Speeding Bullet

It is very late, and I need to get ready for bed. So I'll be very brief. Below is the bullet point update of my training and thoughts as I get closer to racing IM Port Macquarie for the first time as an Ironman Australia Legend (10 times finisher).

• When I am not tired I am seeing positive signs in training. I think it is working.
• I have opted out of racing a 2km-80km-20km race this weekend in favour of getting in more volume as I have a feeling that April and my introduction to parenthood could present some challenges. I need some volume in the bank going in.
• Beware of shopping trolleys when wearing thongs (flip flops)...they hurt (and leave you limping for days).
• BB is fit and ready to go for IM Melbourne. Trying to chase her down over the first 4km of a run off the bike at the end of a long training day proved to be a worthy challenge. I didn't quite catch her.
• Lysterfield Park Lake is a fantastic spot for open water swim training.

• I am seeing some decoupling in my long ride sessions. I'm not sure whether it is related to aerobic fitness or poor hydration. I am still learning how to interpret the data.
• Not racing IM Melbourne is hard. I run past the finish line three times a week. But not racing is the right thing to do.
• My long runs are a little slow at the moment. If I am going to run fast at Port Mac, I need to lift the pace on my long runs. On Sunday, I ran 30km with an avg heart rate in the 130s. This needs to be in the low 140s for this run and I need to be about 20 seconds per km faster. This will be my run focus over the crazy month that will be April.
• I am staying up too late...so time for bed.

Good luck BB!

This Week's Video and Backing Up

I thought I would keep the video links coming through. Tim DeBoom is a hero of mine and prior to Craig Alexander, was the last back to back male winner of the Hawaii Ironman championships. To have the mental fortitude to take on all comers and be victorious in successive years is incredibly impressive. To achieve this, I imagine that you have to be very good at one (or all) of the following things:

- Compartmentalising

- Simplifying

- Surrounding yourself with the right people

For readers that are living with NF (1,2, or schwann), these three traits/skills will be familiar. While they haven't delivered me multiple world championships (or even a qualifying spot at the world champs...yet), they have allowed me to bounce back from surgery and return to full speed life as quickly as possible year after year. My last operation was in June 2010. As I enjoy my first back to back Ironman preparations without an operation in between, I am also preparing myself for the possibility of juggling fatherhood and future operations. It can be incredibly overwhelming to think of everything bundled up in one big package. So, I carve off things in my life that might bring unwanted stress (simplify) and I ensure that my life has time for me to emotionally deal with my schwannomatosis (compartmentalise - although I have let this slip a little lately and I am working on a plan to bring things back in to balance). As for people, my friends will all attest that they are the right people - just ask them.

Enjoy the video.

Falls Creek - Mixed Results

So what does it look like when you are doing what you love but things don't go entirely to plan?

That doesn't look too bad does it? And it wasn't. Just like last year, we had a great weekend.

My swim was a little unexpected. I have been feeling good in the water and was looking forward to knocking some time off last year's swim. Instead, I got about 200m in to the swim and had to come up for some air. I'm not really sure what happened. Maybe that old mix of nerves, cold water (15c) and not pacing the start correctly. I stopped for a couple of seconds, took a few breaths, and told myself to slow right down and spend the next little while getting in to rhythm. The result of my rookie mistake wasn't that bad - the exact same split as last year - 34:39.

After some dodgy dressing in transition, I headed out on to the bike. As with my swim, I was expecting to take some time off last year's performance. I have invested in some new gear on the bike and I was hoping that I would see some return through an improved bike split. Unfortunately I ended up slipping back a little on last year's performance. A toilet stop back at transition prior to the timing mat and perhaps some lapses in concentration contributed, but I rode to heart rate with the aim of getting to transition ready to run.

It worked, I managed to knock a little time off last year's run. Maybe the toilet stop on the bike rather than the run made the difference, but either way, I am pretty sure I managed to negatively split the run and finish feeling strong. So things feel like they are moving in the right direction...with a bit more work to do on the bike.

So with 12 weeks to go in my chase for lifetime best fitness, I've got my work cut out for me. And with seven weeks to go until another major event for 2012, I've got all the motivation I need.

Although a little late, I've added a link to another great video - enjoy.

My Chase

Over the past 10 years I have spent plenty of time chasing life best fitness. In fact, I chase it every year. My chase has not amounted to world championships, Olympic games appearances, or even pro status. In fact, my chase has led me to performances along way short of that – I am still a fair way off qualifying for the age-group championships at Hawaii. Does this matter? Yes and no.

The Yes – of course it matters to me. I would love to take my performances to a world-class level. But in saying that, the opportunity to do the work is given to me everyday. If I am not putting the work in, I will not get the performances out. So until I am doing all that it takes for me to put up world class performances, my chase will unlikely lead me to be world class.

The No – my chase is my chase. I love it. And as you may sense reading the paragraph above (‘The Yes’), I would love to get more from it. From time to time I have questioned whether the chase is worth it, and to me, it is. It may not be for everyone, but I love the feeling of getting very fit. This week, my chase has led me to swimming 9.5km, cycling 500km, and running 65km. I’m sitting on the couch and feeling pretty content right now.

When the Yes starts to talk loudly enough that I hear it, I ask the question. The interesting thing is that it is often the insights that I have into the world of the champions that reinforces my love of the chase….enjoy.

Adding more Intensity

Since introducing the use of a power meter into my training on the bike, I feel like I have added more intensity into my weekday trainer sessions. I'm not sure whether this is truly the case, or whether I am just more aware of the intensity that I am working out now. But I am certainly much more focused on how I am applying the intensity. Is it working? I'm not so sure. There are a couple of reasons that I am not sure, with the main one being related to recovery.

With the addition of more intensity into my program, I am not sure that I have got the right balance of recovery yet. This has probably contributed to the little aches and pains that I am getting, including through my lower back. I am very used to feeling some lower back pain due to the schwannomas that I have dealt with through the thoracic, lumbar, and sacral spine. So I have a pretty good understanding of how I can go about settling things down and continuing to get some training done. In fact, over my Christmas holidays I managed to get a 24hr week done and get rid of the aches and pains. I have to admit though, part of achieving this was to drop all intensity to Ironman race pace (i.e. not rally pushing beyond being able to talk while I was training...although as I was training by myself, I can generally let the voices run wild without worrying about whether other people can hear them). While working an office job can be great for recovery, when it comes to back pain, commuting in the car to a desk job can makes things pretty uncomfortable.

As for the Christmas break, I managed to spend lots of time with my family and still get 6km of swimming, 660km of cycling and 95km of running done during the 10 day break. I'd like to have got more swimming done, I'm happy with how the 10 days went. I'll have to get some solid work done in the pool between now and Falls Creek, and might even look at getting a bike fit done to try and work on some of the little aches and pains. I am looking forward to Falls Creek as it will be an opportunity to test things out and see how I am tracking compared to last year. Although given the variability in weather up in the mountains, a direct comparison to last year may not be a great guide. As with other races, my capacity to run well normally gives me a good idea of where I am at.

No other news to report. I've really enjoyed another little training block down in South Gippsland, and Jo is about to move in to the third trimester (if any readers with Schwannomatosis have questions, please feel free to contact me through the Inspire forum - Steveoz or drop a comment here on the blog and I'll get in touch).

For those that are not familiar with the feats of Normann and Crowie (and/or those wondering the relevance of the two pictures in this post), spend a bit of time searching the web for their performances in Kona at the Ironman World Championships - very motivating.

Power to the People

I've been training with a power meter for approximately two-three months now. While it hasn't really told me anything that I wasn't expecting (in fact, I was pretty much spot on with my estimates of power output based on previous performances), it has been very informative. To see the differences in power on my long rides from week to week. There is no more 'it must have just been a tough day out there'. I can see the decrease in output. Now that is not to say that I wasn't having a tough day on those days, but there is ignoring the data. I've really enjoyed finishing a ride and going through the file to say how it unfolded.

Probably the biggest thing that I have changed since getting the power meter is the quality of my indoor trainer sessions (which are all but one of my sessions each week at the moment). I am now much, much, more focused when on the trainer. My trainer sessions are focused on increasing my strength in an effort to improve my cycling. And it does need some improving - I don't think Cadel Evans will be looking over his shoulder on any climbs with my low power numbers!

I haven't tested my power levels yet, but rather tracked my long training rides and know that for me to hold 200w in a race, I will really struggle to get the best out of my run. In Wagga, I averaged 200w and spent the entire run coaxing myself in to keeping things ticking over until the next aid station. I had my slowest 20km run split in a number of years. This was a great way to really understand the impact of hitting a certain wattage. An Ironman run split is just over twice that distance. That is a long time to coax yourself into making it to the next aid station. It is much more enjoyable when you can enjoy the run (well some of it anyway :>). While I might need to be riding 200 - 220w to get myself further up in the field, doing this when I am capable of holding 180w will lead to a sub-par run (my run in Wagga felt very much like the last two Ironman races that I have done).

I still need to tweak my position of my Felt as I don't think that I am moving any faster. Given that I am in a more aero position, I might not be in a powerful position. I'll hopefully get a fit done early in the new year.

Once again, I am entering summer really motivated. I am starting the focused IM build at the end of this week and am looking forward to it. It is time to make another break through.

November 2011 - First Race for 2011/12...but there was a bigger story

I raced my first triathlon for the 2011/12 summer last weekend - the Wagga Ultimate Triathlon which was raced over a 2km swim, 120km bike and 20km run. I chose this race for a few reasons, one of which was because it did not really suit my strengths. That is, I was going to have to work hard on the bike relative to the run to stay in the game. As it turns out, that plan worked better than I could have imagined. I did not suddenly discover a new found cycling talent, but I did have to work very hard thanks to a strong wind that had picked up throughout the morning. I ended the race in 21st place overall and 3rd in my age group in a time of 5hrs and 53 mins. I was hoping to be faster than that but that is not the way things eventuated.It was my first race riding with a power meter and I was really impressed with the feedback that I was able to get and on a tough day, it was invaluable to make sure that I was able to get through the run in some shape. I did blow up a bit, but I managed to hang on and finish.

I'll write a little more in my next post about my first two months of training with power and what I have found out. I think it could become another monitoring tool for my schwannomatosis.

And the bigger story for November...Jo and I are now officially husband and wife.