James Hill

Dad - Adventurer - Entrepreneur

Hawaii 70.3 IM 2012 – in 5 hours

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It will have been 6 months this Sunday since I competed in the 2011 Hawaiian Ironman 70.3 this weekend…

And I have become fat! I rolled out of bed with a thud that shook the building…

The consequence of not doing any exercise for 6 months, becoming engaged to an amazing woman and generally just living the good life. No, no, no… I’m not saying Gen made me fat – I am sure it was all the cheese, biscuits and wine on the balcony in Manly sunsets that did it. 🙂

So it was back on the bike this morning, (didn’t Lance write a book titled that?).  The Goal…

Hawaii 70.3 Ironman 2012 – in 5 hours!

On the bike – I was feeling good… that normal pain of using muscles that have been dormant for 6 months, now coming out of hibernation. All was going smoothly. I was just taking it easy, trying not to burn myself on the first hill though I was pleasantly surprised to see I was still making really good time.

This is when tragedy struck… a flat tyre. It would be unfair to say I forgot my spare tube and pump… because when I finished packing my bike last night I saw I had left it out and thought… she’ll be right for one day! Apparently not!

This is the first time I can remember actually having a flat tyre!

Luckily for me – a guy was nice enough to stop and give me his spare tube. Carelessly I didn’t get his name or a card or anything. Feeling a bit silly about that as I write this now. I will no doubt return the favour to someone else caught in the same predicament.

4km later… another flat. 2 flats in the same ride! Yes I checked the tyre and rim to make sure there was nothing still in there from the first flat – obviously I didn’t do a good enough job though.

Needless to say – it was a bit of walk to the closet ferry… though I do thank my lucky stars for that. Had I been riding from where I grew up it would have been an expensive cab ride if I could have hail one.

It will be off to the bike store to get another tube – might get a few – at lunch today.

An interesting start to this years entry! Bring on Hawaii 2012!!

Hillboy

PS.  I am in a bit of a video kick at the moment… so I have taken some footage that I will cut into something eventually. (inspired by the Long Way Down)

6:02am, SMS’s… and another great day

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I woke before my alarm this morning… then prompt went back to sleep only to be interrupted sometime later by my iPhone with the all too familier get your butt out of bed ‘beep… beep… beep’.

It was hard work after yesterday 6km soft sand run after I had cycled home.  Not many weeks to go now, so I am massively lifting my training game.

Just as I was contemplating a 5min snooze the phone went of again… 6:02 – this time it was my mate Rod – “I’m on my way”. Rubbish… there was no way I was going to eat brekkie, iron a shirt, pack my pannier and cycle to the pool in under 5mins… “See you at 6:30” was my response and that was going to be pushing it.

The gods weren’t on my side this morning… my first flat tyre in I am not sure how long – must be a good 3000km worth of riding if not more. Not to bad. I had a tube on me, but I had been lax with carrying my tools and a pump. Rod had the tools… but his pump had the wrong connector on it.

So it was a quick jog home pushing the bike, pumped up the tyre and we were on the road again. It was a good trip in.

Swimming, Webber and 5:30am

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It was 5:30am when the alarm when off this morning… early, but not early compared to some of the super athletes. Still I crashed at a mates place after watching one of the best Formula 1 races I have seen in a long while… and that was sole due to the sensational drive by Webber. 18th on the grid to 3rd on the podium.

But back to me… and 5:30am. I got home and my transition was less than quick… 6 weetbix in a bowl and a spoon as I wander around my flat looking for kit for the day.

Epic fail… my pants were still in the washing machine (and are still a little damp as I type this).

50mins later – work clothes packed, a bit of food in my tummy and I was on the bike heading down to the pool for laps!

30mins later, 1.2km in the pool and it was on the bike to work – that first couple of kilometres was cold and there was no blood in my quads so my legs felt like lead.

My lead legs were compounded a little by a gentle 73km ride with some good friends on Sunday morning. Eggs benedict and a large coffee never tasted so good. 🙂

…and then another fairly uneventful ride into work.

Swimming, Cycleing and Running

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… and all in one day.

It was a cool start to the morning, winter is definitely knocking on the door. In fact, most mornings this week have had me thinking about what I will wear for training as the whether gets colder.

But… yesterday it was to the pool for laps. My efforts to get out in the ocean have been severely hampered by the failing light an my lack of wanting to become an entree for a shark (and OK… a certain level of laziness)

Last weekend was the Balmoral swim… a 1km dash to raise money for the Children’s Cancer Institute of Australia. It was a bit of an eye opener for me… I need to do more swim training. I will be in the pool a lot more before cycling to work from now on.

The cycle to work was eventful, as it has been most mornings hence the lack of posts. The most exciting thing to happen was a tyre de-laminating ending up in a very slow ride home. As always… the guys down at Favourite Cycles in Manly looked after me and got me sorted out with a new tyre.

A call from a mate and I was pounding the pavement with him for a quick jog around Manly. I was exhausted though and had to let him run off as I was holding him up. After he had about 200m on me I decided I was being a bit of a wuss about it all and set of after him to see if I could catch him. I did after a few kilometres.

Strangely enough… I was in bed at 9:30 last night. Being in bed that early hasn’t happened for a while.