Finding My Why On The Road
Looking back on some of the beauty and humour of training for an off-road triathlon and Ironman 703. while traveling with the Crankworx World Tour.
It was the eve of Whistler’s Ironman Canada event but I wasn’t dealing with pre-race butterflies or preparation stress. Rather, I was more concerned with if we’d brought enough food for an evening picnic. Lingering with a few friends after dinner the topic switched to triathlon. “Think of all those people that put their heart and soul into training and have a mechanical or can’t finish their race."
"What a waste," a friend said.
Another countered that it can’t be about the race day outcome. Think about all the experiences along the way. He was so right on so many levels. To celebrate the process, here are a few things I’ll cherish from my first season training for both an off-road triathlon and Ironman 70.3 while traveling with the Crankworx World Tour.
1. Watching The World Wake Up and Fall Asleep During Training
Most people that train in open water quickly discover the incredible privilege of pausing to watch the early morning pastels light up the sky while swimming. It still gets me in Whistler's Alta lake, every time.
But on the road, a few more things tickled me. First, on stop one of the World Tour aka Crankworx Rotorua, one of the broadcast days ran long and a big training run was in my plan. Armed with a super bright bike light and a few podcasts I explored the trails of the Whakarewarewa Forest at night.
The air was warm and Rotorua's lights flickered in a reflection of a few dimly light stars. But it was all thriller, no filler once I hit the trails. Wallabies, bunnies, birds and possum-like critters rustled and scurried.
I nearly jumped out of my skin three or four times.
Mid-run I found myself in area lined with tall sprinklers. 250 meters into the rows of sprinklers I read a sign that said something along the lines of "warning refuse sprinklers". Horrified at the thought of getting in the line of fire of poop spray I lunged into a sprint and set a PR back the way I came. But I survived, with a few funny stories and ticked the workout complete at the end of the night.
The Innsbruck city streets leading to nearby mountain bike trails
On Stop two of the World Tour in Innsbruck, Austria I set out for a mountain bike ride at first light to make sure I was back in time for our team meeting. Rolling through the city streets, I encountered throngs of club-goers leaving bars. Couples kissing, bottles breaking and general debauchery was the vibe. It was hilarious. After checking out a good portion of the famed Arzler Alm Trail I retraced my route back to the hotel. Only about an hour's difference and joggers, commuters, and street sweepers replaced the partiers. Zero evidence of the previous night's party. It was as if they were never there. A hysterical and bizarre changing of the guard.
Views of Innsbruck from the trails
2. Becoming a Terrain Reading Ninja
Ok, I have to admit this one is still a work in progress. But while on tour, there's always a time crunch on triathlon training. There isn't much room for navigational errors out on the mountain bike or running trails. My dilemma, I love seeing new places and working out over a full loop or out and back track. At each stop, I spliced together the Strava segment explorer, Sunnto Heat Maps and TrailForks to do my best to make training more fun. To tick all the boxes and bag all the views.
Days before kicking off Crankworx Innsbruck we had a chance to trail run to this spectacular view in Leogang, Austria.
On the third stop of the World Tour in Les Gets, France I found a mint trail in the bike park to do hill climb intervals. Taking into account elevation gain, type of terrain and length of trail I worked out that I could make it to the top as I clocked in my final set.
Enjoying the views from the top of Les Gets Bike Park
The views from the summit are stunning. As a treat, I picked what looked like a gentle blue trail to motor my short travel cross-country mountain bike down. I quickly realized that this mellow intermediate flow trail featured a number of gap jumps and proceeded to comically smash into the upside of one of the landings. Stans from my tubeless tire sprayed like a cinco de mayo sparkler all over me and the trail. My arm and ego sustained a bit of a bruise, but I was injury free. I often wonder if half of the adventures I set out on would have been achieved if I didn't have a goal race and training in the works.
3. Anxiety or Stress?
Elevated heart rate, hard work and discomfort. They're both characteristics of Anxiety and Stress. I've confused them so many times. What started out as a huge roadblock in my training became an innate connection with my body. I think back to the times I overheated on my trainer in the winter and gave up on my workout or felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest on an interval outside. There was something instinctual telling me to back off or else I might self destruct.
Winter training on my snow covered balcony.
When I unpacked the concept I realized I wasn't going to self combust. If I needed rest, it was going to have to come from more sleep, better fuelling and recovery. Not from quitting when things got tough. When I eased off and pushed through challenging workouts I felt indescribably stronger than ever before. There wasn't a moment but rather a collection of times in Rotorua, Innsbruck, Whistler and Les Gets that I recognized the anxiety and converted it into good stress.
The result of harnessing good stress on a Blackcomb Mountain Trail Run with Liz
4. Endorphins as Treats
Lastly, the time spent playing outside of structured training is now a sacred reward. Bike Park laps in Innsbruck, Yoga in Rotorua and hiking in Les Gets filled up my cup of stoke. Each activity, served as beautiful rechargers for my body and mind. These unstructured adventures kept me sharp and beaming with gratitude.
I can't wait to build on these moments, feelings and learnings for 2019. What wonderful and wild way to see the world. Are you training while traveling? Leave a favourite story in the comments.
Swim Training While Traveling - Chasing Fish & Blue Lines
Hunting down pools with lanes or beaches without waves, can be an interesting challenge while traveling.
Swim training, it's not as simple as lacing up and heading out for a run. Hunting down pools with lanes or beaches without waves, can be an interesting challenge while traveling. However, if you pepper in a bit of research, an understanding partner and some blind faith, it's actually pretty achievable. Here are my suggestions for planning and executing pool and open water swim sessions while traveling:
Pool Hunting
Jump on the Google machine and look for pools in the area. Next, do a bit of research to see if there are any triathlon clubs or masters swim clubs in the area. I typically aim for the pools that the clubs train in as that's a solid guarantee that there will be lanes and (fingers crossed) less rogue canonball-throwing kids, unless you're into that sort of chaos. You may also stumble upon a masters training session or group swim. Why swim alone if you don't have to?
Pro move - Look up the pool's Google listing to see when the busy times are and/or call the pool up and ask the reception.
It's hard to kick those openwater jitters. Pictured here: Cable Bay, New Zealand
The Open Water Beast
Searching for places to swim in the open water gets a bit tricky. I start by searching maps of the local area. Google Maps will give you a good indication of where more shallow zones are. Suunto's Movescount (the platform behind my GPS Watch) will display heat maps of areas where other swimmers have logged swims. If you don't have access to GPS data, check Strava to see if there is a history of long distance swimming in the region. Lastly, search for any triathlons or swimming races in town. Tuck into the race website to find a race map as an indicator of safe places to jump in.
Working on my high elbow recovery.
On Location
- Rotorua is a fantastic place to swim. There are dozens of lakes to chose from but some are off limits. After doing some research, I found that a beautiful lake near town wasn't open to swimmers. Green Lake is a sacred place to the Maori people. Nevertheless, Blue Lake and Lake Rotoiti (see below) were close by with good water clarity.
- Raglan, the famous surfing region has a pretty rad little swimming harbour. Unfortunately, there are some challenging currents and tidal changes. Luckily, I had a trustworthy team to keep an eye on me. When the current got too strong to swim against, I changed course and headed for shore.
- It wasn't until Abel Tasman, that I discovered the beauty of swimming during slack tide when the current is at it's most gentle state and the water level is high. I found near perfect conditions throughout our time in the area.
I managed a few training swims in Abel Tasman on our kayak camping trip. This is another place to keep an eye on tidal changes.
- Cable Bay, near the town of Nelson introduced me to swimming in windy conditions. The best way I managed the waves and wind spray was to swim in zig zags in and out from shore. The rolling waves made it too challenging to swim from end to end of the beach. Bonus points, if you manage to catch a wave!