So, I'm feeling a bit tired and sorry for myself today. My legs aren't sore, apart from the stingy sunburn (in the RAIN, people... the RAIN!!)
Why am I sore? Because yesterday I climbed a mountain. And why did I climb a mountain? To celebrate my grandfather's 80th birthday. And yes- despite the pouring rain (a menace for the glasses, and muddier of the track), my dear and wonderful Granddad climbed right to the top, and right back down again.'
Something to aspire to, I think.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
How much can I say in 12 minutes?
OK, so I promised myself and my fitday a run tonight (plus, I want to play with my Nike +... yay new toy) but I want to post too. So I have twelve minutes. Eleven now!
First, bootcamp: Rocks. I love it and I'm really going to miss it. Monday was stair sprints. Ow! By far and away the hardest thing we've ever done. Today was Mt Vic again- running an undulating circuit including two decent sets of stairs. I started off further back than I wanted to, and spent the next half hour trying to catch up to the fitties in the front. It took the whole time, but I did it- just. Unfortunately, my punishment was being grouped with the fast kids for our hill sprints (which is fair enough) and told to do four. FOUR! Ow! By the time we were done I was completely pooped but felt SO strong. By the end of each session my endurance is really showing, but it's making less and less of a difference as everyone else gets fitter.
Secondly, my next races: The Kapiti Womens Tri on 2 March. Now I have a hens night to organise the night before, and I'm not letting my bride down by piking on her, so I don't hold out much hope for my performance, but should be fun, I hope.
More excitingly, today I entered my first proper offroad race. It's a loop of Lake Rotoiti in Nelson with a bunch of Scottish and related folks, hopefully staying in my family's bach (Mum's parents and sister...) I'm SO amped to get into training (although it's a 100% For Fun race), and I'm glad I'll have this to look forward to after bootcamp. Morning commutes for backpack practice, hilly afternoons and offroad weekends... But I'll keep up with the swimming. Oh yeah, and the cycling (ugh).
My minutes are up- gotta dash :-)
First, bootcamp: Rocks. I love it and I'm really going to miss it. Monday was stair sprints. Ow! By far and away the hardest thing we've ever done. Today was Mt Vic again- running an undulating circuit including two decent sets of stairs. I started off further back than I wanted to, and spent the next half hour trying to catch up to the fitties in the front. It took the whole time, but I did it- just. Unfortunately, my punishment was being grouped with the fast kids for our hill sprints (which is fair enough) and told to do four. FOUR! Ow! By the time we were done I was completely pooped but felt SO strong. By the end of each session my endurance is really showing, but it's making less and less of a difference as everyone else gets fitter.
Secondly, my next races: The Kapiti Womens Tri on 2 March. Now I have a hens night to organise the night before, and I'm not letting my bride down by piking on her, so I don't hold out much hope for my performance, but should be fun, I hope.
More excitingly, today I entered my first proper offroad race. It's a loop of Lake Rotoiti in Nelson with a bunch of Scottish and related folks, hopefully staying in my family's bach (Mum's parents and sister...) I'm SO amped to get into training (although it's a 100% For Fun race), and I'm glad I'll have this to look forward to after bootcamp. Morning commutes for backpack practice, hilly afternoons and offroad weekends... But I'll keep up with the swimming. Oh yeah, and the cycling (ugh).
My minutes are up- gotta dash :-)
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Saddle time
I spent more time in the saddle this weekend than I have for a long time. It wasn't much, but it was more! Unfortunately, I've neglected running and swimming. I miss chlorine!
On Saturday I went easy mountain biking with P, sister J and J's boy, D. We'd planned to go out Karapoti way again, but logistics and wheels got the better of us, and eventually we decided just to do Redrocks. There was a bit of a southerly, and Red Rocks is on the exposed and rugged south coast of Wellington, so we headed out with a wee bit of trepidation! Our little sister was once blown off the edge of the path by a big gust, so we knew we'd need to be careful.
Luckily neither the southerly nor the rain was too terrible, and we had a blast. J had some mad skills (my definition of "mad" may be open to debate), and I was really impressed by the way she stayed on the bike so much. More than me, anyway! It was (obviously) very different terrain to the Akas, and I think riding a lumpier, bumpier path will help me out next time we head out there.
The hardest bits were the deep loose rocks. The funniest part was when a huge wave came in as J was riding past. The best bit was deciding to really hit it on the way back- I love 'flying' along- the little obstacles lose so much of their significance, and it helps me learn to trust the bike a bit more.
Today I had a lazy morning. Laundry, TV, coffee, a little bit of work on an article I'm writing. I was planning to meet a local "sub" (Sarah Ulmer Brand) pod at 4pm, and it felt weird not to be getting an early workout in (though I definitely could have made it a 2-a-day, it was nice to be lazy...again). I was the only one who showed up, apart from the leader, and we headed out to Eastbourne for a nice easy ride. Lovely tail wind on the way there, and hideous on the way back. My computer was broken (telling me my cadence was 0 and my speed was maxing out at 16km/h....), which was quite refreshing into the wind. I had a couple of not-so-great moments, including getting myself lost and stuck trying to change lanes on a 2 lane roundabout. I hate traffic.
I'm looking forward to bootcamp tomorrow. I can't believe there are only two weeks to go- I'm going to miss it! We've figured out a good incentive to keep it up- every time I pike on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday, I have to pay P the cost of a bootcamp session. Ouch!
On Saturday I went easy mountain biking with P, sister J and J's boy, D. We'd planned to go out Karapoti way again, but logistics and wheels got the better of us, and eventually we decided just to do Redrocks. There was a bit of a southerly, and Red Rocks is on the exposed and rugged south coast of Wellington, so we headed out with a wee bit of trepidation! Our little sister was once blown off the edge of the path by a big gust, so we knew we'd need to be careful.
Luckily neither the southerly nor the rain was too terrible, and we had a blast. J had some mad skills (my definition of "mad" may be open to debate), and I was really impressed by the way she stayed on the bike so much. More than me, anyway! It was (obviously) very different terrain to the Akas, and I think riding a lumpier, bumpier path will help me out next time we head out there.
The hardest bits were the deep loose rocks. The funniest part was when a huge wave came in as J was riding past. The best bit was deciding to really hit it on the way back- I love 'flying' along- the little obstacles lose so much of their significance, and it helps me learn to trust the bike a bit more.
Today I had a lazy morning. Laundry, TV, coffee, a little bit of work on an article I'm writing. I was planning to meet a local "sub" (Sarah Ulmer Brand) pod at 4pm, and it felt weird not to be getting an early workout in (though I definitely could have made it a 2-a-day, it was nice to be lazy...again). I was the only one who showed up, apart from the leader, and we headed out to Eastbourne for a nice easy ride. Lovely tail wind on the way there, and hideous on the way back. My computer was broken (telling me my cadence was 0 and my speed was maxing out at 16km/h....), which was quite refreshing into the wind. I had a couple of not-so-great moments, including getting myself lost and stuck trying to change lanes on a 2 lane roundabout. I hate traffic.
I'm looking forward to bootcamp tomorrow. I can't believe there are only two weeks to go- I'm going to miss it! We've figured out a good incentive to keep it up- every time I pike on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday, I have to pay P the cost of a bootcamp session. Ouch!
Sunday, February 03, 2008
An "and then I did this" post
Summer.
Ahhh.
It's bliss.
I didn't make the most of summer for a long time. Not during high school and certainly not during uni. I've gradually worked on doing more with my time, without burning myself out, of course. P's really come on board with this this year particularly, which is SO cool. I don't think I tried to effect these changes in him, but I never would have thought the man I fell in love with 2 1/2 years ago would be looking forward to a climbing Mt Arthur for my Grandfather's 80th, or kayaking in Abel Tasman for our next years holiday, or doing Xterra for his stag-do!
This weekend was a good 'un. Felt like a "proper" weekend, apart from the fact that we need to do some serious spring cleaning. Hmm.. Next Sunday? Mebbe.
Friday started with a 6am Boot Camp (beach drills.. I kicked some serious butt, and was happy to see 650 calories burned in the hour-long workout). I tucked into my current breakfast fave (Naturlea plain yoghurt with blueberries, almonds and runny honey- SOOOOO good), dressed in a sweet new outfit (being a size 12 is SO much better when you have size 12 clothes), and enjoyed a semi-productive but not too busy day at work. We decided to skip the pool after work, and instead grabbed some takeaways (accounted for in my calorie-count.. thank you Wisconsin for the "petite" option). After chilling at home for awhile, we saw Juno, with my sister and her boyfriend.
Saturday started early. Well, early for this lazy tri-girl, anyway. I met up with the Scottish crew at Khandallah pool at 8am and we headed out. I soon realised that I was not going to be keeping up with the pack (they were speeeeedy!), but fortunately Bel was also hanging back. We ran down to J'Ville, up Ohariu Rd, down to Rifle Range road, then up RR and up the Old Coach Road to the Skyline walkway entrance. It was a nice climb, not as hard as Belmont, but not easy. Running at Bel's pace rather than trying to keep up with the main pack meant I kept my average HR around 154, which was OK with me. We ended up doing about 1:40, so about what I wanted to do. I love 90-100 minute runs. Long enough to go to a lot of places/have an adventure, but short enough that you can do two in a weekend (unlike the 3-4 hour runs of marathon training season). P and I had brunch at Sweet Mothers (not as good as expected...) then headed home to get prettied up.
My baby sister's 21st was out in Kaitoke, which I LOVE. I had my 21st there, and my Dad got married there. The weather wasn't ideal, but it wasn't wet, and everyone had a great time. I was reasonably restrained, both food and alcohol-wise, although I didn't actually count calories. Too hard, too not fun. My speech was pretty lame, but R loved the (lame) short story I wrote for her (family tradition), and immediately picked up that I was channelling Ann M Martin. P, D and I went for a quick swim in the river after dinner. Lovely.
We camped overnight ($5 each-sweet!). Haven't slept in a tent for years, and it wasn't too bad. Woke up early, went for another river swim, enjoyed cereal and tinned fruit for breakfast (camping nostalgia moment), then helped pack up for a bit before heading out for my run. I ran the Kaitoke ridge track, from one entrance to the park to the other. The run was great. Hard uphill (I walked most of it, with my heart rate in the 170s), a nice run along the ridge, and a not-too-technical downhill. All up I was out for about 90-100 minutes. Met the family at the blueberry farm/mexican cafe, where I got a couple of birthday presents, ate some fabulous Chillequiles, picked a ton of blueberries, and went back into the river. Lovely!
Back to work tomorrow, and boot camp. Turns out tomorrow's a Tinakori hill day. Ow!
Ahhh.
It's bliss.
I didn't make the most of summer for a long time. Not during high school and certainly not during uni. I've gradually worked on doing more with my time, without burning myself out, of course. P's really come on board with this this year particularly, which is SO cool. I don't think I tried to effect these changes in him, but I never would have thought the man I fell in love with 2 1/2 years ago would be looking forward to a climbing Mt Arthur for my Grandfather's 80th, or kayaking in Abel Tasman for our next years holiday, or doing Xterra for his stag-do!
This weekend was a good 'un. Felt like a "proper" weekend, apart from the fact that we need to do some serious spring cleaning. Hmm.. Next Sunday? Mebbe.
Friday started with a 6am Boot Camp (beach drills.. I kicked some serious butt, and was happy to see 650 calories burned in the hour-long workout). I tucked into my current breakfast fave (Naturlea plain yoghurt with blueberries, almonds and runny honey- SOOOOO good), dressed in a sweet new outfit (being a size 12 is SO much better when you have size 12 clothes), and enjoyed a semi-productive but not too busy day at work. We decided to skip the pool after work, and instead grabbed some takeaways (accounted for in my calorie-count.. thank you Wisconsin for the "petite" option). After chilling at home for awhile, we saw Juno, with my sister and her boyfriend.
Saturday started early. Well, early for this lazy tri-girl, anyway. I met up with the Scottish crew at Khandallah pool at 8am and we headed out. I soon realised that I was not going to be keeping up with the pack (they were speeeeedy!), but fortunately Bel was also hanging back. We ran down to J'Ville, up Ohariu Rd, down to Rifle Range road, then up RR and up the Old Coach Road to the Skyline walkway entrance. It was a nice climb, not as hard as Belmont, but not easy. Running at Bel's pace rather than trying to keep up with the main pack meant I kept my average HR around 154, which was OK with me. We ended up doing about 1:40, so about what I wanted to do. I love 90-100 minute runs. Long enough to go to a lot of places/have an adventure, but short enough that you can do two in a weekend (unlike the 3-4 hour runs of marathon training season). P and I had brunch at Sweet Mothers (not as good as expected...) then headed home to get prettied up.
My baby sister's 21st was out in Kaitoke, which I LOVE. I had my 21st there, and my Dad got married there. The weather wasn't ideal, but it wasn't wet, and everyone had a great time. I was reasonably restrained, both food and alcohol-wise, although I didn't actually count calories. Too hard, too not fun. My speech was pretty lame, but R loved the (lame) short story I wrote for her (family tradition), and immediately picked up that I was channelling Ann M Martin. P, D and I went for a quick swim in the river after dinner. Lovely.
We camped overnight ($5 each-sweet!). Haven't slept in a tent for years, and it wasn't too bad. Woke up early, went for another river swim, enjoyed cereal and tinned fruit for breakfast (camping nostalgia moment), then helped pack up for a bit before heading out for my run. I ran the Kaitoke ridge track, from one entrance to the park to the other. The run was great. Hard uphill (I walked most of it, with my heart rate in the 170s), a nice run along the ridge, and a not-too-technical downhill. All up I was out for about 90-100 minutes. Met the family at the blueberry farm/mexican cafe, where I got a couple of birthday presents, ate some fabulous Chillequiles, picked a ton of blueberries, and went back into the river. Lovely!
Back to work tomorrow, and boot camp. Turns out tomorrow's a Tinakori hill day. Ow!
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