Isn't it nice when things just work...

I'm really starting to get some consistency at the moment and I'm loving every minute of it.

I took a rest day on Monday after a big weekend but Tuesday I went out for a shot at a 5km course near me. Well, almost 5km, I think it's actually about 4.9km, but the important part is that I time trialled it and came up with 19:17. Very happy. Even if its just shy of 5km I would have cracked 20mins and either way, its the fastest I've run it by over a minute!

Wednesday I rode the Cycleogical ride again. It was a good workout, but messier than usual... I'm feeling more confident so it's less of a worry but I see things now that wouldn't have worried me at all on my first couple of rides. Guess I've just got to keep my wits about me!

This morning we had an easy session at PCRG because of the 3km Brisbane running club showdown tomorrow night which I'm all geared up for. But I made some new friends and coughed up for eight sessions so they've got me good now!

Then, afterwork today I hit the pool for 2km and learnt something. I learnt not to fight the water. When cycling or running when you want to go faster, all you really have to do is push harder. However the realisation I had in the pool today is that the same doesn't necessarily apply in the water. Sure, if you can push harder it helps, but the trick is not to fight against the water and if you want to go faster, clean up your stroke!

This is particularly important because as regular readers will know, I procrastinate like crazy about the pool (evidenced by the fact that I've been talking about joining a swim squad for like six months and just "haven't had a chance to get round to it"...). But I feel a lot more confident after this little lesson (and the result from the weekend) so hopefully I'll get to the uni on Tuesday afternoon next week and give it a shot!

Still deciding whether to ride or sleep in tomorrow morning (with the 3km challenge in the afternoon), but at this stage I'm leaning towards 40km... just because I can!

First race of the year

Last week was great!

I extended my Monday morning long run to 25km.

Thursday I went to PCRG (or CBRG) for the first time, which was great! I'm going to buy my first block of sessions this week so it will soon become a regular part of my training week, replacing wednesday night speed sessions. Thanks to Tesso, Clairie and Peterhorse for making me feel so welcome (and so famous!)

Friday I did a windtrainer brick set of 1 hour 20 minutes on the trainer and then an 8km run. I went realllly easy on the trainer and as a result the run felt really good.

Saturday, I rode to the pool and did some laps. Unfortunately I got "nudged" by a cab on the way and had my first traffic experience so I wasn't too motivated to push really hard. I was contented that as long as I got back on the bike I was doing the right thing. I know that if I hadn't gotten straight back on and just languished in the pool for an hour or so, I would have been too fearful to ride home, so "on my bike" was the catchphrase of the session... The entire session ended up being 1.5km swim and 65km ride, instead of 2 and 80, but hey, what can you do...

Sunday I entered the Gatorade tri at Caloundra and was stoked to knock a full three minutes off last years time! One full minute from each leg. It was a really great race for me, I passed people on the swim, the bike and the run and came 9th out of 21, which I'm very happy with considering I'd had a big weekend, and I've only just moved into this age group this season... More importantly, I felt strong the whole way through, and like I ahd plenty in reserve, which is exactly what I'm aiming for for the longer stuff I plan on doing. The distances were 400m/15km/4km. Total time 53mins.

So that was the week. The only downer was taking two rest days on Tuesday and Wednesday because work was manic, and my car breaking down on the way to the Sunshine Coast on Saturday afternoon. I'm now unfortunately sans voiture until next weekend and this is going to make training difficult but hopefully I'll be able to use my bike to compensate...

Congrats to all who ran Caboolture in especially challenging conditions.

Friday night was my return to bricksets and also the first (comparatively) short ride since the last few loooong ones. And it felt gooood... 36km bike and 8km run and I'm back at the pace I was at before Noosa and with good time before Mooloolaba to start building some more speed.

Saturday was just a long swim of about 2.5km, which is the longest for the year so far.

This morning I did 10km at BRRC, time was nothing flash (thanks to a boozy dinner last night to welcome back a friend who's been away for three months). But it gives me a new bench mark to try and work from and crawl back towards that 40 minute mark. Evidently, the cycling, while giving me a lot more endurance hasn't helped my running speed much.

With friends like these, who needs anenomes?

Thanks for all your wonderful words of wisdom re the weekends injury I think I've got it totally sussed.

I ended up switching immediately to ice as Clairie suggested, and did four sessions with a tennis ball in the same manner as Kinder had suggested with the rolling pin. Within 12 hours it was pretty much gone, but I took Tuesday off as well, meaning I had had 65 hours straight rest when I went for a run on Wednesday night.

I did a three km warmup and then three 800m efforts on 3:30, and then another three km to cool down and there wasn't a niggle to be found.

I went for swim tonight (Thursday) and my whole body felt relaxed and ready for a big and hard weekend, starting with a brick set tommorrow, long solo ride on Saturday and BRRC 10km on Sunday.

The best thing is that I have more new tricks to pull out if I feel the ITB again, and I know how to manage it for next time!

Thanks again guys,

O