Race Report: Ironman 70.3 Auckland - Asia-Pacific Championships

Mission accomplished, I'm going to the big dance in September. Some time ago, my good friend JP and I set out to race the 2014 Ironman 70.3 World Champs, and the 2015 Ironman Worlds in Kona, Hawaii. Well, the first part of that pact is now real (for me anyway, JP you had better punch your ticket in April!).

Still holding water: The Contract

I was lucky enough to get the last slot on offer in Auckland on Sunday, and as it was my second attempt, I'm glad I don't have to sit through another roll-down ceremony for a while!

Anyway, short version of the race report goes like this: 7th AG, best 70.3 to-date - first sub 4:30 effort (JUST!), 70.3 WC Qualification.

PRE-RACE

I had a pretty good lead-up to the race, to be honest! After Shepparton, I got stuck into training and nailed the key sessions in the last 8 weeks or so without over-cooking my body. I had also spent quite a bit of time in the gym at Jetts Nowra doing some specific functional strength stuff which I think really helped my keep strong form the entire race.

I arrived in Auckland late Friday evening and tried to get a good night's rest but the time difference was frustrating for my body clock (small, but big enough to be annoying when you've got to get up on Sunday at 2:30am on your body-clock's time).

Built the bike up on Saturday morning and went for a quick spin to make sure all was well. This made me pretty pumped for Sunday as the legs felt pretty good and the scenery around Auckland was pretty specky.

In my experience, rice based dishes are the bomb for carbo loading, so I smashed down a whole lot of sushi packed with avocado and salmon for lunch on Saturday - boom. Quick swim at the hotel pool and bed at 9 (only to lay there for a while.. damn body clock!)

RACE DAY

Woke to the alarm and got cracking with coffee and breaky before heading down the street to the race site in my PJ's (yeah, only long pants I brought with me, whatever). Got set up in transition before realising I left my timing chip at the hotel. Not too worry, it was a 15 minute walk and I had over an hour before my start - just a pain in the butt. So walked the streets a bit more in my PJ's.. #yolo.

SWIM: 29:49 (1.9km)

I got to the swim start with plenty of time to spare. The race director had made some pretty solid efforts to give each wave their own race and minimize congestion with 7-10 minute gaps between waves. This gave us plenty of time to warm up and get positioned on the start line for the deep water start.

Pete Murray talked us through a few things (as usual) and laid on a fair bit of his banter (as usual). We good a good start and took off towards the first can which was a few hundred metres straight out. I missed the feet of the front group, and by the turn I was swimming solo alongside another guy.

The course was a simple enough design with a few lefts and a few right turns, but pretty straightforward. Just one section where we headed into the sun and couldn't see much.

I excited the water in the Viaduct Harbour in 29:49 which is a PB 70.3 swim for me. I'm going to chalk that up to excellent conditions and a potentially short course (First pro group was out in under 22, which is exceptionally quick) so it might have been 50-100m short. Anyway, happy with how it went!

BIKE - 2:28:48 (90.44km)

I was pretty excited for the bike course. We were to cross the Auckland Harbour Bridge, do a lollipop loop with a few little hills and a couple of longer climbs (nothing extreme), then head back to do a few laps on fast and flat out-and-back section along Auckland's waterfront after a technical loop around the harbour area of the CBD (cobblestone-like sections, rail tracks, tight turns).

Heading over the bridge, it was hard not to want to stomp the pedals too much and crush the climb. But, in an effort to produce the best overall result I could, I tried to stay at -or close to- my critical power output and not burn too many matches. I got passed by a few guys over the bridge, but they came back to me eventually.

Without doubt, coming back into the City over the bridge was my favourite part - postcard material. Beautiful, sunny and still morning and an epic view - what's better?

Just wow...

I passed a few guys in my category on the bike leg, and knew I had ticked the boxes with regards to my effort, with an Average Power of around 210 watts (bang on 0.8 IF). Still, I have the slowest bike split in the Top 10 so I know where the work needs to be done. Long term goal is to really improve that power output and get my CP above 4w/kg. To qualify for Hawaii that's going to be critical.

The bike, for those who like that sort of thing.

RUN - 1:27:47 (21.45km)

The run has always been my savior. Despite a, frankly, crap year of running, my running was in pretty good knick - I hadn't lost anything since last season, just a bit of conditioning.

I took off out of transition and felt great, ticking off the first few km's around 4 minutes each at a steady comfortable effort. I settled in and ran to that comfortable tempo for the first lap for a 4:05 average.

The first lap wasn't without it's drama, though. I absolutely smashed myself on a pole. Coming out of the corridor set up on the ferry terminal onto Quay St, there were a couple of waist-high posts across the course. There was a guy right in front of me and, a quick glance at my watch was enough for me to totally miss the posts - I hit the deck hard and let's say I'm lucky I didn't make contact a few inches to the left.

I had decided to try gels for the first time on the run, in an effort to keep the calories coming in. I took on two over the first lap and it worked really well. But, I didn't have one early in the second lap and suffered. Between around 13-18kms I was hurting. The pace dropped off and I ran a few km's at around 4:15. I picked up another gel and got stuck into the Coke, and pulled it together to grit the teeth and run the last few kms in hard, under 4-min pace.

I finished the run in 1:27:47 which is a PB for a 70.3 run. Pretty happy with that overall. I reckon I can take a few minutes off that in the next few years between nailing the nutrition and the training.

POST-RACE

Got a massage, some fruit and a protein bar I had packed in my bag. Sat, waited for Audrey and Dan to finish. Plenty of water and chatted with a few of the other finishers. 

Dan and I with out tickets to the Champs!

I destroyed lunch and we got cleaned up and went down to the roll-down ceremony. It was really cool seeing the emotion on the faces on the Kona Qualifiers. Hopefully that'll be me one day (although admittedly I don't know how - they are freaks!).

Our catagory was allocated two Hawaii slots, and three for Mont-Tremblant. Bacon and Gerard took the Kona, and third-place took the first 70.3 WC slot leaving two slots to roll down. It was nerve-wracking sitting there as Pete called through the list. After one guy took the first slot, the last one was put up for grabs. 

Pete asked all the m25-29 guys in the room to come up and front and I think there was 5 or 6 of us. He asked for our times (as the fastest would get it). I knew there was only one guy who could have taken it ahead of me, but I was still sweating bullets. As luck would have it, he wasn't amongst them. The other boys congratulated me and I headed over to drop $450 to WTC for rego - stoked! 

Dan got in on roll-down in m35-39 in one lucky ending to a very ordinary week for him. Too happy for him! Poor old Audrey missed out after getting close, wasn't meant to be I guess.

Now looking forward to seeing JP nail his qualification in either Florida or Mont-Tremblant and keep the contract alive. Meanwhile, Coach Alex will hopefully have me on track to make the changes I need to really hit the next level!

Thanks to USN Australia and Saucony Australia for the great support on this journey, and to all the family and friends who were supporting me near and far - you're all appreciated more than you know! 

Race Report: Ironman 70.3 Shepparton

Reader's Digest Version: Good day, 4:30 and change, 10th m25-29, 60th Overall (1400 competitors), 42nd Age-Grouper. No WC ticket :(

NB: In interest of keeping this race report succinct, I wrote separately about the lead-up to the race HERE.

NB #2: Not many pics at the moment, I'll update soon :)

Lead Up:
This week we had a couple of days of Professional Development at uni - which then I spent Thursday and Friday building my new bike (which was a bit stressful and took trips to no less than four bike shops!). Packed up Friday night, then headed out for a cold one to relax before hitting the hay. 

Saturday was spent on the road, mostly, arriving in Shepparton around 3pm for check-in. Bed early to catch some Z's.

4am alarm. Ugh. We stayed in Benalla, about 45-50 minutes away, and had to hit the road early to make it there on time. Got to transition by 5:30 and got my race morning 'needs' out of the way. Phil announced shortly thereafter there were some changes made to the wave starts, and athletes should be looking for update start times posted around the site. m25-29 were initially set to go at 7:02am - just after the PRO wave - but instead would now be the second-last wave at 7:31! Still don't understand how the waves were re-shuffled like that the night before a race which was sold out for 6 months. Disappointing. This would have a few implications, with the main one being 'traffic'.

Nevertheless, can't stress about things outside of our control - so roll with the punches. I said goodbye to my folks and set about walking over to the swim start. Got to see the first few waves take off. Clayton and Josh stretched out the pro's right from the get-go. On their way around past the start, the lead kayak lead them off course, then proceeded to tell them to backtrack around a can - what a joke - poor girl was mortified. They kept most of their advantage over the main pack, but Hodgy got back on their feet in the process.

Cool and glassy conditions on the lake race morning.

What was evident at this point, was the congestion in the lake, as the boys began navigating their way through large packs of lapped swimmers. It's not a big lake, and to get 1.9km out of it, the course loops around 1.5 times and has a pretty awkward shape, hugging all the lake's edges. 

So my day began there, in the turbid and cold water with 1400 pairs of thrashing arms.

SWIM - 1.9km: 32:01

As I've said, the water was really flaming turbid (that's muddy, for you non-geographers) and pretty chilly (18 degrees). I jumped in and did a quick warm up, but nothing huge. We took off and it was an absolute shit-fight from the horn.

Old-mate Lake. Pretty cramped with 1400 athletes spaced out over only 30 minutes.

A couple of guys lined up on the front row in front of me and after about 10m it was pretty evident they shouldn't have been there. I got stuck behind them for the first 100m or so as the pack took off. Anyway, we merged in to a bit of traffic and began working our way through a lot of slower swimmers from prior waves. This continued and throughout the whole swim it felt like there was always someone to navigate around. 

Anyway, was chuffed to get out, even though my split was a few minutes slower than I hoped for.

Getting out the water with folks.. look at that milkshake of a lake

T1: 2:18

Classic T1 for me - pass people on the run in, lose a bunch of time struggling with my wetsuit and fumbling with my helmet. Quick bike mount and we're off.

BIKE - 90km: 2:24:40

I was really happy with my ride, for once. Without a good prep, I was lucky that the course was very fast and flat (allowing undercooked people like me to get away with it, to a certain extent). 

Having been in the last wave, there was a LOT of traffic on the course. A lot. I passed a huge number of competitors on the first lap - and a lot of them were in packs. For the entire first lap I didn't see a single Technical Official. Just a bunch of wheel suckers. To be fair, there were a lot of folks where were just 'stuck' - not intending to draft, just stuck without anywhere to go. The road was very narrow in certain sections, making it often unsafe to pass.

I know, I know, aero weenies - no disc and not a very good 'turtle' 

I rode to my watts, but was often soft-pedaling to keep a good distance back from those in front, before passing or whatever. A dude on a Shiv Tri and I kept passing each other, taking turns to pace and guide us through the field. He fell off about 10kms into the second lap though. 

Final numbers were 187 AP, 188 NP (i.e. steady effort), IF=0.75, 1605kj of work, and two pisses. I wasn't quite in shape to push more watts, though it would have been nice to get a few extra minutes. Next time.

Oh yeah, new whip was a dream! 

My Garmin shut off (no idea why) for a minute or so, right where it looks like I cut a corner through the paddocks ;)

A few notes on the course: The roads were chip seal, not the quickest, but still in pretty good shape and very consistent.  Some sections were pretty darn narrow. 

T2: 1:59

Fumbled with my socks a bit, but otherwise pretty standard.

RUN - 21.1km: 1:29:28

3 lap course around the lake and along the creek, plenty crowded. Bring it on.
I felt pretty ordinary from the get go. I drank plenty and got in 250g - 300g of carbs on my ride so I knew it wasn't that. Just fitness I think. I due to the stress fracture this year and lack of run prep, it was always going to be a battle. Jog on.

Dem crowds

Lap 1 was probably the toughest, mentally. Felt like it was going to be a long one. There were a lot of people on the course, and on the out-and-back section it was a constant battle getting around people. Most people stuck 'on-the-right', but it's certainly not a course where you can jog alongside your mate two abreast.

Was really cool seeing Terenzo, Bergs and Hodgy heading for home, then being passed by Matty White as he trucked it in for fourth.

Lap 2 hurt the most, physically. Gut was a bit bloated so getting in the coke was a little bit of a struggle. Suck it up. Was feeling the heat quite a bit, too, by this stage.

Lap 3 was the best. My legs felt great for the first half of it and I felt fit for a while, which was fun. I took on a bit of coke at the turn around, gritted my teeth, and headed for home.


 Didn't start my watch until a few minutes into the run. Dem satelites.

Crossing the line was really satisfying. Before the race I was a bit anxious with regards to how I
would actually go, but I was relieved to be able to run an OK half-marathon on crap preparation.

This felt good.

Post-Race:
Off to get some water, protein and a massage (AMAZING!) as soon as possible. Felt pretty good, certainly not too dehydrated like my two previous long-distance races. Mum showed me the tracker, which indicated I had finished 10th in my AG. 60th overall, but only 10th in my AG. So take out the pro field (18), and 10/42 top age-groupers were m25-29 and we only had one slot for the World Champs. Ugh.

I went to roll-down anyway, knowing miracles can happen. Unfortunately (for me), Gerard Wild (1st in m25-29) also showed up and grabbed the slot, leaving the other five guys in our AG a bit heartbroken. But, hope remained as there were 25 slots, and only 28 people who showed up to roll down, meaning only three people would go home empty-handed. After all initial slots were allocated, including two m35-39 slots to a couple of chuffed competitors who finished 69th and 120-something-ith in their age-group, there were four roll down slots. We got an extra one, but old-mate who finished fourth grabbed it. Spewing.

At the end of the day, I'm still very happy with the outcome: I came to lay down all my cards, and I'm confident I got the most out of my body today - I just didn't have the fitness to go to that next level.

Now I've got two-months to prepare for the Asia-Pacific Ironman 70.3 Championship in Auckland, NZ. There will be a lot more spots there, so I'm crossing my fingers I'll get a shot at competing next year in Mont-Tremblant.

Finally, I must acknowledge Shepparton Tri Club and the rest of the team including the fantastic volunteers, and the town of Shepparton and the amazing residents - this was, in terms of atmosphere and athlete experience, one of the best races I've ever been in.
Onwards!

Race Report: Elite Energy Husky Sprint

Rain, cool temperatures and a pretty sleepless lead up. Fun times. It's been a pretty hectic few weeks, busy on my final teaching prac and working weekends meant squeezing in training has been pretty tough. The real test will be next weekend at Shepparton 70.3. Nevertheless, this was a good little hit-out and a fun day despite the weather.

Thanks for pic Mark

Overall result was 15th (out of 398) in the Sprint race, and 3rd in m25-29, with a 1:09 time. Ahead of me were a bunch of fast juniors and consistent dream-crusher Mick Maroney, as well as a number of other studs.

Swim (750m): 11:09. Easy triangle loop in J-Bay. Water looked pretty glassy at first glance, but there was a little bit of swell to contend with. Started in the front row and pushed to keep pace with a few fish. Lost touch ahead of the first can as I drifted off to the right 10m or so, but swam tightly across the next section and exited in 6th.


T1 + Bike (20km) + T2: 38:27 (Actual bike split was 35 and change). Felt much better on two wheels today, compared to Nepean.  I was in the third wave of starters, so there wasn't too much traffic ahead and the biggest challenge was the weather, with a few downpours early on. Cycling still very much a work in progress, but I'm happy with how it felt today. I hit T2 in 3rd.


 Run (5km) 19:32: Didn't quite feel magic, but was able to get along at a decent clip and hold onto 3rd. The kids from the U20 wave were well ahead, so it was pretty lonely for the most part. I saw Mick breathing fire just after the turnaround so I knew he was going to be on my heels if I let up. 3:46/km ave pace just a little quicker pace than Nepean the other week - I just don't have those high-end gears! The course was a touch long, I think - I measured it at 5.23km - but meh, all good.

Looking forward to heading down to Victoria and rolling the dice next weekend!

Race Report: Nepean Triathlon

Headed out to the 'Riff' today to have a run at the 32nd Nepean Triathlon, and have to say -aside from the flaming blisters- I'm happy with today's outcomes.

The Tell-All Trailer: Good swim, flat bike, good run. Happy Steve. Oh yeah, 87th OA, 8th in M25-29.

Feature-Length Version:

If you've been following the sparse updates offered on this lowly slice of the interweb, you'll know I've been dealing with a pain in the ass foot. Back in May, I did myself a doozy and picked up a low-grade stress fracture in my third metatarsal (L). As a result, I've run bugger all in the last 5 months or so, and consequently came to today's race with few expectations.

1km Swim: 15:21. Starting in the same pack as a the pros -including the odd Olympian, Long-Distance Champ, and ITU World Champ- was pretty cool. Those guys went hell-for-leather and the rest of us just tried to hang on as much as we could (probably about 10m). Settled in a chugged along. Pretty straightforward swim (literally) and we were upright before long. 

T1: 2:11. Meh. Wetsuit stuck like glue (suprise, suprise). 

30km Bike: 51:35. High heart-rate, crap power. Pretty punchy course with a lot of turns to power out of. Not a great course for me, I guess. No excuses, just need to improve.

T2: 1:50. Racks weren't labelled from the bike-in gate. As usual, ran to the wrong rack (Classic me). Struggled with my shoes, and off.

10km Run: 37:53. Chuffed with that. Second run off the bike since Ironman Melbourne, and one of the longest runs I've done since May. Such a flat course, it was good to settle in to a rythym and enjoy being passed by the pros. 

When I came onto the course, I was right behind Nat VanCovorden, who was in 3rd and just began her 2nd lap. Before long, Aaron Royle made my 3:45/km's feel very pedestrian - he passed me en route to the W. Appo (Who's on a roll!) then Sticksy ran by, also on the way to podiums. I ended up running alongside Charlotte McShane for a K or so as as she ran into 4th spot (I think she was in the hurt box and didn't care for my encouragement :P), but again - too cool running along with the U23 ITU World Champ! The Gong locals were killing it today.

Thanks to USN Australia for keeping me fuelled and to Saucony Australia for the kicks, as always. Looking forward to having a dig out at Husky in a few weeks then Shepparton 70.3 to -with a bit of luck- get myself a ticket to the 2014 Ironman 70.3 World Championships.

Race Report: 2013 Ironman Asia-Pacific Championship (Ironman Melbourne)

Where to begin? I completed my first Ironman triathlon last week in Melbourne at WTC's Asia-Pacific Ironman Championship. I completed the race in 9:19, finishing 235th overall, and 25th in m25-29 (Link to results).

This is a journey that began, I suppose, with my first triathlon a few years ago - it was inevitable that one day, I would do a 'big one'. 12 months ago, one of my best mates, Jeremy, talked me into signing up for the race. And so, in early April 2012 the journey had a finite timeline.

Jez getting rego'd up

In leading up to the race, I believed I had trained pretty well. I had nailed some good, consistent weeks of 20-odd hours each from the Christmas holidays on-wards, and felt my swim and run form was really good, particularly. Of course, I was a self-coached Ironman first-timer training solo, so my view on training was pretty subjective. After having a week to think about the race and my lead-up, I have learned a lot and would make a number of changes next time, but we'll talk about that later.

Pre-Race: I arrived in Melbourne on Friday morning. Jeremy and I headed down to registration that afternoon, picking up our kits, getting well-wishes from Ironman World-Champ Pete Jacobs, and all that jazz. We picked up my gear -kindly transported by my parents to Melbourne- and Audrey that evening and set about preparing our bags before heading to bed.

The beautiful Teschner 703 ready to go, loaded with USN fuel!

On Saturday, Jeremy and I did our 'warm-up' ride/run on a windy Beach Rd, which would give us a little taste of Sunday's weather. Afterwards, we did our final packing then headed down to Frankston to check in the gear, drool over some of the pros' gear, and get a good look of the chop coming across Port Philip Bay. At this time, there were some rumors of a changed swim course, or even a swim cancellation. We tried not to think too much about it, and headed back to have the 'last supper', and head to bed.

I slept pretty well, surprisingly, but woke to loud gusts of wind outside.We set about having breakfast and coffee before jumping in the car and driving, once again, back down to Frankston.

Jeremy and I before the start.

Breakfast was: a bowl of porridge; 4 squares of dark chocolate; a cup of coffee, and; a banana.

We hit the port-a-loos with plenty of other nervous folks before heading over to do final prep on the bikes. By this time, Mike Reilly was announcing that there would be a shortened swim due to the rough conditions, on a changed course. Jeremy and I, along with plenty of other folks, were pretty gutted. I guess when it's your first one, you want to tick all the boxes. As we would find out though, the race would still have plenty to throw at us.

Swim: 00:27:24 (1500m; 388th OA). It was disappointing enough to have such a shortened swim. The course the RD came up with, though, was truly heartbreaking. Mass start from the beach, hard right turn at the end of the pier, swim out and do a U-turn around a few cans, then head back past the pier, go hard left around a third can, and into the beach with the swell. Great. An out-and-back swim. A mass of swimmers, in chop, going head on at each other. I've no idea what that Swim Course Director had for breakfast. It lead to, first and foremost, dangerous swimming, and secondly, cheating where plenty of folks turned at the first buoy (SEE HERE).

The conditions for the swim

My swim was good, though, and I did actually enjoy heading out in the swell. Despite starting close to the front, the initial few hundred metres before turning was a mess. It was simply too soon to turn for such a big group (HAVE LOOK HERE AT THE START, YOU'LL SEE WHAT I MEAN). I ended up quasi-bodysurfing my way into the beach which was really fun. The shortened course, though, lead to a lot of congestion in T1, and the first quarter of the bike leg.

T1: 00:03:29 (180th OA). Run up the beach, into the tent, grabbed my helmet bag, wetty off, helmet & sunnies on, run out, grab bike, mount and off we go. Easy.

Bike: 05:18:59 (477th OA). Out onto the bike, the course was pretty darn congested. With the shortened swim, we probably had half the field on there in less than 10 minutes. Unfortunately, this lead to a lot of drafting - a lot of it blatant cheating, some of it unintentional and somewhat forced. I can proudly say that I didn't partake in any group riding, and dropped back once passed. I did enjoy some pacing with other riders, though, something I don't often get to do.

Heading out from T1

Climbing out of the tunnel - a good opportunity to have a stand

Loads of folks down at the turn around

The first out section was into a brutal headwind. Going into the tunnel was a real buzz, and heading back with that knarley tail-wind was a lot of fun, on the first lap. This pacing and the buzz of finally being out there racing Ironman, lead me to probably over do it on the bike a little. I went 2:34 for the first lap, and roughly 2:45 for the second. The wind had picked up and was coming across us in a more gusty fashion by the second lap, which was reflected in most folks' splits. That said, I didn't feel quite as strong on the second lap, and the winds were less cooperative.

In terms of nutrition, my trusty bottle of USN Australia nutrition was serving me well, and I found it a really simple way to keep on top of the calories and the electrolytes. In it, I had about 1800 calories of nutrition which, over 5 hours, gave me about 400mg of sodium as well as plenty of other essential electrolytes. I was noticing I had a lot of salt on my suit, something I normally didn't have accumulated after most 5hr rides. Given this, and know the wind had the potential to 'dry us out' a bit, I grabbed a bottle of Gatorade each lap, instead of purely drinking water, to ensure I was getting enough sodium.

Even though I was well aware I had ridden too hard, I was really glad to dismount, and get into the run which is usually my strength.

T2: 00:02:36 (339th OA): Dismount, bike to amazing volunteer, bag handed to me in tent by 2nd amazing volunteer, helmet off, socks on, shoes on, hat on, race belt on, slap on some sunscreen, head out. Done.

Run: 03:27:03 (159th OA). I headed out on my usual long-run pace, about 4:35/km, and felt great. I was passing plenty of folks. The thing with drafting is, it makes a lot of riders ride harder than usual, way out of their comfort zone. There were a lot of overcooked athletes out there. By about 18km, I was still feeling really comfortable, with one exception: my feet. My socks were too thin and it felt like I was quickly getting blisters. It became harder and harder to ignore the pain. There was, also, a huger camber in the road until about 18km at Mordialloc, which may or may not have influenced it.

Feeling good early (maybe because I
was finally leaving Frankston?)

Still holding a decent clip; you can clearly
 see the salt on my suit, though.

At this point in the run, we ran down along a path by the beach and, into the wind. This was the most brutal part of the run, and the wheels fell off a little bit. This was my wall. At aid stations, I was drinking 1-2 'cups' of Gatorade and felt that was my limit, stomach-wise. My thought, then, was that this was the consequence of pushing my effort on the bike. I kept on pushing and walked through the aid-stations, taking my time and making sure to get the fluid in. My pace was slowing, too, but remained under 5-mins/km with exception of walking the aid stations. I stopped twice, also, to have a pee.

Chugging along and feeling pretty ordinary, the crowd kept my spirits up. Everyone -and I mean everyone- who was lined up on the course was clapping, cheering and giving me a shout out. "Looking good Stephen", "Good job Stephen", etc was heard often, and I tried to thank everyone. This was the amazing part of Ironman - the crowd support. Loads of kids wanting hi-fives (which I was happy to indulge) and great support from volunteers and the crowd really kept one going. Not to mention the amazing support from my own family and friends - Jeremy's did Lindsey, in particular, was fantastic as he rode the run course and said g'day every few kms.

Once I hit 32-odd km, it felt like a mental barrier had been broken. Only ten km to go. I've done this a million times. My pace began to quicken, in a relative sense, and I felt great ticking over the kms. From about 3kms out, you could see the finish line, and knowing there was only 15-odd minutes to go, was a real boost. 

I'm not sure where the energy came from, but I picked up the pace and ran in the last km really pumped up and geed up the crowd as much as I could down the chute. It was a lot of fun! I crossed the line in 9:19:33, to finish 235th Overall.  

The finish chute was epic!

What a feeling!

Post-Race: I was elated to be done and went quickly over to grab some water, get a protein shake in and absorb the feeling. I sat on the grass and Jeremy came along not too far behind, crushing it in 9:25. At this point, I was feeling cold, and began to shake a little. I went over to see Audrey at the fence, and, feeling light-headed I decided to make my way to the med tent. They checked and monitored my vitals, which were good, despite my skin temperature falling. I rested up for about 40 minutes (I think?), before being let go once my temperature had stabilised. We went and grabbed a meal and a beer before going home to rest and head back to Sydney on Monday morning.

Elation: we're done!

Feet up in the med tent - the ambos were amazing, thanks guys!

I can say that I learned a lot in this race - more than any other. It's such a different challenge to anything else, Half-Ironmans included.

Before I race another Ironman, I want to get a lot more half-iron racing under my belt, as well as >12months with a Powermeter, which will allow me to train and race much more smartly, and efficiently. At the moment, I'm thinking 2014 in Whistler or Mont-Tremblant, but we'll see. I can say that my bike training was not intense enough. Despite doing consistent >300km weeks, the intensity just was not there. There was too much 'easy' or 'LSR' riding.

In anycase, I am glad to have raced Ironman Melbourne. It was an interesting, challenging and fun event. I hope that organisers can learn from the mistakes of this year's swim, and implement a better strategy in future years should unfavourable conditions arise.

Thanks a bunch to everyone who supported me, and put up with me on the road to the startline. You've all been amazing! Special thanks goes to Audrey, my beautiful wife who has been there with me the whole way, and to my parents who've been great as well.

Teschner Bikes, USN Australia, Saucony and O2 Creation have all been brilliant - thanks a lot for the support and the faith, guys!

Race Report: Huskisson Long Course Triathlon with VIDEO

Short Version: 4:24:22, 10th m25-29, 129th Overall (1400-odd competitors)


Long Version: Every race, I learn a lot. That being said, I am still quite an inexperienced athlete (certainly as far as long course racing is concerned). Ironman Melbourne (no less than 5 weeks away!) is the A-Race for early 2013. Huskisson LC, being only 5 weeks prior to the big dance, meant that having a really good rest beforehand would not be possible. Despite wanting to race well, I would have to 'train through it'. In essence, this would mean a near-normal training week would precede Husky, with a few tweaks, such as cutting out a tempo run and shifting a day forward in the cycle in order to get a full rest day on Saturday. In the end, I gave myself a few easy days on Thursday and Friday, and a complete day of rest on Saturday. I did feel quite well rested and ready to go.  It would be only my second long course race (meaning IM Melbourne is to be only my third!) and the first which would be a "B-Race".




Pre Race: With the roads closed at 6:30, I wanted to get to Huskisson early. We were out of bed at 5am and in the car 40 minutes later, coffee in hand. We got there and set ourselves up on the beach with our picnic breakfast of porridge to watch the first waves go off. The Pro men began at 6:30am, some 2 hours and 20-odd minutes before my wave which was the second last. After a bit of spectating and finishing my coffee, it was time to get into the transition to set up, before it re-closed at 8am. Once everything was set in the transition, and a visit to the can was out of the way, we had time to relax a bit and wait for my eventual start at 8:50am.

2km swim: 31:31. Despite having all the time in the world, I managed to almost miss my start. I had my wetty  half-on, and was sitting around with Audrey and my parents near the transition. I wandered down to the beach only to jump in the water to have a warm up and a piddle. It was then, standing ankle deep in the water that I heard the announcer say 'Next wave, men under 30 and Clydesdales'. Shit. I got to the start line OK, but didn't get a chance to warm up.
We were off and the first few hundred metres was quick as we headed out to the first can. We ran into a lot of folks doing their second lap and, at times, it was a little messy, forcing us to go around a lot of folks. It was easy going for the first lap, but by the second, my goggles had fogged up pretty badly which led to the poor decision of just following some random guys feet as we headed out into the sun again. Mistake. I ended up swimming 50-100m towards the right of the first buoy and had to stop to clear my goggles before restarting. I swam 'angry' for the rest of the second lap and felt like I was moving through a lot of the other swimmers, which was a nice feeling.

T1: 1:59. Small run up to transition was uneventful and I made it to my bike. It took my a little bit to get my wetty off. I must trim the ankles.

83km Bike: 2:26:32. This was the difference between me and the top-5 in my AG. I have the slowest split in the Top-15. On the first lap, things were good and I biked steadily. I did drop my nutrition bottle and had to stop to get off my bike and walk up the road to get it, costing me a minute or so, maybe. Once settled, I thought the second lap would be a bit quicker. Not so. I slowed, in fact. Not because of a lack of effort, or trying, I just didn't have the power. The third lap was a bit better and I was able to pick things up a little. Disappointing. I think it was simply a question of not having an ideal lead up to the race in terms of rest resulting in being flat on race day. All that being said, it was a really fun course with lots of rolling hills. Despite being a touch crowded on the first and second laps with stragglers from the first batch of waves, the TO's did a good job in pinging those who drafted.

T2: 2:00. Socks are slow, but I didn't want to risk blisters with a few important weeks to go.

20km run: 1:22:18. I felt good on the first lap and held a steady pace. There were lots of folks out on the course, including Macca and Paul Ambrose hamming it up with the crowd, and it made for some quick-footed moves around some of the slower runners. I was feeling strong until about 16kms when I started to develop a few nasty stomach cramps. I think I overdid it at an earlier aid station. I stopped to walk and massage them out a couple of times. In the end, I was able to pick it up to a decent clip and finish well.


I'm happy, in hindsight, with the race. I swam well, I cycled OK on tired legs, and ran strongly. I have learnt a lot and now I'm really counting down to Melbourne!

Thanks a lot to supporters and Elite Energy for another great weekend.



Husky Triathlon 2013 from Steve Crossman on Vimeo.

Race Report: Elite Energy Nowra Triathlon

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!

Race Report: Fat-Ass Trail Run a.k.a The One That Got Away

Our good friend JP invited us down to Frankford to run the Batawa Fat-Ass Trail Run this weekend. A weekend chez les Pellerins and a fun trail run wasn't hard to accept! Initially, we were signed up for the 7.5km run (i.e. one short painful loop over and around a ski-hill), but after a few beers Saturday evening, a little smacktalk and a phone call from M-P meant we were all-of-a-sudden running the 17.5km (i.e. one short painful loop + one longer and slippery loop in the mud). Why not, right?

Heading up the first ski hill.

The first 7.5km went well and I led a pack of 5 (including myself) guys around the 7.5km loop. I was working hard and it was going well. I think there were only one or two 7.5km guys ahead of us.

 Onto the 10km loop and my legs started to slacken off, and I lost that 'punch'. The cadence dropped and it quickly became a slog fest to hold onto the back of the guys. Eventually, after sliding my way through puddles and bogs, the experienced trail running guys dropped me and my 5lb water-logged shoes. The 'It-was-a-good-idea-at-the-time-long-run' on Friday evening was catching up to me pretty quick.

A little later on...

I kept on slogging along and dropped the pace off as I was running solo and thought I was no longer in contention for the podium. I headed onto what I thought was an out-and-back section of the 10km race loop. Lots of 10km folks were coming back along the trail, and I kept my right accordingly. Little did I know it wasn't an out and back but a 'lollipop' which went onto a single-track section to loop back. Yeah, I missed that turn. My bad. It's a racer's responsibility to know the course. I ran into a couple of volunteers and they stopped me to tell me the news. We chatted briefly and I turned around to chug it back into the race site. I ended up crossing the line 1st from the 17.5km racers. Those studs who dropped me like a sack of potatoes were running the 25km (i.e. one short painful loop + one longer and slippery loop in the mud + another short painful loop).

JP crossed the line a few minutes later and it turns out he did the exact same thing as me. We went and saw Sportstats and DQ'd ourselves. Turns out we ran the same distance, just missed climbing a ridge on that loop section. A shame as I had a good lead over 2nd place.
It was fun all the same and I had plenty of mud to show for my efforts!

Unfortunately, Audrey found herself in a similar position (leading, or close to it) but fell and hurt her knee. She had to stop for ~5minutes then got back up and limped on, to finish 5th in a gutsy race.