Who would have thought!!!!!

Who would have thought .... 13 weeks have passed and truly they have flown by!!! I have had a pretty decent week this week. Feeling reasonably good apart from a few little niggles.


Monday... first swim of the week 2.6kms. This afternoon I had a 20km run. One of the girls I swim with started her Ironman training program today for Ironman New Zealand!!!! I met up with Tarnia down at Marmion and she joined me for 13kms of my 20k run. I know I've said it before but having someone to train with really does make a huge difference. That first 13k of the run flew by and the rest just seemed to drag out.


Tuesday.. Up at 3.30 to do my 50k ride with 9 short hill repeats that really do get the heart pumpin!! 4kms into the ride...BANG!! a flat tyre. I'm pretty confident now in changing tyres so called Nat who was going to meet me in the usual place . She got to me just as I had finished fixing the tyre and in no time we were back into it.
Off to run training in the evening. Brad got a few new people tonight which was great. So while they were going thru their warm up and time trial I had my session to start. 1.2km warm up, 8 x 100m knees up, run thru 's , skipping etc. Then 4 x 10mins holding 4 min 50sec, 2min active recovery between each set then a final 2km cool down.. All up a 12km set.


Wednesday a good 3km swim set and in the afternoon a very tough hot, windtraining session that lasted 1hr 55mins. The temperature had hit about 36 degrees today so sitting in that garage, Sarah and I earned every drop of water we drank.

This morning was a 30km recovery ride in the small chain ring.... nice and cruisy.
Ok so now to Thursday afternoon, my 33k run. Come on Helen just get started... you can do this you've done a marathon before... just get your arse out the front door. !!!!! Yep that's me just talking to myself for a good 10mins at my front door. All set to go with the fuel belt, ipod loaded but sometimes just taking that first step.. How many times in life do we find ourselves trying to talk ourselves into just "taking the first step". And usually once you do things just propel you forward and off you go!!! Ha ha.. and that was me on Thurs. Off I went. Yes it's a long way but I did it and was so very happy to finish that's for sure. It took me 3hrs 11mins not counting the toilet stops (there were 3 :) ).


Lucky for me Friday was just a swim. I had actually considered not going down while laying in bed the night before and decided that no I would go and if I felt like my legs just weren't working for me I would put my fins on. Well low and behold it was a fins session. So glad I made myself get out of bed and go.


Over the past couple of weeks I have been chatting to a few people on the IronMan Western Australia face book page. A guy from Sardinia, a lady from Queensland and another lady who is from Canada but living here in Perth for awhile. She has entered as a team with her son doing the swim and herself doing the other 2 legs. So on Friday afternoon we caught up for a coffee. It was lovely to meet her and listen to how she is finding living and working in Perth. It was also great to swap some training ideas with each other. We'll certainly be cheering each other on over the next few weeks.
Friday night we dropped over to our friends, Mary and Stan, who have just been on a huge holiday over in America. The whole crew rocked along and it was just great to see them all again.


Saturday morning we met under the Narrows Bridge again to head south for 110km ride. It was absolutely perfect riding conditions and we were travelling along nicely. On our way back Sarah, Anna and I stopped for a toilet break so Will continued ahead. 5mins later we come up on Will changing his tyre. A flat I thought! Well he did have a flat but it was how the flat happened. As he was travelling thru the tunnel there were 3 guys standing with their bikes to the side. One of the guys was looking the other way , didn't see Will coming and stepped straight out into his path. Will hit him travelling about 36kms , on his tri-bars and the just careered into the bush, hitting trees and rocks. He was so lucky to not have broken anything. He's quite stiff and sore as a result but it could have been alot worse...Lucky, lucky!!!!

After the ride it was a 12k run along the gorgeous Swan River. I've done that run a couple of times now and I really enjoy it. I like going and running in different places. We are very lucky here in Perth to be blessed with some of the best paths for running/walking/cycling around.



Sunday morning was a bit of a sleep in as I didn't need to be at the beach for our Ocean Swim till just before 8am. A 35min swim in quite choppy water and then back on the bike for another 110km ride. This time we headed north to past Two Rocks. It was a tough ride on the way back heading into a southerly. It tested me both mentally and physically today as I was tired from my ride and run yesterday. But you kinda got to get home... so we just kept pedalling. I crashed on the couch for about an hour when I got home but then had to get moving as life goes on. Got the van ready for work tomorrow and then made some salads for dinner at Will's mum and Dad's which is always a great night.

So for this week I completed a total of 23hrs and 21mins of training. It's certainly getting up there..
Swim...9.7kms 3hrs 35mins
Bike...357kms 12hrs 40mins
Run...77kms 7hrs 6mins

You have powers you never dreamed of.

You can do things you never thought you could do.There are no limitations in what you can do,except the limitations of your own mind.

Darwin P Kingsley

I just loved this quote when I read it as it really speaks to me about where I am right here and now . Every week I have surprised myself with what my mind and body has been capable of achieving. How often do we hear ourselves and people we know say " oh I could never do that". Well we can....we are only limited by our own minds. Certainly something to think about don't you think!!!!!!