More training, more racing, more learning

Just three weeks to go until the big one - Coles Bay 100 - as I reflect on the last fortnight of training and racing.

The week after the Seven Mile Beach tri was a fantastic week of training. I managed to clock up 26.5 hours and although I did feel like I was walking around half asleep by the end of it, I was very happy to look back on such a solid week.

This past week has been pretty slack in comparison which, with the time left until Coles Bay, is a little disappointing. But as they say you learn more from your failures than your successes, and while physically I may not have gained a lot from the week, mentally I have taken on board a lot of lessons. It's been a good reminder of how important it is to keep an open mind and keep learning from everything you do and, importantly, everyone you meet (a point that I will come back to later).

One of the biggest lessons I've really had drummed into me this week (and you know, I can be told something 1000 times but it won't be til I've actually done it that I'll understand) is not to let the little things get in the way of the big overall goal.

Case in point: I'm training for the Coles Bay 100, which is a long course triathlon, and this of course forming part of my base for hopefully another crack at the World Long Distance Championship (finance depending!). Therefore volume of endurance training should be my focus. And as we all know the ability to do this depends on making the most of the time we are not at work (unless you're a pro of course, or a teacher, or a student....)

I had an entire day off on Thursday which the previous week equated to about 6 hours' training - and how many this week? 50 minutes! Why? Because I let my ego talk me into going to a, excuse my french, $#!**y little triathlon race for State series points, which ultimately adds up to what? Annual kudos from Tri Tas and maybe a few dollars prize money.

Sure, race practice and the intensity of racing is great training, but not at this stage of my program, a fact that was probably realized by a lot of my more experienced training partners - hence the big names missing from the entry list on the day.

Latrobe starts with a 400m swim in a river that's about 20m wide. Imagine almost 100 people trying to get around three buoys in that space and if you come up with an image akin to a very wet mosh pit, you've got it about right. Melissa even asked the race organisers if we could have men's and women's waves, but the answer was just 'no' with no good reason. Anyway, after being kicked, punched, swum over and drinking half the duck pond, I got out a mile behind Grace Row-Smith and Melissa, and close behind Kate and Millie Chapman. After a terrible bike mount (there's another thing that needs work) I managed to overtake all of the girls but it wasn't long before I started feeling the previous day's training in the legs and Melissa and Kate proceeded to overtake me and ride far, far away into the distance. After messing up the second transition as well, I got onto the run and ran reasonably strongly to pass Melissa and finish in 2nd place, though well behind Kate.

Not a bad result and I'm by no means saying I'm unhappy with 2nd - it's more the race preparation and performance I wasn't thrilled at.

The day befor the race I had done roughly an Olympic distance triathlon - after 3km in the pool with the swim squad I was persuaded to participate in the "Launceston 70.3" which entailed another swim in the pool, an hour after the first one, immediately followed by a time trial ride and then a run (45km/8km for me - the guys did 85/20). Then I went to work for five hours and then we headed straight to Latrobe. I felt like the walking dead I was so tired - NOT an ideal race preparation!

So what did I learn? I learnt that if you are going to race, you need to be 100% committed to the race, not just on the day but in the lead-up, and if you're not then you shouldn't bother racing.

I also learnt that you shouldn't just spontaneously join into other people's training just because it will be fun - yes it was, but it trashed me for the race. Yes Johnno, Trent, it appears I really can't have everything! I could have done the Launceston 70.3 and then a long ride and a swim on the Thursday, or I could have ditched the 70.3 and done well in the race, but not both. And given the focus is long course, the former would have been a far better option.

Having said all that, I still intend to race Beauty Point sprint tri this coming Sunday!! At least it's 750/30/5 and I can ride home :)

As an aside to the Latrobe race, it was my last race in the Cycle Torque & Coffee kit. I'm so grateful for the support I've had from the CTC team, for the opportunity to work with them, and all the wonderful people I met along the way. However times change, life changes and new opportunities arise as one has for me and I believe in taking opportunities with both hands.

I am very excited to join the Bike Central team this week. I'm assured I'm going to be turned into a "strong cyclist" which is also exciting, but I'm not sure who has the most work to do - the coach or the student! More training, more learning, as usual! It's going to be a lot more pleasant training on the new Specialized Ruby though. First proper ride on her yesterday - unbelievably comfortable and stable. Love, love, love it.

Speaking of coach and student brings me back to the point I wanted to make earlier.

I have probably waxed lyrical on this topic before but it warrants covering again.

Yesterday I was once again struck by how lucky and priveleged we are in northern Tasmania to have amazingly talented athletes who continually offer us advice, support and help with our own careers and aspirations. The generosity with which they donate their time and skills to further the sports that they love, for no obvious personal gain, continually astounds me. There are many that I have had the pleasure of talking to and training with, who I look up to and respect and hope to continue to work with. I know I'll forget someone here but some that I'd like to recognise include Craig Boon, David Brasher, Trent & Wade Hadley, Peter & Mollie Fraser, Joe Gambles, Rob, Kim & Jenny Gillard, Harvey Griggs, Sharon & Tim Gunton, Casey Mainsbridge, Ben Mather, Mark Matthews, Paul & Peter McKenzie, Mark & Louise Padgett, Paul Turner, Andrew Willis, Jen McMahon & Chris Zehntner.

Thankyou guys for your tireless efforts in either promoting and encouraging young/new sportspeople or for helping raise the bar for those of us who have slightly higher aspirations! That Tasmania punches far above its weight in producing top sportspeople is a reflection on your efforts and I hope that one day I will be able to do for others what you have done for me.

The start of a new season

I must make an effort to continue my blog because despite my 2011 worlds campaign being well and truly over, my career as a triathlete certainly is not... and all pro triathletes have blogs. So, I'll pretend to be one until I make it :)
It's been fairly well noted that I have had some setbacks since returning from America. I had two lazy weeks off after the race and then decided I would get back into training -well, swimming and riding since my hip was so injured and painful I couldn't run a step - so I didn't lose all of that hard earned fitness and could build on it for my next big race, the national long course championship at Falls Creek in February.
Of course you always feel terribly unfit when getting back into training but after a week and a half I was just starting to enjoy it again when I got knocked off my bike. One day in hospital and a couple more doing nothing at all, then gym only for about a week until I could start swimming again, and another few days until I got back on the bike.  Then it was back into unstructured training to just see how the body went along, and of course the fact that I didn't have any spare time to sit down and write a training program out (too much Christmas shopping to do! -oh and working 40hrs a week doesn't help either!)
December 11 was our first tri of the season at Beauty Point. It was a sprint distance race, 750m/20km/5km and because I couldn't run, I teamed up with "Dan the Man" Van der Vlist and entered the team category. We were called "Team Bike Crash" because his injuries from a bike crash prevented him from swimming and running.
I came out of the water with Melissa which I classed as a good swim for me, and then headed out onto the bike course into a stiff headwind. I still clocked about 35 minutes which is an improvement on last year's times (the BMC may have something to do with this) and an average of about 32km/h. Melissa, Kate, Hannah and I all rode within less than 30 seconds of each other. It was hard to watch the race draw to a conclusion without the power to be able to do anything about it though and I resolved: no more triathlons unless I can do the whole thing!

Of course Christmas is always the worst enemy of athletes, or at least ones with lots of family who like to cook, like me. It means time off training for travelling around various family members, lots of sitting around lazily, and far too much eating - especially bad foods!
I did get away with a couple of short rides and a short run on Christmas day though, and I have no one but myself to blame for eating too much Christmas pudding and chocolates.
It was back to work straight after Christmas and an attempt to quickly put together some training for the Bridport Olympic. The physio's advice was, don't even think about doing the Olympic distance due to my hip. However, always one to go against the best advice, I decided that as I managed to run for an hour a few days before the race, I would enter.
Lucky I did.
The Bridport water was beautiful although slightly choppy on the morning, which probably helped me come out of the water a little ahead of those who are good smooth water swimmers but find those kind of conditions a little daunting. After the first lap I was touching the feet of Paul Turner, which told me that either Tex was having a terrible day, or I was having a very good one. It was a bit of both, and Tex did pick up the pace when he saw me there, but I was stoked to come out with Steve Muir and just ahead of Roger Butorac.
Onto the bike and again a slight headwind on the way out but that made the return journey nice and fast. 1hr 9 minutes for the 40km - an average of 33.8km/h - and less than a minute behind Hannah, who wasn't going to run, so I had to be happy with that.
The run would be the test with very few k's in the legs beforehand. I could feel it - just heavy in the legs from being out of practice - but I still ran 43-something which was a nice surprise. It hurt though!
I was stoked to take my first Tassie win.

I had a huge training camp planned for the remainder of the week, while we would stay at Bridport with no work or distractions. But ironically I ended up spending three days completely motionless - the only thing I improved was my tan.
By the time real life resumed there was barely enough time to scrape together a few sessions to tide me through to the next race, especially considering all my old school friends decided to come to town for time out from their glamourous mainland lives, and socialised for a change.
Perhaps this relaxed, improvised start to 2012 training is doing something good for me, because I chalked up my second win of the season, first state series win and first triathlon State Championship on Sunday at Seven Mile Beach.
Now sprint distance is certainly not my forte and I went into it knowing that I would have to have the race of my life to beat Kate Pedley, so I was a bit nervous.
The start was late, the water was cold, but at least it was calm - never been taught how to swim in the surf! Also because there were so many people (many mainlanders seeking selection for the sprint worlds in NZ this year) we were impromtu-ely split into two waves - men and women. This worried me as I knew I wouldn't have any feet to draft off! Sure enough just after the first buoy I came into the lead which initially surprised me but was quite good fun.  I weaved my way through the tail-end males and managed to hit ALL of the buoys, which just proves how unco I am! Or that I have good aim?!
Unfortunately Hannah couldn't race so it was quite a novelty to come out of the water first. I passed Johnno in T1 (he was putting on his socks!) and hit the bike course with Dan Van der Vlist. Usually he speeds away from me but we played cat and mouse from a legal distance for the entire ride. There was a fair bit of drafting going on - partly due to the numbers on such a small course I suppose, but although it sucks, if you actually drop back like you're supposed to, it's not unavoidable. Anyway that aside, I came off the bike just ahead of Dan and decided I was going to have a lightning fast transition because I needed all the time I could get between me and Kate. But I was shaking so much it was hard to put my shoes on!
Once out on the run course I had to really try to calm my breathing down and try to settle into some kind of sustainable rhythym. At every turn I could see Kate running, much faster than me, catching me very quickly... but I thought about what Hannah had told me, if you believe you can win, you can.... and I did! I managed to hold Kate off, by maybe a minute or so, but it definitely took all of my resolve, and I did not relax until the finish chute. My lack of running really meant had to push myself harder than I thought possible, because I wanted to the win very badly. Not least because the prize was a $500 travel voucher which will come in handy for the worlds :) Because of that I really felt proud of myself at the end of the race.

I would like to thank mum, dad and Johnno for taking me down south and supporting me, my sponsors Cycle Torque, EFM and Harvey Griggs, Tri South for the race & Andrew Jones for the prize, everyone who competed and volunteered, Riverside swim squad for helping me with my swim, and Hannah for coming and cheering despite not being able to race.Your support means the world to me!

Latrobe sprint is next on the 26th of Jan. What a great start to 2012 - let's keep it going.