Scorching Bay Triathlon

For some reason Kiwi's like to give places completely misleading names. There was nothing "scorching" about the bay at 7:00am in the morning. Despite participating in various team triathlons in Canberra I have never attempted to do one by myself. So I decided that this summer I would give one a go and conveniently enough Scorching Bay is about 5 km from our house and the course is where we often ride, so I knew what I was letting myself in for. Unfortunately I haven't been doing much training - I think I have managed about 3 swims and 3 runs in the last fortnight and one long ride (on top of my normal commuting)! I figured the lack of training would be a good excuse if I didn't do very well and I would use this first one as a practise run, especially with regard to transitioning between the different disciplines. I also opted for the medium or sprint length triathlon - which is 750 m swim, 20 km ride and 5 km run.

The weather was pretty much perfect with no wind and no rain and a flat calm sea - apart from the ferry wake that went through when I was swimming! Standing at the start was a little nerve wrecking as there were a lot of very fit looking people who all seemed to know what they were doing. It was good to get into the water and start swimming, and wasn't as cold as I was expecting. It was certainly nicer to swim in than Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra. Swimming in a wetsuit in salt water was also very buoyant and I felt like I was totally floating on the surface. I am still not a big fan of being surrounded by other people kicking their legs and swinging their arms around in close proximity! I survived the swim and wasn't quite the last out of the water. I did have a few issues with getting my wetsuit off in transition and had to ask a random spectator to un-velcro me!


Swim

I set off on the bike, which was probably the most fun part of the race. I felt pretty strong and I was happy to be drinking some water to take away the taste of the salt water that I had swallowed in the swim. I found myself overtaking quite a few of the other women on the ride, especially up the hills and when we were heading into the very weak southerly.


Bike

Unfortunately all those women I had overtaken on the ride proceeded to overtake me on the run. It might not have helped that I couldn't find my stuff at the transition and faffed around a bit. I also found it pretty hard to run initially as my calves felt tight after riding and it took a while for them to loosen up.


Run

My aim was to complete the whole thing in 1 hour and 30 minutes - my final time was 1 hour 33 minutes - not too bad as I hadn't estimated any time for transitions! However, plenty of room for improvement.... so I might have to give another one a go. I'm not sure I will be attempting the full length triathlon any time soon - a 10 km run at the end just seems like an impossible task, 5 km was painful enough.


Finish

New Years Day Picnic

Wellington Harbour


Butterfly Creek

Snorkelling at Princess Bay

Yesterday was quite warm and so we decided it was time to brave the water on Wellington's south coast. The water is still quite cold and despite the number of kids splashing around in just swimmers we donned full wet suits. It was quite cold.... I was wishing I had a fancy hood like Dave and Kareen. Princess Bay is within the Wellington south coast marine reserve so has some pretty good wildlife. We saw lots and lots of seaweed and kelp. Quite a few fish and a couple of Paua (abalone) which locals often dive for their dinner - but not in the reserve.


Kareen and Dave ready to get in.


Helen's silouhette.


Kelp.


Paua Shell (abalone) on the pink coralline algae and surrounded by seaweed.

Boxing day paddle

Woke up on Boxing Day and the water in Evans Bay was glassy - perfect day for a paddle. Unfortunately Aaron is not able to kayak at the moment - so I rang a friend who came over. We loaded up "Betty" on to the car and drove over the hill to Worser Bay. We then paddled along the coast in and out of the rocks and amongst the seaweed and kelp forests to Scorching Bay. We had a quick stop to admire Jo's daughter Neve's sand castle (she went to the beach with dad while we were enjoying the paddle). We then carried on around the Miramar Peninsular to Evans Bay.


Scorching Bay, looking out towards the Wellington Harbour entrance


Jo in the front of "Betty" paddling the glassy calm Evans Bay, Wellington Harbour

On the way back the wind picked up a little - a light southerly - so we had to put a little bit of effort in to paddling. We timed it perfectly.

Christmas orphans

We had a very relaxing Christmas with some friends. The pouring rain finally stopped early in the morning and the sun came out around 11am. Various other Christmas orphans turned up at different times of the day and we spent the day sitting on our deck eating lots of yummy food and playing games!

This is our attempt to burn off some of the calories - playing an energetic game of twister. Aaron unfortunately was not able to join in due to his painful back, but he helped out eating the goodies!


Playing twister on the deck - Kareen, Helen, Dave and Steve.

Gardening success!

So my potatoes started to die back - which according to mum meant that they are finally ready to dig up. This is two potato plants worth of pink potatoes - and I found a few more in the soil later as well. They were very tasty just boiled with some butter and salt.


Pink potatoes

My carrots on the other hand were a little less impressive - some would even say alien like - supposedly the result of too many stones in the soil...


Freshly pulled out carrots


Alien carrots!

Biking with Sarah and Dan

Sarah and Dan flew over to Christchurch for the holidays. I decided that I would fly down for the weekend before Christmas and join them for a few days of mountain biking. I arrived in Christchurch Friday evening. Early Saturday morning it began raining. And it rained and rained and rained all day Saturday. After a chat with some folks at the B.A.S.I.C. bike shop they recommended giving the Port Hills a day or so to dry out.

Sunday morning the rain finally stopped and things started to dry out. We decided to head out to Bottle Lake an area near the coast that was meant to hold up to wet weather pretty well. The trails were fast and pretty flat, but also quite fun to ride if you could keep the pace up. After we did one loop of the tracks that took about an hour, Dan headed back in for some more while Sarah and I had a bit of a break. There were some cool looking skinnies and a dirt jump park at the parking lot. I was playing on the beginner skinny for quite a while trying to get all the way around. it was probably 100 metres long with a see saw in the middle. After many attempts I did finally manage to ride it all in one go.



Before we left I had one more go. Got past the see saw and was going around the corner and started to come off. I pulled up on the bars as I came off so that I would not "nose-dive" off. Unfortunately, I pulled up a little to hard. I landed on the back wheel and proceeded to tip over backward and land on my back. I was able to get up and ride back to the house.

The next morning my back was pretty stiff and sore. I got up slowly and went to get some milk out of the fridge. I had pain shoot through my back and nearly passed out. It was then I decided a trip to A&E might not be such a bad idea.


Getting checked out in the Emergency Department.

We were in and out in under two hours and I was fine. Just soft tissue injury and I was going to be stiff and sore for the few weeks. After the hospital I stayed at home while Dan and Sarah went off to explore the Port Hills. Poor Sarah was attacked by a sheep and came off her bike, suffering some nasty gravel rash on her elbows.

Today, battered and bruised we might have a bit of break and do something different.