314 days

Monday was a public holiday and I took it easy. I convinced my son to go for a run. I think that was the first time ever. I wanted to see how far he could go. He took off like he had stolen something. I was digging deep to keep up and get into a good stride. Lucky it was over not far around the lake where we were running. He was gassed. We walked and talked for a while and then started again but this time a lot slower. He went ok for the first run. He needs to do it more.

Tuesday I spent time working around the house getting stuff cleaned up so no training that day. Well that's the excuse I am using. When Wednesday came around I knew I needed to pull my finger out. So I headed out for a run. I had no real plan so I thought maybe I can just run for 2hrs and see where I end up. I have never run consistently for that long before. Ok I had to stop for a road crossing at one stage and something in my shoe but apart from that it was constant. In the end I made it through just over 22kms. So I am half way there. Holly crap I am only half way there and I was fresh at the start of the run. I guess I knew this was not going to be easy. They say mind over matter...

Thursday was lap swimming. Boring as always. Not a bad view that day but it is hard to perv when swimming laps. I guess that's why the dirty old blokes hang near the spa and stand around. Looks like I am doing it all wrong.

On Friday the coach called about the plan and a few things. He said all my training was to fast. I need to slow down and do more in heart rate zone 2. Also I need to relax and enjoy myself for a while before the hard work begins. That doesn't mean I get to stop. It seems I still need to do 6 days a week but I just don't have to smash myself. I have never considered training to be fun but ok I am willing to give it a go. :P

Saturday I went for a run with Mike. He said it would be shorter than last time but he never mentioned it was going to be faster. As we were running what ended up being 13kms I made sure that I passed on what the coach had told me that it should be fun, slower and more relaxed. He didn't seem to slow down at all so I just kept up.

Sunday I was on the bike doing the usual 60km out and back ride. I took it easy and just tried to enjoy it. I guess I kind of did. The time seemed to be faster than I expected but my heart rate averaged in the right zone. I might have to keep that pace going as I could get used to it. Looks like the coming week is going to be wet so that's not going to make it fun.

321 days

Interesting week. Started off with the usual swim session Monday. Stupid me forgot my watch so I just counted laps. No real structure but it was good to get out. Tuesday I forgot my watch again so the run was timed on my phone. Wednesday I took my son for his first swim. He did ok. He has a few things to work on so he is more efficient and he needs to get his fitness level up. That's probably what's really holding him back.

Thursday was a bludge day but as Friday and Monday are public holidays I knew I would make up for it. Also I spent all day getting a bikefit for both bikes. Still need a few parts for the fit to be correct but they are coming soon. Thursday night I had another chat to the coach about my past training etc. He said I needed to do a lot more training as I have not done enough in the past. Good for sprints and Olympic distance but enough for anything longer. I thought I had but I guess I have not not. He said I need more long and brick sessions.

So Friday Mike and I started to increase the distances.  60km ride Friday morning was hard. I thought I had good pace at 32.9km/hr. It wrecked me. Saturday morning was a 20km run. Lucky it was not at too fast a pace but not having gone that far in a while and because of the ride the day before it wasn't as pleasant as I would have liked.

Sunday I was feeling it. I somehow convinced myself that a 60km ride would be good. I did have a plan to just take it easy and get through it. I tried to slow my cadence down and use bigger gears.  It was working but I soon found myself riding faster than I ever had for 60km. Maybe it was chasing others out there I dont know but I ended with an average of 34.2km/hr. So tonight I am in pain. Oh well tomorrow I might take it easy and sleep in. woohoo

329 days

Another week closer to the big day. The week started the same as always. Swimming laps. Not the most exciting part of the week but something that's needed. I officially selected my trainer this week so I spent a bit of time organising that and completing all the required paper work. Then I had to send him my old training plans and race results. So with that now out of the way I just have to wait until I get the plan.

Tuesday I had a good 10km run. I needed it as I went out for a drink with a friend who came over from the US for work for a couple of days. The late night and some sore shoulders changed my usual Wednesday swimming plans into 50min on the wind trainer. I did intend to also swim later with the boy but I crashed in the afternoon and convinced myself it was too hard.

I bludged for the next couple of days due to work and rain so by today I really needed to get something done. While the rain was away I went out for a ride. Wanting to change it up from my usual northern road ride I went for a trip up razorback. A nice 40km ride with a big hill in the middle of it. Going up sucked pretty hard. Worst part was the old guy I met 500m from the top. As he past he said "pretty tough isn't it?" and then powered on up the hill. Damn him... :) Best thing about the ride was coming down the hill. I took a different route down than I took going up which turned out to be pretty good.

I should get out for a run tomorrow with any luck. I don't think its going to be a good run. Its raining now and I think its supposed to continue for the next few days.

Oh the other thing that I decided on this week is a bike fit for the road and TT bike. I hope to have that booked in for Thursday next week if I can get the day off and no one else books in before I do. I had a good chat to the fitter and he seems nice and knowledgeable. Should be a fun 3 - 4hrs. :)

 

Club champs

Friday we headed off to the club champs in Forster. Being the first time to this event I was looking forward to what it would be like. A lot of the clubs in NSW battling it out to see who is the best. I don't know how all the scoring works but all I knew is if I completed it I would get the club one point. I would like to get more but you have to be a lot better than I am to do that.

Well it took about 4hrs to get there. After finding our room, collecting our club shirt and getting unpacked we heading downstairs to join the club for a BBQ. The hills club has fully booked out 3 motels in the area with the one we were in considered party central. The motel in nothing to fancy but it has everything that is needed. Had a bit of socialising that night but not a late night.

Our motel view in the morning.

The next morning we were greeted to cloudy but dry conditions which was good as it had rained most of the night. After some breakfast we headed to the beach to watch the kids do their aquathon events. The water was calm and flat which we hoped it would stay for the rest of the day. Unfortunately my race start wasn't until 12:55pm so I knew it wasn't going to be as nice as it was in the morning.

Early morning view of the swim area

We headed back to the room, changed and got the bikes sorted for the race before heading down to register. Nothing special really happened. We put our gear in transition and made our way down to the club tent near the finish line. We still had a few hours till race start so we just hung around and talked. Later we all headed up to the race briefing and then it all started. Wave after wave of starts. I was in wave 6 so it didn't really take that long to get in. By now we had a few nice waves rolling in so that made the beach start a little more interesting. I had never done a beach start through surf. Oh well I thought lets see what happens.

The signal went off and we raced towards the water. I beautifully hurdled the first rolling wave passing a few people as I did it. I looked ahead and a wave was breaking just ahead of me. Some people held their ground and shouldered it while others dived into it. With my past success I though no wait I can dive over the top of this one and look really cool. You see the life guards do it all the time. Can't be that hard. Well I don't know if it was lack of height, lateness of my leap or the fact that I kind of suck but I didn't make it. I really don't know what happened but I remember my legs and body kind of getting pulled back while my head smashed into the wave. Now I have my goggle half off my head and I had to stop like a fool to put them back on all the time trying to look cool. With that sorted I started to swim. Luck it was only a short single wave break I had to make it through or i could have really looked stupid. It was hard work for a while as we made it slowly out. I just didn't seem to be getting very far with the water moving around us.

I had stayed out to the left side of everyone so I didn't have to deal with the kicking but by turn one I was in the mix. Kicked and bashed I made it around heading to the second turn. There I looked and thought this is ok I am on target for a nice close turn. Next thing I know I am under the buoy thinking how the hell did I get here and how do I get out. With a little stop and swim to one side I became free of my home under the sea. So that was issue number two. I got through turn three without much problem and turn four was like turn one a lot of kicking about by some. Heading into the beach was good but to get to transition you had to run up a nice long soft sand hill. Oh boy the legs were burning after that.

I changed as fast as I could and headed out on the bike. The bike leg was tough. Lots of hills and turns. You never really had a good change to get down on the bars and smash out some speeds. Well I couldn't but it didn't stop some people from coming past me at a great rate. I did take one turn slightly too quickly on the first lap. I didn't know if one of the volunteers from our club was cheering me on or saying slow down but half way around the corning I thought "oh this could be interesting". I did make it but on the second lap I took it a little easier.

Off the bike and into the run I was tired as usual but I took the run easier than normal. I wanted to get into a good pace that I could hold till the last km and then pick it up for the run into the finish. It went really well actually. I was feeling pretty good and passing a number of people. Yes as usual I got passed by a bunch as well but I wasn't feeling like I was going to fall down any moment and worked on my running style a little. I have been told to change a few things as it would make my running better so I worked on that a little as a ran along.

Over the last km I picked up the pace as I wanted to and powered into the finish line being cheered on by the club members who had already finished.

For the next few hours we cheered on the club members heading out and coming back from the run. I also got to meet a few people that I knew from other clubs and talk to John who looks like will be my new triathlon coach. So I did get to do a few things done while I was there.

John works for Summit fitness studio and I had him as an option for a triathlon coach. We had a good chat about what I want to do and what I had been doing. We exchanged some details so I can get him my old training plan and race results so he can work out a good starting point for me. So the real training will start soon.

Unfortunately my lift was heading back that night so we didn't stay around long enough for the clubs annual undies run around the main street or the clubs party but maybe next year. All up it was a good little trip and race.

My results for the weekends 1km swim, 30km ride and 8km run was 1:59:22..

POS	NAME (#)	TIME	CATEG (POS)	GENDER (POS)	SWIM	T1	CYCLE	T2	RUN
424	Stefan JANKOWSKI (462)	01:59:22	35-39  (56)	Male  (355)	00:19:42	00:02:55	00:57:01	00:01:38	00:38:04

Getting through work on friday

Well I am all packed and ready for the weekend. Now I just have to get through the rest of my work for the day. So far it is looking like a good day but that can change at any moment. Lets hope the weather holds out till after the race.

Should be an interesting weekend. They say the club champs are a lot of fun. A bunch of non drinking fitness freaks having a couple of drinks after the race might be interesting to see. Our club has 4 motels booked and I hear they get up to some fun after the race. They have never been the top club but have been second a couple of times so we will see what happens this year. They do a 1km undies run down the main street at some stage but I have no special looking undies for the event so I am going to take my taco costume and maybe wear that as a bit of fun. Might win a prize for that.

On another note I had a good work week. Announcement of the new team structure came through and now I have some good new team leads to work with. Should be fun times ahead. Apart from that it was a pretty uneventful week. A few work issues here and there but that's to be expected. 

Poor bike

Got the bike back from the shop today.  Not good. :( To put it technically the crank had something in it that must have rubbed a groove into something else and it should not have done that. They say they photographed it and sent it to FSA who agreed to replace it. Problem is they can't say when so right now I have an alloy crank to use. Let's see if this becomes a pain for me chasing it up.

On a happier note I got our club tri suits in. They seem to fit so I will be looking like part of the team this weekend.