Karen and Kate's journey to Ironman and beyond

The children came home from the school holidays this afternoon, I have Saturday with them, Sunday we head down into Mooloo land for the predicted 4 hours of midwinter bike-riding. The girls will be happily occupied but I myself wont actually spend a lot of quality time with them before they re-start school. So the part of my brain that always feels guilt about the apparent selfishness of my endurance training asks the question "why drag them off to Tai Chi on Saturday morning...wouldn't it be nice to have a leisurely start to the day?".  Um...yes.  Yes but... Yes BUT the weekly session of Tai Chi seems to have kept my leg problems, particularly that nasty ITB, at bay since I started doing it.  Yes BUT this week's training time is already down since I had a Monday evening meeting and missed out on spin class due to an overbooking on Thursday. Yes BUT I'm doing no other flexibility or strength training.  Yes BUT I really want to get better at this Tai Chi thing,...

I got back from my bikeride Saturday, leapt off the bike at the bottom of the driveway and sat down to take my shoes off.  A man walking past asked if I was alright, I said I was fine thanks and he smilingly made a comment about being "crazy". Perhaps I am.  My exercise morning had started nearly four hours previously., After an early breakfast I went for a quick cycle along the coast to warm up then rode up the hill to the local school where the Tai Chi classes are held.  I got some peculiar looks when I arrived wearing my fluoro finery, in fact it took a bit for anyone to recognise me, perhaps not having the two children in tow, or it could have been the headgear.  After 90 minutes of gentle willow waving, doves flying and cloud movements, jammed the helmet on, back on the bike, down the hill and pedal for another couple of hours.  Crazy lady. It was the local volunteer Coastguard awards dinner on Saturday night, I listened to speeches, ate too much, and w...

My 'core' is back on the agenda.  No amount of protesting that I haven't got one, that I've "done OK without one until now" and that old favourite, "I don't have any desire to wear a bikini" gets me out it. A quick scan of the first few of over 7 million Google results (I queried 'importance of core strength' hoping for something to say I didn't really have to worry) and it seems that not one of said results has anything to do with apples.  What there is however, is excessive use of words like 'crucial', 'fundamental', or 'vital' when talking about this core thing as related to all exercise disciplines, so my excuses are sounding more and more pathetic. 6 weeks of Tai Chi and I can stand on one leg better (actually I feel better in all sorts of ways including appearing to have mislaid the grumbling ITB problem), but I seem no closer to figuring out what and where my core is, I'm still convinced it is a my...

Sometimes, when you are feeling stressed, or time pressured, or unfit, training is a bit of a chore.  More than a bit actually, it can turn into a real drag, if you let it.  Fortunately if you keep on going the 'drag' phase usually passes, cures itself.  For example, serious training session gets rid of the stress, it's purely a head thing to figure out how to deal with feeling hurried because of your busy life, and of course you get fitter and your comfort level rises. The children are on school holidays, for me that's a brief respite to focus on training, and gathering energy, physical and mental, for when they come back.  As often happens, the minute I get time to train to my hearts content I get a cold (last year I got injured, fortunately that isn't the case this time).  Decision...train, or rest.  Rest or train.  I'm training of course. Training and starting to relax, it means I start seeing things around me again.  Like the run on Sunda...

Haven't written for a couple of weeks, having a bit of a quiet time after the Wellington marathon and I always find that after an event I feel unsettled and lose my confidence...should I run, should I rest more before the next big push, am I losing 'it', how could I ever have been that fit? Also, things have changed in our house due to my partner's work commitments.  Having school-age children, the weekend hours, and most weekday evenings are no longer available to me for training. This is either the end of my fitness aspirations, or impetus to do things differently. Change is inevitable, but in the middle of winter with the days being short as well as motivation, the bad weather adds its strength to the lure of the couch, and now with the time available being severely restricted, it's understandable that I might go through a period of OH WHY.  Fortunately however I have now moved on to OK HOW. So how.  Bike riding, the next event is a 70km ride in 3 weeks. I ...