Mr. Cleetus: Training & Travelling

[soniczip]

hey mr.c, i would be curious to see what you eat throughout the day, as a triathlete

[Mr. Cleetus]

hey mr.c, i would be curious to see what you eat throughout the day, as a triathlete

oh man, now that's some serious pressure. I am not sure if I wanna know that, let along the rest of the world (or 1 or 2 people) that looks at my log! I am getting on a plane to California in a few hours, so my schedule will be a bit whacky compared to normal, but I'll start loging some food details - will be good for me too.

Saturday, AM Ride, 3.5 hours. Felt pretty empty, legs just not really there.

Sunday, AM Ride, 3 hours 45. Wow, something finally changed and I had some strength back in my legs and felt good on the climbs. Pretty hilly and probably too high of an effort ride today. But enjoyed it.

Monday AM swim squad ~3km: 400 w/u. Then descending set: 325-300-275-250....25 with the last 25 of each heads up. I was tired but felt ok. We were moving pretty well - from 200 down we were keeping 1.20ish/100 pace so I am happy with that. Did not watch the pace for the early ones. Then 3x50 with 25 no breather/25 sprint. 200 w/d

cough seems to be getting better...

I am off to California for work in a few hours. I am taking the bike and will be able to jump in a masters squad and also with some runners I know there - so hopefully all will not fall apart. It tends to be difficult tho. I know this first week will be very low volume.

[gms]

Say HI to my mom for me!! What part of California are you going to? We lived in Thousand Oaks for 10 years and she is still there. Wonderful weather to run in during the winter. Kind of hot I hear right now. I second soniczip's request.!

[Mr. Cleetus]

I am in Pasadena. I have driven through Thousand Oaks before but never stopped. You ain't kidding about the heat: 10 degrees C when I got on the plane and mid 40's when I got off (well over 100 I guess) woooo, thats a bit of a shock. I cannot imagine running or riding in this right now, might take me a few days to adjust! I think it is supposed to cool off thankfully.

Gonna have to get organised with the food log - it will be embarrassing with all of the vegan junk food available in the States!

...hopefully I can manage to jump in with the master's squad tonight if I am not too jet lagged (or lazy).

[soniczip]

...40's when I got off (well over 100 I guess) woooo, thats a bit of a shock. I cannot imagine running or riding in this right now, might take me a few days to adjust!...

c'mon now, someone has proven it is possible for vegans to run even in the death valley

[Mr. Cleetus]

I finally have time to sit down at this again, so I hope I can remember what I have done (which has not been heaps!). Finally back in Pasadena - I have been all over California and working very long hours in the last week so things have been pretty messy.

Tuesday PM Swim Squad 90mins: No idea how man m's it was, but I showed up on relay night, so there was plenty of intensity!

Wed PM: run 30 min: easy

Thursday AM: 1hr spinning class: made sure to keep the intensity as low as poss.

Friday/Saturday - nothin'!

Sunday AM: 1hr run. Felt horrible, was terribly hot.
Monday AM: 90min ride. 30min steeeeeep climb. felt ok, pretty worn out tho.
Tuesday AM: 1hr swim: small ladder, again, pretty worn out.

Wed.
AM 30 min swim, easy
PM 90 min ride, steady in hills - feeling a bit better

I still have the cough, tho in the last 24 hours it seems to have improved some. I am thinking it may be time to go to a doc if still there in a day or two. I am just not so keen to do that in the US!

I think I will hold off on the food log until I get home. I have just been at a conference where the food was provided so there was v. little for me, of course. Plenty of fruit and salad...

[gms]

Not always easy to workout while traveling but looks like you're doing alot!
Sorry to hear you still have the cough. Did you ever run a fever or anything in the beginning? Check to see if there is a Whole Foods near you.

[Mr. Cleetus]

Not always easy to workout while traveling but looks like you're doing alot!
Sorry to hear you still have the cough. Did you ever run a fever or anything in the beginning? Check to see if there is a Whole Foods near you.

Ja, it cant be a real pain trying to travel and train - and unfortunately I seem to travel a lot. Get fit, travel, blow it - especially the swimming. Its not so bad when I come here tho - I lived here for 18 months recently so I have a group I can train with. It seems my field attracts reasonably fit people so I almost always have people to run or swim with when I am at meetings or conferences. That certainly helps.

I did not have a fever that I was aware of, but who knows... I bought some Sambucol before I left NZ and seemed to be getting better, but then I think between the jet lag and many short nights (...and the training) I brought it on again. I bought some more on Friday. Yesterday was bad, but it seems generally ok today. I am sure the air quality here is not helping. Certainly been a funny cough!

[Mr. Cleetus]

Thursday PM Swim Squad ~4.2km. A whole mixture of stuff and a whole lotta butterly. We finished with a tough set of 100's and I made all of my intervals, so pleased with that.

Friday
AM: Ride 90 mins. easy ride, no hills.
PM: Ride 90 mins. Heaps of hills and probably a bit more intensity than I should be doing, but I felt fine (just not as strong as I would like to be!)

Saturday, 4.5 hour ride, some good climbing. Definitely more intensity in this ride than I should be doing, but I surprised myself with how well I rode. Still felt fine at end, but was lacking a bit of strength. Heat was killing me too. Everybody is fit here - makes it tough! And they are all tan, my skinny pasty NZ winter white legs stick out. They hadnt seen the sun since about March. Managed to avoid any sunburn so far luckily.

Sunday, 4.5 hour ride. More climbing today ~7000ft. I felt reasonably good again. Rode with a stronger group today so I didnt even respond to most attacks as I knew I would just get shelled. Some of the climbing was quite high tempo. I think I felt better at the end than the start - good sign. Too bad nobody wanted to ride longer!

my running seems to be taking a back seat - not good. I had better be careful or I will lose it all. We have some good & long running planned in Oct/Nov in NZ - hopefully I havent already blown it. I will try and get a few runs in this week.

[Mr. Cleetus]

Not managing to get as much training in this week as I really need to focus on finishing the work I am here to do!

Monday PM Swim Squad: 4.5 km veerrryyy tired. I think Life and the riding from the weekend caught up with me.

Tuesday Lunch. 35 min easy run. felt fine.

had to skip my evening ride as I had to work.

Wed PM Ride. 1.20 v.fast. lots of short hills with lots of attacking. good fun!

I am looking forward to getting back home and getting on a regular schedule again...

[Mr. Cleetus]

Thursday Lunch, 45min easy run. skipped my evening ride again due to work.

Friday AM: 90 min easy ride.

Saturday AM, it raaaaaained raaaaaaaained raaaaaaaained!! bah, so much for sunny SoCal - this was worse than Welly. so I missed my long ride and just got 1.15 in the hills in the evening.

Sunday: 125m (200km) ride. Excellent. Had been a bit worried about this ride since I have not been riding much in the last year. I actually felt rather good at the end. Rode with 1 other - was a ride starting from Malibu, up into the hills, then out into the Ventura basin, then back along PCH. Perfect day, despite some rather strong headwinds for some long stretches. I figured I would crack at about 5 hours, and I became more worried when I was miserable at 3 hours. That quickly passed and then by 70m I was feeling strong and was surprisingly stronger into the wind than the guy (who is much fitter) I was riding with. I ended up dragging (and kept dropping) him all the way down PCH and was very pleased with how I felt in the end. Good for my confidence. ...and it felt good to ride long and hard again.

back to NZ tomorrow - looking forward to it!

[gms]

125m
If you happened to have seen a 67 year old woman and her "new" boyfriend (74) out in Ventura that would have been my mother. Funny she never rode bikes when we were little. My father died several years ago and her boyfriend (still sounds weird) if very into biking. They ride about 20 miles a day in Westlake. Did you start at Pepperdine University?
Congrats on the long ride.

[Mr. Cleetus]

heh, I did wonder at one point if we were in your Mum's area. Don't think we actually made it to Ventura, tho I was a bit confused between Oxnard and Ventura at one point. Thats excellent that she is picking up cycling now! My dad started this year as well, at pretty much the same age. He has finally convinced my mum that she will not die if she joins him too. Now I am working on getting them to join some sort of social cycling group to keep them motivated. -- I can imagine getting used to talking about your mothers "boyfriend" must take a bit of getting used to.


We started just down the road from Pepperdine at the Malibu city hall then headed up Latigo canyon.

[Dave Noisy]

Woot..long haul, 200km...most i've ridden is ~160km. ;)

[soniczip]

nice one ... almost ready for an iron now