Week minus 5: Testing

A big training week this one, with over 18 hours of training. The result...I'm bloody knackered!!

All made harder over the past couple of weeks by the number of distractions that have been about. Along with Brad & Sharon being up this way, James & Petra (from South America travelling companion fame) also arrived on these shores and stayed with us for the week.

Of course the 'distractions' are always self-inflicted. With Stu also up on Wednesday, we showed James & Petra the best pub in New Zealand (aka Galbraiths), but the six pints I decided to consume that night would, I'm sure, be missing from most IM training schedules. Needless to say, Thursday morning I was not quite up to heading out for my long run and this had to be pushed back to the evening.

But considering all the distractions (which are welcome of course), I still managed to put in a good week. The length of all the long training sessions have gone up - with a 3.5km swim, a 6-hour bike, and a 2.45 run. I also did make some sacrifices. While everybody headed up to Mangawhai on Saturday morning, I stayed behind to head out for my S/B/R combo training session. This was a 1 hour swim, a 2.30 bike, and a 1 hour run. That is my longest sea swim ever, and if I thought staring down at a black line for an hour was boring, staring down at a green nothing is even more so - and after an hour, damn those goggles really start to hurt. And because of the lateness of the high tide this weekend, by the time I headed out on the run it was in the heat of the day - so was a pretty tough session, but a successful one.

With everybody having fun up north on Saturday night, I contented myself with eating half a lasagne before getting up early (6am) on Sunday morning and heading out for my 6-hour ride (the longest time I have ever been on a bike). Another beautiful day, though it took a while for the legs to loosen up after the tough session the day before. Even though I felt pretty good, towards the end of the ride the body starts feeling pretty sore. It isn't easy making myself drop back down on to the aerobars when my back and neck ache and I'm starting to get a headache from being in the aero position. But it is one of those things you have to do as it does save a considerable amount of energy and/or time. It is also pretty hard to maintain concentration, and after riding 165kms and only 10 minutes from home, I only just managed to avoid some idiot going through a red light (and the previous night's lasagne ending up in the back of my pants)!

Eventually making it home safely, I then drove the measly 110kms up to Mangawhai to join the others for a bit of R&R - though a tip if any of you do find yourself in training for an Ironman, camping is not very restful! Nevertheless, with having the next day off - both in terms of work and training, it was Auckland Anniversary - it was good to be able to have a few drinks and catch up with Brad & Sharon, and James & Petra, who I haven't been able to see as much as I would have liked to. On the way back down to Auckland the next day we also stopped off at an awesome beach at Tawharanui Regional Park for some great body surfing.

The training schedule is pretty much the same again this week, so no rest for the wicked. I keep getting asked if I am target - but, to be honest, I've got no idea. I'm probably (I am!) well behind most, but hopefully I will be getting to some sort of peak fitness in 5 weeks time without my body wont be feeling too tired. It's hard imagining running a marathon after being on the bike for six hours, it is all a bit of an unknown. But that is what the training is suppose to do, so I try to just focus on the week ahead.