2013 in Retrospect: A Year of Change

The festive season is often a time of reflection, and this year is no different. Rewinding the clock 12 months, and I'd just landed back in Australia and was looking forward to summer, Ironman Melbourne, and becoming a teacher. I ticked all of those boxes and then some.

After a number of years in Ottawa doing the 'same-old', this year has indeed been a roller-coaster on a number of levels - on a personal level particularly, as some of you may know.

Ironman Melbourne in March this year - a massive learning experience.

Most self-conscious moment of 2013: My mug in Australian Triathlete mag.

Athletically, it's been a tricky year with a stress fracture being most frustrating. But, things are looking up as I've made good progress on the bike and my run fitness and conditioning is coming back after a couple of consistent months of regular running. In fact, I've been able to do weekly 90 minute long runs in the last 4 weeks which I haven't been able to do since May. 

Hopefully I can carry some momentum into the new year and make 2014 even better. To help with that, I'll be enlisting the help of Alex Price of AP10. Alex is one of Australia's most respected triathlon coaches and physiotherapists with a long CV which includes work with Olympians, non-drafting champions and the like.  I've been lucky enough to do some riding with the group, based in Wollongong, this year which has - I believe - been key to having the confidence and the ability to ride harder than I ever have. 

On the racing menu for 2014 so far is Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championships in Auckland in a few weeks, Elite Energy Huskisson Long Course in February, and the Wollongong Olympic Tri in March. As you know the main goal for 2014 is racing Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Mont-Tremblant so with a bit of luck, I'll get my slot in Auckland. 

Petrol for 2013

Big thanks again to Saucony Australia and USN Australia for the ongoing support. Being an ambassador for these guys is unreal and I consider myself very lucky to have the chance to work with them. 

As for the rest of the year, anything else is possible! In the meantime, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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!

Pre-Race Report - The Rocky Road to Shepparton

Confidence is knowing what to do when you don't know what to do.

                                                                                                                            - Alan Brunacini

I feel like I know what I'm doing. I'm in tune with my body and I am realistic with my expectations of what I can get out of it. I'll be digging deep on Sunday, no question about that.

Since the announcement -heck, let's be honest, it was before the announcement- that the 2014 Ironman 70.3 World Championship would be coming to Mont-Tremblant, the goal for this year was always going to be getting myself a M25-29 ticket to the big dance.

So, racing a few 70.3 events here in Australia was logical. I contemplated Port Macquarie, but decided it would have been too early to have a good race. After hearing a lot of good things about Shepparton Tri Club's running of the Shepp 70.3, it seemed like a good fit - particularly given I wouldn't need to rush back for work or uni.

I signed up early - back in the New Year - to guarantee myself an entry. Little did I know, I would have a crappy winter. A stress fracture in May meant squat-all running for 6 months. In fact, I've done one long run of 17kms in the last month. Heck, one month ago, I was running 20km a week if I was lucky! After a few OK run splits at Nepean and Husky where I managed 3:48/km and 3:46/km paces for the respective run legs, I'm confident my run legs are still there - for short course at least. We'll find out Sunday just how out of shape I am, as there's no way to hide poor fitness in a Half-Ironman.

Poor fitness? Yeah. I've averaged only 10hrs/week over the last few months and haven't done a long ride (4hrs+) since September (I think, from memory). Simply put, I'm going into this race way underdone on the back of the most inconsistent training period I've had in the past four years. It's a gamble, but I haven't necessarily been able to control the circumstances which prevented me from nailing the important long sessions. We'll see what happens. No excuses, but I may be looking at these factors for answers.

Come Monday, I'll be analysing the rest of the year's plans pending the result. I've already made plans to work with someone going forward, who will hopefully be able to help me get a plan of attack for 2014 and beyond - stay tuned for that!

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.

The Next Elephant 2.0

I would have liked to start this post some a nugget of wisdom about rolling with the punches, or playing the hand you're dealt, but I won't bore you. I'm still on the way back from the stress fracture I posted about a few months ago. It's a slower recovery than I would have liked but I'm confident of a full return to run training soon.

In the meantime I have been busy training my butt off (not literally - it's still there) on the bike and in the pool. Using the PowerTap I got my hands in Autumn, I got busy restructuring my bike training and making inroads into what I perceived to be my weakness - top end and sustainable power on the bike. I can report that I've gained quite a few watts in the last few months which is really pleasing. Also, for those of you who put up with my whinging about not being at 'race weight' and dragging my fat ass around in the off-season, I'd like to share that I've shed ~4kgs since returning from Ottawa. So, upping my power and dropping a bit of weight  makes my Power:Weight (w/kg) ratio a bit less embarrassing! 

I feel I've made good technical progress on my swim stroke, too, over the last couple of months. I'm doing some more CSS training as we head towards race season here in Aus in the next few months, and things are looking good.

I've also made a few amendments to the initial season plan I posted about in May. Here's the new list below! As usual, there might be some tweaks, but the big dances will remain steady. 

• Run Wollongong - October 20th 2013. This is going to be a really fun way to kick off the summer. The Cotton On Foundation is bringing a number of events around Australia to support local communities to improve the health of young people. 

• Nepean Triathlon - October 27th 2013. The OLDEST triathlon in Australia and a true classic on the NSW Triathlon Calender. This is a hallmark event and this year they've upped the pro prize-purse which I think is fantastic - the pro races should be great to watch. Should be an awesome first triathlon of the season in a snappy 1km-30km-10km format. I thought about racing Port 70.3 given it's the Aussie AG Champs, but I reckon it will be a better for the overall season to hold off until Shepp. Still a little indecision here, we'll see!

• Ironman 70.3 Shepparton - November 17th 2013. I'm really looking forward to this one! It's supposed to be one of those big races with a small-race-feel. It will be the weekend after finishing uni so Audrey and I are hoping to spend some time checking out the Snowies afterwards!

• Elite Energy Callala Classic Triathlon - December 8th 2013.On minutes from where I grew up! A new Classic Distance this year from the guys at Elite Energy should be a lot of fun. 2km swim in Jervis Bay, 60km bike on Forest Rd (I rode that road a lot in training for Ironman Melbourne!) and a 15km run in around Callala and Myola - should be a cracker! 

• Ironman 70.3 Auckland - January 2014. This is a big one for us - Audrey's first 70.3 and a big crack for a Half-Ironman World Championship qualification slot. Should be brilliant! Also, Aotearoa is calling us for a visit!

• Pearl Izumi Long Course Triathlon - February 23rd, 2014. We're staying put the entire summer (mostly) so I feel I can commit to some 2014 events! I felt I left a lot on the table here in 2013 (mainly on the bike) and want another crack on this stellar course! (Just chuck m25-59 in an earlier wave Emo! PLEASE!) Here's a video I made of last year's race:

Husky Triathlon 2013 from Steve Crossman on Vimeo.

• Elite Energy Wollongong Triathlon Festival - March 9th 2014. I wanted to race this badly in 2013 given it was close and it was an Australian AG World Championship qualifier where there would be a few studs. But, it was only 14 days out from Ironman Melbourne and things got too crazy at uni so I couldn't even go to watch, in the end. Now we've moved to the area, should be fun to hammer on this fast course with end-of-season fitness!

Time in the fast lane

Not a swimming analogy, unfortunately (although I have been swimming a bit lately). We've been flat-out the last few weeks. I arrived from Ottawa after a 40-odd hour trip absolutely smashed on a Sunday morning with the worst jet lag I've ever had. After a couple of hours of sleep, I began my second uni semester of the year. That first week was full-on with teaching prac days to make up (becuase I had to jet out early) and uni on the go.

The following weekend, I picked up Audrey on the Saturday morning and we got straight into moving. Fast forward a few hectic weeks and we're still moving, more or less. Living room still a disaster and many things to organise.

Good news is, we're getting there.

Other good news is, the Illawarra is stellar place to train. I've been loving getting out and exploring some new routes. I'm looking forward to getting into a really good routine with training, and getting out more with the AP10 gang, which I really enjoyed on Saturday.

Here's the Royal National Park loop we did (Garmin battery died with 20km to go):
Here are a couple of shots from the last couple of weeks...