Flat chat.

This last week has been so busy - only in a good way but busy nonetheless. There have been so many opportunities thrown my way that I have truly felt blessed. My parents have always said to me "things come into your life for a reason, whether they be good or bad - each and every thing presents you with a chance to learn and grow".

So when I had seen that "TriShave Australia" had liked one of my blog posts a few weeks ago I thought it only fitting and the right thing to do was to leave a message on their FB page thanking them. I never thought in my wildest dreams that the owner of the company would respond back. I mean for them to even find my blog in the first place and take the time to read it was such a surreal moment for me. I was truly honoured and felt privileged to have Larisa reading my blog.

Then a few weeks later we met up at Homebush Aquatic Centre early in the morning. It was to be a meeting I will never forget. Larisa is an absolutely remarkable and inspiring woman. From the moment we met I really feel like we connected - we were never short of a word or exchange of a story or two or three. Before we sat down to have a proper chat we both decided to squeeze in a workout - Larisa went for a run and I went for a swim. Couldn't pass up the opportunity of swimming in a pool where all the legends do their training. And the hope was that they would turn up.

So as I swam I couldn't help but peep my head up every now and then to see if I was sharing the pool with an Olympian. But after a nice easy 3km swim I thought it time to get out and catch up with Larisa for our coffee. It was so easy talking with Larisa - we spoke about everything - children, family, life, sport, Triathlon's, her company, goals, anything was up for discussion. It is so nice to meet someone with such passion for what she does and to share in their outlook on life. Her company is the sponsors the TriShave women's festival Triathlon's - my very first ever Triathlon. So it's quite ironic that I should be meeting her almost a year to the date of my first event and what will be my 3rd TriShave event in 2 weeks from now.

As we were chatting a gentleman passed us by and Larisa said "that's their coach, they must be here". I literally went all googly eyed like a high school girl. The last time I ever saw an Olympic swimmer in action was at the AIS many moons ago and I saw Alexander Popov. Now it's one thing to see them on television, but to actually see them in real life - is just something I find hard to put into words. But I will try.

As I gazed down I became totally breathless - Ian Thorpe and Geoff Huegill were poolside stretching. To be a swimmer and to see these guys in action was mesmerizing. I got choked up and felt privileged to be able to share, even if it was up in the grandstand in some of their training. Talk about flawless swimming - there was absolutely nothing I could even remotely critique them on. Not that I would because for me it was like being in the presence of royalty. For me as a mediocre swimmer, who they are and what they represent is everything you dreamed to be as a child growing up - mind you I am older than they are so was looking up to the "Mean Machine", but it's what they stand for. And now as an adult, seeing their come back is something so totally inspirational. I couldn't be prouder of the two of them for having the guts and drive to do what they are doing.

I had had the best morning - one that is etched in my brain with permanent marker FOREVER. Then yesterday I did another running PB. I am now well on my way to reaching my 21.1km distance. I ran 15.7km in 1hr 30mins and felt absolutely fantastic. I did a Forrest Gump and just kept running. Lucky Mum had said that it was okay to just keep running and see where the hour and a half took me and that she would pick me up. I felt so free, so alive not having to turnaround at a certain point. So I just kept running:

and finished with the best ever time on my Garmin:

The only way I knew to celebrate this wonderful occasion was to make the yummiest ever Pumpkin Scones thanks to a good friend Paul from PTC. His gorgeous little girls came to the pools last Saturday having prepared some yummy scones just for me. I am so lucky. Check them out, and they are easy peesy to make too.

Then in the mail I received the biggest surprise ever from Aimee at I Tri To Be Me. I got a Tri Cling and it is absolutely gorgeous. I have stuck it to my car window and just love it - thankyou.

Things have been really good on the Daily Mile front too. I am part of the Daily Mile team Blog group and my job along with others is to maintain and promote the Daily Mile blog as well as write articles, publish content to the site with the editor, continue the Daily Miler of the Week feature, find interesting ways to promote the blog and find guest bloggers. How cool. Everything I love to do. Can't wait to get started.

I have also been featured on EnduranceAthleteProject.com on FB as the Blog of the day. Thankyou Patrick - that means alot. Patrick and I have been friends on this great blogger world since I pretty much started blogging last year in January. Thanks for making me blog of the day - jump on over to his blog - The Road [A Multi-Sport Blog] and see what he is up to.

But with all great things comes a few sad things too. Christchurch, New Zealand has been hit with another massive earthquake. Lives will never be the same in this community. Lives have been lost and many are missing. I am lucky that my brother Luis is safe and that my friend Lisa from Daily Mile whom I met only recently is safe too. My other brother and family live on the North Island and are far from the earthquake zone. You are all in my prayers and continually in my thoughts.

Please keep my Uncle in your thoughts as he is going through a rough crisis with his health. I will be going to see him tomorrow and know he would feel blessed to know that you are all sending him get well vibes.

And if you have any left - just a smidge, send some my way as my sinuses are driving me nuts.

Phew, now that was a post and a half.

It's rampin' up.

Training that is. Back onto Week 1 of my 5th month of training and it is starting to get more intense. When I opened up Jodie's email yesterday I had a combination of fear, trepidation and excitement about what was in store for me. It's not that I don't think at this point in the game whether or not I will be able to do it but rather will I be able to give this month's worth of training the desired effort to do it justice. Obviously the more tired you get the less capable you feel however that being said, 4 months ago I didn't think I would be able to run 5km and now look where I have gotten to. So here's to smooshing self doubt into the ground.

Swim session on Saturday was fantastic. And it's funny because even though I have always felt competent as a swimmer I am now feeling like I can really hold my own in the water. The reason I say this is because we did a long set in the pool and after each set was done I was recovered to go give it my all again within 10-15 secs. Yes my breathing sounds loud like Darth Vader whilst I am swimming but it settles really quickly and I am able to breathe normally again without too much haste.

This is what I did:

300m warm up

600m drills

400m finger tip drag

Main set: 2 x 1100m

This main set consisted of 600m (15 secs rest)

400m (15 secs rest)

100m (1min rest)

Repeat.

I pulled up really well and still fighting fit for Sunday's long ride. This was challenging not because of the time spent in the saddle which happened to be 3hrs but rather the humidity was up in the 90's. From the moment I stepped foot outside my front door ducking and weaving from the little bat that seems to think my head has X marks the spot on it - I was covered in the sweat. I just couldn't seem to get the fluids in quick enough. The fun thing in the morning was that us girls got into a good pacing line - each in our aero bars and hammered it for a good stretch along our usual route. That would have made for an awesome photo. The bad thing was that a car full of Yobo's scared the crap out of me and for the first time in a while I was shaken. I usually try to stay tuned into what is going on around me but this time I wasn't and that's what happened. Lesson learnt. So with 81kms under the belt almost 2L of fluid and 2 gels plus the pre-bike ride breakfast I would say it was a good morning all round yesterday. I think I only lost 500gms for the morning.

So it is with extreme excitement I venture into this new month of training and see how much I can give, push, tolerate and maintain. What's not to love about that.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
-- Mahatma Gandhi

An eventfully long day.

This is the AWESOME tag I was greeted with opening up my DailyMile account. I have officially been branded and I love it. I shall wear this badge with honour and try to do the position justice.

Training yesterday was great - even though it's a recovery week I still managed to get alot done in my day. The bike ride felt good - I really tried to focus on good form and kept repeating my head what Eliza told me on Monday "use your hammies and quads, don't just push but pull up as well". So with that in mind for an hour and forty minutes that is what I did.

It definitely feels different and you know when you are doing it properly as I can all of a sudden feel my hammies and glutes start to work. It doesn't hurt it just makes it feel more powerful. You get propelled forward at a much faster rate with less exertion.

Then after riding 46km in that time frame I ran off the bike for 20mins. Felt good too, my legs felt fresh and were just rolling over nicely. Normally I get off and run like I have done a doody in my pants for a km or so but not yesterday. It finally just felt natural.

Then yesterday afternoon after picking up the kids from school we made our way to the Regatta Centre for the Club Race. I did not compete but I did volunteer - as a Paddler. Where else would I be but in the water. Totally unique being on the other side of the fence so to speak. I love feeding off everyone's pre race vibes but more so love seeing their faces when they have finished. Everyone looks tired but stoked that they have competed.

So too all of you who competed in the "Production Automotive Tune up Triathlon" - well done. The race was capped off with a yummy pizza dinner for all. I have never seen so much pizza get cleaned up the way it - we had some hungry triathletes.

Then this morning I headed off to the courts with Stephen and the kids for their lessons. I am so proud of them and glad the kids took after their father in their tennis genes. Check out these shots:

Wimbledon - here we come.

I swear I can't.

Just when I think things can't get any better - they do. I feel like I am living someone else's life, like all this good fortune belongs to someone else. The feeling is just so overwhelming.

Let me explain. Last night at track would have to have been one of my biggest highlights since starting training for my 70.3. Four months ago I was only running 2kms at any given time and running probably at a 6min/km pace if not slower and needing walk breaks. Fast forward those 4 mths and I am now running at my longest run - 14km and averaging on those long runs a 5:30min/km pace. But with all of this forward progress that 25min - 5km was still an elusive dream.

Well, let me tell you - last night I reached that 25min mark. Granted it was 25:18 which made it a 5:03 min/km but it was still in the 25min mark. I have only ever run a 5min/km pace once way back when - before I got injured and it was only for 3km and on a road. So to do this at track, on grass, whilst raining and to tackle mentally the thought of running 12.5 laps of a round oval was just so exciting. But I can't say I did this all on my own.

We all started out together - good for me as I paced myself of off some of the faster runners. But bad for me as well as they were doing a 3km TT. Those first 3km's were done at a 4:50min/km pace. It was about that time that Chris's words started to resonate in my head "start at a reasonable pace and progressively speed up". Well, did I do that "NO". I went at it like a bat out of hell and then had to try and stick it out.

It was at that point that each and everyone of my team mates one by one decided to run a lap with me. Some even ran two. I cannot begin to put into words how grateful I was for all their words of encouragement during those last 5 laps. I have never been a part of such support - when your swimming you really never hear anything. You have to gun it alone. But last night was a momentous moment for me - one I will never forget.

Then this morning I woke up to another surprise. I have been selected to represent Daily Mile as a 2011 Ambassador.

"Congratulations, you've been voted by the dailymile community to be a member of the 2011 dailymile team! We're so excited to welcome you, and even more excited to kick off a great year for dailymile! "

I have never been elected for anything let alone Ambassador. This is such an honour and one I hope I can give justice too. I will be made aware of my role in the next couple of days and look forward to the challenge. If I can inspire atleast one person to strive for something in which they thought was impossible then I will be one happy little Vegemite.

Life is a series of surprises.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Physio Update.

Well, today was a good day at physio apart from the usual - me writhing around in pain on the bed whilst Steve massages and gets my ITB nice and soft again. He said he can definitely see improvement and to continue doing what I am doing at home in terms of stretching and rolling the ITB.

I spoke to him about this tight fluid like feeling under the Patella and he said I have a little bit of inflammation happening there but not to worry. He is just going to keep me under close observation and manage it as we go. The beauty of my physiotherapist is that he is going through his Ironman training as I am going through my 70.3 training so we are constantly exchanging thoughts and pain stories. He has done Ironman many times over so it is nice to have someone with that kind of experience to throw my thoughts off of. He has such a calm and placid demeanour so nothing seems to phase him when I am babbling on the way I always do.

After all the painful stuff I got to relax with a heat pack on my leg and I found myself drifting off into a nana nap. I had the worst night's sleep last night - just couldn't get settled and then woke up about 11pm feeling nauseous. I was in and out of sleep till about 3 with that feeling and then it passed - not sure what that was but this morning my stomach feels okay, just a bit distended. I mean I can't be feeling too bad because I am cooking a delicious Vegetable and Osso Bucco soup for dinner. I added some Barley in there too for safe measures - after all it does contain eight essential amino acids - and eating whole grain Barley can regulate blood sugar for up to 10 hours after consumption compared to white or even whole-grain wheat. But I will have to wait to come home from track tonight before I can eat it.

As a result of last night's mystery illness I gave swim a miss this morning and thought best just to hydrate and rest and make the most of track tonight.

I want to give a shout out to a Blogger buddy Jen from Miles, Muscles and Mommyhood. She is truly a remarkable woman who has gone through such a transformation - what an awesome journey she has had. She is doing a Valentine's Day giveaway, and the winner comes away with this:

I have entered and so should you.

Whilst your at it - become a follower of her blog.

Recovery week.

It's always nice to step back in your training program. And the one thing I notice is how refreshed I feel when I get out for a swim, bike, run. I have to be on the constant alert to slow down and make it just that - an easy aerobic, recovery session.

So yesterday at windtrainer session with TopNotch Performance and Health, my recovery week session entailed no run off the bike at the end. The session however, was no walk in the park but I do believe it is all starting to feel easier. I am no longer cringing and contorting my face in the efforts - I am now totally focused on maintaining a really steady cadence of between 94-96 during the efforts.

Session last night was:

• 4 x 10min efforts at just above race pace.
• 5 min recovery in between
• And then whilst everyone ran off the bike I sat and spun.

I really focused on trying to use both quads and hammies whilst riding and making it an even revolution. And "By George, I think I got it". Mind you this morning my legs did tell me that I had found a new unworked muscle. Legs were slightly tight but otherwise no pain in my ITB or knee upon waking.

Then as I headed out for my run this morning on a cool, drizzly, overcast morning my left knee started to make me aware of it's presence. Not in a painful sort of way just a weird clickey kind of way. So I just continued on my way and thought if it starts to hurt I will stop - but it didn't. So with a pleasant morning for running I knocked out 10.16kms in 57 mins. I felt so good on this run and once again had to tell myself to slow down because it was meant to be an aerobic run.

I even made time to get a photo of the Clydesdale's just up the road - wished they were closer to the fence.

How did everyone fair during Valentines? I got spoilt. I am absolutely in love with the store DUSK. I want to own my own store just to always have an endless supply of these candles. Look at what I got for Valentines Day. Thankyou and love you Stephen.

The box didn't say Christmas on it though. If you could smell these candles you would know what I mean. Dusk describes this one as :

Vienna

"Create all the romance of an evening in Vienna with the delicate scent of vanilla infused with cranberry. This wonderful combination will take you away to the historic streets of this wonderful city"

Check out their website.

Cobbitty Greendale - SAWEET.

Well not really, but it is definitely feeling easier. There was nothing in my head today that said - GO ON - GIVE UP. It was just all about doing this loop and nailing it from start to end. The two hills that normally challenge me the most were met with a fervent desire to get to the top and before I knew it I had done just that. Mind you, they still challenged me physically - I was up and out of the saddle and then sitting back down more times than I would like to count but IT STILL GOT DONE.

The last hill coming out of Werrombi is this long slow seemingly innocuous climb. It has almost had me at tears trying to get to the top the first couple of times I attempted it. The final part of the climb just kicks up for about 100m's and I could swear you go cross eyed trying to make it to the top after grinding away for what seems like forever. But this time I dug deep and squashed those mind game demons to bits. And before I knew it Cobbitty was done.

There had been a couple of flats along the way which got changed quite promptly and poor Renee took a fall. Her chain dropped out and before she new it she fell. Tally of war wounds - Bruises and Scratches. The one thing that came out unscathed - her Cannondale Slice - much to her delight. My gears were playing silly buggers and Lance and adjusted them just before the ride so I could atleast enjoy it.

Ruth another fellow cyclist tackled Cobbitty for the first time today and totally smashed it to bits. Her smile never left her face - GREAT JOB Ruth.

On the way back home I had to rush back - didn't realise the time and I had Mum at home. She was okay with me going for the ride this morning but I felt bad that I wasn't there when she woke up. Anyway, when I got home I had explained to Mum that my gears were playing up as I had had the cables changed a few days before and the tension had loosened. And being the ever supportive Mum that she is said "take it to the bike shop now, I will stay with the kids while you go". So I flew in and back without to much delay - got lunch on the way round and came back home.

I was unable to ride with the FlashPoints as the extension tubing seal was out and I had a slow leak - so because I didn't have the proper inner tubes to replace it should I flat I chose to not risk it. So off to my local hangout. I am so thankful for Panther Cycles - nothing is ever too much. Everytime I go in there I am greeted with a smile and prompt service - thanks guys.

Yesterday was just the best day - I got to meet up with the Sydney Daily Milers Jaydub, Andrew, Kirsten, Adrian, Kris, Rod, Jo, Kevin (popped in for quick Hello) Kunaal and Lisa from New Zealand who was on holidays here. We ran around Blackwattle Bay and over the Anzac Bridge and did a total of almost 5.5km. I have never run in the city and it is such a unique experience. Kirsten who was unable to run supplied us with a post run feed that was fit for a king - oh and queens as well. Check out the spread: I absolutely loved the water bottles and have kept two and put them in my cabinet - on display.

~Thankyou Kirsten~

Meeting up with everyone was so cool. So nice to finally put voices to images. It was such a surreal experience all round.

I also want to give a shout out to my husband. Stephen has decided to get back into Tennis after quite some time. He is a really good player and am so glad he has finally realised that his gift was going to waste. Proud of you.