The Return of the Lake, Swim-Run & the Old Specialized Saddle

It's been a funny old week. 

I found it quite a drag heading from recovery week (where I banked a grand total of 4h23 training!) back to full training, especially after my sister's hectic hen weekend in London.  It felt good to be back in full flow though.  I could eat without worrying about how I was going to burn it off again!

Notes from the week:

• My first open water swim of the year in my new wetsuit.  The water was pretty cold but the wetsuit fits like a glove and is incredibaly buoyant.  Great purchase!
• BAD Tri Swim-Run started up again on Wednesday.  I'd been looking forward to this and the main objective was to see if my 400m swim time had improved.  Despite being in a chaotic lane, the swim went well and I managed to shave almost 10 seconds off last year's best.  I reckon I could've gone sub 8 minutes, without the lane carnage.  The 5k run was quite uncomfortable but I was fairly pleased with my total time - 35m08.
• More carange at swimming on Friday.  I was rammed head on by a guy trying to overtake ahead of me.  This made me say the F word very loud in an echoey pool. There was a bit of a scene. I have a little lump on my head. It hurts a bit.
• Latest on the saddle fiasco - I have now gone back to my first bike's Specialized saddle......and after a 63 mile ride on Saturday I think I'm going to stick with it for now.  Tut. 

Andrea and I headed out towards Tintern bright and early on Saturday  morning.  It was sunny and even a bit warm first thing:

I felt good on the ride so Andrea left me at Chepstow and I went back down to Tintern so that I could do the nice 3 mile ascent again.  I do love long gradual climbs!  At Tintern, you get awarded with this view:

Another 63 bike miles in the bag.  The length of these rides are starting to feel very normal now.

I rounded the week off with another swim in the lake this morning (again, in my lovely new wetsuit!) and a surprisingly pleasant one and half hour run around Clifton, the Downs and Henleaze.

Swashbuckler is next Sunday.  I feel ready but I'm absolutely dreading the 5.15 am start.  Is there any point going to bed at all?