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.

King of the Mountain (KOM)

As mentioned in some earlier posts, I have recently started uploading my ride and run workouts to Strava.

Strava is not only a training diary, it uses the GPS coordinates to compare your efforts against everybody else who has uploaded to Strava. People define segments and Strava will automatically show any other members who had completed that segment and list the times in ascending order. The most common segments tend to be climbs and if you have the fastest time for a particular climb you are awarded the KOM - King of the Mountain.

Popular routes will have been completed by thousands of people and the KOMs for these routes will be held by elite athletes. The person with the KOM for Oliver's Hill averaged 35kph (I'm actually skeptical that this individual may have simply worn his GPS watch while slowly driving a car up the hill). More obscure routes will see much lower participant numbers and often provide a realistic chance to score a KOM.

My lunchtime run from work travels one of these more obscure segments. It has only been completed by 20 people and the fastest time averages 3m30s pace for 600m. I believe I'm a chance to take this KOM, but I'll need to wait a month or so before I'm ready to do any speed work. Hopefully nobody else will improve that split in the meantime.

Yesterday I entered Elaine and myself into the Kinglake Ride. Last year I did the 70km option in the pouring rain and hail. Unfortunately there weren't any other fast riders on the 70km option (they were all doing the longer 115km option), so I spent the entire ride alone with the lead car driving 50 to 100m ahead.

Remembering how hard I rode last year's event, I decided I'd upload the ride details into Strava to see how I went. I didn't do that well on any of the individual segments, but had the fastest time for the overall 70km. So I am now the proud owner of the Kinglake 70km King of the Mountain. It will be interesting to see if anyone beats me on this year's ride.

Here is a link to my Kinglake report and below is the Strava ride details:

Back is Almost Healed

I saw the Physio on Thursday morning, my 7th visit since hurting my back, and the injury has improved to the stage where I can stop my weekly visit. Just as well, considering that I've already used up my Health Insurance's quota of Physiotherapy. The back is not 100% yet, but getting close. As long as I keep up the exercises it should completely heal in the next month.

Wednesday night I saw the Chiropractor, luckily it comes out of a separate Health Insurance quota. My knee is in far better shape than last season, but I'm still getting irritation on top of the kneecap (Basketball injury). I don't think it is a big problem, but the Chiropractor has written out an X-ray referral just to make sure. This will be my 3rd X-Ray in the last 8 months (plus an Ultrasound and MRI).

So far this month I have missed one bike ride due to bad weather, one swim session due to being too tired (and lazy) and 7 run sessions due to injury. I'm looking forward to more run mileage in July.

Tony Benson Information Night

Tony Benson competed in the 1972 Olympics in the 5000m and he was the Coach for several other Olympics. In general he is the number one man (person) when it comes to a Running Coach.

On Wednesday night he headlined an information session about running. Below is a quick list of running tips (as many as I can remember)

• Run Tall
• Hold up torso with core muscles
• Hold Bum in (don't slump)
• Feet land under body (will happen if running tall)
• arms bent at 85%
• if you lower you hands, you will stop running tall
• lower hands also cause the torso to swivel
• relaxed shoulders and hands
• effort in back swing of arm helps propel forward
• footsteps slightly overlap (run on a line)
• cannot pronate if you land under your body
• cannot heal strike if you land under your body
• minimalist shoes promote good running style
• low heel (ramp) makes it harder to heel strike

The main purpose of putting this list up is so I can easily refer back to it when needed.

Other points:

• Most people run properly when running on the spot
• Very difficult to heel strike running on the spot
• Forward swinging hand should be level in height with backward swinging elbow
• Back foot swing should automatically go higher when you get the running posture correct.
• A high rear foot means a quicker and more efficient leg swing.

More Progress

Injuries are slowly improving. Had a good ride on Saturday, very short 4km run on Sunday and a longer 7.3km run on Tuesday.

I'm still swimming twice a week. My form is still lagging, probably because I am cruising most of the sessions. However I still expect to see an improvement over the next month or so.

Two Strava workouts have been embedded below. Not so much because they are of any particular interest, but I was curious to see how the privacy setting works. It should block out any start or stop pionts within a 1km radius of where I live or work.

Below are the details of Saturday morning's ride (pretty fast from Beaumaris to Mordialloc):

And Tuesday's lunchtime run:

Review of the Rocket Science Goggles

Rocket Science (Vostok)

Old Speedo goggles

Over the years I have collected a fair number of goggles. On the left is a picture of the new Rocket Science goggles. They are the Vostok model, I have no idea what Vostok means or stands for. I am currently using the Rocket Science goggles for my pool swimming, replacing the old Speedo goggles shown on the right.

In the pool I like to have my goggles fitting quite loose. A tight fit will often result in what Elaine calls the possum look - dark circles around the eyes (goggle imprints).  Having a loose fit increases the chances of them leaking and the older the goggle the more likely they are to leak as the rubber seal becomes less supple.

You'll notice the speedo goggles have much bigger rubber seals. I've found this style more suitable to wearing the goggles loose. However I've been wearing the Rocket Science goggles loose and so far not even a hint of leakage. It is unfair to compare them to the much older Speedo goggles, but I cannot remember the Speedo goggles being as comfortable and leak free even when they were brand new.

Finis Thunder

Engine

Last season I used Finis Thunder goggles (shown on the left) for my open water swims and races. I wear my goggles a little tighter when swimming in open water. You don't want to be stopping to adjust leaky goggles in a race and the open water swims are often a shorter duration than pool swims, so less risk of possum eyes. The Finis goggles are designed for racing and have less rubber in their seals and fit a little smaller - less chance of being knocked off my other swimmers. I bought the Finis goggles to replace my Engine goggles (shown above right) for open water swims. The Engine goggles are a similar racing style, but the big advantage of the Finis ones was that they are clear all over allowing better vision. There are no lane lines in open water, so sighting becomes very important. With the entire goggle being clear I found my vision while swimming was much improved.

Comparison of Finis & Rocket Science

On the right is a comparison photo that shows the Rocket Science goggles I'm using in the pool are almost exactly the same style as the Finis goggles I use for racing and open water swims. While I love the Finis goggles in the open water, I find they don't work as well in the pool - not as good with a loose fit. Whereas the Rocket Science goggles have been the best I've ever used in the pool.

I received this pair of Rocket Science goggles for free as part of my XOSIZE, Rocket Science Ambassador Program, but I'll definitely be buying more pairs (with my own money). They are the most comfortable and leak free goggles I have ever used. They come in the smaller racing style shape I prefer, but are also excellent in the pool. Due to it being Winter, I haven't tested them in the open water yet. I suspect the biggest issue might be visibility, but hopefully there will be different versions available to address this.

Hilly Ride and Minor Setback

Monday morning's hilly ride in Dandenongs was great, very cold but a lot of fun.

With the temperature hovering around 5 degrees Celsius, we headed down Burwood Hwy to Belgrave and then followed the Puffing Billy Fun Run route up to Emerald. Elaine has raced Puffing Billy (fun run where you race the train) three times, but each time I have caught the train to Emerald. She always mentioned that it is quite hilly, but I never really appreciated this until riding up these hills on my bike.

From Emerald we followed a downhill winding road to Monbulk. It was an extremely foggy morning. Being high up in the Dandenongs we were often above the low lying cloud cover, but would ride back through the thick fog on the descents. The road between Monbulk and Olinda is usually referred to in cycling circles as (cue dramatic music) 'The Wall'. Up til this point we have ridden up several category 3 and 4 climbs, but 'The Wall' is a category 2 climb - steeper and longer.

Through the smaller category 3 and 4 climbs everything felt good. Well actually my face and fingers were often numb due to the cold (my Garmin bike computer recorded the temperature for most of the ride as 1 degree), but my knee and back injuries were giving no signs of problems. However (you knew that was coming), during the steep sections of 'The Wall' I was unable to maintain a fast cadence. This can result in extra pressure through the knees as more force is being applied to each pedal stroke. When the hill gets very steep, you often rock and twist your whole body trying to extract extra force to help get the pedal turned over. Not surprisingly this extra effort irritated both my knee and back injuries.

The sore back slowly improved throughout the day and was barely noticeable when we swam Tuesday morning - an even colder morning (4 degrees) on which we swam in an outdoor pool. My knee did not get as sore as my back, but is taking longer to feel better. I didn't run on Tuesday as planned and will see how it is feeling before deciding whether to run or not on Thursday.

I think the hilly ride itself was OK, my only problem was climbing the steep sections of 'The Wall' when I was unable to maintain a good pedalling cadence. So assuming the back and knee recover well, I'll keep doing hill work, but just avoid the overly steep climbs like Arthurs Seat and 'The Wall'.

I've started uploading my training data to a training website called Strava. Below is a quick snapshot of my ride:

Back Training

Friday morning's swim went well, and I decided to do the club's velodrome session on Saturday morning with Elaine, rather than the Cycling Obsession group ride. You can stop any time on the velodrome, so if my knee or back starting playing up I could immediately finish the session without the worry still of having to ride home. My bike speed was relatively good. I only did 3 of the 4 sets on offer, but I felt no discomfort from my knee or back. The main reason I stopped was due to saddle sores (I was riding my Triathlon bike) and I was also starting to get fairly fatigued.

Today is a rest day with no training.  Despite my contrary views in my previous post, I plan to do the hilly Dandenongs ride tomorrow morning (Queen's birthday public holiday). This morning I did another 3 sets of 20 single leg squats on each leg. There was very minimal signs of discomfort and I can feel my balance during the squats getting better, which means the stabilising muscles are getting stronger - all good signs.

On Thursday and Friday I did feel soreness in my knee (I skipped doing the squats on Fri & Sat morning), but I now think this is all due to the fall I suffered during the infamous basketball game. I landed heavily on my knee and I believe the trauma suffered to the knee cap has resulted in small lesions (or other medical sounding words) in the patella. When the patella tendon rubs against these lesions (ie. when running), it causes irritation to the patella tendon resulting in the minor pain I experience.  The new injury is often termed 'Runner's Knee', whereas my previous injury was termed 'Jumper's Knee'. I believe my previous Jumper's Knee injury is 99% (or even 100%) healed. This is not a professional opinion, rather simply a result a lots of amateur Googling.

While my back improved in the latter part of last week, it has flared up a bit today. I don't believe it is from yesterday's ride (I did get a very sore neck from the ride), instead I think biggest factor in my sore back is when I sleep in like I did this morning. The same thing happened last week when I didn't train over the weekend, so I slept in both mornings (last Saturday was bad, last Sunday was worse). Tomorrow morning I'll be up early to get to the ride start by 7am, so hopefully my back will be improved.

I been trialling some of the new Rocket Science products I received as part of the Ambassador Program and so far have been extremely happy with them. Hopefully I'll get time in the near future to write some reviews of each product.

A Week Off

Mainly due to my sore back, and partly due to my knee, I haven't done any training since swimming last Friday morning.  My back got progressively worse until Sunday and then slowly improved throughout the week.  Last night the Physio used a machine to put an electric current through my back.  He usually places a hot pack on my back and leaves me for 10 minutes before coming back to work on the injured area.  This time I had the hot pack and electric currents pulsing through my back each second.  It felt strange at first, but then I got so used to it that I dozed off.

I plan to swim tomorrow morning and am hoping to ride again on Saturday morning.  I'm really missing the riding.  Last season I could not do any intensity or hill work because of my knee, so I am hanging out for a good hill climb.  The club is doing what looks to be a great ride in the Dandenongs (very hilly) this Monday (Queen's Birthday), but I think this may be too soon for my knee in its current condition (very disappointing).

Yesterday and this morning I did 3 sets of 20 single legs squats on each leg (total of 120 per day).  This is the first time I have been able to do this since I injured the knee early October last year (before Ironman I could not do any squats without feeling pain).  During the left leg squats I definitely had an awareness of the knee injury (it didn't feel as good as the right knee), but there was no pain which is fantastic.  Back in December when I saw the Sports Doctor (I've forgotten his name, but he is the Sports Doctor for the Melbourne AFL Football Club), he said once I could do 3 sets of 20 single leg squats on my injured knee without pain - I could resume full training (ie. ride hills).  But I've got plenty of time at this point in the season, so I want to take a cautious approach to avoid any risk of re-injury.  I believe it has been the week off training that has helped my knee finally reach this stage.

Even though my back has been problematic for the last 3 weeks I have never been concerned that it will plague me long term like my knee injury has - it is more of a nuisance.  Whereas the knee injury completely ruined last season's training and initially looked like it might ruin a fair portion of this season as well.  So I am extremely happy with the current positive signs demonstrated by the squats.  I will try to continue doing the exercises every day and re-introduce running very carefully and hopefully I will be 100% recovered within a month.  I think my knee is about 90% at the moment and the back is probably 60%.

Reflections of Ironman

Even though I am not happy with my Ironman finish time, I am very happy I did the race.  When it was announced, I knew the hype it would generate amongst the Triathlon Community was going to be huge (and it was).  It was great to feel like I was involved in this hype and I'm sure I would have regretted it if I wasn't entered.

I thought the course was very good and the organisation excellent, especially seeing as it was first time the race had been held here, and possibly the first time ever that an Ironman had been run in a capital city (logistical nightmare).

A lot of people get hooked after their first Ironman.  It is not unusual for triathletes to do an Ironman every year, in fact it is common to see people do 2 or more a year.  Some look for improvement at each race, others seem to enjoy just getting through the day without much concern about their time - I'm sure you would find similar attitudes in any Marathon field. Personally I do not have any great urge to subject myself to an Ironman again. I'm not saying I won't do another one, I just lack the burning desire.  Likewise I don't feel like running a Marathon either.

If I was to do another Ironman, I doubt I'd do Melbourne again.  This is not a reflection upon the Melbourne course, but if I am to subject myself to that much misery again I'd like some different scenery.  While there was definitely lots of benefits to racing on such familiar ground, there were no new sights to take my mind off the pain.  At the moment I think my choice of location would be the Challenge Roth race in Germany.

Below is a more statistical analysis of my Ironman Melbourne Race.

Bike statistics for each 20km split:
    0-20km  - 34.0 kph  133 bpm  84 rpm  180 watts
   20-40km  - 31.7 kph  134 bpm  85 rpm  180 watts
   40-60km  - 37.1 kph  135 bpm  87 rpm  189 watts
   60-80km  - 37.1 kph  136 bpm  87 rpm  183 watts
   80-100km - 32.1 kph  138 bpm  88 rpm  179 watts
  100-120km - 30.5 kph  139 bpm  85 rpm  166 watts
  120-140km - 30.4 kph  135 bpm  82 rpm  163 watts
  140-160km - 34.0 kph  132 bpm  81 rpm  156 watts
  160-180km - 31.5 kph  131 bpm  80 rpm  150 watts

My heart rate and power was kept under control for the whole bike leg, but it is obvious that my second lap was slower and my falling heart rate and power numbers show I really started to lose interest in the last 40km (edit: I subsequently remembered that my knee started to hurt in the last 40km, so I deliberately backed off in the hope it would come good for the run).

Run pace and heart rate for each 5km split:
   0-5km    - 5m11s  144bpm
   5-10km   - 5m39s  143bpm
  10-15km   - 5m39s  145bpm
  15-20km   - 6m06s  137bpm
  20-25km   - 7m03s  129bpm
  25-30km   - 7m15s  128bpm
  30-35km   - 7m01s  128bpm
  35-40km   - 8m12s  120bpm (walked for 1km)
  40-42.2km - 7m22s  121bpm

As you can see from the above splits I felt extremely good for the first 5km (I had a lot of trouble holding back my pace), I slowed down slightly after 15km, slowed down a lot after 20km and then fell into a big hole after the 35km mark.

Luckily my marathon time (off the bike) of 4h45m easily beat the efforts of Katie Holmes 5h30m and Hamish Blake 5h25m in standalone marathons.  Tragically I was slower than Oprah 4h29m and P.Diddy 4h15m - that fact alone may force me into doing another Ironman,