50 Thoughts While Cycling 100km

Yesterday I took part in the Wairarapa Women's 100 which involved cycling 100km throughout the Wairarapa starting and finishing in beautiful Martinborough. 

It was 6am on a Sunday. I only wanted to quit 27 times. Then I got out of bed.

Below is a general idea of what was going through my head throughout this challenging ride.

1. Alright, here we go. 100k. Should be ok, looking forward to my bath afterwards.
2. Shit, forgot to start my Garmin.
3. Oops, need to learn to signal when stopping. People get quite wound up when they nearly crash into you. Sorry! I'm a newbie!
4. Hills already?! 
5. Probably should have grabbed a map. I hope Louise knows where we are going.
6. I hate downhill. How do people relax through this?! I might die!
7. Still alive. Although if every car passes at that speed I actually might die!
8. How far have we gone, must be at least 30km by now. 11km?! What the f**k?!
9. So many hills! My legs are shot. Lucky theres only... 85km to go...uuuuuuuggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!
10. I should definitely do a blog post about this to remind myself how much pain I can endure. 
11. I am amazing for doing this. 20km done. 20km?! This sucks!!!
12. Will be interesting to see how my legs cope with a run after this.
13. Need to learn how to balance and drink at the same time. Stopping to have a big skull of water is not efficient riding. 
14. My legs are a little numb. Screw running!
15. Back on the road...long, straight country roads. Thank god it's not windy!
16. Hey I know that house on Longbush Road!
17. Gladstone pub..wonder if anyone would notice if I just stopped here for a drink. Im sure mum would pick me up.
18. Fine, I'll keep going.
19. Wiiiiiiiiiind suuuuuuucks!
20. Need water so badly! I'll stop at 40km. 2 km to go. Wait, there is a yellow jacket ahead of me in the distance. I'll stop when I catch her. How the fuck have I only ridden 38km!!?
21. Wind is now tail wind, so close to the girl ahead of me. Tailwind is amazing. I'm so fast and awesome.
22. Yusss! Got her! And she looks to be in as much pain as me! My ass is so numb I think it's permanently bruised. Oh nice! 45km!
23. Drink and feed time, quick stretch and ready to catch the yellow jacket again.
24. Amazing how good sugar feels, it's like I'm high!
25. Weeeeeeeeeeeee!
26. I know what I'll write my blog about. 100 thoughts while riding 100km! I'm sure people would LOVE to know the crazy that is in my head.
27. It feels amazing when I lift slightly off my saddle in relieve the pressure on my lady bits. And sitting back down, not so fun. Ow.
28. 50 thoughts is probably a better blog. I think about a lot of rubbish.
29. Why do people attack on such small hills? Look how much faster I am than you in my saddle. Look at me go.
30. Do I have a flat tyre? Or maybe my brakes are locked on again. This is hard. Nope, just hard. Damnit.
31. Getting close to the end of this loop surely! I need more water. And a cuddle.
32. I reckon 66km is enough. I could go for a run after this while the others finish the loop. 
33. Running is a terrible idea! With legs this sore, that is the dumbest idea yet.
34. 66km done. It feels amazing to get off my bike! I don't think I can finish this. I reckon I'm done. I don't know where to go anyway. That's a good excuse.
35. Wait, Im back on my bike. How did this happen? Why am I still going? Ah screw it, 34km to go. I can do this. 
36. I probably should have filled up my water bottles. I have half a OSM bar left. That's gonna go down like dry Weetbix.
37. That is the biggest hill I have ever seen in my life! Who puts a giant hill this far into a 100km ride?! This is f**king insane!
38. That wasn't so bad. Oh that's gonna be a relief to ride back down!
39. Only 7km to go, then I'm half way around this loop and I can cruise home.
40. Hey Les Mills people! Heeeeeeey!!!
41. I am pretty good at this uphill thing. Pity I can't hold any pace on the flat!
42. Headwind. 14km/hr. On the flat. 
43. I think I have a leaf in my eye.
44. Last 12km. I've got this. Feeling a little hungry but I can boost home and eat all the food I want.
45. 10km. Why is my vision kinda black? Oh, I should eat. 
46. Yup, eating is important. How the f**k am I going to run a half marathon after cycling this sort of distance. 
47. Where is that big hill?! I need to give my poor vagina a break. Numb ass. Broken legs. Damaged vagina. Why do people do this for fun?
48. There's the hill! Relief! Weeeeeeeeeeee!!!
49. 100km done. How am I not even in Martinborough town yet?! Ooooh Palliser Estate. I'll just stay here.
50. Done. Feed me. Someone. Anyone? Iced chocolate. Heaven. Holy crap, I just rode 100km! That's awesome!

The course, my awesome shoes, the after photo. One of my eyes is half closed because I was so shattered. I also badly needed a shower.

Off to Taupo on Wednesday with Emma for a few days of hard training then running 10km in the Taupo Marathon series. Next update next week!

Confessions of an Athlete Mind

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned. It's been 2 months since my last blog post.

I honestly thought I'd be further along in my training than I am, and I definitely didn't think I'd hit a slump this big. I worried about a friend a few months ago when she wasn't driven in her training towards this huge goal we both have ahead of us. Now, it's me that's struggling for drive. Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's my disorganised nutrition, or maybe I'm still creating excuses and forgetting about my WHY.

So what's happened since May?

Long story short, my injury came back as a sprain. Simple injury, not so simple cause. Turns out my glutes don't really do their job. They sit in the right place and make my jeans look great but they don't contract and stabilise my legs like they are supposed to. When your foot strikes the ground in a walking or running motion, the muscles, tendons and ligaments in your legs all work together to stabilise the movement into a smooth forward moving motion. In my case, my glutes are lazy. This means the load from foot impact, which should be absorbed by the giant muscle in my butt, was predominantly being handled by the little ligaments in my ankle and the tendons of the teeny stabiliser muscles in my calves. Good one ass. 
What this also meant was 4 weeks of no high impact exercise and a LOT of glute exercises. No running. No BodyAttack. Just a whole lot of controlled body weight exercises to wake up my lazy ass. 

Thank god I still had RPM

Now my training consisted of rehab training, RPM, swimming and the odd outdoor ride. 
I got stuck into the swimming and am comfortably doing 1500m in the pool in around 50 mins. Not fast, but consistent. 
I got stuck into the cycling and tagged along with a women's cycling group Revolve, learned a lot about road cycling etiquette, how to battle hills (downhill is terrifying and uphill is bloody tough with the brakes locked on) and even braved clipping in...and falling off. Several times. 

Things were looking pretty good. New programme, new motivation, new successes. Now I've hit a wall. 
I've lost momentum.
I'm in a slump.


Don't get me wrong, I'm not quitting. I'm just lacking energy and drive and need to remember why I started. 
So here I am, laying it all out on the table. As amazing and fit as my Instagram account makes me seem, I have shit training weeks (on in this case, months) and even worse eating weeks. I still use excuses to justify my actions and it's not getting me anywhere. 

I started this blog to hold myself accountable and to remind myself of the struggles I go through to get to the start line of the IronMaori Half Iron man on the 5th December. It's to remind me that no matter how tough things get, I know I can achieve this goal. I just need to remember why I started.

Last confession. My real WHY.
I took on this BHAG because I knew it was something I would have to work for. Something I would have to push past excuses to achieve. I didn't enter into this to inspire others and be a success in other people's eyes. I entered into this to inspire MYSELF. To prove to myself that my excuses are my own, and therefore to be broken by only me. 

I did this to be a stronger ME. 
And if I can inspire others to be stronger along the way, then that's pretty freaken awesome too.

At the end of this month Emma and I are heading up to Taupo for an intensive training weekend and I'll be running the 10km in the Taupo Marathon series. 
My next post will be my plan on how to pull myself out of this slump to ensure I am ready for that week.

Slow Down to Speed Up

I'm injured.

Great way to start a training blog, I know.

The lesson here is learning to listen. To your trainers, to your body, and apparently to your physio. Sigh.

Over the last few weeks I have learned about different training runs. Apparently the best way to train is not to just run progressively longer distances as fast as you can over a period of time. In fact, slowing right down can actually increase your cardio fitness and energy burn faster than going full-effort all the time. 

Mixing up hill running, tempo running, interval training and endurance slow pace running is the key. 

The slow stuff is where I have struggled up until now. Since I've been training consistently, I've been pushing my body pretty hard. It's never been "slow and steady wins the race". I'm used to feeling uncomfortable, which usually means that my body ends up sore and my workouts are short in duration. While it's all well and good to smash out a 10km as fast as possible, having to walk or crawl the remaining 11km isn't going to serve me, which means I need to slow down to speed up over all. 

Top of Mt Victoria after my second lap to the summit.
This face is for you Emma. It says "thank" you or something to that effect ;)

Redefining "Easy"

To me, an easy workout is something that I recover quickly from. A workout I'm not gasping for air and wishing was over. A 15km run didn't really come in into that category. According to those in the know, an "easy run" is where your heart rate sits at around 65-75% of your max. For me this is about 143bpm. I really struggle to keep my heart rate this low when running and I would pretty much be walking. Emma and I agreed that sitting in this zone should be conversational and feel cruisy. She set me a 15km run, and I held my heartrate around 155bpm and I did it. And it actually felt kind of easy (OK the last 3km killed me, but i finished it and I didn't need a nap).

I got slower and slower but my heart rate stayed stable and I didn't push to exhaustion

From here, Emma has put me through the paces figuring out my max 1km pace, my 3.5km pace, and tested me on a few hills. 

L-R: 1km intervals 45s rest between; 3.5km treadmill run (I had to stop, ugh!); 2 x Mt Vic hill run

Redesigning running

Working closely with Emma has given her the chance to really have a look at how I run and why I struggle to hold a faster pace. She's picked up a few anomalies in my running gait and areas of tightness and weakness in my hips and legs. Tight hips and hammys doesn't just mean I struggle to touch my toes (who needs to do that anyway), it also means I have to work harder to get the muscle to stretch so it can contract and propel me forward. It means I run slower and with a shorter stride. No wonder my poor heart is working over time to get me to run at an easy pace!

Now, not only do I have to work on slowing my running pace, but I have to look at slowing progressions with some of my strength training movements (squats, lunges etc) to teach my body to follow the correct movement patterns to improve my running gait. Lots of stretching, mobility and simple body weight exercises to get the right muscles firing.


So this is why I'm injured

Last week I went to visit Maddie, my physio at Proactive Rehab for a normal follow up on a niggle I've had in my foot for a few weeks that just isn't improving. She's been quite frustrated with this in not knowing what's causing the issue so did a little stress fracture test with therapeutic ultrasound. The result came back painfully suggestive that a small stress fracture may in fact be the issue. I've since been for an x-ray which showed nothing and have an ultrasound booked for this week which will hopefully give us an indication of what's going on. A stress fracture or ligament tear will mean up to 3 months recovery, not including rehab, which means no running, no BodyAttack and no July half marathon. What I'm hoping is that it is a bit of inflammation which can be managed with corrective mobility and strength training, along with a regime of ice and anti-inflammatories. 

Damn straight, I cried.

How the hell did this happen?

Yup, stress fractures often come from doing too much when your body isn't ready. Yup, this probably could have been caused by introducing long distance running and training to instruct BodyAttack all at once. They can also be caused by incorrect technique from slight misalignments in running gait. 
They aren't helped by pushing through the pain and not listening to your body. Sometimes it takes a badly landed tuck jump and someone to literally tell you to sit down, and f*cking stop. Thanks Mid. 

FOMO at Group Fitness Instructor Multi Module. #Cankle
I still passed though!

The new plan

Below is my new programme for this month designed by Emma (assuming I am given the go ahead to continue running. Please cross all fingers and toes, arms, legs and other appendages for me) which has been cut back to give me more rest, recovery and rehab. 
I've dropped one weights session (leaving just one each with Cath and Scotty now) and have limited the number of Attack classes I go to. My cycling has also been reduced to just my RPM classes while we focus on my running ready for the half marathon. 

I was given the no-go to shadowing Attack tonight to let my ankle rest and I am going to attempt the first tempo run tomorrow, but stop if it is hurting. If I make it through the run, I will foam roll my legs and ice my ankle straight afterwards. That's my commitment tonight so my next blog will be updates on my rehab habits.

Wait, are you still eating like a fat kid in a candy shop?

Quick update on the food plan - for the most part I have stuck to it and have found I have a lot more energy to train with. I have discovered though that I am a very emotional eater. It's when my training has been suffering due to my injury that I've found my eating has gone the most downhill. When I mope I eat crap. Great combination. 

Getting the Basics Right

There isn't enough food in the world to make you feel full after a long run.

Turns out nutrition is pretty important when you put your body through more than an hour of training. When you don't eat enough to fuel your swim/bike/run/other-crazy-adventure the enjoyment quickly switches to a new level of hell. The version of Sam that lives in this zone is affectionately known as "Hangry Sam" and is not someone I would wish anyone willingly meet. 

The up side of this sort of training though, is that I get to eat. Lots.

The trick is to eat the right stuff.

When you try to refuel your body with caffeine and bacon and egg pie 2 hours after a 14km run and an RPM class I can tell you that Hangry Sam will not tolerate your shit. 

The photo below shows my general mood for the remainder of that day. It was not OK.

Goal by my 29th birthday - run from my house in the city to my parents house in the burbs. 13.7km, several Wellington-typical hills and 300+ stairs. We did it. 

Cue the food plan. 

I promised I'd be open about my entire journey. Training and eating included. 

Below, is my 5 day food diary I sent to Cath. 

Yup it's true, I train hard and eat crap. As Cath said, it has got to stop.

After 5 days in Melbourne eating and drinking whatever was in front of me I figure it's time to start my real eating plan. This is in no way a diet. It is not designed to help me lose weight nor is it calorie restrictive. It is a guide to help me get enough of the right fuel for the training I am about to embark on and to eliminate processed crappy food from my lifestyle. It'll probably make me eat more veggies. 

Day 1 today and I stuck to the plan pretty well, apart from the birthday cake of which I had 2 not so small slices. It was carrot cake though so I'm gonna count that as a vegetable. 
The first thing I've picked up is that after a morning RPM class I'll need to go for the high protein breakfast. By opting for the muesli and peaches instead I think I ended up having Meal 1, Snack 2 and Meal 2 within the space of 90 minutes. 

I'm slightly disappointed that there is no mention of wine on this food plan. There's also no mention of grapes either so I can't even misconstrue them as wine. Well played Cath, well played. 


The last elimination of excuses

I got a new toy. Toys make things fun, even swimming. Now I can track everything from my calorie balance to how restless I am when I sleep. How fast I run/ride to how many strokes it takes me to swim 33m. I want to record EVERYTHING! 

And I will. Watch this space. Or Strava. 

Race Ready

Motivation isn't something that sticks with you 24/7

It comes in waves. When it hits your mind is instantly clear, your intentions are set and the impossible suddenly seems achievable. 
But what do you do when the wave has washed over you? How do you stay motivated for a goal that is 8 long months away? 

You create your own waves. More goals, more challenges, more steps towards the big one. Enter more races!


Race Prep

My training this week has been about finding my benchmarks and setting some new goals. On Monday, Emma got me to run a 5km time trial run to find a pace from which I can build a half marathon distance. I ran at an average pace of 5.22min/km and I learned two important things. 

• If you set Strava to record your run as a bike ride, you wont get updates of your km splits and you'll think you're running faster than you actually are
• Your legs will be tired and heavy after 2 consecutive days (finally) riding your bike enlightening you to the fact that this whole bike-to-run thing may not be smooth sailing

Yes I finally did it! And it was AWESOME!

Benchmark pace in hand I set my sights on the 10km Great Forest Run in Waiterere this weekend. Myself and two friends (Eszter and JT) drove for 2 hours to run 10km on a Saturday morning. THAT is the stuff motivation is made of! Stupidity aside, it gave us all the chance to feel race day adrenaline and really push ourselves in a medium distance race. I managed to increase my pace to an average of 5.14min/km and have a little play with race day nutrition (that's a whole other blog post next week).

10km mark was 52.40min - stoked as I had set 53.00min as my goal time

Pre-run selfie - finish line in sight

After run glory

With one race down I'm setting my sights on a few more trail runs to get my pace even faster before running the Wellington Half Marathon on 5th July. I've got 12 weeks to get a lot of running training done. The first 4 weeks will involve getting some kms under the belt, then Emma will be looking to introduce some specific running and pace training into my plan. 

My motivation plan:

10 May - XTERRA 12km off-road - Orongorongos

23 May - XTERRA Starlight 12km off-road - Wainui MTB Park

14 June - XTERRA 18km off-road - Makara Wind Farm

5 July - Wellington Half Marathon - Wellington CBD

BHAG - <1.50hr Half Marathon

Right now, if I could hold the pace I set today for another 11km I'd be looking to get 1.58. With 12 weeks to train I've been told it's not really possible to get down to <1.50. 

The only thing that can motivate you more than a dare is the hard word from your trainer. I stuck to my word and I completed my food diary (full diary and new plan next blog). Cath has spent a decent amount of time designing a nutrition plan for me and I've been given some pretty strict instructions around it. I was NOT eating pizza and drinking wine when I received this text. Definitely not. 

The text that put my tail between my legs

Emma's challenge set, Cath's hard word said. 

Scotty grab some dumbbells, Sunday Funday is about to get serious. 

Looking after Number 1

I know, I know. It's been like a MONTH since I last wrote a post. Following on from a post about excuses isn't the best look either is it?

Well here's a few wins from the last month to show you what I've been up to...

I put the wheels on my bike

I also realised I needed to turn the bike up the right way to put both wheels on. Mission accomplished. 
 

I gained a running buddy and we coordinated outfits. We also smashed my previous effort on the hill run I did in my first week of training. I also got my first real run boner. 

I've been for two swimming lessons and no longer think I will panic or drown in the swim leg of the race.

Now for the serious stuff...

I haven't had the best month of training because I drove myself into the ground and ended up kinda sick. Of course, having the motivation to train for such a massive BHAG in the back of my mind, I tried to keep training through the sickness aaaaaand... got sick again. In all, I've probably had about a week and a half off training and taken a few backwards steps in strength and cardio fitness. 

Something else I discovered while going through this snotty ordeal was that I eat like crap which doesn't help with recovery either.
So I did what any sensible athlete would do, and approached one of my trainers for a food plan based on my training set out by my tri-coach. In order to get a food plan, you need to keep a food diary for a few days to give said trainer an idea of your current eating habits, likes, and dislikes. 
Here are a few reasons I have not yet completed this food diary:

1. I ate McDonalds on more than 1 occasion
2. I skipped dinner on more than 1 occasion (laziness)
3. I forgot to keep track of one day so figured I should start again...and again...and again.
4. I'm a little embarrassed of my eating habits and handing in this food diary feels like Judgement Day. 

This blog was originally meant to keep me accountable for my decisions regarding my training and nutrition so I have decided to post my food diary in my next blog post 1 week from now. It will be 100% honest and I'm hoping that making it public will help me nail this nutrition stuff.

My biggest focus will be eating before and after training sessions. 

Once I've got the food plan sussed, I'll post it along with my training programme so you can see what I'm in for in the month of April.

Hiding in the "Comfort Zone"

Excuses are wonderful ways to get out of doing things you're scared to do.

Here are some crappy excuses I've used over the last 2 weeks:

• I can't ride my bike because I don't have time
• I can't ride my bike because I don't have any pedals
• I can't ride my bike because I don't know how to put the wheels back on
• I'll just do RPM instead of going for a run/going for a ride
• I'm doing some swimming drills to feel more comfortable in the pool instead of getting lessons
• I won't do the Splash and Dash race I registered for because I think it might discourage me when I fail
• My knee is getting sore from all the running - I should stretch instead
• I don't want to stretch, I hate how much it hurts.
• I don't have anything to write about in my blog. I'll write it next week.

Have a guess as to how far these have pushed me in my training. Here's a hint, I still can't swim and I haven't ridden my beautiful, neglected bike.

I know my Aunty is going to have a field day challenging me on these excuses.

So where am I?

One month down and to be quite honest I'm feeling like I've wasted an eternity. I'm in the zone which gets you nowhere. Im in... (gasp) the "Comfort Zone".

The comfort zone is a place full of puppies and rainbows, sunshine, white sandy beaches and pizza that doesn't make you fat. In other words, dreams. What it most certainly does not contain is blood, sweat and tears. You can't possibly hurt yourself or fail in this special, protective place. 

Today while teaching an RPM class, I heard myself say something like "If you don't take the risk now, you miss the chance to really challenge your strength". I realised who I was really saying that to and who really needed that motivation. Me. This little epiphany shifted me into a surprisingly positive mindset. I suddenly fell in love with an RPM release I've had trouble connecting to, I turned up that BodyBike resistance higher than I really wanted to and I was suddenly excited about registering for this race. 

I also reminded myself how much I sweat when I work hard. It. Was. Gross. (But awesome).

I'm not often excited about spending $200+ unless it's on shoes or Lululemon but
something tells me THIS will be worth it.

The only way out

Take a risk. 

Make time. Print off your training plan and stick to it. Figure out how to put the wheels on your bike and then do it. Put the pedals your awesome trainer bought for you on your bike. Put your helmet on and ride the f*cking thing. Book some swimming lessons you're committed to go to. Register in another Splash and Dash and ensure you are ready to do it. Stretch. Seriously, shut up and stretch. Oh, and while you're at it, use the foam roller too. Give yourself something to write about!

If you don't take the risk now, you miss the chance to challenge ANYTHING.

I'll post photos tomorrow to prove that I have put my bike back together and that I went for the swim on my programme. I should buy a GoPro.