It’s Sunday as I write, sitting on my flight heading back to Noosa. The plan is to have a big couple of days riding some of the course again. I will be joined by fellow Thrive team members and UltraMan 2020 athletes Markcus Brown & Chris Pye a little mini training camp. Jase was planning on being there with us but has arrived back from New Zealand a little under the weather, so he didn’t get to make the trip. We will also be joined by former Thrive member Becca Fellows who is visiting AUS from the UK, she was part of the UltraMan crew in 2018 when Jase completed the event. The plan is to ride approx. 12 hours over Tuesday and Wednesday, and then back it up with a long run on Thursday. It will be interesting to see how the legs and butt cope. I haven’t talked about how my butt is coping, wasn’t really sure anyone would be interested, but incase you are concerned about my posterior, it’s been going okay. starting to get a bit over all the long rides, but coping. In preparation for the big rides coming up, I have done very little cycling this week. There has been more of a focus on running, I have had my biggest run week to date, this week I have completed 61kms. My run training still consists of interval sessions, 1km run and 100m walk, all within an easy Heart Rate Zone 2, this seems to be working for me, and fingers crossed I stay injury free. My longest run is still only 20km, but Saturday was another double run day, 20km in the morning and then another 11 km in the afternoon. I felt great after my 20km morning run, and could have easily kept going, promising signs, as come race day, I would still have another 64km to run, that sounds freaking crazy when you think about it, well crazy to me anyway. I mean who thinks of these distances and why is It that people like me want to complete them? Well I have already told you my reasons why I want to complete this epic event but when I stop long enough to think about it, as I said before, it sounds freaking crazy!! Best I not stop and think about it anymore. When I do think about what my biggest fear is for the race, it is still the 10km swim. It is not the distance that has me worried, it’s the open water. I still remember my first open water swim in the lake at Shepparton 6 years ago, I FREAKED OUT, I am sure my reaction was totally hilarious for those swimming with me, it came out of the blue. I honestly was not even concerned about open water swimming, until I jumped in the murky Vic Lake waters and put my head under the water, total panic. I probably resembled a dog being thrown into the water for the first time, panicked and doing a frantic paddle while trying to regain some composure and breath. I did overcome that, and have no problems at all swimming in the lake now, it doesn’t even worry me when completing ocean swims at events, most of those events are with another 1000 people though, Ultraman will see 50 of us with our support paddler spread out over the swim course. I guess my theory at the moment is, that if I verbalise my fears, it will help me to overcome them.
This Weeks Training
My week has been fairly hectic, my current workload has been mentally draining, thankfully my job is not physical as well. I have also had some family issues with Miss 22 being unwell, although she is big enough to care for herself, you never stop worrying about your babies. So luckily my training plan had less hours this week. Monday morning was a 10km run followed by a 4km lake swim in the evening. Tuesday morning a 65km ride, Wednesday morning a 3.1km pool swim in the morning followed by a 13km run in the evening. Thursday morning another 8km run and an indoor bike session that evening. Due to poor sleep on Thursday night, I skipped the swim session Friday morning and didn’t get to squeeze it in at all. Saturday was my double run day, total of 31km completed for the day. Sunday another rest day, flying back to Noosa.
Training Hours – 13
Swim – 7km
Bike – 101km
Run – 62km
Workouts – 0
My Journey To UltraMan 