Well today is the end of the AFL home & away season. Next week the finals start. As a keen WCE fan and member, I can't wait to see my team back in the thick of September action, after a few years in the bottom part of the ladder...bring it on! Today is alos the last day of my 'Out Season' tri training program. From here until IM it is Race Prep phase...a bit like going into the AFL finals, except 3 months instead of one! As I write this, I have a beer (only my 3rd stubbie since Friday at work) and have Cycling Central on the telly. As it is Father's Day, I am supervising Isabel who is cooking dinner! Good times!
I had a pretty good week of training this week. I completed all sessions exactly as planned and also a few extra bike kays on Saturday. This was a kind of transition week - from O/S to Race Prep. I did a 4/3/2 of runs/rides/swims.
Monday was an easy 2k swim, Tuesday was bike intervals/brick run (2 x 20' @z4). Wednesday I did an interval run as 2 x 1.6k at z4. Thursday was more bike intervals (3 x 12' @ z4). Friday easy run with the dog and a 2.2k swim at lunchtime. This was an IM swim - in that the weather was horrid - windy, cold and rainy. Not good for an outdoor pool. It did take some will power to do, thats for sure. My main set in the pool was 3 x 200 as 100 hard/100 easy followed by 10 x 100 as 50 hard/50 easy. I was going to do some 25/25's but was too stuffed and my stroke was disintegrating somewhat so I called it quits.
Saturday I took up Marko's invitation for a hills ride. He hooked up with Nera and a few crew that ride out of the Running Centre in WP. Bernie and I spun in to meet them. One of the guys was a gun cyclist (apparently spent time on a pro continental team). He set a cracking tempo from the get go and just rode off without so much as a backward glance! We road out to Midland and then headed up to the Darlington area. The roads/paths were very wet after an early morning downpour and the spray from rear wheels was a real pain. I was literally eating dirt as I tried to get some drafting benefit but not get too sprayed! We were sitting on 35-37 km/h on the flat lands. Then as soon as the hills started the other two guys just rode off. Nera had just run a 2:52 marathon 6 days earlier, so was going a bit easy and Bernster isn't the fastest uphill, so we had a few small re-groups on the way up to Mundaring. I think Marko was goin pretty easy too. We regrouped with the fast guys in Mundaring and then started the descent to the Weir. It was foggy and very cold on the way down and it felt like about 2 degrees. I was then wishing I had worn my knee warmers.
We then climbed out of the valley and I started to warm up again. The undulations and flatish bit in the middle is my favourite part of that road. It is deceptively long though. Before I new it, we were on the uphill road to Kalamunda. The weather had now improved and the sun our our backs felt really nice. We once again hooked up with the fast guys and then headed off, the long way, for the Welshpool Rd descent. Bernie, who is a downhill specialist, took the early lead without pedalling more than 20 pedal strokes. I took off after him and then sucked his wheel for a bit as I slowly rolled up to him and then blew past him at 81.4km/h...that part was fun! We then rode into Vic Park on Welshpool Rd (this is much better than Orrong Rd). Bernie and I kept rolling while the others had a coffee at one of the many coffee shops on Albany Hwy.
I had a fairly busy day but then at about 4pm I headed off to the footy for the last of the home and away games for the Eagles. Had a great win over the hapless Crows by 95 pts. Good fun was had by the 36,602 fans! We had the best Mexican wave going late in the last quarter!
Today was Fathers day, so I slept in until 7am - which is an accomplishment for me! I had the obligatory toast in bed and got some new jocks - so all is good with the world! I then headed out for a 90min run, which included 2 x 1.6k efforts at z4 pace. I managed about 19.6k in 1:31hours - which is about 4:40 pace. So I was pretty happy with that. If I can continue to clock times like that as my IM training continues, it will give me a great chance to clock a good race time come December.
So my week can be summed up with a few numbers;
Swim - 4.2km
Ride - 169km
Run - 38km
Time: 10:13hrs
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