National Duathlon Champs

With just under a month to World Champs and only a week before heading to our pre worlds camp in Gold Coast i was in need of a good hard race to remind the body of what it has to go through in a months time. National duathlon champs seemed to work in well with the plan and although not quite ideal without being a tri it was the best we could do. Plus there was the added bonus of getting to spend a week at home before heading away, something i haven't been able to do a whole lot this year.
Leading into the race my coach, Silas Cullen, was doing his best to smash me, the Monday before i was starting to put myself into a bit of a hole with training which isn't the most ideal.I'm quite a fan of  heading into races feeling tired and a bit overdone a week out but this was pushing those limits.

I had it drilled into me for the race that it wasn't important and there was no pressure what so ever to perform but once you get to race day it somehow becomes World Champs and all you want to do is go for the win.

Conditions in Taupo were not the best resembling something more like the tropical Dunedin that i had been hoping to escape.
Standing on the start line with only a small piece of lycra covering the body was a wee bit chilly to say the least. I held off taking my jacket off till the 1min to go call. It was now game on!!
The gun went and straight away 2 guys broke off the front taking it out in a rather smart pace. In my head i had fugured out that anything faster than a 3.06 to start was just too fast for me so i took my time to try and run up to them, catching them just before the first km. From there i was quite keen to sit on and not get any wind in my face till at least halfway through the run but they started looking round at me to do some work and i somehow found myself on the front.
Coming up to the top end of the course where we picked up a tail wind our little group was down to two and i was starting to stretch the other out. I let the legs go down the back straight and managed to pull away running my 3rd km in a 2.50. Not quite the place i wanted be, i was looking much more for sitting in and breaking last lap or so but i was committed so went for it.
I found some good rhythm and kept working away, by the end of the run coming 2mins clear of 2nd and going through the 10km mark in 32, was after a bit quicker but considering the conditions and course was a good hit out.

Out onto the bike and i immediately started to push hard knowing the others would be after me. I was doing well not losing much time but by about 9k into the bike my calves decided they weren't going to play ball cramping up on me. I started stretching before all the corners to try nurse them. Still not conceding too much time on the 2nd lap i had my fingers crossed i was going to get away with but as the calves got worse my power dropped significantly and the 3rd lap the wheels started to fall off.

Coming into T2 i had been passed by 2people one individual and one team. Transition was slow as i tried not to put my legs into any funny positions that would make my calves go again but as i started the run my calves had got so tight that i couldn't get any spring in my step and i mars well have been running backwards.

Coming away with 3rd overall, bit disappointed being the 10km wonder and not much else but it shows i'm on track for worlds and coming into some good running form the fact my 10km run is at the end should help the cramping on the bike issue.

From here i'm off to the sunny Gold Coast for 2 weeks for our pre worlds camp to try and find that little bit of something to help me on my way for world champs

Budapest Race Report

World Champs day came and it was definitely time for a change in luck, not a lot seemed to be going in my favour, an early knee injury before leaving limited my bike training to the indoor trainer, a bit of a sad race in Lausanne and then getting sick the week before race week.

It would be fair to say that I was definitely feeling the pressure of my first triathlon worlds and my nerves were going into overdrive. I believe it was showing. It was really good to have numerous chats with Mental Pete, our psychologist, and a fair few reassuring words from the coaches.

It eventually came time to leave and we headed down to T2 to sort our stuff out, something quite different to usual races as we usually have only one transition area. I managed to keep myself from getting too nervous which was awesome. T1 was a bit of a mess as the officials weren't keeping to the times they had set for everything but not letting it phase me too much worked my warm up around it and managed to get a decent swim warm up in.

Wasn't long till we were called to the pontoon individually and I was near last to line up on the start. My start number proved to be quite lucky giving me a start on the favourable side for the swim. First time starting off the pontoon, but I got away nicely.

I wasn't feeling too amazing in the water but Tim Brazier and I had done a bit of technique work over the last week and I think that got me through with a good swim. It was quite a clean swim for me getting round the buoys without getting into too many fights, coming into the last buoy I had my first sighting to see where I was sitting and I was for sure sitting on the back of the first pack, success at last, luck was coming my way!

That was until T1 having quite possibly the worlds slowest transition struggling to get my left arm out and watching helplessly as the pack was leaving. I drove hard out of transition missing the small break that happened but not to worry this was world champs and here people will do absolutely anything to get back on. We worked awesomely together with one train going I probably was only on the front for max 6sec as everyone was helping out and we made contact in no time.

The call before the race due to the technicality of the course was to ride from the front so I positioned myself there for the entire ride not falling outside 10th wheel. The Russian boys were determined to make the ride tough and drove us for the full 20k. Europeans love to ride hard not quite like our racing in NZ where it's a bit of a Sunday cruise.

Coming into transition I fought my way to the front and hit the dismount line first had a beautiful transition and was off! The run started extremely fast and my body wasn't quite up to Tom Bishop's initial pace. The run didn't let up at all; pain was just getting thrashed through my body as I was holding the gap for the first half of the first lap at about 19sec. The challenges were coming from the other countries but I was in some serious pain. Final lap and an onslaught of people came through and from somewhere I managed to lift a bit, pulling back Gosman the Aussie that had got me at Oceania's. I thought I had him this time but he out kicked me in the home straight, I tried but had nothing. Crossing the finish line and my legs just said no more, ending up in the medical tent is always a good place to be after a race.

So far I have only had a small debrief from my coach Silas Cullen, tactically I had put all the right cards on the table to give myself the best chance possible. This was backed up by Mr Gemmel who congratulated me on my race tactics saying that you can only train so much, but reading the race is something you can't train.

14th in the world I guess is not too bad. I was hoping for better but I couldn't have raced any better, so I can't be disappointed with my race.

Thanks to everyone for their support, to Mum and Dad for all the sacrifices they made to get me there and to my sponsors. It was an awesome trip and some valuable experience gained. Lets hope we can do this all again next year.

Budapest!!

Szia!
We've been here in Budapest for a day now and it is really different to anything i have really experienced before. Everything here is extremely old, which is pretty awesome. Just about every street is photo material and the parliament building is spectacular!
Driving into the city was a bit of an eye opener, looked like a scene from a movie with slum areas. Most of the shops look like the stock has been there for 5 years or more, not a particularly interesting shopping scene. All the warnings about the thieves here were proved correct at the airport with a near to first hand experience, one of the Canadian age groupers got their bike box taken and had to chase down the guy, sort of scary really.

Training the last week has been a bit up and down, i ended up getting sick and had 3days of absolutely nothing. I missed out on the team race simulation which i was really disappointed about and the day trip to Constance also had to be given a miss. From there it has been a slow build up back to feeling normal but i'm starting to feel good again. A less than ideal build up but that's life and at least it isn't this week, no time to dwell on that kind of thing. Running has been not bad, legs have been a little average but apparently that is a good thing they don't want to be firing quite yet.
There were still some hard miles put in and that was the main thing not a lot can really happen between now and the race.
First day of training here in Budapest and the cycling is rubbish, it is near impossible to get any sort of a training ride in due to all the traffic and traffic lights around. Our 20k ride today took us over an hour so looks like we'll be on the indoor trainer till the race. The training facilities here definitely go against the old nature of the city the pool we trained in this morning was awesome and it was only the warm up pool for the swimming complex.

ITU released the start list with everyones numbers today and i drew 74th all the other guys seem quite far down as well but it's all a much of a muchness as we're not ranked so we don't get to choose our start positions on the pontoon. There are 79 in the race so i'll be on one of the sides.

That's it for now hopefully i'll be onto it enough to write another post before the big day but if not wish me luck

Pain Train

 Hard training was promised and it has for sure been delivered.  I’ve been a passenger on the pain train for a few days now and am yet to get off. It would be fair to say I’m stuffed! Although other words would describe it better. The last few days have been all go with some hard bike efforts one day, a killer of a swim the next, a nicely broken 5km run TT tailor made for hurt and finished it off yesterday with more bike efforts. Living the dream they say, living the hurt explains it slightly better, but enough moaning on a whole it has been awesome. Training with all the guys here really brings you up to a new level and there is absolutely no room for slacking off.

The typical day consists of 1^st breakfast  morning training generally our key session for the day, 2^nd breakfast, a sleep then secondary training, lunch, possibly another sleep and if we’re lucky a massage (although that could be debated whether or not it is enjoyable). Dinner here is a bit of a spectacle, we’ve been split into groups of about 4 and cooking for 20 athletes means good times had by all. A few ooh ooos crept in through our meal. Sadly I don’t think we won master chef for this week.

You really know you’re in an elite athlete environment when the casual quiz night turns into something similar to the Olympics and the term sore loser could probably apply to most around here. The Nightly card game also seems to be slightly firing up and just quietly I think I have been one of the most consistent performers, although Marty would be a big contender.

From here I’ve got a couple of easy days before our race simulation, will be trying to get rid of a small cold and trying to get as much sleep as possible.

Lausanne triathlon

Well what can i say first race since March and well...The result looked good on paper, i came 2nd to round out the NZ 1,2 in both the womens and mens races, showed when i got messages from my flatmate on the good performance. Eddie Rawles, my room mate pulled out a good performance and showed he is in good form, the U/19 team is looking fierce.
Myself well i raced average. I really struggled to get going right from the start, the gun went and i got clear water almost straight away and moved across for some feet to draft off. I felt good in the water but just not able to put myself in any pain, 3rd place out of the water not bad but improvement is needed. A long run to and through transition about a 1km or more it was massive!! Welcome to European age group racing (1800 people competed today!). I pushed hard and had the fastest transition leaving 12sec down. From there the race continued in the same fashion riding strong but not able to hurt. This mixed with a crash on lap 1 led to a shocking bike split. Luckily hay bails are soft so no damage to me or the bike. Well kinda  a badly buckled rear wheel let for a lot of wasted power. Out on to the run and where those running legs went, well your guess is as good as mine. Battling the way through i managed a podium place, not bad nice prize of a day skiing, pity there's no snow
On the whole a flat day, but could be partly due to the travelling and the fact that this race was given zero preparation and importance.

Now the most important part, what can be taken and put into positives. A reasonable swim effort technique was good and i didn't lose a lot of time especially considering i had no feet to skip between. My first section of my bike was strong and for the run i may have beaten myself up about it but 2nd fastest run split on a bad day is not bad especially when it would have given me 22nd fastest in the Elite men run times.
Positive feedback from Greg Fraine when looking at the power data

Mens Elite teams race this afternoon shaping up to be an exciting one. Back to the NZ base in  Germany for a few more hard hours, will be for sure climbing into the hurt box, but hey no pain, no game.

I have finally left NZ which is a relief all the uni work gone for a month, well kinda. It's kind of hard trying to prepare with recent races being abroad but i think i've managed to do enough. However all the cramming had a bit of an impact on my training, the enthusiasm and energy being put into training was lacking, however that seems to have picked up in the last week and the old legs seemed to have come back.

On Tuesday i started the big trip, packing seemed like a bit of a mission and as always something has to be left behind luckily only shoelaces not too much of a sought after thing. We seemed to be travelling in style courtesy of Mr Sheldrake managing to get us into the Koru lounge at each airport, i swear a couple of kilos managed to sneak in there.

We eventually ended up in Frankfurt and had the first proper airport experience with bike boxes and bags. Thanks to  Penny Hayes we had our entertainment covered, yes we were away for a month but 68kg is a just a little bit excess. Along with the incident of her bike box tumbling the entire way down the escalator.

6 hour train ride later and we've now ended up in Lausanne, Switzerland. Amazing place that is with some of the best landscapes i've seen.
Unpacking the bike is always a nervous moment and rightly so, my bike box came out open and my pedals and allen keys seemed to have fallen out somewhere on my travels. Just an 80franc replacement and i was back on the road.

Only 1 day till the next race, feeling quite excited and slightly nervous considering i haven't raced since March lets hope the body still remembers how to go to that special place.