A very weak week.

Well I have to come clean and say I really lost my way last week.  A very weak week as it says. 

It all started at 5:45am on Monday.  The plan called for an early rise for a steady hour’s riding, but the rain and poor light combine with the very busy roads around home to make that a risky proposition.  Strike 1.

Next on the Monday plan was a midday swim, but the rain and cool conditions persisted, the soft option was taken.  Monday finished a blank, with the evening taken up with the regular Monday flight to Melbourne.

Tuesday was the only day of the week that went to plan with a double spin class session.  These are not a bad workout, sometimes a bit frenetic but that’s not all bad.  Of course it is always very sweaty with 1:40+ on a stationary bike.

Wednesday was the day when things really started to go downhill.  I had planned a swim at the Melbourne Baths, a very nice historical building at the top of Swanston St. It’s not usually too crowded, it’s close by, and has the novelty of being a 30 metre pool.  I had left work around 5:30 and was walking across the Yarra river when I realised I did not have my I Phone.  Anyone who knows me would find this hard to believe.  Anyway, I returned to the office but it was not on my desk, I rang it to no avail, and after every measure that came to mind had to accept that it was lost.  At this point I still had some hope it was temporary, unfortunately this was not the case.  This just threw me completely for the night, and just could not get myself up to get to the pool. 

Thursday is the day I travel back from Melbourne so with packing, a slightly shorter work day and 4 hours travelling it is tailor made to be designated as the weeks rest day.

Friday I should have been up early riding.  But I wasn’t.  I need to be more determined with the early rising.  Friday lunch is one of the two Red Dog Tri (RDT) squad swim sessions I am able to get to, and that was the plan.  This ended up not happening as work calls ran through into lunch, that happens and probably the one miss of the week I forgive myself for. I had a physio appointment set up for after work so that was going to kill any opportunity to sneak a session before heading to Suncorp Stadium to watch the Queensland Reds edge out a win over the Auckland Blues.  It was a great game to watch but with a few drinks more than what was best it certainly contributed to oversleeping on Saturday morning so the chance of a 4-5 hour ride to Mt Mee and back with RDT became a 2 hour ride with 3 hill repeats up Mt Gravatt. That wasn’t a bad effort and still the chance of a longer ride on the Sunday with RDT group.  

Saturday afternoon I headed off to the Colmslie Pool, only to find that they had just that day changed the timetable from a 6:00 close to 5:00. Certainly not much going right for me here.

Sunday, the last chance to resurrect something from the week and hide the fact of how poor it had been with a semi-respectable hours total for the week.  Manage to get out of bed in time, and heading out the door. A minor hiccup occurs when I can’t find the second garage door opener, but quickly decide that it is no real problem.  Debbie will be up when I get home so just go the old fashioned route and knock on the door.  I’ve got 15 minutes to get to the Goodwill Bridge where the group meets.  I’m 5 minutes in and at the top of Lourdes Hill when a fellow cyclist on the side of the road calls out.  “Mate, shouldn’t you have a helmet on?”  UNBELIEVABLE!  Now the missing garage door opener is truly a problem.  I’m not going to wake Deb up when most likely I will miss the group anyway.  So the end result is an average one hour ride, helmet-less, sneaking around the quiet streets of Bulimba hoping to not get spotted by a police officer. Managed a Swim 2k pyramid in the afternoon, before the 5pm closing time of course.

So what a disaster of a week, on so many fronts.  A sum total of 5.5 hrs short by 5 on what I had planned for.  In some ways missing the Saturday ride was a good thing, by being so far from target there is only one response, harden up. 

Let’s see.