Tag: realfoodathlete

So This is 50 – The Training Must Go On

With under 8 weeks to go now until UltraMan and events falling over like dominoes, I plan to keep going with my training. There is no word of the event cancellation as yet, so I will keep a positive head. After all, if I was not training for an event, I would still be heading out for a ride or a run, maybe not over the distances I have been doing, but none the less still getting out. 

As mentioned last week, a few of us headed to Noosa for a mini training camp. With the weather forecast to be miserable over those days, we crossed our fingers and toes, and hoped for the best. 

I was joined by Chris Pye and Markcus Brown who are both Thrive Endurance members and also UltraMan 2020 wannabees. Becca Fellows from the UK also joined us for a couple of days. I arrived on Sunday in Noosa, as it was a planned rest day it didn’t matter that the weather was already bleak, miserable and raining. Monday, Markcus arrived, a little later than planned with his plane unable to land in Maroochydore due to the terrible conditions, the plane headed back south to Brisbane to land, and he was bussed back to Maroochydore. We planned on heading out to the Noosa Main Beach for a 4km swim, but due to large swells and rips we only achieved 400m!!! It was only after getting out of the water that we noticed the sign advising against getting in the water at all. Tuesday, we planned to ride 4 hours of Day 1 course, the day didn’t start off so well, with Chris breaking his chain about 5km into our ride. His claims of too much power being the cause fell on deaf ears. With Chris being rescued by his forever patient and understanding wife Sarah, we headed back out on the course, planning to catch him out there. We copped a big downpour just after leaving him, which made waiting for him uncomfortable as we started to shiver, so we headed off without him after he encouraged us to go on. Wednesday, we had a 7 ½ hour ride planned, with Day 2 Bike course in our sights. We adjusted the route to what we thought could be achieved in the time. Chris, Markcus and I headed out, with me quickly being dropped on the first climb and losing sight of them, as I had taken the course route with the boys taking a shortened loop to get to our first town. We were having the best conditions of the few days, not a drop of rain in sight. About 80km into my ride, the boys rode up behind me, they had taken another route again, so we had finally met up, with the boys grabbing my coffee order as they passed me just as we hit the climb 10km before Kenilworth. It is only a 3km climb, with a maximum gradient of 9.7% and average of 6.1% but coming at approximately 160km into the ride on Race day, it will hurt. I arrived at Kenilworth just as my soy latte hit the table, and just as Markcus and Chris took their first bite of a Kenilworth Bakery doughnut. I don’t know about you, but there is no way my stomach could bear the thought of a cream filled doughnut. I opted for a vegetarian pizza bread slice instead, I was not fuelling as I normally would for a long ride, I had grabbed a handful of the cliff bars, as I was unable to make my normal rice cakes or nut balls, and my stomach was not feeling the best, there is only so many cliff bars you can eat, I found that my limit is 5. I was also fuelled by my infinit carbohydrate mix and coconut water, which I was finding hard to swallow by the end of the ride, I felt like I had overloaded my tastebuds with sweetness. We headed back out on the course, with me waving the boys off to go ahead, I didn’t need the pressure of trying to stay on their wheel, I knew the way, and they were only a phone call away if needed. The winds had really picked up by this stage, at first, I wasn’t sure if it was a residual effect of the doughnuts the boys had eaten, but realised it wasn’t given they were a fair distance in front of me. When I hit the David Low Way, the winds were at my back, and I enjoyed an awesome tail wind for most of the 40km home, what a great way to finish off my 180km day. Wednesday, we woke again to the sound of pelting rain, but thankfully it stopped just as we headed out on our 2hour run. We copped another downpour during the run, which was probably a welcome relief really, I got back about 5 minutes before Markcus, and sat down on a ledge while waiting, and Oh My Lord, my buttocks were on fire, so decided it was best to not sit down for too long. We quickly headed back to the house packed our bags, and headed to the airport, arriving back home Thursday evening. Friday morning was supposed to be my swim session at the pool, but I was stuffed, tired from the travel and training, so sometimes you just need to listen to your body, so breakfast with the crew it was. Saturday, we headed over to the Violet Town Hills, the winds were horrendous, with trees down and debris all over the road making for not only a technical ride by having to dodge limbs on the road, but a little scary with so many trees surrounding the road. To top it off, my Di2 went flat, so I was only able to roll down the hills without peddling, as I had no big gears. No racing Scotty on the downhills today. Sunday was a much calmer day thankfully, Jase and I rode with Mickey and Cynthia, the guys ended up heading back up to the Violet town climb, with Cynthia and I heading back home. Training Week complete! Not as much swimming as I needed to complete, but I am sure Jase will load up next week.

We think they put the sign up after we got in the water + The boys fuelling on Doughnuts

Week 11

Training Hours – 21 Hours

Swim – 3.4km

Bike – 433km

Run – 31km

This Weeks Training Plan

So this is 50 – Food for Thought

It is just under 10 weeks now till Ultraman Australia, my training has been going close to plan. A couple of tiny setbacks – sore calf and a sore groin, but I was able to manage these, by taking a rest for a week once I knew they weren’t going to just go away. When I say rest, I was still swimming and riding, but I had backed off the running. My current volume of training has been pretty high, and I don’t feel like there is any signs of grumpy Shaz as yet……ALTHOUGH after my long ride on Saturday, 160kms I was just hungry, borderline hangry, I just wanted to eat and have my coffee, I am pretty sure if I didn’t get some sustenance asap, there was a possibility Grumpy Shaz was about to rear her ugly head. I did fuel for my ride, I am currently trialling rice cakes on my long rides, a recipe from Nigel Mitchell ex head of Nutrition at Team Sky and current nutritionist for Education First. The rice cakes are pretty much tasteless but are easy to eat and fairly easy to carry with you, I just need to work out how to wrap them better. They are very easy to make, rice, water, coconut butter, coconut oil, sugar and vanilla essence, throw it all in the rice cooker, once cooked set it in the fridge and then slice up into squares once cooled, providing plenty of carbohydrates for my ride. I normally make date and nut balls for long rides and I plan on trialling some salted roasted potatoes soon also, I think it will be important to mix up the food that I am taking in come UltraMan, especially Day 2, 280kms on the bike, making sure there is a good mix of sweet and savoury options. I also love a good peanut butter sandwich on my ride, of course using my favourite sourdough from Higgins Bakery, I think I will have to take a few loaves up to Noosa with me for the event. I think fuelling on the bike ride will be fairly easy. I am starting to worry about what food I will be able to take in on day 3 for my 84km run. I am currently up to a 20km long run on weekends, so will have to start trialling some nutrition soon. I guess come UltraMan it will just be a case of getting in what I can, I imagine that I will need to have lots of options available, as you just never know what will work come the day, it will be pretty hard to try and simulate now how my body will react to food on day 3 after 2 huge days. Nothing to worry about now, but just need to be aware of this, and my team will also need to be aware as they will most likely have to force me to eat something while running. Food intake in our house is mainly plant based, I have very little processed foods in the house, Jase is 100% plant based, I am vegetarian, I still eat eggs and butter. Of course I try and buy organic where possible, eggs are just such a convenient source of protein, and it is so easy to go out for breakfast and I know I am getting all my nutritional requirements, we find that most cafes don’t provide enough options for plant based eating, sure you can normally just omit the eggs and cheese on most dishes, but they don’t add in a protein source. I will also need to plan the foods I will eat after each day of the event, recovery by the way of physical and nutrition will need to be on point in order to get up to face the next day.

Week 10

Monday I was back running around the Botanical Gardens in Shepparton – the only place where there is any elevation, so laps of the old tip site has been regularly on my plan, followed by a 5km swim in the Shepp Lake, my plan had a 4km swim, but as Fiona still had another 2 lengths to swim, I decided to swim them with her. Tuesday morning Fiona and I rode to Dookie and back in the morning, 3 hour ride complete while catching up on all the news. Wednesday morning a 3.3km swim session in the pool followed by a 12km run that evening. Thursday morning was another run session, just over 8km and I completed an indoor bike session in the evening. Friday was another 5km swim, this time in the pool, no swim drills, just freestyle for the whole session. Saturday morning was my long ride, 160km, not sure exactly why, but this ride took me just over 20 minutes longer than it has for the past few weeks, maybe it was just one of those days. I felt pretty fatigued after my ride, and I still had an indoor bike ride to complete in the afternoon. Don’t exactly know how or why, but after the 30km indoor session, I felt ontop of the world, totally rejuvenated. Just over 190km for the day in the saddle. Sunday was my long run, I went back out to the Botanical Gardens and ran quite a few laps around the circuit, I lost count of how many laps I did, a freaking lot, 20km ran for the day. I am still feeling pretty good after my big week. Fingers crossed it stays that way. 


Swim – 13.3 km

Bike – 300 km

Run – 50 km

Strength/Core sessions – 1

Training Hours – 21:15 Hours

Lesson Learned: A bad start to the day can always be turned around.

This weeks training plan