Training Log Archive: apope

Easy with Magi from work. No niggles, just no go

Red Ants Rumble in the Magoebaskloof area. Sarah, Anthony, Craig and I as Geronimo. They were all new to long AR and they did very well.

We messed up the first little run with 2 controls being swapped and then some crazy mistake into the school buildings. I have no idea what happened - the angle was good I thought but we ended up completely on the wrong end of the buildings. Anyway, finished with Xhale, but behind plenty of people.

Tony and Craig paddle are awesome paddlers, so with the portaging and 10km of paddling we were rocking. Cruised past Xhale which was fun.

Then the silly mistake for the race, about 15 min. We got handed a hiking map. It turns out we weren't on the map. Assuming we were and matching up some contour shapes we headed off in the wrong direction. When I noticed the massive tar road, I figured it out and corrected. But it allowed a lot of teams to get ahead of us.

The bike was hard. 50km in about 5 hours. My bike hasn't been in granny gear for that long. We worked hard. We dropped Piers. And got caught by Stijn, but we stuck with them. We passed Lickety Split and Olympus. I could just keep Sarah in touch with Craig and Tony. The cave was cool.

The hike was fun. The kloofing was brilliant and I usually get tired of kloofing very quickly. The climb out was massive, but we did it well.

Xhale came into transition as we were leaving. I explored some forest roads that went no where so we had to bail and met Xhale. I didn't really think we were racing them, so happliy informed them that the roads were useless that way. So we started the big downhill together. Sarah had to have a few breaks down the hill, so we were quite slow. We moved steadily along the bottom. We made it to the tar road just as it got dark - which was great. The tar road was a killer with lots of uphill.

We had a slow transition but paddled steadily. Another fun night paddle. The end was hard. We had to get through a lot of reeds to portage under the road. The mud was smelly. Tony had a quick vomit there, but recovered to cover the last 100m home - I think a tough day in the heat.

In the end we lost 58min to Xhale. We were 7th overall in and 2nd mixed team. Xhale unfortunately got a 1hour penalty, so we got the prize for 1st by 2 min!

A great team performance. I thought we might be pushing it a bit hard up the big hill. But everyone managed themselves very well to keep a consistent pace. I worked hard on the bike and climbing out the kloof. Good training!

warmup, 6 x 50 kick, 300 pull, 200 drills, 100 easy, 10 x 100m as 5 with paddles on 1:40 and 5 swim on 1:50. Good swim!

Total time of 5:19:19 for 11th under 24. Age group winner did 4:46. 5:00 gets you 5th.

Had a good start to the day. Sugars were bang on - 6 waking, 7.8 and 8.4 before the start.
Lined up in the middle and ran quite quickly into the sea. Good line to the first bouy and then into the sardine can going around it. I've never been so jam packed in the water, but it was fun. Got some feet on the long 700m stretch. A bit less crazy around the 2nd bouy. Started pushing a bit after that. Ended up swimming a bit left but not too bad. I didn't swim any breast stroke accept for the occassional sighting moment over some waves. Pretty pleased with the swim. I enjoyed it and my time improved.
The pro times were quite slow, so maybe conditions weren't as good as they seemed. First out the water in about 26:30. Fred in 28:45. So not bad for me!

1:54/100m

Transition in 4:01. Lost 30sec grabbing the wrong bag. Stupid.

Out on the bike and didn't have the smoothest foot entry. Will get some triathlon shoes one day!
Made it to the end of Esplanade Rd and braked into the corner. The back wheel slid out a bit. Too much back brake perhaps? Slid again. Slippery road? Ok puncture. Crap.
Had the presence of mind to take a split. Changed it in 5:02 being very carefull to feel the tyre properly and not waste my only tube. Ave HR for that 5 min was 151!
Then it was go time! I thought I might be able to ride well enough to still make 5hrs. So I went too hard. I caught Michael at about 30km who I started the bike with. Caught Rob at about 40km. And at about halfway the wheels starting falling off. Rob repassed me. And I was back in Michaels pack. I developed a bit of a headache. Nutrition was on track and I thought probably over eating. But I had a gel to see if it affected the headache and it did seem to. So on the way back I took 3 gels and 500ml of powerade from the water station. In total I drank a lot - 1.5L on the way out and about the same on the way back.
I was feeling ok at the bottom of the N2, so I upped the pace a bit on the last few climbs. I knew I was eating into my run time...

My bike clock says 2:38 ride time. So maybe 2:40 without the puncture. Which is a good time considering Mark Pellew did 2:33 and Fred 2:31. But I was definitely over doing it and paid for it in a big way...

Transition in 3:08 including a blood sugar test. Was on 12, which is acceptable. But it did mean I was stuffed rather than hypoglycaemic. Thats the first time I've tested in a 70.3...

Now the wheels really fell off. Running out of transition I needed a 1:32 split to get under 5. Last year I did 1:38.
Started steadily and first few km went ok. Being on 12 I skipped the first water station. I decided gu wasn't going to go in very easily so I had some coke and water at the 2nd. And then I started feeling awful. Up Bunker's and down again was very slow trying not to throw up. Running at about 140HR. Made it to half way and had a gu there. Started to feel a little better and picked it up a bit. By the top of Bunker's I was feeling ok and started to push a bit. Got the HR to about 160 for the last few km.

So in the end, slower than my first year's run, and I thought that was bad. 11 minutes off last year's run.

RUN SPLIT 1: 1.1 km 1.1 km (5:27) 4:57/km
RUN SPLIT 2: 5.3 km 4.2 km (22:42) 5:24/km
RUN SPLIT 3: 10.5 km 5.2 km (26:07) 5:01/km
RUN SPLIT 4: 11.6 km 1.1 km (7:20) 6:40/km
RUN SPLIT 5: 16.3 km 4.7 km (25:30) 5:25/km
RUN SPLIT 6: 21.1 km 4.8 km (22:51) 4:45/km

Long warmup, 3 x 100m, 2 x 100m with paddles.
I'm sure the Northgate pool is short. I was hitting 1:15-1:20's on the 100's. And 2 years ago I remember doing 10 x 100's on 1:40. Hmmm.

Pretty much the same as yesterday...

1 - Splits

Warmup, 200 kick, 200 pull, 4 x 100 as 25 fast 50 easy 25 fast - surprised to be coming in 1:35ish, cooldown

warmup, 3 x (1 min build, 30 sec hard, 3:30 easy)

easy 1km, then 4 x 200m at 14km/h with 300m easy running between

Reverse dairy loop with Magi. Threw in 4 race pace intervals.

Long warmup, 3 x 100m coming in quite easily on 1:35, 2 x 100m with paddles and pb.

Sasol Cross Triathlon series. Giving the paddle race a go.
Shocking start. Drifted across to try to get onto Nic's wave and my tail got caught by a K2 and I was turned 45 degrees. They proceeded to fall in and I almost did. My fault! Oops.
Then it was quite a slog, sitting on my own about a minute back from Nic, Ryno and Mac.

Smashed it for a few km to catch Nic, Mac and Ryno. Took a moment to eat something and then tried to keep riding hard. Ryno had an encounter with the middle mannetjie and fell off, which gave me a gap. Legs weren't awesome but I mananged to keep the intensity up. Fell off twice: 1st in a big puddle and later in the sand. Enjoyed the ride! And managed the 3rd fastest split behind the swim tri winner and a mtb'er who did it in 46 minutes.

Wet and sloshy in the middle, but open and fast for the most part. Fast guys were running 19:00.
Helped a bit to judge my pacing for next weekend. I know that was a bit too fast. Unless sea-level can make the difference.

A good day out for me. 1st place! A bit unfair competing against Nic, Ryno and Mac who are training for 8 days rather than 5 hours. But I didn't do too badly against the pro triathletes.

Loop of the cradle with Richard, Rika and Chris. I have no cycling legs. Hopefully they come back in the next 7 days...

Quick paddle at Germiston to make sure I could stay upright. And some coaching of Sarah

Warmup to Flamboyant Rd.
10 x 300m, with 300m jog recovery.
And back to the gym.
Not feeling olympic, but hopefully it will come...

warmup, 10 x 100m on 2:00, which was nice and easy. Coming in 1:45'ish without too much effort.

warmup, 200 paddles, 200 kick, 200 swim. 2 x ( 2 x 50m on 55s, 100m race pace). 2 sets of 50's with paddles starting on 1:00 and dropping 5s until you miss the time - just got back on 35s but didn't start the 30s one.

Just steady...

Warmup, 3 x 300m with paddles, 100 swim, 4 x (2 x 50 hard, 50 easy), cooldown

30 sec intervals don't sound like much, but they're hard.
warmup, 3 x (6 x 30 sec on at maximum bananas with 1 min recovery, and 5 min easy spinning between sets)

Bit wet and cold to start, but it ended up being nice weather.
I got dropped on Wicklow and again on Jan Smut. Not a great day on the bike.

Easy run with Magi. And 4 strides afterwards.

warmup, 200 kick, 300 paddles, 300 swim, 100 easy, 2 x 300 at race pace with 100 easy between, 6 x 50m breathing every 4 strokes, 100 easy.
Did each 300 in about 4:50, which was harder than race pace.

10 min warmup, 10 x 2 min on 1 min off. Legs are tired. HR not getting up much for the perceived exertion.

Nelspruit Botanical Gardens WRE Sprint. Awesome new map.
I started steadily, not quite in tune with sprint O' reading and decision making. So quite a few seconds lost in the early controls to hesitations and slow execution. Felt like I was really getting into it until number 10. I passed my attackpoint (the bench) and my brain moved onto the next leg. I got flustered when I couldn't find the boulders. I didn't realise the control was on a hill instead of the boulders. I went all the way back to #6 on a nearby boulder and tried again. That was probably worth a minute.
1 bad route choice soon after that.
Just over a minute behind Jeremy. A lot behind Lundanes! Not a great performance, but lots of fun and a great map.

Course 1 - M21E - Splits

Sabie 1:15'000. Pretty useless picking routes through the thick stuff. Got to run with Olav for 3 controls and found 1 for him. It was a bit of a slog. I was 10+ minutes off Nic. That's a lot. Micro-route choices again!

Course 1 - M21E - Splits

Big 5 day 3. Long distance and WRE. Remapped and course set by Nic. 1:15'000.
Nearly cruised past #1 thinking it was still coming. A bit slow into 3 with nothing solid to work on. Forsgreth caught me at #7. Going quite well up to the root stock, 13 I think. Over ran it downhill and missed about 2 min. Passed Mike going the other way and he was definitely up on me. I had quite a strong and clean 2nd half. Ended up slightly ahead of the other south africans. But about 25 min off Lundanes! The guy is good.
I need to work on my micro route choices, keeping the intensity up, and running in a straight line - less banana-ing

Course 1 - M21E - Splits

Day 2 of the Big5 O' week. Dullstroom 1:7'500.
Had a wobble on #1, put off by an M50 running faster than me. Other than that, running fast. Until the forest. Too left of #8. Cocked up #9 properly (2-3 min). Ok on #10. Useless to #11. Overran the 2nd last. In the end a full 4 min off Nic. Grumpy considering the first half was good.

Course 1 - M21E - Splits

Bloody hard.
Warmup, 4 x (100m on 1:40, 100m on 1:40, 100m on 2:10, bk bs bk bs), 10 x 50m with paddles on 1:00.

Middle Dam Middle Distance. New 1:10'000 map by Nic and courses by Sarah.
I was on track for the infamous pit at #1, but Martin (starting 2 min ahead) arrived at it with me, so no time lost. Over ran #2 by 50m in the tricky rocks. Lost a bit of go in the 2nd half. Was well right on the 3rd last after crossing the open.
I had the best of the weather. Rain over the last 5 and no hail. My best result of the week.

Course 1 M21E - Splits

warmup, 10 x 2 min hard 1 min easy

Not too hard with a lot of running coming up...
12km/h, 13km/h, 14km/h, 11km/h, 14km/h

Usual morning route, with a quick detour over Northcliff hill.

Uninspired swim, moving ok, but rests were long.
Warmup, 600, 400, 2 x 200, 6 x 100, cool down

From Broadacres, out into the cradle. TT effort on the sterkfontein road - did it in 21:01 at 137 hr. Steady home. Legs are feeling yesterday.