Blog | Tim Reed

Ironman Australia and More…

May 22, 2019 By Tim Reed

2019 kick off..

It’s a common theme for pros to dramatise the very first world pro athlete woes to make solid performances seem more remarkable and inspire the enthusiastic endurance sports fans that they can overcome any obstacles, that anything is possible and that there are, hashtag, no limits. I enjoy being the antithesis to this nonsense and let people know that we all have limits whether that be time constraints, the amount of physical talent, the reality of other responsibilities life throws your way and your personality traits. That’s not to say we aren’t all capable of achieving excellent outcomes within our constraints, just that setting realistic goals and identifying our limits will lead to better outcomes then dillusional ambitions. Plus as an Australian, we don’t really do the Tony Robbins shenanigans.

So yeah, my form had been rather crap since September last year largely due to my asthma, that has been an intermittent source of annoyance my whole life, remaining flared up for a much longer period of time then I’m used to. However ultimately, asthma is simply an inflammatory condition and like someone with an achilles injury who won’t stop running, it was my refusal to take a decent break from training or lower the intensity in training that I’ve always loved that was not letting it settle. When you strip back most problems to their bare core, it’s often our own personal decisions that lead to many of our problems. At least when I reflect on the majority of my own challenges and problems, that’s been typically the case.

Ironman New Zealand

Image- @koruptvision

I cracked open the 2019 race season with Ironman New Zealand. A questionable choice by all those close to me as quite frankly I hadn’t done the work to truly be competitive over an 8hr event and it would have made more sense to chase dollars over the middle distance. However with Ironman Australia as my primary goal for the first half of the season, I had a strong desire to do an Ironman before my ‘A’ race to sort out some persistent issues I was having over the Ironman distance. Those issues to be resolved being cramping, race day nutrition and quad carnage that was killing my marathon. I’m also a big believer in the ‘central governor’ theory based around the premise that we need to expand what our brain considers an acceptable risk to our survival, to truly get the most out of our capabilities on race day. I had strong suspicions of how to resolve the issues I was having and thankfully they’ve seemed to have proven correct so far and I had none of these issues in either Ironman events. Asthma had me breathing through a straw for part of the NZ bike but it was not too debilitating on the run. With a very low risk race strategy in place I had told Monica, who is the only real person who hears my sometimes overly ambitious dribble, that I would go somewhere between 8hr 20- 8hr 30 depending on the conditions and went 8.22 so was very pleased with the outcome even if that was only good enough for 5th place.

I learnt a lot from my own race but also Mike Phillip’s winning performance. I have a lot of respect for all the Kiwi long course triathletes. I’m not sure whether it’s the weather in NZ or the no nonsense down to earth Kiwi culture but they generally appear to be similar in that they’re tough bastards, don’t complain about much and simply get on with the job. Mike was very generous to answer all my questions about his preparation during drug testing. Some of his answers influencing how I prepared for Ironman Australia.

One of the big risks of doing an Ironman so soon after resuming proper training was that it could have a big mental toll which would take away from how deep I could go in Ironman Australia. I was quite convinced that I wouldn’t have the fitness to engage in an ‘Ironwar’ on course and that proved very much the case. Every Ironman is mentally draining, no-one can escape the toll but as I wasn’t going toe to toe with anyone for a podium or having to push through an entire marathon with torn quads like Ironman Oz in 2017 or Kona 2018, that mental cost was limited. Normally when I finish an Ironman all I can think about it all the non-triathlon activities I can do but without the prolonged Ironman build I was super motivated to resume training, and was planning my Ironman Australia build within hours of finishing the race while the lessons learnt were fresh in my mind. In what turned out to be bizarrely accurate, I even told Monica and emailed a coaching advisor that I was confident I would go 8hrs 10 in Ironman Australia, 5 minutes under the previous course record.

NZ finish- @koruptvision

Ironman 70.3 Davao

After an awesome week of chilling in New Zealand with the family I had Ironman 70.3 Davao in the Phillipines 2 weeks later. I actually felt pretty sprightly one week after Ironman New Zealand and then terrible two weeks after. An important lesson for what would became a post Ironman Oz gamble with Ironman 70.3 Vietnam. I suspect two to three weeks after an Ironman it’s a combination of the fatigue still very much in the body from the Ironman but also a loss in fitness due to several weeks of reduced training with the taper and then post Ironman recovery weeks to shake the fatigue while 7-10 days post race the muscle fatigue is high but fitness is still strong. I returned to Ironman 70.3 Davao and really struggled despite an awesome race atmosphere that Philippines events are becoming famous. The passionate crowds were unable to kick my body into gear. I guess you have to pay the price of an Ironman effort at some stage but I was still very disappointed given Alaska Milk in the Philippines have been such an important sponsor of mine the past few years and I love battling out races with friends like Tim Berkel and Craig (Crowie) Alexander. Markis Rolli took it up the road and held on for a stellar win, Crowie was strong all day for 2nd and Berks raced well despite being a little fatigued with training for Ironman South Africa finishing 3rd. I was 4th but way back pretty frustrated with a body that just wouldn’t go fast enough to even be slightly involved with the race up front.

Images- @asiatrilive / @marv.sportsphotog

IM 70.3 Oceanside DNS

As is typical post racing and travel I got to Boulder in the U.S to race the iconic Ironman 70.3 California in Oceanside and my asthma was very angry with me not allowing me to train with any quality and I was struggling to sleep through the endless coughing. I’m a gambler at heart and rarely pull out of starting races even when sick. However it’s never once worked out for me and I finally had the maturity to pull out of Oceanside. I didn’t feel I had raced near my potential since September and finally accepted I had to change my approach and get fully healthy or this asthmatic cycle would continue and Ironman Oz, the major target of the first half of this year would be a failed mission.

I needed a training camp not necessarily to do the extra training but to get the much needed recovery time between sessions that I simply don’t get parenting at home. I took advice from Crowie and eliminated intensity from my training for the first 10 days I was in Boulder. I also had an appointment with Joanna Zeiger, Olympian, Ironman 70.3 World Champ, coach, author, asthmatic and much more who really opened my eyes to changing the way I breathe and the importance of not letting the inflammation build up. It was interesting to reflect on how all my good races had come with a reasonably degree of humidity. I realised I would have to be a little smarter with the races I chose to focus on. Even more interesting to realise how completely rubbish I was at breathing properly and the way my body had been compensating for this.

I spent the next few weeks training in Boulder hanging with my beloved U.S family, Warren and Pam Shuckies who reduce my homesickness to a bearable level so I can last the training camp distance and get the job done. By the time I left Boulder, I was breathing better than I had in a long time and my fitness, particularly my aerobic endurance and efficiency was very strong. Perhaps the altitude plays a role, but I’ve always come out of any training camp, even at sea level, in far superior form to starting out so I believe it’s more the ‘camp effect’ and the fact Boulder has such incredible bike riding that I enjoy every second of the 5-6 hour bike rides.

The ‘balance’ fallacy..

It was a relief to get back to Monica and the kids for the final run into Ironman Australia however I’m not sure they would have been loving having me back given the way I was acting. I was uptight, on edge and straight up selfish. Despite hating the way I was behaving I struggled to reign it back as I was so nervous about getting sick and or asthmatic again and ruining the good racing form I knew I was in. The self induced building pressure of feeling like I wasn’t racing to my potential over the 8hr format (or even 70.3 events of late) of the sport had me displaying characteristics of some very successful pro triathletes that I detest. The characteristics, not the athletes. I was obsessive about diet, sleep, recovery and getting my training in and everyone in the family was paying the price for my temporary neurotic ways.

While pro athletes like to put out there that balance is essential to success in sport I would argue that their perception of balance is highly warped and it would be very difficult to be in the top percent of any sport if your life was genuinely well balanced. As a parent and pro athlete I have to accept this conundrum and find a solution or change occupations. I love racing and don’t necessarily want to reduce the amount of races I do but at the same time I can’t put the family through my periods of intense athletic focus too often so I try and settle on being a total self absorbed tool for two training builds a year and the rest of year accept that a better degree of balance will likely reduce my level of performance but keep the rest of my life from not going off the rails and in turn make me and my family a lot happier.

Ironman Australia

All images- @koruptvision

Of the contenders for the title Cam Wurf was the obvious favourite after a bike course record and top 10 at the World Championships in addition to a continual consistent improvement across all three disciplines. Cam had been doing some rather hectic work on his running consistently knocking out 100km run weeks on top of a some pretty epic swim and bike sessions. Cam would say he did a lot less riding and swimming which is true but that’s compared to Cam standards. Still a lot more than most other pros are able to get through. Cam has the uncanny ability, similar at least from what is reported, to both Jan Frodeno and Lionel Sanders to get through a huge amount of volume and intensity while still absorbing and adapting while many of the rest of us would be buried by the physical workload even if our brains were willing. The other bloke that didn’t get quite as much attention but I was well aware of was Denis Chevrot from France who doesn’t really seem to have a weakness and could definitely produce a winning performance.

The buzz the morning of the race was awesome. Some races you can really feel it. Unlike the days leading in where I’m nervous as hell, I didn’t feel any nerves the morning of the race, only pure excitement to see how far I could push the mind and body.

The swim is a tricky one to navigate on your own as I found out in 2016 and it seemed that the majority of the pro field assembled were all superior swimmers to me. Staying with the group was going to be crucial to a fast swim and getting dropped at the first buoy turn was not in the pre race plan but Denis and I found ourselves in that situation. I had to bury myself early in the swim to chase the group and get back on, again, not what I really wanted given every sprint surge you do over this distance comes back to bite you later in the race. We managed to get back in contact and the energy saved for the speed gained over 3.8kms likely make the sprint effort very worth it.

I had two predominant race strategies in mind. If Cam was with us out of the swim, I knew I was going to have to sacrifice some time off my run and simply ride harder as there was a good chance he could have an embarrassingly large gap off the bike similar to Starky’s gap in Ironman New Zealand if I didn’t. If Cam wasn’t with us I would just ride a relatively steady effort until I knew where he was and what the likely scenario was starting the run. My thought process was that given the draining nature of the bike course, combined with the predicted wind on race day that run times would not be super fast and that if I could get off the bike within 8-10 minutes to Cam I would have a chance for the win provided he blew up in the back half of the marathon and I didn’t. Not the most proactive strategy but one that has proven quite effective in Ironman racing over the past several decades. Most importantly for me though was not winning the race but laying down an Ironman performance that I was proud of and knew represented the amount of work and sacrifices both my family and I had put into that race.

Despite a 4+ minute deficit out of the swim, it was obvious all Cam’s run milage hadn’t hurt his bike riding in the slightest as he went flying past us on the return portion of the first lap. The speed he went past was insane and I figured that was simply to ensure the gap was established as that power could not be sustained and still leave legs ok for running. Mark Bowstead made the interesting decision to try and ride with Cam which lasted a short while before Cam decided to unleash a little more fury leaving Mark reeling from the effort and quickly left Cam on his own to start accumulating time on the field. The gap didn’t build at a crazy rate so I committed to sticking to my set power and banking on the run based off the splits and the time left to ride.

Off the bike and onto the run Cam was 8.5 minutes up the road, Mark 40 seconds up and Denis and Clayton Fettel with me. I had mentally rehearsed shutting my brain down into hibernation during some of my really tough brick sessions in Boulder and found a calm, neutral mental space straight away where internal voices of common sense couldn’t pester me. I didn’t panic about the gap to Cam, settled into pace that I felt would not necessarily make up any time on Cam in the first 15kms but after that would allow me to run well and start bringing him back from there.

Below- Ironman warm up. Ironkids with Big Artie

I don’t think there is a portion of the run course that is not lined with very vocal supporters. A marathon after 180kms of cycling is always going to be a painful experience but having that much support on course makes it a strangely very enjoyable painful experience. At 10kms the gap remained exactly the same to Cam and I had put a little time into Denis. 15kms the gap to Cam was still the same. At this point I was not surprised at all. Cam had out run Tim Don at the Cannes Triathlon a few weeks prior so I knew he was running well over shorter distances. 21kms in, still the gap remained the same and I was starting to get a little bit more perplexed given the pace we were holding was very solid. I settled into the war of attrition, knowing that anything can happen in the final 10kms and then had a bad patch, more in terms of how I was feeling but not so much with my pace dropping too badly, from about 22kms through to about 28kms. In the past I would have put up the white flag but Ironman experience has now taught me to hang in there fighting for each kilometre because things can definitely turn around. The kilometres didn’t feel as difficult after that point, perhaps simply because I was getting closer to the finish and finally I was starting to see the gap to Cam slowly coming down. Small gains but at least it was something. With only 8kms to go he still had a 6 minute gap but I pressed on regardless, eliminating thoughts of what the gap to Cam was doing and was simply just excited that I was running better than I had in the final portion of an Ironman marathon.

In almost exactly the same place that I had lost several minutes off my lead to Dave Dellow in 2017 when I couldn’t’ stop cramping, Cam pulled up stationary and started emptying the contents of his stomach for the live coverage that was beamed around the world. I was soon getting excited reports from runners coming my way that Cam was walking and did everything I could to try and hang onto a decent pace without bringing on my cramp demons. The minutes came down quickly but Cam, gathered himself and finished off the job in a cracking course record time of 8:06:17. I came across the line absolutely stoked with my best Ironman performance to date in 8:09:50 and gaining qualification to the Ironman World Champs in Kona.

Some were surprised at how happy I was at the finish given it was a second place finish. While victories are awesome my primary analysis is based off the objective data and I can’t control other people’s performances. My performance was my best to date over this distance, nearly 7 minutes quicker than when I won in 2016 on an easier day so of course I was ecstatic. I was also very happy for Cam. I’ve witnessed his total and absolute dedication to improving in this sport. To be perfectly honest, it’s not a level of dedication I can emulate too often to given the phase of my life and four more important priorities but it’s been seriously impressive and motivating to witness. It doesn’t always happen but it’s fitting when the guy who has worked the hardest gets the most rewarded as is proving to be the case with Cam’s rapid rise towards the top. The affable Frenchman, Denis Chevrot, rounded out the podium with a 2.50 marathon and 8.16:00.

I’m really pleased to see a shift amongst both age group participants, pros and the powers at Ironman in recognising that tough Ironman courses provide fair races and overall a more fulfilling experience. If you’re in Ironman racing to truly test yourself or find out where you genuinely stack up in your age group while experiencing a race with an atmosphere that is really only rivalled in my experience with races like IM 70.3 Philippines then Ironman Australia is a race you should be looking at for 2020.

Ironman 70.3 Vietnam- Asia Pacific Championships

I had booked flexible fares to Vietnam on the chance Ironman Australia ended up being a terrible performance or the small chance that my legs and brain would feel up to racing 7 days post Ironman. Based off the awareness that I could do things I couldn’t’ normally do after an Ironman, like walk and sit down to go to the toilet without my quads screaming at me in protest, I made the decision on Tuesday I was going to roll the dice and race. I love Vietnam and the event organisers always do a fantastic job of making it a spectacular event. I also figured that with the large pro field that was assembling to contest the Asia Pac Championship, even if I couldn’t’ hang with them in the race there were a lot guys I liked hanging out with outside of racing.

I set about establishing expectations amongst the male pro field that I was going to run terribly reminding most who would listen that last time I raced a week after an Ironman, I blew to smithereens and was barely jogging in the final 10kms. I knew that I was going to need a lead off the bike to have any chance of a top finish and that establishing low expectations for my run would greatly increase my chance of being able to get away on the fast bike course as guys would be less willing to close the gap and drag better runners with them.

I didn’t feel great in the swim but still made the front group without too much stress. Onto the bike, I was surprised at how easy I found it to move to the front of the pack and close the small gap to Patrick Lange who was leading the early stages of the bike ride. As the current Ironman World Champion and being his first race of the year, there was no way Patrick would have given anything less than 100% to the build up to this race so I knew he was probably the main man to watch. Aerobically I felt great and the ache in my legs was manageable. The second major attempt to get clear of the guys was mildly successful gaining a few hundred metres on the group but was eventually brought back by Mike Phillips and the group with him. Mike had raced a week prior in Busselton showing that his bike was on song was going to be very tough to get away from.

With about 22kms to go I hit the climb up the bridge for a sustained effort of around 6.5w/kg (little guys always talk in watts per kg instead of absolute numbers) and went hard down the other side, relieved to look back and see I had some breathing space. I later found out Mike and Terenzo both decided to chase at one point or another but with the field not letting them go and everyone saving precious watts with the permitted 10m gap between bikes for the very hot run ahead, decided it wasn’t in their interest to help so many fast athletes and threw me a bone to chew on to see if I could get through it. Sometimes it pays to have friends in the group.

Image- @asiatrilive/@marv.sportsphotog

I got off the bike in 2:04 a little off my bike course record from 2015 which I only mention because my ego hates being pigeonholed as just a fast runner. I had a 2.5 minute lead on the chase group and decided to use the lead as an opportunity to run the first half easy and protect the legs to try and make it through the 2nd half of the run still able to move. Even leading at 8kms I still believed my best hopes were maybe a 5-8th place given my quads were already giving me hell and given the quality field. Hey, given the circumstances I was pretty happy with that prospect and braced myself to dig as deep as I could over the final 10kms to try and secure that 5-8th. The boys were flying behind with Berkel first to catch me around 10kms in, Patrick soon to follow and Crowie also within 20 metres of making the pass. At the turn around, I stuck to the negotiated agreement with my brain and locked into suffering more than I ever have before and moved as fast my legs would take me from aid station to aid station. The thought of running beyond the next aid station was not something my brain could contemplate so I made the goals mentally manageable.

Thankfully, the easier 10km and my pre race PREPD hydration protocol seemed to start paying huge dividends as many of the guys behind had dropped off and apart from the pain in my legs, the Vietnam heat and humidity was not bothering me at all. I wasn’t the only athlete to race a week prior and I think Crowie, Mike Philips and others were all really feeling it in the back half of the run.

Patrick ripped through the run to take the win in clinical domination, Tim Berkel had an awesome race showing just how good he is, particularly in the heat to take 2nd and somehow I had bluffed my way into 3rd place, frankly very shocked with how well my gamble had paid off. Image- @IronmanAsia

Huge shout out to the team behind this race they did such a great job in hosting a championship event. In particular, it’s been really cool to watch the massive increase of popularity of triathlon in Vietnam.

Schedule..

From here, next stop is back to the Philippines for IM 70.3 Subic Bay. I return to Australia for a leisurely 24 hours to pick up the family then we all fly to the U.S for American summer hitting IM 70.3 CDA, IM 70.3 Santa Rosa before everyone’s favourite race, IM 70.3 Philippines in Cebu!

Thank you

My amazing wife Monica and our extended families for all helping out when I’m away.

To Evan Gallagher for keeping the ship sailing.

To my sponsors for their unwavering support:

Trek

Bontrager

Alaska Milk

Allen Sports

Santini

Oakley

Flight Centre Sports and Events

PREPD

Roka

Budgy Smuggler

Sex Drive Guided Training?

February 15, 2019 By Tim Reed

The last 10 years of my life I’ve spent countless hours riding in the company of predominantly young to middle aged men. Given the average male allegedly thinks about sex 19 times per day the conversation occasionally turns to discussing sex in a direct or more obscure way depending on how comfortable we are with each other.

What might be surprising to readers who are not so familiar with elite endurance athletes, is how often I hear guys say that they’re not interested in sex, that it’s a chore they sometimes bear for their non-training partner or they’re actually having issues maintaining an erection, or reaching orgasm.

Some guys with the latter issue blame extended time on the bike which in the past was certainly an issue. However, in the age of better bike fits and the vast array of saddles that eliminate pressure on the perineal area this really shouldn’t be happening to men or women anymore and if it is, get off your penny farthing and get it sorted!

Based off consistent feedback, a new Trek Bike is associated with increases in sex drive. Pic- James Mitchell

In contrast, when I speak to an athlete who has given the sport away or is taking an extended break from training the comments almost universally include shock at how their sex drive is back, alive and well. In my own experience the change in sex drive when I’m on a break is so drastic I have to wonder whether the body is making up for lost time or whether this is the normal state of affairs if I wasn’t training all the time. If it is, I’ll have to continue some training post triathlon retirement to avoid annoying my wife too much.

I don’t regularly ask women how their sex-life is going so I can’t speak with great anecdotal authority that females training hard experience the same issues. However from some very shallow research and applying common-sense, women consistently overtraining will experience exactly the same drop in sex drive.

Based off consistent feedback, watching me compete in Budgy Smugglers has never been associated with increases in sex drive. Pic- AsiaTri.com

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

Cortisol, the temperamental hormonal beast that it is, is the body’s major stress hormone. It’s released from adrenal glands in response to stress. Whether that stress be the day to day more benign events happening in your life, the more acute emotional stress or exercise induced stress and much more. Cortisol regulates energy helping selecting the right type and amount of carbohydrate, fat or protein that the body needs.

A natural variation in cortisol levels throughout the day is very normal and healthy. When you wake, it’s normally quite high, then it might start to drop late morning, bump back up in response to a hard training session or to help you meet a tight work deadline, then drop right back down towards the end of the day to allow rest and sleep.

We love Cortisol, we have to have it. It only becomes an issue when levels are chronically high. Similar to insulin resistance in diabetics, if high cortisol levels are present too often, the whole system can become dysfunctional. The body might start pumping high levels of cortisol at times when you really don’t want it, or stop producing adequate amounts when you really need it.

When cortisol is high, other hormones, specifically sex hormone production for the purposes of this article is very low. For men, the predominant sex hormone is testosterone and for women oestrogen and progesterone. When cortisol production levels are high, inversely the above sex hormones will be low. So if you are working too hard, or have a level of work stress that you can’t switch off from OR are training really hard for too long a period the body is at risk of chronically high cortisol and chronically low testosterone, oestrogen, progesterone and other hormones.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Diet

I wouldn’t Google this space as you’ll read so much marketing spin on supplements that will lower cortisol and boost sex hormones that it will likely add more stress to compound any sex issues. A healthy, predominantly whole food diet that gives your body all the appropriate nutrients to thrive should be sufficient nutritionally for most people to keep their libido at an appropriate level for their age range.

Sleep

The most effective way to give your body a hormonal boost is get enough rest and sleep. During sleep the body pumps out hormones to restore, rebuild and in turn, reload your sex drive. Prioritise sleep if you want to bring back your sexual mojo.

‘Healthy’ Training

Chronic exercise equals chronic cortisol levels so stop the chronic training. Use a coach or take the time to plan out an appropriate training program that is a somewhat ‘healthy’ training program. By healthy I mean factor in all the other causes of stress of your life and ensure you have the time to absorb and recover from the training you’re doing. By all means, train incredibly hard but realise that the hard work is wasted if you don’t give yourself the rest time to absorb it.

To maximise high performance over the long term in your chosen sport, incorporate a weekly rest day or days and take time after key events to really refresh. It’s easy to flick through Instagram and see the incredible sessions the sports elite are posting and thinking that they are at the top because of their ability to suffer. That would certainly be partly true but the flip side of their schedule that doesn’t get broadcast is them lying down for as much time outside of training as is possible would probably not garner many likes but is likely just as big a part of their success.

Pic- Korupt Vision

Be Flexible

Flexibility within your training program is incredibly important to preventing a chronic overload of cortisol and to keep your sex drive knocking on desire’s door. If you haven’t slept the much the night before due to a crying baby or a high level of work stress that day then don’t go ahead and complete your most intense training session as planned. Re-work the training schedule and do a recovery or easy aerobic session so that the total stress for that day is not over the top. Reschedule the session for another time or even let the session go. Skipping a session is not a soft move if it keeps you healthy and allows longer term consistency.

There is a massive difference between not feeling like doing a session because you’re a little tired and genuinely knowing you’re wrecked and that doing the session would have little benefit. Deep down I think most people know but if you’re unsure I like the Craig Alexander method of starting the session and at least completing the warm up. Often starting is the hardest part and from there you know whether you’re truly fatigued or whether you are good to go.

Reduce Stimulants

Caffeine, likely the most beneficial legal performance enhancing drug also helps bump up cortisol levels. Chronic caffeine intake can contribute to chronic cortisol levels so be wise with how much and how often you have caffeine. Similar to training, try and find days of the week or periods through the year where caffeine intake is heavily reduced.

Find proven alternatives to caffeine that can boost performance without the adrenal toll.

Save yourself

Serious overtraining syndrome can take months or even years to escape. Save yourself the pain of going too far down the overtraining route. Don’t ignore your sex drive and allow it to help guide smart training and recovery.

Ironman Cairns

June 28, 2018 By Tim Reed

It’s reportedly difficult to do live coverage for Ironman Cairns. That sucks for the hardcore fans out there wanting to watch such stars as Javier Gomez and Braden Currie battle it out for the Ironman Asia Pacific title but it is very beneficial for my race reporting as I can embellish as I please and noone, beyond those that raced, can argue with my version of events.

For the most part, Cairns, the Northern QLD tourist magnet, was rather generous with the conditions she delivered on race day. The heat was relatively cool (still bloody warm), the wind relatively calm (still bloody windy) and croc sightings were either non existent or kept well under wraps. Perhaps the trickiest conditions faced by athletes on the day were during the swim. Above the surface Palm Cove was whipped into a decent chop while beneath the surface a strong current prevailed. I took note of the both the rapid drop off from the sand line to beyond waist deep water and the strong undertow pulling from right to left and used both factors to a distinct advantage as the gun went off. I nailed the beach start and my tactical positioning on the start line allowed me to use the current to my advantage and was soon positioned well above my swimming ability level a few hundred metres into the race. I was slightly uncomfortably nestled well within the front group. A second pack was already being left behind. Seeya suckers! I assumed most of the the major players were aboard this Javier Gomez express aquatic taxi and dug very deep to ensure I remained in the draft.

Approaching 1.9kms and the far turn buoys, all was well. Javier Gomez for the non-triathletes out there is well known for his horse sized heart and among his athletic arsenal possesses a 1500m swim time that I’m told could qualify him for the Olympics. It appeared he was conserving energy to some degree to save everything he could for the long day ahead. I relaxed momentarily to congratulate myself on making it this far in the wake of greatness. At that very moment my supposed friend and Trek Factory Racing teammate Tim O’Donnell made the very clever decision to take the lead and hammer the pace around the buoy turns to shake off any free-loading riff raff. Unfortunately for me I was the riff raff and soon dislodged from my hiding space. Much like cycling, the draft of the pack makes the effort for speed much easier on the guys behind in a straight line but out of corners it’s a massive sprint effort to stay with the group. By the second buoy turn I had lost 4-5 metres and had to decide whether I turn myself inside out to get back into the draft or minimise Ironman destroying heart rate spikes and wait for the second group. My biggest concern was that Terenzo Bozzone was in the front group who when firing has one of the best first 40km bike power outputs in the game and I didn’t want him to be out of sight, out of mind early in the race . So I dug as deep as I could for 300m. The gap didn’t close but rather lengthened out to a heartbreaking 10-12 metres and finally I had to cut my losses and back off my effort a lot before I ruined my whole day. I rolled onto my back, swam some backstroke and sucked in much needed oxygen to get my heart rate back under control.

The other complicating factor of the Ironman Cairns swim is that it’s wetsuit legal due to the risk of jelly fish stings despite the water temperature being warm. The result is that even those who swim comfortably are likely starting the bike ride already somewhat dehydrated. Swimming at or above threshold as I did for the first 2-2.5kms compounds this problem and while post race I looked at the sky cursing my race nutrition on the run for a somewhat disappointing result, in retrospect there were quite a few factors, nearly all entirely down to my decision making during the race that could have attributed to my problems on the run.

I enjoyed some easier swim time as the second group gradually approached and enveloped me into their cosy embrace. I was pleasantly surprised to note that there was some real horse power back here including Bozzone, Tim Berkel, Kyle Buckingham and Luke McKenzie just to name a few.

Onto the bike and I was relieved to see my heart rate very responsive and my legs feeling very ready to play. A sign I’m well tapered for the event. I can’t deny that at times I found it difficult following my new coach for 2018, Alan Couzen’s plan. I like to race a lot but the only way to stay on track for an Ironman build and race a lot is to train through some races which I found tough to swallow. Ironman 70.3 St George in particular. Racing a field of that quality, I really needed a two week taper after a big block of work in Boulder to get the most out of myself come race day. Alan, thankfully recognised my weakness for wanting to do really well in every single race kept me on track with some minimal tapers in the races building up to Cairns. The result is solid races but often struggling to hold a high heart rate due to accumulated training training fatigue. It’s a price I’ve realised I have to pay if I want to get onto an Ironman start line with the adequate training behind me.

The only downside of feeling superbly tapered combined with the truly magnificent Ironman Cairns bike course and excitement of racing so many top quality racers is that my froth level was a little too high. I needed to be at a smooth Aussie flat white froth level. Minimal froth, calm and calculated with a strong finishing flavour. Instead I was bucking away on my supremely aero Trek Speed Concept at an American Cappuccino froth level. Way too much froth! The front swim group that included Gomez, Braden Currie and Tim O’Donnell were not putting in any time so we could have slowly chipped away at their lead but instead I was loving the ride way too much and putting in unnecessary big surges along with with McKenzie, young Lachy Kieran and Kyle Buckingham. We steadily reeled in the front few guys by 50-60kms and one very large group formed.

I remained in the front few guys and over 180kms the group gradually whittled down to a select few. In the final 60kms both O Donnell, Buckingham, Currie and I all seemed pretty keen to get some distance on Gomez, who’s marathon was likely to be very fast. A gap opened up at one stage but then I took a wrong turn mistaking a volunteer’s arm signal as a turn signal leading the aggressors astray. A quick U-turn to make ammends but it brought the group back together and with the strong head wind it was going to be difficult to get another opportunity to split the small group. Terenzo didn’t follow the rest of us down the wrong street used the opportunity to bridge across to Denis Chevrot who had ridden carefully minimising surges until it counted pushing off the front with no-one countering the move late into the ride.

I felt great thought the entire 180kms, getting off in 4 hours and 22 mins well in the mix; Terenzo and Chevrot were slightly ahead while Currie, Gomez, O’Donnell and Buckingham all in transition alongside me.

Despite a kit change from my Santini ‘Redux’ sleeved suit to a Santini Crop top and Budgy Smugglers I was out of transition pretty much as quick as the other guys clearly demonstrating my talent for rapidly getting my gear off. Unlike my bike ride which included a few too many HR spikes I was very determined to ignore what the other guys were doing and simply run my own marathon pace. Braden and Gomez were off at what must have been 3.15-3.20/km pace. ‘Suicidal pacing’, I told myself. However I had forgotten one of my favourite Sebastian Kienle quotes- “there are other advantages to being out in front.. like being a legend” and the legend factor can never be ignored as it can gift an athlete an extra 5% of psychological will power. Ironman wins have come from both an even paced marathon split or ‘make hay while the sun is shining’ style pacing. Prime example- Patrick Lange for an even paced and Craig Alexander for a positive but still smoking fast marathon pacing.

You can’t help but give Braden Currie truck loads of respect. After the disappointment of getting sick from his kids and not being able to defend his Ironman New Zealand title, losing it to fellow Kiwi top dog and rival Terenzo Bozzone would have been a real punch to the guts. To lock down and focus on Cairns at the expense of ignoring a lot of other races where he could have made money along the way takes true belief and courage. In addition, a countless number of people would have told him that his pacing strategy in races is a little mental but he just keeps on being Braden, charging from the front with a crazy first 5kms in every race and in this instance cracking out a 2.40 marathon. To not only win but break the great Javier Gomez late in the marathon to clinch the championship title is a very special way to take victory. Javier held it together for an extremely admirable Ironman debut taking 2nd and Terenzo Bozzone 3rd, Tim O’Donnell 4th with a strong all round days.

One of the positive effects of having a break from training and spending more time with ‘normal’ people is my all consuming disappointment in the back half of my marathon starts to take some perspective and isn’t quite the disaster for all humanity that I felt post race. The day prior to the race I decided to integrate into my fairly standard running nutrition plan a new product that uses a special technology preventing the carbohydrates from being broken down in the stomach, delivering it straight to the intestines and supposedly decreasing the chance of GI distress. I had tried the product in training and it went down ok, but in retrospect it was late into a simulation session and I should have tried it many more times. I consumed it during the first half of the second lap of the run and from there nothing I consumed on the run would stay down and was burped or vomited back up. I still think the technology behind the product could be sound but for a sensitive new age stomach like my own, I potentially couldn’t handle the fructose component with my guts under Ironman duress. As the run proceeded and I knew I wasn’t getting in my much relied upon SOS for hydration I knew that eventually the electrolyte imbalance would likely lead to cramping and my suspicions came to fruition. In front of a large crowd I was at a standstill putting on a marvellous display of cramping contortions. Despite no longer having a sponsorship relationship with HOTSHOT I still swear that it’s the most effective anti-cramp formula out there once you’ve started getting twitchy or worse. I made the mistake of putting it in my special needs bag instead of carrying it with me which was several kms away so I had to stop/start my way until I was able to down the precious chilli flavoured nectar that seems to rapidly relax my neuromuscular fireworks. I got back to a sluggish pace but the back half of my marathon had gradually let me slip from 5th to 8th place. I crossed the line in quite a disorientated state in a mixture of disappointment, nausea and pride that I got it done.

In the days that followed, I took the usual but mistaken path of vowing sweet revenge on Ironman and planning another Ironman event as soon as I possibly could to utilise my current fitness and avoid another entire Ironman build. I even announced that plan on ‘Narcissistgram’. Soon after, both my manager, Evan Gallagher and coach talked me down from that ledge and logic prevailed. Firstly, I’m having a baby shortly and if the baby arrived early while I was off doing an Ironman I would never forgive myself. Secondly, one of my major objectives for the year and favourite events, Ironman 70.3 Philippines which is the Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific Championships for 2018 is not far away and throwing another Ironman into the mix would almost certainly diminish a performance there. This race is incredibly important to me for numerous reasons one major reason being that Fred Uytengsu, Alaska Milk and the Sunrise Events team have been integral in their support of my career the past few years. A great performance in Cebu is a small way I can say thank you. The attempt on the Cebu title this year presents some unique challenges besides the terrific field I’ll be racing. With the arrival of bub number 3 I won’t be doing my usual training camp environment going into that event which has fared me so well in the past. Instead I’ll be dodging my boy’s snot rockets and dealing with the really quite pleasant winter climate of Byron Bay.

2 weeks later I’m going to head back to the heat and humidity of Asia to jump into a race I’ve eyed off with interest for a number of years, Ironman 70.3 Bintan. All roads still lead to the Ironman World Championships in Kona this year and Bintan will be my final chance to really test out my Kona race plans in similar heat and humidity.

I want to say an enormous thank you to my amazing wife, her family, my family and my sponsors. Trek Bicycles, Alaska Milk, Allen Sports, Santini, Bontrager, Roka, Oakley, SOS Rehydrate, Budgy Smuggler and Flight Centre Sports and Events.

All photos courtesy of @KoruptVision

Curbing the Comedown

June 21, 2018 By Tim Reed

Curbing The Come Down

It’s been close to a perfect prep. You’ve ticked every box possible in regards to nailing your ‘A’ race. Sacrifices a plenty along the way including spending a lot less quality time with friends and family and justifying putting off life-tasks that you’ll get around to after the race. ‘You’ll make up for it once the race is over’ is the common mantra I tell myself and is the familiar theme I hear from others. The race tends to go one of two ways.

Scenario 1- Really well. You’ve smashed your personal best, perhaps beat your training buddies or for the pros out there, loaded some prize money into the bank and kept sponsors throwing high fives around in the office at their genius decision to sponsor you. The finish line feeling was as good as everyone told you it would be. Shivers down your spine, screams of pure joy at the finish line and all that usual carry on. The day after the race and you’re still on a massive high. How good are the next few weeks going to be? Lying around, relishing in the glory of what you’ve achieved, no training, catching up with friends, throwing back chips and beers with zero guilt. It’s going to be the best! Only it isn’t.

Scenario 2- You’ve had either a moderately disappointing or excruciatingly disappointing race.

Ironically, both scenarios often lead to the same outcome. Only with the disappointing result the feeling can come sooner. You feel c0mpletely empty. What now? You ticked off or missed the goal you’ve been working towards for months, maybe even years. By mid week you’re struggling to find the motivation to even get out of bed let alone make the effort to make up for the selfishness you imparted on friends and family during the build up. There’s a strange feeling of perpetual sadness combined with a completely overwhelming level of anxiety thinking of things you need to get done to get the rest of life back on track. For some lucky people, ‘post-event depression’, as it is can be coined, can last for just a few days. For others, it can linger for weeks or even months.

What is ‘Post Event-Depression’?

The months of training to complete your event take a huge amount of motivation and discipline to get out the door for each session. The nice part of the preparation and all the training that many of us don’t take for granted is the daily feelings of accomplishment after ticking off each session. I believe it’s deep in our ancestral DNA to need consistent purpose to be happy. The pillars of happiness; adequate food, shelter, love and the one that’s often ignored- ‘purpose‘. It’s quite possible that like myself, you also become very fond of the brain chemicals that are released during training. During and after training the brain releases ‘feel good’ neurotransmitters including dompamine, norephinephrine and serotonin. Pain, anxiety and stress can be strongly mitigated by these chemicals and it’s likely that endurance athletes in particular become very fond of their morphine like effect post training. There is a reason that former drug addicts who’ve beaten their demons end up in ultra running or competing in Ironman triathlon, some of them doing exceptionally well.

On a more acute level, race day takes an enormous emotional toll. The brain’s stress chemicals are circulating in overdrive before and during the race. You then receive a massive endorphin release upon finishing which leaves the athlete with a ‘racer’s high’. Typically, we then go cold turkey on training and the body, at least from what I’ve observed, seems to almost go into withdrawals due to an elimination of the brain chemicals daily training has provided for so long.

Newton’s third law of physics can also be applied to psychology. “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. What goes up, must come down.

How to lessen the fall:

Be ready. I would love to jot down some recommendations of how to get through the post race period without suffering any post race blues at all but for the majority of people, that would be unrealistic. Plus, if you’re going to get the the most out of yourself mentally on race day you’re going to have to deplete yourself to a significant degree. However, being ready for the fall and understanding why it’s happening can make for a much softer landing. It’s worth warning your loved ones that you might be a little down for a few days so that they don’t get frustrated if you’re not your usual enthusiastic self.
Alcohol and Caffeine Before I’m called out for blatant hypocrisy, do as I say not as I do. I’m rather fond of a beer or three post race but I’m also very accepting of the fact that I often do myself no psychological favours with this indulgence. Especially after a race has gone well there can be a very strong desire to get out and celebrate. It’s often been weeks or months of living like a monk and you want to get out and enjoy yourself. If you really struggle with post-event depression I would seriously consider skipping drinking until the brain is on a more even keel. Same goes for post-event anxiety. Steer off caffeine for a while until you’re mood is more stable. Just because caffeine and alcohol are widely socially accepted they’re still drugs with both positive and negative effects and the negatives can really be enhanced post race.

In addition with caffeine, your body and mind has been given a solid bashing, all-time high cortisol levels are circulating and your heart rate is still nowhere near your typical resting rate. It’s not untypical for athletes to consume 400mg+ of caffeine on race day. The body wants and needs to rest to rebuild physically and emotionally but the temptation is to spend the day after the race sharing war stories with friends and trying to pick yourself up out of the fatigue with a few double shot espressos. You’re essentially throwing stimulants into a completely burnt out mind and body. The effect of caffeine is highly individual but again, if your prone to post-event anxiety perhaps take it easy on caffeine.
Gut Health- There is ever increasing evidence that our gut health plays an integral role in regulating our moods and feeling of happiness. Racing an endurance event typically requires fuelling and hydrating with sports fuels and and drinks that in the short term help you get through the race as fast as possible but can also leave your gut microbes well out of whack with unhealthy gut bacteria thriving and healthy gut bacteria suffering. Binge eating tends to be the order of the day after a big endurance event and I would never try to deny an athlete this immense pleasure post race. However, if you can binge on more natural sources of food rich in healthy fats, protein and quality sources of carbs then it should go along way to helping your gut bounce back from the race day pounding it’s received and help produce positive mood stabilising chemicals to get your brain back to normal more quickly.
Sleep- A disturbed sleep 2 nights out. 3 hours sleep the night before. Staring at the ceiling the night after the race. I’m sure that sleep pattern sounds familiar. By the time the whole race experience is done it’s so easy to be completely wrecked and sometimes it’s the lack of sleep that’s been the primary swinging wrecking ball even more so than the race. Sleep is a whole separate article but if sleeping is an issue for you like it is for me then I would look into getting to the race more than a couple of days before the race to settle in and truly relax and adjust to any time differences. Practicing ’Mindfulness Mediation’ has some solid evidence behind it for a long list of mental perks.

Post race plan- Contrary to common practice perhaps consider an exercise schedule for the week after the race before starting on a complete or nearly complete break from training. The ‘cold turkey’ approach is pretty tough on the brain while even 30 mins a day of low impact exercise could go a long way to getting you outside, helping with a small bout of much needed endorphins and also actually aid healing of the body. Often muscles and fascia are riddled with mirco-tears post race and by not putting the body through a nice range of motion each day we heal in a shortened state. When we do resume training, despite the rest, injuries can pop up due to a lack of active recovery. Of course it’s not suitable to launch into high impact exercise like running and I still think a complete break from training is potentially useful for many, however I would give it a week or 10 days before going into a ‘no exercise phase’.

Be realistic! It can be easy to make work or a chore list for the weeks following your race that is very ambitious ignoring that you might not be in the most productive mental state. Make a list by all means but target one to two tasks a day instead of having unrealistic target that only leaves you overwhelmed and more stressed out by the end of the day when you haven’t achieved what you thought you would for that day.

Be with people who make you happy.

It can make the world of difference when you’re feeling down. Take the time to be with the people you love and the people who make you happy.

Is it all worth it? After all this you might ask is it really all worth it if every great feeling in life is balanced out by an opposing negative emotions?

Only you can answer that for yourself and I completely appreciate for some, it may not be worth it if the suffering post event is particularly bad. For myself however, it’s absolutely worth it. We’re only here for a short while in the grand scheme of things and I would rather ride life’s extreme roller coaster of emotions then get to the end of the road wondering what it would have been like to have loved and lost love, seen and experienced the wonders of the world but also the darker side of humanity and experiencing the absolute elation of crossing a finish line in excess of all expectations or the disappointment when you fall well short of your goals. I try not to fear post-race depression, just accept it’s inevitable to some degree and manage it as best I can knowing that what goes up, must go down, but then will eventually go back up again!

Look out for each other and talk to your GP about the help available if you’re really struggling.

Cheers,

Reedy

Images 1,2 and 4- @KoruptVision

Image 3- @stuart.fefeita

War On Dehydration

March 5, 2018 By Tim Reed

Upon reviewing 2017 I had to come to terms with the following:

As much as I would love the Ironman World Championship to rotate locations like every other sport and the Ironman 70.3 World Championship, it is not going to happen any time soon. I need to adapt to the conditions in Kona or choose a different major objective to rotate my season around.
Amongst my gnome sub species and indeed even compared to the far larger common human, I have very high sweat and sodium losses. In very warm conditions I can lose 4-5kgs in a 2 hour run. A 7% drop in body weight due to fluid loss is not going to enable a strong final hour of a marathon irrespective how hard you are willing to push your body as most brains won’t allow you to put yourself into a state that could lead to organ damage. Although there are a few notable exceptions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyYkKkLRAec
I know it’s very individual but my best races have come from ingesting far less calories then traditional sports science says I should need to compete at the highest level and consuming far more fluid and sodium then the majority of scientific sports research says I should be able to absorb, suggesting strongly that hydration is a major limiter for me while calorie deficiency is not.
I weigh myself pre and post specific brick sessions during the hot summer months and of the many products I experimented with since 2015, SOS was far and away the best hydration product I trialled. My losses were mitigated massively without GI distress indicating incredibly efficient fluid absorption. So I hassled them into a sponsorship arrangement.

Pic- Ironman World Championships 2017. Pic- Dan Brown.

One of the major reasons I think SOS works so well for me is that the dominant source of sodium in SOS is sodium chloride. Sodium chloride is how we would naturally consume salt in our diets and because of this the human brain has a terrific way of telling us when we need it and when we don’t. It tastes really good when we are salt depleted, while the chloride component is not as tasty when you don’t need salt. For example, on a Byron Bay humid summer day, I’ll drink 3-4 sachets of SOS per bottle for my hard sessions and my taste buds are dancing with pleasure. At rest however, when my sweat is negligible, I find that if I mix 3-4 sachets per bottle then the chloride component of SOS makes the taste far too strong and my brain tells me to back it off so I’ll only do one sachet. Given how essential salt is to human function it is really not surprising that we evolved to be pretty damn clever at balancing out how much salt to ingest through a taste feedback loop. Where many other sports drink formulas fall short is they use artificial sweeteners and/or lots of sugar and less natural, manufactured forms of salt which inhibits our normal way of regulating salt through taste.

Another major SOS drawcard is that I don’t want to be consuming lots of sugar unless I really need it to fuel very high intensity training and racing. SOS has enough glucose to facilitate fluid absorption in the small bowl via the sodium : glucose co-transport system but not enough to lead to significant insulin spikes and certainly not enough to slow absorption as some leading sports drinks have made their formulas. The sugar content is low enough that with my overly active lifestyle I can drink as much SOS as I like guilt free.

It took me some time to work out how to compete in very hot and humid Ironman 70.3 events but through a lot of trial and error I worked out how to be successful over 4 hours in those conditions. My major challenge now as I focus on 8 hour races is staying hydrated for the back half of the Ironman marathon and I’m really confident that SOS is going to go a long way to helping me perform much better from 6 hours onwards in races.