One month gone …

It is hard to believe that January has gone already!

It was a good month training wise for me, in fact since I started keeping my training journal (Jan 2006), from the perspective of “calories burnt”, this month was the biggest ever, with just over 20,000 calories burnt.

Here’s the summary;

Running: 13 runs, for a total of 104 km, average pace 5:36 min/km

Cycling: 16 rides, for a total of 403 km, average pace 25.7 km/hr

Swimming: 9 swims, for a total of 11.75 km

Events: Orbea Mini Triathlon (Brighton) – 250/10/2 – time 48:35

So, the highlights of the month were surviving (just) my first tri, converting to cleats and cycling shoes and surviving (so far).

Tonight I just did an easy 23km ride – it was very windy and cold – I actually wore my long Skins and cycling jacket for the first time in ages.

Another 650g loss

Same routine at the pool this morning, 40 laps (1km) then some time in the spa to massage the calf.

Then I had to drop the car off for some work to be done on the brakes.

At our “fat club” weigh in today at work nearly everyone had lost a bit of weight, in my case I was down 650g on last week, at 73.45kg.

Tonight I went for an easy 6km run, averaging 5:17 min/km.

The calf is ok, still niggling a little, but better than it was.

I have a late meeting tonight, 11:30pm – 1:00am, but I’ve just opened a bottle of Shiraz so I should be alright

You get less for murder!

Last night I attacked my sore leg with an icing regime, and also a heavy duty massage with my massage stick. I found a couple of really sensitive pressure points and gave them a real working over. Today it is really, really sore. I think I might have overdone it a little. 

The somewhat sarcastic title for today’s post is referring to the fact that today is my 28 year anniversary with my employer. Although recently it has seemed a bit like a prison sentence, I guess it really has been a great job, otherwise I wouldn’t have been there for all that time. I think I’m not the only one who feels that their job is so different to what it was 5 or 10 years ago. More stress, more work – everything seeming more corporate and less of a small team feeling which was always so satisfying. That said though I do have a great team working for me, and ultimately it is them that makes the job bearable.

It is also Chris’ 1st anniversary today, that is, he has finished the first year of his apprenticeship.

This morning I went in for a swim, but decided to stop after 40 laps (1km) and hit the spa to have a good stretch and massage the calf in the water jets.

Tonight I went for a really easy ride, I felt like moving the legs but didn’t want to over exert the calf at all. So the rules were, stick to the flat, no standing up, stay on the small chain ring, and not stay out too long. Ended up being 17.5km at just over 26 km/hr.

Shopping, bird nets and a crappy run

I was going to get up and run early this morning, but as usual I just hit snooze and rolled over. When I eventually did get out and run at about 5pm, I wished I’d gone earlier!

We started off the day dropping Chris off at Flemington for The Big Day Out, and I have pick up duties later tonight too. Then Adrienne and I went shopping at Highpoint. Adrienne was clothes shopping, so we split up and I browsed the normal haunts (Borders, Rebel, JB Hifi). There were plenty of things I fancied today, but I resisted and kept my money. I nearly bought a tri training book, and a couple of magazines, but decided I’ve got about 3 or 4 books on the “to read” pile already. I also decided I’d wait for a week and buy the magazine to take away on holiday. If I bought it today, it would be read by next weekend.

We spent a large part of the afternoon buying, and placing anti-bird netting over our peach tree. We have a fairly decent crop this year and don’t want the birds to enjoy them before we do.

I headed out for the run that I had committed to do, at a bit before 5:30pm. I decided to do a 5km out and back course (so 10km in total), but it was really hard in the heat. I took my fuel belt with some water and there were plenty of walk/drink breaks. So, in the end just missed out on keeping it under 6 minute kms, finishing with an average pace of 6:03 min/km.

I have a bit of a niggle in my shin today (not from the run, it was there before that), I’m thinking it might be from the bike. I’m going to go and ice it now.

Two rants

Like Jo, I also had a problem with another swimmer this morning – so here is the first rant. I was swimming in a lane on my own, three of the six lanes were free (empty), and this bloke got in my lane with me. Now why would you do that? Is it just to piss me off? Does he want to be close to me? (I’d rather it was just to piss me off). Anyway, I just moved to one of the adjacent empty lanes, praying like crazy he wouldn’t follow me (he didn’t). Anyway, that was the only interruption to a steady 70 lap swim, which was followed by the usual breakfast and Sunday morning chat.

Kate had asked me to show her a few things on her car, so this morning I transferred the sum total of my automotive knowledge to her (how to check and top up the various fluid levels). I really am no mechanic I tell you – this really is all I know!

Adrienne and I decided to go and do a bit of shopping to pick up a few things we needed before our holiday (this time next week we’ll be at the beach – yay). I decided I wanted a couple of pairs of technical fabric running shorts, as all the ones I have are the drill cotton type – which I like, but they are very slow to dry, so not ideal for a beach holiday where you don’t really want to be doing laundry. I ended up getting two pairs of 2XU running shorts for $50 which I thought was a good deal.

Just before tea I went for another bike ride, riding my usual big loop course of 27km. Not as fast as last nights ride, but just as satisfying. No cleat related accidents tonight either! I had to stop at a few sets of traffic lights and managed to unclick easily, but did have a little trouble clicking back in on a few occassions, and ended up riding through a couple of intersections with only one foot clicked in and the other loose. I’ll get the hang of it eventually. To those of you who said I would love the “proper pedals” – you were right – it is so much better!

Time for the second rant. How hard is it to understand “Keep Left”? Surely everyone understands this simple rule that makes travelling on our roads, with some small modicum of safety, a possibility? So, why do things all of a sudden become more complicated when you are walking on a bike/walking track? Twice tonight I had people who were walking on the left and coming towards me from the opposite direction, move over to the right hand side of the track at the last minute,  as I approached them. Are they playing chicken with me? If I wasn’t concerned about damaging my bike (or myself) they would be in severe danger. Can you get bull-bars for road bikes?

Better go for a run tomorrow, haven’t run since last Wednesday! If I don’t keep in good running trim, Jo will kill me at the R4TK!

Happy Australia Day

Happy Australia Day everyone. I have to say I was feeling a bit guilty for not throwing any lamb on the barbie, singing the national anthem or waving the flag today. So the little animated flag above (which is courtesy of Free gifs and Animations by the way) is my only patriotic act for the day. That said though, and I speak as a non-native aussie, we truly should all give thanks for living in this wonderful country. You only have to look in the newspaper or on the news each day to realise that!

Today we headed down to the Victoria Market as normal, and then headed down to Geelong to visit family. The trip down was a pain, it took us 45 minutes to get from Lara to North Geelong, due to heavy traffic, roadworks and an accident. I don’t know how long it is going to take them to finish the Geelong bypass, but it seems to be a real bottleneck quite regularly now.

No exercise today, taking a rest day.

30@30

If you’ve seen my 2008 goals, you will have seen that one of the cycling goals was “To get a 30km ride in at an average speed of 30km/hr or higher” – well tonight I did it. I got close last night (averaging 29.4km/hr), tonight I did 30.2km in 59:55. It is amazing the difference the cleats make in being able to sustain the speed on the bike. I have a few little aches and pains though – nothing to worry about I don’t think – just the effect of two hard rides and using some muscles I’m not used to (or at least in ways I’m not used to) with the pulling action on the pedals.

This morning I went into the pool before work and did 60 laps (1.5km) – had planned to do 80 laps, but decided to spend 10 minutes in the spa and steam room instead!

I received these little stories in yesterdays T4D email newsletter from Kirk Weisler – I hope you find them as amusing as I did!

With a Little Help from Our Friends!
Police in Oakland, California spent two hours attempting to subdue a gunman who had barricaded himself inside his home. After firing ten tear gas canisters, officers discovered that the man was standing beside them, shouting pleas to come out and give himself up.

What Was Plan B?
An Illinois man pretending to have a gun kidnapped a motorist and forced him to drive to two different automated teller machines. The kidnapper then proceeded to withdraw money from his own bank accounts.

Some Days, It Just Doesn’t Pay to Gnaw Through the Straps
Fire investigators on Maui have determined the cause of a blaze that destroyed a $127,000 home last month – a short in the homeowner’s newly installed fire prevention alarm system. “This is even worse than last year,” said the distraught homeowner, “when someone broke in and stole my new security system…”

The Getaway
The man walked in to a Topeka, Kansas Kwik Shop, and asked for all the money in the cash drawer. Apparently, the take was too small, so he tied up the store clerk and worked the counter himself for three hours until police showed up and grabbed him.

Did I Say That?
Police in Los Angeles had good luck with a robbery suspect who just couldn’t control himself during a lineup. When detectives asked each man in the lineup to repeat the words, “Give me all your money or I’ll shoot,” the man shouted, “That’s not what I said!”

Are We Not Communicating?
A man spoke frantically into the phone, “My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart!” “Is this her first child?” the doctor asked. “No, you idiot!” the man shouted. “This is her husband!”

Not the Sharpest Knife in the Drawer!
In Modesto, CA, Steven Richard King was arrested for trying to hold up a Bank of America branch without a weapon. King used a thumb and a finger to simulate a gun, but unfortunately, he failed to keep his hand in his pocket.

Cleats

John provides the perfect segue with his comment on yesterdays post “Did you end up getting those cleats for your bike?” because today I took an hour or so off work after lunch to go and get the pedals fitted and to have the “bike fit” done with the new shoes and cleats.

It took a bit longer than expected, but that is a good thing, because I’d rather have it done properly. I was quite impressed with the detail for the fit-out, it even involved using a plumb-line to make sure my knee was in the right place during the pedal stroke etc. He ended up putting my seat up a bit, as he said it was too low.

It took me a little while to get used to “clicking-in” and “clicking-out”, fortunately he was patient.

I got Shimano shoes and pedals, and also bought a decent pedal wrench, because I still think I will put the flats back on for the next triathlon (Feb 17th).

So, I spent all afternoon wishing the rain away (felt a bit guilty about that) so I could get in a ride after work. I got my wish, and headed out for a ride as soon as I got home. I managed to head off and stop and start a few times no problems, then put the pedal to the metal and had a really decent 32km ride in 1:05:20 (about 29.4km/hr), which I was happy with in the windy conditions. During the ride I didn’t need to stop more than about 2-3 times, so didn’t get a lot of practice “clicking” in and out.

I didn’t notice a lot of difference on the fast parts of the course, but certainly found it a lot easier to maintain speed on the slight uphills, but think I need to master the technique for the bigger hills. It was a hard workout, average heart rate 141bpm, about the same as a decent run for me, and 15-20 bpm higher than the average ride for me. I have a bit of “good” soreness in my legs, I guess from the different “pulling up” action you get with the cleats, rather than just pushing down.

There were two main “feelings” the cleats gave me. The first was that I definitely felt a little more “in danger” or “exposed” and was therefore a little more cautious (I guess that is a good thing) – it was always in the back of my mind that I wouldn’t be able to quickly stick the foot down if anything happened. The second feeling, and I hope you won’t think I’m being pretentious here, is that it made me feel even more “at one with the bike”. When I got the road bike, I said that was how it made me feel, sort of like you are a part of the bike, rather than riding a hunk of metal, well with the cleats, that feeling is accentuated.

So, overall, after one ride – feeling happy with the cleats, but it will take a while to be totally comfortable – and I guess only a matter of time before the first “cleat related accident”.

If anyone knows of any good references on the net for correct pedalling technique I’d appreciate being pointed in the right direction.

Oh, and the girls had a good 37-34 scrapping win last night – with the lead changing a number of times in the second half. A good way to start the year of basketball.

I’m also interested fellow bloggers, when you are blogging, do you read others’ blogs first then do your own post, or the other way round?

No swim, slept in

I was planning another swim this morning, but I’m afraid when the alarm went off at 5am, I just pressed snooze and went back to sleep.

The only highlight at work was our weekly weigh-in – I was sure I would have been heavier than last week, but despite all those deserts the other night, I was 400g lighter.

Tonight I went for a run, which was another terrible one, I’ve decided I’m definitely not a hot weather runner. I got a side stitch (which is rare for me), and struggled with my breathing a bit, and walked a bit towards the end. I had planned to run for an hour and hoped for about 12km, but it ended up being just under 9km in just over 50 minutes (5:42 pace). When I got home I did one of my home workouts.

The girls have their first basketball game for the year later tonight – we have a couple missing (including Kate who is still out of action because of her knee), I hope the rest turn up and remember how to play!

A swim and a ride

A 70 lap (1.75km) swim this morning before work, a 29km bike ride at a reasonable average pace (just over 28km/hr) around the suburban streets after work, and a pretty normal but uninspiring day at work in between.

I was a bit annoyed though because Voj has organised a weekly running training session for the three of us on the tri team and tonight was the first one, but the boss pulled a late meeting on us and I was at work until 6pm so I missed it.