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Monday, March 24, 2014

Back in Business

I bet you didn't expect to hear from me so soon did you.
Well I have managed to string together some decent weeks of training so thought I would report back.

SWIMMING

I have surrendered to the beeping in my swimcap (my tempo timer) and have dropped down a lane to see if keeping my strokes low actually makes me go faster, so far I am not convinced.  I feel too comfortable in that lane and feel like I will be faster if I have people to chase - kind of like sitting in a bunch of cyclists your own ability versus riding with better riders and trying to hang on.  But coach Haydn keeps going on and on at me about stroke counts so thought I would make a concerted effort.  We will see...

BIKING

I did my own little Auckland Half Ironman course reccie last weekend and it is as nasty as I remember.  My number one goal for the race is to finish the bike not feeling like I want to hang myself, if I can get through feeling happy that's the main thing.  I might need to revisit "The Triathlete's Guide to Mental Training" before the weekend.  It took me 3hrs15 to bike 90km mostly at what I considered to be half Ironman power so maybe I am not quite as fit as I want to be...
I had a funny little moment during my reccie ride where I was obviously a bit tired and perhaps under nourished (note to self: carry more than one bottle and one bar on race day) and I somehow managed to ride off the road and into some gravel.  I realized I was in trouble once I discovered I was off the road so I tried to slow down before the big pit of gravel in front of me, I had almost made it and had one foot unclipped (or decleated as Kezzle would say) when the gravel gave me the death wobbles and I ended up in the ditch still attached to my bike.  I didn't have far to fall and didn't hurt myself or my bike luckily but I think it highlighted the importance of paying attention even on a seemingly straight piece of road.  It was a shame I didn't have anyone to share it with because I did feel a bit silly extracting myself from my bike all alone on the ground.
I do heart bikes even when my bike throws me into the ditch
RUNNIES

I did something very exciting last week - I ran home from work.  6km from work to the ferry, a 15 minute ferry ride then 10km home - 16km run on a Monday, unheard of! I wasn't sure how the leggies would be after sitting around on the ferry but they seemed to be all good.  So now I am finding a way to make this part of regular training.  It is doable just take s a bit of uber organising which I am uber good at anyway.
Running finally seems to be feeling a bit better like I have got a bit of fitness so hopefully I won't be suffering too much next weekend.
I run through the sea

PC's making it hard to get up from my nap to run

PC'S

In PC news they are growing bigger by the day and we have introduced them to the catdoor with mixed success.  No-one has peed on the bed (our bed) in about a month now so we are doing well.
Spooning kitties


Meatloafing kitties

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Whoopsies half of January and all of February...

Life at Fort Torrington got a bit more exciting at the end of January with the arrival of two baby pussy cats in attempt to fill the void which my dear friend Murfy left behind.  I'll blame these two for my serious lacking of blogging over this time...
Baby kitties

Perving kitties

The two little kitty cats (Duff - nothing to do with my obsession with The Simpsons game... and Sigi - after the town we spent six weeks in Germany in) are very cute but make leaving for training in the morning a bit difficult as they are always keen to get outside which makes getting bikes outside and leaving on time a bit hard without people escaping.  But it does make coming come at the end of the day a bit more exciting when two little faces are waiting at the door for you.
Let us out
We certainly haven't bonded yet like the bond I had with Murfy but I am sure that will come.

In triathlon related news I have officially entered Auckland Half Ironman so am trying to train seriously for it. I have even shown my face at the O'Hagan's twice with a couple of rather embarrassing results but on the up side I can only improve and I took 20seconds off my time on my second run so if I keep that up I'll be in the low 18's in no time...;) Running at Stroke and Stride is starting to feel a bit better and I even cracked the top 15 for the second time this season last week, nothing to do with the fact that all the young fast girls were at the ITU race in Australia of course.  But despite being slow I am uninjured which is all I ever want so I will take it.  We had a delicious run along the Huka Falls track in Taupo in the weekend while we were spectating IMNZ and the Bowden's took it easy on me on the downhills so I was able to keep up the whole way.  I rolled my ankle a couple of weeks ago running downstairs offroad so I am extra super paranoid (rather than just my usual super paranoid) when running downhill at the moment.

We attempted to do the Rangitoto Swim a couple of weeks back which is a 4.6km swim from Rangitoto to St Heliers across the channel.  I wouldn't normally do a 4.6km swim but this one is a bit more interesting and a whole heap of people we knew had signed up which would make it a bit more fun.  Sadly they decided to use the alternative course because the wind forecast was a bit too strong and they were worried about people's safety, pffft...
Obviously not the day of the Rangitoto swim
So we did a 3.2km (hopefully it was longer than this otherwise we are all very slow) loop course around the inner harbour - boring.    But at least we got something for our money because in other years they have cancelled due to bad weather and not offered an alternative.  I somehow managed to win my age group so I think the rest of the AG must have been filled up with cripples.  I have become a bit of a cripple since the race after a nasty timing chip strap tore up my ankle.
Ouch

Our trip down to Taupo for Ironman New Zealand was very exciting - IMNZ weekend is my favourite weekend of the year.  We were mostly down there to watch our friend Nick but also knew heaps of other people doing it as well.  Nick had a good race despite becoming a first time Dad in December and there were some other notable performances which have riled me up to get fit and get fast. IMNZ 2015 look out!
Go Nick

Kitties meet your toilet

Sigi pretending to be Miley

Surprise!

Pussy in the wild


Oh and we saw Bruce! Lucky I had a midget in front of me