The Taper begins or does it

VIDEO: 13.11.09 Nine News Narrows 50th

Rode over the Narrows bridge on my way to a 166km ride on the day the Bridge turned 50

It is now 3 weeks to Busselton and the easy week last week was a lifesaver The body is feeling less fatigued and definitely fresher.The week wasn't going to be much less than my harder weeks accept for the long ride. Monday began with a long run ...2 hours with 1 at a medium pace .i ran round the river again and across the river at Burswood and back to the esplanade and to the swan brwery and back. It was a reasonably warm evening at 5pm but soon got cool after 6 and dark by quater to seven . I decided to run in the vening and did not make my swim session.

Tuesday morning was the usual ride at Claremont and as it has been really light at 5am onwards there were lots of cyclist out.The squad was practising transitions after several in the group had raced bunbury on the weekend with very good results .A few won their age groups. We now have over 10 riding on Tuesday. Whilst everyone went off to practice transitions in the Park , Rod and Julianna had an easy ride.Meredith rode with them and that left Rob P and me.Rob whilst overweight and starting back in preparation for IM NZ is still a fast rider.Eventually Ben who was late joined us and tried to keep up but would drop off and join us on the return leg of the circuit.

I rode hard and kept up with Rob taking my turn in the front .I managed to climb better but Rob was definitely stronger on the flats.Did an average of 34.2 kph with my slow ride out to Claremont .But was a harder ride with just 2 riders taking turns out front compared to the usual group.

I felt good considering my run the night before.Wednesday I did a swim in the morning .I did a 2.7-2.8km swim as I started a little earlier .In the evening , I did my interval running with 5 x 4min efforts. Thursday was supposed to be a ride but as it was a little wet I decided not to ride , having a rest day.Friday I did a straight 1 hour swim and did 2.7km with lots of crowding in the pool.In the eveening it was the annual Max grieve run ,a North Coast Tri Club event to honour one of the founding members who pased away from cancer 10 years ago .The event has been run for 10 years and is a 5km and 10 km run .I managed a 44m40 sec run and felt good with a new PB for the 10km .Legs were a little tired after the race.Brad hoskings and loretta Wesley , a double World championin the OD and long Course race this year , won the 10km race .Brad and a non Club memeber dead heated but only club members can win .I did get their finisd time but Brad would have done a 35 min run.

Saturday morning i was a litlte sore but rode down to the Narrows bridge to join john dominican and his group training for Busselton.Set off at 6am with a tailwind down the freeway .I did 2.5 hours from home which turned out to be 83km at an average of 32.8kph.I turned around before the rest and the ride back was tougher .By the time I got back to the Narrows i had done 153km averaging 30.8kph.then just did an easy ride home for 166km .Managed 3.5 bidons as it wan't too warm .had 3 gels , half a power bar and half a protein bar and 10 dates and gatorade .a total of 240gms of Carbohydrates.not quite enough so i will need to make sure I have another 100gms .
But did not feel lethargic.I ran off the bike for 15 mins had a rest in the arvo and then ran for 45 mins in the aftrenoon .

I was dead tired in the evening and had a really good nights rest .The kind where all you remember is going to bed and waking up the next morning.I had to get up early as I had to get to Tony's place at 6.45am to get to cottlesloe at 7am .We eventually got started at about 7.35am with Trevor trying his new wetsuit.the conditions were great with little swell but the waves were crashing on the beach.The water was otherwise good and felt a little warm . Trevor and Tony took off and I lagged about 100 meters behind.We swam approximatly 1.5km or a little more before turning back , a total of 3km in just over an hour. iwas feeling tired but otherwise good and it would be about the pace I would swim as my heart rate remained low.

It was overall a good training week .