Just 9 Weeks to go...

With just nine weeks till we take to the start line of the Rottnest Channel Swim 2016, it was back into the water today in the pool. This past week has been more of a rest week for me, I have felt very tired and needed to rest the body more than swim. I have learnt this the hard way before and realised listening to my body is so very important when it comes training for endurance sports. Mind you it is extremely easy to get lazy with your training, but I just knew this week I needed to rest more.

So with another good solid five kilometer pool swim done between shifts at work, I felt great in the water and my stroke rate and turnover showed good consistency as did my interval averages. This gives me a good feeling that I am on target for our next five kilometer open water swim next weekend (27th December). This swim might be a little more nerve racking only for the fact that there have been a few shark sightings up and down our coast, so here is hoping for no sharks and very few jellyfish...

Jellyfish...not my favourite sea creature

 As our pace is going well with our pool swims I hope that it will stay good and consistent in the open water and making sure the body becomes used to good strong and consistent arm turnover. This is part of my swimming I have had to work hard on, and stay focused on when I swim, and today was one of those swims that I could swim almost in a hypnotic state but stay mindful of what my arms were doing and feeling, so as I felt the slow down I was able to speed the turnover back up, and after each break to feed an drink I have always felt myself become slower, but today I managed to keep them turning over at a higher pace.

There is more work to do before we tow the start line in February, with more speed work to be done and lots more kilometers. In between now and then we have Christmas and New Year which can be a busy time at work, and time with the family. Which also allows time in the water, building the body's strength and mental strength as well.

Have a great weekend everyone...

Hayley xx

Its Up To You!!

This quote to the left was taken from Facebook, I have been seeing these over the past few days, as 2015 is coming to an end I know people are hoping that 2016 will be so much better than 2015. Why is this, why do we get to the end of a year and and always think we need the following year to be so much better? Is it because certain things during the year have been hard to deal with, have we lost loved ones, have people we know been diagnosed with cancer, or another illness? Have we or a loved one lost their job?

So why do we think that the following year should be so much better? The hard things that have happened are lessons for us to learn from, to see that we can cope with what the universe puts in front of us. Why should we take away the raw emotions of missing a loved one that has passed? Why should we ignore or try to forget that a friend has cancer and trying to fight, the fight of their life? Why should we forget about the amazing things that happened that year, like the birth of a new child, welcoming a new pet into your family, welcoming new friends into your life. Being on the most amazing holiday that you had. This is called taking the bad with the good. Its called LIFE....

Each year we are given what we can handle by the universe, or whom you believe is there (God, etc). Take some time to remember what you have done and been through this year and be thankful that you have made it through everything that was, and may still be. Its up to ourselves to make the most of our days that we have, the situations we go through, or that are in front of us, are up to us to get through and learn from the lessons that are placed there. We are the only ones that can make the changes that are necessary to be happy, understood, or to understand, to live. So if you haven't learnt that you are strong enough within yourself, you still have lessons to learn.

So whether 2016 is going to be your best year yet, its completely up to you to make it happen, and if there are times that are difficult its all part of living.

Have a great day and live life to the fullest its completely up to you...

Hayley xx

11 Weeks Till Rottnest Swim

With just 11 weeks till the start line of the Rottnest Channel Swim, training is going well, there have been a few mornings where I have not wanted to swim and have had to push myself that little bit harder to stay positive. Just being tired and having a long standing injury that needs surgery has its nights of keeping me awake and uncomfortable.

My training partner and I are in what I call a rebuild time, where after doing the qualifying 10km event in November we have had a little rest time and now we are into week three of a rebuild back to longer distances with better consistency of pace. We managed a good 3200m session this morning, in the local 50m pool and I can say its good as it helps with acclimatizing to cold water. This outdoor pool is not heated and in set in rock so it doesn't warm up even in the middle of summer when we have had 40+ degree (Celsius) days. So as we come closer to Christmas, things get a little hectic with work and sorting out family get together's, its still important to get as much training in as possible.

We have come up with an awesome and hard session just after Christmas of swimming for five hours in a pool. Now this is being done for a couple of reasons, time in the ocean will be hard to get our paddler(s) organised and our work schedules as well. So with being in the pool we can make sure we feed properly (every 30 minutes) and the monotony of going up and down a pool makes for good mental strength. Plus you don't have the help of the ocean current to push you through the water, so in a pool its you doing all the work.

 So five hours in the water. I haven't done any more than four hours before, and so pushing the body that little bit more, and further will be amazing, painful, and exhilarating as well. Its finding just how far one can push the body and the mind, staying focused and I am sure there will be moments of zoning out, as I did it again today.

After Christmas and New Year (busy time at work) I am looking forward to catching up with my paddler who lives a couple of hours south of Perth city, so we can have a session and get used to each other and just some time out on the water. Then it will be most of the time in the pool working harder and harder to make sure we are as ready as we can be for the big day

My Mantra When Swimming!

Have an awesome rest of the week and weekend to come...

Hayley xx

Strong Enough...

Eating disorders are estimated to affect approximately 9% of the Australian population. (National Eating Disorders Collaboration) 

To put it a bit more bluntly, 9% of 23.510 million is approximately 212319 people, that is how many is estimated to have an eating disorder in Australia. 

Now lets put this up against say breast cancer, as eating disorders are more prevalent in females.It is estimated that in 2015, 15,600 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer (bcna.org.au)

I was one of those 212319 people, I had an eating disorder for 30 years, and as I have posted before, am in recovery and only looking forward to a better and healthier life for myself and my family. My concern now is how can I make a difference with my experiences and hope to hell many other girls and boys don't have to see that anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders is an option to go to for their body image, or coping from life's stressors.  I have read recently that there is treatment for those diagnosed with eating disorders in private and public hospitals, but my question is how effective is the treatment? I understand the necessity for nasogastric tube feeding, I understand the need for medicating patients with anti-depressants, I wonder how many girls and boys are in treatment and not getting to the bottom of "why".

This is my goal. I was lucky I guess with my eating disorder, as I had had it for such a long time and only really came to terms with it a few years ago, I was old enough to know that as much as ED had a hold on me, I needed to get healthy and the need to know why I was letting ED hold me so tightly. I had a way of releasing my frustrations when they arose. I would get a piece of paper, and put a word in the middle (Hayley) and put a box around it, then I would have lines with other boxed that had descriptive words in them that would be how I was feeling at the time, or what was making me angry, frustrated and more. I would take these diagrams to my dietitian and psychologist and we would discuss them. It was good, as I was able to put these emotions on paper and allow myself to feel them.

Feeling emotions was something that didn't set comfortably with me, as I was ridiculed for it as a child by my mother. So in time and taking the effort and being supported I was able to understand and remember I was only human and was allowed to feel these emotions and voice them if I wanted to in the right circumstances.

I guess what I am trying to say is, I would love the opportunity to help prevent the high number of statistics of eating disorders, and they start young, and also be a mentor and support for those who are going through recovery. I was someone who didn't have a support group of others going through the same thing. My support system was my GP, Psychologist, Dietitian, Family (Husband and Kids), also my Boss and work colleague. I know there is a 20 week out patient course that can be done here in Perth, but what is after that, do people in recovery have someone they can continue to have contact with? or is it then on your own?

So I step forward with this goal, dream and hope to be able to help others to see an eating disorder is not the way, and there are healthy options to reach a healthier body image, or understand why you feel the need to take that risk of needing to control your eating so much. I look forward to learning myself from others.

Have a great week...

Hayley xx

A Little Piece Of Me...

Hi everyone, here is just a little video I put together this afternoon.

Hope you all have a great day.

Hayley xx

Stepping Forward...

 The driving force to help others. We go through our own trials and tribulations in our lives for so many possible reasons, at what point can we stop and say, "Hey these are for us to help others". Do we have enough faith, courage, strength i ourselves to be able to continue to to walk forward in our own journey, but also have the availability to reach out to others who want to change their lives for the better and what you or I are experiencing in our own lives can just maybe make that difference for someone else.








What you might see as something trivial that you are dealing with in your own life, others are finding it as one of the hardest parts of theirs to get through, and by just stepping out to lend a ear, a shoulder, a word of encouragement, might just be what that person needs to make it through another day, and start thinking of the more positives that are in their lives that they might not be able to see just at this point.

 I have managed to make a small step to reach for my goal of helping others. It would be a scary step to put myself with others who are going through eating disorders and other mental health issues in the sense that I know how easy it is to become vulnerable to possibly stepping backwards, but that is when you need to have the strength to know that you are there for others and you are strong enough to help those that need the help to move on to more positive places in their lives.

Taking the steps forward everyday to help myself, and to help others around me.

Have a great week everyone...

Hayley xx

The Universe Talks....

 No matter what you believe the universe talks, whether you believe in God, or a spiritual creator, we all have some form of belief system,  for me its the Universe. Like for instance to day, driving, which is usually the time I can dream and listen to the world.

I have dreams of writing, learning and helping others. I believe its true that we do hold the key to our journey, as no one else is on the same journey as you or me. People will walk beside you, but not in your shoes, as you to walk beside others. Our journeys start as a blank canvas when we were born, and as we grow and we are taught by our parents, family, school, friends, lovers, husbands, wives, children and so one, even by our animals (pets) that life isn't easy, its full of twists and turns, and some amazing and exciting events, moments. There are also some sad events in our lives like loosing family, or friends or loved ones to illness, accidents, and so forth. These are the twists that we don't have the control of the steering wheel to direct for these not to happen.

 For me when I am driving and usually when I don't have music on playing to distract me, I have these awesome conversations in my mind, on what I would love to do with parts of my life and how I would do them, how I can just maybe make a small difference in someone else's life. Books to read, information to look at, study to do, photos to take, swimming to do and where. Its almost like being a "free spirit" letting yourself dream so big, that there is this feeling of "have I dreamed to big, and yeah that would be a bit scary", but what is stopping me from building these dreams into a reality, why can't I help others, why can't I write that book that has been in me since high school, when I wrote a story and scored an "A+" for it and I still remember some of that story that I wrote.

So what might 2016 have install for me, more dreams, goals, writing, photography, swimming and yes helping others, I have no idea how just yet, but I am sure just some how it will happen.

What does 2016 have install for you, what dreams are you chasing, what do you want to happen next year, what are you plans for the next couple of years, yes you can talk to yourself about what your heart truly wants for you, its not always about what you mind wants, its what you heart so deeply desires. Find that one thing that you dream of that scares you to your core and go for it, chase that dream, do what is needed to make that dream come true, and like I have heard so many times recently from one amazing person I know that walked 5500 kilometers across Australia to raise money and awareness for Heart Disease and a more healthy life, Never Give Up, Never Quit and if you stumble get back up and keep going, its not going to be easy, if its going to happen the universe will put the right people, moments, events in the line of your path for you to get there, where you are supposed to be.

 Strive, reach, dream, be scared, be positive and you know what, you will do it!

Have an awesome Friday and weekend....

Hayley xx