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.