Away and back again...

I tried to work my butt off to get at least on target work wise, optimistically thinking of getting a little ahead. Of course I knew it was always going to be tough to get away without a few mid-night candle burning, and still being a little behind. But I tried! I made sure I did a fairly good back-up of the computer before leaving, and was planning on doing a few little tidy-up jobs early in the morning before heading off. My flight was at lunch time on Sunday, and did have to look after the school team time trial teams before going - which is a 6am start. So the plan was to go to the TTT, and then pop off to the airport. Well, the quick tidy up of a few chores before leaving for the TTT in the morning quickly went out the window, when there was the shrill call "it is 10 to 6!!!". I wake to find my self holding my watch, after having turned the alarm off around an hour earlier. Deep breath, and 10 minutes later, I have finished packing and we are heading off to the water front. Oh well - I have probably forgotten something! But I am on my way. 
The girls do a good job at the TTT - apart from one not making roll-out (failing the gear restriction) - tut tut! Nice to be seeing the teams do so well before leaving.
The flight over was pretty good really. The first leg I had an exit row, window seat, but unfortunately a screaming baby for 6 of the 10 hours. Singapore airport was not too bad for a 6 hour stop over, and the second leg was good - with an empty seat next to me, and sleeping for over half the 12 hours of flight. Arrive to 16 degrees and showers (at 6am), but a pleasant 20-somthing degrees and clear skies when we get to home base! 

The first couple of days were pretty low key. There was a thorough investigation into the relative merits or German, French, Colombian, and NZ red wines. The end result was me sleeping on the couch (and NZ wines faired far better than the all blacks...)... A few pre-weeding things to do on Wednesday - like getting food ready! The wedding was probably the German equivalent of a registry wedding - however it was in a nice little chapel/meeting room (a few hundred years old, semi-underground and very quaint). It was a little different to the NZ format, with a long chat by the celebrant - of which I managed to understand around 10-15% of the conversation, and around 20-30% more as random words. Then a quick "I do" at the end and a glass of Champaign to finish with. Nice The evening was a nice relaxed party, and no formal speeches. The Colombian dancing is certainly different, and the kiwi "towel dance" did not fit in that well - but I am sure was good for a laugh! However at around 2am I did get a salsa type dance lesson, and I think I only injured around 5 others in do so. Dance idol contestants will not be quivering in there shoes...
Training for the week was always going to be limited, but did get a few runs in. The first day there I did actually get taken to the local gym - jumped on the spin bike for 20 minutes, 3km on the treadmill and did a few weights too. Quite a good way to start the "get in to German time zone", and recover from the flight. The running was great - 5 minutes and you are in forest tracks - nice hard pack dirt/fine gravel tracks, absolutely perfect for running on. I find this running environment very relaxing, and it was great to be running in a T-shirt in a nice temperature too. Probably could/should have done more, but there was catching up with old friends to be done, and a bit of sight seeing too. On Saturday went to the black forest which was about 120km away from "home base". I borrowed Petes old bike - steel frame and forks (that old!), about 5 sizes too big and weighing in at around 12kg. After a visit to the home of the cuckoo clock the the black forest cake (samples included of course), I headed out on a bit of an adventure ride. A few hazy instructions and a borrowed iphone with gps and mapping facilities and I was off. After around 4-5km of gentle down hill I made the first turn. I thought that the instructions were to take a gentle route around the base of what was described as "not a mountain, more of a big hill". I think there was a translation issue here, and I think at this early point I took a wrong turn. as around the corner there was the dreaded gradient sign - reading 19%. Not quite what I wanted so early on - on a borrowed bike, twice the weight of mine, and with 42-23 as the easiest gear. A bit over 20 minutes later I get a bit of down hill - after a very solid strength workout! Another longer more gradual climb through some nice quiet roads in the middle of forestry, and a nice 26 degree day - fantastic. The rest of the ride was flat, on nice cycle paths and an old road, that is pretty much just cyclists (had a main road running parallel). I did end up going a little the wrong way, but in the end it did not matter too much as I just back-tracked and got picked up. A bit over 4 hours out there, probably around 3hr20min riding (didn't stop the clock for a couple of the stops). I squeezed in another run in the forest before heading back to the airport! 
On Sunday there was a classic car show in the village - so I popped down and had a look there - primarily Italian classics - most of which were Alfa Romeos - Perfect!! A couple of really nice cars were there - which made the day totally worth while. If I was a little more training focused I should have gone for another longer bike ride - but it was nice to look around some nice old cars (hobby number 2). 

I almost managed to bungle the flight home. I thought it was at around 10:30pm, and we were planning on leaving for the airport around 5pm (normally a 2hr drive), and of course 5pm leaving becomes 6pm, and then we managed to get stuck in a nice traffic jam for an hour. A nice BMW M5 had a little fire trouble by the looks! Check in and the plane is already boarding, whoops, it is a 9:30 flight! A brisk walk through the airport and I am straight onto the plane, about 3rd to last on! Don't think I need any closer than that!

Back to the cold, and nose now firmly attached to the grind stone...


Family Mueller - Ma Mueller is one of the best hosts ever. I am sure she is part of the "get tony over 90kg" conspiracy.


A nice little alfa to run around in! perhaps not quite the thing for the longer autobahn trips, but good for the summer!

leaving the cold...

The end of this week I am off for ten days to Germany - for my good mate Petes wedding. It is a long way to go for 10 days - and I probably should have tacked a little more "holiday" in, but as I thought about it, it quickly went in to the "too hard" basket. So a quick trip it is - with 61 hours in a plane there-and-back. It will be good to see old friends, but they better not get me reading out the telegrams at the wedding! With a German-Spanish wedding, my international language skills will be shown to be poor at best! And apparently I am meant to know how to "salsa" (dance not sauce). On the bright side - it was 34 degrees there last week...
Training has been going OK, have missed one or two things per week, and there have been no spectacular sessions. The harder sessions are a little slower, and the longer sessions not really than long. Swimming is still on a downward slide (2 swims per weeks is just not enough), and I have cut back the weights a little as they were just hammering me too much (probably a little too keen to start out with in reality). But the overall volume of training is pretty good - for this time in the build-up. I have given 15hrs (weekly training hours) a scare, and don't feel too bad for it. I think as a basic - "get out and do some training" block, it has been a good 3-4 weeks. Hopefully after my little trip away I am in good enough shape to actually start some proper training! 
Weight - well the OHagan-Goer house hold had their first weigh-in this week just gone by. I have written about weight before - and personally I don't mind putting a bit on at the end of a season, and when it comes time to lose it - I eat a bit less and/or train a bit more. But I don't live alone, and sometimes there are compromises... Recovery phase is pretty much over, and the few kgs extra sort of went toward 6kgs extra. It does not worry me much - yet, but I don't need to add any more! For Ironman this year I was 74-something, and now I am 79.5 (officially). With the weights I would think that I have had 1-2kgs of muscle added on, but I can definitely feel some "non-functional baggage", particularly running at the moment. For Worlds (in October) I want to be back to 74-ish, and if I kick on to Ironman again, then 73-ish would be the goal. The trick is not to lose any strength with the weight loss. In fact I still plan to increase strength quite a bit! So steady as she goes. For a bit over 1kg per month, or around 300grams per week of weight loss, I need a deficit of around 3000 kcal per week. So that is either around 430 kcal per day less going in (a couple of big slices of toast) or 4 to 5 hours more training per week (easier effort for me). Should be quite doable. The main obstacle to this is a 10 day trip to Germany next week - for a Wedding. Pretzels and beer may not be the ideal, second week in to the plan... 
New shoes - A few weeks back (well - a solid month really), at the first cross country, I had a really sore hip and the legs were pretty tender after. Of course it was the first cross country in almost 10 years - what did I expect?!? Later the week after, on the second run of the week, the hip really flared up after it had initially settled a bit. Click - I had used the same shoes for the cross country and that run, and an alternate pair in between. So those shoes got the heave-ho (ie are now the new "casual" shoe). In the last week the legs have been feeling pretty hammered, and I have not really been ramping up the running, so shoes #2 where getting past their prime too. Bit the bullet and went and got 2 new pairs of runners, and start this week with new shoes! First run, and "aahhh" - much better!!! Probably left it a week too long! Sorted now, and hopefully ready to start some proper run training too! 


We made a stop on our long ride to remember the chickens that lost their lives at the top of Twighlight Rd last year. The natural selection process has meant that they no longer "live" in the middle of the road...


Down town Saulgau - fond memories for me here. I have enjoyed my various stays and the people I have meet. Looking forward to going back - even if it is for only a week. The local village "Kirche" use to have a couple of cranes (of the bird variety) living around the steeple. Who would have thought!