Canoe trip photos 2

Canoe trip photos 1

My birthday present

Katrina booked a overnight canoe trip at Kangaroo Valley for my birthday. We had a fantastic time. It was the first time she has ever slept in a tent and the first time she has ever been camping. I'm very proud of her.
It was pretty funny trying to sleep next to someone who thought that every creature known to man was trying to enter the tent and eat her alive every 10 minutes. She hung tough though, even with the piece of wood firmly held in one hand all night.

fluro

10 weeks to Port

Photo.
This picture was taken at Stanwell Tops looking back down towards Wollongong. You can just see the Sea Cliff Bridge. It's exactly 30km to this point and the ride has 3 good climbs, the toughest being Bald Hill. We generally ride further into the national Park and at the moment Saturday's group are turning around at Gerrie.





Good week of training last week (16hrs). This week the focus will be on a 180km ride and 6km run on Tuesday. Goal is to insert 5-40min efforts at IMpace with a 20min recovery. The next big session will be a triple brick on Friday. This will include a 1hr bike and 6km run repeated 3 times through. On top of that I’ll aim to bring my long run up to around the 1:40 mark and also swim at least 3 sessions this week.

Monday
Swim: 1.5km 30min (117bpm) Ocean swim. Super choppy conditions this morning. We swam up to North Beach (500m) hoped out and then walked to belmore. Did another 20min before we almost swam into a huge pack of blue bottles. We then decided to hop out and call it a day.
Swim: 3.6km 1:20. Uni squad. 12-50 on 1min, 6-100 on 1:40, 6-100 back/free main set (4-50 hard 300 buoy) x 3. 50’s were meant to be flat out, but decided to back them off slightly. Don't want to be tired for tomorrows ride
Tuesday
Bike: 180km 5:36 (av hr 141). Lake loop, Jamberoo and then Stanwell Park. We did 1 hr easy , then 5-40min efforts (non drafting) with a 20min recovery. The pace was certainly on today. I rode well right up to about the 5hr mark, then on popped on the coalcliff hills. My 21 wasn't easy another to stop the lactic acid from accumulating. The rest of the ride (ie last 20km) was into a roaring headwind and my legs were smashed. Need to get a 23 on the back for Port. Scott H had a smoking ride. Super strong from start to finish and blew me out the back on a number of occasions.
Our 5-40min (3.5hrs) efforts equated to a 35.5kph av speed. This gives us around a 5:05 bike split. Things are on track at the moment. Hopefully in about 4-6 weeks time we can increase our av sp to over 36kph mark. We just need to find another 0.5-1.0kph to get ourselves close to a 5hr bike split we are aiming for.
Run: 6km 27:26 (av hr 146bpm). Run off the bike felt surprisingly good. Heaps of energy and legs weren't heavy at all. Ran on RPE and I was comfortably holding 4:35min k's. Probably a bit to quick to be running out of transition, but the legs and RPE were in good places so I went for it.
Wednesday
Run: 14.3km 1:11 (av hr 134bpm). Towardgi 5km out, lighthouse loop. Very easy run this morning. Legs have pulled up well after yesterdays big day. I good sign that pacing was on target with the 180km ride. No issues with my legs. I would say I'm about 90% injury free now. This is good, as the body is coping well with the increase in volume.
Thursday
Bike 55km 2hr (110bpm). very easy aerobic maintenance ride today. kept it in the small chain ring. legs were still feeling a little fatigued from Tuesdays session. Watched the aquathon after the ride.
Friday
Run: 11km 1hr (130bpm). felt very sloppy running this morning. Had no rhythm. legs were feeling heavy. Didn't push it at all this morning Just focused on trying to maintain good from.
Saturday
No training. Canoe trip down at Kangaroo valley kept me busy Friday and Today.

Sunday
TRIPLE BRICK
Bike 30km 57:41 (av hr 131bpm). Triple brick. This ride was to be done below IMpace. We achieved that. Av sp was around 31kph. Legs felt good. We rode out for 30min and then came back in 27min.
Run 6.5km 29:52 ( av hr 145bpm). ran this one too hard. Av hr was right on Aet which is 5bpm below Impace, but I think it was still too intense. Legs felt good after the ride. We ended up running 4:30min k's, pace should of been at 5min k's. Live and learn. We ran out for 15min and made it back in 14:52.
Bike 32.7km 27:29 (av hr 145bpm). Av sp on this ride was 36.4kph. Probably still slightly too hard in terms of hr. We need to watch that and stay in the right zone next time. These triple brick are a great learning curve.
Run 6.9km 30:13 (av hr 152bpm). This was my best run to date. Felt fantastic in the legs. Very poor pacing as we ran well under IMpace. 4:18min k's is what I averaged and Scotty was quicker again. So much for running at Impace (goal is 5min k's). Need to control pace on these bricks in order to run a good IM.
Bike 31km 56:14 (151bpm). Big negative split on this last ride. 30min out and 26:14 back. Temps were right up now and the winds were howling. Still averaged over 35kph. which is excellent. Av hr was spot on HIM pace
Run 6.7km 29:45 (av hr 160bpm). Things were getting uncomfortable out there on this run. Boy it was hot. 4:16 min k's average was good to finish off the day. Felt like I was going to blow a casket on the way home though.
What a quality session. Learnt so much today doing a triple brick, especially in terms of pacing. Our pacing is still off at the moment and hopefully we'll have this corrected for our next session. Ran 20km today and my legs feel great. I think I'm about 95% injury free now.
Swim 2km 35min. No-one showed up for a swim. I jumped in anyway and did a very easy 35min. Body feels pretty good after this mornings triple brick.

Total: 18:21.
What a quality week of training. Body is holding up well. The run frequency protocol is working. I hit 4 hrs of running this week and I have no leg issues. The 180km ride on Tuesday and the Triple brick session on Sunday are probably two of the best sessions I have ever done. It’s great to train with Scotty H. We are really pushing each other along at the moment. He is still riding very strong and is running all over me. I get to pay him back in the pool and out in the ocean.
I’ve seen a big jump in my fitness over the last two weeks. I put this down to doing some very consistent training now for the past 8 weeks. It feels good to be injury free again and to be putting in some quality sessions. My body composition has improved and I’m now down to 80kg. My morning resting hr has also dropped down to 42bpm. A good sign that my fitness is returning after such a long layoff due to my injury.
Next week Scott and I will back things off slightly between Monday and Friday (reduce volume by 30%). On Saturday we’ll then start our next 4 week cycle of training.

11 weeks to Port

Recovery week last week and I’m rearing to go again. This week my targets are to run 5, bike 3-4 and swim 2-3. I’m on Holidays down at Berrara, I don’t have access to a pool. All my swimming will be in the river this week. This will give me a good opportunity to bike and run more.
The focus on my bike now is to start doing TT’s on all my rides. Will start to include some mod-hard to hard efforts towards the end of my rides depending on how I’m feeling. On all climbs I’ll now ride them as though I’m racing and will cap my hr around the 150bpm. Previously I have been riding the hills hard (ie high 160’s) but now is the time to shift the focus on improving my TT strength on the flats and rollers leading up to Port.


Monday
Run: 15.4 km 1:20 (av hr 132). Berrara National park. My longest run so far. Leg Felt good. Starting to feel like I’m getting my running fitness back. Focusing on RPE mainly at the moment and my av hr is now down around 132. I’m comfortably holding 5min K’s again on the flat ground. Did a 3km TT at the 1hr mark 4:49 (134bpm), 4:44 (145bpm), 4:41 (146bpm). Total time 3km =14:14. My goal now is to get my Aet pace (145bpm) back down to around the 4:30 mark before Port. If I can do this I might have a chance of running a 3:30.

Tuesday
Swim: 3.5km 51min (115bpm). swam out easy for 26min and then pushed the pace coming home. Felt good in the wettie. Love doing open water swimming, no flip turns
Wednesday
Run: 11.3km 54min (139bpm). best run to date. Pushed the pace along today. Was comfortably holding around 4:30-4:40 below Aet (140). Concentrated on holding form for the entire run. Pulled up well afterwards. No legs issues.
Thursday
Bike: 55.1km 2hrs (126bpm). very easy ride to Stanwell park. Then TT (Steady)from the start of the bridge back to North Wollongong. 35min (33.3kph, av hr 141bpm). Felt good on the bars. Rolling terrain, Easterly winds
Run: 6.3km 29:34 (142bpm). Felt like I was gliding along today. Nice easy run. Leg was good. 4 weeks of consistent running now is starting to show through. Did the 5km loop in 23:47 (av hr 144bpm)
Friday
Bike: 110.1km 3:30 (138bpm). Very solid ride today. There's no relaxing when riding with Scott (animal). We had planned to do 6hrs with 3 x 40min TT but he broke a cable at about the 3 hr mark. Will finish off TT efforts 2mrw. Bonked a bit at the 3hr mark, even after having 4 bottles of drink. Disappointed. Ate plenty of snakes and came good again. need to address nutrition better, especially on tough rides like this
Run: 5.6km 27:03 (147bpm). Ran off the bike for the first time. Felt better then expected. Managed to hold 4:50's for the 5km loop (24:10). Leg held up very well, no issues.
Saturday
Bike: 116.3km 4:09 (128bpm). 30+ people turned up this morning. Rode 1hr before meeting the group with Scotty H. Did a 15min TT. av sp 37.6kph, av hr 148. Moving along well. Met the group at 6am and headed North up to Gerrie. Capped hr at 160bpm on all the hills today. need to probably start bringing that down even further. On the way home we hit a 2nd TT of 15min. I started way back from the others and had to work my ass off the catch everyone. Dudes were riding strong this morning. av sp was 36.7, av hr 150bpm. Fuelled up much better then yesterday. need to get better calories in more consistently on my long rides now. Bonking like I did yesterday is a waste of time.
Sunday
Club Race
Bike: 58km 2hrs (115bpm). Rode for 2 hrs before the club tri this morning. Did some fartlek efforts up to IMpace. Feeling a bit tired this morning. Its been a big couple of days of riding.
Swim: 400m 10min (long run to T1)
Bike: 16km 25min (av sp 35.4, av hr 166)
Run: 14:52 (4:08min k’s, av hr 171)
5th overall. Happy to be racing again without pain. Had a terrible swim, good bike and I was very happy to run without injury pain. Boy the race did raise the heart rate and put some lactic acid into the legs. I was suffering big time, but it was still a lot of fun. Looking forward to the next race.

fluro

12 weeks to Port

Photo
Sea Cliff Bridge. Just another ordinary day to be out training on the bike.







12 weeks to Port

Changing my plan a little bit now. I decided to keep the volume up slightly more during my recovery weeks. I think it is more important to focus on training consistently from week to week, rather then have a recovery week every 3-4 weeks with a big drop off in volume. Instead during this recovery week I’ll only drop my total volume by around a 1/3 of my weekly total. I will eliminate most of the intensity from my training sessions. However, I’ll start doing to TT efforts in each discipline to monitor my progress. For instance, between now and Port I’ll aim to do at least 2 x 180km TT and 2 x Big Training Days (ie 1hr swim, 5hr ride, 1 hr run).

Monday
Run: 12.9km 1:05 (av hr 142bpm). did a 2km warmup. 4 x 1km efforts at Aet-steady (145-150). Spilts were 4:18, 4:31, 4:46, 4:52. Lack of running has shown here with the big drop off in pace. Didn't let my hr exceed 150bpm at all. Leg felt great. My second run over an hr now. Will do this session each week and build it up to a med run of 1:30. Once I'm there I'll increase my intervals up to 2-5km. For now I'll stay with 1km efforts until I'm comfortably holding 4:30's again with an even hr and RPE.
Tuesday
Bike: 160km 5:30 (av hr 128bpm). Rode around the lake, then Jamberoo, Kiama and North to Austimer. Main set was 4x 20min efforts at Aet (135bpm). I started each 20min TT at the beginning of each hr of the ride. On the last TT I rode mod-hard (140+bpm).
Wednesday
Run: 11.6km 1:00 (av hr 133bpm). A nice run through Bewarra National Park. It was raining lightly. HR stayed pretty low throughout the run. Leg was until until the 40-45min mark. It was sore for about 5-10min then it came good again.
Thursday
Total rest day
Friday
Total rest day
Saturday
Bike: 44km 1:35 (av hr 120). Rode from Berrara to the Highway and then around Sussex. I did 1 x 18min (av hr 131bpm) av sp 32.9kph. Rolling terrain. Felt good in the TT position.
Run: 6km 0:29 (av hr 142). Easy run out to Towardgi and back. Felt good to be running well under 5min k’s and have my hr still be Aet.
Sunday
Bike: 58.7km 1:55 (av hr 134). Rode with Scotty (aka animal). Every ride with Scott ends up with an av sp over 30. Today it was 31.2kph. Its pretty good to av any ride in Wollongong over 30 as we have so many hills and rollers. Did a 20min effort towards the end of the ride. We were sitting on 36-40kph most of the time. Hr was starting to climb up into the high 140’s (Hard) towards the end. Keeping my speed up over 38kph now takes some concentration but it is getting easier which is a good sign.
Run: 10.1km 55.05 (av hr 127). Easy to Aet run around berrara Nat Park. Legs felt good after this morning ride.

13 weeks to Port

A good week of training this week. Feels good to be running again without pain. I wouldn’t say I’m 100% but at least it is improving. My running economy has really improved recently. I’m now running 5min k’s at a 135hr which is still 10 beats under Aet. On the bike my strength is good in the hills but I’m lacking speed on the flats. At Aet (135bpm) I’m holding around 35-36kph. This is not going to be good enough for a low 5hr bike split. I need to start doing longer intervals on the flats where I can hold around 35-36kph and still be well under Aet. Time to start going plenty of TT work on the bars over the next 4-6weeks.

Monday
Was meant to be a light day today but ended up putting in a solid swim to help Scott out with his taper
Run: 7.3km 35:59, av hr 138bpm. Easy run this morning. Feeling some deep fatigue from the two big bikes sessions last Friday and Saturday.
Bike: 12km 30min. Decided to do an easy spin to Corrimal pool and back
Swim: 2.1km 50min. 1km LSD timed. 15:47. My long slow distance pace is sitting on around 47sec per 50 at the moment. With increased volume I should be able to get that back to 45sec 50’s. 8-50 on the 1min build to hard. Main set 6-100 on 2min hard. Iwas coming in around 1:17-1:19 here. Scott held around 1:27’s consistently. It good to see him breaking 1:30’s now. 100 w/d
Tuesday
Bike: 143km 5hrs. Rode easy to Aet today. Flat ride except through Jamberoo, av sp 29.7kph, av hr 118bpm. I inserted two 20min TT at IMpace (135bpm) at the 3 hr mark and then again at the 4hr mark. Legs are still carrying some fatigue but felt quite good in the TT position.
Swim: 1.2km 30min. Hit a big low just before the start of the swim. It got worse the more I swam. Had no energy whatsoever. Need to digest more calories during the day, especially post workout, to stop this from happening again. Was meant to swim 1hr, but I bailed out after 30min and went home. Poor eating today was the cause of this.
Tomorrow will be a light day.
Wednesday
Run: 7.7km 40min (av hr 135bpm). felt 100% this morning. Ran easy to Aet -5bpm. threw in 6 sets of 30sec strides. leg felt really good. A perfect morning for a run, no-one was out as it was raining lightly. Need to watch my weight. Ive dropped 3kg in a week. I'm now down to 78.4kg.
Swim: 1.2km 21min Ocean swim. Magic conditions this afternoon. Swam easy out and then we hammered the swim back home. Took me a while to catch Scott. He has really improved and freshened up well for Tassie. good way to cap off an easy day of training.
Thursday
Run: 13km 70min (av hr 134bpm). LSD run. Even split run. Felt very comfortable sitting on 5min K's at a 135bpm hr (ie Aet -10bpm). Leg was getting tight at about the 12km mark. Happy to be running over an 1hr again.. My endurance is coming along well. I can comfortably hold a reasonable pace now at a low hr. This time last year I was running 5min k’s with a 140bpm hr.
PM: 20min of stretching lower body.
Friday
Run: 5.7km 33min (av hr 128bpm). low hr recovery run. trying to run with the lowest hr I can. Pace is around 5:40's. Can just get hr to come under 130bpm.
Bike: 51.8km 1:47 (av hr 128bpm). rode easy out for the first hr into a headwind then I TT back keep hr around the 127-135 mark. Made it back in 47min. The NE winds really helped to push me home. A good aerobic maintenance day
Saturday
Bike: 100km 3:11 (av hr 124bpm). rode easy out for the first hr into a headwind then I TT back keep hr around the 127-135 mark. Made it back in 47min. The NE winds really helped to push me home. A good aerobic maintenance day
Sunday
Total rest day today. My peroneals are quite sore. No point in making them worse.