Run with it

A good day of training today. Been having a few of them lately which is very nice.

The day started off with a group run down on the South Perth foreshore. A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was starting to do some running with a group again, so far I have to say the experiment has been a success. I feel confident in saying that running is currently feeling about as good as it ever has, possibly better. I wouldn't attribute that entirely to the group running, but it is a factor. The main part of the run this morning was a 14km progressive run. The progressive bit was in relation to intensity. The idea was to spend the first 7km at slightly below half ironman race tempo and then the second 7km at about race intensity. Whilst the run today wasn't the fastest 14km I have ever done, it was close. But more importantly was the style of the 14km, the first 7km really was done at a comfy intensity. In fact part of it was spent chatting to some of the other guys about the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan, which is what a few of them are training for. The second half stepped up a notch, but that was the idea. Having some people to work with kept the pace honest, but also stopped me from overdoing the first half, which is something I tend to do. Yeah sure the Fukuoka guys I was running with may have been doing 21km rather than my 14 and they might have been going a lot easier than me (the qualifying time for Fukuoka is 2 hours 40 apparently), but it was good to run with them while I could. Running with that calibre of runner is a real eye opener too. Turns out Triathlon isn't the centre of the universe. Who knew????

This afternoon it was time for a bit of a swim down at Claremont pool doing some work with intensity variation and open water skills. Good session. I have a bit of upper body soreness from some intense exercises we did in Pilates yesterday, but that didn't get in the way too much. I was slightly off pace from normal, no doubt due to the soreness and also just the build of fatigue you get over a week of training, but not far off.

On the bike tomorrow and also if I can manage it down to Mandurah to watch part of the Mandurah 70.3. Slightly mixed feelings about Mandurah. Up until about now I have been fine with my decision to not be doing it. Now that it is here I sort of wish I was, a reaction that was probably quite predictable. Just hard to watch a race and not be in it. Particularly a race that I have had good success with in the past. Still I am excited to be heading over to Sydney for a new event (for me) in a few weeks which is something that I probably wouldn't be doing if I was racing at Mandurah. As good as Mandurah is, nice to change things up a little bit too.

See if that is still my attitude tomorrow when I see my friends out on course.

Good luck to anyone racing tomorrow who might be reading this.