In Fitter or Fatter...

It was interesting that Enrico raised up that he had known triathletes whose marriages were broken up by the sport and at the same time, Joe Friel shared an article from Wall Street, about how spouses take to their husbands crazy training routines on weekdays and the long sessions on weekends and public holidays.


I share the same sentiment of the crazy spouses. I find myself riding and running long on weekends, take opportunities of holidays to do a long session. For the past 2 years, my wife had been pretty tolerant. At times she does give me the dirty look, "Again? you are going out and leaving me to look after the kids? Again?" but most of the time she had been very supportive. I am really thankful for that. The only session that she had stopped me was the 80km climb up Cameron Highlands with Tee and Don, the 2 Norseman tri guys. Grudgingly, no doubt about it, I adhered to her command. After all, there was a limit to her patience and I think I would want to have the peace at home.


But Enrico's encounters with people whom he knew, was not just due to the time spent on the sport and away from the family, but also because of the new social circle of like minded triathletes. It should not be of any surprise, after all, the time spent together on a long session in body hugging lycra will take a toll on emotions and raging hormones.


Fortunately, I ride on my own or with male triathletes. And I run on my own, or with male MR25 runners on the track. And certainly, I have no interest in men. So my marriage is safe. In any case, I love my family too much to be bothered with anything else. Yes, "in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad" and "in fitter or fatter".

***

Usual swim session on Monday but a washed out Tuesday track work. In the end, we ran around the campus of the polytechnic, instead of their track. I did a total of 9 loops of about 1.2km while monster Andrew did 10. 3 loops of easy warm up, followed by 2 hard loops, 1.5 loop easy and 1.5 slightly harder loops (but easier than the 1st 2 hard loops) and 1 loop warm down. It was suppose to be 2 loops warm down but I called it a day.


The 1st 2 hard loops were really really fast. I think I probably hit HR of above 160 for the 2.4km. And my max is only 163? From next week onwards I had better put on my HRM to find out really how my heart fared during these track runs. I kind of think I may be pushing harder than I ever will on my own. It was so hard that my mind was weak and wanted to give it up. But with the guys running, I pushed myself through it. Didnt get to take the time, but I was pretty sure it was quickest I have even done so far.


Today did a 100km bike with a 2km run off. My biking legs were really off. The hard time trial on Sunday, the run on Tuesday, the legs just felt heavy and absent. I could not get the cadence up to the usual 90-95 but managed only about 85. In fact, it felt better when I started to mesh in the region of 72-78 towards the end, which was something that Coach prescribed. Mesh a harder gear with lower cadence. But HR went beyond prescribed. Of course, with the meshing at 72-78, the speed also picked up. Funny I could mesh but I could not spin.


Run of 2km was done in 10:15. And that was measured with GPS. Should be pretty accurate but seemed kind of fast compared to the pace I was doing. That was a 5:02min/km. I think it was wrong, but whatever, I am just too tired now to think about it now.