Karen writes: I'm a duathlete

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I am no longer primarily a 'runner'.  The bike came out of the shed on Saturday.  It was dirty, the tyres were flat, and the old oil on the chain had soaked up the dust and it made a thick coating on the links.  Yuck, sad case of equipment neglect. 

A couple of km up the road I realised I had forgotten…gloves, arm coverings, speedometer, leg-warmers, and how to change gears without thinking about it.  This last was probably a good thing, by practicing changing the chain from big to small front cog and back again I figured out a way of making it work most of the time, which hadn’t been the case before I put the bike away (or at Taupo Ironman), when I had big problems getting from low to high gears.

There were a heap of runners out with their fuel-belts, camelpaks and terribly serious expressions, that reminded me that the Auckland marathon is only five weeks away.  I saw a man and a woman running together when I rode towards Clevedon, then when I came back they were still plodding along the road towards Duder’s Beach.  I slowed and had a chat, they were on a 36km run and before I thought I muttered something about not going much above 30km myself, which wasn’t very tactful, but they didn’t push me off my bike as I deserved so I wished them luck and headed off up the hill.

It was only a 40km ride, but I came home pleasantly tired, a little daunted thinking about how that distance would treble over the coming weeks and if I am to stick to my resolution to ‘train harder not longer’ it should be much more demanding.

Sunday morning off running, legs a bit tired from the unaccustomed cycling the day before, and I didn’t have a hope of keeping up with the two runners of the speedy variety who turned up for the Te Puru running group.  Some of it might have been me deciding I didn’t need breakfast for ‘just’ a 16km run, I had only grabbed a banana on the way out the door.  Anyway, the guys loped along ahead of me…and I gave up and  said “go on ahead” because I couldn’t even pretend to maintain their pace.  I then cheated and slowed down when they were out of sight, but it was a good run and I am ready for a slow steady performance at the Whangarei half marathon next weekend.

Today I have faithfully promised to do half an hour of strength training.  I would rather…much rather…do almost anything else...except perhaps swim (or use the spin bike, or interval train or do hill repeats).  Hmmm...attitude in need of adjustment, especially since Kate is all inspired from her weekend away.  Will see how I feel tomorrow after the first proper 'programmed' swim, then I will graduate from being duathlete to triathlete.  Hey, Triathlon time!

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