Robina Triathlon

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.

 

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.

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.

 

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.

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.

 

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. :)

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DAT Racing HP Training Camp - 2012/2013 edition

 

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 2012 camp 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.

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 :).
 

 

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.

 

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.

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!

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 Bryton Rider 50T was well and truly pushed to the limits throughout the week and got me some valuable data to use throughout the season.

 

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 Hammer Nutrition 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 ;).

 

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 ;)!

 

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!

 

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!

 

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 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, Lé Iron Cave was created.  Be sure to check it out to keep progress on these two ironboys ;)

 

 

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.

 

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.

 

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 Revive Physio 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.

 

 

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!

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