After feeling the ups & downs of the yo-yo affect I really bounced back well over the latter stages on the week and well into the weekend. And what a weekend it was.
Disturbingly enough, a weekend that I really enjoyed getting through (once I did!) and one that continually helped build my mental and physical toughness.
After getting through Saturday's AM ride feeling very ordinary, the short 30 min run seemed to wake the body up and once I was confident of ticking off the whole weekend. After consuming a bucket load of food to help recover from the morning's session and also prepare for the afternoon session (45min worth of eating) I then set upon kicking back on the coach to get some r&r.
My body was feeling a little sore due to the volume that I had undertaken during the week and wanted to have some shut eye to read the script for the afternoon session, however my mind was convinced that I should stay awake. I can wake up very ordinary after an afternoon nanna nap.
So, at 3pm I once again mounted my trusty stead and put in another 3 hr stint on her which was backing up from my 4 hr stint in the morning. For some strange reason my legs felt good and I just got into a groove and legs my legs dictate the intensity that I would ride at.
Knowing that my last session for the day was another run and the yo-yo week that I just had, I was aware of how I felt the whole ride and made sure that nothing was going to go wrong. The ride was going really well and with the mind wandering a bit I decided to take a few happy snaps from my phone along the way:
Once home, I convinced Nath (younger brother) to jump on the bike to ride with me whilst I got my final session in for the day. In the interim I had a pizza & garlic bread in the oven ready for as soon as I got home. Run done, pizza smashed and very happy that I got through the day feeling better at the end than what I did at the start.
Enter Sunday....Woke with legs feeling really good, however as we all know in the endurance game, this can change very quickly.
I had to decide on where to run so that I was close to a computer come 1 pm to enter IM Melb. 2hrs 50min of running could have easily been cut short, however I was determined to get the weekend completed 100% to set myself a new level of punishment. 36k's later, the run was done and now it was time to enter (or try to) IM Melb. Little did I know that the race was going to sell out in 5min and being a little drained I was close to missing out...Pushing refresh on the page a few times I didn't see the registration details come up until about the 3rd time.
"Thank you for registering. You are confirmed for 2012 Ironman Asia-Pacific Championship Melbourne."
Was the email I received not long after entering and thus just confirmed a very busy 12months of racing in front of me.
So, after this I headed down to Beach Rd to do my afternoon ride....2 1/2 hours with Tom & Greg. A bit of banter has already started b/t Greg & Myself, all in good fun!! I really look forward to doing a full prep with Greg for the same race, as we are helping each other currently on different Race lead ups, so I can only imagine the assistance we will both gain in the lead up to the same event.
For the record, Greg is the favourite to win the Dual b/t us. (according to the people's say, and I am happy to go in as the underdog!!)
Getting this ride over and done with came with a massive sense of achievement, punching out just on 300k's riding for the weekend and 50k's running.
Yesterday was a day that forward to since Friday, just an easy day....Throw in a swim with no intensity and the day came and went without any hassles. Today sees the next chapter begin with my final program on Australian soil being delivered tonight.
Exciting, but challenging times ahead. I haven't even started to think about the race as I have so much to tick off before I even head across, let alone get to race day. For now it is about controlling what I am able to with nutrition, recovery, treatment and staying injury free.
For now...
X-Man
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