It’s pretty obvious how overdue this blog post is; I think
I’ve been avoiding it in case it jinxes me! It seems every time I wrote that
things were going well, I’d come down with another injury. But it’s time to
break the voodoo. Here’s what I’ve been up to since the start of 2014:
January – Still out of action with a stressy, I was
heartbroken to pull out of two events I’ve desperately wanted to do for a long
time: the Albany Half in WA and Sufferfest in Warrnambool, Vic.
Mid-January I finally started to “run” again for the first
time since October. My first run consisted of one lap of an oval followed by
one lap walking. Then a day off. The next day: two laps. Two days later: three
laps. You can imagine how frustratingly slow that went. What a battle! But I
was determined to do things properly.
March – I nervously flew/drove myself to Bateman’s Bay in
southern NSW for my first ever Challenge Family event and my first race in 5
months. With names like Granger, Wu and Vodickova competing, I was more than a
little nervous that I’d bitten off more than I could chew. But I came out of
the swim mid-field and put in a solid ride on a testing (but beautiful) bike
course to be sixth out of T2. I quickly discovered that 8 weeks of run-walking
was not enough to get me through a fast half marathon off a pretty brutal bike,
so made the tough decision to take my first ever DNF at the 8km mark.
It wasn’t a disappointing result because I knew I had made
the right decision for my body at the time, and now I would have time to go
home and prepare well for the Karri Valley Triathlon a fortnight later – or so
I thought.
When I got home I came down with some kind of virus that
made me lethargic, unenergetic and unmotivated for the entire fortnight. I
packed up the bike and headed to WA hoping simply to have a fun weekend.
I got that in spades, thanks to Team Latitude and the
Stadium Triathlon Club, who invited us over for this intriguing,
1.5km/60km/12km race in the middle of remote south-western WA. No phone,
internet or TV for three days – we actually had to talk to each other! Race day
rolled around and it was truly Tasmanian – freezing cold, windy and pelting
rain. Bizarrely it was a non-wetsuit swim for the elite competitors due to the
mild water temperature of the fresh-water Lake Beedelup. Unfortunately after
that a number of people came down with hypothermia, but I was literally in my
element. I managed to hold off UCI Time Trial world champion and Olympian Emma
Pooley for half of the bike leg which I thought was a pretty cool! Then I
decided to do a gumby and stack it on the way into transition. (Yes there was
about 30cm of water covering the roads). I couldn’t compete with the little
pocket rocket or local girl Katey Gibb who both smoked the “tough mudder” run
course. Still, even to finish a 12km run was a small win.
The after party was as good as promised, and thanks to the
Team Lat boys I had an absolute blast.
April – Flew home for 2 ½ days, did a load of washing, slept
through a couple of lectures and then jetted off home to Tassie to participate
in my best friend’s wedding. Having no bike for 5 days was a form of Chinese
water torture, but I did run a sneaky 17.5km on wedding day ;) Wedding was
perfect; travel was a nightmare. Finally got back to Adelaide for three days –
enough time to repack the bag, squeeze in a rare workday and then fly to Sydney
for a family event.
Afterwards I took the opportunity to make the most of
mid-semester break and Easter public holidays, and head up to Ballina-Byron to
hang out with the great people of Aeromax team. It was a solid week of
training, sightseeing and fun in a beautiful location. I don’t know why I took
all my textbooks because I don’t think they got opened, but I wouldn’t change
that experience for the world! It’s pretty awesome to see how the top guys do
what they do.
I did promise myself I’d hit the books back in Adelaide in
the second week of the “non contact study period”, but the temptation to put in
another good week of training for Busselton Ironman 70.3 was too much.
May - After the usual stressful dramas of travelling on your own,
I met up with one of the aforementioned Aeromax legends, Polly Mosely, in Perth and we
road tripped down to Busselton. From then on life was made extremely easy by
the best host family ever (and incidentally owners of the best bike shop ever,
Busselton’s Fat Duck Cycles), the Townsends, who housed me, fed me, drove me
around and generally looked after/entertained me for four days.
Busselton is a fantastic race venue and I thoroughly agree
with the general consensus that it’s one of the best 70.3s on the Asia-Pac
circuit (in my limited experience). Race day dawned as perfect as it possibly
could be, not a breath of wind, cool and overcast. If I hadn’t been abusing
myself for being such a useless swimmer, I would have really enjoyed a swim
which could easily have been in an aquarium with crystal clear water!
Unfortunately my lack of swimming skills put me on the back
foot immediately and a 3 min deficit was too much to make up on the bike. I
rode hard, on my own, all day and finished with the fourth fastest bike split
which got me incredibly close to the bunch but not quite on it by the time we
hit T2. I could hear the commentator calling Belinda Granger and a couple of
the other girls onto the run course while I was putting on my shoes and socks,
which lifted my spirits as I knew I wasn’t far behind!
I was surprised to find myself running reasonably, despite having a kind of numbness/pins and needles sensation in my left calf and foot for the entire run except about the last 3km! Didn’t seem to slow me down,
it just felt weird. I was pretty resigned to the fact Polly would overtake me,
but I was determined to hold off the other girls behind me. Because it’s three
laps of a 7km course I got to see the girls each turn and was surprised/pleased
to see they weren’t gaining too much.
It was just a little disappointing to cross the line and
find I’d finished 7th – one spot off the podium. Unfortunately,
later the fourth placed female was disqualified for taking a wrong turn on the
bike course – there’s a lesson there for all of us! This meant that I did get
to stand on the podium and win a little bit of prize money, in less than ideal
circumstances.
In reality, I didn’t have too much to be disappointed about
– I was angry to be so far behind in the swim, but it was a PB time – given the
conditions though, that was to be expected. My bike was good, but if I’d been
with the group instead of on my own, it could have been better. I ran a 1.32
half marathon – about three minutes quicker than I’ve run in a 70.3 before.
Again, given the conditions and the fast course that was to be expected – but
it was the first time I’ve run 21.1km since October! So yes while there are lots
of improvements to be made, it was an encouraging return to racing.
Now it’s time to go home to recover, catch up on my studies
and then learn how to swim before Cairns – must improve on 6th!
A quick but sincere thankyou to everybody for their support.
The Townsends were just an incredible help and support crew for me; Paul
Zuromski from the Dive Shack and Snorkel Safari Adelaide organised me a new
Orca Alpha 1.5 wetsuit within a couple of days so I’d have it to race in in
Busselton. As usual, Jason is my rock, and my family and friends inspire me to
do what I do. Thanks to Polly and Bec
for driving me to and from Busso. I’d also like to thank Robbo, Gilesy and the
Aeromax team for being so fun, friendly and giving me an awesome week of
training in the lead-up.
Til next time… and I promise it won’t be six months away!!
H xx
