Tri Series Wellington - race repot -

Wellington is the venue for the standard distance Nationals, It has been like this for the past 5 or 6 years, and being located in the middle of the two islands there is an element of fairness to it in regards to access from all tri clubs and tri fans to get their butts in gear for the event.  The race organization is always top notch and I said before that I love the city so much that I cannot say anything bad about Welly. 

We are lucky enough to race in the waterfront and port area, that means an early start so vehicle and marine traffic can be disrupted as little as possible. This is a minor inconvenience for the athletes, as it is not quite daylight yet, and we get pretty dark race starts. 

Preparation for this race has been solid, with a few very interesting workouts, I knew I was in top shape 8 days before the race, and the tapper week was welcome as a final sharpening up. 

The Swim and T1 (22.38)

My swim exit from 2years ago
funny that I exited the water in same times

The swim is a deep water start, we walk to a pontoon in a marina a swim a counter-clockwise box. Deep water starts are a different animal and you have to make the most of your explosive speed trying to get the body in motion and up to race speed in those first 20 odd seconds. There is no momentumm from a previous run or dolphin dives. I am very methodical on this front, and ducked under the cover of the top swimmers of our age group. I expected to be on their feet the whole time. Someone else had different plans for me, as I was swam over and across twice in the first 150m. I had decided to stay right and a large pack was swimming to my left. Our little pack of 6 kept swimming at a good pace and 50m from the first buoy a few guys veered right and I styed in clean water in a straight line to the turn. I managed to turn OK and catch the large pack in the front. It was an easier swim until the second buoy and then smaller groups started to spread out. I was in a group of 4 and we worked together until the last 200m when someone sprinted and I didn't follow. At two points in the swim I thought I've seen my mates Martin and Carl passing me, but it turned out not to be them. I exited the water in good shape, yet a bit high on the heart rate. T1 was a flash, I had arm warmers on from the swim and the wetsuit left off pretty well, I think I even passed a couple of guys. There was three or four bikes out of our rack, so pretty happy to be on the top of the age group swimmers.

The bike and T2 (1.07.33)

My bike is always trouble, but I am a very hard worker and was waiting for moderate improvements in this area. To support that objective I got myself a pair of racing wheels (zipps 404's) from Elite Race Rentals. If you're in NZ and need to buy speed, go and visit their website, great prices and great service. Anyway, I thought I'd buy myself a couple of minutes of with these babies. And what difference do they make, I felt I was on a formula 1 bike. The perfect rolling of the wheels, the sound of them cutting through the wind, it all helps you go faster. Anyway, I left T1 and was having a bit of trouble to get my heart rate up and I wasnt doing much speed for the first 3-5 km. I'm always passed by a couple of dozen people, but this time it was only three or four, and then my mate Carl, flew past. I got my arse in gear and I was on a mission. There was this man in an road-cone-orange race suit a good couple of 100m ahead of me, and it looked like we were doing same kind of speeds. I got him as my carrot and worked for about 7km to catch and pass him. Once I passed him another guy from my age group passed me and we kind of stayed in touch for the next 10km, (i'd pass him on the flat head winds, he'd pass me on the little hills). At the turnaround mark I knew I was in the top 25 or 30 of the whole field. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the big bunch with the top guys of my age group was only 2min ahead. I made the decision then to do whatever I could on the bike not to loose more time on them. As I turned around I saw my other mate, Martin about 45 secs behind. That was my second mission, not let Martin catch me and if I was passed hang on to him with all I had. 

I passed the the other age group guy and picked a couple of hundred meters on him, and that was the last person I passed. A guy in a road bike cought me and it looked like he was in a mission too. I made sure I was on the draft legal distance and stayed behind him for a few km. I passed him at thr 35km mark and didn't look back. As I approached T2 I did two little mistakes. #1 was to try to get my armwarmers off while I was riding on the aero bars. I should have been on my brake hoods and it would have been soo much easier. #2 was to take my shoes off too soon, which ended up in me losing a bit of time on the last km. T2 was fast but I should have not worried about taking the armwarmers for there, and do it while I was running. 

The run (35.51)

Valen running 2 years ago (note
The tired head and arms)

As  I ran off T2 I saw Martin getting ready and cheered him. I know him and I run pretty much the same times (he's slightly better off the bike, but only 5 to 10 seconds on 5km), so that gave me a good way to monitor progress. I explained the run in my previous post, nice and flat, not a lot of turns. I tought I've packed my running legs, and I did. But I should have packed the best-shape-of-my-life running legs, and I sadly didn't. I had the expectation that I'd run sub-34 for this race and to do that I knew that each 2.5km  needed to be 8.30 or less. I got to the first turn on 8.53 and feeling good, I pushed a bit harder and got to the halfway mark in 17.45. Not too far, and really pumped, i kept pushing but I couldn't get any faster (a bi of wind, maybe?). By now most of the field was on the course I came across many mates and gave them a bit of cheer and high fives. I passed about 6 people on the first lap and another 6 on the second. When I did the last turn at the 7.5km mark I went as hard as I could, there was two guys at about 150m and I said to myself that it would be a shame if they turned out to beat me and be on the same age group. I passed the first one with 1km to go and the second one with 400m to go. Then I took a deep breath and went with all my might. I crossed the line really happy to had given my all. It turned out that the last guy I passed was on my age group.

The balance

Overall is good, but I will have a more detailed balance in tomorow's post. 

stay tuned, 

The tapper week

WOW!, can’t believe I’ve come to be so busy lately. I’m 2 days from race day and the tapper weeks has been a busy one as well.


It all started with a day off on Sunday, which I used to sleep till 9 in the morning and get a lot of chores done so to have a cruizy week. Monday was a hard swim, and a hard run (the last big workouts), the swim went well, but the run was forced to stop due to a recall from my quad injury. Fortunately, it was only a minor scare and I although I haven’t run since, I know it won’t be a problem on Race day. Tuesday was a short TT, with personal best time. Then another swim on Wednesday (only 50min) and a bit of spinning to keep the legs in motion.

Those are the workouts, but the most important two things during tapper week are Rest and Stretching. It is never too late to stretch and there is nothing as too much rest. I’ve kept those two thoughts on the top of my list, and I am in great shape, both physically and mentally, so let’s talk about the race.

Wellington Oly distance race:
The venue and the swim

Welly is the city I like more in NZ, the place where I’d love to live. They say that you can’t beat Wellington on a nice day, but nice days are apparently the exception and not the rule. We are fortunate enough to have the marine traffic stopped for our race and we swim in the middle of the Lambton Harbour, the area is protected and there won’t be more than a moderate swell. I’ve had a mix of experiences in the past, from a power swim to an average-middle-of-the-pack paddle. The temperature is a big factor, and if it is not too much below 15 degrees air temperature we should be fine for a swim of around 20min.
The bike
This is the gamebreaker of this race. You either have it or you don’t. The course is an out and back that follows the coastline and clifflines of Wellington’s harbour and the mouth of the Cook straight. There will be wind blowing, the strength of that wind will influence the results big time. In my personal experience I prefer the wind to be moderate to strong, as although it is a bit of a pain when it is on one’s head, it is great aid when it’s on the tail. My calculations are that as I am not the strongest biker I’ll lose about 5% (2-3km/h) on the headwind to the top age grouper. But we’ll be only 2% apart on the tailwind sessions. That is thanks to my newly found leg strength-endurance. The cold factor won’t be a disadvantage, and the legs should fire OK.
The Run
It is very simple, flat out and back 2 lap course. Only 5 turns in the whole race (out of T2, turnaround, lap1, turnaround, in to finish shoot). We’ll be all getting off the bikes around the 60 to 65 minutes. At this time there will be a gentle breeze. The tactic for this session is to go as hard as I can. Hopefully I’ll be on the top 20% of the field and on a good day my run should prop me onto the top 10%. We’ll see how it goes.

in the hurtbox

yeah.... it is one of those weeks in the year where I am in the hurtbox.
the programme reads "hard week", whic makes it harder is that it is coming on top of an already hard week that involved a 40km TT and good running as well.
I'm 9 days from the A race date and I should be close to the top of my fitness. the last couple of weeks (well, actually since the Kinloch race) I have come to the realization that it has been really easy for me to het in the hurtbox during those key workouts. Probably the best learning of the season so far.  There is a fine line between being able to access the hurtbox and smashing every session and ending up with burnout sindrome and It looks like I've managed to get the point.
Monday was a double whammy with 3 200m swims under 2.30 (which is good time for me) and a superset with a couple of 3.30min/km. Tuesday was a PB on the 25km TT and I backed it up with a decent 1500m TT at the pool.
Top top things up I started my new job on Monday (I got a promotion) and I also started two papers at uni.... it's been a very long 4 days, but I'm in goods spirits.

Keep tuned for Pure Blonde race report

Three weeks to go

Friday I was given the final part of the programme for the oly distance national champs.
i realized it's less than 20 day to race day and I got a strange sad feeling, like saying goodbye to a good friend that's out for a long trip.
Anyway, I was sad for a bit and the next minute I was busy trying to translate all the scribbling from my diary to the coache's format. Trying to merge the writing that took me 5 weeks to put together into a spreadsheet is a bit of a mission, but I think I'll be done by mid week. I have to provide comments and perceived effort for each and every session, and then we'll check if I've stuck to the programme or not and what trends come in.
Then it was work, and training and sleeping (friday) and training and more sleeping and chilling (and some darn good baking on Saturday) and training and off to the races (on Sunday).
This time it was not me racing, but going to cheer my mates Gordo, Ro, Josie, Alesha and watching the pro's race on the city centre at Takapuna beach, a great city spot and a great race in baking hot conditions.

in the battle of the sport drinks  Mizone beat Powerade

Bev Docherty beat Kris Gemmell on the final sprint and they showed how much of a leap there is between the first and second tier athletes in the sport. I think it's good and it should keep all of the guys on the second bunch hungrier and more determined to get there and kick ass.
Back to my favourite subject (me and my training), there was a couple of nice surprises in the programme, like 2 Sundays off and a week with 2 days off in total... this is a first time ever kind of thing, so I thought I'll have to celebrate it by sleeping in.
19 days to go, I won't probably get any fitter than I am now, but I should get faster, and leaner, and more determined than ever to get to the podium.

Sprint-man-I-am

2011 is here and what a best way to start it than with a race report.

Contact Tri series, race 2 - Whangamata - 3 Jan 2011

The NZ calendar is set up to always have a good break and many workplaces are empty until at least 4 Jan, year after year. It gives people the opportunity to fly off to the beach, the lake, the mountains or wherever they're more pleased with. Whangamata is one of those holiday spots, a beautiful surf beach on the Coromandel peninsula. The race has been going on for over 20 years and now it is part of the 8 that make the series that is sponsored and run by TriNZ. I did this race 3 years ago and I remember suffering on the bike, it is a hilly course and to top it up it involves running in the sand for about 2km of the 5km run. Both times I've done sprint distance. The first time because it was my second race. Ever. This time around I chose the sprint for more tactical reasons. The Sprints nationals are 4 weeks away and this race could be a benchmark as I haven't done a sprint tri since worlds 2009 in OZ. The second reason was that it is a holiday and I didn't wanna hurt a lot : ).

The Swim

The race start is gentleman's hours 8am and the surf was on there were 2 and 3 feet waves breaking from 100m to the shore, that's fun to get in and more fun to get out, bodysurfing. My mate Martin was doing the sprint as well and Reado and the coach were doing the standard as a team as well as Kevin. In the girls field, Alesha was doing sprint distance. We're off, Martin is on my side for the first 100m and then I lost him after a big wave that I ducked into and he might have taken full face. I tried to power through the first buoy and then got a bit carried away and kept the pace to the second buoy which is also the turnaround to the beach. As I kept swimming I was trying to catch waves and bodysurf, but I wasn't lucky this time and had to be content with not being too delayed with the backcurrent. I got off the water in the top 15 (bloody 13 and 15 year olds can swim these days)

The bike

I had a fast transition and was mounting the bike with the same people I ran from the water. It all went well and no one passed me until km7, which is a good sign. I even managed to go past a few kids down the hills, unfortunately they would catch me later on when weight does matter. Martin flew past me at km 7 and I tried to hang on to him. By the turnaround he was 20 to 30 seconds ahead, but I had to slow down to zero right after as someone came off the bike at the top of a hill, as it was low speed it was a harmless business, but it cost me half a minute. I was off the plot for a bit and three or 4 guys went past me. I hung on for as much as I could and finished the bike 2min off what I would have preferred. I was still in the top 20 off T2.

The run

the good news was that the running legs were there, I started running fresh and I didn't feel the need for gels or water or anything. That boosted my morale and I just kept running. I've forgotten how nice of a race this is: running on the hard sand with the sea washing one's feet, with a great sight of sea, woody ranges and blue skies, it just doesn't get any better.

There were two laps and I did identical times for both of them, without being too much on the absolute red zone. I kind of regret it a bit, as I finished 11th, 20seconds from a top 10.
The run split was the 4th overall and it helped me to secure the first place in the age group.

Balance
I've been in a base-unstructured-holiday-ish kind of training since Rotovegas half and I've enjoyed the training, but more importantly, I've enjoyed the rest of what happens in my life. The race was a reflection of that and I am very very pleased with it as it showed me that I am where I want to be and that the tri life and the real life are in a perfect harmony at the moment. The sprint distance is such a great way of racing, I wish I hadn't let so much time run between races. I'm looking forward to Nationals now, and see where I can get.

There's more to come on the holiday, the Lance and a few fresh photos. Stay tuned.

Rotorua HIM pre-race thoughts

The race organizers sell it as the best half in New Zealand, with the most beautiful 2km swim, 90km bike and 21km run on offer. I’d say they are undoubtedly the best HIM of the North Island, but the short version of Challenge Wanaka is quite a scenic route all over, but I can’t comment coz I haven’t done it.

Rotorua is a premier within NZ, sitting in the heart of a geothermal system, it has plenty to offer the tourists; from hot water natural springs to outstanding geothermal parks. For the sporty kind, this is an off-road paradise. X-terra NZ is hosted in Rotorua, as well as many MTB and trail races. It is also known as Rotovegas, because of its resemblance to sin city (I think this is quite a nonsense, though)

Anyway, this was my first HIM 2 years ago and my personal worst in the distance. In my defence I have to say that my parents arrived for a visit one day before the race, and there were nerves of all sort going on. And I blew up big time on the bike. But a good day out and I even got a spot prize (a wetsuit for my lovely wife)

The Swim

The course changed from the last time I swam it. It used to be a 1 lapper and now it’s changed to a 2 lapper on the other side of the lake. The lake itself is a great spot with no current or any other hiccups, will benefit the more streamlined swimmers because of the freshwater. A good thing is that I can drink all the water I need during the swim. It shouldn’t be hard to go under 30, but you never know.

The bike

It winds down from the blue lake through the red forest and onto the airport road, then there’s a couple of bumps on the way to lake tarawera and then back home the same way. I am doing an innocent desctiption here, the course profile may help me better.

The first time I went sub-3hr. I hope I can be around 2.45 this time around. And keep some legs for later.

The run

This is the most awesome half marathon I’ve ever done. It is a full off-road run that circles the blue lake twice and goes through a fine gravel path to a forestry operation and further on to the buried village. The upside is the amount of shade you get around the lake area. The downside is the hills, steps and bumps all over the place, but it is good fun. It didn’t look like fun in 2008, though, when I ran a 1.52. I am hoping to stay under 90mins.

The athlete

This was the last A race of the year but it has been downgraded due to my enforced rest a few weeks back. Training since mid October has been steady, with a few nice surprises in the test sets. The body weight is floating between 72 and 74 and should stay there for the next month. The heart rate readings in the morning have been coming down from the last week. There’s two or three more days to bring it even further down. Sleep has been below average, it is a worry that will sure sort itself out after the holiday.

The plan

I need to stop at the bike shop to get gels, CO2’s, killer instinct and a pair of climbing legs. Then it’s gonna be like this: swim hard for the first half lap, then stay in a good group and see what happens. On the bike, get to halfway point in 1.20 and take it easy for 5km, hit is hard after that and kill those hills. You never know how the legs will be for the run, but if they are OK we’ll be running 8km real good and then see what happens.

Race Report - The Great NZ Santa run

Being Santa in the Southern hemisphere is a hard job. Not only you have to endure the summer heat and heat waves in the core of the solstice, but you have also a hard time trying to find raindeer.
Some colleagues and I decided to enter this charity event that supports the KidsCan foundation. KidsCan does a great job in helping children achieve big things, or small ones, but making sure they do what children must do and have all they need in terms of food, education, and support networks.

The race is only an excuse to get people together and raise some much needed funds. The circuit was a 3km that was later changed to a 2.5km for safety reasons, and there was about 300 santas on the start line.

My warm-up was very poor but I avoided the cravings for a beer and a pie at O'Hagans. We did a few stretches (see photo attached) and then the race was on. I swear I saw people with the Nike Lunar races and other racing flats gear. I said to my mates that we only needed to stay in the front group.

We run in a bunch of 20 for the first 500m and then the pace picked up a bit, the bunch went down to 7 or 8 th. By the halfway point my heart rate started to pick up and I was breathing my own facial hair (see photo), so I decided to go for bigger strides. It turned out the first three guys upped the tempo a bit more. All the field was coming the other way and we had to negotiate our way through a lot of santas, my side jumping skills came handy at this point and I had a clean ride. Some other weren't that lucky and I heard a few bumped into each other in the heat of the race.

The last km was less chaotic and I was able to stick to the front guys, there was a final turnaround and 400m to go, someone launched a sprint and I tried to follow but had no legs, then the old diesel engine picked up and I managed to finish 2nd in a time of 7.20.  I rolled through the line in joy.

All in all a good fun race, I'll make sure next year I get a proper running programme and a tapper week for the event.

Ho Ho Ho!

Lagged and settled

OK. We made it back home after a furiously busy week of sightseing, catching up with mates, little sleep and amazing places. It's after 1 in the morning, so this is not going to be long, I need to adjust my body to the work and train routines again.Been so busy was not ideal for recovery, but I was not worried about upcoming events. It was all about Nat (and some reflection time in the spare time). We flew to London via Prague, train to south west UK, train to London, train to Paris, train to London again and flight to Dubai, Brunei and Auckland.

In the meantime I had little time to any negative thoghts and ample time to pan out where all this is going. What I want to do for next seeason.
In my evaluation of the race I found great things and some not so great. Among the good things I reckon that the preparation was excellent, both from the coaching perspective and from my execution and discipline. I managed to do everything by the book and the form I was in 2 weeks ago was the best I could had. It was also good to try a new bike and see the posibilities, there's plenty of room for improvement from just finding a good fitting bike.
The third good thing was been able to come with serious shit coming my way. This ranks in my bottom 3 triathlon races ever. On the other two I got a DNF and a 2.45.00 finish because I ran like a little miss. On this one I managed a PB and managed not to draw on the negative things. I even enjoyed the last 3km of the run which I ran in 10minutes and cheered up everybody that I went past.
Among the not so good stuff I rank the bike fitting as a major decider. The only reason for the seat to go down is that it was not properly tightened, and that is only my fault. Transitions and swim starts in the open water is something that I need to improve as well. And racing, I need more racing experience.
As I was thinking about all of this in bits and pieces I realized that I had invested a lot more than I thought in this race, both in dollars and in emotions, and not achieving my objectives was a real bummer. I guess having other races to relate to would give me some perspective, so next post will be a general outlook of what I've planned for the next season.
Thanks everyone for the support in the comments and the emails, it was really humbling.

Date: 20 Sept
Time: 60min
Sport: Running
Dist: 12.2km
Comment: recovery run

Triathlon world champs - Budapest 12 Sept 2010 - Race Report

The start

Race day couldn't come fast enough, all the hours of training and the trip and the money invested in many things had a sole purpose, and it was to get me to 12 Sept 2010 in the best nic to have a great race. 

Our wave start was at 7.30 and transition was open for us between 5.30 and 6.30. 

The night before was a small pasta meal with a special turkey, tomato and muzzarella sauce. I love having either bolognese or chicken and tomato on my pasta on the day before the races. I was on my own in the apartment so I set the laptop with a lot of good motivational videos (Grant Hackett vs. Kieren Perkins qualifying to the Sidney 2000 Olympics, the 1500m at the Sydney 200o Olympics, some Macca stuff and other triathlon videos) I crashed at about 9pm with everything ready for a quick transition in the Morning. I had a pleasant sleep with no turning and tossing.

We woke up at 4.30 and I downed 3 gels and a light breakfast (banana, honey and toast and a big coffee). 

Out we went, fortunately there was a shuttle to the venue from a site 200m away from where we stayed. Transition and setup was fun, they had us grouped by nation so there we were, all the kiwi representatives cracking jokes and getting all things ready. We had an hour to stretch and warm up and so we did.

Once through the first gate we had some time and space to stretch and warm up a bit. A few minutes later we were ushered to the pre start II area where there was little space available so I kind of went into my racing zone and shut the rest of the world out. Amazingly enough, this time I didn't feel the nerves or the goosebumps of last years and I was sure of how everything was going to be. Walking through the pontoon I was readying the moves to come in the next 5 minutes.  We had to jump into the river and find a spot, so we did and I have to say that it was quite a cold one. Temperature was 16 degrees celcious, which is OK some times but some other times gets quite cold (depending on one's body fat and so on). 

The venue was a lake on the riverside of the Danube, an area that might have been parklands some time but judging for the state and taste of the water receives some industrial effluents. The course I already spoke about in a previous post, it was an M shaped 1500 loop.

The swim -   Predicted time: 20.20 - Actual time 22.00

The gun went off and we all set off, the first 50m were the expected carnage but I found clear water right after, I kept going through my business at a high stroke rate and high power until 300m mark. The tactic was that my mate Reado would stick to my feet and hang on. I was going about the stuff and suddenly I noted that I wasn't able to keep a 3 strokes breathing rhythm. I changed to 2 strokes and kept going for another 50m and still feeling short of air, I just kept going until I could no more and I ducked up to check my heart rate. It was 198bpm. I checked again to make sure, and it indeed was through the roof, while doing that I saw Reado going by so I try to hang on to his feet to no avail. I had to slow down my pace for some time until I felt a bit better. The next 300m was a bit of a dark patch but I turned around the first buoy and started to feel better. It was time to play some catch up and I made sure I kept a good pace for the remaining of the swim (about 800m). I passed quite a good number of people on the way, I counted 25, but it may be more like 40 because the field was quite spread. Counting people and strokes certainly helped to keep things under control and I exited the water feeling good besides the setback. 

 -  the race goes on - 

The bike -  predicted time 62min - Actual time 54min

Transitions in these massive events are long and messy, and the rain the days before had left the place quite muddy and wet. I did the best I could to go, take my wettie, put the sunnies, helmet and race belt and go out biking. The moment I jumped onto my bike I felt the seat go down. I didn't pay attention and kept going for the first 3km as hard as I could to stay in touch with the people around.  It was when I tried to get on my bars and then I realized that the seat had indeed go down almost two inches. I tried to stay positive and think what would be better. I opted to stay on my bull bars for the rest of the race as it would not crunch me a lot and make my back sore. The bike course was pretty flat, the road wasn't pretty smooth with plenty of cracks, holes and manhole covers which made it entertained enough for on to go as hard as possible. There was a group of 8 or 9 of us that stuck pretty much together for the first of 3 laps, then new people kept coming to the course (the waves starting after us) so it got a bit messy to say it nicely. I managed to pass a few people on the bike, and get passed by another few. Overall this is an improvement to many of my other races where I suffer a lot on the bike. Towards the end the legs started to feel the low seat position so I tried to ensure no cramps would pop up, 

The run -   predicted time 34.40 actual time 36.40

Transition two was same as T1, which is a shame because T2 is usually less work to be done. Off I went to the run, another kiwi guy was exiting transition at the same time, I cheered him and kept going. The course was from the transition area towards the Buda part of Budapest, the across a nice old bridge to the Pest Side and a loop around the old Pest centre, back again through the bridge and a smaller loop, back to the Pest side and into the finishing shut. The first 2km of the run were a bit of trouble and then the engine started going better, there was a brit guy about 300m ahead that was my carrot, and another bunch 1km ahead that I intended to catch up with towards the business end. I managed to pass the Brit boy before the first bridge crossing, then I kind of got into a better pace and the second bunch was caught before the start of the final small loop. The final lap was what I was had been prepared for this whole season. I had been through so many of the supersets that running fast while tired was not a problem. I put the gas down and made it hour for 9 minutes and I managed to pass quite a few guys from other age groups as well. At some point on the second half of the run I realized that a sub 2 hours was within reach, so that was the carrot that motivated me to keep going hard. Crossing the finish line in under 2 hours was something rewarding. Right after it sunk in that I hadn't been among the expected time, but I was still OK. My mate read was waiting on the recovery area, he made it to the top 10 for the second time, we shook hands and had a laugh while waiting for our other mate Gordon. 

Mixed feelings 

I am not entirely happy with how the race went. If I raced the same race in the same conditions 3 times again I am pretty sure the results would be way more positive, but guess I have to live with it the best I can. I had set two objectives before coming to worlds, one of them was to finish in the top 10/15% of the field, the other one was to go under 2 hours. The idea was that going under 2 hours would pretty much guarantee the other result, but it didn't quite work like that. I was not hoping for a 40th place and it hurts. On the other hand, there were plenty of things that I learned and that I managed to do OK. The most important one was to think on my feet and make the right decision about change to the bike racing plan. The second one is managing to leave any negative thoughts aside while racing and keep going to the best of my ability. There is still plenty of room for improvement, and the next couple of weeks will be about planning how to make them happen. 

What's next?

I'm on a train from Southampton to London, off to Paris for 2 days and back to NZ by the weekend. There's plenty of time to sit and plan the next season, whether or not to stay racing short distance and what races to do in the upcoming summer. The road to Budapest will cease to exist, but it will be the road to somewhere.  For now it will be a small holiday and some wine tasting and a couple of beers with english and argentinean and kiwi and brazilian friends. 

It has been quite a trip, literally. 

Why is it over so soon?

I'm done. The race finished. At the moment I've got a mix of emotion, not all of them good.

I did a time of 1.59.24 that got me the 40th accross the line.

I'm a bit bummed with my swim and my run, but I guess I'll leave it settle for a couple of hours and post my race report then.

Thanks to everyone following I did draw on many of your words while racing.

See you soon!

1 day to go!

So this is the end of the road. 

I'm in Budapest. In less than 24 hours I'll be in the pontoon same as my mates Ro and Sarah did today.

There is plenty still to be done but we'll get there. (bike racking, helmet check, rest, rest rest get things ready). 

the lads saying good luck to Ro

I just had my second breakfast of the day and will go to see the elites race.  There will be more to come in the afternoon, but I can't assure you it will be thoughtful, or even coherent. 

My race tomorrow starts at 7.30 local time. 5.30pm New Zealand time and it is something like 6am Argentina's time. 

the link to follow us racing and finishing is:

http://live.triathlon.org/2010_dextro_energy_triathlon_-_itu_triathlon_world_championship_grand_final/

There are tracking points after the swim, turn 2 and 3 of the bike and 2 turns of the run. 

Stay tuned, today more than ever

Bye

2 days to go - out and about

One of the dangers of this kind of events is loosing the balance between the need to rest and build up for the race, the many things to see and do and the many other things that one MUST do.

Yesterday and today was a bit like that with team briefing, registration, swim course checking, training, checking out the expo and the the Opening Ceremony at the end of the day. Here's some photos and thoughts.

mates at registration. Registration was good, no qeues and no dramas.

Pontoon for elites and AG start. we start with a hand on the pontoon (no diving)

Opening Ceremony and the parade of Nations. Having been on my feet for a lot of time in the afternoon, I only stayed there for some time and the left for home, sofa and a meal. Didn't want to get too tired. 

Kiwi boys doing the HAKA, I'll do it in the closing ceremony, only if I'm proud of what I've achieved.

Last swim training of this campaign. I may sneak another session, but not a big one.  We're all looking lean as and ready to race. And we are all looking forward to hit the hungarian pastries right after the race, : )

2 days to go - patience pays

My mum left a comment a couple of posts ago where she said I'd said one time 20 years ago that I'd made it to London to improve my english and now it all came true. Patrick's post the other day made another reference to how it turned out that the free yourself tee he got me had made it to london and how it represents a twist on his state of affairs from some years back. 

It all made me think how funny thinks work in life, and how amazing is that in turn, many things just happen if we have the patience to let them happen (and a bit of luck is involved a well) and the time to wait for them. 

20 years ago I was leaving childhood for something better, and the world didn't extend beyond three or four cities that I would travel to to visit family, spend a holiday or play football. London was a place in the map where I had no idea I would finish en route to race my race in Budapest. Many things changed, but the child of them is probably somewhere here with a big grin in his face. There's a lot to do with choices one makes and doors that one opens or closes for good, bad or different. We have a policy of no regrets, so there's mainly positives from most the choices Nat and I have made in the last decade. 

One of them was to stay in New Zealand, the other one for me was to start doing some more sports, which lead me into triathlon, which in turn lead me to being sitting here today, writing about patience in a dull rainy Hungarian noon. 

Back to the realm of triathlon, patience is also something one has to alway have in mind. Patience to go through the same routines again and again to get better. Patience to wait for the right time to do some real speed workouts and bring some new PB's to the table and patience to wait for the right moment to pass someone on the swim, or the bike, or the run. 

One can only be patient when one is sure things will work out OK. I trust my swimming, biking and running skills, and the competitions. I have trusted my coaches' program for the lead out to this race. I trust things will unfold in a way that it ill make for a great racing day out. I'm patiently waiting to cross that line and look back with joy, knowing I've come to the best of my potential on the day. And it will be fun.

Five days to go - Crap weather

I though I was coming to sunny, tepid weather of the european late summer. And I missed again. It's like we never left Auckland on the weather front.
Today was another day of travels, but I smarted up and organized to do part of the trip to the airport on the bike with our mate Camilo, whose place we're using as a crash pad for the trip. Then, as I read the program I found that today was yet another rest day!. Yesterday I missed the swim, and today I missed it as well. I'm sure now that swimming is the first thing I'll do tomorrow morning.
In the meantime I managed to do sightseeing and running all at the same time yesterday, while Nat and Sebastian walked around. You can spot my high tech gear, courtesy of Patrick. We didn't do a lot, I just tried to keep it short and sharp, but when the evening came I was ready for bed.
I hadn't had a decent sleep in the last 72 hours and the body produced serotonine to dope a rugby team. I was happy to oblige and got  completely asleep twice before dinner, then another one while having dinner.
Sports helps bringing back the endorphins and lifting the morale. Today I needed to go and do things just for that reason.

Tomorrow, thursday and friday are training days and I shall have the gang ready to rock, I'll have some more time to update this diary. And also to make sense of what I write, : )
Time to recover and have a healthy meal.

Food for the record: 2 pieces of fruit, one pot of yogurt, and some cereal clusters. One tall skinny latte, One pastry. Chicken wrap and a tuna&pasta salad.

Ciao

Monday Morning in London

It was a bloody long trip but luckily the body has not taken as much as a toll as I expected. I do miss going for a run or a swim but I know it may not happen. With such an ample window of time one thinks it will help sorting out  bits and pieces like a day to day schedule or catching up with revising my uni essay. 

But funnily, time has literally flew and I remember thinking about:

I've got to talk to Ben, the bike mechanic and thank him for helping out on short notice.

I've got to write about how to follow and track me online. 

And put all the plans A, B and C for the whole of the race. 

As I'm writing this the only thing I was able to do was the last one. 

Here's the race plan (and a bit of history)

The preparation has been clinical. Much to my pleasure everything seems to be where it should be in the three disciplines. I certainly have to thank the long hours of running and biking that have helped sustain the later intensity workouts. I've leaned up quite fast over the last weeks, so the weight shouldn't be an issue. I will probably have to make sure I eat the right thing and nothing better than to log it in my diary. 

The mental preparation is something I am not weak, but not super strong either. The past year has had very high highs and very low lows. It has given me perspective. I am doing this for me, because like it and whatever I do will stay with me for some time. It's kind of a backpack that I'll have on me. I've chose to take good things only. I think it will work.

Other that that I will reveal my race plans later in the week. 

That's all for the moment. I should run some sharp 1km reps and that'll be me for the day. 

keep rocking on your training and other stuff.

8 days to go - last night in my bed

I am so excited right now. It's eleven o'clock at night and I am not even tired. It's all the adrenaline of the packing and all the good things to come.

Today was a strange day. There was an earthquake on the South Island of NZ in the biggest city. Amazingly there weren't lives lost and most of the damage is to buildings. Christchurch is home to many of NZ toughest triathletes, many of the guys and girls in the team come from there and I hope they can all make it to Europe with no troubles.

Back to training news, we had our last brick session @ the pool and it was not that bad.

Until coach told us to get our bikes out and ride to a park nearby to do bike-run repeats. The park is a dead volcano that rises to about 90m above ground in the summit. Running there is a beauty, there's a farm being run from the park, and spring is lambing season, so it feels like trail running in the backcountry.

We were to do 2km bike lap, quick transition and run to the summit 3 times (about 1.5km). The bike was OK but a bit cold, I lost some time in transition and started my run trailing 10 seconds to my training buddies Carl and Martin. I never cought up. On the last 300m I heard a clapping noise and cheers with my name coming from a teahouse that sits in the sidewalk and there they were all the wives (including coachs') giving us the support we needed to finish the session.

It was all a setup by coach. There weren't bike run repeats after the first one and we all proceeded to have a winter-training farewell breakfast. I went for the muesli, but it proved to be the bad choice because Coach decided it was a good time to shout us a beer and we couldn't refuse.
Muesli and beer is champion's breakfast!

The rest of the day was packing, printing, ticking, talking and it just flew by. I wish I had time for a quick run, but it just didn't happen. Better luck next time.

We're up at half five tomorrow, so I better go and have some rest. It will be the last sleep in my own bed and I'm not gonna miss it. The bedroom has been so cold lately that even taking a 2pm siesta is a nightmare.
We're flying 10 hours to Brunei, then another 16 to London where we stop for a day. I shall be able to update our trips' progress.

9 days to go

And it was another one full of surprises.  

I woke up fresh from a good nitght sleep. The previous couple of nights I had my sleep interrupted by many thoughts, all related to the trip and the race. At one point it was 3am and I was doing the maths of how much I'd allocate to meals in Budapest, and what what attractions I'd allow myself to visit. Later on it all drew to organizing a "team meeting" with other guys from the same age group to do a bit of a "swimming train" on the race. And so on with other bits and pieces. 

I guess is good to be a bit anxious, but i'm not great at managing anxiety. One of the nights I got up and ate half a slice of coconut cake.

So, I was saying. It was a day full of surprises. I had pictured an easy swim and a hard run set. It was the other way around!. Managed to get my head around it through the 600m warmup and when I read the board I thought to myself "this is gonna hurt". It was nothing serious and there was plenty of rest in between, basically we did 4 blocks of 400 as 400-2x200-4x100-8x50 all of them at maximum pace. I got a good PB for 400m and the rest was in the good marks as well. It was a good confidence booster, because I was seriously worried about my swim about a month ago, and I know now I am as ready as I could be and back to levels I was swimming before triathlon came to me.

The second surprise was a little farewell the rest of the people @ the pool did for us. Coach gather us around and some of the girls read a poem they've written for us which was both funny and humbling. I am not used to the attention, and getting some was strange. This continued @ work with more good vibes from colleagues and strangers, there was a morning tea to wish me luck and ask me questions about distances, times, weight, etc. 

I also managed to so some work in the middle and later do the last SUPERSET of the campaign. The SUPERSET has been the star player in my building. I'm feeling a stronger runner than I was for the Nationals, I still have 5 or 10 bits to spare for full on runs and I have bounced back stronger from the lil' injury I got in mid-July. Today was 5 milers but only 2 of those were on a high gear. The excercises in the middle were long and boring and didn't help recovery a lot, but they're good to improve running form. 

The evening was gone with more work, packing and getting things ready for my last training session in kiwi soil. Next reports will come from foreign land, nicer warmer weathers and (hopefully) technicolor. 

Keep working hard out there, and stay tuned, this is going to get hotter

Date: 3 Sept

Sport: swimming/running

Time: 60min/60min

Dist: 3km/8km

Comment: season's PB 400m in 5.11

Cracking the pace

As promissed, yesterday was a massacre on the windtrainer. Cycling was the only workout to happen and it was a long 1.20min session with a longer than usual warm up and then the VO2 session.
It consisted on a series of 3min workouts with 3 min recovery.
The trick was to hold a speed 3km faster than our 20kmTT speed.
I didn't take my Polar with me because I didn't want to see what my heart rate was, it was a workout and I would do it no matter what.
The effort required to pull that speed for the period of time was well timed, because bang on two minutes we'll hit a little was and rode onto the hurtbox for the remaining minute.
we did half an hour worth of that and another half of recovery.
A long sleep and I wasn't as bad as monday night, and the scheduled 1500m TT was skipped in favour of an endurance workout and practice of deep water starts.
The secret for deep water starts is to be as horizontal as one can be and tilted to a side, once the gun goes on, a power kick and 10 or 20 strokes later one should be in some clear'ish water and the race starts.
Wednesday is long run day, and our last long run consisted of a 20min warm up and then 30min just below the race pace, for me it was my treshold of 83-85% of my heart rate on my seriously tired legs.
I managed to do just short of 8.5km which indicates a good form for the race.
We're scheduled to rest tomorrow, and I will do so happily,
there's bike check to be done, new wheels to fit in, chat to the coach, travel arrangements, work stuff and uni stuff that should be out by tomorrow. Oh... and aero haircut, and some photos

Lists time

Less than a week to fly, lots of things to finalize and lots of lists to make:
-Triathlon gear list
-travel stuff list
-Contacts list for people in Budapest and in the UK
-List of thing that may be a problem for my boss @ work
-list of documents, copies and emails confirming bookings here and there

I also checked the list of the competition, we're a field of about 120 people, which is pretty interesting heading into the first turn on the swim.

And among all the prepping, there is also some serious training still to be done. Today was a killer swim and another superset where we reached the mile in the 5xruns. I cracked a season PB of 2.29 for 200m in the first of 4 all out sprints. Coach told me to back off a bit and I am not sure I would have held that time for the 4 repeats. The evening set was long and tiring, here's what my polar tells me for the run laps (the first 2 are 1200m, the following 3 are 1550m).

1: HRAv 78% HRMx 84%
2: HRAv 87% HRMx 89%
3: HRAv 88% HrMx 92%
4: HRAv 90% HRMx 93%
5: HRAv 90% HRMx 92%
In between each of them there was about 3.15min of excercise where the HR got down to about 75%.
Tomorrow we have the last blast on the bike. We do indoor training with a guy that rode two olympic games and knows a fair bit about training peaks. He reckons tomorrow and Wed are the key days for some serious VO2 session. I am not looking forward to that : )

Hope your training is going well as well,

stay tuned, the best is still to come,

The spirit of triathlon

Another three days gone!,
it is really amazing how time flies when you're having fun. And I have had lots lately, mostly from the triathlon world.
Thursday marked the end of the retreat in the last phase of my training, Friday would mark the start of the last charge. We had a Superset in the midday that knocked me out for good. I was in bed by half eight and Saturday I was a new man.
Another brick session on the Sat. Being the final weekend to go and do things I didn't have a lot of time for a powernap. We also got invited to a good friend and triathlete's wedding. He's a regular appearance in all sorts of distances and I also found he is an accomplished sportsman in many other disciplines. The sad part of this is that I had to stick to a diet coke regime and was unable to take Nat to the dance floor in order to save my legs for today's last TT, whic didn't bring me any brownie points.


This Sunday we weren't blessed by the weather and coach decided to cance the TT due to wetter than normal conditions. The alternative was not an easy one. We did bike/run repeats for over 2 hours!, my HR monitor gave me readings I didn't know I was able to sustain over such a period of time, and it hurts.
8 workouts more between now and my fly to Europe. None of them will be easy, but all of them count and should confirm things are good.
While doing the bike/run reps today my mind started drifting towards tactics for race day. I've already spoken about the swim and how we're planning to do it. Once I'm out I expect to be in a pretty high HR band and to fly through transition with a higher HR. After I've mounted the bike the innevitable will happen. I'll be among the 10 to 20 athletes in the race, and we'll be all in a big group trying to ride off the gross of the field.
The spirit of triathlon is of individual achievement and racing solo, even on the bike. Rules ban drafting and I've seen and been penalized for breaches to these rules.
In the real world my experience is that the bigger the race, the more chances are to be cought in a drafting situation. It is up to the individual to try and not to break the rules because there's never enough marshalls to police the entire lenght of a bike leg.
In my opinion one must never race below their potential to comply with a rule. However, many times I've seen that as soon as I ride next to someone, that someone starts accelerating not to let me pass or to hang on to me.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that drafting in standard distance and sprint triathlon is a reality, specially in popular races where you've got over 600 riders over 10km of road. One can always do so much, then is a matter of luck.

So, after thinking about it over the bike repeats I've made clear that there have at least 2 plans for race day (bike):

Plan A: be a good boy, obbey the rules, do not draft and tell people off when I see them drafting. Conserve energy as much as I can and go hard.

Plan B: be a bad boy, go hard and take advantage of any drafting situation that is beyond my control. Take care of the draftbusters and see what happens.

what shall I do?