Best feeling in the world = crossing the finish line

Crossing the finish line = one of the most satisfying & best moments in life. 
The sense of achievement & purpose, the adrenaline.. The whole lot is such a high. 
10km run at the Wellington Marathon Event today...and I met my goal. I was aiming to  run the whole way, and hopefully finish in under an hour and twenty minutes.
My garmin reckons 1:15:49 at 7.27min/km pace 😀😀 to say I'm happy is an understatement! I had a few niggles with my injury from last year, but ran the whole way and overall felt pretty strong. It was my first event since ironmaori in December and man have I missed the feeling. 
Especially the part where the finish line is finally in sight and I swear I see red and nothing else matters but that sprint to the finish. 200% effort & focus. Maybe that's why I always feel emotional once I've crossed the line, there's generally tears lol.
The finish line symbolises everything you've done to get to that point, all of the hard work and dedication, it's essentially the reward for your journey. It's just so special. 😍
It was awesome seeing my whole crew out there, smashing it as usual. The smiles & waves along the way make such a difference ❤️ we did it team!!
Can't wait to see my official time but more than anything I'm happy to be back on track with running. The goal is to run the half marathon part of my tri, and I know now that I'll get there!

Block 2 , Week 3 update...progress!

Eeek how time flies..it's been 2 weeks since my last post! I have been absolutely flat out with work, life in general and of course training. Just trying to keep sane :)

So what's happened in the last couple of weeks?
Running: finally have seen the light with heart rate zone training. I've actually been making sure sure to stay in the correct heart rate zone with every run, and managed a wonderful 6km continuous effort. It was my longest in almost a full year, and it felt great!!
It made me wonder what I've been doing all this time, but I figured out that the way I approached each run was just to 'do my best', which of course meant working too hard, too early and losing steam.
It's made such a difference already and can't wait to see further improvements. I have also been stretching lots and really keeping my technique and posture in check, and I can feel the progress! YAY! ( Speaking of running, this pic is of me at run group, 'in the zone'.. courtesy of Change Fitness, this also highlights my not great style...but it looks like I am zooming past so I'll take it lol).

Swimming: Have been enjoying doing different drills and I am feeling some real improvements with my bi-lateral breathing. In basically just a month, I feel like I can actually breath on both sides! And my stroke feels so much more efficient when I am doing so... I can't hold it for very long periods but slowly building up :) 

Cycling: I've done a 57km cycle and a 47km one in the last couple of weeks, and annoyingly my shoulder injury from last year is back. I am guessing it's partly because I have jumped straight back into some decent distances, combined with me still being quite tense & anxious and my body.. not enough strength & my terrible posture.
The ride yesterday was particularly difficult, I really did not want to go. The temptation to pull out was huge and it took every part of my brain to push, and get in the car. Halfway there, I was still looking for excuses to turn around, but happy to say I did it! It was tough both mentally and physically, by the end of it I was very very sore, but it's still a win.

Next steps: Address my shoulder injury & posture issues & keep working on the running technique. Going to have one on one strength training with my coach Nathan Martin and hopefully finally get my body in tip top condition & finally catch up with my mental strength.. which as I've said before is my real strong point. I am realising just how much my body is still getting used to this lifestyle. After a decade of poor treatment, it's not surprising that there's a bit of protest from the ol' joints/muscles etc :)  Looking forward to getting stronger and kicking these aches and pains in the butt once and for all.

Hope whatever it is you guys are doing, you're going well. Keep up the effort! Winter is the most important time :):)