Operation Alpine

I can't believe that I've only been back at work for 1 week after Christmas; it feels sooo much longer ;-)

Unfortunately I managed to upset my dodgy ankle in the gym last Saturday which saw me using ice & compression on it on Saturday evening & Sunday. Not too much damage; the treatment was more a result of fear of what I might have done to it rather than any actual evidence of damage to it.

Mon: back to work. So I struggled through to mid-afternoon & then headed to the pool at work for a 2km swim. A strange swim; I felt rather uncoordinated in the water to start with - as though my timing was slightly off - but it came together & felt pretty good through 1.2km of firm efforts.

Tue: rest

Wed: arrived at the pool at work at 6am to discover it was closed for maintenance. Argh! Very annoyed as I really had to psych myself up for the swim ahead. So I headed to the gym for what I thought would be a half-arsed strength session but actually turned into quite a good session; I trashed my legs :-) Pilates in the PM.

Thu: hard interval bike session at 5am. Sooooo nice to be on the bike again. I am loving riding at the moment. Can't wait to get out there again on Sunday. Good thing too given that I have some big bike goals in the next 2 years :-D 17.1k

Fri: rest. I had planned to go to the open water swim at the Regatta Centre in the morning but as I am not very fond of backing up 2 days in a row (knowing that I had Wed's swim to do tomorrow), I stayed in bed :-) I then took my swim gear to work in the hope I would be able to swim at lunch. No such luck. The pool was (still) closed for maintenance. So I went to yum cha for lunch instead :-))

Sat: 2.5km swim in my own lane at 8.30am in the sun. Nice. Included 1.8km at race pace which is my longest non-stop swim today. Given that the 1.8km set was intended to replicate a race scenario, I also managed to inhale a mouthful of water & had to stop briefly mid-lap to cough it up (as I tend to do at least once in each race). It took me 39mins which is a tad slower than I would have liked. I have real trouble pacing myself in the pool. I always hold myself back (perhaps too much) in the first half of the swim out of fear of 'running out of steam' later. Oh well, I guess it will comes with practice & more racing.

Sun: when the alarm went off at 4.10am, I couldn't but think to myself 'what a stoopid sport'. Of course it was entirely my decision to head to Terrey Hills to meet Sue et al for a long ride around Akuna Bay & West Head starting at 6am. It was my first time at the infamous AB / WH area so all I knew to expect was hills.

And I got them in spades. We started with an 'easy' 30mins round trip out to Duffys Forest to wake up the legs (for a while I thought that I may have left them at home) before heading down to Akuna Bay. Our stop at West Head was rather prolonged thanks to my chain jamming itself between the cassette & spokes, requiring 2 complete strangers & 20mins to get out. A hard & challenging ride on a hot morning. I'll be spending a bit more time out here in this year. I managed to devour half of the bakery after I had finished the ride. Felt pretty shattered for much of the afternoon; (despite having a full breakfast) I probably didn't have enough fuel during it (2 gels) 2:48. 57.1km. Av. 20.4k/h

2 weeks to go until the Oly at Canberra which will be my longest race to date!

MTD:
Swim: 6.7km
Bike: 74.2k