The Training course

It seems so much of my life revolves around training - running, cycling, swimming. And it’s often hard to know why the allure of events that cause pain is still there!

Busselton Ironman, Half Ironman, Painathlon, Rotto Marathon, Rottnest Channel Swim, Half Marathons, Cyclosportif, ATTA events (time trials), etc etc.

Then there’s the times you head off on a training run….it can be 8pm and you’re off on a run or 5am in the morning and you’re heading off for a 100m hills bike ride, up the hills at just over 20kph and downhill at up to 80kph, hoping nothing goes wrong. You follow the insipid black line at your local swimming pool, cursing the apple-bobbers in the wrong lane, the inconsiderate folk in adjacent lanes throwing up little tsunamis. Cramp often sets in with these swimming sets.

This weekend, I go down to Coogee for a 1.5km swim, the Jetty to Jetty. I know I have lots of running and cycling to do as well. I have to clear my daughter’s apartment so that’s hours of work lugging stuff to the tip. A 21st party for a nephew Sat night, a Queen tribute concert tonight (Fri night).  The housework becomes almost an afterthought. The dogs barely recognise us.

We had a great night celebrating my son’s 19th at the Greyhounds where we collectively won over $800. Lucky bets - an unbelievable run of bets from my wife where she just kept winning on long shots. The funniest moment was where a greyhound that tailed off the back in the one of the latter races, turned around, went the other way around the track then realised he could catch the lure, and he did, and ripped the stuffing out of it. Now the poor greyhound has no purpose in life. That’s the pinnacle of his achievement right there. Now I’m not saying that achieving so many endurance events is akin to catching the lure (much like finding the Holy Grail) but sometimes it can feel like that.

You’ve proven to yourself you can do these things, that even as an average swimmer, you can swim long distances, you can keep getting faster on the bike in time trials (next aim is to hit 40kph on the 40km time trial, by the way), and occasionally you can get quicker as a runner. Mind you, that goal was going sub 4min/kms and I’m a long way off that!

You suddenly realise that smelling roses is not the same as smelling an Ironman medal or a marathon medal or Jetty swim medal. Sometimes achieving something (like Painathlon for example) is just plain hard work across a very long, hard day. Other motivators may be fundraising or beating your peers.

As I progress along these cross training efforts, it becomes more and more about the camaraderie, about seeing other people achieve their first-time goals, going outside the comfort boundaries.

Striking the balance with a healthy social life, family life, training schedule and work commitments is incredibly hard but ultimately pretty satisfying.  Having done my first Half Ironman in 2006, the next aim is to go under 5hrs. Achievable but everything just has to go right (and as my stercus accidit motto indicates, it doesn’t always)

With 8 weeks to go now, I have a really hard block of training ahead of me these next 6 to 7 weeks. Lots of times when I won’t want to go swimming or cycle up hills or long distances into a strong headwind or run when I just feel plain fatigued.

I’m at 78kgs now so this is a fair bit lighter than I’ve been for a while. I look at the top 15 place getters in my age group for Busso HIM and I think ‘right, I need a sub 31min swim, a 2hr 25min bike and around 1hr 45min run. And don’t muck around in transition - its valuable time. I am in the lucky position of having good TT wheels and a new TT frame so I begin to build a time trial bike that I can use in Busso. No more simply affixing TT bars on to my road frame. But there’ll be competitors with steel framed bikes for Busso doing it hard (as I did on my Eddy Merckx in 2006). Heck, I had two years of cyclosportif with the same frame going up the Darling Scarp from Pinjarra to Dwellingup just struggling. To compound it, I drive really big gears and rarely use the small ring at the front.

I’m not sure when this all became so addictive but, on balance, I love doing it and I’m looking forward to Busso now that I know exactly what effort is needed to achieve my goals.

I don’t liken myself to the ’stair zombies’ at Jacob’s ladder that just seem to continually go up and down that damn ladder to prove they can. I know what it takes to go up and down that thing 20 and even 30 times at speed. And unless its part of my normal routine, an effort like that can cripple me for days afterwards.

I will likely still do things like Painathlon, Rotto, Ironman, marathon/half marathon, Jetty swim, cycling time trials and team riding. Mainly because I can and that makes me lucky.

So, so many events on in the next month or two. Darlington Half Mara, Freeway Bike Hike, BRW Triathlon, Pt Walter OD triathlon, Coogee triathlon (twice), Cyclosportif at Lancelin, Time trials at Neerabup and Wandi over various distances, Coogee Jetty to Jetty swim, etc, etc.

So many training options, Thursday 70km hard rides, Monday to Fri morning walks/runs of 1hr, Tuesday morning runs around Deepwater Pt, 2 or 3 swims at Riverton Leisureplex in the evening per week, Sat AM group bike ride, Sunday hills ride (usually solo), Wed brick session run after cycling home, and conditioning sessions (2 x 10min) every morning which involves around 6 separate activities that are done until collapse.

All great fun!!

Anyway, today’s rant now over. Enjoy all your various training. I am currently amped to do a post 40kph time trial for my next 40km ride, I’d love my next half mara to be able to go under 1hr 37min (my current PB) and I’d love to knock off the 1.5km swim in 25mins on Sunday. Optimistic perhaps.

Reservoir

CHRISTO