Back in training mode...

Woohoo training has begun again! Wow that was a long 3 weeks! To be honest tho being hurt probably helped cos I really didn't want to do much initially anyway. The long long weekend at Anzac weekend got pretty boring tho as I am used to filling up those long weekends with extra training! So heading to the pool just after 6am was a tad chilly this morning! But after coming home and walking the dog, biking to work, walking to the nutritionist and back I was feeling pretty virtuous by the time I finally got to work. Am quite pleased that my weight only changed by 100gms in the past 4-5 weeks as I have been eatingout of boredom, not bad foods but I was still probably eating as much if not more than when I was training full on. Muscle balance assessment tomorrow which should be interesting. Shoulder was a bit sore swimming this morning so best I check out the physio man again, that will be the second time ever in my life that I have been to physio!

Quote for the day:

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.

- Judy Garland

Its Official I have entered Ironman!!

This email makes things a little more real:

Congratulations, you are now entered for Ironman New Zealand 2009. This note serves as confirmation of your entry, receipt of payment and guarantees your place in the race. We look forward to celebrating the 25th anniversary with you. Train safe, see you in Taupo! Please contact the race office at info@ironman.co.nz if you have any questions.

Coolios!! :)

Meet Zac

Life without a dogger was miserable so we have adopted a wee

sweetie from Dogwatch. Check out their link at: http://www.dogwatch.co.nz/ and see the awesome work they do finding homes for doggers that need love.

Zac is an 11 month old Beardie/Huntaway cross. He hasn't had the best start in life, apparently he was tied up on a short rope for much of his short wee life. He ended up at the pound as a very skinny young man and the good folk at Dogwatch took him in and fed him up and socialised him with other dogs until we came along and met him. We had been popping into Dogwatch every now and again knowing that we couldn't really get a dog until after we had done the cycle races we had planned as we were going to be away 2 weekends in a row. When I first saw Zac he was a skinny wee guy, I could see his ribs poor thing! So a couple of weeks later we went in to Dogwatch again and he was still there and looking a bit better fed! He has such a lovely wee face and beautiful eyes, how anyone could ever have been mean to such a beautiful dog is beyond me! We had a bit of a play with Zac and asked lots of questions and had a good chat to the folk at Dogwatch. To make sure we were making the right decision we also checked out the pound and the SPCA. The pound is an awful place, don't ever go there unless you have to! The SPCA didn't seem to have a lot of dogs while we were looking which I guess is a good thing. So off we went back to Dogwatch and they did a property inspection and we had young Zac the next day. He came on a one week trial and well he has been here 2 weeks now so is here to stay! He is a wee sweetie although he does have lots to learn! He is still learning all those things that puppies learn when they are little, so we pretty much have a very big, lanky puppy! His first walk

was funny, he obviously hasn't seen things like park benches etc so he would growl at anything he wasn't sure of like park benches, rubbish bags and recycling bins. He has been pretty good when he has met up with other dogs out walking and most people are happy to let him sniff and say hi to their dogs when I say that he is just learning about stuff which is pretty awesome! So, here's some pics of our lad enjoying life at his new home, as you can see he is pretty comfortable here :)

Around Brunner and........the crash....

So yep, my first crash on a road bike. We'll get to that later cos that happened near the end.

Brrr but Greymouth was cold!! It rained on and off all night before the race, I was thinking of not doing it if it was raining at the start, the thought of those huge bunches in the rain wasn't appealing. There was one quick shower after we got up and then it was nice and clear but very very cold!! It was freezing biking down to the start line, I was wearing a base layer top, cycle top, arm warmers, cycle shorts and knee warmers and it was soo cold!!! We sat on the start line for up to about 45mins, I was shivering big time by the time we started. I was pleased to finally get going but it took about half the starting chute before I could get my foot clipped in cos my feet were so cold. Need to take shoe covers there nezt year!

Race plan was pretty simple, real similar to last week, go hard from the start and give it heaps! There are no major hills in this race, it is just long, 130kms. The start was a bit interesting as bunches seemed to just keep flying past but I managed to get into a reasonable sized bunch on the outskirts of Greymouth and rode with some of those folk for pretty much the whole race. The railway bridge seemed to turn up pretty quick, thats an interesting part of the race as the bridge is for cars and trains so you have to avoid the railwasy tracks, the marshalls are good tho and you just have to choose one of 3 lines and stay in it and you will be fine, the surface is pretty rough tho. From there it was nice and undulating to Jacksons and the halfway point. My goal time was 4 hours, I did 4.31 last year so was planning to be a whole lot quicker but figured I could do it after improving so much in Graperide the week before. I got to the halfway point in 2 hours and 2 mins so was pretty much on target for 4 hours or thereabouts. I was a little worried about cramping for the first time ever, my right hamstring was feeling a little crampy at about the 50km mark so I was a little worried cos there was still a long way to go. It felt niggly pretty much the whole way but never seemed to get any worse so that was good. After the halfway point there are some nice long flat stretches of road and we had a few team riders join the bunch so their fresh legs were good for leading us out along the flats. There were a couple of interesting parts in this half, there were some road works going on and one of the smaller climbs was gravelly but had been well swept and wetted down so was ok to ride up, then around Moana there are a couple of bigger climbs. When I say bigger they are probably the biggest climbs in the race but are nothing like the hills around ChCh, they just feel a bit mean cos its 100kms in and you have been on your bike for 3 hours already. By the time we got to Stillwater I realised I wasn't quite going to make 4 hours but was going to come close at around 4.03-4.05. So with about 3-5km to go the worst possible thing happened and we had a huge bunch crash. I'm not 100% sure what happened as I was halfway down the bunch, apparently someone at the front sat up and looked around, the girl behind him clipped his wheel and came off, 2 others crashed really badly as well. The rest of us just tried to avoid them, I was about half-way down the right hand side and swerved out with everyone else and thought I was going to miss it but hadn't swerved enough and caught the wheel of the girl in front (ewww, you can see her tyre marks on my wheel!) and tumbled off. I pretty much hit everything on my right hand side, I think I did a full head over heels tumble but I'm not sure, my helmet took a good thump so I now have a very sore neck, sore shoulder, garcked up elbow, bruised hip and knees.My cycle kit is a bit scratched up but still wearable. My helmet is never going back on my head, I put new cleats on my shoes about 2 weeks ago and one of these snapped with the force that I came off my bike. My bike seems to be fairly ok, I definitely came off worse. She is in at the shop at the moment getting the once over, it appears to be mainly surface damage, scuffed saddle, rear derailleur, pedals, hood covers and stuff like that. Wheels are a little untrue and have one bent spoke but all easily fixable. Gee the things that run thru your head when you fall.....first it was phew I missed that, then when I started to fall it was oh f*ck!!, then oh no my bike!!! followed by, thank god for helmets as my head took a thump, then it was shit what happened. By the time I got off the road everyone was running around helping the hurt folk so I pulled bikes and stuff off the road so the next bunch didn't ride into them. The ambulance was there pretty quickly and another arrived soon after. 3 went to hospital, one was a lady I have known for about 16 years and hadn't seen in ages but she called out to me at Moana and I was looking forward to a catch up when we crossed the finish line. Once everything was under control I checked that my bike was rideable and headed to the finish with a couple of others. It was a pretty quiet solemn ride to the end, I just dawdled along in a real easy gear, my heart wasn't really in it now after what I had just seen. I've seen one of my finishing photos and I look pretty miserable so be gentle if you check out the pics. Total time was 4.16, I was 16th in my category, ride time on my bike computer was 4.07 so I was stopped for maybe 10mins. Afterwards a few people asked me if I knew what had happened so I told them what I knew from what others had told me, I gave a rather unfiltered version of events to one guy before realising he was the one that caused it.

I was feeling pretty bad about this yesterday when I was in a better state of mind and I don't think he had any idea what happened and he was pretty genuine in this and he was feeling bad that he hadn't stopped (it's hard to stop at the front tho without putting others at risk), I saw him later in the crowd and he looked pretty upset so I emailled the organisers this morning and explained what had happened and asked if they could forward on an apology from me which they have done. I was a bit of a mess when I crossed the line, the enormity of the whole thing hit me and I realised how lucky I was to have got off so lightly and I pretty much burst into tears and sat on the ground having a big cry. Huge thanks to Tanya and Nadia for looking after me while Geoff went and got the car so I didn't have to bike home. Tanya even managed to find a doctor to check me over to make sure I was ok while poor Nadia was looking after my bike and all my other stuff. Thanks ladies, you're awesome!! Geoff makes a good first aid person, after I showered he cleaned me up and bandaged my wounds, this made me cry again cos it hurt a lot!! So after prizegiving we headed out for dinner and I did the very mature thing of drinking lots of beer to make me feel better! It worked too, I felt great!! Now what?? Well I will definitely be back next year, its just one of those things that can happen to anyone anytime they get on their bike, thats life and a risk worth taking to do what you enjoy. For now tho I have 3 weeks off training, apparently its called an off-season, so hurting myself came at the right time cos I couldn't train now even if I wanted to!

Graperide

Another race done and dusted with another PB in the bag!! This has been a stunning season of racing so far!!

Well I had a pretty simple race plan for Graperide - go hard from the start and just go for it, ie leave it all out on the road!!

Last year was the first time I did this ride and I wasn't sure how hard it would be, to be fair I had also never ridden 100kms at the time so I took it pretty easy at the start so I would be able to make it.

This year my fitness and ability has improved outta sight so I knew that even if I thrashed myself at the start I would still be able to make it over those hills and to the finish line.

I was at the start line with one of Geoff's friends so that was cool to have someone to chat to at the start, I was planning to try and hang on to Nathan for as long as I could as I knew he was considerably stronger than I am, he had a bad crash a few weeks ago tho so wasn't near as fast as he could have been.

As the bunch turned onto the main road after leaving the vineyard they took off so I had to put in a fair bit of effort straight away so that I could stay with them but figured that a bit of effort now would pay off if I could stay with a decent bunch. The effort was well worth it as the bunch was working really well and communicating well when they slowed up etc so I was feeling pretty safe and happy in there which was good. I was a bit nervous about the bunches as I haven't done a lot of bunch riding lately and it was the first time I had ridden the Wilier in a cycle race. The bunch was huge until we got just past Blenheim and then it split in half and Nathan was in the front half and up the road while I was in the back half of the bunch, still there were lots of big strong guys around who seemed to be more than happy to share the bulk of the work between them. I started eating about now, we were about 30mins into the race and I knew that if I didn't eat then things would go bad esp as we were getting along the road at a really good pace, pace was feeling good tho, not too hard but certainly hard enough that I knew I was working, I checked my HR a couple of times and it was generally in the 150's while we were cycling along the flats. The first hill hits you just before Picton and that certainly seemed to sort a few people out on the way up although the bunch re-grouped after the descent into Picton. Got to Picton in an hour and 6mins which is pretty good as it just on 40kms to Picton. Then you really get into the hills and they were fun!! Really they were!! Last year I wasn't fond of hills and my climbing ability was rather limited in hindsight!! This year, I was literally dancing on my pedals and cruising past heaps of people on the climbs, wow that is an awesome feeling passing people on the climbs!! Yay!! To be fair a number of people caught me again on the descents as I don't descend uber-fast as I would rather get to the bottom of the hill a few seconds slower and get there in one piece!! The challenge was getting in with a good bunch again for the next flat section. One guy had the right idea trying to get everyone working together for short stints at the front. it was just a bugger that when he got to the front he was too strong for the rest of us and the bunch of about 20 became a bunch of about 5 with me desperately clinging on to the back of the 5!! Hmmmm, life got hard at that point as we had a nasty headwind now that stayed with us for the rest of the ride!! Last year we had a tailwind at the same point which was much much nicer!! One last wee hill thru Havelock and then you can just about smell the finish!! The 10km to go sign was a welcome thing, 5kms rocked up pretty quick. At the last wee climb just up from there I took off in my big chain ring and got in front of the bunch and managed to catch a girl up the road and sat in on her until the last km where I dug deep and took off for the finish line. I think I must have dragged everyone with me as a couple of the guys commended me on my ride to the end! Oh well, they helped me out enough during the race so fair's fair!! I did go up and shake one guys hand and thank him as he was regularly a very convenient windbreak when I needed one!

So total time was: 03:14:23 and I am stoked with that as last year I did: 03:34:28. A 20min improvement on what everyone reckons was a much harder ride than last year with that wind is pretty blimmin fantastic in my book! Woohoo, on to Brunner this weekend now!!

My eatfit story...

Well most of you know that I have dropped a few kilos and have a kinda skinny ass now which is all pretty cool. I have been going to the nutritionist since about October last year and have had some stunning results, yep I still go but less frequently now. I still need good eating advice :)

Anyway the team at eatfit publish a monthly newsletter and this month they have published my eatfit story which is pretty exciting! So, for more about eatfit go to: www.eatfit.co.nz

And here is my tale from their newsletter:

"eat fit showed me that if I was lighter my fitness would improve and I would move faster. The biggest change that eatfit helped me with was eating a proper breakfast. I used to eat two pieces of toast for breakfast but I would feel hungry again when I got to work. Now I eat a fantastic breakfast that fills me up for the day." "I used to think that if I trained hard I could eat anything and it wouldn't affect my weight and performance. Now my eatfit routine helps maximize my performance and reduces the likelihood of overeating at dinner time from the post work out hunger. I have more energy and I am able to recover for my next training session." "I can now fit into size 10 clothes. I have more energy, can wear nice clothes and it is definitely great to get regular compliments about the results I have achieved." "Life these days is pretty good, I look better and feel better and my performance has improved infinitely. IT IS a lot easier to run when you are 10 kilos lighter!" "I have recommended eatfit to several of my friends as they have been impressed with the lifestyle changes that I have made and they are also enjoying the long term results."

Time for Graperide!!

Woohoo nearly time to head off to wine country (Blenheim) for the Graperide! The weather is looking good, the car is all packed and ready to go, just waiting for Geoff to finish work so we can off!!! Its been a weird training week with cycling only in the training plan, it's been a little odd not going for those early morning swims thats for sure! All good tho as I feel nice and rested and ready for tomorrow. Hopefully I can go a heap quicker than last years 3 and a half hours. Hmmmm apparently my 'story' that I had to write for the nutritionist is going in their next newsletter. Thats a little scary....