Can't swim to save myself!

In fact, this isn't quite true. In 2002 I was swimming from the Indonesian Island of Batam to a small island approximately 1500m away. It was dusk and I was caught in a current. My coach Bob and another athlete, Rita, were paddling a back-up canadian canoe beside me when it overturned and all 3 of us were in the water being swept away. We had the choice of swimming for the island or staying with the up-turned canoe. We decided to swim and, after sometime without making any noticeable progress against the the current, I started to feel that I wasn't going to make it - an awful feeling!

To cut a long story short, I did make it some some rocks and a passing boat collected all three of us. I've been nervous of currents ever since and aware that I am not a particularly strong swimming. This lack of confidence was helped on the weekend by an open-water swim clinic conducted by triathlon coach Troy Fidler (pictures). I was one of the slowest swimmers in the group but very much enjoyed the departure form a pool-based swim session. Below are Troy's tips for open water swimming in a triathlon:

➢ Always warm up with minimum of 400-500m swim.
➢ Survey and test conditions during warm up – look for rips, currents, sweeps, wind direction etc.
➢ Warm up on course if possible and find ‘larger’ sites behind turning buoys.
➢ Seed yourself appropriately at the start line.
➢ Aim for shortest route.
➢ Run ‘wide-legged’ to knee height.
➢ Dolphin to waist height.
➢ Draft but look for buoys (swim head-up every few strokes).
➢ Breathe to non-chop side.
➢ Wait for waves on the way in to shore.
➢ Swim until hand touches bottom, then dolphin until running height.
➢ Run hard to transition/finish.

He had another one, not included here; 'don't wear goggles'! He says they are more trouble than they are worth and you see the marker buoys better without them. I tried this but didn't see the marker buoys at all (I had my eyes closed most of the way!).

....time passes

I had intended to post daily, but I think I will just have to be realistic and post when I can. Training for the 6ft track marathon has been going reasonably well thanks to a fellow 'Trioddity' who has been dragging me out to Mt Coottha for hill repeats up the 'Chapel Hill' trail (2 km up hill!). All hills and no races makes David a dull boy, however, and so I did a shorter triathlon on the weekend and had a ball. It was Race 3 of the Bribie Island Triathlon series (see http://www.theruninn.com.au/bribie.php). Bribie Island is an hour north of Brisbane connected by a bridge (photo) and these races are relatively small, inexpensive, cheerful and enjoyably short! The distances for Race 3 were 1000m swim, 28 k bike and 8 k run. I did the swim in 20:28 which is perhaps slightly slow given that the tide was running with us. Nevertheless, I'm not complaining! I spend 2:28 in transition 1 (fast for me) and then started the 4 x 7 km loop flat bike course finding myself doing battle with two other riders for the entire 28 km. None of us seemed able to break away from the other two for long and studiously avoided gloating when we would eventually grind past one of the other two, only then to slow down and be passed a few minutes later. I did the bike in 45:23 averaging about 34 kph (good for me) and spent 1:48 putting on my running shoes and hat before bolting out onto the 2 x 4km run course. Running is my best leg and I did catch a few guys in my 'oo' age group (45 - 49 male). Some of my fastest run times have been in shorter triathlons and today was pretty good - 8 km in 37:26 (about 4:40 per km). I have (I think) done faster than this, but distances in triathlons are notoriously 'rubbery' so comparisons are difficult. Overall I did the race in 1:47:55. I'm not sure where I came in my age-group (about the middle, I suspect).

Unfortunately, a short triathlon is not really ideal training for the '6ft track marathon' and so after a lazy breakfast and midday sleep, I went out to Mt Coottha in the evening for two loops of the 9.5 km road circuit. Almost two and a half hours later I felt I HAD done enough training (for today, at least).

Who is the oddist Trioddity?

These are the 'Trioddities' - all refugees from the Tribob triathlon team in Singapore (see www.tribob.com) now living in Brisbane. Personally, I think I am the oddest 'Trioddity' (as does my girlfriend who has met all three of us) and I am not sure the others would dispute this.

Tuesday's training consisted of a 30 min 'windtrainer' session (or 'spin-class') on stationary bikes at a gym in the city this morning and a running interval session with 'In Training' on a measured 1 km at West End in the evening. Both were good sessions, but the evening was particularly pleasing. It consisted of a 2 km warm up followed by 6 x 1 km at 5km pace with a 3 min recovery between each. I was starting each effort with a faster group of runners which pulled me along until I got dropped. I managed the 6 efforts between 4:10 and 4:19 which is pretty good for me. My tendency is to start hard and finish the session with very slow times.

bike: 30 min windtrainer

run: 8 km intervals

weight: 78.5 kg

Monday's Training

Run: 12 km
Swim: 2.1 km
Weight: 79.5 kg

After an enjoyable weekend in Sydney, it was time to do some training. I have entered the six-foot track marathon (http://www.coolrunning.com.au/sixfoot/) a 45 km trail run in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney on 12 March. It is a very hilly run with a 7 hr cut-off (which I didn't make in my one previous attempt). I think I did enough run training last time, but not enough running (and walking) up hills. So today I ran along the Kangaroo Point Cliffs, over the Story Bridge and up and down Ivory Street 10 times. Ivory Street is probably about a 15% grade and maybe 150 m long. A longer hill would be better training for this race, but my legs felt that this was tough enough.

Lunch-time I joined my triathlon squad 'Spike' (http://www.spiketri.com.au/web/default.aspx) for a long-overdue swim. I haven't swum for a few weeks and it showed. You quickly lose swim fitness, faster, I think, than bike or run.

Introduction

This is my third attempt at starting a 'Blog' (I'm not very computer literate), originally devised as a vehicle to flame my good friend diva-working-mum (http://diva-working-mum.blogspot.com/). Her blogs are so shallow on occassion I fume for hours! I then realised, 'I can be as shallow as her' and decided to publish my training diary on the web. I am one of three 'Trioddities' (or odd triathletes) who recently moved from Singapore to Brisbane and, like many triathletes, I write down the pain I go through each day in the name of my past-time (or obsession, really). So be prepared for boring descriptions of how far I swim, bike and run!

The photo above was taken in 1963 on Mermaid beach, Gold Coast. I am the 3 y.o. red-head in the middle surrounded by three half siblings, two parents, a baby brother and an embryonic brother.