Weekend snapshot

After a tough week of assessments, the weekend was a welcome one, sans study! With the forecast heading up into the high 30Cs we made the call to head down to the beach. I got back on the bike (albeit briefly given I was on the Man's bike and he has deceptively short legs), had a chance to do some meal planning and watched a friend box her way to victory. Two years of losing weight, training hard, becoming a PT, with determination by the bucket load she is a true inspiration. I was so proud!

Run: 43:34 | 7.1km | 6:08/km. Mentally I was so ready for this run. The humidity had disappeared and I just felt ready to get out there. I was thinking along the lines of 12km. But ugh it was a struggle to get to 4km. After 5km I walked and then as it started to rain I ran back. I was well under-fueled.

Sun; ride: 29m | 11km | 22.7km/hr. Not an amazing effort, I put it down to the two hill repeats I finished off with, as well as the fact that the Man's bike is not quite set up to my liking - quad overload. But boy I bet I could make it go with the seat post a little higher. Maybe next time I'll crack the Allen key out.

Getting high

I can't believe I left it so long, but it'd been a year or so since I'd been rock climbing. The Man goes fortnightly or so. I've been meaning to join him, really I have, but you know life...and stuff. I finally made it last night. Gah! I forgot how high you go. I was sweating bullets partially because it's so freakin' hard, partially because of the fear. But after a few climbs the momentary paralysis ceased. That's a good feeling. I hope to scamper up a wall sooner rather than later.

Swim: 33m | 1500m | 2:12/100m. Eh, my swimming mojo is at the bottom of the pool. Arms quite fatigued from last night.

Tues; bike trainer: 40m. Gradually increased my heart rate for 20 mins then did 5x 45s effort, 15s rest and 5x 30s effort, 30s rest. 10 min cool down.

Tues; run: 11:03 | 2km | 5:34/km. Run off the bike (trainer) on the track.

Tues; indoor rock climb: 1hr. My forearms were fatigued within the first five minutes! I did try and use my legs rather than arm strength to pull myself up.

Rambling

I am all for goals. With my new vocational training I am constantly filled with self doubt and continually achieving things I didn't think possible. I seriously doubted my ability to study effectively for exams, on Monday I'll sit my 5th, with an average of about 90% so far. Just quietly the average may well be lower come Monday afternoon...

Anyway I'm seriously questioning my goal of running a 2 hour half marathon. I kind of just picked the time because it's nice and round. I'd never really sat down and thought about the actual minutes per kilometre. I consider myself relatively new to the 5:xx/km bracket, I'm not sure I can sustain it for 21.1kms! Ahh doubt, I've seen plenty of you this year and it's only February.

I like the idea of actually solidifying the goal; this pace is what I'm aiming for. I guess I shouldn't be afraid of the failure. I have no about that that if I actually run a solid half marathon I'll probably run a PB. Perhaps I should focus on a sub 2:11:02 half marathon and go from there before focusing on the 2 hour 21.1km...

I don't want to go easy on myself and give myself too much leeway, but additional pressure is not what I need either. It's about finding a balance.

Run: 48:33 | 8.64km | 5:37/km. River run in the city. I forgot how unrelaxing it is running while there's rowing coaching going on. It can also be dicey with their bike handling skills. <- Grumpy much? In essence I found maintaining this pace pretty tough.

Fri; swim: 18:22 | 900m | 2:02/100m. Short and fast session. All I had time for between classes.

Thurs; boxing: 30m. Technique. This was all sorts of useful and somewhat cleansing to punch stuff.

Wed; swim: 22:12 | 1km | 2:13/100m. I was not feeling it in the pool today at all.

Tues; stretching: 45m. Oh yes.

Note to self

Photo credit

Always run with phone! Phone = camera. I opted for a beach run on Friday night after work. It wasn't raining, I was good to go. As I ran past the St Kilda sea baths a giant set of headphones, blasting music, made from Big M cartons greeted me. Awesome! Thankfully a quick search of Flickr did the job.

Fri; PE session: 30m. Strength/boxing. Reminded me of kickboxing classes. Felt good to finally go hard.

Fri; run: 42:09 | 7.44km | 5:40/km. Ran into a pretty strong headwind. So much so that running back felt like I was cheating.

Sat; strength: 20m. Focus on abs and lower body - glutes, hammies, hip.

Run: 48:22 | 8.11km | 5:58/km. Vibram run. Eh, did not take my running mojo down to the foreshore. Tired and dehydrated this morning.

Active Feet Fun Tri: Race 4 Sandringham

Race time: 44:28 | 250m/8km/2.5km

Swim: 10:40 | 250m | 4:16/100m
Comments:
Lets just say I exited the water at about 5:15 (a little slow), but there is a mother of a hill from the beach up to transition. I ran it all, but pretty slowly. The 800m run is included in the swim time.

The swim was fine, albeit congested, particularly around the buoys. 250m hardly sorts the swimmers from the non swimmers. I opted for no wetsuit given the warmth of the bay - totally the right option!

What would you do differently?

Back myself and swim harder/faster to get out of the pack.

T1: 1:40
Comments:
I'm pretty happy with this, found my bike fine, ran with it fine, but did get a little blocked prior to mounting.

What would you do differently?
My mounting was slow and awkward. This needs work. Just got to throw myself on.

Bike: 16:36 | 8km | 28.92km/hr
Comments:
We had a tailwind heading out, I looked down and saw 42km/hr. You can imagine what coming back was like. I pushed, but within reason. I so wanted to average 30km/hr, but the headwind was just a little too strong for me.

What would you do differently?
The lack of bike training was pretty much the reason I didn't step up to the Sprint distance. I'm hoping to spend more time on the bike so I can race sprint distance before the season ends.

T2: 0:55

Comments:

I took my feet out of my shoes with plenty of time but my dismount needs work and this would have been a touch faster had I not been slowed by those not running in the narrow chute to transition.

Run: 14:35 | 2.5km | 5:50/km
Comments:
Reasonably happy with this pace. I was thinking it was going to be much slower the heat was starting to kick in at this stage. I was distracted by a errant shoe lace, it wasn't quite undone, but it was flapping about, so I did stop and tuck it in which worked only temporarily. While my HR was high I think there was more in the tank to push a little more.

What would you do differently?
Go harder. In the end my swim and bike times were competitive. I was pretty stoked to have come 4th in my age group (best result ever!) but my run is a seriously limiting factor.

Awesome things:
The guys & gals answering questions in transition and handing out drinks on the run course.
Friends & family who came down to cheer. My Mum hung out at transition (she was going to go for a ride but opted to stay) while friends cheered me on the bike & run course. I had friends race after me so we hung out and yelled some more.

Pure joy

Is it sad that I get more excited about buying new runners than any other shoes these days? After clocking up over 1000km in my Asics GT2150s it was time for a new pair, they were well worn. I want to run in my vibrams more, but I needed an intermediary, something with less cushioning and support, something closer to minimal. This is where the Brooks pureflow fit in. I got a girlfriend to bring me a pair back from the States (bless her). They are light, really light and I love the fact that there's considerably less heel support. First run in them today!

Run: 40:02 | 6.74km | 5:56km/hr. Ran along the Willy foreshore after work. Got changed before leaving work - this made all the difference. I'm really enjoying the running at the moment, probably because it's so damn hard to schedule it in!

Looking forward to this weekend

With no exams scheduled for next week, this weekend is shaping up to be a big, rather than one full of study. There's celebrating of 1st and 61st birthdays to be done. And I decided to add a triathlon into the mix. Only a mini one 250m/8km/2.5 so I can cheer on friends (brothers, no less) competing for glory in the bigger event. Very much looking forward to it.

Bike trainer: 30m.
Run: 14:24 | 2.4km | 6:00/km. Run off the bike. I'm hoping to run a touch faster than this on Sunday.

Monthly totals: January 2012

I swear I just did December's monthly totals. Where did January go??
I can tell you it wasn't exactly spent getting active, it really was a lacklustre affair. On a positive note my academic average isn't suffering, just my stress levels.

Run: 2:57:57 | 29.7km
Swim: 2:01:27 | 5500m
Bike Trainer: 1:55
Boxing: 25m
Strength: 1:10
Stretching: 20m
Race Volunteering: 5:30

Weight: Hovering around the 61.5kg mark and exceptionally bloated - which is a good indication that I'm eating too much. Not only does Feb see me tackle a month of discarding/donating one item per day (one of my goals for 2012), but I see a February full of Fitday ahead.