The rain strikes again

As I worked yesterday and couldn't paddle in the afternoon, I was going to go for my run when Chris got home last night. Well he got home at 5:30 and be darned it was already dark. What the *&%$ is going on there. How can it be already dark at 5:30pm? I think this winter is really going to frustrate me and play havoc with my training!!!
Anyway the plan was to get up this morning, feed the boys breakie and go for a nice early morning run down at the lake. Of course it started raining just as we were about to get in the car. Now this used to never worry me, as I like running in the rain and I just put a wet weather cover over the boys, but Connor is getting so tall now that he barely fits in the pram anymore and the rain cover hits him in the head now.
So I decided to go to the shops (which I was going to do afterwards), and hoped that on the way home the weather would be better and I'd get my run in. The thought had even occurred to me to go to the gym there and put the boys in the creche, but that would have turned out a bit expensive. Anyway after the shops the weather had cleared and I drove to the lake. It was looking a bit ominous as I started my warm-up walk, but I thought I'd be able to get back before it rained again. I was wrong. After a 5 min walk and 5 minutes into my run it started raining again. I turned around and ran back to the car (the boys thought the rain was fun and called out wheeeeeeeeeee, wheeeeeeeee the whole way back). Oh well at least I got a 10 minute run in.

I'm so excited!!!!

Well, last week I made the decision to sell my engagement ring from my first marriage so that I can buy a K1 of my own. Basically it came down to the fact that I'd rather have my own K1 to paddle than have a ring (albeit a very beautiful one) sitting in my drawer doing nothing. I now have an incredibly engagment and wedding ring from my husband Chris and that's the one that means something to me.

To be honest it's been doing my head in a bit, trying to work out how much I could sell it for and what kind of K1 to get. I really wanted to have another try of Greg Slade's (Sladecraft) slimline K1. I had a very brief paddle of it a couple of months ago and absolutely loved it. Now there's no way I'll get enough for the ring to pay for a new Sladecraft K1, so I thought I'd ask Greg if he'd consider selling me the plug kayak (the one I tried). He's keen and I'm going to get it this weekend to have a better paddle in to see if I like it over greater distances. I'm soooooo excited. If all goes well and I still like it, then I'll buy it and I'll finally have a K1 of my own again.

A great morning run

The anti-inflamatories have worked well on my shoulder but it was still too sore to push the pram for my run. So I decided to walk down to the soccer park and let the boys play there whilst I ran around the fields. It's a great place to do this. The grounds are fully fenced and there are 2 soccer fields side by side with short even grass to run on.

I put the boys in between the 2 fields and they each had their own soccer ball, plastic golf club and plastic golf ball to play with whilst I ran around the perimiter. It was fantastic. They both played beautifully in the middle and I could see and talk to them the whole time. I ran for 20 minutes which turned out to be about 6 laps and the boys had a wonderful time and got some exercise too. Great plan! I'll definately be doing that again.

The run felt good, eventhough it's definately harder running on grass. The jump up to 20 minutes went really well and I'm starting to feel good running again.

The mind was willing, but the shoulder wasn't

I guess 3 days in a row was being a little bit unrealistic. I was so excited to go for another paddle this morning. 3 days in a row...coool I thought. It was me (in Marks Van Dusen), Mark (in Anton's Mustang K1), Anton in his TK1 and JJ in their double.

I started off feeling great. It felt relatively easy and I felt remarkably comfortable in the Van Dusen. About half way back up the river heading towards the lake I started to feel my shoulder aching and I noticed that I had dropped my right arm a bit. I tried a few different technique tricks to see if I could make it feel a bit better but it was just getting worse. Eventhough I had coped well with the other's wash earlier, it was just getting frustrating now and I was really struggling. Up at the lake I pulled in and got Mark to help me do a few stretches that Buzz (physio) had showed me as a trick to make it feel better. It seemed to work, but a couple of hundred metres into it, it started to get sore again. Very pi$$ed off.

Everytime I copped a bit of wash it would flare up because it was so fatigued and just couldn't help stabilise anymore. I ended up doing the last 1km with it tucked in so close to my body that I was just not paddling properly at all. Soooo frustrating. I'm sure everyone who paddled with me today would say what a bad mood I was in....so sorry guys. I promise not to whinge so much in future. I was not good company today.

I'm just a bit disheartened that it flared up so easily. I really don't want to have the surgery done, but I think it will have to be done eventually. Then again, it coped really well with the Hawkesbury Classic and with backing up at State 2 days in a row. So I don't know what the problem was today. I guess I haven't paddled 3 days in a row for quite a while now, so it probably wasn't the distance, it was just too fatigued doing 3 days in a row to function properly. I'll have to build up to it a bit slower next time.

A HARD paddle

It was arranged for me, Anton, and JJ (Jack and Jen) to meet up at 3pm for a paddle. JJ had paddled 14km this morning so I figured we'd be pretty safe. I was wrong. Jack is just an Energiser bunny!
It was a hard paddle. My heart rate was up around 180-195 the whole way. I was pushing it and doing it hard. Occassionally I'd get on a wash and have a brief breather, but by the time we turned around the lake markers I was struggling. We must have been going pretty quick because Anton hardly talked at all (for him).

However, when we turned around the marker and headed back, something wonderful happened and I got "in the zone". It was amazing. I just felt great. Still working really hard, but feeling great at the same time. My heart rate was even higher than on the way up, but I felt better! No-one talked at all on the way back and I know Anton was doing it tough too. I was stuffed and feeling a bit light-headed at the end, but I was satisfied with the effort I put in.

Back in the club K1

As much as I appreciate the opportunity to borrow the club K1.... I hate paddling it. It's 16.5kg, and feels like a slug. Anyway, Anton and I met up at short notice and went for a quick paddle. We only had limited daylight, so we went a pretty solid pace. Paddling past Jack and Jen's place we saw them out by the river and we went over for a quick chat.

We then kept heading up to the lake and after turning around the 2nd marker I stopped in awe...it was an amazing sunset. Looking back towards the river it just looked beautiful. I wish I could have taken a photo.

We made it back to the cars just as it was starting to get pretty dark and then whilst putting everything away I got eaten by mosquitos. Gee they love me.

A good run

First thing this morning I headed out to the lake with the 2 boys for a run. Connor wanted to sit in the pram today so I had the 2 boys in the double pram. They were both dressed in their Superman outfits (their choice) and we got lots of cute comments from other people.

I felt good straight away. I decided to just go slow (pushing over 30kg whilst running is hard enough), and I felt good the whole way. I feel ready to go for a bit longer next time.