Being the World Championships, there were several team functions we needed to attend which meant we had to be in Adelaide by Thursday even though the race was not till Sunday. Not wanting to go through the hassle of dismantling bikes to pack into bike boxes and trying to get all luggage under the very low weight restrictions the airlines now have, we decided to drive instead. 8.5 hours from Melbourne to Adelaide (just under 11 hours elapsed time). With regular stops, numerous coffees and swapping drivers every 2 hours the time went by pretty quick. Coffee in Ballarat was great, Horsham not so good and Bordertown coffee was pretty terrible. The next stop we opted for an ice cream instead.
Wednesday night we got our names ticked off at the official team hotel. Luckily this year our accommodation was less than 100m away. Very different to previous years when we were located several kilometres away. Thursday morning we had our bikes checked over by the team mechanic and then went across to the event hotel (about 250m away) to complete our registration and collect race numbers, stickers and timing band. We also booked in for a 20 min massage.
Thursday afternoon we did an easy reconnaissance run on the course (in 35 degree heat), before returning to the event site in the late afternoon for the parade of nations and pasta (carbo loading) night and speeches from the mayor of Adelaide and a few other dignitaries. Actually the mayor himself could not make it, so he had someone speak on his behalf.
Friday morning a group of us headed out to North Adelaide pool for a swim before the team breakfast at Adelaide Oval. The previous night's pasta event was pretty ordinary at best, but this breakfast was very impressive. Excellent location, delicious food and very good service.
In the afternoon, Elaine and I rode the bike course. It contained one significant hill and a couple of mildly technical corners. But otherwise appeared to be quite fast. The run course followed a bike path along the both sides of the River Torrens crossing at a weir bridge at one end and Frome Rd at the other. There were slight undulations and a few ramps, slow probably not particularly fast but not a difficult course. In general I believe the course as whole suited me well.Some of the other guys went for a ride Saturday morning before transition check-in in the afternoon. My ITB had been playing up all week, so I decided an extra day's rest and lots of stretching, foam roller and spikey ball was probably the best course of action.
Transition opened at 6am, and we were one of the first in line. It was a simple matter of pumping up the tyres, attaching the bike computer and leaving the helmet and bike shoes. With the apartment only being around 500m away, it would be easy to take the pump back before the race started. However I quickly realised I'd forgotten to bring my bike shoes, so the nearby accommodation suddenly became a life saver.
Once recovered from the moment of anxiousness due to the forgotten shoes, we did our usual run warmup (about 2km with drills) and then lined up in our wave starts. For short races I usually always do a bike warmup of 5 to 10km. Generally I find my legs feel terrible on the bike in the beginning and then loosen up. The warmup means that my legs are fully primed come the bike leg in the race. However this time our bikes were racked in transition the day before, so a warmup ride was out of the question.
Run One
My age group was 3rd last wave out of 11 (about 10 minutes behind Elaine). Most of the waves were 1 minute apart, with a few gaps of 2 minutes when a women's wave was followed by a men's wave.
I positioned myself behind Daryn, a Melbourne athlete who I thought would probably win the race. I'd raced him many times and never come remotely close to beating him. I knew he would take off fast and not slow me down. What I wasn't expecting was how ridiculously fast the entire field took off. I'm used to the local races starting very fast and have learnt to hold back, but this race was on another level. My initial thoughts were that I'd be lucky to sneak into top 20 (rather than my goal of top 10). After 50m metres I must be been in about position 30 (of 34 starters in my age group).
What happened next surprised me even more. Around the 500m mark other athletes started to run out of gas and I was suddenly passing runners in quick succession. There was a timing mat just after the 1km mark and it shows I had moved back into 19th position by this point.
The run course was quite crowded as we caught and passed a lot of the earlier waves. Fortunately I never found it really slowed me down. There was a little bit of weaving, but at most only a second lost here and there. Over years of doing duathlons, I've finally learnt how to pace the first run. With this experience I felt I paced this run perfectly and completely ignored the terrible pacing of most of the competitors around me. I felt good the whole run, maybe the continual passing of other runners from earlier waves helped mentally, but I also finished much stronger than I ever have before. As mentioned I was in around 30th position after 50m, 19th position just after the 1km mark and finished the run in 9th position with fairly even kilometre splits.
Transition included a lot of running. With this in mind I suspect the organisers cut the actual run leg to 4.8km so that it would be 5km when you actually reached your bike. My run split was 17m49s, which equates to a 18m33s 5km. Not bad on a crowded, undulating course. Even better I was only 38 second behind Daryn, the closest I have ever been after the first run of a Duathlon.
Transition One
It was quite a big transition, but they made us almost circle it before heading to our bike. Felt like we were doing a tour of Adelaide in transition. I'm usually very good in transition. I always practice the path to my bike and having a white disc wheel with a big X on it also helps find my bike. Devastatingly I followed the routine but when I reached the spot my white disc wheel was nowhere to be seen. A moment of panic thinking I ran down the wrong aisle, I started checking the bikes in the next rows. It was then I saw that I was actually standing next to my bike but somebody had turned my bike around to be mounted by the seat instead of the bars, This meant my disc wheel was no longer sticking out resulting in my not seeing it. All up this cost me about 10 seconds, extremely frustrating. The same thing happened to Martin in the Standard Distance race.
Bike
Transition disaster behind me, I headed out on the bike. This was to be my secret weapon. Plan was to go all out with little regard to pacing, hopefully getting close to the lead by T2.
Maybe it was the lack of a warmup, maybe it was just a bad day, but my legs were simply lacking in power, they felt dead. Usually I have to hold back at the start of the bike and 300 watts feels way too easy. Now I was only seeing 200 watts and my legs had nothing more to give. 200 watts is not even Ironman pace. Two things were happening here. Firstly my legs were not producing the usual power and my power meter was not working properly because even on my worst day I can put out way more than 200 watts. Coincidentally Clint's power meter suffered the exact same problem, worked OK the day before and the day after, but obviously incorrect readings on race day.
Massive disappointment and after an initial impulse to pull out of the race, I decided not to fight the feeling in legs but simply accept the situation in the knowledge that it would probably improve. Once I hit the hill my legs started to respond. I even saw 350 watts on the Garmin, but going by the earlier recordings I have no confidence in that figure (almost certainly much higher). From the hill onwards I felt my power grow and the second lap was significantly better than the first one. A third lap would have been even better, but my race only had two laps on bike. Coincidence again, Clint's first 2 laps on the bike were almost identical and his 3rd lap was faster (doing the longer Standard Distance meant Clint did 4 laps on the bike).
Despite my sub-par performance on the bike, I was only passed by a single competitor late in the bike and he was somebody I had recently caught and passed. Unfortunately this competitor was in my age group and managed to get a small gap on me into T2. I ended with the 2nd fastest bike split in my age category. My first lap was only ranked 4th fastest. These stats make it sound like the bike leg was reasonably good, but I still believe it was below what I am capable of. Usually in a duathlon I can feel my lungs really working hard. I ride with my mouth wide open trying to get in as much oxygen as possible. This time it was the feeling in my legs being the limiter and I felt I had a lot of aerobic capacity in reserve. Maybe it was because of going so fast in the first run, but I still think missing the warmup ride was the biggest factor.
Transition Two
After a disappointing bike leg I entered transition feeling quite depressed. Knowing that another competitor in my age group had put a small gap into me over the last kilometre of the bike did not help my mood.
Unlike T1, T2 went very smoothly. In fact I don't even remember much of it, so obviously had no problems undoing the helmet or putting on my runners. I wore a pair of Newton Distance S racers that I bought in 2012. They now have 670 kilometres in them (as logged on Strava), so they have lost any stiffness and go on very easy.
Run Two
Onto the run and I quickly started to focus on technique. Keep the breathing under control, cadence up, hips forward, run tall and try not to tilt the head backwards (a bad habit of mine when fatigue starts to set in). Very soon all the feelings of disappointment and depression from the bad bike leg had disappeared as my complete focus was now devoted to the run.
I caught an Irish competitor early on who I believed was in my age group and looked to be running quite well. My first instinct was to sit on him and then sprint passed at the end. I
ve tried this tactic at many races and it has never worked. I now realise I am terrible at sprinting, so I abandoned that plan and made an overtaking move. I was a bit worried because if the Irish competitor was ahead of me, it meant he was faster on the first run and therefore a better runner than me. For the rest of the run I simply identified anyone ahead who looked like a reasonable runner and concentrated on catching and passing them. My rhythm and running form was good and stayed good for the whole run.
Being a late wave, there were still lots of competitors ahead of me on the run. Plus a lot of the Standard Distance competitors were doing the 2nd lap of their first 10km run. So the run course was very crowded. Whilst this meant a lot of weaving and swerving as I spent the entire run passing other competitors, it was probably outweighed by the psychological benefit of feeling faster than everyone else. I completed the entire second run without being passed by anyone.
Unlike any other run off the bike in a Duathlon or Triathlon it did not seem to go on forever. I never felt like was about to fall into a whole and my technique never fell apart. Definitely my best ever Duathlon 2nd run and probably equal to my run in the London Triathlon World Championships.
Looking at the results, it turns out the Irish competitor I passed was actually in the age group below me. This means he started 1 min earlier, which helps explain how I was able to out run him in the second run. My run was split was 10m24s for 2.7km.
Overall
6th in my Category. 65 seconds behind Daryn who finished 3rd (I thought he would win). Without the T1 mishap and a better bike leg, I believe I would have been capable of 4th position. But that is the thing about Duathlon and Triathlon, it is almost impossible to get everything right on the day (sort of like golf).
I put a minute into local athlete Michael (in the age group above) who beat me in the last Duathlon at Richmond. What makes this victory even better is that Michael finished 2nd in his age group, so he did not have bad race.
Times
17:49 Run 1 (4.8km)
1:44 T1
31:06 Bike (20km)
0:45 T2
10:24 Run 2 (2.7km)
1:01:52
Not my fastest Duathlon time, but a slightly tougher course than usual. So even with the disappointing bike leg, still probably my best ever Duathlon. With Duathlons generally being in the off season over winter, this is probably the first time I've raced one in peak condition.
Elaine
Elaine has been experiencing hip issues on and off for the last 6 months. When it flares up she really struggles to run. Sometimes it goes away after a few minutes, other times it can persist all day. One theory is that a small labrum tear suffered in a bike accident numerous years ago can result in some of the tendon getting caught at the top of her thigh bone. If it gets released the discomfort goes.
Elaine finished 21st in her age group.
27:15 Run 1 (4.8km)
2:59 T1
45:49 Bike (20km)
1:13 T2
16:28 Run 2 (2.7km)
Martin
A year ago Martin discussed with me as to which distance would suit him best. It was a close decision, but we decided on the longer Standard Distance even though this race would almost certainly have a stronger field.
Martin came to me about 3 months ago asking for me to coach him for this event. 7 years ago Martin was very fast, but due to injury, age and other outside factors his form has dropped away significantly. I knew I could help him prepare for the race, but I wasn't confident we could get back to his prime.
Martin's training was incredible. I kept on adding more loading load and faster sessions and it took a lot before he started reporting that he was feeling fatigued. Not only did we get his running back very close to his peak, but we improved his riding better than it ever has been.
There were 3 qualify athletes in Martin's category with a big distance to the fourth athlete. After a beautifully paced first run and bike, Martin raced into the lead on the 2nd run. Talking to the other two athletes after the race, they had conceded to Martin at this stage and were now racing for 2nd and 3rd.
Suddenly Martin suffered a leg cramp and had to stop. The other two ran passed but there was nothing Martin to do. He continued the run at a much slower pace and finished third. Even in his incapacitated state he still wasn't that far behind the other 2 and had a large gap to fourth.
Overall he is extremely happy with the podium finish, but is now considering heading to Spain for redemption in next year's World Championships.
Other Athletes
Our Triathlon Club had 13 members racing on the day. Clint and Ray came 6th and Louise 7th in their Categories, but they raced in the longer Standard Distance Duathlon (which typically has a stronger field).
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