2km swim

Nothing special today but got my swim distance up to 2km. Took much longer than expected because the squad took up most of the pool leaving the rest of us only two lanes which meant I was either:
a) running into the octogenarians who were wading in groups of four up and down the pool or
b) getting overtaken by swimmers who insisted on starting their sets as I hit the wall (ie, rather than waiting til I was at the other end of the pool!)

Shoulders are now aching as a result of the combination of today's swim, last night's pounding 10km (I seem to use my upper body a LOT when I'm time trialling...) and the impromptu core stability/strength sesh I did yesterday morning (and forgot to mention in yesterday's blog...)

Very excited about tomorrow's long ride which will hopefully be about 65km and will take in about 10km worth of Brisbane coastline...

10km - 45mins

Got home from work and went straight back out for a 10km to see what kind of pace I could do - aiming for 45 mins. It was pretty much pitch black because I was running on the footpath through the parkland near my house which made it hard to go all out (I could only see about two metres in front of me).

I got to the halfway mark at 23:10 but I managed to rake in 50 seconds on the second half to get the total time to 45:30. VERY happy! This means I'm back to the form I had before Warwick which is awesome in itself, but I also feel like I have more strength and control this time around which is great.

Run Bike Run

Feeling good after yesterday's rest day I had planned, after much deliberation, to do a 15km /15km BRIC set today around St Lucia (my uni). Short cycle and long run because I'm in my running focus phase at the moment and was merely riding to get the legs a bit "cycle-tired" beforehand. But when I got to uni this morning it was still too dark to cycle straight away (I don't have lights yet...) so I decided to do half my run beforehand as the sun rose, then go for my bike and then finish the run.

The route was reallllllly hilly but I did 8km on my first run, 2 x 8km bike laps and then a final 6 km run. All up it took about 1:50 with splits of about 0:45/1:15/1:50.

Overall a good hit out but a clear demonstration that yet again, my cycling needs more work and also that I have to throw in some hill work, an area that never used to bother me. I'm not too stressed about this as hills and speed are something I know I can work into the last few weeks of the program - the overall focus for now is on endurance.

Tomorrow is a light 10k test run - hopefully at close to Noosa 1/2 goal pace!

1.8km swim

Nothing much to report except that I vastly expanded my swimming distance today, nearly doubling Saturday's effort. Felt good! Hoping to do 3km on Saturday morning.

Also legs felt slightly stiff from the last two days shenanigans but today's swim was a good recovery and tomorrow is a total rest day - very positive.

24km run

Went for my first long training run in a while today and it felt gooooood. Slow, but good (avg pace was about 5:25). It was also my first long run the day after a long ride. I was really surprised how different the tiredness in the legs is but it felt good and I got through pretty much all the k's I wanted.

On a different note, regular readers may have noticed my program intensified quite a lot over the last few days, this is due in the main to my personal life being a bit of a shambles at the moment, and the resulting desire to step up the training a notch as a way to clear my head. I couldn't have used my training to get me through it without the constant motivation that you guys provide, so thanks, the running community rocks.

60km bike ride

Went for a good solid ride but totally underestimated the hills on my planned route. Legs were sooooooo sore at the end, but am loving the post exercise endorphin high right now! All up it took two and a half hours for 60km which means I've got a lot of work to do to get my total Noosa tri time under 2:40. I also had a go at imitating Flandis' downhill aero pose and while I'm sure I looked ridiculous, it felt pretty damn fast!

Also, am very excited about my the impending arrival of my new bike computer (I had my first ebay experience last night). No longer will I have to spend an hour after every ride trying to google earth my path and work out my distances!

Back in the pool

First swim in about four months today. I should preface this by saying that I have a love/hate relationship with swimming. Sometimes, when everything's going well and I'm feeling strong I love it, other times, when I just can't seem to get it together, it's the most stupid sport ever invented.

Had no particular goal, just wanted to see where I was at. I got through the first 500 metres in a cruisy eleven minutes and then thrashed myself to get through the second 500 under nine to give me 20 mins all up. I got in with seconds to spare.

Just as I started the third 500 my foot started cramping real bad (this has happened to me while swimming before) so I pulled up and just tried to tread water until it subsided. It didn't go away for about two painful minutes so when it finally did, I took it as a sign that my body had done all the pool work it was going to do for the day and got out.

All in all though, good to be back in the pool and doing some upper body stuff! - It also seems to have kicked the last bit of the cold I was carrying!

Watching every minute of the tour tonight and then going for a big ride tomorrow, very pumped!

12km sub 60 mins

Really felt like I was back into a program today (edit, this is probably because it IS my first day back in a program...), it was a good feeling. Plus, my 12km was comfortably under sixty minutes which means I can enter the first division of the Brissie to the Bay, stoked!

I'm baaaaaack

After a fortnight of dragging high schoolers to speakers and workshops around Sydney, (and trying to maintain guardian-like responsibility over them 24 hours a day!) I'm back. I managed to squeeze in four runs over this time though: 3-4km with Miners the Tuesday after GC, which was very much needed the way my legs were feeling; 7km or so from my Sydney accommodation in Redfern to the Sydney botanic gardens and back on the Friday morning (never knew how nice Sydney was to run in!); then two runs in the last week with one of the students lasting half an hour and an hour respectively around Macquarie university.

For the first time I seem to have completed a proper recovery cycle which is hopefully the first step in a new way of training which will see me actually doing things like recovery runs, easy days and tapers...

My next big thing is the Noosa Tri on October 29 so I've written myself a program which covers the next three months in three phases, basically training for all three disciplines but with a focus on one in each month. The first phase is a run-focus, which incorporates the Bridge to Brisbane and finishes with the Noosa half where I'm going to go for 1:35, I then move into a cycle-focus phase which includes a couple of rides of 90-100km (very long for me), take another week easy, and then have a month of swimming focus before tapering for the big one.

Each week has a long swim, ride and run, a brick set and a swim technique session (which may just involve me doing some drills as a coach is a bit out of my budget atm) and, depending on the focus an extra swim, ride or run of race distance. The lengths of the brick set and swim technique change based on the focus as well.

Hopefully, all this should leave me well-rounded, strong and fit by the time Noosa rolls around...

Now I just have to shake the last bit of this cold those kids have given me!

GC 1/2 - Feelin gooooood - 1:40:30

I did it! Felt really good on race morning and started out steadily with no problems except a little bit of stiffness from only giving myself a small warm up (I need to stop doing that!) Plan was always to go 5:10 for the first 13km and then do the last 8km under 5mins a k. By the time I got to the turnaround I was well under this (I had kinda got a little caught up in the moment) and when I got to 13km I just went for it... I figured I have to take the next two weeks off anyway, whether I'm smashed or not, so I may as well just go for it and see what happens! The last four km were just absouletly flogging myself, I seem to get better times when I aim for negative splits... So with no training over 10km since Warwick I got another 1:40 time. I think it was the longer rides that have done it, particualrly with the "new" (or at least improved) technique.

Congratulations to everyone else who had a smasher of a day! GC was awesome.

That's about it for me then, see you soon.

P.S. Look out Noosa half - 1:35

Niggles

Less than 24 hours to go and for some reason I have a little bit of soreness in the knee again! Can't for the life of my understand why so I'm just going to put the compression bandage on it and see if it gets any better...
Before this plan was to go for 5:10 kms for the first 13 km and then try and do the last seven at 5:00 a km, but now I just don't know!
I guess I'll see tomorrow!
Good luck to all