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