Less Is More.........

Less training this week as I couldn't fit in what I had intended to do.

An unexpected late night on Thursday saw me get in the door at 0620 on Friday morning (I met a guy walking his dog that I usually meet on my early morning runs).

My mother stayed on Saturday night after I collected her from a flight from London where she spent a few days with my brother.

After dropping my mother home today I picked up Stephanie, our French Au-pair for the summer, from the Paris flight. The only other Au-pair we had was over 10 years ago - Jennifer from upstate New York - now a family friend living in Boston (now there's a thought). I guess that answers Bill and Marc's recent question - the only problem is the whole family would like to go, which is more of a logistic (middle of school term etc.) and financial (6 versus 1) challenge. Anyway, where was I......

I still got a few good sessions in though - in preparation of my upcoming Tri (only 2 weeks away)

Run 21.6 Miles (still low but I'll ramp up soon enough - getting a bit itchy as Thomas has one week down already and his marathon is 2 weeks after mine.

Bike 46.5 miles - Meant to get more in but am getting more comfortable. A double puncture on Thursday evening cut my scheduled 21.5 mile run short by about 5 miles.

Swim 1.1 miles - (1,300m approx in the lake with Jim on Friday evening - good swim despite the 2 hours sleep I got the morning before and 500m in the pool on Saturday afternoon in between teaching Safan tumble turns) Open water swimming in a wet suit appears to be faster, and is certainly more enjoyable, than lane swimming in the pool - although a lake swim with one other person is totally different from a sea swim with 200 others vying for the same spot while you try to look over the swell to spot where you have to go.

My one brick workout was on Saturday morning (light rain throughout) where I covered 21.46 miles on the bike in 01:08:23 (18.8 MPH @ 143 HR) followed by a 5.25 mile run in 37:21 (07:05 pace @ 153 HR) - I was completely knackered afterwards - despite the feeling of jelly legs after the cycle my first mile was marginally under 7 minute pace - I still felt like I was running in slow motion at the start though (may have something to do with the high cadence on the bike). I kept the pace up pretty much for the rest of the run but got progressively weaker as I neared the finish. The 07:05 pace average would just about give me a 44 minute 10k. I would like to get 42:xx if I could (may be a pipe dream as the course is hilly).

Early prediction is in the range 02:45 to 03:00 finish. 02:45 would be great but I would be happy with under the 3 hours (I won't give the splits as I may find it hard to justify them afterwards)