Between the Race and a Hard Place

after London i felt quite lackluster from training. all that effort, and still 2 sprints until the end of season... training seemed never ending, and i couldn't feel motivated. this was coupled by an injury which re-occurred on each run. all over, was just feeling a bit lost.


it reached a head when i got into the pool to time myself over 200 metres. at the start of the year, i was hitting my usual 3 minutes 53 secs.

when i pressed stop on that stopwatch, i was expecting to see a good margin less than that. after all, i've spent the last six months clocking up km after km in the pool.

but i pressed stop, and when i looked at the time, i'll admit - i almost attempted a stopwatch drowning fatality (not possible on a waterproof stopwatch, but i was desperate)

3 minutes 56 secs!!

all the training, all the laps, all the kms, all the sessions, nothing! no change in speed!


and after i spent the evening wallowing in self pity, it made me realise that i've never actually tried to go faster at swimming. so what did i expect? sure i clocked up a hefty distance over this year, but i was just aiming for endurance. did i think speed would automatically improve? that endurance would be leaping ahead and speed would sneak in on the side? like, no, allison.

when running, i've learnt that running miles + miles at the same comfortable pace will not make you a faster runner -- yet i've never transformed this over to swimming. sounds simple, so simple i had to stop wallowing and get over myself.

fortunately this week, i managed to do just that, and as a result things have picked up. i've got two new programs to introduce into the training mix, which are individual weights programs aimed specifically at either bike or swim. having a new focus, makes the world of difference, and has given me a little boost to continue training for those sprints.

so, what did i get up to this week?

monday> 20 minute run
tuesday> 20 minute swim
weds > 45 minute weights routine (swim specific), 20 minute run, 20 minute swim
thurs > 20 minute run
friday > 55 minute cycle, 35 minute weights routine (swim specific)
sat > 20 minute weights routine (bike specific), 20 minute swim (speed/strength drills)
sun > rest!


there's six weeks until the first of the two sprints; Hever Triathlon (400m open water, 20k cycle, 4k run) and then the following weekend it's Warwickshire (200m pool swim, 23k cycle, 2.5k run)

i'm hoping to use Hever as experience, because it's Warwickshire i'd really like to do well in. finally, London is behind me, and it's time to focus on the sprints!

(before the HIM :) )

"It's a Long Way"

since i've started this triathlon business, i've been consistently intrigued by the various reactions of people when they learn of my quests.

the majority, are positive; "Wow! A Triathlon! That's Incredible!"

the majority, also, then proceed to internalise; "Oh I could *never* do that. My swimming/biking/running is terrible. I might be okay at the other two... but no, I could never- "

since i've committed (mentally) to the Half IronMan, there has been a distinct shift in the response of others. Positive exclamations have been few and far between. It seems the word 'ironman' - even with the 'half' tacked onto the front - provokes responses much more complicated in nature.

the majority, now, are doubters. "Ohhhh, no, really? That's *such* a long way, that's crazy, do you really want to do that, how long will that take?"

this is only the start of my journey, so it will be with great interest to reflect as the journey progresses. however i did find this incredible quote from http://www.ironjack.co.nz/blog/.

(it's smaller print, i know, but worth the squint effort!)

The Ironman will try and psyche you out and wear you down over the course of the year. If you know what to expect then each swing Ironman takes at you will have less effect. The way ironman can beat you is with self doubt. If your self doubt gets to a point where you decide not to take on the challenge then Ironman has beaten you. This is where it beats most people even before they even get close to the start line. The first self doubt weapon is in the form of other people. They will constantly either tell you or imply that “you can’t do it” when they have no idea if you can or not. They will tell you “it is a long way” which is not rocket science. They will tell you they had a friend who has done Ironman and make them out to be much better than you. If they have done it themselves and are really self absorbed they will even imply how much better they are than you. The other even more deadly weapon is Ironman intimidating you directly. This will be you telling yourself you cannot possibly do something like that. What where you thinking? Are you insane? Don’t tell anyone or they will laugh, your not good enough, etc. This is all ironman trickery and not true at all. Be ready for it and know that this is what prevents everyone else from taking on the challenge.

nicely said.

for me it touches on the core of why i can shrug to the concept of longer distances; because it's about seeing something seemingly impossible, and working towards that goal until it's very possible.

essentially; life's not tailored to sit on the sideline and tell yourself all the things you can't do

:)

From Triathlete to Hobbler

last sunday, i was triathleting; swimming/biking/running my little heart out.

then i entered the week after sunday, and i was reduced to the kind of hobble displayed by people who have just had surgery in places they don't want to talk about.

wednesday was my first day of resuming the upright stance while walking, and that night even managed a gentle 20 minute run. the following morning, time trials with the trainer. and so we're back on; hello again!

(it does make me wonder, when do you get to the point of calling yourself a Triathlete? does one sprint qualify? only after an Olympic? reserved exclusively for the professionals?)

i promised something last post, and since the promise there have been whisperings. some discussions, probing, guesses at what possibly could be what has been dubbed;

'the next challenge'


but before all is revealed, i have my overall placings from the London Triathlon - so time to reveal!

there were 549 women undertaking the Olympic in total, so where was i in the mix? as expected, i started strong, and then it was a sliding scale of strength!

swim: 114/549 (pretty damn happy with this one!)

bike: 198/549 (almost as happy with this!)

run: 391/549 (and let's just not talk about this one thanks)


my rankings in transition were actually pretty funny! due to my cramping issues, my first transition saw me rank at a terrible 352/549. however my second transition saw a complete turnaround of events and i came in at an incredible 9/549!

Overall: out of 549 lovely ladies, i ranked 236 :)



ok so now my unique ability to transition quickly has been revealed, let's move onto the 'next challenge' business and see where we're heading...

for those in the circuit of knowing what the difference between T1 and T2 is; they've guessed. it's the next logical step.

i started with a couple of running races.

then i did a couple of sprints.

next onto the olympic.

now it's time to head towards a whole new world of pain... here she is kids;

the half ironman!


ironman means a lot to me, more than just another (impossible sounding) race. in australia, we love an ironman. we love our ironmen + women. we put their faces on our cereal, we name health foods after them, and most saturday mornings we fill our television programming with broadcasts from the beach. i used to watch those races, on saturday morning, always with a sense of amazement. rightly or wrongly, i put them up there with olympians.

so edging even somewhere close to the sense of achievement is going to mean a hell of a lot to me. i don't know if i'll ever be capable of undertaking a whole ironman, but right now the half ironman (HIM) is going to be an incredible feat. and one which i'm stupidly excited by.

so upwards + onwards! right now i've got to concentrate on two more sprint triathlons left until the end of season, after which it will be a winter of HIM training. and that sounds a little bit too appealing right now. maybe it's that level of insanity which qualifies the 'triathlete' badge...

London Triathlon 2009; Race Report!

here she is kids, the race report for my very first Olympic distance Triathlon!

need facts fast? the overview:

total time: 2 hours 50 mins 16 seconds

position in age group: 65th out of 128
position on each leg: 36th on swim, 52nd on bike, 103rd on run

so the race report; complete with pics! here i am at the swim assembly, completely unaware my wetsuit is longer on one leg than the other. where was the stylist here?

swim:

one word; washing machine!

it was super chaotic, as somewhat expected, and i thought it would sort itself out in the first couple of hundred meters - but it didn’t, i believe because our wave was so big! i didn’t manage to develop any type of rhythm until after the first turn, at 750 meters, when finally i had some clear water.

the other bad news was i was on the verge of a calf cramp most of the swim. i was so petrified of the cramp that i didn’t use my legs for the last 750 meters. this continued into transition, where the cramp threatened to take complete hold.

> the low point: potential cramp + the number of people in my wave!! too many!! next time i’m swimming wider!

> the high point: over taking a woman in an Ironman wetsuit. that felt gooooood.

> estimated time: 29 minutes
> actual time: 30 minutes


T1:

disaster.

i was so tired from using my arms only that i had no energy remaining to remove wetsuit. also, i was so scared of setting off the cramp that i ended up taking a looooong time to remove wetsuit.

here's me (the one at the front) in a world of pain.




couldn’t run through to my bike, had to walk out potential cramp, so felt really rubbish by the time i left T1. this changed as soon as i jumped onto my bike though - weeeeeeeee!

> estimated time: 4 minutes
> actual time: 6 minutes


here's me coming out of T1 with a very worrying look on my face! not sure what was happening here. damn those overly expressive facial expressions...


bike:

okay so for the record; i loooooove cycling!

as soon as i was on the bike my darkened mood lifted and i set off to gain as much time back as possible. this was made a little easier by the beautiful cycle through london, past Tower Bridge, Tower of London, London Eye, right down to Westminster. I smiled a lot + would have broken into song if the route wasn’t so busy!

similar to my swim, i find that if i push myself i’m able to overtake people, so i made an effort to do this as much as possible. particularly if someone overtook me, i’d make sure i work harder to return the favour.

i definitely felt like i was overtaking more people than were doing to me, but in comparison to last tri in how hard i actually pushed myself physically --> i felt as though i could have gone harder. my breathing wasn’t particularly laboured and my legs weren’t screaming. however i was enjoying myself, and still over taking a little, so i was very happy with that!

> the low point: getting someone’s gel wrapper caught in my brakes at the bottom of a big incline! had to stop, get off, de-tangle, and then get up the hill with no run up!

> the high point: everything. i love cycling. it makes me happy.

> estimated time: 1 hour 20 minutes
> actual time: 1 hour 18 minutes


here i am coming off the bike back into T2. feeling good at this point!

T2:

this is typically the most painful part of tri's but thankfully, not too painful today, and previously mentioned cramp had disappeared - good news! picked up headband, dropped off bike and off i went!

> estimated time: 2 minutes
> actual time: 1 minute 30 seconds


Run:

okay, for the record, i really don’t enjoy running. no surprises there.

the first few kms were tough, legs felt like solid brick weights. started getting into the swing of things in regards to everyone over taking me. it does *really* suck watching all the people who i’d worked to overtake on the bike - now whizzing past me on the run!

after the first lap, with 5km remaining, a lady ran beside me and asked if it was ok to run together; to which i said sure! i knew i didn’t have the breath to run + chat so i asked her to tell me her life story, so we can forget about the pain. running together was good for both of us, she was a little faster than i would have run and she said she would be walking if i wasn’t there - so that was brilliant.

at 9km i asked another lady for the time and we found out we were going to sub 3hrs - BEST feeling of the whole Triathlon! lots of high five slapping and general excitement!

the last 1km was super exciting and by the time i crossed the finish line i was literally jumping with joy --> to the point the commentator even marveled at my excitement! brilliant!

ended up with 54 minutes- which i really can NOT believe. 2 weeks ago I ran a PB of (almost) 58 minutes and after all that cycle/swim I then knocked off another four minutes.

my position in AG was absolute rubbish for the run, but still a very big feat for me personally. with swimming and cycling i'll compare myself to others, but running is still very much a personal battle. thus, am well pleased!

> low point: the whole thing. running doesn't make me happy. at all really.

> high point: finding out we were going to sub 3 hours during the last km! yipppppeeee! AND then doing 54 minutes - my lordy!

> estimated time: 58 minutes
> actual time: 54 minutes



okay so first Olympic Triathlon done + dusted, what have i learnt?

> if you’re going to swim open water, then you need to train open water.
> cycling is really fun. running is less fun.
> did i mention hill runs to help you run faster? hill runs are the *key*
> it’s possible! it’s longer than a sprint; yes; but totally do-able!


and finally, a big thanks to the Al support crew on the day! ant + paul who braved the very wee hours of the morn (before the sun even rose, much kudos!) and then supported through three hours of not-a-lot-happening:) also the finish line crew; steve, peter, maria, arun + lesley who screamed loud and didn't mind sweaty wet hugs. Thanks kids, really does make the world of difference when you're in a world of pain :)

So onto the next challenge! *coming soon*

The Night Before London Triathlon *insert scream here*

not sure if i'm really believing it's the night before my debut at the London Triathlon! there's one sound to describe how i'm feeling, and it's somewhere between a scream and joyful cry and a squeak.

someone asked me today how much i've trained (average 6 days a week) for how long (about 4 months). i was even impressing myself by the sounds of that.

so today i went down to check out the action (the tri runs over two days; tomorrow are the olympic distances/elites and today was the sprints). two mates were competing and firstly a *massive* *big* *fat* *congratulations* to both steve + will for competing in their first ever tri, both doing super well, with no mishaps, looking very cool/calm/collected with a bit of hardcore thrown in for good measure.

here's a couple of highlights!

the start of steve's wave. i couldn't find him but he's in there somewhere!


here's steve entering T2; he stopped and did a little fancy pose but my stupid camera was all blurry. sorry steve, wasted seconds for nothing! but i did get this one, with a little wave. hello!



as steve heads off to run, Will comes tearing through the finish line! and gets hungry enough to chew on some metal. hmmmmmm.... metal....


and not long after, steve comes roaring through; yippppeeee! both did super well and without incident + with smile. that's damn good going :)

during a post race beer, steve collected his bike from transition and i marvelled at his very simple, yet very effective approach to triathlons!

here's steve getting very excited over his rubber bands holding his pump + a tyre lever onto his bike


but Steve, i said, why do you have a bike pump + lever when you don't have any tubes? he cast me a knowing look, and gestured to the back of his bike. low and behold -->



loves it! and, to top it all off, who needs fancy water bottles when there's evian around?




after spending months dribbling excessively in Tri shops, it's nice to have a reminder that it doesn't take much at all to compete in these events. just a bike, some goggles, and the right attitude :)

SO tomorrow kids; this is it! race report will be delivered, hopefully with some good news! cross your fingers, then cross them again *insert scream here*

7 days to go!

incredible; only seven days remaining! this demands mutiple rapid fire exclamation marks!!!!!!

so holy moses, one week - what does that even mean?

- 107, 520 blinks until the race starts (it's what they say, who am i to question?)

- 43 times i'll have minor heart palpitations thinking about race related issues, most of which are completely ridiculous (ie. how will i remember how many laps i've done?)

- 168 hours to work out how i'm going to strap my power bar to my bike in bite size pieces without making my bike look like a candy store (previous attempted was laughed at, a lot)

- five times i'll wake up too early, launching out of bed to bike/swim/run and then remembering it's time to rest and wondering if my body will recognise a sneaky session?

- two more times i'll be able to list my week's training activities, oh, and were her ears burning? here she is;

monday > hilly run 40 minutes

tuesday > short wetsuit swim in sea (sight practise)

wednesday > speed cycle 45 minutes (with intervals), hilly run 40 minutes

thursday > speed cycle 40 minutes (with intervals), short wetsuit swim in sea (sight practise), 45 minute hilly walk (counts?)

friday > rest day

saturday > 40 minute run (undulating), 2.4 km swim training session (wetsuit)

sunday > 50 km cycle


so i've got a few things on my mind, the usual stuff, i'm sure;



- will my goggles fill with water? no previous problems but on saturday they filled up about six times - not feeling confident, might switch back to ye olde crap but more reliable goggles. will test again next swim practise and probably make rash decision on day.

- how will i get my stupid power bar onto my bike without facing public ridicule? see pic below, they have smiles too big for their faces, but no candy store


- need to get spare inner tube + bike checked over. she was clanking loudly on todays long cycle and was a little embarrassing. guess my re-assemble from car travels weren't so kind.


- should i use the Co2 cartridge without practising? i'm scared of them. bike shop man said i'd burn my hand from the cold. lots of warnings of exploding. i'm a big wuss. may not be so much of a wuss when faced with flat during race...?

- worried about right arm during swim. wearing my tri suit under my wetsuit has given me painful dead right arm for first 15 mins of swim - think there's just too much restriction happening. thought about rolling down tri suit + just wearing bikini top, then pulling up later, but this sounds complicated + very big potential for accidentally naked exposure. maybe should just cope with 15 mins of dead arm?

- have not done a full length 40k bike/ 10k run brick in training. this is going to hurt beyond words. i'm aware of my foolishness, but yet announcing it for hope of redemption


so the week ahead! will sneak in two more training sessions early on, then it's rest rest. there's nothing i can do now to be faster and/or better, which is relatively comforting, so guess it's just a matter of enjoying it *gasp*

the agony of wetstuit 101

we're halfway through pre-LDN training week (whoops i mean holiday) and efforts have been severely hampered due to adverse weather conditions. this is my first attempt at a week-long english summer holiday, and the experience does test ones patience.

the other morning, after a lovely run along the coastal path, i went down to the ocean for a swim. i was feeling a little apprehensive over the impending cold, and much to the enjoyment of all of the rugged up beach goers - proceeded to put my wetsuit on. i was feeling quite good about myself, and a little bit hardcore, when i zipped myself up and realised i'd put the stupid thing on backwards! here's the moment i put two + two together;


i'm super glad this mishap didn't take place at an event! anyways very traumatising as then involved another fifteen minutes battling it off + on again. as they say though, worse things have happened at sea, so i kitted up and was feeling quite chuffed when finally i was ready to embrace my english summer swim! thankfully we didn't have a mirror at the beach, otherwise i would have known i looked like this;




now that's a look! so the swim itself wasn't as cold as i thought it would be (those wetsuits do a good job), and my sighting was pretty spot on. all around good stuff!

due to the rain, my first ride will see me head off early weds morn for a longish stretch of country road which i can time trial down. won't worry about getting miles down now, need to really concentrate on speed as this isn't something i train for (ever). and maybe i'll finally get around to improving my cornering *cough,cough*

the good news is i've managed to run each day along the coastal path - which is hilly enough for an old lady to move to one side as i ran uphill and rasp, "you shouldn't be *doing* that!" here's me during a quieter moment on the path, with a rare glimpse of sunlight (read: generic brightness);


and i did promise a few old fashioned goals, so it's time to share. my forecasts are a little rusty, because the main section, the bike, i really don't have much of an idea of what i'll be hitting. so i'm guessing this one, and giving myself a bit of room for inaccuracy because i'd rather over-estimate than under. i've also put my projected times with my age group placing based loosely on last years results. here she is;

swim (1.5km)

in the pool i’ve been hitting 30 mins consistently, but my competitive nature is going to run into overdrive on the day - so will probably manage to shave a couple of minutes. the only issue will be swimming off course/getting kicked in the face/goggles coming off/cramp from cold

estimated time: 29 minutes (71/272)

bike (40km)

i don’t have a confident estimate of my bike, but based on long rides and my previous sprint tri’s, i’m going to take a preliminary stab in the dark. tbh, think i'll do better than this (hoping!!!)

estimated time: 1 hour 20 minutes (189/272)

run (10km)

finally this number has decreased! it's still a crappy old time, but good for me!

estimated time: 57 minutes (rank: 189/272)


(transition 1 + 2 : six minutes)


total estimated time: 166 minutes (2 hours 46 minutes)

age group estimated rank: 165/272


so the main goals i'm hoping to achieve are this:

1. finishing! this includes avoiding a cramp in the swim, a flat on the bike and/or a stitch on the run
2. subbing 2.45 (would be amazing!)
3. subbing or even getting anywhere near 2.30 (impossible! but still on the wish list!)


here's hoping peoples. but lets put things into perspective; at the moment i can't even get my wetsuit on the right way around.