The omens were not good this morning. I was exhausted when the alarm went off and could hardly drag myself out of bed. Cold and tired. The last thing I felt like it was a swim in the cold ocean. Too brutal. As I walked to Manly in the dark I felt the nor’easter blowing against the back of my head. That means it’s going to be hard to get in and out in the southern corner at Manly. At least it was a blood red sunrise. Quite spectacular. I got halfway to Manly and realised I’d left my phone behind and had to go back. It was going to be one of those days. I only just made it in time to get changed and rush across the road to Manly Surf club before everyone entered the water at 6.45am. This is the view that greeted us.

As expected it was rough and bumpy and I didn’t enjoy it much. Seemed to take forever to get back into the beach, against the strong rip coming out. A lot of water moving abut. Several people got their goggles knocked off by the surf and lost them. But the day had worse in store. I had my Wednesday session in the gym beginning at 9.30am as I was too busy to go at lunchtime. I was going fine stepping up and down on the 30cm box with two 10 kg weights in each hand. At one point I bent down during one of the repetitions to pick the weights up off the floor. Instead of standing flat with weight evenly on heels and toes of both feet, I went down in the squat standing on my toes. I felt something give slightly in my left foot, almost imperceptibly. I carried on as it didn’t seem too bad. By the time I got home this evening I realised it was very bad. I think I have strained a muscle or tendon in my left foot and find it very difficult to walk on it. Unbelievable. A week before going to Jatbula, and after all this training, I hurt myself picking up dumbbells in the gym. Another setback. I cannot believe this year. A broken leg, two floods in my apartment, now I have to move and find a new place to live. Despite all the training I injure myself at the last minute and may not be able to go to the Northern Territory. I just want this year to be over.