Let me out!!!!!

Finally a moment to lift my head and jot down a few words.

Work has been so busy it would be nigh on impossible to beging to describe whats been happening over the last few weeks. Thankfully I can see some light at the end of the tunnel and it is begining to shine brighter each day. There are still a few issues to resolve but on the whole the restructure is nearly complete. I knew things weren’t good before I took over running the show, but I have been a bit shocked at some of the little “secrets” that have come out of the wood work over the past few months.

At least sales are now moving forward, expenditure is under control and we have a happier workforce that have embraced my dream for the organization. All in all I am very pleased with what has been achieved since October, all I need now is to find some time for HI (who has been so supportive) and squeeze in some much needed training as the waistline seems to be expanding a little AGAIN !!!

Talking of training, I have managed to keep up some exercise - a few bike rides and a couple of runs but nothing you would call “training” really. We did manage a swim last week, the first few laps left me gasping until I settled into a reasonable stroke, but there is a long way to go to even get back to where I was around the end of last year.

The plan for this week is to hit the pool later tonight, run in the morning, ride Wednesday morning, run Thursday morning, swim Friday (I have given myself the day off) and then fit in a long run and ride over the weekend - fingers crossed my next post isn’t abiut the plans that were!

Getting longer (not in the tooth either you cheeky lot)

Waking up yesterday proved to be a difficult task. The run Sunday afternoon had taken its toll, and when HI rolled over and curled up to me I knew that the task of getting up would be beyond me. So I gave in without a fight and enjoyed an extra hours sleep.

After a painless day at the office I collected HI, raced home as quick as the Sydney traffic would let us, got changed and made for the pool.

With my new sexy nose clip in place, I found that I was able to control my breathing much better, to the point where I could really start to concentrate on my technique. After a few laps, I made a conscious decision to swim one lap breast stroke as a recovery, and then swim the next freestyle, making sure that I kicked well and pulled properly through my arm turn. Each freestyle lap became a little easier than the last. I am not sure if it was down to the fact that I wasn’t gasping at the end of each lap, or that my technique had finally clicked into place. All in all we managed to swim 1300 metres.

Got out of the pool one very happy chappy. I think I will us this alternate stroke routine again for this week, so that I can really concentrate on getting my technique in place. I will then start to reduce the number of breast stroke laps as I become stronger and more confident is swimming the whole session freestyle. I was stoked with the nose clip experiment, as I had no burning sensation in my nose, and my breathing was really good. I also noticed that my heart rate stayed a little lower than normal, even during the hard freestyle laps.

I had set my alarm for 5AM this morning, and was totally confused when HI phone started chirping and my was still saying 4.40 - the cheeky fecker had set hers to ring early so she could have a few minutes of cuddles before we got up - we were still out of the house at some stupid time. Both of the cats were still sound asleep and there was no noise from the local bird brigade. We started out by running our usual route around the golf course, before taking a detour down some of the back streets to Bondi. By the time we made it back home we had cover over 7K - the longest run we have had pre work for a very long time. The pace wasn’t all that quick, but the increase in the distance certainly made up for the pace. The plan is to build up our weekday runs to around 10K, and have along run somewhere between 15 - 20K on the weekend.

An early morning bike ride and an evening swim are on the agenda for tomorrow. This triathlon training business is bloody hard work!!! Not that I mind all of the effort, I feel so much better for getting back into some regular training, and to top it all off I have lost 3.8 kgs since the start of the year. I am not sure I will hit the first mini goal I set myself and get to 85 kgs before the end of the month, but I will give it a good shake. The next goal will be to get under 80 kgs. I don’t think I have been there for the last 25 years so it will be uncharted waters for this little black duck.

One busy boy today.

Fell out of bed after HI alarm had gone off a couple of times. Wasn’t totally convinced that I would have any company for a while, so I made my way to the lounge and turned the football on. I had just settled down when HI stumbled in lay down on the couch and looked as if she was about to drift back to the land of nod.

After 5 minutes of bloody crap football I was somewhat relieved to see that HI had sprung into life and was up and about mumbling about heading out for a longer ride and that we would run later in the day.  I duly got dressed in my cycling gear, rather than the tri gear I brought yesterday. It wasn’t long before we were out of the house and makes our way into Double Bay.

All in all we covered 22.84K. the speed wasn’t overly impressive, but there are a couple of hills in the loop we did today, which always lower the average. I can definitely feel a difference in the strength in my legs. I used the small wheel all day, with just a couple of gear changes for the steeper parts of the hills.  My cadence was a little higher than normal, and I tried to free wheel as little as possible.

After showering we made our way to the shops, thankfully being there before most of them opened meant that Coles and the fruit shop were quiet and we were in and out without any hassles. I remembered to head over to the Speedo store where I found one of those funky nose clips. I am keen to see how much of a difference it makes. The chlorine induced burning sensation in my nose is not the most pleasant , so hopefully this will fix it and I can swim without induced asthma symptoms.

Once home, I threw some lunch together before tackling the pile of shirts and stuff that needed ironing. I managed to work up a right old sweat. I was then on a roll and drove the vacuum cleaner around and generally cleaned up until it was time to head out for our later afternoon run.

Our run took us to Centennial Park, however HI was really struggling with the humidity so we had a make a few detours to the route, as well as chucking in a couple of walk breaks. I can’t complain to much, this was the furthest she had run for a VERY long time and was battling away as best she could.

Now sat on the couch after eating a fresh cherry tomato and mushroom sauce with some fettuccine, watching the final part of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Shopping for a new suit

Despite getting back home from Perth at 11.30 last night - I really don’t enjoy that late afternoon flight back - I managed to haul my fat arse out of bed around 7.30 this morning. after pottering around for a while, we made our way into the city. We took advantage of the car park at the swimming pool, and wandered to the shops, as we wanted to go and buy some tri gear.

As our training is progressing we want to add some run/swim and ride/run brick sessions, and after last weeks adventure to RLP proved changing into running clothes when wet is not the easiest task, and it seemed much simpler to have some tri knicks and top that I can swim, ride and run in.

HI had decided that 2XU was the brand she wanted, so off to the 3Sports store we went.The shortish walk from the pool took us around the rear of the QVB, where we somewhat surprised to see a white 4 wheel drive “parked” in one of the shop windows. The blue and white police tape around an expensive gem store gave a big hint that it was not due to some bad piece of driving and that we had just missed a ram raid. More details can be found here.

Our shopping trip saw us become the proud parents of a 2XUtri two piece set each, HI then managed to add a pair of 2XU running tights, a pair of cycling gloves and a pair of sunnies with interchangeable lenses, as her running sunnies are to dark for wearing when we set of at 4.45 in a morning. I might be brave enough to take some photos tomorrow, just to give you lot something to giggle at.

Our swim session was very enjoyable. I was a bit sceptical that the pool would be busy today, especially as it was wet and miserable, however the main pool was fairly quiet and we were able to churn up and down without any real hassles. Another k in the swim bank. I found my heart rate was a bit erratic at times, and had to sneak in a couple of laps of breast stroke to settle it down again. I have been meaning to buy one of those nose clip devices, as I am sure that the chlorine affects my breathing by setting off my sinuses , as I have noticed a real strong burning sensation in my nose.

As I had banked two long runs the last couple of days and HI ran last night we made a sensible decision to rest for the rest of the day, so we can make of the most from out ride/run brick session in the morning. It is still pissing down at the moment, so a quick assessment of the weather will be made when we get up, as HI is a bit wary of riding the bike in the rain, so we might have to roll out plan B and go for a longer run.

Shoot out in the wild west….

My foot is so sore today, I am not sure that I will be able to run over the weekend. I have just spent the last two days kicking people up the arse and my right big toe is flashing like a beacon ……

OK, time to be serious ……

… yes I have been arse kicking and head banging but my foot is just fine. In fact I have managed to have two runs whilst in Perth, what a good boy am I!!!

Yesterdays effort was just that a real effort. I could see from my hotel window that there was a bit of a breeze, but rather stupidly I didn’t take much notice of the direction. I trotted out of the hotel driveway, headed to the river and turned right - my usual direction for the “bridges” run. Knowing the weather was warm, and heading for +40 C during the day, I was armed with my fuel belt and a steely determination to keep the pace slow and reasonable. I soon made my way over the first bridge feeling really good, but my happy mood soon took a downward swing as I set out on the longest leg of the lap to the next bridge as I found myself running into a very stiff headwind. Not good, and it didn’t get any easier at all until I crossed the river again, by which time I felt buggered.

I think the lap is round 10K so i was feeling pleased with myself to have clocked a reasonable 1 hour for the trip, especially as I had not intentionally pushed the pace to hard.

I was a little more sensible this morning, and made sure that I had the wind at my back for the majority of the run. I did find a few extra paths to explore, and would have added about another “k” to today’s run. The weather wasn’t as hot, and there was significantly more cloud cover than yesterday. My appearance still resembled that of a drowned rat when i got back to the hotel. My top was so wet that I had to wring it out before setting foot into the hotel, for fear of leaving a trail of water everywhere. the night porter obviously felt sorry for me, as he came out to greet me with a fresh towel and a bottle of ice cold water that went down a treat.

All in all I would have covered about 21 - 22K over the last couple of days. My legs feel good and I can now honestly say that I am getting my mojo back for running. Secretly I think there may have been a slight improvement in my fitness too.

I am really looking forward to getting home tonight, as I have missed HI a bit too much this week, (but don’t let her know), although being caged in a plane for another 5 hours doens’t have me filled with joy.

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

What a surprise, there are a few drops of rain in the air and QANTAS airlines grinds to a fucking halt.

What is it with this bloody airline. I cannot remember the last time I caught a flight that actually left on time. It gets to the point you wonder why there is a time table or you bother to book, You might as well just turn up at the airport and hop on the next available. I am loathed to admit this but the tube in London is more reliable than this shower of shit.

Rant over - feeling better now. Thanks for listening LOL.

This morning got off to a great start up, dressed, out of the door and on the bikes before 5!!! How about that for dedication. The roads were very very quiet, which was just what we were looking for, as it allowed HI to get back some of her confidence on the bike without the idiotic Sydney drivers scaring the living crap out of her.

We enjoyed three laps of the golf course, and I was very impressed to see that our average speed had increased significantly from the other morning. I secretly think that HI really got a lot out of this morning and that some of her enthusiasm for riding has returned.

My bike felt much better after its service, the gears were much smoother in transition and it just handled superbly.

It was very odd being back home before it was really light. Our neighbour was out toilet training his puppy, looking a little bemused to see that we were putting our bikes away after finishing our ride and it was still dark.

I want to ride my bicycle ……..

Gotcha again, yet another dreadful song to roam around in your head for the rest of the day LOL.

Today didn’t get of to the start that we had planned, despite the phone alarms ringing on cue it was just too hard to get out of bed. To be honest, I think the sudden explosion in the volume of training sessions has caught up with us both.  Rather than endure a crap ride, we just curled up together and had a bit of a sleep in, with the revised plan of running tonight, having an early night and then ride in the morning.

I had a fairly brain draining day at work, and found myself having a quick power nap on the lounge before getting setting off on our run. The weather was still warm, so we wanted a gentle run, rather than trying to repeat the faster pace of yesterday, however we did add on the extra section of the waterfront, as we start to extend some of the distances run over the week.

I was somewhat surprised that SportsTracks had us running only 2 secs/k slower than yesterday. We managed 5.60K @ 6.09/K. Don’t get me wrong, I am very happy to see numbers like this, as the run felt quite comfortable and a lot easier than yesterday.

I had to “top up” my chest meds at the pharmacy today, 3 different inhalers - 2 preventatives and one reliever came to the impressive sum of $75!!!! Its a good job that there has been an improvement over the last week, otherwise I would really question spending that amount of month each month for no return. 

Double Trouble

I couldn’t quite believe it when the alarm started going off this morning, it seemed like i had been in bed for a grand total of 5 minutes. I did hit the snooze button for the first time in ages, and felt HI curl up next to me and start to get comfortable. Not that I had any objections, but I was sure that we would end up over sleeping if I didn’t take drastic action so I rummaged around under the doona and pushed the boss out of bed to get a couple of fruit juices as a pre-run heart starter

After downing the glass of apple juice I was content to drag my fat butt out of bed and haul it round the golf course. I was a bit horrified to find my lower legs felt a bit tight. I think it might have something to do with the fact I have some new footwear - it has only taken my 15 and a half years to get my first pair of thongs. I can see the practical side but I am sure the odd gait I have developed trying to keep them on my feet has affected my muscle balance.

We managed to improve our average pace by nearly a minute per K over the past week, which makes me one happy boy. I knew that some regular training would blow away some of the cobwebs that had gathered over the past few months.

My weight has dropped by 2.6kilos since the beginning of the month, and I can see some changes in the mirror - I would really like to have around 7kgs off before the end of January, but will settle for 5 at a push. I will then have till May to drop another 7 as I want to be as close to my ideal weight for the SMH.

It will be interesting to see how I look when I get close to goal weight, I am pretty sure that I have enough spare bits to shed before I start to look like a stick. I seem to recall that the weight watcher ideal weight range for my height had some interesting numbers attached to it. I will be one happy chappy if I can get down to somewhere around the 75 kilo mark. Whilst I want to look very fit and healthy I don’t want to resemble a half starved escapee from Auschwitz.

I had to collect the bikes from the bike shop on the way home from work, as they had been in for their first service. I can’t wait to get out and ride in the morning to see how it feels now they have tightened everything up and readjusted the settings. I am pretty certain I didn’t really appreciate how good it felt when I had my first ride on it.

Even with our early start we were keen to have another swim session this evening. I was somewhat relieved to be able to swim more freestyle this evening without struggling to breathe. A combination of drugs and more sessions are obviously paying off. Fingers crossed the improvements continue and I can conquer this dread shortness of breath before to long. All in all we clocked 1K.

Fed and watered now, feeling very relaxed and looking forward to hitting the bike in the morning.

Catch up time

What a week! My break over Christmas and New Year already seems like an age away. After a really relaxing weekend, I had an early morning flight to Melbourne, as I had a new member of my team starting, and I wanted to spend the first couple of days with them discussing their role and the projects I want them to concentrate on.

We spent most of the morning “holed” up in business centre of my hotel talking away until my tummy started rumbling, indicating I had done enough talking for the moment and I should use my mush for pouring some much need food into my belly. A delicious seafood pasta lunch filled an ever expanding hole, then low and behold out of the cafe door popped Julia Gillard (we were sat outside enjoying the sunshine) with a couple of security staff. Two things sprang to mind as I was watching her bid farewell to her fellow diner (no idea who he was). One was that it still amazes, and reassures me, that our top pollies can wander into a local cafe for lunch, somehow I don’t see the British PM being able to have such relaxed freedom. the second thought was not quite so kind, as it did cross my mind at what an unattractive lady she is. Not that she is fugly, more that she is an odd shape, wears very dowdy clothes which do nothing to emphasize her best bits. Where are Trinny and Susannah when you need them.

More talking and a couple of meetings soon had the clock ticking around to 7PM. I managed to squeeze in the world’s most expensive cheese salad roll and bowl of fruit ($35) from the hotel room service menu before joining a telephone conference call to the UK. What was supposed to take no more than 30 minutes dragged on for nearly 90 minutes. My head was spinning by the time I had completed my notes and sorted out the bits and pieces I needed for my breakfast meeting.

An uneventful day of meetings on Tuesday concluded with dinner at a very impressive location, Jacques Reymond, the food was sensational, as was the bill. I have have no problem with paying for expensive restauarnts providing I feel as if I have had value for money and Jacques Reymond is one establishment that I will be going back to as the service, food and experience was spot on. To top the evening off, the clients left happy with a very positive response to my proposal for a long term future relationship that will do wonders for all concerned.

Being on the first flight back to Sydney on Wednesday morning, meant I spent a grand total of four and a half hours in my hotel at Melbourne airport. The check-in staff thought I was mad and asking for a 4.30AM wake up call when arriving after midnight. I almost asked if I could rent the room by the hour, but thought better of it, as they would have drawn some very wrong conclusions.I felt as if I was running on autopilot most of Wednesday day, thankfully nothing major needed my attention all day, so I did sneak out of the office around half 4 (MD’s hours LOL).

I collected HI on the way home, sat on the couch and hey presto it was Thursday! Apparently I did make it to bed, but I can’t say that I actually remembered staggering from the lounge to the bedroom.I was still pretty tired when the alarm went off at 5, and even offered HI the chance of sleeping in, but it wasn’t to be as I soon found myself out of bed pulling in my cycling knicks and heading out of the door.It was HI’s first ride since her very close encounter with the road.

To my horror we nearly had a repeat performance as we set off, but much to my amazement and a couple of quick jerky movements the bike stayed upright and I heard the noise of the cleats locking home and we were off. As HI hadn’t been on the bike for a couple of weeks, we had a very gentle 15K pootle around the golf course, easing back into the saddle, so to speak.The evening exercise consisted of battle with Coles and the fruit shop, as we are both over the thought of dealing with supermarkets on a weekend.

Friday morning saw us heading out of the door just as early as Thursday, this time with runners strapped to my feet. The pace was hardly Olympic standard, but the fact we made it all the way round in “reasonable” time would suggest our fitness has started to improve. I had a fairly intense day at the office, finalizing a couple of important deals, which left me keen for a hot date at the swimming pool. I collected HI from work so there was no excuses about it being late blah blah blah. Once in the pool, the chlorine conundrum was soon answered, as it only took a couple of steady laps before my chest started to feel tight. I then swam alternating laps of freestyle and breaststroke before switching back to all freestyle towards the end of the session.

Saturday didn’t get of to the best starts, as a week day alarm doesn’t work on Saturday. This meant that we were out later than planned for our long bike ride. The morning went down hill rapidly as the traffic built up quite quickly and we were subjected to a couple of very close shaves. One was so close I got flicked by a wing mirror as the idiot driver managed to squeeze is his through the smallest gap between me and the central reservation. In the name of self preservation we called it a day a little sooner than planned, but as HI needs her confidence building on the bike, the last thing she needed was to feel at risk dealing with such inconsiderate wankers. We dropped the bikes off at the cycle shop during the morning, as they were booked in for their first free service.

This morning had us meeting up early with Ellie and Vurt for the short run to RLP, an 30 minute swim and then a run back home. The run there was fine, in fact it felt really good and was probably run at a quicker pace than normal as Vurt and I ran out in front. I had my swimmers on under my running gear, so it didn’t take me long to strip off and dive into the water. the swim was so much easier than Friday night, just proving that the chlorine in the indoor pool does have a real bad effect on my chest. Getting my running gear back when still wet was interesting. No wonder everyone swims in what they bike and run in when doing a tri - looks like I might have to invest in some tri shorts in the week as I really want to carry on with this run, swim, run routine until I have built up my long runs again.

After showering and changing we headed over to Centennial Park for a breakie picnic with Ellie, Vurt, Becky O, Running Angel and Shufflin’ Sam - a very enjoyable way to star a Sunday.Once the mozzies started chomping on our legs, it was time to bail and head over to IKEA, as we wanted to purchase a couple of new blinds for the apartment. Not the best idea on a Sunday, but we found what we wanted, plus a couple of bed side lamps that looked kinda cool. After lunch I had the job of hanging the blinds, which proved to be a little easier than I had anticipated, although I did work up a bit of a sweat. To complete the indoor gym session I took to driving the vacuum cleaner around.

The plan for the coming week is to run tomorrow morning and swim after work, ride the bikes on Tuesday morning, run Wednesday morning. There will be no evening swim for me as I have to head over to Perth for a couple of days, but I fully intend to do the “bridges” run on Thursday and Friday morning.

Sucking it up, big time

The plan for the weekend was to have a long steady run on Saturday morning, and longish ride today. But as they say “the best laid plans”…. I woke up early Saturday morning gasping for breath, needing to take some Ventolin so the early morning run was out on the back burner.

After a bit of a sleep in we headed over to Bondi Junction to grab a few things. We bumped into Ellie and Ben, who we hadn’t seen for a while and had a good chin wag for a few minutes. Managed to find some new white sheets in the DJ’s sale, as well as picking up a bargain in the Storage Shop, where we scored a new shelf unit for the bathroom for an amazing $30.

After phaffing around at home the rest of the day (read ironing for a couple of hours) I was keen to have a gentle jog around the block to make up for missing out on my morning jaunt. I promised HI that I would take things slowly and look after myself, which is what I did. The first couple of k’s taking around 6.30 each, then out of the bushes jumped the asthma fairy. One long struggle to the 3K mark saw me pulling the pin and walking home. I was still wheezing my head off when I got home. Things soon settled after taking a few more puffs on the various inhalers I have lying around the room.

This morning got off to a similar start, with me reaching for the inhalers at 4.30. Managed to stay in bed till 7 when the desire to look at the overnight football scores got the better of me. After pottering around home for a while we headed over to the junction again - HI needed to buy her rail ticket for the big train experiment this week. I had a quick peek in the Lonsdale store and picked up a new pair of shorts and a t shirt from the sale items.

The rest of the day was spent completing the rest of the “start of year house cleaning”. Moving boxes, changing toilet seats and cleaning cupboards had me sweaty like a bastard. It felt as if I was having a massive weights session at the gym.  The effort was all worth it as the apartment looks terrific.

We have just finished dinner and I am keen to have run when the temperature and humidity drop later. In the meantime, I am off to find all my inhalers and my Powerbreathe and start my new chest rehab program

Edit: -  Took a heap of Ventoilin, Atroven, and Symbicort, a session with the PowerBreathe before heading out of the door. Managed to run a whole 5k without stopping, no shortness of breathe and not a wheeze in sight. OK it was slow at 35:05 (av 6:42) but I am as happy as Larry. The biggest lesson learnt today is that I need to take my medication REGULARLY, even if there is no exercising, otherwise I am going to keep going backwards at a huge rate of knots. I know how many times have I said that in the past, I WILL incorporate the medication routine into my new lifestyle. If I can teach myself to eat properly I must be able to train myself to take a few medications a couple of times a day.