Run

Well I'm back in Brisbane, and after my Monday hill session and feeling under the weather, I decided to take a couple days rest and focus on not eating so much. Thursday I went for a run around the lake with Loz. Set a leisurely pace which I was happy with as tomorrow is a 100km+ ride. Got there and back home in 42 mins which is the same time as December 4, but avg HR was only 164 and max HR 183! Much lower than December totals. Calories 579 indicating much lower %max output but at same time indicates fitness is definitely increasing. 40% of calories from body fat = 25g body fat burnt.

Monday ride - Tdu prep

Monday saw mum and dad escort me in the family rav4 along the first 55km of the actual stage I'll be riding at the tour. The ride was from home to the eastern town of Mt Barker along a very hilly and mountainous route through Gorge rd. Through the hottest part of the day the climb was tough and relentless (see the profile map) and the extra xmas weight made the going tough. After 2h45min I completed the 55km to mt Barker with the folks leap frogging and directing me through the hilly back roads of the adelaide hills. Totals: 2673 calories, 35% fat, approx 100g body fat burnt. Which still leaves me another kilo or two of xmas fat to burn! Ha ha.

Sent from my Nokia phone

Tuesday power session

Many thanks go to Fran this week for my sore and tired quads and adductors after our Tuesday session. After some power cleans, Fran had me doing alternating step jump squats with 10kg, then bench jumps, plus one legged lunge forward hops....then backwards. As if my balance isn't crap enough!!!! The quads were searing and today my adductors are tight, probably from trying to stabilise during the lunge hops. Look out for videos of my brutal sessions with Fran in the New Year.

Wednesday I travelled to Adelaide so was a bit tired, and a 30 min recovery ride in the dry Adelaide dusk was all I could manage.

Before photo

I decided to post this photo sent of my 6 December in conjunction with my goals of reducing my body fat and weight for the TDU. Sent from my Nokia phone

Saturday MTB ride

Headed to Daisy Hill for a 2.5hr MTB ride with Paul and James. Felt extremely fit as was hardly breathing uphill, but due to a fridge malfunction at home, my nutrition hasn't been the best, and after 2hrs started to feel weak. Still finished relatively strongly though. Totals: 2h36min, avg HR 148 @72%max(due to breaks), max HR 190 @ 92 max, 1806 calories with 45% body fat as energy = 90g body fat burnt.

PT Sessions and Run

Having a busy week this past week there wasn't much time for a ride except the 15min ride from the carpark to work. But I did manage to fit in a couple PT sessions. Tuesday saw Fran smash me during a heavy strength session for the legs, including static split squats, sumo deadlifts, and single legged deadlifts. Needless to say my arse was sore the next day. Wednesday saw us doing a fitness session with boxing, burpees and high knee running to start off. Then came rowing ergo sprints with jump squats and jump lunges, plus skipping and bosu burpees to finish me off....literally. I felt sick and my HR hit 195! Thursday had a rest day and Friday afternoon was 30mins spinning on the bike to loosen up my tight lower back, plus a 20min 4-5km run at dusk with Lauren. Felt good and wasn't breathing too hard so the fitness is definitely improving. My weight has also dropped too, down to about 77kg now. So my program and fitness is definitely on track for January 22.

Sunday Ride

Sunday 12th December, 5am. 95km ride from Waterford to Mt Tamborine and back. Ride included gruelling 20 min climb up the mountain, and then a high speed descent into Canungra for a coffee. Then it was back to Waterford. Felt real strong in the last 10km while everyone was fading and led the pack home. Nearly 3000 calories burnt, avg HR 159, 40% calories fat, 133g body fat burnt.

Nutrition Quick Tip

Next time you go shopping (probably in the New Year when junk food and alcohol isn't so commonplace) try buying all your items from around the outside of the supermarket. Notice that the outside walls of the supermarket are generally refrigerated and/or nearby the fruit and veg section. Fresh is always best so avoid pre-packaged foods from the centre shelves of the supermarket. These foods are essentially highly processed and therefore lack nutrients, and are basically just empty calories with no nutritional benefits. Buy wholegrain breads, fruit and veg, lean meats, eggs and dairy.

PT session

As part of my preparations I'm using my PT Fran to smash me into fitness. As you all know, sometimes it can be hard to push yourself that last 1% in case there's someone on your case telling you to. Thursday 10th December, full body strength and fitness session. Forgot to wear the heart rate monitor, but after numerous omni-squats and chinups for blood shunting, I was toast! Add 50 reverse lunges and 50 swiss ball hamstring curls, and the legs were burning, and the walk back to work up the Wharf Street hill was a struggle.

TDU Prep - Tuesday NightRider

Tuesday night headed out for an approx 50km ride to and up Mt Coottha and back from Forest Lake, previous P.B. 2h5min. Legs felt tired but once warmed up felt good except for the gusty headwind I was pushing into. Took the Western Freeway bike path to Mt Coot-tha then a time trial up. Climb felt good and fast and in a bigger gear than I've done before. From planetarium to restaurant just under 10mins. Ride back was a breeze due to tail wind. 14mins off PB will heaps of energy in last quarter home, really pushed. Totals: 1h51min, average HR 157 (low), max HR 189 (low), 1426 calories, 40% fat = 64g body fat burnt. Good steak, veg and brown rice dinner.

Xmas season nutrition tip

Alcohol itself, just like protein and carbs, contains approximately 4 calories per gram. So if a standard drink is 30g that's about 120 calories.
So if you're struggling to burn fat then re-think the 10 drinks you're gonna have at your xmas party, cos that'd be 1200 calories+! Not to mention the bad food choices you'll make, like pizza, kebab or chips.
Furthermore, the body treats alcohol like a poison. It wants to get rid of it straight away, so unless you throw it up your body will prioritise the alcohol and spend it's energy metabolising and burning it off first before it even worries about your body fat!!
If this comes as a shock then maybe consider how drunk you really have to get, cos your head and your hips will regret it the next day/week.

TDU prep

45min recovery ride on the spin bike. Some abdominal, lower back and core conditioning afterwards. 540 calories burnt, 50%fat, 30g body fat burnt, avg HR 149. Legs felt ok after long Sunday ride, but a bit dead if pushing HR near 160.

Sunday Ride

First real test of my endurance today with a 75km+ ride. Forest Lake to Wynnum via Ipswich rd into Woolloongabba then Lytton rd onto Wynnum rd. All the way to the coast is 41km each way so I decided to see how I felt. I could turn back before the coast if need be. Felt good though and reached the coast in 1h31min. Felt good on the way home until Corinda/Oxley when legs started to feel dead and tired. Took a wrong turn on Blunder road so probably covered an extra couple of k's but still made ti home in 3h4min. So average speed was about 26-27km/h but that's with stops at red lights, roundabouts etc.. Totals: 82km, 3h4min, avg HR 172, max 191, 2717calories burnt, 35% fat, 105g body fat burnt. 90-95km ride next weekend.

Running

So as mentioned, this blog will also double up as my online training journal. As I've got no plans for tomorrow, I saved my 75km bike ride for then, and went for a run. Living at Forest Lake I have the beautiful lake to run around. So at 9.30am on the dot I ran the 2-3km there, 2km around it, then 2-3km back. My aim was to use my heart rate monitor alarm to stay below 175bpm which is about 75%VO2max. But coming home was 6-7mins uphill so the HR hit the low 190's. This could have been cos of the headcold I have and the codrals I'm taking, but I had no problems holding my pace with my HR that high, so that's a good sign I wasn't working at or above my anaerobic threshold, so there's probably a bit more speed in the old legs. So for the 7-8km run it took 42 mins, average HR 176, 647calories burned (30% of that bodyfat = 21g body fat).

Welcome!!

Welcome to the You-Defined blog. This blog is designed to provide further pieces of fitness and health information that I learn everyday that I probably won't remember to put into 'Fitness Matters' (FM).

It'll also detail my cycling and triathlon preparations and training schedule. As per FM, I'm riding in the Tour Down Under for charity. Today marks 50 days until that event, so I have basically 7 weeks to increase my riding so I can be ready for the 160km stage.
I can already comfortably do about 60km at 25-30km/h, so the next 7 weeks training means I'll have to increase my long ride distance by about 15km a week, plus a shorter ride and a speed session or two so I can maintain/increase my speed. Plus a weekly run and weights!!! The reason I share this is I'd like to weight less than 76kg with around 12-14% body fat, so I'll be in the same boat as a lot of you as I'm trying to lose weight and really watch my diet at the moment.

I'm also aiming to compete at the Noosa Triathlon 2010 and would love to do it in less than 2h15min (20-25 min swim, 1h05m bike, 40-45min run). So this blog will keep people up to date on my training sessions. Ideally I'll weight 72-74 with 10-12% body fat around then (November 2010). That'll be a struggle for me so this blog will also contain any struggles and frustrations I'm having.

Alrighty well that's enough from me. Keep reading FM and this blog for handy tips on fitness, nutrition and motivation.