Christmas came early for Ironmaiden

Look what I got for Christmas!  From my mortgage!  Thanks ASB.


I won't bore you with the specifications, well, no actually I will (because I seem to be morphing into a gear head - who'da thought?) :  full carbon, 105 componentry (plus a sneaky ultegra front derailleur), not to mention the fact that it is now fitted with customised aeros (this involved a hacksaw and bar tape).  It is so nice to ride!  No more numb hands and feet.  It certainly makes transition easier.  I know this because I just did a Trisports Taupo short triathlon.  I had fun but I did not win.  In fact there is a distinct possibility that I was a bit last.   But the experience was definitely optimised by the latest addition to my cycling stable.  My garage is starting to fill up with bikes.  I'll either need to cull some or relegate the Mazda to sleeping on the lawn.  Not going to happen, so the cull is on the cards...I'm looking at you Mr Specialised-Piece-of-Crap Mountain Bike.  It could be garden shed for you!

So just for this week at least, it really is about the bike.

love
Ironmaiden

Aluminium Matron?

Well I knocked off a half-ironman.  No problem!  Well, a bit of sunburn but otherwise it was a fun day!  I can see why people get addicted.  It was fun out there.

So aluminium has half the atomic weight of iron (thanks Steve) hence I can surrender my Aluminiummaiden status for the more wordly "matron" status.  Hopefully in a few months time I'll be doing the same with a much heavier element.  I am so glad my friends are geeks like me.  Who use words like "hence".  And "thus".  And worry about whether it should be atomic mass or atomic weight and so ask google and get confused and then wonder if it matters and...hang on, I lost my train of thought.

It was dark and drizzling when I got up on Saturday (the little hand somewhere near the 4 by the way), but the lake was flat and warm, there was an unusual tail wind coming back from Reporoa, and the run was a cheerful wheezy shuffle up and down the lake front.  I enjoyed myself and was evidentally grinning like an idiot because random strangers were coming up to me afterwards commenting on my smile (possibly they were confused by my orc-grimace combined with my sunburn?).

It was a good day all round, one of those days when everything just went according to plan.  The swim was fairly argybargy, but I seemed to stay calm, even when one guy swam acrosson top of me heading to Turangi.  I checked my navigation, I was on course, he had the problem, so I just let him go.   Blokes never are too keen to stop and ask directions.

My time was 7:24:50.  You may be surprised to hear that Sam Warriner won, rather than me.  Her time was a slightly smaller number.

Just how well can a dead cow swim?

This is what I felt like swimming tonight.  My legs are a bit sore after the weekend - I had "tri camp".  Now it turns out tri camp does not involve toasting marshmellows or telling ghost stories, or pretty much any kind of campfire activities.   It involves swimming, and cycling, and running. 

And the lake is cold and it rains a lot at tri camp. 

And then we did lunges.  LUNGES.  Ever done lunges?  I am not sure my poor legs and poor bum will ever be the same again.  Will they recover in time to push me around a half ironman race this weekend?  I don't have much else in the way of muscle mass to compensate with (unless I can drag myself along with my lips?) so I certainly hope so!

So if you are around Taupo on Saturday and feel like giving me some moral support as I wheezy shuffle my way around a half marathon (after a 90k bike ride and a 2km swim), it would be great to see you!

Till next week, go easy on the lunges,

love
Ironmaiden

Tan lines and sore unmentionables...

Well, Cycle Challenge is done and dusted and I am one event closer to my Cameron Brown award. Bit sore - 7:47:00 on a bike will do that to you, and I won't tell you where!  Most people added half an hour to their usual Taupo time because of the conditions, but I took half an hour off last year's time so that is a small positive after a hard day!

It was a pretty brutal day.  It was a howling westerly gale that always seemed to be trying to knock me off my bike, but I do think it helped me up the Kuratau hill.  Grant helped me up the Hatepe hill.  It was hard for him to pedal slow enough to keep pace with me but it was pretty funny to have such an talented cyclist chatting away as wheezed myself to the top.  For reference, Grant did 40kms of the Huka Challenge mountain bike race (before it got cancelled due to the high winds), then popped home, picked up his road bike, popped around the lake and caught me at Hatepe....all in more or less the same time it took me to get to Hatepe!  And he didn't even look a little bit tired.

I've been swimming and running today and feeling not too bad at all, so I think some of this training is starting to pay off.

I have two-tone legs like a car from the 70s, my jersey tan lines are more pronounced than ever, and as my campaign manager pointed out yesterday, such white feet that I look like I am wearing white socks.  But never mind.  I had my first ever professional massage - quite a revelation.  Just my shoulders though, in case you were wondering which body parts I had decided were in most of attention.

I have to add spur-winged plovers and black billed gulls to the list of birds that hate me.

Smooth gear changes until next time!

love
Ironmaiden

Goggles and speed wobbles...

I invested in some new goggles this week.  This was because at open water swimming on Friday night some poor lady decided to draft me, and I got quite lost, and we both ended swimming in the wrong direction, and possibly swam a little further than I needed to.  My old goggles were a very comfy fit but years of use and abuse had rendered them virtually opaque.  No problem for pool swimming, after all, I don't really want to see the crusty detail of the myriad of floaties in the pool (what on earth has happened to technological advances in pool filtration?  Did they give up?), but a bit of an issue for spotting buoys (or boys) across a windswept lake.

So I have new goggles.  They smoosh my face a bit, and make me look like this:

but they kept out the water and hopefully I will be a better navigator from now on.  I am still tempted to get a bumper sticker for my wetsuit that says "Don't follow me, I'm lost...." .

I had the speed wobbles out riding this afternoon-  the combination of a steep decent and slightly offset head wind. Apparently Giants of that vintage are prone to speed wobbles.  Now, Giant is not an obscure self-reference (although those who know me will acknowledge I am fairly susceptible to speed wobbles), it is my bike.  And although we've had happy times, I do tink the time has come for a bit of an upgrade.  That's what mortgages are for.  Right?

Only 10 days until I bike around Lake Taupo, and only two and half weeks until Half Iron.  It can't be that hard eh! 

Until next time, be really careful what you type into Google Image Search,


love
Ironmaiden

The birds, the birds!!!

Is this some kind of Hitchcockian nightmare?  First magpies (three brutal assaults on Saturday), and now black swans, Canada geese and those funny looking duck things? 

Seriously?  What on earth have I done to offend my avifaunal co-habitants of the planet?  The waterfowl seem to have taken offence at my wheezy-shuffling along the lake front (to be fair, the sight of me running is fairly offensive) and have started chasing me.  Swans are really scary!  I am starting to wonder if perhaps I was a fox in a past life.  I do have a few vixen-like tendencies in my present life...

But aside from my ornithological issues, the Ironmaiden Campaign is going especially well at the moment.  I am healthy and uninjured and seem to be getting a bit fitter and a bit faster. 

I did an open water swim last Friday, which was scary and cold, but all the bits worked and I swam a good time for me in comparison to my pool times.  Next one is tomorrow night, the lake is getting a little bit warmer so hopefully it will be a bit less painful!

Oh, and that duathlon last week?  I may have been fourth-to-last but I won my grade!   There were only three of us in the grade, and the other two were walking and chatting, but I'll take it!

Until next week, keep working on your designs for some kind of converted dishwasher for cleaning bikes!

love
Ironmaiden

Seriously? November already?

Well time sure is flying by. I wish the magpies would. Christmas next month!  Not to mention half-Iron.  Can't be that hard.  Right?   So four months to go.  Six months gone.  Is any one else feeling a little jittery?  I did a short duathlon on Monday night.  I was puffed!  I must be fit, I am doing a fair bit of training.  Perhaps it is just secret fitness that hides away and just comes out when I need it?

I used my wetsuit in anger on Sunday.  It was a splendid hot day...and the lake was absolutely fricken freezing Mr Bigglesworth.   The bits under the wetsuit were warm as, but the ice cream headache was frankly debilitating.  Plus I seem to be well and truly programmed to stop every 25m and look for a wall to turn around at.  I didn't find too many in the lake but I kept stopping to check if there were any just in case.  I guess I'll need to work on that.

My triathlon idols Marie and Josh are representing NZ in their age groups at the World Long Distance Champs this weekend in Las Vegas - what legends! 

So until next time, run down those magpies and give cyclists 1.5m breathing space!

love
Ironmaiden  

A new rubbery addition to my arsenal

I went, I saw, I conquered!  I bought a wetsuit. It is rubbery. It is tight. It took me, the nice lady in the shop, and all my available energy to get the thing on - with moral support from Dale and the other shop guy.  I think wetsuit application (and you do "apply" it like lotion, rather than "don" it, like sweatshirt) should be the fourth discipline in triathlon.

I haven't had a chance to use it in anger yet (Dale wouldn't let me go swimming at 7.30pm with 2 foot waves on the lake, total darkness and air temperature of about 8 degrees), but I can assure you that it definitely reduced friction and improved my buoyancy as I staggered around the triathlon shop.  Hopefully I'll break it out and break it in soon - and give this mysterious open water swimming thing a knock.  How hard can it be?  Right?

My slick rubbery tightness looks like this:


well, as far as I can remember, it has been hanging in the cupboard for a while.

Ok, well until next time, here's hoping the Taupo Taniwha hasn't developed a craving for rubber or ironmaidens.

love,
Ironmaiden

Pure unadulterated evil

It has started.  Magpie season.  Conveniently coinciding with longer rides in response to daylight savings and the looming Taupo Cycle challenge.  Why do magpies hate cyclists so much? Is it some ancient karmic payback from when magpies were potatoes and cyclists were Irish?  I have tried a number of approaches - excessive cussing, making eye contact, logic and reason ("Look bird, I am clearly not interested nor capable of threatening your nest.  Do I look like I could climb a pine tree?"), ludicrous helmet appendiges...and yet still they come after me.

Last weekend I sustained a full body blow to the head.  To be honest, it was a bit like being clocked with a feather pillow and preferable to beaks and claws, but it still gave me a hell of a fright.  Earlier this week I got swooped by a vicious individual on Lake Terrace - literally in the middle of Taupo!  Come on birds!  Be reasonable! 

Anyway, enough of my Hitchcockian nightmare.

Until next week, if you see a cyclist, you can be sure there will be an evil bird watching from the nearest pine trees.

love
Ironmaiden

A very good week!

Well now things are going better!  The weather is warmer, the days are longer, I am healthy, I have energy, and I didn't drown in yesterday's thunderstorm!  Best of all, I am enjoying myself.  Which is lucky, because Cycle Challenge is now "next month", and Half Iron is just after that, so there really is no time to lose.

I have decided it is time to have a serious think about new toys - definitely need a wetsuit so I've got a trip to the big smoke scheduled.  I am also (still) trying to decide if I should get a new bike.  I am sorely temptly.  Mostly because I just like the idea of a new shiny toy...why do we never grow out of that impulse?

Bring on many more weeks like this week eh!

Don't forget to clean your chain.

love
Ironmaiden

The Grimace

Well I have a problem.  OK I can hear the groans of disbelief - What now Alice? Sprained ankle, mystery virus, ill fitting bike?  No.  Don't worry, this time its more...cosmetic.

You see, when I run, my face contorts itself into this sort of mutant grimace whilst tinting itself a vibrant shade of scarlet.  A friend's son observed me running yesterday and I am afraid he is now traumatised by the experience.  It sounds like he actually thought he was going to have call me an ambulence.  Interestingly, I have never yet managed to do a running event where the attendent ambulence staff haven't singled me out as I shuffled by to "just check I was feeling OK". 

I've tried smiling but it sort of just looks like I've got a mutant scarlet grimace AND have just had a partial stroke.  Plus, to be honest, smiling takes energy that I don't necessarily have to spare.




I'm the one in the white shirt (as opposed to marked by the white hand) but the similarity is striking.








Until next time,  if you see any concerned looking medics watching me exercise, please assure them that I am almost certainly absolutely fine!

love

Ironmaiden

Back in the saddle...

First week back training after three weeks struck down.  It isn't as easy as I'd like it to be, but I am out there doing it and that is what matters! 

Running is a wheezy shuffle, so no change there, swimming was wet and a bit cold and I seem to have remembered the basics, and riding the bike is like, well, riding a bike.  Although tonight I did have a wee bit of a mishap as I forgot how to operate my pedal clip thingees.  I had one of those dramatic moments of inertia on the highway as one foot flapped around uselessly and the other tried to pedal all by itself. The effect of one foot pedalling is not that different to the sound of one hand clapping.  But I figured it out just before gravity caught up with me and off I  tootled without any major incidents of falling into the path of erratic RWC traffic.

It is just a light week while I get back into training, so hopefully next week I'll get a fair idea of how far backwards that virus sent me. 

Until next time then!

love
Ironmaiden

OK, may be not such a little challenge.

Yup, OK that virus was real.  I ended up having to have TWO WEEKS off work (and training).  The coughing, napping, the general suffocation... a bad business indeed.  But I am back in the land of the living now, two days back at work.  I haven't started training yet, but hopefully in the next day or two I'll be ready to get back amongst.  The moral of the story - nothing makes you appreciate your health until some virus comes and steals it away!  Now I have the recoverer's euphoria and everything is good!

A couple of weeks without training though...who knows what kind of a setback that will be? I guess there is only one way to find out!

I am off to Blenheim in 10 days time to be support crew for a team in Spring Challenge.  I hope they realise my bike mechanic skills extend to:
- kicking the bike
- swearing at it
- bursting into tears
- throwing it in Fred's garage and pretending I never saw the damn bike in the first place.

but otherwise I am looking forward to a change of scene and catching up with some South Islanders!

Until next time, I've some catch-up cricket to play!
love
Ironmaiden

Crickey! Little challenges...

I have been febrile (google it).  But I seem to be recovering.  I have been weak and lost my appetite (when has that ever happened to me?  Seriously...).  So I went to the Doctor.  Along with being a GP he specialises in being a sports doctor.  He knows I am training for Ironman.  He told me to harden up.  I felt better immediately.  It annoyed me.  Was it all in my head?  The sleeping, the fever?  The getting light headed in the shower and having to sit down unexpectedly only to get wedged into my unusually small shower cubicle (I never knew I had so many knees and elbows until they were competing for space up my nose)?  Damn it, am I becoming the hyperchondriac (I am too sick to know if I spelt that right, help Sarah)  I've always held in such disdain?

I am determined to get better in time for the half marathon on Saturday.  The aforementioned paragon of medical care is also running.  He is whippet lean so I doubt I'll see much of the skamp but at least I'll prove him wrong.  Or will I be proving him right?  Oh I don't even know!  

Well, just watch me, I'll come back better than ever.  Or at least hopefully more or less the same.

Until next time, look both ways before crossing the street because people can get confused even on one-way systems.

love
Ironmaiden.

New things and other things....

Ahhhh...the case of the missing blog post!  We may never know where it went, what it saw or who it talked to...

Anyway, I have some new things:
- new training paddles for swimming.  These go on my hands and supposedly make me strong and more responsive to the water.  Or something.  So far they mostly just make me clatter into the end of the pool when I forget to stop (which still happends quite regularly).
- aerobars - these are borrowed from Eyk, who no doubt has less trouble using them than me.  They are twitchy little suckers...slightest tremor in my elbow and I am wobbling all over the road.  And it turns out I have surprisingly tremorly elbows.
- new pedals- these give me a wider base and more stability through my feet, and, more importantly, they look the part...see above in terms of wobbling all over the road when trying to get back in the sodding things....
- new shoes - they are light and clean and wonderful.  They make me feel so fast I was very surprised to find I was in fact, not, any faster....

So I am starting to at least look like I am taking this campaign seriously.  Practise will help and hopefully in time I will swim into the end of the pool less (turn girl turn!), and wobble on the bike less too! I have another half marathon on the horizon so I guess I'd better start thinking about running!

Until next week, everyone just be happy being who you are!

love
Ironmaiden 

Half marathons - not always a walk in the park...

Hello everyone!

So these half marathon larks aren't as easy as they sound, I was a bit tired on Sunday.  I was also very very cold! The first 10 or so ks were OK, but then the rain came in sideways and the wind was in front of me not matter what direction I was facing...it reduced my wheezy shuffle down to a rickitty plod.  But I got there in the end. I just had to go home and sit with my fire lit, heat pump running, down jacket on, drinking hot drinks and partaking in tabby heat transfer for a couple of hours until I got back to normal.

 My ankle stood up more or less, a little bit of swelling, but not too much pain.  My little old lungs were OK too, it was really just the rain blowing into my earhole (the left one, if you were wondering), and a lack of weetbix that held me up (oh, and also, see previous posting associated with chafing....nb   not chaffing).  So all good lessons for next time I guess.

Here is a photo of me running while I still had the energy to raise my arms!

Now.  The important bit - my time wsa 2:50 - not very good, and for the observant amongst you, even slower than my time in the Buller half a few years ago.  My excuse is that I was just 7 weeks from the Wellington faceplant incident, but the reality might just be that I am a bit pants at running!

I am at least now enjoying a relaxing recovery week, so little training I barely know what to do with my spare time.

So until next week,

love

Ironmaiden

Race week

Well, it is half marathon week and to be honest it is a bit of a worry.  I suspect I haven't done enough wheezy shuffling building up for it.   Still, the weather has been fabulous and I guess at least my ankle is better and I can wheezy shuffle again, even if it isn't very fast.  I also got drug tested at work today so I can confirm that I am legitimately not using any illegal substances that might affect my performance - for better or worse!  I did however find out that my wee has a low specific gravity, almost 1.  Fascinating, just what I always needed to know.

I'll let you know how Sunday goes,

till next time
love
Ironmaiden

Things that I have learned:

1.  Heart rate monitors chafe.

2. If you deconstruct your swimming too much it makes it hard to put it all back together again.

3.  Arms chafe.

4.  Huntly has a swimming pool.

5.  Legs chafe.

6.  Just because Huntly says it's swimming pool will be open until 7pm, you shouldn't assume it won't be closed at 5.24pm.

7. Running shoes chafe.

8.  I have pristine teeth.

9.  Sports bras chafe.

10.  Chafe is spelt C...H..A..F..E.  Chaff is something quite different but equally uncomfortable.

Until next time, don't spare the chamois cream!
love

Ironmaiden

Something old,something new, something borrowed, and sparkly blue toenails!

Hi Everyone

I have some bling to tell you about.  Firstly, Kristina shouted me a pedicure which I had done last Friday - now I have sparkly blue toenails which mostly look black unless the sun is shining, and then they look blue and sparkly, but sunshine has been a fairly rare occurrence lately so they look mostly black.

Eykolina has lent me her aerobars, so I am looking forward at getting them on my bike and trying to get used to the tri position.   I am hoping using Eyk's gear will help me channel some of her cycling talent.

I have new cycling shoes and new pedals to go with them!  For now these will be going on the old, which is my same old Giant OCR II bike that I have had and loved since I lived in Otago.  May be I will upgrade, may be I won't, we'll see. Mind you, the old faithful needs to up its game and start going a bit faster,  sometimes I feel like I am doing all the work!




New stuff!

 Not long now until the Taupo Halfmarathon - 21.1 ks of wheezy shuffling along the lakefront for me.  Running or walking for others.  I am looking forward to having a lash and relieved to be running (wheezing) along in semi-normal style now that my ankle is behaving itself again.  I went for my first proper run (wheezy shuffle) in the dark tonight since THAT night in Wellington.  I didn't faceplant, stumble, trip or tumble so I really have to chalk that one up as a win.

Ok, well until next time, don't stare at swimmers who sound like they are gasping their last breath, they might just be wheezers....

love
Ironmaiden

Yup, it's still fun...

Hi Everyone
I reckon I've had a pretty hardcore week!  Well, I am feeling staunch anyway.  Katie and I took on the pouring rain and howling winds on Saturday for a lash on our bikes, which we survived and enjoyed.  Katie had to keep turning round to come back and find me - I was still there...just a tad off the pace!  She is Australian so she is probably genetically engineered anyway.

I followed with a swim which I really enjoyed, my Saturday swims have become a real happy place for me.

On Sunday I joined Aunty Mary to do the Offroad 10km walk - sounds easy?  Not with Aunty - she is very competitive and doesn't let up - my poor little heart was charging!  We made it up the hills though and placed 12 and 13th overall - not bad!  I also found the energy to get out on my bike again, conditions were definitely a bit more friendly on Sunday.

I am not great at proof reading but I am sure this bloggy thing keeps deleting random words when I publish, it is quite interesting to revisit my posts from time to time and see what I really wrote as opposed to what I think I write...no wonder I get strange comments....

Until next time, watch out for cyclists
love
Ironmaiden

It's fun again!

Good news everybody!  Everyone is having new babies all over the place, which is exciting, I can play with them and give them back which is cool.  My good news does not involve babies, but the assurance from my most excellent physio that I do indeed still have a lateral ligament on my left ankle.  It is a little longer than the one on my right foot, but it is there, so if it is there it can heal.  Hard to heal a ligament that goneburgers.

I just did a pretty solid week's training, I am not doing much running, but did plenty of swimming and cycling, and some (yawn) aquajogging which was actually ver uhmmm ah ....   oh, sorry, I actually fell asleep while I was trying to think of something exciting about aquajogging....

I also went for my first group ride yesterday.  It was not as scary as I thought, they were nice to me and didn't growl if I got confused.  At one stage I heard two of the men behind me commenting about how good it was drafting behind me - now this is clearly a direct reference to the size of my posterior asset, but for some reason they were so charmingly honest and unapologetic about it that I actually wasn't offended, but rather found it nice being appreciated for something!  What on earth is the world coming to?

Anyway,  until next time, be safe and be seen and please don't run me over if I fall down in front of you.

love
Ironmaiden

250 days to go!

Not sure if that includes today...

On the mend

Hello everyone!

Well, I am definitely on the mend.  I have had physio and am diligently attending to my exercises to try and make the best recovery possible.

I have had a pretty low key week, training wise, but the ol'ankle needed a wee bit of respite.  I am looking forward to doing some bigger mileages this week. 

I ate octopus and snails last night, and then the police arrived and searched my house.  And for once, this all happened while I was awake and not dreaming.  Weird.

I also had a go at aquajogging.  Ever tried it?  It's harder than it looks but I was awesome.  If aquajogging was an olympic sport I'd be on the podium but it isn't so I won't be.

No body part photos tonight.

OK, be safe, don't go running in the dark and fall over.

love
Ironmaiden

A minor setback

So Wellington footpaths are really hard.  And I think gravity is stronger here too. I finally improved my running pace - by flying horizontally through the air. The other night I was out for a run and had 52 incident free minutes, but on the 53rd I missed a step in the dark and did a full blown face plant onto the pavement.  I landed on right knee and left elbow, and munched my left ankle.  You know how when you are in so much pain the lights all fade and the horizon tilts?  Well, that was happening so I popped myself in the recovery position and hung out on the footpath for a spell.  There weren't many people around,  although one family walked past, gave me a strange look and carried on, evidently semi-conscious shuddering chubby athletes lying on the pavement are commonplace where they come from.

After a while I decided that with no phone or money on me I needed to harden up, so I got up and stumbled back to the hotel, still with the world going dim and wobbly regularly.  I fashioned an icepack from the wee hotel fridge's ice tray, and applied it to my foot. I hope the next person who stays in that room doesn't decide to put those particular ice cubes in their drink...

I stressed myself silly all night with ideas of fractures and abandoned ironmaiden campaigns, and got up the next morning  only to realise that getting up was not a viable option at that stage - I was unable to stand or walk and generally feeling sorry for myself.  I bundled myself off to the Wellington A&E, which is very new and fancy, and spoke to a nice triage nurse who poked me and prodded me, and gave my analgesia (that's painkillers by the way!).  The next nurse poked and prodded me a bit more, tried to explain that my leg bones were like a burger ring (mmm....burger rings!) and if I broke one end I would have broken the other as well, which wasn't very encouraging...and then offered me more analgesia (yup, that's painkillers), which  by this stage meant entonox, but I thought I was already light headed enough.  After a plethora of xrays they sent me back to bed number 1 (you get up early to have bed no.1 in Wellington A&E) where I awaited the verdict.  Well, you know, diagnosis.  And it was all fine, far out what a relief!  As soon as they said there was no sign of a bony injury the pain disappeared, so that was clearly all in my head, and I entered a totally euphoric state (better than champagne).  What a drama queen!

So now I have a few days of RICEES (rest, ice, compression, elevation, embarrassment, self chastisement), and then back into it.  Hopefully I'll be swimming and cycling soon, and running in 10 days or so.  The moral of the story, when faceplanting onto the footpath don't let your ankles get in the way!

My right knee bore the brunt of the impact

What a wuss!  24 hours later and you can barely see the swelling.  Actually you can, it just doesn't really show in the photo.  Don't I have mutant toes though?

Well, I am diligently elevating and compressing, so till next time,

love
Ironmaiden

The Balance

Good evening people!
First of all, sorry to hear Chc folk are still getting knocked around, I hope it settles down properly for you soon, no body needs that action.

Now, training is still going great, and tonight I realised I've made the shift in balance from sitting on my bike thinking about work, to sitting at work thinking about my bike....  Only when work is not busy of course... or I am doing system training....

I got six inches cut off my hair - I figured a less grams might help me go a little faster...and on my last ride I did average 0.9 km/hr faster...that has to be good right?  I guess  I need to try shaving my head next!

I ordered brand spanking new pedals - they are now winging their way from Europe.  I will slowly upgrade my bike one component at a time!  New bar tape next.  Tim was right, I really do need to replace it (don't tell him he was right...)

Ok, well, any Chc people want t come hang out in the Taupo Volcanic Zone let me know!

Till next time
love

Ironmaiden

Fun with carrots!

Hi Everyone
I hope you are all in as rude good health as me.
I am stoked about how I have achieved a full compliment of awesomeness this week (don't you love how arrogant I am?).  Training just seems to be feeling really good, I have lots of energy and bounce from one session to the next.

I have a new gizmo - a GPS heart rate monitor that tells me how fast I am going, how far I've come, and how hard my poor little ticker is having to fizz away.  And that it is indeed still fizzing away, which is always reassuring.

So I got some carrots out of my garden for dinner, and have found like all good root vegetables they are growing in my image!  Take a look!

This is me stretching my glutes!

This is me going running!

This one is just a mutant but it was tasty.

OK, well now we are just being silly.

Till next time,

love
Ironmaiden

Home, spinach and cramp

Kia Ora everyone!

It is marvellous to be home, I have come back to some clear winter weather and Taupo is glorious.
I've thrown myself into getting back into a proper training regime and my coach hasn't wasted anytime getting me a new programme up and running.  My holiday has worked a treat and I've come back with the body feeling great and rearing to go.

My vegetable garden has been trucking along while I've been away, so I am hoping my spinach will have a similar effect as Popeye's did, and with my new big arm muscles I can look forward to seeing a serious improvement in my swimming (and bashing bad guys of course).

I'm still getting a bit of cramp, but I am still collecting ideas for remedies, and so far stretching seems to be the key - its always good to have a strategy.

Here I am warming up for the Strasbourg race (the day before, in Kehl, Germany).  The locals there were very supportive of my Ironmaiden campaign, even the giant mosquitoes.

Till next time!
love
Ironmaiden

In Bruges

Well, I am.  And Belgium is not hugely conducive to training.  The beer, the chocolate, the frites...not to mention the kamakaze cyclists trying to kill me, the swans and themselves, and the nastiest street cobbles yet (I really should wear sturdier shoes, my feet are so sore!).

But rest easy, Icelandic Volcanoes permitting, I will be making my home on the weekend, hanging out to get home and back into proper training.

Until then,
love
Ironmaiden

Strasbourg, Switzerland and knees...

Hello!

Sorry, it has been a wee while, but I've been exploring the world in which I live.  And enjoying the spring sunshine but lets not go on and on about that.  Too much more.  But it is just so nice...

Anyway, I did my 10k race in Strasbourg - I say race, I mean wheezy shuffle, successfully. I was not (quite) last, and I enjoyed the experience.  Lots of French people lined the street calling out encouraging things in French that I couldn't understand (I suppose some of them may have been saying "You look like your are going to collapse, you should stop!", but I couldn't tell the difference). It was very amusing to hear the very excitable French commentator call my name as I galloped (shuffled) towards the finish line.  Strasbourg is a very beautiful city and well worth visiting.

I have to say recovery for my old bones was fairly slow, I've just spent the last three days in Switzerland with Juliane who looked after me magnificently.  Training took a back seat while I soaked up Swiss ( and French) sunshine, cheese and chocolate.  I promise I still got lots of incidental exercise as I wandered the streets of cosmopolitan Geneva and its more picturesque medieval neighbours.


I went for a run this morning though, and feel terrific for it.

Enough for now!  I'll post a photo when I figure out how.
A bientot
Bisous
Fer Mademoiselle

La Piscine Olympique

Bon jour à tous

France is treating me very well indeed - perhaps a little too well?  Either gravity exerts a stronger force here or I have been a little too eager in my patronage of the local fromagerie et boulangerie.

My hosts, Sarah and Matt, have landed themselves in a fabulous part of the country, and turned on some superb spring weather for me (including a dramatic thunderstorm early this morning that I diligently slept through).

My coach has emailed me to "remind me" of my goals for March, so cheese, pastries and bread cannot completely dominate my attention.  I've been for a couple of runs, no easy task on ruggedly cobbled streets (dodging the traffic that insists on coming from the wrong direction), and this morning I ventured to the other side of town for a swim in Dijon's very new, very impressive olympic swimming pool.  I was so impressed I left them my watch to remember me by.  Opps.  Don't worry, I have a spare.  My arms had the jetlag so it as like trying to swim with two pieces of over cooked spaghetti dangling off my shoulders, but the beauty of an olympic pool is that you do seem to clock up the ks quite easily.

So there you are - my training perhaps isn't as focussed as it was, but it does continue.

Sarah and I are off to Strasbourg in the morning, we have a 10km race there, then she has convinced, me we should enter another here in Dijon the following weekend.  So it will be good to have a couple of events under my belt.

A bientot,
bisousFer madamoiselle


 

Au revoir!

My last blog from these fair shores for a few weeks!  But don't worry, I'll be back!

I'm off to visit friends in the Old World for a little holiday.  The weather forecast is looking good and to be honest I am excited about a little bit of time off.

My training is continuing, I am resting my sore calf muscle but it is feeling really good now, so I am looking forward to doing some running again.

My first event of the Ironmaiden Campaign will be a 10k "foot race" in Strasbourg, France.  Or somewhere near there.  I just really hope the course is easy to follow, I am not so good at understanding directions in French!

I'll let you know how I get on, there might even be photos!  Hopefully I will also be able to find a swimming pool to train in from time to time as well.

Stay cool till after school!

love
Ironmaiden

The spirit is willing but the flesh is treacherous....

Well I've been enjoying training lately, my swimming is coming together, i am not really any faster but I seem to more efficient, I swam two kilometres on Monday and felt good at the end, so that is helping my confidence a lot.

Unfortunately tonight I was enjoying a very pleasant wheezy shuffle in the twilight, taking in the gorgeous autumn colours, stunning sunset and vista of lake and mountains when I felt a sharp pain in my calf muscle. I had been chased by a dog earlier, so I suppose I should be glad it was just an old calf injury flaring up rather than a savage attack by some part-pitbull part-tasmanian devil mongrel getting ahold of my delicate person.

This calf muscle is a bit of a problem but I have managed it successfully before, so I will be able to cope this time.  I've got my first event coming up in a little over two weeks - a 10k run in Strasbourg, France!  I only hope the course is clearly marked and Idon't have to stop and ask directions of the marshalls.  The only thing I can ask is "Where is the toilet?" and "Can I have some chocolate ice cream with my green beans please?"; neither of which will be particularly useful for navigating my way around a running course!

Till next time,
Au revoir!
Ironmaiden

Flat like a flounder!

Hello!

Today I have to admit I felt about bleurgh!   I went for my prescribed bike ride, but I have to admit the quantity of easter chocolate I have consumed perhaps wasn't the best preparatory food.

I wheezed my way up the Aratiatia hill though, so its all good.  I can at least report that training continues.

I have just spent a few days in Wellington, my training programme required me to go running, but with no big hills.  Seriously?  Has my coach ever been to Wellington?  All the hills  there are big and you can't avoid them!   

Until next time,

love
Ironmaiden

Water in my ears (and everywhere else)

So I am truckin through my first week of coaching.  It is awesome having a personalised programme, and a coach who is very patient with my many (and often inane) questions.

It has been tipping it down with rain all day, so I was glad I was scheduled for a swim today, because a run or a ride would have felt like a swim anyway!  I feel like I am getting the hang of this swimming business, which is terrific.  I feel much more confident about the prospect of 3.8km.  And after all, I've still got a few months to train!  But for now, I've got the fire lit and I am hunkering down.

Catch up soon,
love
Ironmaiden

Turbo spinach!

I wonder if my expectations and baselines are changing, but right now the smallest things make me happy, like the spinach in my garden that is growing great guns!  I am munching lots down hoping it will pop my muscles like Popeye.  I wonder if Popeye had good core strength ?  I certainly need to improve mine.
How lucky am I to have a campaign manager?  Good things are happening on that front...hopefully I'll have updates there soon.

I went for run wheezy shuffle tonight, it was a beautiful evening, I have the best training ground imaginable!

Are you all taking care and making plans to be in Taupo for the first weekend of March 2012?

lots of love
Ironmaiden

One of those days...

I guess they happen from time to time, days like these.

So it turns out my bike is too big for me.  Which means either I am shorter than I was in 2004 when I bought it (unlikely), or they sold me a bike that is to large.  Whodda thought!  Nothing is EVER too big for me!  How do you make a bike smaller?  Well, sadly, the answer does not involve a hacksaw, superglue and some duct tape.

And then I went to swimming.  Thought I'd start early and practice some tumble turns.  The rest of the people then couldn't train because ALL the water is now inside my sinuses.  Except for the 10 litres or so that is in my ears. 

And then I cooked my dinner ad burned my finger.  Kat lives too far away and it is fricken cold!

But on a bright note, dinner was delicious, and next month I'll be able to drive through Paris, in a sportscar, with the warm wind in my hair....

Might skip the sportscar though, have you seen how those Parisians drive?

Till next time!
love
Ironmaiden

Iron Virgins

Went along to the Taupo Iron Virgins meeting tonight.  It was great to talk to other people who are gearing up to take on Ironman, and also hear about the experiences of others who have just done it, even if some of the experiences totally had the ick factor going on (it was a long, wet day, see my last post and times it  x 16 if you want an idea of what they were going through by the end....).

I am still excited and feeling positive .  Fingers crossed for a warm dry winter!

as always,
love Ironmaiden

Ouch!

I have chaffing!  I'm not gonna tell you where, or why, or what I am going to do about it, because that would be gross, but ouch!

as ever,
love
Ironmaiden

Settling In

So I've been interviewing coaches, asking lots of questions.  Each time I meet a potential coach I walk away thinking "Terrific!  That's the coach for me!", which isn't helping narrow down my choice a whole lot.  They all have  a different approach and I liked all of them as people, but I guess I have plenty of time to figure out what is going to be the best approach for me.

The best news for this week is that I have totally come to grips with the idea of doing Ironman.  I'm looking forward to the year ahead and really looking forward to the race...opps...I mean event, let's face it, there won't be a whole lot of racing going on in my department!  I've leave that to Slippery Eel Mean Lady.

I'm still swimming, and now have been for a few runs, and I have to say, I've fitter than I thought.  This house painting business must be quite good endurance training.   Perhaps next year I'll start a business coaching Ironman athletes and the training will consist of a nice sideline business painting houses....people would pay for that right?  Well, the concept probably needs a little development.

Anyway, I'm keen to hear your ideas for magpie defence in the spring when the little buggers start getting really nasty...let me know.

love
Ironmaiden

No turning back now!

So here is the email I just received:


2012 Ironman New Zealand

Congratulations on entering the 2012 Ironman New Zealand – the world’s original international Ironman.  We are delighted to confirm your entry.


So it's all on now!  Katie has entered too which is great, she is such a cruisy lass she helps defuse my angst tremendously!   Of course she is also Australian, so we'll be watching out for any underarm bowling scandals as this campaign progresses.

No exciting radish-related news today, although I have heard a rumour that nutrigran is in fact NOT ironman food.  I did make a poi on Saturday though.

See you next time.
love,
Ironmaiden

Endorphins

I went for a run today - got those old endorphins rushing into the endocrine system - awesome!   Glad that part still works.

Ok, enough bout training.  I also went to WOMAD over in Taranaki  - what a great festival!  The weather was perfect which helps a lot, but the best bit was I had a whole weekend of not thinking about the Ironmaidenship and as a result had two AWESOME night's sleep.  I feel like a human being again and this little task I have ahead of me seems much more manageable.

My friend who is a genuine organic bogan (and actually very intelligent which really does throw my whole concept of boganism out of whack) made me a CD with some songs from the real Ironmaiden on it, so I've been rocking out to that in the car.  It is actually growing on me, perhaps part of this campaign  will be channelling my inner bogan and finding strength in places I didn't know I had places?

I have more enormous radishes but my kamokamo looks like it might be on its way out.

Stay cool till after school,

love always,
Ironmaiden

16th March - How naive am I?

So it turns out the big challenge (as if running a marathon after a 180km bike ride isn't enough) is going to be funding this foolhardy campaign.  The more research I do, the more it is sinking in how much it is going to cost me.  The package I've won will help, but crickey...I think I may need to speak to my mortgage broker before I go much further!  I wish there was a whole industry of sponsors who chase mediocre athletes...
On a brighter note, I grew a HUGE radish.  Radishes are so satisfying. I'd put a photo up, but meh, use your imaginations.  I'll describe it - it was a radish, and it was huge.  I use past tense because it is currently hurtling its way towards my digestive tract.

Till next time,
love
Ironmaiden

7th March - Well I didn't think I would win...

So this all started when I agreed to be a part of the Ironman Volunteers behemoth here in Taupo for the 2011 Ironman.

Part of the volunteer's deal is that you get to stand on your feet for 13 hours, up to your ankles in mud and water, get yelled at by charming competitors, culminating in a dinner with 2000 other volunteers with a chance to win a free entry for the next year's Ironman.

I loved the 13 hours of wet feet, I loved the verbal abuse and death stares from she who will not be named (but seriously, she squirmed like an eel, she was her own worst enemy), and on a whole thoroughly enjoyed the day.  I entered the draw for the volunteers prize thinking there would be 2000 competing entries.  It turns out that NOT EVERYBODY ENTERS....I didn't know this.  And I certainly didn't think I would win.  I almost didn't, but our wonderful mayor had a rush of blood to the head and decided extra free entries should be given away this year.   And one of those had my name on it.

Here I am looking suitably intimidated with the other gullible volunteers who put their names in the draw.

Anyway, I am getting lots of good advice from good people, and lots of dubious advice from dubious people.  I will certainly be eating this particular elephant in small bites.  I hope you will join me as I head off on this head banging thrash metal journey....how hard can it be right?

love
Ironmaiden
(ps I hope I don't get done by the trademark police)