Monday was my usual swim. As there wasn't alot of fast sets today I managed to hang onto the back of the pack and finish 2.9k today. The mornings are getting so much lighter and its quite nice to arrive at the pool in daylight for a change.
Tuesday morning had to get up at 2.45 as I wanted to be on the road by 3. I had 80k to do this morning. No efforts, no hill repeats . My averages are still low so I really need to give myself plenty of time to complete the distance. Sarah joined Nat and I this morning... the more the merrier. So now there's 3 silly females riding their bikes at ungodly hours of the morning. Nice to know I'm not the only crazy one out there.
In the afternoon I caught up for a very quick coffee with Nicki and Sarah-Jane. Shame we couldn't have chatted for longer but everyone had things to do and kids to pick up from school. Although short its still nice to take the time off to catch up with friends . These guys have both been really supportive and God knows I need as much support as possible.
Tuesday evening was the first interval training session for "The 6th Discipline", my brother's new coaching business. We met at the new athletics track just behind Challenge Stadium. Tonight there was only 2 of us, but hopefully as the word gets out the numbers will grow. As always Brad was extremely organised . After our warm up which consisted of a 12oom jog , stretches, 8 x 100m ,1 x 400 and 1 x 800 we had a 3km time trial. The times we did on our trial will now dictate for me my pace that I will need to stick to per 400m, each week at the track. After nearly throwing up( well not quite, but I was exhausted) Brad and I headed into Subiaco and had two unreal burgers at "Jus Burgers". I ordered the Lamb burger and Brad got the Vege, pumpkin and chick pea flavoured one. We then cut them in half and had a bit of both....YUMMO!!!
While in the pool for Wednesdays session I had my first hint of an asthma attack for a long time. I actually had to get out of the pool and have some ventolin which hasn't happened for ages. I continued the session which was all up 2.6k but just hung on. In the afternoon I had a 90min windtrainer session with Anna. The efforts in the main set are getting longer now. When we first started in week 1 we were doing 3 x 5min efforts , now we are doing 3 x 10min efforts. These efforts are hard. You can't talk as you try to keep the heart rate up in E3 zone (85-92%). You certainly work hard in these sessions!!!!
Thursday morning was a 50k ride with 5 x 5min efforts. The wind was howling at over 30kms an hour so every time we turned into the southerlies I counted them as my efforts. It was a tough ride and I was happy to get home in one piece this morning. At around 2pm this arvo I started to fade and fade fast. So much so that my scheduled 20km run just wasn't going to happen. It really is interesting how my body reacts to getting tired. I don't get angry or yell at the kids I just get weepy. It's quite pathetic really but I'm learning to go with it because it seems to pass... thank goodness. I had also been feeling "not right". Nothing major.... a little sore in my right ear and some tenderness under my right arm pit. Maybe my body was fighting something off, maybe not but after missing the run session I also made the decision to skip the swim session the following morning. By Friday afternoon I was definitely feeling a lot better . The afternoon session was a recovery ride on the windtrainer , staying in the small chain ring for 40kms.
As always when Saturday comes around I get a little nervous . I always get organised the night before, making sure drinks are made up , nutrition is packed in the bento box etc etc... so I was really disappointed with myself when I get to the start of the ride and realise I had left all my nutrition at home!!! There was no way I could ride 160kms without food. Lucky for me Will was also riding and so kindly gave me all his food leaving himself just enough to do a shorter ride... my hero!!! So off we go and from the very start of the ride I seemed to struggle. It was extremely windy with my bike on an extreme lean during parts of the ride. At times it seemed to just gust around and continuously change direction. This made me a little reluctant to get down on the tri-bars at times. As I said I was struggling. I got dropped pretty early on and from there on in it was head down and just try and get this done. Will came back for me and rode with me and at the 45k mark where a couple of us were turning around Sarah waited. The others were going ahead but Sarah and I were going to do laps. We tend to ride the same course most weeks so Sarah suggested we do the loops which would also help prepare us mentally for the laps we would be doing in Busselton. Will left us at the 90k mark and Sarah and I trudged on. I thought it was never going to finish...seriously! My average was low, only 28km.. so it did take forever. After getting back to Maccas I had a quick chat to the guys that had gone ahead and got back before me and then headed out to do my 11km run. That afternoon North Coast had a gathering for new and old members. A welcome and over view for those new to triathlon and a chance for old members to catch up. It was a great turn up with what looked to be about 80 to 90 people. Definitely something I think they should continue annually. From there my friend Sue dropped me at my sister and brother-in-laws house where we got some Thai take away and caught up on their fantastic holiday to Italy, a cruise and the U.S.A. By about 8 I was falling asleep at the table so I wasn't the best company.
Sunday and it's another big run today...30kms. I didn't head out till late as I am trying to enjoy just one morning a week not having to be controlled by an alarm clock. So after a lazy start to the morning I was off by about 9.30am. I don't know if it was the heat but there were hundreds of swarms of midgies out today. With a combination of sweat and sunscreen , I was covered in them by the time I got home. It was a hot run but a good chance to practice running in the hot part of the day which , if last year is anything to go by, is good practice.
After getting home I rushed and fussed around to get ready to head off to a meeting with friends. I had been looking forward to this for weeks. Before I got into Triathlons I spent just over 10 years singing in a community choir as well as a quartet. We sang in many different venues..His Majesties Theatre, festivals in Victoria, New Orleans, Fly by Night club and many others. I have so many special memories of those times and the people I sang with. It was great catching up with them all. The place was just filled with talk of happy times with lots of laughs. After about an hour we sang!!!! I hadn't sung for at least 3 years and I can't tell you what a joy it was to be surrounded by some very special people and sing totally without any inhibitions. It all came back to me...the words .... the harmonies...I remembered them all. What an absolutely wonderful finish to my week!!!!!!
This week
Swim...2hrs...5.5kms
Bike...13hrs 33 mins...376kms
Run...4hrs 35mins....48kms
Where words fail, Music speaks
Hans Christian Anderson
well done on a hard week .
ReplyDeleteTraining is not so different from singing .It is hard to find rhythm in the beginning that suits you and your body .If you do too little you will not last the distance at the race and if you do too much you will be too exhausted at the start. But it comes , it just takes time . Like singers there are those who have to work at it and others who are just naturals.