Glorious from all angles

After coming home to hail on my doorstep after Friday night's swim I didn't have high hopes for the weather over the weekend.  How pleasantly surprised I was.

Sat; run: 3:26:03 | 31.8 km | 6:28m/km
I pretty much hung out in bed for most of the morning waiting for the rain to clear. I ran beach side into the city, out along the Yarra to Richmond and back into the city to Flinders Street and caught the train home. At 25km I was hurting. At 27km more so. You get the drift. I did this without music, tried to stay strong mentally while physically felt as though I was crumbling. The walk home from the station was painful to say the least.

Sun; ride: 2:16:24 | 52.2km | 23km/hr
Essentially a recovery ride with a lot of stop starting in and through the city to Kew Boulevard. Nothing like setting course PBs when your legs are shot from the day before.

In other news...

I don't think I mentioned I signed up for Ironman Melbourne 2015! How has it taken me this long??

I couldn't help myself, the timing seemed as good as any... ie the niggling desire to do another one before 40, single and time on my hands to be used productively. Training for Ironman can be hella selfish.

I am so excited that I be doing it in my home town. I'm going for a home crowd advantage!

Of course there's a couple of hurdles. Hello! Night shift and rostering. I've stretched my training plan out to accommodate the fact that I'll probably be doing minimum turnaround night shifts from September. So effectively every third week is an active rest/rest week.   

There's also the Berlin Marathon to consider, oh and Oktoberfest after that and two additional weeks of travel after that. So yeah, a few things to take on board, the aim is to get to the start line in one piece, enjoy the journey and enjoy the day.

Mon; swim: 45m | 2km | 2:15m/100m. I felt like a brick. I also experimented with breathing every 5. Tough!

Tues; rest. Bleh, I had the day of work, such was my sickness.

Run Melbourne

The short 21.1km | 2:04:34 | 5:54m/km

The long
I'd picked up my race packet on the Friday. I quite liked the addition of the race day checklist. I totally forgot to pick up safety pins and dug out a race belt last minute. Also I would have totally forgot to attach my timing chip because it was in a different envelope. Have I ever raced before??

Given my running over the last month I was quietly hopeful that I'd run a PB. But I had to keep a lid on it. I'm not one of those people who gets white line fever on race day. I assess how I'm feeling on the day and go from there.

I parked trusty scoot and made it to the start line with 8 minutes to official start time. It was dark and St Kilda Road looked a treat with all the fairy lights in the trees. Seeded myself with the 1:55+ group, I saw the 2 hour pacer, but when our wave was good to go, I couldn't get near them. Given the sheer number of people this run is always congested. Three kms flew by just trying to work out what pace I should be doing. I didn't really have a race plan...

As usual my Garmin was out a little. According to the Garmin I was running 5:30/km, but according to the markers, my pace was closer to the 6:00m/km mark. False hope was not something I needed, but I knew if I could keep it under 6:00m/km I'd get a PB. This is a really good reminder for Berlin and training that I'm not running as fast as I think I'm running! Or that I need to stop weaving.

The entertainment on course was fun, the African drummers, bands and DJs added plenty of atmosphere.
There was plenty of water and electrolyte available, though as expected the stations were crowded. Next time I race I'll have something more substantial than a bowl of rice bubbles. Not ideal race food, I was hungry at about the 7-8km mark and relished my gel at 10km. As soon as I felt tired or sluggish I'd remind myself to "zip up my core" - one from my yoga instructor and run tall. It makes a difference.

I was pretty stoked to see 5km in just under 30 mins, 10km in under an hour and 20km in under two hours! I knew that barring some sort of disaster I would get a PB and edge closer to the elusive (for me) sub 2hr half. I crossed the line and almost burst into tears, the relief, after so many attempts of improving my half marathon time by almost 5 minutes!

The swag at the end was water, an apple and the medal, however there was more on offer as you walked past the tents lining the river up to St Kilda Rd. Coconut water and a muesli bar? Yes please. Everyone likes free stuff!

Crane compression review

My friend has a saying "I'm going to make every dollar my prisoner" when he's on a saving spree.
I feel a bit like that at the moment too, trying to get on top of registration for a car and scooter, insurance, bills, and the flights to Berlin that are yet to be booked. You know, the usual.

My ears certainly pricked up when last Friday a woman in our way-too-open-plan office mentioned that Aldi was going to have a sale on compression tights and tops over the weekend.

Do I need new pair of tights or do I. My 2XU compression tights are loose to the point of chafing me on my long runs now. I love me some 2XU, all my items have lasted for years, are comfy and flattering. But I just don't have that kind of coinage at the moment. And there's been nothing but large sizes on the 2XU outlet site.

And so, to Aldi I made it for Crane brand compression. There was one long pair of women's tights left, in size large. Sigh. But many pairs of long men's tights in small. I figured it was worth the less than $17 gamble.

And it was.

Pros
No branding
Minimal coloured stitching
Small reflective panel
Not see through
Tight/compression effect
Comfotable to run in
No swishing sound when walking or running

Cons
Slightly dinky rear pocket. Adequate to hold small set of keys, but I wouldn't trust my cash in there.
Because they are the mens version, the front pouch is kinda unsightly on a woman - lucky all my tees are long
The sizing/material details printed on the inside of the pants can be seen when the tights are on. Again the long tee negates this.

But really, you don't care about all that, you're just impressed that my socks match my top.

Run: 17:36 | 3.2km | 5:27m/km
A quick run to shake out the cobwebs before Run Melbourne on Sunday. I gots me some cups on Strava. That's always a good feeling.

Swim: 43:13 | 2km | 2:09m/100m.
2x 500m, 1x 1000m. My left shoulder felt a little niggly. Also I need to swim more. I noted the opening times for the week this visit. That's a first. Usually I rock up and hope it's open. I've not wasted my time yet.

Rapha #womans100

Recently, cracking the ton on the bike has proven to be a massive mental hurdle for me. But then so has been using hashtags, that's a different story.

Signing up for the Rapha Women's 100 proved to be just the antidote. In all honesty I hoped to see large groups of women on the road. But it wasn't to be. I hope they were all over in Collingwood joining the quasi-official ride.

I, on the other had get out earlier than I ever would so I could make it to work on time. I've been avoiding Beach Rd recently, just to mix things up, for the Women's 100 I got back on it.

Halfway was Mornington and a banana with a bay view. Conditions could not have been more perfect for this time of year. No wind!

10kms to go I was done, recovered with scrambled eggs, cottage cheese and hot sauce with a side serving of natural peanut butter and rice cakes. Then I got to go to work and whinge to my offsider about how hungry I was. I'm always hungry. Nothing new, not like that hashtag!

I got to order the commemorative roundel today, that was a definite highlight. That and I'm heading into a three day weekend...

Sun; ride: 102km | 3:51:18 |  26.5km/hr.

In readiness...

Tomorrow my first sprint tri in quite some years. The goal is to finish. It will be interesting to see where I'm at and set more goals from there. I feel underdone on the running aspect, in that I'm not running the times I was hoping to at this stage. It's a little daunting, but all I have to do is keep moving forward, that's all I ask of myself.

Mon; run: 50:44 |  8km | 6.19m/km
Testing the distance. It feels like it's been a while since I've run this far.

Tues; yoga: Simply flow | 1hr
While I want to move up to power flow, all the simply flow classes I've done of late have certainly been challenging enough!

Wed; ride/run: 1:10:58 | 26.8km | 22.6 km/hr hilly ride followed by 12:58 | 2km | 6.28m/km run. It wasn't overly warm and my feet were numb making for some awkward running. Good practice for Sunday, the forecast is not warm.

Thurs; ride: 1:33:08 | 39.5km | 25.45km/hr. Beach rd ride.

Bass Coast Cycle Challenge 85km recap

The short: 4:01:58  |  91km (the ride itself is 85km, but we rode to the start from our weekend base)

The long: I tagged along with my Mum and a few of her riding buddies for the Bass Coast Challenge, riding to raise awareness about road safety - something that has been close to my heart throughout my career. With recent rostering it felt rather indulgent to have a reasonably weathered Saturday to just ride.

We started out of Inverloch and it wasn't too long before the group split. I was out on my own. After a nice 20km warm up I was climbing "Mt Misery" a 3km climb. 500m to the top we were cheered on by a devil and her cross-dressed Heidi.

I found the second climb of the day to be a touch more brutal, but it was rewarded with gorgeous views of green rolling hill tops and some long descents.

From Wonthaggi back to Inverloch I tacked onto the back of a group. I'm not usually one to do this when riding, given I don't know the quality of rider I'm tacking onto and vice versa but the headwind was brutal and I was feeling less than fresh.


The ride was incredibly well run, plenty of aid stations, stocked well with food (ANZAC biscuits, fruit cake, bananas and oranges) and water (or sports drink) and masses of friendly and supportive volunteers. I'd come back and do this ride in a heartbeat, it's always nice to mix up the scenery and take on a slightly different challenge. It was kind of nice to ride with Mum for a bit, at my own pace for a bit and then regroup. Certainly my longest ride in quite some time and a very satisfying one at that.

Needless to say I slept well that night.