Paris-Match - enfin, surtout les photos...

Après plusieurs semaines d´agonie pour s´entrainer malgré les voyages, on est maintenant ds le dur.

Et je le suis davantage que ce que je pensais. En effet, j´avais mon compte à rebours à -10 sem... Mais je viens de realiser que demain, nous serons à seulement 8 semaines de l´affrontement!

Du coup, cette semaine, le compteur est remonté à 15h, dont une sortie pénible de 6h de vélo. Voir la tête sur la 1ere photo - mort de rire.

Après 75km, de pluie et vent contraire... Je n´arrivais plus à appuyer sur la gourde pour boire.

Certains payent pour le bain de boue 

J´ai même "récolté" une araignée

Etamé, mais content d´avoir fait le job

Fin de semaine satisfait. Il fallait s´accrocher derrière Lucas!

L´enchainement fin de semaine fut difficile, mais bon.
- Vendredi matin - natation avec 18 x 100 - 1 vite / 1 récup. 1´06 en nage complète, 59´avec les palmes. Ca revient malgré une épaule tjs capricieuse.
- Vendredi soir - Séché par la natation, les 14km furent durs.
- Samedi matin - les jambes avaient dû rester au lit, car cela a été compliqué pour faire les 180km. La pluie et le vent n´aidant pas des masses... 180k, en 6hr, ce n´est vraiment pas terrible, mais c´est tjs 6 sur le vélo.
- Dimanche... matin est devenu l´après-midi, à cause de la pluie encore. Et heureusement, j´ai pu sentir le jus revenir ds les jambes quand j´ai couru après Lucas - notre lightweight de l´équipe. Il a déjà couru le marathon de l´IM en 3´06, et veut passer sous les 3h cette année. 22 km à ses trousses, aors qu´il trotinait tranquillement (il avait 27 à faire). Ce fut dur, surtout ds les (nombreuses) cotes, mais ce fut bon. Je ne vais pas casser 3h30 sans dérouiller avant.

Allez, au lit, et 8 sem avant l´IM.

Hours and the rest (post from last week)

It´s been a while, it´s been busy.

I had a bad 3-week traveling period, leading to very low training volume, and usually little sleep.

So I had to resume training, in a still busy environment, without breaking the machine. Corporate meeting times, school board and executive visits challenged that a bit in the last 3 weeks...

It´s just a fact, nothing more I could do within acceptable sleeping hours and family tolerance threshold… Even Tony begs for more running!

That´s funny and sad though. When I gear up for biking or running, Tony knows. He gets all excited and jumps all over the place. But when it´s biking or long runs, he stays home. Sad.
So this morning, before flying away (again), I took him for the warm-up, and brough him home before I started the second loop of the long run. Happy boy.

So where do I stand?

Weekly hours of training = Do you see a trend? Down is not so good...

-        Swimming. Not too concerned there obviously, but quite frustrated with a lagging shoulder pain. It´s getting better through therapy, but I coudn´t get an appointment w/a specialist yet. I oscillate between easy swimming, and 1 arm sessions… Note that kicking sessions are real leg killers…

-        Bike. It´s like Curitiba landscape: up and down. Good days, bad days. Little consistency. Bad days means sub-30 kph rides (cold and windy feel). Good days, alone or in peloton, it´s 35 kph like a charm (well, most of the time).
The noticeable thing is the hardware. My training bike is in bad condition, not so fun to ride. On the race one, I change the saddle to relieve some pain. Plus some minor adjustments. The real thing was yesterday. The very long ride (170 km planed) turned just long (120km) when my front wheel broke! Riding at 35kph+, we heard a big bang – just as trucks were passing us. I didn´t know what happened until I felt the steering shaking. My front tire seemed to have exploded. I managed to stop without falling: the rim flange actually did burst out due to brake pad wear. I machined them through the years to the point of mechanical failure (sounds pretty cool).
I now have a good excuse to buy a new set of training wheels! And I need to consider it too for the training road bike.

-        Running. Hmm, a bit similar to biking. Some good, and some not as good. It´s already good as I can run, injury free. Just that is a good news. The other good news is that I can manage some good running with friends. In Sao Paulo or in Barigui, I can keep up and get some good splits. But alone, or on longer distance, it´s still a bit flaky. The 1h37 half marathon in Sao Jose dos Pinhais is a good illustration. 1h37 is the time of my ½ marathon in my ½ ironman… So not that great when that was the only sport on that day, even if the course was a bit challenging.

So? Well, a bit of mixture of panic feeling (not trained enough) and serenity (my weight is fine, I do the best I can)