Rebecca Preston’s Blog

In an effort to update my blog more frequently, my blogs are inevitably going to contain non-triathlon content. This is going to be one of those blogs…… Right now, I am living in the ‘twilight’ zone. No, I’m not living in some weird parallel universe (Subic Bay is fine). Instead, last week, I found myself in the bookshop in Olongapo (no, this is not the twilight zone either). I’d grown tired of watching countless dvd’s (I know!!! I thought that was impossible too). I’d been through Entourage Seasons 1-5; The Office Seasons 1-4; slowly making my way through all 13 seasons of ER; not to mention the great tv channels we have here (with the new 90210, One Tree Hill etc). Honestly, sometimes training sessions are a HUGE inconvenience
Anyway, as I was mentioning, I found myself in the bookshop, which in itself, is a bit strange, because I don’t really read a whole lot. I like trashy gossip mags, and I usually only read biographies, if I find one that interests me enough. My sister on the other hand, is an avid reader. So when I came across the Twilight novel, I vaguely remembered that she had told me that it was a great book. And to make it even more appealing, it was being made into a movie, so that meant it had to be ok. Hmmm, given the super cheap price, I had nothing to lose.
To cut a long story short, I am addicted to the book/s. The TV has not come on in my room all week, except for Wednesday 12pm (90210 was on) and a two hour turbo session on Tuesday. After finishing Twilight, I was back at the book shop 2 days later, buying the complete 4 book set. I can’t stop reading the books, and just have the final book to go.
Ok, I will stop embarrassing myself now…..back onto triathlon stuff. Training is going as well as I can expect. I was pretty tired last week, following the Powerman in Malaysia. However, I still managed to put in some quality sessions. All the rookies are leaving and there will be only 3 of us left in Subic next week (me, Mat and Manny). Thankfully, we have the Fillopino (?sp) squad to keep us company for our sessions.
Speaking of training, I have to go get ready for a ride.
PS- For Twilight followers- I’m team Edward!!!

When I found out I was going to be racing at the Malaysian Powerman, I immediately thought of my team mate, Erika Csomor, or Miss Coco. Miss Coco is duathlon royalty having won Zofingen many occasions. So I figured if I could take a small leaf out of her book, I’d be fine
The week leading up to the race, my training had been going well, and I was excited to have the opportunity to race a format that I was not familiar with. My only expectations were to go hard, and to have fun. Unfortunately, I must of been channelling too much energy from Miss Coco, because like Erika, I found myself battling a cold a couple of days before the race, (my first for the year!). Thankfully, I suffered the worse of my cold the two days leading up to the race, and I woke up race morning, feeling ok and able to breathe.
But once again, the energy I drew from Miss Coco, was simply too strong, and as I zipped up my race suit the morning of the race, I busted the front the zip, just as Erika had done in her 70.3 race in Austria. With a couple of safety pins across my chest, I was good to go. I just hope there is no photographic evidence!!! Even though I was wearing a crop top underneath, I felt very ‘busty’, and looking like I was popping out.
And that’s where the similariites between Miss Coco, and I ended :(. As much as I’d like to say, I smashed that course, I can’t. The first run, was the part I was most nervous about. As strange as it sounds, I would much rather run off the bike, than fresh. My goal for the first run was to minimise any losses between myself and the front runners. It was a two looped run, and on the first loop I managed to keep the first girl (nz girl, Victoria Beck) within my sights. However, on the second lap, I felt the overwhelming urge to ‘find a bush ;). I managed to hold it, but lost a bit of time in the process. Once I got on my bike, this urge went away (thank god!).
The bike ride went well for me. In training, I’d been hammering some big gears, so I was keen to experiment with this style of riding under race situations. So I put my head down and pushed hard. This was definitely a great ride for me, and I felt like I got stronger as the ride progressed.
I rode into first place before half way, so I came off the bike in front. I wasn’t sure of how much of a lead I had, but I ran solidly regardless, because I wanted to not only win, but have a hard training day too.
When I crossed the finish line in first, I sort of did not believe it. Had I actually managed to finish a race??? And win a race??? A duathlon??? I was so happy, so relieved, and so content with being able to actually ’switch off’ my thinking head, and ’switch on’ my racing head again.
For now, it’s back to the hard work here in Subic Bay. I have three more weeks here, before I leave for Busselton, and I am keen to make the most of my time here.

Well, it’s the midway point of the training camp here in Jeju. I would of posted a blog earlier, but to be completely honest, I am training my butt off…..literally!!!!!!!!! We have had a few ‘easier’ days, however, those days are usually spent going to the E-mart, stocking up on groceries, then relaxing. I spoke to Nicola and Reto a few days ago, and they asked if I’ve been to the beach. Well, I don’t know what sort of training program these olympic distance wet runners do but we’re not spending our days at the beach here in Jeju.
I’ve been reading Jocelyn’s blogs with great interest, and I wish mine could be half as exciting. Actually the most exciting part of my stay so far has been the arrival of the much needed emergency package from home. I had just returned home from a long ride and short run off the bike, and Doc informed me I had a parcel delivered. ‘Yes!!!!!!!!!!’ I thought to myself. I raced inside, showing more speed than I have all year, ripped open the package, and shoved about 10 chico’s in my mouth. LOL. Yes, the lolly choice here leaves a lot to be desired, as does the chewing gum. Unfortunately, there were no trashy mags included, so I’m yet to catch up on my celeb gossip. Although I have read on the net that Lance is doing the tour next year??? I guess he’s not with Kate anymore?

Well, where do I start? The last three weeks have been a whirlwind of travelling, racing, dnfing :(, and shopping I’m writing this blog from Santa Monica, and in 5 hours I will be leaving for the airport and flying to Jeju!!! I’m so excited!
Anyway, you’re probably all thinking what in the hell is my blog title all about? Well, after yet another disaster for me at Penticton, I was very close to jumping off the edge, and giving the sport away. Luckily for me, my mum had decided to take a holiday, and was with me in Penticton, and was able to provide much needed support and words of wisdom. She reminded me of how much I love the sport, and if I was to give up, I would never be able to achieve what we both know I can.
We also talked alot about my triathlon experiences, and I recollected my first long course triathlon. It was in 2005, and I had been in Europe for 3 weeks, and Doc decided that I should do the Gerardmer Long Course Triathlon (3/120/30). I had never covered anything longer than a half, let alone 30 km of running or 120km of cycling. We drove there, and anyone that has ever spent a little bit of time with the Doc, knows that he pretty much can talk non stop, and finds the right way to motivate someone. Anyway, he reasoned that racing long course triathlon is one of the easiest jobs in the world, and likened it to shovelling shit. He told me if someone told him he could earn a couple of thousand dollars, for shovelling shit for 8 eight hours, he’d respond with, ‘pass the shovel’ (or it could of been, ’stuff the shovel, I’ll use my hands!!!’, I can’t remember, hahahaha). We had already booked flights for Ironman Louisville, so really, I had no choice, but to suck it up, get my arse back on the startline, and shovel shit for 10 hours.
So after two full days of travelling (the drive back to Calgary from Penticton, then the flight to Kentucky), we had reached Louisville. Friday and Saturday were spent doing the usual pre race stuff, but mostly I kept a low profile. I was slightly concerned about the lack of training in my legs during the week, but told myself, ‘oh well, you’ll have plenty of opportunity on sunday for training’.
I won’t really go into much detail about the race. While it wasn’t my best physical performance, it was probably my biggest mental performance in a race, aside from IM Austria 2006, where I had Lori Bowden (probably the best female IM runner in history), chasing me and putting time into me. I swam decent, I rode decent, and ran terribly!!! At the end of the day, I asked myself, could I have went any harder at any point of the day? Maybe, maybe not….I really don’t know. However, I do know that I was so proud to be an Ironman finisher again, and now I can’t wait for Hawaii!!!
So, what have I been up to since last Sunday? I’ve managed to get some training in, and thanks to my homestay here in Santa Monica, Steve, I’ve had a free pass all week at a fancy LA gym. Since my bike was in for a service midweek, I thought why not go to a spin class. All I’m going to say is, a spin class two days post ironman is not a good idea. The instructor had us out of the saddle doing this running like motion with our bums hovering just above the seat for about 80% of the class. Apparently it’s good for toning your butt, but from my experience, it killed my quads.
I’ve also spent a decent amount of time at Wholefoods the past 4 days. I love that place, and would eat every meal there if I had the choice.
Now, I have to go and pack, because I’m leaving in 4 and 1/2 hrs.

I raced a local Olympic Distance triathlon here in Calgary, at Lake Chaparral on Sunday. I was looking forward to the opportunity to race over a shorter distance, and have a short hard race in my legs before IM Canada this weekend. I am happy with my performance, placing second female and ninth overall. While I struggled all day to get out of the ‘ironman pace’ (especially on the bike), it was great to get out there and push myself to my limits.
Sitting there in the sun after the race at the awards, hoping my number would get picked for a random prize (hahahahaha), I was reminded of the many sunday’s I spent at Raby Bay and Robina, doing the local Gatorade tri series; and I realised how much I missed racing. So I am making a resolution to myself to get out there and race as much as possible.
I met a lot of friendly people at the tri, all who read our blogs and our forum. Hi to everyone I spoke to sunday!
Thanks also to Joel and Jillian of Niklas Group, who have sponsored me to come to Calgary and race at Lake Chaparral and Penticton; to my hosts here in Calgary, Bob and Lyn; to Doctor Kale at the Chase Chiropractic Clinic who’s helping me get my body back ‘in line’; to Anita, the best masseuse I’ve met in a long time- thanks for all the pain :), and to Trevor at Multisports for holding a challenging race on the weekend.
I’m leaving for Penticton tomorrow. I can’t wait to see Belinda, so I can catch up with all the Ironchick gossip from Leysin.

Hi Everyone,
I’m writing this blog from Calgary, Canada. I arrived here on Saturday after a full day of traveling. I’m doing IM Canada on the 24th of August, however, I am also here to race an olympic distance race this sunday on the 17th of August, at Lake Chaparall. Joel Goralski, owner of The Niklas Group, a land development company here in Calgary, has sponsored me to come and race at Lake Chaparall and Penticton. Joel is an age group triathlete, and is coached by Marc of Ironguides. I feel very lucky to have this opportunity to stay in Calgary in the lead up to these two races. Bob and Lyn are my hosts, and I have to be honest, I’m being a little spoilt. Their house is only 10 mins to the shops, pool, running trails, so I feel like I’m back in Leysin (well….not really….it’s a ‘little’ bit flatter here).
Anyway, back to the title of my blog- ‘blog-worthy’. This morning while kicking in the pool, I saw something that was definitely blog-worthy. A man (probably about 40-50 years old, and not very fit looking) got out of the pool, walked towards the change room, wearing nothing but a skimpy g-string. It was one of those ’string like g-strings’ (you know, like dental floss). I wish the fellow iron chicks were there with me, so we could all have a huge laugh about it. Instead, I looked around the pool, to see if anyone else was concerned and thought this site was little bit out of the ordinary. Nope. No one even took any notice of him.
That was one of the most bizarre things I have every seen. So Matt, Donna, Luke, Marilyn, is this the norm here in Canada, eh?

Today I received the all important package from my parents, back home in Australia. With IM Switzerland coming up this weekend, it’s imperiative that I have my fix of vegemite, especially on race morning So as the slogan says, I’ll be powered by VEGEMITE.
Also included in the package were a few other essentials that will keep me going while training here in the swiss mountains; packet of juicy fruit (yum yum yum); my other favourite chewey from home, spearmint extra; chico’s (really yummy australian lollies); various trashy magazines to keep me up to date with all the gossip- ie. who’s anorexic/fat; who’s in rehab; who’s pregnant/had a baby; is tomkat breaking up?; did posh smile today?/did she eat something today?; the latest on Britney; who is Lance dating?….wow, I really could go on and on.
Training has been going well over the past couple of weeks. Despite my disaster at Ironman France, I feel as though I gained some bike strength from the experience. And I’m hoping to be able to use that bike strength this weekend at Zurich. This will be my third year in a row racing at Ironman Switzerland. This year, the bike course has been slightly changed. It seems as though it will be a faster course, with less hilly sections. I’m a little bit unhappy about this, because I really liked the old course, and that third time up Heartbreak hill, can really ‘break your heart’. However, I understand that the course has been changed to relieve some of the congestion associated with a 3 lap course, so I hope it results in a cleaner race overall.
Anyway, I’m off to read my trashy gossip mags and have some juicy fruit

Hi guys,
Just thought I’d update everyone on my day yesterday.
First of all, it was very special to be here, racing in Nice. A beautiful place that has an important place in tiathlon history. I knew going into the race, it was definitely going to be challenging, however, I was determined to get the most out of this experience.
I think this is probably one of the biggest fields I have ever raced in. I’m not quite sure of the number of competitors, but I was pretty nervous standing on the startline with a couple of thousand of my closest friends. I have become pretty accumstomed to our ‘nice pro starts’. If we don’t have a 15 min head start, we usually at least have a buffer of 50/100 metres on the rest of the field. Not today. The gun went, and I went down….somehow I found myself fallen down at the water’s edge. And this is no australian beach, with nice sand. Big rocks. Ouch! While getting run over, I somehow got up, and got myself into the water, where I continued to be swam over and pushed under the water. Wow, it was really scary! And that was sort of the pattern of the whole swim. I finally made it out of the water, and was suprised to see Katja Shumacher in the transition tent with me. I was just about to say to her, “I thought I was going to die”, when she said to me, “I thought I was going to die”. I guess most of the WTC races are being soft on the pro’s with our separate starts- I might have to go back to doing the french races to get used to this madness at the start.
Anyway, out onto the bike. Almost immediately, I was feeling sick. I must of took in a lot of salt water during the swim, because anything that I took in, came back up. That’s ok, I told myself, I have heaps of ‘fuel’ on me to get me by, as long as I could drink water, and some coke. Even though I was feeling like shit, the bike course is amazing. Laurent Jalabert came flying past me early on, looking super smooth. I managed ok on my modified nutrition plan until about 120km when my body just stopped. I stopped for 10 or so mins, to regroup myself, then rode the rest of way back to Nice the best I could (which thankfully was mostly downhill).
I guess I was pretty dehydrated, I don’t know, but somehow between putting my run shoes on, and leaving transition, I found myself in the medical tent. And that’s where my day ended.
I’m honestly at a loss to dnf again. Thank you to my family and my coach who continue to support me regardless. Back to the drawing board…..

“Welcome back to the real world” were the words my coach said to me following a bike hill repeat session on monday. In between gasps for air, I think I uttered “Thanks???”. Since returning to Leysin last week, my training has inevitably been kicked up a notch (or ten!). No complaints here though. I am really so happy to be back training hard, and pushing myself to my limits, everyday.
Today was no different. Today we had THE BRICK. This is a 80km hilly bike loop, followed by a 10km hilly run on a mile loop trail. (hmmm, I’m noticing a trend here, did someone say ‘hills’?). My first year here in Leysin (2005), we pretty much did this session every week. Oh, how I remember my first attempt. Because I was too slow on the bike to ride with anyone else, I would set off before the rest of the squad and hope to hell I would get back before the others, so I could start my run. By the end of the three month camp though, I was able to ride with a group around the loop, and run a pretty decent 10km off the bike.
Today’s session was reminiscient of that first brick session for me. I was so anxious about my ability (or rather, my inability) to complete the session, especially given my training partners for today (Olympians, World Cup Winners, Recent IM Champions). To cut a long story short, I actually surprised myself. I got around the loop (the HARD way) in one piece, and was able to complete the 10km run. It wasn’t easy, but it’s not meant to be
As I lie here writing this blog, (because I’m too tired to sit), I can hear those words echoing in my head. “Welcome back to the REAL WORLD”. The difference is, this time, I’m here to stay!

I have some exciting news. Well, it’s exciting for me First ride up the hill today (in Leysin), and the good news is…..the road works under the bridge about half way up the hill, has FINALLY been completed. I used to absolutely dread this part of the ride up the hill. 9 times out of 10, I would get the red light and would have to unclip here. This part of the road is one of the steepest sections of the climb, so I would sit there, having a stress attack about a) clipping into my pedal on the steep incline; b) holding up cars behind me as I cycled up the hill because it’s only one lane wide; c) not making it past the one lane section in time, and having a head-on with the cars the other way. I also found it so annoying to stop and restart again, which would usually result in my legs ‘exploding’, which probably also had something to do with the fact that I would usually sprint this section.
Anyway, that’s my great news. No more stopping at the bridge. Yay!!!!
But I have some bad news to report too There are TWO road works sections now. Both in the first half, but neither gives me the same panic attacks as the bridge roadworks. Both are short, and situated on less steep inclines. In fact, one of them is situated on one of the very few flat sections on the climb.
Sorry if anyone was really excited about my blog and thought I actually had some really good news…..
Today was my second day back in Leysin. One of my favourite places in the world. It’s great to be back. This is my fourth summer here, and I hope there is many more to come.