Accountants and trout....

So last night's boat ride was really fun...New Zealand accountants appear to be a raucous bunch and with a cooler full of booze and snacks, we had a great tour of Lake Taupo...it was a chartered fishing boat and Lake Taupo is apparently the trout sport fishing capital of NZ. The skipper did everything, but both SJ and I each got to wind in a fish and pose for photos looking like we knew what we were doing. Fortunately, the fish hoist didn't include either of us having to touch a hook or use the little bat to send the poor fishies to heaven...I'm not so hip on killing things, but I must admit that I'll be interested in tasting it once it's been smoked. We've been invited to another happy hour at the firm Friday at 5:00 where the 4 unfortunate trout that were caught yesterday are to be served (hopefully, with more Tui!).

It's raining today, but hopefully will clear up...I got in a good long run this morning along the lake and am scheduled to do a high ropes course at a place called "Rockin' Ropes" just outside of town all afternoon. I've been psyched about it for weeks, so I hope it's not still raining.

Seujan is registered, has her number, and is less than 48 hours from race start...GOOOOO #644!!

Chasing Aussies...

Seujan and I went out for a ride on the I.M. Course again today...it was a but windy and the road has a lot of chip-seal (guess who forgot her gloves in seattle and is getting a good case of rumbled hands?), but otherwise great. We saw a herd of sheep stirring up a big cloud of dust as they were actually BEING herded by a dog and 2 ATV's (nothing like modern technology roaring up the hillside!). Anyway, since SJ has only has 2 rest days between she and Ironman and I have, well, 6 months to train for one, I thought I should buck up and I went out further when she turned back. I flipped around at mile 24 hoping that the headwind I'd been fighting the whole time wouldn't flip when I did, but alas, Murphy's law of biking headwinds is also in effect in NZ. No tailwind for me. However, I scored when 2 Australian women from our Endurance Sports Travel group came up behind me (they'd been vanned out to the 28 mile turnaround, so they were only about 6 miles into their ride). I let them pass and then hopped on for a nice draft. They, of course, were on much nicer bikes with much fitter legs, but I managed to hang on (sans aerobars, which are home with my gloves). They were very friendly and it was a great ride back into town. I have a LOT of training between me and August, but I'm on vacation now and trying not to feel like I'm behind!!

We're off for a boat ride in a little while...Seujan has been "adopted" by a local business (they do that for foreign Ironman racers), so we got invited out on a boat ride with "drinkipoos" with several accountants. It's been great being IN the lake, so we're looking forward to being ON the lake...

Good on ya!

I thought "Good on ya'" was Australian, but I've heard at least 2 kiwis use it here in NZ, so I'm using it, too!

We're in Lake Taupo and Seujan is already entertaining the idea of retiring here...which I'm becoming more and more in favor of! We got here day before yesterday and have already been swimming, biking, and running...and...sampling!! I'm on a quest to sample many flavors of New Zealand beer and so far the project is going swimingly. Unfortunately, the one I like best so far, Tui, is so good that I may have trouble making the list much longer. But I'll persist...

Flying to NZ from LAX is a long and grueling 12+ hour affair, but somehow we managed to make it...plus the 3+ hour van ride to Lake Taupo after that...I proudly stayed awake until 7:30 p.m. the first night and went into an 11-hour coma until yesterday morning. It's going to take a few days to really recover, I think, especially since I was pretty exhausted before we even left Seattle. I was at the end of a cold when we left Seattle and the travel seems to have revived it...I'm feeling pretty dragged out and am coughing a lot. We went for a run this morning and it was really really hard...however the weather and scenery was spectacular. I figure if you have to be sick, this is the place to do it. Fortunately, I'm not racing on Saturday, so I can relax and train as much or as little as I want.

Our hotel is right across the street from Lake Taupo and in the middle of the Ironman swim course...yesterday, we woke up, walked across the street, and hopped right in...water was calm, fairly warm, and really pretty and clear. You can see the bottom even in deep water. Then yesterday afternoon, we biked about 32 miles of the Ironman course...during which time we experienced, sun, wind, and a few complete soaking downpours...but it ended sunny and we were dry at the end of the ride. Nice to get out in shorts and short sleeves and be plenty warm!

Tonight we're going to see Huka Falls, just out of town and watch the bungy jumpers...on Thursday, I'm going to "Rockin Ropes," a high ropes course that I've been totally psyched about for weeks. Seujan is going along and MIGHT do it, but I think I may be solo on the participation.

Anyway...we're loving it here! They stamped "3 month visitor pass" on my passport at the airport and I don't think it's really fair to tease a girl that way...sounds like a damn good idea to me!!

More reports to come as the week goes on...

On the mend?

Well, the marathon plan for March 31 is probably out the window...but the good news is that my hip is improving. I'm continuing my remedial work on running form and I was able to run about 4.5 miles on Thursday and 6 miles, a full hour, today. The hip doesn't exactly feel great right now, a few hours later, but it's better than it was. And it was OK during the run. I still feel like a total goofball and running is a bit of a mental project these days as I plod along with a sound track in my head of "choo-choo, foot strike, choo-choo, footstrike...why does everyone else going around greenlake look so much more relaxed than me? choo-choo, footstrike....are they noticing how stupid I look? choo-choo, foot strike...are they thinking, "Ooooh, she's working on form, and it's not going well" choo-choo, foot strike...that dog sure is cute, maybe he doesn't notice how slow and goofy I look... choo-choo, foot strike...what? 31:32 and I've only gone around once? choo-choo, footstrike...how many weeks has it been since I did speedwork? Damn, I've lost a lot of running fitness...choo-choo, footstrike...ok, at least I can run and it's not killing me! This is good...choo-choo, footstrike..." I'm slow and things are differently sore, but it's getting a little smoother, I think. I'm sure it would be invaluable (albeit horrifying) to videotape myself, but I just haven't gotten to that point.

Anyway, after my "long" 6 mile run and the daily abduction and core work (I'm more religious about this stuff than ever trying to deal w/the hip), I went to watch our little sister's basketball game...Seujan did an 85 mile day on the bike. Tonight is more basketball as we scored an invite with the Cycle U guys to the Sonics game. Pretty cool!

Neal's Clue...

So Erik, the PT/guru, told me yesterday that my hip injury is something having to do with my Cluneal Nerve (to which I replied, "Who's Neal and what clue does he need? For chrissake, I want to do a marathon..."). Erik thinks it has to do with overuse...too much running mileage increase in the last few months, with less than stellar running form. Surprise, surprise. Fortunately, he showed me a taping thing that might help a bit and he watched me run and gave me some form feedback/homework. The plan is to reduce the running training volume and run correctly...not totally sure, but I think the Yakima Marathon may have received $60 of my money for nothing. We'll see how it goes. I also had some ultrasound, electrical stim, and was told that my hip abduction strength has basically gone to crap. This was a little odd as I'd tested very strong on hip abduction in October, but very weak yesterday...he thinks this, too, might be some kind of wacky result of overtraining. So I'll be doing 3 sets of abduction EVERY day to get the strength back up to snuff. I'm happy to report that I did it yesterday and today and have no intention of letting it slack. My hamstrings, btw, have improved a lot since October when I was told to work on those... He taped up the hip yesterday and encouraged me to do a short run last night to test the tape AND to work on the form stuff. Thank god, permission to run.

Formwise, I run too much on my toes with too much side-to-side upper body motion, so I have 2 cues to practice: "Choo-choo" with my arms (i.e. hands open, arms chugging forward, less side-to-side motion, and "full foot strike" with my feet...with more heel strike rather than on my toes. For the first time in weeks, I didn't go to Happy Hour on Friday night, but went out to practice and ran around Greenlake. To be honest, I better call it a jog, not a run...I was a total dork trying to work on my form and did the inner loop (2.8 miles) in 29:33....pokey and a little stupid-looking thinking "choo-choo," and "full foot, smaller stride" continually, but at least I got to run! Hip hurt like hell by the end, but recovered OK and the rest of me wanted to run 10 miles since I have run so little lately. I'm also assigned to ice after running and in the evening, and heat in the morning...I currently have an ice pack on my hip.

So...that's the injury report. I swam this morning and then got to watch Craig and Ed from Cycle U train the instructors who will be running our training program for the Tour de Cure this year...very cool and I picked up a few things that might help my personal cycling training, too. Seujan, in the meantime, braved the elements (i.e. crappy rain and cold) to get in her 70 mile ride. By the time I got home, she was showered and warming up on the couch and I wanted to spin...so I got her to move to the back room where she could lay down under the covers while I got on the bike trainer and we watched some Netflix together for 50 minutes...

We're going to a small party tonight at Katie & Ted's...not sure we'll last very long, but we'll make an appearance.

Rest day tomorrow...weights only!

More lucky than smart?

Yesterday I took a look at the weather report and my calendar and decided that today would be a good day to work on (aka bike) one of our Tour de Cure routes. I asked Jeff along and he readily took some vacation time to join me. We decided to meet at Marymoor at 8:00 a.m. because I had a 3:00 meeting I wanted to get back for. Weeelllll...it was cold. Damn cold. Well below freezing and nobody should be on a bike cold. And Jeff had battled worse traffic than I did (2 hours worth) to meet. And he felt like crap and did not look very enthusiastic upon arrival. Normal people would've made a bee line to Starbucks and bagged, but we went for tough guy points and took off about 8:30 toward Snohomish. We didn't talk much for 2 hours. We both hit potholes (is dexterity loss and impaired vision a symptom of hypothermia?) and it's surprising that iced appendages did not fall off when we hit them. After less than 30 miles, a coffee stop was more than required and when my fingers regained feeling, it was not a feeling they liked. We rallied again, shivered on out, and thankfully, the sun, the mercury, and we climbed and the day turned out GREAT. Although we broke no speed records, we were successful on our fact finding mission, ascertaining that the "70ish" mile route is actually 71, 72, or 75 miles (depending on which gadget you trust) and includes about 3,300 ft. of elevation gain. And we've pegged mostly where we want the rest stops.

We were way slower than I thought we'd be (hello...off season...3rd ride of the year...duh) and I got to my car about 2:50 p.m. Phoned it in for the meeting whereupon I heard almost nothing but static on the call, ate my beef jerky, and drove directly home to shower and finish working there...avoided the office entirely today.

We met another chilly cyclist in Monroe who told us there had been accidents on Paradise Lake Rd. and High Bridge, due to ice...guess who rode on those roads a few hours before those accidents occurred? Tough guy points for Jeff and me!!

72 mile ride
5:17
3,227 ft. gain
Avg. speed: 13.7
Avg. HR = 111