Spectating, specialists, surgeons and swimming struggles

With my training requiring several adjustments over the past six weeks one would think I would've had plenty of time up my sleeve but that couldn't be further from the truth.

After tearing my hip flexor at Noosa I have been restricted to physio visits, riding and swimming; all be it with a pull buoy firmly fixed between my legs.  And while Revive have been doing all they can to speed up the recovery process, once I got my head around the injury and what sort of recovery time I was looking at I took the opportunity to really up my swimming and in particular, my strength in the water being limited to pull buoy.  After about four weeks this was really starting to pay dividends and I was swimming close to PB times and was doing so with very restricted leg action. 

Unfortunately breaking my finger came at a pretty inconvenient (if there is ever a convenient time!) time because over the past couple of weeks my hip has been healing really well and I've been able to get a few very small runs done and while I am still having some discomfort it is certainly on the improve and hopefully a few weeks of drills, light running and rehab I can be back into some decent volume and regaining my running fitness.  I was actually back on the bike the day after the accident (all be it on a windtrainer to make sure I could get a confident grip on my brakes) and have been almost every day since.  I have also been back swimming with paddles just for a bit of extra protection but as yet still can't really swim at any significant pace am trying to keep the feeling of the water there so I don't completely loose my fitness.  Combining this with some strength sets on the stretch cords while the rest of the squad do their main sets was working out well for me and while my arms were definitely screaming out for a rest I was confident I was doing something that was working. 

 

With my racing plans put on hold I have taken the opportunity to get out there the past couple of weeks and enjoy the spectating side of the sport and let me tell you it is a very different view-point turning up to a race with nothing to do other than watch!  My first experience was the Bribie Triathlon two weeks ago where the tables were turned from the norm and I was the one watching while Dan was out there racing instead of coaching.  And this weekend just gone I was again kept busy spending my Saturday at the Gold Coast watching the junior elites from our squad doing their thing at the ITU Sprint Weekend.  And what a job they did with the girls finishing the weekend with Jodie Duff in first, Britt Dutton in second, Holly Grice in third, Anna Coldham in fourth, Sophie Malowiecki in sixth, Jenna Fulton in ninth, Laura Dennis in eleventh, Angus Gibson in fifteenth, Wyatt Westmoreland in forty-second and Harry Sweeny in second in the youth male division.  Unfortunately I didn't get to their final on the Sunday because I was down at Raby Bay watching the race there with Emily Bevan finishing second, Maddi Allen in fifth and Sarah Deuble in sixth in the open womens race and Lawrence Garufi winning his age group and Dave Kelly still snaring himself a podium after a lap counting incident.  And let me tell you without even doing a race I was exhausted after that weekend!

My recovery from my crash is still a little bit unknown and that's even after spending another four hours in hospital yesterday seeing every orthopaedic surgeon the Royal Brisbane Hospital has to offer.  What I did find out is that I actually still had a dislocation in my finger that wasn't noticed when I first went to hospital and instead of the initial two fractures I have three.  After going through the same amount of pain I did the first time, the second dislocation is now fixed but because of the locations of the fractures and time since the accident the next step is a little bit of an unknown.  By the sounds of things they are leaning towards surgery which I was initially trying to avoid but they want to seek the advice of their hand specialists and until I hear from them later in the week I am playing the sitting and waiting game, which also involves limiting my hand movements until then but won't stop the running or riding.  Who knew a little finger could cause so much difficulty!

 

 

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Re-evaluating race plans...again

Four weeks post Noosa and I was still yet to successfully run any significant distance or any distance at all!  The impact of my fall and then proceeding to run the 10km off the bike resulted in what the physios at Revive have now diagnosed and are treating as a hip flexor tear.  I must say these guys have been phenomenal in their approach to treating not only my injury but every patient that enters their clinic.  It's not always easy for me to get in and see the same physio each time I go but their communication and knowledge of everyone that walks through the door makes it easy to stay on top of my injury.  And to have the physios ringing me to see if there is anything they can do to help me get back to running any sooner gives me so much confidence in what they are doing!

As is probably common knowledge to most people muscle tears take some time to heal.  And after dealing with fact that I wasn't going to be able to run for some time I was forced to pull out of Shepparton 70.3 but had got my head around that and even entered my next big race which was to be Auckland 70.3 in late January.  However after just over 4 weeks post-Noosa had passed and just over 7 weeks pre-Auckland and I was still yet to run, I was seriously doubting my ability to be half-marathon race ready in time for Auckland.  As disappointing as it was in the back of my mind I had pulled the pin on Auckland and had again re-evaluated my race schedule and had penciled in the National Long Course Championships in Geelong as my next race.

This decision has now been confirmed after the events that occurred out training mid last week.  While my swimming training and cycling training had been progressing really well and I was starting to see PB's across the board, my luck on the bike (or bad luck) has continued.  Myself, Angus, Sarah and Courtney had started the morning at the ungodly time of 5:00am and were just 10km into our ride when we were all brought down in a crash.  I won't go into all of the details but what I can say is that we are all very lucky and fortunate that the injuries are somewhat minor in comparison to what could have occurred.  Thankfully there was minimal traffic around to make the situation any worse and the cars that saw the incident stopped to not only call the ambulance but remained at the scene to keep us all calm and also drove Angus and all of our bikes back to Dan's house while Courtney and myself were taken to hospital with Sarah to look after us.  Five hours later I was allowed to leave the hospital with a fair few bruises and grazes and a finger that had spent a long time facing a direction it really shouldn't, while Courtney was kept overnight under observation after suffering some deep cuts to her neck after coming in contact with a stray chainring but has since been released to rest in the comfort of her own home.

I think it goes without saying how grateful all four of us are to everyone involved in taking care of us from the passers by who stopped to see if we were alright and to help where they could and to all of the paramedic and hospital staff and most importantly all of our friends and family. 

I think we all know how dangerous this sport is, in particular the cycling component so without going on too long about it here is a link to a blog Dan put up earlier today which is definitely worth a read!

http://danat08.webnode.com/

This has confirmed I won't be racing Auckland 70.3 and really throws any racing plans out the window until I can swim, ride and run and get the required training done without compromising my health.  Being a bit optimistic I've set myself my next goal of being able to swim, ride and run at some capacity to be able to complete all the training at our upcoming training camp in 3 weeks time but for now I've already testing out riding and can get a good enough grip on the bars that I'll be continuing that straight away.   My hip is coming along nicely and while the runs back have been short (and when I say short I mean real short, having just returned from a solid 2km!), they are finding their way back into my program.  And my mind is in overdrive coming up with some kind of minimalistic hand paddle that will allow me to swim pain free so I'm not missing much while my finger heals.
 

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Noosa Triathlon

The Shepparton Ironman 70.3 will have been run and won by this time tomorrow and while this race was high on the priority list, it was unfortunately removed from this list just over a week ago.  The timing of the race seemed perfect; two weeks post Noosa which would have given me plenty of time to not only get some solid TT time under my belt leading into Noosa but also freshen up, recover and taper to be all guns blazing for Shepparton.  As it turns out my body has taken close to two weeks to completely recover from my crash at Noosa and I am still yet to pull the running shoes back on, in fact they are still sitting out on the deck from when I first got home after Noosa!  But before I get too far ahead of myself, another Noosa Triathlon weekend has been and gone and it’s safe to say there is something about Noosa that will keep you coming back for more and there are already plans in the pipeline to get the DAT Loft up and running again and take care of some unfinished business from this year in 2013!

After last years DAT Dungeon experience we decided an upgrade was needed and between Tom, Sarah, Maddi, Emily and myself, the DAT Loft was created and became the place to be right in the heart of Hastings St.
 

As usual the weekend provided a busy schedule of events and while the DAT contingent wasn't as heavily populated as in previous years, we still not only had athletes in almost every event but some very impressive results to go with it.  Friday afternoon was the first of those events and had Sarah, Maddi, Holly, Anna and Wyatt lining up in the open waves for the Eyeline 1000 and Britt lining up in her age group. As one would expect Britt produced her usual stellar performance and took her position on the podium. All of our open competitors missed out on podium positions, swimming off against numerous Australian swimmers but swam strongly to beat many well established swimmers.

 

Saturday morning saw the usual pre-race ride to the top of Noosa hill and also saw Dan and Holly complete numerous hill reps in an attempt to get the perfect shot for the Noosa Triathlon Instagram Competition and top the efforts of Tom from Friday’s Eyeline 1000. For those of us racing the triathlon there was little more to do other than put our feet up and stay out of the dehydrating weather for the rest of the day. Sarah and Sophie didn't have this luxury as they were set to compete in the Asics 5k Bolt. Similar to the Eyeline 1000, this race featured several Australian and Olympic representatives but this didn't seem to phase either of them, mixing it with the best to be a part of the lead group of runners for the entirety of the race. The pace continued to increase and coming to the finish it was Sophie finishing in 4th position and Sarah not far behind in 6th place.

All the emphasis was obviously on Sunday mornings event and it certainly didn't disappoint. The elite men's field had attracted perhaps it biggest and strongest field in the thirty years the event has been running. Some of the names included three Ironman World Champions; Pete Jacobs, Craig Alexander and Chris McCormack, former winners Courtney Atkinson and David Dellow and a host of the sports biggest and brightest stars all vying to get their name on the Noosa winners list.  The last two years I have finished 14^th and 15^th in this race and wit significantly better training under my belt and most importantly a whole new mental attitude I was primed and aiming at a top 10 finish and truly believed I was capable of this.

My day didn't get off to the smoothest of starts having an issue with my disc not wanting to co-operate with my pump and having to rely on Emily coming to my rescue and lending me her wheel that was in transition itself as she was set to make her return to training after a two week break with nothing less than a 40km TT.  So thanks to Emily, Sarah and Holly for running down from our room to help me actually make it to the start line on time!  I overcame this and was set to go on the start line with the rest of the field. The swim went off without too many issues and while I didn't exit the water with the front group, found myself about one minute off the leaders with a solid group of athletes. Almost as soon as we hit the bike leg the rain started and with the rain came the carnage! No more than 10km into the cycle leg saw the first causality from our group with Craig Alexander hitting the deck hard around one of the round-a-bouts. The rain only got worse from here and made for tough conditions for the rest of the ride and became even more troublesome as we hit the final 5km and the round-a-bouts coming towards the completion of the cycle leg. As we came through one of them I saw Chris McCormack slide out in front of me and heard another athlete do the same thing behind me. I thought I'd come away from this safely but things all came unstuck around the next corner when it was my turn to slide across the road. While I managed to get back up and keep going I had lost a fair bit of time on the lead group and the chase group that I was earlier a part of. The impact of the fall had its effect once I hit the run leg and while I felt really good for the middle part of the run I really struggled to get my body going to begin with and again tightened up coming into the finish. I finished the race in 16th position and while this isn't necessarily a bad result it isn't the top ten I was aiming for and had I not had the fall was probably more than capable of.  Full credit must go to winner Peter Kerr and training partner Ryan Fisher on his second place finish to cap off a stellar season for him and Taylor Cecil in third.  It’s podium that few would have predicted but shows some of the potential in Australian triathletes coming through the ranks. 

 

While I was far from the only athlete to fall during the race (with Tom making up for some of those that didn’t by coming down twice but still managing to finish the race!) as mentioned earlier it has definitely taken its effect on my body.  As disappointing as it is to pull out of races I know full well that there is no way to bluff your way through 21.1km off the bike and I would only be doing myself more damage by even taking to the start line.  However I have signed up for my first race of 2013 which will be the Auckland Ironman 70.3 which also doubles as Asia Pacific Championships, nothing like jumping straight into the deep end!  So there seems like no better time than now to knuckle down and clock up some serious kilometers!

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Moreton Bay Grand Prix Duathlon

I don't think there is a triathlete anywhere who isn't getting caught up in all of the racing going on this weekend, myself included.  While I have spent much of my weekend glued to my computer keeping track of all the updates coming through from all the events at the ITU World Championships in Auckland and the Australian 70.3 Championships in Mandurah I also got the chance to have a bit of a hit out as well. 

 

 

Before I go into my racing adventures for the weekend I have to give special mention to a few of my training partners over in Auckland.  Ryan Fisher had an amazing performance to finish in 5th position in the U23 event and was one of the best races I have watched in a long time.  The four Australian boys executed their plan to perfection with Aaron Royle taking the victory, Ryan in 5th, Ryan Bailie in 10th and Josh Amberger in 11th.  I've trained with Ryan since we both started in the sport and I could hardly bare the tension and excitement watching the race and it was great to see him lay everything he had on the line in that race. 

 

 

Emily Bevan also had a fantastic result, finishing in 21st position in the junior elites.  Even for Emily to be on the start line is a credit to her hard work and commitment to this sport after a far from ideal preparation and a name we're all sure to hear a lot more from in the coming years!

 

Unfortunately I didn't get to see any of Emily's race because as the timing worked out I was competing in the Moreton Bay Grand Prix Duathlon at the exact same time but it was one of the first things I checked as soon as I crossed the finsh line!  The race was held over the somewhat unusual distances of a 1.5km run, 7km ride, 1.5km run, 7km ride and a final 1.5km run.  It's not exactly the long distance stuff I've focused all of my training towards but with an $800 prize purse on offer for the top three men and women I decided to throw my name out there and see what would come of it.  I wasn't the only one with the same thoughts and the race ended up drawing a solid field with Sam Betten, Sam Speechly, Matt Roberts and Luke Farrell some of the notable names lining up alongside me. 

 

As is always the case the pace at the start was incredibly quick but with experience on my side I 'controlled' myself as much as I could and went through the first kilometre in 3:00 watching some of the others out front and coming in to transition was in the mix with all of the early leaders.  Knowing my strength on the bike I went straight to the front to try and push the pace on the hilly three lap Lakeside Raceway course but there was little that could be done to split the field so I made the decision to back off the pace somewhat, consciously trying to conserve a bit of energy for the remainder of the race. 

 

 

I forced my way to the front towards the end of the first 7km cycle and really pushed the pace at the start of the run hoping to split the field up and take control of the race as much as I could.  The run did just that and as I mounted my bike for the second and final ride I had started to open up a gap to the rest of the field.  I was caught by Sam Betten but together we increased our lead and had a healthy lead as we came into transition for the final time.  I made a similar move at the beginning of the final run leg and really pushed the pace knowing that if I made the gap early I would have a distinct advantage of getting over the hill first and hitting the downhill run to the finish.  One of the last things Dan said to me last night was to use Ryan and Emily's races as motivation and it was at about this point of the race where that extra kick in motivation came in and once I'd rounded the hill I had a quick look back to see I had opened up enough of a gap that I wasn't going to get caught and was able to enjoy the closing stages of the run to claim the victory.  Sam Betten was next across the line followed closely by training partner Luke Farrell. 

 

 

DAT Racing was well represented in the womens field as well with Sarah Deuble duelling throughout the race with Britt Forster to come away on top in the final run leg and claim the victory.

 

 

A big thankyou to Mark Tucker and everyone at Redcliffe Triathlon Club for putting on such a great and challenging event and one that I'll take a lot of motivation from going into the Noosa Triathlon in two weeks time and also training bud Harry 'hazardous' Sweeny who came out just to spectate today and took some great photos while he was at it!

 

 

And I couldn't possibly finish this blog without mentioning all of the Australian triathletes and in particular the DAT Racing athletes and Revive Ashgrove athletes who will be going through their final preparations before they get their chance to swim ride and run their way around Auckland tomorrow morning in the ITU Age Group World Championships.  It's safe to say that I'll again be glued to my computer screen looking for all of their names towards the top end of their categories!

 

 

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Raby Bay Triathlon

What a day of sport it's been, we saw Pete Jacobs and Leanda Cave take out the Kona Ironman World Championship Titles in impressive fashion, the grueling Cooloongatta Gold and of course; race 1 of the Gatorade Queensland Triathlon Series was held at Raby Bay. 

 

 

After last years mishap en route to Raby Bay I'm pleased to be able to start this blog on a much more positive note and say that I made it to the event in one piece! The lead up wasn't without issues and I had a minor wheel incident on Saturday night when both of my race wheels refused to pump up so I was frantically driving around sourcing a spare set. Special thanks to Ryan Fisher for the lend who gave this event a miss but will be lining up next weekend in the U23 event in Auckland.

 

This race always attracts a stacked field being just two weeks out from the Noosa Triathlon and with the Auckland World Championship event being next weekend there were also a number of athletes looking to get one final hit out under their belts before flying out for the big one. I do have to thank Chris from Nike for helping me out with my entry and getting my name amongst this stellar field to hit the chilly waters of Raby Bay for the supersprint 400/15/4 event.

 

 

DAT Racing was well represented in the open fields with myself and Luke Farrell in the men's race and Holly Grice, Maddi Allen, Jodie Duff and Britt Dutton in the women's race. Several top athletes joined us including Sam Betten, Joey Lampe, Taylor Cecil, Bryce Mcmaster and Tim Berkel on then men's side and Ellie Salthouse and Kirra Seidel on the women's side of things.

 

There was little that was going to separate the field over the 400m swim and coming out of the water both the men's and women's fields were closely packed together. However the lengthy run through transition did spread everyone out somewhat and as we mounted the bike I found myself within the first handful of athletes. The pace was on from the beginning of the bike but I knew having positioned myself well out of the water and the times I've produced in training I was ready to handle it. 

 

The front group split up early on the opening lap and pleasingly I was able to bridge the gap up to Joey Lampe and Sam Betten while leaving the remainder of the group to battle it out behind us and we were able to continue to build on our gap to the field until we dismounted the bike and had established a lead of about 30 seconds and also record myself the fastest bike split for the day :). 

 

Having the quickest transition out of the three of us I hit the run course first but after approximately 1km I was passed by a very quick moving Joey Lampe who continued on to take the win while I finished in second place, just eight seconds behind in a result that I will take a lot of confidence from heading into Noosa and Shepparton in the coming weeks. Fellow DAT athlete, Luke finished in 9th position. 

 

On the women's side of things Holly matched my fastest bike split with the women's fastest bike split but was narrowly out sprinted for the victory by a mere one second to also finish in second position for the day behind Kirra Seidel. Birthday girl, Britt had a stellar performance to not only finish just off the podium in 4th position but was also ahead of one of Australia's ITU junior elite representatives! Jodie Duff was in 9th position and Maddi Allen was in 11th position. We also had a couple of our junior boys doing battle in their age groups and coming away with an impressive 2nd place was Lawrence and in 3rd place was 'hazardous' Harry.

 

 

The impressive results didn't end there as we had another group of athletes flying the DAT flag at the Bribie Island Triathlon with Tom Ryan finishing in 4th place in a feel good race and Jake Freeman in 6th in the open men's race and Sophie Maloweicki taking the win in the open women's race. Sharyn Madders slipped under the radar to not only have a win in her age group but was also the fastest female for the day.  Not to be outdone again by his wife and after a quick child minding tag-team effort Craig Madders also knocked up a win in his age group and a top 10 overall in the short course event.  Wyatt Westmoreland also took his age group win and Rob Murdoch snared a podium finish in his age group.

 

 

With the ITU Auckland World Championships being held next weekend all of the DAT representatives were in hiding for this weekend of racing but if these results are anything to go by they are sure to feature in next weeks proceedings and be at the pointy end of their races.

 

#eatclean #traindirty #racefilthy

#justbackyourself

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Moreton Bay Triathlon

With Olympic Distance State Championships on the line, less than five weeks until the Auckland ITU Triathlon World Championships, the first official DAT Racing club race of the year, a couple of Olympians in the mix (namely Emma Jackson and Courtney Atkinson), Luke Farrell lining up on his brand new Specialized Venge, Courtney Dutton's last race as a 20yr old and Brittany Dutton's first big draft legal event, the Moreton Bay Triathlon had all the makings of an epic day of racing and it certainly didn't disappoint! 

But before I even begin to go through my run down of what is going to have to be a blog of epic proportions to even go close to matching that of the event itself there are a few noteworthy events that also took place over the weekend.  A few of you may have noticed Dan's absence come race day and while we all know how much he would have loved to be there his attendance was required down in Port Macquarie for the 2012 State of Origin Touch Football Competition to watch Katie 'Lewis' Atkins compete.  Unfortunately they went down 2-1 in the series but I have managed to find the highlights of their win in game 2 which is certainly worth a look.

  

The other event worth mentioning was the ITU Tongyeong World Cup where Ryan Fisher mixed it with the best for a very impressive 7th place overall and first Aussie across the line in his final lead up race before the World ITU U23 World Championships in Auckland. 

But the main event was always going to be the Moreton Bay Triathlon and with so many races containing so many DAT athletes I have carefully assessed the results pages and done my best to sum up everyones races as best as I could. 

The first event to get the day started was the sprint distance draft legal event and as would be expected DAT was well represented but had a task ahead of them with the girls having Olympian Emma Jackson to contend with and the boys coming up against Australian elite representitive Sam Betten.  Luke Farrell and Jake Freeman were in the mix early driving the pace of the chase pack on the bike in an attempt to chase down the early leader, Sam Betten who managed to extend his lead on the bike and hold on to this lead for a from the gun leading from start to finish victory with Luke finishing in 10th position and Jake in 13th position.  In the womens race it was Holly Grice and Emma Jackson opening up a solid lead throughout the swim/bike with Sarah Deuble and Brittany Dutton sitting comfortably in the chase pack.  However once they hit the pavement Emma showed her Olympic class and ran away with the victory with Sarah moving through the field to finish 4th, Britt close behind her in 6th and Holly in 7th.

The next event on the cards was the Olympic distance event and also my choosen distance for the day.  It was a bit of a different experience starting in individual age group fields.  And while this meant there was very little physical contact required to find clean water it did make it very difficult to track your progress.  Starting in the third wave, six minutes behind the first Olympic distance wave and three minutes behind training partner Tom Ryan, my goal was to not only catch him but also be first across the line but with news flowing through the grapevine that a triathlete by the name of Courtney Atkinson was lining up in the 30-34yr old age group just three minutes behind me, I would have to be on my game. 

Assessing the official timing splits I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that not only was the swim heavily tide assisted it may have been a tad under 1500m with my official split being 15:50.  There was also the slight issue of a heavy jellyfish presence for the first half of the swim with several athletes having to endure the stinging feeling for the majority of the race. 

The four lap bike course gave every athlete a great opportunity to spy their competitors and how they were tracking and every lap I was getting my splits on the gap up to Tom who was in his words 'hooking' and I had to push really hard to have any chance of closing that down.  Progressing through the 40km cycle leg the course gradually became more and more congested which was a great incentive to continue pushing past each group of athletes I came up to.  It also gave me a rare opportunity to cheer for some of my fellow DAT athletes and I was blown away by their words of encouragement for me while they were racing as well.  Unfortunately it wasn't all positive and Rob Murdoch was forced to record a DNF after puncturing late into the cycle leg.  Geoff Lemmon was in the first wave to start and was also one of the first DAThletes I passed on the bike and the last I passed on my final lap of the run as well, going on to finish in 5th place in his age-group in his preparations for the Auckland World Championships. 

Ian 'Marto' Martin was a late entry into the race and still finished 6th in his age-group with fellow competitors Dave Kelly and Simon Leeper not far behind in 8th and 9th position respectively and Richard Tareha finishing 28th in a DAT filled age group.  I do have to give Marto a special mention of thanks to for letting me borrow his disc wheel for the race on the premise that I rode fast and I think clocking 56:00 on the road and officially a 59:46 going by race timings, just over one minute clear of the next fastest cycle time and close to three minutes on Courtney Atkinson ticks that box and with so many top of the line bikes spotted out there that would rival any of the latest slowtwitch galleries it's good to see the trusty Sram Rival Malvern Star can still do the trick ;) 

Just before the completion of my cycle leg I made a quick pass on DAT newcomer, Jenna Fulton who not only had a convincing victory in her age group but also finished 5th female overall.  Starting in the same wave as Jenna was Maddi Allen who established a sizeable 2:30 out of the water in a time that I'll happily admit beat myself and probably the majority of the men out there.  Unfortunately the rest of her day didn't go to plan and while she was extending this lead on the cycle leg was stopped dead in her tracks when a spectator decided to cross the road without looking and walked right into Maddi's path.  Fortunately the damage was somewhat minor and Maddi is now nursing road rash along with six stitches in her knee while the spectator walked away uninjured and actually raced later in the day.  Obviously it is an incident that should never have occured and I hope the correct measures are not only being taken to undo any wrong doings from this incident but to also avoid this happening again in the future.  And on behalf of everyone at DAT we all wish her a speedy recovery from her injuries!

Also in the female division were Lotte Franks who finished 14th in 2:25:56 and Kate Gibney who powered home to finish 3rd in a time of 2:17:48 in their respective divisions.

As I entered transition not only did I happen to cross paths with Wyatt Westmoreland and manage to give him a bit of a rev up as he stripped out of his wetsuit in the sprint distance race (more to come later on) I also got the opportunity to give Tom a bit of a rev up as I ticked off one of my pre-race goals to catch him as he was sitting down doing up his shoe laces in a move that he now swears by but would more than embarrass any seasoned triathlete.  Needless to say there was none of that nonsense from yours truly and the Nike Lunar Racers slipped straight on, elastic laces and all and I was away!

Running out along the Ted Smout Bridge I got my first glimpse of Courtney Atkinson at the far turn around.  Lining up with Courtney Atkinson in the 30-34yr age group and ready to give him a fair run for his money was our very own Robbie Mullins and Brendan Abdy and while they may have just missed the mark on that goal still finished in times of 2:03:22 and 2:18:49 respectively.  I was running a bit scared for the majority of the run having hit the lead but then getting a glimpse of Courtney and not really knowing the time gap but I got an extra kick of motivation from Holly, Sarah, Britt, Jake and Angus with some wise words to 'just back myself' for the victory and that I did to take out the QLD Championships for my age group in a time of 1:50:15.  Unfortunately I was just pipped for overall honours by Courtney who finished a mere 47 seconds ahead of me in a time of 1:49:28.  Also finishing closely behind me was Tom Ryan in a time of 1:56:11 to win his age group and finish 10th overall.

Running in conjunction with the Olympic distance event was the sprint distance event.  As I mentioned earlier I got a chance to cross paths with Wyatt as he began his cycle after a blistering swim leg that was one of the quickest of the day and bettered the majority of the draft legal field.  He went on to finish on top of a DAT podium in his age group with Harry Sweeney finishing second and Lawrence Garufi finishing third.  I dare say the competition between these three will continue all season!  These three were outdone by two other DAThletes on the day with Dave Sangster choosing not to put himself through the Olympic distance torture to finish third in his age group and 7th overall in the sprint event.  Bettering him by a mere 31 seconds was another newcomer to the squad, Jamie Laverty.  Not only is he a newcomer to the squad but also to the sport with Moreton Bay being his first triathlon and to walk away with a win in his age group and sixth overall you couldn't really ask for much more! 

The sprint distance females were equally if not more impressive with Courtney Dutton leading from start to finish to not only win her age group by over four minutes but to also be the fastest female of the day and Sophie Malowecki also dominating her age group by four minutes and finishing as 5th fastest female of the day.

Rounding out the day for the DAT team was Hayden Barrett in the try it out event and didn't he finish it off in style!  Not only did he go on to win his age group it was also his first ever triathlon!

And that wraps up the Moreton Bay Triathlon from a DAT perspective and what a day it was!  Triathlon Queensland and the entire team involved in putting on this race did a great job and I must give a quick mention to fellow Revive Ashgrove sponsored athlete, Peter Ledwidge who wasn't out racing but was completely run off his feet putting on the event.  And while I'm at it, Christophe Manchon, another of the Revive Ashgerove sponsored athletes racing alongside Courtney Atkinson in his preparation for the upcoming Auckland World Championships.

My final special mention for the day is a general message of thanks to the entire DAT family.  With Dan's absence the tent and trailor was left up to Craig and Sharon Madders and Steve Franks and they did a remarkable job and I think everyone was very thankful for that shade and relief from the sun whenever they could and as always the atmosphere under that tent was second to none.  Secondly, another thanks needs to go out to all of the friends and family that turned up in support on the day from the likes of Aaron and Drew who were dubbed the official DAT photographers for the day to everyones families who were there at the crack of dawn until the final DAThlete crossed the line in support, in particular those parents who didn't even have anyone competing on the day and I don't think a lap on that course went by without several cheers!  And last but not least to all of the athletes who gave it their all out there on the day who will no doubt continue on to bigger and better things throughout the season.  And with several athletes now in their final preparations for the Auckland World Championships there's no better time than now to just back yourselves and get the job done...it's going to be a good season ;)

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Rainbow Beach Triathlon

This is a bit of a delayed blog after last weekend's Rainbow Beach Double Triathlon but never the less well worth a read if I don't say so myself!  I was hoping a few photos might have popped up by now that I could have included but unfortunately that hasn't happened.

Rather than dwelling on what could have been after the disappointment of Yeppoon I decided to jump straight back into racing as soon as I could.  And while Dan's suggestion of packing up the car and continuing the trip north up to Airlie Beach might have seemed like a good idea and certainly would have got some decent kilometers on the car for dad, I'm not sure mum would have appreciated not having her car for the week.  Instead I made the journey to Rainbow Beach and I can safely say I have spent more than enough time driving to and from races the last two weeks!

The race was a somewhat different format from your standard race with a sprint distance race being held on the Saturday afternoon and another sprint distance on the Sunday morning.  Competitors had the option to compete in either one of the events or combining both events and adding the times together to get an overall Olympic distance winner.  I decided to do both events to make the most of an opportunity to race and with all my training aimed at the longer distances, the longer the better.

I made my way up to Rainbow Beach on Saturday morning and while the drive was a lot longer than I thought having never ventured there before the venue was supurb!  It was such a relaxed atmosphere and with the sun shining and views along the entire coast it was almost hard to get into race mode.  Checking out the race course during my warm-up I was surprised how similar the course seemed in comparison to Yeppoon from last weekend.

Swim: The swim was a point to point swim with the first 100m out through the surf and then the remainder along the shore line with the current.  More importantly the run from the water to transition; Yeppoon has what seems like a mountain of soft sand to climb when you exit the water that left even the fittest pro short of beath but I can assure you that it doesn't even compare to Rainbow Beach!  While the soft sand run may be flat, you then have to run up what seems like a never ending STEEP hill before you even get close to transition.

Cycle: Having only completed one of the five laps at Yeppoon, the Rainbow Beach course in my mind is almost identical!  It is a one lap out and back course on some handlebar rattling surfaces.  However I felt at an advantage being armed with some very useful race tips from the boys last weekend and a different wheelset while last weekends wheels remained in the naughty corner for not co-operating.

Run: I can't really comment on the run course in comparison to Yeppoon but what I can say is that is a very challenging 5km.  It is far from flat and the fact that the lead bike chose a motorised scooter option instead of the standard mountain bike

The first of the two sprint races kicked off at 3:30pm on the Saturday afternoon which only added to the relaxed atmosphere but none the less, after a fairly standard warm-up I felt ready to go.  I was one of only a few that opted against the wetsuit option, instead choosing I’d rather focus on other aspects of the race and it wouldn’t make a significant difference over the sprint distance.  The swim went off without a hitch and I was out of the water and chasing hard up the lengthy run to transition in pursuit of the leader, Ben Shaw.  With the female wave starting ahead of us I had them to pick off as well as Ben as I began the bike.  And with all the bike training I’d been doing I decided I really wanted to push the bike as hard as I possibly could and once I’d closed the gap to Ben made sure I continued to push and try and open up a gap on him.  Coming towards the end of the cycle leg I got a quick glance of my bike computer and say that my average was up at 43.5km/hr for the 20km course which had given me a decent lead starting the run.  I’d gotten the inside tip that the run course was somewhat challenging with a few hills and that was certainly right as I felt as though I was hardly moving at a few points throughout the 5km but pushed hard enough to hold off Ben for the win, very pleased with my efforts.

Following the completion of the race I made my way back to Mooloolaba for the night to save myself a few more hours of travel all the way back to Brisbane and with the Sunshine Coast Marathon being held on the Sunday was able to sneak in on some accommodation with a few of the boys having a crack at the half-marathon.  A very enjoyable dining experience at one of the local surf clubs was a great way to end the day and as disappointing as it was to not have any karaoke available it didn’t stop a few of the boys getting amongst it.  Plenty of shenanigans occurred back at the accommodation but with an early morning ahead for everyone it was all kept very tame.  And from all accounts the boys all finished the half-marathon in great shape!

Following the very early start to the day to drive back to Rainbow Beach it was an even harder task to get the body motivated to go through the warm-up routine again.  It’s safe to say the body was still feeling the effects of the previous day but that’s what I expected so no excuses!  After Saturday’s race I had decided I wanted to back the bike off a little bit and instead push the swim and the run harder than what I had and try and improve those times.  I felt as though I did push the swim much quicker Sunday morning and without Ben in the field for the morning race I was able to lead out of the water and onto the bike.  I continued to extend my lead on the bike while also being able to conserve a bit of energy in comparison to Saturday and plan how I was going to attack those hills on the run.  Right from the outset I felt as though I pushed a lot harder on the run and thankfully the data backed that up with a run split close to 30 seconds quicker than the previous day.  I crossed the line in first place again and with two wins from two starts I also took out the Olympic Distance category.

Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to stick around and enjoy what Rainbow Beach had to offer, instead having to race back to Brisbane for the day job to pay the bills!  But I did drive away very satisfied with what I achieved for the weekend and after the disappointment of Yeppoon gave me an opportunity to race and see where my race fitness is at and what I can work on over the next few weeks in the lead up to my next race.

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Ironman 70.3 Yeppoon: Take the good with the bad

This is far from the race report I thought I’d be writing but as unfortunate as it is that’s racing for you and you have to take the good with the bad!

I made my way up to Yeppoon for my first serious crack at professional long distance racing, Ironman 70.3 style.  All my training has been geared around this longer style of racing and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t take a massive amount of confidence into this race but at the same time knew I was stepping into the unknown over the 1.9km of swimming, 90km of cycling and 21.1km of running with some very seasoned professionals lining up alongside me.

After close to nine hours of travelling I arrived at the resort and was very happy to put the car in the car-park and get out of it!  And always being able to count on dad to look for the positives in the trip I did clock up over 1500km on the car for them going there and back!

For anyone who hasn’t been to Yeppoon before it is one of the most relaxed race atmospheres I have had the pleasure of travelling to and the resort accommodation certainly aids this. 

Fast forward to Sunday morning and the nerves had definitely crept in after all the encouraging messages from friends and family back home and finally dawning on me how far I had to go!  But nevertheless confidence was high and I knew the training was under my belt and the performance was inside me.  And as someone very wise told me a few days earlier, ‘the future belongs to those that believe in the beauty of the dreams,’ or more simply put and what I would almost call the DAT Racing motto; ‘just back yourself.’

Standing on the start line with the likes of Sam Betten, Tim Reed, Joey Lampe, Matty White and Mitch Anderson I can honestly say didn’t daunt me in any way and as soon as the gun went off it was on.  I got a great start and found my height to be a great advantage out to the first turning buoy and quickly settled onto the feet of the guy in front of me.  I knew from an early stage that the likes of Sam and Joey would be leading the way but felt as though I was in a great position for what was ahead of us.  Exiting the water there were three athletes ahead of us including Sam Betten, Joey Lampe and Matt Bailey but I was in a great position starting the bike in a group containing John Polson, Matty White and Tim Reed.  We all settled into what I thought was a very comfortable rhythm for the 90km ride and coming to the end of the first of five laps on the bike we had reeled in both Joey and Matt and had just Sam ahead of us.  Unfortunately that is where my day came to an unfortunate end when I punctured just 25km into the cycle leg and was unable to repair the damage.  To say I was disappointed would be a huge understatement as I was in what I considered to be the perfect position and was feeling fantastic but at the end of the day that’s racing and there was absolutely nothing I could have done to prevent it.  Still wanting to get something from the weekend I did go out and run a half-marathon once I’d made my way back to my hotel room and am very satisfied with the time I produced.

Full credit must go to the boys who battled it out for the win.  Sam continuing to extend his lead on the bike to almost four minutes when he started the run but he couldn’t quite hold off a very fast moving Tim Reed for the win but did still finish second with Matty White rounding off the podium in third.

Massive congratulations must go to training partner and roomie for the weekend, Robbie Mullins who was also racing his first 70.3 and finished a very impressive 13^th in his age category and rumor has it he has caught the Ironman 70.3 bug and is already looking into his next one!

Not to dwell too much on what could have been I am now looking to take advantage of the good form I have and am looking at a few races within the next few weeks so say tuned!

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Revive

I am very pleased to announce that I have renewed my partnership with Revive Ashgrove and will be continuing to work with them over the coming 6 months.  Reading back over the blog I wrote 6 months ago when I first started working with Revive (Time to  get revived!) I can safely say that they have done an amazing job in going above and beyond their mission statement:

To provide first class Physiotherapy, Pilates and complimentary services to our clients in a professional, holistic and nurturing environment.  To empower our clients with the skills and knowledge to make significant changes to their health and wellbeing.

And I am excited to have the opportunity to continue this and with some big races planned over the next 6 months hopefully some big results will follow!

We had our athlete induction last Saturday and it was great to catch up with the other athletes that are also lucky enough to be a part of this program and among them are some very well established triathletes, swimmers, track and field athletes, cyclists, rock climbers and kayakers. 

Personally it was also my introduction to yoga and while I may have felt somewhat uncoordinated, smashing out a five hour training session the next day not only means that I will surely be back doing this again but gives me great confidence going into the Yeppoon Ironman 70.3 next weekend.

Instead of me raving on about how good I think these guys are and what they have done for me I thought I'd try something a bit different and also keep it brief on my behalf and provide you with a few links to some other blogs of some new athletes to the program and what they think so far. 

http://peterledwidge.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/revive-studios-athlete-sponsorship.html

http://michaelsheil.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/partnership-with-revive-ashgrove.html

So be sure to check out their blogs and see what they have to say about Revive and what they can do for you and if you're interested in finding out anything else to do with them head to www.revivestudio.com.au or get in contact with myself or any of the other sponsored athletes!



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Jetty 2 Jetty 2012

It has been a while between drinks and by drinks I mean races and by a while I mean 70 days since I have been in any sort of competition with my last event being the Noosa Winter Festival Ocean Swim & Half-Marathon.  It is safe to say that my competitive spirit has been pushing hard to escape from the day to day training routine, especially when I've had to sit back and watch some truly outstanding results from my training partners in recent weeks!  Without going into too much detail Ryan Fisher has been producing some outstanding results over in Europe and I can't wait to get into a solid block of training with him when he returns home this week and also Luke Farrell, Emily Bevan and Holly Grice have just returning from Japan where Luke produced a solid 14th and both Emily and Holly blew everyone away with a 5th and 7th place respectively.  To put this into perspective not only was it Holly's first ever Olympic distance race and Emily's second, it was also their first big international event and with the little running Emily has been able to do she still clocked an impressive 38:39!  Inspiring results would be an understatement but I won't go giving you too many more details but if you do want to read about that trip be sure to check out Holly's write-up!

These results have left my dying to get out there myself and yesterday I got the chance to do so at the Redcliffe Jetty 2 Jetty Half-marathon.  This event has fond memories for me as I managed to get the win at last year's event.  And with all of my training now focusing on the longer distance aspect of triathlon in preparation for my next race which will be the Ironman Yeppoon 70.3 I was really excited to see what I could do and how it would compare.

I took a lot of confidence into this race with the knowledge I gained of the course from last year and also all of my times from training indicating that I could infact better my time from last year.  However there is always an element of unknown in any competition and even more so when the race is of any significant distance and in my opinion 21.1km is a significant distance!

As the starting gun went off I went straight to the front but also tried to control myself knowing that the race is never won in the opening 200m uphill stretch.  I was trying as hard as I could to listen out for any footsteps around me to see if anyone had come with me but not able to hear anything and not wanting to let the rest of the field know I really wanted to see what the situation was I kept pushing on in as controlled a manor as I could.  I was counting off the km's to the far end of the course making sure to stay on top of my fluid and nutrition intake because from last year's experience I knew the hardest part of the course was out and around the jetty into a solid headwind just after the half way turn around.  It was at the turn around that I got a good look at where everyone else was and after having a number of spectators cheering me on and saying I had a good lead, the second place runner was a lot closer than I would have liked.  Similar to last year I made a distinct effort to increase my pace around the jetty to try and increase this lead.  As tough as the next 9km were with the wind picking up as the minutes ticked away it was made a little bit easier with all of the fantastic support out there on the course from not only all of the volunteers and spectators but also all of the other half-marathon and 10km runners that were out on course at the same time.  I crossed the finish line in first place in a time of 1:12:52 which was a little bit slower that what I was hoping for but still quicker than last year and with the tough conditions out there I can't complain and walk away very happy.

It does mean that neither myself or any of the girls at Revive Ashgrove won our little bet on what time I would run, me predicting 1:11:00 and them predicting 1:10:00 but it's safe to say that the time could have been a lot different if I didn't have the expertise of such a great team of physios and pilates instructors behind me.

And while I'm not so subtly dropping a few sponsors and supporters names I have to mention Compressport.  While it may not seem like such a big deal this is the first time I have walked away from a half-marathon without a single blister on my foot!  I won't go into detail about how bad my feet have looked but for anyone out there that has any trouble with blisters I highly recommend giving their socks a try, they are amazing!

And finally, the DAT Racing team; while we may have had a small contingent in the race today the results speak for themselves.  Robbie Mullins and Tom Ryan backed up from their leisurely run at the Gold Coast Half-Marathon to record a 1:21:05 and 1:22:37 respectively to finish second and third in their categories and both inside the top 10.  Geoff Lemmon also improved on his performance from last year to not only go quicker but to also win his age category and Jamie Hanelt finished off the all male half-marathon contingent or MOD Squad to finish spot on his pre-race predicted time.

In the 10km event Sarah 'dibble' Deuble finished a solid 2nd place behind one of Australia's most well known distance runners and Brayden Tucker cruised what looked to be an easy 10km but upon discussion that smile may have been hiding a world of hurt on the little training he has been doing lately and Brendan Abdy was pushed all the wa to the finish by his wife to record a PB.

In the 5km event we were only represented by Sophie Malowiecki but when she can run a course record 18:23 to blitz the girls field and finish 4th overall what else do we need!

Their support is always greatly appreciated as was the support of Dan, Emily and Holly who while they may not have been competing were still out their riding the course supporting not only me but the entire DAT squad and it was great to swap a few stories with everyone following the event.

Now that I've let that competitive spirit out for a day it is straight back to the day to day training routine for another 35 days in the lead up to Ironman Yeppoon 70.3 :)

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