Weekly Totals - January 19 to January 25

Weekly Totals - January 12 to January 18

Tuesday - AM Session

Run: Squad Session

This morning the IM folk focussed on drills throughout the session.
The drills included the following:

• Bum Flicks
• 1 foot ladder drill
• Single leg hop
• Backward running
• One leg step over mini hurdles
• Double foot side step of ladder

These were completed on a 60sec cycle.

After completing 1 complete cycle through all the drills then we ran 800m. This whole workout would be completed 3 times.

Session Reflections:

• I find that the drills really enhance the technical side of my running.
• The 800m times got quicker.
• Felt the drills assisted in bettering the times each 800m.

Monday - PM Session

Squad Session: Core strength and stretch

Session Reflections

• Need to get focussed on improving this area....need to get serious.
• Further condition is required as a whole for improvement to be seen.
• Extra work at home is required.
• Completed 100 pushups throughout the session. 50 pushup in one sitting.
• Did some extensive stretching within the session.

Monday - Am Session

Eating - The TimO Strategy
One of the things I really want to get right for the IM campaign is my whole diet.

I have re-visited the plan that a dietian gave us about 18 months ago. Initially it is all about loosing a some weight. These are the rules I am working towards are:

WEEK 1 & 2
The Do’s
No bread, cereal, rice, pasta or noodles
No sugar, lollies, soft drink or cordial
No cakes, biscuits or crackers
No Starchy vegetables (e.g. potato, corn etc.)

The Don’ts
Drink 6 to 8 glasses of water daily
Eat 3 main meals and a mid afternoon snack.

Diary
Eat 2 serves of low fat dairy daily – choose from the following:

250ml (1 cup) of low fat milk
200ml of low fat custard
1 slice (21g), 3cm cube or ¼ grated of 25% reduced fat firm cheese (eg tasty, vintage, parmesan, mozzarella and feta)
¼ cup of reduced fat soft cheese (e.g. ricotta, cottage)
Diet yoghurt (choose the ‘diet nestle’ yoghurt)
2 tablespoons of reduced fat dip (eg. French onion, tzatziki, hommus or cream cheese)
Low fat ice cream (choose the Paul’s lite ‘n’ creamy single serves)

Fruit
Eat 3 pieces of fruit daily – choose from the following:

Fresh Fruit
250ml of fruit juice
1 tablespoon of dried fruit
½ cup of tinned fruit (75g)

Vegetables
Eat 5 serves of vegetables daily – choose from the following:

Asparagus
Cucumber
Bean Sprouts
Green leafy vegetables (lettuce, spinach)
Beetroot
Mushrooms
Broccoli
Onions
Capsicum
Peas
Carrots
Squash
Cauliflower
Tomato
Celery
Zucchini


Meat, Fish & Chicken
Eat 100 g at lunch and 200g at dinner (of meat, fish, chicken, eggs, beans) daily – choose from the following:

Lean cuts of red meat
Chicken (Skin removed)
Lean cut pork of ham
Fish or Shellfish
Tinned tuna
Tinned salmon
½ Cup of baked beans
Eggs


Fats and Oils
Eat 3 teaspoons of fat or oil daily – choose from the following:

1 teaspoon of margarine
1 teaspoon of olive oil or cooking spray
¼ small avocado
1 teaspoon of light or low fat mayonnaise
2 teaspoons of peanut butter
20 g of nuts

Other
Eat unlimited amount of – choose from the following:

Diet soft drink, soda water, plain mineral water and diet cordial
Diet Jelly
Low fat cup of soup
Vegetable sticks

This is just the rules for the first 2 week, there are a new set of rules for the next part.

Reflections:

• This is going to be an interesting challenge in that there are no carbs to be consumed over the 2 weeks, particularly with the amount of training that I am embarking on at the moment.
• Karen and I sit down each week to plan our eating for the week.
• I have finally bitten the bullet and tried Rice Milk...only for smoothies.

Weekly Totals - January 5 to January 11

Sunday - AM Session

Ride: Coach squad. Keep everything easy (No problems here)
Route: Redcliffe loop

Saturday - PM Session

Massage today - this was not a plesant experience....apparently my body was a mess....legs...back...glutes....you get the idea.

I am now into the routine of fortnightly massages.

Really need this, it was an important part of the last campaign and need to be this time!

Saturday - AM Session

Back 2 Back Session: Squad Swim then Computrainer (wind trainer)

Rode into the Valley Pool, approx. 10km @ 30min.

The swim session was another beauty with plenty of variety and before you new it you had completed 2.6km

It included:

• A hypoxic set: 25m breathing every 2, 50m breathing every 3, 50m breathing every 4, 25m breathing every 5; Repeating this twice.
• 200m pull then 50m catch up; Repeating 2-3 times
• 6 x 100m on 1m26s with a 20s recovery
• 4 x 50 on 1m; then 4 x 25 IM leaving every 45s

Session Reflections:

• Left shoulder was a little achy this morning.
• Enjoying the swimming at the moment, maybe thats because it has been a while since I've been in the pool.

Computrainer Session:

Strength set of 6 x 8 min intervals with 4 min recovery. Focus on maintaining wattage.

EFFORT 1

EFFORT 2

EFFORT 3

EFFORT 4, 5 & 6

Session Reflections:

• At the beginning of the session we did another TT of about 8km to set up the wattage again as some people had not yet determined their average wattage
• Completed the 8km TT in 14m02s
• The session was again challenging and foud myself really having to work hard to maintain the wattage of 235w for the 8m effort.
• Again the down hill sections were the most difficult to achieve this.
• Sweated plenty and drank plenty!
• Satisfying session.

Rode Home, approx. 10km @ 30min.

Friday - PM Session

This was unscheduled session but I am experimenting with a few things throughout this IM campaign...nothing too major. Trying some 'circuit' type activities.

This afternoon I did the following workout:

• 4 min run (round the block, this is not a flat run and had a hill that has quite a steep gradient - about 12% I think - Total distance about 800m)
• then straight into 1 min skip
• This was then repeated 5 times.

Stats Review:

Splits and Average/Max HR

HR and Elevation for the 5 Intervals

Elevation Profile for one run lap

Elevation Profile for the 5 laps

Session Reflections:

• Challenging to say the least but felt good at the end of the session
• It was a good strength session.
• The hill was a real challenge and the legs were really heavy by the time I reached the top each time.
• The hill was about at the 400m point of the lap.
• The skipping was not a full recovery but it did allow the HR to drop, between 150-155bpm.
• Within each lap I managed to get my HR up to about 95% of max, and this was fairly consistent for each of the laps.

Friday - AM Session

Thursday - AM & PM Session

Wednesday - PM Session

Swim: Squad session

Rode into swimming and back:

• Distance of 20km
• 1hr riding time
  

Session Reflections:

• Total Distance = 2.6km
• There was a number of sets that utilised fins
• Other sets were hypoxic sets
• Good work out.

Wednesday - AM Session

Ride: Coach squad. Ride there and back easy (Riverloop)


Stats Review:

Session Reflections:

• This was a very easy session - spin!
• Legs felt good after the bike big week last week....that is until Rich and I decided to clean out the valves on the corso!
• Hot Chocolate and French toast was fantastic!

Tuesday - PM Session

Before coaching the squad tonight I jumped in the pool and completed the following session:

3 x 300m pull; 10 x 25m front scull/25m swim; 10 x 100 pull/paddles on 1.45; 200m w/d

Session Reflections:

• Total = 2.6km
• It had 13 days since I last had been in the water. It certainly felt like it too. But not as bad as it has been in the past after such a lay off.
• This was an upper body workout...well it certainly felt like it....it was a 'welcome back' type workout for the shoulders.

Tuesday - AM Session

Monday - PM Session

Nothing here.

Wooooohoooooo!

:-)

Monday - AM Session

This morning is a rest session and it is very nice to not be out on the bike.

The bike week was very rewarding and it was again good to become 'one' with my bike.

This week is a recovery week. Then we begin the 12weeks to Ironman. I am again really looking forward to the training and racing Ironman this year. I'm hoping that with training with the other folk doing IM in the squad I can pick up some 'bits and pieces' that will help me improve further in my training to achieve the goal of sub 10hr 50min.

This IM campaign I plan to do some things the same but want to really focus on core strength and diet. I think these are the 2 things that let me down last IM campaign. As a whole I would like to just to do things better!

The other aspect of the training which I think could do with some refinement is the mental side of things...really learning to 'mentally' overcome the pain and soreness in the legs/arms. I suppose to push through that pain to develop a higher threshold and therefore to be able to perform better.

Weekly Totals - December 29 to January 4

BIKE STATS

Sunday - AM Session

Ride: 2.5-3hrs @ easy pace in big ring and 15 min stretch
Route: Carbrook, Redland Bay, Raby Bay, Wellington Point, Manly, Wynnum, Lindum

HR Training

Heart rate variations for a given intensity
A reduction in heart rate for a given intensity is usually due to an improvement in fitness but a number of other factors might explain why heart rates can vary for a given intensity:

• Dehydration can increase the heart rate by up to 7.5%
• Heat and humidity can increase the herat rate by 10 beats/minute
• Altitude can increase the heart rate by 10 to 20%, even when acclimatised
• Biological variation can mean the heart rate varies from day to day by 2 to 4 beats/minute

Saturday - AM Session

Ride: 2.5-3hrs @ easy pace in big ring and 15 min stretch
Route: Redcliffe Loop

Session Reflections:

• Went out with Rich this morning
• Hard work with a challenging breeze throughout the ride.
• Stretched afterwards (15min)

Riding plans for the next 2 days

SATURDAY - Redcliffe loop....

SUNDAY - Dayboro loop with the Redcliffe loop tacked on...come back through Sandgate etc....probably be about 4-4.5hrs

Friday - AM Session

Ride: 2.5-3hrs @ easy pace in big ring and 15 min stretch

Route: Dayboro Loop

Session Reflections:

• It feel likes it coming together!

Thursday - PM Session

Run: 45-60 min easy through the Hills

Session Reflections:

• Hot and humid!
• Hydrated well all day but it didn't seem to help.
• This was meant to be an easy run however the HR averaged 150bpm....that's NOT the easy HR zone. It was however through the hills.
• Tried to keep my HR under the 150bpm target for my running...at time it required me to walk for 2-3min to get it down.
• When I did get it down, it took less than 1min to rise up around the 150bpm mark again.

Thursday - AM Session

Core: 10 push ups; 30 sec prone hold; 20 sec squat hold x 15

I am going to track my HR with most training activities that I do throughout the IM campaign as I am hoping to learn a little more about hoe the 'old ticker' works in the different training situations and then try and use it to improve my performance....at this stage not sure how I'm going to do it but I am very intrigued on learning more about training to a HR. It's somthing I did last IM campaign and it work really well and am looking to get a further advantage out of this type of training.

The HR Chart below was recording during my core strength session today.

The HR Chart here is one that I recorded straign after the core session. I was lying down and was interested in see how quickly the HR decreased to a point where it levelled out.

2009 Weigh In

I have to start somewhere.

The starting weight for the 2009 IM Campaign is at 86.2kg

I believe we have something to work on here!

The goal race weight for the 2009 IM is no more than 80.0kg

This is achievable as this was my race weight for the 2008 IM.