Tuesday, August 28, 2007

To Be Inspired.....
I'm down with sore throat and runny nose. My tri training is gone off whack and I'm in dire need of inspiration. So here it is. The song is great and it's going to be playing in my head when I'm swimming, biking and running...and feel like quitting. This father-son team of Rick & Dick Hoyt is nothing short of amazing.
Dream. Believe. Achieve.
So what' stopping you?

team hoyt

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

East Coast Park
There's a lot of lucky people who live in the East that can enjoy doing their morning walks & exercises along the East Coast Park. It's about 10km from Fort Road all the way up to SAFRA golf course. It's a good place to bike for me as I don't have to worry about cars & buses. Sometimes pedestrian traffic is more fickle though!

It was lovely this morning. There's just something about the sea. The constant breeze. The smell. The rhythmic sound of the waves. So I spent some time sitting on a bench, closed my eyes and just soaked in the moment. A little later I decided to make good use of the time to do my BSF (bible study fellowship) homework. We're studying the book of Romans and this week's homework is just 4 verses. But just take a look at it.

Romans 11: 33-36
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgements,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?
For from him and through him and to him are all things,
To him be the glory forever! Amen.

It was very easy meditating on these verses in such pretty surroundings. It took me half the usual time to complete it. I think I'll go biking in East Coast more often now!

Monday, August 06, 2007

Base Phase over....
I'm following a training plan. I just completed the first 5 weeks of Base building. The objective being to build a strong aerobic base. Just get my body used to a progressive increase in volume of exercise. Not strenous - but easy and long yet able to hold a conversation....sort of. I have been swimming, biking and running 6 out of 7 days. I topped if off with a 1hr 15min run last Saturday from my home to Botanics and back. May have overdone it a little. Have a blister on my fourth toe. Crap.

Now I'm to move on to 4 wks of Build Phase. This will involve interval training - spurts of faster pace to push the body a bit more and hopefully increase my speed. I'm currently taking 5 minutes to swim a set of 200m, biking at an average speed of 26km/hr and running at a real easy pace of 6km/hr. It's very average and the cows will all go home if I don't improve. So I need to move from aerobic to anaerobic training.

I also will need to do 'brick' sessions. Training my muscles to switch from swimming to running....or running to biking. I'm entering this phase with a little trepidation because it's definitely more physically demanding. I'm going to be so pooped out. As it is, I have had to take short power naps a few hours after my exercise these past weeks because I was just feeling zonked out. Cannot operate. Especially when I need to drive.

There will be 2 wks of Peak Phase and 1 wk of Taper and then.......the real thing on 23 Sept.