Christmas Day

Dylan playing Santa

Christmas Day in ChCh, apparently raining cats and dogs in Auckland, Buggar!.  Misty rain in ChCh but looking to come right mid morning.  Yesterday I went for a swim at GC Pool, first time I swam in a pool since September/October.  Very odd, not being in a wetsuit and not so keen on constant tumble turns, got a bit dizzy!.  Anyways lasted almost 60min before I gave up in swimming over top of the old man who insisted on doing breaststroke in my lane in the fast lane.

This morning, Liza and I went for a quick run round the neighbourhood, was on the cards for yesterday.  But when Liza and I went to look after the kids it didn't go as planned, they cried the house down until their Dad came home.  Thank goodness he wasn't far away!

After our run we all meet round at the Bro's family home to see the kids open the millions of pressies Santa has left, not to mention all the gifts from their adoring Aunties and Uncles :)

I Love Xmas xxxx

My first Xmas

We love bubbles, but Liza prefers hers in a glass :)

Day One in ChCh

Bottle lake, awesome forrest track

On track with the training, yeah yeah only one day away so far, but whatever!!  This morning went for a run, was mean't to be 90min steady, but took me 202min to finish the green track then the blue track at my old hunting ground of Bottle Lake Forrest.

A good steady run today, I found out later that both Tina and Andrea had also run the track.  Thank goodness they didn't see me, no doubt they would have raced on by ...

This place brings back great memories!, many a time I have fallen over tree roots etc... as I have been dreaming about my now wife, Liza.  Also did my first Half Ironman training in these woods, used to bike for 90k and head to the Bros, and run from their home.  So often I would try to take a short cut and the first intended 60min run would turn into 2 hours as I tried to find my way home.  Should have stayed on the track!!



Bottle lake, sandy track

Super sandy today, recalled the first time I had taken Liza for a run here, so funny, moaning about the sand hills.  Of course (I said) as I pointed out that the forrest does run along the beach front.  Almost the same conversation my Bro had with his wife several years back :)

Here is the training plan over the next week ...

And the run training begins ....

City to the left and North Shore to the right

Had a fabulous ride on Thursday, awesome morning! Warm with blue skies what more could you ask for! Today was mean't to be my opportunity to 'pay it forward', just like Camp Mother did with me.  But I did a grap job!, sorry Kellie, I hope you continue to come along even if it gets you out riding on a regular basis.  And soon we hope to get Liza and a few others on board so we can get another group riding together then all meet at the cafe later to tell stories and talk rubbish :)

The happy to finish, bring on the coffee shot :)

Today (Friday) was scheduled for a sea swim only, but as per the previous blog the support committee had other ideas :).  I ran from home and meet them as planned we then did a big loop out and around Takapuna.  On the promise of a coffee at the end and the friendly encouragement I suprised myself and managed to run for a steady 2hours.  Actually it would have been 1hr 50min, if the crew hadnt taken me for a sight seeing tour of the North Shore hospital carpark! I could see the coffee shop, in fact only steps away before the ladies took a sharp right turn.  In protest I STOPPED, but fell for the old 'we wanna show you something', I can confirm the carpark is not that exciting!!

The posed running shot :)

Anyways happy to have finished and Im sure the coffee tasted better, we even managed to squeeze in some stretching, see evidence :)

See we did stretch!

A reality check

Pretty in Pink

Awesome ride this morning, we joined the Kiwivelo folks for their annual christmas ride.  As Julie mentioned, "what you do for a free breaky, ah!".  Unbeknown to us there was a slower group leaving at 5.50am, unfortunately we joined the 6am group, full of very speedy folks.  Camp Mother (CM) and I managed to hold on for the first 10k but were then promptly dropped.  Likely would have been sooner if it hadnt been for the red lights providing an opportunity to catchup. :)

Amazing there would have been at least 50 in the bunch we were in, and it looked awesome as we took over the streets in Takapuna.  Check out the kit kindly loaned by CM.  Needed to look the part!, although a little snug for my liking, had to keep sucking in the tummy. HeHe 

Unfortunately the ride time allowed Jason (Mrs J) and Julie to consult on running plans for Friday, see the email I got this morning .... with friends like these how can I not finish Ironman, so much encouragement. :)

Right Chris you have a marathon in 2 ½ months so we have a bit of work to do.

Your biking and swimming is fine but your running/walking is sh*t and needs some work !

So this Friday will be a key day to get out and run and also Saturday bike run.

You don’t have to run 2hrs on Friday but you have to be on your feet for 2hrs walk/run. 

You can walk/run to smales farm and we can meet you there and go for a 1hr 15ish-30ish  run/walk to make up to 2hrs.

I know you have a programme and I don’t want to interfere with it but you didn’t do running drills on Monday, I bet you won’t run 60mins today so you have no choice but to run on Friday! if you have to run 3hrs by 7^th Jan then you need to be running/walking 2hrs now.

So on that note we are happy to meet anytime on Friday morning.

Mrs Jason

The Social Side

Although temped :) I am believe in some situations what happens on tour stays on tour or in this case a few Christmas drinks and a BBQ.  Hehe.  Actually I just forgot to get out my camera, maybe next time. I am loving the social side, great friends and wonderful support from the people I have meet in this wonderful year of 2012.

I only wish I had meet everyone sooner as we (Liza and I) would have loved everyone to join us at our wedding in April.  Perhaps one day we can get married and there will be an opportunity to relive such a wonderful day! Sorry for the memory recall, we watched our wedding DVD the other day :)

In the beginning of this week I sent an email with my training plan for the week, and everyone has responded with offers to join me.  How wonderful!! Camp Mother has even gone to the extreme of engaging a specialist cycling coach so she can on share the new knowledge with the Quay St guys.  Thanks for that :)

We head away on Saturday, and will certainly miss everyone, but hope to come back fitter and trimmer with all the running I will be doing in those two weeks.  After all there is only 70 days to go ...........

Here is a little something from our day ..

Our Wedding Day, April 20th 2012

I see running in my future

Swim

Another weekend and another Saturday morning BRICK session. 7am at Takapuna Beach, blue skies and flat seas, how wonderful!.

In this mornings session, rather than splitting everyone into groups at the beginning we swam to bouy one and back, then groups were selected as you arrived on shore.  Mean't you were in the group of your ability rather then trying to guess.  Great!.

As we were practicing pack and draft swiming I was thinking of my niece Caitlin and her experience last month in a triathlon where she was smacked in the head and ended up at A&E having xrays.  Same expereince for me today but without the hospital visit. But as mentioned before give as good as you got, and certainly achieved :)

Mrs J joined me and Yvonne for the bike, we did a quick loop (60min) around Milford, Forrest Hill, Devonport and North Head (what a view!!).  During the ride Yvonne and I got the giggles as by some miracle we managed to avoid the flying bullets from above when a few birds flew by ..... very close indeed ...

Bike

I was contented not to run off the bike today, but seems my support crew had other ideas.  I did manage to negotiate it down to a 10-15 min run, although to be honest I felt pretty good.

I met with coach during the week, she has tweaked my Christmas/Holiday program to include more running ..... with a smile she did say I could enjoy my holiday and take a break if needed ....but then also mentioned I needed to be ready for 3hour run sessions from Jan 7th.  Now given this is only a few weeks away I guess it will be running 3 to 4 times per week.  Nice!

I have included some new photos of Taupo Half, enjoy :) 

FINISH !

Recovery

I can confirm recovery is much better if you keep moving! I'm feeling great after swimming in the lake on Sunday, another swim at Takapuna beach on Monday and normal group ride on Tuesday. Although admit I have yet to go for a run :)

Work continues to be crazy stupid but I can start to see the light. And after a catch up with coach this week I know I am on track with my training so not so concerned when work overtakes, such as in the last day or so. Apparently being able to move and get to the finish line with cramp in both the front and back of both legs was good mental training, although I'm not convinced it is a motivator for March 2nd!

The ride to Coromandel which Camp Mother has coordinated has taken on a life of its own. Apparently now a devoted blog on the NZ Cyclists site. And now not only a ride down from Auckland but an entire weekend of riding in the Coromandel. Awesome! Well done .CM