It's rampin' up.

Training that is. Back onto Week 1 of my 5th month of training and it is starting to get more intense. When I opened up Jodie's email yesterday I had a combination of fear, trepidation and excitement about what was in store for me. It's not that I don't think at this point in the game whether or not I will be able to do it but rather will I be able to give this month's worth of training the desired effort to do it justice. Obviously the more tired you get the less capable you feel however that being said, 4 months ago I didn't think I would be able to run 5km and now look where I have gotten to. So here's to smooshing self doubt into the ground.

Swim session on Saturday was fantastic. And it's funny because even though I have always felt competent as a swimmer I am now feeling like I can really hold my own in the water. The reason I say this is because we did a long set in the pool and after each set was done I was recovered to go give it my all again within 10-15 secs. Yes my breathing sounds loud like Darth Vader whilst I am swimming but it settles really quickly and I am able to breathe normally again without too much haste.

This is what I did:

300m warm up

600m drills

400m finger tip drag

Main set: 2 x 1100m

This main set consisted of 600m (15 secs rest)

400m (15 secs rest)

100m (1min rest)

Repeat.

I pulled up really well and still fighting fit for Sunday's long ride. This was challenging not because of the time spent in the saddle which happened to be 3hrs but rather the humidity was up in the 90's. From the moment I stepped foot outside my front door ducking and weaving from the little bat that seems to think my head has X marks the spot on it - I was covered in the sweat. I just couldn't seem to get the fluids in quick enough. The fun thing in the morning was that us girls got into a good pacing line - each in our aero bars and hammered it for a good stretch along our usual route. That would have made for an awesome photo. The bad thing was that a car full of Yobo's scared the crap out of me and for the first time in a while I was shaken. I usually try to stay tuned into what is going on around me but this time I wasn't and that's what happened. Lesson learnt. So with 81kms under the belt almost 2L of fluid and 2 gels plus the pre-bike ride breakfast I would say it was a good morning all round yesterday. I think I only lost 500gms for the morning.

So it is with extreme excitement I venture into this new month of training and see how much I can give, push, tolerate and maintain. What's not to love about that.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
-- Mahatma Gandhi