs felt dead. I survived through to the Narrows OK. I thought Mounts Bay Road was going to be a nightmare into a headwind but it didn’t seem too bad as we echeloned up to the Uni. After Steve’s hill I was gone. Rob tried to pull me back on but I was cactus. That was the last I saw of the boys. I took a short cut down the “Princess Hwy” but they were long gone. Leighton was tough. It was pissing down and my speed was down to 21k/hr into a howling headwind. I really had to dig deep. My mental was getting tested here. A couple of gusts nearly took me out. I was glad to get back to the car. No coffee today I was too cold and just wanted that warm shower. I ordered a new HR strap for my Garmin 310XT today. It started by spiking up into the low 200’s but it’s getting worse telling me I’m maxing out in todays ride at 240 bpm with an average of 197!!! Don’t think so. Hope a new strap fixes it.
No run tonight. Only 4 runs this week.
Wednesday
Beautiful conditions again for the run. No wind, a bit cool, enough for me to wear gloves. Goal of this long run was first 45 min in Z1, 30 min Z2-3, 15 min Z3-4 all the time maintaining form. I ran from work. Rat was heading out at the same time for some Point Walter loop bike intervals so we chatted for a bit. I headed down to the river then west out towards Point Walter loving it, soaking up the surroundings, music on. I was thinking to myself “shit I could run all day at this pace!!” I turned around at Troy Park Attadale and headed back to work. No Rat to be spotted he must have been up the Point Walter end of Bourke Drive at that time. I picked up to the next pace and then up again at Point Dundas (Majestic) form was definitely getting harder to hold and I had to focus on it. The sun was coming up and the city looked magnificent across the calm blue river. It was a moment I would have yelled out the famous PJ call “ Maaaagiiiiiccccc…..” if I had been with Rat. But as there was no one there to share it with I refrained. Back to work done and dusted. Legs felt warm and good. Knee OK. Glad I ordered new HR strap. Bit hard to run in these zones when the Garmin is telling you your HR is 210 bpm in the first few minutes of a run !!
Some interval sets at the pool tonight. Was a little busier than last week but not too bad. I jumped in the fast lane as the intermediate had a few too many bodies in it (including the usual floaters). 500 free and then 4/50’s –ve split for a warm up. Main set was 100’s. As many as I could till I can’t hold pace anymore. This set killed me. I was gagging. I started losing time after 6 but did 10 all up. I have a lot of work to do in the pool. Audrey Hull was in the lane, and old Endurance Fitness squad mate. Good to catch up and get all the news. She was doing some secret training before rejoining squad in a few weeks. Tough set, I was sweating when I got out. Wanted to eat the fridge out when I got home. Settled for 2 peanut butter and sour dough bread sandwiches.

Thursday
Feeling flat and tired today but had no doubts about getting out the door at 5am to meet the crew for bike intervals. I was surprised to see Rosco there. Tuesday he had been knocked off his bike at the Preston Pt Rd/Petra St roundabout. Car didn’t stop. He has crook knee, shoulder and wrist, bike OK. He is a tough MF !!! Rosco please get an x-ray on that wrist mate….it’s probably broken. I was down for 3/8 min FT efforts with 3 min RI between. The rest of the crew were doing 3 efforts of the full loop (about 13:30 for these guys at the moment). I was the rabbit and my 8 minutes was up at the top of Reserve St. Easy back to the start. Before the last one Fluro asked how I was going. I managed to blurt out that I was feeling OK so he said do the full loop then at FT. It was hard and I could feel the lactate building in my legs along Bourke Drive within the last 3 minutes so I had met the goal. A full minute over my PB for that course so a long way to go with my fitness yet. I declined on coffee and headed back to work. Kicking myself afterwards because we it was still quite early, I didn’t realise. Got back to work and the new shower had one user and one waiting. This is a bugger having to share our shower so much with civilians!!! legs trashed. Run intervals will be interesting tonight.
Legs tight and a bit sore by evening and didn’t think I would be hitting target paces for run intervals. However we warmed up and they came good. We bashed out 3/1.5k’s @ 10k pace with 500m recover between then 4/200’s @ 3k pace with 200m recover between. I was knackered and slept well.
Friday
Rest day. I pulled up OK. Legs don’t feel too bad. Wore my quad compressors all day. See how the ride goes tomorrow. I suspect I will still have some fatigue in my legs from yesterday.
Saturday
A three hour ride was the plan this morning and as I planned to join the Amigos for the first time on this campaign, I drove to work and rode in to the City from there to warm up the legs. I came across Rosco and Duncan from Freo group 1 cruising down to the Raffles to meet the gang for a hills ride. I rejected the call to join them (certainly wasn’t up to getting spat out by those boys). Dazza’s plan was basically a RTR (round the river) ride with 6 efforts of 2 ½ minutes at 100%. Good to catch up with the Runners World crew. The efforts were good and hard and I was pleased with how I went. I hung with Dazza on the last one up the Jutland Parade hill. This one did hurt a bit. We stopped for a quick coffee at the RW watering hole, The Food Store on Hay Street. Rat and I headed back down the Freeway path having a good laugh at some of the cyclists going the other way. We reckon we could start a “ People of Walmart “ type website for cyclists….. nuff said. I had planned to head down to Troppo’s in Freo to have another coffee with the group 1 boys but it was 9:30am already and I still had a swim to do in the arvo as well as the usual Saturday jobs at home.
I sat down on the sofa at about 2pm and really had to talk myself into going for a swim. Melville pool was pretty quiet though and I bashed out Fluro’s interval set OK. In the evening friends Lisa and Rob came over for dinner and checked out our Euro photo’s. A good night in. Good to look at the photo’s again. Seems like waaay longer than 3 weeks that we were there.
Sunday
I had to do marshalling duties for the Marathon Club at the Cottlesloe Cup run at 7am. It was a nice day, warm but windy. I caught up with Carol Hughes “Coach Carol” and Jackie from my old swim squad who were also on duty. The 3 of us as well as Nera Jareb were teamed up to marshall at the 4k mark. We grabbed a take out coffee ( not easy at Cott before 7:30am ) and Jackie drove us down to our position. Had a good chin wag with Nera while we waited for the runners to come through. She is also doing Busso IM her fourth IM. She has done 3 Busso’s and Hawaii. I was surprised to hear she was self coached. It was all over pretty quick smart and I did my 50 minute tempo run along the coast after the event. Always good to run somewhere new. The wind was honking then so I ran north so I could finish with a tail wind. Good legs today just took a bit to get warmed up. The rest of the day was spent repotting the blueberry plants and sorting Jenn’s little vege garden. A little clean up of the pool as well. Nice out of the wind, 26 degrees. A few beers and another lamb roast on the Weber. Fathers Day next week so will have a break from it. Lovin Sunday arvo kick backs at the moment. Great way to wind down from a week of work and training.
10hrs 46min all up. Swim 3.7k, Bike 153.09k, Run 37.17k

Paul’s Week 7 – ending 21/08/11 – The Choc Chip Cookie Midnight Affair & The Walmart Ride

Paul’s Week 7 – ending 21/08/11 – The Choc Chip Cookie Midnight Affair & The Walmart Ride

Swim – 2.2k (1 x session)

Bike – 152.5k (1 x spin class,2  x road sessions )

Run – 33k (1 x interval sessions, 2 x long/aerobic runs )

Total –  10:22 hours

Monday – Spin Class

Was supposed to ride on the road today but once again Perth’s weather has turned up a wet start to the week. Will have to lock some outdoor sessions in once it gets clearer, but for now will have to make do with some extra minutes on the spin bike before class

Jumped on a bike at 4.30pm after getting to gym early, ticked legs over trying to increase heart rate every 5 mins. Fatigued enough (as planned) start Gill’s class but faded badly towards the end of the session. Have a calf niggle from Sundays long run so was a little hesitant about going too hard but still, heart rate shows the truth – not much efforts happening

avg hr – 127

max hr – 154

Seriously need to sort these sessions out – not getting enough return for investment (RFI) Feel like I’m back 5 years old school training and just doing the time....time to ponder

Shell’s bought some choc chip cookies that caught my eye in the cupboard....bad move.........

Choc Chip Cookie Count – 3

Tuesday –

Too wet and windy to run so decided to get wet in the pool instead

AM – Swim

Fluro’s Challenge Session 2

300 w/u - 100 swim / 100 pull / 2 x 50 (25 fast, 25 easy)  Main set   1000 - form -- last 500 with pull bouy  14 x 50 max sprints 15-20 RI'  200 CD  2200 total

Good session this morning, starting to feel in the ‘IM Training Zone’ getting in the pool at 5.30am and planning a run later in the day – 2 session in one day, there’s going to be a few more of them to come!!

Hit the 50’s on 1.07 consistently but noticed the second 25m in the sprint was a real struggle....by the end was toast. The 1k free at the start was enjoyable, can’t wait to strap the pull buoy on and knock out a lazy 3.0k TT

dist – 2.2k

time – 0:47

PM – Interval Run

10’ warm up, 3 x 1.5k at 10k pace with 3.15 recovery, 15-20’ cool down

Very very tough run today, got out from work at 4pm. Borrowed some Compressport calf tights from PJ as my right calf had a niggle from the weekend. Well, the calf was fine but my running style was out for some bloody reason and my left hammy was tweaking on each stride – me thinking this is going to get ugly. I was feeling my form was laboured and that something was going to ‘ping’ at anytime. (caution to the wind would have said back off but still felt good to run) Heart again wasn’t climbing, lucky if it got over 150 but in the end managed to complete the run and with the normal turn around point for my 60 min run I must’ve been on pace and on target

dist – 12k

time – 1:00

avg hr – 142

max hr – 155

Choc Chip Cookie Count – 5...and plus 1 that is technically in Wednesday’s count after midnight snacking – again :O(   ...dreaming of choc chips....need to eat more during the day me thinks

Wednesday – Bike – Interval

Point Walter Loops

Rolled out from work at 5.15am with mojo at a new low (obviously not recovered enough from the weekend and the week’s two sessions). Caught PJ running in the dark (again) on his way out on his 1:20 run) be nice to sync sessions with PJ as we’re pretty much doing the same distances and efforts at the moment but I’ve got other commitments with swim pick ups that would need to be re-organised etc......maybe later in program I can be a bit more flexible. Be good to go together on some of the mid week 4 hour rides

Ride was easy out to Canning Hwy/Bourke Drive – then 3 x IM pace to Pt Walter all the way up Reserve, down Stock (nice and easy on way down, roads still bit wet) then nice 4 minute max effort along Bourke Drive. Good solid efforts which were all in the 17’30 range..tempted to do another but realised form would’ve dropped so decided to roll back to Mt Henry and rush for the shower at work

dist – 46.8k

time – 1:43

avg speed – 27.1km/h

avg hr – 130

max hr – 160

Thursday – Long Run – swapped out from Sunday

This run was going to be interesting. After last weekend’s first full on sessions there were a fair few things going on with my legs and muscles that were

1.     Playing with my mind

2.     Worrying enough to not really be focused on what I had planned for the run. ie. this 21k run could turn into a 5k limp back to work

In the end I needn’t have worried, after starting out pretty slow (was nice not to stress about fitting in any intervals – this run was slow and steady the whole way) the niggles I had just didn’t eventuate into anything.....so I had either convinced myself I was going to get injured or it was, just tired legs.

Anyways, nice solid aerobic run - heart rate was a little low at the start but after 30 mins and warming up got into a rhythm and cruised for the whole 1 hour 45. Got out from work at 3.15pm and was such a great arvo running along Melville Beach. Pretty special area to have access to and on the way back you can see right over the bay to Majestic Point where I had run from. I am pretty lucky to work in an area that has so many options for running and biking, plus at home is always good to run alongside Mindarie and Quinns Coasts’ so no excuses to get out if the weather’s right

Faded a touch at the end which was probably into the junk miles territory but I am a believer that this IM bizzo has a lot to do with mental training and if that means the junk miles are the mental side of it (ie. pushing thru even tho’ you know things are breaking down) then I will continue to keep ticking over the extra kays/minutes

Top hi-light for run is alongside Burke Drive there is a massive open space where people walk and run their dogs in droves...well, I do like to say g’day to the odd mutt or pooch that I come across if they look friendly enough, and this time I was lucky enough to meet the pooch from Men In Black – awesome little pug...Ellie reckons she’s getting pugs when she’s older, and somehow I really think she will

dist – 21k

time – 1:43

avg hr – 141

max hr – 152

Friday – rest day

Beer count – zero !! 2 weeks an counting (Friday beers that is...total tee-toll ?? nah..maybe the week before the race)

Saturday – Ride – Fartlek

Dropped Bridie at Arena at 5.50am for 6am squad training and then rushed down freeway to get to Runners World by 6.30 roll out – well, get there at about 6.07 after giving myself way too much time...next week will leave a bit later so as Bridie is not waiting too long for pool to open. Other kids were there waiting also so not that bad

Great ride today. Back with the Runners World crew which has seemed like forever since I’ve rolled out with everyone, usual suspects were there and looked promising to be a good solid ride. Daz had a simple RTR ride with 6 x 2.5’ max VO2 max efforts with 2.5’ recovery and ABP in between (always be pushing). We decided to split them up around the route – 2 at Mt Henry (1 out and 1 back) 1 at Burke Drive, Left Bank, Leighton and last one from Waratah along Dalkeith. It’s funny cos that 2.5’ effort is that magic figure that is just enough time to really sort you out physically and mentally...heart rate max’ing at figures it is not normally used to seeing. Pretty pleased with the efforts see lap times below. As Daz says – ‘work works !! Be good to see the boy’s stats

Got back to Food Store for a quick drink (PJ had a coffee) then I span back to the Raffles with him and back again to my car parked at Runners World, quick chat with Phabbie and then home to take Bridie Justin Beiber poster shopping....great

Rest of the day pretty much the same as every other Saturday at the moment – home, food, netball, home, nap, food, beer, movie, bed....

Actually it had to be the funniest ride ever today – hate to say it but there were a lot of people out this morning (Spring’s around the corner) that were well, let’s just say that me and PJ were absolutely beside ourselves laughing saying that the day was turning into a Walmart Ride...some very strange looking cats coming past us and we had a few laugh out loud moment’s along the way. One notably the fixie doode who thought he could go off at the front of our group along Leighton – just as we were winding up the 2.5 V02 effort........yeah well, fat fixie got fookd after about 3 minutes !! .....spat out and gone forever !!.........mind you, least these peeps are out there enjoying themselves and getting fit.....but yeah, we saw a few people this morning that made you go ‘wtf’ !!! ..

dist – 73.7k

time – 2:39

avg speed – 29.1 km/h

avg hr – 139

max hr – 176

Lap	Time	LapTime	Max	Avg	Dist	km/h
1	20:22.1	20:22.1	155	124	9.339	27.5
2	22:53.3	02:31.2	175	168	1.811	43.1
3	25:21.1	02:27.8	168	144	1.196	29.1
4	27:52.9	02:31.8	172	167	1.601	38
5	44:08.5	16:15.6	166	138	7.744	28.6
6	46:39.4	02:30.9	176	165	1.669	39.8
7	57:11.4	10:32.0	169	151	5.277	30.1
8	59:41.8	02:30.4	168	161	1.829	43.8
9	05:46.4	06:04.6	166	145	2.986	29.5
10	08:17.5	02:31.1	175	166	1.602	38.2
11	27:06.5	18:49.0	169	148	8.775	28
12	29:37.3	02:30.8	171	163	1.642	39.2
13	52:55.2	23:17.9	167	137	9.414	24.2
14	38:59.7	46:04.5	158	130	18.803	24.5

Sunday – Aerobic Run – swapped out from Thurs

Glad I only had 60 min this morning, was a good mental break to know that a sleep in could be had and not having to make sure I was out the door by 6am to be back at a reasonable hour. Aiden pretty crook at the moment so was up to him a few times in the night which threw the sleep pattern around a bit. As it was I ended up leaving run to the arvo, – not a ideal time for me as I always tend to have eaten too much before hand and would be mostly on my feet for the day by the time the run comes. But, will have to put a few runs in for the afternoon later in program to ‘acclimatise’ as that’s when the run will be happening come race day

Bridester had a friend sleep over so was up cooking bacon and eggs for breakie, and as run was decided to be done later I joined in...nice lot of greasy fat to get the arteries going in the morning.

Off to Yanchep for a picnic for some family time – great day checking out the koala’s, bit of lunch, kick of the soccer ball and then we did the walk around the lake – 2.5k which, we were pretty proud of the kids for not complaining too much......tho’ the fact I kept telling them the ice cream shop was just 200m ahead every 5 mins probably helped them get there !!

Finally got to run at 2.30pm which was a struggle to step out the door – tho’ one hi-light was switching over to new shoes, man they felt weird. Worked out there’s about 500-600k to go til race day so these nu shoos will do nicely til then...still got my race shoes from the half in May so they’ll get a week’s use the week before December which will give them a nice 100 odd kay wear in for them

Weekend again too short, not enough time to get things done around the house but you get that – and it’s not going anywhere. Given up making list of jobs to do around the house

dist – 12k

time – 1:00

avg hr – 137

max hr – 151

Couple of planned rest/recovery days next week, even tho’ weather looks good to get out must stick to these planned days off, it’s still early days. Massage booked for Satday and City To Surf with Bridester on Sunday so should be a good week

Cheers

Paul