At the end of 2017 I sat down with my coach to talk about my training, after not achieving results that were expected of me. I was stunned and appalled to find out that I had only executed 35% of my slow runs correctly and this was impacting on my results. To be honest I hated slow runs. They frustrated me no end. I began to hate running these, as I really didn’t understand the benefits. However, this was not from lack of education from the coach. I always had good intention

I love racing at busso its my favourite race of the year so it pains me when I think of IMWA it is a day that I want to forget. However its a day that I cannot forget as it taught me some very valuable lessons. Many people know that I love to ride my bike, however on race day I chose to ride it so hard that I simply had nothing for the run this is known as biking to bike rather than biking to run and whilst I never gave up it is definitely a case of lost opportunity to qualif

Pre Race The best nights sleep I have had before race day ever. Managed to get a reasonably early night and was in bed asleep by 9pm. My alarm went off at 3am, I was up and in the mood to get ready and race. I felt I had worked hard in the lead up to the race. I was slightly nervous though as I hadn’t done a lot of training for two weeks prior to race day. But I felt really fresh. It was just Nik, Zac and Niks parents coming out to the race with me. We left home about 15mins

Pre-race was something of a comedy of errors! Having arrived at the G at 5.30 for a 7 start so as to not be late I then missed the start by quite a few minutes hahah!. After dropping off my bag, stretching, going to loo, doing a short warm up run and some more stretches I checked watch. At which point I saw the HR was not picking up. Mild panic at this but told myself everything would be ok if I applied more water to strap which I did. Still no HR. Little bit more panic now b

This was my fifth marathon in 15 months! This is something that I am proud of considering where I started. I wasn’t going to run this race and only made the decision after Canberra, where for the first time I executed a race plan! The last two were a bit of a disaster to the point that I wasn’t sure that I wanted to do this again. I did not think that I could cope with another failure. My self confidence is not my strong point, but it was pretty nonexistent after Canberra

Pre Race The morning started out well. Yet again my sleep before this race like most of my races is almost non-existent. My alarm went off, I was up and in the mood to get ready. Nik had said the night before she would drive me to the race start. We even packed the night before so I didn’t have to worry about her packing the car too much. Everything was planned out. It felt good. Arriving at check in everything was calm. I tried not to think about what was ahead to much. For

First race since Cairns and I am freaking excited. I couldn't have been more ready for this race mentally or physically and I was very happy to let anyone who asked know about it. For those that do not know Forster it is a small town that is buzzing with an abundance of energy.... NOT... haha. put simply it has everything you need and nice people but I couldn't live here, I love the non-stop nature of Sydney and its bright lights. Race Summary Swim - 00:34:24 T1: Swim-to-bike

Lead up My lead up to Cairns 70.3 was fairly unconventional and massively interrupted by having to work two full time jobs starting from March until the event. This meant my ability and commitment to train to my program was often compromised and a few missing sessions early in the block lead to a majority of missed sessions by the end. With Cairns IM70.3 fast approaching, I was increasingly unable to get out the sessions I wanted or for the full amount of time. I found as thi

Finally after a full year without racing the time had come to put all the hard training to use and see if I have had made any improvements since the 2016 Cairns Ironman. The last month leading up to the race was not perfect, but I still felt really good and all my training results were promising, although i did not want have big expectations my minimum goal was a sub 10 hour result. Swim My swimming is not my strength, that is no secret, it has always been my weakest leg. Las

I was really excited to race Cairns because I was after some redemption. Last time I attempted this course I went in simply overcooked mentally and physically and poorly executed my race. I have been working with a new coach since IMNZ and we knew that 3 ironmans in 6 months was a big ask but everything we have done in training to prepare me for this race was spot on. I am thoroughly enjoying the new approach and I firmly believe it will pay dividends for me come IMWA later i

Lets put things mildly, I got my butt whipped big time. After a great race in Western Australia I came to New Zealand expecting big things of myself. I honestly thought the course would suit me and that my fitness would get me over the line in a quick time. I even dreamt that I could do another sub 10hr result. Race Summary Swim - 01:09:37 T1: Swim-to-bike - 00:04:40 Bike - 05:30:12 T2: Bike-to-run - 00:02:14 Run - 04:18:44 Overall - 11:05:27 Lets just say nothing went to pla

Wow where has the 6 weeks gone. I have been a bit slack keeping my training blogs up to date but the truth is I have been smashing myself in training in my quest to find my 1% improvements for IMWA, dealing with some issues around my son and more recently I got sick which has meant I had to slow done for a week and let my body recover. As well as training some other exciting things have come to fruition. I am lucky enough that I get to work with a great companies that support

To say I am thrilled is truly the most underrated word for this occasion. Its far more than that in so many ways. On Sunday I achieved something that I have been trying so hard to achieve. Its not just the sub 10hr result, its not the 40min PB its the sense of finally I have managed to have 3 good legs in an Ironman. Is there room for improvement you bet your life there is, (especially my bike and run) but Sunday happened because I worked hard in training fine tuning things a

On Sunday 16th October I completed my second marathon!!!  Feels weird writing that as 18 months ago I was struggling to run parkrun. Overall

This week is all about the bike. I plan to ride some good milage on my TT but save some energy to have a real good crack at the Calga TT on Sunday. Monday I had planned to ride more milage today but due to a late start I only managed 3hrs (101km) a quick run off the bike and off to see my dietician. Some good and bad news from her and when I say bad it is more about things I need to work on. Across to the pool to surprise Spot by being at an even swim squad session. Tuesday

In May this year I ran my first 100km week. In doing so it not only wrecked my legs but I gained a heap of confidence in my running and fitness. So the plan was my bike would take a back seat this week and I would up my swimming (mainly to aid recovery) and run my legs off. I also made the commitment to myself that I would run my long runs at race pace or close to. For years I have always wanted to run a sub 4hr marathon in an Ironman and while I have gone close I actually ha

Its long ride week and I have a massive week on the bike planned. I see weeks like this as critical to the success of my training. You can really gain a lot of confidence and fitness from weeks like this and while busso is still 3 months away my goals are very big and I am of the belief that to succeed in obtaining them you need to put in. Monday I start the week off 2.5hrs holding 200w average which worked out to be 85.6km, I found this quite difficult as I haven't spent a h

After last weeks push to get my mind focused on preparing for Busso and a successful first attempt at the Calga TT I hit my training with renewed vigour and had a great week. This week is a designated long run week in my program so I started with a leisurely 21km at an easy pace. I really felt good during this run. On Tuesday I hit the trainer and did hill repeats on Box hill on the London course on Zwift. Zwift has made me really love training on the trainer despite how hard