New Role in the New Year!

I can finally announce (to the audience who read my blogs) that I have resigned from my current role and will be moving to another company in the new year. How does this impact on my training life? Plenty!

• The office of this company is 3km from my house.
• This means that on recovery days, I am able to sleep in closer to the start of the working day as it takes me 30min to walk, 15min slow ride (pub bike speed), 5min drive.
• This means that I can do my swim sets in the morning and be at work in 5min (pool being 3km from work) or drive home to shower/breakfast and then get to work on Mondays and Wednesdays.
• There is a pretty sweet park nearby which means that I can do my runs there in the mornings or during my lunch breaks.
• There are plenty of parking onsite so I don't have to pay nearly $6K/year for parking - money which can go towards more sweet cycling gear. #sockdoping #newkitday

In general, I am looking forwards to this change. I have been with my current employer for 8.5 years. In my new role, I will be in a leadership role and implementing some training and support for this company which is something which I am excited about.

One of the reasons why I took on this role is the company's core values which they spoke about on day 1 of the job interview. As some of you may know, core values is something which I am a strong believer of. If you have strong core values in life - be it family, work or training, things will be held together and be sustainable (sustained life).

I start this role on the 13th Jan 2015. My last long course race is on the 1st Feb 2015 - 3 weeks after I start this new role. Fingers crossed that I am able to balance out work and training within the first few weeks of starting out there.

I am so looking forward to joining this new company - I will be contributing to their sustainability which is something I am passionate about. Can't wait!

Afterglow Trail Run - The Race Report

On Saturday night (29th Nov 2014), I participated in my first trail run event. I had signed up for this event back in September - Afterglow. My friend Sally signed up for this event and posted on Facebook if anyone wants to also sign up for a bit of run on the trails. This event was unique in the way that the run starts around 6:30pm and the cut off was around 10:30pm. As the run is at dusk and most will finish after sunset, it was compulsory that all participants run with a head torch.

With this in mind, I bought a head torch and some minimalist trail running shoes. I practiced running with the head torch soon after receiving them but I hadn't trained  in the minimalist trail shoes other than the odd walk with the dog. I decided that as I ran with my Mizuno shoes recently, even during the Challenge Shepparton (half) and the course description mentioned that the course was not too technical and suitable for road runners too, I decided to fore-go the trail shoes and just run with my Mizunos.

After Challenge Shepp, I hadn't done any running at all.....like zero! So like all events, I was hesitant about this as I had not done a trail event before and I was not familiar with the route at all.

The weekend came too soon. I planned on arriving at my parents house as it was around 15min from Torquay. I got down to Torquay around 2pm and picked up my race bib. I tried the course fuel which was called Tailwind and I really enjoyed it. I will look at purchasing some to use for training and to use during the events.

Sally arrived at my parents place around 5pm and we quickly got ready and left the house around 5:30pm. We got on the shuttle bus which took us to Point Addis around 6:40pm. The slow wave started first around 6:50pm (the faster wave around 7:15pm).

When the announcer called the start, most people sped off. I decided to just run at my pace as I know that I have 21km left for the day. The first part of the run was on bitumen and then into the beach trail. The single track path was good but the course was congested due to the single track and the amount of people in the wave.

The group started to spread out once the course started to get slightly technical and there was the first major climb along with rocks and roots to get over. At this point, I wasn't running too much but tried to not dwell on the rocks for too long.

After the climb, there was a false flat and then the descents was a really steep one. Soon after this was another climb, oh boy!...

I started to get into a good rhythm around the 5km mark. I thought to myself how fun this trail running is. I am running at a great pace, I felt great, I am enjoying the sights and sounds and I was not in too much pain.

The aid stations were simple but they provided everything you needed - water, tailwind fuel, lollies, nuts and chocolates. I ate some red lollies and filled up my bottle with some Tailwind. Around this point was when I had my first gel for the day - around 6km mark. I didn't swallow all my gel in one go so ran with it for a while until I realised that I sprayed about a teaspoon out of the packet into my hair, face and my hands.

The rest of the run was fantastic - the course changed throughout - from sand, dirt, path, road and more. The scenery was also fantastic. You had the ocean on your right and the noise of the waves splashing along the shore just made it memorable.

There were sections of the main path which was filled with soft sand, these sections I found to be the most difficult as your energy would just be drained out trying to push off the soft surface. Every step you took, your feet would sink about 10-20cm.

The route took you past the finish line then onto the beach. Before I reached this point, I decided to run with a head torch as someone ran past me with one and I noticed the difference when the light shone on the path. The run along the beach was around 2-3km. It was actually very surreal seeing a path of light along the beach. Then the run became interesting as we literally had to "climb" onto the sand dunes to get to the path. The climb was the worse - all hands and knees onto the sand dune which resulted in sand getting everywhere!

The rest of the run was in the direction of the finish line. I knew we had about 2km to go and wanted to finish strong. I ended up running past a few people at this point which was a great feeling as I had something left in the tank. The last 500m was at a great pace and I brought everything out and finished the event with nothing left in me.

My final results for this event:

Official Time: 2:35:35
Overall: 210/250
Gender: 88/115
Category (Female 21-35): 33/42

Pretty happy with the results considering I had finished a half iron-distance triathlon 2 weeks prior, had zero run training in between and this being my first trail run event. I will definitely sign up to this event again.

My toes cramped up once through the event but I increased my intake of my hydration (Shotz solution) and that seemed to help. I chaffed around my chest with my sports bra and there are several scabs now. I don't have any blisters as I wore my 1000mile socks along with my bright orange Ten Speed Hero socks.

Things to note before the next event:
- Might look into a backpack hydration system - I will see how my arms swing along the side.
- Will buy some Tailwind to use in training and in racing
- Training (trail) in my minimalist shoes as they are light and I have to throw my Mizuno shoes away soon as they are 18months old.

Recovery Week

So it has been more than a week since my Challenge Shepparton event (1.9/90/21.1) and I think my body has finally recovered and I am about to start another build into another half-iron-distance event.

My next (triathlon) event is Challenge Melbourne (1.9/90/21.1) and it's on the 1st February 2014. I have also put my name down for the corporate triathlon on the 1st March. So far, what have I been up to?

Monday 17th - Massage
Tuesday 18th - Nothing
Wednesday 19th - Nothing
Thursday 20th - Lady bombs (Recovery) and open water swim
Friday 21st - Nothing
Saturday 22nd - 1km open water swim for corporate games. I think my time was around 24min. This is slow!
Sunday 23rd - Nothing

I have a 21-22km trail run event on Saturday evening. I am planning on doing a 50-70km ride (may not be on the TT bike) to turn the legs as I don't want to smash myself before a half marathon. On Sunday, I will see what I feel like doing...I won't get back to Melbourne in time for the Sunday ride with the crew. Might do an open water swim or something....who knows. I might even just go exploring on my CX bike...

Anyways, this week's training has not gone off with a good start. My swim session today was cancelled due to the possibility of thunderstorms (pool was closed) then I couldn't do the afternoon session as I have an appointment.

My Tuesday's training will be determined by the weather. If the weather forecast is great, I will be riding into work, early due to a 8am meeting and this will also cover off a bike session in the pm. Wednesday will be "back to pool" day with a gym session thrown in as I need to work on my strength. Thursday will be a bike session in the morning and then open water swim and run. Friday may be an endurance swim or a gym session.

As far as nutrition is concerned. Our fruit and veg orders are back so we are consuming plenty of fresh fruit and veg everyday. I am finding myself only consuming gels/supplements during my Saturday and Sunday training days. All other days are done without gels for which I am okay with. My nutrition during Challenge Shepparton was pretty much spot on so there isn't really anything I would change about it.

I am looking forward to Challenge Melbourne. I really had fun last year albeit it was a shortened race and it was a bloody warm day.

Challenge Shepparton - The "Event" Report

So my first long course event for this season was done and dusted on Sunday 16th November. Challenge Shepparton (half iron-distance) on a new course in Shepparton, VIC.

I signed up for this event early this year and used it as an incentive to get back into training from my leave. I had about 6 weeks to train for this event after an 8 week long service leave holiday and 3 more weeks of non-training due to a bike crash.

We did a short ride, run and swim on Saturday and checked in our bikes around lunch. I made my way back to the cabin to rest my legs and had a good nap. I tend to nap the day before. I find that as I don't have enough sleep the night before a race, I figured I can be "rested" if I nap the day before. It also kills the nerves too which is a bonus.

I am sure the 1300+ competitors were awake during the storms the night before the event. I was woken up at about 1am in the morning due to the loud noises the torrential rain made around the cabin. I was so grateful that we were in a cabin compared to poor souls who pitched tents in the caravan park.

I had my alarm set at 3:40 and again at 4am. First things first, put on my tri-suit, timing band on my ankles, had breakfast of a peanut butter banana sandwich (literally, cut banana in half, apply peanut butter, close banana), applied numbering tattoos on arms, legs and packed up my hydration into my bags. I left the caravan park at 4:45 and got to the lake around 4:50am. I stood around with about a dozen or so other competitors for a few minutes before they opened up transition at 5am.

I haven't set up a transition since February of this year. It felt weird having all your things lined up and ready to go instead of stuffing them into transition bags. Due to the rain, I folded my towels in a way that it covered my gear from being (too) wet. I decided to wear socks for the run as I wanted to be as comfortable as I could and I haven't been training sans socks for over 12 months. It took me about 20min to get ready and walked through the expo. Luckily one of the pop-up tri shops was opened so I purchased some arm warmers and went back into transition and had them ready.

I walked back to the TA Taj and saw that plenty of tri clubs had their tents blown over. One even had their tent into the lake. I wet-suited up around 6:15am and waited around for the start. The elites were supposed to go off at 6:30 but was delayed by 10min as they needed to clear the roads. Waiting around for the start was worse due to the freezing conditions and the non-stop rain. Once we were in the water, it was a relief as the lake was actually warm.

The siren blew and off we went. I must have not pressed the right button on my Garmin. No swim recorded and I stuffed up my multisport-button-pressing-thing. The swim felt long and I had a few issues with direction. Turning around the buoys almost at 360 angle made it hard for me to get my bearings right. The last part of the swim where you headed towards swim exit I got a bit lost.

Swim - 41:08 (36/40).

Once I got out of my wettie and put on my usual cycling gear - helmet, shoes, I had to put on my arm warmers too. So grateful for being able to purchase those early that morning! My wheels were rubbing against my brakes which annoyed me so I had to stop and adjust them before I mounted the bike.

The bike leg was an out and back with a little detour through a small town. The direction of the bike route meant that you would hit a head wind going south but will be riding with the tail wind back into Shepp. The roads were very very bumpy. Plenty of nutrition and accessories were found along the way. Plenty of canisters on the roads from the bumps and plenty of drink cages and hydration systems were also strewn on the road. It was hard to pick a line to best place yourself as you don't want to "hog the road". My wrist, arms and back ached from the bumps and still do now 3 days after the event.

Riding into the headwind is not my favourite thing to do. I need to work on my strength more and be able to ride in the large chain ring without compromising my legs. It's a balancing act between spinning out at a high cadence, small chain ring and not going very fast versus riding in the large chain ring, slower cadence but going at a higher speed. Something I will need to work on over the next few weeks. Riding into the head wind was very demoralising. Hundreds of people rode past me. I was only able to ride past about 10. Another thing I need to work on is the sharp U turns - I had to unclip out of the pedal. Lacking bike skills big time.

Riding with the tail wind was amazing. On the second lap back into Shepp, I was riding on the hardest gear for about 20km all the way. It felt great and I was powering past people who seemed to have lost concentration/motivation/energy. I made myself concentrate on my strokes and played a little game of "left leg, right leg".

Bike - 3:25:30 (37/40)

I really enjoyed the run. Maybe because I drank coke on the course and that really changed my perception on a huge level. I actually had to stop off at the toilets on the first lap as I thought I had shat my pants. I didn't want to be that person. Luckily, what I was "feeling" was just paw-paw ointment I applied early in the morning to prevent chaffing and not poo! I timed myself to consume gel at a point on the course and that worked out well. I walked through all the aid stations and had coke and water. I had two salt tablets on course too. My feet cramped twice on the run, once around the 2km mark and once again around the 19km mark.

I walked probably around 50m in total and only through aid stations and up some of the inclines of the course (albeit very very small inclines). I felt good on the run. I would put this towards the amount of caffeine consumed.

Run - 2:14:08 (36/40)

Overall, my position was 35/40 for Females 30-34 with a total time of 6:26:51. This was my last race in this age category as I will be in 35-39 for Challenge Melbourne.

Considering the lack of training I did before this event, I am actually very happy about my results. I am happy that I have come out of it relatively injury free apart from being sore - quads, back and wrists. My nutrition was bang-on, maybe need to increase the hydration part as I only consumed about 600ml of my hydration over 90km. I am not a huge sweater and I still went to the bathroom on course.

Things to note/improve/fix:

• Secure my gel flask on my top tube better. I had it strapped over an old head band with zip ties but due to the shape of the top tube and the rain, the flask rotated around the top tube during the ride. I also chaffed along my thigh from my legs rubbing against the head-band material. I need to visit Clark Rubber to buy some neoprene.
• Work on my intensity! I found myself getting into a "relaxed" mode during the swim and need to get faster. Need to do more strength work on the bike and interval running to get some speed up. 
• Continue with Lady Bombs ride on Thursday morning - my favourite session.
• Book in more massages. I had my pre race massage on Friday and again on the Monday. I haven't had a massage since May as I feel like a bit of a hack for not doing much training. Massages help with muscle recovery and prevents injuries.

My goal is to ultimately finish a half-iron-distance race under 6 hours - this can only be done if I can increase my average speed on the bike to ride 90km under 3 hours and run 21.1km under 2 hours. As long as I keep the swim < 40min and transition < 10min in total, I should get there one day.

For now, it's a few days rest. I have a trail run on the 29th Nov and the next event is on the 1st Feb (Challenge Melbourne).

1 more sleep!

I won't lie, the nerves are starting to set in with the "event" this weekend. I can't believe that on Sunday, I will be doing a 1.9km swim, 90km ride and a half marathon....

What I find funny is that I have done probably more training within the last few days than I have since I returned from holidays! My swims are coming along fine. I know that I can get through the 1.9km swim. The ride will be something which I just have to "mentally"get through - try not to get bored and lose momentum and motivation. The run will be the most challenging. Running is in no way looking like where it should be leading up to a half marathon. My longest run since Ironman Melbourne is a 15km. I have no idea how I am going to handle my nutrition and hydration on the day. I have been training with a hydration belt and because this is just an "event" for me, I don't know if I should be wearing it on the day or just rely on the course availability.

I arrived in Shepparton on Friday afternoon. I actually left the house around 3pm which is late for the usual. I guess as we don't have a familiarisation swim anymore on the Friday, I decided to take my time. I started to pack for the weekend after my morning massage. I haven't done a triathlon in a while so I stumbled around the house trying to figure out what I actually need on the day.

Once I got all my sh#t together, I drove up to Shepparon and got to my caravan park cabin around 6pm. Challenge Shepparton had their registration opened from 4-7pm but I was too tired once I got all organised.

This morning, we did a small ride, a small run followed by a small swim. The event is very different from the Shepparton races of previous years. The race is no longer around Kialla. It is around Victoria Lake Park. The swim is in Victoria Lake, the water is nice and warm, much clearer than Kialla and doesn't taste as "muddy". The ride is around the back past the town of Toolamba. Depending on the direction of the wind, it may be a long day in the office. The ride this morning was not easy for me. I couldn't keep up with the main group - they were riding 30-35km/hr into the head wind and I didn't want to push myself too much before an event. The ride back into Shepparton was much better. No head wind and we were able to do a few TT efforts.

Did a lap of the lake after the ride. It was a nice run and I am hoping that I will be able to pace myself well to get through 21km.

I am not doing this event for a "time" but I am hoping to stick with my plan of getting through this day so I can recover well enough for my training for the trail run on the 29th and training leading up to Challenge Melbourne.

See you on the other side.

I am in love....

.....with open water swimming.

I have never hesitated with swimming, other than waking up early to join a squad swim (50km drive from my house). I love how my body glides through the water. I love that my joints don't hurt like they do when I run or ride. I love how I am always hungry after a good swim set.

Before I arrived to Australia in the early 90s, I feared the water. This may have been attributed to the fact that I nearly drowned at the age of 7. The image of "seeing the light" and choking on water is still vivid in my mind.

I finally learnt how to "not drown" at the age of 12 during school PE classes but I never really "understood" how to swim until the age of 29 when I joined a squad. It's not just about waving your arms through the water and kicking as fast and hard as you can, it is all about creating as much "resistance" so you push your way through.

I am comfortable about doing my own swim sets. This may be because I have started to enjoy training on my own without the pressure of a "group". Sometimes the competitiveness of others really ruins my day, how they have to be in front, always the fastest, strongest and best when at the end of the day, triathlon is an individual sport, your only competitor is yourself. Don't get me wrong, I love coming to sessions when I can, the squad is almost a second family but sometimes, I just don't want to use my energy on anything/anyone else but myself.

Now that the weather is getting warmer (bearable to be swimming in the ocean), I have been getting out and swimming at Mentone beach a few times a week. I love this beach so much better than Elwood.
- It is so much cleaner - you can see the sandbed below and sometimes when the sun is out, you can also see your shadow
- Pole to pole distance is approx 500m
- There are hot showers available to the public
- Its about 1km from my house

The last few times I have gone swimming at Mentone, I have encountered some jellies. Very unpleasant indeed and I am trying to overcome the anxiety of seeing them in their habitat.




Mentone Beach - Tuesday 5th Nov 2014



 



In recent times, I have been using my swims as a means of tuning out and de-stressing. Unlike running or riding where you actually have to pay attention to where you are going unless you want to fall flat on your face, swimming, even if it is laps of the pool allows me to just do something with little thought.

 

I know that my pace is not quite there for a "race" but it doesn't bother me. It's about doing what makes me happy.

Summertime in Melbourne

Summer in Melbourne - it comes and goes. When it is here, it is praised. You can see it all over social media. When he leaves, it leaves a great gap in our hearts - the sky is grey, the winds are howling, it stops traffic.

The last week or so demonstrated the two sides of Melbourne weather. We had glorious days where your skin gets a nice tan from being out on a bike ride through to days when you get kicked out of a pool due to lightning and thunder.

I aim to start swimming with the GESAC crew on Monday and Wednesday mornings but this was not the case this week due to the lightning storm. For once this year, I did the Bayside group Rebel Run which starts at 5:45am outside Mentone Grammar. It was a 35-40min recovery run and I knew that I could do that - it is how I roll. I had a shocker of a run session on Sunday. My hayfever was sky high and I only managed to get out of bed at 10am and only managing a 10km run. Mind you, I did my longest ride (and run off the bike) last Saturday for this season - a whooping 110km followed by a 3+km rotb (20min)!

Instead of a pool swim on Wednesday, I opted for an open water swim at Mentone after work. I had just bought a new wetsuit (I promise this being my last one) and wanted to try it out. It took me 45min or so to put the wetsuit on and needed help with the zip - thanks lady with the dog.

I didn't have any plans for the swim. It was just out to the pole and then trying to reach the next. My swim was cut short because I got freaked out by jellyfish! Seriously....you would think that after years of open water swimming, I would be ok with them by now. I guess I wasn't expecting them to be present so early in the season! Instead, I swim towards the shore and just floated about. Reports of the new wetsuit compared to my Rocket Science - it is more buoyant, I can actually "feel" the water with my arms, higher neckline (choke-like), longer in the legs, significantly harder to put on and take off. Maybe because I like to wear my wetsuits tight and have gone for a smaller size than the chart recommends. For my RocketScience, I have gone for a XS when the chart recommends that I wear a M. I hate collecting water when I swim. For the new wettie, I have opted for a S instead of M.

It was a very lonely Lady Bombs session on Thursday morning. Most of the ladies are now in Noosa racing the tri this Sunday. There were a few who still wanted to ride but opted out. I was going to do this ride no matter what. It's my favourite session on the week - now above Windtrainer Tuesday.

As I was by myself, I could do my own "set". The set was:
Lap 1 - Warm up
Lap 2 - Race at Pits, Hard gear along Queens Rd
Lap 3 - Race at Pits, Easiest gear, very fast pedalling
Lap 4 = Lap 2
Lap 5 = Lap 3
Lap 6 = Lap 2
Lap 7 - Cool down - I like to use this as my technique sessions so I did 50 left leg, 50 right and 20 both legs. I like to add pedalling with single legs in my sessions - it works on the pulling action as well as encouraging a smoother stroke. Added bonus, you can get to work on the core.

Didn't get to train on Thursday evening as I was coaching the Try the Tri group - we did open water swimming.

Due to the long weekend and coaching commitments, I will be doing my long run on the Saturday before coaching, then trying to fit my ride and rotb on Sunday.

My weekends are pretty jam packed at the moment. Trying to finish off two more cycling caps, some online work on my side projects and also trying to visit friends. I am squeezing in a visit to the parents as well (being the great daughter and all).

Happy Long Weekend!

Ride2Work and Around the Bay week.

Last week was "bike week" in Victoria - we had Ride2Work day on Wednesday 15th and then it was Around the Bay on Sunday 19th.

Due to R2W, my training had to accommodate, not because I was forced to, but I genuinely love this day! I did a 5km run on Monday evening (a lap around Albert Park lake) and tried out the Tuesday morning swim session with Des. I enjoyed being back with the squad and bringing things back to basics but after just completed the 2nd swim session this morning, I think I may need to jump to the next level up. Real poo poo as I like my swims done in the morning and not start at 7:30pm at night. Will talk about that more later.

Wednesday I rode into work the quicker way through Port Melbourne and South Melbourne (around 30km, 1 hour) but the ride home took me nearly 1:45 to ride 35km due to travelling through Port Melbourne business park and into the headwind pretty much from Port down to Sandringham. My legs were trashed by the end as I was riding on the roads (rather than bike path) and into 40km/h winds.

I was too buggered from Wednesday's ride that I didn't end up doing my lady bombs session on Thursday morning, instead I slept in and did a pretty good Elwood combo session that night. The swim as suppose to be a long one but due to the wind and chop, we only did 500m over and through the cold waves (I loved it!). I then ran a good and steady pace of 4km into the headwind and 4km with the tail wind with Caroline.

The weekend consisted of a 100km ride on Saturday and a 14km run on the Sunday. My long rides and runs have not been meeting the program but for now, it is what I can do having had a break from it for so long. Due to the wind, I only managed 100km within 4 hours. The program had 4-5 hours or 130km. With the run, the program said 18km, I am still getting there and slowly increasing my distance. My pace is great for the first 10km or so but something happens after this and I just lose interest and motivation in my runs and just end up jog/walking the last few km. I didn't end up doing a long swim on Sunday afternoon as I had to do a few things for work.

As it was Around the Bay on Sunday, I ran along Beach Road and got amongst the people who were riding. There was an amazingly strong Northerly so people who were riding towards the city from Sorrento/Frankston way copped it bad. There was one guy who was pedalling with one leg, he must have such a strong core to be able to balance and only ride with one leg - amazing!

So there is about 26 days left until Shepparton. My swims are going good. It is something which I enjoy doing as it doesn't hurt my joints. Cycling is coming along and riding 100km is comfortable for me, it is just a matter of trying not to get bored. Running is slow but steady, never been a good runner so I have no expectations and I am realistic about what I can do.

I need to re-think about my training week as I don't think swimming on Tuesday mornings will benefit me. I have been advised by Des to move up a group. I need to either join a swim squad on the Monday and Wednesday mornings (I think GESAC has squad training) or swim late with the Tri Alliance squad during Monday and Wednesday evenings. There is also a swim with JVW open water on Wednesday evenings (starts on the 5th Dec) as well as Elwood Combo on Thursday evenings and Sunday (my own swim at Mentone). GAH too many options!!

I want to monitor how my legs handle the running load - I know that 2 sessions a week is just tipping the pain/load scale at the moment. It really depends on what the set consists of and how my technique holds up. I do find that I get more niggles during the interval sets compared to the long endurance runs.

Loving my Thursday Lady Bombs so will want to work my training around this to ensure that I keep motivated with cycling. Long ride on Saturdays are a must, this is to ensure that I have the volume in my legs. Something which I have been questioning, is it better to:
1) Ride 100km and work on a solid run off the bike?
2) Ride 130km, small run off the bike. This ride is nearly 50% increase beyond the actual race (only doing half distances)?

Has anyone looked into this theory or has all the coaching trends just worked off others and stuck with the volume and time on the bike as a priority?

Since returning from holidays, I have been able to train more consistently as the days go by. The training schedule leading up to Shepparton was a balancing act between work, training and being stupidly tired due to the load and demands. Fingers crossed that the weeks leading up to Challenge Melbourne will be more efficient.

Next weekend is Noosa weekend. For the first time in 3 years, I have decided to stay in Melbourne over that weekend. Its will be good as:
1) Don't spend more money
2) Train through the weekend

Projects are coming along great and it keeps me bust amongst all other things.

Reflection and Obesession

Well, I really haven't been keeping this training log up to date. This would be directly related to the amount of effort I am also putting into my training and inversely related to the amount of effort I am putting into "life outside of triathlon".

I have cut down my training to pretty much one session a day (apart from Thursdays) and 5-6 days a week. I am finding it great as I get to have more than 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night, get to spend time with my partner (and dog) and I can put an effort into my mini projects.

Recently, I have also decided to sell a few things online as I have no longer any need for them. This includes any "extra" bikes I have lying around the house. I have sold Dale (the Cannondale Slice TT) and will be selling my single speed George. I need to pay off debts as well as saving up for a dual suspension mountain bike (a Liv Lust).

Bye bye Dale!

With regards to mini projects, I am doing a few things:
- Continue with my side project of custom made cycling wares - https://bikelove.co
- Learning about Global Responsible Initiative (reporting) and being able to provide this service
- Tidying up a few things regarding my future qualifications

Things I have been obsessed about recently:

• Toasted marshmellows - ever since the Canadian and I came back from holidays, we have been treating ourselves to toasted marshmellows (on the gas stove) pretty much on a daily basis. We both love it. We each pretty well in general over all meals so this is our little treat.
• Buzzfeed videos - especially the ones about Buzzfeed staff trying out foods/drinks from other Countries.
• Oil Pulling - I read about this practise a while ago and never actually did it. Since I returned from holidays, I decided to give it a crack. The first few days were terrible, I gagged so much but now, I do it on a daily basis first thing in the morning. I have to admit I tend not to do it for the full 20min, 10min my average. I use coconut oil.
• Butter (and/or cream) in my coffee - Love the cream served in coffee when I was overseas and just continued with it. I am also adding some butter with my milk frother in the morning at home. Coffee to a new level.
• Maple syrup.
• A Liv (Giant) Lust bike. This will be my next bike but I am only planning on obtaining this after February.
• The new Funkita range of bathers. I want at least 2 of them. I have made a promise with a friend that I must do 6 sessions in a row to qualify a purchase.

On the training side of things, I did my own open water swim on the weekend at Mentone. The water is still chilly but the wetsuit did help. I did a pole to pole (being 500m apart) return swim. The water at Mentone is so clear at the moment and I could see my own shadow. I have noticed that there seemed to be a starfish epidemic at the moment. Something which I haven't observed in Mentone ever.

I have done two Lady Bomb rides in a row and have loved them. As much as I am suppose to be doing a run session Thursday morning, I am going to change it to Lady Bombs in the morning and will follow this up with a run and swim at Elwood.

With regards the Sunday plan of open water swim followed by a run at Elwood, I will speak to the coaches about doing this at my own time and around Mentone. What I will most likely do is do a long run first followed by an endurance swim at which I get to complete the distance on the program at my own pace.

Anyways, due to the time I need to set aside for my side projects, my training-life will need to take a back seat. I am ok with it as I have achieved my big races and they are ticked off my bucket list.

Getting back on the training wagon 18/9 - 02/10

Since my arrival back into Melbourne on the 18^th of September, I have been trying to get myself back to cementing some manageable routines. No point striving to squeeze too many training sessions in with life and not able to give 100% to anything.

I wanted to get myself back swimming but not joining the squad just yet. I am pretty much starting from square one – not having done any swimming since July when I had my bike crash. I had a splash here and there when I was on holidays but not actual swimming.

The first session was on Monday 22^nd, where I just headed down to GESAC after work and aimed to do a 1km. This ended up being about 1.4km albeit that I had to deal with many people in the Medium lane swimming different speeds and doing different strokes (inc breast stroke...in the medium lane). I tried to not let it get to me too much and just swam past people where I could. I wasn't able to move to the fast lane as it already contained too many people too.

I had to drop my car off to get serviced on Tuesday so what I ended up doing was riding into work from the dealership (only around 3km) and then riding home that afternoon (35km). The ride home was horrid. The weather being fantastic, brought people onto the beach in the hundreds which meant that people were walking all over the shop from about Port Melbourne through to Sandringham (pretty much where I turned off). Riding through St Kilda was a nightmare! I was careful and personally, the bell works much better than a voice and the general public are very blaze about voices but a bike bell is distinct enough. As I was on the CX bike, I don't ride on the main road as I am not able to ride at a great speed compared to the road bike.

Back in the pool on the Friday and kinda (but not really) smashed out a 2.4km. It was really 6 x 400m with F (warm up), F & P, PB & P, F & P, F and then cool down which I incorporated paddles and fins doing backstroke. The swim was done on the Friday night and I had the entire lane to myself.

Due to the Grand Final (Hawks back-to-back premiers yiewwww!!!), I did my long run Saturday morning. I aimed at a 10km first seeing that I haven’t ran since June and only had 2 short runs in Canada (both being 6km each with plenty of stops) during my holidays. I ended up doing 12km at a really slow but consistent pace. No way can I pull off a half marathon now.

With no bike to ride on the Sunday, I decided to just do house things like unpack from my holiday, clean, sort out closet (culling), played with the dog. 

It is now the 2^nd week back at work/life and it is going good so far. I did my own swim on the Monday night and windtrainer on the Tuesday with the squad. Could not put in 100% towards windtrainer as it was my first session back and the set was a shock to the system, so much so I took Wednesday off as a recovery session for my legs as well due to the lack of sleep.

I attended by first “Lady Bombs” session – this is a session started up by some of the girls from the squad I am with. We are currently riding laps of Albert Park lake. I did a few of these sessions last season before they changed the program to have a run session instead. This morning 2^nd Oct, some of us ended up riding 7 laps.

During my holidays, I didn’t train and this was done on purpose. I had worked hard with a company for the last 8 years and I had long service leave accrued. It doesn’t come overnight and nowadays, who stays with the same company for more than 5 years? I wanted to spend quality time this holiday with my partner (and his family) and not seclude myself in a swim, ride or run apart from the Gran Fondo which we both entered and finished.

So far I have paid for 2 triathlon events – Challenge Shepparton 16^th November and Challenge Melbourne on the 1^st February 2015 (jumping up to the 35-39 category). These are not my “goal races”, they are my events. I am not going to put so much pressure on myself and about times. This is also a reason why I haven’t pulled out of Shepparton (an event about 5 weeks away....) as I haven’t set expectations for this, I know that I am able to finish the event, I know that it will hurt (what race hasn’t) and I will complete it. Challenge Melbourne is 4 months away but once again, no pressure, it is just an event.

Since being back, I have signed up for the Afterglow Trail Run. It is a half marathon from Point Addis to Torquay. The run starts at 6:30pm and it is compulsory for all competitors to have a head torch (need to buy a head torch).

There is the Giant Odessey on the same weekend as Melbourne Ironman. If I do this, I will sign up for the 50km (not 100km) but this will mean that I will need to get some MTB riding in between now and then, it is not an easy event, nothing like the Dirty Gran Fondo. I might do some riding the same weekend as the Afterglow run out at the You Yangs.

Apart of two triathlons and a trail run, there may other events on the cards. Won't dwell on them too much for now.

Tonight is the last Thursday night run session before we move back to Elwood for the Thursday afternoon combo sessions starting next week. It will be my first run session with the squad in over 3 months. I will take it nice and slow, my legs are pretty smashed for Lady Bombs this morning.

Favourite session of the week: Loved my first Lady Bombs session. There was no tough love handed out which I actually appreciated. At the moment, I just want to get back into training without the pressure. First session out on the road with the TT Bike (Foxy) since Ironman in March. I even cleaned it for the first time on the Sunday since the race. We did race efforts, sprints, hardest gear with plenty of recovery breaks in between.

Least favourite session of the week: Windtrainer on Tuesday - I just couldn't keep up with the intensity since I haven't been training in that environment (humid) and around that intensity in months. I felt dehydrated on Wednesday morning even after I drank about 1.5 litres of electrolytes after the session. Must reset my mindset for this session next week and concentrate better at technique.

Advice of the week: Slow, steady, smart.

Thing I’m looking forward to next week: After tonight's run session, I am looking forward to my Friday swim which I am committing myself to do in the morning so I don't stuff up my sleep for the Saturday morning ride which I am coaching. Having to be there by 6:20am - I am deciding if I should ride in so I can do my run off the bike from home or drive to Elwood and do it from there...

I am also in two minds about where I should do my long run. Head to Fairfield to run/support the duathlon or have a sleep in and do my run around home...decisions decisions...

The Holiday!!!

Alright, with all the intention of keeping this blog up to date whilst I was on my holidays, it all went out the window the moment I step foot onto a plane on my way to Dubai. Sorry!

The first part of my holiday was to spend a day in Dubai before we (as a family) flew to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan for 10 days for my brother's wedding. My brother told me to bring bathers as we would have a chance to swim in the lake (its a huuuuuge lake) so I was excited about that. The holiday started off rocky, I won't go into too much detail, only a few close friends and family members know about this which affected me for a while. I am unharmed. I wanted my brother to have the best week of his life marrying his beauty. I will leave it at that.

This was the cold food left on the table at the wedding (kinda like appetisers)

The holiday there consisted of gift giving and receiving - its huge in the Kyrgyz culture, eating (a lot of meat), travelling to the lake and mountains, living in yurts, meeting new people and sight seeing. We flew back to Dubai at crazy o'clock and spent a few more days shopping and sight seeing. I had an extra day to spend in Dubai before I flew to Canada (via China) so I bought myself an all-day travel pass and took the train down Dubai for a day.



Homemade pasta in broth served to us in the Yurt

Dubai is crazy. Not as big as I had imagined. Everything you ever needed from everywhere, are there. There is a downside to it as they do have plenty of expats working there with very minimal wage. It gets things done but a sad contrast to the richness you see in the buildings and local houses.

The flight to Canada was eventful. No entertainment provided under China Southern for the first half of the flight. When I landed in Vancouver, I was relieved to be once again in an English speaking Country. I took a small seaplane (sits 10 ppl) over to Vancouver Island where the Canadian's family lives (in Nanaimo).

Nanaimo is a quiet town on the Island where deer roam pretty freely amongst houses, very cute. We spent a few days doing some home stuff, ate in different restaurants, went to visit shops before we headed to Victoria for a day to see more family.

We went to Edmonton to support the Triathlon World Champs and hung out with some Melbourne friends who also travelled over for a holiday and for triathlon. Edmonton is where I pretty much did most of my shopping and had my first taste of Victoria Secrets. Holy Crap, the things they sell are amazing! I always thought that I was too normal to shop there until I actually went in and found out that I am able to buy 90% of the things they sold. Lets just say I visited a VS shop whenever I saw one and bought something at every shop. They are not expensive (way cheaper than Australian products) and what I have been told, they last forever! Australia - you really need to open a proper Victoria Secrets shop here! I know I will be buying them online if I needed more.

After Edmonton, we travelled back to Vancouver Island before we headed to Vancouver to ride the Whistler Gran Fondo. This is a 120km ride from Vancouver to Whistler. Let me just say - don't do this ride on the back end of a holiday when you have had only one ride on a bike over 2 months. The total elevation was around 2100m. I busted my guts on the ride, took me over 7 hours as I stopped at most of the aid stations and was in granny gear for most of the way there. I may do a proper write up of this one day if I have time.

We spent 2 days in Whistler with the Canadian's family before we headed back to the Island. There wasn't much time left on our Canadian holiday after Whistler as we had to drive back to Victoria to return our loan bikes.

We flew into Vegas on the 10th Sept for 3 nights. We stayed at Paris and spent some time at CrossVegas, Interbike and up and down The Strip. CrossVegas was amazing! The scale of the course along with the scale of support towers over what we have in Australia....like 100 times over! The next day, we ventured down to Interbike....holy cow! Ausbike is childsplay compared to Interbike. You seriously need to take a whole week to go through the exhibition. The scale is unimaginable! After crazy Interbike, we spent the last day just venturing down the other side of The Strip.

The last leg of our holiday consisted of spending 3 nights in LA. We decided to keep it to the coast and stayed at Marina Del Rey but ventured up to Santa Monica (on foot, taxi, bike) over all 3 days. We did some shopping (definitely not as much as Edmonton) before buying excess baggage for our last flights home to Melbourne. We walked a hell of a lot in the US which was great.

 

I know this is predominantly a training blog so I have kept the holiday write up at a minimal. For those who are "friends" with me on Facebook/Instagram would get a better insight of how my holiday was.

I am now back in Melbourne, Australia...I am planning my next holiday already (going to Japan) and forecasting my next holiday back to Canada.

Long Service Leave!

I will be out of Australia from 4th Aug through to 18th September - long service leave yo!

I have been with my current employer for over 8 years now and decided that I will take up the opportunity of taking my long service leave pro-rata. Timing has worked out perfectly as my brother decided to also get married in August and I really don't have any big race-goals for this season. When I say-race goals, I have re-assessed where I am at the moment regarding interest/motivation/commitment/health/time/dedication to triathlon.

Since my concussion, things have not been great. My memory is shocking, my words are so jumbled that I may have to read this entry about 10 times before I press the "publish" button. I may also be distracted from reading it 10 times due to short attention spans I am feeling lately. I went back on the bike (albeit on the ergo) on Tuesday night with the squad and lets just say, got dizzy, headache started and when I turned around quick and looked back at the other guys, my head just went into a whirlwind and it took a while for things to look "balanced". I haven't been on the bike on the roads yet but it won't be happening until I get into Canada in mid August.

I went swimming on Monday morning. I could do everything except for swimming backstroke. I got too dizzy and nearly had a mini spew in the pool. Just a small 2km for me at the moment. Will be bringing a set of Funkita bathers and goggles overseas. There is a big chance that we may be having a day out at the waterpark in Edmonton a few days before we support our friends who are competing in the Age Group World Champs. Oh, before I forget, we have been invited to attend the "Athletes and Family" breakfast on Thursday 28th so we will be in Edmonton from the 27th Aug onwards.

Currently in two minds about what to bring over to Canada/US in terms of cycling. I could just order a jersey and get it shipped over. Been eyeing off some socks and a jersey from Ten Speed Hero for a while now. This way, I am able to save on baggage. Will bring my bibs, helmet, shoes, pedals and saddle and one of my Bike Love cycling cap. I have decided to rent a demo bike from Oak Bay in Victoria instead of bringing or sending my Wilier over...was going to cost me $800 of excess baggage or $660 one way shipping. We haven't yet entered the Whistler Gran Fondo but most likely we will enter it when we arrive in Vancouver. At the moment, I am spending too much money on travel insurance!

My (own) cycling cap which I was planning on
wearing during the Rapha Womens100. Will be wearing this overseas.

I will bring a pair of runners (for running), a pair of shorts and a singlet to keep "fit" whilst I am over there. Will be taking advantage of the great scenery and hopefully get some awesome maps on my Garmin and Strava files. I am looking forward to experiencing Canada/US without the pressure of training to align myself with the program.

We haven't booked anything yet but as we are returning back to Melbourne from LA, we may head to Las Vegas for Interbike as well as the Cross Vegas events.

I am in two minds at the moment about Shepparton in November. I know that I am able to get through the event but is it worth while? I will give it a bit more thought into it when I return and re-assess then. Accommodation is booked so I am happy to just spend a weekend in Shepparton supporting others.

Whilst on holidays, I am going to be working on my side business and bringing it up to scratch. I have decided what type of business I am going to be doing - steering towards the bespoke/custom cycling wares rather than the mass market. There are a few collaboration projects in the pipeline but I am not able to disclose them once I finalise it when I return. I will be writing up about all the work I have been doing since I decided to take orders since June 2014. Two months on and I have completed about 50 orders. Will be trying to ramp up interest especially before the Christmas season, gifts related to cycling will be a big draw card!

I am hoping to keep this blog going whilst I am away on holidays alongside my website. I bought a new Macbook Air last week. Replacing the battery for my old Macbook + updating software was going to cost me only $300 less than a newer and slimmer laptop. I am looking forward to sitting down in a cafe and just enjoy me time.

XX

Weekly Reflection 19/07 - 25/07 (It's a long one)

This week's reflection piece will be different, I won't be going into the sessions I did/didn't do, I won't be covering the 4 points which I usually do but I will be putting down a few life lesson points down at the end.

A small portion of my current audience are also connected with me on either Instagram or Facebook (I don't really use Twitter as much anymore). The ones who are not will not be aware that I had a fall on my bike on Saturday 19th which has affected me in a greater way since then....I will start from the beginning.

As I mentioned last week, I was heading over to the Womens CX skills session out at Essendon Fields where there will be an actual event on the 27th. I thought that I will brush up on my skills before the day.

When I talk about brushing up, I meant just ride around....because I am still not confident enough to do a flying mount. I can do a dismount with no hesitation but the mount....maybe that could be my life goal.

So after about 1.5 hours of the skills sessions (ran fantastically by DDCX and Sunbury CC), we had a "go" of the course. Now I have mentioned before that I am hopeless at turning right (getting better but still not 100%). So at one of the more tricker parts of the course, instead of being able to manoeuvre my bike towards the right to follow the flow, I went up on the embankment and just came down on the other side, face first.

I was out (felt like forever), winded and confused. The guys who were onsite attended to me straight away and their actions were commended. I spent most of my time on the ground, with my body down along the embankment (head filling up with blood) with a throbbing headache and neck pains. I could feel that my face was scratched as it stung bad. When the adrenalin wore off, I actually started to cry a bit as I was just scared of what had happened and my headache was too much to handle.

The guys from Sunbury CC called the ambulance and when they arrived, attended to me onsite. Once the OK was given for me to move from my position, I sat up and cried even more - I was embarrassed, I felt like I had ruined a perfectly great day for all, I felt like I had let so many people down. I wasn't able to stand up and felt even more dizzy.

At this point, the spine board and neck brace came out and I was placed on the board so I could be carried off the embankment and into the ambulance. I felt nauseous.

I was in the ambulance for what felt like 30min before it left the site. They gave me an IV drip of something, then something else was jabbed into me....I dídn't take morphine as I was feeling sick. No pain killers as I rated my pain at about 2 or 3 and I could tolerate it. The trip to the ambulance felt like forever. Whatever they gave me to settle the motion sickness didn't work as I threw up once the ambulance stopped at Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH). I threw up again when I was wheeled from the reception to my trauma room.

The trauma room was an experience all together. They tried to remove all my clothing, great difficulty with the ratchet of my bike shoes. They cut my "sports crop top" when I told them to as it was no easy to take off without going over my neck brace. Lucky I wore a cycling jersey which had the zip going all the way down. All my jewellery was removed so I could get a chest X ray as well as a CT scan. I was naked on the table with a thin cotton sheet over my body whilst I was being examined by the doctors and nurses. I was given a tetnis shot during the examination which hurt like a bitch! I think I also bleed from that injection onto my hospital bed.

After what seemed like an eternity of being examined, I was finally wheeled into an area to be parked before a "room" was available. I remember tears started to roll down my face and the Orderly wiped the tears from both my eyes once he stopped wheeling me from one area to another. I thank you for that, it meant something to me.

When a room was free, I was brought there to be rested. I was in my neck brace for about 4 hours before it could be removed. That was excruciating, especially for a person who cracks her neck and shoulders several times an hour! When all the hustle subsided and there was nothing further to examine, I was in my room with an IV drip feeding both antibiotics and saline into my arm. Both fluids were so cold that it started to hurt a bit.

I was attended by so many people throughout the 6 hours I was at RMH, everyone introduced themselves to me - paramedics, nurses, doctors, orderlies. It was slightly overwhelming.

I was discharged from RMH around 7pm. Went home, ate a huge bowl of laksa (comfort food and also my first real meal for the day). The next few days I was constantly dizzy and nauseous. The scabs on my face only came off on Wednesday evening in the shower. Bruises on my body are still appearing and I still have a dull headache like I am wearing a really tight helmet.  I didn't end up participating in the Rapha Womens100 ride on Sunday 20th either which I was really sad about, just scrolled through photos throughout the morning and felt really jealous and filled with guilt.

I haven't done any training since Saturday, not even a gentle walk mainly due to catching up on work. I took myself off the stress of training and giving my body a bit of a break. I may get on the bike on Saturday and I may do a small jog on Sunday. I will be back at Essendon Fields on Sunday to spectate the CX event as well as picking up my bike from the guys at Sunbury CC.

I also learnt that the private health insurance I am on (paying $180/month) which is sold as a "sports insurance" DOES NOT include ambulance cover....does not make sense. I am waiting on my ambulance bill and finding a way to pay that. Since Tuesday, I have paid for an ambulance subscription, something which I would have done earlier if I had known that my current private health insurance does not include ambulance cover....especially as I am paying about $500/month on insurances already (very risk adverse person).

Huge Lessons Learnt:

• No matter how much ambulance appears to be covered under your private health insurance - just pay for a subscription. I will do this after I change to another health cover, not happy with my current one, feel like I am paying too much and receive no better benefits compared to another one which is $50 less per month.
• On the bike - look where I want to travel rather than where the bike appears to be heading.
• Ride more off road - get better bike skills
• Must learn how to mount the bike - no point turning up to these skills sessions where I am not really learning anything new as I am not practising them.  

Weekly Reflection 12/07 - 18/07

This week has been better than the last, I have been able to walk and do some training (winning!). On Saturday 12th, I was the coach on hand for the Beginners/Lower Intermediate group at Studley park. The tacks found on the blvd has been around for MONTHS and the issue is still there. I did a drive by on the blvd around 6:15am and everything seemed ok. When we started the ride around 7am, we were all prepared for some tyre changing as the previous week, there were plenty.

I was planning on riding 5-6 laps of the course with a few Yarra St attempts. The first 2 laps were ok, my legs were heavy from the lack of movement from the previous week but I rode at my own pace. On the 3rd lap, I noticed that more and more people were changing their tubes....I thought to myself, uh oh, it's going to happen....and BAM! on my 3rd lap, I copped a flat. The tube change was quick and I went on my merry way...then when I was onto my 5th lap, I noticed that my front wheel was bumpy and that's when I noticed that I had my 2nd flat, I stopped on the side to change the 2nd flat. Both tacks I put into my jersey - no point throwing it to the side as it will impact the next person. Then I only rode for about 200m and noticed that the air just escaped straight out of my tyre....at this point, I couldn't be bothered anymore, I walked the bike back to the car park and dealt with the fault at home.

The rest of the day consisted of making more cycling caps (one for a bday present that evening) and the rest were orders which came through during the week. Sunday, due to my lack of running and I wasn't sure how emotionally I could deal with being put on the spot when I couldn't meet expectations, I decided to just run around the neighbourhood. Good news - 10km at a slow pace was done with only some minor pains on the lower back.

Monday I did my own recovery swim at GESAC, windtrainer on Tuesday evening at MSAC and that's about it for the training for the week! We had a Tri Alliance team meeting on Thursday night and no swim on the program for the Friday. To be honest, I wasn't complaining as I have a pretty big weekend ahead.

Favourite session of the week: As much as it was only 10km, I really enjoyed my run on Sunday. I was running at a low pace but I was just grateful that I got myself through it.

Least favourite session of the week: My ride on Saturday sucked due to have 3 flat tyres and the fact that someone (or a group) has been endangering lives for at least 5 months now and it is still happening...seriously, not fast enough!

Advice of the week: As much as I am not doing much training at the moment, it is recovery week and I am resting as much as I can.

Thing I’m looking forward to next week: I have a few fun things on the calendar this week ahead which I am actually looking forward to! Firstly, I am going out to Essendon to do a womens skills session on the new Essendon Fields on Sat 19th. I am going to do my first CX event on the 27th July and so a few laps of the course would do good for me.

Secondly, I am participating in the Rapha Womens100 on Sunday 20th. I have looked at the course and as much as I have done distances > 100km, I am so nervous as I haven't been training for this event! There will be hills and this is what I am nervous about - being that person who doesn't have power to ride hills. I will try to relax for the day and not let the group pressure get to me. There are 5 groups and I am sure I won't get lost.

Weekly Reflection 05/07 - 11/07

Oh My God....I went from an awesome, fun, exciting week of training to one of my worst! No consistency, lacking motivation and very lethargic. I sensed something was wrong from Saturday afternoon when my lower back ached like there was no tomorrow... then later on that evening, my episodes started along with my favourite time of the month....blergh.

My cramps, back aches, migraines, sore legs stayed with me all week until the point where I was taking medication and went to the doctors on Thursday evening as it went on for over 5 days which was the longest pain I had experienced for a long long time. A visit to the doctors, I walked away with a prescription and a referral to an ultrasound. I am still yet to make an appointment.

Back to the training side of things, I had one of my best rides in a long time during Saturday morning. We rode from Eltham to Kinglake and back. I was suppose to go to Kinglake West but as I was escorting a group through, I couldn't leave them by themselves as they had never been to Kinglake before. I really enjoyed that ride as I nailed my gearing, I held my core and I also took on my nutrition right on time. By the end of the 3 hours or so, I was feeling great. I loved every incline and gained confidence on the descents. I didn't have any anxiety attacks nor did I hesitate when I needed to swerve towards the right. Loved it! As I had mentioned before, my pains started on Saturday night and so I couldn't do anything more than roll out of bed and sit on the couch and my sewing table - there was no way I could do my long run.

I didn't do any other training during the week apart from the windtrainer session on Tuesday night and that was done very uncomfortably (sore back and sore hips). So my lack of blogging about my training was pretty much due to my lack of it....

On the side, I have started on my website for my cyclingwares - I will be blogging about my work which I have become engrossed in over the weekends. I am not making millions but I am enjoying creating special pieces. http://bikelove.co/ The website is light on content as I only started it last week when I blogged about a cycling cap that I created to match a bike.

Favourite session of the week: The bike ride I did on Saturday 5th July was great! I loved riding towards Kinglake, I love the way it pushes me to work on my core, my glutes and my technique. I nailed my nutrition and couldn't wipe the smile off my face!!

Least favourite session of the week: Where do I start? I hated not being able to do any training whilst I struggled with all my pains - I didn't swim, I didn't run, I couldn't even supplement my training with any strength work...so so shit.

Advice of the week: I guess the advice I could give this week is to nail the nutrition during training - when you are correctly fuelled (correct in timing and type), your body will thank you for it!

Thing I’m looking forward to next week: I don't actually have many weeks left of training before I head off on my long service leave. I am looking forward to being able to get back into the swing of things and work more on my website and passion.

Weekly Reflection - 28/6 - 4/7

Boy I had a pretty fun week! Due to the Roobaix on Sunday, I swapped my run day to the Saturday. It was recovery week so there were no big rides and we had time trials instead - so running by myself was a good enough compromise.

On Saturday morning, I actually slept in for a bit...I had my phone in my hand and clicked on a link which a friend posted about "running when you feel like you run like a hefer" - this is me. After spending about 5min reading the article, I got my sorry ass out of bed and went for my long run. For some reason, my July training timetable was not available to me but I remembered that it was about 12-13km. I decided from the start that I would try to run the entire way. I decided to pace myself so I would not be too tired. Happy to report that this run was a success! I didn't feel like death and I ran the entire 13km (apart from stopping at lights etc). The pace was slow (we are talking 6min-7min/km) but whatevs...I got through it. My energy levels were good and even when I carried nutrition on me, I decided to not take any and worked on my "fat adaptation" but made sure that I properly fuelled myself with a ratio of proteins, fats and carbs post run.

Sunday was Roobaix day! Rain, hail and a little bit of sunshine! Read all about it here...Best Day in the year. (the following pictures were downloaded from health.com.au taken by Simon Pollock simon@gtvone.com)



Check out my rad corning skillz

This would have been the part where I fell
and just got back onto the bike...

Riding in the rain...

I swam on my own at GESAC on Monday evening, legs and shoulders not OK due to my fall on the bike the previous day. Tuesday's windtrainer saw us back at MSAC due to the closure of Bayside Aquatics due to the school holidays. MSAC, saaaaah hawt! I hand delivered a few cycling caps to people at the session whom I haven't seen in a while which was good.

The swim sessions out at Northcote have discontinued so we had the last session there on Wednesday morning. This was followed by breakfast at Penny Farthing. We haven't done this in about 6 months. The Northcote pool is out of my way but it is a gorgeous pool to swim in especially on a sunny day.

Coach Rupert's Thursday night run session was good as he combined his (own) group. We did a few intervals after our warm up and stride through. I rolled my ankle (again!) during the warm up but it was not too bad during the main set.

As the MSAC pool is out of action at the moment, I decided to swim at Prahran pool this morning. Not too expensive - $5.90 for entry (GESAC is $9.00!!). The pool has a really really shallow end with a sudden drop in depth at the deep end. Very similar to the old Brunswick pool. I did my own set this morning but followed the program to a T. I love the Friday endurance swims - hardly any thinking - just swim! After a 1km warm up (600F, 4 x 100F (25 sculls, 75 free)), the program had 16 x 100 PB&B. I can't count past 5 so I broke the set down to 4 x (4 x 100) - does anyone else have trouble counting laps? Cool down was 400 back stroke. I swam in the double lane for the first time ever....I was sticking to the left but had to ask someone what the etiquette was to double lanes - so it seems that you still stick to the left but as this lane is for "various" speeds, you have the space to over take them in the middle. I think there was about 7 people in the double lane this morning and I was the only female. Men don't like to be chick'd, that's all I have to say from my experience this morning.

So I thought I was taking the ride at Studley Park this weekend but that's next week. This weekend, I will be joining the main crew at Kinglake starting from Eltham Station. I only rode up Kinglake once last year (with much anxiety) so lets see how I go in the morning! I will join the crew on Sunday for the long run but we will start at the Duathlon location instead of Fairfield carpark.

Favourite session of the week: Gotta be the Roobaix.

Least favourite session of the week: I wouldn't say it was a session which I didn't like - more that I was the most uncomfortable. During last Sunday's Roobaix, we stopped at the cafe for lunch/break. As we were riding the entire time, we didn't feel cold even during the rain and hail. I was shivering when we got started as we had to put the wet layers back on.

Advice of the week: Wool rocks! Wear wool gloves and socks during cold runs and rides - keeps you warm but wicks away sweat so you don't shiver. I am wearing merino socks under my colourful socks during my rides because I have #sockgame.

Thing I’m looking forward to next week: I am actually looking forward to the long ride and runs this weekend! We are also trialing g a non-coached Tuesday morning session at the athletics track with a few TA people who live around the area.

MELBURN ROOBAIX 2014 - I LOVE MELBURN

As the saying goes....You Only Live Once, the Melburn Roobaix is something everyone in Melburn, who loves feeling like a kid zooming down the side streets on their bike, must put on their "To-Do" list.

This is my 2nd year (last year's write up here and here - same write up, different links) and comparing the two days was like comparing chalk & cheese (mmmmm cheese).

So this year, I decided to leave the single speed "George" hanging in the garage and took "Betty" CX out for a spin. We decided to park the car at Abbotsford as it is approx the half way mark between Hawthorn (start) and Northcote (finish).

We left Abbotsford around 9am and rode down to Hawthorn H.A Smith velodrome ready to register and pick up our 2014 musette race pack. It started to shower but as we were moving, it wasn't too bad. The rain got stronger the closer we go to the start line.

The crowd at registration was not as big as last year, no one wanted to stand around in the rain as I found out 5 seconds after I opened up my race park, the map fell into pieces when it got wet just like the Wicked Witch in Wizard of Oz.

Betty CX

Crowd at registration

The Canadian and I decided that we would take the red route. I am guessing keeping the many cobblestone routes down to the 12 check points was hard so why not let the public decide where they wanted to go - great idea.

The hill just out of the velodrome proved to be much easier with gears compared to last year when I rode George. The first manifest was an eye opener...when I say eye opener, I meant how cobblestones become slightly slippery when they are wet and I came down pretty hard on my sorry ass. Bleeding knees were hidden by my knee length knicks, a few "yes I am fine" to mask my total embarrassment, I got myself up and going again. Maybe too cocky to start out with - thinking that my bike skills have improved dramatically over the last 12 months with about 3 rides on the mountain bike and a Dirty Gran Fondo event? I was not the only casualty of that section, I was also there when a guy's tubeless tyre blew up like a grenade and also saw a guy with blood down his cheeks - ouch!

A friend of the Canadian, Adam, recognised us and being able to ride with him was the best! He not only could read maps really well, he knew his bike paths better than the Canadian, he was also wearing fingerless gloves so he could access his musette easily.

The second (or third, I forgot) section was memorable, it was NOT flat. I initially could ride up the steep laneway but when the cobble stone section appeared, I was too afraid that I was going to slip so I had to push my bike through the cobblestone climbs. Apparently, there were several falls on this section.

A few hours into the ride, we saw the Bank of Melbourne van and they were handing out FXYO bottles - grabbed one of the last pink ones - YIEWW!

My confidence along the cobblestones increased throughout the day but there were still some sections which were tricky to handle. I got a few "Don't Stop!" and "Keep Left" from other cyclists when I was riding along the cobblestone obstacles slowly but they didn't bother me, if they want to ride past me, they should have good enough skills to do so.

Similar to last year, we stopped after Manifest #9 for a lunch break and we stopped at the Old Bike Shop Cafe. I ordered a pretty big breakfast (again) of eggs, toast, mushrooms, bacon (I heart bacon), avocado and spinach whilst the boys had burgers and philly steak sandwich. We don't know if it was due to the cold and wet weather but the coffee there tasted a.m.a.z.i.n.g! So good that we had more than one each. As we had lunch from about 12:30, we killed nearly two hours in the cafe before we moved off outside. We only had 3 more manifests to go and they are pretty much within 3km, no point finishing too early as we would have had to wait around at the Brunswick velodrome for hours.

Once again the guys at health.com.au were at Manifest 12 for general cheering, photo and a Freddo Frog (which I had to grab quickly and held on with my teeth until the end). Disappointed that people threw so much of the wrappers along the ground in between Manifest 12 and the velodrome (stop 13) tho - tsk tsk tsk kids.

Everytime I saw them - Potassium!

Mr and Mrs White

Compared to last year, we finished each section quite quick. We didn't go as far around Melburn as last year either (I think we ventured further SW). Due to the abundance of sunshine last year, I actually stopped and took way more photos too. This year, the camera came out twice - once at the start and once at the finish. None the less, I still loved every pedal. I only got cold (shivering cold) when we left the cafe, once you got moving, it was fine.

getting rad

Highlights:
- Instead of second guessing the right answers, there was just a single letter at the end of each pave sections, some were tricky to find. After about 6 Manifests, you could kind of guess what it spelt out.
- Another awesome musette!
- Picking up another 2 spare FXYO drink bottles after pack up - scoring 3 in total!
- Photobooth!

- Bike skills getting better
- The never ending rain


Lowlights:
- I didn't win the grand prize (flights to Roubaix, France in May)
- Due to the rain, I wore my vest and you couldn't see my complete matching outfit
- The never ending rain

Will I do this event again next year? Hells Yeah!!! As long as I am in Melburn and I can still ride a bike, I will be there for sure.

Thanks again to the crew at FYXO - without them, it would have been another unmemorable rainy Melburn day.