Samoa Training Update

So after our little blip of a holiday followed by getting sick we are now on track with our Samoa training albeit a little bit late and in a bit of a rush...

SWIMMING

I was pretty useless at swimming a couple of week ago (even more useless than usual if that is at all possible) but I seem to have found my groove again.  Our squad and lane is getting ridiculously busy which can be a bit frustrating and I got kicked in the head while doing kick yesterday while simultaneously kicking someone else in the head. Good times.
I finally cashed in my wetsuit voucher which I won at Auckland Half Ironman and splashed out with an upgrade to an Orca 3.8 suit from whatever the entry level one was that I won. For the past 6 years I have been getting custom made suits from Blue Seventy but since our contacts don't work there anymore and the new staff obviously don't love us as much, they don't work out as reasonable in price as before so it was looking like time to move on from B70 anyway.  I wasn't sure if I would fit into the Orca one since I was a bit off the size chart (in a smaller way not a fatter way) but it fits pretty good apart from a bit of bagginess around the armpits which I can get taken in.
It's a non wetsuit swim at Samoa so I won't get the chance to test out the new suit for a while since the sea is at Arctic temperatures right now but hopefully it makes me swim twice as fast...

CYCLING

With the unexpected and a little bit sneaky entry of our friend Kezzle into the Samoa Half we now have the A Team back for weekend riding - wooo! So we have done two weekends in a row of riding the Waitaks for the first time in a long time.  We are pretty slow but hopefully a few more weeks of it will do the trick. The weather has been a bit sub optimal the rest of the time for outdoor riding but we have been very diligent and have ridden our indoor trainers in lieu of the road each time.  I somehow managed to get a puncture partway through a session last week which was a new experience especially considering I haven't had a puncture in probably almost a year (barring puncturing with my race tyre in Kona) thanks to the trusty Gatorskins.

RUNNING

Running is building back up to where I was before we went on holiday with 45km last week and hopefully a bit over 50km this week.  I try to maximize my time and use running as a form of transport when I can especially at this time of year when it's hard to find motivation to go for a run when I get home at 5.45pm and it is cold and dark.  Yesterday my running home plans were foiled when my ferry to work was cancelled due to gale force winds (pfft.....) and Jared kindly lent me his car to get to work which obviously meant I had to return it at the end of the day.  Like any ultra organised person with mild obsessive compulsive tendencies I was rather pissed as it ruined all my plans and I don't like having my plans ruined especially when it comes to training.
Anyway today I will be running home from work so nothing had better get in my way...

No triathlon related photos this week so how about some random photo grids which I did on my new app when I was home sick.

Kona 2014

Waikiki 2014.  Take me back here please

Castles of France 2012

Gardens of France 2012

Les Alpes 2012

L'Alpe d'Heuz 2012 - or take me back here please

Gay Paris (pronounce it Paree and it sounds better) 2012

And of course a PC grid

June update

So since my last update we have discovered Trainer Road which has increased biking motivation somewhat, ran a Half Marathon, did a 25km two person time trial, been on holiday and now gotten sick.

TRAINER ROAD

Maybe we are a bit late to the party since I discovered it has actually been around for a few years but Jared decided to try it out a few weeks ago in order to try and find some motivation for riding over winter.  I/we have never been big on wind training, I gave it a good 6 week effort leading up to Kona when I was broken and I was quite good at hitting the power targets but I would dread it all day knowing what was coming after work.  It didn't help that we had a terrible setup for it in out tiny little house and would be a PITA to set up and take down and we would practically be touching when we were on the bikes.

 

So spacious

I find Trainer Road way more motivating for some reason being able to see your power on the the bigger screen and trying to get a high accuracy percentage at the end of each segment.  Only problem so far is that we only have one subscription and one ANT+ stick so Jared usually gets to use it since he was the one who initiated it all (and he is even worse at windtraining than me so probably wouldn't bother if it's not on the screen in front of him) so we are currently working through that.

MOUNT JOGGERS HALF MARATHON

We had a little weekend away to stay with our Lawson friends to run the same Half Marathon that we did last year at Queen's Birthday.  Last year I was coming off IMNZ so hadn't done much in March and April and only a handful of runs over 60mins.  I wanted to run under 95mins but thought that might be a bit difficult.  I ran 93mins in one of the best paced and effortless half marathons I had ever done.  So naturally this year with far more running under my belt I of course wanted to go faster and hopefully break 90 minutes for the first time since about 2010.
I tend to find when I have any type of goal or expectation on myself that's when things go to poo and this was no exception.  Actually I wouldn't say it went to poo but I ended up running only about one minute faster than last year but it required a lot of effort and my legs hurt for about 3 days afterwards.  And my pacing was pretty shit.

Funny that I ran my best ever half marathon (in 2009 but I still try to cling to the past) with no Garmin or GPS and no time goal or pace goal, just ran to what my leggies wanted to do and wasn't even sore at the end *sigh*.  Maybe I should do a half one day without a Garmin and see what happens.
Anyhoo we had a great weekend with lot of spa time, dog time and baby time and gossip and food.

2-UP TIME TRIAL

The last time I did this race was a couple of years ago when my partner pulled out on me at the eleventh hour so I called upon Uncle Roy step in.  The general idea is that you are evenly matched so that you can each share the front, obviously this wasn't going to happen with Roy so I just hang on behind him yelling out "EASE!" every now and then.
I find it hard to find a partner because ideally it needs to be someone about the same size as me otherwise there is not much point in me going to the front because they won't get any draft.
So I was just going to be spectating until our ninja friend Dr Dildo the Dentist said I should go with his 15 year old son Lachie and being the Tiger Dad that he is he told Lachie it was happening.  It was a bit long for him as school TT's are only 16km in a 4 or 5 person team so I don't think he enjoyed it much after about 12.5km but I just took the lead for most of it and had a short rest every 5 minutes or so.

I look like a real cyclist.  I think so anyway.

I got to wear my BMW skinsuit which I don't have much call for and wore my Zipp's on my road bike which was pretty exciting.

HOLIDAY

We went on an actual holiday - no bikes, no race, no training camp - WOW.  Travelling without a bike was awesome.  We just went to the Gold Coast so went to a whole heap of fun places like Dreamworld, Movieworld and Seaworld, we went for a couple of little trots on the beach and ate lots of shit.

Nice view for lunch

I found a panorama setting

Yes we are in Australia

Fudge anyone?

Dolphins

Jared got sick the day before we left so was a bit sad for a first couple of days and then lovingly passed it on to me on the second to last day and we are now back and I have lots of green stuff coming out of my nose and chest.  I actually don't feel too bad despite that but have not done much for the last couple of days.
We have signed up and booked flights for the Samoa Half Ironman race in August so the idea was to go on holiday and then it is a 8 week block until Samoa where we get fit and have no excuses so hopefully I am right in the next couple of days because I am sure that will creep around pretty fast

Oh and another piece of rather momentous news (in my world anyway) - after ~18 years of being a non red meat eater I have decided I am sick of relying of iron pills to give me iron (I invariably get sick of taking them and periodically end up horribly iron deficient which is what has happened recently) and I have started to attempt to eat red meat.  So far this has consisted of little tidbits usually off Jared's meals which normally take a couple of minutes of me psyching myself up to get it into my mouth.
Mainly the reason why gave up red meat was because I didn't actually like most of it so I certainly can't see myself knocking back a giant steak or rack of ribs but if I can have the occasional lamb or mince dish hopefully it will make me a healthier person.

Obligatory PC shot

Big Jo Update

Well there has been not a whole heap of training but some ups and some terrible lows since my last blog.
Swimming is the same, riding is getting colder and requiring way too many clothes so not much of it has been happening and running has been going well.
The rest of the last 6 weeks can be shown in pictures...

The PC's discovered water from the tap

I discovered the perfect post training food - coke and ice cream

My ferry broke down with me on it and I had to get a ride in a rubber ducky

We had a wild party and someone left a spoon on the lawn

I became an All World Athlete. Whatever that means.

I have been running home every Wednesday.  Now it is dark when I get to this point

I made ANZAC biscuits and they were delicious

I ate a giant sausage.  And brocolli/cauliflower/carrot mash in case anyone is wondering (not cat sick)

I run with a pink fannypack

I got some stylish new MINI kit

We lost a very dear friend :(

We made a new friend

Who has very sharp claws

I got new shoes

New PC discovers water from the tap

PC's work in tandem to steal bread

Cat bench on a Sunday afternoon

Auckland Half Ironman Race Report

Auckland Half Ironman was a relatively successful outing in the World of Jo, my main goal was to be happy and achieve Triathlon Zen and I am pretty sure I did that.

I find it very weird doing a big race (I call a big race a Half or full Ironman) at home.  The night before the race I was vacuuming and cleaning up kitty litter - I can't imagine doing Ironman and going to work the day before, emptying the dishwasher in the morning, etc.  So the night before I tried to remember I was racing the next day and managed to get all my stuff together without forgetting anything.

Saturday was a lovely day - nice blue skies and no wind.  Race start was a leisurely 8.30am which got dragged out to about 8.40am due to the usual Matt Tuck tardiness.  The sea was nice and flat and I had a few people to swim with at times, I came out of the water after the first lap and didn't really feel like I had swum 1km already.  Running out of T1 after a lengthy transition putting on my uber aero bike top, my helmet, my shoes etc and then trotting the 50m or so out to the timing mat and my official swim/T1 time was 30mins16.... Hmmmmm maybe a few hundred metres short?! The first team swimmer did the swim + T1 in under 20mins, so around 19 minutes for 2km - world record pace?! The organisers assured us afterwards that it was GPS measured - maybe need to get their GPS machine calibrated! Sadly they didn't use they same GPS for the bike and run as these were both spot on.

All aeroed up

The bike was pretty good albeit rather sloth-like on the descents, more like a terrified sloth as I seem to have lost my nerve for anything not in a straight line.  I pity the fool who gets stuck behind me on a downhill.
I had hoped to bike a bit faster but I was happy in my biking so I can't ask for much more considering I hadn't really been taking bike training too seriously recently.  I had a few boyfriends on the bike course who obviously liked the look of my arse and I only knew they were there when I looked behind me but none of them seemed to last long.

Uber aero

Nice day for a bike ride

Davo riding like a crab

The run was pretty good, I trotted along passing a few people and getting lapped by Amelia Watkinson who won the women's and came 4th overall in a smoking record time.  I managed to catch a girl in front of me who I had given an odd nickname (as the voices in my head tend to do) which perked me up and put me up into 6th place. The run was 3 laps and the first two were one second different and the last was about a minute slower so I thought my pacing was pretty good.
Leggies weren't too sore but feet were a bit ouchie with a hotspot/blister on the ball of my foot.
Team SpeedTheory did well coming 2nd in the teams but the outcome might have been a bit more interesting if Captain Pudding hadn't have got a puncture which cost them a few minutes.
Nonetheless we all went home winners with me wining an Orca wetsuit and Jared Razzle taking home some styley sunglasses.

Actually looking biomechanically correct for once

About to catch my new nemesis

What Triathlon Zen looks like

Thanks to Scottie T for the awesome photos, I will stop being a tight arse and will buy some soon.

I have had quite an enthusiasm for running since the race and am planning my running timetable to try and up things without hurting myself.  My awesome new yellow running singlet helps with my enthusiasm and my pretty new shoes I will be buying soon.

PC news

No actual news just some cute pictures

Maybe not a PC but a nice sunrise

Family photo minus one

Look at that little face

Kitty in the wild

Back in Business

I bet you didn't expect to hear from me so soon did you.
Well I have managed to string together some decent weeks of training so thought I would report back.

SWIMMING

I have surrendered to the beeping in my swimcap (my tempo timer) and have dropped down a lane to see if keeping my strokes low actually makes me go faster, so far I am not convinced.  I feel too comfortable in that lane and feel like I will be faster if I have people to chase - kind of like sitting in a bunch of cyclists your own ability versus riding with better riders and trying to hang on.  But coach Haydn keeps going on and on at me about stroke counts so thought I would make a concerted effort.  We will see...

BIKING

I did my own little Auckland Half Ironman course reccie last weekend and it is as nasty as I remember.  My number one goal for the race is to finish the bike not feeling like I want to hang myself, if I can get through feeling happy that's the main thing.  I might need to revisit "The Triathlete's Guide to Mental Training" before the weekend.  It took me 3hrs15 to bike 90km mostly at what I considered to be half Ironman power so maybe I am not quite as fit as I want to be...
I had a funny little moment during my reccie ride where I was obviously a bit tired and perhaps under nourished (note to self: carry more than one bottle and one bar on race day) and I somehow managed to ride off the road and into some gravel.  I realized I was in trouble once I discovered I was off the road so I tried to slow down before the big pit of gravel in front of me, I had almost made it and had one foot unclipped (or decleated as Kezzle would say) when the gravel gave me the death wobbles and I ended up in the ditch still attached to my bike.  I didn't have far to fall and didn't hurt myself or my bike luckily but I think it highlighted the importance of paying attention even on a seemingly straight piece of road.  It was a shame I didn't have anyone to share it with because I did feel a bit silly extracting myself from my bike all alone on the ground.

I do heart bikes even when my bike throws me into the ditch

RUNNIES

I did something very exciting last week - I ran home from work.  6km from work to the ferry, a 15 minute ferry ride then 10km home - 16km run on a Monday, unheard of! I wasn't sure how the leggies would be after sitting around on the ferry but they seemed to be all good.  So now I am finding a way to make this part of regular training.  It is doable just take s a bit of uber organising which I am uber good at anyway.
Running finally seems to be feeling a bit better like I have got a bit of fitness so hopefully I won't be suffering too much next weekend.

I run through the sea

PC's making it hard to get up from my nap to run

PC'S

In PC news they are growing bigger by the day and we have introduced them to the catdoor with mixed success.  No-one has peed on the bed (our bed) in about a month now so we are doing well.

Spooning kitties

Meatloafing kitties