A sigh of relief

The pressure was well and truly on for the biggest and most anticipated event of the Tasmanian triathlon calendar: the RBS Morgan Coles Bay 100.                                                                    It had certainly been on my mind a while, but suddenly between my new sponsorship, the infamous newspaper article, a television interview, and the seeded race numbers, I felt more pressure to perform than I ever had. Until this season I went into every event pretty much unnoticed and that was how I liked it! However the absence of Amelia Pearson and some others this season has shifted the focus and after I was handed the race number 101 there was no escaping the fact: I was the favourite.

I was interested to see how I would perform after an up and down couple of weeks in the lead-in. The week before race week was total chaos - I managed to squeeze in 35 hours of work, 26 hours of training(that's actual exercise time - I'd hate to think what it would be if you counted travelling, putting on 15 different outfits a day, showering, and searching the house for various helmets, shoes, socks, shorts, lights etc), a farewell party, Festivale, a 50th anniversary and an engagement party, as well as committee meetings for both Launceston Tri Club and Launceston Athletic Club.

No wonder I fell in a bit of a heap during race week. I decided to taper properly for a change given that it was a target event for me, so I had Monday and Thursday completely off. Harvey gave me a massage on Monday and I pulled up unnaturally sore and felt very flat through the short training sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday. Of course this made me super nervous but I just kept thinking 'it'll be right by Saturday'. I love race week because it's a great excuse to eat junk food and justify it as "carbo-loading", but I probably went a bit overboard!

Finally race morning arrived and my stomach was in a knot but I just followed my race plan and my standard race morning procedure which helps keep me relaxed and calm. The wonderful Hannah Geelan has been giving me lessons in believing in yourself, so nervous as I was, I was thinking positively and convincing myself I could do it.

The swim was beautiful, water was flat as a tack and I had a clear lane right from the start. So good not to have to fight people off like in the shorter races! I felt relaxed and thought I was swimming quite well - there didn't seem to be too many people in front of me - but when I got out somebody yelled 'number 6' so then I was panicking, thinking who the heck could be in front of me?! T1 was OK and as I got on the bike Tex yelled 'good swim' which further confused me. The first 20km of the bike was a big struggle, everything was hurting and cramping, and I seemed to be going nowhere fast. Also I kept thinking 'when am I going to catch those girls?' but at the turnaround I found that only one girl was in front of me! That was a relief. The second 20km was much easier though I was still feeling pretty uncomfortable on the bike. By the halfway mark I was only 3 seconds behind Kate Warren, but I missed my drink bottle at the aid station and did the whole second lap with no water :(

I caught Kate up the big hill and started to extend my lead, in fact about 2km from the end I suppose I was getting a bit complacent and was standing up, stretching my legs down a hill when Melissa flew past me. Oops! Caught off guard! She was just a couple of seconds ahead of me at T2 so although I had 18km to go I grabbed my stuff and sprinted off, passing her at the first corner.

After one lap I wondered how I'd get through another two, but the second one felt much better, and the third was just a formality. I was so relieved to get the win and get the monkey off my back!

The main thing I will be thinking about after this race will be my race strategy for target events. In this event I did what I needed to do to win the race comfortably, but at the end I felt a little disappointed in myself that I hadn't pushed to see the limits of what my body could do. When I saw Melissa cross the line after her smashing performance for second, having taken about half an hour off her last year's time, she was an emotional wreck, leaving everything she had out there. And I thought 'I wish I felt like that!' Sure it may not be a fantastic strategy when I get to the stage that I'm racing a long course every few weeks, but I would love to be able to do what Hodgey did on Saturday and extend his lead exponentially without anyone around him to force him to push.

On another note it was great to see the podiums filled with local entrants despite the fact that about a third of the field was from the mainland this year. It goes to show the great standard of our local Tassie athletes, our clubs, our training grounds and our coaches.

I would like to thank Tex, Chris, Padge and Lou for organising a FANTASTIC event for us, an event that will continue to grow in strength and success from year to year. The professional standard of this race is just so impressive, it is something we should all be proud to share with competitors from around the country and eventually the world. A big thanks to everyone from LTC and all the other volunteers, as well as the race sponsors including RBS Morgans, without whom this race would not be run.

Thanks to everyone who cheered for me, it really is the most amazing feeling.

Thankyou to my new "family" at BC - I had to win so I didn't have to put up with your teasing! And so I could keep my wonderful bike :)

Thanks to EFM Health Clubs and Harvey Griggs who also help me along the road.

A big thankyou and well done to my darling Johnno who made it through the whole race without visiting the porta loo this year :D and the same to my friend Bel Fong who had a smashing weekend at the Huskisson tri festival, and has always believed in me.

Until Devonport....

State Series: Three down, two to go

Not a lot of news to ramble on about today, just a quick update on the weekend's race. The third State Series race was held at Beauty Point on Sunday. The distance was 750m/30km/5km and the weather was still, muggy and overcast. It was my first race aboard the new Specialized Transition (see picture).

The water was very flat and the pool swimmers got away to a good start. Just after the first buoy someone grabbed my legs and tried to pull me under the water about three times but after I kicked hard and got away I thought I was swimming OK. However, when I got out I saw lots of people who I usually beat - or who I would like to beat - ahead of me. My bike mount was another disaster, it was quite funny really as I nearly ran over Dwayne Hinds who was TO-ing the bike mount area. (Apparently I wasn't the only one!)

I caught Melissa and we basically rode the whole 30km together with me passing her up the hills and her passing me down the hills and staying ahead on the flats. We posted exactly the same bike time.

T2 was significantly better than T1 but as I ran out I was surprised (to say the least) to see a girl I didn't recognise just ahead of me. She ran strongly too but I passed her early on and to my relief continued to pull away from her. Just before the first turnaround I heard loud breathing behind me and I thought 'oh no she's caught up, but I am dying, I can't go any quicker, I'll have to let her past!' but as we turned the cone it was Natalea who passed me. She wasn't pulling away from me as fast as I'd expected and I could tell she was struggling which, as it turned out, was because she was having stomach cramps. In fact she didn't gain on me all that much and I could still see her towards the end. I thought if I'd had a bit more in me, I could have sprinted and almost caught her. But the lack of running lately has really impacted my fitness and I had nowhere else to go, I was already pushing as hard as I could!

Still 45 seconds is not too much of a gap to one of this country's rising triathlon stars - and it was short course!

It was also awesome to have another competitive girl join the field in Kate Warner, and of course having Tahlz back from her mainland commitments to raise the standard.

Thanks Miss for duelling it out on the bike course with me and keeping me motivated.

Thankyou to my wonderful sponsors Specialized and Bike Central who give me some chance of keeping up with Melissa with the amazing bike and all the gear.

Thanks mum & dad for coming down to watch, even though it didn't make me win like the first two times this year ;)

And a big thankyou to my grandparents who put up with four starving athletes for a night, eating them out of house and home!

So that's two seconds and a first in the state series so far, or three firsts in my age group :) and the best two races to go: Coles Bay long course and Devonport olympic distance. Just 12 days until Coles Bay - can't wait!

More training, more racing, more learning

Just three weeks to go until the big one - Coles Bay 100 - as I reflect on the last fortnight of training and racing.

The week after the Seven Mile Beach tri was a fantastic week of training. I managed to clock up 26.5 hours and although I did feel like I was walking around half asleep by the end of it, I was very happy to look back on such a solid week.

This past week has been pretty slack in comparison which, with the time left until Coles Bay, is a little disappointing. But as they say you learn more from your failures than your successes, and while physically I may not have gained a lot from the week, mentally I have taken on board a lot of lessons. It's been a good reminder of how important it is to keep an open mind and keep learning from everything you do and, importantly, everyone you meet (a point that I will come back to later).

One of the biggest lessons I've really had drummed into me this week (and you know, I can be told something 1000 times but it won't be til I've actually done it that I'll understand) is not to let the little things get in the way of the big overall goal.

Case in point: I'm training for the Coles Bay 100, which is a long course triathlon, and this of course forming part of my base for hopefully another crack at the World Long Distance Championship (finance depending!). Therefore volume of endurance training should be my focus. And as we all know the ability to do this depends on making the most of the time we are not at work (unless you're a pro of course, or a teacher, or a student....)

I had an entire day off on Thursday which the previous week equated to about 6 hours' training - and how many this week? 50 minutes! Why? Because I let my ego talk me into going to a, excuse my french, $#!**y little triathlon race for State series points, which ultimately adds up to what? Annual kudos from Tri Tas and maybe a few dollars prize money.

Sure, race practice and the intensity of racing is great training, but not at this stage of my program, a fact that was probably realized by a lot of my more experienced training partners - hence the big names missing from the entry list on the day.

Latrobe starts with a 400m swim in a river that's about 20m wide. Imagine almost 100 people trying to get around three buoys in that space and if you come up with an image akin to a very wet mosh pit, you've got it about right. Melissa even asked the race organisers if we could have men's and women's waves, but the answer was just 'no' with no good reason. Anyway, after being kicked, punched, swum over and drinking half the duck pond, I got out a mile behind Grace Row-Smith and Melissa, and close behind Kate and Millie Chapman. After a terrible bike mount (there's another thing that needs work) I managed to overtake all of the girls but it wasn't long before I started feeling the previous day's training in the legs and Melissa and Kate proceeded to overtake me and ride far, far away into the distance. After messing up the second transition as well, I got onto the run and ran reasonably strongly to pass Melissa and finish in 2nd place, though well behind Kate.

Not a bad result and I'm by no means saying I'm unhappy with 2nd - it's more the race preparation and performance I wasn't thrilled at.

The day befor the race I had done roughly an Olympic distance triathlon - after 3km in the pool with the swim squad I was persuaded to participate in the "Launceston 70.3" which entailed another swim in the pool, an hour after the first one, immediately followed by a time trial ride and then a run (45km/8km for me - the guys did 85/20). Then I went to work for five hours and then we headed straight to Latrobe. I felt like the walking dead I was so tired - NOT an ideal race preparation!

So what did I learn? I learnt that if you are going to race, you need to be 100% committed to the race, not just on the day but in the lead-up, and if you're not then you shouldn't bother racing.

I also learnt that you shouldn't just spontaneously join into other people's training just because it will be fun - yes it was, but it trashed me for the race. Yes Johnno, Trent, it appears I really can't have everything! I could have done the Launceston 70.3 and then a long ride and a swim on the Thursday, or I could have ditched the 70.3 and done well in the race, but not both. And given the focus is long course, the former would have been a far better option.

Having said all that, I still intend to race Beauty Point sprint tri this coming Sunday!! At least it's 750/30/5 and I can ride home :)

As an aside to the Latrobe race, it was my last race in the Cycle Torque & Coffee kit. I'm so grateful for the support I've had from the CTC team, for the opportunity to work with them, and all the wonderful people I met along the way. However times change, life changes and new opportunities arise as one has for me and I believe in taking opportunities with both hands.

I am very excited to join the Bike Central team this week. I'm assured I'm going to be turned into a "strong cyclist" which is also exciting, but I'm not sure who has the most work to do - the coach or the student! More training, more learning, as usual! It's going to be a lot more pleasant training on the new Specialized Ruby though. First proper ride on her yesterday - unbelievably comfortable and stable. Love, love, love it.

Speaking of coach and student brings me back to the point I wanted to make earlier.

I have probably waxed lyrical on this topic before but it warrants covering again.

Yesterday I was once again struck by how lucky and priveleged we are in northern Tasmania to have amazingly talented athletes who continually offer us advice, support and help with our own careers and aspirations. The generosity with which they donate their time and skills to further the sports that they love, for no obvious personal gain, continually astounds me. There are many that I have had the pleasure of talking to and training with, who I look up to and respect and hope to continue to work with. I know I'll forget someone here but some that I'd like to recognise include Craig Boon, David Brasher, Trent & Wade Hadley, Peter & Mollie Fraser, Joe Gambles, Rob, Kim & Jenny Gillard, Harvey Griggs, Sharon & Tim Gunton, Casey Mainsbridge, Ben Mather, Mark Matthews, Paul & Peter McKenzie, Mark & Louise Padgett, Paul Turner, Andrew Willis, Jen McMahon & Chris Zehntner.

Thankyou guys for your tireless efforts in either promoting and encouraging young/new sportspeople or for helping raise the bar for those of us who have slightly higher aspirations! That Tasmania punches far above its weight in producing top sportspeople is a reflection on your efforts and I hope that one day I will be able to do for others what you have done for me.

The start of a new season

I must make an effort to continue my blog because despite my 2011 worlds campaign being well and truly over, my career as a triathlete certainly is not... and all pro triathletes have blogs. So, I'll pretend to be one until I make it :)
It's been fairly well noted that I have had some setbacks since returning from America. I had two lazy weeks off after the race and then decided I would get back into training -well, swimming and riding since my hip was so injured and painful I couldn't run a step - so I didn't lose all of that hard earned fitness and could build on it for my next big race, the national long course championship at Falls Creek in February.
Of course you always feel terribly unfit when getting back into training but after a week and a half I was just starting to enjoy it again when I got knocked off my bike. One day in hospital and a couple more doing nothing at all, then gym only for about a week until I could start swimming again, and another few days until I got back on the bike.  Then it was back into unstructured training to just see how the body went along, and of course the fact that I didn't have any spare time to sit down and write a training program out (too much Christmas shopping to do! -oh and working 40hrs a week doesn't help either!)
December 11 was our first tri of the season at Beauty Point. It was a sprint distance race, 750m/20km/5km and because I couldn't run, I teamed up with "Dan the Man" Van der Vlist and entered the team category. We were called "Team Bike Crash" because his injuries from a bike crash prevented him from swimming and running.
I came out of the water with Melissa which I classed as a good swim for me, and then headed out onto the bike course into a stiff headwind. I still clocked about 35 minutes which is an improvement on last year's times (the BMC may have something to do with this) and an average of about 32km/h. Melissa, Kate, Hannah and I all rode within less than 30 seconds of each other. It was hard to watch the race draw to a conclusion without the power to be able to do anything about it though and I resolved: no more triathlons unless I can do the whole thing!

Of course Christmas is always the worst enemy of athletes, or at least ones with lots of family who like to cook, like me. It means time off training for travelling around various family members, lots of sitting around lazily, and far too much eating - especially bad foods!
I did get away with a couple of short rides and a short run on Christmas day though, and I have no one but myself to blame for eating too much Christmas pudding and chocolates.
It was back to work straight after Christmas and an attempt to quickly put together some training for the Bridport Olympic. The physio's advice was, don't even think about doing the Olympic distance due to my hip. However, always one to go against the best advice, I decided that as I managed to run for an hour a few days before the race, I would enter.
Lucky I did.
The Bridport water was beautiful although slightly choppy on the morning, which probably helped me come out of the water a little ahead of those who are good smooth water swimmers but find those kind of conditions a little daunting. After the first lap I was touching the feet of Paul Turner, which told me that either Tex was having a terrible day, or I was having a very good one. It was a bit of both, and Tex did pick up the pace when he saw me there, but I was stoked to come out with Steve Muir and just ahead of Roger Butorac.
Onto the bike and again a slight headwind on the way out but that made the return journey nice and fast. 1hr 9 minutes for the 40km - an average of 33.8km/h - and less than a minute behind Hannah, who wasn't going to run, so I had to be happy with that.
The run would be the test with very few k's in the legs beforehand. I could feel it - just heavy in the legs from being out of practice - but I still ran 43-something which was a nice surprise. It hurt though!
I was stoked to take my first Tassie win.

I had a huge training camp planned for the remainder of the week, while we would stay at Bridport with no work or distractions. But ironically I ended up spending three days completely motionless - the only thing I improved was my tan.
By the time real life resumed there was barely enough time to scrape together a few sessions to tide me through to the next race, especially considering all my old school friends decided to come to town for time out from their glamourous mainland lives, and socialised for a change.
Perhaps this relaxed, improvised start to 2012 training is doing something good for me, because I chalked up my second win of the season, first state series win and first triathlon State Championship on Sunday at Seven Mile Beach.
Now sprint distance is certainly not my forte and I went into it knowing that I would have to have the race of my life to beat Kate Pedley, so I was a bit nervous.
The start was late, the water was cold, but at least it was calm - never been taught how to swim in the surf! Also because there were so many people (many mainlanders seeking selection for the sprint worlds in NZ this year) we were impromtu-ely split into two waves - men and women. This worried me as I knew I wouldn't have any feet to draft off! Sure enough just after the first buoy I came into the lead which initially surprised me but was quite good fun.  I weaved my way through the tail-end males and managed to hit ALL of the buoys, which just proves how unco I am! Or that I have good aim?!
Unfortunately Hannah couldn't race so it was quite a novelty to come out of the water first. I passed Johnno in T1 (he was putting on his socks!) and hit the bike course with Dan Van der Vlist. Usually he speeds away from me but we played cat and mouse from a legal distance for the entire ride. There was a fair bit of drafting going on - partly due to the numbers on such a small course I suppose, but although it sucks, if you actually drop back like you're supposed to, it's not unavoidable. Anyway that aside, I came off the bike just ahead of Dan and decided I was going to have a lightning fast transition because I needed all the time I could get between me and Kate. But I was shaking so much it was hard to put my shoes on!
Once out on the run course I had to really try to calm my breathing down and try to settle into some kind of sustainable rhythym. At every turn I could see Kate running, much faster than me, catching me very quickly... but I thought about what Hannah had told me, if you believe you can win, you can.... and I did! I managed to hold Kate off, by maybe a minute or so, but it definitely took all of my resolve, and I did not relax until the finish chute. My lack of running really meant had to push myself harder than I thought possible, because I wanted to the win very badly. Not least because the prize was a $500 travel voucher which will come in handy for the worlds :) Because of that I really felt proud of myself at the end of the race.

I would like to thank mum, dad and Johnno for taking me down south and supporting me, my sponsors Cycle Torque, EFM and Harvey Griggs, Tri South for the race & Andrew Jones for the prize, everyone who competed and volunteered, Riverside swim squad for helping me with my swim, and Hannah for coming and cheering despite not being able to race.Your support means the world to me!

Latrobe sprint is next on the 26th of Jan. What a great start to 2012 - let's keep it going.

ITU Long Distance World Championships Las Vegas/Henderson 2011 Race Report

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36447717/ITU%20Long%20Distance%20World%20Championships%20Las%20Vegas%202011%20Race%20Report.pdf


eek sorry about before, little technical hiccup there, I hate computers. But thanks to the lovely Julie we now have race report published to the net :)

Build training done

Well it's been a while since my last post but I don't think anybody is really reading my blog anyway so I'm sure that won't matter.
Some more amazing performances from Australian triathletes over the weekend - particularly Crowie, Kona title #3 (2wks after winning 70.3 world champs in Vegas). He is actually entered in the ITU long course as well so in a month's time I'll be able to say 'I've raced on the same course at the same time as a 3x Ironman world champion'.
That's right the countdown is on, less than a month to go and I'm already nervous. I shouldn't be, as Johnno assures me that no one who has supported me has done so with the intention of me winning - more to go for the experience. But I definitely don't want to let anyone down after so many have invested stacks of money, time, help and in-kind donations in this campaign.
However no matter what happens on race day I have already gained stacks out of the last 7 months. I have improved my swim a lot, thanks to Trent & the Riverside squad - still a lot of room for improvement though. I would like to get my 4km under an hour within the next year or so.
Bike, yes that's improved too, no special formula there just getting out on the road as much as possible. Time on the bike is the most important thing when you've only been riding a few years, but in the coming year I will have to put in actual hard workouts to improve! Oh and the CTC BMC and the (re)Tardiz - they help :) I still get amazed by the bikes on the pro Ironman women field though - they're riding 180km in the time it takes me to do 120!
Run, that's probably gone backwards in the last 6 months, but my thinking was that no matter how hard I trained for it I'd probably only better my time by a couple of minutes, and I had more to gain in the other two sports. So next year it will need a big focus to cut 10 - 15 minutes of my marathon time.

This weekend was my last in the final "Build" training block. It involved sandwiching a crazy workday Saturday between a fish shop ride with intervals and a 2hr hilly run, and yesterday pumping out 4 x 30km TT on the bike (Rosevears - Bridgenorth - Exeter - Rosevears) and a 15 min run off the bike (mother nature did her best to put a dampener on things but I wasn't having my last major training day ruined, it just ended up with an extremely long rest interval in the middle of the day - but if the cricketers break for lunch why can't i?)
So that means this week is a rest  & test week... resting is always harder than training! But I am going to have to get used to it if I want to be fresh on race day.
Well that will do me for today, just a short one! Maybe some more tomorrow :)

Big Day

Well the weather gods certainly smiled on my Big Day training session on Saturday.
Basically Big Day is a "dress rehearsal" for the race - only it wasn't "dress" because I haven't got my team uniform yet! Oh, and you get to have a break between disciplines, which was nice after the swim but probably a disadvantage after the ride.
So the day started at 4.30am as this will be the time I get up for the actual race. That was an early start! I practiced my race breafast - porridge with honey, protein powder and peanut butter (not as gross as it sounds), a cup of tea and an Up&Go. Listened to some music, made up all my drink bottles and packed the car... and fed the dog and emptied the dishwasher which hopefully I won't have to do on race day!
The biggest struggle of the morning was getting Johnno out of bed (just kidding baby ;) ) and on the way to the pool I kind of rememberd I had forgotten to organise with anyone that we were going to be there (as it's before opening hours) so thanks Anne for letting us in :)
After 2.5km the swim seemed to be going on for ever but eventually the 3.5km signal came from the end of the pool and I was able to put a bit extra in for the last 500m. I was a bit disappointed though that my time came up as 1 hour 8 minutes 22 seconds - every time I do a 4km TT it takes 1 hour 8 minutes to the minute - never any faster!
Sharon and Tim Gunton put in a great effort to swim about 2.5km but Dan Van der Vlist was the star of the show, swimming 1km further than he ever has before and making the whole 4km in 1 hour 20 minutes. Awesome.
Then it was time for a snack and a sit down. At 9 we met Dan and his two friends Chris and Tim in the car park and we set off on the ride portion of the day in cool but sunny conditions and NO WIND! For once! It was great. I must've looked a complete fool in the (re)Tardiz helmet with my TT bike going through town, but it was great once we got to some of the big downhills and the flats. The course was Rocherlea - Karoola - Pipers River - Pipers Brook - Lebrina - Scottsdale - Bridport. With the exception of the Fingerpost hill out of Rocherlea, all the way to Lebrina was fairly fast though undulating. The big hills between Lebrina and Scottsdale were the killers! Scottsdale to Bridport was also fast despite the reasonable headwind. Johnno did aid stations at Pipers Brook and Scottsdale which was extremely helpful (probably more helpful than all the photos he took of me suffering).
At Bridport I was tempted to ride up and down the street a few times to make the Garmin say 120km as it was only sitting on 116.6. But not too tempted. Plus, the requested chocolate milk was waiting...
After that and a jam sandwich, mixing around in my stomach with E3, Gatorade, Gu chomps and apricot bites from the ride, I felt like I was about to vomit, so luckily there was a break between legs as I needed a lie down in the sun.
Johnno went to do reconnaissance of the run course - to check it was possible to run the loop I wanted to run - and when he got back we decided to set off immediately after a 45min rest instead of the 90 minutes stipulated by Joe Friel in The Triathlete's Training Bible and Your Best Triathlon (currently on loan from the generous Suse Dowling).
Sharon and Tim did a great job to run 10km off their own bike ride, but the boys were out for the count - the hills had broken them!
Johnno decided to run the first lap with me which was lucky or I would've walked it all I think, especially the hills. As I said to him "I didn't know my legs weighed 100kg" - well that's how they felt.
Because I still felt like I would walk, I persuaded Johnno to do lap # 2 with me as well despite the fact that he has a really sore shin :( 13km was up by the end of that lap and he was out so I had to go it alone. Surprisingly I made it up all the hills without walking, but because it was a trail run with roots and rocks and I had very tired legs (not a good idea) I had a fall or two on that lap. The loop was good though with lots of variety and it certainly made the time go quickly. My legs were feeling back to normal by that stage but I was still running a lot slower than I hope to in the race. I'm hoping that with a taper and some fresh legs, as well as running straight off the bike, I might be able to go a bit faster in Vegas.
The last lap is always easy because you just say to yourself 'one more step = one more step closer to the end'! And sure enough the end arrived before I knew it and I was almost disappointed my Big Day had come to an end. I had really enjoyed it. Possibly more than I enjoyed then getting into the ocean as part of my recovery. I felt like the footballers in the Herald Sun, half naked at St Kilda beach in the middle of winter, shivering. I wasn't half naked but my feet went numb! It was a good move though as it certainly helped my legs feel better.
I had had visions of having to send Johnno to the shop to get tea because I couldn't walk after the day but I actually felt pretty fine. So we went and got stuff for burritos (yum) and champagne to celebrate. Unfortunately I couldn't eat nearly as much as I thought I would want to, and I didn't make great company because I was so tired. I nearly fell asleep at the table before going to bed at about 9pm. (much earlier than usual).
Sunday was the first day I can remember where I did not have ANY training whatsoever to do. And we weren't at home so no housework or anything! A whole day to do nothing?! That never happens!
I couldn't sleep past 7.30 anyway (that's already a 2-2.5hr sleep in from normal) so I got up and ate the leftover burritos for breakfast! Yuck! But I was hungry! Then I enjoyed sitting in the sun for a while with the naughty Maxy dog who had chewed up his lead and a wooden seat during the night.
Turns out we're so unaccustomed to doing nothing that after Dan and Chris left to ride back we had nothing to do but pack up, clean the shack and head home to unpack and do the washing etc! Boring!
Hopefully the two days of perfect weather don't mean that to balance out we're in for weeks of rain now.
Anyhow it was a great weekend, I was stoked with how Saturday went (with the small exception of my lack of run speed) and it was a great confidence booster for the race. The nutrition plan went well except for stomach cramps etc on the run, which is pretty usual for me, and may have been caused by the chocolate milk which won't be a factor in the race.
My recovery went heaps better than I'd expected, barely any leg soreness or general fatigue at all yesterday. Kind of freaked me out actually. Like all obsessive Type A triathletes I love a little bit of soreness to remind you that you've worked hard, you're gaining fitness and you've earned a day off. When you feel fine, a day off seems lazy!
Also, now that the Big Day is over, it seems a heck of a lot closer to Race Day, which makes me a little nervous. I'm more excited than nervous I suppose as I feel like I will be prepared and am really happy with how the training has gone. But everywhere I look people are talking up the Vegas course like it's the hardest thing ever (see latest Triathlete magazine for good example). Even Joe Gambles said there's not a flat spot on it. And the wind is supposed to be hideous. If that's not enough to make you nervous, what is? But, I guess everyone has to face the same course and conditions, and you can only do the best with what you have on the day. So we'll see.
Three hard weeks of training to go... two taper weeks... and race 'week' 5 days. So down to 5 weeks 5 days. I had been avoiding that countdown, but there it is.
Hope you all enjoyed the lovely weather and got some good training in too. :) Til next time, Holz