i had fallen into the trap of thinking that everything was fine and until you change things you never realise that things were actually pretty fucking shitty. when you start to feel better you look back and know that everything was not okay. i wasnt okay at port macquarie. i was very tired and over-trained. i am amazed that i finished that ironman. since then i have struggled to get any consistent training done. i seem to go from one problem to another and once i get something sorted out then it is something else. so while i am tired today i am finally starting to see my way out. the headaches of the last week are finally gone and i dont think they will be back. my sinus infection is just about gone and i am so glad i dont have to take those giant pills anymore and i can breathe. i have no more excuses.
yesterday i drove up to lancelin for the hell of the north 140k gran fondo. i very wisely decided to pull back on the 140k race and instead did the 95k circuit. for the most part it is the same course. considering i still had my familiar headache for most of the day i was pretty happy to be able to cut it short. last week when i managed to get slightly lost on my bike ride and it went from being comfortable to very fucking uncomfortable my knee started to hurt towards the end. anything to do with knees makes me very worried. i iced it when i got home and since it never gave me any more trouble i didnt think about it again. until i got on the bike yesterday and it started playing up within the first 10k. i always start slow at these bike only events. i guess i miss the swim as a warm up. anyway i managed to get on the back of a group of guys who were riding at a nice steady pace and they took me to the turn around. it was about here that i worked out that it wasnt my knee that was the problem but the inside muscle was tight and giving referral pain to the knee. i usually only get this when i am running alot. i gave it some trigger point therapy while riding along and that helped. i have since rolled it out.
from the turn around i was on my own. five guys passed me. two on their own and a group of three. i ended up catching up to all of them and then left them behind. the race car then came by and let me know the lead racers were coming through. i was then expecting this huge group to come flying by and instead it was a group of about 8 guys and while they rode off it wasnt like they went past like i was standing still. not long after one of the race guys came past. he had obviously been dropped and looked like he was taking it easy. he never got more than 30 metres in front of me and towards the end we were swapping the lead and crossed the finish line at the same time (although he had ridden an extra 40k with a 10 minute head start). then a motorbike came up to me to say the lead peleton of the gran fondo was coming through. again i expected this really fast big group. turned out to be a group of six skinny guys moving at about the same speed as the last lot. it was kinda funny. the wind was okay for the most part. i did get a bit of a nasty blow come through with some rain towards the end but it wasnt too bad.
taking into account my health status i was really happy with this ride. i averaged close to 29.2k and considering the rolling hills and everything else this was a good effort. i think mark slightly exaggerated how difficult this course was as my ride to toodyay and back is much harder. the roads at port macquarie are also worse so i was pleasantly surprised. 140k next year for sure. maybe they have saved me the worst part in that bottom loop !! and this felt so much better than my bad day at york. i did however miss the fresh crusty bread with the lasagna. sadly they didnt have the usual caterers.
so what happens from here. well it is now or never as far as training for mandurah goes. if i dont get some consistent training and specifically run training done then i will be in trouble. if i am not already. i am also thinking about what events i decide to take on. i know i want to do more time trials and a few open water swims this coming season. they are reasonably cheap and i have also decided i want to spend less money so a trip down to busselton for the jetty swim and half marathon might be off the cards. the events are cheap enough but the accommodation for myself and the casey girl is not.
i have a few new goals and it will come down to just me whether i achieve them or not. i am hoping the recent life stresses are well gone and it is reasonably smooth sailing from now on.
