The monsoon season is definately in swing!

And, as much as I like rain (well listening to coming down whilst at home on the deck, or lying in bed), it has pissed me off to no end over the past couple of weeks. Man, its made training pretty difficult, mainly because out on the bike its pretty unsafe in the rain, more so in the dark which is when we do start our long rides.....yeah you could say 'toughen up', which we do, but it still sucks! I am sitting typing this blog, and guess what, its raining agian! I looked at the weather for Sydney this coming week, and.....its raining! I think I have done my rain prep now...and would appreciate a few weeks of nice calm not too hot weather to lead into the race.,...not much to ask for huh! I know the other guys I train with would like to have a break from the rain, especially after our 6hr ordeal in the rain and wind yesterday.....
Onto that ride, jase, Andrew and I headed out at 5.45am, it was not raining at the time, but by 30km in, we were in amoungst it, and, to make the challange a little more unpleasant, some head wind to make the journey out more misreable. It was that crap, that by the turn around 80km into the ride, my feet were numb, and, there was this awesome smell of charcoal chicken being emitted from a take away.....thats what I craved, instead, I had another 4hours or so of old sandwich, gatorade and other things you would not want to consume. We also had 3 punctures between us....so we ended up being out there for ages. We did hill repeats right at the end which I love, and here is the good part, we all ran off the bike very very well. It was so good to get a slight idea of how the legs will feel coming off after 6hrs on the saddle, and jesus, its not pleasant for the 1st 2 to 3kms. Let me be clear, the use of the word 'pleasant', I dont expect the run to get any better or easier, but on Saturday once the legs got going and into a rythm, holding a good pace for 6km or so was pretty easy. Shows, rollos programs are awesome. Jase really took some confidence from the session yesterday, which he should, he has been riding really well for the past few weeks, and to be able to come off the bike and run strong for 50mins really boosted his confidence. I think, like Matty P, he is sand bagging now on his ability and estimated race time. I wont put a time here for him yet, but he knows if his race goes to plan he will do really really well....good on him, he has trained hard!
Andrew M is back doing weekend sessions again with us which is great. The man is a machine....just ploughs through each session, not stopping for anything, very strong!
Matt raced in Geellong Half today, and smashed it. I said 9.15 a few weeks back, and going by his time today, he is on track for that! I wont steal is thunder is this  blog, he writes excellent race reports which are posted on the Central Coast Triathlon website, so I recommend you read it when he posts on, but man, his time was very very very fast......would loved to have seen him in full flight, because thats exactly what he did!
Thursday was the toughest run set I think I have done, it was 20 x 400m efforts, all done about 20secs faster than rollo wanted, so I am really still tender from them I think.I certainly dont think I recovered from them for todays 2.15hr run (24km), and the legs were really fatigued. More of those 400ms this week, oh dear!

So, again, another huuuuuuge week for me. I have no idea if I am getting stronger, fitter or faster. I think the volume we have been doing has left me with that cloud of fatigue, which i know is there, but does at times cast a bit of doubt into your propgress. I guess the race in a fortnights time will tell exactly how i am going.

This weeks details :

Swim : 7.5km (2.5hrs)
Run : 55km (5hrs)
Ride : 145km + 3hrs TT (9hrs)
Total : 16.5hrs

A really solid week and look forward to this one coming.

On a sad note, my sisters husband lost his sister this week, she was run over whilst running back in Zim, terrible accident so I remind you all out to stay alert and keep your wits about you.....very important. My condolescenses go out to Ants and his family for the loss......