Saturday

It's a perfect Saturday 'avo here in Bondi. I'm back from my ride, having joined Gene for coffee after a huge sandwich and a sit in the sun at the beach.

I jumped up and did my 2km swim this morning at my normal snail's pace. There was quite a swell running with some lovely sets coming in (should have been on my board) and only one other swimmer doing laps of the beach. But we weren't alone. A large pod of dolphins were playing around quite close to where I was swimming and seemed to follow me for quite a whole.  They were putting on a real show.  The water was warm and bumpy with some strong rips both ways, so it was far from ideal swimming conditions. And it was pumping in down the south end of the beach meaning I was swimming a fair way out so as not to be hammered by the bigger sets.

I'd arranged for Gene to meet me at the Pavillion with my bike and riding gear so I could practice the transition from the swim to the bike and see how it felt doing a long ride (160km) after the swim. As it turned out I was out of the water a good 15mins earlier than I thought so when Gene and Ange turned up with the gear I'd had time to get my breath and check out the dolphins again. Not the quickest transition.

I headed off to Kurnell to put in the km's, passing a group of BRATS coming the opposite direction and noticing the buildup of traffic at that time of the morning. I'm normally on the bike by 5am for the long Saturday ride but today it was 7.45am before I got away.  All went well for the first 20kms and then my achilles heel - i.e. my right shoulder - started to pinch and give me little stabs of pain. This is the first time I'd done a ride immediately after a swim, so I'm wondering if the swimming is aggravating the shoulder.  What I know is the pain doesn't subside by itself.  I either had to stop the bike, get off and stretch the shoulder and neck muscles, or just put up with it.  I chose to ride as long as I could without stopping but the Garmin tells the story. 

I managed to last 42kms then had to stop as the pain was way too much.  Add to that the fact that I couldn't turn my head at all, making it a touch unsafe amongst all the traffic, and I had no option but to stop. Once I'd stretched it felt a bit better so off I went. It didn't cooperate for long though and I ended up having to stop and stretch at 56kms, 71kms, 80kms, 88kms, 106kms, 126kms, 138kms and finally at 145kms. It's a bugger of a thing to have going on while you're trying to get the km's turned over. I ended up getting through the 160kms in 6 hours which is about 25kms/hour and that's a slow time.  I didn't stop the Garmin when I stopped as I was keen to know how long it's going to take me to do the 180kms on the IM. At this rate, it's going to be a long and painful day in the saddle if I don't figure out the neck/shoulder thing.

Once I'd clocked up about 125kms going around the circuit at Kurnell I headed back to Bondi and directly into the full force of the nor' easterly gale that had build up a head of steam during the morning.  More discomfort and by that time it was getting on to 1.30 - 2pm so the Saturday traffic was full on. Not to mention the traffic lights and intersections.  Not the best day I've had on the bike.

The good thing is I know I can do 160kms under less than perfect conditions, so I figure I can manage the extra 20kms to take me through the 180km bike stage. If I do the swim in 1:30mins (maybe quicker but who knows), the bike in 7hrs (again I'd like to think I can to it quicker) and run the marathon in 5hrs, it'd make my overall time 13hrs:30mins. I guess it also depends on how hot it is on the day.

Tomorrow we're off to Homebush to do the 10km Run4Fun which I'm hopeful we can do in under 55mins.  Let's see. There's exactly 4 weeks until the Iron Man in Busso WA.  Gene and Ange have said they'd help me with some long runs in the next two weeks by Gene running with me for the first 10kms and then handing me over to Ange who will run with me for the second 10kms. This will definitely help as my training has all been solo so far. I figure you do the IM on your own so it helps to toughen up mentally by doing the bulk of the training on your own. The company on the long runs will be welcome.

I've been back home in Oz for two weeks now and there are no more trips planned between now and 4th December. So the count down begins in earnest. Here we go . . .