Sammi’s Place

Headed out at 5.30am this morning. Overcast skies kept the temperature down. Could I dare to wish for that on the day of the race? Anyway. I walked the first 1km to warm up. It is a very steep hill and I would burn out just getting to the top but a steady strong walk does the trick and a great warm up. Off and running I was pleasantly surprised, the legs felt great. A couple of ‘walls’ during the run to climb. Not too many, stopped and took a Gu after the hour, not really needed but I want my stomach ready for the Gu on race day. It is a nice kick when you’ve depleted the Glycogen stores so I lapped it up. A fairly flat course after the first climb so the legs ticked over pretty easily. ‘Walls’ were climbed by thinking about race strategies and telling myself that today is easier than yesterday and tomorrow I will be stronger so the pain wont hurt me as badly. You know all those positive affirmations you need when you get tired and a glimmer of doubt passes the back of your mind. I finished strong and managed to pick the pace up slightly towards the end. I know I had a sprint in me at the end so there was still some stuff in the tank which made me feel even better. At the end of the run I had logued up 16.5kms in 1hr 40mins. Happy days. A good stretch and a feed and I am feeling mighty happy with myself.

Come on Canberra 1/2 ironman…….bring it! I’m ready

So, big day is just around the corner. Before I know it, it will have been and gone. Like all things, time does the trick. Birthdays when you were a kid took forever to get here. Christmas, Easter, end of school. Now as you get older it seems to get here quicker. I guess the excitement, anticipation and fun when you were a kid is now a little less special even though I am just as nervous and anxious as ever. The 13th of December will be here soon enough, whether I am ready or not! Here it comes. Am I ready? Sh*t I don’t know. Come what may…..this too shall pass and it will be on to the next goal and fun adventure.

In the meantime……I don’t care if you are a scruncher or a folder, the toilet roll end goes over the top! lol

A huge day again today. Started off with a 65km bike ride with the gang. I love riding with the group it makes the miles just flash by with very little effort. We have a great bunch of people that train together. All do triathlons of some description, ie ironman, half ironman, sprints, enticers etc. There is so much knowledge and experience that you can lap up eagerly if you want it. The sun is starting to really kick in now as summer approaches and I got some colour today. Nice tan lines. Cycle nicks and shirt. Anyway, after the ride we all met up again a couple of hours later for a 2km swim. I took it easy as I hurt my shoulder doing butterfly at swim squad training earlier in the week. The shoulder held ok which I was very relieved about. We had coffee and lunch with the gang and then headed home where I couldn’t help myself I had a little nanna nap. There will be no nanna naps allowed on the day but I took one anyway. Only about 20minutes. Then I did the housework, boring and evil but must be done.

Then I through on the running shoes etc and headed out into the afternoon heat for a 1 and a half hour easy recovery run. Except is wasn’t really a recovery run. The heat made it still require an effort, but I think I am improving or atleast aclimatising a little to the heat. It is going to be nasty on the day so all the ‘hot runs’ I can get in now can only help me. I walked to cool off for the last 1km home. It is a down hill section and I didn’t want to do the shins any damage. I walked in the door and asked/kinda demanded to be driven to the salt water pool so that I could stand in the cold water. My husband obliged and drove me down. I must have looked pretty odd in the pool. People were swimming and here is me still in my running hat and sunnies holding onto the side of the pool letting my legs soak up the cold water. But it did the trick, my legs feel heaps better. I just have to stretch later tonight.

Tomorrow the gang and my husband (Gaz) are off to compete in a local triathlon. Sprint distance. I am going as chief support and ground crew and holder of all non essential items such as cameras and jackets. Should be a good day but the heat will be full on.

Run Forest; Run!

Well it went like this.

• 15min warm up
• 1km moderate run
• 400m easy
• 1200m hard
• 400m easy
• 1200m intense
• 400m easy
• 1200m hard
• 400m easy
• 1200m intense
• 400m easy
• 1000 moderate
• 15 min cool down

We worked it out we did 12.4kms in 1hour very happy with that effort.

But now I am shattered. Recovery was good between sets which I am very pleased about and I managed to do the sets without blowing up and walking it. Mental games are the toughest games of them all.

Diet? Well, due to no sleep thanks to my neighbours playing rock gods with real instruments in their garage til 1.30am I suffered big time and had to reach for the ‘V’ energy drink to keep me going. Also, hit the Hydroxycut too.

‘ok Sammi, this is it. You are back on the wagon. Great Special K for breakfast. That isn’t exactly what the Bodybuilders will be having for their breaky this morning. Ok, well I’ll just eat this packet and then I will get back on the oats. But it’s summer. Yoghurt? no dairy. Damn, um omelette? Yeah alright back on the oats and the omelettes. If I go oats then Gaz will make it for me. ok oats and protein shake. tick.’

Make it to work, I hit the coffee. ‘ You should give the coffee up. it’s a habit now I don;t really need it. it’s just an excuse really to check out what is on offer on the kitchen table. Quick glance at the biscuit tin. nothing in there but smashed three week old biscuits. Move on.’ Struggle with the coffee to my desk and there they are. The lollies I left there from last week. "ok put them in the bin. Why are you opening the lid just put them in the bin. why are you eating them? why can;t you just put them in the ….ok eat them, smash them all and then no more from now on.’

Manage to make it through the day. the rest is healthy. Thunderstorm and so the ride/run brick gets swapped for a swim.

Got a crazy notion about trying to do the training this week and try and lose another kilo. I really don’t want to be carrying any extra weight around with me over the race. It will make for a very long hard race and I have a feeling the heat is going to hit me hard on the day. This week is race pace week and I have some hard sets lined up. Amongst them are:

• 10km bike ride, 2km run off the bike x 3 sets
• 90 minute bike ride hard over hills
• swim 20 x 100m hard sets, then 10 x 50mtr moderate sets
• Run 10km Fartlek session with 1km, 1.2km intervals over hills and easy to intense
• Swim squad
• Running drills
• River swim
• 60km bike ride - then add warm up and cool down to all of those figures.

To be honest I don’t know if I can make it. I live for the rest days just hanging on til I get there. Trying desperately not to fall asleep at work. Considering ducking down to my car for a 20min cat nap when no one is looking during lunch times. I have planned my week so that I have Sunday off last day of the training week to go and watch my husband and my friends compete in a sprint distance triathlon. 650ms, 20kmb, & 5km run doesn’t sound to bad right about now. I have 4 weeks today to go til I am sweating it out and hopefully doing myself proud.

But, with all of this work comes diet and trying to eat well to replace lost calories and glycogen levels but still lose weight would be great. I can’t believe how much muscle tone I have lost. Anyway, its bedtime and tomorrow it starts one session at a time. Wish me luck ;0)

Struggling a bit at the moment with what to eat after a big run or a big bike ride. This weekend has been huge as I head into my last 5 weeks of training. Saturday was a 2km swim at the river. We have the luxury of having a beautiful clean tidal river that we can use for training in. There is a huge straight in it and thanks to Google Earth we have mapped out a 1km out and back swim leg. So we headed out, a group of about 8 swimmers all in their wetties. Luckily there aren’t many motor boats on this river. It is not long or wide enough for water skiiers so we mostly get canoes and kayaks. Even still we wear bright swim caps. After a 2km swim we headed for a quick coffee and I had a piece of cake at a lovely cafe near the river. Man if I had the money I would snap up this gem……but anyway, we had a coffee and headed off for a 90km ride. It was tough becuase there was a head wind. 45kms into the ride and my training buddy (husband) and I had a huge blow up. I crossed a road wrong and left him in no-mans land and at the mercy of the traffic. Whoops. Of course in the heat of the moment I wasn’t admitting fault and I was then left to ride the last 45kms on my own. It was tough. I had a 750ml bidden of gatorade, same of water a banana, and needed a Gu in the last 30kms. I walked in to the house after a huge day and basically 2/3rds of what I am up for in 5 weeks. Collapsed on the floor and fell asleep. I woke 20minutes later and I was starving. If I were a body builder I might head towards the protein shake, Creatine, banana. Does the same apply for this type of excercise?

I looked in the kitchen and my chef (Husband) hadn’t been shopping. Do you blame him? He still had the ****s…ok so I am staring at the open fridge and I can’t find a thing to eat. There is fruit, bananas, nuts, yoghurt, milk, OJ. No bread. I headed for 6 vita wheats and peanut butter. I felt like bread or something to fill me. I know bread is carbs so maybe not too bad as I replace carbs lost on the run. But protein will fill me better. arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I’m lost.

Sticking to a diet is relatively easy but when it comes to big excercise days I am coming undone, worried that I am getting fat on GU! lol!    Sunday training, 1 1/2 hour run over hills. I had to walk some hills as I was shattered and was worried about my Hammi. Pulled it a couple of weeks ago and have been protecting it a little so that I make it to race day. No open big knees-up sprints. Not needed at the moment anyway so no loss, but boy I can feel the speed slowing down. After the run what to eat? I had another coffee at the cafe and a piece of fruit loaf with butter. I had gatorade and water on the run. Most of the water over the top of my head cause it was so hot. Anyway, staight after the coffee and bread into the river. This time I took it easy and did 1500mtrs. The water was so cold. We got home (Hubby and I talking again by the way) and again. What to eat? I ended up with a bowl full of berries and fruit and yoghurt. When it got to dinner it was spaghetti Bolognaise and I smashed it down soooooooooooo hungry.

Any advice on some transportable, healthy food I can pack to take with me on these big training days or food when I get home would be greatly appreciated? if you are able to. Thanks………………

‘Warts and all’ what does that mean? Brutal honesty, raw, reality check. Sometimes I think I forget to be totally honest with myself. Or perhaps rather, I don’t want to see, or I choose not to see, it’s easier to ignore than to face the truth. I wonder if others feel the same way? What am I talking about? Well, I’m driving to work. Same trip 5 days a week. I am rat **** tired from doing bugger all because the week has been wet. And here I am making excuses for myself like its too wet to train. When I know I could pull on a pair of old runners and hit the tar. So! I’m driving along for the umpteenth time in 13 years at the same job that I have held. I am almost there and there is this fork in the road. Quite literally take the left fork and it will take me to work. Take the right fork and it will take me North and away. Every day I take the left fork, dutifully, I take the left fork in the road and it takes me to my work, my life, my training, my predictable life…… What if? What if one day I took the right fork? Every day I look at the right fork in the road and this little voice in my head says what if? Don’t get me wrong. I love my husband and my life. I work full-time so that I can have the type of lifestyle I have right now. So why does this little voice always bug me 1km short of work and suggest, even in the faintest voice, that I should take a different route. Life is about choices and living by the choices you make. I live happily with most of the choices I make in my life. Boy I have made some bloody lousy choices too. Geez I am lucky to have survived some of them. But no regrets, we carry on. If I took the right fork? What if? Could I live with the choice of leaving everything behind and running away, escaping the predictability of my life. No money other than the cash in my purse. A car only as far as the petrol would take me, no contact. hmmmmmmmmmmmm Too black? ok. what if? I choose not to eat that biscuit? What if I tried as hard as I could to be the best that I can, and fell short? hmmmmmm the pressure. The pressure of failure. Better to sabotage myself and eat the biscuit. Then I will never reach my full potential and perhaps fail. Better to be blind than to see and not like what it is looking back at me. Left or right? What if?

There are two 1/2 Ironman competitions that I can travel to easily. They are 6 weeks apart from each other and when I first started the training my goal was to evaluate where I was at in my training and decide whether I would do the Port Mac 1/2 or push it back to the Canberra 1/2. Well, I am glad I decided to push it back. I felt I needed more time and I had a promotion at work which meant I needed to apply myself for atleast a little while - on work lol. But some of my friends did the 1/2 at Port. They are seasoned full ironman competitors soing the 1/2 as a training run. And others clumped together to do a relay event. Some taking on the swim, some run some bike or combination of each. Well it was hot! Damn hot! on the day. I don’t do well in the heat. One girl started thowing up and didn;t stop the whole way through the run. She was 3rd in her age group out of the water and ended up 17 out of 17 in the run. A hard day in the office for all. All the run times were down. But most importantly of all people were in shared accomodation and the report was that they didn’t have time to get their heads right. Prepare mentally for the day ahead. Set out their gear, go through the transitions in thier minds. A lesson I will take on I think. Make sure I have time to mentally prepare myself.

Anyway, in the end me and one other guy are headed for the Canberra event. It will be 6 weeks closer to heat and 2 weeks into Summer. I am starting now to train ‘hot’ runs. Middle of the day runs. I have a strong runninig partner who will pace me and make sure I take in the proper fluid and food etc. Speaking of water consumption. I read on someones blog about water consumption and how critical it is obviously. Yet I am the worst for not drinking. eg, it is 1pm and I have had 1 cup of coffee and that is it……. Yep I will correct this now cause I am confessing and telling myself off at the same time. But I noted something in the blog. If you don;t drink your blood thickens and then your heart works harder and maybe that is my problem. I also have low blood pressure. Went to the doctors the other day and it was 91 over 45. My friend the ‘nurse’ almost fell of her chair when I told her and then worries about me when i stand up and grab a desk as the dizziness passes. Just a thought, could it all be related? Does anyone have some ideas on how to get the water down? I try drinking a glass with each meal. If I eat 8 meals a day that’s 8 glasses that should be enough. I try flavouring the water with a bit of gatorade or lemon or something. I try drinking green tea with honey. Only manage to drink about 1/2 a cup though. Maybe I should set my alarm to ring every 5 minutes and take a sip.

Speaking of water it is everywhere… I mean it is raining here. Bucketing down and that means my training has been hugely affected. So far now I am down two 2 hour bike rides and a run. Getting the swimming done but I think I have a sinus infection so my nose is also running. I will head to the gym tonight for a group spin class and run on the treadie to try and right the deficit.

Got up this morning feeling flat and really not in the mood to run a triathlon. It has been recovery week and my body took that quite literally and went to sleep. The diet challenge with Suzy for the week went good about 70% of the time. But as she said it would leave me tired and it did. So I had to add some extras along the way as I needed the energy but overall not a bad effort. Did I lose any weight? hmmmmmmmmm about a kilo - not bad! I was pleased and managed to get my tri suit on without the usual buldges in all the wrong places lol.

Anyway, today we headed down to the local club race and donned the wettie and entered the water. It was freaking freezing! It is November and the water is still running cold. The first wave was all the girls and we headed off for the 750m swim. My arms were numb but I didn’t hyperventilate which was great. I took the lead on the inside run around the first pylon and didn’t look back. Out of the water first and headed up the ramp into transition. A smooth transition with the salt water streaming from my nose eeeewwwwwww. Out on the bike my legs felt heavy and within 1km I hit the hills. Once over the last long haul it is a flat run where I hit the big chain gear and set in to the aero bars and let the legs start ticking over hard. I was very pleased as I put some distance between me and the other girls and wasn’t over taken by the first guy until the last 3km back to transition. As the boys start in two waves behind the girls there is a time lag and then the big guns come past you. Its just a matter of how long you can hold them back. Finally over the last hill and headed into the final transition. Dropped the helmet and bike shoes, and then pulled on the running shoes. Ohhh my legs were heavy. I could feel the lactic build up in my quads over the hills in the bike feeling heavy and tired. 5km run, first km was tough and hard to find the rhythmn but eventually I found the groove and although the body was tired it was weird but I could see my legs just ticking over and finally the breathing fell into sync and I made it home. 1st girl over the line and about 6th overall home. Not a bad day considering I could quite easily have rolled over and gone back to sleep.