3 Weeks- Almost there ( A week of over commitments)

It is hard to believe that I started the program in January and the last 17 weeks of my life has been devoted mainly to working and training. 

The big ride last weekend has given me a huge amount of confidence going into the race.  I think I had built the ride up to be something impossible ( I has some small doubts before hand, however I have proven to myself that I can ride 190km in much tougher terrain ( I hope) than the Cairns course and still feel ok running off the bike.

My feet are still giving me grief and I talked to coach Mark before my physio appointment on Tuesday.  The physio has told me to run only every 2 days to give my feet some recovery. The main plan is to just get me to the start line. Whilst I am concerned about the fact my last long run was at Port Mac half IM 2 weeks ago, I am still managing about 20kms a week broken up over a few sessions ( much less than my usual 50km per week of running in the lead up to Port)

 I water ran on Monday night instead of my usual 45min run and Mark suggested a 1.5hr ride to keep my legs strong in place of my usual long run Tuesday morning.  Thankfully my feet settled down towards the end of the week and I got through my Thursday morning run with Robson with minimal pain.

Its not always possible to have the perfect training/work/life balance.  We moved offices on Friday so I spent most of the morning lugging tea chest boxes around.  I left work that afternoon with a sore back.  I should have used my discretion and not been so quick to jump in when about 60 boxes needed to moved from in front off our filing cabinets so our team could be signed off the floor. I am the type of person who just does things without a second thought. The soreness in the back didn't go until the following Tuesday and I remember lying in bed Monday night thinking oh no I hope I haven't really hurt something in my back ( there goes 17 weeks of training and my race) I have found my mind starting to get carried away with worse case scenarios as a few niggles have appeared over the last weeks. Got to snap out of that!!

It was my Dad's 75th birthday on Friday night so my sister and I drove to Maleny and back for dinner.  It was a lovely evening and I think he enjoyed himself. I didn't get to bed until nearly 11 then I was up at 5 to join the  cairns group at the pool for the last long swim set.  3.5km with 1500mtrs paddles, I didn't feel great but I completed the set. I was struggling with the 1.5hr ride afterwards because I just felt so tired. There were no complaints when we turned back early as it started to pour with rain. We still did 1hr15min of the 1hr30min on the program.

 Unfortunately I didn't have the rest of the day to laze around. I had organised a day the races/dinner for my sisters hens day so again didn't get to bed until nearly 11.   It was a great day and so nice to see a number of friends who I hadn't seen for ages. My social calender will be full after the race as everyone wants to catch up!! I had a number of friends say how proud they were of me of have the courage to take on the challenge of doing the race.  I hope to do them proud on race day!!!

I had agreed to met Jac E at 6am for our last 4 hour ride on Sunday morning  The alarm went off at 5 and it was pouring rain outside. Jac texted and said should we do half then windtrainer.  We agreed to met at the later time of 8 ( that gave me the much needed extra hour of sleep) Thanks Jac for being so understanding of my tiredness induced from over committing myself.  Jac had already done an 1.5hrs on the windtrainer so after we rode to Manly and back I finished my 4 hours with a riverloop on my own.  Whilst it would have been tempting to cut it short I am not one to dog out of my training. I think often the most important lessons you can learn in training is the ability to push through and not quit/cut short the session when things are tough because on race day quiting is not on available option if you want to see the finish line!!