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!

winter is here...

Nothing too exciting on the training front in the last week - which is not a bad thing! Although I have been officially sacked as weather reporter/predictor. For two Sundays I have said "no long ride on the road - rain is coming". And twice it has been fine. There was rain, but it did not really arrive during the ride time! Of course if I had gone out, it would have poured down! I have been caught a couple of times in the rain - and it is very wet rain at the moment!

Winter temperatures have certainly arrived. Going to training in the early mornings is certainly cold now, with 4 degrees the lowest so far. Even had to bring the thermal gloves out for a run! I am OK with the cold - I just don't like the wet and cold! In fact I think I just don't like the wet. Minor aches and pains of training appear to become more than minor with the cold too - which I am not liking!
I have sort of missed a couple of sessions in the last week or so - mainly rides. A couple of school rides ended up being wind trainer sessions instead of road rides - so I get to yell instructions for an hour or so instead of sitting at the back of a bunch riding... It can be a tough life being a coach. Work got in the way of a couple of days as well - giving talks and going to events. Nothing too stressful at all, just time consuming and I get quite tired with lots of standing.
A few weeks ago James (swim coach) asked for a few harder swim sessions from us. I put forward one that was pretty solid, with some trepidation, as I figured it was probably going to pop up in the near future. The guts of the session was that you started at 50m on 1:30 (plenty of rest), and then you add 50m to each subsequent rep and 30 seconds to the send off, and keep doing that until you can't make the send-off time. So you basically have to start swimming quite fast to make the send-off times at some point! The time I got given this session (many years ago), there was then 8x100 fly after you didn't make the send-off time! I was first to start the fly back then! Friday rolls around and I start to receive these abusive text messages! It does not take too much to work out that my little gem of a session popped up on Friday (I was not there - I was doing run intervals). I arrive to swimming on Monday morning and I get greeted with "You Fcuk*#@ pri##! And you didn't even turn up for your own session" and a couple of other less friendly comments! There was no love in the lane - I can assure you of that! Dean Kent (Olympic swimmer) shows up on Wednesday - and we get introduced, and I get "Oh - you are the guy that made that session up on Friday!". It obviously affected people quite severely! James did alter the session slightly - from what I can gather - He started at 100 on 2:15 and I think they all finished on 500m which would have been on 6:15 - which is a solid pace (you have to average better than 1:15 per 100m). But they didn't have to do the fly! They all appear to be over it now...
I have been meaning to write a bit sort of loosely based on the swim squad experience - more along the lines of "Raising the standard". I have been swimming at the Glenfield squad for a few years - off and on, and it ha certainly been through a few changes. But most of the changes have been the people that have passed through. James (the coach) is pretty old school, and his swim programs are pretty standard. If you go on a certain day, you know pretty much what you are going to get. That is a good thing for me - it makes putting the sessions into a plan much easier. The current group in the faster lanes are mostly older athletes that "have been something" is their sporting pasts - at least NZ reps, and a few Olympians in there too. Everyone pretty much gets on, and the sessions get done in some shape or form. Negotiations are often enacted without much coach decision involved, and it all works very well. What has generally happened is that the standards have gone up and become the new expectations - and there is not really any complaints, it is just accepted that "this is the new standard". For example, Wednesday usually has a 1500m swim in it - not a time trial, just a swim. Sometimes people give it a good go, and it is usually a solid pace. I usually swim just under 20 minutes (pull) and get lapped between 2 and 4 times! Last week I was a bit over the idea of doing a 1500m - so I suggested 15x100 instead. Pretty much everyone was happy with that. A few years ago, that would have been 15 on 1:30 (send-off time), perhaps the last 5 on 1:25. But the lane leaders (not me!) quickly decide it is 5 on 1:25, 5 on 1:20 and 5 on 1:15 - and I just quietly gulp at the back of the lane, knowing the last 4-500m will be continuous! We did the same again this week. Many other squad I have swum in, with this sort of set there would be plenty of complaints - it is solid, and a challenge to get through! But there are no complaints (I don't think I said mine out loud anyway...) - and at the end, someone comments in an excited voice, "we should try going on 1:10 next month!!".

That is crazy!!! I have seen numerous times where good athletes have really worked together in training in a very positive manner to help each other become far greater athletes. I also had a similar experience cycling in Dunedin when I lived there. In many cases it is training with one of your greatest competitors - and helping them to become better - possibly to your own detriment at the next race. But if you are looking at the bigger picture and see that on the big stage you have to be far better, then that is certainly a risk worth taking. If you are only interested in being the big fish in your local (and usually quite small) pond - then perhaps it is not worthwhile. I have also witnessed training situations where athletes are competitive in training in a very destructive manner. Rather than try to help each other get better, they try to crush each other and break each other. The end result is very poor results on race day and the only results that count are the first 4 x 100m reps at swim squad on Wednesday (even if the set is 12x100). Not really helping improve the standards at all.

challenging moments...

A few things to report in! Woody and Tam are now married - very nice. The weather was great before and after, and we made good use of the roaring fire during! A very nice wedding, with no broken bones on the dance floor (apparently!). I also hear Nana Kirk (Reuben to most) made it past midnight at his stag do - most bets were that he would not last after 9! Well done Reub's (and you should be married by now too!)!  
I snuck in a bike time trial this past week. It had to be done - just to check where I am at and to actually practice doing the darn things. I pretty much knew where I was at - and I was pretty much right on. But it still needed to be done. It was around a minute slower than my best and around 30watts lower on the power, which I think is OK for current fitness. End result for 25km on the trainer - 30:28 and 337w average. 
A few days after the time trial I also have my first real explosion. Wednesday morning at the pool I was absolutely dead! Was a bit tired getting up (well, REALLY tired actually, but this is not that unusual on Wednesday morning), and the warm-up felt pretty average, but I don't usually feel good then anyway. Then we had the standard 1500m swim - which we usually do pull. I went out normal steady, and there was nothing there - not even vapours in the tank. I was lapped at 200m (usually I can hold off to 400m on these), so I stopped and took the pull gear off and thought I would just plod along and try to get a bit of recovery going (make the most of the session since I was there). Well, I was almost stalling in the water and was really just an obstacle in the lane. I could tell pretty quickly it was not going to get better, or even not "not get worse" - so pull the pin and went home and ate! You need to know when to cut your losses - and I am pretty sure staying in the pool would have just dug a deeper hole. Then post explosion there is usually a little bit of soul searching - a bad day is one thing, but when it is this bad, it does make you wonder what the heck went so badly wrong. I am pretty sure it was a combo effort - the bike TT on Sunday night, hard bike on Tuesday and not enough food on Tuesday particularly after the harder ride. 
The next bigger happening on the training front this week was the first cross country running race in many years. I think cross country is great for running strength - very hard to equal - however, they are also bloody hard work! You cant hide (eg mass start bike races), there are usually hills, soft and/or uneven footing, and competition - you will no doubt have you own little battles within the race, no matter where in the field you are! After really only one week of consistent run training, it was not going to be pretty - and I was really questioning the point of even doing it on the way there (not helped by the fact it was a 70km drive to get there!). I had convinced myself that even an hour on the windtrainer would be at least as beneficial. I was clutching at straws! I was not going to race in spikes for the first couple of races - so as not to risk injury - no need to blow a calf at this point. Of course a week of rain made it ideal for spikes, and not really that good for the old trainers. A very short warm-up, as every thing was pretty sore and I felt I only had 8km of running in my hamstring, so a 1km warm-up would leave me 500m short of the finish line, plus I did not want to start out fast. the plan was to start out slow, build a bit and then survive, with no hard charging finish if it came to a sprint. The gun goes, and so does everyone else! I think there were still a couple behind me at the first gate, but most were in front, although it was still pretty crowded. Then step in something a bit squishy - oh that's right, you have to look out for cow patties when running cross country - forgot about that. The rest of the race was reasonably predictable - build through the fast starters a bit through the middle, and was quite thankful to pass at least a couple of 60+ vets. On the last lap (of three), the hamstring and calves started to tighten up a little, so eased back a fraction, but still kept a solid pace. Down to the last 500m and a couple of "runners" sprint past, but they can have their glory - this time at least! One down...
Some days you wonder why you got out of bed - or you should have just gone back to bed and forgot about the training. Sundays longer ride was going to be a tricky one - the weather forecast was terrible, and I had the school team time trials on early - so the long ride was scheduled for a bit after that (30min later than usual). Just as I woke up it was pouring down, so at that point I decided there was no long ride on the road option (although it was 5am and the ride would be starting around 8am). Do the team time trial coaching thing (which went VERY well), and the road is very wet but it is calm and blue sky (although there are a few clouds and no doubt there will be a couple of good showers). No gear with me, so I have limited my options to a windtrainer ride at home. Later in the day, hop on the trainer, and after 15min the effort feels quite hard for the speed, check the power - OK that is quite high. Which means the tyre is going flat... Two punctures and two pieces of glass removed from the tyre and we are back going again (should have looked for that second piece the first time!). 20 minutes later and the tyre is going soft again. OK, I think it is time to call it quits! It was just not meant to be!
Next week better have a few less hiccups in it!


Here is the cross country. There is a nice hill in there - 3 laps so you got to do it 3 times! I tried to keep the effort mostly even. The HR fell off slightly in the last 10 minutes, as the hamstring tightened up quite a bit and the achillies was protesting on the up hills - but in a good way.

Here is the 25km TT - started off a little conservative, and finished with a little bit in the tank - which is a little unusual - as I usually have little left at the end. So perhaps a little left to give - but not too much. All good!

phase two...

Had the New Zealand secondary school triathlon champs last weekend. I was there officially as the Dio team coach, but also had a couple of other athletes competing that I coached. I really find these events quite scary - from the aspect of there being SO much talent in young athletes - but that hardly even seems to kick on. My guess is the boys find beer and the girls find boys. But I digress... The school racing is quite varied and the younger generation have to cope with a variety of racing styles, courses and pressures - particularly if they are good. They have drafting races, non-drafting, and team events and no doubt many are roped in to other sports too. To add to that - this season had the athletes required to be in peak shape in November, February and at the end of April for the "big races". Not really feasible, and quite poor planning if there was any planning going into the race calendar.



watch out here comes Bex - that is all the start you are getting!!

It was a pretty good weekend. The water was a bit "crisp" I have to say - and my recommended early morning "check the course out" swim did not feel like a great idea in the cold drizzling rain at 7:30am. In hind sight I think it was a good idea (when in the van with the heaters on full!). Some great racing, and I think even a good time was had by some. From my end, young Alex did well, but was probably not quite the race course for him. He probably wanted a better result than what he got - but he raced the best he could, and I don't think he could have done anything better. Horses for courses and all that. Bex had a great race - also for fourth - from a runner who could survive the swim and get through a bike to start running - to carving up the bike and pulling through strong on the run! The Dio Team also did fantastic - 2 wins and a 5th for the senior girls (few to many injured athletes!).

This week sees a new phase in the training for me. I have moved from school triathlon coach to school cycling coach. So two mornings per week on the bike for the next two terms. I have had the first week of training - which was a little better than expected after the training camp. I got a little lucky and ended up taking the better group of the senior riders. They know pretty much what they are doing and you just let them go to it and sort them selves out (at the moment anyway). There is also some healthy competition to get into the A team - so I think that will help motivation. I did end up being tail end charlie on the way home on the first ride, which was a little less fun - I am not sure how they manage to go so slow and not fall off their bikes! Add to that early morning Auckland commuter traffic and the last 2km takes about 15 minutes with a few sets of lights to negotiate...


The training implications are now that I have more cycling automatically added to the program, and less opportunity for swimming. This month (May), I need to move from recovery and introductory training (all pretty easy) into some more serious training. So the training is going to hopefully turn into something along these lines:

Swimming: Monday and Wednesday morning squads, and I need at least one other swim, preferably two, even if they are just an easy 2km plod. That is one of my challenges to sort out this month. Swimming is definitely going down with the very erratic and low amount of sessions being done. What I do get done is good - it is just not enough!

Cycling: I have two spin classes to take - so that is a hard ride and a reasonably easy one. Two early morning rides (most weeks) with the school girls. These will no doubt involve some solid efforts now and then (well - they better do!), but will be easy-ish overall. Long rides are sort of back underway for Sundays but these too are under threat from a few sources. There are a few early morning school team time trials to contend with on Sunday mornings - but I think I will just ride a little later. There is winter weather to cope with too. A little further down the track I also want to do a few long runs in the waitak's on a Sunday morning instead of long rides. I probably need to add in a steady/strength ride at least every second week at some stage for "my training", which might be tricky to fit in. That will also mean probably more cycling in a week than I have done in a very long time. I am sort of interested in what will happen in this regard!
Running: I have been doing stuff all! Friday morning run intervals and one or two other very short easy sessions. That was sort of the plan - get the strength training going and then slowly get into the running. Well the strength training has been sort of there (not perfect, but getting done), and now I think it is time to start running a little more. This year I do want to get some running form back. I have signed up for the cross country running season - which starts next weeks (eek!). I am sure the first few races will be very sorry affairs, but hopefully will build some form a little down the track! I think the first step is to get in at least 3 hours of running in a week and build that up to 4.5 to 5 hours in the next 4-5 weeks. The long run needs to get up to 1hr30min pretty quickly too. Then hopefully I can survive a Waitak's run or two.

Weights: have been doing them, and I am getting stronger, and I am still getting sore muscles after - darn it! I have missed a couple of sessions here and there and I think that is what is making the muscle soreness worse.



No mucking around - go big or go home (oh my poor legs...)...

I do enjoy getting into a routine and ticking off the training and seeing the results that that usually gives. It can be easy for obsessive personalities to let training become the single focus in life - to the detriment of other things in their lives, and usually then their training too. Life often throws a few curve balls just to test you, and also opportunities pop up that may never pop up again. I have a few which can probably fall into the latter, coming up - as weddings. Young Woody is off up the Isle this weekend, and my dear friend Pete from Germany has just invited me over in June for his wedding.

back to school camp...

Another training camp done - this time 5 days (Monday to Friday), for the Dio school cycling team. I guess the main idea is get in a week of solid training to bring the fitness up and to teach everyone a few new skills (or remind a few who have been there before - and who are a little rusty). I was one of three coaches - Vanessa is head coach and Scott is the other coach there. It quickly became apparent that there were two distinct groups for the school girls- those that had hung their bikes up at the end of last season and done little else between the end of last season and the start of camp - and the others who had done a good amount of training and were in pretty reasonable shape. Unfortunately there were a few were sick and/or injured too.

The first proper ride was full of complaints and there was some pretty slow riding. The pushing had already begun (fellow coach Scott and I pushing the slower riders back into the bunches). While the average speed was pretty low, the coaches efforts were not so! The next day involved a couple of time trials, one 8km and one of around 2km, but mostly up hill. Sort of seeding TT's for the first few races of the season. Of course the complaint level escalated, as plenty did not want to do TT's - especially those that were very unfit! Those that complained the least generally did the best - probably because they had a better mental attitude that a huge physical benefit. At the end of this day it was time for the coaches to have a bit of a growl - and tell a few to "harden up". The next day was the bigger ride at around 90km, and to be fair, the attitudes had improved a heap, and all were riding a lot better. Having said that a few had left camp as "sick" or sort of thrown in the towel. Some were genuinely sick, but some were just giving up. The last day was an easy ride (33km), and all went very well for the front group, which I was taking, and Scott got the short straw, having to push the slower riders along...

From my perspective most of the rides were very easy overall (average HR for the rides were between 109 and 118) - but there were a few harder aspects, and they did tend to be quite tiring overall. Probably just been on the bike seat for so long! The back was pretty sore each morning too - and that was no doubt from all the pushing! Scott and I had to do the time trials - which were a bit of a blast - but you had to make sure you weren't beaten by the girls! The power graphs are below - 8km with an average of 374w and the hill climb (just over 1km) and an average of 444w. I went out pretty hard in the TT to try to catch Scott, and made a big gain initially, but then "popped" a bit and had to try to hold on to the end. The spike toward the end is a little hill - just for when you are getting tired. I was not that enthusiastic for the hill Climb, and went out hard to get speed up before the climb actually started - then just survived it really. Should have probably been over 500w average, but that was not there! Ended up one all for the coaches bragging rights and not beaten by any school girls! Whew! Probably not too bad a result for where I am fitness wise either.



8km road TT...




Hill TT - getting a bit tired now...


One thing that was a little bit of an eye opener for me was being "on camp" with girls. I certainly don't claim to know too much about the other gender and this just added to that mystery! Each night the girls organized a few games - in a guys world it would be called "team building", but here I am pretty sure it was just high school girls entertaining themselves. I maybe scared for life from these experiences, as the coaches did get roped in to these events. First Major was the marsh-mellow game. The contestants line up and you have to put a marsh-mellow in your mouth (not eat it) and say "fluffy bunny". Add another marsh mellow and say the words. At some point you fail and lose the marsh mellows! Pretty gross really. Three groups get through this game and I have to say it was amazing how many marsh mellows fit in a mouth and how disgusting it is when they come out! Then the call comes for the coaches to have a go. Gulp! OK - I am not moving and if Scott says no, we are safe (Vanessa is not doing it!). Scott cracks and we are lined up with bowls in hand and someone handing up marsh mellows! We get a few past 20 and Scott cracks and off to the kitchen to remove the marsh mellows, and I do something incredibly stupid - eat the marsh mellows! I then proceeded to feel VERY sick for the next hour! Next night is "here is a waikato times newspaper - take a coach and dress them in this - in some cycling theme". Let's just say that standing around in my short shorts having newspaper sellotaped to me by 15-17 year old girls is quite scary. I am not sure I have all the sellotape removed yet either! The only redeeming fact is Scott looked like a bigger Dork than I did! The last night was sing star night - pick a song, dress up and do a dance/sing in your team. Coaches are judges (I am no singer or dancer!)! This actually went OK, and I did not mind being the "Simon Cowell" judge either. The girls really got into this. I can't imagine boys doing this sort of stuff! The judges retired and the girls continued the dancing and singing outside (9pm ish). One of the parents then come in and tell me I may have to rescue girls from the pool - the singing dancing has progress to in the pool... oh dear...
There is photographic evidence of the weeks training and "Team building" - but I am not sure they should ever be published! Far too scary!

Getting scared...

I have started easing myself back into some training. It is certainly a little up and down, but I am trying to remain reasonably low key at this stage. On the swimming, I can really only fit in 2 squad sessions, and have not quite sorted out another time to swim yet. I can get to 4km if I try, but I can feel my fitness slipping a little. I am pretty sure I need 3 swims a week to maintain or perhaps not slip away too much. The 3rd swim does not have to be that special, it can be pretty easy, so I suspect it is a muscle memory thing - perhaps the muscles are more forgetful at the moment. I can get through the sessions I do OK, I just notice the times are getting a little slower each week for the same effort, and I "hit the wall" and get just plan old slow after around 3km.

Cycling is OK, probably the thing of note is that the HR is getting a bit higher than usual on the harder efforts. Power output is down a little, but I am also not really pushing it either. An effort and output that would usually give a 166-168HR is now giving 172-174HR. Pre Ironman, any thing over 170HR was making my eyes water. At the moment low 170's is just "pretty solid". The first few easier rides back post Ironman were pretty pathetic as far as output were concerned. while that did not worry me, I was a little surprised at how much and how quickly the basic aerobic fitness had fallen away. Just to show how my basic fitness has changed, the table below shows my last longer "easy aerobic set prior to Ironman - a little over 2 hours, average power 211 watts and average HR 124. The final column is the ratio of power to HR - just to quantify the bodies efficiency. The subsequent rows are the easier rides I have done post Ironman. The "2:02" ride is perhaps an aberration - it was on the road (the others are indoors), and it is really in a different training zone to the others, so perhaps should not be included. You can still see reasonably clearly that the power output has dropped off, and while it has come back quite well, still a fair way off what it did get up to pre Ironman. Given that it is actually a bit cooler now that at the end of February, the difference shown is perhaps slightly less than in reality. It will be interesting to see how this trend changes over then next few months, as I do work more on basic aerobic fitness.



Running is very low key at the moment. Prior to this week, it was a 15-20min run with the Dio Tri-squad and Friday morning "not sure I should be going this hard" intervals. I am hoping to do a couple of 20-30min runs this week also. Hopefully the weekly run volume will go from 50min to around 2hrs. I have started back doing weights, even though I tried to go very easy, I still suffered major muscle soreness after the first 2 sessions. Now I just have general aches and pains! Nowhere near as bad. Strength is already improving quite a bit - after 4 gym sessions!
This year I have become far more involved with junior athletes - especially as Triathlon coach at Dio school, and assisting with the school cycle coaching too. This is on top of what I do RRwith the athletes I coach personally and with the triathlon club. Coaching the younger athletes can be a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride I have to say. They can be absolutely amazing with what they can do and achieve and can be very frustrating with lack of focus and drive ("don't you realize how good you could be!!!"). It has also proved to be a bit scary!
Last Monday I was at the Auckland secondary schools Triathlon Champs - which was a great day of racing. Capped off very well with young Alex winning the senior boys race in a very mature execution of a well thought out race plan. My observations were that there are very talented athletes that can already go very fast at a young age. As you go through the age groups the athletes get better overall - ie have less weaknesses. The younger athletes tended to have a weakness. They are also a little less skilled at hiding nerves, and are a little unsure how to handle those nerves and why the heck they were there in the first place! It was great to see so many just going out and having a good time - especially the younger age groups!
Then last weekend I was away for the weekend helping with the "introductory cycling camp". This is a prerequisite to go on the schools "main cycling camp". So making sure that these young budding cyclists can clip in and out of pedals, start and stop OK, brake, and ride in close to a straight line. To be fair I was quite scared, and probably as nervous as I have been for any race! There was a good chance someone I was in charge of making a competent cyclist could send me off the road and down a bank! Images of broken bones and angry parents were swooping through my mind. In the end my nerves were only slightly frazzled and those that had the least skills to start with (could not ride a bike AT ALL) made the greatest improvements and were riding along quite nicely 24 hours after not being able to get on the bike and ride at all. End result - a quiet calm feeling of a job well down! Whew...

For the next month:
Sort out a routine that will get in more than two swims per week. Two good gym sessions per week, and a 3rd lighter session every second week. I want the overall intensity of training to be reasonably low. I will get back to doing the bike and run intervals quite hard, but make sure I have most of "my" training sessions done at an easy or very easy pace/effort. Cycling I will have a couple of bike classes and will do a couple of easy rides on top of that - even if they are quite short. Will try for at least one week with 5 rides. On the running front, I don't think I will be doing much, as I still need to sort out a niggle in my leg. It is OK, and I will build up to an hour, and try to get in two runs of 50 minutes to an hour (including the interval session) and a couple of 30 minute runs. I don't want to push the running until I have made some good progress on the strength and flexibility. But one week with 5 runs in it would be good too (2-3 of those runs are 25-35min).