Fluro's Ironman Training (FIT)

Time Out

2008-03-05T12:24:00.004+11:00

Photo
I have been messing around with my TT position. The biggest change that I have made is that my seat is now 0cm behind the BB instead of being 3cm behind the BB. This feels much better. When I drop down onto the TT bars I'm not moving to the nose of the saddle as much. I still think I could possibly move forward another 1-2cm but there is not room left for me to do that. Oh well.
Do your like the new LG TT helmet. Snug as a rug. It fits perfectly

I need to take a break from blogging for a while. Other areas of my life are just taking over and I want to make sure things continue to flow freely and well.

In particular, work is becoming very busy and I'm keen to improve my professional development and increase the quality of my teaching practices in the classroom. I really stand by the schools philosophies and I'm motivated to ensure my teaching practices are meeting their expectations. I've found my niche at this school and I'm ready to embrace my enthusiasm for teaching even more.
My training for IM Germany is about to be ramped up and I'm also doing some part time studies in ESL (English as a second language).

At the moment I log all my training onto triathlog and will continue with that site. I'll just add more forum posts over there in place of blogging here for a while.
My plan is to start blogging again once IM Germany is over and work by then should have settled back down.

Time to get into the zone. The 18-22hr training week zone.

I'll be back

fluro

Week 3: Bike Focus

2008-02-19T11:32:00.002+11:00

Goals
The goal this week is to buckle down and get through 3 more quality sessions before we take a easier recovery week. Sundays ride is going to be quite tough as we are getting up close to 90k of TTing at HIMeffort within a 4.5hr ride.
Monday
Rest day
Tuesday
Run: (1:01), 11.1km, 125bpm
20min easy, 10min building to lower steady, 20min fartlek building to 4:00min/k, 10min easy
Wednesday
Bike: (2hr)
2 x (6min Stand, 6min BG, 6min TT), 5min RI
Thursday

Friday
Bike: (2hr)
5 x6min @ 160-165bpm
2min RI
30min@135-140bpm
Saturday

Sunday
Bike: (4.5hr)
2x30min @ 150-155bpm
2x20min @ 150-155bpm
2x15min @ 150-155bpm
5min RI
Swim
Bike
Run
Other

Total
Summary

week 2: Bike Focus

2008-02-14T11:29:00.006+11:00

Goal this week is to execute the three key bike sessions. Start increasing one run PW up over 1hr. Resume swim training at 3 sessions PW.

Monday
Run: (47min), 9.5km, av hr 125bpm
10min easy
10min LS
10min of 6x30sec strides
7min building to Aet
Felt great running. Legs are fresh and i'm recovering well between sessions.

Tuesday
Bike: (2hrs),
main set
4 x 10min BG
1st three seated last one standing.
Pushing around 38kph at 145-150bpm. Couldn't get HR up any higher while I was in my 53/13. Power numbers told me I was sitting at aroudn 150-155bpm watts.

Wednesday
Run: (1:03), 11km, 125bpm
Easy aerobic run.
Swim: (50min), 2km
800m free
200 tempo
4-50 drill
200 Bouy
4-50 drill
200 Hypoxic
4-25 max effort

Thursday
Bike: (2hrs)
main set
5 x 1min hard, building to 160bpm,with a 2min RI
10 x 30sec max effort, ignore HR, RI of 90sec

Friday
Run: (53min), 10.8km, av hr 139
This was a hammer fest
9min on 1min walk. During the 9min efforts I was sitting aorund 4:20min/k's and feeling on fire. My feet paid the price the next day though

Saturday
Bike: (4hrs), 112bpm, av hr 131bpm.
Main set
2 x 20min @ 150bpm, 10min RI
2 x 15min @ 150bpm, 10min RI
4 x 10min @ 150bpm, 5min RI
Was really struggling to get HR up this morning.

Run: (40min), 7.6km, 145bpm
feet were really sore on this run. Other then that the 1st 10min were hard off the bike but then I felt really good

Swim: (1hr), 2.5km
Drag suit today
400
700
4 x 200
4 x 100
Quality stuff. Completely knackered after wearing the drag suit, shoulders are aching.

Sunday
Bike: (3hrs), 82km, 110bpm
easy aerobic ride and then watched the Tokyo marathon

Swim 1.50
Bike 11.10
Run 3.25
Other 1.00

Total 17.25
Summary
Pleased with how this week unfolded. I can really feel the fatigue building up in my legs with the zone3/4 efforts on the bike. By saturday I was finding it hard tov raise my HR up into the right zones.
Overall, while my hours are a little down on the bike the quality of the sessions is certainly making gup for it.

Bike Focus Begins this Week!

2008-02-04T11:43:00.000+11:00

So what’s the go with a bike focus?
There are two important zones that will directly effect how you ride in an IM. You have your IM effort which is generally around the top of zone 1 to lower zone 2. Spending as much time in this zone during your IM specific preps is important for enhancing your economy at that effort. By developing your economy at goal race pace you’re in fact going to ride faster.
At the end of the day the Pro’s and elite age groupers are not racing that much harder then anyone else. There won’t be much variation in the effort but, there will be a big variation in economy and that is what makes these guys faster. They can maintain a higher output at the same effort because they are more economical .
Improving your economy is linked directly to how much training you are able to absorb and not necessarily the intensity. Intensity will improve your economy but it will be at the expense of how much you are able to train. This is where things can become unbalanced. As you enter your IMspecific preps you need to decide how much volume is appropriate in relation to how muchintensity you think you need.
Then there is the other zone which is your Functional Threshold (FT). Your FT is the best effort you can hold for a 40km time trial. Because I don’t train with a powermeter I’ll use HR here. My average heart rate over an all out 40km TT at the moment is 166bpm. Therefore, 166bpm is my FT HR. During the offseason, is a good time to work on improving your FT? Yes because it known that IMeffort is raced at a % of FT. Therefore if you improve your power output at FT you are indirectly improving your power output at IMeffort. Studies have shown that IMeffort is 72-78% of FT power. So by spending some time training in and around FT you'll be improving your ability to ride at a higher output at IMeffort.
Since it is the offseason for me and I have around 8 weeks left before I start my IMspecific preps. Now is the perfect time to do a bike focus and improve my FT. I have purposely placed the bike focus right before my IM specific preps so that I can carry over as much power on the bike with me into my IM training. By improving my FT on the bike I’m also improving my strength and muscular endurance as an added bonus .

I’m about to embark on a bike focus block of training over the next 6-7 weeks. The idea is to improve my FT power on the bike before I start my IM specific preps. There’ll be 5 others joining me with the bike focus and this should help keep everyone motivated, especially with it being so cold here in Tokyo at the moment.
Here is a sample of the 3 key bike sessions that I will be doing this week. I aim to include another 1-2 easy aerobic ride of around 1.5hrs.
Paul (FT HR 166bpm)

Monday

Ride 1
2hr ride
1hr main set
3x20min @ 150-155bpm
10min RI

Run:(30min), 5.5km, 130bpm.
Easy run around the canal. Knee about 6/10

Wednesday
Swim: (50min), 2km
200
2-100
200
2-100
200
300
3-100
6-50
200 easy
Holding around 1:30/100 pace in the 25m pool. Just under 1:30's with the bouy.
Run (40min), 7.2km, av hr 125bpm
this was a 20min to and from the pool. It was very wet and cold.

Thursday

Ride 2
2hr ride
5 x3min @ 160-165bpm
5min RI
This was tough session. I did the 1st 4 repeats into a strong headwind and I only averaged 28kph. The next 2 were into a crosswind and I averaged around 34-36kph.
I found it really difficult to break 160bpm on the 1st effort after that it was okay.
Friday

Saturday

Ride 3
4hr ride
2x20min @ 150-155bpm
10min RI
4 x10min @ 150-155bpm
10min RI
Felt strong on the bars. started to feel fatigued on the last rep. Rode these with Eric. Pace was pretty good going into a slight headnwind (ie around 35kph). At a 150-155bpm I feel like I can hold 38-39kph. Just can't quite crack 40kph yet.
Run: (22min), 4.5km, no hr
Felt like I was flying today and my RPE was really low. This has been my best run this year in terms of pace and RPE off a solid bike effort.
Swim: (50min), 1.5km
Mainly a series of 50's, drills and we worked on our tumble turns.
Sunday

Total
swim 1:40
Bike 8:10
Run 1:42
Other 1:45

Total 13:07

Summary
I was really cautious with my training this week. With the start of the bike focus and coming off my knee injury, I decided to knock my hours back and give myself a little more rest. This seems to have work well. I executed the 3 bike sessions as planned and my knee has fully recovered.

next week I aim to bring my hours back up to around 18hr while still maintaining some higher quality bike sessions (x3).

After assessing my training over the last 6months I have found that 16-18rs PW seems to be my sweet spot in terms of volume at the moment. I think around 6months ago that sweet spot was 14-16hrs. I feel like I'm handling the volume better now and my recovery strategies are paying off. Ultimately I still think I need to be at 20-22hrs PW before I can really jump up to the next level.

Incorporating some high intensity work into the bike focus block and then being able to handle 16-18hrs PW will be a test to see if I'm ready or not for another slightly increase in volume.

fluro

At the start of each week I’ll post the bike sessions in advance for anyone else to use.

At the end of the challenge we'll do a 20-40km TT so assess our improvements on the bike and set up our training zones for the IM specific preps to follow.

It's Snowing!!!!!!!

2008-01-23T11:00:00.000+11:00

I did my first ever snow run today. It was very cool. it's times like this that it feels pretty cool to be an expat living in Tokyo.
The photos were taken at school and you can see the building I work in. My room is in the top left hand corner of the 1st photo. The playground below is starting to show a good little cover of snow.

fluro

Run Challenge: week 3 of 4 (20/1/08)

2008-01-21T13:35:00.001+11:00

Photo
All I can say is that this was an awesome cultural experience. We sat and stared in awe at how big, how strong and how intriguing this wonderful sport of Sumo is.

Monday
Run: (1hr), 12km, av hr 135bpm (Zone1)
10min easy
20min Aet (zone 2)
20min fartlek (short and fast) (zone 3)
10min LS
Good solid run.

Tuesday
Bike: (1:03),28km, av hr 109bpm
That is a new PB for me. 2 degrees was the av temp for this ride. Sooooo cold. Easy spin

Run: (30min), 5.6kmm av hr 121bpm.
Was feeling really good in the legs tonight. If this keeps up tomorrow I'll run long.

Wednesday
Run: (2hrs), 22.1km, av hr 126bpm.
My longest run in 18months. legs held up much better then expected. left foot wasn't the best but it was manageable. Pretty happy with the fact that I can run over 2hrs again.

Thursday
Bike: (2hrs), 52km, av hr 109bpm
Decided to brave the cold and hit the road instead of the W/T this morning. legs were a little tired after last nights long run. Rode easy to LS with the focus on keeping cadence up.
Run: (30min), 5.3km, av hr 123bpm.
Easy recovery run around the canal. made sure I stayed on soft surfaces.

Friday
Run: (1hr), 11.2km, av hr 125bpm.
Easy to lower steady run. Foot felt pretty good tonight. Running form was good. Holding up really well. 18 runs now in 18 days. whoah hoah!!

Saturday
Bike: (3:45), 94km, av hr 109bpm.
easy aerobic ride in very cold conditions again.
Run: (33:12), 7.2km, av hr 146bpm (right on Aet).
ran easy for 15min then will did 1 lap at tempo (3.7km, 13:37) HR was hitting 170bpm towards the end. Finished off with David. We were moving along at around 4:00min/k. Top run
Swim: (45min), 1.5km
300 w/u
5-100 tempo +10 base (1:20, 1:25, 1:28's) Buoy
4-50 breathing 7 up and 9 back
drill

Sunday
Bike: (4hrs), 110km, av hr 110bpm
rode easy to Aet for 2.5hr
2 x 15min TT @ IMeffort (136-140bpm)
30min easy
10min hard (155-160bpm)
20min easy
15min TT @ MSS (145bpm)
Bit flat today but I seemed to get better the more I pushed.
Run: (30min), 5.4km, av hr 121bpm
Felt 100% was very tempted to go for an hour today but then rembered that I must be patient. This has now been my biggest run week in 18 months.
Things are good

Swim 0:45
Bike 10:48
Run 6:04
Other 1:00

Total 18:37
Summary
Another solid week of training. This is my 3rd week in a row now that I have continued to increase the volume. I’ll do one more big week next week and then I’ll have a week off to get ready for my bike focus to follow.
The highlight this week was running 2hrs. While my feet weren’t 100% I was at least able to manage the pain. It was hurting but it didn’t get progressively worse. It still concerns me whether or not I’ll be able to do an IM run with these issues. Once I enter my IM specific preps I’ll have to put my feet to the test then with some longer bricks.
I’m starting to believe now I might have to run an IM with a run/walk strategy in order to alleviate the pressure that builds up under my feet. This helps me a lot with my training. I like to run 9minutes on with a 1minute recovery walk. If I can just develop my pace enough so that I’m covering 2km in this 10minute block then I’ll be on track for a 3:30 IM run even with a 1minute walk. It is getting close. In training when I’m running just below Aet effort I can cover around 1.9km which includes the 1minute of walking.
Next week.
Break 20hrs of training and run over 80km to finish off the Run Challenge. Over the next week or so I’ll post on triathlog the actual sessions I’ll be doing in the bike focus for the entire 6 weeks. Join me if you like.

fluro

2007 Year in Review

2008-01-15T15:45:00.000+11:00

Photo
This was a very vocal ride with Eric today and he wasn't speaking too much either.

Photo
This me doing some resistance training. 80kg of rocks in my two shopping baskets. i think I managed to reach 12kph at one point.

Photo
5hrs in the saddle. 2hrs of climbing, -1 degree, minimum temperature and a nice warm train ride home.

Photo
not a great photo, but boy did it feel good to see some mountains again. Thanks Eric, I can't wait to do this again soon.
Year in Review
Where to start.
Stats
Annual hours: 674.75hrs (13hrs PW)
This is a PB for me by almost 100hrs. I’m pretty happy with this considering how much time I needed to take off due to my foot injury.
Swim: 67.05hrs
Bike: 442.55hrs (11863km)
Run: 89.37hrs(1012km)
As you can clearly see most of my hours came via the bike. My run was almost ½ of what I did the previous year and this year I intend to triple those hours and aim for around 2500-3000km as my goal for this year.
Highs!
My Aet pace is at 4:32min/k. This was a bit of a shock to me. I was hoping that I would be able to get my Aet pace down to around 4:40min/k before IM Germany but to be at 4:32min/k just shows you what a little focused period of training can help move you closer and closer towards your long terms goals. My long term goal (3yrs time) would be to get my Aet pace down to 4:10min/k.
On the bike things have been moving along okay. It is very difficult trying to get in quality training while riding around in Tokyo. So much stopping and starting due to traffic lights. Typical 4hr from door to door generally amounts to around 3.5hrs of actual rising time.
My Aet pace on the bike is currently at 34.2kph over a 20km TT test. My goal before IM Germany is to get it up over 35kph. So I have a little more work to do on the bike in 2008. Once I finish my January run challenge this will be my No 1 priority.
Swimming. This is the most I have swum in 1 yr however, majority of this has been doing just 1-2 swim sessions PW to maintain my current level of fitness. My B/L LSD pace is currently around 1:35/100m long course and I’m happy to keep it at that level for now. Over the next few months I’ll begin to gradually increase my swimming back up to 3 sesisons PW. Once I start my IM specific preps I’ll then start swim around 4-5 times PW.
Lows!
My feet are still causing me some issues. I just can’t seem to get completely on top of this one. I’ve have taken every single course of action trying to get my feet back to 100% injury free, however, I have now realized this will never happen. The best I can do is just work around it to the best of my ability. This does concern me as I feel I still can’t run off the bike without pain occurring very early on in the run. I now it will be an issue for me come race day and I’m just hoping I’ll be able to work around or through it for that matter.

In summary, I think this is the fittest I have ever been in terms of my endurance in and around Aet. I’m looking forward to taking on 2008 with gusto and I can’t wait to start knocking out regular 18-22hr training weeks. I feel once I’m at that volume I start getting big returns for my investment. I feel like the last 3 months of solid training has set me up to be able to handle consistent weeks in the range of 18-22hrs.
My goal at IM Germany is to break 10hrs. I feel everything is on schedule and I have no intentions of reassessing that goal until I have reached it. After that I have some big plans for the next 3 years that I have been developing over the last 6months. I’ll be calling on people to join me once I become a sub 10 hr IM’er.
Are you willing to undertake ‘The Quest?’
fluro

Lights!!!!

2008-01-15T09:57:00.000+11:00

Photo
if your ever wondering why my average speed on the bike has dropped so much since moving here to Tokyo, this is your answer. LIGHTS!!!!

The photo was taken in Ginza and is a normal route I have to take on my most of my rides

fluro

Week ending 7/01/08. Run Challenge week 1

2008-01-08T17:32:00.000+11:00

Photo.
Did this incredible ride out of Tokyo on Sunday. It took Eric and I 2 hours to reach the base of a 21km climb. It then took another 2 hours to reach the summit. The highlight of the trip started with this photo and reading my watch to see it was -1 degree. The average temperature for the entire ride was 5 degrees. Fun at its merry best.

Tuesday
Run: (1:07), 12km, 124bpm
Easy aerobic run. Everything went well. 2 points on the board

Wednesday
Run: (30:30), 5.5km, 119bpm
This was a struggle today. been out and about all day shopping, got home pretty late and had to grind out this run in the dark and cold. Glad I did it though. 3 points on the board
Bike: (1hr), 24km, 110bpm
Easy spin around town

Thursday
Run: (30:19), 5.8km, 125bpm
Very easy recovery run around the canals. Pretty tired. this challenge is really helping me keep on task.
Bike: (2:55), 84km
30min easy
40min lower steady (33-34kph, 53/19)
5min easy
40min Aet (35-36kph, 53/17, cad 95)
20min easy
5 x 2min hard (Z4), 2min RI.
Good strength ride today.
No HR reading so relied on RPE.

Friday
Run: (1hr), 12.3km. 143bpm.
A big PB again 2km W/U
4km @ Aet (av pace 4:32min/k, av hr 145bpm). PB by 17 seconds
1. 4:17, 143bpm
2. 4:36, 146bpm
3. 4:38, 146bpm
4. 4:37, 146bpm
4km @ Aet +10bpm (4:20min/k, av hr 157bpm). PB by 5 seconds
1. 4:18, 155bpm
2. 4:25, 158bpm
3. 4:22, 157bpm
4. 4:15, 157bpm
A new PB at Aet (17sec) and at Aet +10bpm (5 sec). Apart from taking out the 1st km at Aet way too hard I felt like I paced this test pretty well.
I have made most of my gains at Aet and this is because of the specificity of my training at the moment. The gap between my Aet and Aet +10bpm has narrowed to 12 seconds. Previously the difference was 24 seconds. This would then tell me I’m now ready to start inserting some higher intensity work in my weekly training schedule. For the last 3-4mths all my running has been done below Aet with a cap of Aet +5bpm. I think I have my running economy as good as I can get it and if I was to continue to keep training the way I am I don’t think would continue to see improvements at Aet. In other words it is time to change things up.
I’ll keep running as frequently as I can, but now I’m going to lengthen my long run up to 1.5-1:45 and support this with another medium to long run of 1-1:15. I’m going to introduce a weekly interval session where I focus on improving my running economy at Aet +10bpm. By running at this intensity this will also double up as my weekly strength endurance work too.
Apart from that everything else will remain the same.

Saturday
Run: (40min), 7.4km, 122bpm
Very easy recovery run with the buns. Body is holding up well. that is the lowest av hr I have ever had on a recovery run. My running economy must have something to do with this
Bike: (2.5hrs), 63km, 115bpm
easy endurance ride down the the Tama River. Left knee was a little sore when I stood up to pedal.

Sunday
Run: (34min), 6.5km, 124bpm
very tired after todays long ride in the hills. Glad I did it though.

Bike: (5:05), 126km, 121bpm
beautiful ride today. It felt so good to be able to ride. rode 2-2.5hrs out of town to reach a 25k climb. took around 2hr to climb up. Snow along the way was pretty cool. -1 degree was the minimum temp. Caught the train back home

Swim 0
Bike 11.30
Run 4:21
Other 1:00

Total 16:51
Summary
A good week of training. This is the start of my 30 runs in 30days Challenge. I managed to run everyday this week and I have pulled up really well. I've cutback slightly my midweek cycling volume but I have compensated this by increasing the length of my weekend long ride as I slowly transition (4weeks) into my strength phase on the bike. This basically means riding at least 3-4hrs in one direction out of Tokyo to find some long steady climbs. I'll then do 1-2 hrs of climbing, do the descent find the nearest railroad station and catch the train home to make up a 5hr ride with hills.

fluro

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T14:00:00.000+11:00

fluro

CHALLENGE WEEK (30HRS)

2007-12-17T15:28:00.000+11:00

Photo
I have greatly changed my bike setup. I now have a pair of FSA vision tech aerobars and a forward seat post. This has enabled me to move forward around 5cm so that I am now only 3cm behind the BB and my drop at the front has increased to 15cm. This new position feels perfect and I feel like by making these adjustments I have just bought myself free speed.

My goal this week is to simple break 30hrs. I'm lucky in that I have a this week off due to school holidays. Looking forward to taking on this challenge both mentally and physically.

Monday: Day 1
Bike: (5hrs), 127km, av hr 123bpm
The first 2hr were painfully slow due to stop lights and walking over bridges (av sp was only 23.9kph)
Then I jumped on a main road and hit it for 40min (av sp 35.1kph, av hr 134bpm, power 248watts). My position with the new aerobars feels perfect. I'm forward and down lower. sitting on 36-38kph now feels very comfortable.
Run: (1hr), 12km, av hr 133bpm
getting quicker. Almost sub 5min/k's @ Aet -11bpm. fatigue could be keeping HR down. However, my legs felt pretty good after along ride this morning. Day 1 done.

Photo
Here are the stats from my 1st ride of the week. it was a good 5hrs. The 1st 2hrs were crazy slow due to bridges and traffic lights. I managed to put in a pretty good 40min TT at IM effort in the middle of this ride. I averaged 35.1kph (av hr 134bpm), which is 2bpm under my IM effort. overall I think the new position on the bike has made me jump up another level. The rest of the ride was spent doing fartlek effort up to mod-hard. As you can see by the dark blue line I have to make alot of stops due to traffic lights. Training in Japan is frustrating sometimes.

Tuesday
Bike: (3.5hrs), 89km, av hr 114bpm
Focus was on high cadence today. small chain ring only and to keep cadence up over 100rpm. It was getting tough after 3hrs.

Photo: Nutrition is so important during big weeks of training. As you can see I tend to enjoy Starbucks over here. Towards the end of every ride this week I'll be stopping off at Starbucks and loading up on as much food as I can. This will help me recover between sessions so I can continue to put in the big miles. After this meal I'm suing very close to home. I'll then rest for an hour and then consume a 2nd post training lunch.
Run: (32min), 6.1km, av hr 128bpm.
First sign of real fatigue. av hr is dropping again. legs felt good. Still feeling light on my feet. mental I'm okay, physically I'm fine. I think tomorrows sessions will begin to show there true colours.
Day 2 of challenge week over.

Wednesday
Run: (1:20), 15.3km, av hr 131bpm.

Photo
My longest run in 6mths. My feet held up really well. What is most important though I was able to maintain a very level HR profile and maintain my pace over the course of this 80minute run. This is a good indication that my running economy is good and I'm probably ready to start increasing my run volume through more frequency.

9min on 1moff, My pace for each 9min block was 5:09, (123bpm), 4:48 (132bpm ), 4;49 (133bpm ), 4:42 (138bpm), 5:04 (131bpm), 4:52 (135bpm), 4:59 (135bpm). Very happy. My Aet -10bpm pace is now well and truly under 5:00min/ks. I'm ahead of schedule. This was my longest ever run in 6mths. Even if I run an IM now at this pace it will mean of 30min PB for me. It will be interesting to see what my pace is at Aet (ie IMeffort).

Thursday
Bike: (5.5hrs), 145km, av hr 118bpm
Route 246 was good. It had plenty of rollers, Route 16 was flat. TT'd home back from Yokohoma (1hr@MSS). feeling strong again after a day off the bike yesterday.

Friday
Bike: (3:10), 79.5km, av hr 122bpm.
Did this as an easy aerobic ride with 50min of Steady efforts. easy Aerobic ride this morning. Body is holding up well, better then expected. It's becoming more of a mental challenge then a physical one now.

Run: (1:05), 12.9km, av hr 133bpm
I could of quite easily slept all afternoon, but decided to stick with the plan. Ended up being the most enjoyable run of the whole week. Legs feel super, feet are good too.

Saturday
Bike: (3hrs),76km, 107bpm
Aerobic ride. legs are quite fatigued now. Left knee is getting a little tender. Only 1 day to go

Run: (30min), 6.4km, av hr 136bpm
Continous run. No walk breaks, Got into a really good rythm. HR was right on Aet. Running very well at the moment.

Swim: (1hr), 2.5km
10-15min w/u
500 free +10 base
400 free + 10 base
300 free + 10base
Holding around 1:30's with bouy. Strength set
drill 20min

Sunday
Bike: (3.5hrs), W/T 75km, av hr 108bpm.
That was a huge mental challenge. My previous longest W/T session was 1.5hrs. I was devastated when I woke up to see it raining outside. I had to really buckle down on this one to break 30hrs of training for the week. I'm stoked. I ended up doing a mix of everything, single legs drill, steady state, progressive HR sets, high work.

Photo:
My heart dropped when I stepped outside at 6am this morning. I was sitting on 26.5hrs for the week so far and I only have 3.5hrs more to do. IT'S RAINING!!!!! I'm not a big fan of the W/T as I find it really boring and slow even with movies to watch. My only option was to buckle down and do over 3hrs on the W/T. This meant doubling my previous longest ever session on the trainer. Damn you Harris you are making me work hard for this. You will pay.

Run: (27:58 ), 6.1km, av hr 140bpm
No walks on this one. Just went straight into a lower steady to Aet pace run. Everything feels good. Feet felt 100%, no issues.
This was a really good way to finish off my Challenge week (30+hrs). it's now beer-0 clock

Swim 1:00
Bike 23:40
Run 4:55
Other 1:00

Total 30:35!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Summary
This was a huge mental and physical breakthrough for me doing this challenge week. There were plenty of times I just wanted to sleep in and or cut back on some of my sessions. However, I had a clear goal in my mind that was to break 30hrs of training in one week. I did it. I stuck to the plan and I'm really pleased with the way I never gave in to the tiredness, fatigue and rain that could of easily cut this week right back to around 20hrs.
By doing a week like this I feel as though I have passed a big personal test and I'm now ready to resume my consistent 18-22hrs weeks with more time being spent in and around the steady zone. Up until this point I feel as though I have spent the last 6months preparing myself to train. I feel like I am now ready to be able to handle the training neccassary to take me fitness to the next level.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone out there

Fluro

Week 2 of 3: Bike Focus 16/12/08

2007-12-12T10:01:00.000+11:00

Love the kuota's

I had to buy the missus a new backpack for her trip home over Christmas. It's called the 'wife pleaser commando 8' This is the standard 40,000 litre pack that comes equipped with sound proofing. And yes she is tucked away in there somewhere. Can't you see the tuft of hair sticking out at the top.

More bikes from the expo

Goal this week.
Very simple goal this week. Do more than 20hrs of training. Why do I keep focusing on 20hrs, because, I firmly believe you need to get the minimum volume in each week before you can even consider pushing the pace. If I can start knocking out 18-22hr training weeks comfortable then I think I have my body well prepared to insert periods of higher intensity work. It's all about teaching your body to recover quickly. Do that and you'll be able to train better.

Monday
Run: (55min), 10.26km, 132bpm
easy to Aet run. Ran 2 x 1km at Aet (4:38, 4:49). finished off with some 2min at MSS.
Tuesday
Bike: (2:52), 74km, 115bpm
3:30am start. easy for the 1st 2hrs and then I picked it up to LS - MSS.
Comfortably holding around 36-38kph.

Wednesday
Bike: (2:30), 64.2km, 112bpm
4:00am start. easy to Aet ride. leg are a little fatigued. backing up two days in a row. Focused on keeping cadence up over 90rpm
Massage: (1hr). very tight calves
Run: (31min), 5.5km, 125bpm.
Easy recovery run. it's been a big two days on the bike.

Thursday
Bike: (45min), 20km, av hr 110bpm.
Windtrainer. Only had a small window to train today. Made the most of the time I had by hitting the windtrainer for some high cadence work. Boy time moves slowly on these things even with a movie to watch.

Friday
Bike: (1.5hrs), 40km, av hr 117bpm
Easy spin around the city. legs felt good. inserted a 20min TT building to mod-hard. Sitting around 38kph.
Run: (50min), 9.5km, av hr 130bpm
easy run to see Katrina off to th airport. Left Achilles is worrying me a little.

Saturday
Bike: (3.5hrs), 90km, av hr 122bpm
2hr easy
1hr lower steady
30min upper steady
Riding well but can feel the fatigue in my legs when I try to push
Swim: (1hr), 2.5km
300 free
4-50 (25 fast, 25 easy
200 (breath every 3)
150 (breath every 4)
100 (breath every 5)
50 (5 again)
50, 25, 25 max effort (31, 14.5, 14)
repeat this cycle twice. Those V02max efforts really hurt
Run: (30min), 5.5km, 131bpm.
10min easy
10min lower steady
4 x 200m strides (42sec)
Achilles starts out sore then gets better.

Sunday
Bike: (4hrs), 108km, 129bpm
Rode quite hard for around 2hrs
the rest was easy to lower steady.
Spent around 1.5hrs on the new aerobars. Position feels good and the bike is still quite stable
Run: (28:11), 5.5km, av hr 130bpm
I was literally crawling out the door. Feeling realty tired, but once I got going........
that was quick. I don't normally run this loop under 30min, so to go 28:11 with a 130bpm average (fatigue) I'm happy.
I great way to finish off a big week of training

Swim 1:00
Bike 15:05
Run 3:13
Other 1:00

Total 20:20
Summary
Very happy to break 20hrs for the first time ever in a normal working week. It is going to be interesting to see if I can up the ante and break 30hrs in my week off next week.

Week 1 of 3: Run Focus 9/12/2007

2007-12-10T15:36:00.000+11:00

Monday
Run: (1hr), 11.7km, 140bpm
4 x 10min easy
1 x10min Aet
1 x 10min MSS
HR was a little higher then normal. Other then that feeling good. Feet okay

Tuesday
Bike: (2hrs), 52.6km, 119bpm
1hr easy
20min hard (fartlek style). Sitting on around 43-44kph. Pushing a bigger gear at a high cadence today. Strength work.

Wednesday
Bike: (1:50), 52km, 132bpm
Straight into a steady ride. insert periods of work up to mod-hard.
av hr only 5bpm under Aet
Run: (7km), 37:52, 132bpm
very easy recovery run. Plan is to run over an hr tomorrow morning.

Thursday
Run: (40min), 7km, 124bpm
Had a few toilet issues and had to cut the run short. Will try and head out again this afternoon.
Run: (40min), 7.3km, 132bpm
10min w/u
3 x km repeats with a 1k easy jog
1. 4:24 (138bpm)
2. 4:05 (145bpm)
3. 3:48 (154bpm).
Ran a bit quicker then expected. Pleased with the pace. left foot was burning a little towards the end. May need to stop doing these if it gets worse.

Friday
Bike: (1.5hrs), 40km, 124bpm
Straight into this ride. Aimed to keep everything in the 120-130bpm range. Pushed the pace for the last 30min at Aet 136-140bpm.
Legs felt great

Saturday
Run: (1:11), 13km, 139bpm
It feels great to get my LSD run back up over 1hr again. feet were getting a little sore right towards the end. pace was really good. felt like I held my form well.

Sunday
Bike: (3.5hrs), 91km, 115bpm
2 hrs sleep Friday night, bachelor party sat night. I'm cooked. rode easy for the 1st 2hr, did a little MSS (140-145bpm) on the way home. It's been a busy weekend. No the best training wise.

Swim 0
Bike 8.5
Run 4:10
Other 1:00

Total 14:00
Summary
The weekend was a complete right off with work and a party to attend to. Not much sleep at all and this really made my lack of training show. Everything during the week went really well. My running is coming along nicely.

Week 2 of 3: Bike Focus 25/11/07

2007-11-19T09:48:00.000+11:00

Goal this week.
My goals this week are to start my strength phase on the bike. This will include alot more BG in the 50-80rpm range and my HR will lie between Aet +10-15bpm. I'll continue to aim for around 3.5 to 4hrs of running in preparation for my 30day run challenge to start on the 1/1/08. In the run challenge the goal is to run 30times in 30days. The minimum run has to be 30minutes. Your allowed 1 day off PW but you have to do a double run day the previous day. I'm looking forward to do this challenge with Kirk, David and Eric, plus whoever else would like to join us. You get 1point for as 30minute run, 2points for a 60minute run and 3points for a 1.5hr run.

The pictures below are from the Tokyo bike expo. There were some awesome looking machines to be seen, touched and drooled on. I'll try and post 2-3 pictures each day.

Monday
Run: (51min), 10km, 128bpm
10min easy
10min fartlek
10min @135bpm
10min strides
10min @140bpm
Not sure if my HR monitor is working properly. I was flying tonight. PB'd this course by 2min with an a hr below 130bpm.

Tuesday
Bike: (2hrs), 54km, 118bpm
Rode 1hr easy then I did 1 x 20min effort @ lower steady (130-135bpm). cold, dark and wet this morning
Bike: (1.5hrs), 39.4km, 114bpm.
50 easy
40min @ Aet (135-140bpm)
Feeling good. Pushing out some good numbers in and around Aet

Wednesday
Bike: (1.5hrs), 114bpm, 40km.
Easy 1hr spin.
20min BG work, 53/12, sitting on around 42-44kph @150bpm.
Run: (31:43), 6km, 131bpm.
Probably ran a little harder then what I should have for a recovery run. Feeling super at the moment but need to control my ego!
Feet are okay, mild discomfort
Massage: (1hr)

Thursday
Ride: (40min), 16km.
Easy spin
Run: (50min), 9.3km, 131bpm
A little heavy in the legs today. Had to really focus on holding good form.
Swim: (65min), 3km
20min straight free. LSD
10min drill focusing on the kick
100 free, 2x50 hard
200 free, 2x50 hard
300 free, 2x50 hard
200 free, 2x50 hard
Toe challenge start at the swam end as Noel. I went 1st and then we both had to swim as hard as we could until I caught him. I managed to catch him in 200m (ie 2:50)

Friday
Run: (32min), 6.1km, 132bpm
recovery run on a reocvery day. Took it easy even though I felt great and wanted to hit it harder. Control, control, control. Keep doing what I know is working

Saturday
Bike: (3:15), 92km, 118bpm.
easy 1hr
1hr high cadence +110rpm. Sat on aorund 34-36kph. This was difficult to do for a whole hr.
Run: (24min), 4.8km, 144bpm
worked the two short hills hard. Built up to threshold in the last 5minutes. My threshold pace is very poor
Swim: (1hr), 2.5km
10-15min w/u
1500 TT building each 500m, Everything was mucked up by not being able to overtake. Not sure of time I think I did first 500 in around 8min.
15min drills

Sunday
Bike: (4.5hrs), 117km, 119bpm
Felt terrible this mroning. Aching all over. Had no energy and a very sore throat. Didn't do any efforts. Turned around after 2hrs and headed back home. It just wasn't happening today.

Swim 2:05
Bike 13:25
Run 3:09
Other 1:00

Total 18:39

This was a really good week for me until I got to Sunday. I've picked up a virus amd I'm now suffering horribly here at home. I need to rest for a couple of days before I can resume training.

fluro
Summary

Week 1 of 3: Run Focus 18th November

2007-11-16T18:01:00.000+11:00

Here I am at the front of our 4man team TT group. We ended up averaging 42kph and we came 4th overall in very wet and slippery conditions.

At some points I felt like I was riding one of these when Eric, David and Alain came past on their Felt DA and Scott Plasma.

Check us out all decked out in our speed suits.

A good feed the night before always helps
Monday
Run: (36;36), 134bpm, 7km
9min on 1min off.
left foot was sore tonight.
Pace is feeling really good. Definitely sitting under 5min/k's along the flats. Crossing roads, stairs, and endless corner knocks my overall pace to over 5min/k's. Will do the 8k test when my left foot feels better.

Tuesday
Bike: (1:53), 48km, 111bpm
1hr easy then two laps around short circuit which has two climbs about 200m long. Rode first lap seated and second lap standing working the hills hard.
TT for 10min BG (53/14)
Run: (37:14), 7.1km, 132bpm.
Marked out a 1k loop on the canal.
3 x 1k efforts, easy jog back
1. 4:50 (134bpm)
2. 4:28 (148bpm)
3. 4:46 (146bpm)
Pace and RPE are all over the place. First structured interval session in 6mths. Felt good running. need to dial into some consistent efforts/RPE

Wednesday
Bike: (1:54), 47km, 102bpm
recovery ride. Easy spin around town.
Run: (53:31), 10km, 128bpm.
easy to Aet run. My running strength and endurance is coming back in leaps and bounds. M left foot is right on edge. Just managing it. I wish I could get it to 100% instead of having it around 80% injury free

Thursday
Swim: (1hr), 2.5km.
20min straight free.
4-50 fist
4-50 counting strokes
4-50 negative split (45, 40, 35, 32)
4-50 finger drag
4-50 catch up
100 hard (1:15).
200 easy

Friday
Run: (1:03), 12.1km, av hr 141bpm.
12min W/U
1. 4:39 (137bpm)
2. 4:53 (145bpm)
3. 4:55 (145bpm)
4. 4:49 (146bpm)
Aet +10bpm
1. 4:20 (156bpm)
2. 4:29 (159bpm)
3. 4:30 (158bpm)
4. 4:21 (159bpm)

Very happy with the result. I have my Aet back down below 5:00min/k again.

Saturday
Bike: (3hrs), 79km, 115bpm.
2hrs easy to Aet. BG set 53/13 from Adiaba all the way to the pool(20min effort).
Ridng really well
Run: (22min), 3.8km, 134bpm
Legs felt good after the strength session on the bike. Tried to keep cadence up and stay light on my feet. Feet felt good.
Swim: (50min), 2km
200-300m warmup
3x100 on 1:45 (1st one fast 1:22, next 2 tempo 1:28)
200 buoy. Repeated this cycle 3 times through. Shoulders were knackered at the end.
100 paddle gloves. These feel good. Will buy some.

Sunday
Bike: (3.5hrs), 94.69, av hr 121bpm.
2.5hrs of easy riding
30min of TTing Aet
10min BG (60-80rpm), HR Aet +10-15bpm.
I was feeling quite tired this morning. Had to really work the BG set hard and was feeling good towards the end

Swim 1:50
Bike 10:12
Run 3:31
Other 1:30

Total 17:03
Summary
The 8km run test I did on Thursday was the biggest surprise for me. I didn't expect to make that much of an improvement in only 4 weeks. I guess the high frequency run plan I have been doing has really given me some good gains in and around Aet and also Aet +10bpm. The funny thing is though I haven't done a single run over Aet effort. below are my results and comments
Test Date: 17th October 2007
2km W/U
4km @ Aet, (av sp 5:05, av hr 144bpm)
1. 4:54, 141bpm
2. 5:11, 145bpm
3. 5:05, 146bpm
4. 5:09, 146bpm
4km @ Aet +10bpm (av sp 4:43, av hr 156bpm
5. 4:35, 155bpm
6. 4:48, 157bpm
7. 4:46, 157bpm
8. 4:46, 156bpm
Test Date: 16th November 2007
2km W/U
4km @Aet (av sp 4:49min/k, av hr 143bpm)
1. 4:39 (137bpm)
2. 4:53 (145bpm)
3. 4:55 (145bpm)
4. 4:49 (146bpm)
4km @Aet +10bpm (av sp 4:25min/k, av hr 158bpm)
1. 4:20 (156bpm)
2. 4:29 (159bpm)
3. 4:30 (158bpm)
4. 4:21 (159bpm)

Very happy with these results. The test were completed 4 weeks apart. My Aet pace was 5:05min/k (144bpm) and is now 4:49min/k (143bpm). I’ve made an improvement of 16sec per km with an av hr 1bpm lower.
My pace at Aet +10bpm was 4:43min/k (156bpm) and is now 4:25min/k (158bpm). This is an improvement of 18sec per km. However, my av hr was 2bpm higher.
This is basically what I did over the last 4 weeks to achieve these improvements.
1. I focused mainly on frequency. I made every effort to try and run at least 5 times each week.
2. All my runs were in the 30-50minute range. I wanted to ensure that my form was good and would not break down as I became tired. I feel like I’m not ready yet to run up over an hour. I can still feel small changes in my running economy and efficiency when I start running beyond 40minutes. For that reason I was only doing maybe an extra 10minutes to extend myself.
3. I use the 9minute on and 1minite off run protocol. This means that no matter how good I feel. I will always walk 1minute after every 9minutes of running. This has really help with my recovery and it actually allows me to run a lot faster at lower HR’s. I can keep resetting myself and I feel fresh each time I start my new 9minute block. I feel lighter on my feet and I am able to hold my good running form for longer. Therefore, I’m not letting bad habits become part of my running routine.
4. I do all my runs on soft surfaces. This is hard in Tokyo but it has really help me stay in the game and keep those tired legs from becoming unnecessarily too tired and run down.
5. I stretch and ice after every run for at least 20mintues. I’ve had to do this to work around the foot problems I’m experiencing. I’ll also add that I have a lower body massage once PW.
6. I carry fluids with me on every run. I always run with a fuel belt now and make sure I’m drinking every 10-15minutes to try and give myself every chance not to break down. It’s good to train the body to handle good fatigue. Dehydration is bad fatigue.
7. Low HR running. I do about 80% of my weekly volume consists of running at around 130bpm. This is a good 10-15bpm below my Aet. I’ll do about 10% at and around my lower steady zone (ie 140-145bpm) and then I’ll do around 5-10% at my Max staeady state (150-155bpm). This is mostly in the form of strides and fartlek runs.
8. I’m not going to do any Intensity (ie tempo runs, intervals) until I hit a plateau. If I don’t ht a plateau I keep going with the protocol outlined above. Once I enter my specific preps for a race then you’ll start seeing my doing a lot of running between Aet and Aet +10bpm. This would mean long tempo runs and intervals runs in between 4:20-4:45min/k.
I hope that helps
fluro

week 3 of 3: Recovery week/testing

2007-11-05T20:37:00.000+11:00

Photo
I was forced to carry Katrina up Mt Fuji. She thought it would be good strength training for me. I think she scammed me

Photo
Alison and her Naan

Photo
This was riding along Route 20. It starts at the Imperial palace and takes us all the way to Mt Fuji

Photo
Night life around the local village we were staying at.

Photo
I ordered some Naan and boy did I get some Naan
Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Swim
Bike
Run
Other

Total
Summary

CHALLENGE WEEK: 22HR+

2007-10-30T21:00:00.000+11:00

Photo 1
This is a sight we woke up to at 5:30am in the morning. Riding around the lakes and all you could see was MT Fuji putting on an awesome display.

Photo 2
After our morning training we got to taste some really good Japanese style cuisine for breakfast

Photo 3
I tried my hand at a little amateur photography and this was the result. pretty cool don't you think?

I have one goal this week and that is to exceed 22hr of training. This is my current PB and I'm determined to smash this record.

Since I'm on school holidays this week I'm going to ride to Mt Fuji on Wednesday, Do some hill sessions and trail runs and return on Friday with a big bank of hours under my belt.

Monday
Bike: (4.5hrs), 125km, av hr 112bpm.
rode easy on the way out and TT all the way home. Sat between lower steady (130bpm) and MSS (145bpm). Felt strong on the bike. Feet are still getting hot towards the end of these long rides. I have to keep soft pedaling consistently.
Run: (29:49), 5.5km, av hr 132bpm.
First run in the Newtons. 10/10. These things rock. They are just so light and they really do help you run up hills. These things would be very helpful at Port. believe it not but you can feel a big difference running in these shoes.
I'm not sure how my feet will go in them as they really do get you running onto your forefeet. Time will tell.
Overall a good run on tired legs. Held form together well.

Tuesday
Run: (47min), 9km, av hr 124bpm.
feet were only 4/10 today. getting hot again. The hard ride yesterday is causing me some grief today.

Wednesday
Bike: (7.5hrs), 135km, av hr 104bpm
Rode from Tokyo to Mt Fuji with Noel and mandy. Pushed Mandy up all the hills, good strength work for me. Legs felt good the whole day. It's one very long climb up to the base of Fuji (approx 60k all up and 2-3% grade).

Thursday
trail walk/run: (3hrs), av hr 130bpm
This was a 3hr continuous walk/run uphill. I went ahead of the others and did a mix of running and walking. HR range from low 120's to high 150's. legs felt really good all day.
Run: (50min)9.5km, av hr 131bpm.
I was really tired starting this run in the rain, but once I got going I was surprised at how good I felt. Had lots of energy and the scenery was spectacular. Feet were good.

Friday
Ride: (2hrs), 50km, av hr 110bpm.
Snapped my left cleat even before I started this ride. Went out anyway. Just had to make sure I didn't pull up and tried to avoid the hills. We were thinking about riding up to Mt Fuji station 5 but that wasn't an option. Settled for a flat route around 2 beautiful lakes

Saturday
Bike: (2.5hrs), 68km, av hr 119bpm.
Rode easy for the 1st hour then did 15min @IMeffort and 15min @HIMeffort. Feeling strong on the bike after a very big week. Left knee was good today.
Run: (21min), 4km, av hr 136bpm.
easy run around a hilly loop. Threw in some fartlek efforts and some strides. feet were good again. Feel like I'm getting some good improvements with my running again.
Swim: (1hr), 2.5km
I mix of drills and 500's with buoy. The focus was on strength work this time. A good session again.

Sunday
Bike: (4hrs), 110km, av hr 120bpm
easy to Aet ride. Rode out to the warf did 3 laps. 2 laps easy then 1 lap at IMeffort (15min). Finished off with another 15min IMeffort TT back towards home. Legs are good, can feel the fatigue and wold have no hope whatsoever in picking up the pace.
Run: (52:58min), 10km, av hr 136bpm.
9min on 1min off as per normal.
1. easy to Aet
2, steady
3. Fartlek building to hard
4. steady.
What a way to finish off my biggest ever week of training. feet felt good. Body feels good lots of energy. legs feel like they have recovered well between sessions.

Swim 1:00
Bike 20:33
Run 3:20
Other 4:00

Total 28:53
Summary
I'm stoked. Beat me previous ever biggest week by over 6hrs. It even felt like I managed this week better then my previous big week of 23hrs. Made sure I ate well, slept enough, stretched alot and kept all intensity out. Can't wait to do this again over christmas.

Week 2 of 3: Bike focus ending 28/10/07

2007-10-22T12:10:00.000+10:00

Photo
I've just order a pair of Newton running shoes. I'm hopping this will move my feet from being 80-90% injury free up to 100% injury free.

Very happy with last weeks training. My hours are slowly and safely getting closer and closer to my goal of being able to consistently do 18-22hr training weeks.
It’s all about the bike this week. My aim is to hit around 13-15hrs on the bike. I want to do a fixed gear ride on Wednesday as part of the third ride in a 24hr block. This will be a strength session. I also want to start pushing my long ride out to over 5hr regularly. This will also include some strength work towards the end of the session.
I’ll keep focusing on just frequency with my running by trying to absorb as many 30-50minute runs as I possibly can. I think I’m ready to start moving one run a week up over 1hr to around 1:15 soon too.
Hope everyone is having a good week.

Monday
Run: (40min), 127bpm, 7.5km
The lowest av HR run ever. Pace still felt good. Efficiency and economy must be improving. Feet good.
Corework: (1hr)
Combination of abs, swim bands and stretching.

Tuesday
Bike: (2:05), 52.5km, av hr 105bpm
This is the lowest av hr I have ever seen with a 25kph average speed. Not sure whats going on. Rode easy with Noel as he has just returned from a lower back injury
Bike: (1;11), av hr 111bpm, 32km
easy to aet effort. Getting dark so quickly now. Reduced to riding in and around city centre. traffic is a nightmare. May have to bring out the W/T soon

Wednesday
Bike: (1;45), av hr 102bpm, 44km
Adjusted my cleats last night. left inside knee has been getting sore. Moved cleats inwards and this small adjustment felt alot better on this ride. decide not to do the fixed gear session, until I'm used to new cleat position.

Thursday
Swim: (1hr), 2.5km
10min free
10min bouy, holding perfect stroke
chase set
25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 200. 20sec RI, I started 5sec ahead Noel and we had to keep adding on 25m until I caught him. Did that at 125 and then again 200.
10 x 25m tempo, no breathes on 1mincycle.
10min drill
5min kick
on the case set I was able to hold around1:20-1:25/100 pace. feeling good in the water considering how much I'm not swimming.

Friday
Run: (56min), 10km, av hr 136bpm
Starting to get up to 1hr again. Everything feels good. My knee was 10/10 and my feet are about 8/10.
Ran 9min on, 1min walk.
30min easy
10min fartlek (145bpm cap)
10min lower steady (140bpm)

Saturday
Typhoon hit us today. No training, plus I had to work at the school festival all day.

Sunday
Bike: (4.5hrs), 119km, av hr 117bpm.
Starting to get up to 1hr again. Everything feels good. My knee was 10/10 and my feet are about 8/10.
Ran 9min on, 1min walk.
30min easy
10min fartlek (145bpm cap)
10min lower steady (140bpm)

Swim 1:00
Bike 9:31
Run 2:08
Other 2:00

Total 14:39
Summary
I was a little ticked off with the typhoon on Saturday and having to work. was heading for a bigger week. Next week I'm going to aim for a PB in terms of volume. My current biggest week ever has been 22hr anything over that will be a bonus. I'll probably aim to ride 5-6 sessions and run around 6-7 sessions and do 1-2 swims. Most of the volume will come from the bike as I'm continuing with my bike focus right up to January next year.

Week 1 of 3: Run Focus 21/10/2007

2007-10-16T08:41:00.000+10:00

Photo.
I just could not drag myself away from the Hawaii Ironman last Sunday. What an awesome race and top effort Scotty. That was a very solid day you produced.

The goal this week is to add on one extra run and make it 5 for the week. I'll also continue with the bike focus and aim for 10+ hr of riding. I feel as though once I start consistently exceeding 10hr PW on the bike I start to see alot of improvement in my endurance and strength in and around my IM efforts.
My running is coming along well and I think I'm almost ready to say I'm recovered. I'm experiencing more and more runs with less and less foot issues. This is a good sign. I've limited all my running to around 40-50 minutes and I'm just working on increasing my frequency.

Monday
Run: (40min), 7.5km, av hr 141bpm.
Stress plays havic with my hr. RPE was nice and low but myHR was high. Alot going on at the moment. Need to relax.
Stayed with the 9min on 1min walk. Feet felt pretty good again

Tuesday
Bike: (2hrs), 117bpm, 55km.
easy to Aet ride for the first 1:18. Then I did 2 x 20min TT at Aet with a 2min RI. TTing well. Feeling comfortable on the bars.

Wednesday
Bike: (1hr), 25km, av hr 110bpm
Don't know why my RPE is so much higher on a wind trainer ,yet HR speed etc are much lower. Did a 1hr endurance spin after massage.
Run: (1:07), 13km, av hr 141bpm
2km W/U
4km @ Aet, (av sp 5:05, av hr 144bpm)
1. 4:54, 141bpm
2. 5:11, 145bpm
3. 5:05, 146bpm
4. 5:09, 146bpm
4km @ Aet +10bpm (av sp 4:43, av hr 156bpm
5. 4:35, 155bpm
6. 4:48, 157bpm
7. 4:46, 157bpm
8. 4:46, 156bpm
Feet were good no problems. I would say my Aet pace is sitting around 5:05min/k's at the moment. I The result clearly shows I lack endurance. My first 1km at Aet was pretty close to some of my Aet +10bpm. But I could hold my pace throughout the test. I felt like I was continually fighting an elevating HR, while trying to hold an even pace. This gives my a clear goal for next time. I have a 22 sec dufference between my Aet pace and Aet +10bpm pace and this shows that my Aet +10bpm has been left out of my training. This is good. If the gap was any bigger eg in excess of 30sec then this suggest I'm spending too much time training above my IM zone.
Overall I happy to be back and no I have given myelf a carrot to chase after before my next test. This is the longest run I've done in 6mths

Thursday
Swim: (1hr), 2.5km
10min free
10min buoy
4(4x50). Negative split on 60sec. 45, 42, 40, 35.
20min of drill, focusing on kick and body rotation.
Held the 50's well. Huffing and puffing on those 35's though.
Run: (31min), 5.5km, av hr 130bpm
easy recovery run. Was tired getting out of bed this morning. need more sleep

Friday
Total rest day

Saturday
Bike: (3.5hrs), 95km, 125bpm
fixed gear ride (53/17) for the first 1.5hrs. comfortably held around 35-37kph.
6/6/6/ (53/19@30kph, 53/11@40kph, 53/17@35kph).
small chain for the rest of the ride.
Very solid ride. Eric is strong and we were well matched well on the fixed gear and 6/6/6.
Swim: (1hr), 2.5km
300 W/U
4- 100 buoy. breathing every 4th stroke
4-50 drill catchup
4-150 free (50 easy 25 hard, 50 easy 25 hard)
4-200 buoy breathing every 4 except for the last 50 breathing every 5.
4 -50 (25max, 25easy)

Sunday
Bike: (3hrs), 88km, 125bpm
1.5 easy.
3 laps around the warf. (9km loop)
Building to a hard effort.
Was tired towards the end. Left knee was getting sore so I bailed and came home
Run: (51min), 10km, 132bpm
Felt like I was flying today. Light on the feet. Threw in some surges and my HR never exceeded Aet. Feet were good.
still sticking with the 9min on 1min walk

Swim 2.0
Bike 9.5
Run 3.1
other 1.0

Total 15.39

Solid week for me this week. This is the first time I have cracked 3hr of running in one week since March this year. My feet are holding up very well. I did my first run over an hour and I was able to insert some mod-hard efforts as part of my run test.

Week 3 of 3 recovery week ending 15/10/07

2007-10-08T11:07:00.001+10:00

Photos
These are from my long ride down to Misaki last weekend.

Goal this week is to test my Aet pace over the bike again and compare it to the last cycle. I think I'm also ready to start doing the 8k run test.

I've been reading the survey on How to qualify for Hawaii and here are some of the main ideas that I have pulled from the article

1. 840hr P.A seems to be the benchmark. That is an average of 16hrs PW. 73% of all Hawaii qualifiers average over 840hrs P.A.
2. Peak weeks are in excess of 35hrs. This is broken up into 23k swimming, 752k cycling, 91k running in one week. Epic camps anyone?
3. There is no off season. These guys train all year round focusing on something.
4. Typical bike week of 10hrs will consist of a 5+hr long ride with some pick ups, an IMpace ride with 2.5hrs at race pace, a hilly hour, and a trainer session with 85-95% MHR and the balance made up of easy riding and drills.
5. Those that qualify for Hawaii do more volume on the bike, significantly more race pace training, more strength endurance training and more hard intervals at 85-90% MHR
6. The breakdown of an average 5hr run week includes a 2.5hr long run (easy with hills)a 2hr medium long run with 1.5hrs at race pace, 30minutes of intervals ranging from 80-100% MHR and some drills and a short recovery run.

I hope these tips help you with your training.

Monday
Swim: (45min), 2km,
Packed again. Could only do drills.
Focused mainly on single arm drill, catchup, kick and then 4 x 25's hard. Kept repeating this over and over.
The 25m pool is just too crowded to get in any straight swimming and not being aloud to overtake is a real pain.
Run (35min), 6km, av hr 136bpm
Program in a hill session today. Highest gradient was around 9.5%. Kept it at 10kph and just ran through the hills. Lowest gradient was 3%

Tuesday
Total rest day

Wednesday
Bike: (70min), av hr 124bpm, 34.5km
15min W/U
20k TT @ Aet, time 34:51, av sp 34.2kph, av hr 141bpm.
PB by 0.2kph (ie 40sec). Tougher conditions today with gusty winds. Hard to find a consistent pace. Just need to keep chipping away towards a 35kph average.
Massage: (1hr)
Stretching and core (30min)
Run: (40min), 7.5km, 130bpm.
(9min on 1min walk) X 4
1 & 2 easy
3 & 4 recovery to 130bpm, run at pace to 140bpm and repeat. Fartklek style.
Running way seems to really help my feet the constant changes in pace mean I'm not consistently hitting the same point on my feet. Plus it gives me a chance to do some sub 5min/k running again.

Thursday
Swim: (1hr) 2.5km
15min straight free working on holding B/L
4 x (4x25) on a 1min cycle. max effort.
1,2 free
3,4 buoy
Kept all between 14-16sec. Was getitng tough from about the 12th one onwards.
15min of of drill.

Friday
Run: (40min), 7.5km, av hr 131bpm
9min on 1min walk.
Kept everything easy to lower steady on this run.

Saturday
Ride: (3:30), av hr 112bpm, distance 88km
Easy to Aet ride for the first 3hrs.
Finished off with some strength work fartlek style.
Run: (45min), 8.5km, av hr 131bpm.
very happy with my feet on this run. Stayed with 9min on and then a 1min walk. Running like this is proving to be good on my feet and will stick with this with all my runs now.

Sunday
Bike: (65min), 25km, av hr 110bpm,
I did a W/T session. all drill work while I watched the Hawaii Ironman

Total

Swim
Bike
Run

Week ending 7/10/2007

2007-10-03T10:42:00.000+10:00

Photo
Last weekend was just like this the whole entire time. It was relentless.

Well I've missed posting on here for a couple of weeks as I have dug myself in quite a hole. I did the Terry Fox 5km Fun Run 2 weeks ago. It really hurt my feet to do this run, but I ended up coming 2nd overall which I was very happy with. However, my feet were in a terrible state for the week that followed. I couldn't even run further than 2minutes without having to stop and walk. It got a the point where I was ready to give it all up. How could I possibly continue to train for an IM if I couldn't even run 5km without severe repercussions.
With nowhere to go I decided to make one last trip back to the foot podiatrist. She did a complete overhaul on my orthotics by inserting a grid system under my feet so that my joints are now sitting over holes. Guess what? It worked I'M BACK. I did my 1st ever run in Japan without any pain. It's early days yet, but if this continues and I can keep running without pain I just might be ready to start training properly for IM Germany. Fingers crossed

Goal
This week my goal is to find a balanced week of training with the emphasis mainly on the bike. I want to get into the 18-22hr week range as I feel this is where I get my biggest adaptations and in particular my endurance really improves when I'm training around this amount.
I'm going to be working on a 3 week cycle in the following way
week 1 of 3: Run Focus (16-19hrs)
week 2 of 3: Bike Focus (18-22hrs)
week 3 of 3: Swim Focus recovery week (14-16hrs)

During the Recovery weeks I'll do Testing mainly around Aet and FT to monitor my progress. Since this is still the off season for me I'll be closely monitoring both. Once I enter my IM preps I'll be mainly working on improving my Aet paces.

Monday
Run: (40min), 7km.
Success at last. 1st run in months with no pain. My foot doc cut some hole in my orthotics where my joints are as this seems to be the root of my problems. It worked I actually did a run without pain. I hope this one works.
Swim: (40min), Dryland workout
Dryland swim workout as per Gordo protocol

Tuesday
Bike: (1.5hrs), W/T, av hr 110bpm.
1hr spin
3 min on high cadence 95+, 3min off til the 90min mark.
The W/T is such a grind

Wednesday
Bike: (2.25), 63km, 110bpm
Rode easy for 30min
20min TT lower steady (130bpm)
30min easy
20min pacline (Aet) 2min rolling turns
10min easy
5min TT (upper Steady)
Good session. Holding decent paces across all zones
Run: (40min), av hr 133bpm.
9min on 1min off
1. 10kph (125bpm)
2. 11kph (131bpm)
3. 12kph (142bpm)
2min at 13kph (155bpm)
My 1st treadmill run. It felt weird but it was pretty cool being able to track HR and pace at the same time. Foot held up pretty well, not 100% but close to it.

Thursday
Swim: (3km), 1hr
1000 free, 16.20
100 (1:35), 2-50 (45)
200 (3:15), 4-50 (45's)
300 (4:55), 6-50 (45-46's)
400 (6:35), 8-50 (45-46's)
All B/L breathing and all on a 15 sec rest.
Run: (31min), 5.5km, 126bpm.
av hr Aet -19bpm. Feet were okay. Left foot was just starting to go on me towards the end, so I stopped.
Overall I feel this is a big step forward

Friday
Resy day

Saturday
Had to work Saturday. So I could only do a ride
Bike: (3hrs), 110bpm, 80km.
Good ride this morning. HR is sitting nice and low with my pace still up. Can sit around 28-30kph @ 110-115bpm. This was unheard of 1yr ago. TT'd the last 30min at Aet and it felt like I was flying. Comfortably holding 36-38kph @Aet.

Sunday
Bike: (5:20), 141km, av hr 123bpm.
Solid ride all the way down to Nisaki past Kamakura. Did the 1st 3.5hrs low hr (av hr 117) then I TT'd for the 2hrs as a strength workout. Aim was to keep HR above Aet the whole time while pushing a bigger gear then normal

Total

Swim 1:40
Bike 12:55
Run 1:51
other 1:00

Total 17:26

Summary
Finally was able to pull off a bigger week. Feet have held up pretty well. I was concerned about the long ride on Sunday, but my feet were only sore in patches. Overall, I very pleased with the way I'm riding, my running is slowly returning (baby steps) and I'm still not too concerned about my swim. I can pick that up quickly anytime.

Week ending 23/9/07

2007-09-20T08:44:00.000+10:00

Monday
Swim: (40min), 1.5k
30min of drill and some hard 25's.
10min of dryland band work as per Davids suggestion. need to stop that elbow from dropping
Weights: (1hr)
Upper and lower body. High reps low weight

Tuesday
Bike: (1:20), 33km
TT at Aet: 20km, 35:15, av hr 137, av sp 34km/h.
Happy with this result. Once I can start averaging over 35km/h then I begin to move the length of the TT out further and further.
Swim: (30min) dryland workout
dryland swim session. Bought 3 types of bands and 30min's on the easiest level was tough

Wednesday
Massage: (1hr)Man I needed this
Bike: (1.5hr), 38km.
Easy spin to and from the foot docs.

Thursday
Run: (35min), 5km
Terrible run. My feet were on fire and I could only manage 5min blocks before I had to walk for 2-3 min. The new adjustments to my orthotics will need more time to get used to.

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Total

Swim
Bike
Run

Week ending 16/9/2007

2007-09-10T14:47:00.000+10:00

Week 2 of 3: Bike focus

I have 2 big BT sessions to complete this week. The first BT session is a Tuesday/Wednesday combo where I’ll ride 3 sessions in a little over 24hrs. My aim is to ride Tuesday morning 2hrs and then Tuesday afternoon for 1.5hrs. I’m then going to back this up again Wednesday morning with another 1.5hr ride. There’ll be no intensity inserted into any of these rides. The focus will be just riding at an easy pace and making sure I recover well, afterwards.
My second BT session for the week will be my long ride on Sunday. I’ll aim for 4-5hrs with 1-2 hrs of lower steady efforts (ie Aet -5bpm) broken up into 20min blocks. Once again the primary focus will be on addressing my fat burners and developing my endurance.
Everything else for the week will be centred around improving my economy and efficiency below Aet, with some small main sets focusing on Strength.
Monday
Swim: Pool closed for maintenance
Run: (40min). No hr, Just ran off RPE.
20min easy then 6 x 30sec strides with a 90sec RI

Tuesday
Triple bike session (BT 1)
Bike: (2hrs), 50km
easy spin for 1hr
High cadence work 120rpm for 1min, 2 min RI. x 5
I gear harder each time.
Bike: (1.15), 33km
SCR only kept hr right down and cadence up. Legs felt pretty good after this morning ride.

Wednesday
Bike: (1:45), 46km
aerobic ride. SCR. Kept the weight off the pedals and worked on efficiency as much as possible. Third ride in 24hrs and I'm feeling some pretty good deep fatigue.

Very Happy. 158k's of riding in just over 24hrs. This is a great way to support the weekend long ride. I will build this up to 3 x 2 hrs and eventually 180k's in just over 24hr period. I feel like I am addressing some good deep fatigue with this triple ride.

Thursday
Run: (33min), 6km
20min easy
(3min at Aet, 1min easy)
feet were only a 5/10 today. Changing things up helps.

Friday
Total rest day

Saturday
Bike: (3hrs), 75km,
Easy to aet ride. Working on soft pedalling as much as possible. Got to keep the pressure off my foot pads.
Run: (23min), 4km
2 laps of the park then 2 laps of the stairs. Felt much stronger running today. Although I need to get the HR down below 145bpm.
Swim: (1hr), 2km
200 W/U
drills
main set
500, 400, 300, 200, 100 20sec rest

Sunday
Bike: (4hrs), 110km.
5 laps of the warf.
3 laps easy. 1/2 lap BG and one whole lap BG.
Felt lousy for the first 2hrs of this ride (late night last night) but then came good towards the end.

Summary
Swim 1hr
Bike 12hrs
Run 1.5hrs
other 2hrs

Total: 16.5hrs

A good week this week. I'm hitting all my bike and run targets. Swimming is still a little down, but I'm not worried about that at this stage. The focus is on the bike.

Week end 9/9/07

2007-09-06T14:53:00.000+10:00

Not sure how my training will be this week with school starting up again and also a Typhoon is expected to hit us on Thursday.

Week 1 of 3: Run Focus
Monday
Run: (30min), 5.5km. av hr 134bpm.
easy to Aet. Felt good running this mroning. Feet were pretty good. Form good.
No swim tonight caught up at work again.

Tuesday
Bike: (1:45), 48km, av hr 115bpm.
Did 45min easy then 45min of strength work. BG on the rollers and then some Aet (15min) TTing to finish off with. Solid ride
Run: (37:50), 7km, av hr 138bpm
9min on 1min walk for the entire run. In fact I'm going to stay with this protocol as it helps me settle down the burning feeling in my feet.
Very hard to keep hr down in this heat and running PM.

Wednesday
Bike: (1:05), 28km, av hr 112bpm.
easy to Aet -5bpm ride.
Things were getting pretty wet and slipperly out there this morning. Cyclone is supposed to be hitting us on Thursday.
Stetching: (20min)

Thursday
Run: (33min), 6km, av hr 136bpm.
Was smashed this morning with the rain but still had a lot of fun. Finsihed off with 6 x 30sec strides, 90 sec RI. feet don't like the bitumen!
Need to stay on the canals.

Friday
Typhoon today. No training and no work. Couldn't really do much other then to rid eit out

Saturday
Bike: (2.5hrs), av hr 121bpm, 68km.
Alan the ex world champ turned up this morning and when he does you know there are going to be some periods of hurt. Most of the ride was easy then we hit some short hard High end efforts in the last 20minutes. Finished off with a sprint.
Swim: (50min), All drill. david led a great session this morning. We focused on just getting a better feel through the water. I know where my weaknesses are
Run: (25min), av hr 155bpm. No matter what I tried my HR was through the rough. It was so hot and humid.

Sunday
Bike: (3:20), 87km, av hr 111bpm. Noel and I rode to Yokohoma this morning. easy ride out no efforts.Sat on approx 105-115bpm. On the return did 45min TT starting at lower steady and building to IMeffort (Aet). Was TTing very well today

Summary
Swim: (50min)
Bike: (8.40)
Run: (2:03)
Other (1:00)

Total:(12:33)

Hit all my bike and run targets this week. Missed some swim and weight sessions, so my hours were down a little. overall I was pleased with the week, especially on the bike. My feet are not great at the moment so I'll need to book in for another appointment soon.
next week is my bike focus.

fluro

I'm back

2007-08-27T15:46:00.000+10:00

I'm back from my trip to Australia. I'll be posting photos regularly over the next few weeks.

While it is summer here in Tokyo my main focus until it starts to cool down will be the bike and swim. I'll gradually keep my running going and limit each session to around 30-40minutes until I'm sure my feet can handle the load.

In the meantime I'll continue to focus on building up my strength and endurance on the bike. I'll be mainly focusing on improving my technique in the pool.

C u soon.
fluro

Congratulations Kirk on completing another IM last weekend in Canada. I followed you around the course all night. Top effort. Looking forward to talking with you soon.

Training Thoughts and Ideas
Here is a very good articles which explains how to set up your training zones. It is a an easy read and explains clearly how you should go about improving your Ironman paces at Aet (up to the top of zone 1).

It also explains when, why and how you should train in zones 2,3,4,5a.

http://alancouzens.blogspot.com/

Monday
No training caught up at work til late.

Tuesday
Bike: (1.5hrs), 42km, av hr 115bpm. 30min easy
30 lower steady (30bpm)
30min SCR aiming 100rpm
feet weren't great. wore thongs all day yesterday and paid the price today
Swim: (30min), 1.5km. easy swimming working on B/L breathing and body rotation.

wednesday
Run: (32:19), 6km, av hr 132bpm.
Stayed on the canal today to try and avoid running on hard surfaces. This felt better then my previous effort.

Thursday
Bike: (1.5hrs) 41km, av hr 113bpm.
Easy to Aet spin.

Friday
Run: (31min), 6km, av hr 133bpm.
very sloppy run this morning. Struggling with sleeping and it affecting me in the morning. So humid here right now.
Had to work hard to try and hold form but it just wasn't happening

Saturday
Rained out
Sunday
Bike: (2.40), 70km, av hr 113bpm.
Rode out to thr warf. Did 2 laps easy and then 1 lap building up to lower steady.

week ending 8/7/07

2007-07-05T08:40:00.000+10:00

Goal this week is to swim as much as possible. Slowly add some more sessions on the bike and keep focusing on nutrtition and recovery.
Monday
Swim: (1;10), 3.5km.
20min free B/L
20min drill
15-25's max no breathing on 45sec
5- 50's hard on 1:15 coming in under 35
4-100 negative split (1;30, 1:28, 1:26, 1:23)
easy 200. shoulder were tired by this stage.
Tuesday
Bike (1:23), 38km, av hr 116bpm. Rode easy to Aet most of the way. Did some TT efforts (Impace) at the end and finished off with 4 stomps, new PB is now 48.3kph.
Feet felt very good.
Wednesday
Massage (1hr). Toe problem felt really good today, but my left PF is still killing to have massaged. I'm starting to think the arch support on the left side is too high.
Thursday
Swim (50min), 2.5km,
20min free mix of aet and mod-hard
15min drill
10-50 hard keeping everything under 40sec. 20sec RI
200 mod-hard
200 cool down
Friday
Bike: (1:40), 45km. 115bpm. Easy to Aet ride.
Saturday
Swim (3km), 50min. Kamakura swim race
Had a great swim. Managed to get into the front pack after but 500m. I had to work hard to get up to them. Glad I did though. For the next 40min everything felt comfortable and I was holding feet the whole way. Worked past the pack with 500m to go and was in 2nd place. Took a wrong turn and had to be redirected back onto the course by a guy on a surf ski. I was in around 5th spot with around 200m to go. Kicked hard and moved up to 4th place. Very happy with my extra gear I have in the swim. Alot of srpint work has helped with the changes of speed and direction you get in ocean swims.

Sunday
Bike (2:43), 75km, av hr 117bpm.
Very easy for the first 1.5 hrs and then we picked up the pace laping around the warf. Managed to do a break away with two other guys and I hit a new PB TTing at 48.3kph. We held off the pack for around 5km sitting on 45kph whenever I took my turn. It's the highest I've had my hr (177bpm) on the flats in a very long time. legs and feet felt great.

Happy days at the moment. My feet are feeling better.

fluro

I'm in. Ironman Germany 2008

2007-07-03T15:50:00.000+10:00

It's official. I just entered Ironman Germany today. I hope I can pull everything together over the next 12 months and achieve a new PB.
As I have said previously I'll start concentrating on doing single sport focus periods between now and Christmas. The first being the swim. The carrot is now dangling in front of me and I'm psyched up to start focusing on improving my swimming, cycling and running over the next 12 months.
My foot problems have been improving and I'll start to slowly build up my bike volume again, while I'm concentrating on my swimming. Once I have my swimming where I want it, the plan is to then do a big cycling block followed by a consistent period of high frequency running before I start my IM specific preps.

I think the key for me to aim for a PB next year is to do these periods of one sport at a time and get myself into all time best shape in that particular sport. This will mean doing more volume in each sport and then once I'm satisfied with that sport I will then drop back the volume back into my regular IM training hours.
For example, over the next 2-3 months I want to slowly increase my swimming from a regular 8-10km PW up to 20km PW while I'm not running. Once I'm consistently swimming around 20km PW I think I should see some big gains in the water. Once I have those gains established I'll slowly reduce my swimming back down to 8-12km PW and then I'll start my bike focus for the following 3-4 months. I usually average around 10hrs PW on the bike but during the bike focus I want to slowly build this up to around 15-20hrs PW. Once again once I have my bike fitness established I'll then drop the volume back down to around 10-15hrs PW and then start my run focus. The plan is to run as frequently as possible with the aim of building up to around 6-8hrs PW. I'll do this for another 2-3 months and then drop the volume back down to around 5-6 hrs PW as I enter my IM specific preps.

I'll try to keep updating my blogger every Wednesday and Sunday for anyone that might be interested in following my progress.

If you have any questions about IM training please feel free to post on here or email at anytime. I love talking about this stuff.

Fluro

week ending 8/7/07

2007-07-02T10:13:00.000+10:00

Photo
This is my grade 3 class having a little fun on the last day of school. They are a wonderful group of students and I'll miss teaching them.

Didn't get to start my swim focus last week. For some reason the local pools were closed over the weekend. Hopefully, I'll be able to kick things off this week. My foot is starting to feel better. I managed a 3hr ride last Saturday and my feet held up pretty well. I may be back.

Swim Focus

2007-06-26T16:00:00.001+10:00

Monday
Staff end of year party
Tuesday
Bike: (1hr), 26km, 110bpm. Very easy ride around town. The new cycling shoes seem to be making a big difference.
PM: No swim as I was helping people move house. Busy week this week
Wednesday
Bike: (1hr), 26km, 112bpm. Wore my orthotics in my cycling shoes today and it didn't feel as comfortable as yesterdays ride. I could feel pins and needles right away. This confirms the orthotics are just too bulky for my cycling shoes.
Massage: (1hr)
Thursday

Friday

Saturday
Bike (3hrs), 85km. av hr 110bpm. The pool was closed so I extended this ride out another hour. It went very well. My foot felt good, but I wasn't wearing the orthotics.
Sunday
Damm pools were closed again today

So much for starting my swim focus. It was a very busy week and my local pools were closed over the weekend. Oh well, start this week I suppose.

Here is another cool video for you "Skirough" have the tissues ready. This one is a bit of a tear jerker. Enjoy

fluro

The Journey has begun

2007-06-18T11:51:00.000+10:00

Video
If your looking for motivation then this a the video for you. Just check out the judges reaction when this guy says he is going to sing opera.
P.S Thanks Mike

The journey has begun. It's time to start the ball in motion in preparing for my next IM. I have decided to commit to IM Japan 2008. Due to unfortunate circumstances I had to withdraw from this years event due to Metetarsalgia. I’ve had some extended down time now and will continue to stay off my feet for a few more weeks yet.
This means the first part of the plan is to improve my swimming and slowly resume cycling. Once I can handle the volume on the bike and I’m injury free I’ll then start running again. Step by step.
Magic marker No1: 20k swim week.
That’s the goal. My aim is to regularly swim over 20k a week during this time when I am unable to ride or run. Over the last 6 weeks I’ve managed to build my swimming up to around 4-5 sessions (12-15km PW). It’s now time to increase the distance of each of those sessions. I feel like I’m holding my stroke together pretty well now for an 1hr and my bilateral breathing is coming along very well. It’s time to jump up to the next level. I’ll start increasing some of my swim sessions up to 80 – 90 minutes now.
Once I have consistently put in some 20k weeks of swimming I think I should be right in that highly adaptive phase. I’ll continue to swim this way right up til August and then I hope to resume running again.

Stay tuned

fluro

Tuesday
Bike: (1:20). av hr 122bpm. easy to Aet. This was my first ride back after a10 day break. I got to try out my new shoes and I must say my ride felt pretty good. No pins and needles, burning or numbness like a normally experience.
Swim: (1hr), 3.2km. 20min straight free with periods of mod-hard. 15 min of drill20 x 25m on 1min max effort. Starting to see some sub 15sec times on the clock3 x 200 of free easy to steady. 25m indoor. Imust say I prefer doing my dril lwork in the 25m pool. 50m just seems too long to be able to hold perfect form on my drills and stop myself from going into oxygen debt.
Wednesday
Massage: 1hr. Left peroneal is still very sore to touch but it never hurts when I train???? My third toe is still sore too. There must be alot of scar tissue in and around that area. I thought things would be settling down by now. Both calves are tight and I managed to communicate with the masseuse that I needed some deep tissue work on them. Overall I feel there has been some slight improvements.
Thursday
Swim:(1:20), 4km.
1.2k free
1k buoy
400 free
2-20 free
4-100 negative split. (1:30, 1:28, 1:25, 1:20)
8-50 negative split (started at 42 and wroked down to 33)
Bailed after this as my stroke was falling apart. This was my longest swim to date. Overall happy with the progress
Friday
Bike: (1:02), 27km, av hr 118bpm. easy spin around town. This is my second ride with no foot pain. I hope this is going to continue as I slowly increase my volume
Saturday
Bike (2hrs), av hr 110bpm. very easy hr before swimming and then again after swimming
Swim: (1:15). 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400. All B/L with a 10-20sec rest between sets. Drills for the rest of the session.

fluro

New Shoes

2007-06-10T11:11:00.000+10:00

Photo
Starting from the left.
Shimano size 44.
Then I recently bought another pair of shimano's in a size 45. These did not help at all.
I finally found a pair of shoes that make a wider model. Welcome to world of Sidi, size 45 E

Well spent all day yesterday riding to every single bike we could find. I brought Noel along with me as his Japanese is quite fluent and this turned out to be a big help.

My mission was to try and locate the widest pair of cycling shoes that I could find, because in one store this guy had a neat little contraption that could measure the widest of my foot. The result being is that I'm an E. But the length of my foot is only 25.8cm. So we worked out that I need at least a size 45 shoe but it had to be a wider version.

From what we were told there are only two brands of shoes which make a wider model. They are Shimano and the Sidi Scrape Genius 5.

We went to 4 different stores and none of them stocked these two pairs of shoes in a size 45. The Japanese just have small feet. The last store we went to had the Sidi's but not the Shimano's in a size 45. I tried them on and they did feel good. They did feel much wider. This was a good sign. So I then inserted my orthoticis and then things weren't so good. The orthotics are just taking up too much more. Immediately my toes were pushing up against the sides of the shoes. I think now the problem I have with the orthotics is that they are too thick. No shoe on earth will be able to cater for this. I need to go back the the podiatrist and see what can be done. Luckily at the store, the guy who was servicing knew his stuff. He could see what my problem was and Noel was translating what I was saying. In the end the shop owner, made some insert for me that were as close as possible to what my orthotics needed to do, but only thinner. The whole process took around 1hr and he was very thorough. I walked out of the stored satisfied.

But, will this work? I hope so.

I'll take another week off from cycling and then I'll try out the new shoes. I'll start out with only 1 ride PW until I'm riding with ZERO pain. Only then will a start to increase my volume again.

This is going to be slow, but it is pointless of me trying to train at around 70-80% of my goal weekly targets with pain.

I want t be 100% injury free so I can start doing what I feel I'm meant to be doing.

In the mean time I'll continue with my swimming focus which is coming along very well. I did a swim session yesterday with a timed 100m free at the end of the session. It was broken up into 2 x 50m with a 10sec rest. My time is now down to a 1:08 a PB. I'm getting closer to that 1min barrier.

I also did a little test set of 4-100 taking 10sec rest. The idea was to swim these at tempo (ie 1k pace). I held 1:25's doing all of these B/L. That is a big breakthrough for me doing B/L. Another PB.

fluro

Tough times ahead.

2007-06-07T16:11:00.000+10:00

Well the decision has to be made and I have finally succumbed. I need to stop cycling and running totally in order to let my feet heel.

I haven't run now for 6weeks approx and I've cut back my cycling volume by 50%. So over the last 4weeks I've only been doing around 10hrs PW, yet my feet seem to be getting worse and worse. Sitting here at the computer I'm experiencing a constant burning sensation in my toes and I keep getting pins and needles shooting through my toes on both feet at the most sporadic times throughout the day. I just can't seem to put down any definite pathology to the problems I'm experiencing. Maybe I just need to give the new orthotics more time (2 weeks so far) to do there thing.

So I've made to the decision to stop cycling now to see if I can experience any sort of improvements without training for a while. My massage yesterday was a disaster, The masseuse was barely able to touch the problem areas. Why would this be? I have no idea as I hardly did any training last week, but I guess now any training might be too much until I fix this problem.

On a positive note I'll be able to fully dive into a swim focus period. My goal being to do a PB over 1500m. At the moment my quickest ever has been a low 21min. I would just love to break 20min one day. I would also love to be able to do 30-100m on a 1:30 base again. It would also be cool to be able to do around 6-100m on a 1:20. To break 30second for 50m would also be another cool target to aim for. At least this should keep me sane while I'm having a break from cycling and running.

I'm hopping that this is the right decision I'm making as I have been constantly injured since my first IM back in 2004. I'm making the firm decision now that I need to get my health sorted out first before I can even consider entering another IM. Even then I need to be able to put together at least 6mths of injury free IM training before I even think about entering a race. I've done 3 x IM's and 2 x HIM's since 2004 and they all have been on injured feet. It's time to make the change as I'm still highly motivated and very keen to do alot more IM's and HIM's yet.

To Dave C, Mike and Steve. Goodluck with your races, your bloggers really help me to stay in the game.

Anyway here are a few more photos from my camping trip away.

fluro

week ending 27/5/07

2007-05-30T15:15:00.000+10:00

Our campsite.

Photo
Here I am having to carry all the gear into our campsite. Being the only guy I was left with no choice.

This was part of a 3 hr walk we did from our campsite up to lake Yumoto. Along the way we experienced some beautiful scenery

Danielle, Mandy and myself having a break along the trail. Right under us were two fisherman, fly fishing.

It was relaxing watching these guys fishing. They were everywhere, situated in some pretty cool places

Once we reached the base of Lake Yumoto, we stopped in for a quick bite to eat. I can't say I rate these fish too highly. They were very metallically

Here are a few photos from a weekend camping trip up past Nikko. We were pretty high up and the tops of the mountains were still snow capped.
It was great to be able to get away and give the feet just a little more rest before I decide to start my bike focus.
Do you like the fish we had for lunch?
I can't say that my feet are really improving and I'm at a lost as to what I should be doing. I haven't run now for about 6weeks and my feet are still quite sore. Even when I ride I get alot of pins and needles amd sharp bruning sensations in both feet.

I'll try and update my training log tomorrow with some more pictures

fluro

Week ending 13/5/07

2007-05-14T14:02:00.000+10:00

Photo
My grade 3 class

Monday
Swim: (1:10), 4km, 1k free
1k buoy
10-50 (25 fast, 25 easy)
800drill
200 free
Swimming those 2 x 1k's at the start was good. You can really tune into your stroke and B/L breathing.
Bike: (50min), 20k, easy spin to and from the pool

Tuesday
Run: (26min), 5km, av hr 130bpm. What a disaster. 3 weeks with zero running and my first run lasts for all of 8minutes before the burning started. I'll give it a 1-2 weeks for the orthotics to turn things around. If there is no more improvements I'll be off the the surgeon
Wednesday
Bike: (1:03), 29k, 114bpm. Rode easy (105-115bpm) for the first 45min, then I did 20min of lower steady (130-135bpm) on the way home. Legs are feeling great on the bike
Thursday
Yoga: (1:15). Man I needed this. Lower body was getting very tight, especially through the peroneals
Friday
Bike: (1.5hrs). 40km. Rode out to the foot doc and back.
Saturday
Bike: (3:20), 90km, av hr 120bpm. rode easy to Aet. Did a little steady in the middle of the ride and we finished off with one sprint finish. Hr hit 170bpm
Swim: (1:15), 4km.
1k mixed (free, drill, back)
1x100, 2x50 (breath every 4th stroke, hard)
1x100, 2x50 (breath every 5th stroke, hard)
drill for the rest of the session.
Sunday
Canned bike ride. Was supposed to do a hill session, but the left achilles just isn't ready enough to hit the hills. Went to the baseball Saturday without my orthotics in and woke up Sunday morning with very sore feet.

Swim 2:25
Bike 6:53
Run 0:26
Yoga 2:15

Total 12:00

A mixed recovery period for me this week. Didn't quite get in the number of sessions I wanted as I was busy with work. Still hit 12hrs which was the target.
Had to bail on Sundays ride as my feet were really sore. My foot doc put in two cork inserts and this seems to have relieved the pressure around my metatarsals but it is hurting everywhere else. At the baseball on Saturday night my feet were throbbing. I think I need to purchase bigger shoes as the orthotics and inserts are taking up quite a bit of room.
Next week I'll be back I'm for 18-22hrs again. Mainly swimming and riding. Need to hit a TT soon again on the bike to see how I'm progressing and when I get a chance I'll do another 500m TT in the pool. Once I start swimming sub 7min for 500m I'll increase my TT to 1km. On the bike once I can break 30min for 20k (ie 40kph) I'll increase that TT up to 30km.

fluro

Week ending 6/04/07

2007-05-07T08:44:00.000+10:00

Monday
Total rest day
Stretching: (20min)
Tuesday
Bike (4.5hrs), 125km, av hr 116bpm. Did 3 hr straight, ducked home picked up the backpack then rode out to the foot podiatrist. Rode out along route 246 for 1.5hrs and then back. This road gets a little undulating so it good to do a little hill work. Coming home was fun, getting sucked along at 45+kph with the traffic.
Swim: (1:10), 3.5km,
20min easy.
10-100 on 1:40, coming in around 1:30. 5th and 10th hard (1:15 on both).
400m drill,
8-50 (4x50) negative split each 4. 45 down to 37sec. Did these on 1min.
400 drill,
200 cooldown
Wednesday
Bike: (1.5hrs), 30km, av hr 120bpm, Road out the the foot doctor and back. Had orthotics made. Will test out tomorrow. Rode mod-hard to hard on the way home. It was fun in peek hour traffic at 6pm
Stretching: (20min)
Thursday
Bike: (3hrs), 85km, av hr 114bpm. First ride in the new orthotics. They felt pretty good. Rode easy to Aet, with around 20min of steady in the middle.
Friday
Swim: (30min), Bailed out after 30min. Public holiday today and the pool was packed
Weights: (1hr). Upper body. Not to heavy, kept everything in the 10-15rep range.
Saturday
Bike: (3:06hrs), 90km, av hr 120bpm. Did laps around the palace before swimming. Easy to Aet with some mod-hard on the rises. Frederico(?) joined us, the guy is a 4 time world trackcycling champ (keiren event). Massive quads.
Swim: (1hr), 2.5km. Did mainly high end stuff. 15m spints, 25m sprints, 50m sprints. Finish off with a 100m timed. I came in on 1:11. very pleased with the time. progressing well in the pool at the moment. Also did around 15min of drill work in the 25m pool
Sunday
Bike: (2:31), 71km, av hr 119bpm.Had to battle the rain this morning. Was determined to crack 20hrs this week.
6min standing (30kph)
6min BG (38-40kph), 150bpm
6min TT (35-38kph), 145bpm (headwind).
Didn't have any pop today. Alot of volume tends to do that.
Stretching: (30min). Tight through the peroneals again. need to work on whole body stretching again.

Swim 3:40
Bike 14:40
Run 0
Stretch 1:20
Weights 1:00

Total 20:30

Summary
This is third time I have ever broken 20hrs in a week. It is also the easiest. I feel like I'm handling the volume and recovery much better now. It was a very balanced week for me with nothing too long just a good dose of consistency for the whole week. I felt like I could of done another 3-4 hrs all up but I purposely held myself back as I don't want to over do it. I did a nice little PB in the pool last Saturday. It was towards the end of the session and after riding 3hrs beforehand. I swam a 1:11 for 100m free. Push off the wall start.
I'll take 4-5 day easy this week and do some testing on the bike.
I've decided to try and start running again as I feel my achilles is at 99%. Will start out with 30minute runs and just progress from there.

fluro

week ending 29/04/07

2007-04-30T18:21:00.000+10:00

Pictures
Elvis is in the house. These guys were a crack up.
Imperial palace gardens on a very nice warm day

Monday
Total rest day
Tuesday
Swim: (1:20), 4km, 25min easy free100, 200, 300, 400, negative split, 400, 300, 300, 100,
12 x 25m max effort on 1min 200 cooldown. Big main set on the ladder. Swimming is coming along but fatigue still sets in at around 50min mark.
Weights: (1hr) Upper body
Bike: (1.5hrs), 46km, av hr 127bpm. easy 30min W/U5 x 1min FT efforts (hitting around 43kph), 2min RI10min easy30min Steady10min 'stomps' with the traffic lights. Solid ride today. It's the first time I've been able to average over 30kph in tokyo. Achilles was okay foot was poor.

Wednesday
Total rest day
Thursday
Swim: (1hr), 3km. I can't remember what I did today. Brick session (S/B)
Bike: (1:09), 35.5km, av hr 133bpm. part of a swim bike brick. felt like I was riding with a tailwind the whole time. It was effortless sitting on 38-40kph. 10min warmup5min hard. 43-45kph (154bpm)6min standing6min BG (53/11)6min TT (38-40kph)Rode steady to mod-hard for the next 20min. Not sure if thechange of cleat position had anything to do with it, but I felt like I was on fire today.

Friday

Swim: (1hr), 3km. Not to motivated today. Did a mix of drills and then some 50-100's.

Saturday

Bike: (3:05), 85km, av hr 116bpm. Rode 2 hrs before swimming and then 1 hr after. All easy to Aet. Not ready to start inserting main sets here yet. That would wipe me too much at this stage.

Swim: (1hr), 3km, 200-400 w/u. ladder set with every second with buoy and neg split 100, 200, 300, 400, 300, 200, 100. Worked hard on this set and still got lapped by the fish (Dave) by the 500m mark. Damm he is quick, 200-300 cool down. 15min drill. learn't some butterfly today. Solid swim

Sunday

Bike: (4hrs), 119km. Rode out to Yokohoma. Bike battery went flat. So just relied on HR. Did around 1-2 hrs of steady. TT'ing well. Moving the ball of my foot in front of the pedal axle has given me some new found power of the bike especially in the TT position. Picked this tip up on cycling news.

Swim: 4:25

Bike: 9:45

Run: 0

Weights: 1:30

Stretching 1:00

Total: 16:30

Summary

Swimming fitness is improving every week. We start to aim for 4k sessions now. My bike strength has also improved alot recently with the changes I've made to my cleats. Achilles is about 80%. I'll probably take another 1-2 weeks off running and wait til I get my achilles feleing 100%. I don't want this injury to hamper my run training.

fluro

week ending 22/4/2007

2007-04-23T08:41:00.000+10:00

Photo
This is the indoor 25m pool I swim at. As you can see by the photo no-one is swimming. This is because every couple of hours they blow the whistle, get everybody out for 10 minutes and do a sweep of the pool. What it is they are looking for, I have no idea. It gets annoying, along with the fact that you are not aloud to overtake anyone while your swimming. Apart from that this facility is pretty awesome and has a great weight room (top right corner of the photo), indoor sports courts, aerobics room, spa and sauna.

Monday
Stretching. (30min) focused mainly on tight Achilles
Tuesday
Bike: (1hr). W/T, 26.3km, av hr 116bpm. 20min easy, 10min steady, 4 x 1.5min Hard (150bpm cap), 3.5min RI. Raining outside so I hit the W/T. Achilles felt much better today after 2 days rest.
Swim: (1hr), 3km, 20min straight swim (LSD)100 free, 25-50 hard200 free, 4-50 hard300 free, 6-50 hard400 free.4-25 fast on 55sec. Was meant to do around 20 of these but I start getting cramps in my calves. Ended session there. Too much caffeine and not enough water during the day.
Weights: (1hr) lower body.
Wednesday
Total rest day
Thursday
Swim: (1hr) 3km, 20min free easy10-100, 15 sec RI, 10- 75, 15 sec RI, 10- 50, 15 sec RI, Every fourth was swum hard, the rest were B/L holding perfect form.
Bike: (1hr), W/T, av hr 121, max hr 161bpm.
30min easy
Build to 130 down to 115
build to 135 down to 115
build to 140 down to 115
build to 145 down to 115
build to 150 down to 115 (starting to hurt)
build to 155 down to 115
build to 160 down to 115 (labouring now) FT is 164bpm.
Good session. each build effort took about 2-3 min to get to the target HR. It then took another 2-3 min for my HR to drop back down
Weights: (1hr) Upper body.
Friday
Swim: (40min). 500m TT in 7.20.
Not bad was expecting to be around that pace. 500m easy then 20 x 25m max effort. I was doing these on 1min and coming in right on 15sec. Good for building strength and speed in the water. Only had 40min available to swim.
Saturday
Bike: (2.23), 65km, 114bpm. Easy ride around the palace before swimming. Foot wasn't feeling too good today.
Swim: (1hr), 3km. 200m easy4-50 of drill 4-100 IM 400 buoy 4-50 drill 200 build 200 build15-20min of drill in the 25m pool. learning alot from David at the moment. Stroke is feeling better. i can feel my lats activating alot more now.
Sunday
Swim: (1hr), 3km. 200 free, 2-100 free, 4-50 free, 8-25 (25max, 25 left arm, 25 right arm, 25 catchup, x2)I repeated this set 4 times, trying to build on each set. The more I swim the easier it gets. I gave myself around 10-15 sec rest between each interval.
Weights: (40min) lower body
Bike: (1hr), 26km, 120bpm. did 40 easy then 5min lower steady, 5min easy, 5min steady, 5min easy, 5min upper steady, 5min easy.

Swim: 4:40
Bike: 5:23
Run: 0
Weights: 3:10

Total 13:13

Summary
No running this week. Achilles is still sore, although it does seem to be getting better slowly. Decided also to cancel my long ride to give the Achilles some extra rest. managed 5 swims this week. Improving my swimming seems to be directly related to how much I swim. The more I swim the quicker I improve. I'll probably start swimming up around 4k's now as I'm finding that I'm recovering well after an 1 hr swims now.
I've been reading some article on cycling news and have discovered that people who suffer from hot or numb feet while riding can actually help cure the problem by moving the ball of your foot to around 10mm past the pedal axle. I went ahead with this theory and I'll test it out this week to see if there will be any improvements.
Congratulations Mike on your Boston marathon result. After reading your report it looks like your were putting in the hard yards towards the end, well done.

Week ending 15/4/07

2007-04-16T06:32:00.000+10:00

Photo
This is the leg that has been causing me all my problems since 2004. It started out with plantar fasciitis, then I developed a lateral Tibial stress syndrome. This then turned into an overuse injury with my peroneal nerve. Finally I now have mortons neuroma and achilles tendinitis. In essence all these injuries are result of me having a short left femur, very high arches, sprayed toes (notice my toes don't even touch the ground) and I'm a supinator. I'm not giving up though as I love to train and I know I have a good IM result in me. My dream of qualifying for Hawaii will one day be realised.

Monday
Total rest day
Tuesday

Bike (1.5hrs), 35km, av hr 109bpm. 15min easy, 5min steady, 15min easy, 5min BG (1min on 1min off)15min easy, 5min single leg drill (1min on, 1 gear harder), 15min easy, 5min high cadence (1min on 1min off).Good workout. I was struggling to get my heart up on the trainer. RPE always feels much higher then what my hr says???

Run (33:15), 7km, av hr 143bpm. did 1 k on then 1k off. Averaged around 4:30's with the on's and 5.00min/k's on the offs. Ran pretty well and the run was too short to really upset the foot.

Wednesday
Total rest day
Thursday
Bike (1:36), 44km, av hr 118bpm. Rode out for 30min and then back. headed to the Imperial Palace and TT'd 1 lap as hard as I could. Time 8:15, av sp 36kph, av hr 157bpm. Had to contend with 3 red lights
Swim: (45min), 2km, 15min straight swim bilateral. then 20-50 on the 1min every 4th hard. aimed for 42-43sec on the steady's and 37-38sec on the hards. Long recovery allowed me to hold pace. finished off with some drill
Weights: (1hr) Whole body workout
Friday
Total rest day
Saturday
Swim: (30min), 1.5km. very busy today. Bailed after 30min there were just too many breastrokers. did mainly drills and hard 25's and 50's.
Weights: (1:15). Upper body. Decided to split sessions up into lower and upper body now.
Sunday
Total rest day

Swim 1:15
Bike 4:06
Run 0:33
Weights2:30
Total 8:30

Summary
My achilles is very sore at the moment. When I first wake up I can't put my heel on the ground. Throughout the day the pain comes and goes. It appears to be getting worse. I decided to stop running altogether until I can sort this out and I'll jut swim and ride over the next 4-6 weeks. If the riding still aggravates my achilles then I'll have to start cutting back there too.

I stopped wearing my new orthotics as this is what was hurting my achilles too much. I put my old ones (made in Australia) back in and already after 1 day things feel better around my heel. Although they do nothing to help my neuroma.

So the next step for me is to get myself back to the orthopedic surgeon and see if he can refer my onto a good foot podiatrist. In the meantime I keep swimming as much as I can and I'll watch to see how much riding I can do. I'll probably cut back on my long ride (down to 3hrs) for a while and I'll keep doing weights. The weights do seem to help stretch and strengthen the achilles which is good.

Fluro

Week ending 8/4/07

2007-04-09T08:56:00.000+10:00

With the Cherry Blossom season upon us there has been alot of this being drunk of late........SAKE!

Those two little statues were bought in Sapa. North Vietnam near the chinese boarder in a very small remote village.

Monday
Swim (1hr), 3k,
500 free, 5-100, 10-50400 free, 4-100, 4-50, 200 free, 2-100, 2-50100, 100, 2-50. Not too comfortable with my stroke at the moment.
Tuesday
Run: (48min), 9k, av hr 129bpm. very easy run to the bike shop. Picked up some new cycling shoes, one size bigger, to try and give my toes some more room. Fingers crossed. Both achilles were quite sore at the start of this run. mmmmm
Wednesday
Bike: (1:43), 51k, av hr 122bpm. No choice this morning. Bailed on yesterdays ride because of the rain. Well it rained solidly on my new shoes. Crap all over them. Oh well. Main set 3 x 6min BG (53/11) 3min RI. Held around 38-39kph. Finished off with 30min of steady TT (lower range ie 130-135bpm).
Weights: (1hr), First session in the gym. I thought I kept everything light, but when I tried to walk down the stairs to leave, both quads just cramped up on me. I couldn't get down the stairs. It was so embarrassing.
Thursday
Run: (31min), 6k, av hr 132bpm. Legs really stiff after gym last night. Left achilles is still sore when I first wake up then it settles down. Run went well. No pain.
Yoga: (1:15). Good session tonight. I can definitely feel myself getting more and more flexible.
Friday
Bike: (1:53), av hr 113bpm. 30min easy then did a 10K TT at the bottom end of my steady zone. Nice tailwind made sitting on 38-40kph @ 130-135bpm feel easy. Rode around 120-125bpm for the rest of the ride. feeling stronger on the bike, av sp is climbing.
Swim: (1hr), 3k, It was abit crowded tonight with slow breatstrokers and not being allowed to overtake made it frustrating. Settled in to 25-50's of mainly drills and some harder efforts. Was doing my 50's just under 40sec which was pretty cool for 1st week back in the pool.
Gym: (1hr), whole body workout. Increased the weights slightly and kept the reps in the 15-25 range. squats, leg press, leg curls, calf raises. incline press, upright rows, lat pulldowns, biceps curls, tri ext, abs x3 sets
Saturday
Bike: (2:20), 60km, 113bpm. rode easy to Aet before swim. feeling fit on the bike
Swim: (1hr), 3k, did 8-100 breathing every 5(buoy). then various drills and 25m hard effort. Swiiming ha picked up already in 1 week
Sunday
Bike: (4:45) 140km, 130bpm., Man I was in the world of hurt today. The french guys decided to start up a paceline and it was on. I think we did around 3-4 laps of a 8k circuit. Av sp for this was 38kph and av hr was 157bpm. Boy my legs were shattered. Not used to the high end paceline work. Foot was quite numb and sore towards the end. Was searching for coke at the end of this ride

Total

Swim: 4:15

Bike: 10:47

Run: 1:19

Yoga 1:15

Gym: 2:00

Total 19:30

Summary
A good week of training. Stroke feels better already. The bike is coming along nicely and the hard efforts on Sunday were a real shock to the system. Running was a little low but thats to be expected with the way my foot is.
Next week I'll enter into a slight recovery period just tov let the body absorb the last 2 weeks of training. May even do some TT efforts to start recording my progress on the bike and in the pool. This will probably be a 20k TT bike and a 500m TT swim.

fluro

week ending 1/4/07

2007-04-02T08:22:00.000+10:00

Monday

Run: (1:01), 12km, av hr 137bpm. Bloodly achiles, enough said. Foot was hot and numb but tolearble. Will restrict myself to just 3 runs PW now to see if I can continue to train.

Tuesday

Bike: (2:40), 80km, av hr 130bpm. easy 40min then I did a 20k TT heading down the Aka river. Time 31:35 (av sp 37.8kph). Av hr 154bpm. pretty happy with the time and av hr. Couldn't really get my hr up much higher. Early days yet. Goal is to break 30min for a 20k TT.

Wednesday
Bike: (1hr), 24km, av hr 105bpm. Very easy recovery spin
Run: (55min), 11km, av hr 138bpm. Foot was okay today. managed to run a pretty comfortable distance.

Thursday

Bike: (2:47), 70km, av hr 113bpm. Man it was windy out there. Coming home I was almost thrown off the bike twice. It was just getting too hairy in the tokyo traffic so I bailed on riding any further. kept most of the ride easy to Aet working on endurance

Friday

Run: (1hr), 11.5km, 129bpm. Had my orthotics adjusted yesterday. More support added to stop me supinating. This seemed to help as I was able to run quite comfortably today with only minor burning. Lets hope this continues. The specialists wants me to resume normal training in order to test that the orthotics will hold up.

Saturday

Bike: (2:07), 55km, av hr 107bpm. Very low av hr. Easy aerobic ride before swimming. Teaching the body to burn fat.
Swim: (1hr), 3km. mix of drills and some harder efforts. Good session

Run: (55min), 10km, av hr 130bpm. very easy run around the canals

Sunday

Bike: (2:50), 80km, av hr 120bpm. Rode really well today. did a 40min TT in the middle of this ride and was comfortably sititng on 36kph at around 130bpm. Tailwind of course made things a little easier.

Total

swim 1

bike 11:24

run 4:00

Yoga 0:30

Total 16:56

Pretty good wek of training. Foot held up quite well with 4 runs and I was happy to get in 5 rides this week. After watching Ironman live on Sunday and psyched up now to start focusing on my swimming again. Bring it on. Time to start punching out those 18-22hr weeks.

fluro

week ending 1/4/07

2007-03-31T14:00:00.000+10:00

Well it's Cherry blososm time here in Tokyo. I must say the beauty of these trees in full bloom has definitely cracked into my top 10 list of all times things to see and do. The atmosphere over here is wonderful. People are partying under the trees and drinking a healthy dose of sake. Everbodies spirits are sky high and these trees are just breathtaking when they are in full bloom.

I'm about to head out on a 1hr run along the canal with the camera. Stayed tuned for some more shots.

Tokyo absolutely rocks around this time of the year.

Fluro

New Stead

2007-03-23T13:17:00.000+11:00

The lovely missus has given me the go ahead to start saving up for a new bike. I've narrowed it down to two bikes at the moment. Which one would you choose????

I had the pleasure of viewing a Cervelo P2C last weekend and I was thouroughly impressed with the bike. I'm yet to see a planert-X up close but they do seem to offer a pretty good overall package.

Foot update

I've had 2 weeks of pretty light training and this seems to have helped me slightly with my foot. I'm running and riding again and it's only numbness I seem to be experiencing. I'm going to continue to increase the volume of my training over the next few weeks and see how the orthotics hold up. Fingers crossed.

fluro

Week ending 18/3/07

2007-03-20T13:23:00.000+11:00

Photos

Just a few more photos from our skiing weekend in habuka

I cut back on training this week and last week to try and give my foot a chance to take to the new orthotics. Hopefully, this will have worked and with a little luck I might be able to get my hours back up into the 18-22hr range.

Monday

No training complete rest day

Tuesday

Run: (41min), 8km, av hr 135bpm. Started out okay then the numbness kicks in at around 15min. By the end of the run my left foot was starting to really go on me. Didn't worry about going any further.

Wednesday

Bike: (1:25), 42.5km, av hr 134bpm. Straight into a solid ride this morning. First 30min were up to Aet. Then I did a 1 x16min TT mod-hard, 10min easy, Loop of the palace (8min) mod-hard. Rode pretty well this morning. Almost managed to break through the 30kph av in Tokyo which is very hard with all the lights. Foot held out til about the 1hr mark and then the numbness started.

Run: (54min), 10.5km, av hr 136bpm. Fartlek run. Feel good run up to HIMpace Include strides. Strides went well. Foot was okay today. Only numbness and not too much pain. Don't know why this would be.

Thursday

Yoga: (1:15). Bit distracted tonight. Wanted to be everywhere else except at yoga.

Friday

Bike: (1:56), 51km, av hr 117bpm. My first ever ride in the snow. It wasn't much but it was still pretty cool. Fingers were absolutely freezing. Didn't effect my riding as the roads were still okay.

Saturday

Total rest day. had to run student lead conferences at school today. too busy and a very long day.

Sunday

Bike: (4:20), 115km, av hr 128bpm (max hr 173bpm). Very windy this morning. Meet up with some westerners today. Top blokes on awesome bikes (2 x cervelo P2C). We did 5 laps of the warf. The first 3 were cruisy then I TT'd the last 2 to try and catch the peleton up the rode. Foot was okay only numbness this morning.

Total 10:30

Swim: 0

Bike: 7:39

Run: 1:35

Yoga: 1:15

Summary.

It's frustrating doing only 1/2 my normal week but I guess this is what I need to do in order to become healthy again.

two weeks of down time seems to have helped my foot slightly. I'm only getting numbness at the moment and not that hot burning blow torch feeling under my foot. I'll try and up my hours again next week to around 18 and see how my foot holds up.

Hard times ahead

2007-03-08T18:43:00.000+11:00

Well appears my moroton's neuroma has finally caught up with me. Unfortunately, I now have to withdraw from Ironman Japan. The pain in my foot now only lets me run up to around 30min and I can only ride for up to 3 hrs before things start heading south and I have to stop.

The pain just becomes too much and it feels like someone is holding a blow torch under my foot.

I've had cortison injections and also orthotics put in with no success so far. I'm almost at the point where I may need an operation, but hopefully I can avoid that.

I will keep trying out other therapies and this will take time, so for that reason I've had to pull out of the Ironman. Yes I'm very disappointed about this, but Katrina and I agree that I need to get at least 12mths of solid injury free training under my belt before I can even consider racing again. My last two IM's were affected by injuries during the race and in training and I'm determied now to make sure this doesn't happen again. I think I have a good IM in me to come and I need to take on a better and more effective approach to how I train.

Talk soon.

fluro

Mt Fuji

2007-02-25T10:15:00.000+11:00

Big day out.

Bike: (253km), Time: 10:05, av hr 120bpm.

This is definitely the longest ride I have ever done. The highlight was seeing Mt Fuji snow capped and also doing a 45.3km climb up to the base of MT Fuji.

Stats on the climb were

Distance: 45.39k, av sp 19.9km, av hr 126bpm, time: 2:27 and one mother of a headwind.

By the time we arrived to the base of Fuji our av sp was only 21.9kph. We were pretty much riding into a strong headwind and climbing up for around 6.5hrs. We arrived atthe 1/2 way point at around 1:30pm. We were all pretty tired and ravenous. After scoofing down copious amounts of food we continued on with a return trip home. The decent which was different to the way we came up was incredible. I pretty much rode downhill for 1hr and 40min. It was awseome following this valley all the way down. The scenery was just incredible.

The trip home only took just under 4 hrs. This would have to be one of the best training sessions I have ever done.

week ending 25/02/2007 (17weeks to IMjapan)

2007-02-22T12:56:00.000+11:00

looking for some inspiration? This clip is pretty cool

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOVGVMiwPSA

Photo
Ueno park. I saw this building in the background and thought wow.

Photo
Ueno park. Don't know what you call this but it was a pretty cool walk down to a very old temple.

Photo.
The sumo wrestlers came and our school and did a wonderful job with the students teching them the art of sumo wrestling and rice pounding.

Plan for the week.
With my achiiles not quite right, I'll start pushing up the volume on the bike and may even start swimming again, if not, I'll definitely be in the pool by next week. The goal is to keep riding 4-5 sessions PW with 2-3 rides being BT sessions focusing on strength work and the other 2-3 rides aerobic/technique sessions.
Need to get my head mentally around riding 180k each week, which will mean riding around 6-7 hrs consistently. No need to push the pace on this ride yet. Just aim for getting good at going the distance first.

Monday
No training. rest day after skiing.

Tuesday
Bike (1:32), 43km, av hr 128bpm. easy to Aet.Main set 18min TT at Imeffort5min at Mod-hardrest of the ride was Aet with some pickups at the lights

Wednesday
No training. Stuck at work til late

Thursday
Bike: (2:33), 74km, av hr 129bpm. 1hr easy then 2 x 15min TT @Upper Steady. finished off with 15min of BG (53/12) work. Felt great on the bike this morning. Legs are fresh. Achilles is on the mend. May try and run tonight on it after Yoga class.

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

week ending 18/2/07 (18 weeks to IMjapan)

2007-02-20T12:11:00.000+11:00

Habuka

Went skiing last weekend. This is one of the reason why I love being an expat. We get to enjoy weekends away in exciting new locations. The skiing was awesome. On the first day the sun was out all day and condition were pristine. Then it snow all night until about 10.00am the next day. Conditions again were ideal and the views were spectacular.

Week ending 18/2/07

Monday

Tuesday

Bike: (1:25), 37km, av hr 112bpm. easy to Aet ride. The new look Keo pedals feel great. Definitely no rocking happening like my old ones.

Wednesay

Bike: (45min), 20k, av hr 110bpm. Very easy spinf around town. Top of feet a little sore with the needles in them at the moment.
Run: (45min), 8.5km, av hr 128bpm. easy. Achilles was a little tight, but it did feel better.

Thursday
Bike: (1:32), 40km, av hr 118bpm. Very easy spin. Foot felt good, but achilles was a little sore when I stood up on the pedals.
Run: (55min), 10.5km, av hr 130bpm. Cortisone injection seemed to work okay. Didn't feel any pain. Achilles is still twitchy though. Will need to work on this one now.

Friday
Total rest day. Full on day at work

Saturday
Skiing weekend

Sunday
Skiing weekend

Summary

Swim 0
Bike 3:42
Run 1:40
Ski 9:30
Total 14:52

A total cross training week this week. Not happy that my achilles is playing up now and decided to back off from cycling and running to really let it settle down. The skiing weekend went well and my achilles was pretty good on Sunday.

Next week. I will try and resume to some normal training, although I think my hours will be down a little with my achilles still feleing tender. I really need to try and get this 100% before I consider jumping into 18-22hr weeks again.

The photo below shows where I had my two cortisone shots and those fours patches you can see contain little needles which are supposed to encourage an immune response to my foot. I wore these for a week and were a little annoying at times.

Fluro

Week ending 11/2/07 (19weeks to IM)

2007-02-08T15:19:00.000+11:00

Muine beach. This was our great place to stay, with a villa being right behind this photo

Mekong delta. A great shot of one of the many locals venturing along the mekong delta selling fruit and vegetables.

Muine beach. Each night Katrina and I would sit out on the deck chairs after a hard day in the sun. The surf was good, the water was warm and the sunsets were spectacular. I must not forget the beers too...................Oh yeah! I managed to throw in a prosposal too.

Finally started the plan this week. Make sure I keep the volume and frequency going and the intensity out. Concentrate on Tuesday's triple, Sunday's long bike, and Saturdays long run. use these sessions to start inserting periods of Steady efforts in and around IMpace.

Monday
Total rest day

Tuesday
Bike: (2:05), 57km, av hr 116bpm. 90min easy then 30min TT at Im effort. hr was really lagging this morning. Legs were okay. Must still be fatigued from Sundays ride. lessons learned
Bike: (2:02), 58.5km, av hr 127bpm. 1 hr easy then 3 x 5min BG efforts (53/12). 4 min RI. Thought the legs would of struggled this afternoon, but they held together well. hr wasn't lagging as much as this morning. perfect riding conditions today.
Run: (51:09min), 10km, av hr 135bpm. fatigued legs to start with and a sore achilles. It took aorund 10min for me to find any rhythm. The joy didn't last long with the left foot giving me grief at about 40min and onwards.

Wednesday
Sleep in in the mroning. I was cooked after yesterdays BT day.
Run: (1:21), 16km, av hr 131bpm. Ran easy out to the Imperial palace, 4.5k = 23:30 (5:14min/k),av hr 125bpm
did 1 lap around the imperial palace.
Cruise intervals for the 4.5k on the way home 20:50 (4:38min/ks), av hr 141bpm.
hr was very low today. A definite sign of fatigue. legs felt good. Cruise intervals were getting tiring towards the end.
Stretching: 20min.

Thursday
Bike: (2:05), 53km, av hr 115bpm. very easy spin. Yoga this afternoon. Can't be tight for that or my instructor will be upset.

Yoga: (1:20)

Friday
Bike: (2:00), 53k, av hr 113bpm. easy to aet ride
Run: (46:30), 9k, Did my 9k marked course. Felt really good running. Starting too glide along effortlessly. Had to do 6 sets of stairs on this loop. I'm guessing my pace is definitely well under 5min k's.

Saturday
Total rest day. My left achilles has flared up. Need to stay off it today

Sunday
Bike: (6:00), 157k, av hr 121bpm. I did the 1st 3 hrs easy, then I pushed the pace up to Aet for an hr. After that I did 1 hr of fartlek as lower steady (135), IMpace (140), mod-hard (145). Interval would change when I reached a red light. Over 6hrs of riding and over 71 stops due to red lights. No wonder the av sp gets knocked right down. I usually average around 15 stops per hr. Thats Tokyo riding for ya.

Summary
Swim:
Bike: 14:14
Run: 3:00
Yoga: 1:50
Total 19:00

I was a little disappointed this week. My left achilles has been getting worse and worse. Decided to can my Saturday run and Sunday run to hopefully settle it down. My bike week has come along well. 14hrs is one of my biggest weeks to date and I finished off with a 6hr ride down to the coast. I finally made it to the seashore in 2.5hrs. Luckily for me a rider pulled out in front of me and I just followed him the whole way. I know exactly where to go now. Will definitely keep this ride going over the next few months.

Plan for next week.
I'm having a lighter week this week. I've done two 19hr weeks of training and with this week being full on at work, I've decide to make this my recovery week. I'll aim for around 11-12 hrs and try and get some testing done on the bike (2 x20k TT) and run (10k TT) to see where my current Aet pace is at. This week will also give my achilles a little more time to recover.
I'm off the the orthopeadic surgeon on wednesday to have my left foot treated. It appears to be mortons neuroma, which I also think is upsetting my achilles. Looking at fetting a cortisone injection and may even request a MRI.
Starting up Japanese lessons this week too. I can't wait to be able to mix a little better with some of the local cultures over here.

Over and out

fluro

week ending 4/2/07

2007-02-03T16:18:00.000+11:00

Monday
Run: (1:05), 131bpm, 12.5k. 40min easy, 10 min steady, 6x 30 sec strides with a 30 RI walk.

Teusday
Bike: (1:41), 48.5k, 127bpm. I loop of Imperial palace then a 20min @ Impace (av hr 136bpm), 5min RI, 20min at IMeffort (130bpm).
Bike: (1:30),W/T, 37k, 121bpm. 30min easy, 30min single leg drill (6 x 1min, 3min RI). 10min at IM effort, 5min easy, 5min at MSS.
Straight into a 11k run
Run: (52:43), 11k, 148bpm. Ran 11k striaght off the bike. Effort needs to be dial down 2-3bpm. Still trying to find the right pace to run at.
Big day of training today.

Wednesday
Run: (1:10), 13.5k, 141bpm. My pace is under 5:00min'ks now. Did 2 marked km's which I didn't have to worry about climbing stairs to get over a bridge and my pace is right on 4:50's. Will be good to test this pace on the track again soon to see if I have improved from my last test.

Thursday
Bike: (2:10), 57km, 114bpm. easy to aet ride.
Yoga: (1:15). Did a little more ab work today. felt good.

Friday
Run: (55min), 10k, av hr 128bpm. very easy run with the buns. Achilles were a little sore not sure why. Yoga maybe.

Saturday
Run: (1:45), 20.6, av hr 139bpm. Ran really well today. LSD pace is down around 5:05min k's now. Did 2 laps of the Imperial palace which is exactly 5k loop
1= 25:44 (av hr 141bpm, 5:08min k's)
2= 24:25 (av hr 144bpm, 4:53min k's) Aet hr.
A good drop in pace with only small increase in hr.
Foot was playing up again, but the stops at lights on the way home gave it some relief.
Went to the docs today, looks like I have mortons neuroma and will be getting a cortisone injection on the 14th Feb. I really hope this solve my problem. I love training but hate the pain of an injury

Bike: (1:25), 112bpm. 36k, very easy ride to spind the legs out after this morning runs.

Sunday
Bike: (5;06), 139km, av hr 127bpm. went to the warf today to see who would turn up. There must of been around 100 cyclists lapping this 9k loop. I broke away from one group with one other guy and we did 3 laps each on our own. HR was through the roof and when we caught the group in front I had well and truley popped by then. Very solid bike today. 2 hrs of hard effort in the middle of a 5hr ride

Total
Swim:
Bike: 11.52
Run: 5:47
Yoga: 1:45
Total 19:24

Summary
One of my biggest weeks. Goal this year is to hit as many 18-22hr wks as I can, between now and Japan IM. Looking at past results I'm going to have to out train everyone in order to have any chance of snagging a Hawaii slot. I really do need to start taking my training to another level.

Goal for next week.
If I can keep repeating this weeks training without issues things will progress well hopefully. Will need to start thinking about swimming soon. Once I get an injection into my injured foot I should then be able to ramp my long run and medium run a little further. My long bike is right where it needs to be and my Aet run pace has finally broken under 5min k's, just in time.

fluro

Sumo day

2007-01-27T11:19:00.000+11:00

week ending 28/01/2006

2007-01-26T19:39:00.000+11:00

Photo 1
Yep here I am. It's Monday morning at about 8am and this guy walks by and offers me yesterdays Sunday Telegraph from Australia. That is Siagon for you.

Photo 2
This is one of the reasons why I didn't get to run much in Vietnam. There was just nowhere to run, even at 6am in the morning. No footpath, nowhere to cross the road and soo many bikes.

Photo 3
We loved this cafe on the corner. It was a great place to sit down, have a cup of coffee or two and just watch the world go by. So much goes on in Siagon the place and its people just never stop entertaining you.

Rest period this week. Will take it easy from Monday to Friday as I have been training for the last 14 days straight. Will have 2 zero days on Monday and Friday. I'll then resume my normal training again on Saturday (long ride) and Sunday (long run). There's no reason to back off from these two key sessions each week if you are getting in enough recovery during the week.
I'll probaly aim for around 12hrs this week.

Monday
Total rest day

Tuesday
Bike: (1:17) 30.8k, 120bpm. W/T. Did 30min easy spin then 5 x1min single leg drill with a 3min RI. Finished off with some BG (53/11) work, 4 x 1.5min with a 3min RI. HR was rising up to the mid, cad was around 63-64rpm.
Overall cad was 84rpm.
Run: (34.35), 7.3k, av hr 148bpm. Ran a solid run off the bike. av hr was 3bpm over my current Aet. Pace is sitting right on 4:45min/k's. very pleased with how I'm running at the moment in terms of fitness. Just need to nip this burning left foot when I run.
Stetching: (20min)

Wednesday
Run: (26:24), 10.5k, av hr 130bpm. left toes went really numb then the foot on fire comes on again. May have to see a podiatrist. Apart from that I'm running well. RPE is good and recovery is good.

Thursday
Bike: (1:50), 47km, av hr 113bpm. Managed to do 200m of climbing near the imperial palace. Theres just no hills in Tokyo and not sure how I'm going to address this with IMjapan being a hilly course. freezing again this morning. Rode what little hills I could find in a BG.
Yoga: (1:15). Big improvement from last week. Hips are still soo tight it is almost embarrassing. Felt stronger through the core and could hold some positions for longer then last week. need to control my breathing patterns better. Must do continual breathing.

Friday
Total rest day. See if having today off will settle down my left foot. It's a long shot but we'll see.

Saturday
Run: (1:16) 15km, av hr 135bpm. pace: 5:04min/k (8 min miles)Ran very well today. RPE was low, hr was low and the buns was on the bike to measure the distance. Foot began playing up after 1hr. Will definitely see a doc to see if I can get some sort of injection.

Sunday
Bike: (3:30), 94km, av hr 120bpm. Rode to odiaba then did 4 laps of the imperial palace. Hooked up with two other roadies and we were racing each lap. I made sure I stayed out of there draft zone and I tried to really put the hammer down on the climb which is about 1k long and the longest climb in tokyo (grade about 3%). I wasn't able to drop them at all and they weren't able to drop me either. I was losing one guy on the decents but I pulled him back on the flats. It was fun
av sp for each lap was 32.1 (141), 29.1 (139), 32 (143), 34.5 (161). That last lap was areal hammer fest even on the decent. 161 av hr is getting pretty close to my threshold of 164. Felt good to finally ride with some other people.

Summary
Total: 11:57
Swim 0
Bike 7:27
Run 2:45

Pretty good recovery week. Did some harder MSS training just to test out the fitness and to give me some goals for my next reocvery period. Ran a good 7.3k off the bike in 34min at 4:45min'k's. RPE was low for this run which tells me my running is improving across the board. On Sunday I cut my ride back from 5hr to 3:30 as it was my birthday and Katrina wanted to have a good day out. Managed to hook up with some roadies doing laps around the Imperial palace. While they kept switching turns I stayed around 30m back and tried not to let them get away on me. It worked although I had to really put the hammer down at time (ie 40-42kph) just to keep them in touch. Kept bridging the gap on the climb (1k at 2-3% grade) but they got away from me on the decents. Overall a good ride.

The goal next week is to start building up the volume again. last cycle my biggest week was 17hrs. This next cycle I would like to start cracking 20hrs. time management is going to be very important here.

I'm in

2007-01-23T21:38:00.000+11:00

Had my birthday yesterday. The school but on a dinner for Katrina and I and we were able to invite 6 of our closest friends. It was a great night and we got to munch on some Aussie rump steaks. They were mouth wateringly delicious.

Registered for IM Japan today(17th June and 22 weeks to go). So time to start rolling out the k's, fixing up the diet, getting to bed early, feeling constantly tired, losing too much weight, getting injured................. Damm I love this stuff. Bring it on.

The fluronator

Week ending 21/01/2007

2007-01-21T16:43:00.000+11:00

A good week of training this week. I reached a few milestones this week. Firstly, it was the first time I have run 6 sessions in one week. Secondly, this was my second biggest week ever of running. Currently my biggest week is 7hrs or 78km. This week I ran 6:15 and 70km.
People like Mike his training buddy Steve and the slowtwitch run challenge (not in it by the way) have really motivated me to run more. I have been very weary of running a lot though, as I am quite prone to overuse injuries. Even at the moment I’m still having issues with my peroneal nerve and the left ball of my foot burning when I run.
I decided to start up with yoga this week. In the past it has never really appealed to me and I’ve bought some books previously and tried it but never took to it. Well, a couple of fellow teachers at the school I work at have decided to bring in a Yoga instructor to the school and I thought I would give it a go. It was great, there were only 3 of us and we basically stretched for a solid 1:15. The instructor was very helpful. She would constantly use her body weight on me to get me into deeper and deeper stretches, which is just what I need.
As a result I have done 3 runs since yoga and I have had no issues, at least, with my peroneal nerve. We worked a lot on a lower bodies, in particular all round my glutes, hips and lower back. In a word, I’M HOOKED, I will definitely keep this up as part of my regular recovery strategies. I’m 37yrs old in 1 week and recovery for me is becoming more and more of a need to address on a regular basis. Yoga won’t make me faster, or fitter, but it will enable me to keep up the training I so desire to do day in day out.
If you’re training for an IM. I think it is really important to implement some sort of recovery plan in order to keep up with your training schedule. Lounging around doing nothing, taking no action, won’t allow you to maintain a healthy IM life, however, long that may be.

Training your body to recover is just as important as training your body to get fitter.

Monday
Run: (1hr), 11.5km, av hr 136bpm. easy run building to steady for the last 15min. legs felt good and hr and RPE were low this morning
Core work: (30min)

Tuesday
Bike: (2hrs), 60.8km, av hr 134bpm. Easy for the first 30min. 2 x 6min BG (53/12) capped hr at 150bpm. Rode these into a heawind.
44min TT. Did 1 river loop so there were only 3 stops on this circuit (barriers) so its a pretty trouble free ride. Rode some Mod hard in the last 10min of the ride.
Run: (30min), 5.7km, av hr 140bpm. kept this run off the bike on a soft surface. Left heel is a little twtichy, need to watch this. Ran quite well for my first brick in a while

Wednesday
Bike: (1:31), 37km, av hr 116bpm. easy spin around town. av cad 81. Alot of stopping and starting when I ride in the city.
Run: (1:10), 13.5km, av hr 135bpm. easy pace for the first 50min then I inserting some fartlek efforts with a hr cap of 150bpm

Thursday
Yoga: (1:15). A very solid session of good quality stretching. I felt great afterwards and my running absent of any tightness.

Friday
Run: (1:01), 11.5km, av 137bpm. Thats the coldest morning I have ever run. The wind made it even worse. Leg felt really good up to about the 50min mark then start getting a lttle sore. Did 2 x 1km MSS efforts at around 4:20-4:30 pace
Bike: (45min), 18km, av hr 110bpm. Only had time fr a quick 45min spin today. it's soo damm cold at the moment.

Saturday
Bike: (4:20), 114km, av hr 131bpm. Just managing to hang in there with the cold. decided to leave an hr later this morning. Not that it helped, it seemed to get colder as the wind picked up.
Did the the first hr easy then picked the pace up to Aet. TT for around 1 hr broken intervals picking the pace up to mod-hard to hard.
Run: (50min) 9.2km, av hr 134bpm. very easy run in the new shoes. Had to take out the left insole (extra) as it was causing my foot to really heat up

Sunday
Run: (1:44), 19.5k, av hr 142bpm. The change of shoes and Yoga have really helped settle down my peroneal nerve. No issues. Just need to get onto of this hot/burning feeling I get under the ball of my left foot. Do that and I'll be completely injury free.
This has been my longest run in Tokyo. Felt heavy in the legs at first but then cam good after about 30min. TT home for the last 4.6 K (21:50) at MSS. I marked this course out last week and this puts my MSS-modhard pace at around 4:45min/k's. Just need to hold that pace now and get my hr down into the steady zone. will start doing 1-2 sessions PW to address this as I move into IM training

Total 17:05
Swim 0
Bike 8:36
Run 6:14
Core/yoga 2:15

Next week goals
recovery week. Maintain some frequnecy by doing 4 rides and 4-5 runs. Take it easy from Monday to Thursday and then continue with the build up of the long ride up to 5hrs. Knock the long run back down to around 1:20 this week.

fluro

week ending 13/01/07

2007-01-13T16:22:00.000+11:00

Photo: This is Sapa with the mountains in the background. It was just a good place I wish we could of stayed longer. Damm Tours!

Photo: This was the other tribe we met during our 6-7 hr hike. We only ever saw women as the men where generally off hunting for bears and pig. Plus the men don't speak any english and apparently have no desire to be westernised.

Photo: As you can see these girls were tiny. Not even 5 ft tall. Katrina is walking next to a girl called Lily and she could speak a little english. She was 23yrs old and has 1 child. We were told until recently these women would get married at 12-13yrs and have around 11-12 children. Lily stayed right by Katrina's side for 4hrs. In the end Katrina bought a little bag and blanket off her for a me $2.00. The minute the transactions was complete she started making her way back up the mountain to meet the next lot of tourists.

Monday
Run: (45min), 8km, av hr 137bpm, First run back since Vietnam. hr was a little high and feet felt hot running.
Stretching: (30min) of stretching and core work

Tuesday
Run: (45min, 7km, av hr 130bpm. Terrible run. The pain in my left leg this morning was severe. Could only manage 5min of running and 1min of walking to get myself back home.
Bike: (1:18) W/T, 30km, av hr 118bpm. 40min easy 5x1min single leg drill, 3min RI 3x3min of MSS with a 1min RI. (140bpm, 250watts). leg felt better the more I rode. Kept cadence up around 90rpm for this session.
Stretch: (20min)

Wednesday
Bike: (2hrs), 52km, av hr 126bpm. 40% easy, 40% Aet, 20% TT @ ateady, av cad 84rpm. First road ride back. Legs felt good. Alot of stops with trafiic lights today

Thursday
Bike: (50min) W/T, 22km, av hr 119bpm. high cadence session. 30min of high cadence ie 95rpm, then 7 x 1min 110+rpm, with a 3min RI. hr was climbing to around 145bpm in my 39/17.
Run: (46min), 8.5km, av hr Much better run today. legs felt great. 2 days of stretching has helped. kept hr right down and made sure I ran on soft ground to lessen the impact
Stretch: (20min) stretch and core work

Friday
Run: (51min), 9.5km, av hr 125bpm. felt great running today. No issues at all. Stayed on soft surfaces for the majority of the time. This seems to help with the recovery. Picked up the pace in the last 10min and finished off with some surges.

Saturday
Bike: (4:05hrs), 108km, av hr 129bpm. Damm cold this morning. left at 5;30am and couldn't feel my fingers or ears for a good 2.5hrs. man my ears were killing me.
Hit the first 3hrs of this ride pretty well. did a 50min TT at Steady in that last hour. Then between hr 3-4 I fell apart. Neck was really sore and I was sore on the saddle. 4 weeks without riding caught up with me.
Found a new path to get out of Tokyo. So many less lights to contend with.

Sunday
Bike: (1hr), 25km, av hr 108bpm. Very easy spin around town.
Run: (1:03), av hr 136bpm, 12km. Main set 5 x 1km repeats at Steady with a 1k easy run inbetween. legs felt good running. Good way to finish off the week.

Total 14:33
Swim 0
Bike 9:13
Run 4:10
Core 1:10

Good week to resume training. Managed 5 bikes and 5 runs this week. Its a good platform for me now to start building on. The aim next week is to ride 4-5 sessions again but increase my running up to 6 sessions. The body is holding up well and I put alot of this down to doing 3 solid stretching sessions with a little core work at the end.

For those that are interested. here is a link to epic camp NZ and there has been some good quality training going on once again from the boys. These guys just don't seem to have any limits to how much they can absorb. Boy I would love to do one of these one day.
Epic camp NZ

Also if you want to listen to some good interviews with Gordo Byrn and Scott Molina try this link Gordo interview He has some pretty good insights into training for IM's Make sure you listen to episode 40.
fluro

I'm back

2007-01-06T17:13:00.000+11:00

Photo
This is about 1/2 way down into the valley. We are on our way to meet 3 seperate tribes of people, over a 6-7 hr trek.

Photo
Here is Katrina negotiating with one particular tribe. They were no where near where they live, but they ventured up out of the valley to meet tourists. She ended buying a small silver bracelett. Have a close look at the concentration on theirs faces as they try and work out what Katrina wants, or more importantly how much they think they can get her to spend. They also shave their eyebrows and are the tallest of the three tribes.

Photo
This is a photo looking out of our window at the Park view Hotel. It was the morning of a very long descent down into the valley, which as you can see is covered by fog. The mountains in the background just blew my mind away.

I’m back from Vietnam. Katrina and I did 4 weeks of solid backpacking starting in Saigon and finishing up in Hanoi. The highlight of our trip was definitely Sapa. This pace was absolutely incredible. We got to meet and walk amongst 3 quite primitive tribes, which have only had consistent contact with westerners for the last 8-10 years, and we had a chance to buy some local stone carvings. The photos below are just a mere snippet of some parts of Sapa. There’ll be more to come each week as I resume training with my regular updates.
I hope everyone had a good break over Christmas.

Vietnam

2006-12-23T15:00:00.000+11:00

G'day Everyone,

Just a quick hello to say that everything is going well in Vietnam. katrina and I are 2 weeks into a 4 week journey.

We started out in Saigon and we are currently making our way up the east coast towards Ha Noi. We were both pretty sick for the first week with the travellers bug but now we are okay. I couldn't do any running what so ever for that 1st week. I was literally 'da thunder from downunder'.

Started running again this week and the scenery is pretty cool. Went for a great run yesterday through some rice fields, found a tomb in the middle of nowhere, sat down, watched the sun go down and then ventured back into town through a maze on paths. Photos will come once I'm back in Tokyo.

Katrina and I are currently in Hoi-an getting clothes made up. 1 suit only costs $20.00 US to be custom made. Things are soo cheap here. Hoi-an is beautiful historical town and a welcome relief from the hussle and bussle of Saigon.

Talk soon

fluro

Week ending 10/12/06

2006-12-07T11:11:00.000+11:00

Photo.
If it wasn't for my new Pearl Izumi riding top, there would of been no way I would of ridden this morning in 2 degrees. Don't I just look soo warm after spending 2hrs in the saddle?

Summary
The goal this week is to get through as much training as possible before Katrina and I head off to Vietnam. We will be there travelling around for 4 weeks, so I guess I won't be able to do any riding or swimming. With that in mind, my aim will be to put together a solid 4 week run block.

Monday
Bike: W/T. (1:01hrs), 25.8km, av hr 116bpm. Rode 20min easy. then did 6 x 2min of high cadence work with a 3min RI. Hr was rising up to around 145bpm. Used a 39/15 approx and was sitting on 100-105rpm. It actually felt like it was getting easier the more I did.

Tuesday
Bike x 2. (40min) easy ride as a warmup and cool down to the track.
Run: (49:11), 10km, av hr 145bpm. A big PB today by 2min over the same test 6 weeks ago. I didn't expect this sort of improvement, especially after having 10 days off after my operation.
Here are my splits for each 800m
G'day Scott,

I did my 10k test this morning. Woke up at 4:30am rode to the dirt track (20min away). It was 3 degrees. It was icey cold. After the test my bike was covered in ice. Anyway, I used the 20min ride to the track as my warmup. Started the test 5:30 in complete darkness. It doesn't get light to around 6:30 am here now.

results. A new PB. I'm now down to 49:11. I'm stoked. That 2 min fatser then 6weeks ago . I didn't think I would be that much quicker. Here are my splits

Aet hr 145bpm.

3.48 (139)
3:46 (140)
3:53 (146)
3:56 (146)
3:57 (140)
3:58 (143)
3:57 (145)
3:58 (145)
3:58 (146)
3:58 (147)
3:58 (147)
3:59 (147)
2:00 (146)
Time: 49:11, Aet pace is now 4:55min/K
8mths ago my Aet pace was 5:40min/k, 6weeks ago my Aet pace was 5:10min/k. The focus on high frequency, low heart rate training and being very consistent is really starting to show through.

Wednesday
No training today. Docs appointment.

Thursday
Bike: (2hrs), 54km, av hr 124bpm. Strength work today. Rode easy for the 1st hr then did 3x6min BG. Tried to keep watts around 30-40 higher then IMwatts. The rest of the ride was easy to Aet

Friday

Saturday

Sunday
Flying out to Vietnam for 4 weeks. Start 4 week running block.

fluro

Aet Test No 2

2006-12-05T09:10:00.000+11:00

Am I happy to be alive? Yes I certainly am.

What a beautiful morning, all 3 degress of it

I wish every run I did was a PB.

Katrina wanted to take these photos to show what SHE has to put up with everytime I come home from a good training session. I love off loading times, av sp, repeats, intervals etc to her even though she has no idea what I'm talking about. She swears that I'm living in my own little world at times. I do love the fact that she always takes the time to listen to my mindless jargon.

Well I did it and as you can see by the photos I'm pretty happy about the fact that I did a PB by 2min. My time for the 10k run on the track at Aet (top of zone 1) was 49:11 sec. Thats gives me a pace of 4:55 at Aet now.

Aet hr 145bpm.

800m splits
3.48 (139)
3:46 (140)
3:53 (146)
3:56 (146)
3:57 (140)
3:58 (143)
3:57 (145)
3:58 (145)
3:58 (146)
3:58 (147)
3:58 (147)
3:59 (147)
2:00 (146)
Time: 49:11, Aet pace is now 4:55min/K
8 mths ago my Aet pace was 5:40min/k, 6 weeks ago my Aet pace was 5:10min/k.
The focus on high frequency, low heart rate training and being very consistent is really starting to show through.

How will I know when to change my training protocol??? Well when I do a test and don't see an improvement then I'll know that I'm ready to insert greater periods of time running at Aet and MSS. At this stage all my improvements are coming from consistently running well under Aet ie around 125-135bpm. Knowing that I have Aet running and MSS running to fall back on is agreat way to break through plateaus.

A big thanks to KP, Gordo and Mitch for all their sound advice and regularly replying to my questions.

I hope this information helps and supports the ideas that I believe in when it comes IM training.

flying fluro ;-)

week ending 3/12/06

2006-12-03T20:48:00.000+11:00

A tough week this week. Tokyo is starting to get very cold and a had to write up my school reports, which took around 15-20hrs. I managed to put together a little over 15hrs this week and I kept up with my two key sessions. The long bike and long run.
Next week I’ll be putting in more of a bike focus as Katrina and I leave for Vietnam on Sunday and we’ll be travelling for 4weeks. Therefore, I won’t be able to ride and my aim will be to just run as often as I can. I’m going to aim for around 6hrs PW and see what happens. My goal is to be able to run 1 week close to 9-10hrs. The intensity will be right down on all sessions and the volume will be right up.

Monday
Rest day

Tuesday
Bike: (2hrs), W/T, av hr 127bpm. (76%@FT). Did 1 hr easy then 30min of ST/BG/normal x 90sec each, continuous cycle. Followed this up with 10min TT at IMpace. Rode out to 2hrs. This is my longest W/T session ever. I used 1657 Kcal, which is the equivalent to around 2:45 on the rode.
Run: (27:58), 5.8km, av hr 141bpm. (81%@FT). Felt great running today. This is my first run back under 5min/ks, but this time my hr is now right on Aet and around 5-8bpm lower then this time last year. All the endurance work is paying off. Ran before the W/T session today as there was a small break in the weather so I took advantage of it.

Wednesday
Run: (1:12), 14km, av hr 136bpm. (78%@FT). Ran out to and aorund the Imperial palace. Broke the run into 1/3's. 1st easy, 2nd at IMeffort, 3rd Aet with the aim of an even split with the 1st. results= 23:56(128bpm), 25:07(143bpm), 23:02(37bpm). Good run. definitely was running on IM legs in that last 1/3rd. Glad I did this as a PM run

Thursday
Bike: (1:50) av hr 116bpm. This was a quality ride today. The power was up and the hr was down. I really felt like I was moving along well with a very low RPE. Resisted the urge to TT. I'll save that one for Sat. Starting to think 2 wks of w/t work is showing through in terms of pedalling efficiency.

Friday
Run: (1hr), 11.2km, av hr 133bpm. Did a very easy aerobic maintenance run today. Little fatigue lingering around after tuesdays and wednesdays session.

Saturday
Bike: (1:56), av hr 107bpm, av sp 25kph. Aerobic maintenance session this morning. It was freezing. Need to purchase more winter protection (ie jacket, better gloves, booties, hoods)
Run: (1:40), 19km, av hr 131bpm. ran well tonight. needed the thermal top. pace was even and the break at the lights helped settle down my left leg which enabled me to run as far as I did. Longest run to date and I stay with this distance until I'm completely comfortable with this run.

Sunday
Bike: (5hrs), No hr. av power 222. Freezing again this morning. So much so my hr monitor had a dummy spit. Found a new route today. it takes about 45min to get out of the city (av sp 22kph with all the lights), then I'm able to get a pretty good run, lights only every 5k or so, until I return. Did 2 x20min TT on RPE. felt strong here and was comfortable holding 35-38kph. In the last hour I did BG work on all the bridges. By the end of this my legs were feeling pretty tired.

Swim: 0
Bike: 11hrs
Run: 4:20hrs

Total: 15hrs

Well down Steve Newman. A 9:45 at IMWA is a quality effort.

fluro

week ending 26/11/06

2006-11-28T10:06:00.000+11:00

Photo
This was part of a 6min standing session. Katrina caught me off guard here. These really burn your legs.

Photo
Not much room. But at least we have a balcony in Tokyo

Photo
I was pedalling so fast here, the photo couldn't even capture my speed. Only joking, slower shutter speed to try and get some of those city views in.

Why you need a Windtrainer.
Last night I did my second windtrainer on my new Elite Fluid trainer. I managed to do 1hr and 40min out on the balcony overlooking Tokyo. One thing I have already noticed is that the amount of work you can achieve on these things compared to riding on the road. My total calorie expenditure confirmed this. Last night I burnt 1250cal in 1hr and 40min at an av hr of 121bpm. For me to burn the same amount of calories with a road ride at the same effort, in terms of hr, I would need to ride for 2hr and 20minutes.
For those of you out there who are time limited a windtrainer is for you. I would say a 2hr session on a windtrainer would be equivalent to a 3hr road ride in terms of effort. That will give you some extra mileage, especially during the week. While it may not appear that way on paper, in terms of effort, it can definitely be seen and felt.
There’s more. If you have a windtrainer, there is no reason to ever miss a workout again due to bad weather. Just ride the windtrainer. Put on a good DVD or your favourite music and away you go. Last night I got home from work at 5pm. It was already dark and cold outside. So I set myself up on the balcony, put on Superman returns (which was crap by the way) and set off on a very high quality uninterrupted session. It can be mentally challenging sitting on these things, but, with a little variety in what you do, you be well on your way to improving your overall bike fitness.

Monday
Run: (38min), 7km, av hr 138bpm (79% of FT). High hr today. First run back since operation. A bit disappointed that my hr was so high. Legs felt a little awkward and achy running. I think I was trying to protect my leg injury. overall, I'm glad to be back running again.

Tuesday
Bike: W/T (1:40), av hr 121bpm, 40.3km. (72% @FT). Mental challenging to sit on a wind trainer. Comparing it to the road it is a much tougher workout. On the road I burnt 750 cal. On todays session on the W/T I burnt 1250 cal. Good time management here.
Workout summary
50min easy
5 x 1min single leg drill
10min easy
6x6x6min (ST/BG/IMeffort). hr was really climbing on the BG so I dropped it back into the 53/14 to let things level out a little.
need to still get my head around doing W/T sessions. Time seems to move sooo slow.

Wednesday
Run (49min) 9km, av hr 137bpm.(78%@FT) hr is still elevated by around 5-7bpm at the moment. I think I might still be recoverying from the operation. Will need to check morning hr. Other then that legs felt much better then Mondays run. No soreness in the feet and ITB was good today.

Thursday
Run: (1hr), 11.2k, av hr 135bpm. (77.6%@FT). I confirmed my suspicions this morning. My resting hr is around 7-8bpm higher then normal. I'm sitting at 49bpm whereas I'm normally 41-42bpm. Body must be still repairing itself after op.
ran better. decided to head out on a new course so I would be concerned with time and pace, just ran off RPE and hr. Did 45min easy then 15min at Upper steady 145bpm.

Friday
Run: (46min), 8.5km, av hr 129bpm. (74%@FT). Nice easy recovery run this morning. hr was much more settled today.
Bike: (1:02hr), W/T, 26km, 113bpm. (68%@FT). Rode the first 30min easy. Then did 20min at Aet (lower range 130bpm). 215 watts av for the 20min. Struggled a little tonight with motivation. Its a Friday!

Saturday
Run: (1:30), 17km, av hr 129bpm. (74%@FT). Good run today. Form felt good and was running relaxed. Inserted around 10-15min of fartlek efforts towards the end at 140bpm. legs started to get tiered at around 1:20. I'll need a few more of these runs before I start running longer.

Sunday
Bike: (5hrs), 135km, av hr 121bpm. (72.9%@FT). Solid ride today. Did the first 2hrs easy, then a 1hr TT at IMpace (140bpm). Picked up some cyclists and then did a few hard surges around 150-160bpm. Finished off the ride with a bit of strength work when I found some small climbs in Roppongi.
Run: (31min), 5.8km, av hr 134bpm. easy run off a pretty solid long bike ride. Tired today and hr was up.

weekly summary
swim: 0
bike: 7:42
run: 5:14

Total 12:56

My running is right back where it left off. It took a few days for my hr to settle down though. I did 2 W/T sessions during the week and 1 long bike ride on the weekend. I'm very happy that I have kept the long bike ride over 5 hrs going for 3 months now. It's starting to feel pretty comfortable mentally and physically riding that distance each week.
Once Scott enters base 2 we'll benchmark our long bike ride at 5.5hrs. It only gets easy and easy the more you do it. I've had my long run floating around 1:20-1:30 and I'll now start bumping that up to around 1:45, for the next 2mths.

Fluro

I am a Professional

2006-11-24T13:33:00.000+11:00

For those of you who don't know. I'm a primary school teacher at K-Internationl School in Tokyo. We are currently doing a unit on transport. Today our principal was away at a regional cross country carnival. I couldn't resist the temptation and sent her this email today.

Hi Sasha,

I thought since you were out at the sports carnival today, I would like keep you update with the progress of grade 3. I like to consider myself a highly professional teacher and I’m very devoted to delivering quality teaching in the classroom. I never mix my personal life (ie training for Ironman Japan) with my work commitments. However, as the photo shows I may have strayed only! slightly today.

Paul

Good morning grade 3. Todays lesson will be on transport. It should only take 2hrs.

Excuse me sir, but what does Aero mean?

I'm Back

2006-11-18T15:42:00.000+11:00

It's been 9 days since my operation and I went for my first ride today. I'm pretty dam excited at the moment. I have endorphins running through my body again and my 1.5hr very easy ride went well. No issues with the leg at all.
On my long rides down along Akawarra river, I can usually get in a solid 5hrs of riding without a single red light to contend with. However, as the photo shows I do need to deal with these minor obstacles. There are around 7-8 on the way out and then the same again coming back. Each time I need to click out to get through these things. I really knocks your av sp right down on the bike. Overall though I would take these anyday over riding through the city.
Stay tuned. I'm totally pumped at the moment to keep ramping up my training over the next 6-7 months in preparation for Japan. I've done 4 IM's now and in all cases I only ever averaged around 10-11 hr PW. In most cases I have set myself back with overuse injuries and inconistent training. This time around I really want to boost my training up to over 15hrs PW on average. This will include recovery weeks.
I'm going to start my 20wk IM program next week with Scotty H. The only difference being that when he enters build 1 I'll stay in the base phase cycle until I'm 20wks out from Japan and then I'll run through the program. Prior to my operation I was focusing mainly on my running. I was up to running consistently around 5 times PW (5-6hrs)and once I'm fully recovered I think I'll continue with the run focus for at least another 2-3 months, before I move over to the bike.
Thats about it from me for now. Hope everyone is well

Talk soon

fluro

The plan: 20wk IM plan

2006-11-17T18:05:00.000+11:00

I've now completed a 20wk Ironman training program. It details every session. If you would like a copy email me or post a comment with your email address and I will forward a copy to you. If you decide to go ahead with the program I'm willing to help you out as much as possible along the way.

By the way I'm not charging anything other then a beer after the race ;-)

fluro

The Lance factor

2006-11-11T11:56:00.000+11:00

Lance training

Lance Armstrong Alpe D'Huez
2001

Cycling moments to remember

Looking for some inspiration. Check out the glare Lance gives Jan before he blows him to pieces. Then wait for his comment about riding into 3m of snow, when the driver says he needs to stop, "whats that". Gold

fluro

Day trip down to Odaiba

2006-11-11T10:28:00.000+11:00

The photos below are from a day trip Buns and I did to Odaiba. It's a nice place full of shops for the buns and artifical beaches for me. It's about the closest thing we have over here to the Gold Coast.

Photo
Aqua city and that amazing building with the big ball. Aqua city is full of restaurants and shops to keep the buns busy for hours and hours.

Photo
Just one of the many bridges that gets lit up at night. I really enjoy doing runs along this river. The views are forever changing

Photo
Rainbow Bridge

It's been 2 days since the operation and I seem to be recovering well. I can walk around again on my leg and the wounds seem to be healing well too.

There won't be any training being done probably until around Thursday or Friday of next week. Hopefully by then I'll be able to get back into some light runing and riding.

I thought it would be a good time to push those operations photos down the page a little bit.

varicose veins op

2006-11-10T09:37:00.000+11:00

I hope the photos don't gross anyone out. This was the first operation of about 3-4 more yet to come. I had my veins stripped back in 1997 and as you can see they have come back. The doctor here said this should have never have happened if they actually were stripped. I'm bit confused and in quite a bit of pain at the moment.

I don't know why I'm posting this, but I'm bored at home, on my own, in Tokyo.

For those of you who don't know I been having trouble with varicose veins on and off for about 10years now and I decided to go in and have the operation.

It appeared to be a success except for the pain I'm in right at this moment. The drugs must be wearing off!

The doc didn't put me to sleep which was a bit of a suprise. This started to freak me out as I new what I was going to be in for. He pumped some numbing drugs into my leg to make sure I wouldn't/shouldn't feel a thing. Well I didn't for most of the time, and when things started to hurt, he just injected more drugs into that area.

I can't tell how stressed out I became when he made that first cut, even though I couldn't feel it I knew exactly what he was doing and when he was doing it. The first incision was about the length of my finger 1/2 way up my leg between my groin and knee. He then pulled out the pliers and started searching around for some veins. Once he found one in my leg, he then just pulled on it until it came out. He then clamps it close to the main vein to stop the blood from entering and then cuts it. He then uses the pliers again to pull the cut vein from the muscle. It wasn't very pleasant feeling someone tug away at your insides. Blood going everywhere.After a few tugs the vein rips off from whatever it was attached to inside my leg.
I just couldn't bring myself to sit up and look at what he was doing, too stressful.
This went on for about 2 hrs and three major cuts later and around 50-60 stiches, I'm sent home. No mucking around over here. I literally walked out of the hospital, jumped on a train and came straight home. I knew I had to get home quick, before the drugs wore off.
The worst part of the operation was probably when I got to sit up and see that they forgot to take away the tray with my veins. Man that tray was full. That freaked me out seeing all those veins and blood everywhere, knowing it was all mine. That was my ticket to get home ASAP.

Sausages anyone

Thanks for reading. I'll go back to being bored again

week ending 13/11/06

2006-11-07T20:47:00.000+11:00

Here are a couple more photos from our trip away to Nikko.

Goal this week is to maintain consistency up until Thursday anyway. Then I need to go in for a minor operation on my right leg (varicose veins). Hopefully, my recovery will allow me to resume training again by the weekend. Will need to see what the Doc says.

Monday

Tuesday
Run: (38min), 7km, av hr 135bpm. Almost didn't go this morning. The weather was horrendous. HR was higher then normal. Not one of my better runs.
Bike (2hrs), 54km, av hr 110bpm. man I was glad to just stay on my bike this afternoon. Probably not the best decision to go out and ride. apparently northern japan was hit by its worst ever cyclone. I'm wondering if this was the tail end of it.

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Nikko, Japan

2006-11-04T11:22:00.000+11:00

Photo 1
The Haiden temple, hidden amongst the giant red cedar trees. Words or pictures can't describe how this place felt.

Photo 2
Entrance to Tosho-gu, which is a five storey pagola built in 1650. The pagola is said to have no foundations and swings on a pendulum in case of an earthquake.

Photo 3
6am in the morning and I'm 1/2 way up a pretty steep mountain. There wasn't much running going on here. Thats the view looking back down into Nikko. This climb took me 45min to get to the top and was at the start of my 2hr run. Yikes!

Photo 4
1.5hrs into my long run and I came across this bridge. It's called the Shin-kyo bridge. Built in the 17th century and legend says it was actually two snakes spanning across the river to help the buddist monk Shodo Shonin cross. Check out the colour of the water. It was icey cold.

Photo 5
This was part of my run course. It was steep. It felt soo good to be out in the bush again climbing mountains with no-one around in icey cold conditions.

Photo 6.
Katrina and I(our first trip away together in Japan) as we hopped off the train at Nikko. Looking forward to dumping our backpacks and doing some sightseeing.

Had a great couple of days up in the Japanese Alps. Nikko was cold and quite high up in altitude. I went for an early 2hr run and found some incredible trails along the way. I came across temples,a 400year old bridge and hot springs. This was probably the most scenic run I have ever done. I will definitely venture back here again soon.

School Holidays and the Life of Pi

2006-11-01T21:15:00.000+11:00

Well katrina and I have a week off with school holidays. I went out and bought a book from our school festival. The life of Pi. I'll let you know soon what it was like.
We are heading up to the little town called Nikko. It's about a 2 hr bullet train trip north of Tokyo and we are thoroughly looking forward to getting up into the hills. A little down time and some trail runs is what will be on the menu for the next couple of days.
I'll post some photos over the weekend.

cheers
fluro
P.S Thanks Steve for the inspiration you have given me to start reading again.

week ending 5/11/07

2006-10-29T20:45:00.000+11:00

Photo 1
Nothing was left dry after 1 hr on the new fluid trainer

Photo 2
I was too busy here to worry about smiling for the camera.

Photo 3
1hr later and there must of been at least a litre of sweat on the floor.

Goal for the week
School Holidays this week. Will need to balance traveling away and training. Hopefully I can break 20hrs this week and keep the missus happy ;-)

Monday
Bike: (5:45), 162km, av hr 128bpm, av power 233. Did 2 x20k TT. The first one in the 1st hr and the 2nd one in the last hour of the ride
1. distance: 20.36km, time 36:21, av sp 33kph, av hr 142bpm, Power av 285 watts
2. Distance: 20.39km, time: 38.16, av sp 31.6kph, av hr 144bpm, Power av 283watts. This TT was into a developing headwind.
I have a good base to work on now. I'm glad I was able to maintain the same watts on the second TT. In between I rode easy to steady (lower range). legs feel good.
Run: (37min), 7km, av hr 131bpm. The first 15min were good, then I hit abig sugar low for about 10min. I came good again and ended up running a PB for this marked out loop

Tuesday
Bike: (1.5hrs), 36km, av hr 108bpm. rode out to Shinjuki. ran around the park for 1:15 and then rode home. Good to spin the legs out
Run: (1:15), 14.5km, 130bpm. Did 4 loops of yoyoggi park today. Running well. felt good in the legs and light on the feet. The durability/efficiency is improving.

Wednesday
Bike: (2:25hrs), 76km, av sp 26.06km, av hr 113bpm, av power 208watts. Little tired this morning. Legs are carrying over some fatigue from the last couple of days training. Canned the BG when I noticed that I couldn't get my hr up. Rode easy to Aet the rest of the way.

Thursday
rest day

Friday
Run: (2hrs), 21km, av hr 121bpm. Wow what a spectacular place to run. I was up in a little town called Nikko, which basically snows ove rin winter. headed out for an early (6am) LSD run which turned into quite an adventure. Ran hiils, mountains, river trails, trails to temples, trails to Hot springs. This was probably the most scenic run I have ever done. Check out the blogger for photos.

Saturday
Run: (53min), 10km, 128bpm. legs were pretty stiff after yesterdays long run. came good. Ran a better then expected

Sunday
Bike: (4hrs), 110km, av hr 118bpm. av power 173 watts. Rode easy for the first 2 hrs down to Yokohoma. Did a 30min TT @ IMpace (lower range). Found the industrial site where all the cyclists meet. Hit 1 lap hard with the pack. Man we were flying 45kph. This went for about 15min and had an av power of 280watts. it felt good to wind it up a little. legs feel great after a big week of training
Run: (1:20), 15.88km, av hr 124bpm. Got lost today with the buns on the bike. Pace was quite quick, but hr was low, probably fatigue. legs felt good though at the end of a very big week of training. The running frequency protocol is working great

Total for the week
swim: nil
bike: 14:10hrs
run: 6:05hrs

Total: 20:15hrs

fluro

week ending 29/10/06

2006-10-22T18:17:00.000+10:00

Photo 1
Buns and I enjoying a leisurely ride around the Imperial palace. Not long after this photo was taken we started to cop abuse from some lady in a business suit. Even though she was speaking english we had no idea what she was on about. People around us were laughing at her. It was bizzare

Photo 2
One of many cool little eateries underneath a bridge at Ginza.

Photo 3
This was taken on a ride home from Ginza. Most of the bridges around our place are lit up like this at night. It's pretty cool

Goal this week.
Get close to 20hrs. Increase run frequency to 6 PW. Ride 10hrs. Swim 3 sessions.
Monday
Run: (1hr), 11.5km, av hr 132bpm. 40min easy. 6 x 30sec strides with a 90sec RI. hr drifted up towards 150bpm and then settled down to around 134bpm. Legs feel good.

Tuesday
Run: (1:29hr), 17km, av hr 135bpm. Pushed the pace a little more today. Time to start running around Aet at least on 2 runs PW.
Big PB today. Hit my my previous 1hr TT run turn around 29:30(134bpm) out and 29:20 back (139bpm)Overall 50sec PB(av hr 2bpm lower). legs wer getting tight from about 1:15 onwards. I feel I have pretty good leg durability up to 1:15 now. need to keep extending that out.

Wednesday
Bike: (1:20), 34km, av hr N/A, Averaged 21kph going out and then 39kph coming back. I couldn't believe how windy and wet is was this morning. Got the session done, just!
Swim: (1:15hr), 3.6km. 5-100 drill, 10-50 build, 300 steady, 3-100 (50 drill, 50 free), 300 free, 3-100 (build 25's), 8-100 hypoxic (3,5,7,5,3).swimming is coming long well. Its difficult to get at the pool as its always seems to be closed. Hard to get into a routine.
Bike: (30min), 12km. easy ride to the pool

Thursday
Work got in the way of things today. No training.

Friday
Run: (1hr), 11.5km, av hr 124bpm. Wow these low av hrs are really blowing me away. My pace still feels okay too. Not a great run. A liitle tight in the legs and the form felt a little sloppy today.
Bike: (1hr), 27.1km, av hr 121bpm. My First fluid trainer sessions, solid workout. 30min easy, 2min on, 8min off, 4min on 6min off, 6min on 4min off. Rode my efforts as BG cadence around 70.

Saturday
Bike: (2.5hrs), 69km, av sp 27.6kph, av hr 119bpm. easy to aet ride. did a little TT work on the bars. Couldn't ride long today as have to go to work. Will ride long tomorrow

Sunday
HEAD COLD! Yesterday came home from the school festival with a sore throat and blocked sinuses. Didn't risk riding long today. Rest, get well first then hit it again. May go for a light run this afternoon.

Weekly summary.
Pretty busy at work this week. Last week of school seems to do that. Decided to use this as a recovery week so that I can continue to train along the same lines as my training partner back in OZ. We'll put together 1 more 3 week cycle before he starts the 20wk IM program in the leadup to Port. I'll start the program as well, however, I'll stick with the base work right through to February before I start my build up to IM Japan in June.
Running well at the moment. Developing endurance and durability in the legs has enabled me to run consistently around 5hrs PW now. My goal is to get to around 6.5-7hrs for a good 2-3mths without issues and then start building up my cycling volume again.

week ending 22/10/06

2006-10-15T19:26:00.000+10:00

Photo
Steve, Sue and Katrina (aka Buns!) having dinner together.

Photo: Our view from the 46 floor at one of the Government buildings in Shinjuki

Photo: katrina and I. Fine dining and good company

Goal this week
Absorb the last 2 weeks of training by having a 4 day recovery period. I don't think I need a full week at this stage yet. Test out the endurance with a bike and run TT at Aet and then do again in 6 weeks time to track progress.

Monday
Run: (39:30sec), 7km, av hr 126bpm. very easy recovery run. feeling tired and heavy in the legs. Still did a PB by 1:30. Looking forward to taking it easy over the next four days. legs are feeling a little sore. I need to watch this. Don't want an injury

Tuesday

Wednesday
Bike: (1hr), 25km, av hr 102bpm. av power 178. recovery ride out to the pool and then along the river. Peroneals werea little twitchy this morning
Run: (40min), 119bpm. 7km. Damm what is happening here. I know I had a few short stops but I can't ever recall my av hr being that low before. Am I nuked!

Thursday
Run (51min) 10k TT track, av hr 141bpm. 800m splits were: 3:42/123, 4:00/142, 4:06/141, 4:11/139, 4:10/142, 4:08/142, 4:07/142, 4:09/142, 4:06/143, 4:05/144, 4:06/141, 4:04/140, 400m 2:02/141
I'm 1min and 1bpm off my goal time at Aet. I did the test in the afternoon and found that my hr was all over the place (coffee maybe). But anyway happy to be running 5:06min/k's at this stage. Goal is to test again in 6 wks time and try and break 50min.
Bike: (55min), av hr 106bpm. Easy ride to and from the track.

Friday
Run: 10km Time trial test on the track. Goal is to break 50min with an av hr below Aet (ie 140bpm). It has never happened before. The closest I have come is an av hr of 144bpm.

Saturday
Bike: (5:10), 135km, av hr 112bpm, av sp 26.2kph. Frustrating ride with all the lights etc. Still getting in a good 5 hrs. Legs felt great, did a little TTing in the last 1.5hrs at lower range of IMpace (130ish).
Run: (30min), 6.3km, av hr 145bpm. Legs felt really good so decided to run steady to upper steady. Sat on 4:45min/'s for the first 2km as a check, then ran at same RPE for the rest of the way

Sunday
Bike: (1hr), 25km. Very light ride today. legs a little sore around the knees so I decided to can the run and just spin the legs out.

Swim: (1.15)
Bike: (8.35)
Run: (2:41)

Total: 12:31.

Summary
A good recovery week. Feeling much fresher as of Sunday and I am ready to do another 2 week build up again. Will aim for close to 20hrs this week and then try to break 20hrs next week. Will keep everything below Aet in effort and keep focusing on holding good form when I get tired. Overall I feel as though I'm travelling along pretty well. Will need to spend more time stretching and watching what I eat. Must make sure I'm getting in the right recovery foods straight after each workout.

Bike porn

2006-10-11T15:51:00.000+10:00

I don't have alot to say here. But wow, that is one fine looking machine. Could the owner possibly reveal themselves??

If only teachers were paid a decent wage. I sent this to a training buddy as a suggestion for cutting 10 minutes off his bike time. His response was

'Maybe if I bought this I would be a fast, single man' Scotty H, always in the zone

fluro

Week ending 15/10.06

2006-10-08T16:29:00.000+10:00

Photo: Yeah thats my girlfriend Buns, running late to work as usually. So she decides to go aero in a vein attempt to save time on the bike. It didn't work, she still clocked in late.

Photo: Just another cazy design for a building. It's amazing what they build over here.

Photo: That ball onto top of this building is about 4-5 storeys high. I have no idea what it is for, but there is a pretty cool beach across the road. Open water swims may still be on the cards.

Goal

Goal this week is to swim 3, bike 3-4 and run 5-6 sessions. I want to get close to 18hrs this week. It will probably mean making sure I'm up early every morning this week. No sleep ins! keep intensity right down. I seem to be adapting well to this low intensity protocol. It keeps me mentally fresh and wanting to do more and more.

Week in review
lack of fitness still showing through. 3 hrs of training on tuesday led to a poor quality recovery run the next day. Training is not about how well you do on a single session, but how well you do with blocks of sessions. In this case, endurance, I would say is my primary limiter. Therefore, continue with the low heart training and when I'm recovering well the next day, then think about inserting either more volume, if time permits, or more Steady state if I can't get in additional volume.
things picked up throughout the week. Had a pretty good long ride on Saturday and an really good 1.5hr long run on Sunday. My longest run so far and no issues with the leg. The build is coming along very slow, but effectively, as I feel my pace on the bike and run are definitely picking up.

Monday
Run: (56min), 10.7km,pace, 5:14min/k's, av hr 128bpm. easy recovery run. Buns came along on the bike, distance accurate. legs feel a little heavy after yesterdays big day.

Tuesday
Run: (1hr), 11.5km, pace 5:13min/k's, av hr 126bpm. Peroneals were a little sore this morning, so I took 15min off the run. Lack of stretching after Sundays ride has caught up with me. Need to stretch, stretch, stretch.
Bike: (2:03hrs), 58km, pace 28.3kph, av hr 112bpm. getting very close to breaking 30kph @ 115bpm. This will be a big milestone if I can achieve this on any ride. Starting to generate some good power numbers with lower hr's. Rode the tailwind easy for the first 1hr, then did 2 x 20min effort @ 5-10bpm below Aet. Position feels good on the bike.

Wednesday
Run: (30min) 5.2km, pace 5:42 min/k's, av hr 127bpm. legs were a little heavy but not sore. Stretching helped settle down my peroneals last night. HR a little high this morning, probably still tired from yesterdays 3hr day.

Thursday
Bike: (1.5hrs), 40km, av hr 103bpm. Thats an all time lowest av hr. Is it too low? Recovery ride today. feeling fatigued from work and training.
Swim: (1hr), 3km. 1000 free, 200, free, 200 kick, free, 200 stroke, free, 200 steady
300 free 4-100 on 2min steady, 4-50 on 55, 300 w/d.
Getting tired towards the end.
Bike: (30min) 12km. Ride to and from the pool

Friday
Run: (1:15hrs), 14km, av hr 132bpm, 5:21 pace. Run is exactly 14km according to Gmap
Ran easy out to the palace (25min), then Aet around the palace (25min), ran back fartlek (25min). Nice run this morning. Started out feeling like crap, but then came good after 20min. Plenty of fatigue floating around this week. It's a good fatigue.
Swim: (1hr), 3.1km. 600 free
3x100 build
8x50 form
300 free
(1x100, 1x200, 1x300) x3
10-20sec RI's.
back over 3k's again. Will try to hit 3.5ks in 1 hr before I increase my swimming time. Was getting tired towards the end of the set. Maintained Bilateral breathing most of the way. Sroke feels okay but slow. LSD pace is about 1:40/100m at the moment. Need to get that back down to 1:30/100m again
Bike: (30min) 12km, easy ride to pool

Saturday
Bike: (5.15hrs), 140km, av hr 111bpm. (av power 219). Easy for the first 2.5hrs,then I did 1:15hrs of TT at lower range of Impace (ie 130bpm). Feeling very comfortable sitting on 35kph. Hoping top end of Impace (ie 135bpm) will put me at around 36-38kph. Legs were a little tired this morning. Heaps of stopping and starting with traffic lights was getting to me.

Sunday
Run: (1:5hrs), 17.5km, av hr 128bpm. Distance accurate. Felt great running. Slept into til 9am, went for the run at 11am. Extra sleep helped with recovery. legs felt good running. It was good having buns come along to keep track of distance. good way to finish off the week

Swim: 2 sessions (2hrs)
Bike: 3 sessions (10:19hrs)
Run: 5 sessions (5:11hrs)
Core: 1 sessions (40min)

Weekly Total: 18:10

Goal next week:
Rest first 4 days. Do testing to find pace at Aet on the bike (20-40k TT) and run(10k TT).

week ending 8/10/06

2006-10-04T20:59:00.000+10:00

Photo: This is probably the biggest Bonsai tree I have ever seen.

Photo: Me running along the Imperial palace. Its a beautiful 5-6k loop with loads of people running and cycling. The moat on the left circles the whole palace. Its a pretty amazing feet of engineering during that period of time.

Photo: On the way to the Imperial palace we came by all these painted cows in the business district. Apparently companies buy them and the money is donated to cancer research. This was Katrina and I's favourite. We cannot believe they don't get vandalised or stolen. Try to leave these out on the streets of Syndey one night and see what happens.

Goal for the week.
keep increasing volume. Absorb as much endurance work as I can in the lead up to the start of preparation for IM Japan. Focus on improving efficiency and economy at low hr's. Goal is to be able to run regularly at 125bpm and ride regularly at 120bpm. From there build

Monday
Swim: (45min) 2.2km. 1000 straight free. 700 drills. 2x100 mod hard, 4x50 hard. starting to get the feel back in the water. Will need to focus more on bilateral breathing to improve cardio fitness
Bike: (30min) 12k. Easy ride to and from pool

Tuesday
Bike: (1:5hrs) 43km, av sp 26.3kph. av hr 109bpm (-26bpm Aet). had a great ride this arvo. Glad I didn't go out in the rain this morning, things cleared up nicely. rode easy for 50min, then TT Aet -5-10bpm. was holding 34-35kph very easily with a low hr. Could be fatigue, but swimming really seems to hr my av hr's down across the board. legs felt strong and put in some surges sitting around 42kph for a couple k's at a time. let HR drift up to mod-hard (ie 148bpm)
Run: (1:02hrs) 11.8km, av hr 129bpm (-11bpm Aet). Heavy legs this morning. wasn't floating along. Probably still recovering from last weekends long ride.

Wednesday
Run: (41min) 7.5km, av hr 127bpm (-13bpm Aet). I'm starting to see regular runs under 130bpm, must be getting fitter. The pace feels the same but the hr is coming down. Goal is to do this run at the same pace with an av hr of 125bpm. Once I'm at 125bpm, that will be as low as I want to go with these easy recovery runs.

Thursday
Bike: (2:25hrs) 61km, av sp 25.1kph, av hr 108bpm. Endurance ride around Tokyo bay. Pretty hard to get the av sp going as there are quite a few stops with lights etc. Other then that legs feel good. Av hr seems to continue to drop with the same RPE. Things are looking good at the moment. No need to change anything yet.

Run test: (1hr), 11.27km, av hr 136bpm. 60min run test today. Decided to run as far as I could for 30min with a hr cap of 140 (Aet). Happy with the results at this stage. Rode 2.5 hrs easy this morning, probably had a little fatigue in the legs. Goal is to get my 1 hr test up to over 12k i the next 2 mths. I'll be doing a run focus period between now and then. My av hr was 5bpm below aet which is good and tells me a have a little top play with there and I need to start dialling into Aet effort better.
Friday
Typhoon hit tokyo. No training today.

Saturday
Run: (1:20hrs),15km, av hr 130bpm. Good endurance run this morning. Focused on holding form. HR seemed to drift a little high in the middle of the run and then settled back down again.

Swim: (45min) 25m pool. don't really like 25m pools, but this was one nice establishment.
10min free. series of 200m. 4-50 mod-hard, 400m drill. 2-100, 4-50 hard, 2-50, 1-50 very hard, 200 easy 1-50 max

Sunday
Bike: (5:04hrs), 135km, av sp 26.5kph, av hr 120bpm. Rode south to Yokohoma for 2hrs and the found the industrial 9km loop site on the way back. There must of been at least 300 riders out there. Awesome loop cyclists and triathletes every where.

Run off the bike: (30:40) 6km, av hr 138bpm. First run off the bike in months. legs are feeling great. Gmap this course and it is exactly 6km. RPE, pace and hr all right where I want it to be at this stage. happy to be running 5:06 off the bike with hr still under Aet pace (ie -2bpm)

Total for the week

swim: 1.5hrs
Bike: 9.38hrs
Run: 4.33hrs

Total: 15.41

My best week of training in a long while. This is the first week in probably close to two yrs where I haven't had any injuries to deal with. I hope I can keep this up week after week.

Fluro

Week ending 31/9/06

2006-09-28T20:12:00.000+10:00

Photo 1
And you think your garage is small. I still can't work out how this guy gets out of his car, because on both sides he needs to turn the mirrors in.

Photo 2
This is the pool I finally found and guess what this is at peak hour 6pm!

Monday
Run: 30min (33:57), 5.7km, recovery run this morning. Lower back was stiff. Aim for frequency this week. Used Gmap to work out distance, not sure how accurate it is, but will stick with it

Tuesday
Bike: (1:40hrs), 47.2km, av hr 115bpm. Strong headwind going out (siiting on 26-28kph) and tailwind all the way home (sitting 37-39kph). Did 2 x 20/10 aiming for Aet hrs (130-135bpm). Feels good to be TTing again.

Wednesday
Run: (1hr) 11.4km. av hr 133bpm. 20min easy (126bpm), then 5min on (135-140bpm) 5min off (130-135bpm). Ran well today. feels good to be doing a few efforts at Aet. Legs are holding up well

Thursday
Bike: (1:10hr), av hr 110bpm, av sp 28kph. Easy ride. Did a little TT work for the last 20min. Feels good to have TT bars back on the bike again.
Swim (30min) 1.4km. 400, 2 x 200, 4 x100, 4 x 50 all free. Working my way slowly back into swimming after a 2mth layoff.
Bike: (30min) 12km Easy ride to and from the pool

Friday
Total rest day

Saturday
Bike: (4:40hrs) 131km, av hr 122bpm, av sp 28.1kph. rode as far as I could up the river. Made 63km before I ran out of bike track. hrs 1-3 easy, 40min at Aet -5bpm. 20min easy 7min mod-hard. Hit the wall at 4hrs due to lack of nutrtion. Need to start taking much more on these long rides.
Sunday
Run: (1:20hrs) av hr 128bpm, 15.8km. Found the Imperial Palace today. 25min there and then 25min to run around. 30min run back. Had a few stops to take photos (check out blog). Other then that a good run. Having buns come along on the bike is a bonus. I get an accurate measure of distance.

Total
swim: (1hr) 2 sessions
Bike: (8hrs) 3 sessions
Run: (2:53hrs) 3 sessions

Total: 12:23
A pretty good week of training. A little light on frequency but I got some good volume in with my LSD bike and run this week. My leg has pulled up pretty well. It feels good to finally be back in the water again. Next week I'll aim for more frequency and just let the volume take care of itself. From now to mid January will be all endurance work before I start my specific IM training in the lead up to Japan on 27th June 2007.
Well done Scotty H. A big PB at the Gold Coast 1/2 by around 15min. A 4:34 is a very solid day and you cracked the top 10 in your age group. keep it up.

Fluro

Week ending 24/9/06

2006-09-24T10:06:00.000+10:00

Photo 1
Me running along the canal

Photo 2
Katrina on the bike. trying to keep up with me running ;-)

Photo 3
Map of the canal system I like to run through

Training log
Swim: 0hrs
Bike: 6.25hrs
Run: 3.37hrs

Total 10:02 hrs

Things are on the way up. My leg is feeling better after this week of intensive stretching. My bike hrs are slower coming back too. I haven't been able to swim as they are having some sort of national swim champs going on at the pool. I should be able to start swimming tommorrow.
The goal next week is to bump the volume up to around 15hrs. I'll aim for 3-4 sessions (9-10hrs) on the bike, 4-5 runs (5hrs), and hopefully 1-2 swim sessions (1-2 hrs).

fluro

P.S Next race IM Japan. May 07

week ending 17/9/2006

2006-09-18T19:57:00.000+10:00

Final hit 10hrs of training in Tokyo. It only took me 4 weeks to do it, but it does feel pretty good. It has been a very hectic month, settling in over here. We have had to find a place to live, buy all our household items and start teaching in a new school. I think last week was our first week where we were actually able to start to find some normality again. The language barrier has been a bit of an issue and what would normal take a day or two to sort out takes around 1-2 weeks over here if you don’t speak the local language.

For this week I managed to do 4 rides and 3 runs. The big ride for the week was Saturday endurance session of 4hrs. It ended up being a hammer fest for the last 10-15k as two riders tried to blow me away. They were sitting on each other wheel while I decided to hang back about 100m and stay as long as I could with them. We were riding at around 36-38kph which was pretty comfortable. They were getting tired and I cranked things up to about 41-43 kph to see if they would go with me. They didn’t and I felt pretty chuffed with myself. My hr was sitting around 170-171bpm and it never gets much higher then that. I was definitely peaking out and could not possibly ride any harder.
I found a great Oly pool to swim in, but it is only open around 3 times PW due to competitions and bookings. So I didn’t get to swim at all this week. The pool opens again on Thursday. I’m looking forward to getting back into the water again.

fluro

Volume v's intensity

2006-09-15T16:30:00.000+10:00

Below is a comment I have pulled straight from slowtitch, as I think this is good and worth sharing. For me personally to get better at IM racing you need to focus firstly on getting in the minimal amount of volume. This is the hardest thing to achieve in a single week. You then need to back this up week in, week out, for at least 3-5 yrs before you could even consider coming close to your potential. So what is the minimum amount of volume required each week to start moving towards your athletic potential. I think it starts by at least riding 2 IM's (approx 12hrs) spread over 3-4 sessions every week, running 2 marathons spread over 5-6 sessions(approx 7hrs) every week and then swimming at least 20k PW. If you can do that consistently and all, in and around your Aet, then you'll be well on your way to achieving your potential. Remember this is the minimum, this is where you actually start to train for the IM. This is hard to achieve for the working athlete as it will put you at around 20-24 hrs PW. Thats not easy and it will be near impossible if you start inserting periods of high intensity work. The recovery costs will impede your ability to get the minimum volume in each week to develop your long term endurance capabilites. Try it for a while, it will work for around 8-10 weeks before you'll start to burn out both physically and mentally. There is a time and place for intensity and the best time for that is during the peak period of 3-7 weeks where you get to reduce the volume and ramp up the intensity. Don't attempt to do both and definitely don't try to substitute volume with intensity, That one really mess up how your body adapts and grows. Think about it, you are putting in some consistent weeks of volume and then you miss a few sessions and need to cut some sessions short. You decide that inside you doing your regular medium run of 1.5 hrs you do a shorter 50min run and harder. All that will do is start the peaking process. No need for that during the base phase. Don't mess with you body by chopping and changing the sessions you do. Find a basic week that will maximise your bodies ability to make steady long lasting gains. Avoid hammer sessions. They will only confuse your body and give you little long terms benefits. That is why the peak period is so much shorter then the base period. High itensity sessions give you a quick fix that doesn't really last. It's the base endurance work that will have you working towards your true potential.

Slowtiwitch.

Cycling is a dumb sport. You have your feet tied to the pedals and those go in circles.

Because injury risk is low, training approaches that emphasize intensity can be as successful as those that emphasize volume. If you take the concept of IF and TSS, you can think of two different weekly routines with the same weekly training load (sum of TSS'), but one using training sessions with higher IF's (more intensity) and another using sessions with lower IF's (more volume).

While the results of these two approaches would be very similar, the long-term impact of them will be different based on the characteristics of each athlete, as the "mental load' of these approaches is clearly not the same. While it is easy to mantain Zn2, the concentration you need to mantain higher intensities grows exponentionally. The long-term mental impact of these approaches is very different, with the low-intensity approach being easier to sustain on the long term. While most athletes have difficult with either the extreme intensity or the extreme volume approaches, the great majority of athletes handles better a training approach that is definitely closer to having more volume.

I have important news for some people out there. Not every athlete looks forward to do a 2x20min Zn4 every week, trying to beat the power levels from last week. Some of them, I would even venture to say a lot of them, absolutely DREAD these sessions. This doesn't make them worse athletes without "what it takes" to realize their full potential. Some of the most talented athletes that I coach are like that.

Very often the approaches that emphasize intensity are termed more "efficient". However, if you follow the path that will lead you to mental burnout and posterior cycles of coming back to what "worked" before and burning out AGAIN, where's the efficiency there? Where's the long-term development?

So in order to get faster on the bike, the principle I stated some weeks still stands: More is MORE. But YOU (or your coach) have to find the balance between volume and intensity that both will increase your training load, and that can be mantained consistently on the long-term. The answer to this is obviously individual, as athletes' mental characteristics are far more diverse than their physical characteristics.

-
Paulo Sousa

Training environment

2006-09-12T22:51:00.000+10:00

went for one of my typical rides this morning. That's the secenery you get along the river for 60k's one way and then 60k's back. Doesn't really matter what side of the river your on. The freeways over here are amazing. triple deckers are everywhere and they are full of traffic 24 hrs a day.
At least I had a good ride this morning even if it was raining. Feels great to be back finding some routines again.

fluro

Settling in

2006-09-11T21:44:00.000+10:00

Photos

Here are a couple of photos that show my students working on a literacy activity.

Finally got my bike back yesterday and I was very excited about riding this morning. However, it rained for the first time since my arrival in Tokyo. I couldn't believe my luck. I don't care what happens tomorrow morning. I will be out there rain, hail or shine. After seeing how well Scott is training and the improvements he is getting, I'm pysched up now to keep up with him. It will be fun chasing down each other over the next 8-10mths and comparing our progress from opposite sides of the world.

You'll need to follow the link to my training log to follow us progress. Let the dual begin

fluro

I'm back

2006-09-09T10:17:00.000+10:00

looks like I have access to the net again on a regular basis. Moving to Tokyo has not been easy. While some things happen at the drop of a hat, other things take ages. I should be able to start posting regularly again soon.
Training has taken a bit of a back seat over the last 4 weeks, but now I'm settled in, my weekly hours should start to pick up again.

The photo shows me second from the right. This was an open day at the school I'm working at. The owner of the school gave us a Yukata and shoes as a welcoming present. pretty cool

fluro

Quick update

2006-07-24T15:34:00.000+10:00

G'day guys,

Still don't have internet access at the moment. All is well Katrina and I fly off to Tokyo on the 14th August. Not long now.
Training is coming along very well. Putting in more hours then ever and my injuries are not causing me any problems. Will continue with the high volume and low hr training for the next 8-10mths in an attempt to build a monster base which I need

fluro

Offline

2006-07-04T13:32:00.000+10:00

Sorry guys,

I'm going to be offline for the next few weeks. We have moved out of our unit and are heading into our final preparations before Katrina and I move over to tokyo. pretty bust times at the moment. Will probably be back online in around 3-4 weeks

fluro

Week ending 18/06/06

2006-06-21T13:07:00.000+10:00

Photo.
Chris McCormarck on his way to winning the Honu 1/2 recently

Training has been consistent. I’ve managed 3 good weeks of running and I've decided to have more of a recovery week this week. As of next week I’m going to really start increasing the volume through frequency and plenty of low heart rate session. My goal is just to get comfortable knocking out 18-22 hr weeks without even thinking about doing any intensity work. Once I’m comfortable doing this I’ll then move onto the next phase of training, which will include inserting BG, hill work, and interval work at IMpace.

Monday
Total rest day

Tuesday
Bike 30min (14k). easy spin.
Run: 55min (10k). av hr 127bpm. 73% of FT. A good run. Whats going on. I should be in pain. My second run with an av hr of 127bpm. I never thought that would be possible

Wednesday
Bike: 2:30 (68k). av hr 119bpm. 71.7% of FT. Focused purely on hr today. kept hr below 120bpm as much as possible. Did 1x20min TT at 130bpm. Speed wasn’t too bad. Thought I would of only averaged around 25kph at this hr range.

Thursday
Bike 30min (14k). easy spin.
Run: 53min (10k). av hr 133bpm. Running on IM legs this morning. Felt pretty fatigued and heavy in the legs. Hr was a little higher then what I would of liked.

Friday
Bike 3:11 (87k). av hr 131bpm. (78% of FT)strong westerly this morning. Felt a little tired this morning. Hr has been up about 5bpm for the last 2-3 sessions. Will need to back things off slightly.

Saturday
Run: 1:16 (14k) av hr 133bpm. 76% of FT. right in the zone today. Had a good even paced run. Hr never elevated and I managed to keep the hr down on some of the hills. no issues with lower leg even the stretch afterwards felt pretty good.

Sunday
Swim: 35min (2k). Belmore Basin. A bit chilly in the water. Hands and feet were getting quite cold after 35min. did 2 laps around the basin and then a hard effort out to the island and back

fluro

Up, up and away

2006-06-14T19:43:00.000+10:00

I’m back and I’m rearing to go. I’ve been running again for 2 weeks now and my leg injury feels good. I’m not experiencing any pain while I run, but I do feel quite sore when I stretch afterwards. I’ll need to monitor this quite closely.
I think my main problem with the injuries I’m getting is that I’m still training with too much intensity. My current Aets for the bike and run are 135 and 142 respectively. Up until this point the majority of my riding has been in the 140-150 bpm range and my running has been around the 140bpm mark. At this intensity it has been impossible for me to achieve my weekly targets without breaking down. My goal has always been to be able to train around 20hrs PW. However, I have only ever once exceeded 20hrs. I always seem to breakdown very quickly and am left training much less then I would like to.
To overcome this problem I need to seriously slow down and start training in the right heart rate zones. If I don’t I know I’ll just head right back down that same path of getting burned out. After reading a few articles and doing a little research I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to train around the 120bpm mark on the bike and 130bpm mark on the run, as a starting point. This is not going to be easy as I know it is going to feel frustratingly slow at first as I think my aerobic capacity to train and race with a low hr is quite poor at the moment. But it is something I seriously need to focus on if I’m to achieve the bear minimum weekly volume needed in order to achieve a PB at Ironman Japan next year.
Over the last 2 weeks I’ve been able to put together a good 8 runs around that 130bpm mark. To date my lowest av hr for a run has been 127bpm, while my highest av hr for the last 8 runs has been 135bpm. Running in this range is slow. I can just hold onto around 5:20-5:30 pace. While previously I would never run anything slower then 5min k pace. Even after 2 weeks of running in the above hr range I am already seeing some improvements. There are times when I’m able to run around 5min k’s and still be holding 130bpm. While this is only for very small periods of time, I can feel that I’m getting better and quickly too.
Every 4 weeks I’ll test myself with either the Aet run test on the track or do a 10k TT on my marked out course. Before I leave for Japan in 9 weeks, my goal is to be able to run 10km in under 50min with an av hr below 135bpm.
On the bike my new hr target is going to be 120bpm. This is going to take some commitment. I would suspect riding at around 120bpm will be like sitting on 25kph. That is pedestrian paces, but is something I need to do. Why? Because I can’t keep going down the same path as before. I know now I’ll never improve that way. To really improve on the bike I need to work on my aerobic capacity at that low hr.
Once again if I stick with this new plan or new approach to IM training I hope that this time around I’ll start to see some big improvements again.
Things that I will stick with that I find really work well for me include
• Hills: riding and running in the hills does really make to strong
• BG work: I’ve only done this for brief periods at a time, but when I do it really does convert that hill strength into good TT strength.
• Frequency: More or get out there the better I get. Looking back through my logs my fitness really starts to improve when I start training often.
• TT: plenty of TTing in the right zone works well. When I was training for WA04 I would TT 2-3 times PW on my own at 140bpm (still too high) I experienced huge success with this by riding a 2:30 at Forster ½ that year and then a 5:11 at WA. The only drawback was that I probably spent too much time TTing at Aet +10, rather then Aet to Aet +5bpm. Consequently my 3:58 marathon was around 20min too slow.

Things that I will do less of this time around
• Less intensity. Bring the hr’s down into there correct zones
• Don’t hammer the hills. I have a habit of smashing myself up any hill I come to, especially if I’m riding with other people. Time to let that one go.
• Don’t try to make up sessions. If I miss a session I need to let it go and not try to make it up somewhere else. This will drive me more in trying to be more consistent throughout the week.
• Don’t run the same courses. I have a habit of running the same course and therefore tend to run to a time rather then effort. I will make sure that each run is different and based on effort alone. Occasionally I will run my marked course to check that I making improvements and to control my efforts.

Well that just about wraps it up for me. Time to start knocking out as many 20hr weeks as possible. Let the games begin. Boy I love this stuff.

Paul

week ending 11/06/06

2006-06-12T10:07:00.000+10:00

Week ending 11/06/06

A good week of training this week. I managed to put together 4 runs without issues. I’m very happy to be back running again. My riding is coming along and the consistency of the last 2 weeks is showing through. I find there is something about doing 4 sessions in each discipline. Whenever, I hit a week where I have either run x4 or biked x4 there is a big kick in fitness, regardless of intensity or volume. I’m starting to believe now that frequency is a key component of improving your overall fitness. Even though I’m only running up to 45min I find that I’m getting some excellent gains just by running often. There is also a reduced risk of injury because I not breaking down as much by doing long sessions. Those long sessions are important and will come into play once I’m consistently riding and running at least 5-6 sessions PW each for a good 6-8 months. The volume will take care of itself and training often allows me to recovery well, because, as I said early I’m not breaking down by training too long for now.
Over the next few months I will endeavour to build my long run up to 1.5 hrs and my long bike up to 4-4.5 hrs. Between now and August I will aim to train with as much frequency as I can handle. The volume will obviously be there and hopefully I can comfortably training between 15-20 hrs PW without breaking down.

Monday
Bike 14k (30min). easy spin

Tuesday
Bike: 67k (2:20) av hr 133bpm. rode easy up to Stanwell then we did a 20k TT from bridge to bridge all into a strong headwind.
Run 7k (42min) av hr 135bpm. very easy recovery run today. focused hard on keeping hr below 135bpm. need to improve efficiency at those lower intensities

Wednesday
Swim 2k (60min). We did drill for the whole hour today. Worked on body position and hand placement in the water at the start of the catch.
Weights: 40min upper body.

Thursday
Bike: 30min easy spin
Run: 45min (8.5k) av hr 127! Bpm now that’s low. ran at a very easy pace. focused on holding good form for the whole time. Time to learn how to run slow and efficient, in order to get faster at IMpace. This will now be my bread and butter pace HR for a while to try and improve my efficiency at lower intensities.

Friday
Bike: 2:15 (62k) av hr 127bpm. very easy ride to Sandon point then lake Illawarra. Low av hr which is good
Saturday
Bike: 3:20 (101k). av hr 131bpm. good steady ride this morning. steady on the hills and IMpace on the flats (ie 145bpm). Phil cranked it up right at the end, managed to hold on then pull a turn at about 45-47kph. Hr was peaking out at about 177bpm. Enjoying my riding a lot at the moment.. Not being so obsessed with how far we ride is making riding fun.

Sunday
Run: 1:03 (12km) av hr 133bpm. My first run over an hr! No issues with the leg. I'm stoked at the moment to be back running. Keeping the hr right down is the key at the moment. I'm running slow but at least I'm running.

Week ending 28/05/06

2006-06-01T14:42:00.000+10:00

Photo
This is one of our regular group rides. We start at North Beach (6am) and ride up to the top of Bald hill. After we regroup we then usually continue on through the RNP.

Feeling mentally fresh at the moment. Looking forward to building up the bike volume now and to start focusing on frequency. Now that winter is here, I’ll probably cut back on swimming and concentrate mainly on the bike and to run injury free. This will mean no hard running at all for a while, at least until I comfortably running around 60-80 k’s PW without issues.

Monday
Bike 83.4k (2:40). Av hr 145bpm. BT session. Big session today. The pace was on from the time we hoped on the bike til the time we finished. Controlled the effort on the hills, and TT’d for the last 1.5 hrs home (steady). A quality ride, with a bit of everything.

Swim: 3k (60min). Did lunchtime squad about 2 hrs after ride.
400 free
3-100 drill
20-50 on 45
16-50 on 55
12-50 paddles, band, buoy on the 50
Just made the 20-50 on the 45. needed to push quite hard towards the end to make base.
On the 16-50 I Bilateral breathed the whole time holding around 40sec pace.
Shoulders were really packing it in on the last 12-50.
Tuesday
Run: 6k (29:20) av hr 142bpm. Seem to have strained the arch of my foot after this run. Very sore to walk on at the moment
Wednesday
Run: 6.5k (32:35) av hr 141bpm. foot still very sore. It doesn’t feel too bad to run on but boy does it hurt afterwards
Thursday
Bike 38k (1:30) av hr 136bpm. Rode up to MT keira, gates were locked to the lookout so we did the Picton loop. Easy ride back home
Friday
Weights Upper body 45min
Saturday
Bike: 108k (3:40). Av hr 124bpm. felt pretty good this morning. Pushed the pace hard for the last 30min. Rode steady to mod-hard (ie 160bpm cap) on the hills.
Sunday

Total: 11:16.

Week ending 14/05/06

2006-05-15T11:40:00.000+10:00

Second week back into training and things are moving along well. Swimming is coming along in heaps and bounds as a result of having a good coach and putting in 4 sessions PW. My HR’s on the bike are starting to really settle down again and I’m beginning to find some strength on the hills, without exceptionally high HR’s. I haven’t run now for 5 wks and will probably start soon as my peroneal nerve has completely settled down.

Swim: 4 sessions (3:03)
Bike: 3 sessions (6:46)
Run: nil
Weights: 1 session (40min)

Total: 10:29

Monday
Swim: 2.4km (1hr) 3-800m over broken drills. LSD pace feels right on 1:30 now which is good. I would say IMpace would be around 1:26/27 at the moment. Doing heaps of drill work is paying off big time. Working on swimming more and more bilaterally now.

Tuesday
Bike 50.4km (1:40) av hr 140bpm. aerobic ride around the lake today. Hr is still elevated but has come down slightly. Legs felt pretty good. Will keep most workouts at around Z1-Z2 until I can get my hr back down.
Weights 40min

Wednesday
Swim 2.7km (50min). 4-150
8-75 (PBBand)
8-50 (PBand)
8-25 (band)
3-300 LSD
A good strength session today. Feeling better with the band now. No longer sinking as much. Need to keep the B3 going. I'm up to around 200m now comfortably.

Thursday
Bike 44km (1:40) av hr 123bpm. Rode to Cordeaux, Unanderra, bellambi. Focused on keeping cadence high and HR right down.
Legs are feeling fresh. Hr is coming down but still taking longer then normal to recover.

Friday
Swim 2.2km 33min swimming very well in the open water. i even managed to keep B3 going the whole way. Focusing on hip rotation and keeping that right shoulder rotated has really smoothed out my stroke.
Bike 15km (30min). easy spin high cadence work. 100+

Saturday
Bike 94km (3:03), av hr 135bpm. Your classic endurance ride this morning. Nice even tempo, controlled efforts on the hills. A good endurance session. HR is starting to show some normal readings again. Legs are feeling fresh at the end of the ride. I think I may be recovered from Port

Sunday
Swim 2.6km (40min). Once again idea conditions for an open water swim. B3 swimming the whole time today. It is much easier to do so with a wetsuit.
It was like swimming in an Aquarium this morning, fish everywhere. Had to keep reminding myself to look up every now and then.

week ending 5th May 06

2006-05-09T13:44:00.000+10:00

Photo
Diggies cafe. This is my morning treat if I'm not working, or I have just finished a ride.

It feels good to be back training. The only concern I’m having at the moment is that my HR is still elevated by around 10-15bpm. No big deal really only that I need to make sure that all my efforts are easy to Aet for now until that HR comes right back down to where it should be.

Swim: 4 (3:15)
Bike: 2 (5:50)
Run: injured
Weights: 2 (1:45)

Total: 10:50

Monday
Bike: 48.4km (2hrs). av hr 137bpm.
Rode up Mt Keira then down MT kembla. Tried in vain to keep the hr in check but failed. High hr indicates I'm still recovering. RPE is good, just need to get that hr back down. Time up MT Keira was 21:29 (av hr 163)

Tuesday
Swim 3k (1hr)
My first swim back and we had to finish of with a 30min aerobic paced TT. I was okay until about the 1500m mark and then my arms and shoulders really started to tighten up. Overall I was pleased with the time and now I have something to work on. 30min TT (1km= 15.30, 1.5k= 23.10, total distance covered 1.92km)

Wednesday
Swim 2km (45min)
All drill today. Coach says that I'm not rotating inwards my right shoulder enough during the recovery phase which is causing me to drop my elbow too much. got something to work on and also the bilateral breathing.

Thursday
Swim 2.5km (60min)
A full hr of just drill work. Worked on hip drive and body rotation. felt good towards the end of the session, was grabbing good water. Struggling trying to hold bilateral breathing at the moment, but will stick with it as I’m convinced it will really improve my aerobic fitness (ie capillarisation and Mitochondria development)

Friday
Bike 14km (30min)
Very easy spin

Saturday
Bike: 90.8km (3:20)
Struggled this morning. Doing weights does really affect your riding. I was told this would happen for a while. Hope it gets better next time. It affected me the most on the hills. Had a lot of trouble trying to push out the watts. HR is starting to show some normal readings again which is good.

Sunday
Rest

The will to win is nothing without the will to prepare

2006-04-24T18:37:00.000+10:00

Volume
In a previous post I stated that in order to qualify for Hawaii I need to build a basic week of training based on event duration I decided that at least 17-22 hrs PW of training will be necessary to develop the required endurance in order to take my fitness to the next level. Because I aim a bit of a late starter and I had a 4 yr break from triathlons, I need to play catch up in the endurance department. To do that I’ll need to put together a training program that will last for three years. So far, I have been training quite consistently (apart from running) for 12months now. In order, to reach around 17-22 hrs PW each week with a good dose of steady work I need to be able to do 25 hrs PW at any pace. If I can build my volume up to 25 hrs PW, all easy, then I should be able to find time to regularly train around 17-22hr PW. That will be the goal starting in May. I’ll spend time training to train up to the volume I think will be necessary to make substantial improvements in the lead up to the Japan Ironman in May 07.
The correct volume is so important in training. With the right mix of volume and intensity the goal is to train the mind to accept fatigue and discomfort associated with the day. Epic camps, Big day training (BDT), the long bike, and long bricks will be implemented to create a deep level of good fatigue that will allow you to back up from within 36-48 hrs. I don’t think it will be necessary to fatigue the body with any shorts interval work that is anaerobic in nature. It’s just a different type of fatigue that requires extended periods of recovery and can also make you susceptible to injury and burnout.
The volume I hope to achieve each week, in particularly through BDT, will be enough to view an IM as just another Big Training Day. I have never used BDT as part of any previous training program, and I believe this time around it while be a crucial to success and the No1 session in preparing for Ironman Japan.

fluro

Bike setup

2006-04-23T14:52:00.000+10:00

So you think that your low at the front. Check out these pics. I still can't believe Bjorn Anderson can ride a 180k TT in a setup like this. Well who is going to argue with sub 4:40 bike splits

fluro

Getting to Hawaii

2006-04-22T14:12:00.000+10:00

There’s an interesting article in the latest Imeg (http://www.imemag.com/email.html) which gives the averages times for the top 10 athletes in the 35-39 age group category.
These are
 Swim 52:56 (1:24/100)
 Bike 5:17:34 (34kph)
 Run 3:20:32 (4:45mim/k’s)

This gives an average time of 9:31:05. That is flying but that is what is necessary in order to have a realistic chance of qualifying for Hawaii.
Well this is still my goal for next year. However, I will probably be competing in the Japan Ironman (May 2007) as I’ll be living in Tokyo for the next 2 years. I have always said that you need to train for a 9:30 in order to qualify and the above results at Port this year confirm this.
I gave it a good shot this year and really buckled down and put a good 10-12 months of training together. My goal was to break 10hrs and really aim for that elusive 9:30 barrier. Along the way my swimming and cycling developed well. However, I was plagued with running injuries that I could never really get on top of. It is difficult trying to train and manage a chronic foot/leg injury along the way and in the end it didn’t really do me any justice. My run training over the past 12 months ended being very sporadic and over the course of 12months I only managed to average just over 3 hrs PW. In reality I need to at least run around 6 hr PW in order to have any chance of running a sub 3:30 marathon. To run around a 3:20 is going to be a really change for me and may take another 2 years of consistent and injury free running in order to get to that level. I do think a 3:30 could be a realistic goal for next year. For that reason I need to really sort this running injury out before I start committing to this long term goal. I’ve been told I need to take a least 6 weeks off running altogether so that Ian, my osteo, can really work hard on improving the mobility through my fibula, in particularly, where it attaches to the tibula. At the moment there is just no movement there and this is causing my peroneal nerve to become very stressed out. If I can cure this then I should be able to run again without issues.
In regards to my swimming, things are good. My worst swim in an IM has been a 58:30, this was at Port this year and this was with a chest infection. Current PB in an IM is 54min. I think I could get back to that time and quicker with an extended period of consistently swimming around 3-4 times PW. I find the more I swim the faster I swim. I know that sounds silly but my technique in the water is quite sound and it’s just a matter of me putting time back in the pool. Over the last 12months I averaged 1hr and 46min PW in the pool. It’s not much as I was focusing more on my cycling and running this year, but it still gave me a 58:30 at Port, which wasn’t too bad.
My biggest improvements this time around came from the bike. I really put in some big consistent periods of quality training with Scott and it paid off, unfortunately not in the race. I ended riding a very difficult 5:45. I suffered the whole way around the course with coughing fits and it was near impossible for me to spend time on the tribars without gagging. In training Scott and rode all our 180k under 5:45. In fact I did a 180k TT on my own on a circuit harder then Port and rode a 5:33. So my time at Port this year was disappointing. Not much I could do about it on the day and I couldn’t really ride any harder. Over the last 12months I averaged around 8hrs PW of cycling. Probably still not enough, but the time that was spent in the saddle was all quality work, which was the key. Very little time was spent riding in packs as my only training partner was Scott and if we weren’t riding side by side we would be TTing in a non drafting situation. Next year I’ll aim to ride around 10hr PW consistently. Because I’ll be living in Tokyo I think nearly all of my training will be on my own. I may even have to resort to buying a windtrainer during the winter months. I’m not sure yet as I know very little about Tokyo and the climate.
So, 9:30 is still my goal. I still committed and keen as ever to keep on improving. Even though I’ll be in Tokyo Scott and I will still train under the same plan and keep each other motivated as much as possible. The sort of hours I think we’ll have to commit to are
1. Swim 3-4 sessions (3-5hrs PW)
2. Bike 3-4 sessions (9-11hrs PW)
3. Run 5-6 sessions (5-7hrs PW)

On average, I think we will need to build a basic week of training that will target at least 17 hrs PW. Put that time in and we should be well on our way to establishing a very solid aerobic endurance base to build on.
We will start kicking things off again around the first week in May. I keep a weekly log going for anyone interested in following our progress.

Keep in touch

fluro

IMOZ06

2006-04-22T11:12:00.000+10:00

Here are the guys the day before we competed. It was good to have Eddy Barton join us in the photo. From left to right is myself, Bob, Steve, Brian and Scott.
I've been back to the Osteo and Foot podiatrist and I now need to take 6 weeks off completely from running. I have a peroneal nerve pinched which needs to be mobilised again. This is a result of having my Fibula locked and that also needs treatment. I do seem to be progressing with this problem, as I now don't have any foot issues and my peroneals seem to have settled down quite well. Hopefully we can fix this nerve issue and I can finally start doing some uninterrupted running training for at least 12months. Time will tell.

fluro

Fleuren Cornelius

2006-04-11T21:59:00.000+10:00

Aged 97.
My grandfather died on the weekend. A great man who was a bomb defuser in Holland during world war II and then for 10years after that. After losing so many of his mates in such a short period of time he decided to migrate to Australia to provide his 5 children and his loving wife with a better future.
I’ll will miss pop and I can never forget those killer handshakes he used to give me as a child when we would visit him and nan each week. I can always remember eating strange biscuits and cakes made from dutch recipes and being too young to really understand their strong accents.
This day is dedicated to you pop. May you rest in peace.

Your loving grandson

Paul Fleuren

Big Sunday

2006-04-10T17:10:00.000+10:00

Check out this photo. I took this at North Beach and I have never seen a wave break this far out before. How big do you think the wave is??
Well if you look closely enough, can you see the jetski???

fluro

Post Ironman random thoughts.

2006-04-07T16:32:00.000+10:00

Well it’s the weekend after the race and I’m already psyching for my next IM. Not really sure when it will be yet, but at this stage I may either do IM Korea in August or IM Japan in May 07. I think IM Korea may be a bit close to when Katrina and I need to start our teaching contracts in Tokyo. We’ll have to wait in see on that one.
After racing Port I’ve decided that I need to get my health back in order. It is almost pointless trying to train for an IM, manage an ongoing injury and aim for a PB. I think in hindsight I may have put too much pressure on myself by focusing on qualifying for Hawaii before taking time off to sort out my foot problem. Luckily on the day, with the assistance of Nurofen plus, it didn’t end up being a big issue for me. My foot was burning slightly but it wasn’t enough to affect the way I ran.

The plan
Getting to Hawaii. To qualify for Hawaii next year I think you need to do the following things.
1. Volume: event duration related. This year I’m going to build a basic week which will target reaching a volume of at least 2 IM’s each week. That is
a. Swimming 8km (3hrs)
b. Riding: 360km (12hrs)
c. Running: 84km (7hrs)
In terms of volume this will be the minimum basic week of training needed to have a shot at qualifying for Hawaii. In other words I’ll need to do as many 20hrs weeks as I can in the lead to my next Ironman. This year I only managed 1 week of training above 20hrs. I did around 8 weeks between 15-20hrs and the rest of my training was between 12-15hrs PW.
2. Big Day Training: I haven’t done any really big days of training yet. The plan this time around is to do a number BDT which include a 1hr swim 5hr ride and then a 1 hr run. I still believe endurance is my greatest limiter and BDT is probably the single best way to address this issue. The goal here would be to swim for an hour at 4.30am have breakfast and then ride at 7am for 5hrs have lunch and then run 1hr in the afternoon. All intensity will be from easy to Steady.
3. Winter PB’s: After talking this over with Scott we have concluded that as winter approaches it would be a good time to improve out Functional Threshold (ie 40km TT pace, 10km run pace, 1500m TT swim). After doing a bit of research I now understand that IMpace is a percentage of FT (ie 72-78%). Therefore by improving our FT over winter we are effective improving our IMpace too. This would also be a good way to have a break from Ironman specific training, which would resume around October. So between now and then Scott and I are planning on breaking 1hr for a 40km TT we have planned out on a very tough course from Puckeys estate to the Sea Cliff bridge and back. We will also use Kembla Joggers to try and break 3:30min k pace on some of their fun runs. In the pool we are going to aim for a sub 21min 1500m swim. This would be good speed to have in our legs coming out of winter. All we need to do then is to top this up with some Ironman specific endurance work leading up to our next Ironman.
4. Epic camp: The plan next year is to take a week off at around 7 weeks out from the Ironman and do an epic week of training. The goal being to double our normal basic week by aiming for 40hrs. it is a big mental challenge more then a physical one and will resolve any issues with a mental state of minds in an Ironman. After reading all the reports from various peoples of different abilites who have attend an epic camp, I think there is a lot to be gained from performing such a big week of training.
5. HIM’s: As a general rule of thumb your time in ½ when doubled and add on 45min will work out to be your IM time. Training specifically for two ½’s in the lead up to an Ironman would be a good way to monitor your progress. Our goals therefore would be to break 4:30 for a ½ Ironman if I’m to have a shot a getting well under 10hrs in a full Ironman. So if Scott and I could do a 4:30 for ½ Ironman then we would be on target for a 9:30-9:45 Ironman which is needed to qualify for Hawaii.

Well that’s my top 5 for the moment. I think if we can address these top 5 issues and handle them well we’ll be on track to achieving a big at our next IM.
While I’m resting for the nest 4 weeks, the plan is to resume normal training in May. Between now and then I’m going to recover and train with no real structure. Just go out and enjoy myself.
As I start putting together my next training plan I’ll post it on here to share my ideas. Feel free to ask questions etc as the more feedback I get the better it will be. Most of my training will be posted on Reefmans online (refer link) log and is available for anyone to view. You’re more then welcome to use the plan and if you have any questions just contact me at anytime.

Cheers

fluro

I'm off to Tokyo

2006-04-06T18:10:00.000+10:00

Yep that’s right, katrina and I are off to Tokyo for 2years. We have both secured jobs at Kist International school. We couldn’t believe it when we received the email being offered a position. We have been trying now for close to 18months with very little success and just to have an interview at an International school is a privilege. So for both of us to be offered jobs at the same school has really knocked our socks off.
We’ll probably head over in August and depending when our contracts start I may even have a chance to race Ironman Korea in August. I’ll have to wait and see when the school needs us to start. So that leaves us with around 4months to get ourselves organized. It’s not long really considering how much we need to take care of before we leave.
I’m looking forward to resting up for the next 4-6 weeks then I resume training again with Scott H. Even if I don’t race Korea, my goal now over the next 4months is to really improve my Olympic distance speed. More on that later.

Take care

fluro

IMOZ06 Race report

2006-04-04T18:56:00.000+10:00

Time: 10:45:53

A lot of excess baggage this year. Picked up a chest infection on Wednesday (Doesn’t help being a teacher). Spent each day resting and pumping myself full of antibiotics, Sudafed, nurofen and panadol. Hope you enjoy the read. P.S will edit all spelling and grammar another time

Swim: 58:46
Photo: Aerial shot of the swim

I was a bit worried here. I was having coughing fits since Wednesday and wasn’t looking forward to an attack of the coughs during the swim with 1600 other people to contend with. I decided to start as far left as possible and about 3 rows back. I would normally position myself right in the middle of the field and at the front.
I the gun went off I headed straight to clear water, that way if I was to starting coughing uncontrollably I would at least be able to stop and clear my throat without having to worry about other competitors climbing all over me. Fortunately, I didn’t get an attack but the salt water was making my throat taste like acid and it felt quite uncomfortable.
Throughout the swim I maintained I nice easy pace and I took all the turns quite wide to avoid the traffic. At one stage I could feel the sand and thought this was getting to shallow for my liking. I looked up to see that I was well and truly left of the pack and had to make a sharp turn to try and salvage at least some draft.
The rest of the swim was uneventful, all at times things did get a little congested when we were funneled through some narrow sections on the course. As I neared T1 I thought that I was heading for around 1:01-1:04 swim. I was quite surprised to see 58:30 on the clock. Even with the acid taste in my mouth and feeling low on energy my spirits were pretty good and a sub 1hr swim picked me up even more.

Bike: 5:45:52
Photo: Jason Shortis on the bike

Took my time in transition and things went smoothly. Surprisingly enough when I mounted the bike I thought that I was feeling pretty good. I was thinking ‘Yes’ the antibiotics have kicked in over night and I was over my chest infection. Little did I know!
Once on the bike things settled down quickly and I made a point of taking it very easy through the initial hills. Everybody around me must have been sharing my thoughts as no-one was passed me for at least the first 20km. The pace was quite conservative.
Well things changed pretty quickly at about the 20km mark on the bike for me. I was up to this point just drinking water and eating some powerbar, then I decided to have some Gatorade. Holy crap I could swear I was drinking brake fluid or acid. My throat was on fire and every time I tried to have Gatorade it burned like nothing else and sent me into a coughing fit. I didn’t know what to do. I hadn’t planned on this and I knew I needed to get in the electrolytes.
Things progressively became worse. I found it difficult to sit on the tribars from this point onwards and not cough. My throat was on fire and my energy levels were plummeting. I’ve now managed to complete the first loop on the bike but I could feel my chest infection getting the better of me. I was no longer holding my position on the course. People were continually riding past me and each time I tried to maintain a good aero position on the bars I would cough my guts up. Heading out for that second lap was probably the worst part of my day. My throat was at its worst, I was riding into a strong headwind and I couldn’t get aero. I was having trouble swallowing my powerbars and decided to start getting hold of some powerbar gels at the aid stations. I didn’t really want to do this as I don’t train on this stuff, but I needed to start getting in the calories as I was feeling pretty flat by the 90km mark.
For the next 90km and some real up and downs. On a positive note my sore throat was getting better and I was starting to control my coughing fits. On a downside side I had no energy. I just was not able to get in enough calories early on and the chest infection had drained most of what was left in the tank out of me. I was in survival mode now. Coming back into town wasn’t too bad. Having a tailwind helped ease the pain. Reality set in though when I turned to head back out for the 3rd and final lap. Damm! Another 30k’s of headwind. I new this was going to hurt me and it did. I was struggling. What made it worse was watching everyone come past me one after the other, rubbing salt into the wounds.
My knees and hips were really aching and the back of my neck was stiff and sore. I knew now I was getting dehydrated even though I was drinking more then I had planned for. This infection now was doing me in mentally. ‘Just get to the turnaround’, ‘Just get to the turnaround’, ‘Just get to the turnaround’ I knew if I could just dig deep enough and make it to the turnaround I could use the tailwind to bring me home. It worked. I made it to T2

Run: 4:01:14.
Photo: Me on the run

After I dismounted the bike I was relieved. There was nothing left in the tank. Even though I had a marathon to come I knew that getting off that bike was probably the best part of my day. I would ever normally say that as the bike leg is my strongest leg. Not today though. That was wrong!. I didn’t enjoy that bike leg at all.
In T2 I just sat down and relaxed. This explain why my first run split is around 8min slower then the others. I just didn’t want to leave T2. I could found a corner and curled up and slept for a good couple of hours. No-one would of missed me. Wait hang-on my girlfriend and family are out there waiting for me. Time to get organized again.
In T2 I didn’t have anyone help me. In a way I was glad, I was just too frazzled to worry about someone fussing over me and telling how could I was doing when in fact I knew I wasn’t. I was starting to get pissed off. Why me, why did I have to get this chest infection 4 days before this race. I’ve spent soo much time preparing for this event and this damm stupid chest infection was beating me down with a big smile on its face.
When I stood up to leave T2 I was gone for all money, my day was over. Running is my worst leg and I have never felt this bad before in my previous 4 IM’s. I stepped out of the change tent grabbed a cup of water and the first person I saw was Katrina. The look on her face was enough, that was it. Nothing was said. She just looked at me, smiled through a look of concern which clearly showed that she knew I was hurting. From that point onwards this race was on. It’s hard to describe but she kept me in the race and lifted my spirits to a new level. It was time to deal with this pain and get through this day.
I took 2 nurofen + to deal with the foot issues. That worked. I decided to run the flats, walk the aid stations and walk/run the hills as much as possible. The first 12km were terrible. There was just nothing there for me to draw on. I had no energy. It was such a grind getting through that first hr. At each aid station I took in as much water, Gatorade, coke and Jelly beans I could get my hands on. After an hr of pumping sugar into the system I was starting to pick up. I was feeling better and better after each aid station. The next 2 hrs were quite pleasurable for the first time since starting the race. I was holding my race pace and picking off people one at a time. Even when I was feeling good I still made sure that I walked the aid stations to keep those sugar supplies coming in.
At about the 30km my quads began to cramp. It was tough again from this point onwards but with only 12km to go I was feeling the finishing line getting closer and closer. The crowds were going nuts and that was enough for me to finish my 5th IM. I can't honestly say what happend in the last hr. It was a blur.

Not the time I wanted but a very satisfying day overall. Nothing beats being part the day and I can’t wait to do the next one. Since I’m off to Tokyo in August for 2years. Ironman Japan is looking very good at the moment.

Catch you later

fluro