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.