Hitting the city

Recently Lea and I decided we needed to live the high life a little. We decided to go into Wellington for the night and we stayed in a nice hotel over looking Oriental Parade.

We didn't get to the hotel until around 8:00 pm as on the Friday as we had been working. We picked up supplies and settled in for a relaxing evening.

The next morning we had a pleasant walk up Mt Victoria although Lea didn't seem to appreciate the climb as much as I did.

After our 45 minute walk we packed up and rewarded ourselves with a full breakfast. Lea was a lot more controlled than me. I ensured that I was well fuelled for the day ahead.

Te Papa is one of the most popular tourist spots and we had an informative look around some of the wonderful exhibitions.

From there it was a lovely walk around to the Public Library where I picked up a few Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen guitar / piano song books.

It was great to spend some quality time together after a busy and hectic week.

I have since brushed up on my repertoire of music and have had fun playing my favourite music from the song books.

Dressing up

Due to my lack of recent blogging I have a build up of photos that are too good to waste.

A few weeks ago we celebrated Halloween. Bianca and Caitlyn made a special effort to dress up for the occasion. We walked around the neighbouring streets with the girls calling expectantly Trick or Treat. Overall they did fairly well and came back with a little stash of goodies. They really enjoyed themselves!

Here are the photos that I think came out really well!

New Bike

As mentioned in my last post I have treated myself to a new bike with new racing wheels.

The wheels on the bike currently are on loan while awaiting my wheels to arrive. It has given me a well needed lift after recent dramas in my life and it was fun taking it out for a spin yesterday.

My new bike cost me $4300! It's not a cheap sport that I've taken on but it is great fun, I get to see a lot more than running and of course it keeps me active and fit.

Lea took some action shots in our street the day I purchased it.

 

Having done 2 posts now in a row I may have turned the corner in my slackness. Hope to be in touch again soon!

Cycle Circuit

Yes I know it's been a while! Lea and I have been lacking motivation of late but I have missed the friendships gained in the blogging world. Here goes another attempt at a restart to more regular posts.

Yesterday we hosted the masters Wellington Harriers run on a rainy day. The weather didn't dampen the spirits and we had about 10 runners / walkers to take on a hilly course behind Paraparaumu.

Today dawned fine and Lea and I did separate cycle rides. Lea did a 3 hour flat course and I tackled some hills. I really enjoyed my 75 km ride!

My course began along the Paraparaumu Beach Esplanade.

After 7 km on SH1 I arrived back on the coast walkway which took in some lovely views of Kapiti Island and Pukerua Bay.

I decided to branch off slightly from my usual circuit to add in some extra hills that ended up in Plimmerton.

I stopped briefly to take some pictures of the Paremata Inlet.

From there I had a long climb up to the summit of Paekakariki Hill.

From there it was a cruisy ride down to SH1 before heading home.

I managed to get my new bike up to 50 kph [30 miles] at one point along the highway. I am pleased overall with my ride as my fitness is coming back.


Hope to show off my new bike in my next post!

A well overdue post from Lea

I have to be honest I have not been feeling very inspired to sit and write.  It wasn't that I didn't have news to share.  It was simply just that I couldn't actually get the words flowing to put here on the blog.  So much has happened the last little while.  So much to process and get my head around, but anyway.

I realised with a shock that in just a bit more than 1 month I will doing this 'lovely' little bike ride on the 8th of December.  Don't ask me why.  I agreed in a moment of insanity to be part of a team doing a half ironman distance event.  So a friend will be doing a 2km swim (about 1.24 miles), another friend will run 21km (about 13.04 miles) and I will do a 90km (55.92 miles) bike ride. 

Just a few weekends ago my friend Rose and I went to Taupo (where the event will be) to get an idea of what this course will look like and be like.  We met up with Denise (our other friend - the one who will do the swim) and she drove us along the course.  The next morning Rose and I set off to try out our courses.  She went on the run course and I went on the bike course.  We were only going to do about an hour and so I set off. 

The first bit was hard.  It has this long, gradual (really deceptive) hill that nearly killed me off and I had to stop 3 times to catch my breath and let my legs settle down (they went into a bit of a shock at that point).  Once I got through that bit though it was actually not too bad and I was going along pretty well.  I then thought that I wanted to go a bit longer and so I texted Rose to let her know that I wanted to go for a bit longer and that was all set. 

It was actually quite peaceful.  This quiet road, mostly flat with some slight and gradual little hills.  You go past some farms with some really cool animals - my favourite by far were the little calves.  When I got to the halfway bit I felt really good.  A bit tired, but pleased that it was all really manageable so far.  At that point I turned around. 

When I got to about 60 km (37.28 miles) my body started complaining a bit.  By about 70km (43.49 miles) everything was sore.  My butt, legs, back, arms. Everything.  I remembered that Paul said "no pain no gain" and so I thought "heck, this gain better be worth it because it was a lot of pain at that point". 

What made it worse was that this road just kept going and going and going and I kept wondering where the stupid sign was to show that the town centre area was not too far away.

I managed to get to about 80km (49.7 miles) at which point my body gave up.  It was like it said "remember I told you a while back that enough was enough and you didn't want to listen..."  So there I sat on the side of the road, after I called Rose and asked her to please come and get me and all these other cyclists came cycling past me laughing at this pathetic sight that I must have been. 

So yes, I still have a bit more work to put in to get ready.   With that in mind recently I finally attempted this one route I have been avoiding.  It is a tough hilly ride that Paul loves.  Don't ask me the distance it felt like it was going on forever.  And it is this non-stop gradual uphill until you get to the summit.  So there I was struggling along, when another cyclist came past and he cheerfully said "you're already half-way" and I thought "oh no, I'm only half-way".  I didn't actually end up getting to the top, but it was a good effort I think.

But all in all, I do enjoy cycling.  Yes, I think it is crazy to think I'm going to have to cycle a 90km distance, but hey, won't it just be so amazing to achieve this? Scary, but it will be a huge achievement and something I know I will be so proud of!

Well that's it from me for now.  What have you been up to?