Love the run

+ Work = sore legs

This pretty much sums up the last few weeks (and next 13 weeks).

I have just had my biggest running week (not technically the weeks in my diary, but a 7 day period from Thursday to Wednesday) - clocking up 103.5km!

Thursday - 10.5km in Kings Park

Friday - 11.5km 2 laps around Bibra Lake

Saturday - 4.5km off the bike

Sunday - 30km City to Surf Half Marathon (1.28) and a cool down run back to the car

Monday - 12km recovery run

Tuesday - 15km with 7km of intervals

Wednesday - 20km mid distance run

Total = 103.5km

Very happy with how my body is responding to the increase in running volume. Now its time to introduce another ride in to the program!

Today is the first day of Spring and Perth has turned on the weather. I am really looking forward to getting out and doing an open water swim over the next few weeks. 

Thanks for checking in!

Andy 



City to Surf Half Marathon

Yesterday I participated in the Perth City to Surf Half Marathon. It was the first time I had taken part in the C2S and it was an awesome experience!

42,000+ people participated in the 6 events over the day

Saturday 27th  August was the one year anniversary of the passing of Greg Childs, a relation to the Luckin's. We all wore blue shirts embroidered 'In Memory of Greg' during the race.

I am not in this photo as I was already off and running - the half marathon was an hour before the 12km walk that everyone else participated in.

I did not really have a time in mind or any particular goal for the race, just to go under 1.30. My training has been going well and did not ease up for this race as it was purely a training run - the focus is all for December. My legs were defiantly not fresh going into the race as Johan, Helen and I all got out on Saturday and did our long ride in the hills (160km).

The half marathon course is awesome, taking us from St Georges Terrace in the Perth CBD, up Malcolm Street, through Kings Park, through Subiaco, Perry Lakes to City Beach. The weather was amazing and the 42,000+ participates made for a great atmosphere!

I had a reasonable run, finishing in 1.27.52, with my GPS showing an average of 4.10 min/km. Happy enough with the result considering the fatigue in my legs, but I could feel the lack of hill running up the hills - there a lots of them! Time to get back to Helena Valley for my long Sunday runs I think.

I am now 4 weeks into the ironman preparation and my riding and running are coming along really well. I am starting to feel strong on the bike again and I am really enjoying the long rides we are doing on Saturday. Swimming has been a bit of a struggle over the past few weeks and I believe this is a result of the increase in my bike and run training. I am confident that over the next few weeks my swimming will bounce back... stronger than ever!

Week 4 Training
Swim - 11.5km
Bike - 270km
Run - 71km



Business as usual

Not much to report over the last two weeks... I'm training hard and loving every second of it.

Last week I had my first big run week and I recorded 80km in the training diary. This week I will pull the running back slightly before building it the following week.

I had a big day of training on Saturday, which consisted of 170km in the hills with a 20min run off the bike and a 3.5km swim set in the arvo. A total of about 7 hours training. I loved it. Looking forward to another 15 weeks of it!

My training for the last two weeks:

Week 2 (17 Weeks to go):
Swim - 9km
Ride - 220km
Run - 50km

Week 3 (16 Weeks to go):
Swim - 12km
Ride- 270km
Run - 80km

I had a bit of a rest day today with a massage and an easy swim. My body is feeling great now and I am looking forward to yet another big day in the saddle on Saturday followed by the City to Surf half on Sunday!

Tomorrow is the 100 day mark till Busso Ironman.

I will give a more detailed update this weekend!

Cheers,

Andy

It's begun.... 118 days and counting!

The 2011 edition of Ironman Western Australia is 17 weeks away.... and I will be there on race day! I have worked out my training plan, penciled in a few half marathons and fun runs, cycling races, a duathlon and an Olympic distance race in preparation for the big day. My goals have been set and I am ready to begin my journey!

'Earn the Dream' - is the mantra that will help me get through the next 118 days!

Last week I was on board the Super Star Virgo (a cruise ship) cruising the Malacca Straits with the Luckin family. The cruise went from Singapore, to Penang, Phuket, KL and Redang. It was nice to have a week of doing nothing and relaxing - no work to think about, not  feeling guilty about missing a training session and eating all the food I wanted (we went a little crazy on the buffets....). This holiday has been planned for a while and has been an important 'flag in the sand'. I gave myself a few months of unstructured training after the Busselton 70.3 and this cruise represented the start of my Ironman program.

 Redang Island - Malaysia

 Mark, Lisa and I on the ship

 Lisa and I in the 'Bella Vista'

 View from the Singapore Flyer

 Redang Island, Malaysia

As of Monday, Ironman training has begun.... My training volume was low this week, however I will increase the distance over the next 4 weeks.

Week 1
Swim - 9km
Bike - 170km
Run - 52km

The sun is starting to show slightly earlier in the morning but the rain is still here! I am looking forward to seeing the end of this miserable weather.

Stay tuned for updates as I prepare for my first Ironman on 4 December 2011.

Cheers,

Andy

Life in winter

The past couple of months have been busy and cold...

Stressfully busy.... thanks to my new job with LMW Hegeny. I am now a Licensed Property Valuer and started a new job a couple of months ago. It has been a bit of a shock to the system, as I now have responsibilities and dead lines.... I am feeling the pressure, something I am not used to.... but I am slowly starting to find a balance between work and everything else (there have been a few late nights and weekends getting my reports done, something I don't want to be doing come the start of my 'official' Ironman program)

I have a new road bike... A 2010 CEEPO Mamba. Its awesome! It's nice to have have a light road bike up in the hills and in group rides. I have been doing all my riding on it, with the exception of last Saturday where my Venom got it's first ride since Busso (I love my time trial bike). I also had my first ride on my Schnell training wheels - they look great on the bike and do everything I want a training wheel to do!

Johan, Doug and I did a road race up in Pickering Brook. It was a first for all of us and it was great fun. There was a 1 lap individual TT before the 5 lap road race. I didn't have a clue what to do so I just stayed towards the front and stayed with the group. There were lots of attacks but none of them lasted. I finished just behind the bunch, my legs didn't have any power for the final sprint. Looking forward to doing a few more of these over winter.

I am doing the Caffinated 24hr Advenutre Race this weekend. Johan and I have been called in to join Stu and Paul Jackson.  We had a short training session up at Kalamunda on Saturday night with a short mountain bike ride and run. Night mountain bike riding up in the hills is great fun, especially with my bright ayup lights!

I am off with the Luckin's for a cruise form Singapore in a couple of weeks, which signifies the end of my pre season training and the start of my first ironman training program. I am really excited to get into the ironman training! Over the past couple of months I have been pretty easy on my self, missing sessions when I didn't want to train and sleep in when I wanted... this is going to change when I get back from our break.

I am ready to get into the Ironman training. Feeling fit, motivated and looking forward to working towards achieving my goals.

Busselton 70.3 - My best race to date!

The Busselton 70.3 (as it is now known) is the biggest race on the Triathlon WA calendar each year. This year was no exception! With a sold out field of 1,400 individuals and 200 teams the atmosphere down in Busso was great!

We arrived on Thursday lunch time and checked into our house. WOW....It was amazing! I sure hope that will be our regular Busselton house from now on! Lisa and I helped Ian set up the XU1 Sports tent at the Expo before heading back home for my Birthday dinner :-) (I am now 22!)

On Friday Lisa and I went for a short ride out on the course and I also snuck in a quick run. It was then back ot the Expo to help sell some CEEPO bikes! We spent the day there (not ideal pre race prepeartion) with the exception of a short swim the the Eclipse Fitness Squad. We were lucky enough to have CEEPO sponsored athletes Belinda and Justin Granger stop by the tent and leave their bikes on display which was great!

I was lucky enough to use a set of Schnell Race wheels thanks to Karl Hardy from Schnell (also a sponsor of Team LSDsports.com). A quick change and gear turn up and these bad boys where ready to roll!

Race Day
I arrived at transition nice and early and went about setting up my gear for the day ahead. I then went to the Eclipse Fitness tent, dropped my bags and suited up in my wetsuit.

I walked down to the swim start by myself and went through my race plan prior to my warm up. Before long we were called into the starting compound and I found my position out the the left hand side. I was ready and as soon at the start gun went I hit the water hard. I had clear water in front of my for most of the swim which I like. On the way back to shore I started to pass a few of the slow swimmers from the previous wave. I felt I swam a pretty direct route around the course and was generally happy with the swim.

Swim - 27.38

I found my bike easily in T1, it was very easy to spot the Schnell disc wheel! I ripped my wet suit off, buckled up my aero helmet and off I went.

Out onto the 90km bike course I had a 30 second gap to Matty Burton and a bit over a minute to Mark and Scotty. The initial stage of the ride was very important for me to get warmed up and my riding legs ready to go as I knew Matt would come past me at some point and I was going to go with him this time (unlike in Singapore). During this time I focused on keeping a slightly higher cadence and getting my nutrition down. As I was approaching Tuart Drive I saw Guy Crawford (on board a CEEPO Viper) smashing the ride with a decent gap to the the chase pack! Not long after I made the turn onto Tuart Drive and saw my training buddy Johan (in his first Pro race) not to far behind the main pack. I went to have my first gel but couldn't suck it out of the gel flask! (a post race inspection revealed i had not peeled the plastic under the lip off properly...) It took some time to unscrew the lid on the rough Tuart Drive road and of course, a full gel flask quickly became slightly less full as the gel went all over my hands and bars! I was in for a sticky 70km!

At the turn around I could see my gap to the boys and as expected Matty was hot on my heels (or wheels...). I was pretty happy to be able to hold him off that long. He eventually passed me about 30km into the ride and I was ready to go with him. However at the round about where we make a right hand turn back onto Layman Road he overshot the turn and had to back track.

I stayed with him for the rest of the 1st lap and I think I went through in about 1.04 and some change. At the start of the second lap the wind had picked up and we were in for a tough 22.5km to the turn around. I went to the front for a little bit along Geographe Bay Road but could not hold the pace Matt wanted to (sorry mate!). I pushed hard to stay in touch of Matt for the first half of the second lap and there were points the gap went out to about 30m. We picked up Matt (Bulldog) Jennings along the way and the three of us rode to the turn around. On the way back to town Matt put the pressure on, Bulldog went with him but I could not hold the pace. I rode the last 20km solo and got ready for the run ahead. I made sure I got the last of my nutrition and fluids down. I think Matt put about 1 minute on me by the end of the ride.

Bike - 2.11.57 

A had a quick transition on the way out had some support from my family. I was watching my GPS closely for the first few hundred meters to make sure I was not going out to hard and was running my target pace.

I could see Johan starting his second lap just ahead of me starting my run! I was feeling great! I was hitting my target pace and felt my form was good. At the turn around I saw Matt not to far in front and Johan yelled a few words of encouragement. I was very focused on my run and for the first time in a race felt like I was a runner! It is awesome going through the crowds at the end/beginning of each lap and I had a BIG smile on my face at the end of the first! I went through lap 1 in 28.40. The second lap was a carbon copy of the first (add 13 seconds and a few more people on the course). The third was tough but once I made it to the turn I pushed as hard as my body could go, I new I was on target for my sub 1.30. My final lap was 30.43.

Run - 1.28.37

Running down the finishing chute seeing the clock say 4.40.41 (less 30mins as it was the pro time) was AMAZING I crossed the line knowing I achieved my goals was great.

Overall Time - 4.10.41

I finished 2nd in the 18-24 age group to Matty Burton.... Again! Matt finished in 4.06 - the guy is seriously fast. I was 18th overall and second age grouper across the line.

Lisa had a tough day on the course with a great swim and ride, she had a few issues with her legs out on the run causing her to sit out for 20mins! She still beat her time by more than 10 mins from last year and managed to get second in the 18-24 category! Not bad considering her legs didn't cooperate.

Mark also had a tough day out there but stuck at it and finished! Good work mate, you got my respect for not pulling the pin when things didn't go your way.

Congratulations to Helen King finally with the break through win that she thoroughly deserved! 

I was a very happy little man after the race. I could not wipe the smile off my face! 

A big thank you to Ian Mansfield and XU1 Sports, the CEEPO Venom is amazing! Karl Hardy from Schnell Wheels who set me up on a very fast wheel set for the race! The bike and those wheels helped me set a new PB ride time (just under 41km average) and put me in a position to run well off the bike!

Thanks also to Tony and Cam at LSDsports.com for their support throughout the season! 

Stuart Durham my coach from Eclipse Fitness has got me to where I am today, thanks Stu. I'm looking forward to working towards bigger goals in the future! Also my main training partner Johan, thanks for pushing me throughout the season.

I set myself a goal to go sub 4.20 overall with a sub 1.30 run. I did both! An awesome way to finished a great season.

Cheers,

Andy

Busy times

It has been a very busy few weeks for me and I am looking forward to a little break over Easter. In exciting news, I am now a Certified Practising Valuer! I had my professional interview with the Australian Property Institute last week and found out on Tuesday I was successful. I am really pleased about this as it has been the result of 3 years at uni and 2 years work of work experience! Happy Days :-)

Training has also been going pretty well, however I have missed a few sessions over the last couple of weeks as I was preparing for my interview. Last Tuesday (the day before my interview) I went out for our my usual interval session with Johan and managed 10mins of the first 20min effort (in a set that had an hour of efforts). My mind was clearly distracted and not on the job so I sat up and we just rode an easy 60km.

It was such a relief to do the interview, but I had a few days to wait for the result which wasn't much fun. However everything worked out and I am now a very happy chap!

I did the Hillary's Triathlon on April 10th and had a solid race, in pretty tough windy conditions. I finished 7th in the open division, and 9th overall (same result as last time). I did a PB 5km run time in a race off the bike, by 3 seconds which I was happy with!

We had the XU1 Sports/CEEPO display which attracted some good attention. Be sure to come and visit us at the Busso 70.3 Retail Expo. We have been working hard to get everything organised and will have a good range of the 2011 CEEPO bikes, Leppin Sports Nutrition, XU1 hydration belts and bike boxes (on sale!) and AQUADIVA Swimwear. It was been a great learning experience getting this all organised and something I am looking forward to building on in the future!

I got the 2011 CEEPO Venom that I will be riding at Busso 70.3 in a few weeks and it looks AMAZING. I will take it out on its maiden voyage tomorrow morning! Expect a report to follow.

Looking forward to a solid training block for the next 10 days before starting to taper for my final race of the season!

Andy