Father's Day

Managed to get up at 5:30am, eat a banana, go through morning routine and head out of the door at just after 6am. I skipped my usual toast and marmalade because I wanted to get out as early as possible to get back for breakfast which I hoped would be special because today was Father's Day.

As I slowly made my way in the darkness I felt quite sicky ... a sort of empty stomach sicky feeling ... oops should have had that breakfast after all. I sipped Powerade but it didn't really do the trick. Needed something solid really. Lesson to be learned for future rides and especially the race. I NEED a decent breakfast. It was also the same feeling I had during the run of the Tga HI so maybe I just needed a bit of solid food on the bike. I'll eat some on the bike this time I think. Take a bar or something. Obviously try out a few options on some long rides/bricks to see what works.

The sicky feeling went after a while and by the time I got to the bottom of Reid Rd (the climb for today) I felt OK. Last time the 5k(ish) climb took me over 17 mins. Fellow bloggers had since done it in 11 and 15 mins so I had a bit of catching up to do. Turns out I had started a bit earlier on the road and finish a bit further up so today I was going to do the shortened route.

I set off in too high a gear and was puffing after only a few minutes. I went down the gears and got spinning. I managed to stay seated throughout and got to the top in 13:05. I was well pleased. Still much slower than The Saint though ... although in the best tradition of lies, damn lies and statistics I shall attempt (in my next blog entry) to demonstrate that my slower time is in actual fact a much better result ... sort of ... I love number crunching! haha

Back to the ride ... I had decided beforehand that I was going to do three hill repeats. Coming down the hill the first time I tried to persuade myself that maybe two would be OK but then I traded that I would take it easy on the next two and not go for time. So I tackled the hill twice more at a much easier pace and then made my way home.

I was taking it really easy on the way back until I got passed by someone on a mountain bike. I couldn't let that happen :) I upped the pace and played cat and mouse for a while letting him get away and then reeling him in. It was a good workout. I saw The Saint at this point as well going the other way to do his hill repeats on Reid Rd (He did 2 - what a slacker!).

Got back just before 9am. Ride details were 53.7K in 2hr 42min which gives an average of a sloooow 19.8km/hr ... but that does include those hill repeats so shouldn't be too worried.

Jo and the kid's had got Father's Day breakfast all sorted.

I had joked with Jo yesterday that I hoped she had sorted out croissants for my special day and she had said that I would have to wait and see but they were going for an extra pazzaz ... whatever that is .... turns out that extra thingy was croissants with chocolate spread and strawberries.


Howz an athlete supposed to reach racing weight around here? haha. It was delicious!!! Thanks kids ... and Jo :)

After breakfast I tried to put off the inevitable for as long as possible. The kids had bought me an olive tree (I love olives/I love anything Greek/If I didn't live in NZ I'd love to live in Corfu) and so I knew the day would involve GARDENING!!!

I managed to delay it with a coffee and then 'just checking a few blogs' but then we had to get down to it. We had a very overgrown patch at the side of the house and we had decided to clear it, put some slabs down that we had made in the summer (concrete mix with shells and stuff pushed into them) and plant the tree in the middle. We had some overgrown herbs in there so we dug them up and put them in pots. There was a lot of 'digging over' which I did and a lot of fetching of slabs and stones which the kids did (thankfully). I was 'busy' potting up the herbs when it came to the fetching part.

We haven't tamed the whole patch yet but it's getting there. We can carry on next week. The olive tree is in the middle there in the square patch of stones. Looked much bigger before we put it in. Give it 10 to 20 years and it should be big enough to give us some olives. Can't wait. We're also going to paint that green fence white to reflect the light more and give us juicier olives and strawberries.

Walking the Mount

Today was a rest day. Kids were out with their adopted Kiwi Grandparents and so it was just me and Jo. We decided on a walk around the Mount and lunch in our favourite Turkish restaurant.

I've had better results with the self timer

Walk is just over 3K and there are some glorious views. Can you spot the slug like thing in the middle of the rocks below.

I finally got to see some seals on the rocks. They were obviously on their rest day as they just lay there asleep for the 10 or so minutes we watched them. I was hoping for some swimming action shots but nope ... just dozing seals.

Jo watching the seals from the bank

Lots of lambs as well

Eat too much afterwards in the restaurant. Will have to ride extra hard tomorrow if I'm to do any good in the Through The Wall Weight Loss Challenge.

Looking back at the stats before last year's Half Ironman I was 189lbs and 16% fat. That needs to be my target this year. Currently 198/199lbs and 20% fat. 4 months to go. Father's Day tomorrow so I presume (hope/expect/demand!) I'm going to get treated to everything that's unhealthy and THEN the challenge begins in earnest on Monday ... yeah yeah ... heard that before BUT as of Monday I will make decisions to take me towards my goal of Sub6 at Rotorua!

Few Hours to Spare

I had some time today to do an extended training session. I just couldn't decide what to do. My options ranged from a made up sprint tri to riding the HI course again. I finally decided that I would time trial the new aero helmet and get me some data to back up my use of it at Rotorua.

My assumption was that it would make me faster ... surely!

I made my way to my old training ground. The course of the Tauranga Tinman. It's totally flat and a big contrast to the rides I've been doing recently. I decided to ride 2 of the 10K laps per set and do 4 sets, 2 with my normal helmet and 2 with the aero helmet. Totally unscientific but it seemed like a good idea and a bit of fun. It would be a good few hours training anyway at quite a high intensity so all good.

I think the main thing that the numbers proved was that I need more strength endurance and need to get mentally tougher and not let my mind control my body.

I started off with the old helmet. There was a big headwind for the 5k out and then (obviously) a great tailwind on the way back. A glance at my watch showed that I took 11 mins to get out and less than 9 to get back. This was pretty much the same for the 2nd loop and I finished it in 39:28 for an average speed of 30.66km/hr. Not bad for me. I'll take anything over 30km/hr.

So a quick gulp of drink and a change of helmet and a quick look around to make sure there was no-one watching that I knew and I was out into the headwind. I felt faster even if I wasn't. The helmet was comfortable and it was good having the visor. Wearing prescription glasses means that the wind gets behind and to the side and I usually ride with a few tears in my eyes. With the visor on the aero helmet this was eliminated.

I made the turn in about 10 mins and then got back in about 9. Second lap was a bit faster and I upped the gears on the homestretch. Completed the 20k in 38:02. Eighty seconds faster than the first 20k. Now this could have been because I had warmed up now and there could be a million other reasons why it was over a minute faster but I'm willing to attribute it to the helmet. I liked the average speed of 31.55km/hr.

The third set was noticeably slower than the first. The head/tail wind had turned into a very strong side wind and it felt like a headwind both ways. Reminded me of last year's Tauranga Half bike ride where we didn't seem to get an advantage either way. I struggled to complete the 20K in 39:27. Not too bad though. Still an average of 30.42km/hr.

Now if my theory was right I should have been able to complete the 4th set of 20k in less time than this last set. It was not to be. The wind really got up and it blew me all over the show. I struggled against it going out and then on the way back. During the ride back I thought about quitting after the 70K. It was still a good workout. The wind variable had changed the whole experiment and so data acquired after this time was flawed, yada, yada, yada!!! .... and as I came back to the turn (where my ute was) to go back out for the last 10K I quit.

I wasn't pleased with myself but I had done 70K and I had pushed it hard for over 2 hours but I had quit. I let my mind talk myself into quitting and going home and having scrambled eggs on toast with baked beans and a coffee on the side ... there was never going to be a 'last' lap once that came into my mind.

Now if it had been a race or I had had to complete 80K I would have done. I would have been slow in those last 10K but I would have completed. I should know not to have a multi-lap loop that goes by my means of travel home. If I had been 10k from home I would have completed the training. On a positive note the training plan said 2 hour ride so at least that was completed.

I learned a lot from the ride ... which was the point of it anyway. I learned that the aero helmet makes me feel fast and it feels comfortable. I learned that I now prefer a hilly route to an all flat one. The hills somehow give me a rest (I am obviously not doing them hard enough). I learned that I don't like side winds (already knew this one!) and I learned that I need to get some more strength/endurance for Rotorua. Its only the 'Base' phase of my training plan so plenty of time (just over 14 weeks). I also learned that the pull of food is stronger than the pull of training. Tut tut!!!

I've got a hilly ride planned for Thursday and then Friday I'm going to have a go at a swim ladder that I got from Coach K. It's 100m, 200m, 300m, 400m, 800m (what!), 400m, 300m, 200m, 100m with hard out efforts on the 400's. I like the idea of that. I want to try (as she did) to keep the time below 2mins/100 for all the sets.



Also managed to watch Laura play netball for her school this afternoon. They didn't win but with a decent coach I think they could do well. I wish I had the time.