Tough as Aussie Chicks
Croc Trophy 2010 by Ryan Lindsay
What would entice you to spend ten days redesigning your most delicate personal garden on an unforgiving bike seat over 1200km of hells own backyard in one of the toughest, nastiest mountain bike races in the world? And what would stop you giving up on day one?
As a man, and I am one, it would be the glory, the adulation and the bragging rights of finishing and the fear of ridicule and derision of not.
Women don’t think that way, that’s why they are good and men are knobs.
Some say the Crocodile Trophy was dreamed up by the Marque De Sade while suffering haemorrhoids, wearing a tight leather cod-piece and standing in the rain. Known as the Tour de France of Mountain Biking, the infamous Croc Trophy consists of ten stages covering more than 1200km of dust and corrugations in blistering, bone drying heat from Cairns to Cape Tribulation.
Three tough chicks from Far North Queensland are training full tilt for an assault on this year’s event. Sponsored by SheSpoke, a local women’s cycle wear company, they form the first all female team to enter this challenging event.
The more mature one of the bunch (the one who should really know better) is Sharman Parr. Sharman is a veteran silly person with a litany of achievements that make Bear Gryles look like a lady-man. She has cycled the classic mountain stages of the Pyrenees, competed in the XPD adventure race, completed the Hawaii Ironman and peddled through the Simpson Desert.
Sharman is the personification of persistence. My mate is a Rescue Crewman guy, one of those hero type macho blokes you see on TV swinging from a gossamer thin wire under a thundering helicopter rescuing a whole nursing home of old folks from rising flood waters. I once saw him hunched over like a wilting celery stalk vomiting on his new $3500 running shoes after staggering up a less than impressive hill during a triathlon. Now I am not sure if he completed the race, but I do know that Sharman once vomited noodles through her nose in the middle of the Simpson Desert and continued peddling through Satan’s Velodrome to become the first ever female to finish the race.
Lauretta Howarth is the second inspirational member of this trio. Ret or Rip Tear as she is known is tough. If Ret were a car she would be a Toyota Hilux. Flint is less tough than Ret. The nick name comes from her ability to damage clothing, usually lent to her by friends. If it’s not lycra, stretch cotton, polypropylene or prison grade denim Lauretta will damage it.
Apart from her reputation with clothing Lauretta has a pretty formidable list of sporting achievements including competing at state and national level in hockey, athletics and oztag. In 2003 she smashed up the Langkawi Ironman triathlon winning her age group on her first attempt. On her days off Ret can be found riding like a crazy person through the rainforests around Cairns or running or hiking or paddling. Basically Lauretta doesn’t stop much, a bit like those Duracell bunnies.
The final member of the team is Maree Roberts.
Now you can forget riding through the Simpson Desert with noodles streaming from your nostrils or running a marathon through the humid jungles of Malaysia. These are mere jaunts! Maree faces far more daunting prospects everyday. When it comes to facing adversity Maree is a rock. Sure Maree has ridden the notorious Bump Track on a bike with NO suspension (to put that in perspective, if Pamela Anderson were to ride the Bump Track sitting on a Jason recliner nestled into a cumulonimbus cloud supported by eight huge Nubian men, her boobs would wobble). It’s not Maree’s leisure pursuits that make her perhaps the most formidable of the trio it’s the fact she is a parking officer!
Maree may not have the history of “do or die” events to fall back on for an undertaking like the Croc Trophy, but she, like Lauretta and Sharman have the vision, the drive and the tenacity to put themselves out there and to try something totally extraordinary. Ego isn’t a factor. Their goal is to finish. Men just want the T-shirt.
And to help achieve their goal these three extraordinary women have a secret weapon, a weapon that has become part of female lore. It is the thing that drives them on through the torturous training sessions and will propel them over kilometre after kilometre of bone shaking, strength sapping, and muscle cramping climbs. It is the thing that, like the gentle cradling hug from a mother, supports and nurtures when will and determination crumble. When all else seems lost and despair threatens there is always the LOLLY.
Men don’t understand about lollies. Men see mountains as mountains. Women see mountains as a series of short climbs punctuated by lollies. Sharman knows it. Lauretta knows it. And Maree knows it.
These women face an arduous challenge. They are inspirational, determined and exceptional and so long as they have a pocket full of red frogs, snakes and jelly beans, who knows what they can achieve.
GO GIRLS!!
ARC ADVENTURE RACE – THE 6TH ELEMENT – SPECIAL EDITION
Team - How Hard Can It Be?
Barbarella McCarthy Craig Gibson Andre Kavanagh Robyn Marchant
On 15 and 16 March, Adventure Racing Coromandel ran the 2008 version of their legendary 12 and 24 hour Adventure Race, this year based at Tucks Bay Coromandel. We were advised we needed a combination of courage and good navigational skills and were warned that this particular adventure was not for the faint hearted. For returning competitors it sounded like business as usual.
A large contingent turned out, the weather was perfect, people got covered in mud, got lost, or as they preferred to put it, took a long time to get to where they should be, short coursed, did not finish due to diner commitments (!!) and generally found the going tough. The de-brief confirmed what all competitors had realised during the race, this was one of the hardest outings for us that the boys had devised in a while. Mutterings of “never again” were heard.
On 25 March an email was received from Keith, Andy and Rita saying they had been asked by Tourism NZ to run an adventure race for a team of UK celebrities on the weekend of the 3rd May. The email asked for 10 teams of 2 or 4 persons willing to race a modified version of the 12 hour race and provide strong competition for the UK team. After the bruising most of us took on the race 2 weeks prior, 10 teams were all they hoped for. Much to their surprise, 38 teams of amnesiac fools put their hands up. My trusted teamie Robbie Marchant and I joined forces with Andre Kavanagh and Craig Gibson, the lads from Turtle Racing. We entered as four person version of How Hard Can it Be? It turned out to be a good move to have 2 big strong fearless lads with us.
Race briefing was Friday night. The UK celebrities, Jack Osbourne, Jodie Kidd, John Thomson and Matt Willis arrived. They looked rather unsettled, either at the prospect of what they were about to undertake or because they were unnerved by the sound of laughter and light hearted chatter from the New Zealand contingent. This was a race briefing, shouldn’t there be a nervous low hum caused by a mix of fear, anticipation and dread.
Happily for us this was to be an adventure race like no other. We knew that some of the course would be familiar to us and we thought we knew what the cruel and unusual tortures (mystery activities) were that Keith and Andy had planned. The anxiety that goes with having absolutely no idea where we would be going had been replaced by a calm “certainty” that we might have some idea of where we would be going. This delusion made for a very relaxed race briefing and then a good nights sleep.
The day dawned slightly overcast and damp, perfect racing weather. Unfortunately the seas were very choppy and the poor celebs looked nervous. We started with a short run around the headlands of Tucks Bay to split the teams up and then it was in to the kayaks and off to collect the required number of markers from the Coromandel Harbour. The New Zealand teams quickly worked out that portage and run was an efficient way to collect a lot of the markers with the celebs sticking to the harbour and finding the rough seas hard going. Admirably they toughed it out and completed the kayak leg including a dive to retrieve a marker from a submerged crayfish pot. This marker was then swapped for the course notes and map for the next leg.
Our next leg was a mountain bike Rogaine, this took us through the old forest roads and tracks behind Coromandel town, enough climbing for us to get leg burn but that was amply rewarded by truly spectacular views of the harbour. At the rifle shoot the girls turned into Annie Oakley, we each scored a quick and perfect 5 out of 5. The boys, both Policemen, didn’t do so well. This resulted in endless jokes at the expense of our boys and girls in blue for the rest of the race.
A couple more checkpoints and we arrived at Waiau Falls. The teams split, 2 had to jump off the falls and spot a marker while the other 2 climbed a fixed rope up the falls. It was like arriving in the middle of a Boy Scout Jamboree, grown men (Craig and Andre among them) were running and squealing with delight as they jumped off the waterfall! Our support person reliably informs me that Jack did the jump and displayed his tattoos to great advantage beforehand.
After a couple more Rogaine points, another dive to retrieve a clue from an occupied eel pot, a brief encounter with the muddy but happy looking celebs and it was a hard and fast ride back to Tucks Bay for food, a quick transition and off on what we knew would be the hardest part of the race, the river run. The first part of the river was easy with the water level surprisingly low considering the amount of rain there had been in the preceding week. Andre navigated us perfectly up the river and it’s tributaries, a couple of times we went slightly high up the banks and had to use our ropes to lower ourselves back down to safer ground, thank god for helmets, boy scouts and compulsory gear!
My main aim was to get out of the river and on to the next section, the trek to the mine, before it got dark. We almost made it. Feeling tough, we had elected to take the hard exit off the river which turned out to include a frightening waterfall climb. A knotted rope had been dropped off the top of the waterfall with a swing ladder dropped off the bottom of the rope, all the rocks were slippery with no really good foot or finger holds. Craig went first and even he didn’t make it look easy. I went next and made it half way up the knotted rope before I lost my feet from underneath me. I hung onto the rope with my legs swinging freely in the breeze, crying or swearing seemed like good options but neither would get us out of the river and onto the long yearned for road. Down I went and had a second attempt but I lost my feet again. The boys got their ropes out and secured me from above and pulled and pushed until I could finally drag myself up and over the last ledge. While the boys got Robbie up the ladder I sat behind a rock and indulged in some very unladylike language and cursed the time we had lost due to my slippery feet.
We hit the road just after dark with loads of whooping and cheering. A quick snack, a group hug and we hit the tracks to the Kaipawa trig and then down the Success track to the old mine. This was hard running at night with our pace getting slower and slower. The mine was cold, warning had been given before hand about giant wetas and cold deep water. No giant wetas were seen but the warning about it being cold was true. Once out of the mine it was agreed that we would run in wetsuits to the finish, 60 or so minutes away, as it was just too cold to get changed. On the way down the track we came upon the celebs on their way to the mine. By this stage I think it had dawned upon them that this adventure was truly not for the faint hearted. All I could see as we ran past them were sets of very wide eyes!
We finished happy, cold and buggered. For the New Zealand adventure racers, this had been a great way to spend the weekend, lots of pals, a smidgen of rain, rough seas, some steep hills, a little bit of torture, navigation that was not too difficult, loads of mud, high adrenaline, in other words, another bloody good ARC adventure race.
For the celebs I think it went well beyond anthing they had expected. In an interview done with the Herald before the race, Jack Osborne said he never imagined getting involved with this sort of life, he said .…”I get to travel the world with a bunch of really good friends and do a lot of crazy things”. I am certain that he never thought he would be doing anything as crazy as this Adventure Racing Coromandel Adventure race.
My thanks go to Keith, Andy and Rita for letting us have two bites at the cherry, if only we could do a re-run every year!
Barbarella
I wanted to share with you a story re: my race at the Speight's Coast to Coast I competed in a couple of weeks ago. I hope you enjoy it:
I was feeling really good going into the race with the best preparation ever for the event; there's a lot to say for experience! Plus I had great sponsors on board which was really helpful. But I was carrying a foot injury called plantar fashitis, which is an inflamed foot tendon at the heel and it can be quite painful. I had been training through it despite being quite painful in the final few weeks before the race. I might have been in a little denial about it, and also had wishful thinking in that it would be OK for the race. How could it not? I had done everything else right, including every therapy under the sun for the foot.
So despite the foot, I went into the race with a cunning plan to control the race, knowing that I could dominate especially in the latter half of the race which consists of a 67k down river paddle and a 70k bike time trial (no drafting) to the finish. I was prepared to run conservatively in the 33k mtn run allowing up to save 15 minutes if any other girls ran really fast, because this is the kind of race that is definitely won in the final 3 hours (how I won last year). This year I was stronger, smarter and had the fastest boat with the most river competence.
The race started with the usual uneventful first 3k run off the beach and then the 55k road ride (draft legal so it's a bunch ride). The main strategy here is to conserve energy for the run, keep the adrenalin at bay and avoid a crash. I was successful in all of these elements, and had a great transition to the mtn run, leading the race and feeling good. Unfortunately, my foot was very painful when we hit the rough ground of the rocky river bed a few km's into the run, and I couldn't push off properly. I let a few of the other top girls go ahead of me but I was not concerned knowing that I would catch them later. But I ended up going slower and slower with my foot to the point of hobbling my way up the boulders to Goat Pass, the top of the mountain. I was expecting to arrive there at about 2.5 hours of running but took me over 3 hrs and I was in a lot of pain. I stopped into the hut where race marshals were stationed and I was in tears knowing my race was over because the 2nd half of the run is all descending on rough, rooty and rocky terrain which would have been nearly impossible for me at this stage, even walking.
John Howard was up at the hut working as a marshal asked me, "Emily what have you done!?" while I just replied crying, "My plantar faschitis really hurts!" sob sob....
John then said, "Oh you shouldn't have even started that's a nasty injury. It's OK, God just hates you today" and he then casually walked away. As harsh as it sounds it was a bit of a consolement, and sort of funny. Coming from John, he's the best adventure racer in the history of the sport and is pretty much "the guru". So that was it and I knew he was right. He recommended that I take a helicopter out because trying to run or walk out would only prove to be futile and probably very painful.
My helicopter pilot AJ was pretty cool and also offered some nice support, saying that it was a real shame because I was "the crowd favourite". Seeing the route from this view was great and will be helpful seeing it in this way if I do the race again! Gotta love the NZ mountains!
The hardest thing about all of this was facing my support crew and sponsors. It was so disappointing and I felt so bad having to see them in that way in the next transition area. Naturally they were more concerned about my well-being than the race. But it still really sucked.
Looking back I should have listened to my intuition. My gut feeling from the early season was not right. All of my training, mental preparation, sacrifices (no beer for nearly 2 months!!) and technical prep was spot on. I did everything right. I felt that I was the fittest and fastest girl. But that day, "God hated me". I look back at all the signs: the injuries, the incidents and idiosyncrasies. They were all talking to me but I ignored them, viewing them instead as challenges and tests. Deep down I knew that I was doing everything else right simply to appease the fact that I knew this wasn't my year. None of it felt right and I was racing for the wrong reasons and I was forcing something that wasn't meant to be. So this year I got the proverbial "bitch slap" by the Coast to Coast. I think everyone experiences this from time to time!
Onwards and upwards. I am feeling really good after the race and happy with life! I'm only training if I truly enjoy it. I am unable to run and am getting some further diagnostics on my foot to rule out a tear. I hope to be on the mend soon and back in the saddle! In the meantime I will enjoy paddling on a team for the "Goldrush" 3 day race in Otago. Plus enjoying some time getting into the cookie-biz with lot's happening and all the other
great things life has to offer!
Cheerio,
Em
Em's Power CookiesR
p. 03.381.6222
f. 03.381.7222
w. www.powercookies.com
PO Box 19537
Christchurch, NZ
The GOT adventure racing team take it accross the water...
After a short flight across the Tasman, a nice sightseeing tour through the 5pm Sydney traffic and a few hours sleep at a truck stop it was with great relief that the team arrived in time for race briefing at midday on Friday at the Stuarts Point holiday camp. This was to be their base and the race headquarters (HQ) for the next 3 days. Five girls in a camper and a curly haired Aussie mechanic in tow, the kiwi “chuks” had arrived.
Being an adventure race, teams are tested for competencies such as kayaking skills, safety and first aid knowledge, swimming ability and navigation. After some slightly over zealous navigation to find the swimming competency test, and some nice topless male viewing, the girls made it through to the course briefing at 4pm. The course was then embargoed with no-one allowed on it until the 8am start the next morning.
This particular race had some twists to it. One twist involved swimming out semi-naked in the dark to a “crocodile”, offering it chocolate and if it accepted, receiving a “free checkpoint” which could be used at any time during the race. The other twist was that at one point in the race the team would have to split, with 2 members going onto a mtb leg and 2 onto a trek leg. The race was split into three legs, with each leg consisting of multiple stages. The legs were then split by a compulsory 20 minute transition at HQ and a car drive to the start of the next leg.
The first leg was a sea kayak, the all male and all female teams leaving 15 minutes after the mixed teams. After a solid paddle, the GOT team hit the beach 1 minute in front of the highly favoured Queensland Cowgirls. The Cowgirls proved very slick in transition and headed out in front of GOT, the two other female teams were around 20 minutes behind.
The next leg was a very scenic coastal trek through subtropical forest and beaches, ending at the start of a tubing section. Being the inventive types, GOT designed a super sleek fast tubing mobile and put Olympic tubing expert Amanda on the front. Little did GOT know that while they were paddling their merry way down the river the leeches were firmly planting themselves onto their skin and getting a good feed.
Following the tubing section was the last kayak section for the first leg. This was a flat-water paddle up the shallow Macleay Arm. GOT reached the end of the kayak leg eager to get into the final 9km tubing section down the Macleay River. The only problem was that GOT’s support crew had decided that keeping dry at the HQ was a much better place to be and had inadvertently forgotten to drop the tubes off. Slight problem, can’t do a tubing leg without a tube. After a bit of begging and borrowing of tubes and the arrival of their support crew, the girls headed off onto the tubing section. The water was cold, but the challenge of locating checkpoints placed on buoys in the middle of the river kept the girls warm. The tubing leg ended back at HQ, the Cowgirls cementing their lead by over an hour and a half.
The second leg started in the Tamban State Forest, with a mountain bike rogaine followed by a trek rogaine. The trek leg involved technical navigation and a lot of bush bashing as all the check points where placed in the base of creek beds. It also required some pretty good teamwork to find the correct streambed. It was during this stage that many teams started to fall by the wayside due to the cold, rain and navigation challenges.
The next stage was a “short” mountain bike back to HQ, with a slight diversion up the largest hill in the area – a 400m hike-a-bike. Normally mountain bikes are ridden however, this stage called for vertical carrying of the bikes up the side of the mountain, where there was no track. At one stage the only way to get up was to balance the bike on your shoulder, place each leg either side of a vine and lever yourself up hoping not to fall backwards. Luckily for GOT it was dark and they couldn’t see how high the top was. It seemed this stage wasn’t the most popular with the Aussie men’s teams – there was a lot of soul searching going on. Some smooth team riding and composure got the girls happily to the next checkpoint, where the team would split, arriving around 30 minutes behind the Cowgirls.
The split section had been playing havoc with some of the top teams – some taking over 5 hours. It was easy to make mistakes, as the potential for parallel errors was extremely high. Debbie and Amanda were voted to head out on the mountain bikes and Ally and Anne headed out on the trek. Some very smart navigation from Anne and some aboriginal tracking from Ally allowed the girls to return to the checkpoint efficiently, wake up Deb and Amanda who had quickly conquered the mountain bike, and take the lead from the Cowgirls.
After the second compulsory 20 minute stop and another car ride to the forest, the GOT team were off on the longest mountain bike stage trying to make the 6pm cut-off to stay on the long course. The first part of the leg was a stunning mountain bike to the top of a ridge and then a steep descent down to the valley floor. The cut-off checkpoint was a phone box next to a pub, which had some serious country music pumping out and what seemed to be the whole town dancing up a storm. Yeehah cowboy!! The GOT team safely made the cut-off and continued on toward Mt Martha Ann for the next trek leg.
Darkness had set in again and the sleep monsters were starting to appear as the girls had now been racing for over 36 hours without any sleep. A hike to the summit of Mt Martha Ann and then down to the deep creeks below saw the GOT meet up with many other teams on the way. A quick 20 minute powernap on the side of the track helped tame the sleep demons temporarily and the girls carefully picked their way through the dense bush and over large river stones. Luckily the riverbeds were mostly dry which made quick movement through the terrain possible.
The last mountain bike was a steep climb up to a saddle followed by an awesome descent back into the valley again. Most of the ride was along gravel four-wheel drive tracks. It was during this stage that Ally started screaming incessantly at herself trying to prevent the rhythmical motion of pedalling from pulling her into a deep sleep. If anyone was around they would have thought that she was stark raving mad, racing down a hill at around 50kmph yelling hysterically “eyes wide open”, “ wide awake, I am definitely wide awake.”
From here it was onto the last 20 kayak leg, down the flat-water Nambucca river toward the ocean. Once again there was a phone box stop to call in to HQ to file a progress report and then a 2km portage to save a 10km paddle. It was here that the sleep monsters returned. Hallucinations were now in full swing and it was hilarious listening to what each person was seeing on the side of the bank… “Did you see that anteater, na I thought it was a fox. Did you see how big its ears were?”. “Look at those officials over there, there’s a man with a glow vest on, he’s up there in that tree.” Anne reverted to singing her school song to try to keep Ally and Debbie awake, but still any chance they got their heads would slump forward in the hope of grabbing a quick nap between strokes. The portage seemed relatively easy on the map, but the boats weren’t quite as light as the girls had hoped and after a few different methods, they managed to lug the kayaks to the end of the section just as the sun rose.
At the end of the last kayak was the final 11km trek to the finish. The girls set of at a quick pace, with Deb hobbling along on Leki poles due to a knee injury she had sustained whilst trying to travel face first over her mountain bike. The trek was a stunning walk along a cliff-top track, with massive tubes rolling in and breaking on the rocks below. The girls thought they were in heaven when they dropped down to the beach onto the squeaky white sand and were distracted by a topless male running along the beach as they approached the first headland. This lapse in concentration saw them scramble up the wrong headland. After quickly realizing their mistake and silently cursing the top-less male, GOT once again pushed on, now with only 1 hour left to make the final cut-off. Three kilometres down the beach and they were back to race HQ, crossing the finish line as a stronger team unit, full of smiles. It was 10.30am Monday morning and the girls had been racing for 50 hours and 30 minutes.
Thorpedo, now only a three person female team finished an hour later and the Brisbane powerhouse team of the Cowgirls finished 3 hours later at 1.30pm. The Canberra Pink Ladies team had missed the cut-off and finished the shortened course around 1 hour in front of GOT.
The race was a fantastic event, really challenging but lots of fun and the organizers and other teams were extremely friendly. For GOT it was an extremely positive experience to have raced efficiently as a team unit and to have achieved our goal of being more focussed on the trekking stage as well as having fun. To have raced competitively against the three other strong Australian women’s teams, is a huge boost to GOT confidence and a fantastic end to our season. We hope more female teams get involved in AR next year.
We would like to sincerely thank our sponsors - Sun Latte, Back Country, Allsport, Polar, Vasque, Em’s power cookies, Abes Bagels, Leppin Sport, Femme Magazine, Sportzhub, Scott, Rudy Project and our many support crew along the way; Robyn, Waxy, Richard, Panda, Andy, and our friends and family. We really appreciate your support and couldn’t have had such a great experience without you.
A progress report from Kristina Anglem, aiming for the Beijing Olympics
So, that’s how big those girls are!
While racing and training amongst them all was incredibly daunting, it was also exhilarating. I am a kinesthetic learner, and I knew I had to feel just how fast the big girls were, and how big the gap to them was. The trip was incredibly worthwhile in that sense, and actually surpassed my expectations of what I would learn – possibly because so much was still so unknown (the old don’t know what don’t know). It feels equivalent to a couple of years of beating up and down the Avon waters in Christchurch. It challenged my paddling ability, and our training practices. Having both Coach Grant and Physio Margie there too, meant that we addressed a wide range of performance components. So, now it’s a matter of training exceptionally hard and applying it all before Olympic Qualification races next August. Just like that! Ah, yes…
First stop was Nottingham. We were lucky enough to be staying in a fellow paddlers house just 15min walk from where the British Women Sprint Kayak Squad train. I got to know these girls pretty well by the end of our three weeks there. It was absolutely fantastic living and breathing the intensity of training with seven other top class women paddlers. Priceless! My first meet with these girls wasn’t quite so fantastic however. My first regatta was with them just three days after I arrived. This regatta taught me about Jetlag’s effect on my sprinting ability. I realize now that going at the low intensity of Adventure Racing and where being alert at night is an advantage is quite different to sprinting hard out for two minutes. I saw stars and where my mind is usually occupied with a race plan, rather my only thought was “what happens if I faint?”
My second regatta in Gent, Belguim, went much better. There I confirmed the suspicion that had been mounting, that Sprint Kayaking isn’t actually on mirror flat water. Good thing I discovered this now rather than next year! The water was incredibly disturbed, mostly due to waves bouncing off the concrete sides of the canal. To be honest I haven’t been this intimidated for a long time. It sounds crazy compared to the wilderness and extremes of Adventure Racing, but there I knew myself and the competition. Sitting on the start line in Gent I was totally out of my comfort zone. To help me feel assertive and strong my coach gave me the image of being a Gladiator from the old TV contestant program! It must have worked, and I say that on two counts:
1) Against these girls, who were the ones who missed out on being able to compete at the World Cups (top two from every country only), I got a 2nd for 1000m and a 4th for 500m. That’s encouraging, as it puts me fighting at the top end of the first tier down.
2) Despite feeling totally intimidated and lacking in confidence, I must have just had enough to make it a positive experience in retrospect as now looking back with the fear the first thing to be forgotten I feel energized by the whole experience.
Looking at the big girls in these regattas, and also at a World Cup in Poland we went to watch, without discrediting them at all, I am quietly heartened. These girls don’t look superhuman. I said that the trip could go either way, be positive and inspiring, or be demoralizing. I know I have a stack of work to do, but this is still a challenge that excites me.
Girl On Top Extraordinaire - Amanda Parish
At the beginning of last year Amanda moved to Auckland from Timura. This
was also the week she found out that she was a diabetic. At this point
Amanda's greatest form of exercise was walking to the car. Over night
she needed to revaluate her life style, eating habits and exercise
routine.
With this in mind and 10 weeks training she completed Round Taupo in a
credible 6 hours 20 minutes and decided that Ironman 2006 was her next
goal. She signed up for the Girls on Top Tri training day, dragging
myself and another friend along. At this point Amanda was able to swim
50m without stopping. Being inspired on the day Amanda signed up to be
coached by Jenny Rose. For most of us even thinking about doing
something like Ironman requires a nap, for Amanda it means carrying a
blood testing kit with her making sure that her blood sugar levels are
right for the entire day. This year Amanda has completed several half
marathons, Coastal Challenge and the gruelling 35k The Legend run, The
King of the Bays swim and rode the 100k Express.
I'm a keen cyclists and completed the K1 on Saturday and was pleased
with how I went. Amanda rode the K2 and with a buckled wheel and far too
high sugar levels meaning that she couldn't take anything other than
water for the 200k ride. Not only did she finish but did it in 8 hours.
Every day I find talking to Amanda about what she has to go thru just to
get to the starting line of these events amazing. It's hard enough to
train without the constant worry about having to make sure that you have
your testing kit with you 24 / 7 and living with the real possibility
that if you do something wrong then diabetes could mean you loose a
limb.
Amanda Parish just another girl on a bike to many but to me a Girl on
Top.
Pauleene's latest update 7 November
I did it. Sunday 30th October 2005 I participated in and completed the Auckland Half Marathon. Running all the way from Devonport, through Takapuna over the Harbour Bridge and into Victoria Park. WHAT AN ACHIEVEMENT!
There is no way this time last year, weighing 123.3 kilos I thought I'd ever achieve that, and David reminds me often of a apparent statement I once made " I'll never run more than 5 ks so don't expect it" Even though he's run about 6 marathons the half was a first for him too, so that was kinda neat, both of us virgin half marathoners :)
The conditions were perfect. Not too hot, cold windy and no rain! The wonderful people of Devonport coming onto the streetst with placards and shouts of encouragement was greatly appreciated by all . Several people started chatting to me along the way which is always really supportive sharing a sort of unspoken bond between runners.
I have had a phobia about the Harbour Bridge since I was small, and having an aunt live over there meant lots of car trips, where I use to get on the bottom of the car floor asking my grandfather "Are we over it yet? every 2 seconds. Of course now that I drive over it to my mother-in-laws in Orewa ,I try not to stay seated in the drivers seat. Just about the time I reached the bridge , a lovely young boy started chatting to me, telling me his mate, him and his girlfriend were participating having done the 10 week program from the internet. I had seen them encouraging people earlier on in the race. What a friendly guy and having a lovely young boy chatting to me certainly took my mind of the first half of the bridge. (yes yes perverted old bag, I know) Seriously though, (maybe his girlfriend will read this) thanks for your time.
The whole atmosphere was carnival like and so much going on, people ducking a diving between everyone, I didn't even think about the difficult of the run for a long time because of it all.. The crowd didn't thin out much at all, so getting into my own head space was out of the question. Which was a good thing anyway, as I told myself during the run, this is your first 1/2 marathon, really enjoy it,... and I did..
Everyone thinks now that the natural progression for me is a MARATHON! Yeah... wrong guys. Think again. I'm not built for it. Everything ached all day yesterday and is just coming right today. Think I'll take up tiddly winks. I just want to keep up the running to keep the weight off and lose the final 14 kilos that are still acting like cling-ons! But I certainly would know that anyone can run a half marathon, it really is just a matter of training.
Pauleene
GOT Penny Commins is off to take on the world at the XTerra worlds...
For those of you who dont know Pens, she was a hard core party girl, who has now completed Iron man and would never come into the bush because there was no toliet seat! ... shes come a long way now. Here is some of Pens latest training missions before she heads off to Hawaii... GO GIRL! .jpg)
We left the car at Owhongo and got dropped at the 42nd Traverse entrance and set off. There was patches of snow on the side of the track and the sun was shinning on the new dump of snow on the mountains - it was magic! I was a little worried about how I would go as the 42nd has always been held in fear by my mind but the scenery and excitement over took me and before you knew it I was stopped in the middle of nowhere eating peanut butter and jam sammies over looking the most amazing gorge, mountains and loving it!
For those of you who haven't done it - you kind of go up and down dramatically and cross rivers at the bottoms of the downs. It is 46k long from the drop off point to the Owhongo township. Through the most desolate bush and huge valleys. We didn't see a single other person. I was so excited to have made it and only had to walk the very steep down hill bits on clay - it was one of the most amazing days! I wouldn't stop talking about it all the way home - poor Nick's ears!
The next day we ran the Northern Circuit from Whakapapa to Wahonuhu Hut, Oterere Hut up to the Emerald Lakes and then to Ketetahi Hut and down to the car park. Rather an epic day - listed by DOC as 14 and half hours walking we smacked it out in 4.50 running and had to tramp in the snow for a bit so took us a total time of 6 hours 30 mins. What a DAY! Really sunny and windy. Snow still on the ground in unexposed places and then completely thick to knee in some places above about 1600meters. We made it to the pick up bus at the other end with less than seconds to spare. The idiot bus driver tried to tell us that he has walked it in 6 hour 20 mins - yeah right. Nick nearly decked him!
Rather a tough run for me at the start, felt like we weren't going to make it and I got all worried. Then snapped out of it with a hug from Nick and we ploughed on. Wicked terrain and massive amounts of climbing, even some nude running (see attached!) The day was topped off by a lush pizza and Mac's Gold at the Whakapap Tav! It was nice to stop as we had stopped for a total of 10 mins the whole day! We had to hammer the last section and did from Ketetahi Hut to the car park in 45mins (3 hours walking they say). We think it was about 45k total. So rather tired and totally chuffed we feasted at my favourite cafe Flax on Sunday. Last time too as it has been sold. End of an era.
Guess I am as ready as I can be for Xterrra now. Watched the previous races on DVD so many times now I could recite it. So just have to go hard and over come the heat and my fear of falling off the mountain bike! At least it won't get scratched Kat - haven't fallen off once!
Girl on Top in Malaysia, Karoline Kee pictured right celebrating her third placing in the women's sprint race of the Malaysian Duathlon Series. Well done Karoline!
Profile of Girl On Top Barbarella - the only woman known to have achieved the unachieveable - keeping lippy intact for an entire adventure race.
I suppose I am fairly typical of the back pack. I am at 48, a novice to all the sports that comprise a multisport/adventure sport activity. At 46 when this all started I was a typical Auckland Barrister, I could run to Court in 5 minutes flat carrying a heavy eastlite folder under each arm and when at Court, jump out of my seat with great speed to lodge a learned and firm objection. Sport was that thing left behind at school.
In June 2002, Big Boy, a masters rowing buddy of my husband's, mentioned that he was not rowing that winter as he was training for Coast toCoast.He said his buddy Rob Hood needed a team mate and why didn't I do it with him. Fantastic I thought, sounds fun, slightly glamorous, I've seen it on the telly, all that running over the mountains and stuff, I can do that, count me in! I am, as my mother says I have always been, supremely unaware of my limitations. I dashed back to chambers and told my husband I was going to do Coast to Coast, he sighed and maintained for days that look on his face of "here we go again, she has no idea, she's deluded". I met Rob Hood (my now firm partner in How Hard Can It Be and always addressed as Fearless Leader) told him that of course I could do it and we got started.
Getting started was interesting, I didn't have a bike (hadn't since school), I had no running shoes and more importantly had no idea really what it was I had agreed to do. My first outing was the Rodney Classic in November2002. Fearless Leader enquired of me how long I would take to run 10km, bloody husband cheerfully shouted "she's never run 10k in her life", my retort of "oh come on, how hard can it really be?" didn't go down well. I quite quickly discovered how hard it could be and that I had a lot to learn.The short list was how to run more than 8km, how to ride a bike in a pack,what the big cog is, that transitions are places to stop at not just collections of your friends waving and cheering, that you don't sit down at transitions and change your complete outfit (well you can but it is slow) but you can dothe whole event with lippie intact.
After the shock of just how hard (but fun) this new activity could be I pulled myself together and realised I needed help and preparation, optimistically saying I could do it wasn't going to be enough. I went to Performance Lab for a programme, joined Girls on Top, found a great group oftraining buddies and got to it.
During 2003 and 2004 How Hard Can it Be in various forms entered (and completed) everything we could, Coast to Coast, Head to Head, Bethells SuperDune, Monty's Revenge, all the Lactic Turkey Rogaines (with the very fast Teamie Tremewan), Coromandel Classic, sundry bike races, Carson Challenge,Tongariro Mountain Challenge, the ARC 12 hour Adventure Race and on and on.All with the usual mutterings of, "really how hard could that be", "of course we can do that", "another fine mess you've got us into Barbarella"and "can we just stop for a moment and look at the gorgeous view".
What has made these last two years so memorable and enjoyable is not myrun/ride times or the final placing at any event for How Hard Can It Be,but the fact that these events are a great way to see the country and meet some fabulous like-minded people. Add into that the fact that no one has made me feel foolish for thinking "I can do that", that everyone is always very encouraging (my training buddies, Fearless Leader, other competitors, Ally and her marvellous GOT and the lads at Cyco) and you have the makings of a fantastic obsession. Furthermore, my belief that the back pack is an honourable place to be has been confirmed.
So what now? I have agreed, with the assistance of Fearless Leader to attempt to maintain my spot in the back pack for the ARC V Challenge. That shouldn't be a problem. As of writing this note I can't kayak, never have kayaked and don't much like the look of it. I can orienteer but am not much chop with a compass, I can't do rope work and I don't love my mountainbike,i n fact I have only been on it 6 times. Is that a problem? Not at all. I have 24 months to train, learn the skills I need to safely complete the events and to make sure I get to the end of each event with my sense of humour still intact. I guess the first two things to do are start the Auckland Orienteering Summer Series and master that compass and arrange some kayaking, rock climbing and rope lessons, oh and go to work and run a household and all that guff.
Latest Update from Girl On Top Pauleene Winchester.
Well we went away to Orere Point for 2 weeks at the end of January and I couldn't have picked a more perfect spot to get in my training for the special K and Sun Latte. I measured out 300 metres on the beach and swam that, let me tell you beach swimming is WAY different that swimming in the pool. Holy moly. But the great thing was I learnt HEAPS. Like being able to breath on both sides. Yep you wanna learn fast once you've had a couple of mouth fulls of sea water. I just couldn't get the hang of breathing on my left , but then found the secret was to start the stroke with the left arm. I gained so much confidence.
Then came my first 10 k bike. Of course I took all my Femme magazines to the beach and re read them with all the tips. The one about not wearing undies under your bike shorts grossed me out, and I thought was totally unnecessary , (as up until then I had only bike 4 k ish), but oh boy, on the ten 10k , yeowza, so much bunching down there is was.... ( there was a lot of "plucking going on) " painful to say the least!!! And I learnt pretty quick how to stand of my bike while riding to relieve the "bum burn" in the glutimis maximus. Thanks for the tips girls!!!
I did as suggested and did the bike then the run, and was stoked that I could do the run without stopping. So last night I went down to our local beach with my crate of gear and did the swim transition onto the bike. .. Learnt that the bike shorts I got from Farmers, hold the water!!! Woohoo tho cause the transition went smoothly. Also I've been thinking of joining our local Coastguard, as it happened they we coming in while I was down there, so with all my new found confidence, I bowled up to them and enquired about joining. Lovely helpful lady gave me all the info.
Gee things are changing for me , and I LOVE IT! Planning on getting a job this year where I can work with positive into life people.
Can't wait to do the special K and Sun Latte with all those women around cheering each other on.
Training Principles
In order to make a plan to help you accomplish your goals, you need to know:
- How often to exercise (frequency)
- How long to exercise (duration)
- What types of exercise to do (specificity)
- How to modify your exercise to continue improving (progression)
- How hard to exercise (intensity)
Frequency
Plan to spend at least 3 days per week exercising. This is considered the bare minimum amount of exercise you'll need to improve your level of fitness, anything less and you may hold on to your current levels, but you won't improve. The upper limit is 5-6 days per week, per activity.
Duration
The duration of your workouts depends on your fitness level and what you are preparing for. It increases as you progress in your training plan.
Specificity
Here's an obvious one, if your objective is to improve in a particular sport, plan most of your workouts in that activity (at least 3 per week). If you have lots of things you like to do and no particular performance goals, then mix up your activities.
You'll minimize muscle soreness if you do the activities you like at least once every 10 days.
Progression
You'll only keep improving as long as you keep increasing the stress of your exercise sessions and allow for proper rest and recovery.
If you get in the habit of doing the same activity, duration and intensity each workout, your fitness will "plateau" after 6-8 weeks. What you are trying to do with a plan is to gradually increase the amount of stress your body can handle at a given time.
Intensity
Is harder really better? That depends on what you're trying to accomplish. Different levels of effort or intensity elicit different physiologic adaptations. As a result, intensity is identified in levels.
There are 5 exercise zones (described in the article Heart Rate and Levels of Intensity), each with a particular level of effort, or heart rate range. A good plan will utilize workouts across different exercise zones, depending on the goal.
The Structure of a Running Workout
Warm up
The aim of a proper warm-up is to prepare your body for the exertion to come. You should be running at a lower speed than the actual running phase, and you may even want to include some stretching. This could last for 5-10 minutes. Warming up is also important prior to speed training as a way of priming the muscles. Your body prepares gradually for the actual training session, and your muscles carry oxygen more readily. Your heart rate should rise to the training level at the end of a warm-up and actual training can then begin. Some recovery sessions may be somewhat short (30-45 min) at warm-up speed.
Exercise in your specific Target Zone. Monitor the intensity level you are at while training to make sure the session is beneficial. Your heart rate should rise towards the end of a session and not the other way around. Keep in mind that increasing speed is easy, but you should learn the basics about the way your heart rate reacts at different running speeds first.
A running session can include for example a 30-minute even-paced run at 65-75% maximal heart rate, or intervals of 5x3min at 75-85%, alternating with recovery to bring your heart rate down to 60% before the next interval.
Cool Down
The purpose of a cool-down is to slowly bring the heart rate back to normal. This is especially important after strenuous activity which has produced lactic acid. Lactic acid is easily eliminated from the system during slow-paced running. A cool-down lasts 5-10 minutes depending on how hard you trained. The harder you train, the longer the cool-down should last. A cool-down can also affect your next training session. If you haven't cooled down properly, your body will still contain lactic acid and your next training session will suffer as a result.
For optimal fitness results, train within your target heart rate limits, even if you are able to push yourself beyond them most of the time. Improving your physical condition by running is easy, but it is important to pace your development and to avoid monotony by training in a varied fashion.
Cycle Training Tips
Once you start cycling regularly, it is important to determine a training intensity that corresponds to your fitness level.
Finding a cycling speed that feels suitable for you is not usually difficult. A typical mistake for beginners is to bike too fast in the beginning of a session, leading to a slower speed towards the end as energy levels slump. If that sounds familiar, you should keep close tabs on your heart rate in the first half of your training session. Training correctly to increase endurance means keeping exercise intensity at a stable level throughout a session. Intensity may even increase slightly towards the end.
If you have used a heart rate monitor for other types of exercise, determine corresponding heart rate levels as follows: when cycling your heart rate should be around 10 bpm lower than when you run and 15 bpm lower than when cross-country skiing. This is because the upper body doesn't move when cycling, and not as many muscles are, therefore, in use.
Always start a training session with a 10-15 minute slow-paced warm-up, to get your body progressively used to more intensive training. If you feel vigorous after the warm-up, then you can move on to the training session itself. As a beginner you should aim for a stable rhythm and avoid hard or long sprints. You should be able to keep up a good, stable pace throughout your session, and still have some energy left at the end.
Training till you drop is not recommended, as it doesn't improve a beginner's fitness and recovering from such harsh training can last several days. Once your bike ride is over, cool down your pace for 10-15 minutes to start your recovery. Stretching your muscles afterwards is always a good idea, as the repetitive nature of the cycling movement can quickly reduce muscle suppleness.
On uneven tracks, your heart rate will obviously increase when cycling up-hill, but make sure it does not rise above your aerobic threshold (that's when your body starts to produce a lot of lactic acid). If it does, then you are training too hard, and endurance will not develop in an optimal way - and endurance is of utmost importance for a cyclist.
For those who are determined to improve aerobic fitness, training at least 3 times a week is recommended. All training doesn't necessarily have to be on a bike, other aerobic exercise work well with cycling. Runners can replace long runs with bike rides instead. This way the pressure on the legs is reduced while still working on endurance.
When planning your weekly training schedule, keep in mind that to improve your performance, hard training days should alternate with lighter ones. For your perfomance to improve continuously, your body needs to recover before it takes on another hard session. An over-worked body does not get fitter.
Girl On Top Pauleene Winchester Achieving Her Goals
Must tell you about my day yesterday, I met you at the transition night. Yesterday (even tho it was really windy and a bit rainy) I biked down to Lloyd Elesmore Pools (4 3k), swam for half a k,then biked home. The sense of achievement I got in that alone was huge, but when I got home our 15year old, who only ever usually grunts at us these days, greeted me at the door with a "hello sporty mother". Man I was rapt. See I started off 123.8 kilos, am now down to 107 1 kilos, and I didn't want them seeing me as a nothing. I seemed to be achieving what I set out to do.
The P6 Adventure Race
OK! Whose idea was this to do the P6? 'spose I can't blame anyone really (Ally) because I didn't have my arm broken to do it. Quick discussion with Marriane Spriegl who was keen, who then spoke to a couple of other friends (Jo Pulford and Donna Giesen) and yeah! we had a team, (Paddle Shack Hot Chicks) right!! A short meeting with Mike White (Crash Bandicoot) on the Wednesday prior and navigation wasn't supposed to be a problem. Meet with the team on Wednesday 'arvo to sort out gear, transport, food etc, and we're looking good to start.
4.30am rise on race day, leave home to travel up to the mystery course and arrive HQ 8.00am, time to get nervous and wonder what the H--l we have got ourselves into. Pick up bike map and sit down to try and work out which way to go, Marriane and myself to navigate, Jo to punch in chip and Donna to take mileage). No problem to dismantle bikes, that was the real easy part, put it back together s--t my pump won't work, grabbed Marianne's spare, what a great start and we're off, find no: 1 - 3 check points easy, ride straight past 4th (didn't even see it, going soooo fast down hill and missed it altogether), find another one and then sort of lost our way a bit, (Don't follow the men if you can't keep up) but knew which direction we needed to go to get back to HQ, but seemed to find a sand trap on the way, Jo made the most of it ending up on her back with her bike on top. At this stage she was wishing it was a male instead of her bike. Took us 20 mins slogging with the bikes and got back to HQ 20 mins late so time penalty for us, if we just hadn't started to follow those men it's their fault! Have to blame someone at that stage.
Thoroughly enjoyed the activities and made up some lost points. Quick transition and sort out run route, with only 1hr managed to find 2 cp's and had 7 mins to spare when we got back to transition. Had egg and rock trick to do as we didn't kayak, so nicely tucked them up in a dirty sock and then packed tightly in compulsory gear, Yahhoo!! no breakage, then onto more activities and laughs galore.
A day thoroughly enjoyed by all 4 of us, maybe more training on bike for myself and a bit more on navigation but all in all a great beginners course. Great to have my daughter Andria there in transition, especially when trying to map, eat and change gear at the same time (would recommend for 1st timers, but not necessarily needed).
Would we do it again? all 4 of us agreed yes. Thanks for talking me into doing the P6 Ally and thanks to the verbal encouragement from everyone who new us. Also many thanks to Phil, Shaun and crew for a great event.
Bobbie
Paddle Shack
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