Countdown to May

Well I have a date for a new goal and focus, it seems that there is the Half Ironman Race coming here in May, so I will be putting all my efforts towards training for that.

Being totally new to the sport of triathlon, this is my first season of trying to do Tri’s it is exciting yet daunting to start the approach also given that I have not done a triathlon it is also scary to some extent.

I still enjoy running so much that adding the biking and swimming is a natural progression. I even went out and bought a new indoor bike trainer today, you have to remember that riding a bike here in Israel at anytime other than Saturday morning is considered a death wish given the drivers in this country. So with my new trainer I hope that I will be able to do two more biking sessions each week on my bike, which is better than a Spinning class as I am in control of my destiny rather than trying to follow a Spin Class in Hebrew of which I do not understand a word.

Yesterday (Saturday) morning I was out with my tri training group for the bike ride and my coach Gavin put me in to the second group, rather than the top group I rode with a few weeks ago. The top group basically blew me away, even though I rode well these guys and girls were way above me when it came to hills and speed and I was a proud but distant last.

Riding with the second (middle) group I actually found myself to be one of the better riders, now I add at this point that I have only ridden my road bike about four times, so to find myself at the front climbing all the hills and catching other riders made me feel great and very confident.

We rode around 76 km’s in three and half hours in the cold I did not even take my warm top off. It involved riding out over three climbs before we got to a long hill that was about 5 km up, and there we had to do three repeats of the climb before heading back.

In the afternoon I had a Hash run of about 5km, which is a nice way to round out a day and have a few beers afterwards without any pressure.

Up again at 5:45 am this morning to join a new group of runners who run long on Sundays which is perfect for me and my program as it then allows me to get a Yoga Class in at 10:30.

The run was very easy a nice 17km in 1:35:00 along the cliff tops over looking the Med Sea, very nice soft sandy and firm trails and it was fun to run with new people and we pushed hard on the way back which I enjoy now. A long run with a focus to finish is good rather than just pound out the distance and time.

In Yoga I found that the time I have been spending in the gym is paying off as my upper body strength has greatly improved and holding poses was much easier than before, whilst I may have lost some flexibility I have gained strength.

All in all a good weekend of training with all positives and no negatives

Looking forward to the new week.

Weekly Summary – Week Ending Sunday Jan 14 2007

Running – 43 km’s
Cycling On Road – 76 km’s
Spin Class x 1
Weights & Core X 1
Yoga x 1
Rest Day x 1