Progress and now to the Sydney Marathon

A little bit of swings and roundabouts since the end of August. Notable points in the last 2 weeks
- Raced the Striders 10km at North Head. Truly the most attrocious weather conditions I have raced at a Striders 10km, a howling Nor-Easter with driving rain. Tried to help Paul out with the setup of the timing system but the rain managed to penetrate the electronics and so it was kaput... I lined up and charged off, after our second loop of the end of North Head I noticed my right shoe lace had come undone so waited to the top of the hill to stop, retie and double knot. Of course a slew of people went past and I set out right into the wind and rain to try and regain my position. It seemed that no matter where I was, it was either a head wind or climb or both! Started to fade on the second lap but did manage to catch Seagull and hold off Horrie, although Horrie was backing up from Trailwalker the week before so I should have stayed ahead of him! Ended up with 43.51, not what I was hoping for but lots of upside!

Backed up for Middle Harbour Picnic, another tough run and struggled at the back for the long climbs but actually ran home quite strongly after the long climbs were done.

Then the start of an enforced taper with a work trip to Mumbai. Had a few good treadmill sessions on the treadmill and also did a full work through of the weights program set up for me which really smashed me. As it happened the enforced taper was extended as I had to stay over the weekend and fly to Delhi for a last minute presentation. So I shifted hotels in Mumbai (at my bosses advice) to one on the beach and went for one run along the beach. As it happened this was the day after the weights session I did and my legs were absolute toast, the high temperature and humidity did not help and I was glad to get back to the hotel for a swim in the pool. No way in the world would I have swum at the beach, a tanker had dropped a load in the Arabian Sea and the water was not nice...

Some more treadnill sessions before finally getting back to Oz and headed out for a last had hit out on my home base tempo course for a loosener. Was happy and surprised to significantly reduce my most recent times so headed in the right direction!

The sugar free diet regime has continued, a real test when I travel and today when I hopped on the scales I was a little surprised to see 80kg neat. So over 5kg lost since I started back. Other good news is that the dodgy back is getting less dodgy.

So Sydney Marathon beckons on Sunday with what seems a faster and less exposed course. I really am underdone but as usual will give it a red hot go, we'll see what happens.