The Blue Line.

The blue line. It’s quite, it’s meditative and it’s becoming my friend. Thinking back to when I first started swimming now a year and a half ago I would have never stated such a thing! My swimming history, previous to triathlons, consisted of the novelty races a school swim carnival and a good game of Marco Polo. My mind would race a million miles, my breath would be short, and I battled. In my mind I was not a swimmer. I am proud to say now that that statement no longer exists. My swim stoke is getting stronger, I am able to clear my mind, and breathe strongly even through the harder efforts. It’s an awesome feeling to be able to turn that belief of myself onto it's head and smash it. We are all guilty of putting labels and limitations on ourselves; I can’t run, I’m not fit, I can’t save money. This enables us not to take responsibility in areas of our lives that either aren’t working, are ‘too hard’ to deal with or we just don’t wanna! The key to breaking through is action, sweet, sweet action. Taking action no matter how you feel or think. I can assure you what’s on the other side is so worth the short lived pain of whatever you have to give up – an extra 5 mins in bed, that must have bikini for next summer or that well deserved serve of schintz chips ( in my case!)

So training is back in full force with a 7 day schedule. It’s been a long time coming however this past week has been the first week of my training that A) I’ve looked forward to B) Have kept a positive mindset through all sessions C) worked hard D) got excited about what’s too come.

I’m so excited to be back in action.

This week’s game plan:

Mon – Wind trainer session 1hr

Tues – 3hr ride into /.5hr run

Wed – 2 hr ride (totally forgot I was working so this didn’t happen and I was an hour late to work) & swim squad 1hr

Thurs – 1.15hr run (20min easy – 35 solid tempo – 20mins easy) cut this a tad short to get to yin yoga

Fri – Swim set – 1.15hrs

Sat – 100min run

Sun -  4hr ride

What is an area of life that you are limiting your potential in? And more importantly what action are you going to take?! 

Life lessons

Life is, weird, crazy and beautiful. It doesn't always make sense, yet it's always creating lessons to be learned.

It's safe to say the past few months have been like no other I've experienced before. A roller coaster of life altering events have occured to the point that Ironman feels like a life time ago.

I haven't posted on here for quite some time. I got stopped. I got stopped just when things started to get interesting, challenging and hard. The all so common internal dialog prevented me to keep sharing and documenting my road to Ironman and all that was in between. I'm dissapointed that I allowed the "who's reading this, I have nothing to contribute, what do I know" get in the way of my initial intention of: "I intend to share my trials, tribulations and tips of training, my good days and the bad. I'm so far from an expert in any of this, but I hope through sharing my experiences along the way I can inspire you, maybe even igniting a spark, to go after your goals no matter how BIG or small."

Yes the last 3 months leading up to it were tough, mentally and physically. I really found it hard when people would ask me questions and say "Oh you must be so excited!" to respond in the way I thought they wanted me to. Truth was, for the most part I wasn't excited. I was doubting my ability, coming in and out of focus and interest, and questioning why the hell did I start this in the first place! No one wants to hear that, I thought. However, whilst I got stopped in sharing what was really going on for me, I am so proud that against all of that I kept the big picture in mind and got to the start line with a clear mind. For the big day I created the possibly of Strength, Determination and Joy and made damn sure I lived into it. My mind was clear from start to finish, not a negative internal dialog in sight.

From the highest of highs, crossing the infamous finish line of Ironman, smashing a year long goal, my world turned upside down and hit the rock bottom of lows within a week. One of my dearest friends, Elle, had taken her life.

I really wanted to get back into sharing via my blog now I'm on a new adventure to Kona, Hawaii for the World Championships, but how could I do that without acknowledging this. I couldn't have. For a short life, 24years, Elle live a big life. She was intelligent beyond her years, bubbly and vivacious, a true friend, and behind all of this suffering from a silent illness of her mental health. One thing that we can learn from her beautiful life, among many others, is that mental health need not be a taboo topic nor something we should be ashamed of. We all have our struggles no matter how big or small, and we all find way to deal and cope with it. In Elle's case her decision was final, but we need to respect that is was hers. I think of her daily and even though now she's gone on a trip beyond a life time, we'll still be friends for life.

It's been over 6 weeks now since Ironman, and I really haven't done a thing. Without a strong, focused mind even the thought of getting up to go for a 30mins run feels like a giant battle. But this is the turning point. I have 5 months to get into to tip top condition for Hawaii Ironman after qualifying having finished 3rd in my age group, female 25-29yr old. I haven't set my goal up for this race. Top 20 in my age group is sounding pretty good. :)

So it's begins again, new challenge, new year, let's go.

Fancy Footwork...Fun!

Vibrant community... I think so.

I was really hoping to write a post before Fancyfootwork for Hope Fun Run happened on the 19th January...mmm that didn't happen! There are seriously only so many hours in a day! haha and right now sleep is becoming somewhat of a priority.

I really wanted to share why, how and the results of my first grand scale (in my reality!) charity event. On my journey to Ironman I wanted to remain grounded and not let it totally consume me, so I decided early on that I would make this challenge bigger than me by choosing a charity to raise awareness and funds for.

Find out more about the beginnings of this adventure and the charity in my previous post, Bigger than me.

Along with raising funds and awareness for a unique cause, I wanted to create an event that would bring a vibrant community of people together, whilst being active. I'll let you in on a secret....I had no idea what I was doing, nor what I was getting myself into, but in order to make anything happen you have to put yourself and your idea out there! Before long I had rallied an amazing team around me and got the right people to see the possibility. 

Coffee - before, during and after... why not!

Registration on the day, nothing like last minute fun.

My initial conversations about hosting a fancy dress fun run were quite entertaining. Most responses were along the lines of, 'oh that's a nice idea' what they were really thinking, 'damn she's crazy and she wants me to help her out.... as if this is going to float!' Well that's what I put together from the tone of their voices :)

However once I secured the venue, Woodleigh School, got public liability and created a logo, flyer and online registration page, people were getting the jist that my team and I ment business! Before long we were in the local Leader paper and on the local airwaves RPP FM; I stuck to my word and made it happened! 

Now that's a fancy start line :)

I set my sights high: 200 people and $5500 raised! 

Our morning resulted in 60 people dressing up and galavanting past the sheep and kangaroos around the gorgeous course, and we raised an awesome $2,350 for Send Hope not Flowers!

Nothing ever 'Grand' happens when you stand alone....
this was the amazing team behind an amazing morning!

Yep I could have been down hearted with this result after setting myself such a big goal but where would that lead me? Instead I stayed in the possibility of a vibrant community whether that be 10 or 100 and for that we had an amazing morning. This whole event was beyond my wild dreams just 6 months ago. However with the support of the community, our sponsors: Woodleigh School, Trispecify, Mornington Peninsula Magazine, Lilly Belle, King Creek Hotel, Hydralyte, I Do Aircon, Coles, Main Street Mornington, and C Max Communication and a superstar team of 14 friends and family who took ownership of the event. This resulted in the transformation of a crazy possibility to an incredible reality.

We also want to make a huge shout out to Lucy and Nathan from Fraklin Coffee and thier adorable caravan for donating their Sunday morning, Daniel Wormell from Calibre Entertainment for supplying the mornings soundtrack, Start to Finish for donating an impressive Gantry and Tully's fresh fruits for donating copious amouts of oranges and apples!!

This is what it's all about, puts such a smile on my face.

It going to happen again, bigger and better! So keep and eye out for us Fancy Footwork for Hope and get your thinking caps on!! Again we couldn't have done it with out our incredible sponsors who believed in us from the get go! 

Xx

Hello Wall!

I met the wall these last 2 months. I knew it was inevitable in the lead up to Ironman, and I had an inclining that it would show it's face sometime around this time of the year.

It's safe to say that I have had on on the most full on last 2 months. Not trying to be a hero (but sort of) here is the break down of what these weeks have consisted of:

I have ventured up to Noosa and competed in the Olympic distance, road tripped to Shepparton and finished my first Half Ironman,

Morgs at the Kinglake start line

a week later covered 115km in the Kinglake ride then backing that up with a Sprint distance tri in Mordialloc,

The Trispecify Seals! At the Moordialloc sprint tri

did the cheeky colour run, then rounded it off by hitting a PB in the Susans half marathon finishing 4th overall in 1:28mins.

Alex, Myself and Mish dressed in pink, 'Doing it for the Ladies'

Running into the finish to place 4th overall

That however is just the list of event I have competed let alone the training that has surrounded that. The following weekend after the Susans half marathon I backed it up with a double 15 +/- run. For those who know the area the run loops up Olivers hill, down to Daveys bay, up canadian bay road pass Toorak collage, up Humphries road then down sweet water creek, than repaeted it in reverse, overall 27kms. This was done on the Saturday, only to be backed up on the Sunday with a 4hr ride followed by a 45min run!

I'm buggered just thinking about all I have covered. For the most part I have bounced back, the body not suffering too much. However, the mind has been a completely different story. Not getting adequate sleep, and not focusing on the right nutrition, at this level of training really started to take a toll. A mental toll. It was on this weekend of training that I began to question what the hell I was doing, what was it all for, why am I doing this, I can't do it. Not only did this effect my training, it effect all aspects of my life. Work became hard, I lost interest in maintaining my blog (obviously!) I just wasn't functioning well at all.

Fast forwarding. It's January, fresh year, fresh start ... only 11 weeks till Ironman! and 100% of my training left to do. This last week I have focused on my nutrition. My boyfriend Morgan is also training for Ironman this year. After his experience last year, which left him in hospital with gastritis, he now sees a nutritionist and has curbed his lifestyle and training around being Vegan.

I am learning so much from him and I'm now experimenting with what works best for me. Gosh there is so much information, theories, facts, faux fact, floating around out there when it come to nutrition, it's confusing. So my approach is to be mindful with my food, considering I am asking so much of my body it's only right that moving forward I think twice about what it is that my body really needs. To date, I really haven't respected this fact and the last month of hitting the wall is a result of that.

A beautiful still morning as we set off for 6hrs on the bike.

Training is seriously moving to another level. This last weekend saw me riding for 6hrs, the longest I have ever been in the saddle, and I felt great. Seriously, I got a good sleep, ate a big dinner before hand and had a hearty breakfast of quinoa, quinoa flakes, rice milk, berries, banana, honey heated up in a saucepan. It's delish and set me up perfectly for the day. Out on the ride I took bananas, dates, and clif bars and drank water and hydraltye. We rode 4 hours through the Danadenongs which was magical, the hill climbs were tough however the S- Works Amria handled them perfectly with a 27 ring on the back (I had no idea but I have a few extra gears that a few other people which made is easier for me to spin).

The real challenge was when we got back to Berwick and headed out to Tooradin in the strongest head wind I think I have fought. Perfect experience if last years Ironman is any indication of what we may face.

So yep I've hit the wall, jumped over it and have come back stronger. I'm so sure another wall is not too far away however I'm now mindful of that along with a few other things, so I just may be better prepared :)