A smile I will never forget.

How awesome is it when you see someone reach their potential. How awesome is it to see someone smile because they feel so proud of themselves.What a blessing it is to share in a moment when that person goes into an activity with a certain expectation and comes out having totally annihalating it to oblivion. Well today was that day. This post is dedicated to my friend Sharon.

Sharon is one of those people you just know from the very first time you meet them that they are going to be in your life for a very long time. She has a heart of gold and genuine interest in you as a person - people like her are very rare.

I am so glad we went swimming together today. Last week I had written up a very brief training session for her. It was brief to the point of only being 300m. The last time we went swimming together was at the beginning of the year so I didn't want to make the session too long. So it consisted of sets of 25m Freestyle and kick with a 30 sec break. WELL, Sharon did the first 25m and said at the 15 sec rest point can I keep going - I said "Of course". And that was it - Sharon was on a roll. The 300m came and went without even a slight look of tiredness physically. She just kept knocking them out one after the other and before I knew it she had reached the 1km mark. The woman is a legend.

As I continued with my planned session of 2.8km Sharon just kept going. She chopped and changed from kicking, to Freestyle, to breastroke back to Freestyle. And as I finished my last lap Sharon was floating around and feeling as proud as punch. She had just done 1.5km. If I could have bottled the pride that was oozing out of her and tried to sell it - we would have made millions - actually it was priceless. That feeling is what makes training all the more worth it, it's what keeps you focused during the harder times. I remember that feeling of your very first major accomplishment - nothing, absolutely nothing can knock you off your perch. What a buzz.

So Sharon this is for you:

Cant wait to do it again next week. Remember no less than 1500m - you can do it.

Another day of firsts.

Yesterday I decided to go and do my usual bridge to bridge run with Susan with no huge expectation of what it would hold. Firstly neither Susan or myself set our watches to time this and it was probably a really good idea that we didn't as I totally piked out on this run. Not because I wanted to but because things ached. If it wasn't my butt cheek from a bruise the physio had left it was my knee, if not my knee it was my shin. So, it was back to the run/walk method yesterday for the 7km stretch. If there is one thing I am learning through this journey it is to listen to your body when it is speaking to you. If it's hurting it is pretty much telling you to either analyse whether it is a pain from pushing yourself beyond your limits, or is this a pain that if your push on you could be doing more damage. I figured the latter was possibly closer to the truth.

So upon returning home I did all my physio stretching and strengthening and proceeded to fill up the bath tub with cold water. Off I went to have a shower and then I quickly dried off, dressed the top half and plonked myself into my first ever modified version of an ice bath. This is what happened:
I could not catch my breath, all I did was whimper, squeal and hold the top half of my body so tense that I started to ache in the shoulders. Ok, it was time to relax and enjoy the process - it was afterall doing me good "I think". I only lasted 5 minutes - better than nothing at all. Today will be a different story I will try to last the expected 15 minutes. Depends how blue my lower extremities go. However, in saying that it was absolutely freezing I felt totally invigorated on getting out. Everything from my waist down felt alive and refreshed and I could no longer feel the aches - maybe they were just numb, whatever - it felt good.

The rest of my afternoon was quite normal, I cooked dinner and made Chicken Cacciattore for the family. I was not going to eat dinner at home tonight - my other bestest buddie Kimberley invited me out to Teppenyaki as a belated birthday present. I have never been to Teppenyaki before and I loved it. The whole experience was awesome and best of all I got to spend it with my best friend of 16yrs.

Everything I had heard about Teppenyaki was right, the food, the games the chefs play with you and how enjoyable it it was. I am a total pro at catching the food they flick at you except for the one the call the machine gun. I had omelette flicked at me at lightning speed and all I could do was close my eyes and hope that some went in my plate - guess what? None did, it went all in my lap. Kimberley wore a bowl full of fried rice - I couldn't stop laughing. We looked as though we had regressed to infancy as just under our chairs was a mess of fried rice and omelette. What a great night. Definately have to take my children there soon, they will get a total buzz out of it.

The following photos are just a few of the yummy food, I would have to say the highlight was the yummy chicken. ENJOY: