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...

First Week - Nearly There

...one more mid week session to go, short swim tonight then onto Daz's special Runners World ride Saturday (noted as a hard hit out) and a easy 11k run Sunday...

...the sudden ramp up in training hours, the sub 5 degree celsius mornings (all training sessions this week have started before 5am), attempted Le Tour TV watching is all starting to take it's toll -- only 21.5 weeks to go ! knew I was getting a little bit too excited too soon

Will publish this to facebook shortly and put it out into the world. Still waiting on PeeJays bio - tho' he can be excused as he's off gallivanting around Europe somewhere

....until Monday then when weekly summaries are posted

Le Tour

I'm very excited and full of anicipation - as the greatest show on earth starts tonight! The tour de France is fantastic and is always full of potential drama, heroics and controversy. And its a bike race too! Bring it on! 3 weeks of not enough sleep and/or falling asleep on the couch...