Preparing for the Three Peaks Challenge Falls Creek Week 8 to Week 6

T-8 WEEKS TO PEAKS CHALLENGE FALLS CREEK

Inclement weather in Brisbane has challenged my Three Peak Challenge preparation this week. Due to bad weather and extreme heat/humidity, my training week was pushed out to eight days rather than the usual seven, and concluded this morning with a long ride through Ipswich and Brisbane.

To recap the training week, it started with some tempo efforts at Graceville, which resulted in unexpected personal bests along our usual Graceville route. Despite the difficult Sunday ride I had just completed,I felt myself lift as I tried to chase Matt and Nicky’s wheels. It is a privilege to train with riders that are better than yourself. I find myself being motivated to try that little bit harder, even if I’m quite a bit off the pace. I often find myself pondering about the power of our minds – when I’m simply in the moment and focused on the wheel in front of me or completing an effort, my performance is much better compared with the days I’m doing mental gymnastics. Usually this runs along the lines of “I don’t know if I can today. Maybe I’m too tired. Or too old. Or too fat”. These are all rather unhelpful and these days, I’m internally counselling myself that I can think these things as much as I like once the effort/ride is over.

Wednesday’s ride involved coaching the Southbank Triathlon club on Mt Coot-tha. Sometimes when you coach, the real work is in the communication with the athletes and helping them to be the best they can be, rather than the physical side of things. Nevertheless, I do think Sunday’s epic adventure had started to catch up with me and my legs were tired.

Thursday was a very strange day indeed – a scheduled rest day! I made use of it by heading to the gym. I’m involved in a PhD study around hamstring proprioception and the role it plays in restrengthening after trauma. It involves running through a graded series of exercises that focus on balance, hip and knee angles and correct activation and sequence of muscle patterning throughout the movement. I also decided to try running – it was an absolute joy to achieve four kilometres before the technique and form started to wane.

Friday finished the working week on a fun note. I was able to participate in a recovery ride with my Koiled teammates and friends, Laura and Deb. There are always a few shenanigans to be had – sometimes we have a bit of a sprint or do a few efforts and I totally surprised myself by doing a PB time up Highgate Hill. I had thought the Queen of Highgate Hill,Deb, was on my wheel which was a great motivation to pick up the pace!

Hot and steamy were the only words that could be used to describe the weather conditions on Saturday. I met with Liz and Anne and knocked out a Coot-tha loop and then six steep Stuartholme repeats. I have always had a firm dislike for the Stuartholme hill and to think that six steep climbs were on the agenda! Both Liz and Anne are inspirational in their ability to stick with the task at hand, which made me think better of complaining of fatigue after repeat number four. Again, I was amazed by the power of the mind as Liz came whizzing past me on the final lap and yelled some encouragement to pick up my act. Result? Third best time up the hill. It’s incredible how well external motivation can work!

Sunday was marred by storms and heavy rain, and we decided to cancel our riding plans. This was a little bit frustrating as I had 200km to ride on my program. When I’m following a program, a major part of the enjoyment is ticking off the boxes (literally!) every time I complete a workout. It meant that I would need to ride today to achieve my long endurance ride for the week. This meant setting off at 3:50am, and heading towards the back roads of Ipswich, via Mt Crosby. It felt very strange to be starting so early and being so alone, but I reminded myself that athletes who do the TransAm unsupported bike race face these decisions all the time. When it is oppressively hot, it makes sense to ride at night. Within the first five kilometres of my ride, I hit the dreaded Mt Crosby “camel humps”, the last hill coming in at a 17% gradient. I was pleased to have faced my fear of nailing this climb again post surgery. I had agreed to meet Nicky and Liz at the Moggill ferry at 6am so I wasted no time riding through the remainder of my pre ferry route, arriving just before six am. The hour I spent riding with the two girls was heaps of fun and included a nice tough time trial effort and a decent hit out along the Centenary motorway. Again, I marvelled at the power of the mind – with the girls going for gold, I couldn’t help but join in and “have a crack”. It felt quite sad to leave my splendid company and as the sun climbed and temperature soared, I knew that completing 150km was going to be a test of mental grit. As a means of distraction, I started calculating my average speed for every hour that I’d been on the bike. Without a calculator, my brain was getting a really good workout! Once through the city and back in Brookfield, where I slurped on a Calippo ice block,my spirits lifted. Only 15km to go until I was home. Unfortunately the road from Brookfield to Moggill is moderately hilly, however, with 135km in the legs, it’s rather excruciating. However, I got the job done and now am feeling as pleased as punch to have another long ride under my belt. I was very happy with my average pace too, given the whole route was rather lumpy.

Reflections for the week? It’s incredible how the effects of making a commitment to achieve a physical goal such as Three Peaks, spill over into other areas of life. Part of the magic of sport and physical activity is that it teaches endurance, resilience, and expands your capabilities by challenging you past your perceived limits. I am really proud of my preparation so far, in both the physical and psychological sense. I’m overcoming fears and barriers with every hard ride that I achieve. Seeing progress in this area has been the most gratifying of all.

T-7 WEEKS TO PEAKS CHALLENGE FALLS CREEK

With seven weeks to go until the Three Peaks Challenge, I’m pleased to have laid down a solid week of training for the event, both volume and elevation wise. With my scheduled 150km ride being pushed forward to Monday, it meant that I clocked up another (nearly) 500km week. Such a solid workload has meant noticeable improvements in my fitness and “performance” up hills, the highlight of my week being taking ten minutes off my previous time up Mt Tomewin. It’s a 7km winding climb, beginning near Murwillimbah and winds its way uphill until one is deposited at the Queensland – New South Wales border gates.

This week’s other rides also included coaching Long Pocket efforts with the triathlon club as well as running a time trial riding clinic. It was quite odd to be spending time riding on my time trial bike on flat roads, but lots of fun. There were also a few nasty ascents of Mt Coottha, but I’m always grateful to complete them,as I tell myself, “your strength is improving!”

If I had to think of a theme for this week’s mood, it would centre around the concept of “fear”. This week I pulled out the riding information about the back of Falls Creek – approximately ten kilometres of climbing at approximately ten percent gradient. My initial reaction to reading these facts filled me with fear. Fear of “what if I don’t make it? what if I can’t do it?”. I believe the emotion of fear is a natural one, an ode to inbuilt genetically based human safety mechanisms that stop us all from overstepping the line. Which is a good thing. Yet, we all seem to hold fear up to be a negative experience. However, when I dissected my personal thoughts around “what if I can’t do it?”, I realised that I can use this “fear” as a call to action.

Virginia Roth sums it up:

“It’s not about being fearless, it’s about acting in spite of fear.”

I’m planning to answer this call to action by focusing on giving my best to my event training. In the next seven week training block scheduled, there are climbs I haven’t done before, and a ride over a certain distance that I have never achieved. However, I’m going to say “hell yeah” to myself - to the possibility of improving strength, fitness and mental resilience. I’m going to follow the nutrition plan laid down for me by Peter. I can’t control the outcome on the day but I can take action on as many of the steps as I can to get there.

T - 6 WEEKS TO PEAKS CHALLENGE FALLS CREEK

Six weeks to go? I can’t quite believe it! In some ways I can’t wait for the date to be here and in other ways, I’m happy to wait because I am enjoying the training and the challenge of pushing myself both mentally and physically. This week’s theme is “old dog learns new tricks”. Why the dog theme? The story behind that is a talk that Liz had attended as part of her job. It was run by a well known sports psychologist who was discussing managing nerves around big events, specifically managing the anxiety one can feel about being nervous. For example, “I’m nervous about this ride. I shouldn’t be nervous! Now that I’m nervous I’m going to muck it up! I’m now anxious that I am feeling uptight!” Hopefully you can see the familiar picture that’s been drawn here – for some elite athletes it becomes “choking”. We all hear about this in the media, and journalists are quick to blame an athlete doing poorly on choking as well. A strategy to deal with the nerves involves acknowledging their presence (i.e. giving yourself permission to be nervous), yet focusing on the task at hand anyway. Liz relayed that it was likened it to having wild dogs around you baying in the background – you are aware of the dogs’ presence yet you keep doing what you have to do.

When it came to doing Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious on Australia Day with Liz, Nicky, Cherie, Gary and Mark, I was feeling nervous. One “technique”, if I could call it that, involves verbalising what I’m scared of – the “name it to tame it” approach. I had mentioned to Liz that I was apprehensive about Nebo, and she had shared her seminar experience and suggested that my dogs were probably out and about. I mulled over this all the way out to the base of the hill and when Nicky decided to start her effort, I didn’t hesitate to try and chase both her and Mark up that first hill. After that, the dogs became very quiet. I flipped my Garmin screen towards average power and focused on holding functional threshold power, plus a little bit for all of the efforts up the mountain. Upon my arrival, I was stunned to see my previous best time up the entire Nebo route obliterated by three minutes! What a moment! I didn’t have much time to appreciate it as it was straight onto Glorious, a pitstop at the Malala cafe and back home. We had regrouped by that stage and I was surprised to find that trying to hang onto Liz and Nicky’s wheels was fractionally easier than it had been last time. Plus Mark was also being a great encouragement as we jammed it down Glorious and back up the hill to Nebo. I was thrilled to see personal records set all the way up Nebo – they have been a long time coming – my previous bests happened in 2013!

The dogs were still baying on Sunday, as we drove to Oxenford to tackle the monster that is Mt Tamborine. There are several approaches to Tamborine, and this particular climb was filling me with dread. Deciding to tame my “dogs”, I verbalised my fear. I was surprised to hear Liz tell me that she had little doubt that I would have a problem climbing it.

“Me? Climbing that thing?” I marvelled.

However, I decided to trust those words, so rather than question the statement, I decided to get to work, even though the dogs were baying. The climb was tough – a one kilometre pinch, followed by three hard ramps. As I transversed the second ramp, I decided that my “nervous dogs” were going to be Dobermans – an often misunderstood breed, but top of the list for being an owner’s loyalest advocate. Once up the top, I couldn’t quite believed I had achieved it. To date, that has been the climb that has most resembled the monster that is the back of Falls Creek. After a picturesque tour of the top of Tamborine and a quick photo shop, it was down the famous Goat Track towards Canungra, where we were about to tackle the second tough climb of the day – the back side of Beechmont. I felt better heading into this climb as I knew what to expect from our experience two weeks ago. To my surprise I felt strong, yet I unfortunately managed to leave a kilometre of climbing out of my memory bank, which made the last five hundred metres very tough.

On our return back to Oxenford via Maudsland, I was warned about the “small puppies” that we would climb on the way home. After a tough bout of climbing, I often struggle on undulating terrain so I steeled myself mentally for the arrival of said “hill pups”. The road was rough and unforgiving and rather than lament, I decided that I would be grateful for all of the opportunities I was receiving to become that bit fitter, stronger and faster. I had a great time chasing Nicky up the hills and before we knew it, we were back in Oxenford, tired but happy.

However, there were still more kilometres on my program to do and as midday approached, the temperature rose. Anne kindly accompanied me out on a flat adventure towards Paradise Point and the Sovereign Islands. We marvelled at how the layout is similar to the “Palms” in Dubai and at the mansions, that all looked the same after awhile. We were delighted to encounter a tailwind as we turned around and I enjoyed sitting on Anne’s reliable wheel as we hit it home.

To sum it, it was another great week of training. I learned that your “fear dogs” are also your greatest advocate. We get nervous for a reason. If everything was easy, we’d never push past our perceived barriers like I did up Nebo on Thursday. Sometimes I don’t like my dogs. However, it’s how you “train” them that counts – and even though you all have your moments, you become “family”. I am grateful to those who I share the journey with - onwards!