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Friday, December 28, 2012

Rotorua Half, Tadpolemonator and yuck Christmas weather

So the aftermath of Taupo Half was not so great with a my little groin issue hanging around and preventing me from running plus a very nasty ouchie on the front of my ankle from me being a muppet and not doing my shoe up properly.
Ouchies
 I was down to do the bike section for the Rotorua Half with my friend Megan from swimming which was quite exciting as I have never been a team biker before and got to wear my skinsuit which I had never had an occasion to wear.  I had a good ride despite my new Garmin 500 (on it's first outing) being on autolap and taking a lap every 8.05km (5 miles) and annoying the hell out of me.  It was fun riding with gay abandon and not having to worry about running.
Looking a bit ghost like but aero at the same time

Rotorua turned out a great day and the Lawson's backed up their 3rd race in 3 weeks with the Hammer coming 3rd and the Poodle taking a more relaxed approach and taking the dog for a run for the last part.
Who's this clown running his dog on the course?! Oh wait that's Nick
A very exciting thing happened the week after Rotorua - my new bike parts arrived!! Woo hoo!! I had to reorder from somewhere else because the original order went missing in the post which is why it took so long.  It then took a couple of nights (and lots of grumbling) to build.
Genius at work...
But then I got to use it for my Saturday ride - weeeeee!  It feels pretty good and seems to be better at cornering and 180 degree turns which is an area of mine which certainly needs some help.  It came with a pair of Zipp 404's but the whole TapTap issue means that if I use the rear 404 (once I get a Campag freehub body for it) I won't have power, BUT I will be able to use my rear wheel cover which I couldn't use with RooRoo so will be able to have a 404 front and disc on the back.  Finally I have a grown up bike and grown up wheels!! I know it is by no means the latest and greatest but don't think there is much difference between a 2009/2010 P3C to a 2012 P3C, and there is no way in hell I can afford a 2012 P3C.  It is hard for someone of my size to get a decent bike which actually fits properly and this bike should be faster than RooRoo.
ello Taddy
I have named it the Tadpolemonator - Taddy for short.  Tadpole for my new name courtesy of Nick the Poodle, and Lemonator out of respect to it's previous owner Tracy Lemon.
Let's see if Taddy can now get us to Kona....

The weather around NZ over Christmas has been pretty schizer but I have managed a bit of riding and sea swims.  Running is starting again slowly but am looking to supplement it with pool running (boooooo) so I don't lose too much fitness.
Nice summer weather in Coromandel...
Devonport to Takapuna swim crew and their kayaker.  The seemingly calm conditions lulling them into a false sense of security...

Made it! Not so calm now


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Taupo Half Ironman Race Report

I had a rather cavalier attitude coming into this race this year, I hadn't pulled up so well after Tinman with my annoying pre-Germany groin problem appearing on the opposite side.  It started to get sore a couple of hours after Tinman and hadn't really settled so I hadn't run all week since it was sore just walking around.  So I didn't really expect to be running.
Plus my super speedy new bike was STILL waiting for parts and I was really quite over the disappointment of coming home everyday to no special delivery so I wasn't really enthused about riding RooRoo again when I should have been riding something faster.

Race morning was rather chilly with quite a chop on the lake but the forecast was pretty good for the rest of the day.
Last year I had a moment of brilliance in the swim and came out of the water in around about 31mins which is a phenomenal time for me.  Sadly I couldn't replicate it this year and came out in about 36 minutes... It was much worse conditions though and times across the board were slower than usual.  I was racing AG and came out of the water with one of the Elite girls and there were still 2 more behind me - why did that never happen when I was racing Elite?!!
I was so cold (the water was 14 degrees) that I ran like a snail up to T1 and struggled to get helmet on, things in pockets, etc and ended up not doing my shoes up so well causing the velcro to rub a big hole in front of my ankle - ouch.
It took quite a while to warm up but luckily there was no rain so after about 30km I was feeling a bit normal again.
The number of fast looking people passing me indicated that maybe everyone had struggled with the swim and maybe I had actually done ok.
I saw a sad sight at about the 10km mark - Jared Razzle pulling the pin on his race and rolling back in to town.  I knew it was on the cards with his multitude of niggly issues but was still sad to see him like that.

After about 25km I got mixed up in a pack which came past picking up every person in it's path, I did my best to keep my distance but had the old problem of opening up a gap and then someone else slotting in.  When I realized that the pack contained the 4th - 7th females (my competition) I decided I to had to stick with it if I was to compete with them.  The pack then got broken up a few times by the draft busters and me and one of the other girls had to spend some time in the naughty corner.  The draft marshall freely admitted that the girls are much easier to pick on because we stand out among all the men which is the hard part of being near the front of the girls race but not a good enough swimmer to get away from the large packs of men.
The last 20km was spent passing the people who had passed me while I was serving my time including a couple of girls who hadn't got busted.

Coming off the bike I wasn't really sure how the groin would be but thought I would give it a go and was prepared to stop if need be.
And it turned out to be ok! It was a little bit niggly but never got worse than a 2/10 so it was obviously pretty warmed up after 90kms on the bike.
I was pretty disappointed in my run time but have had a broken couple of weeks for running so I guess it was ok.  And I picked up a couple of places to put myself into 6th place which is always good.
I almost got run down in the finishing chute by Terenzo (he was doing it in a team) and his little group of fans who got to run the last 50m with him.  He had the decency to stay behind me coming across the finish line and I would expect nothing less from him, I was wondering what the commotion going on behind me was.

Anyhoo I fulfilled my goals of going sub 5 hours and coming in the top 10 so it was a successful trip.  The drafting penalty was a shameful moment for me but as Coach Poo said the top 3 girls at Kona this year all got penalties so I am in good company...

The groin is about where is was before the race so I don't feel like I have done any extra damage to it (am almost 100% certain it is my Pectineus muscle NOT a bone problem - whew) but will let it settle down before running again.

We had some fantastic hospitality from T the P and Netty at their lovely house in Kinloch and good company with the Poodle, the Hammer and the Seal.  The Hammer had a phenomenal race to come 3rd in the ladies and the Poodle had a solid race overall and moved pretty quick (much quicker than me!) for a big man on the run course.

This weekend I am doing the bike leg for Team Speedtheory Ladies at the Rotorua Half and will not be on my new bike so don't even ask.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Stroking and Striding, training and Tinman

The first Stroke and Stride took place a few days after our K2 adventure which meant some very sad running legs which was very unfortunate with it being a 5km run.  I made a classic amateur mistake of wearing my brand new shoes for the first time with some stretchy lace which were rather tight and resulted in some very shredded up feet.  It wasn't really a mistake because I knew that it was a dumb thing to do and even told people that it was a dumb thing to do but I really wanted to wear my pretty new shoes.  The main problem was the laces which were really too short and therefore tight so once I had put the original laces back in for the next S&S they were much better.
AIDS like foot
I also got a new pair (before they were even released in NZ!!) of ASICS GT2000 as my training shoes and they are really quite delicious.  I have read some comments from people who are really not keen on them but I think they are great, quite similar to my DS Trainers which I love.
Hello new shoes
Sadly the new Tadpole cycle machine is still waiting for some parts to arrive so I am still rocking the RooRoo and enjoying are last few days together.  I was really hoping to have Taddy up and running by now and need for the parts to arrive in the next two days if I am to use it this weekend for the Taupo Half so am remaining optimistic.  I have a little tourettes episode every time I get home at the end of the day and there is no little parcel waiting at the front door for me.

TINMAN RACE REPORT

I am not usually into Olympic distances but thought I would do this for a change and had the offer of free accommodation which I couldn't pass up.
The body marking lady mistook  me for a M30-34
Pilot Bay was rather choppy and cold and windy for our start but I tried to remain positive in keeping with my new positive attitude towards racing.
We started 2mins behind the AG Men and 6mins behind the Elites and it was about 300m before I was catching the slow men which was nice for my confidence in my swimming ability but annoying at the same time.
I came out of the water in about 20th in an OK time so was off to a reasonable start.  It was nice for my bike to be surrounded by other bikes and not only the lonely on the Elite rack like I have become accustomed to.
The bike was super windy and I was wearing my NEW front Zipp which was a little bit twitchy.  The bike course is dead flat so pretty quick but I really should have ridden faster than I did.  I didn't get passed by any girls and manged to get a few which bumped me up a few places.
RooRoo's swansong (maybe)
My hips/groins have been really tight recently so I started the run with little baby steps and they loosened up after a couple of km's.  I wasn't wearing a Garmin so was just running with gay abandon which turned out to be not so fast but I managed to catch quite a few girls on the run including one in the last couple of hundred meters - don't think she was happy about that and left me hanging when I tried to shake her hand at the end. Awkward.
Happy in my running
The leggies are a bit sore today but hopefully should be good to go for the big one in the weekend.