Trains, Travels

It would be amusing if I wasn’t the victim, but on my three rides so far in 2009 I have punctured every time! I’m getting through tubes at a rate and they’re not cheap here either! Maybe I’m being sent a message to give my bike a good clean up and service it kind of needs it. Whatever the reason I can’t afford to keep puncturing like this!

Aside from the road side repair focus to my training everything is going well. The cycling is feeling pretty strong, the running is getting there and the swimming is coming along. Then there’s the yoga too. Three sessions in now and I’m getting a bit better at it (well so the teacher said anyway). That said I came out of the second session pretty sore! I know it’s not supposed to be competitive, but you have to push yourself. It’ll be a while before I see if it benefits the rest of my training much. At the least I’m getting a decent core session out of it, a bit of stretching and a bit of relaxation too.

In the pool I’m moving away from the extreme drill focus and starting to bring in a bit more structure to the sessions. Adapting to the swim corrections whilst working at speed is a work in progress. I am certainly no slower than before, but possibly only marginally faster. Faster is faster though and there’s a few months of work yet before the next race. I have also learnt the value of paddles – specifically for me my left forearm is quite weak and fatigues quickly whilst trying to maintain a good wrist position. Regular sessions with paddles to develop forearm strength are on the cards now.

Out on the bike and my riding seems to be in good shape. Certainly the power readings are looking good. I’m suffering from some soreness in my hands on the bars though and have no idea why, it’s not like the set-up has changed. A couple of weeks off definitely left me with an adaptation week where the contact points needed to toughen up a bit! I also seemed to forget how rough some of the roads round here are too. Still when I hear about the cold and ice back home I have to appreciate the opportunity to ride outside everyday. Getting in plenty of hours a week already and with Pete around to help keep me honest on some sessions. The benefit of a training partner is a bit more push on the rides. Today’s trip out along Tally Valley was certainly a lot harder than I thought I could go.

With the exception of one ride this week I have done a short brick run every time too. It seems to be working well for me so next week I double the length of the run! Stand-alone running is going well in the sense that I’m back to a respectable volume already. That said there’s been a few twinges at the longer distances. I’m beginning to wonder if my trainers are reaching the end of their life span. I would guess they’re getting close.

Highlight of the running this week was a hill session around Burleigh Heads. The headland is a small nature reserve with a series of paths running through it. It also apparently contains at least one species of venomous snake (and this being Australia we’re talking nasty venom here). The main challenge though is the steepness of some of these paths, well and dodging round the walkers. A set of 3 loops with near vomit inducing fast uphills followed by a pleasant downhill recovery finished my training on Friday. The downhills had a sting in their tail though as my quads have been a little sore since!

I’ve only a couple more weeks of training and I’m off to New Zealand. I’ll train for a week out there and then have an easier week ready for Epic Camp. Really looking forward to the Camp environment and seeing just how far I can push with my new levels of fitness. It’ll also be good to catch up with a few friends, make some new ones and probably end up with further plans for the year ahead!

The next post will be on the entirely different subject of sharks. Simply because they’re cropping up in my google news feed a lot right now (shark attack fatal) and they fascinate me.

• Tweet
• Comment

I love rules. It’s a handy trait to have when it comes to training. My life is dictated by a timetable. If I didn’t enjoy the structure and knowing what I should be doing at any given time I’d go insane. Strictly speaking I don’t have any New Year’s resolutions because I’ve been planning the goals for the next year for ages. Even so, for the past few years New Year’s Eve has been a convenient time to write down some aims. A short while back I put up the sporting goals for 2009 and then followed it with far too much detail on the training I’ll be doing. Today it’s all about where this is all going.

The truth of the matter is I don’t really have a clue! The whole thing has evolved so much over the past few months it doesn’t really bear that much relation to where I started from. Though I didn’t write it down at the time as 2008 started I was making plans for this trip. The original idea was something along the lines of a full year in Australia. Training, racing and travelling a bit with the training being the main aim. I planned to do all sorts of races of varying distances rather than the focus just on Ironman. I planned to spend some time developing my climbing and to fit in some mountaineering at some point in the year. A few months out here and a bit of reality and 2009 is all about focussing on Ironman racing.

It’s as I reach the end of 2009 things become a bit of a grey area. Funding will be a little bit tight and the life of an athlete may have to come to an end for a while. This is really where the question of where this is all going comes in. Right now it’s easy to say it’s all about doing the best Ironman races I can, but this isn’t a self-supporting set-up. I’ve stated one of my goals is to race Ironman as a Pro, but even then we’re not talking about a steady income. Race winnings for all but the top pros don’t amount to an annual income to speak of. I want to race Pro for the personal satisfaction of achieving that level of triathlon performance. Were any of this about money I’d have stayed with my job!

What I do know is that I am enjoying the lifestyle I currently live. I don’t specifically mean not working, but the structured training and the focus on improving myself. So I can make the vaguest of resolutions which is to find ways to sustain this kind of lifestyle. I certainly have some options, freelance work in IT is out there even with a tougher economy. It would be possible to look into working a few months to set-up funds for training a few months at a time. Done right, maintaining fitness whilst working and building fitness in between could work.

As this is all about ideals and dreams let’s put the perfect solution out there. The perfect situation for me would be to earn enough from sponsorships and racing to continue training 100% of the time. With the income in this sport and my performance not even being close to the top (yet!) that’s not even slightly realistic. Injecting a little reality I’d like to find work that enabled me to continue a training regime similar to now and provide a reasonable income to support it. Some kind of sports related work appeals, though I suspect my capacity to earn is better elsewhere. I’m open to suggestions!

A lot of waffle for a first post in the New Year. To sum up the main resolution for the coming year outside of my very detailing training plans is to develop this into a sustainable, training focussed lifestyle. I think a few years of training and racing would be fun, it’d be good to see how far I can take it in that time. After that, then maybe I need to start considering a real job and something that’ll keep me going in old age! I’ll save that for the 2015 New Year’s Resolution post though.

I did make one other sort of resolution. Sort of in the sense I’m not sure how much I’ll stick to it or what it exactly means. For 2009 I’m going to be more honest! Not to say I’m a liar, but I intend to be more direct and say what I think. This could all go hideously wrong and be very offensive, but I think part of the trick is learning how to get away with it. Could be interesting!

• Tweet
• 4 Comments