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Showing posts from March, 2014

Karen writes: The Scott's New Career

I had thought about taking the gas-axe to the old condemned Scott bike, perhaps burying the bits behind the retaining wall up behind the house along with my favourite pairs of deceased running shoes, an ancient teddy bear and other things too damaged to keep but with too many sentimental attachments to be put out in the rubbish bag. Instead, looking at the componentry I had spent so much money on in recent times, I decided someone else could surely get some use out of some of it and a Trademe end was the way to go.  I nearly still ended up taking the gas-axe to it when idiots started wanting to see photos of the frame crack (why if not to repair it?) and wanting to know details of frame size and structure and minute details about small parts, I mean the thing was on for $30, one wheel was worth more than that.  I couldn't make myself deliberately inflict damage even if it was the responsible thing so had to make do with beefing up the warnings that the bike was for parts only, ab

Kate writes: The bee passed away

Karen was just commenting on our problems. Well here is another one. I was out riding on Tuesday, going really fast down a hill when I was hit by a bee! I know it was a bee as I brushed it off my face I saw this big black thing! It hurt. Well I'm a nurse and so a hypochondriac, so I though I was going to die. I mean to say I was going into shock. I asked one of the other riders to look at my face and they said it was ok, so off I went for the rest of the ride. The next day my nose was a little swollen but I did not worry about it and that evening I went swimming. I thought the goggles were a little tight but did not think about it. Well the next day i had overslept and jumped out of bed to find i could not open one eye! looked in the mirror and saw this swollen face. A quick look for my strong antihistamines and off to work. The drugs worked well. I was working at a gp clinic so like all good nurses asked the GP to have a look. I was advised not to swim or exercise, may need an

Karen writes: Tale of a knee

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My left knee hurts.  It clicks and aches. It was being grumpy at spin last night and when I put my hand on it, I could feel a grind behind the kneecap with every push down on the pedal. OH NO MY NON-CAREER AS AN ATHLETE IS OVER I WILL NEVER RIDE OR RUN AGAIN!  So I practiced pulling up rather than pushing and what do you know, there was less clicking.  Not sure how I can apply that to running with 10+ km with some speed intervals which is on the plan tonight. Now I know that the things we capture in this blog are often about aches and incidents, mistakes and minor disasters. Thing is, having these sorts of things happen isn't always bad.  Apart from when something spectacularly good happens, the minor dramas are sometimes the only things that stand out in all the hours of one foot after another and of everything being the same. They also act as small but significant punctuation marks making you consciously think about what you can do better. I don't remember the thousands of

Karen writes: Spinning

In the third week post Ironman, its all a distant memory.  Again.  I thought I would be sensible, starting off by taking the whole first week off (except for a run on the Sunday), then taking the second week a bit easy running only short distances. These runs didn't actually turn out to be shorter distances, I felt too good so ended up slotted straight into the 1st week of an 8 week marathon programme ( Higdon Senior as usual).  On top of the nearly 37km of running (short run 6km, middle run 12km, and long run 19km), I managed to sneak in two spin sessions. Now I have a love hate relationship with the spin sessions, the first half hour I absolutely loathe. I look around and think this is all so daft, a whole lot of grown people furiously pedaling away in the corner of a big room, uselessly burning energy to achieve nothing and go nowhere when there is a whole world outside.  I look obsessively at the clock, I count how many minutes to go, calculate how many interval or hill sets

Karen writes: Signed up again...oops

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I've done it again! Booked and paid for (well, the Visa has paid for it) the 2015 Taupo Ironman, I'm committed. Of course it is the only sensible way to use up all the leftover gear lying around, it would be a waste not to. In the spirit of economy I'm re-using last years 'athlete-in-training' badge too...

Karen writes: BUT

Again I wait, early entries open for Ironman at 11.59 for members of Tri NZ, I want to be signed up and paid for so... so... so... actually I don't really know why.  Is it so I know what I will be doing in a years time?  So I have another year of everything I do being viewed in the context of  'being ready for Ironman'.  So I have an excuse to use the new bike?  So I have guaranteed early Sunday morning starts for as far as the mind can imagine? Perhaps it's because I loved it, being part of Ironman was 'me', and I'm really not ready to roll over and crawl back to the couch yet to just watch other people do it. I've become a bit of an annoying Ironman evangelist lately, I think everyone should do it.  At spin yesterday a woman asked me how I did in the race, and in my enthusiasm I raved a bit.  Her response was typical.  Responses fall into one of two categories, one category is the slight glazing of eyes which tells me the person feels the normal ac

Karen writes: Sometimes its better not knowing

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I swim in the sea during triathlon training season, spend hours in it.  Sea swimming is my main form of swim training because I cant stand the endless grind of going up and down and up and down and up and down in a pool.  Sometimes when I'm doing my version of swim training at the beach I watch intrepid, wetsuit clad, athlete-type people swim way out past the moorings, off into the DEEP water. I don't do that, too worried about what lurks below. Now logic tells me that no-one has ever actually been eaten off Maraetai Beach, not even nibbled a little bit by anything bigger than a sealice, but I still lurk close to the shore.  I do things like swim under the wharf rather than round the outside of it and get worried if a few strokes don't take me back into ground touching distance. I generally act like a bit of a water wimp. I'm really glad I wasn't chugging up and down the beach last weekend when a pod of Orca decided that they would hunt a stingray into the shallow

Karen writes: 2014 Ironman experience

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Flag with athlete signatures Wow, never would have thought when we started this journey that I would have turned up for my 3rd Ironman, taken nearly an hour off my time, and now be talking about a dose of the same again next year. What can I say about the experience?  I nearly slept in, you know how it is, turn the alarm off instead of hitting the snooze button expecting to get straight out of bed...then not.  But I woke up with a fright ten minutes later, still time for some breakfast, whew.  As for the race, it didn't go as expected, but it was unexpected in a great way.  It just goes to show that you cant always predict based on recent performance. Training was patchy, the only good thing I can say is that it was relatively injury free and I put the lack of damage down to knowing better what works, taking it easier rather than harder, using a roller at the first sign of tightness, some stretching and keeping an eye on muscles known to cause problems in the past. While I ca

Karen writes: did it!

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