Today's Comedy of Errors

Aaahhh it was just not meant to be today! I think I will lay all the blame on the French Open, cos had the tennis not been so riveting I would have gone to bed much much earlier! No, don't start lecturing about willpower and tell me it's all my choice and all that blah blah blah. If you had been watching Sharapova about to lose in the first round to Rodina who is ranked 104th you would have stayed up as well. It was an awesome awesome match to watch! I did have a couple of naps but managed to hang in there till the very late finish time. Consequently when that thing above my bed made awful beeping sounds this morning it would be fair to say that I didn't leap out of bed with excitement, in fact I think there may have been a record number of times for the old snooze button to get the go-ahead. When I eventually tumbled out it was off to walk the dog, that's always fun when you are half asleep but its my cunning plan to try and ensure he is too tired to behave destructively during the day (just so you know, this method isn't overly successful yet I continue to try). Then time to sort out my swim gear and work gear and drive into town nice and early to get a close-ish park to Centennial Pool and work. Ah the moment where I realised how daft I was to eat my breakfast as usual was a little priceless, who the hell eats a big breakfast before swimming? Remember what ya mum always said - you need to wait an hour before swimming after you've had your lunch. Hmmm, I am so out of the habit of swimming in the morning, normally I have an Up & Go then have breakfast after swimming. So that was the first error of the day. While I am walking from my car to the pool it dawned on me that I hadn't grabbed my access card and ID for work. Very spethial! Oh well I figured I could call someone and ask them to come down and let me in so would worry about that later. Get to the pool, all is good, am feeling pretty flash in my new togs! Go to get in the water and suddenly realise that bright spark here didn't pack a swim cap or goggles! Too funny! Well since I had just paid 5 bucks to get into the pool I figured what the hell I would just swim anyway! Well, that was real smart for the first 10 metres! Blimey, after 50m my eyes were stinging! I figured I should just suck it up and keep going which I did for a bit. Then I decided to do a few lengths of kick to give my eyes a break (yes, somehow I had managed to remember to bring my fins! What's with that?) so that was ok, then decided I better do a little more freestyle so I could see how my shoulder was holding up. By now I think other people were starting to laugh at me, one guy did feel a bit sorry for me and made polite conversation about my predicament but I bet he was smiling while he swam away. I tried to swim with my eyes closed but kept banging into the lane rope and also figured that wasn't so smart since I was sharing the lane with someone else. Did a few more lengths then gave up and did a bit of backstroke cos at least that was a little better on the eyes. I found out later that apparently you can hire goggles for a dollar! Oh well, at least I know for next time now. I decided that given the way my day was going I better get my coffee on the way to work so headed off to the Coffeesmiths. Luckily one of the girls from my team was there and when she stopped laughing at me she offered to wait for me so she could let me into work. So an interesting day was had with very red sore looking eyes and much laughter as I explained my comedy of errors to one and all! Here's hoping the next swim is a little more successful, not sure if a 15min swim really cuts the mustard for Ironman training!

Quote for the Day:

People will believe anything if you whisper it.

- The Whispered Rule

Musings

Hmmm have been thinking alot lately about the random things that happen and why and wondering why it is that some people get all obsessed about what others are doing and constantly compare etc. So since blogging is about musing/rambling/blogging what better place to ponder this without having to worry about whether anyone cares to hear what I say and I don't have to worry about hurting anyone's precious wee feelings cos this is my tiny little space in the world where quite frankly I can do and say as I please (well probably within the boundaries of blogspot.com, don't really want to get turfed off here!) and if ya don't like it don't visit. Ohh gosh, I sound a little feisty eh? Not my intent at all, I just get a bit fed up with other people criticising others all the time and comparing themselves to one another etc, sure I'm not perfect either and I have been known to do some of those things as well. But geez people, there is no point comparing yourself athletically to someone else cos unless you are pretty much identical twins your body composition, mental attitude, fuel intake, power to weight ratio are all going to be so randomly different that it is virtually impossible to get a realistic gauge. Sure we would all like to be as quick as our idols, but hello I started doing triathlon once I got that 30 number in my age so the odds of me being able to keep up with someone who has been doing it sine they were 13?? Very slim at best, unless of course they get 3 flat tyres and I sail past them smiling to myself hoping that it takes them ages to fix them. Reality is I would probably offer to help rather than just sail past. Thats the very reason why I don't post my TT times for any of swim/bike/run times. Sure I do them and you better believe I track them pretty closely (on my own wee geeky excel spreadsheet) and I get pretty damn excited when I go quicker cos that is what it's all about for me. I only share them with 2 people, that's Geoff and my coach. I am in awe of the times that the boys can climb to the Kiwi and yep I track my times and I talk to the boys about where I can go quicker and make up the time, but let's take a reality check, I am not able to ride my bike up the hill at the phenomenal pace they do, geez Geoff has been climbing that hill for close to 30 years now, you better believe that it will take me longer to get up there, I reckon he knows every piece of gravel by name!! hehehee

It's funny, people keep asking if I have a goal time for Ironman, yep sure I do and I'll post that on here when I write my race report, for now all you need to know is that I will finish and you better believe that come hell or high water I will be finishing before midnight unless they carry me off the course on a stretcher or something! I've shared my goal with those that need to know, I'm not out to race anyone but myself on the day. So what if someone else is faster than me? Well, I'm not doing it for them so that they have someone to beat, I'm doing it for me cos this is something I want to do and I want to do it for me. I know there'll be a contingent there to watch and support and thats wicked, I'm looking forward to that and I'll be needing that support for sure, it's gonna be a long day out so I hope you all have great endurance.

Ohhh am looking forward to the results from orienteering to go online, am quite excited about possibly being in last place!! hehee that will be fun! Gosh it took us forever to travel what would have been about 3km if we had travelled in a straight line from point to point! Haha, I thought they were joking when they said average speed would be about 2.5km an hour! Try 1.5km p/h!! What is this thing that people have worrying about being last? True, I've never actually been last in a race but I have been there plenty of times to clap and cheer that last person over the line! They get a way bigger cheer than the winners. Why? Well no-one is around when the winners come in, when you are last everyone is there and everyone for their own reasons is really impressed with that last place getter. I reckon they have the tougher end of the deal, they are competing way longer than lots of others, mentally that must be challenging having the tail-end charlie vehicle behind you or seeing others start to pack up the course as you go past. I had the pleasure of keeping a friend company once while she completed the final walk in a duathlon race, I was done and dusted ages ago and saw her heading out on that final walk so I tagged along to help keep her going. The support for her out there on the course was amazing! So many folk were just cheering us on, I had to keep explaining that I was just keeping company as I wanted her to have all the glory! I stopped just before the finish chute so she could go on up and saviour that moment of glory on her own cos trust me, her race was much much harder than mine, and I stepped aside and had a wee sniffle cos it was just wicked to hear the applause and cheers she got for getting out there and doing out! So far all you folk out there who are all freaked out about being last - guess what?? You're not last! You're already winning compared to the person who is still sitting on that couch wasting their life away watching crap telly (ok, I do like a bit of crap telly myself but you get the picture!) so get over being last, I'm kinda looking forward to my first last, cos trust me I will have had a helluva lot of fun coming last! I'll let you know how it goes! Yep, I'm one of those people who smiles to myself when I see people out walking etc when I'm on my bike or walking the dog. Why? Cos its one more person that has saved themselves from the couch!

Hmmm rambling away is kinda fun and it's certainly filled in part of the evening between cooking tea, making lunch, doing the washing etc.

Quote for the day:

To blog or not to blog; that is the question. - Nades (rudely plagiarised from Shakespeare of course)

Disclaimer - no alcohol was drunk in the writing of this blog

Orienteering

Well orienteering was pretty cool! Weather was a bit fickle again but we were so busy running round trying to find the checkpoints that I didn't really notice the rain.

Friday I went off down to Mapworld and bought a compass which was a bit of a novel experience, I spent the rest of the afternoon looking at it and hoping like hell it would all make sense come Sunday! Nadia and I rocked up nice and early for the event, it starts at a reasonable hour like 10am! Thats a nice change to all those early morning event starts. We had to decide on which course to do and what time to start. We got talking to a very nice lady who had answered my email query earlier in the week so that was good as she explained what the different colour courses were like and how hard they all were. We decided to be brave and tackle the orange course which was a medium level course. Start times are 3min apart and you just write down what time you want to go so we decided to go earlyish in case we were out there for forever! We paid over our $$ and were given a map and a list of checkpoints that we had to go to in order. Us being very naive about orienteering sat there and looked at the map and wondered where on earth we went to for the first clue, the first clue was a building and let's just say there were a few of those on the map! Little did we know that when you start the first thing you do is copy the checkpoints of a master map! Aahh all of a sudden things started to make more sense! We actually managed to find the first one relatively easily! Then the next one was a little harder, on the way to checkpoint 3 we managed to find checkpoint 4..... Hmmm, well from there we managed to work backwards up a rather muddy hill till we found several other people looking for checkpoint 3 as well! Finally find that one. We had some challenges finding some of the clues but when we were lost it seemed like everyone else was lost as well so that certainly made us feel a little better about our abilities!

Seriously this is a fun way to spend a few hours, apparently our course was about 3km long, it took us nearly 2 hours!! Crazy eh! Heaps of running around over interesting terrain and cos you are so busy you don't really notice the time, we did start to fade a little as we weren't really prepared food and drink wise to be out there that long! We know better for next time now.

Yay for having an awesome coach who suggests random stuff like this to keep training interesting and different! Thanks Richard!

Woohooo, have just been watching the Indy 500 before going to work and Scott Dixon won!! First Kiwi ever to win this race so that is wicked!

Quote for the day:

I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.

- Booker T. Washington

Fickle weather and the windtrainer....

Hmmm lovely day for training in ChCh...not! I was working this morning (yes tragically I get to work the odd Saturday!), so I'd biked to work with the plan of heading out for my ride after work. Plan was to cycle out to Prebbleton and watch the cycle race out there and then finish my ride on the way home from there. I even got organised enough to go onto Wises map site and figure out the easiest way to ride out to Prebbleton from work, just as I did that I looked out the window and it was pissing with rain so I changed my plans and decided I would do a windtrainer ride instead which is not something I do willingly that's for sure!! So cruised off home and of course the weather then decided it would turn nice, blue sky the whole works! Hmmm grrrr, so I thought maybe I'll drop my stuff at home and head off to do short bays instead but decided that even tho the sun was attempting to shine it was still bloody freezing so flagged that idea and headed home to sit inside and ride my bike. I haven't used my own windtrainer in such a long time, the Wilier has never been on it and she ain't going back on there either! My windtrainer is pretty much a piece of crap I have decided and gave up on it after about 30mins and got Geoff's one out to use instead, that was going well until I tried to crank up the resistance a little cos it was a smidge easy and I managed to get the resistance stuck on some ridiculously hard level where I could barely turn the pedals!! Well that was a pretty disastrous effort and what was intended to be about a 90min session quickly turned into 45mins. I was having fun as well for a change, I had an Ironman video playing and my ipod on pedalling away, I even did a pyramid on my own! If you've ever been to Richard's spin class you'll know what I mean by these! Not quite so exciting on your own in case anyone was wondering. Was sposed to do a 15min run off the bike so headed out round the reserve which was delightfully muddy and disgusting after all the rain :)

So, you guessed it, the first time that I don't go watch Geoff race he wins!! Ahh well, thems the breaks, maybe I was jinxing him by turning up? We'll find out next week.

Had a fun run home in the rain on Thursday evening, it would have been more fun if it hadn't got dark as well, that was a bit creepy. It was funny leaving work in my running gear while it was peeing down with rain, so many people tried to offer me a ride home! They were less obliging when I said I would be home in 40mins while they would probably still be sitting in their cars in traffic. Tis true tho!

Anyways, yesterday I headed off to Mapworld to buy myself a compass. Why you ask? Well, tomorrow Nad-ya and I are gonna have a go at orienteering for a bit of fun. The plan is to have a bit of variety with running and spending time on my feet while also having some fun. So we'll see how it goes, hopefully I won't be coming home to put the compass for sale on Trade Me! In mid-June some of us are going to head up to Cheviot to do the 6 hour Rogaine event. Rogaine is kinda like orienteering but you get to choose what check points you go to and each one has a different point value, the plan being to get as many points as possible.

Physio has been interesting this week, my shoulder definitely feels better but it has been painful getting there. The other day I honestly felt ill when she was working on my neck and I was feeling nauseous all afternoon after that! Not fun, but it was heaps better when I went yesterday so I guess its all worth it in the end!

Here's hoping for ok weather tomorrow!

Quote for the day:

When you come to a fork in the road, take it! - Yogi Berra

Well I have just been good and done my stabilisation/core strength exercises for the first time, tip - the dog is not helpful when doing these! Apparently the yoga mat and swiss ball were put out for him to play with! Very frustrating! Tis all good, am all done now so feeling quite virtuous!

Went for a lovely run up the Capt. Thomas walkway on Saturday and along the Scarborough Bluffs a bit before heading back down, it was so nice to be back out there running after some time off, it certainly makes you appreciate how much I really enjoy getting out there doing stuff! Had the most heavenly coffee from Wac Cafe on my way home from Sumner, that may have to become a regular thing! Headed out to watch the boys do the cycle race at Prebbleton which was fun, walked the dogger while they were all out riding, Zac seems to have gotten over his car-sickness which is good. Geoff got a flat tyre so that kinda sucked for him, we were nice tho and went and picked him up. Sunday was a long, slow, flat coffee ride for the boys and I sat on their wheel for 90km! Hmmm that was a really long but fun way to get to Sumner for a coffee! We went via Brooklands, the airport, Halswell, Heathcote and finally arrived in Sumner! Still was nice to get out for a decent ride on the Wilier and good to ride socially too, seeing as how it was really sposed to be a rest day....

Still going to physio for my shoulder so no swimming just yet but am trying to be good and do my exercises and stretches. Phew she hurt me today when I went, all that riding yesterday must have buggered up all the good work she did last week cos it blimmin' hurt today!

Quote for the Day:

There are lies, damned lies and statistics.

- Mark Twain

Yay, I can still run!!

Its always interesting heading out to do something you haven't done in awhile! It's been at least 5 weeks since I last went for a run so I was feeling a little apprehensive about how today's run would go. Only had to do a nice easy 45mins so ran home from work cos thats always fun and then your training is all done before you get home. I was a bit worried I may have reverted back to the old familiar run/walk scenario, but no I was feeling pretty comfy running along, I guess it does help when you have to stop for the occasional set of lights! Having said that I reckon that was one of my quickest trips home from work so far! Had a short walk at about 30mins, mainly cos my HR was thru the roof and it wasn't sposed to be doing that today (sorry Richard! It just went there!) all good after that, ran home nice and easy along the river. Have just been out and bought some 2XU compression tights, yay for having vouchers for Westfields, that made them heaps cheaper! So have those on now and they feel good and randomly I am an XXS in them! Oh tried on a rather cool new sports bra as well so Mel is going to order me one in which is cool cos I really need a good one as all mine are too big like everything else.

Went off to physio yesterday to get my shoulder looked at as it was hurting swimming the other day, so off to physio again tomorrow. Hopefully she makes me better real soon!

Quote for the day:

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

- Unknown

Back in training mode...

Woohoo training has begun again! Wow that was a long 3 weeks! To be honest tho being hurt probably helped cos I really didn't want to do much initially anyway. The long long weekend at Anzac weekend got pretty boring tho as I am used to filling up those long weekends with extra training! So heading to the pool just after 6am was a tad chilly this morning! But after coming home and walking the dog, biking to work, walking to the nutritionist and back I was feeling pretty virtuous by the time I finally got to work. Am quite pleased that my weight only changed by 100gms in the past 4-5 weeks as I have been eatingout of boredom, not bad foods but I was still probably eating as much if not more than when I was training full on. Muscle balance assessment tomorrow which should be interesting. Shoulder was a bit sore swimming this morning so best I check out the physio man again, that will be the second time ever in my life that I have been to physio!

Quote for the day:

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.

- Judy Garland

Its Official I have entered Ironman!!

This email makes things a little more real:

Congratulations, you are now entered for Ironman New Zealand 2009. This note serves as confirmation of your entry, receipt of payment and guarantees your place in the race. We look forward to celebrating the 25th anniversary with you. Train safe, see you in Taupo! Please contact the race office at info@ironman.co.nz if you have any questions.

Coolios!! :)

Meet Zac

Life without a dogger was miserable so we have adopted a wee

sweetie from Dogwatch. Check out their link at: http://www.dogwatch.co.nz/ and see the awesome work they do finding homes for doggers that need love.

Zac is an 11 month old Beardie/Huntaway cross. He hasn't had the best start in life, apparently he was tied up on a short rope for much of his short wee life. He ended up at the pound as a very skinny young man and the good folk at Dogwatch took him in and fed him up and socialised him with other dogs until we came along and met him. We had been popping into Dogwatch every now and again knowing that we couldn't really get a dog until after we had done the cycle races we had planned as we were going to be away 2 weekends in a row. When I first saw Zac he was a skinny wee guy, I could see his ribs poor thing! So a couple of weeks later we went in to Dogwatch again and he was still there and looking a bit better fed! He has such a lovely wee face and beautiful eyes, how anyone could ever have been mean to such a beautiful dog is beyond me! We had a bit of a play with Zac and asked lots of questions and had a good chat to the folk at Dogwatch. To make sure we were making the right decision we also checked out the pound and the SPCA. The pound is an awful place, don't ever go there unless you have to! The SPCA didn't seem to have a lot of dogs while we were looking which I guess is a good thing. So off we went back to Dogwatch and they did a property inspection and we had young Zac the next day. He came on a one week trial and well he has been here 2 weeks now so is here to stay! He is a wee sweetie although he does have lots to learn! He is still learning all those things that puppies learn when they are little, so we pretty much have a very big, lanky puppy! His first walk

was funny, he obviously hasn't seen things like park benches etc so he would growl at anything he wasn't sure of like park benches, rubbish bags and recycling bins. He has been pretty good when he has met up with other dogs out walking and most people are happy to let him sniff and say hi to their dogs when I say that he is just learning about stuff which is pretty awesome! So, here's some pics of our lad enjoying life at his new home, as you can see he is pretty comfortable here :)