Big Jo training May 14 - May 20

SWIM

I have been maintaining my 3 swims a week despite the onset of the wintery mornings.
I did a 500m TT to check my time against the girls from the first German race that I stalked the results of.  Their race was in a 50m pool so times are comparable.  My time was about what I expected it would be and would have put me in the middle of the field which isn't ideal but I was worried they would all be uber swimmers and I would be last by a mile, so it seems that won't be the case.
I still have time to improve though and will hopefully start a daily swim regime once I get there.

BIKE

I TT-ified my Serottica for the weekend with my mini TT bars which I have been kindly loaned for my trip.  Apparently ITU rules state that the bars should not extend beyond the length of the STI levers which appears to be impossible for Little Muppets like myself.  I'm not sure if this rule will be policed in the German league but will give them a go anyway.
Can't say they are the most comfortable bars and I ended up with some nasty bruises on my bony forearms after Sunday's ride but should be better once I get used to them.

Mini bars which are not mini enough

On Sunday I rode down to Huntly with a little posse who were doing the Huntly Half Marathon and 10km.  It was pretty much 90km of flat roads with a section on the Waikato Expressway which follows on from the motorway and felt very wrong to be riding on.  And it seemed that a few cars also thought it was wrong for us to be riding on it as well.  Apart from that it was a good ride (somewhat cold - the sign in Huntly said 2 degrees when we arrived and that wasn't the coldest it had been) and we got there in got time for the others to refuel a bit before their run.

RUN

Running has been a bit frustrating with a great 5km time reminiscent of my old times on Tuesday followed by an aborted run on Thursday due to my adductor starting to niggle again.  My tolerance to niggles is very very low so I took the rest of the week off and am getting stuck back into the exercises.

I have to admit that I had no remorse what so ever for not running at Huntly, it was so cold and didn't look appealing at all.  J-Rad wasn't feeling the running love and pulled out at 10km after being sick for the back end of the week and feeling like poos after only 6km of the run.  I have to admit that I was concerned about the amount of sweat on his face when I saw him at the 4km mark and I suspected that things were not right.

Run about to be aborted