Sunday 2 December 2012

down under diaries - weeks 3&4


Week 3
Big week. Admittedly I’d like to schedule it a bit earlier in my race prep, giving me time for a recovery week, then at one more solid, specific, week before tapering down but all of a sudden it feels like time is very limited. I defiantly underestimated how much the travel, and getting only a small bit sick in the process, would take out of me and lost about 10 days.  But, it’s only by trying new things can I figure out what’s worth worrying about and what’s not.  So after a good massage session on Monday, I had a full -on 32 hour week L uckily the weather was great, I was on top of my coaching work and everything in place to train, eat, sleep, for seven days. It was great - but probably rather dull to write about ;o)

Other than perhaps mentioning my second venture out into the ocean, which was as an official competitor in the next race of the open water series . I made it around all 4 laps of the 5km course  -which I think would be my longest open water swim – in a rather dismaying 96 minutes. I was also one of the few wearing a Wettie. However, a look at the results shows that most people found themselves about 10 minutes behind where they’d expect to be, and I ranked 4th in the +35 age group so not as dismal as my first impressions. I suppose one also has to consider that it was near the end of a huge training week for me….

Week 4
Started pretty good – I couldn’t believe how up for it I was after the 7 hour ride in the hills on Sunday, and added an extra 20k of running into my easy recovery day, which should have been a technique based swim and an easy hour spin on the bike. Not surprising that the next day, I really struggled to get up and felt kinda grumpy on the way to the pool. I survived and even enjoyed the session which involved hanging onto Joel’s toes for some very long reps, but simply couldn’t face the bike set that I had planned for immediately afterwards. I slept a bit instead and later in the day painted the garden furniture at the Rash house, for a bit of a break. 

That night a huge storm broke …and raged for two days. This was frustrating for me as I was well refreshed and ready to get back on with my last week of prep. But the winds were gusting so hard that it really was unsafe to ride. My friend Russ took me for coffee on Wednesday morning, we sat in a tea house over looking the ocean. It was wild  (the ocean, not the lifestyle – that’s the most “out” I have been in a month!). I think that extra enforced rest will have done me some good – I know that I’m prone to overdoing it. The wind died down and sun came out by Friday so I’ve managed a solid 3 days constructed of the important workouts of the week, just a bit shorter. And, pretty much that’s it. 1 week to go. 


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