The Lycra doesn't lie

Due to pressure from my adoring fan... I will be blogging again.

I hope to be regular; but with a lot on my plate over the next little while I may not be.

As I said to my to my fan the other day "it's been so long, I could write a novel to update what has happened since my last post!". I won't write a novel; but will give you the highlights and fill in the details over the next little while.

Since my last post:

• 1 Half Ironman – so-so performance
• 1 Ironman – major injury issues, glad to finish
• Numerous injuries – old ones and new ones
• 1 Sea Urchin attack – WTF?
• 1 Surgery to remove Sea Urchin Spines – Yes, the nickname ‘bubbleboy’ is appropriate
• 1 trip to NZ to not compete in a Half Ironman and not attempt to qualify for World Long Course Champs
• 2 months of 0 training sessions
• 1 month of easing back into training and dealing with lingering injuries.

In essence the 08/09 season was not my finest and good riddance I say.

I forgot to mention that somewhere in there I managed to get my wife pregnant and it is currently 13 sleeps till another Iron-Orphan enters the world (kidding).

I anticipate a continued ‘easing’ back into training due to fatherly duties. This all works nicely towards my plan to race Ironman NZ 2010, so baby’s first birthday is perfectly timed to see the grand-parents in NZ (you may remember that my wedding was scheduled around a race last year too…)

I have likely missed some of the details; they will come to me as I go.

It feels good to be back.

Oh, the title is a reference to the way my bike shorts groan when I put them on at the moment, race weight is a distant memory...

Going slower to go faster

It seems to me that with a lot of sports, to make steps forward, sometimes a step backwards is required.

This is even more the case it seems in the more technique driven sports.

The thing that got his idea ticking over in my head was the current renovation I am doing on my swim stroke.

I come from a swimming background that spanned from around ten years old until I returned to competitive swimming for a season after “retiring” from triathlon at about age 18. I would like to think I was a pretty handy swimmer and I was able to be in the first two or three out of the water, or there abouts in the majority of the triathlons that I did.

I have found recently that I still swim pretty quick, compared to the age group triathlete population, however nothing like how I use to swim.

I have spent the last 18 months hunting for my old stroke, which use to see me to much quicker times in the pool. As yet I have not found it.

More recently I decided to stop hunting by feel and to start getting a little more scientific in my approach; I have been consulting with a number of sources and have started to develop my understanding of what good technique is.

Previously I was one of those athletes that didn’t care and didn’t want to know why, I just wanted to be told what to do and how to do it and don’t bore me with details. I think this is a real shame, because all the guidance and information that I had access to through some pretty stellar athletes/coaches in the past, is mostly wasted. I have little idea about the theory behind anything I did back then and have almost been learning from scratch this time round.

I have learnt that if I question why and research the theory, eventually it clicks, I have an “aha!” moment and I can apply the theory myself and generalize the concepts, rather than relying on someone else to hand it to me on a platter.

Back on topic – going slower to go faster. Bilateral breathing. I have been ignoring the message from almost every coach I have trained under to bilateral breath. When at my fastest, I only breathed on one side. However, recently I have followed the trail of technical inefficiencies in my stroke back to my one sided breathing (among other things – flexibility etc). I am not going to go into the technicalities of the problem here, as I find explaining swimming technique in writing similar to reading the articles in a penthouse, you really need to see it live to get whats going on and a picture is worth a thousand words. But the point I am trying to illustrate is that I am currently trying to breath bilaterally. I am finding this straight forward enough at easy to moderate pace, but when the pace is wound up, I feel short of air and find it hard to find the rhythm I am used to.

I am finding it easier over time, but I am having to swim slower at times to maintain what I feel will be a faster more efficient stroke once I have it nailed down.

Sometimes in the interest of going faster you have to take a hit in speed, check your ego and work on technique, at a pace that you can maintain, then start to wind it up again when you have it down.

A word of warning: I wouldn't recommend doing this too close to your 'A' race, as there may be reactions from your body to the new movements both injury and fatigue wise. Which you don't want in race season.

I am high maintenance

The two most common causes of injury in endurance athletes are, increase in training volume and/or increase in training intensity. I am testament to this, as I have experienced both this year since starting training in earnest for Ironman and as a result I've had a series of injuries. The increase in training has exposed the inadequacies in my body, it bio-mechanics and my ability to maintain it.

Injuries are par for the course in Ironman training and its not the injuries that I have the problem with. It is the cost financially that makes it hard to swallow. If I try to maintain the training volume required to get the performance I want, it is likely I will run the risk of continued injuries. The only way I can foresee training at the level I need to, is too invest large sums of time and money on maintaining 'the machine'. By this I mean regular massage, physiotherapy, podiatrist consults, and the list goes on, which can add up to $200+/week.

I am high maintenance.

"Slow down? Lower your sights?" you say. Not in my nature. Now, I am a huge fan of the enter to finish athletes, but I am not one of them. I understand that my first Ironman will be an exercise in finishing, but I want to finish fast.

I got into Ironman under no illusion that it would be cheap, however there is another important factor that makes this situation more difficult. My 'A' race this season is not triathlon related... I'm getting married in January to my race support crew (otherwise known as Fay), and no surprise it ain't cheap jumping the Tasman to tie the knot. This means all funds are currently being funneled into the blackhole that is 'wedding expenses', with the few odd dollars being funnel off to 'training and racing expenses'.

So, after much soul searching and consultation with 'the coach', it looks like the road to Ironman is going to be extended to a two year plan. This season is probably going to take in a couple of Half Ironmans, one of those being a race back home, The Port of Tauranga Half (which by huge coincidence is a week before the wedding! How convenient). The other looks like being Shepparton Half Ironman as a preparation race. I can't wait to race.

There are numerous positives to this decision and at my age I can extend the time frame by a year with no real problems (other than my lack of patience). A lot of people I have talked to agree, that a two year plan is probably more realistic and sustainable than one.

The take home message that I get from this is, that I can go balls out to race Ironman this season, probably carrying injuries all season, possibly having a disappointing race (and a budget wedding and angry support crew). Or, I can train and race Half Ironman this season, which will require less volume training (and cost less in general) and be better prepared physically and financially for the 2008/2009 season, to smash Ironman. I have checked my ego at the door (yes I managed to fit that line in)

Thats my positive spin on the matter and I am sticking to it...

Reading back over this post, it seems to have a negative feel and that wasn't the intention. I am fine with the fact that I am taking time to adapt to the Ironman training workload and I am fine that I will be racing Ironman next season rather than this. I'm really looking forward to smashing it, in the races I have planned this season.

Sunday morning ride with new kit

I cranked out a solid 3:30 on the bike this morning, on a hilly course. It was good to do a decent ride after the ups and down I have had on the bike lately. I had a small niggle at about 40mins, which I have learnt will pass completely if I keep going. It's not the same as the ITB pains I was getting, but seems to be a result of it or the rehab work I have been doing. It was pretty chilly one this morning and I was trialling some new kit. Now, I am a procrastinator at times, and despite it being spring (the tree outside with the pink buds on it says so, so Fay says), I went for my first ride with a new set of booties, gloves and a fleece neck warmer. One reason I hadn't got some sooner, was that the price of these items just seems ridiculous. Come on, $40-$60 for foot warmers?! But I stalked eBay until I found some at the right price, $18.00, sold! Now, if you haven't got booties and are thinking that the freezer bags in the shoes are doing the trick (as I did), you are missing out! My booties rock. I was of the opinion that cold feet were part of winter cycling, but my feet were toasty all morning. The fleece neck warmer was pretty successful too, it may have looked a little lame but my neck and face (I wore it cattle rustler style for the first 40min) were much warmer and I could talk using my lips this morning, which improves my speech no end. The gloves, I must say were a let down, they were supposed to be an upgrade of my old pair but the were more like a lateral-grade at best. Don't buy Trek 5x5 gloves at retail, they aren't all that. I am hoping they might stretch a little and allow more circulation which may have been the problem...

Enough about my new kit. I am enjoying training, the 5:00am starts are getting easier each day and the extra spare time in the AM means I can blog, do website admin for “the coach”'s website or play games without feeling guilty about other responsibilities. The true test it how much of an effort it is to get up for swim squad tomorrow morning.

By the way, weight update – 79.8kg (fluctuating by 1 - 1.5kg, but ignoring any over 80.0kg)

Oh, also looking like Ironman might be off the cards this season, may only do Half Ironmans this time round and go for the full next season. It's all to do with me being high maintenance, which I will explain later.

Recovering from injury and Ironman training envy

I just got in from a 50min run, all be it a very easy paced one and I had no discomfort in my knee at all. Yay. I have had no problems at all this week with my knee and I think if I keep on top of my stretches and core strength exercises then I will be able to say goodbye to the ITB issues (touch wood). I have heard a lot about people having ongoing issues and I'm hoping that if I don't get lazy with looking after my body then I won't have further problems.

My build back into training will be a gradual one. My main problem at the moment is training envy. Its gotten to the point where I don't want to ask the guys I train with how their training is going or how far they have been going. It makes me feel like a wuss. It also makes me think about the training I haven't done and how it would have helped for the races later in the season. I guess I need to focus on getting as much quality training in between now and my next race, rather than focusing on the missed training. It seems to be that external motivation thing kicking in again. I'm all about the comparing with others and at the moment my is definitely smaller than yours.

Ironman Podcasts, give them a go.

I remember when I was a teenager, I used to wait each month for the one and only triathlon magazine that was available back then, to come out, I would read it cover to cover, then start over again. That magazine would get read several times before the next months issue hit the shelves.

Now, in the day of the internet, there is so much more information easily available, with online magazines, websites dedicated to Ironman related issues and Ironman forums. It's heaven for the often obsessive types that do Ironman. If you want to know more about a topic, all you have to do is ask google. I spend a lot of time online, reading and researching, my current favorite source of Ironman related information media is podcast.

Podcasts are audio recordings similar to what you hear from a radio station, but they are stored, usually in mp3 format, so you can listen to them at your leisure. Podcasting is a fast growing medium and there are thousands of podcasts available on thousands of topics. With the easy availability of portable audio-players and fast-internet, it's simple to download and listen to podcasts where and whenever you please. I personally make use of podcasts when commuting and when on the magtrainer at home. There are a number of ways to access podcasts and the majority of them are free to download, though you will probably need software to get access to them. Some podcasts are available to be listened to directly from the podcaster's website, which is an easy way to listen, but not particularly useful if you want to go mobile while listening. You need to have software to download and transfer the podcasts onto you audio-player. There are a number of programs available, I think the easiest method for this is to download the free iTunes program. iTunes allows you to download the podcasts and to subscribe to them, which means when you start up iTunes it will download the latest episode for you automatically. Then you can take the podcast with you and get your Ironman information fix on the go.

I have listened to a number of different podcasts on a few different topics. Of the different Ironman/Triathlon related podcasts out there, I have found three that I download regularly. In no particular order they are:

Ironman Talk – Produced by two Ironmen from New Zealand, Ironman Talk takes a light hearted approach. Providing your “weekly fix in all things Ironman” 'coach' John Newsom and Bevan James Eyles are both funny guys, with some good experience between them. They enjoy reporting the latest news, reviews and training tips from Ironman. I find they usually provide me with a laugh and they often point out good resources on the internet.

The Competitors Radio Show – A recording of a on air radio show that has been broadcasting for 17 years and is an offshoot of Competitor Magazine. Hosted by Bob Babbit and Paul Huddle, who both seem to really know their stuff, The Competitors Radio Show interviews some of the great names in not only Ironman but other endurance sports also. They have had a lot of the legends of Ironman on, a number of times. Some of my favorite interviews recently have been with Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Peter Reid, Chris McCormick and Cameron Brown. There is also an interesting and controversial interview with Greg Lemond. I enjoy hearing the big names in the sport, talk about their careers and their opinions on whose who in Ironman today.

Tri Talk Triathlon podcast – The most technical and information driven podcast of the three. David Warden describes himself as an individual who has a overwhelming desire to research triathlon information and to share that information with the masses. He strives to provide triathlon tips, training, news and more. His goal is to make us “swim, bike and run faster”. I find some of the topics particularly interesting, while others, not so much. David obviously does a lot of prep on the topics he discusses and the result is, in-depth and informative episodes. Though, not as humorous as Ironman Talk or The Competitors Radio Show, a valuable resource.

There are a few other related podcasts that I listen to from time to time, if they sound interesting and I always keep an eye out for more. One informative podcast that I recently listened too, is the Endurance and Nutrition Podcast. Produced the end of last ear and hosted by Dave Scott. There are only four episodes, but Dave covers some important and interesting issues.

My recommendation is to download a few episodes of each and have a listen, see what you think. Use the iTunes search function to find podcasts on other topics your find interesting as well. It's a great way get information and to pass the time and I'm hooked on podcasts. I have a been tossing around the idea of developing a podcast of my own in the future, but I think, first, I need to find a partner with some knowledge to balance out my enthusiasm. So maybe in the future, I will point you towards my own podcast feed. In the future if I find any more good podcasts I will post them here. Please pass any you guys like on to me in a comment below.

Eleven hours of Ironman training in two days, new personal record

Quick update to say, I AM SMASHED! 11 hours of training in two days. Yesterday, the Saturday morning brick was a long one, taking 6:45 to complete and I was toast by the end. This morning I did 4:15 on the bike at a firm pace and now I am burnt toast. I was a good ride, part of it was spent in a good size pack of cyclists and we smacked it. I was hurting, but it was fun. I am so happy its a long weekend, because I will need the sleep-in tomorrow. In the next few days, I will write a little article about podcasts, because I think they are great and that people training for Ironman could benefit from the info they provide and the enjoyment they bring.

Magnesium supplementation update – I have now been taking Ultra Muscleze for over two weeks and I think I'm onto a winner. I have had minimal problems with cramp at all in that time, other than minor twinges when working for long periods at high intensity. Compared to the bad cramping I was getting this is a huge improvement. I am gaining fitness also, so maybe a little bit of credit should go to that. Still, I can definitely give Ultra Muscleze the "Ironman Cafe Seal of Awesomeness".

External motivation - Winning isn't everything, but losing sucks

Whew! What a big day at work. I'm pretty tired and the next two weeks look pretty full on training wise. The volume and intensity of my Ironman training is increasing significantly. I am a little nervous but definitely excited to see how I cope. I have taken tonight off on my physio's recommendation, because my right hamstring is still a bit tender from the half-marathon I did a week and a half ago. I'll run easy in the morning to see how it pulls up. I am reasonably happy with how my training and fitness is progressing, though I have some that my swimming is not really coming along. This is probably the result of a combination of two things. One is the training fatigue I am experiencing from the other discipline training that I am doing. The other is the fact that I usually share a lane with an absolute fish in the pool. My ego takes a battering (I'm sure there is an unintentional pun about fish and batter in there...) every swim session and I have been finding it hard to sleep the night before swim squad. This is likely an illustration of my personalty, I really much prefer to win than lose and I find it hard to cope with ongoing not winning. I guess I had better get used to it in the near future though, as I will regularly be surrounded by Ironman athletes that can wipe the floor with me from here on in. I think it is important for me to start developing some personal goals in the pool, such as times I want to make or sets I want to do well. That way I can start to see some success in my training instead of loses. One of the pitfalls of being an externally motivated Ironman is that unless you're the world champion or a top end professional, you are going to lose to someone...

Magnesium supplementation update – I have been taking the Ultra Muscleze now for a week and a half. I have had no problems with cramp at all in that time. I had a slight twinge in my calves in the pool on Monday morning but I regularly get cramps in the pool, so I feel there has been an improvement. I have a big brick session on Saturday morning, so that will be make or break time for my magnesium supplementation program. If I have a cramp free morning then I will call it a success and give Ultra Muscleze the Ironman Cafe seal of approval. Stay tuned.

Sleep and Ironman training

I went out for an “easy ride” for 3hrs this morning. The group I rode with was a step up from what I am used to, which was great for the fact that it will benefit me greatly to train with athletes at a higher level than me, both for the physical step up and for the motivational,inspirational step up. I can learn from people doing Ironman well and apply this to my training.

What made this morning not so great, was, for the first time in months, I went out in the city last night. We went out for a great dinner, I highly recommend teppanyaki restaurants for a great time with friends. We then went out to a bar which was nice, but this meant we got home about 1:30-2:00am. I got up just before 6:00am to head out for this ride, and as I struggled along lacking any gas on the hills, I remembered a couple of good articles I had read, on the importance of sleep to Ironman training. They make some good points and you should check them out. I, for one won't be hitting the town again any time soon. I don't feel its worth the cost to my training. Of course special occasions will be celebrated, but the going out for the sake of it is not on my agenda for a while.

Sleep more, train better, race faster
Sleep Your Way to Better Performance

Which event gives the best chance of qualifying for Hawaii Ironman?

I found this website kind of interesting, check it out. It's by a guy called Neil Hammond, who seems to love his stats. Of course this is not going to be a sure thing, but it might add to your planning for Hawaii Ironman qualification... or you might just find it interesting.

Which event gives the best chance of qualifying for Hawaii Ironman?

Tough morning training and Ironman race schedule dilemma

Another Saturday Morning Brick Session under my belt and it was a tough one. It was similar to last weeks but I definitely felt fatigued off the bike this week. I think the cause was the overflow of egos one one hour 'spin' we did after the two hours of hill sprints. It turned into a smashfest, in which everyone was seeing if they could sneak up on the leader, and go flying past shouting “and he makes a break!” then everyone would chase the break down. I made an effort to force down a lot more nutrition today that I did last week. I think it helped with my energy levels, but it didn't seem to stop the quad cramps, which indicts that some magnesium supplements might help. By the way trying to swallow a Gatorade gel half way through a hill sprint set is not easy, particularly when you have people dry reaching next to you. I got it down in the end but it dint make the trip in one go, it decided to rest up in the back of my throat to see if it could make a come back at some point.

Right now I am feeling shattered, I felt good for a little while after finishing training but all of a sudden it hit me like a tonne of bricks. I probably could do with a sleep but Ironman Lanzarote 2007 is on currently and Ironman 70.3 Florida 2007 is on later so I am watching the updates for those. I will sleep like a baby tonight and tomorrow morning I have a cruisy two hours cycle on the hills and a 2km recovery swim tomorrow night.

I am currently facing a bit of a dilemma about my race schedule later in the year, I was planning to do Ironman Western Australia in December and Port of Tauranga Half Ironman in January, but I don't think I will be able to do both so close together. So I have some decisions to make and I may end up doing the Half and waiting till Ironman New Zealand in March or Ironman Port Macquarie in April. I need to consult with my coach some more before I decide so the countdown counter on the right hand side may change depending on what I decide.

Will keep you updated.

Magnesium Supplements for Ironman training

I seem to have recovered from the head-cold that has been hanging about for the last few days and I'm feeling good. The bit of me that isn't feeling good is the inside of both my quads just above my knees on both legs. Both legs were cramping during the run on Saturday Morning's Brick Session and I had the same problem on the run in the Rotorua Half Ironman in December last year. I think that it was largely due to lack of conditioning to the high intensity and high volume exercise. There is a lot of research and information that says that cramp is often a result of dehydration and deficiencies in certain nutrients. In my reading, top of the list of nutrients are salt and magnesium. Salt is a common additive in sports drinks such as Gatorade and Ironman competitors often supplement with salt tablets during events. I discussed this with my coach and a number of the guys also training for and/or racing Ironman, all of them said that they were supplementing daily with magnesium (among other things). They said that they found that magnesium decreased the frequency of cramping during exercise and recovery and it seems also helps them sleep, which is a big plus in my view. I had a bit of a scout round the Internet and found a couple of informative sights discussing nutrients and Ironman racing, that seem pretty credible. I have put links to at the bottom of this post. One of the guys I train with recommended a particular magnesium supplement called Ultra Muscleze, which sounds promising. I will endeavor to pick some up in the next week or so and will do my own little mini review of it for you.

Here are those sights:

-10 essential nutrients for endurance athletes

-Optimal performance for endurance athletes

Saturday Morning Group Brick Session

Wow! I just got in from my first experience of the Saturday morning group brick session (bike/run). I t was a four hour session, which included some hill climb sprints, some longer hill climbs in TT position (on aerobars) and some longer hill climbs in TT position. This was follow by an hour ride, then we did a 10minute run, building to a strong pace followed by 40mins jogging. It was a step up in intensity for me and it seemed to be for a lot of the other people that were there training for Ironman too. As usual when we voiced how hard we were doing it, our coach who was taking part, told us how much longer and harder it was going to get in the future. I wonder whether that helps or not sometimes... I guess a realistic view of where we will go with our training is nice. The group atmosphere was great and I personally get so much out of doing these sort of trainings. When I'm by myself I can push to a degree, but because I am so extrinsic or externally motivated, having someone to catch or pass or keep up with does wonders for my training intensity. Of course on the down side, I find it hard to do easy when in a group. We numbered about 10-12 of us and we were spread in experience from multiple Ironman racers to one month into their Ironman training career and I think everyone enjoyed themselves and pushed their boundaries.

There is some schools of thought that say brick sessions are not necessary, and there have been a number of world class Ironman/triathlon competitors, who have not focused on this aspect of training. I personally feel that it is an important part of training for an Ironman or any triathlon. It is an opportunity to learn to run with that horrible jelly legs feeling off the bike, but more importantly it allows you to learn to run with the fatigue carried over from the ride. It puts you in the same physical state or as close to as you will be at the start of the Ironman run. This allows you to work at maintaining good running form with your cycling muscles fatigued.

I am glad that todays session is over and I think that now I have done one I will be able to be more specific in my feelings of dread leading up to Saturdays, as opposed to the fear of unknown I had this morning before setting out. But now, I'm going to put my feet up and relax.

Quick Ironman training catchup, back with more soon!

It’s been a few days since my last post and I have been a little slack over the past week. I’m going to try to get back into regular posting and finding some more useful information for you guys. Look forward to it.
Training is going well and I’m back on track for Ironman after the injury that slowed me down for a while. I am having regular physio visits to deal with some neural problems leftover from the quad strain I had a few weeks back. It appears that my bike setup has something to do with it and some tweaks to my bike might help. I have a group magtrainer session tonight which should be a tough’n. Can’t wait…

Finding inspiration in the people that do it tough and go long

Another great day in Melbourne, the day started of nicely.... I had sleep-in specifically planned on my training program. So I did. Great stuff.

When I was a student, sleep in, meant 10:00am or 11:00am, now I am stoked with 7:15am. Its funny how your perception changes with your reality. Take for example my 1:20:00 run tonight, it didn't enter my head that it was a particularly long run, my focus was more on the intervals that it included and cranking it out before it got too dark after work (side note: it was a shambles, it got dark, I couldn't see my watch, cars tried to run me down and it blew a gale). This time last year, my perception of 1:20:00 run would have been very different. I would have stressed about it beforehand and felt and behaved like an invalid afterwards. I can imagine my perception of long, tired and pain will continue to shift as my road to Ironman and Ironman racing career continue.

On the subject of perception of long distance, it makes me think about a friend who is an inspiration to me, and who's perception of long will probably always dwarf mine in comparison. This friend has done 18 official and 1 unofficial (didn't enter in time, but did it anyway) Comrades Marathons. Described as the world's greatest ultra-marathon, 90kms long, the Comrades is a South African institution, internationally recognized for the body-sapping challenge it poses and the camaraderie it fosters among its thousands of participants. It is run between the capital of the Kwazulu-Natal province, Pietermaritzburg, and the coastal city of Durban, the race alternates annually between the up run from Durban and the down run from Pietermaritzburg. For someone to have run 90km nonstop and to have done it more than once makes my perception of long seem minor in comparison. I hope that one day, after a long Ironman career, I will be able to compare my experiences with his and have great stories as he does about what it takes to go long like that.

More recently this friend did a regular 42km marathon, on less than ideal training and with several other non-running related stresses in his life. He did a time which, I can guess, as I haven't discussed it with him, he would not be impressed with. I find this more inspirational than the professional athletes out there that fly through and win races in mind blowing times. The time he did indicates that he did it tough, that impresses on me that he's made of stern stuff. The fact that he kept on grinding away and didn't call it a day, makes me look inward and ask whether I would keep on grinding. I haven't done it that tough yet, but the time will come in my career I'm sure. I hope one day I will have the opportunity to do it tough and come out on top.

I guess the morale of my little ramble is. that it is great to see professional athletes that push the boundaries and keep outdoing themselves in sport. But, it is the back of the packers that finish when most people have gone home or in the case of Ironman its gotten dark, that are the heart of the sport and often have shown more guts and determination than the winner on the day.

Usual transmission will continue shortly, non-Ironman related issues

Quick note to say I am still alive and posting guys.

Have some non-Ironman related stress going on at the moment and will try to post if, and when have the time/energy. A combo of stress and the injury getting me down. Lucky I'm a qualified Clinical Psychologist right... Training update and Ironman related posting coming soon.

Technical difficulties and recovery runnning

You'll have to believe me when I tell you I typed a good length post last night. Sadly it was lost to technical difficulties, and I didn't have it in me to retype it. Its kinda like telling a story to someone that was funny the first time, but you had to be there. So the skinny version goes something like... Physio asks how I go with pain, I say “great, give it to me”,he wails on my butt cheeks with his elbow and I squeal like a pig/baby/girl/man?....Physio tells me to go for a jog for 30min at 50%, thankfully very little pain in the “Old Rec Fem” and ice sorts it out. The End.

Today's program called for sleeping in this morning. Well... I definitely gave that my full effort. Tonight, however, I had 1:45:0 of intervals to do, but on the Physio's orders I went with another 30min cruise and felt good. So things are looking good at the moment (knocking on my head just in case) the road to Ironman is back on track, yehar!

Resting up the old 'Rec Fem'

So I've been taking the physio's advise and have been resting and icing me Rec Fem (thats physio lingo). I swam yesterday morning, again doing the whole session pull. It was a nice relaxed session and I felt strong. Luckily I was not scheduled to do any running till next week and I have an easy 3 hours on the bike tomorrow. My quad is feeling better by the day and I am confident that I will be back on the road next week. All plans for Ironman in December look to be on track for now. I did feel a small panic when I hurt my leg but realistically it's not going to be a biggie. It's all part of Ironman/triathlon training, if you listen to and take care of your body, it will do the same for you.

The Physio concurs with my diagnosis, but not my treatment

So I went to the Physio today...

He concurred with my expert diagnosis, I have strained/damaged my Rectus Femoris muscle. He recommended that I refrain from any exercise that causes pain (running, swimming and cycling...triathlon) for a week. He said this with that “I'm saying a week and I know you are going to give it like half that time, but what can i do?” look. I'm to continue icing it for a few days. He said that early on heat, exercise and rubbing are my quads enemy. Which means the massage I gave it last night and the swimming this morning followed by a hot shower probably weren't as therapeutic as I had imagined. I guess thats why he gets the big bucks. In a few days time, heat, exercise and rubbing will start to become my quads friend again. He recommended a light build back to the pre-injury training load, while staying below pain causing intensity, some therapeutic massage in a weeks time and hot-cold treatments. It is annoying taking time out from the Ironman training, but on a positive note I'm in a recovery week, so I am not missing too much. I will do my best to follow my orders and see how it progresses. Fingers crossed.

Doh! damn you time zone differences! Ironman Arizona

Due to time zone differences, Ironman Arizona coverage will be on around 11am tomorrow morning here in Australia. Guess where I will be...... at work! Noooooo. Hmmm.... wonder if the work computer will let me watch.... interesting. Anywho, I will definitely keep an eye on the updates. Its is great for your motivation to watch others charging along. Hope everyone gets to have a look. If any of you are from Arizona leave me a comment about how it was.