People, training, and fundraising

Wow, what a weekend! Wasn't the weather just spectacular! Fingers crossed it continues until next weekend for the Big Day.
Saturday saw our fundraising Garage Sale held at Mel and Dan's. What an effort from the two of them - I really can't speak highly enough of them. No amount of thanks is enough. They cleared out their garage, put up with people dumping crap on their lawn for a week, spent an entire night setting up the sale and pricing all the items, sold things all day and then cleared the leftovers out and took them to Vinnies and returned their garage to its former glory. All this while I continued training :(
Another invaluable helper was Sharon and her coffee-making skills, along with Hector who also helped out and donated many items. Sharon also scored some free goods from Baker's Delight which came in handy when we got hungry. Natalea, Bill and the ladies from my aqua classes donated some really worthwhile items. Johnno's contribution was to make us laugh with his antics on a broken scooter, and cook some yummy snags.
All in all we raised more than $450 which covers our return flights to Sydney.
On the 30th will be our next fundraiser, a trivia night at Tamar Yacht Club from 7pm. $15 a person. Come along for some fun, nautical themed trivia, yummy homemade supper and the bar will be open.

As far as training went on the weekend, I was down for a short recovery ride Saturday morning which to my frustration (I always make the mistake of going with a bunch) turned into a 1hr45 harder-than-recovery session. Johnno & I then had to do the LAC Hillwood 10km feature race later that day which is always a challenging one. Didn't have much left in the legs but still managed to scrape into second-fastest female place. I did miss a swim session in the afternoon, but we just don't have time for everything do we!
Yesterday I allowed myself a bit of a sleep in (til 7.45am) then got up to enjoy the beautiful sunshine and ride 110km from home to Pipers River, across to Pipers Brook, down to Lebrina and back through Lilydale. A tough ride taking 4.5hrs. Then it was off the bike and into the runners for a jog down to the Tailrace and back. Never easy after a long ride! A good solid training day. It was pretty hard to get up for work at 5am though I can tell you.
So week 1 of my last training block finished successfully with 25 hours ticked off.
Now just need the energy to maintain that for another four weeks or so and then I get to start resting up! Sounds good in theory, not sure how it will go in practice though. Luckily I will have a bit more work on my plate then to take my mind off things.

So while I'm on the bandwagon - this seems to be the only chance I get to blog - there are a few other people I need to mention.

Mark Connelley and Craig Boon from EFM Health Clubs have let me use their gyms for free for I can't remember how long, which is a huge help. I'm not big on training inside but Windsor is a lovely new gym with all the gear yet not too big or busy. And you always get to have a good chat with Craig - mostly running related!

As well as businesses there are a lot of individuals who have helped me get where I am today, and where I am going in less than two months.
I might be waxing lyrical about this but Melissa and Dan have been a pillar of fundraising strength. While I was losing my mind at the trivia night, Mel was making sure everything was running smoothly and entertaining everyone. She also put together all of the songs and videos, and generally organised the whole night.

Mum and Dad also helped out with the trivia night and are organising the second for me. This takes a lot of pressure off me while I'm trying to train/work/do the housework so I am very grateful :)

It goes without saying that my husband Johnno, who is also my running coach, mechanic and all round number one support crew, has put up with a lot in the last few months. A wife that is rarely home and when she is, usually tired/grumpy/completely stressed out, is not fun! Hoping it is all worth it come November and then I'll let him have a bit of time for cars, sheds and things :P

Anyway, regardless of how the race goes - and we shouldn't put too much store in the result of a race anyway, because there are so many variables outside our control - I know I have learnt stacks and gained a lot of confidence throughout the last 6 months of training, which will pay off in the future.
Thanks for your interest (if you're reading all the way down to this bit you're obviously very interested or very bored!) - til the next blog... Holz