Iron Jack

“Don’t think about how far you have to go - think about how far you’ve come”, Lee-Anne, 27 May.

And it’s so very true. I called Lee-Anne after my ride in the forest yesterday - it was meant to be 15km and about an hour. Once again I got lost, it was probably about 20km and it took me 90 minutes. And it was scarey! I think that was the worst part.

Mike and I are doing the RATS (Rotorua Association of Triathletes) winter duathlon series which starts next weekend. There is a short course and a long course. The long course consists of a 5km run, followed by 15km mountain bike on forestry roads and single trail, and then another 2km run. Or thereabouts anyway. According to coach, I’m doing the long course.

So yesterday I thought I’d tackle the mountain bike for the long course. Oh my god. Hard. Actually it probably wouldn’t have been that hard if I hadn’t already gone 20 minutes in the wrong direction uphill. No, the real problem was the Tickler trail which is halfway through. It’s meant to be Grade Three but I swear it’s more than that - cycling on narrow ledges on cliffs, skinny bridges, I was feeling panicked, tired and sore.

“Lee-Anne, I’m just calling to tell you I won’t be doing the long course next weekend.”

“Why not?”

“Because I just about killed myself several times by nearly falling over cliffs. And I can barely walk, let alone do the run that goes with it.”

“And? Still not hearing a good reason.”

It was about this point that I started feeling a bit ashamed.

“Jack, you have to push yourself outside your comfort zone, it doesn’t matter how long it takes, it doesn’t matter if you come last, it doesn’t matter if you walk, all you have to do is finish.

“You are doing great. Don’t think about how far you have to go, think about how far you have come. This time last year would you have just got off a 15km bike ride?”

And she’s right. A year ago I literally would have struggled to get to the shops in the village. Now I can comfortably run 5km, swim 2km and bike 25km. If you had told me I’d be doing that a year ago I would have fallen over laughing. Now I can do it, and I’m going to do Ironman as well.

Thanks Lee-Anne.

My Ironman 2011 quest just got a whole lot bigger.

Reebok and Speedo have come on board as sponsors of Ironjack for my 2011 challenge! I am absolutely blown away by their support, thank you to Michael Lim and all the team at Reebok and Speedo.  I won’t let you down.

I’ve just been to try some Reebok gear on at Rebel Sport and a really BIG congratulations to Reebok for having real sizes!!! I have been literally squeezing into the largest sizes of some other brands, but in Reebok I can fit size 16 with room to move - finally, a sports brand that is built for bigger people! Yah!

I have to confess that there is a strategy behind putting myself right out there in this way - the website, the blog, sponsors. It’s all about making this quest so big that there is absolutely no way that I can pull out of it. I figure that if I tell as many people as possible about my quest and its objectives, I quite simply have to go through with it - I’m eliminating as many potential mental obstacles as possible.

There is absolutely no doubt in mind that this will be the biggest physical and mental challenge that I have ever undertaken (yes bigger than Outward Bound, yes bigger than running my own business). I am fully expecting to be completely petrified and full of self-doubt - but isn’t that what life is all about? If we didn’t put ourselves out there - put ourselves beyond the comfort zone, we would never do anything different, we would never experience life to the fullest and we would never grow.

This is completely outside my comfort zone, but it’s the right thing to do for me, for my health, for my sanity and for the future of my family. Bring on the challenge.

Well not today.

After two weeks of continuing to train outdoors in the freezing cold, rain and sleet, today I simply had to call it quits! I did get my 30 minute interval training swim in this morning – indoors at the thermally heated 25 metre pool.

But the 30 minute interval run planned for the forest this afternoon with Leah simply did not happen. I texted her about an hour before we were due to meet – “at what point in the yucky, freezing rain do we draw a line?” I asked. “Hmm, about now I reckon” came the reply.

I am behind this week and was absolutely determined to train today, but the cold has simply got the better of me. My strategy instead today? Stay warm and stay well and get ready for the training programme ahead.

I am disappointed with this week.

I managed to get my swim in while away in Auckland for work. But missed on Tuesday due to travelling back to Rotorua and Wednesday just felt really unwell. Thursday was a good ride, Friday was a great walk, and yesterday just needed to spend time with the family.

I can see a big challenge is going to be balancing work, family and training time so that’s clearly going to need to be a big focus in the months ahead.

Roll on a clean slate this week!

Absolutely stunning morning in Rotorua this morning. Woke up to snow on all of the ranges around the area, and a significant layer on Mt Tarawera - one of those mornings where you feel very very glad not to be living in Auckland!

So given it was only three degrees, what better way to warm up than by a mountain bike ride in the forest! Brrrrrr.

Actually it was meant to be a mountain bike ride followed by a 1km swim as I have a bit of catching up to do on the training front this week. Unfortunately I didn’t make the swim - but that’s a story for a bit later in this post!

So I once again donned my sexy riding outfit - stripey long johns with bike pants over the top - and my old training shoes, just in case it was a bit wet and muddy. I had been pre-warned on that front. Gorgeous drive to the forest with stunning views of the aforementioned snow on the ranges. The car’s temperature gauge was reading a frosty 3 degrees - sometimes slipping to two degrees depending on where I was.

I pulled into the Waipa Mountain Bike carpark and drove through some ice puddles. It appeared that my brisk morning ride in the forest was going to be a very cold exercise.

Nonetheless, I pulled on the gloves and bike helmet and headed into the forest. Lesson learned #1 - freezing!!! Like icicles hitting my face. Lesson learned #2, very wet and very muddy and puddles that seem just one inch deep are in fact a foot deep.

Lessons taken on board, I pressed onwards - and had an absolute blast. Freezing cold, completely wet and muddy, and loving every minute. If this is training then I want more!

My plan this morning was to do my bike interval training on my mountain bike in the forest as I have a MTB duathlon coming up in a few weeks. I had planned to be in the forest for around 40 minutes at the most. I still needed to fit in a 1km interval swim before an 11am meeting. Unfortunately this wasn’t to be.

Somewhere along the Tahi Track I managed to connect onto the Big Dipper Track. I thought I was still on the Tahi when all of a sudden I came up to the Big Dipper - a significant gully that they advice beginners not to attempt - that’s one piece of advice I’m definately taking on board! I have absolutely no idea how I got off Tahi and onto Big Dipper, but I was already running out of time.

I exited the bush onto a forestry road track and promptly set off towards the carpark. Or so I thought. I completely lose all sense of direction in the Kaingaroa Forest and the road that I thought would take me back to the carpark in fact took me in deeper. I had a brief panic moment and decided to just go back and follow the tracks back to my exit point and work back from there. I rode for about another 20 minutes in my efforts to get back onto the main carpark track, taking into account the stunning bush, the large ice puddles and the fact that I was completely on my own in the bush - a wonderful feeling actually.

I eventually made it back onto the main track and headed for the carpark. Another 30 minutes later - no swim for me today!

It was while out on my two hour walk (clocked up over 10 kms!) with my dear friend Kim today that I realised I have reached a major turning point in my journey.

Firstly, we realised that traditionally we would have spent a Sunday afternoon in the pub consuming vast amounts of bubbly.

But secondly, and the more important point to be made today - I have just invested $250 in a pair of cycle shoes.

This is a pretty big breakthrough - in the old days, I would have spent that much money on a beautiful pair of black heels - probably a pair that wasn’t too dissimilar to five pairs I already have. Either way, any spare money (or not spare money for that matter) would go on heels. The fact that I’m choosing to spend that sort of money on shoes that I will wear for exercising, and not for working or dancing, is a significant breakthrough. Clearly I have made a significant mindset change.

Of course the cycling shoes are very cool. White with red highlights. Very cool. And they make my calves look hot too. Always a bonus.

The guys in the bike shop definitely think I’m mad.

Today’s programme was the one I had been dreading all week - 25km bike ride -timed!

Swimming is my strength and I’ve learned to like running, but I’m still not fond of riding. Sore bum, sore shoulders, sore hands. I literally sit there the whole time stewing and grumping as I get more and more annoyed with the road, the cars and the bike.

So it was with some resistance that I mapped out my route last night. I met Mel for a walk this morning and grumped some further about my bike. As she also pointed out (have you and Marie been talking???!!!) that it might be windy and cold on Ironman day so best I get out there regardless - I think I’ve heard this somewhere before!

I rugged up again - the sun was shining but it was very windy and very cold. I can see that my sexy stripey long johns are going to get a real workout this winter. And I headed off. Riding my mountain bike. Mel has kindly loaned me her road bike but unfortunately it’s a fraction too big for me so back to the mountain bike.

Had a good ride in the sun actually. Along a few new roads I hadn’t been on before. Went down past Ohinemutu (gorgeous, I’ll try and find a photo) - discovered I couldn’t get out of Ohinemutu so doubled back again. Around the lakefront and headed out towards my planned route. Bugger. No pedestrian crossing at a very busy intersection. Oh well, carried out on the route I biked earlier this week. Starting to feel very pleased with myself because I knew this would definately add up to my 25kms and I was feeling quite good at this point.

And then I got the first few drops of cold icy rain on my glasses. And then through my helmet. And then I was soaked - it absolutely poured down. And unfortunately despite being warm, I wasn’t dressed for rain.
Managed to get myself across the busy intersection, road around past where I used to work and then down the long home stretch on Fenton St. Bottom very very sore by this point, but the end was in sight.

I arrived at Mike’s work nearly 90 minutes later very wet and cold, but stoked with the effort. Rest day tomorrow. Nice.

Sensational swim today. Two kilometres, 50 minutes, best time yet.

I had been fighting the swim all day. Sort of stuffy nose, feeling tired and average, and knew I hadn’t done nearly enough work.

Fought myself packing my swim bag and tried to talk myself out of it the whole way to the pool. Overcame the urge to turn around and head for home.

Glad I didn’t – what an amazing swim. Felt strong and long in the pool. Every length went by easily – all 80 of them!

Today was a day when I felt like I could do Ironman – well the swim leg anyway!

Roll on the 25km bike tomorrow.

The following events are currently on my radar:

RATS Winter Duathlon - Rotorua
RACE 1: SUNDAY, 7th JUNE - SHORT COURSE (BEGINNERS): 3KM RUN- 8KM MTB- 1.5KM RUN
RACE 3: SUNDAY 2ND AUGUST - LONG COURSE: 4.5KM RUN- 15KM RIDE- 3KM RUN

http://www.rats.org.nz/events.htm
Apparently these are brilliant events for beginners - we’ll see!

Tinman - Mt Maunganui Sunday December 6
1500m swim
40km bike
10km run

http://www.tinmantriathlon.co.nz/main.cfm?id=1241

Tauranga Half Ironman (Gulp!) - 9 January, 2010

http://www.halfironman.co.nz/main.cfm

And I expect there will be some Contact Tri Series races and Ocean Swim Series races thrown in over the summer for good measure.

Best I hit the pool!

The cold hard reality of my Ironman quest set in today – and I literally mean cold, and I literally mean hard!

It was sleeting. I had been hoping it would clear up all day, but the luck was not with me.

This is a big training week this week. I’ve had the all clear on my recently sprained ankle and Lee-Anne has clearly decided it’s time to step things up a notch! Today’s programme involved a 15km bike ride followed by a 5km run. I have ridden 15km recently, but I haven’t run 5km for a while and I haven’t put the two together since the end of February.

So despite the sleet and snow (okay so it wasn’t quite snowing, but if you used your imagination it could have been) I was determined to get underway. And as my friend Marie said recently, it might be hailing and blowing a gale on Ironman day so I may as well get used to it now!

I thought I might have gone a bit overboard on my training outfit today, but as soon as I hit the bike I knew I’d got it right. I was modelling very sexy stripy thermal long-johns with my bike pants over the top; another stripy thermal top underneath a further thermal top; a red spray jacket and gloves. A very attractive ensemble.

That’s the cold reality dealt with. Now comes the hard reality part. It was bloody hard today! The bike ride went pretty well – especially since I was on my mountain bike with the nobbly tyres (is that a strict technical term??). I actually enjoyed it and the 15km went pretty quickly.

I got back to the car, loaded up my bike, whipped off my bike pants, plugged in the MP3 player and headed off across the park. By the time I’d gone 10 steps I was aching everywhere and not in my happy place. Usually four minutes is my running barrier – by the time I’ve gone four minutes I’m in my rhythm and usually feeling pretty comfortable. Not so today. I didn’t have an especially hard ride, but it has been so long since I’ve got off the bike and run, my body objected in a big way.

So I had a decision to make. Keep going or call it quits. I went for keep going.

It was a long hard run that I thought would never end. But 40 minutes later I was back at the car and my 5km was done. Stoked. Rest day tomorrow – bring it on!

I’m going to do Ironman 2011.

Did that get your attention? It sure got mine!

I’m a 35 year-old, overweight, clinically obese, self-employed mother of two small boys. Surely I can’t possibly complete the Ironman distance of a 3.8 kilometre swim, 180 kilometre bike ride, and 42.2 kilometre marathon – can I?

I’m going to.

If there is anything that this 35 year old, overweight, self-employed mother of two knows how to do, it is setting goals – the bigger, the better. But even I have to confess that I may have outdone myself this time.

So how did I get to “I’m going to do Ironman 2011”? It’s actually been a very short two month journey from my first triathlon on January 4, to my fifth on February 15, to my big hairy audacious goal of Ironman in 2011.

I’ve also been “into” triathlons since I watched Hamish Carter and Bevan Docherty battle out it for gold and silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics. I was fortunate to be offered the opportunity to work with the sport shortly afterwards in my professional capacity and my fascination with the sport has continued ever since.

But it wasn’t until just before Christmas 2008 that I literally got off my butt and onto a bike, doing that first triathlon just two weeks later. I came last. The bike just about killed me. I had to walk the run. But I was addicted.

I did the next one two weeks later. Loved it, ran the whole way, beat my time by 14 minutes.

All of a sudden I had more energy. I actually wanted to run around outside with the kids. I found I didn’t want that glass of wine and I started eating properly. For the first time in many years, I felt alive. I feel alive. And I want that feeling to last.

So that’s how I ended up with the big goal.

The first step was talking to my doctor to see if I was medically able to do it. I am.

The second step was getting some new orthotics (the last pair were more than 10 years old!) and some new running shoes. Tick.

The third step was telling my husband. After a short discussion he joined the support crew – he’s used to supporting my mad-cap ambitions.

The next step was organising my trainer. Two years is a decent amount of time for preparation, but I’m going to need every one of those 730 days to prepare myself and there wasn’t a moment to lose.

A cup of coffee with Lee-Anne Wann (the dynamic trainer from TV3’s Downsize Me) later and our plan was underway.

I’m committed to achieving this goal, not just for me, but for other busy, everyday working mums (and dads) to prove that you don’t have to be extreme to take on Ironman – you just have to do it.