Disappointment?… Satisfaction?… a waste of training?...
simply not quite good enough?
Wow… what a long build into Race #1 of my 70.3 World
Championship qualification campaign. All through winter… training long and hard
(but not too hard)… staying consistent… injury free apart from a few little
aches and pains which are expected… I trained as well as I possibly could.
Such a long build did take its toll at one point though. 3
little boys, a full time commuting job and the process commenced to try and
sell our house. I had my hands well and truly full and eventually it took a
toll at about the 8 weeks to go mark where I started to feel a little run down
and unmotivated. Sure, I was still hitting my target numbers in training… but
it was taking so much more out of me to get there and one threshold run a week
was starting to take 3 days to recover from. This is not normal for me. Am I
fatiguing or just getting older?
Lesson learned… too much Christopher! Too much. If I am
going to keep up that schedule I need to be getting at least 8 hours sleep a
night… and that just isn’t possible with all that I have on my plate. It just
doesn’t fit in mathematically so something has to give.
Anyway… a few lighter weeks to freshen up and I was back. 3
good solid weeks followed by a 2 week gradual taper and I was good to go for
this one. Confidence back, ready to roll.
After hitting the velo early on Thursday, it was up to Port
Macquarie with the whole tribe 4 days before the race… plenty of time to settle
in, give the boys the attention they deserve from Daddy and get my gear ready
slowly.
Friday – no training. Family time + get registration out of
the way.
Saturday – 45min pedal and a 20min trot with Shane Chamings
to get the legs moving again first thing in the morning before heading down to
the beach to play with the boys. Standing in the ocean was fantastic on the
legs… piggy backing my eldest nearly 2km back to our apartment… was not.
All good. It was a much busier day that I would prefer for
race eve… especially in a hot sun… but I was ok at the end of the day. I
fuelled up and put the feet up. I woke a few times during the night as is
traditional pre race… but I had gone to bed early enough to be able to wake up
feeling good and refreshed. Not stiff, sore or tired in any way shape or form.
I took my time getting ready then headed into transition. I felt good… and
ready.
Any nerves I had were soon eradicated by catching up with
Shane Chamings first, followed by Clay Murphy, Brett Isaac, and the infamous
Allen Pearson. Good banter and chat… taking our mind off the race to such an
extent that we nearly missed the start of our race… diving into the water with
less than 2mins before the start and 100m to swim to get to the start line. I
suspect the starter held his gun slightly though as I had plenty of time to
swim up to the group and then move my way to the front of the pack.
The gun goes and I’m off!
I held good arm speed for a good few hundred metres… which
was a surprise to be honest. I’m not a great swimmer by trade but the arms kept
going. I started to see a couple of early thrasher’s slowly drop back so I held
onto my pace for just a little longer so I could settle in front of them and
still hope to be at the tail of the faster guys.
Success… I think?
I didn’t feel any great current while out there… but it had
to be there, as all things being equal over all my 70.3 races, this was a swim
PB for me… easily. I have swam faster in a 70.3, but that was waaay back in
2011 at Ironman 70.3 Yeppoon which is just a straight 1.9km swim parallel to
the shore and we had the current the whole way… so for me to swim 27:59mins was
fantastic!
Shane and I had our pre swim predictions… 36mins for Shane…
32mins for me. So the plan was for Shane to try and sit on my toes for as long
as possible and see how he goes. If he could pass me and let me drag for a bit
then great. I think Shane did start on my toes but within minutes we were
swimming side by side for quite some time. I did lose him by the half way
point for a bit however he popped up again right near the finish and only ended
up exiting the water mere seconds behind me. Great swims by the both of us!!
T1 – smooth. 2:07mins to get my wetsuit off and onto the
bike. Looking at other T1 times, I am not far off the mark at all. 1:57mins is
the fastest I have seen so far.
The bike… This is the story of my day right here and now.
To put a qualifier on the bike leg… I have worked hard on
this over winter. I’ve been ultra consistent in getting my sets done, I have
upped my Power… I have even experimented with chain rings and gear ratios to
try and get just that little bit more out of my body’s strength.
I went into the race with an 11-28 cassette to combat the
rolling hills and the even more infamous Matthew Flinders hill. I also went
into the race with O-Symmetric chain rings after about 10 weeks of testing them
out. Noisy bastards they are, clunky to get used to at first, difficult to
change smoothly from big to small chain rings and vice versa… but boy are they
powerful and smooth on the downhills and flats. Uphill was tougher than
expected… but all in all they seemed like the perfect weapon for Port.
Wrong. Insert here; lesson 2. I am not Chris Froome. I
cannot just do as I please on the bike and expect it to work.
All going well, I head out of the CBD easily… spinning up
the hill and keeping it simple. Dean Waterman, young whippet of the 18-24 AG
goes past and motions for me to keep up... he’s cruising up, looking very
comfortable and primed for a cracker of a ride!
Don’t fret though lad, I aint going anywhere… just wait til
I get to the top J
Up to the top of Flinders and down I go, descending into
Lighthouse Beach. Flying. Shaking, rumbling, bumping, jarring all the way
through… man that was rough this year! I seriously didn’t recall the roads
being that sh*t through there… ever… but it was and I just sucked it up and
ploughed on through.
I turn left at the big roundabout at Bonny Hills and hit the
small downhill that heads toward the golf course… I see the rise up to the bend
ahead and I decide to drop back into the small chain ring so I can roll up it
before hitting the Ocean Road with full throttle.
FAIL. If there is one thing to note about O-Symetric rings,
it is that you CANNOT go from big to small or vice versa with ANY pressure on
the stroke/pedal action… you have to back of and gently move it over or it
comes off… without fail… every time.
I had almost perfected it in training and was very
comfortable with the process.
This was not training though and all did not go to plan….
Off it came. It teetered for a bit and I tried to reach down and save it, but
alas it finally dropped off completely and I had no choice but to say bye bye
to Dean and Co and I pulled over to fix it up.
All fixed and off I go.
Out of the saddle to get speed up and I powered over the
rise before settling back down… phew I thought, that was a bit harsh, quick
check of the heart rate to see what damage I had caused…. Nothing… apparently
I’m dead.
HR is gone… not only that, but Power is gone too… and
cadence and anything else you can think of that you might want if trying to
pace yourself and be sensible. I had time, distance and speed.
Fck it I thought… lets use the speed to its full capacity
and give this thing a throttling. Quick squirt of the gel flask and I’m off….
Or not. Apparently the juddering the bike took going through Lighthouse beach
must have been enough to dislodge the gel flask which I have velcro’d and
fastened onto my top tube. That’s 1.5hrs nutrition gone… fck it, I thought
again… I’ve trained a lot over this prep with no fuel… I can do this. I may pay
for it later… but here and now… I can do this ride.
Hammer time… but shit comes in 10’s apparently because my
bike is now also rattling... the noise is coming from somewhere in the front…
No idea what it is… it’s annoying… but its apparently not slowing me down, so I
press on.
I catch the group I was with my the turn point, which is
approx. 24km into the ride. I then gather myself and head back into town. I’m
surprisingly feeling great. Not fatigued at the effort, the legs are strong
today!
Coming to the end of lap 1, familiar faces are still about.
Over taking here and there in bursts of energy around me, I’m pretty confident
I remained pretty steady in my outputs and only gave a little extra on the
downhills… quite simply because I could and no one else could. I’m sure I would
have been annoying one or two of them…
Lap 2 commences the same way as Lap 1 started… spinning up
the hill. Off they went… all and sundry bowling up the hill and towards Matthew
Finders. Out of the saddle, in big gears, all trying to be the man in front…
and here I am, spinning away and hitting the downhills and staying right in the
thick of it. I’ve got this….
Wrong again. This time on my way out of town I decide I am
going to get in the big ring as soon as I get to the top... the left hand turn
as you head in the direct of Matthew Flinders.
Off it comes again… to the outside this time. Again, it
teeters… but I can’t save it.
I have enough speed to roll almost to the top of MF hill
however I know I am going to have to pull over ASAP before going down… so off I
get again… and off my group goes again L
Quick fix and away I go. As far as momentum goes, I have
lost at least a minute this time… the roll time as I waited for the right
moment to get off… and then the fix time. I jump back on and hammer it yet
again… through the bumps and bruises of Lighthouse beach and onto Ocean drive…
my bike rattling away incessantly now and I am starting to fear I have snapped
or cracked a fork… or the front wheel is going to fall off… something disastrous
anyway!!?? I reach down and feel to see if the front wheel skewer is loose but
it’s all good… so I press on… at full speed… waiting for my bike to fall apart…
Almost identically I catch my group by the turn point… I’m
feeling strong still though so I just think bugger it… I’m gonna keep going. So
I do. I nail that group to the wall and leave them behind... chasing down each
lonely figure in the distance at a time until I get back into town.
Thank Christ that is over. Off the rattling bike I get… only
half my nutrition consumed and I am sure my Watt bombs dropped than I would
have in normal circumstances. I’m all in on this one… and I do the maths.
A 90min run and I am sub 4:30hrs… that’s gotta have me close
to a Q spot… a 4min pace run and I am sub 4:25hrs… surely that’s good enough?
A sub 50sec T2 and I’m off!
Ride time – 2:27:38hrs – conservatively I think I lost 3mins
or more on the dropped chains… however I did go hard to make up the time… so
who knows what might have been?
I start the run with 4:16 in mind… the magic pace number
that gets me under 90mins….
Km 1… tick.. well, close enough: 4:17
Km 2 – tick: 4:08
Kms 3 through 8 – tick
8 ticks in a row but all was not comfortable. I was battling
to hold on, and by kilometre 8… the mere fact I was debating whether a small
surge to stay under the 4:16 pace was needed, I knew I wasn’t going to be able
to sustain this pace! It was killing me.
Incidentally I didn’t surge, but relaxed instead, knowing
that although I was well under my target pace, this was not going to be a sub
90mins run in any shape or form… so I accepted the fact and just ploughed on as
best I could.
I didn’t hit 4:16 again for the rest of the run, but I don’t
regard it as a mentally weak run… a run in which I gave up… because right from
the start of the run I was running above my body’s capability. I knew I
wouldn’t be able to sustain it… simple as that… so I fell back into Thursday
morning Long run pace and got the job done.
I think I overtook maybe 5 people, maybe more… and I know at
least 2 people went past me from the AG… Peter Clark from TriNova was one of
them, so no shame there as I know he can run. As I was catching on Brett, he
had been gesturing that there weren’t many in front of him… maybe 4 at best, but
I was certain there were at least 10 in front based on my race number studying…
Jared Medhurst, the AG winner was a country mile in front.
All in all, my 1:35:14 run was just about the slowest 70.3
run I have ever done… and certainly the slowest I have done while staying in
one piece (ironically, my Yeppoon race also holds a 2nd record… for
the slowest run as I succumbed to sickness and had to walk large sections). I
am satisfied in that I gave it what I had left. The catcher after the finish
line was used and I was helped into the recovery area… still walking I might
add, and in no need of medical… I also noted that there wasn’t many lightning
runs on the day, if any… so my 1:35hrs doesn’t look too bad when compared.
What I do see though… is 4:16 pace would have got me within
50secs of a slot… so for 8km, I was mathematically in it up to my eyeballs @
4:095 pace… but not REALLY in it as I didn’t have anything left :(
Onwards:
The bike is being worked on at the bike shop. What on earth
is that rattle!!
The O-Symetric rings are coming off for now, even though I
think they are better suited to a course like Western Sydney… and back on goes
the Sram TT ring, Sram Red front Derailleur and chain stay to keep that bastard
on!
A new magnet is going on for the Power meter… and the HR
strap is already working again.
I will be super gluing my gel flask to my bike in future…
no, not really… but I will be making sure it is more secure despite having done
3 IM’s and countless 70.3s with the same set up…
…and I will be working on my run… especially my run off the
bike.
I’m not sure how much time I wasted on the bike?... or how
much extra effort I used in catching up?... or how much I needed that lost fuel
in the end?… or if I am even good enough to Qualify off my own merit and not
through the points system?… I’m just not sure about any of it really… which is
a little disappointing and hollow. Have I just wasted all that time training
over winter?
That’s the negative… What I DO know, is that I am now
equipped with the knowledge to make decisions in races, and I know they MAY
cost me in the end. I made some decisions in this race and rolled the dice
hoping I’d pull out a cracker… it didn’t pan out that way based on the end
result… but without data I can’t be sure if my decisions this time cost me. I
have that knowledge though.
My legs today (not sore), indicate I simply ran low on
explosive fuel? Should I have picked up some on course nutrition to fill the
void?... I didn’t feel flat in that regard, so why should I?
I can’t honestly say I would have done anything differently.
I am happy with that… I gave everything I had.
Ironman 70.3 Port Macquarie 2015 officially ends now.
Analysis is over…. Failing all else, I have just had a cracking training
session!… and I can’t wait to go again in 6 weeks time in the heat of Western
Sydney!
Last but very much so, not least... a HUGE thanks to Chris and Erika McDonald for putting up with me and allowing me to be part of Big Sexy Racing! You guys, the team and the whole host of sponsors that help us out are simply fantastic!
ome that I have personally used a lot in racing and training this past campaign are Newton runners, Bonk Breaker bars, OGIO bags and of course the Zoca kits, which are awesome!
Also huge thanks to Pro4mance for the assistance with my nutritional needs, and TLR Performance for making my racing wheel so much more affordable!
Cheers all :)
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