We had most of our week in Noosa again. I was familiarising myself to the bike and run course. Although I had crewed for Jason in 2018, I really could not remember most of the actual course that was ridden and ran. As a crew member, my job at the time was to keep Jason’s nutrition delivered. Easy right? well not really. Along with Chris and Sarah on Day 1, it was a matter of Chris driving, Sarah navigating and me, preparing the nutrition for the next point that Jason had requested, we very quickly realised that this was not the easy job that we had signed up for. It’s hard to explain exactly why, I guess you have to be there to experience the frenzy that it is. As crew members for Jason, we were lucky that our days were short in comparison to the other crews on course. Jason finished Day 1 (10km swim and 140km bike) in 6:47, Day 2 (281km bike) in 7:52 and Day 3 (84.3km run) in 7:07!! Lightning quick times, I realized on my ride during the week, that my crew are going to be out there for a long time. The cut-off for each day is 12 hours, and while I hope to finish each day before the cut-off, the reality is, it is going to be a hell of a long day for everyone. My crew will not only have to make sure that I have the nutrition that I need on the course but will need to make sure they themselves are fed and hydrated. A small consolation might be that it might not be the mad rush as it was with Jason. In 2018, Sarah would stand a hundred metres behind the parked van, and pass the bidon, with Chris at the van, in-case anything was missed, and me standing 100 metres past the van to pass any food, by the time we gathered back at the van, refilled any bidons, and grabbed the food we needed for the next stop, it was time to get back in and drive to the next handover point. Most of the time we made it to the next location with only minutes to spare. You can probably start to understand the craziness that it was. I am much more understanding; I won’t put the same pressure on my crew…. I will give them much more time between handover points on course….
Week 3
This week I ran a few runs along the course. The 84.3km run is from Noosa to Twin Waters back to Noosa, so is not a flat run course, which I knew, but it hit home more when I actually ran along it, especially coming from Shepparton where you have to drive at least half an hour to find any hills. I need to make sure that I start on my strength program and continue to drive to find those hills. Jason and I rode some of the Day 2 bike course on Thursday, we rode 140km with a total of 1600m of elevation, which took me just under 6 hours to complete. I didn’t quite make it up one of the climbs and had to walk the last 200m to the top, I think it was a combination of bonking and not having enough gears on the bike, the temperature and humidity were quite high, and I am sure I was dehydrated due to the sweating. I also need to change the cassettes on my bike to a 34 on the front and a 30/32 on the back. On the day of the actual Ultraman event, I would still have another 140km to ride, although there would only be another 400m of elevation. So, with the accumulated fatigue in my legs, some dehydration, wrong gearing and very high temperatures, it made for a very long bike ride, again finding myself questioning if I can actually achieve this. When we arrived in Eumundi, (20km from home) I would have easily jumped in an UBER to get home, I say that at the time, but I know how disappointed I would have been with myself if I actually did. I can tell you that by the time we rode back to Noosa, showered, ate, rested, ate again, rested and ate again it was time for bed. I wasn’t quite sure how my legs would recover from the ride, but I woke up the next morning and completed my run. My legs felt fine. That gave me a HUGE confidence boost, I know I can still do this. We arrived back at Shepparton on Saturday, completed a quick swim, and went over to Violet Town to ride some hills on Sunday. We have been lucky to be in Queensland the past 10 days, so I have not realised how smoky it has been here in Victoria, even though the haze wasn’t that bad on Sunday, once we stopped riding you could definitely feel the scratchiness in your throat. So, I am crossing my fingers and hoping that it won’t be too bad this week.
Week 3
Swim – 8.3 km
Bike – 294 km
Run – 34.6 km
Gym Sessions – 0
Training Hours 19:00
Lesson Learned: Stay hydrated and fed
My Journey To UltraMan 