Soggy start to summer

It's so easy to feel smug sitting in the caravan looking out at the rain! But I'd hate to be one of the many families here who spent all yesterday pitching their tents in the lovely weather, and have laid in bed all night listening to it bucket down!

Thanks goodness for the advent of low-priced gazebos - at least they have a bit of space outside their tents so they're not all cooped up in that nasty, murky, fugginess that tents become when it's warm and wet outside!

And the long-range forecast doesn't look too flash either - but we're perfectly happy here in our apartment on wheels.

We'd bugger off to somewhere with a sunny forecast, but one day this week I have to take a quick trip to Auckland to get some work stuff out of the way, so we need to stay close to Wellington till that's done.

But who cares? Not us, we're having the time of our lives!

Yesterday, we had a great couple of hours out in the kayaks. Of course I didn't put quite enough sunblock on - the bottom half of my shins are a bit burnt (sort of the reverse version of a sock tan) with these odd white stripes on them where the leg straps from the kayak were. It was so lovely and peaceful out there on the water - not to mention all that great building up of shoulder and arm muscles!

Have trained pretty well since Christmas. Boxing Day I did a 3km walk/run in the morning and then Craig and I biked the trails in the afternoon. The next day was wet but I still did 12km road training on the bike. Yesterday I figured the kayak trip was plenty of exercise but went for a quick swim in the evening as well - first sea swim this summer! Didn't managed to tempt Craig in though.

Season's greetings

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and New Year - and a great summer break for those of you who occupy the same hemisphere as me.

Take time to relax and enjoy. Do something every day that fills your soul with joy - potter in the garden, read a book, spend lots of time with those you love.

Phase 1 complete

We had our family Christmas dinner yesterday - it was easier than juggling kids working on Christmas Day, wanting to be with partners' families, wanting to be their other parents, all that sort of thing.

So, we whipped up a Christmas feast that consisted of:
Rotisserie boned shoulder of pork (all 6kg of it!) marinated overnight in ginger beer and stuffed with dried apples and prunes
A whole (very large) blue nose, stuffed with parsley pesto and lemon slices, baked in the BBQ
A variety of salads and vege dishes (all suitable for the vegan in our midst)
A three tone chocolate cheesecake the size of a small apartment building
My Christmas ice cream (Kapiti vanilla ice cream with fruit mince and rum stirred through it and refrozen)
Lots of yummy summer berries
Banana tofu ice cream (which I have never forced myself to taste but the vegan swears is lovely)

Consequently, I'm feeling a bit bloody jaded today - but it's actually a relief to know it's all done and I won't spend Christmas Eve rushing around like a lunatic all day and cooking half the night. Even better - I WON'T HAVE TO GO NEAR A SUPERMARKET ALL DAY!

Phase 2, on Christmas Day itself, is the traditional chicken and champagne brunch at my sister's place. All I need to do for that is bake a couple of panettone in the morning - sweet as!

Christmas revised

We've changed our minds (of course!) about just hanging about at the coast for Xmas.

So we'll still go to Paekakariki on Boxing Day (or even Christmas afternoon) and stay for New Year's Eve. Then it's off to Taupo on the 2nd. We were going anyway as we have tickets to Gin Wigmore and Dave Dobbyn. But instead of just whipping up there for a night we are taking the caravan and staying for two nights.

Then (drum roll please) we're off to Whitianga to stay with Helena and Craig at the camping ground they run! We're really excited about catching up with them, and about spending time on the Coromandel - the kayaks and bikes will certainly be must-pack items.

We'll leave there on the 9th or 10th and wander back down the North Island - not sure what route yet - so we get home in plenty of time to start work again on the 18th.

I finally did my first swim today, at the local outdoor pool (it's 30m and supposedly heated). The 300m took 10 and half minutes, so I don't feel to bad about that. I only did breast-stroke and I'm thinking I'm better off just working on my speed at that, rather than trying to master freestyle.

Now that we've got firmer plans for our holiday, I better start working on the travelling triathlon training plan.

Glug revisited

Just over 4 years ago I posted this about how badly I SUCK at swimming. Nothing has changed since then.

I haven't yet hit the water to train for this triathlon - but I plan to on Sunday. I'm going to swim 300m, no matter how long it takes me. At least then I can aim to improve!

Poised

I'm ready to start my 'proper' training programme tomorrow. I've been doing some training in the last week, but now it's time to get serious.

My PT and I have worked out a three phase approach based on what's happening with the holidays etc - things are a bit all over the place in 9 weeks from now till the triathlon on 6 February.

First there's the plan to get through from now till when I finish work on the 23rd. Then there's the stepped up version for while I'm on holiday till 18 January. Then I'll have three weeks of fine tuning when I'm back at work (and the gym) again.

So, for the next almost three weeks it works like this:
Monday: PT session with Karl, concentrating on the muscles needed for the various triathlon disciplines.
Tuesday: 5-8km ride on the roads near home
Wednesday: 3km walk/run (run as much as I can and walk the rest)
Thursday: Ride again
Friday: rest
Saturday: walk/run again
Sunday: swim - working on building distance up as much as possible

He wants me to do all my running and riding on the road instead of in the gym - no matter what the weather!

On days when I'm not training in the morning I'll use the Wii to do yoga before work, just to get a really good stretch.

Phase two will have much more concentration on swimming (going for every second day) as that's where I'm weakest.

Craig and I are planning to spend most of our break in the caravan, probably at Paekakariki (but if the weather's crap we'll head elsewhere), so at least I'll have a good beach to swim at.

I want to set a real goal for the triathlon (rather than just to finish), but I need to do a couple of swims first so I can work out what time to aim for.

Milestone

Nothing to do with weight or fitness this one.

Tonight is my boy's 21st party. Jake actually turned 21 last month, but we decided to have the party after all the varsity kids got back to town.

I couldn't ask for more in a son - he is a kind and loyal man who cares deeply about his family and friends. Of course he is a bit of a larrikin, too.

Elbow epiphany

This may be the strangest analogy I've ever come up with.

I was at a function last night - not a particularly fascinating one. At one stage I was standing with a group of people listening to the speaker. I was in my standard 'not really into this' pose - my arms were crossed. Because I was wearing short sleeves, at some stage in my trance of boredom I noticed how smooth my elbows are now.

The skin on my body easily becomes dry and flaky (love that crocodile skin look!), so I make sure I put body lotion on at least once a day. My elbows in particular can become very dry and patchy - they will become quite sore and cracked if I don't look after them.

But for years they have stayed soft and smooth - that's because when I put lotion on my arms I put it first on my elbows and then spread it out from there. I do this without even thinking about it - it's totally automatic.

OK, I know you're bored now - where the hell is Sue going with this?

It's all about habits. I trained myself to have smooth elbows; it's just part of my daily routine. Somehow, I must be able to train myself to make healthy food choices - not having to think about each and every bite, but just automatically eating what is good for me.