My run videotaped!

Today was a full on day.



It involved a cycle with BTS, a Physio appointment, work, a lunchtime run (drive) out to Active Stride to get new shoes, work and then a massage. It was certainly an expensive day! Hopefully, though we will begin to make progress on my injured foot.



The cycle this morning was great. Speed sessions are always quite fun. We got into groups of 4 of similar abilities. I went with Chris, Sophie and another guy who I'm not sure of the name of. We had to do 5 x 5min efforts with 5min break along the Corso.



Chris led our group out and he did a great job, I was hanging on for dear life! He has really got some speed going at the moment. Then the rest of us would take quick turns to try and hold that pace, however invariably we would drop off the pace a bit. It was a good session.



Then off to the Physio - I even had to miss out on coffee afterwards! A travesty!



Paul videotaped me running which was interesting to watch as it was apparent to me that there was a fair bit of side to side movement and not much forward movement. Paul said that my pronation is quite dramatic and sees no reason why I shouldn't go to a more supportive shoe. So, I have lashed out and purchased the Gel Kayuno shoe. I will go for a little run in them tomorrow and see how they go. Paul is going to give me some exercises to do to try and get me running from the hip. So it will be interesting to see how I go. I am willing to try and improve my technique, who knows; maybe I'll be able to run faster with less injuries!!!

Night swimming with BTS Squad

No running this morning due to my foot being sore - bummer.

I did the swim tonight with BTS. It was a good swim solid swim.

It consisted of the following:

300mtr warmup, 25 kick, 75 free.
6 x 50mtrs 25 hard/25 easy
30 x 50mtrs on the 1min
In and Out fun stuff
100mtr warmdown

The main set was the 30 x 50mtrs and these I was doing on the 55secs or thereabouts and getting 5secs break. I was bringing them in OK, I wasn't too fatigued and the break was enough. I could have pushed myself a bit more and then had a bit more of a break, but I was worried about cramping. I was fairly consistent with them though, so I was happy with that.

I was in the slowest lane, leading it out or going 2nd or 3rd. I'll have to try and get into the 2nd lane. Ixchel and Craig are in there. Perhaps I should start doing some consistent training and I may be able to get into that lane!

Injuries...

I toddled off today to see the Physio about my foot. The verdict is that I have a really tight muscle or tendon that runs down the outside of my leg and this is putting pressure where it joins down in the joint in the foot. Layman's terms as that is all I understand is that my foot is inflamed and sore and I am not running in the very near future!

I was due to do a 3km time trial tomorrow which would have been great - I'm running the best I ever have. I'll just have to sit it out though and wait for it to get better. I go back to the Physio on Wednesday, so hopefully there will be huge improvements by then and I will be able to run shortly. He seems to think that I have got it early and that it is not as bad as last time. So, this is good - there is hope.

I didn't have my running shoes with me which is a bummer. He seems to think that this is a possibility, I'll take them Wednesday and he can check them out then.

I guess that is going to mean more swimming and more cycling! Bummer. As I had to go to the Physio on Monday morning I missed my lunchtime swim session and I am going to miss Wednesday's as well. So, I am back to night swimming this week on Tuesday and Thursday nights. It is a conspiracy!!!

Mooloolaba Ocean Swim/Run

Today we picked up Alex and Trish and headed up to Mooloolaba to get some on course practice in. There was just the 4 of us and we told the Surf Life Savers what we were about and headed off.

We walked up towards the swim start from the SLSC, we only went up a short way though. We ended up going out there and then swiming up just past the Loo with a View and then we swam back and then back again and then we got out of the water at the flags, then got back in the water and swam back to where we started. So, we probably got in a good 30mins of swimming, however we spent a bit of time regrouping as we wanted to swim as a group and then it took ages for me to get out of the water, so everyone had to wait around for me to get out! The last time we went out Craig and Trish swam beside me and tried to encourage me to ride a wave in instead of standing there waiting for waves to come and then ducking underneath them - very time consuming way to get into shore particularly if there are a lot of waves coming in!

So, I was swimming in, felt that dreaded suck in feeling of a wave coming so stopped and Craig and Trish said "Swim", so I swam and managed to catch the wave! It felt amazing! My problem is I just can't judge the waves, to know whether to try and catch them in or to swim under them. I guess it is all practice, but I'll get there eventually.

The run was good, I set off and was going to do the 10k run in my Aerobic capacity. So, my HR was around the 80% mark and I was feeling comfortable, breathing easy and the weather was great. However, my foot has been bothering me for a little while now and every time I run I can feel it for the first 10 minutes or so until I warm up and then it goes away. This time, however it didn't go away. So I decided to only do 1 lap, not 2 which was really disappointing. I am really frustrated with myself as I have known that I need to get it to the physio, but I've been telling myself that it is OK. So, I am going to have to book a physio appointment... I'm hoping that this won't curtail my running too badly for Mooloolaba - that would really suck!

Luckily Alex and Trish had an ice pack so I used that on the way home, however it is still quite sore tonight.

Craig had an absolute blinder - he did 11k's in 54mins which is brilliant! He did the same course last year and took 1hr 17mins so this is a huge improvement. It is sessions like this that give perspective to the improvements that have been made!

Trent's Lunchtime Swim

Friday's session is sprints and hypoxic. Both things that I most definately need work on!

We did some drills and sprints. I was doing the 50mtrs (the pool was chopped in half) in around 43 secs consistently. So, that's good - at least I have some benchmarks. I haven't timed my swimming over any sor of sprint in ages.

We did some hypoxic swimming which consisted of breathing every 5 strokes for 8 x 50mtrs. This kills me, I really suck at it! I managed to do the session without cheating on the swim, although I did take a huge gulp of air at the end of the 25 before turning around to come home!

I spent a fair bit of time concentrating on my hand entry into the water, my grap of the water by tilting my hand down towards the bottom of the pull and then pushing it back building up speed through the stroke and giving a final push out at my thighs. This needs a lot of work as I am lacking strength to get a really good pull through the water, but I will keep this in mind as I am swimming from now on.

I felt great for the rest of the day, I am feeling fighting fit at the moment. I just hope that I can remain this way for the next few weeks.

BTS Ride Inside

Another hard session...

I had a great session today - I really felt as though I was working hard and getting great value out of the session.

It was 5 x 5minute efforts at 90 cadence at 90%HR. No easy feat. I was in my big gear ring and I would start out about 3rd largest cog at the back. I would flick it to a smaller cog (harder gear) once or twice throughout and on the last effort for the last minute I was on my 2nd smallest gear at the back. I have struggled with the last couple of these sessions to get my HR up, however today I was able to get it up to the 81% of max (which is 90% on the bike), so I was happy with that. I think I can manage the smaller efforts better - the 10minute sets that we had been doing previously just do my head in! I could bite these smaller efforts off without too much hassle - sort of like saying that it is only a 1km run effort.

I was really concentrating, particularly on the recovery to have my pedal stroke nice and fluid and smooth, with my heal down and pulling up and over the stroke. I think that if I concentrate on this more it will make a difference to my overall cycling - that's the theory anyway!

We did a run off the bike up to the corner and back - about 1km. I felt really strong and felt as though I was running OK. I seem to have been able to pick up a bit of speed (for me!) lately that I didn't have before which is a pleasant change. When I got back Mark said that he really likes the way that I am running at the moment, so that's nice. Sometimes it is good to have things go your way!

Goal Reassessment

One of my goals in 2008 was to beat my time that I did the Coomera Quarterman in last year.

However, today I got the email and they are not doing it! They have reformatted the Coomera Half Ironman event and it is now being run 7km's down the road and the support event is now a 1km swim/33km cycle/7km run. Not really a Quarterman distance.

So, I need to reassess my goals.

I will do the Coomera sprint distance, however I won't make it as part of my goals for 2008. I would really like to aim for a 10km race, either Doomben, Gold Coast or Noosa where I can aim to break 5min/kms for 10km. Effectively a sub 50min for 10kms.

I would still like to complete Mooloolaba, would love to do it under the 3 hours, but I am thinking I will make a sub 50min 10kms my main goal through winter whilst whiling away the hours training until Noosa Triathlon gets closer.

However, I will sleep on it a few nights and see if it sticks and can motivate me.

BTS Thursday Run

Chris took todays session and it was hard as usual.

I can't remember exactly what we did, but it involved stairs, sprinting, 1 legged balancing whilst doing 15 squats and then sprinting, hovers and then some more stairs.

It was a good session, I was feeling OK. My foot has started to give me a little bit of notice, so I'm listening out for it hoping that it doesn't develop into anything! I could feel it early on in the run but after a short while it came good. However I can feel it tonight a bit.

It was another hard session - we really must have a triathlon coming up!

Mooloolaba is only just over 3 weeks away!

Lunchtime Swim with Trent

Swimming for the 2nd time this week by Wednesday! Anybody would think that a major triathlon is just around the corner!

The swim session today was brilliant. I get so much out of Trent's sessions. We did a fair bit of work on the stroke today. Basically the triggers for me are to put all of my fingers in the water at the same time, fingers a little bit apart, glide a little, then point down towards the bottom of the pool as if painting it, bend the elbow and once I have a good hold on the water try and push the last bit of the stroke through strongly right through to the thigh. This should push my body through the water over the top of the downward stroke. Don't rush the first part of the stroke, but I can accelerate through the last part of the stroke to get that lift.

Of course, I have a long way to go in this regard, but I will try and visualise those triggers when I am swimming and see if I can get some improvements happening.

The session was 100m free, 50m pull, 100m free, 50m pull, 100m free
1km made up of 200m free, 200m pull, 200m free, 200m pull, 200m free
4 x 50mtrs - 25 one arm drill 25 free
50mtrs hard - stroke counting with Trent adding our time and stroke count together.
I did 46 stroke count, 47 secs
4 x 50mtrs - 25 fingertip drag drill 25 free
50mtrs hard - stroke counting with Trent adding our time and stroke count together.
I did 45 stroke count, 46 secs
4 x 50mtrs - 25 catch-up drill 25 free
50mtrs hard - stroke counting with Trent adding our time and stroke count together.
I did 45 stroke count, 45 secs
4 x 5mtrs - 25mtrs fist drill, 25 free
50mtrs hard - stroke counting with Trent adding our time and stroke count together.
I did 45 stroke count, 46 secs.
Warm down was 100m free, 50m breaststroke x 2

This was a really good session for me. I am hoping that I can continue to improve with tips like this.

More hills...

This was our last hill session before we go into the speed phase approaching Mooloolaba Triathlon. Phew - I am so sick of hills! We did 6 repeats up Mt Cootha to the 750mtr mark and then down to just before Slaughter Falls carpark we turned around and did a high cadence al the way up again and then turned around and recovered on the way down.

Needless to say for me the hill hater it was hard work. I lost a lot of ground on the downhill too as I am slower than everyone else. I was joking that I leave a trail of brake dust on the way down the mountain.

Jokes aside, I was descending the last bit of Mt Cootha prior to the Gardens carpark which is quite steep and I hit a bump which caused me to grip the brakes tighter which was not a good feeling. I do really need to concentrate on relaxing down a hill and not clutching the brakes like I do because I can actually see how dangerous it is, howver I really struggle with this.

We finished the session with a coffee with Craig, Dad, Jeff and Kay at the Summit Cafe which was quite pleasant.

Mark made mention of me in the BTS blog breaking he 5min/k's for 5kms which was really nice. I went into Byron's shop Victor Cycles today and brought some tubes and tyres and Byron congratulated me and said that my cycling is coming along and this would be helping my running too. I don't doubt that at all, in fact I feel as though I have been doing more cycling than running!

45min run with Nattie

Today was a run from home. I took Nattie with me and we headed off up the road. It was a beautiful morning, a little on the cool side 15 degrees celcius but it soon warmed up.

Nattie was good, she needed some gentle reminders when dogs started barking at us to pay attention to where she was running but other than that she was brilliant. She actually seemed quite energisd after the run too, so I obviously didn't overdo it with her!

We ran pretty slow. I was supposed to have my HR around 140-155, however I struggled a bit to get it above 140. I just didn't feel like pushing myself. So, it may be a combination of my HR being a bit lower from not getting a full recovery from the weekends race or maybe I am getting a bit more run fitness and it is naturally a bit lower. The verdict is still out on that one!

I felt good during the run, I had no pain, although I was careful to keep my form and to run on the right hand side of the road with the camber sloping down to the right to give my left foot a bit more support. This seems to work a treat! If only I could chose surfaces like this every time I ran!

I wasn't overly tired today. I did, however eat a whole heap of junk... Must stop this. I'm not quite ready to divulge my diet but I think I'm going to have to soon, just so that I can control what I eat a bit better! Stay tuned...

Lunchtime swim squad is back

The Valley pool has been inundated with school swimming carnivals during the month of February... Very inconsiderate! So, I have been pretty slack with my swimming; I've been doing 1 or 2 sessions a week at Somerville House pool, but very relaxing social swims with the guys from work - hardly heavy training sessions prepaing me for Mooloolaba Triathlon!

Today was the first day that Trent was back at the pool for lunchtime swim squad sessions. This is seperate to Brisbane Tri Squad, but I find it easier to get to these sessions and I get to avoid the whole night time swim stuff which I really hate.

I love Trent's sessions. We have a 50mtr pool, there is usually only a few of us in a lane and he is great at giving out tips on stroke correction. I had only just finished the warm up today and he told me that I was turning out instead of in with my right hand when I enter the water. This makes sense to me as I have been getting an aching hand and arm when swimming, but couldn't work out why. So, I really concentrated on keeping my hand turned in - to the point that my pinky was going in first. Normally I enter the water with my index finger so this will get a bit of getting used to and will probably go through a few incarnations before it is right (or better at least!).

The session for today was as follows:

800mtrs warmup - 200 hypoxic (every 5th stroke), 200 drill, 200 hypoxic, 200 drill.
3 x 300mtrs with pull buoy. First 300 easy, 2nd medium, 3rd hard 1min break between each.
4 x 50mtrs 25mtrs easy, 25mtrs hard 10 secs break at each 50mtrs.
4 x 50mtrs 25mtrs hard, 25mtrs easy 10secs break at each 50mtrs.
400 warmdown, 50 free, 50 choice.

I found the session pretty good. I didn't struggle too badly with the endurance so I think that I am going to be on track for Mooloolaba. I have just under 4 weeks to polish it up a bit. Of course if I had started training in earnest 2 months ago (or earlier) I would be in a lot better position... Oh, hindsight.

One of my 2008 goals ticked off!!!!

Today was the Gold Coast Luke Harrop Memorial Triathlon. This was a 750/20/5 distance race.

We got down there early and it was quite cool and windy. We had jumpers on (I thought it was supposed to be summer!). I rode around on my bike to make sure my race wheels are all good and that everything is in order and then went and registered and racked up. There were no pre-race dramas, everything was all good.

My wave start was with quite a few of the Brisbane Triatlon Squad girls, so we all headed down together and sussed out where the buoys were and where the best spot to start is, etc. There was quite a current on the swim so we started a fair bit right of the buoys and this proved to be a good line to take. I had quite a strong swim, I was with Kay a fair bit at the beginning. I was pushed around a bit by a girl on my right hand side so I ended up swimmig quite close to Kay. It was good that we do a lot of practice at this as I coped OK with it. I didn't do too much breaststroke and kept a relatively good line. My time ended up being 13:22.

A slow transition, as usual and I was off on the bike. Ixchel was just in front of me. I could feel the wind as soon as I headed south for the first turnaround, it was quite strong. Going north was great, I was flying along! I saw Ixchel come out of the second turnaround, she looked like she was working hard. I knew why as soon as I turned around as the wind just when wham! It was a slow trip back! It was a two loop course so I just tried to tuck in low and try and keep an easy gear and get through it. I was regretting the Flashpoint carbon wheels as I thought they were going to send my bike flying, it felt quite wobbly once the wind picked it up. I managed to pass Ixchel on the next North section - I was flying again, you've gotta love a tailwind! I didn't see Jacque out there, but I knew she wouldn't be too far behind.

I got into transition and unbeknown t me Ixchel was on my tail for the start of the run, apparently she couldn't hang on and dropped back. I was running scared as I knew that Ixchel and Jacque were behind me. Jacque is a far stronger runner than me and Ixchel and I are pretty similar at the moment so I was just waiting for them to pounce on me! This ended up being a good thing as I ran scared the whole race and was just pipped at the post by Jacque! But the amazing thing was that I did my run in 24:58!!!

24:58!!!

One of my goals for 2008 was to run 5kms in less than 25mins. For me to do it today in a triathlon is unbelievable! I really did not expect to be able to run 5min/kms off the bike. I am absolutely thrilled with this result. I am also a little dubious that it was actually 5kms but that is only because I can't believe that I did it...

Mark hasn't seen me run for a while as I have been running on my own or with Robson and he commented on how strong I looked out on the run. So that's good, I'm thrilled.

My overall splits are as follows: 1:23:39 total 16th out of 32 in the 30-34 Female category. Swim split: 13:22, Bike split: 45:18, Run split: 24:58.

My transition's are still letting me down. I insist on wearing socks on the bike and on the run and also rinsing my feet off of all sand from the swim. I probably lose a good minute or so with this, but I'm not prepared to risk it yet and get the blisters, etc. I might try for the last Raby Bay where it won't matter if I take a little longer to recover blistered feet!

Swim/Ride session at Suttons Beach

This morning we did a swim from Suttons Beach followed by a ride.

Mark told us to go up the beach using the point as a marker for 15 minutes and then turn around and come back. It was quite choppy and you could see that there was quite a current. Muffy, Jacque and I decided to swim together (our individual chances of being eaten by a shark a reduced to 33%!).

The swim was horrid! Swimming against the current was plain hard work, the water was disgusting and dirty, there was big clumps of seaweed and the constant up and down of the waves to get through. Jacque just about quit Mooloolaba - she said that she was going to pull out! It was not a fun swim. We swam and then regrouped several times. We tried to swim to the toilet block, it was so close, yet so far away when we were going against the current, in the end we had been swimming for 18mins and still not getting any closer to it, so we turned around. The swim back was quick! It was much better going with the current, we still had the seaweed to contend with, but we could breathe on the left hand side without getting a mouthful of waves!

I was very relieved to have finished the swim! Jacque was not happy and burst into tears when telling Mark about it. She did really well, she was swimming at the same pace as Muffy and I.

The ride was good, we had to slow the guns up so that we could hang on to them. Once they were brought back to my pace (slow) it was a lovely ride. We just did an easy 30kms and it was quite pleasant. It was actually a good ride for me as there was only 6 or 7 of us and everyone there was an experienced rider, so it gave me a bit of confidence with riding in a pack again. I didn't start off too good, but after I settled into it I was very comfortable and holding the wheel and riding comfortably. Just need to do more of it...

Ride Inside

This was the same session as the week before with the 3 x 10minute efforts at 90% heart rate and 110 cadence with a 5minute break in between.

Mark came around to me at one stage and my heart rate was in the 140's and my cadence was at 102. Needless to say he told me to lift my cadence! I really struggle with the high cadence. I don't know what it is. 10 minutes seems like an eternity too. The third one I was actually a bit better at it, but it still needs work.

We then did 3 x 2min efforts with 2mins break in between at 90 cadence, in the hardest gear we could maintain. I was in my big chain ring, around the middle at the back and I was on the second resistance on the rollers, so I was quite happy with that effort!

The run off the bike felt strong, it is starting to come together. Paul actually said to me that he got up beside me and couldn't overtake me, he couldn't shake me off - yeah right! The comment made me feel good though!

Run at Marburg

I got up at sparrows to do my 60minute run. I was really looking forward to this run as it was a nice long, low heart rate run in a different location. I was looking forward to running in the quiet countryside of Marburg.

The road that we were staying on was only 1.5kms long or thereabouts so I ran to the end of that which comes out onto the Warrego Highway. I noticed that there was a street a couple of kms up the road so decided that I would run up there and then I would be back into the countryside and then come home.

The Warrego Highway was hell! I couldn't believe that there could be so much traffic there at 5:45am in the morning. Big trucks, little cars, you name it. There wasn't much of a shoulder and when I got to the road I saw that it only went into 1 house and then ended, so I ran back the way I came and did a couple of loops of the road we were staying at. It was more peaceful doing a run from home!

On the last loop that I did one of the senior managers at my work joined me, so we ran side by side for 15minutes. I've never really had much to do with him prior to this, so I guess running also opens up other opportunities! He was only doing a 3km run so he was pushing a bit harder than I was so the last 15minutes of my run was quite hard - we kind of pushed the last couple of hundred metres and I finished with a heart rate of 171! So much for an easy run! Mostly though my heart rate was mid 140's.

Swim at Marburg

I have been slack the last couple of days and didn't do a run Tuesday as my foot was bothering me. Then the Wednesday morning I was supposed to do a cycle but I had to be out at Marburg bright and early for work and was not going to make it in time so missed out.

Marburg was a full on day and they had a pool at the place that I was staying at so I jumped in and swam for 30mins. I'm not sure how far I swam as it was a 25mtr pool and I hate counting laps in a 25mtr pool. It was quite a good pool to swim in as there was not black line to follow and there was a definite current. As there were other people swimming in there I had to keep track of where I was going and keep on line, so it was actually good open water practice!

I concentrated on my stroke and tried to push it a little. I felt like it was a bit messy, maybe that was because I was trying to push it a little... I think I will do some time trials of a few hundred metres one of these days and see if it is still the case that if I slow my stroke down and really concentrate on it being long and strong whether that is still the quickest way for me to swim. I am pretty sure that this will still be the case. The good thing about that is my heart rate is lower and I am more relaxed, so I come out of the water in better shape for the cycle with less energy spent.

Sunday Brick Session

Today we did a brick session at Sutton's Beach at Redcliffe. We also managed to coincide it with some Surf Life Saving championships so we were very squished for space!

Mark tried to teach us to do the flying mount. I know this sounds really defeatist, but I completely suck at it, have no flexbility, no coordination, so I am just going to get on and off like a slow goober until I am competitive within my age group. At the moment I am coming in the middle of my age group, so I think I can afford to get on and off safely without having to worry too much about it. I think I prefer the scoot, scoot method that Garry Alston started to teach me where you put your left foot on the shoe on the pedal scoot a couple of times and then throw your right leg over and away you go. Yeah, it sounds easy, but I made it look completely difficult!

Anyway, the session was quite good, we same about 150-200mtrs, rode 5kms, ran 1.5kms and kept going until we ran out of time. I got through 2 full sessions and did the 3rd swim before running out of time.

I felt like it was a bit of a bludge, it was mainly because there was so many people around that it was hard to go really hard as you had to be a bit cautious with so many kids and people around.

We went and celebrated with a buffet breakfast at the hotel up the road - very civilised, but not really looking after my weight!

Saturday Swim

I was supposed to do a 3 hour ride this morning... However, we slept in - it was total bliss!

Now I'm feeling a bit guilty...

We did manage to get to the Brisbane Tri Squad Swim at the Brisbane Boys Grammar Pool. It was great. Lots of mass starts and games and core strength exercises followed by a few relays. I love these sessions. There were quite a lot of people there - nearly 30 I would say. A lot of them are quite new and some are from the beginners squad so it was good to see some new faces and meet new people.

I felt as though my swimming was OK, I feel like as long as my stroke doesn't get rushed then I'm swimming OK. Some of the relays I think I would have done better had I slowed my stroke down and strengthened it rather than just trying to swim fast - more efficiency required I think as the faster I try to swim the less efficient my stroke becomes. I will try to be conscious of this in any of the sprints/relays we do in the future.

Inter Club Run

Tonight we participated in the annual Inter Club run.

We did this one last year as part of Intraining and we went along this year representing Brisbane Tri Squad.

It was a 3km course from the Botanic Gardens along the bike path towards the regatta, but turning around at the end of the floating walkway where it turns to bitumen.

Sophie and I ran together and kept each other honest. We are very similar runners, so it was good to run side by side. I don't feel as though I could have went any harder on the way back, the way out was a bit easier as we were held up a little by other runners.

Neither of us timed it which was a bit hopeless so I have no idea what pace we were at and because I haven't been using my foot pod for a while I wouldn't have a clue how I am running - I suspect slowly!

Ride Inside

Today was a Ride Inside session with Brisbane Tri Squad. Mark took the session and it was very hard!

It consisted of a warmup, followed by 3 x 10min 110 cadence efforts with HR at 90%, 5min recover in between. Then there were 3 x 2min efforts at 90 cadence with the biggest gear that can be maintained to hold the 90 cadence, the last minute we went up a few harder gears just to make sure we were working! We then ran off the bike up to the corner and back.

Needless to say, I was stuffed. I got my HR up to 153 - just. 153 is 90% of my max HR on the bike (171). Most of the time I wasn't at 90%, I found it really hard to get my HR up to that level, I was sweating like a pig and working really hard! It was a very hard session.

The run was great; Paul was a bit crook so he ran with me and pushed me the whole way - I was breathing really hard and just about ready to explode! Paul was keeping up and chatting the whole way! How do they do it? I thanked him at the end in between raspy gasping of breath and I think that's when he realised why I wasn't able to talk to him while running!

2nd attempt at swimming at night

I made a concerted effort to go to swimming tonight!

I got to the Valley Pool early enough to see Libby Lenton swimming, what a beautiful swimmer!

Mark put me in to the slow lane and told me to take it pretty easy. It was good, I worked hard but at no time did I feel stressed or pressured and it worked really well. There was another swimmer there that was just a little bit quicker so we hung out together and worked each other quite hard which was good. Also because the lane is so much bigger there at the edge of the pool we didn't have any problems overtaking or anything.

I can't remember what we did exactly, we did some breathing on every 5 strokes which was really hard!

I am just ecstatic that I survived the session. I hydrated well all day - drank 2 x 1ltr bottles of water and I only got the tinge of a cramp which went away pretty much straight away when I went back to breaststroke. I will make a habit of going along to at least 1 of Mark's sessions, probably the Thursday one each week. I will also do the Saturday lunchtime squad session and then do 2 or 3 of my own sessions and that way my own can be social easy continous swims. This should at least get me the fitness I need for Mooloolaba.

Running with Snakes

I turned up at Active Stride for my run session this morning with Brisbane Tri Squad and there were only a handful of us. As we headed out for our warmup Robson asked if we wanted to have a look at his snake. We all made disparaging comments and told him we didn't need to see his snake! Halfway along the Kangaroo Point Cliffs he stopped and pointed to a nest where you could see a python all crawled up with eggs ready to hatch. She looked quite lovely.

Our run session consisted of some quick steps at the steps along the end of the path and some lunges (2 steps at a time) and then a run up Main Road and around to the right to the top of the Kangaroo Point Cliffs. We then crossed the road and did a circuit that had a bit of a hill in it. We were to go easy around the block until we came to the uphill street where we were to push it all the way to the top and then easy recovery around and do it again. We did this loop 5 times. I was a bit buggered at the end of that! My HR got up to mid 170's.

We then ran easy back until we got to the red statue and then hard to the Goodwill bridge and easy jog home. There wasn't too much easy about any of it!!!

Mt Cootha Repeats

Today was Brisbane Triathlon Squad's first session of 3 out at Mt Cootha. We park in the bottom in the Botanic Gardens which is quite unfortunate as the warmup involves riding up a steep slope to get to Slaughter Falls where we congregated before heading up.

We were supposed to do 3 repeats up the Mt in a clockwise position and once we reach the top turn around and come back down to do the next repeat. It was supposed to be 500mtrs hard, 250 recovery, 500mtrs hard, 250 recovery, etc. until we got to the top, cadence was supposed to be up around 60. This wa a bit of a joke for me as I was in my granny gear pretty much from the bottom of the hill to the top with my cadence quite low (computer wasn't working but it would have been around 40) working my guts out just to get there! There is certainly no recovery in hills for me! I did manage to overtake a few of the girls on the way up and then they all overtook me on the downhill and then we would do it all again. Quite funny really.

I really lack confidence going downhill. I spoke to Mark about it as we were riding back to the car and he said not to be too concerned it's the uphill that we gain the strength from and there are very few triathlons that I am doing that have massive downhills (just Noosa really). So, I can live with that.

I managed to get up the Mt not quite 3 times. So, I was quite happy with the effort.

Leisurely swim

In line with my Mooloolaba preparation I swam today at lunch. There were a couple of us from work that went along to Somerville Pool. I did a 300mtr warmup freestyle, 1.2km pool buoy swim, 200mtr warmdown. I really spent the time concentrating on my stroke, mainly on pulling all the way through and reaching out in front and really grabbing the water. I also tried to concentrate on high elbows under the water as well as over.

It actually felt OK, I felt strong and felt as though my form was hanging in there. I just really need to do more swimming as the Mooloolaba Triathlon is less than 6 weeks away and I have not really made any inroads to my swim preparation.

Today's swim felt a bit like a bludge - more of a social outing than training, so I think I need to have a little attitude adjustment to my swimming!

Running with Dogs

My husband the Half IM guru and I lost our Kelpie over a year ago, so we did a bit of research and we decided that a Dalmation would suit us as they are short coated (I am allergic to dogs), a good size for our fences (or so we thought) and would be able to go on long runs with us. The thought of going on a long run and having a dog as a training companion appeals to both of us.

So, we kept an eye out and we ended up with a giveaway 3yo dalmation called "Natti", we know now that she was named because she is scatty! She has been given away twice... Hence we knew that she must have behavioural problems, but we are brave souls. When we went to take a look at her she just about bowled us over and we hadn't even got out the back door! She was very pushy and bargy - certainly not the sort of dog you would have around toddlers! However, she was so friendly and lovely we decided to take her. Craig went to lead her out to the car and I must admit feeling a tad frightened - this dog was strong and she could PULL! She also managed to chew through one of our seat belts on the trip home, so she's a chewer too huh!

Some intensive training has taken place and she is now able to not jump all over us, her licking has stopped (did I mention the licking!). She is still a complete handful if you take her anywhere, but she is cerainly getting better. She has demolished every pair of thongs that were ever left outside our house, escaped from our fences too many times to mention, but overall she is a great dog who is becoming a loyal friend.

Our dream of having a running partner was realised this morning! I took her with me on my 45min easy run and she was an absolute dream. She ran with me at my right heel the whole way, she ran past other dogs and cars and cows and pigs and horses without causing me to fall flat on my face. Amazing! I was able to loop her lead rope end onto my arm and rest it in the crook of my elbow so it didn't interfere with my running technique and it offered her enough rope to run and not get yanked or tangled up. There were a couple of times where I talked to her to get her attention back if she was looking at a dog and running off course, etc, but overall she was brilliant. Being the fabulous dog trainer that I am I created a new command that we hadn't practiced - "move over" when a car is coming up so that she moves off the road and onto the grass. The first few times this happened I walked a few steps to make sure she was off the road and then we started running again, the last couple we were able to continue at the same pace with her moving over to our new found command, so she is picking it up really well. I could see her watching me the whole time and concentrating on where she should be, she really was doing great. She had a smile on her face for a long time afterwards.

My run was pretty good, HR around 150 the whole way. It was a very slow run, I'm not sure what pace it was but I expect it would have been 6:30min/kms or even perhaps a bit slower than that.

Bribie Island Triathlon Team

Craig and the kids all came along to watch and cheer for BTS. Craig didn't compete so he was my strapper after me being his strapper at Geelong Half Ironman last weekend! The team wave was last so I didn't get out onto my run until 9:17am. It was quite warm but not exceedingly so.

My run was about 46 minutes. I was really happy with this considering how I had been feeling lately. Yesterday, after my bike ride I was shattered and it was a really easy cycle. So, I started the run with a bit left as I didn't know how I was going to go. As I built into the run I started to feel really good and felt quite strong. I ended up doing the first lap in 24mins and the last lap in 22mins so I managed to negative split it. I don't remember ever doing that in a run before! My HR was quite high, it was between 164 and 175 so I was working very hard.

I know that Team Hulme didn't come last as I passed another runner in the same category! However, we didn't set a new course record either! It was good to do an 8km run, it is probably the longest run I have done in a little while. I will start to build these up over the next few weeks in preparation for Mooloolaba.

Lovely LBR

I did the Saturday ride with BTS and we left Stafford with Suzanne and me out front of the group. We were a group of about 12 which is not a bad size group. We quickly got the sack as we had no idea where we were going and the people shouting directions had less of an idea!

I ended up about in the middle of the pack and it was raining and pretty horrible. I was quite worried as this was my first pack ride since my accident. I really need to work on my confidence as I wasn't holding the wheel which I know is really annoying for everyone... I actually got better at the end of the ride so I am hoping that this will improve fairly quickly and I will be back to riding OK in the pack.

There was one time where we rode around the airport where John was sent up to the front - I knew we were in trouble then! All of a sudden I was trying to hang on for dear life! I was behind Sarah and she hung in there, but unfortunately I got dropped off, I just couldn't hang on to them. I'm doing OK fitness wise on the bike at the moment so it really shows how well Sarah is going to be able to hang on to the guns.

We then rode fairly casually out to Boondall wetlands and then the slower ones (yes that's me) came back with Bronny via Nudgee Beach and the Chermside Criterium and bike tracks. It was a very relaxed pace and it was extremely civilised due to us racing the following day. If only all rides were like this!

It ended up being a 2 1/2 hour ride with my heart rate not often above 130's.

Spin Class at Ride Inside

It was an interesting spin class. I woke up in agony, my calf muscles were excruciating. I wasn't quite sure if it was from the massage or the stairs. In hindsight - I am blaming the stairs!

I could hardly crouch down to go to the loo - yeah, I know; too much information! Craig and I left and we headed in, I hobbled in to Ride Inside and set up the bike, etc. I took great care once I was on the bike doing a warmup to really stretch the calves out. I was really worried about running off the bike with my legs as tight as a ducks bum.

The spin class was a cardio session where we did sets of 3 minutes at 90 and then 95% HR. I could not get my HR about 143! It was a disaster, I tried different gears, tried higher cadence - which I struggled with and then lower cadence. Nothing was working. I was at about 100 Cadence and breathing hard, but the HR wasn't budging. I called Mark over and explained it to him and he asked if I was tired. My legs were sure tired! I explained that the stairs yesterday seemed to knock me around and that I was a bit tired so he said to listen to my body and go with that. So I felt like a bit of a bludger, sitting there at 140 while everyone around me was pushing a high HR.

During the recovery sets I took great care to stretch out the calves again and then after the last set we ran off the bike. I took off as hard as I could and thought that I would just try and maintain it for as long as I could. My legs were actually OK, I didn't get any twinges to indicate they were about to cramp and I was running quite strongly. I was quite happy with my run. I think that the massage can attribute a fair bit to reducing the cramps as ordinarily if I was that tight in the calves there's no way they wouldn't have cramped on a quick sprint.

We did a warmdown and then lots of stretching.

At coffee afterwards Sarah was telling me about her shin splints and how she was doing Bribie, but just not doing the run. So, I offered to do the run for her and she changed things so that she was a team. I figured in lieu of my fatigued status I could do the run hard or slow depending on how I felt on the day and I probably didn't need to do the whole lot. Although I must start swimming sometime soon or I am going to drown at Mooloolaba!!!

Stairs... and then some more stairs!!!

I ran with the BTS Squad this morning. Chris and Robson took the session and we did our warmup along to the front of the Kangaroo Point Cliffs which is a little bit shorter than where we usually go. Instead of thinking, "Oh, this is nice" I should have twigged...

We did some stride outs and some bum kicks and then we were sufficiently warmed up.

I hadn't noticed before but halfway along the cliffs are a set of stairs that wind and weave up into the clouds to the top of the cliffs! We had to do two sets of these doing quick steps followed by some step lunges and then another two quicksteps (we did get to take it easy on the way down - walk/jog recover). My lungs were burning! Thank goodness my HRM was accidentally left down at Torquay in the unit we stayed in as it would have been off the radar!

After that we did another set of step lunges and then we did 2 goes at going up 2 steps at a time, then we did some planks down the bottom and then we did another 1 of the steps going 2 at a time and then up the top of the steps we had a little breather - phew! Managed to enjoy the views for just about a full minute before we went into 5 x 5 pushups followed by a quick sprint out jog back recovery and into the next set.

After this set we all congregated and did a squat for about a minute and then a sprint hard until we got to the end of the cliffs and then we jogged back to the Active Stride shop at Southbank for a recovery.

My legs were shaking, they were still shaking when I was in the shower at work almost an hour later! This is by far the hardest session I have done in a while.

The different exercises were aimed to mimic swim to cycle, cycle to run transitions which are great practice.

I felt quite strong today even though I am really struggling now, it was a great session. I had no hints of cramping in the legs and I really feel that this is due to the massage that I had.

Swim

A group of us from work all hit the pool together.



It's nice when you can get a group together, it helps me to make sure that I go. I have been struggling with swimming lately. I think because I know that I can get through the swim leg with little training doesn't help my cause. I have to swim more than once a week which seems to be my average swim training!



The session I did was very easy; 1km swim continuous, timing the 500mtrs (both just under the 10min mark). Followed by 200mtrs kick, 200mtrs pull (bilaterally breathing), 100m breaststroke warmdown.



I felt good, my stroke was feeling OK, I was pulling through the water well. I think now, I just need to expand on it to get some endurance back and then attend a few of Mark's BTS lunchtime Saturday sessions and it will start to come together nicely.



It was a bit of a confidence builder swim

Spin at home with Dad

The forecast this morning was for monsoonal rains easing into rain and showers in the afternoon, so the BTS cycle was cancelled. I was kind of relieved that it was cancelled as I was already leaning towards doing a spin at home instead of trying to tackle Mt Gravatt in monsoonal rains!




I spoke to Dad and we arranged to do the spin together. Craig was in Sydney entertaining clients so we ploughed on with our fitness without him!




We did the Big Gear Strength Spinervals DVD which is actually the same one that I did last Wednesday. I figured that this was close enough to doing the Mt Gravatt progressive gears that we had been doing.


Needless to say, it was hard work. I had the air conditioner on and I had the fan on but it was not enough, I was sweating buckets. Next time I will put the fan on the coffee table to make it a bit higher.



This is a great workout for 55 minutes. It really is fantastic, my legs were burning.

Jan Juc Beach run

A massive weekend was planned fo us. This weekend was Craig's Geelong 70.3 Half Ironman weekend. There were 2 others from BTS competing (Tim and Mark) and I went down to support all of them. It was fun flying with a bike as luggage, made us feel like real athletes!


So, we flew out of Brisbane on the Friday after my spin class at Ride Inside. We hired a car at Melbourne and drove down to Jan Juc, just near Torquay about 30mins drive from Geelong. It was a real adventure. The place we stayed at (Wattle Grove) was just lovely, really peaceful, surrounded by trees and it just had a really good vibe.

The sun doesn't set down there for ages, so we went for a drive to the infamous Bells Beach. It was blowing a gale and freezing cold. Craig didn't have a jumper on so we went back to the warmth of the unit!

Saturday morning we had a massive sleep in and eventually we got going and Craig wanted to test ride his bike that he put together the night before and make sure there were no problems with it prior to going into transition. I had on my programme a 45 - 55 minute run. So I fiddle farted about and eventually got going.

The people that were managing the place suggested I run along the path on the beach so I gave that a burl. It was probably the most beautiful, scenic, well footed runs I have ever done. It was one of those runs where I really didn't want to turn around to come home, it was just magnificent. I ran from Jan Juc around to the point and into Torquay. I didn't make it into the Torquay township thought. The run meandered along the coastline, at times you were looking out over the beautiful ocean and at times you were running through beautiful bushland, there were a few little hills, there were steps, it had everything. There were plenty of people out exercising with their dogs and kids and everyone was really friendly. I wanted to stay! My HR was around the high 140's mainly, although it did get up to the low 160's on a couple of the hills.

A very enjoyable run indeed!

When I got back Craig told me that his ride was hell, it was really hilly and really windy (it was very windy on my run - at one time I was running up a hill and the wind was trying to push me downhill and I was barely moving forwards!). I can't imagine what it would be like to be riding in that! I felt sorry for Craig, he seemed a little concerned that the wind was going to make it very tough going for him on Sunday. I guess everyone is in the same boat.

We went later in the afternoon to register Craig, check his bike into transition and drive the course so that he knew what he was up against. Mark stayed the night with us.

Ride Inside Spin

Today was a hard session... Unlike the others! It was more of a cardio session than a strength session. We did 4minutes with a high cadence of 110 or more @ 95%, then a break and we would do it all again. I think we did this 4 or 5 times. This was the main set, there was warmup and cooldown, etc also. I found it really difficult to keep on the 110 cadence, I tried an easier gear but then I didn't feel as though I was working hard enough. I did the set in my big gear ring and about the 3rd easiest on the rear. We would progressively go into a harder gear during the set which made it even harder to keep on the cadence of 110.

We did a run off the bike at the end of the last set and I flew off the bike and tried to hang onto Jacquie Elliot, but she was getting away from me. I passed Chris and he made encouraging comments, although I couldn't respond (can't talk - breathing!!!). However, I was pulled up pretty quickly as my left calf was threatening to cramp, so I eased back and Chris passed me by and I lost Jacqui... Never mind, I will get there one day!

Had coffee with the guys afterwards and then flew home to pack and catch a plane to Melbourne to support Craig's Geelong 70.3 Half Ironman quest! How exciting!

A good run

It was a lovely morning in Brisbane.

I ran with the squad. Craig didn't come in as he is tapering for Geelong Half Ironman. It is very exciting as we are flying down to Melbourne tomorrow for it. It will be lovely to be going to a triathlon as a spectator. Mark and Tim are also going down for it, so I will be support crew for all of them.

The run this morning was over the Goodwill Bridge, into the Botanic Gardens and then we did some stride outs. After our warm up we went up the steps (doing quick steps) near the Edward St Entrance and turned left and ran 90% effort to the next steps and then recovery down those steps and along the water. I did this continuously for 6 loops. As usual I really struggled with the warm up and was just hanging onto the group, but I found my rhythm with the loops and felt really strong. I didn't check my HR, but I reckon it was near max HR! I managed to do 6 loops, a few did 8 (or maybe 9) loops and a most did 5 loops, so I was somewhere in the middle which was really pleasing. I was certainly feeling as though some of my run fitness may be returning which is great.

Whilst we were in the Botanic Gardens I saw Anna Bligh our Premier, so that was exciting.

I didn't pull up too sore. I wore my skins all day just in case. My foot is bothering me just a little, I think I will have to make the effort to go to the Physio next week to sort out my hip and foot.

I was going to swim today, however I got caught up in work and didn't make it to the pool so I am going to have to make amends when we are down in Geelong.

Easy swim

Does it get any easier that this??

My swim today was 1km solid, no breaks really concentrating on my stroke and form. The things that I was really trying to focus on was pushing my stroke right back by touching my thigh with my thumb and then trying to push the water back behind me out of the water. I tried to visualise splashing someone behind me with the water that I had dragged through. The other thing was climbing a ladder with my arms - really reaching up for that next rung and pulling myself through. And lastly, I concentrated on trying to keep high elbows on top of my stroke when my arm was out of the water and also when my stroke was under the water - to maintain the high elbows. This still needs a bit of work.

After my 1km I was chatting to my old coach who also happened to be swimming so I started to run out of time and ended up finishing the session with 100m kick, 100m pull (bilaterally breathing; unlike the 1km) and then 100m breaststroke where I concentrated on high elbows and not pulling my stroke too far back. I just wanted to keep it nice and neatly in front of me.

So, it felt as though it was a bit of a bludge and I do really need to step up my swimming if I am going to survive Mooloolaba. The 1km felt good, I felt as though I could maintain my stroke the whole way through and it didn't feel too bad. Maybe I have got something to work with!

Big Gear Ring Spinervals

I made the decision last night to not go and do the squad ride as the weather prediction was for heavy rain and I really didn't want to do Mt Gravatt if there was heavy rain around.

So, I made the decision to set up the bike on the wind trainer and do the Big Gear Ring Strength DVD which is effective reproducing Hill efforts pushing a hard gear which is what the plan was at Mt Gravatt.

The session I did was as follows:

Warmup 5mins (small/15 gear) easy resistance
3 x 30sec / 30sec rest
1 min easy
One leg drill 3 x 1min each leg (big/12) hard resistance (5)
1 min easy (small/15)
5 min effort 45sec standing (big/12) 15 sec seated (big/13)
1 min easy (small/15)
5 x 1min hard (big/12) 1 min rest (small/15)
Off bike - One leg lunges 3 x 10 each leg
2 min easy
3 min effort 50sec standing 10sec seated
1 min easy
3 x 1min hard 1 min rest
1 min easy
3 x 20sec sprint 1min recovery
Cooldown

It was quite a hard session and my legs are really feeling it! You are unable to bludge, that is for sure! Although I did get a phone call midway through the lunges. Actually, I need to work on the lunges, mine were feeble attempts really. I didn't go down anywhere near low enough. I will have to work on this. I might incorporate them into my core exercises.

45min run

My favourite session of the week! Today was an easy 45min run with HR between 140 and 155bpm.

I ran from home down the end of our street and up Hogan Street to the end, did two loops of Hogan Street and then ran back to the gate at our place. This was 6.4kms and it took me 45minutes.

I am not going to translate the pace as it was very slow. I had to run pretty slow to keep my HR down. The first 10minutes I couldn't get my HR below 160 and it was often in the 170's and I was going SLOW. This is common for me though; having a high HR for the first 10minutes of a session and then it calms down once I warm up. Maybe it's the shock of exercise and my body reacting to it!!!

The morning was wet, it was raining when I left, but it was quite comfortable, it was muggy and it smelt beautiful (except the paddock down the end of our street with all the rotting food!). No dogs bothered me as they were all curled up under cover! On the way back in it absolutely poured down! By the time I finished the run you could have wrung me out.

The run felt good, a little foot niggle which I will end up going to the physio about soon. I booked in for a massage today to go and see a new woman at Carina tomorrow night, so I am looking forward to that. She comes highly recommended so we'll see how that goes. It will be nice for her to free up my shoulders and neck.

Goondiwindi Hell of the West!

Well, this is the big one!

We had a BTS Fundraiser on the Friday night which meant that we didn't get to bed until midnight which is not ideal preparation! We slept in until 6am on Saturday morning and then madly scrambled around packing up our gear and making a getaway for the 4 hour drive out to Goondiwindi. Dad, Craig and I went out together and because we were all competing we were madly hydrating. Needless to say it was a slow trip out! Many toilet breaks were had!

We got out there and checked in, unpacked, grabbed some lunch and then decided to drive the cycle and run course. I was doing the cycle in a team with my friend Trisha and her mate from Sydney; Ross. Craig was doing the swim and run in a team with Dad doing the cycle, so we were keen to see what we were up against. We did the cycle first and it was good to see that at every 10k they had markers as my speedo has been a bit sporadic with working (it is mostly not working). The road seemed like a very long way out - it is a very dead road with no shoulder.

The run took a different road and it seemed a long way as well, I was very happy to not be doing the run - poor Craig!

We went for a bit of a swim and cycle just to make sure that everything was all in good working order. The water was quite warm, about the temperature that I would have a bath at home! Some places it was cool, but they were few and far between. There was a little bit of weed in the river, but not too much. We found out after the race that the river had a bit of algae in it until the recent rain washed it all away! There was a 3 legged dog hanging around transition area and we were joking that it fell into the river one day and that is how it lost its leg!

We then registered and picked up our goodies and listened to the race briefing. I went back to the unit and heated up my lentils and rice in the microwave whilst Craig and Dad did the Carbo loading dinner. We stayed at the Country Comfort Motel on Marshall Street and it was great. I think we will stay there again next year.

I was feeling nervous, but not too bad. I managed to eat, I was well hydrated, I washed my bike, oiled the chain - I was good to go.

We had an early night and we all slept like logs! Maybe this was attributed to the 12am bed time the night before! The alarm woke us at 2:40am and there was a mad scramble of 3 panicked people getting themselves organised in one room with one toilet! It all worked out and we left there at 3:20 to head to transition with Alex, Trish and Ross. I had a minor panic when I went to put my bike into an easy gear and found that the gears were not changing nicely. Luckily Dad was there and he tweaked them for me and it was all made better again! They didn't give me any problems thank goodness.

There is nothing like not having to queue for numbering and racking, etc. We got in without any hassles and then went to relax and hydrate on the picnic tables near the toilets! We had everything we needed right there! We watched the numbering queue get longer and longer and the time to go to the swim start get closer and closer and it really amazes me that people don't get there 20 minutes earlier as it makes a huge difference to your stress levels pre-event.

Dad, Ross and I went down to the swim start to see Alex, Trish and Craig off and then we headed back to transition to await their return.

My teammate Trish had a blinder of a swim, she actually got out of the water just in front of Craig which she was thrilled with. Craig came into transition first as there is a bit of a run from the swim to T1 and he had overtaken Trish, he sung out to me as he went past that Trish was right behind him. Trish and I must have done a great transition because as it turned out I was out quicker than Dad onto the bike, but he quickly caught me.

Riding out of Goondiwindi felt OK, I wasn't overly nervous, I felt prepared, I had 3 bottles of Accelerade on the bike and 4 anzac cookies. Probably overkill, but better not to take chances. I concentrated on my race plan which was to break the ride into 4 chunks of 45 minutes. I aimed to do each 20km in under 45mins. I wanted to concentrate on keeping my cadence at 90-95 and my HR below 155. I also wanted to sip from my drink bottle every 5 mins. I tend to not get good gulps in so a sip every 5 minutes was going to be the plan.

This plan worked a treat, Cadence - tick, HR - tick, Hydration - tick! The 45 mins was blown out the door though - I was doing the 20kms in 40 minutes. I got to the 40km turnaround in 1hr 20min. I had figured out earlier that I obviously had a tail wind and this was confirmed by Dad yelling out "Head wind!" to me as he headed back in towards Goondiwindi. I managed to discard a bottle and rotate a bottle from my newly setup rear bidon holder to the front and take on a water bottle and put it in the rear without falling off - no mean feat!

The support crew out there were great, they were every 20kms with water and bananas, they did a great job.

I also managed to stay on my tri-bars for pretty much all the way out other than when I was drinking or eating. I had two bits of anzac cookie on the way out. I was a bit concerned with my left hamstring, it had the beginnings of thinking about cramping and funnily enough it was whilst I was not on my tri-bars that I really noticed it. So, that was more incentive to stay down on them.

After the turnaround things got a little bit tougher! I could immediately feel the head wind. I ducked down into my tri-bars and just made sure that my cadence didn't get too low. However, it was shortly after the turnaround that it was really starting to bother me on the bars, my bum was hurting, my shoulders were hurting, it was just getting really uncomfortable! The road was just really hard going, it was very dead and bumpy and not conducive to a comfortable ride. Between the 50k and 70k mark I really struggled with it. I saw others struggling as well, the wind was up, although we did get a bit of a reprieve when there were trees either side of the road which was a welcome relief.

My motivation was that Ross my runner would be running in less heat the earlier I could get back and I believed that the sooner I got home the kinder the winds would be for me. Usually they pick up as the day goes on so I was really keen to keep moving forward.

When I saw the 70k mark I decided that I would really try and hammer it home, I could endure the pain for another 10ks - surely!!! There was a woman that overtook me and then dropped a water bottle, she stopped and pulled over to pick it up and I overtook her and then we played cat and mouse all the way in to town. I was so happy to see the grain silos as I knew that this was only 4 or 5kms into transition from there. Also, the road started to get smooth - at this stage my race plan had converted into just finding the smoothest part of the road and riding on this - it was all that I cared about!

I pulled into transition and ran my bike into the racks and found Ross waiting for me. He took my timing band and he was off - into the heat for the run! It was about 8:40 in the morning and he had 20kms to go - I can not imagine having to run 20kms after that ride!

Dad and Trish were also in transition, I thought that Dad must have already returned from his shower, but Trish tells me that I was only 7 minutes behind him on the bike, so I was tickled pink with this - I was able to do the cycle leg in under 3 hours. I think it would be a time of 2:56.

I was pretty sore, my hamstring and glutes were screaming at me. I guess the lesson for me was that I need to get more comfortable on the tri bars as this is what held me back rather than my fitness. My HR on the way out was mid to high 140's, but on the way back it dropped to high 130's to mid 140's, but I just couldn't ride any harder. I felt good hydration and nutrition wise, I was just incredibly uncomfortable!

All in all it was a fantastic weekend, we all had a really great time and Goondiwindi turned on the hospitality in the way that only a country town knows how. Can't wait for next year!

A good run

I was not looking forward to the run today. I knew that it was going to be hard work. Funnily enough it was a fairly small turnout.

We warmed up at South Bank and did some stair work and then ran over the Victoria Bridge to the Botanic Gardens. I was really struggling with the warm up. I was running with Amy and Adele and I was really strugging just to keep up to them.

Once we got to the Botanic Gardens we did a small loop with 3/4 hard, jog back recovery and then straight into the next loop. I started off using Sophie and Sarah to pace off, but felt like I could push it a bit more, so I went past them not sure if I could sustain my pace or not, but because it was only a small loop I was able to hold the pace which was great. Managed to keep it up for the second loop too so I was pretty happy with that. Much more than that and my lack of endurance would have told a different story!

After that we did the dreaded 1 minute squat and then a sprint which is always hard work.

We then jogged back to South Bank working hard over the Goodwill Bridge. I ran with Sophie on the way back and we pushed each other along over the bridge. It felt good, I actually was feeling quite strong. The thing is the total session was only 1 hour and I think that really had a lot to do with it! Anyway, I was happy.

Back in the swim

After my disastrous swim last Thursday I decided to ease myself back into it by doing a 1500mtr swim at lunchtime on my own. Alicia and Tim from work came along and we all did our own thing.

I did a 1k continuous swim which I found OK, I was concentrating on my stroke and it actually wasn't feeling too bad. Then I did a 200mtr kick, 200mtr pool buoy bilaterally breathing and then 100mtr breaststroke.

I find the more relaxed and easy swimming I do the better it feels and funnily enough the faster I go. As soon as I try to go fast I don't get as much pull out of my stroke and it becomes inefficient, so whilst I didn't time anything today I am pretty sure that whilst my perceived effort was not high I think the time wouldn't have been too bad as I was concentrating on pulling my stroke right through and pushing it out the back and really grabbing the water out the front with my high elbows, even under the water.

I will do another session similar to this on Friday and then I will start with Trent's squad next week.

So, it was a very easy session, but at least I am back in the swim and it is a start. I am certainly feeling a bit more optimistic about my swimming now!

Mt Gravatt Hill reps

Today was the second day of our gear ladders. Byron is our cycle coach and he will do the same session two weeks in a row so that we know it a bit better the second time around and we can give it a bit more effort. I quite like this, it seems to work well for me. I also have the advantage of not missing too many cycle sessions so I do end up getting the benefit of this style of coaching.

The geared ladder was the same as last week; 3 times up Mt Gravatt hill starting off in the easiest gear and 1 gear harder each time up. The third time up last week I had to flick down to an easier gear twice while going up as my cadence got too low and I was at risk of falling off! This time however I made it up without having to go down a gear. Very thrilled with that! My cadence was between 45 and 60 which is where Byron recommended it be.

And, it was raining and I rode in the rain! Luckily it didn't rain whilst we were doing Mt Gravatt, but when we regrouped down the bottom it started sprinkling and a cyclist came up to the intersection to turn into the street to go up the mountain and locked it up and skidded and took a big fall - it looked quite spectacular, it was very scary. Dad was first over to him and he was actually OK, I think because of the rain he slid rather than grabbed on the bitumen, so he didn't look as though he had any damage - he may just ride a bit more cautiously in the rain though!

As soon as this drama was over and we headed back to where we started the ride at Stones Corner it bucketed down! It was absolutely pouring, the type of rain where you can immediately feel the water trickling into your shoes. I was not really comfortable riding along on my 120psi tyres in peak hour traffic with traffic lights and man hole covers and painted lanes, etc. I rode cautiously that is for sure. I managed to keep up with the group, so my guess is that everyone else was riding cautiously also!

So, all in all I was quite happy with this ride. This is actually my last ride before the big day out at Goondiwindi. My bike will have to be cleaned up, it is filthy! Tomorrow nights job I think.

Easy 45min run

I love these sessions.

Easy 45min run with HR between 140 and 155bpm. I ran from my work at QR down Ann Street on to the river, over the Goodwill bridge (quick drink stop here) around to the left in front of the Kangaroo Point cliffs and then over the Story Bridge and down into the Riverside Centre. The idea was to keep my HR at 140 -155bpm. It was just over 150 for most of it even though I was running really slowly.

But, I didn't care; I enjoyed the scenery, I felt good, the sun was shining and it was a pleasant morning to be out enjoying a run! I could run like this all the time that's for sure. I didn't have to be humiliated by all of the fast runners and I could just go at my own comfortable pace. Maybe I'm a turtle instead of a hare - slow and steady. Jeez that sounds like the words of a future age group champion - not!!!

The good thing is that I didn't pull up sore at all and I wore my skins all day at work and my legs feel great - no niggles, so I'm thrilled with that.

90k ride

I rode with Jacque today seeing as it was her 40th birthday party on Saturday night which rendered us both a bit useless for the squad ride on Sunday morning. Seeing as it is a long weekend for Australia Day we opted for a Monday morning ride instead.

We started out nice and early, rolling at 5:45am; it was set to be a hot day! We did almost 3 loops of our Yatala to Coomera V1 ride which was great. We turned on the 3rd loop just after the Jacobs Well Road turnoff.

It was uneventful in that we didn't have any flat tyres even though there was heaps of glass on the road. We both were really happy with the ride. We rode for 3 1/2 hours totalling 90k's. We stopped briefly to restock water bottles and grab some food, but this wouldn't have been a 10min stop.

It was very hot and on the 2nd and 3rd loops there was quite a stong head wind going out, funnily enough we didn't notice it on the way back... I went through 3 Accelerade bottles which makes me wonder if I should take 4 out for next weeks ride at Goondiwindi. I think the conditions at Goondiwindi are going to be similar to today. Hot and windy! There will be no let up from the wind either as it is just cotton crops on either side of the road - not the best kind of crop for protection against the wind! It is known for its cross winds - should make for an interesting ride. It was good for me to do this distance today just to know that I can do it. My heart rate was between 140 and 155bpm, I'll aim to have it around the 150 - 155 next week for the 80k with a cadence of 90 -95. It will be a mental challenge for me to have everyone overtake me, I'll just have to focus on my cadence and HR and refueling myself. I will get to the end eventually! I'm not sure of our average speed as my speedo didn't work, I'll drop my Polar HRM into Polar as soon as I finish Gundi.

Jacque dropped me a couple of times (up every hill and even on the the flats a couple of times!). It is good to see that she has grabbed her fitness back so quickly after her Christmas break, I just hope mine returns soon after my Christmas break and then injury break!!! I'll try and reel her in a little bit.

Ride Inside

Today was our Friday Ride Inside session. I really love these sessions - I never get left behind!

It started out a bit shaky when I managed to fall off one of the stationary rollers! The back wheel sits on 2 drums that roll and the front wheel sits on a frame that does up with the same set up as a quick release wheel. I had set myself up and was just starting to warm up when I leaned a bit to the right and the bike went with me! Luckily Jacque was setting up next to me and managed to catch me!!! She made some comment about how dangerous I was as it was Jacque who had to avoid me when I hit the pavement! Well, that got the heart going - for both of us!

The session was a gear ladder. We did 3 minutes in our big gear at the front and the easiest at the back then we had a 3 minute break. We kept doing this until we were riding in our hardest gear. I was on the 2nd resistance setting on the rollers and my cadence started out around 110 - 115, halfway through it I was struggling to keep my cadence above 80. Mark came around and adjusted our resistance at this poing to the lowest setting. This helped, but it was still hard work - it was a great session.

We then did a run off the bike for a few hundred metres. I really struggled with this as my legs were still carrying the residual tightness from the cramping the night before. My left calf in particular was threatening to cramp up, so I ended up backing off and stretching it out really well when I got back. Another reason not to swim at night - it interrups successive sessions.

We celebrated Friday and a completion of another Ride Inside with coffee at Albertos.

Most disastrous swim ever

I must say that I have never had such a disastrous swim as what I had today.

I was in lane 2 which was pretty fair, so I took up the rear seeing as I hadn't been swimming. We did 8 x 100mtrs warm up and pretty much as soon as I started swimming the dreaded cramps came along. At first I thought that I could relax my legs and just swim through them with less kick effort, but they just got worse. So I grabbed a pool buoy and tried to relieve them by not kicking at all, this didn't help matters either. My toes were curling up, my arches were cramping, they were starting to go into my calves and the back of my heel - it was just awful.

In then end I went across to lane 1 as I was being lapped and getting in the way of the other guys in my lane. I kind of just tried swimming up and down the lane with my pool buoy, but the cramps persisted for the whole session. As a consequence I wasn't concentrating on my stroke, it felf as though I was just thrashing about trying to get from one end of the pool to the other...

Unfortunately, Mark decided that we were going to do team relays. So I was put into my team after much trouble getting out of the pool with my cramps and being told that we must all dive in. I dived in and immediately lost my goggles, so because I wear contact lenses I couldn't open my eyes underwater. Consequently, I was thrashing about with cramped feet and calves bouncing off the lane ropes because I couldn't see where I was going. I was so embarrassed I wanted the ground (or the water) to swallow me up whole.

It seems that whenever I swim of a night I get cramps. There has been a pattern with this as long as I can remember. In fact I remember being plucked out of the water one swim club night when I was about 15. So, I have made the decicision not to do night swimming and I will do Trent's lunchtime swimming and then the BTS Saturday lunchtime swims. Hopefully, this false start to the commencement of my swim training will just be a little blip on the radar and I will start to make some progress in the coming weeks...

Stairs - what the?

Today was my first Thursday morning session. I hadn't been doing these previously as it was one of the sessions that Mark had dropped off my programme when I became injured.

It was really hard work! We did a lot of drills including hopping up the stairs, 5 on the left leg, 5 on the right leg and then sprinting up the hill with a recovery down and we did a number of reps of this. We did the same drill with jumping up 10 steps. I seem to struggle with the coordination required for the stair drills, I'm not sure if it is a case of not being conditioned to them and once I get a bit more practice I will get the hang of it or whether it is a case of weak core muscles. This was followed by squats that we held for 1 minute followed by a quick 500mtrs to get the feeling of running off the bike in our legs. This was hard work, my legs were burning. After the 3rd time of this I thought my quads were going to explode.

We then did a staggered run back to the goodwill bridge which is probably 2 - 21/2 k's @ 85%. I started out strong keeping pace with Sophie, however about halfway back my heart rate was at 95%, so I had to slow down and let Sophie go, just after I slowed down Dad overtook me. I knew this was going to happen one day, so the day is here. I'm hoping that once I get a bit more running fitness in I'll be able to reel him in, but I'm not so sure. He is running really well at the moment.

This session was followed by watermelon, coffee and toast - it doesn't really get too much better than that!

I love hills!

Today was hill repetitions up Mt Gravatt hill. This is a great hill, I remember the first time that I made it to the top, I was so chuffed it was incredible!

This was also my first ride with the pack since my stack. I was really nervous before it, but once I got there and everyone was chatting it distracted me from being completely terrified which was good.

My group (called the fast group, but we are really the slowest...) left first to give us a head start down to the mountain which is about a 15min ride from Stones Corner where we start. I took this opportunity to go out front which I thought might be a bit easier for me. What I didn't take into account though was the hill that greets us a couple of hundred metres up the road. I may have mentioned that hills aren't my strong point - well, needless to say I was soon at the back of the pack! But it felt OK, it all just felt natural, I was with people that I am comfortable riding with and I didn't have any problems riding in close proximity to them again which was a huge relief!

The mountain sets that we did were called gear ladders. The first time up we were in our easiest gear, next time up to the next cog and the next time one cog up again. I managed to do this, although the last time I had to go down a gear twice just quickly as my cadence was gettting below 40, so all in all I was quite happy with that. I would like to be climbing the mountain alongside Sophie and Jacque, but hey, I'll work up to it one day!

All in all a great ride for strength and for confidence.

New Max HR

Today I did the run sessions that I have been doing last week. These include a warmup and then some drills with the main set being 10 x 50mtrs @ 80% with walk back recovery.

My warmup felt OK and my drills were even feeling OK; I usually struggle with these in the technique department. I started doing my 10 x 50mtrs keeping an eye on my HR. My HR only got up to early 140's at the end of the first few 50mtrs and then it steadily climbed to the early 150's.

I decided to do an all out 100% effort on the last one and my HR was 181 when I finished, I couldn't believe it as it didn't feel as though I had put in that much more effort, I was certainly working at the 80% efforts, but this obviously tipped it over with the accumulation of the others.

So my new Max HR is 181.

Here are my new HR Zones:


Level 1 60-65% Recovery 109 - 118
Level 2 65-70% Endurance Base 118 - 127
Level 3 70-85% Aerobic Capacity 127 - 154
Level 4 85-92% Max Aerobic - Lactate Threshold 154 - 167
Level 5 92% + Anaerobic/Oxygen debt 167 - 181

Also, my coach said that it is too confusing to use my previous calculation including the rest HR, so we are purely taking the zones as a percentage of my max HR.

Finished the day with some core exercises from the Women's Health website: http://www.flashbonanza.com/womenshealth/workitout/ These are a great way to put together 6 exercises. I am doing the core exercises only and have included the Reverse Bicycle, Superwoman, Dead Bug, Big Hump, Hip Thrust Leg Curl and Reverse Crunch. I am finding them all a bit hard, but hopefully they will get easier over time. I will be doing these 2 or 3 times a week.

First road cycle after my accident

I did it... I am back on the bike on the road. It wasn't with the whole squad, but one step at a time. I was really nervous and not feeling very comfortable, but luckily Craig and Dad came along and we rode along at my pace (slow) and we did two of the Coomera loops which meant twice riding past where I fell off last weekend.

The first loop was spent with me getting my confidence back and just trying to calm down, the second loop I was feeling a lot more relaxed and comfortable. I sat on Dad's wheel for quite a bit of the way to get my confidence back. I even managed to pass a few people that were doing a road race from the Le Mans track - I passed them going up the hill and then they passed me going down the hill - must work on my descents!

The average speed was very slow -24.8km/h. I normally do this loop in 27-30km/h depending if I am on my own or with Dad and Craig. I was a bit disappointed that it was so slow, but the objective today was to get back on the bike and get some confidence back and that has been achieved. Average HR was probably between 120 and 130, not high.

Also, another good thing is it poured with rain, so I did end up riding in the rain! The rain was on and off and in places the road was quite wet, just as we were coming in to finish though it absolutely poured - we were drenched!

I do feel as though I have lost a bit of strength and fitness on the bike, but I'm hoping I can gain it back pretty quickly. Probably not in time for Goondiwindi, but I have resigned myself to the fact that it will be a pretty slow ride and luckily I'm OK with that and so are my team mates!

Running for the soul

I felt really down this morning. My arm is still swollen and not healing as quickly as I hoped. I spoke to the pharmacist yesterday about what I could do to get into the pool as soon as possible and he basically said that I had to wait a week. I skipped out on the BTS Saturday ride due to feeling nervous and there being a bit of rain about. So much for riding in the rain... So my thoughts were that everyone elses training was ploughing ahead whilst I was nursing scabs and being a complete wuss!!! I was not happy and feeling quite pathetic.

However, I went for a 7.5km run with Craig in the afternoon and it completely altered my mood. We drove up to Karawatha Park and ran through there, it was really lovely. I have decided that running through the bush is great! It was incredibly slow, Craig didn't mind going steady with me as he was doing a HR run and he had done a long hard ride in the morning. We were able to chat comfortably the whole way and admire the view. It was quite undulating but nothing too strenuous - just a really nice run.

So I am feeling a bit better about things. Not quite ready to register for Mooloolaba Triathlon, but getting closer.

Max HR Test

This morning was a maximum HR test at Ride Inside at West End on the rollers with the bike. We did a 10min warmup with a few hard kicks thrown in to really get us going, followed by two 8min all out - go as hard as you can sustain with nothing left in the tank at the end of the 8mins. So, I started with my HR around the 150 mark and built up to mid to high 160's and then in the last minute went all out and managed to get my HR up to 171. My resting HR is 53, although I may review this as I haven't taken it for a while.

So from this test we can identify what HR ranges I should be working in over the next period of training. Here are my HR Zone calculations and the summary:

Max HR - 171
Resting HR - 53

Formula for calculating zones: % of (MHR-RHR) + RHR

MHR - RHR = 171-53 = 118
70% of 118 = 82 + RHR (53) = 135
80% of 118 = 94 + 53 = 147
85% of 118 = 100 + 53 = 153
90% of 118 = 106 + 53 = 159
95% of 118 = 112 + 53 = 165
100% of 118 = 118 + 53 = 171

I find this interesting as according to the 220 - your age max HR rule of thumb I should be Max HR at 186, so I would be interested to see why mine is so low. Is it because I don't push myself to the max or is it my make up?

Anyway, it will be interesting to work within these ranges and see how I go.

I think I will try and tape these to my handlebars or try and memorise them or something.

Back on deck

Well, enough sitting around licking my wounds.

I didn't even turn the television on to watch the Australian Open tennis today (OK maybe just while I was eating my lunch...). I managed to use the last day of my sick leave productively - I went for a run. Well, I guess you could call it an amble if you were unlucky enough to witness it, but it felt like a run. I was working hard, breathing heavy and I was sweating, but unfortunately all that hard work did not result in much more than an amble.

The set consisted of the same as what I did last week:

15min warmup jog
3 sets of bum kicks
3 sets of high knees
10 x 50mtrs @ 80%
10min cool down - no such thing when you are as unfit as I am!

It felt good to be doing SOMETHING! I don't really care that it was slow and hard and proved how bad I was going, the only way from here is up.

My wounds (the gravel rash from my Saturday bike fall) are healing nicely. They had all kind of sealed after the copious spraying of Betadine that I had diligently been applying. I could feel the scab on my arm while running, I can't really explain it other than it felt disjointed to my arm and a bit yuck. I wonder how it will go with the vibration of riding a bike. I am doing an indoor spin on Friday and then a long bike ride on Saturday, so hopefully by Saturday it will be better.

I am still doing the 80k Hell of the West ride, it will just be slow and steady (and upright!!!).

Must remember; the rubber stays on the bitumen...

Uh Oh!

Well, it had to happen eventally... I crashed my bike today. I am feeling pretty sore and sorry for myself with scrapes on my left arm, left leg, right leg, right arm and my right hand is quite cut up on all the fingertips rendering it next to useless - this is the most painful. My hand was throbbing all day until I got some painkillers into me! I also copped some small marks to the head and upon close inspection of my helmet Dad detected a crack - so a new helmet is on the shopping list. This explains the stars I was seeing afterwards! I had already decided to replace the helmet as I knew that I hit my head, so a wise decision indeed! e

I was really looking forward to the ride, it was with some friends whose company I enjoy who are all competent riders. The sun was shining for the first time this year and we made a nice early start of it. However 10 minutes into the ride with the sun in my eyes I clipped the wheel in front of me over some pot holes and came to a screeching, grazing abrupt end to the ride! Unfortunately it ended the ride for everyone else too, so I went from a feeling of wellbeing and anticpation into pain and feeling quite low. Bugger...

Lessons learnt:

• Don't follow too closely to the wheel in front when going over pot holes
• Ride with caution when the sun is in your eyes
• Take pain killers as soon as you can get them - Panafen Plus is nice!
• Do douse all wounds with Betadine
• Replace helmet even if you didn't hit your head hard
• Practise writing with your left hand before you need to and realise that you can't!

So my training session for today and tomorrow has been curtailed slightly - not the best preparation for Hell of the West - 3 weeks to go... As soon as my sores stop weeping I'll jump on the wind trainer, I don't hink I'll be able to change gears too well with my right hand for a little while, so I'll probably do wind trainer sessions until I am right, but I know that I need to jump back into a group ride as soon as I am able or risk losing too much confidence - I don't have swags of it to lose!

Another 2 sessions in 1 day!

Well, today was a good solid days training.

I did a run this morning which was a bit of an odd session. It sounds really easy, but it was quite intense. I had a 15min warmup, 3 sets of bum kicks, 3 sets of high knees followed by 10 x 50mtrs @ 80% with a 10min warm down. I was quite pleased with how I went, on the warm down there was a moment - albeit it brief when I was running under 6min/ks and it felt fairly easy, however most of it was between 6:15 and 6:30min/ks. I'll get there!

Lots of stretching afterwards and I rolled on my ITB roller for a good while on both legs and released my hip muscle on the rhs while everything was nice and warmed up. The luxury of running from home while on holidays, it really is good to finish a run and then straight into stretching, hydrating, eating without having to worry about racing to work, finding a car park, getting into the showers, getting myself organised and then worrying about food and hydration. Maybe I should win lotto and quit work! Ok.... I'm dreaming now!

I did my first squad swim tonight at the valley pool - the first time in ages, months in fact... It was a good session to come back into - fairly aerobic with some technique sets thrown in. It consisted of:

4 x 100 - 75 free, 25 breaststroke - concentrating on high elbows
16 x 25mtrs kick with flippers - concentrating on kicking from the hips
4 x 50mtrs 25 closed fist, 25 normal free
8 x 50m 15sec rest
4 x 100m 10sec rest
2 x 200m 5sec rest
100m breastroke cool down.

It was probably enough for me! I felt a lot better in this session compared to doing my 1500m continuous swim yesterday at Chandler. I think it may have been because they had the Valley pool split so it was 25mtrs. Also it helps to be swimming in a lane with other swimmers that are similar to you. I was swimming with Ixchel and Kaye and it was good to have them there keeping me honest.

I feel good, I feel as though I am back into it now. My diet has improved, I'm not eating the garbage that I was eating, although I did have a caramello and a milo today, it's a gradual process of improvement!

BTS is back from Holidays

Well, today marked the first day of my training back with BTS (www.brisbanetrisquad.com.au) with a River Loop on the bike. BTS had a 2 week break and it was interesting to see that most others are in the same boat as me. They have done some things over the break but not as much as they should have. So our cycling coach Byron thought that we should be snapped into some fitness. The river loop was broken up into two groups. I went out in the second group (the slower one). We had a fairly aerobic intensity the whole way around with about 5 all out 100% sprints thrown in for about 15secs each. I love these sprints! It was a good session, I felt as though I had done some work. I didn't have my HRM on and the speedo didn't work on my computer so no decent stats - I'll work on fixing these up as I am keen to guage improvemnt.

Also, I managed to go for a swim! What - 2 sessions in one day!!!

This is the first swim that I have done since the Raby Bay Gatorade Tri series on Dec 16 and I hadn't swum for a couple of weeks prior to that. Needless to say that it was not a great swim. I wasn't going to time it, I was just going to go out and do an easy 1500m concentrating on form and technique. At the 900m mark I really wanted to stop and do breaststroke - it was just plain hard work. I plugged on though. I realised pretty early on that it was going to be a bit of a shocker, I didn't do bilateral breathing (this is always difficult for me - something I need to work at), and I was not feeling at all strong in the water. I felt as though I was dragging myself through mud. I decided to time the last 500mtrs as a guage so that I can aim to improve it over the next couple of months. Drumroll.... 10:33 for 500mtrs. I should be a good minute quicker than that! I did have my quads cramping for 150mtrs of this so I didn't do much kicking for that time. Anyway, no excuses it still would have been well over the 10min mark.

Must do more swimming!

We're in Flood!

I was due to do a long bike ride this morning with a friend, however I am flooded in. We went for a drive this morning and Chambers Flat Road was completely flooded with a car just showing its roof racks in the middle!

Since I last posted I have done 2 runs and they were both really hard. We went away for 3 nights to Rainbow Beach in the middle of cyclonic weather. Optimistically we packed our bikes up and took them up with us. The first day was hot, humid and wet. I got up early and went for a 7.5km run. It was quite nice running along Inskip Point out towards Fraser Island in the misty rain, it was good to run in a spot that is different from the norm. The run was really hard work, I haven't been doing a great deal of running lately due to injury initially and lately because of Christmas and laziness, so this was a big wake up call to run 7.5k in 47mins.

The next run I did was yesterday, same location, however the skies were clear and it was hot - really hot! I ran 8k in 49min 30secs. Very shabby, I found it really hard work. When I think of how little running I have been doing I deserve to be suffering! The good part about my second run though was that my legs, hip and foot felt much better than on the first run, so that's a pretty good indication that I am good to go. So, I'm a runner again!!! I will probably try and run every 2nd or 3rd day now with a fairly aerobic intensity just to get back into it. This will also go towards removing some of the christmas pudding, chocolates and chips from my mid section! Shortly I'll start running with BTS (www.brisbanetrisquad.com.au) again to try and get a bit quicker.

Spinervals are great!

Well, New Years Day brought about a day of relaxation and junk food with friends - a lovely day! So, today we (Craig, Dad and I) arranged to do a Spinervals (http://www.spinervals.com) session in our lounge room. We moved the couch out of the way, set up the 3 Mag trainers, brought in the heavy duty fan and put the DVD in and away we went. The DVD that we chose was "Big Gear Strength". Well... needless to say it was hard work; 1 hour of Coach Troy Jacobsen http://www.coachtroy.com/ telling us he wanted us to hurt! Hurt we did. These are great sessions, we use these when the weather is a bit dodgy or we are time constrained and they are the sort of sessions that you really can't bludge on! Dad is noticing a huge difference in how he is going with these sessions, he is a lot stronger on them. Both Dad and Craig were in their big gear and with the maximum resistance on the Mag Trainer, I was at about 3/4 which is pretty good for me.

We are heading up to Rainbow Beach for a few days to have a break with the kids, but we have chosen a place that has a 25m pool so I might be able to get back in the pool - I'll probably swim like a stone. We're also taking the bikes with us so that we can do a ride each - should be fun!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year!!! May your year be full of realised goals and great health for you, your friends and family. I made it up to see the New Year in, probably the first in many years - quite an accomplishment. Yawn.... signing off now...