Fatigue Monitoring!

Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.

I spent the whole of this weekend with my triathlon family. Even though I was tired and hungover most the time they pulled me through with banter, humour and caring not to mention loads of back breaking work and lifting. This weekend I joined everyone at Wakefield on Friday night for the National Champs on Sunday morning. There was no need just a want to help out and be apart of something.

After Friday nights "Pass Out" or stagger home slightly intoxicated with Bulmers Pear Cider. I decided that getting up on Saturday early for a run was a good idea. Having spent the previous day with the physio working on the knee it would be a good test to push it further and under the guidance of Dawn I ran for 70 mins around the lake and castle on undulating ground and sodden paths. 15k later I was running back into the hotel lobby, no pain but plenty of gain. This has now become the turning point for me 3 runs down and plenty of progress I am looking forward to more sessions on the roads before Almere.

Saturday was another days graft and before long the sun was out and the work was done. Back to the hotel and down the bar for the start of more drinking and story swapping with the seasoned athletes and Marshall's. It's these times that I look forward to now as I seem to spend so much time alone training and in the house. Polishing of a nice New Zealand Rose and another bottle of Bulmers Pear I am retired to my room by smarting thinking people. I am not a drinker and can easily avoid drinking now for many more months but this weekend I felt comfortable and relaxed with the company to trust them if anything happened.

4:30am rises are not pleasant especially when they promise to be wet and windy. However now the day is over and I am back home with the sun shining it doesn't seem so bad. I am just looking forward to dinner tonight and putting my feet up. Toady I was planning a 4:15 ride at 70-75% but with the fatigue I think rest is in order. It's now only 5 days to the Beaver, one of the hardest races I have ever done in the past but one of the most enjoyable. I hope to break below 5:20 this time but we will see how the knee is this week as I continue to push it hard.