My wounds from the fall have all dried up, so I've been back in the swimming pool. It felt a bit awkward initially, and I've lost the natural feel of the water. But after a few sets, I was able to get back into the strokes quite comfortably.
On Saturday morning, I did another 160km ride. The winds were still pretty strong, but not as bad as last week. Though it was pretty sunny, and temperatures were at 31 degrees at it's highest. I completed the ride with an average of 29.0kph, pretty satisfied with that effort.
Sunday morning, I watched the last few nail biting hours of the live streaming of Kona Ironman Championships. I was a bit disappointed that Craig Alexander a.k.a. Crowie failed to defend his title. Sorry, but I'm not a huge fan of Chris McCormack a.k.a. Macca. But he deserves full credit for winning, given his stellar performance and how he skillfully outwitted Andreas Raelart towards the finishing.
For the women's race, I couldn't be any happier for Mirinda Carfrae for winning and pulling off a record fast marathon split. If only Chrissie Wellington was in the mix, it would have been a great showdown, and if Mirinda beat Chrissie, it would have been a whole lot sweeter!
I was pretty pumped up after watching the pro race of the Championships, but the windy and occasionally wet weather kept me indoors instead of going out for a run. So I made it a recovery day.
Monday morning, I did my first run in 3 weeks. I started off conservatively, as my right shin is still slightly swollen. Completed 13km in 56:45, an average of 4:22 per km. Way off from what I used to be clocking, but pretty happy that I was able to run a decent pace without much pain.
I'm going to stick to one run per week plan now for the remaining weeks leading up to Ironman Western Australia, to allow adequate recovery time from the damage caused by each run session. Hope this plan works.
Monday, 11 October 2010
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
27 tomorrow
Early celebration over the weekend at Beethoven's. Massive portions of meat. Ordered the pork shank and lamb rack. And not the forget the half pint of German beer.
Sunday, 3 October 2010
Survival
I was wrong when I said that Monday's fall would not affect my training. The laceration wounds were pretty exposed and I skipped all swim sessions for the week to avoid them getting infected. Also, it hurts each time they got in contact with the fabric of my clothes. And at the end of each day, I find them sticking to the fabric - not a pretty sight!
I did spinning each day and strength exercises on alternate days. After training indoors for the whole week, I was itching to do some real training outside. Also, I was getting more and more cranky each day!
Saturday morning came, and the winds were fierce. Great, not exactly the type of conditions to be starting my recovery ride. But it was pretty cloudy, without much sun, so that helped a bit.
It was quite an eventful ride, with honey bees flying pass on Burke Drive, towards Point Walter, on BOTH journeys. One actually landed on my thigh, I quickly flicked it away. Luckily, I wasn't stung. Then on one of bike paths near the Canning River in Applecross, I had to stop for a family of crossing ducks.
It didn't end here. On the way to my pit-stop, I came across a traffic light at the T-junction. It was a red light, and I was going straight. Given that I was cycling on the bike path at the side of the road, and I wasn't obstructing any traffic, I kept on going.
Just my luck, the car that stopped at the front of the traffic light was a police car. He pulled me over soon after that and took down my details, but let me off with a warning. Phew. He was really nice about it though. He said he understands that we often get into the zone while training, but that doesn't preclude us from abiding traffic rules.
Having gone through all these, I'm glad I survived the 160km ride. Though at a pretty slow pace of 28.4kph average. But taking into account that I almost felt like giving up after riding only 30km, I guess I should give myself a pat on the back.
The wounds are healing, albeit slowly. Hope to get some swimming done next week.
I did spinning each day and strength exercises on alternate days. After training indoors for the whole week, I was itching to do some real training outside. Also, I was getting more and more cranky each day!
Saturday morning came, and the winds were fierce. Great, not exactly the type of conditions to be starting my recovery ride. But it was pretty cloudy, without much sun, so that helped a bit.
It was quite an eventful ride, with honey bees flying pass on Burke Drive, towards Point Walter, on BOTH journeys. One actually landed on my thigh, I quickly flicked it away. Luckily, I wasn't stung. Then on one of bike paths near the Canning River in Applecross, I had to stop for a family of crossing ducks.
It didn't end here. On the way to my pit-stop, I came across a traffic light at the T-junction. It was a red light, and I was going straight. Given that I was cycling on the bike path at the side of the road, and I wasn't obstructing any traffic, I kept on going.
Just my luck, the car that stopped at the front of the traffic light was a police car. He pulled me over soon after that and took down my details, but let me off with a warning. Phew. He was really nice about it though. He said he understands that we often get into the zone while training, but that doesn't preclude us from abiding traffic rules.
Having gone through all these, I'm glad I survived the 160km ride. Though at a pretty slow pace of 28.4kph average. But taking into account that I almost felt like giving up after riding only 30km, I guess I should give myself a pat on the back.
The wounds are healing, albeit slowly. Hope to get some swimming done next week.
Monday, 27 September 2010
What a weekend!
We have a three day weekend, with Queen's Birthday public holiday on Monday. WA is the only state in Australia to have it now, and not in the middle of June with the rest of the country, as it coincides with WA Foundation Day. Also, it was the AFL Grand Final weekend, which resulted in a historic draw, only to have a rematch the following week.
I started the weekend with a plan to do a 160km ride on Saturday. There were moderate winds, and it was pretty sunny that day. I averaged 30kph for most of the ride. Took a pit-stop at about 113km, triple cheesburger stunner meal for only $6.95 at Hungry Jacks!
I helped myself with the unlimited refills of soft drink. Probably wasn't a good idea, as I felt a bit bloated after that. I continued my ride, the winds had picked up a bit and the sun was getting hot. My eyes kept on tearing from the glare. I had to stop a few times to wash my face. When I got near UWA, I decided to call it quits and skipped the small loop near Dalkeith. I clocked 152.7km, averaging 29.7kph. I noted to myself to put on my sunnies for my next long ride.
Sunday, I did no training but did some weeding near the small patch of green at our driveway. Li-Ann did quite a bit of uni assignments marking. We did get out of the house eventually. In the afternoon, we had a stroll at Trigg Beach, about 10 minutes drive away. The winds were howling, I was glad I wasn't out cycling that day.
I decided to ride again on Monday morning, as I'm still avoiding running for my shin to recover. The plan was to ride 100km, making the weekend's mileage of 250km. This time I had my sunnies on. The wind was much stronger, along with slightly tired legs, I aimed for an average of 29kph.
Here's where it happened. After cycling for about 1.5 hours, at the infamous slopes of Point Walter, I was tailing an SUV attached with a boat trailer behind, where I hit a road bump. My bike handling is pretty average but I'm normally able to control this bend. My sweaty hands must have slipped off the bars. Down I tumbled and bike skidded along.
I suffered lacerations on my left shoulder, left hip, right knee and both my palms.
My poor bike, suffered scratches on the left gear shift and left brake lever.
I called Li-Ann for rescue. I was feeling really frustrated and seriously contemplated withdrawing from Ironman WA. But as we drove home, and I calmed down, I decided that this was a minor setback. In fact, it would have minimal impact on my training, nothing's broken. Thank God for helmets! Although I was screaming like a baby when I was taking my shower after that.
Looking forward to better week's ahead.
I started the weekend with a plan to do a 160km ride on Saturday. There were moderate winds, and it was pretty sunny that day. I averaged 30kph for most of the ride. Took a pit-stop at about 113km, triple cheesburger stunner meal for only $6.95 at Hungry Jacks!
I helped myself with the unlimited refills of soft drink. Probably wasn't a good idea, as I felt a bit bloated after that. I continued my ride, the winds had picked up a bit and the sun was getting hot. My eyes kept on tearing from the glare. I had to stop a few times to wash my face. When I got near UWA, I decided to call it quits and skipped the small loop near Dalkeith. I clocked 152.7km, averaging 29.7kph. I noted to myself to put on my sunnies for my next long ride.Sunday, I did no training but did some weeding near the small patch of green at our driveway. Li-Ann did quite a bit of uni assignments marking. We did get out of the house eventually. In the afternoon, we had a stroll at Trigg Beach, about 10 minutes drive away. The winds were howling, I was glad I wasn't out cycling that day.
I decided to ride again on Monday morning, as I'm still avoiding running for my shin to recover. The plan was to ride 100km, making the weekend's mileage of 250km. This time I had my sunnies on. The wind was much stronger, along with slightly tired legs, I aimed for an average of 29kph.Here's where it happened. After cycling for about 1.5 hours, at the infamous slopes of Point Walter, I was tailing an SUV attached with a boat trailer behind, where I hit a road bump. My bike handling is pretty average but I'm normally able to control this bend. My sweaty hands must have slipped off the bars. Down I tumbled and bike skidded along.
I suffered lacerations on my left shoulder, left hip, right knee and both my palms.
My poor bike, suffered scratches on the left gear shift and left brake lever.
I called Li-Ann for rescue. I was feeling really frustrated and seriously contemplated withdrawing from Ironman WA. But as we drove home, and I calmed down, I decided that this was a minor setback. In fact, it would have minimal impact on my training, nothing's broken. Thank God for helmets! Although I was screaming like a baby when I was taking my shower after that.Looking forward to better week's ahead.
Thursday, 23 September 2010
Not ideal
The shin soreness from Sunday's run has taken for the worse and now there is a sizable swell on the lower part of my right shin, just above my inner ankle. It hurts each time my foot lands with impact i.e. walking down steps. So running is definitely out of the question.
To say I'm frustrated, is quite an understatement. I don't know what went wrong. I managed my left foot injury pretty well, I believe. I eased into running. Only running once a week. Progressing from 6.7km to 9.7km to 13km. I haven't even ran more than an hour in one session!
The sub 11 hour target at Ironman WA this December seems a bit shaky at the moment. And if you know me well, there is no race I would compete in without giving my best. I even had a look at the withdrawal policy and sad to say, only $350 (about 50%) would be refunded for withdrawals prior to 1 October.
So on monetary grounds, me being an accountant and all, I would still continue with the race. It doesn't hurt when I cycle or swim (it does slightly if I kick off the wall in a wrong angle, but there are no walls in the open water, right?). And I'm still feeling pretty fit, cardiovascular wise.
I took a day off yesterday and made some appointments. I first saw an occupational therapist in Health Central, Mount Hawthorn, courtesy of a complimentary session from a text message. Fortunately, it was confirmed that I do not have a stress fracture. And the swell is likely to have resulted from overstressing on my right leg since I was recovering from the injury on my left foot. I was prescribed a tube of Traumeel anti inflammatory gel and a bottle of magnesium for muscle recovery.
Then, I paid a visit to UWA Podiatry Clinic. It was quite an interesting experience actually, the young student podiatrist fiddled with my feet and went away to refer to his lecturer every now and then. I spent about 1.5 hour there but was given needling treatment to loosen the muscles around my shin.
I'll avoid running for a couple of weeks. Despite this setback, I'm still feeling a bit optimistic (maybe deluded?) that I can still pull off a sub 4 hour marathon split on race day and achieve that sub 11 hour target after all. Even with a 3 week running layoff, I still have 7-8 weeks to get my running legs back into action. After all, isn't the marathon leg of the Ironman mainly shuffling anyway?
To say I'm frustrated, is quite an understatement. I don't know what went wrong. I managed my left foot injury pretty well, I believe. I eased into running. Only running once a week. Progressing from 6.7km to 9.7km to 13km. I haven't even ran more than an hour in one session!
The sub 11 hour target at Ironman WA this December seems a bit shaky at the moment. And if you know me well, there is no race I would compete in without giving my best. I even had a look at the withdrawal policy and sad to say, only $350 (about 50%) would be refunded for withdrawals prior to 1 October.
So on monetary grounds, me being an accountant and all, I would still continue with the race. It doesn't hurt when I cycle or swim (it does slightly if I kick off the wall in a wrong angle, but there are no walls in the open water, right?). And I'm still feeling pretty fit, cardiovascular wise.
I took a day off yesterday and made some appointments. I first saw an occupational therapist in Health Central, Mount Hawthorn, courtesy of a complimentary session from a text message. Fortunately, it was confirmed that I do not have a stress fracture. And the swell is likely to have resulted from overstressing on my right leg since I was recovering from the injury on my left foot. I was prescribed a tube of Traumeel anti inflammatory gel and a bottle of magnesium for muscle recovery.
Then, I paid a visit to UWA Podiatry Clinic. It was quite an interesting experience actually, the young student podiatrist fiddled with my feet and went away to refer to his lecturer every now and then. I spent about 1.5 hour there but was given needling treatment to loosen the muscles around my shin.
I'll avoid running for a couple of weeks. Despite this setback, I'm still feeling a bit optimistic (maybe deluded?) that I can still pull off a sub 4 hour marathon split on race day and achieve that sub 11 hour target after all. Even with a 3 week running layoff, I still have 7-8 weeks to get my running legs back into action. After all, isn't the marathon leg of the Ironman mainly shuffling anyway?
Sunday, 19 September 2010
Windy
After having auditors in the office for the past two weeks, the weekend was very much welcomed.
On Saturday, I did another 120km ride. The winds were pretty strong, just above 20kph. Fortunately though, it was blowing in my favour towards the last 10kms. There were quite a few tri bikes on the course, one of which I kept on meeting. He (or she? I couldn't tell as the cyclist was all covered up with winter gear) was riding a red Felt B2, the new 2010 version.
I completed the ride with an average of 29.4kph. Pretty satisfied, considering the strong winds. I have became comfortable with the distance, so I thought next week I should up the ante and start riding 160kms.
Sunday morning, I did my second run for the week. I did 13km, the first time in 5 weeks. Held it pretty well, finishing in 54:50 (average 4:13 per km). Not my best, but still happy with the decent effort. My left foot is much better now. Although, other problems seem to be manifesting elsewhere - my right shin is feeling a bit sore. So I'll probably take it easy before logging in the long runs.
On Saturday, I did another 120km ride. The winds were pretty strong, just above 20kph. Fortunately though, it was blowing in my favour towards the last 10kms. There were quite a few tri bikes on the course, one of which I kept on meeting. He (or she? I couldn't tell as the cyclist was all covered up with winter gear) was riding a red Felt B2, the new 2010 version.
I completed the ride with an average of 29.4kph. Pretty satisfied, considering the strong winds. I have became comfortable with the distance, so I thought next week I should up the ante and start riding 160kms.
Sunday morning, I did my second run for the week. I did 13km, the first time in 5 weeks. Held it pretty well, finishing in 54:50 (average 4:13 per km). Not my best, but still happy with the decent effort. My left foot is much better now. Although, other problems seem to be manifesting elsewhere - my right shin is feeling a bit sore. So I'll probably take it easy before logging in the long runs.
Monday, 13 September 2010
Raya Weekend
Selamat Hari Raya to all my Muslim friends, and happy holidays to all those back home. I admit I'm a tad bit envious of not getting the public holidays and the festive atmosphere here.
Darling's parents were here to visit for 5 days. I'm happy to say that I did not compromise much on my training plans (although I did make some adjustments). Which is good, because we tend to overeat when we have visitors hahhah.
We took a drive to Wave Rock on Saturday morning. It was about 4.5 hours drive each way, making that about 720km in that one day. Some might say it's not worth the long drive to see a huge rock. But it was indeed a fun experience. The drive there is a lot more pleasant than driving down south to Margaret River, in my opinion. There was more scenery, and you pass by a town every 100km, making the drive less taxing on the mind.
I postponed my 120km ride to Sunday morning. But the weather wasn't looking too good. It poured a bit, so I did some groceries while waiting for the rain to stop. It did, but the winds didn't. They were blowing at about 25kph. I completed the ride in a relatively slow pace of 28.7kph average.
This morning, I did a 9.75km run, finishing in 40:53 (average 4:12 per km). Still a bit far off from my sub 4:10 average, which I was consistently clocking about 1.5 months ago. But pretty happy with the progress since the foot injury.
Would try a 13km run sometime this week, and progressively build my mileage for my Ironman WA preparations. There is still time...
Darling's parents were here to visit for 5 days. I'm happy to say that I did not compromise much on my training plans (although I did make some adjustments). Which is good, because we tend to overeat when we have visitors hahhah.
We took a drive to Wave Rock on Saturday morning. It was about 4.5 hours drive each way, making that about 720km in that one day. Some might say it's not worth the long drive to see a huge rock. But it was indeed a fun experience. The drive there is a lot more pleasant than driving down south to Margaret River, in my opinion. There was more scenery, and you pass by a town every 100km, making the drive less taxing on the mind.
I postponed my 120km ride to Sunday morning. But the weather wasn't looking too good. It poured a bit, so I did some groceries while waiting for the rain to stop. It did, but the winds didn't. They were blowing at about 25kph. I completed the ride in a relatively slow pace of 28.7kph average.This morning, I did a 9.75km run, finishing in 40:53 (average 4:12 per km). Still a bit far off from my sub 4:10 average, which I was consistently clocking about 1.5 months ago. But pretty happy with the progress since the foot injury.
Would try a 13km run sometime this week, and progressively build my mileage for my Ironman WA preparations. There is still time...
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