THE MIGHTY JO CARREL: T minus one week....

So this time next week we will be sunning ourselves in (hopefully) sunny Samoa. I have heard reports that there has been a bit of rain there recently which hopefully will be gone by the time we get there because I did not sign up for a race in Samoa to ride in the rain. I have been warned not to ride through puddles because you don't know how deep the pothole underneath is...

SWIMMING
Swimming has actually been going pretty well, I think it is because coach Haydn has mainly been replaced by coach Mitch which means that I am not being picked on and abused (being drawn on, having the back of my togs snapped and having my arse slapped - that actually sounds quite bad when I list it like that but it does happen...) and am mostly just able to blend into the lane and exist. Or maybe it is because the dynamics of our lane has changed so it is a bit slower so I think I am swimming faster. Who knows. Tomorrow we will crank out the swim skins which haven't been touched since Kona (if I can find mine) in practice for next weekend.

BIKING
Biking in winter sucks. I have done some good workouts on the windtrainer but feel a bit lacking in long rides. Last Sunday was a write off for riding so I spent 2 hours on the windtrainer which is good but I would rather have spent 3+ hours on the road. The forecast for this weekend isn't looking too bad so hopefully we will get a decent ride in which will lift my confidence a bit because at this stage I am thinking that 90km next weekend is going to feel very very long...
I have started riding my TT bike after about 4 months on the road bike and have started to feel slightly paranoid about cars not seeing me when I have my front light on my bars because they are so low. So I got a little Lezyne light which attaches to my helmet which I think looks super dorky but I am fairly confident that people can now see me. And maybe they will be extra well-behaved in daytime because it could be mistaken for a camera recording bad driving.

RUNNING
Running has been pretty steady, I made a gradual increase to 6 days a week total of about 55km per week which to a lot of people isn't much but it is quite a bit for me and all my bones still appear to be intact - yay. The tip of my big toe isn't particularly intact after getting a weird blister on it during my long run on Tuesday night but that's another story.

Someone call the Guiness Book of Records

I have become a runner covered in paraphernalia. Shame.

We did a night trail run last week (two things I am terrible at - running off road and running in the dark) - it was part of a series and one just happened to be in our local running hood so we thought why not. I borrowed a head lamp off my friend Lesbo and while it seemed to be quite bright when I did a couple of test laps around the inside of the house, it probably could have been a bit brighter. But I didn't trip over any tree roots or get lost in the bush so it did the trick. I ran at a sloth-like pace because I was so paranoid and nervous but did actually enjoy myself although I was quite pleased to get to the finish. And to top it off I had my first non chicken sausage in about 15 years at the finish line, well half of it anyway before I passed it on to Jared to finish. Tasted pretty similar to a chicken sausage if you ask me.