by Nikki Butterfield

This series of articles is aimed at the ‘lifetime athlete’ which is basically someone who has trained 15 hours + a week, for at least 5 years who is coming off a long break or relatively inactive winter, looking to do an Ironman in 12 weeks. I am doing Ironman Utah on the 1st of May and started training 2 weeks ago (see the end of this article for a summary of my training over this last two weeks).

If this is the first time you have read one of my articles for a while it is probably worth skimming over ‘A Long Time Overdue’ and ‘Decision Made’ to make sense of some of the changes.

by Nikki Butterfield, written on February 11, 2010

Three months after writing my previous article ‘A Long Time Overdue’ I have finally made a decision. I am going to do Ironman Utah on the 1st of May, four years after my last triathlon.

I made the decision to switch from triathlon to cycling at the end of 2005 for a combination of reasons: injury, staleness, the fact the bike was my strongest, I could sprint, the desire to be a part of a more dynamic sport, the desire to be a part of a team sport, and more than anything, to be part of an Olympic sport.

by Nikki Butterfield, written on November 30, 2009

Firstly, thank you to CycleOops for being so patient with me. They asked me to write this article in August, and here I am in November finally doing it.

The last few months can surely be described as ‘tumultuous’. As I started to ramp up my training back in July for the World Championships I had a mountain biking accident that put me in hospital for a week (I had a major concussion), got back into training 100% within two weeks of the accident, started my specific race preparation phase (lots of motor pacing, power hills and a ‘Worlds’ diet), started to look and feel the part, then found out I was on the wrong side of the political fence, again. Not fun.

Enjoying some downtime at altitude training camp

by Nikki Butterfield

Well the time since my last article has been ‘eventful’ to say the least. Tyler and I have bought a house in Boulder, made a trip back to Bermuda for Tyler’s best friend’s wedding, moved in to our new house, raced 21 days (Gila, Joe Martin, Montreal, Nature Valley), started my World Championship preparation, went for a training camp up at 10,000 feet (3000 meters), crashed very heavily on my head the day I came back down, spent and week in hospital, re-started my World Championship preparation, and now, trying to catch up on everything that has got on top of me before we leave for Europe!

by Nikki Butterfield, professional cyclist, Webcor Builders Women's Professional Cycling Team

1. Take the time to find a coach that matches your personality, goals, experience and expectations from the relationship……and stick with them.

2. Sit down with your coach (or ‘advisor’) at the beginning of your season and pick out the races that excite you and suit your physical attributes- these are your ‘no excuse’ races. The pressure is on to perform. Everything else is preparation for these key races or helping your teammates achieve their goals for the year. Don’t get caught up trying to be 100% every race.

by Nikki (Egyed) Butterfield

Well the last couple of months have probably been some of the most busy times I have ever had in my life….but also the most enjoyable! Tyler and I were married on the 8th of November in Bermuda (where Ty is from) and then we had a second reception in Australia after our honeymoon in Tahiti. Very fun!

From the World Championships until our wedding I was pretty concerned with making sure I stayed in shape so I was running 8-10 kilometers most days. I am fortunate with such a long triathlon history my body doesn’t mind switching straight into cross training mode without much of an adjustment period.

Last Saturday (September 27), the Women's World Championship road race took place in Varese, Italy. The race was 8 laps of a 17.35 km course for a total race distance of 138.8 kilometers. CycleOps Powered athlete Nikki Egyed rode for Australia and was extremely active throughout the race.

Firstly, a quick background on why I’ve been asked to start writing in this newsletter…..aside from being a ‘CycleOps Power’ sponsored athlete, I am a professional cyclist, and slightly embarrassingly, am very obsessed with my power data. I have worked with David Martin from Australia for almost 6 years now, and recently started to work a little with Dr. Allen Lim. Between the two I am being looked after by perhaps the most forefront sport scientists in cycling.