After 13 years as a professional athlete, within about 5 minutes of chatting to someone who says they want to ride with Tyler and I regularly, I can tell you if we will end up training together or not.....here’s why:

1) our nanny doesn’t start until 9 so we meet at 9.30, a lot of athletes like to leave at 6am so already it may not work! The few that are either: European; have lived in Europe; are cyclists; swim in the morning before biking; or like to train in the heat often seem to like to start late too.

2) you don’t get annoyed if we’re late- we say 9.30 but it is often 9.40-9.45 by the time we are rolling out.

3) you don’t mind stopping- usually we have one pee stop within an hour of rolling out, a quick stop to fill up our bidons after about 2 hours, and a 15-20 minute coffee stop after about 3-4 hours of riding, and for Tyler and I a second coffee stop at the end of our ride before we tackle the 10 km (6 mile) 2000+ feet of elevation climb up to our house.

4) be super-adaptive. We will have a loose plan of how many hours, which loop, and how hard we want to go, but that often changes quickly depending on how we are feeling (not just Tyler and I, but how the whole group is going on the day). Sometimes that means we are all rolling along nicely chatting, and sometimes it means someone is feeling good or has some intervals they want/need to do and we’re strung out in a line behind the person going tempo or time-trialing. Our paces changes from a 1 hour ride at 20km/hr average, to 5 hours with climbing averaging 35km/hr.

5) we switch between incessant chatter, to everyone with headphones on in silence.

6) obviously no half-wheeling.

7) don’t think I am racing you if I am going hard.

8) that’s it!

Still want to come? Not many do. :)

Recently we’ve been doing quite a lot with the McDonald’s (Chris and Marilyn) who swim before riding, never seem to get mad at us being late (even though they are always on time), don’t mind our ‘emerging strategy’ to training, and most of all don’t take it too seriously. We’ve also had a few appearances from Dirk (Bockel) who also lives high so has a bit of a trek to make it to training, so doesn’t like to start early, not to mention he is European which I think helps with the late starts. Finally, Tyler seems to end up riding with Tim (Berkel) too who is a young and relaxed Aussie.

I have to admit I surprised myself on the weekend! Everyone says you are stronger after having a baby but with such low weekly volumes I thought I had no chance of being up there. Looking back at the last few weeks leading in there were certainly sessions that I started to show signs of getting back into some kind of form, but being in contention for the win was not what I was expecting at all.

The race started with each of us 30 seconds apart, similar to a cycling time-trial. Having never raced this type of format for a triathlon it was all very exciting! Being the second-last to start it was nice to know I could just concentrate on picking off the girls in front of me, always nicer to be the hunter than the hunted.

The time-trial style start meant for a much easier introduction to racing for me as I didn’t have to deal with the usual fight for position in the swim and there wasn’t any drafting or pacing on the bike with the spread-out start which of course suited me too.

Out of the swim I took confidence hearing that I didn’t loose much time on any of the girls other than the eventual winner Radka Vodickova from Czechoslovakia who swam almost 3 minutes into me! I was within around 30 seconds of all the other girls, so the race was still very much on.

Once on the bike I concentrated on getting into a good rhythm as quickly as possible. The course was two out-and-backs with gradual rolling hills. I have been feeling strong on the bike in training but it is always hard to tell if my ‘strong’ is any stronger than anyone else's.

Managing to pass all the girls out there other than Vodickova, I knew if I didn’t let anyone pass me I was in second! By the last 10km of bike I started to feel my lack of fitness so I passed the time calculating how much more time I would have to find to win.

On to the run Vodickova was 1 minute in front of me on the road, and since she started 2.30 before me that gave me a 1.30 buffer. I was ecstatic! I knew I was riding well but I didn’t think that well. To be leading the first 5i50 in Europe and my first race back after having my 5 month old daughter Savana I was pretty
pumped.

I managed to hold Radka on the 1st lap of the run, feeling surprisingly good running off the bike. Lap two I lost 15 seconds which still left me 1.15 in front with five kilometers left. Lap three I was starting to feel the day and lost 30 seconds which left me with 45 seconds with 2.5 kilometers to go.... by this stage I was
hurting a lot and was trying every trick in the book to motivate myself to run harder and faster but my body wouldn’t comply!

With half a lap to go Vodickova and I were even. The game was up, for the win at least. In that last 1 kilometer I lost just over 1 minute, there wasn’t anything I could do to go any faster. The race had gone amazingly well, and to be leading the race for a while was a fun rush to have again.

I have to say a big thank you to Bobby Behan from Specialized for backing me before I had even started racing (my Shiv is amazing!), to Craig Percival from Aquashop in Melbourne for making sure I had a good wetsuit, to Brad and Moffy for all your encouragement over the last couple of months, and finally to Tokio Millennium Re and Philadelphia Insurance Companies for inadvertently supporting me.

Fear, pride and vanity…. these are the things that have made

me change my mind a ridiculous number of times whether I am racing or not this

weekend.

Fear that I am

going to embarrass myself! After four years out of triathlon while I was

riding, then a year and a half away from professional sport  altogether to have my daughter Savana, I have

to admit I am worried I am going to be so far out the back people will say ‘who

is she kidding thinking she will be able to come back now after all this

time’.   Not to mention the fact I have only been

getting in 10-15 hours of training a week so I certainly don’t feel prepared.

Which brings me to me next worry…

Pride.  This is certainly a big one that is holding me

back. Pride because for almost 12 years I have been racing professionally, and

for most of the time quite well. The Oxford Dictionary defines pride as “consciousness of one's own dignity” and

even while writing this I have to admit, I am extremely fearful of loosing my

dignity! But as the proverb says “pride

comes before the fall”.  If I just

forget about all my hang-ups … it would be kind of fun to get out there and see

where I am at.

And finally…. Vanity.  Now this is perhaps the most ridiculous of

the three, but I have to admit I don’t feel ready to run around in a swimsuit

just yet. I know I look  OK for 5 months

post-pregnancy, but honestly, I would love to be closer to my normal

race-weight before toeing the start line.

So! All of this silliness aside, I am racing this weekend.

Let’s hope all of the above prove to be insecurities I am better forgetting about.

After being in Australia for three weeks without any regular help it has made me realize how spoilt I am in the US. I have a nanny/assistant who comes three days a week whose main role is to watch Savana while I ride, but for the hours I am home she helps out with the laundry, and recently she has started taking over the running of the house.

Add to that a nursery at the gym/pool that is open all day where the ladies there adore Savana and vice versa, and running trails that are smooth enough for the jogging stroller, it is not hard at all for me to get the training done I need to do to start racing again. Spoilt, I know.

Here in Australia it feels like I am not doing anything properly- mother, wife, or athlete. I know I sound like I am going back 50 years in time, but I really enjoy making sure our lives are in order- food in the fridge, laundry done, clean house, all our administration up to date…. and without help here I can’t do it all.

The point of all of  this is coupled with a niggling shin, I am going to take a backseat to Tyler’s program once again until we get back to Boulder and I have the setup I need to get back into it properly. I will just fit in the training that works for the day when it works, which for the rest of the time we are in Australia will probably be swimming most days, riding on Saturdays when my Mom can come down and watch Savana, and running when my shin feels good.

Although I was super-excited about racing Tristar Germany111 in May, I don’t want to be in a rush to cram in the training I need to do to race well. Once I get back to Boulder, a solid 10-12 weeks of consistent training and I’ll be much more prepared to start racing again.

Tyler is super-supportive of me coming back to racing, but now the decision is made I can tell it is a weight off his shoulders too (he’s also thinking about everything being done for him again ).  

We are due to be back in Boulder from July onwards so this puts me racing  from about September, probably one of either Cancun, Syracuse or Branson Ironman 70.3’s (all on September 18th), and from there hopefully another 2-3 half-Ironman’s to finish out 2011 ready for a full 2012 season. 

For those who don’t know much about me, I was a triathlete for seven years, a cyclist for four years, and now after a year off professional sport to have my daughter Savana Rose who is now four months old, I am back training for triathlon once again.

My plan is to do Tristar Germany111 on the 29th of May as my first race back. Although it is earlier than I originally intended in that it would only be 5 months after having our baby,  we are planning on being in Europe, and being a 1000 meter swim, a 100 kilometer bike, and 10 kilometer run, it suits my strengths.

However, with my training being patchy at best, and a niggle in my shin (I have a long history of stress-fractures) I am starting to re-think my schedule….. in my experience it is better to skip out on races you aren’t 100% for, and turn up when you are ready to go, no excuses.

My husband Tyler who is also a professional triathlete is in Iskigaki, Japan racing the World Cup as I write this. He is managing a tibial stress fracture too (what a pair we are!) so depending on how he goes there and how his leg feels, we may have to skip out on the European racing we have planned next month and head home and do some races a little later in the season when we are both injury-free and fitter!

My point in all of this is life is pretty different for us. With both my husband and I being professional athletes things change by the moment, and add a new baby into the mix and things are even more transient! Adaptability is key in what we do, something many reading this with a thousand things going on in their lives I am sure can relate to.

Hopefully in my entries to come I can share some of my experiences that are interesting to you.  If you have any particular topics you would like to see here please don’t hesitate to email me on nikkibutterfield@me.com.