Karen and Kate's journey to Ironman and beyond

I ran over 60 km last week.  That just doesn't happen with me, well it did last week obviously, but I am normally strict about limiting my running to 3 days a week or non-consecutive days.  You see I have finally learned that to get safely to the finish line of a marathon I don't need more than a regular weekly total of 40 to 50km.   Part of last week's tally was the 25km on Sunday. It was a lovely overcast and sometimes rainy morning and spring was clearly on the way, the yellow ring around the puddle in the picture isn't pollution, it's bright yellow pollen.  It always feels really good to tick off the 'long' runs before a marathon, just to remind myself I can do them. The mistake I made was to not run shorter in the week leading up to that long run. The price of extra mileage is complaining muscles and tendons, and with that comes a dose of paranoia...is that pain in my knee just a pain which will subside, will the sore Achilles settle or is it the ...

In recent weeks I have become pretty sure I am seeing the emergence of another triathlon convert.  The signs are there, questions are getting increasingly targeted, there are discussions around books and bikes and food and upcoming events...and the bundle of medals on the wall brings about a wistful look. It is so exciting to run across someone else who may potentially be hooked! Perhaps each new person validates your own pathway (if someone else does it then it cant be thaaaat mad), perhaps it is knowing someone else will eventually experience the highs and the lows and the super highs and understand in the way that only another who has done the same thing can?  Perhaps it is yet another person to 'talk shop' with, learn from, relive things? You realise when you start pontificating on nutrition this and injury that and this piece of equipment here just how far you have come though. Fortunately at the start you dont realise how long the learning journey is, what you wil...

I usually blame Karen. Its always her fault, she got me into this sporting thing! But a couple of weekends a go it was all my fault. On the Saturday my swim group decided to have an adventure. Let's go mountain biking from Port Waikato to the caves 28km, morning tea and then onto Waingaro Hot Springs another 30km. Firstly I have never been mountain biking or had a mountain bike, secondly I had booked a bike race on the Sunday with Karen and my brother-in-law David at Okoroire, a 70k. But it was going to be fun so why not! I decided before I went that I would only do the first half. Lets be sensible, haha. I borrowed a bike and off we went, 8 of us in all. Well what fun it was. Mountain biking is so much fun. Hills, what hills? The bike has so many gears it was easy. Amazing countryside, lots of hills and green grass. We got to the cafe and I stopped. We had a van and a man and a trailer. 3 others carried on until 40km and then stopped and the last 4 went all the way to the pub ...

Just wore the newest pair of running shoes.  I could count off the last few years in pairs of shoes, the pair with purple stripes, the blue ones, pink, the two black pairs I didn't like but got them because they were cheap and so on and so on. Every pair capturing up to 800km in those worn asics soles, all reaching back into my running history...now where will this latest pair take me I wonder. I put the elastic laces in, I LOVE those things.  You realise ordinary laces are quite restrictive and don't conform to your foot and you never want to go back to them after getting used to the elastic ones.  They also make your shoe easy to get on and off, just by shifting the toggle, perfect for those who waste massive amounts of energy on running but are too lazy to take the extra effort to undo a pair of laces. So I put the shoes on and in the spirit of true procrastination  I speculated as to whether or not this pair would make it to Ironman, and figured eventually that...