I am on the telly!

http://www.triathlon.org/news/article/2800_age_groupers_compete_in_world_champs/

Thanks to my mate Ro  I found the link to the AG triathlon highlights in Budapest, featuring many good athletes of all shapes and sizes, and me suffering on the bike.

Thanks Ro!


The rest of the week has been too busy trying to understand the mechanics of academic writing, I will be back shortly.

random

Since we came back from Europe we're all over the place with routines. As I said before, there's pressure with the last weeks of uni, and there's not a programme to be followed, so it is all in random mode.
I was feeling like a swim, but never managed to get the timing right, and with spring in the air I jumped on my old faithful Avanti for an easy ride.
I got back at home at half five, and the sun was shinning nicer that any other day on the last 4 months. I just loved it, got myself a coffee and toasts and sat in the sofa reading until I fell asleep.

For the next weeks I am on my own programme, as we still have to catch up with coach and discuss my new plan. I don't change the routines a lot, but I can afford to switch things around and avoid any rain or cold. I've had enough of both. The ride was good enough and I could feel how loose my whole body is compared to a month ago. The back , the legs and the calves are like they've been re born!, they may be loving me at the moment.

It's haf seven and the sky is still clear, I'm gonna go fetch my wife and take her for fish and chips, but don't say anything... it's a surprise!.

Date: 28 Sept
Sport: Cycling
Comment: 2 easy hours in the spring sun.. an urban ride that took me all over the place, loved it!,

it starts over

here's the new package. Nothing fancy, just a bit of cosmetics.
The Budapest race is over, so I thought I'd have another title and what first sprang to mind was the racing thing. Then I kept thinking and I wondered if there's any difference between "a season of racing" and "a season of participating in races"
My take is that there is a difference in how one frames oneself for for a race where we are just taking part or for another one where we're racing. That's what the whole "A" race theory may actually anchor. I don't know. I know I want to do some races, and hopefully do well in them. As the saying goes, you're only as good as your last race, so I'll try to be as good.
So, welcome to the first re-incarnation of the blog, there may be more, there may be not. The person behind the screen is the same but different, as I guess many of you out there are after each season. The content will be more of the same, with a bit more social and getting to know mates from the NZ tri world. And summer is good to be out with the camera, so I'll make sure I get some pics as well.

Today was the first day of the comeback, with light running only on the schedule. It was also the last day at the carpark space we use in the winter time. Spring is here and that means back to the grass track in the park. and good times doing conditioning work

Date: 27 Sept
Sport: Running
Comment: run drills and 5x1km... all nice and easy to give the body a rest

too many eggs in one basket

OK,
the week that was was all about making up with uni (and to some extent work) which I had neglected over the last weeks. I had a test to do on the Wed. and an essay due today, and work on another one for next weekend. It was also good to put some order in the house and I even managed to so some training.
To cut it short, I haven't had much of a rest, but I've diverted some attention to the rest of my life.

I am not going to go on about how hard it is, because it is hard enough for everyone out there, and in the end we all find the time to do the things we want.

And in the meantime I managed to swim another 2.28 200m (just by chance) the other day and do some cycling and running.

Tomorrow I officially start the comeback, and in 3 week's time the season opens with a swim/run event. This blog is going to carry on, with some modifications, a bit more of photos and probably another name. I'm still bummed, but there's plenty of chance to redeem myself, and that's a fair enough driver for my future training. The plan was to come back from Europe, rest and recover and start prepping for an Iron-distance event in Wanaka, in the summer. But I've changed the whole thing.

I thought this year can be used to get more race experience, so I'm gonna leave the Iron-distance for another time and will be doing 2 sets of racing during the season. I've divided it into two blocks, the first of them is from here to the Xmas holiday and it's about racing for racing and training. There will be no tappering for the races and they are. 2xswim/run events 2xhalf ironman 2xOlys.  Then there's the Xmas break and the more serious part of the season: 1xbig swim event (10km) 1xSprint tri (nationals) and 1xOly (nationals), there's the chance of putting 2 aquathlon events in the mix but that's still to be confirmed. The big races are both national events, and it is a good thing that they are well into the season. I expect to be in awesome shape by then. If I place in any of them I can afford the luxury of another half ironman at the end of the season... we'll see how it goes.

I am going to be a busy man!,  I haven't still discussed it with coach, but hopefully we'll accomodate all in a 3 stages plan and not burn out. Work will be overly busy between november and Xmas, but sweet afterwards, so it should not pose much danger. Uni break till mid Feb is also in line with the plan. The blog will show how it all pans out.

I've been following all the cool blogs and I am looking forward to the final race reports.

Be safe out there, and train hard

Lagged and settled

OK. We made it back home after a furiously busy week of sightseing, catching up with mates, little sleep and amazing places. It's after 1 in the morning, so this is not going to be long, I need to adjust my body to the work and train routines again.Been so busy was not ideal for recovery, but I was not worried about upcoming events. It was all about Nat (and some reflection time in the spare time). We flew to London via Prague, train to south west UK, train to London, train to Paris, train to London again and flight to Dubai, Brunei and Auckland.

In the meantime I had little time to any negative thoghts and ample time to pan out where all this is going. What I want to do for next seeason.
In my evaluation of the race I found great things and some not so great. Among the good things I reckon that the preparation was excellent, both from the coaching perspective and from my execution and discipline. I managed to do everything by the book and the form I was in 2 weeks ago was the best I could had. It was also good to try a new bike and see the posibilities, there's plenty of room for improvement from just finding a good fitting bike.
The third good thing was been able to come with serious shit coming my way. This ranks in my bottom 3 triathlon races ever. On the other two I got a DNF and a 2.45.00 finish because I ran like a little miss. On this one I managed a PB and managed not to draw on the negative things. I even enjoyed the last 3km of the run which I ran in 10minutes and cheered up everybody that I went past.
Among the not so good stuff I rank the bike fitting as a major decider. The only reason for the seat to go down is that it was not properly tightened, and that is only my fault. Transitions and swim starts in the open water is something that I need to improve as well. And racing, I need more racing experience.
As I was thinking about all of this in bits and pieces I realized that I had invested a lot more than I thought in this race, both in dollars and in emotions, and not achieving my objectives was a real bummer. I guess having other races to relate to would give me some perspective, so next post will be a general outlook of what I've planned for the next season.
Thanks everyone for the support in the comments and the emails, it was really humbling.

Date: 20 Sept
Time: 60min
Sport: Running
Dist: 12.2km
Comment: recovery run

Triathlon world champs - Budapest 12 Sept 2010 - Race Report

The start

Race day couldn't come fast enough, all the hours of training and the trip and the money invested in many things had a sole purpose, and it was to get me to 12 Sept 2010 in the best nic to have a great race. 

Our wave start was at 7.30 and transition was open for us between 5.30 and 6.30. 

The night before was a small pasta meal with a special turkey, tomato and muzzarella sauce. I love having either bolognese or chicken and tomato on my pasta on the day before the races. I was on my own in the apartment so I set the laptop with a lot of good motivational videos (Grant Hackett vs. Kieren Perkins qualifying to the Sidney 2000 Olympics, the 1500m at the Sydney 200o Olympics, some Macca stuff and other triathlon videos) I crashed at about 9pm with everything ready for a quick transition in the Morning. I had a pleasant sleep with no turning and tossing.

We woke up at 4.30 and I downed 3 gels and a light breakfast (banana, honey and toast and a big coffee). 

Out we went, fortunately there was a shuttle to the venue from a site 200m away from where we stayed. Transition and setup was fun, they had us grouped by nation so there we were, all the kiwi representatives cracking jokes and getting all things ready. We had an hour to stretch and warm up and so we did.

Once through the first gate we had some time and space to stretch and warm up a bit. A few minutes later we were ushered to the pre start II area where there was little space available so I kind of went into my racing zone and shut the rest of the world out. Amazingly enough, this time I didn't feel the nerves or the goosebumps of last years and I was sure of how everything was going to be. Walking through the pontoon I was readying the moves to come in the next 5 minutes.  We had to jump into the river and find a spot, so we did and I have to say that it was quite a cold one. Temperature was 16 degrees celcious, which is OK some times but some other times gets quite cold (depending on one's body fat and so on). 

The venue was a lake on the riverside of the Danube, an area that might have been parklands some time but judging for the state and taste of the water receives some industrial effluents. The course I already spoke about in a previous post, it was an M shaped 1500 loop.

The swim -   Predicted time: 20.20 - Actual time 22.00

The gun went off and we all set off, the first 50m were the expected carnage but I found clear water right after, I kept going through my business at a high stroke rate and high power until 300m mark. The tactic was that my mate Reado would stick to my feet and hang on. I was going about the stuff and suddenly I noted that I wasn't able to keep a 3 strokes breathing rhythm. I changed to 2 strokes and kept going for another 50m and still feeling short of air, I just kept going until I could no more and I ducked up to check my heart rate. It was 198bpm. I checked again to make sure, and it indeed was through the roof, while doing that I saw Reado going by so I try to hang on to his feet to no avail. I had to slow down my pace for some time until I felt a bit better. The next 300m was a bit of a dark patch but I turned around the first buoy and started to feel better. It was time to play some catch up and I made sure I kept a good pace for the remaining of the swim (about 800m). I passed quite a good number of people on the way, I counted 25, but it may be more like 40 because the field was quite spread. Counting people and strokes certainly helped to keep things under control and I exited the water feeling good besides the setback. 

 -  the race goes on - 

The bike -  predicted time 62min - Actual time 54min

Transitions in these massive events are long and messy, and the rain the days before had left the place quite muddy and wet. I did the best I could to go, take my wettie, put the sunnies, helmet and race belt and go out biking. The moment I jumped onto my bike I felt the seat go down. I didn't pay attention and kept going for the first 3km as hard as I could to stay in touch with the people around.  It was when I tried to get on my bars and then I realized that the seat had indeed go down almost two inches. I tried to stay positive and think what would be better. I opted to stay on my bull bars for the rest of the race as it would not crunch me a lot and make my back sore. The bike course was pretty flat, the road wasn't pretty smooth with plenty of cracks, holes and manhole covers which made it entertained enough for on to go as hard as possible. There was a group of 8 or 9 of us that stuck pretty much together for the first of 3 laps, then new people kept coming to the course (the waves starting after us) so it got a bit messy to say it nicely. I managed to pass a few people on the bike, and get passed by another few. Overall this is an improvement to many of my other races where I suffer a lot on the bike. Towards the end the legs started to feel the low seat position so I tried to ensure no cramps would pop up, 

The run -   predicted time 34.40 actual time 36.40

Transition two was same as T1, which is a shame because T2 is usually less work to be done. Off I went to the run, another kiwi guy was exiting transition at the same time, I cheered him and kept going. The course was from the transition area towards the Buda part of Budapest, the across a nice old bridge to the Pest Side and a loop around the old Pest centre, back again through the bridge and a smaller loop, back to the Pest side and into the finishing shut. The first 2km of the run were a bit of trouble and then the engine started going better, there was a brit guy about 300m ahead that was my carrot, and another bunch 1km ahead that I intended to catch up with towards the business end. I managed to pass the Brit boy before the first bridge crossing, then I kind of got into a better pace and the second bunch was caught before the start of the final small loop. The final lap was what I was had been prepared for this whole season. I had been through so many of the supersets that running fast while tired was not a problem. I put the gas down and made it hour for 9 minutes and I managed to pass quite a few guys from other age groups as well. At some point on the second half of the run I realized that a sub 2 hours was within reach, so that was the carrot that motivated me to keep going hard. Crossing the finish line in under 2 hours was something rewarding. Right after it sunk in that I hadn't been among the expected time, but I was still OK. My mate read was waiting on the recovery area, he made it to the top 10 for the second time, we shook hands and had a laugh while waiting for our other mate Gordon. 

Mixed feelings 

I am not entirely happy with how the race went. If I raced the same race in the same conditions 3 times again I am pretty sure the results would be way more positive, but guess I have to live with it the best I can. I had set two objectives before coming to worlds, one of them was to finish in the top 10/15% of the field, the other one was to go under 2 hours. The idea was that going under 2 hours would pretty much guarantee the other result, but it didn't quite work like that. I was not hoping for a 40th place and it hurts. On the other hand, there were plenty of things that I learned and that I managed to do OK. The most important one was to think on my feet and make the right decision about change to the bike racing plan. The second one is managing to leave any negative thoughts aside while racing and keep going to the best of my ability. There is still plenty of room for improvement, and the next couple of weeks will be about planning how to make them happen. 

What's next?

I'm on a train from Southampton to London, off to Paris for 2 days and back to NZ by the weekend. There's plenty of time to sit and plan the next season, whether or not to stay racing short distance and what races to do in the upcoming summer. The road to Budapest will cease to exist, but it will be the road to somewhere.  For now it will be a small holiday and some wine tasting and a couple of beers with english and argentinean and kiwi and brazilian friends. 

It has been quite a trip, literally. 

Why is it over so soon?

I'm done. The race finished. At the moment I've got a mix of emotion, not all of them good.

I did a time of 1.59.24 that got me the 40th accross the line.

I'm a bit bummed with my swim and my run, but I guess I'll leave it settle for a couple of hours and post my race report then.

Thanks to everyone following I did draw on many of your words while racing.

See you soon!

out we go

Transition opens in 1 hour. We're out of here in 15 minutes.

Race starts in 2.5 hours. I am not nervous but quite eager for it to start. It will be lots of fun, and looks like it's going to be dry!. 

Elites raced yesterday and it was a pleasure to watch them in the comfort of my sofa. 

Good luck to me.

1 day to go!

So this is the end of the road. 

I'm in Budapest. In less than 24 hours I'll be in the pontoon same as my mates Ro and Sarah did today.

There is plenty still to be done but we'll get there. (bike racking, helmet check, rest, rest rest get things ready). 

the lads saying good luck to Ro

I just had my second breakfast of the day and will go to see the elites race.  There will be more to come in the afternoon, but I can't assure you it will be thoughtful, or even coherent. 

My race tomorrow starts at 7.30 local time. 5.30pm New Zealand time and it is something like 6am Argentina's time. 

the link to follow us racing and finishing is:

http://live.triathlon.org/2010_dextro_energy_triathlon_-_itu_triathlon_world_championship_grand_final/

There are tracking points after the swim, turn 2 and 3 of the bike and 2 turns of the run. 

Stay tuned, today more than ever

Bye

2 days to go - out and about

One of the dangers of this kind of events is loosing the balance between the need to rest and build up for the race, the many things to see and do and the many other things that one MUST do.

Yesterday and today was a bit like that with team briefing, registration, swim course checking, training, checking out the expo and the the Opening Ceremony at the end of the day. Here's some photos and thoughts.

mates at registration. Registration was good, no qeues and no dramas.

Pontoon for elites and AG start. we start with a hand on the pontoon (no diving)

Opening Ceremony and the parade of Nations. Having been on my feet for a lot of time in the afternoon, I only stayed there for some time and the left for home, sofa and a meal. Didn't want to get too tired. 

Kiwi boys doing the HAKA, I'll do it in the closing ceremony, only if I'm proud of what I've achieved.

Last swim training of this campaign. I may sneak another session, but not a big one.  We're all looking lean as and ready to race. And we are all looking forward to hit the hungarian pastries right after the race, : )

2 days to go - patience pays

My mum left a comment a couple of posts ago where she said I'd said one time 20 years ago that I'd made it to London to improve my english and now it all came true. Patrick's post the other day made another reference to how it turned out that the free yourself tee he got me had made it to london and how it represents a twist on his state of affairs from some years back. 

It all made me think how funny thinks work in life, and how amazing is that in turn, many things just happen if we have the patience to let them happen (and a bit of luck is involved a well) and the time to wait for them. 

20 years ago I was leaving childhood for something better, and the world didn't extend beyond three or four cities that I would travel to to visit family, spend a holiday or play football. London was a place in the map where I had no idea I would finish en route to race my race in Budapest. Many things changed, but the child of them is probably somewhere here with a big grin in his face. There's a lot to do with choices one makes and doors that one opens or closes for good, bad or different. We have a policy of no regrets, so there's mainly positives from most the choices Nat and I have made in the last decade. 

One of them was to stay in New Zealand, the other one for me was to start doing some more sports, which lead me into triathlon, which in turn lead me to being sitting here today, writing about patience in a dull rainy Hungarian noon. 

Back to the realm of triathlon, patience is also something one has to alway have in mind. Patience to go through the same routines again and again to get better. Patience to wait for the right time to do some real speed workouts and bring some new PB's to the table and patience to wait for the right moment to pass someone on the swim, or the bike, or the run. 

One can only be patient when one is sure things will work out OK. I trust my swimming, biking and running skills, and the competitions. I have trusted my coaches' program for the lead out to this race. I trust things will unfold in a way that it ill make for a great racing day out. I'm patiently waiting to cross that line and look back with joy, knowing I've come to the best of my potential on the day. And it will be fun.

a quick one before going 4 a swim

I made to Budapest!
After a good night's sleep I was up an running at half 7 yesterday. Took the tram to one of the training facilities and I started seeing all this fit people in expensive carbon bikes...the goosebumps started right there.
Got through the pool admission allright and met my mates kev and Martin, just by chance. None of us had a hungarian phone and we've been chasing texts thanks to Vodafone's crappy roaming service. Anyway, the pool was open only for the elites in the morning, we kind of sneaked in and got a free ride (well, not free, it wa 900 hungarian forints).
out for the run as per the tapper programme and then it was time to relax, try the local coffee and come back home to greet Nat who arrived just past lunchtime.
out and about with Nat, getting the bike together and back home for a nice evening with Rafael, a brazilian friend who's en route to Abu Dabi and stopped to see me race, how cool is that???
It just past 6 in the morning and I'm off for s solo swim and then a bike ride with my mates, more photos soon.
I've got a more philosophical post planned, and there's influence from Patrick's post from the day before but I lack the time,

stay tuned

Five days to go - Crap weather

I though I was coming to sunny, tepid weather of the european late summer. And I missed again. It's like we never left Auckland on the weather front.
Today was another day of travels, but I smarted up and organized to do part of the trip to the airport on the bike with our mate Camilo, whose place we're using as a crash pad for the trip. Then, as I read the program I found that today was yet another rest day!. Yesterday I missed the swim, and today I missed it as well. I'm sure now that swimming is the first thing I'll do tomorrow morning.
In the meantime I managed to do sightseeing and running all at the same time yesterday, while Nat and Sebastian walked around. You can spot my high tech gear, courtesy of Patrick. We didn't do a lot, I just tried to keep it short and sharp, but when the evening came I was ready for bed.
I hadn't had a decent sleep in the last 72 hours and the body produced serotonine to dope a rugby team. I was happy to oblige and got  completely asleep twice before dinner, then another one while having dinner.
Sports helps bringing back the endorphins and lifting the morale. Today I needed to go and do things just for that reason.

Tomorrow, thursday and friday are training days and I shall have the gang ready to rock, I'll have some more time to update this diary. And also to make sense of what I write, : )
Time to recover and have a healthy meal.

Food for the record: 2 pieces of fruit, one pot of yogurt, and some cereal clusters. One tall skinny latte, One pastry. Chicken wrap and a tuna&pasta salad.

Ciao

Monday Morning in London

It was a bloody long trip but luckily the body has not taken as much as a toll as I expected. I do miss going for a run or a swim but I know it may not happen. With such an ample window of time one thinks it will help sorting out  bits and pieces like a day to day schedule or catching up with revising my uni essay. 

But funnily, time has literally flew and I remember thinking about:

I've got to talk to Ben, the bike mechanic and thank him for helping out on short notice.

I've got to write about how to follow and track me online. 

And put all the plans A, B and C for the whole of the race. 

As I'm writing this the only thing I was able to do was the last one. 

Here's the race plan (and a bit of history)

The preparation has been clinical. Much to my pleasure everything seems to be where it should be in the three disciplines. I certainly have to thank the long hours of running and biking that have helped sustain the later intensity workouts. I've leaned up quite fast over the last weeks, so the weight shouldn't be an issue. I will probably have to make sure I eat the right thing and nothing better than to log it in my diary. 

The mental preparation is something I am not weak, but not super strong either. The past year has had very high highs and very low lows. It has given me perspective. I am doing this for me, because like it and whatever I do will stay with me for some time. It's kind of a backpack that I'll have on me. I've chose to take good things only. I think it will work.

Other that that I will reveal my race plans later in the week. 

That's all for the moment. I should run some sharp 1km reps and that'll be me for the day. 

keep rocking on your training and other stuff.

7 Days to go - quick trip update

I just realized that our trip is a 3 legs trip from Auckland to Brunei to London to Budapest. 10 hours later I'm in Transition 1 in Brunei Darussalam.
My report from the first leg is quite positive. I don't mind long trips but I am conscious that it opens the opportunity to go down the road of bad diet, bad rest and that takes time to recover. We woke up early and had a healthy brekkie, then to the airport where we stuck to fruits, water and away from other temptations.
Same in the plane.
I'm wearing my Orca compression calf stirrups. I am not a total convert, but I've experience the good work of compression tights so I thought I'd give these babies a try. They are awesome and 12 hours after having them on I can hardly notice them.
we've got a couple of hours but I won't be sitting writing on the web. I'll go for short walks to keep the legs active.
Over and out, next report from Sunny London in 17 to 20 hours.

8 days to go - last night in my bed

I am so excited right now. It's eleven o'clock at night and I am not even tired. It's all the adrenaline of the packing and all the good things to come.

Today was a strange day. There was an earthquake on the South Island of NZ in the biggest city. Amazingly there weren't lives lost and most of the damage is to buildings. Christchurch is home to many of NZ toughest triathletes, many of the guys and girls in the team come from there and I hope they can all make it to Europe with no troubles.

Back to training news, we had our last brick session @ the pool and it was not that bad.

Until coach told us to get our bikes out and ride to a park nearby to do bike-run repeats. The park is a dead volcano that rises to about 90m above ground in the summit. Running there is a beauty, there's a farm being run from the park, and spring is lambing season, so it feels like trail running in the backcountry.

We were to do 2km bike lap, quick transition and run to the summit 3 times (about 1.5km). The bike was OK but a bit cold, I lost some time in transition and started my run trailing 10 seconds to my training buddies Carl and Martin. I never cought up. On the last 300m I heard a clapping noise and cheers with my name coming from a teahouse that sits in the sidewalk and there they were all the wives (including coachs') giving us the support we needed to finish the session.

It was all a setup by coach. There weren't bike run repeats after the first one and we all proceeded to have a winter-training farewell breakfast. I went for the muesli, but it proved to be the bad choice because Coach decided it was a good time to shout us a beer and we couldn't refuse.
Muesli and beer is champion's breakfast!

The rest of the day was packing, printing, ticking, talking and it just flew by. I wish I had time for a quick run, but it just didn't happen. Better luck next time.

We're up at half five tomorrow, so I better go and have some rest. It will be the last sleep in my own bed and I'm not gonna miss it. The bedroom has been so cold lately that even taking a 2pm siesta is a nightmare.
We're flying 10 hours to Brunei, then another 16 to London where we stop for a day. I shall be able to update our trips' progress.

9 days to go

And it was another one full of surprises.  

I woke up fresh from a good nitght sleep. The previous couple of nights I had my sleep interrupted by many thoughts, all related to the trip and the race. At one point it was 3am and I was doing the maths of how much I'd allocate to meals in Budapest, and what what attractions I'd allow myself to visit. Later on it all drew to organizing a "team meeting" with other guys from the same age group to do a bit of a "swimming train" on the race. And so on with other bits and pieces. 

I guess is good to be a bit anxious, but i'm not great at managing anxiety. One of the nights I got up and ate half a slice of coconut cake.

So, I was saying. It was a day full of surprises. I had pictured an easy swim and a hard run set. It was the other way around!. Managed to get my head around it through the 600m warmup and when I read the board I thought to myself "this is gonna hurt". It was nothing serious and there was plenty of rest in between, basically we did 4 blocks of 400 as 400-2x200-4x100-8x50 all of them at maximum pace. I got a good PB for 400m and the rest was in the good marks as well. It was a good confidence booster, because I was seriously worried about my swim about a month ago, and I know now I am as ready as I could be and back to levels I was swimming before triathlon came to me.

The second surprise was a little farewell the rest of the people @ the pool did for us. Coach gather us around and some of the girls read a poem they've written for us which was both funny and humbling. I am not used to the attention, and getting some was strange. This continued @ work with more good vibes from colleagues and strangers, there was a morning tea to wish me luck and ask me questions about distances, times, weight, etc. 

I also managed to so some work in the middle and later do the last SUPERSET of the campaign. The SUPERSET has been the star player in my building. I'm feeling a stronger runner than I was for the Nationals, I still have 5 or 10 bits to spare for full on runs and I have bounced back stronger from the lil' injury I got in mid-July. Today was 5 milers but only 2 of those were on a high gear. The excercises in the middle were long and boring and didn't help recovery a lot, but they're good to improve running form. 

The evening was gone with more work, packing and getting things ready for my last training session in kiwi soil. Next reports will come from foreign land, nicer warmer weathers and (hopefully) technicolor. 

Keep working hard out there, and stay tuned, this is going to get hotter

Date: 3 Sept

Sport: swimming/running

Time: 60min/60min

Dist: 3km/8km

Comment: season's PB 400m in 5.11

10 days to go

The day off was a welcome rest to "me olde calves", they were like to steel balls and a bit of resting and massage helped to loosen them up. One of the big improvements of this season is my enforced discipline when it comes to stretching. I've been doing a lot of stretching and strengthening of my legs and it seems to have made a really big difference. The body "feels" like breaking down, but it goes away after coming back home and having a shower.

It was good to focus on leaving everything at work ready for a break and use tomorrow to cruise back into a couple of more days of solid training. The last superset tomorrow will do some damage with 5x 1 miles to run, and a double whammy on Saturday with brick session in the morning and a short bike TT in the evening will be the icing of the cake.

As I said before, the body "feels" like breaking down but it is not, it's just getting there to where it can give it all on those couple of hours of racing. The line between the fittest one can be and getting burned out or injured is sooooo thin that some times one goes over it without realizing. That's when good coaching comes into place. I am lucky I have one.

some numbers for my later reference:

30 Aug - Swimming/running - 60m/65min - 3.1km/9km - season pb 200m in 2.30min
31 Aug - cycling - 70min - 38km -
1 Sept - swimming/running - 60min/70min - 2.8km/16km - season pb for 5km (17.25)

Cracking the pace

As promissed, yesterday was a massacre on the windtrainer. Cycling was the only workout to happen and it was a long 1.20min session with a longer than usual warm up and then the VO2 session.
It consisted on a series of 3min workouts with 3 min recovery.
The trick was to hold a speed 3km faster than our 20kmTT speed.
I didn't take my Polar with me because I didn't want to see what my heart rate was, it was a workout and I would do it no matter what.
The effort required to pull that speed for the period of time was well timed, because bang on two minutes we'll hit a little was and rode onto the hurtbox for the remaining minute.
we did half an hour worth of that and another half of recovery.
A long sleep and I wasn't as bad as monday night, and the scheduled 1500m TT was skipped in favour of an endurance workout and practice of deep water starts.
The secret for deep water starts is to be as horizontal as one can be and tilted to a side, once the gun goes on, a power kick and 10 or 20 strokes later one should be in some clear'ish water and the race starts.
Wednesday is long run day, and our last long run consisted of a 20min warm up and then 30min just below the race pace, for me it was my treshold of 83-85% of my heart rate on my seriously tired legs.
I managed to do just short of 8.5km which indicates a good form for the race.
We're scheduled to rest tomorrow, and I will do so happily,
there's bike check to be done, new wheels to fit in, chat to the coach, travel arrangements, work stuff and uni stuff that should be out by tomorrow. Oh... and aero haircut, and some photos