UltraHumps: Time for a Break

Hi blog followers

Firstly, apologies for not sending a blog last week.  I was overseas on holiday. My partner and I headed to Rarotonga for a much needed break from our respective work.  This was a chance to refresh and unwind.

My plan was to do next to no training, but I simply couldn’t sit still. Coach Ray gave me some training options to consider.  I did some and did some other activities with my partner. On Day 1 we hired a couple of mountain bikes and rode around the Island of Rarotonga which was 31.4 kilometres. We rode in a clockwise direction noticing that the two bus routes in Raro are doing laps in either a clockwise direction or anti-clockwise direction. It was warm weather – relatively mild.  Being the end of August it wasn’t all hot and sticky like the tropics normally are. Of course though we got caught up in a tropical rain, which was refreshing albeit wet through in our T-Shirts and shorts.

On Day 2 we decided to head in the other direction and tour the Island in an anti-clockwise direction. As funny as it may seem, we saw lots of different things, and this time on the eastern side of the Island it really poured down. Nothing a hot shower and coffee didn’t fix once back at our Resort.

On Day 3 we decided to walk from our accommodation, the Edgewater Resort (photo enclosed), into the town centre, which was about 7 kilometres.  It was certainly hot and sticky. With Raro being so close to New Zealand we couldn’t help but bump into people we knew.  I bumped into two Army people on two separate occasions and my partner bumped into two people from her vocation. Of course we did the other touristy things, such as the night show of cultural dancers with a feast of local cuisine and snorkling in the lagoon.

On the last day I went for a run and got stricken down with severe cramp.  This is only the second time I have had it since I started this fitness journey in 2012, but it certainly slowed me down. Fortunately it left the body pretty much as fast as I got it once I made it back to the Resort and rested.

All good things must come to an end as the saying goes, and we headed off to the Airport to catch our plane home (photo enclosed). It feels odd I must admit, leaving Raro late in the evening on a Friday and arriving home at midnight Sat/Sun for a flight of a few hours. Raro is 2 hours ahead of New Zealand but also a day behind (22 hours back in other words) as you cross the Date Zone.

When we cleared customs at Auckland International Airport I also bumped into another Army guy, Derrick McMillan who was on my support crew for Ultraman Australia.  He had been away himself overseas with work. Certainly a week of it being a small world.

Coach Ray was keen to get me back into training as much as I was.

Day 1 was a swim with various activities then some hill work on the bike. Day 2 was swim activities again and returning to the hill for running up and down. I had 5 reps to do and the first 4 went fine. The 5th rep I got struck with the cramp that slowed me down with a jog that was more like a fast walk. It was easier to stay slow jogging than fast walking, but by the time I made it back to Trentham Camp from Wallaceville I was in a world of pain. I could hardly walk and the stairs in the barracks weren’t fun.

I went for a non-scheduled swim the next morning to try and loosen everything up after a restless night, which helped a little!

It was time to get hold of Coach Ray and advise him of the severe intense pain / cramps that weren’t subsiding. It could have been a lot worse with injuries, etc. As such, I juggled the rest of the weeks training around to leave the running to later in the week and focused on stretching, swimming, cycling then running. Things slowly loosened up over the coming days where the intense pain subsided and the training became ‘more with discomfort’. I have since been recommended to take Magnesium Tablets, so have purchased some from a Pharmacy and will see how it goes.

Also this week I have confirmed my accommodation for the 3 Half Ironmans over 3 consecutive weekends in December, and for the 2 Ironman distance events in 2 weeks over February / March of next year. Things are slowly falling into place.

Take care blog followers… happy training and watch out for injuries…

Regards UltraHumps!