Life is a Lottery

My last hard week before a break and I have shuffled my programme. Monday was a complete rest day as I was just sore from the weekend workout. I have learnt to not fret when I drop sessions. There is a fine balance between gritting your teeth and getting on with the training and just giving the body a rest.

I continue to grapple with the push and pull factors of training and racing Ironman  .It is tiring but rewarding . Full on and inspirational . The latest impetus had been the preliminary announcement that World triathlon Corporation (WTC )will be giving priority to triathletes who have done 12 or more races a chance to race Kona with those who have done the most getting a slot and then those who have entered the lottery getting the number of entries for each year they have entered. I have 5 more IM to complete before I have done 12 but it is something to aim for.

Life is a lottery in many ways . But don't hang out for the luck. Make your own. and where it is an unfair hand , make the best of it. As they say , corny as it seems , when you get dealt lemons make lemon juice.

This week has been no different. Monday was an off day .Tuesday it rained  in the morning and I am paranoid about falling off the bike so it was a non starter .I did my run training in the evening and It was a good easy session. I did a long warm up of 5km and then had the usual build session and  4 x 800m at " I  "pace of 4.21 min/km .We had the same time for recovery between each 800m.

On Wednesday , I swam in the morning at started a little earlier and swam 3.1km.With a 700m  warm up followed by a long set of 200m , 400m and 1000m , 400m and then 200m and then a cool down . At lunch time i ran 10km at a rather slow 5.30pace and in the evening i ran with the Running Centre group although it was mainly just me on my own. i did 13 plus km and really ran harder .The legs felt a lot better than at Lunch time . I managed a faster pace .



Thursday turned out to be a rest day s I was just feeling tired. I decided to make Friday a more solid training day especially as I felt rested .

I rode to swim training and did a solid session of 2.5km.A 900m warm up with drills and then 150 easy, 100m medley and 50m fast x 4 and 50m x 2 fast and a cool down. I then rode to work and in the afternoon at lunch I ran 8km .At 3.30 I rode to my Fremantle office and then rode home in the evening from Fremantle.There was lots of wind about so there were parts where I was flying and other sections really working against the wind .Rode a total of 65km

Saturday was a struggle and I started late but once out on the freeway bike path , I settled into a good pace. There was a detour in place because they were rebuilding a section of the bike path so I got a little lost but once on the straight sections I managed to keep at the pace and build .I kept my nutrition regime and had 2 Bidons and lots of dates and lollies and 4 gels.





The legs were tired from yesterdays ride but I managed to keep at a comfortable pace without getting the legs too tired. The wind was pretty favourable today and so that helped.The rain didn't .I got caught in a light shower and then towards the end a really heavy shower with lightning in the distance. I felt pretty cold and tired at the end of the freeway but I had no choice but to ride back. I forgot my toolkit and spare tubes so I rode the whole way without any repair kit. Although not my fastest effort , I was largely alone and even spent a few kilometres talking with Richard Kelso-Marsh and on a few occasions got stuck behind groups of slow riders. I passed 5 riders on the way back and one cyclist training for the IM on a Felt caught up with me 30minutes after I had passed him and I managed to pass him again . The legs felt pretty good at the end. I did get passed in the last 4 kms by a rider on a fixie but he was doing 37kph . I hung on for a short while but after 140km I decided it wasn't worth the effort. I got the bike back in the car and off for my 30 minute run along the river. Again felt pretty good and managed a good pace for the 6km.