Today I realised why I do my long rides on Fridays, when there are virtually no other cyclists around.  Some cyclists really irritate me, as they did today when I did a shorter ride.  When Graham gets home from his rides, we normally discuss the same sort of behaviour as I experienced today as we both feel the same way.  So for the record…

• When you pass me, don’t then slow down and start to natter to your mate.
• When you hear me free wheeling behind you (or blowing snot out my nose), how about pulling over and going single file to allow me a chance to pass, especially on a busy road.
• When you glance behind and realise I’m there, don’t suddenly speed up for a whole 50 metres, only to slow back down to start nattering again.
• When I finally get a chance to pass, don’t then draft off me.  If I’m going too slow, then pass me and maintain some semblance of pace!  If I’m going faster than you could go unaided, then piss off and do your own work!
• When I glance behind to check for traffic and find you RIGHT UP MY ARSE, and I tell you to RACK OFF, you know what?  I BLOODY MEAN IT!  Don’t then proceed to draft off me for the next several kilometres.  ”Rack off” is my polite way of saying “F**k off” and if you don’t, you may fall victim to my Tourettes Syndrome.
• I train on my own.  I don’t see the point of drafting or sitting in a bunch as that doesn’t make me stronger or fitter.  I don’t want to socialise with you – I’m focussed on doing my own thing.  How dare you enter my personal space and draft off me.  Why don’t I just give you a spare key for our house so you can come and empty out our pantry?

Why do some cyclists detest being overtaken, or bust their gut to catch you, only to slow down once they do?  Are they id-jits or what?

Rant over.  I can’t wait until Friday morning when I can do my next ride away from the id-jits.

…”I feel fine…” <in my bestest nasally voice>

Today I am dosed up on Neurofen, all thanks to the pain in my quads.  Graham poked them last night and I almost hit the roof.  It actually feels less like the usual deep muscular pain and more like someone has cut the fronts of my thighs with razor blades!

So while I had the run endurance required for Saturday’s outing, what I lacked was the time on my feet on downhill terrain, particularly jumping down all those drop-offs on the track.

I took advantage of yesterday’s rest day, but I’m not sure how I’ll get on my bike today for my recovery ride (when I have to use every piece of furniture available to me just to even stand up).

I feel like I did after last year’s Spring Challenge. 

This is simply for my records, to put the info somewhere that is accessible for next time, and because it’s a rest day and I’m bored, and because it’s grotty weather out, and because yesterday was the first day I was allowed play with Mr Garmin. The screen shots are crap – I must find a better way using the uploader we’ve got.

Lap 1:  Woolshed Creek carpark to Blackburn Coal Mine

- 1.53km in 18.12 minutes

- Elevation gain 206m, elevation loss 11m

 

Lap 2: Blackburn Coal Mine to the trig (934m)

- 1.93km in 22.12 minutes (3.46km from start)

- Elevation gain 203m, elevation loss 15m

 

Lap 3: Trig to Woolshed Creek Hut

- 1.45km in 11.58 minutes (4.91km from start)

- Elevation gain 21m, elevation loss 140m

 

Lap 4: Woolshed Creek Hut to the Saddle

- 3.65km in 41.57 minutes (8.56km from start)

- Elevation gain 423m, elevation loss 60m

 

Lap 5: Saddle to Pinnacles Hut

- 2.47km in 22.07 minutes (11.03km from start)

- Elevation gain 3m, elevation loss 269m

 

Lap 6: Pinnacles Hut to Sharplin Falls Carpark

- 4.62km (satellites dropped out several times – should have been approx 5km) in 1.01 hours

- Elevation gain 277m, elevation loss 723m

 

Total Laps

- Approx 17km (15.62km+) in 2.57 hours

- Elevation gain 1,133m, elevation loss 1,218m

‘Tis not often anymore that my gob has a permanent grin, but it has one tonight.

What a fabulous day we’ve had doing Mt Somers.  I felt like I was ‘home’ again, running on that sort of terrain.  Graham and I talked about it on the way home and agreed that road running, cycling and swimming just doesn’t have the element of adventure or achievement that a decent offroad run has.  I used to come home from a six hour run doing Goat Pass feeling shagged but with a grin on my face, whereas there’d be no grin on my face after a six hour cycle!

The net time for today’s run was around 2.57 hours (I tried to remember to pause it each time I stopped for pics and the like).  I’m really happy with that as I went into it doubting I’d have sufficient run endurance to do it justice, but tonight my legs don’t even feel like they’ve done anything.  Also, the last couple of times I’ve done Mt Somers, my net times were 4.01 hours (24km) and 4.06 hours (20km), so today’s run was done at a quicker pace (and the previous two times were while I had been training for the Coast and had lots of long runs under my belt).  Paul’s aerobic intensity training pays off!  I also think doing some offroad runs at night have helped maintain my proprioception - the Mt Somers track can be pretty draining if your co-ordination is wanting.

The conditions going into today were looking a little dodgy, as it had been raining heavily in the high country. But the stream on the way out was at a good level and there were no dramas apart from a pretty wet track from the saddle down to the end.  It was also a gorgeous day weather-wise up until the saddle, but some light snow flakes were falling at Pinnacles Hut, and it rained pretty steadily until we got out to the Sharplin Falls carpark.

In part, today’s run was a way of testing whether Ella was up to that sort of terrain over a reasonable distance.  She was just fine, and feels no ill effects tonight, so it looks like I need to follow through with taking her over Goat Pass as a run/tramp;  something she’s been asking about for a while.  Deo suggested we do it tomorrow – I’m up for it if you are Deo!

I really feel like I’m just going through the motions of the South Island Half Ironman now.  Graham and I screwed up our noses on the way home when we talked about it.  It really doesn’t spin our wheels after today, but I’m committed to seeing it through.

Now I feel like a fraud – I have a rest day tomorrow, and a recovery cycle on Monday.  But I feel fine (not that I’ll say that out loud).

WR7931 – white Hyundai sedan, driven by morbidly obese woman, eating takeaways while driving.

She bloody side-swiped me while I was on the MTB heading up to the Kiwi this arvo with Ella.  Thank God it was me she got and not Ella.

As we were heading up the hill, I was aware (very momentarily naturally) of a white car veering in towards Ella and then out.  All I thought was “Hell, that looks bloody close!”  Then there was a loud bang as she clipped me.  How on earth did I stay upright?!

I stopped and wildly gave her the fingers as she continued driving (well, I was hoping she was looking in her rear vision mirror at the time).  WR7931, WR7931, WR7931… I madly grabbed my cellphone and entered it as a memo note. 

The stupid bloody wench then had the audacity to park at the Kiwi to eat her takeaways!  I’m sure she’s wishing she hadn’t.  As we neared the carpark, I scoured it for a car which matched the number plate, and there she was.  I ditched Ella and the bike up on the Summit Road and ran across to the wench and abused the hell out of her through her open window (I’m sure she’s regretting having the window down now too).  Okay, I wasn’t proud of the verbal abuse that spewed forth in front of the audience that was sitting in the sun outside the Kiwi, but I ensured everyone there knew exactly what the woman had done.

The worst bit was when I first said to her “You bloody hit me you stupid cow!”, she said “Oh yeah… are you alright?”  I was like WTF?!  Then I checked her car to find the dent – it was covered with scrapes and dents, so I proceeded to acuse of her also hitting every other cyclist in Christchurch.  Fair enough assumption I thought.

Strangely, she had pulled out of the carpark and was driving off by the time I’d walked back to the bike.  As Graham said, her McDonalds probably didn’t taste so nice anymore.

Just as well Mr Harris will be getting a colleague to take care of the matter for me on Monday – she ain’t heard the last of it.

The world is making me a very angry individual.

I need cake.

I need to give credit where credit is due.  Despite the upsets of the last 24 hours which has virtually put a complete dampener on yesterday’s XC race in Nelson, Ella ran really well and we were really proud of her.

The course was wicked – laps of a really nuggety 1km loop.  It was icy cold and wet, with wind coming straight off a fresh dump of snow up on the hills surrounding the city.  There were some great water (or mud!) features, and some really tight corners – it played to Ella’s strengths as she’s not terribly quick, but pretty strong.  Running up and down into muddy ditches is her preference over long fast straights.  It was a true cross country course.

Man, it’s hard to feel positive at the moment, but the Rachmeister needs to dig deep…

Anyway, she came in 6= out of 49 girls in the Year 6 race, and was something like 15 seconds down on 1st place (the girl from Canterbury who came in 1st is normally up to around 30 seconds ahead of Ella, so Ella had a good run yesterday).  The top four Canterbury girls were awarded the teams Gold medal, and Ella was in the next best team, so she was awarded the teams Silver medal.  Last year she received a Bronze, so she’s gone one better.  Plus she placed 13th last year, so a big improvement.  It’s very fickle though – she was beaten by a couple of girls who she’d normally beat, and she managed to beat girls who would normally beat her.  It all comes down to what happens on race day.

The team points get added up across all the age groups.  The upshot was that Canterbury won the ‘Phil Costley Shield’, taking it off current holders Wellington.

It was intriguing watching the ‘poor losers’, however.  The amount of children who bawled their eyes out because of where they got in the race, was scary.  We talked afterwards about how Ella reacts – she’s not used to winning races, so she just takes each race as it comes.  She has never cried afterwards because of a result, apart from when she was sick during this year’s Canterbury qualifier – and that was mostly because she felt so rotten!

So next year she’ll run her guts out again during the qualifier, will get passed over for selection even if she manages to meet the qualifying criteria, and will just have to run for her school.  I think it will give her huge motivation to do well, to show the Canterbury selectors up.  A bit sad, but fortunately she has decided that she no longer wants to be part of the team because of how she has been treated.  Good on her – no love lost.

This is a circular letter that I have drafted up with the intention of sending to all the parents of children involved in this week’s XC Champs.  I don’t have much more to say, other than to stress that what is written down below is extremely mild compared to how we are feeling.  The way Ella was treated is appalling – and these people are teachers, apparently skilled in managing and communcating with children.  The coach, Paul Norton, is extremely popular amongst parents and children, however we have seen a side to him that concerns us greatly.

To put things into perspective, Primary Sports Canterbury who co-ordinates the XC team, is headed by Lyn Miles – the same woman who appeared on Fair Go for not allowing young children to wear polyprops etc whilst playing netball in Christchurch.  All makes sense really.

I might add some further thoughts as I cool off.  But at the moment, I’m still caught between feeling gutted, guilty and angry.

We wish to bring to your attention, a situation which developed during this week’s Inter-Regional Cross Country trip to Nelson. We have given considerable thought as to whether or not it is appropriate to communicate with the wider team, however we are concerned that some misconceptions might exist and we wish to clarify these.

On Thursday evening at around 6.15pm, we received a telephone call from our daughter, Ella. Ella was feeling very homesick, and wanted to come and stay with us that night. She was phoning from a toilet in the restaurant, she was very upset, and we found it difficult to communicate with her as a result. She did not know the name of the restaurant or its address, so we were unable to come and talk it through with her. We did, however, tell her to talk to her team manager about how she was feeling as we thought this was the most appropriate course of action for her to take.

Ella approached her manager and after consultation with Paul and other management representatives, Ella was told she would not be staying with us that night. Ella became increasingly distressed as a result, and telephoned us again on the bus trip back to the camping ground at around 9.30pm – by this time, she had been upset for some three hours. She came across on the phone as inconsolable, and Bronwyn Manderson of Primary Sport Canterbury took over the call to us.

During the call (and after subsequently arriving at the camping ground), we were repeatedly advised that Ella was not permitted to leave, and that she must stay with the team. Considering the environment, we felt it odd that no empathy or comfort was ever displayed towards Ella by management, rather the constant reinforcing of the rules seemed the priority. We were concerned about Ella’s distressed state and this tested our parenting skills – we were faced with whether to ignore the state our daughter was in and walk away, or to take her with us. We based our decision on the escalating anxiety that was evident in the phone call.

On arrival to collect her, we were told that if she was removed from the camping ground, she would not be eligible for selection for the Canterbury team again. This, we felt, was a punishment that did not fit the ‘crime’.

We gave Ella some time to decide what she wanted to do, however, we do not believe she was in a state that evening to make a rational decision. She wanted to be with her family so this is what she decided to do. To leave her with the team would have created further distress, would have been disruptive to her team members (at 10 o’clock at night), and would have consumed management resources. To simply walk away from our daughter that night would have been a very difficult stance for us to take as parents, and we’re sure many parents would have felt the same way.

Because we collected her, Ella is now no longer eligible to be selected for the Canterbury team again.

On Friday morning, Ella indicated that she was not proud of what had occurred the previous evening, and wanted to attend the compulsory team meeting, and travel back to Christchurch on the bus with her team mates as had been the plan up until that point. We assumed that this would be expected of her as a member of the team, despite what had occurred the previous evening.

After Friday morning’s team meeting and in preparation to leave Nelson, Ella was told to get off the bus by management. She was told that she was no longer a member of the team with effect from the previous evening. This distressed her considerably, particularly as she said the message was delivered angrily to her by management, without any support, let alone from us as her parents. Any communication should have been followed up with us at an appropriate time - using an 11 year old child as a pawn was totally unacceptable.

Both buses subsequently left without her. We had already begun our return trip to Christchurch, were out of cellphone range, and therefore unable to be contacted.

We are extremely grateful to Susie Henderson who took Ella in her car to Kaikoura, at which point Ella was permitted to reboard the bus (we are unsure what this achieved, other than to further punish, bully and ostracise a child who could not understand what she had done wrong).  Susie showed the compassion towards Ella that we thought would have been displayed the previous evening by team management.

We are aware that some team members and parents will have seen this situation unfold and we wanted to clarify that Ella was in no way involved in a disciplinary matter. Ella has done nothing wrong in our view, other than to experience a case of separation anxiety from her family; a situation that was not going to be resolved by leaving her that evening with the team.

We fully acknowledge that rules need to be in place to ensure the effective running of an event such as that which was held this week. We applied the ‘100 mile rule’ wherever possible to give Ella the independence needed during the trip. However, we acted in the best interests of our child and have been left feeling extremely saddened at the lack of compassion, discretion and seemingly extreme action that has been levelled at a child. The effect of such heavy handed action has had a considerable impact on our daughter.

Thank you for reading.

Kind regards

Graham & Rachel Harris

I was very brave today and ventured out in the light for my run.  But I took to my favourite route because I knew it would be quiet.  Quiet, but rather warm in the shelter and heat of the valley.  School finished at 2pm today (same again tomorrow) so I had to wrap up my day early.  But it meant Ella and I were on the track by around 2.30pm, while Louis sat under one of the foot bridges at Halswell Quarry, reading his latest book, waiting for us to return (with a cellphone in his pocket).  Bliss.

Another day in paradise.

I did a ‘car windscreen leaflet drop’ this afternoon at the last Canterbury Athletics (children’s) event for the winter season, in an attempt to promote the Tri Club’s Junior Programme.  I felt like a crim even touching people’s windscreen wipers.  I get shitty when people leave crap on my car, so I hated doing it to other people’s property.  But I’d printed off 100 flyers, and I was short by around 20, so 100 cars (each with at least one athletically-minded child) is pretty good coverage.  The leaflet pointed punters in the direction of the programme’s blog for all the info they need to join the programme,  so I’ve been monitoring the hit rate this afternoon.  The site had a total of six hits yesterday (it hasn’t been advertised anywhere yet), and it’s had 30 since doing the drop early this afternoon – 30 out of 100 (and who knows if they’re all unique hits)… not sure if that’s good or not!  Only one punter has hit the Enteronline link to actually go through to the registration page, and I can’t tell if they actually continued with a registration. 

Sarah Helmore, the co-ordinator of the programme, mentioned on Wednesday that they’ve got 20 children registered across the Tri Kids and Tri Devils categories (basically 9-15 year olds).  Not a huge number;  they were hoping for more.  I’ve got a few more ideas for promoting it, but unfortunately with only one more week left of this term, we’re running out of time.

I’m off to the Wigram Airbase tomorrow morning for a “train the trainer” type session – John Newsom and Sarah are keen to school up a small number of bods to help take the Thursday and Sunday training sessions.  I figured if I’m already taking Ella to them, I may as well help while I’m there.  Hmmmm, we’re to take our bikes and running shoes – I hope they go easy on me as I’m not engineered for speed.  But the idea of blatting down an airport runway on a bike certainly brings on the drool.

Ooooh, the blog has just had another two hits. I’m very easy to entertain.

On a completely unrelated matter, I had a pearler of a swim (for me) last night – Graham couldn’t keep up with me (he was a little despondent).  A new PB for 400m – 6.57 minutes.  In June (and in line with my pre-Wanaka form), I could only manage around 58 minutes for 2.5km, whereas last night I did it in 44 minutes.  Something is definitely working – I’ve been carving off time every swim I’ve done, and I’m only swimming twice a week.  It’ll probably all fall apart on me come November when it actually matters, but at least it’s making feel good now.

Right, time for my traditional Saturday night run up the Crocodile and Kennedys Bush Tracks.   Boo to daylight saving.

I failed miserably last night.  The whole “Instinct versus Intuition” thing which I’ve blogged about before.  You know, follow your OWN training plan, no-one else’s, despite your ego telling you want to give chase if someone happens to pass you while out training yada yada yada…

Last night was such a fantastic run.  Or so I thought.  Ella and I went out for just a 60 minute E1 run (ie HR up to a maximum of 155).  A nice, steady run.  I know it’s a good run when the rug rat has to tell me to slow down, and she told me to slow down a few times last night.  Anyhoo, we were into our last 25 minutes or so of the run.  HR was averaging in the mid-140s, and we were a good couple of minutes ahead of schedule at various points around the route we normally go, so despite less effort, the pace was quicker than usual.  All good. 

We came out of a side street onto Waimea Terrace and glanced down the road to see a couple of women running in the same direction, but around 20 metres behind.  We rounded the bend into Waimea Terrace and could hear the women chatting as they ran along, but they seemed to be going at a good pace – a pace that might have seen them pass us (no way!). 

Ella and I are tarred with the same brush - we muttered a few words to each other, then put the foot down.  Damn it, we could still hear them talking behind us – they were going the same speed as us, but could still bloody talk as they ran along!  I felt slow and USELESS!  But after a short time, their chatting stopped, and we knew we had a race on our hands.  Damn instinct.    I glanced down at my watch – HR 168.  Oh shit.  This isn’t supposed to be happening during my nice E1 run, but I couldn’t pull out – the other women would have won.   I decided to pull the pin at a footbridge that crosses the river – we shot over that so we we were on the other side of the river, and ducked through the library grounds onto Colombo Street, with the idea that we’d continue on down Ashgrove Terrace and this would avoid the women and call the ‘race’ to a stop.

We  stopped to cross Colombo, only to find the women coming out of Waimea Terrace and heading down Ashgrove.  Oh no, that was OUR intended route!!  They were around 30 metres ahead of us by this stage, so we started out at a nice sedate E1 pace, but we couldn’t bear seeing them in front of us.  Instinct took over and off we went again.  We reeled them in and passed them over the next 900m stretch, even though Ella was gasping to me “I need a break!!”  Ha ha ha!!  We got to Barrington Street, and jogged around on the spot while we tried to make it look as though we were deciding which way to go next.  The women came past (no longer chatting again!) and continued on past down the route we intended going AGAIN!! 

We conceded, and ended up going around a different block to avoid them on our way home.  But we won.    Or did I lose because I allowed instinct to take over?  Actually I think I lost.