Melburn Roobaix 2015

I am still walking around with a smile on my face from Sunday (28th June 2015). Several great things happened on that day. Firstly, I became an aunt for the first time! My (younger) brother and his wife had a baby boy (yet to be named) and secondly, I participated in my 3rd Melburn Roobaix!

My first event write up can be seen here and the second (much wetter) Roobaix can be see here.

I have to say, this year was my favourite for several reasons:

• There was a single route (last year had 2) so we were able to follow crowds and be entertained the entire day, much more fun.
• There were only 10 manifests instead of 13 (2013) and 12 (2014) and so we were able to stop for chats, coffee and lunch for longer in between. 
• The weather was perfect. 

So the day started out like last year, we parked the car at Abbotsford (kinda in between the start and finish) and rode down to the start along the Yarra with a few dozen others. You know people are here for the Roobaix by the bikes they ride and the costumes they wear.

Once we got there, we lined up to grab our musettes and waited in line for the coffee for about 10min until we decided to just start the event and hopefully grab a coffee at a cafe along the way.

His and Hers

The questions they had at the end of the cobbles were interesting as some were not directly at the end of the laneways which saw a few confused looks and large groups wondering around. The first manifest was a prime example - at the end of the cobblestone laneway was an opened (public) carpark and and not undercover. The first question was how many undercover carparks were there? It was not until we rode a bit further up and saw the small flags and realised that the questions was related to private undercover parking. Sneaky sneaky!

After this, we headed up to Coffee Supreme and stopped for a coffee and picked up our Roobaix drink bottles - one of the highlights of every event, something I can use which reminds me of how fun I always have at these events. They gave you a choice of white, silver or clear. I chose silver whilst the Canadian chose clear.

A latte and a stroopwafel later (we packed stroopwafel as they were on sale from Coles - $1.8 for a packet of 4) for the whole "European" vibe-thing, we headed off to the next manifest stop.

Coffee Supreme!

I don't really remeber much in between manifest 9 through to 6 - they were all really fun and riding through side streets made you appreciate the different types of houses there are around Melbourne. I know somewhere in between, we had free donuts from All Day Donuts and they were awesome!

Manifest 5 was in North Melbourne, similar to 2013 where we carried our bikes up the stairs. Similar to 2013, we stopped near Newmart station for lunch. A slow lunch and a coffee later, we set off to complete the remaining 4 sections.

We then bumped into some of our friends from the Bicycle Superstore group and we rode on and off with them for the rest of the day until we got to the velodrome.

I did half a lap around the velodrome and we settled down and waited for Andy to make the announcements for the prizes. I had a tear in my eye when they announced the winner of the major Roobaix prize which is the trip to watch the actual Paris Roubaix - it was an (older) lady and she was so shocked and surprised when they called out her name. She is also the first female winner since forever.

The Melburne Roobaix is the highlight of the year for me. It is just such a fun day as it is no way near competitive. No one cares if you are the fastest although many people race their mates through the cobblestone sections. It's about cyclists supporting other cyclists as I saw a guy come down from his bike at the tram tracks near Ikea and another coming off at the bridge and plenty of people making sure they were both ok. It's about bike riding for fun with a few coffee stops, donuts, chats and plenty of laughter in between.

Best. Day. Ever.

PS - Plenty of compliments for the Fondo kit I wore for the day!

Training Update

This entry is to keep you all up to date with my training as I am not doing regular reflection pieces as much as before especially having done Ironman. 

I will go through the swim, bike, run, strength and miscellaneous attributes regarding triathlon.  

I have a confession; I am yet to join the squad for the Tuesday and Friday morning sessions. I am still freaking out about doing these sessions with them as I have no concept on how these sessions are being conducted. I have been told that they are different from the Monday and Wednesday session but as Bayside don’t really have progression plan like Tri Alliance (in order to accommodate everyone and their respective races throughout the year), I am scared of stepping into swim session where we are to swim more than 3km. The longest session I have done (on my own) is a quality 2.7km following Swim Smooth programs which I purchased a few weeks ago. I purchased the Level 2 Olympic/Half Ironman program which comes with 35 lessons. I am enjoying them so far as it is structured differently to the swim sessions I have been doing for the last 5 years. I haven’t returned to CF Racing swim sessions as it is slightly out of the way for me and if I sleep in on a Monday morning and I complete my strength session on Monday night. I am not too worried about the swim sessions this time around other than completing at least 2 sessions a week with > 2.5km per session.

Cycling has been coming along slowly but surely. The spin classes at GESAC are really good and the work I get to do on strength have been much better than the windtrainer sessions I used to do. Although these sessions are short, the intensity is much more than a bike will ever on a windtrainer, unless you would don’t mind breaking your bike in half or shredding your tyres. I am also able to do some training on spin bikes at my gym if miss a session or if the weather ever turns stupid ugly. I might have to download a few spinerval programs so I can watch the iPad on the spin bikes rather than staring into space or the people running on treadmills in front of me. 

So far, I have done two Dandenong rides and planning on a 3rd this weekend since the start of June. I really do enjoy these hilly rides where I can tune out and just pedal along. It has been a while since I have placed myself in the strength work “hurt box”, but I am actually happy. In the month of July, I will venture out to Kinglake to mix things up a bit although I find that there are more hilly variations around The Dandenongs. I might have to look into hill repeats of Kinglake to make up for the distance and time. I do need to work on my cadence as well as my strength. Staying in the large chain ring works on strength where as being in the small chain ring will reduce fatigue in the legs and enable hill climbs to be more efficient. 

With running, I have had ups and downs. I have been trying to be consistent with the events I am entering on the weekends to keep my long runs accountable, however I don’t know if I am mentally or physically exhausted (or both) from some of the events that my attendance on the Tuesday nights have not been too consistent. I think I have 1 more sessions with Tim and I really don’t want to miss out on anymore as I think his lessons are valuable. In July, I have to decide if I am going to run Sri Chimnoy (flat) 10km and see if I can beat my previous time of 59min or do Salomon Trail Run in Plenty Gorge where I will be running 17km and it will be hilly. I will decide closer to the weekend.   

My strength work has been great. I know that I am getting stronger in the legs and core. Currently on Week 8 of my 12 week program. I am getting more toned but my clothes however have not been fitting as well as before. My shoulders, arms and thighs have increased in measurement so I have resorted to buying new clothes and wishing that I had kept some of my pre-triathlon clothes. My weight (on the scales) have been increasing and sometimes I weigh enough to compete in the Athenas category (70kg+) and I am only 156cm tall. Part of me is slightly sad that the reason why I kicked myself out of the “out of shape/unift” rut was so that I can lose weight and aim towards <60kg but I seem to be creeping up the other way. The other (more logistic and scientific) side of me knows that in order to have strength for the bike and run, you need muscle mass and muscle weights more than fat etc etc....I also know that I do carry excess fat around my stomach area and this will be something which I am looking forward to getting rid off in the next 4-5 months. The only time I ever see the fat around my stomach practically gone is around the month before every Ironman race and this is not a very realistic and sustainable means of being toned. Currently, I have 2 sessions of strength programmed into my schedule and this may increase to 3 sessions after Shepparton to work towards 3 Peaks. The 3^rd session may not necessarily be working with weights but could be Pilates Reformer. 

In order to get down to my race weight of <60kg, I need to be more conscious of my food intake and aim for a 2kg weight loss/month. I have been making a conscious effort in drinking up to 2 litres of hydration a day – from electrolytes, coconut water, green tea through to just plain water. I snack of dried apricots and almonds if I feel peckish. I don’t restrict myself to fruits – there is so much noise out there on how fructose (sugars in fruits) makes you fat but seriously, have you ever come across an obese person who consumed too much fruit? I have cut down my coffees to 2 a day and quite often than not, 1 or none over the weekend. With the advice from Chris, I am consuming complex carbohydrates (as much as I can control) within 2 hours of a training session, this includes rice, pasta, pizza, potatoes and sweet potatoes. I tend to head home for lunch so I can have a high protein meal with eggs, tofu or chicken with vegetables and that satisfies me. My partner loves his carbs and luckily for him, they are introduced after training sessions for dinner as I am doing more training sessions after work. 

It has been a while that I have been able to do some form of training everyday of the week. I may have only one day per week off during recovery weeks wherever a massage is booked in place of a session. I am guessing that as strength work is programmed into my schedule and they take 30-45min to complete (and being indoors), I am less likely to “skip” a training session. If I ever have a sleep in due to exhaustion or need to head into work early and miss out on a session, I will make up for it (on the same day) with a gym session on the treadmill or the spin bikes.

Post Shepparton, I will step up the frequency of cycling whilst decreasing the training sessions for swimming and running down to 1 each per week (no long sessions). I will talk about this more closer to November and manage after Shepparton towards 3 Peaks. 

Working towards 3 Peaks (entries open in July), I have already signed up for the following:

Amy's Gran Fondo - 120km (110km + 10km Benwerrin descent) on 13th September. 

Around the Bay – 210km anti clockwise on 11^th October. 

I may sign up to the Audax Alpine Classic in January as part of the training preparation as well. 

Hope this entry is keeping you guys up to date on my training and journey towards a meaningful season of events.

Hilly Rides and the Salomon Series Trail Run (Studley Park)

So this morning, I ran my 3rd ever (official) trail run event. I didn't do a "preview" like I did the previous events because I wasn't sure if I was actually going to do this event and which distance I was going to actually race.

I am still recovering from Run Forest. That event broke me and brought me out of my comfort zone by a mile. I wasn't sure if I was going to do another trail run for a while but I really need to stay consistent with running in order to achieve my goal of a half marathon < 2 hours (road race). I bit the bullet and signed up for the long course on the 11th June. I had a bit of a breakthrough run on Tuesday evening so I knew that running was on the right track.

As this was a "run" and not a "race", I still went out on my hilly ride on Saturday. My friend Dale and I have decided to make the next 12 months count in terms of our cycling goals and both have signed up for some events to pick up our game. I did my first "hilly" ride last week (13th) up at the Dandenongs by myself. I wanted to ride at my own pace as I couldn't ride with the tri squad as they were doing a 130km ride from GESAC and then through to Dandenongs and then doing a loop at Emerald - this would have been too much for me and would be left out on the highway by myself which is unsafe. I am happy that I did this ride last week as it set my expectations for the Dandenong ride for this week and I could pull back slightly without compromising my bike strength work.

I did a similar ride yesterday with Dale but without the SkyHigh loop which is an extra 6km or so. We started around 7:15am and the temperature was hovering zero degrees. It was hard to breathe as it was that cold, Luckily I had a buff, beanie, deFeet gloves and booties, knee warmers, wool socks, arm warmers, base layers and a vest over my normal cycling attire. We ended up with 2.5 hours and around 43km. I ended up riding up 1-in-20 in the big chain ring which was comfortable enough so I know that my strength work is coming along well. Whilst we rode repeats of the 1-in-20, a few guys were attempting their everesting attempts. They started at 3am and estimated that they would finish around midnight with 35 laps of the 1-in-20.

Next week, we will aim to do more than 3 hours and maybe try Sky High and Devil's elbow (which I am yet to tackle).

With the trail run, I had planned on arriving around 7:40am (an hour before race start) so I can pick up my race number, visit toilet, drop off bag, warm up the legs before race start. Tried to sleep at 10pm but was still awake at 10:30pm. The alarm was set at 6:30am so I can leave the house at 7am.

When I got there, the temperature was so cold that I dug around the car hoping to find a pair of gloves  (which I did) and wore for the entire event. I caught up with a few Tri Alliance friends and chatted with them for a while before the start.

The actual run was pretty good although I had some bad moments - my shoe laces came undone twice, I rolled my ankles once and towards the last 4km, the fast 10km guys were finishing which meant that I had to stop mid run to get out of their way as the paths are narrow along the Yarra. I ran pretty much most of the trail except for the steep stair climbs and some of the rocky descents which I was careful so I don't roll my ankles again. I really liked my Mizuno Hayates and they worked well on some of the slippery surfaces. The course wasn't muddy and I would rate the difficulty of the Studley Park course as a 10th of Run Forest.

I had a gel at about 8:30am with the next at 45min and 30min mark along with about 300ml of hydration over 15km. Although it was a freezing morning, I was sweating due to the Ultimate Direction vest and on the insides of my elbows as I was wearing a long sleeve. I kept my gloves on the entire time and I was able to use it to wipe the sweat off my face.

My goal was to finish the run under 1:45 and my time was 1:40:11 so I am pretty happy with that time. If I was to run 15km by myself, I would have finished it around the 2 hour mark with plenty of walks in between.

My Stats
Overall placing for long course run: 439/460
Gender placing: 166/182
Category 20 - 39: 103/110

I know the pacing wasn't great and might have some fatigue in the legs due to the hilly ride (especially spending much time in the large chain ring) but this is not an A race for me but just a motivator to keep running.

Next week, I will do the run session on the Tuesday and Thursday as the weekend will be about cycling with a long hilly ride on Saturday followed by Melburn Roobaix on Sunday. It is also my rest week so I am not getting too worried about it. I am still yet to decide if I am to run Race 2 of the Salomon Series or TrailX in July.

Strength Training - Intro and Update

I am currently on Week 6 of my strength program and absolutely loving it! Why? Some reasons why I have put down to:

• The temperature of Melbourne is getting pretty chilly and not being outside is slightly comforting. I have become more of a fair-weather athlete after a few years....
• I am seeing huge improvements in the following:
• Holding my core
• The weights I am lifting, carrying and how comfortable I am with the movements.
• Although the scales are not heading towards the right direction, I am feeling that I am getting more toned especially around the stomach area. 
• I am reporting to Chris (Excite) about my progress and I am being accountable.
• I am not in a group situation and being deflated about being too fat or slow. I am not surrounded by people who are constantly being competitive, will leave this to the guys at the gym. 

My program (without giving away too much IP) consists of warm up, pinnacle movements, then a superset, followed by core work.

Warm up is about rolling my muscles out, using a stick to introduce movement in my joints around my shoulders and back. I then use the foam roller to warm up my legs especially the quads and calves. 

The pinnacle set is where I do squats and dead lifts with weights and barbells. I started out with 35kg in my squats and now have moved onto 50kg. Deadlifts I have increased from 25kg to 35kg. I have very short legs and quad dominant so I am really enjoying the squats. I am getting better at my deadlifts (both single legs and standard) but I needed work on my technique due to my hyper-mobility through the shoulders. 

I do my strength training every Monday and Wednesday. The superset varies between the two days and how fast I am able to breeze through these sets depends on how busy the gym gets. 

After the superset, I end the session off with core work which consists of planking and crunches. On Wednesday, I often do a bit more pilates core work as this day ends quicker. 

I mentioned before that my weight (what I see on the scales) are creeping the other way, I am also seeing that some of my clothes are not fitting as well as before but have been told that this will go down as I lose more fat whilst I gain muscle. 

I should have taken photos of what my body looks like from Day 1 but didn’t have the chance to. Hopefully I will get a body scan soon and be able to compare data.

Calluses from 7 weeks of strength training.

Run Forrest - Race Report

Yesterday, 7th June, I competed in my hardest event to date. I have never been pushed so much out of my comfort zone before - this event was the toughest in my life.

We got into Forrest by about 9:10am which gave me 20min to put on my socks, shoes, pack my hydration bag and run down to the start to pick up registration and go to the toilet. They said that registration was opened from 7:00 - 9:30am but the line to pick up the numbers went on and on. Not sure what happened, maybe they were understaffed but I think they had extra help when they realised that people were still waiting to pick up their race numbers by 9:45am. I still hadn't gone to the toilet yet at 9:50am and luckily people who were racing the 10km who started at 10:30am let us in the long line.

I didn't really pay attention to the race briefing as I was in the toilet line and just finished in time to run to the start and off I went. The start of the race was good. Everyone was in a good and comfortable pace. The first part of the event where I walked was when the route came back to race area and up the hill. I jogged as much as I could but the 1km climb so close to the start of the event got to me and about 30 other people.

We ran through some lush fern covered narrow paths where I felt the pressure of the pace. The path was too narrow for people to pass and due to the ferns, it was hard to step aside. Where I could, I stepped aside for the faster people to get around me as at this point (3km), the constant hill climbs caused my legs to be heavy. We then ran down a path and then onto the dam walls with amazing scenery. The volume of water in the dam was just unbelievable.

At about the 7km mark, the faster runners were actually running the other way, that was how strong some of these regular trail runners were. The constant hills were tricky especially when some of the paths were slippery and with some areas needed your hands for support.

Pretty much where there were climbs, I either walked or jogged/walked up ungracefully. I remember the 12km mark where I walked for the longest distance for the entire event, the climb was constant and felt like it went on forever.

The last 5km was tolerable as it was downhill but with some of the most trickiest paths to get through. There were many hands for support action happening and where I could feel a blister on the feet. The blister on the bottom of the foot felt like I was stepping on a piece of glass with every downward path. I stopped at this point to also check that there was nothing in the socks which was causing the pain apart from the blister. At this point, 3 guys ran passed me but luckily I caught up to and passed them soon after. The last part of the run was the hardest as I had to run past the finish line but in a different direction with a great monster of a climb 1km from the finish line. The last climb proved to be too much for my little legs that I had to run up the hill backwards.

The last 1km was a relief. It was downhill and I knew that I was close to finish. Unfortunately I didn't finish the 21km within the 3 hours as I had planned. I finished in 3:02 which wasn't too bad I suppose. 3 hours out running/walking/climbing was a long time out there, I don't even ride for that duration or climb that much in elevation!

My Ultimate Direction vest - awesome!

I downloaded my Garmin and here are some stats:
Total time: 3:02.05
Total moving time: 2:58.03
Average pace: 8:44min/km
Average moving pace: 8:33min/km
Elevation gain: 1,773m
Maximum elevation: 372m

Nutrition - I had 4 gels in total. One at the start, pretty much as soon as I exited the toilet stop and onto the start, then 3 during the race, one at every 45min or so.

Comments/Lessons:

• Although I ran 21km and it was the hardest event I had ever done (harder than Ironman), I am glad I did this distance rather than the 10km. Although 10km would have been manageable, driving all the way to Forrest for 10km was too much to ask. 
• This event was out of my comfort zone by a huge mile but I am glad I did it. 
• Need to work on more hill running, my legs felt weak - similar to riding along Beach Road month after month and finding any climb a real slog. 
• Although the hydration vest was good, there was a bit of chaffing due to my elbows rubbing against the side of the bag. I found accessing the bottles from the front much easier than from the back. 
• I think I could go half a size bigger in my trail shoes - I wore 2 pairs of socks (3 layers in total) and this was what caused the blister as my feet were squeezed together. 
• I don't know if I will do this event next year...I will have to gain super strength in running to be able to take at least 15min off my time. 

Run Forrest - The Preview

This Sunday (7th June) - I will be doing the Run Forrest 21km trail event. I thought as I am not going to training camp this year (first time in 6 years) that I would still do some training which gets me out of my comfort zone.

The event is held at Forrest (in Victoria) and the 21km will be a tough one as it utilises the mountain bike trails which is usually accessible only by mountain bikers (not opened to walkers/runners). There will be hills, fast descents, rocky tracks on both fire roads as well as single track trails. I am looking forward to this event as it will be more "trails" than my previous trail run (Afterglow Run in Nov 2014). 

There will be a few things which I will take into account:

• My time will be between 2:30 - 3 hours considering the terrain of this event and my current level of fitness. I will run at a pace I am comfortable with and trying my hardest to not roll my ankles. I also finished the Afterglow run in 2:35.
• I am going to use my Ultimate Direction running vest for the first time - This is not a "race" so technically, I am not trying anything new...I will report on the pros and cons of wearing a hydration vest compared to my trusty belt.
• This will be my longest run since January 2015 (2 weeks before Challenge Melbourne). 
• I will enjoy the scenery as much as I can - I heard it is beautiful out there. 

 

On Saturday (6th), I will ride Beach Rd but I will make sure that I recover well after the ride by soaking in the bay to reduce inflammation and lactic build up. I don't want the same thing to occur on the run as last week.  Once I am recovered, I will pack and head over to Geelong to stay with my parents so that the drive down to Forrest will be about 1.5 hours (rather than 3.5 hours).

Wish me luck!

Looking Ahead - July

In terms of events, July appears to be a more calm one compared to May and June....so far.  It will be the middle of winter but I will take advantage of this "quieter" month to do more cycling strength work such as hilly rides without stressing out about how I will recover and be ready for the next day's events.

Events
On the 19th July weekend - There are 3 running races on

• Trails+ - You Yangs 15km Trail Run
• Salomon Trail Series - Plenty Gorge 17km Trail Run
• Sri Chimnoy - Princess Park 10km or 21.1km

Closer to the weekend and see how I am travelling with regards to my health and fitness, I will decide on which run event to sign up to. I know that Bayside will sign up for the Sri Chimnoy as it is one of the key events which the run training we have been doing leads up to however I do need to build some strength with trail running so it will most likely be the trails. TBC.

26th July - The next event which I have within the month of July is the Womens100 Ride with Jaggad. This time last year, I fell off a bike onto my head/face which stopped me from participating. I am looking forward to this ride and being amongst this women's cycling movement. It is on the same day as Run Melbourne but I think that joining smaller runs events during the year is sufficient enough for me. Will do a run the day before this ride and ensure that I recover well before the 100km ride the next day.

Small Goals/Key Sessions

• For the month of July, I will be in phase 3 of my strength program with Chris (Excite). I am not finding it hard to stay motivated with these sessions as I am really seeing the benefits and the improvement. The sessions are done in the gym so it doesn't depend on the weather.