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.