For those that don’t know, I decided that Ultraman would be my goal for 2020. My gift to myself for turning 50! I have watched many friends of late, jump from a perfectly good aeroplane, for no reason apart from having a Big “0” Birthday, most with a young adrenaline junky strapped to their back, I have even seen footage of one vomiting mid-air!!  At least I am staying on the ground, although there could be vomiting…..So, what is Ultraman? It’s a three-day event, consisting of the following.

Day 1 – 10km Swim, 140km bike

Day 2 – 281.1km bike

Day 3 – 84.3km run

Each day is to be completed in the 12-hour cut-off. The event is held annually at Noosa in May and is only open to 50 athletes who meet the qualifying criteria. Why? I hear you ask, I have many reasons to want to complete this epic event. My number 1 reason is, BECAUSE I CAN! Honestly, I know there are so many people who don’t have the physical ability to do anything remotely like this. Both of my parents have had their lives cut short and were not able to live their life to the fullest, either due to many years of ill health, or work commitments, I don’t want to be like that, I want to live my best life, by being active and having a healthy mind, body and soul and discovering what my body is capable of.

I hope to be able to complete a weekly training diary, sharing any lessons learnt along the way and who knows, it might even prove to be therapeutic to sit and reflect on the week that was.

Week 1 Ultraman Journey – So this is 50

It has been 3 weeks since completing Ironman Busselton, the body has pulled up okay, I went to Busso with the plan of nailing my nutrition and having my best run, I achieved 1 of the 2. My run was the worst run I have had to date, still trying to work out the cause of the cramps that I consistently seem to suffer in races.

Training wise this has not been an easy week at all, it has been a huge week of celebrations, Day 1 was my 50^thBirthday, something that I have been in denial about for a while, not really sure why, it just sounds old, but you know what, the day came and went, and nothing really changed, I still woke up with the same desires and same fitness levels, my body had not morphed into a sack of uselessness. I know, you’re as shocked as I am, so, bring it on! With my birthday, Christmas, followed with Jason’s birthday all in one week, it was a matter of fitting in what training sessions I could and trying not to blow out by overindulging with food and drink. There has been another factor contributing to harder training sessions this week, and that is the weather, it has been freaking hot, so I have been trying to get my bike and run sessions done in the mornings. I have ventured over to the Dookie Hills to complete some running this week. I am keen to run on hills, so these sessions will be either Dookie or at the Botanical Gardens in Shepparton.

Saturday, my tri club had a fundraiser ride for a Life Member who is taking on a mammoth bike ride from Torquay to Adelaide, I changed my long ride to Saturday to fit this in, they were riding to Dookie, doing a loop of the hills and back to Shepparton, approx. 110km, I didn’t feel very comfortable on the ride from the start, there were 12 of us, I am not used to riding in large groups, most of my rides are done solo, or with 1-4 people, so when there was an option to not complete the hill loop, I took it and rode back with 2 others. After I returned, I felt disappointed that I hadn’t completed the full loop. It is not normally something that I have done in the past, (pulled out of a training session). It festered in my head for hours after, I am after all a typical Type A Triathlete. My training plan is normally completed each week with all planned sessions showing green, only reason for red (or a missed session) is if I am injured. For this reason, I decided that I need to be accountable, Hence this training diary. Let the journey begin.

Week 1 – 12 hours completed

Swim – 6km

Bike – 181km

Run – 21.7km

Gym – 0 sessions

Lessons Learnt – I remember why I don’t eat cabbage