I'm melting.

Oh lord, this heat is just too much. Six consecutive days of 38+ degrees celsius days with nights only relenting to the mid 20's has made training extremely difficult. Not just because it's hard to keep up with the fluids whilst your training but also because it makes for extreme fatigue as you don't sleep well at night - even with the A/C on at night you still wake up feeling physically spent.

Training although tough has still continued - just at earlier hours to try and beat the impending heat. Yesterday morning I took off for a ride with Sarah and before too long we had those nice beads of sweat on the top lip. She was testing out her new Cannondale Slice - that bike is awesome. It looks so aerodynamic and light - and NO I wasn't getting any ideas about a new purchase although it did fleetingly cross my mind for a brief second or two. How could I betray my gorgeous CAAD9 5 - never!

We ended up riding 59.95km in 2hrs and 20mins - not bad for a morning's work and I then followed it up with a nice easy 1km swim. Just felt like I needed to ease up the ITB - which I have still be religiously stretching and rolling it out. I have also been incorporating a bit of rubber ball therapy on my glutes - sitting and rolling on a ball till the tension releases is what can I say

"excruciating" but I must admit afterwards it feels great.

This morning was another bike ride due to the fact that my Sunday ride was not going to happen because I have the Cole Classic 2km Ocean Swim. I ended up riding about 87km in just over 3hrs (actual ride time), but actually spent longer out on the road because the group I was riding with got 4 flats. There is alot of debris from truck tyres on the road so I guess its unavoidable really. During this ride I drank so much and still managed to lose 1kg in sweat - by the time I got back to my car at 1050am it was already 35 degrees celsius - almost felt like you were standing in front of an oven with it's door open.

I had such a great ride this morning - as usual alot of chatting happens but I definitely was riding at a faster pace - it's always challenging when guys ride up the front - they are just naturally faster and stronger. So really good to see that I could atleast keep up. There were 3 of us girls and we all did good. All the guys were absolute gentlemen as always - we have the best guys in our club.

Then this afternoon it was back in the pool for a TopNotch Swim Session. That pool was so hot - I think Chris said it was 32 degrees celsius - blah. But a great session was had nonetheless, although it would have been better if I didn't cramp. Everytime I pushed off the wall both calves would tighten up and my toes would go all whacked out - so I spent the last 2 100's using the pullbouy to rest them.

So tomorrow is my first Open Water swim. I am nervous, excited, scared - a whole mixture of emotions but know that this is what I want to do, so I will tackle it the way I have most things - head on. My wave goes off at 11:15am and am hoping that the Ocean is not too choppy. So fingers crossed.

Enough Mother Nature.

What's with this weather. Australia, namely Queensland and Victoria has been battered with the worst weather ever recorded. After all the flooding Queensland has now been hit with Cyclone Yasi. A Category 5 cyclone ripped through Northern Queensland with wind speeds of close to 300km/hr causing widespread damage to many towns (Mission Beach, Tully, Innisfail, Cardwell) through the night. Many people moved to safe evacuation centres or moved away when news arose of the impending arrival of Cyclone Yasi - whilst others bunkered down in their homes riding out the ferocious winds and rain. The nerves, stress, emotional trauma these poor people have gone through overnight will take I am sure months to try and overcome. My heart goes out to them all. Poor Banana plantation and Sugar Cane owners have had their crops decimated overnight. It will be years before they can get it up and running again and their projected 2011 income has gone.

Planning around this impending disaster was absolutely amazing. Anna Bligh with all other authorities have been on the ball since all of these problems started in Queensland and I take my hat off to them.

To date there has been no report of lives lost - thank goodness but there has been a report of birth in a Cairns evacuation centre and guess what she will not be called YASI. I always think it's amazing how in such times of devastation there is always a rainbow to brighten up the situation.

Cyclone Yasi has now been downgraded to a Category 2 with winds of 125km+/hr and is now about 400km inland - still a dangerous storm so everyone still has all of Queensland in their prayers especially with more flooding on the way due to all the rains.

Move south here in NSW and we have had nothing but complete heatwave for the last 3 days with temps being above 38 degrees celsius with horrendous humidity. At night it is hard to sleep as the temps have sat in the mid 20's inside the house. I have packed in the kids lunches a barrage of frozen drink bottles, poppers, freezer packs so their lunches stay cool, however they still come home very tired, hot and bothered from a day of school in this heatwave.

Training has been interesting in this heat - both windtrainer and track were cancelled due to the intense heat thank goodness. So I have missed out on a couple of sessions but I have managed to get back into my routine with the pool now that the kids are back at school. Feeling good in the water - especially in this heat. My local pool is now closed from 9am-3pm for the whole month of Feb due to school swim carnivals so I now have to travel to another pool and swim indoors - blah as their outdoor pool is booked for carnivals as well - annoying, don't they know there are a bunch of us who are training for something huge.

Anyway, today is my day off and my aim is to do absolutely nothing, nada, zilch apart from a massage. I have been given strict orders from friends that I am not to run, swim, bike, or do housework for all of today and I promise I won't. I will however do my stretches and roll out my ITB - I don't have a foam roller but I do have a rolling pin and it is working a treat.

I shall enjoy today because tomorrow it's back on.

"To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure

is the most perfect refreshment"

Jane Austen 1775-1817

Manageable issues

Pain seems to be a regular thing I have noticed since starting to train for this 70.3. I must admit I am kind of used to it and slightly look forward to some form of pain whilst out training, however that being said I am also much more in tune with my body to know when things feel out of the norm. And since last Mondays Windtrainer strength set I have felt some form of well not pain per say, but a knowing of my left knee cap.

Needless to say I was looking forward to my physio appointment and went in with my fingers and toes crossed. I told him what I was feeling and he said "ok, jump on the table, is it tender here?". No sooner did he barely press on the outer part of my left knee I jumped off the table. Holy bejessus, I have never felt anything so painful in my life apart from childbirth. And as he continued to press and massage up my leg the pain only intensified. I was giggling and grimacing in pain and grabbing hold of his forearm asking/no begging for just 5 secs relief. He then asked me to lie on my right side and he proceeded to dig around my left hip and glute. I was grabbing hold of the wall in front of me and just praying for the time to go by swiftly. When it was all said and done the best part followed - a nice heat pack on my leg - ahhhhh heaven.

So basically my left ITB is tight, tight, tight. Not uncommon but still an issue which needs to be dealt with. So I need to stretch lots and need to roll this baby out. Which I will do religiously as this will not be something that will sideline me from my goal/dream. I also need to not to do any strength sets on my bike and stay away from hills for the next week. I was actually looking forward to getting busy on the bike but not if it's going to make things worse. Good thing is though I can still train and for that I am SO greatful.

So this morning I headed out for my run - 1hr 20mins was on the cards and there was nothing which was going to stop me from doing this. I really look forward to running now, these longer time frames no longer intimidate - if anything I can see myself getting closer and closer to my goal.

I headed out at 5:30am this morning to be what was going to be the hottest day ever. Out west was getting set to reach a high of 42 degrees celsius and there was no way I was going to even be caught in it at 9am. At 5:30 it was still dark and there was a coolness to the air that was just beckoning to get out into it but by 6:20 you could see a glimpse of sun behind the low foggy clouds and it was hot. I was sweating profusely so just kept sipping on my Gatorade which I had in my bottles on the FuelBelt.

My left leg and knee were hurting a little bit but I think it was just as a result of having had everything manipulated the day before at physio - so when I got home I stretched and rolled that ITB, then iced the knee and took an anti-inflammatory. I am happy to say that I ran my furthest ever - 14km in 1hr20mins. I am officially 2/3rds my way there - I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

They have also released the course for the 70.3 in May and now I am scared. Scared because now instead of deviating up onto Davis Cres from Matthew Flinders I now have to ride to the very top - that hill is huge. Here is the swim course, the bike course, and run course. This ITB had better settle I have some hill training to get cracking on.

This is it.

I am officially a mother to 3 high school children. YEP, you heard me right - my youngest is finally in high school and I am feeling old. Where has time gone - I still see them all as my babies. It's only when they stand next to me and my twin son is looking at me in the eye's that I realise that they are all growing up and I am heading into a totally new chapter of my life.

So needless to say today was spent finalising all the odds and ends for first day back of school tomorrow. Are the kids excited? Well the twins are but Kyle is nervous - and rightfully so. But I have all the faith in that it won't take him more than half the day to settle into a new routine. He will still be at the same school just obviously in high school and all it's new rules. So it's an early night for all tonight as 6:30am will beckon the teens out of bed - oh I am so looking forward to the moans and grunts as I wake them, NOT.

Tomorrow also signifies NO EXCUSES for not training. Not that I ever really have, it was just a bit harder to fit everything in with the kids at home on holidays. And now that they are all at school I have the whole day to fit everything in again - and I am going to need it. With officially 90 days to go to my first 70.3 it's time to GET CRACKIN'.

So I made the most of today's recovery ride and squeezed in a nice 60km in just over 2hrs. This mornings temp was a total contrast to previous mornings, it was really brisk. Almost felt like a cool Autumn morning when I headed off at 5:30 to meet up with the girls. Luckily this time I wore my headlamp to shine a light on my dark ride. No chances of hitting anything this morning. I managed to tackle some of the hills seated and in my aero bars - this equates to strength for me and is part of my training program for these next coming weeks. Oh hill repeats - how I am scared of thee.

I almost forgot to mention that I did a 500m Fr/s time trial and did it in 7:14 - 8 secs faster than my last time trial in October 2010. Very happy indeed.

Hot, steamy, sweaty.

No, this is not the beginning of some raunchy Mills & Boon Novel but rather the only words I could use to describe yesterdays bike ride and how hot it has been for the last 3 days or so. From the moment I step foot outside to get to the meeting point I could feel heat and moisture in the air - wish I had a humidity gadget to see just how thick the air was with moisture.

I drove to the usual meeting spot, only my 3 person ride turned out to be just me as one had slept in (everyone's allowed a sleep in) and the other had a mishap and thought their helmet was in the car and it turns out it wasn't - hate it when I forget stuff, she was quite upset by it as she was looking forward to a good ride and I was looking forward to a good chat on my recovery week Zone 2 ride. Nevermind, next time.

So as I set out on a cloudy but visibly humid morning it was instantly noticeable just how much moisture there was in the air. Within minutes I had a slight film of what could have been passed as sweat only was too early on in the piece to even be sweating. As the sky got lighter I could see in every direction a hazy mist - much like stepping into a greenhouse I would think.

I was lucky in that I didn't have to do intervals as even cycling at a nice slow pace made me sweat absolute buckets and I was having trouble keeping up with the fluids. Bugs where becoming my best friends and deciding to get up close and personal or even sacrificing themselves to be protein shots for me. GROSS. After retrieving a few from my eyeballs I decided it was high time to put my sunnies on.

It was about that time I heard the swooshing of some tyres coming up beside me and then a "Hey Barb" - WHAT THE???? Look over my shoulder and its Darryl. What a lovely surprise, we cycled together for a bit had a chat - as I just love to chat and then it was his turn to head home. Coming back home I caught sight of Jeremy out for his ride too - I am so lucky to know so many wonderful people. So I completed 44km in just over 90 mins for my Zone 2 ride and felt great.

The last 2km was bit fast for Zone 2 but was fun.

I have also made 2 significant purchases over the last 2 weeks - one I have with me and the other I should be getting soon. What do you think?

Getting shortly

I have with me.

Hoping both will help me get a little more speed when I am in a race. I would even be happy with a minute less in my Sprint Tri's. Even if I'm not any faster I am going to feel fabulous. And it all matches with my bike and uniform - it's all about matching with me. I got these off 2 friends from the club and I have had a wonderful deal done on both - how lucky am I?

I also have taken alot of my medals, ribbons and trophies from my younger years out of storage. Decided it was high time to show those babies off - not sure why I had them in my cupboard in the first place.

Wish I had of realised back then how good I was, maybe I could have made it to the Olympics? One of my ribbons had me doing my 50m Free at the age of 9 in 39 secs. I think I could have been something great.

Tricky situation.

Since Sunday we have been back and forth to the vet a further 2 times with Milo. He has developed quite a severe lethargy post snake bite and had extremely swollen neck and back leg glands. He has since endured a further 3 injections (2 antibiotics, 1 cortisone with vitamins), a urine test, temp taken which he hates (wouldn't you) and a set of bloods. The vet will be testing for damage done to his liver and other organs as well as testing for other things.

He has been off his water, only drinking small amounts (however still peeing) but his appetite has improved. He no longer likes the dry kibble-I think it takes too much energy to try to chew it all up so now he is loving the "My Dog" brand. He is however loving being inside all day and having his stomach constantly scratched and head patted. The concerning thing for me is that he is no longer a pup, he is 12yrs old. It's like asking an 80yr old man to pull through and be his old self again after having had seizures, a cardiac arrest all whilst having overcome a lethal snake bite. Not sure if he will ever be his old yappy, run around crazy self again. I guess all we can do is wait and see what the blood tests show and go from there.

So inbetween all of this I have still managed to continue with my training even though the km's have dropped off due to being in recovery week - still doing 2:1. On Monday I had my usual Windtrainer Session with Eliza - this was a great one. We basically had to to do inetrvals in the big ring and biggest gear and slug it out for 3 x 8min - others had to do 4. My cadence was never more than 66 for each set and let me tell you my legs were burning. I was also sweating buckets. Loved it. I also managed to keep my form for the entire sets which I was really happy with as that is the one thing that I get picked up on.

Then yesterday I just had to do a 2hr Zone 2 ride. Oh the joy of doing 46km in a nice easy gear - just perfect really. Elissa joined me on this ride and it was good to chat for pretty much most of it. I really love getting up early in the morning now - I used to hate it but have now seen how much more I can get done in the day. I can also see the benefits of not having to be out in this horrendous Summer sun during the middle of the day. Yesterday's temp was in the mid 30's and today is going to be close to 40. Thank goodness I am not training today as it is my youngest son Kyle's 12th Birthday today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY my gorgeous boy. I love you soooooooo much.

Lucky Kyle, for the rest of his life he will continue to enjoy having the day off on his birthday as he shares his Birthday with another very important day - AUSTRALIA DAY.

Hills -0, Barbie - 1

Superset Saturday was not to be yesterday. After last weeks attempt at trying to hammer 2 hard sessions back to back and failing miserably on the Sunday, I asked if I could leave it and do it once a month. I hate giving up on my training but I know my body too well now and know that if I push it too hard that I will eventually crack from the strain.

So yesterday morning I decided to treat myself to a pedicure - oh the joy. Why had I not found this magnificent experience before. I was in absolute heaven - not sure if the girl was as she scraped away at my heels, but I was lapping up the attention. Whilst my feet were being pampered the seat I was sitting on was giving me the best and most intense massage I have ever had. The whole time I think I only opened my eyes once and I do believe I had a cat nap. When it was all said and done I walked out like I was on a carpet of clouds - and my feet looked stunning.

Fresh as a daisy.

Then yesterday afternoon it was time to give it all I had in the pool. I had given myself a treat and some respite and now it was time to flog it out - no excuses allowed.

• 300m warm up
• 900m worth of drills
• 100m Fr/s
• 5 x 400m Fr/s - not sure of my times but I think I was pretty steady in pace
• 6 x 50m Fr/s stroke count
• 50m cool down - had nothing left.

My eldest son Kurtis decided to come join me at squad yesterday and for his first ever swim session he totally kicked major A!!! He swam 2.3km - the young lad is amazing and I am so proud of him. I must admit, he slept really well last night and he did say he had a headache yesterday afternoon - but that's to be expected with all that funny breathing us swimmers do.

Then this morning it was on for young and old. I left home at 0530 to meet up with the girls for our bunch ride. It was still very dark and I was really at the mercy of my night vision to see where I was going. I hit a couple of things - not sure what - maybe those cateyes. Upon arriving to my destination it was still dark. Reminder to self - get a headlight.

There is a kangaroo in this picture staring at me.

As the other girls pulled up for our ride the initial plan of riding to Picton was re-thought, and it was decided to that we would do Cobbitty loop and then Greendale loop, some decided to do s shorter ride. Not any easier but the distance is slightly less. As I set off I made a pact with myself that if I needed to stop today on the Cobbitty loop, I was only allowed to do it once. So with that thought firmly implanted I was good to go.

There were 7 of us girls out on the road - totally awesome. Each of them extremely strong and driven. As we set out one the girls got a flat tyre - it got changed and we headed off only for it to flat again the poor thing. But within minutes it was changed again - great team work I say and there were no flat tyres for the rest of the ride.

As we made our way to Cobbitty Road I remember saying to Sarah, we should have a gel right about now, we will need it. Elissa - who had been on holidays made her way back and said she would meet us at Greendale for the next set of hills.

As we started the inevitable ride I started to get nervous, however I envisaged getting up those hills as a strong competent cyclist. After the first 2 hills which are steep but shortish Sarah comes up behind me and said call me "The Mountain Goat". I have never laughed so hard in my life - for her first time up Cobbitty she nailed it.

I managed to not stop once going through those hills thanks to a little mantra I kept repeating in my head "you will not stop, you will not stop". For every pedal revolution this is what I repeated and before I knew it I was at the top - panting heavily but at the top nonetheless. Sarah was hot on my heels and smiled the whole way.

The stop at Silverdale was just what we needed - refuelling on a KitKat for me and refilling our drink bottles. Susan had to head home at this point and we continued down the hill to catch up with Elissa for the remainder of the hills.

The remainder of the ride was tough but no-where near as tough as Cobbitty. We had a really good opportunity to chat and laugh as women do - but when my time came to turn off home I can say with out a shadow of a doubt that I was ready to go home to a wonderful shower and a nana nap. Before I ate I weighed myself and was pleased to see that I only lost 1kg in weight on this 4hr ride. I must have refuelled appropriately on this ride.

I rode 100km today in 4hrs - not bad for a Sunday morning.