Personal Best.

I am venturing into new frontiers....I have never put my body into loads like these ever in my life. I guess it is pretty obvious as I have never had to train for a half ironman (or even more, an ironman) before.

My swimming has been coming along well. I have seen improvements and this is evident in my 1km swim time trial this morning where I took off nearly a whole minute from 20:52 to 19:56. It feels great to crack the 20min mark. Albeit that I am still one of the slower swimmers of the long course group, beating my own PB is all that it matters and it gives me more confidence that I am going to be able to swim 3.8km come March. As we come closer to racing season, the long course guys will be incorporating some (pool) swimming on Sunday afternoon. These sessions will be non-coached so its up to me to do these sessions myself (or swim with someone who is willing to train the same time as me).

Over the weekend, I completed my first 120km bike ride (outside of an event - Kinglake Sept 2011) and finished it under 5 hours. Once again, started at my house, then rode up to Port Melbourne (very hard to do efforts when there are people who over take and then drop back) but the ride towards Mt Eliza (via Olivers and Humphries) was great as the roads were not as congested with cyclists and motorist. After Humphries Rd, I turned right and headed towards Mt Eliza instead and this is now I increased my distance (previously 110km was my longest) and turned around at Canadian Bay Rd and towards Black Rock and then home. Next time, will try to ride towards Tyabb Rd in Mornington which may make the ride close to 150km+ This will need to be assessed as riding on the road bike is very different from riding the TT bike. 120km under 5 hours - another PB.

With running, I have been consistent with turning up at Fairfield Park to run with the North group. As we are working towards the Half Marathon (and Shepparton), I have been running 20km+ for the last 3 weekends or so. The week before, Greg wanted me to run a steady 20km but last week he wanted a 10km effort (quicker than race pace for half ironman). Because of these efforts, I was seriously struggling the last 3km of the run with a sore (left) hip. It is something which I need to work on to get a faster half marathon time - it needs to be a race rather than just get through the distance. Being able to run 20km+ 3 weekends in a row is definitely a PB. Never in my mind would I ever have thought that this was something which I could do comfortably.

I won't be doing the run TT this Thursday as I have Apollo Bay training over this weekend. But will be aiming to achieve more PB regarding the distance I will ride and the time it takes for me to complete them. I will need to work on my nutrition better and work out what to take on the bike rides.

Back in the Bikram room on Tuesday morning (no coached run session) and then I will be taking the windtrainer session on Tuesday night and Swim session Wednesday AM. Haven't done Bikram in about 10 months. Hard to fit it in amongst all the training I do and it also cost $20 per session (which I don't have) but will be able to go this week and afford it too. Winner!