What I have been up too?

It’d been a while since I last blogged. So what have I been doing?  Well training hard for my first half marathon it’s now just less than 4 weeks to go until I do my first half marathon at Run Melbourne.

Also being so close to the end of financial year here in Australia work has kept me busy and trying to balance work, training, etc has been hard. In 3 weeks will see me re-focus direction when working commitments back down a little. With Noosa not that far away I need to ramp up my swimming and bike.

Swimming means I need to do at least 2 pool sessions per week, while I love the closeness of Fitness First at Bayside’s Pool it’s just a little small only 20m. By the time you real getting going you’re at the end of the lap and heading back the other way. This means more time and trips up to MSAC.

Bike I need to hit the hills more and build stretch in legs. I hear Noosa has one hell of a hill not bad but enough to make sure that I hit it right. I’ve also made some adjustments to my road bike to make it feel better. So far it seems good; the set matches my TT Bike setup. I also have a set of Tri Bars to put on the road bike which will get done in July.

Running I did test half marathon run and I completed that in 1hr 53mins at 5:40 – 6:00 min per KM, so my first half is looking good. A friend of has also offered to run as my personally pacer 1. To ensure that I finish my first half and 2. complete it in sub 2hrs. In addition I also completed a run program with Tony Benson and I have noticed changes in my running style, speed and strength.

Tri Alliance also completed it’s Time Trials for the new season and I was happy with the results. The ride was a little slower than I would have liked but the weather was wet and I didn’t want to become road kill with a crash. Swim was one of the quickest I have ever done and the run was sub 25mins for 5km.

Personal Training Alana and I have been working on my left glute, seems to be working well. Still need to sort out my QL on the left. Most of my left side seems to bad, my hearing, shoulder, glute, etc. I have been thinking about trying some different types of treatments, from Yoga to Osteo. Stay tuned to that one.

Next weekend see me off at Triathlon Coaching (Level  1). It’s two days of practical as well as class based learning I looking forward to this course. Triathlon’s has given a lot to me over the last few years and I’d like to give something back

Events come up

Confirmed events

Run Melbourne
Sandy Half
Melbourne Marathon
Noosa Tri

Unconfirmed events

Salomon Trial Run
Duathlon
Kinglake Ride

Time  next time which will be my race report from Run Melbourne

Run for the Kids 2011 Race Report

This is the first time I have done Run for the Kids and I enjoyed it.

My alarm went off at 6:15am I was out of bed quick breakie and a shower. I drove in and managed to get through the roads that were closed and parked at my old favorite place Southgate. It was not too hot nor too cold or windy just a perfect day for running.

I made my way down to the start line looking for some friends (Alana and Georg) but no sign until after the races. There was just a mass of people everywhere. We moved up to the start line from the marshaling areas. The horn sounded and away we went. Due to the my position behind the start line made it hard to get going early. There was just people all over the place, people who think they are quick but aren’t. I must say this gets my goat at every event I do. The event organizers setup lines for those who know they can finish the event in X time but people just simply don’t follow the run times or they think they are better than they are. So I really spent the first km ducking traffic (people) before I could get my speed going. My first km was at 5:32 pace after that it was 5:05 – 5:08 and I managed to get in a 4:58 and managed to finish in a time of 26m 28s for 5.2km. Which I was really happy with the course was fairly flat – no big hills, etc. my biggest issue was not being able to get my speed up early basically held back by people traffic. Oh well need to get closer to the start line.

After the event had finished I ran into Alana and we managed to bump into few people who we sort of know through Fitness First plus Daniella who I know from previous 2xu / Start to Finish Run Group for the Sandy Half Point while we waited for Georg (Alana’s other half) to finish the 14.38km course. I'm thinking about doing the 14.38km next year.

Next Race – Mother’s Day Classic in early May

Race Photo's to come

XoSize Race 5 Race Report - Final Tri for the Season

The final race of the season of Xosize/Start to Finish was my final race for the season.


Yesterday and was blowing around 25km/35km from the South-west and during my race collection / checking out the transition area the bay did not look like fun.

This morning the wind had dropped right away I found my spot and set my gear ready to race. Then the mad dash to the toilet before the queues got too long. I headed down the beach, with a race start of 7:30am + 8mins for my group so I tested the waters and it felt cold.

The horn sounded and off we went. I let the pack go and waded my way in and started towards the back of the pack. The problem about starting at the back of the pack is you run over the top of everyone. I got around the 2 buoys and headed towards the beach. Once I hit the beach the run to transition got to my bike wetsuit off, socks, shoes on, helmet and sunglasses on grabbed my bike and off out to the road.

Got to the mount line got on and road towards Dendy St . Around at the cones and back down towards transition then along Beach Rd towards Black Rock. Turned around then headed back towards Green Point. I ran back in re-racked my bike off with the bikes shoes on with the runners grabbed my visor and off I ran.

The legs felt ok the run felt slow and it showed.

Overall I finished the race the last one for the season it was not my best race but I have been battling a head cold off/on for the last few weeks.

So this completed the month of Tri’s and my first full season of Triathlons now I move to running events from here on in.

Here are the official times

Overall time 47m 05s
Overall Place 171

Swim 08:17.4
Bike 22:35.9
Run 11:41.2

Placing M40+ 20
Gender Place 122

Pictures to follow as soon as I have them and look out for the Tri season in review.

Brazilian Butterfly Queen of the Lake Report

Here in Melbourne late Friday we had a huge thunderstorm come through. For the 24 hour period from 9am Friday until 9am Saturday we had 140mm of rain. Most of that was in the later 12 hour period. This was the tail of Cyclone Yasi which hit Queensland earlier in the week. Gatorade Triathlon Series @ Portarlington which was in the 25th Anniversary had to cancel the swim leg of event. Start to finish publish yesterday that this morning’s event would still be on but they would be monitoring the weather and updating us if there was a change to the event.


When I got up this morning you could hear the wind blowing and checking the online weather it should it was 14c blowing from the SW @ 25km per hour. Not too bad but as Albert Park does not have a lot of protection from the wind it can be an interesting place at times. So I got ready and put on my running clothes (T-Shirt, running shorts, etc) but I also grabbed my long running jacket great if it’s windy and wet. After parking at Albert Park I noticed the wind and weather were not as bad at home or near the Beach so I left the running jacket in the car. After getting my race number and timing chip I started my warm up with some stretching and little runs mixed with some sprits. I lined up towards the front of pack I always hate being caught behind someone slower than me. Right on 8:30am off we went the pace I started out was very quick 4:50 pace but it felt ok but I knew I would be slowing it down, but too my surprise I did slow down not to a 5:30 pace but more at 5:15 pace. I got to say that event was well done considering that track was free of puddles, muddy areas we missed and where the water run off from Friday’s storm was they marked well. With the first running event of year over I was happy not only with the time but the result as well.

With this being the 3rd time I have run Brazilian Butterfly Queen of the Lake I don’t feel sore at all which is great I’m really happy with the performance, the result and the recovery. With in the next 6 days I have another event Go the Tan which I looking forward to smashing.

The training is starting to really pay off. Thanks Alana

Results
Time 26.14.1

Overall Place 85th
Age Group Placing M40-49 8th
Gender Placing 40th

Pictures to follow (I hope this time)

Just Registered for Active Feet Tri Race's 5 and 6 in March 2011

Might be that the close of the year is close or I'm going mad in the funny season but I have just registered for 2 Tri's in March 2011 that will make it 3 Tri's leading up to the end of Tri Season.


These are the Active Feet Tri's Race 5 & 6 and then Xosize Race 5 week after Active Feet Race 6

Race Schedule for March 2011 reads

Active Feet Fun Tri Elwood (6th)
Active Feet Fun Tri St.Kilda (20th)
XOSIZE Tri Series 10/11 Race 5 Brighton (27th)

Good way to close out the season of Tri's before heading back into running or may be a Duathlon or two.

Xosize Race 2 Race Report

Woke up a little before 4:30am this morning looked out the window, no windy not a cloud in the sky – great day for a tri. By the time I had something to eat to claim any nervous feelings, showered and got ready to go a early morning cloud/fog had set in.

When I got to the transition area got numbered and headed into transaction area and got setup. One thing I noticed the was very wet, as usual the atmosphere was light headed, relaxed and good nature. I went down to the swim start and jumped in and headed out for bit of a swim. The water was warm (water temp was around 19.6c mark) a little murky and fairly flat. Was very happy with swim practice had a chat with a few people doing practice swims and generally relaxed feeling.

During the race briefing we all heard that there we a few fins noticed out on the bay but we were told they we dolphins not sharks and that the race director had sent a boat out to check.

At 7:15am the horn sound and off we went. This time my swim was good and honest but being stuck in the middle of slower swimmers which is never fun. During the middle of the course you either hit your hand on sand or rocks at the bottom, yes the swim course was not in deep water, in places you could stand up and walk if you wanted too. (Quicker swimming) After getting out of the water I headed to T1 which was approx 500m run, got to my bike, off with the wet suit on with socks and bike shoes, grab the helmet and sunny glasses and then the bike and head out. Just as I started to mount another competitor cut me off and nearly caused me to crash as he did crash, lucky for me I didn’t crash.

We were warned during the race briefing that the turn around’s were tight but I found then to be ok. During the bike leg I saw no less than 3 people riding in wetsuits which I thought was a bit funny at the time but more on that later. Once I got back to T2 off with the bike shoes on with runners and out I went again. My legs felt very heavy and I want to give up and walk but I pushed on. At the turn around I grab some water and pushed on the run felt bad and slow but I finished in 35m04s.

After the event I was hanging around the finish shute and I run into 2 of the guys that had wetsuits during the bike leg. I spoke with both of them. 1 had forgot this running shorts and decided to do the event in a wetsuit and 2 was told no shirt no bike or run. Both of them looked stuffed 1 said as he was running he pulled the top of his wetsuit open and he could feel the heat rise up. Good on both of them for doing the event in a full wettie but you will NOT get me doing that.

After the event finished I was wondering through the event marquees and I run into Terry O'Halloran the Owner of Start to Finish, Runners World,  and Running Fit. We had a good chat about Running Fit, Run Melbourne, Spring into Shape Race 3, Brazilian Butterfly Queen of the Lake, Sandy Half Point, Olympic Dream and where I came from into running and Triathlon’s Terry is a very down to earth comedian and all around nice bloke.

For the Record Olympic Dream was canceled due to lack of numbers. It requires a minimum of 3000 competitors for both City Link and City of Melbourne to close roads, etc. In addition last year not on Olympian competed in last year’s events, Terry said that the event will be replaced with a different type of event next year with a course that will be very similar to last year’s Olympic Dream. Can wait to see

Here are the times
Overall time 35:04.30
Overall Place 138

Swim 05:31.50 (took 50secs off)
T1 02:02.60 (took some 36secs off)
Bike 15:37.40 (hard to say was this wa sonly 8km instead of 10 which I did in 23:23.80 last time)
T2 1.25.80 (took 1 whole min off)
Run 10:27 (90 secs off)

Gender Place 92

Very happy over all. Photo’s to follow soon.

Week ahead

With just under 6 days from the last race (Tri) for me of the year. With some 32 days left of year I started thinking about next year. So far I have 3 Xosize Tri Races left and looking at the calendar for the first few months of 2011 the following events I will be doing

 

• Brazilian Butterfly Queen of the Lake on 6th Feb (3rd time)
• Go the Tan on either Friday 11th or Saturday 12th (2nd time)

 With Xmas and New Year fast approaching I’m sure there will be lots of food & drink but it’s a good time to relax and regroup from a long year of work, fun, events and injury.

 

There are some people that need to be thanked for their work over the last 12 months who helped me achieve some long distances, new events and a few PB's and recover from injury along the way.

 

Alana - PT
Ben - Pyshio
Kathryn - Myotherapist
Sanjay - (Old PT)
Friends and Family and last of all
Lisa for you 110% support

Spring into Shape Race 3 Report

After another wet weekend in Melbourne I really thought today could be a bit of fun, but when I woke up it was race day for Spring into Shape Race 3. I checked out the weather report, radar and looked out the Window


- Rain – all stopped and none on the radar
- Temp – 14.2c
- Cloudy – Yes
- Windy – very light approx 3-5km per hour

Great conditions for running! After I got to the Alexander Gardens the first thing I noticed was it was really wet under foot. Not too bad but enough to be a bit of pain. So I got my race number and started my warm up process, remember this is my first running event for a while.

So there we all were lined up and at 8:20 off we go. The pace was fast I looked at my watch and saw I was doing 4m:20s pace and not wanting to re-injure myself I backed it off to a comfortable 5m:30s and decided to keep the pace steady.

Before I knew it was crossed the finish line, my watch recorded 22m 18s, official time was 22m 15s. That’s a 11.5km or 5m10s pace. Note to one’s self you need to re sync your watch’s foot pod.

Overall Place 116
Division Place 25
Gender Place 93

Once finished grabbed a drink, show bag, did some stretching and then headed home. I’m not sore at all, feeling good, but I do need to do some more running.

Tomorrow it’s off to the Pyshio, yep 4 weeks have gone past. I’m hoping it’s the last visit.

I’ll post some pics from both the Tri and today’s event in the new few days.

Preparations

Here it is, the day before my first full seasons of Tri’s. Am I ready? Ready as I will be. Shortly I’m heading up to transition area to pickup my race kit and do a little walk through the transition area and then it’s time to get my gear bag all sorted ready for the big day.


My Race starts tomorrow @ 7am +12mins for my wave and I am aiming for a sub 47min finish.

So by this time tomorrow the tri will be done and dusted.

Standby for the my race report.

Tri Season 2010/2011 Goals

With the first Tri of the season due to start in just over 2 weeks I thought it might be a good idea to post some goals for the upcoming season.


This year I have registered for the complete Xosize series all 5 races. Last year I did two races and loved it. I completed both races in around 47m 5s. The goal this year is to bet that time and complete all 5 races.  Recently in the Sandy Half Point I smashed my 10km PB by over 3mins. Ok I did injury myself but I got the feeling it was over training and running form.

My girl friend is also keen to try a Tri and we are planing to do a team tri with a race in the Active Feet series.

So what have I learnt in the last 12 months, well I have done countless KM’s in Running, Swimming and Cycling. I am stronger and fast and tomorrow I tune 40.

Bring on the new Tri season and keep following my blog and twitter pages

XOSIZE Tri Series 2010/11 - 5 race Series

Well it's official I have registered for all 5 Races in the XOSize Series 2010/11 put on by Start to Finish.



Am I excited? yes, nervous? no? worried? yes! Why? My leg is still sore and got some work to get it right first race is November the 7th. Not too far away.

XOSIZE Tri Series - Race 5 - Location according to S2F

Just noticed that Race 5 is @ Brighton not Frankson according to Start to Finish's Webseite.

XOSIZE Tri Series - Race 5 - Location

Ok so I'm sitting here reading Runners World which came today and I know where Race 5 is!

Wanna known? well according to the advert it's Frankston.

XOSIZE Tri Series - Race 5

Yesterday I posted the XOSIZE Tri Series races 4 of but on the Start to Finish website I noticed a 5th date,  27 March 2011.

I contacted the nice people @ S2F and here is what I got.

[---cut----]
We will definitely be holding a fifth race on 27 March. The venue is yet to be confirmed as we are working through the details with the local council on a new location for this year, we have Green Point, Brighton as a back-up venue if the new location falls through. We will be making that announcement in the next week or two, so keep an eye on the web site for the details. [---cut----]


Wonder where abouts it will be?

XOSIZE Tri Series 10/11 Dates

The folks from Start to Finish released the dates for XOSIZE Tri Series 10/11.

They are -:

XOSIZE Tri Series 10/11 Race 1 Brighton 7 Nov 2010
XOSIZE Tri Series 10/11 Race 2 Mordialloc 5 Dec 2010
XOSIZE Tri Series 10/11 Race 3 Elwood 16 Jan 2011
XOSIZE Tri Series 10/11 Race 4 Sandringham 27 Feb 2011

More info @ http://www.starttofinish.com.au/default.aspx?s=eventdisplay&id=829

XOSIZE Tri Series 09/10 - Race 4 Sandringham Images

One of the nice things about entry into the XOSize TRI is that you get free pictures from Super Sport Images.

So here are a few pics of me from my first Tri.

Coming in from th Swim. I'm the one in the middle in the wetsuit just about to hit the mats.

Just coming back from a 10km bike ride.

No run Picture yet - I need to go through all the images and check

In my last posting I commented "if would I do another tri? Answer –Ask me tomorrow." Well - Yes I have registed for XOSize Race 5 on the 14 March.

As for the next event for Lisa and I? not sure we are thinking about the Mother's Day Classic on 9th May and then Run Melbourne, presented by The Age on 18th July.

Until next time from Team-LSD

XOSIZE Tri Series 09/10 - Race 4 Sandringham Report

Well I have done my first TRI!

After a very hot night (didn’t get below 27c) and not much sleep we got up at 5am had a shower, breakfast, packed up all the gear and made our way down to Sandringham. When we arrived it was pretty full on, people everywhere, everyone trying to get into translations areas. Once I got my bike, shoes, towel, helmet, cap and sun glasses ready I put on my wetsuit up to my hips grabbed my swim cap & goggles and headed off down to the beach.

On my way out of the transition area I caught up with Lisa and we walked down together, according to Lisa my mind was somewhere else, she was probably right. When I first saw the bay and swim area I thought my god they have not put out the buoys and the swell looked like 1 to 1.5m from the South-West.

At this point we noticed the area temp seemed to be a lot cooler, looking at the data later from the BOM it had!

I left Lisa up on the cliff to watch and headed down onto the sand, pulled up the wetsuit all the way, put on the cap and goggles and got wet, the water was warm but swimming out was directly into the swell, hard work!

I did my warm up swim came in and listed to the race briefing, lined up, chatted with a few guys in my age group and waited for our go. When we got called up to the start line, horn blew and away we went. I tried to keep out of the way of other people but did swim over the top of a few others (sorry!) round the buoys and made my way back in got to the beach started running up the beach taking off the cap & goggles and unzipping my wetsuit down to my hips.

If you know Sandringham at all there is about 500m run from beach to transition area, so after a lot of huff and puffing made it to transition! Wow! Time to find the bike, get the wetty off shoes on, sunglass on, helmet and strapped up, bike off the rack and away we go!

10km ride! – up towards South road around and then back to Half Moon Bay and back to Sandringham footy ground! During the ride I didn’t go out hard was the run up from the beach and swim left me a little breathless. In my head I said, right drink some water and start building up speed, got to the first turn did a u turn and back we go, passed the footy ground 4km’s down 6km to go, when I got down to Half Moon turn around I had passed 2 other people who had pulled out, in my mind I said, just finish it! As got back to towards the footy ground I had my final drink of water, thought to myself ok 2km run and your done. Got back into transaction put my bike back, off with the helmet, grab my running cap and off we go! I must say it was hard when starting to run.



As I got to the half way point of the run they had a drinks station, grab a cup drink and head for home! On the way back I saw one of the officials that Lisa and I see on the running events put on by Start to Finish I said Hi and got a good morning back ( From memory I think his name is Terry!). On the way back I thought to myself how do people do this for an Ironman without feeling totally rooted, then I saw the car park to run back to the finish line, I kept on going over the line and there was Lisa waiting for me.


My Watch said 48m 10s official timing said 47m 08s.


Gave back my timing chip got some fruit, drink and a show bag, made my way out of finishing area and was greeted by Lisa with a Hug and Kiss and you’ve done it baby! After sitting down had a drink and bit of a rest I felt great again ready to do it again. After a picking up all the gear, shower and rest I felt pretty good, bit sore in the shoulders and calf’s along with been a bit tired.

We went and had a drink and feed and talked about the race. Lisa asked me the following question – would I do another tri? Answer –Ask me tomorrow.


Official Results


Activity    Split Time    Race Time    Distance    Pace     Speed


SWIM    00:07:59       00:07:59       0.20km    39:55    1.50
T1          00:02:38       00:10:37
BIKE     00:22:59        0:33:36        10.00km   02:17   26.11
T2          00:01:04        0:34:40
RUN      00:12:28        00:47:08       2.20km    05:40  10.59



Next event ? We’ll let you know

Until next time from Team-LSD