week of holidays

I had last week off work and had an absolute ball! 

Highlights included:

Making it up Yarra St in the big ring
Staying at a friends place on Mt Dandenong and riding up Devil's Elbow and the 1:20 for the first time
More road riding
MTB every afternoon
Hiking the trails
I left there for a couple of days in Inverloch where I did more road riding and swam in the ocean.

Back at home my almost favourite experience was jumping on my CX bike at almost 11pm at night and heading up to the Harrison St Velodrome for a sneaky spin.  It was too hot to sleep but perfect weather for a night ride.

Back at Jeff's tonight and I am feeling very broken.  I didn't even make it through half the workout which is quite disheartening.

I did most of it with the 16kg which was my goal.

1A swing
snatch
goblet squat
clean
jerk
one leg deadlift

21,18,15,12,9,6,3

Downward Spiral

JBSECT went for a mtb today instead of the Boulevard so I decided to sleep in and train inside.  I did the first set of drop intervals from the Sufferfest Downward Spiral.  It hurt.  It was fun.  I ran out of time to finish it but next time I will.

I was by myself in the backyard and spent the evening making my bum hurt.

100 skips
box jumps 3 x 10
dragon lunge 16kg 3 x 10es
lunge 16kg 3 x 10 es
2 x 16kg step ups 3 x 10
2 x 16kg Bulgarian split lunge 3 x 10
kb sit up 15
kb v sit 10
leg extension 15
single leg extension 10

He's back

Sprints with JBSECT this morning.  My legs are still heavy and sore from Saturday so I only did 3 laps before peeling off to visit the running girls.

I focussed on cornering, and on the third lap got through all of them without braking.  I'll continue to work on this as I generally pick bad lines and lose alot of time and places.

Jeff's back from holidays.  It was good to catch up with him at the gym.

10 min LCCJ warmup, change hands every 5
1 minute each of
OA swing
snatch
lunge
clean
jerk
squat
dead lift
times 2

ouch

Pool

I was so tired and sore yesterday.  Did zero exercise.  I did get a massage and while it hurt it was nowhere near as bad as a 'running' massage.   Adds weight to my belief that cycling is way better for my body and way easier to recover from.

Je and I went to the pool this morning.  It was such a nice morning, lovely in the water and really enjoyable being under the sun.

Warm up
25m x 2 run
25m x 2 straight legs
throw the ball 30 times
sprints 25m x 4
rope runs x 10
high hands 25m
push ups on the wall, swim, run 5 x 5
underwater 25m (two breaths)

Walk an hour at night.

Big hilly ride

So tired, quite proud of myself.

Will write more tomorrow.  For now, about 100km up and down hills.

I remember:


Bond Rd
Mt Pleasant Rd
Pigeon Bank Rd
Menzies Rd
Sugarloaf - Clintons Rd
Smiths Gully
Kangaroo Ground
Bond Rd
Old Eltham Rd

Most hills I've ever ridden :) I figure not too bad for someone who's
been on a road bike for 6 months. Now for faster and stronger.

Thanks to Gavin and Helen for getting me around.

back on track

It was hard to get out of bed this morning.  I was a little tired.

I missed the meeting time, so headed down to the Boulie.  I rode one lap as hard as I could, and noticed I overtook a lot more people than usual.  Time to start saving for a bike computer so I can tell if I'm actually getting better or whether I'm dreaming.

I had time for a couple of postmans but my knee was so sore riding home last night that I thought I'd back off a bit today.

I rode a very pleasant 'lazy loop' with G into town rather than ITT the flat boulevard. 

I really struggled with the fast this morning.  Felt quite woozy all morning and ended up eating 1/2 hour early as I was feeling so crook.  I ended up eating so much that I felt too full all afternoon and missed meal 2.

Legs in the arvo

100 skips
3 x 30 bodyweight squats
16kg kbell
3 x 10 each leg dragon lunge
2x 16kg kbell
box step ups 3 x 5 each leg
step up to lunge 3 x 5 each leg
bulgarian split lunge 3 x 5 each leg
kbell sit up 3 x 10
kbell leg extensions 3 x 10
single leg extensions 3 x 10

Woot Woot

I thought I was getting stronger!!

After almost chickening out, I was up at stupid o'clock for a trip down to Racer.  CB from JBSECT was the ride leader today and I liked the idea of doing my first ride with someone that I know. The Wed ride is a step up from Tues and I was really nervous about being dropped, making a massive fool of myself or bonking.

We did head off at a fair clip and I was stressing about blowing up given my recent lack of energy, my first goal was to make the Sandy lights, which I did.  I mentioned to CB, that I am really scared of cornering and wasn't looking forward to turning around at the clock tower.  As luck would have it, I was on the front at that point which maybe was a good place to be as I didn't have to follow a wheel.  CB told me that CV is a coach and he'd probably be ok with giving me some lessons.  I think I'll ask him.

We turned around straight into a nasty, nasty head wind.  Other people were popping all over the place and we lost about half of the group.  Not me though!  I did tell my legs to shut up a couple of times and it did help. Again, I was on the front for the hills but I got some feedback later that my turns were good.

CB put me on the front at the end to bring us home as well.  I had a ball, felt good, confident in pretty awful conditions.

I'll make that my regular STKCC ride now and hopefully step up to the Thursday before too long. 

808s

Nice morning at Albert Park today.

JBSECT boys had some hardman session planned, with multiple laps at 95% threshold.   They overtook me at one point and DB's wheels made the best sound.  voom, voom, voom.

I did 4 laps, half as hard as I could and half still pushing but not as hard.  I do feel like I'm getting stronger on the bike which is very rewarding.

I'm going to give something new a go tomorrow.

Back in the pool

So after making it through all of winter at the outdoor pool Jen and I realised that it had been about 3 months since we were last there.

It was so nice to be in warm water under full sun.  We won't let that much time pass again.

warm up run 25m x 2
straight legs 25m x 2
interval sprints 25m x 2
high knees 15 secs and 10 secs
resistance band run x 10
dive ball 25m x 2
soccer ball throw 30
underwater diving 25m x 4
high hands run 25m x 2
swim 250m

About time

I ran with Fi today.  It's been such a long time since we did that - I've missed her and her running company so much.

It's so special to find someone who knows when I'm hurting, knows when to push, when to be quiet or when to talk.  Who keeps good pace, is up for any adventure and loves the sunrise as much as me. 

Fi had an hour to do at threshold which I didn't have a hope of achieving so she did that and then kept me company for my sprints.  I was glad she was there, tears were very close to the surface on the second last one.

Got them done. 

Thursday catch up

I'm a day late posting this one.

Thurs dawned bright and shiny so I donned my brightest kit and went to meet JBSECT.  They weren't going to miss me waiting at the bus stop and my choice of kit did generate some laughs. 

I was happy I could hold their pace down to the Boulie today, I think they were cruising.  They dropped me straight away up the climb past the pipe bridge but that's ok.

Crit training was the go and the boys were already on their first lap when I got there and they went absolutely fanging past, looked so good, I haven't been so close to such speed before and it sounded great.

The next lap around DB and JP had dropped everybody.  We later found out that Gus is doing his own fasting program and I totally get how little energy he has.  I'm right there with him, half an hour is all I've got.

I did laps of the crit track, practising holding my line through the corners and attacking the hill until the guys had finished.  We went to do some postmans but my legs were done for the day after one.  I went back for another but didn't finish it off.

Home for me rather than into town where I had a big midday nap.

PM with Helen

5 x 30m tyre drags
4 ways with the arms, tyre weighted with 22 kgs.

16kg KB
around body pass 20ew
high pulls 20
squat push press 20
lunges 20
sit up press 15
side twist 20 ew

and that was enough for me. 

Friday

Nada, walked a bit.  Legs are shattered.  Increased the avocado and nuts at lunch and that filled me up so much I didn't eat meal 2.

Mid week fast

There was no way I was getting out of bed at 4 30 after a hot night with not much sleep, so the planned Beach Rd ride didn't happen.  In my dazed state I could hear thunder and rain so decided to hang at home until the storm passed and then run into work. 

I walked in and out of town in high heels and then missed lunch so decided to do a second 24 hour fast this week.  Running home turned into walking home as I had no go.

Dinner tasted delicious when I ate it.

Legs Ahoy

After a week of running I was back on the bike today.  I hadn't set my alarm properly so I woke too late to meet JBSECT and rode down to AP alone.  I used the time to practise getting in out of the pedals with my right foot which feels really uncomfortable.  I know I need to get better because I won't be able to confidently ride the Yarra Trails north until I can unclip with that foot.

4 Laps of Albert Park, spinning half way round and threshold the rest. My threshold was GT's easy and seeing he's sick he kept me company for 1/2 lap.

The legs felt rather unusual and coming home they felt decidedly useless.  Took me until the top of Latrobe to have any go and then I was ok.

Fasting was really hard today, I was hanging out for 1pm to come around.  I'm toying with the idea of shifting my eating window an hour earlier which will work better with bedtime as well.

Sufferfest inside

40 something ridiculous degrees today.  It was my 24 hour fast so I was happy to take it slowly getting out of bed in the morning and spent the earlier part of the day taking down Christmas decorations and getting my house in order.

I did a good hard indoor session on the trainer in the arvo.  Got a good sweat up and although I came close to hurling the fact I hadn't eaten saved me from spewing on the floor.  15 high intensity repeats, not much rest.

No Jeff tonight, I think he's away on holidays.

Finding myself

After a really stressful and yuk couple of weeks I spent the last few days up in Bendigo with my family.

I didn't take any bikes home, which meant I was a runner for the whole time I was there.  I went to gym with my Dad a couple of times, did some workouts in the park, ran some sprints down at the oval and most exciting, ran up One Tree Hill!

I've stuck with the fasting program even though it's been quite tough.  Feeling pretty good, sugar highs and lows much more under control, feeling lean.  It's hard to workout though, not much energy.  Hopefully this week as I'm into the third week it will start to get easier and I'll be able to train with the same intensity as always.

I'll keep you posted.....