Another week, another pile of stories to tell. This weeks training has once again been completed fully as it almost perfectly has a year ago in a couple of days, I can remember the exact timing of when multiple major moments in my life happened that helped me grow and learn many valuable lessons. One being that you are the only one who can show up for yourself, time and time again, along with that ever consistent work and dedication you reap the rewards.
Since a random day of the week my training has been near spotless in completion with only a few adjustments of timing to suit unchangeable events, other than that my training has been the priority of every one of my days, weeks and months.
Not only does my physical training support my progress so does my rest, nutrition and knowledge as well. So trying to nail those aspects has been work in progress too, as I know its like a puzzle to get the clearest picture.
This week in halls we had the first official week of classes and lectures and crazy was the least intense word I could use. Without lab classes and added tutorials it already feels like information overload. Key to my knowledge from my training I know that slowly and consistently learning will also help me in the long run. So I’ve been focusing on keeping on top of what I have learnt and trying to understand it too its core as I learn it.
Training side of things I had a strong week which is promising leading into my 5,000m at Nationals next week and further down the line with the focus of my training the Chch 10km in 5-6 weeks. I had my first ever velocity group cycle training and absolutely loved it, not only did it get me up and awake with the deadline of class starting time it felt so much easier and more fun when doing it with others and Ray leading us through.
With the first time having my trainer set up to my specific training did I realise I have been cycling with a low cadence than sometimes I should be so thats something for me to work on for the future as Ray would say ‘spin to win‘ so I better start spinning if i want to get winning!
Following that up a few days after I had a nice big daunting hill session of 15 reps of 2 minutes up hill, now I would be lying if I didn’t dread the thought of going up a hill for 2-minutes, fifteen times but I didn’t let myself get overwhelmed and broke it down into the 3 sets building up each time, taking that first one super easy like it was set and not pushing too hard so that my build up was more accurate and I could push on the 5th one hard followed by a more chill one on the next rotation round.
I really felt this run the following day or should I say 2 days up to the middle of my long run where it finally stated to shake the muscles in my upper leg lose.
I keep continuing to love my easy swims as a nice recovery with little thought having to go through them and exploring slightly further out on each of my long cycles discovering some amazing views. Finding some peace within the uni chaos is defiantly something I will never want to lose, but mostly with the ability I’ve had to keep my training strong and consistent I am glad that one year ago I decided to really lock in and reach for my goals that I wont stop working towards until I thought them with my foot crossing the start and finish line wearing New Zealand across my chest.
– Jessica Bray