WEEK 2 - VIC Champs

After getting home from Falls I was really looking forward to putting in some good training before the Victorian Olympic Distance Champs held on the following Sunday. However unfortunaelty I got sick on the Monday and had to spend the week trying to get better as quickly as possible. I did very little training that week and only started to feel good on the Saturday (day before race day). I was a bit worried as to how I'd go Sunday morning as I'd done no intense training that week, but I knew I had a strong base behind me and if I gave it my all then I should be in with a chance.



The race went pretty much to plan, and I came away with the win by about 3 minutes. This was my 3rd win in the 2010/11 Gatorade Tri Series and the 4th time I have won that race. Sandy is a good place!!

WEEK 1 - Fun in the Sun at Falls

Sam and I spent a few days up at Falls Creek over the New Year. During the summer months Falls is transformed from it's usual winter wonderland into a training hub for athletes. There were about 100 runners training when we were up there which was a pretty crazy sight!



As we weren't up there for too long I tried to keep the training fairly light since there wasn't enough time to get used to the altitude. I did a few rides, including the bike course of the Supersprint Falls Creek Long Course Champs (on in Feb), and some awesome runs along the aqueduct trails. The views from up the top of the mountain are amazing...I could run forever up there!!
We will be heading up there again in a few weeks for the Long Course race...cannot wait! Woo.

The Ultimate Challenge

I have decided to take on the ultimate blogging challenge. A challenge that will surpass all of my other one minute wonder ideas. This challenge will take all of my determination and commitment to achieve. I will blog every week for 52 weeks - the whole of 2011. Epic I know! (It's sort of like running 52 marathons in 52 weeks...well not really, but it could be just as brutal). And since I have put it out there in the cyber world...then yes I must stick to this obligation.

Seeing as we are already in week 3.5 then I must play catch up. Each week I shall blog on something I deem significant to have occurred. Now small things amuse small minds...so I'm not promising greatness or riveting reading for that matter. But I will try to make it as interesting as possible. Maybe a training session I did in a cool place, or a session that I smashed or got smashed in, or an awesome race I did.

For those that have no interest whatsoever, don't read. For those who do the occasional pass by read...kudos to you! And for those who want to check back weekly...welcome aboard!! Now I will keep the blogs short and sweet and try to put in some pics/vids once I get my hands on one of those devices called the digital camera (I seemed to have been left behind in this technology phase, and as such find myself camera-less).

To keep it regular and consistent (as all athletes know that consistency is the key) I shall blog on a Sunday night, unless Hawthorn is playing in a twilight match then I will have to reschedule to a Monday morning.

So to kick things off, my next blog will feature Weeks 1-3! Here goes...

Swooping Success

plov·er 

[pluhv-er, ploh-ver]

–noun
1. any of various shorebirds of the family Charadriidae. Compare dotterel, , killdeer, lapwing.
2. swooping plovers (lapwings) are a common problem throughout Australia. Rarely do they cause harm by actual contact but this has been known to happen. The spur on the wing has been known to inflict scratches.
3. the male aggressively defends the nest. Sometimes contact is made with the unfortunate person and blood is drawn.



Today on the program were 2km run repeats. I normally do these sessions among the safe confides of Melbourne's parks and trails, where there are many places to find shelter should the fickle Melbourne weather cave in, many people to alert should some form of wildlife launch its attack, and many pit stops dotted around the place should nature call. However, since I am currently in the far south of Tasmania I found myself having to complete my run at the local oval at a town called "Snug". Now don't be fooled by the name of a town. Many would think that "Snug" would be a town full of warm fuzziness, but today that would not be the case and I once again found myself battling with the forces of wildlife...this time being the deadly, vicious, swooping Plover.

Now my fear of Plovers is a lot more real than that of the bear, mountain lion, snake, shark, etc, etc, as I often found myself in battle with the conniving bird whilst running during my high school years in Launceston. So when I realised that I was going to have to complete today's run at the Snug oval (Plover breeding ground) I made sure that I first did my research.

It started off with a casual drive-by of the oval to see if there were in fact any of the Plovers present, and yes there were. Hmmm. So then I decided to walk past the birds to see if they were to swoop, and much to my delight they just sat there casually eyeing me off. I felt this to be an encouraging sign, but I still wasn't entirely convinced. So I went home and did various google searches : "plover+attack", "plover+swooping season" and so on. All results came up with the primary swooping season being that of Spring. Hooray I thought, I will conquer the Plover today!

So off I trotted on the 5km warm-up jog down to the Snug oval to complete my session. Once I arrived I was pleased to note that all Plover's were scattered and didn't seem to be partaking in their common mob mentality behaviour, and I therefore assured myself that I would not be prone to swooping today. However at this very point all things started to go pear-shaped - out of the corner of my eye I spotted a dog full of joy come bounding across the oval. That is when all hell broke lose and Plover after Plover started swooping the dog left, right and centre. The dog thought it was hilarious, the Plovers were on the angrier side of angry, and I was left standing there no shelter to hide under, no casual passer-by to latch on to. The dog and Plover battle went on for a good 10 minutes until eventually the hound tired of the never ending entertainment and retreated back home, leaving me there to battle it out with the now swooping, now angry Plovers.

I assessed the situation. Would it be better to run the 2km's on the road avoiding the Plovers all together, or should I man up and take on the Plover once and for all?? I eventually talked myself into facing up to my fear and promptly began my run. But just to reiterate the fear...I was doing 2km reps on a 400m oval, and there was one prominent swooping location, so I was passing these swooping beasts 5 times per rep. However considering this was battle, there had to be a winner and a loser. One of us was going to have to tire and cave in first, and today it was not to be me I told the Plover. So off I went getting swooped 5 times each reps.

However as the session progressed, the swooping lessened. Hooray I was making in-roads! The Plovers seemed to find a happy medium until eventually they retreated all together. Woohoo today was the monumental day that I did in fact conquer my greatest fear being that of the wildlife variety. Greatness has been accomplished! So until next time it is me-1, Plover-0...

Triathlon Tribe Interview

I did a short interview last week with a new up and coming triathlon website called Triathlon Tribe for those who are interested in having a read.

www.triathlontribe.com/Checking-in-with-Maddie-Oldfield-A-Successful-Year

2% of the population have an accessory ossicle navicular

Well I thought it about time to get back into this blogging caper. It has been quite some time since the last documentation of all things random. Unfortunately though I don't even have an excuse for not keeping my fellow blog readers up to date other than the fact that not much has gone down in the past 6 weeks. Well I stand corrected...I did in fact discover the always exciting news that I have an extra bone protruding from my right ankle (accessory ossicle navicular) that apparently shouldn't be there...thanks mum and dad for that one.

For the past 6 weeks I have been putting in some solid training (well as much as the much loved extra ankle bone allows) in preparation for the upcoming Aussie tri season. It was at this time that I came up with the great idea to take on another challenge and step up in distance to half ironman. For those who have no idea what this even means, it is a triathlon made up of 1.9km of swimming, 90km of cycling and 21km of running...crazy I know. However today was the day that I took up the challenge and competed in my first half at Shepparton. My number one goal for the race was to finish (tick), learn LOTS (tick), place top 10 (tick, 8th overall) and to have fun (not quite a tick on that one, however I'm sure one day it could be a barrel of laughs!)



I was hoping for around a 4hr30min-4hr40min finish time and ended up in 4hr34min which I was pretty stoked with. I was super happy with my swim, pleased with my bike and just glad to get through the run.

So for now it's time to eat, sleep and recover in preparation for more racing next weekend. Happy days!!

Happy Days

All good things must eventually come to an end, thus I find myself back home in Tasmania reminiscing of the days of endless sunshine and frozen custard...mmm.



After the Alcatraz Triathlon, Sam and I flew back to Boulder for our final 10 days. I was hoping to recover well and get in a few good days of training before my next race in Pacific Grove, California. However as I swiftly learnt, trying to recover at altitude is not the easiest thing to do and I consequently had a week of feeling sore, tired and flat. In hinds sight I should have stayed down at sea level for an extra few days. But no point dwelling on the past!

So after packing up and saying adios, we jetted of to LA and drove 5 hours up to Pacific Grove. We were lucky enough to get an awesome homestay which was only 200m from race start. Kudos to those in charge there!



The race was an Olympic Distance draft legal triathlon. It began with a 1500m swim known as the "kelp crawl". For most of it we were swimming through masses of seaweed which made for an interesting one. However I managed to have a good swim and came out of the water in 4th place. From here on though my day was one to forget. The further into the race I got, the flatter I felt - this was probably due to not recovering sufficiently from my last two last races. I ended up finishing 6th pro female and learnt a great deal from this race (more so than if I'd had a good one).

So after the race Sam and I drove back down the coast to LA where we spent 3 days visting Hollywood, Disneyland, Malibu and Santa Monica. It was nice to have a few days of chilling out before having to head back home to Aus.

Thank you so much to everyone we met during our journey, you all made our trip memorable and unforgettable. Huge thanks to Pam and Dan for your basement...it was the best!

So for now I am back home in Tasmania. Over the next week or so I will put together a plan of races over the summer and then start planning for next years trip! Not much goes on down here in Tassie so I will back sure to get my blog on :)