Swimming injury!

I got a minor swimming injury last night... I don't know what happened, but the slow lane (of our squad) had a pile up in the middle of the pool, and so were all hanging onto the lane rope and pulling it down.

We were doing breaststroke recoveries, and so I came past doing breaststroke and caught my left foot on the lane rope. Result - a chunk taken out of my big toe that bled like a stuffed pig, and a bruised second toe at the middle joint. Bloody hurts walking around today as well!!!!

First swimming related injury I've had I think! :-)

First swim squad ~2.8k 1:35

Tagged onto the back of the fast lane rather than joining the slower lane where I probably belong. I'd prefer to work hard to try and keep up and get my swim fitness that way rather than bludging in the slow lane and constantly get stuck behind slower swimmers. Was tough, and got out early as I was knackered (and had things to do at home) but can't wait until Wednesday squad.

Getting back into the swing of things!

Ok, enough of this "other" crap I've been blogging about.

As of tonight I am back into training! I got completely inspired over the last few days.

It started with doing a short aquathlon last Thursday night. I'm not sure if I'm over my virus yet (bloodtests later this week), so I decided to give the aquathlon a go, take it easy, and just see how it went.
I felt embarrassed to be doing such a short distance (300m swim/3k run), and was even more embarrassed to be doing so bad. So I struggled through it, but felt fine health wise. I felt fine the next day as well which was good.

Friday after work I went out to the bike leg of the Sri Chinmoy Ultra triathlon (400k bike leg!), and cheered on the guys out there competing, and assisted in supporting one of the guys. It was really inspiring, and you could almost FEEL the determination of everyone out there!

Sunday I did the 40k bike leg of the Canberra Capital tri as part of a team. I haven't done anywhere near enough training to do the race on my own, and really enjoyed being part of the event! I was going to be happy if I did anywhere near 1:30, and ended up doing it in 1:19, which meant I averaged a bit over 30kph, which I was very happy with!

So these 2 "races" I did have shown me that I really need to get back into training, and the ultra tri as well as the races have given me the motivation to get back into training!

I've now got 3 goals.

1. March 5 - Sri Chinmoy Classic distance triathlon
2. May 15 - 12 hour endurance cycle at Eastern Creek raceway (2 person female team)
3. A half marathon. I was under the impression that there was a half as part of the Canberra Marathon, but apparently not! So if anyone knows of any half marathons around April, please let me know!

Now to devise a training program to accommodate these goals.... Any help appreciated :-)

Australia Day

So nice to have a day off!! Planned to get heaps of unpacking done, but haven't quite managed it...

We did manage to clean the old house this morning which was surprisingly easy. Got the final inspection tomorrow, so fingers crossed! :-)

After that we did some shopping on the way home, had lunch, a friend popped around, then we got engrossed in the Alicia Molik/Lindsay Davenport tennis match. Bloody exciting!!! Molik was unlucky to lose in the end I think...

I then planned to do something constructive like unpacking, but as much of the stuff in boxes is Andrew's, it's really hard to do it without him (he's been busy getting a web page sorted out for the Linux Conference), so I watched Shrek 2 instead....

We have to go back to the old house soon to do one final look over of the place and get my bikes and anything else we've left there, then I might come back to our new home and have a nice relaxing bath.

Tough day. :-)

Theo's take-away Ainslie, ACT

Never go here!!!!

We've been moving all day so worked up quite an appetite. We went down to Theo's take away in Ainslie as we decided hamburgers would be good. Andrew had been there once before and had a ham and cheese toasted sandwich which was pretty dodgy (no idea how you stuff a toasted sandwich).

So we got there and they had a Portuguese chicken burger which I thought sounded yummy. It had optional hot sauce on the small menu outside, but didn't mention hot sauce on the main board inside, so figured you had to ask for it. So my burger comes and the first bite has a bit of an spicy aftertaste. I wonder at this stage if they've added the hot sauce. Andrew took a bite and agreed that the burger did have a bit of a "bite" to it. I then took another bite and oh my god. It was SOOOOO hot! My mouth was burning, my eyes were watering, my nose started running, and it actually hurt to breathe as the back of my throat was so on fire. I drank heaps which did nothing, and Andrew was marvelling at the fact that he'd never seen such a reaction to hot stuff! I'm generally not too bad with spicy things, but this was ridiculous.

When I could finally talk again and didn't have to keep rubbing my nose to stop it dripping everywhere I went in to ask if that was how it was supposed to be! I told them that on the small menu it said that the sauce was optional, and it didn't mention it at all on the large menu, so I assumed it wouldn't have it on it unless you asked. She then proceeded to tell me that it wasn't that bad, and that it isn't optional, it's what it comes with. I told her that if they're going to have such a spicy burger, that they should mention it on the board, and I had just wasted nearly $6 on something I couldn't eat. She said they wouldn't put it on the board as that's just how it came. As far as I'm concerned, that's ridiculous. If they're going to make something that hot, they should warn people!!

They have a sign that says "If you're happy with us, tell people, if you're not happy, tell us". Well I told them, and they didn't care! If she had of just said "oh, I apologise, it does come standard, and yes, it probably is a good idea to mention it on the board" I would have been happy. I didn't want my money back, and I didn't want them to remake it without hot sauce (although it would have been nice, since I was really hungry!), i just wanted to make them aware of it, and let them know they should tell other people about it. The fact that this woman was so rude to me, is what makes me want to now tell everyone how crap they are!!

Typical weather!

I rode in today, and planned to do the TriathlonACT short aquathlon tonight (300 swim/3k run) nice and easy just to see how I go.

It's now been raining steadily for an hour or two, and according to the Bureau of Meteorology radar, it's going to hanging around for a while!

I might have to get a lift home and not race tonight. Oh well.

Weird but not a loser!!

According to this test, 60% of people are more normal than me!! Is this because I exercise lots, don't like fast food, get 8 hours sleep and prefer to play sport rather than get stoned??






The good news is that I'm not a loser, and 96% of more people are more of a loser than me! I'd rather be a bit abnormal than a loser I think :-)

Run to work

Well. I ran into work again and predicted last time that it wouldn't take me as long next time. It was my first run in ages (even longer than the break last time probably), my bag was completely full and included my heavy Colorado boots, pants, showering stuff, and a few other bits and pieces whereas last time my bag was half full - I had light heels, no showering stuff and bought lunch that day.

Bloody hell it made a difference! Took me about 40 minutes this time. My bag felt significantly heavier and it wore me out really fast! Might weigh my bag just out of curiosity.....

Well this is fun!

Countries I've visited-



And yes, this does include countries I either drove through, or sat in an airport in :-)
create your own visited countries map

Blood test results

The doc just rang and said everything was normal except the liver test, which was slightly abnormal. She thinks this suggests that I'm getting over something, probably viral (cytomegalovirus or something??), or it's just starting. So need to get another blood test in 2 weeks to see what it's doing. I've been feeling like this for a few months, but it's gotten worse in the last few weeks which is why I got it checked so it's hard to tell whether it is at the start or end.....

Will try to getting back into training between moving house and just see how I feel!

Half marathon plans

Looks as though I'm going to have to put my half marathon plans back a bit.... Haven't had a chance to get in much training lately due to christmas and not feeling the best, and it's only 9 weeks until the Weston Creek half. At the moment I'm struggling to keep running for 10k, so think it's better to hold off on the half plans for a bit. We've also got a garage sale this Saturday, and are moving house next weekend and probably the weekend after, so won't get a chance for long sessions in the next few weeks! Oh well, plenty more halfs coming up, I'm sure.

Doctor checkup

Went to the doc yesterday, she thinks the heart pains I've been getting are nothing to worry about, and said that if I'm doing triathlons and having no problems doing them then my heart is most probably fine. The ECG showed up clear, but I'm still a wee bit dubious after running past someone getting CPR and not making it at the Noosa tri, which I think was heart related, and there was also someone at Forster who died in his sleep the night he finished the race. My father was under 30 and fit when he dropped dead from heart failure. I don't believe being fit means your heart is fine.

I also asked about my recent fatigue problem - constantly tired, and yawning all day, despite good sleep, regular exercise, and everything else in my life being nicely balanced. So got a blood test this morning, and will go to the doc next Friday to see if they find anything (such as iron deficiency).

I feel crap after the blood test though... I didn't have brekky as I was supposed to be fasting for the tests, and am not good with blood tests at the best of times. So I was tired, hungry, then got a couple of vials of blood sucked out of me, got to work and have felt very light headed and a little nauseous ever since. Hopefully they'll be able to tell me if there's something wrong!