Sorry - yet another fitness-related update

Lately it seems all I ever talk about is my fitness adventures.  I guess you can say it is the focus of the moment.  I wouldn't go so far as calling it an obsession just yet, but it is certainly getting a little easier to get motivated to go out and do something.  Other than that there is really not an awful lot of interesting things happening other than what the kids get up to.  I mean I can tell you about the dishes I had to do this morning or the laundry or dinner that I had to cook - but really - that's not interesting reading.  So my fitness adventures it has to be and hopefully it is interesting enough! 

Right now Rose and I are each working on a very specific rather big goal.  I'm not going to share just yet what this goal is because you'll think I've absolutely lost it and right now I can't afford to be locked up in some or the other institution.  I kind of have to put the effort and hard work in.  I will share at some point - I promise.  A bit closer to the time.

After this weekend Rose and I need medals for our dedication and commitment.  Honestly - here we are on a weekend and we are not sleeping late.  Instead yesterday at 9am we were out running and this morning I met Rose at 8am at her house so we could cycle to our training session.  Usually it would be a Saturday training session, but we changed it to a Sunday as the children's winter sports will be starting now and next week Saturday we'll be up early to support Bianca at her first netball match. So now we meet our coach on a Sunday morning and at this stage we are doing a running session one week and a bike session the next.  Later on she'll throw sea swimming into the mix (but for now that would be too cold).  This morning's session was a bike skills session. 

So around 8am we left Rose's house.  Murphy decided to throw all she could at us and not long after we left, Rose's bike seat came loose and went right down making for a rather uncomfortable ride for her.  Then Rose's gears started acting up a bit which meant she could not use her gears on the uphills / downhills and just for fun it started raining a bit.  Oh well.  It was too late to turn around by that time.  I've never cycled from our part of town all the way to our meeting point and it was rather interesting to see the route.  By the time we arrived at our meeting point I had done around 16km (now that is quite the warm up I tell you). 

Lynley then took us on a short ride until we got to a "lovely" hill where we had to go up and down a few times.  This is so we can practise changing gears to get the best out of going uphill (or downhill).  She was happy with my gear changes and said that I'm steady on my bike so I'm pleased with the feedback.  She then took us to do a circuit / block and she wanted us to go around this 3 times to see if we can keep an even pace.  It was hard work.  There was one particularly tough uphill and just for fun we had some wind coming from the front.  After a break (after the 3rd one) we had to do 3 more.  Pleased that I mostly kept an even pace and the second set of 3 I was 3 seconds slower than the first set.  So there - I'm killing myself, but at least I'm doing it consistently :-). 

Then it was time to cycle back home.  So today I did a total of 37.49km.  It was a bit slower than I would have liked to go for most of the ride, but I'm really pleased with doing the longer total distance as that is what I'm trying to do at the moment to go for longer distances.

I was thinking today what a great team I have. 

There is Val our swim coach who works us hard, but is really good at what she teaches and I do feel that I've come a long way since I started.  Half the time I don't realise when I do something wrong so it is great that she is able to then let me know and correct me so I can try and become more efficient.  I would very much like to learn to swim faster, but I'm sure that will come as I go along working on the technique.  It is also really nice that at Friday's session we were 4 instead of the usual 2 (Rose and I). 

Lynley is our other coach.  We first met Lynley when Rose and I were preparing for the Kapiti Women's Triathlon and she was one of the coaches who came to help out.  Usually after the event, that would mean the end of the Saturday training group, but a few of us wanted to keep going.  Especially now in the winter it will be good for keeping us motivated to keep going.  This time round though we have changed the way the trainings are structured and instead of just going out for a bike ride or going for a run, we asked Lynley to actually focus on some technique and skills with us so we can hopefully become a little more efficient and maybe even a bit better at it.  We're a small group of ladies, but it is a lovely group and really supportive which is really nice. 

Speaking of that -  It is really nice to sometimes train with others.  I never thought this, but after doing the Saturday training for the KWT I realised that it is great to sometimes do things like this with others. 

Apart from the weekly swim and other training groups, Rose is my training buddy for a lot of the time.  Right now I'm working on my mindset (which isn't always as strong as it should be) with runs especially so that I keep running (and no walking) whatever distance I set myself out to achieve on a particular day and it is much easier to keep going if somebody is with you.  We can't train for absolutely everything together as Rose and I have different goals for this big goal I spoke about earlier and we have different fitness levels at the moment.  But sometimes it is nice to have a training buddy.

A special mention has to go to my friend Paul as well.  He has been incredibly supportive and has been encouraging me to push it harder.  It is great being able to share with him what I get up to and how I am doing even though sometimes I think he doesn't believe I'm pushing it hard enough.  (Not yet anyway).  :-).  With him being so passionate and so incredibly driven with the things he gets up to, it is hard not to feel inspired.  His advice and encouragement really helps a lot!  It is really nice when somebody is genuinely interested in what you get up to and that kind of makes you want to try and do your best and put the effort in.

I think for me, having a great supportive team on my side is making all the difference!