Day 93 - Core Blimey!

Core Strength

Why do we all work so hard on 'core strength'. Core strength and Abdominal Strength, two very different things...I intend to get to the bottom of this.

Abdominal workouts, do exactly as prescribed - they work your abdominal muscles. These are not to be confused with core strength. Core strength does way more for your body.

Core work incorporates literally dozens of muscles, and improves strength and flexibility in your hips, pelvis, lower back, and abdominals. There are many reasons why a developed core is better than just developed abdominals. Such as:

Agility

Core muscles allow you to react faster, with greater strength. Core strength also lets your body distribute stress evenly, absorbs shock more effectively and contribute to your balance, coordination, flexibility and self awareness.

Power

Believe it or not, performing Squats and Dead Lifts with proper technique will develop your core, increasing your power but most importantly it will stabilise and protect your lower back. This type of conditioning develops your muscles, via your core, to allow your body to develop a good foundation for heavier weights and prevents injuries.

Posture

A good core workout will centre your spine and this will enable you to stand and sit with better, more erect posture. I've noticed huge development for my own posture in the past 90-odd days. The main thing here, is if you want a 6 pack or good looking abs, then posture development strengthen the lower back. You even appear taller / slimmer!

Weight Loss

Strong core equals less fatigue and reduced effort in performing daily activity. This reduced effort and fatigue directly translates to more available energy to put into gym time, running, cycling etc. You'll also be at a reduced risk of injury when you're carrying less weight, and reduced risk of exhaustion because you have the additional energy to sustain you!

Way More than a 6 Pack

I've realised from the women in my life, that strong cores as a foundation mean gym work is made far easier. I didn't realise that such a large portion of the male population don't even consider core training, and solely focus on muscle development. This often means the obliques, lower back, hips get less of a workout (if at all) and often just get pounded with heavy weights! It is the recommendation of most fitness professionals to develop core strength FIRST, to gain strength and stability to allow you to do the muscle building activity later.

But Why?

When is Core Strength useful to me, and why haven't I been doing it...Well, I actually have been. I was bashing away in the gym, decided at about 10 weeks (if I recall correctly), that my workouts would include more endurance (abs between weights), and that my weights workout since week 8 (I think) have been predominantly compound instead of isolated. Endurance training and working in the abdominals intensified and added some spice to my weights regime. Compound training added the base core work, required me to drop to smaller weights and develop better technique. I stuck with it, and now I feel particularly strong, in comparison to this time a year ago. I feel fitter today, than ever before. Good reason to kick start your routine into adding more core and compound training? I think so! 

Core strength is integral in my marathon and triathlon goals. It is pivotal in my overall development since I need to maintain a strong core so I can pound my body over 42km. I need to load my muscles with memories of endurance, strength training and the kilometres in my legs. All of this contributes, and as my core has developed (slowly), I've noticed that my running technique has improved. I was omnipresent this evening as I straightened my posture, well noticed that it was more erect as I put a swift 5km on the treadmill.

WOD

My Workout Of the Day, as created by me, was to replicate this core strengthening, and keep my legs from taking a break.

I started with 30 minutes of abdominal weights training, focusing on core alignment, and not just the abdominal workout. I then proceeded to do a 30 minute core crushing kettle bell circuit. I transitioned between medium and heavy bells, and worked different parts of my core. I also included a swift 5km treadmill run, which had me running at around 5min/km, for 25 minutes. My heart rate peaked at 143bpm and I focused on twisting my core muscles and keeping a straight posture as I ran. It felt good!

My WOD - Part 1 Abdominals: (3x15reps)

1. Standing Weighted Cable Pulldown Crunch
2. Kneeling Weighted Cable Pulldown Crunch
3. Palof Press
4. Landmine 180's
5. Plate Twists
6. Plate Side Bends
7. Kettle Bell Figure 8 Crunches

Part 2 Kettle Bell Circuit: (30second intervals x 3reps) - Odd Numbers Heavy, Evens Medium Weight

1. Goblet Squat
2. Around Body
3. Bent Over Row
4. Figure 8 (in bent over position)
5. Single Leg Dead Lifts
6. Windmills
7. Shoulder Press
8. Half Get Ups
9. Step Ups
10. Squat Swings

Treadmill Run: 5km, 5min/km, 25 minutes

Stretches, Side Plank Pulses, V-Sits, Figure 4 Abs & Thigh Crunches to finish me off.

Day 92 - Balls, Bells and Bars...

Variety 

The spice of life and the means to staying focused on my journey from fat to fit. I like to mix things up, and apparently, its good to do so. This week, being the crazy last week of my leadership course is a bit messy and getting into my normal routine is getting harder as the week progresses toward graduation. I decided to mix it up again tonight....but why?

Variety, or, the quality or state of having different forms or types can be important within a strength and conditioning program. Triathletes and cross-fitters tend to need a variety in their program to develop different physical qualities. My variety of strength, endurance, speed, stamina....run, swim ride and sports seems to be the go here!

Athletes must incorporate variety in their regime to become more complete. There is no single exercise or piece of equipment that will create the complete athlete. In order for muscles to increase strength, the workload must be greater than normal. I've noticed that since I started mixing things up, even as early as when I started to train for triathlon (instead of just running) I got stronger sooner. By overloading the muscles, your body adapts by growing stronger. Once the body adapts, a new stimulus is required to continue the reaction. Workload must progressively increase to make gains in strength and endurance.

Variety is a method of adding tools to your toolbox to facilitate your progression.

Tuesday night football..

Almost certainly its harder to play, or more intensive to play indoor football on a full size court with less people. Tonight there was 5 of us! 3 on 2 was the order of play - so lots of running and stop/start sprints, changes to direction was in order. For the first 30 minutes my game was all over the place. Mr Peds reckoned my skills were better when I took a few moments to stop and think, prior to taking shots or passing. This actually seemed to be true...I missed, hit the post and crossbar...I hit the ball wide by the narrowest margins and somehow couldn't find the back of the net. On taking those moments to think, I went from hell to high scoring! I even knocked 3 long-range (from our goal area) shots into their net! I really started to score all over the place, even nut-megged the keeper three times. Such fun.

After 75 minutes I was pooped, needing to change the pace for gym time!

Bells and Bars...

Tonight I opted for the mammoth session - Back and Arms. I reduced the number of exercise variants, but pushed hard to make the ones I was doing count. My dead lift technique has definitely improved, and I feel stronger for it. My rows were all a good show of my developing back strength. I concluded back with 3 sets of 3 unassisted chin ups...and my gosh I was trying hard!

I moved into Biceps and then Triceps. I was feeling the burn by now, 45 minutes in and that was my cue to finish off with a kettle bell circuit. Qinno joined for a bit and we did some basic run throughs. I've been intensifying the kettle bell circuit and 15 minutes is pretty tough....for me!

After all the hard gym work, I think my back deserves a good relax on the foam roller tonight. Looking forwards to that!

Day 87-91 - Kettles, Bars, Bricks and What?

Bells, Balls, Pucks, Weights and lots of sweat.

Another mad-crazy week, filled with multiple workouts. It has been a busy week work-wise too (hence my lack of posts).

I've done some interesting preparations to enhance my training for the marathon; working on core and strength with weights workouts, endurance with kettle bells and agility, power and speed with run sessions, and triathlon brick training sessions.

Thursday I put myself through a 45 minute kettle bell workout, targeting all of the major muscle groups. I also chucked in some barbell training to deepen the efforts on my core muscles. After, I did a triathlon brick. This particular brick involved a 20 minute spin, with a cadence of 100rpm. This speed and duration meant I could knock over a 10km spin, I averaged about 28kph, which is a nice speed for me. After the spin, I jumped onto a treadmill to do a quick run. I was running at 5:40 per km for 28:24, and that allowed a good 5km run at 10.6kph.

Saturday, I did a 35 minute intensive (no rest) kettle bell workout with my amazing wife, at the Bond Street Fitness First. I got a real good sweat on and had fun training with Winnie. It is the favourite part of my weekend. Winnie and I always train so well together, she truly is my soul mate and training buddy!

Today was a great day for leadership training. Today our instructor (Leut. Johno) took us to the gym to play 'handball - It's good to be king' and a 30 minute deck hockey game. I was team captain for team blue. I picked an awesome squad and we actually won 4-1! Two games that we can play with our sailors at sea, both pretty fun, full-on activity.

Deck hockey is a sport that has been played on ships at sea, since the 1800's and I would like to think that I could keep that piece of history as I progress my career. Here's hoping - and my new ship has a pretty massive deck!

After the 60 minutes of team games, I headed into the gym. Working out with Qinno was a good change of routine. We did a good hour of chest and some shoulders - working hard, and using a spot is a nice way to push yourself! After this workout I got stuck into a 30 minute cardio-strength burnout using my new favourite toys - the kettle bells. I incorporate step ups and box jumps to build on the cardio and agility.

Days 81-83 - Weekend Fun

Home at last. Friday afternoon was spent driving back up to Sydney. Friday night I relaxed, enjoyed my rest with Winnie and prepared for a big weekend of sport, fun and training.

World Cup Football 1

Saturday I planned to get up early, watch Australia vs Chile in the World Cup, then study, then train in the gym (a quick 30 minute session) with Winnie on her lunch break, since she was working all weekend.

I did all as planned. I'm liking sticking to my plans, it lets me see how organised I am plus I feel satisfied that I achieved all I set out to do.

Micro Circuit

30 minutes in the gym is not long to get a good workout, but never the less we gave it our best. It seemed logical to get a few pre-loaded barbels and head to the circuit/cross-fit area of the gym. There we proceeded to run 2 minute intervals of bicep curls, shoulder press, overhead tricep dips, push ups, sit ups, v-sits, lunges, squats, track-starts. After, noting the time we did 4 sets of the big rope, making waves with it for 2 minute intervals with 20 second rests between. After we raced the sled things - mine had a 25kg plate on it, Winnie was using an empty one. We were pushing, not pulling, the sleds up and down the astro-turf area. This was how we finished.

A micro circuit, I need to work on making the best use of time, but it got a sweat on us both and we got to spend some time together...which is what it is all about!

Roosters vs Knights

Saturday evening Winnie and I went to see the Sydney Roosters play against the Newcastle Knights. This was a pretty good NRL game. Sydney were losing, then in the second half they stomped all over the Knights. The Roosters ended up winning 29-12 in a really good game. The weather was pretty chilly, which meant lots of cuddles for the wife - again another reason to go to Friday night NRL with Winnie! Plus its pretty good entertainment....

World Cup Football 2

This morning I woke up extra early to set myself up to watch the Three Lions take on Italy in their opening game of the world cup. At the same time, my sister called me on FaceTime - we were then able to watch the game together. Is it me or is technology making the world seem a lot smaller - AWESOME! A devastating first game in terms of the result for England, but a few good lesson learnt. I look forward to the next game!

A Little Run

This morning, post football, I headed out into the wind and rain to run another long distance training run. I was aiming for 25km. I planned to run from my house to La Perouse, around past Bare Island, and then up Anzac Parade to Maroubra....and back the way I came.

This was a tough run, the wind was sapping my energy, the rain made me feel heavy. Then there were the long hills, short steep hills and half way I realised I had only had a smoothie for breakfast! Lucky I stocked up on electrolyte gel products this weekend.

This run I was trialling a new product, called Clif Shot Bloks. There's 6 in a pack, thats the equivalent gel of 2 liquid gel sachets. I used 3 bloks during the run, staggered over the 158 minutes of running. I did as recommended and sucked the yummy black cherry flavour gel blocks and chewed little slivers as I ran. This reduced the workload on my gut as I ran.

Post-run I smashed a protein shake with added L-Glutamine, and chased it with an electrolyte gel. This was another new product, made by Torq Nutrition. This gel was recommended to me over the weekend, so I gave it a try. It was wicked, great tasting, easy to swallow, less thick than any of the gels I've tried thus far. The real benefit was the less-artificial tasting flavour, which was Rhubarb and Custard. I was very impressed, and my stomach has had no signs of being affected by this or the Bloks.

 My stats for the run were interesting.  Average Heart rate was 148 bpm, the average pace being 6:04 minutes per km and the time, 02:38:58. My speed / pace was a lot slower than normal, but there could be many reasons why and I'm not too bothered. I burned something close to 2500 calories, and needed to eat a fair amount before I felt satisfied tonight!

Days 60-62: A Well Earned Rest...

Home. Where My Heart Is....

This weekend, seemed to take forever to arrive but I guess that's the way it goes when you're waiting for something awesome to happen. For me, this weekend was about going home to see my wife, and spending quality time with her. Being a serving ADF member means that home time really needs to be all about the quality, since the duration is never all that long....Devoted to my wife, and making every moment count, I planned to spend every second having fun, and that's why I've been quiet all weekend!

We did the usual, visited various yummy restaurants and ate (carefully in my case) delicious meals. A regular haunt of our is Ayam 99, which is the best Indonesian food in Sydney...in my humble opinion! We also, got to try some new places too. Winnie is bound to blog about them on our other blog Eat.Travel.Dive, so I'll not steal her thunder!

The best part, not including the amazing time spent with my wifey, and also with family too. We hung out with IronRay, Queen Filsie, and Winnie's parents. More amazing than that, however was the various amazing, yummy raw/vegan/suger free/dairy free treats that the Winster prepared for me.... now that is awesome! For recipes check out our other blog... 

There were Chocolate Fudge Bites, Healthy Snickers and Blueberry and Orange Zest Cheesecake.... Did I say these are all healthy! OMG I know, right? AMAZING!

Who could resist this?

Time to Train Together

Winnie and I actually like to train together. We bounce off of each other, we keep it fun and we always share the "pain". Saturday afternoon was no different, since quality time also means that we train, or go to yoga...We chose the gym before dinner.

Shoulders and Abdominal Smash - so I run my darling wifey through an endurance workout, and after 90 minutes of hard work, she rated it an 8/10 overall. I'm happy with that. The workout however, did get a bonus mark too. You see, Winnie has decided she wants to build her upper body strength and core strength to enable her to do hand stands. We ended our workout with 3 sets of against the wall type. Winnie was very anxious about doing this, so I assisted her in getting up then guided her through it. We're a pretty awesome team, I know this because she reciprocated in ensuring I didn't knock the wall down on my turn. I can get into the position, just have to throw myself in!!! My third set was what Winnie called "hollow back" which is apparently an achievement...

Shoulder press up (mid push up)

Hollowback?

Anyways, time for bed. I have a big week ahead - hopefully culminating in graduation from this course I've been on since January..Plus, another week of endurance training.

Oh, and I'm thinking of signing up for the following fitness events, if you wanna join in let me know...I'm sure training and doing will be fun.

1. Sydney City 2 Surf (14km Run) - 10Aug14
2. Sydney Marathon (42km Run - but there are other distances) - 21Sep14
3. Husky Olympic Tri (Swim 1.5km, Bike 40km, Run 10km, Sea Posting Permitting) - 02Nov14
4. The Cole Classic (2km Ocean Swim, Sea Posting Permitting) - 01Feb15
5. Husky Half Iron Man (Swim 2km, Bike 83km, Run 20km, Sea Posting Permitting) - 22Feb15
6. Port Mac Iron Man.... or Melbourne.... ??

Well, thats the plan....am I crazy?

Days 58 & 59 - Blur

Blurring the Lines....

Talk about crazy busy. Yesterday I woke up late (first time in 9 weeks), missed my early morning workout and got annoyed with myself. Thankfully, we were cut-away early so I punished myself for 90 minutes doing an extended version of my missed workout. Endurance training for 90 minutes was hard work, but it got my head back in place and made me feel stronger. Sometimes we trip, we fall flat on our faces, but when we rise up, we stand up stronger and with greater purpose to not do it again.

I think being human about this stuff, whilst trying desperately hard to stick to a routine is why I am seeing results (both physical and emotional). I feel more together than I have before. I'm more zen and less hectic. Tuesday's yoga allowed me to reflect on that too. I still believe the goals we set ourselves can drive us crazy, can lead to tunnel vision of the rest of the stuff going on around us. That kind of perceptual narrowing, is totally going to mean that destination ends up overshadowing the journey. To me, the journey is still the most important element. We have our bumps, and our triumphs, but most of all we create an emotional attachment to the new way of being - it makes us feel good to step off the plane onto the tarmac at the start of an adventure, it lifts our spirits to see the sun rise or fall over a new back drop..this is why I travel, the destinations are not as important as how I get there....

Using this, helps. I've found of late, that the journey has been blurring somewhat, and this is causing me to get upset for the minor setbacks. Shit happens, to all of us, most of the time.. Remember, falling off your bike (as I've done a lot lately, dang cleats) just means you can get back on it and re-adjust. I suggest having a good laugh too. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we all need to slow it down, enjoy the bumps and sensations of the ride. We should all take a few minutes to ground ourselves,  take the time to align ourselves and carry on.

Chest, Abdominals, Arms & Abdominals

2 Days of tough training, like the rest of this week. Its pretty intense working for 60-90 minutes without a rest set. The endurance really shows when you're burning through fatigue. Obviously, as this is a new experience in the gym for me, I've dropped the weights (not by much) to maintain the work, keep the reps at 8 per set, and all exercises are 4 sets. Moving directly from a set of Chest or Arms to a set of Abdominals, then back to the original chest/arms set is not easy. My body is a little sore, but good sore, and I'm enjoying challenging my resistance workouts with a cardio-intensive rhythm. It's like I'm doing my own version of cross fit or something! I work really hard, usually I'm sweating before I get throughout the first "pair" of exercises. You see, I pair the exercises based on the logistics of what I need to do each. So for example, doing bent over rows (on back day) using the land mine set up is perfect for land mine 180s for abs. Or going from palm up forearm burners, leaning over a bench leads itself nicely for body based abs like plank or retractors.

Here's a sample of the last two Workouts: Remember I alternate between each set of each exercise....

Thursday:

1. Palm Up Forearm Burners & Plank (20 sec hold)
2. Palm Down Forearm Burners & Retractors
3. Standing Zuttman Curls & Plate Twists (10kg plate)
4. E-Z Bar Spiderman Curls & Side Plate Bends (20kg plate)
5. Inclined Bench Barbell Curls & Barbell Ab Rollouts
6. Standing Barbell Drag Curls & Heel Tap Twists
7. E-Z Bar Skull Crushers & Bicycle Twist Abs
8. Low Cable Overhead Extenders & V-Sits
9. Cable Reverse Grip Tricep Pulldowns & Cable Ab Crunches
10. Cable Tricep Pushdowns & Hanging Knee Up Crunches
11. 90 minute Bikram Yoga Workout in the evening

As you can see, its pretty full-on, and doing 4 sets of each is a real killer! This little lot took me an hour to pull off, so I was not hanging around! Yesterday's 90 minute punishment was tough, but worthwhile!

Wednesday:

1. Bench Press & Bottoms Up Raises
2. Incline Bench Press & Retractors
3. Decline Bench Press & Plate Twists (10kg plate)
4. Push Ups & Farmers Cage Walks (110kg max) - 6 sets just for fun
5. Incline Dumbbell Chest Press & Bicycle Twist Abs
6. Incline  Dumbbell Pectoral Fly & Side Plate Bends (20kg plate)
7. High Cable Fly & Land mine 180s (15kg plate)
8. Low Cable Fly & Pallof Press Core Holds
9. Pec-Deck & Single-arm Land mine 180 wiper catch & throws (10kg plate)
10. 90 minute Bikram Yoga workout in the evening

Bikram

It is the first time in absolutely months, that I have practiced Bikram so frequently. I've really missed the class and how it leaves me feeling. I've noticed that I'm calmer, less erratic, more balanced than usual.

When I'm in the class, of course I'm thinking "my gosh, this is hot", or "why can't I breathe properly", or "I wish I could stretch and bend like the person in front of me"... but after acknowledging my thoughts, I return to my breath and silently meditate on my mantra "Om mani padme hum" which really quietens my mind. I sometime just solely focus on my breathing, how I breathe determines how calm I feel. The other thing I've noticed is that as I can hear/feel my heart rate elevating, my meditation and thought process often leads to my thinking about calming my heart down. I can often feel the slowing heart rate as a result of my thoughts.

What I think I'm saying here is that I'm developing an internal self-regulation of my core functioning. My heart rate, breathing and thought processes are all being controlled when I take the time to slow things down, return to basics and calm down. I call it getting my "Zen On"...

Day 57 - What Makes Us Stronger....

Tuesdays 

An interesting day. I like to train shoulders and abdominals, and that motivates me to bound outta bed and get my groove on. Mr Ped's generous loan of his car for the week is really enabling me to get to the gym and back (just) in time for classes starting at 0730h.

So, as I've previously explained, I'm working to intensify my workouts this week and today I worked ridiculously hard with shoulders and abdominals. I worked like a crazy person, each set of reps of shoulders was followed by an abdominals set - no rest breaks. This made for a very hard, workout. Since I was doubling up on each exercise combo, I actually added more overall exercises. 

The way I see it, there are a few things that make us stronger. The first is discipline, determination and miles and miles of heart - all summed up as EFFORT.

The more effort you put into anything, the greater the feeling of achievement when you complete the task. The only problem with effort, is that its not a given. You need to put in to get out. It's your responsibility to do this.

Effort? It is as simple as the definition: A vigorous or determined attempt. So, in terms of health and well being, you just gotta get up, get your butt in the gym, pool, on your bike or whatever you plan to do, and put in as hard work as you can to achieve what you want. It takes more than one go. You have to understand that it takes time, practice, evaluation, reflection and a whole lot of work...not to mention commitment, and sacrifice. To achieve results you need to be a disciple and a student to it. You have to live, breathe and think it. Become it.

Sacrifice. Well there's something I've not talked about at all.... I'm not going to offer up any virgins to a deity, or perform some weird and wonderful ritual.... I'm talking about Personal Sacrifice. I like cakes, I like ice cream, I love ice cream. I love to drink socially...but and here it is - I love the idea of being a fit, healthy husband (and father?). I love the idea of completing an Ironman and a marathon, and the idea of losing my belly....I love these things much, much more. It's not easy giving up what you love, I miss bread and gluten and weetabix....small sacrifices in the long term.... What are you giving up to get what you want?

After such a great start to today, I was really looking forward to finding a nice way to end the day. Well, Bikram Yoga, with my yogi-buddy Holmie, was the perfect wind-down. I even got complimented on my Triangle and Head to Knee postures! It was pretty hot tonight, and this causes a range of emotional releases, as well as the obvious physical ones... I know Holmie and I both felt that too. Yoga really helps me find clarity when my head's all over the place....

This is me most classes...

Practicing Triangle with Winnie, in Bali 2013....

Family (Near & Far)

I ended the day sharing the love, and again now. I saw my wife on FaceTime which always makes me happier, then a rare treat was spend a good hour with my sister in England, helping her prepare dinner for my two godsons. I even got to see my newest godson... Master G after he woke up from his afternoon nap...such a happy time for me. I sacrifice everyday to just be. It's worth remembering that - look back and see the things we each take for granted, or forget we've given up. I miss my family in the UK, even though I'm building roots of my own here, in Australia. I wouldn't change my situation, except having all of them (and Mr Mouldie & Miss Kimbo) here with us. I miss them so much. I love my life, and I love my family all of it (the Aussie, Chinese, Indonesian, American, and of course the British) and the positive influences expressed on me to create the changes necessary. I thank my family (near, far and extended) for their continued support.

It took me to travel to the other side of the world and a lot of soul searching to realise the damage I was doing to my body, well actually it took meeting Winnie to see what I was doing, but it's taken nearly 6 years for me to even make a proper effort to change things. Until this process begun, I was never prepared to sacrifice, or commit to it. Now, I can't imagine my life without it......

Day 56 - The Week 9 Intensification Process!

Not Long Now...

Yo! How ya going? What an amazing Monday. I thought it would be a great idea to give week 9 an injection of energy, focus and well, something a little more intensive. Plus, I'm highly motivated by the simple fact that I am going home to my wonderful wifey this weekend... 4 More Sleeps :)

How exciting....

Intensification

So, in an effort to up the stakes on this my 56th day, after such a big weekend of achievements I decided to do a morning workout that meant very little breaks and a whole other level of work.

Last week's back workout, although tough, seemed a little like it needed more. So, I decided to couple it with abdominals. How's that any different? Well, instead of back, back, back then abs...I decided to go back, abs, back, abs...no breaks. So after each set of back, I threw in a set of abs. Just because.....

I did a little research on back exercise routines last night, and decided to revamp the whole routine. I started with four sets of axle dead lifts to warm up, I managed to get to 55kg on the bar (75kg total)... After I got stuck into the new plan, with reverse grip bent over rows (with the barbell), with roller abs using the same barbell between sets. I did 4 sets of 8 reps of each, increasing the weight each time to a maximum of 30kg (until I get my technique perfect) - this is actually much harder than it reads....

I set the barbell up using the floor plate (landmine), then conducted sets of T-bar rows, with Landmine 180's between sets. I needed to drop the weight each time for the land mines, but got to 45kg with the rows, and was working up a sweat on the land mines on 30kg! 4 Sets of each later...I was feeling the burn!

I continued with Lat Pull downs - wide grip and narrow, before moving onto the cage farmers walks - today my farmer's walks reached 110kg (new PB). To finish my workout, and since time was getting sparse, I knocked out back hyperextensions, coupled with leg raises and knee crunches. I then punched out 4 chin ups, before moving into the hanging knee crunches and retractors to finish... all 4 sets of 8 reps each... Boom, another 75minute burnout! 

Not to be out done by this morning's effort, I wanted this evening's workout (predominantly cardio based) to challenge me. Subsequently I opted to do a 30 minute leg workout. I incorporated Smith Squats, Leg Press, Hack Squats, and Calf Raises.. I felt a little twinge in my calf so moved to the cardio part.... Incidentally, I PB'd on leg press tonight (180kg), which is another indication that my endurance and strength are really improving....yay for me!

Bricks

So, as you know, one of the new training tools to help me train for triathlons, is the brick session. So, I decided to do an out of sequence Bike then Swim. Since my pride and joy is packed for her trip home, I opted for a 30 minute spin, followed by an attempt at a speedy swim...

So, after a little leg stretching I jumped on the spin bike. 30 minutes later, feeling very comfortable I pulled up having travelled 15km. Nice. I quickly got changed and jumped in the pool. Now, I wanted to work my speed so I thought, hmm a snappy 500m to finish? I was aiming to finish in 15 minutes or less.... However, with my arms burning, and perhaps a little additional blood flowing in my legs I worked particularly hard to complete the swim. When I touched the poolside and stopped the clock, it read 09:52, my fastest lap was 01:06, and 01:58 per lap average. How funny, my best ever!

Day 54 & 55 - There and back, and back.

Challenge Set

Ride to Melbourne from Frankston, then if we have enough left in the 'tank', ride back. Approximated total distance 100km... Mr Peds was keen, and so was I.

Saturday 0500h...beep, beep, beepety-beep! Snooze? Hell No! After a quick breakie, I was dressed and ready to meet me bike buddy, Mr Peds, to head into Franko. It was dark, but not so cold outside. I tested my lights, checked my water bottles were full up (with water and electrolytes), stuffed my pre-packed ziplock of dates, and a four spare fizz-bomb electrolyte tabs into my back pockets of my jersey. I tested the Garmin, and as I finished my pre-start tests...My ride arrived!

The wind was already starting to blow when we started our ride from Oliver's beach, at 0645, but the sun was not rising. The tale tale white peaks on the water told me the wind was going to be consistent, I was expecting a little wind....the forecast said it was going to be blowing from the north.... Eeep!

Challenge Met

With the wind in our faces, this trip was going to be as psychological as it was physical. Keeping positive, and almost enjoying the wind burning my cheeks to a new shade of rosie, was in order. Mr Peds and I kept up the motivation in the early stages of the ride with the excitement factor of getting going with this challenge. Later on in the ride we talked about a manner of interesting things to kill the time. I found myself really buzzing throughout this experience. I really enjoyed the sunrise, watching the world around you light up so slowly, but with intensity is really special. Plus, when you start to see things ahead of you it really amps you up. In no time at all we had reached Mordialloc, and the Tour de Cafe. We stopped for a quick comfort break, and headed on. I got an electrolyte get for later, and stuffed in my back pocket.

Cycling from Mordialloc toward Melbourne was very quick in places, thanks to the big riding groups we encountered. Less nervous about riding in a pack, I was really getting into the whole process. Before I knew it we were smashing hills, and moving at a speed of around 35-45kph! This was fairly easy to achieve, since the slip-stream really helped everyone keep pace. I even ended up at the front of the pack for a few minutes - which was quite the opposite, I felt the drag from the whole group and the wind was back in my face! I managed to get my heart rate up to 173bpm! When I eventually dropped back in the group I could barely talk - SHOCK HORROR! What an awesome experience it was; all the fellow rider gee-ing you along, and giving their hand signals for things in the road, movement and such. I find yourself checking and thinking about the pack more than you think about the pain/agony of riding so fast!

At around Black Rock, the pack was all but gone. We were back to riding at around 22kph, and the wind was getting stronger. We joined lots of smaller packs as we went, and before we knew it were in St Kilda.

As we reached this area, Mr Peds pointed out that over in Williamstown you could see both of the new Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) vessels - what an awesome sight to see, Nuship Canberra and Nuship Adeliade parked top to tail, side by side... a rare sight, and it made us both feel quite "charry" - lol, Love Navy!

After this we turned in toward the city and our half way marker...

During the ride my front wheel had developed a lovely jingle-jangle sound, which was coming from the hub. We decided to head to Cycles Galleria to get it checked...one problem, it was only 0800h! So, we headed over to Flinders Station for our celebratory photo (and proof we made it).

After this 'photo shoot' we headed for another comfort break, and returned to the saddle. Knowing (and hoping) that wind would still be blowing from the north, we were confident we'd make the return.

Mr Peds took us out of the city a different way, but it was really busy traffic wise, and we decided to take a detour to make it fun. Just prior to this we spotted a bike shop, with a coffee shop attached (in fact they even had a spin studio for the fit-freaks who can't get enough). I asked for their opinion on my hub. As it happens, some good advice - your hub is a warranty! The bearing cover was meant to be pressed on, by machine, but mine had sheared off - well now the roller bearing were exposed - engineers, we know what that means....bad juju for the bearings! Not much I could do about it on this trip, and safe in the knowledge my wheel wasn't going to shit itself on the way home, I decided to carry on. My bike was gaining some new "memories" from the ride now too....

Whist in the coffee shop we had a lovely cappuccino, and some free protein balls. Yummy. The girl behind the counter was from my hemisphere, Clapham (London) and so we got to talking which was nice to help us relax for a few minutes.

 

 My Protein Balls never come out this tasty. I need more practice, clearly...

Hills...

I'm finding hills to be a great experience. I've learnt to prepare my gear shifts in advance, to make transitioning into the hill climb easier. I've learnt that there's a whole lot of technique in climbing and descending hills. Most of all, I think you need a strong core and endurance in your muscles. Since working on my core more frequently in the gym and training specifically for endurance, I've noticed a new gear in my riding. I've got my power in my legs because I'm holding my core better, my shoulders and chest are better positioned (not perfect, still developing) so that they support me as I ride, and climb. I even got to the point, on the return leg, where I was powering up hills with Mr Garmin (a rider dressed in a Garmin suit) who had monster calves, and I feel suitably bed for leaving Mr Peds standing on those occasions. I did however slow down and he caught me up - I did not want my ride buddy and I to be separated for long! Mr Peds commented on how he thought I'd improved, even since we'd last ridden together. Thanks Mate! As I passed my Personal Best to date of 83.97km, I gave out a good cheer "Boo-Ya" and felt very happy that whatever happened, I was in the realms of a new PB! Smiles all around.

The Route

Breaking 100...

So as we got close to the end, we realised we were going to be around 4-5km short of the target of 100km. So, we decided to turn around at Oliver's beach and do a short loop of 2.5km out and back to make it up.... As we approached those last few kilometres we were both feeling pretty happy, in my case almost euphoric to have accomplished something, that only a few months ago seemed like a dream. I remember, laughing and almost being shocked when IronRay, or Mr Keish would talk about 60km rides. Mr Keish would regularly ride home from the central NSW coast to Sydney, and IronRay is a machine from cycle-hell sent to make us all ride harder. I never thought, and said very frequently that I would never be "caught doing that kind of crazy".... How times change.

3 hours 52 Minutes and 49 Seconds of riding, and I loved every second.

So, as we finished, I played a mental fanfare in my head (well out loud actually), and took a pic of my Garmin screen. I took off my cycle shoes, stretched and prepared for our post ride 2km walk to realign blood flow... Oh My Gosh...We did it Mr Peds...plus we burned 2951 calories on that ride!

 

Achieving Your Impossible

So, as a reflection...and I know this has been said a million times before, so you get my swing on this. IMPOSSIBLE is something we all read wrong. It actually says IM POSSIBLE. Therefore, ergo, there should be nothing that you cannot achieve. For example, my spiritual guide and good friend Peaceful Warrior (PW) took some time off work recently. Without any significant training, she just climbed to base camp of Mt Everest - She completed it Thursday, I believe....but with slow internet on Everest, posted yesterday...you know, time delays, comms lag...blame it on the ISP! She always tells me that impossible is just an excuse. Well, I think, for my slowly ticking off my milestones, and achieving my impossibles, that she might be onto something.

Please, set goals, take baby steps if you need to, but work (like Michelle Bridges says) with Consistency, Consistency and Consistency. Never give up, never back down. I'm on a roll and I'm not planning on going back now. My life is infinitely better since committing to being healthy. It's actually changing my outlook on my whole life plans, and together with my amazing Winnie, and my amazing like-minded friends, I'm doing it.

And Back Again...

Well, thanks to my good mate Mr Peds, and the generous loan of his car, I was able to head straight back into the city to see the peeps at Cycles Galleria. After a quick call had organised a wheel for me. On arrival they told me the it was a "loaner" wheel, since its an upgrade, and that I should contact my local Sydney based shop, to organise the appropriate Cannondale warranty replacement. So, what is meant by "loaner" I asked, they responded with, this is a "free-loaner" as in you can keep it! So, I bagged a freebie Shimano RS21 Rim. As they replaced my tyre and tube onto said rim, my old tube exposed, so they replaced that for free too. I ended feeling a little guilty at the excellent customer service, so purchased some Endura Electrolye gels (which they subsequently reduced for me)...Great afternoon!

When in Rome...

Whilst in Melbourne, and well the parking fee was already paid for, I headed to get some lunch / dinner....it was 1600h by now. I ended up eating a delicious gluten free Thai Pork Vermicelli salad in a cute place on Russell. After, I walked past The Lab nitrogen gelato place...I noticed they had a special on this week only. Sorry Winnie, but I just had to try it (her favourite flavour) Ferrero Rocher, made their way. It was a gelato/sundae to be amazed by....people were queuing for this thing, and I just rocked up, they recognised me (how funny) and I ordered! Boom! It was delicious. The wafers on it were not gluten free, but were made with some type of flour that has yet to even effect me. OMG what a great celebration!

 

On my way home I collected the bike travel bag from a dude in St Kilda, and we removed the pedals and wheels. We locked it in the bag and I need to complete the packing of that bag later today. A fun exercise I'm sure. I was quite sad to see my trusty pedal machine being striped for travel :( I didn't take pictures because it was just too sad. 

Kicking Back...

Today I'm taking a full day of rest, not so much to recover, but to give myself a chance to readjust and relax so I can go hard next week. I've had a long morning, spent snoozing and just ate lunch. Now I plan to work on packing the bike and relaxing some more.

I think thats reward enough for my biggest challenge this year!

Have a great Sunday.