Hiatus

Apologies for the break from blogging and commenting. The internet at home is bung, and I cannot access blogger at work, except standing up in the kitchen. Where I am now.

Some stuff:
- Swim: Good. Swam 10k last week, including a very relaxed 1k in about 20 mins. We've joined a training squad. First official session tonight, but last week's trial session was great and we've both got some good pointers.
- Bike: Getting there. New pedals. New fit. New helmet, so I look less like a toadstool. Went for a shortish flat ride with P yesterday and could feel the difference. Before long I'll be hitting Makara with the rest of them!
- Run: A bit of a mess. Sore knee, then sore heel, then sick. Now ready to ease myself back into it, before we head away for ten sweaty days in Thailand. Luckily, my run is fine, but I'd like to make it better than fine, to have a better chance of achieving my secret goal of a sub-2 half at Rotorua.

DNF, DNF and D(I)F

Saturday: Darn Near Frozen!
Woke bright an early (nawt) for this year's mid year swim, the start of a new tradition. If you go here, you can see my brown (swimsuited) belly poking out, and my hands adjusting my goggles. We turned up at 9, but for various reasons my event didn't start til 10. Boy it was cold- I almost couldn't wait to dive into the freezing, choppy, grey water. I did the "medium" event, a wetsuitless 100m or so journey out to the first buoy and back.
It was amazing in the water- cold, but I've been in worse (you can't keep me out of rivers...) and incredibly freeing. I was beaming as I came out and got my mulled wine (mmm!) but reality soon kicked in, and I realised I couldn't feel my feet.


Sunday morning: Did Not Finish
It was a weekend of short "races". Today I was Just Not in the Mood. Was almost relieved when I saw P standing on the sideline, one mile into my 10k race. Not really "relieved", but as neither of us had really expected the dodgy knee to hold up, I wasn't surprised, and he wasn't devastated. But he was sad enough that I was very glad I decided to turn back, and walk back in the rain to the start line. Am feeling a bit of a dork, as although I stopped for "nice" reasons, I know inside I wasn't in the mood. BUT, am planning a kickass race for New Plymouth in October. I'm going to say sub 1:45 now, and I'm going to stick to it. I WILL get my mojo back.

Watched the kids doing their magic mile (*cluck cluck*), debated whether or not we would take a finisher's pack (there was a TOWEL, I love race towels!), then headed back to the course to watch Ed run a smoking 6-minute PB.

Later we joined E and A for brunch at the Parade. Free potato wedges were a welcome but undeserved treat :-)

Sunday afternoon: DAY-amn I'm Fast!
The quest for sub 1:40 continued today. I had something to prove, and just needed a pool to prove it in. Unfortunately, Huia was closed for waterpolo (2 hours early GRRRR!) and Naenae had "three" lanes available (more like one lane, next to a whole bunch of nippers flinging water polo balls around). Hit my first warm up 100 pretty hard (I often do... It's something that works for me) and hit 1:41 (again!) Then a large backstroker joined our lane, so I kept on with the programme sheet I'd picked up (4x50, 4x75, 4x100...). Then a new lane opened up, so I thought I'd sneak in a cheeky 100 before cool down. I pushed hard, felt great, and got back. 1:41. Now, I'm very happy to see 1:41 on a semi-regular basis (it used to be 1:43... in fact, it used to be 1:58), but could I Not Just Take Two DAMN seconds off??

P had something to prove too, so after doing his 800m straight set, he kept going. For another 700m. By far his longest straight swim to date. And he did it in a pretty respectable time too- 34ish minutes or so. Just think how good he'll be in December, avec wetsuit... I moaned that I couldn't break 1:40, and he told me to just do one more 100. He'd time.

Right- this is IT, Mr 1:40. You're going dooown.
Pushed off, and knew it was going to hurt.
Length 2 and my feet were tingling.
Coming to the turnaround, and slightly distracted by P's dangly legs.
Slowing down to 75.
One last push off.
Back, and raise my head hopefully.

1:34:97. But he thinks he got a bit too excited and stopped too soon, so I'm calling it 1:36, which seems fair.

Woot!

We're both feeling amped about swimming at the mo, and hoping to get back to Masters when we move back into town.

Oh, and I got new pedals (double-sided) and a new helmet (makes me look less like a toadstool...) today, so I'm getting close to being amped about riding. Closeish...

Ugh

Today's run was a struggle right from the get go. I was rudely awoken by a European football fan getting up to watch his team kick some serious butt, and fell back into a surprisingly deep sleep. When I woke up I felt off. Weak and just a bit funny. I figured food would help, and it did a bit. Mucked around until P got back from the pub (about 9am) and then dragged my(pleasantly slim seeming) self out the door.

I ran the Hutt river trail from the Esplanade Trail. I fartlekked a bit, and it's pretty easy to tell from my splits where the road became trail, and where the smooth trail became muddy and rough. My fartleks were around 7:40 pace on the nice bits, and ranged from 8:06 to 8:39 on the rough bits. Overall, I ended up covering 6.77 miles in 1:01, for 9:07 pace. Not terrible (not great, compared to my long run at 9:19 and my hilly run at 9:21....), but it wasn't much fun, and I hope I'm feeling speedier next week.

The pool was a little better. I've decided to set myself a goal of finally getting 100 in under 1:40. Today I got a bit closer, with 2/2 100s at 1:41.

Anyway, not much to say. Will watch the ABs kicking some pommie arse ;-) (Hi Mike!)

Change of plans

Sometimes other things are more important than races
Sometimes, when it's been all about you for the past 2 1/2 years, it's time to give someone else a turn.
Sometimes, when your super speedy fiance is about to run his first half marathon, you realise you'd rather be wrapping him in a giant great hug at the end then struggling around the Bays into a head wind for another twenty minutes.
Sometimes, after you've changed your entry to the 10k (which should have you back in plenty of time), you happen upon the perfect replacement race.

So- I'm foregoing the Harbour Capital Half for another bite at the 10k (remember last year?). And then, in October, I'm heading to New Plymouth to hang with my sister and run a half marathon.

I'm not shooting for sub-48 this time round, but am hoping for a sub-50. For those of you who've entered the guess my time competition, thanks for your optimism. Either I can put all guesses into a predictor and set an equivalent goal based on those, or you can guess again.

In the immortal words of Stephanie ("Step on Me") Tanner...

As we pulled our bored, sweaty and aching bodies off the trainers after ninety very very long minutes, made bearable only by the sweet vowels of Julie Andrews, we looked outside, only to see that the gale force winds that had battered the house all night and whipped up the harbour all morning, had eased, leaving a calm (if ice cold), stunning winter Wellington morning waiting for lazier (or smarter) cyclists to embrace it.

How rude!

PS- longest "sentence" ever??

A "test", and a typical Wellington run

Today I planned a "well-paced" 20km with A, to help with some goal setting for the half next week. I didn't plan a windy Welly day, though I guess I should have. And, hey- that's what I'm likely to get in a fortnight's time, so it's good to be prepared :)

We set a good brisk pace around the waterfront. I'm changing the Garmin to give average pace, as it's not really accurate enough at a given point. It was quite disappointing to see 8:30ish pace all the way round, but to finish the first 10k at more like 8:55 pace! (though P was pleasantly surprised to finish his 10k time trial in 42:30, having seen very few paces under 4:20 during the run)

Then it was time to head back and brave the winds. We lost a lot of time, but I'm pleased that I kept chatting and my HR stayed about the same.

All in up, it was just under 20km in 1:55, for an average pace of 9:19/mi. Not the greatest time, but I'm feeling reasonably confident about the race (knock wood). Soooo... set my goal. Bet my time. I'll think of a present for the winner!

It's HEEEEEEre!

Obviously my quiet whinge the other day kicked someone into gear, and my Garmin 405 arrived on Thursday. Charged it during the day, then test drove it on a run with P after work. And, what can I say... I's in looove!

The run was broken up by soe 3 minute efforts, and I was pleased to have decent lap data for a change. And also pleased to see my pace down in the high 6s and low 7s a fair bit on the efforts.

Let's see how much I like Garmin on today's long run. I'm doing a well-paced 12-miler with A to see how I fare off the trails.

Hotpotato highlights

Nothing worthy of a whole post, but here's what's doin':

- loving my team on Buckeye. You guys make me want to train. Plus, unlike blogger, I can update my workouts at work. Bonus.

- watching the long slow hill work pay off, as I see a glimmer of the long departed speedster edging back in

- wondering where oh where has my GARMIN gone?? Please Garmin, get here already!

- looking forward to SATC TOMORROW

- cursing ratbag Nike+ (see above, re: Garmin)

- giving up sugar (for now, "sweet foods", then gradually taking other stuff out- but what shall I put on my porridge?) for two months to nip my borderline dependency in the butt. And if I should happen to say tata to some tum flab too, I shan't be complaining..

- thinking about Harbour Capital half- to set a goal, or not to?

- slightly over my addiction to word twist

- slacking off while P rides (!!!)

- salivating over tuna pasta and pinot (seriously, the perfect meal. perfect I tells ya)

Two Peaks

Today P and I ran Scottish Harriers' Three Peaks challenge. I've been meaning to do some/one of these for the past three years, but this was the first time I've actually done it.

The gist of the event is that you start from the clubhouse in Mt Cook sometime between 8 and 9, choose a route that takes in one, two or three of the peaks for the day in the order of your choice. There are three events over the season, and the winners are those with the fastest times over all nine peaks.

Today's run took in the wind turbine (at about 450m elevation, I think); Johnson's Hill in Karori (300m?) and Makara Peak (400m). P, K and I decided to do the wind turbine and Johnson's and to skip Makara. However, looking over the Skyline walkway from the top of Johnson's Hill, Makara seemed a lot more fun than heading straight up the (aptly named) Gutbuster trail to the turbine. It's further, and includes a lot of climbing, but isn't quite as, well, vertical as the trip to the turbine. So, out to Makara around the back of Karori for us. It was a good run, a great piece of trail. I felt great up the hill to Makara Peak, and had a good time "spinning" my legs out on the downhill. Up through Karori was hard- we were all fading a little and looking forward to finishing.

We were out for 2:45 all up, and covered about 22(HARD)km. A great run and I'm looking forward to the next one!

A Hard Day's Bike

I rode on the trainer tonight. First because, as we all know, I'm a big buckKAWK chicken and secondly because it was night and I have no lights.

Fortunately, I had company. Four loveable mop top Scouser lads (for the first half hour or so), and four long-haired weirdos, one barefoot, with fading Liverpudlian accents (for the second bit).

Since seeing Across the Universe for the second time (blush) on Saturday, I've been re-connecting with my neglected inner Beatles fan and re-collecting my long lost library of albums. Tonight I started with A Hard Days Night and moved onto Abbey Road. I found that the music helped me to enjoy the ride much more than a DVD does. I focussed on my riding, and incorporated the music into the ride, but I wasn't watch checking or waiting for it to be over anywhere near as much as usual.

The progression from early 60s rock'n'roll/pop to late 60s experimental pop/rock worked really well for the ride too. I started off mixing short high gear sets with hill sets (trainer has adjustable resistance) interspersed with short, easy spins. The songs on "A Hard Days Night" are all about 2-3 minutes long, so I never got bored and I got past the evil 30 minute mark (which in my opinion is key to trainer riding). Highlights of the first half mostly just involved hearing some of the less well known songs (If I Fell, I'm Happy Just to Dance with You) for the first time in years, and the first time on headphones (whihc really gives a new appreciation for some of the harmony... swoon).

The songs on Abbey Road are, by and large, longer and a little more intense. I was warmed up by this time, and enjoyed a challenge. I climbed hills during Come Together and sat back in awe during Something. I stood for the choruses of Maxwell's Silver Hammer, and hammed it up a little with no one watching. Oh Darling was the real highlight of the second half. I hit the verses hard and the choruses harder. In my top gear with my legs rotating frantically at 140rpm I pounded out "WHEN YOU TOLD ME, you didn't need me any more.. " My speed maxed out at 67 kph, and my heart rate nudged up to 180. Eek. From there I chilled out to Octopus' Garden, before finishing out the set with seven long long minutes of "climbing" to I Want You/She's So Heavy.

Clearly, this is a bit of a niche post. So, all you trainer riding Beatles fans out there- what are your favourite cycling songs? ;-)

A new leaf

Thanks all for your comments on my last post. It's good to know I'm not the only loony out there :-)

I'm going to make a real effort to improve my lifestyle generally over the next few months, and to work on making mySELF fitter and faster instead of just being bitter that P's getting fitter and faster.

So, as suggested by various awesome Kiwi commenters last week, I've started logging my workouts on Buckeye Outdoors. I've also started seeing a PT, who's key job is not to get me fitter and faster, but to get me hotter and buffer for a certain fabulous dress. But I'll be getting stronger on the way, which can only help.

I'm doing as many of P's planned half IM workouts with him as I can. We're loving doing our long runs and short rides together, and we've spent hours and hours on the trails and hills around town over the past few weeks. I've especially loved our pre-work long runs; 1:50 around Karori, Wadestown and Northland last Thursday, and 1:20ish around Ngaio the Friday before. We also spent a blissful morning cruising around Martinborough (heading out towards Gladstone) on Anzac Sundays (on bikes). I'm learning a lot of P's TI work, now that I'm being a little less bratty and actually listening to him. Today during our 2k swim (my first in AAAGES and it felt amazing!) we worked on my stroke and I actually improved.

P did a duathlon this morning (he was awesome, and so foxy- I can't believe he's mine), and took awhile for this Brave New Attitude to catch up to me. I saw all these buff people with teeny thighs and felt for the first time in ages like I wasn't good enough to join in. Like I was too big and slow to even try. Then I watched the actual race and remembered that I CAN do it, and even if I only do the short course in June, I WILL do it (PIP- join me???). And by the time we get to the Fathers' Day special on our last September 7th anniversary (our third), I'll be kicking the butt of the medium course and looking forward to the long one. And who knows, maybe my tree trunks will be looking more like saplings by then!

We're also working on our diets, and P is loving actually planning and eating real food. It's all elementary stuff, but it's easy to lose sight of when you're a busy yuppie, especially when you're coming home hungry from an evening workout. So we're focussing on Sunday planning again, choosing meals from the (WONDERFUL, INVALUABLE) Heathy Food Guide, grocery shopping, making a hearty Sunday night meal to start us off on the right foot and pre-preparing as much as possible for the week ahead. I'm trying to return to Low-GI ways, and working on my iron.

So, here's to a new leaf. Tonight it's a spinach one ;)

...a bicycle built for two

No, we haven't bought a tandem..I think I'd like to get married before death (or divorce) doth us part!

I'm looking for advice/support from other tri-couples out there (and the rest of you). I've been a mega brat recently, as I (try to) deal with my weight gain/slowdown at the same time as P's transformation from casual indoor football player to buff and super speedy tri-geek. I'm jealous that he's swimming 100m as fast as I am, and burning the pavement with 3k time trials in 11 minutes. And that he can trip up hills like a wee mountain goat while I struggle along behind like an oafish heffalump. I know his success does not equate my failure, and that I should be inspired, not deflated, but I'm not quite there yet.

Am I the only brat out there? Does anyone have any tips for how to get my mind (and my behind) into gear?

Alpine Loop the Lake

Last weekend I headed down to Nelson with a bunch of other runners, including my good pal and running buddy Ed, to tackle the Alpine Lodge Loop the Lake, a 25k trail race around beautiful Lake Rotoiti. I've run a couple of offroad races before, but this was the first *real* one. I've decided that no water on the course plus having to carry a checked gear bag with an emergency blanket and whistle qualifies it as *real*. I had no idea what to expect in terms of time, but set an arbitrary goal of 3 hours.

We all met in Nelson on the Friday night and, after a stop for Subways, headed out to St Arnaud, a tiny alpine township about 90 minutes away. We'd organised two baches for the weekend, one a Real Kiwi bush bach owned by my aunt, uncle and grandparents and the other a slightly flasher version. The mountain air was freezing and there was no time to get a fire going, so we fell asleep under layers and layers of blankets, sleeping bags, thermals and woolly socks. Others had the smarts to bring hot water bottles. Something to remember for next time.

Peanut butter toast and a brunch bar for breakfast, with a nice hot cup of steaming instant. It was crisp, but not as cold as it had been, so I left with only my race gear on, and my emergency thermals in my backpack. Another memo to self: buy smaller backpack. We collected race packs, had our gear checked and stood in front of the log fire at the lodge, then headed out to wave off our first starters. The race was staggered by half-M time, so Ed had a 20 minute head start on me.

I started a little enthusiastically, though it didn't feel that way at the time, and soon discovered that the cold I'd conquered earlier in the week hadn't quite gone. I felt fine, but it turns out that I rely on my nose for breathing quite a lot when running up hills. The first 3 or so k was mostly climbing on a gravel road, so I was feeling pretty uncomfortable by the time we hit the trail.

The first part of the trail was quite smooth and wide, and was the kind of downhill I felt I could really fly on. Heaps of fun. After losing all of that elevation we'd gained in one fell swoop, the rest of the course was undulating with plenty of roots and scree slopes to keep us honest. I was surprised by how hard the technical footwork made it, and by how hard it was on my feet (you may recall that I had plantar fasciitis last year, so I try to be careful of my arches). It warmed up quickly, but not so much that I needed to take my long sleeved jersey off.

I had ups and downs for the next two hours. Ran through several creeks, and one river that was up to our knees. I swore at the cold, but appreciated the brief relief for my legs.



The ups came just after this crossing when I realised I wasn't behind EVERYONE in my group, and when I started catching up to a few of the rabbits I'd lost in the early ks. I felt strong for a few ks as I leapfrogged with a girl in a red t. When Ed passed me, I was too happy for him to feel to sorry for myself, and I was having a blast. The other "up" was the fantastic view. I would have loved to stop for a photo break! I got a bit down from around 2:15 to around 2:45, with no idea where I was, where the finish line was, and with my tummy rumbling and blood sugar feeling low. That lake was looking really BIG and I had no idea where the "end" was. I think having the regular jelly beans along with the sports beans might have been too much of a sucrose high, and it dropped me pretty hard. Fortunately, I had dulche de leche luna bar in my pack, so I munched on that for awhile. It wasn't easy to drink and eat with my nose blocked, but boy that bar made a difference. I flew for a bit more, feeling strong and alive, as I passed slower runners from earlier groups, and moved out of the way of the speedsters coming through.

Finally, at what I thought was around 2:56, I passed a sign saying that there were ten minutes to the carpark. I tried to do some mental maths- "is that ten minutes tramper time? ten minutes little old lady time?" and tried to pick up the pace a little. Before I knew it (roughly 3 minutes later) I was out of the woods and my friends (who'd pretty much all beaten me home, despite the handicaps) were cheering me over the line. The finish line itself wasn't really clear, and I kept running past everyone until I heard Ed tell me to stop! Oops. It wasn't just me- the other Kate in our group stopped running before the official line, and we had to tell her to keep going.

It got cold very quickly after I stopped, and I put everything from my gear bag on. Tights, poly, hat, warm gloves and a change of socks. There was hot milo at the finish which was just perfect!

The banquet we'd paid $25 for was pretty disappointing. A couple of cold chicken legs and some salad. Given that it was for RUNNERS after a RACE I was surprised that there wasn't even any bread. Oh- and they'd under catered so we couldn't have seconds. GRR! Won a mug at the spot prizes, which I've been enjoying my coffee in all week. And found out that my official time was 2:59:28, so I'd just squeaked under- phew!

We enjoyed fries and beers at a local cafe, then headed to dinner at the pub. The tiring day and that country darkness meant we were knackered pretty early, and our plans of a bender went out the window when we headed home and crawled into bed at the grand old hour of 8:30pm!

It took me a couple of days to recover, but the legs are good now. I'm definitely keen for next year, and I think it's manageable, even with the Rotorua mary two weeks later (I'm planning a return to the full next year...)


Photos courtesy of Nelson Events

Hell yeeeeeeeahh!!!

"Your entry to the Rotorua Half Ironman is locked and loaded."

Holy crap!

PS- I'm feeling the need to clarify that the watch in the last post isn't just a watch, it's a Garmin Forerunner 405. OOOH yeah.

Conversations with my man

From: My Fiance [mailto:hisname@hiswork.co.nz]
Sent: Monday, 7 April 2008 2:44 PM
To: Me
Subject: RE: Half

you ready to commit early? If we enter this week, we get twice the free stuff...

http://www.half.co.nz/default.asp?PageID=8719&view=item&offset=0


From: Me [mailto:myname@mywork.com]
Sent: Monday, 7 April 2008 2:54 p.m.
To: My Fiance
Subject: RE: Half

eeek!!!


From: My Fiance [mailto:hisname@hiswork.co.nz]
Sent: Monday, 7 April 2008 2:54 PM
To: Me
Subject: RE: Half

go on...

you can blog about it...


From: Me [mailto:myname@mywork.com]
Sent: Monday, 7 April 2008 2:55 p.m.
To: My fiance
Subject: RE: Half

I can blog about you trying to make me do stuff by saying i can blog about it!!!


From: My Fiance [mailto:hisname@hiswork.co.nz]
Sent: Monday, 7 April 2008 2:55 PM
To: Me
Subject: RE: Half

exactly!


I haven't yet, but I might.... Do I bite the bullet???!

Oh, and in other news, guess what we pre-ordered today.......?



OOOOH yeeeaaah!

A long run, however you look at it.

I realised it's about time I got some decent long runs in before the Alpine Loop the Lake on April 19th. I'm just aiming to finish, and I expect it to take around 3 hours, so I need long runs the next three weekends. I've been keeping up with plenty of 70-90 minute runs, including the odd backpack commute and plenty of offroad stuff (I think Phil and I have spent about 8-10 hours on the trails over the past three weeks or so, which isn't too bad), but it's actually been awhile since I ran long.

Today I ran up in the Western Hutt hills for what was going to be 2 hours. But because I did an out and back that was really an up and down it was only 1:52. I promise it FELT like 2 hours. If you trust my nike+ it was about 11 miles, but that's 5.73 on the way up and 5.29 on the way back, so I'm not sure how much I do trust it. If you trust mapmyrun it was at least 12.5 miles, which would mean I ran at around 8:50 pace. I don't believe that either. But either way it was good and fun and pretty hard, with around 1000 feet of ascent. That's not a huuge amount, but believe me there was a LOT, and it wasn't gentle. The views of the Hutt valley, the hills and the harbour were fantastic, even with the fog and I loved the feeling of being slightly in the wilderness as I left the suburbs. When Normandale Rd ended, I ran for a mile or so towards Old Coach Road in good old Belmont Regional park. Lovely :-)

Time to be a flexible warrior. Hope y'all had good weekends and workouts!

Update: Sad!

Good Friday Ride

You'd think that after after 18 months of riding, I'd have learnt that an easy "out" means a bitch of a "back"!

I did learn that Wainui is great "Kate" appropriate riding. Headwinds and uneven seal aside.

EWWWW

After work P and I drove down the road to our local trail for a run. It was awesome. I ran really strong on the way back and negatively split the crap out of it. Stretched. Wandered to the car. Opened the door:

"My handle's wet!"
Hmm. It's not raining.
"And there's a puddle on the ground!"
Hmm. An isolated puddle under a wet door handle."
"You don't think.....?"
"No! Eww!"

Actually, yes. EWWWWW!

Fun!

First, a chocolate fish (or many) for Elizabeth for *getting* my last title.

It's been a good weekend. We had our engagement party/bbq yesterday, complete with literally the best chocolate cake ever and lots of singstar (that's me and E rocking Freddie Mercury).





Almost as excitingly, we found a great new way to work out and have fun together, and an awesome trail to hang at. P rides his new baby (mtb) and I run. He's faster, but not as much as you might think, and provided he gives me a head start and waits around every 10 mins or so, we see a lot of each other and both have a blast. We did a cheeky 40 minutes yesterday (we were frantic with last minute planning) and around an hour today. It's great- just 5 minutes from home, and there's at least 90 minutes of flattish, scenic and relatively sheltered trail (if you go there and back), which is a rarity in Wellington, where everything is called "ridge", "peak" or "summit"- or sneakily called "walkway" (meaning HILLS). Of course, there are hills galore not far off. Take a different turn half an hour in, and you'll find yourself climbing up to the Belmont Trig (500-odd metres above sea level).

Who am I? 24601

I'm not who I was when I started the blog. I'm not sure if it's temporary or permanent; whether the real me is just a normal girl trying to balance work, life and exercise and as a consequence has Not Worked Out Once this weekend, or whether the real me is driven and compulsive, competitive, athletic and currently on a bit of a hiatus.

And I guess that's because I'm both. I'm me. I'm not the lazy fat-kid, and I'm not the super-duper marathoner who eats 3 1/2 hour Makara loops for breakfast. I'm writing a more personal blog elsewhere now (I'm not leaving this one or even taking a break- just writing in two places), and 6-word memoirs are currently doing the rounds in those circles, so I thought I'd put some here. This is who I am today.

- still enjoying my shiny new ring
- looking forward to adventures with Hubby*
- wedding forums occupy too much time
- bootcamp made my quads hard again
- sleeping in on weekends is OK
- really need to ride my bike
- running round another lake in April

*he will be by the time we head overseas in 2009/2010
**chocolate fish if you get the title...