Nostalgia shot

We’ve just had our new fridge delivered, and it made me remember this photo from this post.

That fridge got left behind when I left the old house (and life) behind. I don’t like my chances of talking Jake into posing for another shot like this.

I spoke to him a couple of days ago when he was in Amsterdam (and I don’t even want to think about what he was getting up to). He is ambivalent about coming home – excited to be seeing everyone, but worried that it’s all going to feel strange and flat.

He has not yet really had to face the fact of his parents separating, which happened just after he left in April last year. That may take some getting his head around.

He’s not met Craig yet either, although he did work with one of his sons briefly. Mind you, I think Craig is more worried about this meeting than Jake is.

So, things are feeling a bit unsettled, but I’m sure it will be fine. Jake is not the sort to make trouble where it doesn’t exist and all he wants is for us to be happy. And happy is something that I certainly am; whether Mark is or not is none of my concern.

Anyway, my boy is coming home and that’s just too cool for words!

See how far my bottom lip sticks out?

Not my most successful effort, the duathlon.

I was having real doubts about my ability to do the second (5km) run, but was happy to walk parts of it if I needed to, despite my earlier NO WALKING resolve.

What I didn’t expect was to strike trouble on the ride. It has always been my strongest discipline, and having done the 50km recently I was feeling fine about it. Maybe that was my downfall?

It was a very windy day on Sunday – gusting over 80km/hour on the course. So the first run was very tough, with some vile headwinds. In fact I even had to walk parts of that – I could walk just as fast as I could run in those conditions.

But the ride REALLY hurt. I was trying to keep my speed over 25km/hour on average, and it was probably too big a task in the wind. By about 12km I was getting cramp in my right thigh and it just kept getting worse. By the end of the 20km the upper leg was cramped solid and I just COULDN’T walk or run it off.

So, I made it about 1km into the second run and then pulled out.

DNF. Shit!

I spent the afternoon parked on the couch watching movies and sulking.

But, of course, I’m over it now.

I think there were a number of contributing factors. I spent the week on antibiotics because of a kidney infection – which also meant I hardly trained at all. I didn’t adjust my expectations to the weather conditions. And – I think this is the biggie – I listened to my own negative self talk. And, really, I just wasn’t prepared for the distance. I’m not a strong runner and the mental toughness to push through the challenge wasn’t there.

End of self-analysis, time to move on.

From now till Christmas I’ll focus on fitness for weight loss, so keeping my cardio load quite high. Then in the New Year – train for a short duathlon on 18 January (2.5km/15km/2.5km) and hit the medium duathlon again on 8 February.

Then I have a really big challenge planned, but more on that later…

Just stuff...

Well, our general election may not have been as high profile nor as exciting as the American presidential race, but it has been an interesting weekend.

I thought Helen’s concession speech was wonderful, but could everyone please stop talking about her as if she died? All her opponents who have been unable to utter a good word about her for years are suddenly offering up glowing tributes.

Still, sincerity never had any place in politics…

Less than a week till the duathlon now. I’m mostly excited about it, but have moments of questioning my sanity. I have reached the conclusion that I always need an event or specific activity to aim and train for. It helps me so much with my focus and I really enjoy feeling myself improving and getting fitter.

Speaking of looking forward to things – just a few weeks now till Jake gets home. I’ve been getting texts from lots of different countries lately – I gave him a three week Contiki tour for his 20th birthday, so he’s having a last blast around Europe before heading back to NZ. Oh, and he’s having a week staying with friends in Greece as well!

Having my boy home is definitely going to be the best Xmas pressie.

Motivation Monday

Well, who's been a slack tart then!

What's motivating me today? The great bunch of people I work with!

We had a training brick at our place yesterday - 1km run/10km ride/2km run - with the eight of us who are doing the duathlon together in TWO WEEKS (!!!!!). Then we had a BBQ brunch, along with the various partners, kids, dogs, etc.

I looked around at this diverse group of people and just found it completely motivating. The duathletes range from 32 to 50 in age, come from all walks of life and have varying sports backgrounds from former NZ representatives (women's cricket) to never having done an event in their lives.

And here we all are, with a common goal. Two of them are now talking about going on to do a marathon in the next 18 months, one is trying to get back the fitness he's lost in the 10 years since giving up competitive sport, one is so fit he does this sort of thing for a blast - and we're all in this together, helping, advising, competing a little, and having some really great fun along the way.

It's been a neat way to get my groove on again.