And so the running begins!!

After sitting down with Andrew (Triathlon & Multisport Coaching) last Thursday and getting my new program, the running has just began.

Yes, sure I have had reasonably sized run weeks before, however this is a continual block of running which really started 2 weeks ago. This means that the riding really backs off, which is no concern to me as I have not done any significant k's on the bike all year. The most that I have done since resuming training is just under 300k's with the average being under 200k's currently. The swimming is still there, and they will stay a constant for now as we have discussed a new training schedule for the swimming which already seems to be paying off at this early stage with distance being consistent and times reducing.

Back to the running, by the end of this program, I would have pounded the pavement for approx 500k (predicting future distance is hard) in the 6 weeks at an average of 80+k's per week. This I know is not a lot for some people, however for a 90kgs guy who weighed 125+kgs couldn't run around a football oval 4 years ago, this is big. Throw in a few days of double runs and a 1/2 marathon or 2 and I will be really happy to see the back of this program. The only thing once this program is done, the new one begins and the k's rise again!! But I am really enjoying it, from the easy sessions to the more challenging ones.

This Sunday I am running in the Geelong 1/2 Marathon, a race that I did in 2008 and ran a 1.29.50 which at the time I was really happy with. Looking back at the race and the condition that I was in, I probably ran outside my ability at that time. This Sunday will be a different story, my running started 12 months ago when I joined TMC and have not looked back. I would still be happy to run outside my ability and produce a time which will surprise me. We have discussed a race plan, one which raised my eyes, however with the trust that I have in Andrew I am sure that if I run the race correctly I will achieve the goal.

The goal of running 10min faster than previously. Yes, this means breaking 80mins for the 1/2. A time that if someone would have asked me 6months ago, or even 3 months ago, I would have told them that they were dreaming. At this stage, I still have to do run that time, however with times that I am doing in training and sticking to the plan, it is well and truly within my grasp. This means running at an average of 3min 47sec per k. WOW, when you put it like that, going to be a tough ask. But I love the challenges in this sport and am always out to get over the bar, no matter how high it is raised. Who would have thought that I would have gone 9hr 6min at Ironman? The answer: Not many.

It is the same with this situation.

At the end of the day, the result is only a guide as my main goal is Kona in October. In saying that, every race that I do, no matter the discipline or distance, I am there to compete at my best and go as fast as I can at the time.

So with that I will finish with a quote that continually runs through my head when the training becomes more challenging:

"To get where you have never been, you have to do what you never have"

For now...

X-Man

* A side note to congratulate a friend of mine who got a Kona Lottery spot, Pete Coulson, well done and I look forward to the next few months with you!!

Right things going up, right things coming down!!

It feels like an eternity since my last post, but I must say that I have to be in a certain mood to want to sit down and blog.


A quick round up of the last race that I did: Triman Triathlon (Teams), we finished 2nd in the teams section and a very creditable 6th Overall.

James (3rd Fastest Overall) was out of the water, not far behind John Van Wisse which enabled me to ride with Tristan Parker, although I knew that for us to win I had to put some time into him, I did try this around the 40k mark and at the 1/2 way mark did have 100m on him, but giving credit where credit is due, Tristan reeled me back in and we exited the bike together. ( I was 4th Fastest Overall, 1st in Teams category, Ave 40.1kph).

Poor Cam had to contend with Magnus Michelson (Marathon/Ultra Marathon runner with several wins under his belt). We decided that we were only competing for 2nd and had over a 15min lead on third off the bike.

Cam ran a very creditable 89mins for the 22.5k course (1km long) and held his own for our team to take 2nd in the teams. Magnus went on to run a smoking 75min for the 22.5k and had the fastest run split by 4mins on the day. Their team was first overall by 7mins and deserved the accolades by putting together a great team. A job well done to our guys (being the underdogs, we did push them a long way).

Since then the training has been going along quite well with the quality & quantity increasing and the times decreasing. I am due to meet up with Andrew this week to start planning my Kona specific training which is going to be exciting and scary all at once.

I have managed my weight and am currently 2-2.5kgs lighter than my last Ironman race and have tried a few days of being 4-5kgs lighter with some good success. The below pictures show the gradual decrease over the last few months.



This picture was taken mid feb, giving me 1 kg lighter than Ironman weight.



This picture was taken Mid March, showing 1.7kgs lighter.



This picture was taken 17th April, albeit post run, however did start the session at 89kgs. I am currently hovering around the 90kgs mark, some days just over some days just under. I am also coping with the weight reduction very well as my body is not under as much stress especially running or climbing those hills, hey Jas?? I also don't have a goal weight in mind, just a matter of seeing where the weight goes and playing by feel.

For Now...

X-Man

Let the fun begin!

Fun?

Who calls training 20+ hours a week fun??

Honestly I do!!

Currently I am doing 15-18hrs and am loving all of it....Yes some is still hurting, sometimes others more than me ;-) but I am really enjoying it.

The last few weeks have been all about preparing my body for the long winter ahead by getting some quality k's in without the risk of injury or boredom. Andrew has been the architect behind this and he is still getting results from me that I have thought were not maybe possible at this time of year.

My most recent race was a sprint distance last weekend where I was able to turn around a deficit of 1.10min in the swim from the previous race to the most recent. For the first time in my fleeting triathlon career, I exited the water in front of my age group. WAS IT THE ROCKET SUIT??? ;-)

Below is the swim data including some bike data - had a bad day negotiating the garmin.

Swim & some bike data

From there my long course transition speed cost me the lead going into the bike and forced me to work hard on the bike to catch the leader again, which I was able to do 10k into the 20k bike ride. My legs were feeling good and I managed one of the fastest times of the day, by averaging a tad over 42kph.

Bike data

I was first in and out of T2 and ran with Stephane for the first 2k's on the run before his leg speed became more superior than mine and he ran away with the win, defeating me by approx 1 min, (My 3.42 average on the run just didn't cut it!!) The time is not accurate as my timing chip did not register for the race and have no record of my splits.

The following Garmin files shows the race, although it even had a hissy fit and dropped out at some stage. But you'll get the drift of the race speeds.

Run data

So based on these figures and not having trained for any speed I was very happy with the result.

This upcoming weekend is my final triathlon (if you call a teams race a triathlon??) before the real fun begins....

The build up to Kona.

James "superfish" Kuyper should put us in a great position leading into T1 and if I can hold my form, we should still be in a good position coming into T2 and then it is up to Cam Ward to bring us home for a great result.

After this weekend of fun, everything becomes solely focused on Kona and everything to do with Kona.

I am looking forward to pestering all my regular training partners along with finding some new ones during the cold wet winter months to enjoy the fun with.

For Now....

X-Man

Am finally finding some....

Some what??

Some of these:

No, they are not mine, and mine probably are never going to go as fast, but they have changed from these:

No, they are not mine either, but they are some serious cycling legs!!! I am just finding some decent run legs, especially at this early stage of my preparation for Kona!! My legs do not look like anything of the top pictures, however I am glad to say that they don't look like the following either!!

So back to the reason for my post, i did a 7.3k fun run a few weeks ago and punched out a 26min 14sec race placing 2nd overall averaging (3.35min k pace). This is something that I used to be able to do for a 1k max effort but to be able to maintain that pace over 7+k I was stoked. Yes, yes I know, it is not 42.2k or even 42.2k after a 180k ride, but hey we are in March and Kona is just over 200days away (at time of writing!)

After that, back at run squad on the Wednesday, we did a 5k set with 1k max, 1k solid, 1k tempo, 1k solid, 1 k max. My time for the 5k was 18min on the nose, so even with a few solid efforts I still maintained the 3.35min k pace. Following on from this I still managed to turn over 70k of running for the week. Something unheard of for me, but must say that I am loving it!!

First time ever that I would take a run over a ride. I have changed, for the better.

The other fact the I contribute to my running speed so far is my on-running shoes as they are transforming my running style from heal strike to mid foot running. Which I must say that I am loving, it has taken me a while to convert and still haven't completely, however the results are definitely showing for me.

I am looking forward to getting my new pair next week which are a more durable trainer which for a bigger guy like myself will give the shoes more longevity for training and then I can once again have a training on and a racing on, and as the motto goes, it is like running on clouds. They are definitely a shoe to try if you want to learn to run fast!!

I do thank Luke & Florian for their support and look forward to building the relationship further into the future!!

For now...

X-Man

You can keep your Sprint Distance, I am sticking with Ironman!!

So, last weekend I ventured into unknown territory, sprint distance triathlon. I can't actually remember the last time I did one of these races, prob some 10 years ago in Port Douglas....argh the memories of the nice weather, something non existent this summer here in Melbourne.

The 750m Swim, 20k Ride and 5k Run was always going to be tough for me, not as in fitness, but for speed. This rig is not built for speed!!

The new wetsuit was gold and was very happy with the swim, felt really good and was happy where I exited the water.

The ride was the ride, felt like I had nothing in the legs, however still managed an ave of 40kph, something that I do in 1/2 Ironman races anyway.

The run was about the same, broke the 20min for the 5k, but had no speed at all. At GC 1/2 last year I went 1hr 26min for the run including T2 and broke 1hr for the 15k, so it was nothing to be excited about.

I must say that I did enjoy the race for what it was, however would prefer to stick to 1/2 & Ironman distance races. I have another couple of smaller distance races before the season is out, which I will enjoy.

A massive positive that I found from the race, was that after 5min of finishing, I could have easily raced again over the same distance being confident of recording a similar time.

I ended up 6th in my a/g, a couple of minutes from 1st, so probably not a bad result on reflection.

Everything else has been travelling smoothly with nothing to report, just doing what I need when I need to right now. The program is starting to fill up which I am enjoying, getting that fatigued feeling back....

Yes I would rather 9hrs 30mins of racing compared to 1hr 5mins of racing!! I feel like I get more satisfaction from it!!

For Now...

X-Man

New Sponsor on Board!!

I am pleased to announced that Rocket Science Sports is now my official Wetsuit sponsor and also my tri suit sponsor. RSS are making a custom suit up for me for Yeppoon in August and also for the Hawaiian Ironman. Once I receive the 20bpm suit, I will post a pic.

There are many features of the 20bpm suit that will be advantageous for me at Hawaii compared to regular tri suits!

The RSS wetsuit exceeded all expectations when I tried it on and swam in it and am looking at doing some more swimming in it whilst I can still do some open water swimming. The suit is made not only to make you more buoyant in the water but also has the flexibility in the right areas and more buoyancy in the right areas!!

Compared to other wetsuits, that I have liked, the RSS suit is definitely up there with comfort. I will be racing in the wetsuit on Sunday and am looking forward to chalking up a solid swim time. My training has not got me in top shape at the moment, so I don't expect to swim a pb over the 750m, however I will have a good idea of how good the wetty is.

For now training is going really well, getting good k's done in all 3 disciplines along with trialling many new products/nutrition to understand what is going to be the best for me moving forward.

My weight has stabilised and am happy with where it is at..

For now...

X-Man

A great kickstart to the swimming!!

Just a quick as not much has changed recently, weight is still dropping a little by little and am confident of getting under my last race weight by the months end and then to see what effect that has on my body and training!

On the weekend, I participated in a teams 24hour mega swim. This involved teams of 15 constantly swimming for the entire 24hours....Yep, maybe stupid, maybe ridiculous, but all for a good cause and also a good way to give my swimming a great kick start.

Being a part of Team Xosize, a few of us decided that we would do the graveyard shift. So I got there at 9 pm and was there with Leigh Ryan and Greg Farrell, Greg was at the end of the shift and Leigh was doing a 12 hour shift.....WTF!!! Yep craziness!! So with just Leigh and I there from 10pm til 2.30 am we decided that we would do 2km stints and the other had to recover on whilst counting laps!! Not much fun, I must say that it was definitely better in the water passing the time, although the cramps did get me early!!

With me being anal about counting laps in the pool I decided that I would also time myself to see how much I would drop off over the night. My goal for the night was anywhere between 10-12kms.

So my first 2km stint was over in 30min 10sec, which I was happy about...My only problem was that I was swimming with a sub 26min swimmer for the same distance. So my recovery was not as much as Leigh's!! My second stint was done and dusted in 40 mins, but this time it included 400m backstroke to mix it up a little....a 2.4km stint....as if I needed to any more and then get less rest!!! What was I really thinking, apart from swimming at midnight, why would I do more than what was agreed?!?!

The third stint was around the 35min for the 2km and I was just finding a comfy rhythm knowing that I still had another 5-6kms to swim before I had reached my goal. So after 8.4km, Cam arrived and we then decided to swim 500m each and rotate this until more reinforcements arrived at about 4.30am. I was doing the 500m stints in 7min 30 sec whilst Leigh was carving out low 6's....Surely the guy realised that we needed more rest than him.....Might have to speak to him about this!!

So after getting a total of 11km done for the evening, I was done. Leigh had completed a lazy 20km, a crazy effort and just to prove that he wasn't done he punched out a 2.15min last 200m at 6am....12hours after he got there.....Dude, get a life!!!

Anyway, was a great night and one that I know has got me motivated to swim more, once I recover from this one!! If you get a chance to participate, I would recommend it and get some good mates to make the time enjoyable.

For now...

X-Man

Who ate the pies??

The pizzas, the sausage rolls, the donuts, the kfc, the maccas, the whole chicken, the fried food, the desserts, the m&m's, the mars bars, the snickers, the hamburgers, the hot chips, the potato cakes, the pasta and whatever



else I could get my hands on?


This fat .............. (insert own word here!!)



The reason for this post is due to the fact that I was scrolling through some older photos (within the last 4-5 years) and realised that I was 1 BIG UNIT. Some say now that at 93odd kgs I am still a big guy, but at 125kgs, 93 is nothing. The above footy shot was 2006 when I came out of retirement and gave footy one last shot. For someone of my size and fitness, I actually had a good year.

From there my goal was to lose some weight to aid & extend my football career, so I started to run, which my legs could not handle, so I then decided that swimming would help. Bought myself a bike and 4 years on, I am off to Kona.

My first race I was somewhere in the realm of the below 2 photos (say 105kgs) but still carrying a lot of weight!


When I look back at these pics, I realise that losing 30odd kgs has not only made my triathlon career more successful than I ever imagined, but also made my life enjoyable. The weight that I was carrying is mind blowing when I look back on it, especially compared to now, but also when I remember the type and quantity of food that I was smashing at the time, I am really lucky not to have had a heart attack or two in those times.

My standard day was consist of a somewhat reasonably healthy breakfast: Maccas, then mid morning snacks would involve fried dim sims or sausage rolls (yes many of) or something of the like in a good quantity. For lunch, there was a convenient chicken shop across the road and whilst I would wait for my whole chicken and chips, I would snack on a few more dim sims (4 or 5). The only real saving grace for me was the fact that the shop closed at 2pm ish so there was no afternoon snack.

Dinner would either be a $20 odd dollar feed from KFC or a lazy 2 large pizzas. This may sound ridiculous, but by my photos, I was just that!! Throw in drinking a large quantity of alcohol on a regular basis (still haven't changed that part!!) it was a recipe for disaster! I always remember the 2 pizzas that I would eat regularly on a Saturday or Sunday at work after a big night the night previously. My mates would laugh in astonishment/embarrassment in my eating/drinking ability and wondered how/why I could keep doing it.

The biggest turning point for me was being with a mate one day (Watto) and saw myself side on in the mirror. I actually did not believe that the person looking back at me was in fact, me!! I am really glad that I made that observation as I can say that I am achieving something with my life. By being the way I was, I now know how to live a balanced life, perhaps extreme at times, but as the saying goes.....sleep all day, play all night.....No no not that one (that was my previous life) Now it goes like, train hard, play hard.

Keeping this balance keeps my mind in check and also my perspective on life realistic. There are of course times where you put your head down and get stuck into the job at hand and put aside distractions and other negative influences. But for most part, this sport keeps me fit, healthy and happy, why would I want to change anything??




Long long way from 4 years ago!!

For now...

X-Man

PS. I can also say that it is so much easy putting it on, than taking it off....Photos are motivating!!


For the record, my dad and I had a pizza eating competition, I managed 24 slices of a large and Dad devoured 27 slices of a large (crusts had to be eaten) before he went to have some dessert!!

Slowly slowly

As the old saying goes, slow and steady wins the race. For me this has been my approach to training, slow and steady. (Throw in ugly and you get the picture) I am not saying that by me taking this approach I will win my next two races, however I know that I will be in great shape when it comes time to pick up training.

My training is slowly increasing week by week and my body is taking the extra load on board without any discomfort or displeasure. All three aspects are building a little base ready for my next phase of training commencing in the next few weeks or so. I know that I am going to have to prepare my body for a increased load and have already sought treatment to keep the body as fresh as possible.

I have not taken training seriously at this stage and have sought training with anyone that I can find. The last thing I need right now is to wear out training partners, so I have been conscious by spreading the love.....so to speak....The conversations have been fresh and full of entertainment and training has been really enjoyable with the variety of training partners making it this way. I know that once the work load increases, the training partner numbers will decrease due to different race plans and timing of races by us all.

In saying this though, I have enough in the network not to struggle finding someone. As we all know when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. So come those cold winter mornings that we are going to encounter come mid year, all those fair weather trainers that you see on the road at the moment will be non existent and only the tough will stay strong. With this in mind I refuse to put myself through any "tough" sessions at the moment, it is all about getting out there to enjoy the sun, the company and the laughs.

I am still riding the high of my time with Craig Alexander last week and some regular words still go through my mind during training sessions and general approach to life. Talking to fellow Ironman and training partner, Greg Farrell, who was lucky enough to attend 3Fest over the weekend with Craig Alexander amongst other World Class Ironmen, I know that he got the same motivation and enthusiasm from the event. Due to prior commitments I could not attend, however next year I will be there with bells on.

My weight is still headed in the right direction and I am confident that I will be establishing a new race weight in the coming months. If I continue to do everything right, without taking shortcuts or undertaking radical diets, I that my weight will take care of itself.

For now...

X-Man

You can't pay for knowledge or advice like that!!

Craig Alexander is an amazing human being!

Myself and a few others from the tri group last night were fortunate enough to spend some time with the 2 time Ironman World Champion (It rolled off his tongue so fluently last night!). Through a lucky set of circumstances and a few phone calls I spent 1 hour running with Craig asking him questions and advice about the Hawaiian Ironman. Now this guy has some credentials.

When we first arrived to run with him, I made it sure that I had many a question to ask regarding training advice, race day advice and a few other things. Firstly, this guy is one of the most down to earth people that I have ever come across, not only on a sporting sense, but also in every day life. Throw in the fact that he has won the toughest race of all, not once, but twice would give this guy some reason to think that his shit doesn't stink.

He has a balance in his life, but he sure knows when to flick the switch. NO weighing food, no crazy diets, nothing bizarre or unusual about what he does, he just gets the job done. He was so accommodating with the questions that I had for him relating to training, race day and even Hawaii. I thought that he would get sick of the questioning, however he not only answered the direct question that I asked him, but then went on to give advice and unbeknown to him, answer the follow 5 questions that I had in my arsenal.

Just to listen to him speak was something that I really enjoyed, some of the inner sanctum stuff that he told us about different races. He even asked a few specific things about what I did and gave me advice relating to this. Now I am pretty happy with my setup and race day plan, but after talking to him last night, I am happier that he has contributed to make things a little easier (if that could be possible at Hawaii) and less stressful come race day. The only regret that I had from last night was that I could not record everything that he said, so once I got home, I madly wrote down as much of the advice as possible to remember for future. I thought that I was struggling to remember, but after 2 full pages of notes I think that I have it covered.

Some of the things that were said, you cant read in books, you cannot pay for, this stuff was straight from the horse's mouth and things that I can use to my advantage to give me a more accomplished race/training regime.

After spending the hour with him, I had one final question.....A bit of a funny one, but one that I am glad that I asked!! "Can I please have your visor?" I think this startled him for a second because his response was more shock, "This one??" "Yes please." "No problem" So just like that I have added a souvenir to my collection and the reminder that I had quality time with an All time champion!!

A few photos below show how accommodating Craig is as he was happy to get some photos done before we ran.

I have to put this one first as Billy was the instigator of getting me down there last night. An absolute champion of a guy.

I think that I was still in shock standing next to the 2 time World Champion!

Benny was smiling from ear to ear (as was I) from this moment until we got home.

I thought that I would include this one, as Mark Renshaw is the best lead out man in the world and one of the fastest. His calf muscles would make any triathletes quads look small.

For now...

X-Man

ps. I am going to jot down the advice and use it as a motivation tool/training reference that I received last night so that I can test it out come Kona time.