Sunday, January 27, 2013

The 2013 Plan

For a while, JP had a bit of banter going in terms of long term goals. By and large, we were thinking of meeting in both Vegas and Kona before our time was up in m25-29. Finally, in October 2012 at MP's insistence, we bit the bullet:

The road to Vegas will begin this year. After IM Melbourne is -hopefully- under my belt, the focus will go towards really improving my short distance speed and HIM racing. At this point in time, I am thinking I will try to compete in one or two local 70.3's at the end of 2013, in Port Macquarie 70.3 and/or Shepparton 70.3 and/or Canberra 70.3, as well as the "A Race" for next season: Auckland 70.3. Audrey has said she will also compete in Auckland -which is really exciting- as we are planning to meet MP and JP there to race it together! 
Qualifying in Australia for Vegas is, apparently, not too difficult according to most Trannies. Ironman 70.3 Worlds just doesn't have the same prestige as the Ironman World Champs in Kona. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it feels a bit like among amateur triathletes all roads lead to Kona. Afterall, it is the spiritual home of triathlon and hallowed ground for any triathlete, myself included. Consequently, qualification for other Championships -such as Vegas- isn't as highly sought after. 
In any case, the goal will be to try to punch my ticket to Vegas late this year at one of the local 70.3's. I'd prefer to have it out of the way for Auckland and really just try to have fun there with JP, MP, and Audrey.

Adios. 

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Race Report: Elite Energy Nowra Triathlon

trinowra - Triathlon Festival
Sunday January 13th was my first race in a while. It showed. 
I wanted a local race to blow off the cobwebs and get a feeler for my fitness. Nowra, being 10 minutes from home, was perfect and I'd heard that Emo's Elite Energy crew puts on a good show. 
Being me, I didn't taper or rest and came into the race a bit flat. Well, I'm not building for that race so I'm not too concerned. My time wasn't very flattering thanks largely to a very bad swim. But I limped in to finish 25th position overall (17th AG'er behind the Open's), passing a few guys on the run. 

Swim: 30:02   Wow. Worst. Swim. Ever. Couple of things here. It was the culmination of a few things outside of my control, such as, questionable course accuracy, non-wetsuit conditions, a roaring tide and jellyfish stinging the be-jeesus out of everyone, and my own form. Since arriving in Australia my swimming has been poor. Can't offer an explanation other than I've been doing way too much long aerobic stuff and need to get into a few solid speed sets with lots of 25's, 50's and 100's. It just felt like my turnover was poor and my form ordinary. Oh well. 

T1+Bike+T2: 1:08:23    Not bad, but not great. It was my first ride on my new Teschner 703 TT rocket. That was a lot of fun but perhaps not a great idea. I hadn't had the chance to tweak my fit and I believe I have over-torqued the crank resulting in a lot of extra resistance. I'll take it into Ultimate Cycles and have the guys give it a good tune up and I'm sure it'll be ready for some lightening splits very soon! Not much else to report on that front. I haven't been doing any structured riding in a month or so. Time to start incorporating more intense race-pace efforts into my rides. I suppose I can't be too upset with this ride. 




Run: 38:50  Good. Have only done a few tempo runs since last season so it was good to see I can still hold a harder pace comfortably. Room for improvement though, here. I need to stop doing a lot of my runs right off the bike and focus on getting the quality of some of those runs up. 



Next race is potentially Elite Energy's TriOrange event on February 3rd. If not, I'll be in Huski for the Pearl Izumi Huskisson Long Course on February 17th.

Special thanks to Brendan and Luan from O2 Creation Australia for getting my sharp new kit to me on time!