By Virginia Winder
Coach Clint has me in his sights.
He's no cowboy gunslinger, but this former triathlete is laying down the law for my training on the wild west coast of New Zealand.
This 30-something man of business is the general manager of a generous company, which has decided to back me in Mission Half-Ironwoman (note the gender change).
However, it's Clint's boss, the owner of the business, who has decided I'm worth a wager.
Sorry, I still can't do the major revelation - you have no idea how hard it is not to tell all - but it's all about timing and rights to the story. Haha, just joking, but it sounds good, eh, Virginia on the front page of NZ Woman's Weekly, dressed in a suit of iron.
You're right, not a pretty picture and not happening. But the details are all about timing.
That brings us back to Coach Clint... I had a one-on-one session with him last week and he plotted my future on a whiteboard. I now have clearer SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely) goals, a training schedule and even have homework.
I need to find a social running/walking group, a cycling group, learn about cycling etiquette (I'll be like Liza Doolittle for sure), find out my maxium heart rate, record how far and how long I'm walking, stretch after each exercise session and find out the swim, cycle and run times for my age group in this year's Port of Tauranga Half-Ironman (done!). Researching the latter, I found that Taranaki woman Sonia O'Connell was the fastest female swimmer in the race. She's a former surf lifesaving clubmate of mine, so she'll have some great training advice for sure.
Anyway, Clint quizzed me about a whole bunch of things, including my realistic weight goal - we reckon around 65kg would be good and I should be able to reach that by the end of May next year.
Clint has also armed me with a new training schedule, which began today. OK, so I had rest day. He's revised things, because from now on I'll be doing long training sessions at the weekends and Monday is my most intense time for deadlines, so will need a break.
Had a couple of quiet days before storming ahead with a big week of training.
Yesterday, Warren and I walked through the Ratapihipihi Reserve and I wore my new tramping boots. They saved me, about three times actually, from twisting my bendy ankles.
Walked up that seemingly, never-ending hill and had visions of my mother swearing and puffing her way up and up and up those steps. I wasn't there for that cuss-and-climb outing; my sister Felicity was, but it's part of our family folkore so it feels like my memory too.
Our darling mother was delightfully naughty and terribly feisty.
Clint wants me to cut down on going to the gym. I might, a little, but the rebel in me just could slip two shortened weight-training session in somewhere to help with my swimming.
I like the plan, which we've worked out together, but have tweaked it just a bit so I can go swimming with my niece, Rebekah.
We're meeting up tomorrow, but if the forecast storm hits, we could be heading indoors to the shorter pool for our workout.
See, there's more than training on the horizon...
Today, I:
Worked for 15 hours (yes, fail on that one - glum face)
Drank heaps of fluids (coffee, chai, water, green tea)
Slept for 6 hours
Trained for zero hours (Monday is new rest day)
Ate pretty well, but did find myself grazing in the pantry for nuts and a couple of crackers
Had family time because I worked at home all day
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