AM: Centennial

Still early days in 2016, too premature to test a 2nd speed set this week down at Rushcutters.
The latest victim of my relentless base building (at 5:00s pace) is Champ. Ordinarily I'd ride to work, but not so in the weather. 6km jog at 6:00s.

Out to Centennial at lunch in soaring mid-30s temps. Ad-hoc route via St Vincents and past Fox Studios where we then circled the dirt track around the Perimeter. Last time I did this was 6FT training in 2015. Pushed the hill up to Paddington Gates before cutting back down Oxford. Up'ed the pace noting the run duration nearing 60 min. Don't think Champ was happy with that.

13.5km in 62 min. Full intention to keep it easy thinking the HuRTS duathlon was scheduled just 5 hours later.

PM: Monathlon

Timmy L meticulously arranged a HuRTS Duatholon involving 500m swim (10 laps ABC) followed by a 5km run around Farm Cove. All I knew is, turn up at 6:30pm. The odds were set, money put on the table and alarmingly I saw a pretty competitive handicap on my name. A bit of household renegotiation (daughter bathing nappy change duties) and I was good to go.

Big fail. 4pm dark clouds. 6pm rain starts. 6:30 torrential rain, ABC out of bounds. Silly staff put a 30 min time-out on the water after every lightning. Suffice to say, the stress levels were causing (not so) premature ageing for poor Timmy.

The plan changed to a 5km tempo with Brendon K begging to end the wait and start the pub crawl. By this stage, my competitive spirit was well gone.

Off we went with Quentin and Mike Lichwark surging around around Mrs Mac Chair then back up to the loop near the Gallery. Figured I could stick with LJ and JW but it was quickly apparent even sub 4:00s was too fast. 500m, last place and 1km in, 2nd last was out of sight. Thus, my race was basically over and the 5km which involved a Farm Cove out-and-back was essentially a recovery run/swim. Blast of a time in such strange weather.

Got back just in time for the photo. Forgot the memo where being shirtless was mandatory.



They always say, start the season with a low benchmark. 23:07 for 5km. Not my finest moment.