Da Chick, who will be six next month, is quite a Sporty Spice:  She cycles (and already made us promise that she’ll get a bike upgrade for her birthday).  She’s a great little swimmer.  She loves to run.

I had the privilege of accompanying her on her first 5km running race the other day and holding her hand as she ran across the finish line.  I love sharing these experiences with her and hope that we’ll be able to do many more running and cycling races together before she turns into a grumpy hormonal teenager.

But now she’s worried that I may not actually survive my attempt at finishing the 70.3 Ironman.  Actually, she’s concerned that I may not survive my training.  Not because she thinks I can’t run or cycle, but rather because she’s seen me swim.  And in her mind, my flailing about will attract some hungry shark with a score to settle, who will pick me out of all the swimmers for a little lunch snack.

So, whenever I tell her that I’ll be leaving early / coming home late because of training, the first question she asks me is whether I’m going to swim in “shark water”.  Then she’ll proceed to advise me to stick to a swimming pool where sharks can’t catch me, and to pee in the water to scare them off.

Pearls of wisdom, I tell you…

Try spinning

OK, so whenever I think of spinning, my mind immediately conjures up the picture of fitness master and supreme god of the tacky workout videos, the one and only Richard Simmons.

I’ve never been to a formal spinning class.  No, wait, I lie…  I’ve been to one – way back in the day when I still lived in town, and arrived late for a boxercise class.  I ended up with the squeaky bike in the back of the class with the broken toe cage, and the pedal kept on hitting the back of my leg… It was the most horrible experience I ever had and I never went back.  Thankfully Da Husband got me a spinning bike for my birthday last year, and even though I use it way too little, it’s nice to know that I can spin in the privacy of my own home (in fact, I’ve scheduled a 5am session tomorrow morning, which will also give me a chance to catch up on True Blood).

Anyhoo, with last weekend’s ride cancelled due to the crappy weather, coach Steve invited us to attend his Saturday morning spinning class.

My new slow-lane pool buddies Sofie and Megan were there too and we immediately annexed some bikes by the back window, which took us far enough from Steve’s watchful eye but gave us an awesome view of Table Mountain.

Surprisingly I had a great time and I was able to push myself good and proper and work up a nice sweat.

Clearly cycling is my strongest discipline, so I’m not COMPLETELY hopeless!

Sadly I had to miss out on the coffee run at Vida as a BBM from Da Husband called me back home with two words:  “Bring Lunch”.

Rusty Running

I spent most of this afternoon watching my Blackberry, secretly hoping that there would be an SMS announcing the cancellation of tonight’s run.  But, alas, this was not to be and by 16h30 I changed into my running gear so that I could go to the meeting point directly from the office.

The wind was howling and there was already a slight drizzle when we headed from the-place-formerly-known-as-La-Med towards the Sea Point Promenade.  Our mission:  To run as far as we could within 20 minutes before turning back.

Jeepers, the speed at which the front okes ran was super scary, and for a moment there I wondered whether I was really cut out for the programme.  Then I realised that my last run was in April when I did the Two Oceans Half, so it would be stupid to expect an awesome run after more then three months off my legs.

The funny thing is, on my way back to the parking lot, running about third from the back, this guy (part of the super speedy front group) passed me from behind, gave me a little tap on the back and said “good going!”

And those two little words gave me the extra oomph I needed to speed up and finish.

Next training session:  5am spinning @ home…>>>