Love is grande, congrats Dave & Sue 25 years!

Hey all,

Firstly, congratulations to Sue and David Laidlaw who celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary tomorrow (wednesday 24th Feb)! We had a very fun Saturday night partying with them, pics later in the post…

Last week felt a lot easier, not sure if this meant I am getting fitter or I was just being a bit slack in my sessions? But i just wasn’t as weary – yay!

Monday was glorious rest day, after a big weekend and a semi meltdown Sunday afternoon, I was a new person on Monday! Especially when Sean took me out to dinner at Balthazar and dessert at the new San Churro in Subiaco (omg, you must try it, delicious).

Tuesday morning it was mystery ride again and Sue took me down to the South Perth Rollers ride. They were a great bunch, very friendly, consistent pace and we really enjoyed it. They even waited up if people got dropped? Wow, this is what a group ride should be! Will definitely go back. Got in about 50km with a solid average about 31kph.

Tuesday pm is always my most dreaded session! Long run. We had 80 minutes to complete today and i was already tired but i met Sue and we conquered it anyway. A big lap around Kings Park followed by extra minutes to Jo Jos cafe to get in our minutes wasn’t as bad as i’d thought it would be. Gu Chomps and good chats made it a lot easier, but still glad to have it done! I think we got in about 15km? Sean cooked dinner tonight as per my instructions and he nailed it!

Wednesday am A fairly nice and easy swim squad with Tanhem squad as they were gearing up for the Rotto swim. I made sure i got in 3km and there was a few hard 100s in there. The guys were flying, they will be so fast on Saturday!

Wednesday pm No training! Movies with Clare and Nathan, saw Valentine’s Day and honestly, it was just “meh”, not as good as i thought it would be and certainly not in the same class as Love Actually. But I am definitely going to see “Dear John” in the near future, looks totally up my alley! Fun night )

Thursday am and pm 53km cycle with Narrows this morning, not too hard although there were a few fast sections. Had a massage in lunch break, so running tonight was just 5km with a few pick ups as per coach Robyn’s instructions. I actually felt quite good doing this and Robyn said my legs would thank me later! Hopefully they do, ungrateful little things that they are ;o)

Friday am was kind of a walk in the park, because the Rotto guys were just there to turn there arms over. We did a swift 2.1km before jumping out for an early breakfast, which was fun as per usual! Even Sean came because we went so early and I dropped him into work. What a fun start to the day!

Saturday am was a big session, we had a 70km ride with a 20 min run off the bike planned. Ended up with 71km (I know, total overachiever, don’t hate) which only 4 of the group finished! Sue, David, YaYa and I did some solid turns and i was pretty stuffed by the end, but still had to do a 20 minute run. And Sean was already at Atomic waiting for us! But somehow we got ourselves together and ran a smidge over 20 minutes before settling in for a well-deserved coffee and muffin at Atomic. The 20 minute run actually felt very comfortable – could i possibly be improving at the ole running? I won’t count my chickens or anything, but I’m hopeful!

Saturday night was where the action was at! I didn’t train Sunday, although i had a planned run as i set off on run and foot was sore, so i feel the need to nurture the plantar fascia band til next run on tuesday. So I’ll finish with some pics from Saturday night, Sue and David’s 25th wedding anniversary party!

See y’all next week after the Albany race! Sean and I are going down with half the Stadium tri club so hopefully we’ll see a few podiums from the gang! Good luck everyone racing and best of luck to all the lovely ladies giving the women’s tri a go this Sunday! Just enjoy it!!

Lisa xo

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Karri Valley, week of hell, Hillarys

Hello all! Long time no speak, i aim to make amends!

Karri Valley Triathlon 2010 has been run and won, thankfully by husbando once again – yahoo! But he can tell y’all about that coz i want some time in the sun!

My first triathlon for the season and i had low expectations. My bike had been terrible in weeks leading up to the race despite putting in a lot of effort. I may have even been reduced to a few self-pitying tears at the end of one particularly painful ride. What was wrong, who was to blame – back, legs, bike, Sean? Turns out – me!

Peoples, if you’re having a harder time than usual on your bike and you don’t know why, learn from my mistakes and check your tyres. Yup, 60 psi is apparently not the best for fast cycling. Dang. But the upside – once Sean pumped them up to 110-120 psi it was like God himself kissed my legs and willed them to be strong and fast (relative to previous strength and speed, i did not morph into Lance Armstrong or the female version of the great man).

So Karri Valley race report – swim was very good, managed to take first out of the water from some pretty handy swimmers before being passed just before transition. Headed out onto the bike in 2nd place and felt ready to take the pain. But amazingly, with pumped tyres this time I actually felt like i conquered the Karri Valley bike course. I still got passed by about 5 or 6 speedy ladies but no matter, i still felt good! The run started off a little hazy but i soon found my legs and felt really comfortable trotting around the trails. Nice big smiles for fellow competitors! Hello! High five! Weeeee!

And then i finished and got really happy because i managed to win my age group, yewwww! Kicking back with everyone after the race at the KV cabins is always lots of fun and party at the bar was fun too (not as much goss as usual, but still fun, guess the crowd is maturing a little).

The past week Sue and I embarked on our first week of 12 programmed weeks leading up to the Half. And did it ever hurt. Monday was rest day and we had dinner at the Laidlaws – vegetarian so Sean thought he might possibly starve, but turns out he survived the ordeal.

Tuesday am we rode with Bulldog’s Floreat group and we kept up! Marvellous pumped up tyres, how i love thee. Ended up with a smoking hot average (33.3kph) and we were happy chappies. Tuesday pm was long run and we went along to Matilda Bay for Stadium’s mob run which was tough. Sue and I had 70 minutes to knock off and we did ok but the 35 min turn around point couldn’t have come soon enough. Lots of chatting helped us get home!

Wednesday am swim squad with the Tanhem guys but i was lacking lustre unfortunately. Kept trying but body was exhausted from previous day’s efforts i think. Rest tonight, hurrah!

Thursday am 60km cycle with the Narrows group which was pretty good. The group is kind of erratic so we’re looking at other groups to hang out with at the mo. Sad because we have lots of good buds on the ride, but too many randoms doing dangerous shizz.

Thursday pm Robyn’s interval running with the ladies. This was a hard session and Robyn added the mental challenge of not telling us the whole session straight up. We started with a 1.5km warm up then drills, then we sunk our teeth into 4 x 800s on 4mins30. I felt quite good and found myself in an unfamiliar position – at the front! Then we had 4 x 200s where my pace didn’t change so i was a bit behind before Robyn revealed the killer – 4 more 800s. Nooooooo!!! I wasn’t prepared and there was  nowhere to hide, i had already laid out my cards in the first round. Fortunately the 3 other ladies i ran with were in the same boat and we begged for mercy. Robyn is a tough woman, but fair (or maybe she just got sick of us carrying on, who knows?) and she let us off one – so 3 x 800s finished the session. Then i went home and collapsed where Sean had started the dinner, i love him.

Friday am This morning led me to question what i knew about the world when Peter declared a 1km time trial on a Friday. Say what?! Friday is for fun, frivolous sessions where we frolick and flounder if we have nothing else! And it’s really all about the coffee at the end. Then i saw Bulldog arrive and this made me laugh, sucker. First session with us and he gets a time trial! But turns out he was my partner-in-crime, revolting against the Friday wrong-doing. We put our fins on and cruised through the 1km.

Friday pm was supposed to be rest but it ended up being party town at Rod’s 40th. Sean had a couple of cocktails and could have been anybody’s, while i had one and still felt a little woozy. Rod knows how to throw a party! Reasonably late night, which i knew had the potential to hurt me for the rest of the weekend. It did.

Saturday am was long ride time. I was going to get in a longer warm up before hand but felt like death when i woke up so headed straight down to Narrows to meet the gang. I left a crumpled Sean in bed, although apparently he did get up which shows nerve of steel! Sue and David were both there and we set off around the river before a small group of us carried on for the Shelley loop. The Shelley loop was brilliant, rolling turns very smoothly and it was a good solid ride. 75km hard in the tank and i was stuffed for the rest of the day. Went along to coach the women’s tri course at Hillarys which was good fun and hopefully imparted some sort of wisdom upon them!

Saturday night was my little cousin’s 11th bday party… soooo cute she just had a couple friends, us and my aunt and uncle out for dinner before they went to some fireworks display at Scarborough. Here is an adorable pic of when the staff switch off some lights, cranked up “Hap-py birthday to ya, happy birthday” and the whole restaurant clapped and sang. Was she a little embarrassed? Yup, we were all in hysterics it was hilarious. Here she is giggling and blushing madly, gorgeous no?

And to prove we were in on the fun, here’s my gorgeous aunt and i…And the Hillary’s race the next morning??? After a massive training week, i knew not to expect much but i still wanted to take my age group out. So I got stuck into the swim and had a fairly good start, although not much spark. Bike was really tough, my legs were screaming but i managed to push through the pain because I knew my mum, stepdad and dog Oscar were there cheering and I couldn’t let them down! I got off the bike in reasonable shape and still leading age group. Run honestly felt ok, but i was weary and it was hot. My time was nearly 2 mins slower than the run section from last year, so obviously my weariness was worse than i though. I also got passed by two 25-29 competitors in the final couple km of the run which was a bummer. I know i would have won if i was tapered, but hey, end goal is the half ironman and it was a training race so i can’t get down about it. There’s still 11 weeks to go! Big week and Sunday afternoon i was pretty much a mess and needed to lie down and sleep. Sean was lovely and very understanding, but sometimes it all gets a bit much and the only thing to do is hit the sack.

Later on Sunday night we went to Moonlight Cinemas with a picnic (i made chocolate mousse! it was a flop, more like chocolate ganache) and watched New York, I love you. Neither of us liked it, it was very kooky, lots of little stories that weren’t connected and didn’t stand up alone. But it was really nice on a hot night to be in the middle of Kings Park with yummy food and my love. And Clare made us cute cupcakes! The Red Fox is a gem.

Happy training and see you all in a week or so! xo

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City of Perth pics

Hello blog friends!!

Sorry i haven’t been around, but the good news is – it’s because i’ve been training my ass off! More on that in the next post… for now check out the race that was and the “excitement machine” who rocks my world. If anyone else was there watching, the second lap of the run was where it was at. Kenji had a sensational race, but when Sean came around on lap 2 and I saw him smiling and looking so comfortable, i knew Kenji would have to pull out something special to beat him. Luckily for us and Team O’Neill, he didn’t and Sean’s experience and strength saw another fantastic win. In pictures…

Congrats to all who competed, it wasn’t as big as last year but just as exciting! Great perfomances. See you all at Hillarys this weekend for round 3! My first Trievents race of the season, i’m pumped! Let’s hope for a three from three for Sean, should be exciting.

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