The weeks are rushing by at the moment. Before I know it 2 weeks have passed before I have even blinked. It has been a emotional couple of weeks. Mum called last Thursday to say Dad was back in hospital with a mild stroke. Thankfully he didn't sustain any further complications to his speech and walking. Its tough for everyone at the moment because he is struggling to deal with the fact he can hardly walk, has trouble speaking and doing routine tasks such as getting dressed require Mum's assistance. He is very frustrated and depressed about it all. I am trying to be positive for him, but I wish I could make things better and back to normal for him again. Each time I see him and go to say goodbye he gets every emotional. He often says "you be careful riding your bike I am worried you are going to have an accident." This all weighs on my mind heavily but when I am out training and it gets hard I think of him and it encourages me to push through it.
My thoughts are also with the people in NZ after the earthquake, it is a reminder that life is prescious and we must make that most of everyday and let those closest to us know how loved they are.
Week 16- This week marks the start of a month bike build for me. Four bike rides a week for me are on the program. The Wednesday morning squad ride was loops around the uni. In order to to ride for 2 hours I start the day with a roll down the hill from home. Friday morning session is windtrainer ( big chain ring front and smallest on the back maintaining cadence about 60). The main squad were doing 4 mins speed work followed by run off the bike. Long course people are given some reprieve if you can call it that with a run off the bike on only 2 out of the 6 sets!! A tought little session that still hurts.
I had a nice 2 hour ride on Saturday morning with Kate and then close to 4 hours on Sunday out to Redcliffe. The day was really hot and we bumped in to Alicia and Sarah at the C Word coffee shop at Nundah, so I left my ride home through hills a bit late in the day. By 10:30 it was nearly 30 Degrees!!! A total of 185kms ridden for the 1st week of bike focus and 9 hours on the bike.
Week 17- I woke up on Monday with a really sore neck and feeling flat. I thought the sore neck may have been caused by building up extra time on the bike so I am going to get bike fit checked again also. I was supposed to do core and boxing however a big storm hit Brisbane that afternoon so I went home. I woke up on Tuesday feeling really flat and wasn't able to train in the morning. I could barely move off the couch. I took the day off work and went and got a massage to try and sort the neck out. I think I may have had some bug as I was also running a fever as well. I decided to give Wednesday morning cycling a miss and still wasn't feeling great. I swam on Wednesday night and thankfully it was only a easy 2km session.
Thursday morning I was feeling heaps better I of course wasn't going to miss Robson's Thursday morning run!! Whilst I tried to take it a bit easy I was starting to feel better and put in a good solid session for the 400metre efforts around the gardens. At the end of the session we did a 1km time trial and I managed 4min:21sec quite comfortably without pushing too hard. Thursday night in the pool was also tough although my swim focus is starting to pay off. Bronny had us doing 50/100 metre repeats on 1 minute/2 minutes I was comfortably holding 47-49secs for 50s and got down to 1:39 for the last 100. When I first started swimming it would have been a push for me to hold 1 50 on a minute!!!
I finished the week with another windtrainer session and 2hr ride on Saturday morning. I caught up with some friends for coffee. My friends Alicia and Sarah are racing their 1st IM at NZ next weekend. They are feeling really positive and ready to race. I can't wait to watch them at Taupo it will be great motivation for my race later in the year.
I had a short sprint distance race out at Raby Bay on Sunday. I was feeling very tired as I had been to a hens night and didn't get to bed until nearly 11. I didn't drink but the late night coupled with lovely munchies for dinner ( homemade cupcakes and carmel slice weren't the best preparation for my race-oh well its all about balance in life and there is life outside triathlon too!!!)
The race was a 400/15/4. I came out of the water in 7th place and took a minute off my time over that swim course from last year. My bike felt solid as well and I pushed hard to make sure I kept my avg pace over 30km/hr. Again a solid bike for me 28:30 rack to rack, giving me the 10th fastest bike split. Things started to unravel for me in the run. My legs felt heavy and it was a real struggle. I got passed by 3 girls in run. A by product of the swim and cycle focus is that I haven't been doing much running and not much speed work. I only started to feel better in the last 4km ( seems I need 10kms to warm up these days!!!) I spoke to one of our coaches Suz after the race( Suz has also raced a number of IM's) She reassured me that it is normal to feel sluggish and slow whilst training for longer races as the body is used to racing at lower intensities. Whilst the run felt bad I actually ended up with 20:10 which is just over 5 mins/km ( I was happy with this as 12 months ago I would have been pleased to hold 6 min /kms) Overall 9th place out of 45 girls so I was happy with that. When we have a bad day its easy to beat ourselves up, but I always look back on the journey and how far I have come over the past 2 years. It is important to remember that in the end its supposed to be fun!!
Me and my support team my hubby Brett
Belinda and Brett
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
17 weeks- BTS Camp and more swimming
The weeks are flying by. I have just finished my last week of swim focus. At first I was not over joyed at the thought of swimming 6 times a week but I have actually enjoyed it.
I swam 3.5km on Monday night with Brett's squad Red Dog and then another 3.4km on Tuesday night. A good start to the week. I swam an easy 2kms on Wednesday night ( I was feeling a bit tired after the bike on Wednesday morning).
Queensland finally turned on some beautiful summer weather for our squad training camp at Mooloolaba over the weekend. I awoke at 4:30am on Saturday morning and cycled along the coast line from Maroochydore to Alex Headlands. What a lovely start to the day, I couldn't help but think how lucky I was to have the opportunity to enjoy such a day. I then met the group for a transitions session at Mooloolaba. Of course coffee was a must after our training session.
I love the social side of triathlon and the great people I have meet along the way. Everybody has different motivations, journeys and goals but is so great to spend a weekend in the fresh air with a awesome bunch of people.
At lunch time we has a short swim session. My 6 times a week swimming was starting to pay off as I felt strong as we did short sprint efforts.
Saturday afternoon I chilled out read the paper and had a nice nap before and 50 min easy run along the coast line.
Sunday morning was another early start and ocean swim across the Mooloolaba course. My new found strength in swimming came back to bite me with coach Mark insisting I swim out and back across the course about 2.2km. Again it felt good although I was a little scared at the thought of sharks around so I stuck to the feet of Ray and Leigh like glue on the way across!!.
We then did a 2hr30 ride ( approx 75km) out towards Noosa. Another great way to spend a Sunday morning.
As my first month of IM training comes to a close, I am ready for next challenge of building my bike fitness. Bike has never been my strongest point however with four rides a week scheduled for the next month I am going to improve I am sure. Whilst the thought of the whole IM program and race can be very overwhelming I have found it better to break it down on focus on short term goals. Everything will come together in time.
I swam 3.5km on Monday night with Brett's squad Red Dog and then another 3.4km on Tuesday night. A good start to the week. I swam an easy 2kms on Wednesday night ( I was feeling a bit tired after the bike on Wednesday morning).
Queensland finally turned on some beautiful summer weather for our squad training camp at Mooloolaba over the weekend. I awoke at 4:30am on Saturday morning and cycled along the coast line from Maroochydore to Alex Headlands. What a lovely start to the day, I couldn't help but think how lucky I was to have the opportunity to enjoy such a day. I then met the group for a transitions session at Mooloolaba. Of course coffee was a must after our training session.
I love the social side of triathlon and the great people I have meet along the way. Everybody has different motivations, journeys and goals but is so great to spend a weekend in the fresh air with a awesome bunch of people.
At lunch time we has a short swim session. My 6 times a week swimming was starting to pay off as I felt strong as we did short sprint efforts.
Saturday afternoon I chilled out read the paper and had a nice nap before and 50 min easy run along the coast line.
Sunday morning was another early start and ocean swim across the Mooloolaba course. My new found strength in swimming came back to bite me with coach Mark insisting I swim out and back across the course about 2.2km. Again it felt good although I was a little scared at the thought of sharks around so I stuck to the feet of Ray and Leigh like glue on the way across!!.
We then did a 2hr30 ride ( approx 75km) out towards Noosa. Another great way to spend a Sunday morning.
As my first month of IM training comes to a close, I am ready for next challenge of building my bike fitness. Bike has never been my strongest point however with four rides a week scheduled for the next month I am going to improve I am sure. Whilst the thought of the whole IM program and race can be very overwhelming I have found it better to break it down on focus on short term goals. Everything will come together in time.
Monday, February 7, 2011
18 weeks- More Swimming/ Sprint Race
Started the week feeling a little tired from the driving out to Gundy on the weekend. Thankfully I had rest and night off swimming monday night.
Tuesday night was my first 800 time trial ( normally swim in the little kids session, but up graded to the big kids session and the 50 metre pool. I am starting to feel more comfortable in the water. I managed my TT in 14:20 which I was happy enough with.
Wednesday morning was a squad ride, along the corso. We encountered a bit of rain and mixed with the remaining mud from the floods on the road I looked like had been mountain biking by the end of the session. Brett was not happy to see me get into the car covered in all the muck after I spent and a lot of money the previous weekend getting the inside of the car cleaned. Oh well...
Another swim Wednesday night and another time trial. This time a 400 metre. I was feeling a bit tired from the night before but managed a 7 sec PB of 6:42.
Thursday morning was my favourite session of the week Robson's run. We did efforts up over the goodwill bridge. That hurt but it is a good feeling. Robson dished out a bit of HTF when I was tempted run back to SouthBank the short way, instead I did a easy 15 min run with Jac E via the Victoria Bridge. Glad I did it.
The week finish with a sprint race at Caloundra. I enjoyed a BBQ with IMNZ and IMOZ crew. The IMNZ and some of the IMOZ people were doing there 200km ride from hell. I was very proud of my friends Sarah and Alicia who knuckled in and got it done. I think the main thing about that ride is that it prepares you mentally for a long day at IM. The girls are going to go so well at IMNZ. I can't wait to be there to cheer them on and gain motivation from their efforts. The ride will be scheduled for me in early May. I am hoping after a good few solid months on the bike I will feel less daunted by this ride.
Race day at Caloundra. It was again pouring with rain. So I was soaked before I even got my bike into transition. The swim was good I felt pretty comfortable but disappointed when I looked at my watch after I stood up on the beach in 8 mins for a 400 metre swim. Everybody was saying the tide was against us and this was confirmed as I still managed the 9th fastest swim in my age group out of 50 girls. The top placed girls were about a minute in front of me so was I was happy with my swim efforts. I managed to avg 32km per hour on the bike even in the pouring rain which gave me a rack to rack time of about 28 mins for the 15km. The run was hard work even though it was only 4kms it still hurt. I managed to sit on 5:05min/km pace for most of the way. Running is not my strong point however 12 months ago I would be doing well to hold 6min km pace so I have come a long way. The funniest thing was I managed to catch up to a girl in the last km. I decided I would have a go at sprint finishing her to the line. That didn't work out so well for me as she beat me over the line by 1 second. Oh well bit of laugh ( I don;t really have much competitive spirit). Overall finished 13th in my age group so happy with that.
See you next week.
Tuesday night was my first 800 time trial ( normally swim in the little kids session, but up graded to the big kids session and the 50 metre pool. I am starting to feel more comfortable in the water. I managed my TT in 14:20 which I was happy enough with.
Wednesday morning was a squad ride, along the corso. We encountered a bit of rain and mixed with the remaining mud from the floods on the road I looked like had been mountain biking by the end of the session. Brett was not happy to see me get into the car covered in all the muck after I spent and a lot of money the previous weekend getting the inside of the car cleaned. Oh well...
Another swim Wednesday night and another time trial. This time a 400 metre. I was feeling a bit tired from the night before but managed a 7 sec PB of 6:42.
Thursday morning was my favourite session of the week Robson's run. We did efforts up over the goodwill bridge. That hurt but it is a good feeling. Robson dished out a bit of HTF when I was tempted run back to SouthBank the short way, instead I did a easy 15 min run with Jac E via the Victoria Bridge. Glad I did it.
The week finish with a sprint race at Caloundra. I enjoyed a BBQ with IMNZ and IMOZ crew. The IMNZ and some of the IMOZ people were doing there 200km ride from hell. I was very proud of my friends Sarah and Alicia who knuckled in and got it done. I think the main thing about that ride is that it prepares you mentally for a long day at IM. The girls are going to go so well at IMNZ. I can't wait to be there to cheer them on and gain motivation from their efforts. The ride will be scheduled for me in early May. I am hoping after a good few solid months on the bike I will feel less daunted by this ride.
Race day at Caloundra. It was again pouring with rain. So I was soaked before I even got my bike into transition. The swim was good I felt pretty comfortable but disappointed when I looked at my watch after I stood up on the beach in 8 mins for a 400 metre swim. Everybody was saying the tide was against us and this was confirmed as I still managed the 9th fastest swim in my age group out of 50 girls. The top placed girls were about a minute in front of me so was I was happy with my swim efforts. I managed to avg 32km per hour on the bike even in the pouring rain which gave me a rack to rack time of about 28 mins for the 15km. The run was hard work even though it was only 4kms it still hurt. I managed to sit on 5:05min/km pace for most of the way. Running is not my strong point however 12 months ago I would be doing well to hold 6min km pace so I have come a long way. The funniest thing was I managed to catch up to a girl in the last km. I decided I would have a go at sprint finishing her to the line. That didn't work out so well for me as she beat me over the line by 1 second. Oh well bit of laugh ( I don;t really have much competitive spirit). Overall finished 13th in my age group so happy with that.
See you next week.
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