Blimin heck its been hot! I’ve been leaving my training till quite late. It’s still nice and warm and a beautiful time of night. Well, except for the bugs. It is so gross, huffing and puffing up the hill to have a dirty moth hit you in the back of the throat, or a swarm of sandflies! I must say my reaction time is getting a lot faster and as quick as they’re in my mouth I’m spitting them back out.
This did lead me to wonder how much protein I could get out of them, however I concluded NOT enough! There’s been a few accidental swallowings, but I try to remember my buff now, because even though it keeps the heat in, it does keep the bugs out!
I/we survived the first week back at school! Then we get this Wednesday off, with it being Waitangi Day so have been a bit spoilt and have ‘eased’ back into it.
I did have to laugh. I do try to read the others blogs, but haven’t in a while. However I did come across the one posted on 22 January by John, ’UltraHumps’. I think initially it was the name that caught my eye when I first started reading them. ’UltraHumps’ – it sounded like some sort of fitness camel on steroids or something (and I mean absolutely no offence to you John! You’re no camel. I know its a play on your name and the ultra events you partake in). Thank you for reading my blog (nice to know they’re read) and the positive feedback. You did question if I’ve ever thought about doing a half. Maybe I could jack something up with Ray.
I’ve always wanted to complete a half. I’ve been talking about it for literally years. I’ve talked about it and talked about it and that’s all I’ve done mainly because I’d do a 10km event (this is years ago) and that’d seem enough. However after starting with Ray it has been in the back of my mind, because I realised how when I set my mind to it and have someone keep me on the straight and narrow, I could get to my end goal. I’ve had in my head the St Clair in Blenheim which is in May as a possible one to give a go. My friends that do it say it’s a great first one. That won’t be happening this year, but it’s definitely something that is on the radar and hopefully before I turn 40! Or maybe I might do it as my 40th birthday, I don’t wanna say present, but more of a birthday challenge. I’ve got a couple of years up my sleeve. Anyway I am just putting it out there, so accountably is being summoned.
Ray has got me back focusing on zones… aaarrrgh! I brushed up on them before tonight’s ride. It’s actually really hard to keep your heart rate in a certain zone. I added a hill just to see if I could and I couldn’t, but it didn’t go too far out. Well I haven’t had my feedback as yet. I will leave this open to Ray to answer.
Today I took a different route. I felt like I needed a change and it was really good. I got carried away going down at one point, then remembered I’d have to bike back up so going on time, I spun around and headed home. I clocked up my fastest downhill. I’ve only been able to get to 50kms down Churchill Street, but the Charwell Folks bend is a goodie and I squeezed out another 4kph. It’s a bit of a slog up the other side, so it will be interesting to see how “in zone” I was (I’m not holding my breath). [UPDATE: Turns out I was so far out of the zone, it wasn’t funny].
But my darling boy cooked me dinner – his specialty – ‘pasta with mushroom and bacon with a cheese sauce’. I am not sure if I was just craving carbs or that it was made with love, but it so was yummy. We cheated and used brought pasta sauce tonight, but it went down a treat!!
Here’s to a great week ahead, and better HR zones. Fingers crossed!
– Lisa Harris
Now that Lisa has completed the 10km Kaikoura Whale Run, she has agreed to continue writing to continue to inspire other people out there to get started and make a positive change. Check in next Tuesday for her next article.
Read Lisa’s last article here:
And all her previous articles are stored here:
http://www.coachray.nz/category/client-stories/lisas-journey/