Sunday morning saw my return to the triathlon scene after a couple of months off, competing in the Cronulla Olympic Distance Triathlon With all the weddings and buck’s parties after New Year’s I hadn’t done all that much training, and when I started up again a couple last month I immediately got shin splints from running too fast too soon. Still, I’d paid my entry fee so figured I might as well do the race.

I had to head down to Cronulla on Saturday to register and drop my bike into transition, then return at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning for the actual race. Saturday evening was nice and warm, with decent size waves promising to make the swim eventful. I’d been swimming at Bondi earlier in the day having fun in the waves, and since the ones in Cronulla were breaking much cleaner all was looking good. Race start was scheduled for 0645, and my wave was scheduled for 0745.

Woke up on Sunday morning and must have been a bit dopey, as I was leisurely eating my breakfast when I realised I should have left 10 minutes previously. The transition area is closed off before the race starts, so, although I wasn’t starting until 0745, I still had to have all my stuff organised in transition before 0630. I managed to get into transition just as they announced it was now closed, so I was a bit rushed in my preparation. I set everything up and walked out of there to join the pre-race toilet queue. While standing there I realised that not only had I still got my sunnies and running cap still with me, I’d also left all my race gear (lycra shorts, top & rash vest) in transitions, meaning I’d nothing to wear for the race. Thankfully they let me in to get my gear!

I ambled down to the beach about 10 minutes before my wave start, noticing that the waves were considerably more confused than yesterday evening, but, despite not having done any swimming since the beginning of December, I wasn’t worried. Some poor guy in the wave in front of me couldn’t get past the break: race effectively over after three minutes. After a brief instructive chat from the Technical Official, the horn sounded and we were off. I got going reasonably well, ducking under the incoming waves, but there was a lot of water moving around and you could really feel the pull if you came up too soon after the wave had passed. I did it twice and got sucked back a couple of metres, but that was the worst of it.

Out to the buoys, left turn for a few hundred metres then back into shore, constantly watching for a wave to catch in. Managed to catch a beauty, body surf the last 50m and stand straight up on the beach. Due to the big waves the swim had to be shortened from the expected 1500m to closer to 1000m, and relocated further down the beach where the surf lifesavers deemed it was safer. The downside to this was we had to run about 1.5km to get back to our bikes. Not ideal for me really, but it wasn’t too bad in the end.

Once out on the bike I resolved to take things easy enough not to fry myself on the run, especially since I’d had shin splints up until a few days previously. It was a two loop, out and back course, and it wasn’t until I reached the turnaround that I realised I’d had the wind behind me up until then and the way home would be a tiny bit harder. Towards the end of the bike my lower back was hurting a bit, just as it had done in Canberra, reinforcing my belief that the bike shop sold me a frame one size too big, so will have to trade it in before next season. I rode into transitions feeling fine and wondering what shape my run legs would be in.

It turns out that cruising the bike worked beautifully and my legs were fine, so I just concentrated on settling into a conservative pace so as not to wreck my shins again. The course had 4 small inclines per lap, which, although not super steep, were enough to prevent me settling into a nice rhythm. I was careful not to drink too much water or electrolyte, fearing that bloated feeling with too much liquid sloshing about, but things went smoothly and I crossed the line in 2:34:10.

Spilts:

In retrospect, I went way too easy on the bike, being a full eight minutes slower than the last time I did this distance (albeit on a different course), though my run was almost four minutes faster which I’m pretty happy with.

That’s it for triathlons for this season. Next race is the Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon on May 17th.

This week i finally got around to getting my triathlon life sorted out. I joined up with BRAT again, then got my TriNSW licence and finally entered the Canberra Half-Ironman which is on in eight weeks. A Half-Ironman is a 1.9km swim, then a 90km bike ride followed by a half-marathon, so I’ll have my work cut out for me.

I entered this race in 2005 at the last minute, but I was only doing the swim that time as I was part of a team. The atmosphere was great and I decided there and then that one day I’d come back and do the whole thing. Given that my longest bike recent bike ride is 45km and my longest recent run is 12km I might have over-estimated my abilities, but my only aim is to finish so, with that in mind, I’ll be sticking to a relatively easy pace. Still, a relatively easy pace for almost 6 hours will still leave me exhausted!

Ideally I’d like to finish as far under six hours as possible, but it all depends on the bike leg. Canberra is a hilly course as triathlons go, so there’s a risk that my legs will be destroyed despite taking it relatively easy. The last triathlon I did was also in Canberra and, although its course omitted the hilly section, the 10km run after that ride was probably the worst physical thing I’ve done as my legs just never got into it and it was just pain the whole way.

My very tentative goals are:

• Swim: <30mins
• Bike: 3hrs
• Run: 2hrs

The swim is an easy target, but the others are just “pick a number” at this stage. I’ll revise those closer to the event.

When I first noticed the sport of triathlon and decided it was something I wanted to do, an Olympic Distance (1.5/40/10) was my goal. After doing my first tri at Kurnell in December (.75/20/5) I got straight on the net and entered the Canberra OD with Kev. The race was yesterday…

I hadn’t done a whole lot of training between Kurnell and New Year, but had got three decent weeks in since then, so I was fairly confident. I’d also bought my first set of aerobars, but my longest ride actually on the bars was only 15km, though I could tell they were fast. I’d got my weekly long run up to 9km too, so I was reasonably confident the run would be OK.

Drove down on Saturday and saw quite a few cars heading down with bikes inside or on top. Stopped at the servo in Marulan and noticed quite a few cars with the Watch For Cyclists stickers attached too. We were staying in John’s place so rocked up there, watched Kev do some last minute drivetrain clean & lube, went down and registered and then drove a lap of the bike course to see what we were in for. Looked nice and fast. No hills, but a couple of undulations around the back. That set our mind at ease a bit.

Up the next morning and plenty of butterflies. Both of us were novices at the distance so had no idea of what to expect, but we decided to set very rough goals anyway:

Me: 2h 25 – 22 swim, 1:13 bike, 50 run.

Kev: 2h 40 – 30 swim, 1:25 bike, 45 run.

The lake was 27C, so it was no wetsuit which I was delighted about, as I don’t own a wettie and can swim well anyway. Once I had pumped my tyres, got my gear organised and had visited the jacks, the nerves disappeared and it was all calm before the start. I decided to cruise the swim and use it as my warm-up, so once the gun went off I got myself in a bit of clear space and settled in to it. Pretty uneventful, but came out of the water in 24:52 with an AvHR of 159! Too slow and too high a HR, what’s up? Ran up to transition and my hamstrings were close to cramping too which worried me a little. Through transition in 3:19 which is bloody slow, but I can’t do that shoes on the bike thing yet so had to fart around a bit putting them on.

Out on the bike, onto the bars and off we go. It took a few kms to shake of the ‘impending cramp’ feeling and after that all was well. I settled in to a nice rhythm on the first lap with a HR hovering around 160 which was roughly what I had intended. Had a gel around Parliament House after the undulations and went through 20km in 34:30 which I was very happy with as it felt pretty easy. Decided to pick up the pace a little on the second lap, since I now knew what to expect, so held 40km/h+ all along Parkes Way and the Tuggeranong Freeway to the Cotter Rd turnoff (apart from the couple of undulations that is). I got out of the saddle to stretch my legs & back on some of the climbs around the back of the course, had another gel, then finished the lap strongly for a 33min split and an on-the-bike time of 1:07:30 (35.5kmh) which is smoking for me. Aerobars rock!

Legs felt good too, or at least I thought they did. Threw my trainers on and was about to take off on the run when I got that ‘almost cramp’ thing again, so stopped for a quick stretch. Another 2:30 in transition, so probably some free time improvements to be had there. Once out on the run I was suffering! Felt really shit, legs were like lead and stomach was on the verge of cramping. The race map had indicated only two drinks stations on the run, and both were marked as very close to the start so I was quite worried as to whether I’d survive. I walked the aid stations and knocked back water & sports drink then started trundling away again. At that stage I was wondering whether I was going to finish or not. The sun beating down didn’t help either.

Around about the 3km mark I had a lightbulb moment, the fog cleared and the benefits of reading Transitions came to the fore. I remembered that the first bit of the run was supposed to feel like shit, with crap legs etc. etc., so once I knew that then things improved. Well, when I say ‘improved’ I don’t mean that I got any faster, or that I started feeling great or anything that dramatic, I just realised that this was how things were supposed to be.

I was just plodding along and seemed to be running around 6min/km, so I was looking at an hour run split which I wasn’t happy about. The run was a plain out-and-back course, so I was hanging for the turnaround point so at least I’d no longer be running away from the finish and I could tell myself it would all be over soon. Finally I rounded a corner, I could see it 400m away and I got to it in 26:15 (AvHR: 171) which was a bit better than I’d expected. I now had 5km spread out before me and I knew where the aid stations were (there were actually more than two) so it became a matter of running to the next station, stopping, drinking, throwing water over myself, and setting off for the next one. I had long ago adopted a 2/2 breathing pattern (breathe in for 2 footfalls, out for 2), trying to suck in as much oxygen as possible and now I added a little mantra of “Light, Relaxed” to try and take my mind off things. “Light” as in ‘run light on your feet’ which was a bit of a joke as I was in serious plod mode, and “Relaxed” as in ‘run relaxed’ which I had at least some hope of achieving, especially since by this stage I just wanted the damn thing over with and didn’t give a toss about anything else. Anyway, this is getting very long winded, so a summary of the last 3km involved cramps, stretching and more plodding. I crossed the line in 2:32:15 by my watch, with the second half of the run taking 27:45 (AvHR: 176) giving me a run split of 54mins.

Myself and Tom did a First Aid Course back in December and it came in handy now. I was getting dizzy, so I knew that was a sign that I was dehydrated, a bit overheated, had stopped running too quickly and that I’d faint if I didn’t do something about it. The quickest way to cool someone down is to ice the groin and neck as there’s major blood vessels near the surface, so I threw some ice down my shorts, lay down, raised my legs and leaned them against a tree to make it easier to get blood to my head. John had come down to watch the finish, so he plied me with drinks and a few minutes later I was fine and could stretch my rapidly seizing legs. The two of us walked back to wait for Kev come in. I could see him in the distance and knew it was getting close to 3 hours, so I shouted at him to hurry up. “What’s the hurry?” came the reply, but he got moving once I told him the time. He crossed the line in 2:59:15 or so.

So, the end result was that neither of us got close to our predicted times. Kev split 40 for the swim, 1:27 for the bike and transitions and 52 for the run. I managed 24, 1:13 and 54. It was a lot harder than either of us expected. Kev has decided to concentrate on swimming and I need to do a lot more running. Training for the half marathon should sort that out!

HR Data Graph

Update: Official Results

Me: 188th – 2:32:16 – 24:53 / 1:13:23 / 53:59

Kev: 331st – 2:59:18 – 40:10 / 1:27:05 / 52:02

S: 4000m – B: 62.1km – R: 10km

After a few stops and starts, today I toed the line wiht Kevin and Billy and completed my first triathlon in Kurnell. 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run. Had a fantastic day, stopping the clock in 1:12:59 (provisional) which was a hell of a lot better than the 1:20 I was aiming for.

I don’t own a wettie, and since the swim was so short I wasn’t that fussed anyway about not having one, especially since it took me about 5mins to get Chris’s one off after the team swim in Canberra last week. There was a bit of a breeze blowing this morning, so I was freezing my ass off while waiting 24 minutes for Wave 6 to get started and a wettie sure looked tempting. Having Froggo & Gizmo standing next to me telling me how lovely and warm they were didn’t help either! Once in the water it all changed and I was warm again. I took the swim really easy, figuring that there’s no point busting my arse on my good leg of the race only to suffer later, so when I was out in 10:25 (AvHR 146) I was sure the course was short.

T1 was slow, messing around putting on socks and bike shoes, and pinning my race number to me, all things which can be hugely streamlined in future races. Once past Mooze monitoring the mount line it was onto the bike and away. I put the vast amount of time spent on Transitions to good use by running a bit past the line before stopping to get on the bike so as not to hold anyone up The first half of the bike was in to the wind, but it wasn’t that strong, so I kept telling myself not to try and fight the wind, that it would be behind me on the way back and I could make good use of it then. Sure enough, after the turnaround I was flying, holding 40kmh+ for most of the way back. Still felt comfortable though, and knocked back a gel with 5km to go in preparation for the run. Off the bike at the dismount line, run in my bike shoes in to T2, and out on to the run. T1+Bike+T2 was 40:08 (AvHR 159).

The run had been announced a little short at 4.85km, which was a bonus, and the three lap format made it a bit easier to pace myself. I forced myself to settle down at the start as this was my weakest leg and the greatest unknown. Felt good initially, and decided to hold my HR around 170. Between Smitty at the swim exit, Mooze guarding the entrance to the finish chute, and a spectator who kept saying “Go Trannie” I had support spaced around the lap which was great. Thanks guys! Spent the first two laps running comfortably and then turned it up a bit for the last lap per Smitty’s instructions. Crossed the line with a HR of 186 and a time of 22:26 (AvHR 173) which I was amazed by. I’d been expecting 26-28mins, so 22 something was brilliant, and I still felt pretty good.

So, it’s all over. Had a great time, met a couple of new Trannies in Vernon & Blew, managed to beat Kev and Billy as well and convincingly beat my expected time, so it’s happy days at the moment. Thanks to all the crew from Transitions, Mooze, Smitty, Vernon, Blew, Froggo, Gizmo and Highwayman for words of encouragement and bring on the Olympic Distance in Canberra at the end of January!

Woo hoo!

Kev managed a 1:25 which he was pretty happy about. He had been aiming for 1:30 or so and has decided that training might help in future. Billy had a shocker. The swim was his weakest leg, and since it was pretty choppy he had a bit of trouble navigating around the course. Then, at the end of the bike leg, himself and another athlete took a wrong turn and were given wrong directions by two guys on bikes which resulted in them riding an extra 5km. He finished in 1:50, which he was a bit disappointed with given the circumstances, but he’s keen to have a go at another one.

S: 3750m – B: 50.2km – R: 10km