Hawaii Long Road to the Queen K Part 3

My Extraordinary journey is getting closer to the end

I can’t believe four weeks have gone by already since my last post.  I’m right in the middle of the business end of the training now with only eight weeks to go to Kona.  Up until now it has all felt like I have been living in a dream world.  With only eight weeks to go both the nerves and excitement are really starting to pick up.

In my last post I was extremely excited to let everyone know about my four sponsors who are supporting me on this journey.  Since then the support I have received from them has been unbelievable.  Last Friday I had to pinch myself to see if I was awake as it was just an unbelievable day for me.  It is actually hard to imagine this is all really happening to me.  I just consider myself as a normal person who had a dream and was willing to do what ever it takes to make the dream come true.  The things that are happening now are far beyond all the dreams I had.   This is how my day played out in order of conversations with my sponsors.

Conversation 1

Katie Flatters my physio at Phyiohealth contacted me telling she was coming to Hawaii with me.   Wow I can’t believe how lucky and grateful I am to both Katie and the team at Physiohealth to make this happen.  I had been talking to Katie for the last week or so about the chance that she might be able to come but had been waiting for her to get the all clear from her work.  Deep down I thought it would be amazing if she did but thought it probably won’t happen.  Luckily for me E.T.P.A is affiliated with Physiohealth so with a few other E.T.P.A athletes travelling as well, this helped get the decision over the line.

Conversation 2

Michael Hill at Leigh Egan contacted me about upgrading both my T.T and Road bike after he had been and seen the 2014 range of Giant bikes the day before.  I had been in discussions with Leigh Egan Cycles about upgrading my 2012 Trinity after a couple of issues I have had with the DI2 and didn’t want to risk of having any problems in Hawaii.  Michael totally understood and worked with me and Giant to get me on a new Giant Trinity bike to make sure there was no worries come race day.  After this conversation we locked in and ordered the two new bikes. Thanks Guys for your support.

Conversation 3

I have been working with Mat Tippet at Elite Triathlon Performance Australia (E.T.P.A) since March.  In Shepparton we don’t have the help and support of professional coaches, which means we either go without the professional support or we are stuck travelling to Melbourne to seek it.  After speaking with Mat earlier in the peace about this problem he contacted the Shepparton Tri Club (S.T.C) to see if maybe they could work out away to help support the club with its coaching needs.  The Shepparton Tri club got their heads together to see how they could make this work.  On Friday after a long and thorough process by the club to make sure they got it right, finally gave the nod to Mat and the E.T.P.A group to coach the S.T.C. 

This is an exciting time for the members of the S.T.C to get access to professional programs and advice.  I hope we all get as much out of it as I have from E.T.P.A since I have been working with them.  All members need to take full advantage of this for it to work so everyone get behind the club so it can grow to the next level.

Build Phase.

I have just been through what I would say has been the biggest and hardest training phase of my life.  If you had of told me four months ago about the training load I was to complete in the last 4 weeks I would have said you were crazy!  Before working with E.T.P.A, 16 hours was my biggest week.  I have just completed four weeks in a row of over 20 hours.  Obviously my body is a lot stronger and better conditioned with all the work I have been doing with the team at Physiohealth, although my legs, body and mind are extremely tired by week four.  I have had no injuries at all to speak off, which for me is an amazing result J

In the pool I have just completed my biggest four week block totaling 52 km or 2600 laps.  I’m starting to feel like my swimming is coming back on track after really struggling with it after going to Korea.  I have been swimming with Jed the Super Fish twice a week which has helped push me along.  I’m nearly at the point where I am actually starting to enjoy going to the pool.  If we can keep this a secret from Mat as I don’t want him getting the wrong idea and adjusting my program again.  I’m sure sometimes he doesn’t want me to enjoy what I’m doing there.

My bike is my real strength and I am really starting to believe I can take it to a whole new level.  Everything I do on the bike now is totally measured using a power meter both out on the road and indoors on the trainer.  Every session has a specific power target which I need to hold.  Using power has been extremely helpful especially when you get tired and the heart rate struggles to come up to actually really work out the effort you are putting out.  Although I wouldn’t say I’m flying, I know they amount of quality kilometers I have been putting in.   My legs are always tired but I totally believe once they get to freshen up in the last couple of weeks look out, I think I will be up for a super strong day on the bike.

Finally after basically no running for over a month after the crash I am back out hitting the road.  I was very surprised at how well I was still running after so much time off.  We just needed a little bit of work with some new exercises from Physiohealth to get my glutes firing in the right order again and I was back on track.  In the last four weeks I have run 164 km and completed over 50 km in a week for the first time ever.  Before this any time I had ran over 40 km in a week  training, I ended up injured in the next week. This has been a massive leap forward for me with still eight weeks to go. 

We purchased a bike for Jae Min and she has become my new run training partner.  She has been like my new coach, keeping me motivated and telling me when my running form is not right.  She videos me when my form is good and when my forms is bad.  She carries my drink and nutrition and even comes out in the dark so we have the lights on her bike so I can see.  I must admit I am a pretty lucky husband to have such great support.

All up it has been a really exciting 4 weeks as it been the first time I have ever been able to increase all three disciplines to a point where I haven’t been before.  Also my body and mind are starting to adapt more to the big training load.  When I was In Korea I my body and mind only lasted two massive weeks before they totally crashed and the fatigue set in.  This time they lasted basically four weeks before that feeling of fatigue really set in.  I’m going forward now into some race specific training.  I will be travelling to the Yeppoon 70.3 in Queensland next weekend for a good training hit out.  It will be interesting to see how I go since I’m going in straight after such a big training block and feeling pretty tired and fatigued.

Once again I would just like to thank the support of family, Friends and my sponsors Shepparton Tri Club, Leigh Egan Cycles, Physiohealth, Elite Triathlon Performance Australia.  Without this amazing teams none of this would be possible.