Farewell and good riddance 2014

I have spent a fair amount of time contemplating this little spot on the internet, as life got hard this year my blog was the first thing to go, followed quickly by my sanity! (you think I am joking but it got close there sometimes).

However, as many people do while contemplating a new year dawning, with all the hopes, dreams and possibilities it holds I am hoping there are some pretty awesome gems for my family, and I would love to document them, so fingers crossed I can start to write here regularly again.

This year Otto starts prep, I have three more triathlons to complete and a few other as yet undecided events that I would like to compete and secure some PB's.  It is my last year with Hugo home full time and I am determined to enjoy and embrace each experience, the years are flying and I am learning to take each day as it comes.

So with the final day of this bad year dawning I set my alarm to run before work along the river, a favourite place of mine.  The only drawback being the consistent and ever so familiar pain under my diaphragm.  I can't even begin to explain what it was like to wake up and have that pain, after all the injections, hot flushes, mood swings, vagueness, insomnia and worry throughout my treatment, it didn't work.  The old pain was back and I was pissed off, both at my body and at the timing, how dare this "thing" come and ruin the last day of the year, remind me of how scary and painful some of these months were and how much I paid personally for it, but I am nothing if not stubborn and "ran" (jogged) anyway.

The pain would increase whenever I tried to run faster so I kept it at a slow and steady pace, sometimes smiling, sometimes holding back the tears, but I was determined that a disease which has taken so much from me this year would not take my one saviour, my one driving force (other than my family) which got me through some hard and horrible weeks.  The ability to run, to fill my lungs with air and clear my head, to tell me that no matter how hard it felt, how much it hurt I would be ok. So I did it, laced up those shoes and ran anyway.

It was a hot and humid morning, even at 6am but running along here is always my happy place, usually a rare moment when I get to run without the boys, and feel a part of the community of fellow exercisers with wave, nod and smile as we pass each other, drawing our own strengths to face our individual challenges from the sweat running down our cheeks.

So farewell 2014, you have taught me so much about myself, what and who is important in my life and a strength I didn't know I had, but kindly leave now and let me move on.  There are bigger and better things waiting for me and I am going to grab them, with both hands and hold on tight for whatever comes my way, because I know I can do it.

Happy New Year from 3/4 of us, we wish all our friends and family the happiest and most loved 2015.

The week that was.

This week has been a bit of a quiet training week, after last week my legs needed some rest, I had a few back to back hard training sessions both in the pool and on land and by Sunday night I was taking myself to bed just after the kids went down!

Monday "brick" session is going well, after doing swim squad I hit the bike track circling the swimming complex while Hugo is in kids club and waves to me each time I pass, I need to start doing some more interval training on this day but for right now my aim is to run negative splits as close to race pace as I can, so far I am finding this pretty good.

I know that soon I need to start incorporating more strength workouts into my weekly routine, I find especially with swimming that my upper body and core strength are really letting me down so I am hoping that I will start to do that on either a Tuesday or Thursday night but as yet I haven't found the motivation to do anything except research them!

Tuesday Hugo and I usually head out to do something together after riding with Otto to kindy.  A group of friends usually meet at a library for rhyme time and coffee but I had yet to work out how to manage that on the bike without a pram for Hugo once we got there.  This week I had my light bulb moment and had a great time chatting and riding with Hugo the whole way there.  Our set up got a few comments but it worked for us and allowed Hugo a much nicer spot to nap on the way home.

The extra weight of the carriage on the back certainly added to my resistance and while it isn't a long ride, I certainly felt it on the way home!

Wednesday is usually a run day but my whole day got mucked around this week so nothing really happened.

Friday was back to swim squad and I was proud to be able to keep up with other women that were well out of my reach even a few months ago while sprinting off the blocks.  It is nice to see some improvement after swimming during the colder months when it would have been much nicer to stick at home and cuddle with the boys.

This morning was park run, and while it wasn't a PB, this run was the first time I really noticed my strength improving.  When I first started I guessed my pace to be sitting around the 5:30/km pace as that is what it felt like, imagine my surprise when I was actually sitting around the 5:06/km pace, for the first 3 km, slowing down as always for the hills and incline towards the finish line.

I hate that hill in the picture, it is within the final 2km's and from here on there is a slight incline almost the whole way to the end!

Tomorrow is Father's day, so no training tomorrow, just celebrating the wonderful man that supports and sustains us, and helps me to reach my goals in life.

An update.

So I have been missing in action for a while now, for no good reason in particular except that I haven't felt like writing here, life gets like that I suppose.  

Training has started in earnest for the triathlon season of 2014-15, I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous by the prospect, having spent a good amount of money on gear, coaching and racing I am keen to make it all worthwhile.

My first race is actually next month doing the Bribie Island series, it is a shorter course than the olympic distance and a great place to practice before the Kingscliff Triathlon in November.  In total I will be doing 4 short course triathlons and 2 olympic distance events between October and March!

It is certainly going to be an interesting summer.

I am hoping to come back here a bit more regularly in the future to keep a good log of my training and race performance throughout the season, and of course I have to update the half marathon and duathlon results, but for now, my training weary body is going to bed.

Half marathon eve.

Well tomorrow is the day, I am excited and nervous all at once to get this half marathon under way, unlike last time I know how much pain this will bring but I also know how amazing it will feel to finish.

This time my goals are a little different, my time at the twighlight half marathon in March was 2 hours 8 minutes, this time I am really hoping to better that time.

Achievable goal:  2hrs
Hopeful goal: 1hr 55min
Would love to goal: 1hour 50min

My "would love to goal"  is probably wishful thinking, but it would feel amazing if I could manage it, I am pretty sure that it is unattainable and I haven't done enough training to get there but you never know what could happen on race day!  My plan is to run with the pacer for 1hr 50min for as long as I can, but hopefully not dropping back any further than the 1hr 55min pacer to ensure that I can cross the line in that time.

I am off now to enjoy a quiet day with Han as the boys are having a sleep over and rest while enjoying as many carbs as I like.

Oh hi!

My poor neglected blog, while it hasn't been far from my thoughts for the last month I just haven't managed a time to keep it updated.  Hugo has taken his poor sleeping record and shown me just how bad it can get lately, with multiple wakings resulting in about 4 hours sleep on a bad night, or 6 hours sleep on a good night!  I have been so exhausted that keeping up with anything that isn't imperative to survival (or limited training) has been dropped in favour of sleep, or at least tuning out to the television, while I wait for the cries that tell me I need to re settle again and again and again.  The last few nights however have been a little better, we got a bit tougher with him over the weekend and it seems to be paying off, so my fingers are crossed that I might soon enjoy a good nights sleep again.

Throughout this time I have had to cut back on some training, it just hasn't been as easy to head out in the cold with two kids in the pram while I have been so exhausted.  I am still doing as much as possible, however it has left me feeling very under prepared for the half marathon in 10 days!

I did get some encouragement recently when I smashed a PB during a park run by a long shot, I still can't believe I managed it with both kids in the pram, this time last year I would never have dreamed it was possible.

10 days to go!  Can I bring it in under 2 hours?  Fingers are crossed.

5 Random things.

1.

I have added a few new favourite songs to my running playlist, but easily my favourite one at the moment is 'Super Love'.  I don't keep up with many artists these days, maybe it is an age thing, or the fact that I listen to a crazy amount of children's music but I am fairly unapologetic about what I love, even if it is cheesy and over produced, if it gets me moving then it works for me.

2.  

I am having enough hot flushes lately to heat our house, I am over it, sick to death of constantly peeling layers off to cool down and then piling them back on again when I am freezing and of course with skin like mine I also go a lovely shade of beetroot.  However Friday marks the halfway point and if I wasn't working I would consider champagne!

3. 

The boys have been hilarious lately, Hugo is demanding but endearing, his current obsession of trains and rubbish trucks is reaching fever point and he often sobs like his world is ending if either are out of his sight for very long.  Otto has discovered words like "hypothesis" and "experiment" and would like to conduct science experiments of increasing danger to test them out.

4.

I am counting down sleeps until this weekend when I get to go away for my first ever girls weekend with my book club since having children, the excitement is reaching fever pitch.

5.

GO AND MAKE THIS

And yes, I really am screaming that.

City2South.

Yesterday at 5am my alarm went off, usually on a race day I am out of bed like a shot ready to get dressed and in the car full of enthusiasm, but yesterday I just couldn't muster it, for some reason I snoozed the alarm and tried to forget about it, eventually I hauled myself out of bed and got ready to go.  I still can't explain why I was so apathetic about it but the feeling continued right up until the second km, I am pleased that I eventually got my head out of whatever funk it was in but it wasn't the most fun way to start a race.

The course is a stunning route showing off the best of the inner city area that we are blessed to have, lots of views of the river with a few killer hills right at the end that had me swearing in disbelief, I got up them well enough but coming back down was a bit terrifying, I still need to work on that.

I ran as part of a corporate team with my work so was looking out for any other similar shirts, sadly I didn't see any while running but it was great to have a meet up at the tent once the race was done with a yummy breakfast waiting for us.  

Overall this is a great run, a very well organised event in a great part of the city at a time when we usually enjoy wonderful weather so I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a challenge next year.  I am happy because with a time of 1hr 13min I have secured myself a spot in the red zone next year, which is right at the front meaning that I will be pushed to go even faster surrounded by all those speedy people.

This was a great training run for the half marathon in a few weeks, and the fact that I could maintain a 5:13/km pace has me really hopeful that I will get my goal of coming in under 2 hours.  Now I just keep my training on schedule, and with an active recovery swim this morning I am right on schedule!

 What started as a hard race finished as a triumph, and you can't ask for much better than that.