Trains, Travels

All going to plan this time next week I will have finished my fourth Ironman and set a new PB. I’ll be in the recovery area trying to decide the priorities between taking on some food, getting in the showers or having a massage before too many athletes start to arrive. Last year I got the massage and shower in first whilst there were no queues and almost passed out from hypoglycaemia! So as part of this years plan, it’s food-massage-shower-food. But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’ll admit I’m blogging more out of a need for consistency than out of news or updates. The title is true, I have a lot of time on my hands and as the days go on it just increases. This is not good for my coffee consumption nor my bank balance. Ironman events typically boost the local economy - I’m doing my bit in the numerous cafes in town. Long blacks are back in favour and the Cappuccinos (or Mugocinnos as large cappuccinos tend to be known here) are limited to one a day. Similarly I’m tightening up the diet, all good foods no wasted calories. It’s tough though, my stomach wants to eat like a 30 hour training week still, but that’s a road to serious weight gain right now!

So other than probably achieving new PBs in caffeine consumption what have the past few days brought? Well I finally fixed the small tear in my wetsuit, had it for ages and now suddenly had the time to deal with it. I also cut the legs a little shorter which did prove to make removal much easier. I had a fantastic swim this morning the water was once again dead calm so I couldn’t resist doing the full Jetty swim. Calm conditions and clear waters meant you could see all the native wild life. Running a little late and so not going out with a group meant that sharks were the wild life that mainly occupied my mind! Again, no sightings.

The weekend has provided some reassuring training sessions. Yesterdays group ride went well for me, I sat on the front most of the time and controlled my effort by heart rate. Conditions were calm with little wind to speak of and I found that I could hold a good Ironman pace very easily. I can only hope for a similar state of affairs next weekend, right now the long range weather forecast changes by the hour so who knows. Ask a local and opinions will vary from it’s going to be perfect weather through to we’re due a storm. We shall see and whatever the day brings rely on the fact that we’re all in the same boat.

This mornings swim apart from being an excellent wildlife safari was also another reassuring session. A bit of fiddling about getting the wetsuit on and spending a lot of time positioning it before I set out seemed to pay off. Shoulder fatigue was at a minimum and I felt pretty comfortable. Still lacking a watch means I don’t know an exact time, but it was around about an hour for close to the Ironman distance. As the swim is the stage I’m most uncertain of in my predictions it was good to be close to my race day goal. More importantly feeling comfortable in the suit was a relief, with all the time I could want to worry about things I had been debating purchasing a long john wetsuit for the race. Searching the web however reveals a general consensus that whatever you may feel as a swimmer a long john is slower than a full suit.

I will be out for a lap of the run course shortly and I hope another positive session to make me feel ready to race. Compared to my memories of the run up to Switzerland I’m feeling fresher and ready to go. This is where I realise I blog and so what I was feeling 7 days out from Ironman Switzerland is there for all to see! So yes I’m feeling much fresher and fitter than before. Were the race tomorrow I’d probably be about ready to go. I hope that doesn’t mean I’ve peaked too early! I’m also a lot less anxious, only the most minor hint of race nerves that creep in when I state my goals.

With race week beginning I’ll have a bit more to do so the time should pass a little easier. I’m saving detailing the race plan or mentioning some of what I’ll be up to this week for future posts. If I don’t things will get really sparse round here for a while. There’s a few exciting things on the cards at least. Well, you know, I’m excited by them.

However I want to end with two confessions. Firstly I hate Marmite, but as I discovered last weekend Vegemite is OK. My first taste was in front of half the tri club all keen to provide me with tips on how it should be eaten. Anyway, it’s actually all right. Secondly I caught myself finishing sentences like they were questions, with the Aussie style upwards inflection. Not confessional, but also I think the British need to relax and go with the flow more. Seriously, they’re far too uptight about things over here, it all works out… I fear I’m turning native.

Taper madness is truly setting in. I have far more time on my hands than I know what to do with. Every little twinge or niggle fills me with fear that perhaps I’m falling apart. Am I getting enough sleep? Going too hard? Too easy? Have I run enough lately? Was that massage too deep? Am I eating too much? The questions are endless as is the time to mull them over it seems. On the plus (maybe) I have rediscovered crosswords and made big headway in completing my current book of them. Yes, it is an exciting and glamourous life I lead.

However if crosswords were all that was going on I don’t think I’d bother to write a blog post. Instead I’m going to put aside all the niggles and talk about why Ironman Western Australia is a race everyone should fit in their schedule. I admit that for most of the world it’s a bit out of the way, even for Australians it’s a fair way to go. However my experiences this year in the lead up make me feel it’s worth the effort. I’ll concede that arranging a local homestay, getting here over 2 weeks early and getting involved with the local club makes all the difference. If you’re coming from overseas and you get in touch they’re really accommodating and go out of their way to welcome you.

The past week I’ve biked, swum and ran with the locals and of course joined in the coffees that happen afterwards. I’ve been introduced to loads of people a good 50% I can’t remember the names of! I can only apologise, I’ve never been good with names and when you get 10 at a time there’s no chance. I’ve been quite open with my time goals even though, as I commented to someone on the ride today, if things don’t go to plan they’ll be way off. Everyone is very encouraging and likes to hear about someone taking the chance on a year’s training. It’s a real boost on the mental side of the race as I feel I’ll have a lot more backing out there and will probably know people at the aid stations!

Outside of the club which is unsurprisingly keen about the event many of the locals love it too. The shops are encouraged to put Ironman decorations up in their windows. New banners are up in the street all for the Ironman. As I was out doing my final long run on the course yesterday a bunch of school kids riding home wished me luck! I have to confess that now more athletes are starting to turn up it’s almost disappointing. Like my secret training spot has suddenly been discovered! Still I’ve really benefited from the local knowledge and support so far and it’s helped make the final taper training more interesting.

The real highlight of the Ironman course itself is the swim round the jetty (be very clear it is a jetty, not a pier). Conveniently the jetty is about half the length of an ironman swim, so an out and back works perfectly. From the athlete’s perspective sighting is easy as, just keep the jetty on your right and you’ll be fine. Much as you should be focussing on your swim technique as you swim out and back the shallow bottom is always visible letting you watch the sea life swim below. This morning I swam round the jetty with another Russ, the conditions were near perfect, ideal for race day. One warning though, last Friday I swam with the club and the sea was pretty choppy and that’s certainly happened on race day before. Then it’s a battle to get out to the end of the jetty, though the return isn’t so bad. The occasional little stinger jellyfish is a slight pain, but fortunately no sharks so far!

Most of the club rides don’t follow the Ironman course, instead going out on Sues Road to one of the local ‘hills’. You’ll not improve much as a climber here, choices are limited. For the race it doesn’t matter, it’s pan flat and potentially fast. I say potentially because the winds will really dictate things. Whilst Tuart (don’t pronounce the a too hard… I’m getting lessons from the locals on how to say there things!) Road is sheltered by trees most of the course is quite exposed. Large flat expanses give plenty of room for the winds to build up and if they’re anything like Sunday you’ll be flying one way and grinding the other. Wind aside the only other issue likely to occur on the course is stiffening up from holding the aero position so long. With no undulations you need never move. I’ll concede at 3 dead flat laps it’s not the most exciting of routes, but I think the swim and run make up for this.

My final long run was a lap and a half of the run course. It stretches along the beach front for roughly 7Km making for three 14Km loops on race day. As with the bike course it’s flat as again making for potentially fast times. Last year I had a bad run really, this year I’m aiming to set a new Ironman PB! I hope the stomach issues of my training run yesterday weren’t a bad omen! Again it’s exposed so can be a bit windy, I actually felt running into the headwind was tough going yesterday. Once it was behind me it was great, though if the heat is up it won’t be so comfortable. I’m feeling fairly good in my running right now, it’s all about holding form right till the end.

The race expo and centre is being set-up at the moment. Tents are being put in place and excitement for the race is definitely building. Athletes are arriving now, I chatted with a couple from Switzerland at the cafe this morning. They thought I might be Swiss as I was wearing an Ironman Switzerland T-Shirt. They’ll be a few more people I know or rather know of and will get to meet in the next week so should be good. I foresee much more time spent indulging in coffees and resisting the cakes (whilst making a mental plan of all the things I’ll let myself eat in my recovery weeks!). Speaking of which I have a cycling magazine I need to read over a coffee on my way to my massage.

I’d better use some of this extra free time in my taper to get on with that second month review. I had a quick look back at what I wrote a month ago and the second month has been a very different experience to the first. Perhaps I’m exaggerating a little, but the first few weeks here were definitely a honeymoon period. Don’t get me wrong the last month has still been good, but a little more reality has crept in.

So firstly I occasionally alluded to some personal issues that were interfering with my training. It should be said the impact was purely a mental one, my motivation was sapped to an extent by some unrelated circumstances. I am however moving past those and the issues are dealt with. When I return to the Gold Coast in December I move into a new homestay set-up which should provide all my needs and let me get on with training as I want.

Importantly lessons are learnt from this. I came into things with my typical passivity, going with the flow. This works only so far and then if you’re lucky. To make my plans happen I have to be proactive, not reactive and I can’t rely on others. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not discounting the help I receive from a lot of people, but rather recognising that I can’t afford not to put in the work to make things happen. Both inside and outside training. I describe training as my job, but clearly haven’t always treated it this way. I’ve dealt with the issues now and am moving on from them. They will not be an excuse over the next training period.

Motivation did prove to be an issue in my second block of training. Partly from the external stresses and partly from fatigue. Errors were made here again. Firstly one of my best workouts in the last 4 weeks was on the last day of my easy week. I was starting to feel fresh and because I went out with others I used this to go harder than I should. Secondly I cannot race as much as I did and train as much as I did, with or without the travel. Races bring out great performances and I don’t discount the value of the data I collected or the fitness benefits. They also make it hard to keep the consistency of a heavy training load. Next year I will not be racing quite so much, I will have some big races, but not so much in between.

Recovery is my weakness. I can apparently go out and ride solo for 7 hours, but can’t spend 40 minutes stretching with the benefits of a TV or iPod to distract me? The 7 hour ride is important, but so is the stretching. Right now if I have any key concern prior to Ironman Western Australia it’s a tightness in my left ITB, glute and hamstring. Better recovery management would have helped prevent this. I should also note that I cannot afford to skip a weekly massage whilst in training, least of all when I raced at the weekend. I will be addressing these in the next month, including regular yoga classes to help that stretching.

I have learnt what cumulative fatigue is. Not that it’s necessarily new to me, but I finally start to see the effects of training blocks and poor recovery. Whilst I managed to perform my basic week structure and get racing in too week on week my capacity to train well was reducing. When I came to do one final big week prior to the taper I was spent. At that point my body couldn’t deliver the kind of performance needed to make the week worthwhile. My big week eroded down to another basic week. Let’s not be entirely negative here, I got a bit more quality out of a few sessions in exchange for the lower volume. Being that fatigued though had a negative impact on motivation as well. I need to avoid that kind of feedback into my training as it creates a poor environment for training.

There is only so much you can train alone and recently I’ve been doing too much of that. Most of the training partners I know on the Coast work as well limiting their availability to train. Fortunately I’ll have a bit more opportunity to train with one or two of them over January and I have some potential contacts for more training partners. Whilst I have no general issue with training alone, it can be a bit isolating when 90% of your time is spent that way. Also the motivational benefit within a given workout can be massive, you push each other to better results. All being well for the next few blocks of training I’ll get a bit more time with others.

Swimming is still a mystery! I’ve taken a higher volume approach to my swim training and to be fair there’s some benefit. I can swim further and for longer quite comfortably. I feel my stroke is tidier and more controlled, possibly a bit more efficient. What isn’t happening is an increase in speed. It’s almost like I just use a bit less energy to go the same as I did before. Once I’m recovered from IMWA I am tackling swimming head on. I’ve some stroke analysis booked and will hopefully come away with pointers on technique and training regime.

All this said I am fitter than I’ve ever been. Honestly. This is probably the best prepared I’ve been for any race. I feel I’m getting beyond a lot of the mental issues that have plagued and stressed my previous key races. Physically I’m in great shape too. My running feels solid, good form throughout and comfortable at around the marathon pace I want. I can go well on the bike when I’m rested so with my taper I should go into the race ready to ride. My swim may not have got faster, but that efficiency gain should benefit me and I need to use it. It’s all there to go around 9:20.

A rougher month than the first, but one that has shown me a lot of things to change and deal with. For the sake of those who read my posts in full I’ll save details of the plans for my Ironman Australia build up for another time. After Busselton I’ll have a couple of weeks of recovery before I start building up for the next race. Once I’m back though, it’s time to live up to the pro-Ironman lifestyle I aspire to.

The 2 month review will come later next week, sure that’s over 2 months, but let’s not be picky now. I’m back in Busselton tapering down for the big race and I have to say I’m really glad to be back here. I had forgotten just how beautiful the region is. As a destination race I really recommend it. As a race I really recommend it too, the community gets behind it 100% they’re already building up for it.

Before I get to the past day or two over here I have to say I had one of the worst journeys of my travels to get here. The night before I left more storms hit SE Queensland, the thunder sounded like explosions at times and went on throughout the night. I got up early, not very well rested, but hoping for a relatively straight-forward day. My taxi driver had little concept of being quiet when he picked me up, talking loudly even when I told him people were sleeping! I was already irritated and I’d barely left the house.

I got to Robina station with plenty of time for the first train, caught it without a single problem. After a slow start the driver announces that due to the storms we will be restricted to 40kph for the first half of the journey. So I spend the train journey trying not to check my watch too much because there’s not much I can do about it anyway. Then 1 station before the airport they terminate the train! Everybody off and wait a few minutes for the next one. I got to the airport 35 minutes before my flight, 5 minutes before cut off for boarding.

Turns out I’ve packed everything, but the kitchen sink as my bike bag weighs in at 33kg! So I pay up for the weight and wait whilst they phone to check if the baggage handlers will accept it (they can refuse over 32kg). Fortunately there’s no problem and I’m straight off to board the plane. Our flight is late to take off and then we have a headwind the entire journey which adds an hour to the trip! Once I’m in Perth I catch a small shuttle bus to the city busport and learn they’re as scary to ride as they are when you’re a cyclists near them. At the busport the lift and escalator is out of order so I have to lug my bag upstairs to the coach office. Fortunately I can leave it there and go an find food in the city. From then on till I arrived in Busso at 9pm it all went relatively smoothly!

My terrible journey aside I’m loving being back here. I have excellent homestay, they’ve been really good to me and the location is perfect. The weather has been good so far, though a little cold now I’ve acclimatised to the Gold Coast! The views are spectacular and the people friendly as. I built my bike up on Friday morning and popped over to the bike store that’s 3 minutes away. They discounted every single item I bought for me! Maybe everything is just priced up, but it seemed I was getting some bargains.

A moment to mention some training details I’m afraid. I decided to ride for a couple of hours and head west to the next town in Dunsborough. It was a pleasant ride, though the road is pretty busy at times. The winds weren’t too strong and though I don’t have the powermeter with me to gauge it I felt I was going well. Based on heart rate and speed a nice and easy 120bpm was comfortably getting me 35kph! It was a little bit of a confidence boost for sure. The ride today was a bit different, but I’ll come to that shortly.

I had my lunch at a local sandwich shop and whilst I waited thought I’d look at the local paper. The headlines included a ‘2 Weeks to the Ironman’ banner and some more details inside. So I went to look at that, impressed that it was already getting featured. To my surprise the photo used in the article had me in the background from last year! I decided that had to be a good omen! Another article talked about how in the first year one local entered the race and now 84 have. Later that day I’d be chatting with that local over coffee after a swim along the pier.

One of the great things about the community involvement is they love having people from all round the world visiting and encourage they get involved with the local community. It’s through this scheme I’d sorted my homestay and also had been given all the information I might need to train with the local athletes. So Friday evening was a 2km swim out into a choppy sea and back. It was hard work, a real slog and certainly nothing like my memories of last year’s swim! I’m not very experienced at sea swimming, but hopefully I’ll get some good practice the next couple of weeks. After the swim the group had coffee and I spent a lot of time chatting with Max the veteran triathlete of the area. He’s raced all 5 Ironmans there and this year is really taking it seriously.

Today I met up on a chilly (18C for those in the UK!) morning. I joined the fast group which proved to be good fun. We went out at about 32kph and we came home a lot faster. Strictly speaking I should have been doing a long steady ride, instead it was a shorter hard effort! I haven’t hammered myself that hard in a while. We rode fast to the base of the local ‘climb’ and I jumped off the front, I was reeled back in, but it was worth a shot. After the climb the pace picked up a little until the turn-around at which point people go for it. I did some far too long pulls on the front at over 40kph until I’d really got the lactic acid flowing. Ultimately I blew up about 15k from home, missed the tail of the lead group and tried to work with a smaller group to catch them, but it wasn’t happening.

My plan to ride another hour was aborted for coffee and a chat with the group. My plan to head off shortly after a coffee and get the rest of my ride in kept getting postponed. The group here is really friendly and I kept putting off leaving till I was one of the last there. I left with a local Mick and a Scotsman Alex, we popped in on Max and had a chat there and then I rode over to the place Alex was renting for more coffee and conversation. Ultimately I did ride that extra hour or so I wanted, though it’s value is questionable given it was interrupted every 15 minutes! Still I more than made up for duration with intensity and just hope I didn’t over do it. I’ll be riding with the group for the next couple of weeks, but taking things a lot easier.

I’ve wandered the town since then, on tired legs it had to be said. Had lunch and coffee and started planning my next block of training in a little notebook. I think of it in terms of how I need to put aside some issues from the past month, step up to the task at hand and start truly living the pro-athlete life. You have to live the way you want to be, not just think about it. I’m also trying the same in my taper, though what with meeting friends I’ve not seen in a year tonight I may have to excuse myself a little!

OK, 2 month review to come next time, and then hopefully some good posts about life over here in the West. Feeling pretty positive about things. My legs are sore and stiff, but I’ve got some massage lined up and have been recommended someone by the group here. I’ve been told it’s the House of Pain and very effective. Hopefully I’ll be getting a work over sometime later next week. The training I’ve done this week has been less than intended, but the last 2 days I also think there’s signs fatigue is shifting and I’m getting stronger. And finally the friendliness of the group here just encourages me more. I openly admit my race goals and hope I can live up to them.

As I don’t have the results yet, I’m not going to report much on what happened at the Noosa Tri. I’ll save that for tomorrow. I came in at about 2:15 and have no idea if that was good or bad. It was a non-wetsuit swim because the water was nearly 25, there was a strong wind on the second half of the bike and my legs felt flat for the first half of the run. The only conclusion I’ve drawn so far is I won’t worry too much about qualifying for worlds, Olympic distance isn’t my strong suit!

Ignoring the race that took me up there, I really enjoyed my trip to the Sunshine Coast. I stayed at Coolum and spent my time at the quieter northern end of the coast. It was a nice change of pace from the Gold Coast, relaxed small towns and quieter roads. In fact I enjoyed it enough that if the budget allows I think I’d like to spend a training week up there sometime next year.

I headed up on Friday having got an early morning run in and with a plan to swim at the Noosa Aquatic Centre at lunchtime to minimise travel’s disruption of training. I had a vague plan of adding a bike on to the end of the day, but that one never happened. The NAC was another typical Aussie pool facility, a nice big 50m pool, warm water and my pick of lanes. So there I a doing a set of easy 500ms when I notice this woman going past in the next lane. She’s wearing an Aussie swimsuit and written on the back is Snowsill. I can’t be too disappointed to be easily lapped by an Olympic Gold medallist. I took the opportunity to watch her technique and wonder how someone so small could move so quick through the water. As proof you can just see Snowsill coming into the wall on the left of the picture of the pool

Training done I headed into Noosa itself to register for the race. As part of the relaxed approach to races I like to get things like registration done as early as possible and out the way. Given I had to wait 15 minutes when I joined the queue before rego opened I’m glad I opted for this, it was getting pretty big. I then wandered round the expo which was mainly an opportunity to grab any freebies I could, energy bars, copies of Men’s Health with shower gel and vitamin tablets. I also got to experience some bizarre stall trying to persuade me their stone medallion would make me stronger and could also alter the form of water to make it more beneficial!

That was it for me and the race venue, so I headed out of there and over to Coolum and my motel. The worst aspect of the Noosa Tri weekend is accommodation costs in the region spiral. However if you are willing to be a 15 minute drive from Noosa itself you can still get reasonable prices. Budget being an issue I was willing to lose some sleep race day and have to drive into Noosa. As it happened the motel was pretty decent and quiet, plus being away from the crowds at races is always a good thing.

Saturday I was out the door on the bike at 5:30am with a rough plan of riding up to Noosa and going on from there. Fortunately I met a guy called Michael from Melbourne who was familiar with the region and riding at a decent pace. We rode up to Noosa and he showed me round the race course. I also learnt a lesson about focus and motivation, when I set out the door that day I have to admit I wasn’t into the ride. I had to pick up pace to stick with Michael, but once I had it was no problem. Come the race course and I gave a decent attack on the single climb of the route. I should mention that Michael was in his 60s and could still put in a good effort on the bike even if he insisted he was holding me up. He’s spending his retirement taking cycling holidays with his family all round the world, hopefully I can do the same at that age!

After the obligatory run off the bike and brekkie (I’m practising my Aussie expressions). It was back to Noosa and drop off the bike as transition opened. Free racking is quite common here so it pays to get there early and have your pick of spots. With a few 1000 bikes in total lining yourself up for easy sighting is a must! I headed back to the expo for another round of freebies, to help make up for the disappointment of the race singlet being too small again. Then all that done I went back to the pool for the last bit of training that day (free voucher for entry this time). No Olympic champions there this time, instead a large red inflatable rocket for kids to run along. Then it was back to Coolum to chill out in the coffee shops I’d been recommended.

That pretty much brings me to the race day itself which as I say, I’ll cover in detail tomorrow.

Something different to usual, no training a straight day off and a bunch of pictures to accompany it. Thursday was my full recovery day, a chance to relax and forget about training (well mostly). So I headed off up to Brisbane for the day for a little bit of shopping and to see the sights.

The great thing about a recovery day - I got to have a lie in and didn’t set the alarm for the usual 5am. What isn’t so good is you become habituated to waking at certain times anyway so I was still up pretty early! We’d had a massive storm yesterday afternoon which stopped me going out on the bike and originally I’d planed to make up for it before I went to Brisbane. It’s easy week though so that plan soon got dropped, the weather has been surprisingly cold of late (for the region) - a bit too British for my tastes. Instead a leisurely breakfast and then walk to the station.

I spent the morning shopping. I had a couple of specific items I wanted to get hold of. Firstly some trail running shoes ready for the weekend, my current pair of Salomon shoes are pretty much on death’s doorstep so a nice new pair of XT Wings was in order! They’re surprisingly hard to get hold of over here, I don’t know anywhere on the Gold Coast that stocks them. Fortunately there’s a store in Brisbane which carries them so that was my first stop.

I don’t know what it is about the store, but it seems to attract staff who like to tell you how good they are at racing. Last year I had a long discussion with a kid which mostly involved telling me how my race bike wasn’t that good, how his sponsored bikes were amazing and how good he was at racing (somehow without giving any specific results). This time another kid told me about some of the amazing races he’s done. To be honest, could be the same guy, I don’t remember him that well. Anyway the net result was a new pair of bright red shoes!

Shopping done I treated myself to a big lunch which did involve New York Baked Cheesecake. My last experience of lunch in Brisbane had not been so good, at least this meant I knew which restaurant to avoid. I tried a place called Milano’s in the middle of the main pedestrianised street in Brisbane. It’s pretty good, not that cheap, but the food and coffee was excellent. Especially that cheesecake!

Then I walked over to the South Bank to exercise off the food and do the tourist thing. Brisbane South Bank is very nicely developed with an attractive Arbour walkway stretching from its museums to the attractions of the South Bank.

I did deviate off to visit the 2XU store. Yep, a whole store just for the 2XU brand, all very boutique like and a little sterile to be honest. Still I got a new race top whilst there which will get a test run in Noosa next week.

Given it’s a few kilometres out of the city to the nearest beaches they decided to build one on the South Bank. Seems it’s pretty popular too, though really if you want the beach that much you’ve got the Gold and Sunshine Coasts on your doorstep.

Ever since London built the London Eye the whole ferris wheel thing seems to have really caught on. So here’s Brisbane’s answer to it. I didn’t go for a ride myself, instead I opted for the budget tourist attraction of a City Cat Ferry ride. $5 for as may hours of riding the ferry as you can take.

I travelled east towards the mouth of river, a 90 minute round trip roughly. There’s plenty to see, though I’m sorry to say I didn’t take photos of the nude woman on the back of an expensive boat. She didn’t seem at all embarrassed to be caught naked, in fact quite pleased. However I want this blog and my flickr stream to remain PG!

Like most city riversides there’s a lot of wealth on display and living right on the bank doesn’t come cheaply.

The CBD is modern with lots of tower blocks in metal and glass. Like most of the eastern half of Brisbane I just passed through on the boat, not stopping off. There looked to be some quite upmarket restaurants in the region though, it out of my price league now!

Once schools were finished apart from numerous children commuting home by boat you started to see groups of rowers out training on the river. A few got a little close to the ferry dock prompting some choice words from the ferry pilot.

I finished the day with a second helping of Cheesecake at a coffee shop. Have to say I was slightly disappointed with both cheesecake and coffee this time. Partly I think from a bit of an overload of sugary foods that day, my body isn’t used to that! Then it was back home on a packed commuter train with no free seats, just like the old days!

It was good to have a change and I’ve come back from it feeling refreshed and eager to get back into training again. I slept well last night, in fact I overslept my late alarm! Once I was up it was quickly out for a run to the beach in the new shoes. They’re designed for off-road and certainly felt a little stiff for the pavement, but they went well. Can’t wait to give them a proper trial in the trails around Nerang tomorrow, should be great.

There’s something about easy weeks where my mind seems to relax and rather than having loads of time to get on with everything I drift along. No pressure to train hard equates to just no pressure at all. So much as I thought I know, I’ll post a months review exactly 1 month into my trip here it gets slightly delayed.

But here it is.

So far so good… The positives massively outweight any negatives I might have. During my big week with the additional stress of fitting in long hours of training and just keeping going I’ll admit there were times I missed my home environment. Without the added stress all of that just goes. When it comes down to it I’d much rather the stresses of endurance training than office life anyday too!

Whilst it’s more than a month since I left work and became an athlete, it’s only since I’ve been in Australia that I’ve fully been ‘living the dream’. As a lifestyle I love it, my time is my own to manage (note to self - need to get better at this), I spend many hours outdoors and I get to eat loads! Sure I also spend a lot of my time worn out, suffering on the bike as mates put in attacks or staring at a black line on the bottom of a pool.

Day to day life is pretty easy, partly because of the excellent homestay I have here. When I’m not training there’s the usual things that need to be done, but a lot of concerns like food shopping are taken care of! I help where I can, but when others go off to fulltime jobs and I have many hours of the day free you can’t help but feel a little guilty!

My life really does come down to just swimming, biking and running. I don’t see this becoming boring anytime soon. In part this is what the recovery weeks are for, it’s not just my body that needs to recover, but the mind too. Stepping away from obsessive tracking for a week and indulging a little allows me to reset ready for the next big block of training. Once I’m in that block life is a little monastic, leaving the house to train otherwise simply eating or resting. I love being in that highly focussed state, working towards my goals. I love logging the workouts and tracking results and slowly seeing (and feeling) the effects of training. Probably the greatest return from this lifestyle is the sense of achievement when hard training translates to greater fitness.

It’s not all isolation and vows of silence though. I was fortunate enough to meet some great guys on my last trip out here and to have a fast track to training groups. I love training with others, especially if they’re a little bit stronger than me. It pushes me along and keeps me honest. When you ride with somebody else you don’t want to be holding them back so I’ve been dragged up the side of mountains when my legs didn’t really want to go. Then again I also enjoy the lulls that occur where you chat whether it’s just more training talk or something else. Riding 500km a week solo gets boring at times whatever the scenery.

Of course one of the reasons I chose Australia was the scenery, you have the beaches and the bush. All of this with a nice sunny climate so I could leave all those UK layers at home. Whilst last week presented a few more grey skies than I like to see largely it hasn’t disappointed. Things are still warming up too, summer is only just arriving. I am considered a bit of a freak by my family for my love of hot weather; I can’t wait for the temperature to reach the 30s!

If I’m going to mention negatives here than it has to be the glass on the roads. It’s a bit of a Gold Coast thing, but it’s everywhere here and sooner or later you’ll puncture. On a personal level the affinity mosquitos have for my blood and my reaction to their bites is a pain too. And there’s the Magpies, how could I forget them, I’ve even had the pleasure of an attack as I walked back from the coffee shop. I guess I should be pleased that so far I’ve not encountered anything venomous or that can eat me.

Whilst I’m a big fan of all things Australian one conclusion I have reached is it doesn’t necessarily have to be in Oz. In terms of my training the most important aspect of this trip is removing myslef from the distractions of my old environment. More than anything else this has facilitated the changes necessary to train to the best I can. I’m not wasting time on TV anymore and the internet is still time consuming, but nowhere near as much. I sleep longer hours getting to bed early and up with the sun. It’s hard to make these changes if you stay in the same environment as before, moving away makes them seem trivial in comparisson. I’ll be back in Europe next year and I hope that good training habits will stick and some long training camps abroad will keep things going.

To save you all from too much rambling I’ll draw things to a close. It’s going well, training and life in general. I’m loving every minute of it and feel very fortunate to be in a position to do this, especially as you watch the news of recession and economic crisis. I don’t think about it too much, but right now it’s hard to imagine returning to an office job sometime in the future. Discussing it over massage yesterday I know realistically I can’t reach the level of a top pro, I’ll never make money from just being a triathlete. It’ll be interesting to see how close I can get to the pros when I live and train like them though. I’m not going to regret taking the chance on finding that one out.

P.S. New race shoes!

It’s not all clear skies and sunshine, in the mornings it’s been chilly enough I’ve used arm warmers and my gillet. This is of course at about 5:30 in the morning when a long ride typically starts. By about 7 things have warmed up enough you can strip down to shorts and a jersey and it’s all good. I’m planning a few runs in the peak of the heat to find out just what it feels like. Next week’s Gold Coast half promises to be warm.

I got to drive round the course earlier this week it’s flat and very exposed. It could be like the Worlds all over again, the winds will be the big factor on the bike. Then it’s a matter of how I cope with that heat. I’m looking forward to it now though, can’t wait to give it a go. After a ’summer’ of damp, cold races I’m in need of some warmth. The racing front is looking all set for the year now and I’ve a few ideas for next year, there’s plenty to choose from.

On the training side a couple more decent rides and a couple more training partners met. I’m pretty much set for someone to ride with and somewhere to go for the next 2 days. Tomorrow is a long, hilly loop to the south of the GC with a couple of guys. I’ve been saving my legs for this as based on the past week they like to ride the hills hard, there won’t be much cruising going on. Monday I plan to head west and climb Springbrook which I haven’t done since last year. Hopefully no incidents involving Magpies this time.

Some open water swimming should be on the cards too next week, back at the shark free lake. Not sure on the water temperature, but I know whilst described as cold it’s warmer than back home. Today’s my day off from swimming, I’ve done 19.5km in the pool so far this week with 1 more session planned to get me on target. My training plan is slowly coming together, I’ll basically have 6 sessions in each sport giving me one day off from each. Easy weeks and tapers will see me reduce the number and length of sessions plus they’ll be rest days.

As I’m covering all 3 sports I guess I should mention running. Whilst running is where I started it gets treated like the ugly cousin to the rest of my training when it comes to writing about it. A lot of run training is quite dull, once you’re established somewhere you tend to get stuck into routines and routes. Hopefully things will get a bit more interesting in a few weeks as Pete, my masseur and a training partner, has offered to take me trail running. I’ll be needing some decent off-road shoes, those Salomon Wings look pretty good too. It’ll be nice to break up the run training with some variety like this.

So things are pretty much settled. I think next time I post I’ll have my basic week in place and will try to come up with some fancy way to get it on the site. I’ve stocked up on nutrition and supplements, stopped in at the local tri shop and got some good training lined up. I’ve also just added to the Australian experience with the first quarter of an AFL final on TV. Off for that hot run now, though there’s a cool breeze too. I’ll follow the outskirts of Bond Uni lake and think about the Bull Sharks that inhabit it.

Something like 5 days here now, to be honest I’m losing track of the time a little. Days blend into one pretty quickly, though sometimes they’re a bit cloudy or there’s a storm to break up the monotony of the relentless sunny weather. I guess maybe it could get boring otherwise, maybe…

I got myself into training pretty quickly. I don’t suffer from jet lag a bonus of years as an insomniac student getting by on 4 or 5 hours sleep a night. A run to the beach to start Sunday morning off and remind myself of why I was here. Then real training started Monday, and so far I’m sticking to around 4 hours or a little over a day. In between that training I’m slowly organising my life here.

It’s been great to get some cycling done in warm weather, being able to get out on the road at 6am in just shorts and a jersey is so nice. By the time you finish it’s starting to really warm up and you get to enjoy the sun for the last hour of the ride. I haven’t been too adventurous in my routes yet, having essentially ridden up and down the front both times. Still it’s only the first few days and I did go out on a nice hilly ride with a couple of mates before heading off down the front. Looks like I have some training partners lined up shortly and based on that first ride they should push me pretty hard too. The course was lumpy and we weren’t holding back for the two loops we did. Almost a relief to ride the front on my own afterwards! That said when the winds pick up here it can make it pretty tough going.

I’ve thrown myself into the 20-25k a week swimming program, it’s not so hard here. I’ve a 50m pool only about 20 minutes walk from where I’m living. Compare that with a 1 hour drive back home. It’s an 8 lane open air pool so importantly you can even out the tan lines whilst you’re training. It’s fine if you go in the day, you’ll more than likely get one of those lanes to yourself, go when squad training is on and it’s a bit like back home though. A bunch of us stuck in just 2 lanes with 3 women having decided the lane I was in was ideal for incredibly slow breaststroke. One of them couldn’t actually make the full 50m in one go and would hang on the lane line for a while each length. I am having to get used to not being the fastest in the pool in public swimming. I have been wearing the drag shorts to slow me down a little, but even without them there are some decent swimmers here. Right now I’m focussing on getting used to some weeks of higher volume swimming before doing specific sessions.

As a training environment it’s living up to expectations aside from the perfect climate, that I might have mentioned, I have very few distractions. I’m not watching much TV, I’m barely on the internet and I’m in bed by around 10 most evenings. It’s an exciting life! The reward is you get up before 6 and feel rested and ready to train. Little faffing, straight out the door to get the first session in before breakfast. Weather aside I could have achieved this all at home I’m sure, it’s just much easier here.

Outside of training? Well there’s not much to tell really. I’ve sorted out the bits and pieces I need day to day and got my bearings on the area. I’ve stocked up on all the drugs supplements I need. An old lady offered me drugs, if she’d had them on her, OK admittedly it was just a supplement I was buying which she had a bottle she didn’t want. It just sounded better to imply that elderly Australians were drug dealers, pensions aren’t what they were after all. I also highly recommend the Ironman movie, nothing to do with the triathlon, but the one based on the Marvel comics. I can’t say I’m a particular Ironman fan, though there were probably some n the comics I gave away, but the film was great.

As part of my new improved time management I need to get to the pool to get a 3k minimum set done before lunch. I’ll try and get a decent photo showing off how nice it is here for next time.

Well that’s it, goodbye to the UK and off to Australia. I’m all packed into 2 bags, somehow everything I need for the next 10 months fits. My bike bag can take 2 pairs of wheels along with the bike frame and a few other bits and pieces. Weighed them and neither bag is too heavy, on the other hand I definitely am! For once I don’t think I’ve forgotten anything and I’m ready with some time to spare. If I’ve missed anything when I get there, well I’ll have to buy it.

I arrive on Saturday and I’m counting Sunday as day 1 of the new training regime. Back down to race weight, better diet, plenty of training and new levels of fitness. No more comments about looking like a ghost in race photos too I hope! That’s it for now a mercifully short post after the last couple of days. Next time I’ll be on the other side of the world.