Hit the park on the way home for a couple of laps with Niall, so the cycling is going well. Needed to do a couple more laps tonight to hit 100km for the week, but it was raining when I was supposed to leave the house this morning, and thunderstorms were forecast, so I got the bus instead. 5mins into the bus ride the blue sky came out. I should have cycled after all. Bloody typical!

I’ve been a bit slack on the running front this week (in that I’ve done none). I’ll have to make up for it at the weekend and go running on Saturday and Sunday.

B: 71km

Well, as Chris pointed out, I really should mention this…

Ireland beat England 19-13 in the Six Nations at the weekend!

England, who are current World Champions, and have been unbeaten in 22 games, got taken to the cleaners on their home ground. The World Cup was paraded around Twickenham before their adoring fans prior to the game, then the boys in green ruined the day for anyone in a white shirt. They also earned the enduring gratitude of Aussies everywhere who now have some a comeback when the Poms slag them off for losing the World Cup.

The cycling of my aquarium looks like it will be finished soon. My test kits arrived yesterday so I finally got to see what the water chemistry is doing. Ammonia is zero, but Nitrites are still up, so once they hit zero I can start adding more fish (or fush for you Kiwis).

Weighed in at 88.0kg this morning, 300g more that the last time. However, since my body fat is down to 18% that means my legs must be muscling up from all the cycling ;-)

B: 25km

Went for another ride around the lake last night. I left work late, so I didn’t have time to do a full lap before it got dark (should really buy some lights) but I still got a 21.2kmh ride in, with an average speed of 29kmh which was pretty good. It felt quite easy as well. The only downside to riding at dusk was the clouds of midges at various parts of the trip. Had to make sure I closed my mouth before passing through the cloud!

On a positive note, when I get around to doing a triathlon I’d be aiming to average 30kmh or so on the bike, so I shouldn’t have too much trouble doing that based on last night’s ride, especially if I was on a road bike rather than an MTB. Now all I have to do is learn to run!

Went for another run last night. Same as last time, 5min walk, 5min run, twice. It’s surprisingly taxing on my lungs. I was breathing quite heavily after the 5mins, whereas I was fine all during the 1hr 17min bike ride on Tuesday even though I was moving at a pretty quick pace. I also don’t remember being this out of breath while running on the treadmill before. Maybe it’s something to do with running outside. Maybe I’m running too fast since I’ve no way of guaging my speed. It feels like I’m just going fast enough to ‘run’ as distinct from ‘loping from side to side’.

B: 33.5km – R: 4.4km

Got a good ride in last night after work: around Lake Burley Griffin. It was 33.5km from the hotel, around the lake and back to the hotel, at an average speed of 27.2kmh overall, and 28.1kmh if I exclude the hotel to lake and lake to hotel bits. It’s quite a nice ride, hugging the side of the lake most of the way around, passing Old Parliament House, The Governor General’s house and the National Museum of Australia. It’s a tarmac bike track almost all the way around and is mainly flat. The last 20% of the ride was into the wind but it wasn’t too strong. By the end of it my lower back was a bit sore & my legs were a little tired, but other than that it was plain sailing. I’ll hopefully do it again on Thursday.

B: 33.5km – R: 2.2km

Went for my first run in the real world (rather on a treadmill) tonight. 5mins walk, 5mins run, twice. It felt easy enough on my legs, but was still surprisingly tiring, given that I wasn’t exactly going fast. My legs felt a little sore afterwards, so it’s going to be a long road to get up to 3 30min runs a week. Still, it’s a start.

R: 2.2km

I plan to add running to the fitness programme this week. I’m starting off nice and easy: 5mins walk, 5mins run, twice and over the next 10 weeks or so I’ll gradually run longer and walk less. The goal is to be able to run 30mins three times a week without any stress on my legs. Hopefully by starting easily I will give my bones & joints enough time to adapt, thereby avoiding injury. We’ll see how it goes.

Niall had suggested I do the City 2 Surf in August, which sounded like a great idea. It’s a bit of a Sydney institution, so it would have been a nice goal to have, but I just realised this morning that I’ll be snowboarding in New Zealand at the time.

87.6kg this morning.