Training Log Archive: shanel

Headed up river with Grant, me in the drivers seat of his k2 and him in the back. Wendy and Mark in anther k2

Using a longer paddle than normal to get my tempo down, effort up. Seemed to work pretty well.

Swapped over at the turn around, initially Mark in the front of Grants k2 and me in the back but Mark was shoehorned into the front so after a bit of very humorous flailing around and not quite going for a swim, we swapped over me back in the front, Mark in the back.

Lots of wobbles on the way back made it much harder work than it should have been, very glad to get it finished.

Round the river with Grant and Wendy

From AKC to Redcliffe bridge, over the river out the Guildford Rd and back.

Wendys knee pretty sore for a lot of it, she got some relief towards the end getting a tow from Grant and my backpacks.

Back to Marks place, pretty chilly on the way back, temp down to 8 degrees and with lots of fast easy downhill it was extra chilly. Way back was much nicer than the way out.

We even resisted the temptation of McDonalds near the end.

From Marks place with Grant, Wendy and Saulo. With 10 or 11 kg pack

Mark found a suitably horrible hike a bike up through Banyowla and out towards Mt Dale.

Stashed the bikes and hiked out around Mt Dale and up Marks suitably steep, slippery and horrible way up the back of Mt Dale.

Byford to Claremont

Little chilly this morning, not quite single figures but still dug out arm warmers, vest and full finger gloves and had to waste more time getting lights on to the MTB.

Speed wasn't as bad as I'd expected and an aero went past just before Berrigan as a slowed up behind someone else whilst someone went past the other way. So I went with aero but dropped off soon after when I dropped too many gears and couldn't super spin enough to stay on.

Aero wasn't going to fast and he stayed in sight and I eventually caught him around Leach Hwy and I soon went past as he slowed up.

Spotted someone going the other way wearing an ARWS jersey who looked a bit like a Havacrack Siko

Passed a bunch of roadies who were meandering across Mt Henry. Some of them woke up after a while so I jumped on the back and went with them

Pretty knackered by the time I got to work.

Distance a guess since I left my GPS at home.

Headed towards the narrows since I figured I'd be able to turn around at a known point to be able to work out my distance.

Once out of the shelter of the bay I felt very tipsy heading downwind with the ripples and I was happy to get some respite once I got to the shelter of the narrows.

Turned around at Barrack St jetty and started the slog back into the wind. Pretty bouncy especially passing the Rotto ferry. Working into the wind seemed like good training for South Africa, slow stroke rate and slow progress.

Nice and calm back in the bay so I cranked up the pace and did a lap of all the moored boats. Still wanted to pad out a bit more time after the first lap so did a second at more of a cruisey cool down pace.

Finally a nearly proper run. Found my way to the river, came back out where someones fence looked like it went down to the river and stopped to remove all the double gees I'd picked up. Back to the river and over to worse then gozzie dale. Found a nice little track along the river for a while.

Was feeling like I'd done enough and was feeling pretty hot after 5k's. Nearly went past BB's place on the way back and then went down a typical gozzie culdesac with no path at the end cause they've all been closed.

Will be good to get back to some proper long runs soon.

C • BB 5

I was hoping to get the kids to go the long way to the park so I could do a nice short easy run but they weren't going for it. So just a little stretch of the legs and Sophie was going ultra slow on the way back so I pushed her most of the way.

Early start after a late night hiking.

Cruisy paddle in Grants K2, with Mark and Janet in some other random K2 which looked like the one Wendy and I paddled a while back.

Pretty hard to feel like I'm putting much effort in at Grants tempo.

From my place with Grant and Wendy, all weighed down with packs.

To the hills and up and over and I didn't quite pick the right track direct to the dam so we took a detour to the south before eventually looping round to where I wanted to be.

Legs where surprising feeling the effects towards the end a bit sore in the shins in particular.

Event: Dams Challenge
 

5 dams with Dan (Ben), Ben (Mark) and tRicky in a pocket. Maybe one day I'll work out Ben and Marks names.

Started in the 3rd wave since we couldn't get to through to start with the 2nd wave like we were meant to. Pretty easy pace out to the start of the climbing, just sitting with the big group that formed with all the red lights.

Pace felt a bit slow heading up greenmount so we made the mistake of getting ahead of the main group and before long Mark and Ben dropped me as I was red lining a bit too long, which turned out to be the main theme for the day. I was soon picked up by a group and Mark and Ben slowed up for me to catch them at the start of Mundaring Weir Rd.

Lots of struggling to keep up on the climbs through to the 1st lunch stop at Wungong Dam, where the gates either side of the dam wall were conveniently unlocked about 5 mins after we went through there and after the water truck had to reverse all the way back down the hill.

Out to Canning Dam was the usual blast down the hill. Climb back out was looking like it was going to be very painful until Ben stopped to stretch out some cramps, so Ben and I soft pedaled up some of the worst of the climb before stopping to wait for Ben to catch up.

Pace down Albany Hwy was getting a bit hot at times but with Ben and I suffering we eased off a bit and let some other riders go. Eventually got to the 2nd lunch stop and we took a long 53 min break before heading off with a group of about around 10 riders most of who were riding together.

Quite a comfortable pace with the group climbing out past the prison farm. Heading through the undulations to the Hwy I managed to get stuck out on the right when everyone else went from 2 lines to 1, so I pushed up to the front and did a bit of actual work more than once even. Good fun being up the coming down the decent descent to the hwy.

Heading up Hall Rd into Serpentine Dan (Ben) started cramping again, so he said Mark and I should go one since we were in a good group (and Mark was close to the front) and Ben stopped to stretch again.

Still with the Phobos group on Karnup Rd and to pace at the back of the group was very yoyo'ey and very uncomfortable, but the Phobos guys were working well taking turns at the front before peeling off and dropping to the back. Eventually we were all but at the front but the random i front of us was a surger and was hurting everyone until a Phobos guy called for the pace to ease.

We still caught another small group just before the freeway but they all stopped for water so Mark and I went on alone with Mark doing all the work and pushing a brutal pace. We caught another pair after a while and they conveniently upped the pace to drag as along till they stopped at the next water drop.

Mostly Ben doing the work the rest of the way except when we had someone else to rest behind for a while and with what I'll call my right inner quad cramping at times (which was novel) I had to get Mark to ease up a fair bit.

One last cramp cresting Mill Pt Rd before a sprint to the finish to get past a group we'd caught at the last set of lights.

A good day out, 1 min faster than last year, 2km shorter course but included Bens first cramp stop.

Thanks to Mark and Ben for doing all the work. Very happy to have got through without the back flaring up. Felt like I suffered a lot due to the last couple of weeks screwed up preparation and maybe not as much hill training as last year.

Probably time to put the road bike now and get some serious MTB k's in before ExpAfrica

Guesstimated time and dist till I can be bothered checking the GPS.

I had a flat tyre when I got on my bike this morning so changed the tube and then still had a slow leak. So had to pump it up a couple of times along the way, second time I managed to get it pumped up whilst the lights were red so didn't loose any extra time. Will have to do the same after work as well.

Tried out the lakeside route rather the Wanneroo Rd and managed to find a bit of boardwalk and a dead end, but much nicer than Wanneroo Rd.

My back isn't quite so happy after riding this morning but it doesn't like sitting at work anyway, so I'm still not sure if I'll ride on Sun.

Decided Marmion Ave sucks with all the traffic lights to took West Coast Dve and whatever subsequent roads run up the coast. So much nicer why doesn't anyone else know about this? Why didn't they tell me? Bastards all of you.

Took the ride along the side of the lake again. All up much nicer and faster, good times.

Up the hill to test out the back. HR seemed higher than usual on the way up and everytime it got over about 175 I started feeling a bit pukey. Stood a lot to avoid loading through the back which the Achilles complained about a bit but not too much.

Happy to have got through without screwing the back up, so will hopefully be OK for 5 dams since it's only about 5 times as far.