Weekend Highlights August 7, 2018

The posts on the socials kept on coming as our athletes continued their Thailand training camp experience.  They quickly became much more acclimatized to the warm and humid conditions, and started embracing everything Thailand (and the #ProLife) has to offer.  There were some mega kms clocked over in the pool, some long, fast and hard rides and both local endurance runs and key track sessions ticked off.  Not to mention the cold-hot-cold-hot therapy over and over again, the endless stretching, rolling, massaging and the incredibly healthy (and sometimes indulgent) Divine buffet!  We’re sure there will be loads more to come from all the athletes in time, but as they slowly make their way back to reality and the beautiful Melbourne weather, we’ll cut them some slack and expects reports to be submitted by next week!  In the meantime, you can catch up on everything and get an inside look at our camp on our TA Instagram page.  Make sure you check out the Tri Alliance Highlights Here to see all the fun (and what you’re missing out on!) and consider booking your spot for next year!

Sunday saw Race #3 of the Trail Running Series, with Race #1 in Westerfolds Park and Race #2 in Smiths Gully.  The Silvan area of the Dandenongs is quite simply a magnificent part of the world – and Race 3 is often the highlight of the series for many runners (despite being the hardest!).  There was a distance for everyone – Long Course: 21km, Medium Course: 15.5km, Short Course: 7.2km and Kids Run: 2.2km.  Kristine Hopkins got her #SundayRunday ticked off at this event, with the following reflection:

“That was a tough one ! And unusually happy it’s over !!!! With over 500m elevation, (with 150m over 500m) Silvan 15.5kms was beautiful but was never going to be easy or fast… #challenge . Positive note : enjoyed a nice sunrise getting up early ? #happydays #shuffle #winterfun #trailrunningseries #bitumenisboring #running #lazysunday #done“

Well done, Hoppy!

Sincere apologies go to Liza, who was inadvertently left off our results list last week!!!!  Not to be overlooked, here are her awesome results from the half marathon last weekend:

And she did the event with her gal pal (reminiscent of their Challenge Melbourne adventure).  Well done, ladies!

Finally out of surgery at 10pm on Wed night. To be honest it’s been a rough 24-36 hours since then, but now finally on the mend. The surgeon certainly had his work cut out for him, installing 9 screws and a titanium plate. Luckily he had all the parts as Bunnings had already closed.  It’s just a shame they don’t use carbon fibre (much lighter and more aero), and had I thought about it beforehand, I would have insisted they install a Garmin mount on the plate.   Thanks heaps for all your messages of support, and of course to Megs who has been my 24-hour resident nurse.

T-18 Weeks till Busso…

A bit shocked to see this graphic come up so soon for Ironman WA. Anyway, with recent circumstances, thought I’d do a bit of a diary for motivation come December 2.  Week T-18 started a little different compared with the prior week. From feeling stronger than ever and starting to put into practise the learnings from my stomach lab testing at Monash, I then found myself recovering from surgery on maximum-dose pain killers, and hearing that a full swim and run recovery may take up to 12 weeks, instead of the 6 weeks I’d initially heard in the ER straight after the accident.  So the game has changed – Busso will now be about making the start line. In the meantime, there’s 18 weekly sets of goals to hit, and hopefully with some serious effort and good healing, some of those goals will come before Week T-6.  This week: rest up to let the injuries start to knit and come to accept the new reality.  #IMWA #TriAlliance

T-17 Weeks till Busso…

Despite otherwise following instructions to minimise movement, we managed a small local outing yesterday and I somehow stumbled into a bike shop in the middle of a crazy bike shoe clearance … oops. Hopefully I get to wear them again before summer. Off all painkillers this week, if nothing other than to understand the best position to have the arm. Still restricted to a sling and (intermittently) sleeping upright in bed, but the pain gradually eased over the week. Some definite ups, but more downs – at least it was a relief to be back to work duties from home. In lieu of being able to do anything physical, watching Ironman Maastricht was a nice motivation. Next step: the first post-op checkin with the surgeon tomorrow. #IMWA #TriAlliance #ToBussoOrBust