Vicky Jones hopes she will inspire another generation of athletes. Photos Laura BagrieVicky Jones loves a challenge.

The sporty mum-of-two completed the Coast to Coast last year and is still buzzing about her top finish in the Challenge Wanaka ironman event 10 days ago.

She was the fifth woman home from a field of 26 in 12.05.52 hours and will now prepare for the world age-group triathlon championships in the Gold Coast in September.

Jones, 38, qualified for the worlds after two great performances in shorter distance triathlons she was treating as warm-up events for Challenge Wanaka.

But it is no accident that she will wear the colours of the national team because she has worked hard, juggling training around precious time with husband Aaron and their daughters Zoe, 8 and Millie, 6, work and running their busy household.

Jones had been competing on instinct in the Coast to Coast and other multisport events like the Hard Labour and Motatapu, but she engaged coach Richard Greer and the help of health and fitness professionals to draw up a plan for the ironman in Wanaka, where she would swim 3.8km, cycle 180km and run a 42km marathon.

Every day since last August she has consulted the training diary on her cellphone, which dictated if she would start her day with a 6am open water swim at Lake Hood or head to the Rakaia Gorge for punishing kilometres on her road bike.

Some days she ran an Olympic distance triathlon while the kids were at school.

It was odd checking the phone now to see nothing on the page, she said, but that will change after a brief off-season and Jones will then prepare for the worlds.

She has qualified for both the sprint and Olympic distance events. They are several days apart and Jones may pick just one to concentrate on.

“The challenge now is to get better. I’m not worried about finishing, more about finishing the best I can.”

Jones said she enjoyed all the triathlon disciplines and paying careful attention to her body and nutrition, with the help of dietician Cushla Holdaway and the team at Modus in Ashburton, meant she was feeling great when she pulled on the wetsuit for the first swim leg in the choppy waters of Lake Wanaka.

Chilling air temperatures greeted Jones when she exited the water with the first group but the day warmed up as the cycle leg progressed.

Looping through Wanaka on the cycle and then marathon run legs, her fan club shouted encouragement.

They were ready with the Moet when she crossed the finish line.

Jones said she did enjoy the champagne, but only after she had followed the recovery steps recommended by her support team.

She said she had learned to pay a lot more attention to biomechanics and training smarter.

Getting her body injury-free to the start line had been a team affair with small, regular adjustments to techniques and remedial exercise and stretching.

Jones also followed advice on eating well to fuel her training, recovery and competition.

She said learning to eat on the move was vital as the race took her 12 hours, and she taped sandwiches, bananas and bars to her bike to provide alternatives to the gel energy shots.

While multisport and triathlons are a test of her physical and mental toughness, Jones hopes her achievements are also inspiration for her own daughters and the children she works with in her part-time job with Sport Canterbury.

Jones said her family had been huge supporters, but she had also been helped by sponsor Darryl Young, from Ricoh, who had paid for her entry fee and provided clothing for competition, training and recovery.

By Linda Clarke © The Ashburton Guardian - 28 February 2018