Salomon Trail Running Race 3 - Silvan (Dandenongs)

Elaine and I won't be attending to the last event in Anglesea, so this was our last Trail Running Race of the season. Situated next to the Silvan Dam in the Dandenongs, this was supposedly the toughest course of the series and at 7.3km it was also longer than the previous two Short Course races we had completed.

I had won my age group in the first 2 races, but my overall finishing positions have been 7th and 1st. A first place in this race would see we wrap up the overall series win (based upon your best 3 results out of the 4 races). So the pressure was on. The toughness of the Plenty course had helped me win, so a difficult course in the Dandenongs would be in my favour.

Similar to the Saturday before the Plenty race, I did a reasonably hard ride the day before the race. Getting close to the London Triathlon, I cannot afford to have a weekend of light training, even it includes a race. I also did a course recon on the morning before the race. At Kew I jogged the entire 5km course. At Plenty I jogged the course either side of the river crossings. However the longer distance of the Silvan race meant my race warmup was even longer. But I now knew the course well, very important if I ended up in the lead and also handy knowledge for race tactics.

Unlike the previous two races other competitors were very hesitant to move up to the front before the start line. In fact the race organisers had to encourage people to move more forwards. This gave me a bit of confidence thinking that there may not be many fast runners in the field.

When the gun went off, an older competitor raced to the front. His running style was anything but flowing and he looked quite comical with his arms and legs moving a million miles an hour. Predictably he ran out of steam after about 200 metres. I was about to assume the lead when another younger competitor (in the orange top) moved out in front, so I simply sat behind him instead. This new leader's running style looked very good. I found the pace quite comfortable (certainly slower than the hectic start of the last 2 races) and the chorus of puffing from behind was definitely starting to thin out.

At about the 500 metre mark I could hear one competitor sitting right behind me and 2 or 3 a little further back. With the rising gradient, everyone's breathing was getting heavier and I didn't need to look behind to know where people were. This first hill lasted about a kilometre, climbing about 75 metres. The lead runner was travelling well up this hill and I found I needed to dig a little to keep in touch. As we crested the hill I sensed a hint of weakness, so immediately took the lead and tried to establish a gap.

Having already run the course earlier that morning, I knew we were in for some technical descents before the 'Hill From Hell' around the 4.75km mark. Whoever crested this hill first was most likely to win the race because the last 1.6km of the race was a fast, slightly downhill (but not technical) sprint to the finish. Technical descents are my weakness. I'm not great up hills, but my strength is recovery after the hills. Unfortunately my strength was nullified by the fact the hard hill was too far into the race followed by an easy finish. So I needed to build a lead before we hit the technical descents.

As I raced back down the trail through the ferns, jumping over fallen trees, I would sense the occasional gap to my 2 pursuers, but the gap never lasted for long. By the time we hit the technical descent section they were both right on my heels. It didn't take them long to realise this was my weakness and even though the trail was single track they still managed to pass and then pull away. I'd occasionally steal a glance behind me, but the I had a good gap over the next competitor. I was pretty much all alone in 3rd place.

As we reached the 'Hill from Hell', the 2 leaders were about 40 metres ahead and I had a bigger gap to the 4th place competitor behind. The young runner had lost the lead to the other competitor who had been sitting in 3rd place during the first few kilometres. By the time I reached the bottom of the hill I could see both of them above him walking. The older competitor was putting in occasional run efforts and had already built a gap to 2nd place. I started running up, but it was almost like peer pressure forced me to start walking. Even walking I was making steady progress on the two ahead, especially 2nd place. I tried small sections of the running, but the slope was quite slippery and I found myself often slipping, even with my trail runners. Walking meant I could place the whole foot down and get better grip, because when running up a hill - only your forefoot makes contact with the ground.

The 'Hill from Hell' rose over 70 metres in 300 metres distance. That's an average gradient of around 23%. Halfway up the hill I moved into 2nd place. I was walking at this stage, but still significantly faster than the other guy. I could see first place walking up ahead and this is where I should have made a charge. If I had of passed him up the hill, I think I would have won the psychological battle and taken any easy win (relatively speaking). However with my leg muscles burning and a heart rate of 174bpm the little voice inside my head convinced me to consolidate 2nd position and don't risk blowing up.

Even though I continued to make ground on the leader, he crested the hill first and then built a small gap down the initial very steep descent. Once on the more level ground I could see him ahead running very well. The gap was only about 30 metres, but I knew I wasn't going to be able to catch him. Behind me, third place was not even in sight, so I simply held a good rhythm through to the finish. 2nd place overall and first in my category. Elaine had a good race finishing equal fourth out of 20 competitors in her age group. Even though there were no river crossings in this event, she still loved the race and her slightly more aggressive trail runners (ie. bigger tread) were perfect on this course.

With three wins (out of 3) in my age group, I have an unbeatable lead for the series win. My 2nd place overall means I'm most likely, but not certain to take the overall series win (there is one competitor who can knock me off if he wins the last race). However I've since discovered that the Overall Series Prize (a $600 GPS watch) only applies to the Long Course event. So I'm no longer quite so down upon myself for not winning. And I did win a great Salomon top for winning my age group.

Club members Alan and Francisco came down for their first race. Not really appreciating the difficulty of the course (despite me warning them), they entered to 15km Medium Course. They didn't appreciated the difficulty by the end, but they both had great races with Alan winning the battle (the loser had to refund the other's entry fee).

Courtney was relegated to spectator duty as a result of nasty shin injury during one of his Crossfit sessions. His wife Petra did very well in the Medium course event, as did our friend Moran. Our friend Kevin entered the Long Course series and battled his way through the 21km hill fest in just over 2 hours and 20 minutes - a great achievement in what must have been an extraordinarily tough course.

Winter Triathlon, Hazelwood Pondage

On Sunday, Elaine and I ventured out to the Latrobe Valley to compete in the Hazelwood Winter Triathlon. The Hazelwood Pondage is used as a cooling device for the Power Station, which keeps the water in the Pondage warm all year round. We had never done this race before, but had heard a lot about it over the years. It is very famous as a warmup race before heading off to do a triathlon overseas or interstate - which of course is perfect preparation for our London race in 4 weeks time. We figured the Pondage itself (other than being warmer) would be quite similar to the Serpentine in Hyde Park and where else were we going to do an open water swim. Note that we do have several friends who swim in the bay all year round, but with current water temperatures of around 9 degrees Celsius, that just sounds silly.

There were 3 races on offer - Olympic Distance, Sprint Distance and a Fun Distance.  We chose the Sprint Distance (500m swim, 24km bike, 5.1km run), as that was closest to what we'll be racing in London. Our race didn't start til 10am, but with registration and transition only open between 7:30 and 8:40am, we still had to arrive early. So that meant a 6am departure, it was going to be a long day.

I would describe the race organisation as casual and minimalist but still effective. The relaxed atmosphere spread to the competitors and pre-race people were just aimlessly wandering around and casually chatting amongst themselves (not a race face in sight). There were no bag compounds, bike checking or transition security. In fact the transition area wasn't even really fenced off.  Everyone just casually wandered in and out.  And with the course being all left turns as it circumnavigated the pond, they didn't need any road closures either, just one marshall per corner.

The longer Olympic Distance race started at 9am, so this gave us a good chance to see where the swim went and how transition worked. Club members Matt, Ray and Peter were racing in the Olympic, so we watched them head off on the bike leg before starting to get ready for our race. As we entered the water for our warmup swim, the water was around the temperature of an indoor pool, but definitely a different colour. It was so brown, you couldn't see your own hand in front of you. Nonetheless, it seemed quite nice to swim in.

We gathered in the water around a small concrete jetty as the race organiser explained the course. He then instructed us to line up before he sounded the starting horn. Unfortunately some of us were stupid enough to actually line up, whilst others just remained treading water 10 metres or so in front, thereby getting a nice head start. Already 10 metres off the front, I then realised I'd positioned myself badly and was continually being pushed off direction by swimmers coming from my left. I only breathe to my right, so I couldn't see these swimmers coming until they were hitting me. I spent the first half of the swim trying to avoid other swimmers who had no sense of direction. It wasn't till the half way mark that I found a good set of toes to sit on and had a cruisey swim back into shore. Not one of my better swims, but I didn't waste much energy and it was good to make mistakes now rather than in London.

In transition the wetsuit came off easily and I was quickly onto my bike.

Did I mention it was windy. It was windy when we arrived and got windier as we waited for our race to start. Now as we were heading out on our bikes, the wind picked up yet another notch.  I was scared trying to get my feet into my bike shoes. And even once I'd successfully done this, I was pretty much terrified for the whole bike leg as most of my energy seemed to be directed at staying on the road. There was one corner where I leant the bike over to turn and the wind went under my bike and picked up the front wheel moving it 6 inches across the road. It felt like I was in the motions of crashing. How I stayed on the bike I'll never know. Needless to say I crawled through this corner on the second lap. Happily nobody passed my on the bike leg. I was keeping an eye out for both Martins, but it turns out I beat both of them on the swim, so I never saw them. In fact being a looped course means you don't see many people at all - I never saw Elaine or either Martin for the entire race.

If it wasn't for the continual strong wind gusts, I think I would have really liked this bike course. It was undulating with only one hill I needed to swap into the small chain ring for and the road surface was not as bad as I'd been led to believe (or maybe everything else seemed great compared to the horrible wind).

Coming into transition I could see that there were only 2 bikes in the Sprint transition, meaning I was probably in third place (with no security, it was possible some Sprint competitors put their bikes in the Olympic section). Keen to start the run I raced over, racked my bike and removed my helmet in fast time and then tried to slip on my runners. Usually my runners go on very easy, but today I simply couldn't get them on - it was as though they had shrunk. As I looked at them, they did seem very small and then I tried to remember when I changed to using green laces.  Suddenly I realised I was standing in Elaine's transition spot. She has the same runners as me, except smaller and with green laces (my laces are red) - my transition area was 2 spots over. So I grabbed my bike and ran over to my spot and strangely enough my runners slipped on effortlessly.

Heading out onto the run, I had another competitor on my heels thanks to all the time I wasted in transition. The track up to the road is a mild up hill. It wasn't particularly steep, but I didn't want to spike my heart rate too early so I held my efforts in check and the other competitor took this opportunity to pass me. Once on the road, the next 2 kilometres are reasonably flat as you run along the edge of the road to the turn-around point. I found the running pretty easy through this section. The other competitor was maintaining a 20 to 30 metre gap on me, but didn't push the pace as my Garmin showed my speed was pretty good and my heart rate was already up to where I expected.

At the halfway mark, the course turns onto a dirt road for the journey back. I had heard the dirt road contained the hill and quickly discovered that the hill started pretty much straight away. My pace slowed and the other competitor started to increase the gap. However I was now picking off other competitors. Unfortunately they were obviously Olympic Distance competitors, so passing them had no effect on the result of my race. This first hill was just a short and mild one. It was like the dirt road was just helping to prepare you for what lay ahead. In all there are actually 3 hills, each one longer and steeper than the one before and that final one is a bit of a killer. The good news is that once over the top it is all downhill to the finish line.

Overall I finished in 4th place and first in my age group. Both Martins scored 2nd places in their age groups and Elaine won hers. In the Olympic Distance, Ray came second in his age group.

Overall, a great hit out before London. It was a tough course in very tough conditions, but my speed was still reasonable, so obviously my training has been working well.

The Countdown to London has Started

Our team uniforms arrived on Friday, so everything is starting to feel a little more real. Today is Monday, 5th August which means there is just under 6 weeks (40 days) till the race in London on Friday, 13th September (what could go wrong on Friday 13th). Elaine's one piece is shown on the left, while I opted for the two piece on the right. Being tall and skinny it is difficult to find one piece trisuits that fit. There was no opportunity to try on any of the gear for size before ordering, so we had to work out our sizes off the size chart, so I chose the safer option and elected for the two piece. The medium size pants fit well, but I could have probably gone a size small top. Further below on the right is a photo of the team casual gear that we will need to wear in the parade and possibly some other official functions.

Since the 1st August Elaine and I have been avoiding alcohol and sugary treats (like chocolate biscuits and icecream). Particularly cruel when one of our wine deliveries arrived on 2nd August. Alcohol and sugar inhibit muscle recovery, so hopefully our new stricter diet will help us get in more training hours without injury. And it will make our post-race holiday more enjoyable when our diet restrictions disappear.

Between now and London we have a Sprint Triathlon in the Labtrobe Valley and the third race of the Salomon Trail Running Series at Silvan in the Dandenongs. The Labtrobe Valley race is referred to as the Winter Triathlon. The swim takes place in the Hazelwood pondage that is kept warm by the power station (not sure if that is a good thing). This should provide excellent preparation for London, especially a wetsuit swim in fresh water similar to the Serpentine in Hyde Park. According to the Salomon race preview, the trail run at Silvan will be even tougher than Plenty Gorge. Difficult to imagine considering Plenty Gorge was the toughest course I have ever done. Apparently the Silvan course has a hill from hell that rises 120m over 1.1km.

Recently I've been on a bit of a swim focus, somewhat forced due to niggling soreness in my legs. In July I swam a total of 38km - my biggest ever month of swimming. I'm hoping to do similar in August, but with more running and cycling thrown in. With the Trail Running races my running form seems to be OK, but cycling appears to still be a bit off from my peak.

On Saturday we did the Club Ride/Run Repeats session. Elaine, Merryn and myself started with a 1 hour ride and 30 minute run, followed by 3 sets of 20 min ride/10 min runs - all up a 3 hour session. Stef, who is training for short course, did the 3 sets of 20/10 ride/runs (90 min session). This is the first time Elaine, Merryn and Steff have done the Ride/Run sessions and they all surprised themselves on how well they did. Unfortunately Stef had a minor bike accident - a gust of wind blew her over whilst stationery. But nothing serious and she should not miss any training as a result (but a nice bruise is developing around the knee area). Mark and Jen would have also done the session, but Mark was sick and Jen was away.

Special sessions this week are the Wednesday night swim with video analysis and a Saturday morning ride in the Dandenongs. Hopefully I'll also get a fair bit of running in, including a long run on Sunday.