Go Hard

Firstly I'd like to thank everyone who has offered their support over the last couple of weeks. It is amazing how a tragic event brings out the best in people. I now have a much stronger belief in the inherent kindness and good will of people. Finally it is now time I get back into normal life. Today I officially restart my training campaign in preparation for Ironman Australia and will soon provide the details of my revamped training. I also get back to work today. Naturally my first shift back is a night shift, and on a full moon night just to make sure I'm going to be kept busy. Train Hard.

The sub-heading at the top of my blog states this is about my thoughts on balancing life, family, work and Ironman. Sometimes life throws something at you that makes you stop and think about what is really important to you and where your priorities lie. I enjoy analysing and going through all the big and little details of training and racing, and while this is mainly what this blog is about, I know it is mainly recreation. At times I can be quite selfish in my pursuit of Ironman, but I am happy to say I have a beautiful wife that brings me back down to earth if I get too far out of control. I will always exercise, often considered to an excessive level by those who don't understand the sport. Sometimes training is a stress in itself, but at the right time it can be my most effective stress reliever. It has been quite a while since my last post. In that time I have completely thrown my training plan out the window. Instead if I haven't felt like training (which has been often), ...

I may be a few days without a post due to a number of reasons. First it is my sister's wedding tomorrow, my wife Giggles is a bridesmaid and I'm a groomsman, so that should keep us pretty busy. Also there are a few things to sort out regarding the renovations because a couple of the tradies don't do their job. There are also some other things going on that will take a good deal of my time and energy that I won't go into here. I'll still be training, but I might not be able to get the blog.

One of the best things about training for triathlon over a single sport, is if you become injured, chances are you can still train hard in the two other disciplines. I'm still keeping it easy on the run, so far I have completed only an easy 20 minutes. It didn't seem to aggravate my foot, but it still isn't 100%. Looks like it won't be for another week. The good news is I get to focus on cycling and swimming. This morning was an extra swim set, just some technique drills, a few easy repeats and some medley work. Looked easy on paper, but my body still isn't used to backing up swims each day and my arms and shoulder felt like rocks. That's okay for this type of swim since yesterday, I completed a very solid threshold set. It was my best swim since returning to the pool. The thing I love about cycling is it doesn't cause the same muscle damage as running. No eccentric loading to really hurt the legs and joints. One of my favourite aspects of cycling, i...

... Big Gear! Go! This morning called for some high intensity work on the bike. Since my bike specific muscle strength is below par, this session was about short intervals at high power outputs. Basically I'm training my legs to be in a state to handle the VO2max intervals that start in a few weeks time. I set up the turbo-trainer, with plenty of towels, this was going to be a sweat fest. Put on one the Spinervals DVD's and knuckled down for 40 minutes of leg burning fun. A mixture of high paced, mixed gear, high cadence intervals of no longer 60 seconds each, with only short recoveries. No point watching the heart rate, the intervals were too short for it to be a guide, and all it seems to do is climb higher over the set. Right at the point where I thought I was going to have a second look at breakfast it was all over. Legs felt perfectly hammered. I don't do these sessions too often, but I just love getting a few under the belt. "Millions long for immortality ...

My foot is still giving me some grief when I run, so I think I'll play it safe and give it a bit of a break from pounding the road for the next week. I'll cut back the distance and intensity of runs and really get stuck into the mobility work. The reduction in running will provide a good opportunity to put in some solid work on the bike. After all, it is lagging further behind than I like. This morning I decided to head for a long ride. In preparation I started mixing up my Polyjoule. I use a bit of hot water to help the maltodextrin dissolved better. I usually mix it with a spoon, and it often takes a bit of extra time. This morning I decided to speed things up and mix it in a drink shaker. The shaker provides a good airtight seal. The problem with putting hot, steaming water in an airtight container became all to clear very quickly. The kitchen and myself was covered in a lovely sugary, sticky gel. Cleaned up I eventually headed out on the road. The sky was nice an...

I just realised the Tour de France is about to start in a couple of days. Better get the DVD's out and start recording. No better way to get strong on the bike than turbo-trainer sets while watching le Tour.

I got stuck into some self massage on my calves and feet, after loosening up the muscles and fascia I headed into some cross-fibre action. This is usually a killer when someone else performs it, but there is only so much pain you can inflict onto yourself, but it was still effective. I performed a before and after dorsi-flexion reach test. Before I had 3cm, after was 6cm. A good improvement, but still well down on the 12cm I should have. Massage done. Now onto joint manipulation. It's amazing how much movement you can have between all the different bones in your feet. Ten minutes in I was just about to call it quits when... crack! Loud and slightly painful my foot suddenly loosened significantly. All of a sudden I had nearly twice as much movement around my big toe. Not what I expected but I assumed it can only be good. Waking up the next morning, I found I no longer had any pain in my foot. No pain on dorsi-flexion like the other day. No tenderness, and I still had my ...

So I was slow during the ride in last Sunday's duathlon. That is far from the end of the world. If anything it has probably done me more good than harm. Firstly I now have a measured baseline or starting point to objectively my cycling. You have to start somewhere. I guess I had just been hoping the starting point wasn't as far back as it is. I had a good swim on Monday, some VO2 intervals that ended up being 150m instead of 200m like I had originally planned. The higher than expected build up of lactic acid meant I really didn't have much chance of sustaining any semblance of a good technique past 150m. I still got the benefit of the session, without practising poor form. Tuesday was meant to be my long run. After waiting around for most the morning, the guy eventually came and fixed the heater. Then I headed out onto my run. Ouch! As I ran my, the joint behind my right big toe became very painful, and just got worse during the run. I did notice it seemed a bit st...

Clear blue skies, hardly a breeze, warm sunshine combined with clean crisp air. The ground is soft and the grass is green after the recent rains. It is the perfect morning for my long run. Unfortunately I'm stuck at home waiting for someone to come and fix the central heating. This is a continuation on our kitchen renovations. The cabinet makers only finished their work yesterday, nearly two weeks after they said they would be finished. Of course this delayed the plumbing, gas and electrical work. The plumber came yesterday and fixed the taps and gas lines, but was unable to get the central heater running after he shut it down for safety, so I now have to sit around waiting for someone else to come and fix the heater, wasting perfectly good running weather. On a happier note Giggles and I now have a functional kitchen, and last night we managed to use each of our new kitchen appliances. Just because we could. After only one night I am loving our new kitchen and will enjoy e...

While downing my breakfast and strong coffee yesterday morning I decided to see if the Ironman Australia entries were open before I drove down to Phillip Island. Despite an email saying entries wouldn't be open until 9am, I was pleased to find I could enter at 6am. No going back now, I am signed up, and paid up for next year's Australian Ironman. Now committed to long hours of training, the best way to celebrate is go and do a race. I loaded the car with race gear, plenty of warm clothing and my race bike which hadn't seen the light of day for quite a while. During the 2 plus hours of driving it started raining and it just go heavier and heavier the closer I got to the race venue. On arrival at the Moto GP Track, the rain finally eased up and managed to hold off for the race. Such a perfect course, nice wide, traffic free, smooth roads. Non-technical corners and a short, but relatively steep hill on each lap of the circuit. I couldn't ask for a better venue, but I was a...