Lactic-Haze

After the little gastro incident the coach ordered a progressively heavier load on the system over the weekend, just to make sure there wasn’t any residual effects. Friday being a public holiday was just a easy cruise out to Vida and back, 60km and a coffee inbetween. Saturday I was on the tri-bike and ran in to Roger and his wife and headed to Vida again, but this time on the way back I did a loop through Melkbos for some extra distance and time, finishing the day with a easy 3hrs in the saddle. Sunday we went for a quick MTB ride in Tokai since I had family obligations. Took a little tumble on some of the singletrack but nothing serious. Sh*t happens and I was just rusty.

Monday I was supposed to meet a friend to ride from V&A Waterfront to Stellenbosch etc. Coach wanted me to do a last long ride for before we start finishing off the rest of the training and head in to a taper time for IM. I get to the meeting point and my partner in crime sent me a sms bailing on the ride. Oh well, iPod and my own miserable company it was then. Headed out through Plattekloof to Stellenbosch, fighting a pumping wind all the way. Stopped at the Vida Cafe in Stellenbosch for a quick muffin and coffee before setting off again. I’ll say one thing for IM training…it’s long miserable hours alone. At least the tailwind for about 15km’s helped before heading through Durbanville and going home, with nothing but the tunes in my iPod for company. I refilled a bottle and asked my gf to follow me in the car and went out for another hour on the West Coast Rd (R27), using the tailwind to my advantage since I was tired of being in the wind all morning. At 175km’s I pulled off and loaded the bike in the car and called it a day. Long hard IM training session done and dusted! Later I downloaded the data from the Garmin and mailed my coach with the words ‘Today was fscking hard….that is all”

Tonight is swimming again, and then a few lighter rides in the week with a 10km run thrown in for good measure. Hopefully next weekend I can get a 4km swim in at Sea Point pool, and I need to do a 3hour ride next weekend followed by a 21km run. If I can pull that off, I will be fine for IM. Weekend after it’s the Zevenwacht duathlon just to give the legs some speed work and then it’s full on taper for IM. 19 days and counting…I can’t believe it’s this close!!