Training Log Archive: fletch

School swim carnival today. It was over 40 degrees, so when we got to the last event of the program - a medley relay for a combined team of all the best students from each House, we chucked together a couple of staff/parent teams to fill up the last couple of lanes.

Unsurprisingly, there weren't two takers for the butterfly leg, and I'm stupider than most, so I said I would do it. First time in (literally) 25 years that I have done a 50m butterfly lap. Turns out that despite not ever having learnt/practiced how to do it over that time, I have improved significantly. I might be unfit at the moment, but I'm a fair bit stronger than weedy Year 9 model Fletch.

No idea of the actual time, but I made it to the end as fast as some of the kids and I didn't die, so I was happy. Then another Phys Edder powered us home into second place with the aid of some illegal flippers...)

Got my slosh pipe to seal properly, so had a bit of a play. All of the "how to" videos that suggest filling your 10 foot long bit of PVC until it weighs 20kg are either way stronger than me or are talking bollocks.

I couldn't do anything with mine when it weighed 12kg, except just get it over my head and struggle to keep it there with my arms locked out.

Tipped most of the water out and had a play with some squats, lunges, overhead press, chest press, walking, bicep curls and a few other things.

I can tell it's not really heavy enough for some of the exercises now, but keeping the darn thing stable is incredibly hard work, so stabilisers are just under the pump constantly.

Good fun. Going to have to play around with making a smaller class set to kill some high school students without breaking the PE budget.

Greatly more sedate roll around the same streets as Monday. Floating around in the middle of the group today. Near the end, one kid, who'd brought along his new, very second-hand roadie managed to have his rear derailleur explode and disappear through the back wheel. Poor bloke.

One step closer to finding the motivation to return to training today - had my arse handed to me on a plate by a year 10 student (who had raced a tri with a 44km bike leg yesterday).
Hot and windy and lots of newbs again, so used the 5km TT circuit today. First lap super gentle, just showing people where to go (only had 3 kids left in contact at the end of that lap), then told Pieter to go for it. And he did. And I struggled to hang on from the outset. Swapped the lead a few times, but when he went past early on the second of 3 hard laps, I couldn't hold his wheel a,d only ever got back to him because he sat up and waited a few times.

A little demoralising, but also kinda cool. First kid I've taught in Gero for a long time that has been in that league and he's a really nice guy too. Will be a gun if he can improve his swimming.

1km freestyle
100m breaststroke / sidestroke / walking / trying to find something that wasn't worse for my foot cramp than freestyle. Couldn't, so got out.

Much nicer swimming than watching. Glad both the other two coaches showed up so I didn't have to supervise this one in 44 degree heat.

Also kept an upper school outdoor ed class company having a little play on my ski for about 45 min, but not much actual exercise. Still good fun and nice to jump in and cool off after. Will probably need to do this a few more times now, as 2 extra joined the class this arvo, so they won't fit in the only available school vehicle any more.

New battery in the bike computer. Yay. Got over 20km/h for much of this, riding with the middle group. 14 kids and 5 adults. Need more bikes!

Went for the first school ride of the year, but can't count it as training. Late start, and a new kid that couldn't hold my wheel on the flat at 12km/h. Tedious. And at that point I wasn't even at the back.

Quick dip adter school swim training. Over 40 degrees today from before 9am till after 4pm, peaking at 44.1. Less than 10% humidity that whole time. Not the best day ever foe PE teaching.

Pretty toasty out, but the motivation levels finally got high enough to get out the door today. Down past the school and a little loop along the bike track. Legs felt good, but really not very fit, and the heat got to me quite a bit in the second half.
Achilles A-OK during the run, but still sore to touch after. If I can actually start anything consistent again, I will have to keep an eye on it an see how it progresses. Have been doing achilles rehab stuff semi-consistently - most days anyway, but not twice per day. With a different rehab routine, I'm not so sure how important twice a day is meant to be. The main point of it seems to be to build strength in the calf, so...

It seems the prospect of Adventurethon wasn't enough to get me all fired up about training. It's only about 8 weeks till the local Olympic Distance tri and I've done nothing to train for that. Could the prospect of immense pain and suffering be enough, knowing that even if I train I won't be anywhere near fit by race-day (and I'm too tight to buy a wetsuit, so that won't help with the swim)?

Might see how this next week goes before I make a call one way or another. Work has been crazy busy, so early morning really is the only option (it's 40 degree forecasts all week anyway, so it would be the only feasible time regardless.)

Hardly counts as exercise, but it might stop the week disappearing from my log. Beep test for long enough to outrun the top year 7 in a fairly uninspired class.