New York Marathon

The New York marathon is coming up in a couple of weeks and I was shown this great little video of the NZ great Rod Dixon. It gives a great insight into proper pacing and beleiving in your plan.
Kimberly Smith is also on the start list this year, so it could be another great Kiwi victory

Some stats for the numbers people

 Bronze 1500m at Munich olympics
 1500m = 3min33sec
 5k = 13min17sec
 10k = 28min11sec
 Marathon = 2hr08min

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Kona 2011

Who watched the race on the weekend?  I was certainly glued to www.ironmanlive.com for a good chunk of the day, but still managed to squeeze out some good solid training.

What an awesome race!  Seeing Craig Alexander cramping towards the end of the run and being forced to walk made it an incredibly exciting race, especially with Pete Jacobs chopping out time from him with every stride.  But he held on to get his 3rd Hawaii Ironman title, and broke the course record at the same time!

And how about Chrissie Wellington coming from over 20 minutes down off the bike to win the race with a stunning display of pure guts and grit.  She really is that 1:10000000 race horse.  No complaining before the race of her injuries, just got in there and got the job done with the tools she had left.

Anyway, I had a competition for people to give their picks for the mens and womens champions, with the winning run split required to decide the closest guess.  The prize was for an awesome Team Timex training jacket.  Most people picked Alexander and Wellington to win it - surprise, surprise, so I have some on to it readers :)

But the person with the best picks actually got 4 out of the 6 top 3 positions correct. So Brodie Madgwick takes the prize. I will be in touch. What are your picks for the World Cup Brodie?

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What training did I do today?

So what does a typical friday look like for me these days? At the moment I am working on increasing my bike power and strength which I need for next season.  The basics behind the sessions is too really overload my cycling legs more than usual, while keeping the running and swimming ticking over.

This morning started with a session on the erg (indoor trainer) which consisted of a long warm up, some short intense intervals with a long rest interval, followed by a long warm down. The reason for the longer rest is to let my legs recover completely so I can hit the next interval with the maximum of effort, and hold good form the duration.  I am set up in the lounge in front of the telly, playing a mixture of "The good morning show, Juice TV and MTV."  Its amazing what a good song can do for the brain, the time goes alot quicker and its easier to switch off and just get the work done.  I also learn some great housekeeping skills at the same time.

I have some 'work' work to do before heading out for the next session and then its back on the bike this afternoon. I am going to ride hills for a couple of hours, which will include climbs such as French Pass, Te Miro and Sanatorium.  For those who aren't familiar these range from 5-15 minutes in length, with a range of gradients, from "it dosent hurt much" to "works the legs no matter what"

I will follow this bike session with by putting on the Saucony Fastwitch's and run a number of short intervals, not too many but just enough to get the heart rate up and to remind the legs that to run a fast Ironman you still have to run FAST!

The below photo is from last friday, plenty of Magpies around at the moment, these ones a little worse for wear.

Check the random quote below, I quite like it.

Also, dont be scared to put in a entry to win some timex kit, check out link below
http://keeganwilliams.blogspot.com/2011/09/win-team-timex-gear-kona-picks.html

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