Livin' in the Free World...

G'day all... and what a fine one it is too, post-storm. The heavens raged yesterday. Branches crashed, winds howled and the full power of the earth was once again on show.

Power's a strange thing, isn't it. In my second year of triathlon training I'm learning to control my power output during certain parts of my training, saving it for others. Meaning? Meaning that I guess I'm beginning to control my effort, my heart rate and my overall work rate to enable me to peak at a certain time. Looking back on last year I approached training and preparation for IronMan Austria with my usual gung ho attitude. If I'm honest, I think I peaked a month and a half too early, that I didn't manage my injuries cleverly enough and that I didn't 'train smart'.

I feel I'm training a lot smarter this year.

So what of the week past? Well, once again I've been in Manchester on business, living an itinerant life which makes it difficult to train with any degree of regularity. However, I've managed the following week:

Monday: 45 minutes swim (drills and skills)
Tuesday: 60 minutes swim (pyramid short distances)
Wednesday: 45 minutes running at medium tempo, 45 minutes swim (2km with various warms)
Thursday: 45 minutes swimming (2.5km relaxed)
Friday: complete rest day
Saturday: Long easy bike with Mark K and Slacko from Tri Talk. 70 miles in 4 hrs 15 at very low heart rate of 118bpm average followed immediately by 5.5 mile run at average pace of 8.22 minute miles (sub Ironman pace) and average heart rate of 141. Time 45 mins.

Felt a couple of tweaks in my right calf during the week so

Sunday: 2 hour country hike with Erin (eldest daughter). Really enjoyed this and felt it was good so am including it in my training.

That makes a total time of 10 hours excluding my Sunday hike.

Not bad for a busy week. And good training again.

On Saturday we went to see Neil Young at the Hammersmith Apollo. Tickets were like gold dust and justifiably so. The set went on until midnight which, for someone who had cycled 70 miles and run nearly six, was way past my bed time. I loved every minute of it though and, if you're not familiar with the Youngster's music I urge you to check it out. He's one of the most important singer songwriters still alive today (along, I guess, with Bob Dylan) with an amazing back catalogue. The set was an acoustic hour and a half with just NY on guitar/piano/organ/mouth organ... followed by a short break and then another hour plus of a heavy electric set with his band. As my New Joysey mate Craig said "Awesome, man. Awesome."

For those of you interested enough to be still reading.... "Plastics" was, of course, from 'The Graduate'. This week's quote may be a little easier:

"I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."

Who said this? And in what film?

Have a good week.