The Big Snake!!

The weekend involved a fair bit of training with a fair bit of Spring cleaning. On Saturday, our BFSR group detoured from the Narrows to Fremantle for a coffee stop then down Marmion St and back to Canning Vale. I think we’d done around 80kms instead of our usual 60kms and it was a sensible ride (with some of our group doing the Golden Spokes event the next day). Still, its hard to know if we are actually saving our legs from a mashing. It seemed a pretty challenging effort to me. Dee did her usual 1hr run, an abs workout and a solid effort on the exercise bike. She’s getting very, very fit but I can’t get her to use her powers for a competitive run or cycle. Sometimes I can hear her Trek 1000 road bike crying in the garage!!

Yesterday, I was going to hit Deepwater Pt but I ended up dropping Dee at Jacob’s ladder so it was twice around the Bridges circuit for me. Now sub 50min efforts for each of these laps may not seem much to write home about but if I can maintain that pace for a marathon then a 3hr30min effort is possible. Reality says the second 21kms will be slower so the aim of going sub 4hr remains. I had a guy running around 10metres behind me on the second lap. He was with someone else and joking that they were trying to keep up with the triathlete. It was light-hearted stuff as they caught up to me and he ended up being a triathlete a little older than me who had travelled to Vancouver to compete in the World Tri championships. He trains with the Stadium Tri Club and just a nice guy. It was a bit of an obstacle course trying to run around all the preparation for the Red Bull Air Race this weekend. (My brother John is down to 75kgs now (heck, he’s a good 6kgs lighter than me now. Good job Buddha!) He’s also contemplating his first marathon).

Anyway, back at the Causeway, I unwittingly found myself part of the Cliff Bould Masters event at McCallum Park. Didn’t take much fluids on board for this effort but only very minor ITB soreness near the knees this time after the 20kms. Definitely no ‘granny’ walk afterwards. I joined Dee and her mates for a coffee and chat at Zamia’s in Kings Park. Dee and I were in the middle of Spring cleaning on Sun pm.

I caught up with Shannon and Paul and they had capped off a very successful weekend. Paul P had ridden strongly with Peter Clark and Brendan McSweeney for around 2/3 of the open event. Its hard to stay on the pace with the likes of Cameron Meyer in the mix. A fantastic effort. Shannon Arnott and Hannah Lawton had just given another 30 women the triathlon bug by introducing them to their first triathlon. Their Fitness Hub triathlon training programme is going from strength to strength. (Shannon and Hannah had placed third among the females last week in the ATTA ‘two up’ event)

Also, Luke Hardy rode strongly in the open event and Richard Kelly won some prizemoney placing 4th in the support event at Golden Spokes.

Lorraine Shutz is still eking out 38 to 39kph efforts. ATTA plan an event along the new Mitchell Freeway extension this coming weekend. I think its 35kms covering a few laps of a new 8km stretch of the freeway. I did want to echo Mouse’s sentiments toward Guy Pritchard in recently breaking the 40kph barrier in a 20km ATTA event. A big, big milestone he’s been aiming at for some time.

Anaconda looms large now at Dunsborough. Less than a week to go. I have the big hill (Jacoby’s Revenge) after the Sugarloaf Rock dip as the major obstacle for the run. Of course, there are also many, many, many rocks and soft sand to contend with. I hope the conditions are also good for the swimmers and paddlers. Should be a great event. If Dee wants to travel down Friday night, then I’ll have to give the John Gilmour 10km event a miss at Coker Park near Carousel. She will be bringing down some Spinach Lasagne (a dish that my mum used to cook quite regularly). Yum! 

Google ‘Dolphin House’ at Margaret River to check out the place we are staying at. Fantastic digs! Come on teams Far Canal 1 and Far Canal 2.

I  checked Ironman WA and around 1200 individuals have signed up. Entries are now closed. Not sure how many teams but you’d have to think 50 plus. Its gonna be huge!! Our team of Emily Panietz, Brendan McSweeney and myself (Team Three’s Company) will have Ashleigh Davis, Paul Prottey and Tim Roach (Team Ain’t going to rehab) to keep us company in the mixed category.

Swimming tonight with the ‘Golden Spokes’ boy, Mr Kelly, at 5.30pm at Riverton Leisureplex. The more the merrier so come along if you wish. Don’t expect to learn any swimming technique from me - just a little pool rage at the ‘apple bobbers’ who swim in the Medium lane. We plan to make 5.15pm Fridays a regular swim too at Riverton.

Arsenal won, the Perth Glory were robbed, Wildcats won, the Phillies won. Let’s win the cricket at New Delhi now.

These next 6 weeks will see some heroic training efforts from a lot of you and steely resolve. Good luck to all of you pushing your physical and mental limits. Finally, on 30 Nov, there’s a 7.5km and a 15km run around Deepwater Pt starting at 7.30am. Check our my recent forays on the Cool Running forums (forii??)

We have an overnight hike at Dwellingup to Swamp Oak Hut and return (26km total) planned in a few weeks time. Should be fun.

Remember, life is short and hard…..like a body building midget!!!

CHRISTO