08.06.12 Weather bomb!!!

The weather bomb that hit Wellington this week has limited a lot of the training that I have been able to do this week.  I did manage to make it to two mornings of swimming this week though. Tuesday's session was focussed on technique which was good as it was nice to go back to the basics and re calibrate your stroke.  Thursday's session was focused on endurance and started with a long warm up with the main set focussed on 400m.  The aim of the session was to complete as many 400m sets as possible before it was time to go home.  All of the sets had to be completed at 8 pace.  As mentioned before our swim coach rates effort from 1-10.  10 being flat out and anything at 7 or under at a casual pace.  I led out the first one and we then swapped them around until we had time for one more.  I led off the sixth one and with 100 to go started to lift the pace to around a 9 with the last 50 completed at 10 pace.  I was shattered by the end of it all but was glad to be doing some sort of exercise knowing that runs were going to be out of the question.  Hopefully the weekend weather was going to allow for some runs especially some longer runs so that I can increase the distances I have been running ready for the 10km run in 2 weeks time.  What I have not told you about is that I am doing the Brookfield Bog Challenge next weekend.  It is basically 4 laps of a 4km course that involves obstacles and lots of mud and obstacle courses along the way.  I have completed two in the last year.  The first one was exactly a year ago and the it was absolutely freezing cold.  In fact the weather was exactly 4 degrees and we were running through streams and mud pits.  I remember my ankles and feet getting so cold running through the stream that I thought they were going to fall off.  Then you run up a massive hill and your feet quickly warm up again before heading back into the stream...

I do not see it as a serious hit out as it is a bit of fun even though you are stuffed at the end of it all.  The bad thing will be that I will not be doing it in my Vibram's as they will get trashed so will have to wear a very old pair of trail shoes as you basically need to put everything in the shower when you get home including your shoes so I don't want to trash my newest pair, even though I may never wear them again...

Attached are some pictures to give you and idea of what is all about.  The pain on my face is due to me being in a man made lake of water that was about 4 degrees and then going into the mud pit to cool off a little more.