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Fluro's Ironman Training (FIT)

Face your fears live your dreams

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Sumo day



Friday, January 26, 2007

week ending 28/01/2006



Photo 1
Yep here I am. It's Monday morning at about 8am and this guy walks by and offers me yesterdays Sunday Telegraph from Australia. That is Siagon for you.












Photo 2
This is one of the reasons why I didn't get to run much in Vietnam. There was just nowhere to run, even at 6am in the morning. No footpath, nowhere to cross the road and soo many bikes.


Photo 3
We loved this cafe on the corner. It was a great place to sit down, have a cup of coffee or two and just watch the world go by. So much goes on in Siagon the place and its people just never stop entertaining you.






Rest period this week. Will take it easy from Monday to Friday as I have been training for the last 14 days straight. Will have 2 zero days on Monday and Friday. I'll then resume my normal training again on Saturday (long ride) and Sunday (long run). There's no reason to back off from these two key sessions each week if you are getting in enough recovery during the week.
I'll probaly aim for around 12hrs this week.

Monday
Total rest day

Tuesday
Bike: (1:17) 30.8k, 120bpm. W/T. Did 30min easy spin then 5 x1min single leg drill with a 3min RI. Finished off with some BG (53/11) work, 4 x 1.5min with a 3min RI. HR was rising up to the mid, cad was around 63-64rpm.
Overall cad was 84rpm.
Run: (34.35), 7.3k, av hr 148bpm. Ran a solid run off the bike. av hr was 3bpm over my current Aet. Pace is sitting right on 4:45min/k's. very pleased with how I'm running at the moment in terms of fitness. Just need to nip this burning left foot when I run.
Stetching: (20min)

Wednesday
Run: (26:24), 10.5k, av hr 130bpm. left toes went really numb then the foot on fire comes on again. May have to see a podiatrist. Apart from that I'm running well. RPE is good and recovery is good.

Thursday
Bike: (1:50), 47km, av hr 113bpm. Managed to do 200m of climbing near the imperial palace. Theres just no hills in Tokyo and not sure how I'm going to address this with IMjapan being a hilly course. freezing again this morning. Rode what little hills I could find in a BG.
Yoga: (1:15). Big improvement from last week. Hips are still soo tight it is almost embarrassing. Felt stronger through the core and could hold some positions for longer then last week. need to control my breathing patterns better. Must do continual breathing.

Friday
Total rest day. See if having today off will settle down my left foot. It's a long shot but we'll see.

Saturday
Run: (1:16) 15km, av hr 135bpm. pace: 5:04min/k (8 min miles)Ran very well today. RPE was low, hr was low and the buns was on the bike to measure the distance. Foot began playing up after 1hr. Will definitely see a doc to see if I can get some sort of injection.

Sunday
Bike: (3:30), 94km, av hr 120bpm. Rode to odiaba then did 4 laps of the imperial palace. Hooked up with two other roadies and we were racing each lap. I made sure I stayed out of there draft zone and I tried to really put the hammer down on the climb which is about 1k long and the longest climb in tokyo (grade about 3%). I wasn't able to drop them at all and they weren't able to drop me either. I was losing one guy on the decents but I pulled him back on the flats. It was fun
av sp for each lap was 32.1 (141), 29.1 (139), 32 (143), 34.5 (161). That last lap was areal hammer fest even on the decent. 161 av hr is getting pretty close to my threshold of 164. Felt good to finally ride with some other people.

Summary
Total: 11:57
Swim 0
Bike 7:27
Run 2:45

Pretty good recovery week. Did some harder MSS training just to test out the fitness and to give me some goals for my next reocvery period. Ran a good 7.3k off the bike in 34min at 4:45min'k's. RPE was low for this run which tells me my running is improving across the board. On Sunday I cut my ride back from 5hr to 3:30 as it was my birthday and Katrina wanted to have a good day out. Managed to hook up with some roadies doing laps around the Imperial palace. While they kept switching turns I stayed around 30m back and tried not to let them get away on me. It worked although I had to really put the hammer down at time (ie 40-42kph) just to keep them in touch. Kept bridging the gap on the climb (1k at 2-3% grade) but they got away from me on the decents. Overall a good ride.

The goal next week is to start building up the volume again. last cycle my biggest week was 17hrs. This next cycle I would like to start cracking 20hrs. time management is going to be very important here.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

I'm in




Had my birthday yesterday. The school but on a dinner for Katrina and I and we were able to invite 6 of our closest friends. It was a great night and we got to munch on some Aussie rump steaks. They were mouth wateringly delicious.


Registered for IM Japan today(17th June and 22 weeks to go). So time to start rolling out the k's, fixing up the diet, getting to bed early, feeling constantly tired, losing too much weight, getting injured................. Damm I love this stuff. Bring it on.


The fluronator

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Week ending 21/01/2007

A good week of training this week. I reached a few milestones this week. Firstly, it was the first time I have run 6 sessions in one week. Secondly, this was my second biggest week ever of running. Currently my biggest week is 7hrs or 78km. This week I ran 6:15 and 70km.
People like Mike his training buddy Steve and the slowtwitch run challenge (not in it by the way) have really motivated me to run more. I have been very weary of running a lot though, as I am quite prone to overuse injuries. Even at the moment I’m still having issues with my peroneal nerve and the left ball of my foot burning when I run.
I decided to start up with yoga this week. In the past it has never really appealed to me and I’ve bought some books previously and tried it but never took to it. Well, a couple of fellow teachers at the school I work at have decided to bring in a Yoga instructor to the school and I thought I would give it a go. It was great, there were only 3 of us and we basically stretched for a solid 1:15. The instructor was very helpful. She would constantly use her body weight on me to get me into deeper and deeper stretches, which is just what I need.
As a result I have done 3 runs since yoga and I have had no issues, at least, with my peroneal nerve. We worked a lot on a lower bodies, in particular all round my glutes, hips and lower back. In a word, I’M HOOKED, I will definitely keep this up as part of my regular recovery strategies. I’m 37yrs old in 1 week and recovery for me is becoming more and more of a need to address on a regular basis. Yoga won’t make me faster, or fitter, but it will enable me to keep up the training I so desire to do day in day out.
If you’re training for an IM. I think it is really important to implement some sort of recovery plan in order to keep up with your training schedule. Lounging around doing nothing, taking no action, won’t allow you to maintain a healthy IM life, however, long that may be.


Training your body to recover is just as important as training your body to get fitter.

Monday
Run: (1hr), 11.5km, av hr 136bpm. easy run building to steady for the last 15min. legs felt good and hr and RPE were low this morning
Core work: (30min)

Tuesday
Bike: (2hrs), 60.8km, av hr 134bpm. Easy for the first 30min. 2 x 6min BG (53/12) capped hr at 150bpm. Rode these into a heawind.
44min TT. Did 1 river loop so there were only 3 stops on this circuit (barriers) so its a pretty trouble free ride. Rode some Mod hard in the last 10min of the ride.
Run: (30min), 5.7km, av hr 140bpm. kept this run off the bike on a soft surface. Left heel is a little twtichy, need to watch this. Ran quite well for my first brick in a while

Wednesday
Bike: (1:31), 37km, av hr 116bpm. easy spin around town. av cad 81. Alot of stopping and starting when I ride in the city.
Run: (1:10), 13.5km, av hr 135bpm. easy pace for the first 50min then I inserting some fartlek efforts with a hr cap of 150bpm

Thursday
Yoga: (1:15). A very solid session of good quality stretching. I felt great afterwards and my running absent of any tightness.

Friday
Run: (1:01), 11.5km, av 137bpm. Thats the coldest morning I have ever run. The wind made it even worse. Leg felt really good up to about the 50min mark then start getting a lttle sore. Did 2 x 1km MSS efforts at around 4:20-4:30 pace
Bike: (45min), 18km, av hr 110bpm. Only had time fr a quick 45min spin today. it's soo damm cold at the moment.

Saturday
Bike: (4:20), 114km, av hr 131bpm. Just managing to hang in there with the cold. decided to leave an hr later this morning. Not that it helped, it seemed to get colder as the wind picked up.
Did the the first hr easy then picked the pace up to Aet. TT for around 1 hr broken intervals picking the pace up to mod-hard to hard.
Run: (50min) 9.2km, av hr 134bpm. very easy run in the new shoes. Had to take out the left insole (extra) as it was causing my foot to really heat up

Sunday
Run: (1:44), 19.5k, av hr 142bpm. The change of shoes and Yoga have really helped settle down my peroneal nerve. No issues. Just need to get onto of this hot/burning feeling I get under the ball of my left foot. Do that and I'll be completely injury free.
This has been my longest run in Tokyo. Felt heavy in the legs at first but then cam good after about 30min. TT home for the last 4.6 K (21:50) at MSS. I marked this course out last week and this puts my MSS-modhard pace at around 4:45min/k's. Just need to hold that pace now and get my hr down into the steady zone. will start doing 1-2 sessions PW to address this as I move into IM training

Total 17:05
Swim 0
Bike 8:36
Run 6:14
Core/yoga 2:15


Next week goals
recovery week. Maintain some frequnecy by doing 4 rides and 4-5 runs. Take it easy from Monday to Thursday and then continue with the build up of the long ride up to 5hrs. Knock the long run back down to around 1:20 this week.

fluro

Saturday, January 13, 2007

week ending 13/01/07


Photo: This is Sapa with the mountains in the background. It was just a good place I wish we could of stayed longer. Damm Tours!



Photo: This was the other tribe we met during our 6-7 hr hike. We only ever saw women as the men where generally off hunting for bears and pig. Plus the men don't speak any english and apparently have no desire to be westernised.



Photo: As you can see these girls were tiny. Not even 5 ft tall. Katrina is walking next to a girl called Lily and she could speak a little english. She was 23yrs old and has 1 child. We were told until recently these women would get married at 12-13yrs and have around 11-12 children. Lily stayed right by Katrina's side for 4hrs. In the end Katrina bought a little bag and blanket off her for a me $2.00. The minute the transactions was complete she started making her way back up the mountain to meet the next lot of tourists.


Monday
Run: (45min), 8km, av hr 137bpm, First run back since Vietnam. hr was a little high and feet felt hot running.
Stretching: (30min) of stretching and core work

Tuesday
Run: (45min, 7km, av hr 130bpm. Terrible run. The pain in my left leg this morning was severe. Could only manage 5min of running and 1min of walking to get myself back home.
Bike: (1:18) W/T, 30km, av hr 118bpm. 40min easy 5x1min single leg drill, 3min RI 3x3min of MSS with a 1min RI. (140bpm, 250watts). leg felt better the more I rode. Kept cadence up around 90rpm for this session.
Stretch: (20min)

Wednesday
Bike: (2hrs), 52km, av hr 126bpm. 40% easy, 40% Aet, 20% TT @ ateady, av cad 84rpm. First road ride back. Legs felt good. Alot of stops with trafiic lights today

Thursday
Bike: (50min) W/T, 22km, av hr 119bpm. high cadence session. 30min of high cadence ie 95rpm, then 7 x 1min 110+rpm, with a 3min RI. hr was climbing to around 145bpm in my 39/17.
Run: (46min), 8.5km, av hr Much better run today. legs felt great. 2 days of stretching has helped. kept hr right down and made sure I ran on soft ground to lessen the impact
Stretch: (20min) stretch and core work

Friday
Run: (51min), 9.5km, av hr 125bpm. felt great running today. No issues at all. Stayed on soft surfaces for the majority of the time. This seems to help with the recovery. Picked up the pace in the last 10min and finished off with some surges.

Saturday
Bike: (4:05hrs), 108km, av hr 129bpm. Damm cold this morning. left at 5;30am and couldn't feel my fingers or ears for a good 2.5hrs. man my ears were killing me.
Hit the first 3hrs of this ride pretty well. did a 50min TT at Steady in that last hour. Then between hr 3-4 I fell apart. Neck was really sore and I was sore on the saddle. 4 weeks without riding caught up with me.
Found a new path to get out of Tokyo. So many less lights to contend with.

Sunday
Bike: (1hr), 25km, av hr 108bpm. Very easy spin around town.
Run: (1:03), av hr 136bpm, 12km. Main set 5 x 1km repeats at Steady with a 1k easy run inbetween. legs felt good running. Good way to finish off the week.

Total 14:33
Swim 0
Bike 9:13
Run 4:10
Core 1:10

Good week to resume training. Managed 5 bikes and 5 runs this week. Its a good platform for me now to start building on. The aim next week is to ride 4-5 sessions again but increase my running up to 6 sessions. The body is holding up well and I put alot of this down to doing 3 solid stretching sessions with a little core work at the end.

For those that are interested. here is a link to epic camp NZ and there has been some good quality training going on once again from the boys. These guys just don't seem to have any limits to how much they can absorb. Boy I would love to do one of these one day.
Epic camp NZ

Also if you want to listen to some good interviews with Gordo Byrn and Scott Molina try this link Gordo interview He has some pretty good insights into training for IM's Make sure you listen to episode 40.
fluro

Saturday, January 06, 2007

I'm back


Photo
This is about 1/2 way down into the valley. We are on our way to meet 3 seperate tribes of people, over a 6-7 hr trek.


Photo
Here is Katrina negotiating with one particular tribe. They were no where near where they live, but they ventured up out of the valley to meet tourists. She ended buying a small silver bracelett. Have a close look at the concentration on theirs faces as they try and work out what Katrina wants, or more importantly how much they think they can get her to spend. They also shave their eyebrows and are the tallest of the three tribes.


Photo
This is a photo looking out of our window at the Park view Hotel. It was the morning of a very long descent down into the valley, which as you can see is covered by fog. The mountains in the background just blew my mind away.







I’m back from Vietnam. Katrina and I did 4 weeks of solid backpacking starting in Saigon and finishing up in Hanoi. The highlight of our trip was definitely Sapa. This pace was absolutely incredible. We got to meet and walk amongst 3 quite primitive tribes, which have only had consistent contact with westerners for the last 8-10 years, and we had a chance to buy some local stone carvings. The photos below are just a mere snippet of some parts of Sapa. There’ll be more to come each week as I resume training with my regular updates.
I hope everyone had a good break over Christmas.