Carnage

Well the title about sums up the long weekend away.... VERY ENTERTAINING.... LOTS of side splitting laughter... and then there was the odd beer!

Needless to say I didn't get much training in ;o) ... although I am proud to say I did get one 8k-er in up the beach and back so that was good of me!!

Oh and as for the cricket - well we lost one (which was a good game) and won one (which was a low scoring and v.dull game)

Here's some pictures (courtesy of Sarah Smith inc) - can you believe at the age of 37 I can still be this silly....

There were the storm troopers including Dath Vader himself. I've no idea what these guys were doing there as they were just sort of hanging around on the sea front!

In case you're wondering - we are the ones in the pink, from left to right Kirsty-Dawn "The Reeemanator", Alison "Pop-tart", Jenjer le Bogg and myself "Doris", Sarah obviously being behind the camara!

We did also partake in the odd white knuckle ride at "Blackpool Pleasure Beach", I've never seen anyone look to scared on the rides as Kirsty - that was a source of much amusement!!! Literally her knuckles were white after most of them as she gripped the bar so tight!!!

We did of course do the odd "family ride" including the ghost train, Alice in Wonderland and the horse derby... as you can see we are riding in the formal dressage upright position in this shot!


... and we even WON something - ok we did partake in quite a lot of Arabian derby races to win "Woodley" the saber-tooth tiger - but he became the mascot for the rest of the weekend.

...and then there were the pink hats which we purchased especially for the final night out. As you can see this was a quiet, relaxed affair!

I don't think I've fed my body such crap food for a while and it only just feels like it's recovering now... bad Karen! But you've got to let your hair down every now and again!

We finally got back Tuesday pm - thought for about 1 second to go for a run but decided that wouldn't be fair on my body so rested up and had an early night!

Since then though I have been getting back into the swing of things - and even set a new record!!

Got up early Wednesday and hit the pool.... a nice session some swimming, drills, swimming, drills for warm-up then a main set which went something like this;
300, 4*50, 200, 4*50, 100, 2*50 then warm down, the 50s were cruises, the rest pdq. Now I didn't have my HRM so no stop-watch but I did time myself my the clock. Did the 300 in under 6mins and thought I must have made a mistake (but I was having an unspoken race with the lady in the next lane to me!), did the 200m in under 4 mins - so thought I must have still made a mistake and my goggles had fogged up.... so went out for my 100m... yep under 2mins, infact it was 1min 45!!! Still didn't believe this so had a slug of water and decided to do the 2 last 50s PDQ rather then cruise.... whipped then both in 50s! I'm still not convinced that I am this fast so will just have to take my watch next time!... If I have taken 15s off my 50m time in the last year since I've been doing this Tri thing I will be truly impressed with myself!!

Wednesday evening I took to rockie the MTB and hit the forest trials with a friend. Over 2 hours in the saddle has led to sore shoulders - go figure... well actually I know why - I was gripping the handlebars too tight for most of the time! Who needs white knuckle rides in Blackpool when you can go in the woods on your MTB 4 miles from home!

Didn't do anything yesterday - largely due to exhaustion of one form or another. Possible MTB back on for this evening but actually my right wrist is still puffed up from gripping those bars so tight... as I'm racing Sunday I may suggest something else to my mate - don't like letting people down when you've agreed something but think I need to be careful of rightie still.

Weekend plans consist of getting up to hockey tomorrow morning - mainly for watching and a bit of umpiring. Some point drive to the course for Sunday and take a look at the bike route. Sunday morning I start at 9:31am for my little sprint. I have absolutely no goals for this, I am not bothered at all about the time, I just want to enjoy it and have fun as it's probably the last Tri of the season.

My calf muscle is still a bit sore - mainly as a result of the dance game I played at Blackpool North Pier amusement arcadae! But think the 5k of the race will not be a problem. The half-mary is only 2.5 weeks off and obviously I've not done the running I need to for it, however I'm going to do it anyhow and run/walk it. I don't think I'll have a problem doing that. So figure I'll run the first 7miles then run/ walk the final 6.

Right - that's it for now! More next month - oh that's tomorrow!