Not a bad week this week.
Chased down sleep train and the kiwi on tuesday morning, after arriving 30 seconds after 6am. MMC has a strict departure time policy. A reasonable run time. Just under 5 min up Sun Valley hill, will have to aim to get sub 4:45 soon.
Tuesday afternoon got down to the tri club handicap race. Realised I hadn't been there for 3 months, so had a lot to prove to myself about how much I have improved. The last 3 months really have been focussing on the run, so I was keen to go hard. Ended up running the 6.7 km in 27:23, knocking 1:15 off November's time. That gave me a pace of 4:05 min/km. I was pretty happy with that time, still a ways off being a respectable "runner". Also, the key now is to be able to get this sort of pace coming off the bike, without having to wait 6km for the legs to stop aching. Unfortunately, the only way to do this is to do a lot more runs straight off the bike in training. That is going to be the off-season objective.
Wednesday morning was a swim session. Femme squad again put the boys to shame. Shoulders were very sore, not sure why; also lacked energy. Perhaps backing up 2 runs the day before was responsible. Great for the legs anyway.
Gave the morning run a miss on thursday, as I was taking it easy before Cronulla. The Kiwi interrupted my lawn mowing session to go for an easy ride out to H'bury Look Out. I wonder if this is where he takes all his dates? Was good to turn the legs over though. Decided to put the bike in at the shop to get "tuned" before Cronulla. Got the bars put down about 7mm, so I can get flatter on the bike. Not such a good idea in hindsight, as the lower back was protesting come Sunday. I plan to get correctly fitted on my TT bike, so that I can condition myself into the correct position. This means I probably need another bike just for cruising with the bunch. This is very very doubtful, as the last purchase will take a few years to be forgotten by the wife.
Sleep was late for swim session Friday morning. This is a first. Did 3x 1km swims at about 16:30 pace. Haven't felt fast in the pool for some time. But then, it has taken a back seat over running lately. Friday night was Carbo Load #1, pasta dish at the Ori. Camped out at Murphy's Glen with the Boys (+Gill) Fri Night. Had fun, slept pretty poorly though.
Saturday was easy morning, missed the bunch ride with the Lifecycles guys. Was planning on getting used to the lower bars. Instead had a busy morning doing work stuff with the boss, checked out some local real estate, Carbo Load #2 for lunch (saffron risotto), picked the bike up and headed down to Cronulla for bike check-in and Carbo Load #3 (carbonara and pizza) with Sleep, Mrs Sleep and Femme-Squadette (awaiting confirmation of nick name). A request had been made to include an entry at this point that Sleep Train was undoubtedly put to shame by a pregnant woman and a piece of caramel cheesecake. We were all informed that this is the dessert-of-choice for Sleep, yet said Pregnant Woman (Mrs Dr Phil) walked all over the Sleep Train. Mrs Dr Phil Jnr entertained us all. It was back to Bronte for a nap before getting up at 5am to get back down to Cronulla by 6:30.
Sunday morning was Cronulla Triathlon. One leg of the Challenge Series of Olympic Distance Triathlons organised by Triathlon Australia. This was good exposure to the calibre of age-groupers I can expect in Triathlon, as most guys there are trying to qualify for the World Cup on the Gold Coast.
The swim was a modified (reduced) leg, as due to rough conditions they had to move it further up the beach. They also reduced the distance (not sure what to, prob 1km), however you now had to run about 1km along the beach back to transition. I did enjoy the swim, I realise I need more practice ocean swimming, as it can be a fairly big factor. Found myself off-course a little at each buoy, and when I thought I was heading back into shore I was actually continuing further up the beach. All-in-all the time was 20:23 for the swim.
The bike leg was 2x 20km out-and-backs. Did it in 1hr4min, which I was fairly happy with given the lower back issues that arrived with 10 km left to go. It meant I had to get up off the bars and stretch the back out. As some faster guys came passed and I savoured what little reprieve I could get from the prevailing head-wind, I caught the end of a competitor heading in the opposite direction yelling at us "something something something you F#cking Cheaters!". Obviously wasn't happy that he still had 6km to catch us. Knowing I could probably have done a faster time with a little more bike fitness and more conditioning of the lower back is some comfort.
Headed into the run, relishing being able to straighten my back. Took it easy for the first 1.5 laps of a 3-lap 10km course. This was due to muscle fatigue, lack of energy, etc. etc; and is the main aspect I need to work on. Utilised an endura gel with half of the run down, so really felt comfortable for the last half. The new tri shoes worked well. Blisters stayed away until about 500m to go, at which point you can plow on through. I did notice the ball of my left foot protesting early on in the run, and is still a little tender now. May be a case of some inserts for the tri shoes. Did the run in 43:57 (4.5 min/km). From memory the timing mats were at the swim finish and the run start, which means the bike time was actually less given that it included T1 and T2.
Overall time 2:08:53, and a provisional position of 22/70 in the male 25-29 category. This was 9 min off a podium finish! Therefore, if I improve my times by approx 7% in each leg (including transition I guess), I will be cheering. Problem is that a 7% improvement will probably take about a 30% increase in training. Isn't that how it works?
Monday was a day off, sore calves. Will see if I can get up for morning run, would be a good idea to get straight back into it.

Most importantly though, I literally just opened a Certificate of Participation for the Australia Day 2009 Fun Run. Reward enough. 42min50 for 10km. More improvement needed. Interestingly, I only ran 1 min slower doing a 10km run as part of a triathlon. Which indicates to me that fatigue or more importantly fitness isn't what is slowing me down on the run. Perhaps it is the mechanics of my run. Or that I haven't yet worked out how to run at a greater intensity over that sort of distance. I think this is where interval training comes in, and learning how to keep going at higher heart rates. We shall see.