Getting longer (not in the tooth either you cheeky lot)

Waking up yesterday proved to be a difficult task. The run Sunday afternoon had taken its toll, and when HI rolled over and curled up to me I knew that the task of getting up would be beyond me. So I gave in without a fight and enjoyed an extra hours sleep.

After a painless day at the office I collected HI, raced home as quick as the Sydney traffic would let us, got changed and made for the pool.

With my new sexy nose clip in place, I found that I was able to control my breathing much better, to the point where I could really start to concentrate on my technique. After a few laps, I made a conscious decision to swim one lap breast stroke as a recovery, and then swim the next freestyle, making sure that I kicked well and pulled properly through my arm turn. Each freestyle lap became a little easier than the last. I am not sure if it was down to the fact that I wasn’t gasping at the end of each lap, or that my technique had finally clicked into place. All in all we managed to swim 1300 metres.

Got out of the pool one very happy chappy. I think I will us this alternate stroke routine again for this week, so that I can really concentrate on getting my technique in place. I will then start to reduce the number of breast stroke laps as I become stronger and more confident is swimming the whole session freestyle. I was stoked with the nose clip experiment, as I had no burning sensation in my nose, and my breathing was really good. I also noticed that my heart rate stayed a little lower than normal, even during the hard freestyle laps.

I had set my alarm for 5AM this morning, and was totally confused when HI phone started chirping and my was still saying 4.40 - the cheeky fecker had set hers to ring early so she could have a few minutes of cuddles before we got up - we were still out of the house at some stupid time. Both of the cats were still sound asleep and there was no noise from the local bird brigade. We started out by running our usual route around the golf course, before taking a detour down some of the back streets to Bondi. By the time we made it back home we had cover over 7K - the longest run we have had pre work for a very long time. The pace wasn’t all that quick, but the increase in the distance certainly made up for the pace. The plan is to build up our weekday runs to around 10K, and have along run somewhere between 15 - 20K on the weekend.

An early morning bike ride and an evening swim are on the agenda for tomorrow. This triathlon training business is bloody hard work!!! Not that I mind all of the effort, I feel so much better for getting back into some regular training, and to top it all off I have lost 3.8 kgs since the start of the year. I am not sure I will hit the first mini goal I set myself and get to 85 kgs before the end of the month, but I will give it a good shake. The next goal will be to get under 80 kgs. I don’t think I have been there for the last 25 years so it will be uncharted waters for this little black duck.