Looking Back in November

Earlier this year in April I published a blog entry called Plans for Next Season. These plans only covered up to Mandurah 70.3 earlier this month, so this is probably a good time to review how things went.

First we'll look at the Race Calendar:

 3  May - Puffing Billy Run 15.1km (D race)       - SKIPPED RACE 
 21 Jun - Salomon Trail Run, Kew 15km (C race)    - 11th in Category
 19 Jul - Salomon Trail Run, Plenty 17km (C race) - 9th in Category
 16 Aug - Salomon Trail Run, Olinda 21km (C race) - 9th in Category
 13 Sep - Duathlon, Richmond (B race)             - 4th in Category
 20 Sep - Sri Chinmoy Half Marathon (B race)      - SKIPPED RACE
 17 Oct - Duathlon World Champs (A- race)         - 6th in Category
 8  Nov - Mandurah 70.3 (A+ race)                 - 9th in Category

A distinct lack of podium finishes and one result outside the top 10, not quite up to expectations. Although the only result that was really disappointing was Mandurah 70.3. Just sad that this was listed as the most important race.

Now we'll look at my pre-season targets:

  get 5km run time under 18 mins            - No, but close
  Half Marathon under 1h25m                 - Did not race distance
  improve swim speed (move to fast lane)    - Yes :-)
  maintain last season’s bike form          - Yes :-)
  top 10 category finish at Duathlon Worlds - Yes :-)
  age group podium at Mandurah              - No :-(
  qualify for 2016 70.3 Worlds (in QLD)     - No :-(

So really the only failure was Mandurah. Probably worth noting that I failed in the Half Marathon run at the end of the Mandurah race and it was the stand-alone Half Marathon race that Elaine and I skipped.

Elaine was targeting to qualify for the Two Bays Trail Run in Jan. This required a sub 2h15m Half Marathon, but we skipped the planned race at Richmond. Luckily Elaine's effort at the Salomon Trail Run at Silvan was enough to get her a qualification.

Reasons why things didn't pan out as well as expected (or hoped):
- did not get the big running base I was hoping for over winter
- illness in May & June interrupted base training (and Puffing Billy Run)
- special run sessions in Winter caused too much leg soreness preventing build up of run mileage
- slacked off with glute strengthening exercises

If I could do the pre-season again, I would skip the special run sessions with Tim and concentrate on building up my run mileage with lots of easy paced runs. The target was to get over 3 weeks of 70km per week. Instead I managed a single week of just over 50km.

It is easy to say I would do more strength exercises if I had my time again. But there was nothing stopping me from doing them the first time, so what is to say I would do them if I had my time again. Laziness is hard to overcome.

There is only so much you can look back. At some point you need to start looking forward again. So my proposed race calendar for the rest of the Summer:

 10 Jan Gatorade Olympic, St Kilda                   A- race
 17 Jan Two Bays Trail Run                           D race
 31 Jan Challenge Sprint, Brighton (maybe)           C race
  7 Feb Geelong 70.3                                 A+ Race
 21 Feb Gatorade Sprint, Elwood (maybe)              B race
 28 Feb ActiveTri Sprint, Sandringham (Club Champs)  A- race
 13 Mar Gatorade Sprint, Portarlington (maybe)       C race

I really didn't want Geelong 70.3 to be an A race, but the failure at Mandurah means Geelong is now my only chance to qualify for the Worlds. My preference would have been to focus on the St Kilda Olympic and then the Club Champs.

I've listed the Challenge Sprint, but I think this race is probably unlikely. I like the idea of racing a 'long' Sprint Distance on this course, but it is an expensive entry fee for a sprint distance race. Also it breaks my rule of 'any race I'm likely to win overall is not a race worth entering'.

I've also listed Portarlington and Elwood, but again these are probably unlikely. Bad luck has plagued my last 2 attempts at Portarlington. The first time back in 2005 we raced the Mini Distance but the swim was cancelled due to heavy rainfall in the preceding days (actual race day was fine). Second time in 2011 I entered the sprint distance but a back injury kept me out of the race.

Marysville Trail Running Camp

In other news, Elaine and I just completed a Trail Running Camp in Marysville with Wild Plans. Originally it was just Elaine going on the camp because I really wanted to enter the first Gatorade Sprint Triathlon at Elwood. Unfortunately I wasn't fully recovered from Mandurah, so decided joining Elaine on the Camp would be a wiser decision (and it made Elaine happy).

Marysville is beautiful and the town has been completely rebuilt since it was burnt down in bush fires about 5 years ago. Our accomodation was cabins in the Marysville Caravan Park (Elaine and I were lucky to get a cabin to ourselves while most others shared). There were around 24 athletes attending the camp, most of them from the Running in the Burbs group and Lysterfield Trail Runners. We were the odd ones out, but everyone was extremely friendly and we never felt like outsiders.

The course involved several trail runs, class room lectures, yoga, pump class, hill climbing and descending lessons, and lots of barbecues, beer & wine.

The photos above and below were taken from the Lookup half way through our long trail run on the Sunday. Obviously taken after a big climb.

Obviously the photo below is the group doing the Plank. Elaine and I are not shown, but we were definitely doing the plank (trust me). 

Looking Forward

I've already listed my race calendar earlier in this blog entry, with Geelong 70.3 as the main focus. This race is now just over 2 months away, so how am I going to turn things around (ie. qualify for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships).

Part of looking forward is looking back to learn from your mistakes. Below are the 7km splits with average pace and heart rate for each of my last 5 half ironmans:

              Torquay’11         Geelong’13     Chall Melb’14    Mornington’14     Mandurah'15

7km          4:26  155            4:26  153            4:37  161            4:33   158            4:24   159

7km          4:49  156            4:23  158            5:07  158            4:48   160            5:05   156

7km          5:13  153            4:52  157            5:13  161            5:34   151            5:38   149

            1:41:36  154       1:35:47  156       1:44:39  160       1:44:25   156       1:45:49   155

At the time I was disappointed with my Geelong run, but in hindsight it is clearly my best effort.

The Geelong run course was 3 laps. My strategy was to hold back on the first lap with the aim of running the 2nd lap faster, accepting that the last lap was always going to be ugly. Ironically the last 7km at Geelong was easily the least ugly final 7km I've ever managed.

The actual run pace for each split is only half the story. If you compare the average heart rates, it becomes more obvious how much I held back early on (compared to the other races).

The Torquay race had a bad camber on part of the run that played havoc with my ITB. I was very sick in the lead up to Challenge Melbourne and did the race off 3 weeks training with a sore knee. Mornington was a brutal course with lots of very tough hills after a tough bike leg. Mandurah was fairly hot and a little hilly, but the excuses are starting to run a little thin. The stats reveal the same story at every race other than Geelong. Time to face reality.

So the answer is pretty simple. Put away the ego and go easy on the first 7km lap. Sounds easy, but smart pacing is so hard to do in the heat of the race.