Geoff's Big Day Out

This was fun, what we have done as we don't actually spend a lot of time together just the 2 of us between both of us training etc etc we have picked a day each while I am on holiday where we have no or very little training and we take each other out for the day. So on Sunday I took Geoff on his day out and it was heaps of fun.

I had to do an hour run, I was planning to run up Capt Thomas so Geoff put his bike in the car and did hill repeats up Evans Pass for an hour. Home via the drive-thru at WAC Cafe to get a good coffee to start the day. After showering (with me making sneaky bookings while Geoff was in the shower) we headed off. I had bought Geoff a model airplane for Xmas so we had a quick stop at the park so he could fly his plane as it was a lovely calm day. After that we headed off and he got what was really part of his b'day present (his b'day is the next day) which was the Feelers Best Of CD. He's not really into my music and since we were in for a long drive I figured best he have something to listen to. We headed up Dyers Pass Rd, at this stage Geoff thought we might be going to the Takahe for a Devonshire tea but I drove straight past, then he thought maybe we were having ice-creams at the Kiwi, again straight past, by now he was convinced it was a picnic lunch at the Bellbird as I headed across the Summit Rd towards Gebbies. Again he was wrong and I headed down Gebbies and onto the road to Akaroa and took him to French Farm winery for lunch. Not my first choice but I forgot to book and everything in Waipara was booked solid but it worked better going this way anyway as it turns out. Lunch was really lovely and we had a stroll around at French Farm and then I gave Geoff the option of cruising into Akaroa for a look around or checking out something else along the way. He chose to check out Kaituna Valley so we turned off there and drove all the way up to the end of the road then turned back and walked part of the track to the Packhorse Hut, that's a nice track, we only walked about 20mins of it but its real pretty, could be a good off road run to do one day. Then we headed back over Gebbies and along the bays stopping at Governers Bay for a beer, it was gorgeous sitting outside there looking at the harbour! Then off to Sumner for fish and chips on the beach for tea, with a couple of beers that I had hidden in a chilly bin in the car. That was fun, there's nothing quite like fish and chips on the beach at Sumner, although we did have to wait half an hour for them, that fish and chip shop was very busy but they were yummy! Then off to the Hollywood Cinema at Sumner to see Quantum of Solace because we had been meaning to see that for ages, I had never been to the movies at Sumner so that was something I wanted to do which was cool.

So, huge day out, we left home around 12 and got back around 10.30pm. Geoff was blown away and had a great time, he had no idea what was happening at any stage or where we were going which was really cool!

Christmas and today

Had a fun day of training this morning, over to Corsair Bay for the tri club swim. I've never actually been to one of these before and it was heaps of fun swimming with so many other people! And the good thing was that I pretty much swam non-stop whereas if I am on my own I tend to stop every now and again and make sure I am heading in the right direction etc. Then a very slow transition while I ate breakfast, got changed etc etc before heading off for a ride, I had to do a hill ride so decided that Corsair Bay to Gebbies and back would be a good ride and it certainly was. Rode most of the way out there with Turps and Russell so that was cool, the boys made me work hard on the way out tho! It didn't help that Turps somehow managed to fall off his bike getting out of Corsair Bay?? Russell and I very unfairly just left him there and biked up the road laughing away at the silly bugger. Laughing is not good tho as it appears I have bruised a rib (or two??) in my crash last week and laughing hurts like hell and leaves me very breathless so it took me awhile to get my breathing etc sorted after that wee episode, and yes Turps is ok, he just has a wee grazed knee, as he said the only thing hurt was his pride! Just so you know that climb up Gebbies from Teddington is a wee toughie! Its not too foul but it certainly isn't easy either! Had to do a 30min run off the bike, was looking forward to this as I got to wear my compression socks for the first time! To be fair I did only get them yesterday, so yep I headed off for my run wearing knee high white socks, black tri-shorts and a white cycle top. I think I attracted more than my fair share of odd looks, I found if I didn't look at people I didn't notice them giving me odd looks tho! hahaha! The socks are great tho, I felt like my calves were being gently massaged the whole time. My legs certainly felt fresher than they would normally feel after zipping up and down hills on my bike for 90mins so that is good.

Hard to believe it is only 10 weeks till the big day now, phew! I had a wee gulp when I realised Rachel only has 3 weeks togo, 10 weeks doesn't feel like long anymore so I can only imagine what 3 weeks is feeling like! Yikes!!

Christmas was a fairly quiet affair for us which was good. I headed off to the Tri Club Christmas Day swim and Geoff went for a short ride with Craig and Rosie then we had french toast for brekkie before heading out to McLeans Island for a BBQ lunch with Geoff's family, Mel and Jazz came too so that was cool. It's the second year we have done Christmas lunch this way and it works really well and means no-one has to host heaps of people and end up with a fridge full of food that you can't eat! We all took the dogs out as well so they had fun getting to know one another and running around being silly. We took them all for a bit of a walk before lunch to wear them out while eoff and one of his brothers went for an MTB ride. All 3 of us (dog included) had a big nap on the couch in the afternoon which was great! Nice and peaceful and was just us for the evening so no second big meal which was good cos I would have only eaten more food if it was there!

Right, I am off now to look at pretty new tri-suits now that I have found the link that Zarnia told me about. The tri-suits there are awesome, although a bit dearer than I was planning to spend but they are pretty cool, am thinking that I need an early b'day pressie...

The race that wasn't!

Well, this morning was the Canterbury Tri Club Xmas Cracker Triathlon, always an interesting race this one, you would think so close to Xmas it would be stunning weather and it would be great for racing? But no, this is one tri that is very rarely a tri, in fact it has been reduced to a 5km run before! Today it changed to a duathlon which was a good call, it was pretty chilly out there, apparently about 5-6 degrees. I was a bit concerned about how to stay warm on the bike after the swim so was ok about it being changed, never happy to do a duathlon but it made sense. It was hard to know what to wear and I had decided to wear my tri-suit and long sleeved cycle top as it would be easy to peel off if I got hot. While standing round at the race briefing I got really cold so put my long running tights back on. So rather than a nice short 400m swim we had a 2km run instead, hmm I think I went out a little hard (I had done no warm-up of any kind which wasn't good given how cold it was!) so I have a nice split time for the first 2kms into transition of 10.54 so that was ok. Off onto the bike and I was feeling ok and was settling in for a good ride. The road was pretty wet and there were a few puddles etc out on the road, there was a particularly big puddle near the Sumner Surf Club and I swerved out to avoid it and when straightening back up I slipped on the wet road and because I was down on my aerobars I wasn't able to correct myself and I crashed off onto the road! Grrr, lucky there was no-one right behind me and I was able to get off the road pretty quickly. I seriously contemplated getting back on and finishing the race until I saw the state of my hand! I have a big chunk of skin missing off the heel of my right hand, bumps and bruises on my left elbow, left hip, knee and ankle. Am starting to cease up a little now but was good and went and visited the St Johns people to get bandaged up and have now had my first ever DNF!

The bike is ok, she has a scratched left lever, left pedal and the handlebar tape is shot! Left hood is also pretty torn but otherwise I think we got off pretty lightly. I cycled back to the finish line, it was only a couple of kms, and she seemed ok so that was good and Geoff has given her the once over and says she seems ok.

Oh well, better a DNF today than at Taupo! :)

What else has been happening?

Well, I actually managed to wear myself out! I woke up on the Monday after those last 2 races and said to Geoff that I felt so tired that I just wanted to call in sick cos I just didn't have the energy to go to work. I am however a little more committed to work than that so I headed off for my swim although I did cut it back and took it pretty easy. Got to work and my manager looked at me and queried how tired I was, when I admitted that I had felt like calling in sick she pretty much told me to go home, so I hung in there for a meeting and then headed off just after lunch. What you need to know is that I never ever do sick days! I haven't had a day off work for sickness in over a year. So toddled off home like I was told too, just as well I did cos when I got back to my car I had managed to not close the drivers door properly or lock my car! Cripes! Got home, made myself eat some food and spent the afternoon in bed. I have my weekly massage on a Monday evening and Carol bless her was very gentle and gave me a therapeutic massage rather than my normal sports massage, that made me feel heaps better. On the Tuesday I had to go to Wellington for work so flew up that morning and back the same day. Started feeling a bit off on the flight home and by the time I got home I was feeling shattered again whereas I had felt ok all day. So headed off for a nice early night only to be up and hugging the toilet bowl for the rest of the evening, so a bit of vomiting and diarrhoea just for fun! I was not in a good way, I was going from hot to cold for the rest of the night and got the shakes quite badly a few times just for good measure, so I actually do end up calling in sick the next day! I texted someone in my team and they thought I was joking cos I am never not there! So a day spent in bed reading books and sleeping! Thursday morning I thought I would try and go for my run but after walking the dog I decided that I was far too weak for that kind of effort! So a great week of training, a 40min swim on the Monday and then nothing! Eek! Managed to get all my weekend training done though so was feeling better about that!

It was new program time last weekend, my programs normally come in 6 week instalments but Richard thought it would be fun (??) to send me the whole 12 weeks that will take me right up to IM!! Hmm, that freaked me out!! I described it to someone as curling up in the foetal position with the plan being to stay there for the next 12 weeks, I also mentioned that while I wasn't quite sucking my thumb and rocking I wasn't far away from it!

I eventually calmed down and looked at my program a little more rationally and realised that it is all do-able, reminded myself that I have been trying for over a year and that I didn't just wake up yesterday and decide to do Ironman! So, I'm just focusing on one week at a time from here on in cos thats really the best plan of attack, Richard can worry about the stuff down the track, thats what he is paid to do, I just do as I am told :) One bonus is that I have planned every Wed afternoon off work as either annual leave or flexi until Ironman which means I can get in a long training session midweek as well as the weekends so its pretty neat that work is flexible about me doing that kind of thing!

This week has gone well and I have got everything done even though it meant I had to run at 6.30am on Wed which I really don't like doing, I'm not really a morning runner I think, lucky the IM run is last eh! Still it was kinda nice to be up on the Crater Rim nice and early on a weekday with hardly anyone else around even if the weather was a bit drizzly and gross!

This weekend brings the Christmas Cracker with it and as always for this race the weather is looking a little interesting! Never mind, its all part of the fun and I am looking forward to racing at Scarborough again, its been awhile!

3rd PhysioMed Womens Tri

Thought it best I get my race reports up to date before I race again on Sunday! I'm starting to think that blogging is going to get less frequent between now and IM!

So, about 2 weeks ago I did the final Womens Tri, the day after the Harbour Ride, needless to say I was feeling pretty tired by this stage, too many early mornings right after a couple of bad nights sleep thanks to the silly neighbours and their barky dog!

It was pretty tempting to not race, thats how tired I was feeling but figured I may as well just get on with it since I was there anyway. Blimey it was hard! I said to someone afterwards that it actually felt harder than the Half IM even though it only took about a quarter of the time! Headed off in the swim, it was a whole 250m (5 lengths of the pool) and it felt like a long, long way, I wanted to stop at the end of lap one but just kept powering along and ended up actually having a pretty quick swim. 5mins 28 including the run to transition.

T1 was about 1min 10, I pissed about putting on my race number in T1 cos I wasn't wearing my tri-suit I was just in tri-shorts and sports bra.

The cycle was not fun! This is when I started to feel sore from riding so much the day before, it was windy, head wind both ways cos thats just what happens when you cycle along by the sea. A couple of girls passed me heading up Beach Rd, they were drafting one another and my tired body thought ohhh that looks easy and jumped on but they were going to slow so I passed them and headed off on my own only to have one of them cling to my wheel for the rest of the 20kms! I even blew snot boogers to try and make her go away but that didn't work. The cycle leg was tough and I contemplated sitting on the side of the road for a wee rest, just a few minutes! I knew that I wouldn't get going again tho so just kept pedalling away. Cycle time including T2 was 41mins 38.

The run was tough again, my legs were less co-operative than at the half and I wanted to walk/stop/quit straight away, sadly (or luckily?) there were people I knew at the first corner of the run so I sucked it up and plodded past them and kept trundling around the course, it was a slow jog with a few walks thrown in. I kept yo-yo'ing back and forward past this other lady and half way round the last lap I asked her to give me a kick in the bum if I walked again and she kindly agreed to do so which kept me going. I was pretty happy to see the finish line and collapsed on the grass for a wee lie down! Run time was 29mins 10 so not too shabby a 5km time for me esp given how tired I was!

Total time was: 1.17.23 which was 11th in my age group, that was my worst finish and its still a good placing so I'm ok with that.

Overall, I placed 7th in my age group for the series so that was pretty cool and way way better than I have ever done in the past!

Somehow I was supposed to go for an hour long run after the tri, so that didn't happen, I was way too tired for that!

Harbour Ride

Well, its a week late but here is an RR for the Harbour Ride.

For those not in the know, the Harbour Ride is an 80km ride which takes you through ChCh along the base of the hills out to Tai Tapu and Motukarara before heading into the hills and taking you along the bays towards Lyttelton and back up over the hill home to Sumner. For the locals its just good old Long Bays that we ride all the time! It is a nice ride though with its challenges.

It was a great day for a ride, not too hot but not cold, only downside was a headwind all the way out along the flat, bonus was we actually head a tailwind heading up Gebbies Valley, now that was a first! I had seeded myself in with the group taking 2 hours 30 to 2 hours 45 with a goal in mind of finishing in 2 hours 40. Last time I did this race I did it in 3 hours 5 mins so I was planning to take a reasonable chunk of time off and I was ok with this until I realised that it meant I had to maintain an average speed of 30kph over quite a hilly course! Gulp!

The race started off ok but slowly, we were forever having to slow up as the bunch was huge and we became quite congested when we had to slow at the corners etc, we nearly stopped at the end of the causeway which is about 1km into the race and again turning at Ferrymead and so on. That was a bit frustrating but at least people were communicating and using hand signals so that made things a bit easier and safer. Popped over the first wee hill at Murray Aynsley where heaps of people were there to spectate, was nice to see some friendly faces there, although I was pretty busy watching my wheel as there were people everywhere, had to call out 'hold your line' quite a bit as people were all over the place climbing! It was pretty smooth sailing from there on, the only thing that worried me was the size of our bunch heading out towards Tai Tapu, it was nice being dragged up the Halswell Downs in a big bunch (they have never been so easy!) but I wasn't keen on climbing or descending Gebbies in a big bunch as that is a pretty hairy descent at the best of times. Our bunch would have been 200-300 people, luckily it split when we turned at Tai Tapu so that made me feel a bit better and we still had heaps of people to work with to get to Gebbies so that was good. Gebbies was not too bad, I was chatting to people as I climbed which is a good sign that it wasn't too hard. They had a 30 piece orchestra playing at the top which was cool! Cruised around the rest of the bays, the bitches hurt but not as much as normal and I passed a few people on the climbs which was nice, 2 years ago I wasn't able to do that! Was great to get into Lyttelton and only have one hill left to go! There was a lone bag-piper at Windy Point when you head up Evans Pass, that was awesome, it always sends shivers down my spine. I gave him a big wave and a thanks! I feel like I flew up Evans, I passed masses of people which was fun, managed to do a PB on the climb as well (did one on Gebbies too!) so that was great! Pretty much had to TT back to MacCormacks Bay after descending Evans as there was no one near me, finally got caught by some people at Redcliffs so tagged onto them to the end which was a good plan as there was a head wind on the causeway of course! Finish time was 2 hours 40 mins and 33 secs, so I am taking that as 2 40! I had my speedo on ave speed and the first time it dropped under 30kph was just as we got to Governors Bay so that was ok.

Couple of bad crashes which wasn't so good. I saw a couple of girls I know stopped with someone at Corsair Bay, called out to see if everything was ok, realised I knew them and asked again but they were helping and hadn't crashed, seeing people I knew stopped on the side of the road gave me a huge panic attack tho and brought back memories of my crash at Brunner and I ended up biking along hardly able to breathe and pretty much crying. Took me a wee bit to pull myself back together but got there. Then after I finished the race the first thing I heard was the guy on the PA calling out for Geoff and asking him to come to the stage urgently. This didn't make sense to me cos I knew that he was at home?? They sounded like they really needed him for something so I kinda barged my way through the bike exit area and headed to the stage. I got stopped by a couple of people on the way who thought something must have happened to me since they were calling for Geoff. They looked pretty relieved that I was ok! Turned out Geoff's mate Iain had also put him down as a contact person and poor Iain had crashed. I worked out that it must have been him I saw on Evans, people were tending to him as I descended. His spokes broke on the descent and he crashed off, he has several broken ribs and a very bashed up elbow, his helmet did what it was supposed to do however and while it disintegrated his head is fine! I managed to get hold of Geoff and got him to call Iain's wife etc.

Not so well...

Urgh, so after going to bed early last night I spent most of the evening cuddling the toilet bowl. Ewwww! Very unimpressed! So, definitely not so ok now. I think I must have eaten something that didn't agree with me while I was in Wellington yesterday. Am having my first day off work sick in well over a year. I have managed to get up and stumble down the drive with the rubbish bag cos its rubbish day and that has worn me out so back to bed now methinks!

I am ok, just tired!

Hi,

Yep I'm still around, really I am! I have been way too busy and too tired to post. There will be a couple of race reports soon, Harbour Ride and the last PhysioMed Womens tri. Right now tho I am pretty exhausted so am off to bed at a nice early nana hour of the night to try and get some rest so that I can go and play again tomorrow!

Cheers, Nades :)