A week living the dream with Organicoach

Time. There is never enough time. If you want to become good at something you need time, experience, mileage.  There is the well known 10.000 hours rule, 10.000 hours performing a certain task before you can call yourself a specialist at it. This means you have to be doing that task for 20 hours/week for 10 years to become a specialist at it.

I started the sport late in life. I was in my early thirties when I teamed up with a coach for the first time. When I started triathlon properly in 2009 my body had no mileage. There are articles from athletes and coaches who say you can perform well with less mileage and higher intensity programs but when you look a bit deeper into the athletes they use as examples you will soon realise that these people have been doing some sort of sport at high level from their early teens. When I started chasing the elite athlete dream, I tried to cheat time because being in my thirties, time was the one thing I did not have left. I fooled myself into thinking if I just trained that little bit harder, better and longer than everyone else I would make up for my lack of experience and mileage and beat the 10.000 hrs rule.

An organicoach training camp is much more than clocking up mileage

When I first started training I was living in Singapore and Alister Russel was my coach. He taught me how to swim, ride and run. He taught me how to do this repeatedly, week in, week out. He taught me what I was capable off. Every race was a time trial. “If your legs are not burning you are not racing” are words I still repeat in my head in his voice during a race. I moved to Sydney and signed up with Olympian cyclist Matt Randall. Matt taught me how to be a competitor, how to dig deep, suffer and win. Matt taught me how to believe. When I moved back to Europe to pursue my athletic career,  I started working together with Nicolas Lebrun, a multiple world champion in Duathlon,  winter triathlon and XTERRA. He got to glue back the broken pieces after life got in the way of my big athletic master plan.

Pushing myself out of my comfort zone

Coaching is very personal to me. Every single one of those 3 coaches know me better than anyone, they know what makes me tick. It is all in the head after all. I don’t believe in a magic recipe in relation to a training program, I belief in a connection between a coach and an athlete. I personally also enjoy it much more when my achievements are shared with someone who has worked hard at getting there  together with me. And Nico with his coaching company Organicoach offered me exactly that and so much more. With a similar look on life he became a close friend as well as my coach. When things turned ugly we made a pact that we would stick by each other until I would cry from happiness after a race rather than frustration.

It was a joy to train in the sunshine

Nico always stressed it was important for me to spend some time with him and his wife Alex in Digne so he could see me running, riding my bike, and watch me in the pool. When the opportunity arose I left the dark cold day's in Scotland behind and travelled to France.

This trip for me was not about clocking up mileage like most triathlon camps in winter. It was about connecting with my coach, to learn from his experiences and understand what he wanted from me when he asked for a certain specific task. I also learned about nutrition, stretching, recovery and anything to do with maintaining a healthy body and soul in the organicoach style.The decision to come to Digne was probably the best decision I had made in my whole sporting career. Nico and Alex did not leave one stone unturned.

Learning from the master

The mountain bike was a big focus and I rode a top of the range Enduro bike with big suspension to really learn how to balance and ride steep drops, rocky steps and climb up things I never thought possible. It was not about how much power I had in my legs, it was about skills, control and a big smile at the end of the ride. Nico pushed me to try hard and use every muscle in my body to ride things I would usually walk. “Mountain biking is like dancing" he said "you always move your body to find the rhythm”

                                           5min vertical speed test on 30% incline hurts

To improve my running we did a few tests including a vertical speed test to be able to work on my hill reps more specifically and get a bench mark of where I was at. We worked on downhill and technical running, something I had a huge area of improvement left. In the pool we worked on my stroke with the help of video footage. Everything  we did was about improving our communication, understanding each other, understanding what was asked of me and understanding where my weaknesses lay and how to work on them.  I had always felt that we spoke the same language, even if his native language was French and mine was Dutch and we communicated in English! This connection only got reinforced by spending time with him and his lovely wife Alex. I realised he had been able to help me so much in the last two difficult years because of the same way our brains worked.

Living the dream in sunny Digne Les Baines

I spend 7 days living the dream, eating, sleeping and breathing all aspects of the sport.  It was the perfect way to reconnect with my passion for this part of my life again. The fulfilling feeling you can get from little improvements on the bike, on the run and in the water. Working on myself as a person in relation to where I was, what I wanted to achieve and the underlying reasons why. 

Big bikes give big smiles

Organicoach and its philosophy is a great platform for like minded people who have a passion for the outdoors, for sports and who want to live a healthy balanced lifestyle. I would highly recommend Nico and his wife Alex to anyone who would like to improve and learn on the MTB, trail running, in the pool or attempt an off road triathlon for the first time. They accommodate for all levels and abilities. With Nico’s extensive experience racing at top level and Alex’s knowledge of nutrition and health their world of knowledge is second to none. On top of that they are wonderful people to be around with a great sense of humour and the day always finishes with a smile!  

Great group of people who share the same philosophy

A big thanks to Organicoach and its people for a great week of learning, laughing, suffering and relaxing!

"a great teacher takes a hand, opens a mind and touches a heart"


http://www.organicoach.fr/ENG/

Back in the game : The Kielder Off-Road Duathlon

Winning is hard. Whatever level you race at, there will always be someone who can run, bike, swim just as fast as you can and is just as hungry for the win. Although I have not got a lot of victories behind my name, I had to learn how to do it, how to attack that podium, how to race in the zone, its a real skill. Learning how to channel thoughts, handle doubts and negativity. How to eliminate demons. But when it all falls into place there is no better feeling. My first female overall win was in the Highland Fling 50km MTB race in Australia in 2012. I can still visualise every corner, every move, recall every thought in my head and feel every muscle acing when I think about that race. It was magic. Winning is magic. Strangely enough I don't really like competition, I have always thought that I lack what it takes because I will not thrive in a competitive environment. It affects my confidence. That is why I often train alone and like my space before a race. In my opinion I lack the self believe and certain amount of arrogance you need to keep on performing week after week. To keep on bouncing back from losses. To deal with the highs and lows of racing. What I do love about racing is getting it right, getting the most out of my body in the best possible way regardless of where I end up in the field. It is then, when I relax through a race that I can excel and perform. It is then that I can challenge that podium, and when a solid performance gets rewarded with a win, magic has happened.

Over the last 6 months I just run when I felt like it, most often with dog Fynn

January arrived and I was so keen to start looking again at my familiar training calendar with Nico's humoristic comments on a weekly basis. It had been 6 months. I was mentally ready to start again. I had not done any structured training for a long time. An athlete on the side line. I became the un-fittest I had been in over 5 years and I felt like a hairy, chubby race horse coming back from a spell. In December I started slowly "moving" again and I started to think about what I wanted out of 2016. I searched off road races in Scotland and the UK. I found a perfect one in the first week of January. I heard a lot of good stuff about the organisers http://www.highterrainevents.co.uk/ so I signed up for The Kielder Off-Road Duathlon. 8km run, 25 MTB, 7km run. A bit to early may be? No, for me it was perfect, as I was unfit with absolutely no race speed I would have no expectations and just go do my thing. The way I liked it. It was described as a flattish fast fire road duathlon which I thought would take me around 2 and a half hours. Perfect. Nico wrote on my training program "although your unfit, be energetic and race with fighting spirit" That was the plan.

Partner in crime : my dog Fynn and I with our http://www.bigbobblehats.co.uk/collections/all

January threw a bit of a curve ball though with the worst flooding North-England and Scotland had ever seen. The weekend had snow and ice forecasted but I was determined to race. I needed it. So of I went with dog Fynn by myside. I wanted to show up, race, and go home. Un noticed, un known, racing purely for me, without any pressure, just the way I liked it. I layered up with the merino layers from http://flareclothingco.com/collections/womens-clothing which kept me as warm as was physically possible with the conditions we were presented with!!! Good friend Jantiene send me some awesome arm warmers from her web shop http://www.altijdsporten.nl/ which I was very thankful for!!!

Relaxing into my own pace

The weather forecast had not been kidding! I hit heavy snow driving to the event centre on race morning and whilst getting ready for the race it turned into heavy rain. The conditions were freezing and a cold gale force wind made an appearance. I felt sorry for the volunteers who had to stand still in this nasty weather! I am always surprised to see so many people show up for a race in these conditions! My planned 30min warm up was shortened to 5 minutes to keep as dry and warm as I could before the race. Standing on the start line there was the usual friendly banter and I got a bit worried when one of the guys told me my lips started to turn blue! I had not even raced yet!! There was a mention of a change of course from previous years in the race briefing including more hills. Damn.

Finally the gun went off, I shivered through the first run, struggling to warm up, struggling with the front pace and struggling with the steep, muddy, icy, rooty underground. I started to doubt my existence as an athlete. Negative thoughts flowed into my brain. Then I thought, NO. I eased up the pace until I was running a bit more comfortably, and I was surrounded by other friendly athletes cursing the conditions, I relaxed. I was here to have fun. I picked up the pace again in the last km and I was ready for the bike. An embarrassing long transition followed. I had only brought one pair of gloves which I wanted to keep dry for the bike, therefore my hands were so frozen I struggled putting my MTB shoes on and did not manage to tighten them properly! This resulted in me pulling my heel out of the shoe everyt time I tried to really push on the climbs!! Not ideal!

I found flow on the MTB, best feeling ever. The course was not technical but smooth and flowy with some real cool single track and sharp climbs. I was on a mission to catch as many people as I could. It was not quite technical or hilly enough for me to really put the pressure on the faster runners but I was lucky I could see a human dot in the far distance at any point in the race so no gale force head winds and heavy hail was going to stop me from chasing. I had no idea where I was in the race, I had lost count of the people I passed and with mud in my eyes I could not always work out if I was passing a guy or a girl! The volunteers on course were awesome! Rock stars! What a day to be out standing for 3-4 hours to support crazy athletes. Bitter cold!!

Last little hill into transition

On the final run. I was surprised to find I had legs left, it had been since August I last run off the bike. This was good. I stuck with a small group of guy's. "this is good" I kept on thinking "this is good". I had done all the passing from the MTB leg onwards and had not been passed. This is good! The 2nd run was about 1km longer than planned and I started to feel my lungs from the cold and wet weather. The 2nd run was as challenging as the first one and I was happy to see the finish banners, I finished. I was satisfied. "A good race" I thought. A lovely lady at the finish congratulated me "huge achievement" she said. "did I win?" I thought but I was scared to say the words out loud, I looked around me and could not see any other girls. I looked over at the time keeping people, but again I did not want to ask. I wanted to hold on to the happy feeling of having finished a great race and for me at that point in time it did not matter where I had come in the field. For anyone finishing in these tough conditions was a great achievement. Wet and freezing cold I quickly grabbed all my stuff and headed for my car where Fynn patiently awaited me. I generally like to stay for prize giving to show respect for the organizers and fellow athletes and these guys definitely deserved a lot of respect today! But with the bad weather forecast and a 3hrs drive back by myself (and dog Fynn), I decided to hit the road as soon as possible so I could drive most of my journey in day light.

I did play in my head a lot on the drive home, did I win? could I have won? Why was I so stupid not to ask!!. It was a long wait for me for the results to come out to see where I had placed. Best feeling ever : I WON. Magic had happened.

"it's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not"


race photo credit granddayoutphotography.co.uk

http://aloharacing.com/

http://www.nicholsons-cycles.co.uk/