Flickr

Just getting to grips with Flickr. Think you should be able to see a slideshow of pictures of our trip so far here. More relevant and interesting to family I think but if you have time to waste could be an option.

Laura's Cross Country

Laura has been ill for the last few weeks. She missed two weeks of school and has only just gone back. Consequently she missed most of the cross country training runs. In the race at the school she told us that she wasn't going to run fast because she didn't want to get in the top three and have to go to the 'district' race.

So .... she ran the race she said she would and came in 5th. Not bad for no training and coming back from sickness. Not sure where she gets the genes from. She was pleased not to come top three.


Next day the school announced that the district had changed the rules and it would now be top 6 going forward to the next race. She was not amused!!! Her friend Phebe was even more annoyed because she came 7th and because one of the top six couldn't go she had to fill her place.

The kids walking the course

I wasn't able to see the school heat but I was able to get to today's race. Really great to be able to see her run.

Laura and Phebe

Best friends and their mums

Laura looking relaxed at the start

and they're off!

I love the way everyone around her is fighting and rushing and putting loads of effort in and she's relaxed and doing her own thing.

Lovely course

Coming to the end

The finishing chute

The top six go to Auckland. Laura was pleased not to finish in the top 6. She was quite a way off but I'm proud that she just kept on going. At one point I said to her 'are you OK', 'yes' she said. Do you want to stop I said 'Yes' she said ... but she didn't ... she just kept on going and finished strong catching up with the others from Greerton Village.

She said that she was going to make sure she didn't finish in the top 10 at the school race next year so she didn't have to do ever do the course again!.

She loves it really :)

Last Hill Run Before Huntly

I didn't have very high hopes for this hill run tonight. I hadn't trained over the weekend and had overdone it on the food front. It was Jo's birthday on Saturday and we had a great day out which included eating out, cakes and late eating.










We had a BBQ on Sunday and although a fellow blogger tried to trick me with delicious chocolate pudding(s) I was fairly restrained with my eating. However later that night the left overs (non-chocolate of course) looked (and tasted) delicious and I definitely overdid it. This was followed by ice-cream and peanuts drizzled with honey. Would have been healthier to have scoffed a couple of chocolate cakes!

I had a scheduled 30 min run for Monday evening. Unfortunately after a very hard day at work (lifting very heavy pens to write on the white-board) I fell asleep on the floor and didn't wake up till 8pm. I was in no fit state to go out after that and so I decided to run the following morning.

I managed to get up at 6.15am (I think) and out for 6.45 for the worst run of my half M training so far. Mile pace wasn't too bad but I just felt like cr@p. Best feeling was finishing and showing that I could get up and get out, even if it was only 30 mins. Don't think my body had been awake long enough before the run. I'll get up earlier for Huntly.

So tonights run .... it went much better than expected. The hills are challenging (for me) and I was pleased to be able to hold a fairly good pace. It was only a short run but I was pleased with the 8:40 pace.



Got an early birthday present yesterday. A heart rate monitor. This should make my Half Ironman training for December a bit more 'scientific'. It's going to give me so much more data :) haha. Can't wait :)

Strategy for tonights run was below 130 for first 10 mins, mid 140s for rest of way out and then mid 150s for way back. Was pleased to be able to hold the mid 150s fairly comfortably on the way back. I think this will be my (very flexible) plan for Huntly. Not sure how the race buzz will affect the HR though. Basic plan - first 5K in the 130s. 10K in 140s-150s and then last K's as fast as I can. I'll practice a similar thing on my last long run (90 mins) on Saturday.

Tonight's run Max HR 169, Avg HR 147

Jo's Birthday

It was a lovely day and thoroughly spoiled :-)...woke up to croissants and pressies...

My new bling mouse...rubies and diamonds :-)...and it works lovely

Mick's pressie to me...greenstone twist pendant :-)

Soap from the kids

Birthday cake

:)

mmmmmm

cakes and candles
blowing out the candles

yum yum

in cafe

cafe

Laura at Hobiton

Hobiton

Soap stall in Morrinsville

Soap smelling

So much choice

Soap stall

checking out the soaps

At the top of the Kaimai's on the way home

Spank Me Baby .... and other harmless sites :)

We have to send Adam to school with a letter tomorrow to explain what happened.

He uses his laptop at school as part of the multi-media class and at weekends he brings it home to use. For some reason the internet stopped working today. I did some checks but you can't get to many of the user preferences cos they are locked by the school.

Adam had it in his mind that maybe the internet was blocked because of maybe someone had looked at banned sites or something. The internet games sites are banned even at home.

So we checked the history. And there they were:

Flirt with me
Sexy pillow fights
Spank me baby!

Oh dear! Who the hell had been on those sites?

JOANNE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She claims they are harmless fun applications on Facebook. We are not sure. She is now banned from Adam's laptop and I will be monitoring this PC very closely :) haha

Laura's Birthday Party ... few days early

Pizza for 7 - $41

Entry to Spa Pool - $15

Birthday cakes - $20

Glass for broken window - $50

Memories of Laura's Birthday Party - Priceless!

Pizza in the park

... and it's not even her birthday yet.


.