week ending 5/11/07

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



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


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








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

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

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

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

Thursday
rest day

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

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

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

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

Total: 20:15hrs

fluro

week ending 29/10/06

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














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


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









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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

week ending 22/10/06

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



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



Photo: katrina and I. Fine dining and good company










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

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

Tuesday

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


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

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

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

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

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

Total: 12:31.

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

Bike porn

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

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

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


fluro

Week ending 15/10.06

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


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



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

Goal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

Weekly Total: 18:10

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

week ending 8/10/06

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Total for the week

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

Total: 15.41

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

Fluro