A bad start to the week.

This week was always going to be another tough week for training. However, my apartment should have power, I should get on top of work, internet should be up at home by tuesday etc, so it was getting better.  The proverbial starter's pistol for this new week was to be an 0600 flight to melbourne getting me to work nice and early, post some quick runs, generate some momentum which I could carry through the week.

Well that didnt happen. Instead, I got up at 0300, walked 30 minutes in the rain to catch a 0415 bus to the airport for my 0600 flight only to find when I got to there the flight was cancelled. Not delayed, cancelled, dead, gone for all money, etc.

The airline instead bused us to Sydney, where I arrived at 0930, just in time to be told the earliest flight I could get was 1200.  That will see me at work by 1430.  I have to go, I will have to stay late, that probably means no training today, and another week starts badly.

Check tomorrow to see if I have the will power to push through this.

Getting back on the road

Well, a week of moving, unpacking, organizing power/water/hot water/ internet access etc etc has meant a week of bugger all training.  But I hit the road again today for the first time in 6 days.  A nice little run, 10ks and I was shocked at how fast I was and how good I felt afterwards.  I suppose I really should just consider this week as a taper and welcome the feeling of speed I've got.

This week has taught me one thing - my training and my diet are linked.  When my training falls away I've found my focus on my diet goes with it so an off week for me isnt just marked by little work,it probably also includes eating too much and eating the wrong stuff and generally going backwards at a rate of knots.

Ah well, lesson learned.

A tough week for training.

This week has been a disaster for training. My first week of the melbourne-newcastle weekend commute, a busy week at work, moving into my apartment and then finding I have no power or hot water. All in all a tough week to carve out training time.  Still, I cant change the past, just learn from it.  So still six weeks to sparke-helmore and 18 to challenge cairns, so no need to panic.

A little more on my competition.

Well, its now clear I lost my timing chip sometime after the swim leg almost certainly in T1 as I didnt get a T1 time (so the chip didnt leave the area) but I got a time for the swim, 9:19 placing me 6th out of 50 odd in the 45-49 age group and 164th out of 1500.  Not to shabby.

So. Applying a little logic, guestimation and the odd assumption based on what the average times others took in transition and what I know from my bike computer and the time I saw crossing the line I'm guessing my times were sort of:

Swim. 9:19
T1  2:30
Ride 36:00
T2  1:30
Run 26:11

Assuming these are close enough to right my gut feel that my run is the weak link is borne out.

Competition. My first 'full' sprint.

Some quick details. This was a sprint tri held in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne. It was my second tri ever, my first at this distance and my first 'big' event. I've written more than I planned so I'll break the report into 2 parts. Part 1 - my performance. Part 2 - the event.

Part 1 - My Performance.

Preparation. Well it started OK but quickly fell away. I was up nice and early, got everything ready and was on the road in plenty of time. Driving through Melbourne early on a Sunday morning is pretty easy and so I got to the race venue with plenty of time to spare. As a result I had plenty of time to rue forgetting both the bidons I'd taken off the bike last night, filled with sports drink and carefully put (and then left) in the fridge. Bugger. Still, as it turned out this wasnt that much of a drama. My new tri club was giving out bidons to new members (score!) and there was a drinking water dispenser so I was in business.

Apart from that everything else was pretty routine. I got into my gear with time to spare thanks to the guys from mtc for helping me do up my wetsuit (did I buy a size too small? I worry its too tight). I was at the beach 15 minutes before my wave listening to the pa guy patter wondering if I would ever get to swim. One thing I remember him saying was to check the timing chips were on properly, I wish I'd listened to that more carefully!!! Anyway after what felt like hours of waiting suddenly I was off and wondering where the time went.

Swim. I have never really needed a warm up when swimming, my body just drops into the routine and off we go. And so it was today. To be honest the conditions sucked, it was windy generating a fair surface chop but underlying that were were relatively strong waves driving you off course if you weren't careful. For a few minutes this had me worried. And my wetsuit felt odd (really, is it too small?), but then I saw I was out on my own, but in a good way. I'd opened up a little gap on most of my wave and appeared to be doing comparatively well. Despite constant course checks and corrections I soon caught people from the wave before me and I really started to feel good (perhaps this wetsuit is the right size). Turning for the return leg was not as satisfying as I had hoped. I'd half expected a bit of a surf back to the beach but alas no, while the chop was easier it wasn't exactly helpful either. As it was however I got out of the water OK and ready for the ride.

T1. I didn't do this well. It annoys me that I put all this effort into passing people in the water and then then breeze past me in:

a. The run up the beach.
b. The actual transition area.
c. The run out to the mounting area.

Seriously, I really have to do better here.

Ride. Well I didn't fall off when trying to mount so I did better than a bunch of others but that's a pretty low bar. All I really wanted to do was not shame my bike. That's sounds a bit silly, but basically with my new Wilier Imperiele I should be significantly faster than the Avanti Giro I rode in my previous tri. In that race, which like this one was on a basically flat course with some rollers and a gentle headwind in one direction and obviously a little tailwind the other way, I averaged around 26 kph for 10 k's. I also note that I was 12 kg lighter and a fair bit fitter by today as well. So broadly I was hoping to average 30 kph or better for 20 k's. Today I averaged 36 kph, only occasionally dipping under 30 kph on some of the hills and occasionally hitting 48 kph on the down slopes. Frankly I could have gone a lot faster downhill but I was hitting the average speed I had targeted, I was only occasionally getting overtaken and then by people way more serious than me so I let the gears spin out and gave my legs a rest before the run.  All in all I couldn't have hoped for better.  Oh, and I maintained form pretty much the whole race, the only times I dropped out of the aero position were the tight corners at the ends of the course and when standing in the climbs so all in all more happiness.

T2. Learning my lesson from T1 I pushed harder through here and did better but an important lesson here, speedplay pedals are great for riding, they suck at running.

Run. One word, slow! First I misread the course and believed I had 2 laps to run so went out easy and was getting really disheartened when the turn around I believed was just 1.2k from the start simply wouldn't come. Then I saw the 2k sign and quickly figured out my mistake. Clearly I was doing better than I'd feared, this freed up my mind more than anything and I started running easier. But all in all it was slow. Worse, I finished feeling great making we think I had left way to much in the tank. I need to step up my training with running to get used to more speed as I have the fitness, rather it seems my legs and head have just locked themselves into a plod that is safe but a lot less than I'm capable of.

Overall. Well lets start with the bad. Somewhere out on the course I lost my timing chip so I didn't officially finish. That's OK really. It wasn't an ironman, there was no finishing t shirt and at the moment I'm still more of a completer than a competer and I know I finished, I ran under that bloody arch, but still its annoying. Worse, I don't have good split times. I can guess my swim, the bike computer gives me good data but I'm really just guessing on T times and the run. That's a real pain.

Another lesson.  take care of that stuff in the event.  A few seconds to check timing chips, numbers etc can save an entire event.

Anyway, the good. Finishing is never going to be an issue for a sprint tri again. This might sound silly to those readers completing iron events but this was my second tri ever and first 'full' distance sprint event, finishing and knowing I can finish any event like this is a big deal to me a will let me approach future events a lot more aggressively. The swim, despite terrible conditions was good, that wetsuit may still be half a size to small but it really helps and I'm so glad I have it. The ride was way better than I could have hoped for. The run, well, I need to do more of those intervals and tempo runs the magazines say but lets not overlook it was still quite possibly the fastest 5k I've ever run.

So, I'm pumped, I'm happy and I cant wait for the next one.

Competition. A nervous night.

I am anything but a hardened pro at this triathlon lark.  In fact I am only one sleep away competing in just my second ever triathlon.  And this one is totally unlike my first.

That first, wonderful, triathlon was a little club event with about 50 competitors in a sleepy little town just north of Newcastle.  There was no pressure, the officials were able to provide enormous encouragement and patience to this newbie while other competitors were keen to see their new club member enjoy the experience.  Tomorrow will be very different.  The Gatorade series of tri's are big events and it really only struck me today at registration.  Yeah, that was the first surprise, registration the day before the event.  All the stickers, the timing chip, multiple wave starts etc are so different.  And worse, turning up to an event knowing nobody, having no support and just hoping I can muddle my way through is just a little daunting.

In fact it became so daunting I've joined a second tri club.  Is that legal? Dunno but I did it.  So now I belong to Tomaree Tri Club back home in NSW, and Melbourne Tri Club here in, you guessed it, Melbourne.  I picked Melbourne last week purely on the basis that they are big enough to run a support tent at every Gatorade event and help me as I find my feet.  I'm certain that as I get a few of these under my belt and the mystery evaporates it will all be a lot easier but right now I'm glad I'm not alone.

As for the actual racing? To be honest I feel pretty good.  I still havent done near enough swimming but I'm confident I can splash my way through 750m while the ride and run should be pretty routine.  I havent got goal times for anything yet.  My last tri was some months ago and half this distance but since then I've got a lot stronger, fitter and 13kg lighter so while I am feeling confident I dont know enough to even guess at likely/possible times.

Well, wish me luck, tomorrow I promise a race report and some lessons and new goals.

A shout out to Felicity

I barely knew Felicity. She worked with my wife as a midwife and was a friend of my wife's not mine. But what I knew was impressive.

As a young indigenous girl growing up in regional Australia her prospects werent good. But despite this she refused to be bound down, to be limited by the expectations of others. She got a job, she studied for her nursing degree, got it, then studied for her midwifery qualifications and got those. By all reports she was an excellent nurse and midwife. Felicity was also an excellent person to work with, while she wasnt my collegue I know I will always be grateful she swapped shifts with my wife on Christmas day giving us a special day to remember. A small gesture but the sort of small thing that reveals good people.

Then Felicity was murdered. Killed by her husband in one of those tragic, stupid, senseless murder/suicides we hear about but which never quite seem real.

Her murderer was everything Felicity was not. Again an indigenous kid growing up where its tough to be that, but this one apparently accepting the norms of society. He had a go at being a sports star but when that didnt work he continued to type taking up drinking, bits and pieces of work, hunting and shooting. He couldnt see worth for himself outside a narrow set of expectations and fatally, couldnt accept that his wife could either.

So he murdered her.

This is so sad for everyone involved, especially Felicity's two daughters, how do you mourn parents when one is murdered by the other? However, if they can be inspired by their mother, and seek to be the best they can be and can keep safe then at least there is hope.

Felicity, I barely knew you but I will miss you.

Moving on.

Well its moving day. Not entirely sure how long Ill be living out of suitcases but between work and training I cant afford to get stuck with stuff I need so the car has to have anything I might need for work, training, competition and occasionally doing something not tri related. So thats what im ready for.

Anyway, I could do the drive from newcastle to melbourne in a single day, thats about 950ks and would take about 11 hours (as I have to drive all the way around sydney). But I dont want to.  Its a horrible way ro spend a day and I feel like crap when its all over. So Im taking two days and breaking the drive in two.  So Ive stopped in Gundagai at a lovely little b&b and even got in a quick 10k run through the countryside.  A much nicer way to travel.

Training. Swimming - the least favored session

I grew up as a swimmer, my earliest childhood memories are of early mornings, chlorine, and always feeling wet (wet hair, water in ears, wet towel in school bag, and worst of all wet pants when you forgot to pack underwear and had to where the swimming suit from the morning session for underwear).

I was once able to complete 5 to 6 k sessions in a canter.  A 1k warm up was pretty normal.  At my very best I was somewhere around the top ten in the country for my favored event (50 m freestyle) getting it all done in under 23.5 seconds.  Well that was back in the day, and now is now.

Today I did my first swim session in a while and it wasnt pretty.  The session was basically:

Warm-up.  400 free, 100 brst

Main Set.   10 x 50 free @ 80% on 1:15 interval.
(averaged completion in 42-44 s per 50)

Dev Set. 4 x 100.  alternate kick/pull

Cool Down. 100m free, drills.

While it felt crap I did stick to plan and I'm confident I'm ready for the 750m swim I have on Sunday and pretty sure I'll be ready for the 2k swim in June, but the 1500m in March feels at risk.  I so need to get back into a regular swimming regime.

Locking in my (half) ironman plans

A couple of weeks ago I set my triathlon goals for 2012.  Some of this was locked in (the Sparke Helmore Olypmic Distance) but the big one, the 2:80:20 for Challenge Cairns was in the wind.  Well I decided to take the plunge, register and commit the cash for the entry.  So $270 spent and I feel pretty committed now.

This is almost a year earlier than the good books and writers I respect say I should be attempting something like a half ironman but I'm feeling strong, lean and I have a solid (and very importantly, achieveable) plan so I really do believe I'm going to be ok.

This blog will be part of the discipline I will need to achieve this safely.

Fuelling the Engine - 1. Getting it Wrong and a Lesson

I love my steak. Thats ok, tri training actually needs heaps of protein so usually I dont feel guilty but last night it all went wrong. What was the problem? Portion control!

While I love my steak, my local butcher (yeah its part of a chain prime quality meats - but they are reasonably priced, grow their own, hormone free and it tastes great) has cheap, but great quality, waygu rump. This is a trap and I fell for it. Two massive bits of meat and I felt like I was having a little waygu baby. Whether I did much damage to my diet or not I felt like crap all night.

The lessons?

1. Do not buy more than you should eat.

2. If its a sale and you really have to buy extras, freeze the excess immediately, DO NOT COOK IT!

Some of you may have the willpower to ignore these rules, I dont and I just got a nasty reminder of that weakness.

Well, a quick, unscheduled hour ride was added to my training this morning to compensate. Was this effective? Was it needed? Am I becoming a little obsessive? Dont know the answers to the first two questions yet but I suspect the answer to the last is yes.

Spur of the moment triathlon entry

What better way to reboot after christmas than with an event?  I'm moving to Melbourne next Wednesday, checked out whats going on down there that weekend, found a triathlon on and decided what the hey? and entered.

Should be fun.  I'll fill you in on how I go.

Oh, its race three in the Gatorade Series in Brighton.

Being scary in the gym

School holidays, especially when I'm also on holidays is a weird time for exercise. My normal routines are broken and I have to do find exercise where I can.  Today was supposed to be a ride and a run - like I was ever going to find time for that with my wifes and kids expecting time during holidays.

So we went to the gym.

Thats ok, but I have a lot of work to do.    I'm getting fitter so getting my heart rate up means I hit the machines pretty hard pushing quite high resistances and speeds.  What I noticed is that while everyone else was being almost genteel, barely sweating, and watching their videos, checking out their emails etc I was working my arse off.

I also noticed that I made others uncomfortable.  I was sweating like a pig, I was breathing really hard, when I high the hardest point of the 'climb' I was straining to keep pace.  Apparently this isnt how one works out.  A little space opened around me as people on the machines around me jumped ship as soon as they could.  It was really odd.

So right now there are probably all these pretty young things laughing about the funny/scary old man in the gym today.  Ah well, its a cross I can bear.

Buying my dream

One of the worst things about triathlon is that it tends to be very gear focussed. Of course, there are compensations, and one of the best things about triathlons is all the gear. Sounds like a contradiction and it is, but whether the gear thing is a plus or a minus really comes down to where you happen to be at the time. Been working your arse off, losing weight, getting strong and have a little spare cash then that new helmet, tyres, suit etc can really cap off all the hard work for little real outlay and let you enjoy a little retail therapy.

On the other hand sometimes it feels like there is no gear that can help, or worse, that there is stuff out there you really need (like the new Shiv Crowie rode to victory in Kona) but cant afford. The idea that there is something out there that you need to make that pb breakthrough and that that is the only thing missing in your preparation is so seductive that it can be hard to resist. Worse, knowing there is gear out ther that will make us faster but also knowing its out of reach can lure us into thinking we cant improve and lead to some learned helplessness. I've experienced this before. Photography, the hobby I've been neglecting of late, has the same trap. Those periods where your creative juices have run out or you just cant be bothered finding out how to make the stuff you have work and its easier to lust after gear.

Anyway, thats why I generally try and steer clear of having lists of dream gear or long and never to be afforded wishlists at Wiggle or Pro Bike Kit.

But I needed something - no really I really NEEDED something. The bike I had was perfectly ok, I didnt need to upgrade, but with my part move to Melbourne during the week and weekend commute home to newcastle I needed bikes for training and competition in both places. So with the broad need established it was then time to go shopping.

So, what were my parameters;

1. I was congratulating myself for losing so much weight so I gave myself a bigger budget than my first bike, about $2500.

2. I was keen to move to a carbon framed bike and hoped I could get Shimano Ultegra running gear.

3. Something a little different would be nice.

So the search began and I quickly found some really interesting bikes for sale and started to narrow down on two bikes in particular, the Pinarello FP2 or the Wilier Izoard XP (I've linked to Port Melbourne Cycles because they were the first place I found these bikes, I dont know if these guys are good, bad or indifferent so dont take it as a recommendation). Of these the Wilier reallt attracted my attention.

1. It was pretty close to my budget.

2. It is carbon, has Ultegra (granted a previous version) running gear. And

3. Is pretty unusual.

In fact, I'd never even heard of the company so I started doing some research. First I found the Izoard got rave reviews across the net and Wilier has a pretty good rep for a variety of bikes. As I did more research I started looking up the food chain of Wilier bikes. Before I knew it I was looking at the Cento, seriously trying to justify spending more for a Granturismo and dreaming for the bike that really suited me for my training/tri aspirations, the Imperiale. Like I said earlier, having a dream bike/camera/car is always dangerous, the Izoard was still a better bike than I was a rider and while the Imperiale was lovely, perhaps even perfect, for me I could never afford it, after all these were selling for $6000 or more in Australia so it was never going to happen.

But then something weird happened. I found a shop selling an XL Imperiale with a Campagnolio Chorus groupset and Camppagnolio Zonda wheels for just $4000. Why the bargain? Apparently the integrated seat post had been cut for a previous customer who never came back for it and no the shop just couldnt find a buyer. So what to do, my dream bike, not something I was settling for, not something that was nice but not quite what I wanted, my actual dream bike in near as dammit ideal configuration was being offer to me at a 30% or more discount, just $1200 over my budget. Well I figured, I still didnt know if the bike would fit me so I thought that there's no harm in at least trying it out for size. So a 5 hour drive to Goulburn to visit Greengrocer Cycles who were selling the bike was planned. Well bugger me if the bike didnt fit perfectly. So there I was with a decision to make. Buy my dream or let it go, stick to plan, get a perfectly satisfactory bike and save$1500?

Well, I've spent most of my life not buying my dream, settling, making do. Well not this time! I bought the Imperiale. I have my dream bike. And I love it. It hasnt made me a better cyclist but it has made me a happier one, and thats not a bad outcome.

2012 Training Outline

Following on from my last post, so whats the plan?

Well, so far I've basically followed the plans laid out for training in the Joel Friel book Your First Triathlon and Matt Fitzgerald in Racing Weight. These are great books, not only do they provide a great training/eating plan but they also provide a broader perspective which allows you the ability to modify the plans they give you to fit into your life. I'm still using the Matt Fitzgerald book but I need more than Friels first tri tome. I have Joel Friels follow-up, The Triathletes Training Bible and while its certainly given me even more info that I've built into a training program I've tried to build a comprehensive program but keep getting caught up into much detail and falling in a heap.

But just as I was wondeering what direction to take one of the magazines I subscribe to, 220 triathlon, came to the rescue in their dec 2011 edition. They provided a 20 week traing program for rookies preparing for their first ironman. Given im a rookie and im preparing for a half ironman in about 23 weeks well it seemed close enough for government work and im using it as the basis of my training moving forward.

So, I have the beginnings of a program, what other rules will I apply? In short I have the following.

1. Program starts on sunday 15 jan.

2. There are 9 'core' sessions a week (3 run, 3 swim, 3 ride).

3. I may replace 1 core session a week with gym work. I may add 1 extra session a week in the gym.

4. Try to not run two days in a row.

5. A ride to and from work equals ONE ride session.

6. I will program a forth ride session but may drop 1 session without a catchup required.

Also, there is another consideration. For the next two years I will we commuting between melbourne (where I work during the week) and newcastle (where my family will be living). I will generally fly home to newcastle on fridays and return to melbourne on Mondays.

So broadly, this is the plan.

Monday. Rest (possible catchup)

Tuesday. Ride (to and from work), swim.

Wednesday. Ride (to and from work), run.

Thursday. Ride (to and from work), swim.

Friday. Run.

Saturday. Long ride, swim.

Sunday. Long run.