A 13-hour road trip is an endurance event of similarity to triathlon.
Listening to an audiobook (Fiona McIntosh’s The Pearl Thief) was a wonderful distraction that made sitting for so long not only bearable but enjoyable.
Quite obviously I love words. I love how they’re constructed into emotional and thought-provoking patterns. The lilt and flow of stories are enhanced with appropriately placed words. So, I’ve labelled my training week into words, captivating a curated week of patch-work sessions into my phraseology book.
Chapter 1 Sunday sentence – Lucretius’ quote
A quote from Greek philosopher Lucretius “The drops of rain make a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling” describes my long run. It’s not a fast 18km but it’s consistent. I threw in an easy 1 hour spin on the trainer to add a few extra drops towards breaking that stone.
Chapter 2 Monday musing – Budding
I feel my Monday 12km run is like a budding flower. The middle 2 x 3km interval ‘petals’ are starting to show the potential of their beauty. They are not quite in full bloom but give me a sniff of their potential scent.
Unfortunately my half-hearted swim was less budding and more wilting!
Chapter 3 Tuesday talk – Confabulation: I love the two-fold meaning!
My velo sessions continue to be a confabulation of internal dialogue. A love/hate, real/false relationship of 8 x 4 min efforts on the velodrome with a hilly 18km warm up and cool down.
It generally goes “Oh, maybe I’ll only do 5 efforts. Nah, that makes it 25min (with the 1 min rest in between), that’s an odd number. Ok, another 1 then. Nah, just do the 8. Grrrr, ok. You’re a pain.”
The confabulation continued when deciding if I wanted to do the run off the bike. My glute was feeling uncomfortable and I took the dog on my run…as an excuse that I was doing it for the dog! Definitely the psychiatric version of confabulating with that one.
Chapter 4 Wednesday word – Bilious: adj. pertaining to bile
Pre- bilious moment with the culprits!
Oh, the taste of coffee + muffin + chasing strong friends up hills + lactate = that amazingly bilious feeling where your gut decides to launch into the back of your throat. I felt like vomiting for the last 30km of our 80km ride and it was WONDERFUL. Yes, I’m a sicko, but to me that represents that I worked hard. Really hard. Like almost vomit hard. Yay me and thanks to Tez and Maz! To really soak up that bilious feeling, I did a 40min rotb too!
Chapter 5 Thursday phraseology – Cavalier: n. one having the spirit or bearing of a knight; adj. offhand or unceremonious
Running 10km on a treadmill after driving 13 hours straight from the Central Coast, NSW to Torquay, Vic left me feeling like a knight slaying the battle field. My cavalier attitude oozed out of me as I casually dropped this fact to the gym attendant.
Chapter 6 Friday phonics – Druthers: n. preference
A tad chilly for an ocean swim…but not for a Jasmine to surf!
I had never heard this word before and loved that I had to learn its meaning. Phonically it sounds like something a cold and cranky Brit would say in a cockney accent, so picture that when I say “If I had my druthers I would be swimming in the ocean today” but in true Victorian (old English) fashion, it was bloody freezing! So, I swam 2km in a 25m pool, which was warmer than Bells Beach but perhaps still as unappealing.
Chapter 7 Saturday synonyms – Miasma: syn. stink; vapour; odour
Ahhh, that lovely warm welcome of chlorine miasma from another session in the 25m indoor pool. The scent was so strong that it melted away a big day of spectating my daughter surfing at the Australian Indigenous Surfing Titles.
It didn’t quite make up for the long run that I was forgoing, but it felt better than nothing.
Australian Indigenous Surfing Champion – Jasmine Mccorquodale
This was week 6 of 20, that is, I have 14 weeks until Ironman 70.3 world champs in Nice, France. This week left me feeling excited about a bigger week of training next week before a rest week following that. Unfortunately, because I’m a week behind writing this I already know the outcome…but, you’ll find out about that soon enough.
Still, always my PB!
xk
myPB 