Archives for June 2012

With the hot New Orleans sun shooting straight into our eyes we zig zagged through the 1500m swim. A couple of athletes escaped early including the muscular Brit, James Hadley who uses the brightness of his bleached white teeth to blind fellow competitors to his advantage. Not quite having the speed to work my way out of a tangle of other swimmers I settled content to stay with the guys who I thought were the biggest threats. My main concerns being David Thompson, a non-drafting olympic distance specialist who has had a tonne of great results over the years and the very talented ITU & non-drafting  athlete Chris Forster. Chis often being a touch sluggish in the swim due to poor group swimming skills rather than swimming ability, however bikes like a demon and rarely doesn’t have the quickest run split.

The dark horse in race was the legendary Caveman, Conrad Stoltz who with 4 (or is it 5?) off-road triathlon world championships to his name anything was possible. You don’t win off-road championships without being an incredible cyclist.

A solid 500m run greeted us to get from the swim to our bikes. Chris opted to put shoes on while David and I slugged it out barefoot to try and get to the bikes with a little gap, the decision paying time dividends. Onto the 2 x 20km looped bike course which was far from flat as I had assumed New Orleans would present and the wind was blowing heavily. Having the Speedfil A2 drink bottle on the aero bars is such an advantage when the wind is blowing you around like a puppet as I could easily hydrate, leaving my arms in the aero position without having to compromise safety by taking them off. David implemented his cycling dominance gradually pulling away while I used the next 20kms to bring in those that had swam a minute quicker. It was at this point that the big Caveman came past me like I was pedalling a BMX and continued to put time into everybody. Chris Forster, James Hadley and a I entered transition close to each other with a really impressive time trial from Kiwi Tom Francis also adding himself to the mix.

With the wind and the 35 degree celsius humidity, the run was going to be a war of attrition. I knew I was already cooking using the most aero option of opting for no air vents with my super fast Rudy Project Wingspan TT helmet. Next time I’ll follow their advice and put in the mesh vent option. So I went out fairly easy. Still I was too hot. Having over heated at Cancun 70.3 last year I know that once you reach boiling point it’s really really hard to come back so I kept telling myself to slow down and get as much fluid an ice over me at the first few aid stations. Hadley disappeared early not at his best, while Forster extended a small lead. Then Tom Francis overtook me also running strong.

At this point I started to get negative. I didn’t travel 7 hours, spend 3 days away from Monica and Oscar to get 5th. As That wouldn’t barely cover the cost of racing. The more negative I got the more my running sucked. At 5kms I started to bring the head back into order finding a neutral place of calm simplicity in what I was doing and my body started to flow a little better. I caught back up to Tom Francis and passed him without surging as I could see he was now frying and didn’t want to waste energy with any bursts of speed. Then, in the distance the outline of the Caveman who was running strong but not particularly  fast. I set about maximising every run stride in the new ultra responsive Zoot Kiawe’s (and fellow fat footed people yes they’re wide enough to fit a fat foot!) to bring him back to me. With less than a km, I jumped in behind this large frame avoiding the strong head wind to get my breath back as I didn’t want Conrad to believe he could come with me and have to sprint the whole way home. With a surge I went for it and Conrad responded. Within 30 seconds I knew his response had eased off and with a comfortable gap was able to even contemplate making a sprint for 2nd with Chris Forster having come back much closer into view however my brain dismissed the idea quickly reminding me how stupidly hot I was and how good a runner Chris is.

I’m content with another podium while also being hungry for more. It’s tricky this time around in the States as my time is limited and I want to race as much as possible to make the trip financially viable and to thank the amazing support I get from my U.S sponsors, Zoot and Vision. It does make it difficult to peak for any particular race as you I often have a race in two weeks time that you have to continue training for when you would otherwise be resting. So all in all I’m happy with how the body is feeling so far and feel a gradual return to, hopefully, some great form.I’ve got a little work to do on my cycling top end as it’s about 20 watts off what it was from late last year over 40kms however a few more races should lift the thresholds.

10 days more in chilly San Fran before returning to the mecca, to compete against a stacked field in the Boulder Peak 5150.

Cheers!

http://www.trizone.com.au/20120626/tim-reed-and-anna-cleaver-grab-3rds-at-new-orleans-5150/

Seems like every second race I do these days the big fella upstairs is having a good old chuckle about throwing some horrendous conditions into the mix. Phuket 70.3 we rode through a monsoon, Falls Creek Aussie champs was ice cream headache cold, Ironman New Zealand postponed a day and shortened to a 70.3 (wasn’t complaining about that one) and now the beautiful town of Boise decided to stray from a barmy average temp of 25 degrees to 5 degrees with howling winds and icy rain.

30 minutes prior to race start and it was blared over the loud speakers that the 56 mile ride would be cut to 15 miles with the swim and run remaining at the original distances, 1900m and 21kms. Contrary to how some other pros commented I would feel, I was disappointed from a personal performance perspective. While running is often my strongest leg, I tend to run well when everyone else is tired and not that much faster when I’m fresh and I had felt that in the last few weeks that my cycling form a had returned to a good level. Then again, everyone magically transformed into an uber cyclist and “would have done so much better if the bike leg wasn’t reduced.” In retrospect, I turned into a gnome ice block during the shortened ride and I think it was the right call by the race directors to put safety first.

At the swim start you could be forgiven to think that the 1600 athletes were really into the motivational songs being blasted from the P.A with all the vigorous dancing, jumping up and down and arm windmilling in an effort to keep from freezing.

They called the pros to the start line some 30 minutes before the race start then left us in the water for another 10 minutes in the freshly melted snow lake. The gun went off and we creaked our arms over trying to get our numb hands to put some water behind us. As usual I swam the first 800m well finding Matty Reed’s feet and settling into the big man’s wake. Again as usual, I found my mind drifting and before I knew it a gap had opened up with the main players swimming away and I found myself swimming alongside Barney Matthews who was obviously not enjoying the cold one bit to not be up near the front of the swim.

About a minute down out of the swim I straddled Kestrel Kevin 4000 and descended the long climb from the lake down to the flatter roads. It was so cold my skin was burning red. I couldn’t feel my legs but after several glances downwards I at least knew they were still there and moving. In the distance I could see a very tall dark skinned athlete. I was quite confused. White man can’t jump and black man isn’t suppose to be able to swim! As I gradually caught the dark figure I couldn’t help but smile when I saw that it was no black man but actually Matty Reed riding in his wetsuit. I think turned out to be a very clever move considering Matt and Trevor Wurtele who also rode in his wetsuit both had the two quickest runs of the day.

I hit transition and tried to rip my shoes on. Only my hands were so numb I just couldn’t get them to hold my shoes to put my feet in. I was ambitiously stabbing at the shoes with my feet with no luck at all. Matty Reed managed to take his wetsuit off and be up the road until I had the good sense to sit down, take a few breaths and will my hands to obey my brain. Finally I got them on and trotted out of transition. I say trotted because my feet had become hooves with no feeling below the ankle.  Slowly warm blood started returning to parts of the feet. I wasn’t aware that while this happens it feels like you have something in your shoe and stopped to check losing more time. There was nothing there of course and I later learnt that this is the typical feeling of defrosting feet.

I gradually warmed into the run but the guys were running fast and while I made up some time early on I faded between 10 and 15kms before returning to a good pace finishing the day in 4th. Not unhappy considering the quality of the guys I was racing and that my first race of the U.S season is traditionally a stinker. Sometimes tri fans and sponsors aren’t aware that there is a big difference between the depth of competition at 70.3 events. With prize money generally being either a $15000 or $50 000 pool you tend to race pro fields 3 x the number compared to the lower paying races. I think it’s important to do a mix of both so you can see where you really stack up while also logging some great results at the less competitive races to keep my Mum thinking I’m the best. A bit of work to do in getting my brain back to the happy place where it shut ups and I can go to a neutral place when racing but it’ll get there with a few more races.

It was an interesting race up ahead with Matty Reed and the resilient Tim O’Donnell tussling for 2nd place until Matty made some big surges to drop Tim to third and bring the likeable Kiwi, Callum Milward into  view. In a dramatic finish they sprinted to the line neck and neck with no one being able to pick a winner despite hours of video and photo review. I’m unaware of a pro race being called a tie before and think it’s pretty cool that I was a part of it while also being jealous it wasn’t me sprinting for the line!

Big thanks to my good friends from Boise, the wonderfully hospitable McDaniels. You guys made racing very easy with all you’re support. However next year no cowbells at the award presentation please. 🙂

Next stop Hawaii to pick up the family, attend a wedding and train in the heat for New Orleans 5150.

Thanks also to the usual suspects Zoot Sports, Aeromaxteam, BPM Management, Vision, SiS, Speedfil, Rudy Project, Budgy smuggler.

“Never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn”  C.R