2 weeks to go

Only two weeks to go now before the Big Day ...  that means this week is all about training hard and next week is the taper week - the semi-resting week before the main event ...

went for a ride yesterday ... just 18K ... same length as the tri just to see how I would go ... the ride was nice, legs felt good and puff was fine ... but ONCE AGAIN I forgot to mark the time before leaving so I don't actually know how long it took me ...

I don't know how I keep doing this, it is very frustrating.  I guess I just get all caught up in getting ready to get out the door.  Perhaps I should buy a 2 dollar shop watch and stick it on the bike so I always at least have that.  

I'd have been hard pressed to guess the time right anyway this time because I stopped towards the end to help a young boy who had fallen off his bike.  It was actually quite a spectacular fall too.  He was riding down the footpath on Tawhai St as I was riding up so I saw it from across the road.  Don't know quite what caused it, but he managed to go over his handlebars, bashing into a stone wall on his way to the ground.  I stopped and checked him out cos he was obviously in some distress over the whole thing.  He had hurt his arm, grazing and bashing the elbow quite impressively.  The elbow swelled up quite quickly so I raced home and grabbed the car to give him a lift home.  He lived up the other end of the valley and was spending the day with a friend down our end... but having hurt himself, even in a non-life threatening kind of way, he really wanted to go home.  So I threw his bike in the back of the Rav and drove him home. 

That certainly conspired to mess up any chance I would have of guessing my time :)

well, it's official now

I am now officially registered for the Tri ... all paid up and everything.

Lynne did it for me today and brought the forms home as a surprise.  Didn't tell me what they were - just handed them to me and said "this is for you"  - it took me a moment to get my head around what it meant ... but woooohoooooooo  :)

gosh

wow - only 19 days (and 7 minutes according to my desktop countdown thingy) to go until the tri ...

nervesnervesnerves

did a quick test run at the gym last night - only 2k cos I am still sort of resting my hip to let it get better ... it was ok by the by ... ached a little bit but nothing like previous runs.  The good thing about this little run though was that at the end of 2k my HR had only got up to 120 ... which is way lower than previous attempts ...

Nice weekend

Had a really nice weekend this weekend ... the weather finally managed to stay nice for the entire weekend which was really encouraging.

I did the Trial for the Hundred Pushups plan on Friday ... rather disappointing that despite all my exercise over the last few months I could still only manage 5 ... rather bummed by that, although I suppose my exercise to date hasn't been focussing on Pushups ... it's been focussing (mostly) on Triathlon stuff, which is more about endurance than power.  Still, that puts me in the bottom group for the Pushups Plan which is a wee bit of a blow to the ego :)

Lynne and I went and did the Impact (pseudo-boxing) class on Saturday morning.  This time we had our new wrapping for our hands so as to hopefully avoid some of the bruising and other damage to the knuckles that we both got last time.  Personally I think this helped quite a lot.  I still managed to raise a blister over the knuckle of my right pinkie but I have none of the bruising or stiffness that I got last time.  The workout was a hoot.  Very energetic and quite carthartic.  All about punching stuff (bags and pads) at varying intensities ... the class runs to just over an hour and seems to fly by.  I found I got the rhythm of the thing better this time than the first time and really enjoyed myself.  Got a bit of a sore tailbone from doing situps on the hard floor but had a great time.  As an added bonus I weighed myself while we were there and the downward trend has continued, which is good.

Sunday we took the bikes out for a bit of a spin.  First time for Lynne on the 'new' bike she bought on Trademe.  Jazz's old bike was proving just a bit too small for Lynne to get comfortable on so she bought a slightly bigger framed one second hand.  Notwithstanding the fact that she had never ridden the bike before and that the seat turned out to be fairly uncomfortable, the ride went very well.  We rode down the gravel road that runs beside the Hutt River from Moonshine Road down to Silverstream bridge.  That's about a 12K round-trip.  Not super long but a good try out for a new bike.

Today I did Week One Day One of the Pushup Plan.  The final Set in the plan is Do as Many as You Can ... so today I managed 8 ... which is obviously an improvement over the trial number, which is cool - progress already.

Agent 99

Long lull in the blogging ... simply slackness really.

Not a great deal out of the ordinary to report.  Have been training pretty regularly for the Tri (which is now only a rather terrifying 23 days away)... still haven't actually registered for it yet - really must get on to that on payday ...

However, one item worthy of recording is that yesterday I passed one of my target milestones ... that of getting back down into double figures weight wise ... still got a wee bit to lose to get to my goal weight for the Tri, but I am close now and still seem to be moving it regularly, which is very encouraging.

a new week dawns

Lynne and I went to the gym last night ... did a simple and slightly mixed up workout.  Ran 2K on the tread - only a short run obviously but I managed to maintain an 8minute/K pace which is nice - an improvement certainly.  Then hopped on the bike for a little while - didn't ride for long, just wanted to get a feel for how the legs would feel jumping on the bike straight after a run.  Not too bad ... From what I understand it is going from bike to run that feels bad ... so perhaps I am quite luckly that this first tri is doing everything in reverse ...

Then did some weights and had a sauna.  A nice evening at the gym really :)

However, I seriously need to get some swim time in.  Andrew at the seminar emphasised repeatedly that having the swim at the end of the tri would make it hard work and that we all should be training the swimming harder than the rest.  And so far I haven't been able to in quite a while.  I've been resting my arm to try and let it recover, which it does seem to be doing, but the lack of swimming has been worrying me.  However, a swim is the likely outing for tonight.

the week that was

Been a pretty good week all in all.

Went to a triathlon seminar held at the venue for the Tri (Naenae Pool) on Wednesday night.  It was run by a chap named Andrew Smith who has his own training business and does some training for National Level (and Olympic) athletes.  He is very enthusiastic and quite knowledgable - it was time well spent I think.  There is a follow up seminar on the 22 Oct where we can all go back and talk with him about how our tri training has gone and get some last minute tips and hints.

Thursday was Crazy Exercise day.  I rode to work in the morning, went for a run along the beach at lunchtime and then rode home in the evening.  I was going to go for a swim with Lynne in the evening too but she went to the gym instead, so I stayed home and rested.  I must say, running along the beach at lunchtime is a great idea.  Weather permitting of course.   It is calming and relaxing to run along with the sound of the waves in my ears.  I only ran about 3k but of course my time in my lunch break is rather limited and I didn't know how far it was at the time.  It felt good though, legs and lungs seemed to cope quite well 

Friday, I went for another lunchtime run along the beach.  Same distance, very nice.   Lungs coped less well today, I ran out of puff a couple of times and had to walk briefly to recover. However on the plus side I was pleased to note that my breathing did in fact recover rather quickly.

On Saturday morning Lynne and I went along to the gym and tried out an Impact class.  This is basically an hour of working out with punching bags and other boxing paraphernalia.  It was good fun and we both got a bit of a sweat on.  A bit hard on the knuckles though.  As it was our first time we didn't have wrapping for our hands, and although there were gloves aplenty, the wrapping helps protect the hands from the inside of the gloves.  A few bruises and scrapes and now in evidence.  Enjoyable overall though.  Not perhaps something that I am going to do a lot of in the buildup to the tri, but good for the occasional "let's do something different" kind of workout.

All in all - a good week.

hmm don't forget

Last night proved the importance of not forgetting stretching ... after yesterday's comments about my aches and pains I went to the gym last night and did a Body Balance class.  Lots of Tai Chi and Yoga based moves with plenty of twists and strectches.  And this morning I feel really good ... nothing is aching or sore at the moment (touch wood)

However I must confess I am wimping out on riding to work today ... it's not raining or anything at the moment (and the rain wouldn't really stop me) but the forecast is for the wind to get up to 120K today and frankly I am not at all interested in trying to ride into a 120K headwind :)

grumbles and groans

man! I seem to be a mass of aches and pains today...

my wrist is still a bit sore from where I hurt it gardening a couple of weeks ago ... my shoulder is very tender from god alone knows what ... I don't remember hurting it so I am blaming transferred pain from my wrist. My back is hurting a little from my stupid back-hurting bed ...and I stressed a muscle in my calf yesterday. I don't think I actually pulled it ... I felt it going while I was out on a training run yesterday, and fortunately I was on part of the loop that was close to home at the time so I cut my run short and walked carefully home rather than risk doing it in completely. I then hobbled about grumbling and moaning to myself for the rest of the day. Today it is tight but not actually giving me much trouble. I'm very glad I stopped when I did.

But now I have another thing to worry about with my training. All of last week I avoided things that might put pressure on my wrist to give it a chance to heal. So that meant no weights and no swimming. And certainly my wrist feels better for it. not fully healed, but much improved. Now I have this calf thing.... not sure I can really avoid running, riding and swimming and still do much that is meaningful for my training. . .

I can go for walks I guess, which is better than nothing ...

progress

Been a bit slack about posting up here this week ... but it has been a fairly good week in terms of progress.

Did a 4K run on the tread at the gym on Monday. Took me 38:30 which is hardly a stellar time, but it is the first time that I have done a full 4K since I started training. So I am pleased. Even more pleasing was the fact that at the end of the run I still had breath ...

Tuesday I rode to and from work - 16.5K each way. Not greatly challenging but it was nice to be out on the bike. Once again I am really noticing some increased fitness in the lungs ... hardly even breathing hard the whole way and now managing to go up Tawhai St in something other than the very lowest gear on the bike :)

Wednesday I did another 4K run at the gym. Did it in 35:00 even, so I shaved 3:30 off monday's effort - very pleasing!

Thursday was a very light workout at the gym. My legs were a bit tired for anything serious so I did a short ride on the exercycle and then some leg weight work. I am still having to take it easy with my arm so my selection of exercises is pretty limited which is rather frustrating. And I haven't been able to go for a swim all week because of it. Lynne has suggested that I should go see the doctor with it and I am now thinking that if it isn't showing signs of improvement by Monday then I will do just that.

Today is going to be a rest day. Time to let everything settle in.

shoulda kept quiet

It's distinctly possible that I may have jinxed myself with that comment about how nice the ride to work was yesterday morning. Cos the ride home was horrid!

Riding into a strong cold headwind driving rain straight into my face for about 90% of the trip. Not much fun at all really :)

Got home and was too cold and miserable (and TIRED) to even consider going to the gym, although I had intended to originally.

Was in bed by nine which is awesomely early for me ...

arg I did it again!

Jumped on the bike and rode off to work this morning - almost half way there before I realised I hadn't checked the time when I left - bother bother bother ...

So i am reduced to guessing somewhat - I know I was still at home at 7:09 and I know I got to work at 8:14 ... so I am going to assume that it took me 5 minutes to get out the door and call it a one hour trip.

One hour for 16K isn't all that great but it does seem to be as good as I am going to get on these nobbly off road style tires ...

Notwithstanding that - it was a nice ride ... a fine sunny morning and generally very pleasant. I had a great time.

monday monday

53 days to go!

did a 2K run straight after work ... on the one hand, I shaved almost 2 minutes off my previous time for this run so I can quite clearly see I  am getting fitter.

On the other hand, expanding that out to 4K (and assuming for the moment that the second 2K would be as quick as the first) then I am still running about 9 minutes slower than the slowest guy in my AG from last year.  I don't really mind coming last, in fact I kind of expect it ... but I'd like to come last by a somewhat smaller margin.

To Work!

weekend report

Had a fairly good weekend all in all ... Lynne and I went to the gym on Friday evening. I did a mostly resistance workout, just to vary things up a bit. Fun and satisfying really.

Lynne and I both came away feeling like we got a good workout. Lynne used the sauna again, which I still haven't organised myself enough to try ... but I will soon.

Saturday was ok weather-wise so we decided to go for a drive and walk rather than doing any specific exercise routine. We were both feeling the aftereffects of Friday's workout somewhat and wanted something a bit more low key. We found a nice park that we hadn't tried before and went for a walk up through the bush. Very nice and quiet... and obviously quite popular with people wanting to walk their dogs as it is well out of the way ... we definitely plan to return there with the dog in tow at some point.

Sunday was a glorious sunny day that really felt more like summer than spring. We took the bikes out for a spin and rode down the public trail along the river bank. It was great to be out in the sun again - a feeling echoed by the many many people we saw out doing the same as us.

The ride, although fairly gentle was a good test of the lungs and I was pleased at how my breathing stayed under control, especially on the return trip, which was a bit faster than the first half and (slightly) uphill.

Stuff I learned from today

1. Shave

I hadn't shaved for the last couple of days and the whiskers were just gettling long enough to catch on the strap of the helmet when I moved my head.  Slightly painful and distracting.  So shave!

2. The mind plays tricks

Time and distance can be very tricky to judge.  A section of a ride that whizz's by most days can seem to take forever on others.  Likewise, you can feel like you are going faster than you really are.  Makes a pretty good argument for a bike computer.

3. I don't seem to be able to remember ...

...To check the time when I leave for a ride.  I have got very good in recent weeks at setting the odometer in the car to record distances from A to B in case I want to ride it later, but I just keep on forgetting to check the time when I leave on rides.  I always remember a kilometer or two down the road when it is too late to check.  Another good argument for a computer I think.

well well

What a day ...

Rode to work today.  Work for me has recently moved from Wellington to Petone (for the next few months at least) so that means I can ride to work.  Well I could ride to work in Wellinton too - it's only 35K from home to where I was working in Wellington, but there's quite a bit of riding along the motorway involved and I really never feel all that safe.  It's not really a particularly bad piece of road, but of course 'cos I'm riding to work I'm riding in rush hour traffic.  Going to Petone I don't have to deal with the motorway at all, which makes the prospect of riding there much more appealing.

As an added bonus, it is a 16.5K ride which is less than 2K shorter than the race distance.  So I figure if I can ride to work and back three days a week on average that should help me heaps towards the cycle leg of the tri.

Had a good ride both there and back.  Interesting the homeward ride felt much quicker than the outward one.  I was quite puzzled by this on the way home, thinking that it seemed odd that it felt like a quicker ride given that the homeward ride is sort of uphill-ish.  Very very gently uphill.  If you were walking it you would probably think it was flat.  But it is very gently uphill and I have always found that noticable on the bike.  Anyway, it turns out that my feelings were completely wrong.  The homeward ride took 20 minutes longer than the outward one, which pretty much fits with what I expected.

The good part of the homeward ride was the tail end.  Rode up Glenn Road as normal, except that right at the end my legs ran out of go.  Just went completely rubbery.  So I stopped and walked for about 50 meters before hopping on the bike again.  But it was when I stopped and walked for a bit that I noticed something that I hadn't picked up while I was riding.  I wasn't puffed!  In fact I wasn't even breathing hard.  The whole 50 meters of walking was just to give my legs a rest... my lungs were fine.  This was a surprise as I am usually puffing away like an old train on this last leg.  So when I hopped back on the bike I was conscious of my breathing.  I rode all the rest of the way home (up Tawhai St no less) without stopping, and at the end of that I still wasn't puffing.  I was definitely breathing a bit harder, but not puffing or gasping.  PROGRESS!!

Anyway, got home... a quick 15 minute turnaround to get changed and I was off to the pool.

My first brick training ... well ... perhaps.  The Hutt Valley Tri does go from bike to swim, so I guess that worked out well.  I imagine a normal brick doesn't have 15 minutes of mucking about in the middle, but it will do for the time being.

Down to the pool ... I only swam 300 meters, but since that is the Tri distance I am happy with that.  The thing I am really happy with is that even though I was just off the bike, I was able to swim the whole thing Freestyle with no rest lengths of breaststroke ... just a 30 second break after every two lengths (it's only a 25 meter pool)  The swimming went amazingly better than it has before.  My altered breathing approach has worked wonders and coupled with my seemingly new improved lungs the whole thing just zoomed along.  Well for me anyway.  I'm sure I'm not going to win any speed prizes but then that was never my goal ... if I can finish the Tri with a reasonable swim effort then I will be happy.  And suddenly, that seems like a possibility.

Man I feel good at the moment :)

ooh those arms

OK, so the aftermath of the arm workout on Sunday was rather more than I anticipated. I haven't done a lot of resistance work for the arms lately and boy did I feel it most of the day on Monday.

Went for a 2K run (well ok, jog ... well ok, gasping wheezing stumble :) ) around the streets near home after work. 2K in 19 minutes. It's ok for now but I am going to need to shave that down considerably by the time the 2nd of Nov rolls around.

Once Lynne had got home we went down to the gym. She did a workout upstairs in the woman's section (including a first try of the sauna which I really must try out) while I went and did a Body Balance class. Man that was good. Got a fabulous stretch out of my arms and shoulders which has removed quite a bit of the pain and has returned most of the range of motion to my arms. And I am putting the fact that I have no pain in my legs today down to the stretch out of the class as well.

A good weekend

Friday was a rest day in effect ... we went out for dinner with Lynne's work mob straight after work and didn't get home until late (well - 10.30ish, which is pretty late for us - lol)

Saturday was a ride ... took Lynne out for a practise ride in a park off the River Road - nice and quiet and private for her to continue her reacclimitisation to the joy of biking. A nice little ride together, then we packed Lynne's bike back up on the back of the car and she drove home while I rode. Not a very big ride, only 15K or so, but it was pretty much all on gravel paths which added to the workout a bit. It was pretty obvious that I haven't been riding enough lately. Putting all the extra time into running and swimming cos they are less familiar ... but I must be careful not to let the riding slip just because I am more comfortable with it.

Sunday we went to the gym - I did a short 1K run, aiming more for time than for endurance this time ... I think I will start trying to do that for a bit now. Set myself a time goal (say 25 minutes) and see how far I can get in that time. Then just try and increase the distance I get each subsequent time. After the run I did a weights workout. I got hold of a workout plan done by a professional personal trainer and wanted to give it a try. It is probably quite a good idea to throw this sort of thing in from time to time just to keep the gym time interesting. I don't want to go off the boil with the Tri training by just doing that all the time to the point that I get sick of it. Not that I have yet, but I don't want to chance it.

All in all a good positive weekend on the training front. I am happy with it, even if I am feeling the burn in my arms a bit today :)

Thursday night swim

Went for a swim this evening. Went reasonably well ... only swam 400m but swam it fairly steadily.

Lynne made some observations on my backstroke that may well help me improve that. And I played around with a change to my method for freestyle based on observations of other swimmers that I think has made a huge difference and which I will try to turn into a habit from now on.

I've come away from the pool feeling really good. Nothing much is hurting and I am just generally feeling very well for the exercise. (if maybe a little too tired to post well)

oh boy

Was just looking at the stats from last year ...

In my age group last year the fastest guy on the 4K run did 15:51 ... and the slowest did 25:00

So far my best is 3.5K in 34:00

I have a long way to go ...

much better

So, I went to the gym last night as planned. Did a 25 minute turn on the tread, which wasn't what I planned to do in the afternoon - but the idea came upon me on the way home and Lynne decided she didn't want to go tonight so I was able to head down there half an hour earlier than I otherwise might.

The running was relatively good - did about 2.5K before it was time to go in for the Body Balance class. Body Balance was excellent. For anyone who doesn't know it is a combination of yoga, pilates and tai chi - lots of stretching, twisting and balancing, which makes it excellent for someone with sore muscles.

I floundered rather more than usual with the balancing parts of the class, probably because I was already slightly tired from the running, but all in all it was very good and I felt very loose and relaxed afterwards.

And this morning I feel really good - no more stiffness in my quads. Just stretched it all away it would seem, which is fantastic.

Ahh there's that pain

OK, after being all surprised at the lack of stiffness and pain yesterday it has finally caught up with me ... my quads are now officially stiff and sore.

Just the sort of day when I want work to have a fire drill so that I have to walk down and then BACK UP seven floors. Ouch.

I think tonight will be a quiet Body Balance session at the gym rather than anything overly vigorous. Some nice stretching for my legs would be just the ticket.

A Good Day

Despite last night's exertions I have felt pretty good today. I little tightness in the upper legs, but nothing too bad. Once again, a pleasant surprise. I halfway expected to be hobbling around like an old man ... alright, an older man :P

Lynne and I went for a swim this evening. Only swam 400m, couldn't really get myself quite right. I think I was worrying a bit much about not hurting my arm again. I pulled a muscle a couple of weeks ago with some over-enthusiastic use of some loppers in the garden and it has been giving me grief ever since. I was coming right last week and then pulled it again while swimming, so I was a bit paranoid this evening. It held up and I don't seem to have done it any more harm which is a great relief. 400m doesn't seem like much but I only need to be able to do 300m for the tri so it is all good.

The Running Man ... well almost

Given my earlier thoughts about the running leg I thought I'd better test the waters as it were and see how I would go. So when Lynne and I ventured down to the gym tonight I eschewed all my usual delights in favour of some quality time on the treadmill.

Ultimately I was reasonably pleasantly surprised. I did 3.5K which is probably the furthest I have run in my adult life and I didn't feel like I wanted to die afterwards.

Obviously I will need to be able to do a good deal more than just the 4K that the triathlon calls for to account for the difference between running on the tread and running on the road, but all in all I feel that it was a good beginning.

I came away from the gym feeling really pumped and upbeat.

Couple of sites to remember

http://www.triathlontrainingblog.com/

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/

Here we go ...

I thought I'd start this blog up as a way of recording my progress as I stumble my way towards achieving one of my long standing goals of participating in a Triathlon.

This is the event that is going to catapult me into the world of Triathlons

The target date for this is Sunday 2nd November ... so that means I have a mere 69 days in which to train up to be able to run 4K, then bike 18K then swim 300m all in the space of less than an hour and a half!

Well ok ... there's no real time limit on it - but last year the slowest guy in my age group did it in 1 hour 22 minutes and while I have no objection to coming last I don't want to disgrace myself by turning in too dramatically slow a comparative time...

Of the three sections of the race the only one I have serious doubts about at this point is the running. The cycling is only 18K and I know I can ride a lot more than that. I know I can swim a lot further than the 300m required too, although I need to put in a lot of work to be able to do it in one continuous (preferably freestyle) swim rather than stopping and starting all the way. The running though... oh boy... I hate running. I've tried my hand (foot?) at it at the gym a couple of times recently and never managed to get over 2K before piking out completely... So - lots of practise going to be necessary for that.

Anyway ... I will try (tri) and record my progress etc here over the next 70 days - hopefully culminating in my triumphant completion of the Hutt City Triathlon 2008...

Stay tuned!