A Rare Quiet Week

The road to ironman isn't always training, training, training.  Occasionally I get the odd quiet(er) week, and how enjoyable it is.  It provides a valuable opportunity to catch up on sleep, reacquaint myself with St Pete and stay in touch with the idea of NOT training, something that Ironman finishers have a bit of a problem with after the event...(called the post ironman blues).

This week has been one of those quiet weeks and, while I know it won't last, I've been enjoying it all the same.  Monday the unthinkable happened - no training!  Tuesday was the toughest day, with a 2600m swim, followed up on Wednesday with an easy 40 minute spin on the wind trainer and then tonight, an easy 30 minute run around Hagley Park.

Despite being an easy week, Tuesday's swim proved to be a bit of a challenge.  Not because of the distance, but because of the people!  While reorganising my working day I decided to do my swim at 4.00pm rather than the usual lunchtime session.

Big mistake.

Jellie Park is a great facility - it has two indoor 25m pools meaning they say that they will always have lane swimming available.  Always having lane swimming available, though, seems to be an almost debatable concept when, out of 16 possible lanes, only 2 are actually available.  Being after school, the sports pool (the 2m deep one) was completely unavailable due to the swim squads while the recreation pool (the shallower one) had two lanes blocked off for kids to play in and another 4 lanes booked for lessons.  That meant we lane swimmers were squeezed between shouting, yelling, splashing kids on one side and classes of 15 or so kids having lessons in the lane on the other side.

Of the two available lanes one was being used by people walking up and down the lane leaving one lane available for those of us actually wanting to swim.  So you can see where this story is going.  During the time I was there there were no fewer than 5 other people in the lane with me, all doing different strokes and different speeds.  And of course I had all my paraphenalia which provided its own challenges.  While the pull buoys and fins aren't so bad, doing 500m with the paddles is an interesting experience when you're trying to (a) not hit the lane rope next to you and (b) not whack the swimmer(s) heading in the opposite direction.

On the upside I had great practice with dealing with all sorts of distractions, gobsful of water and others swimming in close proximity to me.  All good things to get used to for ironman.  On the downside, it wasn't a good quality swim.

Next week I have "swim camp" - four days of two swim sessions each day.  The original plan was to go before and after work.  After Tuesday's experience, however, I've revised that plan and will now go before work and lunchtime.  Hopefully 6.00am won't be so manic!

Getting ready for swim camp also required some new gear - as if I didn't have enough already!  While I do have a complete set of gear, the time has come for a second swimsuit and towel (yet another couple of items for the Tardis!).  So it was off down to Rebel Sport and I now feel very patriotic in my black Speedo endurance swimsuit...

The quiet week will soon come to a close, and there was a good reason for the relative slothfulness. Tomorrow (Friday) is another rest day and one I will make the most of as, this weekend, is an epic bike ride to Hanmer Springs, a distance of just under 300km over the two days.

Watch out for the update on Monday - assuming I survive!