The end of LSD!

Thats it, today was the end (I think) of the long, slow strength building phase Rollo has had us doing over the past 8 weeks or so. I must say, the legs are really feeling the miles under them, but, I can also say I certainly see the differance in my (and the other guys) strenght. Simple things like how far we end up Mooney Mooney hill for each rep compared to how we fared 4 to 6months ago is huge. Running off the bike after 140km of riding in the hills and holding a decent pace (for Iron Man that is) with the HR under controll has been good. Being able to backup the next day with long runs have been hard, but again done and improvements felt! I think all of the guys under Rollo's programs have been able to recovery really well after each session, which proves he has done the right thing by all of us. I also feel we have been very supportive of each other to get through each long week, so its been pretty good. We are on a recovery week this coming week (although not sure how 20 x 200m efforts toimorrow morning in the pool is recovering!), Andrew, Matt and I are off to race in the the Husskisson Long Course triathlon this coming weekend, its going to be a hoot. It wil be good for Andrew and I to race to be able to test our race plans, most importantly our nutrition, and of course gauge were we are at since last year...having not raced for 2 months now. Jase is going to AC/DC..tough choice I must say! Its been a good week again this week. I have been lucky enough to get a new Bike. A Felt D12. Very excited Imust say. I picked it up on Thursday, looking forward to riding it on Saturday, and could not get the bastard cleats off my shoes, nor the pedals off the Bike I have been riding for the past 9months or so, so in the end, near midnight on friday I gave up and was forced to ride the old one again....very frustrating because I need to get time on the new bike to adjust to it for the race, but, I am sure it will be fine. I had to leave my bike shoes at a bike shop to get the cleat screws drilled out....muyst be all the crap rain we have had which have rusted the screws. Back to saturday, the order of the fay was more rain and high humidity, I along with most other cyclists I am sure are sick of the rain.....man it makes it hard and dangerous riding. Matt came off his back rather badly early into the ride, hurting his shoulder and taking bark off, just shows how careful we all have to be, his hand I think slipped off the bars due to the moisture...he went home after that, hopefully he will recover in time for the race this weekend.
Lastly, I have to thank Andrew, Jase and Matt for all the very very early starts I have asked them to have to fit in with my schedule. I have had these guys up before 5am many times during the week and every weekend so as I can finish as early as possible and either get to the office or back home to see the family. These guys have been awesome supporting me along the way, and its been so good seeing them getting stronger and stronger. Its also been an absolute hoot with them...very funny bunch of guys. I get told by them I dont shut up, but I must say, they are a chatty bunch as well, and we all seem to have the same sense of humour, same drive to do the Iron Man well, and to do it well....(hang on, I am getting rather emotional typing these, better get the tissues!)

Righto, so this week (as I said, last of the LSD I think) before we move into race prep was :

Swim :8.5km (2.20hrs)
Run : 61km (5hrs)
Ride 220km + 2hrs on TT (9hrs)
Total : 16.2hrs

Great week again, lots of laughs along the way (gollum! and my favourite for the week was jase's comment about an EPO Fart....I was still giggling about that on the run this morning with him and Andrew....makes me lose my rhythm).

Next week I will probably post a race report, I am pretty excited about this race as apparently its a wonderful course, pretty fast and doing it with the boys is always fun!