That Martian Weather :-(

Well, those bloody dust storms finally caught up with me this week. I thought I had scraped through training in those conditions twice with no effect on me, but alas, that was not to be! I trained in Tuesday morning and felt tight in the chest but dismissed it, but woke up on Wednesday morning to do the brick session and my chest was so tight, I could not fully breath in...it sucked! I dropped the session, and let Rollo know, and he told me to take a few days off, it was a recovery week anyway!
So, no training Wednesday, or Thursday, and then Vlad asked if I was coming to his last big swim set on friday morning before he flits off to Hawaii for one of the toughest races on earth! So, I though bugger it, I will join him and if I struggle will pull out. I also decided to use the wet suit for the first time in the pool as well, it was 5 x 800m session so the wettie would get some good mileage!
Firstly, let me tell you, that 2XU V1 wetsuit is bloody fast! No doubt about it! Man, I felt like I was swimming at the same sorts of speeds I was doing when I was playing waterpolo for Zimbabwe, and doing heaps of swimming. I have felt and thought it was fast in the ocean, but you cant really gauge how fast you are really going because of the currents, waves and constant checking for sharks (well I do anyway), but in the 50m pool....boy, I was racking up the 100m splits in some serious times and comfortably to. We did 4km all up, and whilst I would say I was pretty tired, I was very happy with my efforts and how I felt. I have scrimped and scratched for most of my triathlon gear over the past year, but Vlad, JO and 2XU sorted me with this suit, and boy, wearing quality gear really really makes a differance. The same thing applies to the 2XU run singlets and compression tights.....wearing good the good quality stuff really does make a differance and you can easily feel it, so I am very grateful for having some of this kit....cheers!
The above comments were not a sponsered plug in, not at all, although maybe if I get huuuge hits on this blog I can approach Vlad, but I had an interesting conversation with Miles from work on Monday. He was asking if I was promoting the sport or just my story through this blog..I was primarily telling my story, but he made me realise its my responsibility to not only tell my story, but to help other triathletes looking for things not to do or do, and any information I come across should be shared....to help promote the sport, promote any event or anyone who has the passion (like Vlad and Jo) and interest to keep the sport growing. So on that note...another plug in....for those Coasties...dont forget to sign up for the Central Coast Triathlon on the 18th by clicking here : Central Coast Tri Club

So, for those of you interested in following Vlads progress in Hawaii and during the race, the details can be found on his blog twitter here :

Twitter

Vlads Blog

Some more good news, Andrew Mildren competed in the Gold Coast Half Iron Man today, and he smashed it in 4.57 (apparently, if he posts a report I will link it to my blog next week), but it was somethign like a 60min PB for him...I knew he would do well, so a huge congrats to him! Sensational effort! Steve Mckellar also posted a sub 5hour race which is just fantastic. Testiment to Rollos coaching and programs he sets and delivers for each one of us.....he is truly doing a great job for all the guys on his programs!

So enough about all the others, onto me, so apart from missing 2 days, whcih felt like 2 weeks, I did train every other day, and it was a recovery week. Friday was a good swim set, Tuesday was a good bike set, I had a great run in the rain and wind with jase, Eddie and ALM (Angry Little Man or Allan Pearso) followed by an ocean swim, and then today, I was downstairs on the turbo trainer for an hour and decided because the rain had subsided I would go up to Calga and do the 43km Time Trial. I did it in 1hr 17 so thats a 2min PB, and to be honest, i felt crap the whole way. I thought I was well behind the last time I did one, so was pleasantly surprised. I ran 6km off the bike, and kept the pace at around 4.15 with the HR under 15o again, so felt strong on the run again. The issue is, I am not sure if I can sustain the pace I want for races such as the Half Iron Man on the bike, I am just not strong enough, so its going to be a challange holding back.'

To sum up this week then :

Swim : 10km (4hours)
Run : aprox 30km (2.5hours)
Cycle : 43km + 3hours on TT
Total 9.5hours

So you can easily see it was a recovery week in terms of volume, but remember, I was off for 2 days, so still managed to do some sessions!

Next week, I am competing in the Maitlaind Triathlon festival, its a 1.5km swim, 55km cycle and 12km run...should be fun and maybe a little tough. Nothing however on Vlads effort in Kona, I wish him all the best for the time he is over there and especially the race, I will post any updates on his efforts next week.'

Until then....