Ironman Western Australia 5 Dec 2010

Well the race has come and gone - I've not been in a position to post for a long time due to work and other stuff, but could not go without posting my race report for what has been a long year.

Swim 1.07.29
Bike 6.23.41
Run 4.05.17
Overall 11.48.32
AG 45-49 8th overall / 5th swim / 20th bike (needs work) / 3rd run
Female 226 starters  62nd swim / 142nd bike (needs work) / 39th run

We arrived in Busselton on Thursday 2 Dec and I registered and received all my bags, id, timing chip etc and then went to our accommodation to unpack our stuff and then repack for the race!

Friday morning I went for a swim in the training area as I hadn't put my wetsuit on since May - I got adopted by a couple from Canberra which was nice as otherwise I would have swam on my own, water was nice, bit bumpy on the way back in to shore but otherwise pretty good.

We then went out sightseeing for the day with our friends to Dunsborough, Eagle Bay, Meelup, Bunker Bay and toured a cave (I didn't I had an hour's sleep in the car) then home for a lovely BBQ dinner with our other friends who arrived Friday evening.

Saturday I did a short swim/bike/run session with another guy I know who was doing the event followed by a BBQ breakfast which was yummy - my friends & family went out sightseeing for the day which left me on my own (which is what I wanted) - I unpacked and repacked my stuff just to be sure I had everything then racked my bike and my bags, wandered into town to get my hair braided for the race.  Back to the house and an afternoon snooze followed by another lovely dinner cooked by my supporters (& I haven't had to wash up, clean up or anything - they have been fantastic!)

Got quite nervous late Saturday afternoon and a bit teary started questioning whether this was something that I would be able to do - I felt (before the race) that in ideal conditions I could aim for 11hrs 30mins but after speaking with Max on Monday I tried to not concentrate on the time instead working to a heart rate!

Slept ok'ish and took my smoothie breakfast at 3am and we left at 4am to get to transistion my fabulous hubby and my friend came with me, my daughter and other friends got there a bit later (but in time to see me exit the swim)

Put my food & water onto the bike, struggled into my wetsuit and headed over to the start, felt surprisingly calm considering how I felt the night before.

I decided to move towards the front of the pack nearest to the jetty which definitely paid off, although I have to say I struggled for a while to find someone to draft off, eventually found someone and stayed on their toes until the turn point which turned into a bit of a bun fight and I lost my drafter and had to find another one. Finished the swim, happy with the time and really surprised to see so many bikes still in transistion!

Off onto the bike, I didn't think it was too windy (compared to how it was the day before, but the wind was still up and made a huge difference to my speed at various times)  having had my pre-race chat with Max I was very conscious of sticking to my heart rate and I was hoping for a 6hr bike, this turned into a bit longer but I didn't focus on it, although I know I was on target initially but as the day went on the wind got stronger (as it always does in WA) - had a toilet stop after the 2nd lap which was a good sign given my experience earlier this year at the half IM when I didn't drink enough!

I got passed by so many bikes (which is what Max said would happen) and by lap 3 (last lap) I was "billy no mates" there was hardly anyone left :( tough mentally on this last lap on the longest stretch of road as there was not a lot to break it up and very few bikes around.

Finally off the bike and into T2 fairly slowing as my legs still thought that they were cycling, I decided to change my shorts (this proved to be very comfortable) and I also had another toilet stop before heading out onto the run.

Again I had a heart rate to work towards and I kept to this although I was running fairly fast initially - I sailed through the first 2 laps of the 4 lap course and felt fantastic, I picked off athletes as soon as I started running, which is what Max said would happen, by the 3rd lap my thighs were starting to sieze up only minor but I knew that it would only get worse and lap 4 was quite painful but I still managed to run ok and was very happy with my run time

I smiled from the start to the finish of the whole race, I had an absolute ball and did everything that Max said.  I stuck to the heart rate for the whole of the run, nervous that I might blow up and not be able to finish without walking, very happy with my race result and performance (that's a first for me) and had a fantastic swim and run - bike still needs work to make me more competitive!
Had my paleo recovery drink - really did not want this but knew I needed to have something followed by a post race rub down and then picked up kit and went home where I had an ice bath followed by a hot epsom salt bath, a shower and dinner (again cooked by my fabulous family and friends).

Thighs are a bit delicate today (the day after) but have done my CF recovery WOD and have a massage booked tomorrow am feeling really good and so enjoyed this race, which as everyone tells me the first one is the one to enjoy - I'm not sure yet whether I will do anymore I don't know that I be able to enjoy another on as I did this one - but only have until Dec 15 to decide which is when registrations open for 2011

Definitely back on track :)

Hi to all TriMaxer's especially those who have just completed IMLP - great results and enjoyed the race reports - helped to give me inspiration and motivation.

I have been slowly getting back on track following the half ironman in May nearly got my health sorted and my physical issues - hamstring tendonitis, strained disc also getting better.

Have spent July following Max's program more or less, not been posting as was seeing if I could handle regular training without the pressure of reporting - I'm pleased to say that progress has been good and I'll start posting from August.

I've got 4 months to my Ironman and it will be here before I know it - here's to a healthy mind & body for the rest of the year :)

i'm back - well sort of

Hi All

Have been reading your blogs on and off over the last month or so, was due to start training with max again in June, but lots of things have come up - like now I'm in Sydney for a week on a training course + I have 3 x projects either going live or kicking off in June and I know it will be too stressful to add in Max's training schedule where I will feel obliged to do all the sessions.

So I'll be back training with Max in July getting ready for my ironman in December.

Had a couple of weeks off after the half ironman and ate lots of chocolate - started to do a bit of training but have to say was feeling very flat for a good couple of weeks.

Have signed up for 10 x 1-on-1 sessions with my CF Gym which started last week that has helped to get me motivated a bit more - also while I'm in Sydney I am training with Crossfit Sydney every morning so that is helping the motivation too - hopefully when I get to July I will be raring to go.

Looking forward to seeing how you all get on at IMLP - you all rock :)

Race Report - The Good, The Bad and The Downright Ugly!

So race is over and I am hobbling around like an old woman - its not a pretty sight and is very painful :(

I'll start with the good, I came 6th in my age group out of 43 finishers and 54th overall out of 343 female competitors.  (Although I have realised that I am in the wrong age group and should be in 45-49 where I would have placed 4th - I think its because I entered last year, my friend was also in the wrong age group too)

I was very relaxed about this race, the most relaxed ever which was a really nice change. We travelled down on Friday and I registered and racked my bike then went to our accomodation, relaxed, ate and then had to go to the race briefing at 7.30pm Friday evening - went to bed around 9.30pm and had a really crap night, could not get to sleep, when I did sleep I kept waking up so maybe I was not as relaxed as I thought!

Got up at 5am Saturday to have breakfast and even though I didn't sleep well I did feel pretty good, off to the race and setup my transistion area then met my family and friends outside so that we could get into our wetsuits and make our way over to the start.

The weather was fantastic, blue skies, slight cloud, flat ocean (cold though) - we went at 7.45am and I actually had a pretty good swim, I tried where possible to draft, but surprisingly found this really difficult as even though there were over 300 women in the wave finding one in front of me was actually quite difficult! Excited the water in 34mins a couple of mins down on what I wanted but no panic, quite a long run into transistion and out on the bike.

The 1st half of the first lap was slow going as I caught the back end of the mens waves that went in front of us and had to be careful about drafting - then on the way back into town the wind had picked up and this made it hard going. By the start of the 2nd lap on the bike the wind had picked up even more and then my legs started to cramp - my inner thighs of all places!! this combined with the wind started to have an effect as you will see from my split times - overall the bike route was so much better than previous years as the field was far more spread out which made it easier to ride without worrying about drafting.

Back into transistion for T2, inner thighs stopped playing up, but the thighs then took over - started running feeling ok'ish.

Now the bad - I didn't drink enough on the bike leg I only had about 1250ml not even 2 x bottles - I was so focused on eating I virtually forgot about drinking - this had a major impact on my race as you will find out later :(

I did the first lap on the run and felt bad, by half way I was really in trouble and very, very thirsty - normally I am really bad at eating and drinking when running but I drank at every drink station and continued taking my gels. After half way I decided that I would walk every drink station for 2 reasons, 1) my legs would get a rest (they really hurt) and 2) I could drink more - so this is what I did and as you will see from my lap times I got slower and slower.

Now comes the really ugly part, on the last lap of the run it took all my willpower not to stop and walk, I can't tell you how much my legs were hurting me - it was like my thighs were contracting the top pulling down and the bottom pulling up - shrinking together - I just focused on reaching every drink station so that I could stop and have a rest and drink. On the last 3.5km back to the finish I definitely tried to pick the pace up as I just wanted to finish so that I could get relief from the pain in my thighs, running down the finish shute I nearly didn't make it as my thighs had virtually siezed up (my daughters boyfriend said he thought I was going to fall over) - I very nearly did!

Anyway I finished in 5hrs 10mins 16secs and was very disappointed as the lack of hydration obviously had a major impact on my performance and it was something that was totally within my control, but as Max said I made a "rookie" mistake and won't do it again and as he says you learn more from the mistakes than the things you do right.

Straight after the race I went and stood in the ocean for 10mins and it was so hard to move, I also drank around 6 litres of water after I finished and it took me 4.5hrs until I could pee (& it was very very dark) so majorly under hydrated

So I'm now shuffling around like an old woman with arthritis and am looking forward to another epsom salts bath today, have been starving since the race and am looking forward to a rest now.

If you can't read the results, jump to the website here:

 http://results.racetectiming.com/MyResults.aspx?CId=11&RId=2027&EId=4&AId=31440

So now I will be resting for the whole of May and all things being equal I will be back training with Max in June - I will though still be reading all your blogs so I won't be far away :)

This is it !

Well I can't believe that 4 months have passed - I remember the first training session that Max set all the way back on 1st January 2010 - its been a long and also a short 4 months if you know what I mean?

I am so excited for this race and have set myself a huge stretch goal of 4hrs 45mins - to achieve this time I need the race of my life and everything to go to plan so we will see what happens, the good news is that they have gone back to wave starts from one mass start and changed the bike course from 3 laps to 2 laps which should hopefully spread the field out, unlike previous years where the bike was really congested.

I've enjoyed the last 4 months and the online support from all you guys - its really helped and made me laugh and cry as we have shared our training and lives with each other - you all rock :)

Anyway, last session completed this morning feel great and off to pack and get ready to travel to Busselton today.

Will post race report on Sunday when I get home, although will be texting Max my result on Saturday.

Jane


We

Rest Day & slight illness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so today (Thursday) is my rest day and all week I haven't been able to work out whether I am coming down with something or not - is it in my mind because I'm tapering or is there something really wrong because I'm tapering????

So off to my fabulous naturopath this morning and I have a bacterial infection in my sinus - should be ok for the race on Saturday though - have some herbal remedy stuff to take - he said I may feel under the weather later today or tomorrow but should be ok for Saturday - phew!!!

Last post tomorrow morning before we travel down to Busselton for the race, if you want check out the race website http://www.busseltonhalf.com/

Taper Week

Tuesday was Helen @ 70% - 3 x 400m run 21 x KB swings 12 x pull ups used 8kg KB and small orange powerband for the pull ups, time was 12mins 02secs

Weds was 8 x 200m run at 75% - thought my times were a bit out but remeasured the course and realised I was stopping at the wrong crack in the pavement and ran about 20m more so feel happier about my times now.

I have a massage booked for this afternoon as well as a new yoga class tonight - I'm trying an Astanga yoga course with my husband for the next 12 weeks (although my phsyio is not happy about this as he doesn't want me to stretch so I have to be careful)

Tomorrow Thursday is a rest day so next posting will be Friday !!!! can't believe that the race is nearly here very excited

Lazy Monday

Today I just had 5 x 3 back squats at 70% normal weight - I chose 40kg this was very easy and I was really pleased with my form on the squats.

That's it for training today and its also a public holiday so a nice long weekend too :)

I've started getting all my kit etc together for the trip down south and have planned my meals so that I take everything I need I also have a couple of friends coming to watch the race too which I've only just found out so that was a nice surprise too.

Definitely in countdown mode - only 5 more sleeps!!!!

Short & Sweet Session today

Swapped a session I missed earlier in the week, which was

50 x 20kg thrusters for time stopping on every min for 4 x burpees

I finished in 2mins 59 secs and decided to do another set of 4 x burpees so finished in 3mins 16secs

That's it for today and then this week is a big taper week leading into the half ironman next Saturday - am really looking forward to this race and know that I am in really good shape to hit my target time which I have set myself of 4hrs 45mins - providing everything goes to plan I should be able to finish in this time

I have a number of people here who are really interested to see how I perform given the unorthodox nature of the training that I have been doing, myself included - a big thanks to Max for the training program and support I know I am ready :)

Great Ride

Saturday I went for a ride round the river with my cycling buddies, I actually rode with 5 other guys who will be in the same team for the cycle races this winter.

We had a great ride and I felt and rode really strongly its give me a great confidence boost for next weekend, especially as my legs were suffering from the Cindy squats the day before.

Am still suffering with a bit of muscle soreness today, but will be doing my CF session later today

Getting back on track

I've had a much better morning today :)

Am feeling good, backside is so much better after being bashed by the physio, had a great swim set this morning in my new race suit - after a short warm up we swam 19 x 100 on 1.50 turn round aiming for 1.34/1.36 - I managed to swim these all on the right pace so was really happy - I did draft most of them as I caught the guy in front so that really helped.

Then I went straight home and did Cindy (still in my race suit) managed 18 rounds which I am pleased with as I could feel the swim in my arms which affected my pull ups and definitely the press ups.

Looking forward to tomorrow - I'm riding round the river with my cycling buddies who have reminded me that I haven't been out with them all year and now that the team cycle races have started I need to make an appearance. I'm actually really looking forward to this :)

Great bike - bad backside!

This morning I had bike intervals of 3/5/7/7/5/3 mins with 3mins recovery (I took the rest down to 2mins)

I was very happy with how I felt on the bike - strong - and with the distance covered in each interval (my pace) so very pleased

Backside not so good, saw the physio this afternoon where we worked out the reason why my backside had started to play up again this week - it was the yoga - I forgot he told me not to stretch!!!!! I thought because I didn't have any pain I was fixed - I was wrong - he reminded me that as I have a tendonitis issue that this takes weeks to heal and I need to help it along - so was bashed about by massage and accupunture needles.

Tonight I was supposed to do Cindy but I'm still feeling a bit bashed up so have decided not to do this session tonight - I will do it in the morning after swimming.

Also I'm really looking forward to my swim session in the morning I get to try out my new race suit which I won as a prize in the race I did in January but have only just got around to claiming

An off day today :(

Following on from how I felt yesterday - today was a bit of an off day

Had a 10km Run TT this morning, I knew it would not be good, so I focused on visualising myself running at the 1/2 ironman in a couple of weeks and aimed to run at the pace that I wanted t run there, time wise this was good for a 1/2 marathon but crap for a 10km.

My hamstrings and glutes played up again today, after seeming to be better over the last week and a half - this made the run very unpleasant, I so want to be able to run without any pain

2nd WOD I did at lunchtime which was 5 x 5 DL - again this was hard work, mainly because my glutes and hamstrings were definitely restricting me and I am disappointed with the weight lifted - I nearly gave up after 3 sets - in fact I was walking out of the garage when I told myself "to toughen up princess" and went back and did the last 2 sets - I lifted 60/65/67.5/70/72.5kg - I would have liked to lift 75 & 77.5kg but it was not happening today

Here's hoping tomorrow is better, I'm back at the physio tomorrow & was feeling really positive about the body until the last couple of days - I need to keep my spirit up and a positive attitude as my race is only 10 days away and I know I am in shape to break 5hrs

Drafting is the way to go (in the swim)

So Tuesday morning I had my squad swim we did 3000m as 200/400/600/800/1000 with drills and swimming - the final 1000m was swum continuously with drafting.

I got to draft the whole swim and it was so easy, I finished in 16mins 30s which is an average of 1.38 per 100m and I hardly looked like I had been swimming the guys in the front were definitely suffering - a timely reminder that I need to draft in the race next week.

2nd WOD was 300 x squats for time, didn't do this, ended up having not such a good day and was really, really not in the mood for this :(

I forgot the burpees!

Today was 10 x 200m with 1min rest penalty 5 x burpees for each rep not within .02

My times were a bit all over the place and I think I ran short (I forgot which line in the road was my 200m point!!!) also I cut the rest to 45s as this was in my lunchbreak and I had to get back for a meeting.

Anyway, when I got home I forgot about the burpees and just went and did a stretch - opps!

PM I decided it would probably be a good idea to go to yoga so I took myself off to Bikram Yoga and had a good class and a great stretch.

Weekend Training

Saturday
WOD was 3 x 5 DL (45kg) 10 box jumps 500m row - managed to complete this in under 10mins (forgot the actual time its written in the garage!) - found the rowing tough today and my times were not that great, DL were fine, box jumps tough as normal, but getting better

Sunday
Had an 85km team cycle race - I got put in a different team as we had lots of new riders but they were way too slow for me, so I ended up being on the front for most of the ride and being told to "ease up" all the time - I really wanted to push on, but couldn't as I kept dropping the rest of the team, I did though feel fantastically strong even into the wind and my nutrition seemed to work really well.

Less than 2 wks now to my half ironman - here's to feeling as strong there as I did today

Feeling Fresh :)

So after my rest day yesterday and the massage the day before I am feeling pretty fresh.

Squad swim this morning was really good, main set was

5 x 100m
4 x 25m
3 x 100m

I managed to swim all the 100's on 1.34 - 1.36 again I'm working on trying to be relaxed (like in my running) and it does seem to be paying off.

3 x thru of 200m broken with 10sec rest as follows
100m 10sec rest
50m 10sec rest
50m finish
Total swim time excluding rest was 3mins / 2.59mins / 2.38mins with fins

2nd WOD was 3 x 500m row box jumps press ups 21/15/9 - completed this in 11mins 5secs going from rowing to box jumps was tough but the press ups were good

WOD x 2 then Massage - ahh!

So this morning did what should have been Mondays WOD 4 x 1 mile with 8min rest.

Ran 1.716meters (accurately measured well fairly accurate) & this is the same course that I did this session on in January, so 110m over a mile, but close enough

Ran 7.31 / 7.10 / 7.04 / 7.04 was really happy with this, as apart from the first rep when I was kind of feeling my way, I tried to run really relaxed and it seemed to work and I know I could have run another rep and hit the same time (in fact I wished I had now!) This is an improvement on January where I got slower with each rep.

2nd WOD I did about an hour after this session 3 x 30m walking lunges 10 burpees 25 situps - lunges hurt after the run, burpees ok'ish and situps were tough, finished in 6mins 43secs

Then early afternoon had a sports massage followed by a day of rest on Thursday (today)

Another Good Day Training

Still working on swapped round sessions so this morning was squad swim total 2900m with a combination of drills / swim with longer intervals, swam well and felt good, body a little sore from the squats / thrusters but the swim helped to work this out.

Had to do the 2nd WOD at lunchtime as I was out in the evening, really did not want to do this 5 x 500m row & 400m run - but I went home and got into the session, actually started enjoying it strangely enough and beat my time from January even with a tired body managed 22mins 5secs - 15secs faster

Looking forward to tomorrow - 2 x sessions followed by a massage and a rest day - lovely :)

Swapped Training

This morning was supposed to be 4 x 1 mile with 8min rest but after the weekend at the NLP course I was too tired to do this session justice so I decided to swap days.

I chose Weds and did a 5km run TT managed 21.37 felt good, butt still hurt but nothing like on Saturday or perhaps my focus was different today? AND I ran the fastest 5km that I have this year by 15secs so a very good start to the day :)

PM was 21/15/9 20kg thrusters + dips - I used my rings with an orange powerband for the dips to make it harder - completed this in 6mins dead!!!

Thrusters were good, could have gone heavier, dips were hard after the thrusters broke these into 7/7/7 & 5/5/5 & 5/4

weekend training and NLP Course

Friday training
AM was squad swim, really good session today and I swam well, arms were a little tired but nothing like the swim on Tuesday

main set was
4 x 25m on 30s 1 x fast 1 x easy
6 x 50m on 60s 1 x fast 1 x easy
5 x 100m on 2min 1 x fast 1 x easy (I swam 1.32 fast / 1.40 easy)

4 x 25m on 30s all fast
6 x 50m on 60s all fast
5 x 100m on 2min on 1.36 pace

I held the pace on every rep so was really pleased with this swim set

PM was 3 x rounds of 30kg DL 21/15/9 run 400m situps for 9/15/21 managed this in 9mins 43secs

Sat training I swapped was supposed to do 10km Run TT but my backside was not in a good place so ended up doing just 6km, but I decided to visualise myself running the 1/2 marathon in my race and that I was running the pace I wanted to run there and I felt really good (except for the tightness in my butt - I hope this gets resolved in the next 3 wks!!!!)

Sun was 5 x 7 back squats managed to do 42.5 / 45 / 47.7 / 50 / 52.5kg I did a couple of warm up sets and I probably could have gone heavier but I was a little off focus with the NLP weekend.

Had a good weekend with the NLP stuff - long days and lots of stuff to take in but overall it was really good and I'm glad that I did it

Feeling Stronger but times out

AM was 4 x 5km bike intervals with 1min recovery - I felt really, really strong on the bike, but the times didn't reflect how I felt - was a little disappointed with the times but I did feel really good on the bike so that is what I will take from this session.

PM was 5 burpees / 10 press ups / 500m row AMRAP in 20mins - physio was not keen on me doing burpees (honestly!) so I changed these to box jumps on 18" box, managed to complete 6 rounds 5 box jumps / 10 push ups / 180m row

Was really pleased with this workout, the rowing was hard as my legs were a little tired from the bike intervals, I tried to do jump up & jump down for the box jumps and managed this for 3-4 continuous reps the others being singles and the press ups were fab - all on my toes, with great depth and I felt strong

Physio happy with the way my body is going, things are definitely improving, I'm not 100% yet, but I am heading that way, only 3 wks to go now to my half ironman so should be enough time to get my body fixed!

Back to Yoga

Given all the issues I have been having with my body lately and the fact that my half ironman is less than 4 wks away I thought it was probably a good idea to go back to yoga as this seemed to really help my body before.

so went to early class this morning at 6am - first thing I noticed was how much stronger I was feeling in the postures - the flexibility left a lot to be desired (which I expected) but overall I'm still a whole lot more flexible than 95% of the class - this is down to my "bendy genes" and my previous life as a gymnast :)

This evening I had a 15min run TT managed to run 3.41km for an average of 4.28p/km warmed up before with CFWU butt hurt as soon as I started running but thankfully it was not as restrictive as when I tried to run the 1/2 marathon, back to the physio tomorrow - hopefully a bit more treatment + my self treatment will get it right in time for my race

Deadlift PB :)

AM was squad swim session we did 1000 / 800 / 600 / 400 / 200 alternating with moderate swimming, drills, drafting - pretty good session and good to get some long swims in.

My arms were tired, left arm came back to life pretty quickly but right arm was tired for the whole swim set!

PM was 7 x 1 DL - was aiming for a PB as when I last did this in March my body was suffering from the loss of core stability so I really struggled

I managed to lift 60 / 65 / 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 87.5kg and more importantly every lift I felt strong and was able to hold the weight in the upright position really well before lowering so very very pleased with this :)

Easter Training

Good Friday was an ocean swim session run as a handicap so the slower swimmers first and faster swimmers last first to cross the line gets an easter egg :)

I swam 29mins 30secs which was a bit slow, think we may have swam a bit more than 1.6km but I had a good swim and managed to draft for most of the swim.

Later on I had 3 x 40reps of 12kg KB swings / situps / squats - 12mins 14secs - body still not right and this was a bit tough on the body

Easter Saturday I did 10 - 1 reps of burpees / squats / situps - 7mins 3secs - burpees were much better than they have been, good depth on the squats could have been faster though, and situps were ok'ish

Easter Sunday was 5km run TT - was not sure how my body would react to this given the last run I had - went out positive butt started to tighten up within the 1st km, but I focused on relaxing the muscles, this was a tough run for me but I didn't give up - it was my slowest 5km TT since January at 22mins 28secs :(

Easter Monday was a planned 80km Bike TT - I ended up just doing 40km as my husband wanted to go out and the 80km TT would have taken the morning as it was an organised event so I changed this to a 40km TT which I could do from home and keep everyone happy - managed 1hr 20mins which is around the time I last did this, but I felt much stronger this time, still got some issues with the muscles in my butt tightening up but I don't think it restricted me too much

Looking forward to going back to yoga this week as I think this will really help

Catch up on posting training sessions

After my run effort, my body had lots of muscle soreness in my legs and I had another WOD to do in the evening,

PM WOD was 5 x DL (60kg) / 10 x burpees / 15 x squats AMRAP in 15mins

Happy with the DL's in particular as 60kg used to be the most I could lift and I did 45 of them in this WOD, burpees leave a lot to be desired I seem to be going backwards with them lately, the squats were really hard work as my legs had lots of muscle soreness - managed 8 full rounds + 5 DLs

Thursday WOD was Fran 21/15/9 thrusters & pull ups, chose 32.5kg for the thrusters - I last did this in Feb with 30kg where my training diary shows that I really struggled with the weight and this time I managed more continuous reps than last time - this took me 12mins and Feb took me 11mins but happy with this as the weight was 2.5kg more & my legs were really sore

Looking forward to the long weekends training and having a bit more free time

Half a 1/2 marathon!

Since my race at the weekend when I suffered with a tight butt running (again) have been to see physio & he thinks I have a bit of hamstring tendonitis due to the tight pirformis muscles so had some massage & accupressure needles + some self treatment

Tuesday I did 5 x 3 shoulder press, very happy with results 25/27.5/30/32.5/35kg my best is 30kg

Weds (today) I had a 1/2 marathon to run, physio told me I probably only had a 10km in me and not to run if I started to get the tightness back, well I thought I would be ok so off I went on the same course that I ran before - I took it a bit easy and felt really comfortable no issues with butt managed 10km in a very slow time then turned round to run back, got to about 12km and things started to tighten up managed to make 15km before I had to stop and walk the rest of the way home. My butt tightened, then this extended down my hamstrings to the backs of my knees and to top it off my thighs decided to join the we're all tight club - so trying to be sensible I stopped and walked.

Jumped in the spa when I got home and had a stretch too, hopefully not done too much damage and have to keep on with the self treatment and back to physio next week.

Duathlon Race Repot

My first duathlon today due to not being allowed in the river to swim, I think the first run was about 3km then we rode 40km & ran 10km

First run was good, felt that I ran pretty well, the ride was 2 x laps of a fairly undulating course with about 3 hills on each lap - I need to get my head in gear for the ride as I find myself not "racing" the whole of the bike I end up just riding not racing - need to work on this!

Got off the bike with lead thighs from the hills they did ease up pretty early into the run, ran an even pace for the 10km (2 x laps) total time was 2hrs 16mins 40secs

1st run ?km 15.35
bike 40km 1.14.25
2nd run 10km - 43.43 (not sure if this was short as I didn't think I was running this fast!)

Pulled up ok'ish, my butt is tightening up when I run - this has been happening for a while now - I will need to get this sorted as it is affecting my performance

Feeling better :)

Have had a down couple of days this week, but after a strong talking to myself last night I got up much more positive this morning :)

Ended up having yesterday as a rest day as just not in the right head or body space to actually do justice to any training and I want to do quality sessions.

I also forgot to post my 5 x 3 back squats from Weds I managed 45 /50 /55 /60 /65kg which is a massive PB for me - the most I think I have done before is 57-60kg so very happy with the 65kg

My race on Sunday has now been changed to a duathlon, the freak storm that we had on Monday which has lead to widespread damage has resulted in sewage leaking into the river so we are not allowed to swim. I've never done a duathlon before the thought of 2 x runs always put me off, but I'm about to experience my first one - I am though looking forward to it.

Under the weather - literally

It's been a bit of a strange couple of days recovering from this freak storm - I mean we don't get hail or ice normally!!

Spent all of Tuesday organising stuff at work so that we could dry out all our records and arrange shifts out the front of the offices so that extra green waste bags were available for residents as well as contingency planning for how we would get back working with the loss of two whole departments work areas - anyway we managed to fix this and everyone worked really hard so Weds we were at least able to work even though we have had to setup a temporary work area in the Council Chamber!

Then when I got home I swept the debris from the road (we are the youngest in the street so it seemed the right thing to do) then had parents evening!!

So training, did not get to swim yesterday morning as pools closed due to storm damage, so did PM CF WOD instead which was 21/15/9 burpees and 500m rows in between, did this in 11mins 55secs very happy with how I worked on this - rowing time was a bit slow but felt that I worked well.

Next morning I got up feeling a little under par, but needed to run 10km at 80% well I ran 10km but I'm not posting my time it was painfully slow and I thought I was running ok until I saw the km splits then I freaked at how slow it was and how I knew I wasn't going to get any faster this was all I had - then later I worked out what 80% was and I basically ran at 80% and my km splits were evenly paced so that is good, what is scaring me a little is that I could not have run faster and I don't feel overly great today - but talking to others at work I think all the effort we had to put in yesterday has definitely had its effect on people and I woke up with a cold sore so am still run down :(

I have a race Sunday my last one before the half in May - its mainly to practice my nutrition and transistions but I still want to do well, I'm worried that I am a downward trend from getting ill last week!

I've got up this morning still feeling a little "off" and have decided not to do the training session this morning will aim to do this later today when hopefully I start to feel better!

hail, rain, storm & 8 x 400m runs

Well what a day its been, first proper training session this morning which was 8 x 400m runs at 5km pace with 3min recovery

Felt pretty good running which is a big improvement on how I have felt running the last few times.

Happy with my times, which got faster with each rep, in the rest times I did some pose running drills - not sure if these helped me run faster!

This was my only session for the day, but I didn't bank on the weather!

We have had the worst hailstorm in about 20yrs - I have no idea where it came from as its been so hot and we haven't had rain for over 100 days - but late this afternoon hailstones the size of golf & cricket balls started to fall, the ceiling collapsed in parts of my office and we had to abandon the building - then when I got home our lobby & garage were flooded (the garage is where my gym is!!!!!!) so my daughter and I had to sweep the water out and move all the stuff while my husband unblocked all the gutters as the water was overflowing and coming under the window & door frames so I ended up doing 2hrs of physical work! Managed to clear everything up ok - it could have been so much worse having seen tv of some of the flooding that has occured.

Just need to try and get the office sorted today no idea what we will do as I have only just started working on a business continuity plan so we don't have one!!! Will be an interesting day or two or more!

I'm back - well sort of :)

After my 5 days of no training and feeling very under the weather I started to feel better so Saturday would be the day to do a training session - although as my naturopath reminded me it should not be my "best session" but something to ease me back into training

I had planned on my schedule bike intervals of 3/6/9/12 miles with rest of 1/2/3 mins - I converted this to km and decided to ride the freeway cycle path as this is new and a lot like the terrain in Bussleton.

I rode fairly steady and realised early on that I would not be able to push myself, wasn't until after I got home that I worked out I did the distance wrong - I rode 5 / 10 / 15 / 30km so 60km in total so 6miles more than I should have!

Did no other training, thought it was a good idea to just stick to 1 session.

Sunday I picked a couple of sessions from earlier in the week so I did 21/18/15/12/9/6/3 situps + 200m row (chose rowing as have not run for a while) managed this in 11mins 12secs then followed this with 30 x DL 50% b/w 30kg did this in 1min 10secs found the first 18 ok then started to feel this at about 18 onwards

Am feeling ok this afternoon and looking forward to training this week with an olympic distance race planned for this coming Sunday - not an important race but the last one before my half ironman in May

I'm sick :(

Haven't posted for a couple of days so will catch up with what training I have done

Saturday
5 x 5 push presses - did some warm up sets first then 5 x 5 main sets were
30kg / 32.5kg / 35kg / 37.5kg / 40kg - was absolutely made up with this result my best for 5 reps was 30kg so a massive improvement :)

Squad swim at 1pm this was fun, on Sat they do a lot of really cool stuff like drafting practice, drills, paired sprints etc really enjoyed this, could feel the push press in my arms though!

All week have had a very minor niggle in my throat & thought nothing of it, but it got worse Sat eve, when I woke up on Sunday morning I had a really bad throat it was so painful to swallow & I had 150km bike ride to do! Now the sensible thing would be not to go but I wanted to ride & I felt obliged to the team I was riding with so off I went!

Managed the 1st hour ok, this was flat then we hit the hills (it was a ride in the hills visiting 3 x dams) I was fine for about 2.5hrs then the wheels started to fall off - I felt awful, my whole body ached and everytime I saw another hill my heart sank I made the 2nd checkpoint in 3.5hrs and promptly burst into tears as I knew there was no way I would be able to finish - I felt such a sense of failure / disappointment - I was really looking forward to this ride to show my strength, work on my nutrition (which I did manage to do) and generally have an enjoyable time.

Then because I was so far away I wasn't able to eat for 3.5hrs as I waited for my lovely husband to come & get me - we stopped at a petrol station & I ate 1/2 cooked chicken & a banana - I so needed this!

Have been to see my wonderful naturopath today (much better than a Dr) & I have a virus he has advised no training until the weekend - although he did say maybe some very, very light CF work - am off work today, feel better than yesterday but not right - so hope to be feeling better soon - but have faith in the naturopath so looking forward to the weekend.

Bike & Pressups

15 x 1 mile repeats with 1min recovery was the order for the morning - not really able to compare this to January as the wind had changed direction so today was slight incline & headwind instead of slight incline & tailwind for January.

I felt that I was cycling well until a guy passed me who looked like he was out for a Sunday stroll on a bike and I was trying my absolute hardest - he made me look like I was standing still!

Tonight had 100 x pressups - happy with this too 3mins 40secs

Blog Fixed - I Think

I removed the countdown timer and this appears to have fixed the problem, if anyone gets anymore problems with my blog can you let me know

Thanks

5km TT

Swapped 5km TT from yesterday due to having to attend the Uni for the sweat assessment.

Was not sure what to expect, and also decided to try & run in my racing flats, I think I may have run a little more than 5km - I have decided that tonight I will go & measure the course properly so that I know exactly where the km splits are!!

Left my watch at work so had to borrow Phil's & I could not get it to work so had to go by the clock time - my left side still not right, not collapsing anymore but very tight in my butt which seems to restrict my range of movement & power then this spreads to my right butt too!!!

Managed to complete the run in 21mins 54secs last did this on 2nd Feb and ran 21.52 so not bad considering I know I'm not able to operate at full capacity.

Made sure that I stood in the cold spa for 5mins, then did some stretching & trigger point (physio said ok) just did a little work on butt then did the strengthening exercises that the physio prescribed.

Can still feel backside is not happy - want to be able to get back to normal soon so I can train without pain - well this kind of pain anyway

Blog Problems - Anyone else?

Is anyone else experiencing the same issues as me?

When I go to my blog it starts automatically jumping to other websites!!!!

I don't know what's happened & I haven't done anything different???

Any help gratefully received as I'm having to go to my blog & then press Esc or the stop button to prevent the page jumping to another website

Sweat Assess

This morning I had a follow up sweat rate assessment - I took part last winter in a sweat rate assessment at one of the Uni's & now they are doing a follow up to see whether we have acclimatised over the summer & are more efficient - I definitely lost a lot less weight than last time, but will have to wait for the final results.

So sessions today were 30mins cycling in a sweat chamber followed by a short drive home and then 75 of pull ups / push ups / sit ups / squats - completed this in 20mins 34secs - its those darn pull ups that get me everytime! They took me nearly 10 mins as I had to break them into sets of 5 - the push ups I did in sets of 10, situps in sets of 25 and squats non-stop.

Body is feeling better today, but tomorrow will tell as I have a 5km TT to run (should have been today but had to do the sweat assessment) - stretched today for the first time since I've had these issues too - that felt good & bad :)

Getting better??

Squad swim this morning, did 1800m as w/up drills then did 1000m TT - this was not great for me, I struggled as the distance increased and usually I'm pretty good as the distance increases - I'm putting this down to my body imbalance thing I have going on at the moment.

2nd WOD I did at lunchtime as I had an evening meeting to attend for work, 3 x 400m run + 12kg KB swing + 12 x pull ups - I subbed the running for rowing I figured that this was a wise move - I'll save my body for the 5km TT later in the week.

I worked really well on the rowing managed 1.33 / 1.35 / 1.36 so was pleased with those efforts and with the KB & pullups (with small orange powerband) time 12mins 02secs

Had a bit of a downer this morning after the swim - just need to keep positive & optimistic - I'm just so annoyed with myself that I caused this issue and secondly that I compounded it last night by trying to do really heavy DL's after having treatment at the physio!!!

I am my own worst enemy at times!!!!

Loss of Power!

Following the races at the weekend I had 5 x 800m run at 80% with 2min rest today, had to give this up & sub it with rowing instead.

There was no way I could run, it was more of a shuffle :(

Managed 3.20 / 3.23 / 3.24 / 3.22 / 3.23

Saw the physio at lunchtime and he did some more needling on my back & glutes & went over the stability exercises that he wants me to continue to do - he thinks that I will recover pretty soon providing I do the stability work and I'm not allowed to trigger point for another week!

Tonight I had 7 x 1 Deadlifts and wanted to improve what I did in January - that was a pie in the sky aspiration as I started at 60kg and it was soooo heavy - I managed to lift exactly the same as in January but every lift was hard, in fact I only just managed the last couple of lifts.

I have definitely lost some power and strength with this stability thing so lots of work to do to recover the stability and consequently my power and strength.

Sunday's Race Report

Today was another race, but again just a training race - cleared this with Max who said I could race providing I was better (with the body collapsing thing)

This was a corporate team event, very small 400m / 10km / 4km but lots of fun I haven't done this event before but one of my swimming buddies was looking for a team member for a sponsor of theirs so I was in!

Great morning, glorious sunshine, not too hot (to start) and wind was fairly moderate - I got the 2nd leg, the format is 3 x team members who all s/b/r then tag the next team member who s/b/r etc.

On the run to the water I felt my left side collapsing again (not as bad as earlier in the week) it was enough to worry me about whether I would be able to run the 4km - swam well felt good, onto the bike and rode really well if I could keep the same pace for 4 x laps I would have rode faster than I did on this course in January by about 2mins & I felt good especially considering this was a training race & I had done no taper & my left butt was giving me some grief!

Back into transistion for the run, left side felt ok, I think the swim & bike helped to strengthen this up - I took the 1st km pretty stead as was still worried about being able to run - this course had km markers so I managed to get my split times - I managed 5m / 4.27 / 4.24 / 4.18 and I felt great (apart from my butt) I grew more confident with every km as the times show - so very happy with this result today and after the race yesterday - very very early night tonight to catch up on some much needed sleep :)

Race Report

Up at 5am to eat and try new eating plan - also am trying powerbar gels (they have more sodium) - I'm a heavy sweater :)

Race format today is an enduro style so 3 x 200m swim / 10km bike / 2km run - I've only done one other race like this and its strange but nice getting back in the ocean after running!

After our couple of weeks of around 40degree days we have dropped down to about 30 and it was cold this morning - was shivering on the beach waiting for the swim start (although I probably shouldn't complain you guys have really got it cold - but it was cold for me)

200m swim was like a washing machine with the mass start boys & girls (I hate swimming with the boys) - tried to find someone to draft off which wasn't hard as there were bodies & arms & legs everywhere.

Out the water & across the sand bank (uphill) to transistion - lots of sand on feet chose not to wear socks out on the bike & off for the 2 lap bike course - road ok, have still got this tightness in my butt and definitely felt that I didn't have full power but was still pretty happy with how I was cycling.

Off onto the run - nice only having to run out 1km & back as before you have had time to think you're virtually back to transistion. Definitely not running at full pace butt really tight hoped I would be able to run twice more! Off with the shoes & on with the goggles run to the beach, run along the beach to the swim start and back into the water - this was lovely until about 1/3 into the swim when my arms suddenly realised they were being asked to work & didn't like it gave my legs a rest though!

Back up the sand dune and into transistion for the 2nd bike leg this went ok & it was good because by now the competitors were spaced out (unlike the first traffic jam bike leg) back off the bike out onto the run, ran ok still had tight butt, but felt ok - on with the goggles & into the ocean for the last swim - same as last time took my arms a while to complain (all those CF WODs helps I sure) out onto the bike & by now had worked out that I was about 4th overall so needed to make sure that no-one passed me - onto the last run & tried to run faster than I did before - I think I managed this - I gave up trying to do laps on my watch it was too confusing.

Anyway I think I ended up 4th overall and I won my age group which was combined as 40-49 so a good result.

Feel pretty good now (late afternoon) but am just going for a snooze as out to dinner with friends tonight and up for another training race tomorrow. Thankfully Max did not schedule any other training for today :)

An up & down day

Today was a very strange day for me - I only had 5hrs sleep (yes I know way too little) but I just couldn't put my book down!

Had squad swim at 5.30am 1100m warm up then the main set was
3 x 100m
1 x 200m
1 x 100m easy
400m TT
1 x 100m easy
1 x 200m
3 x 100m

The 100s & 200s were supposed to be on 1.32 pace on 2mins - I could only manage 1.35 / 1.37 then the 400m TT I managed 6.19 not far off my PB and I got stuck behind the guy in front then I seemed to pick up and managed to swim 1.33/1.32 for the remainder of the set??

Had a pretty good day, until 2pm when I was almost falling asleep at my desk and I had a bit of a headache - I had to go and have a 20min power nap in my car - felt better after but not great - I seriously considered missing this evenings WOD!!! Then I told myself to suck it up and at least give it a try - I put it off by preparing some food & packing for my race until I knew I could put it off no longer.

4 x 400m + 20 burpees - still have a pain in my left butt and definitely not running at 100% which shows in my 400m times, managed to do this session at about 80% effort in 11mins 55secs

Wanted to get an early night tonight but have to go & pick my daughter up from the train station at 10pm she's been away on a school trip and have to get up and race in the morning!

All good now :)

Managed to get in to see the physio today & yes it is the TP work that I have been doing!

Apparently I have made my muscles too "loose" and then lost stability so have to restrict TP work to twice a week & not before a running day + have to do core stability exercises every day.

Am happy that it is fairly minor and something I can fix quickly :)

So last night as I couldn't run I did 5 x 500m rows on 3mins 20secs managed 1.59 / 1.59 / 1.59 / 2.01 / 2.01 very happy with these.

This morning had 4 x 5km bike intervals with 3mins recovery.

Tonight was AMRAP 15mins 20 box jumps / 5 x 25kg push press / 10 burpees - 6 rounds + 16 box jumps

I found the box jumps as usual hard, but I decided to do these on the 18" box instead of the 24" as I can only jump on the 24" and step down & I want to try and jump up and jump down continuously - this is sooo hard, but I got better with every round on the 6th round managed to do 4 x 5 jumps in a row and on the last 16 jumps did 10 in a row followed by 5 & 1

Body seemed to hold up well, back is a little sore, but I did have it needled by the physio.

Houston - we have a problem!

This morning I was due to run 45mins - I didn't even make the end of the road :(

I mentioned yesterday that I had a pain in my left butt when I was running - well last night I did trigger point therapy on my body and had lots of referred pain from my calf right up to my butt and lower back. Woke up in the night & felt that my lower back was very tight but thought that this would be ok I've had this before, so got warmed up & felt ok until I started to try and run - my left side collapsed as soon as I tried to run - I was all lopsided, gave it a couple more tries but no there was no way I could run.

Back to my garage gym and did the CF workout that I had planned in the evening which was 5 x 50kg DL + 10 x burpees + 15 x squats managed 9 rounds. DL were hard due to the weight that was going through my back & legs, burpees were good form enjoyed them!! did I say that - squats left a lot to be desired and I'm usually really good with these struggled to get the depth I normally do.

Am booked in to see the physio on Friday (also on cancellation list) I'm wondering whether the regular TP stuff has uncovered some underlying issue??

I'm racing this weekend so need this to be fixed! (race is not important its a training race only)

Helen x 5

5 x 400m run + 21 KB swings 12kg (26lbs) + 12 pull ups (small orange powerband)

Managed this in 18mins 52secs

Had a pain in my left butt this morning which hindered my run a little, still have the pain now - not really sure what this is from??

The only thing I have been doing differently the last few days is trigger point therapy - I have rolled my body every day since Thursday - I'll have to see what happens tonight when I roll

This is my only session today

Public Holiday & a Rest Day

Today its a public holiday so I get another day off work and I get a rest day too :)

Mental Attitude

Another 25km Bike TT today and like last week I decided that I would do this on my windtrainer - the difference this week was my mindset

I remembered how awful last week was but this time I was prepared, I expected that the windtrainer would probably change resistance at will, I expected it would be hard, I expected it would be hot, I expected it to take me over 50mins - so I had plans in place for how I would tackle this session:

1) the resistance changing would be like going uphill outside
2) it needs to be hard for me to improve
3) more water available, drink more often, re-adjust the fan direction
4) I was prepared for the duration of the session

What a difference this makes, and it adds weight to visualisation and preparing for different scenarios in racing.

I felt that I rode really well, and the windtrainer still played up but I just got on with it - we seemed to make peace towards the end when I was able to ride at 90+ cadence for a good 5 mins - something went wrong with the distance so I just rode for time 55mins.

About 5hrs later I did the second WOD of the day 20:10 tabatha of 8 each PressUps / Squats / Situps / Burpees - press ups were the hardest, did these on my toes, happy with the squats, & the situps improved from last time and the burpees were pretty good - considering they are burpees :)

Stronger & Stronger

Today only one session which I am really happy about as it is soooo hot here and is due to stay hot all weekend!

5 x 5 Back Squats - I last did this on 18 January & managed 40/45/45/50/55kg

Today I managed to do 45/50/52.5/55/57.5kg - I managed to keep pretty good form for the 57.5kg I just lost a little bit of depth, but this is so much better than the session in Jan where my notes show that I was a bit "ragged" with my form I didn't feel that today at all

More Trigger Point Therapy Stuff

Ok seeing as more information was requested from my post on TPT - here are 2 x websites

This one is the US based one that I bought my stuff from (cheaper than buying from the Oz distributor with shipping & exchange rate) but I did get the crossfit discount.

http://networkfitness.com/

This is the Oz based website as it has some interesting articles etc on it that you may find useful

www.tptherapy.com.au

If anyone has any more questions happy to help with my limited experience of these products

Trigger Point Therapy

Thursday evening I was off to a Trigger Point Therapy workshop - I bought this stuff after I did the CFE Pose running workshop and have used it quite regularly but only from the instructions.

The workshop was fab - we worked on one side of the body so that we could feel the difference that the treatment made - and it definitely made a difference.

The guy who presented the workshop is a triathlete (married to a very good long distance triathlete) and it was really interesting listening to him speak about what he does to maintain his body. He does no stretching at all, all he does is the trigger point stuff and he trains & runs in racing flats and has no injuries.

I have to say that the treatment I gave myself last night made a huge difference to how I felt at the end of the evening and this morning. I am definitely going to work on this over the weekend and will incorporate this into my daily routine.

If you have a chance to look up the trigger point stuff you should investigate it - in my opinion its money well spent!

Programming error??

So Thursday I got up to do bike intervals 2/4/6/8/8/6/4/2km with same amount of rest, I was trying to work out what Max was thinking programming this in the day after my 1/2 marathon - then when I checked my schedule I was the one who changed the session round so I could swim on Friday morning - doh!!

Anyway I felt surprisingly good averaged around 1.50 per km which is what I had done in another cycle session and considering this was after the run thought that I pulled up pretty well.

Half way through the set I realised that I had not taken the rest time into my calculation and had to drop the 2nd 8km as I would have been cutting it very tight for time.

In the evening had to do AMRAP 20mins of 5 burpees / 10 press ups / 500m - row was not looking forward to this as I was definitely feeling the effect of the run and bike sessions, managed 6 rounds 5 burpees 10 press ups

1/2 Marathon - Over & Out!

Realised that I forgot to post my Fran time from yesterday - 11mins dead!

This morning was the 1/2 marathon run, last time I did this was in my last 1/2 ironman early May 2008 (& I walked a lot of that as I had really bad cramp) and I have only ever run 4 x 1/2 marathon distances in my life (too many injuries reduced the distance I could safely run) 2 x 1/2 ironman races in 2008 & 2009 and 1 x trg run for each 1/2 ironman - that's it! So you can see why I was very apprehensive about this run.

My plan was to try and not be too focused on my time (very hard), but to just get the distance under my belt. To help me with this I switched my watch to show distance with the time at the top in tiny writing - I'm getting older so its hard to read the small stuff :)

Managed the first 10km in 49.24 & then turned round to run back and got a second wind, managed the next 10km in 47.54 which took me home then I just needed to run the last 1km round the block - managed this in 4.35 - so total time was 1hr 41mins 53secs - very happy with this as I felt really comfortable for most of the run.

At about 17km things got really tough and I had to dig deep to keep the pace up but I saw the time at about 18.5km and realised that I could make under 1.45 if I didn't give up so I didn't give up :)

Tonight my legs got a rest and I had 100 x press ups for time - decided that I would do this in sets of 10 on my toes - managed to complete this in 4 mins 33 secs.

Fran!

Am feeling much better again today, did squad swim - like last week I'm finding this boring with the drills and long slow intervals (Tuesday swims are designed this way) but my arms are still a little tired from the wall balls and press ups etc

Tonight I had Fran round! decided that I would do this with 30kg (66lbs) which is more than I've done with Fran before - I did do 50x Thrusters in January with 30kg but looking at my notes from the session I struggled a lot with my form - today I didn't and it was only 5 short of 50 & I had pull ups too - so am definitely getting stronger - its a great feeling when you realise that you are improving in strength - as Dan has noted too :)

Now I only have to worry about running a half marathon tomorrow!!! I was not happy when I read this on my program at the beginning of Feb but I've had time to come round to the idea of running this far.

It's a new day

So after my weekend of feeling pretty smashed I was not looking forward to getting up this morning and running 4 x 1km TT with 3mins recovery.

The first thing I noticed when I got up was that I actually felt much better than I did over the weekend and that the muscle soreness seemed to be gone.

I remeasured the 1km mark (via the car, based on my remeasure on the bike on Saturday) and I was right, my 1km marker that I was using for my 5km/10km run was slightly short.

Did a short pose warmup then off for the 1km sets, I have a slight decline on the way out and a slight incline on the way back but other than that this is a relatively flat 1km run.

Very happy with my times which were 4.01 / 4.05 / 3.54 / 4.05 - my legs were definitely tired and they were complaining before I had run 500m but I dug deep and put in a lot of effort and it paid off - now I have the rest of the day to recover - so will be aiming for an early night tonight!

I'm feeling pretty smashed!

So in a show of solidarity I thought I would do my 25km Bike TT on my windtrainer as most of "Max's Army" are not able to get out due to the weather - big mistake - how you guys & girls manage to do 40km TT's on a stationary bike I have no idea.

My legs are feeling pretty tired but after yesterdays 4 x 5km bike intervals where I felt that I rode really well despite my legs being tired I was expecting good things - I was so wrong!

I clocked the times for each 5km and they were slower than the 5km intervals I did on the road yesterday with the wind and undulations on the road - then it got worse at 16km my windtrainer decided to throw a hissy fit and it was like riding with the back brake on!!! I was having to change up and down gears as my windtrainer put the resistance up and down at will - I was having to ride in the baby gears and dropped from 28-29km/hr to 21/22km/hr - this was a definite test of mental strength I so wanted to stop & get off.

When I finished - in an appalling 59mins 48secs I did not know how I would get the 2nd WOD done - I was feeling pretty smashed and consider this the toughest WOD I've done for how I felt during and after.

So 4hrs later I was feeling a lot more recovered and slightly hungry so time to get the 2nd WOD completed - this was 2 x 50 stepups / 40 box jumps / 30 situps / 20 pushups / 10 burpees - got all my equipment ready was planning on stepups on 18" box and box jumps on 24" box (my normal height for box jumps) - this changed as soon as I started the WOD - there was no way I could jump 24" I tripped a couple of times just doing the step ups and the way my legs were feeling once I had started this I doubted my ability to actually make the top of the 24" box - so box jumped on 18" - this proved to be the right decision although I feel like a failure - I should have dug a bit deeper and at least tried the 24" box - total time for WOD was 13mins 36secs.

So its towards the end of the day and I am feeling pretty smashed which I suppose is a good thing as that means that the training is demanding and I'm not crusing along - it's just so different to how I've trained for a 1/2 ironman before that I wouldn't normally feel like this, I'd just feel tired from all the longer distance stuff.

Wall Balls & My Arms!

2 x WODs today

Early AM 4 x 5km bike TT with 3mins rest, pretty happy with this session as legs still a little sore & tired, felt that I rode strongly and I was definitely in harder gears.

Later AM 150 wall balls for time, walked to the community hall at the end of my road so that I could throw the ball higher than I have access to at home. Decided to break this into 50's, very happy with the depth of my squats but my arms - woah! they were really struggling and the height of the wall was a bit hit and miss but I put in the right amount of effort to try and maintain the height.

Was pleased with the time 5mins 38secs, managed each 50 in 1.40 / 1.38 / 1.38 with about 20 secs rest inbetween - (which I needed for my poor arms)

More Squats!!!

I was right, Max has more plans to smash my thighs - after ocean swimming yesterday and a squad swim this morning I should have been pretty fresh for my run & squat session tonight, but legs were still sore and I'm still feeling slightly "flat" - I just can't put my finger on what it is.

Anyway - WOD today was 400m run + 50squats / 800m run + 50squats / 1600m run + 50squats, completed this in 16mins 21secs.

Overall legs felt ok'ish I do have some muscle soreness and they were a little tired I was though fairly happy with my run times and my legs definitely did not hurt as much as the run / squat / burpee session the other week.

Eating Fat Article

Came across this through my CF gym - thought it may be of interest?

http://www.gymjones.com/knowledge.php?id=17

Easy day today

Just one session today which was ocean swimming with my swim squad - water was fantastic, calm, clear and warm - but I still wore my wetsuit!

I have my thighs back today - I think the walk, stretch and rolling that I did last night after the lunges really helped and they feel like new today - although I haven't really had to use them for anything, will be interesting to see how they perform when I need to run & squat (AGAIN!!!!) tomorrow :)

Has anyone seen my thighs?

If so, please return them to me - these thighs I'm walking around with surely can't be mine??

2 x WOD's today,

AM was run 10mins 1 way and turn round and run back try to maintain distance. I didn't really run as hard as I should have and had downhill and tail wind on the way out, so on the way back had uphill and into the wind (although a light wind) managed to get within about 30mtrs of my start point, so was happy with this considering that I had the harder part of the run on the way back - but a bit unhappy with myself for not trying harder - ran around 2.2km each way

PM - 250 lunges for time!! Wasn't sure how to do these, static lunges or walking lunges - saw Erica's post about this WOD and she did walking lunges - so I thought that this is what I would do too so decided to do this while walking the dogs with Phil at the cricket oval - omg this was so hard, I did the whole thing without stopping as I think if I had stopped I wouldn't have been able to start again - completed these in 6mins 21secs - it was good that I had 15mins to walk home as I managed to get some normal feeling back into my thighs

Jumping Jacks

Only 1 WOD today which was 10 to 1 reps of box jumps / burpees (again) / situps managed this in 10mins 28secs

I am also thinking that I will go to bikram yoga tonight as I haven't been all year and when I was going regularly it really did help the way my body felt - not looking forward to the class though after such a long time away!

Run & Thrust!

I forgot to post this yesterday!!! so here is yesterdays WOD's:

AM did 12 x 200m with 2min recovery - these were pretty consistent with my slowest reps being the first - I did find that I couldn't keep up with my legs - I just couldn't run any faster without feeling like I was going to fall over - I've never been a sprinter so generally struggle with the short sprinty stuff but today was very strange

PM was 20kg (44lbs) thrusters + burpees for 21/18/15/12/9/6/3 did this in 11mins 58secs

I have realised that Max hasn't quite finished with my thighs yet and they are feeling it (although thankfully not as bad as the other week) and looking at some of the other stuff he has planned they will be getting another hammering this week!

40km Bike TT - PB on this course

So today was 40km Bike TT - again I get to ride the really bad route that I chose! It was windy but not as strong as the last two times that I rode this course - felt yesterday's run & squats in my legs, but this did not seem to affect me too badly.

Felt that I rode really well and felt much stronger really happy with my time which was a PB on this course of 1hr 19mins 57secs.

Stood in the spa for 5mins to cool my legs off and am now off to take the dogs to the beach - its going to be a scorcher today!

Catching up on training posting

Had a lot of personal stuff to sort out last couple of days (nothing bad - just lots to sort out, taking up most of my time and emotional energy - even missed a training session & that is unheard of!!!)

Anyway back to the training sessions

Thursday - missed ocean swimming was out Weds eve late and too tired to get up - 2nd session of the day was 4 x 21 KB swings 12kg + 21 KTE - KB swings were easy but the KTE woah! was really happy with my form for most of these - spent the time resting to be able to do the KTE as well as possible - total time 16mins 2secs

Friday - Bike session 1/2/3/4/5/4/3/2/1 min on standing - don't think I did this session properly - I picked a tough gear for the standing and just went down a couple of gears for the rest which wasn't really a rest I still worked hard sitting too - forgot to look at the distance so no idea how far I went - did this on the windtrainer.

Had a second session today but didn't get this done due to sorting out the personal stuff - planned to do this Sat instead!

Saturday - was supposed to do ocean swim race, but had to go to work so only had time to do the missed session from Friday which was 6 x 400m run + 50 squats - I actually quite liked this session - yes I know how mad is that? but my legs felt pretty good and didn't really start to hurt until set 5 & 6, also clocked my split times and each 400m was just fractionally faster than the last so happy with this - total time was 16mins 3secs.

Chasing times

So today was 10km Run TT - wanted to run faster than the 10km I did in the tri race a couple of weeks ago which was 46.30 - my km times seem to be all over the place found it hard to run an even pace, I need to go and measure the course as I know my foot pod measures long and as I run along a road for 2km and then turn round and run back I think maybe I've got the distance a bit wrong.

Anyway was very happy with the run, the wind was very kind today and was very light, and it was overcast but still warm - managed to run 45mins 35secs so very happy with the result its definitely going in the right direction.

Darkness & Light

Ok so the darkness first - since training with Max I haven't had to get up as early as I normally would as the sessions are much shorter than I am used to - this is a good thing I get more sleep :)

But today I had to get up at 5am for my swim squad which I haven't been to for a while - mainly been doing ocean swims at 6am and it was darker than I remember!!!! Now I now that summer is coming to an end and the dark mornings will start I even noticed that the cyclists out needed to have lights on - so I will need to put my lights back on my bike too!

Anyway swim session this morning was hard work - only in the fact that it was a technique session and I was having to hold back swimming faster which was difficult as I am now used to putting in lots of EFFORT and found this session didn't require that - but it was good to be back in the pool.

Tonight I had to do AMRAP in 20mins of 4 x burpees / 8 x press ups / 12 x situps - was really not feeling the love tonight - not sure exactly what is up but had to dig deep to do this WOD - managed 17 rounds + 4 + 8.

The situps were the toughest thing which really surprised me, managed all press ups on my toes and all reps unbroken

Oh and the light - my legs are feeling soooo much better :)

ditto - legs are still sore!!!

Ok I'm beginning to sound like a broken record but my legs are still sore - I'm so over this feeling in my legs its still hard to bend down and I think Max has an evil plan to run my thighs into the ground - if so - its working!

Anyway today I had 2 x workouts chose to do the 100 pull ups for time in the morning to give my arms time to recover for my swim session on Tuesday morning, had already seen Dan's post about this workout and knew that there was no way I was going to do this WOD unassisted, I needed to get to work for one thing (no idea how long it would have taken me) and I wanted to be able to use my arms too - so decided to break the 100 into sets of 5 - this worked really well using a small orange powerband - I was pleased with how I coped with this - managed to complete it in 14mins 37secs and so far my arms are feeling ok.

So why then do my legs feel so bad, the way I was feeling today, you would have thought that I worked my legs this morning and not my upper body!!!

So tonight I had to run for 10mins with very sore legs - slightly disappointed with the distance - approx 2.3km but I definitely put the right amount of EFFORT into the session.

P.S. spent the evening down at Oxford St in Leederville watching criterium racing - good fun and very enjoyable watching the pros race their bikes :)

Legs still tired!

So after my unplanned rest day yesterday (which was ok with Max - thankfully) I had two workouts today and both hard on the legs which are still suffering with muscle soreness.

We were out for a late lunch so had to get both workouts in before we went out and I'm not a fan of back to back workouts and I didn't want to get up too early either.

Chose the longer workout first which was 4 x 5mins run 2mins recover, I ran round the block and ran the 1st set as the lowest distance, the 2nd as the furthest distance and 3rd & 4th just under the distance of the 2nd so fairly consistent - but oh they hurt and my legs were complaining the whole time.

Ate breakfast and spent the next hour or so preparing my food for the week ahead and sorting out the ironing etc. Then it was time to do the 2nd workout - this I was really not looking forward to - my legs still hurt and bending down was painful and I had to row and squat!!!!

45kg Back Squat 21 - 15 - 9 with 500m rows inbetween - managed all the squat reps unbroken although some of the squats towards the end were a bit ragged - was happy with the way my rowing is progressing this seems to be improving - total wod time was 10mins 55secs - really happy to have this finished and spent some time stretching my legs and butt before getting ready to go out for a late lunch.

An unplanned day off!

OK so today I was supposed to swim in a 2.2km ocean swim from Cottesloe Beach to Swanbourne Beach - was sort of looking forward to this and it was an enter on the day event so I didn't need to pre-register

BUT

We went out last night and was much, much later to bed than planned - slept with my eye patch on and as it was still dark in my world I didn't wake up until after 8.30am - the race started at 8am!

Then I got out of bed and yesterday's workout was all over me - this is the first muscle soreness that I have had since training with Max from 1 January - oh I had forgotten how this feels and I don't like it.

So I decided to have today off - hope that's ok with Max???

Oh my poor thighs!

So today was 4 x 400m run + 50 squats + 10 burpees

Oh my thighs did not like the running after the squats / burpees, it probably took me a good 50m before I told myself to try and run faster - which I think I did - the legs did respond eventually - I would have liked to have got my split times to see how much I slowed over the 4 rounds

total time 13mins 49secs

Another PB - (PR)

So today I had my ocean swimming session with my swim squad and the water was great, warm and pretty calm - I still swam with the wetsuit as I will be swimming in it at both the half & full ironman - we did longer swims today and it gave me a chance to try and draft off a couple of stronger swimmers (Max told me off for not doing this in my race!!!) it was good when I was in the right position, but as I only had 1 or 2 guys I could keep up with I found if I didn't follow their line and missed their feet I was off on my own and then I couldn't keep up with them. So overall a good swim session with lots of EFFORT by me :)

Straight home and onto the 2nd workout of the day (having my hair cut tonight so no time to train) 7 x 1 back squat. Knowing that I did a PB for 5 reps the other week I was up for pushing the limit, I did a couple of warm up sets to start and then did the following:

50kg
52.5kg
55kg
57.5kg
60kg
62.5kg
65kg (about 143 lbs)

My best ever is I think 57.5kg for 1 rep - the 65kg was quite ragged but I got it up - I'm stoked to think that I have back squatted 6kg more than I weigh :)

Rowing & Swinging

OK so I'm all fired up from yesterdays run and Max's praise of my effort - apparently he had a cunning plan to make the most of my taper week last week - and it paid off, so today I wanted another improvement, I last did this workout on 6th January which is:

500m row
50 x 12kg KB swing
500m row
40 x 12kg KB swing
500m row
30 x 12kg KB swing
500m row

Felt good and rowed really well for me - I think I did 1.58 / 1.59 / 2.01 / 2.04 overall time was 12.45 and I last did this in 13.24 so a big improvement - I managed to go straight to the KB swings rather than having a rest which is what I think I did last time.

Never let your head talk you out of a good workout!

So yesterday I had a recovery WOD to do following the race on Sunday and as Ariel says "if Max says to do it - you do it" - I did not want to do this WOD at all but I did it and was glad that I did when I had finished.

Today I had 5km Run TT - what is Max thinking? I've just done my first Olympic Distance Tri for nearly 2 years and 2 days later he's giving me a 5km TT!!!

So it was with some reluctance that I got up to do this session (remember Max says to do it) - I took a gel while still in bed and drank some water about 1/2hr or so before doing this session - I want to get into the habit of having something before and during run sessions to help me adjust to taking food when running.

I chose the same route that I last did this 5km TT on and again the wind was kind to me - it was pretty light - did a warm up and some pose drills then could put the start off no longer.

I checked my km splits (something I tend not to do as it puts me off) and I was hugely disappointed with the 1st km way slower than I thought I was running (even into the wind) and the 2nd km was no better - now this is where my head came into play - I knew that my previous 5km time in January was around 22.20 and I was hoping to be near this time but with the pace I was running this was way beyond reach - I very nearly gave up trying to run faster as my head was saying what's the point in trying you've blown any chance you had of getting near that time - then I remembered my affirmation "Every race/training session is an opportunity to excel and learn from" so I thought sod it I'll just run the best I can for the last 3km and see how I do.

This was so the right decision - my last 5km run on 20th Jan was 22mins 18secs today I ran 21mins 52secs - woo hoo - I am really pleased.

So lesson learnt - never think you have "failed" mid-way training or racing - you don't know what you are capable of until you have finished and a poor start does not necessarily mean a poor finish!

Race Day Report

Overall happy with the race, a much better result than 2 yrs ago when I last did this race by 4 mins.

It was a non-wetsuit swim wasn't sure whether that was good or bad, as wetsuit helps swim but getting it off can be tricky (its pretty new) we swam against the current for about 1km it was very choppy, until a left turn, then another left turn and finally swimming with the current, I feel that I swam pretty well - I was definitely not overly taxed - maybe I should have tried a bit harder??

Long transistion to the bike, felt good running to the bike, off on the first of 4 laps - wind was up (nothing new there) so sidewind on way out and headwind on the way back, I stopped my watch at every lap - with each lap around the same time, so very consistent.

I did not feel great on the bike - legs were complaining from the very beginning - was a bit upset by this as I have felt so good this week, but I put this out of my mind and just tried to keep the cadence up, what was good was that I didn't feel that I got worse and my lap times show this.

Off the bike and into transistion - pretty short T2 legs were complaining - they didn't like running off the bike too much. Shoes and cap on and out on the run, took the first lap (3 laps overall just over 3km each lap) pretty steady - at least that's how it felt and stopped my watch at the turn - saw the time and thought that this was ok, ran the next lap I felt faster, but the lap time shows 5sec slower, on the last lap I definitely speeded up but the time was the slowest lap, it does include the extra for the finish shute but not enough to justify the extra time!

Nutrition wise - a bit of a disaster - this is my really weak area and one of the reasons my half ironman attempts have not been great - this needs to improve if I am to do a full Ironman!!

Ate pumpkin, sweet potato, egg white, olive oil and apple sauce for breakfast just after 5am this seems to be good for me, tried this before - drank at least 1 ltr of water before the race and also took a gel about 30mins before the start of the race.

Race started at 8.15am, so about 3hrs after breakfast, out onto the bike and drank coconut water but only drank 500ml for the whole of the bike leg - also took 1/2 gel on lap 2 of the bike and 1/2 gel on lap 3 of the bike - not a great amount!

When I got off the bike for the run, my stomach was not happy and I had a minor stitch and "stomach full" feeling - but it was not as bad as I have had before and it did not affect my run - it got better as I ran which was good - I took water at every drink station on every lap 3 x 3 - but poured most of it over my head and just took a small mouthful to drink. Its the running that is affected when I eat, the biking is fine, but I always worry about eating on the bike and then having issues with my stomach on the run.

Overall I did not actually feel great for most of this race, and felt that I didn't "attack" the run like I did at the three smaller races that I did at the end of last year, but I think this was more a mental thing as I haven't done this distance for nearly two years. Not sure if the nutrition played a part in how I was feeling or whether that was just me getting used to racing again?

At the end of the race, I took Paleo Recovery Drink ate an apple and raisins + more water. Stayed for prize giving so didn't get home to eat until about 3hrs after the race - did not feel great had a headache and my body was not happy either - ended up taking painkillers and lying on the sofa feeling sorry for myself. Took another 2hrs for me to feel pretty good and ate dinner about 3hrs after lunch - that has made me feel sooo much better and now I feel pretty normal but its about 8.5hrs after the race.

Below are my results from today, my bike has improved enormously and so has my run, the swim I'm not overly concerned with as we swam against a strong current today and I don't see my swim improving too much - I only took up swimming when I started Triathlon about 10yrs ago.

Looking at my results compared to my age group I need another 2mins at least on the bike - which is 3secs a km - I'm sure that this is achievable with the time I have to train for Busselton.

Swim 30.05
Bike 1.12.47
Run 46.30
Total 2.31.43
Overall 6th in my age group out of 18 and 32nd out of 92 female starters
Best leg was the run, followed by the bike then the swim - which shows an improvement as usually its run, swim, bike (my bike being my weakest leg)

We stayed for prize giving and I won a spot prize of a $300 Orca wetsuit - how cool is that :) - I'm actually hoping that I can use the voucher for a couple of tri-suits instead as my wetsuit is pretty new.

Next olympic distance race towards end of March - although this race is not as important to me as this one was.

T'was the night before . . . . .

My race :)

Just about to go to sleep, have had a good day and a great evening.

My friend came round and did some NLP stuff with me to rid me of my negative feelings - am feeling good, will have a great race and excited to be racing - this is the only key race for me in the build up to my half ironman in May - all the others are just stepping stones to my goal - or as my affirmation states:

"Every race (& training session) is an opportunity to excel and learn from"

P.S. I don't think I mentioned this before, but I have also just this week decided to commit to my first ever Ironman!!! I will be entering the Busselton Ironman on Sunday 5th December 2010 - am excited by that too :)

Rest Day - lovely :)

Today is a rest day for me and after my sports massage yesterday and a good nights sleep I feel great.

Getting excited now - only two more sleeps to go :)

200's

Today as part of my taper week I "only" have to run 8 x 200m with 2min recovery

I feel soooo good and bursting with energy this taper week is definitely having the right effect.

I was supposed to run at 75% and I didn't I ran harder, not quite 100% but not far off, now I have the opposite problem - when I need to work harder I sometimes hold back and now I need to work less hard and I can't hold back!!!

Anyway splits were as follows (ran out and back so up and downhill slightly)

Reps 1 – 3 – 5 – 7
44s / 41s / 39s / 40s

Reps 2 – 4 – 6 – 8
46s / 43s / 41s / 40s

Also having deep tissue sports massage this afternoon as part of my taper / race preparations for Sunday :)

"Helen" is my friend

Only 1 x WOD today, being a taper week for me, and it was Helen at 70% - I kind of forgot the 70% bit when I was working out and did work harder, managed this in 10mins 20secs with orange band for pull ups.

I last did this on 11 January in 10mins 42secs so an improvement and I did work hard, but not "eyeballs" out hard

Extract from Paleo Diet eNewsletter - Paleo Breakfast for Champions

Below is an extract from the Paleo eNewsletter about eating paleo, I thought it may be of interest to those who are either eating paleo or thinking about eating paleo.

When converting to a Paleo lifestyle, many people find breakfast to be the most challenging meal to keep Paleo. No doubt, this is probably due to the conditioning we’ve likely all received that a healthy way to start the day is with a grain-based product (cereal, bagel, toast and so on). Many of us view certain foods as being for breakfast, others for lunch and dinner, and others for snacks.

The first step is to throw that thinking out the window! Food is food no matter what time of day, and the morning is a great time to eat vegetables! I personally, eat veggies and red meat, chicken or fish for breakfast on a typical day.

But, what should you eat if you’re an athlete preparing for a workout? I change my usual breakfast if I’ve got a big workout to do right away. Rather than the protein and veg-heavy foods I mentioned above, I’ll opt for a starchier (via yam, sweet potato or banana) and easier to digest (like egg whites) combination so that I’m not only well fueled, but I don’t have to wait too long to digest.

The amount you should consume will be determined by body weight and the intensity and duration of the workout. Experiment a bit and see how much you need to eat based on how you feel during the workout, and change the subsequent meal accordingly. Here are some great ideas for athletes looking for a great way to start the day, pre-workout, while remaining Paleo.


Baked yam, hard-boiled egg whites, olive oil, banana, and raw almond butter


Homemade smoothie: chilled green tea, egg white protein powder, banana, raw almond butter, and flax seed


Baked sweet potato, natural (unsweetened) applesauce, sliced lean turkey breast, and olive oil


Stick with higher glycemic fruits right before and after a workout. Also, remember to add some table salt because athletes need to replace lost electrolytes. We athletes may need to supplement with electrolyte tabs, depending on the intensity and duration of our workouts, as well as ambient conditions and individual sweat rates.

Experiment with the above suggestions and make changes to keep it varied. Try pineapple in a smoothie instead of banana, or use baby food banana instead of applesauce.

Whatever you do, DON’T make the mistake of thinking that you have to resort to non-Paleo foods to support athletic performance. If I can stay Paleo while racing Ironman, and my husband can stick to it while racing 100-mile endurance runs, I think it’s safe to say that Paleo provides 100% of the support needed for endurance racing, or any other athletic endeavor!
Written by Nell Stephenson

Training on a public holiday!

Today is Australia Day so it is a public holiday, had two workouts today, but as it is a taper week for me nothing too major.

Decided to do these back to back so that I could enjoy the rest of the holiday with friends :)

1st was 5 x 3 back squats at 70% weight, so chose 40kg and handled these pretty easily.

Then on with the wetsuit and drive 10mins to the beach to join my swim squad for an ocean swim, 3 x groups this morning 1500m / 4km / 8km (for the mad people doing the solo Rottnest Swim in Feb) I choose the 1500m and felt pretty good for this swim and tried to draft on the feet of some of the faster swimmers - hoping I manage to do this on Sunday in the race!

Rest Day and Taper Week for me :)

Today - Monday is a rest day for me and I am also into a taper week as I have an Olympic Distance Triathlon on Sunday 31 January - this will be my first oly tri since April 2008 and I am really looking forward to it as I have been having good results with the 3 wks of training that I have been doing with Max.