Middle of the Age Group!

Well the good news is that I managed to survive the week of hills that was oh so generously bestowed upon us by our coaching team.

It was another good week of training. I managed to get some form of exercise/training in on my targeted 6 out of 7 days.

Mondays = coffee....lots!

I thought I would recap the week of hills that we endured enjoyed.

Monday night running. We were taken to a grass strip through the middle of Kings Park referred to as the Green Mile. Any similarities to the Green Mile movie are purely coincidental however, after the hill repeats we ran it did start to feel like the final walk!! The run was broken up into target intervals, running to the furthest once, the second twice, third three times and the shortest four times. My Garmin data revealed that we ran a total of 6.84kms with an elevation gain of 123 mtrs. Given that when I arrived at training I was REALLY not in the mood, by the time we were finished I was glad that I went and stuck it out and felt well and truly exhausted. Any negativity in my mind was banished by fatigue and it was G.O.O.D!

Tuesday. This was supposed to be my ride to work day but when I woke up I really was not feeling it. After a brief chat to my darling wife I was told that under no circumstances was I riding in…the last time I wasn’t feeling it was when I fell off! So rather than lose the day completely I took off at lunchtime for a quick run around the local “lake”. A whisker over 7kms…not bad for a lunchtime trot, even if I do say so myself. It was ok but brought home the need for me to start clocking some longer runs.

View of the city on the lunchtime run

Wednesday cycle training. Hill repeats. 6.6kms of hill repeats with another 120m of elevation gain. The difference this time was that the gradient was MUCH steeper than the run training. Learnt a few new tricks with regards to the hills which is great and I will be putting into practice the next time I am faced with the beasties! Apparently, Hills are your friends...but you don't need to like your friends!

Wednesday night was planned to be the usual stair session but when it came time to leave I notice that I had lost my bike keys (bike was locked up during the working day). After much cursing and lamenting and step retracing I raced to the local hardware giant and obtained a bolt cutter and new lock. I then proceeded to horrify myself at how simple a task it would be to upgrade my bike should the need arise!! Wow – a bolt cutter v bike lock is a VERY one sided competition! Mental note, given the expense of my bike (which is small compared to some) I need to get a better lock!

Thursday was swim training and Friday was rest day!

Saturday was an introduction to transitions. This week was purely a technical introduction with practice being applied next week. Due to the lack of exertion in the session one of the guys suggested to me that we head out for a quick ride. Great idea…except for the WIND and the fact that Ed took off like a proverbial bat out of hell!! All in all it was a good 20k loop and it did no harm to pace off a stronger rider for the duration….even if he got a lot more drafting benefit than I did. Mental note – little guys = no drafting benefit!!

Sunday. This was the first Club ride that was not part of our current training course. One of our coaches is training for a Half in January and as such is looking to build up his base and offered to allow us to tag along for a “long and slow”. It was really nice to ride in the group and it was a no pressure ride. We clocked up a respectable 40k ride in a little over 1hr 52. It was a great way to start the Sunday morning and will be a welcome feature in my training going forward. I plan on alternating the long ride Sundays with a long run Sunday in order to get the desired kms in my legs as well as my bum going forward and have even mapped out a 10km (to start with) from the bike meeting start.

For the second time this week though I was in the bathroom trying to think of an excuse to not get ready and go to the ride. Part of the motivation for this was that we had been out the night before and my mother had kept the boys overnight. So foolishly I had agreed to go on this ride on the first morning in a long time that we had no children in the house and a sleep in was a real possibility! Doh! Well, my wife got to have the sleep in and woke gently to the sound of bird song and sunshine rather than the usual screams and tantrums that comes with me getting up the two boys!

Oh, and for anyone taking note, it was my birthday week too! All workouts accomplished and I am now a solid 35 – 39 Age Grouper! How did I spend my birthday might you ask, at the company lawyers (see the view I suffered through) and then at swim training, followed by a beautiful dinner with my wife! I even managed to stretch the celebrations out over four days with dinners, lunches and presents – it was a good way to celebrate the end of one and the beginning of the next!

Not too bad being on the 36th floor

Thanks for reading and hope you have a great one!