Triple Tri Training - Week 2 - 22/09 - 28/09

Monday
AM - 10k run around Mt Ainslie in Canberra. This is one of my favourite places to run and it was a gorgeous warm morning.
I flew home to Sydney after work, the flight was delayed and I was sooo tired and grumpy. I must have been frowning and sighing rather prominently because the man sitting next to me on the plane actually asked me if I was okay.

Tuesday
Unscheduled rest day. I was planning to get up and ride but it was raining when the alarm went off at 5.00. I went back to sleep until 7, which felt good. I slept for 10 hours so I must have been buggered. I was also planning to run at lunch but I was busy at work and decided I probably needed a rest day anyway.

Wednesday
AM - Swim squad 3.8k. I felt good but I don’t seem to be getting to be getting any faster yet.
PM - 14k run with Tom. This was an amazing run for me. It started out really bad - Tom wanted to go quick and it felt too hard for me. We had run all the way around the Bay and were steadily getting faster and then Tom said we had to keep it up until we got to the netball courts. I protested but he said it was a good challenge. And suddenly I felt great. For the next 1km I ran so well and it felt so easy. I was imagining that I was running a marathon at my perfect marathon pace and each step was strong and controlled. It was a feeling I have never had before running - like riding with a big tail wind. To top it off I beat Tom on our 'race home' for the first time. I was on such a high after. :)

Thursday
AM - 45k Ride at SOP with group 4. I am still feeling heavy and slow on the bike.
PM - Lunchtime swim at C&P. 2.6km continuous in 51.39. Slow slow slow and it is so boring swimming 52 laps without stopping. I am so not looking forward to 2.8 next week.

Friday
AM - Swim squad, 3.7k. I was slow - I couldn't make 1.40 for 100 fast at the end of the set, even trying really hard. I guess 3 days in the pool in a row didn't work well but I was pleased to fit in 3 decent swims.

On Saturday we drove down to Fitzroy Falls for the Fitzroy Falls Firetrail Marathon 10k. I had kinda wanted to do the marathon but with a slightly niggly knee and other fish to fry I decided not to. I figured that I would get more benefit out of a week of good training either side than I would out of 1 42k long run. The 10k was good fun. I went out too hard and struggled a bit on the hills coming back. My time was 46.14 which is a bit slower than I hoped, but I scored a bottle of wine for 2nd place. It was kind of embarrassing because I was 10 mins (10 mins!) behind the winner. But it was still nice.

On Saturday night we camped at Wingello with some friends and had a really good night in the pub and toasting marshmallows on the fire. Then on Sunday we did a great ride on the 25k Red Loop at Wingello. I really enjoyed this trail - very smooth single track, nice native bush, fast and fun firetrails. I will be back to ride it again for sure.

Weekly totals

Swim: 10.1km - good.

Bike: 45k road, 45k commute, 25k mtb - not great but could be worse.

Run: 34k - low ks and no long run.

All up I was happy but objectively it was a pretty light week, especially the weekend. I really need to get in some longer mtbs. Mt knee felt fine running but I am not sure how it'll go with longer stuff.

Triple Tri Training Week 1 - 15/09 - 21/09

Monday

AM: LPAC Swim squad 3.7k. I am loving swimming in the morning. It makes for a lot of 5AM starts but it is so nice to be done with a long session by 7 in the morning.

Tuesday

AM: 45k ride at Homebush, group 4/5. I felt a little tired on the way there and consoled myself with the thought that my focus at the moment is on consistency. Just getting out on the bike consistently is going to make a difference, eventually. It was very windy and I hung on with some difficulty until the group exploded at the end.

PM: Pain in the Domain. I went with group 5 as its been awhile since I did anything fast. I felt pretty good except for on the long interval when I was slack. Finished in in 30.05 which is not bad.

Wednesday

AM: LPAC Swim squad 3.9k - a good solid swim.

PM: Lunchtime run from work around Centennial Park, 9k approx. I didn't have my Garmin on but I felt good and strong.

Thursday

AM: 45k ride at Homebush, Group 4. It was a better group than Tuesday. Got home and then ran to work, 7k.

PM: Ran home from work 7k. I was pretty tired and kept thinking how "hilly" the run is - but its not really :).

Friday

AM: 2.4k continuous swim in 48.14. I was going to go to squad but I could not face a 5th straight day of 5AM alarm so I went to C&P before work instead. I was a bit disappointed with the time as I did not feel like I was going that slow. I am planning to build my continuous swim by 200m each week up to 3.5k, hopefully it'll get faster along the way.

Saturday

AM: 9k run, 2 laps of the Pinnacle. This is a lovely off-road loop with a big mother hill. It was a beautiful Canberra morning and I felt good but a bit tired towards the end after the 2nd trip up HB hill.

PM: CORC 3 Hour mtb race at Sparrow Hill. I have not ridden at Sparrow for ages and was really looking forward to it. But I didn't enjoy the first few laps much. I spilled some blood on the first lap and that put me off a bit. It seemed like there were more aggro riders wanting to pass in an unfriendly way than usual, but maybe I was just being sensitive. After about 90 mins it got dark and I started enjoying myself a lot more. I had my new Ay-up lights, which were fantastic. I wasn't able to push hard, it was partly physical and partly not feeling super confident on the trails. Which was weird because it was not technical at all. I guess some days you have "it" and some days you don't. But overall I enjoyed it and it was a "good training" - my mantra at the moment. I think I was 10th out of about 20 solo females. This is from the CORC website: The 296 male and 41 female riders clocked up 1829 laps or just over 13,000km of Sparrow Hill trails.

Sunday

AM: 22k-ish long run with Tom. We did an adventurous route from Hawker, past Mt Painter, down towards Lake BG, past the Cork Plantation, over Dairy Farmers Hill and then off road back towards Hawker via many hills, dales, paddocks and fences. It was a lovely route but my running wasn't. I was okay on the flat but there was not much of that and I had nothing on the hills. The dominant theme for me was seeing Tom disappearing into the distance up another big hill, like some sort of energised mountain goat. I was a bit bummed not to run better, but it has been a big week.

PM: I was staying in Canberra for the night so I went to the AIS for a lovely lovely recovery swim, spa, sauna and plunge pool. It was faaantastic.

Weekly totals

Swim: 11.k

Bike: 90k road, 30k commute, 50k mtb.

Run: 63k

All up it was a good week. If I can put together a few of these I will be on my way.

Two centuries in ten days

Time flies, ha ha. The week after Trailwalker I felt great. I did nothing Sat and Sun, swam Monday, did nothing Tuesday, swam Wed and rode on Thursday. I was feeling so good that when I got an email from the organisers of the Angry Doctor 100k mtb saying there was an entry available (it sold out months ago) I was seriously tempted. It involved a slightly crazy plan of running the Striders 10k at North Head on Saturday morning, then driving 5 hours to Tuross in the afternoon, racing on Sunday, then driving 5 hours back to Sydney on Monday. But I had so much fun last year that I could not resist. And I didn't regret it for a minute. I had a great run in miserable conditions at North Head (just under 43 minutes) and then left the foul weather in Sydney behind and drove to the lovely South Coast.

I started near the back and tried to take it easy. I had a few moments early on of thinking it was going to be too hard to finish, especially after 10k and 20k, when I felt sore and tired and there was still such a long way to go. But I eventually found my groove and started really enjoying myself. I chatted to people whenever I could and enjoyed being in the bush, riding, eating, riding on and on and on.
At 30k there was a tricky narrow bridge which I rode (yay) and then a feed station where I stopped, stuffed my face with fruit bun and sports drink and then stuffed around for ages going to the toilet, due to poor planning and lost my glasses, bugger.

At 50k the course passes back through the start and there was a great atmosphere there, I dumped my extra clothes and food back in the car and got on my way again pretty quickly.

From 60-75k I was feeling pretty ordinary, moving slowly and had to walk a couple of the bigger hills. Then a friend Steve caught up to me and that woke me up. I rode behind him and another guy for a while and remembered that riding fast is MUCH more fun than riding slow and discovered that I had more energy than I thought I did. I stopped at the 80k feed station for just long enough to drink a Red Bull and left Steve behind.

From then on I could smell the finish and worked hard to keep up a decent pace. By this stage I was passing lots of guys that were obviously cramping - able to ride the downhills okay but nothing else. That was where I was last year and it was really nice not to be cramping, I think I managed my hydration better and it was cooler than last year too.
I got to this finish in 7.10 which is undeniably slow. But it was 10 mins faster than last year and considering I have done little riding this year and even less mtb, I was pretty pleased. There were not many women so I also got 2nd place in my age group (embarrassingly 30 mins behind the winner of the category and 90 mins behind the female winner, but hey) so I scored some very nice prizes from Netti too - a waterproof jacket and a new helmet, woo hoo.

I had sore and very tight shoulders for a few days but my legs were okay and I got back on the road bike out at Homebush on Tuesday with no problems. It was a great kick start and confidence booster for my mtb training for the Scott 24hr and the Triple Tri.

Sydney Trailwalker 2008

7am Friday at Brooklyn

1am Saturday at Mosman
Mission accomplished! :)