Our Lani at Dawn's.

I think I am one of the cats.... they strut along this railing every night. 

Final Days !!!!

Time has flown here on our adopted island home.  A month has gone by faster that you can imagine. So much solid training has been done in preparation for Ironman Japan. I am pumped. 

We leave on Monday for Goto and I am very excited. Firstly I am so ready to race. Secondly Luke is on FIRE!!!! 3rd Miss Hillary will be there and I miss her madly. Especially now that Belinda and Juzzy have gone to the dark side and left for their new home Boulder. (Bend is where it is at...they just don't know it yet) 

I will be sad to leave our amazing home stay Dawn. Not only is she a wonderful flat mate she is also our masseuse. Here in Kona you won't survive without a tip top massage lady. The Kona training rips your body apart with the harsh elements. Body work is the key. I have dragged my sad, pathetic, tired ass onto her table countless times over the last month and passed out. Only to wake up a new person ready for another brutal day. So a massive shout out to our girl Dawn. We love you Dawn. 

The vog has been pretty good of late so we are enjoying some beautiful clear, hot final runs and rides. I have some funny news. I know I have been working hard as I am seeing the underside of 60kgs for the first time in decade. HECK! Maybe I will now no longer be the fat athlete. Nice!

Finally over the weekend I did a super sprint trip to San Diego to buy a new camper van. This one is a much upgraded but same style van as the one we have cruised in for the last 3 years. She is red and goes faster. I dub her the Red Turtle "RT" I am really looking forward to doing some miles with her soon. I would never have been able to wrangle a super deal and make her ours unless I had the endless support of or sista "Sum Sum". I flew in to SD at 11.30pm and she rallied to pick me up, drove me everywhere the next day to my meetings and then threw me back on the plane all with in 36 hours. Our family in SD are amazing. Sum, A Man, Jaz, April, Peter, Rory, Claudia... you are the best! See you soon.

Stay Tuned 

Memphis x 

HAWAII IRONMAN 70.3

My race went a little something like this ....

Swim... a little slow but ok.

Bike .... ride ride ride ..... bumpity bumpity bump. Crap a flat! Fix flat. Ride ride ride, bumpity bumpity bump. Crap tyre flat again with valve situation. 

Race over! 1 hour spent hanging out with super awesome volunteers at aid station waiting for SAG to take me and my injured stallion back to transition. 

I had 4 mins to spare and then in came Crowie , Chris and Lukey. Yay Luke another fantastic result. You are on fire baby! 

Belinda won the girls! First race back from leg surgery and another win for the season. Go B!

I got instructions from coach to long run the very next day. All good in the end as I would rather have all flat tyres this weekend and not in Japan. My quota has been filled for the year and I have moved onto a full on last 10 days of Ironman training. 

Stay tuned 

Memphis x 

Hawaii weekend

Final dinner with the worlds best homestays!

At post race dinner with beautiful Irene and Belinda.

I had to have one Mai Tai before we leave.

Post race beach adventure  

No more Wine for us ... NOT!

and the winner are ....

Where's my prize?

Long Runs, Ocean Swims and Cake!

This is the afternoons swimming location. 

Another Queen K long run is over. Thank god as by the end of it I felt like road kill. All was forgotten quickly as the four of us piled into the family car and headed out to do a beautiful afternoon swim at the Captain Cook monument. 

Even though the swim was amazing the cake at the near by cafe was the high lite for me !

Stay tuned 

Memphis x 

Pain and happiness!

Week 1 is in the bag.... I am in pain but only in the good way. This is the best way to get race ready bar none. I have been chasing Luke, Belinda and Justin around this island all week. It hurts a lot but is also so much fun. I can't believe the miles and I am still a little short on those 3. If I tried to do exactly the same as them I would self combust for sure. 

I have to say that the Granger's have one hell of a work ethic. It is really rubbing off on myself and Luke. Old momma and poppa Granger come from the school of "harden the F@$k up and ride".

I read Hillary's article in Inside Tri the other day and had to laugh. Every session with those two is a smash fest. All I can do is hang on and pray. Now I am not proclaiming to be able to hang on however with everyday I get closer to doing so. 

My legs rarely come home without the wobbles. I have turned a dark chocolate brown from the hours in the sun and my coffee addiction is at an all time high. You know you are getting somewhere when the 3 hour Wednesday run session ends with 10 miles an hour interval(@16kms an hour) and you are a bit bummed as you think you could have built up faster earlier. 

Kona is a funny place as most only come here before the race. We stick to the Queen K and rarely venture off the beaten Ironman track. Not any more. Luke has taken it upon himself to ride us all every which way but up the Queen K. Climbs that we never even knew about before are thanks to google maps. Poor Ben Sanson was lost on his first day here. I think the three of them blew him up with about 15 kms to go. ( I had been sent ahead due to my slow climbing abilities so missed the demolition) I hope he made it home in one piece. It will remain to been seen if he is brave enough to step out with Luke the "Dominator" and the "Granger Train" again anytime soon. 

Well its time to head off and cook some lamb cutlets.... YUM! 

Stay tuned 

Memphis x 

Kona Time!

How has it been 13 days since I last visited this blog..... heck I have been busy. In between some gnarly hard core training sessions I managed to do many adult activities. Now get you mind out of the gutter people. I have packed my house, packed 6 months of luggage and moved to Kona. 

I love this place. It proverbially kicks your ass but I love it. You arrive and you are instantly reminded of the islands beauty and harshness all at once. The lava shimmers and the heat warms your blood. You love the smell of the island. I can't describe it but you know it as soon as it hits the nostrils. 

After 1 day of organisation we got right into training. Runs outside are so much harder. The heat and the bitumen test you from the beginning. I know how quickly it makes you strong so I don't complain or even whimper. I love it. It is however about being prepared. After laying out our own aid stations to the energy lab we started our long run today. I love this run. One day I will qualify to race the Ironman here as a pro. I will be more ready for this section of the marathon than any other female... ok the 2nd most ready as Bree has that title covered (she lives here on the big island lucky thing :) 

Luke thought that 3 aid stops between Bike Works and the end of the Energy Lab was too many... oh how he forgets! I made a stance and put them out anyways. 

As it turns out I was right and every time I got to the bottles I checked his and low and behold they were empty. Ha clever Memphis. I knew if I had only put out mine he would have drank them anyways ... leaving me high and dry! Parched as bro!

With my long hard run in the bag I was very satisfied with myself. I had been listening to local radio and had gotten wind of an afternoon market... I love a market! We headed down only to be hit by the long, hard stick of disappointment. It was an arts and craft market. I had visions of Hawaiian BBQ and other fine foods to gorge on all afternoon. Not one to miss a meal we made good of a bad situation and headed to the ever faithful Lava Java. 

As the afternoon set in my stomach was full and the Granger's blew into town. I think Belinda and Justin are stalking us! ha ha. No they are here for Honu 70.3 also. It should be a cracking race as long as both Sam McGlone and Bree Wee are still racing. 

Finally the biggest news in my world this week is the arrival of my super sweet K-Swiss "Venice" high tops. I will drive Luke mad tomorrow and make him take some pix of these fully rad shoes! It has been more than a few years since I buried my last pair and I am ready to bust these bad boys out!

Stay tuned 

Memphis x 

Time to Pack!

The sun is setting on Noosa. No more morning rides without arm and leg warmers. Gossip sessions in the pool have come to an end. The air temp has dropped below 25 degrees so it is time to head off out into the world. 

I downloaded these warmer pix from weeks gone by. 

Stay tuned 

Memphis x 

Busso Half Pix

Busso Half!

Wow what a world wind tour... WA in 48 hours! In , race and back out! 

The coach did not taper me much... not if you include the day of flying. After my biggest run week ever I went to WA with the knowledge that this was not a focus race but I had to race properly. 

The swim was filled with stinger buggers... I feel off Charlotte's feet and was in no mans land. I hate that. Oh well never mind focus on the bike. Out on the bike I felt super slug like after all the IM Japan training but knew that that was no reason to be lazy. I caught up to a speedy girl I came into transition 1 with. She and I rode legally for two laps till we caught 2 other girls. A few blokes went past but they were way to fast to jump on. I was laughing at the age group pack half a lap back. I have never seen such a bunch of cheating drafters but to be fair the race set up did not help their cause. 3 lap courses are a waste of time. 

Anyways back to the pro field. I saw that Luke had dropped Pete and was charging on to what would be a course record. YAY Lukey you are such a friggin stud babe. 

I continued to try to break away but Jasmine refused to let anyone take the lead so I gave up that fight. Off the bike I took the longest time getting my shoes on.... what I was doing I will never know. 

Run time. Well..... I have never been known for my run but this week I had already done 67 kms this week alone before the race. I have been smashing myself in training and really did not get a chance to run fast in China due to the weather. I was determine to run hard no matter what. Lap 1 was a bit uneventful but lap 2 and 3 I put the hurt on myself. I managed to negative split my run and PB my run and Half IM time. 8th pro.  With no taper and a hard race just 2 weeks ago I was pleased with my result. All seems to be going well for IM Japan in June. 

It was super great to see the family this weekend. Thanks for cheering every one. 

Stay tuned 

Memphis x