Epic days 4 and 5

Day 4 - "Easy day"
------------------

The day started with a lake swim race at Wanaka. It turned out to be around 4.4km long, and it was a 'sombiathon' for me - I wrapped up warm with neoprene cap and boots to make sure I didn't get cold, as I wasn't anticipating going hard enough to overheat. BdC paced well to drag me round the two laps. Then it was straight into a 10km running race. We had to predict our times and then run without watches - scoring points for overall position and for closeness to your estimate. I predicted a slow time, as my quads were feeling pretty shoddy, but warmed into it and ran somewhere around 39 minutes... not too bad for the volume of the previous few days.

As it was the 'easy day', we only had to ride 60km, but i was convinced to ride 90km by Clive and Tara. It was pedestrian, and involved an ice-cream stop before we headed home, hit the pool for a second 3km swim (with 20 x 100m on 1:30) and another 10km run along the waterfront of Lake Wanaka. Quote of the day was from Tara who proved that sugar lows can hit even on the easy rides ... "Where are my sunglasses??? Oh, they're on my face"

Day 4 Totals "EASY DAY"

Swim 7.4km
Bike 90km
Run 20km

Day 5 - Back in the Saddle
---------------------------

Had a lazy start to the day catching a ride to the pool at 6:45. Some of the other guys had opted to run from 6am and catch the minibus as we went past them to get in an early 50 min run. This meant that they could go for 6 km in the pool. I wasn't feeling too good so I did the minimum swim of 3km and headed out for a 50min run before heading back to the lodge. We rode out at a ridiculous pace from Wanaka and by the time we made it to the bottom of the time-trial KoM (about 95 kms in) I was feeling spanked. But time trial we did, and 44 minutes later I was atop the Crown Range and heading back to Wanaka. A tack-on later we'd done 180kms and then went straight out for another 50min run. Just finished getting a massage - very much needed. I can play a tune on my ITBs they are so tight.


Things seem to be becoming a little more hazy round the group ... people are falling asleep at the side of the pool, question and answer sessions involve repeating the same simple information multiple times, and hysterical episodes are becoming more freequent....


Day 5 Totals

Swim 3km
Ride 180km (about 1400m climbing)
Run 20km