Winter warblings

Well hello and happy off-season everyone! (Except for that strange breed they call road cyclists, but they wouldn't deign to read the blog of a triathlete anyway)
I hope everyone is enjoying the chance to relax a bit and not worry about packing the car with bikes, tri suits, running shoes, helmets and energy drinks every weekend.
I certainly have enjoyed a good and much-needed break since the last race of my season, Devonport ITU on March 11.
It is the first proper break I have taken in over a year. I knew I needed it desperately because I had lost the passion and excitement I usually have for racing and training for the sport that I love.
My plan was to take two weeks off - typical triathlete thinking that any longer and I would lose too much fitness - but at the end of the two weeks I still didn't feel like getting back into training, and figured that if I forced myself to do it anyway, I might burn myself out for good and ultimately end up quitting the sport. Plus I like to do what I do because I enjoy it not because I feel like I have to!
As the weeks went on and the date got closer to my next race (more on that later) and I got more out of shape and more content with my new life of eating, working and partying as opposed to eating, working and training, I began to worry and wonder if I would ever feel like training again.
I'm relieved to say that, hence this blog, today it came back (by 'it', I mean my desire to go out and smash myself early in the morning til late at night, in the dark, cold, rain, whatever, to watch what I eat and have no social life, to think about heart rates and cadence and thresholds and intervals 24/7, and force my tired and grumpy self upon family, friends and colleagues).
And wouldn't you know it, it started at a bike race!! The irony!
I went out to the vets race today and rode the opposite way round the course (on my way home unfortunately because I had to WORK - YUCK!!) so I got to see all the riders happily racing away while I enjoyed the sun and the tailwind, which made my legs feel a bit better than the crap they have been for the last week or so, and I remembered why I love my sport and the lifestyle it gives me and why I need to train hard - so I can become a professional and get to do this day in and day out! So that when others are sitting at work like I am right now, staring out the window wistfully at the sunshine, I'll be out there feeling the breeze on my face, soaking up the sun on my skin, feeling the power of my legs and the air in my lungs... and checking my watch in case my heart rate goes above 140 when I'm doing four and-a-half minute k's.

So tomorrow, training for YEPPOON IRONMAN 70.3 starts in earnest. Two months or so of base aerobic training, get back into the gym, then start to build up some strength before about 6 weeks of intense race prep and then taper for the August 19 race.

But this time, things are going to be different. Funnily enough my main goal for this year is nothing race-related at all. It is... Balance. My goal is to balance my life between work, training and socialising, instead of the single-minded approach I have employed in the past. Apparently it doesn't kill you to have a couple of beers after work, or eat icecream for dessert (maybe just not a whole tub of cookies and cream ;) ), or skip a training session when you're tired (yep it's news to me too!!)
I'll also be aiming to get a bit more variety into my training to help keep me interested and trying new things. I'm absolutely petrified about this, but I might even have a crack at an open road cycling race this winter. Oh, that scares me. But I think it's good to do things that scare you! Starting riding with the BC bunch scared me at first, but now it's all good, I can hang on even when my legs feel like total crap.

Of course those of you who know me well will know there is a fair bit of other stuff going on in my life at the moment which inevitably will affect my training to some degree, but hopefully I can keep interference to a minimum and focus on what I need to do to get me where I want to go.
The 2012 plan is to get a good base in for Yeppoon and just do that as a 'try it and see' kind of race, then really focus on being race-ready for a half Ironman later in the year, such as Port Macquarie in October. The main challenge I face is being able to pay the exorbitant entry fees, as by the time I save up the money entries have usually closed!
I am hoping that if I can get some solid results in these two races I will be able to apply for my professional licence and begin racing as a pro in 2013.

I am ready to launch myself into season 2012-2013, bring it on!!! I can't wait to see what challenges, opportunities and complete changes of direction the rest of this year brings - if it's anything like the first four months, it's going to be one hell of a rollercoaster - but thankfully I think ultimately that rollercoaster is on its way up!

Thanks for reading and I hope to have something more concrete and exciting to report soon :)

Holly's 2012 Race Calendar:
Bishopsbourne 8km run April 21
Sidmouth Gutbuster 12km run April 28
Campbell Town-Bicheno road race May 12
City to Casino 11km run May 20
Lilydale Lope (defending champion) 16.6km run May 26
Launceston 10 10km run June 17
Westbury 12km run June 30
Scottsdale to Bridport Half Marathon (defending fastest female) July 14
George Town 10km run July 28
Bishopsbourne 15.2km run August 11
Yeppoon Half Ironman (first ever half ironman triathlon) August 19
Ross Marathon (defending champion) September 2
Hillwood 10km run September 8
Freycinet Challenge bike TT October 6-7
Triple Tops 19.7km trail run November 20
Port McQuarie Half Ironman (target race) October 28
Tassie Tri Season starts!!!

The end at last

Relief!
Was the major emotion of the day as my 2011-2012 tri season finally wrapped up yesterday with the Oceania Triathlon Championships olympic distance age group championship at Devonport.
Six months and one week after the first race of my season, the Long Course Worlds in November 2011 - for which I had trained for seven months - 13 months of continuous, non-stop triathlon came to an end.
We all know how addictive this sport - or any sport really - can be, and you listen to the pros saying 'you need to take a break, have an off-season, to stay fresh and keep your love and passion for it' and you think 'as if, I never will want a break, it's too much fun and I'll lose my fitness!'. But (you'd never guess) they're right! Obviously I don't intend to go sit on the couch for a few weeks, I'll still train, but for fun and not constantly thinking about how this training session fits into my overall plan, or what intervals I should do, or am I doing aerobic or anaerobic today, what's my heart rate, do I need to do hills or flat, panic because I'm not feeling good, blah, blah, blah.

It would have been nice to end such a great season on a high, but I realize that you can't win every time, and basically you get what you prepare for. And as I have said before you learn more from your failures than your successes so again there is plenty to take from yesterday's performance.
I'm not exactly sure why it all went so wrong, but there are many things I believe contributed, the main one being the mindset that I was 'over it'.
I worked pretty much all week and didn't really think about studying the course maps, or writing a race plan.
In hindsight I should have gone down to Devonport and practiced on the course. It's a really technical little course with a 16% hill in the middle that we had to climb six times. By the sixth lap I was confident of going round the corners down on the bars and I knew which gears I had to be in at what points of the course. If I'd known all that from the start it would have been much easier!
Also with a 7am start time I didn't think about my usual routine of getting up three hours prior to the race to have breakfast, so I ate two hours before and something that I hadn't eaten before a race before.
I also had no idea what the swim course went, having missed the athlete briefing on Friday and then found myself warming up for the swim when the girls had the race brief on the beach. I ran up the beach and only just made it in time for the start, dove in and went anaerobic and spent the first leg trying to get back up to where I should've been from the start. By the time I got to the front of the chase pack I only figured out we had another lap to go because I swam through three girls coming back the other way. Thank god for pink caps! But after the next two buoys I wasn't sure where to go so I had to slow down and wait to follow the girls beside/behind me as I vaguely saw another buoy way out to the left and, because I was swimming all on my own, thought 'shit were we meant to go round that... OMG I'm going to be disqualified! What is Johnno going to think!'. So that was a bit disappointing.
No major problems in T1 thankfully except for my sunnies fogging up so I couldn't see anything. I felt OK when I headed out on the bike but as usual it wasn't long before Melissa came past and informed me that there were 7 girls ahead of us. I don't count or care really because I try to focus on what I'm doing and not what can't control like other people's races. But it was a bit of a blow to know so many had beaten us out of the water and we already had a lot of work to do.
It was a bit of a surprise when Kate went past at a rate of knots early in the ride and I decided I needed to stay with her and Mel, but after I was forced to drop back for a couple of men, lost touch with them and from there just kept getting slower and slower. I didn't feel like I had a gear small enough to climb the hill properly, and then I started chucking up my breakfast .. that went on, and on, until I came good with about 10km to go! If only there was another 50km to go, I would have been right!
T2 went ok - not much you can mess up there - but I still felt like I was being far more conservative than usual, for some reason. Which was not my race plan, my plan was to go hard and finish the season with a bang!
Anyway stomach issues continued on the run and I'd also had nothing to drink or eat (which is not unusual in olympic distance for me) but probably didn't help. I still gave it my best and think I had a reasonable run but by that point I was so far behind I wasn't able to catch up and finished third in the 20-24 age group.
Melissa had a great race to take second in our age group after one of the mainlanders. Kate Pedley and Kate Warren held up the LTC name with first and I think third overall, and the rest of the top 10 was filled out by mainlanders. I think I was about eighth overall.
A disappointing end to the season but relief that it was all over and happy for Melissa - she has improved out of sight this year.
Had a fantastic rest of the day watching the junior, U23 and elites race and getting very sunburnt! Congrats to Natalea, Jake and Hodgey who showed off the local talent, and Dylan and Jono who put in awesome efforts in their first big races.

There is one more race this year which is the LTC Beauty Point enduro, more of a novelty race than anything. I hadn't planned to compete as the enduro format is just way too short for me but due to last Sunday's race being cancelled, I need to race to get points in the club series. Regardless I'm not counting it as a proper race so that is it for my season.
More updates soon as to what I plan to do over winter... I don't want to think about it just yet! I'm going to have a well-earned break now and have some fun of a different kind.

Again thanks to all my sponsors and supporters for looking after me through the good races and the bad. As you know I couldn't do it without you:
Specialized/Bike Central - Tex, Dale, Nick, Jas & Jamie, thankyou for giving me the best job in the world and making sure my bike(s) are in A1 condition every time I race. I can highly recommend having a a team of bike mechanics behind you - it rocks!
Harvey Griggs - for the best sports massages ever :)
EFM Windsor - Craig thanks for letting me keep up my crazy, inconsistent training schedule... looking forward to spending more time in the gym over winter.
In Balance Pilates & Physiotherapy - Jude thanks for your great classes and constant encouragement and interest in my sport.
Mum, Dad, Grandma, Grandad and Johnno - thanks for always being there to watch or at least support me in spirit! I appreciate the cheers, even if I only give you a grimace in return!
Melissa, Dan, Jess, Natalea, Maggie, Lou, Kate, Hodgey, Dwayne & Amy, Casey, Paul & the rest of the LTC team - thanks for being a fantastic and fun support network, training partners and best friends. And congratulations on a fantastic season - LTC represented in 2011-12!!!
<3 Holly

A sigh of relief

The pressure was well and truly on for the biggest and most anticipated event of the Tasmanian triathlon calendar: the RBS Morgan Coles Bay 100.                                                                    It had certainly been on my mind a while, but suddenly between my new sponsorship, the infamous newspaper article, a television interview, and the seeded race numbers, I felt more pressure to perform than I ever had. Until this season I went into every event pretty much unnoticed and that was how I liked it! However the absence of Amelia Pearson and some others this season has shifted the focus and after I was handed the race number 101 there was no escaping the fact: I was the favourite.

I was interested to see how I would perform after an up and down couple of weeks in the lead-in. The week before race week was total chaos - I managed to squeeze in 35 hours of work, 26 hours of training(that's actual exercise time - I'd hate to think what it would be if you counted travelling, putting on 15 different outfits a day, showering, and searching the house for various helmets, shoes, socks, shorts, lights etc), a farewell party, Festivale, a 50th anniversary and an engagement party, as well as committee meetings for both Launceston Tri Club and Launceston Athletic Club.

No wonder I fell in a bit of a heap during race week. I decided to taper properly for a change given that it was a target event for me, so I had Monday and Thursday completely off. Harvey gave me a massage on Monday and I pulled up unnaturally sore and felt very flat through the short training sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday. Of course this made me super nervous but I just kept thinking 'it'll be right by Saturday'. I love race week because it's a great excuse to eat junk food and justify it as "carbo-loading", but I probably went a bit overboard!

Finally race morning arrived and my stomach was in a knot but I just followed my race plan and my standard race morning procedure which helps keep me relaxed and calm. The wonderful Hannah Geelan has been giving me lessons in believing in yourself, so nervous as I was, I was thinking positively and convincing myself I could do it.

The swim was beautiful, water was flat as a tack and I had a clear lane right from the start. So good not to have to fight people off like in the shorter races! I felt relaxed and thought I was swimming quite well - there didn't seem to be too many people in front of me - but when I got out somebody yelled 'number 6' so then I was panicking, thinking who the heck could be in front of me?! T1 was OK and as I got on the bike Tex yelled 'good swim' which further confused me. The first 20km of the bike was a big struggle, everything was hurting and cramping, and I seemed to be going nowhere fast. Also I kept thinking 'when am I going to catch those girls?' but at the turnaround I found that only one girl was in front of me! That was a relief. The second 20km was much easier though I was still feeling pretty uncomfortable on the bike. By the halfway mark I was only 3 seconds behind Kate Warren, but I missed my drink bottle at the aid station and did the whole second lap with no water :(

I caught Kate up the big hill and started to extend my lead, in fact about 2km from the end I suppose I was getting a bit complacent and was standing up, stretching my legs down a hill when Melissa flew past me. Oops! Caught off guard! She was just a couple of seconds ahead of me at T2 so although I had 18km to go I grabbed my stuff and sprinted off, passing her at the first corner.

After one lap I wondered how I'd get through another two, but the second one felt much better, and the third was just a formality. I was so relieved to get the win and get the monkey off my back!

The main thing I will be thinking about after this race will be my race strategy for target events. In this event I did what I needed to do to win the race comfortably, but at the end I felt a little disappointed in myself that I hadn't pushed to see the limits of what my body could do. When I saw Melissa cross the line after her smashing performance for second, having taken about half an hour off her last year's time, she was an emotional wreck, leaving everything she had out there. And I thought 'I wish I felt like that!' Sure it may not be a fantastic strategy when I get to the stage that I'm racing a long course every few weeks, but I would love to be able to do what Hodgey did on Saturday and extend his lead exponentially without anyone around him to force him to push.

On another note it was great to see the podiums filled with local entrants despite the fact that about a third of the field was from the mainland this year. It goes to show the great standard of our local Tassie athletes, our clubs, our training grounds and our coaches.

I would like to thank Tex, Chris, Padge and Lou for organising a FANTASTIC event for us, an event that will continue to grow in strength and success from year to year. The professional standard of this race is just so impressive, it is something we should all be proud to share with competitors from around the country and eventually the world. A big thanks to everyone from LTC and all the other volunteers, as well as the race sponsors including RBS Morgans, without whom this race would not be run.

Thanks to everyone who cheered for me, it really is the most amazing feeling.

Thankyou to my new "family" at BC - I had to win so I didn't have to put up with your teasing! And so I could keep my wonderful bike :)

Thanks to EFM Health Clubs and Harvey Griggs who also help me along the road.

A big thankyou and well done to my darling Johnno who made it through the whole race without visiting the porta loo this year :D and the same to my friend Bel Fong who had a smashing weekend at the Huskisson tri festival, and has always believed in me.

Until Devonport....

State Series: Three down, two to go

Not a lot of news to ramble on about today, just a quick update on the weekend's race. The third State Series race was held at Beauty Point on Sunday. The distance was 750m/30km/5km and the weather was still, muggy and overcast. It was my first race aboard the new Specialized Transition (see picture).

The water was very flat and the pool swimmers got away to a good start. Just after the first buoy someone grabbed my legs and tried to pull me under the water about three times but after I kicked hard and got away I thought I was swimming OK. However, when I got out I saw lots of people who I usually beat - or who I would like to beat - ahead of me. My bike mount was another disaster, it was quite funny really as I nearly ran over Dwayne Hinds who was TO-ing the bike mount area. (Apparently I wasn't the only one!)

I caught Melissa and we basically rode the whole 30km together with me passing her up the hills and her passing me down the hills and staying ahead on the flats. We posted exactly the same bike time.

T2 was significantly better than T1 but as I ran out I was surprised (to say the least) to see a girl I didn't recognise just ahead of me. She ran strongly too but I passed her early on and to my relief continued to pull away from her. Just before the first turnaround I heard loud breathing behind me and I thought 'oh no she's caught up, but I am dying, I can't go any quicker, I'll have to let her past!' but as we turned the cone it was Natalea who passed me. She wasn't pulling away from me as fast as I'd expected and I could tell she was struggling which, as it turned out, was because she was having stomach cramps. In fact she didn't gain on me all that much and I could still see her towards the end. I thought if I'd had a bit more in me, I could have sprinted and almost caught her. But the lack of running lately has really impacted my fitness and I had nowhere else to go, I was already pushing as hard as I could!

Still 45 seconds is not too much of a gap to one of this country's rising triathlon stars - and it was short course!

It was also awesome to have another competitive girl join the field in Kate Warner, and of course having Tahlz back from her mainland commitments to raise the standard.

Thanks Miss for duelling it out on the bike course with me and keeping me motivated.

Thankyou to my wonderful sponsors Specialized and Bike Central who give me some chance of keeping up with Melissa with the amazing bike and all the gear.

Thanks mum & dad for coming down to watch, even though it didn't make me win like the first two times this year ;)

And a big thankyou to my grandparents who put up with four starving athletes for a night, eating them out of house and home!

So that's two seconds and a first in the state series so far, or three firsts in my age group :) and the best two races to go: Coles Bay long course and Devonport olympic distance. Just 12 days until Coles Bay - can't wait!

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.

ITU Long Distance World Championships Las Vegas/Henderson 2011 Race Report

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36447717/ITU%20Long%20Distance%20World%20Championships%20Las%20Vegas%202011%20Race%20Report.pdf


eek sorry about before, little technical hiccup there, I hate computers. But thanks to the lovely Julie we now have race report published to the net :)