Big Jo training 23 May - 29 May

SWIM

~8.2km

Fully back on the bandwagon now.
Had a muscle balance so now have a few exercises to work on. I can't see it because it is behind me but apparently muscles below my shoulder blade have wasted quite a bit and when I lift my arms above my head my shoulder blade swings out too early, this is not good because it can lead to injuries from the muscles not functioning properly.  So I am currently working on the muscles which hold the shoulder blade down and once I have got that sorted I can move onto more general shoulder strengthening exercises.
Exciting.

BIKE

Had an attack of the lazy's during the week but got a bit of mileage over the weekend to make up for it.  We did the CMC club race which was the Mauku Mountain Classic and involved climbing up a mountain twice. Well, not really a mountain but a seriously steep hill, maybe of the steepest climbs I have ever ridden up.  I almost got taken out in the last 100m by a kid who started to weave all over the place, I may have dropped an F-bomb... But I made it up and was first girl in my grade woo-hoo.
The next day was a solid ride with Uncle Roy and the Asian Ninjas and a couple of other guys.  My mojo is starting to come back but there was still some suffering happening in the last half.
Sad story of week is that I lost one of my most favoritest gloves which I bought in Syracuse last year.  It was one of the best purchases of my life.  They are a pair of SmartWool training gloves and they make my life complete.

My lonely orphaned glove

I took them off during the ride and put them in my back pocket and never saw the right one again.  I can only assume that it fell out when I took my sunglasses out, I was so distraught about it that Mum and I even drove all the way back over to where I thought I lost it to look, but to no avail...
So now I am on a mission to find another pair.  I have discovered that I can actually get them in NZ (insanely expensive...) or get them for cheaper from the US if I can get someone to ship them to me at a reasonable rate.  So at least me and my favourite gloves will be united once again.

RUN

~32km

Week one of Learn How to Run Again.  Jared-Razzle purchased his very own Gayman 110 which I may have already used more than he has... but it is a good way to track what I'm up to.  So I'm sure he won't mind sharing it with me until I can get my own :)
Started out with my longest run of 60mins which was in the pouring rain and very Ironman NZ-esque but other than that was pretty good.  The rest of the runs were pretty short, easy runs and Sunday was off the bike (with a slightly extended T2...) which was a bit of a shock to the legs.

Raining in Devonport

 IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS:

I have become a SmartPhone user! Not really on purpose - I switched phone companies and they gave me a phone! So I can now Facetube, Twitface and Twitstalk on the go.  All this technology is getting a bit much though - I get home and start up my laptop to download and charge the Gayman, download Taptap, charge my phone, switch on the wifi, etc - it's very high maintenance...

Big Jo training 16 May - 22 May

SWIM

It swims!! Edging back into it without any problems so far, this week I did 3 swims of around 3km each woo hoo! I resurrected Haydn's Fish Program of Greatness and modified it a bit so it's less volume and will build back up if I don't have any problems.
My shoulder blade is looking a bit bony but other than that the dreaded Idiopathic Brachial Neuritis is no way near as bad as it could have been YAY!

BIKE

I have been feeling very, very average on the bike recently like my legs are super tired when I have hardly even done anything.  I got my iron and haemoglobin tested and surprise, surprise I have iron-deficiency anaemia. 
Again. 
May have something to do with my non red meat diet... The numbers weren't as bad as they have been in the past, but enough for me to feel a bit wiped out.  So I have started on the iron treatment and hopefully will be back to full speed soon.
Didn't have a long ride this week because of Huntly on Sunday so most of the week was pootling anyway.

RUN

Did the O'Hagan's 5km in a not so impressive time followed by the Huntly 10km in an also less than impressive time.  I decided if I broke 40mins at Huntly I would be allowed McDonald's and there was certainly no McDonald's being eaten in the weekend...

No Maccas for slow people

 Jared Razzle on the other hand had a stellar run and proved that fat is fast.  He broke 80mins for the first time which we were all super impressed about until we realized the course was ~500m short... It was still a good time for him but not quite the magical sub 80 he had hoped for.  Davo also proved that fat is fast but not quite as fast as his brother. 

Rarotonga Tri and last two weeks

RARO TRI RACE REPORT

I finally got to Rarotonga safe and sound despite being victim of a narky weight-Nazi Air NZ check-in man and then being abandoned at the airport in the early hours of the morning and hitching a ride with a local.
It was super windy and certainly wasn't the tranquil island setting I thought it would be.

Loaded up with carry-on luggage

 The lagoon was really choppy with lots of white caps.  It was a big 1500m loop, I had thought they might make it a 3x500m loop since it was so rough but no such luck.

I came out of the water about 10th female with a pretty shocking swim. I was just glad to be back on dry land.
The bike was a lap of the island with an extra bit up a hill with the rest flat.  The road conditions were very rough with a nice tailwind for the first part and a very nasty headwind at the end.  I passed a few girls at the start of the bike and came off in 7th place.

Started the run and passed 4 girls in the first couple of kms to be in 3rd place which is where I stayed.  The run was out and back in both directions and dead flat.  It was a bit warm but was cloudy so heat wasn't really a problem.

Takeaway coffee anyone?

Crossed the line and got crowned with a Kona-style flower crown/wreath thingy which made me feel like Chrissie Wellington and was probably the highlight of the day.  Post-race spread was a delicious array of tropical fruits and chocolate muffins and coconut water/milk served in a coconut.  Nom nom nom.

Doing my best impersonation of Chrissie

 The weather was pretty disappointing and it was only the 2nd time in 17 years that the weather hasn't come to the party so I guess I will have to come back to give it a go on a better day.
There was a lot of extra activities for the visiting triathletes over the next few days like a Hash House Harriers pack run followed by a traditional Umu and the Round Raro Cycle Race.  The cycle wasn't much fun on the TT bike plus some not so nice weather, I missed the cut for the first group so I sat at the back of the 2nd group and kept out of trouble.

Front page of the Cook Island Times. Spot the person not paying attention. I guess that Cultural Awareness course I was on a few weeks ago was wasted on me

The rest of the trip was centered around the wedding so I got to stay in a flash resort and did enough socializing to last me for the next 6 months at least.  Everyone in Rarotonga was really friendly and accommodating, especially the race organizers and other athletes.  The logistics of getting from place to place was sometimes a bit difficult but I was always able to get a lift with other athletes or friendly locals.

Nice place for a wedding

I went for a few extra swims, bikes and runs while I was there but nothing too strenuous.  I really admire Kelly Pick and Vanessa Palmer who came 1st and 2nd in the tri for being as fast as they are with such limited training resources ie. no pool and pretty much only one road to ride on which is full of potholes.

After a few attempts at a photo I decided the back of my head was better than the front

So now back to work and back to reality.  I will be getting a muscle balance done in the next week to sort out whats working and whats not working with my shoulder so I can hopefully start a bit more swimming.
I managed to take about 45 seconds off at my second attempt at the O'Hagan's 5km the week before Raro and will do the 10km at the Huntly Half next weekend for a bit of pain and suffering.

I came home to a major caterpillar/butterfly disaster with the caterpillars completely decimating their swan plant and choosing all sorts of inconvenience places to turn into a chrysalis so I have had to do an emergency dash to find them more food.  Exciting stuff eh.

Big Jo training 18 April - 1 May

Did I miss a week? Whoops.

SWIM

Guess what? I can swim!!
My shoulder was much improved with a course of prednisone so that it wasn't sore all the time like it had been.  I was even able to start sleeping on my tummy again. Ahhhhhh. So I had to make a decision about this Raro tri. I started off with a 200m swim which I was able to do with a bit of discomfort so I went ahead and confirmed my entry for Raro.
Since then I have done a couple of pootley swims of around 1200m-1500m without too many issues.  Its not fantastic but isn't sore afterwards.  I am slightly paranoid that my semi-wasted rotator cuff muscles are going revolt against me and start to cause an impingement from swimming so I'm not going to be silly about it.  I'll take stock after Raro and start some exercises and hopefully start building up the swimming nice and gently and see what happens.
My poor little shoulder blade is looking a bit bonier than usual but it isn't too obvious luckily and my arm is definitely weaker when I lift things.  A few random things like pulling off gloves and putting Jared's car in gear is a bit harder but so far there doesn't seem to be anything that I can't do which is good news.

BIKE

BIG week on the bike over Easter for Big Jo.  Not really intentional but the weather was good so why not.  Hot Cycles had organised a 140km ride on Good Friday which was a pretty easy way to get some km's in.  It was the longest I had spent on my bike since Ironman and other than a bit of a fidgey-widgey shoulder it was pretty good.  The next day was a bit more difficult and my leggies started to feel very sad after about 2.5hrs but luckily Uncle Roy was understanding and didn't try to hurt me too much.  He even bought me a Red Ambulance to keep me going.  The next day my legs were very, very sad but we only did an 'easy' Royport loop thank goodness.  It was about 17.5hrs on the bike that week.
The next week was a bit quieter, I dusted off RooRoo in anticipation for our little trip next week and attempted the Saturday morning TT.  I certainly didn't break any speed records but my power was better than ever. Go figure.

The Serottica with a bit more company than usual

Today was the Cycle for Life - 100km 'fun' ride around the coast from Clevedon.  It was insanely windy and despite their reassurance that the roadworks along the course had been patched up the road was in a terrible condition.  About 3-4km steep downhill in thick gravel with huge stones, I was so close to getting off and walking because I was so scared, I lost control a couple of times and almost came off.  I don't know how anyone thought it would be safe for cyclists, I wouldn't have even wanted to drive my car down there.  And they told us two days before that the road and been rolled and was smooth and it should be no problems for cyclists - LIARS!! That really ruined my ride, plus my chain coming off and me losing my group and having to ride solo for a bit chunk of it.  Luckily I got picked up by another group which wasn't exactly fast but was better than being by myself.
My end time was pretty slow but at least I got in a decent ride on a crappy day.

RUN

Made my big comeback at the O'Hagan's 5km for a bit of an up-tempo run, certainly not all-out but it was still hard.  It was a far cry from my 17.50 best or even my 18.40 rut but I can only get better from here.
Have done a couple of long runs, the longest just under an hour - oh my! Everything seems to be going ok so I think I am on the comeback - look out world here comes JO...

IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS...

Not actually very exciting at all but in an attempt to spruce up our garden I planted some random flower seeds a while ago.  Of course nothing actually grew for ages but something popped up recently, when I checked what I had planted it seems that the Cosmos plant was the only one who made it. I chose Cosmos after my dear little yellow friend who I re-homed a couple of years ago. So now whenever I come home the first thing I see is Cosmo! Warm fuzzy.

Hello Cosmo

Actual Cosmo. Hello Cosmo

Monarch caterpillar/butterfly central at the moment