Quiet Day

Nice and quiet day today, a rest day, a full day off, very nice. I had a pretty early start at work today which meant I only got about half a sleep in, but that is better than none of a sleep in. Plus I was just about at the point where my body would have woken me up anyway (or if not my body then my four year old would have). But even with half a sleep in, it was a nice relaxing way to start the day, and it should be a nice relaxing way to finish it off. Hopefully.

Yesterday I took a trip down to Mandurah to have a look over the course for the weekend. I almost didn't bother since it is an hour or so of driving to get down there and I was quite comfortable at home, but in the end we jumped in the car and made an afternoon of it. I am glad we did, it was worth the effort. Course looks all nice and dandy. It was a little strange though, I am used to seeing a course for the first time when I do a recce, it was strange to be looking over roads that I actually know, even if just a little bit. I am pretty sure I am going to be riding past the turn off to Secret Harbour near the far turn on the bike wondering if there is any surf.

The course was more or less what I was expecting, pretty flat. I don't think that will necessarily translate to boring, although I suspect some sections of the ride might not be all that inspiring. The run should be interesting, moving between town centre and the coast, over some canals, plenty to look at there. Not sure about the long hill leading up to the far turn around on the run, that could be a bit of a pain on lap 2. Oh well it is what it is. I had read that the road surface becomes a bit coarse at the far end of the ride leg, and I could certainly see that would be the case, with some of the older sections of bitumen being a bit rougher.

My biggest concern at the moment is the weather. We had a scorcher here over the weekend, with yesterday getting up to 36. At the moment the forecast for next Sunday is 34 in Perth, with Mandurah hitting 30. Mandurah being close to the coast and a little further south stays a bit cooler, so hopefully that is the case on Sunday. 30 degrees would be close to perfect. There seemed to be very little shade on the course, particularly the run, so cooler would be better I think. My other big concern with the weather is the winds. At the moment they are forecasting a fair bit of wind, which is not unusual for this time of year. Being a loop course anything you get as a head wind you end up getting as a tail as well. That is all well and good, but it can be of little consolation when you are working into a 20km/h head wind for 20km. Those kinds of conditions don't tend to make for quick times. I never place much faith in the 7 day forecast, so we will wait and see what the weather is looking like a little closer to the time.

I wasn't at the race last year, but I can see from the results that it was a stupidly quick day. Looking at the course I am struggling to put my finger on the exact reason it was so quick. It is certainly very flat etc and maybe that is it. I think last year it was a bit earlier in the year and so may have been cooler, not sure. Maybe everyone else is just that good. I think that with some nasty conditions it could easily be a slower course. I might have that wrong, it is a bit hard to tell until I have raced it. In the end you can only race the course and the conditions that you have.

Now if you don't mind I have an afternoon off that needs seeing to.