The week’s been fairly relaxed, training-wise, as we’re enjoying a week of rest ahead of Block 3 of our training programme which, according to Steve, will be cranking things up a notch or five.

In the coming weeks we’ll start to do early Friday morning swims in the Waterfront Canal (ACK!!!) and I hope that by that time the open water panic attacks would have come to an end.

While we won’t be doing much training, this actually happens to be time trial week and I’m excited to see if my time’s improved in the 1km swim.  And, as it’s Da Chick’s school concert on Thursday night, I will do my swim trial at my gym at lunch time.

Saturday’s also quite a biggie:  I have a 40km cycling time trial (easy peasy lemon squeezy) AND a cake delivery.  And then there’s the 10km run on Sunday in the form of the CT Marathon 10km run.

Last Week

Things were a tad crazy on the work, home and training front, so I didn’t have time to do an update.

I missed Tuesday’s run due to a heavy workload, so my legs felt a little heavy during Thursday evening’s brick work:  a 30-minute run followed by our swim drills. I even earned a high-five from Steve for my improvement in the pool – YEAY!

Saturday morning was heavy! A 30-minute run, followed by a 2hr cycle, followed by another 30-minute run.  Because it was what I’d classify as a “one bottle ride”, I totally forgot that I’d need a little extra to drink on the run, so by the time I was mid-way through the second run, I was stumbling from water fountain to water fountain on Camps Bay beach, looking for just a drop or two to quench my thirst.

Needless to say I felt pretty fragile when I got back to the meeting point and all I wanted was shade to sit in, and perhaps a few sips of Coke, but a few minutes later I was right as rain and could even crack a few jokes with Steve as he took pictures.

Chilling in the shade, feeling pretty chuffed with myself…

Next Week

Starting next Monday, until the end of December, I’ll officially reunite with Rob-The-Trainer, who got me ready for Karoo to Coast last year.

Don’t be fooled by his cuteness!

In addition to my normal group & solo training load with Steve and the Embark crew, Rob is going to see me twice a week to look after my overall strength.

He’s already been briefed and his task is simple:  1. Increase my strength.  2. Reduce my body fat and build more muscle to help with my power-to-weight-ratio.  3. Get me ripped like the Lara Croft half of my Inner Adventurer, mixed with a bit of Linda Hamilton when she got all crazy-eyed and trigger happy in Terminator 2 (but without the bad hair).

Rob has 12 weeks to help me transform my body into a lean, mean Half Ironman machine.

AAAAAND, in addition…

Da Husband is going overseas for a few days, which also coincides with Da Chick’s birthday and birthday party.  Which means that, in addition to reporting for duty at the office, I’m going to have to do school runs, rush home to cook, bake cupcakes for her class party, cater for her birthday party AND fit quality training into the mix.

… and in between all of this, I’m going to have to pencil in time to sleep!