Long long ride

Phew, 5 hours on your own on a bike is quite a long stretch, I guess this is the part of the training where it really pays to enjoy your own company cos you get to spend a lot of time on your own. Yep I know there are plenty of people who will ride with me but there are a couple of reasons why it is good to go on my own particularly for these uber long rides - I tend to not use my aerobars when riding with others so that is bad - I need to ride on my own on race day - who else really needs to be doing 5-6 hour rides?

I had a good plan tho and knew where I wanted to go so that was good, even better is that it panned out to be pretty much 5 hours exactly, I may have been a minute or two over.

I headed north via Kaiapoi, over the motorway bridge and off to Rangiora then around the Ashley Gorge to Oxford, back to Rangiora into a stinking headwind then home via Kaiapoi. I have done the ride around Ashley Gorge numerous times but have never biked out from home to do it although Geoff sometimes does. It is quite a mission and quite a weird feeling to be such a long way from home on your own on your bike. I got a bit worried when it looked as if it was going to rain, I only had a vest with me so I would have been in a bit of trouble if it had poured down! Lucky it just cooled off a bit and never actually rained.

I've worked out that on these long missions the first hour is the hard part and then it seems to become easier, it took just under an hour to get to Rangiora and then it was just a case of riding around the gorge and getting home, sounds easy when you put it like that eh!

I needed a loo stop and had decided that I couldn't wait till Ashley Gorge or Oxford so had to have a wee (haha) pit stop on the side of the road where there were some big bushes, nice country roads also have very little traffic! I considered trying the peeing on my bike thing but only had electrolyte drink in my bottles, so no water to rinse off with! Will need to try that at least once before race day methinks!

Made a friend out on the road as well which was nice, a guy had passed me and said hi on his way past but he never really got away, he just stayed a few hundred metres in front for ages, then he stopped for a pee (guys have it so much easier!) and then we rode together till we got to Oxford and went separate ways. Turns out he has just turned pro as a triathlete, his name is Aaron Billings for those that need to know. He is heading off to try and win Ironman Malaysia which is the week before IMNZ, so that is pretty cool. He was lovely and friendly and chatted away to me heaps about IM and gave me some good advice which was really nice. Turns out I had met him once before as Geoff has bought something off him on TradeMe. Small world eh. Riding with him for awhile certainly made the ride go quicker for a bit!

Had to do a run off the bike when I got home, only 20mins but man that hurt! Never mind, all good practice for the big day eh!

Where shall we run to?

When we go for a 3 hour run? It's often quite tricky to plan out where to go on a long run, esp when it is a flat one, let's face it those ones are a little boring! No exciting views or anything like that. I tend to do my flat runs from home, makes sense as I live on the flat and living by the river generally means it is quite a pretty run, often with a bit of abuse from kayakers that I know and see on the river! Today I dilly-dallied around wondering what the weather would do as I was really supposed to do my 5 hour ride today but with the fickleness of the rain threatening (I got rained on about 3 times driving to and from Corsair Bay for my swim) and eventually decided that I would do my run today as tomorrow's weather is supposed to be far nicer which is good as I don't fancy being stuck out around Ashley Gorge in a rainstorm!

So, about 10.30 I headed out the door and followed the river along New Brighton Rd and just kept following the path all the way along past the estuary and you eventually come out on Godwit Rd and onto Rocking Horse Rd. That part was quite pretty and interesting, then came the long straight haul all the way down Marine Parade, at least I had the wind behind me at this point and the good thing about running down there is that there are toilets and drink fountains at all the surf clubs, very handy when out on a long run as it is difficult to carry enough water, so I had a few wee stops to fill up the bottles on my fuel belt. Once I got to North Beach I headed up the Pegasus Bay walkway again and through the plantation. Back onto the road to head home, had to tack on a detour along Travis Rd and cut through Brooker Ave to get back home in a little over 3 hours. Quite a long time on my feet but I really enjoyed my day out and about! Had a really great run for me, if I can run like that at IM I will be stoked. Ran non-stop for the first 30mins, walked while I took on a gel and some water and then ran for the next 30mins. After that I was prob only walking about every 15mins and I never felt like I had to walk as long as I used to before I started running again. So running is good! It felt nice today and I seem to have gotten over the bruised rib as I didn't feel that at all today so that is good. I made sure I sun-blocked properly before going out and I must have sweated off my sunblock as I have new tan lines yet again from my singlet! Just hoping I don't have tan-lines from my socks! Hehehe

Honestly I think I must look like Rambogirl or GI-Jane when I head out for a run wearing my long socks, hair scraped back in a pony-tail with a headband holsing the rest of it back and my fuel belt slung around my hips! Haha!

226 kms

When driving up to Kaikoura yesterday I saw a sign that said Picton was 226 kms away. That is the distance of an Ironman race, crazy to think that soon what is a reasonable length drive is the distance that I will cover in one day using just my feet, arms etc to swim/bike/run that 226 kms!

I guess the good thing is that this realisation didn't seem scary, just kinda real!

It's hot in the city!!

Blimey, but its warm as all the ChCh girls know! Today was my first half day on a Wednesday so that I can do a big mid-week training session, more than a few people questioned my sanity today when they learnt that I was heading out at 12.30 to train for 4 hours in 30 something degree temperatures, as I said tho I will be doing it on the day no matter what the weather is doing so best practise now! After stepping outside I actually questioned my sanity, leaving that air-conditioned comfort and going outside was like walking into a wall of heat! Jeepers! Lucky my ride was on the flat cos hills in that weather would have sucked big time! And the wind from this morning had died down, but not a lot though as I found out! I headed out towards Halswell and Tai Tapu, I was having a pretty good ride esp as I was convinced I was cycling into the headwind, umm wrong!! I turned around at Tai Tapu and promptly slowed down a lot!! Grrr, the wind was soo frustrating, it was all over the place, nice tail wind to Sumner, shitty head wind on the way home. I was so hot when I got to Sumner that I stopped at the dairy for an ice cream and a cold drink! My drinks had been in the fridge at work so started off nice and cold but were warm and gross within 30 minutes!! Yuk!

Made it home and was sposed to run for an hour, now that would have been insane so I just did a 20min stint through the reserve and that was more than enough in this heat. I had thought about doing my run later but given the current temperature I'm pleased I didn't, better a short run than no run.

Had to do an open water swim as well, so headed off to Corsair along with the rest of ChCh! It was really busy there, luckily everyone else just hangs out near the pontoon so I headed out around the back of the boats. It was a little choppy out there but I had a good swim and practised breathing on both sides which I am not good at doing in the open water.

Here's hoping things are a little cooler tomorrow! Looking forward to going back to my air-conditioned comfort at work :)

Nades' Big Day Out

Yesterday was my turn to be taken out for the day by Geoff, wow I'm pleased I went first cos he set the standard pretty high!! Geoff is normally pretty casual about timelines etc but he had planned everything down to a T and we had to leave home by a certain time etc etc, was quite cute to see him stressing about being somewhere on time and he couldn't/wouldn't tell me where.

We headed north out of ChCh, accidentally going through Kaiapoi cos I distracted him by asking where I would turn off if I was biking out to Rangiora. Oops! A quick stop at Pukeko Junction to buy me coffee so that I wouldn't be tired and grumpy :)

Then to Pegasus Bay Winery for some wine tasting, yum! I love Peg Bay vinos! I now have a new favourite wine tho, the Pegasus Bay Aria is the most heavenly Riesling I have ever tasted!!

Then we headed off to ride the Weka Pass Railway! This is heaps of fun if you have never done it before, due to the fire ban they weren't using the steam engine but the diesel one is pretty cool anyway. You go from Glenmark through to Waikari, they stop partway along and you can get off the train while they back it up the track a little and then drive back so you can take photos etc. You then spend about 30-40mins at Waikari before heading back to Glenmark. All up about 2 hours doing something a little bit different, we rode in the open carriage on the way back which was pretty cool.

Next stop was Waipara Springs Winery for lunch, we had the platter and it is scrumptious and very filling! Pair that up with a rather nice Riesling while sitting in the sun listening to some live music, makes for a pretty nice afternoon!

After chilling there for awhile we headed on up to Hanmer where we were booked in for massages at 5.30, was quite odd having a relaxation massage after all those sports massages I have been having! Time for a bit of a splash around in the pools before and after which was nice, really really busy tho!

We had dinner reservations at The Laurels at 7pm, it's a good thing we had the massages cos we were able to use the showers etc at the Spa and they had a hairdryer etc which was good cos I wasn't prepared for swimming followed by a nice dinner. Dinner was lovely, The Laurels is a small intimate restaurant, tables for 2! Geoff had done some Googling and it was listed as the most romantic restaurant in Hanmer so that was pretty cool!

Very wicked day out and he had me home by 10pm so that I could get ready for work today which included sorting out swimming gear etc, as well as remembering how to use the iron!

Ohhh, so cute!

I've had a very rare evening home on my own so I watched Horton Hears a Who on SKY movies, it is the coolest movie! It's a Dr Suess movie so fully animated and cartoony but very funny and sweet :) Definitely worth a watch if you haven't seen it yet!

The Holidays are Nearly Over

Gutted, just when you start to feel all relaxed its time to think about going back to work!

Still have managed to get some good training done in some rather stellar (if hot) weather. So to catch you up on the last week since Geoff's big day out, ohh and my big day out is tomorrow, it feels like Xmas Eve again and he won't tell me anything even with all my bugging and general annoyingness!

Monday was everybody's birthday! That is Geoff, Libby (his daughter), Kalina, Libby at work and Pete's son, anyone else have a birthday that day?? Crazy eh! So I headed over to Jellie Park to swim in the outdoor pool for a change, its lovely swimming in that pool. I did remember to sunblock up before I went but still managed to get a random stripe from my HRM strap! Then off for my weekly massage, aah that was heavenly! Then to the Fox and Ferret at the Palms for a couple of drinks with the birthday kids from our place, yep Geoff's middle child just turned 18! Took Geoff shopping in the Palms, he wanted some togs and running shorts, he is thinking of doing a couple of short distance triathlons so that will be cool and he will probably whip my ass!

Tuesday was hot! And I had to do an hour hill ride and a 40min run off the bike. I headed over to Dyers Pass Rd and did 2 loops up to the Cup, down Hackthorne and back round. Frig it was hot!! I had sweat dripping off me!! Eww! Then home to go for a run? By this time it was around 10.30 I think and it was sweltering! I headed off for a lap around the river which was daft as there was nowhere near enough shade! I was very tempted to jump in the Avon and swim home, the only thing that stopped me was the ickiness of that water! It is disgusting! I was very pleased to get home and out of that heat!

Wednesday was a 3 hour ride and an hour run off the bike and the weather forecast was for another scorcher so I set my alarm this time and was on my bike before 7am which isn't too bad for a holiday day! Headed out to Sumner, went through Heathcote along the base of the hills out over the Halswell Downs and then returned via the same route. I got a bit smarter with my run this time and decided to do laps through Horseshoe Lake Reserve as it is quite shady for a large part of the run and the bonus is that there are drink fountains at each end which meant I could stop for a drink about every 10mins, very good planning! Only frustration was running past home on each lap, run went a bit better this time, wonder if that was cos I was wearing my pretty new CEP compression socks?

New Years Day - just a swim for the day! Nadia and I met up over at Corsair Bay around 2pm and it was busy over there! The carpark was chokka, we had to park up on the road and it was like people soup in the water!! We headed out to the boat on the far right of the bay and it looked so nice out there that we decided to head over to Cass Bay and swam up to the beach there. As I started walking through the water some guy starts talking to me, took me awhile to recognise him but it was Richard's mate Graeme from R&R Sport, he was there with his family. Just goes to show you really can't go anywhere in this town without being recognised. Had a wee chat then Nadia and I swam back to Corsair, Nadia is swimming really well for someone who hasn't been swimming a lot lately! Watch out for her at the Auckland Half IM!!

Friday is normally my rest day and was going to be my big day out but after some negotiation (read - discussion!!) I changed my Sunday workout to Friday, we hadn't realised that Friday was a public hol so lots of stuff isn't open! The plan was for a 2 and a half hour run, hmm, fun! Actually it did turn out ok tho which was good. Again the alarm was set nice and early as it was supposed to be hot again! I did snooze the alarm to start with as it was really windy out there when the alarm first went off. Was out the door by 8am which is pretty good since I needed to have breakfast and let it settle a bit first. I had no expectations on my run as I'm not normally a good early morning runner and I hadn't had a good run all week. Maybe that was a good thing as I ended up having a really good run and really enjoyed myself! Maybe it was the socks again? I am loving them! My legs felt really good yesterday in my run and after, my hips were a little sore about 90mins in but otherwise I felt fine! From home I followed the river down to New Brighton then headed along Marine Parade which was straight into a head wind of course! Then followed the Pegasus Bay track along the beach to Bottle Lake, ran through the forest and then along the roads towards home, added on a lap round the reserve and a detour up a street or two before getting home. I was wearing my fuel belt but managed to find enough water fountains along the way to stop and refill my bottles and splash water over my hot face and hands which helped heaps! I had a nice wee nap after that effort!

Today I swam with the tri club at Corsair Bay this morning which was good fun, those guys are very friendly, if you haven't joined the tri club you really should! Then off home for my bike ride as I had to do 3 and a half hours on the flat with small hills?? Nadia met me at home and we also picked Tanya up on the way, Geoff started off with us but was heading out to do reverse short bays. We rode the Bridge St ride in reverse which was fun. So off to Sumner, Heathcote, along the base of the hills, thru Halswell, past Prebbleton/Templeton, along the back of the airport then through Belfast, Kainga, Brooklands, Spencerville to home, it was a very well timed ride, I think I was 32secs short of the 3 and a half hours! We got pretty lucky with the weather esp as it was forecast to hail and be really nasty! I got rained on coming through Brooklands but about a km after Spencerville it was dry? Go figure! It was lovely to ride with the girls again! With us all doing our own things we don't ride together much anymore and it was fun to have a catch up and do some training at the same time. Poor Nadia tho, she thought Tanya was having one of her blonde moments when she asked how her 'treadly' was going. Nadia thought Tanya was just making words up, it took me some time to convince her that it was a real saying and that Tanya wasn't actually having a blonde moment for a change! Funny!

So yay all my training is done and dusted for the week! Not looking forward to going back to squeezing it in around work stuff but hey if I didn't do that I wouldn't be able to pay for all the fun stuff now would I? We have managed to squeeze in painting the front lounge as well, well its started, we did the back wall which was covered in a lovely pink floral wall paper! Hmm, tasty!