The lovely wet weekend

Fabulous weather for training this weekend! Not! Well that's a bit of a fabrication, yesterday was quite nice if a little chilly, today was bollocks! Yesterday I decided I needed a sleep-in as I felt that I hadn't had one for ages so I kinda casually got up when I woke, then managed to watch the Tour de France while having breakfast so I think it was probably about 11am by the time I headed to the plantation for my run with the dog in tow. This was going to be interesting, I had to run for 2 hours, which means so does the dog and he hasn't run that fat before! I decided that I would do the blue track twice, one lap anti-clockwise and one lap clockwise, that way its anything but monotonous and I almost managed to lose the track on the way back, one part looked a little unfamiliar on the way back, it turned out I was running parallel to the track but on a super sandy part, funny thing was I convinced myself I was on the track cos I could see my footprints from the way out. Good one 99, how many people run in asics?? That was a little funny. Zac did pretty good, he's quite the wee running dog! He started to get tired at around the 1hr45 mark, his longest run to date has been 1hr40 so I kinda expected him to run out of steam around there. He stopped running off so much and was quite content to run along beside me on the track instead of investigating everything in sight. It was nice when we got back to the carpark so I did all my stretches there, tried to convince the dog it would be smart for him to do some as well but no, he had found some energy and was busy running round the carpark with a couple of other dogs! Dropped Zac at home then headed to the pool for a 45min swim. My Saturday sessions have only just started doubling up so I haven't quite worked out whether to swim/run or run/swim. I don't normally swim at QE2 these days so it was nice for a change and the pool was 50m! Yay, that was cool! Only 2 lengths to do a 100m instead of 4! Yeah I know its the same distance but it feels less cos you are turning and counting less. I decided I would treat myself to a wee relax in the spa afterwards, something there is never time for in the mornings! It was a little bit like people soup and it certainly became more pleasant after the kissing couple left! Eek, not into very public displays like that when everyone is in a spa! I managed to be in front of one of the spa jets so managed to massage my back by sitting in front of that and as my calves were a bit tight from all that running I sat on the side and used it to massage my calves as well! Felt heaps better after that! Then home to finally eat! That's the thing with swimming you need to plan eating around it or swimming is a whole lotta unfun! I think I overdid it and have discovered that I cannot eat a whole can of baked beans! hehee, the dog got a nice wee treat in his bowl!

This morning was sposed to be a 3 hour ride with a 15min run off the bike. Weelll, at about 6.30ish I dragged myself outta bed to watch the end of the TT in the tour. The weather was miserable so I wasn't feeling very enthusiastic, texted the boys and yep the ride was still on, ick, long bays in the freezing cold and rain? Went back to bed as we weren't riding till 9.30, woke up again at about 8.45 and managed to convince the boys via text that waiting a while was a good idea and they postponed till 10.30. Got up around 9 and had breakfast while snuggled up on the couch watching the Tour, again! Well I missed most of it the first time cos I didn't get up early enough! By now you should know where this is going..... I poked my nose outside and decided that I didn't want to get hypothermia and then spend the rest of the day cleaning my bike so I sent the 'I'm piking' text and stayed on the couch, well only until the tour was over! Packed up the dog again and headed back to the plantation for another run cos running in the rain is actually kind of enjoyable, in fact it's downright fun compared to cycling in the rain and cold! Zac was pleased to be going out again, I think the plantation is his absolute favourite place in the whole wide world at the moment! I decided to only run for an hour today since I had done such a big run the day before so we headed in along the purple track which is nice and sheltered, we barely even noticed the rain to start with. You eventually end up near the beach on the Pegasus Bay track so we ran along there for a bit and stopped to play on the beach, it was awesome down there with the tide in and the waves crashing on the sand, that was a nice interlude and a bit of fun to stop and throw a stick or two for Zac to chase. This was about 30mins so we turned and headed back in, ickies was raining a bit more now and we were out in the open so it was less fun but at least we were on the way home. Heading back home someone (not me) took an unexpected swim! It was the funniest thing! If you know the plantation you will know that there is a pond near the intersection of Tango and 20th Ave. This pond is always covered in tiny green leaves and apparently when you have four legs and are chasing something it looks like a stretch of nice green grass, otherwise why else would you run in there on a freezing cold day? Was soo funny, I was a little bit behind Zac and he was running along and something obviously caught his eye so he took off, next thing I hear all this splashing (Zac isn't a huge fan of water) and figured that some other dog was round the corner, that is until I came round the corner and saw a rather pissed off Zac climbing out of the pond! Poor wee thing, I honestly just stood there and laughed at him, he looked highly annoyed! It was hilarious! Blimey it must have been cold cos it was freezing out! He is all happy and dry now though and has spent most of the afternoon asleep in front of the heater! And I'm feeling a little virtuous having cleaned my bike since I didn't ride her today, she was certainly rather filthy after all her icky winter rides, poor thing, I need to look after her better!

All in all not a bad week, I missed Thursday's run due to weather/flight mishaps, I thought about playing catch-up by doing it on Friday which is traditionally my rest day but wasn't too keen knowing that I had to do a 2 hour run on Sat, I figured best to focus on the one that counts the most and do it well rather than do 2 mediocre runs and now that I ran again today I know I made the right decision there. Not too concerned about missing a ride at this stage esp as my next event is a half-marathon, I figure the extra running can only help there. And managed to cross off some things on my to-do list this week as well, I entered the Palmy Half Marathon, the PhysioMed Triathlons and bought a brand new tri-suit off trademe. It's gorgeous and it only cost $40 so that's pretty cool. It may be a little big but I will race in it a couple of times and see what I think.

Quote for the Day:

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

- William Butler Yeats