Week 4: Rollercoaster
Well this week has been pretty interesting! Monday was full of good intentions, but I didn’t quite hit my targets and lost my green streak. But I guess an orange box for an attempted workout is better than a red box for a missed workout. After all, life is not pass or fail.

I’m still working on making changes to my swim, but the win of the day was not panicking when another swimmer joined my lane. I ended up having a bit of a breather, then went a bit harder than I should have and ended up cutting the swim short due to cramp again. Even if we are going at a similar pace and not getting in the way, I still feel like I’m being a nuisance and will often get panicky then get out as I feel I’m not good enough to share the lane, even if I was swimming first. It sounds pretty silly, but I’m working on it and trying to find the benefit of having someone to pace off.
Smashed my bike set on Zwift (Tuesday morning), and have now figured out how to access my Today’s Plan workouts and sync it through my Garmin watch, which has calculated my cycling VO2 max as 51, not bad! Wednesday I wasn’t feeling too great and my HRV 4 Training app told me to limit intensity. So I’ve had to skip hill sprints, again, bugger!


By Thursday things had gotten worse, but I put it down to being nervous about my dental appointment. I couldn’t squeeze in a swim before hand, but there was no chance of me going afterwards either! I assumed I was just having a bit of a reaction from the painkillers used during my filling, but by milking time I was doubled over in pain, feeling dizzy, nauseous and achey with my ability to wee going from irritated burning to blood and clots. I struggled through milking the cows and feeding calves then after dinner and a consultation with Dr Google, Ryan drove me to the hospital. We were only there about 90 mins and I came home with some strong antibiotics which seem to have cleared things up pretty good.

I decided to have an extra rest day on Friday, but managed to get back on the bike on Saturday. It was the christening ride for Ryan’s new Giant Reign 29 SX and he is loving it. I was feeling pretty fast and strong considering the weeks events and tried to put into practise some row/anti-row motions to carry momentum and make things fast and smooth. As with my swimming, I think I will need to slow things down and practise new techniques before I can go fast again. I’m really looking forward to be getting more involved with the FirstGas Rockets youth development squad, coached by Andy Patterson, but we have a few more cows to calve before my Sunday mornings free up.

Its also the first day of Spring and time to start entering some events and planning my race calendar out. I’m thinking Tauranga Half and Xterra will be my main events, with some 2W Enduro action and local races thrown in.
Any other races I should check out?
What races are you looking forward to this year?