Busy, busy, busy.

Life has been so busy lately, not that I would have it any other way really - however, I have just been so flat chat. With the kids being back at school I thought time would be in abundance but those school hours just seem to fly by ever so quickly. I wish I could do a "Samantha" from Bewitched and wriggle my nose and hey presto the housework is complete.

But that is not to be.

So as I traipse through the house and do what needs to be done, I have also been contending with another huge surprise that came in the form of an email a few days ago. I am sure you are all aware that I log my training in a forum known as DailyMile for over a year now. Being on DM has given me the much needed motivation to continue with my training. When I am feeling down or have had a crappy session there is always someone on the other side giving me much needed works of encouragement.

So the huge surprise is that I got asked to apply as an Ambassador for DM for 2011. When I first received the email I was really quite shocked. There is nothing special about Barb, I just get up everyday and do what I love - LIVE LIFE. I believe in taking every opportunity that is given to me and running with it. Which is why I decided to apply for the position. Things come into your life for a reason - whether they be good or bad - there is a lesson to be learnt from each and every one.

So for the last couple of days I had been putting a video together trying to show what it is I had gone through over the last 2 years with my back illness and how far I had come. I didn't want it to come across as a sob story but rather a triumph. I look at how far I have come and what I have achieved and can't help but feel proud of myself - not in a love myself kind of way but rather I didn't let it beat me kind of way.

So with the video submitted it is now in the hands of everyone else on Daily Mile. Whatever the outcome, I will be happy. I will still continue to train, still continue to log my km's in and still continue to live life. I will still continue to be the best Mum I can be and show my kids that anything is possible as long as you believe in yourself.

I have also made it into the 220Triathlon Australian Magazine as an age grouper story. When I submitted that piece a while ago after discussion with our Club President I never in my wildest dreams thought it would be even looked at - but hey - it did and how amazingly cool is that. I also have another article *fingers crossed* going in about our club, PTC and the lead-up to Port Macquarie IM and 70.3.

Life has been great and I really can't stop smiling.

"I will! I am! I can! I will actualize my dream. I will press ahead. I will settle down and see it through. I will solve the problems. I will pay the price. I will never walk away from my dream until I see my dream walk away: Alert! Alive! Achieved!"
Robert Schuller

Cole Classic - Race Report.

I did it, and what a totally awesome experience. One that I shall keep in the memory bank till the day I die. And to tell you the truth I don't even know what I was stressing about.

The day started out much like every other race morning - me trying to stomach breakfast. Bit hard to try and eat 3 Weetbix when your stomach feels like a bag of wriggly worms. After a few failed attempts I gave up and ate some toast with butter and Vegemite. That seemed to hit the spot and not make me feel queezy.

Sarah and I decided to make our way in together early and allow our husbands and kids to come in a bit later. Thank goodness for Sarah, I totally suck at city driving so she was my NavMan - and what a great job she did. Trying to find parking once we were in there was a totally different ball game altogether. Lucky we spotted one gentleman loaded up with grocery bags and we honed in on him and "voila", his spot became ours.

As we made our way to The Gatorade stand to meet Tim I could feel my nerves becoming more and more and I think I starting walking faster and faster too, cause I could feel myself inching ahead of Sarah and had to tell myself to slow down. As we found Tim, he kindly allowed us to leave our bags with him whilst we did our race as he manned the Gatorade station at the finishing line.

The walk to Shelley Beach from Manly Beach was nerve wracking. Sarah and I had joined the entourage to the starting line and it was interesting to see the many different faces and emotions plaguing each and everyone in such a different way. Looking out upon the ocean near the start line I started to get an overwhelming feeling of exactly what it was I was about to embark on.

We caught up with some familiar faces - Ruth and Louise at Shelley Beach had some chit chat and then it was game on. The starter gave us some instructions about the course but I couldn't hear a thing - not sure if was the loud chit chat from everyone around me or the fact that all I could hear was blah, blah, blah because I was so nervous. But before I knew it I was in the line near the front ready to go. As I looked to my right I saw another familiar face - one of the girls who I competed against in my first ever Sprint Tri. I wished Sarah all the best and said "should we lose sight of eachother, will meet you at the Gatorade stand" and with that we both gave eachother a knowing smile of GOODLUCK and the gun went off.

As I ran to the water and dove in the first thing I noticed was how clear the water was, I was now officially swimming with real life ocean fishies. Everytime I put my arm down and stroked under water there was a multitude of fish staring back at me wondering what it was I was doing. The ocean wasn't that choppy coming into the first bouy so it was easy to spot the mass of swimmers to my right as I made my way to it and made the sharp right. By that stage the lead pack of 4-5 girls I could just make out in the distance and I and 2 other girls seemed to keep good pace with eachother.

Making my way into the second bouy we had to swim out past the breakers which were being caused by rocks at the tip of Shelley Beach. It felt odd to be swimming and riding the swell up and down - a totally unique experience and quite a challenging one too. From the sharp left turn on the second bouy I realised the girl in front of me had obviously done open water swimming before - here navigational skills were awesome and I would have been silly not to take advantage of it - so I hung onto her feet and followed the mass of bubbles. There was one other lady doing the same thing behind me as I could feel her tapping my toes every so often.

At about the 1km mark I swallowed a mouthful of salt water - I was coughing and spluttering and feeling slightly spewy and had to do some breastroke to regain my composure - I think I kicked someone at that point - SORRY. It was probably at the next bouy I started to pass some swimmers from the previous wave - and I knew that I was more than half way there. As I lifted my head to spot a bouy I heard "Hi Barb". I was like "What the" who could possibly know me in the middle of the ocean. It was Ruth - she later told me that the TriSuit was hard to miss in the ocean....too funny. I said Hi Ruth we smiled and then continued to swim.

As I kept swimming I noticed that keeping track of my navigation girl was getting harder and harder as we became more entrenched in the previous wave - I was now beginning to run into swimmers and their legs - so I was starting to have to lift my head more often to keep track of her purple cap in amongst the sea of orange caps. It was at that point I noticed a tell tale sting on my right upper arm. I quickly wiped my arm and new I had been stung by a blue bottle and I then got really scared. I didn't really want to swim through a mass of these buggers so I just crossed my fingers and wished for the best.

The way back in was fun - I could start to feel the waves pulling me into shore. The most fun was looking behind and trying to catch a wave back in. Kind of felt like I was a little kid again. I made sure I continued to swim until I could feel the sand with my fingertips and I then got straight up and ran for the finish line.

I really wanted to find the lady with the purple cap to thank her but I lost her in the sea of faces at the end. Unfortunately my family were unable to see me finish, the poor things couldn't find a parking and they all looked so visibly distressed when they all turned up later. I think though they were happy to see I had finished and was okay.

At the Gatorade stand I caught back up with Sarah, Kristy, Joey, Tim, Lance, Ruth, Louise and Andrew. Everyone was happy with all their efforts. I couldn't stop smiling.

Then this morning my smile has been replaced by the hugest grin. Check this out:

I came 5th in my age group. Not bad for my first Ocean Swim.

Can't wait to do it again. I am so happy - actually I think the word I am looking for is ECSTATIC.

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.