13.08.08
Posted in Triathlon, Sport at 9:26 pm by AB
… they were the “reassuring” words from super coach Ben Gathercole as i struggled towards the finish line of tonight’s run session. His words were in reference to the fact that in the morning i had paid a visit to Gurney, and not Scott Gurney of AFL Canberra Umpiring Fame, the Gurney VC Rest Area at the Northern End of Lake George, which resulted in just a tick over 3 hour return journey on the bike. Then last night in what was rather unpleasant cold and windy conditions I backed this up with a 15k run session. The last 3-4 kilometres really tested the body and mental side of things, so I was happy that I was able to complete the session. Although tough and a struggle towards the end, it was a good mental hurdle to overcome.
Although the way i am feeling now, and how my legs feel I am a little worried about how many more “deposits” I have to put into the bank before this race in December.
And also riding in all your winter gear is not fun! Bring on spring…
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12.08.08
Posted in Sport at 8:22 am by AB
The Olympics is certainly interfering with everything at the moment. I really love the Olympics. It seems like every four years it ends up dominating my time for two weeks. What I am not enjoying is that most is that I have to be at work while all of the good events are on. One positive is that the organisers seemed to have a lot of the events starting later afternoon and in the evening (Beijing Time) which means you can still see a wack of it outside work and training. Although work will get in the way of both the men’s and women’s Triathlon and also the Cycling TT. I’m hoping that most of the Track (cycling events are on in the evening).
The only one annoying this is that being on Channel 7 it means I have to go nearly three weeks between episodes of All Saints.
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10.08.08
Posted in Triathlon, Sport at 6:25 pm by AB
The key at the moment is concentrating on growing the amount of training incrementally each week while making sure i am hitting each session. It’s certainly been a shock to the system but things are looking good and while it can be a struggle at times the benefits are starting to come about. I am up to two decent rides a week now, and am building my running as best i can in conjunction with the end of the football season, which has one more round this weekend before the finals commence.
It’s closing in on the first race on the calendar the Gold Coast Half Ironman, on the October long weekend, which will be a good indication of where i am at heading into Busselton. So far everything is feeling ok.
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06.08.08
Posted in Triathlon, Sport at 11:33 am by AB
You’re out on your first decent ride in a while, you’re moving along with ease, feeling quite good, on one of your standard out and back rides. You turn around to head back to town and BAM! You’ve been riding with (what the BOM website tells you after is) the aid of a 30kph southerly (gusting up to 48kph).
Well I do!
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03.08.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:40 pm by AB
There are unsubstantiated reports that readership may now be as many as 5. This is most likely due to misguided web surfers searching for the words “Grant Hackett” given the proximity to the Olympics.
Nothing like throwing in a topical search term every now and then.
Broughton.id.au understands however, there was one confirmed hit from a person searching for the words “Shaun Haidon”. Interesting…
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01.08.08
Posted in Triathlon, Sport at 8:26 am by AB
Last night upon rocking up to swim training I was overwhelmed with joy at the prospect of the timed 1500m @ 75% that was written up on the board. Fun for the whole family!
While I certainly won’t be setting the world on fire or going stroke for stroke with Grant Hackett any time soon, I was happy with what i was able to do, considering the time of the year and the relative quality and quantity of swimming over the last month. It was also nice to hold something back and swim at what will hopefully be a comfortable pace for the 3.8k swim around the jetty in Busselton.
I was also happy that I was able to get through the whole swim as it’s been a long time since i have been able to swim that sort of distance continuously without having any trouble breathing. It certainly adds a degree of confidence to the task i have set.
For the record i swam a leisurely 23:40 for the journey, meaning if Grant Hackett swum a cruisy 15 minute 1500, he would have beat me by 22 laps (assuming 25m pool) or 550m! OUCH!!
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29.07.08
Posted in Sport at 11:50 am by AB
I have returned from my five days in Shepparton umpiring at the Country Football Championships. It was a full on couple of days which resulted in me umpiring roughly three and a half games of football in four days.
I didn’t really get a lot of time to check out much of Shepparton other than the Deakin Reserve where the games were held. As straight after arriving in Shepparton Wednesday afternoon we were transferred to the Umpiring HQ in Mooroopna and then basically told when we could use the bathroom, when we could breathe and everything else in a detailed down to the minute schedule of events for the next four days. It became a bit painful and a lot of the umpires were over the whole regimented nature schedule by about Friday.
The football was of a very high standard and was therefore rather enjoyable to officiate. I had the good fortune of being selected as one of the umpires appointed to the Final between the ACT and Victoria. I’m hoping the selections were on merit. Obviously umpiring the Final, which apart from the 2007 AFL Canberra GF and possibly the Seattle v Vancouver Cougars NWPAFL GF in 2005 was one of the biggest games I have umpired.
The game was, despite the wet weather, of a high standard to umpire, and it was only the last quarter effort from the ACT that led to the final margin of 21 points, after being within a goal at the turn for home. It certainly gave Shaun and I an interesting bus trip back to Tullamarine with the team. The plane trip back at 7:30 the next morning was noticeably quieter.
So I arrived back in Canberra at 9:00am yesterday feeling sore, tired and footballed out. Luckily it’s back to it all again this Saturday as the AFL Canberra season has only three rounds before the finals begin. Also now that the Championships are out of the way the focus switches firmly to Triathlon now as the big date approaches.
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20.07.08
Posted in Triathlon at 3:31 pm by AB
Broughton.id.au understands that readership is up to one. In a telephone conversation I had on Sunday, the person on the other end of the line, made (an unsolicited) comment that they had been reading my website. Despite the fact that the individual was obviously bored, it’s nice to know the blog is being read by more than one.
**The person’s identity has been kept secret to avoid them being unfairly ridiculed.**
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19.07.08
Posted in Triathlon at 7:45 pm by AB
The first two weeks of training have been a killer. The volume has increased and the tiredness level has also gone up. The body is hurting, but is slowly beginning to adjust to the additional volume. I still need to ramp up the miles on the bike but i’ll be switching to two additional rides come August. The next week my focus will be on my football as I head to Shepparton for the Australian Country Champs, but following that the switch will be on, and I’ll be into Triathlon mode.
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15.07.08
Posted in Triathlon, Sport at 7:55 am by AB
I went out for out Tuesday 12 k run this morning with Danielle. Craig was over the other side of the country for some ‘business’ in Perth. It hurt like hell this morning. I feel like Danielle ripped my legs off and then put them back on with some really bad suturing. Personally, I’m blaming Ben Gathercole and his first indoor trainer session of the season that we had to endure last night. My legs were super sore after that… and on the grand scheme of things it really wasn’t that bad.
It can only get easier right??
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