Many questions, one answer

I'm in the middle of my regular cycle commute to work and have just stopped at a set of traffic lights when I hear.

"What do you do for your legs?"

Surprised, I turn to see a fellow cyclist has stopped behind me at the intersection. He poses the question again.

"I've just been just following and admiring your legs, what do you do for them?"

ah...


It's the second Friday so I'm at the Bourke Street Red Cross with my sleeve rolled up. The machine hooked up to me is designed to draw blood into a centrifuge. Here it is spun to separate out the plasma content before returning the remaining blood cells back to me via the same IV. The first draw and return has completed but now the machine is beeping, warning that the flow has stopped. I'm due at least 3 more cycles but for some reason the machine is failing. A nurse arrives, she checks the needle, it is definitely seated correctly in my vein, the hoses are all free of kinks but the draw refuses to commence. Puzzled, she checks my arm above the needle's entry point at the crook of my elbow.

"Are your arms normally this muscled?"

um...

There are more questions I get;

"Why are you so tanned?"
"What's with the one stocking thing on your leg?"
"I can't believe you spent 5 hours on a windtrainer. Are you crazy?"

I get a lot of strange questions, but a lot of the time the answer comes back to the same thing.

"I'm a triathalete"


For the past 5 years I've been doing this, ever since a mate at work mentioned there were these mini triathlons you could do. That year I signed up, not for one race but for the entire season. My thinking was, making that initial financial commitment would force me to give it a real go. I raced on my converted mountain bike, my race attire was a pair of swimming shorts and a rash vest - no wetsuit, and definitely, no tight lycra on show. I raced in the fun distance and found it just that; fun.
Since those early days a few things have changed. I now own 2 wetsuits (for race day only!), the trusty Trek is still my main bike but now it shares the front hallway with a sexy full carbon time trial bike. Since taking up the sport I have also dropped about 15kg and converted more to muscle. I'm not the expected shape of an athlete, but I train like one, and no longer worry about being seen in lycra (when appropriate)
From committing to those initial enticer events, to entering the big show.
And, on this day, 2 months from now, I plan to be celebrating the completion of my first full distance triathlon, along side my friends, family and 50+ like minded team mates.

I'm told this moment will be life changing.
I'm quite sure I will be asked many more questions in the days that follow that moment.

"It's just what I do, I'm a triathlete, and yes, probably more than a little crazy"

What I did on my holidays

Remember back in your school days, when a six week holiday period was always ended with the same punishment. Upon returning to the class room you were first required to complete the written assignment "What I did on holiday"


I was never very good when it came to filling up that page as I could never remember what I had done. Now, I'm sure those summers were chock full of activities, but with that blank sheet of paper in front of me - nothing would come to mind.

Regardless, I figure that now I'm writing again, I should give this task another go and, fortunately, things are different this time. I'm still staring blankly at the empty page but now it is backlit, but more importantly, this summer I spent a good portion of time with one possessing  better memory than mine.  It is this record I will use for this account.

So, according to my trusty companion (Mr Garmin), here's what I did during my period of rest and relaxation.

Between the 21st of December and the 14th of January I completed:

• 666.3 km riding
• 64.4 km running
• 3.4 km swimming

A lot of those km on the bike were actually covered in the garage on the windtrainer and, had I known at the time, I might have tried to add another 300 meters to round out that number. Spending so much time not going anywhere allowed me to start early, spend maximum time in the aero position, catch up on some of the movies I had yet to see and also spend a bit of time with the wife and kids.

Therefore, other things I did on my holiday included:

• overnight visits to Rosebud
• watched a movie in an actual cinema (it's been a while)
• took the kids to the Narnia exhibition (on that 40+ degree day!)

Along the way I:

• moved to a new age group (but, enough about that)
• Completed the third race of the Gatorade Triathlon series and
• saw a number on the scales below the Clydesdale's qualifying threshold (94.6 kg)

So, the holiday is now over and not just in relation to my break from the office. I actually returned to my desk a week ago and have been planning to write this entry since then. The delay in delivery has not been solely due to my aforementioned difficulty with this particular annual task either. No, it would seem that my build toward Ironman was also on holiday. With the new year has come an escalation in the number of hours I am dedicating to my training and have thus not found the time in the day to write more than a line or two. Each evening (and morning...) I generally just feel tired. Exhausted though I may be, I also feel a sense of satisfaction. I have been able to meet the new challenges and am seeing the results.

In the pool I've been able to hold a decent pace through long sets, whilst running at a mid pace effort I am seeing times on my Garmin that used to equate to running full tilt. Cycling has always been my preferred discipline of the triptych* and these days I have found I can spin at a higher cadence. My technique has largely been based on pushing high gearing as hard as possible (which worked well to a point) and struggled with the leg speed required for a more efficient pedal stroke. 

I was recently asked, after a combo session at the beach on a very hot day, whether I was getting nervous yet. My goal event is now roughly two months away, it has been 10 months since I committed to it and, as I said in my last post, it is now getting very real. When the question was posed I thought a moment and responded honestly; "not really".

When I think about where I've come from and the work I've put in I feel confident that the finish line is well within reach. I'm also confident it will hurt, at times it might get messy, but also, it will get done. The remainder of the work I am applying is now to ensure I get the job done well as my main goal is not just to cross the line, but to enjoy the journey, to celebrate the achievement  and to high five as many people along the way as possible.

*Triptych - According to OxfordDictionary.com, one of its definitions is "a set of three associated artistic, literary, or musical works intended to be appreciated together"

Though not necessarily an accurate usage above, I believe it applies nicely to a triathlon.

Next year

So, it has finally happened.

I can no longer claim to be competing in my first full Iron Man race next year...

Welcome to 2013!

Last year was pretty awesome for me and with the fireworks and party poppers all now spent, I am now faced with the realization that the goal I set myself in my second year of triathlon is that little bit closer. Perhaps the crossing of the annual date line is not a significant advance, but it now means I have a calendar that includes that goal's realisation. Before this point, it was always something I was doing next year; "Iron Man Melbourne is next year"; "yeah, training will ramp up next year"; "this is going to get real next year."

Guess what, it just got real.

As a triathlete, at least I'm easy to buy for...

For Christmas and birthday presents I was given a wetsuit (that I bought) and an entry to the Warnnambool "Sufferfest" (which I purchased) and I'm pretty sure when I order my Aero Jacket and sticker kit, that too will be a present from the wife and kids

• Hell Week - pronoun; The final week of the year where each day includes 3 training sessions, an early ride, a run off the bike and an afternoon swim.

My program called for completing a choice of 2 of the sessions on offer per day.

With the school holidays and the wife working full time (and with no annual leave yet accrued) getting out to training sessions was a little difficult. In order to get the required kms AND actually see the family I found myself greeting the mornings at approximately stupid-o-clock to visit the garage for a bike ride.
Most mornings were 70km and two movies followed by a six km run. This meant I was finished by 8 am and the rest of the day was free (except for the time inevitably time spent napping) Christmas day is a day off, and, barring one Friday, I was able to meet the challenge. By the end, I had clocked up 280km on the bike, 35km running and 500m swimming.

OK, so that third discipline's numbers are pretty low, but I can explain!
 One morning I completed my ride, then later in the afternoon, timed my run to the beach at Elwood perfectly to just miss the crew. I was in time to meet an annoyed wife who had arrived to give me a lift home. As consolation, instead of doing the laps of the poles required to hit the scheduled 1.5km swim, I did one (hence the 500m indicated above).
Another day I planned to join in on the swim at Sandringham beach.  From my doorstep it is about 6km to Sandy so I was going to run there. I packed my goggles and phone in the pouch I have on my race belt and headed out the door. I wasn't two km into my run before my phone was ringing.Apparently the swim session had to be cancelled due to adverse conditions. Slightly disappointed, I completed my run as a loop and returned home. More annoyingly, neither of the the cafes on the way home were open so there was no consolation latte either.
The final swim I tried to attend was the Friday where I had the brilliant plan of treating the kids to a movie outing. I was scheduled for my regular blood donation in town and, after reviewing the options and screening times I settled upon a 2:15 screening. This would give me plenty of time to get the kids and I to the city, finish my donation and then to get to the cinema at Melbourne Central to pick up the tickets and obligatory popcorn. After the movie, we'd catch the train along the Sandringham line where I could easily get to the beach and the offspring could make the short journey in the opposite direction to my brother's place. It was the perfect plan! (except the wife wasn't keen on that last part). I contacted my brother to ensure things were cool and headed off to the city with every angle covered.
Ok, since I prefaced this little dialogue with "tried to attend", you're probably aware there was at least one point I missed. Whilst sitting in the cinema, watching the initial advertisements I realised that, given I had to be somewhere later, I probably should not have chosen THE LONGEST FILM EVER* to buy tickets to...

With a running time just shy of 3 hours, we would not be seeing the credits roll until well after I would have needed to be on a train if there was to be any chance of me arriving at the beach in time to just miss the swim that day.

Oh well, the kids did really enjoy The Hobbit so I guess that was all right.

As I stated earlier, last year for me was great, I seemed to be winning everything. Here is a list of the prizes I can remember.

• an entry to Iron Man Melbourne,
• a number of t-shirts,
• a wetsuit,
• $100 voucher for a bike store,
• a tv and home theatre pack,
• Pro For a Day (another wetsuit, Garmin watch, running shoes),
• a dvd is a competition I don't remember entering,
• Christmas Spirit award (Christmas cake) and 
• the role of Tri Alliance ambassador.

So far, 2013 has brought only mild gastric upset (which is why my New Year's day run was punctuated with bathroom breaks and also why I wasn't swimming tonight team...) Did I survive the Mayan apocalypse for this!?
Oh well, whilst I was out with The Boy this afternoon I finally did get that lotto ticket every one has been encouraging me to buy.

Here's to a successful new year every one, stay safe, train hard and be well.

As The Boy says; "Sharing is caring"

Here are the number from 2 of the lines from my Saturday lotto ticket, will 2013 see my luck continue, or is 2012 the one to stick with...?

  Game 12:    09  20  29  39  40  42

  Game 13:    25  28  29  30  32  39

*Note, though The Hobbit is a long film and is not the longest film in history, and neither is Kevin Costner's "JFK" (even though it seemed to drag on for days, at least it didn't suck as hard as Waterworld)

The record for the longest cinematic release belongs to a film called "The Cure for Insomnia" which shows a poet reciting his works, spliced with imagery from X-rated film and music videos with a running time of 5220 minutes