A (very good) weekend in the life: Saturday

The alarm was set for 7:30am so we could get a good "long" run in. I was feeling pretty groggy, despite a pretty name (and totally booze-free) Friday night, but I eventually dragged myself up for breakfast: instant coffee and a yoghurt mash, with homemade applesauce, plain oats, a sprinkling of muesli and some naturlea.

We moved a bit slowly, and it was about 8:20 by the time we got going. And since our first house appointment (we're sort of looking, but not with a capital L) was at 10:30, I didn't quite have time to do the full Kairangi loop (about 15- fairly hilly- km). I did an out and back along the gorgeous country roads (for pictures, see here), finishing with 1:23 on the clock.

We visited two houses, then popped into the farmers market (for grapefruits, Cloudy Mountain cheese, a brioche to share and Vitality manuka honey), Rata cafe (for my flat white), the deli (for agave and parbaked Marlborough baguette), Simplifood (for looking only) and the supermarket (oats and more oats).

We returned home for lunch (totally indulgent- toasted baguette with cheese and salami) and some chores, before Phil drove me out to Karapiro for a training day for the World Rowing Champs volunteers. I'm a "Spectator Services Ambassador" and I think it's going to be pretty fantastic. The day was slow at times, but definitely inpsiring. Can't wait to be around when NZ dominates in November! I'm confident that it's going to be a pretty epic event- NZ's biggest international sporting event since 1990 (... guess it won't be holding that honour for long...) - so get in quick to get your tickets!

It was an absolutely stunning day in Cambridge, so I wandered towards home from Karapiro while Phil made his way out to pick me up. We had a brief afternoon tea at home, reading and doing some internetting, before getting prettied up for date night.

We spent a fair while trying to come up with the perfect place to eat. Where could we find good beer and wine, choose between tapas and good quality restaurant fare, and feel at home in jeans? Then it hit us: House on Hood. Simply the best place in Hamilton- even NZ? We chatted about life, the universe, the future and everything while Phil enjoyed a Yeastie Boys Pot Kettle Black and I indulged in a TW Chardonnay- one of the best wines I've ever had. Then we ordered dinner- a lovely tapas plate of chorizo, peas and feta to start followed by beef (eye fillet cooked blue, oxtail lasagne and chunky fries) for Phil and lamb (with potato and tomatoes- lovely but a bit boring) for me. We may have also ordered more drinks- Phil had a Brew Moon and I stuck with the TW.. Yum!

We'd had enough fun for one night (facebook was right when it said I act 82...) so we headed home to watch Parenthood (the TV show, not the Steve Martin movie) and have an early night.

A boring, ordinary day but a perfect one. And the weekend just got boringly, ordinarily, better....

A (photoless) day in the country

My day in the country started early- for us- when the alarm went off at 7am, and I got up to eat my morning-after oats (the lazy girl's version of "overnight oats" 1/4c scotch oats, 1/4c organic whole oats, 1/2 c Naturlea plain yoghurt, 1 grated apple, some cinnamon, LSA, agave, and a carefully measured teaspoon of Ceres organic almond butter (at $15 a jar, and a fair few calories too, I can't let my teaspoons grow into tablespoons...)) and hot (instant) coffee.

Then we headed out for a 2 hour hilly bike ride. It was still frosty when I looked outside a little after 8, so I knew it was much colder than usual (the frost has usually gone by the time we leave at about 7:40am). But I didn't realise quite HOW cold it was... the lawn outside our house was quite sunny, and I'm used to mild Auckland winters, where you're almost always overdressed in anything more than knee warmers, so when I felt the rays of sun, I swapped my winter gloves for my normal summer gloves and took off. I knew before we got out of our culdesac that it was a mistake- the Southerly bit as soon as we started moving, but I decided to be staunch, and told myself I'd warm up once we got up the first wee hill. I was wrong. Before we were even 1km in, I was practically crying in pain, and had to tuck my tail between my legs and ask Phil to turn around to go and get the winter gloves. Staunchness Fail. I picked up another layer while I was there- I wasn't dressed up that much, but more than I'm used to (knee and arm warmers, jersey, bibs, booties, winter gloves with polyprop Kathmandu liners, thermal headband and a windproof vest). My hands were still throbbing so I warmed them up a bit before we got going.

We had decided to take on the challenge of Sanitorium hill- it was always in the pipeline, and after telling a judge it was on the agenda, we had to follow through! I've run partway up before (I was interrupted by Phil crashing his bike...) but neither of us had ever ridden it. It's about a 3k climb, starting off quite steep then levelling out for a bit, then getting steeper and steeper and steeper as it winds its way up. I was strong but slow for the first 10 mins or so of climbing, then started really feeling the steep grade- you know, the feeling that if you take a breath your bike will roll backwards out from under you and down the hill. I nearly gave up at 11 minutes, and 12, and 13, and then at 14...

...I stopped.

I pulled over to the side of the road, huffing and puffing, and stood there for 30 seconds or so to collect myself. Then I hardened the f*** up and got back on- I had to remind myself of all the heinous hill starts we did in Auckland to convince myself to get back on! I felt pretty poos about it, but when the next 2-3 corners were equally insane-o steep I knew I'd done the right thing. It's been a long, LONG time since I wussed out on a climb, so I should be able to trust my judgment. I reached the top with a sigh of relief after about 17 minutes (..i.e, slower than I run!)

My relief was mingled with trepidation. What goes up must also go down. *gulp* I tested my brakes, lost a layer of gloves (Phil's fingertips were still tingling) and got on my way.

The short story is that descent was the longest THIRTEEN minutes of my life. Yes- you read right, it took me nearly as long to get down the damn hill as it did to get up. I was shaking with fear the whole way, and I'm getting a bit of tickle belly just writing about it now! It wasn't just steep, it was windy as heck and it didn't help that in places the road was pretty gravelly. I know I'm a descending wimp, but it was seriously hideous. Phil agrees and he's hard.

We spent the rest of our 2 hour ride exploring country roads. It was still cold- neither of us ever felt overdressed, and I started regretting giving Phil the gloves, but it was absolutely stunning out there.

We changed quickly at home and headed to the Cambridge farmers' market for one of Mavis's cinnamon buns, a loaf of pumpkin sourdough, Pirongia cheese (if you ever get the opportunity to buy this, TAKE IT) and a random selection of veges, including celeriac, fennel and white-y yellow baby carrots. Phil headed off to the football (his team was playing in Hamilton), and I pottered around the house, doing chores, and googling recipes for the weird ingredients.

At about 3:00, I headed out with Eric again. I rode the 16k or so to our friends' farm, where I changed into jeans and gumboots for a jump in the woodchips, a walk through the paddocks and a visit to their neighbours 30 adorable new jersey calves (the oldest were 5 days old and the youngest were born this morning).

Now we're topping off a perfect country day with English style ale, (low fat) beef sausages, roasted fennel, mustardy celeriac mash, and steamed yellow carrots... oh- and the All Blacks!

I heart 200s

Last night I got to do 200s- a distance I’d never really trained with before (normally my "speedwork" has been more about the 400s and 800s than sprints and 200s). This is part of Coach Paul’s “build up my strength by killing me now” programme.

The 200s were great because I got to go FAST (my average paces were around 3:30/km), but I never totally wanted to die the way you do with a 400 (sorry 400s, I love you too, y'know). I'd the first 75m or so building into my rhythm, the next 75 huffing and puffing and pushing, and the last 50 focussed on our finish marker and straining to get there.

Anyway, the cool thing is that I was able to hit all of my (ten) 200s between 43 and 46 seconds- despite being on a cobbled path instead of a track, but with the benefit of a tailwind to cancel that out! (and according to Garmin they were definitely on the long side rather than the short side) This isn't particularly fast or anything, but it IS faster than my VDOT formula says I should be (it says 51s, based on my recent 10k time). Now, normally, I do not advocate trying to beat the VDOT numbers, but when the goal is to go all out, I think it’s OK to do it, and to be pleased.

Coachly guidance

Here are Coach Paul's suggestions for why I had a bad day yesterday (paraphrased by me):

• Bad day: most likely cause since I've been doing my MAF pace training on the same course
• Reaction to my anaerobic training (see "Hill Sprints" below). It's no secret that anaerobic work interferes with aerobic base building which is why Maffetone et al have the 155 cap rule when developing the aerobic system. It's also obvious that I struggled with the super-anaerobic training over the weekend (though I do think this was out of the ordinary- I coped MUCH better with horrible hill sprints on bootcamp in 08) However, the strategy this time 'round is to develop my strength, power, pain tolerance etc and now is the best time to do it., not nearer the race season.

His short point is not to stress- my winter programme focuses on strength, power and breaking that CG down- and to remind myself that the MAF tests are there to learn about myself as an athlete as much as they are about testing and seeing my improvement, and that REAL and PERMANENT improvement only occurs over a number of years.

Anyway, even if the test wasn't great, I still had a fairly solid 11km run last night, and I've had some pretty good trainer sessions, showing that my strength is improving. We're getting closer to the pre-season race-season, and I'm looking forward to Okoroire, Taupo Half and The Legend. Awesome.

MAFailure

Tonight was our second MAF test. The goal is (obvs) to improve, but since my HR crept up a little too much last time, I expected my overall pace to be a leeeettle slower than last time.

However, I was NOT expecting my overall pace to be nearly TWENTY SECONDS per k slower than last time. Surely I haven't gotten quite THAT much less fit? And surely my MAF pace isn't now what my "steady" pace has been recently? Did inhaling second hand smoke really improve my performance THAT much?

I feel fine, and felt fine during the workout. My MAF interval workouts have been going well, as has training in general (apart from cycling,which has been inside and a bit lacklustre). So what is going on??

Time to eat my jaffle, watch some Glee, email Coach and wallow in my MAFailure grump.

Hill Sprints

Coach Paul has been displaying some seriously sadistic tendencies recently. Case in point? Hill Sprints. 15 minute warm up, followed by 8 x 15 seconds of heinous all out pain broken up with 1 minute recoveries, and topped off with a cool down.

Nah, who am I kidding, I love it!

Anyway, the first time we did hill sprints I really struggled. I was feeling a bit dead-legged when we started, and I just couldn't push myself on the sprints. So Phil would get to the top, puffing and heaving, and I'd TRY and TRY to push hard, but I'd end up at the end of 15 seconds feeling pretty much normal. I talked to the Coach, and he told me that women often have bigger problems silencing their "central governor" (the officious bystander of endurance racing) than men, because we're smarter and have better self preservation instincts (I'm paraphrasing... just a little.. Coach may not have said smarter....)

Since I have issues shutting up the man on my Clapham omnibus (big points to anyone who gets my loser references in this post!) , I'm trying to take this workout really seriously. Last year, I really felt like my performance at Tinman suffered because I couldn't go all out, so I'm trying to learn to push a bit harder- something I was definitely better at when I was younger.

Anyway, we picked a slightly better hill this time (the steep bit coming into Cambridge from the South) and set off. I was pretty stoked with my first couple of reps- hitting average paces of under 4:00/km (which is actually pretty good- even though it's only 15s, it takes a bit to accelerate). After 4 reps though, I lost it. My heart rate wouldn't go as high as it had been, and I was feeling dizzy and a bit ill. I'm actually attributing this to being a woman as well- it was not just a case of working too hard, and similar things have happened to me when I do weight training and other anaerobic activity at certain times of the month.

I completed sprints 6, 7 and 8 feeling pretty awful, and walked for a few minutes before sending Phil on his way and jogging slowly home. Although the session looked like a fail, it felt like a win to me- I managed to knock out some great sprints, and although I felt like poo, I jogged home without walking again. Another session to look back on when I'm coming around the Mount on the second loop in 6 months!

Benchmarks

Some time between 2004 and today, I developed a little set of mental benchmarks for triathlon achievement. Basically, somewhere deep inside, my little head decided that in order to be a *respectable* triathlete, I had to be able to:

• Swim faster than 2:00/100m
• Bike faster than 30km/h and
• Run faster than 5:00/km

What's interesting about these benchmarks is that they haven't changed with time. They don't really depend on distance. They just ARE. They're the same from sprint to ironman (if I ever do one). In fact, they're quite inconsistent with the race goals I set- if I could do all of these things at once, Id be a damn sight faster than I am!

I don't get (too) disappointed if I don't meet them- I've never run a 10k in an Olympic tri at 5:00/km, and I think my best bike split is STILL, frustratingly, 29.9km/h! Actually- if anything, they make me feel better (apart from the bike...) 39:50 for a half IM swim?? Nevermind, still below the benchmark. A 24:50 in a sprint tri? At least it's still under 5:00/km!

Anyway, I'm interested. Do these benchmarks make sense to you? Is a 30 minute Olympic distance swim equivalent to a 1:20 ride? A 50 minute run? Do you have your own benchmarks? How do they compare with these?

Sold Out.

... but not before we got in! 7 months to go!

Training in Cambridge: Pros and Cons

A couple of weeks ago I had a bit of a moan about training in Cambridge. I missed the harbour. I missed the hills. I missed Wellington's bright mornings and glorious sunrises. I even missed Auckland's dastardly red fence. Then Phil gave me a metaphorical slap, and things are better, so it's time to write a balanced report on our new training home.

But I'm still doing Cons first...

Cons
The DARK. The all pervading constant mother-freakin dark. If we want to run around our perfectly ordinary suburb after about 5:30pm or before 7:00am, we don't just need hi-vis gear, we need rear lights and HEADLAMPS. HEADLAMPS people- for footpath running! (Auckland and Welly are both so delightfully light polluted that running in the early morning or late evening just wasn't even an issue)

...which brings me to FOOTPATHS. Or lack thereof. Most of Leamington isn't too bad, and I'm not expecting there to be footpaths in the proper country or anything, but the problem is that the footpaths MOVE, and more to the point, that it's so dark you can't see them, and they're all totally shielded from the few streetlights there are.

The FOG. The other night I was running, in the dark, with my headlamp, and all of a sudden, I couldn't see a thing, only my headlamp reflecting back at me. It was eerie and creepy and weird.

The humidity. In summer, when it was bright enough to run before and after work, it was painfully humid. But now that I'm a mature grown up who can accept running mazillion minute ks without throwing an I'm so fat and unfit tantrum, I know that humidity, like wind and heat, is just something that will make me more awesome one day.

The non-hills. Wellington and Auckland are predominantly hilly. Duh. But they both have 10+ ks of pretty much perfectly flat coast for those times when you care about measuring pace. Cambridge and Hamilton are pretty much flat. But pretty much flat is still annoying when a couple of wee hills or a false flat messes with your pace for the whole run. And it's next to impossible to map a decent and safe flat run, so the track with the teenage stoners it is!

Pros
In the weekend (and when it's light) we can drive to the country (see previous post) for some sweet, sweet running.

The cycling is pretty fantastic, apart from the dark and fog. 15 minutes of riding in pretty much whichever direction we choose and we're out in the middle of nowhere, with some fantastic climbs, roller coaster rides and some gorgeous countryside.

There are no traffic lights. When we go out for a 3 hour ride, it takes 3 hours, not 3:30! This is definitely making me fitter and stronger- my steady runs are steady runs, rather that moderate semi intervals!

So there you go.

Our strategy for making our workouts funner and more effective is to:

• do our workouts in the morning where possible- since I'm working fewer hours we've lost this habit a little
• do some of our run workouts in Hamilton, where it's not quite as dark!
• celebrate the weekends, by making our weekend runs a real treat- going offroad, driving out to ride somewhere nicerm etc.

What about you? What are the best and worst bits about your training home?

Sunday run: Cambridge

No further comment...

Ironman?

CAVEAT: This post sets out my personal opinion on what’s right for me. I’m not meaning to criticise anyone else’s decisions, but if you feel as if I’m being rude, please feel free to let me know- nicely!

Once or twice (ok, ten or twenty times) every season, and a few times every off season, I get a flash of the “should I?”s

Should I just bite the bullet and do Ironman? (well, an iron distance race… I’m a Wanaka girl at heart…)

Why not? I know it’s on my bucket list, I’ve built up a decent enough endurance base, I’m financially secure, child free, and working fairly predictable, ordinary hours. Now’s really the best time for me to take on that challenge…

But deep inside, I feel like Ironman is something that (for me) has to truly be earned, and I don’t think I’m anywhere near earning the right to race yet. I’ve always felt a little uneasy when non-runners or non-triathletes take the plunge from couch to marathon, or mini-tri to ironman. No disrepect to them- everyone chooses how they want to challenge themselves to achieve their goals, they put the hours in, and their ironman is as much of an achievement as anyone else’s, but that journey is not for me.

For me, respecting the distance and respecting the sport go hand in hand. I did 8 half marathons, and took over ten minutes off my time before I ever considered doing a full, and I think that’s the way I’ll approach Ironman too. I didn’t want to be a marathoner- I wanted to be a runner. And now, I don’t want to be an ironman- I want to be a triathlete. It’s not about how slow or fast you complete it, it’s about how seriously you take it. And for me, in my endurance sport journey, completing an ironman for the sake of striking it off the bucket list, just isn’t taking it seriously enough. I’ve said to Phil before, and I’m saying it *out loud* now:


I will not do Ironman unless or until I am fit enough to aim for a sub-13 finish (*or I turn 49, if that happens first…)

I don’t care if my first Ironman is sub-13 or not. But at this stage of my fitness, I want to know that sub 13 (or even sub 12:30) is in my reach, because that’s when I’ll know I’m ready. Does that make sense?

Stay tuned for my non-Iron race plans for the season later this week!

Guest Post!

I'm guest posting at Modernation today while Amanda rides a (full proper imperial) century. It's a post I'd been planning to use here with my tips for new cyclists, so please check it out and leave a comment there :)

Huntly Half 2010: 10k race report

Today I ran my first standalone 10k since 2007 (when I ran what's still my disappointing 10k PB of 47:54 to finally break 48:00 ).

I had no idea what to expect- apart from my recent MAF test (and a couple of super sprint tris), I haven't run faster than about a 6 minute k, or at a heart rate over 155, since I started training again in March- but I thought I could do OK. I didn't really have a *goal* per se, but I think my rough ideas were:

Exceeds expectations: anything sub 48

Outstanding: anything between 48 and about 49:30

Acceptable: anything sub 52

Poor: 53ish

Dreadful: 54-55ish

Troll: over 55

I warmed up for about 90 seconds (lame), with a few pick-ups. I found that my "fastish" pace in warm up tended to be in the mid-high 4:00s (4:37-4:40 ish), which I thought was a good sign. But my legs were feeling stiff even from the start- I definitely should be doing more stretching, as this past week hasn't exactly been a tough one, and I probably should have warmed up better too.

I seeded myself in the middle-front of the pack- in a position I think probably roughly reflected my eventual finishing time. But I saw a disturbing number of baggy capris, logo t-shirts and sensible shoes around me, and realised I'd be running right into the back of people as soon as we started. So, I skipped forward another 7 rows or so, until I felt like I was seeding myself rather optimistically. But I was STILL surrounded by muppet walkers. Sigh! Why is this a problem in every race??!!! It's not rocket science!

Luckily, it didn't take too long to get through, and within a minute or so the field had spread out pretty well. I looked down at my garmin (which was set to show lap pace, time and distance, and to autolap every 1k) and it said 4:14. Oops!

Although I've done a few half marathons recently, most of my racing has been in tris or dus and it was strange starting running on fresh-ish legs. I checked my pace so it slowed to about 4:37, but it kept sneaking down again, and I finished the first k in around 4:35 thinking either I'm going to crush my PB, or I'm going to blow up spectacularly. I hoped for the former, but suspected the latter was more likely.

I kept a more sensible pace for the next couple of ks. They were a little hillier- with about 4 wee bridge climbs over ks 1-5, and a bit off offroad grass running. Nothing to complain about, but it does slow you down maybe 5-10s a k, I think. I certainly noticed that, although my pace stayed safely in the high 4:40s/low 4:50s on the road, it crept up towards the 5:00s on the grass and gravel.

I raced a blonde girl in a baby blue t-shirt, and a guy with gross hair, a way too loose offwhite wife-beater and too much visible underarm. Really, I should have made it my aim to pass wife-beater guy and find some tastier eye candy! I think I hooked up with this group at around 3 or 4k, and I finished within probably 30s to a minute of all of them. I think the fact that, on the whole, I spent most of the race with roughly the same people suggests that although I undeniably started too fast, my gradually slowing pace was due at least in part to the changes in the course- from road, to bridge, to grass, to gravel.

I hit 5k in about 24:20, and knew a PB was out of the question. I wasn't supposed to be looking at my HR, but I caught a glimpse as I whizzed past it to check time and average overall pace at 5k, and it was in the mid 180s. I was definitely starting to feel it, but knowing I only had lap markers 6, 7 and 8 to go before I got to drop the hammer for the last km kept me moving along- and so did my ongoing race with baby blue girl!

The last few ks (I think from 7 to 9.5ish) were almost entirely on the gravel lake walkway. Although I think it slowed me down (I saw some disturbingly high 5:20s and worse during this section), I really liked the feeling of making my way around the lake- I could see roughly where the finish area was on the other side of the lake, and chipping away at the remaining distance bit by bit was remarkably satisfying (unlike at Blue Lake, where the beach seems to keep moving away as you run around the lake track!). My race with baby blue girl intensified- we were at the awkward stage where we were running at about the same pace, so neither could properly pass the other. Every time I moved to pass, I had to keep the pace up for quite a while before moving back to the left. And sure enough, as soon as I did it, she'd be ahead again- but just close enough to my pace that she felt slightly "in the way"... if that makes sense.

I finally passed her for real around the 9km marker. I knew the last k would not be over quickly, but was pretty confident I could pick up the pace a bit. I remember looking at my watch 30s or so after the autolap changed over and realising that I only had an 800 left. I remembered all of those fast 800s I did, back when I was a runner, and tried to knuckle down.

Not far before the finish line, we joined the half marathoners again. They were going for a 2 hour finish, and were cutting it pretty fine, so although we 10k-ers were a little faster, pace-wise, they were more determined. Some were just slow enough to get in the way- but the finish line of a multi-distance race is the one place where I (as a total mid-packer*) don't think the usual "slow gives way to fast" rules apply. If they've run 11ks more than me, I'm not going to get too irritated if they're in my space! I had enough in me to start a couple of sprint-offs with some of the half-marathoners- but not quite enough in the legs to keep them up. Ah well- I feel good knowing I spurred a couple of people to finish 3-5s faster than they might otherwise have ;)

In the end, I crossed the finish line at somewhere around 49:40 on the clock. I probably crossed the mats 10-15 seconds after the gun, so I guess my net time might just slip into the 49:20s, which would be nice. My garmin time is 49:08. That's wrong (I started it a little after the start mats because the damn thing switched off JUST as the gun went off), but if I extrapolate it, I end up with 49:26 or so, so I guess 10-15s off is about right. I suppose that instead of trying to conjure up an answer, I can just wait and see what the official time is!

So, I guess that puts me somewhere between acceptable and outstanding. It certainly feels like an "acceptable" effort to me. But "acceptable" is pretty good really, for an unfit and overweight me!

Splits, for Paul:

AHR 178	0 X	1.00	@ 00:04:37
183	0 X	1.00	@ 00:04:48
182	0 X	1.00	@ 00:04:54
184	0 X	1.00	@ 00:04:55
185	0 X	1.00	@ 00:05:04
184	0 X	1.00	@ 00:05:06
184	0 X	1.00	@ 00:05:11
185	0 X	1.00	@ 00:04:58
186	0 X	1.00	@ 00:05:07
188	0 X	0.93	@ 00:04:25

*of course, it'd be a whole different kettle of fish if I were actually WINNING the 10k and some slow-ass half walkers were in my way. Then there'd be swearing.

An easy ride

Today's ride was bliss. Because I'm "racing" tomorrow, coach allowed me an easy run or ride, so instead of riding any of our usual hilly loops (Kairangi, Te Miro/French Pass or Maungatautari) we cruised through Cambridge for an out and back towards Te Miro.

The weather was just perfect- clear, sunny and pretty still, and just crisp enough to put our knee and arm warmers on. After 45 minutes, we'd just started to hit the hills, but they were still nice spinny ones and although they screwed our average "out" pace, pedaling fast and hard on the downhill on the way back well made up for it :)

Anyway, there's no great story in this. It was just nice to do an easy ride for a change, and to come back with a semi-respectable average speed for a change too! It was a nice reminder that our shared love of hills mean the routes we usually ride are actually not that easy, and that I'm not quite as slow as I think I am.

Stay tuned for:

• a "race" report; and
  
• my very first guest post
  

Happy weekend everyone!

PS: I've added some "Pages" at the top of the blog. If you're new or just curious, have a look!

Blogland etiquette and a promise

Updated: check this link out. Rachel says it so much better than I do.

First, I should say that I'm not saying this in response to any one incident- anyone who knows me in real life can testify that I've held these views for a long time.

Blogland etiquette has been a subject of interest recently. It seems that, all too frequently, I see bloggers responding to "critical" comment,s or- frankly- anything other than a simpering, "way to go", by playing the victim, and all of their friends jump in to support them, or to take down the "troll."

I'm not talking about rudeness, or meanness. I've seen some horrific comments left on people's blogs, and "trolls" are not some fantasy creature. Reading someone's blog even though they irk the crap out of you, so that you can leave them offensive and nasty comments is never OK. I don't think the fact that a blogger has put his or herself out there is reason enough to abuse them, or treat them with anything other than respect.

But, at the same time, sometimes bloggers, like all people, do things that are wrong. And readers have a right to their own opinion on those things. Bloggers have a lot to gain from attracting as many internet "friends" as possible, and letting them into their lives. When readers come back to a blog again and again, it's because they feel like the blogger's friend, or they wish they were the blogger's friend, and the blogger has succeeded as a personal/exercise/food blogger by cultivating that artificial friendship.

If you want someone's compliments on your race reports, you have to accept their constructive criticism, their frustration and their disappointment, unless it is expressed in a rude or hateful way. If your decisions affect the people who have invested emotionally and financially in you, expect them to hold opinions on those decisions and to react to them. The old adage "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" is helpful, but it has its limitations.

The problem is that if anyone who says anything negative is turned into a "troll", the blog is going to become less and less realistic, and more and more of a fairy tale. Commenters start lying, rather than risking the wrath of the blog world.

My favourite example of this is the food blogger who recently complained about the lack of hummus and falafel at a local Greek restaurant. I don't think any commenter had the guts to point out that hummus and falafel, while delicious, are not Greek! Now, this blogger is not an example of someone who overreacts to criticism- in fact, I've seen her handle it with real class - the example is just there to illustrate the nervousness commenters seem to feel about saying anything remotely controversial.

Maybe this is easier for me to say- I've never been a famous blogger and I never will be. I'll probably never get an offensive comment (*unless too many people read here and assume I'm bagging one of their own*), and I've never had anything other than friendly, well-meaning advice, from my few friends and readers. I have no doubt that I'd be hurt if I did get told off. I'd be hurt if a real life friend told me I was behaving badly, too!

But guys, dear readers of mine, I'll tell you now that you can feel free to tell me to pull my head in when I need it, offer me advice, disagree with any rant or rave I publish, or correct any misguided advice I give. If you're a walker and it upsets you when I complain about clogged race starts? Go ahead and tell me. Maybe I'll learn something. If you're a swimmer with an explanation for the lane hog behaviour I hate- I'd love to know how to understand things better. If you think I'm training too hard/too easy, too long/too short or too slow/too fast. In fact, if you want to tell me to stop bitching about my weight until I'm willing to stop laying off the beer and the curly fries would help me drop the kilos- go for it. But don't call me a fat, moany, knowitall b*tch. Say it nicely, say it with respect, and I hereby undertake to respect you right back.


Who's with me?

Cycling: a progress report

My cycling hasn't received a lot of attention here recently, but it's going well.

I built myself a real base last year, and I'm feeling like I'm actually making new gains now, rather than starting over again. I know, it's kinda obvious, but it feels as if I've now finally turned a corner with my cycling, once and for all. I've said goodbye to scared-y Kate once and for all (though there are some things I'll NEVER like), and I'm learning how to avoid hitting my cycling wall as the rides get longer.

Here's what's been happening this week, cycling wise:

Monday: 45 boring minutes on the trainer. No comment- except that I'm now riding my trainer on resistance level 2, after spending the last couple of years on "L" (i.e: not even 1)

Wednesday: 55 minutes of spin at the Cambridge Tavern. We do an aerobic workout not too dissimilar to the sessions Paul gives us- with one-legged drills, some super-spinning, and plenty of big gear work. Oh, and lots of choice nineties music to listen to. The reason I want to talk about spin is because it's made me realise just how much stronger I am now. I watch my HR and my cadence on my Garmin, and when we do our big gear work, it just seems I don't have enough gears ;) On Wednesday, I was working hard not to overdo it, because I was shocked by the gears I was riding, but every time Mark visited me, he'd flick my gears UP. I almost had a heart attack when he pointed out I was riding in a higher gear than Phil, and asked if I kicked his ass on the road!! But then we realised it's because Phil's sadistic trainer increases the resistance exponentially when he's producing more power.. Oh well- I was stoked for a few seconds there!

Saturday : Saturday was our longest ride so far. Phil planned a fairly unforgiving 72k loop, that took in most of the half ironman course (basically, we did the Maungatautari loop from Roto-o-rangi Road, but skipped Norwegian Rd, and finished at home, not in town!) Our legs were stuffed when we started, but we soon started feeling much, and on the whole, it was one of my most successful "long rides" ever. The hills in this route weren't as brutal as the hills on our usual Cambridge rides (Norwegian/Kairangi and Te Miro/French Pass), but there were definitely some steep climbs, and it was one of those rides that was very rarely flat, so you were always concentrating, or climbing, or recovering. The main things I noticed about this ride were that my climbing cadence was much higher than usual, and that I wasn't struggling as much to keep up with Phil. Phil's average power for the ride was 137, and his normalised power was 174, I think. That's pretty good for a "with Kate" ride, and although my numbers would obviously be lower (I'm usually a little behind, and Kate+bike weighs- a wee bit- less than Phil+bike), I can still use Phil's numbers as an OK indicator of my performance, relative to other rides with Phil). One thing I can now say for sure is that I won't be doing the Karapiro half, at least not for a PB!

Sunday: We did our Norwegian/Kairangi/Norwegian route. It's a lovely country loop (including some bits of the Half IM course) with some jolly steep climbs, some fun and some technical descents, and what is (usually) a very fun roller coaster (but wasn't so fun with a headwind). We were both pleasantly surprised by how good we felt after yesterday's efforts and, although our pace was slow, our average and normalised power were pretty good (average 128, norm 172).

So, all in all, a very solid week of cycling, building up on some other pretty solid weeks. Cycling at the moment is my favourite discipline- who ever would have thought it??

In which Hotpotato runs her MAF test and tries not to inhale

Coach Paul has added regular MAF tests into our training, starting from this month. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, visit Phil Maffetone's website (watch out for the dinky music) and this article here.

Briefly, the MAF test is done on a flat piece of road or athletics track. You warm up for (say) 15 minutes, then run 8km at the upper end of your aerobic zone (for me, around 165 bpm), recording each km split, and your average HR for each km.

Phil and I decided to try out the Cambridge track for our MAF test this evening. Since it's so bloody dark and Cambridge spent all its money on freakin' trees instead of streetlighting, we loaded ourselves up with lights (Phil was kind enough to lend me his headlamp, and he ran carrying a MTB light in his hand..)

As soon as we got to the track, it started persisting down. Then we discovered that the Cambride athletics track is made of grass. Great. Running around in the grass and the mud for an hour. Probably not the best "test" surface either, but by this stage it was too late, there wasn't anywhere else we could go, so we sucked it up, and got moving. Oh- and even better. The grass on the track wasn't the only grass around. Some wee Cambridge miscreant was partaking in the space between the track and the neighbouring football field, and the smell was just short of overwhelming every time we looped past!

I found that the 8k main set went by fairly quickly, even though I was running around and around and around a grassy circle. It was quite interesting to identify the *slow* areas in the loop, and to watch my speed pick up while my HR went down in the *fast* areas. As Phil lapped me for the third time, he confirmed that he was finding the same thing.

Anyhoo, the point is to compare progress over time, so here are my splits, for posterity.

AHR 164 1 X 1.00 @ 00:05:29
AHR 166 1 X 1.00 @ 00:05:36
AHR 165 1 X 1.00 @ 00:05:38
AHR 166 1 X 1.00 @ 00:05:35
AHR 166 1 X 1.00 @ 00:05:41
AHR 166 1 X 1.00 @ 00:05:38
AHR 167 1 X 1.00 @ 00:05:40
AHR 167 1 X 1.00 @ 00:05:42

I'm actually pleased with this. Well, it's roughly what I expected to see, anyway. And based on previous research into MAF and race times, it suggests my 5k race pace would be 21:45, which would be a pretty epic PB for me (20s better than my best ever, and about 1:30 better than most of my recent efforts). Huh! Yeah, right!

MaxWell Overture

Hey-ho, do you know
That mountain biking is really neat
A day in the trails is such a treat
Away from it all, you’ll have a ball
And just pray you don’t have a fall….

A little shaky on A-trail
then Tickler was an epic fail
gripped handlebars til my knuckles were pale
then up and up at the pace of a snail

from frontal lobotomy we had to get down
so we hucked our way down Huckleberry Hound
my love for rollovers was newfound
and adrenaline rushed as we rode around…

…Corners with its sweeping berms
and rutted, rooty, crazy turns
I swooped and whooped into the ferns
and up the climbs, I felt the burn

We split for the next half an hour
cos D decided to devour
Chop Suey, Spring Roll, and Sweet and Sour
while I stuck to the roads (because I am slower)

Then it was time to end our ride
Our spouses were waiting and our legs were fried
So after Dragon’s Tail, we turned and sighed
And rode back to base bursting with pride!

But of course we could not go away
without coming out for another play
so we went back for more the very next day
for more adventures- hip hip hooray!

PS: not the original post, I couldn't face writing that novel again!
PPS: I hope you can figure out the tune for this, leave a comment or email me if you want a hint!

Dammit

A long, long, LONG post about my MTB adventures on Saturday (with links to all the trails I rode, and videos and EVERYTHING) is ALL GONE.

I'll be back later- but now it's time to drink tea, eat homemade ginger kisses, and watch Modern Family.

*sigh*

Out of my depth

Phil and I went along to the Hamilton Hawks evening run after work tonight. Phil's been once before, but I missed it because I was in Rotorua for work.

For those of you who haven't who been around since 2005, this was by no means my first foray into club running, so I thought I knew what to expect. I ran with Wellington Scottish (aka best, most awesome running club in NZ) for a couple of seasons when I first started running, and tried my best to maintain my links with them when I started finding Saturday runs more difficult to fit around work and my long Sunday marathon runs.

... but it turns out that the Hawks' Thursday night run was a far cry from my Scottish mid week runs. When I turned up, I noticed a whole lotta tights, compression sleeves and compression socks, and a whole lot of dudes. There were maybe 5 women there, with an average weight of 40-something kilos, and an average body fat percentage of about 12%.

I realised pretty quickly that I wouldn't be able to stick with the group, so just took off and let myself drift back. Before too long, I met an injured ultra marathoner who was kind enough to run with me, a good few minutes behind the rest of the pack, and a hundred metres or so behind the tail end charlie. But it was a mixed blessing, as my new friend's "easy, lagging, recovery" pace was a little over 5:00/ks, even on the undulating course.

I let my ego get the better of me, and, miraculously managed to bluff it for the 7-odd ks we ran togetherjust well enough to hold a semi-comfortable conversation, without puffing too much.

We finished the loop at an average pace of about 5:15/k (AHR 173), and I jogged back for about ten minutes to find Phil, bringing my average pace and HR to more sensible levels.

So, won't be doing that again! (but I am secretly happy that I could hold a semi-respectable pace while chatting and running some wee hills....)

Training together, apart

Now that Phil and I live together, we don't need to spend quite as much of our training time together.

But it's still good to run and ride together when we can, and our training plans are co-ordinated so we are doing roughly the same things one the same days. But running with Phil means I'm huffing and puffing and certainly not running in E1. Or it means he has to run so slowly he's practically walking, which leads to him getting injured because it throws off his gait.

So, we're finding new ways to train together, apart. We've been warming up together, then splitting up, running an out and back, then "cooling down" together, or trying to run loops that will mean we bump into each other part way through.

We discovered a goody the other day. About 2 minutes into our ride, Phil realised he'd forgotten the pump, so he headed home to get it while I rode on. I tried to hold a decent enough pace so he didn't catch up to me too quickly, while he hauled some serious ass to catch up with me by the time I got to the hilly loop that makes up most of our usual ride (he didn't succeed).... So by the time he joined me again, he'd worked a bit harder than usual and was happy to cruise up the hills with me (it helps that my climbing legs have come back pretty quickly)

Pride kept us both motivated while we were apart, and by the time we met I was feeling confident- stoked that I'd held him off for so long, and he was feeling chuffed enough with himself not to get frustrated with me. We got to spend the tail end of our ride gabbing away on the country roads, enjoying the late summer, late afternoon sun.

Training WIN!

Weekend

My training has been incredibly patchy. All sorts of silly obstacles, like settling into the new routine, travelling, sickness, and life generally, are getting in the way. But I really feel like it will turn around soon!

We had a great weekend of chilling out in the tron, which has left me feeling settled, relaxed, and totally ready to rock the upcoming work week (before trekking to Welly for a fantastic Easter and a visit with my 23-week pregnant best friend!)

On Friday night, I enjoyed a glass of wine at our end of month drinks before rushing around the supermarket in order to get home before our guests arrived. Then it was home to slice veges, chop basil, grill eggplant for MYO pizzas, homebrew, riesling and (shame) Arkham Horror.

I managed to get most of the mess cleaned upon Saturday morning, before breaking out our wedding plates for the first time, and introducing to a typical Kate and Phil breakfast feast, with yoghurt, fruit, muesli, oats and a whole bunch of mixins- almond butter, chia seeds, LSA and cinnamon. After a few cups of coffee, we headed into the farmers market, for spinach and feta bread, blueberries, a huuuge bag of pears, and the best cinnamon rolls in the country.

We spent the afternoon at the cricket- enjoying the last of the summer sun, drinking icy cold beer, and munching our way through the picnic, and a round of frujus. After a thoroughly satisfying day of laziness, and a thrilling Kiwi hattrick, we headed to the new local pub for craft brews, chunky fries, and a platter of gourmet goodness while we watched the sun set. I loved seeing Cambridge and Hamilton from our guests’ point of view; suddenly it didn’t seem so bad!

This morning, we slept in decadently late, before I headed to the lake for my first multisport kayak lesson. I’ve done plenty of relaxed sea kayaking, but this was my first, quiet, baby step towards a shift to multisport and maybe doing the Coast to Coast one day… The lesson was great- getting the balance of the tippier multisport boat was a challenge, and getting the wing paddle stroke just right gave me a great core workout!

We spent the afternoon lounging with the cricket on in the background. I prepped some cross examination for the three-week trial I have starting in 2 weeks, and finished reading my novel, which I’ve now discovered has two sequels (yay).

Then we headed out on what became a super fun hilly ride around the Te Miro loop. I am loving riding in Cambridge and right now, when swimming is hard to fit in and running is all kinds of painful, I love that cycling is giving me something to cling on to. My fitness has suffered, but my cycling skills and endurance are still there- I was stoked to be able to ride non-stop for two and a half hours (no traffic lights in Cambridge...), and to keep going and finish strong even though my legs were tired from the beginning! Yes, I'm slow, but I'm a mile ahead of where I was this time last year, and I can't wait to get even better!

Who is your favourite person in the whole world?

Tough one! I know I said to ask me anything, but this is mean. Can it wait until we have kids?

Ask me anything

What's so wrong with Taupo for an Ironman event?

Nothing- it's awesome.

But I'm a bit of a root for the underdog kinda gal, and I'd prefer the scenic, difficult, not-the-big-brand option to the race that everyone does. You'll note I've suffered through two horrid Rotovegas races rather than actually going sub 6 at the Mount!

The other reason is that I would love to combine triathlon with adventure- with that much money involved, I figure why not go the whole hog, travel as well, and get a holiday.

Of course, resources in the future may not permit a mission over to Canada (...or Norway....) for a silly race, but for now, a girl can dream...

Ask me anything

How about Ironman Canada? :)

Definitely an option- Canada's high on our list of places to go.

Ask me anything

Darn it, I was going to ask the Taupo question! Okay, when are you going to do Wanaka or an overseas event then? :-)

I've got a few other things to do before I go for the full iron distance- but one day, that's for sure.

Ask me anything

What would your last meal on earth be?

Since I'm not planning to die for a very long time, something pureed, I imagine!

Probably spaghetti bolognese with garlic bread, plenty of parmesan and something chocolatey.

Ask me anything

When are you going to do Ironman NZ at Taupo?

Ha! Not bloody likely. If I ever do an iron distance race, it'll be Wanaka or something overseas.

Ask me anything

Ask me anything!

I'm jumping right on the formspring bandwagon! Go here to ask me anything.

Triwoman Race Report: Second the best!

Swim: 300m
Cruisy swim along the shore. Hard to follow a good line, and ended up in the shallows, surrounded by people walking, halfway through. Love swimming without a wetsuit on!

Swim + T1 time: 7:23 (T1 was quite long)

Bike: 10km
I used Phil's power meter for the 10k bike along to Buried Village and back. Average power was pretty pathetic (155), but we expect normalised power to be higher, given the undulating course. Passed lots of ladies from earlier waves, and noticed that most of those in front looked like duathletes, who'd started 5 minutes earlier. Calling the ride "flat" is a bit misleading- there was one climb (2 minutes or so) that I needed to use my low gears for. Missed out on my 30km/h goal by a fair margin, averaging about 28.5, but I only got overtaken by one lady, and I knew I'd bring her in on the run.

Bike + T2 time: 23:17

Run: 3km
My pace was about 4:46/k as I exited transition and started trying to catch the woman in front of me. It slowed a lot as I reached the climbs, and it took a lot to bring it back to 5:00/k (on the Garmin; 4:55/k officially...) I got passed by one speedster, and never did catch the girl in front of me, but I stayed near them both the whole way, and we all crossed the finish line within 30-odd seconds of each other.

Run time: 14:43

Overall time: 45:23

I'm painfully slow right now, but I had a great time. It was great to be able to pass people, and actually *race*, instead of lurking at the back, watching dudes in aero helmets lapping me.

Best of all, once the final results came out, it turned out that I'd placed second overall. Sweetbix!

Hotpotato's off for an epic weekend!

2 days of mountain biking, and a(nother) Blue Lake triathlon!

See you later!

Mafia Twilight Mini-Tri: In Which Kate Has An Epic Spaz

Our new local tri-club runs a series of tri/duathlons during summer. Phil had done a duathlon with them earlier in the season, and we decided both to go along for a spot of racing on Wednesday, after day 3 in New Job. Since I'm "training" for my 3:9:3 in Rotorua next weekend, I decided to stick with the 600/8/2 event, instead of toughing it out and doing 600/16/4. Yep- I've gone from Half IM to lazy cabbage in two short monhts!

We arrived at the race site with a few minutes to spare, registered, and leaned our bikes up against the fence for transition. Then Phil prepared to run, while the other swimmers and I marched 600m down the river to start the swim.

I decided to go wetsuitless as I quite frankly hate my wetsuit and am not convinced that the benefits it gives me outweigh the extra T1 time in a super short race. It was wonderful swimming along and actually feel the water, although I had to keep trying not to think about the pollution Mr I Prosecute the Effluent Dischargers kept moaning about... The river felt clear and fresh and was definitely warm enough to swim without insulation.

Swimming 600m downstream in the Waikato river is not quite the same as swimming 600m across Blue Lake, or doing ten long laps of the Parnell Baths, and the finish arrived before I knew it. Literally- one moment I was following merrily along, then three strokes later I looked up, realised I'd gone too far, and had to swim awkwardly back upstream to get to the beach. No idea of time, as I was data free...

T1 involved a massive run up a decent enough sized hill, so it took for bloody ever, but there were still plenty of bikes left when I got out. I couldn't be stuffed piddling about with the garmin, so I just went for it. I passed a couple of ladies early on, then leapfrogged with a few big rugby players on hybrids for awhile (how embarrassing!!!) It's a mostly flat course, with a couple of wee "power up" hills, and one slightly longer hill that I actually had to move into climbing mode for. The main complicating factor is a right hand turn onto a busy-ish road near the beginning, but I was lucky, and squeaked through with someone else. The 8k course went on for slightly longer than I expected, since I had no concept of time or distance, but before too long I was back in T1 with just one other bike...

Even though I knew most people wouldn't be doing the super mini distance, I felt a little odd arriving back in transition without anyone around, and was sure someone would come over and shout at me for missing some loop or other. But they didn't, so I slid my shoes on and hit the run, again, without bothering to put the Garmin on.

I knew the run was a simple out and back along the river trail. Easy. So I took off at a reasonable clip, planning to knock out a fast k, then suffer back! Only the turnaround never came. I was 90% certain I was headed in the right direction, but there was no-one out there, and I felt utterly isolated and confused. It was hard to keep running hard with that massive mental blockage in my mind, but I kept it up, darting my head around for signs that I was on the right track. Before too long, I passed the swim entrance, which I knew was about 600m, so I kept heading along, knowing I was around half way. But, ages and ages later, I still hadn't seen anything, so I ran another 400 steps, and called it quits. I turned around, and started walking, then jogging home. As I jogged, I eventually saw people coming the other way, and realised I had been going the right way, but I had no idea whether I'd passed the turnaround or not, so I was already gunning for a DNF, so I kept up the jog, feeling utterly daft whenever anyone gave me an arm pump or a congratulatory greeting. Finally, after what seemed like forever, I was back at the transition area, where I slowed to a walk, and headed to the race director, away from the finish line. As I headed up the final stretch, the young girl who must have been ahead of me the whole time passed me to take out the baby-tri race, which suggests that:

- I hadn't actually hit the 2k turnaround, as I hadn't seen her before, and I assume she was the owner of the hybrid
- I could have taken her 12-year old self out if I'd kept running and chased her down!

What a mucking fuppet!

Despite the mishaps, it was a fantastic race. I'll be back again in a fortnight, and I won't pansy out and do the baby race, so I'll have some company!

Progress

We're settling in in Cambridge, staying at Phil's parents' place until our ghastly subdivision house becomes available next weekend. I'm not starting work until Monday, so I've been spending my days with my friend from Welly who's also just moved up, swimming, walking the dogs, drinking flat whites and generally enjoying the Waikato summer, while trying to take care of the list. So, here's how it's all going...

# Enter Rotovegas Triwoman Tri Yay! Racing here I come
# Start training again. Properly...I'm swimming with a friend, cycling for transport, and riding a bit with Phil. But "properly" isn't quite the word.
# Lose Belgian-beer and frites and Danish pastry pudge once and for all
# Find a home (..yup, kinda a priority) It's in a ghastly subdivision, and it's brick, but it's clean and sunny, and it's got all we need. And it's ours from next week, and it's certain, and that's what counts
# Think about goals for 2010 race season
# Email coach
# Get every piece of work clothing dry cleaned
# Get hair cut, lashes dyed and brows shaped (well, appointments have been made...)
# Confirm start time with new employer
# Plan sister's hen's night
# Hit up the Whakarewarewa trails
# Celebrate 28th birthday (..really, this is on Phil's to do list!)
# Find a home (did I say that already??)
# Upload Europe, Parts III, IV and V to facebook
# Arrange flights for stepfather's birthday
#NEW: Arrange driving lessons
#NEW: Unearth hairdryer and straightener

The Great Post Europe Return to Real Life To Do List

• Enter Rotovegas Triwoman Tri


• Start training again. Properly


• Lose Belgian-beer and frites and Danish pastry pudge once and for all


• Find a home (..yup, kinda a priority)


• Think about goals for 2010 race season


• Email coach


• Get every piece of work clothing dry cleaned


• Get hair cut, lashes dyed and brows shaped


• Confirm start time with new employer


• Plan sister's hen's night


• Hit up the Whakarewarewa trails


• Celebrate 28th birthday (..really, this is on Phil's to do list!)


• Find a home (did I say that already??)


• Upload Europe, Parts III, IV and V to facebook
  
• Arrange flights for stepfather's birthday

...and then...

• catch up on blog(s)

See you soon, dudes!

Hot Potato's Grand Adventures

Thursday, December 24, 2009
Hot Potato's Grand Adventures
After Saturday's half ironman, we spent a cruisy morning in Rotovegas, eating curry for morning tea (as you do...) and picnicking with Jenn and Damian at Redwoods(if you thought it was windy at Tikitapu on Saturday, you should have seen Sunday!!!)

Then we drove to Cambridge, where we unpacked the tri-stuff from the car, before driving back up to Auckland, for a romantic, goodbye Jaffa-land, dinner at Non Solo Pizza in Parnell. On Monday I spent the morning at work, tidying the office and sorting 5 years' worth of sent emails, while Phil started packing, and ran some errands. Then we packed up our whole apartment into the back of the station wagon (..it was furnished, so very little furniture), cleaned it al out, and drove back to Cambridge on Tuesday morning, running a few painful pre-Xmas and pre-travel errands on the way. We unloaded the car at Phil's (patient) parents' place, packed up his travelling suitcase, and drove back to Auckland, all the while trying to sort things out with the landlord and carpet cleaners. We arrived in the early evening, had drinks and dinner with Phil's sister, then spent a final, sheetless night in the apartment, before leaving for good at 6:30 on Wednesday morning.

Now we're 2 days into 5 weeks of travel, sitting in Incheon Airport (Seoul), enjoying yet another random Cornfield Christmas. From here, it's London, Bled, Ljubljana, Munich, Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Barcelona, and London again! So posting, and training, will be sporadic, but I'l see you again in 2010 for volume three, Hotpotato: Taking on The Tron.


Merry Christmas, and happy training!

Race Report: Rotorua Half Ironman, and my second attempt at sub-6

Warning: Long. Detailed. No jokes or pictures.


This year's Rotorua Half Ironman was success in every way that matters- if not so much in terms of time.

We arrived in Rotorua on Friday afternoon, having spent the morning getting chores done in Auckland and Cambridge, and once again checked ourselves into an ensuite log cabin at the Rotorua Thermal holiday park. I absolutely adore it here, and am forever grateful to Kathy and Paul for recommending it for our pre-race stay last year! Once again, we had a great swim in the lake which was definitely a little colder than last time, but not too cold (and certainly not as head-tighteningly, penetratingly chilly as the Contact race in late November), a quick ride on the, once again, road kill littered run course (which I will be riding in my women's tri next year- all 9.5 k of it!!!), then headed to registration.

It was pretty windy, and I remarked to Phil as we loaded our bikes back onto the roof (read: Phil loaded the bikes, and I pretended to be useful by passing him cloths and taking the wheels off him) that "at least in Rotorua the wind doesn't usually pick up until later in the day".

Big mistake.

Once again, Jenn and Damian drove up (/over) from New Plymouth to cheer and sherpa, so we enjoyed a very brief "Christmas" with them before heading to the hot pools (some of the best Holiday Park pools ever), and settling back to drink tea and eat Jenn's fantastic homemade blondies (basically like a chocolate chip cookie merged with a brownie- I ask you, what could be better??) I slept MUCH better than I did last year (still a little restless, but without that maddening "nervous. can't sleep. stressed out." feeling), but, once again, 3:30am came too damn quickly. It was chilly at the campground, but in that way that 3:30am tends to be, especially in the central North Island! We ate our porridge (with dates, cinnamon, LSA and brown sugar) sloooowly and about 4:30 headed back to the cabin to get dressed and head to the race site.

It was FREEZING. My normally cosy "Arthurs Half" 2XU jacket was no match for the bitter breeze that was whipping around Lake Tikitapu and I regretted saying to Phil the previous day "it's so much easier packing for a triathlon in summer- none of this effing about with polys and gloves and cosy socks." Tell you one thing- I'd have given my right arm for beanie and a pair of cosy socks yesterday morning (well- maybe something else, the right arm comes in kinda handy for swimming, and holding my body on the bike!) The area was pretty quiet when we arrived, and it felt like we had heaps of time, but once we'd fiddled about with tyres, including a last minute rear wheel tube change after Phil realised it was one of the crappy ones with a short nozzle, so neither my pit-stop nor my CO2 gun would work with it. Then, after we'd put the bike on the rack, Damian THANKFULLY realised that we'd put the wheel on too tight and it wasn't spinning. Thank you FBIL- I'd have lost it if I'd discovered that in T1!!

I remarked to Damian and Jenn that it might not be such a day for PBs after all. The wind was stirring the lake up, and definitely felt like it would get in the way on the bike, especially with a 10m draft zone! But to be honest, I didn't really believe it would be a problem, especially given the gains I've made on the bike this year. Then, the race director said at briefing we'd have a lovely tail wind bringing us back on the bike. In hindsight, I wonder if my "piss-taking sensor" skills were on the blink??

Swim- 39:49
It's a deep water start, and the men start 5 minutes before the women. It was a bit messy this year, probably because people resisted taking off their top layers for as long as possible, and when the whistle went, there was a pause before a big chunk of the field left, and still lots of stragglers running in from the beach. I think the one good thing about being a female triathlete is that it's much harder to miss your swim start!

It was really hard to figure out where the start line was meant to be, impossible to hear the anouncer over the wind and the choppy lake, and absolutely impossible to see the first buoy- 900m from the start! I have finally started racing in contacts this year, but the buoys on this swim course were easier to see when I was swimming blind!!

Getting out to the 900m buoy wasn't too bad. It was a bit messy at times, and hard to sight, but it was also just in a fairly straight line from where we started, so not too hard to go by feel. I could tell I wasn't swimming fast, but I was passing people, and catching drafts off the occasional pair of feet. Made it out there in around 17:00, which is a bit av, but what I expected given how it felt. The way back? a whole nother story. I had no freakin idea where the second buoy was, and it seemed like no-one else did either! Swim hats everywhere! I also started cursing Hooksie's policy of "byo swim cap" (fundamentally, I am a BIG supporter of this one; I have enough shitty latex caps as it is)- I wanted to know whether I was passing or drafting off women (good thing) or very slow men (bad thing)! I muddled through as best I could, but I suspect a Kate tracking GPS would be all over the show! The waves were also dragging us around in strange ways, and people would go from my left to my right to my left again within a matter of minutes. Finally, I caught site of the buoy from a couple of hundred metres away. It was great to have something to aim for again! Rounded the second buoy, and pushed the final 200m to the third buoy (although, I unfortunately swam over a boat ramp in the process. Ow.) I emerged from the water at 39:18, dazed and frustrated, but not too unhappy with the swim, and crossed the swim timing mat in 39:58, official time 39:49.

Reluctant brickbats to Hooksie and co for the inadequate buoys. I don't know what went wrong, but it was an absolute shocker. Those wee yellow buoys are fine when they're 200m apart, but not when there's 900m between buoys, especially when they're on a diagonal.

T1 was uneventful, and not too slow. Jenn and Damian cheered us up the beach with homemade signs, which was AWESOME. I had a brief chat to some of the dudes around me (I love this race, because there are DUDES around me- such a nice change from the hyper-competitive olympic distance events!), got my helmet, shoes and Garmin on, and raced out to the mount line, where I was promptly blocked by some muppet who didn't bother to think before he stopped to get on.

Bike- 3:24
I felt much more hardcore than last year, with aero bars and Mike's old aero helmet (which has really done the rounds now!). Oh- and the fact that I had two drink bottles filled with replace on my bike, instead of a big uncool Camelbak. It's the little things ;) I felt like a poser in the aero helmet, but I figured it would encourage me to spend more time in the aero position, so I would just have to handle the jandal. In terms of data, I eventually decided not to mount the Garmin on the handlebars, and instead to ride by feel, with the occasional look at the wrist to check average pace, HR and cadence. I must admit, I quite like riding without too much data- it definitely helped me in the Contact race, although if I'd had readily accessible cadence info in Tinman, maybe my average wouldn't have been 99!

I passed a couple of dudes up Tarawera on the way out, but kept it pretty easy, and made sure I started drinking pretty much straight away. Of course, pretty much everyone passed me back on the descent- I'm quite happy to do it at 65-70kph, thankyouverymuch! The ride out to the turn off was great. Good roads. Good aero position. Keeping up the drinking. Munching on mini bagels with PB. I was averaging a little over 31km/h, but keeping it easy, as I knew the return leg would be a b*tch, even with the promised tail winds!

Daryl Bloomfield, who organises the (I must add, AWESOME) Scorching series in Wellington passed me either just before or just after the turn off to Whakatane. Last year, he passed me early in the bike, and I didn't catch him until the gun club. He's a tall, well-built dude, and can really nail the flats and downhills, but that size is not really an asset for a hard, hilly, run. This year, I decided to stick with him. I passed him on the first wee climb (up Hell's Gate on the way out), and didn't see him again for a little while, but he can't ever have been too far behind, as he caught me again sometime a few minutes later.

I had decided to try out the bottle stop this year, so ditched my "She Triwoman" bottle just before the 30k mark (damn thing deserved to be ditched, as that was the single most disappointing and utterly unprofessional triathlon experience I have ever had... ) Then I slowed to grab a water from the first little dude I saw. And failed. Then slowed more. But chickened out at the last minute. I almost always keep my left hand on my bike, except when indicating, and, even then, taking it off still makes me nervous. Something to work on- maybe I should practice left hand drinking next year. Eventually I decided I'd have to actually stop, so I slowed down and unclipped at the next water bottle swapper. Embarrassing!!! Bouquet to the bottle stop people (and to all the other fabulicious 'Vegas volunteer crew members), again- those dudes are awesome.

Daryl passed me on the first wee hill after the bottle swap (I had no momentum at all) at the same time as some winner decided to pass me on the left. Dbag- there was no need for lefthand passing in this race (in Tinman it was hard to avoid), and although I was probably being a little annoying (drinking, shifting, sorting myself out), a little patience doesn't go amiss. Being sandwiched between two bikes is not cool at all!

I started mentally calculating when I should expect to see the top guys. They'd have had a good 20 minutes on me out of the swim, and they'd have been nailing it along the flat and rolling hills out to the turn off. I figured it would be between my 30 and my 35. At 32.7km, I saw the first dude, but didn't see the second dude for another k! Then I saw the first chick. Phil had some lofty goal of beating the ladies (optimistic, but not too crazy, actually, given his goals and the top female times from last year), but when I saw first lady within the top 10-20 dudes (I think..) I knew she'd be caning him (...which she was). I could tell at this point that the return jouney might not be as fun as I'd thought- the top guys certainly looked like they were working into the wind. That made me up the effort a wee bit, to try to buy some time. I made sure I stayed aero most of the time after seeing the first 20 or so guys. I knew he wouldn't be up there, but I wasn't risking having him catching me upright! (he doesn't believe I spent any time at all in the aero bars at Tinman, but I promise I did!) I saw him in about the same place I saw him last time (it was my 39.5k), but I knew we were both doing better.

I reached the turnaround in 1:31, and started the return journey full of optimism. Basically, I was imagining myself texting everyone after the race to tell them about my sub6 finish and half-hour pb. Hah!

Of course, I hit the headwinds before too long, and the long battle started. Hell's Gate became something to look forward to, as it would signal a break from the wind, and a new stage of the course, but it was still a good 20k away. I had a bit of a mental shut down as I rode around the lakes on the way towards the next landmarks, the 60k bottle stop and the Hell's Gate climb. I found myself drifting into random day dreams about next year, when I remembered that instead of thinking about awesome things, it was probably a good time to be doing some awesome things, so I put pedal to metal and tried to pick up the pace a bit. To no avail.

Hell's Gate hurt much less than it did last year, but it still hurt. I would love to say it's because I'm fitter and awesomer, but I suspect it's at least partly attributable to my 25. And to think I wasn't sure I wanted it! I passed four people on the way up, including Daryl, who by this time had certainly recognised the friendly competition we had going, and managed to up the gears for the descent comparatively quickly after I crested it (ps- man, that hill has one long crest!)

Sub 3 was long since out of reach, but I wanted to finish the "Hell's Gate to bottom of Tarawera" leg at an average of 30km/h, to salvage some sort of respectable time. Again- hah! I was freakin dreaming! But I did manage to stick near my triplets, Jim, Dave and Daryl, who were all wearing this year's jersey with dark shorts. Daryl had quite an edge on me between Hell's Gate and the turn-off, but he was still dimly in sight, and I knew I just had to pick off Jim and Dave (it's pretty sad when the people you're picking off are old, paunchy dudes, but at least this year they were younger and less paunchy, and at least it was me doing the picking off, not vice versa!) I leapfrogged with Jim for a while- pretty intensely. It was a lot of passing and passing back, and I suspect we were both getting on each other's nerves, but I think it meant we caught Dave, and then Daryl more quickly.

Although the winds were all kinds of nasty- not strong by Welly standards, but soul-sappingly consistent- I didn't feel the intense fade last year, and I still had knees to ride with after Hell's Gate. I was being passed, but keeping up with my buddies, and passing the odd person (including the woman on the HYBRID, who seriously rocked that ride!!!!) meant I was nowhere near as demoralised as last year, even as I watched my shameful last year's time become reality again. In my worst nightmares about the race, I never imagined that happening! The Lynmore turn-off arrived much quicker than last year (although it took even longer to get there), and I hoofed it up there, behind Jim and Daryl, and a few other ride buddies.

Tarawera Road was once again a complete sufferfest, but nothing like the pain it was last year. I span past Jim, and then Daryl, and laughed when Jim asked me what cogs I had that he didn't- a compact with a granny 25 on the back comes in handy sometimes! Cruising past Daryl seemed to spur him on, which spurred me on, and we battled up the hill, and along the rest of the road back to T2.

I lost my bike in T2, but luckily had half iron sherpas Jenn and Damian yelling at me, so I found it after not too much dazed circling! As I ran out, I noticed another Wellington legend who featured significantly in my race last year, Ann Bondy. Last year, I raced against Ann (who is decades older than me, and an absolute inspiration) in quite a few events, although I'm sure she wouldn't have known it. Basically, I beat her on the swim, she catches me on the bike, and wipes the floor with me, and I spend the run hunting her down. Last year, she caught me on the flat not far from the turn off on the way back, and although I caught her on the run, eventually, she only finished a couple of minutes behind me. Having Ann and Daryl there helped me to accept that this year's 3:24 was actually a vast improvement on last year's, and that I had to head onto the run feeling like a champ, not a dismal failure.

Time: 3:24
Average speed: 26.1 km/h
Average cadence: 86 or so (91 for the first half.. a shocking 81 for the second half!)
Average heart rate: 164
Top speed: 62km/h (disappointingly chickenshit down Tarawera)


Run- 2:06
After Arthur's Half, I had high hopes of running a sub-2:00 half off the bike this year, but I knew that with all the offroad time, the heat, and the hills, that taking 13 minutes off last year's time was going to be a big ask, even with improved bike fitness and, y'know, actually having knees this year! So I'd settled on a goal of around 2:06, which is around 6:00/k. As I started the run, I felt like this was doable, but a minute into it, when I hit the first wee climb on the bush track I started to doubt it! I got passed by a few teamsters, and passed a couple of people in the bush, but it was a pretty lonely 3km/20 minutes!

Emerging from the bush was a bit of a double-edged sword. It was great to get off the trails, to have some company (read: targets) again, and to see the rest of the race going by, but it was stonking hot! Definitely hotter than last year, right from the get go. I was living from water station to water station, and by the end was getting two cups, drinking one slooowly, and tipping the other over my head.

I kept myself sane by pressing the lap button at particular landmarks, or, in some cases, just randomly. That way, the 6:15 for the first go at the bush track was a distant memory for the 4:52/km cruise down the road from the lookout, and up most of the way to the gun club turn off! The gun club section is horrible, but also a very good section for a shite cyclist/decent enough runner like me, because on the way out, you basically get to see everyone who might remotely be in your "passing zone", and on the way back, you get to see just how far back all those people you left in T2 or passed in the early stages are!

It was good to see Mike running back along the gun club road, a good distance ahead of me, but he wasn't feeling great. I didn't realise just how shite he was feeling until much later though. I didn't really think I could catch him, so focussed on picking off the ladies in front of me, most of whom were team runners after the gun club turnaround cone. I saw Mike again coming through the buried village, and this time he said "you'll pass me for sure". I still didn't think I had a hope in Hades (...what it felt like out on the run...), until I got to the lookout, with two of my team cyclist-runner pals, and saw that I was less than 700m behind him (it had been about 350m since I'd seen him, and I guessed that I was travelling faster).

The "lookout back to beach" stretch felt long, as usual, especially once I got to the bush-lookout area, where we started to mingle with speedies again. I was feeling pretty rubbish, but moving faster than almost everyone else helped me to ignore the heat, and the pain, and to keep moving. There were people walking everywhere, and a couple of middle aged men called out as I went past "oh no, I'm being passed by another young woman, do you have any idea what that does to my ego???" I wanted to reply "dude- if yo' gonna walk, yo' gonna be passed!"

I got passed (!) by a mega fit looking, quite a lot older than me, lady at the drinks station, and actually thought she was on her second loop, but she gave me someone to try to hold onto as we neared the beach again. Then I saw Mike in the distance. I wanted to stop and crawl or walk or cry, but I told myself I couldn't walk a step until I passed Mike-I still didn't think it would happen, so I was really just saying to myself "don't walk!"

As we approached the beach, my right inner thigh (just above my knee) cramped horribly, and I let out a wee yelp. I imagined heading straight into the finish without doing the godawful second loop, but soon realised I'd be explaining a 1:20-something half-M off a 3:24 bike. Uhhh- not likely!! So I sucked it up, and finally edged past Mike near the toilets.

Jenn, Damian and Phil were cheering as I ran past. I rolled my eyes and gave them a big double thumbs down! Phil looked totally chillaxed, and I wondered if he had met his goal of going sub5? The finish clock read 5:45, which was 5:40-lady time, so I knew sub 6, and sub 6:10 were out of the question- I've never managed to run the loop track in under 30 (although I'm confident I could if I ran it straight), especially not the hard way (anticlockwise). I hit the lap button again, and headed back in.

The second loop in the bush was even harder, but luckily there were still people to pass- both people racing with me who were fading and walking, and people who were heading out for their first loop. Poor bastards! There were also lots of spectators, and unsuspecting victims out for their Saturday walks, all of whom were great with the cheers and claps, and thankfully short on the patronising encouragement! Earlier, I'd been a box of fluffy ducks- yarning with volunteers and my fellow gorillas, calling out effusive thanks to the cheering spectators, but by this stage, all I could muster was a pathetic thumbs up. My thigh kept twinging for the first couple of ks, and my achilles (which had also niggled a little on the bike) started threatening to misbehave. I'd missed the finish/transition area drink stop, and could feel it. I ended up stopping to walk up a longish, but not that steep, hill, for ten, then twenty, then fifty paces, before I slapped my CG and pushed back into a gammy run. My pace was abysmally, embarrassingly slow, but I soon overtook my new friend (who had only been on her first lap before), and my old friend, beige contact t-shirt dude. We stayed together for awhile, but they both passed me back before we'd left the bush, which seemed to go on forever. It feels so much longer anticlockwise!

Even though I didn't have much left, I walked for another drink and splash at the final aid station, and started a new lap for the 2-odd ks back to the finish. I was pretty sure I had a solid PB sewn up, and that I'd be seeing an improved run time, but it was hard to tell, with limited and muddled Garmin data. My pace for the last "leg" was 5:32/km, and I crossed the finish mat at 6:21 race time, 6:16 lady-time, for a 2:06 half marathon, and a ten minute PB.

I accepted my medal (and some teasing! I was famous for all of ten seconds) from Hooksie, accepted a warm Export Gold from a volunteer, and accepted a hug from my Phil. As soon as Phil told me about his times, and his experience on the bike, I knew I was right, and that I could take this 10-minute PB as something much more. One day I will master this race, and I am such a masochist that I will be back for more until I do!

5 days!

I can't believe there's just 5 days to go.

It seems like forever ago that I moved up here, started training with Paul's plans, found myself a good local running route, and tackled the Waitakeres (...and the Auckland traffic) by myself for the first time...

Since then, I've:

• done nearly 300 hours of training (..so that's where my bonus went....)
  
• burned 180,000 calories, an average of 714 per day (this is according to buckeye.. which lies)
  
• completed 267 workouts, at an average of 1.06 sessions per day
  
• improved my average aerobic run speed from around 6:20/km in April to around 5:50/km now
  
• learned to ride aero!
  
• swum the equivalent of the Lake Taupo Challenge
  
• covered the length of New Zealand by bike, and made it back up to Christchurch on the (virtual) return trip
  
• lost 2.5-3 or so kilos
  
• run three half marathons, done two standard distance triathlons, 3 open water swims, one fun ride, one offroad starlight run, and one duathlon
  

I'm pretty stoked with how this year has been, with fun and fantastic training, and solid, if not spectacular, race performances, and we had a bloody brilliant weekend to round off our "real" training.

I rode well on both Saturday and Sunday, and Phil even commented on how much better I was keeping up with him on the way out to Titirangi yesterday. I averaged 5:00/ks off the bike on Saturday, even including our cooldown (I'll be honest, it was HARD). We had an uncomfortable but OK open water swim on Saturday, and a stunning wetsuited pool swim in the Parnell Baths on Sunday.

I'm ready, Rotorua. Bring it.

Tinman Race Report: Solid, but unexceptional

First, go read Coach Paul's post about pushing yourself on his new blog, because it's good and it just rings So True. Then come back and read my race report.

...

I did a bit of thinking and talking about goals and so on leading up to Tinman. I did a bit of maths, figured out that 2:40 was about the best I could do (leaving a little for transitions), so decided 2:50 sounded about right. Then, after a fun brick workout on Wednesday (yes, getting progressively faster off the bike at 6:45 on a humid weekday morning is my idea of fun), I decided I could go sub:50 on the run. Then, as we discussed the race on Saturday afternoon, I decided I would like to at least get out on the run before the winner finished!

I achieved two out of those three goals, had a few disappointments, and learned a LOT about my strengths and weaknesses. All in all, the very model of a training race!

Swim:
"Deep" water start; 2 laps, with a run around a gantry on the beach.
The water at Pilot Bay was calm but chilly. The shallows, where I'd warmed up with Phil, were pleasant enough, but once we were all up to our shoulders, waiting for the gun to go, it was a bit shivery! Still- nothing like that head splitting, ear hurting cold a couple of weeks ago in Rotorua.

The start was relaxed, but within 100m or so, I found myself sucked into the washing machine. It wasn't the biggest swim start I've done, though I'm sure it was close, but it was by far the most aggressive. It wasn't just your garden variety kicking, bumping and swimming over; there was a bit of extra grabbing, pulling and thumping thrown in too! My shoulders were aching, I felt pretty gammy, and I messed up a little bit of navigation during the first lap, butI was passing yellow capped men (fortunately none of them my husband) left, right and centre, which was nice for a change! However, I knew I hadn't swum well, so when I saw that the swim clock read 26:51 (24:51 in lady time), I knew that it was a short, rather than an awesome, swim!

I saw Kathy getting herself sorted in T1 as I ran to my bike, and correctly concluded that I'd be passing her on the run. If I'd beaten her onto the bike course, I like to think we could have played some leapfrog together, and that having her in sight would have kept me honest!

Bike:
Two laps of a slightly long 20k course (10k out and back). Flat and fast.
My goal was to come in at over 30km/h. The plan for achieving that was getting into a big gear as quickly as possible, and hammering for dear life. I was a bit nervous about the size of the race and of being pinged for accidental "drafting"!

The bike went well, but I found it very difficult to push hard, partly, I think because of the voice inside my head saying that 30 km/h was "enough". My legs were spinning right round (like a record), but every time I upped the gear, they protested. My average cadence for the ride was 99 rpm, which is MUCH higher than I wanted it to be. I have the leg strength to push a bigger, harder gear, and I nail my legs on hills all the time, so I really need to focus on being able to really push it during flat races.

The other trouble I had on the bike was trying not to fall foul of the 7m rule, while surrounded by people who had NO sense of tri-etiquette whatsoever, and who were insistent on trampling the 7m rule whenever they could. Having people pass me in groups of 4 or 5, then take up the whole side of the road making it impossible to pass back was a pain in the nuts, especially trying to hang 7m back while the cheaters surged ahead. Number 348, in particular, deserves a brickbat. We leap frogged for awhile in a friendly sort of way, until she passed me, then proceeded to suck the wheel of the woman ahead of her for a few minutes, sitting just slightly to the right making it impossible to get past. When I did decide to go for it, I got told off by an old dude in fluoro gear for not being on the left!

I finished the bike at an average pace, by the Garmin, of 30.3km/h, but a disappointing split time of 1:22:50 (1:23:05 is the official time). I felt like I could do it again! My average HR for the ride was 171, which shows I was putting a decent effort in, but boy-oh-boy, those 3 minutes are falling next year!

Run:
Being a (comparatively) good runner is awesome. Sure- I come out of the swim to an empty bike rack, and come back from the bike to a full one, but I then get to spend the next 10km running everyone down.

I decided to use my Wednesday workout to my advantage, and to re-set my lap every 5 minutes or so, and focus on lap pace only. The workout taught me that sometimes I slow down because I'm relaxed or "bored", not really because I'm tired. Pushing hard for 5 minutes, and counting down til the next lap, then pushing harder shows just how hard you can work if you make it happen.

The strategy worked OK until I got to the Mount base track. My lap paces were a little uppy downy, but I was keeping them in the high 4:00s and low 5:00s. I had a bit of an "a-ha" moment where I realised that when I felt like I was sore and slow, it was actually because I was working hard, and when I felt "strong", I was actually slowing!

I really enjoyed being in a big field, and passed people pretty much non-stop, and as far as I am aware, only got passed by one lady. Only one of my passees (a dude) passed me back, and I think he was in a team, so massive props to me! Unfortunately, the problem with being an OK runner and a shite cyclist is that everyone I passed was someone I should have passed, so it wasn't enough to really keep me honest.

...Anyway, like I said, I was going well until I got to the Mount. I don't have my splits here, and I'm not sure quite where the Mount is in the greater scheme of things, but I was on pace for sub 50 for the run when I hit the track, though it would have been tight! As soon as I hit the undulating, gravel track, I watched my lap pace slow to a 5:30/km. Ouch! I changed my garmin display to HR. I don't normally do this in races, because I have a tendency to think "OK, it's 172, that's good enough", but this time I thought I could motivate myself to push my HR higher, rather than being glum about the slowing pace. There were a few Sunday strollers to dodge, and still plenty of people to pass, which was lucky. I think I'd have definitely slowed more if the track had been deserted. The views were absolutely stunning, but every time I rounded a corner, I could tell there was still a fair bit of Mount to go!

My one pass-back passed me as we came off the track, and I re-set my watch as I was nearly there. I got a real buzz from the spectators and drink stop ladies as I pushed towards the finish line, but I couldn't quite catch the guy who'd passed me. I crossed the finish line at 2:46:00 (2:48:00 on the clock) for a run time of 53:17, and a final run split (just under 1km) of 4:42, which I have to say is not too bad for a hot, undulating, and slightly long, run off the bike!

Lessons:

• the fitness is there- well, getting there!
  
• my endurance has definitely improved, so I can afford to go a little nuts!
  
• flat should not mean "easy"- it should mean "different hard"
  
• I need to be more confident using bigger gears
  
• my race swimming still really sucks
  
• I need to stop being limited by "what I'm capable of". In my early running days, I exceeded expectations, and pushed hard. Now, I set realistic goals, and either hit them bang on, or just miss them. I need a happy medium
  

Bring on Rotorua!

December!

December is going to be a MASSIVE month in the Hotpotato Household.

We're counting down to the Rotorua Half Ironman on the 19th, but before we get there, we've got Tinman this weekend, a plethora of holiday parties and, on the 17th, my last day at the job I've had for the past five years!

Then after the Half, it's back up to Auckland to pack my wee apartment up, shift it all down to Phil's parents' place in Cambridge, then turn around and go back to Auckland to take off for our 5-week European adventure!

After 5 weeks of travelling, and freezing ourselves in Seoul, Slovenia, Belgium, the Netherlands, England, Germany, Denmark and Spain, it's back to the 'tron, where I'll be house-hunting for a week, before starting work on the 8th of February (...the day after my 28th birthday), then kicking off the rest of the NZ tri-season with TriWoman races in Karapiro and (with my sister) Rotovegas.

Phew! I'm tired just thinking about it!