Kellie's Story - Part 1
Date: 30 June 2008
Goal: Noosa triathlon 2 November 2008 (120 days to go!)
The alarm sounds beside my bed and I silence it almost simultaneously. No, I am not an assassin but I have trained myself to wake as soon as I hear the first sound so that I can kill it before it wakes my sleeping partner Chris and our two kids.
I used to love hitting the snooze button to get an “extra 5” before racing to get myself out the door and to training. But hitting the snooze button means that I am likely to wake everyone twice which I have worked out is not that considerate….besides hitting the snooze button risks not making it to training!
I’ll be straight with you. I am an ex-Cairns girl and I do not like the cold. I have an arguably high pain threshold but when it comes to the cold I am a wimp. In 2004 (pre-crash) I was priming myself for my first season training through a Brisbane winter. I went out and bought heaps of warm cycling clothes with lovely reflective stripping. I was very proud of myself and my “commitment” to training in the cold. My last memory before being hit by a car on 19 June 2004 was of talking to my training partner about the cold.
Now some would say a severe head injury, an induced coma, multiple fractures, collapsed lung, severed nerves and ligaments are a lot of trouble to go to get out of training through winter but hey I don’t do things by halves! Chris tells me stories of training in Canberra with icicles forming on the tips of his hair and I think give me a training session on a Cairns summer’s day. Bring on the humidity!
 Well four years have passed and this is a Brisbane winter not a Cairns summer. It is time to drag myself out of bed, away from my comfortable, warm doona to face the music mag trainer. I enjoy the mag trainer - you can get a pretty good workout and listen to music at the same time with a brilliant view of Mt Cootha (from my place anyway!). My favourite band is U2. They are also the only band on my ipod so it is quite fortunate that I find them inspirational.
The “kids” Jayden and Jack (ages 10 and 3 respectively) have played a part in my progression from the comforts of the lounge room to the garage. This was because the noise of the mag trainer in the lounge room at 5am seems to interrupt their sleep…I am not sure why in a two bedroom house with wooden floorboards, but I have now progressed to the garage!!!
We actually have a bit of a neighborhood group thing going. The Dad across the road is on his trainer in the garage some mornings and Beth from next door is on her stationary trainer each day. It is good to know that I am not the only one! It is also a reminder that we each have personal challenges to overcome in our lives. The Dad across the road works full time and has teenage kids. Beth from next door is elderly with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Everyone has their own challenge whether it is physical or mental. It inspires me to see everyday people getting out there and fitting in a session amongst the challenges of their everyday lives.
As much as I enjoy the mag trainer, my goal is to get back on the road. I watch packs of cyclists go past on their way up Mt Nebo and I long to be a part of it. At this stage I do not know for certain whether I will get back on the road consistently. I have thought about training primarily on the mag trainer in the lead up to Noosa. But I miss the long rides enough to work hard at getting back there. I particularly want to work on regaining some strength and bike skills without the additional stress of negotiating traffic. So with the help of some friendly professionals I have developed the following progression plan:
Stage 1 - Just Get On The Bike (mag trainer);
Stage 2 - Get Out Of The Garage (cycling on bike paths);
Stage 3 - Time to build strength and regain bike skills (mountain biking around Gap Creek and Daisy Hill);
Stage 4: Back On The Road….
At the moment I am between Stages 1 and 2 with 120 days to go….stay tuned. |
