176 donuts and counting

Well that's what my training logbook says anyways. 176 donuts, 9 pounds burned off, or 0.03 times around the world thus far on this campaign (that's just shy of 1,100kms). This past week was a tough one filled with travel, good swims, some hard running miles and some company while training.

Not too much to say really, other than I'm really loving running through the mountain trails as it's a great way to get a solid workout but also if you're doing it right, time in the hills is actually is actually equivalent to a longer distance on flat runs. I figure if I keep running through the hills once a week, it's either going to kill me or make me stronger. ;-)

Another 10 sessions under my belt, 2 of which were core workouts (got to pay attention to the 1%ers) which will pay dividends later. The best/worst of those was the double run on Saturday.... I met up with a few of the squad boys for a run, this time through the trails of Mount Cooth tha. We went for a good run, but when it was all finished we'd only managed to run for about 70minutes (that's what I had for running time) and a little over 12kms. We stopped for coffee at the summit which was fantastic, but I knew I needed to do more. So..... after I got home and coach Vaughn had gone down for a nap, I headed out on one of my 8.5km routes around home. Out I went, and it was hurting.... allot. I didn't stop, but kept at it, trying to focus on my leg turnover rather than how I felt. This seemed to work and before I knew it, I was tackling the local hill, the last bit of hard work on the run. I pumped my arms and made it up without stopping. Down the other side and into the driveway I'd done it. When I entered my data, I discovered why the run hurt so much.... I'd run it at 4:30/kms. Damn.

Then Sunday, I headed out for a ride with one of guys I did IMA with. Out we went and things were feeling good, but unlike my crazy self, Blair has not been training hard on the bike (that's what normal people are doing at this time of year) so we rode for about 2.5 hours we finished up with a coffee and I headed back. I knew I needed more, so I tacked on an additional ride to take me up to 4:15 riding time, or 124kms.

Today was not a good day.....I know, why should I be sore? I barley did any training over the weekend ;-) but, I ate well, I kept hydrated and tonight in lieu of my bike strength session, I opted for an easy spin. While the legs feel good now, here's hoping they feel better tomorrow as I head out for a squad session back at Mount Coot tha (yes I'm a sucker for punishment)

I'm going to take it a bit easier this week as it's a recovery week and then back into it, with a 25km trail race through the Glasshouse Mountains planned for the 24th of this month, which will be a blast.

Keep at it and it's 6.5 weeks till I touch down in Canadiana (as it's dubbed here)

Cheers