Training Archive: ToomsIn the 31 days ending 2008-05-31:
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| H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | S | M | T | W | H | F | S | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Saturday May 31 | ||
| Running (dog jog) 22:13 [2] 4 km (5:33 / km) +15m 5:27 / km | |
| shoes: Barefoot | ||
| Massive thunderstorm noises off to the south, prbably on Gossies, but it stayed dry up here for my run with Haggles. Drove to the beach then ran from the drain to Brighton and back, coming back lovely with the strong northerly wind blowing, quite unusual to be feeling good while running south. Normally have the blowy sou-westers and sou-easters to contend with. | ||
| Orienteering race (Gunapin Day 1) 53:54 [5]*** 9.68 km (5:34 / km) +135m 5:12 / km | |
| spiked:12/16c shoes: Asics Trabuco | ||
| Scary weather today, lots of thunder around in all directions, very heavy showers and only 50 something people at the entire event as a consequence. I did a proper warm-up, some strides and limbering-up drills as I wanted to try and hammer the course. Other than the first control, and maybe one or two others in the north of the map it was very straightforward - I only spent 1min 22s stopped which for me is pretty good going ie. the nav was easy. Damn good fun though, especially watching Simmo race me out of my #7 to the next control 150m away and run straight to the wrong MMO. Pretty lonely old run out there, saw Moreen Cox on her H5(?) course about 5 times, that was about it. Was pleased at my effort on the uphills, found I was able to run hard up them and then hurt a bit more over the top until the breathing settled - up till now the hills have caused my effort level to drop away and then I've jogged over the tops. Was 25mins before I felt tired, a big advance from summer when it was hitting me in 14mins. Good to see tRicky front up for his first real foot event and find them all. Found a couple of new boulders on the map where the farmer was getting carried away with his bulldozer! SHortly after here there was a flash of lightning and near instantaneous thunder which left my ears ringing and had me looking for falling trees for a mo'... very loud. | ||
Friday May 30 | ||
| Swimming (Squad) 1:15:00 [3] 3.7 km (20:16 / km) | |
| Got to work / pool at 5 to 6 to find it dark and unopened. There went my swim session as I had to open the gym up, let the crazy morning 6am horde in and fire up all the machines, music, till etc. And make a nice early call to the bugger staffmember's house to wake him up. I got to the squad in time for the main set, no warm up, straight into 100 easy, 50 hard, 50 hard x 5. 300 other stuff. I stayed in and did 5 x 100 single arm drill breathing off-side. (25L/25R/25 full catch/25 swim). Then I donned fins and paddles and did 5 x 100 of 3-stroke roll/popov. 10 x 50 stroke count (all 38 or 39). Followed by 10 x 50 paddles only. 100 paddles. 100 hard free (1.28). 200 cool down. Lovely still sunny morning, pity the weekend of orienteering may not be like that. | ||
| Running warm up/down 15:30 [1] +5m | |
| shoes: Barefoot | ||
| Up to drain via wee stop. Recoveries too. | ||
| Running intervals (beach fartlek) 7:30 [5] | |
| shoes: Barefoot | ||
| 5 x 60s hard with 60s recovery
5 x 30s maximum effort 60s recovery Ran absolutely flat-chat for the 30s, long stride, no holding back, felt good. German Wolfgang joined in for the last 3 efforts, matched me on the penultimate one, was amazed the recovery was a jog, and then matched me for 21s of the last effort before saying in a german clip 'F*ck' and stopping. Good on 'im though, gutsy effort. With Jen and Ian. Awesome night to run, very warm for the last couple of days of autumn. Was a bit pressed for time so we smashed these out hard. All 3 of us feeling Tuesday's run a bit still, particularly in the calves, and Poland-bound Jen is finding that less training but higher intensity is paying off - but needs longer recovery! We regrouped for the 30s efforts and Jen was out sprinting Ian, she wants to make sure that tRicky and Wilster are humiliated when they finally take up orienteering this year. Wil's almost talked himself into losing, tRicky will keep injuring his Achilles to avoid her. | ||
| Core Stability/Stretching (Beach session) 40:00 [3] | |
| Small group tonight, Brian, Dawn, Wil, Jen, Vulfgeng, Ian and i. Sand was a fantastic consistency. Sand type 23a, soft but slightly more sticky than usual, the stickiest dry sand can get before you'd say it was damp, we had some nice berms built by our feet on the corners by the end of the loops! Was warm enough to go in for a swim cooldown rather than a jog, amazing to walk into the water in late May and find it pleasant. Even better to get back to the car not covered in sand. The people in the supermarket looked at me weird though when I went in to buy food afterwards barefoot, wet-shorted and bare-topped... no choice really, it was almost closing time and I had to restock my parents' house with essentials before they get home from overseas tonight. Covered up the scene of the cat fight in their kitchen, the depredations on the food cupboard etc, even emptied the bin. Now to mentally psych myself up for beating Mufti on one split Saturday and two on Sunday. | ||
| Note | |
| I'm intrigued to sea whether the tea storms this weekend are the new 'Australian' tea, or whether they are monsoonal Indian, tropical Kenyan or just plain old drizzly Earl Grey. | ||
Thursday May 29 | ||
| Road Bike (Commute) 35:00 [1] | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel | ||
| Felt pretty flat after (and during) the run last night and even wasn't particularly last night, was worried might be coming down with something. Went to the couch for a lazy hour or so (unheard of) and then to bed early (often). Slept in till almost 8am and rode easy to work. Not feeling so bad today, just a bit of calf tightness from Tuesday's effort. | ||
| Road Bike (Commute) 25:00 [3] | |
| Rode home. Faster. Weirdly dark at 440pm, all the cars had lights on and I even put my light on, still on the bike from Tuesday AM. Might feel like swimming well tomorrow, hope it's a good set. Saw two chickens again at herdsman on the grass at the equestrian spot, amazing they haven't been eaten, mauled, acquired in last few days! | ||
Wednesday May 28 | ||
| Swimming (Squad) 1:00:00 [3] 3.1 km (19:21 / km) | |
| Main set 15 x100 with 15s rest. First 4 AT, next 4 hard, next 4 AT next 3 hard. Hards were between 1.23 and 1.28, thresholds were 1.30 to 1.36, more around 1.35. Always the sort of set that my body performs better in rather than the usual chopping and changing. | ||
| Running long 1:15:00 [2] 12.7 km (5:54 / km) | |
| shoes: ASICS Evolution | ||
| Wasn't feeling too good for this run in the dark, did a faster 25mins with Jen and Haggles, then went on to the beach with Wil for most of the rest of the run. Beach was nice environment to run in, but very hard work and very soft and slow. Glad to only do a short run. | ||
| C • faster? 1 | ||
Tuesday May 27 | ||
| Road Bike (Floreat Group) 1:45:00 [3] 50 km (2:06 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel | ||
| Nothing in the tank today and I should've been wearing red and calling myself Charlie. Popped on and off the back until Freo where it gets hilly and the overall pace drops a bit. There were a couple of guys who should know better riding cluelessly today, one fool in particular in a Maple leaf top who often was swinging out 3 wide on Curtin Ave and McCabe St and he and his beanie-clad dickhead mate unfortunately didn't get totalled going up the first climb from the river as they went out over the double white lines from the back of the group. A bike came the other way, yelled "Keep Left" and apparently copped abuse from these knobs on the wrong side of the road. Pity it wasn't a Falcon Ute with a bullbar coming the other way, the type that cause grief from behind. I made one attempt to ride hard, assisted by being pissed-off with twats in the group making the ride unsafe, and rode up Devil's Elbow from the very back of the group to about 5th passing most of the weaklings wobbling all over the road cutting the corners. MTBjen was strong and a working part of the group today, is there no limit? Damn this confidence thing... | ||
| Running race (Golf Course 5k hcp) 18:31 [5] 5 km (3:42 / km) vdot: 54.5 | |
| shoes: Asics Orient | ||
| Mega turnout of 16 or 17 people for this one, 6 people ran PBs and all but four people finished within an 80s window... not bad for a 15min difference in start times! Made for a fantastic ascent of Durston Rd as I could see Liz, Dawn, Saz, Wil, Morgan, Ian and Ceri in front. I did a 10min extra warm-up today as I felt so shattered and disinterested. I also took the radical step of taking an AR emergency Dr Jen's Thunderbolt concoction at 5.10pm to try and gee me up a bit. That put me in a better frame of mind, and a bit of fitness is apparently coming back too.Had Fletch starting 63s behind me and about the same in front to Morgan and another 20s to Ian. Saw no-one until Durston and then started passing the previous list. Caught Morgan with 500m to go and he threw in a sprint, I couldn't. Caught him again with 400m to go, he repeated the dose. We screamed past Jess, Ian just ahead, Morgan sprinted again, bugger, 250m to go I caught him again, and banking on the fact that he might actually be reaching his limit I tried for a last desperate surge and got past him and Ian just before the line, finishing 20s or so behind MTBjen who ran (yet another) PB. She alsp pipped Wil by 1s on actual time... tee hee. Next time will be awesome for the low 20s runners as there'll be about 8 of them off within 30s! Fletch ran a PB by 3s but was on his lonesome till prbably the top of Durston.
Very nice to run sub-19mins for the first time in over 12months. | ||
| Running warm up/down 28:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Asics Orient | ||
| 10min + 10min warm-up. One lap of the old drive-in plus the usual group warmup. Coold down was 5s slower than the warm-up, same course. Good positive vibe from everyone today. | ||
Monday May 26 | ||
| Swimming (Squad) 1:00:00 [4] 3 km (20:00 / km) | |
| Really struggle dto get out of bed today and even lodged teh pre-emptive pike with the coach prior to getting in the water. Weirdly though, it was one of those days which I often remember as felt-crap-beforehand-but-turned-out-ok. Never really got my head around the set as the lane leader was in early (ie. before 6am) and got the set started before I really absorbed what was on the whiteboard. Consequently I swam moderate-hard to hard for the entire set - and made it! Main set was something like 300m AT, 250m free/back/free/breast/free, 200 of something, 100 free then back up again, all with random rest. Felt good though! Then 8x50m on 55s arriving at around 40-45s. | ||
| Running (Fartlek) 25:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Barefoot | ||
| Took dog to the beach straight after swimming and did a whole heap of 100-300m efforts at high pace interspersed with easy jogging. Essentially i'd throw the ball for him and then run like buggery the other direction until the dog caught me. A couple of times he stopped to sniff sandcastles then piss on them so my efforts got long and I faded! Then he got cheeky and would chase me until about 10m behind then just watch me suffer. So I threw the ball in the ocean and laughed at him. Legs feeling good today, not often I do genuine all-out sprints. I'll need to do the same tomorrow to beat Fletch's slowest 5k golf course handicap time. | ||
Sunday May 25 | ||
| MTB Orienteering race (Turner Hill) 2:08:30 [4] 33 km (3:54 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Merida | ||
| Got to the event to find lots of empty cars and some progressively more worried setters as no-one had returned by the time I started at 11am. Gave Jen about a 5min headstart but unfortunately added another 5mins or so to that by riding to control 11 instead of 1 to start with! Mostly due to there being no hire map boards left so I was rding the whole event with a big stop at the controls to memorise as much as I could, then I'd ride till I got shakey, pull out the map and correct. Really enjoyed the ride, still felt strong at the end but made at least 4 or 5 overshoot errors, nothing massive, usually only 200-300metres past before I'd hit something I didn't remember from my plan, look at the map and head off again. I think it actually turned into an excellent training exercise! Saw MTBjen coming up the hill out of 2 as I headed down, I was about 8mins down there, overshot the turn into 3 a bit, saw MTBjen as I climbed northish into 6, now 5.5mins down, the bitumen option and coming from the NW was much faster it appears, out of 7 I overshot my track turn by about 200m - but it was very faint and ALL UPHILL, grr. Found 8 no worries, lost the vague logging track on the way down but was on another all the way down, well, most of the way down! 9 was easy, 10 was a decent climb but easy, and 11 was pretty cool too. Wasn't feelig too bad at the end, but was knackered an hour later. Bloody chick in our AR team managed to flog us all! | ||
| MTB (Plod) 30:00 [2] 7 km (4:17 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Merida | ||
| MTBjen wanted to check out the MTB 6hr course as we've entered that as a pair. The course wasn't really marked so we went for a sort-of-6hr-course ride. It really sucked as I was sore, tired and very unco-ordinated. Did several dismounts with momentum, no falls as I kept running but the bike collected Jarrah bark and granite and gravel a few times. I need to eat more before trying to train again after racing. I think the 6hr will be another beating by the chick. Sigh. | ||
Turner Hill Course Long - Splits | ||
Saturday May 24 | ||
| Running long 1:40:00 [2] 16.5 km (6:04 / km) | |
| shoes: ASICS Evolution | ||
| A bit stiff and sore from last night's beach physical jerks, but also pretty flat and knew I was in for an uncomfortable jog from the start as I headed off awkwardly down the hill. Met up with Wil at McGillivray at the 30min mark and the plan was to do another hour back to his car which he'd parked somewhere on the side of the road. Within 10mins I'd dissuaded him from his planned route of about 30km including Scarboro and Cottesloe (just a touch unrealistic... and he rogaines well???) and instead I took him on magical mystery tour of Bold Park using all the blocked and banned and illegal and dangerous tracks that the sanitised park now contains. In order, Blocked for Rehab, No Pedestrians Bridle Trail, No Access Falling Branches, Trail Closed. Even did the B-side of the 'original' Terrain Loop. Ah, happy memories, still a faint trace of the track under the long wet grass in the pine forest. Wil forbade me the A-side as he said I'd get too excited.
Managed to miss the rain almost entirely, although we saw it piss down south and north of where we happened to be at the time. And in a devout moment we came across a permanent orienteering marker on an old sand track that we dated at about 15-20 years old with the label "X 5" still visible on the 200mm square piece of metal nailed to a tuart tree. Well within the "thou must not ever enter this piece of bush" section of Reabold Hill. Finished off with a bail south past CCGS playing fields with all the illegally parked $80K cars on the footpath, further south through the golf course and to Wil's car which he'd thoughtfully parked on top of a hill. I enjoyed being out in the daylight for a change for a run, but I didn't enjoy the run as my legs hurt. | ||
| C • Old Reabold 3 | ||
Friday May 23 | ||
| Swimming (Squad) 1:10:00 [3] 3 km (23:20 / km) | |
| horrible weather but a good session. Main set 10 x100 various stuff. Then 8 x 50m max sprint races. 300 cool down. Then, for the hell of it I asked Ross to time me over 200m TT. Had the lane to myself, goal was sub 3mins to beat my goal I'd set myself for next Friday... smashed it, 2.45.
Now the reality check, my swimming current craposity is not much different from running, my max pace over 200 of 2.45 compares with my old 400m TT time of 5.01, or 2.30 per 200m for double the distance! Sigh. At least I'm on the improve. The shame of it all is that it even feels just as hard these days! | ||
| C • not bad 4 | ||
| Running (Beach fartlek) 14:00 [5] | |
| shoes: Barefoot | ||
| 4 x 2mins, 4 x 1min, 4 x 30s all with 60s recovery with Ian and Ceri. Howling westerly so perfectly side-on and the beach was firm so a good session. Managed to score a couple of polystyrene buoys for summer but left big plastic craypot there on the beach. | ||
| Running warm up/down 15:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Barefoot | ||
| Jog to drain. Recoveries. | ||
| Core Stability/Stretching (Beach session) 40:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Barefoot | ||
| With the howling wind and wintery appearance to what was actually quite a mild day I wasn't holding my breath that there'd be good turnout. Turning up for the first time in 18months was Stew Greig, he rocked up 15mins early and then just after 6pm Wil, Steve M, Morgan all fronted giving us 7 all up. And a fun session was had by all, got the 'cardio' handicap fairly right this time. Stew is fit, but is going to have very saw calves from unaccustomed running. | ||
Thursday May 22 | ||
| Road Bike (Commute) 53:30 [3] 28.5 km (1:53 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel | ||
| Stonking massive strong gusty nor-wester stormy winds so most of my ride to work was a bit wind assisted, especailly the bit along the river from U-dub to the Causeway with bits of river exploring the cyclepath and some seagulls struggling to get out of the way of the bullet-like bike as it precariously negotiated the deserted bike path. Now I know what it's like for Evo when he goes riding! Bit wobbly under the narrows as the pylons cut the wind for a split second several times! Easily a 'ride to work PB'. going home may be different story.... | ||
| Road Bike (Commute) 32:00 [3] 11.5 km (2:47 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel | ||
| Windy and dark. But not so windy on the sheltered uphills. More windy on the downhills and harder. Go figure. | ||
Wednesday May 21 | ||
| Swimming (Squad) 1:05:00 [4] 3.1 km (20:58 / km) | |
| Only 3 of us in the lane today until some from the lane below were promoted. Main set 4x(100 medley, 50 hard, 50 medium, 200 threshold). Swam the last 200 max for the hell of it and did 3.05. Others were a bit slower. On target for my prediction of breaking 3mins by the end of next week. | ||
Tuesday May 20 | ||
| Road Bike (Floreat ride) 1:42:00 [3] 50 km (2:02 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel | ||
| Bit tough to get up again today but MTBjen looked like she was struggling more so I pretended to be all good to guilt her into feeling poorly. Worked a treat and I spent the first half hour of the ride being irritatingly cheerful and pushing her along. Then she turned for home as she had to leave for work early. Rest of the ride was ok, was chatting to Georgie Law as we were rolling along the left lane waiting for a gap in the heavy traffic but we bumped shoulders, leant against each other for what seemed ages and disengaged. Lucky, we were at the very front of the group!!! He's been riding even longer than me though so no panic from either of us. Sat in for a change along McCabe, rode the hill to former Prix d'amour in my big chain and was 1st across, tried the same thing on Devil's Elbow but on the last speed hump I felt like I was towing a locomotive up there and 5 or 6 passed me. Took it easy after that, scared about tonight's run. Got home and managed to catch MTBjen in the act of leaving. Had to leave early eh? Pah! | ||
| C • leaving early... 1 | ||
| Running hills (Oceanic) 19:00 [5] 4.4 km (4:19 / km) +250m 3:22 / km | |
| shoes: ASICS Evolution | ||
| Another big group tonight, 5 blokes and 8 chicks. My times weren't awesome, a bit slower than previous sessions a few years back but I felt less than swift today so I think next time I might go quicker. Did 4 reps up OCeanic Drive (750m) from the highway to Kalinda, jog back recovery, then a break and a race to the top of Reabold.
3:12 (build) 3:19 (build) 3:02 (hard) 3:09 (hard) 5:53 In the past best set was around 2:45s followed by 5.15. Whoosh! New shoes tonight, nice to be back in ASICS. Got a bit of a blister though as I only took the label off and cardboard out of the shoes in the car-park! | ||
| Running warm up/down 41:00 [2] 7 km (5:51 / km) +130m 5:22 / km | |
| shoes: ASICS Evolution | ||
| Warm-up (via Kalinda), cooldown (BOld Park Drive) and the recoveries. Long recovery jog. | ||
Monday May 19 | ||
| Swimming (Squad) 1:00:00 [3] 2.9 km (20:41 / km) | |
| Harder to get up than I expected this morning, but I guess I did some unaccustomed hill riding on the weekend. Found the set hard and was spat to the back of the lane after 700m when the "medium" paced freestyle was a bit above my threshold. Throw in some medley off nil rest other than a mighty flag-disturbing inhalation and that equals a lot of lactic acid. Will toughen me up I guess. Main set 2x[ 200 medium / 100 medley / 2 x 50m hard / 100 medley / 200 threshold] | ||
| Road Bike (Commute) 44:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel | ||
| Glorious day for ride to work. Had to push a bit as was running marginally late. A good thing though as it got me into Evo gears. | ||
Sunday May 18 | ||
| Orienteering race (Julimar) 1:06:15 [4]*** 10.42 km (6:21 / km) +480m 5:10 / km | |
| spiked:15/15c shoes: Asics Trabuco | ||
| Stunning winter sunny day, quite warm running and Julimar, an area I mapped some years ago, has changed massively - all the green has gone and the regrowth is low and minor. Has turned it into a fast running area and the improved visibility makes orienteering much easier (it's also exposed a few rocks that were hidden in nasty green stuff!). Gave RobJ a 3 or 4 min headstart so neither of us got distracted by 'racing' but was surprised to see him coming into 3 as I punched! He pulled away through 4,5,6 and I lost sight of him until seeing him a couple of hundred metres ahead up a long hill climb into 12. Could see him from here and gradually caught up. The last leg was stupid, over a kilometre from it to the finish with no route choice, just the track we jogged along to get to the start. Rob headed out to it so I chose to do the stupid but different straight option and it cost me about 2mins I think as it was through burnt out parrotbush mostly. Kinda fun though, but slow. And blackening. Afterwards he said he'd've done the same if I'd got to the last one first! | ||
| Orienteering warm up/down 6:00 [2] 1.1 km (5:27 / km) | |
| shoes: Asics Trabuco | ||
| Easy but gradually more tiring uphill jog. | ||
| Road Bike 1:10:26 [3] 32.4 km (2:10 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel | ||
| Felt quite good after an enjoyable orienteering run so got the bike off the roof and rode fairly solidly trying to get to Muchea before Wil caught up. After about 40mins I got a bit tired so stopped trying to beat Wil. A few mins later MTBJen came the other way (She'd left 40mins earlier) and we rode the last bit together with Wil catching up in the car just prior to Muchea so all-round good timing. Lotsa back pain on the bike again, but it didn't bother me orienteering and that's more important than stupid riding. | ||
| C • Stupid? 1 | ||
Saturday May 17 | ||
| Road Bike (Death Valley) 3:30:00 [2] 86 km (2:27 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel | ||
| Sensible start time of 8am out in Midland where Boltboi, MTBjen and I rode up to O'Brien Rd, around the loop and then back down Toodyay Rd. It's been about a decade since I've ridden out there and I misremembered one turn which added about 5-10km to the ride. Lovely day out there, sunny and pretty much windless. Suffered a lot with low back spasm and bad ache, definitely worse on road bike than mtb. Lying down on the ground, or trigger pointing with point of saddle on downhills provides temporary amelioration. Boltboi ludicrously quick on the downhills where gravity is his friend. Nice to have Toodyay Road with the extra lane on the way up, some traffic on the way back but it was all well-behaved, if somewhat fast! | ||
Friday May 16 | ||
| Swimming (Squad) 1:05:00 [3] 3.2 km (20:19 / km) | |
| Another good strong session. The set suited me though, nothing was flat out, rather sustained discomfort. Main set 6x (2 x 150)... (100 mod, 50 hard, 10s rest, 150 threshold 20s rest). Moved from 2nd last in lane (9th) to 4th in lane through set. | ||
| Running intervals (beach fartlek) 14:00 [5] | |
| shoes: Barefoot | ||
| All with 60s recoveries.
1min, 5x2min, 3x1min hard. Jen has found a new ability to run too. Felt good, little generally weary from swimming. | ||
| Running warm up/down 15 [2] | |
| shoes: Barefoot | ||
| Warm-up and recoveries. | ||
| Core Stability/Stretching (beach session) 35:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Barefoot | ||
| Just the 4 of us tonight, but we all ran beforehand so it was a good session all up. Wil, Ian, Jen, Dawn and I. | ||
Thursday May 15 | ||
| Road Bike (Commute) 35:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel | ||
| Was chucking it down at wake-up time so I opted for an hour's more sleep and a walk with the dog and few stretches on the beach. Roads were wet riding to work but I stayed just south of the dark rain clouds. Legs were not sore or particularly tired from last night's run, a very Good thing. I think getting enough sleep and training harder must be better for me. | ||
| Road Bike (Commute) 57:30 [4] 28.5 km (2:01 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel | ||
| Rode home via Claisebrook, UWA and rode big chain and hardish the whole way. Stopped to activate my pissy road bike lights at U-dub as it was near dark. The roads were wet the entire way but I didn't get a drop of rain - probably all raining in Swanbourne and Subiaco! Felt good again (!) and this was definitely my fastest ride home since I've been at this work, some 3 years now. Lots of Perth drivers having trouble with the juxtapostion of wet roads and their poor understanding of the coefficient of friction between tyre rubber and the bitumen road as they aimed to pull away quickly in gaps in the traffic. | ||
Wednesday May 14 | ||
| Swimming (Squad) 55:00 [3] 2.6 km (21:09 / km) | |
| slept:7.5 | ||
| 100 swim, 100 catch warm-up x 3
9 x 200 main set 200m cd kick/swim Found I was swimming 3.10 to 3.15 for the more solid 200s. That's to be expected I guess. I hope by the end of May to be under 3mins. | ||
| Running long (Thrash) 1:23:31 [4] 15.64 km (5:20 / km) +510m 4:35 / km | |
| shoes: Brooks Beast | ||
| Was scared all day knowing Evo was coming, particularly after I ran a bit better last night. Normal history says a good run is followed by crippling soreness and lack of energy. Right on the death knell Wil rocked-up which augered well, but the bugger ran hard and fast and they both left me behind on the hill up to CCGS playing fields, then we negotiated the dark, rainy, pseudo-track through to SAS barracks then hit the 30min mark and Wil said "I'll pike now and cruise back." That left me at the mercy of Evo and we bailed to the beach and he strode off, oyster catcher like, up to the groyne and doubled back for me. Looking at my watch I realised I was somewhat faster than the same course 2 weeks back and then had to add extra segments. Eventually I realised we were doing those extra segments faster than normal too and I came up (lucky my subconscious was doing hte right thing) short by a few mins from the target of 90. By then my quads didn't want to play anymore on the ups so it was good to end. I don't feel too bad now, other than the feeling that if Evo genuninely described my effort it would have the word "skirt" or "didn't really go that hard tonight" in his trog.
First 5km at 5.09, middle beach bit at 5.40, last 7km at 5.12. | ||
Tuesday May 13 | ||
| Road Bike (Floreat ride) 1:38:33 [3] 49 km (2:01 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel | ||
| Nice and warm this morning although the roads were damp in places. Raining in Gosnells and Subiaco again, Sorrento too I suspect. Luckily Wembley Downs and the entire ride were free of rain and it was a much better sized group today of 15 riders. Strangely I was feeling really good today and so I sat at the back and watched MTBjen womanfully hang onto the group well all the way past her usual short-cut option at Leighton.** After confirming she'd got past the short cut I ended up on the front all along Stirling Hwy and to the start of the first climb where the remaining 8 riders promptly dropped me. Got one of them at Devil's Elbow, fat bugger. After CCGS was cruisy and there WAS NO SPRINT!! MTBjen hung on grimly along Hacket Drive and was ecstatic to be with the group for this last section of the ride. *
*note, some opinions may vary from the above. ** later amendment, apparently the Col du Leighton allowed MTBjen to become the Lantern Rouge once again... have to all chip in some $ for an appropriate cycling jersey I think. | ||
| C • Rain on Tue, Thu 3 | ||
| Running warm up/down 15:38 [2] 3 km (5:13 / km) | |
| shoes: Brooks Beast | ||
| Pool to Reabold rear via BPD and Oceanic. Big group of 12 today, and a new guy who ran pretty well too. | ||
| Running hills (Reabold rear) 45:00 [3] 8 km (5:38 / km) +466m 4:21 / km | |
| shoes: Brooks Beast | ||
| Same set as last week, but this time my legs felt tired on the warm-up from the big chain ride this morning. But the times didn't reflect that and each set was faster than the corresponding set last week. The Great Decline may be reversing? Or, like climate change, is this just some sort of La Nina anomaly?
1.55 1.55 1.52 1.53 1.51 1.41 1.40 1.43 1.43 1.45 This time I felt I had some reserve in the AT set, and similarlyin the first two reps in the hard set. I went uber hard on the thirdone, but legs gave up with 50m to go but was pretty happy to not blow up this week. | ||
Monday May 12 | ||
| Swimming (Squad) 1:10:00 [3] 3 km (23:20 / km) | |
| First Monday swim in what feels like a decade. Was a bit stronger today but still off the back. Main set 300 med, 300 of IM 25m, 300 hard. Then same 200s, then 100s. | ||
Sunday May 11 | ||
| MTB 4:05:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Bike, Merida | ||
| Long ride from Helena Valley Primary School up the pipeline to Hills Forest Centre, a loop of Greystones XC course which is showing major signs of non-use then up the Munda Biddi to Mundaring and a bakery. Bea and Andrew left us here and Bill, Pete, MTBjen and I carried on to JFNP and the Eagle Trail up and then down to the bottom of the hill. Evo is on a brand-new Scott hardtail now and it got a baptism of fire with the Eagle trail proving challenging. The bike however shrugged off the inversion, the bumps and the constant stream of epithets to get home unscathed. Classic line from Evo just after the little wooden bridge "F*ck I hate this f*cking track, it's f*cked." Then he let some air out of his tyres, Bill said not too much, might get a pinch flat. About 400m later Bill called Jen and I back so we rode back and there they were... fixing a pinch flat! From there on was all good and it was a great day for a ride. Pity I felt empty and struggled most of the way. Evo is mighty fit and strong, and MTBjen worked pretty hard today, kept up goodly on the faster stuff and lead leaderly on the rocky stuff. My bike seriously needs a service, nothing in particular, but it's not feeling good to ride. | ||
Saturday May 10 | ||
| Note | |
| Spent whole day organising last sprint race. | ||
Friday May 9 | ||
| Swimming (Squad) 1:00:00 [3] 2.4 km (25:00 / km) | |
| slept:4.5 | ||
| Late again, but didn't really matter in this weak stage of my swimming restart. Lovely foggy morning with the sun coming up through the smokey fog. Lights were out at the pool on one side so kinda dark early. 400 of warm-up stuff, then 4 x 100 fin medley, 4x 100 medium(5s)/50hard(15s)/50easy(15s)/100solid(45s). (100fin kick, 100 free)x2 | ||
| Running intervals 13:00 [4] 2.7 km (4:49 / km) +0m 4:49 / km | |
| shoes: Barefoot | ||
| Hard bits of a short fartlek session 1:2:3:2:1 then 1:2:1mins on, 60s recovery. First effort was a shock but then session was fun, worked pretty hard, all beach sand but it was soft damp sand that the waves had been over early in the day rather than soft dry sand. Maybe we should have more words to describe sand, like the eskimoes have for snow, or the Rain God for types of rain in SLT4ATF? | ||
| Running warm up/down 12:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Barefoot | ||
| 500m warm-up, 200m cooldown and recoveries. | ||
| Core Stability/Stretching (Beach session) 40:00 [4] 1.7 km (23:32 / km) | |
| shoes: Barefoot | ||
| Good group tonight, one token chick (MTBjen) but otherwise had Ian Dorant, Wil, Brian, Wolfgang and Steve Mansfield. Jen and I had 10mins break between fartlek and this and I felt great in the exercises and even pushed the runs. Whacked on 'cardiac' at the end with 10s handicap between each person and it was all good as Ian and Wolfgang ran an extra trip to the ocean to put them out of it. Got Jen with 15m to go!
And in a surprise a skinny 30cm hoop-striped snake scared the crap out of two volleyballer girls sitting on the beach as it slithered between them. Guess it must be a baby tiger snake?! but what the heck it's doing out and about in winter is anyone's guess. I've seen heaps of BIG dugites at the beach in the heat of summer before, but not a small pretty vibrantly coloured snake like this one. I gave it some encouragement to head back to the dunes but it got pissed off and headed downwards and out of sight into the sand. | ||
| C • Python? 2 | ||
Thursday May 8 | ||
| Road Bike (Red Rock) 2:02:00 [4] 62 km (1:58 / km) +380m 1:55 / km | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel | ||
| Surprised to wake up and almost not consider going back to sleep. Got there a few mins early and then there was no fast group so the slow group was infiltrated by fast buggers and the pace was pretty swift for me, about 30 in the group. Was never more than 4 from the back, except up the two small hills, but was never dropped either. Deep water point hard as the group scattered prior to it as the path under Canning Hwy was closed and some knew, some didn't, I didn't. Hung on grimly along Mounts Bay Rd, nice morning for a ride once it was light. | ||
Wednesday May 7 | ||
| Swimming (Squad) 50:00 [3] 2.6 km (19:14 / km) | |
| slept:7.5 | ||
| 3x100 free, 100 pull
4x 150 free/100 medley/150 free 2x 100 kick/ 25 free/50 dolphin/25 free First swim in a loooong time. (just checked, Friday December 21st almost 5 months). Was good to come back to what I still think of as a "warm-up set". Enjoyed it, just cruised along behind the guys in lane 4 at Inglewood. Not sore during (that'll come later when I try to brush my hair or clean my teeth tonight!) but a bit muscle weak and was having trouble holding stroke under the water towards the end. I might do it again sometime. | ||
| C • Cleaning teeth 19 | ||
| Note | |
| Wore the formerly blue but now mauve-ish pair of Brooks running shorts. When I removed them at home the waist band elastic made a cracking sort of noise and became a waistband more suited to someone of larger girth than me, much larger in fact. I somewhat grudgingly, but long overdue I must admit, consigned them to the bin. They probably have done their share of sweat absorbtion over the years. I have one good pair of shorts that got torn by a stake at McGillivray 3 years ago and I've been meaning to sew up. I've got one uber-short pair that are almost obscene and I haven't been wearing since Bjoern left us and I've got non-running shorts that have been drafted in. Time to spend on some new training gear.
That also reminded me that the pseudo-biorhythms of my training clothes for each discipline have simultaneously reached a low point al at once. The bike nix are down to two pairs that were internet ordered cheaply and are too large for me, making me look like I've got a strange hard bog loitering in the rear of them when I'm off the bike, there's another pair that are way too short in the leg, and yesterday morning I noticed that my low-back "eat at Joe's" section of advertising space that Saz and occasionally MTBjen ride with was cooler than normal. That leaves me with my "best" pair of legitimately purchased Netti nix that are still good but not quite the same after many many hours of adventure racing soilage. Looking at cycle tops, the gold one has torn in the armpits making my armpits look like they're clothed by some sort of garment I've heard talk of worn by women of a certain persuasion! I admit though, it's about 15 years old. The blue one, sprightly at about 12 years has lost its elastic, as has the vintage Runner's World top (still in my opinion the much better looking top than the new orangey version). That leaves my MTBO top which has gone, and my CSC cheapy PBK top that is going great! Going swimming today gave me the opportunity to be surprised (and others would say disgusted maybe) by the contents of the swim bag: 1) 5 swim caps stuck together and deteriorating. Including one "Cottesloe Triathlon 1996" 2) 4 pairs of broken goggles. 3) I pair of functional goggles. 4) Aus Orienteering Champs 1998 Results Booklet (mouldy) 5) UWA student card 1995 6) Challenge Stadium High Performance Entry card 2001/02 7) Street Orienteering programmes 2001/02 (b/w photocopy) 8) Unused band-aid 9) Entry form for Challenge Fun Run 2000 10) 3 good swim caps 11) 5 old carboard goggle box things (including the great Black Max goggles) 12) Old training programme from TrenchSportz 1998 13) Old Hill Session programme from June 2001 14) A Rick Turner classic motivational sheet from swim squad 2002. 15) $3.70 in loose change. 16) Lots of unidentifiable dirt and crap. | ||
| C • Queer Eye for the Sport Guy 1 | ||
| Running 1:02:20 [3] 10.6 km (5:53 / km) | |
| shoes: Brooks Beast | ||
| Was kinda looking forward to the run but my enthusiasm was tempered by an unsolicited feeling of vague tiredness dementor-style partway through and the effort it took to convince MTBjen (the only other participant) to keep up with Hageby who was trotfully leading the way. Dumped doggles at home at 40min mark and by then had extended MTBj's planned route to include finishing where we started rather than at home. Then 2mins later managed to lure her into an inverse golf-course loop to make it up to near an hour. 3 mins later a small urge to her to lengthen her Chanley-style stride down the hill sped things up for the rest of the way and lucky Haggles missed out on the faster finish. Foodhall was good. Saw a family of fat people sucking on their softdrinks. Sitting next to them was a Calista Flockhard anorexic lookalike with her neurotic skinny middleaged female friend and a table of 7 primary school girls wearing "Perth Ballet School" tops... two opposing sorts of environmental influence at work there! Fortunately the kids were eating tacos and nice energy full food. MTB jen tried to remove some judgementalism from my outlook by suggesting the woman may have cancer... I tried to deal with that for a few seconds, failed expectedly, and countered with "ah-ha, they can't all have cancer". QED. | ||
Tuesday May 6 | ||
| Road Bike (Floreat Ride) 1:40:00 [3] 49 km (2:02 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel | ||
| Brrrr! Must've been raining in Subiaco again this morning. And if I didn't know better obviously raining in Gosnells too. Quite a large group for the dark ride and I was fearful of being alone early but the pace was quick but consistent. It was quite nice to be dropped at the red light that half the group rode through as it meant a solid steady paced effort to try and gradually overhaul them from police station down to Leighton. After that I hung with the back bit of the group, passed MTBjen a few times as she invented new soft cuts. Felt good today, wasn't sore and wasn't in danger of getting too dropped. Having said that, my legs were empty on the hills back up to home so it was sensible that I didn't try and ride too hard for the first ride back. Not sure how far or long the ride was, have made it up! | ||
| C • Raining Snot!! 2 | ||
| Running hills (Reabold rear) 35:00 [5] 6.9 km (5:04 / km) +452m 3:49 / km | |
| ahr:144 max:169 shoes: Brooks Beast | ||
| Reasonable size group tonight, Fletch, Ian, me, Jess, Liz, Jen, Wil, Ceri, Meg, Dawn. Good to see Ceri Challen back running after a couple of years off. Jess was running well, not too far behind Ian and I really. Fletch was a man possessed, ran his entire second set at least 5s faster than my one-off all-time PB from 6 years ago!
First set steady and consistent, second set harder, jog back recovery which were almost exactly same pace as the run up for first set. 1.57 1.59 1.59 1.56 1.59 3mins 1.42 1.41 1.47 1.53 --- Felt like I was running with better technique but not going all that quick. Then the times in the second set surprised me as I was genuinely quick for first two and it was really motivating. Body couldn't hack the lack of specific fitness and blew up in an ugly way on the end of the 3rd and about half way up the 4th. Really good feeling to think that I can do a few more sessions feeling like this and I will without doubt speed up again. Bring it on! | ||
| C • climb 2 | ||
| Running warm up/down 20:00 [3] 3.3 km (6:04 / km) | |
| shoes: Brooks | ||
| Kalinda and trails to get there, Oceanic and BPD to get back (dark). Faster than normal, my fault, wasn't sore either way. | ||
Sunday May 4 | ||
| Orienteering race (Umuna Badge) 2:10:00 [3]*** 14.5 km (8:58 / km) | |
| max:164 spiked:19/21c (injured) shoes: Asics Trabuco | ||
| Beautiful evening camping out and a nice relaxed morning but nonetheless didn't get off to a positive start and then on the way to 1 I blocked my forefoot up on a rock and my shin still tried to keep going forward. Ouch, something funny about the front of my ankle after that. Fortunately (!) I rolled my ankle 12 controls later and surprisingly once the intial discomfort wore off I realised I had full function back and I was able to push the last 5 or 6 kilometres a bit more strongly. Phil Dufty, who had probably repassed me while I was lying on the grass stretching on leg 7, managed to be slower than my by less than a minute so I was happy to have a fellow value-for-money entrant on the course. While I was lying stretching further on in leg 7 poor Lois West got all a-fluster as she thought I was Rachel giving birth. Admittedly I've got a similar physique to pregnant Rachel, so maybe she wasn't just totally worried about Rachel out there in the forest a week before due date!
Being a farmland/granite map the poor kangaroos were all over the place today, 100s of them going in all directions. Just before the map change one came bounding down the hill towards me. I was standing dead still looking at the map and it kept coming straight at me. I decided not to move in case it freaked and it bounded by close enough that I could have stuck a foot out and tripped it over! Scary-fun. | ||
Saturday May 3 | ||
| Road Bike (Commute) 1:16:00 [2] 28 km (2:43 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel | ||
| Felt awful. And sluggish. Magic weather though. | ||
| Road Bike (Commute) 24:06 [3] 11 km (2:11 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel | ||
| Had a mocha chill about 130, then 2 toasted cheese sandwiches at 2pm, then got on the bike to come home as I was swallowing the last bit. Rode much better than this morning, even with the light headwind. Probably as I was going From work! Somewhat saddle sore but it seem to go. I'm beginning to side with Craig. | ||
Friday May 2 | ||
| Core Stability/Stretching (Beach session) 40:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Barefoot | ||
| Nice night, deserted beach, floodlights on. Half-arsed effort from me. Got there late as course I was attending during day ran late. | ||