T-5 days and counting

In seven days I'll be enjoying (read: panicking) the night before the first race of the season - and the longest race of my triathlon career to date. Okay, so it's only 100m extra in the swim, 1.75km extra on the bike and no extra on the run - but the swim may feature jellyfish (gross!) and will be my first swim in a wettie, and the bike will be interesting considering I've spent hardly any time on it since moving over from NZ.  

I've been out for a few rides, some very long and others not very long at all. Not being able to get my left pedal on due to not knowing that the left crank is threaded differently to the right was a newbie error. In my defence, I didn't pack my bike to come over here, my bike Mechanic Ben did. I don't think I could even change a tyre, hence why the instructions are in my saddle bag. I have bought a floor pump with gauge and a multi tool/repair kit as the tyre cement wasn't allowed on the plane in my bike box (adhesives are banned in unaccompanied baggage). Meh.

This Saturday (i.e. the day before the race) I get to go and buy a wettie. I am a little worried about this, I'm not girl shaped and sure as hell not girl sized, so a man's wetsuit is my only option. Manufacturers of practically everything don't seem to have cottoned on to the fact that there are Athena class triathletes (i.e. women over 70kg) like myself and thousands of others worldwide, who don't fit into nice little size XXS gear. 

Go lose some weight and get over myself, I hear you say? Well, I'm doing just that. Sadly, it doesn't happen overnight and gear shopping is a bit of a nightmare because there's all this nice stuff out there that doesn't fit little fat me. I think I can still squeeze into my Danskin tri suit from last season, so I will be wearing that on race day. My shape is changing - I've now got almost no fat around my arms and shoulders so this area is the first to feel cold. I've also lost it around my legs and butt. It's coming off my bouyancy belt (or my stomach if you will) but not as fast as other places. It is moving though, which is great.

So, Saturday is all about getting a bike check and a new wetsuit. Right now however, I need sleep.

Ciao.

Silent lessons for a quiet war

The war I'm referring to is a mental one. My brain keeps trying to talk me out of racing on the 28th, with all kinds of BS excuses - such as I'm not fit enough, I don't have a wetsuit, I don't like jellyfish, I'm going to get stung by said jellies, I'm going to react to being stung by jellies and need an epipen and will get a DNF, etc.  Yep, BS excuses indeed. No amount of freaking out about the unknown/uncontrollable will stop these things from happening.

The long range rain forecast isn't looking good for race day.  I've never raced in the rain, so this should be interesting. It will mean wet socks + wet shoes = wet feet, an equation I'm not keen on.  And wet gear! I don't mind running in the rain but riding in the rain is suboptimal. At least it's only 12.5km, but still, wet bike shoes are not good. I'm actually thinking it would be a good idea to do this race with my old pedals on, not my cleats, and do the whole thing in my runners.

I've been swimming religiously, twice a week on my own plus one swim coaching session per week. I've been a bit off with my weight training and bike and run, but that's life.

It'll all be fine come race day.  I hope!

Should I self-coach?

It's a lovely morning here in Melby, or at least it was. The wind has been howling all night and blew over a few things at the back of my house, waking me in the process each time. Those who know me well are aware it is not a good idea to wake me up unnecessarily. I can be a bit of a tyrant when sleep deprived or my routine is disrupted. All patience goes out the window and I turn into a grumpy demon.

Speaking of Jedi mind tricks, I've been a lot more focussed this past week. I completed all my training sessions and bought my hard-earned replacement Sennheiser headphones yesterday. I was even more excited by the fact that they were $30 off. So, I went to Rebel Sport and bought a yoga mat bag, and new gym gloves.  I'd just joined Rebel's Season Pass Programme, and had a $20 credit so the gloves ended up being free and the mat bag was only $25.  I was still up by $5 so I met up with two friends at Highpoint and had a coffee.

I still haven't heard back from the Tri Coach I contacted, so I guess I'll be coaching myself for Ironman. I'm rather disappointed by this to be honest, it's bad enough I was stood up the day after I got back from Malaysia when I was jet-lagged and in no way in the mood to train, but Ii hauled butt down to the assigned meeting spot, bike and gear and all. So, this is just BS. Here I am wanting to give someone money and they can't even be bothered responding. Ah well - I guess that's life, and maybe I should get a coach who has actually done NZ AND will respond to queries.Or, I'll just pick the brains at the club and coach myself with the help of books and triathlete friends for advice. Better yet, the next coaching course the comes up through Tri Vic that doesn't clash with a race will be game on.

If Chrissie Wellington can train herself, why can't I? Just because I haven't done an Ironman YET doesn't mean I can't coach myself, right? Perhaps I should! At the very least, I'll give it a crack. I also remembered today that my skills coach from uni has a boyfriend who is a coach in NZ AND is at the event because he's the swim announcer. That could be handy.

I'm realistic, I know it is going to hurt almost as much as when the nerve block wore off after my last knee reconstruction. If I can get through that, I can get through Ironman. I know I have work out my nutrition, that's the story of my life, really. Then there are just rest periods and tapers and key races and build ups and time trials and a week off after every 12 weeks of hard yakka, and increasing anything (volume especially) by no more than 10% per week, and periodisations and intensities and distances and showing my body what it needs to do and my jedi mind tricks and progressions and etc. It feels a little overwhelming but it can be done.

I have done pretty much everything my whole life on my own, so surely I can do this on my own too? There are plenty of internet forums, magazines, books, internet articles, Ironmen at my tri club and triathletes that I know, so maybe I should just go for it and coach myself. I won't have to pay myself anything, I don't have to worry about my coach not showing up for meetings, and I'm sure I can do this with the support of the trainers at my gym, my swim coach and an accountability partner. At least the cat always supports me, no matter what I do (well, except for when her bowl is empty - but with an automatic pet food dispenser that hardly happens anymore).

So, let the experiment begin. I will enlist help as I need it, if and when I need it. I'm a very organised person by nature, so as long as I stay organised it should be sweet. I just need to plan, plan, and plan some more. I need to think and plan and organise and sort and prepare and plan some more.  I did 7 triathlons in four months last season without a coach (and for three months, without a PT). I CAN DO THIS!

Let it rock.