Phewww… what a week! I went from a late night 21st to a triathlon first thing the next morning, to kids camp straight afterwards for a week lol. The relief of sitting down last night! It’s literally the first time I sat down and chilled out in 6 days lol.

So this 21st was potentially the best and worst idea ever haha. I don’t drink so that wasn’t an issue haha. Had such an awesome night and caught up heaps of awesome mates who I haven’t seen in ages! Then at 11pm I decided that it was bed time - had to be up at 7am.

Except I was sleeping AT the house where the 21st was.. cos mine was another hour’s drive away. So while I’m curled up on a large double bed listening to my iPod and attempting to sleep, the bass from the dance music in the lounge is basically shaking the house down lol.

Finally fell asleep about 12am and then at 1am two of my friends open the door and I hear them whisper.. “we’re gonna wake Denyse up..” and suddenly I’m being playfully attacked by two of my (rather drunk) best guy mates. They tried to take over my bed and ended up DRAGGING ME DOWN THE HALLWAY in my sleeping bag lol. By this point I was a mix of annoyance and amusement lol.

I managed to get my bed back, but they crashed there as well. The three of us lay there talking for agessss and at about 2:30am decided it would be time to sleep….but sleep did not happen. 3 people sharing a bed is NOT comfortable and does not make for a good night sleep lol. So 3 hours sleep was my total for the night before triathlon haha. I was already dreading the next morning!

When I arrived at the triathlon I spoke to my instructor Chris about my lack of sleep and he told me “Don’t worry about it. You’ll be fine. It’s the night before the night before that matters the most”. Fortunately I managed to get 10 hours sleep that night so I was like.. phewww haha. I was still churning down the powerade though!

I was doing the longest course - 5km run, 20km cycle, 400m swim. They were 170 triathletes and we were all doing a mixture of different length courses.

Haha my care factor was pretty low for this tri. Usually I’ve rehearsed transitions and everything over in my head, studied the course, asked heaps of questions, and run through a million different problematic scenarios in my head. This time I was like “meh” and did pretty much none of that lol. Just before I lined up, I ran over to the board to have a quick glance at the course haha.

I started near the back of the pack on the run even though I didn’t actually realise when I lined up! This was not my intention lol.

The first 2.5km of the run went fine, and then the second 2.5km got quite difficult. I was certain that I was going to have to stop and walk, but everytime I told myself “Just a little bit further. Just run a bit further”. With this attitude, I actually stuck it out all the way to the end and didn’t stop. Seriously, you can do anything when you have good mental strength. I told myself that I could do it because I’d run this distance before. There was no reason why I couldn’t. “Push past the fact that you only had 3 hours sleep Denyse!” I stuck with a couple of other girls all the way thru the run and eventually passed them near the end. One of them is a half ironman so I was quietly stoked that I’d kept up with her haha.

I was getting a little dizzy in the last few 100m tho! It was so hot. How grateful was I to see transition haha. T1 went smoothly, no issues there.

The cycle was good but it was booooooring! 20km seemed to take so long and I got so bored of cycling the same circuit 4 times haha.

Having a road bike made a huge difference, but I was also one of the slowest bikes. All the other road bikes flew past me near the beginning (including the girls I managed to pass on the run). They all had fancy as bikes with flash gear lol. This was a bit discouraging cos I never managed to catch them again. I wasn’t the last cyclist to finish, but I was close.

My bum was so grateful to get off that bike!!! Yeow, time to invest in some padded bike pants haha.

T2 was fine, I took a moment to get a good drink, and grab a breath! My legs were feeling rather shaky at this point.

Ahhh the swim… The first 2 lengths were sooooo nice. My muscles loved the change of movement! But then my limbs turned into heavy weights that I was just dragging down the pool lol. I forced myself not to stop though.

As I was swimming, I saw a clock on the wall that said ‘10:35am’. We had started the tri at 9am, so I knew then that I’d gone over my hour and half goal. I was a bit gutted, but I reminded myself that my main goal was to finish.

Then when there was only about 6 lengths to go, I looked up and I noticed a timer at the end of the pool that said ‘1 hour 24 minutes’ and it was slowly counting the seconds. Then I realised that we must’ve started the triathlon late, meaning I still had a chance to finish under an hour and half! That shot my adrenaline through the roof and I took off down the pool lol. I swam that last 6 lengths so fast, urging myself to go faster and faster lol. I actually ran into another girls feet and tailed her all the way down the pool haha.

It paid off, because I hit the end wall at 1 hour 27 minutes 36 seconds. YAY! What a sigh of relief haha I just lay there on my back for a few minutes and got my breath back with a big smile on my face lol.

I ended up placing 31st out of 44 competitors. I expected this sort of placing, some of those people were SUPER pro. I finished only 3 minutes behind a girl who did a half ironman last year so that made me happy haha.

Chris came up to me afterwards and told me I’d done really well and my form through the whole thing was really good. He said he’s planning on doing a 5 week course with further triathlon training for those of us who want to continue on and get a bit more pro. I’m keen :) I’ve definitely caught the triathlon bug!

I’m a member of my local triathlon club now, and we have a winter duathlon/triathlon series coming up so I’ll probably get involved with them. Training takes so much time though, but I’ll stick with it as much as I can.

My main aim now is to improve my running. Half marathon in December!! :D

The final night!! 8 weeks went quickly :/

We just had a small running and cycling course set up tonight. Run around once, jump on your bike, cycle once, jump off your bike… etc. It was really good practice for transitioning although it got pretty repetitive! We also had to practice getting off and on our bikes quickly before we hit the transition mat or we’d get DQed. I am proud to say that I’m the master at it now lol.

Chris did a routine check over my bike at the beginning, and immediately noticed that my front wheel was loose! Wasn’t even aware that I had to check that haha. So he tightened it and I discovered that the rattling sound that had been occurring on my last ride had stopped. Haha oops, Denyse the triathlon cabbage strikes again.

The course was all on grass, plus it had been raining so road bike + wet grass + tight course to manoeuvre = slipping and skidding around every corner. Was pretty entertaining actually lol.

That’s pretty much all we did tonight. Here’s what I learnt:

• Have the absolute minimal of stuff in your transition area. Don’t use bags, because getting your stuff out of the bag takes too long. Don’t bother with massive boxes of stuff, you won’t need any of it. Simple and easy. Don’t bother with a towel or a drink bottle in transition - you’ll dry as you cycle and you can drink as you cycle.
• Helmet must ALWAYS be on whenever you’re touching your bike - touching, not riding. So even in transition when you’re wheeling it around, you must have your helmet on or you will get DQed. Easiest thing to prevent this is chuck your helmet on as soon as you get to your bike and transition area.

So that’s that! 8 weeks of training & teachings completed. Next week we have a debrief after the triathlon to talk about how things went but unfortunately I can’t go :( I’m so glad I chose to do this series though, I have learned heaps and gained lots of knowledge and confidence!

2 sleeps til my triathlon! Getting quietly nervous lol

We started out with half an hour of question and answers time with our instructor Chris about triathlon and everything in them - training, transitions, bikes, shoes, clothing, gear, swimming, hydration, you name it. So here are a few of the important things I learnt!

Half ironman. How long should I expect to train for? 

Between 10-12 hours a week. This is broken down into the three disciplines:

• swimming - 3 to 4 hours a week 
• running - 3 hours a week
• cycling - 4 to 5 hours a week

Look at doing 2-3 training sessions a week of each discipline for those total hours. This is the absolute minimum training required however. Expect to spend longer as you build up.

Take part in other events. Build up to the event by participating in other triathlons, or events for each individual sport i.e. cycling or running race. The more experience the better. Aim for 4-5 events before your triathlon. This also gives you goals to keep you motivated as you train for your ultimate goal.

Weight training. Weights are not necessary for triathlon training. The best training is by doing - swimming, running/walking and cycling. The key is to work on fitness and cardio not strength. Most people are pushed for time during the day so you don’t want to waste it on training that won’t be helpful.

Transitions. Keep it simple. Only have what you need and nothing more. You want to keep moving, so drink water while you’re on your bike. Don’t bother having a towel - you’ll dry while you’re cycling (although I like to dry around my upper thighs so I don’t chaff!). Have gear that can be put on quickly and easily like stretchy shoe laces for running shoes. I’m going to buy myself some!

Clothing. Nothing baggy. Self explanatory.

Wetsuits. Worth the money you pay. Some triathlons require that you wear one. A regular one won’t work - you want a stretchy one made for triathlons. They can sometimes be hired if you can’t afford them!

Bikes. Bikes range in price and performance. If you’re doing the short course triathlons then any bike will do - road or mountain bike. If you’re looking at a half or full triathlon where you’ll be on the saddle for 90km or more, then you need a decent bike. An entry level road bike will cost about $1000.00 (NZD) brand new. Alot of people go through two stages - they purchase one and then end up upgrading later. Their later upgrade will usually last a lifetime. Second hand bikes are great purchases so keep an eye out. Talk to the experts first however to find out what you need!

Running shoes. I found this part really interesting!

The average running shoe will last about 1000km before wearing out. Most shoes will wear out before then anyway. Your feet or knees might be the best indicator of your shoes wearing out as opposed to the actual shoe itself.

Newsflash: Supportive shoes are NOT always best. These shoes reduce the strength building capacity of your feet and legs and can lead to injuries. Shin splints are an example of this.

Chris likened it to wearing a cast - when a leg cast is removed, the leg is extremely weak. It’s the same with supportive shoes. You lose all strength in your feet because you aren’t using the strength. Alot of triathletes run in a very light weight shoe (which only last about 400km). Using a lighter unsupportive shoe will also help strengthen leg muscles.

Think about kids - they run around all day in barefeet and never have foot injuries. Strengthen your foot muscles!

I get sore feet when I run, and I wear a very supportive shoe. Chris said this will be why! He advised me to practice running barefoot for awhile - but build up slowly. Run on grass or sand. Sand is really good for foot muscles strengthening - he runs barefoot along the beach once a week.

Supportive shoes aren’t terrible however. Just make sure you alternate and do some barefoot running, or running in a lighter shoe sometimes.

Time to start running!

We headed out to do interval training. Interval training allows you to do a short timed training but at a high intensity. It’s great if you’re pushed for time. We did the following.

• 5 minute warm up
• 15 minutes interval training of fast running for a minute followed by jogging for a minute
• 5 minute cool down

To make it more difficult you can extend the fast running to 1.5 -2 minutes while keeping the jogging to a minute. Extend the 15 minutes out to 20 minutes.

It was tiring! But I was happy with how I went. Afterwards Chris came running over to me and told me that it was obvious that I had been working on my running technique (even though I’ve only practiced once haha) because my technique is looking really good and I’m doing everything correctly. I’m kicking my legs high at the back, and landing on the ball of my foot. I keep my shoulders back, arms loose and not cramped up in front of my chest compressing my breathing.

So that was a pretty big compliment coming from a pro Ironman! :)

I want to increase my endurance but I really struggle. He recommended that I run 5kms every day for a week and my fitness will begin to sky rocket. I don’t run enough atm because of all my other triathlon training!

I’m quietly looking forward to this triathlon training to be finished - I want to start working on my running more intensely!

10 Days Til Triathlon!

So I’m currently avoiding my essay to write this. But oh well! Tomorrow’s another day ahaha.

Night 6! Where did that time go? I’m learning heaps from this series, and it’s really motivating to keep training. And if I’ve had a bad week, doing this every week series helps me get back on the training track.

I’m one of the fitter ones in the group but that doesn’t mean I can slack around - our instructor Chris definitely notices when we’re not working to our max! It’s also a good way to keep us accountable because he always asks us how our week has been in terms of training.

So today we went for about a 10km cycle. We stopped after 5km and practiced dismounting efficiently - swing one leg over the back of the seat so all your weight is on one leg on one pedal, and then just step onto the ground and start running. Looked difficult but it was actually really easy. Just don’t hit the brakes as you do so or you’ll end up over the handle bars lol.

On the cycle back, Chris told us that it was important that we didn’t think about the pool swim. He said alot of people take it easy on the bike thinking “I have to conserve my energy”. But he said “no, don’t do that. Trust your fitness. You’ve been training, so you know you’re fit enough.” I guess it truly is mind over matter! And it’s better to get to the end feeling shattered, than feeling like you still had something to give.  

Doing the transition into the pool was interesting. I’m glad I got the chance to practice that! Your hands are really shaky when you’re trying to undo your shoelaces lol.

Dove into the pool, and filled my goggles with water lol oops. Didn’t put them on tight enough! Chris was yelling at us to keep going though so I didn’t stop until the other end. Somehow I managed 50m without being able to see lol.

I actually felt pretty good when I dove in - my body was like “ahhh this makes a nice change!”. After awhile though my arms got pretty heavy but I just kept going. Mind over matter. I knew I could do it, just my mind was telling me I couldn’t lol.

I also forgot to put my swim cap on, and I definitely suffered for it. I had hair running down my face so I had water running into my mouth. Not enjoyable when you’re gasping for breath as it is. So I noted that when I do my next tri, take the time to put my swim cap on! I’ll be glad I did.

Overall I swam 400m and I did it entirely freestyle. I told myself I wasn’t going to do breaststroke and I didn’t :) I felt pretty slow but I didn’t care - I got it done!

Chris told me that I was swimming well and that I looked like I could do some more. I politely declined haha.

And then another lady told me that she noticed I have a really smooth swimming style, and I just seem to glide down the pool! I was stoked! It was a good compliment and very encouraging!

Next week is running!

Second night in the series that we’ve trained in the pool! Our instructor Chris upped the workout tonight. And boy, it was definitely a workout…. I really enjoyed it though.

First thing I learnt from looking at my photos of my tri on Sunday is that I swim funny. Haha. I don’t extend my arms enough, I keep them quite bent. And I don’t keep them wide enough apart - I actually cross them over at the front. So I worked on both these things tonight. It felt weird for awhile, but I’m pretty sure it’s better style!

So we started with 300m warm up.

The first 100m went like this. 25m freestyle, 25m one arm, 25m other arm, and 25m sighting.

Then we did it again twice exactly the same, except we changed from freestyle to backstroke, and then backstroke to breaststroke.

After warm up, we did 100m of flutterboard kicking - 50m on our front, 25m on each side.

Then 100m of polo swimming (freestyle with your head out of the water). Not as easy as it sounds!

Then we worked on speed. Chris told us that if we come down a swim 1km at the pool every morning, our fitness won’t get anywhere. We’ll stay the same, and won’t get any faster. The key is to mix it up, and use different speeds.

So we did 100m. 25m of slow, then medium, then fast, and then medium again.

Then another 100. 25m of medium, fast, medium, slow

And another 100. 25m fast, medium, slow, medium.

It was an amazing workout! The key is to not drop your heart rate quickly. If you swim flat out for 50m, don’t drop back to swimming easily straight after. Bring it down slowly. This increases your cardio fitness.

Last was 100m freestyle with a band tied around our ankles :/ so you mainly use your arms!

And warm down. 100m freestyle, 75m backstroke, 50m breaststroke, 25m freestyle. It wasn’t much of a warm down haha, it was like a whole other workout!

So we swam about 1.1 km. I’m happy with that!

So I’m doing a beginners triathlon series where once a week they focus on one aspect of the triathlon and train you, give you tips etc. Check out my other posts on the last three evenings.

• Running: http://sweat-shoes-soul.tumblr.com/post/18063228254/discover-triathlon-series-night-1
• Nutrition: http://sweat-shoes-soul.tumblr.com/post/18598537759/discover-triathlon-series-night-2-nutrition
• Swimming: http://sweat-shoes-soul.tumblr.com/post/18893384834/discover-triathlon-series-night-3-swimming

And night 4, cycling!

We started by checking our tyre pressure. Road bikes should have a minimum of 100 psi. Mountain bikes should have a minimum of 60 psi.

Then we headed off in a group along a main street. I’ve never ridden in a group of cyclists before so it was really good practice! First few things I learnt were:

• Ride in a straight line
• Don’t look behind you - you’ll swerve over the road
• Don’t ride directly behind another cyclist
• Don’t brake suddenly!
• Always yell out if you’re about to pass another cyclist
• Use your road rules

These all seem like pretty obvious rules, but you’ll be surprised at how often you do the opposite to what you should when riding alone. It’s easy to get lazy!

It made me realise that I can’t just ride freely and do what I want lol. Have to be aware of whats around me! I think it’s good that I practiced that before my triathlon this Sunday.. or I might’ve been a dangerous competitor haha.

Then we practiced cycling with high cadence.

Cadence: The number of times your legs spin on your bike in one minute.

High gears = low cadence. Low gears = high cadence.

You should be spinning your legs between 80-90 times a minute when cycling apparently :O that’s alot!

So when heading up hills, you want to have a high cadence (low gears) so you’re spinning your legs alot. This raises your heart rate, and isn’t so hard on your legs!

But high cadence is not just for the hills. And apparently, you should always cycle in a low gear (high cadence), because that’s what cycling aims to do - improve your cardio fitness. So leave the high gears and building big leg muscles for the gym. 

High cadence is even more important for triathlon. If you cycle in a high gear with high resistance (low cadence), you’ll get to the end, jump off your bike, and your legs will die - and you still have to run!!!

So Chris our instructor said to always cycle a triathlon in a high cadence, spinning those legs hard. Your legs will thank you when you hit the running stage - and you’ll have a nice high heart rate.

I’m going to try this tomorrow in my last cycle/run session before my triathlon :) I’m really glad I learnt this - sore legs is always something I struggle with when I jump off my bike and head out running!

This was potentially the most useful night for me so far. I learnt alot :)

So we split into two groups - beginner swimmers, and more experienced swimmers. I chose the second group.

“Right guys,” says our instructor Chris.. “We’ll be swimming about 1500 metres tonight…”

WTF?!?! The most I’ve ever swum in one session is about 800 metres! Besides already having swum 600 metres in training that morning…

So before I even started, I was dreading it lol.

But once we got going, it was actually okay. We warmed up with 600 metres of any style we wanted (I did mostly freestyle) - I actually only ended up doing 300m cos it was taking AGESSS… you had to keep stopping and starting cos there were so many people in the pool! Good training for being in a triathlon I suppose!

It was actually heaps easier doing it with others cos your thoughts are on everyone else, and not hitting them etc. It’s more fun too :)

Then we did a whole bunch of drills. Kicking with a flutterboard was first. I was thinking, “man it’s like being back at preschool.” then I discovered that it is actually EXHAUSTING work on your legs!!! I only just managed 100m of it!

Then we practiced polo swimming (swimming freestyle with your head above water), sighting (freestyle and popping your head up every few strokes to stay in line), opposite side breathing swimming (felt so uncoordinated!), swimming with just one arm, swimming with your feet tied together, and swimming a regular length with some super fast strokes at maximum effort in the middle.

I ended up swimming 1000 metres, which takes my total for the day to 1600 :) pretty proud of that!!!

I also asked Chris about breathing while swimming. He gave me an exercise to do - take a deep breath in the pool, lie face down on top of the water, and slowly exhale - until your body hits the floor of the pool cos that means there’s no more air in your body.

Apparently this increases lung capacity, and helps with any cardio activity! It’s wise to do it with someone around though, in case you pass out or something lol.

I learnt alot tonight :) it was very helpful!

We started with a Pilates teacher, who taught us some good stretches to use after running and cycling etc. If you want more info on this, message me :) I felt really good afterwards!

Then basically we covered basic nutrition. I found it pretty interesting (and helpful!).

So in a basic day you should be eating…

• 6 servings of carbohydrates (wholegrain breads, cereals, rice)
• 5+ servings of fruit and vegetables
• 2 servings of milk products
• 1 serving of meat and alternatives

All food contains kilo joules which is basically a unit of energy. As you eat, and exercise, you use up those kJs. If you simply eat, and don’t exercise, these kJs are stored as fat in your body. Fast food is high in kJ, which is why it requires so much exercise to work it off!

This is also why super large people can start working out, and drop kilos quickly. All the fat stored up is pretty much rearing to go, and falls off them within weeks. That last lot of fat is harder to get rid of, as your body will now be used to working out and exercise, so you’ll have to up your game to continue to see results.

So how many kJs does fast food contain? In one healthy day, you should eat around 6000 kJs.

• Fish and chips 3260 kJ
• Pizza - whole 3970 kJ
• Big Mac Combo 4620 kJ

As you can see, all these unhealthy options use up over half your day’s worth of kJs!

So if you ate any of that today, check out how long it’ll take to work it off…

Can of Coke (657kJ) Fish and Chips (3260kJ) Big Mac Combo (4620kJ)

Walking 1 hr 5 hrs 7.2 hrs

Running 16 min 1.5 hrs 1.8 hrs

I bet you’re gonna think twice now before eating this stuff… I know I do!

There was heaps of other stuff he talked about, but I can’t cover it all. Here are some of the notes I took though

• Breakfast is the most important meal. It kick starts your metabolism for the day. The worst mistake someone can make is skipping breakfast.

• If you don’t usually eat breakfast, start small. Have a drink in the morning. Then begin having a piece of toast. It all helps.

• Drink water. None of this energy drink crap. And save sports drinks for events and big trainings.

• Headache? Moody? Not having a good day? Tired? DRINK WATER

• Eats a good amount of carbs for lunch, and a smaller amount of protein.

• Eat fruit. Most people do not eat enough fruit.

• Smoothies are a good way to get lots of fruit, calcium, and protein.

I can’t remember much else!!! But check out these websites - you can make food diaries, and track your fitness and exercise progess.

Myfitnesspal.com

Livestrong.com

Haha so! As I mentioned, I’ve started this beginners course called “Discover Tri”.. once a week for 8 weeks and ends with a triathlon.

First night: Was eassssssyyy as. Haha. The brochure said “First night, boot camp training!” Here I am expecting sets of push ups, chin ups, crunches etc….

But nooo our trainer (whose completed ironmans, half ironmans, marathons etc) said that it was nothing like boot camp - they just couldn’t think of a name for it haha.

There were about 30 of us, and we all went for a warm up run - I was at the front with three other people, and I was barely trying!

Then we basically worked on running styles. He taught us to kinda kick our bums, and bring our legs forward and up high. We worked on running on the balls of our feet (heel first = shin splints & other injuries). He taught us how to pump our arms, and get the most out of our body.

We went for another run trying all his tips, and it was waaay easier!

First night and I’ve learnt stuff already! :) I think it’s gonna be good :)

Next week is nutrition! Can’t wait!

It’s a beginners course over a period of 9 weeks, and ends with a triathlon on the 18th April.

There’s a class every Wednesday night, and they basically teach you anything and everything about triathlons. There’s a night dedicated to nutrition and health, another night we’ll focus on swimming, another one will be cycling etc.

I’m really looking forward to picking up some new information and tips!! And I promise to share with you guys :)

Tonight is the first night - It’s mainly all paperwork and information but there’s also……. boot camp training apparently! Eeekk..

Haha this should be interesting ;)