ITU World Champs

(No, I'm not out-Jessi-ing Jessi!!)

My first "proper" tri (right order, sea swim) was listed as being the starter tri run by the Wellington tri club on 19 November. BUT when pottering around the Tri NZ site, I noticed that the "World Triathlon Festival" starts in NZ in November, continuing through to the Oly champs in March (typically, the Oly distance race that's in Wellington is the NZ Champs, so it's not really feasible to switch to that one. even though the race vest is REALLY hot) The opening weekend, in New Plymouth (5 hours up the island from here) is 11-12 November and includes a "tri-my-sport sprint" (700/20/5) and the World Cup New Plymouth race. Tempting, huh? But of course, there are so many reasons not to do it:

1- My du (already paid for) on the 29th
2- The 50k ride (3 hours from home) on the 5th
3- The 17k walk/run/hike (hard course) on the 18th
4- The starter on the 19th.
5- The soonness of it and the spontaneity required (yes. In my world 1 month is spontaneous!)

Ha! Once I wrote all those things down, I realised what terrible excuses they are. I have been so disappointed about missing out on my marathon holiday, so we're taking a long weekend to go up to New Plymouth for me to try a tri! Yay! I am so excited to be part of a big weekend, to do an ocean swim in a DIFFERENT place (Wellington's triathlons may be numerous, but locations are not so varied). Once again, big props to P. He is actually planning his life around my races, and they seem to be piling up. He doesn't complain, not even wake I drag his (rarely) hungover body out of bed to take me to transition. And then leave him to wait around for hours before he sees me again.

I ran last night for 12-13k (ish. I don't trust the map distance- it can't have been 13, though it said 13.3). Pace between (about) 5:20 and 5:40 ks (depends on distance, includes rest and subject to high level of stopwatch idiocy). It was a horrible day (gusty winds- 76 kph, rain, cold.. What happened to spring? And daylight saving?) but we picked a somewhat sheltered route (painful wind only 10-20% of the way) and I mostly felt good. AND my knees and legs don't hurt. I did a recovery swim this morning (only 1500m), and was really tired today. I think it's the weather, daylight savings, the slightly earlier wake-up for swims and a myriad of other things, but will watch it, and will get some good rest (and a good long bike ride if the wind eases up) tomorrow (day off. YAY). Once we'd been to the gym and had some delicious Thai and a sneaky glass of wine (not a very common occurrence..)

Nothing big planned for the weekend- that's why I really want to get the long bike out of the way. This is pretty much the only weekend for quite some time that I/we are not travelling/racing/etc etc. We're planning a trip out to check out next week's tri course, and I'm hopefully going to get a gentle ride with P in. Gentle? Yeah right! He'll be pushing me the whole way, even though my bike's faster…