Counting down the final days...and coming full circle

Here it is. The last blog. Well, until the race report, which (hopefully) will be the best instalment of them all!!

But before I get ahead of myself, I’ll give a brief run – through of the past week, and endeavour to share some of my pre-race goals, hopes and dreams!!

What a week. The monster 25 hour weeks I racked up recently were a breeze in many ways compared to this week, but I can’t say I haven’t relished every second of every drama that unfolded this week!

My last ride before leaving for Hawaii

Training. Well it doesn’t really warrant much of a mention!!! I’m tapering fully now, so sessions have been shorter than normal (about 2/3 normal volume) and only limited quality. Kristy left Airlie beach on Sunday, Sean and I were travelling Monday, so we did some 500m builds during Monday’s ride. Tuesday I did a normal swim squad session, which went really well, and a run- fartlek session in which I flew. (A note on the “coming full circle” aspect of that session later). On Wednesday I had a great ride with the club down Beach Rd. It was warm and windy, so perfect Kona training.  Wednesday night we were travelling, and since we would be crossing the dateline, the next scheduled session was to be a recovery swim in Hawaii 36hrs later (but still officially on Thursday!!)

As usual I had been super – organised and had already scheduled a massage in Kona on Thursday, plus a service for my bike, ready for my ride on the Queen K on Saturday.

Well….Best laid plans and all that jazz. Those of you on Facebook know what happened next, but for those that aren’t -

One of those freak spring storms hit Melbourne on Wednesday afternoon/evening. Carnage. The Royal Melbourne Show was fully evacuated, lightening struck all over the place, and the ground crew at the airport were not allowed onto the tarmac to unload or reload planes for safety reasons. Our 17.30 flight to Auckland was delayed. And delayed. And delayed. And then at 22.30 cancelled. We were told we would be repatriated and flown out the next morning. But no way would we make the Honolulu flight. It was pointless picking our bags up, leaving and returning for a 6am check in, so we stayed at gate 10 overnight with half a plane full of Kiwis!! By this stage, “super manager” Pete had already spoken to Air New Zealand (who were brilliant I might add) and rescheduled our Honolulu flights to Saturday.  I managed to rebook the Novotel at Auckland airport. (Pretty lucky with the Rugby World Cup in full swing!) Kristy and Dan were also delayed, but they were flying via Sydney, so only lost 1 day.

So why did I enjoy all this? Well ok, sleep deprivation DOES tend to curb your sense of humour a little, but while I was at Airlie Beach, my overwhelming feelings of nerves and a little dread about the race had evolved into that wonderful feeling as you go into the taper of excitement  and anticipation, but also the resolve to absolutely soak up the final 2 weeks and just relish every moment, good and “bad”.  So all of a sudden, a situation, which with a different frame of mind could seem awful, actually becomes a bit of an adventure. We got to spend more time relaxing between flights, but got to a pool and had a gym, so we managed to keep our taper sessions going.



On the Queen K Highway

We finally flew to Honolulu on Saturday, 2 days late and after 3 hrs sleep at Honolulu we hopped over to Kona, and arrived at 6.30 am Saturday morning. Exactly the time that the pro triathletes will start 7 days later. (Age groupers start at 7am). We got a taxi to our accommodation, which is absolutely massive and lovely! Then assembled the bikes, and headed out for my first taste of the Lava fields on the Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway. Amazing. Words can’t describe the feeling of cruising along, nodding (and being nodded back by!) amazingly fit looking triathletes. The lava fields are a sight to behold, and the view across to Hawi, where the bike turnaround is, breathtaking. Sean and I did a jog off the bike, and he took me down to Alii drive and along to where the finish line will be. I had to fight back the emotions. (Save them for the real finish!). We capped off an amazing day with a short swim along the buoys from “Dig Me” beach.

 I CAN’T WAIT to be out there in 7 days, savouring every moment, good and bad.

So on to the nitty gritty of the race and my goals, aspirations, dreams.

I set some targets for myself almost as soon as I returned to training 12 weeks ago. These were deliberately set as soon as possible after the race in France, while my confidence was at its highest. My “ideal” race would go like this:-

Swim = sub 1hr 15. I swam 1.08 at France, in a wetsuit. I know that I am likely to be slower at Kona, but hopefully if I can stay on some feet, 1.15 should be comfortable.

Bike = 5.50. With a 5.49 at France, on a bike course with 2000m of climbing, I felt that 5.50 was a realistic target.

Run = 3.45. At the time that I set these targets, I felt that this one may be the hardest to achieve. With the legendary heat at Kona, if anything was going to give, I felt it would be the run.  

Transitions – approx 5min total. 

Overall target time = Sub 11 hours

I also set myself “acceptable” targets – those times that I would still be happy with. Honestly, I believe that now that I have done all that I wanted to do in training, the “acceptable” targets are no longer relevant, but if things do go awry, it is good to be able to aim for “target number 2, or 3 etc”.

I have also re – evaluated my bike leg in recent weeks, and realise that if I struggle into the headwind, it could affect my bike time by a lot, not to mention the potential knock - on effect on my run. So on reflection, my “acceptable” targets are likely to be

Swim = sub 1.20

Bike = sub 6.20

Run = sub 4.00

Total time = sub 11.50 (still faster than S. Africa!!)

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not having a confidence crisis, or refusing to back myself, it’s just that I am acutely aware of how the heat (and BOY was it hot today) , humidity and wind can affect your race out here. I will do everything I can to repeat my “perfect race” in France, and if I do…… Who knows? But if I don’t ….Guess what? I will not stop going forward until I cross that line, with a huge smile and no doubt some tears of joy. This is Hawaii, and I am racing the Hawaii Ironman World Championship. What a life.

 A note on the “full circle” comment.

I started running in 2004, with Kristen Hennessy, one of my dearest, dearest friends. Now she is in Boston and I miss her terribly. She had already run a Boston marathon when I met her, and I looked at her running with awe. In the early days we used to run from the vet school at Melbourne Uni , round Princes Park, and back. A total of about 5km. I could barely make it. She would be talking me through the final kilometre, just to nurse me home.

 I ran my first 5km fun run there about 1 year later, 20 min 50, far better than I’d hoped for.

 In 2008 I ran a 30km race there at 5 min/km pace in the lead up to the Sydney marathon (I now run my “easy runs at about 4.55/km).

 Last year I had a shocking run there in a half marathon, and finished in a crumpled heap of tears.

 On Tuesday last week, I ran my last fartlek session before the Hawaii Ironman. It was one of the fastest fartleks I have ever run, and I felt fantastic. What a journey.

And now some thank - you's

At a time like this I also tend to reflect on who I really have to thank for getting me here. I was running on the Queen K Highway today, up the final hill I will tackle before I head down to the finish line. As the sun beat down on me, and I started to struggle with the heat, I thought about all the people out there who would LOVE to be here right now, doing what I am going to do. And also about the people who will be supporting me when I take on that hil, with 3km to go.

All my team mates, current and past, who day in and day out lend their support, encouragement and advice. Kristen and Nathan, there from the start. Melbourne Triathlon Club, all my Oui Tri buddies, Mark and Lynn, Ian and Lavinia, the touch football crew, skiiing crowd, and right back to the glory days of playing rugby. All these people have lent their support for many years, and still give me amazing strength and encouragement.

My work and Uni colleagues who have been incredibly suppportive of this whole experience.

Pete's Mum and brother. They were there in Florida at the half - Ironman worlds. They were there to see me qualify for Hawaii in France. Unfortunately they can't be here this week, but I know they will be here in spirit.

My own family - who have always taught me to follow my dreams and believe in myself. My mother taught us to be strong and determined. My father epitomises the phrase "Anything is Possible". Despite a physical disablilty he has worked a physical job for over 40 years and raised a family.

My coach. Sean Foster. I cannot begin to say how massive his influence has been in the past year. its not just about a program, it's not about individual sessions, its not about advice. It's about being coached by someone who ABSOLUTELY LIVES for this sport. He calls us "his" athletes. He is thrilled about everyone that achieves, on whatever level.  He's great.

And the other half of "Team Coombe". My husband. "Thighs of Justice", Peter. He knows how much he means to me. I'm sure everyone else knows how much he means to me. Without him by my side, none of this life we have chosen to live would have the same excitement. His name means "The Rock" and he is my rock. He can't do this Ironman with me, but we have many more Ironmans to do together in years to come.

So thanks to everyone in my life who I know will be gunning for me while I am out there on saturday. I'll make you all proud.

DAYS TO GO = 5

Hours trained this week = 11 hours

Swim = 9km

Bike = 146 km

Run = 48.36 km

Acclimatisation and changes in expectation

After a couple of days of settling into an out-of-the-ordinary routine (always a challenge when you throw 3 Ironman triathletes into a new environment!!) We found our rhythm this week. Of course we had "the program" to follow, although mine was already slightly moderated as I had started a slight taper this week.

Our days basically consisted of waking (slightly later than in Melbourne, although the body-clock still had me on the 5am start for a while), coffee (which I never normally do before training; Foz and Kristy have converted me!!) a small snack, and out for the first session of the day. Back for breakfast (usually more like lunch), shower, do some work, massage or stretching, or core/pilates sessions, shopping for food then out for the second session of the day. This was usually a swim, as it worked better to do our bike or run sessions in the morning and swim in the afternoon. Back for a mega feast for dinner (chez Team Hawaii REALLY turned on the culinary skills!!) Then an hour or so of relaxation, and bed time. It's amazing how quickly a week passes repeating the above 7 times!!

Highlights of the week - 

Before the 5k swim

1. Our impromptu "OD swim!!" - Pete had arrived on Tuesday, to spend the rest of the week up here, and he hired a car. So on Tuesday night, we drove to Proserpine, where there is a HEATED 50m pool (Only Jo Coombe could actually get HYPOTHERMIA swimming in an unheated pool in Queensland!). The swim set, as designed by "The Red Baron" (our awesome swim coach Ben) was 4.7km. This included fins, and we didn't have any, so I didn't expect we would swim that far. But Kristy and I got quite into the session, and when we'd finished the full set in 1 hour 46 minutes - I said those dreaded words....."Well I'm not going to finish on 4.7k when I could just do the extra 300m and tick off a 5k set". Kristy, who had just taken off her swim cap promptly put it back on and we duly finished the 5k!! I haven't swum that distance since before my first Ironman in 2008, so it was a great session to tick off.

2. Seeing Holly and Ash, our great friends, who we originally met in Melbourne, and who now live in Mackay. We took a drive down there on Wednesday, and spent a fabulous evening catching up with them. I also got to run the Catherine Freeman Memorial Walk for my tempo run on Thursday. It was pretty motivating to be training on a walk named after an Olympic Gold medalist and inspiring athlete.



If only Kona had THIS kind of climb!!



3. My final "long" ride. By long, I only mean 80k (the other two rode 150km!). But I got to do some sustained riding into a fearsome, hot headwind back to Proserpine from the Peter Faust Dam. It gave me some much needed confidence in my mental strength into the wind, but the stats on my computer and heart rate showed me that my expectations of how my bike leg may go in Kona need to be VERY realistic. I qualified in France on a mountainous course. It suited me, as I climb well, and descend like a maniac!! The descent also left my legs quite fresh for the run. While Hawaii is hilly, there will also be long stretches that suit the time trialler. I have yet to really develop my strength in that respect. But I am OK with that. I said at the start of this preparation that my goal was to get to the race knowing that I had done everything I could to have my best race. And I have. That ride gave me enough time to be able to calm my mind about what might happen out there. I may rethink some of my goals, but I will talk about that next time.



And so to the race. Well the countdown clock on the Ironman website as I am writing says just over 12 days. I head back to Melbourne tomorrow, I've got one and a half days to unpack, wash, repack, train and get on the flight to The Big Island. We arrive in Hawaii on Thursday, so by the time I write my final blog before the "Big Dance" we will have settled in.

Weeks to go = 2

Total hours trained = 17.75

Swim = 16.5 km (record swim week!!)

Bike = 181 km

Run = 47.01 km

Watching from the sidelines…..and living the dream



In my rugby days



In the days when I played rugby, injury was just a fact of life. With a contact sport like that, it is rare that you don’t at least go from game to game with bruises, sprains and niggles, plus lots of strapping!! The queue for the physio at Wasps, my club, was never a short one! But with a start-stop sport like rugby, you can usually get by with those niggles.

With endurance sports, it’s a bit different. When you are doing any activity repetitively, be it swimming, cycling or running, it is only a matter of time before you are going to turn a tightness, or niggle into something that could potentially stop you training altogether. You can imagine on a 2 hour run, where each foot is likely to land 80-90 times per minute, how much more risk of exacerbating an injury there is, compared to playing on the wing in rugby where sudden injury is more of a risk, but more chronic injuries are not.

So I went into this past week nursing a really minor tightness in my left peroneal muscles (towards the base of my calf). In the early days in the sport, I would probably have trained through this (the rugby mentality was still strong!). But also, my goal used to be to finish a session, no matter what it took. Now, the end game has FAR more importance than individual, or even multiple runs could possibly have.  



Deep water running



Luckily, I was still able to do full bike and swim sessions, so missing a couple of runs would probably have more of a positive impact (allowing me to really train well in the pool and on the bike) than negative. At this stage, it is so important to believe that the benefit of being conservative and getting to the start line 100% far outweighs the risk of trying to add a tiny amount of extra fitness. Plus, I got to do a fartlek session as a deep water run session in the pool! (which actually turned out to be quite a lot of fun!)

I had also discussed my taper with Sean, and because I have always performed well on a 3 week taper, this week was going to be my last full week (with a slightly shorter long ride and run at the weekend).

So we flew to Airlie Beach for our acclimatisation camp on Thursday. I had a little bit of trepidation about the trip. This kind of trip is what the pro triathletes do to prepare for the world champs. I don’t see myself as an elite athlete. I try my best to train like one, eat like one, learn about sports physiology, psychology, recovery like one. But I’m just an ex  rugby - playing vet, studying for a PhD, who happens to have qualified for a world championships, aren’t I? Isn’t it a bit decadent to be taking myself off just to train in the heat? Even if it is a chance to be "living the dream" of a pro.

I know what most of my wonderful friends would say about that comment. But we all have self – doubt. And going to Airlie Beach carrying a bit of an injury wasn’t ideal. I was prepared for the fact that Sean and Kristy were going to be doing bigger sessions than me, as their taper is shorter. But it was pretty tough to be finishing my runs when they were only just warming up for theirs!! At least it meant I had the chores done when they got back!!

At Dingo Beach

We had a cracker of a ride on Saturday – to Dingo Beach (130km for me; Sean and Kristy also went out to Lake Proserpine, finishing up with an epic 180km ride). I had another niggle on the bike, in my hip this time. Not what I needed after the calf issue. But it seemed to be pretty transient, and probably related to pushing quite hard into headwind on some REALLY rough road!! (At least the road in Kona is meant to be smooth!) It gave me a bit of a scare though.

But most importantly, I came to realise (thanks in part to a great message from Pete) that it doesn’t matter if I have injuries at this point that force me to shorten or even miss sessions. The reason I am here isn’t for the training – I did all the hard yards back in the cold and wet in Melbourne. I am here to acclimatise, and look after my body so that I go to Hawaii with the best possible preparation I can.

Elite? Maybe not. No stone unturned? Absolutely.

Weeks to go = 3

Hours this week = 18.25

Swim = 14.4km

Bike = 273km

Run = 15.62km

Adaptation, not a holiday!!



On the way back from Monday's velodrome session - 62km



This week was an adaptation week, which is kind of like a recovery week, but very different from many people's idea of recovery. When we were writing out own program, our recovery weeks involved drastically reduced training hours (often less than 50%), very easy sessions and almost no quality.

On Sean Foster's program, adaptation weeks, as they are called are very different from this. The hours are reduced, but mainly due to the day off on Sunday, at the completion of the week. There are a few sessions that are reduced intensity (such as the negative split beach road ride midweek) and the first run session of the week is always easy. The saturday session is usually either an "OD" (over distance - not ACTUALLY over the distance of Ironman, but very long) bike, run or combo session.

I have realised that the benefit of this different type of "recovery" week is that although the day off allows a limited amount of recovery, it is not complete recovery, and it means that in each 3 week block, you are still building on the block that came before.

The downside of it is of course.... the mental aspect!! This week particularly, I started the week really tired, and thought I was in for a nice easy week, would freshen up and have loads of extra time (and energy) for Uni. Low and behold, by Wednesday afternoon I had already ridden 170km, swum 5km and run 17 km (including a run off the bike on Wednesday at 4.16/km!!!) Physically, that wasn't a big deal, most of the quality was in that 30 min run, but mentally, after a morning of teaching at Uni, I was shattered by Wednesday night.

This was when I had a chat with Pete, and we discussed just focusing on getting through the rest of the sessions in the week, then enjoying the day off on Sunday. This made the rest of the week much easier to handle, and I had a really good race - pace swim session on Thursday morning.
Pete and I have been doing a weekly 50m pool session where we do long sets (eg 500s or 800s) with me practicing holding on to his feet. Thursday's set was 4 x 800m and it went really well. It also meant that for the rest of the day I was raring to go for the run session at Kew on Thursday evening.

Sod's Law!! My calf started tightening early in the session, and despite the positivity, I had to pull up at 55 minutes. Very frustrating, but not the end of the world. I had a cracking ride in the hills to St Andrews and back on Saturday, but 1 km into the run off the bike, the calf was tight, and I decided not to risk making it worse. Yes, there were tears; there is NOTHING worse to me than starting a run and having to actually stop, especially when you've been stressing for the final hour of the ride about how the run will go!

But PERSPECTIVE is a wonderful word that Sean and I like to use. So Saturday afternoon I had to tell myself a few things

1. With 4 weeks to go, missing a few runs will NOT affect my fitness

2. It isn't a tear, and actually wouldn't stop me running the marathon now, if I had to do it.

3. I just ran one of the fastest 7kms OF MY LIFE (on dead legs and after a ride - possibly a factor in the injury, but I didn't feel it during that run, so probably not)

4. I have a day off, and don't want to wreck it for myself or Pete by wallowing in self pity!!



Balance



So we had a nice steak on Saturday night, with a beautiful couple of glasses of red. on Sunday the longed - for sleep in - (till 7.50 am!! I know, ridiculous, in London 10 years ago a lie in was midday!!) Had a leisurely breakfast, went to the cinema for a 10 am sunday show (also unheard of for us!!) and I jumped out of bed this morning dying to hit the velodrome.



But that's for next weeks blog. I am writing this on Monday night, and I will reveal that I saw my Physio, Cory Prout, who said my peroneal muscles (outer calf) were very tight, possibly due to running on the uneven surfaces at Kew, but not too much to panic about. 

Obviously with less than 4 weeks to go, conservative is the key word, and I'll find other ways to fill in some of those run hours (like doing some of the uni work I've been desperately trying to finish before I head off to Airley Beach on Thursday!!) 

Weeks to go = 4

Total hours this week = 19.25

Swim = 14.3km

Bike = 276km

Run = 31km

ironman science.....or the wonders of caffeine

My last few blogs have been quite reflective and have probably illustrated a lot more of the mental than the physical side of Ironman training. This week I’m going to discuss how fascinated I am by some of the scientific side of the sport.

First, I’ll give a quick summary of the week – far too brief to do it justice. After my biggest week of training to date, I knew this week wouldn’t be much smaller, and with 2 days of research down in Gippsland planned for Thursday and Friday, I was a little nervous about how I might cope. Pete and I did our customary “plan of the week”. On Sunday, we write out a plan of sessions, where else we need to be, where and what we will eat, etc. As we live on the other side of the city from all our training, a typical evening (eg Monday) can involve packing swim stuff, gym clothes, breakfast, clothes for uni, uni bag (including laptop), lunch and clothes for running! But as long as we are well organised, it all goes really well. And this week went brilliantly.

All the sessions just ticked by, some were absolute corkers, including my “best ever” 3 laps of The Boulevard at Kew on Wednesday morning. There was a lot of fatigue slowly building in the legs all week, which for me often means that for the same effort level, I can't hit the heart rates that I should (my legs don't let me) but as long as I allow for that, it prevents me overdoing it and allows me to still do some quality training. 

In Gippsland

Thursday and Friday went brilliantly. I swam at MSAC on thursday (a good race pace set) then Pete drove me down to Gippsland to do my experiment, so I didn't have to do 3 hours driving as well as train and do the experiments. We drove back on thursday, I did a massive hill run session at Kew, ate, went to bed!

Friday - swam again (very badly - lots of fatigue) Back in the car, back down to Gippsland, finished the experiment, back home, ate, went to bed, a little apprehensive about how the weekend might go, given all the running around and fatigue.

No need to worry - I won't go into all the details now, and will explain a bit more about the ride soon, but the whole weekend went brilliantly, albeit with heavy legs. 150km ride in the windiest conditions I have ever had on saturday, followed by a really solid 30km on Sunday, with 8km of hills at Kew Boulevard thrown in!

So on to the science. I have attached my garmin data from the ride on Saturday. I started the ride on pretty heavy legs, from the 2 weeks of hard training I had done. I rode to Mordialloc with the bunch, (about 35km) nice and easy. After Mordy, the first spike in the heart rate graph was me settling into a rhythm for the rest of the ride. I decided to stay around 120-125 bpm (about 75% of my bike max HR) for the first 60km, up to 130bpm for the next 60km then up to 135-140bpm (or half Ironman intensity) for the final 30km if I felt ok.  As the graph shows, the second 60km doesn't really change from the latter part of the first 60km.

This was surprising, because although from 70km onwards I was riding into headwind, and tried to increase my effort level, my tired legs just wouldn't seem to respond, and try as I might, I couldn't seem to increase my heart rate. I was following my race nutrition plan. (2 x Hammer Perpetuem solids every 30 min, a gel at 15 min past each hour, and sips of energy drink (Hammer Heed) in between. My energy levels felt great throughout - spot on. But just no response from the legs.

Now for the magic (scientific magic, of course!!). At 120km I took 2 caffeine tablets. This has also always been part of my race strategy - I take 2 tablets at 120km into the bike, and another 2 at the 30km mark of the run. I love reading articles about the science of nutririon and physiology in sport, and the caffeine story is particularly fascinating. Well if you look at the graph, you can really see it in action. I assure you there is no placebo effect there. I genuinely could not push, then suddenly after the caffeine it was like I had different legs under me. My heart rate came up (appropriately) and my average speed went from about 25kph from Frankston to Mordialloc, up to 27kph for the remaining 25km.

Many of the triathletes reading this may have already seen the caffeine articles, but for those who haven't and are interested, here is the link to the Australian Institute of Sport factsheet on caffeine in endurance sports.

http://www.ausport.gov.au/ais/nutrition/supplements/supplement_fact_sheets/group_a_supplements/caffeine

2 caffeine tablets is 200mg of caffeine. This would be a huge amount for the non - athlete, and the potential side effects (such as increased heart rate and dehydration) could be detrimental to health. But amazingly in the kind of situation I was in, training on probable depleted glycogen stores, the effect was phenomenal. The theory that the caffeine promotes fat metabolism, sparing glycogen makes sense, but some studies also suggest that the caffeine actually enhances glycogen breakdown, as it acts synergistically with glucagon.

Regardless of the mechanism involved, the result on saturday was amazing, and meant that I finished one of my last long sessions much more confident with what I might be able to do (even in the wind!) at Hawaii. So caffeine stays in the race plan!!

Weeks to go = 5

Hours trained this week = 24.25

Swim = 13.5km

Bike = 300.1km

Run = 80.14km

August totals

Swim = 62.45km

Bike = 1153km

Run = 260.3km

so much more than an individual sport

Triathlon IS an individual sport. No argument there. But, as long as I don't deviate from the point too much, I'll explain how embracing the "team" aspect of the sport can open so many more opportunities to enjoy it, and to get everything you can out of yourself in the process.
This week was a MONSTER!! In terms of Ironman training, it was my biggest week (in all 3 sports and hours) to date. The more exciting side of a record like that is that there was a lot of quality in there, not just "long, slow" stuff.
A week of training hard, along with some stressful planning of Uni work meant that after an awesome 5 days of training, I went to "bounce" out of bed on Saturday, all excited for my one group ride of the week - a hilly 120-150km in the Dandenongs. Bounce? More like "thud". Oh dear. I plodded my way through the empty Melbourne streets at 6am, and I knew that my legs had not come to the party. I won't relive the next 5 (plus) hours, it's best left for the depths of my memory while I am on the Queen K highway in just under 6 weeks. But suffice to say, my "group" ride became a "me and Pete" ride within 10 minutes!!
More about Pete's role later, but I got through it, and as is often the case with these rides, we actually made it back not that far behind the rest. And there were lots of tired people at the finish!! (Plus one casualty - thankfully not a car crash this time, but colliding with a wallaby at 70kph didn't do Geoff's face any favours).
I went to bed that afternoon, absolutely exhausted, and got up on Sunday, a beautiful sunny day absolutely DREADING my 2 hr 15min long run. Now remember, I can run, it's kind of my thing. And I have run 2.15 and longer many, many times. But when you think it's going to hurt (from the start), and you're convinced you'll be running it on your own (because you won't keep up) it becomes less of "your thing"!
Enter my team mates.
So we only joined MTC and Fluid Movements 14 months ago. Before that we trained on our own. Well actually, no we didn't. You see as I reflect on some of my favourite moments in this sport, I admit that some are the personal achievements. But far far more involve my friends along the way.
In the very early days (2004), it was Kristen. My inspiration to "go long". She had run the Boston Marathon. I was in awe. We used to run around Princes Park (5km) and she would FLOG me!!! But she kept me going with her encouragement and love for running.
Then Nathan (my honorary "Aussie brother", now married to Kristen! (yes we introduced them!) Many, many memories of pushing through the tough times with Nath beside me.


Pete and I with Kurt, Nathan and Kristen



So many other people, Mark, Lynn, Ian. The "Oui Tri" crew (although that was more the post race drinking company!!)

When I lived in Timboon for 18 months, I just don't know if I could have kept the swim training going if it hadn't been for my friends Kurt and Cathy, who gave me a bed every week, so I didn't have to drive 50km for swim training on a wednesday morning before work.
And now I am spoilt for choice of training buddies. I joined the club so I had a good, structured training program (and boy, that bit worked!!) But also for the company and cameraderie that a triathlon club provides. But is still takes individuals to reach out and give you that company just when you need it. Several people do this, and Marie stepped up on Sunday. Big style. She knew I'd had a rough day on Saturday, and instead of just running her own pace on Sunday, she stayed with me the whole time. Chatted when I needed to chat, and we just ran at other times. Along the way, we were joined by Ollie from Tri Alliance (sharing the love from club to club!) and Stryker ran the second half with us (for his longest ever run - yay!)

Finishing the long run together

I can't begin to say how much these kind of gestures mean. I used to look at Hawaii Ironman athletes in complete awe, assuming they were all super-human. Now I am one, I can safely say - we are not!!
Another athlete once asked how my training was going, when Pete was injured and I was training for South Africa on my own. I said "Ok, but I'm a bit sick of all my long rides on my own". He said "Isn't being on your own what Ironman is all about?" Well I can safely say - if that's what you prefer, then sure, do it on your own, but if you perform better with company, rally whoever you can, and get your little team going, and you never know how much more you might achieve.
Which brings me back to the biggest (literally!) team mate I have. My wonderful, wonderful husband, friend and training buddy Pete. He has been there since day 1. He patiently sat through 5 (plus) hours of what must have been the most frustrating ride ever on saturday. He is looking after me as if his whole role is to get me to Hawaii in the best shape possible. He really is amazing. I am so lucky that we both love the same sport, and that he "gets it".
Here's to many more years of team mates and cameraderie. I am really looking forward to coming back from Hawaii and giving some of that support back. Especially to the newer triathletes, for whom 2 hrs 15 mins seems so long!
Weeks to go = 6
Hours trained this week = 25.75
Swim = 14.7 km
Bike = 340 km
Run = 76.39 km

Listening to your body



"Listen to your body". It's a really annoying phrase that EVERYBODY wants to keep telling you. I actually think I'm quite good at it. I'm all "guts and bravado" vocally, I turn up to sessions like a whirlwind saying "YEAH LET'S SMASH IT!!" But after 5 years and doing my first 2 Ironmans off my own training, I do think I heed the warning signs of fatigue and impending illness/ injury quite well.

The problem is, the more you want to get out of your training, and push your body, the more blurred the distinction becomes between "good tired" (you know when you lie on the bed and go"ahhh that feels so good!") and "bad tired" (that "oh my God there is NOTHING in my legs, even though I've rested")



This week was like that. Maybe the first warning sign was not wanting to do the long run last Sunday? On Monday morning, I spun easily (only it wasn't) to the velodrome, did a few sharpeners to flush out the lactic (nope, it didn't) and dragged myself home, hardly able to keep up with my mate David on his great big commuter bike! The rest of the week continued in the same vein. Yes, I had just put together 3 big weeks, but I wasn't recovering the way I know I normally do. My resting heart rate was fine. As long as I just went really easy, I could comfortable complete the sessions, but there was just no "zip" in my legs. I'd also been waking up sweating and just felt really tired and lousy.



If I wasn't a triathlete, training for the biggest day in the sport, I'd just say "wow, I'm a bit tired at the moment". Big deal. Growing up seeing my father having to do a physical job, with a disability, no matter how tired he was feeling created somewhat of a "suck it up" attitude in me, especially when my fatigue is self - inflicted by choice!!  But as triathletes we have to be feeling superb, to be able to really get what we want to get out of the quality sessions. So I started self - diagnosing (as vets often do!!) "It could be low iron (I've had that before) It could be a virus.  It could be the dreaded phrase God forbid, we don't like to use...... overtraining". No No No!!! Anyway, I did the right things - I talked to my coach (a BIG reason I'm glad I'm not doing my own program now), backed off the training in the latter part of the week, (it was a recovery week after all) got loads of sleep, ate zillions of vitamins and antioxidants plus wholefoods galore. Saw my doc, who ran every blood test under the sun (she's incredibly paranoid, in a good way!!). By saturday I was feeling virtually back to normal. Just as well, as my 11th wedding anniversary was Friday, and we were going out for dinner on saturday night.

Here's where the funny mind games start again, though! So having agreed that I would do an abbreviated, easier session on saturday, I felt really good, and had to have Sean convince me that completing the original session we had planned was NOT going to benefit me at all! I knew it would be difficult to fully relax and enjoy the rest of the weekend if I thought I could have done more! Knowing when to let it go is just as important as knowing when NOT to give up!! It also allows your mind to recover, and lets you refocus.

So here I am at the start of our last big block of training. I feel 100% again, I'm really excited about some of the sessions coming up. I've got a load of Uni stuff to organise before we go off on our acclimatisation camp, but I'm relishing that too! It's amazing how when you start firing on all cylinders physically, everything else falls into place too.



Macca



We finished the weekend with a wonderful anniversary dinner at Little Press (yum!) and then spent a few hours at the Ausbike expo, checking out all the bike bling!! Highlight of the show was standing next to (the somewhat tiny) bike that Chris "Macca" McCormack rode to win the Ironman World Champs last year. What was really cool was that the sticker was still on his handlebars! It gave me butterflies to know that I will be putting one of those stickers on my own handlebars in less than 7 weeks time!! Body - willing, I'll be FLYING up the Queen K highway in a similar style, to him albeit (fractionally) slower ;)

 Weeks to go = 7

Total hours = 14.75

Swim = 14.55km

Bike = 179km

Run = 23.17km

Please remember that I am raising money for CMT disease as part of my Kona experience
http://www.justgiving.com/JCoombe