3 down, 9 weeks to go

Wow, only 63 more days till race day. We're into the nuts and bolts of the training right now and I'm pretty happy with where I am. I've been putting in the sessions and really trying to focus on the goal of each session, whether it be HR, cadence, endurance, etc. I think the 30ism's are almost of thing of the past and it seems to be paying off. Over the past month I've put some serious miles in and hopefully it sets me up well for the coming weeks. I know I must be onto something good when I head out for a 3 hour ride and I think to myself, hey, it's only 3 hours, piece of cake. Even today's 5 hour ride was good. Even though it was in the rain for about half of it, I felt strong. At times I couldn't keep up with the group in front of me, but when I looked down at my speedometer, I was doing 38/39kmh. Okay they're just that much stronger but that's fine with me, I know my limits. For January it looked something like this:

Running: 120.20 km

Cycling: 1061 km

Swimming: 28.50 km

Not too bad. I've missed a number of core sessions, but that will come, I know it will. For the crazy people, here's what the calendar looked like..

<<	<	January 2009	>	>>
S M T W T F S Weekly Totals 1 Running: 8.30 km 2 Cycling: 65 km 3 Cycling: 60 km Running: 8.30 km Cycling: 125 km 4 Cycling: 125 km 5 6 Running: 8.20 km Swimming: 2.60 km 7 Cycling: 100 km Swimming: 2 km 8 Swimming: 2.60 km 9 Running: 5.50 km 10 Cycling: 70 km Swimming: 2.60 km Cycling: 295 km Running: 13.70 km Swimming: 9.80 km 11 12 13 Running: 8.60 km Swimming: 2.80 km 14 Cycling: 75 km 15 Running: 15.80 km Swimming: 2.25 km 16 Running: 3.30 km 17 Cycling: 120 km Running: 27.70 km Swimming: 5 km Cycling: 195 km 18 Swimming: 600 m Running: 5.70 km 19 20 Swimming: 3.10 km 21 Cycling: 82 km 22 Running: 18 km 23 Running: 11.40 km 24 Running: 9.20 km Cycling: 145 km Swimming: 3.70 km Running: 44.30 km Cycling: 227 km 25 Running: 10.60 km Swimming: 2.40 km Cycling: 88 km 26 Cycling: 40 km Swimming: 2.20 km 27 Swimming: 2.35 km 28 Cycling: 56 km 29 Running: 11.60 km 30 Pilates: 0 m Running: 4 km 31 Swimming: 3 km Cycling: 35 km Running: 26.20 km Swimming: 9.95 km Cycling: 219 km Pilates: 0 m

This coming week, I have more of the same, but I get a rest day or two as I head down to Geelong for another 70.3. This one I KNOW I'll do okay because me and the two little characters on my shoulders have been having a talk lately. It seems the one with the horns has been losing most of the arguments, so I'm hoping that will continue.

This mornings ride had one of the local Pro's join us (he did 8:46 at Port a couple of years ago and was 5th) and I got to talking with him. Some good pointers were given and I'm hoping to try a few of the things out this coming week. It's good to talk with the Pro's so you get a different perspective on the race and the training leading up to it.

Positive thinking WILL continue and I will keep up with the solid training. Over the past couple of weeks, I've really turned a corner with my swimming and it's really working. Just a bit of fine tuning with my hand entry and a slightly faster turnover and I'm swimming stronger/faster with the same effort.

On the bike, I've really been working on my nutrition and it's been going well for the past 3 big rides (over 4.5 hours). I drink every 15 minutes and and eat every 45 minutes. Lately my bike diet has consisted of gels, bananas and Nutella sandwiches on white bread without the crusts. (now before you say anything, white bread without the crusts is much easier on the digestive system while training).

All good for now and hopefully I can give you a good race report next week. If you don't hear anything by mid week, it's because I stuffed up the race, sold my bike and taken up professional couch potatoing.

Cheers
Richard