Stroking and Striding, training and Tinman

The first Stroke and Stride took place a few days after our K2 adventure which meant some very sad running legs which was very unfortunate with it being a 5km run.  I made a classic amateur mistake of wearing my brand new shoes for the first time with some stretchy lace which were rather tight and resulted in some very shredded up feet.  It wasn't really a mistake because I knew that it was a dumb thing to do and even told people that it was a dumb thing to do but I really wanted to wear my pretty new shoes.  The main problem was the laces which were really too short and therefore tight so once I had put the original laces back in for the next S&S they were much better.

AIDS like foot

I also got a new pair (before they were even released in NZ!!) of ASICS GT2000 as my training shoes and they are really quite delicious.  I have read some comments from people who are really not keen on them but I think they are great, quite similar to my DS Trainers which I love.

Hello new shoes

Sadly the new Tadpole cycle machine is still waiting for some parts to arrive so I am still rocking the RooRoo and enjoying are last few days together.  I was really hoping to have Taddy up and running by now and need for the parts to arrive in the next two days if I am to use it this weekend for the Taupo Half so am remaining optimistic.  I have a little tourettes episode every time I get home at the end of the day and there is no little parcel waiting at the front door for me.

TINMAN RACE REPORT

I am not usually into Olympic distances but thought I would do this for a change and had the offer of free accommodation which I couldn't pass up.

The body marking lady mistook  me for a M30-34

Pilot Bay was rather choppy and cold and windy for our start but I tried to remain positive in keeping with my new positive attitude towards racing.
We started 2mins behind the AG Men and 6mins behind the Elites and it was about 300m before I was catching the slow men which was nice for my confidence in my swimming ability but annoying at the same time.
I came out of the water in about 20th in an OK time so was off to a reasonable start.  It was nice for my bike to be surrounded by other bikes and not only the lonely on the Elite rack like I have become accustomed to.
The bike was super windy and I was wearing my NEW front Zipp which was a little bit twitchy.  The bike course is dead flat so pretty quick but I really should have ridden faster than I did.  I didn't get passed by any girls and manged to get a few which bumped me up a few places.

RooRoo's swansong (maybe)

My hips/groins have been really tight recently so I started the run with little baby steps and they loosened up after a couple of km's.  I wasn't wearing a Garmin so was just running with gay abandon which turned out to be not so fast but I managed to catch quite a few girls on the run including one in the last couple of hundred meters - don't think she was happy about that and left me hanging when I tried to shake her hand at the end. Awkward.

Happy in my running

The leggies are a bit sore today but hopefully should be good to go for the big one in the weekend.