AJAYS BLOGS

20th of October 2008

Instead of tooting my own horn this week, cause let’s be real, as great and fantastic as tri pink GC was I got out of it easy not having to do the run. Seriously a swim and a bike!!! Too easy! Okay barring the near drowning and the tragic gear changing I have to say when I checked the bike in and handed the timing chip to  “my legs” Aimee “Rochester” I was quite happy I was not the one heading out to run 3 km.
Instead I thought I would share the story of one of my Healthy Body Club girls who at the last minute decided to join in our HBC group and attempt the tri. Not only did she cross the line but she learnt things about herself that will keep her heading towards her healthy body goals and beyond to goodness knows what else she might conquer now.

These stories are what life is all about and I have simply lifted this from the forums of HBC and I thank Deb C for sharing her story with all of us.

Deb C’s tri pink experience.

Now that it’s all over with after all these months, it’s really hard to believe Tri Pink is actually over with. Particularly during the last few weeks, it has occupied so much brain space in my head that it’s felt weird not waking up in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning thinking, “Will I do it? Should I? Can I? ARGGH!” or, after I finally decided to bite the bullet and do it (which was on the Tuesday before the event, I should point out!), “OH MY GOD, WHAT HAVE I DONE? ARGGH!”

Anyway, the Debbie that reported for registration on Sunday morning was a VERY tired chickie. I really hadn’t had a good night’s sleep for days through sheer stress about the race. But not doing it was not an option because of not just the wonderful Queensland Booty Brigade girls, but also my wonderful sponsors. The night I registered, I sent out a quick message to a few friends in Facebook and elsewhere telling them I’d decided to enter the race, and to my great astonishment and pride they came through with nearly $600 in just a few days. This fact, and the fact that, like many of us, I personally know people who are fighting hard against breast cancer and/or secondary cancers which happened as a result of breast cancer, made me all the more determined to do it and do my best! Pain from a triathlon is nothing because it’s just temporary.

The best way I can describe Sunday is surreal, from the time I jumped into the pool until I finally crossed the finish line (in official last place – GO ME!!!! Hehe!) with Ajay and my wonderful HealthyBodyClub friends. I don’t know whether it was the tiredness, but none of it seemed to be really happening. The reality didn’t really sink in until I jumped into the pool to start my swim leg with the other girls in my “wave” and the thought crossed my mind, “Hmm, Deb, you really probably should have trained a bit for this.” I didn’t do one skerrick of swimming training leading up to the race because I thought, “Meh, I can swim 300 metres, no worries!” Well, as it turned out, I could, but it was a hell of a lot harder than I thought it would be. The wash churned up by 30 or so other swimmers in the pool really did make it challenging. And at one point I thought I’d miscounted my laps and swam over to one of the volunteers to check with him what I should do. He assured me I’d just lost count, so on I went.

Another thing I didn’t think much about was the transition from swim to bike and, boy, did I waste time on that! You know how when you’re tired, you do silly things which seem like a good idea at the time? Well, I tried putting my shoes and socks on standing up on my jelly legs which were really tired already from the swim. I swear it took me five minutes to work out that sitting down might just get the job done faster…LOL! I mean, I certainly wasn’t in the race to break any records, but it really didn’t need to take that long. Anyway, I eventually got the shoe issue sorted out and off I set on my borrowed red bike (thanks to my bestie Debra for that!). And here’s another thing – before about a month ago, I’d been on a bike precisely once in the last 20 years. I did do a little training on it just to make sure I still could actually ride the damn thing the required distance, but the time I spent on it wasn’t enough to give me any real confidence as a rider. I decided the best policy was to stay well to the left side and let everybody pass me. And they did – practically everybody…lol! But, again, it didn’t matter – in my own way, I enjoyed the bike part because it was a nice track (except for that *&&^& hill nobody told us about, which I could NOT get up without dismounting no matter how hard I tried because of being so useless with using the gears on Deb’s bike!) and nice and breezy outside. It was great to see, at various times, Lauren (looking a little stressed - :) ), Liz (although I think she went past so fast, she gave me wind burn!), Stace, Ali, and, of course, Ajay, and wonderful to hear their encouragement. The four circuits didn’t seem as hard as the swim did – no idea why!

And then the run leg. Oh, yes, the run leg. This was my moment of truth for sure. When I entered my plan was to run as much of it as I could and walk in intervals. However, by that stage of the race I’d been going for nearly an hour with a heart rate mostly in the 160s the whole time, and my body was screaming at me to stop and rest, and telling me it really wasn’t fair of me to expect it to do all this stuff with such minimal sleep in the previous few days! Briefly, the thoughts crossed my mind, “I can’t do three circuits of this walking track. What was I thinking, doing this race? Why was I so dumb as to pick the hardest one? I’ll never make it!” And it was very clear who was thinking this stuff – the old, defeatist Deb whose weight got to those awful heights just over two years ago. But thankfully, that person is mostly a distant memory. She’s been taken over by bloody-minded Deb, who said, “No, you CAN finish this race. You WILL finish it, even if you crawl!” So I thought, “Well, if I have to walk to finish it, that’s what I’ll do.” And I did. I ran tiny bits here and there, but the fatigue was really setting in and I didn’t feel all that great. Again, it was so great to see the other girls on the track at various stages, including “Aimee Rochester” :), and their encouragement and that of so many other competitors helped more than you could ever realise.

So, I finally walked my third circuit and entered the running track, and the volunteer at the entrance said to me, “You’ve got to run the last bit to the finish line. Come on, you’ll be glad you did.” I thought, “No bloody way!” but somehow broke into the Cliff Young shuffle (hi, Pen, if you read this!) and shambled towards the finish line. I was totally spent and had some mysterious pain in my chest area. And then I saw Ajay and the girls, and you all came to meet me and run with me over the finish line. It was one of the most unbelievably touching moments of my life and a memory I will have forever. I wasn’t feeling emotional particularly until I finished, and then this huge wave of feeling just overcame me. It was so many things. It was joy because I feel so, so blessed to have found HBC first of all, then my wonderful trainer Jeff, and last but certainly not least, the most fantastic support group anybody could wish for, the Queensland booty girls. It was, I have to be honest, sheer relief that I could finally stop moving…lol! It was the most amazing feeling of triumph because in that moment, I felt like I was finally laying one of my biggest demons to rest, the demon of self-doubt and fear and defeatist thoughts. It was the reason I had waited SO long to finally commit to the tri, because every time I thought I’d decided, I’d somehow manage to talk myself out of it again. And it was happiness at sharing such a wonderful experience with such good friends. Oh, I’m gonna cry AGAIN typing this…lol!

So, this has turned into rather a big novel, but I am so glad I have put it on paper. As I said, I officially did come last, just as I predicted I would, but you know what? I truly don’t care! Because two years ago, when I was 160kg could barely walk up a flight of stairs without needing a crash cart, if you had said to me that I would one day in the future be entering triathlons of any sort, I’d have laughed myself to death, except I would probably have had a heart attack first. Now, I’m still too heavy and I need to lose another 25kg or so, but if I can do a triathlon, even slowly, while carrying all that extra lard, just think what I might be able to do when it’s gone! And that thought has totally inspired me to kick on and get this weight off once and for all. Now I know what I am capable of if I really set my mind to it.

To Aimee, Ali, Annie, Chrissey, Lauren, Lea, Linda, Liz, Manie, Rach, Sarah, Stace, their wonderful support crews and, of course, Ajay, thank you so much for sharing Sunday with me. I feel so privileged to be your friend, all of you! You have inspired me and helped me so much in the last year, I honestly can’t put it into words. But thank you, from the bottom of my heart. xoxoxox *sniffle*

Deb c yes you made me cry again but you stirred something in me so deeply that it totally makes my heart swell. I remember both those moments in my life - that fat how could I get here everything sux feeling and that absolute insane joy at doing something you never ever thought possible and quite possibly realising that you can do whatever you set your mind to - the path to ultimate freedom.
That then reminds me of why I am here and why I keep trying to keep this place alive despite the enormous hurdles that present themselves.

What you have experienced is such a great payback, and I wish every single woman who has given up on herself or stopped believing in herself or who has lost her way could experience that very feeling and the knowledge that everything is possible.
I want to scream it from the mountains or put it in a canister and release it into world unbeknownst to everyone, inspiring women to chase dreams as big as Everest. Who says we can’t have our cake and eat it too?

Being a part of HBC and leading you all to these kinds of places is the most stand out thing I do in all my roles barring being a mother although I have said already I totally felt like  the den mother to 12 Girl guides all setting off into the woods together.

And that is why  HBC is so special, the people who support, motivate and inspire each other to get out and od things they never thought possible. It takes a lot of people to get the Olympic torch all the way to the Olympic cauldron...and same with this - it takes a whole community to teach their daughters to know, love, recognise, honour, respect and fulfill the destiny of their spirit. The destiny to be and feel as good as you could possibly be. And I am happy to call HBC home. Cause that is where my heart is. Gonna go get a Kleenex now!
xxx

7th of October 2008

I am the proudest mother on earth. Yeah yeah sure you are, says every other mother but I really am. Let me explain.

My darling son Kai has never really been known for his sporting prowess. Sadly he takes after me, the kid who was never picked for the sports teams. One legged rippled ants got picked before me. I wasn’t even considered good enough to wear the mascot costume. Seriously as a kid,  I was so unfit I couldn’t even jump to a conclusion.

Fast forward many (too many) years and now I love my soccer, I love my bike and I love the triathlons. I’m still no good at any of them but that’s not the point. I have fully embraced the “it’s the thought that counts” theory. Sure I have dreams of actually being competent at these things but my life and self esteem are so much richer for just doing them. They remind to live healthily, remind me to train and remind me that I can do anything as long as I just try.

Now as a mother I don’t want my son to learn all these lessons after half his life has passed him by. I wasted so many of my years obese, lazy, lost and disempowered there is no way I want him to repeat my mistakes. I’ve been vigilant to teach him powerful lessons about health and fitness but to be honest, apart from loving his soccer he really wasn’t jumping on board my low fat gravy train.

Rather selfishly I wanted to find a way where Kai could work out with me that way making him fit but also allowing me to not have my son become a gym widow. There is nothing worse than filming a twelve hour session of Biggest Loser and then have to come home, say hi, bye and head off to the gym. To be honest, that’s the very reason I have struggled to not put on weight during filming. No mother, having not been there for their kid when they wake up, could choose to not be there when they go to sleep. And as a single mum, there’s no one else to do that so the first thing to go is the gym.

I needed a solution. I needed something we could do together. And so sneakily I convinced my son that what he really wanted for his ninth birthday was not a wii guitar hero but a geared bike instead. And of course once he’s tried it we couldn’t wait for his birthday so for the last few weeks we have been everywhere on our bikes, exploring beach paths, bay runs and streets around our home.

So excited I was on a roll. It’s been a long held desire of mine to get Kai to do the Weet Bix kids triathlons. So when Brett from tri pink mentioned he was running a small kids tri the day after Kai’s birthday we quickly signed up to do it.

God knows what I was thinking. We didn’t get to bed till after midnight and were back up at 5. Euh. Once there though we couldn’t help but get excited. Kai was so nervous he couldn’t eat and I could see had I given him the opportunity to back out he would. Instead I constantly reassured him of how good he was going to feel after.

Brett was fantastic. He walked the kids and the parents through the entire course. I could see Kai’s shoulders relax a little as he started to know where tog o and what to do. But let me say this. My kid has Aspergers. New things are terrifying for him so this little boy was really about to conquer a massive demon. This was so far outside the box it’s just not funny.

The course sorted, the bike in place, the kids were ready to go.

Have to say the start was hilarious. Picture this, the kids had to swim in the regatta centre. Have you seen the water? It’s tea coloured and filled with long slimy reeds. Not the most welcoming sight. The kids are sitting on the platform and Brett says go and none of them move. He says go and again and they just look at him with faces that say “No you go!”

With gentle urging from the parents they all drop into the water, the tarter horn blows and off they go. Kai falls into a comfortable goggle free (oops bad mother) freestyle stroke and actually manages to pass a kid or two. One girl does about five strokes, crawls out of the water, rips off her number and falls into her mother’s arms crying. I am walking (3 weeks post operation) along this uneven pebble surface, encouraging Kai all the way, video camera in one had and digital camera in the other. Talk about one man band!

It’s not long and he’s at the end of the swim. Oh my god one down two to go already.  I was so excited. Kai was fully into the moment and follows the kids to the bike transition area.  I am half limping half running trying to tell myself I am not supposed to be running this soon after my operation.

There were some very scary stage mothers screaming at their kids to transition quicker, run faster and get mooooving!!!!!!

Kai was so puffed and yet so chuffed. We got his helmet on, tried to take his rashy off, took his helmet off, took the rashy off, put his helmet back on, tried to put his t shirt on, took the helmet off (hmm got to practice the transition a bit more).  I struggled with his shoes (got to get those elastic laces) but finally he was ready to go.

So off he pedalled into the distance, me grabbing the camera and filming his exit and waiting patiently for him to return. There he was in no time at all, off the bike and into the run.

I went the quick way straight to the finish line telling him to just follow the cones and you’ll be told where to go. Well it must have worked because there he was coming down the straight running for his life. A slip of a girl a few years older streaked past but there I was yelling at him that he was nearly there, videoing with one hand, photos with the other.

He crosses the line, gets handed a medal and falls in a heap on the ground. He can’t breathe, goes a terrible shade of grey and is very shaky. It takes him a while to recover and goes through various stages of feeling sick, going pale and fighting a terrible stitch that won’t go away.

Hours later he is on the phone to everyone, he’s watched the video a thousand times and tells everyone he came first in his tri cause that’s what it says on the ribbon holding it. Who am I to burst his bubble and tell him he’s just like his mum – last over the line. But as I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: better last over the line in a tri than last in line for a hot dog.

26th of September 2008
Food for thought with lycra and triathlons looming.

I heard someone on Healthy Body Club use the phrase “self medicate with food” the other day and before you jump up and down and cry foul or say I am picking on you I am not. But I do find inspiration on the forums  of the healthy body club and let me tell you, whoever you were, you are NOT alone in using that phrase. I believe I may have used the term comfort eat to excuse my own ballooning ar$e probably as recent as last week. Let's be real - Gold coast tri is 3 weeks away and I have to squeeze into lycra!!!! Oh my god what was I thinking??????

But here is the truth you seek:

• A doctor would not prescribe a heroin addict a shot of heroin to take their troubles away.
• A doctor would not prescribe an alcoholic a bottle of champagne to alleviate cirrhosis of the liver or
• even to wash away the shame and consequence of a bender.
• A doctor will not prescribe a dozen donuts to cure you of cancer.
• A doctor will not prescribe you a block of chocolate to divert depression.
• In fact food will NOT cure you or medicate you or provide you a warm blanket and comfort on a cold evening.
• Food will not change what is crappy in your life.
• Food will not make your husband or the father of your children a better man
• Food will not get you out of debt
• Food will not even put the toilet seat down leaving you with a sense that everything is going to be okay.
• If you are in an accident you will not hear the doctors say “I need fifteen units of fish and chips stat and leave her on an IV of cold rock chocolate chip ice cream and clinkers every three hours”. These things are NOT medication. Cake is not a counsellor whose shoulders you can cry on – it will just get wet and soggy.

Food cannot provide medication or comfort of any sort no matter how many times you tell yourself they do.

In fact if your IV did have that stuff in it may well kill you on the spot.  

Food is fuel. Yes some foods are better than others and some may even help prevent cancers but food is not and cannot ever be the answer or solution or remedy to what is really going on in your life. Every time you use that phrase you give it power.

What you should do is say it as it is and see how long the binge lasts: “These chips are really sabotaging my happiness. They are another thing standing in the way of my goals and in fact are so unhealthy for me that they may even give me heart disease. Not to mention just be another step towards having type 2 diabetes and of course will clog my arteries with fat that quite simply kills. On top of that the remorse and guilt at continuing this cycle of abuse will depress me even more and add to that it will simply wind up on my already bulging bum.” Hmmmmmmm not so tasty now are they?  Ready for another?

You may well still continue but if you speak it for what it is you are knowingly and honestly destroying your goals rather than wrapping a turd up in some brightly coloured paper and calling it a gift to your self. See it and say it for what it is. Welcome the fresh fruit and vegies that enrich your mind, body and spirit, welcome the health and abundance and the ever transforming body and achievement of goals that goes with great choices. Tell yourself how wonderful you are every time you make a great choice and when you CHOOSE to sabotage the honestly assess your actions.

Good luck! And this is advice I am taking upon myself as we speak!!!! I am having my salmon slices in spring water on a slice of toast with avocado, lettuce, sun dried tomatoes, red onion. lettuce and a sprinkle of low fat cheese. I welcome the sexy new body that awaits me as a result of my choices here and now. How’s your day going?

Ajay Rochester

Blog 3

There was a time when I was so morbidly obese I would drive down the end of my street just to get a carton of milk…three years and sixty kilos gone from my body forever I decided to celebrate not only my weight loss but keeping it off. Ice cream cake was not on the menu and as such I decided I was going to do something so foreign, so unexpected, something in my wildest dreams that I could never have imagined doing. I decided to do a triathlon.

Let me tell you – after a lifetime of never being picked for school teams and always having a “cold” or it permanently being “that time of the month” on carnival day it was so unbelievable that I could even contemplate doing one part of a tri let alone putting all the bits together but I did and it was the best day of my life. Since then I’ve got a few more under my belt and despite being one of the die hard “back of the pack” girls I love them. I have always said, ”better last over the line in a tri than last in line for a hot dog!” Yeeha!

Fast forward two more years and I am now doing a whole month of triathlons back to back and find myself ambassador for Triathlon Pink. The girl who used to eat cheesecake for breakfast is long gone thank god!

Triathlon pink is coming to a state near you from October 12th and I encourage you to take part. These are fantastic for people who have never done a tri before. Seriously you will not be the only one who is a total beginner!

Last year we all huddled around the pool, giggling like little lost ducks making jokes about having to be rescued by the cute lifesaver. We were all beginners. None of us knew what we were doing. But when you cross that finish line – no-one can ever take that away from you.

Let me tell you – the sense of achievement in doing something like this is better than any drug you could take! You will be so proud of yourself for stepping outside your comfort zone and more importantly stepping up!

Use it as a metaphor in your life – there is nothing you cannot achieve and conquer. Let this be the starting moment of a new healthier you. Let this be the beginning of a braver you. Let this be the first step in life’s long and wonderful adventure.

Start NOW! Go to www.healthybodyclub.com.au every Tuesday night and Brett or some other expert will be waiting to answer all your questions. Starting tonight. Just join up as a free member and you can get chatting with the people you will be running alongside or if like me - running behind!

Honestly girls, this is the opportunity to allay any fears you have. Trust me – you CAN do this and you WILL love it!

Sir Francis Bacon summed it up perfectly – Knowledge is power! So power up and pick Brett’s brains tonight and every other Tuesday night. He will be on Live Chat tonight from 8 pm and it's completely FREE. Don’t be afraid to ask any questions at all. He is such a passionate advocate of triathlon pink and he understands what it’s like to be a beginner.

And know that tonight and on the day you are in the very best hands, everyone is there to help and support you through your journey and I am sure that you will all be like I was – you will cross the line and wish you’d done the bigger run! So come on!!!!!!!!

Ajay Rochester

9th of September 2008:
The  states!

For those who don’t know I just had a quick trip to the land of lady liberty to catch up with some great friends I made walking the Great Wall of China to raise funds to build  The Olivia Newton John Cancer Wellness Centre in Melbourne earlier this year.

Wow what a trip! First week Kai and I just played played played! Oh so much fun but boy are the big people BIG in America!!!!! Wow – so many fast food places – burger places everywhere…and even their salads are full of crappy fatty stuff!!! And they put cheese on fries??? What the???? Heart attack central!…and yet the women in LA are so THIN!!!!!!! Hilarious dichotomy! Thank God I’ve got a month of tri pink coming up cause I am sure I had some excess baggage when I got back on that plane back home and I’m not talking about the luggage I checked in!

I spent some very precious time with my dear friend  Leeza Gibbons - she is such an incredible woman and so supportive of her fellow women. She held a cocktail party for me and I met her friends and colleagues – wow what a bunch of people. So into healing and empowerment. Add to that I met Stockard Channing!!!!! Rizzo from Grease!!!! Legend! Was so dumb I barely said a word! Doh!
I also got to meet Paully Perrette form NCIS my favourite show and fave character on that show! She was so cute and friendly and lovely!

It was amazing to see such wonderful women, so real, so loving, so down to earth and so into helping each other!

Then Leeza decided to record some segments for her website so she sat me down and I filmed about six segments for her site, some of which are me reading from my book Confessions of a Reformed Dieter and others hints and tips for getting started on the weight loss journey.  They’ll be up there sometime soon so check them out at leezagibbons.com. We even had people ring in and I started to realise just how ocker I am cause no-one understood me and laughed at everything I said! We don’t realise how much we say that is so oztrayleean!

I had lunch with Olivia Newton John and went to a benefit where she was honoured for all her charity work. She is the ultimate earth mother – always giving so much of herself! What a darling! She has done so much for others and continues to do so. Both her and her new husband really are earth people and they really do give so much of themselves to others! Maybe that’s why they get so much back. Good karma!!!!

The most common theme of my trip was that as women we are so giving and loving and have so much within us that if we share it we can go so much further and do so much more. If we use our collective consciousness and our contacts and our energies to all move forward together then we are so much stronger and more likely to succeed – just more of the theme that was the seed that sprouted HBC.
There is nothing we can’t do!

And another thing I noticed was that a change of scene can really change your mindset. I’ve been so bogged down with smaller issues I’ve had to deal with in my private life of late but going there made me remember the body of my work, the passion I have for empowering women, for teaching health and fitness and the need for the healing of self esteem. I remembered that I am not the sum of what is going on around me. I am the woman who has struggled to heal her own life and as such want to help others do the same. That is who I am – that is my current path and that is what I can and will continue to do regardless of whatever I might have to go through along the way.

I want to be the queen of healing your life to prove to everyone that no matter how low you may be or how hard life might be you can put the pieces together!

So gals, today I put two ideas your way :

1. Ask what you can do for yourself and other women today. Ask how you can help someone else and also help yourself. Ask what it is you have in abundance and what it is you seek or lack and then go about finding it. Guaranteed it is within your reach.

2. If things are not working for you right now then do something different. Step out of the confines you have created and be or do something a different way. Step out of yourself and your perceived image of yourself. Try on a different hat. Exercise differently, eat differently, tell yourself different things about yourself. Take a holiday and enrich and energize yourself. I don’t mean a thousand dollar cruise, I mean go for a swim and just sit with your thoughts for a while or swim ten laps and whilst doing so meditate on positive messages about yourself. Do the thing where you email five people and ask them to send five things they love about you.

Anyway, hope you are well and happy, have a fantastic weekend and be prepared to have a big week next week cause on healthybodyclub.com.au we are going to start some very inspiring projects!!!! Just as soon as I get this metal out of my leg! Wish me luck girls, Dr Slater is making me unbionic next Monday all ready for tri pink!!!!!! Yeeha and Giddy Up!!!!

18th of August 2008

Okay so knowing there are three elements to this tri thing I finally got my winter expanded butt out running. God I really do run like a wounded elephant! I tried to give myself little encouragements like “run to the tree, run to the fence post, run to ..okay well run out the front yard Ajay!”

Yes like I said running is just not my thing. Thought about running to the pub but figured that didn’t count as training but then I figured a beer in one hand and a pie in the other could count as cross training and I was out the door in a flash. Problem was it was raining so I just went back inside and opened a bottle of wine – promising to train properly tomorrow. Uh huh!!!

Anyway in the meantime I played my usual Sunday soccer match and came home with a bit of a limp. Well, a week later and not only was I still limping but I was kept awake at night with bone aching pains shooting up my right leg. Ouch!

Took myself off to the doctor who sent me to get an x-ray. Well for those who have read my book Confessions of a Reformed Dieter they will recall a certain “incident” about seven years ago where I fell down 22 steps and shattered my leg winding up in a wheelchair for a few months! Lesson to self: Never drink on an empty head!

Well fast forward to now and it would seem (and I warn you to grit your teeth here) that the metal plate and eight screws they used to put me back together again have started to work their way out of the bone. Yes if you run your finger down the side of my ankle you can actually feel the head of the screws. It seems there is only the thinnest bit of skin covering the hardware keeping my leg together. Probably the only time the word thinnest will ever be used on me but you have to take it any way you can I say!!!!!

The bad news is I have to get the metal taken out. The good news is it WILL heal in time for me to film Biggest Loser. The bad news is it means I won’t be able to do the run part of the pink tris (oh boo hoo I am SO sad haha). The good news is I will have a different girl from my online weight loss support network Healthy Body Club run it for me in each state. The bad news is I can only train in the swim and bike. The good news is I have Harry Kewell’s surgeon Dr Kim Slater doing the job. The bad news is Harry Kewell won’t be there. The good news is Dr S has donated his gap fees because this is such a good cause! The bad news is Harry Kewell won’t be there and I know I already said that!!!! The even better news is Ramsay Health Care sponsor this triathlon and are looking after me when I check into Castlecrag hospital. So it is win win win all round.

So the lesson for today is: ANYONE can take part in this tri – if I can do it having just been operated on a few weeks before then you and your friends can do it. If you are afraid of the water then form a team and do the bike. If you are like me and can’t run then get a K mart bike like I did and pedal your heart out.

And I will see you on the course!!!!!! Yeeha!!!

First session

Okay so I had my first training session today. One word – hilarious…no let me change that – tragic. Not the trainer but me. There I was thinking I was pretty bloody clever with my pretty new tri bike. Been using it for the last six months and despite having to avoid hills cause I couldn’t quite master the gears but apart from that I thought I was doing pretty well.

Enter Spot my triathlon trainer. So I decide to start off with the leg of the race I seem to be strongest in – the bike. An early morning trip to Centennial Park and struggling to get my bike out of the car I am already regretting it.

Spot is enthusiastic, thankfully normal looking (no steroid induced muscle monkey thank god) and is very down to earth and speaks in simple terms. He shows me how to fix my bike the gets me to do it. That is definitely the way to learn. Normally I just stand there helplessly flicking my hair till someone comes along and helps me. Doesn’t work on a deserted road at 5 am or in the final lap of a tri. Good to learn independence.

And so off we go doing laps around the park. You want to know the funniest thing? For months I have been changing gears on my bike thinking they were a bit “clunky”. Well I found out the definition of clunky. It’s changing eight gears at a time! Yep! I have been going from 1st gear to eight gear in one big CLUNK! Any wonder I’ve struggled to ride my bloody bike up the hills!!! Hahahaha too funny! Apparently you just squeeze it a little and it goes down just ONE gear!!!! How tragic am I? And with that little gem the bike just seemed so much easier to ride.

We did a few time laps and Spot was so far ahead of me it’s just not funny but he really taught me a lot in just one short hour. He also filled me with the belief that I can actually do this and do this well rather than limp around the course like a wounded baby hippo. The great thing is I am actually starting to understand my bike. Spot has regular group tri training sessions IN the park on Saturday mornings and so he has convinced me to join in one that although I am a little nervous as there is nothing worse than being the last one over the line…but as I always say – better last over the line in a tri than last in line for a hot dog.

Next up I’m going to go to a swimming lesson with him. Hopefully there won’t be any Japanese whaling fleets nearby cause well…you know the drill……it’s winter and I don’t quite have my beach babe body up to speed…but that’s why I’m training huh? TO get the body I want. Oh and raise a bucket load of money to beat this terrible terrible disease that kills far too many people.

So are you with me?????? Bring it on……..does anyone have any floaties???