The best part of program....Recovery week...and a sign up

This past week was truly welcome....recovery week.

With the cold I had, seeming to want to stick around, I was really happy to see this past week as a rest week. I wasn't fully up to par but I did take is somewhat easy, not doing a few of the scheduled events in lieu of more rest. The better part of this week was two fold, the Tuesday morning 3km running time trial and Noosa on the weekend to cheer on Colleen (and sneak in a swim or two).

The Tuesday morning time trial was one I was hoping would go well. My last running tt was in a time of 10:57, or just around a 3:40ish min/km pace. I really wanted to see if my feeling well running would account for a good time. Well, I headed out after our warm up and was quickly out front. I had a couple of people hot on my heels but it was about running my tt not worrying about the others. The course was a two loop course with a slight up hill to start each lap. At the first turn around point, I still had someone hot on my heels but I was running how I wanted to. At about the 1km mark there is a bit of an uphill and that was enough for me to break away and be on my own. By the time I hit the end of the first loop, I had opened a good 300m ish gap. I heard my split, 5:18. I didn't want to slow down so I kept the turnover the same. As I rounded the turn around point, I knew I was moving. Up the little hill and then down the 400m small hill to the finish. Mark was screaming for me to pick it up so I could break the 10:30. I picked it up and ran hard in...10:32 was my time. I had negative split and had ran my last lap in 5:14.

I was very happy with my time.

The other big this was going to Noosa to watch Colleen in her first 1/2 marathon since having Vaughn. I have never seen her train so well before for a race, so I knew she was going to bust a good time. Out the door she headed out at 6:15 for the 6:30am start, our resort was 200m from the start line. As soon as Vaughn got up, me and the kids would head down to cheer her on. Unfortunately today was the day he slept in. As soon as he was up, a quick feed and milk for him and out the door. He had slept until 7:15. Colleen was hoping for a pb (current one was 1:53) so we rush over to the turn around area. We got there just as the 1:50 pacer came by, we had missed her. Some of the squad were there too, so we joined up and waited for all to cross the line. With 1:45 on the clock, I told Alyssa to keep an eye out for mom, as she could be coming through anytime. Waiting nervously, I was watching the clock, 1:46, 1:47, 1:48.. I had guess she was good for a 1:49 so I crossed my fingers. Just then, I hear them call her name out, there she was, arms raised and looking strong, 1:48:5X, she had smashed her PB by 5 minutes!!! 5 minutes, holy crap all her solid training paid off. I don't know who was happier, her or me? She went through the shoot, and met up with us, were we gave her a huge hug!! She wanted a coffee and a shower, fair enough. We went back, she changed and off we headed for some breakfast...A 5 minute PB, holy crap!!

While up at Noosa, I did mange to get an ocean swim in on Saturday and Sunday with Rusty from the squad. These were great for me, building my confidence in the open water and allowing me to experiment with what does and doesn't work in the water. Two 2200m + swims in under 45 minutes, all good.

Now then.. last week with my head in a fog I forgot to tell all, I am signed up officially for Ironman Australia.... Here's the e-mail..

2009 IRONMAN AUSTRALIA Registration Confirmation

Richard
CONGRATULATIONS! Your entry has been fully processed
and accepted. You are in the race! We look forward to welcoming you to
Port Macquarie for the 2009 event. Please ensure that you read and fully
understand the contents of the Competitor Information Booklet - available
on the website.

This was followed up by going through over 200+ places to stay, finally finding a place for the week, all good.

That's about it for now, back to some solid training over the next few weeks.
Catch you all soon!

Richard