| All about T-rex of Tri |
T-rex of Tri
Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Location: Wellington, NZ
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| Year on year totals |
2003
Swim - 650m
Bike - 1880km
Run - 531km
2004
Swim - 25125m
Bike - 4111km
Run - 1473km
2005
Swim - 139930m
Bike - 6244km
Run - 1510km
2006
Swim - 201462m
Bike - 7665km (A few k on rollers sadly an indoor cyclist now)
Run - 1683km
2007
Swim - 139339m
Bike - 8594km (All outside)
Run - 1494km
2008 - 25/8/08
Swim - 145349m
Bike - 7586km
Run - 1252km
Goals for '08 in distance terms.
None at all, do less mountain biking, stay healthy, have a great winter with lots of swimming and running and smack it hard next year. (Oh yeah, once I've got these pesky 2 Ironmen out the way first). I've seen enough evidence that if I manage to do what my coach tells me then I may be able to make it to the back of the front of the pack instead of the middle of the pack! |
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| Races |
2008 Races
Ironman New Zealand- Taupo, NI
01/03/08
S3.8k B180k R42.2k
Time - S:1:13:08 B:5.20:14 R:4:04:02
Position - 257/1080
Happiness - 9.5/ 10
Great race, very solid result.
Challenge Wanaka Ironman - Wanaka, SI
28/10/08
S3.8k B180k R42.2k
Time - S:1:11 B:5.30 R:5:06
Position - 57/119
Happiness / 10 - 8
Great race, not great result.
2007 Races
K2 Road Race - Thames, Coromandel
28/10/07
B192k - 2300m vertical
Time - 6:54:13
Position - not 1st
Happiness / 10 - 6
Blew up at 100 miles!
Scorching Duathlon
2/9/07
distance 5/20/2.5
Time - 1:18
Position - 8 / 25(ish)
Happiness / 10 - 6
Levin Half Marathon, Taupo
5/8/07
R21.1k
Time - 1:38:00
Position - 83rd Open Male from 300+
Happiness / 10 - 7/10
Not fast but great to finish in one piece.
Wellington Half Marathon
24/6/07
R21.1k
Time - DNF
Position - Last
Happiness / 10 - 0/10
Through 5k in 7 min miles then hit curb and ripped hand up again 
Xterra NZ
15/4/07
B40k
Time - DNS
Position - Last
Happiness / 10 - 0/10
No chance of starting with hand.
Odyssey MTB ride - 300k
8/4/07
B320k
Time - DNS
Position - Last
Happiness / 10 - 0/10
No chance of starting with hand.
R&R series MTB race
1/4/07
B40k
Time - DNF
Position - Last
Happiness / 10 - 0/10
2.5k in and cut hand to smitherenes, 4 days in hospital
Wellington Standard Distance Champs
Very Windy Day - 18/3/07
S1.5k B40k R10k
Time - 2:28
Position - 15 / 60
Happiness / 10 - 8/10
Ironman New Zealand 3/1/07
S3.8k B180k R42.2k
Time - 11:47:42
Position - 395
Happiness / 10 - 7/10
McMillan Memorial Du - 28/1/07
R2.3Mi / B4.6Mi
<30 Mins
2 / 12
9 / 10 - Hello Mr Hurtbox!
Greenmantle Dash Hill Race - 2/1/07
R2Mi
22:47
51 / 119
6 / 10 - downhill poor
Edinburgh NYD - 1/1/07
S400m B11mi R3.5mi
S7:40 B36.59 R27.07 - 1:13:51
23rd of 317 finishers (less some teams) S41, B25, R43
7 / 10
Key:
Distances
Time
Position
Happiness / 10 |
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| Personal Bests |
Run
5k - 19.46 - 25/9/05 (Scottish Aquathon Champs)
5Mile - 32.35 - 26/8/05 (Kilmarnock Trail Race)
10k - 41.12 - 10/5/05 (Troon 10k)
10Mile - 72.21 - 8/5/05 (Deeside duathlon)
1/2 Mara - 91.32 - 19/3/06 (Girvan Half)
Mara - 3:41:21 - 2/10/05 (Loch Ness mara)
Bike
10 Mile - 24.12 - 13/10/06 (Old Loans Course)
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| Calendar 09 - 2010 |
< Sep, 2010 >
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| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
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Tue Mar 09, 2010 6:18 am T-rex of Tri
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Here we go again, another race another report... seems to be what I use this blog for these days, recording memories of races that I do. I guess I don't record the training, it certainly happens, that's for sure. It's the Tuesday after the race that I'm writing this, still on a bit of a high. Not many photos to put on here yet, ASI photo take their time and actually aren't much good, so I'll add what I have but hopefully the 1000's of words in the report will paint a picture.
Prelude
Training went well, 7 weeks between Wanaka and Taupo so a pretty full on chunk of training, upped my running to 2 longish runs a week but hoping to avoid injury only did a max of 2 hours and 5 minutes. It worked to that extent that's for sure.
Did some long rides to give me confidence that my bike was working after the bottom bracket broke during Wanaka. On one of the long training rides my replacement bottom bracket (which was the old one) gave up and so I had a new one in for the race. Sadly I think I've given up on having faith in that bike now so it's time to think about a new one for the future, time to save some money. 
But generally I was feeling reasonable going into the race, anything could happen and I'd set things up in a very similar way to the way that I set up in 2008 when I had a great time, so there were good signs.
Pre-race
In the days leading up to the race there were some thrills and spills, number one spill was my car breaking down and dieing on the way to the race. I got to the desert road from Wairou to Turangi about 1400m in the sky and a knocking noise started... kept going, was going some more and eventually I pulled off the road to "have a look" knowing that I wouldn't see anything. When that happened the car shut itself down never to start again.
I was lucky in that I had mobile reception and a parking space so got the AA along... about an hour or more later they turned up (they'd came from quite far away) and dropped me in Turangi, about 50k's from the destination.
Anyway, the car was shot, 21 years old, so not worth so much and with an engine that was devoid of oil it would have cost more to get it back on the road than it was worth. So that was that.
There it is hiding behind the bus... I figure it's still there.
Thankfully, and this was to become a theme of the weekend I got some help from friends to get to Taupo to help me along the way.
The next couple of days were uneventful, registration on Thursday. Here we are in the queue:
Race pack a bit sparse compared with previous years. I figure each year I've been has been a bit special:
2007 - we got lots of stuff as they were sucking up to us for coming the year after the 2006 debacle of half bike / half run and no swim. And numbers were down.
2008 - 10 years in new location of Taupo
2009 - 25th anniversary.
There were a few things that were a bit cheaper this year, the pasta party didn't have the usual Kapa Haka group who give quite a show prior to the race, there was some shorter cultural stuff and it was good to watch, but for the 4 time competitor I knew it was lacking a little something.
Sleeping on the way to the race was odd... as I just wasn't nervous, slept forever on the days leading in. My only real concern was that I had had a cold in the week before and a practise swim on the Friday had seen me coming out of the water getting rid of yellow stuff from my mouth, so I knew that it wasn't 100% but as close as I guess you'll get.
One notable highlight of the lead in to the race was "Irongolf" as 5 of us Wellingtonians went to the crazy golf in Taupo it was excellent, sadly no holes in one for me but Todd Maddock (pictured) was dominant.
Race day
Race day was cool, got up nice and early and had some weetbix and got ready to go. Unusually I didn't really stuff myself prerace... so often I've been over full going into long races, so just wanted to be sensible with it. The predicted wind wasn't there in the morning and so I was looking forward to top speed with trispoke and disc wheel on.
Highlight for me was my St Andrew's temporary tattoos that I'd had since 2007 from Geoff Earl and decided to use for the first time, they were classy for the day:
Onto the race:
Swim
I really didn't want to be beaten up in the swim this year, I was happy to pretty much swim it on my own as much as I'd give up some drafting benefit it'd avoid being smacked in the face. I think I drifted in and out of the swimmers as it was, but generally I swam to the left of the field but kept a reasonable line.
It was a pb Ironman swim time, not really done heaps of intense training on my swimming so I'm putting it down to some altitude simulation that I had been doing and also to it being a fast swim due to weather conditions, calm out and a slight downwind on the home leg.
I'm sure it said 1:08 when I came out the water but my official time was a low 1:09.
T1 - Ironman New Zealand has a 400m run to transition and so times are long for this part of the race in comparison to other races. I managed to keep up my years old record of not being overtaken in this part of the race, I think barefooted track running might be for me.
I did a long pee in T1 and yet still kept it under 5 minutes, I think the average is usually about 7 minutes for T1 at New Zealand, with the fastest time being around 3 minutes for Terrenzo, so that was fine.
Bike
The bike was mostly uneventful until the wind got up. Sadly there were some real issues with drafting or as I'm sure the people who were doing it will tell you they were "playing the game". I can only conclude that it was people from Auckland who were sitting in groups as my Wellington mates were inevitably on their own when I went past them or saw them coming the other way.
Triathletes really owe it to their sport to stop the nonsense or we'll lose races as we'll not get permits as we are all drafting, I wish some people would take responsibility. Maybe we need to all do a time trial prior to the race and put that number on race numbers, if you're too close to someone with a low number on them then you'll know you shouldn't be there. Some of the people around me really couldn't have been there without just sitting in groups!
Anyway... the wind got up on the second lap of the bike and made me wish that I had been a little more conservative in my wheel choice, an Easton Vista would have been a lot nicer than the trispoke on the last 90km. However my heart rate dropped off on the last 45km, so I think I was having some other issues... will do some investigating.
T2
There's not much to do in T2 is there... jump off bike put on socks and shoes and hydration belt and get running. I'm not sure the hydration belt was doing much but making me heavier as there's so much out there anyway... but hey, something to think about for the future there too.
I got some spray on sun screen in T2 too, essentially I had 2 helpers which was great. 1 minute and 48 and I was away and I felt that I had done a whole heap in there and yet was there for no time... maybe I need to get down to the 38 seconds of the winner of the 25-29 age group!
Run
The run fills me with dread, always does, you kinda know that something is coming at some point and it's about how you deal with it. And get over it and go again... I did my best to do that this year...
At Taupo it's a 2 lap out and back course, from transition you head back towards T1 before heading out to 5 mile bay and then do it all again.
The first 7 miles went a little too well, the first km I was through in 5 minutes... I'm not sure that this is an advantage of the Garmin... you always get told what speed you are doing... actually I think the Garmin is just telling you that you're doing it wrong. I really need to get it under control early doors in Ironman.
At 7.5 miles the point where it all went wrong happened... I suddenly got very very hot and my back started twinging... I needed to get rid of something from one end or other... I went for backwards first but that wasn't doing anything, then it was a front exit in a portaloo.... really not one of my finer moments, a second ironman including a spew... I'm wondering if it's energy drink and fairly large amounts of it that is doing it to me... I took a lot less carbs in in this race... looks like another year of experimenting with nutrition, maybe I'll find a recipe for success sometime soon?!?
Being sick didn't end my issues though... I walked much of the next 5 miles, it was a bit tough, visited a couple of aid station toilets trying to get more out... but it wouldn't come. I found some people I knew at one point and they were asking if I was OK and I was really struggling at that point, feeling sick and was struggling a bit to stand... eventually I got back into town for the end of my first lap.
Special needs time... I'll take the view that I must be mad, but at Wanaka I had a need for tea... and so I had packed tea for my special needs. Just builders tea, nothing fancy, no milk... but the non-sweet taste was (OK, this sounds silly but) ambrosia... it was what I needed... I was off... running and walking, but most running (jogging) with a few of my splits being about 6 minutes... I was hardening up a bit. This really is what I'm most happy with about my race, it was getting better in the second half and I was going through the pain.
I ran much of the last 7 miles to the finish and started overtaking the odd people as well as lapping the people still on the first lap (who are all stars... imagine going out there and thinking that you'll still be going when it was dark, scared of the cut offs... impressive stuff).
Much to work on. Still working out the puzzle... but still keen to learn more and that's the beauty of Ironman. A sensible run would have seen me under 11 hours and that would have been great, a great run and I would have been inside my personal best, but as it was, my 2nd best Ironman time on what wasn't an easy day due to the wind, maybe I just need to slow down a bit on the run, not easy with people shooting past you early doors on the run... more confidence that they'll blow too in some way shape or form is required.
Supporters
The biggest part of the day was the supporters for me. In passed years as I've said earlier the race has seemed bigger budget we've got more stuff that cost the organisers money. But to me this was the best one of all and why, because the volunteers and supporters were a class apart. I think I may have known more than previously, but not even sure of that, they were just everywhere that they could be on the course. Maria came out to a random bit of the bike course and cheered me on which was something that I'd look forward to on each lap and coming through town friends would shout out my name... just in lots of places there were lots of great supporters, it was really something else.
I think it's the most uplifted I've been from Ironman, just a great bunch of people out to help out friends, to anyone who was there thank you so much, the list is long and making it would mean that someone who shouted I might miss... if you gave a cheer for anyone on Ironman day you've made someone's day... thanks!
Great event, be back next year for more Taupo! I'm going to figure out the puzzle!!!
_________________
'Mon the Biff
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Tue Jan 19, 2010 10:32 pm T-rex of Tri
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I seem to write less and less on my blog... maybe it's a sign that all is good in life.
Job
Doing my last week of work in current job and moving on to another place in Wellington soon. The last three years at FNZ have been interesting and much has been learned, much has happened, time to move on.
House
Maria and I now appear to be homeowners... how exciting. Our move in date was Friday into the house that we were renting anyway. Very exciting, a 4 bedroom house, double garage for bikes, the kind of thing that would have cost us 3 life times of mortgage in the UK was in fact moderately reasonable here in NZ.
Triathlon
The main reason for updating this blog is to log a couple of little race reports, two shorter, one an ironman finish so it can be longer.
Taupo Half Ironman - relay team (bike)
A short one here, did this as part of a relay team, a 2:21 on the Ironman course including T2 leaving me the 5th fastest bike split of the day within seconds of mens winner Duncan Milne, 10 minutes behind top kiwi pro Patrick Bevin, but so was anyone else in the top 5. This showed I had some excellent biking form.
Rotorua Half Ironman
I have a deal with myself to not do a perceived faster half ironman until I've done a sub 5 on a really hard course, I've got very close at Aberfeldy in the Scottish Champs and at the Rotorua Half last year. I felt I had the form to do it here at Rotorua this year. Sadly it wasn't to be.
I had roadblocks on the way, choppy swim which was admitted at 2066 to be the same as it was the previous years, a puncture 15 minutes into the bike as I was starting to cut open the field (well riding through it). Changed it quickly but probably tried to hard to chase down my losses on the puncture and messed up nutrition and pacing on the bike and had blown by 70km's.
Onto the run and as I wasn't going to beat 5 hours I mentally gave up, walked most of it and even when I could have run just walked. So that was that, a slow half.
Challenge Wanaka - full iron distance triathlon
This was an incredible event, I went back as two years ago it was hard but just incredibly organised and incredibly good to do. Refreshing not to hear all the "You will be.......... Ironman..... whoop whoop..." americanised nonsense that doesn't work for me. It was simply about having a good race on a hard course.
Build up
The build up was tainted by breaking a carbon brake lever on the way down to the race, but Racers Edge bike shop in Wanaka were straight onto it for me and did an excellent job. Another problem diagnosed was that there was water coming out from around my BB but that was just water, it'll be fine... little was I to know.
The rest of the build up was excellent, hung around town, rested, watched the contact series elites on the Friday, Martin Van Barnevald from Wellington won the sprint race, so nice to see a home town boy do well.
We also had some fun with the Compressport people who gave Maria a free pair of calf guards for wearing hers pre race... it was funny hanging out with her as she was treated like 1) a model and 2) a pro triathlete, she looks the part for both, I'm a lucky boy! And she was my top spectator for the day.
Race day - swim
There was lots of moaning about the swim, it's too cold... how can we swim in that... I think the official temperature was 13.5 and all sorts of non-webbed gloves and booties were being worn. As a note, blue seventy booties are rough to touch on the bottom as I found when drafting people.
I loved the swim, really clear, really flat calm and a lovely temperature for me to swim in. The first swim I've done in a while with 50m buoys and so navigation was a cinch.
I was out in 1:11 although word on the street is that the swim was 200m long, the pro's times did look slow, and I certainly felt that I swam fine... but anyway, all good.
Bike
Out onto the bike, no dramas in T1, 19th fastest overall there... the first 40k's of the bike go out towards the most scenic part of the course with a fantastic view of Mount Aspiring.
The bike photos are mostly from this part:
http://bit.ly/83VBoy
It was really incredible. I wasn't pushing the bike so people going past me just made me smile, I had 3 or 4 go past, and knew that I'd go back to them later on.
We turned at 17k's and then there was 70k's into the wind... which was tough, but sit in aero position and eat and drink and all will be fine. I was going fine, eating and drinking and then the noise started... I had passed quite a number of cyclists and got passed my first pro female of which I would have expected more to come.
At about 85k's my bottom bracket gave up the ghost and started making noises, more and more noises and you could actually hear a ball bearing rolling around. I was clearly losing power as people were going back passed me. We turned from the mostly into the wind leg in 2:47... I expected my return leg to be faster but it was a real struggle with a horrible grinding noise all the way and I came back in about 3 hours... very disappointing and I'm guessing the extra power output was really telling on me. (I reckon that water coming out of the BB might be a cause of this as I left some water in there from a month before at the Taupo half ironman).
Run
The run started well actually, my plan was nice and slow and get it done. And 7k's into the run I was wobbling along nicely, losing the odd place but not too many. Then my nutrition decided that it wanted to come back on me and I was sick for the first time... and then sick again about another 4k's later. It was about the time of my second spew (and it was getting hot) that I saw someone collapsed in a ditch with marshalls around and I reckoned that there was no real point in pushing myself to extinction as my time will be really average at best, let's just get through this and avoid mishap.
So it became a resolute and determined (and slow) walk... 5 hours 45 or so of walking, 12 hours 45 to finish... but I did finish in testing circumstance and learned a lot of stuff.
And so 7 weeks to Ironman New Zealand... I'm confident it will go well if I can avoid a couple of things that I've struggled with this year, we'll see, I'm real close to a great result... I know it!
_________________
'Mon the Biff
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World Longs II - the real report
Thu Oct 29, 2009 9:41 am T-rex of Tri
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Well the truth is that the first report is what I'd been doing for a while, writing a little column for work and trying to keep the content understandable to all, hey I figure I should write something full for myself and for anyone that reads this rather than the less than conversational piece that was the first report.
The race was the World Long Course Triathlon Championship, weighing in at 3k/80k/20k for swim bike run... a strange distance, double Olympic... in my head it says not long... I found out otherwise while taking part.
The location was Perth... now I don't know so much about Australia, turns out that it is hot even in springtime as we were in and a lot hotter than summer in Scotland where I'd trained as a less experienced triathlete and about 3 * the temperature of Wellington where I'd trained through the winter. We'd also had some very cold spring weather in Wellington, so the gap was vast in climactic conditions. Perth was a great place to be in if I wasn't racing, lovely dry heat of a temperature... erm... I was racing though.
The team... New Zealand... I decided that GB wasn't for me for an age group team. I was glad of this, the Ozzies often labelled them Poms or English, two insults that I'll not thank you for and really irk me. New Zealand really feels like home to me at the moment, coming back to Wellington was great and I genuinely wanted to come back regardless of the weather, it's quiet friendly and I know how things work here.
The New Zealand team are a friendly team and fantastically proud of their heritage. One of the real highs of the team as well as getting to spend time with Wellingtonian friends was the haka practice and execution. The Maori on the team are keen to connect with their roots and it's an important part of travelling as a New Zealander and understanding when and when it shouldn't be performed.
I had something to prove in the team having had to appeal to get a place... this made me doubly nervous about my performance... I think any I apply for in the future I'll make sure that the selectors are left with no dubiety of comparing races that are incomparable to make selections.
The lead up - Maria and I were participating in our first worlds and as such were very nervous leading into it. We had both trained well despite injuries, Maria's had been worse than mine with a nasty bout of plantar fasciitus in the lead up to the race which had impaired her from completing a lot of interval run sessions and meant taking some pain killers up towards race day. I had destroyed my hips in the lead up with an early winter marathon which was very cold and just didn't work. Some very sore physio ensued and I eventually got back to running but hadn't put in the miles that I would really have liked to.
Due in some part to our nerves and also wanting to follow instructions we really didn't get to see as much of the local area as we might have. Perth and its CBD seemed like an excellent city and has a lovely big park in King's Park, we didn't make it down to Free-O (Freemantle) for a trip or out to Rottness Island which seems to be the local tourist jaunts. In fact if I was doing a worlds again I'd look to arrive a bit less before and stay a bit after to do the touristy things. So we just did some light training on the way to the champs on the Sunday.
The Race
This was described in my first post... but I guess I can elaborate a bit more here.
The Swim - I had spent the week worried about the water quality and wildlife in the Swann... I was told of jellyfish, dolphins and bull sharks. I watched the team doing practise swims in the Swann river but just couldn't bring myself to go in myself. I was told it had a distinct taste and not a pleasant one, in fact most described it as slightly metallic. It was also very murky in that you couldn't see your hand in front of you as it entered the water.
Maria was off first in the biggest Female wave. With both of us swimming is not our strongest suite so surviving the swim was priority number 1 followed by putting together a good swim. The hooter went four or 5 times for the girls as no-one heard it... which is funny as most of my wave jumped on 2 of 3.2.1.... hooter. So off she went on a journey of world championship discovery and then it was me later, some 22 minutes later.
Getting into the water was a relief... I had super hydrated leading up to the race with a lot of electrolyte based energy drink and nuun, generally trying to get high levels of salt and water in the system (so I had a lot to get rid of and warm the wetsuit, a bit pointless in 22 degree water). I needn't have put salt in as I was going to ingest a heap from the water as the waves were in our face for the first 1800m. I couldn't see the buoys up ahead and they were of all sorts of random colours, sizes and shapes making it hard to see over 1 the waves and 2 the random targets that were coming up.
At the turn of the swim I was very warm indeed, in fact boiling, it was like coming out of Lake Taupo at the volcanic heated hot water beach, the water just seemed to turn and I felt I needed out of my suit. It wasn't going well if I was that hot and I was getting frustrated by my poor navigation and sighting and not being in any group. I could see I was passing some swimmers from earlier waves though which is an odd thing for me to do... passing anyone in the water!
The last 1200m of the swim seemed to last forever, I found out later that we were fighting the current of the tidal Swann River, so one way we had the wind and chop to fight, the other we had the current... given all that it made my 1:01 to the mat look alright (someone with a GPS had it measured at 3.2k as well)... add to that my turning to swim for home at the second last buoy as we were told to turn on the 2XU buoys and then having to swim back out to the buoy to come in made a long hard swim actually have been executed well.
I didn't know this and being in one of the later waves I just felt like I was at the back of the whole field. I didn't like this feeling... I also didn't like the sick feeling that swallowing the salty water had made me feel... man I felt ill in transition.
Bike - 4 laps of 20k, fast flat course... winds were apparently about 30-40kph... they were strong enough to be annoying. Out of transition I found myself riding along in the 54-11... oh wait maybe I've brought my legs even if I feel sick... I think the wanting to be sick started soon after this and just surviving.
We were told before the race of the 12m drafting zone, nobody believed that it would happen, we all figured that the same sort of thing as the short course worlds would ensue where big groups of 80 bikers would all get together and ride together... but it didn't happen, whether the wind was helping split people up or not I don't know, but about the fairest race I've ever seen happened out on the bike. I wasn't going forward at the rate I wanted to be though and come the end of the third lap on the bike I felt like I was having heat stroke, I was all over the place and slowed to a crawl for a couple of k's feeling sick and nauseous and still wanting to be sick. I stuck some water down in the final lap but it wasn't a good prognosis for the run.
The run - no sooner than I was out of transition and I just couldn't breathe. My HR wasn't registering any higher than it would in a training run, around 160 but I couldn't breathe. The rapidly ascending mercury was getting to me with my watch recording a max temp of 37 degrees it clearly was a bit hot out there.
Into the first lap and I met up with Maria who was struggling too. She had looked good when I passed her on the bike (well she always does, but with a P2 and a very nice aero helmet she's also got the cool stuff to look good with) and was going strongly. But she doesn't think she drank enough on the bike. She does get by on less than me as she sweats a lot less but knows she needs to drink more in races. We ran together for a bit until I ran on feeling like I was recovering by having walking breaks. Once Maria had liquid inside her she could run quite happily, one day soon she'll piece the nutrition part together and she'll have a stunning race, I know this. Me on the other hand was beyond saving.
I saw another member of our team stand at the side of the road being sick and sticking my finger down my throat seemed a good option at the time, that sea water wasn't doing me favours. I needed to get more liquid inside me, my black suit was almost white with a covering of salt and I'd pretty much stopped sweating. I just got slower and slower running less and less. I wanted to do the silver fern proud but had blown up.
In the end my run time was longer than my bike time... think of that the next time you do an Olympic distance tri and think how much that would hurt... then double it for the doubling of the pain! I got over the finish line, ended up in the med tent with about 5 of the kiwi team from about 7 people in there getting iced up. They soon got my temperature down form 38 to 36 with ice all around me and I could walk off.... we were back to pleasantly warm Perth again and I wasn't racing...
By the end of the day I was fine and could walk happily and I knew that I wouldn't be in pain in the following days except in my heart... it was disappointing... I don't know what I could have done about the swim... but I could have changed my race plan to go faster by going much slower mid-race. I guess I was just scared about finishing last in my age group and felt I had to continue to go hard... in the end I finished 3rd from last in my age group when a more sensible choice mid race might have improved my time, something that I'd definitely look to do in an Ironman... I guess I didn't respect the distance.
Maria finished 28th in her age group, she pulled through the run well in the end after getting water / electrolyte / coke into her system and while she was disappointed with hydration / nutrition issues she should be proud of her effort to pull through in adversity, I know I'm proud of her.
Support - this report wouldn't be finished without a big thanks to the supporters out in the crowd and people from work who took a real interest in how I did and what I was doing. People at work have been excited about it which has been excellent. The real stars on the day were the likes of Maria's Mum and Sister Sally who came out to watch us race and cheered us all the way through, my friends Ian and Vicky who decided on a long weekend to Perth to watch the triathlon (really honoured to have you out guys), you made a long lonely run a lot less lonely but no less long. Also a mention for tritalker Tony (Free Willy) who lives in Perth and came along to cheer and I blanked him... I think I blanked most things on the run, I'm sorry Tony... I'll buy you a long black the next time you're over my way for that!
After party - Perth closed at 10... late enough that I'd had my fill of beer which appears to be about 4 to get blotto... some got up to more shennanigans than others... but what goes on tour...
Well there we go... got the full story out in the end, I can imagine you're all sleeping now if you got even half way through it... but that's what happened. A highly recommended experience to go to worlds to represent your country, definitely worth it, I just hope to race better / smarter next time and it'll set me up well for the season I hope.
Links
http://www.ldworlds.org.au - race website
http://ow.ly/xgj0 - facebook photos (open to all where fb not firewalled)
http://ow.ly/xgk9 - my official photos / video (should really buy)
http://ow.ly/xglc - Maria's photos... superstar with the strong finish and arm raise.
Previous report replies
Steve - yep a great time... still need to work on the haka... but it'll get there.
Poet - the captain? Gotta get the positives out there...
Paul - I don't think that tattoo is imminent... legs and arms are slightly more appealing... but not much.
Sue - good points Sue, very proud to be part of them!
_________________
'Mon the Biff
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Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:39 am T-rex of Tri
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Here we go...
Well there is so much to write and so much to try and learn from it all...
Short Summary
A great event to do, it was amazing to be part of a New Zealand team and the camaraderie that that involved. It was very good to get to take part in the haka and having the Maori part of the team tell us all about it was special. The New Zealand team finished second in the medal table which was a source of great pride.
The swim pretty much destroyed my race, it was super hard in a horrible river (the Swan), there were heaps of jellyfish but the real issue was the chop and waves on the way out and the current on the way back. 3K is pretty far and doubly far if you are not sure where you're going.
I had a slower swim than I anticipated and getting on the bike I was feeling really quite sick having swallowed some of the salty river which was real unpleasant. This just knocked on to all the rest of my race. My bike wasn't what I hoped for but the run was a series of asthma like attacks in rising heat, it hit 37 degrees on the run according to my polar watch and I could believe that.
Positive notes for my sponsors though as I was out on the run forever, so fnz definitely got some exposure to the gathered crowds... every cloud and all!
_________________
'Mon the Biff
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Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:39 am T-rex of Tri
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Well I said that I'd do it this way... so again I'm drafting up what I'm going to send to the Company Newsletter for my publicity leading into the world champs. Maybe a quick monthly update for all you people who don't want to read it...
Training
It would be fair to say that I've been doing a lot of training over the last month... Maria found a very good sports masseuse for $40 an hour which when you convert to pounds is almost nothing, so a weekly appointment there is excellent. Anyone in Wgtn looking for someone give me a shout as John is a good guy who does good work.
Injury
I probably reported in my last blog that I've had a spot of an injury in my hip after a marathon in the end of June. Well July was written off for running training and much of August. I've only been running at all in the last 2 weeks, starting with walking and jogging about 50 / 50 and working up to 80 / 20 and now to 100% running up to about 40 minutes, which is good. I hope to get to an hour by the end of this week and then we should be away. Key to recovery has been working on hip strength through a series of physiotherapist exercises and that is a work in progress, generally firming up the core.
I'll get there.
What else...
Life has been pretty busy generally. Had a great day off of training and from work on Friday with Maria... we rarely get to do nothing together, so took the opportunity to in the sun. It was fun.
We watched District 9, the new Peter Jackson flick in the evening... if you get to go the cinema soon then go see this film amazing.
On Saturday I saw Wellington retain the Ranfurly Shield, my favourite trophy in rugby... everyone comes to Wgtn really up for their games... the pressure is tough, I'd rather that folk came along and laid down... but it's great fun. Read about it here!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranfurly_Shield
We have a defence against Canterbury this weekend with potentially Carter and McCaw playing for them... I hope we have Nonu, Jane, Ellison, Weepu, Rodney all back as we will probably need them!
Write up for newsletter
Hello everyone... time for round 2 in the lead up to the World Triathlon Championships in Perth... this month I'm going to talk about something that may be slightly frowned upon by Adrian, it's time outside the office and training. ;o)
In order to do endurance sports as an amateur the big trade offs are how much time you can spare for it and how much training your body can take. Shorter distance sports tend to rely more on how much you make of the limited time that you spend on your sport.
In my early year's of training I went through periodic spells of over training http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtraining where I would make a bit of a mess of myself, as time has moved on I've got myself a coach who looks after how much training I do.
Coaching
Coaching for me started when I came out to New Zealand, I didn't really know where I wanted to go but knew that I wanted to maximise what I put in. I found a local coach in Kevin Nicholson http://www.trigoals.com/ who took me forward in leaps and bounds over the two years that I used him, Kevin is now Maria's coach taking her to the world championships and she will also get to wear the FNZ logo.
After Ironman this year it was time to move on though and I now use a coach from Scotland who I have known for years, Stewart Bailey. He has had some great results from juniors and I'm one of his first long distance (in terms of distance to coach and in terms of distance that I compete over). Long distance coaching is quite common in triathlon, what is important is giving the feedback to the coach to understand how I'm going and how he needs to adjust my training.
Weekly training
For this world championship I've been typically training between 15 and 20+ hours, I just read what I need to do from the spreadsheet sent to me by coach and do those things. This might be 1-2 hour easy cycle or it might have far more specific points such as 3 * 15 minutes at tempo pace with 2 minutes easy rest in between. Different sessions are geared towards build and recovery. I understand the theory on a high level but leave it to coach, if I really need to know then I can ask Maria who is a Phys Ed teacher and a Sports Physiology graduate out of Otago.
In July my hours of training looked as follows:
I'd rather that my training hours were more made up of running but the injury to my hip sustained in the July marathon has meant that it has been a very cycle focused build up to the race.
On top of the 3 triathlon disciplines there has been a chunk of time dedicated to stretching and core strength... I guess it reminds me that I'm not as young as I used to be... I'm hoping that core strength work can help me back to my best running.
Typical week
Below I'll outline my typical week:
Monday: Bike to and from work (26k) 30 min gym session 90 min evening bike
Tuesday: Bike to work at 6am. Swim 2k in a squad at 0630. Bike home. 60 min bike plus a run (a bike then run is known as a brick session, and are important to work on to run in a triathlon)
Wednesday: Bike and from work (26k), 30 min lunchtime run. Bike after work (50 - 60k)
Thursday: Bike to work at 6am. Swim 2k in a squad. Arc trainer for 30 mins at lunch. Aquajog for up to an hour after work (This session has been as I haven't been able to do my 90 minute Thursday run with injury and cross training replaces running to some extent).
Friday: Rest Day Bike to and from work 26k and half an hour in the gym working on core stability.
Saturday: Swim up to 3k, Bike up to 4 hours (about 120k) and then up to a half hour run.
Sunday: Swim 2k, Bike for a couple of hours, optional run.
Distances of sessions and intensity of sessions is varied depending on which week we're in of the cycle, some sessions are pulled out in easier rest weeks. Usually there are 3 weeks "on" and one week "off", an off week might only have 14 - 15 hours training in.
Conclusions
As you can see it takes up a lot of time, but hopefully it'll lead to a good result in two month's time.
http://www.ldworlds.org.au/en/default.htm
Previous replies
Poet - swimming 16 minutes for 1k is just cheating in my view!
Savaloy - not long till your worlds... will be keeping an eye out... if you meet any Wellingtonians then chances are they know me... so say hello!
Pete - marathon just about killed me... well done on Norseman... eternally jealous!
Paul - love strong... hee hee!
iainm - be sure to get in touch... I can help!
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'Mon the Biff
~ Last edited by T-rex of Tri on Wed Aug 26, 2009 1:59 am; edited 1 time in total
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Drafting stuff up... hello bloggers...
Tue Jul 28, 2009 4:52 am T-rex of Tri
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Hey folks... I apologise for the delay and the rambling stuff in here... I need to put some thoughts down somewhere so maybe I could share them with all of you.
I need to write something up for a sponsor for the long course worlds in October. They've agreed to be Maria and my strip sponsors (we're not talking huge sums here but it lightens the load) and I figure that I've got 3 months worth of articles to submit for the monthly newsletter.
July's will be the first, then Aug / Sept and October... so the plan would be for:
July: Will talk about the race and qualification
August: A week in the life and training
September: Maybe some diet / preparation / mental stuff / tales of injury woe?
October: Race report and looking forward
So I figure that I could draft it up in my blog here... then submit...
Marathon
Oh, and what have I been up to of late? Mostly sitting in a physio room trying to fix various ailments. I "ran" a marathon in late June, I had spent most of June looking after a left calf injury it was really a bit of a tense mess, calf guards and some false confidence got me to the start of the marathon. My hip screwed up at about 16k's and by 33k's the cold had got into it and I had to walk in. Nutrition was good, hydration possibly a bit low to be honest, I was sore apart from my hip but just long distance running issues.
So 1:40 out and with slowly walking the last 9k's it was 2:40 back. That really wasn't good for me. Fixing the hip is an ongoing process as we had to do a lot of work on my ITB's as well and that was tear jerkingly sore, not that I cried... I'm a man and all! But that was the marathon that has lead to some physio time... which has culminated in my other calf going do-lally and is currently getting worked on. Hoping to be jogging by next week and if so then we'll have a look at some orthotics to balance me out. I've also upped core strengthening from none to some in order to try and alleviate that weakness.
Training
Since I last blogged I have found myself a new coach to reinvigorate enthusiasm levels. My former coach admitted that it was probably a good time to change in order to keep up levels of enthusiasm and to avoid plateauing... which was happening.
So I've taken on a lot of cycling under my new coach which is good as I can't run and I've been enjoying doing some swimming too. Mostly with my old squad but also on my own on the weekends. Need to up my distances, but that'll come and I feel certain that I'll have a fairly comfortable 3k at the world long course champs (3.8k given my training this year and a cold was bad news at Ironman back in March)
This is the first of my rest / easier weeks in my 4 week blocks, I like the way that new coach gives optional extra sessions for hard weeks and optional easier sessions for the easier week. That way I hope to 1. Recover better than previously in easy week. and 2. Get lots out of it.
Thus far things have gone good and steady, 16 hours, 17 hours and 22 hours and this rest week should be somewhere around 10 to 12 hours.
World Long Distance Tri Championships (tone as in going into newsletter tone)
As some of you may have read in an e-mail I sent round recently I, Andrew Kerr, am going along to compete in the World Long Distance Triathlon Championships... as a kiwi. Now I know I've done a lot of work on my kiwi accent over the last couple of years so it will shock you to hear that my origins are not entirely kiwi... but if John Leslie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Leslie_(rugby_union)) can perform with distinction for his adopted country from Lower Hutt then there is no reason that a man from Troon can't do the same for this one.
This event is being held around the CBD of Perth, Western Australia and FNZ have kindly agreed to be strip sponsors for me and my better half Maria Kemp who has also qualified to represent New Zealand. She hails from Methven.
Any suggestions for suitable placements of company logo will be ignored.  As I want to reflect the company well for any potential suitors to our platform who may be out on that Western stronghold of Australia.
Over the next few months in this newsletter I'll bring you some highlights of training and preparation and a race report of how things go.
Event
{pictures}
The world long distance triathlon championships {link} takes a bit of explaining of a complex history of triathlon. Many of you will be familiar with Ironman Distance events and of the Olympic triathlon. Well this event sits in between the distances of the two. It combines the slight swimming bias that the Olympic distance has with the endurance aspects of Ironman racing. For those of you with a bureaucratic interest, this race is being run by the ITU who got Triathlon into the Olympics and not the Ironman company (WTC) who run Ironman events and the World Ironman Championships in Hawaii. I'm sure Wikipedia is full of information on the distinction.
So... with that done the specifics. The event is a 3km swim, an 80km bike and a 20km run, double the Olympic distance competed in by the likes of Bevan Docherty {link} and Kriss Gemmell {link}(yes, I know he's from Palmy but I'm quite inclusive) and it takes place on the 26th of October.
Qualification
Triathlon New Zealand {link?} have strict qualification criteria for making their teams. For elite level you must show a capability to finish within 10% of the winner of your gender. For age group level (my level, just below elite) you must finish within 20% of the winner of your age group in the national championship or a representative qualifying event. Often for Age group racing the 30-34 age group is the fastest in terms of time to qualify for and this is the one that both Maria and I qualified in.
Maria qualified at the National championships in Tauranga {insert link}, clocking 5 hours and 25 minutes for the 2k / 90k / 21k course. I on the other hand managed to qualify through a special circumstance form. I didn't compete in the national championships and so my times from previous Ironmen and half Ironmen (most notably finishing 19th overall at the 2008 Scottish Half Ironman Championships) {insert link?} meant that they were happy to have me in the team.
The qualifying over half ironman distance actually slightly favours those of us with weaker swims. In next month's segment I'll talk a bit more about training for this event, and most notably how Maria and I have been trying to sharpen up our weakest discipline of swimming.
More next month...
Welcome back to blog
So those are thoughts... will need to tidy it up a bit... I'm sure some work folk will read this early as it'll be RSS'd to my facebook profile... so they get to see a draft... certainly it's not in its final form yet.
Oh yeah, and Sunday was a year since I met Maria... thanks for making my life better baby!
Previous replies
Savaloy - I wish I hadn't "just dropped in" a marathon... didn't really go to plan.
Slacko - I haven't been back up Hawkins since... I think it must have left scars!
Sue - cheers
Poet - ChCh was kinda cold for the poor kiwis who don't have a lot of resistance.
Cobbie - injury will always make marathons hard... not my finest hour.
Paul - reason for lack of regular blogging confirmed.
_________________
'Mon the Biff
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Wed Jun 10, 2009 5:31 am T-rex of Tri
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Hello avid readers... well it has been a while hasn't it...
Since I last blogged what has happened... well let's see, if the last blog was just after Crazyman then I have had a fun old month...
Athletically I did some training for the Christchurch half marathon and ran that, and that probably constitutes what I've done in my social life too. I can't really remember the nights have been long and the days short.
Crazyman Wrap Up
On top of the fine camera work by Maria and Jason (my top support team) at Crazyman there was a program made for Sky television, a little 30 minutes show with highlights of certain bits. It came over very well on the television and I got 30 seconds of coverage. I think I gave them an "angle" of being a plucky novice... as I remember it they went from Nic Leary a national MTB champ and Xterra winner to me saying the race was for everyone and me saying:
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"I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing... get in the boat and go over there somewhere"
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"I've been in a boat 3 times, so I feel like I've done the training"
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It was all very funny and maybe people will think you can do it without doing much training in future... which will be great as I wouldn't finish so far down in future multisport races. The rest of the program used Google Earth to show the lay of the land and maps of the fantastic course. It was great to watch and I'd be keen to do it again!
http://www3.marathon-photos.com/scripts/event_entry.py?event=Sports%2FRSNZ%2F2009%2FCrazyman&match=10 - Should really buy these, they look cool.
ChCh Half Marathon
At the end of the month I went down to the ChCh half marathon having done some run training through the month, a heap of hilly stuff for long weekend runs and some speed work too... although not really knowing how I was going I had an idea that there was a chance of a pb due to the course.
Well the course was great for a pb, pan flat. The half marathon was half the course used for the 1974 Commonwealth games, something that I liked a lot, love the history of such things... and find how average you are in comparison to the greats...
The day before the race we were staying in Sumner at Maria's sisters. There are 3 kids in the house which was great, reminded me of my mum's house when she was childminding and they're excited about things. Also Sumner is the place that the Coast to Coast finishes and I could feel some of the magic of a race that I'm going to get to know very well over the next few years... most cars in Sumner (well Subarus anyway) had coast to coast stickers on them... it's pretty exciting.
Anyway, woke up on the day, it was windy, it was cold, it wasn't raining.
Got nervous
Drove to the event, was plugged for "what time I'm going to do" trying to think about other things really
Got more nervous
Was not happy before the race
More nervous still
Race starts, start pretty clean, only had to barge through a few groups of 3 or 4 wide running people who shouldn't have been so far up at the start and off with the running...
1k: 3:53
5k: 20:40
10k: 41:50
16k: 1:08 something
20k: 1:26
21.1k: 1:30:50 - pb
So, 8 seconds inside my previous pb, gutted not to go under 1:30 but nobody seemed to go fast on the day, I've got to be happy with that... I certainly wasn't at the time, but in the fullness of time it's cool, haven't heard any other pb's for sure.
I got so nervous before the race that I think I'm going to run the Wellington Marathon rather than the half marathon at the end of this month... a slow jog rather than an out of breath slog for me! And my pb for marathon should be a lot softer... assuming that my legs and body hold together (which they're trying their best not to at the moment).
http://www3.marathon-photos.com/scripts/event_entry.py?event=Sports%2F2009%2FSBS+Marathon+Christchurch&match=1941 - not so sure about these photos though
Hawkins Hill Climb
On top of that I did the Hawkins Hill Climb and placed somewhere in the middle of the field. It was a little different to a classic hill climb in the British time trial sense as mountain bikers and runners were set off at the same time, all on different routes to go from sea level to 470m as soon as possible. 32 minutes or so for me which included.
- Not getting clipped in at the start and falling behind all the MTB-ers with their stamp in systems
- Dropping the chain when after the first 4km changing down to take on the steep climb (the pitch is pretty insane)
- Wheels slipping on one part of the climb... managed to keep my cool though.
So I lost the bunch of the first 4 and finished 5th road biker... of about 10 (I think). It's an iconic or maybe quirky Wellington race in the way that the Crazyman is so I was very pleased to have done it. Just fun to go into something with no expectation. I was done in after it... very sore. Slightly disappointed not to be sick though, couldn't have pushed hard enough.
Next up
So next up with sporty things is the Wgtn Marathon... work are paying my entry fee so will have to wear their vest... not such a big price to pay... the marathon starts prior to the 10k and half, so should be a fairly quiet day. Just got my calf to hold together till then.
Then after that I'll start to knuckle down to 3 months training to worlds... may re-employ my coach and race less and train more... my biking could well have suffered in the last little while.
Previous replies
Poet - wonder why it didn't embed... maybe a chrome thing?
Sav - Multisport is all made up... I love the arbirtrarity of it all.
Tab - must be a flash player thing...
Pete - I didn't do much polish on the video, just chucked it together... was fun to do for 10 minutes but if I spent longer it would have to have been great. It is your sort of format and there's lots of that stuff here!
Jamie - coast to coast has 67k of kayaking in it... and I think Steve Guerney did try to put a sail on his boat one year... or more probably!
Cenzo - I kayak far worse than I swim and I swim poorly
Paul - I'm told I don't reach far enough forward or use my hips... who knows... another dark art!
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'Mon the Biff
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Mon May 11, 2009 7:13 am T-rex of Tri
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Well, it has been a quiet time of late... doing some half marathon training, long runs, intervals and hills through the week. Still trying to figure out the dark arts of swimming. It's been getting cold here with lots of southerlies rolling in.
One highlight of late was the Crazyman rae, http://www.crazyman.co.nz a 12k kayak, 18k mountain run, 36k mountain bike. Most undertook it as teams or just the duathlon option but there were around 20 who did the whole thing. I'd like to say it was a stepping stone on the way to doing the Coast to Coast race the biggest multisport race in NZ, I think it showed that my kayaking has a long way till we get near there as I gave up 18 minutes on my nearest male individual competitor in that leg. I spent 3 hours of the race in dead last (including 4 Individual females and all teams) but came through to the back of the middle of the pack by the end. But the main thing was that it was fun and that's what I wanted... the less said about my hesitancy on the mountain bike the better.
Hopefully the tri player will embed in here, if not I'll need to have another shot. It's a cool video!
Coming up for me, well still no structured training, the spreadsheet isn't a big lure at the moment, having some fun is, so in 2 weeks time I intend doing a hill climb bike race which is a mtb vs runners vs cyclists thing in a part of Wellington that Maria used to live, so that should be a heap of fun, in 3 weeks there is the Christchurch half marathon, in about 6 is the Wellington Tri Club Duathlon champs and then in about 7 the Wgtn half marathon which is free to enter with work so might as well have a pop at it! Then I might consider a spreadsheet.
Anyway, that's about it for me... play safe dudes!
_________________
'Mon the Biff
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