6 down, 6 to go....

Easter Sunday we were not only treated to some time off our pins, a leisurely coffee with friends Bryn, Zsu and the main man, their little man Levente but the Easter Bunny visited too. This Easter Bunny must know Ben and I very well!!!! Amongst our hidden treats were dark chocolate eggs, his favorite and some figs my favorite when I am craving a sweet hit. Ben and I did an egg hunt for Russ and Marg, true to form we made them work for it, i.e. burn some calories but they were rewarded. Clues and small teaser eggs lead them inside, outside, upstairs and downstairs until they found their heist chocolate Easter bunnies, blue for boy and gold for girl!!

Monday we were in the pool early for a swim analysis session where the video camera reveals warts and all. By that I mean there is no hiding from it, we do not have warts! This technology is fantastic, allowing the swimmer to see exactly what you are doing right but more to the point wrong. The underwater camera films your every move then you watch the recording on the laptop right there and then, there is no hiding from Big Brother!! This session was great for both Ben and I in our quest to become “fish” in the pool. The remaining 2 disciplines that make up a triathlon monopolized our time for the remainder of the day.

The working week, Tues to Fri I was bombarded with long training days, 6 to 7 hours of training per day is no longer classed as a one off or two off!! Exhausted and bed by 8.30pm are going hand in hand with our l l o o o n n n n g g g g g days!! If you are wondering what the h**l we do to fill a day with up to 7 hours of training, grab a pen and paper and get scribbling!!!:

Run 1 hour, Swim 5k up to 2 hours in the pool, Bike hilly 4 hour ride
Or
6 hour brick session: Bike 5 hours, 150k which include above race pace 15k time trial efforts, which means moving my leg as fast as they can turn, teeth start to show, indicative of the effort!! Followed by an hour run of efforts, yes you have guessed it, they too are at an elevated heart rate level. 1 hour swim.

There was little let up over the weekend training kept testing me. 5k swim, 4 hour hilly ride, 10x1mile repeats up and down the beach, just shy of panting pace were amongst the treats Ben had in store for us! Monday we were very lucky to have a willing, accommodating and very punctual taxi service available to us, Ben’s mum and dad. We hit the road at 6.30am on our bikes, destination Yamba about 150k’s away on a very beautiful route which included a short ferry crossing. What a way to celebrate being away for 6months hey!?!?

Parents were left with a handwritten note detailing a time and meeting point for T2. Literally as the clock would be striking 12.30pm our ETA, we rode up Yamba high street to be greeted by Russ and Marg. No prizes for guessing what we did here, quick change (on the road side!) into another lycra strip trainers on and we were off for a 40 min trot. That’s another day with nearly 7 hours of training done. Bikes packed, few calories consumed, we were back with our chauffeurs being whisked home for yet needed more calories. A quick coffee / caffeine pit stop was made to the delight of driver and passengers.







This week we put some final touches to our next big road trip, the one North to Cairns for our BIG day out!! On route from Coff’s to Cairns we will be stopping at Yeppoon and Bowen to break the journey up and keep the training ticking over. A 4 night stay in cabins have been booked for Yeppoon, they look so cute and a 3 night stay in Bowen, Garden View apartment this time.

In the last blog I talked of wall to wall sunshine, it has been somewhat more disrupted this week with some heavy down pours and cooler temperatures, notably overnight. The cooler air temperatures mean swimming in the outside pool is sorting the men from the boys!! Not sure which camp we fall into, I will leave that up to you!? For reference, we have either been in the inside, heated 25m pool or outside, in the 50m pool with our wetsuits on! For what it is worth the “sensible” camp is what I earnestly believe we should be pigeon holed in to!

I have been dipping in and out of the blog over the past few days, rest day today which means some energy to tap away and get this complete. Although a rest day we did sneak in over an hour of conditioning (no hair treatments!!), bottom, ab's and so on strengthening exercises, push, squeeze, clench got the picture, as i am not putting a picture up!!!

Ben looks like he is about to grab 40 winks, before he does i must strike with the WD40 our bikes need a clean and some TLC. We will be back with another update once we have smashed ourselves again, eaten enough food to feed a small army and hopefully taken the locals down in the last of the season Coff's tri club race!

April Fool's and Easter Weekend

BIG training weekend (Sat 31st March and Sun 1st April) was not just a threat but promised!! It was not an April Fool’s Joke either, unless was it and I just fell for it hook, line and sinker!?! The April Fool’s Training Weekend comprised of an undulating 120km time trial on the bikes followed by 5x 7min run efforts at race pace on the beach Saturday. Despite the alarm going off at 4.30am and getting on the bikes at first light by the time we were were running it was scorchio! Sat afternoon I had the energy to do just about nothing, well nothing more physical than watching the box, eating and drinking a cup of tea.

Sunday the alarm went off again at 4.30am, before training we were “on duty” for the Coff’s Tri Club fortnightly Sunday races. Each club race there has to be a certain number of members present as volunteer helpers. Ben had to make sure corners were not cut when the athletes were mounting and dismounting their bikes, I had to usher any wayward athletes back on route and over the timing mats. It was fun to be spectating and supporting as opposed to sweating on this occasion!!!

Duty over it was our turn to raise the heart rate, long run on the agenda! By long run I mean in the region of 2hours 25 mins, Ben notched up just shy of 30k in that time and I plodded for just over 25km. Sunday afternoon was all about being horizontal with “Lords of the Rings” on dvd to ensure we rested!

Hard swim Monday morning (amongst others) was the last tough session before a well-earned day off Tues. Time out Tues was here, yippeeeeeeeeeeee!! Morning coffee at Sapphire Beach before our Jazzie car had a well over due wash. I got to be the “pin-up” girl in the afternoon!?! Just for clarity I accompanied Ben and Russell to the golf course for a relaxing 9 holes. Both boys did themselves proud with some stella shots, Russ nearly got a hole in one on the 3rd hole a par 3. Ben has not lost his touch driving the ball and smacks the ball straight down the fairway. For those not in the know, before his lycra days of triathlons, Ben was somewhat handy with a set of sticks and played off a handicap of 5 when he was 16 / 17 years old. I was also given a ball and 8 iron to start practising my swing! I few divots of turf were sent flying before I got the swing of things and lofted my ball through the air! Looking forward to sharing a bucket of balls at the driving range when we next have some time out.

No rest for the wicked or not much we were soon back in the pool, on the bike and on the pegs. Lots of 50m sprints in the pool, hard gearing efforts on the bike and running hill reps have kept me pretty exhausted over the past few days!

Good Friday I did the traditional thing and re-fuelled after our 4 hour plus session with a hot cross bun! Easter will not be about training and chocolate eggs (or religion) but training and the golf. It is that time of year when the US Masters is on. With golf fans in the shape of Webeck junior and senior I doubt I will miss many shots in the player’s quest for the coveted “Green Jacket”! Russell has also hooked up and worked out how his toy works to record programmed in TV, no chance of missing a shot now and even better it can be watched when suits as opposed to the alarm going off even earlier to catch the golf before training. Would that make me a GWAG!?!

I laughed to myself this morning, (yes in front of the golf at about 6am) when Ben was giving instructions on pace and distance for our run, “just 20k this morning, our long run this week is on Thurs”, he explained. I laughed at the fact a 20k run is no longer classed as our long run! In case you are wondering on the pace of our run, it was a ramp one which means the 2nd half is faster than the first 10k with k’s 10-20 getting quicker.

Being British I must stay true to form and talk about the weather! I promise I am not rubbing it in, I am just living up to our reputation……we are currently enjoying wall to wall sunshine at the moment. Just like at home over the past few summers, we too in Aus are experiencing an Indian Summer. With the rain at bay Aus is now living up to its reputation of being sunny on a daily basis. With great weather what else would we be doing tonight except chucking some meat on the Barbie!

Talking of food, I will not go in to detail of just how many calories Ben can consume now the volume of training is starting to peak, let’s just say a food drip would come in handy! I digressed ..… what I was going to comment on is the meals Ben’s mum, Marg, continues to whip up daily. We have been here nearly 4 months and I have yet to class a single meal as simple!! Ben and I do turn our hands to cooking but there are 3 principles we stick to:

1) No recipe book
2) Prep time does not exceed 15 mins, and
3) No more than 2 pans are used to minimise clearing / washing up!

There is one of my favourite salads on the table tonight, I won’t share the details as no doubt I will try and whip it up when back at home and try and claim it’s one of mine! No one will believe me, well those who are in the know re my “lack of” culinary skills!

3 min bell to dinner has just gone, do not want to be late for my fav salad! So on that note bloggers, bon appetite pour nous a bientot pour vous!