Recovery Week you Say????

After yesterday's ride I really feel I have been scarred for life.... you may laugh , but truly , I still keep pinching myself that yesterday really happened and that I actually got thru it. So I was happy when I woke up this morning and only had a swim to do. It was a good session in the pool this morning with a 1k time trial thrown in for good measure. With nothing else on the program this afternoon it was a good opportunity to get a Pilate's session in with my good friend Julz. We did alot of work on the Boshu Ball ( not sure if that's how you spell it) but literally its half a ball that can be used both sides .... both sides used... bo... shu!!!. It really tests your balance and core . I loved it and found it a challenging session and ended up buying a ball from Julz so I could keep working on the exercises at home.

Tuesday morning and the weather was not looking good at all. I had a 60k bike to do with 40kms in the Hardest Gear Possible. So off I headed on my own today as Will's back was still pretty sore .. about 2kms down the road and it started to pour, really heavy. It looked like it wasn't going to stop and it didn't!! I turned around and threw the bike on the windtrainer and finished my session indoors. I don't like being on the wet roads by myself at 4am in the morning. You still work pretty darn hard on that windtrainer. The rain continued for most of the morning and early afternoon but lucky for us cleared up for our track session in the evening.

Wednesday swim ,2.5kms followed by our Ergo session in the evening. Here's a picture of Paul after he decided to pass out on his bike creating a domino effect , knocking Doug off his bike who then nearly knocked Andy off his. It happened so fast and was a little scary. Lucky nobody was hurt too seriously !!

So its now Thurs morning , up at 4am ready to meet Fiona at 4.30 for a 12k run. I got downstairs to see our garage door open.... Uh oh!!!! Walked in... and my new bike ( well 4months old is pretty new) ...GONE!!! I was so upset. Will then walked in, seeing me upset I pointed to the hooks on the wall where my bike used to sit... it was then that he noticed they had also taken my race wheels ,ZIPP 808's!!! Unbelievable. I had brought those wheels off my brother second hand and had saved a couple of months for them. Feeling pretty low there wasn't much I could do at that time of the morning so I headed off on my run with Will and Fiona. The afternoon was pretty full on with phone calls to the insurance company ( thank goodness all covered under contents insurance) and a visit to the local police station to put in a report. I had hardly been in the station 5mins , starting to go thru the details with the lady behind the counter, when the police cadet next to her overheard me mention the race wheels and is like ... oh yeah they've been handed in!!!!! I couldn't believe it. That was the last thing I expected to hear. Sadly my bike is still missing. I am a very lucky girl though as it could have been my TT bike that I will actually be racing on and I do have my old road bike that I can still use till I organise a replacement. After most of the afternoon running around I still had a 21km run to do.... when was that going to happen ...truly!!!! The police had mentioned that often they dump the bikes in bushland and leave it there for a few days till things die down and then they go back to retrieve the bike. So we decided to try and incorporate that in our run. There are a couple of good places not far from our house but we spent ages searching the bush areas with little luck. By this stage it was getting late, I was tired and still a little stressed so only managed 15k getting home to a rather late dinner.

Friday morning a 2.5km swim . I had thought about doing the 6kms that I hadn't done yesterday after work but the forensic police rang and said they would be coming over in the afternoon but could not give me an exact time. So I wasn't going anywhere. The guy didn't end up getting to our place till nearly 5. By this time I had had a chat to Coach Brad and he was happy for me to not try and make up any lost sessions so I gave the run a miss.

Saturday and I woke at 3 to hear the blinds banging !!! Please oh please not another day of strong winds... the memories are still burnt into this precious girls brain from last weekend... I didn't want to go... Noooooooooo!!! But , there I was at 4.30 getting ready to head into the city and meet the rest of the team... it's kinda like automatic pilot but with a guilt button built in for good measure!!! Luckily enough the wind had died down by the time we started our ride but more things were about to happen.

About 5kms into the ride we go under the Canning Bridge ( now to be renamed "Lisa's Bend") and around to Deep Water Point. As we were going round the bend I hear crash, bang!! Turn around and poor Lisa is down. Luckily for her no broken bones but some pretty nasty concrete burns, a big bump on her head and a horrible scrape to her elbow that could take awhile to heal. We decided to make our way a little further down the road to the toilets at Mt Henry Bridge to clean her up, just about to head off and she has a flat tyre!!! With that sorted out we headed off. About another 25kms down the road her chain fell off due to her derailleur being bent in the fall!! I tell you what, this is one strong lady. She was in a lot of pain and discomfort with her knee and her elbow, especially down on the tri bars, but she never gave up . She completed 140kms on the bike today... hats off to you Lisa!! Unfortunately her knee was too sore for the 10k run off the bike but I think under the circumstances she did amazingly well.

Usually after our Saturday session we go for coffee and breakfast but now that the sessions are getting longer it was more like an early lunch.

After getting home and doing a few jobs around the house I headed off for a 90min hot stone massage. I have never had one of these but I would definitely recommend it. It was great ! Firm massage while at the same time very relaxing. She assured me I didn't snore at all but I think she was just being nice!! Ooops

Sundays session didn't start till 8am so it was a great opportunity to not have to go to bed so early as well as having a sleep in . A few of us were a little nervous about the swim due to another swimmer over near Rottnest being taken by a White Pointer yesterday. And it was only a couple of weeks ago another swimmer was taken at Cottesloe Beach. We were meeting Shelley Taylor-Smith for an hours session. It was really good. There were plenty of Surf Club boats and skis out on the water which certainly helped calm the nerves. She gave us some great tips on swimming in the types of situations that we would come across in Triathlons. On top of that we were practicing literally pushing people out of the way in the swims, drafting, exiting the water etc etc. Her session also included runs along the beach, sprinting in the water, out again push ups , sit ups ... our heart rates certainly got up there. After that a few of us got back in and did just over a 1km cool down.

So that's my recovery week ... all 17hrs and 39mins worth.

Run 45kms...4hrs 1min

Bike 250kms...7hrs 38mins

Swim 9kms...4hrs 30mins

Core..............1hr 30mins

Week 12 over with only 6 more to go... 2/3rds of the way there...Can't believe it!!!

The next 4 weeks will really test the spirit and will . I know I'm gonna have to dig deep . Let's hope there's a little more locked away.

Hope you all stay well and safe and we'll see you next week!!