Virgin Active London Triathlon: 1 week to go! @thelondontri @virginactiveuk

One week to go!

And ohboy are we ready for a taper week :o)  I'm gonna go crazy!

This weekend Mr TOTKat and I went parkrun touring again for the first time since he did his knee in.  He's been slowly working back up to the 5km distance after many weeks of not being allowed to run (or cycle) at all and this week was the first time he's been able to run 5km entirely in one go.  And it was lovely!  We went to Clair parkrun at Haywards Heath which meant a nice little trip on the train.  A hilly 4.5 lap course in this heat was going to be challenging enough, but I had an intervals session of 5x1200m off 6 minutes scheduled and I was going to try to do that over parkrun and an extra lap.

Not today, sweetie and not on that course!  Too hot and too hilly, but I had a bit of a go; warmed up with some drills for a lap before starting and then hared off for my first interval.  Over the course, I decided that 1200m intervals just weren't practical and with the hills, the 6mins/1.2km plus some recovery wasn't going to be happening.  Still the quickest parkrun this year for me, but of course way off my 5km PB (22:36! srsly, I have no idea how that happened but reckon it was a lot to do with not being allowed to do any swimming & outdoor cycling for months earlier so ending up working on running a lot, and then a really good warm up).

So I have a medium length bike in for tomorrow, followed by a little brick run afterwards.  My worry at the moment on cycling is the RideLondon 100 the week after VALT where it's not only 100 miles, but there are a couple of evil hills in there so I'm feeling a bit apprehensive having done pretty much no hill work on the bike this year.  So, I sorta want to be a bit naughty and do some hills instead of a gentle 2.5 hour ride.  We'll see if I'm good or not :o)  This time next week I'll've finished the race and be hopefully not nursing very chafed underarms due to the salt water like last time I did this course - this time I'll use bodyglide and try to get rinsed off a bit better under the water sprays at the swim exit.

Not a lot planned in for the rest of the week; rest day on Monday, little short runs on Tue and Wed, then a short, sharp swim Thu and a short, sharp bike Fri and that's it!  Hoping to pick up some team kit on Thursday morning too - it'll be good to ride and run in the right stuff and wear it with pride.