Ironman 70.3 Port Macquarie - October 2015

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 2^nd 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 :)

Ironman Geelong 70.3 - Feb 8, 2015

Righto, it’s been long enough for me to dissect the race that was Ironman Geelong 70.3, 2015.

In short, it was a race that went 98.95% to plan… the numbers were correct, the nutrition was correct, I had a great swim time (for me), a good ride and a solid run.

Pre-race my predicted time in good conditions was 4:20hrs – 4:30hrs… I have been riding and running strongly in training and all pointed to a solid final official hitout before the laser pointer was being aimed wholly and solely on Ironman Australia on May 2.

Setting the scene; no family for this one… race prep for Port Macquarie maybe, when all will be staying at home again… just 2 mates. Andrew “Roo” Mildren and my old man, making his debut as a race traveller sans the rest of the family.

Good company.

The life and times of TA Scott, the Holbrook submarine, Gavin Miller, the big merino’s massive balls… the list goes on. Random conversation, plus the Grill team & Triple MMM one the radio and some Sufferfest soundtracks made the trip a breeze. Arrival… 3pm?

Easy stroll down to register for the race to get it out of the way, and a quick swim… very low tide, squishy slime between the toes, lots of reeds… but got a quick swim in to get the body moving. Good gear. Walk back to the apartment to settle in before strolling across the road for fish and chips.

Saturday morning greeting us with a downpour of rain… nicely timed to steam everything up for a morning ride! Only lasted 5mins though before clearing and there was no more for the rest of the weekend.

40-50mins of very easy riding. Roo, Chris Fuchs, Tim Lang, some fella and I give the course a very quick look over. I’m all good with that as I raced last year… following the actual course map would have been better… but close enough. Easy run after this… 20-25mins easy, then feet up for a bit before fixing up the bikes for check-in.

I’m feeling quite blasé writing this… but seriously everything went to plan. It is a 70.3, I think this was my 12^th race of this distance and I had everything prepared with nothing to buy except for some compression calves which I had forgotten to bring. My only hiccup prior to the race was an elevated Heart rate when putting my arm around Crowie for a happy snap… good man that, actually stopped to have a quick chat before posing for the obligatory photo… oh, that, and the massage I got may have well had been done by Helga the destroyer… a thickly set blonde lady absolutely savaged my calves and quads and left me feeling very uncomfortable the afternoon before the race! Lesson learned… if I do it again, tell them to take it easy!

Hahaha… a warning to the Melbourne IM participants dragging the chain… I do believe I heard she is working the IM, but only starting at 7:00pm… good luck to those people :)

Great to catch up with old mate, Simon Belleflamme and his lovely fiancée Giulia as well. Back from Belgium and here to stay… very gracious of them to accept my poor pre-race dietary habit of McDonalds :) Don’t hate people… just think… fats, carbs, protein, salt, calcium and protein… everything you need for an endurance race of this nature! No, it aint for the every day diet and I barely ever eat it… but I cant ever remember having stomach issues after Maccas either, so it’s winning all round in my book.

Ok… enough of the chat… race time.

Pre race nutrition on the money… followed the plan. Easy… then walk down to Transition.

Carefully and methodically set up the bike and T1/T2. Again… easy. I have a ton of gear in the bag, but barely anything is ever left in transition… where does it all go?

Helmet on the ground with the straps folded out for easy put-on… runners next to that and behind them both is the cap with sunnies folded up inside… and that’s it.

I swim with my race belt already on and a couple of gels already in my pockets… and my cycle shoes are on the bike, rubber banded up for ease of entry.

Done.

The Swim – beach wave start.

After best wishes to Roo and not being able to locate Fuchsy I go test the water before lining up on the second line of swimmers in my Age Group. Normally I would have started front line in this race but my cohorts already waiting for the gun were not giving an inch. All good, I am no superfish so I was quite happy to run and dolphin dive before trying to find some space… and maybe some feet.

Not much to say on the swim… it was relatively calm, although just enough movement to make the turn buoys hard to sight. I concentrated on staying calm myself and holding as good a technique as I am capable of. I thought I did ok to be honest. I grabbed some feet here and there but also felt comfortable and solid throughout with no low points and no moments of “How much longer is there!!”.

No one hit me and my goggles weren’t flicked off.

Swim done in 29:46 according to Multisport Australia. Given I had predicted 33-35mins, I was clearly happy with this.

T1 – wetsuit off in a flash, and chucked. The Aquaman suit was actually a treat to get off and was off to my waist (along with cap, goggles and ear plugs) before I was even out of the water.

Helmet on easy, crab the bike off the racks (as the bar never fits on the Giant Aero bars that well), and run to the mount line… someone bumps me, one of my pedals clips something and bang… rubber band holding my shoe in place comes off…. Only a minor detail… but gee it was a pain in the bum to get my foot in the shoe after that… you see, the Specialized Trivent NEEDS the rubber band… or it needs to be put on when in transition. They are not easy to get your foot in while riding as they aren’t as rigid as most shoes on the top side.

I struggled, I got the shits and the conscious decision had to be made to calm the fck down and take my time.

That’s the ticket… I’m off.

2:14mins – 20^th in the AG in T1… I can do better but it was pretty good seeing as the shoe issue would have been part of the ride.

Ride.

Up out of transition… sitting up, easy gear, high cadence up the hill to the gardens area, before dropping the gears and lighting some fires out on the main road.

A relatively simple course to follow and quite fast in areas. The only hindrances were the one climb out of Transition, which you do twice, one longer elevation on the road out of town, a couple of minute rollers and an unsuspecting breeze in parts. Nothing diabolical though and my bike time… or should I say, the bike time of Chris Fuchs points to this being a fast course when the conditions are right.

The weather was perfect from a sun and temperature point of view. Mid to upper 20’s with cloud cover.

I stuck 100% to my numbers on the ride. It took about 20mins for the HR to drop down into range after the swim and T1, but once it was down I pretty much had it on the money for the entire ride.

I got out of the saddle once or twice to go past a competitor here and there but by and large I stayed aero for most of the way with just a few small patches sitting up… albeit on my drop bars which are still quite low.

Chris Fuchs and Tim Lang caught me at the half way mark… at the end of lap 1. I gave a small burst to keep up with Chris… but no chance I was going to be up to it… he was slaying this course good and proper… so I let him and TL go.

A couple of Roo sightings while out there… but no catch today… unlike the flying Roo in Port 2013 who went past so fast he didn’t even see me!

Lap 1 – 1:14:19 / Lap 2 – 1:15:12 – total time 2:29:35

57secs difference in it indicates I was pretty consistent through I guess… and I was more than happy with my ride by the time I got to T2. Legs were good and ready to run. I had eased off slightly coming back through the park and downhill to T2 and the legs were fresh.

My gear… perfect. No bottles dropped, the XLAB torpedo did its job, the TLR wheels would have rolled to the end of the earth, the helmet had perfect ventilation… no sweat issues whatsoever, and the GPP Tri shirt was as comfortable as it gets. Perfect… no issues is what you want.

T2 – nothing to report… I exited my shoes, re-thought my idea to do a flying dismount and got off calmly and bolted for my T area. Easily found.

Rack bike, helmet off, shoes on, grab cap and run. See Tim Lang exiting transition at the same time and exchange pleasantries… well I did… TL was furious about 2 busted spokes on the ride and could feel cramps in his legs… I ran with him for about a km before he tailed off to re-gather himself.

1:32mins – 4^th in the AG for T2… that’s more like it!

The Run

This is what is was all about for me… well it was all about the ride run combo in that I wanted to pace myself and get off the bike ready to run well… so far so good, it was time to see if I was better placed for a run off than in Forster.

2 out and backs to the left of transition (into town) with an out and back run through the park (up the hill and to the right of transition) sandwiched in between.

The 2/3 of the run on the CBD side was good gear… I held a good pace throughout that section. I lost a little time when heading up into the park area… actually that part of the run stung the legs a little, but as we finished the run in the CBD and the footpath with the crowds it wasn’t too bad.

A highlight for me was having Crowie looming up for an inevitable pass… I tried to quicken up to run with him for a bit (and get a photo opportunity), but I was no chance. Sub 4 pace for me, Crowie was easily down into the 3:30’s or even lower…. Stop it clown I thought, slow down or you are going to ruin your run!!!

So I did… and promptly ran my race.

I don’t recall overtaking too many on the run… but apparently I did… all said and done though, I held a 4:04 pace for the who run with it being sub 4min pace for the first 8km… I had dreams of sub 4 pace… but they just weren't to be on the day. I ran well I thought though and clocked in a good time.

1:25:52 – 8^th fastest in the AG.

Total race time: 4:29:01 – as predicted, between 4:20hrs and 4:30hrs.

http://www.multisportaustralia.com.au/Home/IndividualResult?clientId=1&raceId=1209&eventId=1&athleteId=472130

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/693367091

The wash up

When all is said and done, I had hoped to place high in this race… top 10 was the provisional hope… although one of my big goals in this sport is to finish top 3 in an Ironman event.

In hindsight, the record books show even 4:20hrs is a struggle to get top 3 here… so it probably wasn’t going to happen just yet… it will one day though.

To quote Crowie after Kona 2010: “happy with the performance, disappointed with the result” (the placing). 15^th is nothing to sneeze at though… and neither is 4:29:01… not at all… sometimes you just have expectations though, and on this day, they were not met. I was beaten by others better on the day.

On the whole though, the performance was a cracker from an IM point of view.

I was consistent.

I swam well for me, I rode to my numbers… with great consistency as well… and my run was solid… not spectacular… but very solid and unwavering in the end.

The execution of this race was exactly what I wanted with a 12week IM prep coming up.

I shan’t be getting my hopes up too high for Port Mac… but a good result is possible.

I have the physical and mental tools to get the job done.

I have good equipment which will be maintained as well as I can.

My result on the day will come down to who else is in the field and who can deliver as well as (or better than) I can. I know I will be 100% ready though… and my performance won’t be in question.

Thanks

Huge thanks to all the support I get from my team, Big Sexy Racing and all the great sponsors involved. Too many to name and I may not race using them all, but I certainly train using a lot incl. Zoca Gear, Newton, Bonk Breaker and Ruby's Lube to name just a bare few.

Thanks also to Colin @ TLR Performance wheels for making my race wheels very affordable... and also huge thanks to Pro4mance Nutrition for adding me to the team, thus making important nutrition such as energy gels and protein a lot more accessible.

Very much appreciated.

Last but by no means least, huge thanks to my great friends and family. My mates who I train with day in and day out... always challenging me... I have improved out of sight this season with their assistance so far and look forward to it continuing if possible... AND... my lovely wife and 2 boys (soon to become 3). No chance I could do this stupid sport without their help, assistance and patience. Its a huge sacrifice to let me travel to places like Geelong without them... and again to Port in May while leaving them at home... and I cant say thank you enough. xxx

Baby #3 next... then Onward I march to Port Mac and Ironman Australia 3.0.

Callala Beach Classic 2km / 60km / 15km - December 7th 2014

Again, much like my first 2 races this season, I have approached this race a little blasé… this time though, I think despite the result ie 3^rd… I was found out within my own race.

Gear – spares

Nutrition – gels

Nutrition – hydration

Bike mount

T2

All areas to improve on going forward… or simply to re-focus on.

Hahaha too funny, I arrived on race morning, checked in and saw him… Ben Richardson. Psyched out, gone… any grand delusions I thought I had of winning a race with such low numbers was gone and out the window… my hopes were packed up and halfway home already… Benny Richo, the fella who I could take any time out of on the run in Canberra last December, and the fella who recently crushed Port 70.3 in October.

2^nd Hahaha… actually more of a Bahahaha… hahahaha… aaahahahaha!

After setting up T1 and deciding to go with the shoes on the bike (with the rubber bands again) I was all set. Transition for me now looks remarkably barren to what it has in previous years. I have my helmet ready with the straps out, I have a water bottle, my running shoes, some socks depending on the race… and my running hat and sunnies (and gels if necessary) in a bag or bundle ready to be snatched up and donned on the go.

Anyway, I exit and meet up with the CCTRI boys… Chris Fuchs, Terry Calves Mulcahy, Hayden Cowan and John Young. Fuchsy wastes no time in letting me know Calves is gunning for me… he has to beat me. My only response was to laugh… and point out I couldn’t care less how Calves goes as long as he is happy with his race and I am happy with mine. We are in different age groups… so I’m not racing him at all…

That said… you wave a red flag at me…

The swim

All good from my perspective. 2km, which is not the usual 1.9km for a longer event so it’s hard to compare the swim time with other races...

Never the less, I’m not too perturbed on the watch after the swim these days… I basically only wear it to keep track of my bike heart rate and power and then my run pace… oh and the time of day for an Ironman event… so I cant tell you what it said. I thought it said 37mins something upon exiting, and 39mins when I was getting on the bike.

Official race results will forever show 35:22mins for the swim and 36secs for T1 though, so that’s what I’ll go with. I started the watch about 10secs early but that’s about all I can think of in regards to any discrepancies… the Garmin shows I travelled 3km… yeah ok. I’m not a great swimmer, but I’m not that bad!

All in all for the swim I was happy with my line, my sighting, my effort and my stroke. I’m far from perfect but far from rubbish… all I wanted to achieve was constant effort and I think I did well in that regard. I had my goggles knocked off once, funnily enough on the 3^rd turn of the 2^nd lap… but apart from that, all good. Oops, I put my feet down too early when on top of a small wave coming in… nothing there… cramp in foot for my effort… 1 more stroke, then touchdown successful.

I ran up the beach, wetsuit came off easily… half off and goggles n cap removed before I got to the top of the beach.

T1 was simple. Helmet on, then rest of wetsuit off… squirt sand off feet and go. 36secs is very realistic.

The Ride.

Rookie’esque but not a disaster. Andrew Mildren, you will be shaking your head in a minute…

First off, as I have only done it in a couple of races so far… and I was being very blasé about it all… I stuffed up the rubber banded shoe entry. Stomp, trip, fumble, spinning shoes… I just couldn’t get my feet in my shoes... the bands had snapped and I had fcked it. It took me a few moments of frustration but I finally settled on composure first, foot entry second. Calm down, feet on shoes… away we go.

Theres a short straight before you turn left to head out to the first main turn, so I got the feet in at that point in the first km or so.

I then took the left hand turn and got some speed up before reaching down to tighten up.

WHACK!

A few minute tree roots in this small part and I hit one I think… either way I thought for all money I had flatted within the first 3km… and my front bidon had come flying off… yes that’s right folks… it was my one and only bidon and I hadn’t even had one sip from it yet… and being only 60kms… there were no aid stations.

I stopped to inspect my tyre… as I had flatted on a practice ride the day before… and then then tyre had popped off the rim… so I thought it best to run the wheel around and look for the same thing… nothing. I then rolled back 10m or so to collect my bidon… gone. Lid off… empty.

I rode on. Not annoyed or cranky… it was what it was. Calculations would have to made on how I am going to survive with the result I wanted… with no water.

Bugger it… I just went for broke. If I was going down on the run due to poor nutrition… then I was going down!

I tried to hold as normal a HR and Power that I had intended to… between 80%-85% heart rate… and based on Yarrawonga (40km & 243w) and Forster (90km & 226w), a Power reading of the mid 230’s would have been good enough to satisfy me. I rode to HR though, not Power.

I sat up in the SMC for the uphills and then went to BCR for flat and downhills… and gave every downhill a throttling instead of getting low and rolling. Of course I rolled a couple of small areas for recovery, but by and large I gave it a go. I didn’t expect to ride with Chris F, Benny Richo or even Calves… but as long as they didn’t get too far away I would be happy enough.

Hayden Cowan was my bunny on the bike. 5mins ahead of me out of the water, I saw that I had made decent ground on him after the first lap… which included my stop… so I gave him a run.

On the second lap I felt just as fresh as the first. Again, I stopped… this time for my saviour… a fellow competitors bottle that had also come off just a few km up from where mine did. 500ml green Gatorade bottle about 4/5^th full of water. Done, good price, I’ll take it and get any antibiotics required later on…. I now had some hydration and I hoofed down half of it within seconds as it was quite hot and humid down there in the bush.

This lap was much quicker than the first… momentum, no shoe issues, only a quick stop, and experience of having just raced the first lap as well as my practice lap the day before… I rode this one smarter and chased Haydo down. Not sure he saw me coming or not, but once the pass was made with about 4km to go, he was toast and I didn’t see him as I entered and exited transition.

Just a quick note on the bike course… Calga is the perfect training ground. Not as flat as I had been informed it would be… but no “blood hills” or mooney climbs… just quite a few short pinchy rollers. The flats were either slightly ascending or descending… there didn’t appear to be an flat flat sections apart from right at the start and end of each loop when back in town.

Rookie errors and comedy aside, I was again, happy with my ride. As the time keepers will show, 1:42:50 for the 60km… and as the Garmin shows 1:43:09 & an average Power of 241w with a Normalised Power of 255w. I don’t quite get the gist of Normalised Power just yet… but it is what it is and I will continue to monitor it from now on.

T2 was pretty straight forward again... the delay only in trying to get my socks on for the run whilst standing up… a tactic wrought with the danger of cramping and I could feel the legs weren’t happy.

Why socks? The socks decision is easy… its socks every day of the week for me for anything over 10km and/or if the weather has included rain in the day or so proceeding.

A disastrous Canberra 70.3 in 2011 put paid to running without socks when wet… blisters everywhere. Why risk it when you can spend 20secs putting on socks and not have to worry about it? I train in socks so I may as well race in them!

The Run

I was looking forward to the run… 15km SHOULD be doable in under 60mins if I am on.

While I started out well enough, I knew pretty early that I wasn’t ON. A bit of dehydration from the missing electrolyte water on the bike, and I had also made the blasé decision not to buy more Powerbar gels or UCAN for this race.

I have been racing on Powerbar gels for the most part of races with my high caffeine Zipvit’s as boosters to start and end the race… 160mg of caffeine in each Zipvit, I take them normally before the swim, then one before the run… and I have one spare for emergencies…. For this race though, it was all Zipvit. One prior, then 3 on the bike meant I was pumped full of Blackcurrant and caffeine… and it got to me… no UCAN on the bike and the gels were bubbling away inside. I didn’t feel sick or anything, I just didn’t have the get up and go that I would expect. First km I was out of the blocks in sub 4min pace… then the 2^nd km I was over… then under again for the 3^rd km… then over for all bar the last 3km after that.

Looking back, it was a mental thing. I really put it on the line at the end of the race when I was chasing Calves Mulcahy… why hadn’t I put it on the line earlier… maybe I didn’t have it in the legs and I would have blown up? Maybe I was just being beaten by myself… either way I wasn’t feeling great and I just kept plugging away as best I could.

Half way through the first lap I did see Hayden Cowan had made some ground back… gees I thought… he must be doing some fast kms… I plugged away… I kept it at around 4:15 pace or under for the most part.

Lap 1 of 2 done, John had already told me Calves was 7mins up at the start of the run and I could see despite my struggle to get going that I had still cut about 3mins into him… so I perked up a touch... only momentarily though.

10.5km in, we passed and I was still only just hovering around 4:15pace for the most part… I was just starting to feel my legs a little though… the Endura drinks and water at most aid stations seemed to be helping a great deal… I past Calves … he still had about 3mins on me… maybe a little less. I let him know he should be able to hold that advantage with only 4.5km to go… I plugged away though. I got to a turn point after seeing Calves and saw I was only 2mins behind…

Balls to him, he’s going down!

I mentioned I had started to perk up… I navigated 2 short trail sections before coming to a long straight road part where you can see all and sundry in front of you. Competitors coming out… and competitors ahead of you. There you are Calves, its on.

Sub 4, sub 4, sub 4…

Got him with 1.2km to go.

A low five from Calves as I passed him and I hammered it all the way home in order to hold off one other fella who wasn’t too impressed with me overtaking him.

Could I have run faster? Not sure to be honest. I could have tried and died… or I could have possibly made it. I wasn’t feeling great though, didn’t think it was there so I didn’t push. Not happy with that to be perfectly honest… it was only 15km… 1 hour… I would like to know I am someone who will go for broke whether I am pushed to chase someone or not. Who is to say I would have run that fast without Calves to chase?

The man in the mirror knows though that I did cross that finish line absolutely spent. Absolutely knackered… doubled over, towel draped over me and someone getting my timing chip off for me… I was done.

Anyway 59:05 for the run. On face value it’s a sub 4min run for 15km… on the data though, I wasn’t 15km… it was short by about 600-650m. Not much of course, but not sub 4 pace

As the stats go…

Higher bike Power than expected. Very happy with that benchmark actually. Not sure I had done any races over 200w before this season?

Still 5.5mins behind the Age Group winner, Benny Richo on the bike but I am happy enough with my progress, and my ride was good enough to be 3^rd best in the Age Group.

The run… I got him… got Benny Richo… by 5 secs… 59:05mins to be the fastest runner in the Age Group for the 3^rd race running. I haven’t been totally happy with my running off the bike, but 1^st is 1^st isn’t it.

The wash up / comments

* Time to rest up and recover. As of today, I do not feel like lifting a finger… might even take the 5 days off until Saturday, but by and large December will be filled with adhoc training just to stay fit.

* Focus time… Geelong and Ironman are next. No time for games on nutrition.

* Fix the front bottle cage up… I’ve dropped 2 or 3 bottles off the front on the Saturday rides recently… so why would I expect anything less in a race? Amateur. I went without the xlab aero bottle due to the course and potential spillage… if I am going to do that though, I need a Profile Design P-Cage (the old school cages with the rubber bands) or I need another xlab Gorilla grip.

* I got a flat on my practice ride on Saturday… and snapped my tyre lever. I only had one lever… and 2 spare tubes… meaning I now had no tyre levers and 1 spare tube for the race. I prefer 2 tubes for racing… and of course I prefer at least 1 tyre lever!! Thanks to John Young for lending me a pair of levers. After getting my flat on Saturday, I than had part of the tyre pop off the rim so I finished off my ride with a bump… bump… bump… because I didn’t want to risk losing another tube ie. my last one.

* Practice the rubber band shoe entry. I hadn’t done much (if any) work on this since Yarrawonga.

* Stop being tight and buy the gels I need.

* Buy the UCAN I need…

* …and work on my T2 a little more. If I am going to wear socks, I may as well be quick at it!

Cheers all!

Challenge Forster Half - Nov 10, 2014

Challenge Forster; my first Challenge event… and I’ll take it and run. A new half distance PB and some definite areas to keep working on as I know I can do a whole lot better.

I’ll buck the trend of past reports and make this one a little shorter. Work, kids and training… I just don’t have the time at the moment!

The swim

It was a relatively tight timeframe from Transition opening to race start so I was a little rushed form the get go and ended up being one of the last to leave the area.

Not a worry though as I still had heaps of time to stroll down to the race start and dial in on what was about to happen. He probably wont admit it as he does seem quite relaxed… I picture Chris Fuchs as a caged animal before the race though… very hard to hold down into one spot and if I blinked… he was gone. Small talk only, no handshake… as (as I said), I blinked…

No real fanfare before the swim. A moment silence for Jackie Gallagher, then into the water. The Pros took off 20mins before the Age Groupers… no gun, no horn or whistle… they were just off!

After 20mins the Age Groups went off in 2min intervals… again though, no bells or whistles… just a bloke yelling out 20 seconds, 10 seconds… GO! Hard to hear with ear plugs in J

New habit by me of starting the watch 15-10secs earlier so I am ready when the race starts… done… and I take off.

Surprised I held a good sprint for longer than normal, but also… it probably burnt a few matches and I eventually slowed to my normal pace before too long and the faster swimmers pressed on.

Race report for swim is straight forward… I swam.

It was an uninterrupted swim and uneventful… my only issue was that I wasn’t fast enough to hold the fast swimmer’s feet… and I was too fast for the bucket-listers… so there was little or no opportunity to draft and I did all the work for my swim on my own whilst having a turkey or two use my feet for assistance. Waste of time if you ask me!

Anyway, I was happy with my swim. I held good technique (in my opinion) for 75%-80% of the time with only a few moments where I realised my stroke was pants. Strong catch, head down, pull from the hips… and feedback from Monsieur Brett Isaac… don’t wag like a dog. Done. Still slow, but improving.

T1 – Boy this new Aquaman wetsuit came off like hot butter… it melted off so easy! Basically a zip up and the arms just slide right out… legs did likewise as soon as I stopped. Socks on, helmet on… gone. Everything was already loaded on the bike and ready to go. After IM Melbourne, I was happy with that.

The Bike

I headed off out of town. No idea what to expect. As we (me and the missus) made the conscious money saving decision to drive up on the Saturday and bring the boys with us… there was just no time to do any recon apart from look at course profile charts to see what sort of inclines and flats were coming my way. In the end, I just took it as it came and apart from the climb out of Port Macquarie, I ended up likening the course to be very similar. A few ups and downs and a road surface that gives you nothing.

I must stop here and give thanks to Peats Ridge for the road surface practice… still not fun… but used to it form training.

Heading out of town had a slight head wind which made for fast times. I kept a high’ish cadence and reasonably high Watt count… around 80%. I kept my head and let some people pass me with no issue and I passed plenty as well… high cadence, decent power… I actually left plenty standing still. No idea who was in my age group or not though. The only issue I did have on this first part was my Heart Rate… the damn monitor was reading 0 from the start. I undid my top and adjusted the strap to get it working… but then I couldn’t do my top back up… so eventually I stopped for a few valuable seconds and did my top up. Done… I pressed on. A minute later I noticed the Heart Rate was 0 again… waste of time and effort… oh well… sh*t happens… move on. Some numbers eventually started showing… and then before long, they looked realistic enough to use… so I did.

Coming to the turn point I noticed Tim Lang… then Pete Mauro… then Chris Fuchs heading back the other way… sh*tballs I thought… they aren’t actually that far in front of me? Not that I was chasing them as they started before me and they aren’t in my AG, but I figured they’d all be at least 10mins in front, maybe more… I think Chris was at about 7mins at the first turn, with Langy at 10mins. Going well then.

After the turn, there was a coming of inclines and wind. Not heavy wind… but definitely more than the wind you get from half the Gosford Velodrome… and the wind you get when you hit the higher parts on Peats Ridge… but nothing too drastic. It WAS a pain though as it felt like it was channelling direct down the road with no deviation… so… a headwind to the 2^nd turn it was… and it was annoying.

I lost some patience here… I lost concentration and got out of the saddle a few times on the inclines and on the straights when it felt like I wasn’t moving very fast at all. Fail… no doubt I burnt some matches here and would pay later.

Why? Quite simple really… I was stranded and riding solo with no one in front of me to chase and people coming from behind really pushing hard to catch me… so I lost my patience and tried to stay out in front. I didn’t go crazy though and was more than ok by the time I got to the 2^nd turn @ 50kms.

Heading back away from town again and the wind from behind made for some more fast riding… back to form. Cadence had dropped a little and Power dropped a little but I held my own. I did push the pace a little again to try and make some ground… but I never ventured over 80%-82% Heart Rate… and if I did hit the mark, then I’d back off and let it drop a few beats.

3^rd turn… time to head all the way back to town. Relentless headwind that was now a fair bit stronger = angry Smithy.

I tried to keep my head but some clowns finally cracked me and I put some heat on. I still didn’t go over my heart rate limits… but I toed the line for a very good chunk of the last 15 to 20kms, chasing down any bunny in front that would let me. One clown… a Team Trihard clown in his yellow kit was about 250m in front… I was reeling him in slowly until he gave up. He started looking over his shoulder like a good Sprint rider at the Olympics nd sat up and waited for me. When I passed him he dropped the hammer to keep up and sat on my wheel… within millimetres of me. I tapped my brakes a few times, I wandered side to side to expose him… h*ll, I even dropped the hammer and sprinted once or twice to shake him… but each time he responded and just sat there… I seriously could have sworn he was a much seasoned MDSS cyclist just doing what they do best! For about 8km I towed this weak as p*ss clown back to town. The Police passed once and he slowed down… only to speed up again once they’d passed (as if they were going to arrest him for cheating)… and finally the TO motorbike came from the other direction… I thumbed to them about the clown behind me… and I never saw him again… actually… I saw him on the run and he was toast… a mess.

I swore a couple of times, more under my breath… and gave him some words of “encouragement”, but I doubt he heard anything… more for my own frustration to blow off steam. I was working very hard in that wind with zero cover… and it annoyed me.

Hands up… lesson learned. This fella got me. I lost my tempo, technique and head… I have little idea what numbers I was putting out here but I am sure they were probably over my limit.

All aside, I finished off the bike in decent shape. My average numbers in HR and Watts indicated I hadn’t overplayed my hand… but I am sure I had a few little burners in there that were not needed… overall though, I don’t think I burnt more energy here that I could have saved on the run, so its quite possible all things ended up equal.

T2 – Cant really remember it to be honest… just got off bike, the brakes got could when I was racking it, but by and large I racked, got shoes on and ran… cap, gels and sunnies in hand.

The run

A special note for bindy patch that was T2… wowzers. I am not sure there was even grass there despite it being green!

I started off running well. Just over 4min pace as I settled into km #1, this became 3:30 pace for kilometre 2… yes, yes, that was too fast… so I slowed it down consciously to 3:55 pace… I did this for a couple of kms before I came to the conclusion this was not a 4min pace course for me… at this point in time in my training. Heart rate was climbing and I was feeling the pinch. Later in the season maybe, but I wasn’t quite ready. It was my first time doing this course so I had no idea what to expect really… in the end though… after 1 full lap, I settled on holding my early sub 4 pace advantage and using that to go sub 90mins for just the second time in all my 10 half iron distance races. I had a few moments where I slowed on purpose on the incline but I always made sure I made up for it on the flats and declines. By now, I knew who I was racing and chasing and I managed to hold off everyone and chase down all bar one that I could identify as being in my Age Group. I actually thought I caught the guy who came second… but it ended up being mistaken identity as his name appeared above mine in the results.

The run hurt and I gave it what I had. I had hoped to finish off with a few more sub 4 min kms but when I applied the gas… there was just nothing left in the NOS tanks though. What have I got to complain about though?… absolutely nothing. Sub 90min run, I even heard one person in the crowd up ahead say “hey, here comes that fast runner again!”, which was good to hear…

I raced a fair half distance PB… and my highest pacing at a race of this size ever. I’m stoked. 2 medals and away we go :)

From the Garmin:

Swim - 28:10:00

Bike - 2:28:38 / 226w

Run - 1:29:46

T1 & T2 are included.

226w is the highest Watt count I have had in a Half distance race or above.

My run split was the fastest split for the 35-39's AG.

Extra notes:

Challenge – Race brief was listed as 1 hour… and it went for 55mins. Take note Ironman… this is how to be considerate to families and stick to a timeframe.

Take note also Challenge, your race brief could actually be done in 5mins… 50mins of Pro panel interviews, while interesting, could be done as an optional extra to the race brief… and you shouldn’t advertise a lucky door prize to win a race entry to Roth, or a wetsuit if you aren’t going to do it…

Post race Presentation… in a regional town… with 95% of the people competing waiting to go home… do we REALLY need to wait for everyone to finish? Yeah, it’s a 50/50 call and I understand why… however just 1 male pro waited for it, and 2 females. Probably about 80 people all up… at best. Long day, we waited… then left as soon as I got my bronze.

Nutrition – XLAB aero bottle on the Forster roads… my bike and knees were COVERED in UCAN (which looks like milkshake) and electrolytes. The only time I got a bidon from the aid station was to get a bottle of water to spray it all over my legs!

Energy-wise was pretty spot on (although maybe a little more hydration?). I boxed on to the line solidly with no dip in energy… my only failing was a loss of concentration on the bike where I burnt power needlessly and needed a moment to recover and I had no final extra gas to get me over the line at the end.

I do make note, and I think I have said this before… Powerbar Hydro gels… they come in Orange or Cherry… and both are disgustingly sickly sweet. I hate the taste while racing BUT, they don’t give me stomach issues AND they are full of sodium so I have no need for salt tablets. I will be looking in earnest for a substitute though as they just aren’t nice!

Timing chip! – Time to get me a personal timing chip holder. My chip just wouldn’t do up properly from the start… the Velcro strap was just 1cm too short and it was flapping about. As a result, by lap 2 on the run I noticed there was no beep when I when over the time split carpets…

All failings aside, I hereby give absolute full credit to the Challenge crew for not once insinuating anything about my race… apparently it came off during the swim as they had no times for me at all apart from starting the race? They wanted splits so they just took down my Garmin times and used those. I offered to email anyone who might need them, the maps from my race… but there was no need. Full trust in the competitor… hmmm… a note for next time maybe? Hahaha… I jest of course.

So to anyone looking at my splits in Multisport Australia… the T1 and T2 times are pure fabrication. I would suggest you even swap them around as T2 was 100% faster than T1… but I guess I just gave them my Garmin splits and they worked it out on average. Either way… who cares… 3^rd.

Onward? – Keep working on all 3 basically.

Swim is coming back after a big drop in form, strength… and enthusiasm. I’ll keep working on this leg my way for now BUT essentially I know very well it is the big difference between me being a strong competitor… or a race winner.

I will be continuing my current bike schedule of 4 rides a week (2 turbo, 1 Peats Ridge + 1 more) and of course, I need to keep building my run into an Ironman weapon...

I can easily identify a few areas on yesterday that I can improve on… so that’s the goal… one step at a time.

Short report… who am I kidding.

Next stop, Going family camping for the Callala Beach Classic in December (2/60/15)… then rest.

Yarrawonga Mulwala Multisport Festival - Oct 19, 2014 VIC State Championships

Yarrawonga, in short; beautiful little place. The missus and I immediately regretted not taking the boys down, or at the very least, Eli.

Small wading area concreted off from the lake, a thousand little playgrounds, fishing spots, ice cream shop, lolly shop… then 2 x jumping castles and a BBQ at the race compound… all perfect for 3 or 4 days with the kids.

We will definitely be going back there, if not next year to defend my 2^nd place, then the year after J

To the race:

Transition opened @ 6am, I arrived at 6:15am… easy to park nearby and I strolled straight in. Beautiful… no stress.

Numbered spots in transition… even better. No need to worry about where the best place was to put my bike and plan my entry / exit strategy. I always prefer the pre-numbered transition; it just removes another thing to worry about… set up camp only to second guess yourself while walking out…

I committed 2 rookie errors here though. Nothing major… just rookie.

1. I didn’t bring 2 pairs of footwear… or even thongs to exit with. Wore my runners, which I inevitably have to leave in transition… then had to exit in bare feet. Pet hate of mine… as a good soccer coach once told me “Your feet are the tools of your trade… there’s no excuse for cutting your feet on glass, sticks etc… anyone seen not wearing shoes won’t be playing that weekend”… so I have worn shoes ever since. I have thongs but rarely wear them. Shoes. The missus tells me not to be so silly sometimes… but… shoes. End of story.

2. Secondly, I re-tied my runners… elastic laces yes… but they were now infinitely harder to get on as I do like a snug shoe to begin with. I tried a couple of times to get the right tension back but I eventually pulled the pin and left them tight. When it came to the run, I got them ¾ on, then a quick stomp was all that was required and I was off… slight delay only… but rookie none the less.

I also left transition is one question… the guy 2 spots down from me had two small cylindrical pieces of wood on his towel… about the size, maybe a touch smaller, as the toilet roll cardboard when you get to the end of the roll. There was nothing more or less to them… just two pieces of wood. No handles, no dimples, markings etc… just wood.

Why?

The swim

Herded down to transition after the race brief. I had heard the water was 16.8 degrees the afternoon before so I was a bit nervous to get in. Foot in… fine… Dive in… not fine. Freezing.

Freshwater, very feint current… murky, but not dirty like Lake BG in Canberra. If it were a horse race track I would have rated it “dead”… no buoyancy from the salt of the sea, freezing and no current… all arms and kicking required here seeing as my technique is not even close to that of a swimmer! Can’t swim and got no assistance?... Bring on the brawn.

I swam, I tried to concentrate on technique, I concentrated on sighting, I tried to stick on toes where possible… but at the end of the day blunt force doesn’t match good technique so I still got out of the water with a slow time. The Garmin for a brief moment had declared my swim was a disaster… but after that brief moment I remember I had started the timer 3mins early in order to avoid wasting time when the gun went off. Start the Garmin, put the wetsuit sleeve over it and I’m good to forget about it until the ride. That was the plan.

27mins 30secs or thereabouts… as I said… slow. Not 2011 Vegas slow… but slow.

Out of the water and up the boat ramp… feet freezing.

Wetsuit off pretty smartly, race number on, helmet on and I’m good to go. I’m happy with the transition as nothing went wrong apart from a slight fumble getting the race belt done up and I made a last second decision to put my socks on as my feet were frozen! No way would I normally do that for an Olympic Distance… All else went to plan including my rarely tested rubber bands on the shoes tactic. For the uninitiated, I used 2 rubber bands, one per shoe. Threaded through the loop at the back of the shoe, one band goes around a bolt on the front derailleur; the rear goes around the quick release skewer. Make them tight enough to hold your shoes horizontal (so you can slip your feet straight in)… if they are tight enough, they then simply snap when you get on your bike, feet in and start pedalling.

Worked perfect. Thanks Youtube.

The ride

After driving the course the day before, I scrapped the recon ride. Fast, flat, low rollers… pretty uncomplicated. On the way out would be the tougher section so the plan was to put the Power on for the first 20km at least, and then look to maintain on the way back… albeit I expected Power numbers to drop on the way back with more downs than ups.

Ride went to plan apart from one small section about 3/4 into the leg. I had 2 gels strapped to my top tube and one wouldn’t come off… I lost concentration and I don’t know why but it threw my rhythm for about 5mins before I regained composure…. Remembering this isn’t Ironman, so 5mins seemed like a long time at the time!

I passed a boat load on the way out and only a couple passed me on the way back… so I am going to give it a pass mark. I would have liked to have gone just a couple of minutes quicker but overall I rode to pretty much what I thought my ability was.

Approx 1:02hrs for the 38.8km. Cadence was over 80 easily and Power was 243w. First 20km had the Watts @ 255w… which I was very happy with… as I said though, more downs than ups on the way back so it was harder to keep the high number… and possibly above my current ability anyway so it’s something to work off going forward.

T2

Very funny. I dismounted perfectly… not quite a running dismount but fast enough, it wasn’t until I started running though that I noticed something very weird… I couldn’t feel my feet!!! At all. If I were a blind person I would have sworn I was running on stumps! I noted it to Amanda as I ran past her on my way into T2 and got the laugh it deserved.

Racked bike, couldn’t feel feet so I struggle a little to get my tight shoes on… grabbed my hat and sunnies and ran. As practiced many times at Adcock. I think the official T2 time was quite poor but there was some running involved and no, I still haven’t mastered my T’s so it remains a work in progress. I was reasonably happy with this one though.

The run

Out onto the run and something dawned on me immediately… these clowns around me are all SPRINTING out of T2! Seriously, I was being bumped and barged by whippets all going around me right at the start within the first 100m or so…. what the? I ran out at 3:45 pace so I wasn’t exactly crawling… ok, this could be an interesting run coming up if I am this slow compared to the folk down here in Victoria!

Not to worry… a Pro or Open runner ran past me at the 750m metre mark (on his 2^nd lap); he was running 3:10 pace and I thought I’d have a crack. I grabbed his heels (not literally) and ran with him for the next 500m just to pick up my pace, find my rhythm and see what everyone else was really doing once settled in. Most people don’t think of drafting on the run… it could actually just be a psychological tool I use to find my race pace… but I don’t mind giving it a go every now and then though. 500m with this fella was enough though and I let him go as it was just too fast for me… I was happy enough though, I was able to slot in and hover around the 3:35 – 3:45 pace range quite easily after that exertion.

Lap 1 done, I still couldn’t feel my feet but I had managed to overtake everyone from earlier except the fast fella that I’d drafted off…

From here on in its just a matter of holding form and speed and counting down the distance and time… it hurts for sure, but that hurt period has a finite end in sight and it’s one that isn’t far away when you really think about it. Seriously… 5kms to go… I’ve done 1000 efforts longer than that in training and every single one of them has been uncomfortable… and I had lived to tell the tail… so it’s just a matter of doing what I do. I run. Fast feet, lift knees, keep core strong, keep head up… hold it. Hold it. Hold it. Pick a bloke up ahead… run him down… pick another bloke… run him down… so on and so forth for the last few kms.

6.5km in… I can finally feel my feet! Beautiful I thought… now I can think about the way my foot is landing. It may seem pedantic to some… but I know I can’t swim to save myself so I may as well be able to run! :)

The last bunny I chose to run down was a little more stubborn to catch, I passed him with less than 500m to go and broke him. He ended up about 200m behind at the end… perhaps he stopped to hug a loved one? I crossed the line and the line announcer (to my great surprise) said I was 3^rd in the age group… and he was 4^th. Wow, didn’t expect that.

I turned around to him and said with a laugh and pat on the back, sorry mate I didn’t realise we were that high up the list… he asked what I meant so I told him I was 3rd and he was 4^th… he looked up…  “ahhhh you bastard!” (or a word to that effect) he said with a laugh…

All’s well that ends well though; Line announcer got it wrong. I was already chuffed with third, but it turned out it we were 2^nd and 3^rd… I’ll take that.

High 37mins for the run... officially 3:45 pace average. Done. As predicted.

The real reason Amanda came to the race...

Fun for all. Enclosed waterside swim area and fun area for the kids

Friendly atmosphere at race HQ

Lake Mulwala... very eerie as you drive into town. "Man made lake". Formed by putting a dam in.

Ready to roll.

Thanks Peter Robertson.

Big Sexy Racing gets its cheesy podium shot!