Hannah Lawrence Pro Triathlete

Ironman Cairns 70.3 2015… with a bit of Background and Insight

BACKROUND AND INSIGHT

I always love returning to a race setting that I am familiar with, regardless of how successful those previous races have or haven’t been. Especially when I am traveling by myself. Its always cool to visit the new towns but the familiarity amongst the nerves can be a huge advantage when sorting pre race day logistics out. Cairns been a split transition needs a bit or sorting out the day before, with bike transfers, bus trips and sorting rides out post race briefings all of which I personally find quite stressful. But this race despite the familiar course was also a big first for me. This was my first international race with me starring in not just the Pro Athlete roll but also in the role of Coach.

Since the end of last year I have been coaching myself. This came about due to necessity rather than choice as my current circumstances at the time dictated. I absolutely loved my previous coach Michael Lovato. I had huge respect for him and viewed him not only as a trusted coach but also as a really valued friend. I had learnt so much about myself, Triathlon, training and life under his guidance and most importantly he believed in me and had my back. I was hanging onto his support as I re entered back into NZ nursing both a shoulder and foot injury. The last thing I wanted was to stop working with him, but after a year of putting all my resources into stepping up to the full Ironman distance and coming out the other end with a DNS, a DNF and what felt like a bag load of injuries, I had pretty much exhausted all my resources and as life sometimes has impeccable timing it was then that my trusty old car decided to throw a tantrum and it failed its warrant.

Bottom line is I needed my car and I had to use the money I had put aside for my coaching to fix the car. At the time it was the harsh reality I didn’t have a choice. I joked with myself and thought of great headlines like “Car fails W.O.F – Athletes Career finished” and at the time to be honest I felt like letting it all go and giving in. But the thing was that I wasn’t ready to finish on that note. Deep down if I was honest with myself, below the surface doubts that I felt swamped in, I knew I had more to give and I wasn’t going to give in. So feeling a mix of failure and embarrassment about where I was at I decided to just quietly put my head down and do the what was needed to first fix my body and then find my way back into racing form. I was going to have to coach myself and at the time I didn’t have time to over think or doubt that choice I just had to get out of the hole I was in.

Over there Summer months I surprised myself a bit and was able to successfully achieve my first goals as “Coach” by getting myself first injury free while also getting a couple successful race results on the NZ racing calendar.

The build up to Cairns however was a bit more challenging and the straight forwardness of the summer months seemed to elude themselves and my build up seemed to be a mismatch of periods of illness or other frustrating interruptions, so although I knew I was still in really good shape and was still very fit and strong been the perfectionist I am I was worried about the up and downs of my training weeks. In the summer I had appeared to be a very easily coached athlete, however in this training block the coaching side of things was now proving to be quite challenging.

I was excited, motivated and driven for the race and yet I was also at times feeling very isolated and doubting my ability to coach myself. I missed having a sounding board and most of all I missed been able to debrief and celebrate the little successes or milestones along the way with someone who was 100% on board with the plan and to which it meant as much to as it did to me.

I had to work really hard to bring myself through this patch and to find a successful balance between the passion of me as the athlete and the rational thinking of me the Coach. Been able to allow myself to feel the ups and downs of the emotions that come with training hard towards a goal that you are passionate about but also having to be the voice of wisdom, reality and sane reasoning. If I as the athlete doubted the session that I was doing, I as the coach had to explain to myself the reasoning behind the session. This I have learnt is more challenging than may sound and I had a slight indication of how hard I may have been to coach over the years!!!!

Through the last few months though I have been forced to learn a huge amount about myself and despite the challenges I can honestly say that I was in a good space mentally and physically to race the Cairns 70.3. Had I nailed the balance of coach athlete 100% -absolutely not… but was I making progress -absolutely yes!

THE RACE

I love The Cairns Course. It was the first ever international race that I podium on in the PRO ranks (the inaugural year of the Challenge race) and I was super keen to be back and able to give it another shot. I was Healthy, I was injury free and I was ready to race!

The day before is always busy with a split transition and sorting race logistics and prep out, so it was great to meet up with fellow Kiwis Anna Ross and Erin Furness, Max Woodhead and Jamie Hunt in T1 and then other kiwis, Michelle Bremner and Cam Brown at the race Briefing.

By the end of the Saturday I was to be honest feeling pretty shattered, and pretty tight in my sacrum but as I tucked in bed at 7pm ready for the 3am wake up call I was excited to get things under way.

It was dark and wet come race morning and I was first to the Pro bus pick up which never happens! So I was stoaked to get the day off to a good start. It was a super quiet almost solemn drive to Palm beach. The anticipation in the bus was thick but under control. We had to queue to get into T1, as it wasn’t open when we arrived and despite the rain and darkness there was the normal pre race mix of excitement and nerves in the air.

The whole warm up and T1 set up was done in darkness and thankfully about 10-15mins before we started the sun raised enough for us to see the buoys and daylight arrived!!

Palm beach is a beautiful bay and to my delight the water was warm and calm and the rain had cleared J The race start was as normal a bit crazy but we thinned out quickly and I swam most of the race with one other girl. I didn’t feel great in the water and at the last buoy she and I had some confusion on where to turn in and I wasted a bit of time having to turn back a bit. For some reason I just struggled to get going in the swim, and was really glad to be touching sand and running up the beach into T1.

The swim wasn’t super fast but was okay and I came out behind but with some good company. I had planned a progressive race building my effort in 3 x 30km blocks, I started off conservatively as planned, and even though I was supposed to be holding slightly back effort wise and my watts showed that I was in the more conservative race range. I didn’t feel great and I had an ache in my right side of my pelvis. I tried to settle and ignore it, but I felt weak on the hills and I was finding things a lot harder than they should have been. I persevered through the first 30km block but as I tried to nudge up the effort and watts for the second 30km block, the reality of my concerns started to become clear.

The more power /effort I tried to put in the more ache I had in my back and it was spreading like a burning pain down my thigh. I kept trying to sit up a bit and stretch and ease the pain, but as I hit the wind and hills on the return leg the pain and weakness just got worse. I gave my self a good talking too and I tried all avenues to fix things. But in the end I backed right off and had to sit up a lot and had to just aim to make it back to T2. It was demoralising to have so many people power past you while your trying to make yourself stay down in aero despite the pain, fully aware that your left leg feels fine and almost fresh but your right leg is on fire.

I eventually made it into T2 and racked my bike I was pretty stiff and sore but been able to get off the bike and upright had eased the pain so I decided to try to run, and to my delight I was able too and as I had had to ease up so much on the bike my legs felt okay to start with so I decided to continue.

As it worked out a few other pros also must have had some issues as they were still around me in the run and it was a real inspiration to still be in the race even though things had just gone so badly on the bike. There was a real camaraderie between us, which helped me push through the tough bits in the run and finish the race. I finished up 11^th Pro in a time that I am not happy with and I was gutted to not have been able to see where I was truly at and get a more accurate indication of how my training had gone, but the reality is that the day didn’t go well, I had to deal with some major obstacles on the bike and although I felt like giving it all in I still carried on and made the most of the day and the experience.

I am so thankful I was able to complete the race

So I am in the process now of the Coach/Athlete race debrief, and about to have the coach/ athlete coffee planning session with myself. Where I will again figure out how to manage the two delicate sides of the coach athlete relationship... Passion and rationality.

A huge congrats to all the kiwis who did have some great races!! And a big thank you to Heather and Nick for been the most amazing hosts and opening up there home for me to stay with them. To my Sponsors and there amazing continued support, of course Mum and Dad Lawrence my family and Marc, but also to Debbie Lawrence, Tom Patrick, Marnie Oberrer, Matt Merrick, and Michael Lovato, for been there to support me through the injuries and the challenging times at the end of last year, helping me believe in myself, get through the other side and continue my dream.