Moreton Bay Olympic Distance

The Moreton Bay Olympic Distance race was being held as the Qld State OD championsips held at Clontarf on th 29th of September 2013. This was only 8 weeks after my collar bone surgery and at the time of my crash I instantly ruled out competing in it. After seeing my doc, he also said it would be a stretch for me to make it there. I had three weeks of swimming under my belt which I knew I was going to be comfortable making it through the race with my shoulder but was unsure on how fast or strong I would be. With it being a local race and the chance to once again race across the Ted Smout Bridge, I jumped at the chance to race as soon as I was comfortable to make it through the race.

We were met with perfect conditions which can be very hit and miss at Redcliffe as the bay face to the South East and four out of five days will see a solid south easterly wind blowing. The sun was out and there was barely a breath of wind or a ripple on the ocean for the race.

There was only about 40 people lined up for my race in the 30-34 age group so we had plenty of room on the start line. With a 200m swim to the first left hand turning buoy and a slight left to right current, I was surprised as I was the only one lined up on the far left side of the start line. As the hooter went off, I smashed out the usual first 100m hard and waited for the fish to swamp me and try to hold on. Looking to my right, I could see I was leading however was still waiting to be swamped. To my surprise, I held the lead to the first can and looked over my shoulder to see I had a 15m gap on second place. Being in unfamiliar territory in the lead of the swim leg, I set about maintaining a solid rythym whilst being concience of my direction.

As I exited the water, I was well clear and set out on the bike once again in unfamiliar territory. The bike for me which is my strength is usually flat out and hurts alot as I am always trying to make up lost time from the swim. This time, I just set out riding strong but very controlled as I was trying to set my race up for a strong run. With 4 x 10km loops, I could spot second place at each turn around and could see that I had turned a 1 minute lead into about two minutes by the end of the bike. I got off again in the lead and set out as hard as I could.

The run was a 2 x 5km course and I could see that second place was gaining slowly on my after the first lap. Turning for the last time with 2.5km to go, he was only about 40 seconds down on me and was chasing me down quickly. With about 150m to go he pulled up beside me very quickly and I was devistated that I had been leading the whole day to be overtaken with only 150m to go. I was not going to cop this and gave absolutely everything I had for the last 20 seconds a reclaimed the lead to take out the win by 3 seconds.

I was stoked with my first race of the season, one that I had only done as a spur of the moment but felt quite solid with.

My overall time was 2hr 3mins.

The off season

Well it has been such a long time since I have updated this so I thought I write what I have been up to over the off season prior to some races that I have raced at the start of the season.

After Ironman Melbourne I decided to have a month off which turned into two months which then turned into three months. During this time I did minimal training and more just exercising. 1st of July came around and I decided to get stuck back in and the motivation was starting to come back.

My training took an immediate nose dive when I was brought down during a group ride when the rider in front of me crashed on a set of railway tracks. With nowhere to go I did a full somersalt and took the entire impact on my right shoulder ending up with a broken collarbone. Five days later I was in for surgery to have a 5cm plate and nine screws put in.

I had plenty of support from family and friends and used this set back as even more motivation to get back into it. I had surgery on Thursday and the following Tuesday I was back on the wind trainer ticking the legs over. Withing a week I was able to get some solid riding done allbeit still on the windtrainer.

Three weeks post surgery I was given the all clear by the doc to attempt some running and from there my recovery came on in leaps and bounds. At four weeks, I was back in the pool just turning the arms over.

6 weeks after surgery I raced the Bridge to Brisbane 10km and with little running in my legs still managed to finish 30th overall in a time of 36:25. I was extremely happy with the result considering my lead up.

After watching IM Cairns on the net and getting the itch for another Ironman, I decided to sign up for IM Australia on May 4th in Port Macquarie where I will be toeing the start line with approximately 45 other Redcliffe Tri Club members so the lead up and race day should be an amazing time.

Ironman Melbourne - 24 March 2013

The lead up

In the weeks leading up to Ironman Melbourne I was feeling great. I had really tried to work on my weaknesses and I was swimming and running stronger than I had before. I had however been battling a niggling pain in my foot being diagnosed with Plantar Fasciaitis. The pain was bearable and I was doing my best to manage it during all of my run sessions.

Ten days out after my final speed session my foot flaired up however a quick trip to Dr Alex Ha sorted it out and made my foot feel great. Then on one of my last days of work prior to going on leave to travel to Melbourne, I strained my Glute/Hip that left me in pain every time my foot hit the ground. This put a big change to my lead up to Melbourne with several trips to the Doc, Physio and Massage. I want to thank Dr Alex Ha who did eveything in his power to get me up to scratch to race. When I thought all was done, he would send me a text to tell me to come in or even do a house call. I was losing hope fast however he wouldn't take no for an answer and kept me going. Thanks Alex.

This led to a massive change to my lead up to IM Melbourne. I did not run at all for the week leading into the race. I was just going to swim and bike on race day and find out how it felt some time after midday on the Sunday.

Race Day

Onto the bus at 5am for the 40km drive to Frankston. This was great as we did not have to worry about finding a place to park and I was able to get a bit more of a kip on the way down. We arrived in Frankston and were greated with a 30-40km/h westerly blowing. This was no surprise as this had been forecast however the wind had picked up from the prievious day. The swim was changed to a 1.5km swim due to the dangerous conditions and the start was to be delayed 30mins. I headed to the swim start with plenty of time to spare as the start was sure to be crowded.

Swim

My swim warm up consisted of a few out and backs to suss out negotiating the chop as best as possible. It was very similar to the worse conditions I have experienced at my local beach at Redcliffe where we do many brick sessions.

The start was delayed again and the tension and nerves among the age group start was growing. Nobody want to give an inch at the start line. It was to be a knee deep start and I was torn between trying to abide by the officials by staying put or holding my position on the start line as the masses slowly walked forward despite the constant calls to hold our position. It had just turned into a slow procession out to sea as the gun finally went off.

I was only about 5 meters off the front line and positioned right amongst the swimmers gunning for pole postion. As the gun went off, it was thrash, duck dive, grab, thrash, swim, thrash, grab, swim. The conditions made it hard even just to swim and even at the front of the pack, there was some breaststroking going on to trying to negotiate the chop and swells.

I got to the end of the pier quite quickly and had to make a slight right turn and aim for two swim buoys located 750m offshore. They were positioned directly in the line of the swell which made sighting and navigating alot easier. Just swim head on with the waves and worry about the buoys when you get there. It was a complete U-turn around the buoys and head back to shore down the waves. For the entire swim, there was no trying to draft off anyones feet as they would just get washed ontop of you or you on them. It was just negotiate the conditons as best as possible. The swim back in was a little more comfortable as we were swimming with the swell and you had the odd swell pick you up and give you a good run.

Arriving to the beach I was among 80% of the field to be washed about 150m down the beach. As I was coming in, I knew this was going to be the case and planned just to go with the swell as it would be quicker to run back up the beach rather than fighting the chop swimming in. This run was the first run I had done in a week and could feel my glute not playing nicely. With the reduced swim, the exit was very very busy and it was a constant stream of runners heading through the showers.

Here is a video of the swim start
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onUDyjYHzyg

Swim : 24:18 23rd in Age Group

Bike

With the stong winds blowing this meant the first and third 45kms was into a headwind. There was plenty of cyclists exiting T1 together and once we hit the highway after about 5kms, I set out pushing hard to get away from the masses and bridge up to a good sized pace line about 500m up the road. My bike is usually my strength and I usually have no trouble bridging any gaps and settling into a good rythym. This day, I found myself pushing hard to even go with others who were bridging the gap. It took me 20kms into a head wind to reach the group of about 8 riding further up the road but once I reached them, it was great as they were all riding single file and legally spaced out. Once I reached them, I was still finding it hard to settle into a rythym and my heart rate was still above 170bpm where I usually try to sit around 150bpm.

Not more than five minutes later, I could sense a large body creeping up on my right. It was not just a large body, but about 40 bodies riding the Tour De frigging Melbourne. A huge group had caught up to us just after I had busted my ass to catch some other guys to ride with. They were three and four wide and up each others asses with not a care in the world. Being 100% anti drafting, I looked around and told them all what I thought of them and sat up to drift off the back of the group. Whilst making my way back through the group, the inevitable happened with the clash of carbon and screech of wheels when about 6 blokes came down about ten meters in front of me. I just managed to avoid the crash and let them have it again. I just sat off the back of the bunch keeping a close eye on the front where for the next 20kms they jockeyed and tussled for the front of the group.

Heading into and out of the tunnel for the first time, a group of about six had got away and this was a good opportunity to get away from the masses. I took off up the climb out of the tunnel towards the first turn around. Heading back towards the tunnel after the turn around and going through an aid station, a female pro was brought down right in front of me by some fool who swerved across to try and grab a bottle. I just managed to miss that one too. This race was becoming carnage.

With the wind behind us, it allowed the groups to spread out a bit more and for the return trip on the first lap. We were holding 45-55km/h that was great, however I was still unable to relax. I was constantly on the gas trying to hold my place in the pace line. This is where I look back on the race and know where I stuffed it. I was 75km in and my heart rate had not dropped below 165bpm. I really should have backed off with the tail wind but my ego got the better of me not wanting to lose too much time whilst riding up to 60km/h on the flats.

I hit Frankston and was not looking forward to the next 90km. The next 45km into the wind was absolutely brutal. There are several long climbs and I was suffering big time. I was that drained that each time I looked down to grab a bottle to drink, I would get massive head spins and blurred vision. There was times where I could not see a thing for about 15 seconds and just held my bike straight hoping there was nothing in front of me. This happened about 6 times during the second half of the bike. I was starting to get quite emotional too and just wanted to jump in a cab to see my wife and friends who had made the trip down to watch me. If there had have been a lift directly to the finish line, I think I may have taken it however the easiest way to get back to St Kilda was to ditch my bike at T2 and run the 42km.

Heading into Frankston to finish the bike, I sucked it up and tried to reset myself  and start from scratch for the run. I had ridden myself into tenth however it had cost me so much more.

Bike : 4hr 53min 10th in Age Group

Run

The crowd in the streets of Frankston were amazing as we headed south for 800m prior to turning around and heading home to St Kilda some 40kms away. As the run follows the coast line, you can see the city waaaayyyyy off in the distance and it is daunting to think you have to run there.

My hip was pulling and hurting from the minute I started the run. The impact of my normal running style hurt alot so from the start, I adopted a shuffle trying to minimise the pain. I could actually manage my goal race pace of 4:40min/km and thought I only need to do this for a bit over three hours. I managed to hold this for the first 6kms but was going downhill fast. My feet had gone very numb. Major rookie error - I had laced my shoes with elastic laces but due to not being able to run, did not get a test run in prior to the race. They were too tight and I had to stop to loosen them though the damage was done and they were numb for the first 20km. This was only the start of the wheels falling off. I had come off the bike in about 50th overall therefore I was mixing it with the big boys of the race. All of these guys were quality athletes and quality runners knocking out 4:10min/km. I was feeling absolutely rubbish and this was compounded by me going backwards throught the field fast.

I had a good laugh at one stage with a spectator who threw the good old cliche of "Your looking good mate, keep it going". I quickly responded with "No I don't, I look like shit". This brought a good chuckle from the crowd around and put a smile on my face.

The rest of the race just turned into an internal battle trying to ignore the hords of runners swooping me up. I just plodded along with one foot after another. Most of the run is a bit of a blur as I just ticked off the kms as they came. I set myself the goal of the 34km mark as I had been to this point and knew the course home from there. Once there, the 8km remaining still felt like a marathon ahead of me but I just got through it as best I could. Even hitting the 39km, the 15 mins left to run seemed like it would take forever.

The finish chute at IM Melbourne was great as it was about 200m long. I spotted my wife Hayley and friends Tommo, Casey, and Boonie and heard Knighty's wife Jaime call out just prior. Getting over the finish line, I was just happy to be home and happy I didn't catch a cab.

Run : 3hr 42min

Total time : 9hr 4min 26sec (Reduced swim distance)
26th in Male 30-34

This race certainly did not pan out as I had planned. In the weeks leading into the race, I felt I was definately in a postion to put a very solid race together and challenge for a top 5 spot but knew a top 10 was all that I needed.

Post race, I was not too disappointed. Whilst I was disappointed with the result, I had come to the conclusion during the race that this was not to be the one. At no stage did I ever give up, and even though my pace had slowed dramatically I still got to the finish as fast as I possibly could in the situation.

I am not sure where I will head to from now. I told myself numerous times during the bike and run that this would be my last ever race (although I have said that to myself during Ironmans before). I am entered for Ironman Cairns in June though I am in no hurry to get back into training. I will have a good break for now and see if the love returns. I am definately keen to race another Ironman with the knowledge of the mistakes I have made, and hopefully adjust and implement a plan to combat them.

For now, I am looking forward to sleeping in and spending alot more time with my wife Hayley who has been an Iron widow for a long time. She has been absolutely amazing in supporting me in all of my racing and training. A massive thanks to my friends Tommo, Boonie, Casey, Taylor and Jonas for making the trip down. It was also great to have so many fellow RTC team mates down in Melbourne for the race too.

Thank you to everyone who has followed and sent messages along the way and on race day. I love youse all, em eh.

Rando

Hell of the West - Goondoowindi

Prior to racing my first HOTW last year, I had heard so many stories of people returning year after year. I had no idea why they kept going back and I think neither do they but I am starting to learn why. There is just something that draws you back.

We ventured out at 7am on the Saturday morning to tackle the 5hr drive to Goondoowindi. As with the previous three years, the race organisers have been thrown a curve ball with the flooding and have had to make changes to their race. In the week leading up, they were amazing in keeping everyone up to date on course and race changes as well as affected roads leading into Gundy from all directions.

We arrived at about midday and checked in to our small and cozy motel. After sitting in a car for 5hrs, all I wanted to do was laze about all afternoon but had to get up for a light 5km run in the afternoon followed by a 40min spin on the course to make sure my bike was running smooth. I am so glad I did this as this kick started my energy and felt so much better after.

Race Day

One of the unique things of HOTW is the early start. Rise and shine at 3am to get ready and head down to check in at transition and set up for the race. Due to the change in course because of the floods, the swim had been moved as per the previous two years to the botanical gardens which is 3km away. It was onto the buses at 4:30 to be ready for a 5am start.

Swim

The swim is 3 x 700m laps with a very crowded swim start. There was 220 starters in our wave starting between two buoys placed about 30m apart. This was sure to be a crazy start and was. As the gun went off, I got a great start and pushed hard with the main pack. It was very congested for the first 300m and I could see the leaders swimming off the front.  I settled into my own rythym and found a group to pace off. I sat on their feet for the majority of the swim which was great as they navigated their way through the slower lapped swimmers. I exited the water in tenth in my AG and 39th overall so had some work ahead of me.

Swim : 31:55

Run to Transition

As with last year, my plan was to run the 3.2km run back to transition as hard as I could. I had 80km on the bike to attempt to recover. In the run back, I could see a couple of guys who are strong bikers about 1min ahead of me but wasn't able to make any ground on them. During the first 500m whilst trying to push hard, I could feel my hamstrings wanting to cramp so I had to back it off slightly. I thought this could be a long day with cramps already but they quickly disappeared after I got going.

Run : 12:38

Bike

Getting onto the bike, I could see a pace line about 500m further up the road and was riding as hard as I could to catch up to them. My heart rate did not drop below 170bpm during the chase. There was times where I was out of the saddle sprinting to make up some ground. It took me about 10km to catch them and what a relief it was. Once in touch, I jumped on the back maintaining the 12m draft zone and worked on recovering as quickly as possible. In the group were several guys I have raced regularly and knew they were strong riders.

The pace on the bike was varied at times getting up to 45km/h but also dropping down to 37km/h at times. The first 20km I had averaged 40.9km/h but this was slowly coming down as I settled into a rythym. The pace dropped off on the second 20km and we were caught by a few more riders at the turn around to start the second lap. One of these guys was uber biker Speedy Steve Schofield who was not interested in anything but riding fast.

He put the hammer down heading out of town for the second time. I worked hard on staying in touch with him as this would hopefully take some time out of the leaders in my age group. I knew that Peter Court was further up the road but wasn't sure where I sat in the age group. I could judge however that I was in the top 5 or 6 overall. This pace put the squeeze on quite a few of the group who dropped off and left a group of five for the trip back into Gundy. Coming into town the pace was still on and we were very spaced out.

Bike : 2:07:29


Run

Due to the extended run from the swim to T1, this distance was taken off the final run leg therefore it was reduced to a 16.8km run.

I have been luckily enough recently to be selected as a wear tester for Asics shoes and have been trialling many different models. I decided to wear a trial pair from the Asics 33 series that will be released in 2014. I had not run in these without socks prior to this but due to the number of guys coming into T2 together, I passed on the socks and slipped them straight on. I will throw in a shameless plug and say that they felt like an absolute dream to run in without socks. The most comfortable shoes I have run in without socks.

I was first out of T2 in our group of 5 and was aiming at maintaining sub 4min/km's. I was quickly passed by the evenual third place quite early who was flying. The beauty about this run leg is the 3 x out and back laps therefore you get to see what position you are in and try to take time splits. On the way out I had judged that I was in fifith place overall and to my surprise I was leading my age group as Peter Court had pulled the pin after the bike.

I maintained my pace throughout the run leg and came home averaging 3:55min/km. I was very pleased with my time but more pleased with how I pulled up at the finish line. 12 months ago, I hurt all the way to the finish and took my time to recover. This year, although spent, I felt fresh and recovered very quickly.

Run : 1:06:00

Total time : 3:58:03, 1st in age group, 4th overall ( I crossed the line in fifth overall but unfortunately my mate Alex Rigby was DQ'd for turning too early on the run course).

I was extremely happy with my race considering my hampered build up due to the power outages in Brisbane and working 12hr days in the week of the race. At the end of the day, Triathlon is a hobby and sometimes (but not ideally) work has to come first.

For now it is a little over 7 weeks until Ironman Melbourne. This race has been a great kickstart building into the most important training block of my triathlon life.

Photos courtesy of Andrew Reardon. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pharknuckles_photos/sets/72157632706828364/with/8452197778/

One week down

The first week is done and it has been a testing start to my campaign. The goal for this week was to be a swim based week and I wanted to chalk up at least 20km of swimming.

I started the week a little tired after a great long ride/run session on Sunday. With Tuesday being New Years day, there were no pools open so this sent me to our local lake for an open water swim in the afternoon after 100km on the bike in the morning.

By Thursday morning I had nailed all of my sessions and received a call at work asking if I wanted to go on call for the next week. Being on call is too hard to pass up so I decided to do it knowing it would have some effect on my training. This involves not being too far away from my phone or truck at all times and be ready to respond instantly. Therefore I would become closely aquainted with my wind trainer and a treadmill located at my parents house. As I only get one squad swim session in a week, this would be the only swim. In short, I had a few callouts and worked until 5am Fri and 2am Sat and woke each day as if I had been partying for days so training was certainly off the cards. I just had to rest up which was killing me.

As I write this, I have managed two wind trainer sessions today being Sunday and the end of week 1 of training. It has not been a blazing start and I have four more days to go of stand by. I plan on a 1hr wind trainer each morning followed by a run each afternoon. I hate running or riding in a stationary spot but I am using this as a test of my willpower.

Lets hope the next week will be a more productive one.