New Swimsuit

Today I went for a swim in the morning and I found out that the speedo I was using for the last month in Australia is already wearing out! Chlorine levels are insane in the pools around here and have managed to go through my tri shorts and now my speedo. No wonder why the Speedo shop at the mall was all crazy about their Chlorine Resistant stuff and almost nothing of the regular old stuff...

Anyways, so today I had to make a decision as I am leaving for the World Master Games on Thursday (less than 2 days away here). I could either race with the slip I have (still in decent conditions) for the pool events, and maybe the open water or get something new (depending on what I found on the store). So I headed out to Harbour Town Outlet straight into the Speedo store. It was a relatively big store, and there was plenty of options. Jammers were about 45, drag shorts 40, speedos about 35, non chlorine resistant speedos 15! (I would almost say they are disposable...) Prices were not bad, and I was going to get a speedo with a pretty cool design, one that its not available in Canada for sure. I was about to make my decision and when I turn around I see the aisle with the Fastskins and LZR suits. Pretty cool, I had never seen the famous LZR before... Anyways, I looked at the price of the LZR and was 50% off, I guess since they are banning them starting January they just want to get rid of them ASAP. 50%off means it still costs 250$ for the full body, no way. They I turn into the FastSkin (FSII to be precise) which is the second best suit (used before the LZR came out). Surprise surprise, the price was down from 250$ to 59$ and until Saturday there was a 20% discount of the lowest marked price.

Right away I go to the sales lady and I ask:
q: aheemm, excuse me miss, is this really 59$ minus 20%?
a: yes, it works out to be 47.20 with taxes...

Result: We found the size, I squished myself into it, liked it, bought it.

The suit will be banned in January 2010 (the list has not come out yet, but pretty sure). Unlike the LZR, the material of the FSII is approved by FINA, however starting in 2010 mens suits are only allowed to be below the belly button and above the knees (ie: jammers. And yes, I asked in the store for jammers but there was nothing!) Anyways, I dont really care. I had to buy something and it was going to cost me the same as a speedo, so I got it. I am dying to try it in the water! Here is what I got:


FSII Full


This is exactly the model I got, just the male version =)

Another advantage I see is that for the open water race we are not allowed wetsuits (well, we are but then we dont qualify for medals) so I was going to have to suck it up and race in my speedo no matter what temperature Sydney water decides to be on the 18th. Now with this I will at least have a "second skin" which might (or might nor) keep me warmer and still qualify for medals. Great!

Anyways, that is it for now. Last 2 days I was on the egde of getting sick but today I am feeling much better. Taking it easy tomorrow and then off to Sydney Thursday. I will probably post from there next.

Facundo

PS: ohhh yeahh... one more advantage of the full suit, I am not shaving!!! Once again, I manage to evade the razor.

Cairns

A picture is worth 1000 words, and at this moment I am way too tired to write something consistent so here are the pics! (maybe I will write on it later - maybe not =P )


Tour Breakfast


In the falls


Tour Bus full of Crazy Irish


Cape Tribulation - Daintree Forest (the oldest in the world - World Heritage Site)


Stefano and I (met him on the plane and ended hanging out for 4 days)


A very cheap version of Tarzan


Great Barrier Reef 1


Great Barrier Reef 2


Great Barrier Reef 3


Great Barrier Reef 4


Great Barrier Reef 5 (yes, that is me - awesome!)


Great Barrier Reef 6


Great Barrier Reef 7


Great Barrier Reef 8

Facundo

Brisbane

Yesterday I came back to Surfers Paradise after spending 2 full days in Brisbane. I left early on Friday morning to catch the first express train at 5:20 am. It takes about 30 min by bus to get to the train station by bus and then 1:15 to get from Nerang to Brisbane downtown by train. I had a very nice map of the city that had a 20km city walk tour on it. I am not sure who it was designed for, but I believe most people will “screw that” when they see 20km on it. I went for it as it was taking me through pretty much all things to see around the city.

The walk started in Central station, then went by some typical neighborhoods were I could see the “typical house style” (see picture), then across a bridge to the West Bank area where most of the Museums, markets, etc are. In that area, there is a crazy beach/pool (see picture) in the middle of a park. You can see the river to the right, the pool and white fine sand, salt water, life guards, palm trees. I thought it was one of the coolest things I have seen in the middle of a city (with no ocean) so I decided to take lunch and watch people tan, swim, play, whatever. After that I kept walking along the river but on the cliff side. Brisbane is quite hilly and in one section they blew out some rocks to do rock climbing by the river, also pretty cool, it was a 100m drop I say.

In the afternoon I headed to downtown and walked around most of the main streets, pedestrian walks and parks. I found the area of hostels and without a reservation (there was 5 hostels all together so I thought I did not need one) there was only “expensive” rooms left. In the end the only one that had a cheaper room was kinda shitty and the room was absolutely covered in clothes and things on the floor. I did not care much as I was only going to go there at night, sleep, wake up and take off. There is a picture that shows what I am talking about. When the sun when down the streets downtown started to get busier and busier, live music and dancing going on in the streets, and outdoor bars everywhere. I walked through the city again (not the 20km, but probably another 5) to see everything at night. I really like taking night pictures…

On Sunday I woke up and went for a ferry ride in the river. The company that operates it is the same that operates the trains and the buses so it was pretty cheap (not like a tourist boat…) I got to sit and relax for 1hr while I was taken everywhere. I hit the Museums and Art Galleries from noon till 5pm as it was blazing hot. I am not sure how hot, but I say above 30 for sure. It was not so much the heat, but here the sun is pretty strong compared to Vancouver.

After a long long day I got back on the train and got home by 9pm ready for food and bed. Today the day was pretty easy with a swim in the morning and being lazy in the afternoon (which includes internet and writing this!)

Anyways, that is it for now. On Tuesday I am heading up north to Cairns for 5 days so I don’t think I will post anything from there, but there will be lots of pictures when I come back I am sure. I will be scuba diving/snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, I cant wait!

Here are some of the pictures I got from the city (and random stuff I came across during the 2 days, some of them pretty weird!) Enjoy


Anyone wants to BBQ?


Sinks at the Moder Art Museum


Paradise in the City


I still dont get it...


Parklands at night


Cool Restaurant


River and Downtown at night


Maybe I will make reservations next time =S


Queen Street


hmmm very affordable...


The city from a bridge








Facundo

Indoors

The plan today was not to come to internet again; however weather changes made my plans change so here I am. It seems that pretty much all south eastern Australia (from Brisbane to Sydney at least) is going through a Red Dust Storm. It consists of very very windy conditions (up to 100kph gusts) and well, DUST. In the morning after yesterdays ride I did not feel like going swimming so instead I went for a 30 min ride to a triathlon shop to talk to the owner and see if he knew someone looking for a Cervelo bike (he is the only Cervelo dealer for a couple hundred Km). He did not but he got my info and if he knows someone he will let me know. He also told me to post it in a website and ebay Australia and I could get lucky.

Here are some pictures I got from the storm on the way here.




Facundo

Last couple of days

The last couple of days have been pretty relaxing. Last Friday I went to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary which is about 45 min away from Surfers Paradise (by bus). It was pretty cool as I got to see most of the typical Australian Wildlife including Koalas, Kangaroos, Dingos (wild dogs), Eagles, Wombats and many more. There is some pictures at the end of the post!

Saturday I went for a float to the pool and after I came back home for lunch. After lunch I went surfing (well… to try surfing) and fortunately there was a group of guys about 100m from the beach entrance (which allowed me to find a good spot with good surfing waves). It is not easy to see wave patterns, rips, currents, etc but I guess people in the sport know, so when I go to the beach I usually try to get in the water wherever there is more people surfing and usually is much better than just going in anywhere.

Saturday and Sunday there is a market that is very famous where there is fruits and veggies, toys, antiques, books, clothes, leather stuff, cheap electronics, EVERYTHING! So Sunday morning I headed over there to check it out. To be honest, I was not very surprised as I have seen exactly the same thing in Mexico or Argentina. However, it was kind of cool to see it in Australia and very very funny to see Australian tourists to bargain on stuff. Some of them were terrible, some of them pretty smart I must admit. I took a nap in the afternoon and then just felt like staying home and watching tv…

Monday morning again I went for a float. I am trying to go every second day and swim about 1-1.5hr but no times, just swim and take it easy. For lunch I cooked a delicious pasta sauce with all the fresh veggies I got at the market on Sunday. It was ssoooo good I stuffed myself until I could fit no more pasta and sauce in my bottomless tummy. After that I had no choice but to head to the beach (1.5 blocks away) to behave like an Iguana and try to get a nap. In the afternoon I decided to go for a walk to downtown Surfers (about 15-20 min walk) and get some presents for people, buy bread, try macadamias with chocolate at some gift shops, and so on. On my way back I went past 3 pizza places and got really temped so when I came home I made pizza from scratch. I made 2 dough so next time I just need to pull one out of the freezer and in 15 min I have home made pizza.

Today (Tuesday) I went on a cycling trip to Mt Tamborine. It was a long day on the bike but I took it very easy, although the 15% climbs were still there and a 34-23 gear ratio was still a little punishing. I will post more on that adventure when I post the pictures.

That is it for now; here are some pictures from Currumbin Wildlide Sanctuary, they are pretty much self explanatory so I will save myself some writing =)










Facundo

Insight

A week after my worst nightmare I believe I have some more insight of what could have happened last Saturday.

Initially I thought it could be dehydration the Thursday before, or maybe nutrition changes on the 10 days leading to the event (since I arrived to Australia). Nutrition I believed that changed a little in Australia, but could not possibly cause such affect on the legs (and legs only) on that Friday and Saturday. Hydration was what I leaned towards, I thought that maybe if I did dehydrate myself badly on Thursday, that Friday could have been bad, and maybe Saturday. I had about 8 liters of water on Friday since my initial symptom to Saturday morning. Likely it was not caused by dehydration… So what else changed? What did I do different from all other 16 races starting with the UBC triathlon in March? Mmm… rested?

For this race I actually tapered for about 2 weeks. For none of my other races excluding Nationals were I did a 5 day taper I rested at all. Maybe an easy long day on Friday and a shorter 2hr day on Saturdays, but that was it. After nationals I was feeling good and I put in an almost normal week (3 weeks between Nationals and Worlds). The week after the taper started, less volume, almost same intensity. I was feeling good and strong. The week after (week leading to Worlds) I decreased my volume to about ½ the usual, and kept key workouts in. Despite doing much less I did not feel I was recovering as fast as usual, but I believed that by the end of the week I would be good to go.

Thursday leading to the event I was supposed to do 1.5 hrs easy, but I decided to take it completely off (I posted about that on that day so I am not making stuff up). I felt I had many things to do that day but I also thought that I needed to recover. I was still not feeling as good as I believed I should have and doing 1.5 hrs easy was not going to be beneficial at all. Anyways, Friday came and pain. Saturday came and I had one of the biggest pains ever; mostly muscular but also to my soul/ego/whatever its called (I was sore going up and down the stairs for 3 days just from running from the water to my bike, no BS…) I took some time off, like 5 days off off (only rode my bike for <20min commuting). 2 days ago I decided to go for a 1.5 hrs self guided “tourist” bike tour of the city. I averaged 22kph, not really hard right? The following day I was quite sore again; same pain as the day of the race just not as bad. Yesterday I went for a swim and despite not having the same effect as the easy ride, it felt like I was in repair mode. Not that I could not push the pace, I just did not want to, and my body was very very happy with it.

Conclusion: I think I was wwwwaaaayyy overtrained at the end of the year. It was a tough training year; I worked hard and got faster than ever. Although through the year I did feel at some points that I was tired and sometimes fatigued, I was still able to push very hard when I wanted (either races or key workouts) and so things seemed to be coming along nicely. At nationals I tapered a few days and probably was not enough to shut my body down, but 2 weeks for Worlds did the trick.

Learning: Next training year I will make sure that this does not happen to me again (none of it: the overtraining, or the catastrophe at a key race) I will design a better plan, maybe add some easy weeks and do them as scheduled whether I feel I need them or not, maybe finally get a coach, maybe make sure that easy workouts are actually easy, maybe get a powertap to be able to use it together with a HRM and RPE to help catch any patterns before is too late (ie, fatigue).

For now I will keep resting. My body will tell me when its ready to start nice and easy again by not making me sore on a 22kph ride. Hopefully this is what happened a week ago, its theory number 3 already. Unless I come up with theory 4, and it makes even more sense, I will stick with this one (or unless I take 3 weeks off and it happens again, then there is something else wrong –fingers crossed).

Previous post has some pictures of the last couple of days including the 22kph ride!

Facundo

Random Pictures

Pimp my ride (I asked today and my bike retails for 9500 aus new as is)

Surfers paradise from far far away (the end of the spit if you google map it)

Surfers paradise main avenue (pedestrians only)

I have to learn how to surf, I am giving myself 1.5 months!

The living room/exercise storage facilities

Playing at the house

Setting up for failure ehem... sorry... for a pretty good swim =)

At the parade of nations with curtis and amy

The 2 olympic medals whitfield won (and trust me, they were not copies as every 2 minutes we had to point where in the room they were!)

Finish Line (Friday before the disaster watching the U23 race)