Kids, don't try this at home.

Seeing as I had my son home sick yesterday I decided to keep my run close to home. Just 3km is what was on the books and even though my body protested I still managed to run it all bar 30 secs, which I dedicated to trying to walk out a stitch. And when walking didn't help I continued running but at a much slower pace until it finally decided to relent. There is nothing worse than a stitch, feels like your about to split in two.

When I got back I asked Kurt is he could time me in my transitions. It was right about that time you all would have wished you were a fly on the wall. I had said to Kurt "time me from the moment I get to the gear and stop timing when I click onto the bike". Cool, didn't seem hard the last time I practiced it, but this time I had new shoes and a new bike. Aliyah and I are still getting to know eachother, even though all of our rides to date have been absolutely awesome. But she was just about to teach me a lesson I would not forget.

All went well up till the moment I went to clip in, and without thinking as I pushed my right foot down to clip in I took off like a lightening bolt straight into the wall in front of me. I had forgotten one crucial key step in mounting a bike indoors or anywhere for that matter, keep your hand on the brakes. The momentum with which I took off with gave me absolutely no time to fumble for the gears and before I knew it the wall and I were getting better acquainted. But then it seemed the floor didn't want to miss out on the party so I soon greeted it with a tentative thump.

Of course I couldn't floor to the side that was unclipped - Noooooo, that would be asking too much. Never mind lesson was learnt. Practice drills on bike outside.

Kurt came running over asking me if I was alright as I was not answering him. If I had of stopped laughing maybe I could of. I still am laughing everytime I think about it. The only injury out of this mishap was that my right back break is now making contact with the rim. Nevermind, will get that looked at soon enough. It's not making total contact, just slightly.

Tomorrow is my first Triathlon of the season. Wish me luck everyone. Only doing the Enticer again - trying to wean my legs back into it.

Parenting and training.

I always thought that juggling parenthood and work was hard, that was until I found out that juggling parenthood and training was harder still. When I was at work if one of my children were sick I would just call up work and the have the day off and not feel too bad about it. Sure I hated leaving my colleagues short staffed but I didn't have that intense guilt or heartache that missing training gives me.

When I miss a day training I am constantly thinking 'what a waste of a day" but then I feel guilty thinking that way too when one of my kids are sick. Sometimes I wish I could split myself in two when needed and have the "Stay at home Barbie" for just these sort of days when a child is sick and then send my alter ego "Triathlete Barbie" out on her merry way to galavant around the countryside.

I was hoping that yesterday I was going to get a 40km bike ride in but that wasn't the case as 10km into the ride the inevitable ring of the phone followed by "hello, this is the school nurse, your son is sick, he needs to go home" put an end to that. Poor guy, when I got to school he was just lying flat out on the bed and just looked so tired. It's amazing how even at almost 15yrs of age and my height, I still manage to see him as a little helpless thing when he is sick. So, I took Mr K to the docs and then home.

Looking back on the short ride I still managed to maintain a fairly good speed throughout. I averaged about 27kph and felt strong in the legs. And I practiced constant gear changing going around corners so I could pull out of the corner strongly. I have since realised it feels much like driving a car. And because I drive a manual I should have thought of this ages ago - duh!

So today will be designated as a 3km run but nice and close around home should my son need me and hopefully this time I will not have to tackle Miss Queen B and her entourage. I am also going to try and practice my transitioning. Should put a smile on my son's face for a while.

Spilling the beans.

Okay, so now that's it been made official and all, I guess I can open up and tell you all what has been transpiring over the course of the last 6 days. It all happened in a whirlwind fashion - like an unexpected romance that just knocks you off your feet. And it all started over a comment that I made on FaceBook. A comment, which I thought quite innocuous has now gotten me to where I am today. I am a firm believer in that if you just put it out there - whatever it may be - the universe will take care of the rest.

So, my comment on FB went something like this "Barbara, wonders why there is no AquaBiking here in Australia" followed by a clarification of "Barbara, wonders why there are no AquaBike events here in Australia" as I found out that there is AquaBiking only it's not a long course event but rather the big floaty bikes in the water - thanks Anita. This comment seemed to have gotten the interest of the Panther's Tri Club President and it was from that point on that things snowballed.

He too thought it would be a good idea to try and get some AquaBike events incorporated into the club races. This would not only benefit those who are injured but could help prolong the longevity of our Triathletes. Well, need I say I was so excited I ran around the house acting like a total shmuck and then broke out into the running man. But of course I needed to submit it to the committee and within minutes of receiving the president's interest I was on the club website
submitting an agenda item. Club meeting was on Monday night and I needed to make sure that this idea got given adequate time for discussion and I was going to attend.

The club president also stated that he really liked my blog, and wondered if he could link it within the club's website. Wow, that was just more than I could handle now. I was kind of in two minds about my blog going "local". Excited because now it meant I had friends from my club viewing my blog and hoped it would maybe show them how far I have come, but I was also a bit nervous about what their reactions would be and if they would think that maybe it was stupid. But I thought, what the heck, this was my life and if they thought it silly well they are welcomed to have their own opinion but I am proud of me. So I accepted the offer.

I was also offered in amongst all of this, a position as the club's 'Media & Public Relation's Director'. Can you believe it, this train had no brakes and was rolling full steam ahead. I mean okay, what does this position entail? Well, there was no better way than to find out by accepting, so I did. This was just too cool and offer to dismiss. And as my first port of call I now have my first article going into the local paper on Friday. Obviously it will be edited by the local journo, but essentially the info is mine with some added tweaking from the club president. I cannot believe it, my dream of writing in someway is going global in a local sort of way. I am also hoping that in the near future I will have written an article and it will go in a Triathlon Magazine.

So as of last night I am now officially Panthers Triathlon Clubs Media & Public Relations Director Extraordinaire. Am I excited, you bet. Am I nervous, yep. But what a journey this will be.

Spring has sprung.

September 1st 2010 brought forth Spring in Australia. And with the warmer weather and longer days, came all the animals and insects. I am not an insect person at all, in fact if you ask my kids they would tell you that my biggest fear is the Christmas beetle, and then not far behind that are bee's. Well, today was the day that I was to have a first hand encounter that I will never forget as long as I live.

My coach, Jodie told me for this week that she wanted me to run 2km x2 and 3km x1. And so with the beautifully warm weather I thought I would do the 2km one today, the 3km on Wednesday and my 2km as part of my Tri on Saturday.

Well, it seems the bee's had the same sort of idea about getting out and about. On my 1km trip out all was good, not a single sound apart from the scurrying of possible snakes in the shrubs. This didn't bother me at all, it was what lay ahead that was going to have me running for my life - literally.

On the way back I was just so caught up with listening to my laboured breathing that I didn't realise that I had run straight into the midst of a swarm of bee's, either migrating out of their hive or going back to it. Who cares which direction they were heading in, the fact was I was now running to get out of it. They were hitting me absolutely everywhere - my cheek, legs, arms, glasses and I in turn hit them as I flailed my arms like a lunatic trying to get through it all.

It seemed like I was amongst it all for atleast a minute but I am sure it was only for about 15 secs. I even tried to flag down a passing motorist but do you think he would stop? Not on your life. Not sure if I would have either - I mean the thought of a 6 foot lady running around like a crazed lunatic doesn't really foster thought's of wanting to be helpful.

So as I got home I checked on my watch and you would have thought that being chased by a swarm of angry bee's would make me run like Hussein Bolt. I still managed to run 6:07min/km pace. Sheesh, what's it going to take?????

Not sure if I will be heading in that direction for a while.

I cannot change.

I have been trying ever so hard - like a diligent student, to listen to everything my swim squad teachers say. And I always try - like a diligent student, to implement the changes to my stroke. I am a firm believer that there is always room for improvement. But it seems the more I try the worse my stroke gets. My head just cannot cater for so much information during the swim. I like the whole concept of nice high elbows (out of the water) as it gives me a nice clean catch but everything inbetween just seems to make me lose form. I guess after 30 yrs of swimming the saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks", must ring true for the most part.

I think they could see my dilemma and have since just told me to swim. To forget about what it is I heard and just swim, because essentially however I swim I still move water, which is good, and I can hold about a 1min 30sec/100m. When I was trying to do as they were instructing my head was in constant dialogue with my arms

• nice high elbow on exit
• place hand directly in front of shoulder, don't cross over
• clean entry
• don't dip shoulder to get good catch
• but then forget what the rest of my body was doing

And then in an instant my mind would have to refocus on the other arm. Physically it was challenging but mentally it was exhausting as I just couldn't enjoy swimming. So I was glad when he told me to just have fun and swim. Here was Saturday's session:

• 400m Fr/s Warm up
• 400m - 25m front entry scull, 25m Fr/s, 25m middle entry scull, 25m Fr/s
• 100m recovery Fr/s hands were cramping from the scull
• 8 x 50m Fr/s counting stroke for 50m
• 300m - 50m Finger trailing, 50m Fr/s
• 4 x 200m Fr/s on a 1:40 per 100m then 50m active recovery breastroke between 200m
• 8 x 25m open water swim sprints
• 100m nice easy Fr/s sighting every 4 strokes

I absolutely love and detest the open water swim starts. Love it because it's fast, furious and fun and hate it because I really can't see where I am going and I am grabbing at body parts in a blind panic (sorry boys). I guess that's half the fun but it's not something I am used to, so the more we practice these the better I will get at getting tougher and using my sighting techniques to see over the whitewash.

Yesterday was supposed to be the day where I would head into the city to see my friends do their Half and Full Marathon but after checking the website, the road closures were just too vast to even attempt getting in there in the morning. So we gave it a miss but I have since found out that they did really well. Congrats to you all, you are all totally inspirational.

So not confident.

But I did it. Today I managed another road ride with the Panthers Tri Club gals, not as long as last week but in someway more challenging. Instead of doing a straight run out and back on the same road, we actually took some other roads. These other roads meant I had to join forces with real traffic to gain access to the motorway. All I can say is thank god I rode behind Cloe as she made me feel less stressed about verging with traffic.

I still have trouble trying to look over my shoulder without veering all over the place and the whole concept of "holding your line" is out the window when I am riding the bike. I also found because I got nervous when I was getting closer to a set of traffic lights with the possibility of having to stop, when the lights changed I couldn't get my left foot clicked back in which then made me get even more nervous.

Need to get the nerves under control quick sticks. We also had a tire changing session out on the freeway. Renee got a flat and we all got to watch as Cloe instructed us through the process. It was good because it re-inforced what Macca had shown me at the bike shop. But I guess there is nothing like learning on the job, so I think in the next couple of days I am going to deflate my front and rear tire and have a good couple of hours of doing it all on my own without the pressure of a race or needing to get home.

Yesterday I signed up for the first Tri of season. I was half contemplating signing up for the sprint but because I have struggled so much with the run component I opted to do another Enticer like the one I did in March. I am kind of glad because now it means I can give it my all in the swim and bike and just finish the run with no real emphasis on going good. I also had to take my wetsuit back as once in the water it did not fit well. On land it felt like the perfect fit and looked like it too but the moment I dove in I got water and air go in through the nape of the neck. So, the legendary boys at Panther Cycles took it back from me and now are in search of a smaller one. God love em, all to see a smile on my dial.

This afternoon I shall head to the pools for a swim and hope I don't cramp like crazy, which has been happening quite alot lately. think I may just have to purchase some Crampeze.
Worked wonders the last time I bought it. I hope you are all having an awesome start to your weekend.

Big wheels keep on turnin'

It seems this little dream of mine has grown wings the size of the new Qantas A380 and has branched out to include a much bigger and brighter deal. As soon as I get given the green light, which should be Monday night I can spill the beans on it all and invite you into this exciting venture. Believe me, I would like nothing more than to tell you all now about what has been going on in the last 36hrs+, but I think I should wait for certain proceedings to take place. Are you excited? I am!!!!!!!

So, in the meantime whilst emails are being sent backwards and forwards all day long I went back to the pools after 2 days rest and belted out a 2.5km swim. It felt so easy, like the last two days of trying to recover from a dreaded illness had never occurred at all. My session was more about drill work and trying to focus on high elbows, nice long strokes and clean water entry.

• 500m Fr/s Warm up
• 8 x 100m Fr/s scull for 25m, Fr/s for 75m
• 10 x 50m Fr/s sighting every 4 strokes
• 10 x 50m kick with fins
• 200m cooldown

It's amazing how when things start looking up in your life, doing some good old fashioned work feels easier than you ever thought imaginable.

I also came across a lady swimming in the lane beside me who had taken to talking to one of my friends. She stated that she was doing the swim leg of the GoldCoast Half Ironman and was very nervous about not being able to stand or see the bottom. I tried to give some words of encouragement. I really think we are all capable of alot more than we give ourselves credit for. I also found out her husband is part of Panthers Tri Club - didn't get his name though Duhhhh!!!!
I told her that she should join the club so I think in the process of trying to encourage her, Panthers Tri Club may have just gained itself another prospective member. Yay me.

Tomorrow is physio day and then Saturday is another bike ride with the girls. Can't wait - they truly are a great bunch of gals. Sunday will have myself and family off to Sydney to support friends who are running the Half and full marathon in the Blackmores running festival. Should be an awesome day.

I am bursting at the seams to let you in on my little venture.