Tri Series - Kinloch race report - Part II

THE BIKE 37.16 HR Ave 91% HR Max 95%

The bike was going to be tough business, but I was quite high and happy with my swim and T1 so I kept the good spirits and hammered the first 3km. Reado and I have sort of talked about me hanging on to him on the bike as soon as he passed me. I tried and it worked, for about 10 min I had him in sight but could se the gap getting bigger and bigger. The good news is that while I was concentrated on that I kept passing people and not getting passes so much. Then it was hills time and I did my best to keep going. A guy in a P3 and a young fella stuck to me so we kind of kept each other honest going up and down the next 10km. A few known faces went past me, it was surprisingly late when my other mate, Martin, cought me. He was on a mission and quite bummed about his swim, we talked for 20 secs and he flew away. At the turnaround I was 50th or so out of all males.

Coming down the hills I was as careless as I could and I’m happy to report to have gone past 5 or 6 people, a couple of lightweight kids and a few big boys. We came back into town and TT’d our way through T2, a couple of more passed me and I passed another couple. The legs were full of ants, but I knew that it would be a matter of minutes before the race was finished.

THE RUN 18.20 HR Ave 93% HR Max 98%

T2 was again fast and furious, and out I was pounding the pavement. The hills had taken a toll on me, I could not sprint out of T2 like some other races, and the turnover was pretty low. I got into a better rhythm after 500m and started eating my way through the pac-man that was the Kinloch run course. A young guy passed me halfway through the first lap and I clawed to him for the next lap, he then surged and I responded, but run out of legs to keep going. The last km I got a second wind and left all I had on the run. It helped me to jump from 50th out of the bike to 28th overall.. which is not bad. But I wouldn’t rate this run as one of my best. I finished in a total time of 1.07.19 which got me into 6th in the age group.

THE BALANCE

It was a good race on a gorgeous town. My secret objective was to get a placing, but there was a lot of ambition in that statement. In order to get a placing I needed at least a minute on the bike and 30 to 40 seconds on the run. Are those objectives achievable? I believe they are, it’s a matter of working harder the next time. Was there any mitigating factors? Maybe: I did a race on Tuesday, and a full on TT on Thursday, and I didn’t have any days off for 10 days straight before the race…. That has to show at some point.

How did I feel after? I felt OK right after, now I feel really happy. There’s good signs in the way the HR shows the approach to the race. The incremental efforts allowed me to have some legs for the last bit of the run, although the race was not lost there, it is a good thing to know. The national champs for Oly distance are 4 weeks away, and given the current fitness it could be easily said that there is endurance in the swim, bike and run to make a better effort.

THE PHOTOS

Training for a dive start

out in the course recce

swim practice in the great lake taupo, with Nat



Race face, and a wetsuit full of wee



Contact Tri Series – Kinloch – Race report part I

Although it was a sprint distance event, the whole weekend may require two posts to go over it. Wednesday was a great day of training and a perfect recovery from the Pure Blonde.. Race. The body was holding on OK on the swim sprints and the legs were fresh for a 70min run in the evening. Thursday was TT day, with the difference that instead of being the usual 25km, it was a 16km version. I went very well for my expectations and the average pace was a massive 2km faster than the normal. The only down part was that some muscle or tendon in the groin area had enough for the day and my run was nil.

That made Friday and swim only day, which I loved. Then we packed and drove almost 4 hours from Auckland to Kinloch. (it took us 1.5 hours to get out of Auckland). Kinloch is a tiny town on the shores of lake Taupo. The town has none of the attractions of Taupo, it just has the raw feeling of a lazy coastal town where time has stopped. The race doubles as the national champs for Sprint distance.

After a good sleep we went to do a swim-run reconnaissance of the course and a later bike ride. The day was gorgeus and HOT. The afternoon nap was a sweat fest.

THE COURSE
The swim is a beach start in the fresh water of the lake. Even on a windy day the swim is quite flat and scenic. One lap on a clockwise direction, with the chance of hydrating along the way.

The bike is hilly, with most of the work to be done on the way out. There’s patches of 20km/hr and patches of 75km/hr it makes for good fun but if you get into a dark patch the race is over. The motivation is to keep going on the uphills thinking how cool we’ll be on the way down.

The run is 2 laps of an undulating course that winds its way through the town centre, the shore and the little marina. There’s a steep bridge of about 15m long that is the delight of off road runners.

I did this race in 2009 and the times were 12min 38.20min and 20.52min. Not bad back then, but I was forecasting a 10.30 – 36.00 – 17.30. the forecast does not take into account weather conditions and changes to the course length and so on. We’ll come back to this topic in part II

THE RACE
SWIM 750m: 11.43min – HR Av 82% - HR Max 92%
I placed myself (and my mate Reado) close to a group of fast swimmers (a bit faster than us), in the front row of the beach start. I started at full speed and was not going to give up until I had a panic attack. There was a lot of giving and taking but I went mostly unscratched on the head and upper body, the legs got grabbed and twisted but nothing major. We formed a big group of about 30 that kept pushing to the first buoy. I had a s@#t turn but got back into the business pretty soon. The second turn was flawless and I passed about 10 people on it. I then made my way to another group that was going well up front and the 5 of us pushed the last 200 together.

I drank some water on the last 100m and was already working my way through transition. Everything was in place and I got out real fast.



To be continued….

Two good news: a comeback and a victory

The comeback

Ian Thorpe announced he is back. The photo on the Australian papers is not very encouraging (apparently he’s been eating some pies lately). He’s one of those guys I admire and I hope he makes it to the 2012 games, it will make good TV watching. Speaking of.. here’s a great 400m race against another great long distance swimmer.



The Victory – PURE BLONDE Aquathlon series – Race 1 Report

The Pure Blonde series is divided into 4 swim-run events and 4 Aquathlon events, with the Aquathlon national champs in the end. This was the first of them and it was the first ever for many of us. We’ve never had done one before, not even for training.

The conditions at Point Chev. Beach were outstanding, great golden sun drenched beach, light sea breeze and a lot of people at the beach. Can’t ask for more for a race. The field was not big, but I think it did set a precedent and next time we’ll be busier.

The race was laps of 1.5km, a 1km swim and another 2 1.5km run laps on the same circuit. Elevation was a bit of an issue because we went from the beach up 10 metres in a 40m hill, two times each run lap. The swim was against the current on the way in and with the current on the way back. 2 500m laps. We started a bit conservative, the front group was 4 or 5 of us, and I know for sure that three of us were new to the combined run-swim of the first half. I made sure to stick behind my mate Reado, who knocked a sub 17min 5km last week. He was on tired legs, so the pace was punishing, but not that bad. After drafting for the first lap I moved to the front and did a cheeky escape going on the second lap. The idea was to get into the water by myself and swim on my own. In the works case scenario a group would catch me and I’ll draft of them for the remainder of the swim. In a perfect world, I would extend my lead. I got 10 seconds into the swim and none of the scenarios panned out. I did maintain a lead, and it was the same that I had going into the water.

The final run was hard, I went full throttle for the first 1500m and by the start of the second lap I knew I had a healthy 20 seconds to spare. The rest was a matter of keeping a steady pace and looking back every now and then to avoid surprises.

I ended up wining the first aquathlon I entered and although I didn’t get the prize money (yet), I’ll have to celebrate taking my wife for fish and chips.

What’s next?

Kinloch triathlon – National Champs for sprint distance. Sunday 6 feb.
Pre race thoughts soon, watch this space

Goodbye to a good friend

It is with great sadness that I have to let go of my dear gym bag. We’ve had lots of adventures together here and abroad. It’s one of the few items that I have not left behind after bricks, or swim or other workouts and it has certainly made my daily routines way more bearable.


Last year it went for major renovations on the zipper area, but this time around I don’t think there’s hope of survival.

close up of the damage

I will now start the search for its replacement, donations are welcome as long as they are in a usable state. I am happy to advertise your company. Medium and large sizes are welcome. Transition bags will merit your name mentioned in this blog.

Stay tuned for my first aquathlon race report.

My Favourite metrics

My favourite quote is from Galileo Galiei "measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so", the hard headed determination of a man of science contained in those 10 words (funny, the spanish translation is also 10words long) stuck to me since the first time I found it while doin an essay at uni. In a way, that motto underpins the history science and technology over the last centuries. It has been great way to bring the illusion of order into situations that sometimes are beyond comprehension.
Brought into the sporty world, there was a whole new world of metrics that I discovered as I got more into triathlons and cycling; from the basics like speed, perceived effort and cadence to more specific like heart rate, stride cadence, power, altitude, pace, and all the combinations that come to play like power to weight ratio,  drag coeficient and blah blah blah. I've learned that there is a huge basket of metrics that one can produce, monitor and record. Coache's job would be to make smart use of those metrics in planning the best possible programme to get us in A shape for our A race.
A self coached athlete will find a way to organize a training schedule makin use of a series of metrics and in most cases it will be a great way to get from day 1 to race day in a better, fitter state.
In my case I work mostly on HR and perceived effort. Cadence and pace come to play a secondary role in the more specific workouts and the rest has been trial and error. I'm a good boy and I do as I'm told. So far the system has worked and I trust it will keep going the same way.


Panmure pool, a great discovery



But when I look back into my diary and check the best days out I've had in the year, most of the sessions have been run paying attention to one specific metric, it is that one that won't allow my mates to get too far away (on the swim, or the bike or the run) and vice versa. the work for it is HONEST, whenever I wrote down in my diary that it was an HONEST session it means that we went in a solid pace, and making sure everybody stays in that zone where you can go hard OK for a good period of time. It's a pity I don't have a honestymetre to use in every workout. I'll have to ensure I do find a way to make it measurable, and pass that information to the boss, It may be the breakthrough metric of 2011 and it may even get me a placing.

On the training front I had to think on my feet to make sure the weekend was put to good use. The brick session of Saturday got cancelled due to rough weather but I didn't get the message. As I was already on the venue with the customary champion's brekkie inside my guts I decided to do a solo brick. I went to a nearby pool, set my bike on the trainer and got to work, picking the session from the pre-Budapest days. It turned out to be a great day, the swim ticked along nicely, the legs felt great on the bike (I made sure I gave them a contained hammering) and the running was just neat, in a stunning volcanick lagoon track. I guess coach did it on purpose (to forget me on the cancellation text) to get me angry and make me use all that anger and aggression in my training day and it worked, thanks G!  (ha ha ... I don't think my theory is true, tho.

champion's brekkie: muesli and beer

Sunday ride was an HONEST ride with my mate Jeremy, I just love doing this. You all keep smiling, and be safe out there.

and then something happened

After an OK weekend. Monday saw us starting a hard week of training, the season is well underway and the two National Champs are round the corner. This means a lot of fun, hard, quality workouts. And a lot of other ones that are not as much fun, but still of good use for the final objectives. 

 The mini-tri's are a good sample of that. So... I was saying, monday was a hard day at the pool, and the evening session was the ever present cooper's test night. A good sign is that I went beyond the last mark by about 30 metres. I probably said this before, but these tests sometimes are a lottery, you never know how the legs are gonna respond during the first 3/4 minutes of the test. Once you're cleared of that the anaerobic motor kicks in and you don't know if there will be enough gas to finish full throttle. It was a good result and more interesting from the HR point of view. This time around I didn't go as high as last time, but I recovered quite fast after 1 minute of rest. If you want to know the secret of how to nail 3685m in 12min go to this post .



gotta love country roads

 Tuesday was off and Wed was a long day at the office, I couldn't make it to the swim session, which was 1000m time trials, I did them today instead. But something happened between my rest day and the rest of the week. The wednesday long run went OK but not great and the thursday bike TT was shite, even though I went as hard as I can, something didn't quite work. And to top it up the swim TT's were average as well. Coach recomended to go for a blood test, which I will do as soon as I can. But it is not a great concern so far... shite happens, everyday and one has to keep on rocking.
So there I went today to do some trackwork and nailed a good set in the prescribed times and in a reasonable HR band.

a view from the top, Mt Eden on a nice day

The current and coming weeks have many workouts where one races against the clock. It is a good way to train the mind and the body to do two things. The first one is to make the mind push the body to the limit of excertion and a bit further if posible, the full syncro between brain and muscles to make sure that all the money that's in the bank is well spent. The second one is to blow up, to go waaaaay too hard to the point where there's just a black tunnel and no light beyond. Only by going there one get's to know the signals that announce the big WASTED state. Every time in the season that we get to these weeks I treat it as the ones where I will learn more about how much I'll ask my body at the time of a race.
I must confess, though, that besides a big blow on last week's bike TT (I had not a lot of legs for a run right after) I haven't hit the wall as much... I will probably do so next time around.

stay tuned!

The week that was

pheeew.... it's been busy times. Both, training and work have geared up and I found myself more ready for bed than for a 1/2 blogging session.

A grey day in September

On the training front it was a moderate/easy week (easy on the pool, moderate everywhere else) with the race las Tuesday, TT (which saw me going to 95% of my HR by mistake) and a new breed of brick sessions that made a great impression in the squad.
How to become a better time triallist.
The TT business went like this; we have a set TT course for 16 or 25km with repetitions of a big and a small lap depending on your distance. I know that my big lap takes me between 14.45 and 15min, if I'm there after the first lap I know I am on track. This time around I did it on 14.30, which meant I was either going too hard too soon or I was in line for a season't best, the second lap was just 4 seconds slower, things were looking groovy!  Just a couple of days before coach and I  agreed that doing more and more TT's is the only way to get better at time trials. So, there I am, in line for a PB and trying to hang on to it... I didn't look to the HR monitor often enough, and after finishing and doing the run off the bike I check the data and it turned out I was flat out the entire way, with the average being 91% and the max 96%. I thought that would be a NO NO, but it wasn't and I got a season's best that I must crush in the upcoming weeks.


A new kind of bricks
Saturdays bricks were different this time around. We're all at a level where most of our improvement on the fitness side has been made. There is room to get better, but that will be only after a new base period during the autumm and winter months. Now it is time to get smarter and race smarter. With that in mind, our brick session was changed from the usual swim-bike-run to 3 mini triathlons with proper transitions and 2min rest in between each rep. It was as closest you can get to a race situation. Coach came up with bike stands that we set up as if it was a transition area and we had a proper run from the sea to the transition and from there to the road. The distances were 600m - 6.6km - 1.3km approx. the bike was hilly and the run was flat. We had a group going with Jeremy and Martin and we ended up doing similar times, our transitions were OK, then better and for the last one I think I nailed them in flash times. There's a video that I have to get my hands on and will put in the blog soon.
this is the first time that I do three little triathlons one after the other almost nonstop. It was good to work on the higher intensities, and great race simulation because the transitions were the exact environment you have in a race. Being a short bike, it also helped for me not to loose so much ground against better cyclist. Now I want more, so we'll see.
Saturday afternoon the weather got greyer and greyer and it rained for most of the night and morning. Non stop. No long Sunday ride, trainer instead.

I hope your weekend rocked as well.