Gosh I have been a bit slack at updating my blog haven't I? Things have been a bit busy with work, going support crew for the Coast to Coast as well as racing mid-week with the Surf'n'Turf series.

Surf'n'Turf's have been fun, I have just been doing the long distance swims as well as cycling out to Sumner for the race and then home again. Generally I've been pretty happy with my swim times esp as the water has usually been a reasonable level of choppy/wavy! I even managed to carry on my tinny luck of winning spot prizes by winning a pair of asics running shoes the other night. All good, I have been into the shop and my shoes are on the way! Yes I have been and bought a lotto ticket after my recent run of luck! Power ball is apparently $8 mill this week, wouldn't that be nice!!!

Hmmm trying to remember what else I have done since Timaru and its a bit of a blur really! Lots of training hard and getting older! It was my birthday last Friday so as usual I took the day off work, why work on your birthday if you don't have too! Geoff gave me his credit card for the day so I could buy clothes that fit! At last I no longer look like I am dressing out of the rag bin! Its nice to try on size 10's and 12's at the shop and discover that the 10's fit really nicely! I have no idea when I would have last bought a size 10 item of clothing, it would have been many years ago, maybe when I was half the age I am now...... Tried out the BBQ the next day by inviting lots of the girlies etc over for a BBQ, it was bucketing with rain so we BBQ'ed in the carport butheyit was still fun. The Oceanswim was cancelled that morning, the weather was foul. Big nasty southerly swells out in Corsair Bay. Kalina and I momentarily thought about going for a swim anyway and then decided that going for coffee would be a far nicer way to spend the morning! So a bit gutted that I didn't get to do the 2.8km swim but better safe than sorry I spose!

Sunday morning was the Canterbury Classic Triathlon at Corsair Bay. The water was flat as glass!! You wouldn't believe how flat it was after having seen it the previous day. The water was freezing cold tho after all that rain, huge ice-cream head-ache level of cold! Had a good race tho. Swim went well, T1 wasn't bad considering I had difficulty putting my shoes on cos my feet were frozen. Had a pretty good cycle, managed to pass a few folk and held Jazz and Tanya off for a reasonable distance, I knew I would beat them out of the swim but that they would catch me on the cycle. T2 again was fine except for the cold foot syndrome still hapening! I had a blimmin' great run for me! I started off running out of the carpark but that carpark is just nasty so I walked the last half and then ran the whole thing apart from that other nasty little steep part near Magazine Bay. Overall I was pretty stoked with my time, I was approx 9mins quicker than last year and 5mins of that was on the run! All those running technique classes must have paid off! Oh and won another spot prize at prize giving, a huge tub of Leppin this time and Tanya finally won her first ever spot prize!

I have started a new trend of running home from work about once a week. Its kinda fun, I hop on the bus in the morning with my camel back etc, leave most of my gear at work and run home. The best part is I am home by the time I would have got there on the bus and I don't have to turn around and head abck out cos I have already been for my run. Its real pretty running home along by the river.

Had a good ride up to the Kiwi and back yesterday morning, I left home around 6am, its still dark then by the way! It was gorgeous cycling thru town and up the hill while the city was waking up. By the time I was at the Kiwi, all the street lights were out and there were quite a few people out and about running and cycling etc, not much traffic tho which was really nice.

It will be up early-ish tomorrow to get in a nice 3 hour training session before we go to the cricket and sit in the sun and drink beer!

Quote of the Day:

Time is not measured by the passing of the years, but by what one does, what one feels, and what one achieves.

- Jawaharlal Nehru

Tribute to Merlin

RIP Merlin 16-09-1997 - 02-02-2008

My wee buddy of 10 years passed away this weekend. Merlin was the coolest dog, a big gentle giant and my old man! He loved nothing more than spending time with his family. He would happily come for a ride in the car, go for a walk and even a run although he would try and trip you up when he had had enough of running along! He would come for a drive when I would go swimming in the morning and would wait patiently in the car for me to come back so we could go home and have breakfast. He was great for having a nap on the couch with when you were tired from training or just tired, he would even let you use him as a pillow. He was very much a food loving dog and if you ever got the cheese out of the fridge he would hear you even if he was sound asleep at the far end of the house! He also knew that the last piece of toast was his and would patiently wait while you ate your breakfast knowing that I would save him a wee corner. My wee boy was also quite the couch potato loving nothing more than curling up on the couch for a cuddle while you watched telly, if he was human I reckon beer and motorsport would have been pretty high on his list of favourite things! He was such a sweetie, he would give you a kiss when you did stuff for him even if it was just filling his water bowl or giving him his breakfast.
We took Merlin to the vet a few weeks ago as he seemed to have a bit of a sore back and they put him on a course of steroids and he improved fairly quickly so after a few visits to the vet over a couple of weeks he seemed to be doing ok so he came off the steroids to see how he was. Two days later he was quite sore, he yelped when he was patted on his back, my boy never yelps he is a pretty tolerant boy, so he must have been pretty sore. Geoff took him down to the vet as I was still at work, I headed down there when I got home so I could find out what was going on. It appeared Merlin had regressed fairly quickly so back onto the steroids and he seemed to be doing ok over the weekend, he wasn't moving around quite as much but he still seemed ok. That was Friday, Monday when I got home he was quite sore, he was sitting up on the couch and didn't want to get down cos he knew it would hurt. So I decided to take him into the vet in the morning, I couldn't get an appointment at a time when I could make it so I dropped him off for the day. They took a few x-rays of his spine and the vet diagnosed him as having spondylosis which is a fusing of the spine. They recommended I leave him there overnight so that he could rest, something which is a little difficult for a dog to do in a house that has stairs everywhere! I went in to visit him the next day and he was having some trouble walking around. The vet ran some tests the next day as he thought he may have an infection which he did so onto antibiotics as well. His condition just didn't get any better and the next day he couldn't walk on his own, it was like his wee back just couldn't do what it was sposed to do anymore. you could see in his eyes that he was keen as anything to see you and he desperately wanted to stand up but just couldn't. So it was with much sadness that Merlin crossed over to the Rainbow Bridge on Saturday afternoon. He can now run around and hang out with his big sister Tara and the kitties that he has befriended over the years.

For those of you who don't know about Rainbow Bridge follow this link: http://petloss.com/