[[Tuesday, November 27, 2007 ]]
Off to Perth in the morning.
If you're reading this, please remember me in your prayers this weekend *smile*
baah...baah...blacksheep
|22:20|
[[Sunday, November 25, 2007 ]]
Yea, exactly a week to go before Ironman Western Australia.
Took the bike out for a spin this morning, just to see how it is after the service. Kitted it out with all the gear that I wanted to use on the bike leg to be sure everything fits ok and that nothing is going to fall off while riding. All seemed fine.
Made the mistake of not having a proper dinner last night after the run and not having proper breakkie as well when I awoke this morning. The ride experience was, hence, only marginal. After riding for about 45 minutes, I wasn't feeling my best and had enough. We decided to load the bikes back up in the van and headed for lunch.
Spent some time in the afternoon rectifying afew things on the bike after this morning's ride to make it better.
The focus for this coming week, leading upto race day, is again on nutrition, rest and not getting stressed as the day draws near. You might be surprised how difficult these things can be.
baah...baah...blacksheep
|14:00|
[[Saturday, November 24, 2007 ]]
Picked up my newly-serviced bike from the bike shop yesterday. Yet to try it out as it's been raining on and off the whole day. I had asked the guys to put red bar tape on my aerobars so that I won't need to use gloves (sweaty hands). Thought the bike looked quite wicked with the red bar tape on *wink*
Had a haircut this morning. Cut it quite short this time. Feels so light now and only takes half the time to dry! How good is that. Have also started to put afew things away for packing...not easy I tell ya!
The weather is quite temperamental today. As I am typing this, the sun had decided to make an appearance for a mere 15 minutes or so. And now its back behind the clouds again. I might go for a little run at a slow slow pace just to keep things going.
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Managed to do a run workout of 15.67km. Took the first lap as a warm-up and decided to speed up alittle on the 2nd lap just to tax my cardio alittle. Haven't taxed my system for awhile now as I had been sick. Almost forgotten what it felt like to be gasping for air, so it was good to be able to remind my system.
Ended up with a pace of 5:34m/km for the workout, which was decent in my eyes- I am not a fast runner and never have been. Came home and watched the election and counting of votes unfold on telly.
baah...baah...blacksheep
|15:16|
[[Thursday, November 22, 2007 ]]
This evening’s swim session was a satisfying one. Not too crowded or too many kids jumping around. Although I had to share the lane with a very fast gentleman at one point, other than that it was all sweet. The fast-man overtook me afew times as I did my laps.
Started with 200m of breastroke for warm-up, followed by 4 x 800m of frontcrawl and then a warm-down of another 200m of breastroke. This was one of the few times where I actually get to swim warm-down laps. Usually, the pool is closing and I would just head for the showers hurriedly.
Started thinking about the things to pack for the trip and got a massive headache. Its unbelievable the amount of gear and attention to detail that is required here *shakes head* ARGHHHHH !!!! Its driving me mad.
The bike shop informed me that my bike is ready to be picked up.Will take it for a spin this weekend just to see and then it will be disassembled for packing.
baah...baah...blacksheep
|21:35|
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This week has been a lazy one so far. I have put my bike in for a full-service on Tuesday and they have not rang me to say its ready for collection. Hope to get it back before the weekend so we can test it out before disassembly and packing it up for travel.
Monday was a short 10k run. Tuesday was just a 3.5k swim. The pool was quite crowded and there were kids jumping in and out of my lane, which I found to be quite distracting. My goggles kept fogging up, not quite sure what happened there as I had put anti-fog solution on them. Will try them out again to see if it reoccurs.
Yesterday was a rest day and time for a massage, which left both my legs abit sore this morning. Ouch. Made a mental note to concentrate on stretching, sleeping and nutrition for this week and the next but honestly, I haven’t done much so far for the first two.
I know I could do better and this just means I’m going to need to sleep more as well as spend some time stretching abit more to keep limber.
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baah...baah...blacksheep
|11:24|
[[Sunday, November 18, 2007 ]]
The Roar held Melbourne to a 1-0 win on Friday night. There was awesome atmosphere in The Den, with the Roar now having stretched their winning streak to seven games. You beauty!
Yesterday, I finally managed to try out the new three-hour Spinervals DVD in its entirety. I felt it was a very good session and I quite enjoyed it. The intervals were quite taxing but I know it's be good for me. Hehe.
Today was a lazy one, catching up on precious sleep. Two weeks to race day and tapering officially begins.
baah...baah...blacksheep
|10:45|
[[Friday, November 16, 2007 ]]
Today is rest day. Yes, no training whatsoever…..zilch, zero, none, nil. Why? Its because the Roar will play Melbourne at Suncorp Stadium tonight in the A-League! And we’re seeking to extend our six-match winning streak by winning again tonight on home ground.
Yesterday was a swim session followed by a run. For the swim workout, I only managed 2.6km due to time constraints (again!). In the evening, I did a 14.76k run (approximately). The goal of the run was again to complete the distance without taxing my body too much as it is still recuperating. So I didn’t push myself and just went at a comfortable pace, mindful not to exert too much and consciously holding back at times.
Turns out the pace was at around 6:05min/k and I was content with that and being able to finish comfortably without any apparent additional distress to my sick-self.
After like yonks, my new “Spinervals” DVD finally arrived. Went to pick it up from the bike shop and tried it out on Wednesday evening on the trainer. It’s a three-hour session but I only managed half of that as we had to go out for dinner. I found the workout to be quite satisfying and regretted not having got it earlier on.
The DVD featured long intervals, which I thought was ideal for the preparation of long-distance events. At the end of the session, I could feel that both my legs have had a good workout (and I had only done half of it). I can see myself using more of this in the future.
There are still some pressure build-up around my sinuses and my ears but it has reduced substantially over the week. I am still popping pills to make it go away and hopefully it does soon.
baah...baah...blacksheep
|09:47|
[[Monday, November 12, 2007 ]]
For the second time in a matter of weeks, I've been struck by flu-like symptoms again. It has affected me for afew days now and because of this, I decided to skip my LSD yesterday. I didn't want to risk anything with three weeks to go and go for broke. I thought that rest is best at this stage.
I was in a dilemma about what to do tonight. In the end, I settled for a toned-down run session. I decided to run very slowly for an hour and a half and to refrain from pushing myself at all costs, with full knowledge that my body would be taxed considerably if I did more. And this was something I know I cannot afford in my current situation. Being cautious and conservative is the way to go.
Managed to complete just under 15km at approximately 6:30 min/k pace without any stress or whatsoever. Quite happy with just being able to finish the distance comfortably. Arrived home just in time for P to bring home the pizzas. Yippeee!!! Wonder how my body will react to this workout in the morning. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
baah...baah...blacksheep
|20:18|
[[Saturday, November 10, 2007 ]]
Today was a 107km social century bike ride. As the name implied, it was a social ride and was not aimed for speed demons. That suits me really fine as I can't go very fast anyway. Started at 0700hrs with quite afew toilet/water breaks on the way out, but fewer on the way back. The route was abit hilly and could feel that my hamstrings had been working after the ride.
Had to stop to cross the roads at afew places which I felt broke up the momentum and destroyed the pace for the ride. Hate that. The official food stop was at approximately 64k. I had a delicious fish burger with chocolate milk. Mmmm....so yummy! After that, we had a toilet/water break and then headed back for home.
The ride was accompanied by headwinds in some places, but I welcomed it as training for me. The weather was perfect- not too hot and sometimes overcast with some drizzle at times. Beautiful weather which made for an awesome day on the bike. I had enjoyed the ride today.
baah...baah...blacksheep
|17:17|
[[Wednesday, November 07, 2007 ]]
This week started with an hour of easy effort on the bike on Monday, followed by a 3.5k swim last evening. Today is reserved for a run and its good weather out there, cloudy and coolish. Perfecto.
Am looking forward to tapering after this week, which should give me more time to sleep. Ahhhhhh, so nice! *lazeeeee*
Yesterday’s swim was a decent effort, but the pool was slightly crowded and made it almost impossible in the first half. The crowds thinned out eventually and for a change, I wasn’t the last one left when I got out of the pool.
Today’s run should be 15k in distance and fingers crossed, all goes well without dramas. Believe it or not, I’m still scarred from last Saturday’s run which left me almost dead.
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Ok, back from my run and as expected, the weather was very pleasant. A light breeze blowing here and there and overcast throughout. I struggled abit to warm-up at the start but didn't feel too bad by the time i finished. It started to drizzle during the last 5k but didn't pour down or anything, so that was good.
The weather was actually ideal for staying at home. And it really took alot to get me out of the house for a run. Yea, I was feeling so lazy this evening. I was starving by the time I got home from the run but wreck my brains about what to have for dinner. Had a nice, hot shower after preparing the ingredients for dinner.
baah...baah...blacksheep
|20:13|
[[Saturday, November 03, 2007 ]]
The LSD this morning was particularly tough. I haven't been feeling the best physically all week and in addition, my mind was not very strong either. I have no doubt that the heat was also a contributing factor to make the scenario less than ideal.
I had set out to do a 30k LSD run. Perhaps I started alittle too late. I left the house at close to 0700hrs and had expected to take abit more than three hours. I underestimated the weather and after half an hour out there, it was apparent that it was going to be a tough day for me. I was not feeling comfortable physically.
Some portions of the running route were quite open and did not offer any shade. The heat was relentlessly debilitating and I was sizzling. If I had carried my mobile with me, I would have been so close to ringing P to come and pick me up. There was no breeze or clouds to offer me some reprieve and every last ounce of energy had been zapped away from my body by the heat.
I tried not to drink too much for fear of runnning out of water too soon. With less than 10k to go, I could not take the heat anymore and had to stop at the first shady spot I could find to rest for 10 minutes before continuing. When I resumed, I ran for another eight minutes and had to stop and walk for about 100m before running out of water. I had nothing left in me and was feeling so hot and uncomfortable that I just wanted for it to be over or for the ground to open and swallow me up.
Knowing that the toilet is about 3k away, I decided to just grit my teeth and make it my goal. I desperately wanted to get there so that I could refill my water supply and also splash water over my face to cool myself down. I knew that if I could make it there, I was going to to alright.
The feeling of cold water running down my face was all I could think about as I ran towards my goal. I arrived at the toilet and promptly refilled my water supply, gulped afew mouthfuls down before splashing myself with the water from the tap. Ah! The feeling was magical! I instantly felt re-energized and was ready again to complete the last bit of my run.
I got to the finish, feeling much better than before.
It took me an extra half hour to complete my run this morning, inclusive of all the breaks and walks I had to take. To be quite honest, the time taken was no longer an issue as my mind switched to survival mode. All I wanted was to finish, get home and stand under the cold water in the shower.
I checked the temperature when I got home and it was 31.5 degrees.
baah...baah...blacksheep
|20:13|
[[Friday, November 02, 2007 ]]
For the first time since February, I went for an evening swim yesterday. The water was blissfully warm, as compared to what it is in the mornings. Funny thing was, I always used to swim in the evenings and had always regarded the water as cold even then. But since having started swimming in the mornings in the past month or so, the water no longer felt cold in the evenings. Heh.
It was not a good swim for me. Did the 200m warm-up, followed by two sets of 800m. Was into the third set of 800m when midway through, I realised I was the only person left swimming in the lap pool. I reluctantly got out of the pool, seeing it was about 20minutes to closing time, only to realise that there were a bunch of elderly ladies still having lessons in the heated pool.
Sigh. Oh well, lesson learned: to check the heated pool in the corner next time.
As with all things, I felt a sense of unsatisfaction when I have not been able to complete something I have set out to do. And so, there was a sense of under-achievement when I got out of the pool.
Training hasn’t been smooth going this week, marred by the Gladstone trip early in the week. I am usually tired after the travelling and have to struggle to get back into the routine again. But time and tide waits for no man, and such is life.
29 days to losing Iron-virginity. Wish me success, please.
baah...baah...blacksheep
|11:40|
