A trio of triathletes

Triathlon day had been and gone again in an agony of testosterone (not me),adrenaline (definitely me)panic (ditto) and downright fear and trembling! The day dawned drizzly and deceptively still and we got on with the tasks that needed to still be done. We have prepared the night before well so just breakfast to force down into sickly tummies, the animals to feed, bikes to pop on the car and off we go. Now we will re-wind slightly to the animals to feed bit. As I was dashing off to get the bikes in-between mouthfuls of sawdust, sorry, weetabix I heard a shout of "I don't believe it...there are some piglets in the other field". Houdini has done it and produced 7 live piggies of a variety of hues. After the piglet admiration society had done their bit we managed to get everyone rounded up and in the car with all the paraphernalia necessary for a trio of tri-athletes. We duly registered ourselves in the race and the fact that Garret and I were in the next to last heat.....long wait! Toby set off with a fabulous swim in heat three, we saw him set off second out of the pool and confident for the 20k cycle. All too soon we were lined up for our briefing not feeling at all left out amongst the red and black Glasgow tri suits. My swim was good and comfortable with a PB at 8.59 breaking that 9 minute barrier that has so eluded me. Garret did not do quite so well as he struggled with the anti clockwise swimming in his lane. Still, did well enough as he entered transition as I left. There was a great moment when we heard via the commentator that Toby had just set off on his run having returned safely from the cycle and a cat and mouse chase along the course. All went well with Garret overtaking me a mile or so along the way as expected. I had a red and black suit in my sights when I tried too hard with the gears and off fell the chain...only ONE swear word later and I was off and fixing it and back on having lost a couple of minutes maybe and gained some very dirty hands.......the rest of the cycle was okay apart from a nice challenging stiff wind against us on the homeward stretch. The crowds and encouragement back at the pool was fabulous, and so tantalising for a few seconds until off once more on the run. Trying to work the suddenly seized up legs took a mile or so but then things were more or less fine for the rest of the 4 mile run out and back along the canal where I seemed to be consistently overtaken by the fast guys from the last hear and managed only one overtake of a heat 5 or 4 of my own.... and then into the waiting arms of family and friends. Toby did a stunning 1.14 and was first male jr and 12th over all, Garret was in the top 20 in 1.16 and I was NOT in the top 20 or anything like in 1.27 but was first Mid Argyll lady finisher . Garret got a prize for his very fast transition from bike to run so we all came away with a little something!

Excuses Excuses Excuses.....read on

Shame on me...so long without a post but I do have an excuse or two honest! Firstly we had the sweaty, panicky downward slide to the Triathlon (hence the pictures)coupled with an end of season rush for rooms with some very nice guests indeed. You know who you are......So, back to the triathlon. The day was good with kind weather, just a bit of a breeze on the cycle. I had a better swim than I expected pulled along as I was in the wake of a friend and better swimmer. I hauled myself out for a rather frantic transition to bike losing precious seconds by forgetting to fasten my helmet strap, a big slap on the hands and an ignominious return to the bike racking if you try to set off on the cycle so woefully prepared. The cycle leg was so so 42 minutes with the usual leg crunching start to the run when one's thigh muscles become so disproportionately large and heavy that even a slow crawl along the pavement seems unachievable. Luckily after a km or so of torture it begins to subside and I finished in 34 minutes...oh blessed finish line. So, then we went to Liz's for a little glass or two of bubbly to celebrate and...Toby decided to round the evening off nicely by tripping outside and (we subsequently discovered) tear a tiny artery at the top of the nose. This naughty little blood vessel dominated my life over the next two weeks or so as it continued to bleed at varying degrees for the following week until a humongous eruption on Saturday night which saw us moving late at night from home to Dr's surgery to ambulance to ENT ward in Glasgow at a fast rate of knots. Our heads were reeling but not as much mine was 5 days later after several joyless nights sleeping in a hard chair by his bed. We actually reached discharge twice during the week but had to return.After numerous goes with a rigid scope the eventual cauterization was achieved with a GA. So, 5 days later a paler son (and mother) returned to the bosom of the family in time for Rosie's birthday on Friday.
We have now had several discussions on what not to say to complete strangers i.e "my mother was born in 1950" to the porter on the way to theatre and "do you know what you are doing" or words to that effect to the consultant surgeon just before theatre and (worst of all) "hospital food is really good". I hope I am forgiven for my absence.

Training schedule skuppered....

A quick visit to the osteopath on Friday turned out to be, well, a not very quick visit after all as Donald patiently got to grips with my mysterious jaw ache ( apparently coming from my neck) and did that clicky twisting thing that leaves a weird but not painful sensation behind it. As he is examining areas such as neck, back etc there are clues that I have learnt to tune in on in preparation i.e a positioning of my head to one side and the notable absence of those reassuring words "it is okay, I am not going to do anything" mean there is a clicky clicky moment coming up. From that realization onwards my job is to tense up all muscles in preparation and his job is to get in there with the adjustment a microsecond before that happens. Easy really. Anyway the neck is much improved but my much bashed around right knee that I mentioned in passing has been diagnosed as something I cannot pronounce nor remember. A few key words have stuck in my sieve like memory "split" " Patella" "tendon damage" "bandage" and most terrifying of all a practical demonstration of how the knee cap is grinding on all below it.
The following is me feebly trying to maintain some kind of fitness regime.

"So, will it make it worse to run on it?"
"Of course it will but that will not stop you so here is how to bandage it"

Then off he scuttles next door to relieve Garret of his stiff hip and spills my beans (so much for patient confidentiality) so now I am banned from running for a week. I reckon this is only so Garret who has upped his training can look good at the triathlon....still I do have a good excuse now. Methinks that words like "split" "patella" and possibly "tendon damage" may well be bandied around at the end of the month plus I will look a hero taking part at all......In revenge I left Garret to pay every cloud, silver linings and all that.

"Out and back again"

The great day of battle between Man and wet suit has dawned and gone, and we can safely say that Garret won....not the triathlon of course that would be silly but the bit about getting out of the wet suit successfully. he was very pleased with his swim, even during it he gained great confidence from the presence of others actually swimming at his speed or slower....it was a 600m "round the buoy and back again" course and once out, on dry land and onto the bike he was kicking metaphorical ass...until the gear wheel put on the night before partially broke leaving him with 5 gears only on a 12.8k hilly course. Undaunted he finished that leg and tackled a run of 3k starting with a large hill (up)...the race organisers must have really been chuckling at that one "Ahhh, now let me see how can we get them really hurting when the end is in sight, hmmm, that hill will do it to poor legs just off the bikes and trying desperately to find the running muscles hidden under the cycling ones".
We are very proud of him and relieved that all went well. Of course the constant cry now is "if only I had trained for it". Nevertheless 17th place is pretty good. After all this endeavour we took Toby to work in the afternoon and went off for a run, I set the route and Garret dragged me along in his wake. My excuse is that he had warmed up first with the mornings fun packed activities so I was technically having the harder run (this was very true). Weeks total for me and the dogs 17m

Exercises of many kinds (well, at least three...).

What a whirlwind of guests and beds and children etc this week. We have had some lovely guests, very chatty and friendly which makes life very pleasant. Have managed to fit a couple of runs in round all the duties, the first with Lizzie in Inveraray round the golf course whilst her youngest went to golf club. We did four miles which was pretty good considering that my legs were achy from climbing up The Bell Tower in Inveraray with Freya an hour or so before. The other run was last night at Ardcastle with Liz and two other desperate women willing to run in the rain, there are so many twists and turns that I am at a loss to map it but it was 5 miles so the total (11.8m)is creeping up. I finally managed to persuade Garret that, as he is undertaking his first open water swim as part of a sprint tri on Saturday (that is this Saturday!) he really should try his wet suit in the water. I was somewhat worried about the getting out of the suit before the cycle as a trial run, literally a dry run had me in fits as he tried to get wrists and ankles out from the vice like grip. However, after a wee dip in Loch Fyne during which he collected 2 stalkers (large seals who, apparently had large teeth and were showing altogether too much interest in him)it was apparent that a wet wet suit is easier to get off than a dry wet suit. Big relief, now getting in..that is a different story. Another quietish day with far too much time spent talking to friendly guests, can't resist and that after all is what it is all about! No hassle, then Toby did his Woolen Mill stint and then he and Freya had a lesson on Barra, the friendly but a bit lazy horse and Bubbles, the more lazy horse. My magnificent children then cleared out and hoovered the car despite a dreadful head injury for Toby (not a mark on him and soon recovered!). Apart from missing Rosie (we have a SKYE date at 8.30pm) a good day all round.