Oops, Wendy forgot her bike!

So do you think me forgetting my bike is a bad thing? Perhaps a sign?

I met Josie yesterday morning for a nice big ride around the river. We met nice and early... 7.30am. Gosh are we turning into those cycle people?? You know the ones that you see out and about just after sun up?

Now you are probably wondering what sort of a goose goes to meet her friend to cycle and forgets her bike! A very big one... but actually, I did not forget my bike for the ride. That would have been much worse that what actually happened.

So we get all organized and off we go. There were some roadworks which had closed some of the waterfront cycle paths so we got a bit lost.. but then found ourselves and all was good. Such a gorgeous day. After 15km we stopped for a quick drink and a chat and some texts to our friend who went to Melbourne rather than cycling with us! I don't imagine that decision took much time!!

On tippy toes to look taller... but let's just keep that one to ourselves!

See, proof I remembered my bike!!

So we had a fabulous ride. We did an easy 50km (with a little bit of rounding!). Who is this person... an easy 50! Our average speed including stops was 20kmph. Gosh we have much such great progress!

After our ride we stopped for a drink and some of those mandatory stretches which Josie always makes me do! We sat and had a nice chat and then off we go back to our cars to leave... and then it happened... cheeky Josie goes to me "Wendy, are you going to take your bike? I know you don't much care for it but strange to leave it here!" Oh dear! OK, so I am a goose! I am thinking this one might take a little while to live down...

So with 12 days to go, I have done an amazing 1,244 training km. I can totally do this!!

Until next time.

W xx

A Wish from our Kids

I have just completed publishing a book of wishes for the girls at the school we are visiting in Cambodia. It is from the Year 3 kids at our wonderful school (plus one from Poppy and Hugh).

Hope you enjoy!!

Our Book of Wishes

W xx

A Series of Unrelated Events

So it has been two weeks since my last post. I really have nothing much to report with regard to training, so I thought I would share some events from the last two weeks with you.

Now of course, some would say that many of my posts bear little relationship to my journey... so they might not notice any difference!

I have 19 days to go! Gulp.

We had a preparatory call with our guides a week ago. They said we should stop training now. WOW, OK then! As you all know, I am very obedient and carry out all instructions diligently, so my training has fallen off significantly. Of course I must do some...

Last weekend I cycled with Josie. 51km! On the road!! We did two big laps. On the first lap I may have had to keep stopping. I had to wait for Josie to catch up with me. I can hear you gasp! I know right!? Wendy was faster that Josie.... surely that is not possible.

Now a less honest person might just leave it there... unfortunately I am not that person, so I probably need to point out that Josie normally rides Mark's mountain bike rather than her racing bike when we ride together. Unfortunately, Mark had been out mountain biking with Neil the previous weekend. There may have been an incident which resulted in his bike getting a bit bent... so Josie could not ride it. Instead she rode Poppy's bike. You may remember this is the bike I rode on our first outing... more about that later.

Now Josie is quite tall, so Poppy's bike may have been way to small for her. This may have impacted her performance slightly, and this may be the main contributing factor as to why I had to keep stopping!!

On our second lap, Josie switched to her racing bike. Goodness it is fast!! On the second lap, we may have had to stop a couple of times because Wendy was getting all tuckered out! Personally, I choose to call these re-hydration stops which I believe are very important to ensure our well being!

Still it was a great ride! I felt awesome afterwards. I can totally do this!!

Now on our last re-hydration stop we were discussing my improvement in cycling, and I was saying how I hoped I had improved enough to get through this ride and be sure to finish each time in time for a refreshing beverage... preferably beside a pool. And Josie said... are you ready for this... it is a HUGE bombshell...OK... here it is... That on our first outing, we only managed 7km and (now for the worst bit) barely got above walking pace. OUCH! That hurt. Could it possibly have been that bad?? Probably, but again OUCH!!

Thank goodness she didn't share that observation with me at the time. I would have had to have a bex and a little lie down!!

It is also a good thing Josie wasn't with me on my first ride on the trainer. That might have been REALLY embarrassing!!

Gosh, I am doing really well. Lot's of journey related observations. So far so good!

In unrelated news... I get home on Friday night and Paul says he needs to tell me something and I need to remember that it is funny. Now is it just me, or does that sort of introduction usually get followed by something which is totally not funny? Generally, something not funny at all!!

Anyhoo, he was upgrading some flights on points. The airline's web site wasn't working so he had to call up. The lovely helpful airline representative was more that happy to upgrade him... but he was short of points. Oh dear, will Paul have to fly up the back!! Good grief! Surely not!! So he asks her to wait a minute... he logs into the airline website as me, and transfers points from my account to his so that he has enough to upgrade!! You gotta be kidding me!! The airline representative goes, oh OK, I can see the points now... Tell me Mr Cameron, did you just steal these points from your wife?? Now rather than giving him a stern talking to about theft etc, she spends the rest of the call laughing at his audacity!!

So, I have to admit, it really was kind of funny... but next time Paulie, why don't you steal from your kids instead of me!!

In other moderately journey related news... I have been having needles for all kinds of nasties ready for the trip. Last week was Typhoid and Hep-B. Knocked my on my patootie! According to the inter-web tyhpoid can give you a feeling of general malaise. I can totally confirm this. Missed a day of training while lying on the couch!

Then this week it was time for Hep-B and Tetanus. I have head that tetanus can make your arm quite sore. Initially I was thinking, perhaps I should not have this done on the weekend, as it might mean that I can't train. Then I thought woo-hoo, if I get my shots on the weekend, then I can't train!! I really wish they had not said we should stop training!! Well, maybe not so much, but I feel there is still work to be done...

Now I have to share a blog related story... I have a wonderful staff member (let's call her Olivia) for whom English is a second language. I wrote her an email to let her know that I had not received something from her. I asked her to send it through. She apologized and sent through the details and signed the email BAD Olivia!! Now I was not sure if she had been reading my blog, in which case it was hugely funny... or if I had made her feel bad, which is less funny. Turns out she had read the blog and wondered why I had not laughed!! Ooops!

Anyway, better go and finish compiling the book of pictures from our third graders which we are giving as a gift to the girls in Cambodia we will be visiting on our trip. I still have time! But let's be honest, not very much!!

Until next time

W xx

Back on Track!

So, Doug has gone away! YAY!

You know he visited Josie too! What a bad boy he was...

Turns out that while I value the input of my friends in the Lycra Brigade immensely, and I have learnt a lot from them... targeting their cadence or watts is just not possible for me. If I do then I get all tuckered out and can't keep going.

Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare... my Lycra Brigade friends are hares. It is time that I accept I am a tortoise and be happy with that!

So having reached this perhaps obvious conclusion, training has been going great this week! So hooray for me I am back on track, and much less daunted by Josie's text on the weekend reminding me there are 33 days to go!!

I still have time!

W xx

Say Hello to Doug

Hello Peeps

Say hello to Doug... he is my new "friend", and don't tell him but I really don't like him.. at all...

I just don't know what has happened, but I bumped into Doug last week and he just won't go away.

Training had been going great. I was making awesome progress and working on all of the helpful hints I was receiving from my wonderful friends.

And then along he came.

I thought I had gotten rid of him. Turns out that when riding your TdF trainer, if it squeeks.. a lot.. then that creates friction. I know right, who would have imagined! So the addition of some oil to the crank and pedals not only had the benefit of getting rid of the annoying squeek, but also reduced friction and made it a lot easier to pedal.

Then this morning, Doug was back. How annoying! Don't you all hate that friend who will never leave? I was blaming the heat and high humidity for feeling like needing a little lie down. But now I blame Doug.

I can't imagine the metal filings Paul found under the turny bit near the pedals has anything to do with it. Can't imagine that pedaling so hard that the bike is wearing out could create any problems at all, so it must be Doug.

On the plus side, I have completed an amazing 1,034 training kms since starting this journey. This month's tally looks a bit sad, but I still have time!!

Now if you just divide that through by the number of training months, the picture is not pretty, so let's see if a list will make it look better:

September:    80km
October:       112km
November:   310km
December:   400km

Yep, much better! What great progress!!

OK, so I had better go. Paul has decided that it is absolutely imperative that he sits right next to me with the Big Jam Box playing ACDC "Problem Child" while he practices his guitar riffs! Really LOUD! OK, so apparently it was not that loud, but now the desk is shaking I think we can safely assume that he has rectified this and tested out the full power of the amp!

Until next time!

W xx

PS - glad you all enjoyed my last post. I am sure you will be pleased to know that I went out to dinner with my "lost" friend last week, so all is good again! BIG relief!!

PPS - I was invited to go on a spin class last week by a serious member of the Lycra Brigade.Unfortunately I was not able to go... due to very important and time critical work for a client... not because I was scared of looking like a big goose or not being able to keep up or having to have a little lie down half way through! I will go next time we are both in town together. And Doug can just stay home!!

PPPS - this week I will whip Doug's patootie!!

Grandma loses a friend and gets wind!

Oh dear, can you believe it. Today I lost a friend. I know right, who could not love BAD Wendy??

Turns out she took objection to my newly acquired "love" of Spinning. And I quote:

"Spin classes are THE worst gym classes ever devised and you have been enjoying it.  WT???  I am disturbed.  Deeply disturbed and wondering if I can actually eat with you again.....sigh......"

The thing is, I really can't disagree with her logic. I remember ripping into a fabulous friend of mine who liked spinning. Personally, I didn't think anyone did spinning after the age of 10! Now while I am very optimistic we can repair this and I will be allowed to eat (and hopefully ski) with my friend again ... it does highlight the inherit risk of undertaking new and exciting activities... and really, you sometimes have to question is it worth the cost? 

And goodness me... have I quietly joined the "Lycra Brigade" while focusing on my goal? My only defense is that I am helping girls to empower their lives... what could be a better cause than this?

Speaking of the Lycra Brigade and Grandma's... yes I now own Lycra. Horrid but I am hoping my patootie will thank me for it. So I met Josie today for a really big ride. She looks fabulous as always. I personally was suffering from a bit of muffin top from my lycra... obviously a very elegant and petite muffin top.. but a muffin top nonetheless. I will come back to our ride soon... but meanwhile... who knew that Lycra pants are just like grandma pants. You have to pull them up. Really high. Good grief, really? 

So then you have two options... be like a normal person and have an elegant muffin top, or be like a Grandma with "high pants" and no muffin top.

Don't you just hate it when life throws up alternatives, and really none of them are appealing?? I know right? Where is the justice in that?

So back to my ride today with Josie... Let me tell you just on the quiet that one of us did not bring our A Game to this ride. One of us struggled a little bit with feeling sick. Unfortunately the one of us may actually have been me! This may have been a major factor in why we did not achieve 35km in our allotted time. But really, 27km is pretty good, no? 

The other big impact on our ride might have been the fact that we live in the 3rd windiest cities in the world after Chicago USA and Wellington NZ. We turned a corner onto West Swan Road with the intention of cycling a really long way... and it was like we hit a brick wall. It was hard to pedal against the wind. Even Josie stopped and suggested that we might want to change our plans somewhat. So when Josie says it is windy, then we all know that it is truly windy and in no way related to Wendy being a big whiny baby.

So my challenges for tomorrow are (in no particular order):

1. try not to lose more friends
2. try to repair my severely damaged friendship
3. try to convince myself that there is nothing wrong with Grandma high pants
4. try to bring my A-Game to my ride with Josie
5. hope for no more wind 

Wish me luck!!

W xx

Spinning!

Hello peeps!

So this week I was chatting with a friend and colleague about my cycling. I was asking him what watts he targets when training. 300! Good grief! I am happy with 150! So then I ask him what RPM he targets... 100. Again good grief! I am like do you do this in a race? He says no he targets 110 in a race. And he races a really long way! Wow, I think I would die!

Anyway, he suggests that I try a spin class to see how I am going.

What?? I always thought spinning was easy. Stand on one foot and spin! How had can that be??

OK, so ever the obedient one, I did a spin class this morning. Isn't U-Tube amazing. I did a one hour endurance class. I had to do it really early since it is going to extremely hot today.

Wow, that was hard! The trainer was very bossy. Changing positions and RPM and gears. At one point she said you could sit down if you wanted. I am like, OK and I sat down. Then text comes up on the screen "IF YOUR LAZY!" You gotta be kidding me, right!? If you are going to slag me off then firstly don't tell me I can sit down, and secondly get your spelling right!

Had to pause a couple of times. Oops, cat's out of the bag on that one. Yes, I pause my workout sometimes when I get I get all tuckered out. What, surely that is allowed? I mean if you should not be pausing then why do they put that pause button right there in front of you? I like to pause and have a little wipe down and a drink and maybe stand under the fan for a few seconds. Then I can come back to it with renewed energy! One day I discovered (to my detriment) that you can only pause for a maximum of 1 minute, otherwise it turns off. So they are just mini-pauses really!

But I made it through, so I think that means that I am doing great! Did 21km. YAY!

I think I might do it a few more times since it was actually quite fun... who is this person?. I would like to get a bit better and quite frankly I am getting a bit bored with the TdF stages. I also like that I had training buddies in the studio with me sweating and puffing through the workout. And because it is on the internet and has "endurance" in the name then it must be good for me. Right?

Until next time!

W xx