Week 10 Update - My Busselton 70.3 Training Log

Sunday I had to miss my long run (cough cough) as we had a 4am start to get our expo stuff setup at the Point Walter Men's Only triathlon (work). David decided to race the Olympic Distance event and we were so thrilled for him to get 1st place in Men's 40-49 in a big field of 35 competitors. After getting home and unpacked, we headed out again to Hillarys boat harbour for lunch and to let the kids jump off the jetty and swim while we chillaxed on the grass and sipped coffee for the rest of the day. We even skipped our regular yoga session so that was a total rest day for me.

Monday, I figured I better do my missed long run but 3 days in a row of very early starts had caught up with me and I decided to not go early but run after school drop off. Bad mistake - it was so hot and I just ended up running from one shower to the next - standing fully under the cold water beach showers at Nodes carpark, then Whitfords Beach, then Mullaloo Beach, then all the way back again but got my 12.5k run done with no major pain. This time I strapped my knees and my ITB using both the mcconnell taping and the rock tape. Looked ridiculous and took ages to get sorted and still had some niggles and I was totally exhausted but as its my day off, I caught up with a friend for lunch so had it easy the rest of the day as its also the only day of the week I don't have to ferry the kids around to their activities.

Tuesday I was up early with all engines firing ready for my 55k ride. David was adjusting his schedule so that he could do the Rottnest Time Trial (a qualifying race for the UCI World Masters Cycling Tour). He qualified last year with a 2nd place rank in his age group but didn't go to the race in Belgium as it fell on the same day as the World Ironman 70.3 in Vegas that we chose to do to instead (how bizzare?). So, the idea was to see if he could qualify again as this year the World Champs is in South Africa and we've not been there. He hasn't really trained for it, but it's a unique opportunity to have the race on our doorstep so why not give it a try. David asked me to go with him, as he found it a bit lonely last year but I negleted to really look at the details and suddenly reaslised that to go I'd need to have the kids looked after by someone else for a couple of days to get them to school drop off, pick up, dinner etc. Once I got that sorted, then I noticed that I had a chance of entering the race if I got in before midnight Tuesday. One the one hand, if I entered then I would be one of only a few small handful of ladies that would turn up on the day, with a fairly good chance of being one of maybe 2 or 3 in my age group and therefore a good chance of even qualifiying just by entering. But then I was feeling really really exhausted and wasn't sure I should put this upon myself after all I've been going through with the hips/knee issues so I didn't enter after all.

Wednesday came and I was too tired to get up for my swim - ummm... am I sick?? No. Is this stress?? Maybe... I am pretty busy at work and in article-writing mode, which has its ebbs and flows. When it's flowing, most else doesn't as its mentally quite exhausting and I sort of shut down all other life-support systems... forget to eat, forget to drink, lose all track of time.... etc. I nearly forgot to take the kids for their pre-organised sleepover on Wednesday afternoon, which created all sorts of chaos.

But finally, Wednesday night and kids were sent away and we had the house to ourselves... strange. When they're here they add that extra level of stress, but the moment they're gone I miss them and want them back!!

David suggested it would be nice if I took photos of him out on the course before the race started - there was time for a warm up lap, so I still took my bike to get around, and took my TT bike to get the best feel for the cornering etc, which is what I considered would be the main hazzard.

Thursday we were up early - to pack the bikes and drive to Fremantle to join the group for the ferry to Rottnest. As David explains in his blog about the day (see David's blog here), there was a mix up with our tickets so we were last to board.

But the day went well for us, although David's time did not qualify, it was apparently a much better day than last year's event. We got to spend some quality time together and we did a bit of a ride, had a swim at the Basin, and we had the afternoon to relax and meet new people. It was good! And yeah, if I'd entered it appears there was only 1 other lady in my age group so maybe I would have qualified but I didn't so no point thinking about it. I'll give it a shot next year...

Friday I just did a 2k swim in the afternoon but I felt fantastic! So I'm happy with that.

Saturday I really enjoyed my long ride (85k) to Two Rocks and I did my first run off the bike for AGES - I didn't use my Garmin, I just ran by feel and only went around my block on a route I don't often use but I logged it as 12 minutes and 2km. Could've been more, couldn've been less, didn't matter to me. I just wanted to run by feel off the bike. I felt great again all day just like last week, even with the extra distance and brick so ended my week on a happy note even though it was very much lighter - only 7 hrs:30 of logged time and 3 days of no formal training. So I'm hoping for a strong week heading into Week 11 - fingers crossed for me please!!