Key fail, phone fail, window fail

Today it hit 41.9 degrees celsius in my part of Melbourne. We also had a stinking hot 45-50kph wind and scorching blue skies with sunshine. It was great just for the novelty factor, but gees I don't think I'd like that temperature everyday - even with only 15% humidity!

I decided to head out about 1pm and get some more insect repellent. I clipped my wallet onto my keyring, and as I was just popping down the road I left my mobile behind.  I stopped at the supermarket and got the insect repellent, some watermelon, some Weis mango ice bars, and some more strawberries.  I went to the pharmacy and got some hydralyte, and to the chicken shop for chicken and rice and veges for lunch.  I was walking up my driveway, minding my own business when I realised that I no longer had my house keys.

To top it off, I didn't have my mobile, which was on silent and on the arm of the couch, behind the locked front door. The spare key was inside the house but conveniently near the front door for once, and I couldn't call anyone to help because my phone was inside the house!

I left my bags with a neighbour and set off back down to the village to find my keys.  My real estate agent is closed until the 4th, and despite asking in almost every store in the village, no one had seen my keys.  I came home and decided it was time to ring a locksmith, when the neighbour pointed out it would probably be cheaper to smash the window and grab the spare key and ring a glazier to fix the window, than to get a lockie out today.  So that's what we did.

Once I got inside, I grabbed my phone and found a message - from the video store in the village, telling me that they had my keys.  My next call was to the local glazier, who fortunately was able to come straight around and check out the window.  I went off to get him some cash and my keys back from the video store.  Son of a biyatch, if I'd just taken my bloody phone with me it would all have been fine! I decided a pit stop on the way home was in order, to collect a nice cold can of L&P from the lolly shop down the road.  I suddenly found the situation hysterically funny, as did the man in the lolly shop.  After a good laugh at my expense, it was time to go home.

The window is now fixed and Chris the glazier did a great job.  However, before he fixed the window and while I was out, every fly in beachside western Melbourne (plus wasps plus dragonflies) decided to invade the house.  Thank heck for the fly repellent. They are all gone now. It was still over 40 degrees when I decided it was time to tidy up a little but it was so hot and I was sweating so much that it took four goes and several glasses of electrolytes and iceblocks to cool down enough to carry on each time. 

I packed it in at 8.30pm and started watching Ironman Florida courtesy of my Foxtel iQ box.  

And now I'm blogging.  Here are my plans for 2011:

• Complete a super sprint and two or three sprint distance races before my first Oly at the Dextro in Sydney in April.
• Complete the Dextro in about 3 hours 30 mins
• Complete Ironman 70.3 Yeppoon in 6 hours 50 mins or less
• Complete another half in November/December. Perhaps Shepparton, or Taupo?
• Finish my personal training qualification and start work as a PT
• Obtain my L1 Triathlon Coaching qualification
• Obtain my L1 Triathlon Technical Officials Qualifiation
• Upsize my house or downsize my crap.  Probably upsize my house, once my lease is up in July, or after Yeppoon.
• Get back to 70kg and 20% body fat (or less).
• Malaysia for a holiday
• Kona - maybe this year, to watch Lance?

That's about all I can think of right now. I'm over trying to stay awake so I'll go have a nice cold shower, read a magazine and hit the hay.

Happy 2011!

A New Year's Revolution

I refuse to make New Year's Resolutions for 2011. In the recent past, I've preferred to make changes to my life when I feel like it, often at random and with a degree of carefree abandon and utter whimsy, to avoid that drowning overtone of sarcasm that follows my telling someone that I'm going to do something semi-drastic. If people don't associate my life changes with a new year, I don't get the melodramatic garbage.

Here's a trip down memory lane to see what I planned for 2010 and what I ticked off my list:

• Completing the Contact Triwoman 3-9-3 event on Saturday 23 January 2010 at Narrow Neck. DONE! Plus five more triathlons in the three months after this one. Phew!

• Completing my fitness instructor qualification through NZIHF by 28 February 2010 (one month early). DONE! 

• Watching Ironman NZ at Taupo on 6 March 2010 and supporting my friend Sean who is competing again (dude, you rock. Seriously!). DONE! Yay Sean - 12hrs 45 - you rock!

• Completing my first half ironman (the Auckland Half) on 20 March 2010. I don't want to place, I just want to finish! This should have said 2011 - as in I'm now doing Ironman 70.3 Yeppoon on 14 August. Let's face it, I was totally half-baked last year.

• Attending FILEX in Sydney from 30 April to 2 May 2010. Then travelling down to Melbourne for a few days. The car blowing up on Christmas Eve 2009 put paid to this. If it doesn't clash with Dextro or Port Mac, I'll do this in 2011.

• Completing a certificate in sports training and development by 7 May 2010, through SIT. These clowns closed the course early so I couldn't do it. Ugh! However, I'm enrolled to complete my personal training qualification now.

• Achieving 20% body fat by 30 June 2010. This should have said 2011. LOL! Let's go for 30/06/2011.

• One top secret but very life-changing goal at 1pm on 3 July 2010. Shhhhh!!! Can't tell you, so please don't ask on here!! Email me and ask me that way instead! DONE! I moved to Melbourne, but five weeks early. However, I moved into my new house in Melbourne on 3 July 2010 and was left to sort the mess of boxes and bags at around 1pm. LOL!

• Watching Ironman Hawaii (and Lance Armstrong compete in it) on 9 October 2010, LIVE, in Kona, Hawaii!!! Not achieved. Lance didn't do Kona and I couldn't go as I was in Malaysia. Perhaps 2011?

So, what am I planning for 2011? Aside from Dextro and Yeppoon? 

Stay tuned.

Fruit, Yeppoon and Pilates

Today I ventured out to raid my favourite fruit shop. This is no mean feat - it requires a train ride, then a bus ride, but the reward is lots of nice cheap good quality fruit. Sadly, they were closed - stupid Christmas - and have no sign on their window to indicate when they will re-open. Since I refuse to pay $8 for a kilo of apples at the supermarket, and $5 for a chip of strawberries, I guess I'll have to hit the markets tomorrow if THEY are open.

I love fruit, and on WW now fruit is free - to a point (pardon the pun). I wasn't sure if there was a way to OD on fruit and have it bite back, so I checked the message boards. Yep, more than two pieces of fruit a day may cause issues with kj intake, as the sanctioned two pieces of fruit are part of your daily points allowance - but if you go over this it may affect your weight loss. Bah, humbug. I've been having two to three serves a day with no consequences so far. I've lost 3.3kg in three weeks and quite a bit of body fat, so I'll stick with my two to three serves a day and not go bananas (pardon that shocker of a pun also).

Yeppoon! Since I dropped the Y-Bomb a couple of days ago, I guess I'd better atone and tell you all about it. I had an email come through from Ironman.com and it announced that entries were open for the 2011 Ironman 70.3 Yeppoon race at Capricorn Resort. Well, I thought, perhaps I should take a look at this. So I did. And then I entered and now have just under 8 months to prepare. It's four months after the Dextro in Sydney, so that will be a good indicator of how I'll go at Yeppoon. Now I just need to sort my flights, accommodation, transfers...the mind boggles and the list goes on!

There's a lot of work to be done between now and these two key races. Every leg needs work, and not just the ones I use to move around on. My swim needs work, my bike needs work and my run needs serious work. But this is not insurmountable, even if my core also needs work. What I plan to do now is split my training up a bit so that I'm not so tired and sore. 

I'll do about half an hour of Pilates before work in the mornings. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday I'll be swimming, followed by some time on the wind trainer at home. Tuesday and Thursday I'll be in the gym working on my strength and muscular endurance, and going for a run.  Friday will be a rest day, and Sunday will be yoga or race day.  Since I can hook my MacBook up to the TV, I can watch my online PT lectures while on the wind trainer. Taking notes may be a pain in the butt though, but then so is my saddle after not enough time on it. That needs to change. 

I need to survive sitting on that saddle for up to 100km prior to Yeppoon. I'll be fine - but I also need aerobars and I'm not sure I want to clip them on to my Avanti Sprint road endurance bike. I think I'd be better off saving for a tri specific bike, and most of the toys I have on my Avanti I can take off and stick on a new bike. I'd love another Avanti because I've always had Avanti bikes. My first ten speed twenty-odd years ago was an Avanti, and they are good quality bikes. As it stands, I need to take off the extra brake levers on the Avanti which will cost about $200. I think this money would be better put towards a tri bike. We'll see. 

So now with Sydney and Yeppoon on the calendar for 2011, plus another half around November or December, and the half at the Melbourne Marathon in October, I need to do some serious planning. I need to be really scrooge-like with my time and money and annual leave, to make sure I achieve these goals I've set. My only expenses for Sydney are transfers, food and paying for the hostel on arrival. For Yeppoon though, I'm up for flights, accommodation, food, a new bike, racing kit, and at least one or maybe two more pairs of runners.  Hopefully I can pick up some PT work which will bring in some extra bucks.

Because I'm losing weight, my clothes size will shrink, but I have some smaller training gear stashed away. This will be good for later on. The stuff I bought with my vouchers from 2XU mostly fits but some things are a little small. Fortunately the training pants aren't one of them, hurrah! It was nice to be able to train yesterday in pants that fit. My goodness, it has been ages since that last happened. Today I have DOMS in my legs, despite my protein loading at Xmas lunch and wearing my compression gear to bed. I'll jump on the WT later and loosen up my legs, as walking today didn't help.

Allons-y Alonzo!

A very merry fitness

I'm proud to say that I survived Christmas lunch.  I hit the local RSL with some neighbours and had a veritable feast - pumpkin soup, three roast meats (turkey, pork and ham) with veg (potato, pumpkin and beans), and plum pudding with ice cream and brandy custard for pudding.  I'd been saving up my WW points so that I could have a decent Christmas lunch without worrying about how much I could eat.  My plan worked as by the time I'd gotten through the gorgeous pumpkin soup I was running out of room.  I polished off most of my roast lunch and then asked for half a serve of pudding.

I came home at 2pm and had to sloth on the couch for a couple of hours before part 2 of my Christmas plan   could kick off. What was part 2?  I hit the gym - yes, that's right - I went to the gym on Christmas day! My wonderful local gym is available to me from 6am to 10pm, every day of the year.  That rocks - in the past, I've had to put up with stupid short hours and full closures when it suits the least. But now, it's all good, thanks to the swipe token and the brilliance of Seth, the owner. I can go any day of the year, so public holidays are no longer an excuse to take a day off and sloth around.

I got to the gym about 4.30pm and was home just before 6pm.  I did two sets of everything - weighted squats with bicep curl and shoulder press, leg press, lat pulldown, seated row, lateral fly, chest press on swiss ball, tricep pushdowns...I did it all.  Well, except for my abs. By that stage lunch was coming back to haunt me and my quads had started burning on the rower warm up. I survived a bit more of a run on the treadmill (I'd already been for a run along the beach earlier today) before I packed it in and went home to chill out.

I've tidied the lounge, washed the dishes, and cooked dinner. It's the end of week three on WW and this week has been hard, because of all the chocolate floating around at work. I've decided that I no longer like Guylian sea shells (yuck) but I am still partial to Lindt milk chocolate balls. I will not have them in the house though, because if I do I will eat them and you can't buy them in singles. I think a much better plan is to portion off the block chocolate version and freeze it, taking out a small serving on Saturday night to eat on Sunday. I don't like frozen chocolate so this should be fine. It has worked before - it will work again.

I trained today in one of my new pieces of 2XU training gear. I bought five pairs of training capris (three black, one navy and one grey/olive), and believe me, they rock. For starters, they fit well and are really comfy. I have to go back and get some in a large, as the XL won't fit for long at the rate I'm shrinking. They also look good, and have to be the most comfortable training pants in the world. I also got a pair of trackie type pants, a pair of training leggings, some training tops, a couple of run skirts and a new tri suit (as mentioned yesterday). Bring on that tri suit, it won't be long now!

Tomorrow I plan to hit the fruit shop and as I expect to be sore from today's efforts, loosen things up on my wind trainer. I hope that evil plan works, as I hate having DOMS. Although I've had carbs and protein and a chocky milk, I can feel the stiffness rising. I need to keep track of my DOMS episodes so I can figure out what prevents it and what reduces it when it sets in. I think a banana before bed might be useful, hopefully I can remember!

In summary, I'm feeling pretty impressed that I went to the gym on Xmas day, when most people were stuffing themselves with food and grog. Sure, I went to burn off some of the food I stuffed myself with, but also because I could.

NO EXCUSES!

Score, a direct hit

Yesterday and today I used my 2XU vouchers and shopped up a storm. I'm not opening the bags or cutting the tags until Xmas Day - the gear is my Xmas pressie to myself and I need something other than a cellophane wrapped candle and box of chocolates to open on Xmas day! I've worked out that I have somewhere in the region of nearly $2K of stuff and all I paid was my $200 in vouchers plus $40 of my own money. Bazinga! Let's hope most of it fits now, but if it doesn't it will soon.

This is my 2010 Xmas Tree:

I've survived my third week back on Weight Watchers but only just. Normally my willpower rocks and I can avoid chocolate but this week there's been chocolate all through the office every day and I've been a little down in the dumps (I may hate NZ but this is my first Xmas away from NZ and it's been a little weird). I've always been one to eat my feelings and I've had little resistance to Lindt this week. Ah well! I have been exercising and I know my shape has changed because I'm now in a size 14 pair of stretchy pants and wrap top. Sure, not everything in a 14 fits but hell, it's an improvement on the size 18 stretchy pants I was wearing earlier this year.

So far I've dropped 2.3kg in the first two weeks. I don't expect this week to be a big week (last week was 600g, after 1.7kg the first week) so anything resembling a downward shift is wicked. I refuse to say that I've lost weight because it implies I will find it again.  I WON'T!!! I don't want to spend another decade feeling like Mrs Blobby, and I refuse to do so. I will be fit and healthy and although I won't and don't want to be a size 10, I just want to get to 70kg and 20% bodyfat.  I need some fat and have a stack of muscle already, and besides, I don't want to look like a skeleton again.

I now have 10 days off before I go back to work so I plan to spend the time training, sleeping, studying, eating and napping. Plus watching some Foxtel while on the wind trainer, researching training plans and methods, and reading magazines.

Oh yeah - big news.  I'm doing IRONMAN 70.3 YEPPOON on August 14, 2011.  More on this later.

Bring it on!

Gearing up and ready to go

I'm slowly ticking off the stuff I need on my triathlon journey. Recently I've finally got a wetsuit (thanks to the great team at XOSize in Bentleigh for helping me out - and into it, LOL). I have yet to christen it but I'm sure that Race 3 on Australia Day will sort that out. I only really bought it so jellies wouldn't cuddle me when I swim, but with the bodyfat shrinking

I picked up a new wind trainer on sale, and after a last minute decision to have a glass of harden up, I made a mercy dash to Bunnings to grab a pair of multigrip pliers to change my pedals back to my Mavics. I need to get back into the joy of riding as one with my bike and after a quick swap, I had a lovely hour on my bike tonight in the lounge back in my cleats. Hell, I don't have to worry about not unclipping in time when I'm in the lounge, and I can practise clipping in and unclipping until my cleats loosen up a bit.

I got a stack of 2XU vouchers for Christmas, so I'll be raiding the Spencer Street and DFO outlet stores soon and cleaning them out of XL ladies stock. If I can find an XL black ladies tri suit that fits I will be stoked. If it doesn't fit, it will be hanging up as motivation!

Since arriving in Oz, I am very frustrated by the fact that because I'm between sizes and a funny shape, I find it nigh on impossible to buy training capris or shorts. If it fits around the waist, it's too big in the butt, the hips and the legs I'm about a 12 around the shoulders now, but bigger in the bust, the waist and the hips. It's frustrating and annoying that I can't buy fitness gear that looks good and actually fits - and wicks moisture. I will not train in heavy cotton or anything that will end up feeling like a wet blanket after 10 minutes. NO WAY JOSE!

Sure, places like Big W have a larger ladies range, but the only place I'm larger is around the waist and all their gear looks like MC Hammer Pants on me. Plus, their gear for plus sizes doesn't wick moisture. Ugh! I also refuse to pay like $100 for a single pair of capris. Get real! It's not worth it when your shape is changing, your bodyfat is plummeting and you're an apple shape. 

I think I just need to design something and make it affordable somehow. Or, I'll have to go back to NZ and buy stuff from the Warehouse. Shizz, that's not appealing. Hopefully I can find some good gear on sale at 2XU which actually fits, I have heaps of stuff for later when I'd down a waist size, but right now it's training gear limbo land.

I also now have a Bike Pod.  It's the shizz.  Here's a photo:

Basically, it's made of 600 denier EVA - so similar to a samsonite fabric suitcase. It's got inline skate wheels, two moulded handles and then strap handles as well. Its got places to stash the wheels (mental note, get some extra skewers) and tonnes of space for everything else that can double as padding. I bought it because I am heading to Sydney for the Dextro in April, but I may have a surprise for y'all in store about where else I will be taking it next year.

It's awesome. It also only weighs 7kg so with my bike on board, it's up to 16kg. Sweet, dude.  Note to triathletes - if you fly Virgin Blue within Aussie and have bought the checked baggage allowance of 20 or 23kg for an extra $10 with your flight, they are nice enough to give you an extra 5kg of checked baggage allowance for your sporting equipment - free. The only conditions I was told about are that you need your bike suitably packaged (check) and to check in at the counter at least an hour before your flight. I called and asked if they needed to add the info to my booking but was told no. 

I will triple check this and advise closer to Dextro, but I suggest if you want to do this, call them and check it out for yourself.  I take no responsibility for a budget (but in my experience very good) airline and their policies.

So, with most of my major purchases out of the way I can concentrate on buying food, new runners every 6 months and saving for a tri-specific bike. My Avanti Sprit is quick, but I don't think it will be comfy enough for an Ironman and I need to add aeros to it (when I'm more aerodynamic myself, of course). I've  been told it's well nigh impossible to clip aeros onto a roadie and be comfy enough to bash out an Ironman, so I guess my gorgeous Sprint won't be coming with me when I do Ironman in 2012. Stink one bro.

Gotta bail, need my sleep or I'll be a cranky pants!

Born to be alive

Today I drove over the Westgate, through the Burnley tunnel, to Ikea, and procured a roast dinner at the roast kitchen in Kew before driving my stuff home and returning Pacman the flexicar! Go me!

I left out one important thing. I had a Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykonos moment while driving over the Westgate. I imitated Steve who was singing along to "Born to be alive" by Patrick Hernandez while driving. Sadly, I wasn't in a Valiant Pacer, just a Honda Jazz. But the sentiment was there and that's what matters! Get the movie out, it's a scream. I love anything with Nick G or Vince Colosimo in it, hence why I have both Wog Boy movies, Underbelly uncut, and a few other obscurities on DVD.

On Tuesday I'm off to see my favourite band, MUSE, live in concert at Rod Laver Arena. I missed them in January at the Big Day Out in Auckland because my (then) stupid car decided to blow up on Christmas Eve and couldn't afford a ticket. So, when tickets went on sale on June 4, I snapped one up. I've had the ticket for over six months and I finally get to use it in three days. Hooray! At least there's no chance of my car blowing up on Christmas Eve this year, because I don't have one anymore. Ha, take that!

On Monday I hope to go back swimming. I haven't been able to train for weeks because of that stupid virus and I'm sick of sitting at home doing sweet nothing. I'll see how I go, I managed swim coaching today (but only just). I won't be racing next weekend which is annoying, and I bet the weather will be perfect just to spite me! I have decided to do my volunteer service next weekend at Race 2, so at least my conscience will be clear when I get to Race 3 - which I have already entered, by the way. Talk about organised.

Not much else to report, so I'm off to catch up on some pre-recorded Foxtel before I hit the hay.

Oh - actually, yes there is. I lose 1.6g this first week back on WW. HOORAY!!!

Ciao.

You're the one for me, fatty

The last week has been a hazy blur. I didn't get to race in my first tri of the season because good old mother nature had other ideas (see the post on November 28 for the [lack of] race report). Then, my body decided to beat the crap out of me and basically just shutdown. It was a blue screen of what felt like death - or if you're a Mac user like me, that pretty spinning pinwheel is probably more accurate.

Monday, the day after said lack of race, I felt okay-ish. A little tired, a little sore and a little stupid. I put this down to it being the day after the race the day before. Except, walking to work that morning, I noticed two fingers and some of my left arm were numb and tingly. That night, I fell asleep on the couch at 7.30 and was in bed not long after. Weird.  Tuesday I had half my left hand playing tingly wingly and again was in bed before the sun. I had the headache from hell too, and a sore throat to boot.

By Wednesday morning, the numby tingly wingly had hit my other hand and some of my left foot. I wasn't too concerned, but I was very, very tired. I left work early and went to the doctor. After a thorough exam she proclaimed that yes I had a nasty virus, that I was overtired and on the verge of exhaustion from not having had a holiday in 18 months, and sent me off for a full round of fun at Draculas Castle (i.e. blood tests for everything under the sun)...including the lovely Eppstein Barr virus test, better known as glandular fever or to Americans, mono. Because there were two fasting tests required, I had all the tests done Thursday morning first thing. I fainted at the lab and had to get a cab home. Fun, fun, fun.

Friday I started harassing the lab for my results. After a very stressful day, I finally found out at 6.04pm that it wasn't glandular fever, or thyroid, or diabetes, or cancer, or crazy high cholesterol. I also wasn't anaemic or missing vitamin D. Well, grand. But WTF is going on with me?

Saturday I went back to the Doctor and was read the riot act. My fasting glucose was at the top end of the acceptable range, meaning that I'm basically pre-pre-diabetic; I was suffering from exhaustion and needed to sort out my weight, pronto. Being a fat triathlete is not good. I read myself the riot act and said, "that's it, I'm going to join Weight Watchers online TODAY. What's my weight?"

True to my word, I came home, got on the net and joined WW Online. I also got onto the website to register for my age group spot in the 2011 Dextro Energy ITU World Championship in Sydney.  It's an Olympic distance race in which I get to swim in Sydney Harbour, bike over the coathanger (Sydney Harbour Bridge) and run past the Opera House. Aces! It's on 10th April. That's just over four months away, so as soon as I can go back to training I'm doing so!

So, my plan is as follows:

• Work my way back down to the bottom of Athena Class (70kg). I should be no more than 69kg but I have stacks of muscle which I need for my big races next year. Stuff the BMI, I'm currently 34% muscle and don't want to lose any!
• Finish the Dextro in Sydney in under 3.5 hours. 1.5km swim in under 30 mins, the 40km bike in 1hr 30 mins and the run in under 1hr 15mins. The swim and the bike are definitely do-able in these timeframes and the run should be okay with this timeframe too.  I can't run more than 2km at present but have like 17 weeks to sort that out!
• Finish my PT certificate over Xmas / New Year and then book in for the work experience and practical assessment.
• Attend 3Fest, the Triathlon/Multisport Conference and Expo in late January.
• Coach myself.  I CAN do this.

It's bedtime folks, I am yawning my head off now and need some shut eye.

Ciao.

T-5 days and counting

In seven days I'll be enjoying (read: panicking) the night before the first race of the season - and the longest race of my triathlon career to date. Okay, so it's only 100m extra in the swim, 1.75km extra on the bike and no extra on the run - but the swim may feature jellyfish (gross!) and will be my first swim in a wettie, and the bike will be interesting considering I've spent hardly any time on it since moving over from NZ.  

I've been out for a few rides, some very long and others not very long at all. Not being able to get my left pedal on due to not knowing that the left crank is threaded differently to the right was a newbie error. In my defence, I didn't pack my bike to come over here, my bike Mechanic Ben did. I don't think I could even change a tyre, hence why the instructions are in my saddle bag. I have bought a floor pump with gauge and a multi tool/repair kit as the tyre cement wasn't allowed on the plane in my bike box (adhesives are banned in unaccompanied baggage). Meh.

This Saturday (i.e. the day before the race) I get to go and buy a wettie. I am a little worried about this, I'm not girl shaped and sure as hell not girl sized, so a man's wetsuit is my only option. Manufacturers of practically everything don't seem to have cottoned on to the fact that there are Athena class triathletes (i.e. women over 70kg) like myself and thousands of others worldwide, who don't fit into nice little size XXS gear. 

Go lose some weight and get over myself, I hear you say? Well, I'm doing just that. Sadly, it doesn't happen overnight and gear shopping is a bit of a nightmare because there's all this nice stuff out there that doesn't fit little fat me. I think I can still squeeze into my Danskin tri suit from last season, so I will be wearing that on race day. My shape is changing - I've now got almost no fat around my arms and shoulders so this area is the first to feel cold. I've also lost it around my legs and butt. It's coming off my bouyancy belt (or my stomach if you will) but not as fast as other places. It is moving though, which is great.

So, Saturday is all about getting a bike check and a new wetsuit. Right now however, I need sleep.

Ciao.

Silent lessons for a quiet war

The war I'm referring to is a mental one. My brain keeps trying to talk me out of racing on the 28th, with all kinds of BS excuses - such as I'm not fit enough, I don't have a wetsuit, I don't like jellyfish, I'm going to get stung by said jellies, I'm going to react to being stung by jellies and need an epipen and will get a DNF, etc.  Yep, BS excuses indeed. No amount of freaking out about the unknown/uncontrollable will stop these things from happening.

The long range rain forecast isn't looking good for race day.  I've never raced in the rain, so this should be interesting. It will mean wet socks + wet shoes = wet feet, an equation I'm not keen on.  And wet gear! I don't mind running in the rain but riding in the rain is suboptimal. At least it's only 12.5km, but still, wet bike shoes are not good. I'm actually thinking it would be a good idea to do this race with my old pedals on, not my cleats, and do the whole thing in my runners.

I've been swimming religiously, twice a week on my own plus one swim coaching session per week. I've been a bit off with my weight training and bike and run, but that's life.

It'll all be fine come race day.  I hope!

Should I self-coach?

It's a lovely morning here in Melby, or at least it was. The wind has been howling all night and blew over a few things at the back of my house, waking me in the process each time. Those who know me well are aware it is not a good idea to wake me up unnecessarily. I can be a bit of a tyrant when sleep deprived or my routine is disrupted. All patience goes out the window and I turn into a grumpy demon.

Speaking of Jedi mind tricks, I've been a lot more focussed this past week. I completed all my training sessions and bought my hard-earned replacement Sennheiser headphones yesterday. I was even more excited by the fact that they were $30 off. So, I went to Rebel Sport and bought a yoga mat bag, and new gym gloves.  I'd just joined Rebel's Season Pass Programme, and had a $20 credit so the gloves ended up being free and the mat bag was only $25.  I was still up by $5 so I met up with two friends at Highpoint and had a coffee.

I still haven't heard back from the Tri Coach I contacted, so I guess I'll be coaching myself for Ironman. I'm rather disappointed by this to be honest, it's bad enough I was stood up the day after I got back from Malaysia when I was jet-lagged and in no way in the mood to train, but Ii hauled butt down to the assigned meeting spot, bike and gear and all. So, this is just BS. Here I am wanting to give someone money and they can't even be bothered responding. Ah well - I guess that's life, and maybe I should get a coach who has actually done NZ AND will respond to queries.Or, I'll just pick the brains at the club and coach myself with the help of books and triathlete friends for advice. Better yet, the next coaching course the comes up through Tri Vic that doesn't clash with a race will be game on.

If Chrissie Wellington can train herself, why can't I? Just because I haven't done an Ironman YET doesn't mean I can't coach myself, right? Perhaps I should! At the very least, I'll give it a crack. I also remembered today that my skills coach from uni has a boyfriend who is a coach in NZ AND is at the event because he's the swim announcer. That could be handy.

I'm realistic, I know it is going to hurt almost as much as when the nerve block wore off after my last knee reconstruction. If I can get through that, I can get through Ironman. I know I have work out my nutrition, that's the story of my life, really. Then there are just rest periods and tapers and key races and build ups and time trials and a week off after every 12 weeks of hard yakka, and increasing anything (volume especially) by no more than 10% per week, and periodisations and intensities and distances and showing my body what it needs to do and my jedi mind tricks and progressions and etc. It feels a little overwhelming but it can be done.

I have done pretty much everything my whole life on my own, so surely I can do this on my own too? There are plenty of internet forums, magazines, books, internet articles, Ironmen at my tri club and triathletes that I know, so maybe I should just go for it and coach myself. I won't have to pay myself anything, I don't have to worry about my coach not showing up for meetings, and I'm sure I can do this with the support of the trainers at my gym, my swim coach and an accountability partner. At least the cat always supports me, no matter what I do (well, except for when her bowl is empty - but with an automatic pet food dispenser that hardly happens anymore).

So, let the experiment begin. I will enlist help as I need it, if and when I need it. I'm a very organised person by nature, so as long as I stay organised it should be sweet. I just need to plan, plan, and plan some more. I need to think and plan and organise and sort and prepare and plan some more.  I did 7 triathlons in four months last season without a coach (and for three months, without a PT). I CAN DO THIS!

Let it rock.

It's persisting down

Saturday started well for me. Some slight drizzle on the way to the pool, a good swim coaching session, then straight over the road to the gym for my 1.5 hours of weights, bike, run and pilates. I finished up about 10.15am and headed off down to the village for coffee and fresh bread.  

At some point during swim coaching the rain stopped, but since lunchtime it's been coming down gently and steadily. We've been threatened with a month's worth of rain in 24 hours, so I guess it will still be hosing down tomorrow too. I did want to get out and do a few things, but I just can't be bothered in this weather. I'm having a quiet day at home instead, enjoying the serenity of the Indian neighbours having a screaming argument...again, and the schizophrenic French guy neighbour's random loud world music.

There are plenty of indoor things for me to do - for example, I have to make my new range of Christmas Cards (I may hate Christmas with a vengeance due to blatant over-commercialism, but that won't stop me from cashing in on it and using the cards to help pay for my triathlon habit). I also have Wog Boy 2 - Kings of Mykonos on DVD to watch tonight, now that I've completed all my training sessions this week I have certainly earned it!  I have stacks of Foxtel to watch on my iQ box, and the Ironman New Zealand 2010 DVD may just end up playing again too. I have photos to sort, muffins to bake and books to read. Life is good.

Training today was hard yakka (that's hard work for all you non-Aussies reading this), but well worth it.  Pulled an extra five minutes above my program specs on the bike and the run, did extra ab work despite having been tortured at yoga last night (more on that shortly), and all my weights. I skipped the 1km rowing warm up as by the time I left swim coaching and got to the gym my heart rate was over 120 and I'd just done 500m in the pool working on technique.

Yoga last night was interesting. I got there early again, which meant Tom had an extra 15 minutes to help me torture myself. First stop was the ropes on the wall (yes, those ones from last week). I got to criss cross them, climb into them with my back to the wall, pull them up to my hip flexors, walk out about two small steps and bend forward at the hips until my hips couldn't take it anymore and I was almost bent in half. Then I got to hang in that position for five sets of one minute each. Just when I thought my hamstrings were going to burst, Tom had me walk my hands forward as far as I could go. Now my calves wanted to burst, along with my hammies, quads and glutes. Owie. 

After climbing back out it was time for back bends over a wooden barrel. Ouch, ouch, ouch. I did however manage to roll backwards to the point of a correct back bend, with my shoulders on the floor. As I rolled out and back in the first time, my spine cracked one vertebrae at a time and felt fantastic. By this point it was time for class to start, so we did sun salutations. Tom and the other lady in my class did 54 in 35 minutes, I got to 19 and piked. Not bad for my second week, apparently. I was given a myriad of other poses while they completed their sets of sun salutations. After another 30 minutes of poses including Warrior 2 and a bunch of stuff on one leg, it was what I like to call blankie time. Bliss. I left feeling awesome again. It was good to sweat and pose and hurt the week away.

So, three hard days of hard out training in a row and I have certainly earned a day of chill time and a nice choccie milk. I've had second breakfast, lunch and a nap on the sofa, but might head to bed and nap for an hour or so. 

Four weeks until Race 1. Bring it on, I know that I will be ready for it.

Motivate me...I wanna get myself out of this bed

My motivation has flagged a bit this week and it's been hard to drag myself out of bed. I'm still using bribery to motivate myself to do my sessions. It's not a lack of desire, it is the fact that Ironman is still so far away and  my head keeps telling me I have heaps of time. Evil head!

House dramas haven't helped this week - the sink wouldn't drain all weekend and the plumber couldn't fix it until Monday. Sunday night was spent bailing it out with a bucket every time the guy upstairs ran his sink tap. Awesome. The plumber came on Monday and threw some acid down my sink which sorted everything out.

Monday was tainted by some pushy house valuer calling to demand I come home and let her in because the landlord's bank wants a valuation. I basically told her to get stuffed and to talk to the real estate agent, who I called and went slightly postal at. The agent was meant to call me and warn me but hadn't got around to it. Judging by her lack of care, urgency and basic communication since I was offered the house five months ago, I wasn't at all surprised by this.  

I got home that night and discovered that the lock I thought was keeping my bedroom window secure for all these months, doesn't even work. And last night I arrived home to find a death threat from the water company because the landlord hasn't paid the water bill for about six months. So, yes, I have been slightly distracted this week.

I've had a reasonable training week. Monday's swim session was good, as was last night's - well, aside from the noodles in the pool who were mucking around with pool noodles in the lanes, not in the recreation area of the pool. They wouldn't move and were quite nasty when my friend the water walker suggested they might have more fun in the half of the pool dedicated to mucking around. Some people just don't get (or want to get) pool etiquette.

I did almost all of Monday's swim session with flippers on. I did half of last night's with flippers on, and let me tell you, it makes a heck of a difference to your speed. My warm up is four laps with kickboard and flippers (about 100m), and my cool down is much the same. Last night I thought I'd do the cool down without the flippers, and it was so slow that it felt like dragging the Queen Mary through custard! I came home and had the makings of foot cramps, so I made sure I took my magnesium last night.

Tuesday's gym session was skipped as it was my Mum's 22nd anniversary and I just wasn't in a good head space. I did however go and get some new yoga clothes (on sale, two complete outfits for $49!), which will be great for Friday night Iyengar. I wasn't comfy in last week's class and had a wardrobe malfunction (not good when your teacher is a bloke) so I spent part of the class constantly readjusting my outfit - not so good for the concentration.

Tonight it's gym night.  I've decided to do two resistance sessions a week, but give myself the freedom to do them on a choice of three days. This way I can have a night off if I need to and not feel super guilty for it. I figure that the Yoga class is so intense that it basically compensates for a third session anyway, plus gives me time to work on my flexibility - especially my lack of foot and ankle flexibility. If I skip a night during the week, I have to do it straight after swim coaching on Saturday, which is okay because the gym is across the road from the coaching pool. Literally!

Bring on Yoga this week, I need some Zen time.

Fat floats

Fat does indeed float. Most days I am thankful for the extra buoyancy that the fat provides, and of course the warmth in winter. But on Friday, in 28.6 degree heat, I was reminded that fat + heat is not a good combination.  Fortunately, the gallstone has some rather strict ideas about my diet, and with the new eating plan and ramping up the training, my buoyancy should be on the decline.  Then it will be cries from my swim coach of "keep your hips up" in the water when I'm swimming...LOL!

There's five more weeks until the season starts, and four more weeks until the season launch.  In the past  week I have managed to complete most of my training sessions.  This week would have been a 6/6 if I hadn't had a techie fail at work which resulted in my staying back for a couple of extra hours to try and sort something out. I missed a gym session, so have tried to make up for it with lots of walking and housework - but who am I trying to kid, it's so not the same thing!

So, I decided on the basis that I had done a great job with almost all my training this week, that I'd buy myself the reward I promised myself anyway.  It's Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykonos on DVD.  Whether I watch it this week or save it for next week when I've done every single training session is still up for negotiation.  I think I'll save it for next week.  It's still shrink wrapped so I'll put it on my dressing table and look at it like five times a day as motivation!

My new training schedule is as follows:

Monday - swim

Tuesday - weights, bike, run, core

Wednesday - swim

Thursday - weights, bike, run, core

Friday - Iyengar Lotus Yoga (1.5 hours)

Saturday - Swim coaching, bike, run and core.

Sunday - sit on butt.  

Lotus Yoga sounds relaxing but it's hardcore Iyengar which includes hanging from the wall on ropes for one minute at a time, into a squat while still hanging on the ropes for another minute and then pulling yourself back up with all your muscles.  And stacks of poses that involve wrist, hand, foot and leg strength.  My ankle and foot flexibility will improve with this class, and the best part is probably the 15 mins at the end where we are lying on mats on the floor with blankies and eye bags.  LOL!

I pickup up my new club hoodie today and it's fantastic!  Wow, wow, wow.  I'm already wearing it with pride and look forward to wearing it more often.  It's super light, super warm and super awesome, so will be a regular part of my wardrobe until it dies.  All good - I'm not THAT hard on my clothes, but it's going to see some serious wear from now on.

Until later, rock on with your bad selves.

Jetlag, time differences and narcolepsy

I arrived home from Kota Kinabalu, Malaysian Borneo yesterday morning and despite a lot of sleep and even napping on the plane, I'm still buggered.  Oh yeah, and I have a kidney infection to boot.  Woohoo!

I had a wonderful time in KK.  I adore Malaysia, and my second trip did nothing to reduce the adoration.  I've decided to spend at least one week a year in Malaysia, as it is such a wonderful place to explore. 

I swam in crystal clear water on a private beach on an Island in the South China Sea, drank mocktails under the spectacular sunsets over Dalit Bay, got a bit of a tan and two henna tattoos, watched Orang-utans from just a few feet away, and worked my butt off - but still had time for some minor shopping (two pairs of shoes, two sarongs, some coasters, a couple of batik fans, a pair of 'PRADA' sunglasses, some lovely bamboo placemats, some triathlon mags and some candy).

I managed to lose my precious noise-reducing Sennheiser headphones at Melbourne airport before jumping on two flights totalling 10 hours.  Feck.  Then, on day two in KK, my precious Canon A430 decided to have lens issues.  The message 'lens error, restart camera' is still haunting my dreams. 

Fortunately, I took my iPhone so was able to get most of the shots I wanted thanks to the great iPhone camera.  Not having a flash in the 3GS camera is a pain in the posterior though, but I struggled through and managed to get a good couple of hundred photos.  Here's a selection of the best:

More to follow when I'm less jetlagged and tired and grumpy!

You sure have some gall, lady

I had my first ever visit to an Aussie hospital last Monday due to shocking pain and nausea.  I thought my appendix was about to go and pack itself, but apparently my symptoms and blood tests disagreed.  I was prodded, poked with needles, fed IV fluids (give more more of that, I felt ready to run a marathon after the litre of IV saline dripped through!), and then sent home. Tuesday morning I was back for an ultrasound, where they found a filthy great gallstone. Gross!

I was sent on my merry way from the local hospital and told no more fatty food.  No more chips, no more cake, no more biscuits, no more cream, no more of anything like that.  I'm off to Malaysia next week, and I was told no satay either. Crap!  I was also told by the young and relatively good looking doctor that my gall bladder has to come out. Oh joy. I didn't really get anything else out of Mr Hot Young Doctor, so I left feeling rather sorry for myself and rather shellshocked. What the hell?

Well, this left me rather freaked so I rang my GP to book in and get some reassurance from her.  Sadly, I couldn't see her until late October and the idea of being in Malaysia with this foreign object floating around in my gall bladder and not being allowed to eat Satay isn't terribly exciting. So, I saw another Doctor this morning, who works with my immunologist.  How convenient!

Turns out that the gallstone has been in there and growing for at least ten years. And, they can be triggered by rapid dieting as well as by having a crappy diet in the first place. So, what was I doing in 2000/2001?  Dieting!!! I lost about 22kg in about 10 months, so I guess I can thank Weight Watchers for helping with my gallstone growth. UGH! Basically, it is growing at the rate of 2.5mm per year.  In another 10 years, it will be 5cm long. In 20 years, it will be 10cm long! Well, as if that will be allowed to happen.  But still, yuck!

And, the GP has said I don't need my gall bladder out. Sweet as, I'm fine with that prospect. The last thing I need right now is surgery, I have under 18 months until Ironman and the gallstone can STFU until after Ironman as far as I am concerned. At least we know why my cholesterol level is so good - all the cholesterol has been combined with Calcium and some other crap, and baked into a nice gallstone. Mega yuck. I am so grossed out right now it's not even funny.

Basically, this "attack" was brought on by too much fat in my system that just couldn't be broken down.  Clearly a week of eating crap wasn't a good plan. I overloaded my system and I've spent the past week paying for it. Never again!  I do not want to experience that ever again, if it can be avoided then that's all good. Is a cup of hot chips worth hours of pain and suffering? HELL NO! I'm going to have to knuckle down and really get to a point of almost obsession about what I eat again.  

So, no training happened this past week. I've literally felt like spewing all week, and that combined with the pain and the lethargy has meant I've done diddly squat. But, this morning I got up and went to swim coaching.  I felt great afterwards, and have plenty of energy today. First breakfast stayed down, as did second breakfast. Lunch was three hours ago and that hasn't given me any grief so far. Have now not felt like spewing since Thursday and have had no pills since early Friday morning. Wicked.

I got a bit down about the no chips thing earlier this week. Then, I realised that since I'm not meant to be eating them anyway, it's actually a blessing in disguise. Now I HAVE to eat clean, and while I can still have some fat, I have to really watch it.  It's one thing to make drastic dietary changes because you want to, but quite another to make them because your body is forcing you to do it.  That's when the mental rebellion takes over.  

I found myself craving a good old kiwi hot dog (battered sausage on a stick) and a bar of chocolate last night. For the record, I haven't had a kiwi hot dog in about 18 months. They are fat, wrapped in fat, fried in fat.  Now that I can't have stuff, I am starting to want it. The old adage of wanting what you can't have rings loud and true. But, it's a mind game.  I just have to remember the pain and suffering that this crap would cause and the desire lessens. One good thing about this gallstone situation is that my appetite has halved and when I do eat, it's half what I used to eat. The bad thing is that I'm scared my body is going to start eating all my muscle.  Bad body!  

Anyway, aside from all this gallstone garbage, the week has gone by pretty quick. Today I treated myself to a manicure and pedicure. Tomorrow it's off for an eyebrow shape and lash tint. I hit the supermarket today and bought super dooper low fat everything (well, apart from cat food and laundry powder). I'm cooking something for dinner tonight, I have no idea what it is yet but that's okay.  

I had planned to race tomorrow in my club's final duathlon for the season, but I'm totally undercooked for the distance, so not this time. I'll still go along but won't be racing. Besides, I have a club hoodie to pick up!

Catch you later, it's time raid the fridge for risotto ingredients.

Back in the drink

Today was my first swim coaching session in Aussie.  The local pool is glorious, even at the ungodly hour I frequented it at today.  It is directly across the road from gym  number three, so I can see myself doing a few brick sessions there when the weather doesn't want to cooperate.  Sadly, uncooperative weather is fast becoming the norm here. I think Auckland's weather stowed away on my plane over from NZ.  Last weekend was the first one without rain that I can remember since arriving here nearly four months ago.

My new swim coach, Ray, had to nitpick with my freestyle to find stuff I can work on.  I don't need stroke correction, which is great, as it turns out the money I spent on swimming lessons back in NZ was well spent.  What I do need is to beef up my freestyle kick, which is a bit lazy and weak.  Time to break out the flippers, hamstring and glute exercises, and more pilates for the legs.

My coaching sessions will be very structured with Ray.  We're going to work on my kick and my swim fitness/swim endurance.  I will be doing a four lap kickboard warm up with flippers each week, then into blocks of 250 metres freestyle, working up to blocks of 500 and 750 metres freestyle, with a break into water polo stroke for half a length in the middle of each block.  Cool down will be breaststroke and survival backstroke.

I'm off to Malaysia in just under two weeks, and my plan while there is laps in the pool, time on the bike and some weights.  It is possible to maintain and even increase your fitness on a stationary bike while travelling, according to an article I read last night (not exactly rocket science, I know).  So, that's my plan. 

I think an hour of slog each morning will be fine, before it gets too hot and sticky during the day.  The last thing I need is to work my butt off now (literally and figuratively speaking) and slack off because I'm in a tropical paradise for six days.  I'll take runners, togs, goggles, swim cap, a couple of Ironman-related books and some common sense!

Slightly off topic, I splashed out on a new TV, with a built-in DVD player for my virtual rider windtrainer sessions at home, VGA input for my laptop, HD for watching foxtel and best of all, I can now watch the movies on my hard drive on a decent size screen.  I also have the option of sitting on the couch in comfort while surfing the net, updating my blog, and typing stuff.  Bliss!  I love my wireless multimedia keyboard, I can couch potato all I like now (after training of course)!

Now that I have the blender, printer, new runners and TV, my next purchases will be a coffee machine, windtrainer, club tri suit, and a waterproof MP3 player for the pool.  Eventually I'll need a wetsuit, but I'm leaving that until I am a little more physically aerodynamic - the same reason why I don't yet have aerobars.  You can have the fastest bike around with all the aerodynamic gear available, but if you're not physically aerodynamic there's no point.

My plan for tomorrow is pretty simple.  Sleep in, have a good breaky, hit the gym and then a quick trip to the supermarket for milk, bananas, strawberries, yogurt and frozen smoothie fruit.  Then, I have washing and housework to do.  Boring but necessary, so all good.

Catch you later. 

Sick mate, fully sick

I've been sick mate.  Not girl flu, but fully sick mate.  It's been bronchitis since Wednesday and I'm not happy.  I've managed to avoid it all year, and hello, here it is.  Can somebody please write an iPhone app to prevent colds and flu?

I'm frustrated with this latest bout of germs because I was meant to start swim coaching yesterday at the local swim school.  I'm less happy that I have had to postpone the swim coaching and postpone what was meant to be my first session with my new Tri Coach.  Ugh!  And, I had to postpone my haircut and colour, my manicure and my pedicure, my eyebrow shape and my massage.  Yeah, it's only a week of postponement, but seriously, the season starts on 28 November and I want to train NOW!!!   

I ventured out of the house today and bought a blender, so my morning protein shake and bowl of breaky will become one drinkable meal on the way to work. May as well get used to drinkable meals on the run now, I'll have 15+ hours of it at Ironman!

I've found my insulated lunch bag (yeah, I'm such a nerd) in the last box I had to unpack, and thanks to online grocery shoppoing I'm stocked up on proper food for meals and snacks.  Lunch for tomorrow is cooked and in the fridge (mmm, gnocchi with a chilli, basil, ricotta and white wine sauce).  The blender is ready for tomorrow morning.

On Tuesday I've got an assessment at gym number three.  Yeah, you heard correctly - gym number three.  Much as I love Virgin Active and all it's cool features and quirks, it's too much of a hassle to get to and I hate the city after living there for five weeks.  Once my PT contract is up in early October, I'm outta there.  I avoid the city like the plague now.  It's too big, too noisy, too busy and I'm much happier in my little seaside village...or in the ultimate oxymoron, Sunshine.  I just can't be stuffed with the city - everything I need is within half an hour's public transport ride, and the city is at least 40 minutes away.  'nuff said.

Gym number three is literally around the corner from my house (200 metres away, to be more accurate).  For less than half the price of Virgin, I can hit the gym around the corner from 6am to 10pm seven days a week.  It's so shiny and so new that the PT was putting together kitset furniture when I went in this afternoon.  LOL. 

I'm keeping my membership at gym number two because of the pool and the awesome PT.  The cardio equipment is basic and well past it, but the pool is very handy and I usually have it all to myself.  Plus there's a Saturday morning pump class, and the pool where my swim coaching takes place is only open for laps in the morning - and three sessions of that a week costs more than the weekly fee at gym number two. 

Two more days off training should be okay before I hit the gym and the pool again, so I'll be back swimming on Wednesday night. I survived a 5km walk today to the laundromat and back with 10kgs of washing on my back (12kg on the way home with the wet stuff to hang up) but there was a bit of spluttering going on.

I bought a new 2XU Project X transition bag last weekend, which I have been drooling over for months, and was all ready to pack it with my stuff and head off to my myriad of training sessions. Then, wham slam bammy, hello bronchitis. At least I can also use it for shopping and the weekly washing trip, the waterproof wetsuit pocket doubles as an insulated cool bag and as a wet washing pocket for those things you can't tumble dry.  The bag absolutely rocked on today with my trip to the laundromat. 

Must away, have some serious planning today regarding my trip to Ironman NZ in March.  I've found a tour which includes airfares from Melbourne, accommodation at the Hilton (in a King Bed room, woohoo!), transfers to and from Taupo ex Auckland Airport, an extra 30kg of baggage on top of the standard 30kg (so 60kg all up, woohoo), training sessions, Q&A session, transport, course orientation plus Huka Falls, the hot springs and a pile of other stuff.  It's a little pricey but I'm worth it.  Just have to figure out how to pay for it!

Ciao.

I'm baaaaaack!

It's been a very long time since my last blog post, so let's bring you all up to speed on what I've been up to.

I moved to Melbourne on Saturday 29th May.  I spent the next five weeks in a backpacker hostel while trying to find a place to lease.  I started my new job on Monday 31st May, got an iPhone, joined my tri club, joined Virgin Active, found a place to lease near the beach and my new tri club, registered for medicare, my stuff arrived from NZ (including my bike), I moved into the new house, the cat arrived from NZ, and I got a Victorian drivers licence. 

Of course, other stuff happened in between.  I spent a night in the new house without power (the power company I signed up with forgot to connect me, ugh), went to Queensland for four days for a work conference, sat my sport science exam at Melbourne Uni, had a birthday and said bye to my friend Tash who is now in Europe for six months.

Not a lot of training has happened since my 10km event back in May in NZ.  However, I now have two (!) gym memberships...one on the way to/from work and one in the city.  Why?  Because with no car and being totally reliant on public transport (with wishy washy timetables) and my trusty Asics trainers to get around, it's easier to get to the gym up the road on the way to work. 

On the way home, the city one is easier as two days a week I have late meetings and end up on the train home as the bus service thins out big time after 6pm.  My new PT Cam is based in the city and we train on Tuesday nights.  Once I get to October and daylight savings I'll drop back to one gym, but seriously, I'd have spent the extra weekly fee on stuff I don't need or crap food anyway so it's all good. 

So, my new plan is as follows:

Monday - Swim (AM)

Tuesday - Weights/Bike/Run (PM)

Wednesday - Swim (AM

Thursday - Weights/Bike/Run (PM)

Friday - Swim (AM)

Saturday - Weights/Bike/Run (AM)

Sunday - day off!

 

Three buses take me to work from home - or two buses if I get off at the freeway exit and walk.  Two buses plus a walk is a good option, so that's what I've been doing for the past week.  Bus number 1 stops outside the local gym, and bus number 2 picks me up outside the local gym so there's no excuses now. 

With no car and no laundry in my building, I walk the 2.5km each way to the laundrette pulling an old lady shopping trolley with my clothes in it.  Going to the supermarket involves walking each way with the old lady shopping trolley.  I'm getting a lot of walking in, which is awesome. 

I pulled my bike out of the shipping box last weekend and put it back together myself.  The local bike shop closed a week after I moved here which is a pain in the neck...so I did what any geek would do and watched a couple of instructional videos on the internet, then broke out the allen keys and whacked it back together. 

I've decided that in the interim, until I am used to the area, I'm going back to standard pedals.  Once I have my bearings, I'll put my Mavic clip-in pedals back on.  Once the bike punt starts operating in October, I'll ride to the gym in the morning, do my swim, ride on to work, then ride back home - giving me plenty of saddle time.

According to an iPhone app that I installed, it's 581 days until my first Ironman.  Crikey.  According to the instructor at the gym this morning, my bodyfat has crept back up.  Double Crikey.  And after giving my new doctor the gory family history of heart disease this morning...triple Crikey.  It's time to pull finger and focus.  I need to do what I need to do, to do Ironman NZ 2012. 

So, it's back to protein shakes three times a day, wholegrains, gels, bananas, early morning swim sessions, two loads of washing every week, smelling like chlorine, a decent Carb/Protein/Fat ratio, tracking everything I eat and do in training, cutting out the junk food, and kicking my own butt!

But for now, I'm going to make a hot chocolate and watch some Foxtel, before turning in and hitting the beach in the morning for a nice long walk.

Ciao.

Nine more sleeps

There are nine days to go until I move to Melbourne and I have to admit I am a little scared. 

I am scared, not just because of the prospect of snakes and spiders, but because it is all a little unknown.  Sure, I have spent the better part of six weeks in Melbourne in the past three years so I know it pretty well, but this whole new city / new country / new life thing is bigger than Ben Hur!

I am also very excited. It is like a permanent working holiday, so I am going to treat it as such for the first few months in a bid to avert any homesickness.  In case of homesickness, I’ll just find some pineapple lumps and read the list below:

What I hate about Auckland

• Traffic
• Auckland drivers.  What a bunch of deekheads!
• Distance from Aussie.  Four hours on a plane to get to Sydney or Melbourne? Pah!
• Weather (particularly the sheer amount of rain).  
• The humidity.  Weeks and weeks and weeks of 100% humidity is not fun.
• Pathetic public transport.  Seriously, it's a joke.
• Price of airfares - it's cheaper to leave NZ than to go to the south island.  That's crap.
• The upcoming rugby world cup.  Get me outta here!
• No tri club within cooee of where i live.  I don't want to have to travel 30km to train with others.
• Not feeling like home (home is where the heart is, and mine’s in Aussie)
• You cannot go anywhere you want to without a car, or without catching at least two buses, or a bus and a train, or walking for hours on end.
• The millions of two dollar shops.  Do we really need more mass produced crap?  NO!
• Lack of scrapbook shops (like three for the whole city and none near me)
• Most of my friends have left and now live in Aussie
• Cost of living – we are absolutely “done” over the price of public transport. 
• All the nice staff are gone from my gym
• Feeling unsafe at night walking down the main street.  
• Insular Peninsula feeling – can’t walk down the street without seeing at least one person I know
• Everyone knows everyone else.  Ugh.  See above.
• I have lived here my entire life and I need a change!
• Not fitting into clothes in the mainstream shops, seriously people, learn that not everyone is a size 6 and make and stock more clothes in size 12 and up!
• There are MANY people I will not miss.

Got my tattoo touched up tonight, and number two is booked for next Tuesday.  I'd tell you what it is but only my triathlon event support crew manager and tattoo artist Nigel know, so you'll just have to wait and see!

10 sleeps to go

I have ten sleeps to go until I leave for Melbourne.  At this point in time I am feeling pretty relaxed - being the organisational whizz that I am, my project plan is sitting at 91% complete and I have just seven key things to do. My car is sold, my TV vanishes on Saturday, my bed hasn't sold yet...but everything else pretty much has.  Cool.

I'm still trying to decide if I should take my bike on the plane, or send it with the rest of my stuff.  The main advantages of sending it with the rest of my stuff is that I don't have to lug it around Melbourne the night I arrive, I get an extra 15kg of baggage weight (it would be part of my 30kg allowance on the plane otherwise), and I don't have to worry about the security of my bike at my temporary accommodation.

The cons of not taking it on the plane are almost non-existent, particularly when one considers that my bike shoes, helmet and lock cable are all packed in a big box with my yoga mat, sombrero and camping gear!  Okay, so I won't be able to ride it for a couple of weeks - but it's winter, I'll be in a somewhat strange city, and I have to get it to Fitzroy to get it put back together anyway.

So, looks like the bike will be going with the rest of my stuff.  More room for clothes!  Pity my Samsonite suitcase is on the small side (that was purposely done, back when I was planning on taking my bike on the plane with me), but I'll make stuff fit in it and if it doesn't fit, it can go in a box in the hold of the plane too.

One of the first things I will do on my first morning in Melbourne is head to Virgin Active and join.  I have had the last couple of weeks off training and I'm over it!  I need to get back into it, as the 2010/2011 tri season is only six months away.  They have a PT there who is a multiple Ironman, and to do Ironman NZ 2012 properly, I need someone with a clue to train me.  Not that I am clueless, but who better to train you than a triathlete, who has a clue about Ironman?

I also can't wait to join my new tri club.  Actually living in the area will be helpful, so one of my next priorities is real estate.  I need to find a house with at least two bedrooms, close to everything I need, in the suburb I want, that will take a cat (yes, Miss Sydney is coming with me) and a triathlete, ha ha.

Fingers crossed.

Melbourne - pronto!

Good news – I am still moving to Melbourne and now I have a job to go to!  I will be working for a fashion clothing company, as their sole IT person.  I get to do BA work, project work and IT support, so this role is awesome.  I am so pleased to have a job to go to in Melbourne; it is a huge weight off my shoulders!

Now for the fun news?  I leave in just under three weeks.  Hooray, but GULP!  I had eight weeks to prepare, pack and move; now it is three.  It is okay though, and entirely do-able, as I am super organised and have a project plan.  I am confident I can pull this off in the revised timeframe available.

What is awesome is that now I get to join Virgin Active.  I checked it out when I was over last year and totally fell in love with the place.  I cannot wait to get in there and start training after work.  I will be staying in the city for the first three or four weeks, so it will be very handy as it is only three blocks from my accommodation.  I do not think I can get up early enough to go before work, so after work will be fine.  They have yoga, Pilates, technogym equipment, kettle bells, spin classes, indoor heated pool, sleep pods, internet, etc…bliss!

Bring it on!

chillaxin in vegas

I had a nice chilled day today, including a haircut by a student hairdresser and the trip back to Auckland on the bus was not bad.  I had the same bus driver from the Taupo-Auckland trip back in March and he was just as late today as he was then.  I missed my connecting bus and had to stand around for half an hour in the cold, which did not exactly thrill me.  Meh.

I have had a toothache since Thursday night and it has been steadily getting worse.  I have been taking painkillers for a couple of days but it is still there.  Extreme meh.   I haven’t been able to eat much all weekend and I haven’t slept properly in five days so I am exhausted. 

Gotta go, falling asleep writing this and I need to take the sleep when it comes.  

the day after the marathon - shaun of the dead zombie style

Walking around town today, you could tell the marathoners at fifty paces.  Not just from their finisher’s shirts, but also from the “Shaun of the Dead” zombie shuffle.  Ha ha, my calves are not thrilled with me today, but they are nothing compared with what some of those poor people are experiencing. 

I am supposed to be taking it easy today but the lure of geothermal activity proved too much.  After a nice time at the finisher’s breakfast today meeting marathoners (including the woman who was I think the oldest female competitor, and had just done her 15^th Rotorua Marathon), smacking my kneecap on the table leg, and then collecting a coffee from the Fat Dog Café, I headed for Kuirau Park.  It was cool, but I wanted more. 

I had some lunch, and then headed for Whakarewarewa, thinking I would see geysers close up as I had the last time I was there in about 1995.  Sadly, the answer was no, but I only found that out on arrival.  Some years ago, they split the park in two and the geysers are now at Te Puia, which costs a small fortune to enter.  

However, I had a nice time at Whakarewarewa learning about the history of the village and its residents and ancestors.  I took some great photos, including some of the Prince of Wales and Pohutu geysers, albeit from a distance, the Korotiotio Pool and the bubbling mud around the back of the village. 

I am a bit sad that I did not get to see those geysers from closer range, but if I go back to Rotorua next May to do the Marathon I will definitely go to Te Puia.  We did manage to have an earthquake, which was cool, and I did see the final of the Amazing Race, which was great. 

Tomorrow evening it is back to Auckland.  Boo, hiss – I like being on holiday and generally hate going back to reality but this time it is okay.  I miss my bed, the pillows here are wafer thin and it was a cold night without my mink blanket and Siamese hot water bottle. Tonight will apparently be colder still.  Brrr!

Off to bed, it’s freezing and I’m struggling to keep my eyes open.

sounds like a country song

I did it!  I finished my first 10km.  My time was nowhere near glorious however, as after running the first 2km my Tibialis Anterior packed up and refused to cooperate.  I ended up walking the next 3km at a snails pace of about 4kph before I could stretch it out, and then walked the last 5km at a 6.5kph pace.  Damn.  I should have stuck to my plan of walking the first 1km to warm up, but silly old me wanted to run and I should have listened to myself. 

I lost my head in the moment.  I decided to follow the lemmings in front of me (Stuart and Belinda are not lemmings by the way, and they were beside me over the start line, not in front), being those who ran from the sound of the cannon.  Double damn.  Epic race plan fail.  Rule number one – follow your race plan!

Once my tib packed up, I walked the remaining 3km of the first lap with a 74-year-old woman named Neera, who entered that morning – she got out of bed, got dressed, rocked up to the event centre, registered and walked it.  Awesome work Neera!  After we parted ways at the 5km mark, I was on my own.  Seriously – most of the 10km’ers had finished at that point and I hardly saw another soul.  I stopped at the 7km mark and made a marshall take my photo (LOL) before continuing.  Yes, I carried my camera, it was a fun run after all and I got to see parts of the lake shore that I would not have otherwise. 

The Green Apple PowerBar Gel I had at 4km kicked in at 7.5km and my torso felt like it was about three paces behind my legs for the last 2.5km, especially when the rain started to hammer down at 8km.  I had some jet planes in my race belt in case of emergency and promised myself one for every km after the 5km mark.  I did not remember them until the 8km mark when the rain started to drown me but was glad to find them.  The jet planes distracted me long enough to get through each 500m section from then on, while in some serious pain.  Stupid Tibialis, I really didn’t need you to play up today! 

Nonetheless, I finished in a respectable 1:54:29.  Moreover, I finished before the marathon winner and podium finishers came back so I did not feel too bad, and there were people in the 10km who finished after me.  For me, an event is never about winning.  As a FAST triathlete, (that is Fat and Slow Triathlete to you!), I am happy just to finish something.  Of course, my speed averages out at something like 5.25kph but that is still faster than the average bear when walking.  Average walking speed is 4kph, so my speed was good.

Happily, my personalised video is not too bad, even if I do look like a hot pink Michelin woman.  I think I might buy it and stick it on my iPod so that every time I feel like slacking off, I can be instantly reminded of what a FAST triathlete I am. 

After the event, I headed into the event centre for a banana, cup of soup, a cup of tea (best cuppa tea in the world that was, or so I reckon), a massage, my special needs bag contents (chocolate milk, another banana, a bottle of Gatorade and another chocolate milk) and a warm jacket.  Later on, I headed back to the hotel and then to the Polynesian Spa for a soak in seven different hot pools. BLISS!  The sad part though was dropping my beloved Dolce sunglasses on the concrete floor and breaking them beyond repair.  Very sad.

Anyway, I’m pretty tired and need a lie down so I’ll write more tomorrow.

Ciao.