Getting Stronger

So I know it's been a while since my last blog, I do apologise, I have been busy training... umm, racing, umm oh hell, I confess I've just been lazy.  It's been an interesting time.  A time of milestones, disappointment and success.

As far as my fund raising campaign goes, I have not only managed get my first donation, I have actually managed to raise ZAR1000... CHA CHING.  Ok, I know it's not much in the greater scheme of things, but it is a start and it can only get better, right?  Well regardless, the ball is rolling and I am very positive.  Everything will work out just as it should... as always.

In the interim I have been very busy training, I followed my programme religiously, well almost. With the exception of a few too many rest days for my liking. And of course the 3 week vacation in Thailand. And the 3 weeks I was out with the flu... come to think of it, I've been very bad. Hard to believe I have been as successful as I was.

Lets see, there was a sprint triathlon... 750m swim, 20km cycle, and 5km run. Weather was shocking. It was the hardest swim I could have imagined, breathing was to say the least, an issue. It took me an eternity of 25 mins to complete the swim. Turns out, my swim was not as strong as I'd imagined. After having to wrestle with my mind about the not being able to breath, I managed to gather myself and move on.  Managed to complete the cycle and run pretty comfortably feeling good, and at not too bad a time either.  Total time of 1h30... about what my target time was.  Was feeling really impressed after this race.

Then there was the olympic tri... 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10km run. I did a bit more work on my swim, having the last debacle in mind, but when the race started, conditions were ideal. Water was beautifully flat, weather was cool. having the boosted confidence of the last race, I really had a good day. I struggled a bit with the transition from swim to bike, but once the legs warmed up, there was just no holding me back. I finished in a proud 2:59... making it a sub 3. Just barely, but sub 3.

With all the confidence and pride brimming from the previous races, I was just on such a high. Loving every minute of the training as well as the races. Tried my hand at another 94.7 cycle challenge. The plan was to do it in under 3 hours. At kilometre 70, I was at just 2h12 and was just about to start my sprint to the finish when my chain comes off, bending my rear derailleur in the process. I managed to make a makeshift repair, leaving me with only 2 working gears (the 2 front chainrings).  All things considered, I finished in a 3h19.  Not bad at all, at least I thought so. Now I just need a proper bike. Oh damn.

That brings me to my nemesis  dun dun duuuuuun. It was me vs the ultra triathlon. A half Ironman dist monster.... make that THE half Ironman distance. Yes, the same one that killed me before. The Midlands Ultra.  I am so ready to face this beast.  It's the one thing I've been training for all this time. My eye opening race.  The only difference is, this time I am ready.  This time, I'm prepared. I trained. I can absolutely, unequivocally  without a doubt say, I am ready. In fact, I am even aiming for an under 6 hour time.  Come race day, things don't go so well.  I am at the transition on time, bike racked and ready. Waiting for race briefing...and waiting, still waiting. Weather is yet again, against us. All the training, all the expense, all the hard work, time and effort culminating in this one event, and the weather has other plans.  Fog so thick, we can't even see the dam.  Eventually at 9am they call it "It's not safe to continue folks, we have to cancel."

How sad, oddly enough, I really wasn't as disappointed as I'd imagined.  I got to see my sister who I haven't seen all year, I got a pretty decent holiday.  So worth the trip.  However, there is this one slight detail I have overseen.  The race.  I return home, feeling a bit like something is lacking.  Just feeling like I didn't really want to put all that training to waste. So what do I do? I take the plunge. Give myself another target to work towards. I register for Ironman. Yup, just like that, on a whim. Just get on with it.  Looking back, I am not even the least bit unsure.  No second doubts, just kicked training into overdrive, and get serious beast mode going. I am actually excited to see how I do with it.  Looking forward to the race.

In the meantime, I will keep trying to raise more funds for Kids Haven, I will keep training and working and keep you informed, as I progress along my journey of getting there.

My program

It was a real challenge finding just the right balance for me. For those interested, I will be explaining my program, and how I decided on finalizing it as it is.

My point of reference was the dismal awakening at the first race. So I knew what I was doing was hardly enough. And what I was doing was a simple 10 hour/week program. Ride to work on the bike, get home, go for a swim and every other day, a run around the neighbourhood.  For the week that would be:

• 200 km cycle
• 12 km swim  
• 15 km run 

Really doesn't add too much in the bigger scheme of things, but I was feeling drained by the time Thursday came along. Only logical explanation was that I was training very well. NOT.  Something had to be done. It was time to get drastic. I did some research, and found a lot of 12 week training programs. And I mean a lot of them.  So what was I to do until 12 weeks before the race? I am assuming just sitting around waiting for the 12th week to come was probably a bad idea. Cue in, the insane gym obsession.

I joined the gym. After all, I needed to get fitness levels up, strength and stamina as well right?  Right. Well, in my defence, it is nothing that I was used to. As far as I knew, the gym was a bunch of sweaty guys picking up heavy things in some guy's dad's garage. To my surprise, they had everything I could possibly imagine (and some might I add, that I could never imagine the use... probably something out of some warped, twisted torture chamber.) Nevertheless I endured, went past the weights, and on to classes.

For those machismo Neanderthals who believe classes are for the less than adequate athletes (ashamedly, previously to my education, I would be classified as such), I have a surprise for you. They are actually quite the workout. I can even go so far as to say it is a fantastic workout. The different classes target different muscle groups.  Pilates is very good for core work, spinning is good for fitness and stamina. At least that is how it helped me.  Spinning is something I believe all cyclists should do. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying it's a good replacement, far from it. They have totally different pros and cons which I won't go into. I am however saying that it is one hell of a substitute for when you can't get to the road for whatever reason.

I finally settled on the classes that did not leave me feeling like an uncoordinated oaf. If any of you have tried some of these classes, you'd know what I mean. You just about start understanding how to do the one routine properly, and the next one starts. It's a total nightmare if you actually trying to get a workout, and never get any momentum going. So I stuck with the very simple, easy to understand Pilates and Spinning. I also found that adding some weight training was helpful to get strength up, however, very time consuming. Thus, enter circuit. Fantastic full body workout, that is high impact and quick. In 20 minutes, I have done a full body workout of all the major muscle groups, and there is still time to get fitness and cardio levels up, just perfect.

Eventually, I started doing some sort of program:

• Every day I would cycle to work ( that's 40km a day for 5 days)
• Run to gym (about 7km round trip for 5 days). 
• At gym, it was swim Mon and Wed, 
• 2 to 3 Spin sessions a day and circuit every other day. 
• When I wasn't doing circuit, it was Pilates. 

This worked out very well for me, because when time came to try one of the 12 week programs, they were way too easy for me. At least so I thought, so I started adding a little bit of what I was already doing in the gym. Not changing the program, just tweaking and adding what I felt I needed. Lo and behold, I finally managed to work out something that worked for me. It left me feeling tired, but strong, confident and fit.  It's not as complicated as I had imagined:

• Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays were swim days
• Sundays rest, 
• Saturday was long cycle/brick day, 
• and Tuesdays and Thursdays running days. 
• Adding circuit, Pilates and spinning in the mix, and I had a really intense, challenging workout. 

Best of all is, I was doing more than the bare minimum required according to the program I had found.  It turns out this worked well for me, very well in fact. The logic behind it is, get myself race ready, and still have a year to improve from there. If I can by some miracle, actually do well, then I can get a bit more exposure for Kids Haven. And more exposure might actually lead to some much needed financial aid.

 Above is a copy of my program for anyone curious to try it out. It gives more detail of what I do and when. I still have a year before I tackle the full Iron Man South Africa, so I will be changing and tweaking the program as I need, as my fitness levels change. For now though, this works very well for me, for the time I have available to train and my own personal fitness. I started this program 12 weeks before the Midlands ultra, the same half Iron Man distance race that killed me before. In all fairness, it is a program for a full Iron Man, but I had the strangest notion that I should rather be over prepared than the last hilarious attempt where I was so hopelessly ill prepared.  I will not be talking much more about my races, except to mention how and why I change my program. I would really hate to bore you with small details.  This is after all, a blog about a journey. A story about an average guy trying to make a difference in a crazy world on his road to getting there.

5. The cycle... well almost

Getting ready for the cycle was a lot harder than I had anticipated. Prior to this, the last time I had been on the bike was for the 94.7... In 2005 and to be completely honest, I had been on the bike once before that to train for the 94.7. Before that was at primary school. Si fu Bruce (an inspiration to anyone trying to better themselves) convinced me to join a team.  For all intent and purposes it worked out pretty well. I managed to finish the race... maybe not well, but I did finish. That being said, I was in the peak of my athletic life.  Doing kung fu 4 times a week, 3 to 4 hours a day. Strong as an ox, super fast and just wouldn't say die. So obviously, in my mind I had the cycle under control. 

First thing, was to get a bike. Holy hell so many beautiful choices and none of them I could afford.  Mean machines, fast machines, beautiful machines. I managed to settle on a umm... machine.  More like jalopy.  Found an old Giant 7 speed road bike that I could afford and immediately jumped on the offer.  It was going for a third of the price of the cheapest one I had seen until then. Man I need to win the lotto. 

Regardless got the bike, cleaned it up, serviced it, perks of being a mechanic I'm pretty good with that type of stuff. My jalopy was looking like a baby now, and ready to hit the road.  First run, I decide to ride to work. It's only 20km, so I know it's manageable.  Don the helmet, high viz jacket and get going. About 3 km down the road, my 8 year old cleats (never been used btw) decide they were not prepared for this. The entire sole of the shoe comes off mid stroke. Problem, I can't exactly head back home, I'm going to be late for work. I press forward with one cleat and one... almost cleat. Manage the 21 km's in about an hour. The ride home was done in safety boots.  Just as entertaining, but a lot more comfortable.  

As time progressed I got a lot more comfortable and faster on the bike. Slowly started gathering gear.  Almost started looking like a cyclist, until... I'm not sure if this has happened to anyone else before but I felt like a real tool.  Finally managed to get a new pair of cleats, and on the first trial run, first traffic light I stop at something tells me... you're forgetting something dumbass.  Then I stop and try to put my foot down for balance.  Alas, my foot is still clipped in.  I somehow managed to completely get off the bike and walk away, milliseconds before I could taste the flavour of the pavement. The bike went one way, and I went the other.

Talk about the walk of shame.  Having to face the drivers of the cars next to me while I go pick the bike up must have been the single most embarrassing moment ever.  None of them drove away, even though the traffic light turned green, probably because they couldn't control their bodies from hysterical laughter.

TIP OF THE DAY: Don't try out cleats in peak hour traffic. Admittedly, the cleats do make the world of difference, when you eventually learn to use them correctly. 

A few weeks down the road I am really getting good with this cycling thing.  Ride to work is taking 45 min, I'm enjoying the view, zipping through traffic just like a real cyclist.

I had been training about 2 months and felt ready for the 94.7 in 3 weeks.  Figured it was time to try my hand at a real ride longer than 20km. A friend tells me to try out Suikerbos Rand Nature Reserve.  Apparently it's a nice game ride, great view, good road and best of all no traffic.  Of course I didn't notice any of this, I was too busy trying not to die.  It started with a 4km climb... about 90 ͦ incline, 20 km later, there was another 12 km climb... also about 90 ͦ It was a real killer. When I was done I decided I had to do it again before the race, so I went back the next week. Of course this time I did notice the view.   Tearing down at 40km/h the springboks bound effortlessly next to me as if curious to see what I was doing. Amazing, I was hooked on cycling. 

The next week I completed the 94.7 in 3h40min a full hour faster than my first attempt (when I was in my prime).  Felt really good about it like I could do any other race.  Kept at it, managed to get my average time for 90 km down to 3 hours, and figured I was ready for Midlands Ultra.  We all know how misinformed I was, don't we.  Now I am proud to say I have been training harder, putting in the time and effort and writing this, I am forced to look back and realize that all things considered, I am finally becoming a serious athlete. Even if it is for no reason other than my hilarious, stupid moments are slowly dwindling, making room for actual improvement in the sport itself.  It almost feels as if I am not so silly anymore, making fewer stupid mistakes, I am basically more seriously on my way to getting there.