Oops ... I did it again...

... and I blame Sandra entirely!!!

After Quilt Club today, Sandra said, come to my car and check out her brand spanking new SubLime2 bike (not the photo below)... Sandra brought her new bike after last month's quilt club meeting, as her other bike she'd been riding had been stolen. Anyway I'd been chatting with Sandra and she was raving about how wonderful it was to ride (Sandra used to have a mountain-cross/hybrid, like me)... my SiL Leigh also has a SubLime1 (Sasha) which she too is very happy with. Then Sandra said the fatal words... "why don't you take my bike for a quick spin" - ahh you could tell the difference straight away... now I had been thinking of looking for a road bike and I've been having the delimma of whether to go full road bike, or intro-road bike with straight bars. Anyway I've had a number of bikes on the 'watchlist on Trademe' for the past few weeks... and I've decided that sometimes life is just meant to be. I got home from Quilt Club, said hi to hubby, and patted Diesel, then logged into Trademe, did another search to check if any new sublimes had been listed and damn what do you know this one (in the photo below) was due to close in 1 hour.

.... so I placed a bid, sat and waited, got out-bidded - quite a few times too I must add. I got a text from Sandra to say she'd had a magic ride around Eastbourne after Quilt Club (DH and I had done our 28km bike in the morning before the sun got hot!), I text Sandra back to say "OMG there's a sublime1 up for auction and its sitting at $215".... anyway long story short I WON THE AUCTION for a mere $315.00 - the new girl is 4 yrs old as been regularly serviced as the previous owners son works in a cycle shop, bike has new tyres (back tyre is one of those ones that are meant to be hard to puncture!) - only catch its in Blenheim so I need to arrange for it to be couriered to me... I can't wait....(and I'll get to ride her in the next RealWomen Duathlon 11 April in WLG). Now I've got two great bikes. I am going to keep 'Grace' my faithful girl who got me through my first year of duathlons, she is magic for the river trail rides, rimutuka incline track etc. The new girl (have to think of a name) will be purely for the road.

When I was driving DD1 to her girlfriends tonight, I said to her, a-ha you can enter the RW Duathlon with me now that I've got two bikes, and she said - no way she ain't sitting on no bike... I said I'll work on you and you will definitely be entering with me next year!

The other bonus today from Quilt Club was, a lovely lady by the name of Doreen came up to me and said "aren't you doing a Dear Jane Quilt? How are you going" we chatted a bit and Doreen has started a DJ quilt too and we've decided that next month at club we'll show each other the blocks we have made and then each following month we are to bring the 'new' blocks we've made - eek! Though in saying that it will be good motivation to get working on this again...

Tomorrow DH and I are doing the BikeWise River Trail ride (part of February bike month) which is a 26km ride from Harcourt Park (north of Upper Hutt) to Hikoikoi Reserve (Petone), its a free event, with bands, sausage sizzle etc at the Reserve, then free bus ride (and the bikes are put into the truck following the bus) back to Harcourt Park. Also part of BikeWise month I've been recording my km's for February as part of the business challenge (IRD have entered) and out of all the staff in the building I work in only 5 are competing this year - though our other buildings in Wellington have been clocking up great kms!). After tomorrows ride my km's will total 151km for the month, not too bad considering its only been the weekends I been able to get out on the bike!

Anyway enough of my warbling, and I'll sign off here and get a bit of hand stitching done on a secret project...

Hugs to you all and hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

Survived the last duathlon in Rangitikei Active Series

Absolutely gorgeous day in Halcombe today... and we finished off the Rangitikei Duathlon series on a great note... both SiL and I beat our fastest times by 3-4 minutes... today I clocked in at 53:40 minutes and SiL did 50:47 - we were both very pleased. Here is the briefing and the first part of the run section - notice the hill - that's what they call 'undulating'!!

There were two 'mean' hills in the bike section - loved the downhill. The new slick tyres were different to bike on - though pleased that I'd had the mechanic (DH) change them from my usual mountain bike tyres :).

Next event looks like it might be a local one at the end of August ...

Hope you've had a great weekend and enjoyed the sunshine.

Hugs

Look who's surfing the internet...

Bella !! Checking out Kait's conversations on Bebo :)

I went with my girlfriend Les, to a Simply Silver one day jewellery class on Saturday at Inverlochy Art School - isn't this the coolest house for an Art School...

Check out the tiles in the entrance foyer, doesn't this look like a quilt - gorgeous...

Here we are being shown a few of the key components for making a ring... once you've measured the length of silver needed to make your ring/bracelet - you need to cut - the hacksaw has the finest of blades that snaps very easily...

after cutting your silver, you then begin the hammering, letter punching or whatever to create the design in your piece, the more you 'hit' the harder the silver becomes, so you need to anneal the silver to make it soften.

The anneal process can occur a number of times, before you get to the next stage of shaping your ring/bracelet...

Here is the ring I made - three images to show the writing I stamped - please visualise the words as 'level'...

Here is the gorgeous bracelet and ring that Les made - very cool !

And three images of the bracelet I made, to match the ring - though in a thinner silver band... again imagine the lettering is 'level' - though I reckon it adds to the quirkiness and originality :)

Was a fantastic way to spend a Saturday, catching up with a favourite girlfriend, learning a new craft - could be addictive ... certainly can get some fast results.

Sunday was spent doing the 2nd stage of the Rangitikei Active Duathlon series, after last months adventure of entering the Long section, Sis-in-Law (Leigh) and I decided we would enter the medium course 2k run, 10k bike, 1.5k run - the course layout was way better, the hills were still undulating however manageable, the weather was warmer, though we got heavy rain on the bike section.

Our aim was to ensure we bettered our times from when we did the same distances in our first duathlon (April 09, in Wellington) - at that event we both did 1hr 12 min - today Leigh did 54.39 and I staggered in 3 minutes later at 57.07 - we were stoked. Leigh's a machine, she jogged both run sections, I managed to jog 3/4 of the first run section - I was coming last at the end of the first run section, at transition I crawled to my bike and peddled like crazy to try and catch up to Leigh (and the others), I managed to pass two people (yeah, I wasn't last anymore!!) but couldn't catch her - she was in my sights the last kilometre before transition to the 2nd run section - by then my legs were not happy, I was wet from heavy rain in the bike section - so I decided to power walk the 1.5km - I tried a couple of times to get the shuffle jog into action - though the shins were screaming NOOOOOO. So I walked. And I still came in 3rd to last for our section - I was stoked...

Here's Leigh coming back at the end of the 2nd run to egg me on to the finish line :) the runners behind me are from the Long section run!

The training focus for this month is going to be more gentle jogs with Kait a few times a week (she's keen to be my jogging buddy) and get some good quality shoes to help with the damn shin splints. (I used to get them wickedly when did aerobics, and you'd think after been a couch potato for nearly 2 years that would have rested them enough - but NOOO).

Next event is July - round 3 for the Rangitikei Active series.

Hope you too had a great weekend.

Lucky Last... !!

Oh my goodness 2nd Duathlon under our belt - last Sunday we left Masterton an an ungodly hour to head to Marton for the 9am registration for the duathlon. The drive up was COLD, bursts of rain and even hail while we were drinking a coffee waiting for the recreation centre office to open to register... though an angel was looking after us, and the rain stopped for the event however it was very cold and windy...

Yours truly trying to strap my feet like we saw on the internet to help with shin splints - I kept getting the tape totally tangled so ripped it all off in disgust and went without...

Sasha (Leigh's white bike) and my Grace - all lonered waiting for the rest of the mad competitors to arrive.

Starting to unload the car, trying to convince ourselves that it wasn't cold and that WE CAN DO IT !

Ohh baby, love the day-glow jacket (sis-in-law Leigh) before we took off...

We had entered the long distance event! We jogged/walked the 3km first section, then biked the 20km second section – that was hard work, uphill (by no means undulating like it said onthe course notes) and three very big long hills, awesome on the way back (downhill yeah!) but by then was knackered; then we walked the final section of 2km as my hamstrings were cold and had gone real tight, and Leighs knee was sore – we came in LUCKY LAST Leigh was 1 hr 37 min 11 sec – and I was 1 hr 37min 12 sec – no one was around bar the timekeeper!!

Even though a little deflated we were last – we are very proud of ourselves as we had worked out we would do it in 1hr 50min going on the times we do at home… next event is 14 June – so we are both going to up the anti on the running as this is holding us back big time and build up speed over distance rather than endurance over long distances – as that was the fastest we have biked 20km – it usually takes us 1 hour at a leisure pace… was a little body tired on Monday - though all in all the legs have faired well.

Hmm - me after the event, back inside the recreation centre - was feeling a little knaffed :)

Yeah sis we did it, we may have walked in last, though we did damn good.

You should have seen the other competitors in the long distance section we were in - they were lithe, lean bodies who had awesome road bikes that went whizzing by us... and had obviously entered more than a couple of events previously... we'll get there, and well keep having fun doing it!!

We did it, We did it...

This is it... 6.15am Sunday morning just about ready to head off to Wellington for our first duathlon (that's me #143! and Dear Sister-in-Law Leigh)

What an absolutely awesome morning. We parked the car, opened the door to get out and the wind nearly blew the door out of our hands (hmm not a good sign), we made our way over to Waitangi Park to put our bag, helmet etc with our bikes - the promotional flags in the park where flapping like they were ready to take off (hmm definitely not a good sign)... Wellington lived up to its 'world famous' reputation - it was a true Northerly-very-blustery-WIND... on the plus side - we were all in the same boat (so to speak)...

At 8am the waves of people were set off at 1 min intervals ... we left at 8.03am - and first up was the 3.5km walk (run for the fit ones) - though I have to say Leigh and I did jog some of this!!; then to transition and get on the bike for the 10km ride - oh my goodness it was a head wind to the half way mark and on the way back it was bike-stopping wind at times - then it was the 1.5km walk (run for the fit ones) - and again once we (here I mean "I") got my breath back we even managed to jog for part of this too... Leigh was true to her word - "we are doing this together" and we came across the finish line together (mind you I managed to get one tiny step ahead of her!). What an exhilirating feeling crossing that finish line, removing the time recorder from our shoe laces, getting our free bottle of Mizone, and then giving each other a big hug. Magic.

The fastest time for the day was 45:44min (amazing effort) and the last one over the finish line completed the course in 1:54:00 (a fantastic effort) - so Leigh and I are pretty proud of our first efforts... our times below...

Highlights for me: actually jogging some of the course - didn't think I had it in me; being part of a huge group of women (700 entrants) of all shapes, sizes, fitness abilities, walks of life being part of a very social fitness event; crossing the finish line in a time that was better than our guesstimate (we figured we'd do it in around 1:20); not giving up even though at times on the bike ride the thighs were burning, the peddles were turning though you felt like you weren't even moving (due to the wind!).

We can't wait for the photo's to be loaded onto the website for us to order - am sure that the one of us crossing the finish line will look a hoot, my hair had blown completely over my face (so am thinking I will look like Chewbacca (star wars fame) and Leigh was punching the air while we are giggling away in hysterics!

A free breakfast was provided by Hubbards that we could feast on once we passed the finish line. And spot prizes were drawn after the last entrant crossed the finish line. Unfortunately I didn't win the bike that I was positive thinking for (I would have given it to Leigh :) honest!).

We got back home about 11.30am and felt that it should have been 4.30pm in the arvo - the rest of the day was kind of spent lazying about funnily enough.

DH picked me up off the train tonight, and had a lovely bunch of flowers waiting for me, to say well done for yesterday - this was such a surprise - hubby very rarely does flowers - so it is a very special treat when he does... aren't they gorgeous!

So what's the next event.... well the next one we've found is in Martinborough in November - and we've chosen the 48km bike ride (the other choice was 112km - we're not quite there yet!) - so Grace will still be in action over the autumn/winter months - though it may mean more likely she is connected to the indoor trainer as after work with Daylight saving finished it was dark at 6.15pm tonight - arrgh - don't like that :(

Hope you all have a great weekend...

This is it - last sleep before duathlon...

Well this is the last sleep before a 5.30am wakeup call tomorrow morning (and that's after we've turned the clocks back for the end of daylight saving)...

Today was registration, collecting the goodie bag - oops forgot to take a photo of that! was so excited about opening the bag - though it had a small box of cereal, bottle of mizone water, snack bag of Abe's bagel crisps, THE TSHIRT, PushPlay wrist band, box of green tea, Women's Weekly magazine, vouchers and brochures - pretty damn good really :)

We got there at 2.30pm - beautiful blue sky, very blustery wind (gosh I hope that dies down overnight), here are a few pic's as I won't be able to take my camera with me tomorrow :(...

Parking the bike's up while we go join the queue... ours are the ones with the small saddle bags under the seats...

Registration .... waiting in line

Hanging our bikes on the rack - get this we are in Row "Chocolate" !!!

Some of the other rows filling up...

Looking back at the Registration queue - check out those billowing clouds...

Thanks for your good wishes ... will let you know tomorrow afternoon how it was :)

Nite Nite

Hugs

Oh Dear...

You won't believe what I've done this morning...

I've registered with sis-in-law (Leigh) to do the RealWomen Duatholon http://www.realduathlon.co.nz/ in Wellington on 5th April 2009... here are some motivational pic's she kindly sent through to me after we had registered online together ...


It is 3.5km walk/run (mine will be a WALK) then a 10km ouch bike ouch ride then another 1.5km walk/run (most likely I'll be crawling by then)...

I've been walking for an hour in the mornings the last few weeks - you wouldn't think so by the clothes ... so the challenge is going to be ouch building up the ouch bum muscles - oorgh I feel the pain already...

This is what happens when you have too much time on your hands at work with nothing to do (ie., my last week of my redundancy notice and not really motivated).

Am borrowing a bike to get me into the ride of things, so to speak - one blessing each entry has a chance to win a new bike - now wouldn't that be wonderful... :)

Hugs