62 days..

It's officially 62 days until Noosa and it all starts today. Discipline, committment, consistency. After recovering from my poplitus injury, I went to go for a light latte ride last Thursday and promptly strained my hamstring tendon. I mean, COME ON. Am I looking for a message in all of this? So like a good athlete, went and checked myself out with Khan at Lakeside on Friday. Was told the strain was acute, no riding or running and to limit swimming until I see him again tomorrow (Tuesday). Man. Patience is honestly the 4th leg of a triathlon. Have been like a woman possessed since then, icing/foam rollering the hamstring and ITB to help nurse it back to health. It's almost September and in my mind I cannot have any more time away from a consistent routine. The Kinglake ride is on the 11th and the training camp is on the 16th and I want to be ready to go for both of those. This really could not have happened at a worse time and I have had a bit of athlete depression over the whole thing. It's something I need to work on - not letting it all fall apart the first time I get a road block.

So - swimming tonight, Khan in the morning (who will congratulate me on being such a good patient, give me the all clear so I can go to windtrainer tomorrow night - here's hoping!) and lots of positive thoughts and discipline in the meantime!

Motivation....time....it's around here somewhere...

I'm not going to mince words. Things have started to fall apart on the training front. 2 weeks ago, I injured my poplitus muscle during windrainer (my own fault; rookie seat adjustment lead to an overextension of my pedal stroke) which had me out of action for run and bike for close on 10 days. Officially. Unofficially, I have not done a thing except one swim and one strength session in 10 days and made up for the lack of training with an enormous amount of eating and working.

Diet is gone. Discipline went with it. It seems that when my training routine is disrupted my body goes into some sort of metabolic meltdown and I crave food like a monster, much more than when I'm training. My motivation to do any sort of physcial activity is also MIA. I should get to the pool. I should run. I should ride. My injury is repaired, it's recovery week, I can legitimately do these things. But now that I'm out of routine it is this mind/will battle everyday which is nuts because I love this stuff...but losing that routine is a killer.

Overlaid with that is work. Nightmare hours, days of meetings, few spare lunchtimes means my normal gig of strength training at lunch is also gone. Also gone is the 6pm sessions with the squad, any chance of a life and my will to do anything after 8.30pm which is when I have been getting home. There is no end in sight but this can't continue, I need to find a way to make this all managable so I don't have to neglect training and my goals.

It's frustrating me because I feel like the good work and preparation I've put in over the winter is about to be compromised....it's almost as if I can see the outcome laid out ahead. I am determined to put in a solid 10 week block before Noosa and go into that race knowing I committed to the training and I put myself in the best condition I could be in. That's not going to happen until I sort this schedule out, stop shoving chocolate down my throat and get my ass out of bed and onto the bike/into the pool/out onto the track again.

It all starts next week :)

Life commandment #1 - Believe in thyself

This has been an interesting time for me, in terms of assessing where my fitness and training is at. I’ve had a rough time the past 4 weeks with illness which has limited my training consistency, especially in the pool. I’ve managed to keep riding and strength work at a fairly consistent level and all my runs are still in rehab mode on the treadmill so I haven’t had any idea where that is at. So it was with very little expectation that I approached the last recovery/time trial week. I honestly thought it would be a pretty big blow to the ego.

So I fronted up to MSAC for swim TT. It was freezing, I was being a wuss and complaining that my feet were cold. Not a great start. I wasn’t in the zone, wanted to be home rugged up. I felt lethargic from work and reluctant to even try given I felt my swimming would have definitely gone backwards. Negative from the start – not great.

Pulled myself together and got in for the warm up. Surprisingly, the good folk at MSAC have taken pity on those who frequent the outdoor pool and it was nicely heated like a spa. Easy. Feet defrosted and got through the warm up fine – if not a little tired from the 50m builds. My anxiety started to build a little before we started, I comforted myself by thinking it was only 500m and at least I wasn’t doing 1000m like the guys who were doing Shepparton. I was placed 4^th in the lane and we set off. For the first two laps I went for it, tried to hold my breathing to every 4 strokes and basically belted that for as long as I could. Predictably I fatigued pretty quickly. By lap 4 I started to really feel it, breathing every 2 strokes but focussing on the technique, pulling through strongly, extending and maintaining a consistent kick. I won’t lie, it was tough and for the first time (I can’t believe I’m admitting this!) I thought “I’m going to have to stop”. But as quickly as that thought came into my head, I pushed it away. Yes it hurt, yes it was hard but for Christ sake it’s a time trial. Push. Think about Chrissie Wellington – do you reckon she has a sook when it starts to hurt? So on that note, I continued and counted down the laps. By this stage I had passed swimmer 3 and was on the feet of swimmer 2 so I knew I was making up time and at least my endurance was there, despite the lack of training. Hearing the cow bell for the last 100m was music and I gave what was left in the last 2 laps. Got to the end pretty spent but thinking there may have been 5% left to give.

When times were being read out, I had no expectations. I figured I’d be lucky to match my last time (9.09). Then Sarah told me “you smashed it” and said I was definitely coming to Wednesday morning swims. Time? 8.49m. I couldn’t believe it. You could not wipe the smile off my face, I wanted to hug her. A 20 second improvement after the month I’ve had taught me some interesting facts – 1) strength training works. It’s massively important. 2) Technique is everything. Combined with strength, this is the winning combination. 3) If you have those two things, and you miss some sessions, all is not lost. All I could think about is what I could achieve once I got back into some serious pool training……and on that note, practically skipped out of MSAC like I had won the lotto.

Which brings me to the Run TT. Dread. I basically have done no run training for nearly 3 months and very sporadic training before that. I have had issues with my left foot since my stress reaction last May which has had a huge impact on what I can do with my running. I have been diligently (and patiently) nursing the latest injury with the help of Kade @ Lakeside for the past 2 months and was given the OK to do this TT at 75%. Which of course meant that I ended up belting myself because as if I ever do anything at 75% (sorry Kade).

Running & I have never been friends. I’d love to be a great runner, I would love to put the work in, but my injuries have held me back. So I was keen to get a line in the sand with this TT so I at least had somewhere to go. Warmup alone was 2km and some run throughs, more than I’ve done in 3 months. But I handled that fine. Again, the anxiety built at the start of the TT as I looked around and thought “everyone here’s a runner, I’m going to be last, they’ve all been training, I’ve done nothing”. You get the picture. Mentally, all over the shop. We started and I took off at a conservative pace, trying to judge how I felt. After about 1km, I put the foot down and starting pushing 4.30m/km which for me is motoring. I felt good, strong but I knew I couldn’t hold this pace but decided I’d hold as long as I could. Around halfway my asthma kicked in (it’s been so long since I have run that I forgot about the exercise induced asthma part!) and from then it was a wheezing battle to push and breathe. I battled the voices the whole way “it hurts, just stop, you can’t do this, it’s so far, just slow down, how do you think you’ll ever run 10km off the bike, you can’t even manage 5km”. You get the drift. In some parts, I just closed my eyes and kept running. I’ll say one thing about myself – I’m a stubborn, determined little bitch when I want to be and I will pass out before I’ll give up with some things. I decided tonight, during that TT, that I would crawl to the line if that’s what it took. I thought about every triathlete who ever won a race and ever felt pain. I reminded myself that the pain passes, find a rhythm, get the pace under control, think about anything except how much you hate the moment right now. And boom, before I knew it, I had 500m to go. Sure, I was running about 5.20m/km by that stage and close on a full blown asthma attack but I was almost there. I time checked myself – I could see 23m something on the Garmin and couldn’t believe it. I was close to running sub 5min/km average for this TT, my fastest ever pace over 5km and I knew I had run around 4.30m/km for the first 2-ish km. I was on cloud nine (kind of….in a struggling for air kind of way).  I crossed the finish line doing 24.49m for 5km. Unbelievable. I needed a few minutes to get air in, sort my asthma out and just digest what I had put myself through. I had belted myself for 5km on virtually no run training whatsoever and gotten my best ever result. Again, I learnt some valuable lessons 1) STRENGTH TRAINING works. I have absolutely no doubt that this has contributed to this time. 2) Losing weight since I last ran, and gaining muscle mass, has definitely had an impact. Running is a function of weight and the fact is I am physically lighter by at least 4kg since last tri season and since I last tried to run like this. 3) The fitness I’ve gained from riding has definitely helped. I’m sure this has given me strength in my legs that I never had before. 4) Technique technique technique. While I’ve been plodding away doing the rehab thing, I have been trying hard to use the time to learn new technique because – lets face it – I had none to start with. I look at the massive improvements people make with their swimming once they learn some technique and can’t help but think “that could be me” with my running.Very keen to read, watch and learn as much as I can in this space.

So. Talk about a surprise outcome. Very encouraged by these results. Am pumped that my focus with training, commitment with diet and lifestyle and overall ability is improving. I love that I now have some numbers to work with. I love that it’s only July and I’m pulling these times now, particularly with my run – still can’t believe that one and desperately excited to get some real run training under my belt. Can’t wait to log a TT on the bike and time check where that is at. So important to benchmark these. But the most important thing to work on is my mental fitness. This is the thing that I think will let me down and stop me from putting this all together in a race.

Next week is the August TT. I've had an injury the last week so have been off biking and running so we'll see how that goes. Skin folds have improved so muscle mass is there - just hope that gets me through!