I'm in !!!

Entries for Ironman Melbourne opened today at 1pm, by 1:07pm all 1500 slots had been taken.  The official sellout time may be longer because entrants had 20 mins to complete their registrations and any incomplete entries went back on sale.

Now that I am officially entered, I am surprisingly not stricken with fear.  Maybe the insanity required to even contemplate an Ironman has now taken full grip of my senses.  Although there is a certain amount of dread when I think about some of the ridiculously long training sessions I'll need to complete.

This week's training was my biggest of the season so far at just under 11 hours and was dominated by 185kms of riding, including 3 categorised climbs (Arthurs Seat, 1 in 20 and The Wall).  Of course this distance was done over 3 separate rides, whereas on race day I'll do this in one go, preceded by a very long swim and followed by a marathon - maybe best not to think about this.

Only 4 days before entries go online - decision time

I eased back into training last week after the Duathlon.  The legs were stiff for a few days, but actually felt better once I put a bit of run mileage back into them.  The week saw 7.5 hours of training which included 35km of running.

This week should see an increase, and I'm expecting around 11 hours largely due to a 3 hour ride today up to the top of Arthurs Seat.  Originally I planned to do a short, easy ride of around 40km, but the weather was so good I just kept going and ended up with a hilly 80km.  The Arthurs Seat climb is just under 3km with an average gradient of 8%.  The picture on the right is from a lookup about 400m from the top.

There have been a few aches and pains, especially in my shoulders from swimmimg, but nothing too serious so far.  Hopefully my body will be able to manage the heavy training load - it is certainly going to require a lot of maintenance.  At the moment my thoughts on entering Ironman Melbourne are "Yes", but that could change in the next 4 days.

Entries for Ironman Melbourne go on sale at 1pm this Sunday.  There has been lots of conjecture about how fast the event will sell out, so I will have to be at my computer and ready to start typing quickly at 1pm.

Duathlon - Somers

It was perfect conditions for the Duathlon, which is always a nice change in the middle of winter.  The slightly later start of 9am gave the temperature a chance to creep above 10 degrees, which meant it was warm enough to race in just my tri top (no need for a bicycle jersey or arm warmers).  There was a good turnout from the Triathlon club including Martine doing her first ever Duathlon.  Jan and Courtney were in Sydney for the City to Surf Fun Run, but my wife Elaine, Peter and the Howards were back to race again and they were being joined by Bill and Jeremy.

Having had at least one good training week since the last Duathlon at Knox, I decided to pretend I was in good form and race hard from the start.  Unfortunately most of field took off ridiculously fast, so I immediately changed strategy and reverted to trying to pace myself as best I could.  My first km was run in 3m48s, but the head of the field was already completely out of the sight and there was a decent gap between me and the main pack.  Concentrating on maintaining good rhythm I pulled back and passed a handful of competitors and ended with a 5km run split of 20m16s, 72 secs faster than Knox so I was very happy.  However this run ended up being ranked 42 out of 82 competitors, so I was in the back half of the field.

After a slow transition, I got to the mount line and realised I still hadn't practised mounting my new tri-bike.  Due to the much steeper seat angle, the seat sits a lot higher than my old bike and I was very hesitant to try and leap onto it for the first time in a race, so I settled for a conservative mount.

The Somer's course has a slightly longer bike leg (an extra 2km) and I figured this would probably go in my favour.  I set off after my competitors, but with the help of a power meter was able to pace myself much better than in the past.  Being able to see your wattage helps prevent you from over exerting up the hills and from slacking off on the downhills and flats.  I haven't calculated my FTP yet, but had a rough idea from the 2x5km TTs I did at the velodrome and decided to try and maintain a fairly constant 280 watts.  I caught and passed a lot of riders on the 2nd lap (of 2) and was I was definitely happy with my first real hitout on the new bike.  I ended up with the 15th fastest bike split overall (and fastest in my age category), which moved me from 42nd to 25th place.  My average speed for the 22km bike split was 36.6kph and average wattage was 270.  As far as the bike fit went, I think I would actually be more comfortable if the front was a bit lower, but I doubt anything is going to make the seat feel better.

Even though the final run in a sprint duathlon is only 3km, it is always the most painful part of the race and usually the section where my race falls apart.  Coming out of T2, I saw I had small lead over Peter and if I could maintain a good rhythm I should be able to hold him off.  An average pace of 4m10s saw me lose 8 places in the overall standings, but was enough to hold off Peter who ended up only clawing back 7 seconds.


Elaine won her age group again, Bill and I both scored second places whilst Martine and Jeremy finished in that unlucky 4th place.  Peter placed 5th (3 secs behind 4th) and the Howards were very happy with their efforts in the Mini after competing as individuals instead of forming a team.

Overall I am extremely pleased with how the race went and suprised to score a 2nd place (other races on the same day no doubt weakened the field in my age group).  Hopefully I'll get in 3 solid weeks of training before the Kinglake Ride (a hilly 75km) and be well prepared for the Kew Boulevard Duathlon the week after.  The Kew Duathlon is a on a very tough course and is part of the National Series.  This means it is a selection race for the Age Group World Championships to be held in France in around Sep 2012 - and Elaine really wants to go to France again.

How Sprint Duathlon form relates to Ironman, I don't know.  But I'm in better condition than I expected, and that can only be a good thing.

First good week of training for the season

For the first time this season I completed what I consider a full week's training.  It was certainly not a big week, but it contained 1 swim, 3 runs & 3 rides.  The runs were an interval run, long run & brick run, whilst the rides consisted of short velodrome TTs, brick and a 90km long ride.  The week's mileage was swim 2km, run 24km & bike 130km, which equates to 161 Slowtwitch training points (a big training week for me leading up to a HIM would be 300+ points).

Anyway, that was last week.  This week the body feels a little stiff and I decided to taper for this weekend's duathlon.  It is pretty lazy to taper after only 1 week of effort, but it pays to listen to your body and gradually introduce training load over the pre-season.  If I am any chance of completing an Ironman in March, it is extremely important to stay healthy and injury free.

So far, this week has only consisted of 2 runs, an interval run with lots of hill repeats and a 10km easy run.  I usually run my long runs at a comfortable pace, but this time I ran to heart rate, which meant running about 45 secs per kilometre slower.  Hopefully my aerobic engine will adapt over time and my pace will increase for the same heart rate.  My dream is to be able to run at 5 min pace with a HR of 140 (that would give me a marathon time of 3h31m), but I think I am kidding myself - 5m30s is probably a far more realistic target (3h52s marathon).

I can foresee running to heart rate causing internal conflict during the season as I strive to find speed for the Sprint Distance races.  A lot of triathletes simply avoid the shorter races when training for Ironman, but I think this would make the season too boring.  There is nothing quite like smashing yourself in a short race.  The quality of the field is usually less, so there is always the chance of a podium and you are usually fully recovered within a day or so.

I'm looking forward to the Duathlon this Sunday.  I don't think I'll have much run speed (or endurance), but I'm excited to see what sort of time I can post of my new tri-bike.  The front tyre that punctured last race has been replaced and I've swapped the rear Zipp 808 for my disk wheel, I think the bike looks really good.

Of course I will almost certainly not learn from my puncture last race and will again race without a spare or even a can of pitstop.  Sometimes vanity is our own worst enemy.

Ironman Melbourne is announced

I had never considered doing an Ironman.  Rumours about Ironman Melbourne had been circulating for over 12 months, and I'll admit that an Ironman race in my home town had caught my interest.  But all the rumours had mentioned Docklands as the location, and having previously lived in an apartment at Docklands I had no intention of ever swimming in that water.

But with the official announcement of Ironman Melbourne came the previously unmentioned location of Frankston.  This is a location very close to where I live, in fact it will be the closest a Triathlon has ever been to my house.  Maybe this is a sign.

I still think the event is utter madness and I still do not believe I am capable of completing such a ridiculously long event.  But I find myself seriously considering the idea.  Even my wife Elaine is suggesting I give it some thought.

Entries go online on 28th August, so I have another 20 days to decide if I want to do something really stupid

Quick Time Trials

After missing out on most of the Duathlon's bike leg due to a puncture, I decided to do two 5km Time Trials at the Velodrome just to see what sort of form I was in, and also to get some riding time on the new Tri-Bike.

I put training wheels on and wore a normal road helmet, as this is how I've performed all my TTs in the past.  The session was very simple, 5km warmup, 5km TT, 5km recovery, 5km TT, 5km cooldown.

Usually at this point of the season my TT avg speeds would be around 38 & 36kph.  But on the new bike they were 40.6 and 39.2kph (power was 304 and 295 watts).  I don't believe I am in any better form that usual, I think the new bike is simply that much faster.  Previously I only had a road bike with tri-bars, and going by this test, a tri-bike has meant an extra 2kph.

I am now really looking forward to the next race.

Duathlon - Knox

Neither Elaine nor I were in good condition.  I had only been back running for 2 weeks, and Elaine had done even less.  But last year I kept on waiting until I had fitness before entering a race and ended up missing every Duathlon.  So I figured we would just do the races and see how we went.  Plus I'd also strongly suggested to one of the athletes I was coaching, Jan, that she do the Duathlon, so it would be good for us to be there and give her some support.

I ran the first 5km in 21m28s which is about 2 mins off my best, but I was pleasantly surprised to be able to run that well off such a tiny running base.  I was just over a minute behind two mates from the Triathlon Club, Courtney and Peter and wondered if I could catch them on the bike leg.

This was my first ride of the new Tri Bike, it was raining and the course was very technical with heaps of corners, so I took it very easy on the first lap.  The bike handled really well and I decided I would push a little harder each lap, unfortunately just near the end of the first lap (of 5) I got a puncture.  The new bike had looked so beautiful I had decided not to hang anything off it (like a spare tubular), so the puncture meant the end of the race.  Sadly Jan also suffered a puncture and like me did not carry a spare.

Elaine was lucky with a weak field in her age group and scored a win, whilst Courtney and Peter did not share the same luck and both finished 4th.

Initial plans for the season

With the 2011/12 season upon us, I decided to do a Long Distance triathlon (2/80/20) in Geelong.  My previous 2 HIM attempts had seen me really struggle towards the end of the run and I thought the slightly shorter distance might go in my favour.  Not that I was expecting to get anywhere near the age group podium, I just wanted to be able to finish the run strongly and post a good time.

The HIM at Torquay in April had left me with boney bruising in the knee due to patella tracking problems.  It had taken 3 months to get back to running, but I was confident I now had this under control and would be able to clock the mileage required for the long distance triathlon in Feb 2012.  Plus we had both just bought new road bikes and I also got a new triathlon bike, so I was eager to find out how much faster I could go.

Elaine had been taking it easy triathlon (and training) wise over the last 2 years.  Some of this was due to illness, and some of it was just to have a break.  However she was now keen to get back into it, and had picked the Olympic Distance race at Geelong (same day and location as my Long Distance) as her target race for the season.

The plan was do Sprint Duathlons in winter and Sprint Triathlons in Summer as lead up races to our target event.  We might also do a 10km fun run in October, I didn't believe either of us would be in good enough condition to do the Half Marathon at that point.