Travelling Blues

Following a number of pretty intense weeks of training, this week was on paper slightly lighter.....looking back at it though, whilst a few of the sessions might not have been as long, there were a number which were really tough...the wednesday brick session was in there (which I love), an interval session on Thursday night, a 10km Time Trial on Saturday, and a long brick session today with Andrew.

I also travelled to Melbourne on Thursday for 2 days of work, a bit of a whirlwind trip, very stressfull work wise, not the work done in the office, but the stuff going on back in Sydney was not exactly helpful....so the interval set Thursday night was hard, in unfamiliar area, and after a long day of work and travel, so not ideal for me. I missed the swim on Friday, because I left my gear back home, but I had done a swim on Tuesday just in case something did actually prevent me from training on Friday, so that was okay. I was really tired on Friday anyway, as I did not sleep well at all. I was up before 6am as well....the body is now so used to being up early :-(

I arrived back in sydney late on friday night, and was up early to meet Andrew for a 5.30am start down at Terrigal, to run 3omins before the 10km TT. I knew as soon as I started running it was going to be a tough hard day at the office, my legs were heavy, my knees were tender, and just not my usual self...raring to go. Well, after about 3km into the race, I was actually considering pulling the pin, I was knackered, had nothing in the tank at all, tired, breathing fard and actually not enjoying myself at all. A few mental battle moments were had, and when I reminded myself that the Iron Man is going to be 4 x the distance, and probably 10 x the pain, I was able to soldier on.....but only running at around the 4min pace. Andrew and Smithy ran like legends and they were awesome to watch surging ahead. In the end, I came through the line in 39.46...nearly 2mins or so off my PB and I was dissapointed. The only good thing I can take from that run was the mental toughness I probably learnt, the run itself was probably my worst in terms of the enjoyment factor....and thats what it is all about, enjoying being out there.
The funny thing was, i got up at 4.50am this morning, felt pretty ordinary again, met up with Andrew and we were to ride 3hours (with hill repeats) and then 8km off the bike run. The ride started with my legs feeling very heavy again, but after about an hour, i was feel heaps better, and rea,lly enjoyed being out there. The hill repeats done with a very slow cadence were awesome...loved doing them, and the interesting thing was how far Andrew and I got up the hills, were were a fair few hundred meters further up the road than we were able to 3 months ago....shows how good the training is we do through Rollo...his programs are the business!
The run off the bike was good, I felt so much better than yesterday, enjoyed the run (even after 70 odd kms on the bike), it was hot, challanging surface with hills, but I loved it, so the week ended on a real high....thank goodness. The only issue is back to work tomorrow, and off to WA for a few days this week....so its going to be stressful again....makes you wander sometimes!

To sum the week up then :

Swim : 9kms (3hours)
Ride : 80kms + 2Hours on TT (5hours)
Run : 50kms (4.5hours)
TOTAL : 12.5hours

So a solid week of training, a pretty stressful week of work, and throw the traveling and heat into the mix, and it has made it pretty tough. Work wise, my least enjoyable week for quite a few months to be honest, and, given the number of hours I work, stressful weeks really take their toll on me, so lets hope this one coming is slightly better. I had not scheduled any time off over Xmas this year, but I am considering it seriously now....would be good to spend time at home with the family I think.

So, perth here I come. I am also going to Bussulton to wathc the Iron Man, Vlad and Tim will be competing in it so it will be good. Its going to be hectic for me travel wise, but I guess thats life sometimes.....so until then...