It’s been a rather stressful day or so. We’re flying out to Busselton, then Christchurch and then home on Quantas. We knew that their luggage allowance was pretty tight (23 kg) but on closer inspection we find they have maximum dimensions for bike boxes which my Scicon Box doesn’t meet ( I certainly didn’t see these at the time of booking). This resulted in us looking in to shipping (too expensive or no guarantees of getting there in time). Seems our options now are to just turn up and hope they accept it (they probably will ) or use a bike bag. I feel better having decided this though feel very frustrated when i find that if I’d booked the same flight through BA since they code share I could be on exactly the same plane but with much more generous allowances. On our pretty tight budget all these extra costs get to me a little.

Enough of the moaning … I’m still living the dream so shouldn’t complain.

Training for Busselton officially started yesterday and sods law, as I write this, I feel like I’m coming down with a cold. Probably going to knock this evenings squad swim on the head in favour of a good nights sleep.

I thought I’d share with you how I’ve felt in each of the disciplines have had at least one session in each since my two weeks off.

SWIM

I’m feeling great in the pool. On Friday I managed to do a couple of 100s in 1:12 and felt strong. I wondered whether this was just freshness after a rest and it wouldn’t last. Well, thats not the case. Yesterday morning I was easily cruising 100s coming in on 1:17. I was comfortably repeating off 1:25 and even managed a couple going off 1:20. Seems I’ve not really lost anything. Admittedly swimming is the one that I never completely stopped as I managed some swims in Kona before we left. This is very encouraging for Busselton and seems to put me in the position of only needing to maintain my swimming rather than try and push it on.

BIKE

I rode on Sunday and felt really great. I’d prepared myself for the usual Box Hill ride with Gabriel i.e. fast from the outset. However, Gabriel wasn’t in his usual shape and I was feeling pretty strong so I had the pleasure of him hanging on my wheel. Again I wondered whether this was just freshness after a rest and wouldn’t last. Well, I think it was the case. Was out riding today with John and had moments of feeling strong but a lot of the time felt pretty wasted and at one point was close to bonking… luckily it was on Box Hill so got myself a nice piece of Bakewell Tart and as was right as rain. For Busselton I really want to push my riding on. I’m going to just force myself out this week and get some miles in.

RUN

I’ve run twice so far. Each time to swimming. Very pleased that both times I resisted the urge to run back as well. I felt ok, not great, running on Friday but on Monday I felt great and ran about 6 minutes quicker and close to the times I used to run before swimming. It did mean I got to the pool rather early. 5:40am for a 6am session. Luckily the coach was there early so I ended up with a 1.9km warm up. Aim for the run is to slowly build it. I going to approach the run build as if Busselton wasn’t happening and then insert a taper 1 week to 10 days out. I don’t want the pressure of trying to get ready for Busselton.

GYM

Hit the gym yesterday. Boy was I weak. I test myself each time by seeing how many chins and dips I can do. At the end of our time in Club La Santa I was on 21 and 20. Yesterday I was on 9 and 6. I think you’ve had a moment to be impressed (perhaps not) … my test is how many I can do across three attempts. So my dips yesterday were pathetic. This loss of strength both makes sense and puzzles me. It makes sense in that I’m over 40 (just) and you hear a lot about  maintaining strength above 40. What is puzzling is how strong I feel in the pool. I’d felt a lot of my swim improvement was down to gym work. It still might be but seems odd I can feel weak in the gym but not in the pool. The picture today is really just a sign of my determination to get this strength back.

I’ve been thinking a fair bit about Busselton following my “run” performance at Kona. Here’re my ambitious time targets:

Swim: 52 minutes (hopefully get in the front age group pack)

Bike: 4:45 (this is ambitious and requires my riding to start feeling a lot better than today!)

Run: Sub 4 hr

That would nicely bring me in well under 10 hours.