Mt Fuji

Big day out.

Bike: (253km), Time: 10:05, av hr 120bpm.

This is definitely the longest ride I have ever done. The highlight was seeing Mt Fuji snow capped and also doing a 45.3km climb up to the base of MT Fuji.

Stats on the climb were

Distance: 45.39k, av sp 19.9km, av hr 126bpm, time: 2:27 and one mother of a headwind.

By the time we arrived to the base of Fuji our av sp was only 21.9kph. We were pretty much riding into a strong headwind and climbing up for around 6.5hrs. We arrived atthe 1/2 way point at around 1:30pm. We were all pretty tired and ravenous. After scoofing down copious amounts of food we continued on with a return trip home. The decent which was different to the way we came up was incredible. I pretty much rode downhill for 1hr and 40min. It was awseome following this valley all the way down. The scenery was just incredible.

The trip home only took just under 4 hrs. This would have to be one of the best training sessions I have ever done.

week ending 25/02/2007 (17weeks to IMjapan)

looking for some inspiration? This clip is pretty cool

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOVGVMiwPSA





Photo
Ueno park. I saw this building in the background and thought wow.













Photo
Ueno park. Don't know what you call this but it was a pretty cool walk down to a very old temple.
















Photo.
The sumo wrestlers came and our school and did a wonderful job with the students teching them the art of sumo wrestling and rice pounding.










Plan for the week.
With my achiiles not quite right, I'll start pushing up the volume on the bike and may even start swimming again, if not, I'll definitely be in the pool by next week. The goal is to keep riding 4-5 sessions PW with 2-3 rides being BT sessions focusing on strength work and the other 2-3 rides aerobic/technique sessions.
Need to get my head mentally around riding 180k each week, which will mean riding around 6-7 hrs consistently. No need to push the pace on this ride yet. Just aim for getting good at going the distance first.

Monday
No training. rest day after skiing.

Tuesday
Bike (1:32), 43km, av hr 128bpm. easy to Aet.Main set 18min TT at Imeffort5min at Mod-hardrest of the ride was Aet with some pickups at the lights

Wednesday
No training. Stuck at work til late

Thursday
Bike: (2:33), 74km, av hr 129bpm. 1hr easy then 2 x 15min TT @Upper Steady. finished off with 15min of BG (53/12) work. Felt great on the bike this morning. Legs are fresh. Achilles is on the mend. May try and run tonight on it after Yoga class.

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

week ending 18/2/07 (18 weeks to IMjapan)

Habuka



Went skiing last weekend. This is one of the reason why I love being an expat. We get to enjoy weekends away in exciting new locations. The skiing was awesome. On the first day the sun was out all day and condition were pristine. Then it snow all night until about 10.00am the next day. Conditions again were ideal and the views were spectacular.





Week ending 18/2/07


Monday




Tuesday

Bike: (1:25), 37km, av hr 112bpm. easy to Aet ride. The new look Keo pedals feel great. Definitely no rocking happening like my old ones.

Wednesay

Bike: (45min), 20k, av hr 110bpm. Very easy spinf around town. Top of feet a little sore with the needles in them at the moment.
Run: (45min), 8.5km, av hr 128bpm. easy. Achilles was a little tight, but it did feel better.



Thursday
Bike: (1:32), 40km, av hr 118bpm. Very easy spin. Foot felt good, but achilles was a little sore when I stood up on the pedals.
Run: (55min), 10.5km, av hr 130bpm. Cortisone injection seemed to work okay. Didn't feel any pain. Achilles is still twitchy though. Will need to work on this one now.



Friday
Total rest day. Full on day at work

Saturday
Skiing weekend



Sunday
Skiing weekend



Summary

• Swim 0
• Bike 3:42
• Run 1:40
• Ski 9:30
  
• Total 14:52
  

A total cross training week this week. Not happy that my achilles is playing up now and decided to back off from cycling and running to really let it settle down. The skiing weekend went well and my achilles was pretty good on Sunday.


Next week. I will try and resume to some normal training, although I think my hours will be down a little with my achilles still feleing tender. I really need to try and get this 100% before I consider jumping into 18-22hr weeks again.




The photo below shows where I had my two cortisone shots and those fours patches you can see contain little needles which are supposed to encourage an immune response to my foot. I wore these for a week and were a little annoying at times.












Fluro

Week ending 11/2/07 (19weeks to IM)

Muine beach. This was our great place to stay, with a villa being right behind this photo
















Mekong delta. A great shot of one of the many locals venturing along the mekong delta selling fruit and vegetables.







Muine beach. Each night Katrina and I would sit out on the deck chairs after a hard day in the sun. The surf was good, the water was warm and the sunsets were spectacular. I must not forget the beers too...................Oh yeah! I managed to throw in a prosposal too.



Finally started the plan this week. Make sure I keep the volume and frequency going and the intensity out. Concentrate on Tuesday's triple, Sunday's long bike, and Saturdays long run. use these sessions to start inserting periods of Steady efforts in and around IMpace.

Monday
Total rest day

Tuesday
Bike: (2:05), 57km, av hr 116bpm. 90min easy then 30min TT at Im effort. hr was really lagging this morning. Legs were okay. Must still be fatigued from Sundays ride. lessons learned
Bike: (2:02), 58.5km, av hr 127bpm. 1 hr easy then 3 x 5min BG efforts (53/12). 4 min RI. Thought the legs would of struggled this afternoon, but they held together well. hr wasn't lagging as much as this morning. perfect riding conditions today.
Run: (51:09min), 10km, av hr 135bpm. fatigued legs to start with and a sore achilles. It took aorund 10min for me to find any rhythm. The joy didn't last long with the left foot giving me grief at about 40min and onwards.


Wednesday
Sleep in in the mroning. I was cooked after yesterdays BT day.
Run: (1:21), 16km, av hr 131bpm. Ran easy out to the Imperial palace, 4.5k = 23:30 (5:14min/k),av hr 125bpm
did 1 lap around the imperial palace.
Cruise intervals for the 4.5k on the way home 20:50 (4:38min/ks), av hr 141bpm.
hr was very low today. A definite sign of fatigue. legs felt good. Cruise intervals were getting tiring towards the end.
Stretching: 20min.

Thursday
Bike: (2:05), 53km, av hr 115bpm. very easy spin. Yoga this afternoon. Can't be tight for that or my instructor will be upset.

Yoga: (1:20)

Friday
Bike: (2:00), 53k, av hr 113bpm. easy to aet ride
Run: (46:30), 9k, Did my 9k marked course. Felt really good running. Starting too glide along effortlessly. Had to do 6 sets of stairs on this loop. I'm guessing my pace is definitely well under 5min k's.

Saturday
Total rest day. My left achilles has flared up. Need to stay off it today

Sunday
Bike: (6:00), 157k, av hr 121bpm. I did the 1st 3 hrs easy, then I pushed the pace up to Aet for an hr. After that I did 1 hr of fartlek as lower steady (135), IMpace (140), mod-hard (145). Interval would change when I reached a red light. Over 6hrs of riding and over 71 stops due to red lights. No wonder the av sp gets knocked right down. I usually average around 15 stops per hr. Thats Tokyo riding for ya.

Summary
Swim:
Bike: 14:14
Run: 3:00
Yoga: 1:50
Total 19:00

I was a little disappointed this week. My left achilles has been getting worse and worse. Decided to can my Saturday run and Sunday run to hopefully settle it down. My bike week has come along well. 14hrs is one of my biggest weeks to date and I finished off with a 6hr ride down to the coast. I finally made it to the seashore in 2.5hrs. Luckily for me a rider pulled out in front of me and I just followed him the whole way. I know exactly where to go now. Will definitely keep this ride going over the next few months.

Plan for next week.
I'm having a lighter week this week. I've done two 19hr weeks of training and with this week being full on at work, I've decide to make this my recovery week. I'll aim for around 11-12 hrs and try and get some testing done on the bike (2 x20k TT) and run (10k TT) to see where my current Aet pace is at. This week will also give my achilles a little more time to recover.
I'm off the the orthopeadic surgeon on wednesday to have my left foot treated. It appears to be mortons neuroma, which I also think is upsetting my achilles. Looking at fetting a cortisone injection and may even request a MRI.
Starting up Japanese lessons this week too. I can't wait to be able to mix a little better with some of the local cultures over here.

Over and out

fluro

week ending 4/2/07

Monday
Run: (1:05), 131bpm, 12.5k. 40min easy, 10 min steady, 6x 30 sec strides with a 30 RI walk.

Teusday
Bike: (1:41), 48.5k, 127bpm. I loop of Imperial palace then a 20min @ Impace (av hr 136bpm), 5min RI, 20min at IMeffort (130bpm).
Bike: (1:30),W/T, 37k, 121bpm. 30min easy, 30min single leg drill (6 x 1min, 3min RI). 10min at IM effort, 5min easy, 5min at MSS.
Straight into a 11k run
Run: (52:43), 11k, 148bpm. Ran 11k striaght off the bike. Effort needs to be dial down 2-3bpm. Still trying to find the right pace to run at.
Big day of training today.

Wednesday
Run: (1:10), 13.5k, 141bpm. My pace is under 5:00min'ks now. Did 2 marked km's which I didn't have to worry about climbing stairs to get over a bridge and my pace is right on 4:50's. Will be good to test this pace on the track again soon to see if I have improved from my last test.

Thursday
Bike: (2:10), 57km, 114bpm. easy to aet ride.
Yoga: (1:15). Did a little more ab work today. felt good.

Friday
Run: (55min), 10k, av hr 128bpm. very easy run with the buns. Achilles were a little sore not sure why. Yoga maybe.

Saturday
Run: (1:45), 20.6, av hr 139bpm. Ran really well today. LSD pace is down around 5:05min k's now. Did 2 laps of the Imperial palace which is exactly 5k loop
1= 25:44 (av hr 141bpm, 5:08min k's)
2= 24:25 (av hr 144bpm, 4:53min k's) Aet hr.
A good drop in pace with only small increase in hr.
Foot was playing up again, but the stops at lights on the way home gave it some relief.
Went to the docs today, looks like I have mortons neuroma and will be getting a cortisone injection on the 14th Feb. I really hope this solve my problem. I love training but hate the pain of an injury

Bike: (1:25), 112bpm. 36k, very easy ride to spind the legs out after this morning runs.

Sunday
Bike: (5;06), 139km, av hr 127bpm. went to the warf today to see who would turn up. There must of been around 100 cyclists lapping this 9k loop. I broke away from one group with one other guy and we did 3 laps each on our own. HR was through the roof and when we caught the group in front I had well and truley popped by then. Very solid bike today. 2 hrs of hard effort in the middle of a 5hr ride

Total
Swim:
Bike: 11.52
Run: 5:47
Yoga: 1:45
Total 19:24

Summary
One of my biggest weeks. Goal this year is to hit as many 18-22hr wks as I can, between now and Japan IM. Looking at past results I'm going to have to out train everyone in order to have any chance of snagging a Hawaii slot. I really do need to start taking my training to another level.

Goal for next week.
If I can keep repeating this weeks training without issues things will progress well hopefully. Will need to start thinking about swimming soon. Once I get an injection into my injured foot I should then be able to ramp my long run and medium run a little further. My long bike is right where it needs to be and my Aet run pace has finally broken under 5min k's, just in time.


fluro