Ironman Western Australia 5 Dec 2010

Well the race has come and gone - I've not been in a position to post for a long time due to work and other stuff, but could not go without posting my race report for what has been a long year.

Swim 1.07.29
Bike 6.23.41
Run 4.05.17
Overall 11.48.32
AG 45-49 8th overall / 5th swim / 20th bike (needs work) / 3rd run
Female 226 starters  62nd swim / 142nd bike (needs work) / 39th run

We arrived in Busselton on Thursday 2 Dec and I registered and received all my bags, id, timing chip etc and then went to our accommodation to unpack our stuff and then repack for the race!

Friday morning I went for a swim in the training area as I hadn't put my wetsuit on since May - I got adopted by a couple from Canberra which was nice as otherwise I would have swam on my own, water was nice, bit bumpy on the way back in to shore but otherwise pretty good.

We then went out sightseeing for the day with our friends to Dunsborough, Eagle Bay, Meelup, Bunker Bay and toured a cave (I didn't I had an hour's sleep in the car) then home for a lovely BBQ dinner with our other friends who arrived Friday evening.

Saturday I did a short swim/bike/run session with another guy I know who was doing the event followed by a BBQ breakfast which was yummy - my friends & family went out sightseeing for the day which left me on my own (which is what I wanted) - I unpacked and repacked my stuff just to be sure I had everything then racked my bike and my bags, wandered into town to get my hair braided for the race.  Back to the house and an afternoon snooze followed by another lovely dinner cooked by my supporters (& I haven't had to wash up, clean up or anything - they have been fantastic!)

Got quite nervous late Saturday afternoon and a bit teary started questioning whether this was something that I would be able to do - I felt (before the race) that in ideal conditions I could aim for 11hrs 30mins but after speaking with Max on Monday I tried to not concentrate on the time instead working to a heart rate!

Slept ok'ish and took my smoothie breakfast at 3am and we left at 4am to get to transistion my fabulous hubby and my friend came with me, my daughter and other friends got there a bit later (but in time to see me exit the swim)

Put my food & water onto the bike, struggled into my wetsuit and headed over to the start, felt surprisingly calm considering how I felt the night before.

I decided to move towards the front of the pack nearest to the jetty which definitely paid off, although I have to say I struggled for a while to find someone to draft off, eventually found someone and stayed on their toes until the turn point which turned into a bit of a bun fight and I lost my drafter and had to find another one. Finished the swim, happy with the time and really surprised to see so many bikes still in transistion!

Off onto the bike, I didn't think it was too windy (compared to how it was the day before, but the wind was still up and made a huge difference to my speed at various times)  having had my pre-race chat with Max I was very conscious of sticking to my heart rate and I was hoping for a 6hr bike, this turned into a bit longer but I didn't focus on it, although I know I was on target initially but as the day went on the wind got stronger (as it always does in WA) - had a toilet stop after the 2nd lap which was a good sign given my experience earlier this year at the half IM when I didn't drink enough!

I got passed by so many bikes (which is what Max said would happen) and by lap 3 (last lap) I was "billy no mates" there was hardly anyone left :( tough mentally on this last lap on the longest stretch of road as there was not a lot to break it up and very few bikes around.

Finally off the bike and into T2 fairly slowing as my legs still thought that they were cycling, I decided to change my shorts (this proved to be very comfortable) and I also had another toilet stop before heading out onto the run.

Again I had a heart rate to work towards and I kept to this although I was running fairly fast initially - I sailed through the first 2 laps of the 4 lap course and felt fantastic, I picked off athletes as soon as I started running, which is what Max said would happen, by the 3rd lap my thighs were starting to sieze up only minor but I knew that it would only get worse and lap 4 was quite painful but I still managed to run ok and was very happy with my run time

I smiled from the start to the finish of the whole race, I had an absolute ball and did everything that Max said.  I stuck to the heart rate for the whole of the run, nervous that I might blow up and not be able to finish without walking, very happy with my race result and performance (that's a first for me) and had a fantastic swim and run - bike still needs work to make me more competitive!
Had my paleo recovery drink - really did not want this but knew I needed to have something followed by a post race rub down and then picked up kit and went home where I had an ice bath followed by a hot epsom salt bath, a shower and dinner (again cooked by my fabulous family and friends).

Thighs are a bit delicate today (the day after) but have done my CF recovery WOD and have a massage booked tomorrow am feeling really good and so enjoyed this race, which as everyone tells me the first one is the one to enjoy - I'm not sure yet whether I will do anymore I don't know that I be able to enjoy another on as I did this one - but only have until Dec 15 to decide which is when registrations open for 2011

Definitely back on track :)

Hi to all TriMaxer's especially those who have just completed IMLP - great results and enjoyed the race reports - helped to give me inspiration and motivation.

I have been slowly getting back on track following the half ironman in May nearly got my health sorted and my physical issues - hamstring tendonitis, strained disc also getting better.

Have spent July following Max's program more or less, not been posting as was seeing if I could handle regular training without the pressure of reporting - I'm pleased to say that progress has been good and I'll start posting from August.

I've got 4 months to my Ironman and it will be here before I know it - here's to a healthy mind & body for the rest of the year :)

i'm back - well sort of

Hi All

Have been reading your blogs on and off over the last month or so, was due to start training with max again in June, but lots of things have come up - like now I'm in Sydney for a week on a training course + I have 3 x projects either going live or kicking off in June and I know it will be too stressful to add in Max's training schedule where I will feel obliged to do all the sessions.

So I'll be back training with Max in July getting ready for my ironman in December.

Had a couple of weeks off after the half ironman and ate lots of chocolate - started to do a bit of training but have to say was feeling very flat for a good couple of weeks.

Have signed up for 10 x 1-on-1 sessions with my CF Gym which started last week that has helped to get me motivated a bit more - also while I'm in Sydney I am training with Crossfit Sydney every morning so that is helping the motivation too - hopefully when I get to July I will be raring to go.

Looking forward to seeing how you all get on at IMLP - you all rock :)

Race Report - The Good, The Bad and The Downright Ugly!

So race is over and I am hobbling around like an old woman - its not a pretty sight and is very painful :(

I'll start with the good, I came 6th in my age group out of 43 finishers and 54th overall out of 343 female competitors.  (Although I have realised that I am in the wrong age group and should be in 45-49 where I would have placed 4th - I think its because I entered last year, my friend was also in the wrong age group too)

I was very relaxed about this race, the most relaxed ever which was a really nice change. We travelled down on Friday and I registered and racked my bike then went to our accomodation, relaxed, ate and then had to go to the race briefing at 7.30pm Friday evening - went to bed around 9.30pm and had a really crap night, could not get to sleep, when I did sleep I kept waking up so maybe I was not as relaxed as I thought!

Got up at 5am Saturday to have breakfast and even though I didn't sleep well I did feel pretty good, off to the race and setup my transistion area then met my family and friends outside so that we could get into our wetsuits and make our way over to the start.

The weather was fantastic, blue skies, slight cloud, flat ocean (cold though) - we went at 7.45am and I actually had a pretty good swim, I tried where possible to draft, but surprisingly found this really difficult as even though there were over 300 women in the wave finding one in front of me was actually quite difficult! Excited the water in 34mins a couple of mins down on what I wanted but no panic, quite a long run into transistion and out on the bike.

The 1st half of the first lap was slow going as I caught the back end of the mens waves that went in front of us and had to be careful about drafting - then on the way back into town the wind had picked up and this made it hard going. By the start of the 2nd lap on the bike the wind had picked up even more and then my legs started to cramp - my inner thighs of all places!! this combined with the wind started to have an effect as you will see from my split times - overall the bike route was so much better than previous years as the field was far more spread out which made it easier to ride without worrying about drafting.

Back into transistion for T2, inner thighs stopped playing up, but the thighs then took over - started running feeling ok'ish.

Now the bad - I didn't drink enough on the bike leg I only had about 1250ml not even 2 x bottles - I was so focused on eating I virtually forgot about drinking - this had a major impact on my race as you will find out later :(

I did the first lap on the run and felt bad, by half way I was really in trouble and very, very thirsty - normally I am really bad at eating and drinking when running but I drank at every drink station and continued taking my gels. After half way I decided that I would walk every drink station for 2 reasons, 1) my legs would get a rest (they really hurt) and 2) I could drink more - so this is what I did and as you will see from my lap times I got slower and slower.

Now comes the really ugly part, on the last lap of the run it took all my willpower not to stop and walk, I can't tell you how much my legs were hurting me - it was like my thighs were contracting the top pulling down and the bottom pulling up - shrinking together - I just focused on reaching every drink station so that I could stop and have a rest and drink. On the last 3.5km back to the finish I definitely tried to pick the pace up as I just wanted to finish so that I could get relief from the pain in my thighs, running down the finish shute I nearly didn't make it as my thighs had virtually siezed up (my daughters boyfriend said he thought I was going to fall over) - I very nearly did!

Anyway I finished in 5hrs 10mins 16secs and was very disappointed as the lack of hydration obviously had a major impact on my performance and it was something that was totally within my control, but as Max said I made a "rookie" mistake and won't do it again and as he says you learn more from the mistakes than the things you do right.

Straight after the race I went and stood in the ocean for 10mins and it was so hard to move, I also drank around 6 litres of water after I finished and it took me 4.5hrs until I could pee (& it was very very dark) so majorly under hydrated

So I'm now shuffling around like an old woman with arthritis and am looking forward to another epsom salts bath today, have been starving since the race and am looking forward to a rest now.

If you can't read the results, jump to the website here:

 http://results.racetectiming.com/MyResults.aspx?CId=11&RId=2027&EId=4&AId=31440

So now I will be resting for the whole of May and all things being equal I will be back training with Max in June - I will though still be reading all your blogs so I won't be far away :)

This is it !

Well I can't believe that 4 months have passed - I remember the first training session that Max set all the way back on 1st January 2010 - its been a long and also a short 4 months if you know what I mean?

I am so excited for this race and have set myself a huge stretch goal of 4hrs 45mins - to achieve this time I need the race of my life and everything to go to plan so we will see what happens, the good news is that they have gone back to wave starts from one mass start and changed the bike course from 3 laps to 2 laps which should hopefully spread the field out, unlike previous years where the bike was really congested.

I've enjoyed the last 4 months and the online support from all you guys - its really helped and made me laugh and cry as we have shared our training and lives with each other - you all rock :)

Anyway, last session completed this morning feel great and off to pack and get ready to travel to Busselton today.

Will post race report on Sunday when I get home, although will be texting Max my result on Saturday.

Jane


We

Rest Day & slight illness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so today (Thursday) is my rest day and all week I haven't been able to work out whether I am coming down with something or not - is it in my mind because I'm tapering or is there something really wrong because I'm tapering????

So off to my fabulous naturopath this morning and I have a bacterial infection in my sinus - should be ok for the race on Saturday though - have some herbal remedy stuff to take - he said I may feel under the weather later today or tomorrow but should be ok for Saturday - phew!!!

Last post tomorrow morning before we travel down to Busselton for the race, if you want check out the race website http://www.busseltonhalf.com/

Taper Week

Tuesday was Helen @ 70% - 3 x 400m run 21 x KB swings 12 x pull ups used 8kg KB and small orange powerband for the pull ups, time was 12mins 02secs

Weds was 8 x 200m run at 75% - thought my times were a bit out but remeasured the course and realised I was stopping at the wrong crack in the pavement and ran about 20m more so feel happier about my times now.

I have a massage booked for this afternoon as well as a new yoga class tonight - I'm trying an Astanga yoga course with my husband for the next 12 weeks (although my phsyio is not happy about this as he doesn't want me to stretch so I have to be careful)

Tomorrow Thursday is a rest day so next posting will be Friday !!!! can't believe that the race is nearly here very excited

Lazy Monday

Today I just had 5 x 3 back squats at 70% normal weight - I chose 40kg this was very easy and I was really pleased with my form on the squats.

That's it for training today and its also a public holiday so a nice long weekend too :)

I've started getting all my kit etc together for the trip down south and have planned my meals so that I take everything I need I also have a couple of friends coming to watch the race too which I've only just found out so that was a nice surprise too.

Definitely in countdown mode - only 5 more sleeps!!!!

Short & Sweet Session today

Swapped a session I missed earlier in the week, which was

50 x 20kg thrusters for time stopping on every min for 4 x burpees

I finished in 2mins 59 secs and decided to do another set of 4 x burpees so finished in 3mins 16secs

That's it for today and then this week is a big taper week leading into the half ironman next Saturday - am really looking forward to this race and know that I am in really good shape to hit my target time which I have set myself of 4hrs 45mins - providing everything goes to plan I should be able to finish in this time

I have a number of people here who are really interested to see how I perform given the unorthodox nature of the training that I have been doing, myself included - a big thanks to Max for the training program and support I know I am ready :)

Great Ride

Saturday I went for a ride round the river with my cycling buddies, I actually rode with 5 other guys who will be in the same team for the cycle races this winter.

We had a great ride and I felt and rode really strongly its give me a great confidence boost for next weekend, especially as my legs were suffering from the Cindy squats the day before.

Am still suffering with a bit of muscle soreness today, but will be doing my CF session later today

Getting back on track

I've had a much better morning today :)

Am feeling good, backside is so much better after being bashed by the physio, had a great swim set this morning in my new race suit - after a short warm up we swam 19 x 100 on 1.50 turn round aiming for 1.34/1.36 - I managed to swim these all on the right pace so was really happy - I did draft most of them as I caught the guy in front so that really helped.

Then I went straight home and did Cindy (still in my race suit) managed 18 rounds which I am pleased with as I could feel the swim in my arms which affected my pull ups and definitely the press ups.

Looking forward to tomorrow - I'm riding round the river with my cycling buddies who have reminded me that I haven't been out with them all year and now that the team cycle races have started I need to make an appearance. I'm actually really looking forward to this :)

Great bike - bad backside!

This morning I had bike intervals of 3/5/7/7/5/3 mins with 3mins recovery (I took the rest down to 2mins)

I was very happy with how I felt on the bike - strong - and with the distance covered in each interval (my pace) so very pleased

Backside not so good, saw the physio this afternoon where we worked out the reason why my backside had started to play up again this week - it was the yoga - I forgot he told me not to stretch!!!!! I thought because I didn't have any pain I was fixed - I was wrong - he reminded me that as I have a tendonitis issue that this takes weeks to heal and I need to help it along - so was bashed about by massage and accupunture needles.

Tonight I was supposed to do Cindy but I'm still feeling a bit bashed up so have decided not to do this session tonight - I will do it in the morning after swimming.

Also I'm really looking forward to my swim session in the morning I get to try out my new race suit which I won as a prize in the race I did in January but have only just got around to claiming

An off day today :(

Following on from how I felt yesterday - today was a bit of an off day

Had a 10km Run TT this morning, I knew it would not be good, so I focused on visualising myself running at the 1/2 ironman in a couple of weeks and aimed to run at the pace that I wanted t run there, time wise this was good for a 1/2 marathon but crap for a 10km.

My hamstrings and glutes played up again today, after seeming to be better over the last week and a half - this made the run very unpleasant, I so want to be able to run without any pain

2nd WOD I did at lunchtime which was 5 x 5 DL - again this was hard work, mainly because my glutes and hamstrings were definitely restricting me and I am disappointed with the weight lifted - I nearly gave up after 3 sets - in fact I was walking out of the garage when I told myself "to toughen up princess" and went back and did the last 2 sets - I lifted 60/65/67.5/70/72.5kg - I would have liked to lift 75 & 77.5kg but it was not happening today

Here's hoping tomorrow is better, I'm back at the physio tomorrow & was feeling really positive about the body until the last couple of days - I need to keep my spirit up and a positive attitude as my race is only 10 days away and I know I am in shape to break 5hrs

Drafting is the way to go (in the swim)

So Tuesday morning I had my squad swim we did 3000m as 200/400/600/800/1000 with drills and swimming - the final 1000m was swum continuously with drafting.

I got to draft the whole swim and it was so easy, I finished in 16mins 30s which is an average of 1.38 per 100m and I hardly looked like I had been swimming the guys in the front were definitely suffering - a timely reminder that I need to draft in the race next week.

2nd WOD was 300 x squats for time, didn't do this, ended up having not such a good day and was really, really not in the mood for this :(

I forgot the burpees!

Today was 10 x 200m with 1min rest penalty 5 x burpees for each rep not within .02

My times were a bit all over the place and I think I ran short (I forgot which line in the road was my 200m point!!!) also I cut the rest to 45s as this was in my lunchbreak and I had to get back for a meeting.

Anyway, when I got home I forgot about the burpees and just went and did a stretch - opps!

PM I decided it would probably be a good idea to go to yoga so I took myself off to Bikram Yoga and had a good class and a great stretch.

Weekend Training

Saturday
WOD was 3 x 5 DL (45kg) 10 box jumps 500m row - managed to complete this in under 10mins (forgot the actual time its written in the garage!) - found the rowing tough today and my times were not that great, DL were fine, box jumps tough as normal, but getting better

Sunday
Had an 85km team cycle race - I got put in a different team as we had lots of new riders but they were way too slow for me, so I ended up being on the front for most of the ride and being told to "ease up" all the time - I really wanted to push on, but couldn't as I kept dropping the rest of the team, I did though feel fantastically strong even into the wind and my nutrition seemed to work really well.

Less than 2 wks now to my half ironman - here's to feeling as strong there as I did today

Feeling Fresh :)

So after my rest day yesterday and the massage the day before I am feeling pretty fresh.

Squad swim this morning was really good, main set was

5 x 100m
4 x 25m
3 x 100m

I managed to swim all the 100's on 1.34 - 1.36 again I'm working on trying to be relaxed (like in my running) and it does seem to be paying off.

3 x thru of 200m broken with 10sec rest as follows
100m 10sec rest
50m 10sec rest
50m finish
Total swim time excluding rest was 3mins / 2.59mins / 2.38mins with fins

2nd WOD was 3 x 500m row box jumps press ups 21/15/9 - completed this in 11mins 5secs going from rowing to box jumps was tough but the press ups were good

WOD x 2 then Massage - ahh!

So this morning did what should have been Mondays WOD 4 x 1 mile with 8min rest.

Ran 1.716meters (accurately measured well fairly accurate) & this is the same course that I did this session on in January, so 110m over a mile, but close enough

Ran 7.31 / 7.10 / 7.04 / 7.04 was really happy with this, as apart from the first rep when I was kind of feeling my way, I tried to run really relaxed and it seemed to work and I know I could have run another rep and hit the same time (in fact I wished I had now!) This is an improvement on January where I got slower with each rep.

2nd WOD I did about an hour after this session 3 x 30m walking lunges 10 burpees 25 situps - lunges hurt after the run, burpees ok'ish and situps were tough, finished in 6mins 43secs

Then early afternoon had a sports massage followed by a day of rest on Thursday (today)

Another Good Day Training

Still working on swapped round sessions so this morning was squad swim total 2900m with a combination of drills / swim with longer intervals, swam well and felt good, body a little sore from the squats / thrusters but the swim helped to work this out.

Had to do the 2nd WOD at lunchtime as I was out in the evening, really did not want to do this 5 x 500m row & 400m run - but I went home and got into the session, actually started enjoying it strangely enough and beat my time from January even with a tired body managed 22mins 5secs - 15secs faster

Looking forward to tomorrow - 2 x sessions followed by a massage and a rest day - lovely :)

Swapped Training

This morning was supposed to be 4 x 1 mile with 8min rest but after the weekend at the NLP course I was too tired to do this session justice so I decided to swap days.

I chose Weds and did a 5km run TT managed 21.37 felt good, butt still hurt but nothing like on Saturday or perhaps my focus was different today? AND I ran the fastest 5km that I have this year by 15secs so a very good start to the day :)

PM was 21/15/9 20kg thrusters + dips - I used my rings with an orange powerband for the dips to make it harder - completed this in 6mins dead!!!

Thrusters were good, could have gone heavier, dips were hard after the thrusters broke these into 7/7/7 & 5/5/5 & 5/4