My week's training started off well enough with a 50 minute run on Monday. I chose the flat option and at no point did I push the pace but I was pleased to have survived my longest run for ages. So building on this success I then took the next three days off! I have a variety of excuses (working late, attending the weight loss challenge, more working late!) but the closer December comes the less I can use these as valid excuses.

Friday rolled around (the week just flew by) and I had two options for Friday evening. An hour run or 90 mins on the windtrainer. It was dark, cold and p!$$ing down outside. The basement with the windtrainer was warm and cosy and I could watch U2 on the DVD.

So no competition .... I laced up my running shoes and headed out into the darkness.

It was a little bit too dark for my liking. The rain on my glasses was a pain and meant I could hardly see one foot in front of the other because of the car headlights shining in my face. I didn't want to go fast anyway but I was extra cautious and extra slow going out. Even so I came within an inch of running into one tree. Why the path along Fraser St has to take so many detours I'm not quite sure. They could have built the path to the left or the right of all the tress rather than zigg zagging around them all. Oh well ...

The run back was easier as the headlights were over my shoulder and seemed to light the path more. I was able to avoid the trees, puddles and even the roadworks at the estuary.

Completed the 10K in 59:14. Certainly not my fastest run along that route but anything under an hour along there is OK by me.

Saturday was supposed to be a family/rest day but Jo was out for the day so me and the kids got on with stuff in the morning (cleared bedrooms/cleared bit of the garden/baked cookies) and then got a DVD for the afternoon. I didn't really want to watch it and so being the great dad I am I gave them each a bowl of popcorn, sat them in front of the DVD and escaped to the basement to get an hour on the windtrainer. Watched U2 live in Chicago. I didn't go mad but did a few intevals along the way. Got just over an hour in, got showered and was back upstairs just as the credits rolled. All good. We even got the house tidy before Jo got back home which was a bonus.

Sunday was my usual long ride but it was different this week because a friend from work was joining me. He rides a mountain bike and is training for Motu so the speeds along the flats weren't fast but we got some good climbing in. We tried a new loop off the main Welcome Bay Road and it was OK on the climb up but most of the downhill was on loose gravel. I was not enjoying it. On the brakes most of the time. It was also really slippery from all the rain yesterday and there were a lot of landslips with gawd knows what strewed across the road in places. I was slipping all over the place. Never again! :)

It was a great ride overall and we finished up with a climb up Reid Rd and a hard ride home. I stayed in my big ring and middle gear and had to really work hard on the climbs. I let him get away on the downhills and then reeled him in on the climbs. Good fun.

I wasn't really looking forward to running off the bike but I wanted to do it just to get back in the swing of it. I set off on the run at a very slow pace. Both sides of my groin were extrememly tight and my stride was tiny. I went the undulating route so it was just a case of surviving the hills rather than getting any pace going. I turned at the top of the biggest 'slope' on the route (quite steep but not long) and was thankful for the downhill. I think I finished stronger than I started. Groin didn't really loosen up so I need to work on that. Well that's my excuse anyway ;)

Hoping to get a bit more consistancy in my training next week. At the moment I only have one night class planned on Thursday so in theory I might get a 8 hour week in. That's the plan anyway.