So this is 50 – who could have imagined!

My week started off the same as so many of my training weeks had but has ended quite differently. Tuesday morning, I received the dreaded email, notifying all UltraMan athletes that the event has been cancelled and our registrations have been rolled over to 2021. I must say it didn’t hit me straight away, it took about an hour to sink in, then a knot started to form in my stomach then I felt gutted and numb, there were also a few tears. Obviously, I knew it was most likely going to happen, but you still cling to the hope that everything will be fine. With so many months of training under my belt, with every week being planned meticulously so that I can fit in my training around my work and family life, to allow my focus to be set on achieving my UltraMan 2020 goal – to then nothing. The mental toughness in the first place to decide to enter the event, and to believe that I could do it, and to then keep pushing through each week, knowing that I was building my base for bigger and better things – to then nothing just gutted and numb. My pity party lasted about 24 hours, I pigged out on popcorn and had Indian for dinner, talked with my fellow Ultraman wannabes, Chris and Markcus who were both gutted, and also Kaz, my new UMOZ friend from afar, sending each other comforting messages of support. With so many events being cancelled on the same day, and knowing that life was about to change for every single person, it was time to move on, there is nothing I can do to change the circumstances, I can only change the things that I control, and that is my attitude and focus.

In my 12 weeks of training for the event I have so much to be grateful for, I am grateful that my body has allowed me to achieve an amazing level of fitness, I don’t think I have ever been in such great shape. I have been able to go out on long training rides, most often in the hills and work on my climbing and descending. None of this will go to waste, it will build my base for future cycling challenges. I have learned to love running, which has always been my weakness, with so many weeks of running at the botanical gardens or at Dookie rather than on a flat run course, this has definitely improved my run fitness, and in turn making it more enjoyable. Swimming on the other hand had started to become a little bit of a drag, not so much the swim sessions at the pool, more the long swim sessions in the lake, even though I could swim in my wetsuit, I found it harder to stay focussed while swimming. I guess this is something I can work on when I need to do those long sessions again. I am grateful for my training buddies, who were always so positive and encouraging and who were also going to be crewing for me in May, even though 2 of them, Wendy and Scott were going to be doing their own races the week before at Port Macquarie. Helen, who was going to miss Mothers Day with her family to come to Noosa and crew for me. Pam and Stacey, who were also going to make the trip up to Noosa, just to be there and support me, Fiona who was going to attend the event to run with me on the final day. I am so grateful to all of them for committing to the event and committing to me. Of course, I am grateful for Jason, without his guidance and support I would not know where to start or how to train for an event like UltraMan. Most importantly though, I am grateful for my health, years ago I was on the verge of being a diabetic and had been prescribed medications to stop this. I found that with healthy eating and activity I have no health issues at all. Of course, with this current crisis going on in the world, this will hopefully put me in a good stead over the coming months. So, with my focus now changed, my goal is to get done whatever I feel like over the next few months or should I say whatever is achievable in the current situation that is so fluid. At the moment, I can swim in the lake, still go out for a run, ride my bike and mountain bike, whatever I like really, as long as it is permissible. It will also give me the chance to work on my core strength, so all is not lost.

Today we went to Violet Town to ride the hills again, I decided after I had started the ride that I was going to have a red hot go and give the climbs my best effort, after all, I had months of training, so why not achieve something. Happy to report that my ride today was a PB on the climb, PB on the loop and I managed to chick Scotty on the loop by 2 minutes!! All is definitely not lost.

Thank you to all the people that have been following my journey since December, for the messages of encouragement and support, all of these words have helped to fuel my drive. I hope that someone has been inspired to believe that they too can achieve a goal, whether it be big or small. Stay safe everyone.

#IbeatScotty #chicked #chicksrule #thrivechicks

So This is 50 – 9 Weeks to Go

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.

Busselton IM Practice Swim Session #nosharks

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

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.