Karen and Kate's journey to Ironman and beyond

I had an Annual Leave day today.   Sometimes there just isn't enough time to do everything so a day away from work is in order.   This morning I needed to be a proper Mum for a change and go to the big daughter's school assembly to watch her and her friends doing hip-hop.    Then I decided I couldn't possibly miss the opportunity to go for a bikeride, and concocted some sort of mad logic that fresh air, and generating a bit of heat through exercise would knock off my cold.    A short ride was what I promised myself. Nearly 3 slow, blustery hours later I got home, coughed my way up the driveway, dragged through the shower and into bed.   You know you probably shouldn't be on the road when you figure out that the reason the chin strap on your helmet is uncomfortable is because of your swollen glands.   Oh yeah, of course I should have known better, but a few hours sleep, another box of tissues, don't feel too bad now.  Plus...and it is a big ...

I miss trying to fit running into my life.   Actually, I don’t really miss trying to fit running in, but there is definitely a strange feeling space in my days at the moment which isn't quite filled up by sitting on the spin bike or the strength training I am doing right now.  Especially I notice that I don’t have to organise myself so rigorously around things like childcare, or think during the day about the types of food which will allow me to run later on.   For example, I don’t have to worry about having a suitable lunch (cream soups/spice/meat didn’t work), a snack can be less sensible in the afternoon, and where once I would have to have had light cereal or a protein drink for dinner (so I had some energy without my insides wanting to rebel on my evening run), I can now eat what I cook for the children at dinnertime.  Much better for my headspace I can tell you, it's pretty depressing to have weetbix when the children had something nice on a cold...

I have a coach. It sounds really posh. But I do think its a necessity. I followed a running plan for my last marathon, which promised me I would come in at 4h 59mins and 59sec. I actually came in 4hrs 46mins and 22 secs. so it worked. So all the better to get a coach for the Iron man. His name is Mr Smith or Gerrard to his friends. I had to fill in loads of forms , which gave me lots to think about. Then we had a long chat and then loads of info arrived in a google website. It took me ages to sort out where it all was, but then I was ready to start the Plan. I do feel sorry for Gerrard though, he has to put up with me. The first phone call started with, swimming pool closed, spin sessions cancelled this week and I can not run as my calf hurts. Not much hope there ... Well I've been swimming in different pools this week and out on my bike on the road, so we just have to work around the obstacles. I hope next week is easier.

I have just sniffled and snuffled and coughed my way into my little office, and on the desk was a suspiciously Australian looking bag.  There is one person who has just been on holiday to Australia , and last time she went away on holiday, you could pretty much say she kick started our Ironman mission.    The story had started some time before with me muttering about Ironman, I knew it had to happen, but making it happen was another thing altogether.  Then Jennie went to Taupo in March of this year and she was coincidentally there at the time of the Ironman festivities. She came back saying “yes, you really must do this”.   She brought with her two branded drink bottles, one for me, one for Kate, and the paperwork about it.  One of those bottles sits on the bookcase over my desk, and I look at it regularly, especially when the world starts getting a bit ordinary. So you can imagine, I did look at this package from Australia with a degree of warin...

Saturday was the perfect day for a ride. My bike had escaped the garage where it had spent the winter spinning. First day out on the road. What was I going to wear? could I remember how to stop and take my feet out of the cleats with out falling over? Sophie had pony club working bee on at 10 am so it was an ideal time for me to ride to Te Toro. Now if anyone knows what that means its Hilly. Very hilly and big long hills. I was concerned, did the training I have done helped or am I still hopeless. Well I got out and off I went. I had an enjoyable ride. 20k in just over an hour. no problems with the hills. I even got out of my saddle going up a couple of hills. My friends were very impressed. We cleaned up the pony club site and 2 hours later I was on my way home. I did not want to go back the way I came as there were some very steep hills, so I went down the main road. I had a very quite ride to pony club along a country lane, going down the main road was very different.Very ...

I have just had an extremely social 2 hours, riding, alone on my bike.   Of course it was a perfect Auckland morning, and the lead-up to the Taupo cycle challenge will have started, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that there were cyclists everywhere, some 1’s and 2’s, then quite large groups as I got closer to town.  All ages, all levels of experience, ranging from chattering flocks of obvious beginners in their rainbow of visibility gear (very smart people, they got extra big waves from me), to those in fast paced pelotons in dark colours, deigning not to see anyone else on the road as they rushed by.  Then on the Takanini straight jockeying for space on the road were runners, lots of them!   Aha, Auckland marathon is coming up, this must be the ‘long’ run on their programmes and they got a “go runner” from me as they slogged it out on the by now heating-up tarseal.     I got a big fright at one point, a trades van decided that he c...

Raukura from the Mangere Eye Screening service reports that her team is going well with the Feetbeat challenge which has been going now for nearly 2 weeks.   I am sure there is some element of psychology going on here,  Raukura makes it sound like they are really KEEN, but I do love their team’s name, the Eye-pods.  Anyway, we have 3 teams covering all the staff at the DPT, except for Eileen who has managed to get her other workplace involved in the challenge too.  Kate and myself are doing a great job of dragging the teams we are involved with down.   You get allocated one ‘square’ for every half hour you walk in a day, and another square if you take a friend with you.  Obviously, we are doing plenty of exercise, not a lot of it has been walking, strange that.  Shame we have to follow the rules, we were speculating that if the challenge had started a few weeks earlier, we could have claimed 9 squares each for the marathon, and another 42000 ...

My sister had written to an aunt in the UK and talked about me doing a marathon. The reply came back that she was surprised that I was a runner as when she had seen me last (2 years ago) she thought I was overweight. This made me laugh a lot. My Aunt is a Carmelite Nun, I thought they had to be nice to people. I'm going to send her a photo of me finishing my marathon, a little slimmer than last visit.  

At the moment there is an impressive looking, shiny, black and yellow monster taking up plenty of space in the minuscule lounge here.   This is the hire bike I have got until my own new one arrives, and I have just spent 40 minutes perched on it, trying to figure out how to adjust things so I can read in comfort, did I say that...sorry, I meant to say "spinning for 40 minutes at tempo pace".   Actually, in future I shall probably be putting on one of those sadistic spinning DVD's to make sure I "get a proper workout" rather than reading, but tonight we were getting to know each other.  The bike will also be moving outside into the covered in area on the deck when daylight saving arrives this Sunday, at least until mosquito season, those things don't seem to mind biting even moving legs.     I now feel like I really have moved into the next training phase, no excuses, the black spinning monster awaits, tomorrow "60 minutes interval/strength training...

I was cycling on Saturday morning, and my mind tends to take its own pathways independent of what my body is doing after a while on the road.   That can be very handy for working out a problem, or having an imaginary argument with someone, or sometimes that is where a poem or story comes from. That morning it was something much more prosaic though.   I was thinking about how much pleasure I was getting out of booting along out the back of Clevedon, which led on to considering the reactions I get from people when I talk about that sort of thing.   There are a range of reactions these days, those who look blank, it's outside the territory they even want to think about, those whose first reaction is disbelief (YOU…run a marathon…you are kidding??), and then there are others who are curious, enthusiastic, or profess envy.   Of the last group, the comments are often prefaced with “oh I would love to do something like that…” and I wait for a slight pa...

I've just had 2 days off. My calf still feels a little stiff so I'm being good and stretching, probably not enough. I got up an hour early today, to go swimming in Otara pool. Felt very pleased with myself. Got a txt from Karen to say she had a sick child and was not coming. I thought of not swimming myself but it was 7:10 and the office was not open so I might as well just go for a swim. One of my patients was in the pool so I had a quick catch up with her, and then got on with the swim. I had to do 500m free style to warm up and then 1k with pulboy and band. Also using the paddles. Not used them before so it felt like hard work to begin with. Then 500m with flippers. Wow the last few lengths felt like I was flying. I seem to suffer with blocked up nose and then an allergic reaction for the next few hours after swimming. A local GP suggested Flexinase. So I went to the chemist , its $28 or free with a prescription. I will have a chat with my doctor on Thursday. See ...

I have been learning about spin bikes and exercise bikes.   The spin bike is meant to mimic road riding - a bit - you can get down into the crouched position, or stand up and go hard out in a way that ordinary exercycles aren’t designed for.   Since I destroyed my el-cheapo spin bike and got a refund,  I now needed a new one...fairly urgently.    An indoor bike seems a bit of a luxury item, but my problem is being able to find time and opportunity to get out to cycle-train. Working during the day, I can get out for a run at night once the girls are settled, provided their Dad isn't on volunteer coastguard call or late home from work, but that doesn't work for cycling. Bike rides often need to be hours and hours long, and it's not smart to ride in the half dark or full dark along our twisty, narrow, country roads.  I'm also happy to run or swim in the rain, but again, while some bad weather cycling is good practice, too much is just plain risk...

What a relief when I went to see my massage person Jodi on Tuesday to find it was not my tendon but the muscle that was tight and not broken. I can swim and bike to my hearts content but no running for 2 weeks. I also have to do some stretches. I'm not good at doing them. I think its because I do not know why or how to do them. I asked for pictures but I still struggle to look and see what muscle am I trying to get right and how long for. So I need to write a little routine for myself and get going. I cannot let Karen beat me on an injury so I might even try Hot Yoga! Anyway had a good swim today. Jarred is good at changing it around and keeping us guessing. Had to have coffee and cake afterwards to replenish the energy levels. Decided to take the weekend off and start next week with a good swim.

My post marathon rest time is over.   I have had the meeting with the Trainer, discussed a detailed programme for the next 5 weeks, and the overall broad view of the strategy taking us up to the March Ironman next year.   As expected, for now the focus is cycle, cycle, and oh what a surprise, some more cycling, all to be in excellent shape of the Taupo round the lake...did I say it was a cycle challenge?.   A drop of swimming, and a trace of running barely rate a mention but that will change in the next 5 week installment when preparation for the Rotorua Half ironman will come into play. A compromise had to happen around the Sunday run however, I cant possibly replace that with....cycling! Good trainer that he is, Grant refrained from rolling his eyes when I asked "what do you think about running the Rotorua marathon 8 weeks after the Ironman".    The answer was to take out a pencil and make yet another change to the long distance plan, "perhaps we might focus...

Monday night is becoming one of my favourite runs. I meet up with the boys at the Kentish and off we go. They have been talking about the golf course all winter so now spring has arrived I get to see it for the first time. It may not sound exciting but we ran down by the estuary and then off around the golf course. The sun was setting and in the middle of town we are running on a grass verge and ducks are walking in front of us. It was a great run. But my Achilles tendon was hurting, not enough to stop and I do not want to be the whinging pom, so I carried on. But today it hurts. I iced it last night, took anti flam but it still hurts. Went to the physio but they had made the wrong appointment so I have to go back tomorrow. I have only just started to enjoy my running so it must get better soon. 

I have just left Kate surging professionally up and down the Otara pool swim lanes.   I did half an hour (about a km) and declared myself exhausted, she was still on her warm-up which looked more energetic than my whole swim effort when I absconded to the showers.  The new facility is fantastic, and early in the day it was relatively quiet. I do recall with some degree of sentimentality the shabby old Otara pool with its intermittently functioning community showers and toe-cringe inducing slats on the floor. My fingertips remember the short and shallow indoor pool where if you dug too deep you hit the bottom...what a difference now.   I do rather miss the old glassed in roof though, my main distraction when swimming was looking at the light patterns refracted through the (sometimes suspiciously cloudy) water onto the floor of the pool, now I shall have to find some other form of entertainment while I slog out length after boring length.  Yes, indoor swimming isn't re...

Well, maybe not war, but certainly serious preparation is underway now.   And I don’t know what Kate is worried about, while I have concentrated only on running for months to keep my measly little 20 seconds per kilometer ahead, she has been attending twice a week spin sessions, and swim training most of the year.  She has dragged me into an early morning swim tomorrow, I am sure it is to demonstrate tumble turning, superior technique, and advanced speed while I flail along in the water trying to remember how to breath and which bits to waggle or flap when. I had my first bike-ride on the open road on Saturday, I was ashamed to see that my poor bike needs a serious clean, it still has drink stains on it from last years Taupo cycle challenge.  The story with this is that every year on that ride we have a traditional stop at the service station about 30km out of Taupo, its there I fill my empty drink bottle with coca-cola which I sip to get through that last dash to t...

I thought Karen and myself were in recovery, taking it easy SHE said. Karen TXT me to say 36k bike ride felt good off for a run Sunday morning. I have no plans for exercise except spring cleaning. There must be some rewards for cleaning. It is wet cold and miserable here at the beach so I actually do not feel like running to-day. But tomorrow is another day. This could be WAR! I do not think I will catch Karen as she is much younger and thinner than me, but you can always dream.....

I sent Kate an email wishing her a good weekend, and telling her she should be eating plenty and taking it easy.    Having been only 13 minutes behind me in Perth (that’s less than 20 seconds per km), this puts her in striking distance of thrashing me come the next marathon.  Plus all that swimming commitment she is showing is cause for concern...of course...there is NO competition between us...none at all. Her clever campaign actually started most obviously on the plane back to Auckland, with her generous (I thought) donation to her hungry colleague of her piece of chocolate cake.  My counter-campaign involves the jelly baby lollies from Jennies office, if I strategically position a few on the blotter on my desk and rustle a piece of stiff plastic Kate will come in and “help me out”, little does she know the cunning plotting behind that…those jelly baby’s are really meant only for her.  Actually that plan is a spectacular failure,  I am p...

I went back to my swim coach today. Very pleased with myself from the wonderful marathon. We learnt how to do tumble turns. I think the pool had a nasty dose of snot after I had finished. Yep it was not pleasant. You have to breath out of your nose as you turn. I think more water went up it than out of it but eventually I think I've got it. Well as long as nobody is watching and seeing a very strange looking flop and wriggle at the end of the pool. But wow what a difference. Instead of touching and stopping at the end of a length there is this flow.... Anyway that was the beginning of the lesson. I am still in recovery, well that's my excuse. I took a few lengths off to catch my breath ,but that is the last time I do that. Next week I have to do do 2 swims, 1k of free style and 500m of free style with a band and pulboy, and 500m with flippers. no more messing around, I will be focused and determined. after all I was only 13 minutes behind Karen at the Marathon and there is no b...

Made an appointment to meet up with Trainer Grant.  Tick.   Sent a complaining email to the people I bought my spin bike off.  Tick.   Written a preliminary plan for myself for the next couple of weeks.  Tick.    Promised myself that I shall cut back the cake (again).  Sorta… maybe … tick.    15 weeks to go to the Rotorua Half Ironman.    This was a huge step into unknown territory for us last year, I was petrified as it seemed like such a massive undertaking.  It turned out to be a fabulous experience, our bodies coped with swimming 2km, cycling 90km, and running 21km.  I remember getting to Lake Tikitapu (Blue Lake) outside Rotorua horribly early in the morning, excitement mounting, checking the gear, re-checking it, and hopping from one foot to the other in the cold watching the other…athletes.  They looked like ‘real’ athletes as opposed to Kate and me who felt like we were impersonators…and ...

Hearing via the grapevine that the comments section of our blog doesn't seem to be working, we just thought nobody loved us.    Had a play with the settings, hopefully that will work but please dont give up on us...we do want to hear from you! Sigh...the comments are still not apparently working and looking at the blog help section it's not an uncommon problem...you can always email us at ironman@dpt.org.nz

I'm back at home, back at work, I feel like I haven't been away, especially having had an assignment due for Uni today.   Everyone at home coped very well without me, thankyou to the whanau for pulling together to make sure I can get away to do these sorts of things, I couldn't do half as much without your support.  Like all of this sort of thing, you spend months planning, plotting and agonizing  and then before you know it, all over.   Apart from the evidence of the photographs, I can hardly believe that it was me there. So after a week of eating anything and everything, and enjoying the luxury of not being ALLOWED to exercise, it is time to start working again.  I had a 20 minute run last night followed by 10 minutes of light spin, my legs felt pretty miserable but the rest of me wanted to keep going. Tomorrow I shall try for 30 minutes running, then another day off, then a longer run, Saturday perhaps a short bikeride to see if I can still remember how to ...

Monday morning and back to work. It seems strange that the Perth Marathon is all over. We had worked so hard to get there and now its back to normal. I plan to run tonight at the club but feeling tired. Will see how I feel nearer the time. But the sun is shining and its not raining so I really have no excuse. I got this picture of me and Karen with our winners T shirts on thought it would bring back memories of the event.  My biggest memory is the number of people . I think they said 43,000 had booked in. We also got great support from the runners doing the half marathon. They would run by and pat me on the back and give great encouragement. Thanks perth it was a great trip.

We got plenty of exercise yesterday, trotting back and forth over the 1.8km from the apartment to the conference center.   We also went to the end of conference dinner, an enjoyable meal which had a 'rock' theme, but most importantly there was a live band performing all the favourite dance covers and a whole lot of activity, some of it even dancing, went on (Kevin, who shall we send the photos too?).  Yes, truly the secret to good training has to be having plenty of variety.... demonstrating specialty lung training exercises But what about the men from Mars?    Kate noticed them first during the day, big men wearing serious looking suits, incongruously wedging themselves into little conference seats among all the diabetes nurses.  Two larger than life gents, drifting implacably through the conference, and then they turned up again at the dinner.  We of course couldn’t resist asking who they were, actually we asked ‘what’ they were and admit...

Im feeling GOOD, rather like recovery is over (I know it isn't really).   I have walked and walked and walked today, meant to walk down to the conference venue for dinner tonight however it is pouring with rain.   I can run up the three flights of stairs here, and am itching to run properly but that will have to wait for a few more days, maybe a short run on Sunday afternoon.   Still furiously hungry, but now able to walk past a bakery (there are lots of them here) without having to impose rigid self control...if something is in the fridge however it is fair game!   

Today I can get up and walk about without thinking. No Pain. Its great. The legs feel like mine again. Not quite ready for a run but off to conference with a light step. If Jenny from spin is reading this I hope your half Marathon went well and I look forward to catching up with you next week. Its still dark here in Perth but warm so we better get off to the breakfast meeting.