Gorges Ride Sun 30th

Blimey getting up early to ride after a late night is never really much fun is it?

Headed out Rangiora way to ride the Gorges (just the short version via Ashley Gorge), left home about 7.30am, the plan was for Kelly and I to get a head start on the guys who were leaving at 8.30. We were on our bikes just after 8 so that was all good. It was a little hard to get motivated initially but everything seemed to come right once we got to the first hill, I powered up Summerhill thanks to having to do some climbing in a harder gear than normal! Doing that hurts and makes you swear some but you certainly get up the hill a fair bit quicker! Thanks to my new speedo that the boys at the shop kindly loaned me while I wait for mine to eventually arrive I now know that German Road is 11km long! That is one long boring slightly uphill road! Never mind, I got in some good aerobar practise along there. Near Loburn we had to stop and help a lady who had stopped to help a cat who had been hit by a car. We rang the vet for the lady, meanwhile the owner came out which was good as the vet was keen for us to try and find the owner. The boys finally caught up with us while we were stopped, we were starting to get worried that something had happened to them, given that there was about 8-10 of them and only 2 of us I figured they would have caught us much earlier!

Yay that I have exceeded my training levels/time on my program this week, it irks me when I just miss the target! Thanks to that extra ride on Xmas day I have over-achieved!

Trundled off to the library this afternoon to get some 'junk food for the brain' to read while on holiday. Spent a bit of time lying on the lawn in the sun trying to even out some of my rather distinctive cycling/tri-suit tan lines!

The last couple of days...

Right I have decided I need to be better at updating this so will try and do it every couple of days.

Yesterday was a pretty quiet day as I had a rest day from training. It's Geoff's birthday today so took him showing for some new cycle shorts, got some very styley Craft bib shorts from the lads at Chain Reaction. Then went to Fava Cafe for a coffee, hmmm they do good coffee over there! Decided I would finally use my yoga cards that I bought on sale about a year ago. I've never used them but now is as good a time as any. I discovered that I am nowhere near as flexible as I thought I was. On the plus side I remembered how much fun yoga is, its a little bit like forced time out and always makes you feel relaxed and kinda brings the world back into alignment and makes you feel at peace.

Mel and I settled in for a night on the couch to watch the final of America's Next Top Model. We were pretty gutted that Renee didn't make the final 2 but at least Jaslene beat Natasha. Aaahh reality TV is so much fun!

Today I dragged Kalina out for a nice refreshing swim at Corsair Bay (she reckoned it was the worst birthday present she has ever had - the water was pretty cold but she did agree to come swimming!). After that I went running from Corsair down to Lyttleton and back up past the yacht club and Magazine Bay. Managed 3 laps of that, I did walk the nasty hilly parts, but am pretty happy with how I was running today so that was cool. Went and stood in the cold water afterwards since I had done a fairly long run, hopefully my legs won't be too sore and tired for tomorrow's ride.

Off out to the Yellow Cross for dinner tonight since it is everyone's birthday today! Should be fun :)

Training Update

Well its been a pretty busy week, what with finishing work for the year and Xmas all happening! Phew its nice to be on holiday! Last week was fun tho, I managed to do my quickest ever climb up to the Sign of the Kiwi via Hackthorne Rd. Managed 26mins exactly, my previous best was 29! Thursday morning I just went for a quick ride in the drizzle which promptly turned into bucketing rain once I was out on my bike, followed this up with a run after work by which time the rain had stopped of course.... Friday was the last day of work! Woohoo! My team and I finished up at about 1.30pm and headed into town to check out our new building as we move in there in January. It looks very flash! Can't wait to be working back in town again. Then we went off to The Bicycle Thief in Latimer Square for lunch. They have the most divine food, lunch was awesome! I'll definitely be going back there. Saturday I headed over to Corsair Bay for a bit of a sea swim, to be fair we really just mucked around in the water with some short distance swimming between chatting! After the swim I changed into my running gear and headed out onto the run course for the Corsair bay triathlon, its a nice hilly wee run and apart from the nasty steep bit at Magazine Bay I actually managed to run the whole thing, let's hope I can manage that in the race there in Feb. Sunday, did short bays with Tanya and Jazz. It was nice to have company on a ride since a lot of my riding is done on my own. Climbed to the Kiwi in 26.40 today, a little slower but still pretty damn quick for me! Stopped in Sumner for coffee which was nice and it always makes me smile to see how many people stop and admire my bike!

Training picks up a little this week since I have a lot of free time on my hands as I am on holiday. Swam at QE2 on Monday am, it was pretty quiet, everyone else was obviously at the mall doing last min shopping. That was sposed to be it for the day but everyone else at home decided they were going to cycle to Sumner and back since the weather had cleared, I have no willpower to say no to a nice ride to Sumner and back on my lovely bike so I joined Mel, Jazz and Geoff for a wee jaunt! It was pretty nice except for the evil headwind! Tuesday was Xmas Day! We gave Santa a tight budget this year since we have both spent rather a lot of money on bikes this year! I now own some rather nice Thorlos running socks, I had been avoiding getting a pair of these cos I was worried I would really like them and they are ridiculously expensive socks! And I do like them! Xmas Day lunch was a picnic out at McLeans Island so we loaded up other people's cars with stuff so we could all bike out there. It was a nice relaxed Xmas Day relaxing in the sun etc. Nasty headwind again for the ride home tho! Headed over to James and Helen's for a couple of glasses of Xmas cheer! Wednesday, swam at QE2 again, it was a little busier today with everyone working off all their Xmas lunches and dinners! It was peeing with rain and I needed to go for an hour long run. After waiting an hour or so for the rain to stop I just gave up and ran in the rain, its not so bad really! Actually managed to run for 53mins without stopping, this is a huge jump from the run:walk efforts I have been doing, so I was pretty stoked with my efforts! Spent the evening playing the latest Buzz game and Cranium which Mel and Jazz had given us for Xmas, Cranium is hilarious! We got beaten in the first game so had to play another and solidly beat the young'uns to prove a point! After all they did mock us when they won! Thursday, 2 hour ride followed up by a run! Headed up to the Kiwi for a start, managed 26.50 today, still pretty quick and I realised afterwards that I had managed to climb to the Cup in my 19! So I am happy to forgo a few seconds in time since I can now climb in what is a huge gear compared to what I used to climb in. Pottered round the Halswell Downs and base of the hills before heading home to run along the river. Run was pretty good, it was hot by this stage, I had 2 small walks while running for 33mins, my legs were a bit shot from the hills so I am reasonably happy with how I went. And again it is windy out there, am starting to think I have moved to Windy Wellington in my sleep or something, every ride I do lately has a headwind home and its getting annoying!!

Race Report for Ashburton Half IM Nov '07

Wow is what I will say! Huge buzz doing something this big!! Woohoo!!

Fri morning I woke up hugely nervous, I tried taking my resting HR but seriously you could try and pick a number anywhere between 53 and 79 cos my HR was all over the place with excitement and nerves. Packed up Fri morning and drove down to Ash Vegas just after lunch. Paula and Rebecca were already there when I got there. I felt much better and less nervous as soon as I got there so that was good. We headed off to the lake to have a quick swim (the water was warm! Yay! Last year it was freezing!) then drove the bike and the run course to familiarise ourselves for the next day. Back to the motel to stuff our tummies full of food (aka carboload!), I ate so much food the 3 days beforehand! I'm pretty sure I burnt it all off yesterday tho. Nadia turned up at dinnertime (smart timing!) as our number one support crew who had entered the sprint distance race at the last minute so she would have something to do while we were out on the bike course! Watched a bit of telly, made up drink bottles etc for the morning then headed off to bed fairly early. One day Ginni will remember that I use my cellphone as my alarm clock and not text at 1030pm on a race night :) heheee, that was preferable to the trains zipping past all night!

Up at about 5.30 on race morning. Transition opened at 7am and race start was at 8am. I was feeling less nervous on Sat then I had been the 2 days prior, this was good cos it meant I could pretty much just get on and do what needed to be done. I only ate about half my breakfast tho, eating is not fun when you are contemplating such a big day ahead! Got dressed, sunblocked up, packed the car and headed off to the lake. We were some of the earlier ones to arrive, this was good cos we got to pick where we wanted to go in transition so I found a nice end of a rack and set up camp. That hour between 7 and 8 went past pretty quick, the 3 trips to the loo may have been partially to blame for that :) All set up, poured on the baby-oil so I would be able to get out of my wetsuit quickly, got into my wetsuit and all of a sudden it was race briefing time. Briefing was a bit interesting as the swim course was originally only supposed to be one lap but then it changed to 2 laps. Lots of confusion cos no-one really listens at race briefings so we made Pete repeat the course to us once we were in the water. Even then I wasn't 100% sure where we were going but I figured I would have plenty of feet to follow :)

Swim

I made sure I wasn't near the front so I wouldn't get swum over, still got bashed around a bit but I also did some unintentional bashing, thats just the way it is! I felt like I was swimming for ages and I was thinking ohh my swimtime will be crap! Oh well, nothing I can do but keep swimming. I went a bit off course on the second lap, its actually quite difficult to see a large red bouy when you are looking into the sun cos everything just looks black and I am shortsighted! So a wee detour to get back on track, after the last bouy I picked up the pace a little and caught a couple of people. Transition was pretty slick! Wetsuit came off really easily, all my nutrition etc was on my bike so I just had to put shoes/helmet on and get the hell outta there! Not 100% sure on total actual swim time but I was at 40mins when I got on my bike!

Cycle

The cycle leg was 3 laps of a 30km out and back course - we found out after that the course was a little long and total distance was actually 94km! The course is flat so that is good but it was windy again this year, a nice nor-easter this time. So mainly head/side winds on the way out and kinda tail/side on the way back. I had a plan to eat and drink straight away on the bike so I headed off stuffing food in as quick as I could. Then out onto the main road where I dropped onto my aerobars and pretty much tried to stay on them except when eating and drinking. The first lap seemed quite long esp on the way out, it was great coming back into the turn around outside transition cos there was a huge crowd cheering everyone on which was pretty cool. By the time I was coming in from the first lap the short course folk were out on the cycle so that made the second lap seem a little quicker cos there were more folk out on the roads. The guy who won the Half IM lapped me just before the end of my second lap, he must have had a pretty impressive bike split cos he passed me early on in the cycle so I must have had a quicker swim than he did. The 3rd lap was pretty tough, by now I had a really sore back from being on my aero bars so much so I was sitting up and stretching quite a bit on my bike. I could hear my coach in my head saying 'Come on Nadine, dig it in! Keep going, you're nearly there! You're doing well!' So that was good and definitely kept me going! I had followed my nutrition plan to the letter tho so other than my back aching like anything I was feeling really good. It was on the 3rd lap that it all became pretty real and it really hit me that I had done all this training and I was really going to complete a half ironman, so that was a little humbling and I nearly had a wee cry on my bike. I made sure I thanked all the marshalls on my last lap, they were great! Esp the kids at the drink station at half way.

Run

Blimey, I was quite pleased to get off my bike but my legs didn't seem to want to run now! It was a hobble to transition. Quick change of shoes and yes I put socks on for once - first time ever in a tri for me :) I headed off at a rather slow jog busy slapping more sunscreen on my face and arms. The run course was also a 3 lap course and we went past the Lake House Restaurant/cafe along the boardwalk twice in each lap so that part was pretty cool with the crowd sitting there watching and cheering us on. The run wasn't the best run I have ever had, I am pretty sure I left my running legs out on the cycle course somewhere, I will have to go back next year and see if I can find them. I had a run/walk plan cos I knew that running the whole thing wasn't going to happen. I had the energy and the puff to run but my legs seemed to have lost the plot and my run was barely a blimmin' shuffle! When I stopped to walk I actually felt like I was going faster so I figured bugger it, I will walk but it will be a kick-ass speedy power walk kind of walk! So I headed off arms swinging, nice long strides and was actually maintaining a 7min/km time, considering that on a good day I run a 6min/km I figured this was going to be ok. I made sure I drank at every water station and had a GU every 30mins, the good thing was I never ever felt like I wouldn't make it to the end and I never wanted to stop so that is cool. At the end of the first lap when I came to the boardwalk I forced myself to run the boardwalk past the crowd. When I walked again I was almost crying cos at that point I was feeling a little pissed off at myself that I couldn't keep running, so if you see any pics with me biting my lip that was to hold the tears back! So other than running the boardwalk in both directions everytime I had a nice walk! I did get a few compliments on my speed, who knows maybe I will take up walking and be the next Craig Barrett, haha! On the last lap I walk/ran the last couple of kms and managed a sprint up the finish line!! Remembered to thak all the marshalls again, they had the nicest marshalls ever on course today, they were great! I saw Paula as I was heading up to the finish line so we gave each other a high 5 and said we would see each other at the end, that made me cry, just realising how far we had come since we decided to a half-ironman. The finish line was funny, poor Pete managed to call me Nadia which was just hilarious! We looked at each other and laughed, Pete did correct himself and apologise, its just funny that everyone confuses us so we had a good giggle at the finish which is good cos it stopped me crying. The first thing I did was sit down and kick my shoes off, at the start of the 3rd lap my feet were absolutely aching and I knew I was going to have the worst blisters (I actually thought about taking my shoes off and just wearing my socks they were that sore!). I now have massive blisters about the size of a 50 cent piece (the old 50 cent pieces!) on the inside of both heels, so I will be living in jandals for a few days!

I waited for Paula to finish and then we went and sat in the lake to cool off and ease our aching bodies a little. It was cool to catch up and see how each others day had gone cos although we kept seeing each other on course we pretty much just waved and kept going. Prizegiving was fun and I won a spot prize for Performo Altitude training, my second one this year so that was funny!

Paula had brought down a bottle of Moet for after and tell you what, that tasted pretty damn good!! As did the McDonalds we had for tea! hehee.

I am so pleased that I have completed my first half-ironman and yes there will be others! And I am now definitely going to aim for IMNZ09! Changing coaches 8 weeks out appears to be about the smartest thing I have done all year cos I know I wouldn't have been so well prepared if I hadn't made the change! Richard has been worth his weight in gold, although he may run and hide when I tell him that I need his services a lot longer! hahahaa

Thank you to everyone who has been supportive and wished me well over the past months it has been much appreciated!!

How it all began....

Well, after considerable time messaging on various websites etc I thought it would be a good idea to post my thoughts etc in one place.
I have been doing Triathlons for just on 4 years now. Started off nice and gentle with the Kellogs Special K event back in Feb 04. Potentially not a lot of fun, it was my birthday and it was foul weather, pissing rain, foggy and cold!! I was hooked tho and immediately looked for more triathlons to do. I discovered the Contours Series and entered those and have completed those every year since 04. I also completed the Active Woman Series for the couple of years that they were run in ChCh. I mixed things up with a few 5 and 10km running races, I was under some obscure delusion that if I entered running races I would actually work on my running and it would improve!
After a couple of years of the shorter distances I entered a few longer triathlons, I did the Canterbury Tri Club races as these had longer distances. I discovered its actually heaps of fun to race in a mixed race, all my previous races were womens events.
In June 06 I did my first half marathon, that was a mammoth effort esp when the run goes right past the end of your drive!
January 07 I did my first ever Olympic distance race and loved every minute of it! That was when I figured I may be better at this longer distance thing.
In March 07 I set a goal of completing my first Half Ironman in November 07. Bit of a big scary goal but I did some smart stuff and got a coach for the first time ever.
Completed the ChCh Half Marathon again in June 07 and had my first ever sports injury, it's not fun limping/hobbling/crying to the finish line of a race. And I was quicker than the previous year.
About 2 months out from the Half IM I decided I needed to change my coach, when I first selected a coach I really had no idea what I needed from a coach. Second time round I was much smarter and met up with a couple of different people and now have the best coach ever! (Richard when you read this just skip this part ok!)
Half Ironman went pretty well, I was extremely well prepared and had an awesome day out (I will post the race report here later) and loved every minute of that long hot day! I am keen to do another Half IM or 2 and have committed to completing Ironman NZ in 2009.
This blog will follow my journey from now until then. It will be an interesting journey filled with many challenges and plenty of fun along the way.