Toughy.

I knew last night when I went to bed that the following morning would see me doing something I haven't done in a while in the pool. I was going to be looking straight down the barrel of a few hard, long sets, and as a sprinter - I knew I would struggle. But if this is what my 70.3 training session was saying I was going to have to do, then so be it. I was going to have to suck it up buttercup.

I woke up this morning and fuelled up adequately before making my way up to the Leisure Centre. And as I started on my 400m warmup I already found myself thinking of ways to cut my long sets short. The distance as a whole didn't have me worried but I know how much mental toughness is needed for long sets. So trying hard to ignore the negative thoughts I just focused on doing one set at a time.

• 400m Fr/s Warm up
• 6 x 50m Drills - 15sec rest
• 4 x 500m Fr/s - 100m hard then the rest aerobic
• 8 x 50m Fr/s - Odds hard, evens easy
• 400m Cooldown. I chose Br/s kick.
• Total - 3.5km

Now that I have done it, I have realised that I do not give myself any credit whatsoever. And although it was tough, I am tougher. I know that when I encounter this set next week, the only tough challenge I will now face will be to do it in a faster time. And by that I mean, doing it faster than an hour. This means shorter breaks inbetween sets and setting myself a slightly faster tempo.

After the swim my husband shouted me to an hour long massage. Need I say I almost fell fast asleep on numerous occasions. I know I keep saying that I need to do this more often, but I really do need to make this a fortnightly ritual. The muscles in my shoulders feel like they are made of concrete and at times I feel like my shoulders are up near my ears.

Tomorrow is group ride with the locals. Am I scared? Yes. I don't want to make a fool of myself.