I’ve tweeted a few times about the Wollongong Wizard’s ‘Super Saturday.’ I thought I’d expand on 140 characters and give a bit of insight into my biggest training day of the week with my training group “The Wizards”. If we aren’t racing then the following is a very typical Saturday that we’ve been doing for the past couple of years. It is without a doubt the hardest day of the week. All three sessions are quality (as in ‘HARD’) and done in a competitive group environment. The idea is that they are done even harder than what a race would be (or as my coach Jamie would say: “meeting & exceeding the demands of competition”).
My weekend begins:
8:30 am –
I start off somewhat relaxed with a leisurely wake up time. I have a coffee, some breakfast (normally home made bircher muesli with Greek yogurt and fruit) and I do some mobilization exercises to wake my body up and prepare myself for the day ahead.
10:00am – The whole Wizards group depart our apartments and head to the lake, Ullibari-Gamboa, for our open water swim. The swim tends to change every week and we do anything from race-start speed work diving off a pontoon, threshold work or, like today, heart rate work. We had a fairly simple swim today – warming up for 20 minutes or so and then 12 x 90 seconds of maximal effort with 30 seconds recovery in between. We gender separate our open water swims and we make them as realistic to the race as possible. That includes a bit of competition simulating aggression and fighting for position in the water!
12:00 – We are home by midday and I’m already hungry so go out for lunch with my boyfriend Brendan. We go to a nearby café and have tortilla patatas – which is basically a delicious Spanish potato omelette served at almost every café in town. I couldn’t tell you how many of these I’ve ate in the last 4 months! We also stock up on groceries – the shops are closed in Spain on a Sunday (and we tend to need most of the following day on the couch to recover from Saturday!)
14:00 – Back at home I send a few emails, do some chores, eat a little more and then head to bed to lie down and have a nap (it would be rude not to in the home of the siesta!). An hour pre ride I’m up for a coffee and a quick bite and then do some more exercises and stretching in preparation for the ride.
16:00 – Hour of Power (HOP) begins. The Wizards ride out to the HOP start point about 10 kilometers out of town. You can feel the anticipation from the group as we assess wind direction and each others comfort in the saddle. The session of HOP is basically just 40km HARD. Boys and girls go separately (as in comp) and we roll turns (hard!!) for four minutes and followed by a single minute recovery. We continue this pattern for 30 kilometers on a designated loopup until a point that indicates 10km to go – or “Go Time.” From here it’s an effort for the finish with no recovery breaks and anything goes! Breakaways, attacks, even a bit of Oscar worthy acting to fain fatigue and save the legs for the short KOM climb before the final stretch to the line. It finishes off with a sprint at the end (if the group is still together of course!). It is incredibly hard but also very fun. Its fair to say that the assessing of fellow Wizards’ form is turned more towards assessing whether we’ll all make the 10k ride back into town.
18:00 – Within about 10 minutes of rolling back into the apartments I’ve changed and regrouped with the Wizards for a fartlek type run. The session changes every week but its normally short and sweet. Yesterday we had 9x1minutes at a pace quicker than what I’d push in a race. We’re straight into the fast stuff followed by a brief 10 minute cool down. One of the shortest sessions of the week but hardly the most forgettable! For this, I like to wear shoes very similar to my race flats so today I chose my ASICS Gel-DS Racer.
18:30 – Back at the apartment I spend time stretching and go through some of my specific strength exercises, most of which, thankfully, I can do from a horizontal position on the floor.
20:00 – Dinner time! Brendan and I switch up who makes dinner – dependent on physio/massage treatment times and also who appears to be the most tired! I won that today, and so Brendan cooked for me.
21:30 – Physio treatment with Dean Sullivan! I spend 40 minutes on the massage table and have treatment with Dean. We focus on what is causing trouble the most at the time – and today it is my back and neck. I normally also finish this off with a trip across the road to the recovery centre for an ice bath and then make good use of my Scody Swirl Compression tights!
23:00 – Bed time. Tomorrow is easy (comparatively). I’m looking forward to it 
