Break Your Limits

Yesterday it was back on the trusty mountain bike and off we travelled to Jarrahdale, a superb mountain bike track, consisting of 99% single-track and a lot of fun. Headed out with Jason Hicks, a somewhat hard man and lover of all things bush. He thrives in these conditions!

Mud...

Crusty...

The rain was drizzling on/off for most of the ride and it was a very cool 12C whilst riding. It was the muddiest I’ve seen it at Jarrahdale since the 6hr mountain bike race 2 years ago. I got Jason to take a photo when we finished, the jacket started out blue and it was soon to finish a lovely brown colour, you dont get this in Summer!

The bike also took a battering and the sound of brakes rubbing with sand, grit and dirt kept us company for the 2.5 hour ride, something for Daniel and Daniela (Our swiss training buddies) to look forward too…

This morning was the running of the Pancake run, the legs were feeling a little heavy from a Friday night weight session and the decision was made to just run and not ride.

As I was driving into Kings Park, I had a call from Paul & Trudy. Paul had decided last night to do the race (the things you get away with because of Fathers Day) and he ran a respectable 23.30mins for the 5km! There is now no further reason as to why he should take it easy on a Tuesday morning. I believe that would be one of his quicker times???

I entered the 15km version and a slight course change to the previous years meant there were a few more testing incline sections. The race itself was fairly solid and I came through the first lap with a small group of 4 and quite aways back from the overall winner. Tried to keep the consistency for the last second lap and only slowed by 20secs over the 7.5km loop. Ended up finishing in 57.30 and managed to hold down 4th place. It was definitely good to have a hitout and felt good racing in a proper race! Still a few areas for improvement but still it’s a good place to be.

Post race, it was off to Cimbalino for the rewards of a hard effort in the morning and catch up, post breakfast, off to Kings Park to look at Wildflowers and Trees. Good for recovery!

I tried to convince ‘The Girl’ that I had already run with them for an hour this morning, but, it didn’t work… Apparently, they look different close-up…??

After reading Simon’s inspiration (Actually the words – acute suffering of burning lungs and lungs) I have decided to enter the Pancake 15km on the weekend. I haven’t done much since Malaysia and as such a good solid workout is now due…

For anyone else interested, the race starts at 8am, Saw Ave, Kings Park. Yes, there will be a few inclines but it will make you strong! For those who only want to feel half as strong, a 7.5km pikelet olption is available.

Yes, you do get Pancakes and Pikelets after!

A follow-up on the previous post – and the battle with quantity v quality.

Very few endurance athletes think of themselves as avoiding suffering in their training, but in my experience most do. They embrace a certain kind of suffering, which is the grind of high volume, but they shy away from exposing themselves to much of the acute suffering of burning lungs and legs that is experienced in challenging high-intensity workouts.

Read it here

A mate I run with recently included this on a blogpost he wrote about our last session:
‘Although I didn’t hit the paces exactly as dictated/intended for the session, I was still in the right ranges and certainly felt like I had done the work required.’

It reminded me of when I was training in my late-teens/early 20s. Our coach would get pretty feisty if he ever caught us checking our watches. All sessions were based on perceived effort. Five-eighths, three-quarters and seven-eighths were his favourites. It makes a lot of sense. The fact that you don’t nail a prescribed pace doesn’t devalue the session if you nail the intended efforts (cause the prescribed pace doesn’t consider what else you’ve been doing – is it on the back of a long run? 2 days after a race? at the end of a high-mileage week?). By the same token, if you’re running out of your skin, you could wimp out, nail the prescribed pace, but potentially be bludging.

With GPS and every kind of measurement device, it can be pretty easy to concentrate on time and distance so much that we don’t actually acclimatise to the ‘callousing of the mind’ that comes from sustained efforts – watch or no watch.

Just a thought…

….‘Congratulations on your selection to the Great Britain team for the 2009 ITU Long Distance Triathlon Championships in Perth. This letter confirms your place on the team‘ said the email from the British Triathlon Federation.  I never thought it would happen (More like I hoped it wouldn’t happen), me, represent my country, wow, “all you have to do is put your name down and you’re pretty much in” someone said, which did slightly take the shine off the prestige of representing your home Nation. But, nevertheless, I’m ‘in’, and I guess I’d better start training.

For the first week of serious training, I decided to contract the flu, and boy did it knock me for six (Just like England did against Australia in the Ashes – good work chaps). 2 days off work and no training for 5 days, I started to panic.

“Raymond, I’ve lost all my fitness, will I ever get it back?”

“No you won’t, it’s over” I think his answer was jokingly – but this time I think he was right, or so it felt.

Some gentle Raymond training for 3 weeks to ease myself back into the routine, and all of a sudden it’s time for the City to Surf ½ marathon. After an early ‘gun’, it’s up the hill I went, a quick “hello” to Raymond as I ran past (And if I may digress, I’d like to take this opportunity to add that this it not the first time I’ve run past you is it Ray? 2009 Busselton ½ IM, a moment I will never forget – sorry Ray, I just couldn’t resist) and from that point on, I knew it wasn’t going to be my day. My legs felt like they belonged to someone else, and when they did vaguely come back and feel like my own, it seemed like I was carrying the rest of the 21Km runners on my back. People were passing me left right and centre. Uphill or down, they just kept coming past, and there was nothing I could do to keep up. 1 hour and 28 minutes later, I crossed the finish line, a moment in my life that I never thought would come, or come soon enough. That, I thought, was my worst race ever, although deep down, I somehow knew there were plenty more to come.

So, with the C2S behind me for another year, and after a spin class, a 3Km swim and an early morning track running session with Mr Raymond, I find myself sitting here with aching legs writing this blog, probably sending you all to sleep…..

Goodnight!

It would seem Mr Bill is truly embracing the whole French culture. Bike rides in the Alps with his mistress and his wife back home tending to the home business matters…

After an epic Sunday of City to Surf watching it has been back to business and more importantly getting this body back into racing. What better way to allow this to happen then listening to a Barry White compilation. Truly motivating I tell you and something everyone has to experience for themselves. Don’t knock it until you try it!

Yesterday was another running session down at McGillivray and this time a couple of extra attendees… The ‘H’ man and his trusty companion ‘Schillaci’. For those into names Paul and Antony. On arrival they looked a little scared but alas they made it through! Yesterday’s session was a descending set of 2k, 1.6k, 1.6k, 1.2k, 1.2k, 1.2k and 2 x 800m to finish. All with a 1min recovery. Nice work to all those who completed as it ended up being quite a tough hitout!

This morning was the usual Wednesday morning swim session and a morning in which it would have been very easy to stay in slumber land, but, NO! A world championship is looming and the ‘Brit’ and ‘Wu’ are on my tail. On arrival it was a 500m warmup, then straight into a set of 2 x 500m (8.00min), 100m float, 2 x 400m (6.15min), 100m float, 2 x 300m (4.45min), 100m float and then 2x200m (3.15min). At this stage I thought that was enough but no, another 300m of kicking (unlike) and then an easy 300m to finish.

At least the pool was semi-cool today as opposed to the other day when it was at freezing temperatures due to an electricity function… Not good for a skinny 60kg bloke as internal heating measures aren’t apparent.

For those interested, the next set of planned races that BYL athletes will be attending include -

• 19 September – Dwellingup 100km Mountain Bike (The ‘F’ man has decided to race, or I should say ride…We’ll see)
• 20 September – Fremantle Half Marathon
• 4 October – Fremantle 10k funrun (Ray will be commentating)

I have also heard on the grapevine that there will be a Sprint distance triathlon as part of the World Championships so it may be a good pre-race hitout for anyone interested…Check out the Worlds website.

Now it’s onto the bike for some riding in the wind swept city of Perth and a balmy 16C, Hope you’re enjoying the summer Mr Bill!

Enjoy Training!

Team BYL France is firing on all cylinders. After thre days of solid riding I can confirm that France is THE best place in the world to ride. Next time I go out I must remember to bring my camera so I can share some of my local riding sites with you.

What is more however is the news hot off the press that the riding is about to get even better. On Thursday the team will be packing up the trusty Punto and heading north to the land of lofty peaks, mountain roads and cows with bells around their necks. Yes we are heading to the alps for three days of cycling, cycling and more cycling (I am not really sure what Claire is planning to do during this time but she seems happy…I worry that she does not fully understand what happens when you let a man and his superlight Cervelo roam free in the alps but what can I do?).

A little team discussion earlier this evening over a lovely dinner of salad nicoise and red wine resulted in us reaching for the trusty Michelin map of France and our favourite website – wotif.com (well second favourite website if you count  breakyourlimits.com). In a matter of minutes, we had booked three nights in the ski town of Auron, only a few kilometres away from the highest paved road in Europe (exciting hey!). While not usually being one to brag about bargains, I do have to mention that our little alpine chalet normally sells for 1310 euro per night. Normally this would be way out of the humble price range of these travelling bums, but the stars were aligned tonight and we scored the chalet for the bargain price of 36 euro per night. Yes, you might say that we are staying in a tacky, swis style, wood panelled ski resort in the dead of summer time, but hey, its french(ish) and we like it.  

Til next time, happy training and happy living

Another Break Your Limits athlete has made it to the national news centre (at least that is what I’m calling it).

Mara Kroyer ran the City to Surf Marathon and she was interviewed before the race started.

All you have it do is click on the ‘City to Surf run section’ and you will see her at the end. Check it out here!

Yesterday was the city to surf, the second race for me in two weeks. I had a pretty easy week in an attempt to recover from the Wally Cairns. Therefore I didn’t run until Saturday morning and on race day itself. I’m not sure if this was the right strategy as your body starts to do strange things when it has too much rest.

The race went pretty well. The plan was to start steady and ease into the run, but in reality it was start fast and suffer for approximately 50 minutes. I was feeling ok, until Perry Lakes, then the last three rolling hills started to take its toll. I faded towards the end, but was happy with my final time and there was not much left in the tank . I have pulled up pretty sore and a bit lame, so the next few days will determine my training for this week.

Great effort by all the BYL team, especially for those doing the marathon.

Running is alive and well!

Where else would you be on earth? Today we saw the running of the epic City to Surf Fun Run which inlcuded the Marathon, Half Marathon, the traditional 12km and the 4km. It was a spectacle of the grandest nature, full road closures, smelly portaloos, some fast Kenyans and the all important runners!

Today was an early start to ensure I could see as much of the 3 races race as possible. After a 5.00am alarm clock, it was on with the running shoes and off to it. Whlist on the run I relaised I could see the start of the Half and still be back in time for the full Marathon. Through Kings Park to the start and away they went. From the comments of, ‘I think that blokes running the wrong way’ to ‘Check out that guys socks’ I manage to see the whole field through. I even managed to see Gavin running in tow with Mali, an amazing adventure for the newlyweds!

Back to the gym and onto the bikes with Simon in tow we then rode to see all the action unfold. The Kenyans came by at a speed of knots with daylight to the rest of the field. Then numerous others like Tim, Kevin, Mara and Tanya. They all ran well and had exceptional races.

It was then off to start the start of the 12km. I have only ever seen the finish, so to see it at the start was a pretty cool spectacle. As we looked down St Georges Terrace perched just atop of the St Georges Terrace climb the line of runners was huge. Just reading the reports and they estimated a total of 40000 people. RUnning is alive and well in Perth!

We found ourselves stationed in this position for the next hour, cheering on all the marathons runners and giving advice to the 12km runners who had decided to run in the marathon lane. It never ceases to amaze me!

It was then onto Kings Park and a couple of conversations with the girls to ensure they were travelling ok, they kept throwing off the non essential items and by then end of the trip home we looked like a travelling sales caravan. From sticky gel bottles, hats and clothing it was a slow ride back to the gym.

To all those who competed over any distance today I would like to say WELL DONE! A great achievement by all and I look forward to the many more races that will eventuate from this one! For the next few hours, I will be sitting in a cafe sipping my flat white to recover. This cheering business is harder than the race itself!