City to Bay

Hi Everyone

I had another good race on Sunday at the city to bay. I really enjoyed my time at home as well. I arrived on the Friday night at 9pm and left on the Sunday at 3pm so sorry if I missed anyone. I was smiling the whole time I was home and was so happy to catch-up.

Prior to leaving on Friday I did a run for charity called the Foxtel Lap. I was struggling after a 4 session day on Thursday that included a swim, gym session, 80km ride and 7km run. You jump on your company’s treadmill and run as far as you can in the allocated time. It was very successful for Deloitte. I won the woman’s, Andrew Stewart won the men’s and Deloitte ran the furthest of any of the teams. I maxed the treddy out at 16kmphr!

I attended Leon’s swim session and run on Saturday morning and then went to the hair dresser. Then straight up to Mike’s mum’s for lunch and a chat. Then we stopped by the expected parents Angie and Mike for another quite chat. We also went to see the Mummy 3 at the movies that night. I didn’t rate it as much as the previous two movies.

Sunday morning arrived way too quickly and I was up at 5.30am to head down to race start. After listening to my tunes and then going for a warm up (which included a bathroom stop at the train station that scored me a bag of Natural Confectionary Lollies!) I was at the start line ready to go.

I was not sure what to do about tactics etc so I followed Leon’s advice and went out 5 seconds below my race pace for the first 3km. I was able to hold 3.15s for 4km and then got into a rhythm in 3.20s. The field quickly strung out and at 4km it was me and the eventual winner running shoulder to shoulder. She was able to hold 3.15 pace for the whole race so she started to creep away. I passed the 10km mark in 33.28! a mega PB and went on to run 2nd for the 12km in 40.15 (3.05 minutes quicker than last year!).

Special thanks go to Ian Wynn and Leon for helping me after hyperventilating at the line and Shane Johnson for pacing me during the last few kilometres. Also thanks to everyone who has provided me with their support over the past few months. It really does make a difference.

I am off to the AIS in two weeks (leaving on the 4th of Oct so I may miss those doing the GC half if you don’t arrive early) for a camp and then my next race is Noosa and then HK Disneyland. Then I will be home for Christmas after a camp at South Golden Beach Yeah! I will do a Gatti and the Acquathlon when I am home. For those I don’t see at Noosa or prior to the GC half, I will see you at Christmas.

Cheers

Sarah

Bridge to Brisbane

Hi Everyone

Well i had a very successful race at the Bridge to Brisbane. 2nd in a time of 34.22 (29th overall)! I was really happy with the time given that we are in heavy training and we had a swim and 80km ride the day before. All I wish was that I had a little speed in the last Km to take out first. Hopefully this will change once we start track work.

I was actually winning the race (to my surprise) until the 9.2km mark. I just didn't have any speed in my legs when I tried to surge. The girl who won was a very solid runner having won the Gold Coast Half this year. I came home in front of Ashley Gentle and Felicity Abram.



I think I was effected at the end by the large Bridge at the start. My first Km was 3.45 which is slow. I did the first 5km in 16.40 which is 3.20 pace. I must have slowed to 3.30 pace in the last 5km. The plan was to go out pretty solid and see where my running is at because I have made some large improvements lately and wanted to know what I was capable of.



Anyway, looking forward to seeing you all this weekend.



See you soon.



Sarah

August update

Hi all

Well after a fantastic tour of Asia I returned home to Adelaide to catch up with family and friends. It was great to see you all. Sorry to those I missed! Below is a cool photo from a dinner I went to thank to Vanessa Courtot.



I returned to Queensland after a week of appointments and gatherings to start a big training block that will last until November. I have been put on a massive swim program. The swim Km’sincreased to around 40kms a week for a couple of weeks and buy-gee does it hurt your shoulders!

We have also started doing a 170km ride over three mountains. We are doing this ride regularly and have managed to drop the time taken down by over half and hour. Stephen Moss uses the scooter to push the weaker riders up the hills, so there is no slacking.

I had a meeting with Steve about the races that I will be doing over the coming months. I am looking to doing Noosa, The HK Disneyland ITU Continental Asian Cup, Perth, Hobart and Mooloolaha.

We are also doing a group camp in December and I have been chosen to go down to the AIS for a week in October to do some testing.

This month saw Mike arrive for good. Mike and I went to the river fire festival on the 31st of August. It is a huge fireworks show at the Brisbane River. At the end a fighter plane goes over with the afterburners on which looked pretty cool.

Next month sees me doing the Bridge to Brisbane and the City to Bay. I don’t know how I will feel for these races because of the sheer volume of training I have been doing.

My swimming has improved this month. I have seen big improvements from improving the flexibility of my thoracic spine and finally implementing bilateral breathing all the time (even in TTs and heart rate sets!).

See everyone after the city to bay in a couple of weeks.

Cheers

Sarah