My day of sherpa'ing

As you can see my day of being an IM CdA sherpa was slightly different than most sherpa's.

As I am typing this Bigun and Tac are off the bike, as are almost all of the tri-bloggers (Bigun with a really powerful ride), and onto the run. The end is in sight.

For me my day has been spent, fighting off sleep depravation, changing nappies, feeding and loving my twins even though they have kept me up all day and night, my own IM challenge! Did manage to squeeze in a 2 hour 35mile ride today and an 8 mile run yesterday so not a total loss.

Babies are home

IMG_3785
Originally uploaded by tim1_davies

Babies are home, and we are trying to get into a routine. Mum is getting better and more mobile.

Very little time for anything except eat sleep and poop (and thats just me!).

Today is Day 1 of my 16 weeks training plan to IM, and I managed to get up early and do my 1 hour swim.

For those interested, updated my flickr account with all the photos and video from the birth and first few days.
ttp://www.flickr.com/photos/29148514@N00/

BFIT Challenge Part 3 & Babies Update

Thankyou everyone for your kind comments in the last post. I passed all the comments onto Gemma in hospital and it really lifted her spirits.

As you can see from the previous post Friday was a busy day. No BFIT challenge was planned for Friday but I hoped to get my final swim and bike completed on the saturday.

However Friday PM the opportunity arose for me to get an hour break to go and burn of some energy and have a quiet 5 mins to myself, and I got my second swim in. I had a really enjoyable swim, every time I stroked I could see the baby ID bands on my wrist. Really strange feeling knowing Thursday I swam as just Tim, however Friday I swam as Tim, dad of Caitlyn and Emma.

Total Swim Time - 1hr 48mins (3 miles)

Both girls were doing well Friday however on Saturday Caitlyn started to show signs of jaundice. By late Saturday they had her on a UV lamp to try and reduce the jaundice levels. It was heart breaking (sure it won't be the first time they break my heart) to not be able to do anything to help. Therefore the bike ride was cancelled. Getting babies healthy was far more important than my BFIT challenge (sorry Roman, sure you understand).

However Sunday afternoon while Mummy and babies were sleeping I took a gentle ride with my father in law and covered the 30 miles in 1hr 52mins.

Total Bike Time - 1hr 52mins (30 miles)

Therefore my overall BFIT challenge details were as follows
Total Swim Time - 1hr 48mins (3 miles)
Total Bike Time - 1hr 52mins (30 miles)
Total Bike Time - 1hr 35mins (10 miles)

Total - 5hrs 15mins (completed in 4 days therefore Bronze)

An update on Caitlyn and Emma...
After 24 hours of UV lamp, as well as taking on formula and breast milk she is doing a lot better. Emma who was also showing signs of jaundice has been taking additional formula and is also doing alot better this morning.

The pediatrician has given approval for the babies to come home today and we are waiting for OB approval for Gemma to come home. So with any luck I can bring all my girls home today.

So excited!

Today I became a daddy

Just popped home for 5 mins. Please let me introduce Emma Georgina Davies, and Caitlyn Toma Davies.

Emma came out 6lbs 13 at 10.41am, and Caitlyn came out at 6lbs 4 at 10.43am.

I am lost for words and will type a longer blog later. (I am over the moon). Mum is doing great.

(And yes that is my IM finishers t-shirt, another momentous day deserved a wear of the shirt!)

BFIT Challenge Part 2

Run completed, just! No tornados, though a bit of rain would have been nice. I had a personal worst. It started so well, I felt really fresh and no after effects from this mornings swim.

First few miles flew by, however the heat, wind and humidity were starting to get to me. Stupidly I had gone out with only 1 bottle of Nuun and 2 gels. (this was fine when I ran this loop a couple of weeks ago.) This time however the temps were in the 90's and boy did I suffer for it. Cramps and dehydration, not the makings of a good time. I kept going though and ground it out in a personal worst of 1hr 35min. I won't be making the same mistake again!

As you can see not so happy anymore!

So thats half the swim and the run completed. Gemma is just finishing packing for the hospital, I need to get my few things sorted and then its our last night of freedom. Tomorrow I become a Daddy, sounds strange I know. Oh and before I forget congratulations LBTEPA for becoming an Auntie.

BFIT Challenge Part 1

BFIT Challenge Part 1

As detailed in my earlier post I am doing my BFIT challenge this year for the birth of my twin baby girls. Their delivery date via C section is due for this Friday at 10am.

So my BFIT challenge is as follows for my 30th..

3 mile swim

30 mile bike

10 mile run

I am going for silver, so have 72 hours to complete. I would have gone for gold, but trying to complete all of that on the same day as the twins are born would have been impossible.

So the plan is as follows, starting at 8am Thursday (this morning) and completing Saturday

1.6 miles swim Thurs morning (6am)

10 miles run Thurs Eve

Babies are born Fri morning (even the babies are scheduled in... yep I'm a Project Manager by job)

30 miles bike early Sat morning

1.4 miles swim either sat morning or afternoon, completing before the 72 hours.

This morning was the first part of this plan with a 5.30am wake up and heading to the pool. Went well and knocked out 1.65 miles in an hour. The pool is called the Olympic Indoor Swim Center, its false advertising the pool is only 25m's!

Not feeling tired so plan on running the 10miles at the local park district tonight. (hopefully the weather and tornado warnings will pass).
Here is the photo of me after finishing and getting back to the car (no cameras in the swim centre).

Chicago Chase Corporate Challenge

Chase Corporate Challenge

Ran the chase corporate challenge last week, no photos or garmin track for this post as the computer that has the garmin software on it is currently dead (needs a new graphics card).

The good..

Had a great time ran a 26.15 for the 3.5miles (7.5 ish min miles). This by far was a PB for me across that distance. 2 years ago it was my first race in my new healthy lifestyle and ran it in 35 mins. So it was great to come back and see how much I had achieved.

Newtons felt great, performed really well and with the new shoes I continue to not have blisters.

The bad.. (my rant)

23600 people complete this race, so as you can guess it can be quite congested as its only 3.5 miles. However the organisers try to take this into account by trying to set minutes per mile banners at the start to give people an idea of where they should be lining up. However... not everyone seems to understand how fast 7 minute miles really are.

Walking is not 7 minutes per mile! 2 years ago when I ran this I started in the 10 minute section and ending up walking almost the first half mile, so this year I lined up at the 7min mile knowing I would run between that and 8 min mile. However there were a large number of idiots walking and running very slowly who did not seem to understand why they should line up correctly.

Also these walkers/runners tend to run in pairs meaning all of a sudden the path is blocked in front of you. Afraid after the 4th or 5th last second dodge around people, I lost my patience and barged between the next pair. (hangs head in shame, I know very rude). I did notice all the dodging did tweak my hamstrings a bit while they were cold and it took a while to warm up properly.

After the first mile it was easier to move through the crowd as everyone is running roughly the same pace.

Baby update..

Babies are still not here, Gemma has her c-section planned for 6th June, so only a few more weeks of just the two of us.

What a difference 6 months makes!

What a difference 6 months makes..
6 months ago the element was my tri transport vehicle, it was great I could put the bike in their fully assembled and take a ton of kit with me.. here is a picture of the car when we drove down to Florida for IM.

6 months later and the babies are about to arrive. The car has changed from being my tri transport to the baby transporter.

Not shown in this picture is also the massive twin bob stroller that now takes up the trunk space!


Guess my poor bike will be relegated to a bike carrier on the outside. Unless that is, it is legal to strap the baby seats to the roof.... um must look into that. Just a little worried about strapping the bike to the back of the car, wouldn't want it to fall of ;-)

Ran the Chase Coporate challenge last night, will I tell you about that in my next post also in that next post you will hear me rant about an incident on the chase corporate challenge. (I rarity for me I know!)

Cycling Socks at Work

Flatman set a challenge to wear your coolest cycling socks to work. For me there was only one pair of socks that would do...

1st Bithday

Today is my first birthday, its been a year since I completed my first official triathlon. 1 year ago yesterday I completed the Galena sprint triathlon. (660yds lake swim, a hilly 16.8 mile bike, and a very hilly 4.3 mile run.) Upon completing this first triathlon I knew triathlon was for me, and that I had found my sport.

Entered a few more events now
A number of friends are running the Muddy Buddy here in Chicago so have signed up for that, team name is Nor4k n Chance (say it quickly).
I still have a half IM to sign up for but other than that I think my season plan is complete.

Shamrock Shuffle (Completed)

Chase Corporate Challenge 3.5m Run - 22nd May (Entered)

2 Mile Swim - Splish Splash Lake in the hills - 14th June (Entered)

Oly Tri - Twin Lakes Tri - 29th June (Entered)

2 Mile Swim - Splish Splash Crystal Lake - 12th Jul (Entered)

Oly Tri - Lake In the Hills Tri - 19th Jul (Entered)

Running - Muddy Buddy - 3rd Aug (Entered)

1/2 Iron - Lake Geneva - 6th Sept or Great Illni. Not sure which yet.

100m - North Shore Century - 21st Sept

100m - Apple Cider Century - 28th Sept

IM Florida - Nov 1st (Entered)

Two weeks ago I completed a 9 miler (the longest in my Newtons so far) and I got the largest blood blister I have ever seen! Went back to the Tri shop and talked through what had happened. Without a question they switched out the shoes (had them for 4 months and run almost 60 miles), and they got me to try a different pair of Newtons with less support. Been running with these for 2 weeks now (couple of 5 milers and two 8 milers) and the difference is amazing. Confidence in the shoes has been restored.

Babies are doing well, we are now past 35 weeks and they are due any day. Finally persuaded Gemma to create a blog, to show friends and family the babies development.