BALANCE

BALANCE

My training has been a little chaotic with the wet weather .But as everyone in Perth knows we can’t complain as we need the rain to fill up the dams . There isn’t much else that is important to life .The Monday was a washout as I didn’t go swimming in the morning and I was going to run but it was a gloomy wet evening and I had the North Coast Tri Club Committee meeting at 7pm .I have passed the point of feeling too guilty about missing sessions. As Ross said there are some core sessions and there are the ones that are just fillers. Its quite a contrarian view to many who believe in quality sessions all the time.

Tuesdays ride

I did manage my bike ride on Tuesday morning. It was cold but dry and a solid hour of hard riding .I was in a small group of 3 so I had my fair share of turns in the front especially as the girls were tired after the first lap. We did not end up too far behind the main group. The guys who were racing in the worlds only did two hard laps of 10km each. I managed 55 km with 30km of hard laps and the average for the whole ride was 30.4 kph ,meant that the 3 laps were atleast at 34kph The best part of the morning is coffee at Tiger lily’s with a muffin. Life can become very satisfying and simple after a hard bike ride.

I did try to run in the evening and managed a 1 hour session in the wet and cold weather. running from the Bayswater Gym , there was just no one around .It was miserable but as I am often reminded I have to be prepared for all conditions in the race.

swim sessions
On Wednesday and Friday I did rock up for swimming ,I am the slowest swimmer in the slowest lane so it is a little depressing especially after the number of sessions I have done I have improved so little. That is the frustrating part about swimming .I just can’t seem to have the power in my stroke others have and when I do speed up I am exhausted from the effort. Most swimmers are just so streamlined in their position and movement. We did a 1500 meter set and I clocked 31.52 if I counted the laps right .On friday it was a lot easier session with a 200 meter warm up , 200 m medley and 300 m PB , then 3 x 200m easy , firm and fast then 200m easy followed by 8 x 50m sessions and then a cooldown with a 25 m kick 50m free x 4.

I forgot my running shoes on wednesday so I ran on thursday instead and got wet again .Ran only for 40 minutes with Tim as it was just too wet on the footpaths.I skipped the morning ride as it was just too windy and I was tired.

Saturday was just another very windy day .I did a 120km ride with just water and 2 fruit bars and a mars bar .the wind was everywhere for the whole ride but it did not rain for the first 2.5 hrs.I rode down reid Hwy and nearly came to grief as there was a white metal pole on the bike track and i thought it was a plastic sheet i could go over but my tire just slid across the bar and fortunately i did not fall.

I then rode down west coast hwy to freemantle and then onto Mt Henry and down the freeway to Anketell Road and back through the city.
After 2.5 hrs my legs were really sore which i suspect was from the lack of nutrition but i managed to get back.Averaged 27.2kph but it was quite windy and it did rain a bit.

Felt OK and eventhough tomorrow is a rest day I have decided to ride and run as I feel good.

I know I haven't got the balance right but I think part of the challenge is to make mistakes and learn.Started reading " The Runners Guide To The Meaning Of Life " by Amby Burfoot .

My son has started on his list of christmas presents to ask from Santa and he has already compiled 70 items.I think I need to start my list which will be much shorter...