New Blog Site - Firsttimeironman.com

Due to the large number of people reading my weekly training blog, I am now posting all my blogs on my new website http://www.firsttimeironman.com/


To view my weekly blog http://firsttimeironman.com/features.aspx?cat=13

Thank you everyone for reading my blogs and making me get off my fat arse and train

I am running out of names for each blog... sorry

This week didn’t quiet go according to my training schedule but for one reason or another, I spent most of the week in pain. I did make each training session count.

I thought I would take on the Scottsdale ride again only hitting it four days prior but this time I took the time trial bike. If it was hard going on the road bike, this time it killed a small piece of me inside on the TT bike.  I enjoy talking to the old guy in a small shop at Scottsdale, we joke that anyone who doesn’t do the Scottsdale ride must be home knitting tea pot covers (looking at him, i think he would struggle walking to the front door). According to the heart rate monitor, I burned a little over 4000 calories on this ride

I have only recently started running on grass, people have been telling me to do it for a few years. I do admit that running on grass I can see a big improvement with me running (it is not hard to improve when you are already a crap runner)

Very disappointing in the pool this week having missed out on my Sunday swim. To make things worse I will be on holiday with the family next week in Melbourne and Sydney.  This means no bike. I may be able to get a swim in somewhere and a few runs but my training will be non existence. Not the best way to be with 12 weeks out of an Ironman.

This week training was 12.5 hours with

Swim: 2 sessions

Bike: 3 rides

Run: 3 runs

Gym: 1

Weight: 84kg (I bet I will weigh another 2kg more after a week on holidays)

Looking back, it was a bit of a non event week........ sorry about that as well.

Tim Weekly

I was thinking early in the week that I needed to do something fun and exciting so I have something to write on my blog.  As my Base training is coming to a near, I thought it would be fun to slaughter the body with a ride to Scottsdale and back.  I did this ride about two months ago and it took the wind out of my sails quick smart and in a hurry.

I did the ride about 40 minutes quicker than last time but it felt just as hard (funny that). I am now training with a heart rate monitor on and I was surprised to see how low my heart rate was on this ride. I thought something wasn’t quite right so I thought I should irritate Scotty Hunter about it (he must dread my name coming up on his phone with all my dumb-arse questions).

Luke talked me into riding with the Bike Central bunch Friday morning. It started well when I pulled into the church car park on Margret Street when I ran up the gutter in front of everyone.  To make matters worse, I couldn’t for the life of me get my shoe back into the paddle. All the other riders must have been thinking “who is this numb nut”

I went to this lady who did a stretch session with me. She had me in positions I thought would be impossible to get into. My hips and gluts and extremely tight so much of the session was focusing on these areas.  I walked out thinking it was worth every cent spent.

Weight management seems to be going along like a yoyo.  I weigh myself everyday and when I am really good the weight pours off me but when I get in the chocolate groove (most days), the weight jumps back on.  All in all, I lost another 1kg this week bringing my bright white chubby body to 83kg.

Week’s training totalled 12 hours.

Swim: 3

Bike: 3

Run: 3

Gym: 1

Yoga/stretch Session: 1

Lookihng over Scottsdale

Test Week

This week is a bit of a hard week to write about. Nothing exciting happened. I trained alone and it was test week.  I set up a time trial for 1km swim, 15km ride and a 5km run just to check where my fitness is at (it appears my fitness is still hiding).  My plan is to do the same time trials every month and with a little bit of luck I can see an improvement each month.

My swimming is going better than I thought it would be, I no longer swimming like a brick….. it is more like a paver now (still poor but progressing) Bike is awesome over shorter rides but I need a lot of work once clicking over 100km and running is still short distance as I am still getting my shins right.

I have had my head stuck in books of late with reading "Swim Workouts for Triathletes", Joe Friel’s “Your Best Triathlon” and now just started Joe’s other book “The Triathlete’s Training Bible”. Each book is great and I highly recommend them to anyone.  With the help from these books and Richard Whitefield, I have put together a training program for the 14 week build up to ironman Western Australia that is on Sunday 4^th December.

My weight loss is stagnate, nothing has changed unfortunately. It has been harder than I thought trying to get back onto counting calories again. Chocolate has it in for me. 

This week’s training was 10 hours

Swim: 3 sessions

Bike: 3 rides

Run: 3 with one being a hill intervals

RPM: 1

Yoga: 1

Gym: 1 (Poor efforts)

Weight: 85kg

Just got my new 2XU compressions in the mail and about to test them running up and down David Street. It really isn't that much fun David's street. - Killer

Pulling a stupid face after my Bike Time Trial,  I thought I would risk looking like a tool (well more than normal) and take my aerodynamic helmet out….. (the face doesn't help matters I know)

After the Time Trial. I thought I would take this photo not to show you my bike but to give my security company a plug…. In every photo this week you will see my Valiant Security logo in it somewhere…. Get onto it people. http://www.valianttasmania.com/



No Frills Training Week

Last week’s training was a little bit more respectable then the week prior. I trained a few times with Luke who always seems to bring out the best in my training. I hope one day to talk Luke into triathlons cause I recon he would kick arse at it.

My weight loss side of things was going along like a steam train having lost another 2kg by Thursday then it derailed quick smart and in a hurry. I have been watching the calories so closely that by Thursday night I just couldn’t take it any longer. I began to eat like a diamond and didn’t stop till Sunday I ate us out of house and home.  I put back on one of the kg I lost but boy it felt good to eat crap again for a few days.

The big ride for the week was suppose to be 160km but I thought I would be a  bit of a girl and cut it short (some of the unexpected hills took the wind out of my sail) so the ride was actually 130km with a brick session on at the end.  No matter what anyone tells me about brick sessions, I really don’t enjoy them that much.

I went and had a massage for the first time in about five months and man was it great.  The lady told me that my gluts are extremely tight (probably the reason I run like I have a stick up my rear end) I am going back next week for her to rip into them again.

Training for the week included 13 hours

Swim: 3 swim sets (should have been four but spend time with the kids)

Bike: 3 rides

Run: 4 with one a hill session and the other a brick session

Gym: 2 full body sessions

Yoga: None, I went for a quick swim instead

Renee took this photo of me stretching before killing White Hills…. Ok White Hills almost killed me

Saw this security sign in Birralee and thought that someone took the time to actually paint such a crap sign…. I bet they thought it would work as well (I couldn't see any CCTV, I thought if the cameras were as good as the sign then it most likely wouldn't be working anyway)

I like to spend my Saturday nights at the car wash cleaning my bike….. “this guy has an awesome life” you are telling yourself…. A little sad I know

First Time Ironman

I started up FirstTimeIronman.com about two weeks ago dedicated to telling the stories of triathlete’s first Ironman and 70.3 experiences.

Before I completed IMWA, I would search the internet to read people’s blogs who have completed an ironman so I could learn as much as I could from their races (things like don’t eat KFC the night before – poor bloke).  I thought it would be great to start up a website that focuses on this. 

After registering the domain name and got a cheap hosting package, I got cold feet with the whole idea. I thought I have only invested $150 into the site, I haven’t lost much, I have a lot on my plat currently. Until I was working one night and I was board shitless and thought I would chuck my story and pro triathlete Guy Crawford’s blog about his first Ironman (I asked him a couple of months ago) on the site, hit live and see how I would go. I sent the word out on Twitter and Facebook and within a week, I was getting a good volume of traffic on the site.

Due to the interest from the amount of age groupers and a number of pros, I am getting the site built by the good team at Itag Media (they do good work, they built two websites for me and both look awesome) I hope to be running a few different features off the site that should make it a little more unique.

So time to plug the site: you should all have a look at the site www.firsttimeironman.com and follow the updates on Twitter @firstironman and let me know what you think and if you can come up with any suggestions to help improve the site please send me an email timothy@valianttasmania.com

I come armed with excuses

Another big week killed my training. Worked over 70 hours again (the joys of owning your own business).

I have just switched to a 24 hour gym.  It was a hard as the owner of the gym I have been going to has been good to me but unfortunately I can’t go and workout at midnight. The reasons for joing a 24 hour gym is 1) It is open 24 hours, 2) It is located on the bottom of a killer hill so once a week after killing a small part of my legs in the gym, I can run up and down David Street. My mate does it and he told me that it is more a mental thing then physical pain but when I did it last Thursday my legs were killing me (the same pains as if I was running the last 5km for a marathon)

I have really been watching what I have been sticking into my mouth. Thanks to Scott’s blog on Calorie Counting. Calorie Kings tells me I should be eating1850 calories a day (I normally have this amount for lunch) I have been doing my best to keep it around this 2000 per day. You would think it would get easier as each day rolls on but it is bloody hard.  I have always eaten what I like and I am famous for the amount of food I eat.  I have this joke that I eat for ten men but it wouldn’t be that far off it. 

I have always trained to keep my weight off and the moment I slow down or stop, I start to look like the side of a bus. To give you an example, I stopped doing…. Well everything but work in 2001 and I went from 82kg to 100kg in no time at all. I lost that and just a few years back I stopped cycling for ITB pains and I went up to 95kg. I stayed at 95kg for a couple of years and two months before IMWA last year I lost a 10kg. after IMWA I jumped up to 90kg and just in the last two months I have gone back down to 85kg.  I would like to shed another 5 to 10kg before December (wishful thinking)

What little training I did do was defiantly enjoyable. I trained for 6.5 hours.

Swim: 3 sessions

Bike: 1 (yup I know, very poor)

Run: 4 runs

Yoga: 0

Gym: 1 lower body session

Body weight: 85kg (17% body fat…… I am a big fatso whale)

We had some rain early in the week. This is some farmer’s entry. I had to turn around shortly as the road was also under water.

P.S. I’m a fatso whale

Last week kicked off awesomely with Monday being a big day of training with four training sessions. I was thinking a big Monday would set the rest of the week up as I have a little bit to do at work and then my Dad was coming down to Tassie to train with  me over the weekend. 

My old man decided in late December last year that he wanted to take on an Ironman after watching me in IMWA.  Ever since I can remember, my Dad has always been fat and extremely lazy. It seemed that every Monday he was starting a diet and by lunch time, he had broken his diet a couple of times.  When he told me that he was going to train for an Ironman, I thought that this man has lost his meatballs.

Due to being overweight, he had a bad back and was popping pain killers like M&Ms. Mum would even have to help him out of bed every morning and sometime would need to give him a hand getting off the toilet.  We all thought that he would wind up in a wheel chair within the next five years

He went out and got himself a new road bike and started off by only riding 5km and slowly built it up. He is now running and swimming and in last eight months since starting to train, he has lost 35kg and is looking great.  He hasn’t taken any pain killers for about five months and he has just now got himself a Giant time trial bike and is booked in for ironman Australia in May next year. He probably has another 10kg to lose before being at a good weight.

Training with him is always fun but there isn’t really any quality in the training sessions as he is slower than me and I am more or less just spinning my legs around.

My eating habits last week have been the worst in months. I put on the 2kg I lost the week prior.

This Week’s training:

·         Swim: 3 sessions

·         Bike: 5 rides

·         Run: 2 runs (very poor effort)

·         Yoga: 1 sessions (this near on killed me, hard)

·         Gym: 2 full body sets

I took this photo my the old man and myself riding through Nile

Rest for the wicked

I was forced to have a little more rest this week then I would have liked due to work, family and a few moments where I just couldn’t be bothered. I worked almost 70 hours this week so I had to do some training sessions around work.  I would ride to and from work (I work 35km from home) or I would park my car at a mate’s place and run into work.  Now I have got to the end of the week, a quiet week of training may have been just what the doctor ordered.

Even though this week I only managed to clocked up 8.5 hours of training, I still managed to lose 2kg and I still ate for 10 men throughout the week. My 6 year old girl Anara told me this week “Dad, you’re a chocolate eater” I don’t think she has ever seen me without a chocolate sticking out of my mouth.

I have arranged with a mate to begin motorbike pacing as from next week. This will be a new experience for me (apart from tailgating slow moving cars) I haven’t done anything close to pacing behind a motorbike before, can’t wait.

I have started reading Joe Friel’s book “Your best Triathlon” I was of the hope that if I brought the book and read it, it would make me a better triathlete but according to the book, I have to get off my arse and train and train hard for that matter. Apart from him making me do something, it is a really good book and I would recommend it to any triathlete who has the time to read.

This Week’s Training:

·         Swim: 3 sessions

·         Bike: 3 rides

·         Run: 4 runs

·         Yoga: 3 sessions

·         Gym: 1 fully body

As you can see from this pitcher, I am all about quality training and getting every bit out of each training session.

Looking like I know what I am doing.

Point of view, I was shocked that I could ride and take a photo at the same time.  If I new how, I would of photo shopped it and made the speed look like I was doing something.

What are sport we are in......

I have dipped my toe in a number of sports over the years (Rugby league, basketball, cycling and a few others here and there) but nothing comes close to triathlons. The people in this sport make the sport so enjoyable.  Over the past year or so, I have asked a lot of people a lot of questions and everybody has been more than happy to help. Even the pros who have gone out of their way to give me advise. People like Luke McKenzie, Peter Jacobs were more than happy to help this poor broken down old man. And the amount of age groupers who have given me a lot of advice has been unbelievable.

Richard Whitefield who finished 16^th at Kona 2010 and who could easily go pro, has been an awesome help. I have been communicating with Richard via Twitter over the past few months and last week I asked a typical silly questions (I am famous for asking dumb questions) and the amount of help he has given me, I feel like I should be paying him.

Another huge help came from Scott Hunter who have given me endless advice and just today went out of his way to help me with my swimming (I swim like a retarded lizard) This man should become a triathlon coach. He is a skin filled of knowledge. He also has a blog http://www.scott-hunter.blogspot.com

Last week was all about creating some hurting bombs on the bike and really focusing on endurance strength. I am now back on the time trial bike (thought I should give the new road bike a rest) and dug in for a nasty 180km. I had the computer on the bike for this ride and I became a little depressed when I looked at my average speed. luckly chocolate got me out of this depression and back to it again. 

Training at the moment is defiantly more structured then it ever has been. I seem to be a lot fitter and stronger then this time last year, but still way, way off from where I need to be (I still have over four months till IMWA).

I now have approval from my physiotherapist that I can now add one more run session into my weekly training program.  My right calf is becoming bigger and stronger and it almost matches my left calf.

Last week’s training was just under 15 hours.

·         Swim: 4 sessions (with one being a personal best over 1km - woo hoo go me)

·         Bike: 4 rides

·         Run: 3 - slow but enjoyable (not the brick one but the other two)

·         Gym: 2 sessions

·         Yoga/stretch sessions: 2 sessions.

About to giving everyone at the gym two tickets to the gun show. (maybe I should of took this photo next to some BIG weights so I can look awesome)

At Low Head, part of my 180km ride. rode from Launceston up to Beauty Point then across the river to Low Head, then back across the river and back to Launceston.

At the light house at low Head - best roads to ride on in this area, so smooth and flat.

Week Four

It just so happens that I do enjoy writing about myself……

I came across a really good line this week that describes base training, “base training is training to train not training to race” I thought how good is that line. All my training over the past month has been without my heart rate monitor or bike computer. I have just been going completely off time spent training.

Last year when I was training for IMWA, I knew nothing about base training (or triathlon training for that matter) and so I went balls and all into race training and wondered why I suffered two knee injuries, shin splints and basically a poor overall fitness due to poor education into training for something this big. Most free time I had this year has been spent searching the internet and trying to learn as much as I can about what we do.

After killing a small part of myself at the gym early in the week, I decided that this week’s big ride had to be something hardcore (I was thinking of you people reading this blog).  On Wednesday I took off from home on the road bike and headed up to Poatina and climbed the mountain caked with snow. Unfortunately I could only ride 7km up as the road was covered with ice and became too slippery to ride on. It was a disappointing moment when I had to turn around.

Due to working a little over 60 hours this week (bloody bills, mortgage, etc), I was very lucky to scrap in about 10 hours of training.  It is something that I do struggle with family, training and work. It really helps that since my training load has recently increased, my wife has been very understanding and supportive. She is really keeping things together nicely around the house and I often forget to thank her for all her hard work (I generally go around telling smartarse jokes instead)

Training Week

Swim: 2 sessions (I know, poor)

Bike: 2 sessions (yup again, poor)

Run: 3 sessions (slow build up)

Gym: 2 strength sessions (Spot on)

Yoga: didn't have time (Shockly poor)

My Wife Renee is just the way I like her.

Just after I turned around due to ice on the road. There was snow from about the 5km mark up. looked awesome.

Week Three of Base Training

Yes I am doing another blog and no I didn’t spell check this….

Well it turned out that I have the motivation to post another blog a week after my last (yay go me).  I really thought it would be a year or so before the next. I am looking at this blog thing as motivation for my training as it drives me to find new and interesting things to do in my little life so I look exciting, cool and awesome on your computers as you read this.

I have just finished my third week of base training and I have come to the conclusion that if I swim, bike and run a lot then I am going to get better at this self mutilation we like to call Ironman. 

This week started off differently than any other as Monday I got my grubby little hands on a new Focus road bike from Geard Cycles in Launceston. Even though I wasn’t due to ride a road bike for three week as I am spending my life on the time trial bike, I just couldn’t wait. I jumped on it four times last week. (a very nice ride)

As it is getting bloody cold in Tasmania, I do struggle with the bike in the cold mornings.  I have been thinking to myself if I climb up one of these mountains caked with snow then this should help me mentally but then I stop and say to myself “what are you crazy” and then I am fine and I get on with my day.

Saturday I was to head out for a 160km ride with three mates but on the Friday, Tasmania was issued with a weather alert and all three mates pulled out of the ride and decided to stay home and try on their wife’s skirts (hopeless).

As it was going to be extremely windy, rain and very, very cold, I decided to ditch the 160km ride and head out to Scottsdale and back. For the people who doesn’t know much or nothing at all about Tasmania, Scottsdale is about 130km round trip from Launceston and it is very hilly (my God is it hilly).  There are hills on top of hills with one hill about 10km long. In the off season, you will see pro cyclists Richie Port, Wez Sulzberger and pro Triathlete Joe Gamble riding it (I don’t know about the other pro cyclists that live in Launceston).

My way of thinking was that if I rode to Scottsdale, the bush lands will shelter me from the wind and the hills would help build some much needed strength into my bright white legs that look like that haven’t seen the light of day in years.

All in all my training is going well and I can feel a big difference on the bike and in the pool. My Run is as good as can be expected but still have a long way to go.

My new Focus Bike

I'm about to head out for a run. Anara (my little girl) took this photo as she was going to bed

I am in Scottsdale and for anyone who has been there will know that Scottsdale is home to the worst building in Australia (Yup that is it behind me)

Took a pic of myself in action on the way out to Deloraine.  It was a sad moment as these $5 sunglasses were in the bin not one hour after this ride.I thought I could get a little longer out of them but they did last 6 months.

I'm Back

When I first started this blog, I thought it would be an awesome experience jotting down what is going on in my little life just to relies that I really can’t be bothered in continuing after the first day.  I seem to do this often. Start something like a bullet to gate and then close it down quicker then I started. I guess I could dedicate a weekly blog to what irritates me about myself. (could be never ending)

Of late, I have been thinking more and more of having another dig of the blog thing and the idea of ‘will anyone read it’ is always at the front of my mind but then I think who really cares, as long as I have had fun along the way.

I am now within six month of doing Ironman Western Australia (IMWA) for the second time and I would be lying if I didn’t say I think about it all day every day.  Last year I completed IMWA in a time of 14:15 and this year I would like to take a minimum of one hour off my time. I am also booked into Ironman Australia (IMOZ) and would love a time of 12:15 for that event. I could just be dreaming that my bright white chubby legs could travel me to the finishing line in that time. 

For the past six month, I have been just having fun with my training. I wouldn’t head out on any big training days or weeks but just a lot of small sessions throughout the week.  I have just started to string together some big training sessions and I now am two weeks into proper training.  It helps when I have a friend that is into big training sessions and is a lot fitter then me as it keeps me motivated.

I am just concentrating on base training currently and getting my shins right.  I have had to pull out of the Ross Marathon in September as I do not want to push my body the hard that quickly.  Lisa from Physio Fit has got me running just three times per week and only for 3km reach run with every week increasing it by 10%. Not ideal but I have to do what she tells me too. The reason for my shins always playing up and causing my training to derail is that my right calf muscle is smaller and weaker then my left.  I am doing strength training on it every day and I will find out how I am looking this Tuesday when I go and see her again.

Business seems to be going well. Valiant Security is still paying the bills and securityjobs.net.au has just completed its first year in business. I still don’t know if I should go ahead with firsttimeironman.com as I haven’t had a lot of interest from others triathletes who have completed an Ironman before and are interested in writing about their experience.  I am still in two minds weather to continue and see what happens or sell the site and count my losses.

Well that is me done for now, we will see if I will do another blog in the next couple of weeks or will this be it. If anyone does care, I do a regular blog on securityjobs.net au about the security and the employment industry.