7 weeks and counting

7 weeks till Gold Coast, now what??? This was the first week of swimming and biking and I have to get things into shape before then, and no, pear shaped doesn't count...

This past week was painfully good. It was my first time in the pool in 15 weeks and believe it or not, that's just a wee bit too long between swims. Tuesday night was squad swim and it was a funny feeling, the legs were there, the cardio was there, but the arms were screaming bloody murder. I survived (barely) the 800m warm up, some 25m on 30 seconds and then the dreaded bands.... yes, lets put a rubber band around our feet, to make us focus harder on our stroke, which by the way, was painful.... Then the topper of the night..........a 400m time trial.

When I was back training, I was typically around the 7 minute mark for the 400 and it felt good. Not this time. Even though I managed to squeak out a 7.46, it was nothing to write home about. Right, swim needs a bucket load of work in the next 7 weeks. Today I managed to get out for the afternoon and did a pull buoy and paddle session and mustered up a 2000m swim and things felt better than Tuesday, still painful, but much better, but time will tell.

Wednesday I got out for a good ride and Friday I made it out to do the river loop and coffee ride. I even managed to keep up, sort of, and had a good time. I managed to have the legs and rode home. All up it was a 90+ km day.

Today was another good ride, where we hit out and did the Redland Bay ride. Lots of rollers which was a nice way to build some leg strength and see how I was doing. Other than the odd testosterone surge, I did well and felt strong at the end, a good indicator that my endurance is there, just need to put on the kms and hit the hills.

The other thing I did this week was worked in 2, 30 minute core sessions. These were quite painful and Vaughn was kind enough to laugh at me while doing the exercises. I really need to keep on these and need to concentrate the strong core, no more excuses. I've asked the family for help on these and even have pulled out the Wii Fit to help me. Still hate the little bugger in there as I haven't been in the program for 8 or 9 months and the first thing it has to tell me is I've gained 2.8Kgs since the last time I was on. Thanks you little bugger.....

More of the same and keeping up with some runs to keep me in tune. The Gold Coast is too close to slack off, that and there are a number of people who are doing it and the smack talk has begun.

See you out there, and remember to dig deep when it gets hard, it'll get easier later and the coffee will taste that much better.

Cheers
Rich