My Prep with Giuseppe Fedele for My First Ultra in 2023.

The year 2023 was a significant milestone in my journey, as I had recently returned from an unsuccessful A360 attempt and was coping with my father's passing in mid-2022. Finding a secure environment to continue my training was important to me.

Also, being in my 4th year of training now as a mum athlete, I was looking for a sustainable approach to strength training, a team environment and also a gym walking distance to my home.

After running into Max in the park and mentioning that I was preparing for some big events in the upcoming years, we both agreed that Vision would be a good place for me to start training again.

Max, the owner of Vision Bondi, was one of my favourite teammates during track workouts in the past and he was someone I admired and respected as an athlete.

After a quick assessment, Max paired me with Giuseppe Fedele, who ended up coaching me for eleven months. Giuseppe has excelled in progressing me, challenging me, and improving my strength for sports-related events.

Starting in July - My first goal was creating a sustainable gym routine, adding 2-3 days per week of PT sessions (consistency), nutrition chats about protein timing and servings, my age related hormonal structure, my age related injury prevention and working on run specific strength exercises. We had six months to prepare for my first run event, Ultra Trail Kosciusko 50km in Australia.

It took about six weeks for me to condition my body again and then we had twenty weeks of solid work ahead of us.

We focused more on strengthening my back, my arms, and continuing to challenge my core stability. I have started doing back squats for the first time in my life :) Our program was a mix of: pull, push, hinge, squat and single leg strength work.

Giuseppe introduced drop sets which really tested me mentally.

The progress I was making with my running coach at that time and our work at the gym all added up and I found myself enjoying the speed block of training aka track sessions.

My sessions included: 12 x 400m with a max 400m effort at the end of every session on Wednesday mornings, all by myself.  I found myself increasing speed (400m sprints) each week for steady six weeks.

It was so much fun! I'm glad I documented this time in spreadsheets as I will be going back to these days for years to come. :)

It was my absolute favourite time of 2023!

Giuseppe did an amazing job by increasing resistance and challenging me to my limits without pushing me to failure. It was both fun and hard :)

The UTK 50 km was an excellent opportunity to test the distance. I have also learned that I have to work more on my hydration and nutrition. Valuable lessons that will help me prepare for Aconcagua ultra run, which is my ultimate goal.

All roads lead to Aconcagua360 :)

The most rewarding part about showing up for these difficult events nowadays as a mother of three children and a wife AND well into my 40's is that we can still do hard things as we get older! And by doing hard things, we gain confidence to do more challenging work and inspire others along the way to do the same.

My husband was so motivated by my training and adventure racing that he also started gym training and has signed for several swim races in the upcoming year.

Moreover, our children see us both investing time in our well-being, keeping positive, healthy, inspiring, and being supportive parents.

Working with Giuseppe has been amazing. Giuseppe stayed on top of my weekly running schedule, sleep recovery, any stress levels, and my family needs.

I have not missed one session to date (except during flu and covid time), and it’s a testament to Giuseppe’s quality of coaching and also team environment at Vision Bondi PT. Going to the gym is my favourite day of the week - and I feel so lucky to have found such a positive, inspiring and healthy space.

While I might have been the only client at Vision that did not focus on losing weight rather my focus was on gaining muscle - Giuseppe and I succeeded in that regard as well.

I gained +2.4 kg of lean muscle.

And my visceral fat was at only 3 during our training, which was incredible considering I was 45 years old and trying to understand how to best tame my hormones.

Thank you Giuseppe and Team Vision PT

My Speed Ascent on the longest route on Aconcagua & Aconcagua360 journey is documented in my blog post link

Ultra-trail Kosciuszko 2023.