By Virginia Winder
Poor Heather.
She's my friend with a road bike who agreed to go out for a ride with me today. It was an uphill climb and she was way ahead of me all the way.
At times she had to wait for me and she greeted me with kind words.
"You're doing great," she said when I caught up to her.
Despite my slow speed, I loved it. The burning thighs, the pounding heart, the sweat, the countryside...
Downhill was even better.
We cranked up our gears and sprinted. "Thanks for letting me bike in your slipstream," she yelled, directing me when to change gears.
Once, we got up to 40km/h, but now I want to go faster. Much faster.
Definitely, I want to go faster uphill, but reckon I need to do a bit of practice working those gears. And yes, I'm going to have to get those biking shoes back on.
This evening I swam 30 lengths in the outdoor pool and my shoulder felt OK.
Swimming is all about cruising for me at the moment until I feel good again. Need to go back to my wonderful physio Jacinta Harrison who has made me a gym programme. She, by the way, won a trip to a Tahiti at the Wells Taranaki Ironman last weekend. Fantastic stuff!
Met with Coach Clint this week and am now going to focus on long, slow bike rides and long, slow walk/runs. Still going through the transition phase, but definitely picking up the running.
If you've been wondering why I've been so useless at my blog writing, it's because:
A: Family has come first lately - and I wouldn't have it any other way. We've had my sister and brother-inlaw here for just 10 days, had my father-in-law's 80th birthday and our daughter Clementine's 18th birthday and party (including a visit from noise control at 10.22pm!).
B: I had too much work, but have now cut back to a normal workload and have a wonderful position doing marketing and communications at Puke Ariki. I love it! Yes, I'm still doing my freelancing feature stories, but finally I'm getting some balance.
C: I have been focusing on illness not wellness. After getting sick with that sore throat, which lingered and lingered, I decided I was not well enough to train. It's probably true to be honest, but my energy has returned now and I'm back in to it.
Life is good, the weather is fine, training is great and I have a patient friend called Heather.
Today, I:
Biked about 20km
Swam 1.5km
Ate 3 fantastically nutritious meals
Drank lots of water
Drank 2 coffees
Drank 1 protein shake with a banana
Worked for 2.5 hours
Slept for 9 hours (deep wonderful sleep!)
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