| 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 >
| Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa |
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| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 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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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!
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'Mon the Biff
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Thu Oct 29, 2009 6:37 pm Sue
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perth is a nice place
guess it was just too hot for your bod 
great result for Maria, well done
and a long distance for your supporters to journey to, well done them
and you did your best on the day, and all the training, so no worries 
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Thu Oct 29, 2009 10:03 pm Mrs Mash
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Firstly, congrats for making it to Perth. Sounds like a tough day at the office!! Well done for making it round, sounds like your team mates were suffering too! Shame you feel disappointed in your performance and I hope you aren't beating yourself up too much over it! No doubt you have learnt a lot from the experience to take into another race.
Time to rest up and chillax now!
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2010:
Swashbuckler, Windsor, IMDE, Vitruvian
[url=http://www.TickerFactory.com/]
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Coached by Ian http://www.gearsandtears.com
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Sun Nov 01, 2009 2:56 am iainm
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good report. sorry to hear it didn't work out exactly as planned, but you were there and you finished in the world champs. and you represetned your country and i can't think of a better way to show that you are now a kiwi. so well done and there'll always be another race to do better in.
we are heading to nz in a couple of weeks now and i've found a few races to enter up in akl, then in wellington, finishing with the christchurch half on 31 jan. maybe see you at one of these? all the best, iain
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'When one transcends suffering, one reaps rewards'... | London.Chamonix.Budapest blog
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Sun Nov 01, 2009 7:46 am Poet
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C'mon? New Biffy album! Anyhow, that's a great report - the run sounds like an absolute killer of a suffer-fest 
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Sun Nov 01, 2009 7:40 pm Toyota_Crown
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wow, that was some nasty race you had there suet-face. 
recover the mojo strong 
avoid the hot/salty ones next time eh 
methinks aberfeldy is calling you
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DoubleIM10 1st by 2hrs! 24h33 2h45/13/8h51 3rdDIM09 25h31 3/14/8h28
FM7th10h58 TBW10h32 EC3rd Pil5th GC2nd 55HM9h59 HH4h50
09 IML11h37 FM11h31 TBW11h03 Con6h11 Bal4h49 DIL5h29 Eas4h26 Hel4h22 NF5h18 BSkin5h28 OLT4h27 RR7h53 JCC15h19 PCC3rd14h59
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Sun Nov 08, 2009 9:08 pm savaloy
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Ah mate, gutted for you i really fancy the O2 and O3 distances in due course - sounds like a really hard day in terms of conditions - did you get to do the haka?
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Swim smart, Bike strong, Run tough
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