GCHIM Course run through

Today the plan was to ride 2 laps of the course being the full 90kms and do 1 lap of the 3 lap run course (7km's).

I headed out on the ride at 6:20am, so no lights were required which was pleasant. I was really worried about this ride and driving down I was feeling ill. My main concern was riding on my own down there - what if something happened? However, once I got going I was as good as gold. I brought a new 2xu triathlon top with pockets in the back the day before so I was trying that out along with the 2xu pants of Craig's just to see if I could cope with a long ride without the full bike nicks.

The course is good, there are a few little uphills, but nothing nasty. I stayed in my big chain ring for most of the hills. The Kerkin Road stretch is pretty bumpy and full of potholes, but most of the road on the course is Ok, there are sections that are dead but overall it is good.

My goal was to have 4 bottles of electrolytes on the bike, 2 vegemite sandwiches and a rice cocoa bar. I managed to get through all of this which was good. Race day I need to have the first bottle finished by the turn at the little shop near the strawberry farm. The next bottle needs to be finished by the halfway turnaround point at Calypso Bay and 2 bottles the same for the last lap. Because I can only carry 1 bottle on my bike it means that I am going to have to carry electrolytes on me to put into a water bottle. Each electrolytes provides 39grams of carbs so I need to make sure that I get everything on board for the run.

I think the plan for transition will be to have some sustagen sport and water and make sure that I scoff the sustagen as muh as I can get down whilst in transition. This will help by providing a good dose of carbs and hydration.

I did the first lap in 27kph average and then the wind picked up on the second lap. Thanfully though by the time I finished the second lap my average had only dropped down to 26.5, so I must have taken advantage of a tail wind in there somewhere, however I don't remember it!

3hours 20min was the cycle time.

I then tried a fast transition to the run. It ended up being 5 minutes by the time I locked the bike in the car and sorted out my runnin shoes, run belt and grabbed my food and hydration which wasn't too bad for me! I took out a water bottle and a vegemite sandwich. The run was good, I wasn't cramping and didn't feel as though I was about to, it was slow, but I felt consistent. I felt like I could have continued on after the 7km lap so I hope that I can feel like that on race day.

47 minutes for 7km with a loo stop so it was probably just over 6min k pace which I am happy with.

I stretched for 20minutes and then I went into the water for 5minutes to cool down the legs. I had 2 up and go's and headed for home. I wasn't overly fatigued or sore which I am thrilled with.

Today's session has given me a lot of confidence that I can do the Half Ironman and complete it which up until this point I wasn't so sure so i am feelin on top of the world.

Swim week!!

Well, with less than 5 weeks to go until the Gold Coast Half Ironman I am starting to think that I should get a bit more serious about my swimming. To date I have been swimming half heartedly once or twice a week for about 30mins. Not really classified as swim training!

So, after my 30mins of bumbling around in the pool today I got out and I went and had a chat to Trent Patten who runs the Valley lunchtime squad sessions. He's a great guy, I really enjoy his sessions and I think that he is a great coach. So, I told him that I will join his squad!

So, Wednesday and Thursday I swam with the squad. Wednesday's session was with Trent and I seemed to cope OK with that and there were even 2 people swimming behind me (only just though). Thursday was a different story, it was swimming with Dan Atkins and the session was a bit different, the swimmers were faster (or was I slower - not sure!). The end result was I was getting lapped in the slow lane and couldn't hold 100mtrs on the 2mins! So, big wake up call for me, I really need to swim 4 times a week from here on in otherwise I am not going to be comfortable getting out of the water at Coomera. Or, more importantly I am going to lose valuable minutes there where I can't really afford to lose any minutes with the cutoff time looming in front of me.

Swimming focus week for me!

Run/Swim Brick session

We met at 5am at Sutton's beach where it felt like the middle of the night! There was Alicia, Sarah and myself. The plan was to run for 90mins and then have 30mins recovery prior to the squad swim.

Alicia was a little concerned with the distance as she hadn't run that far in a long time. We ran north up towards Scarborough for 30minutes and then back to Suttons beach and continued south for 15minutes before turning back for home.

The pace was slightly uncomfortable for me, we were running around the 6min/k mark, there were times that we were on 5:40 pace. But it was good, I learnt that I can hold that pace for longer than I thought.

We spent 20minutes stretching and then stood in the cool water for a while to cool our legs prior to getting ready for the swim.

I felt pretty good, I had eaten 1 vegemite sandwich whilst running. I had some dried fruit prior to the swim just so that I had some energy.

I attempted to put my wetsuit on, however my foot immediately cramped! Bummer... I gave it away and swum without the wettie. The water was actually really nice. We did a good warmup in the water and then we did some ins and outs around the buoys and then we practices swim starts across the back of the two buoys which we did 6 times.

I discovered a few little insights; my swimming needs a lot of work and my breaststroke in open water is faster than my freestyle! Oh well, I am going to really concentrate on swimming from here on in. I am happy to not be fast, I just want to be comfortable coming out of the swim so that is my motivation.

River Loop with Leah and her friend Sarah

We met at Alberto's for a river loop.

I hadn't met Leah's friend Sarah before, she was lovely, we headed out and did a river loop. It was a good ride. There were times where I was working pretty hard but then there were times where we were able to ride along and have a chat. It was really nice.

Afterwards was the all important coffee, Nigel and Jeff were already there patiently waiting for us. We might try and make this a permanent fixture i think.

Spin Class and 30min run on treadmill

Tonight we did a spin class and Suzanne took it. It was a pretty solid session where we had to hold 80% wattage with different cadences. I held my wattage around 180-200watts. Our efforts were 4mins on 2mins off. I think we did around 8 of these with varying cadences.

After the spin Jacque and I hit the treadmills, we both ran for 30 minutes. I found it a tough run, but it was good to use the treadmills and keep the pressure to our legs to a minimum.

Swim

I just did a 30min mostly continous swim at lunchtime. Unfortunately I couldn't keep count, I suspect it was about 12 or 1300 mtrs. Felt good.

Cootha reps

Today I rode from home and met the crew for 2 Mt Cootha reps. Naomi, Bec, Sophie and Jacque were all there.

It was a beautiful morning and we headed up the hill in pitch darkness, we met at 5:10!

I was feeling OK, although maybe it was my 2 days off previous. I was the slowest around but it was a good session. It was the first time that I had ridden over the new overpass to Cootha, it was great, they have done a really good job with it.

Get to look forward to 3 loops next week - gulp!

2hr run with Sarah

Sarah had to go to work today but was still keen to run and I am keen to run with Sarah as she is good for my running. I certainly run a bit faster when I am running with her.

So we arranged to meet in the middle of the night to run with our headlamps on. We headed out from Sarah's place and ended up running around Newstead house a couple of times and then headed home. I continued another 10 minutes as I was feeling OK, although it fell apart pretty quickly! I needed a toilet and couldn't find one and then I was attempting to eat jelly beans and just about choked on them! I coped OK with the vegemite sandwiches though, so might make a habit of them.

I think all in all it was around 16-17kms which is a fabulous run to have completed, I was really happy with it.

Squad swim

This morning was a squad swim. The whole thing was in flippers which I really hate...

Anyway, I'm sure it did me good. I tried to concentrate on my stroke and in particular my pull. I am having a bit of a problem at the moment with my right hand so I am concentrating on not twisting it in the water. I still need to work on this as it is quite sore.

Spin with Tim

Tonight's spin session was with Tim. It was a good solid session.

Swimming - what's that??

Today I met Jeff at the pool and we did a swim set which was mainly drills. Probably a very good set for me to begin with.

It was lovely at the pool, the sun was out and I could have lounged around there all day, unfortunately though it was back to work for me.

72km ride before work

I parked the car at Indooroopilly station and arranged to meet Sarah, Bec and Naomi at the Regatta Hotel and we rode around the river, etc. I ended up doing 72kms all up which was a good solid ride before work.

It was a nice social ride and there wasn't too much stress, it was more about getting some kilometres happening.

Shame I had to get up at 3:10 though!

13km run from home to St Lucia and return

This was a good run. Nattie and I headed out to St Lucia for a bit of a change of scenery.

Damn hills - they are everywhere! We had a lot of breaks for water and I took a Powerbar and ate that in sections. It was a good run and Nattie seemed to cope OK with the distance. I had arranged to ring Craig to come and pick her up incase she struggled. But I managed to get her to drink water a few times and it wasn't overly hot so it was all OK for her. Will try and get into the habit of her drinking a little on these longer runs.

Coomera loops

Today Craig, Dad and I all met to do some Coomera loops. It was Dad's first ride in a while, Craig had done a few rides but not a lot since his Ironman in April.

Dad did 1 loop, Craig did 2 and a bit loops and I did 90kms and whilst it is still slow my endurance is certainly building up. I felt pretty comfortable and managed to pull up OK so I am thrilled with that effort.

When I finished Craig asked me if I felt like running; definitely not!!! The thought of running off the bike was not really my idea of fun, I guess I will have to start to contemplate it if I am going to do the half ironman, but I'm just not ready for it yet!

Samford - Dayboro ride

Today, being the Ekka public holiday a group of us arranged to do a longer ride out to Dayboro and back from Jacque G's place.

We headed out at sparrows with a nice group; Jacque, Sarah, Bec, Simon and myself. Unfortunately, every hill we came to I got dropped... And that was just riding up Samford Road. Anyway, they were kind enough to wait for me at every hill. Samford hill we just all regrouped at the Samford servo which was good.

The road out to Dayboro was a little hillier than I was expecting. Craig had told me that it was pretty flat with just a bit of a climb into Dayboro, however he must have ridden a different road in because the road I was on was quite hilly!

Also, being a Wednesday, it wasn't a public holiday for everyone so there was a little bit of traffic and quite a few trucks, they were all really considerate though which was good.

On the return we called into the servo at Samford for some refueling and met Chris and Sophie there on their way through doing a Nebo Glorious Samford loop.

Other than my being slow slow, I was pretty pleased with the ride. It was just over 7okms so that's a good few kilometres to have under the belt.

We celebrated with coffee and toast at Jacque's place - it was very civilised.

It did interfere with my Ekka going though. I went to the Ekka with Mum and I was a bit tired and cranky and thirsty....

5km run loop from home

This was a run from home with Nattie doing our usual 5km loop. Surprisingly my legs weren't too dead from the ride up Nebo yesterday.

It's all still very slow, but it's getting the kilometres happening which is good.

The Ekka's here!

I love the Ekka... I am a member so I go several times a year and in fact I usually take a few days off work to attend. This year I am taking the week off! Can't wait. I am using it as a week to go to the Ekka and to put in a serious boost to my training.

This morning Sarah and I rode up Mt Nebo. We met at the Coffee Club at The Gap and up we went. Sarah was kind enough to say she wasn't waiting all that long at the top for me, I suspect she was there for quite some time! It was a very slow trip and embarrasing to say so but often my speedo was down around the 6km/hr mark... Oh well, let's just call it 'slow riding techniques'! I was pretty chuffed to get up the top and down the bottom, it was a great ride.

Moggill Bellbowrie ride

65kms in 3hours 25mins... However, in my defense it was very hilly!

It was quite nice exploring the streets of Moggill and Bellbowrie. I managed to ride 65kms west of Kenmore without going on the same street twice. There's a lot of road out there.

I was completely trashed after this. But on a postive note I rode it all myself and survived so all in all it was a good confidence booster.

Getting on with it

Well, I am slowly getting there. I have done a couple of 5km loops from home which are horribly hilly, a river loop and 1 swim. I am trying not to put too much pressure on myself just yet. Want to make sure that I am healthy and my lungs are up to it.

Overall though, I have been feeling pretty good, so today I ventured into my first long run. I ran 11kms from home with Nattie as my running companion. She has been really enjoying the running with me and she is quite good to go running with.

We left home and headed up Kersley Road onto Kenmore Road and then followed Fig Tree Pocket down to the end and then into Lone Pine. Return trip was 11km's. Had to walk up a bit of steep hill on Fig Tree Pocket road, the rest was slow, however it was a run, so I am pretty happy with that.

I think Nattie would have preferred the distance to be 9kms though! She was dragging the chain a bit. Thankfully Craig was driving up to the shops and saw us and he took Nattie with him so she didn't have to run all the way home! Lucky girl!