GCHIM Course run through

Today the plan was to ride 2 laps of the course being the full 90kms and do 1 lap of the 3 lap run course (7km's).

I headed out on the ride at 6:20am, so no lights were required which was pleasant. I was really worried about this ride and driving down I was feeling ill. My main concern was riding on my own down there - what if something happened? However, once I got going I was as good as gold. I brought a new 2xu triathlon top with pockets in the back the day before so I was trying that out along with the 2xu pants of Craig's just to see if I could cope with a long ride without the full bike nicks.

The course is good, there are a few little uphills, but nothing nasty. I stayed in my big chain ring for most of the hills. The Kerkin Road stretch is pretty bumpy and full of potholes, but most of the road on the course is Ok, there are sections that are dead but overall it is good.

My goal was to have 4 bottles of electrolytes on the bike, 2 vegemite sandwiches and a rice cocoa bar. I managed to get through all of this which was good. Race day I need to have the first bottle finished by the turn at the little shop near the strawberry farm. The next bottle needs to be finished by the halfway turnaround point at Calypso Bay and 2 bottles the same for the last lap. Because I can only carry 1 bottle on my bike it means that I am going to have to carry electrolytes on me to put into a water bottle. Each electrolytes provides 39grams of carbs so I need to make sure that I get everything on board for the run.

I think the plan for transition will be to have some sustagen sport and water and make sure that I scoff the sustagen as muh as I can get down whilst in transition. This will help by providing a good dose of carbs and hydration.

I did the first lap in 27kph average and then the wind picked up on the second lap. Thanfully though by the time I finished the second lap my average had only dropped down to 26.5, so I must have taken advantage of a tail wind in there somewhere, however I don't remember it!

3hours 20min was the cycle time.

I then tried a fast transition to the run. It ended up being 5 minutes by the time I locked the bike in the car and sorted out my runnin shoes, run belt and grabbed my food and hydration which wasn't too bad for me! I took out a water bottle and a vegemite sandwich. The run was good, I wasn't cramping and didn't feel as though I was about to, it was slow, but I felt consistent. I felt like I could have continued on after the 7km lap so I hope that I can feel like that on race day.

47 minutes for 7km with a loo stop so it was probably just over 6min k pace which I am happy with.

I stretched for 20minutes and then I went into the water for 5minutes to cool down the legs. I had 2 up and go's and headed for home. I wasn't overly fatigued or sore which I am thrilled with.

Today's session has given me a lot of confidence that I can do the Half Ironman and complete it which up until this point I wasn't so sure so i am feelin on top of the world.

Sutton's Beach Session

Today was a long swim/long ride from Suttons Beach at Redcliffe.

The sea was a lot better than a fortnight ago when we were there, it was still a bit up and down and there was a bit of a current, but it was OK. Jacque and I swum together, we swam up to the toilet block - we made it this time! My stroke felt relaxed, I was calm in the water and overall I was pretty happy with how I was swimming. I felt comfortable and for me and an ocean water swim that is the main thing. Jacque said that she is coping with them a lot better now too, which is good, she is swimming really well now. This is a woman that was truly petrified of swimming 100mtrs in Lake Hugh Muntz a freshwater lake. She has certainly come a long way.

The cycle was a different story; just before we were due to go out it starting howling wind and driving rain! It was foul; we were all huddled under the shelter and then that was it - the decision was made that we were cycling for an hour in it! Needless to say I was terrified!

I started at the back and just limped along behind everyone, Jacque was there with me as well and we were trying to comfort each other that it would be OK. When you are whizzing along on 120psi tyres on slippery roads it is quite scary! The cars all seemed to be that much more aggravated as well; we had a few people blast their horns at us which was completely uncalled for.

We did have a mishap at the roundabout at Newport Waterways. One of the girls Christina came down at the roundabout. She was only a couple of riders in front of me and she just lost traction around the roundabout and the bike slipped underneath her. She has a small scrape on her thigh, but she is very sore around the shoulder. Hopefully she will recover quickly. She got back on and rode home which is admirable - much more than what I would have done, that is for sure!

Jacque and I were thinking that it could have so easily been us!

I was very happy to get off the bike when we got back that is for sure!

Sunday Brick Session

Today we did a brick session at Sutton's Beach at Redcliffe. We also managed to coincide it with some Surf Life Saving championships so we were very squished for space!

Mark tried to teach us to do the flying mount. I know this sounds really defeatist, but I completely suck at it, have no flexbility, no coordination, so I am just going to get on and off like a slow goober until I am competitive within my age group. At the moment I am coming in the middle of my age group, so I think I can afford to get on and off safely without having to worry too much about it. I think I prefer the scoot, scoot method that Garry Alston started to teach me where you put your left foot on the shoe on the pedal scoot a couple of times and then throw your right leg over and away you go. Yeah, it sounds easy, but I made it look completely difficult!

Anyway, the session was quite good, we same about 150-200mtrs, rode 5kms, ran 1.5kms and kept going until we ran out of time. I got through 2 full sessions and did the 3rd swim before running out of time.

I felt like it was a bit of a bludge, it was mainly because there was so many people around that it was hard to go really hard as you had to be a bit cautious with so many kids and people around.

We went and celebrated with a buffet breakfast at the hotel up the road - very civilised, but not really looking after my weight!