Feeling Hot Hot Hot

I'm sick :( It came on last nite so quickly, and I was throwing up all nite, which has now led to diahorrea. I had massive stomache cramps and couldn't get comfortable - lying down was painful, the only thing that felt OK was curling into a little ball on the floor. But I got a bit sick of that after awhile! I left OHs house about midnight to go home to mum's, as he had no drugs to make it go away. After getting rid of everything in my stomache, I finally got to bed at 2am. Needless to say, there was no 4.30am alarm today - I had to text my early clients late last nite. I don't like being sick, I never get sick, and I never have a day off work from being sick. I feel so weak, my whole body feels like it's been hit by a bus, and my eyes are sensitive - sounds like a bit of a bug to Dr. Selina :) Enough of oh poor me, I gotta toughen up to get back to work tomorrow.
Actually it's funny, OH called me at 4pm yesterday to pick him up from footy. He got clean knocked out. Couldn't even remember my name (and he wonders why I don't like him playing league - let alone going down to watch...). I was to be his baby-sitter to make sure everything was OK last nite before I took him to the doctor today... well at about midnight he was ready to take me to the hospital! Goes to show, anything he can do, I can do better ;)

Oops, I did it Again ;)

I did another PB today. Yipee for me!!! Had another club championship race this morning at a national park, so it was a nice, rocky-road (mmm... who thought of chocolate then!!), hilly, green trail run. And unlike last year, it wasn't raining today :) I completed the 9kms in 45mins and 19 secs, which is 2 and a half minutes faster than my previous best on this particular course in 2006! I am stoked :) The hills are just sooo steep, no amount of hill training could prepare my heart and legs for that. My legs feel like balls of knots right now, right in my quads. I thought I would pass out at one point after getting to the top of the hill, I had hot and cold flushes and my heart was going insane. But I didn't die! And I didn't walk - at all :) I'm a very happy lil chappy!

Thank Goodness

I survived the week relatively unscathed...
I had an absolute shocker. I now remember how important adequate sleep is in everyday life and decisions. I'd previously been a bad sleeper, but things have been really good for about a year or so - I think it's mainly as I know how to cope better with stress etc now. This week was a shocker though! Minimal sleep made for a grumpy girl, with massive SUGAR cravings. Oh my god, and of course, being so tired it was a "I don't give a shit" attitute to everything. So sugar I ate, or chocolate left-overs from easter, or whatever I could get my little hands on. I felt like I'd eaten a few kgs of it, until I actually wrote it all down in a food diary, and of course it wasn't that bad. Thank god my tolerance for that crap stuff is very low - I don't have to eat too much to get that ill feeling in the guts - due to being usually 'good' with that stuff. And then I was too tired to do my scheduled training...
I am happy to report that I had a 100% perfect day yesterday, even being a party pooper and declining at the last moment to go to a farewell dinner with OH, to avoid having to make a food choice. And the hassle of getting dressed up. I had a late nite anyway, then got the call at 1am for a pick-up. That is the worst job in the world. And of course "can you please drop home blah blah and blah blah too". Yea sure, just don't expect me to be polite, or hospitable... Just get in the car and shut up!
Because of the interrupted sleep, I still felt like I was hungover.... A shopping trip today that resulted in me buying more clothes that I'll hardly ever wear, does make me feel better though!! ;)

Deja Vu

I had the same sleep problems as Tuesday nite. I haven't struggled with sleeping for a loooong time, I don't know what's going on with my system to be doing this to me again. Worst part was knowing that I had to get up at 4.30am today, and of course when my eyes finally decided to shut, the alarm woke me up quite rudely.
The icing on the cake - my 5.30am appointment decided to not show up. I received the call at 5.40am - "I didn't realise it was Thursday. Sorry for making you cut your sleep short for no reason". Now let's not even go there............

SHOCKER!

Of a sleep I had last nite. Last time I saw the clock it was 1.10am... Yay. It's not fun seeing the time that late if I'm not (a) intoxicated or (b) out acutally having fun. Many thoughts in my head were annyoing the **** out of me. My nite felt a bit like this...
GUILT - for eating that stoopid chocolate that was begging me to.
STRESS - all things work related. No further explanation required.
PANIC - How the hell am I going to fit in the training I didn't get to do today, along with all my other sessions this week.
WORRY - Now I'll be a grumpy bum at work all day due to not getting to bloody sleep!
PISS-OFFEDNESS - GO TO EFFING SLEEP!
That'll serve me right for eating the chocolate, and not training to plan... wired on sugar and not using excess energy up is a recipe for a sleeping disaster!
Today, I have a mammoth headache, and my eyes are puffy. I look damn attractive :)

4 Days!

Yay!! I love work, but I also love having a break :) I can do heapsa training! And why is it that tha majority of people look at me like I'm a fruitcake when I do say that's all I have planned for the long weekend?! That's how I like to relax, not gorge myself on chocolate and vino!!! (although, that has been known to happen ;) )
I woke at 4.30am (maybe that part is worth the fruitcake look) to get out and about for a long run. 1hour and 30mins later I was done. I had a look at the run calendar, and realised our local half marathon is 1st June... and now it's end of March... so I better get moving on the longer distances! My legs are pretty tired now, but nothing that a good sleep tonite won't fix.
I also completed another of this weekend's goals - to clean and vacuum the inside of my car. Mission accomplished! And when it's so nice and clean I always promise myself I'll do it more often. Yea... right.
Being Good Friday, I've had a noice seafood day. Crab for lunch with salad, and tonite all us kidlets are going to mum and dads for dinner - salmon cakes and prawns are on the menu I think. How spoilt is that? I'm just lucky that my lil bro went crabbing to get all the goodies, we never normally indulge that much on Good Friday! Mental note to avoid any chocolate that may be spotted lying around............

Sugar & Spice and all Things Nice...

That's what little girls are made of. These little munchkins are who I spent last Sunday at the beach playground with as my belated birthday lunch - and their mummies of course, who both have another one on the way. We had lots of fun :)

Little Miss R - Peek-a-bo!!

Yummm.. chippeeez

Looking funky in Aunty Seen's hat!

Miss B - 'Seeee... I know how to smile big for a picture!'

Man, that was fun :)

I love my friends little girls. The big sister of Miss R had the day riding bike with her daddy, so I didn't get any hugs from her!!
I can't wait till my sis has kiddies, I will be the bestest aunty in the world!!!

These are the gorgeous colourful flowers that I got delivered to work from my OH for my birthday 2 weeks ago. A massive box of hand-made chocolates were also attached. :)

If I thought I had it bad in the legs yesterday, today's not much better. I did interval training yesterday, of varying times with varying rest periods, and the legs felt good with the blood pumping through. Not so good after I'd cooled down however!! DOMS is such and inconvenience as it interfers with all the other training! I'll just suck it up all the same.

Today I'm having my first IPL appointment. IPL stands for... something! I can't remember at the moment, but it's permanent hair reduction. And lucky me, as I'm a business contact with the girl that owns it, I get my treatments half price. I'll let you know how it goes, I'm looking forward to being zapped and on the road to a hair-free future! ;) More info is here.

OUCH!!!

It's one of those days when the legs are so sore! I trained them yesterday and after having 2 weeks off leg training (to rest for the tri and club championship race, of course!), I'm certainly paying for it. In a good way. My butt hurts to sit on the floor, and and I'm no state to be demonstrating leg exercises to clients. Although I have to still, but add "Just without that part, and make sure you don't do that". LOL!
I've come down off my Sunday nite high. It took me ages to go to sleep, I haven't been that pumped for a LONG time! It was better than all my birthdays and Christmases. I mean, my fastest time in THREE years. And I really really thought I was over the hill and my 'peak' days were behind me. If anyone ever doubts their own ability in whatever your chosen sport may be, never ever give up. If you want it bad enough and do the hard yards, you WILL get there!!
I'm so close to achieving another goal from my list posted up in January - which was to crack my PBs. I did note that the shorter distances might not be under threat, but wow, within 3 months, I certainly gave the 5km a shake-up!!!!!!!!!!
Oh and of course I overestimated OHs ability to wash my car the other day... When I peeked my head out he had started to hose it. But he suddenly appeared back inside the next minute... "It was too hot, and I didn't want to get burnt"...

OVER THE MOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO (i think that's enough o's) EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just sitting here, freshly sweaty and wind-blown from my 5km Road Race Championship. I did it in my second fastest time in HISTORY!!!!!!!!!!! Only 10seconds of my best ever!!!
I cannot believe it!!! I hoped for, but didn't expect it, and tried not to do the self-inflicted pressure... I would have been content with anything under 25mins as that's been the elusive mark for about 18months, but I SMASHED IT to finish in 23mins 06sec.
I had many people asking what I ate for lunch ("Rocket salad?"), what secret training I've been doing, and asking for a not-so-random drug test. LOL! So I surprised not just myself but everyone else.
My trainer predicted it, I wasn't so sure of myself doing it, but man, he knows his stuff!!! I cannot wait to see what else I can achieve this year!!!

HARD WORK + PATIENCE = RESULTS!!!

Super Saturday!!!!!!!!!!

It's here again! I've had a busy one already,up early for a cycle with dad. I'm on a 'rest' day for running, as I have a 5km Club Championship race tomorrow afternoon, in which I'm hoping to pull out a really good time. My coach was really happy with my splits on the Wednesday training run, and if I can pull something similar out of the hat tomorrow, I should be on my way to my fastest time in over a season. No pressure though!!!!!!!!!! That's when I crash and burn, I put so much pressure on myself, no one else does, that I get so worked up and nervous, then run like crap. Tomorrow I just have to ENJOY it!

It's our local council elections today, and one of my great friends, who is also a mentor and loyal client is running to be re-elected, so I've been helping her on her campaign. So after breakfast I was down there handing out fliers. You know those annoying people who try to hand you a kazillion sheets of paper as you're going in to vote, well that's what I did! LOL! And now as I know what it's like to be on the other side, I will always look at them and smile, and politely decline if I'm not interested. Honestly, there's some RUDE people out there. Where's the love these days!! And also, if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all!! I heard alot of very rude comments like "Well I won't be voting for her/him". Honestly, your vote doesn't faze me!

Anyway, enough politics :) Tonite I'm a footy widow. It's OHs first game tonite and he told me, (note I didn't say, asked me), that he was going out with boys for a piss-up after the game. I did a littly oh-poor-me-what-am-i-going-to-do tanty, only to get "Well babe, get used to it, it's footy season!". PUH! We'll see about that!!

Tomorrow I'm going to the beach for my belated birthday lunch with my 2 pregnant best friends and between them, their 3 little girls. Weather is just gorgeous at the moment, so it should be a nice day!!

Righto, I'm going out to enjoy it!!

Oh and look at that, OH is washing my car!!!!!!!!!!! HA!!! He hasn't washed my car in the 3 years we've been together!! Reckon he's feeling guilty?!? ;)

The results are in...

For the mini tri on the weekend, and I'm a happy little chappy!!
Of 58 competitors, my time put me in 18th position!!!!!! I'm stoked!!! Had I not gone off on a tangent and ran an extra 500-600m, based on the times, I predict I would have come in round about 10th or 11th. :)))) How exciting!!! I have lots to work on before next year's event - learning to listen to directions, and learning to swim with some form of techinque! The winner did it in 18mins, 32secs. How fast is that!!!!!

In training news, I did the afore mentioned dreaded 1km efforts last nite. (In case you're really interested ;) it was 4 x 1km with 1min 30sec standing rest between, 2 x 500m with 1 min standing rest) I blew myself away with my results! All my training is finally coming together. Instead of running for my life like each effort was my last, I tried to pace myself, which worked like a charm. Funny that! I didn't quite feel like throwing up after each effort, which made it heaps more enjoyable (funny that -again!). So me thinks that next time I have a scheduled training session like that, I'll want to do it, to compare times! I'm learning how my brain works!

The best part is, if I add all my times together, I would SMASH my PB over the 5kms! Yay for me, just need to work on stringing them altogether without hitting the wall :) Slowly but surely I'm getting there!! And I'm EXCITED!!!!!!!!!

A bad case of the..

Couldn't-Be's... Couldn't-Be-(insert word of choice) doing anything requiring effort. Yesterday was one of those days. The plan was 4 x 1km, 2 x 500m timed runs, and that just seemed too daunting. So after evil me and angelic me had our arguments, I compromised and went out for a 40min walk. Not even a run, a walk. I haven't walked in years, and it was a nice change in pace, no pun intended. Except I had too much time to think. Ideas came from all angles, I was getting so excited I had to tell my mother; she had that 'mmmm-hmmmm, yea-that'll-happen' kinda look on her face.
I went to bed exhausted last nite. So tired from all that thinking!! That'll be the last time I walk instead of doing my intervals!! There's no time to think with intervals!! ;)
And I'm thinking that's the last day I can use the excuse "oh but, I did a triathlon AND a 5km race on the weekend..."
The bad news is, that training session is now waiting for me tonight!

I DID IT!!

I did it, I did it, I did it! I've officially completed a life goal to compete in a triathlon. Tick that one off the list :) Of course it wasn't without drama... as usual for me! If you're not interested in triathlon stuff, you definitely won't be interested in reading further! :)

THE SWIM
Well what can I say - I sucked! It was in the pool for the 100m (don't laugh), and 50 of us were in the first race. (Too many people, had to be done in 2 waves). I was speaking to other gals before the swim and they were saying they hadn't swum in years, "I'm gonna be so bad" etc etc etc. But I just KNEW I would be bad - and I've trained 2x week since Christmas! To my horror, just before I jumped in the pool, I saw my client, dammit she did come to watch! So off we swam. I did the first 50m OK, then I hit the wall at about 75m again... I stopped to catch air because, as usual I had the breathing fit. It was very disheartening to see more than half the girls already out of the water and running off to the bike transition. I got to the end as fast as I could and beat a few people out, only because they had trouble lifting themselves out of the pool. At last my arms were good for something!! I swear I was second-last of 50 people out of the pool. I overtook a few running to the bike area though...

THE BIKE
3 lots of a 2km loop. I seemed to take forever putting my shoes on and organising myself. The more I hurried, the worse it was! Once I was off, the bike was ALLL MINE!! I overtook about 10 people the first loop, probably about 20-25 in total. (Yeeehaaa... made up a few places from that horrendous swim leg!!). I did feel bad though, flying past them on my road bike, the poor girls struggling on their heavy mountain bikes. Well, OK, not that bad ;). The cycle leg felt fantastic!!

THE RUN
2kms. Walk in the park... right? Well Miss Smarty-Pants here didn't do enough transition training from bike to run... My legs were sooo unbelievably heavy - kinda like running through mud in steel cap boots. A few cyclists I passed got their revenge. I just couldn't lift my legs, it was the most horrible feeling! About a km into it, I felt better and made up ground and overtook a few people and kept following the ones ahead... I was in heads down, bums up mode, just powering along, as I mentioned following the ones ahead... (so like, it's totally not my fault ;) )...who missed the turn-off!!!!!!! So we kept running till we realised... ahh I don't think it's this far along. Soooooo we ran an extra 500-600metres which is quite alot more considering it was only a 2km run!!!!!!!! But I got to the end in one piece, sooo mad at myself for not taking more notice of the course, but I finished it all the same.

Final time was 24mins 12secs. I'm really happy with that. I had no idea what time to expect as I've never raced a bike, or swum in a similar situation since grade 3, let alone put three disciplines together. I plucked 25mins out of the air and goaled to get under that, so was stoked with 24min 12secs considering I did an extra few minutes on the run leg!

I saw my client after it and the conversation went a little like this:

Me: So did you see me get out of the pool about second last??

Her: No, there were about 5 or 6 after you!

Me: Really? So I was about 44th or 45th then??

Her: Yes, that's about right!!

WILL I DO IT AGAIN?
Hell yes!! I hated most of it, that pain of really pushing yourself, but I love the satisfaction of completing it!! I'm feeling awesome today, on such a high from the whole experience. I knew I sucked at swimming, but I didn't realise I sucked that BAD! I've already asked around for info about adult learn-to-swim classes, I'd really like to get my stroke corrected, so may consider doing that soon. I don't particularly like swimming, but I don't particularly like being that bad at it either!! LOL! I thought I was a runner, but I really enjoyed the bike, and my 'big' legs were such an advantage. It's opened up so many choices!

I'm checking the website every 10 minutes to see if the results are up yet. They're not! I'm just interested to see where that time placed me in the field :) Will keep you posted!!!

The day wasn't over after that though, yesterday afternoon I backed up for a 5km road run. Conditions were really really windy, so bad the road through the harbour was closed as it's too dangerous for cars. I somehow pulled out the second fastest time I've done in over a year. Go figure - whole body, legs especially were tired from the triathlon, wind resistance was insane - I thought I was going to be blown off the road to the rocks below! - but pulled that out. I'll take it!

YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEE GOAL ACCOMPLISHED!!

Only one more sleep!!

The long-awaited mini triathlon is on tomorrow morning. Bring it on!! I am looking forward to giving it a good shot. I cannot wait to get the swim over and done with, I am absolutely petrified of doing those laps. This past week in training, I've gotten to about 70mtrs before I've had a breathing fit. I'm really struggling with it!! I'm fine if I've done 100s of metres warm-up with fins, but get me straight in without them and I'm a lost cause! Just can't seem to get into a rhythm. What's making me even more anxious is the fact that I've got some clients coming down to watch... ARGH!!! When I say I cannot swim, I'm not being modest or down-playing my ability, I seriously cannot co-ordinate it all!!! I'll be so embarassed. I hope they realise their trainer is only human too ;) Bring on the bike and the run - I love my comfort zone ;)

I'm not going into this in the best shape though... My foot dramas aren't over yet! My Massage Therapist thinks I've pulled the tendons in my foot! LOL! How funny is that for a nite of wearing high-heels! It's obviously not real bad, it just aches after being on it for a while. At least the run is only short tomorrow, it'll be over in a flash. Just gotta suck it up till then.

And mysteriously this morning I've woken up with a stiff neck. Can't turn it to the right side - OUCH! It's gotta be from my swim yesterday - I must have been trying too hard. That's gonna be fun tomorrow if I can't move it much still! I honestly think I'll be faster deep-water running it than actually swimming!!

Now there's a thought...

Everyone have an awesome weekend!! I hope to catch up on blogs tomorrow when I won't be capable of much else ;)

My Back

Doesn't it look pretty today!!! I had a massage session with a bit of cupping yesterday. I love cupping, so thought I'd show off the evidence, just like Hils did not long ago :)

They are darker than in the pic, the lighting just doesn't do it justice! ;) Now lets hope the scars go before the weekend, as I may not be allowed in the pool for the mini triathlon for fear of spreading some bizarre disease...

High Heels a Health Hazard??

Well for me I think they are! I'm only in flat comfy blacks for work, or trainers for everything else!! I picked up some cute heels in Brisbane and they are sooo comfy on. Thank god the big cities actually stock my size! I can't get anything in a size 5 here, so whenever I'm in Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane it's not unusual for me to take home a few shoe boxes!

Anyway I wore the heels out on Saturday nite - I went out with my sis and a few friends I haven't caught up with in years to have a few birthday drinks. It was only 8 hours I would have been in them, alot of that time sitting down. Well the next day I felt like I'd done a massive leg work-out! My quaddies were aching! But worst were my feet. Yeeeouch! The balls of them felt bruised, and still today my right one is a bit tingly and hurts to crouch on it. I swear I've pulled some lil muscles in there or something! And in case anyone asks - no, it definitely wasn't from doing any fancy moves on the dancefloor! :) The things we girl put ourselves through...

Here's a pic from the nite, with the offenders ;)