Surfs Up! n Red Baron Flies 34km to Whiteman Park

Sunday 22nd April Boogie-boarding at Triggs for 40 minutes,
and then about 3 hours later; 34km cycle on the Red Baron to Whiteman Park and back. 1hr 42min 49. Heart Rate at end; 132. Heart rate during ride probably quite a bit higher at times. 17km Splits; 52min/50min 49.

Brother-in-law Stephen talked me into going to Triggs early this morning cos he reckoned there was a big swell! He was very right! I was not that keen after a tough week at work (overtime on Saturday for the second week in a row) and precious little sleep this week, partly my fault for watching the World Cup cricket on TV, and playing on the internet on other peoples blogs, to 0100hrs (1am), when I knew I had to be up at 0500 to make a start at work on time.

As we entered the water to a backdrop of large purpleish clouds, and the sunrise trying to sneak over the top of them (very picturesque), it was about 13 degrees celsius, and I turned down his offer of borrowing a wetsuit, but once I was in the water it was quite nice. Suspect the water temperature was higher than the air temperature?
Borrowed boogie-board and started battling the big, quite rough surf, it was hard to get out to where the waves were breaking, even using a rip to get us away from the shore. I was too gutless (some would say wise) initially to get right out to where the waves were breaking, and the serious surfers with surfboards and helmets, and flippers etc were knowing that I am not the strongest of swimmers, and they were reasonably dangerous conditions in my opinion. Steve wanted to surf in front of the submerged rocks which I also wasnt that keen about. I spent about 30minutes struggling with whitewater trying to get a ride, and half succeeded a few times, followed by run/wade, paddle, paddle and try again. Finally I grit the teeth (inwardly) and decided to try and get out behind where the waves were breaking in search of a good ride. Decided to stay away from the rip this time, and it was hard work paddling against the breaking waves and large amounts of frothing whitewater
trying to get out there. By the time I got out to the deep green deep water where the waves were breaking I was already a little tired. Found it hard to get onto the waves, flippers would probably help but I didn't want to use them. Had a few shots and got a reasonable ride on one of them, although it lost its power well before reaching the shore. However it was great to feel that awesome feeling of dropping off the top of a decent sized wave, and being propelled forward like a torpedo by the power of the wave. Was quite reminded of the DVD's I bought from Hawaii's Premier Productions the other year, which have a lot of big wave surfing etc.
Even saw a few jetskis out there carving it up in the big surf...
http://www.premierhawaii.com/
http://www.xtremelife.tv/xlstore/index.php
http://www.totalvid.com/Surfing-Videos/Xtreme-Life-Endurance/
http://www.tourniquet.net/home/index.php
http://www.myspace.com/tourniquetrocks
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=48&chapter=4&verse=41&version=31&context=verse

Although I had originally planned to do the Gallipoli 4km/8km run in Kings Park today I had no cash and going to the beach turned out to be a much! better option given how I was feeling. Good to catch up with Steve and chat about "married life" a bit, plus after the tough week Ive had it was quite theraputic/calming/invigorating/exhilerating ("all of the above") to get out there on the wind and waves...

After heading home to my wife Kathryn, decided to go for a ride to the Chocolate Factory on West Swan Rd. Was going to take my mountainbike but front tyre was flat and after several tries at pumping it up I realised it wasn't going anywhere today, so decided I would have to risk taking the Red Baron out on the broken glass infested paths on West Swan Rd. Managed to avoid most of that though, and after 8.5km and 26 minutes I reached the chocolate factory and decided to go onto Whiteman park so I could get in a bona-fide long ride for the week. The Red Barons cycle-computer ticked over to 17km, and my watch read about 52minutes, as I turned around inside Whiteman Park at the site of where Kathryn and I had our engagement party in January 2006. On the way back I saw what I think was a tiger snake, possibly a dead one. A good ride to give me a half-decent week of training after 35 hours of meter reading work this week. Then settled on the couch with my wife to watch my Dockers send the Demons to hell, and Kathryns Eagles to hail goals all afternoon on Carlton.

In addition I also spent 90min on Friday 20/4 helping my wife with her catalogue deliveries work this week, and on Wednesday 18/4 did a 13minute 2km run home and back when I broke my carkey while at the shops.

WEEK 5 (16/04/07-22/04/07);

Volume; 267min + 35hrs MR. Sessions; 5 +MR Best RHR;53 bpm Sleep; 41hrs! *55


OD/LSD/LFD sessions; Cycled 34km in 1hr 42min.

Races/Time trials;NIL

Reps sessions; 5x400m 7min 07, 1.25 average HR's 170's/180's.

Comments;
Nice to get 400's done in a week I got very little sleep! Averaged less! than 6 hours a night this week, and worked very hard at work, but still managed to perk up for a 34km cycle after a very important surfing session. Kinda needed it to de-stress after a stressful week. So an ok consolidation week in the end, don't think I will lose too much there. However I really reaaly hope to get more sleep this week, which should be possible with Anzac Day offering a sleep-in opportunity on Wednesday Yay!, and disappointed I wasn't able to do more reps work and also disappointed I didn't race the 4km/8km run in Kings Park. At the end of the day these things won't matter much if I get on track in the coming weeks...Onward!

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