Trains, Travels

I was up at 4:30am today. It was a lot dark, a lot wet and a little cold. It didn’t feel so bad the past two nights have seen me up at 5:00am and this time I managed a good nights sleep. I switched off the computer earlier, had a read and then went to bed a lot earlier than usual. Since I’ve woke I’ve had breakfast, browsed the internet then taken an hours nap! So why did I bother? All part of my race prep plan. For the next week I’ll be getting up around 4:00am so come race day they’ll be no shock to the system. Ideally I would have liked to have set off on a run at 6:30 to give myself the full race day experience, but it was pissing it down and I didn’t fancy it! I may not get that choice on Sunday.

It’s all very close now. I’m getting those little moments of nerves fortunately brief and easily dismissed. Concerns pop into my mind from time to time during training. As I swam yesterday afternoon I started to wonder if I felt fresh enough. Have I rested enough? How did I feel at this point prior to Busselton? I’ve got so used to feeling fatigued I’m not sure how feeling rested really feels! I continued through my swim until there was a twinge hinting at a cramp when I pushed off the wall. I decided better to end the swim early (only 500m short) than have a cramp at this point. I downed some Gatorade on the way home too – my electrolytes were clearly off.

My left ankle is stiff too! In fact it clicks when I rotate it which hasn’t happened for a while. It hasn’t posed a problem though and according to my masseur it’s the right leg that’s really tight. For some reason I always feel more pain, tightness and discomfort in my leg left, but the right is more likely to be in the worse state. Too much compensation from the left side I guess. What can be done now though? Nothing so I just get on with what little training I have to do.

I’ve three days left here on the Coast before I drive South. I’m a little disappointed that it looks like cloud and rain will dominate that. Can’t really complain when the last couple of weeks have thrown so many sunny days my way. In these last few days I only really have 6 hours of training to do. I plan my days around this and fitting in trips to my favourite coffee shops. This morning after I post this I head off for a swim then breakfast at Barchino on the way back. A run midday and I’ll try and fit in a trip to Vintage Espresso for the best coffee on the Coast. It’s hard to tell whether the training or the coffee is more important!

There’s been a sense of finality to each training session the past week or two. With time and distance increasingly limited I was aware I wouldn’t be visiting these places again. I’m not sure if I came to appreciate them anymore, but at the least I enjoyed them. On my Sunday ride, the last long ride before the race, a mate commented how it’s good I get to change things every so often. I’m avoiding some of the boredom and staleness that comes with familiarity. I can honestly say when I left the UK I was sick of some of my local rides! Funnily I feel the same thing about some of the rides round here now. Doesn’t matter how warm and sunny a place might be there’s only so many times you find excitement riding down a road.

A race in 6 days, home in 10. The time has gone so quickly. Take another 6 months though and I’ll be back here, probably on the Coast again and probably excited to get back on the roads here. Sunday I get to see what 6 months of work has done. I’m excited, I think (hope) it could be good. When the doubts not there I believe I can perform my best yet. Then I think about things to come and wonder if 6 months gets me here where does the next 6 months take me?

[If you read this blog purely out of interest in my training you may want to skip this one. Having more free time and with wet weather yesterday I finally got around to seeing Watchmen. Many weeks after everyone else here's my thoughts and a few comments on comics.

And lame as it is - the title to this post is based off the 'What If?' series of Marvel Comics. The idea being change an aspect of a Marvel story and play out how things might go. Ranging from if Peter Parker's Uncle Ben hadn't died to the more absurd Bull Pen being the Fantastic Four. Personally though I'm a sucker for anything involving World War II heroics like the example to the right!]

A couple of weeks after everyone else I’ve finally got around to seeing the Watchmen movie. I’m surprised to say I actually really enjoyed it. I didn’t find it too slow, nor the sex scene as uncomfortable to watch as others have claimed. It felt remarkably true to the themes of the book even with the alterations to the ending. I would say it was a little bit too violent, I don’t really remember the comic being quite so graphic or extreme. Perhaps I’m just getting old in my opinions?

I encountered the comic in my early teens. A period when my dabbling in comics was largely influenced by what my older brother showed me. To be honest I had little taste or appreciation back then, but could recognise good comics. Watchmen was definitely that and being a young comics geek I also owned the smiley button and a T-shirt. Since that first time I’ve possibly reread it once and that would still be over 15 years ago. Despite the lack of familiarity it left a lasting impression which could have set the movie up for a fall. Watchmen was a significant comic in my comic book geek life.

As a slight aside I just want to vent a little comic geek frustration. It’s not hard to find articles or comments refering to Watchmen as significant, breaking the mould or redefining comics. It’s true, it was an introduction to a wider world of comics at a time when I was new to the medium. It was different to the bulk of other titles out there, but it wasn’t an entirely new concept. Moore himself had explored similar themes in previous works (reading some bits and pieces online reminded me just how good Miracleman had been). Others had touched on the themes too. The significance with Watchmen is that it is read by people who probably don’t read many comics and it show them that ‘comics aren’t just for kids’. Every week in comic book stores there are plenty of titles from the trashy to the intellectual. Watchmen didn’t change that, it was good, actually great, but comics covered the range from trash to treasure long before it was around. Grumble over.

So a classic comic from my youth that left a strong impression vague on details admitedly) made into a movie. That’s aready a big hurdle. Throw in that it’s a long movie and I like my movies to aim for around 90 minutes of entertainment then end. Really I was almost nervous when I went in the cinema potentially I’d paid to spend nearly 3 hours watching memories from my teenage years be trashed. Yet almost immeadiately I was drawn into it and from then on enjoyed every minute.

In my opinion it did a fantastic job of capturing the essence of the comic. I’ve seen complaints about it being slow, but the pacing seemed spot on. Perhaps there could have been cuts, but nothing really felt unneccessary. If anything the slowness worked for the film adding a heaviness as we head towards armageddon. Whilst I haven’t read it for years surely the comic was slowly paced too? Visuals were great though the nuclear kiss dream sequence is far more striking in the comic. That was a moment of disappointment for me, but I admit my Watchmen T-shirt was the image of the skeletons kissing as the bomb obliterates them. I didn’t have much luck trying to find an image of that. Poor google skills and with the movie out most of the images you get back are disappointingly from it.

I won’t spoil the ending. It was changed and I can kind of see why. Perhaps they thought the original events of the comic book finale were a little too ’silly’. They work better in the context of a comic read by people familiar with the medium and its themes. In a standalone movie it would possibly have seemed almost random. I’ve seen it mentioned elsewhere, but Bubastis, Ozymandias’s Lynx is only really relevant to the story if you have the comic book ending. I guess if you’ve got a special effects budget to use though.

To sum up I liked it. It’s an unusual superhero movie just as it was unusual as a superhero comic. I think that may have worked against it a little. Comments I overheard from some audience members after the movie suggest to me it wasn’t what was expected. I’ll catch it again when it’s on DVD with apparently even more film to watch. It’s probably not going to have the same replay value that Iron Man does, but that’s a different, simpler kind of superhero story. Incidentally, during the trailers – a new ‘The Fast and the Furious’! Oh Good! (No really I’ve seen all the others, multiple times in some cases. There is something wrong with me.)

Normal service resumes from tomorrow onwards. Back to the triathlon stuff and upcoming race and I’ll keep the comic books to myself. I feel better for this! Outside of training and racing if you really want to get a long conversation out of me ask about comics. I can cover manga, bande dessinee a little, not too bad on Brit comics, pretty good on DC, OK on Marvel and can hold my own discussing indies!

Two weeks time and should I be making a blog post it’ll be from UK soil. Which having checked the long range forecast means I can look forward to being cold and wet. Whilst I am looking forward to coming home (for a while) I’m using some of the extra time in my taper to appreciate what I’ll be missing here. By that I mean the sun, the sea and the coffee shops.

With it being the second week of my taper training has really been scaled back. I’ve been letting myself lie in each morning, finding getting up when I feel like it leaves me feeling much more rested that sticking to a time. That comes to an end tomorrow with a 6am massage appointment meaning I’m up before dawn. I’d come up with a plan of getting up early in the week leading up to the race to get myself used to it. Just came around a little sooner than expected that’s all.

Some of my extra free time has gone into sorting through all I own and thinning out my possessions. I’ve actually done a good job of not accumulating things in the past 6 months. During the easy part of a bike ride the other day I considered how little I actually spend outside of food and shelter. It’s not so long ago I can remember spending a significant portion of my income on possessions. These days if isn’t necessary for survival I tend not to be so concerned! Ok sometimes I eat more expensively than I need to and it’s not that the basics are so cheap for me. Plus there’s all that flying about and the price of race entries these days! Still if I can take away something other than greater fitness from this trip it’s how little I need to get by.

Whilst I don’t need to own much my love of good coffee incurs quite a cost! Just like my last taper I’m almost planning my training around when best to visit my favourite coffee shops. I’ve four I’d consider favourites in the vicinity. Each good for a different reason and only one I visit for the quality of the coffee alone. I’ve been to them all in the past week, multiple times in some cases. I’ll certainly miss the cafe culture when I’m back home, I have no recollection of such good coffee shops in Reading. At least not the kind where you might kill an hour or two.

In between ensuring I’m suitable caffeinated there has been some training. Lots of easy efforts with judicious doses of harder paces. With greatly reduced volume those hard efforts are much easier and very reassuring. Watching the powermeter once I’ve warmed up on the bike gives me some confidence for the Ironman ahead. At the same time I’m aware of all the little niggles and you do start to worry just a little that there may be issues to come. It’s all part of the game though, not much to be done now!

It’s not all indulgence much as it might sound that way. There are important rules I am sticking to. No unhealthy foods. That’s number one, my diet is pretty simple right now. Lots or fruit and veg, a fair bit of sushi or fish in general. Been off the bread for a while. All those trips to the coffee shops? No cakes and always long blacks no sugar! I quite enjoy sticking to a set of rules. Plus it should stop me from gaining any weight as the taper goes on.

I want to keep this one short rather than the usual essay I dump on the site. I would have liked to ramble less! You’d think with all this spare time I’d have planned this better. I can assure you whilst I admired the views on the beach front I thought about what I’d post and it sounded way better!

This is a somewhat novel situation, my memory of my previous Ironman tapers is one of feeling absolutely smashed at the start of them. With just under 2 weeks to go to the race I don’t really feel too bad, but equally not too great. Warnings not to over do it or test my fitness sit in the back of my mind. The problem is – what is over doing it or testing your fitness? I can’t really say for sure if something I’ve done so far is too much and I doubt I’ll know after the race either. Frustrating and I find myself routinely checking out articles on tapers just in case I can glean a final bit of information.

I suppose what’s particularly unusual is I have a little bit of confidence and optimism already. It worked wonders in Busselton. In fact I think it’s essential. I need to go into the race, any race, with a plan and a belief that it’s perfectly within my reach. I already have it all formulated in my head. I’ll put it up again before the race as I did with IMWA. To me that’s a step in demonstrating commitment to the goal, no denying my success or failure after the fact.

When you are exhausted from weeks of heavy training the taper seems easier. The idea of testing fitness seems ludicrous because training is a slog. When you’re not quite that fatigued the thing is you can test fitness. I could go out on the bike tomorrow and chase a new PB and quite possibly grab it. It’s really tempting too because whilst it may deliver a little more fatigue or a little less recovery it shores up that confidence. I won’t though. Tomorrow I have a few hours of riding where I will throw in a couple of 10 minute efforts on a not particularly challenging climb.

All of this leads up to the key question bothering me at the moment. Am I getting the balance right? I’m not going to go into too much detail or talk numbers. Some of the concern comes from an interest in the Performance Management Chart in WKO+. Over the past few months I’ve not let it dictate too much, but followed the graphs with interest. I am coming to better appreciate the relationship between my training loads and fatigue. It’s at the point that I can largely see how I felt good on a particular day or poor another. I’m not sufficiently advanced to fully appreciate these values in an Ironman taper. Here I’m still feeling my way. Research suggests a careful reduction in training to minimise loss of fitness, but eliminate fatigue. Reality proves this to be the training equivalent of walking a tightrope.

Since my last day off and last post I’ve had a pretty decent weekend. I spent Friday heeding the warnings about pushing too much. Firstly at the pool where a surprisingly sore shoulder (still) put me off doing any serious work. I was happy enough to be getting a lot of consistency in my times. Then on the bike I scaled back plans as I found myself pushing into a headwind. Not because it was too tough, but because it was too easy for me to work harder. This was one of my good days and with Saturday and Sunday having some key training I decided not to burn too much energy. Potential mini hill repeats became a shorter, flat ride.

Saturday was the training I was excited about. A very hilly ride with Pete which guaranteed there’d be no taking it easy. An early start for a change too and having had great weather all week it was time for some showers. The other part of the plan was to test out some possible pre-race nutrition – two cans of V! A single can has some kick, two is even better. I headed out into the rain fuelled up on energy drink. As an aside one of the early conversations as we warmed up was how living here puts you off training in the rain. By UK standards these were pretty ordinary and it was probably about 20C at 6 in the morning anyway.

I’d suggested taking in Kennedy Drive and Tomewin and Pete suggested connecting them by Hogans Road which he assured me was nice and steep. My anticipation for this ride was driven by a desire to test myself against Pete. I know, the taper rules say no testing your fitness. This however would be too good a sign to miss out on. When I first arrived I would get dropped on the really steep stuff. I simply couldn’t put in the burst of power necessary, my legs lacked the strength. I know I’m climbing better so when we hit the Kennedy Drive climb and Pete moved ahead I stuck to his wheel.

Come Hogans Road and I was pushing from the start with no idea what was to come. At first it looked like Pete’s memory of the place was a bit off and it really wasn’t that tough. Then it kicked in properly and we both started to grind away. The road passes through some amazing, serene rain forest (particularly appropriate in the rain). Tranquil apart from the climbing induced heavy breathing. With neither of us wanting to take any risks our descents on the wet roads were comically slow.

To top off the work done so far there was Tomewin. A second, possibly third visit that week for me. Pete pulled away a little at the start and my legs definitely had less to respond with. I kept him comfortably within sight the entire way though and in the process set a few new PBs in the training software! Down the other side and Pete was done for the day leaving me to ride the next two hours over undulating, but not so extreme terrain. To finish it off I threw in an hours brick run all very comfortably at a higher pace than normal. All in all a pretty satisfying days training with an all important confidence boost. The question being, was that too much?

When I woke early on Sunday morning the answer seemed a definite yes. My legs felt like lead and I could realy use a few more hours in bed. Unfortunately I was also entered into another race – 8Km run race at Runaway Bay. So 40 minutes of cycling there at an easy pace that felt desperately hard to hold. Then a somewhat disappointing 30:19 for 8K putting me ever so slightly below 16Kph a bit poorer than my half-marathon PB! Still I think I can fairly claim I was tired and at least it was a quality workout. It was an odd race to experience. I didn’t suffer in the way I did for the previous month’s 5K. I never felt I was working quite that hard, it just wasn’t really possible to get there. Easy pace felt even worse on the way home! The headwind didn’t help!

So today has been another day off to allow for a bit of recovery. I went on a long tour of the coffee shops and enjoyed another sunny day. I considered going to the cinema, but it just seems wrong when it’s so nice out. Back to a bit of training tomorrow, but nothing too hard. Just in case!

The last time I posted something, almost an entire week ago, I was clearly a little rattled. It took one day to get back on track. Typical after I post about poor motivation, poor performance and the little doubts in the back of my mind! Thankfully the weekend and most of this week has bolstered the sense that maybe I can pull this race off! Great timing as officially I’m tapering.

Having effectively wasted (my opinion anyway) two days of the previous week I was keen to put a good effort in on Saturday. Actually thinking back I stated my plans for the weekend in a bid to kick myself up the arse. Not everything went to plan of course. I got to the pool to find the main one being used for waterpolo and the other by the junior squad. The rest of us relegated to a shared double width lane. I spent an hour dodging people and mostly doing easy swimming with drills. It all felt very unproductive and reminiscent of public pools back home!

The day was heating up well though with a few hints of clouds in the sky. No excuses there not to get in the big ride planned. I’d made the decision to finally go and ride the Numinbah Valley. I’d ride up Springbrook and drop down into the Valley, then head South to Murwillumbah. Depending on time I’d then keep going and turn back up the coastal road. I was told Numinbah was good riding, but isolated and tough. In fact the way it had been described to me had if anything put me off. The impression was you’d be lucky to get round there unscathed! Still I’ve been here 6 months and never ridden the route.

Within a few minutes of heading out I remember thinking how stiff my legs felt and how it didn’t bode well. I was determined to get some good training in though so nothing was going to alter my plans. I rode easy over to Springbrook giving me a nice hours warm up before the climb. Last week I timed the climb riding with my race wheels on. Much as I’d enjoyed riding without all the usual data being recorded it had bugged me a little not to know what the power was for the climb. So when I passed the picnic area at the start of the climb I attacked and held it to get me up to the top in 24:20. The result is I now set some new PBs in my power data! Also I was a quarter of the way through the ride and pretty stuffed. Definitely going anaerobic in the last kilometre!

Repeating my tough climb in a matter of days was far too encouraging to have any consideration of shortening the ride. I dropped down into Numinbah for the first time taking it really easy on the steep descent. What I learnt is that Numinbah is not that tough, nor that isolated and in fact is a beautiful place to ride. The road is undulating with an overall rise until you drop down into the Tweed valley. It’s a little cooler in there as it’s generally more sheltered. The views of the forest and rising mountains are spectacular too. As usual I didn’t have my camera with me!

In Murwillumbah I stopped off at my usual Shell Servo. It’s run by a friendly South African man who clearly never recognises me as he largely asks the same questions. Where I’m riding… If the cars bother me… I prefer it to the far more common it’s a bit hot to be out riding isn’t it? I always wonder if these people really think that once it’s over about 28C you should stay indoors? A top up of fluids and a solid intake of V was enough to pick my riding back up again. The rest of the trip whilst uneventful was at a solid pace. Net result was a 170km ride with over 2500m of climbing in a little over 6 hours. I finished the day with only a 30 minute run off this. That felt great too!

I compensated for the short swim on Sunday by getting in the full 5K. Then back out on the bike for another beautiful days riding. This time taking things a little easier and even bringing along the camera! Today’s picture is one of the views over the Tweed Valley. When it comes to riding I’d say that area is more my base than the Gold Coast. Despite planning to take things easier I still threw in a climb over Tomewin and went at it hard. The weekend has given me some confidence that my time here has started to transform my riding.

So now I’ve started my taper. The first thing I did was look at the planned taper and its execution for Busselton. Man, I didn’t run much, in fact I didn’t train much! In comparison to my plans the reailty was very light indeed. This time I’m aiming to stick a little closer to the plan and train a little bit more. Not that the Busso taper failed, but I think it could be better.

Tapering brings a whole new set of concerns is this too much, is this too little? I’m over that general feeling of low motivation and concern about performance. If I can get to the line in Port fresh… The way I’m riding right now and the work I’ve done on my run… It might just work! Actually the biggest problem right now is letting go. It’s hard to plan workouts without trying to build at the moment. I shouldn’t be testing my fitness now, instead allowing it to level off and then giving my body time to recover. It’s so tempting though, the way I can ride… I could go out and smack a few hills for fun!

Today will be my first rest day of the taper. I’m deciding that right now and sticking to it. Everyday since Saturday has had some solid training in and it’s time to let a bit of recovery happen. I shall go out and enjoy the day instead. Some long walking, maybe a trip to the cinema this afternoon! It’s still hard to make this choice – in the back of my mind I’m wondering if perhaps a short bike, or swim, or run would be appropriate! Better to be reigning myself in that struggling to do anything though.

Right now I’m pretty excited. The weekend consolidated some signs that were all ready there and I was just ignoring. Once again I’m fitter than I’ve ever been. I’ve made a step up in my cycling. My run endurance is greatly improved. My swimming is strong and in a place where I think I can start to make real progress. All these things are great news with a race almost 2 weeks away.

Beyond that I’m excited to test this fitness out back home on my old routes. Hell, I’ll be honest I almost wish I didn’t have a race coming up! I feel like I’m in perfect shape to really start training and to take things further. This Ironman is almost an interruption! Part of the plan is to execute a taper, race and recovery that sets me up to pick this training back up very quickly in April. With luck that’ll give me a month to play with things before Lanza!

Twenty-Two days till Ironman Australia. Close to, but not quite taper time. I’m already feeling a little bit of the race nerves coming on though. Right there in the back of my mind are those questions. The ones about whether I’ve biked enough, run enough, swam enough or done them at suitable intensities when I have. I’d be surprised if I wasn’t getting these thoughts to be honest. However as of Thursday what happened to my motivation?

Wednesday was an OK day. The weather was a little poorer and with well worn biking legs I decided to focus on a long run. It went well too. The first three hour training run I have done since… Well a very long time ago, in fact I think when I was just training for marathons. It wasn’t perfect, my route wasn’t ideal as it left me without fluids for 90 minutes whilst I ran inland. Dehydration wasn’t a big issue though I’m growing to accept that my failure to hydrate much on runs may be extending the recovery period. Anyway, the run was done and I threw in a somewhat half-hearted swim afterwards (I was tired by then). So overall the day felt pretty successful.

Thursday’s plan was to be a nice easy day to recover from the past 4 days. In that respect I give it a thumbs up. I went out on the bike and didn’t need a bike computer to tell me my legs were dead. Downloading data afterwards simply amused me with a 101BPM average for my heart rate. Yeah, that one was really easy. I should have swam as well, but discovered the main pool was being used for waterpolo and the other one was heavily crowded. I canned it. Right that’s not so bad really, after all it was an easy day?

Friday’s plan was get up early, go swim 5K. Pick up newly rebuilt powertap wheel. Come home and get out for a 4 hour ride. Finish it all off with an hours run. I swam… 3.5K.

What’s up with that? It didn’t start well as I changed my alarm 3 times following a poor nights sleep. I was having a fantastic dream mind you. It’s unsuitable for this blog though, but fantastic… Anyway. When I did get up I arsed about for an hour before getting myself out the door. By the time I got to the pool I was probably about 3 hours later than planned! To be honest the swim wasn’t too bad though. I did a test set to prove my swim times have improved lately and to establish a new baseline for training. They have and I did!

Then I stopped off for brekkie and coffee before making my way to the bike shop and picking up my shiny new wheel. I’d forgotten just how shiny they can be, maybe I should clean mine more often. My phone went off whilst I was in the shop and rather than being the scammers from the Philippines it was my sponsors Jaggad. They had some great news for me, they’d chosen me as one of their athletes to get a free entry to Ironman Oz! I can’t say how pleased I was with that! I’ll be racing in their new custom team kit with a big kangaroo slapped on it. Apparently it’s very bright, but hey that seems to be my criteria for race kit these days! Yes I will also be racing in it in the UK and anywhere else even though I’m not an Aussie. If they actually made British kit in red,white and blue with a badger on I’d race in that.

By this time of day a 4 hour ride was clearly out. I considered a 2 hour run instead, the weather was poor anyway so I was happy to put off the ride. I was also happy to put off the run! I sorted out my training wheels back onto the bike, that didn’t take too long. Then I decided to change my cleats over on my bike shoes. They’re desperately needed I managed to pull my left foot out the other day! This proved to be more difficult than expected. I assume everyone has a preferred stopping leg – the one you unclip and stand on when you come to a stop. Mine is my left leg and on both my road and tri shoes the cleats are mostly worn on this side. Unfortunately to the point that in each case one bolt was well and truly locked in place. Changing two pairs of cleats took me about an hour! It involved allen keys, a pen knife, several screwdrivers, a hammer, a hacksaw blade and some pliers in the attempt.

Long story short I went from one easy day on Thursday to two in a row. Not driven by fatigue just an odd and unsettling lack of motivation. I’ll admit the current very British weather doesn’t help and I actually wish I had a turbo trainer here! There’s other factors though. My plan is a bit to flexible right now and I’m not holding myself accountable enough to it. I am getting good training sessions in, but not always well timed or with a little too much up or down.

Something I’ve considered for a while now is getting a coach. I think a bit of input on structure, plus additional accountability would be a big help. My training in Oz has increased my fitness of that there is no (real) doubt. I just feel that to really make the next step up I need to be a little bit more focussed in how I work. Something I could do myself? Perhaps, but I’m not sure that’s realistic. I’m waiting till after Ironman Oz and will start looking properly once I’m in the UK again. I’m open to any suggestions or recommendations!

So it’s the weekend coming up. Weather actually looks OK. I’ve got my training set-up back in shape and I’m well rested. The plan is to make Saturday a distance focussed day. Get up and get to that pool early for a 5K set (no slacking). Then out on the road for a 6 hour ride with plenty of hills in. Then run straight off that for an hour. Sunday I’ll aim for more modest distances, but a little more intensity. Fatigue allowing of course!

Apparently things come in threes. So my third bike malfunction happened just after the cattle grid at the top of Tomewin. The rattling as I crossed was enough to break my second Garmin mount and send my 705 flying. Once again I was fortunately able to retrieve the unit and it’s undamaged. I’m all out of spare Garmin mounts though. A minor break compared to the past two, but with interesting consequences.

The rest of Sunday’s ride and the two subsequent rides have been ridden blind. I have no idea of speed or exact heart rate, cadence or any other data I might normally have. It’s all being recorded with the Garmin sitting in my jersey pocket so I can look when I get home, but on the road the only way to know is to dig the unit out whilst riding. I now have three rides all ridden 100% on perceived effort and actually I like it.

Sure I particularly miss the power data at the end of a ride (that’s waiting on my wheel repair). However with the right mindset it turns out having absolutely no data is actually motivating. I am pretty sure I have been riding harder without numbers in front of me than without.

It started when I lost the power meter. I had a suspicion it would happen. Lately my riding has been a little more aggressive anyway, I’m willing to push myself harder and for longer. I put this down squarely to being fit and having a little more confidence in that. When I knew I’d be riding without my power meter subconsciously that meant I needed to ride harder to ensure I wasn’t slacking. Shove race wheels on the bike in place of training wheels and mentally I’m practically at a race!

So that Sunday ride as I head out bike practically ready to race and with legs fresh from an unexpected day off it was no surprise to quickly hit a strong pace. Once the Garmin went flying and I no longer had speed either that was even more incentive. I hammered it back up the Tweed coastline. A final bit of hill work to revisit the shop and pay for the V they gave me. It was closed for Sunday afternoon and being in NSW an hour ahead of my watch too. Then it was hammer down again to get me home, well until I realised traffic was getting to heavy to keep the pace up. I am definitely far more paranoid on Aussie roads!

One off wouldn’t be too surprising, especially with the rest day before. Everything comes in threes though. Monday I set out for another ride, my legs felt pretty rooted though. However along with training I had the objective of paying back my debt. So back once more through Tweed Heads and to the shop. This time it was open so I settled my account and got another V in the process. Once again I rode hard though, putting lots of effort in on both the climbs and the flats. The tired legs vanished about 15 minutes into the session only to return when I stopped (in time for the planned run in the evening).

If I thought my legs felt bad on Monday I should have waited till Tuesday. A simple hours run on the flat with a couple of short but nasty hills in was enough to leave me feeling pretty done. Still I set out on the bike and headed inland as the cyclone influenced winds were a bit strong on the coast. The plan was to revisit Springbrook, though with the way my legs felt I wasn’t really sure how that would go. I cruised over, really not putting in too much effort at all.

After a pause at the picnic area at the bottom of the main climb I checked my watch and headed up. Having no data it was all down to working as hard as I could. My left leg has been playing up with a familiar ITB tightness. These days it mainly manifests itself as a knot in my hamstrings though. As things got hard I could feel it’s presence and had to push past it to keep the pace up. My motivation was simple, I had no speed or power to go by so I just wanted to get a time for the climb. I don’t usually bother with the full length, just doing the half hour or so to the bus stop at the first plateau. Not that it was half hour yesterday. Despite the grumbles of fatigue and discomfort in my leg I did it in 24:40.

I should say I have absolutely no idea if that’s a decent time or not. I’m pretty sure I was climbing harder than I have before and that it’s faster than I’ve done before. I’ve looked back in my training logs and whilst I never noted climbing times checking the data supports this. Of course in retrospect I wish I had a powerfile for this climb!

What’s the conclusion from all this? Not much really. When I get a new Garmin mount and my wheel is back the computers will be back on the handlebars. I hope at the least though I’ll know I can go that little bit more again and won’t allow them to hold me back. I think I’ll also be leaving them at home sometimes or at least covering them up for a ride. For me there seems to be something in not seeing the numbers. I don’t want to be going too easy and end up overcompensating! A little bit of hard work never hurt though, just a shame it doesn’t add to the pretty graphs in Training Peaks.

Fortunately not for me, but for the bike. Not one, but two failures due to wear and tear. It’s hampered my plans for a decent weeks training and turned this more into an easy week than anything else. When I have been training I’ve tried to ensure a good session, but I’ve only sat on a bike for 5 hours this week!

Things started off well on Wednesday. Back on the Coast and the weather is better than forecast. I made a long run the main session of the day. The full distance up to the spit, right to the very end where you can look back on the whole of the Coast to the south. I was pretty pleased I held a good pace throughout and didn’t feel too bad come the end. Onto Thursday and a good swim (which was a nice change) with the afternoon being a hilly bike ride. My aim was to revisit the Tomewin route which last time had been undermined when I blew in the first 20 minutes!

I’m happily riding along the Connection Road section before I hit Currumbin Creek Road. As it levels out during a climb I decide to shift to the big ring to keep the power up. Nothing happens. So I click up and down a few more times, but still nothing. Then I notice the rusty frayed wires from my front derailleur cable. I can’t quite remember the last time these were changed, but it’s easily 10-15000km ago! At least for the subsequent hilly section I wasn’t stuck in the big ring. When I descended into Currumbin Creek I turned back to take the flat route along the coast. What should have been 4 hours of riding ended up at 90 minutes.

Frustrating, but the good news was Mike’s Bikes could get a service done for me by lunch the next day. I decided the cable was a sign and it was time not only for new cables, but a general clean up. The bottom bracket has been creaking a lot lately and the rear derailleur shifts like crap (the cables I know!)

Despite knowing the bike was in the shop not having it in it’s usual place back home prompted occasional ‘My bikes stolen!’ thoughts. Having swum on the past 4 days and getting some good results by Thursday I opted to take a rest from swimming and go for another long run. Hit by a massive lack of imagination I headed back towards the spit, not quite to the end, but getting the most from the dunes section. During the last half hour I decided to inject some short high pace efforts. They felt surprisingly comfortable. I came home pretty happy to have got two decent length runs in this week even if the biking was suffering. Still the bike was ready and that meant this afternoon’s ride was on!

Heading back from the shop with a rejuvenated bike I stopped in for sushi. I said I’d get addicted! What I didn’t know then is that there’s a restaurant 5 minutes from my front door and they have a loyalty scheme! The foods good too so it’s an all round winner for everything but my bank balance.

It’s starting to get dark earlier which left me 3 to 4 hours maximum for riding. I chose the hilly Kennedy Drive route. You ride down the coast and into Tweed Heads, from there you follow Kennedy Drive to Bilambil and then over to Terranora. Once you pass Tweed it’s lots of hills of varying gradient. Despite a fair volume of running my bike legs felt fresh so I spent most of the ride really pushing myself and climbing as hard as I could. When you hit Terranora the climbing is largely over, there’s a gradual ascent before you descend back towards Tweed Heads. It’s big ring stuff though.

There’s a small shop a little way up the route and I decided to pick up a drink. It’s been warm and humid and I’d got through my fluids pretty quickly. Among recent addictions is one for Vanilla Coke. The added vanilla makes such a difference, but it’s damn hard to come by round here. The shop was closing up, I’d forgotten that New South Wales is an hour ahead of Queensland. They were also out of any kind of coke let alone my favourite. I took the opportunity to try some V. I know others use it for an energy and caffeine boost, I’d assumed this meant it’d be vile like Red Bull. Nope, it’s actually pretty nice! I have to go back to the shop to pay for it though as the woman didn’t want to change my $50 so let me have it! Very trusting.

Incidentally, on the subject of drinks, what’s the point of Coke Zero? Having to wander about taking things to the bike shop I’ve been buying more drinks. Not having trained like normal I didn’t want the calorie hit of full fat coke and without the vanilla coke to tempt me (they need to make a diet version) I’ve been on the diet. I finally tried Coke Zero for the first time and it’s got maybe 2 calories less than diet coke, but tastes worse. So why? I checked that it still had caffeine in so it’s not as pointless as caffeine free diet coke at least.

Sorry, back on topic. I had a fantastic ride on Friday a combination of rested bike legs and motivation from a freshly serviced bike. I think I should also mention that one benefit to come from recent hard training weeks is a greater confidence in my ability to sustain an effort. I’m more willing to work myself hard on a ride when in the past I think I was holding a little bit back. Hopefully this can only help me improve over the coming months. I’ve seen where I need to get to and it’s going to take more work to do so.

Friday’s ride is done, it was good, in fact all is good again. My plan for Saturday was a 5K swim first thing then a 6 hour bike in the day. Maybe the swim wasn’t first thing, but it wasn’t far off and all my bike stuff is laid out for a quick start to the ride anyway. The swim goes pretty well, a lot of interval work and my pacing is good considering the number. There’s a period of heavy lane sharing whilst the aquajoggers get in the pool. They need 4 lanes apparently! There’s something a little malevolent about them, especially on the deck prior to their session. They seem to have decided the best way to deal with the swimmers is to pretend we’re not there and leave no room for us!

When I got out the pool the day was warming up nicely and I contemplated my options for coffee and brekkie before the ride. I wasn’t going to go to my usual as it’s busy at the weekends and the waitresses were commenting on how often I’m going! A good sign I need to cut back. The debate was rudely halted as I started to wheel my bike out. The rear wheel ground to a halt. Weird. Obvious thing to check was the brake blocks rubbing, nope but right there by the brakes the rim was burst open. Now to be fair I’d been warned in the past and I’d been trying to put it off. The dishing on the rear rim was bad, bad enough it looks like the tyre pressure blew it apart! For a moment I wondered if it was the actions of the malevolent aquajoggers!

All of today’s plans changed. I had a pair of thongs in my bag so I could comfortably walk home. I also considered how I was lucky it burst whilst I was swimming and not descending down the other side of Tomewin like I’d planned. Aside from avoiding any loss of skin or worse I was also within a walking distance of home. Got to look on the bright side right? Instead of a ride I spent the day mostly walking. Taking the bike home, then back to Mike’s Bikes with the wheel. At the very least busting my wheel like that led to entertaining conversation in the bike shop. Finally back home where I found a shop selling vanilla coke on the way…

They should have a new rim in stock in the next week so I’m not missing my wheel for too long. I have my race wheels to keep me riding so a full scale disaster is avoided! I won’t have any power data for the next week which is a little frustrating. I’ll be working off heart rate instead. I guess it gives me a chance to test out the race set-up if nothing else.

It’s 4 weeks to Ironman Australia now. Not long at all. I’m a little disappointed that I’ve had a real up and down of quality weeks and mediocre weeks of training. It puts a small element of doubt in the back of my mind. I’m sticking to focussing on all the times I’ve been pleased with training recently. Those mediocre weeks have maintained my fitness at least and the others have built me to new levels. This next week I aim to get one final hard week in. The following week I’ll start tapering back though at least initially not too much. That’s all I can do now, then as before it comes down to getting myself fresh for race day.

Part 2 of my overly long account of training down in Geelong. So far it had been a pretty big week and I’ve had a nice, deep massage. How do you finish that off? A race? How about two? Toby had sent me details of a couple of races and who am I to argue. Early Saturday morning we rode up to the North Shore region of Geelong. A horrible industrial area with weird smells. The ideal setting for the Australian Masters Games Triathlon. Whatever Toby may claim, this is not as big or grand an event as the name implies!

The ride over had let both of us know our legs would not be doing much today. It almost seems wrong to describe what followed as racing. The field was pretty small and the race low key. Given my performance I’m kind of glad of that. The swim was uneventful apart from the opportunities to pet the local wildlife as a shoal of jellyfish floated by. The 3 lap bike course took in all the sights of the North Shore and some interesting petroleum smells too. Winds were again an issue as was fatigue and heavily massaged legs. However much I would have liked to I was not going above Ironman pace for this Olympic distance race. The run could potentially be pleasant, but for the nasty decaying smell at one end and the views of factories. The tired legs that turned it into more of a plod didn’t help either! Despite all of this Toby won overall and I got 3rd in our age group and a nice bronze medal to show for it! With a personal worst olympic time I’m not too proud though.

A planned ride up to Melbourne was vetoed without any argument. Instead we took the coach that was standing in for the trains that weekend (just like home!) We were heading back up to Melbourne to stay near to Sunday’s race with some of Toby’s friends. It may not be that glamorous, but I love the travel and meeting people I get to do these days. Spending a night somewhere new on a different mattress on a different floor (without ants) was all part of the fun of the race weekend. It proved to be a nice relaxed afternoon and evening which by now I really needed. It wasn’t like I’d done much that day, but I felt exhausted.

Another early start to ride the 10K to the race start in Altona. Sunday’s race was a club sprint tri. Low key though I think with more competitors than the Aussie Masters! I didn’t feel great riding there, but by this stage it was more about surviving an hour of racing. Weather was awful first thing – windy, cold and wet. It didn’t look like this would be much fun! Whilst we waited in the relative warmth of the club house one of the buoys was blown from the beach across the street right into the window. Really, the weather didn’t look good at all! As I had done the previous day I declared I’d be wearing my long sleeve cycle jersey for the bike. Just like the day before I never did as competing seems to warm me up.

Once everything was in place we waded out into the sea with the other competitors. The beach is shallow so it was a good 50m out before you were deep enough. Conditions were pretty rough, but at least the water wasn’t too cold. The swim was a matter of surviving through the battering the waves gave you. I don’t think I did so badly really. As I swam into shore people started to stand, I put off joining them till my hands touched the sand below. Even then I had 50m of aquajogging to do to get in. Watching many of us coming into shore I don’t think you’d consider it a race.

Transition was entertaining. Toby was already out on the bike and his friend Greer managed to come in after me and leave before me. Partly because I was confusing myself over which shoe went on which foot! What can I say I was tired! I had it right first time to! Having worked through the complex shoe issue I got out on the bike back into the wind. Today I couldn’t even manage Ironman pace for a sprint. That 18km of cycling dragged by and holding my place in the field was hard enough let alone catching people.

Second transition involved no shoe confusion though still remained slow. Out onto the run and the legs felt heavy, but I tried to push harder. I actually took some places back! The last 2km were hell as I made myself up the pace again. This involved passing a few people whilst pretending I was just cruising along all the time hoping they’d not stick with me! Apparently my run time was 18:20, 5 seconds slower than the previous weekend’s 5K race. Not sure what was going on there, I think I should have worked harder last week. Race over in a slightly embarrassing time, but at least it was all done.

The planned ride home was vetoed again! No complaints, instead we impressively packed 3 bikes and 3 people into Greer’s car and headed off for coffee. After a far easier journey home than expected I ended up facing the toughest endurance event of the entire week – a trip to the cinema. I would not recommend the film Bride Wars to anyone, nobody should ever have to see it. Ever. I’m not going to say anything more about that one.

To finish off my trip Monday was an easy day. I was knackered so really had no choice. Going to swim squad in the morning I pretty much died halfway through the session. When a tumble turn becomes a handstand twice in a row you know you’re not really in it! The rest of the day involved lazing about, watching TV, sushi and another painful massage! This time my shoulders were the focus, I’m still feeling it today!

That was Geelong. Tuesday I had one final squad swim which went marginally better than Monday. A final coffee and then the trip back to the Coast. My cab ride back home was entertaining, once again a lovely, chatty female cab driver. Things became a bit awkward when she started telling me how the economic crisis was predicted in the bible, and about the conspiracy behind the US president. I preferred when she talked about her younger years travelling the world as a singer. I was reminded of a comment in Geelong about Queenslanders being a bit nuts (for some of the people they voted into office). Certainly there’s a lot of eccentricity up here!

Really enjoyed my time down there. Met some great people and got a very solid training week in. It was fun racing like that over the weekend. Far from my best, fatigued and in pain, but yeah I enjoyed it. The seeds of a crazy idea for the future have been put in my head – racing a half and full Ironman race over a single weekend. Is there anywhere that’s possible without too much logistical difficulties? I’ve started searching. For now I just have a couple more weeks training and then taper for Port to worry about.

It’s been over a week and this is my third attempt to write a post. There’s nothing I can do it will be long, it won’t have any pictures, but I’ll try and keep it interesting! I’ve been down in Geelong training with Toby for the past week. It’s been a week with a few reminders of how cool the life of an athlete is. Sometimes I whine on here, but really this is an awesome lifestyle. I’ve slept on mattresses on the floor, got to know a large colony of ants, ridden hard, run hard, swum… Stretched the term racing a couple of times and experienced some of the most painful massage ever! Like I say this beats an office job hands down.

Skipping back a week just after yet another flight and bus journey I arrived in Geelong. I had a fair idea of what was to come. Toby was setting the training plan, I’d just be following. Got to say I do like it when someone else has to come up with what to do. This did mean a couple of hours after arriving it was out for a 2 hour run. Typically two hours would be my long run for the week, this one wasn’t. Pace was built a little so we didn’t take things too easily doing come loops around the Botanical Gardens and then out and back along the water front. A few short efforts towards the end of the run were a surprise and there was no chance I was sticking with Toby. Still all was good a nice solid run out the way and it hadn’t just been plodding. I had been promised an emphasis on quality in both run and bike.

Day two introduced me to the swim squad and some local riding. It’s a squad of mixed abilities, plenty of kids who leave me far behind, but at least one or two others who weren’t so fast. An indoor 25m pool too I’m not used to this! The squad has some pretty decent sessions not that I ever felt I swam well enough to make the most of them. The best I felt came out of it was being reminded that those extra turns in a shorter pool make your times faster! Actually to be fair probably the best thing I can take away is that I need to get swimming with a squad again.

The plan for the ride was to head out to Lorne along the Great Ocean Road and do some hill reps there before heading back. All in should be around the 180K mark with quality work in the middle. As we roll out of town Toby commented that we’d keep things fairly easy on the way out. The headwind begged to differ and the next few hours were far more of a slog than intended. We arrived at Lorne half-an-hour slower than it usually takes and pretty worn for the effort! At least it was a lunch break pre-climb. The hill itself was great. Ten kilometres in length and a gradient that let you keep a solid effort in, never kicking up too much. I got to lead the first time up keeping the pace steady. Toby set a new PB the second time up, whilst I seem to have basically repeated my first performance. Not my best climbing, at least the second time round I kicked up the power for the last few Ks. Then it was home and with the wind at our back. Still felt pretty rooted and a good coffee stop was taken on route.

I felt day two had been my first solid riding and training since Epic Camp. The powermeter seems to back that up and it was good to know I could put in some decent work. Having to keep up with Toby helped a lot, there wasn’t too much time to really go easy. We finished the ride with a detour for sushi. By this point some had to be eaten before we left the shop just to get us home! I will save comments on training insights for another post, but will mention that I have rediscovered an addiction to sushi!

Toby’s program front loaded a lot of the work. Day 3 was another big day, a 2.5 hour run with a 4 hour ride later. It could have been a 3 hour run, but even by this point I never argued if things were shortened! A long run and a reasonably long ride in one day was also new to me. Still you don’t learn if you don’t try these things! The route was along the river with various detours. Having mentioned I hated running steps I think Toby secretly enjoyed adding them in where he could! Sensible pacing got us through the run without too much incident.

The ride sort of became easy. I say sort of because it was easier than the previous day, but it wasn’t an easy ride! Sure we stopped for lunch and later a coffee break at a fantastic cafe with awesome chocolate and hazelnut muffins! In between we actually did some solid work though. One of the benefits of the powermeter is I know how easy I’m really going. Headwinds were prevalent again so as long as I wanted to keep moving forward it was never going to be super easy! Then I didn’t want to have to keep making Toby hold back too much either. Always good to have some solid motivation. The route proved shorter than the planned 4 hours, but I wasn’t going to quibble over 10 minutes.

I will take the blame for day four – it was my choice. We started with another squad session, which was very drill heavy. With races coming up at the weekend we weren’t being worn out. Again no complaints from me! Then after a pretty leisurely breakfast we set out on the ride I’d chosen. To justify my choice – much as the cycling is for training it’s good to do rides that you can mention to people. So another hilly route in Victoria versus doing around the bay was a no brainer. What wasn’t expected was how brutal the headwind would be for the first hour down to the ferry. The wind had changed direction to once again be right in our faces. So it’s another case of no easy riding. You know it’s hard when you need to pedal downhill!

A pleasant ferry ride across the bay gave us a break (yes coffee was involved). It’s 45 minutes across and you pay an extra $2 for the right to shove your bike in a corner and hope it stays in place. The late start and the ferry crossing would basically put a bit of pressure on the timing for the rest of the day. The Eastern side of the bay is beautiful to ride up. Perhaps with an exception for the 10km or so where you have to use the highway. Those easterly winds were still there and no matter how far we went round still stayed in our faces. There was a little bit of arsing about when we tried to find a beach road that avoided the highway. As it didn’t seem to exist we had no choice. Turned out the highway was actually fun. Toby put the power down once we were on it, I stuck to his wheel like glue. Apparently he was doing around 300W whilst I can safely say I did less! Still keeping on a wheel at that pace with the winds about did require a fair effort. We picked up a local for some of the journey who was kind enough to point us towards a lunch stop.

After lunch we stuck to the Toby putting out the power on the front and me sticking onto his wheel plan. This got us all the way up to Melbourne in decent time. The effort, along with the hassles of safely navigating across the city led to a slump. In fact you can be sure of this when a commuter on a mountain bike overtook us on a bike lane. Neither of us had the inclination to prove our superior riding! As we travelled down the west side of the bay I was amazed by just how ugly it is! They seem to have no problem shoving up power plants and factories all along the coast. When you reach Williamstown though things are much nicer. Especially when a stop to top up fluids becomes a break for milkshakes. Then straight back on the bikes with a couple more hours to go.

Things weren’t so good now, it had been a long hard day so another break was needed by the time we hit Werribee. Neither of us was excited about riding the Freeway back to Geelong. Unfortunately it was the quickest way home. Toby tried to set the pace up front with me on his wheel, but with varying success. I was stuffed and could hardly hold on! So we slogged through the final kilometres. It seemed to take forever, especially once you were actually in Geelong and had another 10km to get to home on the other side. I was not disappointed to be leaving the bike alone the next day.

Friday was easy day! Not an Epic Camp easy day where you do a long run and plenty of riding. We swam at another easy pre-race squad session. We had a relaxed brekkie and coffee with some of Toby’s mates. I didn’t complain when the hour fartlek run became 40 minutes with 3 race paced efforts in. Then I had the most painful massage of my life… It was amazing! I don’t think anyone has been that brutal on my legs before. I also don’t think a massage has ever cleared my legs so well either. There were times I thought things were going to break!

I think I’ll be sensible and go easy on you. Those who made it through to this point there’s more to come in part two tomorrow. Two races, a crazy idea for the future, more pain and massage…