Here comes 2009!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!


2009 HERE WE COME!

Some Stats for those desperate to know;

In 2008 I managed to ....

Swim .... 96.20k in 49hours 56mins
{note this is not even 10 races of the Olympic S long distance Swim race of 10k... puts that into perspective!!}

Bike..... 2657k in 117 hours and 36 mins
{cough - I believe this is less then the distance cycled on the tour de France!}

Run.... 701k in 74 hours and 43mins
{So if they were ultra's then this would be about 7?... }

Can't compare to the year before as I was on polar training for part of the year then on sportstracks... I would have thought my mileage (ok kilometres) on everything has increased given I went on to half iron this year just gone.

Still a bit undecided as to my sporting goals for next year... some of this is dependent on my life outside triathlon and those plans have been thrown up in the air recently and not yet landed!! I have some races in the the calendar though, although I suspect the first one (Wokingham Half) is going to be skipped as it's too soon after this illness thingy I'm getting over... like it's 5 weeks away and I've not trained at all for 2!! I've got Reading half though at the end of March and Austria 70.3 is booked - both of which I'm looking forward to :o)

I wonder what else.... one thing for sure the first two months of the year will be very defining for me and likely to help steer the rest!!

I hope you celebrate this year end in style and welcome in the new.... and a big BIG shout out to Eric who is doing some MAD "Across the years" event, started already! Go Eric Go!

Easter Eggs!!!

I'm not kidding.. I have just ventured to the local corner shop for essentials and there on the shelf were Cadbury's cream eggs... Now, although these are not specialist Easter Eggs as such... they are still egg shaped and made of chocolate and generally sell around Easter time. There were also packs of mini-eggs....

PEOPLE...

IT'S NOT EVEN THE NEW YEAR YET...

PLEEEEASSSSSSEEEEE!

On a brighter note... Muffin seems to be in a better mood now he can get to the wound ok.. although he hasn't gone out much (I think he's embarrassed about the lack of fur on the bum end of his tail... he looks a little silly).

On another note... it's been nearly two weeks since I last did any form of exercise... and yes I have had a reasonable excuse I'll give you that... this is the longest non-exercise break since I broke my hand in January 2007!!!

But the good news is I am feeling rested and am hopeful that I may be able to start the new year with a gentle swim or turbo session... I'm a bit fearful of running!!

Battle of the "Purr"

All was quiet in the household

The only thing stirring was the lady in the bed.... having woken up just after 4 she was wondering if she'd be able to get back to sleep..

Soros the cat arrived with stealth, a quick jump landing on her head telling her he was there.... he started to purr, started to dribble and was quickly dispatched to the foot end of the bed and so hopped off altogether.

All was dark. All was quiet.

The lady began to drift back to sleep.

Then the bedroom door slowly, softly began to open.

Startled back to full awake the lady turned the bedroom light on to see what monster of the dark was too big to get through the crack in the bedroom door.

Looking down she saw, looking up... big wide eyes, blinkin from the sudden light.

"MEOW!"

"Muffin - what are you doing" she enquired to the old black cat... "it's the middle of the night and it's not like you couldn't fit through that gap in the door?"

"Meow!" with that Muffin jumped on the bed... how unusual she thought... but then I've been under the weather, maybe he's sensed that and come to keep me company.

She turned the light back off with the black cat barely at the end of her fingertips purring away.

Drifting off again with the sound of purring gently lulling her to sleep the lady became aware of another body in the room, a silent stalker moving around the bed.

She knew what to expect next. With a leap so quiet the other cat arrived on the other side of her and pushed against her and snuggled up tight. And so it began.... as the new arrival started to purr so the big cat on the other side challenged his rival with an increase volume. The sparring continued louder and louder... purr PURR PURRRRR.... until the lady shifted as she finally drifted back off to sleep.

All was dark. All was quiet.

Hummm. So anyhow I got up this morning and Muffin was still acting weird... picked him up - he squealed in a cat rage sort of fashion and I discovered a bump on his tail... ok so he wasn't looking after me last night, no he was feeling unwell. Evidently he's been in a fight and has (ok now had) an abscess on his tail.... it burst as I took him to the vet.. what a stink! Still he didn't like the vet and did scream at her quite a bit as she clipped his fur off but she did manage to get some antibiotics in him (rather her then me).

As for me... well I'm still resting up. Off work until the New Year. But I have colour in my cheeks and I'm feeling like I have a bit more energy, thank fully the ibruprofen and rest seems to be working.