So This is 50 – Noosa Life

After I applied for entry into UltraMan 2020, I recall going through so many emotions. When I sent in my application on the 30^th May, I was so excited, memories of the 2018 event that I had crewed for came flooding back. I loved the atmosphere of the event; I had no idea at the time how much of an impact the 3 days would make. The comradery between crew members, the stories we had of our crewing adventures, the craziness of it all, the dedication of the ‘DREAM TEAM’ to make this event happen, and this was my experience, not as an athlete. I wanted to experience the event as the athlete, I wanted to see what my body can achieve. I saw 50 amazing people complete the event in 2018, I heard their stories at presentations, each and every one of them were inspirational. Some waddled up onto the stage to collect their trophies, others had a spring in their step, but they all had that grin on their face. They had all completed the event. As the 30^th June came closer, the day they were going to send out invitations to race, I grew increasingly nervous, ‘what if I don’t get selected’ even though I was fairly confident that I had ticked all the boxes for the required criteria to race. 30^th June came, my email arrived at 9:32 am I quickly opened it, “Congratulations…… we are delighted to extend our official invitation to race UltraMan” wow, finally confirmation, the feeling of relief was very quickly surpassed by the butterflies that had started to move around in my stomach. Then, I think I started to lose some colour in my face, the reality of the distances that were required to finish the event started to hit home. What have I done! Emotionally I had been on a huge roller coaster ride, and I hadn’t even started training yet! Thankfully I have a great coach/partner, who after completing the event in 2018, knows what it takes to get to that finish line, now to remain injury free.

Week 5

This week I swam with the Noosa Tri Club, the swim squad sessions have been fantastic, it’s great to be pushed that little bit more, I think I have been too comfortable swimming back at home, and not pushing myself, it’s very easy when you are swimming by yourself to grab the pool buoy every now and then, when I know I don’t need it. I also never swim to the clock, I swim to my watch, so, a 10 second break can quite easily become a 20 second break. The swim set also goes quickly. I am definitely enjoying these sessions. I still need to get back into the open water here at Noosa, if not this trip, maybe in March when I come back this way.

My calf has felt great this week, I had 7 days off running last week, along with some acupuncture and this seems to have done the trick. So, I have been back to running along the course. The run course makes it way behind Coolum and there are some steep climbs along the route. I made my way there during the week to walk these, and I am sure that come UltraMan weekend I will be walking them again. I am comfortable with that, I know what my limits are, I am not going to be setting record pace for the double marathon, my goal is to complete the event. This week I have done some more riding along the course, I think my legs are getting stronger with the hill work. My 6 hour ride on Sunday had me going back to the climb that I ended up walking up 2 weeks ago, I was a little anxious about doing this ride again, by myself. I contemplated turning around at the halfway point, just before the climb, and riding back the way I came, but I was determined in the end to make the climb. The temperature was not as hot or as humid as it was 2 weeks ago, I also made sure I was hydrated and started my nutrition earlier on the ride. Happy to report that I made the climb! It really wasn’t even as hard as it was 2 weeks earlier, which confirms my suspicions that I was dehydrated and hadn’t had enough to eat the first time. All in all a great week of training. 

Week 5

Swim – 10 km

Bike – 309 km

Run – 37.7 km

Strength/Core sessions – 1

Training Hours – 21 Hours

Lesson Learned: Persistence Pays Off