Hey everyone! It's now 22:30 and I'm just getting ready to go out on the town! Not really, unfortunately the life of a 29 triathlete does not permit that kind of a lifestyle. If only I was 25 again lol! I'm too old to burn the candle at both ends...unless any hot girls wanna go out, then I'll make a special effort.

Anyway, just a quick update on my week so far. Since my return from the capital (Washington for all you dumbos out there) I have been training pretty hard. After reviewing my race performance last week-end I decided to get back into those mountains and work that bike with my new found excitement to train. Even though I was tired during the bike leg of the race due to hammering those mountains for the past two weeks I was determined to smash through the fatigue and get that strength work in motion. Unfortunately after racing Joe Gambles and Simon Thompson on the Wednesday on a 100km ride, then swimming and running hard, I was pretty much done. Hence the new found enthusiasm and excitment had somewhat wavered lol!

The next day started off positive. The new found drive had returned and the previous day fatigue was long gone. So Lars Finanger and I (his blog is the Daily Expresso) set out early at 06:20 for the BAM open water swim at the Boulder res. I was flying! (even if I do say so myself). We met a few of the guys down there which consisted of Michael Lovato and Chris "Big Sexy" McDonald (Lars calls him "big sexy" mmm) and completed a few laps of the 800m course. I was accused of cheating by cutting the course...but it's ALL LIES I TELL YOU! The session is led by Jane Scott and has BAM members life guarding the res for us. It's an awesome set up. Well I put in some big efforts and was pretty proud of myself at the end of the swim. Michael and I discussed a time to meet for the ride and this is where things turned a little pear shaped.

If any of you guys have read Lars's blog you'll have heard that he's been "really ill" this week lol! He's posted it enough times. Emily (his wife) and I lost all sympathy for him on the 70th time he mentioned from the sofa about how ill he is ha ha! I actually totally understand what he's saying...he's got "man flu!" It's not like the regular flu chicks get...this is far worse, they just can't understand. The only thing that might come close to what "man flu" feels like is actually giving birth, and we all know the women have used that one way too much already lol!

Anyway, back to my story. Michael, Lars and I met for our ride. Lars turned back early as he had to work (and he's been really ill), and this is where the fun starts for me. Michael was like a horse on caffeine (not sure what that means, but you get the picture). He was hammering down on those pedals like he was fighting for his life. I meanwhile was struggling next to him, pretending to sound fine as I was talking about something extremely interesting again to let him know that this pace was easy! But that didn't last long. I blew to bits! After 115km of watching Michael zoom off down the rode, then wait for me, then zoom off again whilst I tried to hang onto his wheel each time this happened, I was done. I informed him of my state of fatigue "Michael...just go...SAVE YOURSELF!!!" Anyway, fortunately he turned off right which allowed me to totally drop the pace and role on home. During this time it dawned on me just how screwed I was. I was just barely turning the cranks on my bike...20km/hour!!! Thats how much I'd bonked. I was starving! All I could think of was cheesburgers, sausage rolls, hot dogs, milk, cakes. I was so hungry I could smell the grass on the side of the road...and it smelled amazing, so good I was tempted to eat it! Everyone out there that has bonked this much knows what I'm talking about. I was just glad Michael...or any of my training buddies wasn't here to see this, how embaressing if they ever knew! I was glad however that my chick radar and libido was still working even in this state. I noticed a woman on the side of the road whilst coming into Boulder...very tasty, so just for that few seconds I had to perk up and ride strong just to impress ha ha! Mission accomplished.

Well if anyone asks me what I think heaven is like. Then I'd say that it's like totally blowing to bits on your bike to the state of deliriousness and then making it home to a fridge or cupboard full of food!!! I devoured everything I could get my hands on and it was the best feeling ever!

By the way, I don't dress like I have in this picture for my rides in the mountains. It's just the only photo I could download with a picture of me on my bike lol!

So the rest of the day was left free to organise stuff...yes you lot, I am organised. I even brought myself a planner to stick up on my bedroom door...oh I also put some posters up of me on my wall next to Mark Allen lol! Motivation technique.

That evening consisted of me being in a semi-concious state whist watching the NUGGETS vs LA LAKERS! Awesome game! So good actually that Lars comepared it to a "dance off"!............Silence filled the lounge. A DANCE OFF! HAHA! That woke me up! Disgraceful! He could have compared it to Muhammed Ali and George Foreman...but a dance off? WTF?! I think he regretted that one straight away. I accused him of watching "So you think you can dance". Which he denied vehemently!

Anyway, as it happens I woke up Friday morning feeling ill. SO the moral of me telling that Lars was ill and the fact that I blew to bits was all leading to the conclusion that I too am ill. Hence why I felt so poor on the bike. I'll be ok though, don't feel sorry for me.

Oh I forgot to mention that I have now had a profile issued on an awesome website called tritalk.com. Check it out, there's loads of awesome athletes, news etc on there.

Anyway, gotta go to bed as I have a big day tomorrow riding in the mountains with a group of training buddies.

Take care readers!

HADLEY