Broken

Training for China has been awesome and i have really been enjoying the training. Unfortunately for the past 2.5weeks this has come to a holt as I have been forced to have some time off running with some pain in my left knee. 

I first thought this was just an ache and a couple of days rest will fix it and ill be up and running in no time.

I booked myself in to see Ruth Chang to make sure I was on top of everything but unfortunately my sore knee would take a little longer to heal than I anticipated.

After 2 weeks of rest, constant rolling, needles and massage from Ruth, ice and compression my ITB has not managed to completely heal itself. Wednesday was the first run in weeks and it was a steady 60min date with the treadmill which was uncomfortable but awesome to be back on my feet!

Another 45 min run this evening, again on the treadmill has made me happy again and was significantly less painful than the last run so promising signs!

Lets hope the body holds up for what is going to be a challenging but fun Marathon in just a few short weeks!

As much as I was hesitant to run…

  Ive missed running!

training for a Marathon

Since my last triathlon, Challenge Melbourne, I had a solid 2 weeks off. This was much needed as after Ironman WA and some hard, shorter, shaper training for Challenge Melbourne I could feel I was a little tired. 2 weeks.. No swimming or riding, I think I had 1-2 runs and then back to a program again!

It was a little refreshing to see a slightly different training program. Less riding and swimming but the initial look at the running volume for each week did scare me a little!

My legs/feet have in the past, not loved large volumes of running (even though mentally I love it!). Especially back to back run days let alone double run days but I am training for a Marathon now! And not just any marathon. 

The Great Wall of China Marathon!

Since its inception in 1999, the Great Wall Marathon has become known as one of the world's most challenging marathons - including a casual 5164 steps on the Great Wall itself of course!

Due to these step figures I have recently had my first date with Jacob! Yes, I am nearly 25, live in Perth and must be nearly the only person in Perth who had no idea where Jacobs ladder was let alone even done it!

6 runs a week varying from flat easy runs to intervals, rolling hills, kings park - Jacobs ladder and Perth Hills, really mixing it up. The best bit, most of these sessions are with my fiancé Andy who I will be starting and finishing this adventure with! It is so nice to have the company.

Whilst I admit the riding and especially the swimming have been limited this has resulted in a little depressing, real noticeable lack of speed in the legs on the bike, but I will build back into more of a 3 discipline routine very soon! I have Jacobs ladder to thank for this as usually a Wednesday after work Kings Parks run is followed by bike intervals the next morning. Yep my legs hate me thursday mornings!

I also had this little spot on Gerflor's website which is great too!

http://www.gerflor.com.au/commercial-vinyl-flooring/all-sectors/news/put-gerflor-your-team,3124.html

Last weekend the 16th March saw Andy and I line up for the Darlington Half Marathon. This is one race I have always wanted to do and despite a Hens night the night before we were up and relatively early to this race!

A 1.26.19 saw me finish in the top girls and I was very pleased with this time, a PB on a tough little course!

Some recovery early on the following week and a visit to Ruth Chang was much needed. A bunch of needles later and a nice leg rub and I was feeling good again.

I pretend to be all tough but I admit I am a little fearful when seeing super Ruth as I know the needles will see my glutes and tiny calves but I am so grateful after she has worked her magic.

Check Ruth out here!!

http://www.ruthchang.com.au/index.html

As the volume starts to pick up more and more Andy and I are getting more and more excited as it means race day is getting closer and closer!

Bring on May and the challenges ahead!

For now,

R U N

S W E A T

S M I L E

&

R E P E A T

This one’s for Mum and Dad

As most people would agree, your parents are usually your number one fans and are always there for support before, during and after a race.

My Mum and Dad are without a doubt my best supporters and number one fans following me around the country and the world to support and cheer me and the family on, whenever and where ever they can. I don’t think they have ever missed a race and I love every minute of their support.

I love seeing their excitement and its great satisfaction to see how proud they are of all the Luckin kids. That’s right, im not the only one!! Twin brother Mark who was the first to participate in triathlons, for a couple of years before I gave it a crack! Younger sister Kate who has just recently completed her first 70.3 distance and of course my Fiancé Andy, who started with Mark and who is well and truly part of the family.

I have a few highlights last year.

The first when they can down to watch the Fremantle half marathon. They watched with Andy and when I finished 3^rd Dad was quite surprised. “3^rd Female… Overall. Were there any fast people racing?!”. “Ohhh, she’s quite good then!!”. Mums always said the running genes are from her side and I believe her! Also Mandurah, they couldn’t believe I had won my AG and finished 4^th AG female, qualifying for Hawaii. The excitement on their face was so special. As was Ironman!

   

The start of my run at Ironman Western Australia, getting a hi five from Mum, Dad & Kate

Before the start of Ironman Western Australia - Mark, Dad, me & Mum

Getting a hug from Dad after my IM!!

I must give thanks to Commercial & Industrial Mowing (parents business) who are financially supporting me with my Ironman World Championships quest.

As you can appreciate it is a long lead up to ironman and with three disciplines to train for, it is  not only the trip to Hawaii that is expensive but also the lead up to this event!! Training fee’s, nutrition, gear etc. I swear I would be rich if I did not compete!! Their support will certainly assist and ease the financial pain, helping prepare me for the months ahead.
A kind hand over of the credit card also didn’t go unnoticed at the Mandurah roll down spots, with a cool $1600.00 spent on entry fee’s after paying for not only my Hawaii Ironman World Champs entry fee and then Marks straight after!


I am forever great full and can’t wait to have them out on course in Hawaii, knowing they will be cheering their hearts out. Most importantly I love that they will be part of my experience.

Sponsorship with Gerflor

As mentioned Challenge Melbourne was the first race I proudly raced with my new sponsor Gerflor.

I was fortunate enough to have enough time on Monday after the race to meet with Jutta in the Melbourne Gerflor showroom before heading back to Perth. Feeling a little sore and tired after the race yesterday, but it was great to meet part of the Gerflor team and provide a little insight into what I do!

Gerflor is a world renowned and leading manufacturer of resilient vinyl flooring including: commercial flooring, sports flooring, transport flooring, safety flooring and residential flooring. Gerflor is dedicated to creating, manufacturing and continuously improving the colour, design, wearability and environmental compatibility of our product portfolio carrying iconic brands in the flooring world such as: Mipolam, Taralay Premium, Taraflex, Senso and Texline.

http://www.gerflor.com.au/commercial-vinyl-flooring/all-sectors/news/put-gerflor-your-team,3124.html

I am pleased and proud to have Gerflor on my team in my quest for Ironman victory at the Ironman World Championships. Their financial support will certainly assist me in making it to the Big Island in October and is very much appreciated.

It is great Gerflor can share my journey both professionally and in my Ironman challenge. As my profession as Interior designer I am very familiar with the performance, safety and comfort features of Gerflor flooring solutions. The brand invests heavily in new technologies to continually offer innovative solutions for a broad range of applications. All of these qualities fit really well with my own commitment, in training and investing in myself to perform at my very best when I line up alongside some of the world’s elite competitors at the Ironman.

It is exciting to see an international company like Gerflor step outside their comfort zone and step outside their usual sponsorship means.

The inaugural Scody Challenge Melbourne

Challenge Melbourne

Andy and I made our way over to Melbourne on the Friday morning arriving Midday.

It was a much more relaxed feeling leading into this race is it was not an ‘A’ race for me, just a chance to get back into it and most importantly have some FUN!

After a quick engagement dress shop in the city, we caught up with Karl Hardy and Heidi – Schnell for afternoon drinks and dinner. We were shown over the course, given some local tips and shown around the area which was great!

Saturday was the usual registration, pre bike/run before setting up the bikes and packing the bags ready for the Check in on race morning.

The GKEndurance crew that made the trip over from Perth all rocked up into transition with our new GKE trucker caps on and set up in the dark!! As usual time flies and we found ourselves heading to the swim start for a brief warm up and then on the start line!

The swim course took place at Brighton Beach just south of the Green Point Reserve.  It was a mass start for the females so I went hard at the start and found myself in a little pack of 6 girls at the first buoy. I felt like I was swimming well and sticking with these few leading girls before looking up and having to be re-directed back on course by the life guards! – Lesson learnt!

Swim – 31.30

It was quite a run to transition as we headed up the ramp towards the Transition Area in the Green Point car park. I was on the toes of one girl in my age as I ran past her to mount my bike and take off!

T1- 3.35

The 90km out-and-back bike course starts by heading south for the first of three laps on the bike course. We headed southbound past Sandringham and Black Rock before turning at Centreway and returning to transition. The course was beautiful. Awesome conditions and it felt fast! or was the just my Schnell wheels??!! Schnell = Fast!

Karl had told us it is a tail wind out, head wind back so I wanted to take advantage of the tail wind! Heading back there was not much of a head wind at all. As I completed my first lap, roughly 2 km’s down the road I had just got into a rhythm and then a FLAT! My first puncture in a race. I pulled off to the side and changed this pretty quick! I was proud of myself. I didn’t panic and it was great experience for me as I have always worried about this in a race. Andy has taught me well! I stopped two times after just to check on my tyre as I wasn’t too sure if I had done it right as it didn’t take me too long.

Back on my bike I rode hard for the remaining 55km not knowing where I was now sitting in my age. I was ‘hunting’ any girl down thinking surely some had passed me during my flat.

Bike – 2.31.50

After my final transition I was onto the 21.1km run, continuing along the beach pathway towards Sandringham the run course consisted of three, 7 km laps. A shower straight away and aide station with sponges and ice was great and I kept reasonably cool from the start.

T2 – 1.49

My cheer squad mum and dad were there and they were great!! I felt good, quick and reasonably fresh. Again, I ran hard as I did not know where I was in the field. To my surprise we ran the first 2km or so on the path before heading onto a dirt track that was windy, uphill, downhill, steps, a steep decline and then a long uphill run before returning back onto the path along the coast again and onto the next lap! It surprised me but I had great fun on this congested but exciting course. I also felt like a local! Awesome supporters, loads of cheering and some from some boys who Andy knew but I did not! It was awesome. I loved it. I pushed hard for the remaining 3km on the run and finished strongly with mum and dad waiting for me at the finish line! Always my favorite part.

Run – 1.31.17

I had just enough time to get back on course and watch Andy finish, then the rest of the GKE crew, Kate and Ruth.

By then it was really starting to heat up. We stayed for presentations as Dad had gone to check the results and to my surprise I had finished 1^st! It was great to get up on a ‘podium’ with a finishing time of 4.41.00, placing 1^st in my age group, 4^th amateur female and 11^th female overall. Also being an inaugural event I am proud to have set the course record for my age and hope this can remain for a few of years!

In addition to this, Challenge Melbourne was the first race I proudly wore my new sponsor Gerflor.

http://www.gerflor.com.au/commercial-vinyl-flooring/all-sectors/news/put-gerflor-your-team,3124.html

I am pleased and proud to have Gerflor on my team in my quest for Ironman victory at the Ironman World Championships.

The inaugural Scody Challenge Melbourne event had 1250 finishers. It certainly did present some extra challenges with the forecasted extreme temperatures but thankfully the morning was cooler than expected and it did not reach maximum temperatures until later that day.

This was a great day and a perfect race to get ‘back into it’ after a few weeks off after Western Australia Ironman, early December last year.

The Ironman World Championships is just over 8 months away, but I will enjoy some smaller training volumes for the next few months before participating in the Great Wall of China Marathon in May before increasing my training volume for the Ironman in October!

Top 10 Ironman times of 2013

I was proud to find out early this month my debut Ironman performance featured in the top 10 individual Ironman times of 2013!

Individual Age group. Female 18-24;

Top Bike Time:   6th 5.23.53
Top Run Time:    3rd 3.30.24
Top Finish Time: 4th 10.00.57

http://www.coachcox.co.uk/2013/12/30/top-10-ironman-times-2013/

Recapping 2013

My 2013 Triathlon season started with, in the back of my mind a huge personal goal. Do ironman WA.

I was excited for the long year ahead as for the first time I had a coach (bonus, I actually have two) Kate Bevilaqua and Guy Crawford and some real triathlon related goals.

I wanted 2013 to be my year and wanted to give it a real crack which meant dedication.

It started off with a simple program to get into the routine of training again and making sure this worked and balanced with everyday life - work, family, new puppy, my house! 

Having understanding coaches who work programs around your life and appreciate sometimes triathlon just has to come second was important to me and this balance and understanding proved successful.

I was excited to get my first program.

Kate had me doing some ATTA time trials, something I had never done before and found this intimidating. Surprisingly I actually quite liked these and really started enjoying the bike, especially as the start of the year I found myself with a late Christmas pressie, my new Trek Speed concept, which I LOVE!! WAMC runs also featured in my program and again, I loved these.

My main training group were the boys, Andy, Mark, Jono, Sean and Mark, and of course Kate and Guy. The days spent training with these guys were always more enjoyable and had many laughs.

My early 2013 season consisted of:

01.04.2013 – ATTA 80km TT

                         2.17.52.                                 35.6km Avg.                                         5^th Female

21.04.2013 – Goldfields Classic OD

                         2.16.34 – Swim 24.03 Bike 1.10.27 Run 42.04                            3^rd Female OA

                     - Karri Valley Long Course

                         3.21.13 – Swim 27.09 Bike 1.56.15 Run 57-51                            1st female 18-24 AG

I celebrated my 24^th Birthday with the:

11.05.2013 – Busselton 70.3

                         4.51.34 – Swim 30.40 Bike 2.35.43 Run 1.41.10                        4^th female 18-24 AG  27^th Female OA

I was really looking forward to Busselton but due to a slight foot injury unfortunately found myself water running 5 weeks out. On race day missed nutrition on the bike caused me to struggle through the run but I was pleased with a PB. I also learnt the importance of getting nutrition right, which was important in IM.

A break after Busselton saw me travel to Cairns to watch Andy finish his second Ironman, Ironman Cairns which inspired me for my own IM in just under 6 months’ time.

When we arrived home after a holiday in Port Douglas winter had hit. Kate and Guy had left for America, Andy had finished his IM and I was doing a lot of training solo. Dark mornings, cold, wet and lonely. But that's IM.

I had further ATTA TT’s and WAMC events in my schedule:

14.07.2013 – ATTA 20km TT Champion Lakes

                                33.30 – 35.km/h Avg.                                                          11^th Female

04.08.2013 – Pancake Run 15km

                                1.05.00 – 4.20 Avg.                                                             7^th Female & 26^th OA

01.09.2013 – Lake Gwelup 10km

                                41.22 – 4.08 Avg.                                                                 1^st Female. 10^th OA

06.10.2013 – Fremantle Half Marathon 21.1km

                                1.26.36 – 4.05Avg                                                               3^rd Female. 30^th OA

The Freo Half Marathon was the day I realised I wanted to win. I was so competitive in my head. I wanted to be number one! I ran hard, it was windy and it hurt! I also realised I had gained some mental strength.

I had learnt to push through my body issues with an ongoing injury and not let this stop me anymore as it has done for all my runs so far.

October is still my highlight and from here to this day have been the most exciting months of my life!

Mid Oct I had my usual Thursday 45min run, but today was different. Andy took me to work, picked me up and he decided we would run at South Perth. After a measly 2km he was 'tired' and told me he would meet me back at the car. To my surprise, as I had nearly completed my run and at the car I passed Andy on the foreshore with a little picnic. And a short 10 mins later I was proposed to!! We left the next day to Singapore for a short weekend trip. Don't worry, Kate knew all about it and I still had some short training sessions to do!! 

From here Mandurah 70.3 was round the corner.

10.11.2013 – Mandurah 70.3

                                4.39.51 - Swim 27.05 Bike 2.32.48 Run 1.35.39              1^st 18-24                          11^th Female OA

I also qualified for Kona, Ironman World Championships, which was so exciting, but scary as I had not yet finished, let alone started an ironman! I gained some real, real confidence. I was IM ready, bring it on. 

I was a little sick before ironman, and still am a moth after the race. 

08.12.2013 – Ironman Western Australia

                                10.00.57 - Swim 101.30 Bike 5.23.53 Run 3.30.24         1^st 18-24                           18^th Female OA

I achieved my goal at ironman. I finished in 10.00.57 and was 1st female 18-24. I wanted a top 3 split for the swim, bike, run in my age and finished with the 2nd fastest swim and fastest bike and run splits. 

I wanted a top 20 female age group place and finished 18^th  female overall! This also qualified me for Kona but since I took my spot at Mandurah this rolled down to second place.

Lastly, I finished of the year with two age group course records at both Mandurah 70.3 and Ironman WA which is pretty awesome!! The icing on the cake. Speaking of, I ate plenty of this for the following few weeks after IM, regaining some much needed fat on my now super skinny frame. I eat like an elephant so the Christmas period was perfect timing and I ate my way through all sort of awesome food.

After trading my one piece for a bikini, no lycra or a pair of running shoes on since I crossed that finish line the four days after the 26th December found me in some pain! More so than IM!

GKEndurance had organised a small training camp for some athletes including myself, Andy, super Ruth and of course Kate and Guy. This consisted of PAIN! I didn't even train like this for IM.

This was followed with the WAMC New Year’s Eve fun run where I participated in the 4km.

31.12.2013 – New Year’s Eve Run 5km

                                15.39 -   5^th Female             3.55Avg

As I took off I thought I was going to die!! Every single little muscle ached and I thought my quad was going to explode!! But it was fun. Kind off.

I was spent after and 2 weeks later I think I'm still trying to recover!

I am back training now and hope to regain some speed for the next race, Challenge Melbourne in just a few short weeks. 2nd February. Stepping up an age group, mixing it with the big girls!! Bring it on!!!