Reality check.

I went out with Nick again this morning. It was an unremarkable ride apart from the cracking pace he set and how smashed I was about 15k's in. After a very ordinary effort on Wednesday the morning held some promise as I was feeling pretty good as we headed out along the Jinker Track and down Eaton's Crossing Road. Lilley Road was the crux though. A few small hills and I was breathing hard and coming up short in the leg department.
I shouldn't be too hard on myself though. We were holding a 30k per hour average for the first 27k's of the ride and that included a couple of decent hills along Winn Road. As my self esteem started to climb above room temperature Nick hosed it down by telling me he did a slaughter fest of hills on Tuesday and averaged 31.5k per hour! Phew! Back to the cellar, self esteem.

I have been very happy with my heart rate and recovery rates lately. My heart rate sits around 150-160 beats per minute during normal efforts and goes up to around 170-175 when I hit the hills or have a little dig for some speed. There is also the comfort I feel on the bike now during long rides. Probably a good thing seeing as how the days will be long on the bike in three weeks time. I will up the amount of time on the dirt for the next few weeks with some more relaxed road rides during the week. I aim to do a 5 hour mountain bike ride over the weekend to get dialed for the race.
Mentally I feel great. I have got a good balance going on in my head and heaps of people around me asking to train with me, offering advice and most of all supporting me. There has been an amazing amount of interest in this event and I have been really surprised at the number of questions I have fielded about it. If only the fund raising reflected that. I still have a little time though so the goal might get closer yet.
The excitement is growing. It makes the training feel worthwhile and the motivation is definitely easy to come by. Well, more K's this weekend, more hills and more smiles. Ride on.