Iron Jack

I’ve been a bit up and down lately about my ability to complete the Tauranga Half Ironman on January 9. Its now very nearly only a month away. I nearly spammed the email from the organisers informing it was just weeks away - immediately before nearly throwing up with fear!

My training has been sporadic to say the least over recent weeks due to a combination of illness, work and family commitments. I have been dreading every weekend that goes by and actually completely freaking out about the whole thing.

But this weekend I’m on an up and my level of self-belief is on the rise.

Yesterday Mike and I ran for 1h45 minutes non-stop (alright, bar two toilet stops but I stopped my watch during both so that I wasn’t cheating on my time!).

This is a huge milestone for me. The longest I have ever run was for an hour, and the last time I did that was months ago. This time not from bailing on training, but because we have been focusing on the bike and swim.

I’ve been dreading this run every since I got my new programme at the beginning of the month. I don’t know where Lawrence got the idea I could run for that long, but I certainly didn’t think I could.

Mary-Ann told me to have faith on Friday.

“It will be all good. I have found everything Lawrence has given me has been achievable, even if I didn’t think so before I began.”

And as usual she was right.

The babysitter arrived and we high-tailed it out the door before the kids realised we were leaving. We arrived at the Redwood Forest and hit the track before I could change my mind. We had mapped out a big loop before we left, and figured that we would probably do it twice.

The first loop took 45 minutes. It was very comfortable and actually very enjoyable. Loved running with Mike. He’s faster than me, but just ran about 20 paces ahead and I toddled along behind. Toilet and carbo stop and then back out onto the track again. Still feeling very comfortable - and very surprised!

My knees and ankle joints started getting a bit uncomfortable about two-thirds the way around, but I was still feeling great. So great that we actually did the second loop faster than the first, and ended up tacking on another 2km in the forest to make up our 1h45! And I actually felt like I could have done another round. Its difficult to map the distance due to the forest and stream tracks, but it would have been between 12 and 14 kilometres - half my Half Ironman run distance!

I was absolutely stoked - actually over the moon. Who would have thought that 12 months ago I would be running that long. Certainly not me. I couldn’t run 10 minutes to save myself. To be fair, I was running fresh, without a 2km swim or 90km run beforehand, but just to get that sort of distance and duration under my belt is a huge boost.

Turns out Lawrence knows what he’s talking about - and Mary-Ann was right. It was completely achievable.

My race preparation for the first official triathlon of the 2009/2010 season wasn’t ideal.

I drove out to the Blue Lake with Mum and Oli to register and collect our race packs. The only downside to living in semi-rural Ngongotaha (which we love) is that we are now on the absolutely other side of town from the Blue Lake – and on the opposite side of Lake Rotorua! On a good day it’s at least a 25 minute drive – which, when everything else is only five minutes away, it’s a bit of a pain. I know, all you city folk, we’re lucky!

Anyway, we rocked up on a bit of a timeframe. It was Mum’s birthday – a bit of a milestone for her – and we were due out to dinner. The boys were both fractious and we needed to hurry. We collected Alison on the way, who had brought her wetsuit with her for dipping. I hadn’t. I had read on the race instructions that all the wetsuits would be dipped before racing to prevent the spread of a noxious weed, didymo, to our beautiful North Island lakes. However, I completely missed the bit where it said that you couldn’t collect your race pack until your wetsuit had been dipped.

Bugger.

No amount of begging and cajoling the DOC warriors would convince them to let me through. They informed me I could just dip it and then collect my race pack in the morning.

There was absolutely no way I wanted to do that. I have enough problems with my stomach on a normal day, let alone with pre-race nerves, so I didn’t want to add to that pressure.

We drove all the way back to Ngongotaha, I got dressed into my party clothes, and then Dad and I drove all the way back to the Blue Lake again. And then back halfway to home to go out to dinner.

Dinner over, it was home to prep the race bags, get the number onto my race belt and spend two hours looking for my tri pants. Then off for a semi-early night.

Alarm went off early, and Mum and I managed to get out the door early. And arrived at the Blue Lake to find ourselves the only people there. We had taken the concept of “being prepared” to a whole new level.

Actually we needed to be. In my infinite wisdom, I had told the folk at TriNZ that Mum and I were doing this triathlon together for her big birthday – they thought it was a great story and lined us up for interviews for TriTV which screens on TV One later in the season, and also Sky Sport. We were followed by cameras for most of the event – a hilarious feeling, we felt like real sports stars.

At least it distracted us from the fact it was pouring with rain and the lake was bitterly cold.

Finally the pre-briefing was done and we suited up and headed for the start. After testing the water I had thought it was slightly cooler than two weeks before. Wrong! It was freezing. Really took my breath away and made it very difficult to swim. I felt like I barely made it to the other end and the whole way, all I could think about was finally getting out!

I eventually rounded the buoy and headed for the beach, knowing it had been an average time to say the least. The cold really took its toll and it was a long walk up the hill from the beach to transition. I only broke into a run once I could see my bike!

Really quick transition into my cycle shoes, out the gate and off. I felt great on the bike. It was pretty warm. I had decided to just wear my Reebok singlet with my tri pants and it worked really well under my wetsuit. Really comfortable and dried quickly.

The route out to the turnaround point went pretty well, hills included. I was actually enjoying the ride and went absolutely whizzing down the hills, passing lots of people. I made a good turn and started for the return leg. And promptly lost my drink bottle. Bugger. I’ve been having quite a few problems getting dehydrated lately and this wasn’t a good start!

The hills back up felt much longer and harder than they had previously. I eventually got there though and headed back to transition. By this time most of the RATs club had arrived at the Blue Lake to help marshall for the next event. Everyone was cheering for me – it was absolutely awesome. Mike was also there with both the boys, and Dad yelling from the sidelines:

“Come on knickers!” Well no event would be completely without that from my Dad so it was all good.

I’d also been keeping an eye on Mum and she was doing really well.

Transition into running shoes and off. The 3km run leg was up for 1.5km and then down. Its quite a challenging run as I know from experience. I couldn’t wait for the turnaround, and then I couldn’t wait to get back.

I had quite a strong finish, but got passed at the last minute which was gutting!

The highlight, however, was a big hug from World Champion Triathlete Sam Warriner at the finish line. Absolutely awesome. I’d also caught up with her earlier in the day. That will have to be the topic for the next blog post because this is already the size of a novel.

I grabbed a jacket and headed back to meet Mum. She wasn’t that far behind and had run the whole way. She had an awesome event and loved every minute.

So overall, a good first hit for the season, but I felt like it was really hard work – much harder than the short one I’d done with Lawrence just a few weeks ago. I felt like I hadn’t improved much over the year at all.

Until the next day. Mum charted our results against the one we did in January, and there were some definite improvements! Then I asked her to chart it against all my results from earlier in the year and it turns out I knocked two minutes off my previous best time – and on a much harder course. So eventually I was stoked!

So, results from the 3:9:3 – 300m swim, 9km run (except it was 10!) and 3km run:

Swim including T1:     10:38

Bike including T2:       29.43

Run including T3:        22:30

Total:               1:02:51

First race of the season…done!

After a week without training, and still with a fairly decent dose of a head cold, I was absolutely determined to get out for my week’s “long ride”. With just under two months to go until the Half Ironman, I am really conscious that I need to get some serious miles under my belt – or under my tyres as it were.

So even though I was still feeling very much under the weather, I had arranged to meet my friend Mary-Ann halfway into town. I set the alarm for 6:30am. Incidentally – who sets their alarm for 6:30am on a weekend? Clearly I am completely mad.

I was up before the alarm went off anyway – the alarm clock that is Toby went off well before 6:30am!

Usual story. I fuelled my body, suited up, took some deep breaths and headed out the door.

Halfway up the road I realised my tyres were seriously flat. I berated myself yet again. I always try to be so prepared, but I always miss something. I couldn’t turn back though – we had arranged to each leave at 7:30am and meet somewhere in the middle.

I had a reasonable ride into town – considering I couldn’t really breathe and had tyres that were flat as a pancake!

I eventually spotted another flash of fluro yellow heading down the road towards me. After flipping a u-turn on the main road, the usual discussion about where to go ensued. We decided to go for a very leisurely ride around the lake – me because I was struggling with my cold, and Mary-Ann because it had been a few weeks since she’d been out on the road. But first we headed back to Mary-Ann’s house so I could pump up my tyres.

First lesson of the day. It turns out, that if you don’t unscrew the end on the valve, you don’t pump any air into your tyres. At all. No wonder they keep going flat, despite me spending lots of time “pumping” them up.

We headed back out again. I was finding it quite a hard ride I have to say.

Mary-Ann is much faster than me, but we had agreed that she should just go on ahead and I would get there eventually. She was doing me a huge favour by keeping me company – and in turn I was doing her a favour by actually getting her off the wind trainer and onto the road! A great arrangement and a great team!

I finally caught her up after she had stopped to wait for me by the Tauranga Direct Road.

“I’m doing it really hard today,” I panted.

“You do realise you’re in your big chain ring don’t you,” she asked in return.

Unbelievable. I felt like such a winner (said with complete sarcasm and meaning a complete dick!) Second lesson of the day.

Fortunately I was out riding with the woman who has fallen off her wind trainer twice at our spin sessions, and put a hole in her wetsuit immediately after our coach told her to cut her nails! Third and fourth lessons of the day to keep in mind!

We’re both of the firm view that this whole thing has to be fun – if it’s not, it’s not worth doing. Yes we’re both very serious about it, but by god we’re going to have a good laugh as well.

Once I’d stopped splitting my sides we carried on.

With a strong head and cross wind, it was a long ride around the lake. But good.

We went our separate ways at Fairy Springs Road and I rode the rest of the way home.

In a continuation of the comedy of errors that was our ride, both of us had forgotten to re-start our bike computers after one of our stops, so neither of us had any idea exactly how far we had ridden – or for how long.

When I got home I headed straight for the computer to map the route. Nearly 65km. Fantastic! My longest ride yet and my longest time on the bike. It gave me a fantastic confidence boost and I finally feel like I will be able to do the ride section of the Half Ironman. I’m nearly there and I now know I can do it.

A great ride. A fantastic riding companion. All good.

I just wanted to share an inspirational comment that was left on my blog last week. This is what Project Ironjack is all about and I’m blown away to be able to make a difference.

“Well as testiment to just how inspirational you were on that night of activator (as per your post on Fri 6th Nov)…. I have committed myself to Ironman 2012…… There, I have said it out loud! For years I have said I was going to do one by the time I was 40, well thats now only 5 short yrs away, its time to put thoughts to practice and you Jacky were my inspiration. On the first night of activator we had to share why we were there, I mentioned my long term goal which I was not prepared to say out loud. Your talk totally blew me away. Everything you said hit home and turned my dreams into reality. Thanks so much. Another sign was winning the 2XU wetsuit for my entry in the Contact tri at Bluelake on 22nd Nov. If that isnt a sign telling me something, I don’t know what is! Good luck with your training, I love reading your Blogs and following your progress… Am right there with ya! (Only a year behind!)”

I wouldn’t have even got underway on this journey without the support and motivation from Lee-Anne, so Lee, this one’s for you!

This Saturday dawned bright and clear, and I felt absolutely miserable.

I was (and still am) completely full of head cold. I hadn’t been able to train since Tuesday morning - missing six training sessions as a result. And completely freaking out about how quickly the Tauranga Half Ironman is creeping up.

This was in complete contrast to the previous Saturday…which also dawned bright and clear. Don’t you just love the onset of summer after a long, cold winter?

Anyway, on the previous Friday night I was like a little kid the night before Christmas. Or a labrador puppy waiting to go for a walk. I was absolutely beside myself with excitement.

And the reason for the extreme excitement? The first triathlon of the 2009/10 season!! Wahoo!

It was just a little, informal triathlon organised by my coach. A short 300m-ish swim in the lake, a nine-km ride on the Okareka Loop Road (ugly) and a 5.5km run around the Blue Lake. But it was the first tri of the season and it was worth wagging my tail over!

I sorted out all my gear the night before. And double-checked it. And triple-checked it. I carbo-loaded. I got an early night. Honestly, you would have thought it was the Ironman the way I was carrying on.

I got up early, had the right breakfast, packed the car, cranked up the stereo, and headed off. I was halfway to town when I spotted some cyclists coming towards me.

“Bugger!” I screeched on the brakes and flipped a u-turn. All my early preparation came to nothing. I’d forgotten my helmet.

Back home, in the gate, run to the garage, get the helmet, run back, repeat the earlier paragraph. Am now running late.

Fortunately Lawrence’s little informal triathlon was very informal and the organisation was very flexible. I pulled up at the lakefront to find fellow RATs members in various stages of preparation.

I hauled all my gear out of the car and set up next to a fence. Still beside myself with excitement and suffering none of the nerves I had done with the start of the previous season. Not only was this the first triathlon of the season, it was also the first time I had ridden Dr Alice’s bike in an event, and the first time I’d done an event in my clips and riding shoes.

I peeled on my wetsuit - which I should note at this point fits me significantly better than last season and is no longer such a struggle to get on. Losing 10kg will do that I suppose!

It was only at this point that I took my first apprehensive look at the lake. It was a stunning day, but it was a cool wind, and I knew it would be freezing. That was to be the understatement of the year. I walked in to the water to try and aclimatise. Wherever the wetsuit covered was fine - wherever it didn’t was not! My feet were absolutely freezing, and my fingers went numb just from dipping them in the water. This was not going to be okay.

Race briefing. Very brief, very informal.

I whispered Lawrence’s wife - and Camp Mother, Lisa - that I might not make it all the way to the buoy, but I’d go as far as I could in the cold.

“No problem,” she reassured me.

Five minutes later we were off.

And it took my breath away. Quite literally. I managed to swim freestyle strokes with my head out of the water, putting my face in the water every few strokes. Then I tried a few breastrokes.

“This is ridiculous,” I thought. “Get hard.”

And that was it. I swam the rest of the way - all the way out to the buoy and then back in again. And I wasn’t last. And I beat a boy. Nice.

Peeled off the wetsuit, straight into the bike shoes and onto the bike. Nice.

Started the bike, slight incline, long downhill, long flat. Nice. Then up. And up. And up. And around a corner. And up. I had completely forgotten how hilly this very short loop road is. But I got up those hills very well - even though they lasted for about five kilometres. I even managed to stand up on my pedals. A lot. Very pleased with the effort.

I screeched to a halt (literally I think) in front of my fence post - remembering to take my clips out first! On with the shoes and off.

Feeling absolutely fantastic. Those brick sessions are really paying off. Had a fantastic run on what is a reasonably challenging route for me. I was about two-thirds of the way around when Lawrence flew past me like a lightening flash.

“Well done Jacky!” he yelled on his way past. I didn’t know whether to feel proud that he thought I was doing so well, or offended that he had expected otherwise! I decided on the former and let that carry me home.

I was on an absolute high - in fact I was buzzing the whole time, even going up the hills. I loved every second of it. That high carried me through the rest of the weekend - and my first three and a half hour ride the next day.

Which is why I was so gutted to come down with a cold the next day. But just writing the race report for this mini-tri already brings the buzz back. I can’t wait for this season. I will be slightly underdone for the Half Ironman, but I will be ready. Bring it on.

Lawrence’s Mini Tri race times:

Swim: 00:11:47

Bike: 00:29:54

Run: 00:49:55*

Total: 01:31:36**

* if I hadn’t stopped to go to the bathroom I would have done a sub-45 minute run - bugger!

** if I hadn’t stopped to go to the bathroom I would have done a sub-1h30 tri - bugger!

Last night I took some of my own advice.

Two weeks ago I was honoured to be asked to speak to Rotorua’s Activator Series. (http://www.getactivestayactive.co.nz/) This a group of super-inspirational women. Some haven’t been active for a while for a number of different reasons, and some never have been. The series started several years ago, and I actually registered for the series back then. But I bailed after the first two sessions. I was too far out of my comfort zone and wasn’t committed to fight for my time. I finally got there, and Ironjack is proof of that.

This year the series had room for 50 places and they filled all those spots and even had a waiting list with nearly as many again. All women, all desperate to get out there and give it a go, and to get the support they need to get out there and give it a go.

My slot on the programme was meant to be about time management. Unfortunately it wasn’t a week to use as a good example of time management. I raced in the door to the pool from work with as much decorum as a floundering elephant. I had meant to do a cool, snazzy presentation describing my journey, my goals, my challenges, my success stories and how our manic lives manage to come together to allow me to do this. But I hadn’t had time to do that, and I’d barely had time to scrawl myself some notes about what I wanted to say.

So I decided to just speak from the heart, to talk about how life used to be for the sedentary Jacky. About my first small triathlon on January 4, and how that grew to be taking on an Ironman in 2011. I talked about what life looks like for me - two jobs, two kids, training and a husband! I talked about how we manage to juggle everything and make it work. I talked about how I prioritise and fight for my training time because it is so important to my health and state of mind. I talked about how I now have energy to run around with the boys.

I think I covered a lifetime in five minutes flat. I felt like it was a disorganised mess, but it was certainly real.

And they enjoyed it, and asked questions - lots of them. And I even knew the answers. Who would have thought that I would be able to advise someone to ensure they have some form of protein within 30 minutes of exercising in order to encourage recovery and to be ready for the next session the next day. Who have thought? Certainly not me.

One of the questions was about what to do if you’re just feeling shattered and you just can’t get out there for a run, swim or bike.

I feel like this all the time. I have these constant debates in my head about how tired I am, and how I might be able to compromise by doing a double session the next day. But of course I never do.

If you’re feeling truely tired and exhausted you can do one of two things.

Whenever I’m feeling knackered my coach says get out there and start. If you’re still feeling rotten after 15 minutes, then you can go home and go to bed. But more often than not, you actually feel fine once you get going and before long, your training session is done.

Or, rather than do a training session that you absolutely hate, and potentially making it even more difficult to go again in the future…don’t go. And don’t beat yourself up about it. But make a plan to ensure you get back out there the next day. Phone a friend, make a plan to meet up for a walk or a swim; arrange to walk or bike to work. By all means have a day off, but make sure you have a plan to get going again the next day.

I’ve employed both these strategies. And last night I used the first one. I was so tired when I got home I was practically falling asleep at the table . I had that internal debate with myself for about an hour. I finally decided to get dressed and go. The dog was so excited when he saw the running shoes come out he started doing loops of the house.

I headed out the driveway and it was hard going. I knew it was going to be hard going - you can’t have nearly two weeks off and expect it to be easy. But sure enough, by the time I got to 15 minutes I was actually going pretty well. Sure, the second half was pure hell, but I still ran the 5.6km in my personal best time of 45 minutes so it can’t have been that bad.

And I was stoked to have got the training session out of the way.

So, last night was a case of actually doing as I say. Who would have thought?

And just to make me feel really great, here’s some feedback from the Activator series:

Wow what an awsome night Tuesday night.  I personally felt the speaker was fantastic and very real!!!  Very inspirational. 

I really enjoyed the last session with Jacky talking about her goal to do ironman in 2011.  It was so great to hear how she manages to juggle everything and still be realistic and confident about how it all works out.

Thanks again for another great night on Tuesday, Jacky was great, very inspiring.

Its time to get back in the saddle - literally and metaphorically!

After nearly two weeks of pretty average training, its time to get back on the training programme, back on the eating programme and back to early starts for swim squad.

The first week of my two week hiatus started off okay, but then very quickly (as Lawrence would say) life happened. I was already pretty stretched at work trying to get ready to go on holiday - you know what its like, five days to get five weeks worth done. This was compounded by the fact that I agreed to take on an additional writing contract - with a really short deadline.

So I was already struggling to fit training in. Sometimes work just has to be a priority.

And then, devestating news, we lost Aunty Gwen to a long and brave battle with ovarian cancer. Fully credited with transforming blind education in New Zealand, she is an inspirational woman, mother, wife and “Aunty” to Mike, his siblings, and the rest of us lucky lot who happened to marry into the family.

My compounded week just got even worse.

Panic email to Coach Lawrence.

“Help!”

Emergency planning session the next day.

“Life happens, work happens,” he said. “Lets remove some stress and work around it.”

Phew. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. We planned out some sessions that would be “good to get done” sessions for that week, including swim squad, and some holiday sessions for while we were away. I managed all the “good to get done” sessons that week, and while we did lots of long walks while we were on holiday, I only managed two formal sessions in Queenstown - an average swim and a FANTASTIC run in Glenorchy.

Its now been five days since I last did some exercise and boy can I feel it. My whole body - and my mind - feel completely sluggish.

And I’m really struggling with my stomach. Unfortunately I suffer badly from IBS - Irritable Bowel Syndrome. That will have to be a whole other blog post, but the short story is that since I started training regularly in January, I haven’t had any problems with my IBS - even in periods of massive stress which is when its usually its worst. Who would have thought that exercise could actually be good for you? Anyway, the IBS situation has been deteriorating rapidly since about Saturday, thanks to a combination of rich food, many wines, lots of chocolate and most  importantly, no exercise. I had a very uncomfortable and sleepness night with cramps, which have continued today.

So, I have a whole pile of reasons to get back on the bike tonight.

• If I don’t get motivated again right now, I’m scared I won’t get going again.
• The Half Ironman is just two months away and there is a lot of work to be done.
• I need to clear my mind and get focused on the work front and exercise will help me do that.
• Most importantly, I need to heal my digestive system and fast.

So the computer is about to go off and the wind trainer is about to come out.

Good-bye wine and chocolate, hello bike pants.