Tsunami on the loose

There was a gigantic earthquake in Chile last night, which generated a Tsunami.  We've been on Tsunami alert for about 16 hours now, and the fun is starting to wear off.  I wanted to ride this morning, but my long ride route takes me past very low lying coastal areas around the back of the airport and I figured it just wasn't worth the risk.  So, I stayed home, glued to twitter, facebook and the news sites.  Nothing scary yet, but apparently the danger's not over until 12 hours after the predicted first wave arrival time (or some junk like that).

Yesterday's swim coaching session went pretty well.  I didn't get the lesson all to myself as I was hoping, as there was a Chinese guy with me.  However, he can swim so it's all good.  I relish the competition, and I beat him in sprints.  Go me!  I'll miss next weeks class though, as I'm off to Taupo to watch Ironman New Zealand.  It's okay though, they are doing dives and tumble turns, neither of which will help me in open water.

I still haven't heard anything from the Ironman New Zealand organisers about my volunteer application so I guess I'll get to watch the whole thing and not be able to help anyone.  Fine and dandy - although it would be nice to have heard that my help isn't required.  I know they are busy and it's race week now, but come on, where's the courtesy email to say "nah"?

Tomorrow morning it's off to swim at 6am, tomorrow night it's back to the gym for strength and core training and interval runs.  Tuesday is all about the bike.  Wednesday is a 6am swim and interval runs.  Thursday is a 6am spin class and to the gym for strength and core training.  Friday I'm on a bus to Taupo (yay!)  for six hours (oh joy) then I'll swim and walk.  Saturday is Ironman, so it's my rest day.  Sunday I'll swim and walk before doing the intro to Ironman session, then spending 6 hours on a bus back home.  Big week.

Off to chillout for a couple of hours...catch you later.

Confessions of a sore triathlete

Forgive me, self, for I have not trained.  It has been four days since my last triathlon. 

The back pain is now almost gone.  I have not been for a swim so far this week for fear of re-aggravating an already aggravated back that had more spasm than a stomach with Dehli Belly.  I have been doing a lot of walking though, which is finally not painful.  I also have not run this week or been for a bike. 

I will save the swim and run for Saturday, and the bike for Sunday morning when I can finally go out for a ride in my nice new bike shirt (which turned up late last week, after several lying phone calls from the company I purchased it from over four weeks ago).  It is not worth messing up my back even more for the sake of one or two missed training sessions, and besides, the rest has been good. 

I had a great massage very early this morning and now I feel good.  I think 30 or 40 minutes of sports massage every two weeks will become mandatory.  The masseuse found a gazillion knots in my neck and shoulders, and a giant one around my left scapula, in addition to gazillion more in my back.  The knots are now almost gone but there will be another two litres of water required to flush out all the toxins.  I am trying to chug-a-lug my way through it but it is so hard to drink when you are already hydrated and not even remotely thirsty!  I am now oilier than Marsden Point but I feel great!

I passed another assessment at Uni yesterday, so there is only one more to complete before I receive my exercise consultant’s certificate.  After Uni, I went to a wonderful store to spend a voucher I won.  I scored a pair of recovery compression socks in pretty black.  I am certainly going to enjoy using them, and as a bonus, they double as flight socks, so no DVTs for me.

The next Uni assessment is going to be a bit gnarly.  It is exercise instruction, and I am still freaking out about PNF (or assisted stretching), although I am a little less freaked now than last week.  I need some “crash test smarties” to practice on, so I will have to see whom I can drum up at short notice.  I think I will be fine; I just need to do some research and practice.

Real Uni has now started for the year and I am doing three papers this year.  The nutrition one is a double-semester paper (meaning full-year); in semester one, I am doing intro sports science and in semester two it is human development I.  I have about four more cores to do and a couple more 300-level papers and I am done.  I can even cross-credit some of my IT degree papers across (like communication studies, marketing, business management, etc) so my workload shrinks and the timeframe for completion halves.  The goal is a Bachelor of Sport & Exercise or BSpEx.  Because I am studying extramurally, I will not have a major, as the papers for the major options are not available in extramural mode. 

The most exciting thing on my calendar right now is Ironman New Zealand, in Taupo on 6 March.  I am mega excited!  I am not competing, but going to watch a friend and hopefully (if they ever get back to me) volunteer at it also.  Moreover, I get to watch the pros, the middle of the packers, and the back of the packers.  I always fall into the last group at my triathlons, so I will especially enjoy watching fellow back of the packers completing one of my dream events!  This will be awesome indeed! 

In seven more sleeps, I am off to Taupo, hooray!

I have entered three of my remaining four events for the season.  Two are Triwoman events (3/10/3), and one is another super-duper sprint Panasonic event 1/10/2.  Better get off here and re-plot my training plan I guess!

Have a great day J

Tri #3 Post-Mortem

Ouch – times for Sunday weren’t flash at all!

100^th out of 101 (actually 109 entries as there were 8 DNFs)           

Swim + T1      16:42   (not bad considering my swim was about 13 mins!)

Bike  + T2       33:23  

Run                 27:25  

Overall            1:17:30           

Placing            100 / 101

Therefore, if the alarm had gone off, my back was not crook and I was well fed and hydrated, I could have blitzed it.  At least I was not in last placeJ. 

Righty-o, it is now time for the post-event analysis!

What went well? 

Transitions – having all my gear laid out properly made it faster.  I’m much better at this now.

Shoving my bike in the car the night before, with bottles, shoes, helmet, socks and sunnies in the bento box.

Bike shoes, cleats and pedals made riding easier and faster.  .

The interactive checklist – a total life (and sanity) saver

The “no bags in transition” rule which meant I could not take any extra stuff, as I had to carry all my gear myself.  I took only the essentials.

Having time to go dip in the water before the event – the water was nice and warm when I got in to swim in the actual event.

I did freestyle with my face in the water – awesome work! I am now comfortable swimming in open water with my face in it! 

I think my new Blueseventy outdoor goggles helped with the open water swim too

Putting on my timing chip and transition entry bracelet the night before

The new bento box (TriBag) on my top bar was awesome, as I put a gel, protein bar, my mobile and money in it. 

The new saddlebag (aero wedge) was big enough to fit two tubes, tyre levers, a patch kit, a gel, a ventolin, band-aids, extra bike tools, instructions for puncture fixing, and my car keys – and still had room for more.  Rock on!

Loved the finisher’s towel – it was a nice surprise!

Having my “foot water” bottle for rinsing sand and grass off my feet, and my triwoman finisher’s towel for drying off.  Nice, small and efficient.  The girl next to me even wanted to use it (of course I said yes) – thought the water and towel were great ideas.  No buckets in my transition area!

Turning my race number belt around on the bike so the number wasn’t flapping around my front when I was riding.

Bandaid-ing my toes and wearing good moisture wicking socks on the bike and run stopped more blisters.

Going to Cheltenham to muck about in the water afterwards, by myself, was awesome!

What did not go so well?

Sleeping in thanks to failing to double-check my alarm to make sure it was set to everyday, not weekdays.  

Not putting gas in the car the day before, having to get off the motorway and gas up.  Oops!

No support crew to help with my gear or valuables

Swimming with back pain – not good

Forgot to have my symbicort before the event

The transition official replacing my end cap with electrical tape, which flew off on lap 2 of the bike and stuck itself in my wheel.  Not cool.

No race photos of my own…bugger!

Nobody cheering me on and a lack of friendly faces at the finish line

Not having time for breakfast (cereal, fruit, yogurt, toast, protein, coffee)

Not hydrating adequately before the event

Back pain from doing a new exercise three days before the event (dumb, dumb, DUMB!)

Not getting food until well after the race (no support crew to hand me my picnic bag!)

Putting on my timing chip the night before then going to the supermarket – everyone gave me funny looks as they must have thought it was a home detention anklet!

What I need to do differently for future events

Double check my alarm is set to everyday, not just weekdays only!

Gas up the car the night before. 

No foreign exercises within a week of the event – so nothing I do not already do regularly!

No strength training within a week of the event – I do not need the tiny muscles tears!

Massage two or three days before the event (in fact, every fortnight would be better)

Hydrate and eat properly before the event

Get to the event earlier than I did for the Contact (assisted by not sleeping in!)

Having my symbicort first thing in the morning

Make sure I get race photos and have a support person there

Would like bike shoes with a triathlon heel pull (but that will happen one day when I get actual tri shoes, not road shoes)

the worst tri ever!

Let's chalk up yesterday's tri as the worst in history.  Considering I've now done three (ever, and this season), that's a pretty bold statement.  However, it was indeed a shocker - not just for me either.

I had entered the Contact 393 at Takapuna and was doing it come hell or high water!  My Mum's birthday is Feb 20 and this was the closest event I could get to the date.  My first ever tri was on my Dad's birthday, so this fitted well.

The drama all started on Friday when I woke up in agony with back pain.  I suffered through just over half the work day and then had to go do something about it.  I couldn't get a physio appointment or an appointment with Kirsty my regular sports masseuse, so headed off to the Chinese medical clinic for some acupuncture and elbow "sport" massage.  It certainly got my back moving, but it wasn't enough.  I had a bloody hot shower, swathed myself in anti flamme and tiger balm, lay on a boiling wheat pack and chugged down a couple of codalgin.

Saturday morning was a bit better.  My back was at least moving, and fortunately my swim coaching session was cut short due to there now being seven people (!) in the group and me being the only one who can actually swim.  Jees!  People self-evaluate to get a level for lessons and always seem to think they are better than they are, so the other six in my class who can barely float, let alone stick their face in the water are definitely not level 2 material.  So, I went to the office and got myself into a level 3 class - at present I'll be by myself in the class but it could change. I hope it doesn't!

After a soak in the spa it was time to go home and pack my stuff for tri number 3.  I went through my checklist...finally...and was awfully relaxed about everything.  After a big dinner of grilled chicken pasta and a trashy chick flick, I set the alarm and hit the hay.  I wasn't out for long before our neighbours from hell had yet another domestic, and my cat was driving me insane by trying to get comfy enough to sleep on a plastic supermarket bag.  Joy, oh joy.

I woke at 6.05am on race day with a fright.  The alarm, which I'd carefully set for 5am, hadn't gone off.  The reason?  I hadn't set it to "everyday", it was set on "weekdays only".  Brilliant!  I just had to laugh, even when I realised my back still hurt and I just wanted to go back to sleep.  I was due in Takapuna (35 mins drive away) at 6.15am to meet a couple of mates also doing the tri, and I hadn't had breakfast as planned at 5am.  I had to stop and get petrol, drink half a litre of fluids and get to transition by 6.30am.

I hauled butt big time and made it to Takapuna at 6.40am.  I managed to rack up and wolf down a gel and a choccie milk.  Thank heavens for gels - without them, my tank would have been well and truly empty.  I had time to go and stand on the beach and have a splash around in the water before the race started.  Before I knew it, the start horn had gone off and I had 300m to swim.  

It was the longest and most painful 300m of my life.  My time was so miserable I wiped it off my watch.  I cursed my asthma for not allowing me to take anti-inflammatories, and knuckled down for a long sprint tri.  Out of the water in last place, it was a pig of a hill up to transition.  Transition went pretty smoothly and pretty quickly. I have at last mastered the gear layout so wouldn't have been more than about 4 minutes in T1.  

However...going into transition to rack up, one of the officials accosted me with a roll of electrical tape. One of my bar end caps was missing and she decided to tape it closed with electrical tape.  This was to be my undoing - in lap two of the bike it came flying off and got stuck in my front wheel, wrapping itself around a spoke.  I had to unclip, pull over, extract it, take off and clip back in.  Pain in the butt - and cost me a good three or four minutes.  I was pleased that it wasn't something more serious but really, it cost me time.  Mental note to self, drop by the bike shop this week and get another end cap.  I scarfed another gel on the bike and chugged down my Mizone grape.

After that little mishap, T2 was relatively straight forward, apart from issues getting off the bike (lack of food, quads weren't happy, lots of people in the way, and then there's the cleats) and some other chick slamming her bike into my spot.  An official moved her bike so I could get mine back in.  My back was well and truly screaming by this point, but I changed my shoes, took off my helmet and set off on the "run".  300m or so into the run, I had to walk.  My back was about to kill me, so I dropped back to a fast walk and stayed there until the downhill stretch on lap one where I hoofed it downhill.  My time was even more disgusting by this point so I turned off the chronograph altogether.  Screw it, I just had to complete, and with my back the way it was, that was all I could manage.  

I ran the last 400m through to the finish line, collected my finisher's towel and went over to transition to get my gear.  Job done, it was time to grab a latte and watch my mates in the men's race.  After their race was over, I went down to Cheltenham for a swim, then it was home for Pizza and a nap before watching the elites on TV.  

I'll analyse this event in more detail later, but for now I need some sleep and to chill my back out

Night all.

No more blisters!

Yay, my blisters are finally gone.  Hooray!  Man, talk about the longest three weeks of my life.  I am never going out for a ride without moisture wicking socks ever again.  In fact, I will be stopping by shoe clinic next week to get some really fancy ones for event and long ride days.  I can’t stand trying to do anything in regular socks and I never want to have major toe blisters for three weeks EVER AGAIN!

In other news, I am going to get a wind trainer.  We are starting to run out of daylight at night, and I do not want to be riding around my area by myself in pitch-black darkness.  My area has a bit of a reputation for dubious after-dark safety and I do not want to be part of confirming it!  With my arm sprains recently I would have loved being able to ride my bike, even in literal “going nowhere fast” mode. 

I will still do my long ride on Sundays but with a wind trainer, I can ride in the garage while watching triathlon DVDs (like Ironman) or surfing the net on my laptop.  I can ride in all kinds of weather and although I will not be doing physical kms, I can ride for set times.  I suppose I could set up a bike computer on the back wheel.  All I need is the wind trainer itself and for my flatmate to clean out the garage.  Hint, hint.

Sounds like a plan to me – the bikes at my gym are garbage and I need time on my own bike, in my cleats, on my saddle.  I will still do my planned spin class on Thursday mornings as its fun to do them with others, and I will try to get some rides with the local cycle club so I am not riding alone.  Trouble is that they are not triathletes, but I am sure they will be nice to me regardless. 

We need a tri club around here, maybe I should look at starting one.

Raindrops on road bikes and blisters and kittens

After my mammoth swim effort on Saturday, I woke Sunday feeling more stiff and sore than I do after a tri. Given that my toe blisters came from my bike shoes and had popped somewhere between getting out of the pool and changing, I elected not to ride on Sunday.  I got the blisters after riding in the rain without moisture wicking socks, in my new bike shoes, on the day of the recent crash.  No more riding in the rain for now, or at least until I get a couple of pairs of Thorlo socks and neoprene bike shoe covers.

My blisters deserved a break, and the weather was threatening rain.   I did not need a repeat performance of the blisters.   I also need the blisters gone by next Sunday so I can scream through the 393 at Takapuna.  Word of warning – do not bother with blister-specific plasters if your blisters are on the underside your toes. Not only do they not stay on and require taping down, they are bloody expensive!

Instead of riding, I went out with my friend Ariel from Melbourne who was here overnight and picked up a few bike bits.  I now have a Topeak aero wedge saddle bag, Topeak TriBag (like a bento box for your top tube) and a new Cat Eye Velo 8 bike computer.  Sorted!  As much as I initially loved the cheap and nasty computer I had on my bike, I got sick of it constantly misreporting my speed and the instructions were only in Chinese (no use to me at all!) so I couldn’t reset anything.  Ariel is working on sponsors for me, Woohoo!

Sunday night we had all kinds of feline fun.  My flatmates went out for dinner and found a pair of very cute kittens, but sadly couldn’t catch them and bring them home.  Their cat Cleo brought in a dead sparrow which she proceeded to throw around in their clean washing for around an hour.  I’d only just taken it outside and dispose of it when Cleo brought in something small, dark and fast moving.  She dropped it, it ran under the couch and thinking it was a lizard, I left it for my flatmates to deal with while I watched the amazing race.

The flatmates arrived home and on lifting up the couch, we discovered it was a mouse, not a lizard!  It was faster than Craig Alexander at Ironman, and promptly disappeared after a few laps of the lounge.  My female flatmate and I jumped up on the couch as the rodent zoomed around the room (she screamed, I didn’t), at which point my male flatmate pointed at me and laughed while saying “you do triathlons and you’re scared of a bloody mouse?” 

Oh dear – he had a point.  I was terrified of triathlons six months ago, and now I would rather do a tri than have a mouse run across my feet.  We sent my cat Sydney after the mouse, but she was only interested in searching where it had been three minutes earlier.  Cleo had vanished off outside, and it was 10pm so I went to bed and left them to it.  I had to get up at 5.30am to swim on Monday morning and I was dog tired.

The alarm went off on Monday morning and I shot out of bed.  Fortunately, I was organised and had packed everything on Sunday night.  I was in the water at the pool by 6.03am and swam for half an hour, dodging a kickboard woman and a very slow woman in the medium speed lane.  Ugh… people, please learn pool etiquette and get in the correct lane for your swim speed (or lack thereof), or at least swim up the correct side of the damn lane!  I wanted to do 100m laps but due to the aforementioned human obstacles (which I could not even draft off), I could only manage 50m laps.  So damn annoying!

I hit the gym Monday night energetically too.  I had a great resistance training session, working so hard that my heart rate was over 170 at times.  I did my 3x15 of everything, and then went to grab a treadmill to run on.  However, my plan was foiled by people who had booked the treadmills out right up until 9pm and weren’t even using them!  Yes, yet another annoying situation caused by inconsiderate people. 

I gave up on the run idea, as it was already dark outside, and did my core work for a cool down.  I stretched, went home, had protein and carbs, watched a bit of TV and went out like a light.

Today I had a PT session with a client to check her form with her resistance plan.  She’s doing well – a few minor tweaks and she’ll be getting some great results in a couple of weeks.  Well done her, and well done me!

As far as my training is going, I think “pretty well now that I’m cleared for normal activity” would be a good description.  My training plan is as follows:

Monday

Swim AM

Gym + Core + Interval run PM

Tuesday

Bike + short run off bike PM

Wednesday

Swim AM

Interval run PM

Thursday

Spin Class AM

Gym + Core PM

Friday

Rest day

Saturday

Swim coaching + Core + Short bike + Long Run brick PM

Sunday

Long Bike AM

Of course, if there is a tri on the weekend, I have modified the plan slightly to fit in a rest day and the race day.  I have mapped out the next 16 weeks so there are no excuses for not knowing what I need to be doing and when.  I am organised! Training is so much easier when you have everything scheduled and ready to go.  Packing and laying stuff out the night before helps when you have a crack of dawn session.  Watching the sun rise from the indoor heated pool is nice, watching the sun set when you’re out for a run or out on the bike is nice too – but not having to run around like a banshee at 5.30am trying to pack breakfast and lunch and snacks and gear, is just awesome!

I am starting to think this triathlon thing is 80% perspiration and 20% organisation. Experience tells me I’m right.

 

the week that was

Another week down; another week with very little training and another week of elbow pain.  I went back to the Doc on Wednesday and got good news - my elbow probably wasn't broken, just sprained and grumpy.  I had to wait until Thursday afternoon to find out that the xrays were clear, and for Thursday evening to see the sports physio for a checkup.  The consensus from my team of medicos was unanimous = all clear, and back to training. Yay!

I also received good news from the transmission mechanic.  The transmission in the car is fine, but the car is idling too fast on startup, which is causing the jumping into reverse if you have no patience (and I sure as heck don't first thing in the morning) and don't wait for the idle to come down before shifting into reverse.  So, I reverse into my car space at night and drive out in the morning.  This little workaround will have to do until the car goes in for a service in a few weeks.

On another positive note, all my requested papers for this year have been confirmed with Massey University, so I'm going to work on my Bachelor of Sport and Exercise degree.  Yes, it will take a few years to complete, but hey, nothing good ever happened overnight!

And, it was off to the pool today for my swim coach session with Connie.  We've inherited another two people this term, although how long they will last is anyone's guess.  Neither can swim a whole length of the pool and struggle to complete half a length even with dog paddle, so either I'll be put up to level 3 or they'll be dropped to level 1 (or just drop out). We'll see.

Anyway, I discovered I can swim 150m nonstop now - 100m freestyle, then I have to rollover and do backstroke.  My arm didn't ache during swimming which was great, but my shoulders did by about 80m so obviously I have some work to do there.  I did my lesson (300m) mostly breaststroke, followed by another 700m in blocks of 100m freestyle.  I felt good - great in fact, until I realised my blisters from two weeks ago had burst.  Owie!  I procured bandaids from the pool staff, patched myself up and went out to get boxing gear to use when training a client twice a week.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to hurt tomorrow, and with my blisters being so gross I'm not riding with them in that shape.  I need them sorted for training this week and my tri next weekend, plus a friend arrives from Melbourne tonight who is helping sponsor me with gear and we're shopping tomorrow for a few more things off my list.

Best away, got to go pick her up at the airport soon!

Welcome to the dark side

After yesterday's swim FAIL, I figured a ride was in order. Sadly, it's now swim FAIL and ride FAIL. My elbow just won't cooperate and riding in constant pain is not fun. I did about 7km on a selection of flat and hilly roads but had to give it up as I was just too uncomfortable. Epic FAIL.

Heck, I might actually have to go water jogging...and back to the stationary bike at the gym. Nooooooooooo!!! At least weights weren't giving me any problems last week, even if I only did two sets of the arms and thrashed my legs. Okay, so my hammies weren't happy with me the next day. I went way too hard on my legs at the gym and then smashed them with 20km at serious race pace. 

Pain was my best mate the next day, but that's not always a bad thing. I look at it as my muscles telling me they were worked hard, and need a break. I tried a variation on an existing exercise that made it at least 150% harder than my legs were used to. Fortunately, the next day was a total rest day so by Saturday they were ready to roll and were loosened up in the pool. Sad I can't say the same about my jolly elbow! 

In other news, I've booked my trip to Ironman New Zealand 2010. No, sadly, I am not competing in it this year. But my friend Sean is, and I want to go support him and the 1000+ other awesome brave souls who could be racing up to 17 hours straight in one of the toughest endurance events around. 

Ironman kicks off at 6.45am on the Saturday for the pros, and 7am for the awesome mortals. I've also applied to volunteer at Ironman, so I'll let you all know what job I get (if any!). I've been feeling a bit down about my tri season thanks to my stupid elbow injury, so hopefully Ironman gives me the inspirational kick up the jacksy that I need right now.

I'm heading down to Taupo on the bus on the Friday, arriving early afternoon. I've got a nice room booked about 10 minutes walk from everything and have already google mapped my trip. Sorted! My bus returns mid-afternoon on Sunday, so I have time to attend the "considering doing an Ironman?" session on the Sunday afternoon. I'll even have time to chillax and walk along the lake on the Friday afternoon and Sunday morning. Awesome! 

The accommodation and bus fares come in at under $100 total so that's made attending a lot easier. The petrol alone to drive down and back would have been well over $100 and to be honest, I'd rather sit on the bus so I can take photos, chill, and enjoy the scenery.

The demonic car seems to be playing up again (in reverse this time) and although it's under warranty for another week, I am nervous and unimpressed. I'll take it back this week and get it checked out. I'll be car-less again for a couple of days but it's all good. I can't train much at the moment anyway, so don't need to be driving to the pool for now. 

Must sleep, dog tired and have work tomorrow. 

Ciao

The elbow strikes back

Well, it's been about six months since the last time I "broke" my elbow (aka radial neck).  And it appears I may now have done this for the third time!  I didn't swim at all this week, so this morning I braved the pool.  I did my swim, but it hurt like hell and I ended up giving up earlier than planned and heading back to the doctors.

I saw an awesome doctor named Belinda, who consulted the ACC book of lies and told me that a radial neck/head fracture should be in plaster (according to ACC).  Well, since the fracture still isn't confirmed, I was sent on my unhappy way with instructions to come back on Wednesday for more xrays, which will apparently show if the bone is starting to knit.  This Doc is nice - knows her stuff, has a bedside manner, isn't an airhead - unlike the one I saw the day of the accident.  Perhaps he should shadow Belinda for a week and maybe he'll learn some people skills!

Oh yeah...Belinda told me no swimming until the next xray results come back.  Bugger.  In the interests of actually healing, I guess I will follow her advice.  However, the gym workout on Thursday night didn't hurt despite my doing seated row, shoulder press, bicep curl and rowing machine work.  It hurt more on the bike to be fair.

Wednesday can't come soon enough, I hate not being able to train.  I'll try my bike tomorrow and see how I go, except this time I'll drive around to the back of Airport Oaks for a ride where the traffic is a bit lighter and there's lots of other cyclists (and triathletes) around in case I get in any trouble!

never mind the bollocks, it's Sid and Nancy.

When I had my last knee surgery, two titanium screws were implanted in my left tibia. I named them Sid and Nancy, and here's a portrait of the little darlings:

They don't actually touch in real life, and thanks to these freeloaders, I'm banned from the leg extension machine for life. Awesome. Of course, having a rather warped sense of humour, I named all my equipment. My brace was Elvis (who left the building in style four months after my surgery), my crutches were Thelma and Louise. But Sid (4cm long) and Nancy (3.5cm long) will always be with me, and being made of titanium, they will cause me less trouble than their real life namesakes caused in their lifetimes!

I'm proud of these screws, and of this xray. The first time I saw the images, I freaked.  I figured I'd never do anything sporting again. But, true to his word, my surgeon cleared me to get out there and live it up last November and I have to make him proud. Hence my decision to not just do one sport, but three - one after the other in quick succession (or slow, if you analyse my transition times thus far), and turn it into a bit of an obsession AND a way of life.  

I'd had 17 years of knee pain, knee problems and knee frustration up to this point.  This image represents me being given my life back. My advice to anyone having knee surgery is to think about something you'd really like to do that you never thought would be possible, then get off your jacksy and go do it once your surgeon clears you.  

Trust me, we regret more the things we haven't done, than the things we have.

*motivational speech ends*

Maraetai's murderous bike course

okay, calling the bike course for next weekend a "murderous bike course" is a total exaggeration.  It wasn't THAT bad.  Well, it was bad for me, but not that bad on the whole.

I got up early, packed the car, picked up my Dad and set off out to Umupuia for a tri sim session.  I'd finished a couple of goes at the swim when who should appear but Annie from the Bucklands Beach session.  Awesome!  I had someone to ride with.  Perfecto - but I wasn't planning on riding and hadn't had a lot of fluids before or after my swim, so I wolfed a gel and set off behind Annie to tail her out and back.

I tried to chug down my drink to wash down the gel but just past the turnaround point on the bike I had the stitch from hell.  It sat in my right side for about five minutes, before I tried to stretch out and then sat up on the bike.  The fact that I was going up a long grindy hill didn't help, so I looked at the road just in front of my bike and pretended I was on the flat.  I've only ever had one stitch on the bike before and got rid of that by going aero on my road bars, but couldn't bend that far today so sat up with my hands on the top bar.  Bingo - within a minute, the stitch was gone and didn't' come back.  Lesson learned - water, then gel, then more water, followed by more water.  Clown!

I ran straight off the bike and did about 1.5km with no random side of ankle and foot pain. Cool - maybe it's gone now - and my legs didn't feel heavy or jelly like.  Possibly because they were still in shock from the grindy hills on the bike course.  Don't know for sure, guess I will find out next week at the event.

Speaking of which, I think my times will go out the window.  I just want to finish this next one, I really don't give a rats backside about the time.  I know the swim and T1 will be around 12 minutes, and the run will be around 28-30 minutes, so if I allow 30-35 minutes for the bike and T2 I'm back around 1hr 15-1hr 17 or so.  That will be fine - this is by far the most difficult course to date and I'm not out to thrash myself as I want my PR the weekend after at Mission Bay - when I want to do 50 mins flat or less.

Dad got video of my swim, which was lopsided as hell owing to a nice shot of hamthrax (better known as a flu shot) the day before.  I couldn't do anything about it so it didn't really matter.  My left delt is grumpy as, so right now I'm just ignoring it.  I imagine the itching around the jab site will start soon, and my lungs already feel like they are full of gunk, so whatever!

Anyway, off to bed as I am buggered.  More later.