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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Big Jo training Feb 6 -Feb 19

SWIM


I *may* have made a breakthrough in my swimming.  I think I can feel when I drop my elbow which causes my stroke to turn to poo so I am focussing on that at the moment.  I have always heard people say about reaching over the barrel when you swim and it never really made much sense to me but think I may have finally got it.  Now awaiting a breakthough in my speed....  I am back at the gym and pumping some iron after a small hiatus around Wanaka time so hopefully my new bulging shoulder muscles will start catching some water.

BIKE


Oh my goodness - 14 hours on the bike these last 2 weeks and around 400km holy bejesus!  Because Jared hyphen Razzle and I are so nice to our friend Ketzel Wetzel we have done his long Ironman bike rides with him for the last 3 weeks (well only really 2 weeks for me after the derailleur mishap on the first long ride).  So last week was 155km and this week was 165km - not on particularly easy courses either - whoever decided to ride the Waitaks at the END of a 5.5hr ride needs their head read although in saying that the Waitaks hurt no matter how much riding you have done so it wasn't as bad as I was expecting.  This last weekend we did the Coast ride which goes through Hunua to Kaiaua, Kawakawa Bay and back to Clevedon then home so I had a bit of a reccie for Auckland Half which I will be doing at the end of March as this uses the Kaiaua - Kawakawa Bay section that we did.  If only I could get Kezzle to sit in front of me at his Ironman for the Half - it would make it so much easier...
I have become very dedicated to Greatness and have decided to do one windtrainer session for efforts instead of doing them outside to improve my quality of training.  It's not fun but I can definately see how my efforts are so much more consistent than outside with so many other things going on.  And I get to have some quality Seinfeld watching time while I am doing it, although usually I am so much in the hurtbox that I can't watch it anyway.
Murfalfel keep a hand on things

 RUN

I have built up my long runs to be around the 1hr15-20 mark and will build up a wee bit more for Auckland Half.  I attempted the O'Hagan's 5km the other day with a terrible result but will hopefully get my fast legs back soon.  Funny thing is that my normal training pace is a bit quicker than what it was a couple of years ago but I am way slower for anything speed related.  Meh.
I am slowly making friends with the ASICS but it is a very delicate relationship and I even had to resort to socks the other day which is just unheard of. 

Monday, February 6, 2012

Big Jo Training Jan 23 - Feb 5

SWIM

What to do about swimming... I have decided to ditch my super long swims since I have not made any kind of breakthrough and swimming for 6km+ could only be fun if it is guaranteed to make you faster.  So I am revisiting the technique side of things and trying hard to get a feel for the water as well as adding an extra swim or two in the week but it is more like more swimming practice rather than more volume.
Any secret/magical tips would be much appreciated.

BIKE

Took the first week after Wanaka pretty easy and became reaquainted with my Serottica.  I find it sad that every Ironman I do takes away some of the feeling of achievement of doing an Ironman and once the soreness disappears after a couple of days I feel like I can resume as normal, where as the first couple of Ironmans I did it was such a big deal and I reveled in my achievement for the next few weeks.  Having said that perhaps it would be different if I had a good performance which was worthy of reveling.

I dusted off RooRoo and joined Kezzle and J-Rad for a fun ride around the Coast on Sunday.  We were an hour and a half into it and almost at the top of the Hunua Gorge when BOOM! SNAP! What the hell?! I had basically come to a standstill and something was seriously wrong with my chain/derailleur/wheel.  Closer inspection revealed that the rear derailleur bolt had snapped and the derailleur was trying to wrap itself around my wheel which was less than ideal. 
Too much power?
 Luckily Mum and my step-Dad were not doing anything at 8am on a Sunday morning so they were able to come to my rescue.  And what does an emo person with a broken bike do when they are not about to ride their TT bike and are sad about missing out on a good ride? They jump on their road bike and intercept their riding party on their way home of course! So all was not lost.  Although now I have to deal with the problem of the munted hanger and half a bolt in my derailleur.  The last time I rode RooRoo was at Wanaka so I guess I was very lucky that it didn't happen then.
Surrendered gear from Kezzle in return for fancy BMW kit - the world will be a much better place without these in them
 RUN

I waited a week after Wanaka until I ran again and am in the process of switching to ASICS from my beloved adidas Supernova's which is turning into a pain in the bum.  Because of my midget feet I have to wear kids shoes which aren't as good as adult shoes and may be contributing to my string of injuries.  ASICS probably do the best kids shoe but we are just not really made for each other, I am in between sizes but they don't do half sizes so I am having a dilemma about how to overcome this as well dealing with some pretty nasty blisters I suspect as a result of them not fitting quite right. 
But we shall overcome.