Why I do what I do....

What I never thought I'd know 12 months ago!

Inspired by Tri Fuel's "So you wanna be a Triathlete", which I blogged about some time ago, here is my personal list of what I never thought I'd know 12 months ago. I hope it'll teach you something, make you laugh or inspire you to reflect on your past 12 months, as another year comes to a close and the New Year begins.


What I never thought I'd know 12 months ago:

1. Triathlons are EXTREMELY ADDICTIVE;
2. You will plan your weekends around your swim, bike and run;
3. You will spend your wage on new gear, race entries, training camps and pain and suffering instead of new dresses and alcohol;
4. You will hate swimming more than you like it for the first year; 
5. A quick release does not need to be fully removed to access the tyre (who would of thought?!); 
6. You will learn new words such as A-race, brick and double-knick;
7. You will set your alarm starting with the number 4 - all because you want to fit in a longer ride before work; 
8. Triathletes clean their bikes weekly, not annually (whoops!!); 
9. You can ride in the freezing cold and survive the headwind of the year - it just makes you stronger and those less than ideal race conditions seem relatively easy!;
10. It will take you a full 12 months, but you will finally find swimming meditative;
11. No matter how much you don't want to, when your Coach tells you to take a gel to get you home, you will take a gel to get you home;
12. You will be passed and dropped on the bike many times - but it doesn't matter unless you make it matter;
13. You will never be the fastest runner, but as soon as you stop competing with others, you can compete with yourself.......and more often than not, you will win!; 
14. You will learn the meaning of and love nothing more than a post-training LLD*;
15. You will start using acronyms!;
16. You will look forward to your swim sessions;
17. Some old friends will drift away and your tri-friends will become like family;
18. You will find happiness in the simple camaraderie that is a tri-squad;
19. You will voluntarily take part in "Hell Week";
20. Triathlon will change your life.

* the infamous Tri Alliance "Little Lie Down".


Has triathlon changed your life? I'd love to hear your comments...x

And one more thing..

The importance of mental training..

Hell Week Report!

"Hell Week" (adj): the annual, much anticipated Tri Alliance (TA) event that is about completing as much as you can during the week between Christmas and New Year.

Day 1 started well (& very early!!), which you can read about here.  I then arrived in Townsville for Christmas with the family so I set out on my own, for the inaugural FNQ Hell Week. Bike-less and squad-less, mine was certainly different from my Melbourne counterparts, but here is what I learnt:

• Hell Week without your bike only happens once (talk about learning the hard way!);
• It is almost impossible to run in Townsville in December between the hours of 6am and 6pm;
• My new definition of "Hell Week" is: running in Townsville in December between the hours of 6am and 6pm;

  

  *Possible slight exaggeration
  

• Castle Hill is relatively easy to walk up, to run up - not so much. For those of you unfamiliar with Castle Hill, the incline is something like this:
• I can run 50+km in a week, but I don't want to do it again for some time;
• Thank god for the foam roller!!

TOTALS:
Swim: 10km
Bike: 110km
Run: 52km
Foam Roller: LOTS!!

A big thank you to TA for your inspiration, as always (& to Roofie for the pic, top right).

It's now time for a slightly lighter training (read running) schedule & a massage! I have the Amy Gillett 120km ride in 4 days and then a 3 day TA Training Camp. Happy days!!


 Hell Week Summary:

	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5	Day 6	Day 7	TOTAL
Swim	1.5	3	2	0	1.5	0	2	10
Ride	50	0	0	0	40*	0	20*	110
Run	5	0	11	7	4.5	12	12.5	52

* estimation of indoor bike distance

Hell Week Day 7!

Being the final day, I thought I'd better give it my best shot to finish on a high note. 3 sessions.... high note: check!

#1: 2km swim

#2: Brick Session at the gym
Run: 2km WU
Bike-Run: [10min progressive hill climb + 1km run] x3
Run: 1km WD
+ gym circuit

#3: 6.5km Castle Hill run

Time to recap and reflect on the week that was!

Hell Week Day 6!

Determined to beat the heat, I got up at 5.30am today to run. Not that 5.30am in unusual for me... but I am on holidays!! I'm a bit of a slow starter in the morning & I do love a caffeine hit & piece of toast before I hit the road.. so by the time I did, it was a little after 6am. I also chose to run by the beach today, in another vain attempt to keep cool. 6am... 2kms in... struggletown. I completed 8km, in the format below, but boy was I hot! I just keep telling myself how easy it's going to feel when I get back to Melbourne at the end of the week!

AM: Run
2km WU
4 x (300m "sprint" + 200m run through)
4 x (300m + 200m "sprint")

Di & I

2km CD
TOTAL: 8km


This afternoon I caught up with my one of my favourite people, Di, for a Castle Hill hit-out. Infamous to Townsville, it's a nice 6km round trip and we walked, so it was good to flush the legs out.


I still had energy to burn, so I went back to the Strand for just one lap this time, so a nice 4km to finish the day.

PM: Run
Splits: 5:59 6:07 6:02 6:08 (a little slower than I would of liked, but the legs are pretty tired from Hell Week!!)
TOTAL: 4km

6 down, 1 to go!!!

Hell Week Day 5!

A nice lazy start today, hanging out with my sis and her 2 pups. A slight food hangover perhaps?? - thank god Christmas is quite low key & involves just one meal in the Lowe household!

So my day started with Breakfast #1, a 4km walk with the dogs, Breakfast #2, then off the the gym for what I hoped would be a massive brick (& Christmas calorie burning) session... And it was!

Bike: 10min WU
Bike-Run: [10min progressive hill climb + 1km run] x3; [5min spin building to100+rpm for the final 90s + 500m run] x3
Bike: 5min WD
I'm really happy with my intervals today, having completed the 1kms at sub 5:30min/km pace and the 500ms at 4.35min/km pace. Happy days! I even finished the session with a nice quick gym circuit and stretch. Seems the carb loading yesterday has paid off!!

Lunch - nap - then time for a swim! A nice 1.5km recovery to finish Day 5. More food... and I'm almost ready for bed! Today really has been eat-train-sleep-repeat! LOVE.