highs, lows and perspective

What an amazing week. In terms of training volume, it equalled my biggest week of training to date.

First - the highs: There were several highs to the week, both on the training front, and at Uni. I am half way through my PhD (looking at dairy cow health and welfare) at the vet school, and this week I submitted my first ethics application for the experiment that I will be trying to complete either side of my time in Hawaii!! Ethics applications are (quite understandably) very complicated and you have to get your wording absolutely spot on, or you are not likely to get the go - ahead. So the first part of the week was pretty stressful, but really rewarding when I managed to submit the application on time.
Training- wise, after an easy start to the week, I managed to finish a really tough velodrome seesion on wednesday (3 x 10km efforts - NOT my favourite type of set, but a great one to nut out) The other MAJOR high of the week was my 180km ride on saturday, which I did in 6hrs 11min, exactly the same time as I RACED in S. Africa in 2009. Pete rode 150km of it, sitting behind me for the final 50km, while I pushed (as much as my legs would allow). Awesome confidence builder.

The end of my 180.1km ride

The lows: Well, the velodrome session was a low, that turned into a high (as these sessions often are). They drain you emotionally, and the next night at the Tan running track, I was SO nervous. I had some 500s to do, then one hard lap of the Tan (3.8km). I would swim 3.8km without skipping a beat, so WHY would I be so nervous of running it? Well I guess it's because running's my "thing". I knew my legs were dead from wednesday, and I just didn't want it to feel bad. I was so nervous, I didn't even want to run the damn thing!! Well lo and behold, as is often the case, I ran far faster than I expected!! (15.51). I was in tears as I spoke to Sean afterwards, and he pointed out that these sessions, where you really have to dig deep even to do the session are the ones that count when you are really hurting on race day. It's so true, and just underlines the mental aspect of the sport yet again. Which brings me onto
Perspective: We spend a lot of time in our own heads with this sport. (And when studying). There is constant internal debate and conversation. There has to be, you need to ask "How do I feel? Am I fatigued? Can I push harder?" and at Uni - "How shall I approach this experiment? What's the best way to analyse this data?" etc etc. It can and does make you pretty self - centered at times, and it's easy to only see the little world you live in as important.
Then, in the space of 2 weeks, one cyclist (John Cornish) is killed and a felow Melbourne Tri Club member and friend (Dan Norman) has his pelvis broken and hip dislocated.
Pete and I rode on the John Cornish memorial ride on Friday. It was a lovely tribute. We then went to visit Dan in hospital. Friday changed the whole weekend for me. I had been looking forward to the long ride on saturday, but was apprehensive about how it might go, what the weather might do and stupid things like that. After Friday I thought "Hey! Who cares? If I ride slow, I ride slow, If I get wet and cold, so what? I get to go and do this, it's what I love, and I'll just go with the flow".
It's great to be ambitious, driven, and unrelenting, but a big dose of perspective thrown in just balances the whole show.
Stay safe everyone
9 weeks to go - weeks totals
Hours = 23
Swim -= 14.1km
Bike = 306km
Run = 66.7km

Some reasons for my obsession

I never intended to join the blogging bandwagon.
I didn't really think I had enough of an interesting life for people to want to read about it!! Then 5 weeks ago I absolultely obliterated my personal best at Ironman France, and qualified for the Ironman World Champs in Hawaii.
For most of us mere mortal triathletes, we look at the people going to Kona with reverence and awe. Wow - Hawaii, imagine actually treading water in Kailua Bay, riding out to Hawi through the Lava fields, and turning around on the run at the Energy Lab. One day. Maybe. (I used to say when I got to the 50 - 55 age group I would make it!)
For the non - triathletes, the Hawaii Ironman is still something many have heard about. The Gatorade ad of Chris Legh collapsing 50m short of the line has been seen by many, and in fact that footage was shown in my first year veterinary physiology class as a classic demonstration of how your body will shut down non - vital organs (such as your gut) in order to keep you functioning. "Wow" I thought in 2003 when I saw that footage. "Imagine having the mental willpower to push yourself even when parts of your body have shut down". (Link below)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq25qvY3ORU&feature=related
I know someone else who does that every day. My Father. He, and  several of his family members have a genetic condition called Motor Sensory Neuropathy, or Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease. My Dad absolutely LOVED sport and anything to do with being active. (He has been a window cleaner all my life). His condition always gave him some problems with balance and ankle weakness, but it never stopped him. It still doesn't, although he now finds it very hard to walk the kind of distances most people take for granted, and the kind of distance us Ironman triathletes would do as a brick run off the bike!!
So one of my big motivators for doing this sport is
1. That I can. I am physically blessed to be able to push my body for hours and hours. That makes the mental side of the sport a hell of a lot easier in itself.
There are many other reasons why I do Ironman. I wrote an article before Ironman South Africa in 2010 "Why I do Ironman triathlons". I will add it at some point along this journey. I revisted it before France, and all my reasons hold true.
So, in a fair amount of shock at having qualified for the biggest day in the sport, I took 2 weeks recovery, then back to Melbourne for a 12 week prep for Kona!! That was a bit scary, as I had gone through a 20 week prep for France. I had to be really careful that I didn't overdo the first couple of weeks, and having pulled my glute waterskiing in Dubai (whoops) I needed to take a couple of easy weeks of running. Sean Foster, my awesome coach kept holding me back, and only introduced some quality sessions last week.
The great thing is, I am finding that I am running as fast in training as I was just before France, and other than having to get used to riding the time trial bike again (I rode the road bike in France, as the course included 2000m of climbing!) my bike sessions have actually gone really well too.
I have lots of thoughts to share about Ironman triathlon. Thoughts are the operative word, because I have come to realise that to succeed in this sport - yes, you need to train (a lot!!), yes you need to be consistent, yes you need commitment and dedication, but I believe that RACE day is 20% physical and 80% mental, and it's how you train your BRAIN to race that counts.
More on that later, but for now, I hope I can keep some people entertained, but I also hope that some people will reach into their pockets and donate some money to the CMT charity. I have never raced for a charity before, but I feel that now is the time to do so. I am looking forward to the moment in Hawaii when I need to dig deeper than I have ever dug, and know that yes, I am doing it for me, but that other people may benefit from it too. Here is the link to the charity page
http://www.justgiving.com/JCoombe
10 weeks to go - week's totals =
22 hours/ 11.5km swimming/ 278km cycling/ 73.9km running