I was fortunate enough to win a holiday to Vanuatu through my work PORSE at the start of June. This was a much needed break away and I had an awesome time. I had picked up a cold before I left, so that week of training was pretty rough. I was away for 5 days where the training over there was also pretty minimal - 2 runs of around 45mins each, around 1km of swimming in the resort 20m pool (thanks Sonia and Bron for counting my strokes and then my laps!) and a paddle about in the sea while snorkeling. The rest from the reality of life was wonderful but I was also pleased to be back to the normality - which hit fairly rapidly after touching base in Rotorua again. Kids fighting the the back of the car on the car ride home from the airport - 'welcome home me'!! I then picked up some kind of 'bug' (I'm suspecting more food related than anything else) when I got back which lasted 5 days. This all amounted to around 3 weeks of very minimal training and my body being pretty much stripped of any strength or energy.
It has taken a good couple of weeks to build myself back up again to get back on track. It has been a bit of a slog both motivation and fitness wise. I hit my first wall while out on one of the RATS bunch rides a few weeks back. I think just with all of the above, plus lack of energy and lack of time on my seat - going out on a 75km bike ride was possibly rather optimistic of me. I have learnt really quickly that I need to have these shit times, especially in training. These times are there to make me stronger both physically and mentally for Ironman race day.
As I build towards the big day - I have set a few short term goals to make my training and motivation a little easier. (?)
- I joined the gym today for 3 months. Basically this is to nail my core strength and get on top of building the strength in my legs so that my running doesn't cause me pain. The VMO muscle in my right leg is underdeveloped and so my knee does not track properly when I run. As I hit around 1hr of running, the pain in my knee is so intense it causes me to have to physically walk as I cannot bend my knee to run. Hopefully by strengthening this muscle, the knee will track more effectively and as my core also strengthens, running will become easier. Sounds good in theory!!
- I entered the 160km Taupo Cycle Challenge yesterday as well. I'm really looking forward to this and am putting it down to a training ride - rather than a race. I want to focus on my nutrition on the bike and sort out what to eat and when. I have problems with cramp - even in smaller races so am hoping to work out some ways of dealing with this. Anyone reading this with any tried and true recipe's for dealing with cramp - would love to hear them! IronRAT Lauren has already mentioned that she has a spoonful of molasses every morning and so am going to give that a bash. Anything is worth a shot right?
- Taupo or Rotorua Half marathon run? Haven't decided on which one yet but would really like to tackle a half marathon distance run before Ironman.
- Rotorua Half Ironman is on my plan again. I plan to smash my time, basically that's my only goal there!!
- Shorter sprint distance tri's over the summer will be cool fun again. I like the shorter distance and hope to improve my times in the ones that I will repeat this coming summer season.
- Lastly but definitely not the least important - Staying sane whilst training, while working part-time, while being a mum to my full on kiddies, while running a busy household...... Again - any tips on this one - greatly received.
So yeah, I'm back on track for now, sticking to my training programme from my coach Zippy and trying my hardest to keep a smile on my face.
My kind of training in Vanuatu!
