10 Weeks to Kona

Total Training Duration - 9hrs 47min (Adaption Week)

• Swim - 3.8km
• Ride - 155km
• Run - 34km

One of my smallest Ironman training weeks ever as far as duration, but I needed the rest! Extremely tired after the Inverloch training camp and in need of recovery. Evidence that I gave it my all last weekend. I wasn't bothered that I had no strength. That's the result of a break out weekend.

Monday - Day off. No training.

Tuesday - Slept in, could not get out of bed for swimming. One of those rare moments I roll over and hit the snooze button. That night I just did an easy solo run for 50 minutes around the Tan. 

Wednesday - Dead legs. It was 5 degrees and I was well under dressed (I thought I'd dress light because I planned on riding hard). It was the Beach Rd ride - easy down to Mordi then hard back. Couldn't manage the hard return. Just had to watch the guys ride off. I was the last man back...and didn't care. Further evidence of a massive weekend.

Thursday's swim session was posted on Facebook as "easy". The reality was much different. I was shattered. Was just going through the motions. Didn't have anything in the arms. This session brought me down but whenever I'm down I find the run sessions bring me back. Lucky I had one on that night, I knew I'd come good after that. So I posted it on Facebook:

 

It was a quality session. Warm up lap of the Tan, stretch then strides. Main set was 20 minutes at half marathon pace (there was much discussion after as to whether it was done faster). Then 5 minutes easy and into the money set - 20 minutes of 2 minutes hard then 1.5 minutes easy. It was a killer. Ran with Steve Guy, Red Bear, Oliver Jones, Steve Natoli, Johan Moylan and Red Bear's cousin Martin. Steve Guy took off early and eventually lapped us (FFS!). The rest of us just smashed each other. It was a great session. Ended up doing 20km all up in 1 hour 30 minutes. Happy again!

Stirling's 6th Birthday
It was Stirling's birthday on Friday so I missed swimming to wake up with the family and give him his presents. Nice to also get a sleep in (another one!). This was also a rare moment when I  can call into the Wattle Park Bakery and get a vanilla slice...only to be told they haven't set yet. Nooooo! 

Saturday went to Auskick then finally got that vanilla slice:

Following Auskick it was the 6 year old birthday party. We went out for sushi - that's what they all wanted! I would have taken the Pancake Parlor option but sushi it was. That was backed up by Timezone.

The boys at Timezone

 Timezone was followed by ice cream.

Ice cream to get them through the afternoon

 
It was then back home for cake. 

The Star Wars angry birds cake complete with light sabre candle. Great job Nana!

After a few interesting comments from the 6 year olds I decided to write down the more memorable quotes. Here they are:

Poo in your pants is good. No, poo on your pants is bad.

The man has his hands on the women's boobies. Ha ha ha. [Reference to a David Guetta poster]
 
Hey Dad, say hello to my foot [I was then kicked by Stirling]

I don't like brussel sprouts. I stuck a Brussel sprout up my bottom and pooped it out.

Here, burp on this ice cream.

You big fat doodle. You big fat willy.

Boy 1 - I'm kissing Ava everyday at school.
Boy 2 - My girlfriend's dirt girl.

Penis! [Quoted many times in various sentences and on its own]
 
That guy sucks. 

You whacked my doodle. A doodle is your penis.


Boy 1 - It's stinky night.
Boy 2 - Yay, everyone gets to fart.
[All the boys then make fart noises]
 
Last but not least.....
Boy 1 - Girls have stinky butts.
Boy 2 - Girls have vaginas for stinky butts [pronounced 'paginas']


Then the Grandparents, aunties and uncles came over in the afternoon for beer and wine. It was great to do 'normal' stuff - drink beer & wine, eat sausage rolls & cake, drink more wine. And as I was well rested I wasn't a zombie!



Sunday was Saturday's ride that I missed due to the birthday. Rode out to St Andrews and back. STILL had last weekends legs in me. Wasn't a smash session, I enjoyed the ride then followed it with a run. Nice way to finish a recovery week.

I rare moment where I could stop to enjoy the serenity a St Andrews

The Trek. Still love it!

Sunday rest day. Getting a taste for the US beer as part of the Kona prep...or post Kona prep

That's recovery week done
Time now to focus on the race specific phase the Hawaii team is now into. Tomorrow we're at the velodrome for a Vo2 Max interval session. Time for the tough stuff!

Bring on the race specific phase. I've built the strength, now ready for the intense training.



7.5 weeks until we board the plane for the US...That's only 7.5 weeks of hard training left!

69 days to race day - Ironman World Championships.

It's about to get real!