Oh Shiiiiite!!!

I went out for a half hour run today and dragged, yes dragged, my roomie Cam out too. Do we all remember Cam? He's my coworker/buddy/roomie who quit smoking and took up running in August? And then I went away to IMC and while not under my keen eye....he stopped running and started smoking again. Sigh...Bad Cam, Bad!!!

Anyways, he says he wants to quit and enjoyed running so I figured I'd take him out to the trails as it's beautiful running in there and a good motivator! The first part was along a rock pathway up to the Ranchehouse. Then up some hilly bits. I don't think Cam liked that part...however, I was in my element!

As I always mention, I get an extra bounce in my step when trail running. I thrive off of trail running!!

Today that extra bounce came in handy...

As I was leaping down some rather steep, sort of stairs, of varying height and depth, made with dirt one wood plank and railway ties...my foot/shoe got caught on one of said railway ties....as I was in mid leap... Did I mention how steep this section is??? Or that I was sideways mid leap when this occurred!! I have no idea how I didn't take a nose dive. If I did I would have dropped about four feet. However, I somehow landed with one foot sort of on the next step down, managed to unhook my foot at the same time then jump to the next step seeing as how I still had momentum going down. Yes, all sideways.

I'm pretty sure I was as pale as a GHOST (fitting description as it's my favourite holiday...Halloween!). A small squeak escaped my mouth as all this occurred then expletives as I retold what happened to Cam, who'd been in front of me. My entire triathlon career, if you want to call it that, flashed before my eyes! Holy crap I could have really hurt myself!!

All I can say is thank Mother Nature that I am an agile Ninja Princess with amazing reflexes!!! Those many years of martial arts definitley paid off today. Phew!!!

The rest of the run was fairly uneventful, thankfully. We ran along by the little creek, hopping over rocks, leaping over roots, sliding in mud, crunching through leaves and weaving through trees. Along the way I vaguely remember hearing Cam rambling on about lungs bleeding, smoking, cancer and what not. I chose not to acknowledge. Silly boy. Like that's going to convince me you can stop for a break. Hell no! This is what you get when you say you are going to quit smoking and start running and then while I'm away giving my all at IMC you start up again. Feel the shame Cam...feel the shame..... MUAHAHAAAAAAAAA!!!

HAPPY ALL HALLOW'S EVE!!

Drills, Drills, And More Drills!!!

It's Tuesday so you know what that means....it's swim/bike day!! When I first got in the pool to do my warmup I was out of breath really quickly. Urgh. Those few days off last week definitely didn't help even though it was needed. Rats!

Our warmup was supposed to be 75 m swim / 75 m kick....but it's me we are talking about here. As I wear earplugs, so am pretty much deaf, I heard 75 m swim with 25 m kick by 6 times. Hmmmm...I wondered why Daniella was doing something different from me. Of course I figured I was the one in the right, haha. I know, I know, one day I will learn.

One thing I did do right was KICK! Daniella is an amazing swimmer - it likely helps that she is over 6 feet tall, haha - and always kicks when swimming. Anyways, she was in front and I saw her kicking and so it reminded me to kick, kick, kick!

We did an 800 m swim with 25m scull, 50 m swim, 25 m drill. It was great as it broke up the swim and I could focus on improving my stroke. Afterwards we did the old breathing exercise and swam 400 m doing 100 m each of 3/5/7/9 stroke per breath. Phew!

Once that was done it was time to cooldown and do 100 m backstroke, and, gulp, 100 m breaststroke. I am happy to report I have made friends with the breaststroke! I kind of got it going, and it didn't feel too bad. Jen corrected me on the stroke and I think I might have it! Go figure...

Overall my swim was awesome. I could literally feel my core, back, shoulder and arm muscles totally working in synch. I loved it!!!

Tonight it was time to get on the bike. It took me a while to get set up as I brought Eleanor in. I decided to leave my road bike at the SweatLab so I don't have to drag it everywhere. In doing so though I had to change up my trainer to fit the 650 tire and change my rear tire so my race tire wasn't on. This was a bit of a painstaking procedure....but with the assistance of IronGreg and Dale I got it done. (I swear I thought I knew the easy way of changing a tire...apparantly not!) Thanks guys!

The drill tonight was a warm up with one legged spinning and high spins, then we got into the pyramid. We did three sets of 90, 100, 90, 110, 90, 120, then back down. It was an awesome workout. I really focused on my pedalling and made sure I wasn't getting hung up at the top. I also focused on my core. I have been trying to do that with all my bike sessions and I am starting to feel the payoff. Now I just have to work on maintaining even power over a long period of time. IronGreg assures me that this WILL happen over time as long as I keep doing what I'm doing.

It better...cause I already have a bike time in my head for Ironman Coeur d'Alene!!

In Honour Of Austin...

As I was still fatigued last night I decided I would do a shorter run today and keep it under 1.5 hours. Tricia and I started out together, but as I crossed the street from the coffee shop, where we started, I realized she was no longer beside me! When I turned to see where she was, I could see she had turned around to greet our friend Paddy, who had arrived a smidge late.

I turned around and ran over to meet both of them and tease Paddy about her tardiness. As I got closer to Paddy and the car I realized something wasn't right. Paddy was visibly upset and about to leave. Tricia and I asked what was wrong as she was completely sobbing now - and we learned that Paddy and her family had to put down their beloved dog, Austin. We both gave Paddy a big hug and let her cry for a while. It was truly heartbreaking.

I have to say, I loved that dog. He was this HUGE Malamute who was 15 years old - and in my opinion a 10 out of 10 on the hugability scale. The last few years had taken their toll on the big guy and he could no longer walk and had stopped eating. So the family made a hard decision.

As a pet owner I understand how upset Paddy was. Losing a four legged friend is as painful as losing a two legged one. Non petowners wouldn't understand I don't think.

Tricia and I convinced Paddy to come for a run anyways so she'd be with friends and could talk about what happened. I tried to make Paddy laugh by assuring her, when she commented that she looked like crap, that she is a triathlete and we are used to seeing her caked in sweat and snot. I also assured her that the fact she was all congested from the crying would work her cardio system harder, which was a good thing. She put on a brave face and off we went.

We decided to run to Fosters as it is a shorter run and through the trails, so a peacful run too. As we ran Paddy was able to tell us all that had happened during the week. As we went along I could tell she was feeling a little bit better with each step. The more we ran the more the topics shifted and it began to feel like a normal Saturday run.

We ended up running about 1:15 hours. It was a nice pace and I think Paddy felt much better afterwards. When we got back to the cafe and met up with the rest of the gang, I couldn't help but think what a special thing we have going on here. As a group we have supported each other through good times and bad: loss of pets, family and friends; serious illness; failed relationships; new relationships; race accomplishments and letdowns. Thankfully, there are more good times than bad and lots of things to celebrate!!

If you are ever feeling low, head on down to Guy's Cafe on Saturday to get a big group hug and be prepared to start feeling better and laughing!

To Write....Or Not To Write...

I debated long and hard about writing about my training tonight. I was kind of bummed out during my workout and wasn't sure I wanted to write about that. I kind of like the fact that usually when I write, it's upbeat and fun. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that this blog is about my triathlon adventures....and those adventures can be fun and upbeat, and sometimes they will be less so. Such is life...

I have to say it's been a rough few weeks. As I've written before, I have IBS, and it seems that with this last flair up it's finally hit home for me. I have a chronic illness and I need to get serious with it. I've been trying to learn about it for the last 17 years or so, but I'd kind of just dealt with all that came with it and didn't really get down to the nitty gritty.

I see now how much it's affecting my training and racing, and I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. IBS is a tricky one though, not everyone with IBS is the same, so really it's trial and error to see what works for me. I had tweaked my diet in the past, and it seemed to help, but I realized I had to do more. So I am. I'm now following an eating plan developed by an Ironman and ultramarathoner. It's more for peak performance and health, but the information I read in the book really made sense as far as treating my IBS. It's non processed foods: veggies, fruits, ancient grains, and lots of hemp and flaxseed, so it's supposed to be easier to digest and nutritionally nonstressful. There is no dairy, meat (although I will continue to eat fish), soy, wheat or gluten. So we'll see how it goes!

I'd been implementing this diet the last couple of weeks, and things had calmed down a wee bit, but I was still very fatigued from the symptoms I had been suffering the past while. I had tried to keep up with my training while I was dealing with all this, but it finally caught up to me this week so I took most of it off from training.

I decided to go to the SweatLab tonight though as I'd missed it last Friday. It was both a good and bad decision, haha. I was glad to go and see the gang as they are a truly great group of people. I know David quite well as he and his wife Esther are like family to me. The rest of the gang I've known to say hi to, but that's about it, so I'm enjoying getting to know them.

The course our fearless leader, Ross, had picked out was 56 km in length and hilly. Holy Hannah was it hilly! I got all set up in the computrainer, and started pedaling. I was praying my guts would hold out as I started out. If you weren't sure, IBS stands for Irritible Bowel Syndrome....let's just say it's one of the more awkward of intestinal issues one can have...

The first bit wasn't too bad. I was trying to keep up my cadence and my watts. I wasn't sure what I should be at, but Ross said I could take part in a time trial he was going to do in a couple weeks so I'd have a base watt level to work with. This would be very cool as I like to know what numbers I should be aiming for.

As I pedaled along, I could feel I was getting tired fairly fast, and with that came a feeling of frustration. On the screen we look at is everyone stats, and where they are in the little horse race....I was waaaaay in back. Normally this would not bug me, afterall, I'm still new to all this and I know I need to work on my bike skills. Heck that was why I was there! I guess though with all that had gone on the past few weeks, I wasn't mentally strong enough to keep the nasty negative feelings at bay. A dangerous place to be whether in a race or training!

I stopped looking at the horse race on the screen because I new it was bringing me down. Instead I would just glance at my watts, speed, and cadence. I was trying to play with the numbers and learn what would happened as I shifted gears and applied pressure to the pedals all while climbing up the many hills. Unfortunately, this was getting to me as well because I wasn't able to keep my watts up without slowing my cadence big time. I know this isn't what you want to do, the goal is to be able to spin at a high cadence while maintaining a steady power output.

At about 1:15 hours, I couldn't do it anymore. Both mentally and physically I was beat. I was glad the garage is kept dark (so we can see the projected screen) because I really didn't want the others to see the utter disappointment on my face. For the next 45 minutes I pedalled slowly as the others finished the course. I felt like a total knob and was embarassed as I'm new to the group and didn't want to look like a slacker. It totally sucked.

After the ride was done, Ross went down the line asking how everyone felt about the course etc. I apologized and said I could only do what I did. I was still fatigued from the last while.

You know what though? I further learned what an amazing group these people are - they were so encouraging to me and said I did a great job doing what I did. I was so thankful for that. I am not one to get into these types of moods often. In fact I've worked very hard on mental training in order to avoid these types of situations, because they are known to occur during races or training. I'm so glad though that when I did fall into the old negativity trap that I was surrounded by people that care, are upbeat and supportive.

After the workout we had a potluck dinner - I did take a wee bit of teasing for my walnut burger...actually it kind of dried out a wee bit so it was more like walnut hamburger...but it was all in good fun!

Onwards and upwards....

Even My Body Rejects The Breaststroke!!!

Back in the water I was this fine morning! The bod is pretty low on energy these days as I'm still battling all my GI issues. Is there such thing as a gut transplant cause I'm almost at wits end with this!! All the same, I love being in the pool so figured I'd give it a go and see how I feel.

So how did I feel?? Well, after the 300 m warm-up I was pooped. Not a good sign. Sigh. Ah well, I was there and going to do my best. I was thinking that maybe the soothing feel of gliding through the water would help me feel better?!

Sadly, there was to be no soothing gliding feel for a while, haha. Instead, our always encouraging and enthusiastic coach Jen wanted us to give the old breaststroke kick a try again. I promise, I tried to make her proud!! Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried my body just wanted to sink to the bottom of the pool. Well, that or get tangled up in the ropes, haha. I'm pretty sure if someone videotaped me I'd win first prize on 'America's Funniest Home Videos'.

The exercise was to hold our hands behind our backs, drop our hips by arching our backs, raise our heads out of the water, touch our feet to our hands, then propel ourselves forward with a large swooping kick of the legs. You think think that's complicated to read - TRY DOING IT!!! LOL.

I dance like Shakira for crying out loud! I have got back! I should be able to do this drop hip-arch back move and yet when I try it, I barely get my head out of the water, and my kick moves me approximately 2 mm. You think I kid?? I have witnesses! It's sad. Ever so sad. At the same time it's highly amusing for all around me. Especially when I move myself 2 mm forward, then with the next kick manage to snag myself in the ropes. I honestly have no idea how I managed it, but I did. I'm like a friggin magnet to the ropes! It's a good thing I don't embarass easily or I would have just hung out at the bottom of the pool waiting for everyone to leave, haha.

After that fun, we got the chance to put the kick together with the stroke. Gulp! I can do this! Maybe, just maybe if I have the stroke going the kick will magically happen??? Off I went to try things out, but alas, my body rejected this particular stroke. My shoulders are still weak (I'm still trying to strengthen them with weights) so when I tried to do the stroke, my shoulder would pop. Not a good thing. I told Jen about it and she was kind enough to let me do the backstroke instead. Yay! I tried to keep my enthusiasm for getting out of the breaststroke on the down-low...

Now all I had to worry about was coordinating my nose exhale with the large splash that I would create, haha.

Flip and Gack!!!

Why oh why can't the pool filter manufacture people come up with a filter that actually captures HAIR in the pool?! Seriously....

So I went to the pool this morning to practice some of what I have been learning in swim class. I decided to use one of my workouts from earlier in the year. There was a 400 m warmup with swimming and kicking. The workout was then sets of moderate and fast swimming.

I wasn't sure if the water was murky or if it was my goggles, it sure seemed murky though, and there were fairly large clumps of hair floating about. Urgh, I am dry heaving now just thinking about it. Hack, gag...

Anyways, back to the swim. In between my sets I stopped to say hullo to my friend Cynthia. I hadn't been at the pool in a couple Mondays so we had some catching up to do. I was excited to show her my semi flipturn technique. I'm not sure I can call it a full flipturn as I still don't extend my legs - my achilles tendons practically flinch at the thought of hitting the wall edge!

I should point out that Cynthia is a master of the flipturn! I showed her a couple and she was kind enough to give me some pointers to help me advance them. That said, she was quite impressed with how I was doing for just learning them! (Yes, I'm sitting here grinning ear to ear with pride, haha.) She's so nice! And no I'm not saying that cause she complimented me. LOL.

After chatting I went back to my sets and wanted to put to practice what I'd been shown. I'd done a couple laps and was nearing the wall again....I took a breathe, put my arms out, engaged my core, got into pike position and YES! I did it!! An 'as close to perfect as I will be right now' flipturn!! I was going to celebrate with the absolute perfect swim stroke, but first a breath was needed...I turned my head sideways...ever so slightly just like Jen taught me...kept half my face in the water....opened my mouth to breathe...and....that's when it happened....I could feel a hair was stretched across my mouth and nose. AAAAACKKKKK!!! BRACK, GAG, GASP! Engage hair mantra...Do not throw up in the pool...Remain calm...Do not throw up in the pool...Remain calm...

Why me?? Why always me?? If there is a hair to be found in the whole entire pool it will be I that has it stretched across her mouth and nose! Heavy sigh....ah well...at least I didn't hurl...

Finisher...

EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! The IMC Finisher jacket I ordered came in today!!! Needless to say, I'm very excited. (Jacket pictured above - quite a nice schnoz shot too! haha. Yes, that's the dutch in me!) I have to tell you though, it took me a long time before I actually ordered it. I wasn't sure if I should because of the huge FINISHER letters on the back. Thought it might be too 'in your face'. Then I thought, hey, I friggin finished and I'm darned proud of it, haha. So I ordered it. It's actually a lot nicer than it looked on the website. Or as Leslie put it, 'oh, that looked kind of crappy on the site!'. haha. Rob and I teased her unmercifully for that comment. 'Soooo, you'd let your friend by a crappy jacket eh....'.

So you may have noticed I didn't post my latest SweatLab report....unfortunately I didn't go last night. No need to tease me about it, I was totally bummed!! Yesterday afternoon I had another IBS attack. Frick did it hurt. It was one of those doubled over, energy sucking, hanging in the loo, kind of attacks. I had hoped it would go away before the class, but it didn't. It calmed down later on, but I figured the class had already started and as noted, it sucks the energy right out of me so I knew I wouldn't have been able to keep up. I'm really tired of this.

I'm trying to figure all this IBS stuff out. Actually I have been for the last 17 years. It's more important to me now though because it's affecting my training. I'm going to try a new eating plan. It's pretty drastic, but hell, if it works then it's worth it!! Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me!

But on to more fun things! I met up with Les this morning for our run. I wasn't sure how guts would do, but wanted to give it a shot. I felt good when I got up, so with fingers crossed we headed out. It was mighty chilly this morning, -6C. Yipes! I forgot how it feels to run in the cold!

We ran along the river westbound. Usually you can go up along Horse Creek Rd, but when we got there there were many large vehicles of destruction!! They were digging up the road and area for stupid new houses. I am not fond of all the building going on - I moved here because it wasn't the city! Ah well. It was such a nice area before - a big wonderful green field with bee hive thingys. Sigh.

The construction worker let us run through, but I don' think he realized where we were going cause when we crossed the railway tracks there was this HUGE ditch. As we were trying to figure out how to get past the ditch I started to sing the tune 'can't go over it....can't go under it....can't go around it.... gotta go THROUGH it!' haha. Always entertaining running with me, tee hee.

I was doing well till about an hour in. Then stupid gut started to act up. Les figured something was wrong because I became very quiet. You know if I'm not talking that somethings wrong, haha. At that point I just had to focus on running. We got to the trails and the energy of being in there definitely helped. It was neat how the trail had changed since the summer. All the long grass was yellow and had frost on it, and the trail was covered in leaves. It smelled like fall. Soooo nice.

We ran 2:15 hours today. I tried to keep my HR low and watch my pace. It was hard to keep it down, and my pace was slower than last week. It was a hilly run too, which made it all the more difficult. I think part of the problem was that I was still recovering from yesterdays gut issues. I think my average speed was about 7:15 min/km. It's ok though, I loved being out there!

And so the experiment continues....

Bwoooop!!!

It was a swim day today - YAY!!! First up on the schedule an 800 m warmup. This time it was SKPD - 50 m swim, 50 m kick, 50 m pull buoy, and 50 m drill (alternating zipper and six-kick).

During the swim it was time to work on my catch. I need to keep my elbows up more, sigh. Also, when I take a breath I still seem to be exposing most of my face rather than keeping my head halfway in the water. Go figure, I like oxygen! haha.

Then we got right into 3/5/7/9(!!!!) stroke breathing. Last time I had troubles getting to 7 strokes without desperately gasping for air! Jen suggested not holding our breath but rather figuring out the rate to slowly exhale. We got to use the pull buoys for this one, phew! We were to do 4 x 25m for each of them.

Suprisingly enough, I DID IT!!! I still can't believe I was able to take 9 strokes before having to breathe. Okay, I'll admit it - my ninth stroke was really quick, haha, but the rest were nice calm slow strokes. It's actually a great way to focus on your technique - kind of takes your mind off the fact that you are on the verge of dying....kidding!

Lastly we worked on sculling. First up was above the head. I find sculling highly amusing, cause really, you go nowhere fast. For some reason I always end up stuck along the ropes. I mean, I'm kinda like those little tub toys with the fins that always end up against the side of the tub waving their little flippers and going nowhere! I kind of cheated at one point and just pulled my self ahead and away from the ropes, haha. We then did sculling at the side, down low, then up high to down low. Tons of fun!

I was also having fun teasing Maureen and accusing her of cheating cause she's really fast doing this!! The really funny thing was Jen actually thought I was being serious. BAHAHAHAHAHAHA. SUCKAAH.

The very last drill had to be the most fun. Get this....we were to lie on our backs with our wee toes pointed to the other end of the pool and our hands stretched above our head. THEN we were supposed do the scull thing above our head. I seriously wish someone had a video camera on us. Maureen was off in a flash, the gal is a natural! I on the other hand had a little bit more trouble....why is this not surprising?!

So I 'assumed the position' and the next thing you know, BWOOOP! my body starts to flip over before I can do the little flick-flick with my hands. Well what the??? So I try again - and it happens again! What can I say - it would appear my bootie is more buoyant than my boobies! LOL. I FINALLY got going albeit slowly, and on a bit of an angle....hmmm... I kept ending up with my feet tangled in the ropes. Thankfully no one was swimming in that lane! At least we only had to do this for 25 m!

Even though this was a tricky and slow swim - it was actually awesome for the core and working on balance. I gotta hand it to Jen - she sure knows how to make swim class a blast!!!

The Slow Burn....

Holy schnikeys it feels like FOREVER since I worked out....and I guess it has been. Life has been very busy of late, unfortunately not busy on the workout side. Ah well, such is life in the 'off season'. Now is the time to get everything else done before I have to get serious in January!


Tuesdays are my super busy days. I swim in the morning and bike in the evening. In between that I have to fit in that four letter word....W-O-R-K. Ahhh, to be a professional triathlete and just get to train, train, train...but I digress....


I went to my swim class first thing in the morning today. For some reason I did not feel as 'light' as I normally do in the water. Perhaps those two days off were catching up to me?? It took quite me a while to get into the groove! We did a quick warm up then got into some kicking drills. Today was a fun day as we got to use flippers - yay!!


I LOVE flippers, they give me the opportunity to feel what it's like to actually swim fast. Not that I'm that much of a slowpoke anymore, but I still have a ways to go! haha. We alternated between kicking with the board for 50 m and kicking with our hands above our heads and streamlined for 50m. Our next drill was to do six count kicks for a few hundred meters. All good stuff.


I like doing kicking drills because they remind me that there acutally is a kicking component in swimming. See, I'm a lazy triathlete....I like to just kind of flick me feet every once in a while and use all of my upper body to get me moving through the water. There are two reasons I do this....in a race I'm wearing a wetsuit and have that wonderful attribute called 'buoyancy'. The second reason is I figure it'll save my legs for the bike and run.


I should point out that neither of these are good excuses not to kick in the swim. If I would remember to do this I might actually get faster! Not to mention my legs would be nice, warm and ready for the bike in a race. Ah well, I'm sure I'll get it one day.


Jen also got us to swim on our backs with the flippers. We were to tip our heads back and forward to see how our body position changes. I tipped my head back and promptly got a ton of water up my nose. Ow, ow, ow! Not only that, but it shot through to the back of my throat. Cough, gasp, sputter!! Needless to say my coach was amused. Anything for a laugh! haha.


The reason for swimming on our backs was so that we could learn about the backstroke. Jen showed us the movements and off we went. I quite enjoyed it, other than the mass splashing that occurred. See, your face is exposed to all that splashing. Lucky me, my schnoz is big enough that with each splash there was the potential for another sinus enema. I quickly learned how to take a breath through my mouth and then breath out through my nose while I took a stroke. Yes, I'm a smart girl!! haha.


After all that kicking and backstroke we did a 500 m swim. It was quite strange to swim without the flippers on.....and I missed them, haha. Jen reminded us we were to do flip turns during our swim, so I did just that.


My flip turns of late have not been very graceful, but I still try. I did one flip turn and thought it wasn't too bad, as I started to swim the length when I started to feel the slow burn go up my nostrils and then into my sinus cavity. YEEOOOOOOWWW!! WATER UP THE NOSE AGAIN!!! Mental note, breathe OUT when doing the flip!!! This too I shall one day learn.


After work I made my way to my favourite tri shop. This is where IronGreg holds the bike classes. I got there early and got warmed up. I wasn't sure what would be in store as I believe I said 'Sure, make Tuesdays classes hard!'. What was I thinking?!


IronGreg has a plan though, and he stuck to that plan. We are slowly working our way up and so it was a little bit harder than last week, but not super duper hard. (Lots of time for that!) We warmed up with one legged spins and speed ups. Next we did pyramids of 90-100-110-120 rpm, with easy 90 rpm spinning in between. IronGreg checked my bike while I was riding and adjusted my roller so that I had a bit more resistance.


I commented that my heart rate wasn't really going up and I'd have to crank the gears just to get resistance. So now that's all fixed....and my heart rate climbed! haha. Not super high, but I was glistening quite a bit by the end of the workout. To finish things off we did some speed work and then a cool down. Was a good workout and lots of fun!


After all that biking and swimming, I think it's safe to say I'm tired now....

Horses and Cows and Deer, OH MY!!!

I met up with Les and Teresa this morning for our Saturday run. Teresa came into Cochrane this time, which was really cool. Les wanted to take her along the Towers Trail route. This time of year it's absolutely gorgeous. Blue skies and the view of a long line of snow covered mountains. Simply breathtaking!

Of course I'm continuing my run/HR experiment. Was totally geared up with HRM and Garmin. First thing I noticed was I was keeping up with the girls...and my heart rate wasn't that high. Hmmm...this was different from last weekend. I kept looking at my HR and pace as we ran along, and sure enough, I was faster than last week.

Let's not get too excited about this yet though.....last week I was just finishing off my sinus cold. I'm sure we all remember that lovely picture I posted while I had my cold.... (Never dare me to do anything I tell ya!!) Anyways, I think that's why my HR was higher last week then this week. And why I had to run a slower pace to keep it low.

So we started out running along the river then made our way to 'the Hill'. Well one of the 'the Hills' out here. haha. I started running up it, but had to stop and walk a little to keep my HR down. Teresa was in the lead, and Les was behind her. (She's also watching her HR.) Too bad there wasn't someone taking photos of us going up the hill because at one point the photo would have captured me walking behind Les by about a meter....Les walk/running behind Teresa by a couple of meters, and Teresa running up the hill a couple of meters behind a DEER who was also running up the hill!!!

It was WILD!! Les turned to me with this big smile saying 'Deer!'. It was sooo awesome. The deer finally clued in to the little procession behind her and jumped over the guardrail into the trees. I don't think I can say enough how much I love living here!

Once up to the top we were rewarded with the view of the mountain range and farmers fields. This is a great run - I highly recommend it. We weren't up there too long as we were only doing 1.5 hours today. When we turned around we could see, off in the distance, a wall of neon yellow running jackets. haha. It was quite the sight!! (Not as cool as the deer though.) The running club, of which we also belong to and also own neon yellow jackets from, was out in full force this morning. They were behind us because we started out a half hour earlier. We all shouted greetings and said we'd meet up at the cafe.

We made our way back to the cafe saying hullo to all the cows and the one horse that were in the fields. They were snobbish and didn't say hullo back though. Hmpff.

So I managed to keep my heart rate around 135-140 bpm this run. My pace varied due to the hills, but I would say my average was about 6:45 min/km. Pretty good I think. I will use this as my 'baseline' rather than the 7:30 min/km from last week.

After a brief stint in the cafe to chit chat and savour some tea, I headed off to the gym. I had a great leg workout last night so was heading in to do an upper body workout. I didn't get there earlier this week, but still felt that I'm progressively getting stronger. My shoulder is clicking less as well. A very good sign.

I should say, there was almost an 'incident' in the gym. The only reason there wasn't was because I am a peace, love and granola girl and luckily don't get snooty, LOL. What happened you ask? Well I'll tell ya....

So I go to do some incline press....and I notice there is a towel with a post-it note, hanging over the bar. I need not look to far to find, whom I believe, the owner of said towel is. A shorter fellow wearing a stylin' camoflauge tank top and running shorts, lifting very very big weights. Of course he had the requisite weight belt on too. (Rolling eyes here...) I asked politely, before he started in on his set, whether or not this was indeed his towel and may I remove it so I could use the bench press. Well, I got this look thrown at me like 'Uhm, I'm working out here, how dare you interrupt me and I should be allowed to put my towel WHEREVER I want, but FINE, I'll move it.' I shite you not, that's the look I got!

I gotta tell ya, it was on the tip of my tongue to say, 'Oh no you didn just throw me that look! Do NOT make me come over there and open up a can of whoop-ass on you little man cause I soooo will!'. 'Oh, and I have better looking biceps, so NAH!' But of course, I just smiled sweetly, thanked him, then proceed to workout.

I swear.... the nerve of some people! LOL.

The Sweatlab....

Tonight was the first night of Sweatlab! I will be doing this every Friday night for the next few months. (Yes, I have no life therefore I can do this on a Friday night, haha. Wait a second! Triathlon IS my life. Tee hee.)

Okay, back to Sweatlab. What is it? Well, it's a bike trainer session that one of the triathlon coaches, Ross, puts on. There are eight of us on Friday nights. Jeff and Danielle (who's garage we are in), Ross, Lisa, Serge, David, John (who missed last night, tsk, tsk) and yours truly. There are a few experienced Ironman triathletes there, then a group of us who've just completed our first. It's a great group of people though, very upbeat and fun!

Ross uses 'CompuTrainer' so we are all on our individual trainers which records our cadence, heart rate and power output. This goes into the computer and is put up on a BIG screen so all can see! Rats! No slacking off for Susi!! Not only can they see how much I'm dying, but there at the top of all of our stats is the profile of the course AND a little bike race so you can see who's in the lead. Soo not fair!! haha.

I believe there are a bunch of different course profiles you can put in there, even Ironman Canada! (Hopefully we won't be doing that one till next year!) So, it goes like this. Ross loads up a course profile. We all get hooked up to HRM and get bikes in trainer and start pedaling. As you pedal along the trainer increases or decreases the resistance depending on the course elevation. So it kind of mimics riding outside. You even change gears like you would outside. I thought this was pretty cool.

At least I thought it was pretty cool, until I got to the first hill. OOMPFF! Hey now! Who the heck is holding on to my rear tire? I...can't....pedal.... Okay, so it wasn't that bad, but damn, it was HARD! My heartrate skyrocketed. haha. As soon as I crested the hill my legs were a spinnin. It was really neat.

At about 15 minutes in to the workout I was soaking in sweat. I hadn't worked or sweat that hard since before IMC, I'm sure of it, haha. Ross had us do some intervals sporadically too. We were to look at what our average power output was, then double it for the interval!! The first interval was 5 minutes. I think I can safely say there was no one in that garage that wasn't ready to hurl after that one, haha. All that was going through my head was 'Holy Hannah he's trying to kill us!'. Well, that and my Million Dollar Man mantra - 'faster, better stronger'. (If I could have let out a hooyah, I would have...but I was desperately gasping for air!)

We did a long recovery after that...I was really glad I was on a hill for my recovery. Riiiiight. We also did some 1 minute intervals and 30 second intervals. The workout was amazing! I felt great although I had a really low power output. Will be discussing that with both Ross and IronGreg. This is something that will be a key goal this year. To be more powerful and efficient on my bike!

The total length of the workout was about 1 hour 10 minutes. We will be working our way up to 2 hour workouts in the next coming weeks and then continue increasing our time. We'll also be doing bricks afterwards. It's going to be a lot of hard work, but great prep for Ironman Coeur d'Alene, which Jeff, Lisa, Serge, Ross and I are all signed up for.

After the workout I went out for sushi.....mmmmm...sushi. A great end to a great workout!

Drills, Drills and More Drills!!!

Well, I tried to go to the gym yesterday, I really did. Then I remembered, it's 'off season'. I don't HAVE to do anything. I only have a few months where I don't have a schedule to follow and can just do things that I feel like doing. So - I didn't go. Probably a good thing....my intestines starting bugging me...YET AGAIN! sigh.

Anyways, there are two things I did sign up for to do during the off season, swim and bike classes. I'm really glad I did too because I'm quite enjoying them, even if I kind of HAVE to go, haha.

This morning, as with every Thursday morning, was swim class. We started off with a 'skip' session. In other words swim/kick/pull. We did 3 x 50 m of them. I'm feeling a lot stronger in my swim, even with my shoulders being a little weaker than I wish them to be. Hmmm...perhaps I shouldn't have missed that gym workout!

Next up was 25 m of catch drill and 25 m of zipper drill. I'm trying to remember how many of these we did...but can't. Hmmmm.... The last drill we did was 25 m swimming with fists (this one is great for really feeling the water when you pull) and 25 m of six kick drill. We did many lengths of this one too, haha! I think I was concentrating a lot on the actual drill and just followed the feet in front so now don't remember how many....oh....wait....you know what, I think we did 200 m of each. That doesn't seem like that many though?? Ah well. We did them, haha.

Lastly we did 5 x 200 m swim on 2:30 starts. We all know how bad I am with timing when I'm swimming, so I was very glad to have someone in front of me....I would get to the wall then just wait 10 seconds after they started swimming. Heh heh, ya, I'm bad!

Of course through the last bit I was practicing my flipturns...today was not a good day for them. I seem to be rolling more and missing the wall. Dammit! Will really have to work on these more. haha.

For a cooldown, and to bring my heartrate down a bit, I just floated on my back and kicked. I LOVE that feeling of just floating along in the water. Your ears are under the water so I couldn't hear anything - it's sooo peaceful and relaxing. I could float along like that forever! They were playing salsa like music in the pool so as I floated I pretended I was somewhere tropical, just floating along in the ocean.....

Things that make you go aaaaaaaaaahhh.....

Phew, Long Day!!!

Well I'm glad I couldn't sleep last night....cause I had to be up at 5:15 am to get to the pool for swim class! Sigh.

I had a great workout in spite of still being a bit sleepy. We started out with a 400 m warmup. Then we worked on holding our breathe a bit, haha. We did 25 m of 3 stroke bilateral breathing, then 25 m of 5 stroke breathing, 25 m of 3 again, then 25 m of 7 stroke breathing. I had troubles with the 7 stroke group. It was only on the last set I finally could do it, I had to take a breathe every 6th stroke. We did 400 m of these.

Then it was on to kicking....and holding our breath again for 400 m! haha. We were to kick along the surface of the water, just lifting our head out of the water to take a breathe the odd time. That was for the 25 m out, then on the 25 m back we were to dive deep and kick....not taking a breathe if we could. Ya, right! Hellloooo, oxygen is necessary for life?! haha.

The funny thing with this exercise was my bootie did not want to stay submerged!!! Everytime I'd dive down, bwoooop! up my butt would float. It was hilarious! One good thing....if I ever get pushed under in an open water swim, I know that my butt will carry me safely to the surface! What can I say...fat bottom girls we make the rockin world go round!! haha.

The last set was 25 m sprints....trying not to take a breath!! CRAZY! The first four times I took two breathes. Then Jen gave us a couple tips and I was able to take it down to one breath per length. I think we did 6 or 8 of these. The rest of the time it was cool down. I just did a few hundred meters of front stroke, practicing my technique.

That wasn't it for the day though! I still had IronGreg's bike class to go! Yikes, Tuesdays are going to be busy for a loooong time.

I'd been teasing IronGreg about kicking his butt in the pool (I'm sooo cocky now that I've had a few lessons, haha) so he returned the favour by saying he was going to slay me during the class. Thankfully, he was kidding...this time.

We did a good warmup then did one leg spinning and pyramids of 90, 100, and 110 rpm. These felt great - I think I still have a lot of IMC fitness, phew! The one leg spinning got harder as we worked away. I was having troubles keeping the pedal going around and not hanging up at the top, definitely something to work on. These exercises are amazing for technique and I love doing them...even if they start to really hurt, haha.

It was a great workout, but not too intense. I have no illusions though, it's going to get tougher...and to that I have to say...

HOOYAAAAAH!! tee hee.

It's October...And I Was Cycling Outside!!!!

Well I think today was a first....I don't think I've ever ridden outside in October! Actually, that has probably less to do with the weather than the fact that, typically, I don't want to see my bike by this time of year, haha. This year is different though, I still want to swim, bike and run. A good sign I would think...

At first, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to ride today. Last night I had a wicked IBS flair up. URGH! Hasn't hurt that bad in a long while. I wasn't able to eat much today because it still hadn't settled. At around two-ish I got a message from IronGreg asking if I wanted to meet up for a ride. I decided to go for two reasons....1) my stomach seemed to have settled a bit and b) how cool would it be to go cycling with IronGreg?!

(He's going to kill me in his bike class next Tuesday for what I am about to write....but it'll be worth it, tee hee.)

I have to say that I am blessed with the number of experienced Ironman triathletes that I know and IronGreg is one of them. He's a great friend, Ironman mentor and I think of him as an Irongod because of how many he's done. (I should add that he gets embarassed when I call him that.)

So what's the big deal with going for a bike ride with him? Well I'll tell ya....

You see, I'm still pretty much a tri-newbie. Sure, I have a couple of seasons under my belt now, but seriously, there is soooo much to learn about triathlon, more specifically Ironman, and I've barely scratched the surface. In the endurance scheme of things, I've only just begun. I can see the improvements compared to last year (heck, I PR'd a couple of my races this year!), but compared to IronGreg, I'm a very very slow turtle, haha.

Let's take this moment to make a little comparison shall we: IrongGreg is about 6'2", I'm 5'2", therefore his bike is WAAAY bigger than mine and seems to go farther with one pedal stroke. His rides name, The Silver Bullet, mine? Eleanor. (Granted she is named after a very very fast car, so there!). His IMC bike time, 5:25:35, mine....8:07:03. He's done a ton of IM's, I've done one. He is an Irongod, I am an Irongoddess-in-training. haha. So you can see, there is just a teeny weeny diffference in our abilities, LOL.

To be honest, normally I don't get to ride with athletes like IronGreg - for obvious reasons. During the regular training season if i were to go riding with IronGreg, he'd be loooong gone after about 2 minutes. So today was very cool because he was going to ride my turtles pace. YAY! We met up at 22 and Springbank. There was a southwest wind blowing so both of us had to fight a headwind on the way to the meeting point as he was coming from the east, and I from the north. It was really nice out though so I didn't care about the headwind!

We continued south on 22. The wind seemed to die down a bit, which meant it was likely that we'd turn around to find the wind on the way back. Gotta love living where the wind changes constantly! haha. I was feeling a bit tired because I wasn't able to eat much during the day, and my stomach was starting to hurt again. Dammit! Not today of all days! We'd gotten to Redwood Meadows when IronGreg read my mind and asked if I wanted to turn back. I would have liked to ride further, but I knew that I didn't have enough gas in the tank for it. Major bummer, but what can you do?

Going north along there is always awesome cause it's slightly downhill. I love it. When I ride along there I dream of the day that I will actually be able to ride at that speed normally! Aaaaaah. I can even pretend I can keep up with IronGreg, haha. It was starting to cool down and I was thankful for having leggings on (at the start of the ride I was too warm!). On the other hand IronGreg didn't....so he did a little power pedal up the hill over the highway. I would have tried to keep up...but I am a smart girl, haha.

We made it back to town in pretty good time, even though the wind changed directions and we were riding into it again. I bid IronGreg adieu at my intersection and started up the hill to my house. The wind was blowing like crazy from the west now - I think my speed was about 7.5 km/h going up the hill! I figured I wouldn't ask Mother Nature to change the direction of the wind though because IronGreg was headed east and had to climb Cochrane hill.

I was so glad we went out today. It was warm and sunny for most of the ride and it was awesome getting to go out with IronGreg! It'll take a few years...but one of these days I will be able to keep up with him when he rides his normal pace! LOL. Hey, you gotta have goals right?!

Run Experiment - Lab #1...

What a great morning for a run!! It was foggy out, but you could see it was going to burn off.

I went with Leslie into the big city this morning. We were meeting her sister, Teresa, there and heading for a run along the river. They are training for the Sacremento Marathon in December so had 2:30 and 2:15, respectively, runs to do. I'd say I'm not training for anything, but I signed up for the Last Chance Half yesterday, so maybe I am??? I just figured it'd be fun to run for a couple of hours down by the river!

Not only was I going to run for a couple of hours...but I was starting an experiment. I want to run faster you see and IronGreg insists that the only way to do this is to run at a very low heart rate for all my runs. Hmm...but if I run at a low heart rate I end up running SLOOOW...so how does one get faster by running slower???

Well according to IronGreg, and as it would happen the IronGod Mark Allen as written in this months Triathlete Magazine, if you run at a low heart rate, eventually your pace picks up naturally as your body adjusts. You become more efficient, your pace increases, but your heart rate stays low. Hmmm...I was going to have to test this theory out to believe that it would work for me.

I've tried running at a lower heart rate before, but I still don't seem to be getting 'faster'. Or at least where I would notice. Hmpff. I've decided, however, that I would give this a try. It is going to take some time, it doesn't happen overnight you see, so from now on I will run with my Garmin to measure my pace, and my HRM. I'll record each run and see how things progress.

It would probably be easier to just believe the two IronGods, but no, I have to prove these things!

My goal was to keep my heart rate around 140 bpm. Not as easy as it would seem at the start, but eventually I got the hang of it. I hate to admit it, but the pace felt pretty comfortable to. A little slow, but not bad. Leslie and Teresa had a faster pace so they went on ahead.

I was looking foward to running along the river because all the trees have changed colours now and they are beautiful bright oranges, yellows and reds. Some of the leaves had fallen so I was wanting to get out there before the trees were bare. It was very peaceful running along there, listening to the river and hearing the leaves crunch underfoot.

There was some construction along the river, it would seem that part of the path had slipped into the river! Hopefully no one was running along it when that happend, yipes! They had some chain link fence up so you couldn't run through there. As I was running along the fence I was trying to see what happened to the path so had my head turned. I turned to look ahead and had just enough time to take a side step out of the way of a piece of fence right in front of me!! That would have been hilarious to see - me running right into a fence. BOING! LOL.

I have to say for the whole run I felt really good. It was a nice pace and it just felt good to be out there. Near the very end I could feel my right IT band a bit, and my left calve, but these are issues that I've had for a while and need to address. They certainly didn't hurt as bad as las week, phew! I finished the run in 2:01 hours and went about 15.8km. I managed to keep my heart rate around 140 bpm for the most part. It went up a couple of times, but not for long. My average pace was 7:30 min/km. I really hope that time will go down in the coming months. Only time will tell!

When I got back to the park where our cars were I decided that since I'd have time to wait for the other gals I'd play on the swings. When Teresa got there she said she knew I'd be playing in the park, haha. What can I say, I'm a kid at heart!!!

When I got home from the run I went to the gym for a quick upper body workout. My arms are still shaking to be honest, haha. It's making it hard to type, sigh. Soon they will be strong!

A great morning to start a great Thanksgiving weekend! Gobble, gobble, everyone!!

Swim Time....

It wasn't easy getting up this morning, but I did. I was looking forward to getting back in the pool. With my nose still being a bit stuffy I was actually hoping I'd have a few brain flushes with the water so it would clear out my sinuses!

I actually felt pretty good when I got in the water. I wasn't sure how much energy I'd have but it wasn't that bad. Phew. We did some six kick drills, and front stroke. I always find doing that type of drill reinforces how I should actually be swimming - go figure! We also did some scull work - it amazes I actually move forward when we do that stuff! haha.

At one point we were in the deep end treading water. We did 10 seconds of just sculling with no kicking, then 10 seconds of treading water. We did a few exercises like this. Awesome core workout, not to mention it got the old ticker pumping! haha.

I worked on my flipturns, as always, and amazingly enough I DID NOT GET WATER UP MY NOSE! I know, it's a shock! The one time I could have used it too! Ah well. Knowing my luck, the next time I swim it will happen - and that's when I won't need it too. At least I got a good swim in!

I Think The Worst Is Over...

So I wasn't quite able to leap out of bed this morning all well again, but at least the pounding sinus/migraine headache seems to have subsided - THANKFULLY! Yesterday I was laying on the couch, with an ice pack on my forehead thinking of Ahnold in 'Kindergarten Cop' saying 'IT'S NOT A TUUUMAH'. Holy hannah my noggin hurt!

Today things seemed to have subsided a bit. In the morning my sinuses were in complete control - sometimes I could breathe through both nostrils, sometimes the left, sometimes the right, and sometimes, well, I was a mouth breather. haha.

Then there was the wee incident that I relayed to my friend, who surprisingly, was horrified! Peronally, I found it highly amusing...I guess this says a lot about my personality, heh heh. What was the incident you ask? Well I'll tell ya....I was sitting at my desking, munching on an apple. I was trying to get some vitamin C in me you see. Well it was one of those times when my sinuses decided that I would not be allowed to breathe through both nostrils. So when I would close my mouth to chew my apple, as any polite, well bred gal would do....a wee snot bubble would form out of one of my nostrils. LOL.

What's so wrong with that?! It's not like I was blowing snot bubbles all over or anything. LOL. Although that would be quite the trick I think!

Anyhoo, I was hoping to hit the gym tonight, but alas I do not have the energy. Just walking up the stairs kind of sucks the life out of me, so I think I'll give myself one more day of rest and then get back at it.

I have a swim class tomorrow morning - should be good for clearing the sinuses when I work on my flipturn. Then maybe I'll be able to eat an apple without any wee snot bubble incidents...bummer.

Ugbh...Day Two...

So it's day two and I still feel like shite. I'm sitting here on the coach bundled in my minus 7C sleeping bag trying to hold my head up. Again, I have to resort to stuffing toilet paper in my nostrils to stop the constant drip. VERY attractive!

Whatever I have has moved into my sinuses - the cold fairy beyotch snuck in last night and injected lead behind my eyes and in my cheeks. The pressure is nuts. I'm not sure when she managed to do it cause I didn't get much sleep. Amazing considering the amount of Neo C I injested yesterday!

I'm bummed that I had to miss swimming this morning, but I didn't think it would be a good idea to get into the pool with a lead head, for fear of dropping to the bottom of the pool head first of course. Even the junk in my trunk wouldn't keep me afloat!

I must say though, I think that a salt water flush that I regularly get while doing my flip turns would likely help the situation. I'll have to give the old neti pot a go again today. I tried it yesterday and it did flush some stuff out, but it hurt like a son-of-a-gun! This too is a sight to be seen, unfortunately I can't do the flush and take a picture!


Question: if my nose keeps dripping, then why the heck do I have this insane amount of pressure behind my eyes???? I need to go back to bed now...maybe I'll get a bit of sleep. Ow.

Ugbh...I'b Sick...

It's official...I'm sick. Head cold. AARRRGGHHHHH!!! There are three people that I will blame for this agony I am now in....and you know who you are, haha.

It all started yesterday. I was having lunch with my friends Keith and Linda when I started to feel an itch in my throat. Hmm...perhaps I just needed some water? Next up - the insides of my ears started to itch. Oh oh, that's never a good sign. My nose started to feel stuffed and there was a slight ache in my frontal lobe. Also, I was having to go pee every 10 minutes....my body's way of trying to flush out whatever illness I have. Shite! I HATE colds.

I was being a social butterfly yesterday and catching up with friends, so after lunch I headed to my friends Mary and Todds for supper. (A hearty congratulations to them for their recent engagement!) I really hope I didn't leave you with the gift of a cold, haha. That said, Kelly was there too and I'm sure she's one of the culprits that gave me this nasty cold. So we can just blame her, muahahaaaaa.

By the time I got home last night I felt pretty crappy. I thought I'd make myself a cup of Neo Citran and hit the sack. Unfortunately, I must have been delerious the last time I made it because although there was a Neo C box in the cupboard....it was empty!! What the f***?! I thought about going to the Shoppers to get more but I felt like crud so just went to bed....I would regret this decision come morning....

I didn't sleep fitfully last night, likely because every time I swallowed my throat burned and my nose was just jammed. Ow.

At some point early this morning I fell asleep. When I woke up my throat was raw, and there was a constant pounding in my frontal lobe. I think the cold fairy snuck into my room last night and injected my sinuses with lead too. My head feels like it's ready to fall off. DAMMIT!!! Oh and remember how my upper body was achy yesterday from weights?? Well the second day pain has been exacerbated by the achiness my body feels. Double ow.

It was at that moment I realized that although I felt like shite last night....I really should have gone to Shoppers, cause I feel even worse this morning and I really, really, really need some lemony hot help. I willed myself to get out of bed, remove my flannel pj bottoms and throw on jeans. My coat would hide the rest. Off I went to Shoppers. I wonder if I should have been driving when I could barely hold my lead filled head up...

While there I decided I needed very powerful vitamins, they would help, I'm sure of it. Next up was orange juice. I should point out that if you are one to buy orange juice...only buy Tropicana orange juice. It actually is fresh from oranges (hence the due date). The other stuff out there has lost all it's vitaminy goodness by the time it gets to us! Usually I buy 'pulp free', but they had none. So I went with the pulp, I think thats where some of the nutrients are anyways and right now I needed lots of vitamin C! Lastly, my I got my Neo C.

You may wonder why I'm so hung up on the Neo C. Well, I'll tell ya....I tend to have very bad reactions to Sudafin, which is used in most cold and allergy medicines. If I take it I feel very very ill and dizzy. If I turn my head too quickly I see streams of light as all the images I've glanced by try to catch up. Not fun. Neo C doesn't have this stuff in it so I can actually take it. Oh, and the other thing is I'm very sensitive to meds, a trait I inherited from my Granny. So things that say 'may cause drowsiness' will knock me into a 12 hour coma. haha.

When I got to the counter at Shoppers the very friendly cashier looked into my watery eyes and said 'And how are you this morning?!' in an ever chipper voice. I looked at my pile of vitamins, orange juice and Neo Citran, and then looked at her (hoping for some sympathy cause I don't have a Mummy here) and said 'I'b sick.'. Of course I got the sympathetic response I wanted. Hey, you gotta get it from somewhere!! haha.

I then climbed back into my car and made my way home. Even doing this took almost all the energy I had in me.

When I got home I made some oatmeal for brekkie - afterall I need calories to fight this stupid cold. I took a vitamin and chased it with some yummy orange juice. I've now finished my Neo C and have only a few minutes to write this before I fall into a lemony hot coma....

At some point here I've realized was one thing I forgot to pick up...Kleenex. Therefore I sit here now with a strand of toilet paper hanging out of each nostril to try and stop the constant drip. It's a lovely sight, I promise.

I can feel the grog coming on....better sign off before I................................