End of camp and Freo Half Marathon

Woke up Wednesday to calm conditions, which was appreciated as the legs felt very average and 150k on the bike was planned. The ride out of town confirmed that I didn’t have much in the legs, but replayed my current mantra “Good day Bad day, it doesn’t matter you’re here to work”. By the time I arrived at Port Gregory road the wind was up and straight into my face. It was going to be a long day.



The undulating and exposed Port Gregory Road



Had a few weak moments on the way out to the turnaround point and had to be disciplined not to turn earlier. The thought of stopping and lying in the grass to escape the wind were regular. I was beginning to hate this road.

150K done and most of the next 18hours were spent in bed. Did get out of bed for dinner, which had a bit of local flavor. Roast pork (wild boar shot by my cousin) was the main and entrée whatever these are…

Thursday was the last day of training up here and the dead roads, hills and constant wind had taken its toll on me. I had hoped to get another long ride in, but really dreaded the idea of heading out into the wind with nothing in the legs. I headed out for a 7.5k run to try and loosen up the legs. Pace was ok, but still felt like crap. Back to bed for an hour…

My dad was heading into Geraldton in the afternoon, so I had a chance to get to the pool. That left me with three and a half hours to kill. Can of Coke down the hatch and onto the bike. Actually started to feel ok after 10-15k and got a solid 80ks in before heading to the pool.

Heading for home, the focus shifted to recovery. Well more so…. The 10hours of sleep I was getting a night was good recovery. I had the Fremantle Half Marathon on Sunday and it would be a tough ask to recover in time. An ice cold open water swim at North Cott on Saturday helped, but I think wetsuits would have been a good idea ;)

I went into the race with a similar mentality as I have for my recent races, hang on for as long as possible. The pace off the line wasn’t stupid fast and I settled in around 8^th before gradually moving up to 5^th by the 2^nd kilometer. I moved into 4^th and was just back from 3^rd as we went through 5k in 17minutes. I knew it was fast, but I was quite comfortable below my threshold.

I went through 10k in 34.34 which is the fastest I’ve run in a long, long time. I was thinking before the race that I am a month away from running fast; I’m looking forward to next month now! Compared to the first 10k of the City to surf, it’s a 2 minute + improvement.

On the second lap I was able to stay in touch (50m) with 3^rd, but inevitably fatigue set in. My legs just couldn’t respond as the 5^th place competitor flew by. My pace didn’t drop off much until the last few KM’s and I finished in 5^th in 1.17 and change.

As half marathons go, it was two and a half minutes off my PB, but the quality is starting to come back. The hard work is paying off, but THERE IS A HELL OF A LOT MORE TO BE DONE.

G-train

 

Horricks Training Camp and Internal Monolog

Welcome to my first blog, well sort of. I had attempted a training blog before on my website WWW.PURSUITPT.COM.AU (My first plug!) but it ended due my lack of skills as a web designer.

I’m currently up at Horricks Beach, where I hear you say…. It’s about 70km north of Geraldton and 120km south of Kalbarri. A little beach holiday town where my Grand dad and Uncle live. Perfect spot for my first of two training camps before the Busselton Ironman I thought. Beach 30m from my door, quiet roads and a bit of wind to make it tough!

Arrived Friday night and got up nice and late (rest is the reason these camps work for me) before heading out for my long ride. I was aiming for 180-200k and knew the first 18k out to Port Gregory road was going to be hilly. Through that and turned north towards Port Gregory (PG another sleepy holiday town) and the hills didn’t let up. I loved it, the views were great and came as a complete surprise. Filled the bidons at PG and continued north into the wind towards Kalbarri.

Had a nice tail wind for most of the way home, but continued to work hard and also on getting my nutrition right. The last 18k of hills and head wind was pretty avg, but it was a solid session. 186k in the hills and wind in 5:30hr. Probably spent a bit more energy than expected, but had plenty of time to recover. Small buckle in the rear wheel was a little concern.

Day two (sort of rest day) didn’t start until after noon, an easy 10k run before attempting my first swim. The seas were quite rough, but my swimming area is protected by a reef 300m off shore. In and away, I was feeling quite quick and had my dad in the kayak to follow. Before I knew it we were at our turn around point (just quietly I think I swam 400m in under 5min). The next 5min were a battle as I realized the current was a little strong here. Never one to give up early I pushed on…or should I say held on, before getting out a little grumpy at being defeated.

Day three was back on the bike for a 100k followed by an hour run. Heart rate was a little low still due to Saturday’s ride, but was still happy with the ride until snapping a spoke on my front wheel 70k’s in. Good old dad came and picked me up and then headed out for some hills. It was a good solid session even though it didn’t go to plan. Rest of the day was recovery and on the phone to the Geraldton bikes shops.

The morning of day four was spent in Geraldton. No aero spokes so had to fork over the cash for a new set of budget wheels. Managed to squeeze in a swim at the aquarena, which is quite a good facility.

 Was thinking on my long run today, what to include in this blog….. The experience I’ve had over the last two and a bit years and what I’m trying to achieve now is fairly unique. Racing professionally for me adds a bit of pressure. Some good, some bad, but you can’t push your limits professionally without it. In the end you have to embrace it and get on with doing your best. But to give you an insight….

Pressure to perform as I haven’t had a breakthrough race in the last year. You could argue I’m expecting too much too soon, but I’d rather focus on what’s ahead of me. I was confident before and afterwards that Busselton 70.3 was going to be that race, but a flat tyre ruined the day. I feel I still need to prove myself at this level and I’m sure I’m not alone in that thought. It is my driving force at the moment.

I’m blessed to be sponsored by quality brands in Sportsfever, Brooks and Skins. In professional sport that isn’t always the case, so I’m very aware I need to provide value for them and as most are new sponsors that value is yet to be shown. Its new side of the sport I’m getting used to and I like the accountability that comes with it. It’s a little more pressure that I’m adding.

These pressures plus staying injury free make for an interesting balancing act at present. You want to make sure your doing everything you can be doing to achieve success, but the reality of my situation is that I need to be very cautious with injuries. Most of 2011 has been affected by injuries that have completely sidelined me or inhibited my training and this does affect how you think about your future in the sport. You question whether your body can stand up the beatings it takes during training. When things aren’t going to plan, I focus on what I can do. Have I mention my swimming has improved a lot this year. The last eight weeks have been injury free and I finally have a bit of confidence in my body, which can be a dangerous thing!

So the road to professional racing is filled with doubt…… Then you realize your negative splitting a 30k run in the heat of the afternoon, into a headwind, in the middle of fricking nowhere. Yep you’re going ok…

Train safe, Train happy

Mikey