Those who have had the (pleasure?) of hearing me talk about triathlon know that I have unexpectedly found a new passion in life that brings me so much happiness - it challenges me, pushes me and presents an opportunity to (hopefully) excel in a sport that I knew hardly anything about 2 years ago. I am committed to this sport not because I have to be, not because someone's forcing me, not because I have something to prove - but because I really love it, I am fascinated by what the body is capable of and I want to see what my body can do. I've spent 15 years pushing my mind to see what it is made of; now'e the time to do that with this bod and see what happens.
With that in mind, I came back to Melbourne with a very determined mindset that things were going to change, that training consistency was going to become a priority and - if I'm honest - I became stubborn and a bit frustrated. I feel like I have it in me to be good at this sport but 1 + 1 wasn't equalling 2 for me and I couldn't figure out what I needed to do.
Coupled with this was the date that I had been waiting for most of the year - 19 October 2011 - which was when entries to the 2012 70.3 Ironman Busselton opened. Since the day I became interested in triathlon, it has been my goal to compete in a half ironman event and after initial injury woes (and, lets be honest, over ambition) set me back last year I was determined that 2012 was going to be it.
I was lucky enough to nab myself an entry (they sold out in 2 hours!) and then sat down and had a hard think about what I needed to do over the next 6 months. It was a no brainer that my life was going to be devoted to training for this race; I want to give it everything I have, know I have put myself in the best physical condition on race day and that every training session, every hour that is spent away from work, friends and family is worth it. I realised I needed help, one on one help, and fortunately I have been lucky enough to be taken on by a fantastic triathlon coach who works at VIS and has been tailoring a training plan that works for me, that is mapped to my heart rate and strengths/weaknesses, periodised back from race day (5 May 2012) and that I feel is going to work. 3 weeks in I feel stronger, fitter and more confident then I did and I can see the numbers improving. I'm still not setting the world on fire with my running but - provided there is no injury to derail my plans - I should get there :)
2 weeks ago I had a small hit out at the first race of the Gatorade Triathlon series down here in Melbourne. I love the swim in triathlon but, given the dumping of rain in the days leading up to the race, the triathlon turned into a duathlon (replacing the 500m swim with a 2km run - hardly a fair trade in my book). I was less then moderately enthused by this news. Running before riding is the pits, my legs get cooked, my body goes into lactic meltdown and its all a very unpleasant experience. The old me would have gone "forget it, I don't do running" and not raced. The new me decided to front up and do it; no harm done, good to get in some race experience and I needed to supply the coach with my heart rate data (i.e. how high my heart rate goes before I die....or something like that).
Unlike last season, I was very relaxed on race day. I knew what to expect, I knew some of the girls, I had some of the other TA girls to hang with and I wasn't stressed because I wasn't putting pressure on myself. I know Im not a strong runner, I knew the girls who were fronting up to race were probably doing so because they ARE strong runners and were happy that the swim was off the cards so my aim was to just roll through as best as I could.
Predictably, the first 2km run (let's call it "sprint") was hard straight up. These girls are smoking fast, small and whippet like and not built at all like me. I ran as fast as I could before I was going to cook myself and, to my complete shock, ran 4:10m/km pace. Which for me, IS smoking.
Into transition, grabbed the bike, yet another fail on the bike mount where I slipped off the seat and careered into the gutter (so professional) but recovered and was off. I love the bike, I'm strong relative to everything else and I felt like I picked up a fair few girls. There was a constant headwind coming from all directions which meant I was slower then I thought but - I found out after - still top 5 overall in terms of time.
Into run #2 and to my shock (again) was running sub 5min/km off the bike for the first 2km. But then it all fell apart a bit. I don't know if I cooked my legs with the run + bike, didn't take in enough fluid on the bike but I was feeling weak and off. Negative thoughts overcame me and I basically (shamefully) checked out of the race at the 3km mark with 2km to go. In hindsight, what a piss poor effort but again, that is the power of the mind.
I put in a solid effort to finish as the TA crew were cheering and you can't help but feel motivated by all that carry on!! I crossed the line and forgot to stop my watch so really had no idea what my actual time was overall. I thought it was somewhere around 1:13 which is almost a 4min improvement on my last sprint distance race.
Again, because I am so hard on myself, all I thought was "Only 4 min from last season? God that's crap". Hahaha those who know me will not be surprised by that response. After a couple of days, what I eventually found out was that I made the Top 10 - I came 10th, in a duathlon, which made me laugh given how badly I run (relative to the other girls). But perhaps what this shows is that I'm not as bad as I thought :)
But my FIRST TOP 10!!!! I have been aiming for this all year and am pumped to finally have cracked it within the first 12 months of racing. Excited to see what happens next :)
I wish!! But never say never......
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