Rest day

With race day fast approaching and feeling a slight twinge in my leg I decided to rest today, thats if you call leaving for work at 6:20 and getting back at 5pm before working for 3 hours straight at home a rest! Nice to catch up on some admin though too. I will probably do a light session tomorrow but that will be it until Friday. I am really looking forward to the race now, I just need to make sure I am rested and ready mentally to push myself as close to the limit as possible for as long as possible.

More to follow...

4 days to go!

I have not updated in a few days, not becuase I haven't been training, just busy I guess. I have been working to improve the bike further with new thinner road tires and new click peddles, these additons have made a great difference and my bike times have come down.

In the water I am feeling much better, I still need to work on this and really need to be able to swim freestyle the whole way but I don't think it will happen this time (yes there is a hint there that I am pretty sure this will not be the last time and I am interested in the full triathlon of 1.5, 40k and 10k).

Carl and I raced the swim and the bike yesterday, he is very fast on the swim and had a 10 minutes headstart which left me pushing it on the bike the whole way, I caught him with 10 metres of the 20k to go after a total of 1 hour 11min. We did not have perfect change overs which cost us a couple of minutes, so I expect to be starting the run after about 1hr 5 min which makes 1 hour 30 minutes possible and thats what I am working towards.

I had a good run tonight after a long day at work and completed the 5k in 22:52, while I will not do that on race day I am aiming for somewhere around or just under 25 min on race day.

I am not sure what training I should now do over the next few days, I am keen to swim tomorrow to work on technique and then an easy bike on Wednesday but I may rest instead. I am looking forward to the race now and I am really pleased with how things have gone during the training and it has been a great boost to my fitness levels.

More to follow...

Equipment shopping and more bike

It is just one week until I'll be getting an early night and all the training will be complete. After yesterday's efforts I am pleased to report that I have just a few aches and pains which have been easily remedied with a good dose of Deep Heat.

New goggles... hopefully these will make the swim rather more enjoyable, yesterday my goggles were extremely painful, they leaked alot and they totally misted up so I was almost blind. I need to work out what I am swimming in.

Nike Hydroflow

I am keen to look at shoes for the run, I have been using my Nike AirMax which are great but a little rugged and I think that I might look at the Nike Lunar Glide tomorrow (again!).

Nike Lunar Glide

I did not feel that comfortable on the bike yesterday as was too crampt, so I extended and flattered out the bars with a pivoting stem and raised my saddle by at least an inch. The set up felt so much more comfortable and so much faster, especially into the wind, I think that this change has probably knocked 5-10 minutes of the bike. Completed a good 10k in the dark tonight which felt good. 

Need to buy a helmet over the weekend so that I comply with race rules.

Tomorrow will be a light training day, I want to work on my swimming to improve my technique and will probably bike too. Saturday I plan to complete the full track before lunch and then go to watch the Aussie V8 cars race at the Bahrain International Curcuit.

More to follow...

Trial run completed!

I am rather pleased with tonights training, 900m swim, 20k bike and 5k run, so the event is not just a dream now. I plan to take it easy tomorow though before getting back to training on Friday, I want to continue to work on my swim and spend some time ensuring that all my equipment is in order for the event.

I did experiment with different stroke and breathing pattens on the swim but I am so slow! My friend Carl gave me some tips before he cruised away but I plan to catch him on the bike. I think that 1:45 is possible but I will need to bike and run well to make that. I plan to compete a full trial Friday or Saturday so that I can set a time and have a plan to stick to.

More to follow...

I learnt alot tonight!

I finally got home early enough to get into the water. I was very pleased with the temp using just a 1mm titanium one piece and a long sleeved rashvest, towards the latter part of my swim these did start to chaff a little so I will need to work a solution to that. The second issue which is in fact much worse is the goggles I was using, I had used them before but they really were bad and will have to be replaced. The sea is very salty here and I need to be careful not to swallow too much or this will make me sick on the bike leg.

I need new googles...

I mapped my swim on Google Earth to find that it was 675m, slightly less than I thought, I must admit that I was ready to get out of the water at that point but I will have to swim longer tomorrow and will aim for 900-1000m.

I am very lucky to be able to train right on our doorstep!

As you can see I had a little run back home, then changed quickly into my running gear and set off round the island. This run was much tougher than I had expected, my shoulders were rather stiff and my legs solid, adding to my tiredness the wind was right in my face (as it had been for much of the swim), gradually my legs did loosen up slightly and I felt the strongest during the fifth km.

To sum up, I am very pleased that I managed to complete two of the three legs after a day of work, but I can really see how hard it will be to complete in a good time. I will concentrate on getting round and at this point I am aiming for 1 hour 45 min. I plan to complete a full trail run at the weekend and will clock that so that I can set a target.

Liz is competing as part of a team and has just got back from a 16km training ride.

More tomorrow....

AMWAJ TRIATHLON - 10 days and counting

Back from a evening of training, had planned on swimming tonight but didnt get back from work till 7pm so had to be run to gym, treadmill, bike then run home from gym. I feel surprisingly good. It is going to be 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run on the 5th. Hopefully once I finally get to swim I will be able to predict

a time.

I have now started to think about logistics so that I can get them together, need to think about what to wear, what to eat and what to drink, I also need to consider what watch if any to wear and possibly more important than all what songs to have on my ipod!

Today's times: 18:15 4km run and 21:23 10km bike, ran a few extra km on way to and from the gym too.

More to follow...

Amwaj Triathlon - 11 days to go

Since last updating two days ago I have stepped up the training somewhat and completed an hour long cardio session yesterday which felt great, there was not too much stiffness in my legs this morning although after being at work they did feel a little sore when I started on the treadmill. I had planned on swimming tonight but it had been windy today and was rather cool so rather than donning a full wetsuit I went back to the gym. I was pleased with the session tonight with a long cardio stint and short weights session. Back at home now and feeling a little worse for wear but nothing some good healthy food and a restful evening with Liz cannot fix. I must get into the water tomorrow fingers crossed for a hot day so that I dont have to cover up with too much rubber.