updates

March update

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 07:01:24 +0100

Hi all,

Here’s what I have been up to over the last few weeks!

I turned 22 on the 3^rd of March!

On the 10^th I raced in Devonport Tasmania. It was the Oceania Champs, NZ National Champs and also a selection race for u23 Worlds later this year. My race went as all as could be expected. I led the swim from start to finish, I worked very hard in a breakaway of 4 which included Nicky Samuels and two very fast Aussie’s Erin Densham and Emma Jackson. The plan for the race was to have a Kiwi girl win, as whoever won (Aussie or kiwi) automatically qualified a team spot for the Olympics. So in this case our best was Nicky as my run is not up to scratch, yet. Knowing this and also knowing how well the Aussie’s run I worked really hard to tire them out on the bike and try to drop them. But the course was not very challenging (8 laps, dead flat out and back) so it made it pretty easy for them to get a free ride. In saying this, Nicky had a go off the front with 2 laps to go, I sat up so she could get as much of a gap as possible. She managed to get 40sec but it was not enough to hold off the Aussie girls. Onto the run and I have to be honest it was pretty painful for me, I am guessing it was probably pretty painful to watch too. I knew my legs would be smashed from the bike but I did not think they could feel that dead, in fact I found it hard to run fast enough to even breathe hard, something was definitely not right. The only option for me though was to keep going and finish the race.

I finished with mixed emotions, happy to have finished and placed 10^th but confused and upset as to why my legs are not doing what I want them to do.

So back home after the race was pretty tough to, it took me over a week for my legs to return to normal (major DOM’s) and for me to be able to run again. I had many questions and lots of doubts about my ability. But I knew this was not normal and the amount of physio/stretching/rehab I was doing was way outweighing the amount of running I was doing.

To be honest the above paragraph does not really do justice to the hell I put myself though, and it would be unfair not to mention I also dragged my coach and family with me. Without them I think I would have cracked and ended up in a funny farm. So a huge thank you to everyone for sticking by me and helping me through tough times (I do realise that there will be many more to come).

Anyway I will now get to the good news. After realising that the only reason I was upset so much was purely my state of mind, I resolved to become much more stable in my emotions and not to let them get the better of me and affect my day to day life. E.g. I would have a good run one day and be over the moon, only to have it all come crashing down the next day when I couldn’t even walk or push off the wall in swimming without feeling a twinge in my calf.

So with my new state of mind I set out to figure out my own personal puzzle – my body. It was so refreshing to allow myself to call the shots, to listen to my body for real and to experiment with things. After going through basically everything we (physio Lou and Coach Paul) could think of to fix my calves a very random conversation with another triathlete ended up setting us on a completely different path. Just a simple change in language and how I described the feeling in my calves gave some more clues. Basically I stopped saying they were sore as it wasn’t an issue of strength or not being used to running. It felt more like a spasm, grabbing, spastic feeling, which would end up turning into a tear/pulled muscle feeling. So we decided to try ultrasound which worked for the other triathlete who had the same feeling a few years ago. After a week the calves were starting to feel better but still not quite right. Still having to run alternate days and super slow just to get some sort of running going. I was not happy and even more certain than ever that it was not normal, it was so depressing and I had even got to the point where I was actually becoming too scared to go out running.

I finally had a break through last weekend! I have been a bit quiet about it up until now as I have been worried that it is just a fluke. We had gotten to the point where it was just go out and see if you can run and if you can then just run a little more, structure was not working and nothing was making sense,the only way I could run was to go out and try. So I headed out to my favourite run spot and started walking, another thing I forgot to mention was that I was probably doing more walking then running at this point. After a while I started jogging, the legs felt average so I headed back to the car feeling pretty down. I decided to stretch for a bit and see if that would help. I found that when I propped my leg up in the boot and stretched my hammy, a slight twist to towards my leg sent a very very distinct pain down the underside/outside of my leg starting right up in my glute and ending in my ankle, so I though hey this must be pretty tight, so I kept at it until it loosened off them worked on the other side. Not expecting much difference I attempted a jog around the car park. HOLEY MOLEY! Instant change, it’s hard to explain and probably hard for you to believe, I could hardly believe it myself, but I ended up running 90mins that day and even included some sprint efforts! To say that my coach was shocked when he received the data would be an understatement.

So since then we have been working on loosening up my glutes and hammys, lots of stretching, nerve flossing/threading and trigger point release with my cricket ball and rumble roller! Also special mention has to go out to my wonderful mum who I have recruited to stretch me every night, sorry mum I know I can be demanding :P I have to say that it seems to be working and with every run my confidence is starting to come back. I kind of feel normal again as I am easily running consecutive days and starting to slowly include some variety to pace and terrain.

It feels strange to be writing this right now. After all the ups and downs I finally feel this may be the up which stays up for a while.

It’s nice to be able to go about my day without having to make decisions based on how it will affect my legs. Oh and I will never take for granted being able to tumble turn and push off the wall in the pool...

Anyway enough about my legs now.

Next up is Sydney WTS race on the 14^th/15^th April. I just found out my name has finally been added to the start list after a few weeks of slowly moving up the wait list! This is the final qualifying race for the Olympics in London. It is a pretty long shot for me but since I have put my name forward to be a swim/bike specialist and work for the team, it would be so great to get to race and show what I can do.

After this I plan to have a bit of a break to refresh my body and mind. Know me this will probably include some form of exercise though, I can’t handle doing nothing! I am already planning some fun things like stand up paddle boarding, some hiking in beautiful West Auckland and maybe some mountain biking! Then it’s onto planning the overseas trip and races!

Now onto some different news, yesterday I travelled down to Lake Karapiro for the Schools Triathlon Nationals. I had been asked to come down and support/start race and hand out medals. I was more than happy to support and make the effort to be there. It was a stunning day and a well organized event!

I also went along and watched some of the Athletics Nationals at my local track the Trusts Stadium, cheering on my friend Nikki in the 1500m was a highlight! And the National Open Swimming Champs are currently on at my local pool West Wave, so I have been along to watch and support my friends there too.

One of the best things I love about sport is getting to see athletes in their element, doing what they do best. In the gym up at MISH or attending seminars we are all equals, on the same level. But when you venture into their domain it’s a different story! For example watching the swimming this week where all NZ ‘s top swimmers have been trying to qualify for London is so cool to experience, the warming up, the rituals and the atmosphere is awesome!

Just quickly before I finish I thought I would share a story which made my coach laugh his head off when he read it and one of his colleages who I later found out he shared it with.

This happened last week when I was out doing a key bike session.... (by the way this is cut straight from Training peaks, which is the online software we use to communicate with data, training etc. So please excuse the poor grammar)

“Sooooo, looong story :/ ha ha. I felt good warming up, it was a nice day and I was looking forward to smashing up the hill reps. I did the first one and felt awesome! Except halfway thru I realised I was in my big chain ring?! haha, so I had a bit of a muck up in the middle/near the top of the rep as I had to change out, but I felt like it was a good one and I got way further than ever before. So I was looking forward to the rest, but then on the way back down a bee flew into my glove and got stuck! It was stinging me like crazy so I was banging my hand on the handle bar trying to kill it, but its stinger got stuck in my finger! so I stopped and got it out but it still hurt, and I tried to jump straight back into my second rep on the interval, but it felt like all the adrenaline and energy had been sucked out of me. So I sat down on a rock and tried calling you, I realised after several attempts of failed calls, that I actually had no service, that’s how spaced out I was haha. So I was a little upset, thinking about all the bad luck I have had, but I jumped back on and gave myself some time to easy spin and try get my energy and focus back. it was hard! I got back into the hill reps, but I don’t think I really did get back into it. I tried to recover properly and I felt like my power had dropped and my HR was sky high, and I also realised that I was riding up and down amongst probably the biggest bee colony in West Auckland, so I was finding it really hard to focus, but I did my best and then decided to do one last effort on the hill back out to Waitakere as I wanted to make sure I got a solid session in. so yeah like I said it was crazy?! I even had to take a moment and have a big cry, well i actually started to when I was descending and there was snot and tears flying everywhere, its kinda funny now that I look back on it, I hope this story entertains you! And I hope the session wasn’t too bad, I couldn’t believe how much the bee sting affected me...”

So, I guess that’s all for now!

Big thank you to all my wonderful sponsors; AA Insurace, Sky Sport, Adidas, Adidas eyewear, Performace Bicycle Tuning and Blueseventy. My dreams would not be possible without your support.

22 and racing

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 07:27:15 +0100

Firstly I will be 22 on Saturday, whoa! Time fly’s...

Next weekend I will be racing in Devonport, Tasmania. This race is our NZ National Champs, Oceania Champs and also the qualifying race for U23 World Champs in Auckland later this year. There are also ITU points available which I really need to get to improve my World Ranking. This is so I can get a start in the Sydney WCS race in April, which is our final Olympic Qualification race. So no pressure or anything. But seriously all that aside I am just happy to be racing and really interested to see how I go in my first Olympic Distance race this year.

Training is going very well, I am running consistently and love riding my new bike. It is so comfortable and cornering and descending crazy fast.

I have been unlucky to pick up another bug though, making this week a pretty slow training week, which is not ideal for next weekend. It is frustrating but I am just focusing on what I can do and just being content with the fact that there are some things you just can’t control.

Last week I was lucky enough to be invited to watch the Breakers Basketball team play over at the North Shore events centre, I also got to do a live interview on Sky Sport 1 during a time out break in the 3rd quarter. Great for my profile, my sponsors and more experience for the future.

Also as I am on the long list for the London Olympics I got to attend a workshop evening where we got sized up in the uniforms, heard NZOC members speak and learned more about the London Olympics by seeing pictures of the facilities being built.

I have also been attending as many of the functions put on by the NZOC as I can. Not just to learn about the Olympics but to learn about other kiwi athletes, and get a small insight into their world and their sport, it’s fascinating. I have been meeting lots of new people and other athletes all really excited about the Olympics.
Attending these events has given me a stronger sense of purpose in my life. My goals seem that much more exciting, the urge to become the best swim/bike/runner I can be is that much more powerful. I have been stocking up more fuel for my fire for the times when I am deep in my own little triathlon world. When I have to beat the boys in the next lane during 400m efforts in the pool or when I am on my 5th VO2 max effort quarry hill rep on the bike or when my calves have started playing up again and I have to ice/rest/massage and physio just so I can run again. Times that are the most important to me. They are not the end result, the place you came in the race which the whole world gets to see, they are the journey which you take to achieve those results.

What I love about sport is that there are no set rules on how you create your journey. Two people may have the exact same goal, may want the exact same result but the journey they take to get there may look completely different.

So if it’s not London then it will definitely be Rio 2016 Olympics for me! The journey has already begun and I am loving every minute of it.

Kinloch NZ Sprint Champs and Aussie Sprint Champs

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 05:35:00 +0100

Before I start on the races I feel the need for a quick update about the legs. I am super happy to say that after quite a lot of trial and error over the summer months and a lot of blood, sweat and tears from my amazing support team we have managed to find a formula that works for me, with the aim being consistent, smart run training – now it’s just a matter of keeping the ball rolling in the right direction, slowly but steadily.

The idea was to train through these last two races (and the upcoming Takapuna sprint race next weekend) but sometimes things just don’t go to plan. I am starting to realise that these are some of the best times though and you tend to learn so much about yourself and gain a lot more experience than if everything went to plan.

During the week leading into Kinloch I was training really well and hitting PB’s on the bike, feeling great swimming and was running pain free/niggle free. We were feeling confident about a strong swim/bike and looking forward to testing out the legs on the run. But unfortunately I picked up a bug before the race, it decided not fully show itself until during the race, but such is life and I decided to pull the plug after struggling to breathe and then starting to feel numb and cold on the bike. The fact that I almost crashed into a large, bright orange cone after not being able to steer my bike in a straight line was the final tell and I chose to live and fight another day. Pulling out of a race is a hard thing to do. It was made worse by the fact that I was confused and frustrated about why I had to stop, so many questions whizzing around my head, so many maybes and what if’s.

So the day after the race cleared most of the confusion when I started to wheeze in my chest and cough up icky yellow phlegm. After a trip to the doc it was confirmed I had a chest infection and antibiotics were on the cards. Yay, this let me and the coach off the hook. I am super lucky to have such a smart coach and a great support group who work hard to get me through these times. Reflecting back right now brings a smile to my face, I was in to see the Doc, I had answers to all my questions and a new plan of attack straight away.

The plan of attack was to.... DO NOTHING! Ha, the next few days were spent in bed with only very easy runs allowed to keep the legs ticking over. It was hard to do esp. with a race looming the very next weekend, but again a great support group kept me in good spirits and looking forward to racing with nothing to lose.

I headed over to Geelong in Australia on Thursday. It was a tough few days leading into the race for me, I was not recovering as well or as fast as I would have liked and hoped. There was not much I could do except, eat and sleep and sleep, man I slept A LOT.

The day of the race I awoke feeling ok ish, but worried as I was feeling the same as I did before Kinloch the week before and that did not end well. But I stuck to my guns, did my own thing leading into the race and was determined to give it my all on the day and be happy with the experience.

The race was at 1.45pm, so after a veeeery long morning – we were awoke by the fire alarm at 6.30am and had to evacuate to the lobby, I finally headed down to the athletes lounge to get ready to race!

It was a non wetsuit, deep water start – Yes! I am a huge fan of these after many, many years of playing water polo I can say that I am pretty good at these kind of starts. So I did my usual swim warm up and wore a wetsuit to keep warm.

I decided to go hard from the start and see what happened. After a few strokes I was out front, so I kept up the pace and swam solid but not crazy as I knew I had to save some energy. I was surprised to hear when I exited the water that I and Emma Moffat had 15sec back to the rest of the girls. That was good news to my ears and so jumped on the bike and pushed hard straight away. I got a gap on Moffat and another Dutch girl, but slowed up to work with them. We dropped the Dutch girl pretty quickly. We worked hard and well together and ended up putting around 90sec into the chase group by the end of the bike.

Towards the end of the bike I was starting to get a little apprehensive about the next part of the race – the run. It was basically get off and run and see what happens.

I am proud to say that I stayed totally focused and ran my own race. I was running along doing little mental checks on my body, how am I feeling? How are the legs? No seizing? Any pain? I paced myself the first lap, running pretty slow. Then when I found my legs were fine my confidence grew and I found myself building throughout the next two laps and even running pretty hard the last 1km to make sure I stayed in the top 5. Which I did ending up 5^thoverall.

There are so many positives to take away from this race; it would be difficult to list them all. I am definitely happy with the end result but I would not say that it is why I am so happy. I would have to say it’s more the fact that I ran pain free and how now I am sitting in my hotel room hours after the race my calves are still fine! May not be so happy tomorrow morning ha-ha. I guess what I am trying to say is I am proud of myself for basically pulling the fingers to all the injuries, struggles and setbacks by just getting out there and doing the best I can with what I have got on the day.

Next up I am planning to race Takapuna Sprint Tri next weekend, as long as I pull up well over the next few days. Again planning to just train through it and go out there and race with what I have got.

Super huge thanks to my coach Paul, Physio Lou, Massage therapist Clint, Nutritionist Christel. Sponsors – Ben from Performance Bicycle Tuning, AA Insurance, Sky Sport, Marisa and Hamish Carter from Sportconnect, Blueseventy and Mum and Dad #1 fans.

First update of 2012!

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:07:19 +0100

Here's a quick update for this weekend in Kinloch and my next few races coming up.

I am super excited to be lining up to race the NZ Sprint Nationals down in Kinloch this Sunday. The last few months for me have been a little up and down with the running. I have been having issues with my calves and after a lot of experimenting to learn what I can do and also what I need to eliminate I have finally found some consistency. My coach and I have devised a plan which will have me building up nice and slow so I can stay happy, healthy and injury free.

So I am really looking forward to this weekend as a stepping stone. I love Kinloch as it is such a beautiful place and the race always has a fun summer holiday feel.

My race plan is to have a really good hard swim/bike, then onto the run I will stay focused and run within myself. I know if I do these things I will have a great day!

After Kinloch I am heading over to Geelong the next weekend for the Australian Sprint Nationals, then maybe Takapuna the weekend after that, depending on how my body is feeling. Again I am planning for another solid swim/bike in both races and keep the consistent build up in my running.

Tour De Vineyards 2011 Champion

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:46:52 +0100

Tour De Vineyards 2011

What a great way to end 2011. I really enjoyed racing the Tour down in Nelson. I will be totally honest and say that I was not really in the best head space going into it. After 2011 being a year full of injuries and niggles I was trying to focus on becoming a runner, but annoyingly I was/am still having trouble getting any kind of consistent running going and less than a week before the tour I put a tear in my calf, we are still baffled as to how, but hey that’s a whole different story. So anyway it was great to get down to Nelson and surround myself with an awesome group of Triathletes and I was super happy to come away with the win. I apologise in advance if this turns into a novel, but in my defence it was a 5 day tour...

So there were no expectations heading into it and my main aims were to get some good hard sessions in and also to gain more bike racing experience so it becomes second nature to me.

The tour started off with a 10km TT Prologue on the Monday evening. My send off time was 5.10pm. I was pretty relaxed at the start of the tour and this showed when I turned up to the TT as the only girl with just a road bike set up. No aero bars or even little tri bars. But that did not faze me and I set out hard and managed to hold a solid pace and finish strong on a one lap, windy, tough course.

Waking up the next day to find out I was in 13^th place, less than a minute behind the leader was pretty cool. And I felt both good and bad when I found out I had been given a 10sec time penalty for rolling over the line before the start. That would have put me up 2 places. I will file that hard learning away for next time.

The first stage was a 10 lap approx 5km circuit, on a mostly flat and windy but sunny course. It was a tough ride for me as I constantly had to think hard about positioning myself well and staying out of trouble. I felt I wasted a lot of energy doing too much at the front and riding in the wrong place at times. But in saying that I got through it and looking back, I achieved some more race experience and again learned some more hard lessons that will prove invaluable in the future.

I must admit this next stage is the one I was looking forward to the most. It is the type of stage where you can make up and put a lot of time into other riders with it being long and hilly. It was 130km and the last 15km a straight uphill climb.

Stage 2 started dry but cloudy. And straight away girls were attacking. I had made one of my goals the previous night to be patient and conserve my energy in the bunch, as 130km is a long way to race. Within the first 10km a group of girls had gone up the road including one of the best hill climbers in the race so I was a little concerned and sorely tempted to jump the gap and go with them as I really struggle to just chill. My nature is to go hard all the time. But I sat in and after the first QOM (Queen of the Mountains) climb at approx 65km the group up front had all come back to the bunch. After that it started to rain, hard. It then became a pretty pedestrian ride for the next little while with no one wanting to ride on the front. I concentrated on fuelling well and getting ready for the big climb. At approx 80km I saw a group of girls attack off the front; I knew instantly that I needed to go with that group as it had a lot of horse power. So I attacked off the front of the bunch and bridged onto the back of the group who I was happy to find were rotating well together and working hard. I settled in and we proceeded to put 4 mins into the main bunch by the bottom of the hill climb. I hit the bottom of the climb hard and kept going. After a few hundred meters I thought it sounded a little quiet so I turned around and was surprised to find myself all alone and with a large gap back to the other girls. I settled into a solid tempo which I knew I could hold and kept climbing. It was a hard climb but it was fun at the same time. I was getting time splits back to the group and knew I was putting time into them. By the top of the hill I was hurting but happy with almost 3mins back to Serena Sheridan in 2^nd and over 4mins to Courtney Lowe in 3^rd. Greg Fraine told me that it snows at the top of that hill – in summer.... After the race, whilst treating myself to a snickers bar, I reflected on the effort I just put in and the processes I went through to get to the finish line first, as I find this is key in helping to learn and gain experience. It was also a pretty cool feeling to have won a stage in the tour!

I then had to regroup and then refocus my goals slightly as now instead of just riding in the tour I was leading it with a bright yellow target on my back.

The third stage I wanted to defend my Jersey and make sure no one dangerous got away in any breaks. It was a 2 lap, 110km course with undulating hills and rain the whole way around. This would be the stage where someone would try take the yellow jersey. But between myself and Debbie Tanner we managed to jump on any break-aways and basically control the stage to suit us and I got around feeling strong the whole way. I was mostly pleased about that, as it just showed how much I have learned so far in regards to the tactics in bike racing and how to ride efficiently and conserve energy.

Heading in to the last stage I was feeling confident I could hang on to the jersey. It was a 16 lap, approx 2.2km stage where you were either going uphill, downhill or around a corner. After the first few laps I knew I had enough in my legs to sit in the front group and also be able to go with any attacks. There were many attempts at break a ways but no one got very far, so the bunch rolled around and I finished comfortably in the middle to take the overall Tour win!!

It feels good to have shown what I am capable of on the bike, and also how strong triathletes are at cycling. But now I really need to shift my focus and get the running going. It has been tough and still is tough for me with lots up ups and downs (I feel that I keep saying that). Ever since the surgery back in February I have not been able to find my running legs. We are trying very hard to be smart and sensible with a very slow progression. I guess all I can say now is watch this space!

Thank you to my sponsors and supporters who make this all possible.

AA Insurance, Sky Sport, Sportconnect, Performance Bicycle Tuning, Blueseventy and Triathlon NZ. Mum and Dad, Coach Paul and Physio Lou!

Break time over, summer training begins.

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 04:42:43 +0100

The last two weeks have been great! I have been on a break from training and all things triathlon. I spent the time catching up with friends, watching movies, listening to mucis, eating, de-cluttering (always makes you feel better) and just chilling out. So after squeezing out as much time as I could doing nothing this weekend, I now feel recharged and ready to get back into it.
Tomorrow I head down to Christchurch for a week long camp with the rest of the TRINZ High Performance squad. It will be really fun as we get lost of testing done and it will be a great week for easing back into training.

Auckland World Cup

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 01:30:06 +0100

I find it hard to sit down and write about a race straight away, there are just too many post race emotions to filter and make sense of, so after a few days of reflection I now feel able to write about my race on Sunday.

Just quickly I want to look back a few months to when I was feeling like I was at the bottom of the world and nothing seemed to be going right. I can now be proud of myself for the attitude I took when I just stuck my head down and got on with the things I could, like improving my cycling and swimming whilst waiting for my legs to heal.

I am very proud of the way I raced on the weekend and there is not much I would change if I had the chance to do it all over again. Obviously I would loved to have been better prepared for the run, but to be honest that did not really matter in this race as it was an achievement just to line up on the start line. I guess you could say I have no regrets.

So the last few weeks leading into the race were not ideal, with a few speed bumps including having to take antibiotics up to and after the race. I also had a lot of noise in my head with different scenarios chasing each other around and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t seem to turn it off, so we settled for turning the volume down which included listening to classical music whilst trying to get to sleep... and for those of you who don’t know me that well I am from West Auckland and we do not normally listen to classical music.... rather the opposite.

But at the same time I was starting to get excited, I had a few sessions in the week where I felt like I was jumping out of my skin I just wanted to get on with it!

Race day dawned and I felt mostly calm. I had done everything I possibly could to be prepared for this race as the last thing we wanted was another setback.

The plan of attack was to be aggressive in the swim and on the bike (which is something I have never had trouble with) and just race as hard as I could for as long as I could. So when we finally got down to the pontoon and lined up all I was thinking about was the 300m to the first buoy. I had a great clean start and put my head down, when I started to look up and around I realised that I was actually in front. That had been the plan all along, but when the plan actually happens you feel pretty relieved. Anyhow I mainly just wanted to stretch the field out and to also win the first lap as there was a $500US bonus for the first 750m, I am not going to lie, I do like money, who doesn’t?

So the second lap I kept a solid pace until a little Japanese girl came flying by me, but that did not matter as I was still in second.

Out of the water and running to transition was a blur. I had a quick transition, where I pretended to be a flying squirrel onto my bike. And set about shelling as many girls as possible. By the first hill a small group had formed at the front and there was a larger group coming together behind us.

The bike ride was awesome; I really did enjoy it a lot. The hills were fun and the fast downhill’s and tight corners also suited me, I remember going around one corner at the bottom of a hill pretty fast and thinking “man this is fun!” Then I heard the crowd go “ahhhh”, I may have been going a little too fast..... I can imagine how it would hurt if you had not worked on your cycling as nearly half of our bunch at the front fell off the pace and got swallowed by the chase groups. I am also pretty glad I have worked so much on my cycling as Andrea Hewitt is an amazing athlete. She really put the hurt on over the first few laps and we worked hard pushing the hills throughout the whole race. There were also two $500US bonuses on the bike up for grabs. They were situated at the top of the second hill, one on the 2^nd lap, which Andrea won and one on the 7^th lap, which I won!

By the end of the bike I was feeling strong and we had whittled the pack down to 5 with over 2mins on the main chase group.

In a way my race ended after the bike, I certainly wasn’t going to quit but I knew I had to run really controlled and pace myself from the start otherwise I would risk a setback/injury and this all would have been a waste of time.

It was very hard to be that slow in the run, especially when I know that if I had the same run fitness i did at the end of last year, before surgery/injuries, this race could have/would have been my best World Cup result, but I cannot think like that. Also the race being at home with such an awesome, big crowd was great but there really is nowhere to hide and believe me there were times when I wanted to! I was running along thinking I could not wait until the grand final next year where I can hurt myself on the run as well.

There are so many positives for me to take out of the race. I swam and biked well. My legs held up great. This was the first race ever that I had no pain/numbness in the calves. And best of all I am finally back racing! Onwards and upwards I say.

I want to say a huge thank you to my coach Paul Laursen for believing in me and getting me ready to race after what has been a difficult year.

I am now enjoying a two week break from all things triathlon, well trying to anyway. I will head down to Christchurch for the Tri NZ domestic camp in early December, then get ready to race the Tour de Vineyards in Nelson in late December.

Thanks to all my loyal supporters and sponsors.

AA Insurance, Sky Sport, Sportconnect, Performance Bicycle Tuning, Blueseventy, West Wave Aquatic Centre, Mum and Dad!

K1 Elite Womans Cycle race

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:55:38 +0100

Last weekend I raced the Elite Women’s category at the K1 Road Race in the Coromandel on Saturday. The main aim was to get a good hard training ride in and also to see where my fitness was at compared to girls who are at the top of road cycling in NZ. It was also great just to race again! To practise race day routines and to get used to feeling all the strange emotions that come with racing, as it has been a while since I last raced anything.

The race started in Whitianga at midday and made its way over a mixture of big hills and rolling hills until it reached the Thames Coast Highway, where it then wound its way along the flat coast road to the finish line in Thames township.

Sitting on the start line and looking around at the other girls I was feeling slightly intimidated and was wondering if I would get dropped from the bunch, but then at the same time I wasn’t too worried as I knew the aim was for a hard training day so all I had to do was ride hard and not care about the result... which is pretty unrealistic for me as I am way too competitive and knew there was no way I would be happy unless I won.

Right from the go I was at or near the front of the race as that is where I like to be. And after the first hill, just 10k into the race I looked around and realised that the other girls were not quite used to my aggressive riding as half the bunch had already dropped off and it was down to approx 9 girls. Over the next hill I kept my foot on the gas and once we had descended I look around and saw this time it was down to 5 girls. This was perfect and exactly what I had hoped would happen, so I set about trying to motive the girls to rotate and keep the pace up. But again they were not all that keen to work hard; this was confirmed a few minutes later when I got told off for pulling through too hard and disrupting the flow of the rotation. Fair enough, but I honestly was not riding that hard.... After that I could hear mutterings about ‘triathletes’ and ‘blowing up’. This just made me smile to myself.

So this had all happened approx within the first 30-40km of the race, so I was hoping that this small group would stay together and work well. But as we started to climb Whangapoa hill which is the biggest hill on the course at 3.4km long I was starting to realise that this was my chance to get away.. why I wanted to break away before the halfway mark and with over 50km still to ride, I am not sure.. So I set off at a solid pace and two girls came with me, then a few minutes later I heard one of them say “it’s just me and you know” so I was like “cool, should we go for it?” “No just keep it steady”... So naturally I pushed even harder and a few seconds later she had blown. I crested the hill and heard I had 30sec on her, so proceeded to descend down the other side with minimal braking and a few fish tails (I remember thinking that it would not be ideal if my tubular rolled off the rim going 60kmh downhill).

At the bottom of the hill, the race director told me I had 90seconds, at which point I was feeling great, with plenty of adrenaline pumping. So I thought, right, catch me if you can girls!

The rest of the race was mostly a painful blur. I vaguely remember there being a flat part then more hills and then finally the Thames Coast Highway, which I remember slightly better than the rest as I have never hurt myself that much on I bike before.

At the bottom of the last hill in the race I was told I had increased my lead to approx 3min to the chase group. From that point to the finish line in Thames, it is 30km of flat, windy coast road. The longest 30km of my life!

When I saw the 30km sign I put my head down, and focused on keeping my cadence high and speed up. When I saw the next sign which said 20km to go, I almost died! I was certain I had gone further than 10km! And I had got to the point at which I could not feel my feet, legs, bum, head, back or arms and I was starting to throw up my breakfast.

Anyway not much I could do but keep going. Finally the 10km sign, less than a waterfront TT which I have done in for training a few times back in Auckland!

I was lucky to have my coach trailing me in a car. He had started out as a spectator but after I had gone off the front of the race, the race director asked him to follow me as he needed to stay with the main bunch of girls. It was great to have him there from a training point of view and also because I was asking him every chance I got whether they were catching me, which at the time I felt certain they were and that me winning this race was too good to be true.

When I reached the 5km sign I started to think that maybe they wouldn’t catch me... Then when I finally reached the outskirts of Thames I looked around and saw no one behind me I started to smile and man smiling instantly makes you feel better! The last 500m was awesome and when I turned down a side street and saw the finish line ahead I admit I did shed a tear or two. The best part was seeing my Dad jumping up and down like a mad man on the side of the road!

To sum up, I was very happy with the race, which is exactly how I think races should be won, by going as hard as you can for as long as you can.

I want to thank my number one fan Dad, my awesome Coach Paul, and my sponsors - AA Insurance, Sky Sport, Ben Marshall at Performance Bicycle Tuning and Blue Seventy.

Here is a link to the race report on sportzhub - http://www.sportzhub.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13277&Itemid=1

Spring has sprung, and Teresa can run!

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:53:11 +0100

A lot has happened since I last posted, but also not a lot has happened. Man, with an opening sentence like that I am not sure where to start...

My current situation is a happy one. I am at home in my extremely comfortable bed with my awesome family and familiar training grounds. The weather could be better but I'm not going to be greedy here. I am happy to say I am now back running 30mins pain free! It is still early days but after 6 months of basically no running, it's a big deal for me. I have learned a lot so far this year with the biggest lesson being that you never stop learning and that this is all just part of life and it's funny ways... its definitely no tea party, but with the right guests it's a ball.

So rewind a few months... after I spent an awesome eight weeks in Boulder, Colorado, I travelled home and chilled out for 10 days catching up on some much needed sleep. I then packed my bags again and headed to the Gold Coast where I joined the atheles heading to Beijing on their pre World Champs Camp and for some more sun, of course.
This was really fun as I was joining in some of the group sessions aimed to sharpen up the team racing their most important race of the season. There were some awesome hard group bike sessions and some killer swim sets. But at the same time it was hard mentally as I was still struggling with some lower leg issues which were keeping me from running and sometimes even having to cut back the bike riding. Being a typical hyperactive athlete I found this a struggle at times.. But I am not complaining as I know how lucky I am to have this life.

Now back to the present... I am hugely enjoying being back running. I have been doing all my running out at the Muriwai Beach forest which is my favourite place to run. It is so beautiful and ideal for me build up strength in my legs as the trails are nice soft pine needles with a sand base. I am enjoying swimming at the moment, fitting in with different squads at different pools with different sessions through out the week, which keeps it interesting. On the bike I have just been ticking along with some steady rides whilst I build up my running legs. And, all going well, I am super excited to be lining up for the K1 cycle race again at the end of next month.

I owe a huge thank you to my awesome team of friends, family, coaches, physio's, nutritionist, doctors and sponsors who have believed in me unwaveringly and who work so hard to help me achieve my dreams. You know who you are and all I can say is that I can't wait to get out there and race to pay you back for all the support you have shown me.

So it is hard to believe that there are only a few months left in 2011, I plan to make the most of them and build a strong, healthy body and get back racing when I am ready! Roll on summer!

Just another day in Paradise.

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 02:43:19 +0100

For some reason every time I go riding I seem to get the same song stuck in my head - Phill Collins, Another day in Paradise... its so weird.

So anyway a bit of an update on the past few weeks. Its been pretty tough but as the heading suggest I am doing well and have found a new favourite quote "the tough times dont last, but tough people do".
My paradise being Boulder, Colorado for the second year in a row. The road to get here was pretty bumpy though.
After the camp in Cairns and racing in Seoul I can home on a high, happy to be back running, training and racing. I was looking forward to a good year after having surgery to fix compartment syndrome in my calves.
But just before heading away to Australia I picked up a niggle in my foot which did not go away. So when I got back from Korea I went to see my physio. It turned out to be a stress reaction. Doctors orders were 8-12 weeks off running and straight into a moonboot. To say I was dissapointed would be an understatement. But everything happens for a reason and I feel lucky to have this opportunity now to learn and grow as an athlete rather than later on when I am further down the track. And on the upside I have now fully mastered the art of aqua running and have even invested in my own snazzy belt.

So now for the good stuff.
I have been in Boulder for 2 weeks now with a group of other NZ Triathletes. And I am having a blast! The weather is awesome, the riding is epic and the pools are outdoors. How could you not be happy!
I am slowly turning into a rasin due to the heat and lack of air!
Today we rode a ride called Peak to Peak, as you can tell by the name its pretty hilly, with approx 2hrs climbing and then a casual 45min descent its pretty fun! And I am really excited becasue I get to start a walking programme tomorrow! And then after the walking programme I get to start the walk/jog programme which is a really exciting step forward. After the camp ends in a few weeks I will move in with a homestay I found up here for another few weeks of summertime. After which I will head home with a mint tan and wide shoulders from all the swimming and cycling I have been doing.

Here are a few picks from my trip so far.

Beautiful ride out to Carter Lake.

Meeting Legend Chrissie Wellington in the supermarket.