Shattered and now Very concerned!

Boy oh Boy! I was lucky enough to go across to Perth this week for work, and then travel down to Busselton to watch the WA Iron Man. Firstly, I was up at 3am on Thursday morning, off to the airport. My flight was 6.10am. Arrived in Perth at 8am, straight to work, and finished in the office at about 8pm. I then met up with some old friends (Nikki and Tyron) who kindly had me for dinner, and I was back at my hotel around midnight (3am Sydney time so I pulled a 24hr day there). I then got up at 4am Perth time (7am Sydney) headed off to the office to make sure all the systems were okay for the start of the sydney office day. From there, I went and joined a swim session held by Ross Pedlow (Exceed Triathlon Coaching) at 6am. It was a pretty enjoyable set, nice to swim with others for once, I am usually on my own. Ross made the comment that he thought my swim stroke / style was, and I quote "Ugly, but it gets the job done!" I am not sure if I should be shattered about that, but hey, if I can swim with his fast boys, then I dont really care! I'll blame the waterpolo for the stroke style!

On Friday I finished up at the office just after lunch, and then off to meet Vlad and Adam in Busso. It was hot on Friday (34c) however it was going to be hotter for the race....deary me! Vlad, Adam and I had a pretty relaxing night, and we were up at 4am on Saturday and off to Transition. Vlad was nice and relaxed, and it was actually quite cold at 5am, the wind was leading us astray!

The Busso course looks awseome. The swim takes you out and around the pier...this thing is about 2km long!! jesus! The turning point looks miles away from the start. The best thing though is the water colour and clarity...absolutley stunning. After the gun went off and V;ad was out of the water and on the bike, Adam and I ran most of the run course (which is a 14km lap), and its was pretty flat, pretty exposed to wind and sun, and we discussed as we ran how we thought it was going to be a tough day later on. Little did we know exactly how much hotter it was to get.
Well, Vlad had a blinder on the bike, finishing the 180km leg in under 5hours, and started the run strongly, but unfortunately faded, sctruggled with cramping again and struggling with his breathing. (a similar condition in Kona I think) The poor bloke made it to around the 30km mark before he was taken into the medical tent and onto a drip. He lost 5kgs during the race! Thats just how tough it was out there! I reckon, and I am sure Adam and other athletes will back me here, 90% of the guys out there were walking, 9% a very tender shuffle, and maybe the odd one, and very few and far between were running. It was hot, and I mean HOT! The wind was hot and dry, and sun was burning, and we were struggling as spectators...never mind running a marathon.
Anyway, back to Perth last night, and onto the midnight flight to Sydney. A couple of hours of 'sleep' and driving home, so all up, in the past 3 days I have had no more than 6hours of sleep. through a few training sessions in as well amoungst that, flying to and from Perth, work and other items, this week has not been ideal for my training. The thing is, I still manage to get all the sessions in, bar my run today (I am absolutely buggered). I love the huuge brick I did on Wednesday morning as well.

I am looking forward to a solid week this week, because wathcing that race yesterday has reminded me how hard that race is, and just when you start thinking you might be slightly prepared, I have been reminded just how far I had to go in order to finish at Port in March. Vlad also kindly reminded me I really onl,y have 12 to 14 weeks of solid training left because of the taper before....in the scheme of things its not a long time at all.

So, in summery this week :

Swim : 10km (4 hours)
Ride : 3hours on TT
Run : 50kms (5hours)
Total : 12 hours

So fairly light, but not bad for the amount of time I had available to me.

Well done Tim and his Brother for finishing the race yesterday, and Vlad, you are an animal for being in so many Iron Man races in such a short space of time....mate, I hope you enjoy your retirement from IM, I am sure you could rest up until Port, and then it can be YOUR DAY!!! (you can spend most of it chasing me down...you must be tempted)

UNtil next week.....