I’m not going to sugar coat it July was a tough month. We’ve all had them, months that nothing seems to be right, the wheels kind of just fell off. My training was off, lacking clear direction (even though I have a very thorough race plan for the rest of 2017 & into 2018), life just overwhelmed me! That said there were some really nice achievement that give me hope, re-center me and ensure that I can keep moving forward. With two full ironman complete already in 2017, the low was always going to come, I just didn’t deal with it very well this month. It was a month for surviving, really that in itself was an epic achievement.
One of the biggest highlights was continuing my journey as a coach with a new squad and having my eldest daughter ‘WANT’ to join in. She has shown some amazing improvements and has overcome some epic obstacles to join in running and cycling 4 sessions each week. She competed with the squad at the Springfield Duathlon (her first) and did us very proud with her smile and effort!
Ella’s self made promotional video
So let’s not waste any more time, grab a coffee and stop for a quick moment to reflect and review my July training activities. This is all about celebrating milestones, being grateful for the time and appreciating the sacrifice. In July I trained on 24 out of 31 days, training for a touch over 36 hours for the month, which is a touch under my desired 10 hours per week. We are now in deep Winter (as deep as we get here in Brisbane), it is dark & cold in the mornings and evenings so I have struggled to stay motivated.
During July I entered (and attempted to finish) the following Strava challenges:
Running:
- July Distance Challenge – complete 71km finishing 69,257 of 127,414 participants
- July 10k Race – Complete three times (but 2 were just short so didn’t count), my best average pace was 4:41min/km, finishing 14,346 of 131,910 participants
- July Half Marathon Race – I didn’t complete this month.
- July Climbing Challenge – 538m/2,500m, finishing 53,924 of 83,225 participants
Cycling:
- July Eurosports Peaks Challenge – completing 6,084m/4,600m finishing 64,390 of 117,599 participants
- July Rapha Rising Challenge – completing 4,041m/4600m finishing 91,607 of 149,506 participants
- Specialised Recon Ride – unfortunately despite my best intentions, I didn’t ride my bike at all during this challenge / weekend.
- July Gran Fondo – 103km was my longest ride finishing 104,981 of 186,389 participants
- July Distance Challenge – complete 660km finishing 76,354 of 199,106 participants.
- July Climbing Challenge – complete 6,084m/8,000m finishing 90,504 of 161,884 participants
I love that these challenges give me something fun to watch and monitor during the heavy loads of training. During July they provided the perfect motivation to get out there ticking over the k’s and hours trying to maintain some consistency in my training.
The following is a summary of activities for July, surviving was the goal:
The following little chart is from my excel spreadsheet I use to track volumes & hours, it helps me stay on track for my annual goals, also providing a good summary of the monthly total:
July was a struggle, but I still managed some great session and I probably enjoyed the improvement in the athletes I coach more than my own efforts. The juniors are improving almost every session and I am super excited to see what the upcoming season 2017/18 hold in store for us! The adult squad is building and they will see improvement as the consistency builds heading into spring and summer!
Racing is few and far between in Winter, but we headed out and raced the Springfield Duathlon with the new club and all 18 athletes that raced did a great job representing the club and themselves. There were some great results with lots of PB’s and most importantly this early in the season lots of smiles and really solid efforts! We also headed up to Maleny for the Queensland State Cross Country Championships for what would be one of the hardest 10km runs I have ever done! Again while I was happy to bank the run, I was more happy seeing the junior runners conquer this epic course and final heart breaking hill! I think after this race I have decided that I will stick to triathlon and running on the road! Ouch it was tough, I was pretty happy to finish 4th in my age group only seconds behind Ben (fellow coach & owner of Starfish Fitness), the rivalry is growing!
QLD State Cross Country Championships – Strava Data
I am currently building toward the Ironman 70.3 Sunny Coast at Mooloolaba in September then onto Ironman Western Australia in Busselton in December. At the moment my expectation are not high, but with a few tweaks and changes in the program I’m confident I will cross the finish line of both events with a big smile and lots of family around me! Bring on Spring & Summer!
If you ever have any questions please reach out, I’m only a message away.
If you’re not active at the moment & need some inspiration, follow me on Strava, Instagram and like my facebook page and let’s get back out there swim, bike or running. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss a blog post from me! The biggest regret we can have in life is to not TRI!
Till next time build consistency, keep smiling and live to Tri!
SO, YOU WANT TO BE AN IRONMAN? 