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 :)

More Piccies

The official pics are up now, go here: http://www3.marathon-photos.com/scripts/event_entry.py?job=Sports/RSNZ/2008%20Sports/South%20Island%20Half%20Ironman

I have ordered mine as there are heaps and heaps of them!

Pics from the Half IM

Here is the lazy version of the pics, I have uploaded them onto Facebook, they will make it here eventually. In the meantime you can check them out here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69444&l=72215&id=654229553

Half IM - The longer version

Alrightee, I have now slept and eaten etc so here is the whole day from go to whoa.

The Race Plan:

The goal was 6 hours, this was a pretty big goal as last year I did it in 6 hours 36 so I was banking on being able to carve 36mins off my time which is quite a chunk! Richard and I planned it out earlier in the week, we worked out that if I swam the same time (its hard to know how your swimming is tracking when you can't really measure/time yourself in open water) and managed to maintain hour laps on the bike that would leave me to do 45 min laps on the run and give me 5 mins to spare! Yikes, not a lot of leeway eh! Still, 5mins is 5mins! The other part of the plan was to enjoy myself so I had to smile! And Richard promised to check the race pics for smiles so there was a fair bit of pressure there!

I also met up with Catherine, my nutritionist, earlier in the week and checked that my eating plan was on track and double-checked eating rates for during the race. She had some great carbo-loading ideas including using ice-cream, yum! She also suggested having something small and sweet to eat while in T1 or as soon as I got on the bike.

The Race:

Got there nice and early as I like to do and caught up with a few people before putting my ipod on and zoning out while setting up my gear. Off to be numbered and a quick trip to the loo. Back to transition to quickly check that everything was sorted and how I wanted it then another quick trip to the loo, as I was in the loo this time they announced that race briefing was about to start, blimey I wasn't even in my wetsuit yet! So headed off to the briefing with my wetsuit and baby oil in hand to dress while listening. After briefing a quick sprint back to transition to grab my cap and goggles and barely had enough time to get in the water before we were off, no mucking around this morning!

The swim start was full on! Lots of biffo going on, I was getting punched and hit from all directions and ended up doing some of the same, its a bit difficult not too when you have someone on either side of you and someone almost on top of you! It did settle down a bit not far after the first buoy so that was nice, not sure I could put up with 2kms of biffo! Swim was 2 laps of a triangle, first lap was challenging navigationally but second lap was heaps easier once you had a vague idea where you were heading. Bit of a run into transition, T1 went really smoothly which was nice. I was puffing a bit much too eat my red licorice in T1 so put it in my pocket for on the bike and managed to lose it on the way out of transition. Oh well!

Had a quick look at my watch to see what my swim time was and could only see my HR flashing at me so realised I hadn't pushed it hard enough to start timing so hit the start button again. It stayed on my HR so I figured I had managed to change the way I view my watch or something. I had taped over part of it so I wouldn't look at my HR during the race. At this point I decided not to worry about it too much as I just wouldn't look at it and the splits would be recorded to look at later.

I was feeling quite hungry by now and was a bit annoyed that I had dropped my licorice! Figured best I get stuck into eating pretty quick so I didn't fall behind on the nutrition plan. The previous night I had carefully peeled open my Powerbars a wee bit and placed them in my bento box on my bike, as I tried to get one out I realised that of course they had stuck together now! Grrr! Serious frustration trying to get one out, I started wobbling all over the place on my bike getting really annoyed that I couldn't get one out! This is where my first self-talking effort came in, I had to clam myself down pretty quick, so was telling myself, relax, stay calm, there's plenty of time to eat, let's be sensible the race has just started! After doing that I managed to ease a bar out by lifting it from the non-stuck end, after eating some I shoved it in the pocket of my tri-suit so it was easier to get to (and ewww, I think I still have half a powerbar in my tri-suit pocket!). The cycle went really well, there was a bit of a tailwind on the way out which meant a bit of a headwind on the way back. Not enough to be a huge pain but enough so you could feel it. I had a bike target of 3 hours which meant an hour a lap, or 30mins each way, basically I had to maintain a 30kph average or it meant I likely wouldn't meet my target time. By some fluke my speedo was set to the ride average instead of where I would normally have it on actual speed, I decided this was a good idea as I don't constantly look at my speedo so its hard to tell what speed you really are travelling at. On the way out it was nicely over 30kph so I knew I had a bit to play with in the headwind coming back. Going into the wind I could feel it a little more in my legs than I would have liked so I just smiled as per the race plan and forgot about the pain. It's true, smiling does make everything feel better and I also reminded myself that it takes less muscles to smile which was good, don't want to be wasting energy by frowning! It was a bit cooler than last year so I didn't drink quite as much on the bike, only went through 2 bottles this year. Still managed to eat plenty and stuck to the plan as well as remembering to sit up and stretch regularly this year so I could get off the bike in the best condition possible. One thing I really need to practise is my turn arounds on the bike, I am such a spas and really struggle to turn on those tiny wee country roads! This year the turn around at transition was a narrow one as well, so good old me unclips to get around, I got a lovely round of applause from the crowd so I promised them I would be back twice more for their entertainment!! First lap: 1 hour and 44secs. This time when I hit my HRM it actually started! Great at least it was working now but I had no idea how long I had been going! Second lap was pretty much the same as the first, there was a little more going on with the sprint race out on course as well now so that was interesting. I quite like this course as you get to see everyone when you are near the turn arounds which is nice. It also means you can track if anyone is catching up to you or getting away from you! I seemed to feel the headwind a bit more in my legs on the way back this time so just smiled and told myself that it didn't hurt anymore than the first lap and I would be fine. Second lap: 58mins and 55secs, so a little quicker and still on track. Third lap started well and was fine on the way out, on the return leg though I was starting to feel it in my back from being on my aerobars so long so did a few more sections up on the hoods of my handlebars while I was going into the wind and did more stretching than the previous laps and then dropped onto my aerobars and put the hammer down when I came back into the tailwind. Third lap: 1 hour and 59 secs! So my cycle leg went according to plan, I had no idea if I was on track for my total time tho but figured if I stuck to the plan for the run I should be ok or be pretty damn close!

T2 was pretty smooth, put socks on which is an unusual event for me but figured it was a smart move for that run distance, grabbed a handful of gels and bag of sweets and headed off into the distance.

Here's where things would either go really well or completely fall apart as they did last year. I headed off running fairly comfortably considering I had just spent 3 hours on the bike, the plan was to at least run all of the first lap. This plan changed pretty quickly, for what reason I'm not even sure now. I walked through the first drink station then picked up the pace again, had another bit of a walk then ran to the next drink station. I had been wanting to go to the loo for awhile by now, I tried to pee while swimming but that didn't work out so I figured it would be sensible to stop at the loo on the way past, I worked out that the time spent there would make up for time I would lose while being uncomfortable running. Just so you know, it takes 1 min to pee in a race! Tri-suits are handy, because I wear a sports bra I unzipped my tri-suit and had it down near my hips by the time I was at the loo and pulled it back up to there when I left the loo and pulled it up properly while running along! Heading into the cul-de-sac near the end of the lap Andrew Black caught up with me (he was on his 3rd lap!) and asked how I was tracking, I told him I had no idea and asked how he was going, he was on target for a PB and let me know he had been going for 4 hours and 13mins. Sweet, finally I had some idea of how long I had been going and worked out that I had an hour and 45mins to do 2 and a bit laps of the run which meant that I was tracking really well for my target time. I went through the first lap in about 43mins so right on track! I decided to move onto drinking coke on lap 2 and went with the plan of walking the drink stations with a little walk in between, I was kinda sorted now on landmarks to run and walk too and gave myself some quite strict guidelines to follow which was good and meant I ran considerably more than I walked. Lap 2 was just on 45mins so still tracking well. When I ran past Kalina and Geoff near the end of the lap they were yelling at that I was doing really well, it was really nice to just smile and say 'yep, I know!' Lap 3 started with the same plan of attack, however by now the wind had really picked up and was pretty evil running up along the back of the lake, it was really hard going against a wind that strong which meant an extra walk, mainly cos I could walk faster with less effort that I was running! Once I got of the stop bank and was heading around the road the last time the big self talk moments started, by this stage I had 20mins to run 3km, I told myself there was no wind and that running was easy! I gave myself a target where I was allowed to walk too and had a pre-set target of where I was running too. As I got near my made up run start point I was talking to myself saying, ok here we go, you're a good runner, off you go! And yes this was all out loud, lucky there wasn't really anyone near me at this stage, they would have thought I was stark raving bonkers for sure!! That worked really well, so I did the same thing again, which took me up to the last aid station. Then onto the cul-de-sac for the last time and there was the 20km marker across the road, so I told myself that I was allowed to walk to the end and then I had a tailwind to blow me home and that it was a nice easy 1km to then end and that was a piece of cake, it was going to be easy! And of course I was smiling the whole time! It was a great feeling hitting that boardwalk for the last time, it's great when you can literally smell the finish line!! I was feeling pretty good about making my 6 hour target although I figured I had cut it pretty fine, so wasn't surprised when I got to the finish chute and someone yelled out 'you've got about 30 seconds!' I managed to crank out a good sprint to get me over the line in time and then fell on the grass to catch my breath!

Wicked day out! The weather was fab, not much wind till later and nowhere near as hot as last year! And to come in at 5 hours 55mins which was 5min under my goal was awesome! Turns out I didn't need that spare 5mins which is great!

Bring on Ironman, it's only 14 weeks and 6 days away in case anyone is wondering!

Half IM - I rocked it!!

This is the short version, I think I need sleep so I can blog properly!

I had a goal time of 6 hours and finished it in 5 hours 55mins! That is wicked!

Due to my own inability to push the buttons on my HRM hard enough, the first time I truly knew who I was tracking was about 4 and a quarter hours into the race, near the end of the first lap on the run.

When I went over the race plan with Richard the other day we worked out that I had 5 mins leeway so that tells you how well planned my race was, I came in with that 5mins to spare!

Wicked wicked day, not much wind, the rain stayed away, I stuck to my nutrition plan and race plan and learnt to talk to myself!!

Everyone went really really well today, I'm very impressed with all the girlies :) and the boys who raced it for the first time!

Nearly there!

Phew, its been a long couple of weeks since my last blog. As my training gets longer and harder my blogs seem to get less frequent, while I am out on those long runs/cycles I think of lots of interesting things to say and by the time I get home I am too tired to blog it! Oh well, thems the breaks of playing in the big kids sandpit eh!

Soo, here we are, 2 sleeps out from the Ashburton Half IM, training is done, taper is happening, the carbs are being consumed and the race pack has been picked up! This time last year I was in a huge panic and feeling quite overwhelmed by the whole thing, this year it seems almost just like another race although I am sure once I start packing etc tomorrow it will all kick in!

It's been a funny week, although last weeks training was an easy week it was still pretty full on, apparently easy weeks now consist of 3 1/2 plus hour rides and 90 min runs in the weekend, I remember when that was a hard week! I looked back at last years program out of curiosity and was horrified at the difference, last year the weekend before the Half IM I had 45 min run and a 60 min cycle! Having said that I probably wouldn't have been able to handle this weekends training a year ago, it would have wiped me out! Taper has been entertaining, Carol (my massage lady) was nice and gentle this week, none of that hard deep stuff which was heavenly for a change! Tuesday was a 30 min swim, hard but quick followed up with an hour long cycle that evening. I headed out to Sumner and back around 6pm and it was a nice evening for a ride and I was seconds off beating my fastest ever Sumner and back time, silly head wind coming round the river on the way home! I was a bit worried I had gone too hard on the cycle, I did have a couple of intervals to do in there but I was really trying to crank it to beat my time, I checked my program when I got home and the ride was supposed to have a highish intensity so that was ok! Wednesday was just a 30min run with a few intervals again. I headed off for a lap around the river loop, the weatherman kindly decided it was time to rain just as I headed out the door, story of my life running in the rain! Had a great run last night, ran with my ipod on just for a change and I felt fantastic! Here's hoping that bodes well for Saturday! Now its just rest time, feet up, cup of tea, keep stoking the carbs in! Went to the nutritionist on Monday so am all sorted nutrition wise for carbo loading and on the day so that is good. Plus I am going into the race 6 kilos lighter than I was the same time last year so that is cool! Only thing to not go so well this week has been work, it's been flat out and I have got stuck there till 6pm a couple of nights! Grrr, its wrong that I am losing sleep about annual leave over Xmas! Never mind, its all sorted now! Kalina and I are heading down to Ashburton tomorrow afternoon so I get a nice sleep-in and will pick Kalina up from work before heading down. I have done no packing of any kind so tomorrow will be all about that and taking my bike for a quick spin, Geoff has loaned me his pretty race tyres and super-light tubes so best I have a wee blat on her tomorrow and see how they feel as they are less grippy than what I am used to. May go for a quick dip at Lake Hood tomorrow depending when we get there, it is the final of Top Chef so that may well take priority! Right, nearly time for sleepies for this kid and other than keeping a watchful eye on the weatherman its all over bar the racing! Bring on Saturday I say!! :)

Ohh, hard weekend!

Blimey, the last 2 days before an easy week are always kinda tough and this weekend was no exception! To make it more interesting I had to work on Saturday morning, after finishing at 1pm I headed off home, meandered down to the local school to cast my vote then quickly tried to eat enough food to sustain me for a 4 hour ride. Nadia kindly offered to keep me company for part of my ride which was cool as we don't see much of each other these days with all the training we are both doing. It was after 2 by the time we headed out and the wind had kicked in and it wasn't a warm day out there either so we were pretty well wrapped up on our bikes. We headed off to do the Bridge St ride which heads out through Spencerville, Kainga and round the back of the airport. We came across a fair number of drop-kicks who thought it was amusing to yell stuff at us as they went flying past at great speeds! Little charmers! Not! Nadia headed off home after we looped around the airport and I was cruising along quite nicely until I got to Templeton where the road changed direction just enough for me to get the full benefit of that head/side wind which wasn't nice at all! It was hard work heading out to Halswell and then all along the base of the hills was straight into the wind! Ouch! I decided against heading to Sumner, I decided that the tailwind back along the causeway wasn't going to make up for the sufferfest that it was going to be on the way out there. So I looped back along the base of the hills enjoying the tailwind until I had to turn around and battle it all the way home. Had a great run off the bike today, I was feeling pretty shattered as it had been a hard cycle and I got off feeling like I could barely walk let alone run so I was quite happy to have a good run, everything seemed to fall into place and I felt really good running along.

Sunday dawned with a 2 hour run on the cards, it was a pretty nice morning this morning, good running weather being a little cool. I had decided that I would run the ChCh half marathon course since it runs past home anyway and I needed to do a flat asphalt kind of run. I started off feeling not too bad but it all managed to fall apart and at one point I contemplated sitting in the gutter and having a good cry then calling for a ride home, however I took a hard pill or ten and kept trucking along. It took awhile by the time I kept waiting for traffic lights etc so I detoured home without doing the full lap around the river and I was still over the 2 hours. Then off to Corsair Bay for a swim, I was a bit dubious about this with the snow we had this week, I was expecting the water to be freezing! Let's just say it wasn't warm but I did manage to swim with my face in the water today without getting an ice cream headache so that was good. I didn't swim for the full hour as it was still fairly cold but I did swim constantly today and managed 2 laps around the bay which was good.

Dropped my bike in for a service today, had a good chat to Darryn about all the rattles etc my bike seems to have developed so we had a good play around and noticed that both of my bottle cages are broken! The wee tab at the bottom that holds the bottles in has snapped, that explains why my bike sounded like an old rattler last week when we were on those hard chip roads down in Ashburton. Phew, thats a bit cheaper than a new bottom bracket! Still at $65 each I would have expected them to last a bit longer than they did. So my wee girl is at the bike shop for a few days which will keep the boys happy as they like to play with her, I wonder how many times she gets taken out for a spin while she's there??

Snow?? Really!

So, its November now, that conjures up thoughts of sunshine and warmth. But no, we get snow!! Crazy!

Wednesday night was spin (was sposed to be an outdoor ride but reverted to spin as it was soo cold out) then a run off the bike. Spin was all good, it was inside in the warm! My thighs were feeling it a little after running in the plantation the night before, it's all sandy in there at the moment so I wouldn't recommend it, it was hard yakka! I toughed it out through spin and wasn't really looking forward to the run however Al normally comes with me and we usually have a good time so we got ready to head out after deciding that we would run on the hills behind us rather than heading over to Rapaki like we have been doing recently. So, as we go to leave it starts to rain, so now not only is it really cold out it is raining too! Great! We had managed to convince someone else to join us so we decided to be tough and head out anyway. Well about 15mins in that rain had little white particles in it, it was snow!! By this point we were absolutely frozen and soaked so we called it quits and ran back to Pioneer. Once back there we loaded bikes etc into cars and then the sun came out and it warmed up? WTF?? That's just nuts! We looked at each other and briefly considered heading back out but quickly decided that would just be foolish!

Next morning I had to do a 90min cycle, I was very unimpressed to see that the weather man was trying to tell me that it felt like minus 3 degrees outside! The worst part was that he was right! Blimey it was cold, I kinda wrapped up but not enough, I couldn't find my leg warmers so was wearing unlined knee warmers and had short finger gloves. After about 5mins I thought my fingers were going to fall off! I really wanted to hit red lights for a change so I could try and warm my fingers up by holding them under my armpits! I headed up Mt Pleasant Road, this is only the second time I have attempted this climb, last time was prob 18 months or so ago and I really struggled, I had to stop about 3 times so I decided that if I can make it up Dyers from Governors Bay then it Mt Pleasant should be easy. Not sure that I would say that it is easy, it's a constant climb, there are no flat parts but I did manage to do the whole climb in a gear no bigger than a 21 so I was pretty happy with that. What hurt was getting to the top and seeing snow! Brr!! I had finally warmed up on the climb which was really nice and the view out over the bay from up there was stunning, definitely worth getting out of bed early for!! I froze again on the descent as you would expect on a day like that but the real fun part was getting a flat tire on the causeway, it was more a case of when rather than if I got one as there was heaps and heaps of glass on the roads from Guy Fawkes the night before. So there I was on the causeway at 8am in peak traffic changing my tire, at least I had the good sense not to stick my bum out towards the traffic while I was changing my tire! Haha

Race report for 2nd Womens Tri

Here we are a week later so figured I better write a race report for last weeks race. I got a bit busy doing the boys blog for the 5 Passes.

There's not really a lot to report this time as everything went ok which was really nice. The weather was good, yay! I got there nice and early again, I do like that end spot on the rack, it's just easier to find and less crowded with only one person beside you. The nice/unusual thing about today was the complete lack of nerves, I was a little nervy at the last one, probably just because it was the first one of the season, nothing this time tho which was nice but odd. Possibly even made me a little too casual about the whole thing!

Swim went well, I managed to be first out of the water in my wave again, there were only 3 of us and I dropped the other 2 girls at the end of the first lap and no-one passed me which was nice. Had to battle my way in between a couple of breast-strokers on the last length. Quick sprint to transition and off on my bike. Time for swim and T1: 5.30mins

Cycle was pretty cruisey, not much of a wind which was nice and I got all settled on my aero-bars and was turning over a good cadence without a lot of effort so just took it pretty easy knowing that I had to go for a 2 hour ride later, it is weird to be thinking about doing training after but thats life these days. Played a little bit of cat and mouse with Lynette over the last few kms when I caught her so that was kind of fun. Another nice quick transition and off onto the run. Time for cycle and T2: 32.27mins

Run was interesting, legs were a bit achey from running into that wind at Ashburton the day before but they co-operated and I cranked out the 2 lap, 4km run without any dramas and no walking either which is always my challenge! Total time for run: 21.49mins

Total time of 59.43 which placed my 10th for my age group and 25th overall so definitely happy with that esp as I was both quite tired from the day before and the lack of sleep over the previous few days and knowing I had to train later in the day as well. Time was still a couple of minutes quicker than last year so its nice to continually see the improvements.

Got some nice finish pics for a change, it's amazing what happens when you remember to smile as you cross the line. Go here to check them out: http://www.nzinsure.com/gallery2/2008/?Qwd=./PhysioMed_2_08_Finishing_B4_0938&Qif=EWP_02_11_08_No_166.jpg&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=M

Ride afterwards was a little challenging as the wind had picked up again, luckily not as bad as the day before however I somehow managed to end up biking home into a headwind which wasn't a lot of fun and I managed to improve the state of my tan lines! I'm looking really rather sharp now......not! Oh well, such are the breaks on the warm days!

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!

Nightcaps

Well hello from Nightcaps! I flew down to Invercargill last night and the folks picked me up from the airport for about an hours drive to their wee cottage in Nightcaps which is a tiny wee coal mining town in Southland. It's quite pretty but very tiny! Nightcaps has a population of less than 400 people to give you an idea of the size, however I discovered the other day when I googled it that there is quite a bit of info on Nightcaps as it is the only town in the world with that name and it is quite famous in its own way! This morning I headed out for a 45min run, the folks are cute, they were worried about me running on the main road cos of the trucks. Let me tell you that I saw a whole 8 vehicles while on the road! hahaha. In my 45mins I managed to head out of town and run up a gravel road where the sheep in the paddock looked at me look I was odd, the sheep on Rapaki etc are used to people and seem to ignore you, these guys were very curious! When I got to the end of the road I headed back towards town and took a wee running tour of the town where I pretty much saw everything there was to see, a 4 square shop, a pub and a few small businesses. The people in town also looked kind of amused at someone out running, I'm getting the impression that such things are not normal here! Oh well!

I'm down here for a family reunion that is happening in Gore (yes I probably should roll my rrrr's!) on Sunday/Monday, it will be cool to catch up with some of the rellies! I am a tad worried that other than my wee nieces I may well be the youngest one there as all my cousins are around the age of my oldest brother and he is 10 years older than me. One of my aunts and cousins popped in here earlier as they have been out sight-seeing around Southland as they haven't been here in ages, funny that last time my cousin remembers seeing me I was a toddler!

We've been out seeing the sights today as well, we went to a quilt show in Otautau which is what my mum is into so we do these things! Then off across the road to the Sallie Army shop where I managed to score a couple of bargains, it appears that they get stuff in from the Sallies in Queenstown so have some quite nice stuff that all the tourists can't fit in their bags to take home. I never have time to visit the op shops at home so that was kinda fun. Then we took a wee tekki tour to a couple of other wee towns, Tinkerton and Ohai. Tinkerton is so little and the roads are gravel! Crazy!

Off to Winton tomorrow as that's where my brother and his family live, mum has assured me that there is a good op shop there as well, so more bargains to come hopefully!

It's been awhile

Hmmm so its been a couple of weeks since I posted eh!

I have been in a bit of a slump, it hasn't been an easy or fun couple of weeks. I was reading Rachel's blog about her meltdown the other day and reality hit that I have been having a bit of a meltdown of my own. I tend to go quiet when things aren't going well or am feeling under pressure about stuff. Am feeling more balanced about things now which is good as this time last week quite frankly I was completely over swimming and really didn't care if I never went near the pool again, I kept turning up there and not enjoying it and felt like I was just getting slower every time I swam. Sadly there isn't a duathlon option at IM so it's suck it up time as far as swimming is concerned! I've come to the conclusion that I just need to go to bed earlier at night, I've been kinda trying to stay up till around 10.30 cos Geoff is more of a night person but from now on its a 9.30 bedtime for this girl cos snoozing my alarm for ages means I only end up getting to the pool late which means I feel pressured to cut my swim short to get to work on time. The new method seems to be working, I managed to get to the pool and be swimming by ten past six this morning. Am feeling more rested as well which is good.

Not sure if anyone heard about the cyclist who had a heart attack while riding up Evans Pass a couple of weeks ago, well Geoff happened to be riding past and stopped to give CPR along with some other people. The poor guy didn't make it and Geoff has had a hard time wondering if they could have done something more to help him. Plus the police said they also need to wait for tests to be done in case the guy had anything contagious which they could have come into contact with while doing CPR. So a pretty stressful time for him, he wasn't sleeping and was extremely worried about the test results as you just don't know what you may have come into contact with in a situation like that. So a rough couple of nights looking after him and then finding out about Chris McAteer. I went down to the funeral with Mel and Jazz. Very very sad day! Not cool!

I spent about a week feeling like utter shite, I had a bit of a tummy bug and generally felt pretty average most of the time. Pretty much lost my appetite, about the only thing that seemed appetising was toast which isn't the best nutrition source when its your only nutrition source, everything else just made my stomach churn at the thought of it. Richard is smart and asked me how I was feeling at the start of last week and when I told him that I had decided that I was no longer sick (I was trying to trick my body into being better!) and had finally eaten a proper meal he suggested that given me less than fine nutrition etc over the past week that I should probably take a day off, I really dislike taking a day off (esp as it was a hard week!) but he talks a lot of sense so I listened and all I did last Tuesday was walk the dog. I felt heaps better after that and a couple of good nights sleep. Went to spin the next day and really enjoyed that esp as we followed that up with a run up Rapaki and back.

Frostbuster was this Sat and Geoff and I entered in the duathlon team category. We won this so that was pretty cool, I've never won a sporting event before. Geoff had the fastest bike split of the day so that is pretty awesome! Must have been because he rode my bike :)

The run was interesting, it appears my idea of running up a riverbed and the organisers is slightly different! I expected to be running over rocks and maybe jumping the odd puddle, bit no! Apparently running up a riverbed means crossing a river as many as a dozen times in water that is freezing cold and at least knee deep in places! Lucky I have been doing a fair amount of off road running and feel pretty competent running over rocks and rough surfaces! It was actually kinda fun and always having to watch where you are going certainly meant there was no time to be bored! It was funny when we went off the gravel road onto where the cows go through and it was all muddy and cow poopy, I exclaimed rather loudly "this is why I am a triathlete not a multisporter, my shoes are all dirty!" This was greeted with a reasonable amount of laughter, they possibly realised what the rest of the run was like! Oh well, at least my shoes were clean by the time I finished! The run up there is beautiful as you head through a reserve when you come off the river and it was really pretty.

Things I learnt on Saturday - multisport is a dirty wet game! Take rain jackets and extra changes of dry clothes when you are multisporting! Never underestimate how quick your team mate might go, I was still sitting in the car when Geoff finished the cycle, not a good look!

Spent Sunday supporting the boys doing 'The Ride' in their build up to the 5 Passes. They set of from Sumner so I went running up the Capt. Thomas and along Summit Rd (figured I need to do some more tarmac running as I'm not doing a lot of it) and back to the top of Evans Pass to get some pics of them finishing. You can check out what the boys are up to by going here: http://aaplcyclingteam.wordpress.com/

Right, am feeling a little caught up, kinda! So its time for sleeps now!

First Tri of the season

Yay, its race time! They reckon there are only 2 states, waiting to race and racing! Well I'm pleased that I can stop waiting to race and actually get out and race!!

Not the best day weather wise alas, when I got up I could see that it had rained but it was warm so I was about to head out in normal cycle kit, then it started to rain so I added a layer and quickly grabbed an extra pair of leggings for after. Nearly managed to sleep in, I set my alarm for 5am to give myself plenty of time to get up and have brekky etc, somehow managed to not set my alarm to go off every 5mins like normal so woke up again at 5.40! Eek, luckily I had set Geoff's alarm as a back-up to go off at 6am.

Put my brekky in a plastic container to eat while waiting in transition, fed the dog and jumped on my bike to cycle down to the start in the pissing rain. No point setting out transition until the weather cleared which it did for long enough to give some hope before starting again! Oh well, stuff gets wet anyway right? And at least I would be able to see in the rain this year!

I managed to remember to hit my lap timer on my HRM at each transition entry and exit so have split times for myself! Yay!

Swim (includes run to transition entry) - 2.23mins

Swim went pretty well, 100m should do tho given how much swimming I have been doing, I managed to get myself on the inside by the lane rope which was good and had a nice clean turn around at the pool which put me in the lead for my wave, yay! Passed another couple of ladies as well, then ran off to T1.

T1 - 1.06mins

No dramas, wondered why I bothered to put talc in my shoes as the rain had washed it all away by now, lovely wet helmet to put on as well!

Cycle - (includes run from transition exit to the cycle mount) 20.31mins

Cycle went well, I could feel the burn in my legs from yesterday's run! Phwoarr, they knew they had done some kms yesterday. Took it easy on the corners due to the rain, I didn't want to risk sliding off on a corner just to gain half a second or so. Didn't use my aerobars on the way out as it seemed a bit slippy but decided to use them on the way back in and had no issues so that was good. And I managed a nice clean turn around on the bike as well, we all know how much I don't love doing U-turns on my bike! Must have bumped my wheel sensor when cleaning my bike yesterday as I only had cadence and no speed showing on my bike computer so rode by feel which was quite nice, I must have been going at a reasonable clip as no-one passed me which was cool.

T2 - 1.03mins

Slipped my feet out of my shoes while on my bike so just had to remove my helmet and put my runners on, again wondering why I had bothered to talc my shoes. Left shoe was fine, then my right calf decided to cramp while I was trying to get the second shoe on! Not fun, I tried a couple of times before doing a wee dance and swearing, then I just told myself to breathe and it went on fine! Grr! Put my race belt on as I headed off for the run, had a quick look at my watch and figured I would be about the same time as last year and was ok with that.

Run - 15.04mins

Felt pretty good on the run, was worried my legs wouldn't want to play after yesterday's run and feeling the burn on my bike. Passed Kathryn as I headed out on the run, give her a big well done and said I would see her at the end. Run was great today, I encouraged a couple of other girls along who had stopped for a walk, people always used to do that to me which was cool so it's nice to be able to pay back the encouragement. Normally on the run there is just a parade of people passing me which can be kinda demoralising to be honest, well today I was only passed by 2 people!! One of which was Lynette and given that I had passed her just after the bike turn around and given her a hurry along I figured this was ok, especially as I bet she had been chasing me down since then! So pretty stoked with the run, except for the fact that a certain coach who shall remain nameless was out on the course taking piccies! Really tho, it was kinda nice to have Richard out there cheering us all on!

Total time - by my reckoning is about 40.10mins.

Last year was 42.55mins, kind of exciting to have an improvement that big given the training I have done this week. For a bit of a giggle I went back and looked at my previous years results and in 2005 that same race took me 48.59mins and I realistically didn't see how I could go any faster at the time! Progress is good!

Pics are up: http://www.nzinsure.com/gallery/2008/

Chris has done well, of the 3 photos of me, 2 are ok and 1 is not, thats not a bad ratio!

Well done to all the other girls who did the tri today, it wasn't the best weather for it but it was a great day out nonetheless!

I'm feeling quite pooped eh, more from the early start than anything else I think. So I have been to the library and have a couple of good books so am settling in for a nice afternoon on the couch. I also figured my improvement needed a reward so I got my nails done while I was at the mall. Lucky I did all the housework yesterday cos I'm not doing anything now in case I ruin my nails! haha

Nades's Transition Tips

Transition Setup

• Bright coloured towel on the ground beside your bike
• Lay out gear in the order that you need it, eg cycle shoes close to the front, runners at the back. Leave room to stand on the towel to wipe off your feet
• Helmet upside down on aerobars, place on top of cycling shoes if no aerobars
• Pre-fit helmet to your head so it can go straight on without having to adjust or remember to adjust in transition. Also make sure helmet is sitting so you can pick straight up and place on your head the right way round.
• Talcum powder in both sets of shoes, makes it easier to slide wet feet in
• Ensure shoes are sitting with tongues sitting up, again easier to slide feet in
• Use elastic laces in your runners, saves time doing up laces and they don't come undone
• If wearing a cap for run place it under your runners so it doesn't blow away
• If wearing a race belt place this in your helmet so you remember to put it on
• Also place glasses/sunglasses in your helmet if you plan/need to wear these
• Ensure bike is in a gear that will be easy to take off in
• Work out what hand you have on your bike when you run and set up accordingly, eg I run with my right hand on my bike so looking at my bike in transition I set everything up on its right so that I can just turn around and run rather than running to the other side of my bike
• Make sure drink bottles are on bike as well as toolkit/bag
• If planning to put a top on before the cycle make sure this is placed on top of your helmet, its a little difficult to put tops on once your helmet is on
• Do a walk through of transition to see where the entries/exits are
• If not at the end of a row look for distinctive items at the end of your row so you can easily find it, try not to use the bike at the end as an identifying item, it may well be gone when you get there

Swim/bike Transition

• Cap and goggles off while you run to bike, throw to back of your transition area/towel
• Stand on towel and wipe feet on towel while putting on top/helmet/glasses/race belt
• Shoes on, do them up (No socks unless you absoultelyhave to! If you do need them set them up by putting them on your feet at set-up and then roll them off so you can roll them back on. It's not easy to put socks/clothes on when you are wet)
• Head off to transition bike exit
• If it's a wetsuit swim, get wetsuit down around hips by the time you are at the bike, then push to knees and use feet to step out of it while putting on helmet etc

Bike/run Transition

• Change into an easier gear when cycling up to dismount, this makes it easier for your legs to transition into running
• If you can, get your feet out of your shoes while on the bike. Don't try this for the first time on race day, it's not as easy as it looks!
• Run to rack, keep helmet on until bike is racked
• Hang bike back up, cycle shoes off if not already
• Helmet off
• Runners on
• Grab cap/top if wearing one, you can put these on while running
• Run to transition run exit

Thats about it, its been awhile since a race day so I may make some changes after Sunday but I think thats most things covered. I never wear gloves or socks when racing, I find them too fiddly to put on while wet so don't bother. I rarely put a top on before the cycle leg, I normally race in a tri-suit tho, perhaps if you are in tri shorts and top you may want to put a top on before the cycle leg, if you do this have it sitting on your helmet placed in a way that you can just pick it up and put it over your head. If you don't have a race belt you will need to put a top on with your number on it, some races you can get away with doing this just for the run section and by then you are a lot drier and you can put a top on while running. For longer distance races you will also need to ensure you have your nutrition on your bike or if carrying it in a pocket place it in your helmet so you remember to take it with you. Other things you may want to think about are if you need to carry an inhaler or something along those lines and ensuring that you have it somewhere easy to grab in transition. For longer races you may want to have a thermal top or running jacket in transition in case the weather turns bad while you are out on the bike.

I have done transitions this way since I started racing and used exactly the same process for the Half IM last year, only difference there was that I had extra nutrition to grab at the second transition. It does work, I am generally pretty quick through transitions, I go with the theory that you need to keep moving forward so spend the least amount of time standing still that you can.

Let me know if something doesn't make sense and I will try and explain.