What a nice weekend.

So last weeks blog turned into an epic essay, much like writing a chapter for my thesis again. Don't have the time for that this weekend so going to attempt to keep things short and sweet. It has been an awesome weekend, the sun has been out and it felt like summer. Just what I needed to spur me on the spend most of the weekend outside.

The week kicked off with swimming on Tuesdsy night, after blistering my instep last weekend my foot was causing some issues in the early part of the week. Needless to say I am not a fan of Compeed and don't intend to buy more anytime soon. Sainsbury's blister plasters are perfectly good thank you. Anyway, the swim session, well it felt horrible, I had absolutely no energy and the 100-200m sets took there toll. Swimming 15 hours after getting up for work isn't always the best idea.

Wednesday was the first of the gorgeous days. Due to the sodding blister I decided a turbo set was in order. Local Hero it was going to be, I had to find out if I would be a hero in the hearts of the Sufferlandrians. After last weeks learning experience I was better prepared, lights off, window open, heating off 1.5 litres of fluid and 2 sweat rags. It actually felt easier. Average and max heart rates were a bit lower, but distance covered in the session was more. Hmm, maybe I'm starting to get fit. Of course with the window open the outside was calling and I thought I'd turn it into a brick session. Not the best decision to make 60 minutes after starting a workout. After a 10 minute transition (25% of which was waiting for the 310XT to get a GPS lock) I was off. Still had jelly legs but ran a good first km, the fastest in fact. Got a nice large loop of The Common in clocking up 6km for my efforts, at a respectable pace of 4m54 s/km. Off course when I got in the shower the impromptu nature of this brick session came and bit me in the behind, quite literally! Should have bodyglided the chamois in the tri shorts, apparently there is a seam that doesn't like me.

Thursday and there was to be no after work turbo, had planned on Revolver, forgetting I was going to stay at work for a webinar. Oh well. Arrived home to find two cards from Royal Fail on the doormat and a courier packet. My new Bluesenty swim gloves and Element goggles. Wohoo! Was looking forward to trying swimming in them. They didn't disappoint. The Thursday swim session was a killer. Loads of fly and IM. Main set kicked off with 12x25m of fly, of course it should have been 8x25m but the person leading didn't see it get revised down. Oh well. I was pretty dead by the end.

Friday brought another good day. After work run with some guys from work at lunch. Intervals on a section of The Common. A nice little corner with a 400m tarmac section then a 500m trail section back to the start. needless to say I tried to anhilate the intervals. Went out hard on the first one managing 1:38 for the 400m, a little easier on the second with a 1:41, a 1:37 next and they were starting to hurt, by the 4th Dave was starting to catch me at 200m and I was left to pace off him for a second 1:37, then a 1:38. I was seriously hurting on the last one, pushed myself to the limit and banged out a 1:36. Pretty chuffed with that. 5 intervals all within +/- 1s, and the whole lot with 5s. Consistency.

Of course not wanting to leave it there I went swimming in the evening, there was still and Endomondo challenge to have a go at, fastest 1000m done anyway, I chose 10x100m. Two hard interval sets in a day, bad idea? Well maybe not. Although I could still feel the run in my legs. scraped through the intervals on 01:29, 01:28, 01:31, 01:33, 01:33, 01:31, 01:33, 01:31, 01:35, 01:36. Again fairly consistent. They were hard efforts though no question, not having people to draft off made it brutal, not helped by my legs hurting still.

Saturday and it was bike time. BBC weather said the morning was going to be best, so up early, usual breakfast routine then got the bike ready for a 9:30 start. Major dilemas over what to wear. in the end I went for short bibs & top with long socks and arm warmers. Almost a good choice, the arm waremers were too warm. I'd lined up an extended route going out to the north east, up through Cheriton towards Arlesford then cutting back to the roads I am now getting to know around Bishop's Waltham. The weather of course didn't do what the beeb said it would. It was hot and sunny, gorgeous weather for spending outdoors on roads I pretty much had to myself for a lot of the time. Lovely ride and even the couple of bad driver incidents have blurred into oblivion.

Today was a repeat of one of my epic days from a month ago. Answering a call for crew I agreed to go sailing today, and frankly I would have been stupid not to with the weather. What I hadn't banked on was there only being 4 of us, and being the bowman as well as the #1 trimmer half the time. Well long story short, 4 hours on the water, 2 spent racing, couple of clusters but recovered well, a first and a second place in the 2 races. Got back to the bar and felt absolutely shagged. By the time I got home I have to say I was in no mood to go for a 20km run. Ironamn is not for quitters though and I had to MTFU and get out there, and I did. I was still a gorgeous afternoon so Camelbak loaded with water and energy foods I embarked on a trip around The Common and sports ground. Well it was actually not a bad run. Rather uneventful. Not exactly painless, but no injuries. I had a good go at choking myself at 14k when I decided to eat 2 shot bloks at once. D'oh. Then at 17k I sucked on the Camelbak and got nothing, I was out of water. Double D'oh. Also turns out the little 1k I added between 16-17 wasn't needed. My 20k run became 21k. Building a little fast, the original plan had today as 18k, but after going long last weekend I revised it. The hard day was good in the end, I think the sail primed me much like the bike leg would, little solid food and physically demnding work.

Well seems I've made it a long one again. Weekly roundup time, Swim 3 hours (7350m), Bike 4 hours 50m (83km + 1hr25m Turbo), Run 3 hours 19m (36km) for a total of 11 hours 10 minutes.

Mon - Rest
Tue pm - 1 hour swim (2650m)
Wed pm - 1hr25m turbo session
Wed pm - 30m brick run (6km)
Thur pm - 1 hour swim (2200m)
Fri pm - 52min run (9km)
Fri pm - 1 hour 2m swim (2500m)
Sat am - 3 hour 24m bike (83km)
Sun am - 4 hour sail (not fully logged, counting as 2 hours)
Sun pm - 1 hour 57m run (21km)

Next week is a tricky one. Will be away for work so the session depend on what the gym facilites are like. I know it has a 10m pool, pretty useless but might be good for tumble turn practice. Next weekend should be a 20km run and 90km bike. Might do a 22km run, and may even consider the 58 mile Ride It sportive in Woking on Sunday.