I was down in Canberra this week, so it was a bit of a rest week. Got two weights sessions in. Had hoped to get a third one in on Friday, but as Ed invited us around to his place to have a few beers and say bon voyage for his trip to Paris on Thursday night, and since I’d been up at 4.30am on Thursday morning to watch the excellent Liverpool victory in the Champions League, I wasn’t that keen on getting out of bed at 6.30am on Friday.

I went kayaking all day yesterday with Simon and Becs, so I was totally exhausted by last night. Went to bed early and got up for a bike ride this morning. Met up with a bunch of people from Transitions for quite a few laps of Centennial Park followed by a coffee and lots of triathlon discussion. I’m tired now, so it will probably be off to bed early tonight, ready for the gym in the morning.

Wk8: B: 61.4km – W: 2 sessions

A bit late this one, but last weekend I went for a 5km run on Saturday morning with Jacqui and a friend of hers, the myself and Jacqui went on a shorter 2.5km run on Sunday morning.

Wk7: R: 7.5km – W: 2 sessions

Looks like the US Senate isn’t too pleased about George Galloway’s testimony. His is the only transcript missing from the Senate Committee’s web page, and he has apparently been edited from the video transcript as well??? Freedom and Democracy my arse!

You can watch the full video clip of his testimony here, as a Quicktime movie.

The weather has played havoc with training this week. Pissing rain on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday resulted in a sever lack of cycling and running. However, I did manage to get two gym sessions in: one on Monday and another yesterday.

Wk7: W: 2 sessions

“Everything I said about Iraq turned out to be right, and you turned out to be wrong, and 100,000 people have paid with their lives…”,1),
(

“Have a look at the real oil for food scandal. Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad when $US8.8 billion [$11.6 billion] of Iraq’s wealth went missing on your watch…”,1),
(

“Have a look at the other American corporations that stole not only Iraq’s money, but the money of the American taxpayer.

”Have a look at the oil that you didn’t even meter, that you were shipping out of the country selling, the proceeds of which went who knows where.“,1),
(

”http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/US-guilty-of-oil-for-food-scandal-not-me-Galloway/2005/05/18/1116361569660.html">George Galloway’s testimony to the US Senate

It’s about time someone told it like it is. Good on ya George.

I got back on the bike yesterday after a bit of a layoff. I had prepared on Wednesday by buying a dayglo yellow sleveless vest so I’d stand out like a sore thumb in trafffic. It’s certainly bright! I had intended cycling in to work and doing a few laps in Centennial Park on the way, but by the time I had rounded up all my bike gear it was too late, so I just cycled down to the ferry.

Did a few laps around CP on the way home instead, with the intention of keeping my HR below 140, but I was going relatively quick at an average HR of 120 which I was quite suprised about, so I just stuck at that. Once home I got organised and went out for a run, but only got half-way through it before my leg started seizing up a bit. I should probably have stretched after getting off the bike. I’d also done a run the previous evening which was probably a factor as well.

Crawled out of bed this morning and went ot the gym. Wasn’t particularly keen, but by the time the bus got into town I’d woken up a bit more. Hopefully I can get a run in tonight, and one more tomorrow morning and then the week is over.

Wk6: S: 2900m – B: 33.6km – R: 8km – W: 3 sessions

Got two good runs in, one last night and another this morning. Caught the sunrise which was great. The cliffs heading down towards Bondi looked beautiful; all pinky orange. The world looks good at that time of the morning. Anyway, two runs, each 3.3km in around 19mins. Nice and comfortable, with HR around 150. Even leaving work a bit early, it’s dark by the time I get to run in the evening, so it’s a bit nervous in a couple of dark places, not being able to see where I’m placing my feet and just having to trust that I don’t end up twisting my ankle. Might end up running on concrete soon to avoid that – though that carries its own issues.

Anyway, the plan is to get five runs every week from now on, so I hope to do another one tonight, take tomorrow off and then run on Friday evening and Saturday morning. If I can stick to 5 * 3.3km runs for the next few weeks and get used to it, I can gradually up the distances from there.

Wk6: S: 2900m – R: 6.6km – W: 1 session

I get back into the gym this morning. Didn’t feel like it at all, but once I got there and got the warm-up row out of the way it was alright. The acclimitisation period is over and it’s now down to gradual increases in weight and gradual reduction of reps. This four-week block looks like:

Low weights, just enough so there’s a bit of strain on the last rep of the second set.

Squats

Lat Pulldown

Knee Extension

Hamstring Curl

Bent-arm Pulldown

Bench Press

Core

Bicep Curl

Calf Raise

Seated Row

Dips (machine)

Tricep Extension

Wk1: 2 sets of 20 reps

Wk2: 1 set of 19, 1 set of 18

Wk3: 1 set of 17, 1 set of 16

Wk4: 2 sets of 15

Wk6: S: 2900m – W: 1 session

Ever wonder how bad things reallly are in Iraq? Have a read of this Rolling Stone article. Not good.