Week 4

It's been a good week for training. Actually managed to hit the target of 3 swim, bike and runs for a total of 10hrs. It didn't go exactly to plan but I learned another lesson and finished the week off with a good bike ride.

Main lesson learned was that it's not a good idea just to add in an extra interval bike ride on an easy day just because you get home from work early. I did this on Tuesday which was supposed to be only a swim day and it was a poor ride becasue it just felt like I was doing it to add some time to the totals and I had 2 punctures! It also made the Wednesday bike ride harder (or seemed to) and so that suffered. Plan now is to stick to the plan! .... as much as possible.

Part of the plan is to throw in a long ride every 4 weeks or so on the Sunday. Want to do at least 2.5hrs each week but maybe over 4hrs each month. Decided that this Sunday would be one of those long rides. It was a late decision and I wasn't really prepared for the early morning dark start to the ride. Ended up taping my lights to the bike as I couldn't find the proper clips and holders. Worked OK though.

I also learned early on in the ride that it's probably best not to have a curry late the previous night. Felt pretty sick for the 1st hour. I also forgot to have a banana just before leaving the house. This has been my plan for the long rides with early morning starts. No actual breakfast but a banana at the start of the ride. Just forgot to do it on the longest ride for ages. I survived though :)

Some pics from Sunday's ride.

At the summit. It took about 90 mins to climb from sea level in Tauranga to this point so it's a fairly gentle climb on the way there.

My bikes first visit (of many to come I hope) to the top of the kaimais.

This is halfway down the other side and shows the incline I'd have to climb back up.

This is as far as I got last time

Finally made it to Matamata ... about 47K from Tauranga. I'll do the extra 3k next time to make it a (metric) century ride but time was against me today. I'll get up bit earlier next time.

The ride home was challenging. The climb back up the mountain took just under 30mins of continuous climbing. It was hard but not as steep as 2nd part of Reid Rd. I was able to stay seated throughout although thought I might have to stand towards the end. I just kept thinking that the end would be just around the next bend but it just seemed to go on forever.

The rest of the ride home was mainly downhill but even the small climbs were killers. It was a relief to get home. I'll take more food next time. Craved solid food near home and ended up stopping for a Snickers bar ... tut tut!!! I think I had earned it though.

Really pleased with the ride but my highlight of the week was a strong 10K run over andulating course (Fraser St) in just over the hour. Went out really slow but pushed the pace a bit on the way home. Best bit though was that there were no niggles from the calf.

I did have a brick planned for the week but that just didn't happen. Will try to put that right this week. Going to run off the Thursday hour bike ride ... writing it here will make it so!

Really enjoying training at the moment and doing more and with more consistancy than ever before (I think) ... hoping to see results from it all ... although I'm enjoying it for it's own sake and not just as a means to an end ... although I would actually like to finish the race this year :)