Saturday
I went to the Balmoral Brick session which I hadn't been to in about 3 months and I found that I’d really missed it. It’s a great workout that gets me going much harder on the bike and run than I usually would, plus a good group of people.
At this point in the season they split the group into short course and long course, so I did the “long course” part for the very first time. It was 3 ½ laps on the bike (with an additional hill on one of the laps), then a 4km run, another 3 ½ laps ride and a 2km run. That’s all I had time for. Really tough session, I loved it.
I was then all set to take it easy and spend the rest of Australia Day hanging out with friends at Rozelle Markets and an Aussie Day Barbie, then dinner in Manly with my family for my brother’s birthday.
Sunday
Dan, Andrew and I had all booked into the Big Swim – 2.7km around the headland from Palm Beach to Whale Beach. The predicted storms and rain never arrived and it was a beautiful hot sunny clear summer morning. We decided to get some riding in so rode from home to McCarrs Creek at a pretty good pace, then up to Mona Vale Road at Terrey Hills and back down to Mona Vale the same way, before heading up to Palm Beach. Mark rode with us for the first bit then headed back, and Christian who had slept in, caught up with us at the top of McCarrs.
Anyway I had 70km on the clock coming into Whaley where we left the bikes and jumped on the shuttle bus to Palmy in our speedos. It was a fairly hard 70km too, we pushed it on the way out and went pretty solid up the McCarrs Creek hill, so we were all kind of knackered at this point!
Thankfully the big surf had calmed down a bit and it wasn’t too hard getting out. There was a bit of chop coming round the headland but nothing too bad. The water seemed clean, it was pretty clear and very warm and we all just decided to take it easy and enjoy the swim. The one thing I did notice was that my fatigue made it difficult to hold correct body position in the water. By the last 20 mins I was thrashing around like a landed tuna!
There was a good sized swell coming into Whale Beach but the waves were kind of crumbling and very hard to catch, most people seemed to just be swept along. I felt great coming out of the water, probably because I hadn’t gone too hard, but also because it was such a gorgeous day and a really great event.
Andrew apparently swallowed a bunch of seawater and had a few pukes in the water the poor guy. Dan held up well. I think we all did a good job considering the ride. I was 10 minutes slower than last years time, but that’s easily explained by the hard ride before meaning my body position was rubbish, not having done a full season of ocean swims in preparation (last year I’d probably done 8 or so by this point) and intentionally taking it easy.
Dan’s lovely wife Juliet came and picked us up with the girls and they went to a kid’s party in Frenchs Forest / Beacon Hill, and I rode from there to Clifton Gardens for a picnic and swim with Sarah and our friend Deb who’s over from Shanghai for the weekend. Well not really a swim, more lolling about in the water.
Monday
Australia Day public holiday! We had no plans for once and I ended up being a lazy slob and lying around on couches reading the weekend papers and napping and eating all bloody day while Sarah worked hard writing lesson plans for teaching this year. Finally about 4pm I thought I have to do something and I needed a long run so I went out and did 3 ½ hours and about 33km.
It was hard to start with, but I managed to maintain a pretty decent pace for most of it. I followed the coast as much as possible along the harbour the whole way, with some quiet back streets, some walking tracks and some bush trails, it really is a lovely route. From my house it too about 45 minutes to Mosman Ferry wharf, about an hour to Sirius Cove and 1.5 hours to the Chowder Bay stairs near Ripples at Clifton Gardens. I turned around shortly after that and retraced my steps, starting to slow down before running into Dick from the Balmoral tri club at Mosman Bay and doing the whole Cremorne Point track with him at a much faster pace than I normally would have, which was excellent. Boy I was sore getting home though!
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