tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71741548728118846372024-03-13T09:21:37.432+10:00Nicholas Hull - Australian TriathleteNicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-12003831904250781932013-06-10T13:43:00.001+10:002013-06-10T13:43:50.318+10:00Bryton Cardio 60 Review - OC Bicycles
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the recent Australian release of the
latest Bryton Cardio range I thought it was the perfect opportunity to share my
thoughts on what products I’ve been using for the past few months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was lucky enough to get my hands on a
<strong>Bryton Cardio 60</strong> and Rider 40 a few months ago and didn’t realize how lucky I
was to get my hands on the Cardio 60 in particular before it had even been officially
released into the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The guys at
<strong>OC Bicycles</strong> have been of great assistance to me and I’ve been using the Bryton
range of products for close to three years now and these products have come
along in leaps and bounds.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Previously I’ve been using the Bryton
Cardio 35 for all of my running but since taking delivery of the Cardio 60,
this watch has sat unused on my desk.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don’t really know where to begin with my
assessment of this watch because it is truly an unbelievable piece of equipment
and anything I say will probably not even come close to how good I think this
watch is!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> If the above video isn't enough to sell you on getting one read on and hopefully the rest of this review does! </span>Straight out of the box it
looks amazing, so much so that I’ve taken to wearing it as a casual watch a lot
of the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is slightly smaller and
less chunky than the Garmin GPS watches so it doesn’t look out of place as a
casual watch and with such an unbelievable battery life, you can go over a week
between charges (and this is even while running 100km + in a week).</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Garmin have long been the gold standard for
GPS running watches and for good reason, they have a proven history of quality
products and some great features to help monitor and improve performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having used both Garmin and Bryton products
in the past I can safely say that the new Cardio 40 and Cardio 60 are at worst
on a level playing field with Garmin, if not in my opinion superior.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Loading satellite reception seems to happen
almost instantaneously so there is never a delay in waiting for satellites to
load.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once running (or swimming or cycling for that matter!) you have the option
of up to four data fields on the screen and can have up to four screens to
scroll between, giving even the fussiest athlete endless data to monitor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like to keep it fairly simple when I’m
running and alternate between total running time, distance and time of day for
my long runs on one screen and lap time and lap average pace on another screen
for my interval sessions.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Upon completion of a run all of the data
can either be reviewed straight away on the watch through the history or in
more detail on the Bryton website.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Having a degree in exercise science degree I love looking at all of the
data and I could spend hours looking at all of the available data from any
single run once uploaded to their website.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The other great feature is that I can straight away send this link to my
coach or anyone else who needs it and they can access it from wherever they are
as well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sitting at the computer opens up a whole new range of features for the Cardio 60 because once on the Bryton Sport website you can create workouts that even the fussiest of athletes or coaches would be happy with that can be uploaded to the watch for your next workout or saved to be completed on a specific date. I've found this to be really useful of late because I can plan my own workouts in advance and set the specifics of my set to include the duration/ speed/ time/ pace of all of my interval sessions so I know I am hitting my targets every time I train.</span> </o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This new range of Cardio watches comes in
two different models.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The model I’ve
been using is the Bryton Cardio 60 range which comes with heart rate monitor
and retails for $299.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Cardio 40
model also comes with heart rate monitor and retails for $249.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The main difference between the two models is
that the Cardio 60 is designed for triathletes and multisport athletes and can
be used for swimming, cycling and running while the Cardio 40 is specifically
designed for running and also has a slightly lower battery life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whatever you decide on you won’t be
disappointed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There isn’t much more I
can say other than this watch is truly the best piece of training equipment
I’ve ever used and after almost 600km of running I can’t find a fault and will
say it has the ability to be a Garmin killer in the GPS sports watch market!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-60748090966998115132013-05-08T14:03:00.000+10:002013-05-08T14:03:22.700+10:00Hervey Bay Triathlon 2013<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
All of the event organizers and the locals made the 2012 Hervey Bay Triathlon such a memorable event that it was with no hesitation that I accepted an invitation to return in 2013.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last year this race drew a pretty stacked field with some very good prize money up for grabs and this year was no exception.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With returning champion Joey Lampe headlining a field including former pro-cyclist Casey Munro, Josh Maeder, Luke Farrell and Brad Clark; among others it was always going to be a well fought out race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As if this wasn’t enough Brad Kahlefeldt threw his name in there for good measure to ensure whoever came out on top of the podium was going to have to earn their money on race day!</div>
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I travelled to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Hervey</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Bay</st1:placetype></st1:place> off the confidence of my second place a few weeks back at the Gold Coast Triathlon but also knowing my mind hasn’t been 100% focused on my own training of late.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Free time has been a bit elusive of late while I have been starting up my own triathlon club and coaching business, Personal Best Triathlon or PBTRI.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nevertheless I knew I had the form under my belt and was keen to post a good result as my first race under the PBTRI banner.</div>
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I was lucky enough to be asked to help out Codie Grimsey of Grimsey’s Adult Swimfit put on an open water swimming tutorial on the Saturday afternoon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had about 40 participants sign up and I really enjoyed being able to share my coaching knowledge about triathlon swimming with everyone that took part.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grimsey’s Adult Swimfit put on regular open water session every Saturday afternoon at Sutton’s Beach, Redcliffe and I would definitely recommend them to anyone that can get there!</div>
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With a 6:30 start time it was an early start to the day on Sunday but when you are greeted with the views out over <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Hervey</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Bay</st1:placetype></st1:place> it is hard to complain!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With relatively small open fields both the men and women started together, unfortunately resulting in me having to run up the beach into transition with the humiliation of being “chicked” after a less than impressive performance in the water by myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope my swimming tips from Saturday afternoon helped all of those there more than they did for me!</div>
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I knew I had my work cut out for me on the bike so there was no mucking around and straight into eating away at the lead of anyone in front of me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One by one I was reeling in some of those ahead of me but nowhere near as quick as what Casey Munro was who came out of the water behind me and must have gone by so quick I didn’t even see him!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you look at the timing splits and see a 40km time of 52:30 there is nothing you can do except acknowledge how blisteringly quick that is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Naturally Casey led off the bike followed by Joey Lampe, Brad Kahlefeldt and then myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thankfully my 57:06 bike split was not only enough to make up for a slower than expected swim but also enough to give me the equal second quickest split with Brad Kahlefeldt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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This was one of the first races where I decided to run with my Bryton Cardio 60 GPS watch (I’ll have a review up of this bad boy shortly) and after this race I think it’s something I’ll be doing a lot more often!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With a one lap course there was little chance to see how far ahead the three guys were but the spectators out on the course gave me great support and encouragement to keep chasing hard and at the half way turn around all three of the guys were within reach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Continuing to surge and build the pace on the way home I finally got a glimpse of third place with about 2km left and managed to get past Casey Munro to cross the line in third place, just 0:22 off Joey and 1:46 behind Brad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And surprisingly record the fastest run split of the day in 33:31.</div>
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<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Hervey</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Bay</st1:placetype></st1:place> put on a fantastic weekend and all of the organizers and locals go out of their way to look after you in every way possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And after a 5<sup>th</sup> place in 2012 and a 3<sup>rd</sup> place in 2013 maybe 2014 is my year, either way book me in now for another great weekend when it does roll around!</div>
Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-9633789657820243502013-04-25T14:38:00.001+10:002013-04-25T14:38:11.055+10:00Gold Coast Luke Harrop Memorial TriathlonIt has now been two weeks since my last race and a much longer time since my last blog but this isn't to say that the race or everything else that has happened in between isn't blog worthy, it is quite the opposite and it is only now that I am getting the opportunity to reflect on the race and put pen to paper on everything else that has happened since.<br />
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Leading into Gold Coast I had a lengthy stint away from racing with my previous racing being the long course race in Geelong. I made the conscious decision to have a light race schedule this early in the year so I could get the work done in training and to avoid over-racing when my focus was more towards a block of races in September, October and November. However, any triathlete will admit how competitive they are so it's safe to say I was dying to get out on course and test how I was going. The Luke Harrop Memorial Triathlon is a race that means so much to so many people and after watching training partner and good friend, Ryan Fisher win this race for the past two years I was keen to step up in his absence and try to keep the title within the DAT stable. <br />
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The race got off to a great start for me and I positioned myself perfectly throughout the swim to exit with the first 4 athletes and a small gap on the rest of the field. I've put a lot of work into my swim and was very happy to see this paying off come race day. Onto the bike I was really motivated to push to the front as early as possible and not only build a lead but also hurt anyone else behind me trying to close or minimize my lead. While I was happy with my ride and can honestly say I rode off the front and quicker than the rest of the field it was incredibly frustrating and disappointing to see the vast majority of the other guys happy to just sit in a pack together. While I know there were a number of athletes given drafting penalties and disqualified after the race, it doesn't change my opinion that if a lot of these athletes are walking around calling themselves full time or professional athletes they need to accept there is a responsibility involved with that and they set an example and are roll models to a lot of people out there and should be following the rules set out by the technical officials. <br />
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Dismounting the bike I had built up close to what I thought could be a race winning position but didn't have the run I wanted and was run down by two quality runners before crossing the finish line in third. With one of these athletes being disqualified for not stopping for a drafting penalty I was awarded second. I'll admit to being prettying disappointed with this result as I really thought I had what it took to win this race but didn't execute everything 100% to pull it off. In saying that, after a long training block I was happy with my progression and it was great to be back out there racing.<br />
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On the female side of things it was fantastic to see my training partners Brittany and Courtney Dutton take out first and second in a dominant performance between them!<br />
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Since the race there has been much happening within the DAT training grounds. Dan has officially accepted a high performance role with Triathlon Australia over in Perth. And while the press release was titled "Dat's all folks," I can assure you this couldn't be further from the truth! With Dan taking the DAT name with him I'm excited to be starting up my own coaching business, Personal Best Triathlon (PBTRI). This is something Dan asked me to consider and I have put a lot of thought into. Having an exercise science degree and plenty of experience in coaching a variety of sports and levels from learn to swim programs to school soccer and cricket teams to more recently age group and elite triathlon programs, I firmly believe I have the ability to help athletes reach their highest goals. The support I have received from the entire squad, my closest training partners and all of the sponsors and supporters of the club has been greatly appreciated and I can't wait to get the PBTRI name out there.<br />
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Be sure to check out PB Triathlon on Facebook and @pbtriathlon on Twitter and Instagram for all the latest updates!Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-42339850524160158952013-03-20T20:59:00.002+10:002013-03-20T20:59:50.466+10:002013 Mooloolaba Triathlon Festival<div style="text-align: justify;">
Although I ruled out any idea of racing over the Mooloolaba Triathlon Festival weekend, there was no way I was going to miss out on an action packed weekend. And with so many DAT athletes in action in almost every event for the weekend it's also a perfect opportunity to get stuck into some writing and give those guys and girls some recognition as we come towards the end of another domestic season. <br /> <br />My journey to Mooloolaba this year was slightly different, choosing the man powered two wheel option over the standard motor vehicle. The usual one hour trip straight up the highway turned into a four and a half hour, 130km journey that still had me there in plenty of time to recover from my efforts before any racing got underway.<br /> <br />The first race for the weekend was the 5km bolt where we were represented by Jodie Duff who even managed to crack a smile for our cameras while completing the hilly four lap course and finish in fourth place overall. We also had our very own DAT leprechaun; Jamie Hanelt strutting his best St Patricks Day outfit over the 5km course!</div>
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<br />I was back on the bike Saturday morning for another trek through the countryside and even though both Dan and myself had to resort to coke, chocolate and lollies at the midway service station stop we still cranked it up to average 36km/hr on the return trip home. It was a quick turn around from there to the ocean swim where Jodie was again testing her skills, as was Angus Gibson in the elite men's event. I chose the much more relaxed option of a recovery swim with the other squad members preparing for the race on the Sunday. Jodie was again at the point end of the field finishing 2nd in her category and Angus was narrowly out sprinted to finish 3rd and pick himself up some prize money. Codie Grimsey won the event and I'll be out to see if his swimming credentials translate to his coaching credentials this weekend at one of his open water training sessions; anyone interested should definitely <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/GrimseysAdultSwimfit?fref=ts" target="_blank">check it out</a>!</div>
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Probably the only event for the weekend where DAT wasn't represented was Saturday afternoons World Cup but it was the perfect afternoon of racing to inspire and excite all of the athletes preparing for Sundays races. And enough to get me back out the door again and hitting the streets of Mooloolaba for a much faster than expected run as thoughts of upcoming races flowed though my head.<br /> <br />With a 6:30am start time for the ITU Continental Cup on Sunday morning there was never really going to be much chance for a sleep in and the sound of tyres being pumped up outside my bedroom door in the very early hours of the morning made sure of this! I've been in this race for the last few years now and standing down at the river I really wished I was out there again but instead was there to support training partners; Emily, Maddi and Holly who were all backing up from their Wellington race just one week prior. All showed promising signs for upcoming Conti Cup races in China in the coming weeks and Worlds selection later in the year with Maddi finishing 8th, Holly in 10th and Emily in 12th.<br /> </div>
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In the open age category Courtney pushed through an illness she picked up early in the week to finish in 3rd place and be the first DAT athlete to tick one of her goals off the board of DATspiration and it is only a matter of time before those next two goals are ticked off as well.</div>
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Other age group performances included a very impressive and slick 2:07:18 and a sub-1hour bike time for Dave Sangster, a 27th place and 2:26 for Dave Mcdonald, a 2:16 and 7th place to Dave Kelly, a 2:31 and 26th place for Rob Murdoch, a 2:32 and 9th for Geoff Lemmon, a 2:51 and 144th place for Richard Tareha, a 2:31 and 12th place for Kate Gibney and a 2:51 and 421nd place for Meg Coffey. If anyone is daring enough to ask Curtis Lindsay will share a long-winded story about his race but the short version is that he finished in 23rd and did a 2:34. The once "Unbreakable" Jamie Laverty failed to make it to the start line after being struck down with gastro earlier in the week but Mooloolaba is just a stepping stone on the Unbreakable path to Rio 2016. The other half of the Unbreakable team, Jackson Haigh finished in 2:11 and claimed himself a 2nd place position in his age group. And there is one age grouper I have left to last, and for very good reason. Not only did Jamie Hanelt run the fun run in a ridiculous looking costume, he finished the triathlon in 2:19 and 30th in his age group and then proceeded to in his own words; party harder than any other triathlete as he took up his DJ post at the after party and seeing as though he goes out of his way to give us VIP treatment at the after party I'll return the favour and give him the VIP treatment in this blog ;).</div>
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<br />Rounding off the weekend of racing was the women's ITU World Cup where last years Continental Cup winner, Sarah was stepping up to race in her first World Cup. Unfortunately the day didn't pan out in her favour and she was lapped out on the final lap of the bike course. In a true sign of the DAT spirit she was almost swamped by training partners showing their support and no doubt will be back stronger in her next race.<br /> </div>
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<br />That wrapped up the weekend of racing for the 2013 Mooloolaba Triathlon Festival and one that I thoroughly enjoyed every second of and after my ride up there was even more appreciative of the car ride home! There is nothing like being on the sidelines to make you want to be out there racing and it's safe to say that Mooloolaba 2014 has immediately been added to the list of goals to target!<br /> </div>
Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-73410300814334713982013-02-13T10:36:00.002+10:002013-02-13T10:45:41.372+10:00Geelong Triathlon: the fact-finding mission<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
One year ago I was down in Geelong racing the ITU sprint distance race but with a shift in focus to a distance that I feel I am better suited to I again returned to Geelong to compete this time in the <strong><span style="color: blue;">Hotel Urban Long Course Triathlon</span></strong> which was also doubling as a national championship race. As you would expect with any national championship a stellar field was set to compete and it was even mentioned to be the best Ironman 70.3 field ever assembled in Australia. I went in to the race essentially as an unknown having not yet finished a long course race after my <a href="http://www.nicholashull.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/ironman-703-yeppoon-take-good-with-bad.html" target="_blank">Yeppoon mishap</a> but was keen to not only see how I would compare in such a field but most importantly get to the finish and complete what we were essentially on; </div>
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<em><span style="color: blue;">a fact finding mission into the world of professional Ironman 70.3 racing.</span></em></div>
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After a positive result the weekend prior at <a href="http://www.nicholashull.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/caloundra-triathlon.html" target="_blank">Caloundra</a> things ran as smoothly as could be expected in the lead up to the race with little to write home about. I flew in to Geelong on the Friday for the Sunday morning race and essentially spent the majority of my time with my feet up, saving as much energy as possible for the race.<br />
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With a 7:00am start time, it was an early start Sunday morning to get down to transition and make sure everything was set to go. With the gels and mars bars taped to my top tube in true <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/326409984139243/" target="_blank">lé iron cave</a> style and the tyre repair sealant taped alongside them but hoping it remained unused, I made my way down to the swim start to get in a good warmup before the race start. Lining up alongside the likes of superfish Clayton Fettell, Olympian Brad Kahlefeldt, World Champion Peter Robinson and in-form athlete Christian Kemp left no doubt in anyone's mind that it was going to be a hard fought out battle to the finish.</div>
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We had a short run into the water before we could start swimming and this suited me perfectly and I continued my trend from my past few races of getting off to a great start (something that I was severly lacking last season and left me chasing right from the gun) and used my height to my advantage to porpoise as long as possible and gain some clear water in front of me. I settled into a good stroke rate and found myself settled in nicely into a pack and set about minimising the damage to Clayton Fettell; the one everyone expected to lead out of the water. Running through transition I could see the lead group heading out and was happy with where I was positioned at the beginning of the 90km ride. As much as I know I am riding relatively strong at the moment, a 90km TT was still taking me into unknown territory and it's now safe to say it's territory I need to explore a lot more to improve my Ironman 70.3 results! To be honest I found the ride really tough, apart from the usual winds and dead roads that everyone was dealt with, I found the distance to be really tough and found myself losing ground on athletes ahead of me and being caught be athletes behind me. Weather this was down to inexperience, lack of nutrition or just an off day I'm not sure but coming in to T2 I was relieved to be leaving the bike behind in favour of the Nike Lunar Racers for the 21.1km run. I knew there was a lot more pacing involved in a 21.1km run in comparison to 10km and chose to use my <a href="http://corp.brytonsport.com/products/cardio35?lang=en" target="_blank">Bryton Cardio35</a> to keep track of my splits. To sum the run course up in one word would be tough! The course involved two 8km laps around the park which was in no way flat and involved a mix of road and trail running and some nasty hills thrown in the mix followed by a final 5km section that went out past the finish line along the Geelong waterfront and back along the road to finish. I started the run relatively well and was running at a somewhat controlled pace but in similar style to the ride I dropped off the pace towards the end and no matter how many <a href="http://www.hammernutrition.com.au/" target="_blank">Hammer Gels</a> I downed it was purely about getting to the finish line towards the end. I crossed the line in 4:09 and 21st in the elite field which was a bit off what I thought I was capable of and aiming for but at the end of the day I did make it to the finish and essentially complete the fact finding mission. My respect for not only Ironman 70.3 races but the entire professional field on the day has risen to a new level and in particular the winner, Christian Kemp. These races are tough but I learnt some valuable lessons from the experience and will use this race to make some changes to what I am doing in day to day training to improve on this result and be back in better form for my next long course race.</div>
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The weekend of racing didn't end there and it was great to catch up with DAT age grouper Dave Sangster who had also made the trip down to compete in the Olympic distance event and had an outstanding result to win his age group in convincing fashion. It was also nice to be able to relax and take in the afternoon of racing which included the ITU Continental Cup where training partners Sarah Deuble and Maddi Allen would both be racing. In Maddi's first pro race in some time she again proved her swimming ability to lead out of the water and ride with the front pack and finished with a strong run performance to cross the line in 10th. And Sarah backed up her 4th place from last weekends ITU Conti Cup in Kinloch to come from the chase pack on the bike and run her way into 8th position.</div>
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Back in Brisbane now and one of the valuable lessons learnt from the weekends experience is that these races hurt! It's safe to say that little training has been done since getting home late Sunday night and recovery has been the key. Obviously experience plays a big part in this and being my first 70.3 I knew I would be dealing with this whereas I'm sure some of the more experienced guys were straight back into it the next day. But Geelong was a massive learning curve for me and I'll happily treat my body to a few days recovery so I can get back into the big km's as soon as possible without injury or illness and with the experience behind the team at <a href="http://www.revivestudio.com.au/" target="_blank">Revive</a> I have no doubt recovery will be spot on!</div>
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For a different take on the race through the eyes of a couple of other athletes in the field check out these blogs:</div>
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<a href="http://sambetten.blogspot.com.au/">http://sambetten.blogspot.com.au/</a> </div>
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(some pretty cool videos here)</div>
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<a href="http://samappleton.blogspot.com.au/">http://samappleton.blogspot.com.au/</a></div>
Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-92074044202015807332013-02-03T15:45:00.002+10:002013-02-03T15:45:52.193+10:00Caloundra Triathlon<div style="text-align: justify;">
Being a week out from Geelong, Caloundra was never really on my radar but after what has felt like so many missed opportunities and missed races thus far this season I was itching to race. With Caloundra being raced over the super sprint distance of 400/15/4 I thought it would be a good pre-Geelong tune-up and a chance to go through some of the little things such as pre-race nutrition, warm-up routines and transitions ahead of the 1.9/90/21 race next weekend. And who could pass up an opportunity to race in an event run by Brendon and all the guys at The Event Crew!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wyatt getting his nutrition practice in...definitely no bonking going on here!</td></tr>
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It's safe to say the lead up was far from ideal for anyone in Queensland with the flooding the week prior! I'm not sure about everyone else but the weather today was a welcome change from last week when most of us were locked up inside trying to stay dry and words like windtrainer and treadmill were wearing very thin! I also had the added issue of coming down with a slight cold the past few days but wasn't going to let that keep me from the race and will just be loading up on bed rest and vitamins this week in an effort to wipe it out completely.</div>
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With many athletes choosing to give this event a miss in their lead up to Geelong next weekend the field was somewhat smaller than previous events which was an added bonus at the swim start as there was little tussle for positions over the 400m swim. The swim did little to break up the field apart from my dad commenting on how good Dan Wilson looked as he opened up a small gap on the field while the rest of us apparently looked like we were flailing around chasing his heels! Leading the flailing was Wyatt Westmoreland who continued on to finish 8th as he fine tunes his preparations for School State Titles in the coming weeks.</div>
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The gaps did start to form on the bike and while Dan's gap out of the water enabled him to continue to forge ahead, myself and Ben Cook managed to distance ourselves from the remainder of the field in pursuit of him. The 15km course seemed to be over before we knew it and on later looking I'd recorded at average of close to 43km/hr. This just wasn't enough to evaporate his lead completely but a speedy second transition into the Nike Lunar Racers (even got a quick mention on the loud speaker for that effort!) did put me no less than 10m behind him as we set off on the 4000m foot race. I quickly found out that Dan had to serve a 15sec penalty and was feeling great knowing that if I could at least hold this gap I could run away from him whenever he chose to take it. But to his credit not only did he push ahead of me before his penalty but stayed ahead even after serving his penalty and after catching back up to Tim George who had just passed me continued on to win the race with Tim in second and myself in third.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">thanks Britt Dutton for the photo :)</td></tr>
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Fellow Revive athletes Christophe Manchon finished in 12th place and Peter Ledwidge finished 5th in his age category. On the womens side of things Ellie Salthouse began her 2013 in winning style taking out the womens event with Anna Jefferies and Kirra Seidel in third. Laura was the highest placed DAT female in 5th with Sophie in 7th and Courtney in 8th. Dave Kelly topped his age group by close to 2min and Lawrence finished just shy of the win in 2nd place in his age group. Part time camera-man Jamie Hanelt (thanks for the transition video!) backed up his early efforts to finish 5th in his age group and rumor has it is putting his hand up to join the 2013 Yeppoon road trip with myself, Robbie, Tom and Dan as early nominees!</div>
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With three races of the Queensland Triathlon Series under my belt this season I have racked up a 2nd from Raby Bay, 2nd from Robina and now a 3rd from Caloundra so I'm three from three in terms of podium finishes but am still looking for that elusive victory! I'll quickly put my hand up now for the final race of the series at Raby Bay in my bid to hit that finishes arch first but before I can do that I'll be heading down to Geelong this weekend to compete in the long course triathlon.</div>
Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-48221669806502042542013-01-14T21:20:00.000+10:002013-01-14T21:38:45.101+10:00Robina Triathlon<div style="text-align: justify;">
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The domestic racing season has well and truly arrived and there is hardly a weekend on the calendar that isn't filled with triathlon commitments it seems. This weekend has been particularly busy in the DAT Racing camp with our junior elite athletes flying down to Penrith for the second race in their ITU Junior Elite National Series, just days after settling in back home after our week long training camp. Exceptional results were recorded all round with Jodie winning the women's event, Anna 5th, Holly 7th, Jenna 10th and Jake in 25th in the men's event. Jodie, Anna, Holly and Dan are still based in Sydney for the remainder of this week as they prepare to do battle against some of the worlds best juniors at the Youth Olympic Championships this weekend and I'm sure their trend of fantastic results will continue.</div>
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For those of us not making the trek to Penrith there was still some hot and intense racing to be had with race 4 of the Queensland Triathlon Series being held at Robina. It was set to be my first race back since Noosa and I was relieved to just be at a race venue preparing to race rather than spectating on the sidelines. The men's field was stacked with several top athletes including Raby Bay winners and runners up Bryce McMaster and Mitch Kealey along with Sam Betten, Sam Speechly, Matt Brown and a host of others. The women's field had a distinct DAT vibe about it with Sarah, Emily, Courtney, Maddi and Sophie all set to do battle with Olympian Emma Jackson. Unfortunately both Sam Betten and Emma Jackson were late withdrawals but their absence didn't take away from the already quality fields. </div>
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We were set to race over the sprint distance of 750/20/5 and with the day heating up early is was set to be a battle in itself to handle the conditions. As the gun went off I felt I was having a great start and had clear water almost all the way to the first turning can. I was being as wary as I could about avoiding coping an unnecessary kick to my finger which I had heavily taped up and luckily the swim was relatively calm in comparison to most triathlon race starts. Exiting the water I found myself about 45sec off the leader and front group of 8-10 guys but with the length of transition it gave me a great chance to see where they all were and try and makeup as much time on them as I could. The bike is the one discipline that hasn't been affected by any of my injuries and I knew going in to the race it would be my strength and had quickly moved my way through the field to a clear second place with only Mitch Kealey ahead of me. I was trying to check if I was closing any time on him at each turn around but each time I though I was closing the gap it would open up again at the next turn and as we both came into transition to begin the run he still had about 45sec up his sleeve. In the back of my mind I knew that Bryce had run down Mitch in the last race at Raby Bay so was positive about what I could do but at the same time wary not to push myself too hard and do any damage to my hip as I continue to build my running kilometers back up. Similar to the bike I was checking splits at each turn around but we seemed to be holding a similar gap each time. At the final turn around I could see the gap was too much to close down after not taking any time off him through the first 4km and I also had a safe advantage over the rest of the field behind me so I took a little bit of pressure off myself and controlled myself in the hope to avoid pulling up from the race too sore. Mitch crossed the line first in an impressive performance that saw him lead from start to finish and really made the rest of the field work hard on a very tough day. I crossed the line in second place very happy with my performance and looking forward to getting back into in and building up again for another strong performance in my next race which is set to be the National Long Corse Championships in Geelong. Third place for the day went to James Trevorrow who put together a great performance and definitely deserved to be on the podium. Training partner Luke Farrell finished the race in 10th position.</div>
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On the women's side of things the swim was led out by none other than Maddi who maintained her lead throughout the cycle leg to lead the women out onto the run course. The remaining DAT girls remained right in the mix with Sarah and Courtney coming off the bike in the chasing group with Sophie not far behind while Emily had the unfortunate circumstance of having to watch them run away from her after being handed a drafting penalty which on several accounts was a tough call. With an impressive running performance in hot conditions Sarah was able to run down Maddi to claim the victory, with Maddi finishing off the podium in third place and Courtney in 6th, Emily in 7th and Sophie in 8th. </div>
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In other DAT results Dave Kelly produced a dominant performance to win his age group by over four minutes, Harry Sweeny braved it out to finish 10th in his age group after suffer badly in the heat, Abbey Black finished in 2nd position in her age group and the Sangsater family took home a handful with Dave winning his age group, Priscilla winner her enticer age group and Lawrence coming 3rd in his kool kids age group.</div>
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A final thanks must go to The Event Crew for again putting on another great race and all the photos they get from the race (of which I have used several throughout this blog). From here is is straight back into some serious training in preparation for Geelong in only a number of weeks. :)</div>
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Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-13029481007710193422013-01-09T19:57:00.000+10:002013-01-09T19:57:29.342+10:00DAT Racing HP Training Camp - 2012/2013 edition<div style="text-align: justify;">
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It's hard to believe a year has past since we last invaded the Farrell Ranch but instead of reminiscing on the year that was I'll jump straight in to give everyone the run down of the DAT Racing HP Training Camp - 2012/2013 edition. While our <a href="http://nicholashull.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/dat-training-camp.html" target="_blank">2012 camp</a> may have been an eye opener to several of us, the results throughout the season seemed to reflect the commitment we all showed so early in the season and it was with very high spirits that we all ventured to the beautiful Sunshine Coast to put ourselves through the torture test again. This years edition began just before New Years and gave us three full days to close out 2012 in style but as an added incentive a full day off was included in the program for New Year's Day and let's just say it was certainly needed! The usual training camp scenario followed with the train-eat-sleep cycle on continuous repeat up until New Years and giving some of the younger boys their weekly training numbers in those first three days alone.<br />
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The setup was very similar to last year with the boys being relegated to the garage again but with a few less bodies and some interior design changes forcing us to rename the DAT Dungeon to the man cave, the bat cave or the ironman cave. Whereas the girls were again living the life of luxury in the living room, all be it crammed full of nine of them at one stage! It's hard to believe that the Farrell's would again not only be willing to open up their house to no fewer than fifteen triathletes for a week but also look after us as well as what they did. We were fed, cleaned up after and washed up like kings and it is possibly the only time were I would almost get in trouble for washing up my own dishes, let alone washing anybody elses or even attempting to clean up! I know both Mick and Patti think they have been thanked more than enough times for everything they did for us all week but one more won't hurt so on behalf of all of us again thankyou so much for your hospitality and also to Luke, Jack and Sean for having us again and I'm sure we will be back again :).<br />
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This blog isn't about posting all the times and data from all of our sessions but rather sharing a few stories and the fun times we had on our camp and how this will set us up for a great season ahead. We all know how hard triathletes train, be it in the usual day-to-day atmosphere where we are also juggling family, work and any other commitments or the camp based atmosphere which in my opinion take away these outside stresses and pressures and allows us to focus purely on training, eating and sleeping and hence allows for a significant increase in quality and quantity to raise the bar when these other commitments are re-introduced.</div>
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But to begin with a few quick numbers; last year we were fortunate to get through the entire week with only two punctures, this year we wern't so fortunate and after the first ride I had personally matched that number with the first being on the adjacent street to our depature and the group as a whole had already doubled that number and by the end of the week I'm sure we had reached double digits.</div>
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Using some of the same ride loops as last year, our average speeds were well up and the ride that brought tears and saw several athletes left to fend for themselves last year was completed with ease by the whole group and I even had some of the younger boys come past me and request a turn at the front...some of these guys are seriously impressive and guttsy!</div>
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As a whole our distances were also up, clocking around 27km in the water, 700km on the bike and 100km on the run. And on a side note clocking that kind of running distance is the most I have run in the last two months and of that 700km of riding, at least 150km of that would have been individual TT efforts...the <a href="http://nicholashull.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/bryton-review.html" target="_blank">Bryton Rider 50T</a> was well and truly pushed to the limits throughout the week and got me some valuable data to use throughout the season.<br />
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No specific data was collected for our GPS (gels per session) but by the end of the week they were a necessity for even the easiest session. And just to get one quick sponsors plug in here, the <a href="http://www.hammernutrition.com.au/" target="_blank">Hammer Nutrition</a> gels and all of their other products served me well throughout the week and I'll go out on a limb to say that I would have been one of the last athletes to bonk or have shelled legs ;).<br />
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And what DAT training camp wouldn't be complete without our standard recovery methods of ice baths and beer with my yearly beer consumption off to a cracking start; all in the name of recovery and of course to clear out room in the Farrell's fridge ;)!</div>
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After a very solid three days of training we were all glad a sleep in was on the cards to begin 2013. We were actually all given the opportunity to party as hard as we wanted but to everyones credit and commitment to the camp, nothing other than a later than normal night spent enjoying the company and good times of each other was on the agenda and no sooner had we seen in the New Year were we all ready for bed. You would think that with a day off on the cards we would avoid any sort of physical activity but after lazing around the house all morning and more than one comment from Mick about how lost we all looked without training it was off to the beach for a very competitive game of touch football which some people ended up feeling more than some of the training sessions!</div>
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Over these first few days we were all witness to the blossuming bromance between Harry 'Hazardous' Sweeney and Wyatt 'the pelican' Westmoreland. While none of us really know why so many giggles kept coming from that iPad screen they did keep us entertained but it did come to an end when Hazardous had to return to his family commitments, leaving the pelican to entertain us for the remainder of the camp on his own which I'm sure everyone will agree he did a good job of!</div>
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<a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-aRv_a8TVpJM/UOusroVCIBI/AAAAAAAAAy4/UBKSCTqPENo/s640/blogger-image--693506812.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-aRv_a8TVpJM/UOusroVCIBI/AAAAAAAAAy4/UBKSCTqPENo/s640/blogger-image--693506812.jpg" /></a>The session of the camp by far had to go to our track session towards the end of the week. Going in to the session spirits wern't overly high and tiredness had well and truly set in and I think our warm-up pace resembled more of an ironman shuffle than anything else. Not to take away from this track <span style="font-family: inherit;">session but after mentioning the ironman shuffle there is one story that I have to include here! To be honest I don't even know how this started but talk quickly turned to all things ironman on the camp with both Jake and Wyatt beginning their assault on the 2015 and 2016 Ironman Championships. This forced the man cave to be re-named the iron cave and talk of Kona, gels, bonking and ironman tattoos became the norm. So much so that a Facebook group, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/326409984139243/" target="_blank">Lé Iron Cave</a> was created. Be</span> sure to check it out to keep progress on these two ironboys ;)</div>
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That aside, back to the track session and the session of the camp; once we hit the track it was on and while no world records were broken we lit up that track. It was more of a pace setting session than an all out speed set and every single athlete was either spot on with their given race pace times or maintained a quicker pace with ease. It was topped off with a 1km effort at the end and Jake found his inner Usain Bolt to give all of us and the onlooking track runners and coaches a shock with the speed that he took off at but the headwind was strong enough to bring him back but not without thoughts of a sprinting career post his triathlon career. It was the first time I had worn the Nike Lunar Racers since Noosa and having been one of the athletes running easily under my predicted race pace and without any dramas with the hip flexor tear was enough for me to throw my name onto the start list for this weekends QTS Robina Triathlon.</div>
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Unfortunately not all of the stories from the camp were good ones and we were dealt our share of bad luck. After an outstanding performance at Runaway Bay, Britt Dutton was selected in the Australian team for Youth Olympics in the coming weeks but has had to since withdraw after recieving the news she has a stress fracture in her back. I'd like to emphasise 'we' because I do truly believe this injury affected all of us as we all could see how well she had been training and racing but this is just a minor set-back for her and she'll be back stronger and faster than ever in no time! With one DAT athlete out of the Australian team another one enters with Anna Coldham taking the spot and along with Holly and Jodie will no doubt do Australia and DAT proud next week. Holly's camp wasn't all smooth sailing either and on our very last ride (while she was in my eyes riding more impressively than anyone on the entire camp) found herself tangled up in an accident where we were all initially fearing the worst but after a quick trip to the hospital was cleared of any damage and was able to continue on as normal.</div>
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I think everyone achieved their goals for the week, with mine being simply to get through the training load as effectively as possible after the terrible run of injuries and bad luck I had been having. I'm excited about what's to come after the week and ticked more than one box in not only being able to get through the training but build my running up again after a lengthy lay off. Big thanks to <a href="http://www.revivestudio.com.au/" target="_blank">Revive Physio</a> in the treatment and management of not only this injury but every niggle I have had throughout 2012 and it is with great pleasure that I can say I will be continuing to work with them throughout 2013.<br />
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What a week of training it was! It's safe to say that we lifted the standard from the previous year and if the results are to again lift we are sure to turn more than a few heads in the upcoming races. It won't be long before we see these races with some of our ITU Juniors racing in Penrith this weekend, myself and a few others flying the flag at Robina and Holly, Jodie and Anna accompanying Dan to the Youth Olympics the following week. The final thanks for the DAT Racing HP Training Camp - 2012/2013 edition of course has to go to Dan Atkins...the man can coach. The time and commitment he put into not only this camp but every single session is something we all tend to take for granted and on that note a big thanks also to Katie, Ella and Molly who probably see less of Dan at times than what we do! And to top it all of happy birthday to the man himself for yesterday!</div>
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Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-91109817913640679282012-12-18T15:01:00.001+10:002012-12-18T15:07:00.459+10:00Spectating, specialists, surgeons and swimming struggles<div style="text-align: justify;">
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.</div>
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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 <a href="http://www.revivestudio.com.au/" target="_blank">Revive</a> 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. </div>
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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. <br />
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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!</div>
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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!</div>
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Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-83255911456001625862012-12-10T09:47:00.000+10:002012-12-10T09:47:26.395+10:00Re-evaluating race plans...again<div style="text-align: justify;">
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!<br /> <br />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.<br /> <br />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.<br /> <br />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. </div>
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<br />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!</div>
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<a href="http://danat08.webnode.com/">http://danat08.webnode.com/</a></div>
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<br />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.<br /> </div>
Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-26519809372361825812012-11-17T12:17:00.002+10:002012-11-17T12:17:46.806+10:00Noosa Triathlon<div style="text-align: justify;">
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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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!</div>
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<span style="font-family: Noteworthy; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">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 <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Hastings St</st1:address></st1:street>.</span><br />
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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. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Friday afternoon </span>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.</div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Saturday morning</span> 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.</div>
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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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The last two years I have finished 14<sup>th</sup> and 15<sup>th</sup> 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.</div>
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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. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s podium that few would have predicted but shows some of the potential in Australian triathletes coming through the ranks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So there seems like no better time than now to knuckle down and clock up some serious kilometers!</div>
Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-66210844670531631622012-10-21T15:50:00.000+10:002012-10-21T15:51:48.673+10:00Moreton Bay Grand Prix Duathlon<div style="text-align: justify;">
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. </div>
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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. </div>
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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!</div>
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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. </div>
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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. </div>
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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. </div>
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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.</div>
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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!</div>
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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!</div>
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Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-21752017840489927742012-10-14T20:09:00.000+10:002012-10-16T19:11:15.330+10:00Raby Bay Triathlon<span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="font-family: Noteworthy; font-weight: bold; line-height: 24px;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After <a href="http://www.nicholashull.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/mixed-fortunes.html" target="_blank">last years mishap</a> 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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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 :). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">#eatclean #traindirty #racefilthy</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">#justbackyourself</span></div>
</span><br />Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-10909610082894838222012-09-26T09:49:00.000+10:002012-09-26T09:49:52.065+10:00Moreton Bay Triathlon<div class="separator" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
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! <o:p></o:p></div>
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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.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/3TWTkrL7IdA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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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.<o:p> </o:p></div>
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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. <o:p></o:p></div>
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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 <a href="http://www.sambetten.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: blue;">Sam Betten</span></a>. 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 <a href="http://www.hollygrice.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: blue;">Holly Grice</span></a> 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.<o:p></o:p></div>
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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. </div>
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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. <o:p></o:p><br />
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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. </div>
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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 <a href="http://www.slowtwitch.com/" target="_blank">slowtwitch</a> galleries it's good to see the trusty Sram Rival Malvern Star can still do the trick ;) </div>
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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!<o:p></o:p></div>
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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.<o:p></o:p></div>
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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!<o:p></o:p></div>
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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.</div>
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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! </div>
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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.<o:p></o:p></div>
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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!<o:p></o:p></div>
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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 <a href="http://www.revivestudio.com.au/" target="_blank">Revive Ashgrove</a> 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.<br />
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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 ;)</div>
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Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-73597236684574688052012-09-03T20:55:00.003+10:002012-09-03T20:56:40.472+10:00Rainbow Beach Triathlon<div style="text-align: justify;">
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.</div>
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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!</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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</div>
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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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the female wave starting ahead of us I had them to pick off as well as Ben as I began the bike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</div>
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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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plenty of shenanigans occurred back at the accommodation but with an early morning ahead for everyone it was all kept very tame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And from all accounts the boys all finished the half-marathon in great shape!</div>
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Following the very early start to the day to drive back to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Rainbow</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Beach</st1:placetype></st1:place> it was an even harder task to get the body motivated to go through the warm-up routine again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I crossed the line in first place again and with two wins from two starts I also took out the Olympic Distance category.</div>
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Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to stick around and enjoy what <st1:placename w:st="on">Rainbow</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Beach</st1:placetype> had to offer, instead having to race back to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Brisbane</st1:place></st1:city> for the day job to pay the bills!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</div>
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Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-85679429632982640662012-08-21T10:59:00.003+10:002012-08-21T10:59:45.176+10:00Ironman 70.3 Yeppoon: Take the good with the bad<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
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!</div>
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I made my way up to Yeppoon for my first serious crack at professional long distance racing, Ironman 70.3 style.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</div>
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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!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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!</div>
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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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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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!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But nevertheless confidence was high and I knew the training was under my belt and the performance was inside me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.’</div>
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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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</div>
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Full credit must go to the boys who battled it out for the win. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>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.</div>
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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<sup>th</sup> in his age category and rumor has it he has caught the Ironman 70.3 bug and is already looking into his next one!</div>
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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!</div>
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Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-64521000572562903612012-08-08T19:16:00.000+10:002012-08-08T19:16:05.532+10:00Revive<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h0YEG3m6q4U/UCIsn7l7LsI/AAAAAAAAAh8/nxtuXGF6H5s/s1600/revive4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" kda="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h0YEG3m6q4U/UCIsn7l7LsI/AAAAAAAAAh8/nxtuXGF6H5s/s320/revive4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">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 <a href="http://nicholashull.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/time-to-get-revived.html" target="_blank">(Time to get revived!)</a> I can safely say that they have done an amazing job in going above and beyond their mission statement:</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>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.</strong></em></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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!</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5ct7UwhYLQk/UCIsziZTfxI/AAAAAAAAAiE/Pagqd03gXJU/s1600/revive3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" kda="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5ct7UwhYLQk/UCIsziZTfxI/AAAAAAAAAiE/Pagqd03gXJU/s320/revive3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">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. </div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VOcNgpQecyY/UCIslTYArCI/AAAAAAAAAh0/zlRpsv0xVzA/s1600/revive2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" kda="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VOcNgpQecyY/UCIslTYArCI/AAAAAAAAAh0/zlRpsv0xVzA/s320/revive2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">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.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bMJmP3JwpmI/UCIsiZl7K0I/AAAAAAAAAhs/ZDI1yX9TUVU/s1600/revive.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" kda="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bMJmP3JwpmI/UCIsiZl7K0I/AAAAAAAAAhs/ZDI1yX9TUVU/s320/revive.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">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. </div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://peterledwidge.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/revive-studios-athlete-sponsorship.html">http://peterledwidge.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/revive-studios-athlete-sponsorship.html</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://michaelsheil.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/partnership-with-revive-ashgrove.html">http://michaelsheil.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/partnership-with-revive-ashgrove.html</a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">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 <a href="http://www.revivestudio.com.au/">www.revivestudio.com.au</a> or get in contact with myself or any of the other sponsored athletes!</div><br />
<div align="justify"></div>Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-32233610216532841502012-07-16T10:07:00.000+10:002012-07-16T10:07:03.612+10:00Jetty 2 Jetty 2012<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">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 <a href="http://nicholashull.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/noosa-winter-festival.html" target="_blank">Noosa Winter Festival Ocean Swim & Half-Marathon</a>. 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 <a href="http://www.lukefarrell.com.au/" target="_blank">Luke Farrell</a>, Emily Bevan and <a href="http://www.hollygrice.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Holly Grice</a> 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 <a href="http://hollygrice.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/osaka.html" target="_blank">Holly's write-up</a>!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9YQvVfpi8Ss/UANZKm8ahGI/AAAAAAAAAgo/OX2lSoMzen4/s1600/holly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img $ca="true" border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9YQvVfpi8Ss/UANZKm8ahGI/AAAAAAAAAgo/OX2lSoMzen4/s320/holly.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">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 <a href="http://nicholashull.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/jetty-2-jetty.html" target="_blank">last year's event</a>. 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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">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!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1kzF4znGeQg/UANZlu6b6rI/AAAAAAAAAgw/kSlJmcfj6XM/s1600/2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img $ca="true" border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1kzF4znGeQg/UANZlu6b6rI/AAAAAAAAAgw/kSlJmcfj6XM/s320/2011.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RHMOTcqL7vE/UANZ7KUNUzI/AAAAAAAAAg4/PSV703owMA0/s1600/j2j.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img $ca="true" border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RHMOTcqL7vE/UANZ7KUNUzI/AAAAAAAAAg4/PSV703owMA0/s320/j2j.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It does mean that neither myself or any of the girls at <a href="http://www.revivestudio.com.au/" target="_blank">Revive Ashgrove</a> 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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o6Z_BR5ImDU/UANa6aI2eNI/AAAAAAAAAhg/UxAK3gwMryE/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img $ca="true" border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o6Z_BR5ImDU/UANa6aI2eNI/AAAAAAAAAhg/UxAK3gwMryE/s320/photo.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And while I'm not so subtly dropping a few sponsors and supporters names I have to mention <a href="http://www.compressport.com.au/" target="_blank">Compressport</a>. 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!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And finally, the <a href="http://www.danatkinstraining.com.au/" target="_blank">DAT Racing</a> 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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8SxRncs41-Y/UANaY8P0XsI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/qqZZmPoGU10/s1600/j2jj.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img $ca="true" border="0" height="239" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8SxRncs41-Y/UANaY8P0XsI/AAAAAAAAAhQ/qqZZmPoGU10/s320/j2jj.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VCPr1dGthgU/UANaPOUl47I/AAAAAAAAAhI/heKXHTNqPX8/s1600/dibble.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img $ca="true" border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VCPr1dGthgU/UANaPOUl47I/AAAAAAAAAhI/heKXHTNqPX8/s320/dibble.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">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!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MVSTDJLvL-M/UANaFaxJ6lI/AAAAAAAAAhA/19dDo4Z3_ZU/s1600/sophie+start.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img $ca="true" border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MVSTDJLvL-M/UANaFaxJ6lI/AAAAAAAAAhA/19dDo4Z3_ZU/s320/sophie+start.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">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 :)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EoiWGVXawb4/UANahW94s0I/AAAAAAAAAhY/sSm9XKv0wh8/s1600/robbiegeoff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img $ca="true" border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EoiWGVXawb4/UANahW94s0I/AAAAAAAAAhY/sSm9XKv0wh8/s320/robbiegeoff.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-55654513604895503272012-06-21T08:03:00.001+10:002012-06-21T08:04:11.339+10:00BSHS Awards Night Speech<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Over my years I've attended plenty of sports awards dinners and heard even more guest speakers at numerous different events. Being the guest speakers is always an honor but it isn't without nerves that you get up infront of an unknown audience to share what you feel are words of wisdom and inspiration in the hope that the audience take something positive away from it.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Just last week I was invited to be the guest speaker at the Brisbane State High School cross-country awards night dinner that was held last night and on somewhat short notice I put together my speech but on all reports I passed with flying colours so I thought I'd share my 'words of inspiration and wisdom' with you:</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">I was really struggling for what I was going to talk about to all of you tonight until about half way through training this morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And having been given some direction on what to talk about, this morning’s session was perfect!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My alarm went off at 3:55am this morning and I was out the door and on my bike by 4:30am and trust me the 5ºc weather didn’t make it any easier but after my car was involved in a car crash 2 weeks ago it has been my only way of getting around and I had to meet the rest of my training group at 5:30am.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were doing an 80km loop around the north side of Brisbane and with the extra riding I had to do, I was looking at close to 130km for the morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within the first two hours I’d already had 3 punctures and was close to wanting to call a taxi and call it a day!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For anyone that has had to change a tyre they will know that it’s never much fun especially when it is down to about 3ºc but after having to resort to using a muesli bar wrapper (a common cyclists trick) to cover the gash I’d only found after the third puncture we continued on and not only did I get the 130km done but I also rode close to the quickest I’ve ever ridden for the 20km time-trial section in the middle!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was this persistence and resilience that not only got me through this session but also what I have achieved thus far in this sport.</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: inherit;">I’ve always found quotes to be somewhat cliché but after having heard this one a while back it has just stuck with me and regularly pops into my head during sessions or days when it all just seems too much; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“It’s not about how many times you fall down, it’s about how many times you get back up.”</i></b></span></span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">You’re all here tonight because of your achievements in cross country this season and I applaud all of your efforts, many of which trump a lot of my performances throughout my schooling and the exciting thing for many of you is that the best is likely yet to come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Personally it wasn’t until grade 12 when I made my first Queensland team for athletics and my first Australian team was my first year out of high school in 2005.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact the furthest I ever went for cross country was regionals so a lot of you have a healthy head start on me!</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">2008 was my second Australian World Championship team which was held over in Canada.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Canada is one of the best places I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to but racing in 5ºc and rain isn’t!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I finished 33<sup>rd</sup> in that race but one year down the track, a change in squads and coaches and most importantly a completely different mindset I finished 4<sup>th</sup> in my category and 10<sup>th</sup> overall at the 2009 World Championships on the Gold Coast</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: inherit;">It was after Worlds in 2009 that I was given the opportunity to race professionally and have been ever since and have raced in a number of national championships as well as international events all around Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada and USA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And at the end of the 2010/2011 season I was ranked 168<sup>th</sup> in the world after some of my best results which included a 6<sup>th</sup> place at the ITU Continental Cup in Devonport and 20<sup>th</sup> place at the ITU Oceania Championships in Wellington and 12<sup>th</sup> place at the ITU Oceania Cup in Mooloolaba where I actually lead the race up until the 4km mark of the run. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"></span><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">I went into the beginning of this season full of confidence and looking to improve on the last and everything started off really well at the Noosa Triathlon where I finished 14<sup>th</sup>, just behind Chris McCormack and ahead of Courtney Atkinson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately the next series of races didn’t go to plan and my results were well off what I thought I was capable of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And being a rather emotional person each of these results got a little bit harder to deal with and in a sense I was searching for answers because in actual fact I was training better than ever before and my training times were just not being reflected in races.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a bit of a last ditch attempt to gain something from the season I headed up to a race in Hervey Bay where I ended up having my best race all season to finish 5<sup>th</sup> in a really quality field, only just narrowly being beaten by Pete Jacobs who was runner up to Craig Alexander at the Hawaiian World Ironman Championship last October.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only did this result give me the confidence that training was in fact on track but also made my mind up on what direction I am now heading in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve decided to now focus on the Ironman 70.3 distance (1.9km swim, 90km cycle, 21km run) and my first race of this distance will be in Yeppoon on August 19<sup>th</sup> and I’m actually more excited than ever about entering for me the unknown!</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">And just before I finish I’d like to leave you with a couple of quotes or mottos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first is my coach’s motto and however simple it is, is something that he has instilled in me and something I strongly believe should be followed by not only anyone chasing the elite athlete dream but with any significant goal in life;</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;">"PERFORMANCE THROUGH PERSISTANCE"</span></span></span></span></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">The second is a phrase that a few of us came up with at training and believe it or not I actually have written on a piece of strapping tape and stuck to the handlebars of my bike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s three simple words but when it all comes down to it, if you chip away at your goals with persistence and bounce back from whatever setbacks you may face the results will come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that phrase is;</span></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: large;">"JUST BACK YOURSELF"</span></span></span></span></span></i></b></div>Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-34503238411183559672012-06-10T19:33:00.000+10:002012-06-10T19:33:39.852+10:00DAT Awards Night 2012: The Main Event<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I feel ample time has passed since I posted <a href="http://www.nicholashull.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/dat-awards-night-2012-prequel.html" target="_blank">DAT Awards Night 2012: The Prequel</a> that it is now time to move on to the main event. But for anyone out there unaware of the enormity of this event check out what went down at the <a href="http://nicholashull.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/dat-awards-night.html" target="_blank">2011 DAT Awards Night</a> and try to get your heads around the fact that this years edition was hyped up so much that we had club members flying home from holidays just so they could make the event and even athletes from other clubs putting themselves through the torture of a weeks training with us just to attend this event!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y3uDoH-XPx4/T9RnR9C8QeI/AAAAAAAAAeg/RGkBni5x8ig/s1600/dat1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y3uDoH-XPx4/T9RnR9C8QeI/AAAAAAAAAeg/RGkBni5x8ig/s320/dat1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">But before I go into too much detail I must that the brains trust behind the event. Craig Buerckner, Nathan Hilderbrandt and Dan Atkins spent countless hours not only organising the event itself but were also left with the arduous task of selecting the nominees and winners of the prestigous awards. And having been privileged enough to be invited to one of their meetings I can vouch for how tough some of the decisions were, even if the meeting was held at the local Stafford Tavern! But needless to say that without the work these three men put into this event it wouldn't have been what it was so thanks again guys!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">With winter well and truly amoung us and the venue moving from The Grange Bowls Club to the chilly waters of the Brisbane River aboard one of the function boats available the majority of the guys were very proud of their decision to don the suit and jacket option! And with the threat of the boat departing on time with or without it's guests it was for once unusual to see everyone onboard well in advance. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The first portion of the cruise provided us with time to wet the whistle and mingle and it was during these early moments that those of us with somewhat of a height advantage were actually at a disadvantage on the lower level of this boat and were forced to either duck or spend our time on the distinctly colder upper level of the boat with poor Jenna Fulton hitting her head no less than six times!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But we will bypass all chit-chat and move straight to the exciting part of the evening involving the recipients of the awards and the following speeches and in no particular order here they are:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The first award of the evening was a new addition for the 2012 edition and what better recipient than a new member for the 2011/2012 season! Having won the 2011 ITU Age Group World Championship in impressive fashion and further going on to have a stellar season racing in the ITU National Junior Elite Series it was none other than Luke Farrell who had the honour of recieving the Appreciation Award.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oW7bPPdFAHw/T9RnTH0gR1I/AAAAAAAAAeo/mYL1Ms1TWTo/s1600/dat2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oW7bPPdFAHw/T9RnTH0gR1I/AAAAAAAAAeo/mYL1Ms1TWTo/s320/dat2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">With Angus and my well prepared speech being given the flick without our knowledge we were both forced to think on our feet to come up with completely unrelated speeches and while I may be rather impressed with my efforts that's not what I'm here to write about so I'll move on to the Age-Group Athlete of the Year and the Most Improved Athlete of the Year. Both of these awards could not have gone to a more deserving athlete not only after the season she has had but the improvements everyone has been witness to since the beginning of the season. It was none other than Courtney Dutton who had the honour of getting up on stage twive to recieve two seperate awards and on that note, having looked back over the DAT Honour Board, she is the only athlete to ever claim two awards in the one season and after some of the results within this club this season that is quite the effort!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eMucUDQyKTo/T9RnUQ9TscI/AAAAAAAAAew/2ZidHhM91w0/s1600/dat3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eMucUDQyKTo/T9RnUQ9TscI/AAAAAAAAAew/2ZidHhM91w0/s320/dat3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QVJ6NdK-yB0/T9RnV2jfFKI/AAAAAAAAAe4/-sUG2x4o5do/s1600/dat4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QVJ6NdK-yB0/T9RnV2jfFKI/AAAAAAAAAe4/-sUG2x4o5do/s320/dat4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">In fact, the Dutton family stole the limelight on the evening with Britt being awarded the Junior Athlete of the Year after winning non only the School State Championship but also the School National Championship in convincing fashion and when she has one of her training partners in Sophie Maloewecki chasing her ever step of the way there is no telling what these two superstars can do in the future.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OIshgspcsjA/T9RnXOOrLeI/AAAAAAAAAfA/TjPSheXEY9s/s1600/dat6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OIshgspcsjA/T9RnXOOrLeI/AAAAAAAAAfA/TjPSheXEY9s/s320/dat6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Moving on to the Dominator of the Year Award and although I wasn't up for nomination for this award it was one that I was most nervous about for reasons I will go into soon. I couldn't be happier with the recipient of this award and also the performance it was picked on as I not only believe it is an outstanding performance in the context of this club but also within triathlon in Australia. Ryan Fisher claimed 3rd in the 2011 Auckland World Cup event which was not only his first World Cup podium but also only the second Australian athlete to step onto the podium apart from Brad Kahlefeldt for the 2011 season. But with Ryan unable to attend the event it was left up to me to read the speech he had prepared which I was priveledged to do after spending the entire time both of us have been in the sport training together.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t6CgqJTmQBc/T9RpjH29G0I/AAAAAAAAAfg/J7SK9riOtfE/s1600/dat7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t6CgqJTmQBc/T9RpjH29G0I/AAAAAAAAAfg/J7SK9riOtfE/s320/dat7.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">With two of the three the remaining awards being the Athlete of the Year and the Atkins Family Award, both of which have previously been won by myself and Ryan, the winners are to be in a select group! In fact for the past three seasons the winners of the Athlete of the Year have been myself, Ryan and Brayden and the winners of the Atkins Family Award have been Ryan, Brayden and myself. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's hard to question the recipients of either of these awards this season. One of the moments that stole it for me was the National Series race down in Sydney where Geoff produced a great race to finish 4th place that cemented his spot in the Australian team for Worlds later in the year. But the even better moment was to see how much this race not only meant to him but also to Dan with the two shedding a few tears of joy together immediately after the race and it seems fitting that the winner of the Atkins Family award was presented to Geoff who again shed a tear or two when giving his speech!<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QPM0kAqunFo/T9Rpotihy9I/AAAAAAAAAfo/M0szZ7h8TAc/s1600/dat8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QPM0kAqunFo/T9Rpotihy9I/AAAAAAAAAfo/M0szZ7h8TAc/s320/dat8.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B-T1zY69L_I/T9Rpv26gydI/AAAAAAAAAfw/qnHhBXxkMRg/s1600/dat9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="239" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B-T1zY69L_I/T9Rpv26gydI/AAAAAAAAAfw/qnHhBXxkMRg/s320/dat9.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Similarly the athlete of the year was sealed with a moment of brilliance, this time at the Mooloolaba Triathlon. Lining up in only her second elite race and after having been unable to finish down in Devonport no one had more reason to be nervous than Sarah on that startline. But she put all of that aside and produced one of the performances of the season to run away and produce a marvelous performance to claim the victory. And just incase anyone thought this would be a one off performance, Sarah has since gone on to win her following race over in Japan winning back to back ITU Continental Cups! </div><div style="text-align: justify;">And I think I speak for Ryan, Brayden and myself in saying that both Geoff and Sarah are worthy winners of these awards and their names will fit in nicely beside ours on that honour board. :)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And on to the final awards for the evening which for me is one of the most special awards and just shows that this club is really something special to have an athlete spend close to six months preparing the award. Every year Geoff spends countless hours painting what can only be described as a masterpiece to be awarded to an athlete of his choice and is fairly named the Geoffery Lemmon award and unfortunately this year the winner wasn't present but nonetheless her efforts within the club are never overlooked. Lindy-Jo never fails to step up to fill the void of Dan on pool deck whenever it is required and while her efforts are much appreciated by everyone, she now has the Geoffery Lemmon Award for the 2011/2012 season as another token of this appreciation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wbrlpgj4VXU/T9RnQZOfFsI/AAAAAAAAAeY/9-YTfQh8i74/s1600/dat5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wbrlpgj4VXU/T9RnQZOfFsI/AAAAAAAAAeY/9-YTfQh8i74/s320/dat5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So that wraps up the formal portion of the 2012 DAT Awards night but that isn't to say that the evening ended there with plenty choosing to continue onwards once the boat returned to shore and spend the evening celebrating how great this club really is!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And already there are a few athletes out there getting a solid headstart and throwing their name in the ring to be award recipients for the 2012/2013 season with both Ryan and Sarah winning ITU Continental Cups in China and Japan. And I dare say the performances won't stop there so for anyone who thought the awards were hotly contested this time around better get themselves out on the training paddock and aim for those prestigious awards for the 2013 DAT Awards Night!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6ydIEH5nEhM/T9RnBh1-lDI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/uOCQ4mGOUAs/s1600/dat10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6ydIEH5nEhM/T9RnBh1-lDI/AAAAAAAAAeQ/uOCQ4mGOUAs/s320/dat10.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-12178893135050249462012-06-06T18:54:00.001+10:002012-06-06T18:54:27.563+10:00Bryton Cardio 35 Review - Oceania Bicycles<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">
Training with GPS is almost considered standard practice these days and it is becoming an ever more competitive market with the number of new products hitting stores on a regular basis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And for anyone who follows this blog, you will know that on the bike my preferred method of data collection is via the use of my Bryton Rider 50T.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did a pretty in-depth review of this computer when I first received it through the then distributor, Next Destination that came in very handy for them and is to this date still my most viewed blog but I've put a bit of time into this review so here is my best bet at topping that!</div>
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Up until a few months ago I had been relying on my trusty Garmin Forerunner 305 for collecting any data on my running sessions but our relationship came to an abrupt end when it decided on its own accord to shut down permanently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At first I thought it was an untimely end but after getting in contact with the new distributors of Bryton GPS Computers in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Australia</place></country-region>, <a href="http://www.ocbicycles.com.au/" target="_blank">Oceania Bicycles</a> it turned out to be somewhat convenient with the upcoming release of the new Bryton Cardio 35.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course for some time I was left technology-less out running but this actually allowed me to ‘run by feel’ and since using my new Bryton Cardio 35 have found I actually have a lot better sense of my own pacing.</div>
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The first thing I noticed about the Cardio 35 even before I had the chance to take it out of the box was its size.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is much more similar in size to that of any normal sports watch instead of the normally chunky GPS watches available.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just like all of the GPS watches available, the features list seems to go on forever and this was perhaps what brought about my initial downfall as I immediately disregarded the instruction booklet, instead preferring to, like my running; go by feel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is probably the reason why it has taken me a lot longer than expected to get this review up and running and after taking the time to look through the instruction booklet I now have lots to share in terms of my thoughts on the watch and also some fantastic data files that I have been able to collect and store on the Bryton Connect page</div>
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The watch is actually surprisingly simple to use once you’ve got around to having a quick look through the instructions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a matter of pressing one button before you can be off and running or cycling for that matter and with the unit seemingly picking up a GPS signal straight away there is no waiting around for the unit to catch up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact not only can this watch be used for either running or cycling, it is waterproof so can be worn for an entire triathlon if race data is of importance to you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other benefit of this watch is its battery life of up to 30 days and combining this with its size there is no reason why you couldn’t wear this as an everyday sports watch.</div>
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Out training there is the limiting factor that you are limited to only one data screen instead of having the option of up to four with the Garmin but it is only a matter of pressing one button to scroll through time of day, time, distance, calories, average pace and current pace and whenever you press the lap button you are given a brief summary of the average pace and time of that particular lap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t really had much reason to complain about only having one data screen except during some sessions where we will run for a particular period of time at a specific pace and I can find myself scrolling through all the data fields to keep tabs on these two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The single data screen can be advantageous though as unlike the Garmin that seems to squash so much data on to one screen that you can spend so much time trying to work out what you are looking at, the Bryton is so easy to read and with a quick glance I know exactly what I need to.</div>
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The addition of a bike mount can quickly transform this watch into a perfect cycling computer and although I prefer to wear it on my wrist when I do use it riding because I have the Bryton Rider 50T on my bike all the time it could be the perfect bike-run watch for triathletes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The heart rate monitor and cadence sensor can either be included with the watch or added later as accessories only add to the already long list of data that you can collect and review.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The data that I have already been able to collect from this watch has been great and as my coach said, if you take the time to look through any one of the data files you are bound to find something of use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My favourite feature would have to be the stride rate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And while I am not going to even try and explain or work out how it calculates this it is so cool!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve changed my running style dramatically over the years to decrease my stride length and increase my stride rate and now that I can look back over this data in all of my runs is really interesting to compare what it is when I’m going fast or slow and how it compares as I tire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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With all this available data I could be at the computer for days looking at all the intricate details but instead I am out there pounding the pavement creating the data files.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead I will have to leave that up to anyone interested in looking through <a href="http://www.brytonsport.com/mapLatestTracks/2" target="_blank">Bryton Sport and Bryton Bridge </a>and will wrap up my review by saying that the Bryton Cardio 35 is definitely worth serious consideration if anyone is in the market for a new GPS watch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This watch has a lot going for it and with Bryton making significant inroads into the ever competitive world of sports performance GPS products I am proud to be able to continue working with these guys into the future.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QDNWMUjZ_y8/T88Z9F1Y97I/AAAAAAAAAeE/lnvkxgEIp1U/s1600/bryton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QDNWMUjZ_y8/T88Z9F1Y97I/AAAAAAAAAeE/lnvkxgEIp1U/s320/bryton.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-14293884622467120912012-06-04T12:30:00.001+10:002012-06-04T12:31:53.457+10:00DAT Awards Night 2012: The Prequel<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The DAT Awards Night may have been and gone for 2012 but after the wrap I gave it last year I thought I had to do the same again for this year. But even before I get into that I will tempt your tastebuds with what could only be described as one of the most hyped up speeches for the evening! Myself and Angus Gibson were to give a wrap-up of the entire high performance season and with performances including local victories, National Championship medals in both the schools categories and junior elite series, ITU Continental Cup victories, World Series Events and everything humorous in between it took quite the effort to pen an entertaining yet informative five pages. However, little did we know that this wasn't to be and we were both put on the spot at different times during the evening to give impromptu speeches about little to do about what we had prepared and while these speeches were on all accounts very impressive, I thought it only fair to acknowledge the performances of everyone in the high performance squad and of course Angus and myself for our speech writing efforts by sharing a somewhat altered version of what we prepared...</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JQQ0ABO1I8I/T8wbDp4pu2I/AAAAAAAAAcg/d_ZdHN40Fs4/s1600/nickangus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JQQ0ABO1I8I/T8wbDp4pu2I/AAAAAAAAAcg/d_ZdHN40Fs4/s320/nickangus.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Dan’s always said that his report cards for the season are both Noosa and Mooloolaba so we thought it only made sense to use these two races as our guide of what to talk about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it would be unfair not to mention a few special performances that occurred pre-Noosa at the end of last year. It’s hard to look past Holly who only finished off the podium once before Christmas and even that result was a 4th place finish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These results included a 3rd place at Raby Bay early in the season, a 2nd place at the Toorbul Triathlon and a 1st place at the Robina Triathlon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Toorbul was another special occasion for the DAT team with both the girls and boys finishing 1st through to 4th.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Noosa was the first big indication of how things were going for us this season and it provided some very promising signs for the rest of the season.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the elite race Ryan not only finished in a very impressive 5th place but also collected the Luke Harrop Bursary and Nick finished in 14th.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the open category we had Brayden in 2nd position that also meant he could get his pro-licence, Tom in 3rd and also in the medical tent straight after the finish with the drip for his recovery and Luke in 5th position.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A short 3 weeks after Noosa Ryan was set to race in one of the biggest world cup races of the year over in Auckland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the course that a lot of you will be racing on later this year and if his result is anything to go by, it’s safe to say that Dan’s training methods are well and truly on track.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me this race was truly spine tingling stuff, especially after training with Ryan ever since we both started in the sport way back in 2005.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To watch Ryan cross the line in 3rd was amazing and has to go down as one of our top 5 performances for the season.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And to put this result into perspective, Ryan was only the second Australian to finish on the podium of a world cup race all season with the other being Brad Kahledfeldt at Mooloolaba.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HyWI9rpiDdQ/T8wbmPR-kgI/AAAAAAAAAcw/gWaV3R0dIyg/s1600/ryan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HyWI9rpiDdQ/T8wbmPR-kgI/AAAAAAAAAcw/gWaV3R0dIyg/s320/ryan.jpg" width="278" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">For the ITU juniors the journey began on the Gold Coast at the super sprint weekend, which consisted of 3 days of intense racing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>DAT Racing was well represented with Tom, Luke, Jake, Holly, Emily and Angus all taking to the start line on Friday afternoon. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a number of time trials the sprint triathlons began and after some gutsy racing in a strong field Tom Ryan and Luke Farrell ended up in the A grade final racing off against the top 16 men. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both finished strongly and looked to have promising starts to the season. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jake Freeman, the youngest of the junior athletes racing showed his talent and strength over the weekend after fracturing his wrist on the Friday and continued on to race in the B final showing up a number of older athletes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The girls, like the boys races, were some of the most courageous and toughest seen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With another strong field both Emily and Holly qualified for the A grade final. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With an attack of the front, Holly put herself in a good position and ended up in spectacular second place putting her in 4th place overall, off the podium by a mere 1.5 points for the weekend. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Emily raced phenomenally as well finishing 5th out of the 16 girls in the A final, leaving her in 6th position overall for the weekend. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YcfdNUgAtsA/T8wcV_P5i4I/AAAAAAAAAc4/txBM_nX_rLc/s1600/emholly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YcfdNUgAtsA/T8wcV_P5i4I/AAAAAAAAAc4/txBM_nX_rLc/s320/emholly.jpg" width="320" /></a><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There was little rest of the Christmas period for any of us, even by-passing any New Year celebrations to be up riding the next morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was followed by a weeklong training camp at the Farrell Ranch which we must again thank the Farrell’s for their hospitality and also Mandy Freeman for her care packages for Jake that he made the mistake of leaving open for the rest of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the training side of things we covered upwards of 25km in the pool, 500km on the bike and close to 100km of running throughout the week which was made even more enjoyable thanks to some of the somewhat unorthodox recovery methods that some of us enjoyed on a nightly basis.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Next on the calendar for the junior elites was Canberra, venturing to the capital for a heated day of racing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was the first full race in the junior elite series. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With everyone set to perform, the girls hit the water first with wetsuits a must. The race was fairly close with all the girls coming together on the bike, it came down to who had the quickest legs on the day with Emily placing second in what would be her last junior race for the season due to injury but finished in style with a great performance and earned herself a spot in our top 5 performances for the season. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Holly also had another blinder of a race finishing 5th place. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boys managed to miss the wetsuits by a couple of degrees so they frolicked in the cold water for a bit before heading off. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The race was quick to begin with but with the bike being such a quick course the top contenders came together in the main pack with most of the DAT athletes pushing the pace. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the end it came down to a runners’ race again with such a flat course. In the end Tom placed a solid 10th, Luke came in at 13th. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The next day Angus and Holly backed up for the age group world championship qualifying race which was not a welcome sight after such a tough race the previous day. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We both finished on the podium with Holly taking out the Australian Championship.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OxBc1l7rK0I/T8wcnZdshEI/AAAAAAAAAdA/R21VeRk99uc/s1600/em.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OxBc1l7rK0I/T8wcnZdshEI/AAAAAAAAAdA/R21VeRk99uc/s320/em.jpg" width="290" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The Caloundra was the next race for some of us where Ryan battled all the way to the finish with Courtney Atkinson to narrowly finish second.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the other race the girls again dominated with Sarah taking out the win and Emily backing up from her outstanding performance in Canberra to again finish in second.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the boy’s side of things Jake led as much of the race as he could, being forced to pull out at the beginning of the run due to injury.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Brayden and Nick then moved on to Geelong to tackle the National Sprint Distance Championships and were lining up with close to 70 others guys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brayden finished the race in 26th position and Nick came in 41st.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were also joined by a host of age groupers for this trip and I was going to mention Courtney’s 4th place finish but I’ve realized that this was actually her lowest finish of the season so we’ll leave it there…</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">While the ITU junior races are the pinnacle of elite junior triathlon, for school aged kids the national titles are just as important they are what many strive for, as did the older high performance athletes when they were younger. This year 4 DAT athletes made their way to Busselton to compete. Their training paid off as Britt, Sophie, Wyatt and Billy all performed to their expectations. The boys finished well with Billy 20th and Wyatt 14th but again the two girls dominated the field showing their talent with Sophie placing third and Brittany taking out the national title again 2 years in a row this was an exceptional achievement as they were both racing against girls their own age as well as girls a year older and it is for this reason that Britt has taken out a spot in our top 5 performances.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NzKbhH5FoOA/T8wc3_X60SI/AAAAAAAAAdI/3jJ5N2PAlPk/s1600/britt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NzKbhH5FoOA/T8wc3_X60SI/AAAAAAAAAdI/3jJ5N2PAlPk/s320/britt.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Devonport was the next stop on the high performance calendar and with Olympic qualification on the line it also drew one of the highest quality fields in Australia in some time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were strongly represented in all of the races with Holly and Anna lining up in the junior girls, Tom, Luke and Angus in the junior boys, Sarah in the elite women and Brayden, Ryan and Nick in the elite men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately Emily’s injury kept her away from the start line but she still made the trip and was privileged enough to hear the Kangaroo and the Emu speech courtesy of that so many Australian elites have been witness to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anna was the standout in the junior women’s race to finish in 7th place and in the junior men Luke had a great race to finish 7th in a very tough field.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">And after such a long season, Mooloolaba was to be one of our final races before a much earned break.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could sum this race up very quickly because without doubt the race of the day that went to Sarah as she claimed her first international victory in the continental cup and also a spot in our top 5 performances of the year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other results, Tom again pushed himself to the limit and again found himself in the medical tent at the finish which seems to be a bit of a trend for him and Maddi finished 3rd in the open women’s race.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0YnWeOHURb8/T8wdYi418YI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/67kPYrEdZVU/s1600/sarah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0YnWeOHURb8/T8wdYi418YI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/67kPYrEdZVU/s320/sarah.jpg" width="192" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">As I’m sure all of you are well aware the performances haven’t stopped since Mooloolaba but I’ll keep it strictly triathlon related because if I have to go in to too much detail I’ll have to reveal the event where Maddi managed to defeat myself, Tom and Ryan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And although Ryan couldn’t be with us here tonight we couldn’t finish this speech without mentioning not only his debut in the highest level of triathlon racing in the world series event in Sydney but also his race in Jiaguyan last weekend where he won his first continental cup in convincing fashion and is now based in France for the next few months in the lead up to see him hopefully qualify for the U23 world champs in Auckland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also have Sarah heading over to Japan next week to compete in a few Continental Cups and Luke heading over to USA for a Continental Cup but we’re not sure whether Luke’s more excited about the actual race or the cowboy hats and dancing!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Holly and Emily also heading over to Japan later in the season for their first dabble in international competition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both of these girls have also recently been named in the 6 girl ITU junior elite squad to be later cut down to 3 before Auckland.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">So that basically wraps up the season from a high performance point of view and if anyone has been paying attention we only ever mentioned 4 of our top 5 performances for the season, mainly because with so many overseas races coming up and with Auckland high on so many peoples priority list we are sure there will be more memorable moments capable of filling this 5th position.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">But apart from the great achievements of all the high performance athletes this season, without the help from Dan, Craig, Nathan and everyone else in this club that has shown interest or support in what we are trying to achieve, this season could not have been done. I’m sure I speak for all of us in saying thank you for a great season and I hope you enjoy the cold, dark, long mornings ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sBXSKBdxXw4/T8wdv7X9PDI/AAAAAAAAAdY/WMapehTDVkE/s1600/dan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fba="true" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sBXSKBdxXw4/T8wdv7X9PDI/AAAAAAAAAdY/WMapehTDVkE/s320/dan.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br />
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</div>Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-33214316030003900452012-05-10T09:21:00.001+10:002012-05-10T09:21:18.856+10:00Noosa Winter Festival<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US">The domestic triathlon season may well and truly be over for another year but there is no shortage of races on offer and the weekend just gone has been a perfect example of that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you ever needed an excuse to escape to Noosa for the weekend the weekend just gone was the perfect excuse, with the Noosa Winter Festival in full swing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, some will probably argue that this weekend coming would be even better with the Noosa Seafood and Wine Festival taking over <street w:st="on"><address w:st="on">
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<span lang="EN-US">Never the less, a group of DAT athletes had already committed to the Winter Festival so the Seafood and Wine will have to wait for another time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The weekend offered any number of swimming, cycling and running events to suit athletes of all abilities but the events of choice for myself, Ryan Fisher, Tom Ryan, Robbie Mullins, Maddi Allen and Anna Coldham were the ocean swim on the Saturday morning of either 1km or 2km distances and the run held on the Saturday over either the half-marathon or 10km distance.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Personally it was a last minute decision to compete once I’d gotten over having a bit of the flu earlier in the week and was heading up there more so for a solid training weekend, like most of the others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I can pretty safely say that running a half-marathon is always going to hurt and the subsequent DOMS are sure to put a bit of a dampener on the next few days!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The ocean swim was held on the Saturday morning and it was myself, Ryan, Tom and Maddi tackling the 2km event in the elite categories and Anna and Robbie tackling the 1km event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In all the years I have been competing in triathlons I have actually never competed in an open water event so it was to be a first for me. Standing on the start line surrounded by some of Australia's finest open water swimmers in the Grimsey brothers was somewhat intimidating but perhaps even more intimidating was having the elite women starting just two minutes behind us! After hanging onto the feet of the front group for as long as possible I soon found myself swimming the remainder of the course without much company until the final stretch where I was catching the wave that started ahead of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After finishing the race I found out that both Ryan and Tom had been in a similar situation, all be it hanging on longer than what I had and none of us were present to witness what I am discovering is a fairly common occurrence in open water swimming, a Grimsey clean sweep of the podium wit Trent taking the victory over brothers, Codie and Ridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t until later on when the results were actually released that the three of us had been well and truly beaten by Maddi who finished 7<sup>th</sup> in the elite women’s race.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">In the 1km event we had both Robbie Mullins and Anna Coldham competing. Robbie covered the course in 19:35 while Anna went through in 17:52.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I wouldn't have thought the swim would take that much out of us, being used to continuing on with a ride and a run but the remainder of the day was taken up with plenty of much needed rest in preparation for Sunday's events. But that wasn't before breakfast in Noosa where we were lucky enough to run into Bondi Vet Chris Brown and get a photo with him!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The Sunday was the running events with myself, Ryan and Robbie lining up for the half-marathon and Maddi the lone DAT representative in the 10km event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the boys the aim was to tackle this as more of a training event and to get through the distance without any hiccups (and considering my last half-marathon resulted in a stress fracture this is not as simple as it sounds!) but needless to say there is a competitive streak in all of us that takes over at times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The results show that me and Ryan finished 10<sup>th</sup> and 11<sup>th</sup> respectively in times of 1:16:01 and 1:16:05 but we both ran very different races.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took the first lap out fairly solidly and went through the first 10km in about 35:00 before backing it up somewhat whereas Ryan went out slower but brought it home over the last 10km in just under 35:00 and given any extra distance we would’ve crossed the line together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> I haven't included the data file from the race from my Bryton Cardio35 for a couple of reasons; firstly I haven't actually had a chance to look at it myself yet and also because I am just in the process of finalising a review on this watch and thought it would be good to include some files with that so keep a look out for that in the near future. </span>Robbie also ran a very controlled race to finish in a very respectable time of 1:35:22.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the 10km event Maddi finished in a time of 40:23 to just miss out on her goal of cracking that 40:00 barrier but still managed to record a 10km PB, be it fresh or off the bike.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">That brought the weekend of racing to completion and with a stunning day on the sunshine coast there was no better way to enjoy it than by lazing around on the beach for the entirety of the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a very solid weekend of training/ racing that has cured those competitive urges within all us for the time being before we look to tackle the next winter challenge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For myself there are likely to be a few more half-marathon events in preparation for a debut in the Ironman 70.3 distance in the coming months whereas Ryan will be leaving us shortly for his European stint of training and racing that begins in two weekends time in China.</span></div>Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-88409964217974799002012-04-27T21:14:00.000+10:002012-04-27T21:14:06.914+10:00Hervey Bay Triathlon<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">My initial plan had been to compete in the Luke Harrop Memorial Triathlon last weekend but the opportunity to compete in an Olympic distance event was just too good to turn down. And after only what could be best described as a disappointing season thus far, the possibility to turn this upside down was at the fore front of my reasoning. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's fair to say that my training has been somewhat on the backburners and slightly neglected since Mooloolaba Triathlon due to some extra work commitments but never the less I was ready to race. The weekend was off to a great start before it even began with the ever hospitable crew involved in running the <a href="http://www.herveybaytri.com.au/" target="_blank">Hervey Bay Triathlon</a> offering to accomodate me in one of the local hotels for the weekend. Even the 300km drive, while it wasn't riveting entertainment was more than enjoyable.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The race offers some fairly significant prize money with a prize pool totalling over $32000 with the winner taking $2500 in cash plus $500 in prizes. And with this sort of money up for grabs there was always going to be some solid competition. Early in the week the name that I'm sure everyone was quick to recognise was Clayton Fettell and being one of the fastest swim/ bikers in the sport I knew it was going to be a fast race. However early Saturday morning he had to withdraw from the event and while this may have been somewhat of a relief to many of the other pro male competitors it was soon changed as news travelled through that Pete Jacobs was throwing his hat in the ring. It wasn't the biggest of fields but the quality was high with Pete and myself lining up with Joey Lampe, Tim Reed, Callum Millward, Marc Widmer and fellow DAT training partner Luke Farrell amoung some of the names on the start list.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Saturday night before the race I was treated to a great meal at one of the local Italian restaurants courtesy of the winner of the Pier to Pub Ocean Swim Classic, Codie Grimsey and race organiser, Darren Everand and his wife while we shared many stories and had a great night. And on a side note, Darren is also running in tomorrows election so all the best! A very smart man who I'm absolutely sure everyone could learn a great deal from :)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Come Sunday morning we couldn't have really asked for better conditions with the water as calm as any swimming pool I've ever swam in and the sighting of the swim markers made even easier with the massive helium balloons attached to them. With such a small field the start of the swim was somewhat calm in comparison to some of my last few races that have had well over 60 testosterone fuelled guys all fighting to be first to that first turning can. There was little to no contact between any of us as we all settled into our positions as we navigated our wa through the course. While I wasn't at the front of the field that was being lead by Joey Lampe I was well within contact and sitting rather comfortably on the feet of Tim Reed for the majority of the swim. Exiting the water I had one of my fastest transitions and was out of there quicker than ever and set my sights on chasing down the few athletes that had got out ahead of me. I was quickly joined by Tim and Callum as we reeled the athletes in one by one. Soon there was only Joey and Pete ahead of us but after about 15km we caught Pete but Joey still had a sizeable advantage. We were by no means riding slowly with my bike time being the second fastest of the day at 57:58 but Joey was just a class above us clocking a very impressive 56:50! Towards the final stages of the bike I wasn't exactly sure how my running legs were going function because these guys had certainly made me work just to stay in contact but I was certain that I wanted to give it a red hot crack and made sure that I moved my way to the front for the transition. Again I had a super quick transition and was out of T2 well ahead of Tim, Pete and Callum. Unfortunately my Bryton Cardio 35 (I'll have a review of this watch coming shortly) struggled to pick up a GPS signal but I felt as though I was running pretty well but after about 4km I was caught by both Tim and Callum and then again at 7km by Pete. By this stage I was really starting to feel the effects of my lack of training but wanted to push as hard as I could to the finish. Unfortunately I just didn't have the legs to go with any of these guys and had to settle for 5th place behind a very impressive start to finish victory by Joey Lampe followed by Tim Reed, Callum Millward and Pete Jacobs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">The race was a significant improvement on my last few races and I have walked away with a lot of confidence in what I am doing in training and being able to transfer that to racing performances, in particular in this non-drafting format. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Once again I must thank all the organisers of the event for putting on such a great race and for looking after me for the weekend. The weekend was topped off in fantastic fashion as I was not only joined for the 300km return journey by Codie Grimsey but upon my return I was able to not only share my stories but hear the stories of my fellow training partners from their successes at the Luke Harrop Triathlon at a BBQ to mark the end of the domestic season and a very successful one at that for so many of my closest training partners :)</div>Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7174154872811884637.post-17442649541055508272012-04-27T17:47:00.003+10:002012-04-27T18:59:01.542+10:00Luke Harrop Memorial Triathlon<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US">While I couldn’t have been any further away from the Gold Coast and the Luke Harrop Memorial Triathlon I thought it was still worthy of a short blog entry for a few reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Firstly, it is a race that means so much to so many people and had extra significance being the 10<sup>th</sup> anniversary. Secondly, with some special performances from many of our DAT athletes I just couldn't let this race slip by without a mention.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US">Rumors and speculation were rife throughout the week with the possibility of certain members of the DAT family coming out of retirement for only the second time since the 2009 world championship race on the Gold Coast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The trash talk that followed when the rumors were confirmed that the one and only Dan Atkins would toe the start line were nothing more than entertaining to say the least!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dan wasn’t the only person making a comeback to racing, with Emily Bevan making her return following a lengthy layoff with a stress fracture to team up with Katie Atkins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Needless to say the stakes were high and the winner of this battle would have bragging rights for some time in the Atkins household.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US">The winner of the battle was somewhat divided with Dan’s overall time beating that of Katie and Emily but Emily’s swim and bike times combined were faster than that of Dan’s and it is a sure sign that Emily’s recovery is well and truly on track and it won’t be long before she is lining up to complete the full race herself and I’ll go out on a limb and say beating Dan as well! Together Katie and Emily also claimed the title of the fastest female team of the day so I'll leave it up to everyone else to decide on the winner of this battle...</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US">Moving on to the main event, Ryan Fisher was representing DAT in a large open men’s field and although he was pushed all the way on the swim and bike by some of the strongest in the sport, he showed his class once on the run to win in convincing fashion and in doing so also claimed the Luke Harrop Bursary for the second year running.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also in the open men’s field was Angus Gibson who raced strongly to finish in 14<sup>th</sup> position and will surely enjoy his weeks off training after a very long season in the junior elite national series.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US">Similar strong performances occurred in the open women’s field with none other than Maddi Allan leading the swim out in her normal fashion and holding strong throughout the bike and run to finish the race in second position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Following closely behind her was Holly Grice and besides her third place was probably more proud that her overall time was faster than that of Dan and has given her bragging rights for the time being.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US">In other results, Brittany Dutton claimed a familiar victory in her age group and being the 10<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the race picked herself up $100 for her troubles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Dave Sangster just missed out on the prize money to finish in 2nd position and a very impressive 36th overall. Robbie Mullins again managed to better Dave's result to finish 25th overall in a super quick time and 4th in his age-group. Similar to Robbie, Rob Murdoch is on the improve with every race he enters and is probably on the hunt for more races to continue this trend after finishing 8th in his category. Dave Kelly added an impressive 5th place to his seasons results.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">It was a great day for DAT down at the Luke Harrop Memorial Triathlon and one that will surely be on the calendar for years to come but unfortunately for myself it was one that I had to give a miss this year, instead choosing to make the journey up to Hervey Bay to compete in the Olympic Distance race on offer that will have its own story up for viewing very shortly. :)</span></span></div>Nicholas Hullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17997266002705944910noreply@blogger.com0