Tim Reed

70.3 World Champion & Professional Triathlete

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You are here: Home / 2011 / Archives for December 2011

Archives for December 2011

Canberra 70.3

December 15, 2011 By Tim Reed

I’m on my second vino, so I’m a warning this could get a touch deep. Let me start with some cliche dribbling. I would far rather ride out the massive highs and massive lows of doing something a little different and prone to failure then be lying on this couch at 50 years of age wondering what would have been possible if I had just given something a really good crack.

I’m almost certain that highs of triathlon such as winning races, magic days in training belting along a bush trail, enjoying a Sunday ocean swim, riding breathtaking mountains in Colorado, having the flexibility and time to spend quality time with loved ones or friends  and much more is cancelled out by the lows of triathlon. Constant travel, pushing your body to the edge of sickness, dealing with injuries, financial insecurity when you’re racing poorly, the extra pressure it puts on partners, staying motivated to get through 20-35 hour training weeks, non-triathlon friends and family just not getting that it’s your job and much more. So when you iron out the hills and valleys the triathlon experience is possibly completely neutral. I hope this doesn’t sound negative because I think neutral is great. I can’t think of many other jobs that are neutral. When I weigh up most other occupations the negatives far outweigh the positives. I’m sounding pessimistic but grant me a few more lines to further clarify or confuse.

Big high’s and big lows allow a full spectrum of feelings and emotions. It’s true living. I wouldn’t give up the last couple of years for anything.  This is a job I truly love for the entire experience it provides and geez I hope I can keep doing it for quite a while.

Canberra 70.3  was a complete contrast to how I felt in Phuket. I had trained so hard to peak for Phuket and it paid dividends on race day. In a relative sense, everything felt comfortable. Obviously I’m disappointed that I lost 5 minutes on the bike with a puncture and a crash but to get back into fourth, against some of the best over this distance makes it by far the race I’m most proud of.

Canberra on the other hand was up there with some of the most difficult hours of racing I’ve done. I felt horrible in the swim but decided early that I was going to stick with Ollie Whistler for the first two laps of the bike so I tucked in behind him. When Ollie’s head is right, he can push some incredible power through those pedals and back it up with a very solid run so I wanted him to be my target to stay with on the bike. I swam up alongside him twice to try and share the load and to minimise the time to the small group of front swimmers who got away but he didn’t get my hint and we just ended up swimming side by side slowing each other down so I settled in behind him and let him do the work. We exited a little over a minute down on four guys including a major threat Joey Lampe who despite being only 22 years of age is rapidly improving every race and is a threat over both short and long course racing.

I was fairly relaxed about the time gap as I’m confident about my cycling form. Prior to Phuket, my functional threshold power was up 40 watts from where it was when I returned from injury in March this year. My confidence was instantly dashed to pieces as I put in my first few pedal strokes. They felt tired. However the main issue was my head would not shut up. I take pride in being able to quieten my mind into a state of  calm focus but my brain would not stop throwing up reasons why it didn’t want to push the body through another 3.5 hours of racing.

At about 5kms into the bike leg my saviour appeared in the shape of a course marshal who directed Ollie and I down the wrong road. We had only ridden about 30 seconds before a h0nking van pulled up alongside us and told us we were going the wrong way. Another extremely slow 30 seconds ticked by until we were back on the correct road. I had calculated that a week after a 70.3 that I could afford to lose a minute in the swim to Joey and hopefully get off the bike together or a little ahead to try and hold him off on the run. I hadn’t factored in two minutes, hence I was pissed off. All of the excuses dried up. I could handle pulling out if it was my own fault but I didn’t want a course marshall ending my day.  In a weird way the marshall reignited my competitive nature and saved my race from my uncooperative brain.

I started crunching the pedals with rage and thankfully my average speed came up. I soon calmed down and was able to get back into a good mental state and maintain the average speed I knew was required on this tough bike course. Ollie was struggling in his new bike position (he had never ridden his new bike before) and then his Shimano Electronic shifters wouldn’t go up to his big ring ending his day.

At 30kms I passed Joey who was on the side of the road with a puncture. I didn’t feel any relief, only disappointment as I had pictured a good battle between myself, Ollie and Joey.

I gradually reeled in the other front guys. I guy I really like, Michael Fox gave me a thorough briefing on where everyone was so I yelled at him to stick with me and he did for quite some time. Former ITU athlete, Josh Maeder was having a good 70.3 debut but was lucky not to cop the wrath of the draft busters as he really pushed the permitted drafting distance. I predict a big future for Josh over this format as he matches his speed with greater strength endurance. I was shocked at one point when Monty Frankish, a super friendly bloke whom I  first met in Boulder this year,  powered past me with his thundering thighs forcing me to lift my pace a little.

I hit T2 as the highly talented swim/biker Matt Bailey was putting on his running shoes. Having backed up 70.3 events before I know that I have about 10-13kms of good running in me before the accumulated fatigue of back to back races starts to really set in and the spring in my step disappears. So I went for it, holding a good pace for the first 12kms. I didn’t feel good but I knew I was moving well enough to put decent time into the other guys. From 12kms onwards it was war between my legs and mind with my legs winning and slowing my pace every kilometre that passed. Some people asked me if I switched off during the last 10kms because I had enough of a gap for the win. I absolutely didn’t. I didn’t trust my legs to carry me the entire way and was simply looking at the ground as I ran, willing off impending cramps.

The burn in my toasted legs quickly evaporated as I jogged down the finish chute to my first 70.3 win. It was so special to have my beautiful fiance Monica and my great friends Phillip and Michelle Whistler waiting at the finish line. Phil and Michelle introduced me to the sport and have been incredibly supportive as I’ve steadily progressed. Fittingly, Canberra Half Ironman was my first race in the elite/pro category where I finished 3rd a minute behind Pete Jacobs. Now, a few years later it is the race where I had my first win over this distance. To have so many podiums at this distance but never quite being able to get the top spot made this race almost a relief to tick that goal off.
My finish line speech was fairly composed until I went to thank Monica and got a little choked up as she has really ridden the rollercoaster with me over the past c0uple of years and has provided amazing support and belief.

Thank you to my sponsors. Zoot have helped me out from the start and as I’ve progressed have steadily increased their level of support. It’s a literal pleasure to wear their shoes, wetsuits and clothes.

Despite Steven from Kestrel bikes, not being in the best of health of late he still does all he can to look after me in the bike department with the slickest, quickest bikes on the market. Thanks Steven and the other people behind Kestrel.

Budgy Smugglers are still the most comfortable item of clothing to race in. There’s no argument. Old school is the only way.

I’m excited to now be working with Vision/FSA. Their marketing manager is second to none doing everything he can to ensure I’ll be riding pure speed, with everything from race wheels to chains to bars to head stems to cranks and more. I just received many crazily fast Christmas presents from them which I’ll be posting pics of up on facebook soon.

Thank you also to my most recent sponsor SIS sport nutrition. I always hunt down the sponsors with the best products and these guys certainly are the leaders in sports nutrition.

To my coach- Grant Giles, my US parents- Pam and Warren Shuckies, my real parents, Karl from www.trizone.com.au, my manager Chuck Dender (www.dendersports.com) and the people I coach. I owe you guys big time. Thank you very very much and Merry Christmas.

Cheers, DD.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Blog, Race Report Tagged With: feature

Phuket Asia Pacific 70.3 Championsips

December 7, 2011 By Tim Reed

I made a very late call to race Phuket 70.3.  Thinking that surely at the end of the season with Thailand being a fair hike for any Western athlete the pro field would be a little low on quality and an easy race to turn a buck. A nice thought in theory but straight after I booked the flights I found out I was very wrong. With great points for both Ironman and Ironman 70.3 world rankings and a $75000 prize purse some real legends of the sport were not missing out on racing and kicking back for some down time at some of Phuket’s nicest resorts.  Chris Leigh (multiple 70.3 and Ironman Champ) , Faris Al Sultan (former Ironmman World Champion), Paul Matthews (70.3 Champ and Podium finisher in everything other race that counts), Matty Reed (US Champ and Olympian), Chris Lieto (Ironman champ and Ironman World Championships runner up) ,  David Dellow (fresh off winning Noosa Triathlon) , Paul Ambrose (70.3 and Ironman Champ) , Richie Cunningham (See Matthews)  and 2 x 70.3 World Champ Michael Raelert were all racing.

After a couple of days of suffocating humidity, race day was relatively cool with some ominous clouds teaming up to bring on some interesting conditions.

The Phuket course needs to be raced to really appreciate how different and entertaining it is. The swim starts with approximately 1200m of ocean swimming before athletes jump out and hit a fresh water lagoon for the remaining 700m prior to hitting the swim to bike transition. Having spent hours swimming in the ocean at Lord Howe and being a tad on the runtish side I always prefer true ocean water swim for floatation and skills required to swim in swell. I was able to stay within a reasonable distance to the front couple of guys. By the end of the fresh water segment I had only lost about 30 seconds to Raelert, Matthews and Matty Reed which is good going for me.

Ambrose, Josh Mchugh, Chris Lieto and nuggety French chap, Roman Guillaume got out onto the bike together and started riding hard to get back that 30 seconds.  Almost immediately the precarious nature of the course became apparent with Ambrose, Josh and I narrowly missing a wandering dog only to hear a thud as the Frenchman went into the pup, going down hard finishing his day. 5kms later and a there was a second thud as Lieto took a corner a little quick, losing control and wiping out also sending him back to the dressing sheds.
Ambrose and I pushed the power up until a bridge where you have to dismount and carry your bike before remounting. Soon after the bridge we caught up to the Barney Matthews, Matty Reed and Richie Cunningham with Michael Raelert and David Dellow a hundred metres ahead. I went to the front and slowly closed the gap only to realise immediately after that it was a pretty dumb move and I had probably spoilt the other guys plan of leaving Michael out on his own but within sight, to try something (anything) to slow down his rediculous run speed.

From there the ride takes you on the steepest climbs I’ve encountered in a race. Ambrose and Matthews were riding really strong but with madatory slow down zones on some of the wet and slippery descents it was always going to be very difficult for anyone to get away.  I felt comfortable and was really happy with the current situation as often I’de be chasing these guys off the bike so to start the run with them would have me nicely positioned. 

Soon after the climbs the tropical rain started to get so heavy it stung your eyes. It didn’t last too long but left the roads even more slippery with puddles so big they had their own tidal patterns.  

On the final climb of the day at a bit after the 80km mark I felt the heart sinking feeling of a tyre getting very squishy as glass had sliced the tyre and tube. I signalled to the vehicles behind calling for the support vehicle that had been behind us most of the way which I knew was carrying spare wheels. However they were nowhere to be seen. It turns out that both the support motorbike and the race official, Jurgen Zach, had crashed their motorbikes. With the race media closely filming my tirade of abuse at the world I tried to put the latex sealant foam into my front tyre. However as I experienced at Challenge Copenhagen when it’s wet, that stuff does not work at all. I couldn’t bare the thought of just standing by the side of the road so I decided to just ride slowly on the flat tyre until the support vehicle caught up.

No vehicle came so I kept riding slowly. There was a minor descent where I was able to pick my speed up a little more despite the sickening sound of an expensive wheel on road. As soon as I hit the corner at the end of the descent I came down hard stupidly forgetting that I wouldn’t be able to corner with a flat tyre. I picked myself, examined the grazes, decided I was fine and kept bumping along.  During the last period of very slow riding I started to think back to the many discussions I’ve had with my main mentor Grant Giles on the perfect mental state for racing.

Grant has always been a huge advocate of being able to ‘let go’, forget the past or concerns of what lies ahead and simply make the most of the present moment. So I did that. I fully relaxed, accepted that I was probably now sitting outside the top ten after dropping from the front few guys but I figured I could make the most of a bad day, run really hard and get 8th place to pay for the cost of the flights. I know a lot of people reading this will think it sounds like some weird hippy shiz but I swear, once you find this quiet place of focused calm in your mind, it’s the best feeling in the world. Whatever happens will happen, you only have to worry about maximising the next run stride.

I soon caught Massimo Cigana who was running well and by about 5kms Matty Reed who was not looking at all like the Matty Reed anywhere near his best. Matt continued to really rev me up every time we crossed paths telling me who was up ahead and how there were looking which was much appreciated. Fellow Aeromax team member, Josh Mchugh was next to fall. Josh was having a stellar debut long course race but being quite a bit younger and not having the thousands of kilometres in the legs that some of the other pros have was starting to fade in the last ten kilometres.

At about 15kms I was able to catch Ambrose and finally at about 19kms Dave Dellow crossing the line in fourth place. It was great to have my old man there to watch and I was hugely proud that I had kept my head together despite losing 5 minutes on the bike.

Big congratulations to Michael Raelert for winning. He made my 1.13 half marathon look slow. It’s so unusual in sport to have someone at the top of the game who is also so bloody likeable. Commiserations to the casualties of the race. Guys that I really look up to were taken out of the mix. To name a few, Chris Lieto with the crash, Chris Leigh with major mechanical issues and Christian Kemp with gastro.

A  huge thanks to the race organisers. They did a superb job under very testing conditions. This race is truly an epic event and a perfect choice for an Asia Pacific Championships. I really hope to be back there next year. I really want to be the one running down the finish chute with the elephant.

Filed Under: Blog, Race Report

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