Charlotte McShane Triathlete » Random

Falls Creek – December 2014

Charlotte McShane — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 02:39:47 +0000

I thought I’d update you all on what my first month of pre season training has been like.

I’ve spent the past 4 weeks in Falls Creek in the Victorian High Country which sits around 1700m. We’ve been coming here for the past 4 years at this time of year so I know it well. Its about a 7 hour drive from Wollongong but lucky for me its only a couple of hours from my hometown in East Gippsland.

We mainly focus on running during our time there and Falls is perfect for it. There are kilometres of endless trails… Hilly, flat, rocky, windy, grassy, muddy…. you name it! Whatever type of run you feel like you’ll find it.

I ride about 4 times a week – and its a mixture of the road (which is either nice rolling hills or climbing a mountain!) or on the rollers/ergo. We swim 4 times a week 30km’s down the mountain in Mount Beauty in a beautiful outdoor 33m pool. Our swimming at this time of year is mainly strength/technique based.

A typical Friday is like this :

0800 : 20 min easy run

1030 : 5km Strength/pull swim

1500 : 40 minute gym session

1730 : 60 min Tempo Run session

My first month back training went great for me – both my body and mind were healthy and happy . There were only 4 of us there this time around (Myself, Aaron Royle, Ryan Bailie & Jake Birtwhistle) so it was a little quieter than normal.

I’m home now for Christmas and New Year and then will head backup to Falls Creek for another 3 week stint and this time the rest of the Wollongong Wizards will be joining us! I’m looking forward to building on what I’ve done up there as I start to prepare myself for 2015. Next year is going to be a big one and I’m super excited for what is to come!

Thank you so much for the support over the past year. Although 2014 wasn’t exactly what I’d hoped for, the lessons I’ve learnt and the disappointment I had is already turning itself into a positive. Roll on 2015!

Charlotte

Super Saturday

Charlotte McShane — Sun, 17 Aug 2014 21:12:18 +0000

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

July 2014

Charlotte McShane — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 12:48:13 +0000

July started with Hamburg WTS . One of the most exciting races on the calendar due to the crazy spectators, unique course, World Mixed Team Relay Champs and this year falling on the same weekend as the Football World Cup Final which Germany happened to be playing in!

So my race wasn’t great, but I had an awesome time racing in the relay and then experiencing the city going crazy that night with Germany winning the World Cup! My parents and brother also came to watch, so it was good spending time with them.

Once back in Vitoria, my boyfriend Brendan and I had a couple of days downtime before the next block of training started. We headed north to the Basque Country coast and did a little bit of sightseeing. It was nice just to switch off for a few days and the weather was beautiful.

I then had a few weeks of some solid training. With so much racing this year, it’s felt like blocks of training are hard to come by, so I really enjoyed burying myself into a hole again!!

I’m now on my way to one of my all time favourite races – Tiszaujvaros World Cup in Hungary. This will be my 5^th time racing. I’ve had both highs & lows there, and made many mistakes but I’m really looking forward to seeing how I’ve progressed. Its very unique as there are heats on Saturday – then if you make it through, the final on Sunday. I’ll let you all know how I go!

Last week I was officially announced on the Australian Elite team for the ITU World Triathlon Series Grand Final in Edmonton in 4 weeks time. This is my first Australian Elite World Championship team and I’m honored to be selected. Edmonton has undoubtedly been my main focus all year, and I’m already starting to get excited to race there!

Thanks for the support,

Charlotte

June 2014

Charlotte McShane — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 20:34:30 +0000

I started June with the 4^th World Series of the year in London – a place I have very special memories of after wining U23 Worlds there last year. I didn’t have a great race – finishing 23^rd but there was a lot of positives to take and sometimes the end result doesn’t tell the full story.

The next weekend I raced for my French team, Parthenay, in Valence. It was a relay format and we had a really strong team, and we ended up finishing in 2^nd. It’s the first time I’ve been in a team that has made a podium so it was pretty exciting!

Next up was Lekeitio Triathlon. Lekeitio is a coastal town an hours drive away from Vitoria. It is one of my favorite races as the atmosphere is crazy! The Basque love sport, and the crowds at Basque races are always huge. The bike course is basically a long climb, shorter and sharper descents, U Turn and back the way you come. It’s a tough bike course which normally works in my favour, and I managed to get away early and take out the win and the famous ‘Txapela’: a traditional Basque hat of the champion!

The next day Gwen and Pat organized a wine tour at a nearby Winery – Eguren Ugarte which our whole training group went to. I don’t drink a lot of wine, but it was very cool to learn the process of making it . We also had lunch out there and they even catered for myself being a vegetarian

Brendan and I at the winery in La Rioja

A couple of days later we began our travel to Chicago for the World Series. My boyfriend Brendan and I had our flight cancelled and changed at the last minute due to air strikes, and we had to leave a day later. When we turned up at the airport we found out that we had been upgraded to business, which was a first for me and quite exciting! It all worked out well in the end and we both had good races both finishing in the top 10. I loved Chicago and we had a good time playing tourist post race – There’s still so much left I want to visit and I’m already looking forward to next year!

Thanks for all the support!

Char

Eguren Ugarte winery with the Wollongong Wizards

February 2014

Administartor — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 02:59:44 +0000

2014 will be my 4^th year living in Wollongong . I moved here in late 2009 to train with coach Jamie Turner and his crew. A lot of people have come & gone, but this year we’ll have a big group of 17 athletes with a healthy mix of males and females!

Training here is very different to Falls Creek where I’ve spent most of this summer to date. The majority of our cycle and run sessions begin and end at North Beach, a buzzing hub of activity in “the Gong.” Said sessions often conclude with a coffee sit at Diggies café or a splash in the ocean. Through the week we swim at the beautiful URAC sports centre and come Friday morning we take part in the infamous Open Water ocean swims back at North Beach.

The past couple of weeks have been quite busy (and it may be possible that I still haven’t completely unpacked yet..) attempting to get organized and fully into the swing of it again. I have however had the opportunity to have a few hit outs at local events. I once again competed in the Australia Day Aquathon with the rest of the ‘Wizards’. I also raced at the Triathlon NSW Sprint in Kurnell this past weekend. It’s not often that I get to race with 600+ people on course simultaneously, definitely a change of format for me! It was a great event and a lot of cobwebs were blown.

I’ll be staying put in the ‘Gong’ until Oceania Championship in Devonport in 3 weeks. I imagine there will be plenty of splashes in the ocean & coffee sits before then… I’ll let you know how it goes.

Thanks

Charlotte

January 2014

Administartor — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 05:46:48 +0000

The Christmas/New Year period is most certainly my favourite time, and this year was extra special. I love having the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks at home and catch up with my friends and family.

Christmas went as usual… A lot of food,a lot of people & a lot of fun. We have a large family so it’s always busy with lots going on. My 83 year old Gran even travelled over from Scotland this year, which made it even nicer.

Boxing Day was much the same – we headed down to our beach house in Lake Tyers, East Gippsland and spent the day with all of the family.

On New Years Eve, my boyfriend Brendan Sexton and I spent the night at a friends ‘sporting’ themed fancy dress party in Melbourne . (See attached pic) You can guess for yourselves as to what we went as… J

But the most exciting part was in the last few days before I went back to routine. My beautiful big sister Stephanie got married!! It was the most perfect day. I was thrilled to join my other two gorgeous sisters as Steph’s bridesmaid. It was the perfect day and I love that her husband Ryan is officially part of our family.

And aside from keeping busy with my family, I spent the rest of my time swimming, riding and running around the many beautiful trails & lakes that East Gippsland has to offer.

A couple of days later I was back to reality in camp at Falls Creek for another 3 week block of training. Our training group has grown quite significantly since last camp, with the addition of some Canadians, Americans, a Hungarian and a Chilean. I’ve already learnt so much from everyone around me, and it has been nothing but a positive environment!

I’m still focusing on building up my aerobic base, but look forward to gradually adding some faster paced work in over the next month. I’m starting to get quite excited to race again!

We are here in Falls Creek for a few more days before heading back to Wollongong.

Thanks for your support!

Christmas update

Administartor — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 05:39:07 +0000

Has it sunk in yet?

I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked that in the last couple of months. And I still don’t have an answer.

I’m not sure what exactly I’m meant to feel. Winning in London was SO cool. It was a massive relief to finally have a race completely go to plan and it was an awesome feeling to have my family there watching. But a few days after the race I was back training as normal and, apart from having an extra spring in my step, not much had changed.

I hadn’t ever won a major event before, and I guess I always thought I’d feel like a different person if I ever did… But truth is, nothing changed. I was still quite critical of some aspects of my race, and my immediate focus was on what I could do to improve next year. It wasn’t until my end of season break that I could sit back and appreciate the improvements I had made in 2013, and I think that’s important as an athlete. To continue improvement you need to be highly critical but if you don’t take time to reflect on the positive, there never really is any positive.

So that’s what I did. In November, I had 3 weeks where I practically did zero exercise. I spent time with my family (including my beautiful 1 year old niece, Isla), caught up with friends and basically just enjoyed life. As an athlete, you’re somewhat restricted in what you can do for about 11 months of the year, so I make sure I make the absolute most of it when I can… and anyone who knows me can see quite obviously I did just that.

It all passes very quickly and I’m now back in Falls Creek in the Victorian mountains preparing for 2014. I like this time of year. I’m unfit, everything hurts and I’m reminded of my mortality every session. When you’re fit and ready to race, running hard is easy…. At the moment, just running easy is hard. Each stroke in the pool feels abnormal. It’s not fun but it’s refreshing. There’s no pressure, no times to hold and I don’t get frustrated when I’m not capable of holding a certain pace. Each day I get fitter, leaner and stronger – it’s always positive. Big pains mean big gains.

And that’s how I’ll spend the next few weeks along with the rest of my training group. I’ll have a short break at home over Christmas & New Year, then will be back to Falls Creek early January (and hopefully slightly closer to feeling immortal)