I Did It!!!

Yep I did it. Race is done and Wow it was so much fun. 

I had an absolute blast on the day. Where to start with my weekend/race wrap up. I'll try to start for the beginning on Saturday when I left.

I met with a local Korean triathlon club. I got there early cause, well basically I was just excited and wanted to get on my way. We packed all the bikes and bags into a 1 tonne truck that one of the athletes drove and we piled in to an 8 seater. 10 of us on our way to Yeoju. We had a pretty good run there without too much traffic. 

Once we got there we had a couple of hours rest time until we met to go to the briefing and registration. I rested and began to prepare some of my nutrition ready for race day. While I was doing this I had total peace that I was at the right race because I was able to put my mind only to my race preparation.

The next few hours was a bustle of activity which included a huge buffet dinner. This is not something that should be done the night before a race but this was one of the differences between a Korean race and another. Something else I noticed was the shirt in our registration bag was actually a finisher shirt. This means we all had a finisher shirt, whether we finished or not :(

I got to bed about 2 hours later than I wanted to. I had 6 hours sleep. It worked ok. It was pretty good quality so that makes a difference. I didn't feel tired at all on waking. I think it was good to aim for 8 hours. 

Race day - I was pumped. Amazing I had no nerves. When I woke I had a routine to do. My timing was spot on and I was ready when it was time to leave. 

My planning was good. I had my transitions set up without hassle and was ready to go. Of course with first stop being the loo. Then I waited in line for the bus to take us to the swim start. This happened without hassle. On arrival I needed the loo again. This time I wasn't sure if I really needed to go or was it nervous pee. Was real. I'd drunk a lot of liquid that morning. Now it was time to put on my wetsuit. I think I was one of the last people to put it on. By this time I notice how totally calm I was. I was certainly excited but I had no anxiety. What a beautiful mental place to be at the start of my first iron distance race.

In the water we go and before I know it the start gun has gone off and the big day has started. What a swim it was. I can only say I hope there was a current pulling me out to the centre. 3 times I found myself out near the centre then had to swim back toward the bank. I think I did true zigzags. Not good for my time. I did 1:06. I'd been told it was a fast swim and thought that was slower than I was hoping, considering it was to be fast. I actually thought I was the last swimmer because I had a kayak on me from 3kms. I thought they were rounding me up because I was last. Turns out I was the first woman out of the water. The field of women was small. 10 in my age group and 20 altogether. 

My bike leg was great. Nothing interesting whatsoever as it was 7 laps with 4 turns within each lap. The watts I'd been given to stay in were in a range of 5. I stayed at 1 overall. I had considerable knee pain due to my bike being too big and this was what I could do given the circumstances. That being said I did 6:26hrs. I thought I would do 7 hours. I was super pumped. I had one pee stop at 86km. I was busting!

Time for the run. I felt great. I had been loving every moment up to this point. Nothing changed in this regard. This was so much fun and I was in a great place. I felt good. I found my pace I wanted soon enough and kept that really well. At 26km I started to have some tummy trouble. I was very lucky I didn't need to stop but I was unable to take in any nutrition and only small amounts of water. It was progressively getting worse but I was still able to continue without stopping. My pace did start to slow around 30ish kms. Not a lot though. I was very surprised that other than tummy trouble no other part of my body hurt. I thought if I was going to feel it then it would on the run. Mentally and physically I felt great, aside from my stomach. I finished the run at 4:37. Just 7 mins slower than I planned and only 21mins slower than my stand alone marathon in March. I think, but can't be certain the slower pace can be attributed to my stomach trouble.

I had a goal of 12:45:13. I could tell I was doing ok on the run so I changed my goal time to 12:43:15. I was coming through the finish shute and saw my time was 12:25. I couldn't believe it. My shock and excitement propelled me forward and I bolted through the finish. I could not believe my time. 

Can you see how happy I am?

I was awarded my finisher medal and certificate and I headed over for a massage. 

A few days after my race I got a call to say that I'd won first place in my age group. Wow!!

After the race I had been saying I really wanted pizza. Liz and I headed to go and find a pizza place. On the way my tummy really decided what it wanted. To get rid of everything I'd taken in during the day and speed shoot it out the back. This was not pretty as it happened in the moment that found me pulling to the side of the road and jumping the barrier. I was thankful it was after the race and not during. 

Post race......

I am amazed at how quickly our body recovers. By Wednesday I was feeling much better. Amazed. However turns out my big toe not so good. I figured I was going to lose my toenail. Appears to be more than that. Unable to put a closed in shoe on so not able to bike or run I went swimming. Hmmm couldn't kick without major pain from my toe. Turns out it's infected. I'm currently on anti-bioethics. I can tell its improving already as there is no gunk coming from under my toenail. 

Where to from here?

Well exactly one week from my race I had chosen my A race for next season. IM Australia at Port Macquarie on May 4th. I'm super excited already. Hope to get family and friends come and support and cheer. 

Last one till Greatman

Well I think this will be it until after the big day. 

It has been very busy at work as it has been the beginning of the new school year. This week, of an evening, I have been fairly tired due to work. I decided to make it sit down and stop time from 8pm and bed at 9pm. I still don't feel really rested but I can know that I've done what I can to be rested. Tonight is a work night and will be straight to bed once I get home.

I finally started to get a little excited about doing the race in Korea last night as I began preparing my nutrition and getting my bag ready. This is good.

Last week was a tough week mentally. This week has been tough with my knees. They aren't where I want them to be but I will push through.......and #1 priority after my race is working toward getting a Tri bike, that fits. 

Race week has been a busy week. I feel like from Saturday morning the day will go fast. I need to be in bed by 8pm on Saturday night. I'll arrive at the race area around 1 or 2pm. I have race briefing at 5pm. There is a welcome dinner straight after this. Here is one of the differences between a race in Korea and other races is that they usually have the welcome dinner 2 nights before as we need to be in bed early. I don't know that I'll attend for two reasons. One, I don't eat Korean food and the other is that I need to organise myself and my things for race day. Prior to 5pm I need to check my bike after travel and then get my bike checked in and register. Oh and I need to go through my race plan with my little support team as they will be helping me with extra nutrition and hydration on the course. Can you see a busy pre race day happening? I want it to be calm and relaxed even though busy. 

I've had a good couple of training sessions this week, a killer massage on Sunday and warm, salty foot baths. My body is almost physically ready. My mind is ready for the task at hand. I dealt with what I needed to and ready to put my mind into race day. My semi-coach (just for my bike in the last 2 months) encouraged me today when he told me he has seen that I have a very strong mind. 

Just before race day I'd like to share why I decided to do an ironman. I had discovered triathlon through a friend last April (2012). She was training for an ironman. At the time I couldn't get my head around doing such distances. I was reading about ironman races and I read that almost anyone can do an ironman, what stops us is our mind. That is what got me. I'm a healthy person and I love to exercise. That meant the statement I read definitely meant I could do one. I'd found my challenge. How much do I believe in myself? This was the challenge I wanted. The premise is follow the training plan and your body can achieve the task. Question left is do I believe I can do such distances. Absolutely!!! Bring it on.

So just over a year after reading this and deciding to take on the challenge I'm about to do my first IM (ironman). I have discovered I love endurance over speed, I love training, I love the way it makes me feel, except for massage days as they are pure agony. In the final stages it has changed the way I eat in a good way. I love seeing how much I can improve and setting myself small goals on the way to the big one.

This has been such a great experience. I know it is a new way of life. Next year I don't think it will be as consuming as the many 'firsts' are now done. I'd heard and read triathlon is addictive and I totally agree. 

Well until after the finish line.....

3 more sleeps to go :)

Lesson #3 Success/Failure

My latest lesson I have learnt is that success or failure can only be determined by ourselves. I cannot tell someone if they have succeeded or failed in something and likewise someone else can't tell me if I have succeeded or failed. Now of course we do tell other people if we think they have achieved, we may think or even tell if we believe someone has failed. As encouragement people will tell us when they believe we have succeeded. That is nice and it is encouraging. What I have realised though is what really counts is if we, ourselves believe we have succeeded or failed. 

I realised last night that it is determined by our own goal posts to measure success and how we measure failure. We choose to view something as a failure or not. I have just gone through about 18 hours where I thought I had failed in a big way on something that became an incidental part of my ironman journey. I was a mess and I couldn't seem to shake it. Then it hit me. I decide what failure is to me (later I realised it is exactly the same for success). People around me were saying I haven't failed at all but it didn't make any difference until I changed the way I saw the situation. I am very appreciative of the support I got from those that knew what was going on but it didn't change anything until my own thinking about my success or failure changed. 

Failure is viewed as not getting something right. I teach my students that mistakes are good because it brings us closer to knowing how to do something. 

I needed to change my thinking from thinking I'd failed at being strong enough to overcome something and instead see that I am still on a learning curve in that area. 

With my readjusted perspective on this and readjustment that I am still doing an ironman race and therefor need the same focus and motivation, I begin my final week to ironman. 

Let's get this party started!!

Food & Nutrition

(Honey Buzz Bars, Lentil loaf, Salmon & veg quiche/fritata, Zucchini Quinoa bites, Coconut Dream bar, Coconut balls)

What I eat has slowly been transformed. Last year when I started really getting in to training I wanted to start cooking and change what I eat. I ordered everything on Iherb but I guess I just wasn't ready to make the changes that I wanted to make. When it comes to change you need to want something enough to make it happen. Well I think as time went by this year I was getting to that point and finally got there. I think a big kick in that direction was when I decided to change my training/racing nutrition to one that has no sugar, I then thought again about how much refined sugar there was in my diet.

Before coming to Korea I had been off refined sugar for approx 2 months. It had been going well except the move here and the big food changes and a language that I didn't know made it very difficult to continue. Now I've learnt how and where to shop much better. I rarely eat Korean food so I've learnt how I would go about taking out the refined sugar. It means making a lot of my own foods and ordering a lot of ingredients from Iherb.

A new love is coconut oil. Oh how yum it is. I use it now in a few of the things I make. I have really learnt that fat is not the enemy however it is definitely about the right fats. Pigging out on deep fried foods is still not good for the body. Good thing I've never had a love of this type of food. 

As I write I have my first batch of granola in my toaster oven. Oh I can't wait to try this for breakfast in the morning. I'll have it with yogurt. This may just be the breakfast I've been looking for. I had tried to go back to a protein drink which is what I used to have but it just isn't floating my boat of a morning. 

A big change that I've had to make for endurance training is to eat more of the foods that I would of steered away from before. Previously I would eat limited rice and pasta. I still eat limited pasta as it is best eaten 1.5 days before I big training day. As for rice, since being in Korea I've really gone off white rice so I struggle to eat it when out but I will make up brown rice now at home. Still pretty new to this and only doing it within the last month. Some things are hard to change and have to keep telling myself that it is a good thing and even necessary thing to eat. The trick I've found is finding recipes that I like that has it, for example my lentil loaf recipe and I will make some brown rice salad which I love also.

I love eating veggies and I love, love, love salad but I am hopeless as preparing it. The only trick I've found is to keep a big bag of frozen veggies (thanks to Costco) in my freezer and have a big serve once a day with one of my main meals. It usually ends up being for lunch because I find after getting home from work and then training it seems too late to eat a big meal so I snack on a few bits and pieces (some of those things above, yogurt, cheese)

Check out my coco-nutty granola

Looks good!!

Japan > Korea > Taiwan ......?

Well things have been a changing again.

On Sunday I did my 'big training day' which is as close to race simulation I will get without doing the whole thing. I did the full ride and ran half a marathon. Wow what an eye opener that was. I think I may have preferred to not know how much it will hurt until on the day ;) I did gather some good information from it though which is great.

Part of that information came from my bike data. My 'numbers' bike trainer/coach (for the last 6 weeks) told me I don't have a hope of making cut off. The ride I did was half the elevation of Japan and I did it in 7:40hr. With all the complexities of the race, such as riding with cars at some points, crossing national freeways etc and 10 different bike cut off points I was told I won't make it. Do I know this for sure, of course not. So what do I do???? Well at the end of the day I do really want to finish. So hard to make the decision as to whether I do Japan or a race in Korea the same weekend. There are a number of things that went in to the decision. For example the disorganisation of Japan, safety isn't 100%, a very precarious relationship with another athlete and will I make the cut off. So much, right?

Well I have made the decision to do the race here in Korea. It is on Sunday the 1st September, so one day later. That was tough. I made it last night but just struggled to find some enthusiasm about it as it is 7 laps of the bike course and 4 laps for the run. Oh I hope I can find some friends here in Korea to come to the race so that I have some supporters to pass the many multiple laps.

After I made the decision I a had a carrot dangled in front of me. After Yeoju Greatman (the name of the Korean race) take a 2 week recovery (wow, I'm going to recover that fast, awesome!!) and then into some focused training to hit Taiwan 70.3 (half IM distance). That wasn't the carrot.....the carrot is.......to place in the top 10. My first response was 'really, do you think I can'. I then looked at the results from last year and yep using my Shinan race time I would place in the top 10. Of course it is a different course, different participants, different day but it shows there is definitely a chance. 

What's the big deal about placing in the top 10? I will leave that with you. You may be reading and already know, maybe you might try and find out or maybe you will wait for me to reveal why that is huge. It is definitely something to get me through the boredom of the Korean course. After that I need to make sure recovery goes to plan and then I'm signing up for Taiwan and if all comes together on the day I will be one very happy lady.

20 days to go

I'm getting really excited. I hear myself say that and think how strange it sounds seeing my body is going to hurt. How can that make me excited?

I've put more than 6 months on a very focused training program. As time has progressed closer more of my thinking has been put to it. I've gone on a great learning curve, my body has been put through training sessions when it was fatigued and I didn't know if I could deliver the goods. Race day is the accumulation of all of these things. This makes it exciting, putting it all together.

I'm a visual person and as I bring together final stages of preparation I find this attribute is an asset. I visualise each leg, transitions and crossing the finish line. 

I'm waiting on my final program which I will get tomorrow night. Peak & taper. Every part of what I eat is to be considered in the last few weeks. My social life is restricted to within the area of my home as it takes an hour travel each way to meet friends. I need to really dedicate myself to being in bed by 9pm so that when I go to bed at 8 on the eve of the race it won't be such a big difference for bed time.

Why would anyone choose to do something that seems so restricting? Every ironman triathlete has there own reason. Me.....I'm starting to think about what's next after ironman and it occurs to me I'm addicted to my training. I love it. I love pushing my body, I love the way it makes me feel both giving energy and exhaustion and all those endorphins. I love the discipline that it requires. I like challenging myself and pushing myself and stretching out those boundaries and limitations that could settle around me if I allowed them. I enjoy pushing my mind and my body to achieve more, improve from where I was last week. This is how I know that this will not be a one off race/event for me. 

Co2 is my friend

When doing an ironman as a complete novice there is much to learn. I've been practicing changing my tube so I can do it easily. I need to practice a minimum of 10 times taking on and off my front and back wheel. I know how to do both but I need to do it a number of times so I'm naturally faster. Time is everything!! 

I still had this one niggling thing that I hadn't done yet but knew I needed to......use the co2 cartridge to inflate my tyre. Not in a huge way but this was an area that I was a little apprehensive. If I don't get it right I have to keep buying new ones until I did. I also didn't have anyone to guide me as I was doing it. Of course there is YouTube but it just isn't the same for me. 

BUT today when we were out riding one of my friends got a flat. I feel pretty comfortable with changing a tube and the time it takes me. I didn't really want to get my hands dirty if I didn't have to (I didn't bring wet ones today) however this was a perfect opportunity for me to use the co2 and under direction. It was soooo easy. I can now tick that box that says I can use it. Because it was so easy it doesn't need multiple practice. 

Totally pumped from today's training session. Did hill repeats on a mountain similar to ones I'll have in Japan and I nailed it without any trouble at all, completed my six hour ride and with very sore knees from my ride I did a 40min brick run. It only took 7 mins for my knees to settle in to the run and feel ok. 

Today's training was a big confidence booster in a number of different aspects. I feel ready for Japan. Bring it on!!!

Tonight I need to learn how to change the battery in my power metre.