Ready to Race

After feeling very run down after 3 big weeks of training, I've eased off this week and now feel ready to race. Which is lucky seeing as the Sprint Triathlon at Elwood is this Sunday. This race will be our Club Championships (our Triathlon Club gets its own wave start) and a Selection Race for the Age Group World Championships in London. I'm currently in the M40-44 Age Group, but because London will be raced next season, I'll be trying to qualify for the M45-49 category - hopefully an easier task.

All my training so far has been with two specific races in mind - Geelong 70.3 in Feb and Elwood this weekend. Geelong (1.9/90/21.1) will be a test of endurance lasting over four and half hours (hopefully less than five). Whereas as the shorter Elwood triathlon (0.75/20/5) should take a little over an hour - short enough to feel like an actual race (as opposed to just trying to finish).

Due to the club wave, I won't be starting with the others in my age group, so instead I'll focus on racing those in my Triathlon Club. Apparently there will be 53 starters in our wave (male and female). Head coach Clint is the obvious favourite for first across the line. In the females Hayley will be favourite, but will get some stiff competition from Sarah if she decides to race.

My first aim is to try and beat Hayley. She is a much faster swimmer than me, easily my equal on the run and unfortunately for me not far behind me in cycling ability. The next (and more difficult) targets are Ray, Andrew, Swannie & Griff. They are all much faster runners than me, but their swimming is equal or only marginally better. My only hope is to match them on the swim and build a 2 minute gap on the bike - both these tasks are very big asks and even if achieved will still not guarantee me victory. In truth it will be a small miracle if a even get close to any of them, but sometimes you have to aim big.

There are several other athletes who will finish somewhere between Clint and myself. Whilst I'm a faster cyclist than most of them, their swim advantage will outweigh any time I might pull back on the bike and I haven't got the running ability to chase down any of the top guys. There are also numerous members who will be nipping at my heals including President Adam, Dale, Martin and Young Matt. Not to mention a few others that I haven't raced against recently like Fishboy and Hayley's husband Adam.

With so many other members to race against (who are similar in speed), it should be exciting (and probably painful). Obviously I need to swim, bike and run fast, but my plan for the race is to push the bike very hard and risk blowing up on the run. Cycling is my strength and I'll need to exploit this to its fullest if I want a good result. In the short sprint race, blowing up will cost me less than a minute on the run leg. Combined with a 30 second faster bike split means a net loss of only 30 seconds, so worst case it should not cost me many (if any) qualification points. And of course if I don't blow up I'm 30 seconds better off - a worthwhile gamble. This theory does not work for the longer races.

My other focus for the race will be quick transitions. In my last Sprint Triathlon in November I had terrible transition splits - 45 seconds slower than Ray. So I'll be doing some secret transition practises before the weekend.

Mark's Ironman training is taking precedence, so he can't afford to take a weekend off to compete in a Sprint Tri at this point in his preparation. Peter would have usually raced (and done very well), but with the race ending with a fast 5km run, the risk of further injury to Achilles is high (however he has often made surprise appearances in similar circumstances in the past).

Elaine will be racing, but her focus will be more directed towards a good time rather than racing other individuals. However, even with her current back injury, I wouldn't be surprised if she knocks off a few people in the results.