My friend Nat is back from the World Championships in Budapest. She had a great race over there and is now home and having to motivate herself to get back into training for the Ironman . This is hard for her as up to now she has been doing the shorter, faster type training and now she has to build her endurance with the longer stuff. But she's a great athlete and I have no doubt that in a couple of weeks she'll be on top of her game. She has changed her start time at work so will be riding with me on a Tuesday and Thursday morning.... So it was great to have her ride with me this morning. Getting up at 3am is hard enough but when you know someone is waiting for you it seems to help. We did 70k this morning with 5 x 4min efforts with a 1min MSE (max sustainable effort ) at the end of each one. It was hard to get the body clock going but I think having each other spur the other on really helped.
Back in the pool again today . I think Ross needs to have a lane just for me inbetween lanes 1 and 2....ha ha. I just can't keep up!!!!! But I'm not giving up, it's early days yet. If I get lapped (which I did today) I get lapped. 2.7km today.. This afternoon Sarah and I hit the windtrainer. It was one of our lighter sessions compared to the past few weeks.. only 72mins. We got going early as today I was booked in for my massage. I was really looking forward to it. I don't think I have one spot in my body at the moment that doesn't hurt!!!! It was an unusual massage. Not as methodical as some I've had in the past but it was good. She really worked the whole body and I definately felt better afterwards. I've booked in for another one in a fortnights time after a big weekend of training which is when I really seem to pull up the sorest.
Up at 3 again this morning and on the bike by 3.30am. Very strange this morning with quite a lot of cars on the road. I think they are all young kids coming home from student night at the pub/clubs. Nathalie even was followed for awhile by one. Another reason its nice to be riding with someone else I must say. 60k this morning before my work day even starts. Work has been unusually busy . I say unusual because normally business drops off , just slightly, in the school holidays but its been the opposite for me. This is great but I really must put aside some time to do some paperwork .....very soon.
This afternoon was just a 12k run. Don't get me wrong. I don't normally consider 12k a short run but when you are doing long runs upwards of 20 you look forward to the shorter ones.
I didn't get up for swimming this morning. With nothing else on my program this afternoon , thought it would be a good chance to do a longer session in the pool without time constraints. It was good but forgot it was school holidays and there were kids everywhere.!!! Still.. i got my longer set in of 3.5kms. I was also supposed to do a Recovery Ride either on the road or the windtrainer. But as it sometimes does, life got in the way a little. I had to go pick up our car from the mechanics and by the time I got home and then got dinner ready it was 7 o'clock. Too late i say!!!! I had a big day coming up tomorrow !
This morning we decided to ride somewhere different so we met under the Narrows bridge on the south side at 5am. There was Dave, Anna, Craig, Sarah, Will, myself and a new member Lucas. Lucas has just moved to Perth from Melbourne and has joined North Coast. He is heading back to Victoria next week to do the "Bay in a Day" ride which covers 210kms. Apparently they get thousands and thousands of riders turn up for this ride..how cool. Anyway our plan for the morning was to do 150km on the bike with a 10km run around the bridges on our return. We were so lucky with the winds which really didn't pick up until we had about 30km to go on the ride. For most of us it was another milestone ride with our previous longest ride being 130km. Sarah was a little nervous about making the distance but I don't know why she road solidly and consistently the whole way and then had a nice steady run off the bike. Overall I was happy with my ride ..there was a moment around 135k where I was doubting my ability to make it to the end . I think my ability to make it had more to do with "my " end than the end of the ride. My backside was murdering me!!! MMmmmm I think I put that quite nicely actually... I should of said my arse was killing me but I didn't.!! But I did make it ...150km in 5hrs and then a 10km run. Will and I were exhausted when we got home. I felt so sorry for him as he had to work tonight and then get up early tomorrow (Sunday) and go to work again.. When I got home I just couldn't seem to stop eating and at one point just had to "walk away from the pantry".
Last session for the week was a 30km run. I knew the weather was to be cooler today than it had been for the past week with even the possibility of some rain , so wasn't too fussed in getting up too early. So I just didn't set my alarm and got up when I was ready . I am surprised with all the exercise I did yesterday at how poorly I slept last night. I must have woken up at least a dozen times. So as I said it was nice not to have to wake to a specific time this morning. Although a little slow to get myself motivated to go, off I left around 9.30 and headed north. About 6kms into the run, around Dome Mullaloo, I bumped into Anna who was heading south so I turned around and ran with her till just past Trigg. We didn't talk much but just running with someone who has the same agenda was nice. I left Anna at Trigg and just kept running till I hit that magic 30 number. My run was slow. Slower than I had hoped for but it the longest run I have done in ages so was happy to get thru it..
I forgot to weigh myself this week (mmmm..was that on purpose.. I wonder!!) .. but totals for this weeks training....
Swim..9kms..3hrs 20mins
Run....63.5kms....6hrs
Bike....317kms....11hrs 17mins
TOTAL of 20hrs and 27mins
Today I have been trying to follow the World Championships in Kona Hawaii. With my pathetic internet connection there was very little I could follow but I did find out that the Aussies dominated...Chris and Miranda ... you guys are amazing. And to all the age groupers who competed.. congratulations . Hope your dreams became a reality today.
To accomplish great things,
we must not only act,
but also dream;
not only plan,
but also believe.
Anatole France, 1844-1924
French writer and poet
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