Owen's Running Blog

2007-05-08T17:09:00.000+10:00

Hey all,

thanks for your supportive comments!

I've been swimming and cycling occasionally. The cycling is not so good because I'm not allowed out of my seat which makes it very interesting. It's teaching me to keep my cadence up and its probably good for me in the long run anyway...

Swimming is going well but I'm still yet to join a squad. I just can't find the time!

Water running sounds... interesting... no, I'm being cynical, I'm actually keen to give it a go if it'll help keep my technique, but again, getting to a class or something is nigh on impossible at the moment...

It's been a while

2007-04-29T20:54:00.000+10:00

Observant bloggers will probably noticed I haven't posted in a while...

Everything was going swell after Moolooloolaba for about a week until I started to get some pain in my right hip. The fortnight following that was pretty on and off and to cut a long story short, I had it confirmed yesterday that I have a stressie in my right femoral neck.

I'm pretty disappointed because it means I'll be missing out on GC, warwick (and have just missed Brisbane), which pretty much cuts out my 07 running season...

I should be able to run again in about seven weeks. My focus until then will be swimming, which (in a bizarre type of silver lining) should mean that I have a bitchin' swim leg on me by next Summer and the HIMs...

I'm still going to GC to cheer and looking forward to it!

Will hopefully post some of swimming progress over the next month as well...

Peace out,

O

Moo'ba race report

2007-03-26T18:14:00.000+10:00

Warning, this is overly detailed and probably a painful read for anyone who isn’t passionately interested in every single thought I had during the race.

I felt good on race morning. Slightly stiff in the neck and as a result slightly tense in the head, but I stretched it out and felt ok. Breakfast was a banana, vegemite on grain bread and half a glass of gatorade and a lot of water.

I missed my warm-up because I was setting a cruisy pace wandering down to the start line and got there just as my race briefing was beginning. In hindsight this was probably blessing in disguise because it meant I didn’t spend fifteen minutes standing on the start line with butterflies on acid flying round my stomach.

The swim felt great. I had a clean break out to the first buoy, it was comparatively smooth (compared to the caged death match that is Noosa) and then got into a really good rhythm where I was passing a lot more people than passed me. I did three big efforts of twenty seconds hard to shake people who were sidling next to me. I felt really hungry about half way into the swim and decided to have my spare gu as soon as I got onto the bike. I didn’t get a wave on the way in but caught some white water in the last bit of the shallows.

T1 was smooth. I stuffed the spare optional GU into the top of my knicks and took off. I got out of the green zone and pulled my shoes on fine. Actually, the best I’ve been able to. The ride felt good. The hilly start really suited me and once we got onto the freeway the aerobars were great. I had the first GU at about the 6km and it went down ok. The passing packs were pretty awful and it was particularly frustrating to watch the tech officials fly by and appear to do nothing. I kept doing efforts to drop people who were sitting on my tail which was good because it kept my speed up and got me out of the saddle. The turn around came and there was slightly more wind on the way back. At about 25km I had pins and needles in my left foot that didn’t disappear until the run. At about 30km I had to decide whether or not to have another GU or just stick to water. I left it because there wasn’t much water in my bottle and I didn’t want it if I didn’t have anything left to wash it down with. 34-39km was my fastest and I dropped another three that had been sitting on my tail for a while. The hills back into transition were good, and the ride through the main street at the end with all the people around was an awesome feeling.

T2 was fine and the first two kilometres of the run leg felt good. From there it all went downhill (both literally and figuratively!). I took on a lot of water at each station and poured a cup over myself as well. But at about 4km I got a stitch that I just couldn’t shake. I was also feeling really overheated and craving drink stations. I kept plodding on but I could feel how slowly I was going and it was really frustrating. The PCRG tent were in the best spot (3/4 of the way up the hill where you do the turn around) which was great and I finally started to get some momentum at about the 6km mark. The last time over the hill was great and the last 900m passed very quickly.

Overall time was 2:27:03. 22:40 for the swim; 1:16:04 for the ride; 48:17 for the run. I was 25th for my age-group.

By comparison, my Noosa times were: 29:28, 1:16:08 and 47:14 so the clear pick up was my swim. However, the two things I will take from the race are 1. to work on nutrition and 2. to do more bike-run brick sets at race speeds (I do them at long run/long ride pace most of the time). The reason I say this is because when you factor in how much harder the Mooloolaba run course is, one minute slower at Mooloolaba is probably a greater effort than Noosa (IMHO). The other reason is that I felt a lot better getting off the bike at Mooloolaba, but couldn’t capitalize on that in the run. The nutrition comment will probably result in a second water bottle on the bike (I currently keep a toolbox in the spare bottle holder but I plan to put a dual cage behind my saddle), some gatorade or another electrolyte replacement and a better regimented gel plan.

Having said that, and knowing I’m my own harshest critic, I am extremely happy with my performance. It was a bloody hard course, I knocked five full minutes off my time (in less than five full months) and my swim has obviously really improved. I also know I can make some serious progress on my bike now based on the difference in feeling at the end of this ride and the end of Noosa’s. I’m also not stressed about the run, I know I’ve got a much faster run time in me, I just have to work out how to unlock it properly.

Another massive thank you to all the supporters: Cirque, Karla, Sally, Belinda, Clairie, Tesso, Pat, Jordan who took up the challenge and had a great race too and everyone else who had a shot, or encouraged me in the leadup: Miners, Jen, Don, Ewen, PeterHorse. (and anyone else I've inadvertently missed!)

Roll on GC mara.

Moo Tri '07

2007-03-25T21:34:00.000+10:00

Finished!

2:27:03

Well it was outside goal time, but I'm still stoked. My bike and run were almost exactly the same as Noosa, which means I've gained almost five minutes over a 1.5km swim since October last year.

I'll do a proper race report soon, but for now I've got to finish an assignment.

Just wanted to post my time and say THANKYOU! to everyone for their support up to and on the big day!

O

Going public

2007-03-13T17:08:00.000+10:00

Well, at the request of Tesso, and having just entered and being asked to declare my anticipated finish time, I'm going to go out on a limb and say I'm aiming for 2:20.

For keen readers thats 12 minutes faster than Noosa and I haven't done Mooloolaba before but I know I've had a massive summer. I've knocked a chunk off my swimtime, done some proper speed work on my run and stretched out my long rides to much longer than ever before. The only thing I'm worried about is that I've spent limited time in the saddle for the last month or so and focussed more on my swim and run so in that respect I'll have to see on race day...

Back in blogland

2007-03-12T21:01:00.000+10:00

Well I might have been slack with my blogging of late (considering I haven't posted for almost a month... oops!)... But I have been keeping up the training.

Specifically, my running is going really well. I posted a 10:52 at the PCRG 3km time trial a week ago and my long runs are coming along well too.

My swim is getting a lot better since I've started breaking down my stroke and doing some drills and I've been going pretty consistently. I still haven't joined a squad. But not because I'm scared, just because I'm not at the pool at the same time each week at the moment. Ironically, I don't think I'll join til after Mooloolaba now, when I'll be winding back to just one or two swims a week, mainly as recovery and begin a building phase for half IMs at the end of the year.

My cycling has been my slackest leg but I did take the very exciting (and immediately gratifying) step of buying aero bars on Friday (bike porn to follow soon I promise). They're Pro brand windjammers made entirely of carbon and they've got great pads and are adjustable in pretty much every direction. I love them. Just in time for Mooloolaba too!

So in short, things are plodding along nicely and I'm looking forward to capping off the tri season at mooloolaba and then cutting down my swimming and cycling to just recovery sessions as the big build-up for Gold Coast mara takes off.

O

Isn't it nice when things just work...

2007-02-15T19:32:00.000+10:00

I'm really starting to get some consistency at the moment and I'm loving every minute of it.

I took a rest day on Monday after a big weekend but Tuesday I went out for a shot at a 5km course near me. Well, almost 5km, I think it's actually about 4.9km, but the important part is that I time trialled it and came up with 19:17. Very happy. Even if its just shy of 5km I would have cracked 20mins and either way, its the fastest I've run it by over a minute!

Wednesday I rode the Cycleogical ride again. It was a good workout, but messier than usual... I'm feeling more confident so it's less of a worry but I see things now that wouldn't have worried me at all on my first couple of rides. Guess I've just got to keep my wits about me!

This morning we had an easy session at PCRG because of the 3km Brisbane running club showdown tomorrow night which I'm all geared up for. But I made some new friends and coughed up for eight sessions so they've got me good now!

Then, afterwork today I hit the pool for 2km and learnt something. I learnt not to fight the water. When cycling or running when you want to go faster, all you really have to do is push harder. However the realisation I had in the pool today is that the same doesn't necessarily apply in the water. Sure, if you can push harder it helps, but the trick is not to fight against the water and if you want to go faster, clean up your stroke!

This is particularly important because as regular readers will know, I procrastinate like crazy about the pool (evidenced by the fact that I've been talking about joining a swim squad for like six months and just "haven't had a chance to get round to it"...). But I feel a lot more confident after this little lesson (and the result from the weekend) so hopefully I'll get to the uni on Tuesday afternoon next week and give it a shot!

Still deciding whether to ride or sleep in tomorrow morning (with the 3km challenge in the afternoon), but at this stage I'm leaning towards 40km... just because I can!

First race of the year

2007-02-12T18:03:00.000+10:00

Last week was great!

I extended my Monday morning long run to 25km.

Thursday I went to PCRG (or CBRG) for the first time, which was great! I'm going to buy my first block of sessions this week so it will soon become a regular part of my training week, replacing wednesday night speed sessions. Thanks to Tesso, Clairie and Peterhorse for making me feel so welcome (and so famous!)

Friday I did a windtrainer brick set of 1 hour 20 minutes on the trainer and then an 8km run. I went realllly easy on the trainer and as a result the run felt really good.

Saturday, I rode to the pool and did some laps. Unfortunately I got "nudged" by a cab on the way and had my first traffic experience so I wasn't too motivated to push really hard. I was contented that as long as I got back on the bike I was doing the right thing. I know that if I hadn't gotten straight back on and just languished in the pool for an hour or so, I would have been too fearful to ride home, so "on my bike" was the catchphrase of the session... The entire session ended up being 1.5km swim and 65km ride, instead of 2 and 80, but hey, what can you do...

Sunday I entered the Gatorade tri at Caloundra and was stoked to knock a full three minutes off last years time! One full minute from each leg. It was a really great race for me, I passed people on the swim, the bike and the run and came 9th out of 21, which I'm very happy with considering I'd had a big weekend, and I've only just moved into this age group this season... More importantly, I felt strong the whole way through, and like I ahd plenty in reserve, which is exactly what I'm aiming for for the longer stuff I plan on doing. The distances were 400m/15km/4km. Total time 53mins.

So that was the week. The only downer was taking two rest days on Tuesday and Wednesday because work was manic, and my car breaking down on the way to the Sunshine Coast on Saturday afternoon. I'm now unfortunately sans voiture until next weekend and this is going to make training difficult but hopefully I'll be able to use my bike to compensate...

Congrats to all who ran Caboolture in especially challenging conditions.

2007-02-04T15:28:00.000+10:00

Friday night was my return to bricksets and also the first (comparatively) short ride since the last few loooong ones. And it felt gooood... 36km bike and 8km run and I'm back at the pace I was at before Noosa and with good time before Mooloolaba to start building some more speed.

Saturday was just a long swim of about 2.5km, which is the longest for the year so far.

This morning I did 10km at BRRC, time was nothing flash (thanks to a boozy dinner last night to welcome back a friend who's been away for three months). But it gives me a new bench mark to try and work from and crawl back towards that 40 minute mark. Evidently, the cycling, while giving me a lot more endurance hasn't helped my running speed much.

With friends like these, who needs anenomes?

2007-02-01T21:25:00.000+10:00

Thanks for all your wonderful words of wisdom re the weekends injury I think I've got it totally sussed.

I ended up switching immediately to ice as Clairie suggested, and did four sessions with a tennis ball in the same manner as Kinder had suggested with the rolling pin. Within 12 hours it was pretty much gone, but I took Tuesday off as well, meaning I had had 65 hours straight rest when I went for a run on Wednesday night.

I did a three km warmup and then three 800m efforts on 3:30, and then another three km to cool down and there wasn't a niggle to be found.

I went for swim tonight (Thursday) and my whole body felt relaxed and ready for a big and hard weekend, starting with a brick set tommorrow, long solo ride on Saturday and BRRC 10km on Sunday.

The best thing is that I have more new tricks to pull out if I feel the ITB again, and I know how to manage it for next time!

Thanks again guys,

O

hmmm...

2007-01-29T19:46:00.000+10:00

Well I didn't run this morning thinking it would be better to rest and run this afternoon instead, but when I got to this afternoon I found a tightness in the side of my left knee. Not happy. So I sat it out today and I'll probably go for a swim tomorrow morning and then see how I feel in the afternoon...

It's moderately suspicious because it's similiar to the feeling I got middle of last year after Warwick that I couldn't shake for two months...

Packed on the deep heat and been stretching... will see what happens in the moro!

Long bunch ride

2007-01-28T16:27:00.000+10:00

I took my first long bunch ride out to Redcliffe this morning. It was a lot faster than I normally do that sort of distance (120km) in (avg speed 30km/hr - I normally do 25km/hr). But it felt great. Although the bunch was very messy at times and I nearly got dropped at the halfway point, I managed to stick on and when we got back to Brisbane I was riding at about fourth wheel (Very cool considering the pack was about 150 bikes!).

As for it's usefulness in regards to triathlon training... well it's not fantastic, but I do learn a lot more about the effects of air flow etc, and it's a lot more interesting too... I think when I get into it I'll use that program I posted yesterday and on the weekends where I'm doing the long rides that incorporate the swim I'll ride to Redcliffe with the bunch, swim and then ride back alone...

Tomorrow morning I'm going to run about 23/24 kms.

Oh, and the skins are feeling fantastic Don. I'm starting to wonder how we used to recover without them!

Building a base... a solid one!

2007-01-27T18:37:00.000+10:00

It's been a massive fortnight but I've done over 300km on the bike, two 1/2M distance runs, a smattering of hill runs and a couple of swims. I'm finally developing a routine I'm really happy with.

I've done a few bunch rides as well as some long solo rides and yesterday (Australia day) I did a really good hilly bunch ride to Mt Nebo where I spent some time on the front of a pack for the first time and learnt a LOT about aero position and drafting (as well as how to control the bike on some serious downhills!)

I've also finally developed a program which I think is going to work quite well...

I've changed to a fortnightly program so I can mix it up a bit more, switch between a specific hills and specific speed session (not to say that other runs don't include these of course, merely just that they are the sole focus in those two sessions...) and vary my weekend routine to incorporate BRRC every second fortnight...

Every second Fri the brick set will be a spin on the trainer and then a run...

The only problem is no rest days but one of each of the swims is just freestyle (not squad) and I'm sure I'm not going to keep to every session so I will get some rest...

Tomorrow is my first trip to Redcliffe (60km away) and it'll be the place every second saturday where I'll do a ride swim ride brick set...

Keepin' it up

2007-01-05T21:33:00.000+10:00

Thanks to my new and incredibly cool long skins my legs were feeling fantastic on New Years Day despite the final shenanigans of 2006 so I went for a cruisy but undulating watchless run around kenmore before dinner. All up it must have been about an hour and it felt really good.

I took a total rest day on Tuesday because I'd been pushing pretty hard for the last few days.

Wednesday I did a forty minute spin session on the wind trainer because the group ride was rained out and I don't trust my group skills in the wet just yet...

Thursday and Friday were going to be big days but I ended up having to make four trips to the airport for different groups of people and just ran out of time!

No, problem, I'm going for a group run up Cootha tomorrow morning...

I start a new job on Monday (much excitement) which will be my first nine to five so I'm going to draft a new program then which hopefully contribute to a bit more consistency.

16m tempo run and 100km ride - goodbye 2006!

2006-12-31T16:11:00.000+10:00

I went and did 16km tempo on Friday night and it felt really good but I was very sore yesterday so I only did some core stability stuff.

The real reason for this post however is that I finally got my long ride up to 100km today!

Yup, it took me three hours and 45 mins but I did it, starting at 10 am and getting back by 2, I had a couple of muesli bars at 33km and 60km and drank four bidons worth of water. I'm now sore from head to toe and know it's going to be twice as bad tomorrow but damn does it feel gooood, bring on 2007!

And for those of you who analyse the detail of the above photo, no I didn't swim across the river, google earth hasn't picked up that there is a bridge there yet!

This means I got one of my two big goals for the end of the year (the other being getting my long run up to 32 km), but I'm happy with 1 from 2 considering how sick I was about a fortnight ago!

Catch y'all in '07!

Owen

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-25T20:31:00.000+10:00

Merry Christmas to all!

I know I've been gone for a bout a month now but I got sick after Melbourne and my training has only just started back again in the last few days.

Having said that I did get some great runs in Melbourne (as well as picking up my awesome new skins from Wobbly, thanks mate!) and I'm feeling really good as I start back now.

I also got some bike lights today and some new goggles (really good ones!) and paddles for swim training too.

In short everything's going well, and thanks to my most marvelous new toy (a laptop!) my blogging should be far more accurate!

Thanks to Jen for checking up on me...

Hope everyone had a wonderful christmas!

O

building momentum... but will it dissipate?

2006-12-01T16:48:00.000+10:00

I ended up doing another bike swim bike on Tuesday but at a different pool so all up it was a thirty km ride and 2km swim.

I haven't had a spare second to go to the squad this week and I fly to Melbourne tomorrow night so it'll have to start when I get back next week. But I did speak to the coach and he seems really cool so I'm really rather excited about it.

Wednesday I did the cycleogical group ride again which was really good and felt a lot easier than last week. When I add the distance I ride there and back it's sixty km all up which is a good mid-week ride so I'm really happy with it at the moment. It also leaves me fresh enough to double up and do some speed work or hills in the afternoon, though I haven't quite had time for that yet!

Thursday was a rest day - I was exhausted from a project that finished the day before and thought it was time to give the body a day off! (it had been eight days straight training by then!)

Then today I really wanted to have a hard session before I leave tomorrow so I did a really hard brick set which basically was three laps of Mt Cootha going anti-clockwise (the hard way), clockwise (the not-so-hard way) and then anti-clockwise (the hard way), again (total of 60km)and then did a fast-as-possible four km off the bike. It felt really good and my legs are tired but not sore as I sit down to write this post.

Hopefully I'll squeeze in 10km tomorrow morning and then try and get in at least three no-watch-just-exploring-melbourne runs in next week.

Just got to hope I don't lose this momentum when I get back!

Building a base

2006-11-27T20:57:00.000+10:00

Had a really great weekend that comprised a 75km ride on Saturday incorporating a lap of Mt Cootha from the 55th - 65th kilometres and then a good solid 15km run at BRRC on Sunday morning. (1:07 - my first run over 12 km in about two months!)

The legs were sore but I put my skins on and they felt great, fine today apart from a little bit of residual tiredness and that was pretty much entirely shaken out by a 5km recovery run this afternoon.

Tomorrow morning is a 40km ride and possibly a swim session in the afternoon if I get time!

Thanks for all the supportive comments RE: the goal statement last week! almost makes me think it might be a bit acheivable!

Recovery ride swim ride

2006-11-24T17:09:00.000+10:00

One of the thought I has after Noosa was that I hadn't focussed at all on the transition from swim to bike in the same way I had from bike to run so part of my new program incorporates riding to and from recovery swims in order to be able to cycle better after my swim leg.

Today was the first time I tried that and it went really well but I don't think it's practical for my big full swim sets, only the recoveries and it actually has taken a fairly heavy toll on my legs (although that may just be the result of a very heavy bike week, and starting to up my training again...)

All up the ride was 24 km (12 each way, but I can make this shorter if I continue it) and the swim was 10x 100s...

It was the first swim since Noosa so I was really slow but I'm hopefully going to follow up my new group cycling regime by joining a swim squad next week.

Finally, in answer to Clairie's question about my next big goal (and I can't believe I'm posting this...) but my next BIG goal (dependent on how a couple of other projects I'm involved in shape up date-wise) is...

wait for it...

IM 08.

Yup. Obviously there's a lot of other big goals on the way to that one but I have pretty much planned my races for the next 18 months (Bris Mara, GC Mara, Capricorn, Gold Coast and Port Mac 1/2IMs) and I really want to do my first while I'm still at uni.

Brick sets, bogans and baseball bats...

2006-11-24T16:56:00.000+10:00

I headed out for what was meant to be a relatively simple brick set in the heat yesterday to try and build up a bit of an acclimatisation. Apparently however some of brisbane's residents struggle to keep their cool!

I was cycling in a cycle lane down a very steep hill when an absolute moron in his beaten up old commodore overtook me, swerved in front of me, gave me the finger and started to speed off. Convinced I was in the right I promptly returned said finger and the bogan started slowing down.

It being a busy road and him being stopped close to the gutter on the left I couldn't get round his car on either side so I mounted the kerb and stopped in line with his car to blast him through the passenger window. (I figured it was safer to do that than to continue down the road and have him run me down in his car.)

A rather uncivil exchange occurred, which I shan't repeat exactly here (but which involved such intelligent statements as "why don't youse *expletive*s just buy cars?") and then he reached into the backseat of his car and pulled out a baseball bat and began shaking it at me!

At this point it occurred to me that this guy, who was bloodshot to the eyeballs, obviously equipped with only a single-digit IQ and shaking a weapon at me was probably not someone whom I wished to continue to exchange words with and so I spun around and sped off back up the footpath and down the next right hand turn street (thinking it would harder for him to catch me were he to follow). He apparently had lost his train of thought because I wasn't followed.

The rest of the set was comparatively uneventful except for the heat, all up a I did 36 km on the bike and 6 km run and I was pretty exhausted by the end of it.

everything is new!

2006-11-22T09:07:00.000+10:00

I've been doing some great new runs from the new location as well as building up my ride. Everything's going well! - hopefully I'll be up to 100km long ride and 30km long run by the new year.

Today I also went for my first bunch ride which was very cool, although probably not fantastic for tri training it's certainly a lot more motivating than riding alone (not to mention a lot more exciting!).

Funniest part was my "twin" was there, yes Tesso, that one, and it was his first bunch ride to!

Creepy no?

Anyway, everything's going splendidly and hopefully I'll start getting mroe consistent with my blogging very soon!

Noosa

2006-11-01T08:56:00.000+10:00

Thanks Tesso!

Aaaarrrrgggh

2006-10-29T21:11:00.000+10:00

Bloody Blogspot!

I just wrote a MASSIVE race report, pressed publish, and it came back with "errors" and it's lost...

Am exhausted so will postpone it till tomorrow but in short, race was fantastic, very happy, and thanks sooo much to all for all the support (Cirque, Clairie, Tesso, Miners, Jen, 2P, Wobblyman, anyone-else-I've-forgotten...)

Oh yeah... Noosa Tri - 2:32

2006-10-29T20:34:00.000+10:00

Done, I am officially a triathlete.

Well I was just outside my goal time (and 30 places outside my secret goal of top 1000...), but I had a blast and I'll be ready for Mooloolaba with a few lessons up my sleeve!

I got a really good transition position on Saturday (right on the edge so I couldn't get lost!) and when I set up my stuff this morning I was feeling really good. I did a swim warm-up and got some good stretches in before moving to the start line.

Swim was great, nowhere near as rough as the gatorade series ones are and I finished in 29 minutes, more than I expected, but then I wasn't as drained as I expected to be by that stage either...

I had a really good transition onto the bike and had a really good first half of the bike leg. I was passing so many people on the uphills but everytime we started going down again they'd all fly past on aero bars (Note to self: get aero bars!). The Noosa Hill was AWESOME, I hit about 85km/hr (thanks for the tip Miners) and the entire ride was fairly uneventful except for a) the guy in front of me getting seriously bad speed wobbles on the hill and very nearly crashing at high speed and b) the big packs that were quite clearly drafting. Two of the riders in one pack got into a really loud screaming match at about 35km/hr about who was drafting who and the technical official rode ride into the middle to break it up. Very intense! I finished the ride in 1:16 Avg speed of about 31km/hr which I was really happy with.

Another very comfortable transition and I was off for what I thought would be the best part of my race. I was about 7 minutes ahead of schedule to finish under 2:30 by this stage but my run just didn't come together. I was fine for the first 3km and my legs started to loosen up from the ride and I got into a really good rhythm for kms 4-6, but by about the 6.5km mark I just couldn't give it any more pace. I didn't stop running but I just couldn't accelerate. I'm not sure if it was taking on too much water or going to hard on the bike but I just didn't feel like I had anything else to give! Run time was 47:30. (about 7:30 minutes slower than I was hoping!)

So post race analysis... There were 76 athletes who finished in my age group. Overall I was 49th. My swim time was the 60th fastest for my age-group, my bike was 53rd fastest and my run was 34th. If I had run a 41:30 (a minute slower than my PB) I would have got a top ten run time for my age-group. I was 1030th overall out of three and a half thousand.

I had a really good race for my first time at olympic distance and nothing went wrong so I'm really happy with my result, but in retrospect I think tactically I could have done a lot better. In pushing so hard on the bike I may have saved about three minutes off my bike time, but I think if I had done an ordinary bike time and got 1:19, I could have pulled 6 minutes off my run. So next time I'll have to weigh up how I pace myself better. Nutrition-wise, I kept it very simple, vegemite on toast for breakfast and then pretty much nothing but water til afterwards and I felt fine the whole way through. I think I'll keep coffee and gels for longer efforts.

Massive thankyou to Cirque, Clairie and Tesso who screamed their guts out for me from the PCRG tent, you guys made my day!

Also big congrats to Jordan, who did the swim leg for his team and finished third in his category.

Thanks to all for their support, I had so much fun today ( I caught myself grinning at different times throughout each leg, which was something I thought I'd forget to do - if that makes sense!) and despite the fact that I'm more sore now than after the marathon (not as tired, just sort of sore all over...) I'm so keen to keep building and eventually, do an ironman.

What's next? Tomorrow I'll start drafting a new training program, hopefully one with a bit more regularity. *possibly* the Goondiwindi Hell of the West in February but I think that's a bit of wishful thinking at the moment. Definately going for Mooloolaba in March though and hopefully for a 2:25.

In the same vein the following is a copy of the post I put in the 2007 goals thread on CoolRunning...

after running my first marathon in 2006 (and hopefully completing my first Olympic distance Tri...) (EDIT: DONE NOW!) this is just a random collection of thoughts for 2007...

Distance - Goal - (PB)
5km - <18:00 - (20:05)
10km - <38:30 - (40:30)
1/2M - <90:00 - (96:53)
Mara - <3:20 - (4:27!!!)
HIM - <5:30 - (no previous...)

Some goal races:
Hell of the West Tri (Perhaps extremely overambitious, I'll see how the christmas holidays treat me...)
Mooloolaba Tri
Brisbane 1/2M
Warwick Pentath Run
GC Mara
Noosa 1/2M
Yeppoon HIM
Noosa Tri
Either GCHIM or Port Mac HIM...

Bring it on...

2006-10-28T08:39:00.000+10:00

Thanks so much for all the support guys!

Went for a little run and even smaller spin yesterday and I'm feeling really good and ready to go (read: sick of the waiting...)

The next thing I post will be a race report...

Until, then, again, thank you.

Back in blogland

2006-10-25T19:08:00.000+10:00

After an absolutely manic month, which has seen me basically trying to fit in a session every three days in order to maintain the level I was at, I am feeling good about the weekend. The last week has been particularly good and I'm taking a rest day tomorrow and then my last run on Friday and a little cycle on Saturday to see a bit of the course.

The whole training period has been a valuable lesson in work-life balance and I realised very quickly that if I didn't train, I was going to be grumpy, irriatable and run-down, until I got back into the swing of things!

Predicted finish time for my first olympic distance? 2:30. Noosa, bring it on...

Sporadic training fortnight - but I'm back into it.

2006-10-08T11:36:00.000+10:00

I've been very slack in my blogging lately, only because there doesn't seem to be much to report!

Was planning on taking it reallllly easy after the BRRC 10km, so I chilled out for most of the week straight after it but when I went for my long ride last Sunday my shin played up again so I didn't do anything til Tuesday which was slightly more rest than I'd bargained on. No matter, I did a hard 8km on Wednesday, an easier 9km on Thursday and then a tempo 37/9 brick set on Friday afternoon. All of which felt really good.

Today was the first race in the Gatorade Tri series. Because it's realtively short (400/15/4) and I only live 15km away I decided to ride there and back and it was really awesome. I normally don't ride with music but I needed some pre-race tunes so I put a playlist on my ipod that a friend had done for me, ending with Eye of the Tiger and went both to and from the race.

The race itself also went really well, I managed to keep a good rhythm in the swim and wasn't as freaked by it as last season. Bike went well, except for some smarmy b*stard who drafted me for the last 7km and then took off on the run leg. I was killing him on the uphills though, he only caught me on the downhills. Run was really good too except I couldn't push myself in the last 500m the way I normally do - stomach just wouldn't let me... I think it's just a result of experimenting with different gels etc and coffee. I think I'm just putting too much in at the moment so I'm going to back off the fuel while I'm racing...

Recovery run tomorrow and then swim on Tuesday.

New 10km PB!

2006-09-25T11:17:00.000+10:00

Thursday
Didn't get out of class til late so missed the squad session and just did an easy 1.5km instead. Felt pretty good though considering my swimming's been so slack lately...

Friday
Went for an easy ride to and around Mt Cootha following Miners new rules of only pedalling on the uphills and not leaving the smaller chainring - it certainly makes for a different ride! All up it felt really good though and it definitely feels like it trains the legs better. Plus makes it a lot easier to spin!

Saturday
Bought new elastic laces so HAD to try them before Sunday's race... :P Just did an easy 3km gallop around the park near my place, felt good and really relaxed.

Sunday - BRRC 10km Handicap - 40:30
Felt good on race morning but was still about skeptical about getting 40. It was the first time I've run with these guys and they gave me a 33minute handicap (one of the biggest!) but in the end it turned out to be pretty accurate. I started well and got the first km in exactly 4:00, but from then on I couldn't keep them consistent and they kept varying from 3:50 to 4:10. I managed to throw in a couple of good surges in the last two km though and got home in a time I'm very happy with! Thanks to Clairie for introducing me to some of the other members.

Bring on Noosa!

... A REALLY good burn...

2006-09-20T18:45:00.000+10:00

Monday
This definately SHOULD have been an easy, no watch, recovery run day but the thought of hitting 40mins for 10km on Sunday was weighing heavily on mind so I decided to do a bit of a time trial "just to see"... I know it was naughty but I couldn't help myself...

So I did 5km pretty much dead on 20mins (20:04 actually, but I think it was 60m too long...). Definately the fastest I've timed (but I haven't done many of them...) and considering it was with very tired legs, in my older shoes and a full stomach (it was the afternoon), I was very happy with the result and feel a lot more confident for Sunday. I did however have a really sore right glute which is a niggle I've been trying to play down for the past week. I think it's a result of shifting my cycling position and this was confirmed on Wednesday (see below). I've been managing it with a heat pack before bed...

Tuesday
Did an easy 1km swim and finally had the recovery session I should have had Sunday afternoon... It felt really good considering I haven't swum in a fortnight. I'm going to first squad session Thursday.

Put the heat pack on my ass before bed again...

Wednesday
Another 40/10 brick session. It was really good and I finished in about ten minutes less than last week. This is mainly because of a change of route on the cycle leg so the actual time difference isn't a big deal but I did feel heaps stronger off the bike, was into a rhythm much faster and my glute felt heaps better than it did during last weeks' session, and the way it has for the last few days.

Again I think it's because I was really focussing on spinning my legs rather than pushing them (something I think I slipped back into Sunday's hills which may have aggravated the situation...). Clearly this is something I'm going to have to seriously concentrate on because it's having a really positive impact when I get it right and a whole basket of negative ones when I bugger it up!

Oh and I got swooped by yet another magpie. Not as scary as it was three weeks ago, now I just shake my head a bit and break into a sprint...

Overall I got a finish time of 2:06, now I just need to get that swim time down to 24mins...

Tomorrow is my first attempt at squad (provided I get this last assignment done tonight...) and then an EASY 8km on Friday and an EASY spin session on Saturday morning... Look out Sunday!

It's a good burn...

2006-09-18T10:00:00.000+10:00

After a crappy day at work on Friday I cam home and did a hard 45mins on the windtrainer. It was really intense (I was COVERED in sweat!). I felt good afterwards but wasn't sure what effect it was going to have on my long run the next day...

Saturday
Went for an awesome run with Clairie, Tesso and Charlotte. All up we did about 21km in about 1:45. Good to be back doing long runs and especially good to be doing them with these three lovely ladies. I felt fine after the spin session the night before and we did a progression run for the last 4km which was really good. We also ran past a person that Tesso seems to think is my identical twin despite some serious physical differences! 'Twas hilarous!

Sunday
Went for a ride to Mt Gravatt and did three reps up the mountain staying in my seat the whole way and trying to get faster as I got closer to the top. It's about a 2.5km climb. I felt really good afterwards and flew home very quickly. I'll definately do more reps next time. Or try pushing a higher gear...

Rest today although I might run for 30 mins without the watch this afternoon and then another 40/10 brick tomorrow. I'm going to try and two laps of a 20km loop for the bike this time to see if I can avoid some of the traffic that slowed my down last time.

I might also be having a crack at a 40 minute 10km on Sunday at BRRC. Not so confident of that yet, I think I'm at about 41:30 pace... but we'll see!

Breakthrough sessions

2006-09-13T10:34:00.000+10:00

I think I'm finally starting to make some progress with my cycling! This is good because in comparison to the run focus of my training my cycling focus has taken a long time to get a bit of momentum but I seem to be getting there. The only other problem is the animals! I've been swooped by three more magpies and chased by a dog since my last post!

Friday
Went out for a ride that was going to be 70k just nice and easy. After about 25 I was still feeling really good so I fuelled up on a muesli bar and decided to see if I could stretch out my distance a little. All up I ended up doing 80km which is a new threshold for me. Apart from having to break into sprints every time I heard a CRAAAAWWWWWW!!!!!!!!! followed by the crack of talons on my helmet, the whole ride felt really good, no niggles etc, just focussed on keeping back in the seat and spinning my legs rather than pushing the pedals. All up it took about 2:45 which means an avergae speed of abot 28km/hr. This was just above 30km/hr for the first 60km, but I couldn't maintain that pace in the last quarter. I also had another coffee before I left and this seemed to work really well.

Saturday and Sunday
Rest (had an exam Saturday morning, had to work Saturday afternoon and Sunday and had drinks on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights...)

Monday
Spent a cruisy 30 mins on the magtrainer that was pretty much just a random fartlek session of different sized intervals ranging from 3 minutes to 30 seconds in a variety of gears.

Tuesday
Went out with the plan of running a 10km TT but got three km in before realising I hadn't started my watch properly. I was feeling pretty out of it so I just jogged home and did another 30 mins on the mag trainer at a constant pace.

Wednesday
The goal today was 40/10 brick set hammer to see where I was at. In order to avoid the wildlife that appears to have it in for me I had to stick to the main roads which meant lots of traffic lights so my 40km bike stretched out to 1:28 and felt really stop-start with all the traffic. The wind also played a massive part in my ride today as it was very strong going out and seemed to have just disappeared on the way back. I did manage to get into a good rhythm for the last 10k of the ride though which set me up really well for the run...

And what a run! I started out very slowly because my glutes were feeling a little tender from the ride but it had all cleared up by about 3km and when I hit the 5km turnaround I just gave it everything I had and got home in about 45 mins. All up the run distance was about 10.75km which means I was running about 4:06 a km. Very happy! and no animals!

I did learn however that I'm absolutely going to have to eat something on the ride as I was getting seriously hungry by the 4km mark of the run. I need to make sure I'm taking on more water as well.

Finally, after much thought I think it's possible that my recent bad luck with animals could be a result of my rather indulgent statement in reference to a trail run in a previous post where I said "Just Owen v nature, and Owen won." So in order to settle my debt with nature I hereby retract my earlier statement and instead say to whoever's listening, call off your minions you evil goon!

2006-09-06T21:08:00.000+10:00

Apart from discovering a rather vicious magpie has taken up residence at the end of one of my favourite stretches of road (swooped me four times and nearly took my ear off!) this morning's ride was quite uneventful. 30km all up at 30km/hr pace. I made an extra effort to stretch PROPERLY and tried two changes to the way I rode which seemed to have paid off, sliding back further in the seat so that the weight of my body is on my butt, not my legs, and this in turn meant I could focus on "spinning" the pedals, rather than pushing them. Apparently it worked, perhaps it wasn't a problem with the way the bike fitted me as much as a problem with the way I fitted the bike...

The other interesting note about this morning's ride was that I experimented with a coffee beforehand. It felt good for this distance but I don't know whether it would be much help for anything longer as the buzz was just starting to wear off when I dismounted. I also plan to try coke in my water bottle before long.

After work I backed up with a 7km run around the neighbourhood which also felt good, overall today felt much better than most days of late, everything seemed to flow better...

Eventful longish run

2006-09-06T06:28:00.000+10:00

I was trying to start building up my long run again today with a 20km run with a turnaround at the top of Mt Gravatt. It was fairly good but slow (very hilly the whole way), but I just felt awkward the whole way. I'm not sure way but running just felt like a very alien action for my body for some reason. All up it took my about 1:40 for 18 very hilly kms.

The "eventful" bit was that about 2km from home a car blew up about 150m in front of me! I'm not joking! I was just coming over the top of the second last hill and starting down it (thinking smugly to myself how nice it is to be running faster than the traffic is flowing) when about 150m ahead of me at a set of traffic lights flames started pouring out of the front of this Volvo and the driver bailed. All the surrounding drivers got out of their cars and people started calling the firies etc.

Thankfully, no-one was hurt.

It's not about the bike...

2006-09-04T10:45:00.000+10:00

Had planned to do two 60k rides yesterday because of time constraints (ie. rather than doing one long one...) However at about the 40k mark my shin started to hurt again! It was really tender for the next 12km and then finally started to loosen up in the last few k.

It's beginning to get very frustarting because I can't work out what I'm doing wrong. I've had my fit checked, I've been stretching and warming up properly, and it only happens occasionally...

Thankfully the ride wasn't a write off as I still got a good distance in and felt like I'd done a solid work out at the end but it's very uncomfortable.

Tomorrow is 20km with the halfway turn around at the top of Mt Gravatt.

A hectic week

2006-09-01T23:35:00.000+10:00

The last week has been an absolute mess but I've managed to squeeze in a fair bit of training and I've had my bike refitted and it now feels fantastic. I've also had a serious rethink on my position on trail running...

Saturday - boot camp run
After a seriously average day at work I really just wanted to hurt during this one so I did 9km total with a mix of short and long intervals, pushups and chinups on some playground equipment and some hill reps as well just for good measure. Very satisfying, but left me feeling very tender in the upper body.

Sunday - swim/run brick
After another crappy day at work I was well fuelled for my planned 1.5km threshold swim so I could establish a benchmark for Noosa. I did it in 27 minutes which was expected, but not great. Hopefully with a bit of stroke work I can get it down to about 25. The swim felt good, and I did the most thorough warm up and cool down yet.

About 5 minutes after I got home from that my best mate called and asked if I wanted to go for a light run around Southbank, the Botanic Gardens and Kanagroo Point and I couldn't say no to some cruisy recovery running. We started slowly enough but naturally the pace got faster and faster and by the time we finished we were going flat out to see who would crumble first (him :P ). My form felt really good on this run, I think because I started out so slowly. All up, an easy undulating 9km.

Monday - hill reps
One of the highlights of Sunday's run was re-discovering a hill I had run ages ago but forgotten about. It's about 150m, almost 45 degree angle (or at least that's what it feels like) and usually traffic-less bitumen. Still feeling fresh on Monday morning I headed back to do some hill reps and did 1.5km warm up, 6 reps of hard up and slow down, and then another 1.5km back to the car as cool down. Felt good and the legs still felt fresh afterwards, I think I could have done more reps but I had to get to work... next time I'm going for 10.

Tuesday - rest
Dropped bike off for a service.

Wednesday - like new!
Picked up the bike early and had them check the fit. This was something I had been planning to do since I switched to clipless pedals and just hadn't gotten around to. I should have done it sooner!

As soon as I got it home I changed and took advantage of a break in the rain to get out and put it through it's paces and it felt fantastic. The service meant everything felt clean and smooth and the new fit felt soooooo much more comfortable. I rode 20km hard and then took it to Mt Gravatt for a hill ride. This is another hill which I had forgotten for quite some time but will hopefully make many more appearances in my training from now on!

All that's really been changed is that the seat is a little bit higher a little bit further forward but it feels radically different and I don't feel like I'm stretching for the handlebars any more which is good. The best part of all was that it felt better the longer I rode, something I hope is further extrapolated on my long ride this weekend (providing the rain clears a little!).

Thursday - I am a mountain man...
When I went to bed on Wednesday night, I was a hardcore roadie and trail runners were hippies who ran naked and lived on forest berries and river water. After an hour running in very limited bushland in suburban Brisbane, I still think the same about trail runners, except now I'm one of them! and Six Foot has been added to the list of races I have to do before I die!

I basically just went for an hour cruise on some local trails, it was raining lightly when I started and when I got to the top of the mountain (hill) and into a clearing some really dark clouds started rolling in. The rain started getting heavier and I just kept running backwards and forwards exploring the different paths of the trail. When the rain got really heavy I ditched my singlet and just ran as hard as I could. It was very primal but awesome. Just Owen v nature, and Owen won.

I felt fine immediately afterwards but had a sore hip this morning and a slightly sore ankle, mainly (I think) because I'm not used to running on such irregular surfaces yet, a good bit of stretching soon cleared it up.

Friday - rest
Had to work a 10 hour shift so didn't have time for anything else!

So all up a very interesting week. It's only looking back now that I realise I did a LOT of hillwork and very little else. Not happy that none of my workouts went over 75 mins but I'm going for a long run and ride on the weekend which should even that up and hopefully, in combo, build on my aerobic base.

2006-08-25T18:31:00.000+10:00

I had Monday off as a rest day.

Tuesday morning I went for a swim, just did some different drills and 100m and 200m intervals, all up totalling just under 2km. It felt good but I can tell my swimming needs some more structure if it's going to get anywhere so I think I'll have to koin a squad in the near future.

Wednesday morning I went for a 40km threshold cycle to get a benchmark time that I can
a) work on and measure up against and
b) calculate some kind of Noosa prediction from.
I got home in a very satisfying 1:17, which means my overall goal for Noosa is 2:30 (with splits of about 26-77-45).

Thursday I was going to do a hard interval session on the wind trainer but the bike just felt wrong on my shins again so I left it and did some core stability and strength stuff and booked the bike in for a service and proper re-fit next week.

Third time lucky - Noosa 1/2 1:36:53

2006-08-20T15:28:00.000+10:00

After two "close, but not close enough" attempts - I well and truly smashed the 100 minute monkey today!

I didn't start off so well getting lost on the way there this morning but I eventually found my way and parked with enough time for a decent warm-up and some stretches (my most thorough pre-race routine to date). I lined up with Tesso and Clairie and the atmosphere was really positive.

I was feeling strong for the first 5.5 km and stuck with the girls, at about the 6km mark I was still feeling good so I started to sneak away. I was still feeling fine at the 11km turnaround but just outside the time I needed to get home under 95mins. I wasn't particularly worried because I've negative split the last two 1/2 marathons I've done, but when I got to about 15km my stomach started to feel sore and I couldn't seem to get rid of whatever it was that was putting me off. I kept to my original water plan (half a cup every second stop), and tried to distract myself but it just wouldn't go away, which meant I could not pick up the pace, even though my legs and body were feeling fine - very frustrating!

Anyway, I just kept plugging away and got to the finish before 1:37 - Very happy!

Sitting at home now I'm feeling very good and the stomach appears to have settled... guess I'll just have to experiment with my nutrition in my training over the next couple of months, especially if I'm going to be fuelling during the race at Noosa tri.

The vibe at this race was really good and I'm sorry I couldn't stick around much longer to socialise but I had to get back to BrisVegas to get started on some uni work. Thanks heaps to Tesso and Clairie for their pacing, and also Rags and IronPete for their cheersquad work.

The only other (moderately) funny thing I wanted to mention was that after the race I sat down to stretch and apparently sat on an ants nest. The little buggers bit me all over the back of the leg which was the last thing I needed after a run like that! Had to go and see the first-aid tent for what is a very lame race-day injury.

Today marks the last day of the running focus of my program, so tomorrow is a rest day, Tuesday, a drill set in the pool and Wednesday is the first day of the cycle focus.

Next big thing - Noosa tri!

Busy busy!

2006-08-17T23:17:00.000+10:00

I've been a bit slack updating the blog this week (Ekka public holiday on Wednesday and the obligatory trip to the races for young members day - like every other person aged between 18 and 25 in Brisbane it seems!!!) but that doesn't mean I've stopped training!

After Sunday's long ride I took all of Monday off as a rest day and then started back on Tuesday with the focus being short and sharp as taper for Sunday's half mara.

Tuesday
1km swim with heaps of drills including catch-up and swimming with hands in fists. Felt really soft immediately afterwards but about an hour or two later it really kicked in and my arms felt very tired, and well worked! I'm going to make one of my two swim sets every week drill focussed and the other threshold from now on.

Wednesday
7.5km fartlek session around Carindale. Felt really relaxed and smooth.

Thursday
First session on the new mag trainer. Just did five minutes warm up, then 3 sets of five minute efforts with three minutes recovery between each and then five minutes cool down. Really felt like a good hard workout but only took half the time it normally takes me to expend that much energy on a ride.

Tomorrow
Easy five km run just to keep the legs turning over before Sunday. I've calculated the splits I need for the turnarounds at Noosa as 24:35, 49:20 and 71:50 (5.5 km, 11km and 16km) so look out 95 mins!

70km ride

2006-08-13T18:26:00.000+10:00

Went for my longest ride so far today and it felt great. All up it took about 2hrs 45mins at almost 26km/hr. Very slow, but very rewarding, and thankfully I've fixed the dodgy adjustment I did on Monday!

The week ahead is very relaxed in preparation for the Noosa half next weekend.

It was also cool to watch the C2S highlights this morning, very motivating! Hope all those of you competing had a good run!

26km long run

2006-08-11T21:24:00.000+10:00

Went for a long run from my house in Carindale to the West End and back today and it felt good. It's the first time I've run that far since training for the Brisbane marathon back in April and I'm definitely feeling it tonight. Average pace was 5:47, total time taken 2:28, which is slower than I was hoping for but given that it's a very hilly route, there are lots of traffic light stops, and I did some pretty hard hill reps yesterday I'm not disappointed. Feels good to be back at this distance...

I also had my first non-race CR gear sighting (althought technically I guess it was a reverse sighting) as RITH gave me a wave and stopped his ride for a chat as I was leaving Southbank and heading towards West End. I was pretty much at the hardest part of the run (1.5km to the turn around) so it was good to see a friendly face, thanks mate!

Hill repeats

2006-08-10T20:59:00.000+10:00

Just a quiet day today, went to a local hill and did four repeats going hard up and then easy down the other side and then hard up and easy down again back to the start and then repeating.
Big run planned for tomorrow, aiming for 24-26km in 2 hours...

Recovery swim

2006-08-08T21:43:00.000+10:00

After a thorough course of icing last night the leg felt much better when I woke up today and it only got better when I went for my recovery swim after lunch. Obviously it was a good thing I called it quits when I did yesterday, it's looking like a far less dire situation than when I posted yesterday...

Now that I've got some mileage up in my swims I've sort of shifted to having one long slow swim a week and one speed/interval session. Today was the speed session so I did a 250 warm up, 10 50s on 45 sec with 30 sec recovery and then another 250 warm down. Was a bit of a cop-out in retrospect because I only did one km but it felt good and I was on a limited schedule.

Uhoh...

2006-08-07T20:37:00.000+10:00

Still on a high from yesterday's race and feeling really good this morning I went out for a long ride today aiming for about 60km. My right cycling shoe hadn't been feeling quite right so I fiddled with the cleats before I went and pulled them forward a bit so my foot was a bit further back on the pedal.

The ride was going really well for the first 40km, I was under 1:30 (26km/hr) which is really good for me but as I passed the city and headed out to Toowong I started to get some pain in the bottom of my right shin. I thought it would pass, and I've had so many problems on my long rides and didn't want to lose another one, so I pushed on but by the time I got to uni it was realllllly bad.

I was now 48km into the ride and 16km from home... not good! So I turned around and just decided to cruise home as easily as possible but when I got back to Southbank (56km) and got up out of my saddle for a climb my knee buckled and started to hurt as well. By now it was clear I had done something serious so I got off and walked to the nearest cab rank and got a taxi home.

It's still sore now so I'm icing it and cursing my stupidity for pushing on when it wasn't feeling right. More importantly I'm also hoping I haven't jeopardized the Noosa half...

Obviously I'm going to have to take the bike back to the shop for a refit, but in the meantime the next two days are swimming and then rest days so I'll have time to leave it and see what happens...

B2B

2006-08-07T20:25:00.000+10:00

Sunday was my first ever crack at Bridge to Brisbane and I had a really good run!

I got to the gateway at about 0630, walked along the side of the white and yellow starters in the little passage that had been taped off, got to the red zone at about 0645, stretched a little more and jogged on the spot. I introduced myself to another coolrunner who turned out to be PeterHorse and we had a bit of a chat and waited.

The race started a little bit earlier than planned but I wasn't bothered as I'd pretty much done all the warming up I was going to be able to do... I just started running when the people in front of me moved and had fun weaving my way up (and then down) the bridge. (My plan had been to just go hard for the first 3km and then just try and keep on that pace for as long as could)

I caught Tesso and Clairie at the 3km mark and said hi but Clairie wasn't well so we ended up splitting up.

So many people were cutting corners that they were blocking up their own short-cuts and I overtook most of them by staying on the course. The random musicians were really cool and it was fantastic to get a "go CoolRunner" from the one man cheersquad - Iron Pete, at about 10km.

I finished in about 53:20 with an all out sprint for the last 800m to stay a ahead of a guy I had overtaken at the 11km mark. This is about 4:26 pace which is right on track for a sub 95 minute half at Noosa - stoked!

1km intervals

2006-08-04T18:58:00.000+10:00

First time I've done a session like this and I was pleasantly surprised. My times were 3:32, 3:39, 3:40. With the warm up and cool down total distance was 7km. I ran them on a 1500m loop, running the first km and then walking the last 500m as recovery.

I wasn't prepared for how much more havoc it wreaks on your gut! but I will be next time. I think I'll try them in a straight line next time too, and hopefully do 4 or 5...

The thingy...

2006-08-04T18:54:00.000+10:00

Owen's blog - now remastered in glorious technicolour (I've included photos!)

2006-08-03T20:37:00.000+10:00

Tuesday

Went for a recovery swim in the uni pool after the weekends efforts and did 3 x 500s on 9:30 each. With the warm-up and cool-down total distance was 1.8km. While the times aren't fantastic, they are better than two weeks ago which is very good news. I'm back at a stage now where I can incorporate some drills and some more complex sets rather than just doing 1500m freestyle every time I get in the pool!

Of course the more important thing that happened on Tuesday was that I got new shoes!

I went to InTraining and the guy there was really good. We started out with neutral size nines and just kept trying different pairs until the fit was right and the support was sufficient. It was really good because he let me go for a run outside in each pair to test them while he watched how my feet were landing in them. When we'd narrowed it down to two I tried one on each foot and the decision was: Brooks Adrenaline GTS 6 a mid stability shoe in size 10.5. :

Technically they're the "ladies" version but they fit me better because I have narrow feet so I'm just going to go with it. :P

Tuesday also saw the official arrival of my bike computer which I spent the first half of Wednesday fitting!

It's very cool (if a little bulky) and has speed, distance, average speed, max speed, riding time, temperature and a couple of other random funtions as well. Apart from having to mount it on the front wheel instead of the rear (the wireless connection doesn't reach more than a metre and my lanky frame means the distance from my handlebars to the rear is just outside that!), meaning I can't use it on the mag trainer which is on its way, it seems to be working fine and they way I see it, for the ridiculously cheap eBay-price I paid for it, even if it only lasts a couple of months it was a good deal so I'm happy!

Wednesday

Rest day, fitted computer and did core stab/strength sesh again.

In answer to Jen's query, this session is just a mix of some upper body stuff and some of the excersises we did in the high school cross country team. It's not set in stone but an example is:

1. 15-20 push-ups

2. 10-15 sit-ups

3. bridge hold for one minute

4. 10-15 sit-ups on right side

5. 10-15 sit-ups on left side

The next three are done with dumbells, I don't know the real names of the excersises but basically it's five reps of each exercise:

6. Stand with arms at side, dumbells in hand, raise arms straight out to horizontal on a count of 10, and hold at horizontal for five seconds. Lower back down on another count of ten.

7. The next is starting with the weights on the front of your legs and raising up till your arms point straight out in front of you at shoulder height, hands on top of the weights. (works triceps) Hold for the same counts as number 6.

8. The last one is the same as seven but with hands under the weights instead of on top. (works biceps)

I do all 8 three times. The focus is on really slow and steady movements, the slower the better. A lot of them are probably pretty superficial but they work for me so... whatever. I mix it up by holding weights when I do the sit-ups or doing them on a swiss ball, just to keep it interesting...

If you've got a training partner you can do some cool stuff with a medicine ball as well. Try facing each other, doing sit ups alternately and throwing the medicine ball when you're at the top of the sit-up to your partner at the bottow of theirs...

Thursday

First ride with the computer and run in the new shoes and it went very well. I rode 25km and ran 5km. Ride was very cold but I managed to stay in the saddle for most of the hills and it seems to be getting more natural than a couple of months ago. The shoes were realllllly good support-wise but need some running in/softening up.

Finally, in answer to Wobbly's question about the bike tyre convertor... Bascially it's just an adaptor you fit to your bike tube that converts it to the same valve as the one on a car tyre so you can use the pumps at service stations (provided they're not bl**dy solar powered!).

(I tried to get a picture up but it's not working atm, will try again next time!)

Tomorrow will be 1km intervals in new shoes, really keen to see if I can get under 4 mins... ciao!

Bike 40 km, Run 21 km

2006-08-01T07:03:00.000+10:00

Sunday

I went for my highly anticipated ride on Sunday morning and had got through about 15k when I noticed my front tyre wasn't hard... I'd pumped it up the night before but it obviously had a puncture and was slowly going down as I rode. Not a problem this time I thought, I have a backup plan! Just need to get to a servo, fit my nifty convertor to the tyre and pump it up! (I didn't have enough time to replace the whole tube, and I figured if it had taken 8 hours and 15km to go down the first time, surely just a bit of air in it would get me home...) Except the first service station I got to had a solar powered air pump and there hadn't been enough sunlight yet!!! (what, do people only get flat tyres in the middle of the day?) So I asked where the next nearest service station was, and rode as carefully as possible (the tyre wasn't flat yet, just soft) Got there, pumped it up and was off again, except by this time I had wasted so much time and was already on a tight schedule to get the kms done in enough time to get to work that I had to abandon my proposed route and just head back to my suburb and cruise around for a while. So I ended up doing some loops around Carindale to boost up the kms before calling it a day.

Obviously having the convertor isn't enough and I'm going to have to pick up a little pump... (Lesson learned x 2)

Monday

I had planned to go for 30km on Monday but after about the first 12 I really just wasn't feeling it. My shoes were feeling really "flat" and I was just feeling off so I pushed as a hard as a could for the next 8km and then finished with some Rocky-esque stair repeats. My shoes have been feeling a bit tired all week and as a result the soles of my feet were starting to feel sore at the end of runs, but this was the first time I've been for a long continuous run since that feeling started. When I got home and realised that I had just done my 600th kilometres in my shoes (and it's been 10 months since I got them) it became clear that it was time for new ones!

So in all my weekend training was messy but good. My ride, while not as long as I'd hoped meant I ended up doing some fast intervals around my local streets which is something I haven't done much of before and felt really good. My run, while not great, showed me that I clearly need new shoes, which is something that despite budgetary considerations I just can't avoid, so I'm going to head over to InTraining today and just grin and bear it!

Another positive is that my bike computer arrived on Monday afternoon so I'm off to pick it up from the post office today!

2km swim

2006-07-29T19:06:00.000+10:00

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

2006-07-28T22:35:00.000+10:00

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

2006-07-27T21:42:00.000+10:00

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

2006-07-25T22:12:00.000+10:00

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

2006-07-24T21:46:00.000+10:00

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

2006-07-23T16:02:00.000+10:00

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

2006-07-22T19:29:00.000+10:00

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

2006-07-21T16:58:00.000+10:00

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

2006-07-19T10:11:00.000+10:00

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

2006-07-04T11:08:00.000+10:00

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

2006-07-01T11:03:00.000+10:00

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

Now I'm really a cyclist

2006-06-29T12:52:00.000+10:00

Was just finishing a really awesome ride this morning when I had my first puncture. Of course I had no spare tube/pump/tyre levers on me so I had to start walking (Lesson learnt - kit purchased and first ever tyre changed). My plan was to get to the Chandler sports centre which was about two km away and look for a pay phone, thankfully a guy saw me walking up the road and let me throw the bike in the back of his ute and gave me a lift home. While this was awfully nice of him it was perhaps quite naive on my behalf so I shan't put myself in such a position again!

What would have been about forty km in about 85 mins ended up being a 35km in about one hour fifteen. For those who know Brisbane I rode from Carindale out to Wellington Point and back. There was some light rain and the usually moron drivers but overall it was a good ride.

I had the tour on my mind as a I posted my dream team last night and was concentrating on getting more of a bassoesque cadence...

(As a side note I passed a sign outside a shop that had tape wrapped around it which obviously had the word sale repeated along it. Because of where they'd cut the tape it looked like the were trying to write "le sale"...)

However I also can't stop laughing about this blog: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=31414033 and it was quite motivating to remind myself that "the cycling is the pain!!!!!!!!" as I rode.

Plus, the leg felt really good and I felt like some kind of athlete again... It's all good!

Tagged

2006-06-29T10:57:00.000+10:00

4 jobs I have had- Laser lad (the male checkout chick), Baker, Call center operator, Newsagent
4 movies I could watch over and over - Snatch, Casablanca, Sin City, Zoolander
4 places I have lived- St Johns Park, Mountain Creek, Buderim, Brisbane
4 TV shows I love to watch - the OC, the glasshouse, Scrubs, Family Guy
4 places I have been on vacation- the UK, France, New Caledonia, Stradbroke Island
4 websites I visit each day- Cool Running, The Australian, ABC online, University of Qld School of Law,
4 favorite foods - Pasta, Pizza, Muffins, Noodle Box noodles
4 places I would rather be right now - Strasbourg, a yacht in the Greek Islands, Tanzania climbing Mt Kilimanjaro (my three best mates are doing it right now!), Stradz
4 favorite bands - Only four! Ben Folds, Eskimo Joe, Weezer, Jeff Buckley...
4 Bloggers I am tagging - Cirque, Hannah, Jen, Owl

Run yourself ugly

2006-06-27T19:26:00.000+10:00

Ive been for two runs since my last post, a 5km on Saturday and an 8km today and while it feels good I truly feel like I'm running ugly at the moment. I've lost any apparent strength endurance from before the warwick pentath and it's really difficult to maintain good technique. Only one of the 13km mentioned above felt really good and I'm pretty sure I walked about 3 of them! But having said that, I know that progress is never entirely linear and that I am getting better, it's just frustrating when I feel like I'm starting from scratch!

Current plan is to just make the gc half a long training run and get it under 2 hrs and maybe focus on breaking 100 mins at the Noosa half...

2006-06-21T20:53:00.000+10:00

Cold, wet, tired, sore, lonely - ecstatic - I'm a runner again.

I hadn't done anything for just over a week because of exams and a sore leg, (just above and to the outside of the knee - I think it's ITB - more on that below) so this evening I was sitting in front of the TV when I got that horrible totally bored/restless feeling (so bored I was watching McLeods Daughters!!!). I had written off the day for running because I had work early and it was too dark/wet by the time I got home but I decided to just go and give it a try and see what happened. Lo and behold I ran a slow five km (25 mins) in light rain and pitch dark (it was 8pm) just around the streets where I live and while I certainly wasn't setting any PBs I was well and truly running again!

So, the plan at this stage then is to just to take it easy at Gold Coast 1/2 M and aim for 1:50 and then take a month off running and just cycle and see if I can heal up what I think might be ITB...

I think it's ITB (illiotibial band syndrome) because it's fine when I walk but when I run it hurts quite a bit for the first 3 or 4 minutes and then is just a dull sore pain for the rest of the outing. It hurts more on hills. and subsides pretty quickly when I stop. It responds well to ice and lying down with a tennis ball under the sore area and then putting my weight onto it... I know I should see the physio but I just haven't had the time!

Also, must remember to add cheesy tuna mornay to the list of things that it isn't good to run after eating.

2006-06-13T11:56:00.000+10:00

25km ride with technique focus

Just another quick one today before work, the weather was great if a little cold but the roads were practically empty which was awesome. I've been getting really tight between the shoulder blades on longer rides so I made an extra effort to loosen up my arms and keep my elbows bent and it had a really good effect on my upper body. I also made a big effort to try and pedal in circles not squares (I've seen this advice in several tri mags) and it made a real difference, I feel I can really train and improve riding in that style whereas I felt like I was reaching a sort of plateau by just flogging my legs as hard as I could. So all in all good little winter session...

On another note, thanks to all for the lovely welcome I've received! It is a very much appreciated... This whole caper has such a great community behind it!

2006-06-10T15:51:00.000+10:00

20km Wet weather ride

I've been battling a knee injury since Warwick so I've been riding a lot more lately. It was raining when I woke up this morning so I thought the day would be a write-off, but when I got home from work there was a gap in the rain so I went out for a quick but hard ride around a couple of suburbs in my area. The main motivation was the idea that someone, somewhere, is training today, and If I take the day off because of rain then they'll have one more training day than me when it comes to race day!

2006-06-07T23:00:00.000+10:00

Well, I've decided it's time to get my own blog... and here it is! Get excited folks!