Ash Vegas

Gee, what a day! Why does the weather never co-operate when you have something planned? And yes I know it's good to train in all weather but I'm telling you now if its that windy at the Half Ironman I am pulling out!

Right, back to the start.

Today's plan was to head off to Ashburton to do a simulation on the Half IM course. Kalina and I loaded bikes in the car and headed off to Ashburton to meet up with Clare and Rachel and family. After a detour via Halswell so I could pick up my HRM strap which I somehow 'lost' at spin the other night we were off with my wee car laden down with bikes and other assorted triathlon gear (triathletes have a lot of stuff!). Pretty uneventful trip down, it seemed pretty windy on the way there but fairly calm in Ashburton which was nice.

It was cold when we got to Lake Hood and all of a sudden the thought of getting in a wetsuit and into cold water was less than appealing but tough gals that we are we quickly suited up and jumped in the water. It was initially pretty chilly but seemed to warm up unlike the sea, or maybe we are just used to being cold now? We swam (mostly swam) for about 30 mins, the water is really clear at the moment and you can see all the weed which is kinda creepy, Clare thought they were triffids and didn't seem very impressed. I kept swimming without sighting and managed to beach myself on the other side of the canal!!

The plan was then to do 2 laps each of the cycle and run course. So after a long transition putting bikes together and loading up pockets etc with food, oh and looking at the 3-eyed fish Graham found on the shore while we were swimming, we headed off with the obligatory girlie stop at the loos on the way out. The cycle was a bit of a challenge as they are doing road works at the first corner and the road was closed, so we headed down to the detour only to discover that the detour went down a gravel road and none of us were keen to go down there on our bikes so we headed further down the road only to come across more gravel roads! We decided to head back and try the other road near the road works, this was a bit less fun as we were now riding into a headwind! We turned left at the corner and had the wind at our side now which presented some interesting challenges where the hedges were stopping and starting! Once the hedges ended it was just crazy, I felt like I was having to lean right over just to try and stay upright and I could feel that I was just going to get blown off and land on the road hurt with a broken bike, it was bloody scary eh! I have been across the causeway at Sumner in some big winds but this was way way worse, I felt like I couldn't even hang onto my bike, I was scared to stop in case I got blown over trying to clip out! I finally got the courage up to stop and the others all stopped as well, we agreed that we were foolish to keep going as falling off and hurting ourselves wasn't going to help any of us achieve our goals so we headed back to Lake Hood.

Packed everything back in the car and on with the runners to head off for a lap around the lake. That was hard work in the wind as well especially as running up the far side of the lake was straight into the headwind. The lake had gotten a lot choppier since we had swum and the wind wasn't showing any sign of letting up. Other than the wind the run went ok which was good. Rachel's daughter, Ella, was running with us as well, I was pacing off her which was good only thing is she was cruising it while I was puffing along behind her, she is a fit wee thing and a pretty good runner! We regrouped back at the cars before heading off for lap 2, it was just Clare and I for round 2 as the others had had enough by then which is fair enough, I figured I may as well get the running in since we couldn't really do the cycle. The second lap was a little harder, mainly wind related as it seemed to be even stronger by now!

Kalina and I then headed for home stopping for some lunch on the way out of town. I am now very tired, too many early mornings for this girl! And another one on the cards for tomorrow!