Molten

We are having scorching weather down here in Perth at the moment, with today reaching 39 degrees. The sort of weather that you try and get out of before the air takes on the properties of molten lead. It can be tough work.

As planned I did manage to get out for a ride this morning. I had planned to head out for an easy couple of hours, but it ended up being a little bit longer than that. By the time I got back I was very happy to be getting out of the heat. At one point I ran out of water 10km from the next tap and I was certainly feeling the heat by the time I reached the tap. The tap seemed like a pretty popular spot, with hot cyclists swarming over it like flies on honey.

The rest of today has been spent trying to hide from the heat in one way or another. Certainly no more exercise today. As I said yesterday, the time for serious training begins next week. This week is more about getting muscles moving. Speaking of serious training though, I entered the Albany Half Ironman yesterday. This is a pretty low key event that is held early in the new year, 4th of January in this case, so three weeks away.

I did the Albany Half Ironman last year, and whilst I found it a tough course, I really enjoyed it. Because of that I was keen to try and fit it in again this year. I had my doubts about the race coming pretty quickly off Mandurah 70.3 and Busselton Ironman, but I am keen to give this a crack. Hopefully I don't end up regretting the decision.

This will be the first time I have ever done a race for the second time. Up until now, every race I have done has been a new experience. I am sort of looking forward to the situation where I don't have to be figuring out the location, course etc from scratch.

Leading into Albany this year couldn't be any more different to last year though. Heading into Albany last year I hadn't done a race for a couple of months and I put a lot of time and effort into focusing on Albany. This year I wasn't even sure I was going to do the race until yesterday. That gives me three weeks of Albany focus time. Daryl and I are kind of counting on my IMWA training carrying me through to a certain extent. Having said that though, I am very keen to get back into training and really get on with it. I am still a little disappointed with how IMWA turned out and a bit of me is keen to get back to training and put IMWA behind me. So I might only have three weeks to focus on Albany, but I intend making it a solid three weeks.

In other news, this turned up yesterday.

My understanding is that the Australian Triathlete magazine will feature a number of different age groupers each edition. It was kind of cool to slip in on this one. Even more cool though was that as well as this, the magazine has a massive article on superwoman Robyn Stanley, who as well as being married to my coach, is a four time Kona finisher as well as an all round triathlon superperson. Was a very cool article.