Salomon Trail Run, Race 2 - Plenty

Long Course, 17.5km and very hilly, lots of technical sections and 4 river crossings.

It’s a long drive from Seaford to Plenty. When we left home the car temperature gauge displayed 4 degrees Celsius. As we drove to Plenty it continued to drop to zero. I’m not sure if our car can display minus temperatures, but I’m told the official temperature was minus 2 and it certainly felt cold.  I was initially thinking of racing in a singlet, but quickly changed my mind and selected a long sleeve t-shirt, running cap and gloves. I carried two gels in a zip pocket in the rear of my shorts (although I only had one during the race).

I went out too hard at the Kew race (2nd year in a row), so I was determined to pace myself more sensibly from the start this time. A bottleneck was pretty much guaranteed at the first river crossing, but with 4.5km to travel before this, I believed I’d have time to manoeuvre myself into a bit of a gap.  As a result I lined up a fair distance back from the start to surround myself with slower runners - Mistake!

Firstly I underestimated how slow these other runners are and their total inability to run down a hill. Last year I was running near the front of the Medium Course field and didn’t realise that there were bottlenecks before the river crossing. Around the 2km mark I found myself standing in a queue watching the competitors in front descend down one of the trickier hills. As planned, I worked my way into a gap before the river crossing by moving to the front of a group with a good 50 metres to the next competitor. Again I underestimated people’s ability and found myself in a queue once more, this time watching people gingerly tackling the river crossing in the most painstakingly slow methods possible.

The rest of the run went quite smoothly as I slowly picked my way up through the field, but all up I believe I wasted close to a minute standing in queues which is quite frustrating.

The first two thirds of the course is exactly the same as the Medium Course race Elaine and I did last year. The last third is the Short Course from 2 years ago. I knew all the technical sections were in the first section and I also knew the last 5km contained the steepest and longest hills.

Other than the disaster of the early queueing, I was generally happy with my pacing for this race. Unlike Kew I was not overrun by other competitors near the end. A few passed me in the last 5km, but I think I was overtaking more than I was overtaken. With around 2km to go I was completely wrecked, but still had enough in me to take advantage of a long descent and made up a couple more places before slowly jogging up the last hill to the finish. Probably not my best ever race but a vast improvement over my efforts at Kew.

This is Elaine’s favourite course, mainly because of the river crossings. She still loved the course, but really struggled on the day and ended up walking large portions of the course.

Merryn, Anita, Sarah and Mikey all turned up to do their first ever Salomon Trail Run.  Sarah won her age group and 2nd female overall in the Short Course (so I’m guessing she enjoyed herself). Merryn and Anita also raced the Short Course while Mikey did the Medium Course. Merryn absolutely loved it, Anita thought is was OK and I’m not sure Mikey was all that impressed.

Tough Progress in June

My last 2 weeks of May saw running mileages of 44 and 43km, followed up by a 43km run the first week in June.  The initial plan was to be running over 60km a week by now, but for now I'm just happy to be stringing consistent weeks together.

Then I became ill. It seemed everybody at work was getting sick and I was lucky enough to get two bouts.  Needless to say this really ruined the training load in June.

So instead of my running mileage increasing up to 70km per week as planned, it dropped to the mid 30’s. And the swimming momentum I was experiencing last month was also completely ruined and my bike riding was almost non-existent. Very disappointing, but sickness is always going to be a factor when trying to train through a Melbourne Winter. A factor I believe is made worse due to my daily tram trip (whereas I used to do all my commuting to and from work by Motorbike).

1 June to 7 June

  2 swims - 5.9km

  1 ride - 98km

  5 runs - 43km

8 June to 14 June

  no swimming

  1 mountain bike ride - 19km

  3 runs - 32km

15 June to 21 June

  2 swims - 4.2km

  1 ride - 76km

  3 runs - 32km

22 June to 28 June - recovery week

  1 swim - 2.4km

  1 ride - 54km

  3 runs - 35km

July will now become more of a rebuilding month and hopefully we can get things back on track.

Jen completed her Half Ironman in Cairns in 6h54m53s (9th in her age group out of 17 starters). She went off course in the swim resulting in a longer than expected swim split (50m46s, slowest in her category). This also meant she started the bike at the rear of the field. Fortunately riding is her strength and she gained gain quite a few place with an excellent ride (3h09m00s, 5th fastest in her category). I thought her run was quite good, but Jen was disappointed (2h39m46s, 13th in her age group but very close to several others). It is also going to be very difficult to come from a Melbourne Winter to race in the tropics, especially when you are doing a Long Distance Triathlon.

Salomon Trail Run 1 - Kew

No real injuries, but generally feeling still in the glutes, quads, ITB and calf muscles. And after doing two long runs (14 & 16km) in consecutive weeks my old knee injury is starting to play up - hopefully this is more of a small niggle than an oncoming injury. Also I am still trying to shake off a cold that has been hanging around for over 2 weeks. But this was simply the first race of the season (after missing Puffing Billy), so it was really just a test to see where my current fitness was.

This will be the third season of the Salomon Trail Running Series for Elaine and myself. The first year we raced Short Course, last year we raced the Medium Course and this year we have stepped up to the Long Course. The longer races are definitely my weakness, but the off season is about trying to address our shortcomings. And if I want to race well at Mandurah 70.3 in November (my A race), I am going to need to run a fast 21.1km off the bike.

Race morning we were up early and had our usual breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast followed by a coffee.  You are unlikely to find eggs on a nutritionists recommended 'before race' food list as they take a while to digest. But this is what we have before all our early morning training rides and runs and you don't want to change anything on race day. I like this as a breakfast because it is high in protein and dietary fat with the only carbs coming from the bread and very small amount of milk we have with our coffee (piccolos). Plus Elaine makes the bread and assures me that it has far less sugar than any of the loaves you buy from the supermarket. After waking up at 5:30am, I immediately start cooking breakfast, so we are finished eating around 5:50am (nearly 3 hours before race start). The only other thing we will consume before race start is water.

Leaving home at 6:30am, we arrived at the Studley Park Boathouse carpark at 7:15am. Perfect timing, as there are about 20 car spots left, all of which have gone by around 7:25am. We love being able to park very close to the Race Site, so it is definitely worth leaving home 30 minutes early to get that good park.

There is no such thing as typical Melbourne weather. It is always different and unpredictable. But there is presently no mistaking that we are in the middle of Winter this year and this morning was no exception. It was actually a reasonably nice day, but very cold. As I walked across the bridge to do a warmup I nearly slipped over as the wooden surface of the bridge was completely covered in a thin layer of ice. Usually I strip down for my warmup, but this time I was wearing my race t-shirt, a long sleeve running top, a hoodie, a jacket, warm gloves, beanie and thick tracksuit pants over my running shorts.

Warmups for longer races is all about getting loose. I usually prefer to do more drills than actual running as this will achieve the loosening up without tiring me out too much. However this morning my muscles wanted to remain stiff. I tried lots of stretching to no avail. My warmup lasted about 15 minutes and during that time I never felt like taking off any of the many layers I was wearing.

Of the 4 races in the Salomon Trail Running Series, Kew is not only the shortest, but also the least hilly and least technical. Notice that I did not say flat or non-technical, as it is neither of those.

The single track sections of the race are a fair way into the run, so I didn't feel a need to start off near the front. I was about 10 rows back, so probably in about position 50 of the 500 runners registered. Annoyingly at least half of the runners ahead of me were very slow, I'm not sure what part of self seeding they do not understand. Especially when the timing mats record when you go over the start line, so there is no advantage in moving further up the front than your ability dictates. Even though I wanted to start off very slowly, I still had to spend a lot of time in the first kilometre weaving in and out of people and sometimes running off the side along the grass rather than the far more even track. Luckily I was among similar paced runners by the first kilometre.

The early sections are mostly on trails where you can run 2 or 3 abreast. Initially the hills are more rolling than steep and you can hold a reasonable rhythm for the majority of the time. By about the 3km mark the leaders were well out of sight, but I could see a reasonable size group ahead and I was slowly leaving a gap to the group behind. As we continued I was slowly picking off runners as they dropped off the group ahead.

There a section about the 5km mark where the course doubles back on itself and you can see runners coming the other way. I was shocked to see just how far ahead the leaders were. After this is where the course starts to have more single track sections and starts introducing minor technical bits. With technical trail running not being my strong point, this is where I lost sight of the group ahead and now I it was more a series of individual runners spaced 10 to 15 metres apart.

We reached the first aid station around the 7km mark. I was wearing gloves due to the cold and it wasn't until this point that my fingers were no longer feeling the cold. Again the track was becoming more technical with very winding single track. It took a surprising amount of mental energy to navigate the course whilst also trying to run as fast as you could. Foolishly I passed a runner and now the gap to the next competitor was too big to be able to see them as we ran through heavily forested areas.

In general, the Kew course slowly gets more difficult as it goes. When you combine this with the fatigue of having already run half the course, nearly everybody finishes significantly slower than they started. The last 6km contains lots of technical single track and too many stairs. When you find a section that you can maintain a good rhythm it is almost like a recovery even though you are running faster, but towards the end of the race this sections are short lived.

Below are my kilometre splits. I didn't wear my heart rate monitor strap because it was showing stupidly high readings in the warmup and this would have really annoyed me during the race (unfortunate because I would have loved to see my HR readings for each split).

  4m12s  4m20s  4m13s  4m10s  4m17s
  4m22s  4m52s  4m31s  4m18s  4m35s
  4m40s  4m44s  4m56s  4m44s  4m28s

As you can see, each 5km gets significantly slower. Part of this is due to the more difficult terrain, but most of it is due to lack of fitness.  Especially seeing as I thought 4m12s for the first kilometre was very conservative.  I don't think I could have gone any faster on the day, but early on I mentioned that this race was a test to see where my fitness was and I don't like the answer. My finishing time was 1h05m09s, 11th in category and 43rd overall (out of 460 finishers).

Elaine did well finishing in 1h49m31s. She has been training a fair bit less than me, so her fitness is even lower.  She walked up all the hills, but overall she was very happy with efforts and she loves the Kew course (very picturesque).

Other club members also raced. Jonathan finished 12th in his age group with a 1h11m49s time and Evalin in 1h40m11s. Sal and Shaune (both of who I have recently coached) completed the Medium Course in 1h01m43s and 1h01m54s (they obviously ran together) - Shaune came 4th in her category.

The May Blues

Last month (April) started off well and ended poorly with a minor calf muscle injury that interrupted my training. This month (May) started off terribly and only improved slightly.

A few days before the Puffing Billy I came down with cold. With Elaine not being in good shape and myself still recovering from calf soreness we decided to give the Puffing Billy race a miss. I've beaten the train the last 2 years and was looking for 3 wins in a row. To make missing the race a little easier, the train went ridiculously fast this year with only 45 runners going faster. So even if I was in peak form, there is no way I could of beaten it this year. My friend Andrew (who did the 3 Peaks Challenge) had an awesome race beating the train and finishing 25th overall.

Both my calf and cold slowly improved (neither as fast as I would have liked). Then we started a special Run Program with ex Olympic run coach Tim O'Shannessy. Last year we did a similar Run Program with Jan Rehula who won Bronze in the Triathlon at the Sydney Olympics.

Jan's program last year involved lots of drills and exercises. It was an 8 week program and it was only really the last 2 weeks that involved any significant run volume. I was expecting similar this year, but Tim's sessions have been 1 hour of running (a lot of it quite fast) followed by 30 minutes of drills and exercises. This is not a bad thing, it is just that at this point in the season my legs are simply not conditioned enough for so much intensity.

Predictably I pulled up sore in the legs from the first 3 sessions (last year I pulled up sore through the core region after the first 2 sessions). It would take me a week to recover from Tim's session and then of course we would run fast again and the cycle continued. My plan for doing easy runs every day was simply not happening.

On a good note, my swimming was coming along better than expected. This does not mean I was swimming well, but rather I was increasing the distance covered in each session quicker than expected. Hopefully this will lead to swimming well later in the season.

Below are my training stats for the last 5 weeks:

Apr 27 - May 3
  2 runs - 8km
  1 swim - 2km
  no rides
May 4 - May 10
  5 runs - 24km
  1 swim - 1.7km
  1 ride - 49km
May 11 - May 17
  4 runs - 22km
  2 swims - 5km
  1 ride - 68km
May 18 - May 24
  4 runs - 20km
  2 swims - 6.3km
  2 rides - 96km
May 25 - May 31
  6 runs - 44km
  2 swims - 5.9km
  1 ride - 100km

As you can see it has only been the last week that I have been able to get in any run volume. Even though I'm happy with 44km for the week, I was originally planning to be up to 60km a week by now.

A better time for Mike who raced the Busselton 70.3 (Half Ironman). He finished in 5h06m18s, a 9m17s improvement over his attempt at the same course last year. Even more impressive with the very interrupted lead in and the fact that the swim course was measured long (costing about 4 mins) and the conditions on the bike were worse than the year before.

Not only was Mike was faster, but he felt he covered the distance a lot easier. One of the main areas we have improved with Mike is his running. Before signing up with me Mike pulled up sore from most training runs and struggled to get in 3 runs a week. The first thing we did was bring his training run speed way down, and then had him running every day. With the slower speed he was pulling up from every run without any soreness, meaning he could run far more often and build up a much higher weekly run mileage.

Mike also did running assessment with an external party, and they gave him a few technique changes to work on. He found that implementing the new run techniques and running slow were not compatible. So we modified 2 runs a week to be technique intervals. This meant running for 1km with the new technique followed by a slow kilometre and repeat. For the majority of his training this was the only intensity we scheduled and he was already setting new PBs in fun runs. With his interrupted schedule (overseas trips) in the 6 weeks leading into Busselton, Mike was limited in the amount of running he could do. So we started to introduced more Threshold runs. Throughout all of the Mike's training, he never experienced leg soreness, something that plagued him before.

April Progress

The main focus of this early season training was to do 6 very easy runs a week, with optional rides and swims.

Below is a summary of the last 5 weeks:

Mar 23 - Mar 29
  6 runs - 30km
  1 ride - 51km
  no swims
Mar 30 - Apr 5
  4 runs - 32km
  1 ride - 70km
  1 swim 1.6km
Apr 6 - Apr 12
  4 runs - 36km
  1 ride - 78km
  1 swim 1.6km
Apr 13 - Apr 19 (recovery week)
  2 runs - 12km
  2 rides - 126km
  1 swim - 1.8km
Apr 20 - Apr 26
  3 runs - 19km
  no rides
  2 swims - 4.5km

The running started off well with the weekly mileage slowly rising (30, 32, 36) before the first recovery week. There were a few aches and pains and my body slowly got used to running again. Plus I am still not fully recovered from my back injury, so I was not expecting plain sailing.

However everything went a little downhill this week. With the very hilly 15km Puffing Billy run on the 3rd May, the pressure to be ready for this race saw me run too far on Tuesday. Predictably I pulled up sore and it then impacted the rest of the week's training. So much so that I didn't even get in a ride this weekend.

Elaine also had a bad week. She was sick early in the week and then work commitments prevented her from running later in the week. So after a week of no running, her 10km effort today was a big struggle.

I had already considered not entering the Puffing Billy run again (making this year our last time). The timing of the race does not fit into our training calendar, as it is a tough race at a time where we should be concentrating on short, slow runs. In fact today Elaine and I both discussed the possibility of not racing this year either.

In the larger scale of things, a bad week here and there is expected and should not affect our season. The disappointing factor is that in my case it was something that could (and should) have been avoided.

As for my other athletes. Most of them have finished their seasons. If I get time I'll do a separate blog post about their efforts. Currently I only have 4 athletes left on my books: Mark, Jaco, Jen and Mike.

Mark likes to do every event on the calendar, but at the moment his main focus is the Melbourne Marathon. He training has been going extremely well, and unlike Elaine and myself he should have no problems with the Puffing Billy run in a week's time.

Jen is a bit like Mark in the she likes to set extremely tough goals. This time it was Ironman Cairns, despite only really returning to training in December. While she was capable of finishing in her current state of fitness, she has wisely switched her entry to the Cairns Half Ironman (run on the same course, same day). If she can put in consistent training in the weeks ahead and then handle the potentially hot conditions on the day, she should do quite well.

Mike is travelling to Busselton, Western Australia to do the Half Ironman next week. After some great training early on, he has spent four of the last five weeks overseas. We've managed to schedule some reasonable training in where possible. And we are still hoping for a PB in a week's time.

Jaco does not have any actual races lined up. He simply wanted to get back into running after quite a few years on the couch. We started him off with lots of short easy runs to build up his mileage. After a couple of months he had reached 30km a week, but was getting sore and catching illnesses. I saw this as a sign that we had found his current limits. So now his mileage and number of weekly runs has reduced and we added in a weekly intervals session. He seems very happy to finally be able to do some fast paced running again. We might schedule a 5km Park Run in the next couple of weeks to get an idea of how much he has improved.

Plans for Next Season

Sometimes exposing your plans and targets to world can provide the extra motivation to do the work required to achieve those goals. So here I am publishing mine on the Internet.

RACE CALENDAR

Having last season end so prematurely with a back injury allowed me to start this season much earlier than usual which works well for the Duathlon Worlds in October. This meant that I could then also target an early season Half Ironman and chose Mandurah as I believe it will be a softer field than any race in Victoria.

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

Targets:

•   get 5km run time under 18 mins
•   Half Marathon under 1h25m
•   improve swim speed (move to fast lane)
•   maintain last season’s bike form
•   top 10 age group finish at Duathlon Worlds
•   age group podium at Mandurah
•   qualify for 2016 70.3 Worlds (in QLD)
•   Elaine is also targeting to qualify for the Two Bays Run in Jan
•   She needs a sub 2h10m Half Marathon to qualify

RUNNING

As mentioned earlier, running is always my favourite discipline to concentrate on over winter. It helps that I have a 16km out and back running trail outside my door and my work is situated in between the TAN and Albert Park lake. I actually see lots of Bayside members running around the TAN at lunchtime.

Run Plan:

• 3 months of running with no intensity (other than a couple of trail running races)
• aim to run 6 days a week
• hopefully build up mileage to around 60 to 70km per week
• first run training with intensity is planned for 27th July
• Note that I will drop the volume and number of runs per week when I start adding the intensity.
• I go through another 3 phases of run intensity sessions, but I won’t go into that now

Below is the schedule for my long runs (nicely spaced out):

1.   25th Aor - 80 mins
2.   17th May - 93 mins
3.   14th June - 105 mins
4.   12th July - 115 mins
5.   2nd Aug - double run: 100 min in morning, 27 min in evening
6.   30th Aug - double run : 110 min in morning, 27 min in evening
7.   5th Oct - double run: 110 min in morning, 40 min in evening

Elaine’s long runs will be similar, except for the double runs. Her other training will be similar, but with one less run per week.

SWIMMING

Swimming is my biggest weakness, so my plan of attack is to do 10 weeks of 10km swimming leading into Mandurah 70.3.

Working backwards from this, my swimming follows the plan below.

•   Now - 2 sessions, 1.5km Tue & Fri
•   Mid April - 2 sessions, 2.0km Tue & Fri
•   Mid May - 2 sessions, 2.5km Tue & Fri
•   Mid June - 2 sessions, 2.8km on Tue, 3km on Fri
•   Mid July - 2 sessions, 3km on Tue, 3.4km on Fri
•   Mid August - getting serious (3 sessions, 10km per week)

Note that I won’t worry about any intensity until mid July. Until then I’ll simply work on technique and slowly building distance over time (without wrecking my shoulders). Come July, I’ll start trying to push the pace with the aim of moving into the fast lane around late September.

Elaine is unlikely to do many 3 swim weeks and the distance for all her swims will be considerably less.

RIDING

Riding is my strength and past experience has shown that I can maintain reasonable form with just one ride a week. This is due partly to genetics, a childhood spent on bikes, and a result of some serious bike mileage in my legs over the last 12 years.

Riding is the activity most affected by weather, therefore my ride planning is the least structured:

•   Now - ride when I feel like (and weather is OK), typically once a week
•   29th July - ride every Wed and Sat, occasionally a third ride on Sun
•   late Oct - Bright Alpine Camp

Normally my ‘A’ races would not be until January or February, so my switch to riding twice a week would not happen till October or November. The problem with early season ‘A’ races is that I’ll have to battle the elements in a Melbourne Winter.

Still working on the plan for Elaine's riding.

While I've Been Away

It has been over 15 months since my last blog entry. It was not an intentional absence, life simply got very busy and I didn’t have time to squeeze in blog posts.

When I originally started this blog in 2011, I was doing occasional programs for other athletes, but mainly just coaching myself and Elaine. Then in the second year I coached Mark to his first Ironman. Since then the number of athletes wanting personalised programs have increased significantly and at times I have have been coaching up to 10 athletes, which becomes quite time consuming. On top of this I changed jobs early 2014, and the new job is 1,000 times more mentally challenging than my old job, so the need for mental stimulation outside of work has dramatically decreased.

But now I'm on an Easter Break, most of my athletes are finishing off their seasons, I've got big plans for the upcoming season and the desire to start blogging again has returned.

I thought I'd start with a recap of the Events since my last blog post.

January 2014 - Gatorade Sprint Triathlon, St Kilda - Won Age Group

I was originally entered in the Olympic Distance race with the aim of setting a new PB. I suffered a back injury in November that saw me miss several weeks of training and then I became very ill over Christmas. So I'd barely trained and was a long way from Peak fitness. With this in mind I had my entry changed to the Sprint Distance race.

With all the fast competitors racing the Olympic Distance, the field in my race was quite weak and I won my age group by a large margin. My second Sprint Distance Triathlon Age Group win, the first at a Gatorade event. However a bit of an anti-climax due to the lack of competition and with the sickness and lack of training it was actually one of my slowest races in years.

Elaine raced the Olympic Distance and surprised herself by going quite well.

February 2014 - Challenge Melbourne, Brighton - 4h40m

Due to my illness and absence of training I actually withdrew from this event. Then after a couple of days thinking about it, I rang the organisers back and withdrew my withdrawal. It was the first time a Challenge race was being held in Victoria and the first time a Half Ironman was being run on Beach Rd. Despite my lack of fitness, I believed I would regret not being part of this event.

After the Gatorade Sprint Triathlon, I managed 3 weeks of fairly good training. Unfortunately trying to squeeze a Half Ironman prep into 3 weeks predictably resulted in injury - the same knee injury that caused so many problems during my Ironman training. This meant my run leg was going to be very slow. Pre race forecast was predicting a top of 40 C (about 110 Fahrenheit). I actually welcomed this as I thought it was help hide my lack of preparation.

Race day was quite warm, but otherwise perfect conditions. Tactically I picked the wrong swimmer to draft off and was a little slow out of the water. But the bike leg was ridiculously fast. I averaged 40kph for the 90km and would have gone faster except for the bunches that started to form. I was continually being shunted down the pace line due to the conservative gap I left to the rider in front and was chased down every time I tried to break away. The heat picked up on the run leg, but no where near the forecasted 40 degrees and the aid stations were well stocked with ice.

I finished with a time of 4h40m, one minute off my PB. My run was very slow, but the fast 2h15m bike split made the overall time look OK. My pre-race target was 4h29m and I believe this was vey achievable had I been fit.

Elaine was also racing (her first Half Ironman) and was going extremely well. Unfortunately they closed the run course early due to the heat. Extremely disappointing and frustrating. Firstly Elaine had been pacing her run well to accommodate the heat and secondly it didn't really get that hot.

May 2014 - Puffing Billy Fun Run - Beat the train

It took a while for my knee injury to settle down after Challenge Melbourne and when I finally started running again my achilles played up.

After fighting through slow runners for the early parts of the previous year's race I managed to seed myself much better this year. It made a huge difference for the first 4 or 5km as I was not wasting energy dodging, swerving and surging past slow runners. Unfortunately my fitness was no where near where it was last year, but luckily wet conditions meant the train was also slow and I actually beat the train by a bigger margin.

Elaine wasn't in good run form either. She finished with no problems, but was well behind the second train.

June 2014 - Salomon Trail Run 1, Medium Course, Kew - 2nd in Age Group

In 2013 Elaine and I competed in the Short Course races. This year we decided to jump up to Medium Course. Not only was the course longer, but the competition was also much faster.

I took off with the lead group but quickly discovered they were way too fast. I then settled into the second pack and stupidly made moves in the first 5km to try and break things up (stupidity has no bounds). By the 7km mark I was starting to struggle and lost touch with the second pack. Around 8km the 3rd pack appeared and by 9km it had disappeared out of sight ahead of me. Approaching the finish line of the 10km race competitors from the fourth pack were closer in.

One of my worst ever paced races. Smarter racing would have seen an easy age group win. Elaine raced well and loved the Kew run course.

July 2014 - Sprint Duathlon 1, Richmond - 3rd in Age Group

We usually don't race the first Duathlon of the season as it is run by our Triathlon Club and we usually spend the day as Marshals for the race. However this year I had ambitions of winning the series in my age group and the 2nd Duathlon would clash with the 3rd Salomon Trail Run. With the series win being judged by your best 3 races, I needed to do race one to be a chance.

With a couple of running races already under my belt, I ran quite well but my bike leg (always my strength) was not as dominate as I would have liked. I was comfortably in 2nd place in my age group coming into T2 but was run down in the last 200m by my new nemesis Gordon. Another competitor Daryn easily won the age group. I have never beaten Daryn (raced him many times). I mistakenly thought he was going to move up to the next age group - there goes my chance of winning the series.

July 2014 - Salomon Trail Run 2, Plenty - 2nd in Age Group

Last year we raced the Short Course which was ridiculously tough. The Medium Course follows a different track which did not have the stupidly steep hills, but instead contained a lot more technical sections.

Learning my lesson from the previous race at Kew, I let the leaders disappear and took off at a much more maintainable pace. The super fast guys quickly disappeared out of sight and the rest of field started to thin out without any real packs. After a few kilometres I started picking off runners ahead of me. By half way myself and one other competitor had broken away by ourselves. The leaders were out of sight ahead and there were a few other competitors just in sight behind us.

For most of the second half of the race myself and the other competitor had a great tussle. I was faster on the non-technical sections, but he would close back up quickly as soon as it got technical. Luckily for me the technical sections meant it was impossible to pass, and as soon as a passing opportunity arose I was able to pull away. But the other competitor stayed patient and an opportunity arose with less than 2km to go (of a 12km race). Once passed me, I tried to hang up but he slowly gapped me and that was pretty much the end. I cruised to the finish line only having to put in a spurt over the last 400m as some of the competitors behind started to close the gap.

Elaine loved the race, especially the two rivers crossings that were above knee height. In fact I say it was her all time favourite event.

August 2014 - Salomon Trail Run 3, Olinda - 3rd in Age Group

I had been happy with my Plenty race, but with more training under my belt I was determined to win the age group this time. At 15km, this was the longest race and also the hilliest. Being in the Dandenongs that pretty much goes without saying. In fact the race started at the top of one of the famous Dandenong riding climbs called 'The Wall'.

The first 3 or 4km were all downhill. I hate downhill running as it really wrecks your quads. However there were some sections that I could find a flow and put in some good speed. The steepness continually changed. It was funny that each gradient change advantaged a different runner and we were continually passing or being passed by other runners depending upon who the gradient favoured at the time.

Once the downhill section finished I found myself in a good group and knew there were not too many runners ahead. I assumed that I was probably leading my age group, then disaster struck.

We were running down a gravel road when we came across an arrow pointing right. The runners in front simply moved off the road and up onto the grass next to the road. At the time I thought it strange, but I would often fear we were going the wrong way during these races and decided to simply trust the runners in front. Half a kilometre later we encountered two runners ahead running back towards us. They told us we were going the wrong way and had missed the turn off. As we ran back we informed all the other runners behind us of the situation and a big pack formed as we ran back to the missed turn point.

This meant that all the competitors I had gapped were now back running with me, plus I had also run further distance than all of them. There were also other more alert competitors that hadn't missed the turn off and were now well ahead. But following the course is part of what trail running is, so I cannot complain as I only have myself to blame.

The last 3 or 4kms was all brutal up hill. The fatigue combined with the disappointment of going the wrong way made this final section extremely difficult and I did not finish strong. I was beaten in my age group by competitors I had beaten in the previous 2 races, but at least I had comfort knowing that my running form was pretty good, just needed to work on my sense of direction.

Elaine did not enjoy this race. It was not only the longest, but by far the most difficult. After loving the previous race at Plenty, she was beaten by the Olinda course today.

September 2014 - Bayside Classic - King of the Mountain

After my disappointing bike leg at the first Duathlon, I upped my training on the bike from one ride a week to 3 rides a fortnight. One of the key factors was doing the North Road Ride roughly every 2nd week - this is a very fast and hilly ride with A grade cyclists.

In the past Event Rides I have contested every Sprint and every KOM, so far this strategy has not worked very well. This time I decided to skip the Sprints and save myself for the KOMs. My main aim was the Arthurs Seat climb. I thought I'd save energy by skipping the Olivers Hill KOM and use the Balcombe Hill KOM as a warmup for Arthurs Seat.

Obviously no points up Olivers Hill, but I scored a second place behind Clint up Balcombe just ahead of Brent in third and young Martin in 4th. On Arthurs Seat I didn't have any plan, but felt good through the first hairpin and decided to attack. Griff jumped onto my wheel while Brent and young Martin were happy to ride at their own tempo assuming we would blow up. Arthurs Seat is around 9 to 10% for the first 2km and then eases off a little for the last 500m. I believed I could hold 400 watts for the whole climb, but it seemed Griff could as well as he was glued to my back wheel. About 1.5km into the climb Griff finally started to drop off, much to my relief as I was not looking forward to a sprint finish. He held on for 2nd with Brent in 3rd and young Martin in 4th.

The last KOM up Beleura Hill is very steep but also very short. However Clint starts the actual KOM about 20km before the Hill, so it is a 20km flat out race. Clint, Brent and Griff all managed to sneak off in a breakaway. The rest of us were pretty stuffed, so it took a little while before we organised ourselves, but thanks to Ozzy and Ben we soon had a good chase pack happening and were just keeping the breakaway in sight.

With 3 kilometres to go I could tell the guys in our chase pack were starting to tire and we hadn't really pulled back any distance. So I told them to jump on my wheel and I made a charge to close down the gap. I'm not sure if the others didn't hear what I said, but nobody came with me, so it was a solo charge. I picked a slightly downhill section so that the disadvantage of riding solo would be minimised and absolutely smashed it until I reached Clint, Brent and Griff.  It wasn't until then that I discovered Griff had refused to help with the pace making and it had been just Clint and Brent doing all the work - a massive effort to hold off the chase pack of about 10 with just 2 riders doing the work.

Having me reach them, took away a lot of their motivation as they now had 2 riders (Griff and I) just sitting in not doing any work. So it didn't take long for the two packs to join back into one. Once we got to Beleura Hill, the interest level for the KOM was not that high and it was essentially fought out between Griff and myself.  Griff had me completely covered, but misunderstood the finish of the KOM and backed off too early handing me the win and the overall King of the Mountain title.

I also tried to contest the final sprint for the overall win, but wasn't able to get into the right position and ended up leading the peloton with 1km to go. Predictably all I did was give Clint a good leadout before everyone else flew passed at the end. The end result was a tie between Clint and young Martin with Brent in third.

September 2014 - Duathlon 3, Richmond - 2nd in Age Group

This was a qualifying race for the 2016 Age Group World Championships to be held in Adelaide. A home World Championships always means strong field for qualifying races and this was no exception. Not only was it a huge field, it was very strong with lots of competitors coming from interstate (especially Sydney) to chase the points for qualification.

I was very happy with my first run. In was right on 18m30s 5km pace, but just eased off a touch in the last 500m in preparation for T1 and the bike. On the bike I smashed it. Much happier than my efforts at the previous Duathlon and felt good running out of T2. This time I held off my new nemesis Gordon and took 2nd place behind Daryn.

The results from this race were enough to secure places on the Australian team for both Elaine and myself.

October 2014 - Bright Alpine Camp

With my riding form looking good, I posted new Strava Personal Bests (PBs) on Mt Buffalo, Tawonga Gap and Mt Hotham. A very promising sign for the upcoming season.

Elaine was also extremely excited about climbing Mt Hotham for the first - an absolutely brutal climb.

November 2014 - TeamUp Triathlon 1, Brighton - 2nd in Age Group, 15th Overall

The main focus was the upcoming 2 Half Ironmans - Mornington and Challenge Melbourne. However I knew this was the last season before some of the gun triathletes from the category below aged up, so my last chance for a while to have a go at the Sprint Distance series win.

A reasonable swim, a devastating bike and a good run saw me take 2nd place, only 10 seconds off first, but importantly ahead of a fast finishing Gordon (my new nemesis).

Including all elites and age groupers, I finished 15th overall and had the 3rd fastest bike split of the race only seconds off the fastest.

November 2014 - Mornington Half Ironman - Won Age Group

While not in the same category as extreme races like Norseman, the Mornington Half Ironman is still one of the toughest Half Ironman races in the world. The bike leg has 4 twisty and undulating laps with no flat sections at all. This is followed by a 4 lap run which turned out to be even more difficult.

The tough course removed any pressure of getting a good time, so it was all about correct pacing and smart racing.

I disappointingly exited the swim about mid field but raced through transition and charged out on the bike in chase of Lynchie, Aurel (my old nemesis), Ray and TriathaDan who all had a good gap on me (my new nemesis Gordon was not racing). By half way I had reeled in all but Ray who was having the race of his race of his life.

I was the 6th Age Grouper overall into T2 and headed onto the run about 30 secs behind Ray, but with a 2 minute lead over Lynchie and TriathaDan. Aurel was too far back to worry about. The run leg was extremely tough contain 3 hills on each of the four laps. The first hill was very steep, the second hill was very long and the third hill wasn't too bad. However it was the downhills that were wrecking my body.

Underestimating the difficulty, I went out a bit too hard and paid for it on the second half. At the half way mark I still had 2 minutes on Lynchie and TriathaDan. TriathaDan was showing signs he was about to fall apart, but then my back started to go. This coupled with the fatigue from starting too quick saw my run go downhill in a hurry. In the end Lynchie beat me by 6 minutes and even TriathaDan managed to pass and beat me by 2 minutes. The only consolation was that my bike leg had given me such a big lead over the other competitors in my age group, that I still managed to hold on for an age group win.

Elaine had a great swim. Her bike was quite slow as expected on such a tough course, but she finished well within the bike cutoff times (ie. when they reopen the road to cars). Once on the run it was not only the hills, but it was also very hot. And in November the heat in races is worse because you haven't acclimatised yet (whereas by Feb your body is used to it). So her run leg was quite slow, but she finished, there were numerous competitors behind her (some a long way behind) and she won her age group.

December 2014 - TeamUp Triathlon 2, Mordialloc - 3rd in Age Group

Being only one week after Mornington, I was originally not going to do this race. But after only missing the win in the previous TeamUp race by 10 secs and believing I had 30 seconds potential improvement in me, I decided to aim for the series win and entered the 5 race series.

Things didn't start off well.  It had been absolutely pouring rain all night and it continued to pour rain all morning. Due to flooding on the course the already short bike leg had been shortened from 16km to about 13km. And I arrived at our club tent to discover I had a puncture in my rear tubular tyre. Elaine ran back to the car to get a spare tubular and pump while I tried to rip off the old one (it had been there since 2007 and was well stuck on). Once I had everything fixed, there was no time for warmup, in fact I just managed to sneak my bike into transition before it closed.

We were second age group wave and the first age group went way off line, swimming towards the wrong buoy. I had one of my best ever swims finishing in the lead pack of 5 (including Swanny and my new nemesis Gordon) with only 2 individual swimmers ahead of us. We also swam through most of the previous wave who were fighting the rough conditions to get back on course after they all swam the wrong way.

Once on the bike I quickly set about chasing down Peter (an athlete I am coaching) who like usual had led the swim. I caught Peter before the half way mark, but my new nemesis Gordon was also charging and we both swapped the lead for the entire bike leg (which at 13km was ridiculously short). I would usually have a big gap over Gordon coming into T2, but this time we were side by side and he flew through transition and started the run ahead of me. Being a faster runner than me, I knew the best I could hope for was 2nd place and settled into holding a good rhythm.

We were 2nd age group wave, but had swam through most of the first wave who swam off direction. With the Elites well down the road, I completed the run leg very much alone. It was still pissing down rain and as a result they seemed very short of Marshals (who wants to stand in the rain all morning Marshalling). There were several times I wasn't sure of which direction to go and just continued on in hope (memories of the Olinda Trail Run coming back). Luckily the turnaround point was well manned and I hadn't taken any wrong turns.

The first 3km was paced perfectly with all the kilometre splits within a second of each other. Then for some reason (possibly boredom from running alone for so long) I lost concentration in the fourth kilometre and dropped 15 seconds for that split. With less than I kilometre to go I looked behind and saw Swanny charging me down. I immediately began a surge hoping to discourage his chase, but to no avail as Swanny passed me in the last 200m and beat me by 10 seconds pushing me back to 3rd. To make matters worse, when I checked my Garmin the run course was measured 200m long. The athlete who won the first race did not race due to the bad conditions, but was at the finish line to see how we all went.

Elaine did not race Mordialloc as she was still recovering from Mornington.

December 2014 - Bayside KOM - King of the Mountain

After my great climbing form at the Bright Camp I was favourite to take out the King of the Mountain title and other club members were now scheming how they could team up to beat me.

The first climb '1 in 20' is about 7km long at a fairly constant 5% gradient with a small false flat in the middle. Not steep or long enough for me to really get much gains from my power to weight advantage. My plan was to simply sit in and not really contest this first climb hoping the others would tire themselves out trying to surge against me. Surprisingly the main group was still together with less than 1km to go so I tried a sudden surge to see if I could break away. Brent, who I considered my biggest threat, jumped on my wheel so I immediately gave up the effort. Clint was still in the pack and I was confident he would win any sprint finish, so I was happy to sit back and save energy. Clint won as expected, but unfortunately Clint had changed the scoring system this year from 5,2,1 to 5,4,3,2,1. So it was a tactical mistake to not at least try to pick up some points, especially since I rolled across the top in 6th place with zero points and last year's winner Andrew scored 4 points for second (Brent was 3rd, Ben was 4th and Kon was 5th).

Second climb was Perrins Creek Rd, about 3km long averaging 8%. Of all the climbs, this one suited me the best (the only climb I won the previous year). As soon as we started the climb I exploded off the front and predictably Brent was immediately on my wheel. I believed I could hold 400 watts for the entire climb, so this is exactly what I sat on, but Brent was still sitting on me. We had quickly cleared out of sight of all the other riders and then about half way up I sensed Brent was starting to struggle so I put in a big surge to put some distance between us.  A few corners later Brent was out of sight which meant I could hold a more realistic pace to finish, a relief after last year when I had a sprint finish with Andrew for the win. Brent faded and the next group caught and passed him with Andrew scoring another 2nd place and Kon in 3rd.

The Wall, was next, another climb that suited me - about 6km long with a very steep pinch at the start and another one in the middle. Again I exploded off the front from the start, but this time nobody tried to follow. It seemed the last climb had destroyed Brent and everybody else was now scared of blowing up. This was excellent news for me, because it meant I could climb at my own pace without worrying about any surges to try and drop people. I crested the climb well out of sight and still felt like I had a fair bit left in the tank. Luckily for me Andrew only managed a 3rd place this time.

One climb to go and with Clint's revised scoring system, the title was still up for grabs. I had to finish more than one place ahead of Andrew (last year's winner) to take the title by myself. If there was no one between us, we would tie or if Andrew beat me he would win.

  

The final climb was Inverness back to Olinda. Some short but extremely steep climbs early on, followed by a longish steady climb of around 5% before undulating roads to the finish. Clint liked to describe it as 'like a finish to one of the Classics' (although I think he was always imagining himself winning when he though of it that way). This time I held back at the start and didn't break away until we started to approach the first very steep pinch. Again nobody went with me and I was able to slowly build a gap. Once back on the Tourist Rd I had ridden out of sight and with the steady 5% climb ahead of me, I simply held 300 watts believing nobody could catch me at that speed. Once I finished the steady climbs and hit the undulations is where the problems started. Without the steady gradient I could no longer hold the 300 watts. I knew I would be losing ground and hoped to see the finish line around every corner. After what seemed like an agonisingly long stretch of road I finally recognised that I was almost there. It was at that point that Andrew and Kon appeared on the road behind me. Brent had been helping them by towing them through the undulations and now Andrew and Kon were on full charge trying to chase me down. Luckily the finish was close and I had enough energy to surge to the line. Andrew crossed only seconds later with Kon not far behind.

Coming second meant Andrew had tied with me for King of the Mountains title.

I also scored Strava PBs on the last 3 climbs.

December 2014 - Ben Griffin Classic

3 days after the Bayside KOM, I backed up again for the Ben Griffin Classic. A 170km ride with KOM and Sprint points along the way.

This ride always attracts a huge field (over 100 riders) and also includes some 'A' grade riders who are not members of our club. I discovered this when I made a surge to race up Olivers Hill for the first KOM climb and several other riders flew past me.

The second KOM climb was Balcombe Hill and I was now more prepared. I positioned myself behind two of the very good riders and sat on their wheel as we ascended Balcombe Hill. We quickly disappeared from the rest of the field. But just when I thought I was handling the pace well, the two riders in front both started a series of surges attempting to drop each other. Rather than completely blow up, I let them get a bit of distance. Then each time I would start to claw back some ground one of them would surge again. I never completely lost touch, but was never a chance of beating either of them and was happy with my 3rd place and a new Strava PB.

I'd skipped the first 3 Sprint point competitions,  but my aim was to contest the Beleura Hill KOM and then save myself for the overall win at the end. Unfortunately I suffered a puncture at Rosebud on the way back and was never able to rejoin the group.

January 2014 - Back Injury

The day before the Olympic Distance at St Kilda, my back finally gave out. Extremely disappointing seeing as the St Kilda race was one of my two 'A' races and I would also end up missing Challenge Melbourne as well, my other 'A' race.

This also meant I didn't do any more races in the TeamUp Triathlon series, that I had just bought a series entry for. My back would have actually been OK to race the last 2 races at Sandringham (our Club Champs) and Mordialloc (Olympic Distance), but with all the missed training my general fitness simply was not there and I would have been very frustrated with the times had I raced.

Elaine raced both the Olympic Distance at St Kilda and Challenge Melbourne before calling an early end to the season. Having struggled for motivation to train after her huge effort at Mornington, she pulled out of the St Kilda race on the run and didn't make the bike cutoff at Challenge Melbourne.

Elaine's Challenge Melbourne race was extremely frustrating for her. After not being allowed to finish last year due to the heat (which she felt very unfair), she received a free entry to this year's event. The weather this year was terrible. Pouring rain, extremely rough water on the swim and heaps of wind and heavy rain on the bike. The race start was delayed by 10 minutes. Elaine had a much slower than normal swim due to actually feeling sea sick in the water. Then she lost her chain on the bike and took about 5 minutes to get the chain unstuck from between the frame and the chainwheel. Coming in to start her 3rd lap (of 3) on the bike she was told she had missed the cut off by 3 minutes.

Challenge (Supersprint) has offered Elaine a discounted entry for next year, but we will not be trying for 3rd time lucky. Instead Elaine will race her first WTC Half Ironman at Mandurah in WA instead (the WTC races are referred to as 70.3 instead of Half Ironman).

March 2015 - 3 Peaks Challenge - 11h45m

It was a late Winter or early Spring Sunday night after a few glasses of wine that Andrew contacted me suggesting I should join his team to do the 3 Peaks Challenge. A 235km ride over 3 mountains. Rated in the top 10 hardest single day ride events in the world.

Ultra endurance has always been a weakness. I'm excellent over 100km of riding, but my ability starts to drop off pretty quickly after that. I figured training for an event like 3 Peaks will help me get passed this problem. Instead the extra training I undertook ended up being the main cause of my injury. But maybe that's a good thing in the long run, because now I'll stop ignoring my back issues.

This event was always going to be very difficult, but going into it severely under trained was really going to test me. I tend to lean towards races to see how fast I can go and avoid races that are more about toughing it out. This was now definitely going to be about toughing out.

Starting at the top of Falls Creek we had a wonderful descent down to Mt Beauty in the dark. It was quite crowded and initially a lot of the riders around me were too slow, but they slowly thinned out and soon I was rolling down at a nice comfortable pace.

The first of the 3 Peaks is Tawonga Gap. About 7km and averaging roughly 6.5%, but it is far from constant. It is more like 'The Wall' in the Dandenongs with steep sections, followed by the normal climbing sections. Having done this climb several times before, I cruised up without any hassle deliberating going several minutes slower than my PB time. The descent on the other side is one of my favourites, but other riders still managed to crash - where ambition exceeds talent.

From Germantown to Harrietville I sat in a fast bunch. Probably a touch too fast, as I had to put in a little effort to stay in the bunch, where I would have preferred to just sit in and cruise. I should have stopped at the Harrietville rest area, but decided to continue on straight up Mt Hotham.

Mt Hotham is a brutal climb, but this was my 4th time up and all fear has long gone. I simply took a steady pace and crested the peak 14 minutes off my PB climb time. The lunch rest area was in Dinner Plain the other side of Hotham.  I expected to descend the whole way and was disappointed to find undulating sections between the peak and Dinner Plain. By the time I arrived for lunch I was completely wrecked and didn't think I'd be able to continue.

I stopped, picked up my special needs bag, refilled the water bottles, dumped clothes to be sent back, went to the toilet, applied sunscreen and then went to collect my lunch. Whilst having lunch they announced that the 9h30m group was about to leave, but any thoughts of a finishing time had gone, now I was just worried about making it back to Falls Creek. Still feeling terrible I went across the street to a cafe and bought a coffee. After a bit more relaxing my body had loosened up enough to allow me to do some stretching - this immediately started to make me feel better and let me think I could still maybe finish.

Realising that not stopping at Harrietville was a mistake, I stopped at every subsequent rest area, lay down, relaxed, ate, did some stretching.

At the Omeo stop, one rider went to the aid station complaining about a sore throat. The aid workers told him that he had obviously swallowed something and that it would work its way down by itself. The fact that he could still talk and ride meant it was not blocking anything and would be fine. But the rider was insistent that the pain was not going away and that he thought it was something more serious, so eventually the aid workers got a torch to check down his throat. The problem was a bee stuck to his tonsil (ie, stinging his tonsil). Immediately the tone of the aid workers changed and they rushed him to the hospital which was luckily just across the road.

While snoozing on the grass at Anglers Rest, Hayley, Adam and Sarah caught up with me. Adam, after suffering badly up Mt Hotham, was on his second wind, Hayley was going through her first bad patch and Sarah was stressing about the cut off times (even though she was miles ahead of the sag wagon). With Adam in the lead we all rode to the base of the last climb that started at WTF corner. The last climb up the back of Falls Creek is about 35km long, starts at the 199km mark of the ride and the first 9km averages 9% gradient. This is not a recipe for fun, hence the corner's very apt name.

The back of Falls Creek climb is all about the first 9km and it is worse than brutal. Maybe it would be downgraded to brutal if riding fresh, but with 199km already in the legs, it is somebody's extremely bad joke. It starts off rotating between stupid steep and very steep every 400m or so. Initially I thought this is not going to be too bad. Then in the middle there is a stupidly steep section that just keeps on going. You look down at your speedo and five minutes later the distance figure has not changed. For most of these steep sections I was doing 4 or 5 kph. The battery in my power meter ran out at Dinner Plain, so I couldn't see my cadence. But without a compact crank, I'm guessing my cadence was something like 40rpm. Around 5km into the first 9km section I told Adam I couldn't keep this up and was going to walk. He encouraged me to go around one more bend, but with the gradient not easing off I couldn't go on. In fact it took all my effort and coordination to clip out without falling off. Once off the bike I was walking almost as fast as the riders going past. When the gradient did ease off I hopped back on my bike and felt 100 times better for the break, passing back a lot of the riders who went passed when I was walking.

One last stop with 25km to go. There was no nice grassy area to lie down, but having the terrible 9km stretch behind me was relief in itself. Adam and Hayley were now ahead having not stopped at this final rest area. Sarah arrived and was still stressing about the cutoff. The last 25km were mostly uphill but not too bad. It just seemed to take forever, but finally made it to the top.

An extremely tough ride, not sure if I'd ever want to do it again.

As for other members of the group Andrew and his friend Andrew (yes same names) smashed the ride in 9h14m. Shane finished in around 9h30m. Adam and Hayley took around 11h30m, Sarah finishing just after me, but because she started later her time was a few minutes quicker. Mick snuck in around 12h40m. Unfortunately Mark had to pull out with bad muscle cramping, tragically only 25km from the finish having completed all the difficult sections.

Elaine is far too wise to attempt a ride as silly as this.

Ben Griffin Classic

Apparently this is the 7th annual Ben Griffin Classic, but only my 2nd (previous report).  Still recovering for Saturday's Bayside KOM (only 4 days ago), I didn't really rate my chances.

There had been a lot of trash talking on Facebook before the event, mostly directed towards Clint and how his days of dominance were at an end.  Tom, who had just earnt his Triathlon Pro licence this year was particular vocal - all in jest of course.

Like usual I rode from my house and joined the ride when I spotted them approaching. I figured it would be very easy to recognise the group on Christmas Eve (a work day), but was still surprised by the size of the group. I'd estimate at least 80 riders in the peleton, possibly more.

Seaford Sprint

I'm not a good sprinter at the best of times, but with my legs still feeling dead I knew I was no hope. However even without being a chance for a win, it is hard not to join in the fun, so I took off with the lead pack on the first sprint. I saw Tom tucked in nicely behind Clint and told him I would act as his lead-out man. Unfortunately I misread the pace of the pack and ended up at the front way too early. Jason and I were riding side by side out front knowing full well our efforts would die well before the line. Seems like my lead-out abilities are almost as bad as my sprinting.

Predictably Clint won the first sprint, Tom came in second and I'm not sure who scored 3rd place.

Oliver's Hill KOM

Legs still feeling crap, but like usual I decided to race the KOM anyway. Half way up what is a short but very steep hill, it was obviously not happening for me, so I cruised up the rest of the hill.

Stephen won the KOM. I'm not sure, but he looked very much like last year's Red Rider, but on a new bike - he certainly rode up hills just as fast. Young Martin was second and Andrew third (note that this is a different Andrew to the one that dominated the Bayside KOM).

Balcombe Hill KOM

There is a fair gap between Oliver's and Balcombe and my legs were starting to loosen up. I was always going to race the hill, but now I felt I had a whisker of chance to score points.

It started out unusually slow. I don't think Clint had any intention of contesting the climb (he was concentrating on the sprints), but the slow pace seemed to annoy him so he jumped on the front to pick things up. As soon as Clint backed off a few riders made big attacks near the bottom of the hill.

At 2.4km, Balcombe Hill is reasonably long and has two sections with a small false flat in the middle. It is very common to see riders go way too hard in the first half and completely die way before the end. With this in mind the lead pack let to attacking riders go and set on a nice tempo pace for the first half of the climb. Andrew (from the Bayside KOM) set the pace out front. It was not particularly fast, but e was conveniently protecting the rest of us from head wind, so we were more than happy to sit on his wheel.

Once passed the false flat Tom took over the lead and I jumped on his wheel. Another rider followed by Andrew dropped away. We quickly rounded up the attacking riders, the last of whom was Stephen who actually seemed to wait for us (probably catching his breath before the final onslaught).

Looking who I was riding with, I felt I was outgunned and would not win a final sprint up the climb. With this in mind I attacked early about 200m before the summit. Unfortunately the fatigue in my legs meant my attack was no where near as powerful as I wanted, but was good enough to dislodge one of the riders. This left Stephen, Tom and myself. Predictably Stephen and Tom rode away from me with Stephen claiming the full points whilst I held on for 3rd.

Dromana Sprint

Starting from the Dromana Drive-in and ending under the Freeway overpass, I once more decided to continue my futile efforts at winning a sprint.

Sitting 4 wheels from the front, I felt I was in perfect position. Unbenownst to me, the two riders in front had decided not to contest the sprint, so when everybody shot off I found myself completely boxed in. Once I had manoeuvred my out I tried to catch back up, but to no avail.

Clint picked up another Sprint win followed by Tom in second (no idea who came third).

Sorrento Sprint

The Sorrento Sprint has a steep uphill finish. Maybe this would help overcome my pathetic sprinting talents. Unfortunately the start point was over 1km before the end and I was badly positioned when the pack took off at a very rapid pace. I would surge to catch up, but each time the rider in front would drop off requiring me to surge again. After happening a few times, I backed off and saved my legs.

Maybe it was the uphill finish, but this time Tom prevailed over Clint with Andrew (from the Oliver's Hill KOM) scoring another 3rd place.

Once at Sorrento we stopped for a toilet break, refilling of water bottles and to allow all of the riders to regroup. At the stop Clint announced a change to the Beleura Hill KOM. The start point was moved from Main St to the Mt Martha tunnel - so the racing section of the KOM had increased from 1km to 11.5km.

Beleura Hill KOM

The new extended KOM now included the twisting and undulating roads through Mt Martha. This is one of my favourite bits of road and usually a section of road where I would do well. But my legs were not feeling good, plus I would have 100km in legs before hitting this section.

I knew the exit from the tunnel would be a critical piece of road. It is extremely steep and I usually suffer greatly on this small section of road. Moving to front before the tunnel and then pushing very hard on the exit I successfully lodged myself within the lead pack. Once the Mt Martha twisties the pace was hard and fast. I locked onto the back of Clint's wheel and hung on for dear life.

The twisty, undulating section along the Esplanade between the tunnel and round-a-bout is 6km long. About 5kms in, a few riders managed to extend a gap to Clint. I waited for a bit to see if Clint would close it down but nothing happened. Suspecting he may be suffering I jumped out front to share to pull a turn. Unfortunately my power left me when we started to climb the next hill and Clint and Ben flew past leaving me in their wake. Knowing I was on a good time for one of my favourite Strava segments I continued to push the pace to the round-a-bout and smashed my PB by 1m40s for the 6km segment (only 90s off the overall KOM).

The leaders were still in sight but I was feeling very flat and just cruised along the Esplanade towards Mornington. Previously dropped riders flew past, but I wasn't tempted to jump on until a small pack of 6 or so riders came past that included Jason and Brent. They were riding well and were slowing picking  up the riders ahead. Starting to feel better and jumped on the front and pulled a few turns as we maintained a good pace into Mornington. In fact the pace was so good that when we crested the final Beleura Hill the leaders were just ahead of us. Even more impressive, I have placed 7th overall on the 38km Strava segment from Sorrento to Mornington - this includes me stopping at Rye to fix my chain and the few kilometres along the Esplanade where I stopped trying.

Once again Stephen won the KOM - 3 out 3 making him King of the Mountain. I don't know who got 2nd, but Tom snuck in for third.

By this stage I felt terrible, but Tom looked even worse. The ride was to regroup at the Frankston BP and we both got dropped along the way.

Seaford Sprint

After regrouping at Frankston, the next Sprint starts almost immediately and you need your wits about you to get into position early enough. Knowing this, Ray launched a massive attack and quickly established what looked like an insurmountable lead. James headed off with the intention of securing 2nd and I sat on wheel planning to jump him just before the line. Stephen flew past an incredible speed in chase of Ray, leaving James and I to fight out for 3rd place.

I knew I had nothing left in my legs, but I figured if I sat in James draft all to the way to finish it should be pretty simple to overrun him at the end. With about 300m to go several other riders started to pass on the outside. Thinking they would easily outride James (and therefore me), I gave up and cruised to the line. Surprisingly James maintained his lead and took 3rd (surprising because he rode so far solo, not because I doubt his ability). Even more surprising, Stephen caught and passed Ray for the win.

At 140km I ended my ride completely exhausted. This has been my longest ride since Ironman in March 2012 (20 months ago). Initially I was a little disappointed in my efforts, but after looking at the Strava results I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did I post big PBs on nearly all the segments between Sorrento and Mornington, I also scored a PB on the Balcombe Hill climb.

Last Two Sprints

As I'd already left the ride, I didn't see any of the last 2 sprints. Parkers Rd Sprint was won by Daniel, followed by Clint and Laurence. And the Overall winner (final sprint) was won by Clint, followed by Swanny and then Dave. King of the Mountain went to Stephen and Clint won the Sprint points.

Bayside KOM

Another special ride event added to the calendar by Clint. This one is purely climbing focused, hence the KOM (King of the Mountains) in the name. It takes place up in the Dandenongs, involving the '1-in-20', Perrins Creek Rd, The Wall and Inverness to Olinda. Of my athletes only Stef and Elaine were missing. Stef had scheduled a hangover for Saturday morning after her work's Christmas Party on Friday night and Elaine was too tired and instead chose a flat ride to Port Melbourne and back.

The official ride started on the corner of Dorset Rd and Mountain Hwy, but most club members decided to set off from GESAC and make the total ride over 140km. I was much kinder to my athletes and had them start a kilometre before Dorset Rd as it had more convenient parking and the extra kilometre of warmup riding would be beneficial before the first climb. Plus I didn't want anybody holding back their efforts on the climbs because they were worried about the long ride home - I tend to keep my long ride and hilly rides separate. If I did decide to do a long hilly ride, the climbs would be taken much easier than normal.

All up there must have been around 50 riders as we gathered at the Basin listening to Clint's instruction.

1-in-20

The first climb was the '1-in-20' - Mountain Hwy from the Basin to the Mt Dandenong Tourist Rd, about 7km long at a fairly constant 5% gradient (thus the name 1-in-20) with a small false flat in the middle.

Andrew immediately rode off the front, but there no reaction from the other contenders, in particular Clint, Griff and Swanny. So I settled in behind them and bided my time thinking that someone would eventually make a move to close the gap. It was a reasonably easy tempo for the first section of the climb, Andrew increased the gap out front but never really got out of sight. Clint jumped out front on the false flat and picked up the pace, which dropped about 10 riders off the chase pack leaving just Clint, Griff, Swanny and myself. The gap to Andrew was reduced to less than 50 metres, but as soon as the false flat finished, Clint relinquished the lead and left it to me to close the gap.

Pulling back 50m with about 2.5km left to climb was not a huge task, but I was reluctant to dig too deep this early into the ride. Andrew looked to be riding very well and if I did pull back the gap, the others would simply ride past when we got close to the top. This would mean expending a lot of energy with no benefit to me, plus the 4 points for first across the top would be better with Andrew than Clint (Clint wins everything). So I maintained a reasonably fast but comfortable pace and Andrew slowly edged further ahead. With the others all wanting somebody else to do the work, nobody volunteered to take the initiative and Andrew slipped away to a relative easy win on the first climb. As we neared the top I could hear Clint changing gears in preparation of a sprint for 2nd place. I decided to charge early with 150m to go hoping this would discourage Griff and Swanny from contesting (nothing was going stop Clint). I held the lead for a while, but Clint timed his effort well and surged past with 50m to go. Looking across I could see Swanny on his wheel and decided I would just cruise the last 50m and finish in 4th place (no points for 4th) with Griff doing the same in 5th.

Once at the top we took it easy down the Tourist Rd and The Crescent to let other riders catch back up. By the time we reached the bottom of the Perrins Creek Rd climb, we had a group of about 15 riders. I've only ridden Perrins Creek Rd once, about 10 years ago. I was fairly new to riding then and the climb was so difficult I think it mentally scarred me. Now it was time to see how much I have improved.

Perrins Creek Rd

It didn't take long for Andrew to ride off the front again and once more nobody else made an effort to follow. Not wanting to fall into the same trap, I attacked from the main pack and rode straight past Andrew when I caught him. He immediately jumped onto my wheel and stayed there for the whole climbs. There were a few sections where I could sense him starting to falter, but he never drifted more than a few metres and was always pretty quickly back on my wheel.

The total climb is about 2.5km long with an average gradient of about 8%. I've always thought it was similar to Arthur's Seat in Dromana, but having now ridden it a second time, I've found it keeps a much steadier gradient than Arthurs Seat and also doesn't have any hairpin corners (Arthurs Seat is all hairpin corners). With about 1km to go, we had ridden out of sight of the chase pack, so I knew the winner was going to be out of Andrew and me. By this stage I was feeling terrible, but I was sensing Andrew was not feeling great either so this gave me hope. The last 100m was an all out effort (I won't say sprint because at 8% gradient it was not very fast). I just held off Andrew across the line, who then told me he wasn't going to pass me after I led the whole way up, but going by how much effort he gave and how hard he pushed me, I'm not sure I believe him.

Behind us, Clint made an attack to secure 3rd place, but unfortunately his timing was not so good. He thought he was closer to the top and died well before the end allowing Swanny to grab third place.

Along the Tourist Road and down The Crescent we once again allowed the group to reform. This time the numbers swelled to about 20 riders before we reached the base of The Wall. My efforts up Perrins Creek Rd had burnt a lot of matches. My legs felt like jelly and I didn't really hold much hope for any more decent climbing efforts.

The Wall

Swanny was leading the pack as we approached The Wall, but unfortunately he missed the turn and had to double back which disadvantaged him a little. True to form, Andrew once again took off straight away, so I immediately rode up to his wheel but this time I didn't pass. Still feeling crap I thought I was no chance up the hill, but if we got away there was a possibility the others would not bother chasing us and instead fight between themselves for the 3rd spot. Unfortunately Clint was soon on our wheels and now the lead pack was 3 riders big.

The Wall is just over 5kms long and has a few steep pinches. The rest of the climb is still pretty steep, it is just that the pinches are even steeper. Once we reached the steep pinch in the middle, Clint started to drop off the back. Sensing weakness I immediately moved to the front to try and open a gap. At this stage I passed Mark (who on my instructions had skipped the Perrins Creek loop) and was feeling surprisingly good. Andrew and I worked together through the steep sections, but once the gradient eased off a little Clint was soon back on our wheels. With Clint back in the picture my motivation dropped a little and I again realised how crap I felt, so I dropped off the back and let Andrew and Clint fight it out between them.

I kept a steady tempo for the rest of the climb feeling confident I had 3rd place (1 point) sewn up. Every now and again I checked behind to make sure no one was creeping up, but each time the gap to 4th place was significant enough to not bother me. As we approached the final stages of the climb I must have become complacent, because when I checked behind there was Swanny making a late charge (he was previously not the rider in 4th place). I immediately changed up a gear and tried to surge, but was instantly treated to a massive cramp in my left calf - no doubt the legacy of my efforts up Perrins Creek Rd. So I watched Swanny fly past to score his hat-trick of 3rd places and later discovered that Clint had just pipped Andrew for the win (they were completely out of sight by then).

With 3 climbs down and 1 to go, each climb had been won by a different rider. The leaderboard saw Andrew out in front with 8 points (4+2+2), Clint in second with 6 points (2+0+4), myself in third with 4 points (0+4+0) and Swanny in fourth with 3 points (1+1+1). Nobody else has troubled the scoreboard. Griff (the reigning King of the Mountain) had been near the action all day, but hadn't actually fired shot. He was complaining about problems with his new bike, but I suspect he was keeping his powder dry to improve his chances in the 150km Ben Giffin Classic (named after him) scheduled for the Tuesday (4 days away).

After The Wall we descended down the Tourist Rd to Montrose, one of my favourite descents. There we waited for 10 or 15 minutes to let the group rebuild to close to over 30 riders. During this break I didn't really know how I felt. I was quite sore in parts, but the easy descent followed by a decent break has restored some of my energy.

Montrose to Olinda via Inverness Rd

I've ridden up the Tourist Rd back to Olinda which is a relative long but not overly steep climb. However I've never been on Inverness Rd before, something I was about to experience. Inverness Road sort of undulates upwards ranging from mildly to very steep, although the severity of the gradient seemed to increase with each undulation. Each time the gradient eased off I started to feel good and thought I was still a chance, but sensing my arrogance the gradient would quickly start to steepen and bring me back to reality.

The steep sections soon narrowed the riders down to a select few. Griff was missing this time, but Ray joined the party hoping to snare the final climb. I suspect Ray had been taking it easy up till now hoping we would all tire ourselves out and then planned to jump in fresh and ride away from us on the final climb. Andrew and Ray led the group up Inverness Rd, both looking very strong. Clint, Swanny and myself started to struggle each time the gradient got steep (we are talking around 15%). Both Clint and Swanny had 39-23 as their lowest gear, I had 39-25, I'm not sure what gearing Ray had, but Andrew's 34-27 gearing was definitely giving him a huge advantage through this section (a good tradesman brings the right tools). I knew the gradient would ease off once we got back on the Tourist Rd and could see it just up ahead - 'up' being the operative word, as while it seemed very close, it was worryingly much higher up. Looking up at the road felt looking up at a bridge that you were about to sail under in a boat. My fears were well founded as the gradient in the last 250m continually rose in sections to over 20%. With my legs feeling every the affects of every pedal stroke from the previous 3 climbs I was finally gone. But the mental relief of giving up on the race was spoilt somewhat by the fact I still had to finish riding up the 20% gradient to get back on the Tourist Road.

Andrew, Ray, Clint and Swanny soon rode out of sight, whilst I sauntered along at a leisurely pace. At one point I saw two riders ahead and thinking some of the guys had blown I picked up the pace to fight for third spot only to discover they were different riders not part of our group. Mentally and physically flat I laboured my way up the hill until riders from the chase pack (that included Queen of the Mountain, Naomi) caught up with me and we rode the rest of the way together.

Unlike the previous climbs, this last one ended with a few kilometres of rolling hills. Clint described it as 'being like the finish in one of the Spring Classics'. This type of finish would definitely suit Clint, which is no surprise seeing as he decided upon the course. As good as Andrew had been riding, I was convinced he would be suffering from the efforts of the last 3 climbs. Clint himself would have been very confident of taking the win, but like the other climbs, Andrew simply rode away and the others could not catch him. Clint was counting on support from the other riders to help in the chase, but one by one they dropped off with fatigue.

To put Andrew's effort in perspective, not only did he ride away from all the other riders. Even with what must have been extremely fatigued legs, he still posted an overall top 10 Strava finish on the last climb (Inverness to Olinda - 9.9km). To get a Stava top 10 on a popular climb in Dandenongs is almost impossible, to get it near the end of a particularly hard ride is unbelievable (I suspect Clint still cannot believe he lost).

I don't know who picked up 3rd on the final climb, so I'll just assume it was Swanny. This means the Final standings were: Andrew 12 pts (4+2+2+4), Clint 8pts (2+0+4+2), me 4 pts (0+4+0+0) and Swanny also on 4 pts (1+1+1+1). I believe I beat Swanny in a countback - a win supersedes 4 x 3rd place (it's my blog, so my rules).

Mick, Laurie, Merryn, Jen and Mark all did extremely well. There instructions were to hammer it up the hills - I wanted to see high heart rate averages for each climb, and that is what I saw (happy coach). Mark conveniently forgot his Garmin and had to use the Strava app on his phone which meant no heart rate data. But the speed and derived power figures indicate he pushed pretty hard on all hills with the possible exception of the ridiculously steep section of Inverness Rd where he averaged only 3.7kph. Possible walking involved there, but he would not have been the only one as others admitted to me that they had to walk sections. In fairness, if I had previously ridden that section I would have not have asked any of them to ride up it (it was truly brutal). And finally a special mention to Merryn who not only rode well on this ride, but then raced at the Western Suburbs Tri Club Sprint Triathlon the next day and finished as 2nd female overall - outstanding. This follows Jen's age group win at the Canberra Half Ironman the weekend before.