No training for a while....

It's been a while since I trained regularly!! Been so busy with xmas!

Will also wait a bit before I get back into it. I've been really tired the last few months and have been yawning all day at work, and have had trouble concentrating on things even after a full nights sleep - almost always get 8 hours of solid sleep.

In the past week while we've been in Brissie to see the rellies, twice I've been very close to throwing up and passing out while standing in queues for things. I figure this and the tiredness really aren't good. Even while on holidays I'm exhausted and need to be in bed early!

We're wondering if my iron levels are low, so I'll get blood tests when I get back to Canberra and make sure everything's fine before I get back into training. Better to be on the safe side....

Birthday run!

I'm another year older today, and 1 year off having a quarter life crisis :-)

Celebrated by doing a 10k run around Mt Ainslie with a bunch of other Bilbys, but seriously struggled! I haven't really run for a month so the hills really killed me!

I caught up with Andrew who was walking due to knee troubles, so walked the rest of the way with him. It was quite a pleasant morning - warm but with a nice breeze.

After that we all went to Debacle for brekky, and pigged out on pancakes with fruit and ricotta and fresh OJ - yum!

Quiet week

Haven't done much this week. Didn't cycle on Saturday due to needing to go get my car cleaned and out to the Canberra Car Fair to try and sell it, and spent all day Sunday at the Canberra Half Ironman co-ordinating an aid station on the run.

Had a ball at the aid station, Bilbys always run it well and this year was no exception. We had 50+ incredibly keen (and loud!) volunteers who made sure every competitor got what they needed when they needed it.

I've now volunteered for the Forster Ironman as well for next year. I've asked to be a catcher (helping the ironpeople after they cross the finish line, catching them if needed...), or in the recovery tent. Should be an awesome experience.

Just have to get back into training so I can do one myself one day.... I was going to do the Canberra Classic distance race on Jan 30, but I really don't know if I'll be ready!! I haven't got any weekends free at the moment, and I don't have many free in January either, so if I want to do it I'm going to have to get motivated and start doing a lot of early morning sessions. Not sure if this is going to happen with christmas so close though. We'll see...

Run this morning

Managed to run into work this morning! Left the bike at work yesterday arvo, and Andrew had to leave early to get the car into Bridgestone to get the tyres replaced, so I figured it was a good time to attempt the run into work.

It's only about 4 k probably, but with a backpack with all my work gear and after not running for a month, that was plenty! I quite enjoyed it, and it took me 36 minutes, which I reckon I can get down fairly soon once I get back into regular running again!

Got a lift home as it was pissing down with rain, but I'll definitely try running in again. Running home's a bit more uphill so that could be hard after a long day with the backpack.... :-)

Hartley photos

Photos from the Hartley Challenge can now be found at http://photos.andrew.net.au/hartley04

Swimming- quite tough!

Went to swimming tonight and it's been over a month since I went to squad (due to Noosa, being sick etc) so I knew I would struggle.

Our lane did 3.6k and I reckon I'd be lucky if I managed to do 3k.... I just felt like a dead weight in the water, my stroke was choppy and horrible, and after 50m I was feeling pretty knackered! I was also late to training which didn't help!

Hopefully I'll just need a few sessions to get back into it. Dreading my first run back now...

Not a broken bone!!

I mentioned yesterday how we thought a girl broke her arm on the Saturday ride.

Turns out (this is second hand so info could be slightly wrong) she just burst the blood vessels on either side of her arm which accounted for the swelling and the colour, and sprained the ligaments which accounted for the pain. Very very lucky!!!! If the pain and swelling hasn't subsided by wednesday though, she has to go back for x-rays.

Weekend: Broken bones (not me) and more

I didn't end up swimming Friday evening. Too much to do!! Didn't end up getting to bed until nearly midnight either which was annoying!

Got up Saturday morning for the ride though and just went with the short group (with all the novices) as an "experienced rider" and because I wasn't sure if my legs were up to the medium group ride of Cotter/Uriarra yet!

They were a bit all over the place, but being at the front and leading the ride it was a bit hard to see what was going on behind me, and Murray at the back was hanging with the last rider who was dropping off fairly often so he wasn't able to do much yelling either (constructively of course!!).

We were about halfway through the ride when I heard the unmistakable sound of cyclists going down, then everyone was yelling "cyclists down" etc, so we all screamed to a stop, threw our bikes to the side of the road and went running back to the others.

At first glance everoyne was ok. Three went down - one had some impressive looking grazes all down her arms and legs, the other had taken some pretty big chunks out of the end of his fingertips, and the other was wandering around with not really a scratch. One of the guys front wheels wasn't turning properly so we fixed that up, started cleaning up grazes, and Natalie (who had been wandering around seemingly uninjured), suddenly said "I think my arm's a bit lumpy". Uh-oh. We all peered at her arm and it was certainly looking very swollen and definitely a bit lumpy! "Can you move your fingers?" "Kind of, hmm, well not really" "Can you bend your wrist?" "Ummm.... no". Crap.

Murray always rides with a bandanna on his head to keep from getting a helmet tan on his shaved head, so he took that off and made it into a sling to stop her from moving it and to elevate it, we called someone who wasn't too far away and had a bike rack, and got her to lie down while we waited. The girl with the grazes said her parents lived close by, so Murray rode with her back to her parents place, and Natalie wasn't looking too bad (apart from feeling a bit sore and a bit in shock), so Alice and another guy stayed with her until she got picked up, and the resy of us continued on our ride as there was nothing more we could do.

It's always scary when this happens, nobody really knows wat to do. It was the first time I've been on a ride when someone's crashed, and I felt useless and didn't really know what to do myself. Might go update my first aid certificate...

Not sure how Natalie is, but she works at Canberra Hospital which is where she got taken, so she'll be in good care. Hopefully it's just fractured, but arms aren't generally as lumpy as it was, so it may be broken unfortunately. Poor thing. I'll give her a call and see how she is.

Natalie and the girl next to her were both on mountain bikes (very common at the start of the novice program), and they touched handlebars and didn't have the experience to safely untangle themselves which is what caused them to crash. The guy behind them didn't stop in time, and so went straight over the girls, but everyone else managed to stop in time. Lucky we weren't going too fast.

In other news we also had Alice and Stacie's hen's party (Alice couldn't help but think of how unattractive grazes look in a wedding dress as they crashed in front of her and hoped for the best). We just spent the arvo at Stacie's drinking champers, playing with 9 month old Lucy, and generally just hanging out. After that we went to Shogun Teppanyaki restaurant for an entertaining dinner, and went for a few drinks with the hen's dressed in their colourful wedding veils, "Bride" t-shirts and other interesting paraphenalia (details to remain secret!!).

Typical triathletes, we were all home by 11:30pm (including both hen's), but it was certainly a fun evening!

Nobody was feeling terribly energetic this morning so when we all met for our 9am run around Mt Ainslie, we decided to make it an hour long hilly walk instead and it was really enjoyable!!! Much nicer than running.... :-)

After that it was brekky for Rich's birthday, and shopping for chrissie pressies and shopping for a dress and shoes forAlice's wedding next weekend.

This week I will be getting back into all my training sessions after my break. Since the Noosa tri in early November I've done nothing as we had a week of enjoying being on holiday in Noosa, two weeks of being sick and trying to recover for the Hartley Challenge, then one week of recovering from the Hartley challenge, so it's really been a month since I did much training!! Could be a tough week...

Ride this morning

The bilbys Wednesday morning ride was on this morning and I knew I'd still be feeling sore and sorry for myself after the weekend, but I felt I needed to get my legs moving, so I figured I'd join the novice group for their ride.

Alarm set for 5:30 am (!!!), managed to get up, get to my bike, get all ready to go, check my tyre pressure only to discover the back tyre was completely flat. D'oh. Last time I tried to change that tyre I got the shits after about 40 minutes of just trying to get the tyre off and ended up taking it around to David Baldwin and Julie Quinn's for help!! This was also only a week ago.

Called Gary Rolfe and said I'd got a flat, would change it and catch them on the Federal Highway. I figured that way i would feel as though I had to change it and join them rather than just giving up and going back to bed...

Managed to be on the road within about 20 minutes which I thought was impressive, and started cycling and realised my legs felt like lead!! As I got to the Federal Highway a guy by the name of Nick (who I'd never met before) was also cycling along, so we rode together for a while chatting away. It was great to have someone else to talk to- took the mind off the pain in the legs!!

Managed to cruise along and before too long the legs were feeling fine, just a bit heavy and slow. Saw the novices on the other side of the highway on the old Federal Highway about a k before the Sutton turnaround, so just jumped across to the other side of the road and caught up with them just as they were joining the (new) Federal Highway.

I think it's a 30k ride (plus another few k's to work) and was glad I went to get the legs moving. Feel better for it, and it rained this arvo and got chilly again so glad to get it in while I can!!!

Half marathon intention

I went and saw James Barker for a massage last night to help loosen me up after the whole crazy 350km bike ride thing (and felt surprisingly not too bad!), and I mentioned I don't really have a short term goal at the moment.

I want to do a half ironman at the end of next year so have to think about that, but I needed a goal to keep me working towards something challening. James suggested the Weston Creek Half Marathon on March 13th. Perfect!

I'm not a good runner and need to seriously do some more of it, and a running goal is probably just what I need March is a good time too. Not too soon, not so far away that it's not considered a short term goal.

I'm only doing 10k long runs on a sunday at the moment with my 1 interval session and 1 medium run/2nd interval session (depending on how I'm feeling) so really need to get a good training program that builds up my long runs, keeps my 1 track and medium set consistent, probably add one more run in as well as keep up my cycling and swimming. Phew....

On top of this I also need to put aside time for work, house stuff, probably some rest and most importantly - Andrew time!! :-)