Rotorua Half, Tadpolemonator and yuck Christmas weather

So the aftermath of Taupo Half was not so great with a my little groin issue hanging around and preventing me from running plus a very nasty ouchie on the front of my ankle from me being a muppet and not doing my shoe up properly.

Ouchies

 I was down to do the bike section for the Rotorua Half with my friend Megan from swimming which was quite exciting as I have never been a team biker before and got to wear my skinsuit which I had never had an occasion to wear.  I had a good ride despite my new Garmin 500 (on it's first outing) being on autolap and taking a lap every 8.05km (5 miles) and annoying the hell out of me.  It was fun riding with gay abandon and not having to worry about running.

Looking a bit ghost like but aero at the same time

Rotorua turned out a great day and the Lawson's backed up their 3rd race in 3 weeks with the Hammer coming 3rd and the Poodle taking a more relaxed approach and taking the dog for a run for the last part.

Who's this clown running his dog on the course?! Oh wait that's Nick

A very exciting thing happened the week after Rotorua - my new bike parts arrived!! Woo hoo!! I had to reorder from somewhere else because the original order went missing in the post which is why it took so long.  It then took a couple of nights (and lots of grumbling) to build.

Genius at work...

But then I got to use it for my Saturday ride - weeeeee!  It feels pretty good and seems to be better at cornering and 180 degree turns which is an area of mine which certainly needs some help.  It came with a pair of Zipp 404's but the whole TapTap issue means that if I use the rear 404 (once I get a Campag freehub body for it) I won't have power, BUT I will be able to use my rear wheel cover which I couldn't use with RooRoo so will be able to have a 404 front and disc on the back.  Finally I have a grown up bike and grown up wheels!! I know it is by no means the latest and greatest but don't think there is much difference between a 2009/2010 P3C to a 2012 P3C, and there is no way in hell I can afford a 2012 P3C.  It is hard for someone of my size to get a decent bike which actually fits properly and this bike should be faster than RooRoo.

ello Taddy

I have named it the Tadpolemonator - Taddy for short.  Tadpole for my new name courtesy of Nick the Poodle, and Lemonator out of respect to it's previous owner Tracy Lemon.
Let's see if Taddy can now get us to Kona....

The weather around NZ over Christmas has been pretty schizer but I have managed a bit of riding and sea swims.  Running is starting again slowly but am looking to supplement it with pool running (boooooo) so I don't lose too much fitness.

Nice summer weather in Coromandel...

Devonport to Takapuna swim crew and their kayaker.  The seemingly calm conditions lulling them into a false sense of security...

Made it! Not so calm now

Taupo Half Ironman Race Report

I had a rather cavalier attitude coming into this race this year, I hadn't pulled up so well after Tinman with my annoying pre-Germany groin problem appearing on the opposite side.  It started to get sore a couple of hours after Tinman and hadn't really settled so I hadn't run all week since it was sore just walking around.  So I didn't really expect to be running.
Plus my super speedy new bike was STILL waiting for parts and I was really quite over the disappointment of coming home everyday to no special delivery so I wasn't really enthused about riding RooRoo again when I should have been riding something faster.

Race morning was rather chilly with quite a chop on the lake but the forecast was pretty good for the rest of the day.
Last year I had a moment of brilliance in the swim and came out of the water in around about 31mins which is a phenomenal time for me.  Sadly I couldn't replicate it this year and came out in about 36 minutes... It was much worse conditions though and times across the board were slower than usual.  I was racing AG and came out of the water with one of the Elite girls and there were still 2 more behind me - why did that never happen when I was racing Elite?!!
I was so cold (the water was 14 degrees) that I ran like a snail up to T1 and struggled to get helmet on, things in pockets, etc and ended up not doing my shoes up so well causing the velcro to rub a big hole in front of my ankle - ouch.
It took quite a while to warm up but luckily there was no rain so after about 30km I was feeling a bit normal again.
The number of fast looking people passing me indicated that maybe everyone had struggled with the swim and maybe I had actually done ok.
I saw a sad sight at about the 10km mark - Jared Razzle pulling the pin on his race and rolling back in to town.  I knew it was on the cards with his multitude of niggly issues but was still sad to see him like that.

After about 25km I got mixed up in a pack which came past picking up every person in it's path, I did my best to keep my distance but had the old problem of opening up a gap and then someone else slotting in.  When I realized that the pack contained the 4th - 7th females (my competition) I decided I to had to stick with it if I was to compete with them.  The pack then got broken up a few times by the draft busters and me and one of the other girls had to spend some time in the naughty corner.  The draft marshall freely admitted that the girls are much easier to pick on because we stand out among all the men which is the hard part of being near the front of the girls race but not a good enough swimmer to get away from the large packs of men.
The last 20km was spent passing the people who had passed me while I was serving my time including a couple of girls who hadn't got busted.

Coming off the bike I wasn't really sure how the groin would be but thought I would give it a go and was prepared to stop if need be.
And it turned out to be ok! It was a little bit niggly but never got worse than a 2/10 so it was obviously pretty warmed up after 90kms on the bike.
I was pretty disappointed in my run time but have had a broken couple of weeks for running so I guess it was ok.  And I picked up a couple of places to put myself into 6th place which is always good.
I almost got run down in the finishing chute by Terenzo (he was doing it in a team) and his little group of fans who got to run the last 50m with him.  He had the decency to stay behind me coming across the finish line and I would expect nothing less from him, I was wondering what the commotion going on behind me was.

Anyhoo I fulfilled my goals of going sub 5 hours and coming in the top 10 so it was a successful trip.  The drafting penalty was a shameful moment for me but as Coach Poo said the top 3 girls at Kona this year all got penalties so I am in good company...

The groin is about where is was before the race so I don't feel like I have done any extra damage to it (am almost 100% certain it is my Pectineus muscle NOT a bone problem - whew) but will let it settle down before running again.

We had some fantastic hospitality from T the P and Netty at their lovely house in Kinloch and good company with the Poodle, the Hammer and the Seal.  The Hammer had a phenomenal race to come 3rd in the ladies and the Poodle had a solid race overall and moved pretty quick (much quicker than me!) for a big man on the run course.

This weekend I am doing the bike leg for Team Speedtheory Ladies at the Rotorua Half and will not be on my new bike so don't even ask.

Stroking and Striding, training and Tinman

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

AIDS like foot

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

Hello new shoes

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

TINMAN RACE REPORT

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

The body marking lady mistook  me for a M30-34

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

RooRoo's swansong (maybe)

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

Happy in my running

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

New stuff and stolen stuff

The last few weeks have had a few ups and downs...

We started out with J-Rad having a nasty crash on a straight piece of road - hitting a pothole while only having one hand on the bars.  A bit of road rash and a snapped hanger was the damage plus an aborted Sunday ride.

Ouchie

Onto the next week and I bought a new bike! 6 minutes quicker at IMNZ here I come! It hasn't made it's first outing yet, just waiting on some parts so standby for the big unveiling...

Then my car was broken into - goodbye running shoes, iPod, Gayman, favourite white Oakleys, Alp d'Huez triathlon backpack, sweaty running gear, wet swimming togs and towel and old favourite goggles. Sad face.  I would have preferred for them to look through my car and realize that they didn't actually want stinky running shoes or wet togs and leave those things behind because I'm sure they would have biffed them once they opened up the bags anyway.
Thank goodness for insurance, I will hopefully get everything back in some form but it is a pain in the arse and I am a bit nervous about running in my back up orthotics until my new ones have been made.
I am looking at replacing my Gayman Forerunner110 with the new Garmin Forerunner 10 but will see what insurance come up with.

Then we had a lovely ride around the K2 course in Coromandel with the A team on a super nice day.  The A team consisted of the Rockstar, the Seal, the Hammer, the Poodle and the Tadpole.  No, we are not immature or anything and like to give everyone names...  K2 is a bit of a farce not actually being 200km but was still my longest ride ever of 193.5km.  There was a slight Tadplosion with about 10km to go but I pulled myself together and made it home to the chips, coke and SPA!

The A Team Bicycle Gang rolling around Matarangi

So now we are knocking on the door of this years triathlon season with Stroke and Stride starting this week and my first triathlon of the season in a couple of weekend's time.
Swimming has been going ok despite the loss of my new togs and favourite goggles.  I am trying to make an effort not to piss around at swimming and not be the last in and it is having mixed results.
Riding has been pretty solid and I have been good at following my program which is a good start.  I will be very keen to see what happens to my riding once my new bike is up and running.  The bike came with race wheels and I will be able to resurrect my wheel cover to convert the rear wheel to a disc which I am unable to use with RooRoo due to the curved in chainstays.  So I am looking forward to mixing it amongst the grown ups with a decent bike and race wheels - yeah!
Running has been a bit of a struggle and the theft of my shoes and orthotics coincided with me needing a bit of a running hiatus.  Basically my legs felt overworked and underpaid.  So a week off running and a couple of massages have hopefully done the trick, I did make a return to the O'Hagan's 5km before my hiatus and managed to knock out a time starting with 18 which is always good.
I happened to ordered a couple of pairs of shoes a few weeks ago - I was feeling very smug about having my next pair of training shoes all lined up then my current ones got stolen so the new ones became it, but I also got a pair of DS Racers so I am all shoed up.

Hello new shoes

Al Fresco BBQing

Perfectly separated food items and a personalized drink - it doesn't get much better than that.

Return of the Slack Blogger

Don't worry people - I am still alive.

A lot has been happening around our little town in the last couple of weeks with the WORLD triathlon champs being held just down the road.  I had a Javier Gomez sighting on my normal ride home from work and a Johnny Brownlee sighting as I was going about my usual Saturday morning efforts - exciting!

At the buttcrack of dawn before the Elite Women's race

Blue pontoon

Aside from tri-geek star spotting I have been doing the usual training and, for once, working quite hard.

Swimming has mainly been centred around the AG World's so peaked a couple of weeks ago with a nasty threshold set of 100's and as eased off a bit since then.  Despite my proclamation about my amazing swimming ability I swam like a sloth in a 400m and 200m TT a few weeks ago pushing me into a swimming depression.  On the bright side I have two new sexy pairs of togs which make swimming slightly more appealing.

Biking is involving lots of efforts and making myself hurt.  We had a little training camp in Kinloch a couple of weekends the other day and did a couple of rather meaty rides in some rather meaty wind.  Next up will be a ride around the K2 course which I suspect is going to be a very long day and hurt quite a lot.

The Lawson family

Cool people in the back

Running is ticking along, my little hip/groin problem has resurfaced slightly but is mostly being kept under control with lots of stretching and strengthening.  It seems that my whole left side is rather weak and munted but I am working on it.
I went for a delicious run around Lake Wakatipu and the Lake Hayes the next day followed the next weekend by a bush run in Kinloch which was nice but resulted in my beautiful shoes being rather bloodstained due to some ouchy foot bits which rubbed raw.  Poor shoes...

No so pretty and clean anymore despite copious cleaning

Perfect post run recovery in Queenstown 

The view out of my window in my post-run recovery spot

Big Jo Training Sept 10 - Sept 30

SWIM

Swimming is actually going well for me - woo hoo! Well, mostly... We have been doing threshold 100 sets on a Wednesday and I am consistently holding times faster than I have ever been able to before, but ask me to sprint and I suck.  I go slower than what I can hold for 21x100's - what is with that?! It's like I try too hard and just end up thrashing around and go backwards.
*sigh*

BIKE

The last couple of weeks (during my blogging hiatus) was around the 10hr mark for riding per week.  I managed to recover from the Deathly Illness and pulled myself together on the bike.  My IMNZ program from Coach Poo has begun which means a lot of efforts and suffering on the bike but will hopefully result in some super speedy half and Ironman bike splits.
It also means encountering muppets who latch onto me as I ride past them and make me want to beat my head against a wall.  Hopefully I will get so fast that the muppets can't keep up :)

RUN 

Running is GOOD! I have been doing about 50km per week and doing some efforts during my long run which almost killed me last weekend but will hopefully make me stronger.  The O'Hagan's 5km hasn't been going so well but I am getting slightly faster but far off my former glory.  I keep getting beaten by about a 15 year old and then got beaten by my friend Claire last week which, while it was inevitable, it still hurt.

Lots of pics today just for you Nick.

Post training nom noms. I had to take a doggy bag

Birthday lunch for one

Birthday dessert with singing and eveything

Lots of cow poop on my bike after waiting for these people

What a healthy person eats for lunch

The reason why the run course for ITU AG Worlds was changed

Big Jo Training Sept 3-Sept 9 and the Deathly Sickness

SWIM

More fun and games at the Teps with 30x100m on Wednesday preluded by about a 2000m warm up.  The interval was better for me this week so I was able to hang with the Lane 3 kids without blowing my foofoo valve too majorly.  Although now that I cast my mind back to the fact that I was supposed to go for a run after swimming before work and had to postpone it till lunchtime because I was so wasted indicted that maybe I did blow my foofoo valve a bit.
But I came down with a very nasty tummy bug on Wednesday night which had probably been brewing during the day which could also have led to the wastedness.
I spent all of Wednesday night alternating between the toilet and bed and thought that I was dying.  By Friday I was more alive but not in any way up to swimming so it was just 2 swims for the week.
This Deathly Sickness which I had contracted ran rampant through our family starting with my one year old niece and spreading to my sister, father, step-father, Grandma and Jared.  I barely had any contact with my niece and dad who had it first - I was merely in the same room as them after they had been sick and I still managed to get it so it took no prisoners. 
We thought Jared had got away with it but he woke up on Sunday (which was his birthday) feeling rather average and spent the rest of the day feeling like death and excreting 2kg of his body weight.  Needless to say I felt as guilty as sin for ruining his birthday so spent the day at his beck and call (after going riding of course...) and performing tasks that only a true friend would do.

BIKE

The Deathly Sickness ruined most of my riding week having only ridden on Tuesday and then attempting to ride in the weekend.
By Saturday I was feeling pretty normal for everyday tasks but didn't take into account the two days of almost zero food consumption and as a result was not really up to riding.  I got about 10 minutes into the ride before I started to think it was a bad idea but not wanting to be thought of as a wuss and abandon completely I stuck it out and took the biggest shortcuts I could find and rode at snails pace to the coffee shop.
Sunday was a bit better but still not the full 100 so I just rode up to Titirangi with Neilio and Claire and Neilio tried to take advantage of me in my vulnerable state.  I showed him though and I don't think that he will be trying that again.

RUN

Only two runnypoos for the week (well a lot more than that actually...) on Tuesday and Wednesday, I didn't even bother trying in the weekend.
Much to my horror I have become a person who runs with an iPod - not all the time but it is happening rather frequently.  My little iPod shuffle is of the generation where the controls are on the headphone cord which is fraught with faults and it's favourite trick is to turn the volume up when I am trying to turn to down and still turn it up when I try the opposite.  So maybe the magic iPod fairy will be delivering me a new iPod sometime soon.  I do draw the line at using an iPod when I running with someone else - there is nothing worse than seeing two people out running together both listening to iPod's! I would be rather offended if I turned up to run with someone and they were listening to an iPod.  J-Rad will often have his on our Saturday run but since he is normally on his own after 5-6km I guess it is acceptable - I'm just covering my arse here in case someone reading this sees us running together and he's listening to an iPod after I proclaim it is a pet hate because another pet hate are people who do the very thing that they bitch about!

Snug fit