Train,eat, sleep, work

is pretty much how the past 8 weeks have been. The training has gone pretty much to plan to date with no dramas. The long rides, long runs and bricks have all been at about 70% to 80% effort, with the emphasis on improvement.

A typical week over the past month looks a bit like this -
Monday Swim 2.5 km Run 70 minutes
Tuesday Swim 2.0 km Bike Indoor Trainer (Main set 15 x 1 min each one leg in BCR)
Wednesday Swim 2.5 km Run 90 minutes
Thursday Swim 3.0 km Bike Indoor Trainer 1 hour plus stretching/strength exercise
Friday Off
Saturday Bike 2 hours with 2 hour run (negative split the run)
Sunday Bike 160 km (5 and half hours)

The long rides have been a good mix of solid hill work combined with some mind blowing flat. The long rides take me to Dargaville across to Ruawai (kumara country) and through a back road that joins the state highway short of Whangarei. This ride has been a favourite for a long while. About 40 km of flat around Ruawai which is mentally testing - then into some good rolling hills, one hill which is a 12 minute all out low gear grovel. In the past couple of years I did the loop the other way to avoid this nasty little bump.

Coming up in the next couple of weeks is Hooksie's Rotorua Half IM over a challenging course. I'm looking forward to testing the legs. I intend to continue on with the training up until Xmas and then taking a short break to freshen up mentally and physically. Still a long way to go
and a short break will help with recovery after the half.