The 2nd week of my interrupted training went OK, considering I spent 3 days in Sydney. It started with an interval run that took me across the harbour bridge, around the Rocks area, past the Opera house and around the harbour next to the Botanical Gardens. The pedestrian access on the harbour bridge is about 1.5km long. So I did 2 of them, with a recovery in North Sydney and then a 2 k effort around the harbour. Ended up doing 14k. It was such a nice run, so picturesque. I missed my scheduled swim, but had snuck in an extra swim last week, so it evened out over the 2 weeks! One of the speakers that day was Paul de Greer - that navy clearance diver who got munched by a shark in Sydney harbour a couple of years ago. He was an amazing speaker. Missing one leg and one hand, he has achieved so much and inspired so many. That night we had another function - Moonlight in Marrakesh - which as the name implies, had a Moroccan theme. Belly dancers, fire twirlers and live snakes. Also lots of yummy food and (free) beer. I bailed early (945pm) and hit the hay. These nights of partying and getting up for training were taking there toll.
Tuesday was the last day of the convention and there was going to be a late night, so I made sure I got both a run and a swim in. I had a pretty easy run with just 8 x 30" strides and did 10k. After the last session of the day I headed straight over to the Ian Thorpe pool and was joined by my work mate Geoff. We saw Geoff (Skippy) Huegill as we came in - he looked like a big bloke, but pretty fit. I churned out 2.2k and was pretty satisfied. That night was the Gala Dinner with surprise entertainment. So we all got dressed up and headed over to the convention centre. I was quite disappointed that the only beer was Crownies - again. Seriously, who drinks that crap? So I went straight to the red wine. After main course the entertainment started - and it was a cracker! AC/DC cover band, starring Dave Gleeson and Angry Anderson. They went off! Half the delegates didn't like it, but I loved it. I just wish they had of played Thunderstruck! Anway, ended up at a bar down the street after that as it was still early (1030) and QBE were shouting, so I switched to the vodkas. Was a great night.
Wednesday dawned and I made a half attempt to get up and go for a run, decided sleep was better for me and got back into bed. I had to leave the hotel by 8am, so didn't have much time anyway. Had brekky at the Qantas club lounge, which made me feel a bit better. We flew home and I kipped a little on the plane. Eventually my bag came out on the baggage carousel and I went and jumped in my car and was home by 2:50pm, just in time to go and pick the kids up from school. It was great to see all my girls again. Had an early night that night.
Thursday long run - scheduled 1:50hrs, including 2 x 12' zone 4 and 20' z3 pace. I had fairly fresh legs, as I had done nothing on Wednesday. So I felt pretty good. My Polar told me I ran 24.6k @ 4:32 pace, which seemed a bit too good to be true. So I checked the calibration with MapMyRide on the iPhone on Fri and it showed I was about 1.5% out or 500m. So it was still a pretty fair effort. Hopefully I can keep that up as the fatigue accumulates in my legs over the next 10 weeks.
Friday I took the dog for an easy run before work, to make up for the missed brick run on Wed. (I also missed my interval bike ride). Then I went for a swim at lunchtime and belted out 2.4km. It was another glorious day for swimming, except Bold Park are doing renovations and I had to get changed in a demountable shower block, which was a bit of a pain.
My long ride was a combo of RW and extra kays with Rat and Bernster. Butch decreed we do Reabold Hill figure 8's, which is a bit tough on the TT rig. I treated it as interval work and went pretty hard, loading up the legs as much as possible. Then the three of us headed off. We went anti-clockwise RTR and then did the Shelley loop. I felt great for the main part of the Shelley loop, sitting on about 35km/h and 94rpm with the HR at about 68% of max. That would be nice in IM! By the time I got home I had done 127km and it had clocked over 4:31hrs. I was going to do a brick run, but was stuffed. That was my longest ride since the Red Sky Ride in Feb/Mar. The week had caught up with me and so I went to bed at 830 and slept like a baby for 9 hours!
On Sunday I did a solo ride up to Yanchep and back. I was a bit ginger when I first sat on my saddle after yesterdays effort. Then the legs didn't want to do any work. It was going to be a long day! The conditions were perfect so I buckled down and just broke up the ride into chunks. 1st goal was to just warm up (10km) then Rats place (25km) and then the nice hot mix road for the last 15k to Yanchep. It was a constant effort. I saw very few other cyclists on the way out. I got to the roundabout in 1:20 @ 32.6km/h avg. I had a quick stop to remove my gillet and eat some food and then back I headed. It was still perfect conditions with barely a puff of breeze. I used my small goals again on the way back and time seemed to go a bit quicker. But it was hard work and mentally challenging to keep the effort up. My bum was complaining, my legs were tiring and I started to feel pretty stuffed. I wanted a -ve split, so I started doing some calcs in my head and it was going to be close. As it turned out, I managed to do it fairly easy, with a 1:18hr split for the return journey. I then had to get changed and head off on a short brick run. I grabbed the dog and Issy rode her bike with me. The legs felt OK, but I just felt general fatigue. As it turned out, the dog found the pace a bit quick and so did Isabel! Weak as water!
So it turned out my week was actually pretty decent - 2 rides, 2 swims & 5 runs...
Swim - 4.6k
Ride - 215k
Run - 59k
Time - 13:16hrs
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