20km Road Walk NZ Nationals

I was buzzing all day on Friday after my awesome result at the track. The only silly thing I did was head back to the motel and curl up crossed legged on the bed and watch movies for a couple of hours.....cause when I jumped up to go to the loo ... as I straightened my leg, it cramped!! and cramped really bad! So on Saturday I got a lift to the track and got a massage to help.

My coached decided that after my fantastic results he really should be there on Sunday to help cheer me on and encourage me for another PB. He arrived at the motel unit 10pm Saturday night and we discussed tactics etc. My time I was aiming for was 2hours 2mins (but he did calculate that with my 28sec pb it worked out to be a 3min pb over the 20km)

I set my alarm for 4am so that I could get up and grab a piece of toast and then head back to bed for a couple more hours of sleep. 6.30am and my alarm goes off and I sneek out of the room (I was sharing with other girls who were competing that day too) I got dressed and my coach picked me up and we headed off to find the venue. I was guttered to see it was raining and really hoped it would clear soon. Thankfully it did by the time we got to the Bottle Forest.

The course was a 1 km out and back on a sealed forest road. Had a bad camber half way along on one of the bends and a really tight turn at the end. But all in all it was an ok course. The only disappointment of the whole event was .... NO toilet. They said there would be a porta loo but it didn't turn up and the only toilets were 600m away and a pain to get too.




We all lined up at the start and the starter explained the race rules and then just like that .. we are off. Kate started out with an explosive pace with Rosie hard on her heel. (Kate was hoping to qualify for the Commonwealth today) I decided to stick to our plan and race my own race. My first 5km was 29:05 and then my 10km time was 59:19....I was much faster than we had planned for. I was going great and then I hit my wall.....on the 15 & 16 km....my leg went due to the camber and I really struggled to keep my style going. I had one mark on the board now and thankfully my coach said all the right things and got me focused again. It was on the 17th km that I realised I had gained on Alana and started chasing her...each km brought be closer and closer. Before I knew it I was on my last Km and I realised I was heading for a 2hour time and was kicking myself for losing ground earlier. But I pushed hard and headed for home crossing the line in 2 hours....and 8 seconds.



I had just done a 3min 12 sec PB in just 3 months!!!! and it was just as my coach had predicted. I am just so excited and what an awesome end to the season.

Next weekend is Easter Weekend and I will head back to Christchurch for the NZ Masters and hopefully defend my two titles and win golds.

NZ Nationals 3000m

What a journey down to get to the NZ Nationals. Ok...it was only from Nelson to Christchurch (approx 4.5 hours in a car) But it felt like a road trip from when I was a teenager.

I got picked up at 8.35am in the Sunshine Coach (a mini van sponsored by sports Tasman) The Tasman coach Greg was at the wheel and I decided to sit down the back. We journey round Nelson picking up more and more kids. One of them I will affectionately call Man Mountain.....this lad was tall and solid (his calf's are the size of my thighs) So seeing how big he was I decided to take over the order that we were all sitting. I put two other bigger lads in the back and him in the back isle seat. Then the next seat could only fit 1 person as the front bench seat was broken and reclined so that it touched the next seat. So Josie, Me and another lad sat in the broken seat. In the front was Greg and two other lads.

By 9am we were off. We stopped every two hours to let everyone stretch. By the first two hours my back was killing me and so to the lad beside me...every bump the seat would bounce and rock. It was like traveling in a bulky recliner chair. It was during one of these stops that I found that the seat base had snapped off the main attachment to the van.....eeekkk.....so greg will get that looked at once we get back. OMG....I forgot, I have to travel back on Sunday night yet......ugh!!!

So we make it CHCH by 3pm, load in the motel rooms. I am sharing with 3 other girls and they are really awesome. I was worried I would really feel like an old nana but they are either really good at making me feel ok or I am in their eyes...ok. We got dropped off at the Palms to go shopping at the supermarket, so I brought what I thought would last me 3 nights and to my surprise the guys actually brought food....not junk food...they got lettuce and bread, veges and steak......I was very impressed and am sure their parents would be ever so proud if they knew.....

I woke up at 7am feeling great. I had a really good sleep and managed to have some breakfast too. At 9am Greg dropped two of us to the track and I went off to find the other walkers. Its so great to catch up with them all as NZ Nationals is often the only time we all get to see each other. We went out and warmed up together and chatted about records and who was trying to break what. A lovely walker from wellington was having some struggles mentally and was worried about her style and so I walked with her and tried to help her take something positive out on to the track so that she would have a great race too.

We all got called into the call room and learnt about some new overseas rules re logos showing on clothing etc. They let us away today but normally we would have to cover all logos with tape. We headed out on to the track and did some quick sprints to get out heart rates back up and then we lined up. The gun goes off and we were off. I tried to let the faster girls go but got caught up in the bunch for a wee bit so my first 200m was a bit quick @ 1 min. We settled into rhythm pretty quickly and it felt easy. It didn't take long till I was on my own......100m to the ones in front and 100m to the ones behind me....so I was not feeling pushed and didn't think I was doing so well. In the blink of an eye the bell rings for my last lap and so I dug it in and on the last 50m blasted up the back straight lapping 1 competitor to finish in.........16.32............I had to look twice and got so excited I forgot to stop my watch. When I caught my breath and the officials came to take us to the tent I had to ask for them to check my time and they confirmed yes that is my time. Its a 28 second personal best!!! OMG......I just couldn't believe it.

So I won the first medal for the Tasman team - Bronze for Senior Women.



Next race is Sunday morning - 20km on a 2km loop

So for those interested ... here are my 400m splits
2.04.69
2.12.28
2.14.25
2.14.27
2.14.28
2.14.85
2.15.65
1.???? I forgot to hit lap as I crossed the finish line for the last 200m)



Kate Newit - 1st
Alana Barber - 2nd
Nyle Sunderland - 3rd

3 races in 3 weekends

Yes there has been a lacking of blogging since Buller. I didn't expect Buller to take so long to recover from. Two weeks on and my training was near zero, I was exhausted, grumpy, feeling blue and just not happy in general.

I had hit the wall...literally.

With NZ Nationals and NZ Masters looming I was feeling even more despondent. My weight jumped 3 kg and I was feeling more miserable than ever.

So, the only thing I could do was change aspects in my life that I could change. So first I handed in notice for my part time job (getting up at 4am two days in a row was just to difficult for me) Giving me back my weekends and instantly I was not longer tired and was feeling much happier. I reworked my training prog with my coach and we hit the track to see if I could still hit my training pace ... and I was thrilled to see I could. I am a little concerned for the 20km pace but all in all not too much damage has been done. I have dropped 2 of the 3 kgs gained so am feeling less stodgy and much happier.

Then yesterday I received an email from CHCH giving me the entry for a one hour track walk.....its a race I love to do.

So now I have this on my agenda -

25 - 27 march NZ Nationals (3000m track walk & 20km road walk)
2 - 4 april - NZ Masters Champs (3000m track walk & 10km road walk)
11 april - Frank Aplin 1 hour track walk

I am not quite sure how I will fit all this into my training prog as I am now tapering for the first event and with only 1 week between each event it will be hard to keep peaking for 3 weeks.

So if anyone has any advice on how to train between events I would very much appreciate it.