Monday Dec 31 |
 | Road Bike (Comm) 54:00 [2] 25 km (2:10 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel |
| Didn't swim this morning as I was very tired all yesterday, and still tired when I woke up early. Slept on till 7am and then rode with Jen into the city via Freo line. Rolling along near the 'Ent. Cent.' we followed a kid on a BMX who had trousers several feet too long for him and similarly wide. He was standing up all over the bike weaving it across the path from side to side and laying rubber every 10 or so pedal strokes. In contrast, when I rode home via Fwy Nth, I heard a sound I only normally hear in triathlons - the rumble of carbon wheels passing me at speed. This dude was in matching full black and red kit, down on his aero bars on his full-varbon Felt bike and doing about 42kph along the cyclepath around Herdsman. 30s slower on the way home, but a nicer more path ride. |
| Orienteering race (Monument Hill) 40:00 [4]* 7 km (5:43 / km) | |
| ahr:138 max:155 spiked:11/14c shoes: Brooks |
| Was looking forward to this run but was tired during the day still and the legs heavy. Couldn't get HR up nor the pace up and I struggled to maintain a decent run, let alone any significant effort. Not very enjoyable even though it should've been. |
| |
| C • NYE 1 |
| Orienteering race (Monument Hill) 40:00 [4]* 7 km (5:43 / km) | |
| ahr:138 max:155 spiked:11/14c shoes: Brooks |
| Was looking forward to this run but was tired during the day still and the legs heavy. Couldn't get HR up nor the pace up and I struggled to maintain a decent run, let alone any significant effort. Not very enjoyable even though it should've been. |
Sunday Dec 30 |
| Road Bike (River) 2:50:00 [3] 73.5 km (2:19 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel |
| Got up what felt like way too early and rode in with Jen to meet Boltboi at the Narrows. Legs felt very ordinary after yesterday's MTB ride. Was struggling to stay with them on the hills except when I made a concerted attempt to go from couldn't-care-less mode to win-hillsprint mode. Boltboi got the first, Jen the next, me the third, jen the 4th, me the big one up from Meads, Jen the next, Boltboi the next, me other by a millimeter after a huge momentum assisted effort from off the back and that was about it until Boltboi suddenly got more weary. Saw Wayne Eliot out riding - he made the comment he'd done 600km this week. Silly misguided lad looked way too fresh. Very very glad to get home |
| Note | |
| |
| Was going to paddle from Freo to Floreat this evening, got both boats on the car, arranged for Dad to drop us off but when we had a final check on the ocean it was just too windy. The swell was moderate but the wind was blowing across that at about a million knots and it would not have been much fun watching the ski rolling away across the surface of the water! Will postpone it to Friday arvo maybe... betcha it ends up being 40 degrees and no sea breeze and we'll have to postpone again. |
Saturday Dec 29 |
| MTB (Gungin) 2:40:00 [3] 40 km (4:00 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Merida |
| Definitely more tired than last time but we had a steadier paced ride this time with Wil riding a bit better for the first 2/3 and no Pete to smash the pace upwards. Almost made it up the big hill, again several rear wheel spins on the loose gravel put paid to the first 25m. After that was just doable. 4-3 to the not making it side now. Thoroughly enjoyable ride and a nice bakery stop with Fletch, Duncan, Jen and Boltboi afterwards. |
| Running (Trigg) 20:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Pearl Izumi meshy ones |
| Drew up the Trigg MetrO course this arvo and then drove over there to check control sites and look for map changes. Not much has changed fortunately since the 2004 version of the map which I was given as the "master", a few new play equipments and so forth, a new? alleyway but other than that just minor stuff. Daylight was getting away from me as I checked the trails in the bushland so I had to start running. Had the dog with me so he was cool with the 80min walk. Luckily could visit 2/3 of the controls by car so pretty painless. |
Friday Dec 28 |
| Road Bike (Commute) 35:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Bike, Gary Fisher mtb |
| Easy ride to work. Was a bit tired this morning as was up late chatting to ex-Prez Nick and then at 3am got woken up to hear the cat making "look what I've got" noises. I investigated and spent 5mins playing cat and mouse with Molly in the lounge room to get her out. Meanwhile she was playing cat and rat with her young rat she'd brought in. I got them out, closed the cat flap and went back to bed. In the morning, some 4 hours later the silly cat was still playing with the healthy but tired rat and so I got a shovel and finished it. The rat that is, I moved the cat out of the way. The rats are getting smaller, soon I can't imagine there will be any left as she seems to get one every 3 weeks or so. |
| Road Bike (Commute) 37:00 [3] 11 km (3:22 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Gary Fisher mtb |
| Quite a blustery headwind for the ride home, rode solidly and didn;t have any roadies to draft off. Pity really as I was wearing the baggies and a t-shirt on an old MTB and with hairy legs. Got to be worth a lot of passing points if only someone was there to humble. |
| Core Stability/Stretching (Beach session) 30:00 [4] | |
| shoes: Barefoot |
| The usual exercises but increased the number of reps of a few exercises. It was frigging windy, enough that our footsteps from each run were but faint traces in the sand between efforts. Wil, Rhys(!), Dawn, Jen and I tonight. And about 7 kitesurfers off shore. |
| Running (Beach session) 20:00 [4] | |
| shoes: Barefoot |
| Ran harder than I thought I normally do, mainly as Rhys was here and was faster than me so provided some incentive. He had to bail to a birthday party so the "cardio" frantic blast at the end was just Jen and I. Wil was lying on his back dizzy from the previous set. Handicap was Jen off 40s in front and I managed to not quite catch her on the finish line, heart rate hit 180 which is the highest I've seen in a couple of years, but I don't often go from hopping to burpees to a flat out 200m run on soft-sand chasing someone down!
At least I think it's a good thing that it can still go that high. |
Thursday Dec 27 |
| Road Bike (River) 1:53:00 [3] 53 km (2:08 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel |
| A mostly easy ride this morning with Jen and Boltboi. Jen's definitely getting faster on the bike, Boltboi said he was a bit tired. 26 degrees at 6am when we started and no wind so just about perfect! I felt really strong, probably as I've actually given my legs a break for a while for a change, it was actually fun riding. |
| |
| C • Gee thanks... 3 |
| Paddling (Ocean) 50:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Ski, Mako 6 |
| Left work a bit early because I could. Decided that a paddle would probably be fun but since the sea breeze had been in all day I was a bit doubtful about what the shorebreak would be like. Eventually I headed down to the beach, peered over the dunes and it looked doable, although very windy and lots of whitecaps everywhere. Not too many big waves but as a precaution I left the sunnies in the car, usually a guarantee of getting smashed if you elect to wear them.
I got out first go, but took plenty of whitewater in the chest, grounded the rudder twice on the beach and filled the cockpit totally but once I had my legs in it was just a matter of time - and luck. So much harder to get out through the shorebreak in this boat as it's not possible to do the quick jump start that I could do on my old surf ski. I did 3 out and backs as it was just too windy and rough to paddle any longer into it. 10mins into it, 4mins back!!! Had a few near misses with some kite surfers who were operating at 90 degrees to me perfectly across the wind at about a million miles an hour while I was straight as an arrow plodding my way into it and zipping back. Had a few scary moments way out when a couple of swells broke, didn't really want to have to swim back to shore chasing my ski from that far out! Found on the way in a couple of times that the sheer nose of the ski isn't quite as easy to steer as the surf ski either as once you bury it the nose becomes the rudder unlike the rounded front of a surf ski. No falls though, not really any near misses but it was rugged!
Beached the ski at the end of the session, temporarily stuffed, to find I'd disembarked right in the middle of a bevy of bikini-clad bathing beauties. Glad I stayed on my ski on the way in and didn't make too much of a fool of myself! It was a near thing though as the waves were sucking dry close to the beach and I had to do a massive feet over the edge back paddling manoeuvre to avoid hitting solid sand at speed. |
| Orienteering race (Warnbro MetrO) 44:57 [5] 9.05 km (4:58 / km) | |
| shoes: Pearl Izumi meshy ones |
| My first MetrO series event for a couple of summers I think. Tried to avoid them last year as running through the streets when you are relatively slow, and pretty sore is just no fun. Today I was not fast but not sore and I gave it pretty much a 90%+ effort. At the start I had predetermined to run to the NW corner of the map, only some 500m or so away. After getting the first control I realised that that had cost me some distance already! D'oh. After that I just ran down the coastal strip where the controls were really tightly clustered figuring when I got to the bottom of the map I'd pick a nice straight line on the way back through the streets. Trouble was I already had enough controls to have to miss a few on the way back and it felt inefficient. In retrospect it wasn't so bad, bar two controls I did exactly what Robbie J did but he just did it 5mins faster on his "easy" effort. Ricky was next but by God he started fast, I just can't do that unwarmed up! |
Wednesday Dec 26 |
| Paddling (Ocean) 1:00:00 [2] 9.5 km (6:19 / km) | |
| shoes: Ski, Mako 6 |
| After a stupidly hot day of 44 point something degrees the obvious choice for exercise was to head down to the beach with the ski and go for a paddle. The sea-breeze was in but very weakly. It was an easterly in the car-park, but 60m later on the beach sand it was calm, and 50m later out on the water it was a faint but welcome sou-wester. The beach was packed so I parked in the surf-club car-park to save walking miles with the skis. Cruised down to almost Swanbourne and back with Jen. The ocean was not quite flat so there was the opportunity to chase a few skates on the way back. |
Tuesday Dec 25 |
| Paddling (River) 1:23:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Ski, Mako 6 |
| Met Boltboi (Plastic), Pete (Plastic) and Jen (XT) for an early paddle on the river. With a 40 degree Christmas day forecast it was a great way to spend the morning. Had some fast spurts and spent a bit of time on the way back on the others plastic boats as they tried out the XT and Mako. Needless to say they couldn't reach the pedals on the Mako... |
Monday Dec 24 |
| MTB (Gungin) 1:02:00 [4] | |
| shoes: Bike, Merida |
| Went riding anti-clockwise from Farrell Grove with Jen, Pete another guy called Pete and a fellow called Gerard. They had much better skills but weren't quite as fit as Pete or I on the uphills. On the downhills they made us look exactly the gumbies we are. Was a fun ride though as we got to smash the uphills, hammer the flats and hang on grimly on the downhills! Being MTBers the other two seemed to want to spend more time stopped and talking than actually riding. It's hard to undo the habit of 15 years or so of all sorts of training and convince myself to just stop and wait and treat it nice 'n social! Was great fun, and nice to ride in the evening for a change. |
Sunday Dec 23 |
| Running (Dog jog) 26:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Barefoot |
| Easy run with the dog on the beach, lovely hot weather so the water was great. |
Saturday Dec 22 |
| MTB (Gungin) 2:40:00 [3] 38 km (4:13 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Merida |
| Really enjoyable ride with Pete, Ricky, Steve, Jen, Boltboi and Wil. Started at the Dell then round to Farrell Grove on the gravel roads, then single track from there to Gungin (blue tag, white tag, memory lane, link, up Gungin) and MundaBiddi to Pickering Brook for a feed and ice-creams. Then back via the BIG hill (no-one made it today, gravel too slippery), Gungin and fun descent to car-park. Fletch was riding pretty well and Wil improved as we went. Pete and Ricky are Strong. |
Friday Dec 21 |
| Swimming (Squad) 55:00 [3] 2.5 km (22:00 / km) | |
| |
| Some stuff and then some 25m relays. Body wasn't with it today and felt weak and slow. Was a nice sunny morning though. |
| Running 24:00 [2] 4 km (6:00 / km) | |
| shoes: Barefoot |
| Jog with the dog the length of the dog beach and back. Beautiful morning, flat calm and really shallow water, perfect for the dog! |
| Core Stability/Stretching 20:00 [3] | |
| |
| Usual exercises except it was very very windy and the sand-blast wasn't a lot of fun. |
| Running 25:00 [4] | |
| shoes: Barefoot |
| The loops in the session plus the warm-up and pseudo cooldown. We were too keen to get off the beach! |
Thursday Dec 20 |
| Paddling (Ocean) 58:29 [4] 9.4 km (6:13 / km) | |
| shoes: Ski, Mako 6 |
| Shortish paddle on the ocean before work. Surprisingly there was a moderate southerly wind blowing and it was a bit bleak but I paddled to the SAS abseil tower (34mins) into the wind thinking that the way back wouldn't be all that much fun to make up for the slog. Headed out to sea for 3mins to set up a nice angle back, then paddled back (23mins). Coming back was great, constantly stringing little runs together and coming back into Floreat got 500m worth of large swells and was honking along at up to 3mins 10s a kilometre for a few seconds! |
| |
| C • You are Organised 4 |
Wednesday Dec 19 |
| Running long 1:12:00 [2] 12.5 km (5:46 / km) | |
| shoes: Brooks |
| Easy run down to beach with Pete, Jen, Wil, Liz and Haggles. Up to Brighton, dropped dog off and then sped-up back around the Golf course. Not a very long run but it did the job. Hammies still good. |
Tuesday Dec 18 |
| Road Bike (Floreat Ride) 1:40:30 [3] 50 km (2:01 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel |
| Woke up to the sound of rain so sent Boltboi a text to see if he was on his way as I thought a bail would be bad form if he was! In his time zone it was clear and starry so he was on his way. Rolled up to the start point to see two people waiting, Boltboi and a girl in Riders Choice gear. And that was what a bit of rain does to a normally 40-strong ride in Perth!! Notables for today - not getting caught by the chase group, not getting caught by the Narrows Ride, not a lot of rain and no wind whatsoever, it was actually really nice. We even got a 3-person roll happening along Curtin Ave for a bit. Boltboi won the UWA sprint, but I gave him a really good leadout at about 46kph for the long straight. The girl kept up too so I was 3rd :-)
Scary moment for the morning, I was rolling down the short steep hill to Steve's Pub tucked down at about 50kph expecting Boltboi to roar past as he takes advantage of gravity's affinity with his svelte streamlined ectomorphic somatotype. 2/3 of the way down the hill a car ahead stopped to turn right into a driveway and at the same instant I thought "Oo-er, Boltboi will have to go left a bit" a white car came flying by me doing 70ish kph. That's when I thought things were going to get pretty nasty, and possibly the body a bit leaky...
It touched its brakes, then there was the sound of 4 wheel skid on the wet road for a split second and he swerved left around it, successfully avoided it somehow and then raised his left hand into the rear view mirror in the universal wave of "Sorry". Or should that be, "Yes I am a total utter f*ckwit who overtakes 3 cyclists riding single file whilst he's driving at 20k over the speed limit on soaking wet downhill road while just up ahead another car is turning right which I haven't even noticed as I'm focussed on passing bikes."
I had just starting planning a kerb jump to avoid the carnage of a spinning smashed car and was looking at a nice hedge just over a low wall and thinking, well that's as good as any impact zone when he made it by.
Scary. Boltboi supportingly said to me when he caught up "We thought you were a goner!" |
| |
| C • Group ride 2 |
| Running hills (6-up) 13:58 [5] 2.85 km (4:54 / km) +480m 2:40 / km | |
| ahr:148 max:163 shoes: Brooks |
| Ye olde session from the early 90s but minus the bridle trail which they've covered in scrub. Maximum efforts, long recoveries. Painful, but the pain didn't get worse only the body got noticeably less springy. Wil ran the first rep really hard then piked after 3. Saz and Jen were solid.
1.38 2.53
1.40 2.52
1.43 2.58 |
| Running warm up/down 50:00 [2] 6.5 km (7:42 / km) | |
| ahr:119 shoes: Brooks |
| W-up, c-down, recoveries jogging down hill. |
| Note | |
| |
| Worth noting was the feeling I had from partway through the cooldown right till this morning - no hammy tightness! Amazing how the absence of something that you forget is always there feels so different. I was able to get in and out of the car without semi-groaning, out of bed, take my shoes off, etc etc without feeling general tightness in the hams. No idea what's so different about yesterday. It's good though. |
Monday Dec 17 |
| Running (Dog jog) 50:00 [4] | |
| shoes: Brooks |
| Fairly solid run with a slightly tired dog. Did a hilly route through the grass strips in City Beach north, then along the beach to the drain and back up the Boulevard. Humid as buggery. Dog still surged the hills, made me struggle again! |
Sunday Dec 16 |
| Running (Dog run) 15:40 [4] | |
| shoes: Brooks |
| Hard 15min effort with the dog over to Dad's place, anticipating a slow walk/jog with Dad to the beach. |
| Running (Dad blob) 20:00 [1] | |
| shoes: Brooks |
| Very slow veggie jog / warm-up pace amble with Dad and a confused dog, a dog who was wondering why we were going so slow! A long time since Dad's been motivated enough to do any exercise so we jogged down the grass strip to the beach, about 500m north up to Hale then over the dunes to the beach. Then we walked to the drain and jogged up the Boulevarde. I ran hard home with the dog and he cheekily changed from "trot" to "canter" going up every sodding hill which, as he was on the lead, made me work to match him. He knew he was doing it too, I could tell by the look in his eye! |
| Paddling (Ocean) 43:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Ski, Mako 6 |
| Spent 6 hours with Jen cleaning the house today ready for steam cleaning of the carpets Monday - ie. all the remaining furniture into hte laundry, bathroom and kitchen!! Also cleaned the oven, cupboards, pantry and washed all the walls of the house in preparation for painting. I was amazed when Jen showed me the ecosystem under the oven - I didn't realise that ovens could be moved. Did you know that the shelves can come out too? Wow. The lino under the ecosystem under the oven was amazing clean and bright once the backhoe was reversed away! Next job re-installing furniture, will be nice to have a frdige andwashing machine again, a week without them has made me hungry and smelly!
Funniest image from the weekend - seeing the cat Molly watching the fish in the new pond. She was watching from above, standing on the shadecloth that is suspended over the water's surface. But she was knee deep in water, all four legs!!! |
Saturday Dec 15 |
| MTB (Eagle Trail) 1:30:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Bike, Merida |
| Met Jen, Blotboi and Andrew (other half of Bea) at old railway / Pechey Rd 8am Saturday. Howling easterly wind but overcast and grey, even ended up thundering by end of ride. Rode up the railway through the pitch-black tunnel. Jen never told Andrew (who hasn't ridden before) what he as in for with the 400m?? long tunnel which is pitchblack bar, you guessed it, the light at the end of the tunnel. Track surface is old railway gravel but it is so dark you cannot see the sides, ground or even your hand in front of your face! Boltboi dropped his sunnies and had to search for them by feel and for some reason I had a disorientation feeling hit me for the first time in the dark, I could have sworn I was veering left into the wall but never actually was, very disconcerting.
Struggled up the first couple of hills way behind the others but then warmed-up and felt better. Rode like the gumby I am on the blocky laterite descents but was very surprisingly fine on the granite steep descent at the end and rode bits I normally walk. All a confidence thing. My new mtb shorts must have made the difference.
Boltboi had a moment of communing with a grass tree, and then bled all over it from a graze on his knee. |
| |
| C • prez 4 |
Friday Dec 14 |
| Core Stability/Stretching 20:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Barefoot |
| Usual exercises plus the high intensity 'cardio' 6min suffer-fest. Saz and Dawn came, Saz was more unmotivated and sluggish than either Wil or I ahve been in the last 4 weeks - - - and that's really saying something!! They bailed before cardio, Wil and I soldiered on. Felt much better after the session than before it, headed over to Mum and Dad's and found a lovely lamb roast awaiting. Mmm. Maybe I'll wait a few more weeks before putting furniture back in the house. Currently I have a bed, desk, chest of drawers and toaster! And some mis-matching cutlery. And a fish pond. I'll feed them up and then toast them, mmmm. Mind you, the cat might get to them first, she's getting braver with walking on the shadecloth that floats on the water and is held taut by tent pegs. I'll need to loosen them one day to teach her a (wet) lesson.
|
| Running (Beach session) 34:00 [4] 2.8 km (12:09 / km) | |
| shoes: Barefoot |
| Warm-up, running laps, piked on the cool down, was going to swim but the water felt a bit chilly so I froze my calves for a bit instead. |
Wednesday Dec 12 |
| Road Bike (Commute) 17:00 [1] | |
| shoes: Bike, Merida |
| |
| Swimming (Squad) 50:00 [4] 2.5 km (20:00 / km) | |
| |
| main set was one I liked, 9 x 200 with 20s rest. 50H/150M, 100H/100M, 150H/50E by 3. Ended up "leading" my half of the lane as the drones in front of me cut their rest short each lap to leave on the feet of the person in front. The drones behind left right on my feet but I don't care, the idea was to get full rest and smash the hard bits, not just learn to swim slow and tired. Fools, I tell you! |
| Running hills (Reabold east) 18:00 [5] 3.85 km (4:41 / km) | |
| max:169 shoes: Brooks Beast |
| |
| Road Bike (commute) 18:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Bike, Gary Fisher mtb |
| |
| Running long 1:10:00 [2] 11.5 km (6:05 / km) | |
| max:131 shoes: Brooks Beast |
| Slow run to midweek park orienteering event at Lake Monger. And the same duration run back - for 750m less distance. Tired now. |
| Orienteering race (Lake Monger) 31:04 [5]* 7.02 km (4:26 / km) | |
| ahr:155 max:163 spiked:12/13c shoes: Brooks Beast |
| Ended up running this pretty hard but my pace never got much under 4min ks, the 'normal' pace I noticed each time I looked at the GPS was about 3.55-4.05/km. Explains why Pete was so damn fast, he can actually run closer to 3.20 pace in this sort of environment. I enjoyed the run with the map and was pleased that I was able to push hard the whole way through. I didn't tire particularly noticeably, but was aware that I wasn't ticking over the legs all that dynamically. On the plus side, no aches or pains (other than in my hammies when bending down to punch the controls on the ground). I feel like if I can get another half a dozen or so instances of this sort of hard running in over the next couple of months I should find myself able to hold a faster pace once again. Then I might have to try and run more than twice a week too... |
| |
| C • Training 4 |
Tuesday Dec 11 |
| Road Bike (Floreat Ride) 1:40:00 [3] 49.7 km (2:01 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel |
| Nice warm morning today but I still took 10km to even remotely feel like riding today, really struggled to get out of bed. Was pretty much on the back but riding comfortably all the way to UWA (barring the two small hills which people seem to struggle inordinately with). At UWA I saw Eoin on about 4th wheel up ahead and I tried to go past and give him a bit of a lead-out. By the time I bridged the small gap which opened up in the line I was pretty much stuffed and I think I gave him about 2s of respite before I faded left. Boltboi was on song today up to the golf course hill and was there at the end too. Wonder if he'll stay awake today? I'm unlikely to!! |
| Running hills (Reabold east) 18:00 [5] 3.85 km (4:41 / km) | |
| max:169 shoes: Brooks Beast |
| 5 reps on a hot and steamy evening, no wind. Just the girls and I at training tonight - Jen, Meg, Bea, Saz, Ngaire, Dawn. Wil was at the cricket and Meg wanted to be there, her free tickets not arriving in time. Slow, Medium, Fast, Fast, Long Fast. Jog back recovery for first 3, plus 2mins for next two.
3.43
3.28
3.07
3.03
(1.07) 3.18
Very happy with this session as I was quicker than last week, felt like I had a strong long stride happening and was able to hold breathing under control till last 200m or so before going to hi-freq gasp mode. The extra 350m or so tacked on the front of the last one pushed the HR up to 169 about where my breathing blew! Had water with me but will be dehydrated tomorrow, can tell. |
| Running warm up/down 38:00 [2] 6 km (6:20 / km) | |
| shoes: Brooks Beast |
| warm-up, cool-down and recoveries. |
Monday Dec 10 |
| Note | |
| (rest day) |
| On a roll, what's another day off going to do other than help me properly have a break. Trying to move in and move out is a bit draining too. Not to mention the mental hassle of solving the logic puzzle of keeping cat, dog, fish and Jen separate at appropriate times! It reminds me of an old logic teaser about getting cats, rats and dogs across a river but you could only put two in the boat at a time or something. |
| |
| C • Sounds familiar 2 |
Sunday Dec 9 |
| Note | |
| (rest day) |
| Jen entered the 12 hour MTB race as a Solo and I thought it'd be prudent to support rather than enter, mainly as the thought of riding for 12hours had minimal appeal. Amazing how seriously it was taken by the teams with marquees, tents, generators everywhere, even large-screen TVs and game boys to keep team-mates amused. Jen rode well even with our dodgey lighting system and rode between 42 and 56mins per lap (not including stops). 3 daylight laps then 11 night laps with her biggest stop of only 10mins. 12th overall, 1st female in Solo category. My biggest achievement was staying awake all night, not something I am normally very good at! It got down to about 11 degrees and with the howling easterly I even became tempted to ride a lap to warm-up. In the end I settled for jogging up and down a flight of 7 steps multiple times. i was absolutely shattered in the morning so fortunately I had Jen to drive me home when my double/triple vision became too much and I pulled over for safety reasons! (one of the few useful things of her usually working all night shift is the ability to stay awake when one shouldn't normally be able to!). I am going to try and ride a lap of the course hard in the daylight and see if I can get within 10mins of what the top blokes were riding at night. I'm not so sure I can... |
| Road Bike (Commute) 18:00 [0] 8 km (2:15 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Gary Fisher mtb |
| Sedate ride into the city to lie on the grass and listen to WA symphony orchestra do "Symphony in the City". Heaps of people there. Two funny human behaviour things were evident. 1) the habit of several rude people to talk loudly on their mobiles while wandering in little circles and waving to attract the attention of the person on the other end of the line trying to meet up with them. 2) a skinny older mother and her flabby husband who had a youngster with them still in a push-chair but not that babyish. Mummy fussed over him all night, wrapped him in blankies, padded him upright, fuss, fuss. Last piece of the night was 1812 overture and the organisers had managed to get some artillery pieces from the Army down alongside the crowd... needless to say the loud explosion of the guns going off panicked Mummy and they were wrapping mollycoddled baby up while Daddy used his hands to cover his ears for the duration of the piece. Just before the end the hands came off and they started walking off (and here's the best bit) EXACTLY as the piece comes to a creschendo and Every gun fired at once. That was great! I think Mummy wet herself with worry.
Nice strong warm easterly to push us home again, great evening, nice way to spend the evening after a day mostly spent asleep. |
| Note | |
| |
| Came home from 12hour to find a fish not quite behaving as I expected fish to behave. Are they supposed to float upside down and all lifeless-looking? It looked healthier than I felt at 8am though. Two left, these two seem to have coped with the forced move and car-trip and relocation a bit better... |
Saturday Dec 8 |
| Road Bike (River) 1:51:00 [3] 50 km (2:13 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel |
| Met Boltboi at U-dub for a ride around the river (and given his mental state in the last few days to prevent him slashing his wrists). I struggled with a sore back, (courtesy of digging a hole for Jen's fishpond and carrying rocks and furniture) and a strong sense of lethargy. Boltboi had ridden from Gosnells so was well warmed up. I drove about 75s to get there and did the minimum distance before going home to shovel more dirt around. |
Friday Dec 7 |
| Core Stability/Stretching 30:00 [4] | |
| shoes: Barefoot |
| Just Wil and I tonight and Jen came along and "did a Fletch" with a cursory plank and some stretching. Wil was soft, I pushed out an extra cardio loop and tried a bit more than normal. |
| Running 25:00 [4] | |
| shoes: Barefoot |
| Running bits. |
Thursday Dec 6 |
| Paddling (River) 40:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Ski, Mako 6 |
| Cold morning for this time of year, around 10 degrees. I of course wasn't prepared to admit it was cold and had to borrow Jen's jumper. She tried out her brand spanking Fenn XT and it was noticeably faster and more stable than the spec SLSC ski she'd been borrowing. I was sore in my glute and go the numb leg thing, probably from paddling with tired leg muscles after Tuesday's hills and Wednesdays awfully slow and inefficient jog/wander with the slowies. |
Wednesday Dec 5 |
| Road Bike (Commute) 14:46 [3] 6.7 km (2:12 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel |
| Couldn't train this morning as I'd booked the car in for a service and convinced myself that that meant I couldn't get anything done beforehand. Slept in till 7 then drove to service, then rode the midget distance to work on the race bike in full kit. |
| Road Bike (Commute) 15:00 [3] 6.5 km (2:18 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel |
| |
| Running 1:00:00 [2] 10 km (6:00 / km) | |
| shoes: Brooks Beast |
| Very slow jog with Wil and two girls who came along for the first time. Luckily I'd brought Haggles along so he got a good run in the wind and rain, very much a winter type storm front. |
| Running 27:51 [3] 5 km (5:34 / km) | |
| shoes: Brooks Beast |
| The other 3 abandoned at an hour so I did an extra loop - spent some time reccying a new terrain loop near the old drive in, then ran a CW loop of Oceanic and Kalinda back to the pool. Hammies were pretty tight when I started out, but by the end were slightly worse. Must be yesterday's hill reps. Stupid hammies! |
Tuesday Dec 4 |
| Road Bike (Floreat ride) 1:36:00 [4] 49 km (1:58 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel |
| Nearly missed the ride today, the snooze function on the phone woke me up and I had to really rush to get out the house and get there on time. Very comfortable pace today for first 2/3 and I just hung around chatting at the back, nice still clear morning. Boltboi thought I hadn't showed I reckon! Gradually worked harder along McCabe St getting near to the front and was 4th up the golf course hill. Just before Iona there was a woman walking her Border Collie up to the road, she stopped and the dog sat and they waited. Not sure if it was Hoggster's Meg, or DanielIe's Bonnie. I was about 20m from her doing about 45kph down the slope when the dog bolted for the road!! I yelled, she yelled, and amazing the dog propped and spun left and somehow I missed it. There goes another life, the adrenaline surge afterwards left me shaken for a minute or two as the "what ifs" went through my head. Moved up one spot up Devil's Elbow and the UWA sprint was just a long solid effort gradually riding past people who were fading. |
| Running (Reabold) 18:00 [4] 4 km (4:30 / km) | |
| shoes: Brooks Beast |
| 5 reps up Reabold hill with Jen, Jess, Meg, Dawn and Wil. s-m-h-m-h
3.38 3.37 3.12 3.28 3.14
Found it tough, and not quite able to run hard the whole way up, just not fit enough to maintain an attacking pace. Was very happy to hold the last one close to the first hard one. |
| Running warm up/down 38:00 [2] 6.5 km (5:51 / km) | |
| shoes: Brooks Beast |
| W-up, c-d and recovery jogs. |
Monday Dec 3 |
| Road Bike (Commute) 24:16 [3] 11 km (2:12 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel |
| The short way to work, but pretty hard along the last 1.6km straight flat bit of road to try and get the average up! Over a 11k ride the last k and a bit I figured I might be able to give it a nudge up - pity about the E headwind, I held 40 for half of it, then faded as I went up the 5cm contour towards Alexander Drive. I notice the SW is well and truly in now, brilliant, can't wait for the slog along Mounts Bay road on the way home. Sigh. |
| Road Bike (Commute) 41:00 [3] 19 km (2:09 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel |
| Couldn't face riding along the river from Claisebrook to U-dub into the sea-breeze so at East Perth turned onto the cyclepath that goes along the Freo line and instead rode into the sea-breeze up hills instead of on the flat. Employed a route choice shaped like a ? when I left the railway which was a bit dopey. |
Sunday Dec 2 |
| Paddling race (Bay to Beach) 1:15:00 [4] 14 km (5:21 / km) | |
| shoes: Ski, Mako 6 |
| First proper paddle race I've done on this ski and I am definitely lacking in the strength department - very slow off the mark compared to the paddler-types and with no idea of what intensity to maintain in a ski race. Cardiovascularly no trouble at all, was only challenged when wake-riding for sections down the river after pleasure craft had passed.
Only people I overtook were while I was on a wave, didn't actually paddle pass anyone under my own steam, just through being able to read the wave a bit better than most it seemed. Cunning and guile rather than grunt. Odd given my muscular V-shaped massive paddling torso and shoulders. |
Saturday Dec 1 |
| MTB (Langford park) 1:40:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Bike, Merida |
| One lap of the 12-hr course in teh daylight followed by a lap after dark with lights and headlamp. Was pretty good fun - I liked the track as it has been well-ridden and not so rocky and loose as it normally is. |