Today I will be withdrawing from my 2.80.20 Cairns. I'm not injured, I'm probably fit enough, I've got the essential gear and I could get the time off so what gives? Basically, while I could just about squeeze everything in that's exactly what it would be, a squeeze. My gravel was reduced go getting there as late as possible, leaving virtually as soon as the race finished, going alone with the family staying behind and with none of the little upgrades( some Aero wheels, bar end Shifters etc) I'd promised myself.
So I could do it I just don't want to start my ironmonger experience that way. So rather than half search it I have withdrawn.
But this is a tactical redeployment, not a retreat from ironman distances. Stay tuned for news on my replacement event.
Showing posts with label event. Show all posts
Showing posts with label event. Show all posts
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
My times from the last event
Well Tomaree was a little quicker processing the times than back in September and I have a little more detail to add to yesterdays post.
My times were:
swim 9:14
ride 44:54
run 31:30
total 1:25:38
Looking at the times my gut feels were pretty right. I was second out of the water but 6th out of T1. That hurts. My ride was solid, but not spectacular, as I thought I pretty much maintained by position, losing grip with the leaders but keeping the guys behind me at bay. I will admit to being surprised that I lost almost 8 minutes to the leaders on the ride, on the other hand considering I was probably in T2 for about 30+ seconds and a little slow to start this means I was averaging about 30 kph whereas the leaders were riding at 36ish kph.
Now, 36 kph was near enough to my speed in the Brighton tri but that was a more forgiving course and I was on the Wilier which is, in general, 2-4 kph faster than the Avanti in equivalent conditions. But, more than anything I think I paid for not knowing my speed or having a target. I thought that not having the Garmin along wouldnt hurt too much but now I know I was wrong. KNOWING I need to be doing 35-36 to compete with the leaders and KNOWING my speed doesnt mean I'll magically start hitting a winning speed but it will sure increase the odds. I am pretty confident that if I can remember to bring the Garmin next time and push to target I'm sure I could hold 32-33 kph. Now that would that drop me to around 40 minutes for the ride, not winning yet but getting there.
Now the run. It was the disaster I figured it would be. Now the real problem is that I was running at around 5 minute k's which is as fast as I've ever managed to run. So in this instance if I want to get better here I've got to change something, because right now I'm hitting a wall.
More on this later.
My times were:
swim 9:14
ride 44:54
run 31:30
total 1:25:38
Looking at the times my gut feels were pretty right. I was second out of the water but 6th out of T1. That hurts. My ride was solid, but not spectacular, as I thought I pretty much maintained by position, losing grip with the leaders but keeping the guys behind me at bay. I will admit to being surprised that I lost almost 8 minutes to the leaders on the ride, on the other hand considering I was probably in T2 for about 30+ seconds and a little slow to start this means I was averaging about 30 kph whereas the leaders were riding at 36ish kph.
Now, 36 kph was near enough to my speed in the Brighton tri but that was a more forgiving course and I was on the Wilier which is, in general, 2-4 kph faster than the Avanti in equivalent conditions. But, more than anything I think I paid for not knowing my speed or having a target. I thought that not having the Garmin along wouldnt hurt too much but now I know I was wrong. KNOWING I need to be doing 35-36 to compete with the leaders and KNOWING my speed doesnt mean I'll magically start hitting a winning speed but it will sure increase the odds. I am pretty confident that if I can remember to bring the Garmin next time and push to target I'm sure I could hold 32-33 kph. Now that would that drop me to around 40 minutes for the ride, not winning yet but getting there.
Now the run. It was the disaster I figured it would be. Now the real problem is that I was running at around 5 minute k's which is as fast as I've ever managed to run. So in this instance if I want to get better here I've got to change something, because right now I'm hitting a wall.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
I survived another event
Well I got another tri under my belt today. Nothing huge, just a little club event, but on the other hand its a useful step between my longest tri so far (a classic sprint of 750m/20k/5k) and the Olympic distance I'm shooting for in a few weeks.
First a little on my club.
My club (when I'm in Newcastle) is Tomaree Tri Club, a great little club based around Soldiers Point just north of Nelson Bay in NSW. There are a couple of tri clubs in and around Newcastle and I'm sure there are great people in all of then but I chose (and recommend) Tomaree for one reason. The swim course for its club tris. Whereas all the other clubs in the region make do with pools for their swims, Tomaree has a truly gorgeous open water swim. Its lovely.
Anyway, the club runs an event each month in spring and summer. Each event has a short and long course. So far I've only done the short course at Tomaree, a 250m swim, an 11k ride, and a 3k run. I did ok but wanted more. I did that back in Sep 2011 and since then I've lost a bunch of weight (probably about 15kg), got fitter and done a full distance sprint so I was ready.
The long course is a slightly shorter than normal swim (about 500m) but then slightly longer than normal ride (22k) and run (6k).
So did that today and went pretty well.
As I discovered at my Gatorade tri, I'm a decent swimmer in a wetsuit. As a result while there is a bunch of way better athlete's there than me I was second out of the water. As usual I sucked in T1 and got passed by a bunch of people. But on the ride I stabilized the damage, I got passed by 1 guy and I passed 1 guy, so all ok. Actually not quite that great, I suspect a few others closed up on me without actually getting to pass. And that all came home to roost on the run, again I was slow and again it cost me a bunch of spots and I tumbled backwards.
Still, this time my form was strong and all in all I am happy. The swim was excellent, I still dont train enough but I'm getting though. My ride was solid, I was down of the bars for 90% of the ride, I powered out of the corners and hills and kept up my cadence. I need to get fitter and stronger but all in all ok. My run sucked. I need more speed.
Ok, so all this analysis is based on feel so far. The club hasnt done the timings yet. I'll post those when they come through.
First a little on my club.
My club (when I'm in Newcastle) is Tomaree Tri Club, a great little club based around Soldiers Point just north of Nelson Bay in NSW. There are a couple of tri clubs in and around Newcastle and I'm sure there are great people in all of then but I chose (and recommend) Tomaree for one reason. The swim course for its club tris. Whereas all the other clubs in the region make do with pools for their swims, Tomaree has a truly gorgeous open water swim. Its lovely.
Anyway, the club runs an event each month in spring and summer. Each event has a short and long course. So far I've only done the short course at Tomaree, a 250m swim, an 11k ride, and a 3k run. I did ok but wanted more. I did that back in Sep 2011 and since then I've lost a bunch of weight (probably about 15kg), got fitter and done a full distance sprint so I was ready.
The long course is a slightly shorter than normal swim (about 500m) but then slightly longer than normal ride (22k) and run (6k).
So did that today and went pretty well.
As I discovered at my Gatorade tri, I'm a decent swimmer in a wetsuit. As a result while there is a bunch of way better athlete's there than me I was second out of the water. As usual I sucked in T1 and got passed by a bunch of people. But on the ride I stabilized the damage, I got passed by 1 guy and I passed 1 guy, so all ok. Actually not quite that great, I suspect a few others closed up on me without actually getting to pass. And that all came home to roost on the run, again I was slow and again it cost me a bunch of spots and I tumbled backwards.
Still, this time my form was strong and all in all I am happy. The swim was excellent, I still dont train enough but I'm getting though. My ride was solid, I was down of the bars for 90% of the ride, I powered out of the corners and hills and kept up my cadence. I need to get fitter and stronger but all in all ok. My run sucked. I need more speed.
Ok, so all this analysis is based on feel so far. The club hasnt done the timings yet. I'll post those when they come through.
Monday, January 16, 2012
A little more on my competition.
Well, its now clear I lost my timing chip sometime after the swim leg almost certainly in T1 as I didnt get a T1 time (so the chip didnt leave the area) but I got a time for the swim, 9:19 placing me 6th out of 50 odd in the 45-49 age group and 164th out of 1500. Not to shabby.
So. Applying a little logic, guestimation and the odd assumption based on what the average times others took in transition and what I know from my bike computer and the time I saw crossing the line I'm guessing my times were sort of:
Swim. 9:19
T1 2:30
Ride 36:00
T2 1:30
Run 26:11
Assuming these are close enough to right my gut feel that my run is the weak link is borne out.
So. Applying a little logic, guestimation and the odd assumption based on what the average times others took in transition and what I know from my bike computer and the time I saw crossing the line I'm guessing my times were sort of:
Swim. 9:19
T1 2:30
Ride 36:00
T2 1:30
Run 26:11
Assuming these are close enough to right my gut feel that my run is the weak link is borne out.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Competition. My first 'full' sprint.
Some quick details. This was a sprint tri held in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne. It was my second tri ever, my first at this distance and my first 'big' event. I've written more than I planned so I'll break the report into 2 parts. Part 1 - my performance. Part 2 - the event.
Part 1 - My Performance.
Preparation. Well it started OK but quickly fell away. I was up nice and early, got everything ready and was on the road in plenty of time. Driving through Melbourne early on a Sunday morning is pretty easy and so I got to the race venue with plenty of time to spare. As a result I had plenty of time to rue forgetting both the bidons I'd taken off the bike last night, filled with sports drink and carefully put (and then left) in the fridge. Bugger. Still, as it turned out this wasnt that much of a drama. My new tri club was giving out bidons to new members (score!) and there was a drinking water dispenser so I was in business.
Apart from that everything else was pretty routine. I got into my gear with time to spare thanks to the guys from mtc for helping me do up my wetsuit (did I buy a size too small? I worry its too tight). I was at the beach 15 minutes before my wave listening to the pa guy patter wondering if I would ever get to swim. One thing I remember him saying was to check the timing chips were on properly, I wish I'd listened to that more carefully!!! Anyway after what felt like hours of waiting suddenly I was off and wondering where the time went.
Swim. I have never really needed a warm up when swimming, my body just drops into the routine and off we go. And so it was today. To be honest the conditions sucked, it was windy generating a fair surface chop but underlying that were were relatively strong waves driving you off course if you weren't careful. For a few minutes this had me worried. And my wetsuit felt odd (really, is it too small?), but then I saw I was out on my own, but in a good way. I'd opened up a little gap on most of my wave and appeared to be doing comparatively well. Despite constant course checks and corrections I soon caught people from the wave before me and I really started to feel good (perhaps this wetsuit is the right size). Turning for the return leg was not as satisfying as I had hoped. I'd half expected a bit of a surf back to the beach but alas no, while the chop was easier it wasn't exactly helpful either. As it was however I got out of the water OK and ready for the ride.
T1. I didn't do this well. It annoys me that I put all this effort into passing people in the water and then then breeze past me in:
a. The run up the beach.
b. The actual transition area.
c. The run out to the mounting area.
Seriously, I really have to do better here.
Ride. Well I didn't fall off when trying to mount so I did better than a bunch of others but that's a pretty low bar. All I really wanted to do was not shame my bike. That's sounds a bit silly, but basically with my new Wilier Imperiele I should be significantly faster than the Avanti Giro I rode in my previous tri. In that race, which like this one was on a basically flat course with some rollers and a gentle headwind in one direction and obviously a little tailwind the other way, I averaged around 26 kph for 10 k's. I also note that I was 12 kg lighter and a fair bit fitter by today as well. So broadly I was hoping to average 30 kph or better for 20 k's. Today I averaged 36 kph, only occasionally dipping under 30 kph on some of the hills and occasionally hitting 48 kph on the down slopes. Frankly I could have gone a lot faster downhill but I was hitting the average speed I had targeted, I was only occasionally getting overtaken and then by people way more serious than me so I let the gears spin out and gave my legs a rest before the run. All in all I couldn't have hoped for better. Oh, and I maintained form pretty much the whole race, the only times I dropped out of the aero position were the tight corners at the ends of the course and when standing in the climbs so all in all more happiness.
T2. Learning my lesson from T1 I pushed harder through here and did better but an important lesson here, speedplay pedals are great for riding, they suck at running.
Run. One word, slow! First I misread the course and believed I had 2 laps to run so went out easy and was getting really disheartened when the turn around I believed was just 1.2k from the start simply wouldn't come. Then I saw the 2k sign and quickly figured out my mistake. Clearly I was doing better than I'd feared, this freed up my mind more than anything and I started running easier. But all in all it was slow. Worse, I finished feeling great making we think I had left way to much in the tank. I need to step up my training with running to get used to more speed as I have the fitness, rather it seems my legs and head have just locked themselves into a plod that is safe but a lot less than I'm capable of.
Overall. Well lets start with the bad. Somewhere out on the course I lost my timing chip so I didn't officially finish. That's OK really. It wasn't an ironman, there was no finishing t shirt and at the moment I'm still more of a completer than a competer and I know I finished, I ran under that bloody arch, but still its annoying. Worse, I don't have good split times. I can guess my swim, the bike computer gives me good data but I'm really just guessing on T times and the run. That's a real pain.
Part 1 - My Performance.
Preparation. Well it started OK but quickly fell away. I was up nice and early, got everything ready and was on the road in plenty of time. Driving through Melbourne early on a Sunday morning is pretty easy and so I got to the race venue with plenty of time to spare. As a result I had plenty of time to rue forgetting both the bidons I'd taken off the bike last night, filled with sports drink and carefully put (and then left) in the fridge. Bugger. Still, as it turned out this wasnt that much of a drama. My new tri club was giving out bidons to new members (score!) and there was a drinking water dispenser so I was in business.
Apart from that everything else was pretty routine. I got into my gear with time to spare thanks to the guys from mtc for helping me do up my wetsuit (did I buy a size too small? I worry its too tight). I was at the beach 15 minutes before my wave listening to the pa guy patter wondering if I would ever get to swim. One thing I remember him saying was to check the timing chips were on properly, I wish I'd listened to that more carefully!!! Anyway after what felt like hours of waiting suddenly I was off and wondering where the time went.
Swim. I have never really needed a warm up when swimming, my body just drops into the routine and off we go. And so it was today. To be honest the conditions sucked, it was windy generating a fair surface chop but underlying that were were relatively strong waves driving you off course if you weren't careful. For a few minutes this had me worried. And my wetsuit felt odd (really, is it too small?), but then I saw I was out on my own, but in a good way. I'd opened up a little gap on most of my wave and appeared to be doing comparatively well. Despite constant course checks and corrections I soon caught people from the wave before me and I really started to feel good (perhaps this wetsuit is the right size). Turning for the return leg was not as satisfying as I had hoped. I'd half expected a bit of a surf back to the beach but alas no, while the chop was easier it wasn't exactly helpful either. As it was however I got out of the water OK and ready for the ride.
T1. I didn't do this well. It annoys me that I put all this effort into passing people in the water and then then breeze past me in:
a. The run up the beach.
b. The actual transition area.
c. The run out to the mounting area.
Seriously, I really have to do better here.
Ride. Well I didn't fall off when trying to mount so I did better than a bunch of others but that's a pretty low bar. All I really wanted to do was not shame my bike. That's sounds a bit silly, but basically with my new Wilier Imperiele I should be significantly faster than the Avanti Giro I rode in my previous tri. In that race, which like this one was on a basically flat course with some rollers and a gentle headwind in one direction and obviously a little tailwind the other way, I averaged around 26 kph for 10 k's. I also note that I was 12 kg lighter and a fair bit fitter by today as well. So broadly I was hoping to average 30 kph or better for 20 k's. Today I averaged 36 kph, only occasionally dipping under 30 kph on some of the hills and occasionally hitting 48 kph on the down slopes. Frankly I could have gone a lot faster downhill but I was hitting the average speed I had targeted, I was only occasionally getting overtaken and then by people way more serious than me so I let the gears spin out and gave my legs a rest before the run. All in all I couldn't have hoped for better. Oh, and I maintained form pretty much the whole race, the only times I dropped out of the aero position were the tight corners at the ends of the course and when standing in the climbs so all in all more happiness.
T2. Learning my lesson from T1 I pushed harder through here and did better but an important lesson here, speedplay pedals are great for riding, they suck at running.
Run. One word, slow! First I misread the course and believed I had 2 laps to run so went out easy and was getting really disheartened when the turn around I believed was just 1.2k from the start simply wouldn't come. Then I saw the 2k sign and quickly figured out my mistake. Clearly I was doing better than I'd feared, this freed up my mind more than anything and I started running easier. But all in all it was slow. Worse, I finished feeling great making we think I had left way to much in the tank. I need to step up my training with running to get used to more speed as I have the fitness, rather it seems my legs and head have just locked themselves into a plod that is safe but a lot less than I'm capable of.
Overall. Well lets start with the bad. Somewhere out on the course I lost my timing chip so I didn't officially finish. That's OK really. It wasn't an ironman, there was no finishing t shirt and at the moment I'm still more of a completer than a competer and I know I finished, I ran under that bloody arch, but still its annoying. Worse, I don't have good split times. I can guess my swim, the bike computer gives me good data but I'm really just guessing on T times and the run. That's a real pain.
Another lesson. take care of that stuff in the event. A few seconds to check timing chips, numbers etc can save an entire event.
Anyway, the good. Finishing is never going to be an issue for a sprint tri again. This might sound silly to those readers completing iron events but this was my second tri ever and first 'full' distance sprint event, finishing and knowing I can finish any event like this is a big deal to me a will let me approach future events a lot more aggressively. The swim, despite terrible conditions was good, that wetsuit may still be half a size to small but it really helps and I'm so glad I have it. The ride was way better than I could have hoped for. The run, well, I need to do more of those intervals and tempo runs the magazines say but lets not overlook it was still quite possibly the fastest 5k I've ever run.
So, I'm pumped, I'm happy and I cant wait for the next one.
Anyway, the good. Finishing is never going to be an issue for a sprint tri again. This might sound silly to those readers completing iron events but this was my second tri ever and first 'full' distance sprint event, finishing and knowing I can finish any event like this is a big deal to me a will let me approach future events a lot more aggressively. The swim, despite terrible conditions was good, that wetsuit may still be half a size to small but it really helps and I'm so glad I have it. The ride was way better than I could have hoped for. The run, well, I need to do more of those intervals and tempo runs the magazines say but lets not overlook it was still quite possibly the fastest 5k I've ever run.
So, I'm pumped, I'm happy and I cant wait for the next one.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Competition. A nervous night.
I am anything but a hardened pro at this triathlon lark. In fact I am only one sleep away competing in just my second ever triathlon. And this one is totally unlike my first.
That first, wonderful, triathlon was a little club event with about 50 competitors in a sleepy little town just north of Newcastle. There was no pressure, the officials were able to provide enormous encouragement and patience to this newbie while other competitors were keen to see their new club member enjoy the experience. Tomorrow will be very different. The Gatorade series of tri's are big events and it really only struck me today at registration. Yeah, that was the first surprise, registration the day before the event. All the stickers, the timing chip, multiple wave starts etc are so different. And worse, turning up to an event knowing nobody, having no support and just hoping I can muddle my way through is just a little daunting.
In fact it became so daunting I've joined a second tri club. Is that legal? Dunno but I did it. So now I belong to Tomaree Tri Club back home in NSW, and Melbourne Tri Club here in, you guessed it, Melbourne. I picked Melbourne last week purely on the basis that they are big enough to run a support tent at every Gatorade event and help me as I find my feet. I'm certain that as I get a few of these under my belt and the mystery evaporates it will all be a lot easier but right now I'm glad I'm not alone.
As for the actual racing? To be honest I feel pretty good. I still havent done near enough swimming but I'm confident I can splash my way through 750m while the ride and run should be pretty routine. I havent got goal times for anything yet. My last tri was some months ago and half this distance but since then I've got a lot stronger, fitter and 13kg lighter so while I am feeling confident I dont know enough to even guess at likely/possible times.
Well, wish me luck, tomorrow I promise a race report and some lessons and new goals.
That first, wonderful, triathlon was a little club event with about 50 competitors in a sleepy little town just north of Newcastle. There was no pressure, the officials were able to provide enormous encouragement and patience to this newbie while other competitors were keen to see their new club member enjoy the experience. Tomorrow will be very different. The Gatorade series of tri's are big events and it really only struck me today at registration. Yeah, that was the first surprise, registration the day before the event. All the stickers, the timing chip, multiple wave starts etc are so different. And worse, turning up to an event knowing nobody, having no support and just hoping I can muddle my way through is just a little daunting.
In fact it became so daunting I've joined a second tri club. Is that legal? Dunno but I did it. So now I belong to Tomaree Tri Club back home in NSW, and Melbourne Tri Club here in, you guessed it, Melbourne. I picked Melbourne last week purely on the basis that they are big enough to run a support tent at every Gatorade event and help me as I find my feet. I'm certain that as I get a few of these under my belt and the mystery evaporates it will all be a lot easier but right now I'm glad I'm not alone.
As for the actual racing? To be honest I feel pretty good. I still havent done near enough swimming but I'm confident I can splash my way through 750m while the ride and run should be pretty routine. I havent got goal times for anything yet. My last tri was some months ago and half this distance but since then I've got a lot stronger, fitter and 13kg lighter so while I am feeling confident I dont know enough to even guess at likely/possible times.
Well, wish me luck, tomorrow I promise a race report and some lessons and new goals.
Monday, September 12, 2011
First triathlon completed - now I just want more!
Mt first triathlon is done and I loved it! I want to do it again but better. Still I'm glad I've got a few more weeks of training because as much as part of me just wants to go again the part of me that remembers how badly I dealt with some tiny hills, a gentle head wind and the odd little dip and rise on the run knows I need to train more.
What do I need to do:
1. I need to keep losing weight. On the morning of the tri I weighed 112 kgs. Not bad considering I was 128 when I started getting ready for this back in May but still too heavy. Next race is in four weeks and I want to be in the 108-109 range at least.
2. I need to work on my swimming. I was the first out of the water (in the very small field doing the short course) but I did bugger all training. I did very, very little training in the water before this event, I can make this a lot faster relatively easily.
3. I have to build more hills into my riding. I'm ok on the flat but being a fat bastard the hills really hurt and I need to work on this in training so that I dont go to pieces in the race.
4. I need to stretch my running distance.
Ok, so those are the lessons. But what were my results? Well remember, for my first ever triathlon I did a tiddler, a half sprint;a 250m swim, 10k ride, 2.5k run. And my times were 4:57 (swim), 25:28 (ride), 16:09 (run). I didnt achieve the tao of tri though - my form sucked, my transitions were the definition of sloppy and I had to fight my body on a couple of occasions. But still I'm starting.
My next race is 2 Oct. I'm planning to do another half sprint. My plan is to go a little better across the board. Depending on how that goes I could be attacking a full course sprint in November. Stay tuned for more.
What do I need to do:
1. I need to keep losing weight. On the morning of the tri I weighed 112 kgs. Not bad considering I was 128 when I started getting ready for this back in May but still too heavy. Next race is in four weeks and I want to be in the 108-109 range at least.
2. I need to work on my swimming. I was the first out of the water (in the very small field doing the short course) but I did bugger all training. I did very, very little training in the water before this event, I can make this a lot faster relatively easily.
3. I have to build more hills into my riding. I'm ok on the flat but being a fat bastard the hills really hurt and I need to work on this in training so that I dont go to pieces in the race.
4. I need to stretch my running distance.
Ok, so those are the lessons. But what were my results? Well remember, for my first ever triathlon I did a tiddler, a half sprint;a 250m swim, 10k ride, 2.5k run. And my times were 4:57 (swim), 25:28 (ride), 16:09 (run). I didnt achieve the tao of tri though - my form sucked, my transitions were the definition of sloppy and I had to fight my body on a couple of occasions. But still I'm starting.
My next race is 2 Oct. I'm planning to do another half sprint. My plan is to go a little better across the board. Depending on how that goes I could be attacking a full course sprint in November. Stay tuned for more.
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