Highnams Tempo & Tea.

Wednesday, Torture is the only word to describe this swim set with the Queen of the Black Line in the Pool, Met Emma and she came up with a Pete Walker pyramid session of 4,3,2,100, and then back up. Felt terrible from the off and knew then it was going to be tough, Finished the 300 as Em was just coming in from the 200s, Managed to do the 200s before working my way back up as i didn't have the strength to do the 100s -
All up 2ks for the day , and feel as if my tri season is over as my swimming has gone back to square one, Only swimming once a week will do that to me:(

Thursday;
Had originally planned with Big Sam to ride the '3 Gorges' along with some of his mates and Sonya and Paul from HuRTS but with the shocking wet weather that has continued we postponed and decided to join Tom Highnams 16.5k Tempo run that he had organised. So it was another early start , and it was like 'Lindop's Combined Taxi Service as i  picked up Kanser (Surry Hills) and J-Fen (Kirriblli House) on the way before heading over to the North Shore to meet Tom, Bartles, Macca McClarnon, and Sam
Knew this was going to be hard on a particularly humid morning.
Set of on a fast pace with a 3.38, followed by 3.42,then a 3.49 - realised then that holding a 3.45 pace was never on the cards for me (i only run that pace tempo when i am running strong and running sub 35 pace for 10ks) Dropped of by the 5k mark and had those dreaded thoughts for about 2 ks with Sam struggling even further behind. Made it down to Manly beach about 8ks and i was about to pull up stumps and wait for the boys to return (would have meant a 14k tempo ) but Sam had some kind words as usual so decided to run with him, this helped as run together for the next 5ks, trying to hold the pace around 4 min/ks.
Felt Sam struggling then so tried to pull him through, got a little lost on the way back but still managed to run 16.52ks for the session in 1:04;35 average of 3.54 for the whole distance.
Happy enough with that as there is no hiding in a session like that and i think i am about 6-8 weeks away from where i want to be. Good runs from Tom and the man in form J-Fen, although Old Kanser was running well with the boys i hear he laboured home in the last 3ks working about 4.20 pace ????
Great session this one and one that i will do every 5 weeks i reckon, Done right it's 'harder then the Magnificent 7' but i am confident on home soil in Centennial Park in Feb i can do the 60 mins.
All the pain was forgotten after we jumped in the pool and then had a great breaky of Bacon & Eggs care of Kirst who dished up her finest along with numerous top quality Tea (not seen at the Kanes). Went down a treat, although Tom was getting a little alarmed when Kanser and I were on our 7th tea of the morning as he had only brought enough to last him and the family for his trip down to Kangaroo Valley for a couple of days.
Made two new friends for the morning in young Charlie and Maggie Highnam, who i had a better conversation with then i do with Enda :)
Very tired at the end and will probably take it easy tomorrow now before doing my long run on Saturday again this week
Cheers