THE MIGHTY JO CARREL

Challenge Wanaka Race Report

2012-01-24T23:47:00.000-08:00

Just reading through my last post on Challenge Wanaka eve I asked for a calm lake and a tail wind home - it now seems like someone up there was taking the piss out of me...
We got down to the lake at about 5.45 to a reasonable breeze which was blowing straight onto the lake causing a fair amount of chop. And it was slightly chilly.
The good part about doing a race with only 450 individuals is that we got a park right outside the marquee with only 45mins until race start, and the other good part is that I didn't have to wait for a portaloo all morning.
Another good thing about doing a race with only 450 individuals is that the Pro's just get a 10m headstart instead of a 15minute head start which is not good for people who can't swim.

SWIM
The swim was a 2 lap rectangle course and was choppy the whole way round with a slight reprieve for the shortest leg where the chop was behind us. It was pretty easy to stay on course as it was well marked and I tried to choose feet who kept a good pace.
As I came around towards the end of the second lap I saw the Half people bobbing around about to start. This gave me great excitement as I thought they were starting at 7.30am which meant that my swim time would be just over an hour - OMG! Turns out the Half actually started at 7.38 so guess what? Another sucky swim. Although looking at other peoples times it seems that the faster people were a couple of minutes off normal and harder conditions slow the slow down down even more which perhaps bring my time to around the 65min mark which I would be happy with.
Had a major muppet moment running into T1 and missing my bike bag - I'll blame it on the numbness spreading throughout my body coupled with the disappointment of learning from another swimmer that we actually swam 68mins not the 62 that I had thought.

Opps, got it.

T1 was very slow due to my numb hands and fingers and a bad choice of arm warmers which while nice and warm, were a little too tight to get on in a hurry while wet and frozen.
Onto RooRoo I went.

BIKE
I shivered my way through the first 30km and then started to warm up a bit. The first section of the bike was was pretty undulating and a bit more interesting with Half people sharing the road with us. Once we split at Luggate at 70km us full people were on our own.

I had heard all the warnings about prevailing headwinds on the way back and the lonely roads so was preparing myself for the way back from Cromwell. I made the turn and headed back every now and then passing someone who had passed me earlier but also having lots of "am I going the right way" moments as the roads were very empty. I didn't get passed by a single individual athlete from about the 90km (only 2 team riders) onwards and came across many people who had passed me earlier who had obviously blown their foofoo valves on the first half.

Tailwind and fun times

Got to 120km and felt pretty good, figured I could average 30kph for the last 60km to come in just over 5hrs40 - considering I had averaged 32+ up to this point it seemed pretty achievable. Hung a left hand turn just before the 140km and BOOM! Headwind! Sidewind! WIND! What a slog for the next 40km, I actually laughed at the 30kph average plan as I powered along at 23kph... Lucky there was a bit of downhill for the last 5km but I was already pooped and had been on the bike way longer than I ever thought I would.

RUN
The run course at Wanaka in about 75% offroad, about 20km of bush trails and a few nasty uphills, ie. not easy. I started out aiming to hold 5min km's and this worked for a while but my speed slipped a bit through the bush section. It's pretty isolated with aid stations every 3km and not many people around through the offroad sections and more than once I wondered how long it would take someone to find me if I keeled over and died. I was also aware of the very fast moving river alongside some of the tracks which could carry my lifeless body about a km in two minutes. Do other people have these thoughts during ironman?

Overenthusiastic supporters making things a bit more bearable

It was pretty windy but also hot in the sheltered sections. My support crew popped up a few times and kept me amused and gave me updates on what else was happening in front and behind me.
I passed another pro girl after about 15km so I knew that I just had to finish to get some prize money, it's amazing how money can motivate you.
The second lap was very slow but amazingly I was passing people who were actually running slower than me.

Sammy the Seal - one person I was running faster than. I am sure it won't be long till he gets me though

The good thing about doing a race where a lot of run is through the bush means that there are toilet opportunities everywhere.
My feet hurt from the gravel and stones underneath them and my legs hurt from my lack of run traning, it wasn't as painful as Ironman NZ where I had hip bursitis pain from the 8km mark, but it was still painful and I was oh so glad to finally reach the end.

Thank god that's over

The race director Victoria Murray-Orr was at the finish to welcome me with a hug - not just a polite little tapping on the back hug, but a real cuddle hug which was so nice and just highlights what the Challenge family are all about.

My finish time was 11hrs26 and I was 9th female overall (9th Pro), I was aiming for between 10.30 and 11hours so I was well out.
I really need to stop doing Ironmans off the back of an injury with only the minimum (or not even that) amount of time to train because it is really not working for me and I am getting slower. I am embarrassed by the time I did and I don't want to do Ironman again until I can go faster.

So time to take stock, do some proper planning and training and get fast. You are only as good as your last race so things can only improve from here.

*sigh*

Challenge Wanaka eve...

2012-01-19T19:42:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness how slack am I... Oops.
The last few weeks have been mostly biking and running, a bit of swimming, some work and a lot of pissing around.

Hen's games

The Hen in all her glory

The weather in Auckland had been a bit iffy so I did a couple of long rides in some not so nice weather and I did my longest run for Wanaka down in Tauranga while watching the Port of Tauranga bunch riding champs, I mean Half Ironman...
Wanaka training has gone pretty well, I haven't had as much time to build up my running as I would like so my 25km run long will hopefully get me through.
Swimming was going well until I got abducted by the aliens at Pilot Bay as a team swimmer for Tauranga Half so now I am really unsure how the swim at Wanaka will go.

Guess what word starting with F is coming out of my mouth...

So I have now been in Wanaka for 3 days and had 2 days in Queenstown on the way through where I learnt how to play frisbee golf. It has gotten pretty windy down here and yesterday morning I had genuine concerns for my life while I was swimming in the lake but fortunately it has settled down a bit. The forecast for tomorrow is ok - a bit of a chilly start but should end up being fine and maybe a bit breezy. I am being uber cautious about not getting cold on the bike (as is my trademark) so will be taking a bit of time in T1 to put a few extra items on.

J-rad's new office

We have a little crew down here with Sammy the Seal doing the full and Jess the Hammer doing the Half, J-Rad and Nick will be heading the support crew after Nick made the tough decision to DNS after an unpleasant last couple of days making friends with the toilet.

So now the bags are all packed and RooRoo is ready to go. Fingers crossed for a calm lake and a tailwind home...

Big Jo training - the rest of December...

2012-01-01T00:55:00.000-08:00

SWIM

Following my swim of redemption at Taupo I have been feeling a bit better about my swimming and figured to keep going with the long swims. The whole Christamas/New Year thing is always a bit of a pain so I have only managed one long swim of 6km and the rest 3-4km. I had a seemingly trivial sunburnt lip from the half which got infected and ruled my life for a week or so and I had to miss 2 swims in order to keep it dry. Thank god that has cleared up now and I don't look like I am walking around a dead fly on my bottom lip.

BIKE

I took the week followed Taupo pretty easy and got back into it by the weekend with some efforts and a 4hr ride. Christmas Day (being a Sunday) was a long ride day so got in a 4hr+ ride with not too much traffic which was nice.
We went down to Cook's Beach in the Coromandel after Christmas and a friend from swimming was staying around the corner and was keen to ride the K2 course. I have ridden both halves of the course and the Tairua/Whitianga section many times but never the whole thing so after a bit of convincing I was pretty keen. We decided to do it in reverse to get the Tairua-Thames section out of the way because that would be the busiest, I wasn't sure if that made it harder or easier than the usual way. Since it is about 15km each way from Cook's Beach to SH25 we actually missed the Whitanga-Cook's Beach section on the way back and caught the ferry back otherwise it would have been about 220km which is just ridiculous.
We were going well until the 120km mark a bit before Coromandel town which my riding buddy experienced a nuclear meltdown. We stopped for some lunch in Coromandel to refuel with only 40km to go to get to Whitianga. Unfortunately this was the toughest section with some very nasty hills and headwinds, I actually felt pretty good considering it was the longest I had been on my bike for in a very long time however my companion was not in quite as good spirits and ended up having to walk up one of the last big hills and probably didn't really appreciate me standing at the top laughing. Anyhoo we made it back to Cook's Beach with 184km on the Taptap - so there is my Wanaka training done in one hit.

View from some hill before Coromandel - looked a lot nicer in the flesh

RUN

Trying to squeeze some long runs in without hurting myself so I have been doing only one or two runs during the week then 90mins+ in the weekend. Managed 1hr45 today in about 1000% humidity - my eyeballs felt like they were overheating just having sunglasses on. I think I will be slightly underdone in the running department for Wanaka but it is going to be hard either way.

What's everyone waiting for?

One for you Coach Lawson

Taupo Half Ironman race report

2011-12-11T18:51:00.001-08:00

My main goal for this race was to break 5hrs and earn a super cool MINI coat from my dear friend Neilio - he suggested a PB to earn the coat but I thought that would be too difficult at Taupo since my PB is at Tauranga where the bike is as flat as a pancake. I figured swim 33mins, bike 2hrs40, T1+T2 6mins (T1 includes a 400m run from the water...) which would leave 1hr 41 for the run - considering my recent comeback and therefore lack of running it could be tight.

SWIM
I started in the 2nd row of the swim and was a bit worried I would get trampled but it actually turned out ok, had a little bit of contact with other swimmers but probably mostly me swimming into other people... I felt like I was swimming well, I went pretty straight and followed feet pretty much the whole way. I wasn't wearing a watch so hoped there would be a clock at the swim exit, so many times I think I have swum well then I get out of the water and see a disappointing time so I was dreading seeing a clock. As I came out of the water and looked up I saw the seconds say 57, 58, 59 and in front of it was a 31 !!!! I almost had a party there and then. Then of course I thought it must have been short but I decided to bask in my glory for the meantime anyway.
I ran pretty hard up to T1 having to pass a few people along the way - why do people run to transistion so slow, don't they know it's a race?! When I got to my bike for once I wasn't the lonely bike on the Elite rack - Rooroo had company! Not for long though, my friend Two-Piece had swum about 30sec quicker than me and was just about to head out as I ran in. I then saw Sammy the Seal across the rack from me who always swims quicker than me so I suspected then that perhaps the swim distance was legit and I'd actually had a good swim.
I then forgot how to put my helmet on properly and lost about 45sec trying to figure that one out.

Looking very calm on my way to T1 but secretly partying it up on the inside

BIKE
Once on my bike my initial goal was to catch Two-Piece since she wasn't far ahead of me which I did within about 5km. The weather was a bit yuck and not really as predicted - very drizzly and foggy and by about 1hr it hadn't let up and my hands went numb. Eating got very difficult and I had to shove my Em's Cookie Bar down my top because I couldn't navigate my pockets properly.
I rode pretty steady and took advantage of the downhills on the way to Reporoa. I saw J-Rad go past in the second group with Davo on his wheel which I was impressed with, only to see actual Davo go past a few minutes later - the cold must have affected my eyeballs.
I got to the turn at Reporoa and started the long slog back only to realize that we'd had a slight headwind on the way out so a tailwind for the way back - yeeha! This made the hills in the last 20km not so bad at all and I realized the I would make 2hrs40 easily, once I got closer I thought 2.35 would be possible and I finally rolled in with a 2.34 - the clock at T2 had a cumulative time of 3hrs10 so I had 1hr50 to run to break 5hrs - easy!!

RUN
After a quick toilee stop I started my trot. The Gayman took a while to fire up but I planned to hold 4.30's which would give me 1hr35. The first few km's were quick and then I settled into 4.30ish pace. The first 10-12km were pretty good, but about 13-16km I was starting to get a bit wary and times were creeping up into the 4.40's and then 17km came and BOOM! I was over it, baby steps to the finish. I had a girl from about the 18km mark who was slowly coming back to me and I wanted to try and catch her but just couldn't quite do it. There was a nasty uphill in the last 500m which I went up at absolute snails pace but by the time I got to the top and made the tun to the finish chute she was right in front of me. I am not known for my ability to sprint but thought what the hell so I gave it a go and I got her! As I ran towards the finish I saw 4.49 on the clock so I had made it with over 10mins to spare. Run time was 1hr37 which was a bit over what I wanted but as Coach Lawson says I have to be happy that I can now do a whole race, run included, so I will take it.
The finish line area was pretty poos with only water and Balance on offer - no food, get your act together Taupo Half - $245 entry and no food at the end! How bad is that.

So overall a pretty good effort I think - exceeded my swim and bike expectations and held together for a reasonable run. And not wildly far off the big girls either. PB by 4mins and 7th girl overall. J-Rad had a solid performance to be 8th overall in 4.14 with a run PB and Captain Pudding punctured but perhaps wasn't meeting his KPI's for the race anyway.

Hopefully some more photos to come...

Big Jo training Nov 21 - Dec 3

2011-12-03T20:33:00.001-08:00

SWIM

After my sloth-like swim at the Auckland Tri I have been at a bit of a loss over what to do with my swimming. I seem to be swimming better in the pool but had such a slow swim at the race that I don't know what to think and I certainly don't want to be floundering around doing 7km sets in the pool if it's not helping. Over the last two weeks I did Stroke and Stride and the Kohi Summer Swim series which pretty average results but not as bad as the Auckland race. So I have decided that the true test will be at Taupo Half next weekend - if I swim slower than 33-34mins then I will definitely have to change my tack. Oh you sub 60min Ironman swimmers don't know how lucky you are...

BIKE

~11hrs and 270km per week for the last 2 weeks which was good. Had a pretty solid Hour of Power last weekend and was reasonably sizzled afterwards.
I was in the closing stages of a 20min effort the other day and Kezzle and J hyphen Razzell were tootling behind me waiting for me to finish, I passed some guy who immediately jumped on my wheel. He said to Kezzle "wow she's a rocket, I bet she doesn't like me sitting on my wheel" to which Kezzle replied "no she doesn't" so what did he do? He continued to sit on my wheel, by then Jared had come up beside me and alerted me that I had a cling-on and to drop him so this guy was busting his arse to stay there. WTF is wrong with these people?!! If someone passes you let them pass you!! ARRRGGHH!!!

Post training feast. What a non-broken eats to keep themself non-broken

RUN

I am still reveling in the fact that I can actually run, it's pretty exciting. I did an hour last weekend and 1hr10this weekend and seem to have slotted right back into my pre-leggie issue pace which is good. In fact my long run yesterday was actually the fastest pace I have done on that course which was interesting. It wasn't particularly easy but wasn't any harder at the end which was surprising. So now I just have to pull out a 21km next weekend which may be a little bit more difficult, if I could run under 95mins I would be absolutely ecstatic. The course is pretty flat though so fingers crossed...

In all my glory, nerdy calf sleeve and all

IN OTHER NEWS

Our new friend Scraggle-Anne, much in need of some love and food

Auckland Tri Race Report

2011-11-24T23:37:00.001-08:00

This wasn't my best result and wasn't an A race so will do a picture report...

J-Rad and Nick sharing a pre-race moment

Jess hitting up Sarah about wearing the same wetsuit as her

Neilio and Alistair being fab supporters

Lou leading her wave out to battle

Far right. With a stroke like that how come I was so slow?!

Hello RooRoo

Up Gladstone

Jared Razzle big bottom

Sneaky Kezzle tucked in behind Haymey

One man pain train

It runs!

It can run well after a 30min puncture stop

10km got me to about here - someone measured the course well...

Our hero Garth

Big Jo training Nov 14 - Nov 20

2011-11-20T11:51:00.001-08:00

SWIM

~15km

7km long swim this week!! I did my pre-squad 800m or so and as I was approaching the end I noticed that no-one had got in for squad and more importantly the lane ropes were closing in on me until it was only about Jo-width. The swim coach had decided to forgo the lane ropes and do some kind of open water swimming practice which involved swimming in zigzags all over the place and beating each other up swimming in circles. As fun as it was I was very agitated not being able to keep track of my distance so I abandoned the squad and made an impromptu program to get me to what I think was about 7km.
Did 1500m the Kohi Swim Series on Thursday which involved a bit of wading through the water as the tide was a bit low, I was only a bit outside of my goal time and thought without the water wading I would have been a bit quicker so had high hopes for the race in the weekend. Oh how wrong I was.

To walk or to swim? Lucky my arms are short so I can usually swim the furtherest (?) before beaching myself

BIKE

Not a big week on the bike with some shorter rides towards the end of the week due to the Auckland Tri and obviously no long ride on Sunday. Nothing much to report here really.

RUN

Only ended up doing one run during the week of a bit over 4km and then a brisk trot on Saturday which involved some uptempo work which nearly killed me. I didn't get the memo that the 2nd km was uptempo and wondered why the pace was so hot. We then did an easy km and then one last uptempo which I clocked 4.05 for and thought I was going to die. The head wind didn't really help. Given my time off running I wasn't surprised that running uptempo hurt (my entire body not my shin) but was able to see that it wasn't going to be a fast 10km the next day.

Brief Auckland Tri race report to come...

Big Jo training Nov 7 - Nov 13

2011-11-14T23:23:00.001-08:00

SWIM

~12.5km

Another fun 6km set, this time I did 3x (10x100m), 3x (10x66m), 3x (10x33m) with a mixture of no gear, paddles, and paddles and fins. Exciting eh.
Next week is supposed to be a squad only Monday then 7km the following Monday but with the Auckland race on in the weekend I can't imagine I'll want do a long swim the next day so I will swap them around.

BIKE

Time: 10hrs34
Distance: 273km

A bit of time spent in the hurtbox on the Sunday ride with His Royness and the ninjas but nice to be out riding in the sun. Pretty unremarkable week on the bike to be honest... We rode another lap of the Auckland World Cup course and it it still hilly with sharp corners but hopefully won't be wet and slippery.

RUN

Time: 1hr18
Distance: 15.66km

Baby steps... 3 out of the 4 runs were good, one run I started and leggy was not good so I turned around and walked home after 3mins (how sensible was that?!). It was a bit random because the other runs were pretty good, a bit fragile but all good. I got a bit carried away on my Saturday 'long' run and ran 7.75km woo! Only have to do another 2.25km next weekend...

Roll on next weekend, looking forward to pulling on some lycra, oh yeh...

Big Jo training Oct 24 - Nov 6

2011-11-06T01:01:00.000-07:00

Opps getting a bit erratic with my updates. I promise to be better...

SWIM

Missed a swim last week with Monday being a public holiday but made up for it with a 6.7km swim the next Monday. I was actually aiming for 6.5km but 33.3m pools are so confusing and it's so hard to count and swim... Am trying to settle into a 7km with squad/6km solo/just squad 3 week cycle for Mondays so I get my long stuff in. Luckily the days are getting warmer so the pool seems less arctic.

BIKE

Last week was big (~15hrs), this week not so much (~9hrs). I started joining the Saturday 2-lap group to do a longer ride in lieu of a long run until my running is back on hence the 15hr week.
We rode a lap of the Auckland World Cup race which is on on the 20th of November and oh my! They are all roads that I am pretty familiar with thank goodness because some of the descents with sharp corners at the bottom would not be pretty for people who are not from around here. I think there could be a bit of carnage if it is wet... It is a pretty hilly course so should be quite Jo-friendly hopefully.

RooRoo squared

The SC Rainmaker testing out the World Cup course

RUN

I'm back! Started doing a couple of short runs last weekend and it was slightly iffy but thought it would be ok to continue and it seems to have gotten better with each run - woo hoo! So I got up to 5km on Saturday with no problems and even backed it up with a 2km run off the bike on Sunday. So my new Gayman is finally getting some use and all the pool running and elipticalling I did must have worked because so far the Gayman is telling me mostly 1km splits starting with a 4.

WHAT ELSE?

Oh the excitement of lunchtime in my world

Cat in a Box

Big Jo training Oct 17 - Oct 23

2011-10-24T00:04:00.000-07:00

SWIM

Only ~10.5km this week - it was my off week from a long swim so I just did squad on Monday and no more - woo hoo! Not sure if doing squad is any good for me but at least it means I can swim for a bit without having to make up my own sets from my limited assortment that Haydn suggested. I have been going to the gym in an effort to grow some muscles so hopefully my pull will improve and I will swim faster one of these days.

BIKE

Time: 15hrs19
Distance: 405km

Oh my! I figured since my Saturday runs weren't happening I should do a longer Saturday ride so I joined the crew for a double Royport and ended up with 132km. Then I back it up the next day with a Waitak/Devonport ride of around 110km. My leggies were pretty sizzled at the end of that.
I have been venturing out with no leg warmers or gloves which is pretty exciting, and I even noticed my tanlines were slightly rejuvenated after last weeks long ride.

RUN

2 x pool runs this week and a few goes on the elliptical thingy. I am hoping that this coming weekend will be the start of my run comeback and I have had my orthotics recovered in anticipation.
My weight gaining program isn't going so well - I somehow lost half a kg at my Monday morning weigh-in - WTF?! I have spent the last 5 yrs living by the motto of "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" and now when I am trying to do the opposite I end up loosing weight! I have been getting to the gym 2-3 x per week to pump some iron so hopefully it all starts working soon.

IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS

The All Blacks won the World Cup! I am not much of a rugby fan - standing on the sideline as a physio for many years and witnessing firsthand the injuries which happen will do that to you - but NZ has gone rugby mad so I felt obliged to watch the last few games. But we had a pretty sweet setup at Dr Yung's Corporate Box with a big giant screen and some comfy couches to make it all a bit more bearable.

Practicing using my 'TRY' sign. I only had to use it once

Grim Reaper making muffins and I still lost weight.

Big Jo training Oct 3 - Oct 16

2011-10-16T00:38:00.000-07:00

SWIM

6.2km long swim woo hoo! Backed up by a solo 6km the following week - all made up of 66m's OMG! 90x66m - fun times. But I got it done and didn't freeze to death which is a plus. Now I need to find a way to make my next 6km swim interesting, if that is actually possible.

BIKE

Been cracking out RooRoo for my weekend rides recently and doing a few efforts. Did 4hrs on RooRoo today which was a bit much but its all part of the bonding process, I got a bit of a sore back but it won't take too long to get used to riding it long again. Mostly all recovered from my little spill at the RoSFv2, elbow is still a little sore and my front tooth is a bit concussed (!) but pretty much 100% and not having too many flashbacks thank goodness.

RUN

Oh runnys... I have been for a 15min run on grass and a there and back run to the gym (1.4km each way...) but have decided to give the leggy a bit more time because it still isn't quite right and as long as I am running by the end of October I should be right for the races I want to do. I haven't had a scan and since its improving I'll just wait it out and only get a scan if things aren't getting better, I think I have exposed myself to enough radiation in the last wee while to not rush things...

IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS...
How exciting was Kona!! I could sit and watch that race all day every day. We obviously did a fine job of hacking for Jess in Australia as she pulled out a 10.21 which is a Kona PB for her and good enough for 4th in her AG - she's not called The Hammer for nothing.

Kona watching over multiple methods of technology

I had a meeting with my friend Mikki who is a nutritionist extraordinaire and she is helping me through my eating issues so I am expecting to be a lean and muscly running/triathlon machine in no time.

Big Jo training Sept 19 - Oct 2

2011-10-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

Oh dear my weekly standard has slipped already... Mostly due to a small mishap on the bike last week which left me in an un-blogging frame of mind, but more about that later.

SWIM

Got up to 6km in my weekly long swim woop woop! Had a catch up with swim manager Haydn who said I need to build up to 7km once every 3 weeks - schnitzel von crumm that is a long way... If I get in before squad and do 600-800m then do squad of about 3.5km then I just need to do another ~2.5km afterwards, easy?! Its an easier way of doing it than doing 7km myself at least but I'll still knock out a solo 6km every 3 weeks to keep me focussed. I have been adding a little bit of fly to my shorter swims - 6 x 25m - to get me stronger and the other day I managed a whole 50m of fly - OMG! I was pooped and am not sure if we could still call it fly but I'm sure it all helps.

BIKE

Last week was version two of the Race of Six Friends and I volunteered myself to be in the B team because I thought my legs would be a bit munted from the Legend Marathon - as it turns out I had nothing to worry about... The course was out South and the weather forecast wasn't great which was disappointing. Our team started out with high hopes of the weather clearing and a better team of navigators than last time.

Jared Razzle's shock as he sees the course profile involving a very very large hill

Oh so happy and oblivious to what will happen in the next 5mins

Still with all my skin

As we approached the first turn which was 2km from the start, JT (who was riding in front of me in 3rd wheel) all of a sudden came crashing to the ground with no apparent reason, I thought "oh that's a shame but I can go round him" and next thing my front wheel gave way from underneath me and I went skidding face first into him and the two behind me came and joined us in our pile up. We still can't work out what happened other than something like diesel on the wet road, but all the other teams went that way without any problems so it was a bit odd.
Anyways after sitting on the ground for a moment and regrouping ourselves we eventually headed on with me and Gerry being the most badly damaged. I had a bleeding and fat top lip and ouchies on my elbow, knee and both hips. The thought of riding another 128km wasn't a very happy one. After about 15mins it became clear that things were not all well with Gerry and once our saviours Neilio and Paulio came past us in their cars we flagged them down and Gerry called it a day, turns out he had a fractured rib. I was feeling pretty beaten up but decided to carry on for a bit even though our time wouldn't count anymore with only 5 riders, but after standing around for 5mins and getting a bit cold and then starting to ride again my knee was super sore so I took the opportunity to flag Neilio down and ended my ride.

Not too duck-like yet

After seeing the rest of the course from the car I can safely say that the day would never have gone well for me even if we hadn't have crashed, there was a 15km gravel road which has the gnarliest up and downhills - max of 15% gradient in several spots and 3 out of my 4 remaining teammates had to walk. The downhill looked awful - thick gravel and steep little descents, it wasn't really suitable for roadbikes and I think it would have been terrifying for me. Plus the rain meant a lot of cold shivering people waiting for punctured teammates - all very Jo unfriendly.

Excuse me but are you walking?!

Both our teams didn't complete the course due to mechanicals and our crash, the roads were pretty slippery and dangerous and our friends in the Hot Cycles team had a nasty crash on a downhill which resulted in 4 of them being taken to hospital.
Not really a day to remember.

The beginning of the end

Grumpy much? Where are your teammates Jared?!!

RUN

Oh and another sad story...
I haven't attempted to run since my pre-Legend jaunt, shin is feeling much better but still not good enough to hop on which is my criteria for running. I went and saw one of my sports physicians who really put the hard word on me, he reckoned I am too skinny and I need to put on some weight to make my bones stronger which is why I am getting injured so much. The term Female Athlete Triad was bandied about a bit and is something that I learned about at uni but never thought it applied to me. I certainly wouldn't say I have an eating disorder (first step of the triad) - and anyone who knows me would know that I never go without food - but I do have a few issues with eating bad foods and am pretty au fait with the fat and kJ content of most foods that I eat.
I conducted a short study of BMI's of some of the top female triathlete who are little (ie. Emma Snowsill, Andrea Hewitt, Mirinda Carfrae, etc) and my BMI was way lower than any of theirs. I know that BMI is not really considered an accurate way of assessing body composition but I think in similar populations it would be relevant.
I have had so many injuries these last couple of years despite not doing huge volumes of running and have done everything I know of to prevent further injury so now putting on some weight really seems to be my last option, even though it leaves me feeling quite panicky that I might turn into a fatty fatty boom boom. The thought of jumping on the scales and seeing 43kg or even 45kg stresses me out but I am coming to terms with it. I have got a plan involving starting some weights and upping my protein intake to put on a couple of kgs of muscle and a teeny bit of fat.
In the meantime its back to the pool running and using the elliptical trainer at my new gym in lieu of running.
*sigh*

Big Jo training Sept 12 - Sept 18

2011-09-18T01:40:00.000-07:00

A weekly update - oh my! I had planned to resume weekly updating at the start of September so it has taken a while but I have made it back...

SWIM

~11.5km

Longest swim of 5.9km this week - you may ask why I didn't just do an extra 100m to make the full 6km but it was in a 33.3m pool and its so hard to keep track of distance... The bulk of the swim was in the squad and I thought I had kept count of how far I had gone but underestimated it slightly and it wasn't till I added it up later that I realized I was closer to 6km than I thought.
Anyhoo I think I shall use the squad for my long swim for a while because it makes swimming in the arctic pool a bit more bearable, I just have to suck it up and keep swimming till I reach 5.5-6km after everyone has gotten out.

BIKE

Have been a bit slack and haven't downloaded TapTap for a while so not sure of the weekly total but it was probably pretty average. The weather has become a little bit unpredictable and I even had to crank out some efforts on the windtrainer to avoid the squally storms and gale-force winds earlier in the week. I think its about the 2nd or 3rd time I have used my windtrainer this winter so its not too bad.

RUN

Exciting news - I got my very own Gayman!!

Not so exciting news - I was a DNS for The Legend Marathon... :(
I have had a niggly shin/deep calf pain for the last couple of weeks which kind of came to a head after my long run last Saturday, it's never been anything bad but just there even when I am walking around.
I had some physio and was dealing it myself and didn't run at all during the week. By the end of the week I wasn't noticing it with everyday stuff so I strapped it up and headed out for a 10min trot to test it and to test out the new Gayman. It was sore from the first step - not super sore but definitely there. Most importantly I broke in the Gayman with a 4.38 km so the standard has been set :)
After that I felt like I had set myself back at least 3 days of rest and was back to fidgey-widgeyness with walking. I fretted about it all night and decided to start the race and pull out after the first loop (7km) if it was no good, but in my heart I think I knew it wasn't going to go away so at about 3.30am I made the decision not to even start the race. I had my gear all laid out and everything so it was pretty gutting.
If this race had have been my one and only then I would have given it a go but with all I want to do this triathlon season I know that I made the right decision and the ghost of Kona certainly helped me to make up my mind. It certainly wasn't a decision made lightly and a few tears were shed and I had a headache for the most part of the day from thinking so hard.
I don't there is anything too major happening in my leg - tib post is certainly a bit incy-wincy and judging by the way it presented with running I suspect there could be a bit of periostitis where tib post is attaching to the tibia. I wonder if the area below where I had my Kona stress fracture is now under a bit of extra stress due to the massive bony callous which formed to heal the fracture. But I'll just take it as it comes and start right away with the pool running and hopefully be back on the road to show my Gayman whose boss in a couple of weeks.
On a more positive note, my friend Mikki had a stellar race to come in as 2nd lady - yay Mikki!

1st and 2nd Melissa and Mikki - clearly good runners have names with start with M

Big Jo training 29 August - 11 September

2011-09-11T23:16:00.000-07:00

SWIM

13km of swimming last week - weeeeeeeeee! Biggest swim was 5.5km and I even added an extra swim into the week because I was so keen. I'll be building up to 6km so am almost there but have to admit I am using a few of the swimming toys to get me there, while I have always turned up my nose at people who use a whole assortment of swimming condiments I have actually found fins and paddles to be quite helpful. One of the biggest goals of my swimming is to get my stroke count down and by using fins I get a better appreciation of the water and can slow my stroke right down while still actually moving through the water. If I do it paddle-less I don't have the strength to pull against the water effectively since I am gliding so much more than usual hence the paddles to make my pull actually pull.
So don't point and laugh if you see me finning and paddling up - at least I am not using a pull buoy as well...

BIKE

Averaging out at around 10.5 - 11hrs on the bike with ~3hrs being the longest so nothing super exciting. I have been making a concerted effort not to pootle as much on the bike after getting my own WKO+ and actually looking at the graphs and realizing how much time I spend in the pootle zone. So now I ride to work with a purpose.

We had a very wet ride last weekend which turned into a very cold and shivery ride after an untimely puncture stop. I had flashbacks of IMNZ. My hands got so cold that I could change gears because my fingers just crumpled everytime I pushed the gear lever.

No matter how wet it is this jacket is never acceptable

I am loving my new short little bars and feel super speedy whenever I use them, and have also been admiring my lovely bar-tape job which I had to do myself (thanks to Google for the best way to do it) since nobody else in the house was interested.

Why RooRoo what lovely bartape you have

RUN

Ugh. Not going so well. I have been struggling with my calves a bit for the last year, just getting super tight when I run for no good reason and they seem to be getting worse, plus I have this burning pain/incy wincyness near my shin/side of my calf which is bothering me and the last couple of long runs I have done I have felt like a bit of ITB syndrome was knocking on my door. And I am scheduled to run a marathon (a very hilly marathon) in 5 days time...
I think my shin/side of calf problem is my Tibilais Posterior or Flexor Digitorum/Hallucis Longus revolting against me because it seems to be worse with plantarflexion but I can't really get to them myself to try and work it out. I wish I could do acupuncture because I feel like having some needles stuck in there could really help.
I have a theory that since my dreaded posterior tibial stress fracture in 2009 and subsequent 4 months off running, I have become less of a heel striker which has in turn loaded up my calves but they are not strong enough to take it. So I have started doing heel raises but it is too late to see any change before the weekend.
I am seeing my go-to man Graeme White - physio extraordinaire, tomorrow and will just do the dreaded pool running up until the weekend and hope that things hold together... Is this what getting old is all about?!

IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS
Spring has sprung!

Daffodil safe from the neighbours thieving fingers...

Check out our lemons nom nom nom lemon on EVERYTHING!

Big Jo training 16 August - 28 August

2011-08-29T00:44:00.000-07:00

SWIM

Swimming, swimming, swimming.
Well I did miss one swim because of a bit of an annoying cough/sniffles, but lucky I missed that day because apparently the pool was only 25 degrees brrrrrrrrrrr!
Without getting too excited I think that the swim block in Aussie has made me a bit faster - OMG! My go-to pace seems to be about 5sec quicker so I am doing my best to make the most of it and not slack off.
I have even started doing a few exercises to up my shoulder strength, including push ups (lady push ups of course), I can do 2x10!!!!

BIKE

Not quite the 518kms of Aussie but getting out in the cold was quite an achievement in itself. Got back on the Poo Power Program but TapTaps hub battery went dead and couldn't be changed for a few days which made doing any efforts a bit pointless.
I suddenly had an epiphany the other day that my aero bars are far too long. RooRoo looks like it has antlers and there is about 7cm from where my little hand rests to the shifter. So I convinced the Managers of Muppetry that the bars need to be chopped. So after a bit of chopping and filing the cables were ready to go back in which is where the problem started. The front derailleur cable was getting stuck which turned out to be due to the guide tube inside the frame having a spack attack. I thought RooRoo's time might be up but luckily Andrew at Hot Cycles (who is the man) found a way to get in and get things working. Phew.
My short little bars are awesome though and I feel like a real cyclist without antlers.

Oh my, what short bars you have RooRoo - all the better to be aero with my dear...

RUN

I thought my running was going quite well until I did a pretty average 5km O'Hagan's race and then an even more average Cambridge Half Marathon. I am not even going to say what my half time because it is so bad. But it did include a brief splatter on the ground when my ankle just decided to roll over nothing and I face-planted on the road - nothing that I'm not used to anyway.

Not that impressive but more impressive than nothing

I have done my last long run for The Legend so will head out for a bit of a course reccie this weekend which will give me a good idea of how painful it is going to be...

Mancave action at the Cambridge Triathlon Institute

Aussie Kona Camp Report

2011-08-16T01:25:00.000-07:00

So the point of our little soiree to the Sunshine Coast of Australia was to give Jess (aka The Hammer) some company while she trains for her third time in Kona.
It was mostly swim/bike focus since the running around where we were staying wasn't great.

SWIM
8 x swims
24km

Pool's a bit crowded today

Our swimming hole was a quaint little 50m outdoor pool which we had to ourselves most days. It was lovely and warm - between 27 and 28 degrees - something GI could learn from, and nice and clean.
We did 3km sets every day after riding so wasn't anything too strenuous but good to be doing it regularly. As we got towards the end of the week and my little arms and legs were starting to feel quite weary I would think to myself I'd start swimming and see how I went, but I always made the full 3km - its amazing what you can do what you think you can't do any more. If you get my drift.

BIKE
Time: 19hrs15
Distance: 518km

We rode a lot. 2.5-4hrs everyday bar one no-bike day and one easy 60min ride. The Hammer took us all over the hills from Caloundra up to places called Maleny, Montville, Landsborough and Bald Knob. That's right, Bald Knob. The Australian's have some funny place names.
It is pretty hilly once you get away from the coast, although we did a ride up to Noosa which was flat until we got to Coolum and then it was big chainring, little chainring, big chainring, etc, every minute or so. Lucky RooRoo was in good working order.
Some of the towns we rode through we pretty old and looked a bit like time had forgotten them but very nice at the same time.
Our last ride was pretty epic - The Hammer mapped out a ride for us which involved some unknown territory. Based on the terrain around that area we thought it would be a bit undulating but nothing worse than what we had already encountered. We started off well and found the roads we were to take, things were going well until we hit the 'Gravel Road' sign followed by a wiggly 6.5km sign. We didn't have much option other than turning around and aborting our loop so on we pressed. And a wiggly 6.km it was. In fact it was pretty much all downhill and slightly terrifying - not much fun on a TT bike. I tried to remember that going faster downhill on gravel is safer than going at snails pace but it was very scary.

Starting the descent into the unknown

We saw a couple of kangaroos at the end of the gravel section which was exciting and there were a few rustles in the bushes as we rode past which were a bit ominous.
So finally back onto the tarseal and I began to wonder about the 6.5km of downhill we had ridden knowing that our final destination was up in the mountains and what was the profile of the rest of the ride would be like. This question was answered pretty quickly with a 2.5km climb sign, it started off as a gradual climb - nothing too difficult. Then it got steeper and steeper and every corner I got to thinking I must be at the top it just carried on and continued to go up. I have NEVER been so close to getting off my bike and walking in my life, in fact, one of the members of our group who will remain nameless, actually did get off and walk for a section. The last section was the worst, my handle bars were creaking so much with the force I was pulling on them that I thought they were going to snap. The hill maxed out at 21% gradient - eek! It was very, very steep.
That ride ended with a trip to the Montville Bakery which we felt was very well earned.

Nom nom nom

RUN
Time: 3hrs55
Distance: 45.3km

We did one long run in the Noosa National Park which was actually quite hard. It was either soft sand or knobbly rocks underfoot and I rolled my ankles so many times I lost count. I did an extra hour by myself and once I was a bit tired I rolled my ankles so much it was ridiculous. I had to stick to the main tracks because I was worried I would roll an ankle so bad that if I went on an empty track no-one would find me and I would get eaten by snakes and crocodiles. Luckily it didn't come to that but my right ankle was a bit sore for the next day or so.
The other runs were around Caloundra and were nice and warm.


Nice view from lunch post-run. A surf club without a fish burger on the menu?! Unheard of!

Midget bikes were the norm on this trip

BMW and MINI represent

So we are home and are VERY cold!! We are experiencing a 'once in a lifetime polar blast' as the people on the news keep telling us. It even snowed in Auckland for about 30 seconds which is just crazy.

Big Jo training 25 July - 31 July

2011-08-02T00:38:00.000-07:00

SWIM

Had a catch up with Coach Haydn about my swimming this week and now have a few different things to work on. Unfortunately I am about to become one of these people that I like to make fun of who use all kinds of paraphernalia all at once like fins and paddles. I have already had to become a person who uses a watch instead of the clock but only because the GI has such crappy clocks in such dumb places that I can't actually see them when I am in the pool even with contacts in. But if it makes me a faster swimmer I'll do it.
Only did 2 swims this week due to a reshuffling of sessions because of the race in the weekend and I ended up having to cut my swim in favour of my long run.

BIKE

Took it quite easy early on in the week in preparation for the big race in the weekend. For the newcomers to my blog - me and 5 of my cycling buddies did the Solo Race of Six Friends which is a style of racing known as a Gentlemen's Race for those people who know what that is. Bascially you have 6 people in a team and a course which is revealed about 15mins before you start, you are given directions and it is unmarshalled but with a few check points along the way. It is handicapped and teams leave at 2-3min intervals.

A frosty start

I was the token female in our team to get us more of a handicap.

What are you doing Neilio?

Roy's Rebels looking sharp thanks to BMW sponsorship

I was a bit concerned about this race with my current bike fitness but a last minute change in team mates took the pressure off a bit. We got off to a good start, passing about 3 teams in the first half hour and getting through the gravel sections unscathed. I was quite worried about the gravel but it turned out to be ok, pretty hard packed in most places and some very large ruts, they told us about 10% would be gravel but I think it was a bit more than that, some of these sections went on forever.

Gravely gravel

Uphill gravel

J-rad checking that Joanna Razzell is still on

I got a lucky break with a couple of punctures in our group on one of the big downhill gravel sections which meant I was able to cruise down at my own pace while they fixed the punctures which I think saved my legs quite a bit.
We regrouped after the punctures and started making some good time but unfortunately had a major stuff up in the navigation department and ended up 8kms out in the wrong direction with no option but to turn around and head back. We had been team time trialling it with Uncle Roy on the front averaging between 35-40km and it was very sad to have to head back from where we came. I think it definately broke our spirits a bit.

Check in point

First check in point - still riding with gay abandon

Stuck behind Neilio in the gravel

J-Rad and Neilio

The Serottica in action

Uncle Roy the stalwart

Once we were back on course (with an extra 16km in our legs) we got to the nastiest hill of the day which maxed out at 18% gradient. To add insult to injury the last 50m, which was the steepest part, was gravel - ever try to ride up an 18% hill on gravel?! There were a lot of causalities and I believe that more than one person in the race had to get off and walk. I think one of our teammates was pretty close to this by the looks of the photos and one unnamed member of our team managed to get a bit of tow from our supporters car...

Some major suffering going on

Whats going on at the bottom of the hill?!

Happy little pace line

We then took another wrong turn which could have been very bad for us but luckily our supporters were onto it and managed to wave us back. Tempers were getting a bit frayed at this point but we got back to the finish the shortest way possible and ended up with about 12km more than anyone else.
Despite our problems it was a great event and had a certain spirit to it which no other race I have ever done has had. We were very lucky with the weather for this time of year, I think that the vibe in the team could have been a bit different if we had kept taking wrong turns in the pouring rain...

Sums up the spirit of the race

Hopefully Amy Taylor and Mike Little don't mind me stealing a couple of their photos...

RUN

A bit under 50km for the week with a long run of 25km, it has been a very long time since I have run that far in one go! I even had to take a Gu with me. I had to do this run before work mid-week which is definitely not a usual time for me to run, especially that far as well. But it generally went ok, not quite as quick as the week before but still a decent pace. I won't do my next long run until next week at our Aussie training camp so it will be slightly more exotic than my usual route.
Leggies have been holding up ok, one calf and one shin have been a bit niggly and sadly my massage lady is in France (how rude!) but I have been managing ok. I will be very glad to see her when she gets back.

Big Jo training 11 July - 24 July

2011-07-26T00:49:00.000-07:00

SWIM

Not much new to report, just been continuing on my same program. Had a good 4km+ swim last week and almost had blown my foofoo valve by the end of it which is a rarity with the way that I swim. I am doing a training camp in Australia in the next couple of weeks so will do a good block of swimming in the nice outdoor pool in the nice weather while I am there.

BIKE

I really suck at cycling at the moment. It is not good. I went through and compared my recent powerfiles to ones from 2009 and my power is about the same I just seem to be slower. It's pretty depressing and the abuse I am getting for it isn't helping. It's not that I am not trying because I am. We have this Race of Six Friends this weekend and I'm pooping myself that I am going to be holding everyone up. I had a terrible long ride on Sunday just been - my legs had nothing up the hills and I was so slow, so fingers crossed my leggies remember what to do next weekend.

RUN

Running on the other hand is going really well - yay! I have gotten up to 50km p/wk so will be keeping it at that or there abouts and just increase my long run every week. I had a stellar long run of 22km last week and will be upping it to 25km this week. I have to change my days around so I don't waste my legs with a long run the day before our big ride so hopefully having 2 long runs only 4 days apart won't upset my running equilibrium.

WHAT ELSE IS NEW

Three generations and a person with a silly look on their face

I became an aunty! Just like I said I would. It took a while though - 46hrs after induction! We thought she was never going to arrive.

Murfy Razzell enjoying the heater and not enjoying winter

Big Jo training 27 June - 10 July

2011-07-11T15:13:00.000-07:00

Whoever reads my drivel may have noticed that I am only updating once every two weeks - this is a combination of being a bit lazy and also being winter there is not a lot happening in my world. But never fear I will resume my weekly updates in due course.

SWIM

Averaging around 10-11km in the pool per week, I only managed 4km as my longest the last couple of weeks because of work (how rude!) but since podiatry patients are a bit scarce at the moment I have to take what I can.
There has been a bit of unrest at GI with the squad starting to take up 5 of the 6 lanes in the pool much to the dislike of the swimmers in the public lane who are getting muscled out as a result. I think it is bulldust because it is a 33m pool and we used to have way more people per lane (like 14 at the most) at the Teps which was only 25m but we just sucked it up and got on with it but the GI squad are thinking its busy when there are 10 in a lane - ha! It is supposedly only a trial period so may go back to what it has always been. Here's hoping especially after I almost swam right into an extra large lady's bum when she was doing breaststroke in front of me and I was swimming with my head down *shudder*.

BIKE

Did 13.5hrs on the bike somehow, followed by about 12 hrs the next week. My biking has been a bit sub-optimal recently and I seem to be getting dropped when I normally wouldn't so I need to sort this out.
I have gotten roped into doing the Solo Race of Six Friends at the end of the month which is a ~130km race where you have a team of six people and you basically just have to finish as a team. The course is only revealed 30mins beforehand and it is unmarshalled so we have to check in a certain spots so that they know we haven't cheated. The say it is about 10% on gravel which is the part which is keeping me awake at night and I think it is just pretty gnarly in general. It is a handicap race and anyone over 45 and also girls get extra handicap hence me being invited into the team. Pressure is on though because I think our team will be reasonably competitive and I really don't want to be holding everyone up.

RUN

2 x 45km weeks done! I am feeling like I am running properly again for the first time since my terrible stress fracture in 2009 but I am sticking to the plan so as not to break myself again and so far so good. I will now step up to 50km per week and keep around that for a while.
In September it is my birthday and it is what we would refer to as a 'significant' birthday ie. it ends in 0 and I move up an age-group... and lots of people have asked me if I will be having a party or doing something to celebrate. Clearly anyone who asks such questions really don't know me at all because the last thing I would do for this (or anything else in my life for that matter) is have some kind of party. Then I found out that the The Legend Marathon just happens to be on my birthday this year! This is not just any marathon either - it was inspired by Arthur Lydiard and is run over the course where he used to train his athletes, so it is pretty special. I couldn't think of a better way to spend my birthday than running this marathon followed by a birthday lunch at McDonalds - perfect! And if anyone is upset that I am not sharing my birthday with them then they can run it with me, or bring me cake at the finish.
It is pretty brutal course over the Waitakere Ranges and as my first stand alone marathon I will just be doing it to do it. It is definitely not a course to go fast on so I will just be pootling along and enjoying my day.

IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS
Junior Mints in NZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Who doesn't like Junior Mints? They're chocolate, they're peppermint, they're delicious!"

By the next time I blog I will be an aunty! My sister is ready to pop any second now with the first of the next generation of Carrel's - exciting!

Big Jo training 13 June - 26 June

2011-06-27T01:08:00.000-07:00

SWIM

Still just razzling along building up, did a couple of 4.5km session without any problems. The rest of the swims have been around 3km. I can't really tell if I'm getting faster but I think the point at the moment is more to reduce my stroke rate which seems to be going ok.
I have had a bit of pool rage recently which I have managed to contain but I seriously wonder what goes through some peoples heads when they are swimming in public lanes. Luckily I have mastered the art of squeezing down the middle of the lane to pass slow people (yes there are actually people slower than me) and also performing closely executed tumble turns when there are people blocking the end of the pool.

BIKE

Last weekend was the 2-up TT which I was supposed to do with Nicky, sadly she pulled out on me the day before so I was a bit stuck. I still wanted to do it but had already struggled to find a partner so I was a bit desperate, desperation led me to ask Uncle Roy... I had to make sure Uncle Roy understood the whole point was that we ride together and that he was not to drop me, and he did very well at keeping me on. I only had to yell out to him a couple of times mostly around corners where he doesn't slow down at all and I muppet around. We did really look quite ridiculous and I even heard the guys who started behind us say afterwards "that little girl and her old man did really well!!" - shame!!

My concentration face and Roy's happy face

The rest of the time I have been doing quality over quantity with my own private battles with annoying men who sit on my wheel during efforts.
I had a sad wheel episode involving a very very large pothole which snuck up on me. I don't know how I didn't crash and I even stayed on aerobars somehow. Sadly my rim didn't really make it so now I need a new one. And I was only using that wheel because the rim on my other wheel is stuffed so I am not doing so well in the front wheel department.

Sad face

RUN

My running has been going well, with the last two weeks at 40km so now I can step up to 45km woo hoo! Nothing much else to report though, its getting very muddy on our usual paths which isn't so fun and my running shoes are looking pretty sad. I have been channeling my inner Paula Findlay (who I have a small non-lesbian crush on) during my runs and trying to be awesome.

IN OTHER NEWS

Fun times with the Razzle-cat. Not only do I have a smartphone but I also have a smartcomputer

Big Jo training 30 May - 12 June

2011-06-13T02:05:00.000-07:00

SWIM

Knocked out my longest session of 4km since my shoulder issues - woohoo.
We had a weekend at the Cambridge Triathlon Institute over the long weekend so got to swim in the St Peter's school pool and it was super duper. Despite being outside and having to do a cold dash from the pool deck to the water, it was the perfect temperature (something GI pool could learn something about...) and was lovely and clean. And it was fast! I thought maybe it was just me... but sadly my sources confirmed it as being a fast pool.
Now that I have got 4km out of the way I will be slowly building back up to the dreaded 6km session and maybe I will have grown scales by then.

BIKE

Averaging about 10hrs on the bike at the moment enjoying not having to do the 4hr+ rides which I have had to do over the last couple of winters with Kona and Wisconsin to train for.
During our CTI weekend we did a club race which was a 30km points races with 6 sprints. My mission was to not get dropped in the sprints, it took me a couple of sprints to get into it so by the end I was in the first half of the pack instead of the back - yay! My sprinting skills are still very sad though - on my WKO+ graphs for 5sec power I am in the 'Untrained' division where as for 5mins and 1 hour I am much higher up the graph.

We have started to get back on the efforts wagon and I am really struggling with annoying men who sit on my wheel when I pass them. It is SO annoying and it happens all the time to me. I come past them (obviously going much faster then them since I am overtaking), and they jump on my wheel so I can just see them, or even worse, hear them, out of the corner of my eye. They don't get the message when I swing out wide or attempt to surge. Last week it was a guy on a MTB (yes a MTB!!), in the end I let him pass them dropped back but he slowed down and the whole process started again. In the weekend it was a whole bunch of men and the most insulting part was when they started to encourage me as they all sprinted past me at the end after I had dragged them along for almost 8km - ARGH!!!
This weekend is the CMC 2-up TT which I will be doing with Nicky, we are not exactly compatible in terms of size or speed or equipment but I guess it is better than not doing it at all. Although not sure whether Nicky will think that after she has dragged me along for 40km.
Last year I did it with Jess who is a semi-midget and we had a few issues along the way but by the looks of things we were happy at the start.

Jess's helmet suits her much better than mine. I look like I am wearing a bowling ball

RUN

Keeping my mileage nice and controlled with 35km last week and 30km the week before. Next week will be 35km again and then 40km - see a pattern?! I think once I get to 50km I'll keep it there for a while and then try and get fast.
Last weekend we did our long run (1hr!) on a new path which I have been waiting for about the last 5 years to be built. For anyone in the Auckland area we ran on the new boardwalk thing which goes around the Orakei Basin which is pretty exciting because I used to have to run to the end and then turn around and run back the same way. If only this had've been built about 5 years ago when I actually lived a lot closer.

OTHER EXCITING NEWS?
Nothing that I can think of... My smartphone isn't smart enough to take photos when I forget hence the lack of photos in this blog.

I managed to get hold of another pair of gloves to replace my beloved glove which I lost a couple of weeks ago. I emailed SmartWool when I was desperate to find some and their online store didn't ship internationally and they never replied to me - boo, hiss, boo. No more love for you SmartWool. Very poor form when a company doesn't reply to a doting customer ( and I was very doting), even if they couldn't help me am I so unimportant that they can't even reply to tell me that? Very poor form indeed.
It pained me a little bit to continue to support their products a bit because of this (I take it VERY personally when I get bad customer service) but I am just so in love with their gloves that I couldn't boycott. But I have added them to my memory bank of bad service, I don't forget these things...

Big Jo training 23 May - 29 May

2011-05-29T23:12:00.000-07:00

SWIM

~8.2km

Fully back on the bandwagon now.
Had a muscle balance so now have a few exercises to work on. I can't see it because it is behind me but apparently muscles below my shoulder blade have wasted quite a bit and when I lift my arms above my head my shoulder blade swings out too early, this is not good because it can lead to injuries from the muscles not functioning properly. So I am currently working on the muscles which hold the shoulder blade down and once I have got that sorted I can move onto more general shoulder strengthening exercises.
Exciting.

BIKE

Had an attack of the lazy's during the week but got a bit of mileage over the weekend to make up for it. We did the CMC club race which was the Mauku Mountain Classic and involved climbing up a mountain twice. Well, not really a mountain but a seriously steep hill, maybe of the steepest climbs I have ever ridden up. I almost got taken out in the last 100m by a kid who started to weave all over the place, I may have dropped an F-bomb... But I made it up and was first girl in my grade woo-hoo.
The next day was a solid ride with Uncle Roy and the Asian Ninjas and a couple of other guys. My mojo is starting to come back but there was still some suffering happening in the last half.
Sad story of week is that I lost one of my most favoritest gloves which I bought in Syracuse last year. It was one of the best purchases of my life. They are a pair of SmartWool training gloves and they make my life complete.


My lonely orphaned glove

I took them off during the ride and put them in my back pocket and never saw the right one again. I can only assume that it fell out when I took my sunglasses out, I was so distraught about it that Mum and I even drove all the way back over to where I thought I lost it to look, but to no avail...
So now I am on a mission to find another pair. I have discovered that I can actually get them in NZ (insanely expensive...) or get them for cheaper from the US if I can get someone to ship them to me at a reasonable rate. So at least me and my favourite gloves will be united once again.

RUN

~32km

Week one of Learn How to Run Again. Jared-Razzle purchased his very own Gayman 110 which I may have already used more than he has... but it is a good way to track what I'm up to. So I'm sure he won't mind sharing it with me until I can get my own :)
Started out with my longest run of 60mins which was in the pouring rain and very Ironman NZ-esque but other than that was pretty good. The rest of the runs were pretty short, easy runs and Sunday was off the bike (with a slightly extended T2...) which was a bit of a shock to the legs.

Raining in Devonport

IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS:

I have become a SmartPhone user! Not really on purpose - I switched phone companies and they gave me a phone! So I can now Facetube, Twitface and Twitstalk on the go. All this technology is getting a bit much though - I get home and start up my laptop to download and charge the Gayman, download Taptap, charge my phone, switch on the wifi, etc - it's very high maintenance...

Big Jo training 16 May - 22 May

2011-05-24T00:38:00.000-07:00

SWIM

It swims!! Edging back into it without any problems so far, this week I did 3 swims of around 3km each woo hoo! I resurrected Haydn's Fish Program of Greatness and modified it a bit so it's less volume and will build back up if I don't have any problems.
My shoulder blade is looking a bit bony but other than that the dreaded Idiopathic Brachial Neuritis is no way near as bad as it could have been YAY!

BIKE

I have been feeling very, very average on the bike recently like my legs are super tired when I have hardly even done anything. I got my iron and haemoglobin tested and surprise, surprise I have iron-deficiency anaemia.
Again.
May have something to do with my non red meat diet... The numbers weren't as bad as they have been in the past, but enough for me to feel a bit wiped out. So I have started on the iron treatment and hopefully will be back to full speed soon.
Didn't have a long ride this week because of Huntly on Sunday so most of the week was pootling anyway.

RUN

Did the O'Hagan's 5km in a not so impressive time followed by the Huntly 10km in an also less than impressive time. I decided if I broke 40mins at Huntly I would be allowed McDonald's and there was certainly no McDonald's being eaten in the weekend...

No Maccas for slow people

Jared Razzle on the other hand had a stellar run and proved that fat is fast. He broke 80mins for the first time which we were all super impressed about until we realized the course was ~500m short... It was still a good time for him but not quite the magical sub 80 he had hoped for. Davo also proved that fat is fast but not quite as fast as his brother.

Rarotonga Tri and last two weeks

2011-05-15T01:32:00.000-07:00

RARO TRI RACE REPORT

I finally got to Rarotonga safe and sound despite being victim of a narky weight-Nazi Air NZ check-in man and then being abandoned at the airport in the early hours of the morning and hitching a ride with a local.
It was super windy and certainly wasn't the tranquil island setting I thought it would be.

Loaded up with carry-on luggage

The lagoon was really choppy with lots of white caps. It was a big 1500m loop, I had thought they might make it a 3x500m loop since it was so rough but no such luck.

I came out of the water about 10th female with a pretty shocking swim. I was just glad to be back on dry land.
The bike was a lap of the island with an extra bit up a hill with the rest flat. The road conditions were very rough with a nice tailwind for the first part and a very nasty headwind at the end. I passed a few girls at the start of the bike and came off in 7th place.

Started the run and passed 4 girls in the first couple of kms to be in 3rd place which is where I stayed. The run was out and back in both directions and dead flat. It was a bit warm but was cloudy so heat wasn't really a problem.


Takeaway coffee anyone?

Crossed the line and got crowned with a Kona-style flower crown/wreath thingy which made me feel like Chrissie Wellington and was probably the highlight of the day. Post-race spread was a delicious array of tropical fruits and chocolate muffins and coconut water/milk served in a coconut. Nom nom nom.

Doing my best impersonation of Chrissie

The weather was pretty disappointing and it was only the 2nd time in 17 years that the weather hasn't come to the party so I guess I will have to come back to give it a go on a better day.
There was a lot of extra activities for the visiting triathletes over the next few days like a Hash House Harriers pack run followed by a traditional Umu and the Round Raro Cycle Race. The cycle wasn't much fun on the TT bike plus some not so nice weather, I missed the cut for the first group so I sat at the back of the 2nd group and kept out of trouble.

Front page of the Cook Island Times. Spot the person not paying attention. I guess that Cultural Awareness course I was on a few weeks ago was wasted on me

The rest of the trip was centered around the wedding so I got to stay in a flash resort and did enough socializing to last me for the next 6 months at least. Everyone in Rarotonga was really friendly and accommodating, especially the race organizers and other athletes. The logistics of getting from place to place was sometimes a bit difficult but I was always able to get a lift with other athletes or friendly locals.

Nice place for a wedding

I went for a few extra swims, bikes and runs while I was there but nothing too strenuous. I really admire Kelly Pick and Vanessa Palmer who came 1st and 2nd in the tri for being as fast as they are with such limited training resources ie. no pool and pretty much only one road to ride on which is full of potholes.

After a few attempts at a photo I decided the back of my head was better than the front

So now back to work and back to reality. I will be getting a muscle balance done in the next week to sort out whats working and whats not working with my shoulder so I can hopefully start a bit more swimming.
I managed to take about 45 seconds off at my second attempt at the O'Hagan's 5km the week before Raro and will do the 10km at the Huntly Half next weekend for a bit of pain and suffering.

I came home to a major caterpillar/butterfly disaster with the caterpillars completely decimating their swan plant and choosing all sorts of inconvenience places to turn into a chrysalis so I have had to do an emergency dash to find them more food. Exciting stuff eh.

Big Jo training 18 April - 1 May

2011-04-30T22:50:00.000-07:00

Did I miss a week? Whoops.

SWIM

Guess what? I can swim!!
My shoulder was much improved with a course of prednisone so that it wasn't sore all the time like it had been. I was even able to start sleeping on my tummy again. Ahhhhhh. So I had to make a decision about this Raro tri. I started off with a 200m swim which I was able to do with a bit of discomfort so I went ahead and confirmed my entry for Raro.
Since then I have done a couple of pootley swims of around 1200m-1500m without too many issues. Its not fantastic but isn't sore afterwards. I am slightly paranoid that my semi-wasted rotator cuff muscles are going revolt against me and start to cause an impingement from swimming so I'm not going to be silly about it. I'll take stock after Raro and start some exercises and hopefully start building up the swimming nice and gently and see what happens.
My poor little shoulder blade is looking a bit bonier than usual but it isn't too obvious luckily and my arm is definitely weaker when I lift things. A few random things like pulling off gloves and putting Jared's car in gear is a bit harder but so far there doesn't seem to be anything that I can't do which is good news.

BIKE

BIG week on the bike over Easter for Big Jo. Not really intentional but the weather was good so why not. Hot Cycles had organised a 140km ride on Good Friday which was a pretty easy way to get some km's in. It was the longest I had spent on my bike since Ironman and other than a bit of a fidgey-widgey shoulder it was pretty good. The next day was a bit more difficult and my leggies started to feel very sad after about 2.5hrs but luckily Uncle Roy was understanding and didn't try to hurt me too much. He even bought me a Red Ambulance to keep me going. The next day my legs were very, very sad but we only did an 'easy' Royport loop thank goodness. It was about 17.5hrs on the bike that week.
The next week was a bit quieter, I dusted off RooRoo in anticipation for our little trip next week and attempted the Saturday morning TT. I certainly didn't break any speed records but my power was better than ever. Go figure.

The Serottica with a bit more company than usual

Today was the Cycle for Life - 100km 'fun' ride around the coast from Clevedon. It was insanely windy and despite their reassurance that the roadworks along the course had been patched up the road was in a terrible condition. About 3-4km steep downhill in thick gravel with huge stones, I was so close to getting off and walking because I was so scared, I lost control a couple of times and almost came off. I don't know how anyone thought it would be safe for cyclists, I wouldn't have even wanted to drive my car down there. And they told us two days before that the road and been rolled and was smooth and it should be no problems for cyclists - LIARS!! That really ruined my ride, plus my chain coming off and me losing my group and having to ride solo for a bit chunk of it. Luckily I got picked up by another group which wasn't exactly fast but was better than being by myself.
My end time was pretty slow but at least I got in a decent ride on a crappy day.

RUN

Made my big comeback at the O'Hagan's 5km for a bit of an up-tempo run, certainly not all-out but it was still hard. It was a far cry from my 17.50 best or even my 18.40 rut but I can only get better from here.
Have done a couple of long runs, the longest just under an hour - oh my! Everything seems to be going ok so I think I am on the comeback - look out world here comes JO...

IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS...

Not actually very exciting at all but in an attempt to spruce up our garden I planted some random flower seeds a while ago. Of course nothing actually grew for ages but something popped up recently, when I checked what I had planted it seems that the Cosmos plant was the only one who made it. I chose Cosmos after my dear little yellow friend who I re-homed a couple of years ago. So now whenever I come home the first thing I see is Cosmo! Warm fuzzy.

Hello Cosmo

Actual Cosmo. Hello Cosmo

Monarch caterpillar/butterfly central at the moment

Orthotics for cycling

2011-04-30T01:11:00.000-07:00

With a bit of extra time on my hands at the moment I have decided to do a few little podiatry-related blogs which people might (or maybe not) find interesting. Kicking it off is orthotics for cycling.

Ever get sore feet while riding? Toes or feet go to sleep? How about feeling like you have been burning piece of coal underneath the ball of your foot? Maybe you have knee or hip pain? Or maybe you just feel a bit wonky or crooked on the bike?

Many cyclists will have experienced at least one of the things mentioned above, but not a lot of people know what they can do about it or where to find help. Not everyone knows that a sports podiatrist can help to solve these problems with a pair of orthotics to go into your cycling shoes.

Orthotics are also known as insoles and are inserts which are placed in the bottom of a shoe to provide extra support and to address any biomechanical abnormalities of the foot or lower limb. They can be prefabricated (“off the shelf”) or custom made.

They can either be rigid or soft; made from a variety of materials such as polyethylene, carbon fibre, EVA and plastazote. They can have modifications added to the rearfoot (back of the orthotic) or the forefoot (front of the orthotic) depending on the issue which they are addressing.

How can orthotics help me on the bike?

Orthotics help to redistribute pressures within the foot, they correct biomechanical abnormalities of the foot and lower limb, and also provide additional cushioning and support to the foot. They can be used to reduce pain or to improve alignment in the foot and lower limb.

I have orthotics in my running shoes – should I be wearing them in my cycling shoes?

People need orthotics for a variety of reasons and they can be temporary or permanent. A lot of people mostly associate orthotics with running, however the orthotics used for running and for cycling are quite different as there are different forces placed on the foot with these two activities. There is a lack of impact in cycling which can neutralize biomechanical abnormalities seen in weight-bearing (ie. running). Just because a person uses orthotics for running doesn’t necessarily mean that they need them for cycling, and vice-versa.

The most common complaints requiring orthotic intervention for cycling include:

- - Numbness/tingling in foot

- - Arch or heel pain

- - Knee pain

- - Leg length discrepancy

- - Pain/burning under the ball of the foot

- - Achilles tendon, shin or calf pain

- - Hip pain

- - Iliotibial Band pain

If you do not experience any pain or discomfort while cycling then you may not need orthotics, however sometimes by adding in an orthotic which can help to redistribute pressures on certain parts of the foot, people realize that they are far more comfortable with one. Sometimes you don’t realize that you have been uncomfortable until you try something new.

Cycling is not supposed to be uncomfortable (it’s supposed to be painful when you are riding hard…) so if you are experiencing any type of pain when sitting on your bike and going for an easy ride then something is wrong.

So what is the difference between cycling orthotics and other kinds of orthotics?

Cycling shoes are very different to running shoes and therefore the orthotics are very different as well. Cycling orthotics need to be narrower and have a lower profile to be able to sit comfortably in the shoe and accommodate a foot as well (most important!). Running orthotics tend to focus more on the rearfoot as this is often the first point of contact, as opposed to cycling orthotics which focus more on the forefoot as this is where the foot contacts the pedal.

Anything else I need to know about cycling orthotics?

Because of the repetitive nature of cycling an incorrect biomechanical pattern will more than likely result in an injury. It has been estimated that a competitive cyclist performs more than 8 million hip and knee flexions in a year¹ – even for a recreational cyclist this number is in the region of 2-4 million. Therefore it is important to address any foot or lower leg abnormalities before they cause pain or muscle imbalances.

Shoe and pedal combinations, as well as cleat placement, are also factors which can either help or hinder the biomechanics of the lower limb and should always be taken into consideration when assessing for orthotics.

Last and certainly not least, a proper bike fit in terms of frame size, saddle and bar height and saddle position, in conjunction with pedals, shoes and orthotics, are imperative for maximising power transfer and creating a comfortable ride.

¹Schep, et al (1999), Flow limitations in the iliac arteries in endurance athletes. Int J Sports Med.

At least my feet were happy

Big Jo training 11 April - 17 April

2011-04-17T16:25:00.000-07:00

I just took this week as it came with my sad shoulder problem. I started the week taking Tramadol for the pain but it didn't seem to make much difference so cashed in my Codiene prescription which definately didn't help. I went back to the doctor in desperation after having to spend a night sleeping sitting up on the couch because it hurt too much to lie down and got some Prednisone which combined with the Tramadol and some acupuncture seems to be working. I have never taken so many drugs in my life as I have in the last week.

Drugs anyone?

Prednisone has also been shown (anecdotally...) to help to lessen the extent of the muscle weaknening and to shorten the whole duration of the condition so fingers crossed... My muscle weakness is still about the same and hasn't gotten worse which is good news. The physio thinks that when the pain has settled if I am able to swim without aggravating it then I should be ok to do so which is very good news.
I'm still hopeful I can do the Raro Tri which is now in just under 3 weeks time, based on the amount it has improved in the last few days I am sure I will be able to wing my way through it... I looked at changing my flight so I arrived after the Tri and wouldn't have the temptation, it would cost about $450 to change my flight which cost me $143 so I don't think that is going to happen...

BIKE

Biking probably hurt about as much as sitting on the couch so I figured I may as well keep riding plus I had pre-entered the CMC club race and didn't want do a no-show so I dragged my sorry ass out to Ararimu to race in the rain. The rain cleared up a bit for the race and it was a nasty 2 lap course with lots of hills. I was good on the uphills and would clear out from the bunch pretty easily but really suck on the downhills so needed to get a gap going up so I didn't get dropped going down. There was a little hill about 300m before the finish so I went super hard up there to try and gap the other girls but didn't have enough grunt on the flat and got pipped by about half a wheel length to come 2nd girl. Stink. I tried pretty hard and felt like my intestines were going to burst out and my legs were going to explode but was still pretty dark at myself for letting her pass me.
The rest of the week was just tootling around and nothing too exciting.

RUN

Still just testing out the hip and not doing much, did 4 runs this week with my longest run since IMNZ of 32mins woo-hoo! Hip seems to be all good, shoulder hurts to run but no more than doing anything else.
I'm looking forward to watching the Boston Marathon early tomorrow where NZ's own Kim Smith will be looking to take it out, go KIM!! I used to race against her when I was at school. Actually I use the term 'race' a bit loosely - we would run the same course and she would lap me...

IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS

This weekend was the last race in the People's Tri series and a big showdown between Jared, David and Kezzle. Jared lead Kezzle out the water then Kezzle dropped Jared on the bike and went on to take the title. Davo was never quite in the race... It was a fantastic performance by Kezzle-Anne who hasn't raced anything shorter than a Half for many, many years.

Davo leading a train of boyfriends, they could recognise a powerhorse when they saw one. Pity no-one could stay on

Post-race muffin time

PUSSY CAT ANTICS:

Ever get the feeling you are being watched? Go on Murfy... enjoy your dinner...

A Sad Little Ironman

2011-04-11T14:08:00.000-07:00

Since my last post I started my swim program and knocked out the first 6km session like I was supposed to, a bit of a mission but I got the job done. My shoulders actually felt tired for once so it must have been good for me.
The next day over the space of about an hour I got this severe aching/throbbing pain in my left shoulder which was relentless. It was probably some of the worse pain I have ever felt and meant that I couldn't concentrate on what I was doing and no changes in position or pain killers helped. It settled a bit over the next 24 hours but I was unable to swim the next day because it hurt to lift my arm. At this stage I thought it was related to the big swim set two days before but wasn't really convinced.
A few days went and it gradually got better, not the full 100 but on its way and I was able to do an easy 1500m in the pool on Friday. Saturday came and the severe aching pain started creeping back, probably even worse that the first time. I was at a hen's night and had to go home because the pain was so bad and then I couldn't sleep because there was no position that I could lie in which didn't hurt. I was pretty miserable. I managed to get in with a sports doctor on Monday (yesterday) and on describing my symptoms and doing a couple of muscle tests he concluded that I have something called Idiopathic Brachial Neuritis otherwise known as Parsonage-Turner Syndrome. I didn't really care what was wrong with it I just wanted the pain to go away.
I had never heard of this before so he started telling me the usual course - severe pain in the shoulder/upper arm (check), no trauma or aggravation (check), pain settles over a couple of weeks (thank god), followed by painless atrophy (wasting) and paralysis of the shoulder girdle muscles which can take 6 to 18 months to resolve (HOLY SHIT). He did a couple of muscle tests and the left side was definately weaker than the right but since I am right handed and pretty much have no upper body strength anyway I am not reading too much into that.
So he has given me some drugs to get me through the painful stage so I can sleep at night (which didn't really work last night anyway) and has said that once the atrophy kicks in swimming will not be a good idea as I will develop muscle imbalances from the unaffected muscles making up for the wasted muscles which could then cause subsequent rotator cuff/impingement type injuries. Even cycling on TT bars or on my drops could be a problem because you need some control over the shoulder blade when you are in those positions.
I wouldn't say that I am in denial and he is a well respected sports doctor, but it is early days yet and I am trying to stay positive and hope that either he is wrong about the diagnosis or I manage to escape with little or no wasting/paralysis... I did a bit of a google search (as you do...) and unfortunately my symptoms so far fit into the symptoms they describe.
So I am pretty devastated that this is the course that it could take. At least I will still be able to run and ride my bike but if it is going to take 6 months + then there is a good chance I may miss some or all of the next triathlon season. And its a pretty scary thought that my muscles are going to waste and maybe become paralysed, not just in terms of triathlon but in terms of everyday life. Things like tying up my hair and maybe even getting dressed could become a problem if I can't use some of my shoulder muscles.
So at the moment I am just taking it as it comes and running and biking as I can and once the pain settles I will hopefully start on some exercises to help maintain any strength I have. Unfortunately I have seen too many ongoing shoulder problems so I know what a pain they can be. Sometimes having too much medical knowledge is a curse especially with my ability to dramatize everything - by the sounds of things things could be dramatic enough.

Life can be a bit more bearable with a fake moustache

The rest of the week wasn't too exciting, did a couple of shorts runs with no hip issues (yay) and the usual riding. We got caught up in a bunch on Saturday which we couldn't get away from despite a couple of diversions from the route, so eventually gave in and rode with them. The bunch then got blown apart by the Mechanics Bay bunch and I lasted about 30secs... I did manage to get a new max power of 481w - woo hoo!!

Murfy getting all razzled up by my catnip plant which she is crushing

Big Jo training 21 March - 3 April

2011-04-04T22:49:00.000-07:00

Lets get ourselves back to our usual format...

SWIM

My hip was still a being a bit fidgey-widgey with kicking and there is only so much PB I can take so I decided to take the last week completely off swimming. I met with Haydn about my piss-poor swimming and he devised a program for me starting with a 6km session EEK!! So I am hoping a week off will settle the hip enough so I can start with Program Fishy. Unfortunately my week of swimming meant that I would miss the annual Waikato Five Bridges Swim which somehow increased from 5km to 7.1km despite using the same course, odd. I was there anyway as the driver and only had a little bit of FOMO. J-Rad razzled the field and led from start to finish while Davo attempted to swam with Jared but only lasted about 200m.

Swimmers waiting to start the big float

J-Rad and Davo in 1st and 2nd

BIKE

In attempt to become a better cyclist I have turned up to the Counties Manukau club races the last two weekends. The first one was a complete waste of time with both me and J-Rad puncturing on the first lap ending our races. I thought my puncture may have been karma for not stopping for Jared when I saw him walking back but I figured he would be mad if I sacrificed my race, of course had I have been dropped from the bunch it would have been a different story. But any case I had a puncture of my own about 10mins later and had to pull out anyway. And it rained the whole time so all in all was not a fun afternoon.
The following week was an 80km handicap race in perfect weather. I was on quite a large handicap but the group was too big and after 3 laps out of 5 me and a few others peeled away. Our new little group got along quite well until some of the faster bunches caught and obliterated us so I ended up sad and alone for the last lap. But I got there in the end, smug in the fact that out of the 16 people who started in my group only 6 of us finished.
So club racing is to be a permanent fixture on our weekend calendar from now on.

My dear friend Neilio hooked me up with some winter BMW kit.

RUN

First run since Ironman woo-hoo!
Did a series of little intervals with one minutes walking in between and all seemed pretty good, not quite the full 100 but almost there. Going on the flat and downhill is ok but uphill was still a bit iffy. So I'll just keep it easy and on the flat for now and hopefully we'll come right.

Practicing my walking and enjoying the scenery

IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS

The Serottica enjoying the Thursday ferry ride.

Don't be fooled - its not the Serottica. Davo specializing in bikes for midgets, this is Lesbo's new steed. Nude titanium, nom nom nom

Big Jo Update

2011-03-22T00:31:00.000-07:00

So what have I been doing post Ironman?
Mostly appreciating being warm and dry...
My hip is still settling - an MRI showed that the bone was actually ok but I had Psoas and Greater Trochanter bursitis and inflammation on the Rectus Femoris tendon and, oddly enough, a labral tear. Which basically relates to ouchy hip flexors and a tear in the cartilage - I haven't have any symptoms from the cartilage so will chose to ignore it, I may have just had an overzealous radiologist... This is settling but is still a problem with kicking in the pool so I have become re-acquainted with my pull buoy in the pool. My foot was even more of a problem post Ironman and I become convinced that I had a cuboid stress fracture but this seems to have settled with strapping, so maybe just a bit of instability around the joint. Phew.
So for the last two weeks I have been tootling in the pool and tootling along on my road bike, having a few sleep-ins and eating whatever I want. I had my first pie in about 4 years and have had McDonalds TWICE - woohoo!! And have really been overdoing it in the banana chip department nom nom nom...

McD's post Ironman - delicious... A Happy Little Ironman

Pie and coke. Nom nom nom

I did the Kohi Swim (since I was already entered) but only did 500m the week after IM, and then attempted the 2000m the following week but had to abort to 1500m because my hip decided not to come to the party. Sadly I think I think I set myself back a bit in the hip department after that swim - bad Muppet behaviour... I won a pair of Rudy sunglasses though which pretty much paid for my entry for the series :)
I have realized how poor I am so am focusing on working a lot in the next wee while I am not training much. I am going to Rarotonga for a wedding in May which just happens to coincide with the Raro Tri (how convenient...) so need to save some money for that. Lucky I already bought my flights when Air New Zealand were having a sale for $350 return saving myself about $500 yesssssss... I'll just have to live on crackers, fruit and wedding food while I am there. Shame its not a longer race then I could stock up on gels, bars, chips, pretzels and chocolate from the aid stations ;)

My Thursday lunch spot. Nice

Ironman NZ opened up its entries 10 days after the race which was crazy soon. By that stage I had convinced myself I wanted to do it next year and decided if it stayed open long enough so that I could afford to enter I would enter AG - it sold out in less than 2 days... So I have made a deal with myself and The Directors of Muppetry that if I am in the state to swim 60mins or under I will race Pro. Obviously this is going to take a bit of work but something has to be done, so I have sent an SOS message to Haydn Woolley who is widely regarded as one of the best swim coaches around. I have complete faith in him and I have a year to do it so think it can be done.
Other things I have been doing in my down time is playing with the new kittycat who lives next door and mowing the lawn at the Cambridge Training Camp. And I got my car serviced - exciting.

Murfy and ThunderCat making progress

IMNZ Race Report - If you are going through hell, keep going

2011-03-06T13:09:00.000-08:00

Ironman New Zealand 2011 - what a day. It will go down with the 2006 race which got blown out into a short bike/run, 2011 will be remembered as the day that the sky cried for us. Coming from New Zealand we are used to rain and unpredictable weather in summer, but generally if there is rain for a while there will eventually be a break in the weather. It was almost like someone was taking the piss out of us on Saturday with non-stop rain from early in the morning until the following day. Over the course of my race I think there may have been 30-40mins through out the whole day when it didn't rain. It was awful.

PRE-RACE
I had been humming and haa-ing over clothing choice for the bike since I have a history of hypothermia in wet weather, I knew that if I got to the point of the uncontrollable shivers (it doesn't take much for me) my race would be over. When the pounding rain woke me at 2.30am and I lay in the bed awake for the next 2hrs I decided to add an extra baselayer to my outfit for the day. I think that was the smartest decision I have ever made in a race.
Pre-race stuff was pretty standard but made very unpleasant by the rain. I was in and out of transition as quickly as I could with tyres pumped up, bottles filled (fronty was already a bit filled with rain water despite my helmet being on top of it) and chain lubed.
Wetsuit on and then down into the water for a quick warm up. There was the usual Maori waka entertainment plus a minutes silence for the victims of the Christchurch earthquake two weeks ago.
Our race start was 6.45 and it was dark and poor visibility due to the rain - awesome.

Kezzle and I. The last time I would be dry for 11hours

Nervous much?

SWIM
My favourite part... not. Off went the gun and I assume I got dropped pretty much straight away but since I couldn't see anything its hard to tell. There was a group of three of us for the first 400-500m or so which was then reduced to two as we lost the feet in front. I could not see where I was going at all and had to stop and lift up my goggles a couple of times to check. Luckily the tail-end kayak let me know when we were swimming in the middle of the buoys where we weren't supposed to be.

Can't see much? Neither could I

So it was just me and my friend Laura-Clare Whelan out for a nice Saturday morning swim. I felt like I was going quite hard but knew when the first AG'ers came past us quite early on that this was not going to be a good swim time for me. I was actually pretty stuffed by the end but was dreading seeing my time at the end and it turned out to be pretty bad - 1hr 09, my worst swim time in recent years. Based on how many AG'ers passed us I thought it would be more like 1hr15 so I guess that is something.
I then tripped up the stairs on the way to T1 after being warned that the steps were slippery. Good one.

Hanging my head after a pitiful swim

BIKE

Had a reasonable T1, struggled to zip my vest up with cold hands and all the helpful volunteers loaded up my pockets with my food. Had a bit of a chat to Nick Lawson up the Napier-Taupo and then tried to settle in a rhythm from there with lots of men passing me. I felt like quite a fraud with my pro number on being so far behind everyone else. After about 10-15mins the rain started to come down even harder and already I could feel my spirit breaking. Its not a good feeling starting a 180km bike ride and wanting to stop already, I was cold and wet and miserable.
I had made the mistake of not pre-opening any of my Em's Cookie Bars and my cold hands were not coping well but I knew I had to eat to keep warm. Jess Lawson came past me not long into the bike so I stuck with her for the next 60km or so until I grabbed a bottle to fill up fronty from an aid station but was having trouble squeezing the bottle and had to slow right down and lost Jess.
We had a tailwind from Reporoa to Taupo which was one saving grace so the hills before the end of the bike weren't too bad.

The spectators on the course were great in such awful conditions and it certainly pepped me up whenever I saw someone I knew. My coldness was coming and going and the rain would ease up a bit and then it would hammer down.
I finally managed to overcome my inability to go wees on the bike which was a small ray of sunshine in my dark day, and it was lovely and warm :) I am sure there was more than enough rain to wash it away but I did still feel bad for RooRoo.
Coming down back into Taupo for the first lap is a few long downhills and I started to get very cold and shiverey. I knew this could be the beginning of the end for me and I had already seen Hannah Lawrence pull out I suspected due to the cold. There was a time there that I really believed I wasn't going to make it to the end of the bike, despite having 4 layers on top plus arm warmers - I was very cold. I couldn't believe that people were out there in just tri tops and arm warmers, just looking at them made me shiver.

Hating life

I started to make a slight comeback and generated a bit of heat up the hills of the 2nd lap and started to feel a bit more positive about things. I finally made it to Reporoa for the last time and concentrated on getting home. My power had been a bit lower than what I was aiming for but my poor leggies were so cold it was hardly surprising, I didn't think running a marathon on cold legs and numb feet was going to be pretty either. Finally rolled into town only to realize I had a punctured my rear tyre, a couple of times during the ride I thought the rear felt a bit suspect so it may have been going down for a while. I had to run the last 20m or so because it was pretty much dead flat at this stage and there was a nasty speed bump at the end, so I rolled into T2 with a 5hr38 bike split which is the same as my 2009 time. I think that given the conditions I should be happy with that time because 2009 conditions were much better but I'm not sure that my opinion is shared with the Directors of Muppetry.

RUN
Started the run and my trusty Gayman told me I was running 4.40's - whoops. It felt so easy. So I slowed right down and aimed to keep it at 5mins/km. The rain was hammering down and my visor became so waterlogged that it was sliding down my head. I had given my feet a thorough vas-ing up in T2 but was starting to develop a blister on my arch so I had to have a couple of sit downs in the medical tents over the course to get that fixed.
My 5min pace started to slip a bit above that but would have the odd sub-5min km. My hip flexor started to get a bit sore by the 7km mark but just niggled away for the next wee while without getting too much worse.

Happy to be off the bike. Peace out Neilio

5 mile bay came and went and soon I was on my way back to town. The support on the course was amazing from the spectators and the volunteers, I had BIG JO printed on my ass so got a bit of extra support once people saw that. My family and Jared and the PooParaders and Neilio and Laura kept me amused by popping up in different places on the course.
The rain never stopped on the run and parts of the footpath were flooded. Soon I was back in town and heading out for lap number 2, I had come this far I wasn't about to stop now. All I could think about now was the towel that they would wrap around me at the finish.

Resembling a drowned rat

About 25km was when it all caught up on me with my quads starting to seize up. Maybe a combination of the cold plus lack of run training, or just merely the fact that my legs had had enough. It was baby steps from here on with a couple of unscheduled walking breaks... My hip was pretty sore and I had popped a few drugs for it, my ITB was getting a bit irritated and everything else just hurt. I desperately wanted to walk but could only think about how long it would take to get there and my poor supporters who had been out all day in the rain. So I gritted my teeth (literally) and told myself to HTFU. It wasn't fast but it was faster than walking.
I finally crossed the line with a 3hrs58 run (only about 30mins slower than I was aiming for...) with a total time of 10hrs54 - eek. While it was noway near the time I had hoped for I am not disappointed because I wanted to quit so, so badly during the race (which many people did) but I didn't, I sucked it up and toughed it out. It truly was a day of attrition and through no fault of my own since I can not control what the weather does. I think I prepared myself for the elements as well as I could and short of wearing gloves and knee warmers I believe there is nothing else I could have done to produce a better result.
Don't get me wrong - I am certainly not saying I think I did well and I am certainly not proud of my time but I think I pulled through in a tough situation. As Winston Churchill said "If you are going through hell, keep going", I went through hell and I came out the other side.

Thank god that is over. Give me my towel

POST-RACE THOUGHTS
During the race I first decided I never want to race Pro again (unless I can swim at least 60mins) and then that I never want to do Ironman again. But lets face it - what else would I do if I didn't do Ironman?! I wonder how much I am cut out for it though - I can't swim, I can handle the cold or the wind, I can't get anything to fit me, I'm not good if its too hilly or if its dead flat, etc, the list goes on... I have really been put off racing Pro though unless it is a mass start which it usually isn't, and at the end of the day I can either bring up the rear of the Pro field or bring up the front of the Age Group field (maybe not quite this time...) and I'm leaning towards AG. I have no plans (and no money) for any future Ironman's this year so can mull it over for a while anyway.
I think my poor bones need a good rest from running now while I get this hip sorted plus I need to work out what the hell to do about my swimming so I may turn into a swim/bike specialist for a few months.
22 of the athletes competing in the weekend were from Christchurch and as a very special touch they got their own race numbers in black and red with the words "Christchurch is my home" printed under their name. I thought this was such an awesome thing to do for them with all that they have been through and certainly gave me some warm fuzzies when I saw one of the course.

NEWS FROM THE TEAM
Top efforts from the Lawson's with PB's from both of them and Jess maintaining her 100% Kona qualifying record. Kezzle-Anne did it tough and didn't quite come away with the result we knew he was capable of but he did the best with what was given to him. Sammy the Seal had a great first race in such awful conditions so it can only get easier from here.
And obviously Cam Brown and Sam Warriner for their victories and being the toughest of the tough.

Well done Jess

Nick breaks the illusive 10hr mark. The pose says it all - one happy man

Special thanks goes to my supporters to made the trip down to Taupo and suffered nearly as much as me in the rain - Mum, Paul, Roach and Alex, and J-Rad, Davo and Nicky, and Neilio and Laura. Sorry you all had to wait so long for me...

Pre-IMNZ update

2011-03-03T14:14:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to Taupo!!
We arrived at Tri-geek central yesterday and had a busy afternoon with registration, seeing and being seen at the expo, race briefing, massage and then carbo dinner.
Taupo is crawling with compression-clad, visor wearing, water bottle sipping athletes so I fit right in.
The nerves are definitely starting to creep in especially seeing all the race paraphernalia, fit people and fast bikes.
I had finally managed to get my weight a bit closer to race weight at my last weigh in before leaving Auckland only to get to registration and to somehow have gained 2kg over the course of the morning!! I was NOT impressed. I was wearing heavy denim shorts and shoes which they wouldn't let me take off though but my volunteer was not very nice about my weight anyway and said that I was too light anyway - how rude, does she not realize I'm probably about a foot shorter than anyone else she has weighed?!! It pisses me off when people feel the need to comment on my weight - I'm not underweight just underheight!! Anyway the general consensus is that the scales were making everyone heavier so I'm glad it wasn't just me.
RooRoo is all ready to go, sporting some sexy new bar tape care of my dear friend Neilio who was horrified at my rangi looking patched up bar tape.

Neilio you are my hero :)

Unfortuately Neilio's generosity didn't extend to a pair of Zipp's so I will be the only Pro rocking the training wheels but I have good tyres so in my little mind that is all that matters...
Sadly the weather does not look like it will be coming to the party with a forecast of rain with some heavy falls, it doesn't look like it will be too cold which is good because

rain+cold=very bad for Little Muppets

But I am still indecisive about the best clothing choice for the bike ie vest or no vest, I don't want to get cold if it does rain a bit but don't want to overheat if the rain doesn't really happen... Decisions, decisions...
The forecast today was not so great but so far it has been cloudy without any rain so fingers crossed for the same tomorrow. The sun even poked its little head out a few minutes ago.

Come out tomorrow sun, please, please...

This morning we went for a 10min run through the bush with no hip fidgey-widgeyness which is good news, followed by a quick swim in the lake.
I didn't want to get too excited in case it was a fluke, but last week I did up my LittleMuppet B70 Helix suit BY MYSELF!! And I successfully repeated it today, here is a video of it for the non-believers out there. Starts out a bit slowly but I get there in the end, the comments from Kezzle gives you an insight into what I have been having to put up with for the last 24hrs.

So the big unknown for tomorrow is how my hip will go. Swim and bike should be ok but I have no idea what to expect from the run, but lets face it - its Ironman, anything can happen, I could be in the best running form of my life and run myself into some kind of injury so I don't really think I'm any worse off than anyone else here. Luckily I have the use of the Gayman so will start out nice and easy and plan to maintain that pace.
Not much I can do about it now anyway so I will sit here and relax and take silly photos with Kezzle and just hope for the best tomorrow.

Pre-Ironman madness

140.6 Reasons to do an Ironman

2011-02-28T00:48:00.000-08:00

Now that we have entered race week and nerves are starting to incy-wincy their way into our pre-race preparations, without getting too touchy-feely or anything I give you the words of Hurricane Bob to motive, inspire and generally give a bit of a rev up in anticipation of the day ahead.

So strap on your goggles, clip into those pedals, and stride it out, here is Bob's 140.6 reasons to do IRONMAN:

»001. Makes everything else seem so SHORT.
»002. The 3 week taper before the race.
»003. The 4 week recovery after the race.
»004. I've done one, so now I have to do it faster the next time.
»005. As much Pizza as you can eat.
»006. So that when the car runs out of gas, I can still get away from the Police under my own power.
»007. Beats watching the new Survivor, Big Brother, or anything else on TV.
»008. For all the times you heard someone say "I'd do one of those ... I just can't swim."
»009. The Finishing Oval at Lake Placid
»010. Steve King's accent at Ironman Canada
»011. Mike Reilly's hoarse voice still bringing people home at 11:30pm
»012. The Massage Tent - anywhere.
»013. St. Lynda is waiting for me at the finish.
»014. So is my mom...
»015. ...and so are Lynda's parents.
»016. Chalk on the road.
»017. Easy rides and runs the week before.
»018. Finishing your last workout and smiling because you know "I'm SO ready."
»019. For everyone who as ever asked you "Why?"
»020. For the teachers in school who told you you'd amount to nothing.
»021. To silence the one voice inside your head that still believes that bunk.
»022. You want to test the endurance limits of the music collection in your head.
»023. The "Bier Mile" at IM-Europe
»024. Spectators looking up your name and cheering as you plod past at sunset.
»025. Where else can someone ripping off your clothes in public be considered a benefit of a big race? (Wetsuit Strip)
»026. Miles in the Run
»027. Want to see the world and eat the food in each country, guilt free.
»028. So you can answer "One." When people ask "How many days does that take?"
»029. To wave at the scuba divers.
»030. To backstroke at the TV helicopter.
»031. Cards in your special needs bags.
»032. Cards in your T1 and T2 bags.
»033. CHICKEN SOUP!
»034. CHICKEN SOUP AGAIN! (Yes - it's worth 2 by itself)
»035. The Adirondacks of Lake Placid.
»036. The view from Richter Pass.
»037. Alii' Drive
»038. Main Street Penticton.
»039. Driving the bike course in a caravan of friends.
»040. Valet Parking and Catering ... all day long.
»041. You might get on TV
»042. I want to laugh at the former cool (now fat) kids at my 20th High School Reunion.
»043. The Marines at the race formerly known as Ironman California
»044. Takes as long as having a baby, nearly as satisfying, only without the morning sickness and the 21 years of bills that follow.
»045. Flying with a bike case makes business trips seem EASY.
»046. Sharing a smile with people wearing the finishers T-shirt the next day.
»047. Knowing that as you step in the water on race day - YOU MADE IT THIS FAR! Now just get home.
»048. How many people can say they did anything for 12,13, 14, 15, 16...hours?
»049. The "Hot Corner" at IM-USA
»050. The wristband that somehow becomes your favorite fashion accessory.
»051. So that when you tell your grandchildren stories about what you did when you were young...yours will be true.
»052. Main Street Lake Placid
»053. High fives from people you don't know.
»054. The Sponge as a fashion statement
»055. Coke and Chicken soup - the ultimate power cocktail
»056. Knowing that after the gun goes off, you don't have to worry anymore.
»057. First Place and Last Place get the same amount of cheers.
»058. Walking to the start with Heather, Lothar, Thomas, Jurgen...
»059. Getting lapped by Heather, Lothar, Thomas, Jurgen...
»060. Getting lapped again on the run by Heather, Lothar, Thomas, Jurgen...
»061. Making the turn for home.
»062. Because MolybdenumMan doesn't trip off the tongue in quite the same way
»063. If Judy Molnar can, dammit, so can you.
»064. You might get to run with Alexandra Paul!
»065. High fiving Daryl Haley, and going backwards 5 feet.
»066. Sunset over Skaha Lake on the run.
»067. If Randy Caddell can do it with just his arms, you can certainly do it with your legs.
»068. Easier than Eco-Challenge.
»069. Got rejected from the astronaut corps.
»070. Got rejected by the Marines.
»071. Crashed out of the Blue Angels.
»072. Makes US Navy SEAL training seem like a good idea.
»073. You enjoy the smell of chlorine in the morning.
»074. You've had enough with your current social life.
»075. For the love of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream!
»076. Your friends are watching on the web.
»077. You need to prove to your mom that even if you get on the bike right after you swim...you won't catch a cold.
»078. Helicopters over Kailua Bay.
»079. Roadies think you're nuts.
»080. Masters swimmers think you're nuts.
»081. Your running club KNOWS you're nuts.
»082. So that you can master the left-handed bottle grab (IMAus, IM-NZ).
»083. Morning swims
»084. 3 hour breakfasts after the morning swims
»085. The Underpants Run
»086. Laughing at people in the Underpants Run.
»087. The Hog's Breath Cafe Breakfast Special at IMC
»088. Glowsticks
»089. Cowman A-Moo-HA!
»090. Because Winston Churchill said I can't ever give up.
»091. The 12-step program to make me stop hasn't been invented yet.
»092. Any National Anthem, before the start, anywhere.
»093. Knowing that when you wake up at 4:00am, the next time you go to bed you will be VERY different person.
»094. 6 miles, 10 minutes - straight down to Keene.
»095. Yellow Lake done - 12 miles downhill to go.
»096. Because you've always wanted to see how many CD's and towels it would take to ride the whole IMC course on the CompuTrainer
»097. Makes your next marathon just a nice morning run.
»098. To make your Boss jealous because YOU have a life that doesn't involve the office.
»099. Because the longer you're out there, the less per hour it really costs!
»100. Being there is way better than watching on Pay-Per-View
»101. Finding yourself in the middle of your doubts ... finding a new meaning of being scared.
»102. Finding out that you're far stronger than those doubts a few miles later.
»103. Falling in step on the run and making a friend to the end, without having to say a word.
»104. A fried breakfast the day after.
»105. Watching people headed home while you're headed out, thinking "I'll be there soon ..." and they cheer for you.
»106. Understanding why that is as your cheering for people headed out when you're finally headed home.
»107. That feeling of ice cubes in your hat on a hot run never getting too cold.
»108. Telling folks with flat tires "It's a long day - hang in there!" and seeing them breathe and smile for a moment.
»109. Hearing people cheer you up while your changing a damn flat tire.
»110. Rolling into T2 knowing that no matter what - you can't have a flat sneaker from here on in.
»111. Having someone catch you, and hold you up when you can't do it anymore.
»112. Miles in the Bike.
»113. The IV's feel SO good the next day.
»114. To see if it really feels as good to do as it does to dream.
»115. To see if it really feels as good the second time.
»116. And a third...
»117. And a fourth...
»118. To try and finish in daylight.
»119. To try and finish before midnight.
»120. To try and NOT get stung by that (#*@! bee this time.
»121. Your kids already think you're a hero - prove them right.
»122. Your wife doesn't...but you might prove it to her, too.
»123. An M-Dot Tattoo would look swanky on your ankle.
»124. 5000 Volunteers - all for you.
»125. Hearing them say "You're almost there!" all day long.
»126. Being nearly almost there - for real.
»127. CHICKEN SOUP! (It's been awhile)
»128. Quiet hugs before the start.
»129. Kissing her goodbye, and promising "I'll be back later..."
»130. The first time you think "Holy crap - I'm doing an Ironman!"
»131. Beating back the voices that say "Holy crap - you can't do an Ironman!"
»132. Mile 26.
»133. That moment when you KNOW you're going to make it for the first time all day.
»134. Entering the oval.
»135. Running down Lakeshore Drive.
»136. Running down Alli Drive.
»137. The Finish Line
»138. The first step after you cross the line and think "Oh, My....God....!"
»139. The Medal
»139.6 Because they said I can't
»140.6 Because I say I can.

Big Jo training Feb 21 - Feb 27

2011-02-28T00:29:00.000-08:00

SWIM

Squad x 1
Non-squad x 2
Sea swim x 1

Well the week started off pretty excitingly with a serious wardrobe malfunction at the Parnell Baths. I did my squad swim in my MuppetPoint3 suit as I do then jumped in the spa while I took it off. I then stood there for a good 3-4minutes talking to MuppetMan before I felt something was amiss. I put my hand on my butt and realized there was nothing covering it... What had started as a small gap in the stitching had escalated into a pair of full blown arse-less Speedos. The whole seam from back to crotch had come undone and I was standing there exposing my rear to the world. I couldn't even cover myself up with both my hands because the gap was so big. A guy who had been in the spa later told me that he was too embarrassed to tell me - thanks!!
Fortunately the pools flooded again the next day so we didn't go back that week, they may not of let me in anyway on the grounds of indecent exposure.
The rest of the week was pretty boring, the Kohi Swim was the usual washing machine but I beat my togs nemesis (yessssss) and came out with someone who normally is well ahead so lets hope I had a good swim and not the other way round.

This is how much skin I was showing. I kid you not.

BIKE

Time: 13hrs35
Distance: 348km

Last big-ish ride this week of 4hrs. Isn't it great when a 4hr ride doesn't seem very long? I think it is anyway. Did a few little efforts during the week and standard pace Royport with Uncle Roy. On Sunday we came across the Hot Cycles Bunch which used to be my standard Sunday ride in Pre-Ironman days. The bunch is a bit more social these days but gets some pretty good numbers and still contains a few old friends from back in the day. So we tootled along with them for the last part of the ride which was a nice way to finish off all the weeks of riding with only 2 or 3 of us.

Me and my guardian angel Neilio

Checking to make sure my butt is covered


OMG is that Marky Mark?!! Special guest appearance. See how happy J-Rad is to be riding with him

RUN

I wasn't planning on running at all this week but since all seemed to be ok I decided to give it a go after my long ride. I just headed out for 10mins and am happy to say all it was absolutely fine, no bone or hip flexor pain. Whew. Now I do realize I have to run a bit more than 10mins next weekend but at least it has given me the confidence that it won't be sore on the first step. So fingers crossed for no hippy fidgey-widgeyness on Saturday.
Finished the week with a 70min pool run on Sunday, I'm glad Ironman isn't pool running because its fricken tiring. I was wasted and had very tired legs after my effort in the weekend so I will be looking forward to getting back on the road.

Pool running in action. People don't usually stay in the pool with me for long, I think I make them feel uncomfortable because they think I am crazy

Happy in my running. Hat is used to attach my ipod but it also adds to enigma of the weirdo running in the pool in her running shoes.

Big Jo Training Feb 14 - Feb 20

2011-02-22T00:10:00.000-08:00

SWIM

2 x squad
2 x sea swim

I am sad to report that I this week I didn't wake up and be able to swim faster.
Had a bit of a shocker at the Thursday swim but conditions were not favorable for Little Muppets but I managed to stick with my togs girl who has gotten away from me in the last few races which is good news. And I won a Future Dreams swim DVD which I will tuck into my bed with me and hope to learn to swim better via osmosis before the 5th of March.
A little crew of us went for a nice swim in the dark on Friday morning, dark tinted goggles was not really a smart choice but I somehow manged to swim straight towards most of the buoys without being able to see them.

BIKE

Time: 14hrs14
Distance: 381km

Whoa!! It was a big one. And so it should be 2 weeks out from IM so I'm not sure why I was so surprised when I added it up.
Much better Sunday effort in the long ride department and was able to hold a decent power the whole way through. Saturday's ride was a bit different to normal and was a bit of a hold on for dear life scenario and I'm proud to say that I held on and even saw the front once or twice (well maybe only once...).
So I think most of the work for IMNZ is now done, next weeks ride won't be quite as long but not ready to slack off just yet.

Patching tubes on a Saturday night like a good little Ironman. In my undies.

RUN

Hmmmmm. Despite my 99.9% certainty that my new hip pain was not bone related my medical team was not so convinced. It was a bit head-in-the-sand like of me to think that pain in the same hip would be unrelated and as the days wore on the and the flexor/adductor pain wound down I was left with a familiar aching deep in my hip.
All is not lost though. I did a 1hr45 pool run (I kid you not) as my last long run and will just saving my hip for the day and see how we go. Last time it settled down pretty quickly week by week and this is only a slight niggle (still no hop pain) so another 2 weeks off and we should be right as rain. I always knew it was risky lining up for Ironman so soon off the back of a stress fracture but IMNZ only happens once a year and I didn't want to have to wait.
But don't worry Mum, I won't do anything silly on race day. We don't want a repeat of Kona and the 4 months of no running so if it turns out to be a long walk home at least I gave it a go.

IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS

Murfy's new sleeping spot

Murfy and her friend PandaFace having a pow-wow

Women's action at Takapuna Tri

Elite men about to start

Exciting sprint finish for Bevan Docherty and Kris Gemmell

Big Jo training Feb 7 - Feb 13

2011-02-14T00:08:00.000-08:00

SWIM

Squad x 1
Non-squad x 2
Sea swim x 1

~10km

A bit of an improvement in the Kohi swim department this week thank god, managed to hang onto my buddy from GI Chezzle's feet for the return leg of the 2km swim. I was like her Siamese twin, even when she went a bit off track I followed her. I have been practicing my new super head-down technique with only a few collisions, almost had a collision with the end of the pool when there was no black line for me to follow.

Jared-Razzle making himself useful modeling the loud-hailer at the Kohi swim

BIKE

Time: 12hrs28
Distance: 309km

Average week on the bike, took me a while to get going after the Big Weekend. Longest ride was a bit over 5hrs not quite the same pace as last weekend but all saddle time is good. No annoying boyfriends this week but there was a higher than usual amount of road-kill out east which wasn't very nice.

Recovery combo of champions

RUN

Time: 5hrs 10
Distance: 62km

Lets not forget that this week included the long run in Taupo plus the usual Saturday long run. I started to encounter a hip flexion/adductor issue on my Saturday run, now I know what you are all thinking but it is NOT a stress fracture... But it does happen to be the same hip as my last problem. However I am 99.9% confident that it is muscular based on the fact that it hurts when I run uphill/upstairs but running downhill and hopping causes no pain at all. Its really not ideal timing but I am on to it so will back off the running next week and give it some TLC and hopefully it will be all good for the weekend. My poor little body is starting to feel a bit old but we will get there.

IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS

Murfy has found a new place to sleep

Big Jo training Jan 31 - Feb 6

2011-02-08T23:59:00.000-08:00

SWIM

1 x squad
3 x sea/lake swim
1x pool swim

~11km

A bit of mix of swimming this week with Stroke and Stride and the Kohi Summer Swim. Stroke and Stride was a 750m swim and awful. It was a long run from the beach which is not really my forte and then I just sucked for the rest of it. I got beaten out by a few old ladies and people who are NEVER near me out of the water, it was terrible. I don't know what my problem was. So I had quite a bit of work to do in the 4km but it wasn't long enough for me to get anywhere near the front part of the field. Shame.
And then I was almost just as sucky the next night at the Kohi race.
I got a couple of tips from Kezzle-Anne down in Taupo so am making a concerted effort to keep my head down and a few others things, and just generally praying for a miracle.

BIKE

Time: 13hrs 29
Distance: 376km
Annoying boyfriends: 1

Big ride on the IMNZ course on Saturday. We did one full loop and then a 2/3 lap, and thank goodness that was all because the wind picked up on the way back and it got a bit gnarly. There were heaps of people out on the bike course mostly by themselves but a few big bunches of tri-geeks on their TT bikes. I really don't understand the point of this if you are training for Ironman, our little group tootled along together for the first 20mins or so and then we settled into our Ironman pace, I'm sure I could have cruised along right up Kezzle's bum if I'd wanted to but that doesn't seem like very good Ironman training to me. So all these little groups will think they are awesome because they rode the course in 5hrs and then will suck on race day because they have to ride by themselves. ARGH. And then men who tried to draft off me on the course were even more annoying.
Rant over.
Anyways it was a good ride and I stuck to my power and tried all my gear out for the big day. Now if someone could lend me a pair of 650c Powertap Zipps with Campag then I'll be all set...

A happy little pootle on the run course

RUN

Exciting news for the week is the use of my dear friend Lesbo's Garmin (from hereon referred to as Gayman) 110. Makes running so much more exciting, not so good for my OCD though. It drives me mental if my average pace starts with a 5 so maybe I'll be leaving it at home for recovery jogs... I did my long run for the week on the IMNZ course on Monday (technically for next weeks blog but I know you can't all wait that long...). I had set my pace and with the use of my trusty Gayman I was able to lock it in. I did 25km, so managed a lap and a little bit of the course, a few issues with blisters/foot chaffage but otherwise it was all good. The rest of the week's running was pretty sedate apart from the 4km dash at Stroke and Stride.

PHOTOS FROM THE WEEKEND


Our quaint acommodation. Looks like the final scene out of The Girl Who Played with Fire


Our quaint mode of travel thanks to our dear friend Neilio. Thanks Neilio :)


X5 stacked up. Cool people in the back.

Kezzle giving us something to look at in our swim the next day.


Followed by a serious game of putt-putt


Followed by some serious eating.

Compression time in the cyber-cafe. Is that a muffin-top I see?

Compression time in town, socks and jandals and all. I think Kezzle-Anne forgot to put on his pants

I completed the compression trio making a full range of compression leg-wear

Big Jo training Jan 24 - Jan 30

2011-02-02T00:22:00.000-08:00

SWIM

Non-squad x 3
Sea swim x 1

~10.5km

So last week we couldn't swim at Parnell because there was not enough water, this week we couldn't swim because there was too much water!! The bad weather we had over the weekend caused heaps of flooding and took Parnell out for almost 5 days which is pretty bad for them (and for us of course...). So we ended up back at Youthtown but no canoodling couples this time thank god.
The sea swim was Haydn's Kohi swim series where I sunk to a new 2000m low. I am getting slower and slower, its really quite depressing. It was pretty choppy on the way back though, I honestly felt like I was being tossed around in a washing machine.

Much rain causing Parnell floods and carnage to my swan plant

BIKE

Time: 14hrs 00
Distance: 359km

Pretty solid week on the bike. Did a repeat of the TDR course for my long ride (obviously quite a bit slower without my boyfriends to pull me though) plus riding home which gave me 5hrs15 on the bike. We had a few obstacles on the coast along from Kaiaua though following the second round of bad weather two days before. By the end of it RooRoo looked like it'd had a bout of diarrhea...

Where the road?

It was lucky that Tour de Ranges wasn't a week later otherwise I think it would have been canceled because the road was pretty bad.

Still managing to stay upright on the way home via Twilight

RUN

Time: 3hrs 20
Distance: ~40km

5 runs this week!!!! Got a little bit scared on the 3rd in a row so had to pull it back a bit but overall its been pretty good. Did 1hr35 as my longest so I should be able to get 2-3 2hr+ runs in before IMNZ which will hopefully be enough. I wouldn't normally do much more than that with a perfect build up anyway. I have swindled myself a Garmin 110 from my dear friend Lesbo to use up until Ironman so am pretty excited to see what the fuss is all about.
Got myself a new pair of shoes (adidas Supernova Sequence Jnr) which I promptly bled all over on the heel. I think it was more related to tape I had to stop my cycling shoes from rubbing which then got in the way while running and caused a blister because the first couple of runs were fine. I would like to wear my K-Swiss K-ona's more but they are just a bit wide in the forefoot for me and my forefoot moves around too much. Which is very sad because I do love them but I just don't think that we are destined to be together.

IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS

Big training weekend in Taupo next weekend with our boyfriend Kezzle-Anne. I can't imagine all the cuss and dirty words which will be coming out of my mouth after spending a whole weekend with him.

Check out the produce from my garden.

Big Jo training Jan 17 - Jan 23

2011-01-25T00:41:00.000-08:00

SWIM

Squad x 1 (+ 1 x attempted squad)
Non-squad x 3
Sea swim x 2

~14.5km

What a big week of swimming that was. We decided to make our comeback to Parnell squad on Monday only to find the pool a wee bit empty after a pool maintenance failure. Its a pretty deep pool so we could have still swum but I think I may have struggled to get out again and the dive in would have been a very long way down. So we tried Youthtown where we knew our other peeps would be, this was fine until a canoodling couple crashed my lane. My lane was actually only half width so really only Jo-size and they didn't get the memo that I was actually swimming in there and not pissing around like them. But after a few closely executed tumble turns and "accidental" knocks with my paddles, I had the lane to myself. Am I a bad person?...

BIKE

Time:
Distance:

A pretty good week on the bike despite missing a ride on Sunday due to some pretty heinous weather. Sunday was never going to be much of a bike day because I did Tour de Ranges plus some on Saturday as my long ride.
Tour de Ranges is a 110km "fun" ride around the Hunua ranges and back along the Auckland Half/old IMNZ course. Last year I double flatted and ran out of tubes and only made about 30km so I was hoping to actually finish this time. This year they had a separate Elite male and female starts which was way better because last year everyone went a little silly at the start trying to keep up with the big boys. I managed to stick with what started out as the second bunch the whole way round and come in as first of the non-elite girls. It wasn't particualary easy though, I had to work pretty hard on the downhills and corners. Uphill was fine, I even made it to the front of the bunch up the hills a few times, which was good to get me a head start on the downhills. So it was a pretty solid 3hr effort, special mention should go to Shaun Jacka of Piako Yoghurt fame who helped me out a little bit and made sure I didn't get dropped.
I then rode home from Clevedon to make it a bit over 140km, luckily I had a tailwind most of the way home.

Not quite my best look but at least we know I was there

RUN

Time: 2hrs 12
Distance: ~28km

With TDR on my long run day I had to shuffle things around a bit and do my long run (80mins!) during the week but no dramas there. Had a bit of a shock to the system with my first Stroke and Stride in about 2years. It was 1000m swim/3km run so a good short run for me to start with. It was pretty hideous and my pre-race banana smoothie was not a good snack choice. I managed to run my way up to 14th place with an untied shoelace but my internal organs were starting to revolt against me. My usual S&S markers beat me so not a great start but its not like I been doing anything as intense as that so it was good training.


I was planning on just wearing togs but then remembered my hideous tanlines. So instead it looks like my trisuit has a white band around the legs

IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS

I entered Ironman NZ - yay!

Big Jo training Jan 10 - Jan 16

2011-01-19T19:02:00.000-08:00

SWIM

Non-squad x 2
Sea swim x 1

~9km

A little bit light in the swimming department. I really should be concentrating on my swim a bit more I guess but I just feel a bit useless. I'm not sure if swimming more is the answer to swimming faster, I've tried this in the past and it hasn't made much of a difference. I've tried doing drills and that never really helped and recently I've been doing the PB and band thing and that doesn't seem to help either so I'm a little bit stuck.
Help.
All I want is to be able to swim 60mins or less for 3.8km, thats all I ask. So if anyone has any secret to fast swimming please let me know.
I forked out for a new pair of paddles after the mysterious disappearance of my left paddle in the Newmarket Spa Triangle but (like anything new) I don't like them as much as my old ones. They have too many holes in them... but the straps are more adjustable so I can use them with less support which should be better for my technique.

BIKE

Time: 11hrs07
Distance: 294km

Didn't do much during the week with a bit of Tauranga recovery happening but managed a solid TT effort on Saturday and a bit under 4.5hrs in the weekend. I hadn't done anything even close to 4hrs since early in December but I seemed to cope pretty well with it.

RUN

Time: 1hr37
Distance: ~19.5km

I had until Thursday off running after the Half just to make sure everything was still intact which it all seems to be luckily. The Thursday run felt a bit stiff but the weekend run was better and I managed 61mins in the heat of the days so that was all good. My long Sunday ride is usually followed by a 20-30min run with a fairly leisurely transition in between (up to an hour sometimes...) so the new goal is to have a snappy transition and get out there within 10mins of coming off the bike. Mostly just to get it over and done with really, I have to report that my legs didn't really feel any worse running sooner off the bike than what I normally would do so I guess that is good news for my leggies.

IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS:

I can send photos from my phone to my new laptop via Bluetooth - wow.

My vege garden is looking super duper

Chives, tomatoes, lettuce, brocolli, cabbage, basil, beans, cucumber, beetroot

My watermelon plant is threatening to wrap itself around the deck

Murfy is getting a bit hot in the summer heat

Hello Murf

TAURANGA HALF IRONMAN RACE REPORT

2011-01-09T00:35:00.000-08:00

PRE-RACE

So as stated in my other blogs, I was going into Tauranga Half seriously underdone in the running department due to a hip stress fracture so the plan was to take the run pretty easy, walk the aid stations and basically just see how it went.

SWIM

My swimming hasn't been going particularly swimmingly since the Teps closed but I thought things were going a bit better recently - apparently not. I managed to keep up with the tail end of the Pro field for a while but was pretty much on my own after about 300m and then got engulfed by the age-group men after about 400m who started 2mins behind... There were heaps of teeny-tiny jellyfish which felt pretty gross but I didn't see any big ones and apparently there was a shark spotted in the bay while we were swimming - awesome. Came out of the water in 34mins which seems to be my new norm. In 2009 I swam 31something, if only I could get back to that level... As usual RooRoo was all lonely as the only bike left on the Pro racks...

BIKE

Tauranga Half is known as a bit of draft-fest with huge packs that form mostly with age-group men. After about 5km I had a couple of boyfriends which I picked up or they picked up me, and by 10km there about 20 of us. The pack just grew and grew and was a bit ridiculous with people riding two abreast and freewheeling. I tried to stay at the back so I could keep a bit of distance but it was hard and I did find myself a tad close at times, and one of those times a marshal happened to pop up next to me and blew his little whistle and showed me a yellow card. Whoopsies!! I think I must have been at least 4m from the back of the guy in fronts rear wheel which is just slightly inside the draft zone, I certainly wasn't right up his bum like some people were riding. They then gave one penalty out to a guy in the bunch and that was it, which pissed me off a bit because there were a lot of people who were way closer than me. So I served my time in the naughty corner and then continued on my way for the last 25km.

Drafting much?

Too be honest I wasn't really too concerned about the penalty since I knew it wasn't going to be a great race for me anyway and I had a nice chat to the volunteers who where working the naughty corner. One of our friends also got a drafting penalty and he said the guys who were serving their time were mouthing off at the volunteers which is so unfair on them, they had nothing to do with it. Hopefully they followed the rule of the clock starts when the mouth stops.
Anyway I came off the bike in a couple of minutes faster than last year in 2hrs27 + 3mins in the naughty corner.
My power wasn't too bad for a flat course so I was still working reasonably hard even with the group and wasn't just coasting along.

RUN

This was to be my moment of truth. I started out nice and easy and the leggies felt ok. I kept to my rule of walking the aid stations, I didn't feel like I needed to but it was nice knowing that I was allowed. I got passed by a few people including girls, which is not something I am used to on the run, but I managed to deal with it. At the half way mark I was 52mins something so nice and steady 5min/kms, everything seemed to feeling alright, leggies were getting a bit tired but no pain. The second lap was pretty much the same, I knew heaps of people racing and spectating so it was always nice to see a familiar face. Once I got off the mount for the second time and had 1km to go I cranked it up a bit to about the pace I should have run and finished on a strong note in 1hr45 - perfect pacing!! The highlight of the run was seeing my sports physician Tony Edwards who said I wouldn't be racing at Tauranga, he was surprised to see me.
Total time was 4hrs53 which is actually a PB for me but had I been fit I should have been at least 10mins quicker.

How I am supposed to look when I run

NEWS FROM THE TEAM:

J-rad lost the Bowden family battle after letting Davo get away on the bike, Neilio rode well to make up for his detonation last year, Nick got a bit closer to the Bowdens than their liking but the biggest props go to Jess for wining her AG, being the fastest local and having the fastest bike and run times for AG women - look out IMNZ!!

I have some ouchies from my race belt. Ouch.

Since I was in Tauranga I went and visited my former love Cosmo:

Hello Cosmo

Big Jo training Jan 3 - Jan 9

2011-01-08T23:31:00.000-08:00

SWIM

3 x sea swims
1 x pool swim

A bit more quality time in the new Muppet suit this week plus a little bit of a pootle in the pool the day before the Half. Not sure when squad starts back but hopefully its soon because, as I discovered at Tauranga, my swim is seriously suffering.
I had an odd incident at Newmarket pool the other day where I dropped my little pile of swim condiments (PB, paddles and band) into the spa and one of my paddles disappeared forever. We searched the whole spa including the filters and couldn't find it. How weird is that. So now I only have one paddle which is not really ideal.

BIKE

I haven't added up my time and distance for the week but think it will be a bit on the low side with the Half yesterday. Had a pretty solid 1hr45min effort around Whitford and Maraetai the Tuesday before the race which was good race prep. I had a boyfriend moment with an annoying commuter on my ride home from work on Wednesday, he obviously had issues about being passed by a girl.

Check out my tanlines. Not as good as Murphy's though

RUN

Only did a couple of short runs leading up to Tauranga but didn't have any hip issues so all was looking good. Had a bit of a hit out off the bike(ish) after our Maraetai efforts and the leggies handled it pretty well which gave me a bit of hope for the weekend...

IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS:

I got a sexy new laptop

Big Jo training Dec 20 - Jan 2

2011-01-02T19:12:00.000-08:00

SWIM

Well it has been an exciting time in my swimming world with the arrival of my Helix Muppet Suit on Christmas eve. I have been for two swims in it so far and it is awesome, the arms are super thin and very comfortable so hopefully it will make me swim super fast at Tauranga in the weekend. As I was about to write my name in it this morning I noticed a special little addition which nobody else has:

I feel so special

For anyone (out of my 2 readers...) that's interested, the whole Muppet Suit thing came about when I got measured up for my custom suit and Davo (who thought he was being funny) put my name on the form as Little Muppet. I sent it off to Blue Seventy and hadn't corrected it since they knew who I was. A few weeks went by and I decided to check up on the progress and the people in the factory came back saying they had no record of a suit for Jo Carrel. So after a bit of panic and resending the measurements they said they had finished Muppet's suit and it was ready to go to send to Muppet. So once that got cleared up my suits will always be referred to as Muppet Suits and now they have even named it for me - perfect!

Swimming over the last two weeks has been a mixture of pool and sea and I think I have been reasonably good at getting some decent sessions in. We had a couple of days at the Cambridge Training Camp so did a 3.8km set in the pool there, I am a bit of a wuss so wore the Muppet Suit and was able to hold the same interval as the big boys so it must be fast...

BIKE

The last 2 weeks I have averaged around 12.5hrs and about 350km on the bike with some serious time in the hurt box. We had a few days at the Cook's Beach Training Camp so got to do a few rides around Coromandel as well as a solid 2hr effort at the Cambridge Training Camp.

J-Rad dominating the Tairua hill

RUN

So after another week off running I have crept back into a little bit of running without any issues. I have got up to 60mins as 3x20mins with a couple of minutes of walking in between, yay! Fitness-wise I seem to be ok but think I will struggle with much over an hour, I guess we will find out in the weekend... So I am heading into Tauranga Half Ironman with basically 2 weeks of running under my belt - not exactly ideal. But its either that or not run at all which is not really appealing. It is a 2 lap course so if I die from unfitness or start to get hip pain in the first lap I can always pull out. I think I just have to start out really, really slowly and rely on some running muscle memory. I will walk the aid stations so I get a bit of a rest every couple of km's and will just have to hope for the best.

Recovery time at Camp Cambridge. No-one is sucking in here...

So this weekend is the Tauranga Half Ironman but without running properly its really going to be a half-arsed effort for me. There is quite a competitive women's field with heaps of Aussie girls coming over for it but I'm not too concerned about it, I just want to have a good swim (make up for last year...) and good bike and then try and not embarrass myself too much on the run. My dear friend Neilio is looking for a big hit out on the bike this year after blowing up spectacularly last year so all eyes will be on him.

No Paulio this year but Neilio will be looking for redemption

Big Jo training Dec 13 - Dec 19

2010-12-20T00:21:00.000-08:00

SWIM

Squad x 3
Sea swim x 1
~9km

Nothing wildly exciting to report on this week. I did a 1500m TT at Parnell Baths in my wetsuit and came out with an ok time with my one-pace. I was at Cook's Beach for the weekend so did a sea swim there which was a bit choppy but nice. And the only time in the weekend that it wasn't raining - how ironic. Full points to Lesbo for letting me waking her up so she could do my wetsuit up for me after a big night out at Jac's wedding. Poor Lesley's little hands hadn't woken up properly so it was quite an effort for her but I fed her with chocolates so hopefully it was marginally worthwhile.

BIKE

Time:
Distance:

Good week on the bike this week. Got my A into G and did some short intervals and got some power PB's woo hoo! And then didn't need to do any efforts on Thursday as holding Uncle Roy's wheel in the gale force winds was hard enough.
My weekend in the Coromandel was a training weekend disguised as a wedding weekend (cunning I know...), sadly the weather was absolutely poo for riding (and for a wedding) but I came prepared and luckily it wasn't cold which is fatal for me combined with the wet. So I did semi-decent ride on Saturday and then good ride on Sunday from Hahei to Kopu on the way home. I was a bit concerned about the road being a bit busy and people not seeing me but am happy to report that the drivers were super courteous and no-one abused me or tried to kill me. It rained the whole way but I was actually pretty happy in my riding apart from the winding downhills with my failing brakes where I was struggling to find my happy place. I got a bit cold once I was soaked through on the downhills but I knew I was almost there by that stage. Some kind man stopped at the top of the hill and asked if I wanted a ride because the weather was so yuck. Bless him. I guess people find it difficult to understand that we do these things for fun, but we do.

RUN

Not quite sure what to do with the running. I did 2x15mins and 1x20mins mostly on grass and while I wouldn't call it painful it certainly wasn't the same as the other side so I'm feeling at a bit of a loss. I know my tibia look a few weeks of running to feel right, but I'd had 4 months off running for that so that was understandable whereas this one I have only had 5 weeks off running. I don't feel like I've aggravated it at all but I don't want to be jumping the gun on it and making it worse down the track.
I think I have decided to have another week off and then give it another go. Tauranga is looking very shaky at this stage... BAH!

How to keep me entertained during boring wedding speeches while waiting for food...

The lovely couple Jac and Tony and the Brownie Cake nom nom nom

Big Jo training Dec 6 - Dec 12

2010-12-11T23:48:00.000-08:00

SWIM

Squad x 3
Sea swim x 1
~12km

Did 3 good squad sessions at Parnell Baths this week. Unfortunately me and my old Orca wetsuit did not really become friends this week as it gave me a wicked rash at the back of my neck. Hopefully my special new Blue Seventy Helix Muppet Suit will be made soon so I can wear my original Muppet Helix in the pool. I was in Taupo for the Half Ironman in the weekend and had good intentions of going for a swim while the others were out on the bike but the weather was a bit yuck and it just looked so cold and uninviting... I figured my time was better spent doing a longer ride. Did my Thursday Haydn sea swim in my usual slow time. The tide was a bit low and there were some pretty nasty oyster rocks which were hard to see so I had some pretty bad ouchies on my feet after that.

BIKE

Time: 9hrs 43
Distance: 229km

I have fallen into the trap of thinking I have raced because I was spectating a race in the weekend and therefore thinking I am in recovery mode the following week. Very Bad. I have also lost about 2hrs per week of commuting which I need to make up somewhere else. My long ride was lost this weekend with the half but I did get a decent ride around French Pass in Cambridge on Sunday and while I was in Taupo I did a ride over the new bypass which goes around the back of Taupo.

A new route in Taupo. How exciting

My RooRoo's lever issue is being resolved (after a few days of me realizing it wasn't going to reattach itself...) but until then my Serottica and I are getting reacquainted.

RUN

The big news for the week is I went for run!! Woo hoo!! On the grass I did 4x1min, 1x2mins, 1x3mins all with 30sec of walking in between. There was the odd whisper of pain but nothing at the end or any aching afterwards, so perhaps more psychosomatic... So I will continue to do interval jogs on the grass for the next week just to make sure all is a-ok. I am also going to need to look at my running style (I'm not called Slappy-J for nothing) and need to try and tone down how much lift I get to reduce the amount of load on my poor little bones.

TAUPO HALF IRONMAN

I was supporting the usual Bowden and Lawson suspects for this as well as Jess's brother Sam who was doing his first half in preparation for IMNZ. J-Rad had a good swim coming out in the Terenzo group with Davo 2mins down and Jess beating her husband out. Jess had some bad luck with a puncture in T1 which took a long time to fix, which was crap because she would have been close to the top 3 (and $$...) without it. J-Rad had the ride of his life (until he popped with 30km to go) and Davo blew his foofoo valve trying to catch him. Across the board run times were a bit slower than usual but Jess took the fastest run split of the team and Sam tootled along to get the job done.

Captain Poobum. Could be mistaken for a pout but he's telling me that he's popped

J-rad happy in his running...

Nick with his game face on

Big Jo training Nov 29 - Dec 5

2010-12-07T23:52:00.000-08:00

SWIM

Squad x 3
Sea swim x 3
~ 15km

A bit more quality time with my PB and band this week. Although I did learn (after getting yelled out by the whole lane) that I can swim with a band and no PB when I am in my wetsuit. We have started to do a few squads at the Parnell Baths with Haydn which is always good value. Definitely feel more wasted after a Haydn swim than any other swim.
The Tauranga Tinman Triathlon was on in the weekend and since I was going to be there as a supporter I figured I would offer myself as a swimmer. So I swam a whole 750m (note to self: being a team swimmer is NOT cost effective for $/minute spent racing...), almost missed the start getting carried away watching the individual race, dodged a few jellyfish, came 3rd out of the water (!) and our team was 1st overall. Woohoo.

BIKE

Time: 11hrs51
Distance: 303km

Had a nice 4.5hr ride with my friend Two Piece in the weekend, we had a big 4.5hr chat :) We must do that more often.
Very sad moment after that ride while RooRoo was in the car traveling to Tauranga - somehow my front derailleur lever snapped... I can still use it but its very hard to get into the big ring. Luckily Tauranga is nice and flat so I was still able to go for a bit of a ride on Sunday but its no good for any decent riding. After a few days of hoping it would magically heal itself I have realized that this isn't going to happen and need to get my A into G and organize a new one. Of course they are not very cheap so it is really is quite a sad moment. At least I will then have a spare rear derailleur lever...

Boo hoo

RUN

2 x pool-runs...

Nothing new to report here. I didn't attempt a trot this week, although I had to run around transition to get to my swim start and it didn't hurt so thats a good sign. So I will try another one minute run next weekend. Fingers crossed.
I have been making a concerted effort to up my calcium intake thanks to my friend and helpful nutritionist Mikki so hopefully my bones are getting nice and strong. My iron stores have dropped yet again (surprise, surprise...) so I am getting the hang of coordinating the calcium and iron since they are not friends, so hopefully its working and I will be super strong boned and full of iron by the time I am back into it.

Big Jo training Nov 22 - Nov 28

2010-11-28T23:51:00.000-08:00

SWIM

Squad x 3
Non-squad x 1
Sea swim x 2
~15.5km

This week I did the Kohi Summer Swim Series 2000m race which was fun but not much to report about it unfortunately. It was a bit choppy further out so they had to go to the contingency plan of 500m multilap race. I swallowed a lot of water which didn't taste very nice. I just noticed that my beloved Blue Seventy Helix MuppetSuit is not looking so sprightly anymore so hopefully Son of MuppetSuit will be made before Christmas.
I have been trying to make friends with my pull buoy in an attempt to learn how to swim faster. I absolutely suck with a PB and make little forward progression unless I am wearing paddles. But I am persevering and while my PB may be looking a little worse for wear hopefully it will turn me into a better swimmer...

Baby shark teeth marks courtesy of G-dog in her chewing puppy dog stage


Looks a bit more normal from this side. Thanks to Haydn for naming it for me. As if anyone else would want it anyway.

BIKE

Had a few TapTap issues this week after the hub batteries ran out last weekend which resulted in a couple of rides with no power. But after a rejig of the inside of the hub it seems to be all good now no thanks to Cycleops who never replied to my SOS email which I am still very dark about. If Taptap ever needs help again and they don't get back to me I may get nasty with them. Sadly I didn't get any data for our Tuesday Waitak ride as a result.
Only managed a 3hr ride on Sunday due to a cleat bolt that fell out somewhere around Maraetai so I had to ride with my cleat hanging by a thread, a bit like having a pedal made out of slippery ice - not much fun.

RUN

2 x pool runs (whoopdy fricken doo...)

I went back to the Sports Physician today and after him and another doctor reviewed my MRI they decided I have a stress fracture of my lesser trochanter... I would prefer to call it a stress reaction.
Which ever it is it is still no good for running - my 1 minute intervals in the weekend ended after the 2nd one because it hurt and did not feel like it was doing me any good. So I will continue to pool run and swim and bike my little leggies off and will do another test run in two weeks time... And in the meantime I will drink lots of chocolate milk and try to make my bones strong.

Big Jo training Nov 15 - Nov 21

2010-11-23T00:14:00.000-08:00

SWIM

Squad x 3
Non-squad x 2
Sea swim x 2
~ 17km

Whoa look at all that swimming. One of those days was a DOUBLE swim day as well!!! Nothing much interesting happened in any of those swims, my old favorite goggles tried to die on me but I resurrected them once again so they will live to swim another day. I actually got a bit of chaffing from my togs from swimming so much - oh my!! Didn't do Haydn's Kohi swim as I thought I would be recovering from Karapiro but I will be lining up next week instead.

BIKE

Have been a bit lazy and haven't downloaded all my rides so not sure of my hours and kms for the week, it won't be huge though, plus TapTaps hub batteries died on me so will have to make some up. Did a long(ish) ride in the weekend up the Waitaks and got dropped by Kezzle-Anne who normally sits behind me and heavy breathes in my ear. He has been on a Poo Power Program and has improved phenomenally this season - he is a classic example of the Power of Poo.
I suffered quite badly up the Waitaks - its been a while since I've done long hills like that and it showed. I think we should be riding out there every week now that summer is upon us. Although it wasn't looking very tropical up there in the weekend.

The past week has been pretty dark for cyclists in NZ with 5 being killed in the space of 4 days. One person killed 3 cyclists in one go. One of the cyclists was girl who was a similar age to me riding along Tamaki Drive about half an hour after I had ridden over that exact same spot - pretty scary. It has definitely made me think twice about how I am riding and what the cars around me are doing. Sometimes it does feel like the cars are actually trying to hit us though.


A little reminder that it could have been any of us

RUN

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Hip is still poo (not poo as in the Power of Poo, poo as in shit). It is a lot better than it was but even running across the road hurts. My MRI showed some mild bone odema around my lesser trochanter and some odema around the origin of vastus lateralis on the femur (ie. bone stress and a muscle strain). It was reported as all being mild so nothing which can definitively say this is what is causing your pain. And I wonder how many asymptomatic runners would have signs of bone odema on an MRI.... But clinically it presents as a stress fracture/stress reaction so that is how we will have to treat it, I can attempt a 5min run this weekend but based on my run across the lawn yesterday I'm not holding out much hope.
I think the dreaded aqua-jogging awaits...

Big Jo training Nov 1 - Nov 14, Karapiro Half Ironman and a pain in the hip

2010-11-14T00:46:00.000-08:00

SWIM

Swimming has been going swimmingly (as usual...) after my shocker in Taiwan. The new thing is our dear friend Haydn Woolley's new summer swim series which is on a Thursday evening at Kohi beach. The first race of the series was a bit difficult with a pretty big chop causing them to go to the contigency plan of a 500m loop instead of out and back. But the next race was much better weather so we were able to swim all the way 1km out and back for a 2km swim. Its a pretty good way to make sure I get an extra swim in and good to practice open water swimming so I'll be doing as many of the races as I can over summer.

BIKE

While I was in Taiwan someone raped and pillaged my Serrotica road bike and left it crank and BB-less forcing me and RooRoo to become more at one with each other. The weekend after Taiwan I was back into a 4hr ride with some uptempo work which I actually held pretty good power for and this last week got back into my efforts during the week. This weekend's long ride was Karapiro Half but more about that in a sec.

RUN

This where the sad part starts.
My first proper run back from Taiwan was on the Wednesday after and I noticed a bit of niggly hip/groin pain. It just niggled away for my next few runs but really came to a head after I did the O'Hagan's 5km run the following week - it was so sore by the end and the next day was way worse. At this stage I was pretty concerned it was an Injury Which Shall Not Be Named.
So I have since had a bone scan which looked pretty clear to me (ie no ball of fire on my bone like with my tibial stress fracture) however it was reported as having a subtle area of increased uptake around the trochanteric region - ie some bone stress around the outside of my hip bone. But you really needed a magnifying glass to see the increased uptake, so its not completely convincing as a stress fracture but more like a stress reaction which is a precursor to a stress fracture. So I am hoping that 4 weeks off running will fix it but I will be getting an MRI next week which will give us a better idea of what is going on. In any case it is Very Poos.

KARAPIRO HALF IRONMAN

So the whole hip thing came up the week of Karapiro Half and when I got up on Wednesday morning after the O'Hagan's run I realized there was no way I would be running at Karapiro. I was pretty gutted as I was really looking forward to the race.
So I withdrew my entry and offered myself as a swim/biker if anyone needed it and got teamed up with a young Cambridge girl who was keen to run.
Things didn't start out so well even before the race when I filled up my fronty bottle and it immediately started leaking - it seemed my patch up job from Taiwan wasn't so good. But it was leaking slowly so I knew I get some use out of it, plus I had a bottle on my frame so it wasn't too much of a biggie.
The swim went pretty well, we swam on the rowing course which is quite cool. It was an in the water or dive off the pontoon start - most people chose to start in the water but I really wanted to dive. This didn't go so well for me as I almost landed on tiop of someone and my goggles filled with water. Oh well.
The first 500m was a bit congested but then I was pretty much on my own and came out of the water as 7th female and just ahead of the 2nd individual female (oh my...). I tried a couple of steps jogging but my hip hurt too much so I did the walk of shame all the way up to T1 - and it was a loooooong way... About 300m and I got passed by a tonne of people and as I walked into T1 I heard on the loudspeakers they were playing Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run"- how ironic.
I think my swim must have been around 32mins which is a slight improvement of late but still pretty crap.
So I jumped on my bike and off I went. My bike goal was to catch Nicky who had a much faster swimmer than me and while Nicky would normally be much faster than me she was just on a road bike with no aero bars and hadn't done much training.
I had a few Nicky mirages as I went along but finally saw her up ahead at about the halfway mark. There was a huge long downhill and I hammered it as hard as I could when something came flying off my bars, it took me a few seconds to take stock then I realized it was my TapTap CPU - disaster!!!! I had a moment of indecision - whether I turn around or carry on and go back for it later, then realized I could never leave TapTap on the side of the road so had to turn around and ride back up the hill. It was pretty gutting seeing all the people I had worked so hard to pass just cruising down while I went the opposite way. Luckily TapTap was easy to spot but the battery and battery cover had aborted themselves and were nowhere to be seen. I didn't know what was more sad - Nicky and all the people I had passed riding away from me or all the power data I had just lost...
Anyways I carried on riding hard to make up for lost time and ended up catching everyone I wanted to (including Nicky) so all was not completely lost. It a pretty tough course - very hilly and very rough roads so I came in with a time of 2hrs53, I think I would have lost around 3mins with my TapTap drama so we'll round it down to 2hrs 50. In any case I had a fastest bike split of the individual females...
My runner did a fine job and we ended up winning the women's team section.
The rest of the team did well expect Davo who had a mechanical issue (how convenient...) and had to turn around after 10km on the bike. Nicky had a good ride, Jess swam fast and J-Rad was 10th individual despite running himself dry by eating and drinking all his nutrition in the first 2hrs on the bike...


A few kg's skinnier than when he started...

Its only the second year that the Karapiro Half has been held and its a great event - a few little things here and there which need to be tidied up but definitely has the potential to be one of the big events on the NZ triathlon calendar. Last year I missed out on it because of my tibial stress fracture so I got a bit closer this year but fingers crossed that next year I'll be lining up for the whole thing.

Taiwan 70.3 Race Report

2010-10-30T05:34:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I chose Taiwan to race was because it is a new race I thought it may attract a weaker field which could work in my favour. Turns out my sneaky plan was foiled as a few decent girls decided to show up (Michelle Wu - Japan 70.3 winner, Belinda Granger, multiple Ironman and 70.3 winner, Maki Nishiuchi - can't remember her results but she's good...) and so on.

They haven't posted any results up yet and my watch battery died so I have no times for anything yet but the general consensus is that it wasn't a very fast course.

SWIM
The swim was a mass beach start, the Pros got a couple of meters head start. Beach starts are not my friend - I should really practice them because I never know whether I should run or dolphin dive (usually ends badly) or what to do. Anyway it wasn't too bad but I was pretty quickly engulfed in the the AG men coming up from behind.
As much as I was a fan of wearing a wetsuit it really was a bit warm and I was cooking by about 10mins. I had a few groups to swim with for most of the way but encountered quite a few annoying breaststokers on the second lap which broke us up a bit.
There was quite a swell the further out we got and I swallowed quite a lot of water.
Not quite sure of my time but think it may have been around 35-36mins which is probably my worst ever. I really don't know what is up with my swimming, I blame Haydn and the Teps for abandoning me, I've been extra sucky since then.

BIKE
Bike started off well until around the 15km when I rode over a huge hole in the road (refer other blog about shocking state of the roads) and heard a bad noise and RooRoo kind of stopped on me. I stopped to investigate assuming it was a puncture but turned out to be my fronty aero bottle which runs pretty snug with the front wheel had dropped down a fraction with the jolt and was now resting on my front wheel. I had some issues with it leading up to IMWI and had patched up a little hole which had been covered with tape, this had pulled the tape off and water was now leaking out. Awesome. I hitched it up so it was clear again and carried on and just used the bottle on my frame. Caught a couple of the girls ahead of me and got passed by a few men but mostly rode on my own.
The wind was pretty bad. Like Kona strength. Seriously.
Mostly side/tail or side/head and very gusty, had a few scary moments and had to pick my times to take my hands off the handlebars. The second lap was worse with a pretty full on headwind for a decent part of it.
Bike time was around 2hrs43 according to TapTap, will have to check the other girls times to see how it compares but it seems pretty slow to me. I think the guys were riding in the 2.20's so maybe that's not too bad.

RUN
My favourite part. Didn't feel like my favourite running out of transition and up a long hill. In fact the first 3km were pretty much uphill. After that it was mostly flat with a nice downhill section.
We didn't escape the wind on the run, it was there too making forward progression a bit hard at times. I even lost my hat at one stage.
Took about 5km to start feeling good, then I felt awesome for about 6-7km then I felt average again. It was pretty hot - like high 20's, but I kept cool getting water and sponges from the aid stations so the heat wasn't really an issue.
I have no idea what my run time was - at times it felt like I was going for under 90mins, other times it was more like 120mins. I think the fastest girls time was only 1hr28 and the men were around 1hr23, so I expect I was around 1hr35 but who knows.

So overall ended up in 8th place which is my best placing at an international event, so maybe not too bad for a muppet like me, but will wait to see the times compared with the others before I make any vast, sweeping statements.

Post-race feast - lucky the breakfast buffet was still open when I finished. Nom nom

Followed by dessert

View while I was enjoying my meal

The performance of the day must go to Jamie Whyte for winning the sprint for 2nd from 4 x IMFrance winner Marcel Zamora and also to Kieran Doe for coming 4th.

Next up will be the Karapiro Half Ironman on November 13th.