trichicks – My Journey To UltraMan

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.