Slight Stumble

I had a massage last night, or should I say 'torture session'. While I'm very confident that it is doing a lot of good for me, it is excruciatingly painful.

Knowing that my legs were in such bad shape, I instructed the masseur to only work below the waist and skip the back, neck and shoulders. She started on my calf muscles as they were in the worst condition. So bad that she strongly suggested dry needling, a suggestion I decided to pass on (I really hate dry needling). The tight knots in my calf muscles are also causing issues with my achilles, plantar fascia and possibly even my shins. After surviving the work on my calf and achilles I thought the worst was over - I was wrong. Even though the other muscles were in slightly better condition (the emphasis on slightly), being larger muscles means more nerve endings and therefore more pain (at least that's my theory). Once the pain threshold passes unbearable, it is difficult to gauge different levels of pain. However I think the glutes were probably the worst, closely followed by the hamstrings and then quads and ITB. In contradiction to my 'large muscle/more pain theory', the plantar fascia massage felt like she was using a knife - maybe I just have sensitive feet.

When I got home, Elaine was complaining about a sore lower back. So I shared the pain by giving her a massage. Elaine also discovered that her hamstrings and calf muscles were also very tight. She hasn't decided whether or not she appreciates the massage yet.

This morning my calf muscles were still in trauma and the rest of my legs weren't much better. Even tightening the drawstring on my bathers caused pain through the top of my glutes. Whenever I kicked in the pool it felt like someone had inserted small bricks into my calf muscles. I cannot imagine how I would have felt if I tried to go for a run.

We were running late after swimming and I was in big danger of missing my train. As Elaine dropped me off, the boom gates went down indicating the train was approaching. I charged across the road and ran down the tunnel that goes under the tracks to the station. Having to dodge around a guy handing out election leaflets, I stumbled on the downhill and landed on my outstretched hands, sliding a foot or so along the rough bitumen. After a second or two of shock (and a fair bit of pain), I picked myself up and continued to the railway platform only to discover that the boom gates went down for a train going the other way. My train had already left a minute or so ago.

I washed my hands in the toilet basin as best I could and then hopped on the next train. Sitting quietly on the train with my fingers pressed together in a prayer like gesture, the blood slowly dripped from my hands creating a small pool of blood on the floor of the carriage. Not that anybody else in the crowded train seemed to care.

At Richmond station (where I change trains), I took the following photos. As you can tell, the right hand is significantly worse than the left. With the training camp coming up this weekend, I was planning to do more swimming this week. That plan is now gone, hopefully my hands will have healed enough for me to still swim on Friday morning. And hopefully I'll be able to fit my cycling gloves on for the 3 days of riding in the mountains.

Easy Weekend

After Thursday night's run, I pulled up quite sore in the shins. Despite my many areas of injury and soreness, I rarely experience problems with my shins. So I decided to completely skip any running for the weekend.

Saturday morning I was coaching a ride/run session (often referred to as a brick session). It involved a one hour ride followed by a 24 minute run, completed up to 3 times. Most of the athletes were riding 30km and running 6km each set, therefore a session total of 90km on the bike and 18km running (a very big session, less than half the athletes completed all 3 sets). Even without my shin soreness, I could not have completed that much running at my current level of conditioning, but it is a session I look forward to doing in the future. As coach I needed to lock up the clubrooms after the last rider left and have it unlocked again before they returned. I also needed to stay and mind over the gear and bikes whilst everyone was running. I managed to sneak in a 40 minute ride during the first two sets, so a total of 38km. Not as much as I would have liked, but probably good me for to give my body a rest. Ironically, combined with Wednesday's ride to and from work and the 45km ride on Sunday, this week ended up being my biggest cycling mileage of the season so far (which says more about how little cycling I've done since Ironman).

The distance was not really enough to assess the new Cobb saddle, although I think it is the longest I have ridden on it. My current assessment remains the same - better than the previous saddles, but still not completely comfortable. I think the biggest question is how well will it go on a 3 hour ride - we'll have to wait and see.

With the big training camp in Bright next weekend, Elaine still needed more practice riding in the hills, so we headed to the Dandenongs (a good way to avoid the hordes of riders doing Around the Bay). Elaine managed to climb Mt Dandenong from the bottom to the top. Starting with Devil's Elbow (steeper than what she'll do in Bright), we continued up to Sky High (with photos to prove it). We then descended via the 1 in 20, a much nicer (less steep) descent than the Devil's Elbow.

The weather remained good for our ride, although a little cold in places. As we approached our car parked in Ferntree Gully the wind started to noticeably pick up. Mid afternoon it rained fairly consistently and we even got hail as evening approached. During these deteriorating weather conditions I watched a fairly constant stream of cyclists pass by our house as they neared the finish of the Around the Bay in Day ride (210km). Elaine and I have done this ride twice before and I doubt we'll ever do it again. Watching the riders struggle home in the rain, cold and wind only re-enforced our idea to avoid this particular event.

This morning we have several friends competing in the Age Group World Championships in Auckland. The Sprint Distance race has already been completed, but the Olympic Distance is still in progress as I write this. The Club's head coach Clint was hoping to win his age group (which he did in Beijing last year), but only managed 6th place this year. Bill managed 28th position in his age group after tearing his groin muscle about 6 weeks out and then breaking his toe and cracking his tailbone about 3 weeks out.

Nursing the Body through

My body is in desperate need of a massage, but funds are a bit low at the moment so I'm to train without antagonising my muscles too much.

So far this week has been relatively easy. Monday night Elaine and I jogged a slow 2.7km recovery run and then stood waist deep in the bay for 10 minutes to add to the recovery affect. Recently there has been a few warmer days and the temperature of the bay has noticeably improved, unfortunately standing in the bay works better when it is colder.

Elaine missed the Tuesday morning swim due to another interstate work trip. A pity, because the weather made it feel like summer and half through the session 5 or so hot air balloons slowly drifted overhead. They were so low, it looked like they were sent to spy on our training session. The swim sessions themselves are often 3.5 to 4km in distance and I never complete the session due to fatigue or time constraints. With Elaine absent, the time constraints were now gone and I was keen to see how much of the session I could get through. Ironically it was an unusually easy day and the full session ended up only being 2.8km. Less than I usually do, but I still finished feeling pretty tired.

Wednesday was Ride To Work Day. Again Elaine missed out due to still being interstate. The Hawthorn Velodrome on the Gardiners Creek Trail is only about 200m past my usual turnout, but Wednesday morning they were offering free food and coffee to all cyclists, so I happily made a small detour. The food was plentiful and tasty and the coffee (from a coffee van) was delicious and served in a huge cup - very much worth the detour. After eating a beautiful (and very large) fruit scone and finishing my coffee I continued the last 2km to work where I enjoyed another treat of muffins and croissants put on for those who rode to work. The total mileage to and from work was just over 70km.

Tonight I'm coaching a run session. Hopefully I'll get in 8 or so kilometres myself. Friday morning will be the usual swim and then I'm coaching a ride/run session on Saturday.

The Saturday session involves 3 one hour rides, each followed by a 30 minute run. I don't intend to do much running, but I'll use the ride portions to further test the new Cobb saddle on my tri-bike.

A Weekend of Almosts

The weekend started with a wetsuit swim at the pool. After a 500m warmup and 2x50m practice starts (over 30 swimmers in 2 lanes with the middle lane rope removed), we had a 1500m Time Trial. I was expecting 4x50m practise starts and what I thought was the 3rd start turned out to be the beginning of the 1500m TT. So I didn't take note of the start time and therefore do not know how long it took me to swim the 1500m.

I was aiming to break 25 minutes for the 1500m and I believe I was pretty close (but will never know). I swam really well, easily passing swimmers I usually struggle to keep up with when swimming without a wetsuit. However I started to struggle in the last 200m. It was a little disappointing not to stay strong for the full distance, but I was extremely happy with my form for the first 1300m.

Straight after the swim we headed out for a 3 hour ride. The first 20km was ridden at a reasonable pace aided by a nice tailwind. Turning at Mordialloc I hammered it into the headwind back to Port Melbourne with an ever increasing pack forming behind me. Most of the other riders in the group continued onto Frankston, but I dislike this section of road and didn't fancy the idea of riding into a headwind all the way back from Frankston. A very sound idea, unfortunately by the time we reached Port Melbourne the wind had turned and it was a headwind from Port Melbourne back to Brighton. This also meant that those who continued onto Frankston ended up with a tailwind in both directions.

My plan was to do a hard 80km. The ride ended up being 78km, but I ran out of steam after 60km (partly due to the headwind both ways) and cruised the last 20km back to GESAC. Also the intended 3 hour ride ended up being only 2.5 hours of actual riding time.

On Sunday I snuck away from the Hawaii Ironman coverage to fit in a 15.6km run. For the first 13km I felt fantastic, effortlessly running at or below 5m20s pace whilst keeping my heart rate around 137bpm. Unfortunately the in last 2.8km my form and pace fell away and my pace dropped to 5m46s per kilometre for the same heart rate.

In summary, I almost held a good pace for the entire 1500m swim, I almost maintained a great intensity for the length of the 78km ride and almost felt great for full distance of the long run. A simple solution is more mileage.

My current condition would be perfect for a Sprint distance race, OK for an Olympic Distance, but still underdone for a Half Ironman. The Geelong Half Ironman isn't till February, so I've still got plenty of time.

Sleep Walking

I have been sleep deprived for the last 8 days, rising from bed 6 times at 5am or early:
- 5am: Friday morning swim
- 4:45am: Saturday Kinglake ride
- 5am: Sunday Duathlon (Elaine raced)
- 6am: sleep in before work
- 5am: Tuesay morning swim
- 6am: sleep in before work
- 4am: Thursday dropping off Elaine for flight to Sydney
- 5am: Friday morning swim

I usually try and get to bed before 9:30pm, unfortunately this has not happened once in the last week. In fact I've been lucky to have been in bed before 11pm.

Tomorrow morning I'll be up early again for an early morning swim and Sunday morning I'll be up early to follow the Hawaii Ironman (World Championships) via the Internet.

After the hard ride on Saturday and a season longest run of 15km on Sunday I decided to take a slightly easier week. A good decision in hindsight considering the lack of sleep.

I'll ramp training back up this weekend with a swim and 3 hour ride on Saturday followed by a 16km run on Sunday. This should give me about 8.5km swimming (3rd time in 4 weeks that my swimming mileage will be over 8km), 80km cycling and 30km of running, all up around 10 hours. Not bad for an easy week.

Kinglake Ride 2012

Last year it was cold, very windy, raining and hail. This year they moved the date from Winter to Spring and it was only raining and a little bit cold.

Last year I entered the shorter 70km ride and registered myself in the fastest group (red wrist band), unfortunately I was the only rider to do this and completed the entire event by myself. This year I entered the longer 115km event and registered myself in the second fastest group (green wrist band). Numbers seemed to be down this year after several years of bad weather and there were only 2 riders with red bands and about 20 with green bands. When I first rode this event with my friend Peter several years ago, there seemed to be countless top riders and it was an effort to stay in the peleton. Today the front group comprised of weekend warriors with a little bike ability, with possibly 2 riders of any actual talent. I've posted photos taken from the event website. Neither Elaine nor I feature in any of the photos. They obviously selected groups that were not wearing vests over the event jersey, so even the above start photo is from the 70km ride (an hour after mine), as every rider in the front group of the long ride was wearing a vest.

The lead pack of about 20 took off and immediately set a cracking pace. Every time I looked down at my computer we were doing around 45kph. This was a fair bit faster than I expected, but it was pretty easy holding on at the back, I suspect we were also being assisted by a tailwind. As different riders took their turns at the front, the pace slowed a little and we tended to settle between high 30's and low 40's. The early part of the ride contains a lot of small rolling hills, none of the climbs were significant but some of the descents were quite fast. In the first 20km, it was actually the descents that whittled the pack down leaving only 7 riders from the original number of around 20.

With the smaller pack and the major hill getting closer, the speed dropped off considerably. Ironically it tended to be the descents where I had to put in the effort to stay with the group. The main hill is referred to as the Will Walker (or Kinglake) climb. Before this hill is a steeper but much shorter climb. I was surprised to notice most of the riders appeared to struggle a little up this hill, which made me think I might fare well up the main hill.

Once we started the main hill, a younger rider shot to the front. Expecting him to make a charge I quickly moved into position behind him, but disappointingly he just set a tempo pace. I found this pace a little slow, so after 100m or so I took over the lead and set a pace more to my liking, hoping that I would dislodge most of the other riders. Sitting around 310 watts, 98 rpm, 160 bpm and 22 kph, I felt pretty comfortable. Unfortunately I could still sense riders behind me, but I was confident I could hold this effort level for the entire climb (could they ?).

2km into the climb and my effort faltered just slightly. I probably dropped 1kph, but this was enough of a sign for the rider behind me to take over the lead. He didn't ride much faster than me, but I didn't think I had it in me to follow him at that pace, especially with 5km of climbing still to go. Seeing my hesitation, the next rider jumped onto the lead rider quickly leaving a gap to me in 3rd. A quick look over my shoulder saw one other rider about 40m back and clear road behind him. Knowing that I had decimated the pack made me feel better. Having lost the chance of being first up the climb, I figured 3rd place would still be a great achievement.

Another kilometre into the ride and my calf muscle was starting to cramp. Slowing down slightly eased the pain, but it returned any time I started to redeliver the power. This slight drop in pace allowed the trailing rider to slowly bridge the gap. He caught me and we rode together for a while until the gradient started to rise. I knew this steeper section was coming and had deliberately not been riding in my lowest gear - it is depressing when the road gets steeper and you are already in your lowest gear. The other rider seemed to struggle a little on this steeper section and dropped back behind me.

Disaster, a puncture in my rear tyre. I don't know how long it had been going down, but climbing was becoming more difficult and a quick check of my tyres showed the rear had definitely lost pressure - bummer. It was too cold to remove my gloves, so the change of tubes was probably a little slower than it should have been. I examined the tyre and found the culprit - it looked like a small piece of slate (it fell off my finger before I got a good look). Getting rid of the reason for a puncture is important, otherwise the same thorn or piece of glass will simply puncture the next tube as well. The next rider was at least a minute behind me, but it took me 10 minutes to change tubes, so there were 30 or 40 riders ahead of me by the time I got started again. The extra 10 minutes are also included in the Strava segment, so despite having a quicker riding time (21m02s) than last year (42s quicker), I didn't improve my Strava standings.

Having only packed one spare tube I decided it would be unwise to continue on the longer ride without a spare. So at the top of the hill I took the turn for the shorter 70km ride. It was raining and I haven't been doing any long training rides recently, so chances are I would have taken the shorter option anyway (although 3rd place may have encouraged me to continue), but using the lack of spare tubes excuse sounds much better.

The official 70km ride starts 1 hour after the longer 115km ride. I arrived back at the finish way too early. There was no commentator, no photographer and they were still filling the show bags. So I just quietly snuck through and racked my bike. Luckily one of the officials noticed me and gave me a show bag. I spoke to the organiser Dave Hanson after the ride and he said I should have simply called the support vehicle for a spare tube - but that would not have overcome the lack of training, the cold and rain and the fact that I was over 10 minutes behind the leaders.

On the event website they have the first two riders from the 115km ride - the same two that rode away from me on the climb, as well as a photo of the first two 70km riders (who I'm confident would have been slower than me even with my 10 min pitstop). Last year I was officially the first rider home in the 70km ride, but no photo. I shouldn't be complaining, because I don't like my photo being shown (despite occasionally posting them on this blog). It's funny how you feel disappointed at missing out, despite not wanting want you are missing.

Elaine had an excellent ride. She chose the 70km ride option, but on my advice snuck into the last wave of the 115km ride (which left 1 hour before her official wave) so that she wouldn't finish too late. Even amongst the riders doing the longer option (who are typically stronger riders) she still managed to pass a few up the big hill. Elaine certainly didn't find the ride easy (it is not suppose to be), but hopefully she'll have enough energy left to race the Duathlon tomorrow. I'm not silly enough to attempt this sort of lunacy, but then again I'm not looking to win the series (which involves good prizes).

Surviving

It didn't feel like much, but this was my biggest training week of season. Just over 11 hours (235 slowtwitch points) - 2 swims (6.2km), 3 rides (150km) and 4 runs (32km) which included a long run of 14km.

The week also included a lot of stretching, single leg squats, foam rolling, spikey balls and rolling golf balls under the foot for my tight plantar fascia. All my muscles still feel tight - plantar fascia, calf, achilles, hamstrings, quads and glutes. It feels like I am only an extra kilometre away from injury. However I rarely felt any issues during the sessions themselves, it was more a case of being very stiff afterwards.

I deliberately backed off the week's run mileage in an effort to release the stress on the muscles. It appears to have worked, but I still need to be very careful over the next few weeks.

Of the week's sessions, I was most happy with my long run (14km) this morning. The general plan is to increase the distance of my long run by one kilometre each week. However my long run hit the 14km mark 7 weeks ago and then stalled at this point. This week was the first time I finished the run feeling like I could run further.

You can't win them all (especially if you don't participate)

My original intention for last weekend was to race a 10km Fun Run. After clocking up less run mileage than hoped I decided I would instead aim for a good time in the 5km (was hoping for 18m45s). When my foot played up the week before at the Kew Duathlon, I started having second thoughts about any Fun Run.

Elaine wanted to race the Duathlon at Knox. If I was skipping the fun run because of injury, it would be pretty silly to do a Duathlon instead, so I went for a hilly ride in the Dandenongs.

Now that the results have been published for all the weekend races, it appears that I would have scored some good results had I competed. In the Duathlon I would have won my age group by 10 minutes and finished top 10 overall. The winner in my Age Group of the 5km Fun Run (and 5th overall) finished in 18m38s, only 7 seconds faster than my target time and a big gap to second place. I would have also needed a great race to score a win in the 10km (38m48s), but would have easily snared 2nd place having to only beat a time of 40m47s.

Despite these missed opportunities, I'm planning to skip the next Duathlon as well. Elaine will be racing, as she only needs to finish to take the series win (I've checked and it is mathematically impossible for me to win the series this year).

The problem is that Elaine and I will both be doing the Kinglake ride the day before and I really don't think my body can handle 2 tough days in a row. Time will tell how well Elaine's body copes.

Sore Feet and Clear Skies

Since we've moved house and I've changed jobs, it has become more difficult to squeeze in Massage appointments. In my old job I worked from home 2 days a week and my local masseur (Burkey, AKA Elbows of Pain) was only 3km away. Now I have no days working from home and the masseur is no longer local, being about 20km from home and similar distance from work. As a result I did not have my usual pre-race massage before the last Duathlon, no doubt a contributing factor to the foot problem I suffered in the race.

With my foot still sore and most of my leg muscles very stiff and sore, I made an appointment with a different masseur walking distance from my work. She managed to inflict more pain than Burkey, something I didn't think was possible, although maybe this was more a result of the state my muscles were in. I think I felt more bruised and sore after the massage than I did after the race. But 4 days after the massage and my muscles felt 100 times better for the experience (the mental scarring may take longer to recover).

The new masseur's diagnosis of my foot pain was extremely tight plantar fascia. She does not believe I have the dreaded planter fasciitis, but will have if I don't take steps to keep the plantar fascia loose. This means lots of rolling the feet over golf balls - a little painful when the plantar fascia is very tight, but nothing compared to the massage.

My original plan was to race a 5km Fun Run this Sunday. The masseur suggested it would be OK, but I decided to err on the side of safety and took a week off from running. Instead I did 4 swim sessions during the week and a velodrome session on Saturday.

Elaine wanted to race the Knox Duathlon. Being situated at the foot of the Dandenongs, I decided to ride in the Dandenongs whilst she raced. Wanting to be back before she finished the Duathlon, I wasn't able to do all the climbs I would have liked. But just as well, because I felt pretty wrecked after climbing 'The Devil's Elbow', 'Sky High' and 'The 1 in 20' (most of the climbs in the Dandenongs have nicknames). In total the ride ended up being 57km long and I made it back in plenty of time to see Elaine win her age group yet again. You can see more details of the ride in the Strava plug-in below.

You may remember that I posted a photo taken at Sky High 2 weeks ago during thick cloud cover. Today the skies were clear and below is a photo of the view (unfortunately the camera on my phone doesn't do it justice)

I also went out for a 10km run this afternoon. Unfortunately I only made it 9km before my knee started hurting (walked the last kilometre home). The hilly ride would have slightly inflamed my knee, so I shouldn't be surprised that my run was cut short. At least my feet were OK on the run.

Kew Duathlon

Kew Boulevard is a tough course. Only one nasty hill on the run (that you do 4 times), but there is no flat - you are either climbing or descending.

We arrived early (just before 6:30am) and scored a great park in the Studley Park Boathouse carpark right next to the Race Village (next best parking spots were almost 1km away). This made registration, pre-race toilet stops and warmups so much easier. Getting the bike warmup out of the way early at Kew has the extra benefit of scoring a good transition spot. At Kew the bike racks are setup in one very long line. The closer you can rack to the top end of transition, the less distance you have to run in socks (or bare feet) on very rough ground (road with loose gravel). Elaine decided to tackle this problem by putting on her bike shoes in transition (instead of having them attached to the bike) and as a result has wrecked the cleats on her shoes (in addition to having slow transition times).

I've had back issues all week, and it seemed to get worse as the week progressed. Race morning I could barely run, but I knew if I managed to get everything warmed up I'd be OK. During the warmup run it started to loosen up. I decided to test running up the hill which is on a narrow, single track, cross country trail. Any sudden change of direction to avoid exposed roots or muddy ground caused spikes of pain - not very confidence inspiring.

The aforementioned single track hill is located about 1km into the run leg (and again at the 3km mark). It is almost impossible to pass competitors up this hill (about 200m long), so getting a good position before the hill is important. With this in mind, I witnessed the fastest ever start to a Duathlon (and they usually start ridicously fast). Watching the runners ahead dart through the chicane from the carpark to the dirt trail was like watching formula one cars - they all took the corners at unbelievable speed with no slowing down whatsoever. After 500m or so I started picking off a few competitors, but the pace still slowed dramatically once we reached the hill. Too many competitors ahead of me that got too carried away with the fast start and could not maintain the effort up the hill. Rather than be annoyed, I was quite thankful for ease in pace. My main aim for the race was to beat friends Aurel and Martin, Martin was behind me and Aurel was only 2 competitors ahead of me - so the slightly slower pace came as a welcome relief. Once atop the hill I was able to find a good pace and rhythm. Aurel and I exchanged positions a few times until I finally established a small gap in the last kilometre.

With both Aurel and Martin behind me (and neither Peter racing), I wondered if I could maintain focus on the bike (no one to chase). Luckily a rider passed me in the first few hundred metres, he had been shadowing me on the run and now we would complete the bike leg together. He was faster on the downhills and I was faster than the climbs, so we continually exchanged positions. With transition being at the top of a hill, I led into T2, but as soon as I dismounted I discovered a major issue with my foot. It felt like somebody had dropped a piano on it. My initial thought was that it was either a stress fracture or a really bad cramp, either way I wasn't sure what I had done to cause this problem.

My immediate instinct was to pull out of the race, but the knowledge that I had a good lead over Aurel and Martin encouraged me to keep going. The pain slowly disappated and on the second lap I no longer felt any discomfort. But the run itself was very slow, probably my worst ever run off the bike in a Duathlon (or any race). Several hours after the race the pain has returned. It feels like I have strained the muscles in my foot. Possibly a consequence of still running in my 5 year old racing flats or the affects of running on a rough cross country track. I bought replacement racing flats about 2 years ago, but have continued to use my old ones that just feel so comfortable. Ironically my back feels better now that it did before the race and I have not noticed any issues with my injured knee.

Elaine had a good race, especially considering she's been sick for the last 2 weeks. Once again she won her age group. I scored a third place in my age group, my third 3rd place on this course from 3 attempts.  Martin won his age group but unfortunately Aurel didn't make the podium. An ex-pro triathlete Jan Rehula (won the bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics) raced in the M3539 category (luckily he's younger than me) and won his age group, but only managed 7th place overall.

Comparing my results to last season (same course, same date). First run was 4m08s pace compared to 4m12s last year. Bike was 34.7kph compared to 33.7kph last year. Disappointingly my second run was 4m35s compared to 4m14s last year - I'm hoping this is purely due to my foot injury.

As for the new Cobb Saddle, before the race I lowered the front fractionally. The new seat was definitely better than any of my previous saddles. I still seemed to experience sore bits, but they never escalated like they used to. I think I need a lot longer ride to get a better idea. Elaine's saddle felt a little better, but she also wore new Rocket Science tri-shorts, so it is difficult to determine whether it was a result of the shorts or the saddle.

Cobb Saddles (first ride)

Third time lucky, I finally made it to Velodrome at lunchtime today to test out the new Cobb Saddle. As you can see from the photos below, I have fitted the Plus model (Elaine now has the VFlow model on her bike).


Triathlon bikes are designed for aerodynamics and one of the ways they achieve this is a forward seating position that flattens out the back. An unfortunate consequence of this position is that you are no longer sitting on the nice cushy part of your bum. Instead you are now tilted forward and sitting on a slightly different and less comfortable part of the anatomy. Unlike Time Trials which are usually quite short (even in the Tour de France they are usually less than an hour), the bike leg in a long distance triathlon is a long time to sit in an uncomfortable position. As a result, companies like ISM and Cobb has taken a new approach to saddles for triathlon bikes. I believe John Cobb helped design the ISM saddles before making his own Cobb branded ones.

My new saddle has a large cutout and the sections either side of this cutout are relatively soft. There is a dip at the front designed to allow air flow through the gap and keep things fresh and the entire seat is quite narrow to avoid chafing and help release pressure on the hamstrings.

Being my lunch break, I didn't have a lot of time to play with. So I figured 30 minutes on the velodrome should be long enough to get an initial position that I can use for the upcoming Duathlon this Sunday.

The initial feel was better than my previous seat but not great. After 15 minutes I stopped, moved the seat a touch forward and tilted it down at the front. This instantly removed all discomfort, but it quickly became obvious that the tilt was too much. Despite it being comfortable, I was sliding off the front. The seat fastener is a little fiddly (on any bike) and it is difficult to make small adjustments outside on a windy day with no sections of level ground. I reduced the tilt as best I could and headed back out. I think I reduced the tilt a little too much, but I ran out of time for more adjustments and the current setting should be fine for this weekend's race.

At the moment it is not the perfect seat. It does feel like a definite improvement and with more adjustment time it may end up solving all my saddle sore issues. If not, Cobb Saddles have a 180 day guarrantee (return for a full refund) and there are several more saddles in the Cobb range to test.

Elaine's Cobb Saddle has been fitted to her road bike (she doesn't have a tri-bike). She rode to work this morning and the jury is still out upon whether it is better than her previous Specialized Body Geometry seat. By the time Elaine gets home from work, we should have a good idea where the problem areas are and will try to make adjustments accordingly.

The VFlow model Elaine has fitted is designed for less aggressive setups (level handlebars and seat) and for riders who do less mileage (less than 100km a week). It is narrow and has a cutout like the Plus model, but is softer and does not have the dip at the front.

In conclusion, the Cobb Saddles are still a work in progress. At the moment my seat looks more promising than Elaine's (she is naturally more difficult), but it is expected that the seats need a bit of dialing in. Stay tuned...

Tune Up

Since the last Duathlon 3 and half weeks ago, all my running has been very slow. I've been keeping everything below my aerobic threshold as I slowly start to build mileage into my legs. I've run just under 40km for the last 2 weeks including 5 consecutive days of running totalling 47km. With the next Duathlon this weekend, I decided another speed session was in order, just so I could remember how to run fast.

I knew the Tuesday night session at the Athletics track involved 4 x 6 min efforts with 2 mins full recovery in between. My intention was to run the first 2 and optionally the third effort if I still felt good. Talking to coach Clint before the session, he suggested the first effort at 5km pace, the 2nd at Half Marathon pace and the 3rd at 10km pace. Clint suggested I also do the 4th effort, but I decided against this.

  5km pace: 1.65km @ 3m37s, HR 169bpm
  Half pace: 1.40km @ 4m13s, HR 162bpm
  10km pace: 1.54km @ 3m59s, HR 165bpm

The 5km pace was probably a fraction fast and I doubt I could have maintained it in a race (would have been a 18m05s 5km). But the Half speed felt ridicously slow and the 10km pace very easy, so I was very happy with the session.

It was also Elaine's first training session after being sick for 2 weeks. She also did 3 sets, I don't know her times, but she appeared to be running very well.

Nice Weekend

Friday evening I was less than a kilometre from the velodrome when the heavens opened up. Whilst sitting in the carpark, I checked the weather radar on my phone and it looked like the storm would last for at least 30 minute. Sunset was due in about 40 minutes, so I gave up on the idea of a ride to test out the new Cobb Saddle and headed home.
I was still feeling quite stiff from the week's training load and missing the velodrome session was probably a good thing. A quick check of the training diary showed that I had run 47km in the 5 days from Sunday to Thursday, so there was a fairly good reason why I was feeling so sore. Saturday morning I was still feeling far from great, so I skipped the planned long run and had a rest day instead - I love rest days on the weekend.
Sunday morning was a Triathlon Club ride in the Dandenongs (hilly ride), something I had been looking forward to for weeks. I had missed the last Dandenongs ride due to feeling too sore, which is big reason for why I skipped the long run on Saturday.
It had rained a fair bit Saturday night, so the roads were wet, but it wasn't raining as we started the ride and the mercury was edging over 10C, so it wasn't overly cold either. Judging what to wear in the Dandenongs is always tricky. It is a rainforest, so will always be a few degrees colder. The climbs are usually steep and long enough to make you very warm, but the descents can get very cold. I wore leg warmers, arm warmers and a vest which I found to be perfect, but there were others in the group who were similarly dressed and still complained about being cold.
This time we rode up the Mt Dandenong Tourist Rd over a section commonly referred to as 'Devil's Elbow'. This route leaves the Tourist Rd and goes up Churchill Rd and then returns to the Tourist Rd via One Tree Hill. The small detour has less traffic and steeper hills. We regrouped at Sassafras before continuing on to Montrose. The group split into 2 and the faster riders detoured up to the Mt Dandenong Lookup, the highest point in the Dandenongs. This lookup usually provides one of the best views in Melbourne, but on this occasion we were in deep cloud cover and could barely see 10 metres in front of us. Below is a photo taken by one of the riders.

The descent was a little hairy. Very steep, wet roads and I could barely see a thing. Luckily the rider in front was wearing a bright yellow jacket which I could follow. He also had a rear flashing red light, but the fog was so thick, I never noticed it until we got lower. The road descended all the way to Montrose and it felt like a very long descent (I'm told it was 8km). Of course I realised we would have to ride back up this hill.
The group divided at Montrose with the majority taking a easier route back via Canterbury Rd, leaving just 7 of us to tackle the climb back to Sassafras. As often happens, the climb seemed shorter than the descent (I'm a better climber than descender). We again detoured towards the Lookup and it is much steeper in this direction. At Sassafras we turned and returned back via the descent down the 1 in 20 (Mountain Hwy). I quite like this descent. The road surface is excellent (but often wet), there are lots of sweeping bends and the hairpins are well sign posted. Strangely enough, Strava reports my descent time as 9m46s (41kph) - same time to the second as the last time I descended in June.
Overall I was very happy with how I rode. I felt good on all the climbs and felt strong to the finish. I didn't think I overly exerted myself, but my power file showed some fantastic figures including a best 20 mins of 313 watts.
My bike had been serviced mid week. New battery for the power meter, new pedals, a good clean and bright new white bar tape. After the ride, everyones' bike, including mine was absolutely filthy.
Having gone 2 days without any running, I did an easy 4km run Sunday afternoon. I then spent 10 minutes standing mid thigh deep in the bay. The water was quite cold, but it was definitely more comfortable than having an ice bath. This was the first time I've stood in the bay this season, mainly because it is the first time the sea has been calm enough to do this.
I still haven't tested the new Cobb Saddle on my tri-bike yet. I'm planning to race another Duathlon this Sunday, so hopefully I'll get in a test ride before then.

Zonked

The weather turned on Wednesday with wild storms causing damage throughout Melbourne. Wisely I decided against riding into work, plus I wanted to stay relatively fresh for Sunday's ride in the Dandenongs. Unfortunately even without the commute to work, I've been feeling anything but fresh.

Another easy recovery run after work on Wednesday night went well. But my lunchtime run on Thursday was terrible. Aches, pains and a general feeling of legarthy dominated the start of the run and then it got worse. On the way back I felt like I hadn't eaten for days. My heart rate was low, mostly under 130, but my pace was even lower - averaging only 6m20s per kilometre for the 10km.

After stuffing myself with food in the afternoon (energy bar, lunch, apple, yoghurt, nuts, coffee, muffin and a chocolate brownie) and a large portion of lasagna for tea, I was feeling much better for the run session I had to coach Thursday night. During the coaching session I ran another 4km, small sections at a fast pace whilst trying correct athletes' running technique (usually arm position). Running whilst coaching felt good, but as I got ready for swimming Friday morning I could feel all of those extra 4km in my legs - I still managed to do 3.3km in the pool (biggest session so far this season).

In the last 2 weeks I've only increased my training slightly, but I'm definitely noticing the extra load. Hopefully my body will transition quickly to the slightly extra mileage, but I am going to have to tread lightly.

On Wednesday, the new Cobb Saddles arrived (a week after ordering them). I've put the new saddle on the tri-bike and I'm planning to do a quick velodrome session tonight (weather permitting). The new seat is an ugly looking thing, lets hope it feels better than it looks. I'll provide photos and a quick review in the next post.

Beautiful Day

Sping has arrived. The weather on Monday was good, on Tuesday it was even better.

It was a lovely 15'C Tuesday morning as I swam in the GESAC outdoor pool. Easily the best weather I've experienced since we started swimming there. Unfortunately Elaine missed out on this beautiful day, as she is still sick at home.

My Sunday long run was cut short due to leg pain. It began with my left hip around the 10km mark. I decided to ignore the pain and continue running, but as soon as I felt pain in my knee at the 13.7km, I stopped and walked the last 1.3km back to my house. Despite the shortened run I was still pleased with the session. My pace and heart rate were indicating definite improvement in my aerobic fitness - travelling at 5m40s per km pace with a heart rate in the mid 130's (previously around 6 min pace). The dream is to eventually improve my pace to flat 5 min pace for the same heart rate - probably kidding myself (briefly got down to 5m20s pace last season).

I followed up Sunday's run with a 4km recovery run on Monday night. The slightly longer daylight hours giving me a chance to run after work on the soft surface of the Seaford trail. Nothing felt great, but it didn't feel bad either.

As previously mentioned, Tuesday was a beautiful day. In anticipation of this I wore a running singlet (had a long sleeve t-shirt on last week) and still felt very warm on the run - I think the temperature reached 22'C. My running pace was back up to 6 min pace, but I'm guessing (hoping) this is simply related to the heat (or lack of cold). Again I didn't really feel great, but not too bad either.

Spring into Training

With Spring starting this week, I decided it was time to start ramping up the training. Possibly bad timing with legs still stiff and sore from the ride last Saturday.

With the daylight now lasting till 6pm, I snuck in a slow 4km recovery run on Monday night. Tuesday was the usual 3km squad swim in the morning and an easy 10km at lunchtime. On Wednesday I rode to and from work (round trip 70km), unfortunately the trip to work was into a nasty headwind (trip home was 20 minutes quicker). Another easy 10km lunchtime run on Thursday. Unfortunately I missed my usual swim on Friday, Elaine was sick and the rain was pelting down - not ideal for a swim in an outdoor pool.

Saturday morning was swimming time trials (in a wetsuit) followed by a Velodrome session. My 2 swimming time trials were:
  900m 14m25s @ 1m36s per 100m
  900m 14m35s @ 1m37s per 100m
This was a significant improvement over last time (700m in 12m50s @ 1m50s per 100m), but I didn't wear a wetsuit last time, so it is difficult to compare.

In the Velodrome session, my legs were still not recovered from the Bayside Classic.  They felt very heavy from the start, but somehow I still managed some OK time trials.
  10.86km 16m01s @ 40.6kph
  10.82km 16m01s @ 40.5kph
I was supposed to do a 3rd time trial, but I was feeling pretty stuffed and my saddle sores were playing up. While my times had not improved since the last Velodrome time trials in July (40.4kph, 40.9kph & 40.4kph), I was still happy with how the session went.

Wednesday night I ordered 2 Cobb Saddles over the Internet -the Plus model for me and the Vflow for Elaine. I've heard good reports and hopefully they'll solve my saddle sore issues.  Unfortunately they didn't arrive before the weekend.

Bayside Classic

The week started off easy as I recovered from last Sunday's Duathlon, but hit full speed as I participated in the first edition of the Bayside Classic - organised by the Bayside Triathlon Club. The ride was 120km and contained several Intermediate Sprints and King of the Moutains (KOM). Points were available for the first 4 riders past each Sprint and KOM point. Each one had a starting point about 1 kilometre before, so you could not break away early and steal the points.
With very little riding mileage in my legs, I knew 120km would be too far. So I decided to join the ride as it got close to my house and finish at my house on the way home - this would result in a ride of under 90km. This would obviously mean I would miss the final sprint, but I'd still get a chance to participant in some Sprints and all the KOMs.
After coming fifth in the first sprint (one place out of the points), I managed to get on the scoreboard with a 4th place on the Oliver's Hill KOM (600m @ 6.5%). I did one better on Balcombe Hill (2.4km @ 4.1%) with a 3rd place and managed another 4th place climbing up Arthur's Seat (2.8km @ 8.7%).
I was never intending to climb Arthur's Seat. It is very steep with several sections over 10% gradient and I was worried it would flare up my knee injury. However as I approached, my resolve to skip the climb weakened. When the peleton continued up the hill, I simply followed. I started off easy with no intention of fighting for KOM points, but other riders slowly dropped away. Riding a hill that steep was always going to take a lot out of my legs, but I still felt reasonably good.
After Arthur's Seat we headed back towards Mornington. I love the twisty, undulating roads along the cliffs in Mt Martha, but right near the start we encountered a detour leading us up Bradford Rd. This unexpected detour involved a 1.8km climb at an average of 6.6% gradient. Not a huge climb, but I think the unexpected nature of it made it worse, plus it was one of those hills that just kept going. Bradford Rd continued all the way back to Nepean Hwy which meant we would miss the last KOM at Beleura Hill. Not that I would have scored any points, the mileage we had covered and the extra hardship of the detour hill had left my legs with nothing. I was dropped by the peleton before we reached Mornington and rode home with one other rider from the group.
All up I was extremely happy with the ride. It was well organised over a great course with well positioned Sprints and KOMs. I missed the last 3 sprints after being dropped, but that gives me extra incentive to get into better shape before the next event. And my power file showed some great figures, the sort of effort I cannot duplicate in a normal ride.
After the ride I was completely wrecked. All my muscles felt fatigued, but I don't believe I suffered any injuries. Today I managed a slow 14km run. Again I felt fatigued but not overly sore.
Below is the Strava details for the Bayside Classic Ride:

Review of the Rocket Science Race Belt

Race belts are used to hold race numbers, an alternative to attaching them to your top with safety pins. The photo to the right shows my new Rocket Science Race Belt holding the race number from the Duathlon on the weekend.

Most Short course Triathlons (Mini, Sprint & Olympic) do not use race numbers. Instead they rely on arm numbering. However nearly all Duathlons and Long Course Triathlons do have use race number bibs. In fact it is not unusual for the Long Course Triathlons to use two separate race number bibs - one for the bike leg and a different one for the run. The two race number bibs will have the same number, but advertise a different sponsor. In these races I need 2 race belts.

The next two photos show my previous two race belts. They are different styles with the Fuel Belt one using toggles and the other one using press studs - I've had problems with both.

The press studs can be very difficult to snap together through the race bib material. Generally you need to align the press stud exactly over the hole in the bib - but I always find the race bib is wider than the gaps between the press studs.

The toggles are extremely easy to attach, but not overly secure - I've lost one in a race. Through experience I've discovered you need to attach the bib rather loosely. If you push the toggles tight up against the belt, the elastic nature of the belt will end up creating too much force against the toggle and shoot it off. Again this is partly a problem of the positioning of the toggles not always matching up against the holes in the race bib. This isn't helped by the fact the belt is elastic, so the length of the gap will depend upon how much the belt is stretched.

Whenever using either of these race belts, I nearly always safety pin the bib to the belt because I simply do not trust the fasteners. Also, using safety pins and ignoring the fasteners allows me to better line up the width of the bib to the belt. But safety pins do not stretch with body movement, so there is still a chance the bib may rip and fall off.

The Rocket Science race belt uses rings to attach the bib. Not only are the rings far more secure, they are also moveable along the belt rather than being fixed in a set position. You can see from the photo that there is a red rubber patch that grips the ring to keep it in place, but you can also place the ring past this rubber patch.  This means I can get a perfect fit regardless of the race bib size. A better fit means that it will also be more aerodynamic when riding on the bike. Flapping clothes or race belts can be one biggest causes of extra drag.

But wait, there's more. As shown in the photo on the left, the Rocket Science race belt also has little loops that can carry gels. In the photo I've shown 3 gels attached to the belt, but it can hold up to the 6 gels. They are securely held, but easily removed by pulling down on the gel.

I have not tried to run with gels in the race belt yet, so cannot truly rate their effectiveness. However I suspect it will be far more convenient than carrying them in back pocket of my tri top. I don't carry gels on the run in Short Course races, but I definitely intend to utilize this feature when I race the Half Ironman at Geelong in February.

Richmond Duathlon

The purpose of this weekend's Duathlon was to see where my speed and fitness was, which would tell me how effective my training has been. The short answer is that I seem to have the speed, but my fitness is certainly lacking. Overall this is better than I expected. My race splits were:

• Run 5km - 19m21s (3m55s pace)
• T1 - 0m35s
• Bike 20km - 31m44s (38.0 kph)
• T2 - 0m28s
• Run 3km - 12m26s (4m08s pace)
• Overall - 1h04m36s

Elaine and I had party in Rosebud on Saturday night. This was always going to mean limited sleep before the race. It wasn't helped when I didn't notice that this race had a later than usual start at 9am (instead of 8am) - Elaine was not happy with me. However the upside was that I scored prime position in transition.
As we gathered on the start line I noticed that a lot of the big guns had come out to play (including several speedsters in my age group). I had hoped that the clash of dates with the Half Marathon in Sandringham would have thinned the field, but a lot of the athletes who are doing the Age Group World Championships in Auckland next month decided to use this race as a good hit out.
My nemesis from last year Aurel was present and he had a new bike. After beating him for the first time ever in the last Duathlon last season, I was now confident I had him covered (not sure if there was any logic to that confidence). A new club member Peter and his wife Tatjana were also racing - this is a different Peter to the one I mentioned last season. I had never raced Peter before and I was interested to see how I matched up. I suspected he had a slight edge on the run, but I was confident my biking ability would hold me in good stead.
The first run went well. I found a good rhythm and was able to sit 10 metres or so behind Peter and Aurel, who out of pure coincidence were running together. They slowly extended the gap as the race went on, but never moved out of sight. Looking at my average pace for each of the 1km run splits:

  3m41s, 3m49s, 3m54s, 3m57s, 4m12s

I suspect Peter and Aurel maintained a relatively steady pace, whilst I slowly fell away. But I'm happy with my run split of 19m21s.

Having fallen away significantly towards the end of the first run, I took a conservative approach on the bike leg. I've been averaging less than one ride a week for the last two months and most of those rides have been quite short (some only 30km). So I ditched my usual strategy of pushing really hard and decided to keep some energy in reserve for the last run. Even holding back, I still posted a good bike split compared to the other riders (20th fastest overall for the race). However as the 5km splits below show, my speed still dropped off.

  38.6kph, 38.8kph, 37.5kph, 37.0kph

As expected the 2nd run was a little ugly. In the beginning I struggled with sore calf muscles, but I slowly found a rhythm before struggling again towards the end. At the turn I saw a had a reasonable lead over both Peter and Aurel and that helped me maintain some sort of pace to the finish line. Below are the kilometre splits for the last 3km run:

  4m15s, 4m05s, 4m07s

The last time I raced on this course in October 2011, it was my best ever race. Today I was only 90 seconds slower, and I didn't dig anywhere near as deep. One year ago my Duathlon Run split was 20m16s (at Somers), so I am in much better condition than the same time last year. Elaine also had a great race. She won her age group as expected (I missed the podium), but was also very happy with her time and overall place.

Muscle Fatigue

Elaine and I plan to race the Duathlon at Richmond this Sunday. My original intention was to train right up to the event and then have an easy recovery week afterwards. However my body feels like it is currently on the limit, one hard session away from injury.

Not surprisingly the running speed work on consecutive Tuesdays has taken its toll. I believe I gained a lot out of the speed sessions. Having not done any fast running for about 10 months, I needed to re-discover my rhythm. On Saturday morning I joined the early morning Cycling Obsession ride. The ride was surprisingly subdued, which was good, but I when I went for an easy 4km run off the bike, my legs felt extremely heavy. I skipped the planned hilly ride in the Dandenongs on Sunday and instead did a long 14km run. My legs felt quite heavy for the first 5km of the run, felt good for the next 5km, but then everything felt quite lousy for the last 4km.

This week I'll still swim as planned, but cut back on my running and will probably skip the Saturday morning ride. I need to do lots of stretching, foam roller work and single leg squats, plus I have a massage booked for Wednesday night which should help loosen everything up. The main areas of stiffness are my quads and ITB, closely followed by my calf muscles and I have minor discomfort in my knees - probably because of the tight quads and ITB.

Sunday afternoon I started prepping my Tri-bike ready for the race.

Reminiscing with Strangers

Yesterday it rained for most of the day. After a particularly heavy shower just before noon, my small running group at work unanimously decided to skip the usual Thursday lunchtime run. Instead we relaxed in the common room eating our lunch and despite the Radar Map predicting otherwise, we watched the skies clear to produce one of the few gaps of clear weather for day.

Fortunately I had driven into work, Elaine had an afterwork function and would catch the train home. I always intended to drive to my 7pm coaching session directly from work. So I simply re-scheduled my day so that I'd arrive at the running track at 5:45pm giving me time to get in a run beforehand.

As I cruised around the 1.2km track at Duncan McKinnon reserve I struck up a friendly conversation with another runner who was travelling at a similar speed (which was pretty slow). The conversation took the usuall route of 'what events are you training for'. While I'm looking at doing the Duathlon Sunday week, my new friend Neil Gilbert, was training for the Sandringham Half Marathon being run on the same day.

The Half Marathon is a lead up event for Neil as he prepares for his 6th attempt at the Hawaii Ironman. More often referred to as 'Kona' (the name of the big island that hosts the event), this is the Ironman World Championships and the Holy Grail for nearly all triathletes. Each Ironman race contains qualifying slots for Kona, the more high profile the race, the more slots available. These slots are highly contested and for those lucky (and fast) enough to score one, it is like qualifying for the Olympics - some people would think it was better. Mere mortals like myself are realistic enough to know that Kona is no more than a dream.

My Duathlon is being run at Richmond Boulevard. Neil remembered racing a Duathlon there back in 1998 (won by Emma Carney in controversial circumstances). I've forgotten how many races he said he'd done, but I think it was around 290, including 35 Ironmans. He would have done more, but suffered a terrible case of Hypothyriodism (or it could have been hyperthyriodism, I get confused). The thyroid condition was a result of drinking lots of a certain brand of Soy Milk that contained excessive amounts of Iodine.

One of the tests for Hypothyriodism (or hyperthyriodism) is a TSH Test (or something similar, I promise no more brackets). Normal values are between 0.4 and 4.0 - Neil's score was over 100. He is currently the number one plaintiff in a class action against the particular Soy Milk company. The lawyers for the case thought there was a typo with his readings until they had the figure verified.

He seems pretty healthy now and is obviously going well to qualify for the Ironman in Kona. Although he is frustrated that age is catching up with him and he can no longer find the speed of his younger days. He did his last Half Marathon in 2h08m, but is hoping to break 2 hours for the Sandingham Half Marathon in just over a week's time. Neil is 67 years old!

Still Speeding

Despite the soreness from last week's speed work, I decided to front up at the Athletics track again for another Tuesday night session.

I felt like I'd finally recovered, as the tightness in my legs (calf muscles mainly) had mostly disappeared. To help reduce the chance of injury I wore Skins compression leggings and Calf compression socks (last week I only wore the leggings). Another change from last week was to wear a sleeveless top. Even on a cold August night, it is amazing how hot you get when you run fast.

Last night's session was 4 x 6 minute efforts with 2 minutes full recovery in between. In the interests of staying injury free, I only did 3 efforts. My average speeds for the 3 x 6 minute efforts were 3m46s, 3m48s & 3m50s per kilometre pace. Overall I'm happy with the session and pulled up reasonably well. My right calf and achilles is a bit stiff, but not as bad as last week and my knee feels fine.

Below are the Strava details for the session. The first kilometre of warmup is missing because Elaine arrived at the session late (issues at work) and had my GPS watch in the car.

Speeding Penalty

The speed session on Tuesday took more out of me than I expected. Every time I got out of my chair on Wednesday, I felt stiffness throughout my entire body. It had eased a little by Thursday, but not as much as I would have liked. As a result I cut my Thursday run down to 7km and didn't feel too bad. However I ended up running another 3km as part of the run session I'm now coaching on Thursday nights, so everything was still quite stiff and sore on Friday.

The main stiffness was in my quads and calf muscles. I used the foam roller and also tried to self massage, pushing my knuckles through the sorest spots which helped a little.

My alarm went off at 5:30am Saturday morning, I heard the rain outside, rolled over and went back to sleep. At 10:00am the weather had improved and I ventured out for a much shorter (but probably faster) 38km ride. By Sunday most of the stiffness and soreness had dissipated, so managed to fit in a 13km run along the coastal path up to Frankston. This brought the week's run mileage up to a season's high of 35km.

I'll see how I feel tomorrow before deciding whether or not I attend this week's Tuesday speed session.

First Run Speedwork in 10 months

Since I injured my knee in early October last year, I have not been able to do any speedwork on the run. With the next Duathlon in 3 weeks and my knee starting to improve, I felt the need for speed (that's a Top Gun reference for any Generation Y reading this blog).

Elaine and I fronted up for the first time at the Sandringham Athletics track - the regular Tuesday run session for our new Triathlon Club (after the merger). It started with a 1.5km warmup and then 2 x 800m running easy on the turns and building pace on the straights, before we began the main set.

Clint (the coach) devised the following Fartlek session:

• 30s fast, 30s slow
• 1min fast, 1min slow
• 2min fast, 1min slow
• 4min fast, 1min slow
• 2min fast, 1min slow
• 1min fast, 30s slow
• 30s fast, 2min rest

Which we did twice, which meant 22 minutes of speed.

After going so long without any speed work, I found it difficult to find a good rhythm, but still managed to hold good speed for the whole workout. I generally did all the efforts at around 3m50s pace and encouragingly didn't struggle to hold this speed at the end. Having been disappointed with my arm action from the gait analysis video, I concentrated on my arm movement (as per Tony Benson's instructions) and I think this significantly improved my form.

There were about 40 athletes at the session. The fastest (and biggest) group contained about 12 runners who generally stayed together throughout the whole session. The rest of the athletes were spread out with occasional small groups of 3 or 4. I was concentrating on finding my own rhythm, so hung off the back of the fast group, because I didn't want to run at someone else's speed. The fast group were definitely running faster, but never got too far away - I was never lapped (on a 400m track). Hopefully by Summer, my pace will improve so that I'm comfortably up amongst this group.

I felt some slight discomfort in my knee on the cooldown lap, but this morning it is feeling fine. Overall I'm very pleased with how the session went and plan to front up again next Tuesday.

Below are the Strava details of the session:

Gait Analysis

It's been a pretty big training week. This weekend we did swimmimg time trials followed by bike time trials on the velodrome. Then this morning (Sunday), Elaine and I had a Gait Analysis session provided for free through the Triathlon Club. The gait analysis expert (Kevin) is from the Australian Institute of Sport and has tested a lot of Australia's top athletes (what a come down testing us).

The Gait Analysis involved us being videod doing 3 short runs (about 20m long). One running towards the camera and two running away with the camera focusing on different sections of the body for the two different away runs. Elaine needs to strengthen her core muscles because the video shows her hips collapsing a little after landing. My hips are good thanks to all the core strength work I did before Ironman, but I have other issues. Most obviously my feet splay outwards (far more than I realised) and I have a weakness in my Vastus Lateralis (outer quad). It's not so much that my Vastus Lateralis is weak, it is more that my Vastus Medialis Oblique (VMO or inner quad) is overly strong due to all my cycling. So I now have an extra set of squats to do with my foot turned in to strengthen the Vastus Lateralis. Apparrently the splayed feet are not a big issue, but they look terrible, whereas I cannot even detect the Vastus Lateralis problem. Follow this link to one of the gait analysis videos

I did 2 x 700m swimming Time Trials (TTs) in 13m10s and 12m50s. Not great times, but I'm very happy to be swimming this well so early in the season. Plus I clocked up 7.6km of swimming for the week, biggest swim week of the season so far.

The bike time trials consisted of three 16 minute time trials where I averaged 40.4kph, 40.9kph & 40.4kph. I would usually be happy with these results, but considering that the only ride I've done in the last 3 weeks has been a 30 minute windtrainer session - I'm extremely happy. I usually do all my time trials with training wheels, but I've been lazy and left my ZIPP 808s on since Ironman, so it is a little difficult to compare with past results (the ZIPP 808 race wheels are very fast). Unfortunately I've currently got the Power Meter on my road bike, so I cannot compare power files either. The only downside to come out of the ride is that I again suffered bad saddle sores (I don't have this problem on my road bike). Riding for 90 minutes should not result in saddle sores, so I definitely need to start exploring other seat options. I'm hoping to trial an ISM Adamo or Cobb saddle.

Today's run mileage was 15km, consisting of a 3km warmup run before the Gait Analysis and then a 12km long run this afternoon. This brings my weekly mileage up to just over 32km (equal highest for the season).

Injuries Are Improving

My back still feels delicate and seems like it would not take much to trigger it again. But it is no longer impacting any of my sessions. Even when I do the one legged squat exercises for my knee, there is no longer any twinges from my back.

Talking of the one legged squats, since I started doing these exercises more regulary, I've definitely noticed improvement in my knee (patellar tendinopathy injury). Sounds pretty obvious doesn't it - do the rehab exercises and your injury will improve. The problem is that you always think you are doing the exercises, but it wasn't till I started recording them in my training diary that I realised I wasn't doing them anywhere near often enough. Now I'm doing the squats at least every 2nd day and I'm using the foam roller on my quads and ITB 2 out of 3 days.

The sore shoulders are still there, but no where near as bad as they were. And they now have almost no impact on my swimming. Unfortunately I'm developing a sore neck. In particular it hurts when I look over my right shoulder. It feels better for a few days after the chiropractor works on it, but I only see him once every 3 weeks.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how things are slowly progressing. Below is a Strava session of a new running route we discovered near work.

Lazy Weekend

Unusually good weather for July over the weekend, yet I didn't really make much of use of it. Friday morning was beautiful in the outdoor pool at GESAC, but I elected to sleep in on both Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Elaine headed off for a heated stone massage and pedicure on Saturday - a special treat I had organised for her birthday. My knee was still not feeling great, so instead of joining my usual ride with the Cycling Obsession group, I planted myself in front of the TV and caught up with the happenings of the Tour de France. Unfortunately the British Sky team had proved completely dominant and made it a pretty boring race, but Cavendish's win in the last flat stage before the Time Trial was very dramatic.

Late Saturday morning I did manage to venture out and complete an easy 10km run (with heart alert on). During the run there was no actual knee pain, but there was an awareness towards the end of the run. It is sort of a funny feeling. Not bad enough to say 'discomfort', but I definitely notice a difference from normal. Maybe it was something as subtle as areas of knee being a different temperature. I iced the knee straight after the run and used the foam roller later in the day - my quads on both legs are very tight.

Sunday was another beautiful day and I planned to go for a nice easy morning ride - 2 to 3 hours at a constant aerobic level. Once again I ended up in front of the TV. Not only did I have another stage of the Tour de France to watch, I had also recorded the qualifying session of the Formula One. Towards the end of a very lazy day I headed out for a slow 4.2km run just after 4pm. When I got back I jumped on the Windtrainer. I setup the laptop next to me outside in the courtyard so that I could listen to the Podcast from First Off The Bike while I rode. Initially I was tossing up between a 1 or 2 hour ride, but I ended up quitting after only 35 minutes. I didn't even make it till the end of the podcast which was 40 minutes. I really dislike Windtrainer sessions, which is another reason why I should have done the ride on the road in the morning.

After having sleep ins on both Saturday and Sunday mornings, I wasted all the benefits of that extra rest by staying up late Sunday night to watch the Formula One race in Germany and then a bit of the Tour de France. At least the Tour is over now, so I can resume normal sleeping patterns. Unfortunately the Olympics are just around the corner.

Garmin Heart Rate Strap problems

The Garmin Heart Rate Strap I use for my training sessions is problematic, the main issue being that it often shows (and records) elevated heart rate readings. I'll be running along at an extremely easy pace and look down at my watch and see 170bpm when I know it is actually around 135bpm.

This elevated reading usually occurs in the first ten minutes or so. Then it will settle down and behave itself for the rest of the session (but not always). Any headwind that causes my top to flutter against the strap nearly always triggers the problem as well. I assume the fluttering causes static interference or similar. Last season I did most of my sessions in a tight fitting tri-top, but this is not as convenient during the cold months of Winter.

To my knowledge Garmin has release 3 different straps, 1 hard and 2 soft versions - I had tried them all. Brand new, the straps usually work well, but it doesn't take long for the same problems to arise with each one. Keeping them clean, especially the contacts between the actual transmitter unit and the strap helps, but does not eliminate the problem. Some running and cycling tops seem more problematic than others, maybe different materials are more prone to static electricity (assuming that is the cause).

Obviously the unreliability of the heart rate readings is extremely frustrating when you are trying to train at a particular heart rate. Since Ironman I have turned off the heart rate alert functionality, because I got sick of it continually beeping despite me running at a very slow pace. The result is that a lot of my runs have crept up a little too high in pace (and actual heart rate), so they have not been quite as effective as they should. It is also annoying when you use training software to accurately report how long you have spent in each heart rate zone for the week or month - ideally you want to do at least %80 of your training in zone 2 (aerobic).

Through trial and error I have identified the running tops that seem to be the worst offenders for interference. I have also discovered that making sure the chest contact points are very wet before the session starts greatly reduces the initial elevated readings. With these new measures in place, I have re-activated the heart rate alert setting on my watch. Hopefully I can keep the strap problems to a minimum and continue to improve my aerobic training base.

Catching up on Sleep

My knee had become a little sore after the ride two Saturdays ago. I missed the Dandenongs Ride last Saturday (looked like it was a great ride) and did two runs over last weekend instead.

Last week's run mileage was 32km. Not big by normal standards, but easily the biggest so far this season and my knee seems to be complaining about it. In general I almost felt like I was getting run down. Tuesday morning I skipped the early morning swim session and ended up taking a sick day from work - which of course meant I didn't go for my usual Tuesday run either.

I was back at work on Wednesday, but rather than try to sneak in a catchup training session I decided to have another training rest day. Wednesday night I had my Chiropractor appointment and we went over my knee X-rays. There are minor signs of wear and tear but nothing you wouldn't expect to see on a 20 year old athlete and I'm 43. This doesn't mean there is nothing wrong with my knee, it simply means the skeletal side is all good and the problem lies in the tendons.

Having not done a ride on the weekend and having missed most of the seasons so far this week, I decided to make it a recovery week. Originally I thought my current training load was too light to require a recovery week, but it seemed to slot into the overall training plan quite well. I reduced today's run to 6km (down from 8) and hopefully I'll start to feel better and slowly ramp the load back up over the weekend.

Early Mornings, Motorbikes and a Cat

Leaving no margin for error is a sure way to trigger Murphy's Law.

Elaine was still overseas and I had Sunday free, so I planned a motorbike ride to Lorne with a couple of guys from work. Then during the week, head coach Clint asked me to take a Sunday training session. I chose to make it a run session starting from the Clubrooms, as I could ride there on my motorbike, shower after the run and then join the guys for the ride to Lorne. This would save a lot of time by not having to go back home after the session.

On Sunday morning I needed to leave home around 6:50am to unlock the gate and have the clubrooms open and ready for the session starting at 7:30am. I was pretty organised, breakfast had been cooked and eaten, running gear was packed and I was dressed in my motorbike gear ready to go. It had been an important stage in the Tour de France the night before (which I'd recorded), so I thought I'd have a quick watch. Through a combination of fast forward and jumping I was quickly getting through the 3 hours of recording. Then I came across an exciting part and switched the playback to normal speed so I wouldn't miss anything. Obviously this ate up a fair bit of time, and before I realised, it was already 6:50am and I was still sitting on the couch.

I still had time, I simply wasn't leaving quite as early as intended. I raced downstairs, starting warming up the motorbike and opened the garage door so I could move the bike out into the driveway.

As soon as the garage door started to open, the neighbours cat darted in under the gap and shot through into the house. Our neighbour has two cats and they love to explore our house, but usually aren't wandering around this early. We usually see the cats mid morning or lunchtime on the weekends when they seem quite relaxed. My previous experience has found them to be extra frisky first thing in the morning. I raced in after the cat and as soon as he saw me, he flew up the stairs. Of the two cats, this is the less approachable one. Neither cats are in the slightest way vicious or dangerous, this cat simply likes to avoid human contact.

Taking stock of the situation, I closed all the downstairs doors as this would limit his downstairs hiding options. Once upstairs I found him hiding under the kitchen table. As I moved around he sped past and into the bedroom - Damn ! I should have closed the door when I had the chance. I found him hiding under the bed, after a little coaxing I got him back into the Family Room. But this just led to a Benny Hill like chase around the couch.

It took a while, and a lot of frustation on my behalf, but I finally maneovered him downstairs. Of course a cat flies downstairs much quicker than me, so by the time I got there he was out of sight. I had left the front door wide open in the hope he would run straight out, but I when I looked outside I couldn't see him. This meant I needed to do another thorough search of the house to make sure he hadn't found a new hiding spot.

By the time I finally headed off it was 7:05am (15 minutes late). Luckily I experienced a good run to Sandringham and arrived at the Clubrooms at 7:28am, not a disaster, but still meant I was very rushed - far from an ideal situation.

I ran 10.5km along the Bayside coastal track and then did a 380km motorbike ride to Lorne and back. The Weather was good for the run, but cold, windy and wet for the ride. Below is the Strava details for the run, although I suspect a map of the cat chase would have been more interesting.

Double Swim

After Saturday's long (and very cold) ride, my knee pulled up a little sore. I should have iced the knee after the ride, but after being out in below freezing temperatures, the last thing I wanted to do was apply ice to my body. As a result I decided to skip my long run on Sunday to give my knee some time to recover.

To make up for missing a run, it seemed like a good idea to add in an extra swim Monday night. I took an instant meal to work to have for tea at 5:30pm (an hour before the swim session). This would not only fuel me for the session, but more importantly remove the hassle of having to cook tea when I got home - always a problem with evening training sessions.

Tuesday morning the alarm went off (always too early) and I headed off to my second swimming session in 12 hours. As soon as I started the car, the petrol warning light came on. So the whole way to the pool I was concentrating on finding a petrol station. The first couple were still closed (it was 5:40am), but luckily I found one open just before Southland. All this concentration meant I forgot to eat my banana - something I didn't realise until I was on the pool deck. At this point I also realised I'd left my water bottle in the car. It seems I'm lost without Elaine, as I'm sure none of this would have happened if she was in the car.

Doing two swim sessions within 12 hours was always going to be difficult. But having barely eaten between them made it almost impossible. I was surprisingly good for the first kilometre, but then things went quickly downhill. Just having a water bottle full of sports drink would've probably been enough to get me through, but with no nutrition at all, I soon dropped off the pace. It was a pity, because it was a good session with a main set of 9 x 100m on 1m50s (twice).

I've since had a good breakfast and an even better coffee and plan to run at lunchtime. Hopefully the knee will hold out - I have the XRay booked for late this afternoon.

Coldest Ride Ever

Rather than do my usual Saturday morning ride with the Cycling Obsession group, I decided to join the Mercury session instead, which departed Sandringham at 7am. Despite starting 30 minutes later, I had to leave home 20 minutes earlier because I needed to ride the 23km to the ride start. My usual Cycling Obsession ride is only 1 kilometre away.

Heading off at 6:10am, the temperature seemed very cold. I was wearing full winter gear - very warm cycling jacket, thermal hiking t-shirt, thermal skull cap, Buff (neck warmer), leg warmers, calf compression socks, another pair of thick sport socks over the compression socks, full inner gloves, fingerless gloves and full winter gloves (yes, 3 pairs of gloves). Knowing that I would come back past my house at around the 46km mark, I put slightly less warm clothes in a bag on my doorstep. The theory was that I would be getting too hot by then and would want to change before hitting the hills.

It wasn't long before my fingers started to freeze. However I discovered that if I maintained a heart rate of around 135bpm, the resulting body warmth was enough to combat the cold. But this didn't stop me from pulling the Buff above my nose so that I barely had any exposed skin - a sight that Clint (the coach) found quite amusing when I arrived at Sandringham.

After a small wait, we headed back towards Frankston. Riding within the peleton resulted in my heart rate dropping and the freezing finger experience returning. Initially my turns at the front raised the heart rate just enough to feel some relief, but this was short lived. The temperature definitely seemed to be getting colder. I quickly realised that I would definitely not be stopping for less warm clothes.

As we rode into Frankston it was so cold I was starting to loose feeling in some of my fingers, which made braking a little interesting. This prompted me to check the temperature on my Garmin bike computer and I saw MINUS ONE degree. I have lived in Melbourne all my life and cannot remember ever seeing a minus temperature (where's global warming when you need it). The temperature hovered between minus one and zero for the next hour. The only positive was that we had now arrived at the hilly section of the ride. A heart rate of 160 brought a little feeling back into my fingers, but I was still feeling very cold.

Once the sun got a little height, the temperature slowly began to rise. I could not believe it when I could feel the warmth of 3 degrees. By the time it reached 6 degrees I almost felt toasty. The last stages of the ride were quite pleasant with the mercury almost reaching 7 degrees. I had taken a packet of Winners Gel Blasts and two water bottles, both containing sports drink. However when I got home, I realised I had only consumed less than half of one bottle. This is nowhere near enough for a 100km ride, something I'll have to improve upon in the future.

Below are the Strava details (a relatively slow ride):

Distracted but still training

A small gap in blog posts, mainly due to the all the time spent watching the Tour de France. No real action in relation to the General Classification (Yellow Jersey), but heaps of action none the less. Lots of crashes (which is unfortunate) and some very exciting finishes to each stage. On some stages the peleton was riding at nearly 60kph for the last 20km - unbelievable.

Training has been going well. Nothing special, just getting the sessions done. At the moment I'm doing 1 ride, 2 swims and 3 runs per week. This will slowly build as the season progresses, but I'm happy with the small but consistent training building a nice base.

And welcome to my fifth follower Chris.