Been a good couple of weeks training recently with the BMMC boys (and girls). Starting to really enjoy it and finally beginning to see some early signs of feeling good! The running feels like its improving and on the new bike am beginning to feel slightly competitive.
After having a good ride at Perth, it was the NSW Long Course Champs in Forster. Love that place! After a nice morning ride with Prince Donger on the Saturday morning, i headed up to Forster, registered, pitched the old tent and settled down for the night and watched the sun set over the river! Lovely! Race day came after a good night's sleep courtesy of Mr P (Sherro), and his inflatable air bed (that's just me and the bed, not me the bed and Mr P just to clarify) and i woke to clear skies and the beginning's of what was to be another hot race day! To keep it brief, didn't have a great swim about 3 1/2 minutes slower than 2008, had a great ride, about 12 minutes quicker than 2008, but again felt terrible on the run in the hot conditions, coming in 6 minutes slower than 2008. All in all the bike leg helped me to a disappointing 3 minutes quicker on the previous year in 3:41.05.
Two weeks of training and 12km of swimming, 260km of riding and 110km running later and it was time for the Nepean Triathlon. Again, average swim, 1km in 17.42, although that was to be expected with it being a non-wetsuit swim, and then another strong ride, at least what felt like a strong ride until a flat ended my race at the furthest most point on the course from transition! Was really annoyed at the time as there was only about 8km left of the 30km ride and was desperate to finish but the walk back helped the temper cool off before i enjoyed the relaxing process of watching the others come in including The Animal, Mrs Scam, Lady Ga Ga, LL#2 and a fine performance from Sean. Well done all!
This week has been a bit mixed with a birthday in the middle breaking up the prior consistency! Highlights so far have included a PB at the Tri club handicap on Tuesday with a time of 24.39 beating my previous best of 24.51, and another solid effort at the BMMC High altitude training camp up Kadumba pass with a 49.00 climb from creek to finish. Looking forward to the Royal National Park run on the weekend to hopefully take me over 80km running for the week for the first time EVER!!
Thursday, 3 December 2009
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Race Report - ITU Long Course World Champs
Ok i lied, its taken nearly as long to blog again. Its been 3 1/2 weeks since Perth and in that time i've driven home from Western Australia (WA) and raced up at Forster at the NSW Long Course Champs. Both didn't go quite as planned but i did manage to get across Australia in 5 1/2 days.
Training up to Perth had been going well. There'd been some good runs in the National Park, and a few good sprint sessions with Dr Phil and the Animal (and Coburn on one occasion) at Glenbrook oval. I think these sessions will be key to future training. Got a couple of solid rides in too, most notably a solo 115km ride in testing conditions up to the Southern Highlands for the Fitzroy Falls Marathon. Swimming felt ok if not great, but a couple of good 3km swims gave me a bit of confidence going into the real thing. Kms covered during 4 weeks back in Oz leading up to week of race:
Week 1 - w/e 27 Sept
Swim - 9km
Ride - 140km
Run - 65km
Club Race on Sunday
2 - we 4 Oct
Swim 6.5km
Ride 97km
Run 29km
Week included 4 1/2 days rafting down the Colo River (when there was enough water to actually raft).
3 - we 11 Oct
Swim 10.2km
Ride 115km
Run 65.8km
Fitzroy Falls 10km Race on Sunday
4 - we 18 Oct
Swim 6.5km
Ride 208km
Run 55.5km
All in all kms should have been greater and that's something to be learnt from preparation a month or so out from a big race. The week of the race involved heading over to Perth on the Thursday morning at stupid o'clock, and thanks again to Prince Donger for driving me to the airport at 3.30am after no sleep due to staying up all night on the Cool Running website! After covering 12km in 5 days in the pool it was time to taper, although a wetsuit swim in the Swan River gave me a taste (literally) of what to expect on the day which was strong head winds, lapping waves and dirty water. A few runs around Subiaco with Paul Skinner (Dr Phil's Brother in-law) and a 40km easy ride in the middle of the day complemented the tapering. Sherro (Mr P)arrived Saturday morning just in time for the Cox's Plate, which was duly observed at a local TAB much to my delight after a last minute $5 bet on the winner. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and carbo loading.
And so to the race. An 8.20 start for my wave meant the sun had already been up for nearly 3 1/2 hrs. After a few waves we were off for the 3km swim. The swim wasn't as rough as it had been the previous day but nevertheless was still pretty choppy as described by male race winner Tim O'Donnell. “Man, that swim was rough; I was happy to get out of the water, the wind just threw up so much chop you could hardly see where you were going". I hit a wall once or twice but had started off pretty hard but could see the leaders pulling away and decided to maintain a pace i was comfortable with to get through the big distance. Got out in a disappointing 56.45mins, over 10 minutes behind the Age Group leaders. The bike (usually my weakest) felt great! The new bike and a bit of training finally resulted in a ride i was happy with. Some strong headwinds, and kind tailwinds helped me to a 2:19.09hrs ride providing me with a nice platform to run off the bike hard and make up places (places i have usually lost on the bike). Running off the bike had been going well in races over the British summer and i was feeling in fine running form. However, the run was probably the worst 20km i've done for 3 or 4 years. 1hr and 39 minutes later i stumbled across the finish line waving a little British flag to suggest i was delighted with the 35th place Age Group position i later found out i had achieved. That run was hard. Instead of the usual tactical effort i put in on the run to chase competitors down, all i could think about was just completing the race. The temperature registered 32.5C at the end, and the cloudless sky and complete lack of shade contributed to the hardest run i've ever done. Total time for 3km/80km/20km was 4hrs 59mins. 251st overall out of 673 and 35th of 48 in the 25-29 Age Group, my last year in this category.
And so, overall i guess i've got to be happy with representing my country even at AG level (and i am), but its made me more determined to go back and give it another crack. Still lots of work to do on all 3 disciplines, and hope to see continued improvement over the summer tri season in Australia training with the BMMC boys. Anyone up for Immenstadt 2010??
Training up to Perth had been going well. There'd been some good runs in the National Park, and a few good sprint sessions with Dr Phil and the Animal (and Coburn on one occasion) at Glenbrook oval. I think these sessions will be key to future training. Got a couple of solid rides in too, most notably a solo 115km ride in testing conditions up to the Southern Highlands for the Fitzroy Falls Marathon. Swimming felt ok if not great, but a couple of good 3km swims gave me a bit of confidence going into the real thing. Kms covered during 4 weeks back in Oz leading up to week of race:
Week 1 - w/e 27 Sept
Swim - 9km
Ride - 140km
Run - 65km
Club Race on Sunday
2 - we 4 Oct
Swim 6.5km
Ride 97km
Run 29km
Week included 4 1/2 days rafting down the Colo River (when there was enough water to actually raft).
3 - we 11 Oct
Swim 10.2km
Ride 115km
Run 65.8km
Fitzroy Falls 10km Race on Sunday
4 - we 18 Oct
Swim 6.5km
Ride 208km
Run 55.5km
All in all kms should have been greater and that's something to be learnt from preparation a month or so out from a big race. The week of the race involved heading over to Perth on the Thursday morning at stupid o'clock, and thanks again to Prince Donger for driving me to the airport at 3.30am after no sleep due to staying up all night on the Cool Running website! After covering 12km in 5 days in the pool it was time to taper, although a wetsuit swim in the Swan River gave me a taste (literally) of what to expect on the day which was strong head winds, lapping waves and dirty water. A few runs around Subiaco with Paul Skinner (Dr Phil's Brother in-law) and a 40km easy ride in the middle of the day complemented the tapering. Sherro (Mr P)arrived Saturday morning just in time for the Cox's Plate, which was duly observed at a local TAB much to my delight after a last minute $5 bet on the winner. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and carbo loading.
And so to the race. An 8.20 start for my wave meant the sun had already been up for nearly 3 1/2 hrs. After a few waves we were off for the 3km swim. The swim wasn't as rough as it had been the previous day but nevertheless was still pretty choppy as described by male race winner Tim O'Donnell. “Man, that swim was rough; I was happy to get out of the water, the wind just threw up so much chop you could hardly see where you were going". I hit a wall once or twice but had started off pretty hard but could see the leaders pulling away and decided to maintain a pace i was comfortable with to get through the big distance. Got out in a disappointing 56.45mins, over 10 minutes behind the Age Group leaders. The bike (usually my weakest) felt great! The new bike and a bit of training finally resulted in a ride i was happy with. Some strong headwinds, and kind tailwinds helped me to a 2:19.09hrs ride providing me with a nice platform to run off the bike hard and make up places (places i have usually lost on the bike). Running off the bike had been going well in races over the British summer and i was feeling in fine running form. However, the run was probably the worst 20km i've done for 3 or 4 years. 1hr and 39 minutes later i stumbled across the finish line waving a little British flag to suggest i was delighted with the 35th place Age Group position i later found out i had achieved. That run was hard. Instead of the usual tactical effort i put in on the run to chase competitors down, all i could think about was just completing the race. The temperature registered 32.5C at the end, and the cloudless sky and complete lack of shade contributed to the hardest run i've ever done. Total time for 3km/80km/20km was 4hrs 59mins. 251st overall out of 673 and 35th of 48 in the 25-29 Age Group, my last year in this category.
And so, overall i guess i've got to be happy with representing my country even at AG level (and i am), but its made me more determined to go back and give it another crack. Still lots of work to do on all 3 disciplines, and hope to see continued improvement over the summer tri season in Australia training with the BMMC boys. Anyone up for Immenstadt 2010??
Thursday, 15 October 2009
8 Days to go to the Long Course World Champs!
Well, its been a while (sorry about that), but seeing as we're 8 days out from the Triathlon Long Course Champs in Perth on the 25th October, i thought a quick blog was in order.
Quick update since last blog. After the Big Cowman Half Ironman attention turned to qualifying for the Olympic Distance Worlds on the Gold Coast in September. The new bike turned up just in time and after a few trial runs i was feeling pretty comfortable and ready to go! Training had been going well and my runs gradually getting quicker! Swimming in the UK is always a pain! There's only two 50m pools in the whole of Wales and the one in Cardiff was only opened in January 2008. This was built to replace the 50m Empire Pool (used in the 1958 Commonwealth Games) which was demolished in 1998 to make way for the Millennium Stadium. Anyway, enough about all that, but what we're left with is a great facility that tends to be reduced to 25m at very inconvenient periods of the day!
And so, to the Bedford Classic WCQ. Got a nasty chest cold about a week or so before the race, which didn't really deter me. However, the race was a disaster. An awful swim (where breathing was really difficult) to an even worst ride (flat tire) resulted in my first ever DNF. Very gutted at the time, cursed my luck most of the way home and vowed to come back stronger the following week. I was now stuck with a trip to Scotland on the following weekend to compete in the Strathclyde Classic and hopefully snatch a place. British Triathlon allocates 4 places per AG from each of the 3 qualifiers, with the remainder being made up of pre qualifiers or fastest losers. With all the main contenders having qualified and the race being in Scotland i was quietly confident! Well, the chest went down hill and repeated visits to the doc resulted in a referral to the chest specialist. I soldiered on and actually started to drive the 6.5hrs to Scotland only to feel pretty rough, come to my senses and turn back. I was pretty disappointed... the dream was over. Or was it?
While browsing the British Tri website i came across the Long Course Champs in Perth. Seeing as i had a return flight and was hoping to qualify for the Gold Coast, this may be worth a shot. No qualifying races, just a submission of previous race experience and results. Well, my Long Course experience isn't particularly flattering. It started in December 07 with the Canberra Half IM, where i competed in Speedos and used the change tent to but on my bike shorts and bike top. Oh dear, how far we have come, the good old days before i owned a tri suit and wet suit. I must have looked a right Welsh tool! There was then the Long Course Champs at Huskisson in Jan 08 and Forster in Oct 08, but neither were flattering so i chose not to include them. That left the Big Cowman result and the Half Aquathon result for what that was worth. I planned to do a few more Long Course races throughout the summer so included them as potential qualifiers. Well, i was pretty stoked when i was informed that the Big Cowman result was to be good enough after discussions with the decision makers. As proud as i am to be representing my country, GBR isn't taking the maximum number of athletes available in my age group and i was accepted on one average race! I don't tell people this though!! Lets just say "loads" applied but they just weren't good enough!! :)
And so, after a solid showing at the Little Woody (Half IM Distance), which was a very tough course (97km ride for starters), and another reasonable effort at the Half IM Aquathon, where i finally set a new Half Marathon PB, i returned to Oz and the familiar setting of the fire trails and hills of the Blue Mtns (although not hills or mountains compared to the efforts exerted by Sleep on the 'slopes' at the LDMR World Champs) on 17th September to resume training with the familiar faces at BMMC. Its been a lonely 9 months of training by myself but then (and i quote Sleep) 'its lonely being a champion' so i just lived with it! Was a great reintroduction to the trails of the BM with a Sun Valley run the afternoon of my return with Dr Phil and Donger, who kindly collected me from the airport after 27hrs in the air!!! Was pleased to have backed up with a run straight away! Since then, been getting some good runs with Dr Phil, Donger and The Animal (good to see him back into, and betting he'll do some pretty good stuff this season, along with Dr Phil who's clearly been training hard and getting the results to prove it, especially on the run - good work boys). Good to see Donger finally arrive with an awesome performance at the Fitzroy Falls Marathon on 10th October finishing 4th. Shame i wasn't there to see it!!
And so, we'll leave it there for now and talk about training and racing up to the LD Worlds in the next blog, which won't take quite as long to arrive than the last one!
Quick update since last blog. After the Big Cowman Half Ironman attention turned to qualifying for the Olympic Distance Worlds on the Gold Coast in September. The new bike turned up just in time and after a few trial runs i was feeling pretty comfortable and ready to go! Training had been going well and my runs gradually getting quicker! Swimming in the UK is always a pain! There's only two 50m pools in the whole of Wales and the one in Cardiff was only opened in January 2008. This was built to replace the 50m Empire Pool (used in the 1958 Commonwealth Games) which was demolished in 1998 to make way for the Millennium Stadium. Anyway, enough about all that, but what we're left with is a great facility that tends to be reduced to 25m at very inconvenient periods of the day!
And so, to the Bedford Classic WCQ. Got a nasty chest cold about a week or so before the race, which didn't really deter me. However, the race was a disaster. An awful swim (where breathing was really difficult) to an even worst ride (flat tire) resulted in my first ever DNF. Very gutted at the time, cursed my luck most of the way home and vowed to come back stronger the following week. I was now stuck with a trip to Scotland on the following weekend to compete in the Strathclyde Classic and hopefully snatch a place. British Triathlon allocates 4 places per AG from each of the 3 qualifiers, with the remainder being made up of pre qualifiers or fastest losers. With all the main contenders having qualified and the race being in Scotland i was quietly confident! Well, the chest went down hill and repeated visits to the doc resulted in a referral to the chest specialist. I soldiered on and actually started to drive the 6.5hrs to Scotland only to feel pretty rough, come to my senses and turn back. I was pretty disappointed... the dream was over. Or was it?
While browsing the British Tri website i came across the Long Course Champs in Perth. Seeing as i had a return flight and was hoping to qualify for the Gold Coast, this may be worth a shot. No qualifying races, just a submission of previous race experience and results. Well, my Long Course experience isn't particularly flattering. It started in December 07 with the Canberra Half IM, where i competed in Speedos and used the change tent to but on my bike shorts and bike top. Oh dear, how far we have come, the good old days before i owned a tri suit and wet suit. I must have looked a right Welsh tool! There was then the Long Course Champs at Huskisson in Jan 08 and Forster in Oct 08, but neither were flattering so i chose not to include them. That left the Big Cowman result and the Half Aquathon result for what that was worth. I planned to do a few more Long Course races throughout the summer so included them as potential qualifiers. Well, i was pretty stoked when i was informed that the Big Cowman result was to be good enough after discussions with the decision makers. As proud as i am to be representing my country, GBR isn't taking the maximum number of athletes available in my age group and i was accepted on one average race! I don't tell people this though!! Lets just say "loads" applied but they just weren't good enough!! :)
And so, after a solid showing at the Little Woody (Half IM Distance), which was a very tough course (97km ride for starters), and another reasonable effort at the Half IM Aquathon, where i finally set a new Half Marathon PB, i returned to Oz and the familiar setting of the fire trails and hills of the Blue Mtns (although not hills or mountains compared to the efforts exerted by Sleep on the 'slopes' at the LDMR World Champs) on 17th September to resume training with the familiar faces at BMMC. Its been a lonely 9 months of training by myself but then (and i quote Sleep) 'its lonely being a champion' so i just lived with it! Was a great reintroduction to the trails of the BM with a Sun Valley run the afternoon of my return with Dr Phil and Donger, who kindly collected me from the airport after 27hrs in the air!!! Was pleased to have backed up with a run straight away! Since then, been getting some good runs with Dr Phil, Donger and The Animal (good to see him back into, and betting he'll do some pretty good stuff this season, along with Dr Phil who's clearly been training hard and getting the results to prove it, especially on the run - good work boys). Good to see Donger finally arrive with an awesome performance at the Fitzroy Falls Marathon on 10th October finishing 4th. Shame i wasn't there to see it!!
And so, we'll leave it there for now and talk about training and racing up to the LD Worlds in the next blog, which won't take quite as long to arrive than the last one!
Friday, 3 July 2009
Big Cow Cowman Half Ironman Distance Tri - Race Report
Well, finally my first blog. Sorry its taken so long, i just haven't had the time to report on training and races due to all the training i've been doing!!! :) (I only wish that was the reason). Anyway, i've got round to it now so here's a bit of background to the last few months and the first triathlon race of the season (British season), which somehow happened to be a Half Ironman Distance Triathlon in Buckinghamshire, England.
After leaving Oz in December 2008 (temporarily i am discovering) in fairly good condition, i returned to the cold of the British winter and got stuck into some decent training (after Christmas that is). I'd forgotten how hard running in winter here is! The Blue Mtns had equipped me with some decent cold training weather, but Welsh winter days are bitter, wet and short. Not enjoyable but necessary. By the beginning of February i'd had enough, so off i set to South East Asia. In just under 11 weeks i think i went to the gym maybe twice and drank far too much! Needless to say, when i returned to the UK in late April i was in atrocious shape and training started in earnest.
After 6 weeks training it was time for the first race of the season. It was a Half Ironman Aquathon at Eton Rowing Club, which is the venue for the Olympic Rowing in 2012. So, after some solid training and no tapering i felt ready to have a crack at the 2km swim and Half Marathon, just hoping to get through it and feel fairly good during and after. With no huge expectations i was satisfied with the 12th place finish (out of 63) in a time of 2:02 (swim:34.49, run:1:28.02). Another 3 weeks solid training and 1 day tapering, it was time for Half Ironman. Not sure exactly why i chose a Half Ironman distance race for the first one, especially when the bike training volume has not been huge and the goal has always been to target Olympic Distance races. However, the result could go towards a potential place on GBs Long Course team for the Worlds in Perth (Oct 09), so that was at the back of my mind in case i surprised myself with a half decent performance. So, here's the race report from Sunday 28th June 2009:
The 7.00am start was delayed by 15mins due to the dense fog hovering over the lake and the roads, which is always good for me as i'm always "running late". To be fair, i was ready on time for this one but the queue for the can was quite big! With a crowd in the vicinity of about 300 competitors the race was divided into 3 waves. Seniors, Vets and Teams & Sheilas. Senior wave was by far the biggest and a large crowd congregated on the edge of the lake. The fog meant i couldn't see any of the buoys so the plan was to get into a rhythm and sit in behind someone that seemed to know where they were going. Well, the start was a disaster. Didn't get away quick enough, got swamped by swimmers and managed to get a cut above the right eye and some dislodged goggles from a stray elbow. What happened next has never happened to me before in a race. I started to panic and lost all ability to breath properly. I started to look for the nearest canoe as my lunges screamed at me for more O2. Somehow, i still don't know how, i pulled myself to the side of the pack and slowly attempted a normal swimming rhythm which seemed to do the trick, and finished the swim quite strongly, 4:50 down on the leader. Transition was awful, and it was all my fault for not being more organised. Couldn't find my pockets for my gels, sunnies were missing a lens, i'd lost my watch on the swim and so finally 2 mins later exited transition. The ride was awful too. Never felt comfortable, and as has become all too common on rides was regularly overtaken. Transition 2 was much better and started the run annoyed with the ride and determined to take back all those lost places. The heat of the day had by now established itself and sat at about 26C, taking its toll on many athletes, but with all my Oz racing and training experience i felt pretty comfortable. I finished strongly and for the run ended 24th out of 282 finishers. Overall result not great (details below), but lots of things to take away from this first race to work on. These include:
After leaving Oz in December 2008 (temporarily i am discovering) in fairly good condition, i returned to the cold of the British winter and got stuck into some decent training (after Christmas that is). I'd forgotten how hard running in winter here is! The Blue Mtns had equipped me with some decent cold training weather, but Welsh winter days are bitter, wet and short. Not enjoyable but necessary. By the beginning of February i'd had enough, so off i set to South East Asia. In just under 11 weeks i think i went to the gym maybe twice and drank far too much! Needless to say, when i returned to the UK in late April i was in atrocious shape and training started in earnest.
After 6 weeks training it was time for the first race of the season. It was a Half Ironman Aquathon at Eton Rowing Club, which is the venue for the Olympic Rowing in 2012. So, after some solid training and no tapering i felt ready to have a crack at the 2km swim and Half Marathon, just hoping to get through it and feel fairly good during and after. With no huge expectations i was satisfied with the 12th place finish (out of 63) in a time of 2:02 (swim:34.49, run:1:28.02). Another 3 weeks solid training and 1 day tapering, it was time for Half Ironman. Not sure exactly why i chose a Half Ironman distance race for the first one, especially when the bike training volume has not been huge and the goal has always been to target Olympic Distance races. However, the result could go towards a potential place on GBs Long Course team for the Worlds in Perth (Oct 09), so that was at the back of my mind in case i surprised myself with a half decent performance. So, here's the race report from Sunday 28th June 2009:
The 7.00am start was delayed by 15mins due to the dense fog hovering over the lake and the roads, which is always good for me as i'm always "running late". To be fair, i was ready on time for this one but the queue for the can was quite big! With a crowd in the vicinity of about 300 competitors the race was divided into 3 waves. Seniors, Vets and Teams & Sheilas. Senior wave was by far the biggest and a large crowd congregated on the edge of the lake. The fog meant i couldn't see any of the buoys so the plan was to get into a rhythm and sit in behind someone that seemed to know where they were going. Well, the start was a disaster. Didn't get away quick enough, got swamped by swimmers and managed to get a cut above the right eye and some dislodged goggles from a stray elbow. What happened next has never happened to me before in a race. I started to panic and lost all ability to breath properly. I started to look for the nearest canoe as my lunges screamed at me for more O2. Somehow, i still don't know how, i pulled myself to the side of the pack and slowly attempted a normal swimming rhythm which seemed to do the trick, and finished the swim quite strongly, 4:50 down on the leader. Transition was awful, and it was all my fault for not being more organised. Couldn't find my pockets for my gels, sunnies were missing a lens, i'd lost my watch on the swim and so finally 2 mins later exited transition. The ride was awful too. Never felt comfortable, and as has become all too common on rides was regularly overtaken. Transition 2 was much better and started the run annoyed with the ride and determined to take back all those lost places. The heat of the day had by now established itself and sat at about 26C, taking its toll on many athletes, but with all my Oz racing and training experience i felt pretty comfortable. I finished strongly and for the run ended 24th out of 282 finishers. Overall result not great (details below), but lots of things to take away from this first race to work on. These include:
- Be more thorough when preparing gear in transition
- Go hard at the start to get away from big packs
- Train harder
- Do more volume on bike in training
- Call bike shop to find out when new bike is arriving
- Kick earlier on run as i still had a bit at the end
- Train harder, sleep less
- Buy new watch
So, there it is. First race done. Looking forward to applying some of this to the next race. British summer is abnormally hot so training is actually more than enjoyable at the moment, all we need now is an outdoor pool and a 50m pool thats actually open all the time, but we'll save that grievance for another blog.
Swim: 32.34
Ride: 2:53.41
Run: 1:31.13
Total: 5:01.19
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