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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Weekly Update - 22.03.10 - 28.03.10

SWIM

Squad x 3
~9.5km

An alarm malfunction on Monday meant a pretty short swim session, was still a bit stiff from the Half so it wasn't such a biggie. I was starting work at 8am this week in Highbrook so had to sacrifice a little bit of swimming for the week but I figured since it was only for the week it shouldn't matter too much. I have decided that either the people in my lane either warm up too fast or else it takes me a long time to warm up at the beginning of the session because I seem to struggle the most to keep up in the warm up. I had to swim in the lane below for a bit when I got in late on Monday and the difference in speed between lane 2 and 3 is huge. I barely even had to kick in lane 2 to keep up because it was so slow then when I moved up to lane 3 I got dropped when I had paddles on. So think I need a lane 2.5... Or I just need to learn how to swim faster.

BIKE

Time: 7hrs21
Distance: 183
Boyfriends: 2

The weekday rides were pretty lax, in a bit of lazy mode this week. Managed to get out into the Whitford hills for an hour or so while I had a break at work and got rained on!!! Haven't been rained on for a very long time so it was a bit of a shock to the system, and really not very fun having to pull on wet lycra for the ride home..
Did a club TT on Saturday which was 25km. There was a HUGE headwind on the way out (I was struggling to get it above 30kph) and so an awesome tailwind on the way back. I came about midfield which I thought was ok especially since I was competing against actual cyclists... And my power was not too bad as well. And I got to stop on the way out there at the Tran Bakery in Drury to get the BEST custard twist in the world so all in all a good day :)

RUN

Time: 1hr47
Distance: ~24.5km

Longest run this week was only 35mins, just taking it easy after the half so will start to do a few longer runs (60mins+) after next week. The next run focus will be the Huntly Half Marathon in May which I did about 1hr29 last year after I had completely lost my mojo after IMNZ. So will be looking to improve on that time. Hopefully won't be too hard to do.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Auckland Half Ironman Race Report

I only decided to do this race about 4 weeks beforehand once I had decided that my leg should be ok. I knew I wouldn't have much time to get many long runs in so was going to be a bit of an experiment of how much natural endurance I have...

SWIM

The swim was at Maraetai and was beautiful and flat. Unfortunately the beautifulness was ruined by all the people trying to drown me on the way out to the first buoy. I may not have picked the smartest starting position and got pretty roughed up for the first 400m. After that got into a bit of a rhythm and had some good feet to swim on for most of the way. Got out of the water in around 30mins30 (about 7th woman) so a pretty good swim for me, in fact the first time I have ever swum under 31mins for 2km so maybe all that swimming did pay off.

BIKE

Jumped on my bike and caught a couple of girls in the first couple of kms. Had a couple of guys to ride with for the first 30km but then we got split up going up Snake Hill and then was on my own for the rest of the ride. It was a hard ride!!! Rough roads, little nasty hills and sidewinds. Not much fun really. Was looking forward to Davo catching me (he was in a team and started 30mins after) so I could have someone to talk to for a second but he blew up after 65km and creeped the rest of the way and couldn't catch me. Nutrition isn't overrated apparently.



Tried a new Gu flavor on the bike - chocolate-mint and it was sooooooo good, definitely a keeper. That with my Em's CookieBars remembering to eat wasn't a problem. Bike time was around 2hrs51, about 5mins slower than I hoped for and a bit disappointing really.



RUN

The first half of the run wasn't too bad apart from the nasty headwind on the return leg, but that was about where my fitness ran out. I did the first half in around 47mins and total run time ended up at 1hr40 so positive split by 3mins for the 2nd half, so not the best pacing but could have been worse I guess. I managed to shuffle to the finish my way to the finish, 6mins behind 3rd place. Julia Grant lead off the bike and flew through the run, I thought she was going to lap me but luckily she didn't. And my dear friend The Celiac Kuch and Janine Simpson had great races to come 2nd and 3rd. I somehow ended up with the 2nd fastest run split of the day (behind Julia) so at least know I can run ok on not much training. I only got passed by two people on the run, one being Jared who took the time to slow down and tell me to catch the girl in front of me (like I wasn't trying to!!) and some other guy in a team. Best news of the day was that my leg didn't hurt at all, not even an ache afterwards so that is certainly good news. Good work by Team Bowden who came 2nd in the mens teams and to the Bowden's Boyfriend Daniel who completed his first half Ironman after training through the gnarley UK winter.



So a bit of an average race really - good swim, disappointing ride and tough run, more work must be done!!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Weekly Update - 15.03.10 - 21.03.10

SWIM

3 x squad
1 x sea swim

Total ~11.5km

Took it reasonably quiet this week with Auckland Half in the weekend and a random tummy bug/food poisoning at the start of the week, so quite a bit of spa time this week. Squad is getting a bit quiet now with the impending closure of the Teps so have only had an average of 6 in our lane as opposed to the usual 10, so a bit easier to swim without being run down by the front runners.

BIKE

Time: 11hrs39
Distance: 319km

Last week working at Albany this week and with the half in the weekend decided to give the Waitaks a miss, so Tues and Thurs rides weren't too exciting just tootling around. Got back on the TT bike to get used to it again - not exactly a commuting bike but certainly got me to work and back a bit quicker and so much comfier on the aerobars than up on the road bars...

RUN

Time: 2hrs44
Distance: ~34km

Big week!!!! Just did a few short runs in the week then the half in the weekend. Leggie had been a wee bit niggly during the week but was absolutely fine during the race, the main problem being legs not used to running for that long and no fitness for it.... So will now have an easy week then will start building up endurance and try to learn how to run fast again. I probably don't need to do anything more than 80-90mins in training for the next couple of months so shouldn't be overloading it too much.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Weekly Update - 08.03.10 - 14.03.10

SWIM

Squad x 3
Sea swim x 1

~10.2km

Pretty average week on the swimming front, still trying to concentrate on technique with the easy stuff and hopefully it will start to come more naturally. Felt pretty wasted in the pool by Friday after two huge rides during the week, so the sprint sets were a bit of a joke (not that I can really sprint anyway). Sea swim was 500m at the Peoples Tri where I was about 6th out of the water, for once in my life I was actually near the front of the swim so I could even see the leaders WOW!! My 500m time was probably on the faster side of what is normal for me so hopefully that is a good sign for my swimming, I am always quite skeptical of swim distances though so who knows.

BIKE

Time: 13hrs25
Distance: 342km

The bulk of the volume for this week was in 2 rides - 150km and 133km both split to and from work. The 150km was a double waitak ride which was my dream with working in Albany (how sad is that!) and it wasn't actually too bad. The way back over the Waitaks is harder I think (Swanson -> Titirangi) but still not as bad as West Coast Road. Leggies were feeling a bit wasted on the way back from the 133km day (3rd time over for the week) but a bit of coke, grainwaves and a snickers bar helped to sort that out.
I didn't have high hopes for the Saturday morning TT after those 2 rides but managed to pull out on OK time with reasonable power - yes TapTap has returned!!! The time I did probably would have been a PB a year ago so that puts things into perspective. Also had the Peoples Tri which was 20km which I rode 3mins faster than the last time I did that course so it is good to see that I have improved over time. And I didn't get passed by anyone (boy or girl) which is a bit of a novelty.


My own personal lane over the Greenhithe bridge

RUN

Time: 2hrs 10
Distance: 28km

Longest run of 62mins and no pain woo hoo!! Looking good for the impending half this weekend... Now I just have to run 21.1km in 62mins since I know I can run for that long ;)
Did 20.08mins for the 5km at the Peoples Tri which is only about 20sec off what I would usually do there so that was promising, leggie ached for about 15mins after I stopped but think that it must have been a bit of a shock to the system and has been fine since.
So the course this weekend is 3 laps out and back so I will just be taking it one lap at a time and hopefully can get my pacing right so I don't combust with 7km to go...

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Big Jo says thank you

So after 4 months of first hopping then limping then walking then aqua running and then finally jogging I think my stress fracture has actually healed. I had hoped to come back to running completely painfree but it took a couple of weeks before I could run with no pain at all, and even now I am still getting the odd pain when I run. But I think now I'm at the stage that I can start not thinking about it so much and get on with being a proper triathlete again.
So to cut a long story short and would like to thank everyone for being so supportive during the last four months and for showing an interest in my injury (even if you weren't that interested) and for putting up with any rants or general non-running narkiness I may have been emanating.
Special thanks must go to Lesley who was my right hand-lady in Hawaii while I was on crutches and couldn't carry my own bags or my own bowl of clam chowder from the ABC store. Thanks Lesbo you're a star :)


Time to move on

Look out world here comes JO!!

Weekly Update - 01.03.10 - 07.03.10

SWIM

Squad x 3

~10.5km

Back to the usual 3 swim per week thank goodness. Nothing too exciting this week, we were supposed to do a 1500m TT but the lane was a bit full so this got changed to 15x100m on a reasonably quick interval. After the initial excitement wore off I managed to hang in there for most of it getting only 5sec or so rest, so it was a good work out.

BIKE

Time: ~11hrs25
Distance: ~280km
Boyfriends: 2

Once again I didn't get to see my weekly total before my computer got cleared, whoops. A bit low on riding this weekend with the usual Saturday ride being substitued with a tootle around the Ironman course while spectating and the long Sunday ride only being 90mins. It did include a 9min hill TT, but since I hadn't done it before and had nothing to compare it to it doesn't really mean much. Next week I will attempt a double Waitak ride over to work and back.
We had some very sad news this week - our weekly waterfront TT will be no more at the end of March. AvantiPlus run it and they have decided to give it up to put more time into the MTB community but hopefully someone else will continue it for us. So I will have at least one more go at it next weekend and hopefully can end on a high note.


Its not called Scenic Drive for nothing

RUN

Time: 1hr55
Distance: 24km

Managed a 51min run this weekend, leg was a bit achey but overall pretty good. We ran on the track from Spa Park in Taupo to Huka Falls and beyond, and it is quite hilly - lots of short sharp hills. Clearly my legs are unaccustomed to this type of terrain because I had some pretty serious quad DOMS the next day from the downhill. Just another little reality check to remind me that I'm still getting my running form back and am not awesome just yet ;)
Made my O'Hagan's 5km comeback this week. One of the pubs (O'Hagan's) in the viaduct put on a 5km run every Tuesday which I haven't done since before Kona. Thought I would go and see where I'm at, was careful not to go flatout just uptempo. Managed to run 19.50, I had hoped for sub 20 so that was all good. I have a long way to go to get back to my 17.50 PB shape but its a start.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Weekly Update - 22.02.10 - 28.02.10

SWIM

3 x squad
4 x non-squad
1 x sea swim

~18km

28 swims in February - CHECK. Managed to squeeze in a double swim this week to make up for last weeks missed one. Not sure if this has made me a better swimmer or not, my times in the pool aren't really different but maybe my endurance has improved. Heres hoping anyway. Maybe the next challenge should be swim 100km in a month?!? Think I will wait a while for that, don't think the inside of my nose appreciated the onslaught of chlorine and chemicals this month.
There was a tsunami warning after the Chile earthquake when we were planning our sea swim but no-one at the beach seemed to be particularly concerned about it so thought we would risk it.


What tsunami????!!

BIKE

Time: ~12hrs
Distance: ~310km

I accidentally cleared my bike computer before I could see the weeks total so it was something around there. I am doing a 3 week locum stint in Albany so my bike training has been reduced to 4 days from 7. But my week day rides are potentially longer so my overall training time shouldn't be too much less.
We did some hill reps up a new hill in the weekend which was good, although I am still TapTap-less and therefore am a bit lost with efforts.


Hello Whitford.

RUN

Time: 1hr42
Distance: 21km

Good week this week with basically no pain in the leg at all, YESSSSSSSS. Did my longest run so far of 43mins and will build on that for the next few weeks. The rest of the runs were just easy 20min jogs, running on grass as much as I can. Since the leggie is feeling good I decided to enter Auckland Half Ironman which is on the 20th of March, so need to run over an hour next weekend. I doubt it will my fastest half marathon split but I think just being able to run it will be an achievement.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Bev May Womens Tour - Race Report

A few months ago I decided it would be a good idea to do some club cycling to get my cycling up to scratch and thought I would start with the Bev May Womens Tour which is a 4 stage tour put on by the Morrinsville Wheelers Club in the Waikato.
Having not much experience with club cycling I thought I would ease into things so I entered myself into C-grade, I thought I may be good enough to ride with B-Grade but they race with A-grade which makes things a bit tougher. Plus the C-Grade distances were less and a bit nicer for my first tour.

STAGE ONE - 21KM TT

Lucky for me this was the first stage, and to be fair to my fellow C-Graders I had the best gear out of everyone so expected I should do ok. The course was pretty undulating but not much wind and quite hot. I passed my minute-lady after about 6mins and my 2 minute-lady after about 25min and my 3 minute-lady was in my sights when I ran out of road. I won the stage by 1.19 which put me into the tour leaders jersey, so off to a good start. My time would have put me in 6th in B-Grade which I thought was ok.



STAGE TWO - 44KM ROAD RACE

We had a couple of hours in between the Stages one and two so just tried to eat and rest up as much as possible. I didn't really know what to expect in this stage and it was quite uneventful. I probably spent too much time at the front but didn't find many people in the group willing to go to the front which sucked. All I wanted to do was stick with the bunch and if I thought I was really awesome maybe try and get away up a hill near the end. There were a few little hills but not ones that were any good for my style of riding so after one failed attempt to break away with about 5km to go I just decided to sit tight. I got quite boxed in near the end and ended up on the left hand side of the road and then missed the boat on the sprint for the finish. Of course a girl who had never seen the front won the sprint... I didn't realize there were time bonuses for 1st-4th and just pootled up to the finish behind the group and lost about 15sec, whoops. But still held onto my jersey by 1.04 so all good.



STAGE THREE - 45 ROAD RACE

I had hoped this stage would be like yesterday but had to have my wits about me with quite a few attacks mostly coming from the girl in second. Fortunately she was quite predictable with her attacks so never managed to get away. There were really only 3 of us working at the front which was pretty annoying. I had a few moments where no-one would come through so I would just slow right down until they got message. There was a nasty section of road works that we had to go down and then up so I made sure I was near the front and followed the wheel of my new friend who is a MTB'er and I knew she'd pick a good line. I was in a better place for the finish and tried my best but unfortunately really suck at sprinting so came 5th so only lost 5sec.



STAGE THREE - CRITERIUM (15MINS + 3 LAPS)

I was very nervous before this and hoped that we could all just ride around nicely and have no funny business. Lucky for me there was only one sprint lap for the finish so I just had to mark my girl and not crash on the corners. It all went well, I think she was trying to get away a bit but I just stuck with her each time and after a few laps she gave that up. The last lap was obviously a bit of a fight and I dropped my chain at the start of it but lucky I have superior skills of getting it back on so I didn't lose the group. I had a go at sprinting and finished a couple of seconds back but the results somehow got me about 14sec but it didn't affect the overall placings so it didn't matter.



So my first tour and I won! Lucky for me I got a decent lead on the TT, but we all have our strengths and mine is NOT sprinting! So something to work on just in case IM ever comes down to a sprint, on the bike...