It just wasn't my time...

So some of you are probably wondering now - what happened after my last post?? Where was the count down to Peaks? How was the day leading up to the big event and how was the actual Peaks Challenge?!

Well, pretty much the day after I wrote my last blog entry, I fell really ill. I only had a cold (no injuries or anything like that) but I was coughing, sneezing and drowsy pretty much from Wednesday morning onwards. I took a day off a few weeks ago as I thought I had a small cold and slept it off but last week, it came back in full-punch-in-the-face-style.

I had planned on still heading up to Falls Creek on Friday morning and seeing how I went whilst my partner would do some mountain biking around the area. After all, I had already paid close to $900 for 4 nights accommodation at Falls Creek already. Come Friday midday, I was still in bed and I hadn't packed my bags or bike yet so we changed our plans to drive up on Saturday morning instead. I pretty much decided on Friday night that I would withdraw from Peaks Challenge and only packed my normal bag (no cycling gear). Come Saturday morning, I was still really sick and was in no state to be in the car for over 5 hours to get to Falls Creek. We then decided to just stay in Melbourne for the long weekend instead. We then picked up our little dog from her Pet Country club (fancy dog kennel) and our little family spent quality time together in between my long naps.

On Sunday in between my sleeps and eating only oranges (all I craved and ate when I was sick), I paid close attention to social media and tracked how my friends were travelling throughout the day. The weather was good for the event (no rain as predicted) but it did get humid and hot after lunch. Most of the people I was following completed the event but all struggled and rated it the hardest thing they have done. This also how it was described from one of my friends who finished an "Everesting" only 2 weeks ago (Donna Buang).

Deep down, I was never confident that I would actually make the cut off time of 13 hours. Comparing my times against the cut offs they had provided, both my climbing and descending speeds are below their averages. I had always planned on keeping my breaks to 2min at each water stop (exc toilet breaks). I would have skipped my lunch break at Dinner Plain as I have never been a "eat lunch" kinda person on my long rides and I consume my calories pretty much on the 30min mark with sometimes a date in between. As I had mentioned before, Peaks Challenge is actually a challenge. It is unlike an Ironman where you can pretty much walk the marathon and make the cut off time of 17 hours. Even for a below average athlete like myself, I finished my (full) Ironman within 13:12, with below average times for all 3 legs and still had plenty of time for photos and smiles. During Peaks, you have no "rest" and it is not an event you can do with no hard training. A cut off time of 13 hours is actually hard to do!

I had plenty of support from friends who mentioned how much I had trained and how I would achieve this goal. It was very humbling to know that people believed that I was ready and some were even heart broken when I told them that I was sick and pulled out of the event. I know that I did put in some major hours on the saddle and most of it was done solo. I know that I have the mental endurance to get myself through the event, I guess my body's ability to climb and descend just need to catch up.

I wouldn't have said that my preparation was ideal. Many people have mentioned that I can be negative about myself but I would also like to point out some background:

• Since 2010, my road bike has Campagnolo group sets. Therefore, I never rode the bike on my drops as I wasn't able to reach the brakes or change gears (Campags have thumb shifters) and to make matters worse, I also have tiny hands. It is only October 2015 that I had a bike with Shimano group sets and I am now able to reach the brakes and change gears on my drops. Descending on the drops is something which I am still learning how to do. 
• Following on from the descending thing - I also have a fear of descending. There are a few factors which play in my hesitation when it comes to descending - my fall in July 2014, my lack of bike skills especially turning, my witness of someone falling off the side of the mountain at Kinglake 2011, I don't have a background in going downhill for any sort of activity - skiing, snowboarding, horse riding etc and just the lack of experience in positioning my body on the bike during descents. 
• Cadence along with a good power output is something which I need to work on. I have never been a high cadence person. I never used to race at 90rpm even during triathlon or time trialling. My comfortable race cadence was around 80rpm. My climbing cadence used to be around 40-50rpm. I used to climb Benwerrin in my large chain ring (no compact), low cadence. I should have been training years ago to ride on the small chain ring and higher cadence. Maintaining a higher cadence whilst also maintaining a good power zone is something which I need to gauge. Riding at a higher cadence = not tire out my muscles. 
• I was moving house early 2016 which meant that critical training sessions was not optimised. I had to (i)Look for a place to move into (ii)Pack the old house (iii) Move into the new house and this took a good 5 weekends out of January and February. 
• My cycling climbing only really started in Oct 2015. Prior to that, I would have only done about 4 rides/year in the "hills" since 2010 when I started triathlon. Hills = Kinglake or the Dandenongs (1-in-20). Due to being a triathlon assistant coach 2012-2015, I was often placed to ride with beginners at Studley Park or Beach Road and I would only be out on group rides at Kinglake or the Dandenongs only 4 times max during the winter months. Even then, I would be one of the slower riders due to lack of strength and experience. Since leaving the whole triathlon thing aside, I have climbed more within a month of February 2016 than I ever did my whole life.

I do have plans on completing this route in 2017. I will either complete it as part of the AUDAX (Alpine Classic weekend) or Peaks Challenge next year. These are a few things that I will need to work on:

• Monitoring my power on the bike. I am going to invest in a power meter in the next few months so I can gauge the power output on the bike especially during my climbs and holding it with a higher cadence. I have worked on this during my spin classes at AOC but it hasn't carried through where is counts, out on the roads and climbing. 
• Strength and Core As much as I have incorporated my s & c sessions during my build for Peaks, moving forward, I will need to tweak the program to something more tailored to cycling. Something which I will need to research into more and consult with Chris. 
• The times which I will need to climb the three peaks will need to be reduced significantly if I am to make the cut off. I need to aim to climb Tawonga Gap within 40min (current PB at 49min) Harrietville - Hotham down to 2:15 (current PB at 2:56!), WTF - Trapyard Gap down to 1:20 (currently 1:45). In between, I need to learn to descend properly and not be scared when my speed goes above 40km/hr (or 25km/hr around corners). 
• I need to incorporate some group rides in my program to be more comfortable about working in groups during the flatter sections in between the climbs. I actually didn't have a plan for this year about this as I knew that I was going to be at the back during the first section of the event (the descent after Falls) and was going to be pretty much by myself anyway.
• The hilly rides during winter need to be at least 3 (quality) hours long. Lets aim to do the Full Crucifix (inc Sky High) in 2016. 
• Aim to achieve PB for all my climbs - 1 in 20, The Wall, Inverness Road, Devil's Elbow, Lake Mountain, Donna Buang, Mt Buffalo, Falls Creek etc

I will leave the blog post here for now regarding Peaks Challenge. There are a few things I have lined up in the next few weeks which I will write about more but for now, I am still recovering from my cold and giving myself a break before I get back on the saddle.