One more week down.

Tuesday the 10th Feb - morning run with MMC. See table below for splits. Sleep and Time (Dwards) were there. Had fun pushing it hard up to Rickard. I was introduced to the childhood memories of Sleep and Time, reminiscing of the fantasies they used to live out as they would race to the finish, pretending to be some well known runner I had never heard of. I would be introduced to some more memories for these two on Thursday mornings run.

Wednesday night was a hit out in the pool at Springwood. Did 3km straight up in just under 50 mins. With 1km splits of 16:05, 16:49 and 16:52. These are out a little which suggests I either dropped 50m on the first km or picked up 50m on the last 2km (I'm going to assume it was the latter). This isn't particularly quick unfortunately.

Thursday am was the ususal MMC. I was impressed this morning as I managed to cut 13 seconds off the sun valley hill. I had been tormented by the 5 min mark ever since starting this run, and this morning with the help of Time breathing heavily at my shoulder, managed to do it in 4:50. Sleep was making sure we weren't being followed, like a protective father letting the children play around up ahead (maybe he was resting his hamstring for the evening intervals in the NP).

Friday (no work today), had intended to get in a long ride and a swim. Instead I went shopping and bought some rhino roof racks and bike rack for the new car. Now all I need is the new car! Turned out I did nothing all day.

Saturday morning, which has become the usual long run of late, was back in Glenbrook National Park for a run out along The Oaks FT with Sleep for approx 43 minutes. Not sure how far it was out, there is a little hut with picnic benches there, just before the gate? Met up with Zac who is also a fellow Panther's Tri Guy, training up for Port Macquarie in 8 weeks. Like Sleep said, we crept up on him in the dark and rain with his pants down. He was good company for the second half of the run out. I turned back, as I had to get to work by 8:30. Made good time, getting back to the gates in 36 minutes. The gentle descent down the Oaks was welcomed. I did learn a valuable rookie lesson today though: don't wear cotton if its raining. The satisfaction of finishing a long(ish) run (about 17km) before work on a wet morning is fantastic. After umm'ing and ahh'ing at 5:30am over hitting the snooze or the off button on my mobile phone, I was glad I chose to harden up and get out of bed. This is a prime example of how guilt and accountability to training groupies is THE BEST motivator.

Sunday was a rest day. Work was crazy, we were short staffed and fairly busy. Plenty of work to do besides.

Monday the 16th was a swim at Springwood. 1km warm up in 15min, 500 flipper kick and 500 paddle/pool buoy swim, followed by a 750m hard sprint. I wanted to get an idea of my pace over 750m as this is the sprint tri distance, and I've never compared my open water times. Did it in 12mins. Room for some improvement, as most people are swimming 1km in this time. Kicking is the weakest aspect of my swimming. Hard to maintain a steady effective kick. Followed this up with a 100m warm down before the pool closed.

Huskisson is this weekend. Planning on heading down for the sprint distance on Saturday. Was hoping to do the long course on the sunday but, entries had closed by the cut-off date, and I was holding off making my mind up. Don't thing this short "mini-tri", to borrow Sleep's description, warrants a taper in training. An easy Friday should be fine and some carbs the night before. Will see how things go, looks like it will be wet.