Scorcher #1 2010

The first Scorcher was a really good race for me, I had a nice solid swim, 34 mins, (including transition time) so that will be a sub 30 min swim. It is a time that I am really pleased with at this point of the season. My ride came in at 1hr 8 min bike (30km) which was good considering there was a dirty great big hill in the middle of the course - my new bike feels fast and I feel good on it. But best of all was my run at 40 min (8km) this was the thing that I was most pleased with really, I felt strong on the 2nd lap and brought it home stronger than the 1st lap which was my goal for the race.
Overall It felt like a good day in the office for me, personal highlights included, a sub 30 min swim out of the water, a strong bike, on a new bike and a solid run. On the need to work harder side, I felt really tired at the end of the training week after the race but I suppose that’s to be expected when I combine my current training load with racing.
With less than 2 weeks to go till the Taupo half Ironman I can't wait to go up there and put down some fast times, I will be looking for a 1 hr swim a 3 hour bike and a 1hr 45 run, so a 5:45 all up, that will be about an hour faster than last year. If I can do that I will be really pleased with my work. I’m certain now that we are heading in the right direction, with only days to go till the big season marker of the Taupo half Ironman. Will keep you posted as to how that goes...

Mind body stuff

I had a really great session on the Saturday before by race with a muscle activation therapist called Lise Wollestenholm. Lise was recommended by my swim coach Ali. She was amazing, we spend about an hour with Lise - she was loosening up all the tightness in my muscles that I didn't know I even had, she even had my legs straight up at 90 degrees when I was lying on the bed, now that's never happened before, ever.

I think that she works by activating the contact point for the muscle to allow it to work as it should, naturally and the results are amazing, really natural muscle movement and great extension, far greater extension than I have ever got before.

Needless to say Lise is great. She works out of Tawa, and I thoroughly recommend her.

the bigger picture

Last weekend I was invited to go to an event that Parafed Wellington put on. One of the things that Parafed does is to seek opportunities and facilitate participation for people with disabilities in sports. The event I went to was for swimming so naturally I had a connection to the event.

I found the event really great, it gave me the opportunity to talk to disabled people, both young and old about goal setting and achieving the things you want to despite the negative perceptions of others.

A common theme that emerged was that many people with a disability are told they cannot do this or that for whatever reason (usually linked to the able bodied person's fear or the unknown) and that negative feedback stops participation. This was part of my story in so far as my early swimming experiences went.

I tried to imprint upon people I spoke to at the swimming event on the weekend that I use other people's negativity to fuel my positive response. I say to myself I will do this, and I will show that person/s that it can be done

Parafed is a wonderful organisation whose main aim is to provide opportunities for disabled people to participate in sport. I am inspired by the people I meet at the Parafed events just as much as I hope they are inspired by seeing my example.

A key person at Parafed Wellington is the Sport Development Coordinator Michelle Laurenson. Michelle works tiresly to seek and provide opportunities for people with disabilities, she has helped me with my training and with preparing for Ironman 2010, she does amazing work and I am continually impressed by the work she does.





There is another event coming up this weekend, also run through Parafed promoting horse riding. I will be going to that as well talking to more young disabled people giving the same message.

Crunch time in the training cycle

It's getting to be crunch time in the training cycle from now till the half ironman. Records need to be beaten in the pool and big weeks are needed from now. I've worked all year to get to this point and I feel confident that I came come up with the numbers on the day.

I'm working with my swim coach, Ali right now on being able to make the most from my kick to create more speed in the pool. When I take the pull buoy (which is a foam flotation device) out and swim in the pool it feels like I'm sinking and not going fast, I've been thinking about that sinking feeling and I'm sure its connected to the fact that I had a bad introduction to swimming. I went from not swimming at all to learning to swim to competing all within the space of one year. I skipped the stage where water is fun and you enjoy being in the water and feel safe. S every now and again when I am unsupported by the pull buoy I feel unsafe, like I'm going to sink.

I'm working with Ali right now on forcing my left leg to do more of the work and making my right leg not over compensate so much. With a smoother kick I should be able to swim even faster and I am already well under cut off time for the Ironman swim, right now.

I have a big swim time trial coming up, it will either be 1500m or 2km, if it's 1500 I will be expecting to finish in 46 mins and if its a 2km I will expect to finish in 61 mins.

It feels really great to be riding a new set of wheels,a big thanks to Nigel at Avanti. I feel like I am riding faster while exerting less energy which is a great thing. It's good to feel positive about every ride rather than feeling annoyed about riding a old bike.

My run is coming along really well, I am running for 2 hours comfortably in mixed terrain, up in the Karori hills, which is more of a challenge than on the pavement for sure.

Count down to the tri season

Well its almost two weeks to go till the Scorching series starts, that marks the official kick off of the pre race season, that means six weeks till the half, time goes so fast, its amazing... I'm counting the days,

The first race is on the 14th of November, its a warm up race:

1km swim
30km bike
8km run

Still Scorching bay in November will be "fun" !!! hahaha

Winning the head game

This week my swim coach said something that has stuck with me, he said I should allow myself to celebrate the successes I have in the pool. It stuck with me for a couple of reasons.
As a para athlete I have always pushed myself harder,expected more of myself. And it stuck with me because of something that was said to me as a child I remember being told to never settle with what you have, always strive to improve. My coach has invested a huge amount in my success, I push myself harder for my own reasons but I am also very grateful for the efforts that he puts in to me personally that will allow me to swim faster and achieve my goals.

I also wonder if I was less focused on the minute details of each performance, scrutinising each performance in detail and focused more on the big picture whether my performance would improve. This week we have a time trial, its something we do regularly to measure performance. I will be looking at my performance to see whether I improve but this time I will allow myself to feel good about my swim.

the toll of training

I wanted to spend a bit of time this week talking about how much of a toll all the training is having on my body and the great support I'm receiving to keep me going regardless.

At the moment it seems like I'm spending a lot of time in the physio, which is frustrating as its the last place I want to be right now in this phase of the training cycle. I need to thank Ben and Steph at VUW physio for giving me really fast treatment and putting up with me being a bit grumpy and apprehensive at the moment.

http://www.victoria.ac.nz/st_services/physio/

In the last month I have aggrivated both rotator cuff's, both left and right shoulders, hense the many trips to the physio.The annoying thing about all this is that while I am in the pool I feel fast and my times in the water confirm that feeling, I am swimming 6 min 300m which equates out to a 2hr pace for the 3.8km swim.

Another wonderful lady who is helping me with my recovery is Jin Ong, she is an Osteopath who is giving me a course of 'dry-needling' to encourage flushing of lactic acid. I see Jin every couple of weeks for treatments and she is great, thoroughly recommend her,she's very great.

http://theosteopathicpractice.co.nz/

Well its less than a month to go till the pre race season starts with the Scorcher Tri's starting on the 14th of November, can't wait, then its almost a month till Taupo half, I'm getting very excited about that...

New Month,getting closer to race season, time to get serious

Well its October, I just about can't believe it, It's only a month till the pre race tri series starts which is a real wake up call. It's great though, focuses the attention on the big prize in March.

I've had an interesting winter, My swim has really moved forward but just recently in the last month I have had minor rotator cuff injuries to both left and right shoulders, nothing major but enough to remind me that I will need both shoulders working perfectly on race days.

I've been working with an Osteopath, Jin, at the Osteopathic Practice who has been working magic in terms of reducing the lactic acid from my legs, so I seriously recommend that treatment.

The programme that Lynley has be on at the moment feels really good, I know that the numbers will increase as we go into Jan / Feb but I also know that right now I feel very comfortable with my run and bike and my swim is feeling good other than the fact that I'm rehabing my shoulder.

Weeks 2 & 3

Weeks 2 and 3 for me have been about injury rehap, I injured my right rotator cuff in the pool on thursday week and have been seeing a pyysio at VUW puysio to get back inthe pool, so thankfully I only missed two swims before I was back in the pool,

One of the great things about tri is that if you get an injury in one area you can focus in another area to vent the frustration of the injury and I certainly did that the last couple of weeks. My run cycle has benefitted from the frustration.

Part of that venting has meant that my run has really started come come along and I'm starting to feel strong on the runs now. I'm also starting to build in my brick sessions and long rides which feel nice to do after a while off. Training is feeling good at the moment which is a great thing because I thinnk that toward the end of the year the efforts will be not so nice, so I better enjoy them while I can.

Training week #1

Well, I've come to the end of week#1 of the training programme, this week was compromised slightly by exams which I was studying for Thursday / Friday.

I had 2 really good runs this week, a 90 min run on Tuesday and a 60 min run Saturday, it is really good to get back into my running again.

I was slightly concerned to have a right shoulder niggle, I had pain in my shoulder, at squad on Thursday, I focused the remainder of the session on kick, so all was not lost but its something I am slightly concerned to see.

This week I saw an osteopath, Jin, at "the osteopathic centre" Jin is going to try a course of dry needling with me where she puts a needle into the muscle to relieve knots and aid recovery, I'm looking forward to seeing how the treatment plays out.... on to week #2

August Ironman Training Camp

Well I've just got back from a weekend away with the TriBrown Coaching team and athletes in Taupo for IM Training camp #1.

Let me describe the weekends activities

Day #1 Saturday
Morning 8am 3 hr Ride Taupo - Kinloch return
With 15 min runoff the bike

Afternoon 3pm 2.7km in pool

Description:
Day #1 was very wet all day, I was a bit concerned with the large down hills that we had over the back of Taupo that I would crash given the amount of water on the road and the slippery surfaces, but the ride had to be done, and it was. The scenery was lovely when we could see it, there were plenty of cows and sheep to keep us company, not a single other cyclist on the back roads, no big surprise there!!

The run was enjoyable,only 15 mins so not to taxing, I ran from our base at Rainbow Point to 5 mile and back, again it was wet and I avoided truck spray on the highway, which was nice. Can't wait till January camp when all we'll have to worry about is the heat, !!

Day #2
1.5hrs of Run combined with core session and Run drills.

Description:

Our day started with a 20 min warm up run down the road from Rainbow Point to the foreshore and then back along the lakefront (IM marathon course) path to a patch of grass where we started our run drills.

We spent 30 mins working on Run drills from the Striding On Series, the drills are really good for setting good technique as the base for run technique, from that point we transitioned into core stability work.

Our core stability work lasted a good 30 mins, we followed the programme from TriBrown Coaching which outlines a great routine for building core stability. I was not looking at what I was doing at one point and almost rolled into a 'dog deposit' to the other members of the groups' laughter.

I left Taupo, it was still raining by the way, it hadn't stopped raining since we arrived on Friday, at 11ish on Sunday all ready to go with my IM programme for the next month.

A great weekend all round, thanks to Lynley, JB and everyone who came to camp

another big week in the pool, more progress

Well last week was a big step forward, and I need to take many big steps forward,

I had two really hard swims, Tuesday and Thursday, my real focus is on bringing intensity to my swim and lifting the pace.

For my time trial on Thursday I swam a 32 min 1km which was 4 Min's faster than the last one the previous month. I wasn't very happy with it at the time, but now I can see that it was a good result.

I think I get so caught up in wanting to have the result now, to have my swim down to a 1:30 that I forget that it is a process and I get annoyed when I see small gains as I want to see massive gains. When in reality four minites is a massive gain.

I'm meeting with my main partner Access Healthcare this Friday to discuss how we can work together how I can speak to their staff and inspire them to do better and be better. This weeks meeting is a really technical meeting about all the nuts and bolts of the relationship. I'm really enjoying the relationship so far it fees very natural and unforced.

I go up to Taupo with Lynley and the IM crew from the 13-15th August, so that is where my whole programme will kick off for real with a big weekend of intense training and bonding as a group and then hit the ground runing

Moving onwards...

Just spent the weekend away with my swim coach from campaign 09, we still have a really good relationship even though I have moved on to a new coach,

It was really good to get away from the full on nature of town. This week has been especially crazy, I met an especially great team at Access health care.
We share a similar view on patient focus and my lived experience as a disabled person in New Zealand will be great for promoting their wonderful brand and the great work their staff do around New Zealand on a day by day basis.

I'm really looking forward to working with Access on a longer term basis on a wide range of issues.

This week I have two tough sets in the pool for squad, so here we go...

Small changes make for large improvments

I was at squad this morning, I have been away for a well earned break before term starts, so I was expecting a bad swim anyway. My last two weeks in the pool have been ordinary to say the least, Ali's been away and I've missed his closeness to correct my stroke. He gave me a simple direction today, to bring my left arm out of the water and breath every stroke.

Initially it didn't work, the key was, and this is the magic part, that I needed to rotate my shoulders just a little to allow for my left arm to come out of the water, before with no rotation there was no pull in my stroke, with the rotation I can get the full pull from my left arm.

It is magic how just a little shift, of inches can make all the difference to what I'm doing in the water.

Small thoughts Big goals

I'm thinking a bit at the moment about the things that were significant as I grew up, the milestone dates / moments etc. It's a strange process to go through as it's not an entirely positive process, thinking about the bad stuff along with the good.

Someone reminded me of the bullying at School the other day, that it went on, it was real. I had put it to the back of my mind for a long time, that was hard to hear about.
Another person told me about the attitude I used to carry on my shoulder like a protective shield, that was hard to hear aswell.

I'm going to use all these experiences, combine them together into a more effective speach than I am useing at the moment to tell a story about myself, my journey and inspire others to make changes whether big or small in their lives.

creating new neural pathways

I never thought that swimming would change the way my body worked but the bio-mechanics of my body has changed in the year since I started swimming. My left side is becoming more connected to the right, it wasn't connected to the right at all for the vast majority of my life.

My swim coach,by asking me to swim faster, which is what i need to go under the cut off time for Taupo is creating all sorts of bio-mechanical changes in my left side and in the path-ways from my left arm and leg to my brain. Those pathways haven't been engaged for such a long time and now they are being asked serious questions, along the lines of, now its time to move, fast!!, and they're not liking it at the moment!!

So right now its a battle between underdeveloped neural pathways and an equally determined brain focused on delivering a result, my money is on the brain winning out

2010: the year of the swim

Well, my 2010 started out with all the excitement and anticipation that the build up to the big day of Ironman brings. I believed I was ready to take on the 3.8km swim in Taupo, I'd done the training and the only thing in front of me was the swim itself.

My swim that day didn't go as I'd planned it in my head, i walked out of the water in 2:35 mins, 15 mins over the cut off time, to hear Wayne Reardon, race director say, "sorry mate but that's your race for today"

Well a lot of water (hahaha) has gone under the bridge since that day, in my first day back in the pool, at Karori pool, for the first time I used my left arm to swim with, I swam the entire 3.8km swim with one arm, and from that day in karori onwards I have been swimming with both arms.

I knew from Ironman that things about my swim programme needed to change, for most athletes it is the shortest part of the IM, the part that they try to get over the quickest they can before getting on the bike for that long 180, for me its a different equation.

The swim for me sets up my whole day, if it goes bad, my race is over, if it goes well i am so pumped for the rest of the race that the rest goes in a blur.

So i knew that I needed a coach that could take my swimming to the next level, challenge me, push me and extend my undersstanding of what is possible.
I have found that coach and that programme in Ali Dennis and swim squad at Kilbirnie Pool.

I am making real progress in lowering my swim times, getting faster and I am now very confident that by December I will have a very clear understanding of my capabilities in terms of my ability to swim the 3.8km swim in under 2 hours