Keeping it Moving in October

With most of the hard work already done, October was more about finessing than hard training.

Elaine and I tapered into the Duathlon World Champs at Duathlon (see report here). We then had 4 days recovery before heading to Bright for a club training camp. The theory was that we would not need a lot of recovery after a Sprint Duathlon and the training camp in the mountains would give us that extra touch we needed for the Mandurah 70.3

Unfortunately pretty much everybody who raced in Adelaide pulled up very sore. Lets you know that everyone really gave it all they had.  Clint and I were coaches for the camp, Elaine was the only other competitor from Adelaide who was attending the camp.

The first day went well and I scored a PB (by 47 seconds) on the climb up Buffalo. What's more I've never felt so strong over the last 4km of the climb. I'm usually cramping quite badly at this stage and doing the last section with only one leg. But this time that was almost my fastest section.

After skipping Buffalo, Elaine joined the ride on the second day. My knee was feeling terrible, punishment for riding so hard up Buffalo. Each time we stopped I massaged the tendons around the knee and things slowly loosened up. Elaine found herself struggling a little bit and we decided she should turn back after climbing up the Rosewhite hill. It would still be a 100+km ride for her (with a significant hill), but would avoid the harder climb of Tawonga Gap (made harder because it is near the end of the climb). Up Tawonga Gap I achieved another PB, this time by 87 seconds. So I was very happy with my cycling form.

The next day was a climb up Mt Hotham. A brutal climb, but I was very much looking forward to having a go at breaking another PB. Unfortunately when I woke up my knees were completely locked up. Throughout the morning I tried to free them up, but to no avail. Elaine also woke up with a sore back. So we decided to skip Hotham and start the long journey home a bit earlier than previous years.

The training hours were a bit down on previous months, but that is because most of the hard work was already done.

5 Oct - 11 Oct  (11h53m)

  3 swims - 10.2km (longest 3.9)

  3 rides - 179km (longest 96)

  3 runs -  33km (longest 13)

12 Oct - 18 Oct  (5h32m) - Adelaide race week

  2 swims - 5.3km (longest 3.3)

  3 rides -70km  (longest 35)

  3 runs - 21km (longest 10)

19 Oct - 25 Oct  (12h14m) - recovery & Bright Camp

  3 swims - 10.1km (longest 3.5)

  2 rides - 190km (longest 117)

  2 runs - 14km (longest 9)

26 Oct - 1 Nov (8h18m)

  3 swims - 8.8km (longest 3.1)

  2 rides - 90km (longest 56)

  4 runs - 32km (longest 11)

Duathlon World Championships, Adelaide

This race was one of the major targets for the season, although given slightly less priority than Mandurah 70.3 3 weeks later.

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.

We were staying in apartments on Hindley St less than 50 metres from Rundle Mall. In the other direction we found some laneways with wonderful bars, cafes and restaurants. On one day we thought we'd check out if there was another wonderful laneway to explore. In a matter of 10 paces we discovered we had left the world of trendy cafes and bars and were now surrounded by brothels, sex shows and seedy pubs. Amazing how quickly the landscape changed, so a quick u-turn and back to safer ground. We had really loved our few days exploring Adelaide, but decided it was safest to eat in and have an early night before the race the next day (and Star Wars was on TV).

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.

The hip had been behaving itself all week, but then flared up on the Thursday when we did our Course Recon run. Luckily the run warmup went well and the injury behaved itself for the race.

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).

Getting it Together in September

Consistency was the theme in September. There were no massive days, just a consistent flow of good sessions.

31 Aug - 6 Sep  (12h16m)

  3 swims -  9km (longest 3.4)

  3 rides - 188 km (longest 128)

  3 runs - 26k m (longest 16.8)

7 Sep - 13 Sep (13h16m)

  3 swims - 10 km (longest 3.5)

  3 rides - 178 km (longest 88)

  4 runs - 40 km (longest 16.9)

14 Sep - 20 Sep (12h00m)

  2 swims - 6.2 km (longest 3.3)

  3 rides - 203 km (longest 116)

  3 runs - 33 km (longest 16.7)

21 Sep - 27 Sep  (10h05m)

  3 swims - 10.7 km (longest 3.7)

  3 rides - 141 km (longest 78)

  3 runs - 27 km (longest 10)

28 Sep - 4 Oct  (11h50m)

  3 swims - 10.2 km (longest 3.8)

  2 rides - 168 km (longest 116)

  3 runs - 33 km (longest 18.2)

My riding seems to be back very close to peak form (new PB up the Arthurs Seat climb). Running is going OK (18m37s 5km split in last Duathlon). And it feels like I am very close to a breakthrough with my swimming, once I manage to sort out my hand entry.

After a disappointing Winter, it feels like everything is coming together. Missing the early run mileage in May and June has meant I’ve only managed a longest training run of 18.2km (instead of 25+). This will most likely hurt my Half Ironman Run leg in November, but should have minimal affect on the Duathlon World Championships in October.

Elaine's training has been a bit stop start. She has a good week of training here and there but really struggles to string consecutive good weeks together.

I'm coaching Martin for the Standard Distance Duathlon at the World Championships in Adelaide and Mark for the Melbourne Marathon on the same day as the Duathlon Worlds. They have both been training tremendously well. Nailing every session, staying injury free and healthy. I'm expecting excellent results from both of them.

Duathlon 4, Richmond

This was the last race of the Duathlon Series and the Victorian State Championships. Last Duathlon ended with me disappointed in my first run and a DNF (did not finish) against Elaine’s name in the results. We were both hoping for better this time around, especially seeing it was our last hit out before the Duathlon World Championships in Adelaide.

We always like to arrive early for races, gets us a good parking spot, allows time for a warmup, beat the queues for the toilets and in general prevents you from feeling rushed before the event.  Planning to arrive around 7:15am for a 9:00am we were running ahead of schedule and ended up parking the car at 7:00am. However there were so many other competitors around I was worried I’d mucked up the start time, but a quick check confirmed it was 9am.

After registering, doing the warmup ride and checking our bike into transition, I took advantage of a free massage before the race. Probably just as well as the masseur noted that my glutes were very tight, but felt a lot better during my post-massage warmup run.  I felt a little ordinary on the bike warmup, but great on the run warmup. Obviously the massage helped, but I had a massage before the warmup run last race and still felt crap.

As we assembled at the start line, conditions were perfect. Cool but not cold and virtually no wind at all. I consider the Richmond run course flat, whereas Elaine thinks it contains a significant hill. But I’ll admit that I notice that hill on the bike, just not on the run. The bike and run are mostly the same with the run course ending with the last 500m or so on a winding and slightly undulating dirt trail.

Young Martin was not racing this weekend, but in the past 3 races I have seen him go out way too fast in the first kilometre or two. So I was keen not to follow the same mistake. Like every other Duathlon I’ve ever done the field burst off the line as though it was a 100m sprint. Starting about 5 people deep (in a small field of 160 competitors) I was able to take off at a far more sensible speed and build into my race without the ridiculous surge at the start. My kilometre splits of the first 5km are below (kilometre splits with avg/max heart rate and steps per minute):

    3m41s  (150/161 bpm)  92 spm

    3m36s  (164/167 bpm)  96 spm

    3m40s  (167/169 bpm)  96 spm

    3m45s  (168/169 bpm)  96 spm

    3m54s  (167/168 bpm)  96 spm

The last kilometre was not as bad as it looks. Firstly I ease off a fraction towards the end to prepare for the bike leg, But mainly because I simply cannot hold the same pace on the winding dirt trail. Nearly all of my training runs are on similar dirt trails, but they are run as an easy pace. All of my fast running is done on an Athletics Track or a flat, straight stretch of trail. I find it interesting that my running cadence in the first kilometre was only 92 spam compared with 96 for the rest of the run. In the first kilometre I was consciously holding back to avoid going out too fast. For the rest of the race I was trying to maintain my pace and fast leg turnover is one of the methods I utilitse to achieve this.

In general I was very happy with my run, but still not good enough to keep club members Clint and Ray in sight nor other competitors in my age group Daryn and Gordon (or Michael who had recently moved to an older age group). With Ray now aging up to my category, I knew I was in 4th position.

Transition was felt little slow as I had problems getting my helmet strap done up. But otherwise it went well and ending up being one of my quickest Duathlon transitions.

On the bike and I tried to start out conservatively keeping my wattage around 300 watts. Even after a fast 5km run, it is very easy to go out way too hard in the first few kilometres of the bike leg. Another competitor passed me while I was getting my feet in my shoes. I paced him for just over a lap swapping the lead a couple of times. But during the second lap I made conscious effort to put some distance on him so that I could ride solo for the rest of the bike leg.  Going through the whole being passed and dropping back 12 metres gets annoying after a while.

Each lap I monitored the position of Clint, Ray, Daryn and Gordon relative to myself. I could see a group was forming, mainly because some of the junior elites were blatantly drafting which was stopping the group from naturally breaking apart. Clint was the slowest runner of the riders ahead, but once he caught the pack it nullified my ability to close ground.  Daryn, Gordon and Michael all dropped off the pack (mainly because they didn’t want tp get caught up in the drafting), but Ray managed to hold on (with the drafting cheaters) till the end. It ended up being my fastest ever bike split on this course averaging 40.2kph. Not enough to catch Daryn, Gordon or Michael, but it was the first time I’d ever managed to see Daryn just ahead on the bike in a Duathlon, so I was quite happy about that.

Bike stats for 20km:

  40.2 kph, 300 watts, 157/162 bpm, 100 rpm

I actually cannot remember anything about the second transition, I was obviously in auto pilot. At 23 seconds, it turned out to be my fastest ever T2 in a Duathlon, so I obviously did something right (just can’t remember what it was). One difference to last race was that I reverted to my old race runners (Newton Distance S). I’ll almost certainly wear the Newtons for the Duathlon Worlds, but will probably swap back to the Inov8 Tri-Extreme for Mandurah 70.3.

Heading out onto the run I knew I was 20 seconds behind Daryn, Gordon and Michael with Clint and Ray a little further up the road. Knowing that all of these athletes are faster runners than be meant there was no chance of improving my position. I also had a 20 second gap behind me, so the focus of the run was to simply run steady and hold my position.  At the half way mark I still had a good lead over the next competitors but probably took it a touch easy because it wasn’t until after I crossed the finish line that I realised 3 athletes were only seconds behind me.

Even though my last 4 Duathlons have all been on the same course, the distances are always a little different which makes it difficult to compare results across races. So I have taken the average speeds for each leg from the Garmin and adjusted the times for exact distances to get an accurate comparison:

	Jul'14	Sep'14	Aug'15	Sep'15
Run1	18:40	18:45	19:05	18:37
T1	0:34	0:26	0:27	0:26
Bike	31:40	30:23	30:46	29:52
T2	0:27	0:25	0:30	0:23
Run 2	11:48	11:45	12:00	12:03
Finish	63:09	61:44	62:48	61:21

Despite my slow 2nd run, this race was still my best ever Duathlon. Ironic that I missed the age group podium for the first time in 5 years.

Martin also had a great race with a similar result, although he didn't have the slow 2nd run like me. (and he won his age group).  Elaine also did well coming third in her age group. A huge improvement over last race where she did not finish. Ray won my age group and Clint won the age group below (I would have come second if I was 5 years younger).

Duathlon 3, Richmond

Two weeks after the Silvan Trail Run and I am still sore, especially in the glutes and quads. This didn’t bode well for a Sprint Distance Duathlon.

Also racing was Martin and Steph, both of who I am coaching. It was the second Duathlon of season for both of them with Martin racing the Sprint Distance and Steph the shorter Dash Distance. Martin is targeting the Duathlon Worlds in Adelaide and Steph is hoping to do an Olympic Distance triathlon this season with her eyes on an Ironman in future.

The temperature started off cool but not as cold as the Trail Runs and it was quite pleasant by 9am when the race began. Pretty close to perfect racing conditions.

I’ve given up on my planned 18m00s 5km (3m36s pace) for this season, but thought 18m20s (3m40s pace) was still possible. My first 5km run splits were as follows:

  3m39s

  3m41s

  3m49s

  3m51s

  4m06s (was short, so only 3m36s)

As you can see things started going downhill after 2km. My run time was 18m35s for 4.86km, 27 secs slower than same race last year and 19m06s if you stretch it out to a full 5km. Hardly the improved run I was planning on.

Meanwhile Martin had great run, 43 seconds faster than the Duathlon only a month earlier (probably minutes faster than last season) and only 11 seconds behind me. Steph also did extremely well with a 8 second improvement in the first 2km Dash Run.

I was happier with my bike leg, averaging 39kph which is one of my better efforts on this course (12th fastest overall for the race). But not enough to close the gap to my competitors after my slow first run. I’d lent Martin my spare race wheels and these helped him post a bike split 34 seconds faster than last race. Steph also hammered the bike and found an extra 38 seconds over the 10km Dash bike course.

As usual the 2nd run of the Duathlon was tough. My aim was 3m50s pace, but I could only manage 4m00s pace. A little disappointing but not terrible. Both Martin and Steph continued their great races with 26 and 16 second improvements respectively on their last run.

You may have noticed that Elaine has not been mentioned yet. She started the race but struggled all day and pulled out near the start of the run. Her times were not that bad, I think it was simply a faster than usual field that made her feel slow. Hopefully she’ll do better next race.

Martin won his age group. For the first time in about 5 years I missed the age group podium in a Duathlon finishing 4th.

Building Momentum in August

The general theme of recent months has been that training is going OK, but not as good as originally planned with the major worry being my lack of big running miles. Now is the time to ignore the past and concentrate on the current. Good progress in August has made this task easier.

Now that we are closer to the events (Duathlon Worlds & Mandurah 70.3), the focus on running as much as possible has gone. The base is built (max weekly mileage of 52km) and now we can concentrate on building speed. Less days running means there is more time and energy for riding and swimming. The swim focus (10 weeks of 10km) has started and I’m now aiming for at least 2 rides per week.

The major downside this month has been the amount of time taken to recover from the Silvan Trail Run.  I was expecting to be sore for about 5 days, but it is now dragging on for 2 weeks. This has no affect on my swimming and only minor impact on my riding, but has meant missing the majority of my run sessions in the second half of the month.  Hopefully this will not be a major issue, as the trail run itself should have provided lots of training benefit.

Swimming

• Big swim block has begun as planned
• Technique is improving (Wed night with Coach Neil has helped a lot)
• Haven’t seen the speed improvements yet
• But am better able to hold my form throughout session
• 1km TT of 17m33s (1m45s per 100m)
• 1m14s slower than July’s 1km TT, but without wetsuit (or drafting)
• Wetsuit gives me roughly 10 sec per 100m, so effectively faster
• Aim of fast lane by late September is about 50/50 chance

Riding

• More focus on riding over August
• Getting in 2 rides most weeks
• Glute soreness holding back efforts a little
• Short effort speed (ie. 5 min) starting to come back
• Possibility of getting close to peak form by October
• Duathlon on Sunday will be a better gauge

Running

• Still held back by injuries
• Very tight quads early in the month
• Really struggled with glutes since Silvan Race
• Long Training Runs have been missed as a result
• Longest Runs 1h45m In June and Silvan Trail Run
• Will hopefully manage to sneak in a 2 hour run before Oct

• Big test will be the Duathlon on Sunday
• Aerobic efficiency has improved with the easy run pace improving for the same heart rate
• Very unlikely to get 5km time under 18 minutes
• 1h25m Half Marathon (in Sep) stills feels a possibility

Outline of August Training

3 Aug - 9 Aug

  2 swims - 6.6km

  2 rides - 112km

  5 runs - 43km

10 Aug to 16 Aug

  3 swims - 9.9km

  2 rides - 95km

  5 runs - 38km

17 Aug to 23 Aug - recovery week

  2 swims - 5.4km 

  1 ride - 115km

  2 runs - 11km

24 Aug to 30 Aug

  3 swims - 9.6km

  3 rides - 159km

  3 runs - 23km

Looking Forward to September

• Weekly WattBIke and Treadmills in Altitude Chamber
• Continuing Swim Focus (and hopefully get faster)
• Make North Rd Ride a regular weekly ride (so 3 rides a week)
• Extend Saturday Ride distance up to 140km
• Try and extend fortnightly long run up to 2 hours
• Unlikely to get in any of the planned double run sessions

Summary

Due to lots of illness in June and then injuries in August my riding and running are not quite where I wanted them to be.  But it could definitely be a lot worse.  So a good month of training in September could still see me hitting my targets.

Salomon Trail Run, Race 3 - Silvan

Long Course, 20km with very steep and long hills (and lots of descents), but not so many technical sections and no river crossings.

We arrived at Silvan and it was another very cold morning. Not as cold as plenty, but it felt pretty close. After getting a good parking spot we ventured out into the cold to check out the race site. It was at this point I realised I’d forgotten to bring my trail runners. This was disastrous and with that horrible sinking feeling permeating through my body and thoughts of skipping the race going through mind, I remembered that the Salomon tent offered free trial shoes for the races. Being early as usual meant that I had a full selection to choose from and I chose the Salomon S-LAB Sense 4 Ultra SG (http://www.salomon.com/us/product/s-lab-sense-4-ultra-sg.html?article=373244)

The start of the Silvan course was the same as the Short Course from 2 years ago (http://rob-mcnamara.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/salomon-trail-running-race-3-silvan.html). The rest was new, but covered a lot of the trails used in the Olinda race last year (http://rob-mcnamara.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/while-ive-been-away.html). But with the start and finish at the other end of the course, it meant we would be doing most of the climbing in the first half and the second half would be dominated by descents (opposite to the Olinda race last year).

Most of the Silvan course is double track with some sections on 4wd trails and fairly limited in the technical single track sections that we experienced at Plenty. Never the less, I wanted to avoid being held back early on like I was at Plenty and positioned myself much closer to the start. Being amongst runners similar to my ability made for a much better race early on. The leaders disappeared out of sight pretty fast, but the rest of us quickly fell into a nicely spaced out line running at a good pace. 

The first loop was completed quite fast and then we hit heart break hill. Each race has a Suunto Sprint section that rewards the fastest runners over selected part of the course. At the other races the Suunto Sprint is the last 100 to 500m before the finish line, but at Silvan the organisers thought it would be funny to put the Suunto Sprint on heart break hill.  Trying to actually run up this hill so early into the long course event would almost certainly ruin your race and everybody in sight was hunched over with their hands on their knees as they slowly walked (crawled) up the hill. Obviously there were some competitors who ran up to get a good time, I know this because I lost my Strava KOM for Heartbreak hill achieved during the Silvan Short Course race 2 years ago. I didn’t actually realise I held the KOM until I got an email from Strava informing me that I’d lost it.

Mentally the race felt like it began once I’d climbed over Heartbreak Hill. Obviously the leaders were well out of sight, but the group I was running with had also distanced itself from the runners behind. Heartbreak hill was only 400m (but very steep), the subsequent descent was nearly 1km long, then followed by rolling hills for another 2km. Different terrain favoured different people, but generally the small group of about 8 runners all stayed in sight of one another.

Then we hit a bigger hill. Not as steep as Heartbreak, but at 1.5km, much longer. Strangely enough this hill seemed to suit me. Not only did I pull away from the group, but I also caught and passed the group ahead who were previously out of sight. In general I was able to run (very slowly) whereas nearly everyone else reverted to walking. I was a little concerned that I may be expending too much energy so early, but I wasn’t finding the slow run pace that hard and it was giving me a lot of advantage over the other competitors.

After a 500m descent, where numerous other competitors caught back up to me, we hit the biggest hill of the race (2km long). It was not as steep as the last one, so running was a little easier. This meant that there were not so many walkers and my advantage was a diminished. By now we were also encountering the back half of the Medium Course race who had started before us. The uphill sections were often single track, so you had to think ahead to time your pass. Although the majority of the Medium Course racers were very obliging and made it very easy to pass.

At the 11.5km mark we reached Olinda. This was the top of the hill meaning is was mainly downhill all the way back to Silvan. Obviously there were some small climbs and rolling sections, but mainly it was descending and some of these were very fast.

I must admit that the Salomon trail runners I was trialling for the race had significantly better grip than my usual Inov8 Trailrocs. This was a major advantage on the downhill sections where I had far more confidence in my footing. I still lost ground to the good descenders but probably not as much as normal.

With around 2km to go my legs started to give out. It wasn’t because I went too hard on the climbs, it was the pounding they were taking from so much running downhill. My quads were overloaded and as a result my knees were now starting to play up. The last 2km is relatively flat, but I had to hold back and just run a steady pace to protect my legs. I probably lost 3 or 4 positions as a result and maybe 1 or 2 places in my Age Category. But overall I was very happy with my race. 

One of Elaine’s season goals is to do the 28km Two Bays Trail Run in January. The problem is that you need to qualify for this race.  A 2h15m Half Marathon is an automatic qualifier.  Additionally results in Trail Runs over 15km can also be used to qualify (based on the discretion of the organisers). Elaine’s Plenty race was very slow at just under 3 hours for 17.5km. However I suggested that a sub 3 hour time at Silvan might be enough to qualify. With the new incentive Elaine absolutely smashed the course and finished in 2m49m. She has submitted her entry to the Two Bays Trail Run, but we are yet to hear if she has got in yet. Note that we still have a Half Marathon booked for September, so she has another chance up her sleeve.

Mikey and Anita were missing from Silvan, but Sarah and Merryn were back along with Shaune (who I’ve been coaching recently).  Merryn and Sarah did the Short Course again.  Merryn loved it just as much as Plenty and Sarah improved her result by finishing as first female and 8th place overall. Shaune raced the Medium Course and won her age group (must be my coaching).

Rebuilding July

After a disastrous June, I was able to slowly turn things around in July.

The training load was not big and a long way from originally planned, but I was getting back some consistency, especially with the running. I even managed to get in two weeks of 3 swim sessions which bodes well from August and September. Included in the swims was a 1km TT with wetsuit in 16m19s (which is 1m38s per 100m).

The bike riding remained at only once a week which is not ideal. However there was a bit of quality in the those rides, so I can definitely feel that I made some improvements.  The riding included 1-in-20 and The Wall climbs in the Dandenongs and a 2nd place on both the Humphries Rd and Balcombe Hill KOMs in the Ronde of Bayside (a long way off winning the overall KOM for the ride).

The running was generally around 5 times a week and managed a 52km week. Which probably explains why the Plenty race went so much better than the Kew race in June.

In general, I managed to do in July what I really wanted to do in June.

29 June to 5 July

  2 swims - 5.8km

  1 ride - 80km

  5 runs - 43km

6 July to 12 July

  1 swim - 3km

  1 ride - 68km

  5 runs - 48km

13 July to 19 July

  3 swims - 7.8km

  1 ride - 38km

  5 runs - 52km

20 July to 26 July - recovery week

  3 swims - 7.7km

  1 ride - 87km

  2 runs - 20km

27 July to 2 Aug

  2 swims - 5.4km

  1 ride - 54km Bike

  4 runs - 42km Run

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.