Right - Back into it!

I have registered for the Gold Coast Half Ironman which right at the moment does not seem like it is going to be a reality!

We have moved house to Kenmore and in the process of moving I got Bronchitis from the dust, 2 weeks later I was starting to feel better and did a couple of weeks of mild training before I got a second bout of Bronchitis. Not impressed - damn lungs!

Anyway, I will start to ease into training with a glimmer of hope towards the Half Ironman but I am not going to be too disappointed if I don't get there.

Today I rode out to Moggill Ferry with Craig, wow - it's hilly out there! I was running out of gears big time! However, I was stoked to have returned in one piece and whilst I am obviously unfit and lacking strength my endurance seemed to be ok.

Onwards and upwards.

Longest run ever!

I just completed a 14km run! I had to stop just over halfway and stretch out my hamstring, but otherwise I felt good. No pain otherwise, heart rate around 135 to 145bpm.

I am starting to feel as though the possibility of a half marathon this year may become a reality!

I need to remember though to tread cautiously. After a couple of years of running I have come up with the following running rules:

• Long runs every fortnight - not weekly!
• Never run on consecutive days
• Don't push through 'niggles' - get them sorted
• Don't do punishing Mt Cootha runs or extreme hills!

So, this is how I will continue to train towards my half marathon goals. Luckily for me I have some cross training in there to help out with the cycling and swimming.

This is the loop that I ran today. Whilst it was slow, 1 hr 45mins, it was mostly comfortable so I am thrilled.

Long run from home

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Cycling with Jacque

I had a good ride today with Jacque. We did 2 of our Coomera loops which is about 68kms and then we did a 20min run off the bike. All in all a 3 hour session which was certainly needed!

I struggled on the bike which is a bit of a shame as I was going quite strongly on the bike a month ago. However I have had a few weekends where I have been away travelling and I missed a couple of mid week rides due to rain or travel. I am starting to realise that if I lose my consistency particularly with the bike it all goes backwards rather quickly!

The good news is I am pretty sure that I can turn it all around in a few weeks. I have Mooloolaba triathlon coming up on March 28 which is only 5 weeks away so I should be OK for that.

I am starting to formulate my thoughts towards Gold Coast Half Ironman. This is a big step for me. Today on our ride Jacque and I were discussing our plan of attack. We will have 2 weeks off after Mooloolaba and then we will build up to doing the cycle course 3 laps with a run off the bike which should see us in good stead.

However, firstly I have to be able to run the distance. I am currently running 13kms without too much pain or injury, so if I can gradually increase that to 18 or 19kms by June/July I will be happy to attempt a half marathon. Either the Doomben in June if I am ready or the Gold Coast in July. Maybe both if I am feeling really good about it and recover OK from Doomben. I'm going to play it by ear.

So, all in all it is very exciting. I am looking forward to building up my endurance and hope that I can finish it feeling OK.

Here is the ride we did last Sunday. It was hell! It was horrible, hilly and revolting. I struggled with cramping, but it was great to have achieved Nebo, Glorious and Samford again.

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Gap - Nebo - Samford Loop

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Back into it!

This year has been a frustrating year. Injuries have been a real nuisance and consequently motivation has been at an all time low. I am 5 kilos heavier than I need to be and it is all about to change! I managed to complete the Gold Coast 10k run and Noosa Triathlon, but they were both pretty slow.

I have had a dislocated foot that went undiagnosed for 1 year and hip pain that has been around longer than my foot pain. However, the good news is that I seem to be on top of it all now and have just had a good couple of weeks training and everything seems to be holding up well, no foot pain whatsoever and minimal hip pain. So, I am ready to start back with some focus on doing a great Mooloolaba Triathlon.

Jacque G and I have made a pact to get us both to more training sessions which involves penalties for not showing up! Should be interesting to see how we cope. Watch this space!

Long Bike Ride with BTS

We headed out from Chalk Hotel at 7am - a very civilised time indeed!

It was quite a large group. Unfortunately, it took me ages to settle into the ride. I will get better the more of these group rides we do, but this one wasn't great. Because I was so unsettled (read freaking out!) I was wasting energy and got dropped on a few of the early hills. Not by a lot but enough. It was quite a tough ride and the pace felt as though it was on.

We rode out to Manly and Wynnum and then back which ended up being about 50kms. The view over the water was beautiful, it was a millpond with no clouds in the sky. We stopped there for a toilet break and then we were off again through Gumdale and Old Cleveland Road. By this stage I had settled into the ride and was feeling a lot more comfortable. Bronny took the ride and she kept telling me to move up closer to the wheel in front of me, whenever my concentration lapsed I would drop off the wheel, so I really need to stay on top of this so that it is second nature and that I can relax holding onto the wheel. I got better on the way back, so I know that this is something I can do, I just need to have more confidence and not spend half of the ride before I am comfortable there. I'm sure once we start our regular winter rides it won't take me long.

I felt OK with the distance, although at this stage I am out for the 160km Portfolio Partners ride as I think this is going to be asking too much! I'll see how I go and will probably end up doing the 100k instead.

Stairs...

Today was stairs with Robson and the BTS crew.

Goddam stairs! We headed out to Kangaroo Point where we did some drills and then we ran up the stairs a couple of times. Then we headed across the top of Kangaroo Point towards the bridge and then found some more stairs where we did 4 loops of stairs and then running up to the top of the road at race pace and then easy jog recovery back. This was hard work. I managed to keep up with Sophie which was good. We then did a 5k race pace back to the Kangaroo Point stairs (which always ends up being just a bit quicker than 5k race pace!!!).

We then did another 2 lots of stairs and then we had a bit of a tempo run back where we set out an easy pace for 1/3rd then upped the tempo for the 2nd 3rd and then flat out for the last bit. This was hard work, the last part was coming up the hill towards to Goodwill bridge. I knew that somebody was right behind me so I was trying to hold them off or gain some distance from them, but I couldn't shake them. I kept trying to go faster and was just under the "oh my god I am going to throw up" threshold. I got to the top of the hill and walked, gasping for breath and then Sophie ran past me and called out "All the way to the bridge Emma". I forgot that the top of the hill wasn't where we were stoping, it was the bridge! Oh well... All in all it was a great session. I am starting to feel as though I am getting somewhere with my running.

Long Pocket Ride

This morning was our BTS session with Byron.

We rode out to Long Pocket to do some hill work!

I had a good session today. The session was hills with a high cadence. We regrouped at the CSIRO at the top of Long Pocket and then rode down easy to the end of the road and then rode back at race pace and then up the hill in 110 cadence up to the bus stop, turn around and then do it all again.

I found it OK. I really struggle with the high cadence and got down as low as 68 coming up the hill, but overall I felt alright.

It was a beautiful morning, it was one of those mornings where it was good to be alive. I saw some hot air balloons just about to set off. The sun rising over the river was lovely.

It is starting to get to the point where I am going to have to wear warmer clothes though! I was freezing cold when we set off and then I warmed up quickly up Dornoch Tce.

Run and Swim

Tonight was a sort of brick session.

I ran from work and then did the swim session. The run from work was an evil necessity as I had worked late the night before and didn't want to get up early for a run. I was going to run at lunchtime but it just didn't work so I ended up doing the run from work to the pool thing.

It was not the most enjoyable run; people smoking on the footpath, pollution from the cars and buses, having to wait for the lights to change, etc.

I got to the pool in 14 minutes and ended up doing a loop around the block to make it up to just over 20 minutes. I was just starting to feel OK towards the end of the run.

Then I got changed and did the swim.

We did the following:
500m flippers
500m pool buoy
400m 25 kick/25 free
400m IM with flippers -butterfly, breaststroke with butterfly kick, backstroke and then freestyle. This was quite tiring, you never really get into a stroke as you are changing so quickly.

I ended up with a cramp in my foot and toes, so opted to finish the session prior to the warmup. Overall it was an OK session, although not one I loved due to the pool buoy and flippers!

PB in the rain!

Today was Race 6 of the Raby Bay race which was a 400mtr swim, 15km cycle and a 4km run.

I got there nice and early; I think I was first! I went for a ride on my bike just to make sure that all is OK. Registered, helped out some team members from QR that were giving it a go, got my back into transition and was doing OK.

As we were waiting to start it started raining - not just spitting, but raining. I started freaking out about riding in the rain in a race. It's a 3 loop course and it is quite bendy so there were a number of turns and U turns to be navigated. I was starting to get quite worried. Craig was there after riding out from home and suggested I hammer the swim, just get round on the bike not worrying about my time, etc and then hammer the run. I thought that was a great idea! It kind of took the pressure off me too.

So I headed off to the start after reluctantly removing my warm gear as it was absolutely freezing. I thought that I would get into the water early as it would probably be warmer in there, but it actually wasn't. They measured it at 21 degrees, but it felt much cooler.

The gun went off and we were away. I managed to get mainly clear water the whole way around which was good. I concentrated on having a nice clean long stroke and ended up clocking a time of 6:34 which I was thrilled with even if the course was short!

The cycle we just won't talk about other than to say that it was just awful, it was wet on the roads, it was raining, the ambulance was out attending to 2 people that had fallen off and there was a girl that came off just behind me around a turnaround. So, I didn't worry about trying to chase anyone down, I didn't get on my tri-bars or drops, I just chortled around. I really do need to get more confident riding in the rain... Time (not that we are counting it was 38:02 - not pretty).

The run I struggled with motivation. Normally Jacque is chasing me down however she is in marathon training at the moment and didn't compete. I had to visualise my time on the spreadsheet results afterwards and imagined comparing it to other peoples times that I train with to get some form of motivation going. It must have worked as I broke the 5min/kms again just scraping in with a 19:53. So, I was thrilled with that. (More thrilled when I got off the bike though!!!).

So, I can say that it is a PB for racing in the rain and the fact that I survived it without falling off is a positive that I can draw on next time I'm out on a ride and get caught out in the rain.

Overall time: 01:04:31.

Ride Inside

It is becomng quite apparent that my cycling has suffered the most from my break. Jeez I struggled with this session!

We did a warmup followed by a ladder of 8min, 6min, 4min, 2min efforts at 110 cadence with a 3min break between each. I could not for life or money get my cadence at 110. I don't know why, I just couldn't do it! My legs were just not there for me today.

Ray was beside me and using me to measure cadence as he doesn't have a cadence computer so I had to tell him to go a bit quicker than me as I was at 100, not 110. This was on my third easiest gear with no resistance. Not pretty...

After this set we did 3 x 3 min efforts with a 90 cadence but in our big chain ring and in a hard gear at the back with resistance on the trainer.

Again, I really struggled with this, it felt as though I was climbing Mt Cootha! My cadence was at about 65 for most of this.

The only way is up from here!

We did a run off the bike, I started out with quick short steps to get the legs pumping from the Mt Cootha climb that I just did and was running quite nicely, but then after about 100mtrs I started to get my left calf twinging with the threat of a cramp, so I backed it off a bit and just chortled along at 80%.

This session was really hard, it took me until after lunchtime before I had recovered, I was feeling shattered!

Swim

Tonights swim was hard.

We did a lot of drills which included catch up and one arm drill.

We then did a 1km main set which was all done with a pool buoy. The pool was split so that it was a 25mtr pool.

1 x 200mtr on the 4min
2 x 150mtr on the 3min
3 x 100mtr on the 2min
4 x 50mtr on the 1min

I couldn't keep up. There was a couple that I was coming in on the minute, but mostly I was over the minute.

It goes to show that I still really suck at the pool buoy. Hopefully I can improve this over winter and get my stroke more reliant on my pull rather than my kick which will help with the cycle and run.

Run with Robson

Robson loves stairs.

I hate stairs...

You can see where this is going! We managed to find stairs at South Bank that I didn't even know existed! We did a lot of drills, quick steps, lunges, high knees, butt kicks, the works.

We then ran over the bridge and did a bit of race pace efforts with a final effort over the Goodwill bridge - then some more stairs at the Ship Inn! Where does he find these stairs?

My quads were feeling it. However I was pretty happy with my overall fitness, it feels as though I have lost fitness which you would expect, but not too much. I can see myself being back to where I was in a couple of weeks.

We did a lot of stretching which was great. Poor Robson, Dad was the only guy and the girsl were all talking and gossiping rather than listening to his stretching instructions. Robson does know some great stretches, they were great. We did a bit of shoulder stretching which went down well.

Coffee and toast afterwards made for a very civilised morning.

Uni cycle

Today was my first trip back on the bike and it was all that I was expecting!!

I struggled up Dornoch Tce, we went over the Goodwill Bridge and then regrouped at the Uni, but because I was last and I wasn't really paying attention (Tanya and I were chatting) we lost the pack. We struggled to keep up and got tailed off big time! Never mind, they regrouped around the corner.

The main set was riding from the University out to the end of Long Pocket and back at race pace. We rode in groups of 4 and worked together.

We only got 1 and a half loops in before it was time to head back so that was a bit disappointing. I struggled with the cycle this morning. I felt as though I had lost a fair bit of fitness and I felt as though my confidence had declined as well. I think that the best thing that I can do now is get on the bike and ride as often as I can. I am hoping to ride 4 times a week with 3 of them being on the road. We'll see how that goes.

First swim back

Tonight was my first squad swim since my break after Mooloolaba.

I felt great. I felt fresh and felt as though I was moving through the water OK.

Our main set was 5 x 200mtrs on the 4mins and I was getting a 20sec break which was great swimming for me.

We did "Ins and Outs" which Sara won, she's a legend!

Sloth to Athlete transition - slowly!

I was down to do a 20 - 30 minute easy run today.

So I toddled down to Roma Street Parklands and commenced my run. It was horrible. I felt awful, my legs were really tight and I couldn't get my HR down to less than 150 something even though I was being overtaken by waddling ducks!

My calves were really tight and I was swimming straight after so I decided to settle on 20 minutes waddle, oops I mean run and do a bit of stretching afterwards.

Normally it takes me 20 minutes to warm up so I'm hoping that this felt so horrible because I hadn't warmed up (and the two weeks off probably didn't help!).

Ahh, the life of a Sloth!

I have been living it up! I have been sleeping in, staying up late, eating junk food (ok, this is normal - just I've been eating more of it than normal!) and basically not exercising.

However, it has been a full on two weeks! I have played touch football on both Wednesday's with the guys from work which has been the sum total of my exercise with the exception of a swim down at Port Macquarie. We went down there to watch the Ironman which was quite an experience. 12 of us from BTS went down in a bus to support Tim from BTS and there were a number of other athletes down there that we knew competing. It was awesome to watch everyone. Such a tiring day, I don't know how they do it... We managed to stay and watch the last guy in at 23:26, with 4 minutes to spare before the 17 hour cutoff!!! Absolutely amazing.

Craig is wanting to do this next year so it was good to go and get a feel for it and know what he would be up against.

Whilst down there I purchased a wetsuit! Lyndell from the Aqua Shop and her husband Craig were a great help. The let my try on a couple and then go for a swim an see how it went. What a difference that makes! It does feel a bit tight around my neck, but I wasn't too panicky in it so I should be OK once I have swum in it a number of times and gotten the hang of it.

I am considering training for the Gold Coast Half Ironman triathlon in October of this year. This is big for me and it is freaking me out a little! My main problem is going to be the run as I can't seem to get a great deal of run training in without getting injured which means I am going to be spending a lot of time on my trusty steed getting cardio fitness on the bike! I am considering upping the ante on my cycing to 4 times a week. I'll then do 2 runs and 3 to 4 swims and see if I can get there on that. I should be able to if I am consistent enough.

Feel funny writing all of that when I have just consumed a huge pile of ice cream and have done no exercise for what feels like ages. I am feeling slothful and have put on weight so I think it will be good that my break is up and I am back into it next week!

Tomorrow I am volunteering for the Weet Bix Kids Tryathlon, this is a great event. Blake and Rachel (Craig's kids) will be doing it. We set up a transition practice in the back yard this afternoon and they are all sorted. They know what they are up against and they are all geared up. Luckily there will be no timing, no places and they are encouraged to take as long as they need to take. They did this event last year and had an absolute ball. I can't wait to see how they go tomorrow. Hopefully it doesn't rain!

Mooloolaba Olympic Triathlon

Today's the big one!

Alarm went off at 4am and I went through my pre-race routine of toilet, drinking water, toilet, dressing, toilet, organising drink bottles, toilet. I put anti-chafe body glide on my legs and around my bra and Heart rate monitor.

Transition opened at 5:15, so we headed down there just after 5am. We were staying at the Cilento Apartments so we were literally opposite the transition area. This was a bit disconcerting as Mum was watching the security guards last night and we actually saw some guy rack his bike in at around 8pm. There was another guy racking his bike in first thing this morning, so I don't know how that works! Mum was convinced that the Security guards weren't doing their job and kept reporting back on what they were up to.

I was fairly calm, I had written a list of what I had to do, I had to put my Polar S725x on the bike, put the gear bottle on the back, put my two Electrolyte bottles on and set up my towel with bike shoes, socks, run shoes, cap, race belt and number, helmet and sunglasses on the bike. I also put in a bottle of Sustagen sport in transition just in case I needed extra energy after the bike. I had a water bottle in there to wash the sand off my feet.

I pumped the tyres up and I helped Jacque pump up her tyres and we were set. I did a last minute check to make sure I was in an easy gear and that my peddles were parallel with my left pedal at 3 O'clock and I was then happy that all was good.

We went back to the unit to drop off our stuff and prepare for the walk down to the swim. Jacque dropped in her pump to leave at our unit so that she didn't have to walk all the way back to hers. Mum was coming down to the swim start with us to take back our thongs, clothes, drink bottles, etc. We all headed off down to the beach for the swim start and I was chatting to Jude when Jacque realised that she left her goggles in the unit! Craig went back with her and Mum and I headed down to the beach. Luckily there was plenty of time. I was still feeling pretty calm. With about 15minutes before my swim start I went for a bit of a warmup swim, I could see fish swimming around and the water was beautiful. It was like when we went for a swim on friday so I was very relieved. The day looked like it was going to be great conditions. Unfortunately it won't be overcast for the run, but it looked like there wasn't going to be too much wind about.

Jacque and Craig returned and everything was good.

Because of the great conditions for some reason they changed the swim course around to be a M shape instead of straight down the beach, so we watched a few different waves go through so that we knew where we were going.

Jacque's wave start was 3 minutes after mine, which was a bit different, we are often in the same wave start as they usually do the Female 30-39 in the one wave start. However, today was seperate wave starts. I lined up with Sarah, Kaye and Alex although I didn't see Alex at the start.

The buzzer went off and I settled in pretty well for the swim. I was feeling OK and I didn't cop too much jostling. I managed to spot the buoys pretty well and felt as though I was on course pretty well all the way through. The water was pretty calm, I managed to overtake some of the wave in front of me and then I was overtaken by two waves behind me - oh well! Overall I was pretty happy, I did a bit of breastroke just to spot buoys, probably only a handful of times. I had a bit of a struggle getting back in to shore, there were two waves that I ducked under, I got caught in a rip and was swimming towards shore without moving, but eventally a wave carried me in. It was then the horrible run up the beach, then the stairs into transition. I saw Kath at the stairs cheering me on and I think Ixchel and Dan were there too. It was nice to have support along the way.

In transition I watered off my feet, took a few good gulps of water to get rid of the salt in my mouth. Put my bike shoes and socks on, put my helmet and sunnies on and I was off! I was all alone, there was nobody else about, so it was good to have my own space. The cycle course went up around first avenue past the entrace to the Cilento and then on towards the Coles supermarket and around the corner. Then the hill climb up and through to Buderim Avenue. I really struggled with this climb. I always seem to struggle with the bike while not warmed up so I felt like I was crawling pretty slowly! Once in Buderim Ave there are some rolling hills through here and when I got to the downhill I went to shift into my big chain ring and dropped the chain.... I slowed right down and manged to get it back on by downshifting to the small ring and got the chain back on. The next hill I did the same thing - you would think that I would learn by my mistakes! I couldn't do anything about it this time, the chain was twisted. So I pulled over and tried to get it back on without touching the chain - no luck! I eventually got the chain back on and grease all over my fingers and I was away again. Mental note, have the chain in the middle of the cogs at the back before going into the big chain ring!

I turned right to go down the Sunshine Motorway exit which was closed off to traffic, so I pushed it a bit down the hill to try and get some speed up. I was starting to feel OK. The Motorway was great, the road surface was smooth and because I was on an early wave start it was relatively quiet. I managed to overtake a few people and settled into my tri-bars. I was struggling to keep my cadence at 90, I had to keep changing gears, I prefer to ride at a lower cadence. I really need to work at this! I ended up riding with another 2 girls - I would overtake them and then they would overtake me, after playing tag several times when I overtook again I said 'my turn - we'll play tag', then she would overtake me and say 'tag - my turn'. It was quite good actually as it probably kept both of us consistent. If I was drinking from my bottle she would get away and vice versa - I need to work on that too!

The turnaround was good, I hit it at just over 40minutes. I would have preferred to be a bit quicker, but never mind! The way back was a bit more windy and a lot more traffic. A lot of the faster girls and guys were in pelatons and at times they don't give much space as they overtake. I saw one girl overtake and it looked a beautiful tactic. She was moving quite quickly, but she would draft behind, duck out and overtake cut back in and draft off the next one - because she was going so quickly she was within the rules of 15 seconds to overtake, I would like to one day get to this stage. Because I am not quick o the bike it takes me a while to get to overtake. I would be using up all of my 15 secs in some cases!

I managed to stay on my tri-bars the whole ride other than when drinking. I should probably start to practice using my tri drink bottle, this would make more sense! I can change gears pretty neatly while on the bars, I tried to relax and keep my head low. Can't say I fully succeeded with this but at least I was conscious of it.

I tried to have most of my first drink bottle gone by the turnaround and then I started on my second. I was feeling a little bit queasy and I wasn't sure why. I think my accelerade was just a bit too strong and sweet. It smelt like fairy floss! I think next time I will make up the drinks with just 1 1/2 scoops of Accelerade.

Whilst the wind was definitely stronger on the way back it didn't really bother me, I was feeling OK. My HR was around the 140's for most of the ride, so I really need to figure out how to push this more. Somebody called out to me on the way back along Buderim Ave, I think it may have been Ria. I scooted back along the Esplanade to transition, I got off my seat and stretched my calves and hamstrings.

Overall I was pretty happy with my ride other than the problems I had with the chain coming off - twice!

I got into transition and took my helmet off, I skipped the Sustagen sport as I didn't want to mix it with the fairy floss accelerade! I took another few gulps of water though. Put my running shoes on, did up my laces with double grabbed my hat and race belt and I was off. I put on my hat and race belt whilst running out of transition - not that I was doing a quick transition, but still!

The run was awful, there's a bit of a hill out of transition which was hard work, my legs were threating to cramp, I decided to do small steps until I settled into the run. Unfortunately I had to run like this for the first few kilometres. Every time I tried to step out my legs threatened cramping, so I shuffled along. Mum cheered me on, Trish, Kate, Ixchel, Dan and Trent were all there cheering - it was nice to have the support. I had no idea what pace I was running at but it sure felt slow. I glanced at my HR though and I was at 160 - 170 so I had a bit in the tank but not a whole lot. Eventally I managed to get a bit of rhythm happening and find my pace. I walked through all of the drink stations and the hill certainly sucked! Garry and Jo were up on the hill and the first time I came up the hill I was not in a great way, Garry called out "I know you can do this Emma!". So I took a last gulp of water and started suffling along again. The last time up the hill Shannon from work overtook me and gave me some words of encouragment. I knew that Jacque was very close to being only 3 minutes behind me so I tried to really push it home. I managed to finish fairly comfortably. My overall time was 2:57:18

Splits were as follows:
Swim: 31:33
Cycle: 1:29:46
Run: 55:58

I did the run last year in 1:10:19 in a team with Dad, so I wasn't running off the bike, so a 14:20 PB on the run this year off the bike is a fantastic improvement.

I was a bit disappointed that I didn't beat my Noosa Triathlon time of 2:54:58 which is 2:20 slower, but what do you do. It's funny, I thought that I did better at the cycle at Mooloolaba, however it was almost 6 minutes slower than my Noosa time, so I'm not sure why. I can only put it down to different conditions. Apparently it was much windier today than last year. Many were saying that today's course was up to 10 minutes slower than last years.

58:24 is the time that I did the Noosa Triathlon run so I was thrilled to run 2:26 faster than that today considering the hills.

In summary, I need to focus on my cycle. I really struggle with this. I'm going to have a few weeks off and then reassess my goals through winter and work out a training plan forward.

I am pretty happy to have achieved my second Olympic distance triathlon and for it to be Mooloolaba as I always said I would never do this one due to the ocean swim!

I pulled up very sore in the legs and shoulders, so I will be happy to have a few days off. I had a really uncomfortable nights sleep after the tri as I was too sore...

Pre-race ride

The BTS crew met at Loo with a View at 6:30 for a pre-race ride.

It didn't start well... Jacque came down from an apartment opposite our BTS tent and said that she didn't notice it there. It's a pretty whopping big tent so there's no way that she could miss it! Darren flew up there to see if it was really missing and returned a short time later to confirm that yes the tent is definitely missing! Mark was furious! So he headed off to the Police, etc to go and report it as missing.

We all continued on our ride and did 60minutes of pretty easy spinning, which was nice. John came along too which was good. Unfortunately we had 2 flat tyres, Suzanne and Paul, so hopefully that's our 3 things!

I felt good afterwards and Mum met us for breakfast and it was a beautiful morning.

We took it pretty easy on the Saturday just relaxing and eating well and hydrating. I had a spinach and cheese omellette for breakfast, a vegie burger at Raw Energy that was absolutely massive for lunch, I followed this up later with a large fruit salad and then only had a light dinner of breakfast cereal. So, I will see if this is a good pre race day food intake!

We could rack our bikes at 11:30 because we registered on the Friday, so we lined up at 11:15 ready to rack up! I managed to get the best position ever, I was right on the cycle exit which was great.

It was great wandering around Mooloolaba, so many fit people and everyone drinking water and looking healthy.

Ocean Swim

We left home just after 8am with Dad and our 3 bikes all set for our big weekend of Mooloolaba Triathlon.

We had a good run and called in and saw Gran on the way, then headed up to Mooloolaba and helped Mark put the tent up.

We then went for an Ocean swim. We walked down the beach to the next set of flags and had a chat to the lifeguard and told him what we were about. He told us that there were a pod of dolphins out swimming, so that was neat, I was quite excited about swimming with dolphins until we were just about in the water and the realisation set in that if there were dolphins this side of the shark net what is to stop sharks being inside the shark net!

Those thoughts aside, it was a beautiful swim. It was the nicest water I have swum in at Mooloolaba, it was absolutely magnificent. We just wanted to get a feel for the water and Dad was swimming with us so we took it pretty easy and stopped a few times along the way for Dad to catch up. It was definitely the most enjoyable Mooloolaba swim I had ever encountered! I just hope that conditions are the same on Sunday! There wasn't even any waves to slow me down on my way into shore, just beautiful.

After our swim, we checked in to the hotel and spent a fair bit of time cleaning and going over our bikes to ensure that they are shining and beautiful.

We then went and registered and got our goody bag which was full of junk mainly. Another 2 drink bottles and a shirt that will never fit any human that I know!

Mum came up a bit later after work and we met up with all the BTS crew for a bit of socialising and then we left to go and get a pasta dinner and a fairly early night.

Taper Swim

Tonight was a taper swim, so there were lots of sprints and games and relays.

Craig won the kicking competiton! Who would have thought! My team won the relay which was great.

Everybody was talking about Mooloolaba, the excitement level was high. I'm not feeling too bad, I figure that I can't get any fitter from here on in! I'm just hoping that the conditions are good. We are heading up there early in the morning, so it should be a great weekend.