Could I really do it?

Day before yesterday I biked 41 hilly miles. we went down this amazing hill. I reckon I could def get a speed PB on that one! Clocked 46 mph on it but did hold back as was not sure what it was like. Now I know I shall be heading for that one again - hehe.

Yesterday I did another open water swim. Went ok but everyone and their dog seemed to be out in speed boats so although a fair way away had to be cautious.

That's me. Rest today, long bike tomorrow and taper next week so dunno but not much.

Hi Guys,

 Just a quick note to wish you all the very best for this weekend

I hope that both the weather gods and the lactic acid gods are kind to you

Have a great day and soak up all the atmosphere, I will be thinking about you guys on Sunday (as I will be recovering from a function on saturday night !! )

Adbru

'lo peeps : )

Finally back on line, have I missed much? Is everyone ready for Sunday? 

Good luck from me too.

Looking forward to the reports.

Hi all

Colourin - I think I'm ready and then I think about all the stuff i still need to organise and realise I'm not really ready at all!

Thanks k9 and Adbru!

Training? Well it poured down on Saturday and me, like all others out there on this day, got soaked through. Ditched long bike plan due to cycling in a river and came home for 37 miles of crazy riding with no brakes at the end. I then became rather attached to the hairdryer. That was after having just chucked my bike down in the garden, coming in and creating a flood on the kitchen floor as I was so soaked. So I wrang out my socks, dripped everywhere and stuck the hairdryer onto my hair whilst sticking the central heating on full blast. I was SO SO SO cold! Unfortunately I then fell in love with the hairdryer and used it as a very pleasant blow torch.  After half an hour it was looking like it was about to blow up, so I had to go cold turkey and shiver in the bathroom until the tub was full of heavenly hot water.

1 further hour later and Scoobs was re-vitalised back to some sort of normal state. I say 'some sort' as I don't know what normal is.

Sunday I rested as I'm a bit knacked just lately. Yesterday I ran just over 7 miles. Not sure about today. I'm so excited I'm not sleeping and felt a bit sick last night. Teenage scoobs has had a bug and lots off at work. Work have sent me home so I can get some sleep. Will try to as I need to really. I think they thought I would keel over - lol!

Would anyone be willing to sponsor me? I'm raising money for WaterAid. Link below.

Thanks

WAterAid

k9 - thank you for sponsoring me - you're a true star and gosh what lovely words  thanks lots!

had the most fabulous bike ride this evening. Practiced staying onto my friends wheel. He gave me some more tips on what to do. He then pushed the pace up and I tried to stay with him. It was fab! I am lucky to be part of such a great bunch of cyclists. Covered just under 42 miles at av pace of 15.2mph. That is fast for me, well fastest so far around here anyway! YEY! That's my last bike ride before Bala, although I need to sort out my back brake as the wheel is not spinning freely and is sticking to the brake pad. Don;t want it doing that for Bala!!!!

Right must dash as need to shower...

You're welcome Scoobs

Seriously though - you've done all the training now....just go and have fun.

Wish I could have been doing it too - but you never know - maybe I'll get to do one next year.

I have entered an olynpic distance Tri in August, so if I can tease my injuries along until then i'll get to see what all the fuss is about! Don't think I'll be gettinhg much decent training in for it 9apart from ludicrous amounts of swimming still), but if I get round, and I'm not last I'll be happy.

Oh - and I've got the three peaks to do next week, and the West Highland Way a few weeks later, so keeping busy.

I'll await reports from the weekend...

well....

we're waiting .......  

Well I know both Scooby and Colourin both finished, because I was there.

Will let them come on and tell you about it

Cheers SA,

Been following this thread so long now I felt I should have been there ! (instead when you guys were getting up yesterday I was heading to bed after a works night out )   lol

Great to hear they both finished

Sorry for the delay, been trying to get my legs to work!

Was great to finally meet Scoobs, and to see she did really well! Don't know her real name so don't know exactly how well, except that she was quicker than me cos I was the second to last pirate! But, I'm sooo pleased with myself for finishing, in one piece, with no injuries ans a huge smile on my face!

Had a brilliant race, the swim was very choppy, on the way out, everytime you turned to breath, it was touch and go whether you were actually out of a wave or not! So the sighting was a bit tough too, if you surfaced the wrong side of a wave, all you could see was a wall of water!

The bike bit was brill, some fantastic hills to whizz down and loads of pirates all over the place - fantastic support! But, you then have to go back up the hills, hence the legs not working!

Then the run, was quite nice that it was out and back, kind of broke it up into 2 shorter runs. The out bit was good, passing lots of pirates with cheers and hi fives, but the homeward leg was a bit soul destroying, on my own most of the way , but the last mile I could hear SA before I saw him! Just what I needed to bring me in!

 Had a fab day, the pirate support was fantastic, and I finished! Can't wait for next year! : )

Well doen Colourin - you did so well girl - be very proud of yourself

Maybe I'll be there next year!

ahem

Scoobs

....a little report perhaps

waiting patiently for the news!

Sorry k9!!! Ok I have done one. I have been posting on the Bala thread as it seemed more appropriate - sorry!

Will fetch report as I actually haven't posted it anywhere! Back in a min! It may be a bit long - not sure will check!

Bala Middle Distance Tri – Sunday 14 June 09

On Friday night I was supposed to be packing. Instead I found myself deliberately avoiding the task. I can only assume that my inner conscience had taken me into denial. I’d hardly slept all week on account of being ridiculously over-excited about the whole thing. In the end I finally managed to pack and ended up getting to bed really late yet again. Not great pre-race preparation really.

On Saturday we morning we drove to Bala and checked into the hotel. We discovered that the event venue was literally a few minutes’ walk away which was really good, so that afternoon we walked down to register. That’s when it all became real – this really was going to happen! I took a quick peep at the lake to discover that it looked very choppy. <wibble> By now the excitement had ebbed and the nerves had set in. What on earth was I thinking of!

Saturday night was spent clock watching, nothing new there then; I’d become accustomed to not sleeping.

Sunday
On arrival it became clear that the Pirates support was going to be second to none. I met a lots of Pirates and a few first timer fellow pirates and we all wibbled together. (It is much nicer wibbling in company)

On racking the bike I needed some time alone so I sent Mr Scoobs (who did the bike part of the relay) off with his swimmer – Phil. Because they were doing the relay it was a lot simpler for them, but I needed to go through all of my kit, fuel etc and set it all out beside my bike whilst also working out the process in my head. So the swim comes in here, the bike out is there etc. I was lucky as my bike rack was right beside a tree – easy to find then – yay! I have lost my bike in the past...

Then I headed off to get marked and re-joined them for the race brief. After a quick chat with some other terrified Pirates I put on my wetsuit and made my way to the swim start.

Swim

Out in the distance I could make out the great big orange buoys but, oh dear, they did seem to be a very long way away. The swim was a loop so we swam up the lake and back the other side. Time went by very fast and before I knew it the hooter went and we were off. I thought I had positioned myself quite well towards the outside of the herd, but I still found the beginning to be quite crowded with lots of legs and arms getting tangled up. As I swam I realised I had forgotten to start my watch so I had a quick float face down in order to turn it on. There was a rather nasty headwind on the way out which made for a bit of a slog and choppy conditions. Apart from that the swim went well. I always get very dizzy when I get out of the water and sure enough as soon as I stood up I fell right over into the water again. The marshals were great and literally hauled me out of the water – thank you marshals!

Transition 1
Dire! What can I say! I was terribly slow, I got into a right tangle trying to get my wetsuit off, generally hopping about the place, I could not get my socks on and took ages! In fact Phil asked if I would like to get my picnic basket out since I seemed to be there for so long! Oh dear! Eventually I grabbed the bike and made my way to the mount area.

Bike
Naturally I loved the bike leg. I had been looking forward to it. The course was an out and back so whatever you went up you got to go down. I overtook loads of people and for the whole 52 miles only 1 guy overtook me and stayed ahead of me. Yay. The course itself was really beautiful with no major big climbs. Having said that, we did climb for the first 11 miles but that also meant we would have a lovely ride back in at the end. We then had a gloriously long 10% descent which was fabulous, only I realised I’d have to go back up it on the way back. I had put my power bars into my top tube bag and remembered to munch my way through them on the bike leg. I also ensured I drank all of my water and energy drink. The Pirates were out in force on the course and the cheering that they gave me was awesome.

Transition 2
Better than transition 1 but still not great! Rack bike, off with helmet, off with bike shoes, on with running shoes, grab a gel and running bottle and out!

Run
This was the part I’d been dreading.  I knew this was going to be tough. On top of that I had obviously eaten too much power bar and had the most awful stomach cramps - oops. My lower back was painful which was compounded with every step. So it was JFDI and HTFU. The run was much hillier than I had anticipated and was in a long winding high hedged narrow lane. This was also an out and back. The out was better than the back because every Pirate that came along gave me a high 5 which was brill. The Pirates had also erected ‘’Pirate corner’’. This consisted of Pirate flags and some pirates who went absolutely mental when they saw me coming along. They literally screamed their heads off and jumped up and down like complete lunatics. That gave me such a lift as I was going through a low patch. I got to 5 ½ miles and some way up a very big hill when I found I had to walk. I was very cross with myself for walking so soon. So what to do? Run/walk it is then. By now I was desperately looking for each mile marker. I swear those mile markers got further and further apart. It was really hot in the lane with no wind really. My whole body was aching. But on I went shuffling along. Eventually I got further on and could hear the crowd at the finish. I knew then that I was going to do it. My heart lifted, I really was going to do it! With my spirits lifting so did my feet! YAY! At that point I heard this most enormous yell. It was a friend that had come with us for the weekend. He had spotted me in the distance and he was hollering out my name. That was just brilliant. As I got nearer to my friends they all started leaping about. That again was wonderful. I am very lucky to have such good friends and support.

I saw the finish and then noticed that there were Pirates everywhere. They had formed a Mexican Wave and were hollering support as I ran by. Awesome! I crossed the finish feeling very relieved only to find my legs went - oh dear! But the St Johns guys were there and they caught me. A few sprays of water to cool me down, a couple of questions and I was fine.

An awesome experience, a fabulous race with the most amazing and fantastic support. I got to meet loads of Pirates. They really made this race for me. The support and encouragement I received was quite overwhelming to be honest. They really are a very special bunch of people and I was proud to wear Pirate kit and be associated as one

Well Done Scoobs

Great report and great effort, i know how much you were dreading the run !!

The downside of reading all these great reports from Bala is that it makes me very jealous.........
(note to self, do not bring visa card anywhere near the keyboard!! )

I hope you are having a good recovery and getting pampered loads

Well done , you are a Bala vet now

Huge well dones Scoobs

and great report

so

what's next

Adbru - I'll meet you at Bala next year