Taking stock
It might be time to sit back and to see what my progress is like with the goals I’ve set at the start of the year.
So this is the plan for 2009:
- Complete at least one olympic distance tri
- Do a full running marathon
- Complete as many adventure, mtb, trail run races as possible
- Increase my cycling distance to 2,000km+, running to 600km+ and swimming to 50km+
- Get a road bike and do a 100km race under 3:30:00
Let’s see how I’m doing:
- I’ve completed an off-road ‘full length’ tri, so in a sense I’ve already achieved this goal. I’m doing a proper Olympic distance triathlon on Sunday, so hopefully I’ll be able to tick this one from the list.
- Not really focussed on doing the marathon yet. I hope to do this one at the end of the year.
- Things are looking good for this one. I’m planning a lot of trips and races.
- I’m a bit short on the cycling, but I’ll be able to catch up when my tri is over. I’m pretty much on target with the others. I’m just not sure if 600km running is enough prep for a marathon. Might have to move this goal up to 800-1000km.
- Not a very serious goal, but I’ll see how the year pans out.
These goals are great, but I might have to keep in mind what I’m planning for 2010 too. My biggest goal would be to complete an iron-man, but I doubt I’ll be by ready early 2010. I’m turning 30 that year, so it might be a cool goal to do one before my birthday (which is the 4th November). So I would like to do at least a few standard tri’s this year and a half iron-man early on next year.
Filed under: General, Thoughts
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No quitter
Sheesh, I just read an article in the Runner’s World magazine, where this guy Ryan Hall did his first half-marathon in a US record breaking time of 59:43. This guy must be an alien or something. Just to put it in perspective; his average speed during this race is higher than my average speed during ALL mountain bike races. Ok, it’s not quite the same thing, but still. I bet you he’d give me a go over 21.1km on a flat road.
Luckily, I’m no quiter and I know I’ll never be able to compete at that level, but that’s just about enough for me to just go “Man, just give it a rest”. It’s like he is in a completely different league - the Martian runner’s cup. I don’t really have killer goals like getting a podium finish in a race, or whatever. But damn, I always thought I would at least be able to increase my fitness levels up to a point where I would be able to finish within the first quantile. Well with genepool-wonders like these around, it’s hard to see that happening any time soon.
Filed under: Thoughts
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Overcooked things a bit
It is 4 weeks before my triathlon and according to my crude interpreation of Friel’s training bible, I should be putting in my longest and “medium-hard” intensity training sessions. Well I think I overcooked things a bit. Looking back on my workouts, I can’t say that I’ve been pushing too hard, but apparently this was a bit too much for my body.
The legs were a bit tired after two consecutive long-ish running sessions (my bike was in for a service and upper body was still recovering from a swim), but I gave them two days to recover. On the third day they were still a bit tired, so I skipped the bike and went for an intense swim, thinking that my upper body would take most of the punishment there. The swimming session was perhaps too short and intense and now, two days down the line, my body is feeling quite numb and almost wilted.
A bit disappointing to be honest. I thought I would be able to stomach much more at this stage of my training. To date, I’ve only been able to clock 4 hours of activity over 15 days, which is 99% due to my recovering taking so long. Hmmm… somethings wrong.
It might be that I’m just pushing a bit too hard (even though it doesn’t feel like it) causing my recovery to be more like 2 days rather than a single day. I’ll hold off until tomorrow (3 rest days!) and do a short little run.
Filed under: Thoughts
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I’m doing what!?
I only just realized what I’m attempting in two months time. I’m going to do the 3 day Sani2C mountain bike race that is 260km long with an total ascent of 4500m. Hmmm… That’s the equvalent to cycling half way up mount Everest. Sheesh.
This prompted me to realign my training priorities a bit. At the moment I’m only focussing on my triathlon in three weeks time. Considering that the triathlon will (hopefully) only last around three hour and the Sani2C fifteen odd hours, I would be an idiot not to make the mtb race my highest priority. Also, it is a team event and I don’t know my team mate, so it would suck if I held ‘the team’ back.
So I’m in a bit of trouble now. I might not really be on top form for my triathlon, but I guess that’s ok. I’ll just go out with the intention of finishing the race.
Filed under: General, Thoughts
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Happy new year
Ok, I’m a bit late, but I didn’t have inet access over the holiday’s. So I figured it would be a good idea to reflect on 2008 and set some goals for 2009. Here goes…
2008 was an average year sportwise with a few ups and downs. It was the first year I started participating and training for multi-sport events. The first quarter went great and I made a lot of progress with my running and swimming with my main event - mountain biking- taking a bit of a back seat. I did two sprint tri races in the first quater and was ready for an olympic distance, but the event got cancelled. So I had to wait until summer to do my olympic tri. I also did an adventure race, learned to surf and managed to do a bit of white water rafting and kayaking.
The second quarter was also quite cool and I partook in a marathon mtb race and completed my first running half-marathon. I ended up busting my knees a bit and was somewhat out of action for the rest of the quarter. I started with the 100 pushup challenge, tried my best, but was simply not strong enough to do 100. I guess I could go up to 50 without killing myself, but 100 is a long way off.
My knees were much better in the third quarter, but I was down with the flue and again I was out of action for a few weeks. I got better and things picked up a bit again.
During a trip to Europe at the beginning of the fourth quarter I got the flue quite bad again. Bleh… I stopped training for a few weeks and picked up my programme again at the end of October. I was able to train more frequently during the rest of the quarter, but progress was a bit slow. I wanted to an olympic tri, but I didn’t feel up to the challenge yet.
So in conclusion, I achieved a few goals in 2008 (notably my first tri and half-marathon), but it was quite dismal the rest of the time. I managed 1,300km on the bike, which was around 1,000km less than the previous year. I completed 400km on foot and 20km in the pool, which is okay for my first year competing in these events.
I’m planning on doing a bit more travelling in 2009 and don’t really know what my life will look like, but if I had my way I would like to achieve the following:
- Complete at least one olympic distance tri
- Do a full running marathon
- Complete as many adventure, mtb, trail run races as possible
- Increase my cycling distance to 2,000km+, running to 600km+ and swimming to 50km+
- Get a road bike and do a 100km race under 3:30:00
Those goals will stretch me quite a bit, but what good are they if they are easily achievable. I wouldn’t be disappointed if I don’t achieve all of them, but I would like to place a check next to 4 of them.
Filed under: Thoughts
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Knee update
I’ve been going easy on my knees for the past few weeks. It seems like it is starting to pay-off. Normally I would get a numbed pain while climbing stairs, but I haven’t had any pain in the last two days.
I’m literally pulling out all the stops. I’m icing, stretching, resting and doing very light strengthening exercises. If progress is still on the up by Saturday, I’ll start doing slow and short cycling and running/walking bits.
I find this recovery process frustratingly slow, but what can you do. I guess my body just needs to be eased into exercise rather than being pushed hard… not that I was pushing that hard.
For anyone struggling with runner’s knee, I’ll recommend you start with these two articles on Time-To-Run and AAOS. From there, one can search for more information regarding stretching, strengthening exercises, etc…
Filed under: General, Thoughts
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Time to do a half-marathon, or not
I’ve been running since December and now reckon it’s time to do a half-marathon. Thing is, my May is already so packed with events, I wouldn’t be able to fit one in now. Furthermore, the Comrades (89km / 56 mile internationally renowned race) is being held on the 15th, so the entire SA running calendar grinds to a halt for this event.
It looks like I’ll have to postpone my half-marathon until 12th July for a race at the Voortrekker Monument. That one should be a goody.
Filed under: General, Run, Thoughts
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Kayak training (Day 2)
After yesterday’s training and my poor showing, I really hoped that today would go better.
I was a bit off balance during the first rapid, but managed to keep my cool and stay afloat. One quickly discovers how to react to the currents once you’re going down stream, i.e. moving with the flow of the water.
Yesterday, we were thrown into the deep end, trying to cross strong currents from the sides. I would’ve approached the training differently, but I guess every teacher has their own style. In general, I don’t subscribe to the “get thrown into the deep end” philosophy.
Anyhow, I picked-up how to navigate currents and get through all the eddies and all that. It came quite naturally towards the end. I also had a bit of fun playing in some of the smaller waves. I misunderstood the trainer yesterday and henceforth leaned the wrong way, capsizing my mighty vessel a few million times.
I didn’t attempt a roll today, since I was pretty sure I would just mess it up again. I would need a few more sessions to nail the technique and learn to be at ease under water.
All in all, I had a pretty good time. The scenery was great, the outing relaxing and the rapids great fun. Perhaps even more fun than the crocks we went in at Hazyview.
And here is the “but”. BUT, I must say that I’d rather pick up other sports before taking up kayaking. IMHO, the dangers involved and the practicality of the sport is not worth the amount of fun. The guides/trainers were constantly chatting about hairy stories where people came quite close to death or sustained serious injuries from kayaking. Canoing or proper rowing is a bit more practical and on the safer side, but arguably not as much fun.
Perhaps I should give kayaking a last try by doing a multi-day trip. I’ve seen a documentary on the fathers of kayaking and how they went on trips on the Amazon. It looked spectacular. We’ll see what happens…
Workout:
- Type: Other
- Date: 03/30/2008
- Time: 10:00:00
- Total Time: 3:00:00.00
- Calories: 1000
Filed under: Rowing, Thoughts, White Water
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Thunder & lightning
I packed my swimming gear today, hoping to do a long session after work. Unfortunately, the weather has other plans for me. A huge thunderstorm is approaching fast, so I’ll just have to forget about that plan… unless I want to get my hair frizzed.
Think I should just give up trying to train this week and start next week with a clean slate. Things aren’t really going my way this week…
Filed under: Swim, Thoughts
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Missed training sessions
After Saturday’s race, I spent the entire weekend working on a project that some other douche couldn’t complete. As a result I missed two training session and feel quite frustrated.
Feeling frustrated, I started to wonder why I don’t usually feel this way after missing a session. I realized that usually it is my own doing (or lack thereof) that causes me to miss a session. I just feel disappointment then. Missing a session because of external factors causes frustration. I can stand the disappointment, but the frustration gets to me.
Hopefully I’ll be able to turn that frustration into a tough training session after work… Lets see how the day pans out.
Hope you all have a great week!
Filed under: Thoughts
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