Spoils in the bag :)

Quick blog from me today, the clock is ticking and there is much left to do this sunny Sunday evening. Firstly, the above picture is of me and my wonderful husband with our spoils from today's Olympic distance race -and quite a shock to the old system it was too!
Recovery from Lanza is all going well...except for my ridiculously high heart rate in earlier sessions this week. A ride with Ady and his pals for 80 miles saw my heart rate soar to dizzy heights. Now that could have been because I was hanging off the back for the entire ride or because I'm not yet recovered. Probably a combination of them both, so after a chat with Ady I agreed with him and had a lot of sleep, a rest day, an easy day and then today I went out and frightened my body by trying to make it go faster instead of the luxurious kind of plodding that it has gotten far too used to in Ironman!!
I hammered the swim and am really pleased to have been only ten seconds behind the first girl, getting out in 22.48. I hammered the bike as well...in for a penny in for a pound I say, I was after a training session and a hrad one so that's what I gave my legs :) I passed the first girl fairly easily. I know I'm a fairly strong swimmer and now cyclist but I've never had run speed, especially over such a short distance like a 10km. Therefore, my theory was to try and put as much time as possible into any girl who can run. I maintained the lead until about 8km but I knew my time was numbered as one of the girls was ploughing her way through the field, I tried to go with her when she passed me but she ran a 37min 10km, I've never ran sub 40mins stand alone so I was never going to be able to stay with her. Still I had to be careful not to switch off incase I got caught by the many girls all trying to chase us down. I'm happy I ran 41 mins (although I think it was a little under 10km) and finished in 2nd place overall in 2:15. Big smiles all round. Tom came 4th overall, 3rd in his category so we both came home with pennies and a trophy :) :) :) Thanks to Simon who gave me loads of encouragement and kept me posted on the whereabouts of the chasing girls behind me, good luck in IMUK, hope the rest of your training goes well.

This weekend has seen a plethora of racing of which congratulations must be made to all of our mates. Yesterday my cousin Ben and his team won a round of the Fun Cup at Brands Hatch and came home with a trophy the size of his house! Big ups to ya Benj :)
Daz & Ozzer were out in Wimbleball giving it their all on the torturous 70.3 course, well done boys you were awesome, wish we'd been there. Ozzer, particularly impressed with you for doing the right thing and succumbing to your Plantar Faciatis and not finishing the run. Pulling out must be the hardest thing to do, but you've got far bigger fish to fry in Hawaii in October so you did right :)

Then our mates Ady & Khara were out in Bala in Wales. Ady is going to fly around IM Austria in a couple of weeks, I know it. He's biking so strong, it'll pay you tenfold on the run Ady. Now Ady...the swim thing... hopefully the lake will be pancake flat!!
And Khara, wow, you must be over the moon, first middle distance in the bag girl. Well done both.

Ben G (our good mate & regular training partner) smashed his legs on a 10mile TT, well done Ben, sounded more painful than the speed session we had today :)

On a completely non-triathlon related subject but well worthy of a mention has to be the launch of our very good friend Steve Dennis' new book which has just hit the shelves in every good book store.... wait for it... Britney: Inside The Dream.
Now I realise not everyone is interested in the pop princess gone mad, bad and a little bit sad but having read a few excerpts of it, it is exceptionally well written and drags you into a world that few of us can possibly imagine, I mean there's no swim bike and run in it for a start! Anyway, proud of you Steve, another great book to your collection :)

And finally the biggest congratulations go to our amazing friends Martin & Liz Yelling who have had us on tenterhooks all week awaiting the arrival of their late naughty little minx who came today. Beautiful baby Ruby Rose. Tom & I are soooo happy for you both and we can't wait to meet her. Very exciting news and times ahead :)

So if you've been racing this weekend... (or giving birth)... (or launching books) what a fab time to do it.

Week Nineteen in pix is here... Enjoy.

H. x