Hell Week - The Challenge Wrap Up

Continuing on from my previous post about the Tri Alliance Hell Week, this is a post for day 27th - 29th and final words.

Day 6 - 27th Dec
This was my b'day so I started the day off with a sleep in before meeting up with a few friends from work. One of my best friends lives in Perth and comes back to Melbourne a few times a year for his family so we always make a special effort to see each other and catch up on life/office gossip.

I did a 60min session on the windtrainer to get the legs turning and also to burn off the calories before preparing to go to the open water swim session at Sandringham. The weather had turned from windy to stupidly windy. The water conditions at Sandringham was deemed unsafe for the open water swim session.  As we have a range of abilities in the squad from beginners through to advanced, it would be too hard to keep track of everyone and making sure that everyone is comfortable in the water. The coaches then changed the session to MSAC where I did a 2km swim (4 x 500m).

60min Windtrainer, 2km swim

Day 7 - 28th Dec
The ride for this day started at 5:45am from Elwood towards Port Melbourne then to Frankston or 6:10am from Elwood towards Frankston. I started the ride from my house at a (personal best) early time of 4:40am. The ride towards Port Melbourne was a mixture of bliss (no cars or bikes on the roads) and grind (wind). Due to the strong winds from Elwood through to Port Melbourne, I was late to meet the group on time at Elwood by 30sec and I needed a toilet stop. I decided to just do my own ride that morning as I had already done 25km by myself.

The ride towards Frankston solo was tough as there was strong headwind and some rain. I took my mind off the rain by concentrating on my technique and singing to myself. I stopped at Frankston BP for a water top up and a toilet stop. I forgot to press start on my Garmin watch from Frankston through to the end of Station St so I lost 15-20km of distance on my data. I didn't run off the bike.

Sandringham again was deemed unsafe for swimming so we changed the location of the swim from Sandringham to Half Moon Bay (Black Rock Yatch Club) and I did about 2km open water through rolling waves which I loved!

100km ride, 2km swim

Day 8 - 29th Dec
Last Hell Week day. Rode the usual 85km route early from my house but rode some of the way with the squad from Elwood through to about Mentone.

I have noticed that my small bike (650c wheels) has trouble keeping up with the group when riding up hills. I am not on the easiest gear (I am usually around the middle of the cassette), nor am I dropping my cadence compared to others. I will need to work on the strength on the bike so that I am not too disadvantaged being on a small bike with 650c wheels.

I did a 6km run off the bike and it was my best run (off the bike) to date. I got into the rhythm early and just kept running without having to play mind games to keep going. In order for me to keep running, I play mind games. I pick targets ahead to reach (to not stop running) and if I still felt good, I then pick another target to run towards.

85km Ride, 6km Run.

Hell Week Numbers
Day 1 - 1.3km / 85km / 5km
Day 2 - 1.2km / 80km / 5km
Day 3 - 0km / 20km* / 0km
Day 4 - 0km / 55km / 0km
Day 5 - 0km / 85km / 0km
Day 6 - 2km** / 26km* / 0km
Day 7 - 2km / 100km / 0km
Day 8 - 0km / 85km / 6km

*windtrainer
** pool swim

In total - 6.5km Swim / 536km Ride / 16km run. To be honest, I actually did more than I anticipated and so I am satisfied with distances I had covered over Hell Week. Today was recovery day and a small group of us did some stand up paddle boarding at St Kilda. It was a very fun thing to do and a good change from early morning rides. It took some time to get the balance on the boards before we could get onto our feet as the water was choppy. The instructors then took us to a more sheltered area behind the pier and most of us paddled standing up.

Stand Up Paddle - group photo

After the session, we all went to Sandbar for breakfast before most of us went to TAHQ to pick up our race kits (with the new branding).

The training timetable officially starts up again on the 2nd January 2013 (Wednesday) so my first official training session for 2013 will be a 6am swim. A few of us will be doing bits and pieces of training over the next few days as we will not be going anywhere for New Years. I am planning on doing a few open water swims, taking advantage of the fantastic weather and living so close to the beach.

I have decided to not pursue the Rapha 500 challenge (on Strava) as it compromises my training and it is a stress which I can't deal with at the moment trying to juggle between spending time with the people I care for. My dad is here for a short period of time whilst settling the family home in Geelong. He flies back to PNG in the new year. I need to spend more time with the family whilst I am on holidays.