Husky Race Report

“I’m confused! The math doesn’t add up.” During the run that was all that was going through my head. Where was everyone? Surely ok, I’m at the back, but shouldn’t they all be coming back out for their second lap of the run? But I’m too far ahead of myself so let’s go back to the beginning. 

I worked very hard to stay calm and not let the demons get to me pre-race. When I felt myself getting nervous, I breathed slow deep steady breaths until it passed. When I felt the overwhelming but familiar voice in my head saying “I don’t wanna….” I just thought about Kez being on course with me. Then she announced that she wanted to race with me. I tried hard to convince her not too, but she was hell bent on doing it with me, and now I’m glad she did.

We made transition with a comfortable relaxed pace and when everyone else was crammed trying to rack, we were already done. I went to the toilet and new I was in for a tough day. Nothing quite right there and a worrying sense of oh no… started, but I convinced myself that the ride would dehydrate me somewhat and I would deal with that later.

We made our way down to the tent and dropped our bags said hi to the ktc crew before heading to the water. It felt comforting to get in the water and do a warm up swim. Kez needed to check her goggles, new on race day always makes it a bit worrying. But she was good. We climbed out of the water and chatted with other ktc athletes doing the race. Before pretty soon it was our turn to get wet. Kez hung at the back end of the 40 and under group, and I moved forward to the 40+ group and in the end we entered the water together. She was gone by the first buoy. I tried to settle into my swim, find a rhythm. The first buoy took for ever to arrive and it was clear there was some undertow because I had to fight to swim up to the buoy and round it. From there you could feel the tide pushing you to the second buoy and another tough long rounding before heading to the third buoy. I had a couple of dark thoughts. It was interesting, I told myself they were little black clouds and to let them float on by. It worked. A couple of big guys swam close by, but other than that a pretty good swim. But I got tired towards the backend of the swim. Note to self, more long swims required in the river. 

I walked the long flight of stairs to transition. I fumbled for my zip which took forever to find and so it was a while before I could run. But run I did. Kez had been waiting in transition for me. Her swim a huge 10 mins quicker than mine. She ended up waiting 18mins for me. Yikes! 

It was so nice to see her waiting though. I quickly got changed and then we were walking out the the start line. We mounted and away. I was on the front. The plan she decided was for me to go in front and she would sit behind. In hindsight not a good idea. I worked hard more than I think I should have. But we did our 3 laps of husky backstreets and we stopped once each lap. The first time I was in so much pain where my undies line is. The rubbing on my legs from the kit was unbearable. I knew it was going to happen, so I had lathered Vaseline on my legs before hand but it didn’t work. I concocted a plan to rip the rigid tape off my knee and place over the rub marks. I stood with my hands down my crutch trying to attach the now wet and crumpled rigid tape to the top of my thigh it worked to relieve some of the rubbing. But I would pay for this decision badly later on. We carried on. We stopped two more times for quick stretches. We rolled through town each time to the cheers from jess and gaz and the ktc crew. I saw Coach out on course. He hollered at me as he screamed by. Nice to see him. When we finally rolled into town. I was pretty shattered. Now to run.

And then it all fell apart  I had nothing! Overbiking was a real issue and now I couldn’t break out of the jog/walk pattern and then the bowels decided to make a reappearance on the scene and while there was no real sense of urgency to visit the toilet, the cramp inside was real and with every step I could feel the downward pressure not fun. This led to frequent time in the toilet and a lot of walking. Eventually the cola and Powerade started to bring me back and a Panadol and a final trip to the loo made the cramp ease so that I could run again. From here I was so shattered it was hard to run still, but I feel like we did a negative split on the way home. With 2kms to go we were still laughing and singing and when we finally navigated the finish line, we finished with twin smiles and cheers to out little crowd waiting patiently for us.  

 

In Other News…..

Ok, so unexpectedly turned up for a body scan. I was pleasantly surprised this week when I started a radical and pretty harsh diet to lose some weight. The promise was up to a kilo or so. And I got the ..or so. So happy. But I know no calories can lead directly to impacting my performance. But at the end of the day, I didn’t go to badly with the training either..  I backed off the intensity on a couple of sessions knowing it would impact and I think it paid off.

So when kez and I dropped off a bike for service we skipped next door to get a body scan and to my absolute delight the scan repeated what I saw on the scales that morning. Some of the previous results saw my scores creeping into the ‘over’ category. So to see them back in the ‘normal’ range and to see reductions across all areas for measurements was a real motivation to keep on trucking the way I have been going.

Training has been good. Lots of solid sessions, getting it done and focusing on body, feel, and as I said, staying in the right range to not see too much residual fatigue building up. Sunday was a solid hit out with a ride with the ACC team. I was working hard, but not on the rivet 90kms done plus an 18km walk the day before saw both Kez and I getting it done and very happy. 

This week is again about focus on diet, lose weight rapidly and go easy on training without missing a sesh. However, it’s now Tuesday and we got out boosters so we decided to skip training tonight and rest.. we swam this morning and I got 3kms done so very happy and toodled along in my lane focusing on me. But! I had to check myself from comparing and judging and then giving myself a hard time. When am I going to learn? Anyway…….

Is this thing working???…..

What a shit week. I mean seriously! I have been running subpar all week. I even had to have a midday nap on a couple of days. Training also, not that great. I’m feeling loads of mixed emotions right now. Seriously body hating, worrying about not having enough training completed to be able to complete Husky long course in any reasonable time and without embarrassing myself. Losing confidence daily in myself and my abilities and just feeling fat and old. 

I have lost sight of my peers. It seems that laughing about getting to Kona through natural attrition has become a reality. But it also seems that I’m now part of the numbers that are dwindling out the back of the pack. I am now 15kgs overweight and I can’t get it off me. Far out! I also can’t see my peers anymore. I have to work hard to name a few and I get to about 4-5 and that’s it. Im looking for inspiration. Someone or people that can inspire me and lead me to success. It’s so frustrating. I’ve spent so much money in this to possibly fail, or worse, get bored, throw my hands in the air and give up. When is it ok to stop? Im not sure. Maybe I’m flogging a dead horse. Maybe my job was to just show Kez the way and then step aside? Seems very plausible. Seems right. 

Other part of me wants to soldier on for one more Ironman. see this through, finish and walk away. and then drop back to sprints. Have some fun whenever I feel like it. Do bike packing adventures with the family and then just do training with less load and no pressure.

It’s typical prerace, no training doubts. Bowel problems and prerace jitters I guess but I honestly thought the weight would drop off when I started to work again. Diet isn’t always on point, I’m a closet snacker and yes I indulge, but wowsers do I need to be 100% on? I’m currently at 75-76kgs that’s 15 kilos heavier than I was last Ironman and now I can’t get below 75. So drastic measures, engaged! Insert shakes, soups, berries and veggies. I’ll check in next week with update. 

Slowly the positive side of me will return somehow. x

Weekly Recap

In review, A somewhat frustrating and disheartening week unfortunately. 

I just couldn’t seem to get my mojo back.

It’s funny, the family have had 4 weeks together away from work. We have had a wonderful time together. But we all are seeking routine. Interesting, that we complain about the mundane but crave the routine tasks of predictable and comfort. I like the security, the consistency, the routine, the not having to think, the not wasting energy on change. I like knowing Tuesday is bike/swim day.

I was feeling disheartened late last week because I was comparing my journey against others. What the hell is with that? Too much time on the socials and not enough time doing I suspect. Yesterday I just felt blech all day. Went out on a 100km bike ride, to only hit something in the road and smash a tyre and rim. Limp home and lay on the lounge all day. I finally got up and added a 40km Zwift sesh in to help ease the pain. 

The scales don’t move! So fucking frustrating! 

Here’s to the start of another week. The aim is to, back to routine, tick all of the boxes, eat well, sleep well, stretch and find a strategy ready for next weekend. Oh and fix a wheel. 

The beat up

I’d love to be able to say confidently and honestly that I love my body. But the truth is I have mixed emotions. While sometimes I can see how strong I am (example riding 100kms on the bike last weekend) I more often am hating on myself. Too fat, too flabby, to weak, eating wrong, putting weight on…. The list of hate thoughts goes on. I try to remind myself that I am 56 now and it’s ‘ok’ but I am not satisfied with ‘it’s just ok’ I see it as a daily struggle and at night especially I chastise myself for eating that ‘wrong’ thing today only to climb onto the scales in the morning to see the ‘damage’. This years intention is to be kind to myself and learn to accept. Wish me luck.

On other news, I bought a bike. Yes another bike. A Cervelo Caledonia - Oasis. Mrs Plum, my wonderful Specialised roadie will go to my daughter. She gets the best hand-me-downs. My way of keeping her in my life, being fit and happy and can afford to get a good bike by buying mine. It’s a win all round. So following the Cluedo naming convention and the fact that the new bike is green (officially Oasis) Reverend Green or The Reverend! Will be arriving in February. 

I guess at the end of the day the takeaway here is that I’m not stopping anytime soon. Onward and upward, we continue to work. 

Off to the Physio

So a lot has changed over the years. One significant change is that I no longer have a coach. Stagnating in place was a waste of money and so I stopped coaching. A tough decision at the time but in a way, a huge relief. It took the pressure off. But I also lost my way. No coach though, meant also no physio as coach was both. It was ideal at the time because coach could change my program to suit the current injury or issue. But now I go by feel and train around what my body can do. There is a lot less pressure. 

A buddy put me on to this new guy. A young Italian physio who has a different approach to managing my chronic itb issues. He doesn’t hammer the fascia with hours of elbow dragging and needling. Instead he gets into the back of my calf. I can feel the tightness. Yikes!

Also, I had a frozen shoulder. Which was the original reason for going to see him. He has fixed it. But of course now the other shoulder is having troubles. But the physio is all part of Ironman and I go routinely for a treatment. 

I hope though that he can fix my hips. I put my hip out just before Christmas and it left me with some residual tightness in the glute. I think my hip may still be forward. So let’s hope for some positive corrections and so I can run again. 

Lost it….

Because no one reads this but me, I feel safe putting this here.

Where did it go? Far out. 9 years just disappeared in an instant. One minute I was an Ironman triathlete, the next…an old menopausal lady. We’ll post menopausal now to be honest. Constant itb issues ground me down, a program on repeat and try to improve, but never did, left me exhausted and deflated, and new job, lost love, study, injury and suddenly not only am I old, but grossly over weight and miserable also..

I thought signing up for Ironman again would be the motivation I needed to lose the weight. But frustratingly the weight continues to pile on because I am a closet eater. I didn’t realise until recently that I am always snacking. But also, I can’t break away from the sugar. I know I can’t drink alcohol and rarely do. My portions continue to be too big. Husband/chef is always giving me big portions and I have no will power to say stop and not clean my plate. 

While I am getting the training done, the results are not showing on the scales and it seems it’s getting worse!

We went bike packing for two days. Photos of course.

Here it is in all its chubby glory. My rational mind says, “hey Sammi, you’re 56 now and it’s ok to have a few extra pounds” of course Instagram, running with others half my age and being my own worse critic means that I am miserably unhappy with how I look. Regardless of how fit I might be - having ridden 110kms last weekend! Getting older is hard. I forget though, that’s the kicker! So today I bought….a new bike! Far out! And an expensive one at that. Shouldn’t I be winding down now? But I have inspiration. I have Mary, Susan, Angela, Sandra…. All women older than me being fit and healthy and out there. But all  skinnier than me and fit and trim. I need more inspiration from older women. A path to follow. I don’t want to give up, so I pick up my shit and keep going right?!