Team Talk

Met up with Alice and Paul last night and Alice and I ran and talked Ironman strategy and times. The essence is on enjoyment of this crazy event and knowing our capabilities and limitations.

Alice and Paul are doing Lands' End to John O'Groats starting from next week and I'll be joining them for a leg down in Devon/Somerset. Alice and I are planning to load some concrete into Paul's trailer to give ourselves some prospect of not moaning and groaning all day when he drops us like a bad habit!

Otherwise, training been pretty solid this week:
Sat - ran with Dora
Sun - cycled 15m
Mon - RPM
Tues - Ran 5 m
Wed - Worked late
Thurs - ran with Alice (3.5m)

Slowly, slowly, catchy monkey.

So fed up with being ill

It's been a week now. Streaming cold. Haven't felt like training very much apart from a bit of cycling. Had a nice family outing on Sunday. Chris tabbed with weight and in kit and with baby jogger and I cycled and we met up at Hampton Court for a coffee and a babycino!

Apart from that, have spent a fortune on the race and the accommodation but healthwise couldn't feel further away. *Moan* *moan*.

Results out

We weren't last!!

Total 2 hours 9 mins for 800m swim; 30k bike and 7.5k run. Top guys did 1.26 but they were Thames Turbos and had 6 mins on the next squad. Also worked out that the run I was about 8-min mile pace which I haven't been doing since before Dora so that makes life better!

Weakest Link

Well, managed to rally and do the Team Time Trial at the Bananman at Eton. Didn't feel particularly right or up for it when I got up but knew the team were relying on me.

Had an awful swim due to new goggles (schoolgirl error!) filling up with water every 2 mins. Still managed to post a 16 min swim for 800m however so clearly the swim training is paying off.

But and the big but, I was a total liability on the bike and the other two had to do all the work on the front on a very windy day while I just hung in there wishing the 6 laps would go by. Thought I'd be Ok on the run but I was totally spent from the bike so had a pretty slow and gruelling one there too and only found my running legs on the last lap. We did manage to overtake another female team so that was a small consolation to an otherwise levelling day. Chris was delighted at 4am when I woke him up to say "I think I've made a big mistake about IM Austria!". Suspect that won't be the only time he hears that.

Good start

to training. Hit by some mystery bug. Feel totally wiped out and dizzy all the time. Maybe it's the enormity of it all.

Have agreed to do a Time Trial with tri club on Sunday and they have no replacement so have to find some inner steel for that. Never done a time trial tri before but we all have to finish together somehow which is going to be odd. Just hope they're not fab cyclists!

What have I done?

It's 7 July 2009 and I have just woken up to the dawning reality that last night I entered the 2010 Austria Ironman on 4th July next year. In total, it's 140.6 miles of swimming, cycling and running.

I know I will never rest until I've got this out of my system and knowing that my good friends and training buddies Alice, Jona and Paul are doing it will keep me inspired.

So, for the next 362 I've got to pedal, pedal, pedal as I know 112 miles on the bike is going to destroy me! Am worried about the marathon too as running since Dora has felt like running through treacle but I know I can hopefully just plod and plod until that finishing gantry. But it's getting to start that run before the cut-off that will be the biggest challenge, not to mention working full-time and having a busy toddler who I adore spending time with.

I will need many mantras to get me through this but for now will settle for:

"Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful"........

New Year in Grenada

Decided to surprise Chris and take him off to Grenada for a week over New Year. It was fabulous. Great weather, great island, great people and great just to have a break from the daily slog. As you'd probably expect, we didn't completely switch off. Had a regular pre-breakfast 'Aquathlon' consisting of a 700m open-water swim and a run on the beach! First time we've come back from holiday actually losing weight! All good London Marathon and Ironman France (just Chris!) preparation!

Sophie becomes a Half Ironman!

Sophie's big event for 2006 has now happened. I did the Vitruvian Half Ironman on 9 September 2006. It was a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride and 13.1 mile run. My target time (despite pre-race nerves announcing I couldn't go through with it - which fell on my husband's deaf ears) was 6 hours so I was delighted with my finish time of 5.50.03. It's a great feeling and I have a great t-shirt to prove it. Here's my finishing photo.

Training, racing and more racing

Chris and I seem to be spending a lot of time training and racing. Chris decided to defy convention and try to keep himself sane by keeping fit even with the Ilizarov frame on his arm. He's been focusing on my training and racing by pacing me in one or two events. We also did a 9 mile race called the 'Black Death Run' which involves lots of hills and no more explanations as to its name!

This is us on the Thames Towpath Ten in April storming home to a new personal best for me over 10 miles (74.57 mins).

New nephew

On 18 February 2006, Gabriel Phillip Roach entered the world and the family. It's all very exciting and he's wonderful. Gregor is the doting brother.

The first 6 months

Life has been busy - with 'Up and Running' opening its second shop in Dulwich, Christmas and then Chris going into hospital on 28 December for the 4th operation on his arm. He now has an Ilizarov frame which we later found out has to stay on for up to 9 months. It's been a tough start to 2006 for him.

Honeymoon in the Canadian Rockies

We got married on Saturday 17th September 2005. It was a fantastic day and we wish we could re-live it. We then had 10 days in the Canadian Rockies which was amazing.

Here are a couple of photos

Hello - have decided to get into this blogging thing, particularly as firewalls prevent photos being sent - and it seemed like the latest craze so didn't want to miss out!