Day 72 - Wednesday

Wednesday

A strange and fulfilling day. After a nice lie in bed, and a later start I worked through the morning with a pretty focused mindset. Achieved some tasks that needed doing at was ready to have a 'quick' workout by about 1600h.

Gym

I decided on a workout which would make me feel pumped after! I opted to do chest and abdominals, I pushed hard in the gym, blowing out the cobwebs of another naval day. I was going pretty well actually, especially during decline bench press and the incline dumbbell press exercises! Started seeing just a touch more development there! My abdominals were feeling like they had plateaued but after yesterday I knew I could keep going! I maintained a good training rhythm for around 90 minutes.

Spin

I was intending to do some endurance cardio today. Initially I was going to run, but the inclement weather made the decision for an indoor session for me. I then decided on a short spin and a short swim. Have you ever gotten so into a flow, that you've lost track of 'time', even though you know how long you've been going for? Well, today that was the case. I was spinning really comfortably, averaging 95rpm, with a steady low heart rate 110-115bpm in a nice gear similar to my normal riding gear on my Cannondale. I saw 30 minutes fly past, then 45, 60....90 and well, after I realised how close to riding 50km I was - I decided to stay put until then. I ended up riding 54.1km in 120 minutes. Not bad, and although the saddle and riding position isn't perfect on a spin bike, I was pretty comfortable throughout, even when my butt started to get sore at 50km! A very pleasing time.

Gels & Energy Products

I wanted to test out some electrolyte gels to see which ones would be suitable (for my glutardyness) for when I start running beyond 20-30km in preparation for my marathon in September. I wanted to test to see if could go a little farther after taking a gel, and to see how my body would react. I took an Endura brand gel in my pocket. Since I've tried the dextrose ones, and the GU Chomps (which are quite good on runs), I wanted to give a thicker gel a try. This one was espresso flavoured which was quite nice at the 30 minute mark. I made sure to hydrate throughout my session, but did down a little extra fluids after the gel (as directed on the packet). I found it to taste good, go down easy, and most impressive of all - I have had no reactions from the maltodextrin. I found my ride focus was improved, but that might just be due to listening to my iPod for a change of music! Plus conversation with a sailor riding alongside me for around 30 minutes made light work of the first quarter! I'll be talking about these gel things a little more in the future, when I get to test on some long runs.

Needless to say, after 3.5hrs of training, I was getting hungry and decided to call it a night. Now I need to get back into my packing...Going home in 2 more sleeps!

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!

Days 46-48 Rest, Reload & Ride

Lots of Rest....

After my fairly intensive Thursday, I found myself using my rest day to its fullest, sleeping and enjoying a day off on Friday. I ate some yummy squares of chocolate, and rewarded my big week of training.

Just a couple of squares....

Saturday, wasn't a good weather day, so no good for long runs or rides thanks to the addition of wind gusts. So, I used my additional rest day to buy some groceries, relax at a little French Cafe, and chill out. After all, it is just as important to rest your mind as well as you body.... Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! I also took the opportunity to load up with some healthy carbohydrates, in the hope that I might get to burn them off at some point over the weekend....

Biggest Ride Yet

After a slow start, and a later than normal wake up, I decided (since the sun was shining) to take a ride. Since my first road cycling milestone is to ride from Crib Point to Frankston, I decided to give it a stab. I really wanted to use my new quick disconnecting Garmin bike mount, and see how easy it was. Full visibility of the displays, ease of connect / disconnection on the mount and just the level of cool this lifted me to, made this so worthwhile!

I headed out from Crib, toward Hastings, turned off the highway just prior to Tyabb and cut across the peninsular toward Mornington. As I approached Mornington, I turned onto the highway in the direction of Frankston. I shortly after turned off the highway again, and in my infinite wisdom, took the turning for Mount Eliza.

Not knowing the elevation of Mount Eliza, I continued ahead (in hope of a good view of the peninsular).... In the few kilometres that were between me and Frankston, I started to feel the burn.... Incline getting steeper I was up out of the saddle, in the small chainring on the largest sprocket of my gears...basically as loose as I could get it....on and off the saddle I went, moving very slowly. The long, winding climb, never seemed to end.... Eventually, after what felt like forever (in reality around 15 minutes of riding), and as I saw my heart rate reach the highest I've ever seen it rise, 175bpm (95% Max HR), I saw a black BMW pass me and almost instantly disappear in front of me...

"WOW!, that must be some freaking awesome decline I'm about to riiiiiiiiiide! Yeeeee-ha!" 

As I sped down hill, in the drop bars, I saw my speedo on my Garmin 910XT reach 63kph! Oh yea! So speedy! That was a pretty awesome reward for the hard climb. As I continued to speed past Frankston, I had a thought....I'll just turn around at Seaford.... As I passed Seaford, I thought I'll be okay until Edithvale....then at Mordialloc I thought about pushing onto Black Rock. So as I reached Black Rock, and 60km travelled I pulled a u-turn and headed back toward Mordialloc. I stopped at the "Tour de Cafe" for a little rest. This place was awesome. There were purpose built racks to 'hang' your bike by its saddle, and it felt safe enough to just leave it there! 

Tour de Cafe

The other awesome thing about this place was that they not only sold coffee, food, but cycling fuel - bananas, electrolyte and carbohydrate gels, energy drinks and lots of other cool stuff like that. It was a haven for all those cyclist coming from Melbourne, or like me, from the south. With a lovely marina view, and the sun in my face, I enjoyed a cappuccino and a banana for $5. The Dextrose gel (cola flavour) which I got for $5 as I left, perked me up on the way home.

As I sat there, contemplating my return to Frankston, and the potential for butt-soreness if I went any further than that, I munched on one of my GU Chomps (which I brought in a ziplock) and downed a swig of coffee....BUZZ! Game on! After a few minutes of polite chit-chat with an older fellow rider, I jumped back on my trusty Cannondale and head on my way. I return the 20 odd kilometres to Frankston and pulled up at the train station, just in time for the next train to Crib. Perfect. After such a great day out on my bike, I feel like I've worked my body from head to toe! - especially my hip flexors and thighs! So, my first time beyond 80km and I feel good - 83.94km in 03:22:52...plus I was riding all by myself. I'm very happy with that result :) Even if I am writing this post a little after midnight - I called my Mum back in the UK to wish her a happy Aussie Mumma's Day! Did you call you mum tod?

 

Well Look at that - Max Speed 63kph, Max Heart Rate 175bpm, Max Cadence 123rpm!

 

Balls

After dinner, and a little more work on my engineering service paper, I decided to watch some movies and make some Protein Balls. This week I plan to use them to prevent me snacking on bad snacks, and to hold-off hunger. My 'balls' are simple, they're made up of almond meal, chopped dates, shredded coconut, Mayvers peanut & cacao spread, coconut water, ground cacao nibs and a generous scoop of Casein protein powder. All mixed, rolled and squished together, by my fair hand to produce an epic tummy filler of healthy goodness!

I'm pleased with the outcome, 7 days worth (2balls per bag) plus some spare to give to friends! 

Sharing is, indeed, caring!

Day 44 - Tri-Harder!

Well, here we are again.... Another fun-filled, exercise fuelled training day. 

Mornings

Getting out of bed at the crack of dawn is really getting easier. I'm just rolling out of bed, with a spring in my step. I briskly walk in the dark every day, planning my training session, thinking about the things that drive me to keep going. I seem to arrive at the gym, and I'm all prepped and ready to go. I step into the gym, with a focus and determination unlike any other. I train my heart out and feel great because I'm training so well.

Training Chest

I'm getting a lot out of chest day. Since adding some additional sets to my bench workouts, I'm feeling really strong. I powered through 7 sets of flat, inclined and declined bench. I tried a powerful lift followed by a slow return. I gradually increased from 50kg to 85kg, and reduced reps from 8 reps down to 4 on the last. I repeated the same process, on the incline bench, but reached a maximum of 75kg. On the declined bench I repeated for a third time focusing on technique reaching a maximum of 85kg again.

After Barbell-ing the heck out of the benches, I did a quick three set dumbbell pectoral fly, to warm up for a big set of fly drills on the cable cross overs. I worked slow, long fly drills with lower weights working the squeeze on my pectorals. I set up the cables with a central position (mid-chest height), then high, then low. After this I moved into abdominals (hanging knee crunch-lifts, leg and knee raises, farmers walks and over head holds).

Big session, but I felt awesome, for the rest of the day!

Tri-Hard!

During class today, Mr Ped offered a good idea for Wednesday arvo tri-club training - A Swim/Bike brick session. Since I was ahead of schedule, I decided to push it a little further. I decided to try a little harder during my cardio-endurance session. I decided that I'd knockout a 1.5km swim, followed by a good hard spin session - planned distance 40km, target time under 2hours, preferably within 90minutes....but that'd be pushing it.

Whilst on my swim I pushed through a multitude of things; soreness in my upper arms and shoulders, initially crap breathing rhythm, heavy legs and then a bit of a slog for the last 5 laps. I did pretty good. I swam the first 500m in 13 minutes, the second in 13 minutes and the third leg was 14 minutes. So an overall 1500m swim of 41 minutes was a great result, since I did swim only freestyle too!Very happy about that! As I jumped out of the water Mr Ped jumped in. He was planning a shorter swim - I think I knocked over a 10 minute 500m - awesome time dude!

After a quick rinse, to remove the stinky chlorine from my skin, I was soon gearing up to hit the spin bike. My plan was ambitious, and I worked hard, even though my heart rate stayed relatively low throughout. I was working with a heart rate of 120-130bpm, and was spinning at 85-95rpm in gear 6 from start to 10km, then up at gear 8 for most of the ride. I stayed seated and tried to simulate my awesome road bike - the only saving grace with a spin bike is the pre-fitted aero bars that make it a really good work out. Whilst spinning, I managed to employ my over infectious enthusiasm and motivation, to draw in Mrs Legal-oh. She's a Reserve lawyer who is posted to Cerberus for a few months. Missing her hubby (who is in West Australia), she's turned to fitness to fill her spare time - good girl! Oh and thanks to Mrs Legal-oh, we had some music to spin along to.

After about 10km, Mr Peds joined us and got settled onto his bike. It was nice spinning at a "talking pace", since I love having a good chin-wag. I pushed myself and ended up finishing my ride not that long after the others had left me. I was a sweaty mess as I pulled into the final 5km, with very little time to cover the ground, and being so near to my target goal of 90 minutes I stepped it up a notch. I lifted gears to 11 and powered through with a few short stints of standing. I ended up finishing the ride at 40km, in 89 minutes - Stoked! I got off the bike, stretched (way longer than normal) and made my way back to my cabin.

I actually got caught as I walked back, to stand at attention, and watch sunset. Its the RAN ceremony that is conducted at sunset each day that returns the Australian White Ensign and Australian National Flag from their flagpoles.

After dinner this evening I relaxed in the comfort of knowing how well I'd worked through my training session, and enjoyed a couple glasses of red wine with Holmie and Mrs Legal-oh.

Now I'm going to bed early....ish.