Health Net Mossman Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

First of all this swim was really long as the two bouys we went around were the closest to the shore and were the widest point of the apex. From talking to my coach who also organised the race the swim time was 4-5 minutes slower for the good swimmers than last year.

There was no way I was swimming 2.00 100 yds. I would think I was closer to 1.45/100's. Also the long run to transition was included in swim time. So I think with the beach run included I probably would have done about 28 -29 minutes if we had raced the original course.

The swim was two waves, Women had a 5 minute headstart then the men. We lined up in two groups on the beach, A group directly in front of the buoy and a group to the left of the buoy, I went to the left and stood in the centre in the second row. The start was fine then the carnage happened when the two groups met at the first buoy there was bodies everywhere I made sure I didn't back off and went for the inside line on the buoy, got hammered in the washing machine of bodies but I fought my way through it without to much damage.

The parallel swim to the shore was tough there were big swells and it was rough. This suited me as coming from a Surf Livesaving background I am comfortable in the swell. It was however disconcerting as you couldn't see the far buoy to round until at least 300 yds of swiming from the first buoy. But I did well and hit the buoy pretty much in a straight line both times.

I got really hammered by a big guy I was drafting him and next thing I know I looked forward to sight and he did the same thing and he slowed down and let an almight heave of a breast stroke kick he hit me directly in my shoulder. Today I can barely lift my arm and I have a huge bruise but it could have been worse. If he had hit me in the face with that kick I would have been in trouble. Rest of the swim was pretty good after that point on the second lap I started catching a lot of the ladies and settled into a nice three stroke breathing pattern.

(Official Mail came out from the organisers saying this swim was approx 1.2 miles, I have update my report to reflect)



I have done a huge amount of work on my swimming it is however still my weakest leg. I was bang on middle of the pack. To be honest this was a tough swim, which I came out of OK, Plenty of room for improvement though. I don't feel despite the conditions I expended to much energy. I went hard and never gave an inch to another male swimmer which was the plan and made sure on the second lap I didn't run over or bump any of the female swimmers.

Well I had the 2nd fastest bike to swim transition in the whole race so I guess I have to rate this Good and this was in my road shoes. I just brought a pair of Trivent Tri shoes so I would even expect this to decrease further.

Nothing

I stripped everything of my bike and only took one bottle of gatorade and one very small bottle of water for my GU's. I wanted it to be as light as possible to give me a chance against the tri-bikes. I had my bike serviced and it felt really dialled in.

My bike strategy was to race to my heartrate and stay at 90-95% of LT for the race and attack the corners and the hills. The first lap I took fairly easy it was really starting to pi*s down with rain I tried to bring my hear rate down as it wouldn't come out of LT. The second lap I really cranked it up I was flying I was hammering the corners and on the steep incline I went past 10 or so people my HR was sitting nicely at 90% of LT, It almost ended in disaster I flew around a corner doing about 17mph and went into a skid slide across the other side of the road fishtailing and almost hit a guy on a Kuota Kalber coming back up the other way. If I had been in my aero bars I would never of held this. I was a little shacken up but carried on hammering it. Got to the end of the second lap and realised I was going to come well under my target time for the bike. I think subconciously I dialled down the speed then (Yes Adam you were right I need to be more agressive in my goal setting). The conditions were treachourous and I noticed I was going slower as my heartrate was only at 85% - 90% of LT. I saw a couple of crashes on the third lap and was a little more hesitant on the turns (Two guys in my team crashed one is badly injured and is still in hospital with a broken hip bone). I was on track for about a 1.19 bike time at the end of the second but anyway I can't fault my ride. I was strong and fast and agressive and got passed by no one in my AG and made a lot of positions up.

Oh - Just recalled on the third lap I hit a squirrel, No idea how I didn't fall off the bike this girl was behind me. When we came into transition she was yelling at me "I can't believe you hit that squirrel and didn't fall off" She was a hottie so I just kind shrugged it off and said no big deal. (In reality I had no idea how I stayed on the bike just luck)




I could have gone faster and should have gone faster, I have done a huge amount of training on the bike. Just hammering myself up and down hills with better riders than myself. Ideally I should have hammered it harder on the third loop, I was well on track to average 21 - 21.5mph on the course.

Had an awesome flying dismount, My transition time was 57 seconds which was 55th place overall. For some reason I couldn't rack my bike. kept falling off. Used the rubber laces in my running shoes for the first time these things are awesome.

Ah use my brain and actually realise I have to put both breaks levers over the bar at transition.

I had the run time at 45.26 according to my watch I think they may have put some of my transition time into the run segment. Based on my watch my mile pace was 7.18 miles.

Ran out of transition and felt as fresh as a daisy, I have been doing a lot of brick running and hill/trail running so my legs were strong straight away. I planned to -ve split the run which I did. For what ever reason I just couldn't get my legs to turn over fast I felt like I could run forever. In the race I passed quiet a few people including two guy's in my AG and got passed by 2 - 3 people who weren't in my AG so I just let them go.

The second lap for me was uncomfortable. It was incredibly humid and the rain had stopped. I had taken so little fluid in on the bike as I only had one bottle of Gatorade as mentioned and I started haing stomach issues. My plan was to take a lot of fluid in on the run. This didn't happen as the cups were very small. I definitely picked it up in the second lap but I can run a lot faster than this and am dissapointed in the time.





To be honest I have basically neglected my running and concentrated on my weaker legs. I need to do some speed work and actually average more than 10 miles a week running....My coach told me after the race I need to be running faster than this and I am capable of going a lot faster...

I don't believe in warm downs after the race. But I did clap in the rest of my team mates.


I am not going to be too hard on myself. As this is my first triathlon in 10 years. I have improved my swimming and biking hugely. I think I did get dehydrated I didn't pee for 4 hours. I did feel I didn't leave everything on the course and I could have gone faster.....

Hey I finished 5th out of 29 people in my AG. The third place person in my AG finished 6 minutes ahead of me.

I believe next year I can pick up 6 minutes with the purchase of a tri bike and a lot more work on the swimming/running and biking and a year of competion behind me. 2007 has been a great year for me I have lost 25lbs started back into a healthy lifestyle after 10 years of drinking/eating too much and doing no excercise. As an aside note I was the first one home for my tri group which was great. There were a couple of the faster guys missing but I bet a couple of the guys in there who are faster than me in the individual disciplines so very happy about this, I think my mental strength and my competitivness gives me an edge over most people.....I think next year I will be a real force in my AG and I have to be aiming to be in the top 5.







Awesome race, my coach organised this race and it was part of trifitness the group she runs. The race was really great. The only thing I didn't like about this race is the bike and swim were longer than std Olympic distance course. I think my normalised time for this race if it were std Olympic would have been 2.29 - 2.30...Great race which I enjoyed a bit better weather would be great though...