16....

And so the countdown starts again... :-))

Mon: I slept sooo heavily on Sunday night (which is really unusual for me) but still woke feeling tired. It was a bit of a struggle to drag myself out for my 40min walk/shuffle but I'm glad I did.

Swim squad on Monday night saw the return of B+ to take the session which, I must admit, brings with it a sense of dread probably as the sessions tend to be hard, hard work. And work hard I did. Our session was probably only 2km in length. But a great one in terms of (difficult) drills, learning about body position in the water & understanding what my 'standard' swim times should now be. I also discovered what it feels like to want to throw up in the pool courtesy of some butterfly which sent my HR & lactate levels through the roof .

Tue: rest

Wed: 60mins pilates w/ Carly

Thu: this week at work was slightly less demanding (before it ramps up again with 6 weeks of hell starting from next week). So I was able to take Thursday & Friday off work to make it an extra l-o-n-g weekend :-)) So a big sleep-in this morning was followed by another Spinervals DVD on the windtrainer in the garage, this time with R for company (who was working from home). Remind me not to do so again on an empty stomach after not eating for 14 hours. Farkkkk. 45mins video called "Uphill Grind" designed to improve your climbing skills. Ouchy, ouchy, ouchy. 45mins. 19.4k. Av. Av. 25.7k/h

Thursday of course saw the end of the month; my lowest training month in a l-o-n-g time..

Swim: 4.5km
Bike: 156.4km

Fri: another sleep-in (yippee) followed by some lazy time on the couch & then a swim. My swims at the moment are not particularly enjoyable; they are hard work. It has been a great lesson in how quickly you can lose fitness & technique. Throw in leaking goggles & school holidays (ie, kids swimming across the lane in front of me); did I mention it wasn't that much fun? ;-) 2.5km in total

Sat: R & I had planned a 3hr long ride along the Old Pacific Highway today. But heavy rain put an end to it early. We set out from Hornsby about 8.30am, heading down the Old Pacific Highway before turning off at Berowa Waters Rd for the (fast) roll 4km downhill to the ferry. A quick toilet stop & then it was time to turn about & head back up the hill which I managed in about 19mins.

Arriving back at the top of the 'hill' I was surprised to see the sky largely filled with heavy, dark clouds & the smell of rain in the air. And not just rain clouds; storm clouds that had me thinking "this is not good". So we turned right & headed for home, cutting our ride short. Of course, the rain started shortly thereafter & didn't cease most of the afternoon. It was fun riding in the rain for the first 15mins until I wasn't able to see the road through my glasses & got cold. 30 (long) minutes later we were back at the car drenched & trying to dry off while the rain tumbled down. C'est la vie. It was the right decision to make; we could not have got any wetter had we continued our ride but the risk of would only have gone up. As it was, I had to rely on my mountain biking skills to go over the top of a branch that was on the road when R braked at the wrong time coming down hill & gave me nowhere else to go. 1:31:26. 33.05k. Av. 21.7k/h

Sun: another sleep-in (I'm getting used to them now!) followed by a 40mins walk/shuffle in the pouring rain..

MTD:
Swim - 2.5km
Bike - 33.05km