Karen writes: Head overload

Ohhh…sleep is no escape from the IM spectre!   The alarm went this morning and I woke in a state of panic, I was dreaming that I was in the process of doing another bad job of the upcoming Ironman and I really, really wanted to finish the story.   In the dream, I had just cleared transition, but instead of going from a swim to the cycle, in some bizarre way it was office to cycle, and the brakes on the bike had fallen apart.  These broken brakes in no way resembled what is actually on my bike, but after briefly considering finishing the ride without brakes and discarding that idea, I dismantled and repaired them, then found that there was something wrong my helmet (could only find half of it?), and that I had left my shoes on the side of the road.  I was just back on the bike, ready to try to catch Kate, and beep beep beep went the alarm…NO, let me sleep, I promise I will hurry if I can just find out what happens next!

My head is a bit overloaded at the moment, I am getting back into my most important role, that of ‘mum’ however haven’t quite regained my usual efficiency after a few weeks of the girls being away.  While getting children off to the holiday programme is certainly less complicated than getting ready for a school day (“you put your dirty uniform back in your drawer?”, “what do you mean you need cupcakes for 30 this morning??”), we still haven’t managed to get to peak performance.  Like yesterday, finally got out the door, then there were several trips back into the house for sunhats, fix a leaking water bottle, jackets, and when we were all at last strapped in the car, someone realised they hadn’t fed the cats…   On the road, dropped the girls off at the holiday programme, I was all prepared for a quick trip to the Otara pool, having efficiently worn my swimming togs under my clothes and oh, got to Whitford and realised I had forgotten my towel.  No matter, after rejecting the idea of using the blanket off the back seat, one of the jackets the girls had still forgotten to take with them sort of did the trick and I did manage to get to work, somewhat damp, smelling a bit eau de swimming pool but mission achieved…in time for another day in the office.

Another mum morning.  Another office day.  And another day with more training.  80 minutes on the spin bike tonight.  I have brought some pedals off Trademe so I can wear my cycle shoes with the cleats on to spin, pedaling in fluffy slippers isn't quite the thing for an Ironman pretender 5 weeks out.