Clem7 Tunnel run

Today was the Clem7 tunnel run.  It was to be a run from the Bowen Hills entrance of the tunnel to the SE Freeway entrance which was the turnaround point and then back again.

I was looking forward to it.  However, it turned out to be kind of awful.  I met some friends for work there and the goal was to run it with them. We started a fair way back and they gradually let the runners through and in to the tunnel.  When we started it was not too congested, which was good.  A short time in to the run, however I realised that it was really hot and humid.  I was sweating quite profusely and my HR was about 10bpm higher than what it should have been. 

Unfortunately it didn't get any better from there as when we approached the first water station they had run out of water!!!  Each water station we passed had no water.  I ended up walk/running with Lindsay from work and we passed 2 competitors who had collapsed, so I'm not too disappointed we walk/ran it, let's face it; that's how I intend on bringing the Marathon home on Saturday!

So, lesson learnt - do your run from home where you take your own water out with you and run in the open air rather than through a tunnel!

4hour ride - 30min run... Taper, what taper!!!

Jacque kindly offered to pick me up at my place at 4:30am so that we could do a nice northside ride.  Craig needed the car to pick the kids up, so it worked out really well.  I owe Jacqe big time.

We left from Ashgrove with the rain coming down on us...  Sigh.  I am a bit over cleaning my bike to be honest!

We went up through Petrie, North Lakes, Scarborough, Redcliffe, Sandgate, Shorncliffe, Nudgee Beach and then on the bike path back to Jacque's place.

When we were up around Petrie and North Lakes I was really truly happy; the rain had stopped, there was very little traffic, we were clipping along comfortably, I was riding with 2 friends who I enjoyed the company of.  I was actually thinking that I am going to miss our long rides and was a tad nostalgic...

We stopped in at Redcliffe for a pit stop and continued on our way.  The wind was really horrible.  As we were just about to come over the Hornibrook Bridge the bike's were being blown around and you really had to keep your wits about you. I didn't dare take my hands off the handlebars to drink or eat!

This made the Hornibrook Bridge pretty revolting, poor Faye; Jacque and I followed her across so at least we got a little reprieve from the wind.  Faye ended up out the front pretty much the whole way home breaking the wind for us!  Such a strong cyclist at times I was working quite hard to hand on!

However, thankfully, we all survived the ride without incident, with the exception of Faye getting a flat tyre which she managed to change easily while Jacque and I watched on thinking that we really must practice that!

Jac provided some great Iced coffee's at her place which I like to call my 'recovery drink'.   We

Combined bike/run

I was supposed to run on Thursday, however I chose to have lunch with a friend instead of running at lunchtime and then when Craig came in to pick me up from work he wanted take-away for dinner, so we got that while we were out.  Hence no run in the afternoon either.  It would seem my motivation is somewhat lacking...

So, I did a wind trainer session with a run off the bike as one session.  A bit naughty seeing as they were supposed to be separated, however both were done very easy.  It was just a 45min easy spin, followed by a 30min easy run. I felt OK.

3km swim - I thought this was a taper???

So, it was 30 x 100's.
3 x 100's warmup
24 x 100's 15secs rest, every 3rd 100 swim the last 50 ALL OUT
3 x 100's cool down.

I really liked this set.  I got to the pool just before opening and there were a handful of us waiting to get in and swim.  It was funny, because it was a long'ish set most of those people had left and a new lot of people had come and go by the time I had finished! 

My swimming is not fast, but it is feeling comfortable and effortless which is right where I need to be at the moment.  I just concentrated on a nice long stroke trying to pull as much water through as I could.

Hopefully, this will hold me in good stead to get out of the swim relaxed, calm and ready for a 180km bike ride!

70min easy flat ride - Yay for taper week!!!

Faye, Craig and I met at the Nundah crit track.  It was quite busy and we soon discovered that a lot of the other IM NZ guys were here.  Jacque was also riding around, she wasn't supposed to be getting her bike back from being serviced until tonight but she managed to get it back early.

The four of us headed out for a cruisy ride to Nudgee Beach and back.  It was good, we managed to catch up and banter all the way out there and back.  I still had 10minutes to ride when we got back and Craig had 30minutes so I cruised around the crit track for a bit more with Craig and then let him finish off his session.

I think we are getting to the point where we all really want to finish the race well as we have done all the hard work.  We are looking forward to not having structured sessions, we are looking forward to finishing a ride and having breakfast rather than a late lunch!

1500m recovery swim

This swim was supposed to happen yesterday afternoon, after my long run.

However...  I had an afternoon nap which turned into a sleep, which turned into not having enough time to swim!

Never mind, I have been really valuing the afternoon nap and find that I am really needing them on the weekends where there is a long ride and a long run.

The valley pool has finally opened up after having a whole month of school swimming carnivals and swimming there today was brilliant.  I had 1 other person in my lane and I just ambled along with no pressure and just cruised out the 15 x 100m's.  If I felt like taking the 15sec rest I took it, otherwise I just kept on going.  I felt good and even though I am not swimming any faster, I am swimming more comfortably.

24.5km run with company!

This run was a repeat of last week's long run with a great twist!  Sarah joined me which was great.  She was happy to let me shuffle along at my own pace and kept me entertained with banter.  It was a bit cooler too, which helped us.

I was loaded up with food, band aids, chaffe cream, money - I felt like we could have left home!

It rained as we went over the Green bridge and I was getting a little concerned that we were going to be running with squelching feet, however it really didn't amount to much at all thank goodness.

We got to the Yeronga shops around the halfway mark and stocked up on some Gatorade for me and an orange mineral water for Sarah.  Well, do you think these 2 strong girls could open Sarah's drink!  We tried our hands (wet and sweaty), t-shirts (wet and soggy), serviettes (no good), until eventually, we must have looked desperate and thirsty enough for a kind gentleman to offer to open it for us - Phew!  Disaster averted...  Thank you.

The rest of the run went without incident and the good news is that we finished the whole run in 3 hours.  I finished 1km short last week, so I am thrilled with this.  Also, I was less sore this time around, although my feet still ached.  I actually took a Nurofen at the 2 hour mark to make sure that it will sit ok with me as I never take pain killers.  Thankfully it sat well as I intend on using them throughout the race if need be.

Sarah is a real trooper; she finished the Geelong Half Ironman a couple of weeks ago and her next event is Mooloolaba Triathlon which is Olympic Distance, so she really didn't need to do a 3 hour run!  I was really grateful for the company as it made the run that much more bearable.

We celebrated with Iced Coffee's whilst cooling down in the pool - very civilised.

A great ride with friends

Today we had to ride 4.5hrs, so Faye, Sarah and I met at Jacque's place for a ride out to Petrie, Scarbrough, Redcliffe, Sandgate, Shorncliffe, followed by a river loop.

I had just had my bike serviced so it was shiny and freshly lubed and all beautiful...  Well, of course if rained!  It actually poured on us and was stinging our faces and pooling in my bike shoes - I was cold in the middle of summer!  Not pleasant...  However, we kept at it as we are Ironmen, although I didn't feel much like being one as I was squinting in to the rain; I was wishing for me doona and a sleep in.

Thankfully the ride improved as it stopped raining.  Faye peeled off to meet Vanessa for a ride and we dropped Sarah off on the way through to our river loop.  Sarah wanted to ride for 3 hours with us, but I think it ended up being a fair bit more than that! 

Jacque and I copped a fair bit of traffic around the river loop which wasn't much fun at the end of a ride, but we ended up back at her place being just a few minutes ride time short.

I was easily enticed with the promise of an iced coffee instead of a run!!  It didn't take too much convincing.

I got home and spent some time cleaning all of the road grime from my bike which was sadly no longer shiny and beautiful. 

Wednesday's TT ... on Thursday!

Being just over 2 weeks out from D Day (Ironman NZ) it was a good week to get my bike serviced. 

So, Monday night I took Craig's and my bike over to Troy the bike guru of guru's to tune it up and give it a final going over.  Troy said that he would have it ready by Wednesday night, so the scheduled Wed session was changed to Thursday.  Thankfully Faye was kind enough to swap also, so that we each had company.

The crit track was quite busy and when Faye arrived it was in full swing.  However, we set out and I quickly found my rhythm and the path wasn't too congested. It was hard work, I wish I had my HR monitor on so that I could keep an eye on it as I was working pretty hard.

My distance for the 30mins was 18:13, 36.26km/h average.  I am absolutely thrilled with this as the last TT I did was a month ago and I averaged 36.5km/h, however I was drafting behind Craig and Richard, where today's TT was pretty much on my own.  I did draft a bit when some faster cyclists overtook me and I drafted behind people prior to overtaking, but nothing like being dragged around the crit by Craig and Richard.

Out on the track today was a wheelie cyclist and we both finished at the same time and were packing up beside each other in the carpark.  He asked me how I went and I told him that I feel stuffed!  We started chatting and after talking about the training sets we each did on the track today George tells me that he is the QLD reigning 20k TT champion and he has the Australian Championships coming up in April which he is training hard for.  He is racing 2 events: the 20k TT and the 65k road race.  He has been ranked number 2 in Australia for the past 3 years and is hoping to reach number 1 this year.  I told him about my Ironman training and that I hoped to just finish the race.  We both wished each other good luck, I hope George can bring it home for QLD and himself and be number 1 this year.  I also mentioned to him that he was really poor to draft behind... 

Wetsuit swim at Newmarket pool

Today, Faye and I met at Newmarket Pool to do a wetsuit swim.  The programme had us doing 3 x 1km reps, however we decided we would do 4 x 1km reps as we had the time and it would be a good hit out.

We donned our wetsuits and entered the water feeling a little foolish and self conscious completely decked out in neoprene!  However, once we got started and found our rhythm it was alright, although after the first 1km we pretty much decided that we would do one other in the wetsuit before ditching them otherwise we would end up as human soup!  Even though it was overcast and a little rainy in patches it was still quite warm.

I actually felt as though I warmed into the swim and felt more comfortable in the 4th rep than in the 1st which is a great sign.  I think that I am going to be able to make the distance relatively comfortable in the wetsuit as I am starting to feel a lot more comfortable in it.  The key is going to be trying to keep calm in the melee that is 1200 other athletes all thrashing about.  Swimming in the pool with one other person in the lane and following a black line is almost meditative, but doing an open water swim with people touching you and hitting you and running in to you is going to be a different story.

Race plan:  stay calm and relaxed at all costs.  If it costs me 10-15mins in time at the end of the day it will be worth it to get out of the water relaxed and conserving energy.

It's raining cats and dogs!

The plan today was to sleep in which contributes greatly to my overall sanity and then to run at lunchtime.  I have been doing this prior to Hell of the West to acclimatise to running in the heat, but I have decided that I will continue with it as I really do like my Tuesday sleep ins!

So, I turned the alarm off before going to bed on Monday night and had a very wonderful sleep in.  I can't wait until this becomes a regular occurence!

I packed my running gear in my bag and headed off to work.

Just before 12, I started to think about getting ready for my run when I looked outside and everything was grey - I couldn't even see the outlines of any buildings through my window!  On closer inspection it was bucketing down rain, the likes of which I haven't seen in quite a while!

Now, I'm not adverse to running in the rain, particular in Brisbane's summer heat, however this was different, it was followed by some really close lightening and thunder and was the sort of rain which would leave you looking like a drowned rat with blisters and chaffing.  Not ideal...

So, I decided to skip the lunchtime run and try again in the afternoon.

It was still raining in the afternoon, so it ended up being a treadmill run which was very boring, but at least it was done.

My motivation is wavering on "I can't be bothered" to "OMG, it is so close, I need to really smash it!"

I just want to keep everything ticking over nicely at the moment and not get any injuries, illness or anything that could be detrimental to my race in 17 days!!!

Power Intervals

The set consisted of:
Warmup 20mins easy
20min Power Intervals 40-50 cadence for 1 minute with 1minute easy recovery.
Cool down was 15mins easy.

There was no running off the bike this time which I was thankful for.  In fact, my heart wasn't really in this session.  I was tired and had the TV on and I was more interested in the news and what was going on than in to the intervals.  Although I did manage to get through them all in the highest gear, in the 3rd last resistance on the wind trainer which is not too shabby. I think next time I will have to up the ante and do them in the 2nd last resistance and put some solid effort in.

Redcliffe Shark encounter!

Craig, Faye and I headed up to Redcliffe's Sutton's Beach to meet Sarah and the family.  The four of us intended on doing a 30min recovery swim in the ocean to flush out the legs and get a bit of open water practice in.

The wind was blowing quite strongly and we fully expected the water to be choppy and as we arrived at the beach we weren't disappointed!

After much deliberation we eventually entered the water.  We had to wade out ages to get to a point where we could swim as it was low tide.  We decided to swim down to the blue toilet block and then regroup.  We almost body surfed down there the chop was so strong and heading in that direction.  I think we arrived there 10mins later!

We decided that we would turn around and head back seeing as it was going to be a tough swim back.  We regrouped on the way back and Craig turned around and said that he saw the dorsal fin and body of a shark just in front of him swimming away!

Well - we didn't need convincing to get out of the water!  We all calmly exited the water and walked up the beach.  I know that when we swim in the ocean we are sharing the ocean with all sea-living creatures, but this encounter was probably a bit too close for my liking.  The shark obviously wasn't aggressive or perhaps I wouldn't be typing this, so I guess that's a good thing.

I'm not sure about how I feel about swimming there again...  Faye and I both readily agreed that next Sunday's open water swim will be at Lake Hugh Muntz which is a freshwater lake with no sharks, sea lice or blue-bottle jelly fish!  I think I am going to be hard to convince to swim anywhere else EVER actually!

24.5km run

I had mapped out a 30km run...  I really wanted to be able to run 30km's before heading over to attempt to do a marathon after 180km's of bike, just for my piece of mind.

However, I have had sore shins and on my long ride with Jacque yesterday she pretty much talked me out of it and I have heard the same advice from many sources.  I am better off to be standing on the start line having not ran 30km's rather than having run 30km's and be out with a stress fracture.  My problem is that I am just so slow it is getting beyond a joke. 

I thought that the course I chose would be around 26-27km's, however when I got home and mapped it it was only 24.5km's, of which I walked the last 1km as I had reached the 3 hour mark and my feet were aching.  I was really disappointed as I ran the whole way with the exception of 1 toilet stop, a couple of drink station stops to refill my drink bottle, a couple of times I stopped to eat, I stopped to buy 2 Gatorades from the shop.  So, I guess that does add up to a few stops, but I figure that this is how I'll be 'racing' the Ironman.  On these times I will be out there over 6 hours for the marathon.  It is going to be a long hard day which I fully expected, but I just had a little hope that I would be slightly faster than that.  I was hoping for around 6:30min/kms rather than 7:30min/kms!

The good part is that I didn't need to stop and stretch and I felt pretty comfortable even though it was really, really hot and humid.

I ran with my Skins calf compression socks on and I found that these were excellent.  My shins were sore on the Friday, I ran on the Sunday, stretched well afterwards, iced my legs well, and really I couldn't feel my shins at all. 

I will do this same run next weekend and see if I can pick the pace up even just a little.

I fell off!

Well, I had a very gumby moment.

I was leaving home to meet Jacque in at Active Stride at 5am.  So, when I left home it was 4:30 and it was pitch black.  I was on the driveway, mounted my bike, clipped in my feet and away I went - except I managed to turn my wheel enough to block my pedal motion when I went to turn left out of the driveway and I was helpless to avoid crashing like a heavy sack of potatoes to the ground.  As I realised I was falling I had that moment where I just hoped that I wasn't going to break anything!!!  3 weeks today to Ironman New Zealand and I really, really, really didn't want a stupid fall to end it all.  Thankfully as I went through my body and assessed the damage, it just seemed to be a sore knee which ended up a bit grazed and sore hands which actually were fine.  Phew!!!

Not a great start to the ride.  So, Craig helped me put all the pieces back together and patched me up and by this stage I was running late and feeling a bit shaken, so I decided to drive in and meet Jacque at Southbank instead!

Thankfully, this was the most excitement!  Jacque and I headed down the Coast and we made it down to the Mobil just south of Dreamworld. 

It was a nice, cruisy ride and it was great to catch up with Jacque.  We managed to chat and catch up so it was really good.  Very enjoyable.  Finished the ride feeling very strong and not overly fatiqued.

Wetsuit swim

Craig and I headed out to Jindalee Pool with our wetsuits to get in some practice.

The pool wasn't quite open yet, however there were a zillion (yes, a zillion) people waiting to go in, many with bikes - it looked like a triathlon session about to take place.  So, we hightailed it out of there and headed over to Bellbowrie Pool!

This turned out to be a good move as we had an entire 50m lane to ourselves.  Fabulous.  We were very self-conscious getting kitted up in our wetsuits in Brisbane's summer morning. 

The set was 4 x 800m for me and 5 x 800m for Craig.  Craig managed to lap me enough times that we finished within 100m of each other - quite demoralising really.  But, in saying that I was starting to find my rhythm with the wetsuit.  By the 3rd 800m I was very comfortable, so I am pretty happy with that.  I felt as though I could swim forever, although it was getting quite hot.  Each time I turned at the end of the pool it was a relief to get a bit of fresh cool water go through the wetsuit and when I took it off it felt like bliss to be surrounded by cool water - I hadn't realised how hot it was!

Happy Birthday Gran!

My Gran turned 90 today.  Such a fabulous achievement, made more so by the fact that she is as sharp as a tack, can still get around OK, is living on her own, although she does have some help.  She is a really sweet person who stays up to date with current events and is always easy to have a conversation with.

To celebrate this fabulous day the 'girls' in her life all took her out to High Tea.  It was lovely, there was my mum, aunty, cousin, there were 3 of her neighbours and a couple of friends from way back. 11 of us all enjoyed a fine High Tea with dainty sandwiches, scones, cupcakes and mousse shots served alongide tea in beautiful china cups.  Definitely worth taking the day off work for!  Hope you had a lovely birthday Gran.

Thankfully I managed to get my swim in before heading up the Coast, however the motivation for a run in the afternoon upon my return was lacklustre at best!

After some procrastination I headed out for my 5km hilly loop around Kenmore.  I started fairly slow and steady, however around the halfway mark I started to feel really good.  Maybe the 2 days off training helped! I felt like I was running fast and I was really enjoying the run.  I finished really strongly and wished that I had timed the loop!  Maybe it's just as well...  Perception is a funny thing and can often not match up to reality! 

Let's just agree that I was running fast.

Are the wheels falling off?

Monday, I really struggled.  I had the telltale sign that I am overtrained - I lost my appetite.  Didn't sleep well Monday night or Tuesday night, so ended up having 2 days off training.  Thanfully I think this did me the world of good physically, but mentally I am worrying that I have lost a lot of training, etc.  In reality, I haven't but it does play with your mind when it is so close to the event.

Thankfully, I had Thursday off work and managed to get a good quality session at the pool.

Swim: 4 x 100m easy w/u, 4 x (25m ALL OUT, 25m easy 20secs rest, 50m ALL OUT, 25m easy 20secs rest, 25m ALL OUT, 25m easy 20secs rest, 100m ALL OUT, 25m easy 20secs rest) with paddles and p/b, 3 x 200m easy c/d 30secs rest.

I used the pool buoy, so I felt as though I wasn't going very fast when I was doing the ALL OUT's.

Power Intervals

20min warmup
20 x 1min power intervals, HARD at 40-50 cadence, with 1min EASY break
15min run on the treadmill
10min cool down.

This session was good, I watched the news and caught up on all the gossip whilst sweating and puffing away. 

I was worried about how my legs were going to pull up after the long run yesterday.  I slept in my skins and they actually didn't feel too bad.  Just a bit tight.  The run was OK, I was waiting for it to really hurt, but it was fine so I was pleasantly surprised.  I stretched well after the session and cooked up a big scrambled eggs and fried mushrroms with fried tomato, washed down with a latte - yum!  That should fix me up!

23km run

Today was my longest run ever!

I was scheduled to do a 2hr 30min run in the morning and a 30min run in the afternoon.  I woke up and it was pouring with rain - absolutely bucketing down.  I was so despondent, as I really needed to get this run done.  I wasn't keen to run in this sort of rain as I was guaranteed to get blisters and be out of action for too long.  So, I decided that I would swap the runs around and do my 30min run on the treadmill inside in the morning and hope that the rain would break enough for me to get out in the afternoon.

Thankfully, the rain did clear and Craig and I headed off in the afternoon in a nice easy pace towards Yeerongpilly train station and then back home again.  It is relatively flat, although there are some undulations around Kenmore. 

The pace was very slow and the temperature was muggy and rainy but not too unbearably hot.  We had to make a toilet stop for me a short way into the run which was annoying, we also stopped at the tennis centre to refill bottles and then we purchased some Gatorade and water at Indooroopilly 7-11, other than the toilet stop the other stops were pretty quick.

I felt pretty comfortable up until about the 17km mark where I started to feel stiff.  We stopped and stretched on the way back on the Indooroopilly bridge which definitely helped. 

I was very tired after the run and my legs were tight and sore, but I was very pleased that I was able to run that far!

What it has highlighted is I need to do more on my long runs.  So, I am contemplating a long run this weekend of 30km's at a very easy pace with a couple of stops for Gatorade, food, drink, etc, but try to keep it moving as much as possible.  It will probably take me many hours, but I think the conditioning on the legs will be very beneficial to me.

Swim/Bike brick session

Our programme had us doing a 3 hour recovery ride, however Faye, Craig and I were really keen to get a long open water swim in our wetsuits done.  So, we arranged to meet nice and early at Lake Hugh Muntz at Mermaid Waters to try and beat the heat.

The day turned out to be a little overcast to begin with, so we were thankful for that and hoping that it would keep the heat at bay.

I had mapped out the lake and if we swam around the edge of the lake it was around 3km's and then we could swim over and back from part to park to bring up the distance.

Another guy, Dan met us there and the four of us headed out together after wriggling into our wetsuits.  I was trying out my new tri-suit and new aquashpere goggles, so I was pretty excited as I had high hopes for both!

However, the goggles soon let me down.  Within 15mtrs I was stopping to re-squish them on my face as they were leaking.  I headed off after my re-squishing and no sooner had I got another 10mtrs they were leaking again.  How infuriating!  So, I stopped and decided that I would adjust the strap a bit tighter and see if this helps.  I have floated before in my wetsuit without any effort, however I wasn't floating as I was in fresh water, not salt water so I had to tread water whilst figuring out how to adjust the goggles.  It took a bit of swearing and so forth before I got them adjusted.  I headed out and within another 10mtrs they were leaking.  Meanwhile everyone else was quite a way in front and I was bobbing up and down with these useless goggles!  I decided that I would go back to the car and get my other goggles and use them instead.  So, my swim started off very disjointed and unfortunately I never really got any rhythm into my swim at all!

My wetsuit was making my arms ache, I felt slow and unfit, it was really heating up and I was really thirsty, I kept stopping to do breaststroke...  All in all it was one of those swims which are best left behind!  It was quite laughable really if I didn't have an Ironman in 4 weeks today where I WOULD be swimming in a wetsuit for 3.8kms!

So, what I got from today's session is that I need to do some more wetsuit swims (and sort out my goggles!).  It means that I will have to use my wetsuit in some of my pool swims to get my arms used to the feeling.

Thankfully, the ride was much better.  Craig, Faye and I headed up the Coast as Craig was doing a long ride in that direction.  After 1hr, 30mins Faye and I turned around and headed for home.  We made it up to the "Broken Spoke" near the Strawberry Farm at Woongoolba.  Shortly after we left Craig we called into the Mobil to refuel and it absolutely bucketed down rain!  It was pouring.  By the time we had scoffed some Gatorade and water it had eased slightly, but it was still enough to sting our faces and drench us!

We managed to get back down to Mermaid Waters safely, albeit covered in road grime and filth!  Thankfully I found some wet wipes to remove the worst of it from our faces and hands!  All in all, it was a good quality ride as we had managed 80km's.  I will just write the swim off I think and not dwell on it too much!

Friday Coffee ride!

I was going to swim in the morning, but a few of us triathl3tes www.triathl3te.com.au had organised to do a long swim/ride on the Saturday, so I thought that a coffee ride was in order!

The ride was good, I hung onto the guys until Indooroopilly where I lost them around a roundabout (my roundabout and descending skills need some work!).  I could have sprinted and got back on to them, but my HR was through the roof already, so I cruised and waited for the rest of the girls to come through and joined them. 

It was good to enjoy a ride and not have any pressure, just to ride for the fun of it.

Thursday swim

Well, I ditched the squad swim and found myself sleeping in an extra 20mins and swimming at the Jindalee Pool instead!

My swim took about 1hr 20mins and the most people I had in my lane was 2 others in a 50m lane.  So, nobody got in my way and I was able to get a good quality session in. 

Although, for some reason my swimming has gone backwards.  My swim time at Gundi was slow and my 200m time trial today was slow.  (3mins 44secs).  I think that I need to go back to slowing my stroke down, concentrating on getting power out of my stroke as I felt as though I was getting back to 'choppy' stroke.  So, I will work on this over the coming weeks.

All in all I swum 3.4km's.  Not too fatigued afterwards, so pretty happy with that.

Stupid blister!

My blister was throbbing Monday night after my swim.  I was starting to have a little niggling doubt about whether or not I should have done Hell of the West...  It was brief though, I really did gain a lot of confidence in doing it, so I still don't regret it.  However there was no way I was getting up on Tuesday with my throbbing toe to run, so I wrote Tuesday off.  :-(

I have been regularly soaking it in Betadine and applying savlon and paw paw ointment hoping that this heals it really quickly.  Wednesday morning I was able to do a wind trainer session thank goodness!

The session was 30mins warmup, 30mins time trial and it was supposed to be a run off the bike, but in lieu of my toe, I ditched it for a warmdown on the bike instead.

The time trial was tough, mainly because it was on the wind trainer, but more so as I was riding blind.  Craig had my bike computer so I had no cadence, HR, speed, etc which means that I really had to focus on those things myself.  I felt as though it was a pretty honest session, I was certainly working hard, my breathing was hard and my legs were working so I was pretty happy with it.

Hopefully, I will be able to run tomorrow...

Recovery swim

The day after Hell of the West and I was feeling OK, not too sore.

The only problem I had was with a blister that I popped which was giving me grief and I am hobbling around on it.  I hope that it improves real soon.

Craig and I went down to the Jindalee Pool.  Craig swum 3km's and lapped me a few times, so when he stopped, I stopped.  The swim felt good, I didn't feel as though I was going to cramp or anything.  I swum without a pool buoy.