Back into it

It has been a bit of a full on day, which is why I am only getting to writing this post now. However, despite the busyness of the day, it has also been a good day because I was able to get back training.

Seems like my suspicions yesterday about having dodged that cold may have been right, because this morning I woke up feeling more or less fine, which was very welcome news. Given how I was feeling I saw no reason to not get back into the week's training program.

On the program today I had a ride and a run. Unfortunately due to the logistics of the day I was going to have to reverse that and do my run in the morning and the ride in the afternoon, which wasn't ideal, but better than not doing anything.

The ride tonight went well. I have done a few rides since Busselton Half, and other than the first one they have all felt about on song. Tonight was no different. This session had a bit of work in it, rather than just spinning, however, it went well with good speed and the correct power levels. It felt pretty good.

The same could not be said for the run this morning. This was my first actual run since Busselton. So it has been almost two weeks since I last ran. Boy did it feel like it. The run was a cruisy one, but by about 40 minutes, even cruisy was putting me in a world of hurt. The last 10 minutes I was down to survival shuffle mode. I am not particularly phased, the first run back is always a pretty horrible experience. In the past it has usually come back pretty quickly. Knowing that didn't make this morning any more enjoyable though.

In other news, I finally have got my race calendar more or less sorted for the rest of the year. For the whole year to date, the plan has been for my next serious race to be the Half Metaman. However, some last minute discussions with Daryl has led us to changing our plans and instead head over and do the Challenge Gold Coast instead. It is on the same weekend, but we both feel that the Challenge race will be the bigger event. From my perspective it is certainly easier to get to. I really enjoyed the Metaman last year, it was a very unique event, but doing Challenge instead just made more sense.

I was very very nearly going to do the Darwin Long Course instead (the weekend before). Doing so would have meant getting to head back to Darwin, see everyone, see my parents etc. Deciding against doing Darwin was a very tough call, but once again Challenge Gold Coast makes more sense from a big race perspective. Still it was a hard decision.

In other entry news I have also entered Challenge Phuket for the end of the year. Racing up in Phuket is something I have always wanted to do. I have had various friends go up there and race for the last few years, but I have never managed to get up there myself. Tough, tough race. But I am looking forward to it.

I am also looking forward to getting involved in the Challenge series of races. I have never done a Challenge race, but I like the philosophy they bring to their races. Time will tell whether I still like it once I am on the race course. But from the outside I like the slightly more relaxed attitude they bring.

All that is left now is to get my entry done for Mandurah 70.3 (opens next week) and then that will be me sorted for the rest of the year. My race Calendar has chopped and changed a bit over the course of this year, so it is good to have it tied down and sorted. It felt strange deciding to not go to Metaman, but once I had made the decision it felt like the right thing to do.

Now I just have to get on with it and do the training.