World champs - triathlon long course 2009

I flew in on Wednesday, arrived later in the day, and pretty much went to bed after a brief look around the establishment. The accommodation was pretty average - I have stayed in a back-packers that was worse - but that was $60 per week rather than $195 per night. I had set very low expectations for the TriNZ side of the organization, and the race organisers - due to previous experiences and the general feel from information prior to the event. Also it is better to be pleasantly surprised when it is better than expected, than to be bitterly disappointed when expectations are not met.

The laptop died on the trip over - well the power supply did. This caused a bit of stress, but after spending most of a day trying to get a new one, I realized there was little hope of getting any work done - it was hotel room, with a terrible TV and a book - oh dear. One hyperactive athlete with a short attention span that is bored going to be quite bored quite soon...

The training build-up was quite relaxed - a swim on Thursday, and a bike on Saturday morning. It was actually quite windy on Saturday early in the morning - and the prospect of a windy race was not that exciting. a few weeks prior to the race, the Perth weather was looking very mild, with some daily highs under 20 degrees, so I was optimistic of a calm morning with quite mild temperatures. However the week before saw temperatures rise over 30 degrees - which really was not in my plan or my favour.

The course was a mostly out and back swim in the swan river. Water quality being just below poor - with visibility around 20-30cm in the clear parts. My only swim in there was going to be race day - I didn't need anymore pathogens or radioactivity than I already had. The bike course was 4 laps of 20km, on effectively 3 out-and-back legs, with the middle leg on a 3 lane (each way) motorway. I was pretty sure that with just under 700 athletes on a 20km circuit, and of quite different abilities, that there was going to be some large 'groups". After the drafting farce of the gold coast shorter distance world champs, the race organisers had decided on a 12m draft zone and that drafting was now prohibited (presumably this is worse than illegal). The run course was 4 laps of 5km - which included 3 out-and-backs, so you were never very far away and you were likely to see the people just in front and just behind at very regular intervals!

Race briefing the day before was a bit of a shocker, and I quickly realised that asking questions would be futile as no one in the organization had a clue what was going on. The briefing instructions generally followed along the lines: "there will be no [insert vital information here]", a pause and someone from the organising committee comes up to the speaker and says something to him, then "sorry, there will be [vital piece of information]". The athletes handbook - with all the course information and rules etc had only come out on the Monday before the race, and the main thing we got from the briefing was that most of that information was incorrect.

Race day dawned and I was pretty relaxed. The first glitch of the day was that the milk for the breakfast cereal was frozen! Even turning the fridge to very low (ie higher temperature!) the day before was not enough to solve this little issue. A few of us popped down to transition early to set everything up, and then back to the hotel, which was not too far away from race start. The races had wave starts - elites starting at 8am, and various age groups - in a very random order and time interval there after. Transition closed at 7:30am, and my wave did not start until 8:45 (the last wave!). 45minutes of relaxing in the hotel room was pretty good - and I even had a shower just to feel a little fresher. I really wanted to go or a warm-up run - but the injured leg was not going to allow that.

I went to the start and just caught the elite start. The wind was quite strong and the first leg was straight into the wind. I got in the water and had a good warm-up and tried to sort out a few land-marks to sight off, but there were none really. The first main marker buoys were also a fair way away.

After the warm-up you had to get out and walk up to a holding pen, and then were allowed in the water just before your wave start. I was in the biggest age group apparently, and there was around 65 in our wave. Most at the start line were a nervous relaxed, and the main sentiment was "we can all swim out own line and don’t need to bash each other up" - which was great! I started on the left of the main group, with a few very nervous guys to my let - who looked like they were ready to breaststroke 3km if they had to. They started a count-down from 10sec to go - and I piped up "do we go on 3 or 2?". I went on 3 and I think everyone else went on about 2.5! I took off quite fast, and it was pretty hard to see where we were suppose to be going. I headed or what looked like some buoys - and tried to check where I was in the bunch. There was no-one to my left, and I could see a few to the right, but they were back a little and quite a long way to the right. I might be leading!! So I ploughed on, and then after around 400m I came across a paddle board obstructing my forward progress with a chap pointing to the right and yelling "go across, go across...". OK - not ideal, the first buoy is around 100m directly to my right, I have been heading for the return leg buoys. Damn it! So I adjusted my line a little and headed or where I thought the far turn marker was, and started gently heading back on course. Around another 4-500m later I had a group of 5 swimmers just to my right, and I figured I was swimming slightly on the inside line and they were slightly on the outward. Plan B - get in the group and go the same speed for less effort. So I went over and slotted myself into the group - in around 3rd spot. This was all good, although the leading two were not swimming that straight, and being pretty rough, it was hard to get a reasonable draft. But I felt there was a bit of advantage, and they could do a bit more work sighting too - which was tricky in the conditions. A little further along the first leg, I did have a little "bumping into" incident, very mild, but the clash of arms did manage to break my watch strap and I felt the HR monitor slip away to the bottom of the swan river. Bugger - that was expensive. The first leg felt very long, and after we turned at the top we were starting to swim through a lot of those that had started in the earlier waves. So it had gone from battling the head-on chop to weaving through plenty of obstacles. The group of 5 was now a group of two. I was following mostly, although did take my own line a few times when I thought it was better. I was happy to get out of the water, it felt like a very long swim, and it was certainly more than 3km - even if I did go off course a little.

The first shorter leg of the bike I did go at a reasonably solid effort, just to get passed some slower traffic - feeling it was much safer to pass when I am going 10-15kph faster than to just cruise past gradually. You could certainly pick out the northern hemisphere athletes - they were very uncomfortable riding on the let hand side! The first turn around came very quickly, and it was quite tight (one narrow lane each way). I accelerated quite strongly out of the turn, as I had just passed a couple before the corner, and there was another rider just in front. Unfortunately the rider in front decided to dart from the left to the right side of the lane, and I was already going a fair amount quicker than he was, starting my passing mauver. I quickly dove to the let and passed on the let (a little illegal), and just missed clipping his rear wheel. About a km further up the road I hear a whistle blowing - not a good sign, and glance to the left. Mr draft-buster is beside me, and starts yelling "drafting, drafting..!!!", but he is looking just behind me - whew (not that there was anything in front of me). Mr "chop-me-off" must have been sitting right on my wheel. Enjoy your 5 minutes in the penalty box! I did have a couple of riders go passed - most I would stick with for half a lap or so, but decided after around 10km to ride a comfortable steady, and try to save as much as possible for the run. I was passing quite a few on the bike, and just kept eating and drinking, and trying to stay comfortable. The longer out-and-back on the main motorway was actually very good, easy to pass people, and not really that much drafting at all. It was far better than I expected. My second scare came at the end of the 3rd lap of the bike (4 laps of 20km), and I was overtaking on the off ramp from the motorway. As passed and began to get back to the left side o the road, I managed to drop my front wheel into a small metal channel that was running across the road on an angle - it was just wide enough to fit the front wheel in, and I couldn’t get it out! The back wheel decided it wanted to pass the front wheel, and I am now thinking this is going to hurt a bit (I am doing 45+kph). After a little fish-tailing I managed to ride out of the end of the channel and somehow managed to stay up-right - a big whew! I was reasonably happy to get of the bike, although I did feel pretty comfortable - and felt I had plenty in the tank. The let butt had given me a bit of grief at around 45km, and then did tighten up quite a bit at 60km, so I new the run was not going to be great unfortunately.

Made myself comfy in transition and headed out on the run. It was starting to get hot -mid 30's now. I had gone through over 4 bottles on the bike (in just over 2 hours), and still felt a bit dry. I took the first lap of the run very conservatively, although did start to feel pretty good after around 3km and started to lift the pace a little. I walked each aid station, more to give the legs a break that to get the fluids - but getting the fluids in was certainly a bonus. Then at around 7km my leg popped, a crampy tighten and it then a bit of a pull. Bugger - I was optimistically hoping to nurse it through. Then it was pretty much walk-run. Just run where I could and find a pace that settled everything as much as possible. It was a little weird - as the entire left leg just stopped working really - so it was a nerve issue rather than a muscle one - which at least is probably better for longer term recovery. So now rather than the occasional person passing and going past the occasional runner, it was everyone going past - fast! I managed to limpy my way up the finish shoot - happy to be done - legs were pretty toast, and the butt was killing me. No finish T-shirt, towel or anything like that, just the 50 cent finishers medal. A few bananas and apples were available and that was about it. Trading war stories was all that was left!

So all in all it was good to see where I was at. I was where I thought I was! Still very frustrating at not being able to give it my best shot with the injuries, but them's the breaks! After sifting through the results, I managed 8^th in the old buggers category and around 146^th overall. For my age category; 2nd in the swim, 4^th fastest bike and 35^th fastest run. Now I just need to get over the sunburn and chaffing! ouch...

Pre world long course champs

Bit of a computer hiccup prevented this post going up prior to worlds - but here you go!

My vain attempt to keep the body together has failed! A couple of weeks of physio to try to cut off the impending doom was just too little too late. A few issues stabilized and a few improved, but the main root issue - tight nerve through the left butt, has been very up and down. It has seen some improvement , the regresses back to previous state. Then on a longer run, it finally manifest itself as an injury - calf popped again. Came on with little warning when running pretty slowly. A walk home in the rain as it was getting dark did not help the mood either. So going into worlds injured is not ideal, but I just have to make the most of the situation. Physio plays around with the butt a couple of times a week, and it will be going into Worlds with a couple of 15min runs under the belt in the last 2 weeks.

What am I going to do at worlds? I have just found out that my wave will be the last to start. That does alter tactics a little, as our wave will have to contend with passing slower athletes from the waves ahead, and as we start around 45min behind the elites, we may become entangled in other waves as they come through for their second and third laps when we are on our first/second laps. There is a 12m drafting zone, and with a 4 lap bike course, there will be a certain amount of chaos, on the bike in particular. With only 40-44 year males in our wave, there will probably be a small group of fast swimmers, then a reasonable group of solid swimmers - of which hopefully I am one of. Second main pace would be good, perhaps 2-3 minutes down on any very faster swimmers. The wave in front starts 10 minutes before us, so hopefully clear water for the first half of the swim, and then just passing a few stragglers on the return. If I come out on my own or in a very small group I will do the first lap of the bike at a steady pace, and then into the chaos as we mingle with the other waves. If I come out of the swim with a reasonable group, then it will be a solid effort at the start of the bike and try to clear out a little in the first 5km. I am sure that on the second lap onward, there will be a lot more traffic issues, perhaps even on the first lap. Once there are more people around, from different waves, and going at different speeds, I will need to be quite focused on riding tactically as well as metering out the correct effort. There will be the issues of not getting caught up in a big group and being busted for drafting, safety of riders of very different abilities on the course at the same time - so you could be passing a slower rider while being passed by a faster rider at the same time. Some riders will not be able to hold a straight line very well, and will be use to riding on the other side of the road. Then there will be negotiating the aid stations - which you have no idea how busy or well organised they will be. Hopefully I will be able to ride a solid first 40-50km, but at some stage I am expecting my butt to tighten up a little and lose a bit of power out of the left leg, and might have to have a few breaks from the aero bars. Hopefully this does not time in with a tactical need for a good solid effort. I am planning on getting in a good amount of fluid and gels on the bike, to make sure I am in pretty good shape for the run. I am planning on starting the run quite easy and building into it, trying to really focus on faster leg turn-over and really looking after the calf. Hopefully I can run when I want to. I am prepared to do a few shorter walks in the run, even if it is 4-5min run with a 30second to 1 minute walk between run efforts. I am planning to walk most of the aid stations - more to give the calf a rest, but making sure I get fluids in is a bonus. The short walks will probably allow me to run better when I do run, and allow me to run for more of the run overall. I am hoping I don't pull up lame on the run, but there is probably a reasonable chance I will (40-50%), and then it will be more walk and less run.

I think my performance will be significantly determined by the fragile-ness of the butt and calf. But if all goes reasonably well I figure I can go similar time wise to a half ironman. The swim is a bit longer (3km instead of 2) and the bike is a bit shorter (80 instead of 90km) and the run similar (20 rather than 21). So around 4 hours 10minutes on a good day (maybe just under if the leg actually behaves) and around 4hr20min if it is a bit of an average day. I would think that under 4hr10min will give a top 5 and under 4hr25min will be around top 10 in my age category. There will be some very fast old buggers no doubt!

School cycling Nationals.

Overall a very successful weekend. It was quite exhausting to be fair. I was planning on sneaking in some training - but we arrived in Palmerston North to blizzard conditions!! My plan to sneak out for a cheeky 4hr and a bit hour trash around my old stomping grounds went out the window with snow to low levels, and a howling wind that just cut you to the bone! So for the 5 days away it ended up being, get out of bed and go for an run before breakfast each morning, and one team ride with the girls.

Friday was team training day, over the time trial course. The weather had improved a little from Thursday - it was only a strong wind and quite cold - no sleet and you had some visibility. The coaches drew straws on who was taking which teams (3 coaches and 4 teams) - although being the only male I was assured of the short straw! Somehow Scott managed to get out of riding as he was officially with Westlake boys. The girls were a bit more "fluffy" than normal, and there was a bit more dithering on top of that. It seamed to take twice as long to do half as much. But that was OK - we had all day!! Sometimes you just have to keep your mouth shut and go with the flow! The atmosphere was very positive, just that there was probably a little more nerves than usual.

Saturday was the main day as far as the team goes - with the team time trials! When we arrived, I was immediately dragged off to the team tent and threatened with face paint - "Tony we can do one side red and the other side blue!!". Oh dear... I managed to negotiate back to war strips and a bit of writing on the hands. A few of the girls were very nervous today - far more than usual, and a fair amount more than I expected. A few words to focus minds on things they could control, rather than things they could not, which appeared to help, then it was say less rather than spew out nonsense!

The results were very good - the Junior A were second, very good as they lost their 4th rider very early on -so did that on 3 riders only. The Senior B team were a very creditable 4th, a great team result, and the Senior A won the Team time trial Title in a very dominant performance. Great stuff! The senior boys team time trial was a fantastic race, with the top 4 teams effectively on exactly the same time with 2km to go, with that last 2 km resulting in an 18 second spread by the finish (4 seconds covered the first 3).

The next day was the road race, a 16 km circuit with a longer gradual climb early on and a then a gradual descent, with the finish on the start of the gradual up, and into the wind. My advice for most was, if it comes to a sprint, leave it as late as possible (last 50-100m, even if you cant sprint!), the uphill is solid whether you can climb or not, and don't be afraid to attack on the down hill (it was not technical), as others may not expect that. In the earlier races, no break-aways really worked, but we managed to change that. Bex broke away with Maddy Dillon, and the 2 rode away from a chasing bunch of 5, that included 3 from the same school (which should be able to work will together well), with Maddy winning the 2-up sprint. Sammy Morreau also managed to maintain a 2-up break away, and rolled through for 2nd. Amelia could not maintain her early break and had to do the sprint finish thing in the senior girls race - obviously listened intently to my advise and started the sprint about 400m out. There is no way she should have held the sprint all the way to the line, but some very determined grit managed to get her another cycling title - not bad for a triathlete. The 3rd day of racing was a criterium around manfield motor racing track, with the winner coming from sprint points through the race. The weather packed a bit of a sad, and the later races were in rain (yuck). The high lights were young Jonty Morreau showing some form to win the under 14 boys race, Bex Burridge picking up a sprint in a break to get a 3rd (so managed a 1st in the TTT, 2nd in the road race, and a 3rd in the crit).

a little late...

This is a bit old - I wrote it all up and then didn't post it, so here we go from a few weeks ago...

This weekend I am away with the school cycling champs - which marks the end of the school cycling. We had the last of the waterfront team time trials at the weekend. I have to say I was mightily impressed at how the girls stepped up in the last 2 weeks. They had gone through a "I can't really be bothered anymore" stage - and it was getting hard to get them to do more than roll along at a social speed. A couple of weeks ago, they got all motivated, trained really well, and really got their heads around doing a great last TTT - with a shot at setting the record (they were 1 second off at the first TTT). The junior A team was also fired up, even though one of the star riders has been out for the last few races.

One of the things that I think have really made the team I mainly work with (senior A) go really well, has been the fact that they really work well as a team. There are no rock stars, no crazy training demons, and everyone in the team just works together in a positive manor. There is a diverse range of individual skills and personalities, which can be very entertaining on the early morning rides. But I don't think I have ever heard blame for things going wrong, only discussion on solutions and how to make things go better. This maybe luck, or that is the environment that has been fostered. What ever the reason - it is just great to see! I think they have developed great skills here (whether they know it or not) that will set them all up for great success in many future endeavours.
Hopefully we come home with some more silver for the cabinet after this weekend!
A conversation with one of the parents from one of the other teams summed up quite well why some of the other teams don't go as well. It was something like: "the whole is less than the sum of the parts - why is the team less than any of the individuals?". This particular team has major political issues within the team environment, and most of the team members could probably ride faster on their own, than they do as a team. That is a real shame - although good for the other teams! It certainly shows, as with any team sport, that you can have great athletes, great coaching and support, and the team is still a flop from what they could potentially be.
Right - well back to me! I thought a bit of a summary of where I am at, as I have just relented and gone to the physio with a list! Nothing that has stopped me in my tracks, but a few niggles that have made training less than what would be possible without the niggles.
Here is a bit of a list of the current good, the bad and the ugly.

The good:

swimming - I have really only been doing 2 swims per week, and have only managed to slip in a 3rd swim 3 or 4 times in the last 2-3 months. The good is that I have maintained my swim fitness over the last 6-8 weeks on this, rather than slide backwards. Normally I need 3 swims to maintain fitness. I guess the other good is that I am around 10sec faster per 100m than when I started training for IM '09 a little over a year ago.
Cycling - I think my mid-range power output has improved a fair amount - and certainly the HR at the mid-range powers has improved (ie is lower), and I feel much more comfortable at mid-200 watts than previously. The top end has not really changed much - I only have one record power output from this year (10min). But I also have not done many races where high power outputs would be expected either (eg bike races).
Running - has being quite consistent, and reasonably injury free. Plenty of niggles but have managed 3 or 4 runs per week most weeks. Just ticking along quite nicely. Nothing super special - but the most consistent than it has been for many years. The waitak's runs have been very good. They have hurt a fair amount, and probably did the first one on a little too little running, and the last on a little too old shoes. But the endurance is certainly better, and as with the bike, top end is not any better, perhaps slightly off what it was at the start of the year.
overall - I think I am in OK shape - in fact probably in good shape to kick into a solid 12 week block of training that would get me in really shape! Pity worlds is in a month...

The bad and the ugly.

While it is probably easier to focus on the negative, there are a few "annoyances". Every morning I wake up I wish I could have a sleep in - there have not been many sleep-ins in the last 2-3 months. Then I wonder what is going to hurt the most when I put my feet on the floor. It is usually a competition between ITB, quads, lower abs, and glutes. Sometimes the shoulder is quite sore, but that is before I get out of bed! The lower abdominals have been a bit of an on-off issue since the first hit out in the Waitak's - and while it is OK, I finally went and saw Deno to make sure it was not a major, and what to do. Surprise, surprise, I have to do as I say - more core and a bit more stretching. My left leg (from hip to foot!) has been giving issues for a while too. I can't sustain high power for a prolonged period without my butt beginning to scream - nothing to do with fitness or strength - more of a tight/pinched nerve. My left leg (lower I think) has also had a bit of a habit of failing on me - both bike and run. This has meant that I cant really do any longer time trials at the moment (slight issue with a 80km one coming up), and I occasionally buckle on the left side - which might not be obvious, but has sort of affected the run intervals a bit. I was sure it was glutes and a nerve issue (previous problem), and Deno pretty much confirmed that. So Deno has Wednesday and Friday visits from me for a while...
Swimming - the ugly here is really not getting to the pool enough! My swimming is quite a bit slower than when I put the paddles on. While not a biggie, I would like the difference to be less. Must get to the pool more...

Cycling - the glute issue has been quite a hamper on the top end efforts. The other major is long rides. The week just been is the second long ride in 8 weeks. While they have gone well, it is a bit of a case of lost opportunity I think. I haven't really been able to test where I am at with a time trial, so we will have to wait and see!

Running - no great improvements, and I feel I am really teetering on the injury front - which is a bit frustrating. I would like to step the training up just a little, as I feel it would bring on a new level of performance. I if I do, I will probably crack, and then not be able to run at all.
I do get the occasional grumpy attack, although Liz tells me it is more than occasional. To be fair, the dog next door is the cause of most of my grump's - it has decided it needs to bark most of the time, or all the time I am outside - at me. I am almost ready to get it assassinated....

A picture tells a thousand words - so here are a few more thousand words!




This is from Bex at World triathlon champs - she had a great race!













This is from my trip to Germany - post ride Pretzel - should really be standard food!!! It does not get much better than this...














More from the same trip -post ride dinner - and it really does not get any better!! Thanks Pete!!!

trying to make progress plus new toys...

Right, time to get back to training! World champs have approached very quickly! A quick wave of nervousness sweep through me, and then I thought - shivers - I better get training! Well, I may have used different words! 

The last week and a half have not been too bad. I think ideally I would be getting 2 to 3 solid training days in, but have really only been getting one in, and a few reasonable sessions in, but nothing startling. I am still missing at least 1 or 2 key sessions per week, which is quite frustrating. I would feel much better if they were not key sessions I was missing.

Last week I did get a new toy - a Garmin 310xt - which is basically a GPS heart rate monitor. I was quite keen to get something to measure running speed reasonably accurately, and the polar RS800 was hopeless. So after a few hiccups, I got my hands on one of these. I have had a few runs with it now, and my initial thoughts are that the speed is accurate in the open and reasonably flat/ rolling terrain (as I would expect), the web-based data analysis is quite good at a basic level, and has some quite "fun" features. Trying to drill down to the details is a little frustrating - I have not quite figured that one out yet. The altitude is not very accurate - the first run I did was an out and back, and the altitude profiles (by distance) should be a mirror image, which they are far from. I am not sure why that is the case with GPS - as pretty much the same maths is required for vertical change calculation as horizontal. The initial HR's are also a bit erratic (unrealistically high), but then it does settle down and appear to be good. Polar has the same issue, so I suspect that is that the initial water is not as conductive as good old sweat. I was good to do a run interval session knowing that the pace displayed was accurate. It will also need to play around with the display a bit - as it will be good to be able to have a more instantaneous speed display, rather than the default lap average, but I have not opened the instruction book yet!



this was 6km out and 6km back, even pretty much running on the same side of the street each way. As the bottom graph shows, the altitude profile is quite different for the first 6km and the return 6 - which should be a mirror image.



So that is where I went...


Last week was a reasonable week on the bike - well it was what most weeks "should be", but I did get the sessions in that needed to be done! That included the first long ride out doors in at least 6 weeks. A glorious day it was too! In an ideal world I would like a 3-sessions-in-one-day day, but with my current schedule coaching wise this is not really feasible. However, last week I had Thursday morning off - so I could - and I did! So this day went like this: swim squad - started out pretty easy and rolled through 3km at a pedestrian pace, then got roped into doing some sprints with the surfies so there was a few hundred meters of solid at the end, and went home with 3.5km done. around lunch time I jumped on the trainer with the TT bike set-up, and did a solid steady state ride. This was 9x9min steady with 1min easy between. This was about the third ride on the TT bike, so there was a bit of adjustment, and I ended up doing around 2min aero/30sec non-aero during the efforts. slightly less as the under-carriage got a little "distressed" toward the end. The first effort felt a little bit of a struggle and the perceived effort was quite high relative to the power output (slightly under my target), leaving me wondering if I was pretty stuffed. The second effort I went a gear harder and into the power zone I should have been in and the perceived effort was probably slightly less, so I stuck with that gear! This session pretty much went as planned after the first effort, although the legs did protest a bit toward the end, but not in such a way that I was going to drop off. The HR responded as I wanted to - increase over the first few efforts then slightly dropping off. If I did not get the drop-off, I would think the power was too high for the "steady-state" session I was after. Then early evening I took the garmin out for a test run, and ran out 6km and returned. This also went quite well. In the previous 3-in-1-day I have only got to 30minutes in the run and really felt like crap! But I felt comfy on the run, and ran 4:45/km on the flatter terrain through the middle. I finished wondering if I should have pressed on a little more, but as I sat on the floor in front of the TV, the hami cramped up quite nicely, so I figured that was certainly enough!


Here are the bike intervals - there were two sets - with the main efforts a 5minute hard effort and a 3minute hard effort. the other shorter spikes are 4x40sec hard/20sec easy.


Here are the 9x9min steady efforts - just under 300w. Not the best "steady-state" session I have done, but one of the few on the TT bike. So I was quite happy the way that ended up.

Fridays run intervals were 6x1km, which was after a solid Thursday, and these went OK. Speed has not really been forthcoming on the running front, even though I am sure I am getting fitter on the running front. They did start out a little slow, but did manage to get some semblance of pace toward the end (still by no means anywhere near fast!).




Saturday was long run day - which ended up being sabotaged. I was at school cycling champs for the hill climb through the middle of the day after taking the morning training session. I was then reminded I had a birthday dinner appointment that evening, so basically only had just over an hour to get in some exercise. I did what I could.

Sundays long ride was a pearler. Nice to be on the road and feel the sun you your back. There were a couple of un-anticipated efforts at the start and end of the ride. the pace was on a little more at the start as we tried to avoid being intertwined with another cycling group. Toward the end we also had to contend with an angry Ginger - not sure what Hannah said to upset him, but he was angry at us! So after being attacked a couple of times I apologized to the group and made sure he was not going to attack us again (hence the steadier pace at the end).


The average power was quite high for the speed, and the HR was a little low for the power - but that has been a trend...

Today was probably the best swim I have had in a while. Wednesday is usually a struggle after Tuesday night bike intervals. But I think I was sort of blessed with a combo of not-quite-so-hard a bike interval session, swimming improving a little, and my lane leader Jo feeling pretty average and swimming like crap (for her - which is still faster than me). That basically meant I could just keep up, and get a bit of a draft, rather than flounder along at the back on my own. It did make the session a little harder, as I tried to continually keep up, but it was good.

blah blah blah or a rambling rant

Training wise I have had a tough couple of weeks, and not because I have been training hard, but because it was hard to get training in! One was always going to be a little tough, as I was away with the school team for duathlon nationals in Palmerston North for one weekend, and had to try and get most of the "fires" out work wise before I left. I missed a couple of sessions through the week in my vain attempt to get on top of things - and the weekend was shot training wise traveling and looking after the team. But that is fine - it is an easy week (well that is what I made it)! I do have another one coming up - in a couple of weeks time, with road cycling nationals (secondary schools) - back to mighty Palmerston North for a little longer weekend! 

The Duathlon went very well for us - with two second places - very well done to Amelia and Bex! The trip down was not too bad - for being in a van for 7 hours. Straight to check in on getting to Feilding and try to decipher the courses - which was quite a challenge, and also a moving target, as they were constantly being changed! We managed to get a couple of houses very close to the race start as our accommodation - which worked out very well. A jog around the race course after we were sort of checked in, and then a few transition practices. Quite amazing how much time you can save making the transitions a little better - far more time effective than running or cycling training I am sure -at least initially! 


Most of the team - Sam and mum (Morreau), Bex and Dad (team management!), Amelia and the coach!



Sam on his way to an excellent victory at Duathlon Nationals. Racing with a maturity that many don't have when 10 years his senior...


The racing went very well overall, and great to see some good athletes front up and race hard in nice weather. There were a few classic battles, and races within races. There were also a few very dominating performances. The Morreau Family came away with a win, two seconds and a third - not too bad a haul for the medal cabinet. It is quite interesting watching races -I would usually rather be racing of course - but you see some athletes just step up and race, giving it their best shot. While others, who maybe fitter and/or faster, just go into self destruct mode when races come around. A bit of show boating and chest beating before hand, then execute a pretty dumb race plan which opens the door to the opposition, and when they come through that door the self doubt kicks in and the steep downward spiral begins, and usually ends with the proverbial tail between the legs.  
As with all the other school level events I have been to over the last year, I am amazed at the level of ability. That is tinged a little with the knowledge that in all probability over half of these promising athletes will not be involved in the sport in a few years time after they leave school. 

I thought I would comment a little on national sporting bodies, and the politics a little this week. This could be a rant, but I will try to avoid too much ranting. It is easy to be negative and derogatory and take cheap shots, and in many cases that is not helpful. But when it comes to sporting bodies - why do they more often than not shoot themselves in the foot (repeated in many cases) when there is no need to, or worse, when they are (quite) well paid to "do a job"? A few examples...
At the recent World athletic champ's, Caster Semenya quite convincingly won the woman's 800m running race. The poor unfortunate "girls" result is currently in the air, awaiting sex determination testing. This really should have been sorted out a year ago, when she burst onto the scene running around 1:56 for the 800m. Why put her through far more than just the pressure of racing at the top level, when it all could be sorted with far less drama. Of course the other side of this is sex determination, which you can quickly discover is not very clear cut at all. Athletics South Africa are quite happy with the "pants check", which as it turns out is not very reliable. Chromosome tests are not that reliable either - a few have already been tripped up on that one ("what do you mean I am not female??"). So there is a barrage of testing, and I am not sure that it is a very clear line after the test are in either. Through no fault of their own, those with a sex/gender "hiccup" are stuck between a rock and a hard place - they may have an little bit of an unfair advantage over "pure" female athletes, with a little more testosterone and other male traits, but they cannot compete equally with the male field either - as they don't have the full male strength traits either. But whatever way it should go - it should be sorted before the main event on the big stage! 



Glad I was not running in the womens 800m...

Swimming has also made a total hash of things in recent years - with the introduction of the new "speed suits". In a sport that is really quite pure - they have tried to make the playing field as uneven as they can - well perhaps they could have done worse - but I wont challenge them to that. It really should be quite easy to say - you swim in a standard style swim suit, made of standard type materials, with pretty standard goggles and an optional standard swim cap. That way the best swimmer, who races the best, wins on the day. With the current generation of swim suits - the results are affected by which suit you wear. There is significant cost associated with that ($700+ per suit, that may only last a few swims), which will surely also impact on some swimmers - even at the top level. On top of that is the impact on the record books - those that have set impressive marks previously have had their records broken by far lesser athletes with better technology. If in doubt - KISS - keep it simple stupid! 

You could probably write several volumes on the stupidity of cycling administrators over the years. But, while they still do make big mistakes, I really think they are close to leading the way now. Cycling at the top level is probably one of the cleaner sports from a doping point of view - perhaps more at risk now of failing athletes with false positives. They may get a lot of negative press, but they do far more testing and far more intensive testing than most other sports. They have tried to control the technology explosion, perhaps over-reacting sometimes (eg one hour records now on a standard road bike with drop bars). But most of the rules are more about making the playing field level. I guess one of the things that has really raised my eyebrows in the past is that you can push someone off there bike deliberately or hook them in a sprint (usually causing the victim to crash at speed - never nice) and possibly incur a place penalty (still get the bunch time)- but often get away with it. Then if you wear the wrong kit in a race and you get fined! The incorrect logo on your shorts is far worse than breaking someone's collarbone and writing off their bike? I don't get that...

I have certainly struggled with triathlons governing bodies over the years - probably more so because I have been more "into" triathlon and have really only "dabbled" in cycling and athletics and have only been to one swim meet (and that was only a club night - getting whipped by 11 year old girls!). I have been on the other side - club committee member, even a club president for a while, I have also been involved with TriNZ - as a regional delegate (when they were the "in" drivers for the sport), and as a selector. The club stuff is usually pretty good, and it is social and things just get done! At the national level there is always politics involved - and it is typically more about those in the organisation looking after their own interests rather than doing what they are either paid to do or "volunteering" to do. Those that are there trying to do their job to the best of their ability are usually "used and abused" until they break - which is usually pretty quickly. 

The overall direction that Triathlon NZ is taking maybe commendable, and on the surface sounds good - but if you skim over the recent performance and think for a moment about what they are trying to achieve, you soon realize they have conflicting goals and are at the very least, highly over ambitious. A bit like the guy who has a 10km PB of 42 minutes and starts his half marathon with the guns, running the first km in 2:54 and then struggles through the last 5km averaging 6:52/km. A bit more realistic approach at the start would result in a far better finishing result. I would much rather see realistic goals and far less spin doctoring - just get on with the job! 

What would I like to see from triathlons national body? I will say that I have communicated my ideas to TriNZ - to the CEO and relevant authorities within (usually over a semi-civil cup of coffee!). I suspect mostly what was heard was blah blah blah, as the promised follow-up has never eventuated from any sources. The main thing I would like to see is get the core business sorted and running the best it possibly can. Forget everything else until that is sorted. I see the main tasks of the national body as being; technical - the administration of the rules for the sport, selection - national teams both elite and age-group (primarily world championship - but there are other aspects), and administration of the sport (membership and some high performance stuff requires a fair bit of paper pushing). Forget about organizing races - TriNZ has proven resoundingly over the last 3 years that it cannot organize races. TriNZ has made a total hash of a number of events including a few national championships. Sort out the junior development program so that you keep the talent in the sport and enjoying the sport. The current scheme of identifying one narrow skill set and putting all the effort into that small basket of eggs is simply not working. The high performance program (including junior development) has had one athlete come through in over 8 years (Debbie Tanner), all the other Elite athletes that have performed on the world stage would have done so without the HP program, and perhaps done even better! Isnt there a definition of insanity that goes along the lines of "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result"...

bit of intensity and fun...

The tour de France is over for another year, and now I should be getting more sleep, but I am left wondering what to do at 11:30 at night - with no tour to watch. It was a funny tour - and a few reports, forums and podcasts have been debating the excitement level. Contador was by far the strongest cyclist. One of the best at the time trial, and in the mountains. He was also in the strongest team - despite Astana trying its best to implode on itself and attack their own riders all the time - but I suppose you are going to get that - when you have at least 4 riders with a chance of winning the tour. If half the news reports are true, Mr Armstrong was doing his very best to undermine Contador - of course he was saying the right things, like "the team must win" etc etc. Now post tour the ugly war of words is on. I thought the number of stages that finished down hill (rather than hill top) affected the outcome significantly. Rather than attack with a few km's to go and gain a few seconds, riders were just riding solid tempo, as any gains on the uphill would probably be nullified on the down hill. The other subject that must come up is doping. Not many failed drug tests during - a couple from test prior to the tour though. I don't see this as necessarily good. I do think doping is far less prevalent than previously - but there will always be those that will try. So a few failed tests here and there is a good thing - it shows the testing is working! 
The last two weeks training has sort of gone a little pear shaped. I knew there were going to be a few challenges - just fitting things in - but I was a little disappointed that I really let it go far more than I should have. The biggie was swimming. Two squad swims only, and I really should have got my ass to the pool at least one other time each week - even if it was just a cruisy 1km of dog paddle. I did make one other trip to the pool for a swim and a gym - only to find it all shut down due to a bomb scare! Blimming heck! Don't these people have any consideration for my training?? It is hard enough to get it done anyway- stop making it harder! In fact that was the start of a couple of days of "this is just getting too hard". Plan to go for a run, at the planned time it is just bucketing down - not just heavy rain - you are actually worried about not dissolving! Go to jump on the windtrainer - flat tyre. Fix the flat, get started and the computer connected to the trainer crashes after 10 minutes. Get off, reboot, start warm-up again. Sigh... 

The big plus side was that we had a fine Sunday - and we could get out for a long bike! The cold of winter is not so bad when the there is no rain and no wind. I actually really enjoy riding on those crisp mornings - especially when the sun is on your back!  

At the weekend The local triathlon club organised a duathlon and a time trial option at the (almost) local motor racing circuit. It was a pretty casual affair, and my input from casual consultant to race day director felt a little like a hospital pass - but it was OK really (the race organiser did all the work!!). I think the days events turned out pretty well, a few things I would like to improve on organsiation wise, but it was a good change, and looked like most people actually enjoyed slogging it out around the race track! I had tried to get a few of the girls from the school cycling out there to run around there as a team - but only two turned up (all the others appear to have moved into slack mode). And both of them did the duathlon before. So I managed to convince a couple of the school boys that did the duathlon to also do the team time trial thing. Unfortunately we had to send Bex home - nice dose of the flu getting much worse, so our 5 person team was now 4. We were last to leave in the teams, and the two boys took off very strongly and poor Amelia was already on the back foot (or pedal?) after less than 100m. I called "easy" to get things back together and told Amelia just to sit at the back and look after herself as best she could. Daniel and Sam are both very good athletes in their own right, and were riding strongly. As it turned out we each ended up leading very much the same part of the course for each lap. Daniel pretty much do the back straight (awkward cross wind), Sam did the ugly head wind section (with a bit of each straight either side), and I took all the glory doing the tail wind and past the crowds at the start-finish line. Still can't believe they let me get away with that for a whole hour! We had to ease a couple of times for Amelia, usually when someone lapped through really hard (I think all the boys had a go at doing that!). For our hour of riding - we ended up averaging 39.9kph. I was on my road bike (drop bars - no aero gear), and averaged 315watts for the hour. That means it was pretty ugly conditions - as I would expect to average over 40kph on that road surface on my own with aero bars at around 275watts. So I was getting a fair bit of draft, and for that power should have been more like 42-44kph - even on the road bike setup. But it was good fun - no one caught us and we passed plenty of others! It was fun actually lapping out with others that are really good at doing it - rather than sitting at the back watching and yelling (as with school coaching).

The solid hour on Sunday rounded out a very solid week of training really - not a great deal of volume, but quite a bit of intensity. I don't usually cope that well without my easy training - so if there are 4 plus very solid sessions I usually get a little turned inside out. Monday was a solid swim - with 18x200 as the main set with a mix of freestyle, IM and kick (all the freestyle on 2:45 - which is just making it for me!). Tuesday was a Kick the school girls in the butt cycle session - an hour and a half with solid hill reps, then Tuesday bike class (hard) that night. Wednesday I thought was going to be an easier swim, as Anna was not going to be there - but she was! And it was decided that the 5km swim that was planned for Friday was now going to be done on Wednesday (which I was not planning on doing!). That was pretty much 4km in the first hour, and then another km just to round out to 5 - all at a solid steady effort. I was a bit tired after that! I took Wednesday bike class a little easier. Thursday morning was crack the whip and more hill reps with the school cycling training. Unfortunately a couple were riding quite well, so that made life a little more difficult. Friday morning run intervals were a little more on the shorter and sharper side - and I was not that sharp to be fair. An easy run on Saturday was good - although the loop I did took about the same time as the week before but was almost 6km shorter... So a solid week in the end...


Here is the power graph for the team time trial at Pukekohe race track. Most of the spikes (400+watts) are after I have done my lap and Sam is lapping through really hard - thanks a lot!!



Me playing with the girls at cycle training while doing hill reps - took a fair amount of power to drop them on a few of the efforts - 420+ for a minute and a half is quite solid...