Mooloolaba Triathlon

17 March 2013

The Mooloolaba Tri Festival is a great festival on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia. There are events for elites, age groupers and beginners. Over the course of the Festival there are around 9000 participants. The events include 5km runs, kids events, an ocean swim and the triathlon. An added bonus was the ITU World Cup and Oceanic Cup events. It was really great to see the elite men and women race. They make it look so easy, whilst going so fast.

My triathlon was somewhat slower.

I did not run at all in the week leading up to the Sunday. The sore knee I sustained previously was slowly healing, but was not there totally. This, alongside with getting a really sore throat on the Wednesday, was making me feel really nervous about this one.

When we arrived at Mooloolaba, the surf was huge. It was driven by a cyclone off the coast and had caused quite a bit of beach erosion. On the Thursday the organisers made the decision to move to the contingency course which is in the Mooloolaba River. The swim would be around one of the islands. This would mean quite a long run to T1.

This was going to be the first Olympic distance triathlon for Rochelle, my daughter. I'm very experienced, I've done one before :). We registered and collected our wave coloured swimming cap, timing chip and souvenir towel on the Friday to beat the rush and then checked out the Expo.

Saturday was the bike check-in and Rochelle and I attended a Triathlon briefing session lead by one of the local triathletes. This was good, especially for Rochelle as she was stepping up to her first Olympic distance race. In the afternoon, with the rest of the family, we set ourselves up near T2 and watched the ITU World Cup men's event. This was great to watch. Gomez won.


Sunday: Race day

The weather was going to be hot (around 32 deg C), sunny and no significant wind, all leading to a tough run leg.

The Swim:
As the water temperature was 27 deg C this was a wetsuit free swim. After a quick warm up in the river my wave headed off around one hour after the first wave. The buoys were hard to see as they were blue against the water and sky. Also the swim out beside the island was straight into the sun. Oh well, follow the person in front. Largely the swim was without issue, though I could tell when the next wave caught me as people would swim into my feet or across me. This does not worry me a much as it used to. I was reasonably happy with my swim. Not fast, but 35 min (Garmin time) for the 1.5km without wetsuit was fine for me. No panic attacks, no stopping.

I felt ok for the first 200m of the transition run and then with a click I felt my knee go. I hobbled into transition wondering if my day was over already but after a bit of self massage in the transition I decided to get on my bike and see what happened.

The Bike:
This was a pretty straightforward leg. Up the hill, onto the motorway, out 20km and return.

I had a good ride but my knee was sore so I did not go flat out. Even when you think you are going pretty quickly, some guys just blow past you like you're standing still.

Note to self: next time you reassemble your bike after a flight, make sure that the brake blocks are not rubbing on the rims for the whole event.

The Run:

T2 was slow as I tried to squeeze my bike onto the rack and nervously considered what lay in front of me. This was going to be the test. Unless I was in total pain, I was going to finish this even if it meant walking the run leg. The course was a scenic route from Mooloolaba along the coast to Maroochydore and back, twice.

In the Finishing Straight

The new plan, run 4:00 / walk 1:00 (ish). When I came over the Mooloolaba hill I saw many people walking. Clearly a lot of people were doing it tough in the heat, though I was feeling pretty good. Because of the knee, I just got into marathon pace and chugged it out. During the run I saw three people getting carted off by Ambulances (and a couple more at the end). I assume this was because of heat distress. It's unfortunate when this happens but at least the organisation was prepared for this.

I was keeping a close eye out for Rochelle, but there are so many women in black tri suits that I could not see her.

There was plenty of water out on the course so I soaked myself at every water station. This really helped with the heat. I'd learnt this lesson from the Kona Marathon. If you can't keep the heat under control you were really going to suffer. There was also Endura at one of the stations.

As I was coming up the last hill with about 1km to go I was feeling pretty good so I decided to go for it and finish strongly. My personal cheer squad of Elizabeth, Bethany and Kay were there along will many other people all cheering their own people as well as others, recognising the individual effort every person had put into the event.

After the finish it was refreshments it was shoes off and into the ocean for a cool down swim - as much as you can cool down in an ocean of 27deg C.

Wollongong Olympic Distance Triathlon

10 March 2013

Normally the day before a race I don't do any training. As this was only a B race for me I decided to go out and have a nice easy relating 6-8km run. Many people say that this can loosen you up for the race. On this occasion: BAD MISTAKE

My left knee starting getting a bit tight about 5km into the run, so I cut to run/walking. By the time I got home it was quite sore. On the outside of the knee.

I was really unimpressed with this as I was looking forward to Wollongong and have Mooloolaba next week. A decision had to be made. Run tomorrow or not.

In the end the call was, no run. I did the swim and the bike and then pulled out. Shame as I was having fun. I made the call before the race and I'm sure it was the right one. I didn't want to risk trying to run, not finishing this event and injuring myself and not being able to compete at Mooloolaba.

The Wollongong Triathlon "TriTheGong" was another of the Elite Energy triathlons. Again well organised, though by the time the women were heading off in the sprint waves later in the day they were running quite a bit late.

This was the first time I had to set up transition in the dark, and with very little lighting. Next time I'll put a torch in my transition bag. It seems to have everything else.

It was a wetsuit swim and right on 1.5km by my Garmin (for what that's worth in measuring swim lengths). The course was a M shape, heading to the northern breakwall back almost to the beach and back to the southern breakwall. In a flash it was over. Ha, ha. Actually it was my best swim. No issues, felt strong.

On to the bike my leg felt sore but ok. Three laps and really only one hill on the out and one on the way back in each of the loops. I still love it when I overtake people on time trial bikes. I thought it was a bit strange where they had the turnaround at Belmore Basin. The round about 100 metres up the road would have been perfect. I guess it was a road closure issue.

For a few long seconds I was very tempted to run but I reminded myself that I had made the decision. I found an official and gave them my timer so I could not change my mind. The DNF hurt, but not as much as my knee.

Later in the day Rochelle did the sprint and I got some good photos.

Splash 'n Dash

The weather finally broke for the Splash 'n Dash at Wollongong.

Walking around to the Start

First time out in the club colours

It was advertised as 650m swim and 5km run. The seas were still really big, so the organisers played a little safe by keeping the swim well within the harbour. It ended up a pretty good swim.

I was happy with my swim again, no panicking, no issues, though I did feel tired in the arms half way though.

Quick transition and onto the run. Ran Roger down in the first kilometre so I was pretty happy with that  as he is a good swimmer.

Overall time 35mins. This was about the same time I took in the swim alone on the Australia day Aquathon (debacle).

Then it was time to sit back and cheer Elizabeth on in the 5km fun run.

Basin to Beach: 2km Ocean Swim

The seas were absolutely huge this morning. There was no way that we'd be heading out into the ocean for this swim. It was an ocean swim organisers nightmare.

Fortunately Belmore Basin provides a good, reasonably sheltered harbour swim. All the other ocean swim around Sydney were cancelled due to the seas.

Three laps, totalling around 1.7km was the end result. My goal for this race was to be totally under control  Go out easy, swim my own race and have no breathing or panic issues.

It was a deep water start via a jump off the wooden pier near the restaurants. Mmm, decision here, googles on before or after the jump. I went for after, probably the wrong choice. Trying to get them on and the gun went off.

I was really happy with my swim. In the Australia Day Aquathon I was mowed down by the 30-35 male wave behind me. In this swim it was the females. They touched just as much but it was much softer, not straight over you.

The Journey to an Ironman distance Triathlon: Challenge Copenhagen (29 weeks)

Well it's been a long time between updates!

2012 saw the running of a couple of marathons. Kona in June and Sydney in September.

It also saw the beginning of the Triathlon era. The seeds were sown in the days before the Kona marathon, swimming in the warm, clear waters of Maui, and watered once we got onto the Big Island and the whole Kona vibe. Hopefully some day I'll go back and update that part of the blog (Kona done).

201 days until Challenge Copenhagen. 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42.2km run.

On a rating of 1 to 5 I currently give myself

• swim - 1
• bike - 3
• run - 3.5

This is based on the typical finishing place within my age/gender category. The swim definitely needs to improved. Currently it varies between slow and ok to 'please don't drown'.

Last Saturday was the annual Wollongong Australia Day Aquathon. I had a terrible swim. A few times now I have had the situation where, about 250 metres into the swim, I get this real panicky feeling. Generally focused around my breathing, but always I just want to get out of the water as fast as I can. On Saturday, this combined with reaching the turning buoy and the wave behind me catching up and literally beating me up. I was in trouble and not doing well. Cycling you can coast for a while, running you can walk. Swimming (with the next wave coming over you) it's harder to stop. But stop I did. I headed over to the nearest surf ski, held on, and got my breathing undercontrol. From a good time perspective this race was done, but I was going to learn from it and I was going to finish it. After getting my breathing under control, and a good chat with the lifeguard, it was off to finish the swim. Apart from some navigational issues, there was no more drama. On the second lap a quick wave to the lifeguard of thanks and I was heading home (the crooked way). In training we always go to the right of the catamaran

Out of the water and into the run and the world was good again.

From here on it was a game of chasing. Line up the next runner, chase them down - repeat. It was a good run course with a few km on dirt through the scrub. According to my Garmin it was all down hill all the way! An interesting proposition considering the run finishes at the same place it starts

For my age/gender category Swim 26/28, Run 7/28, Overall 19/28 

Canberra Ironman 70.3

My first distance triathlon.

I entered the Canberra Ironman 70.3 in September, before I had completed any triathlons. It was always going to about experiencing what Triathlons were about.

I have never really been a swimmer. Even though I have grown up on the coast, swimming has not been my thing. The concept of swimming 1.9km was pretty daunting, and in fresh water. Everything I had read said that the swim in Lake Burley Griffen was pretty horrible. Oh dear...

My target is to do an ironman distance triathlon which has a 3.8km swim so I needed to get over the 1.9km swim.

I had dinner on Saturday evening with a group from the Illawarra Triathlon Club. I joined the club just after taking up triathloning. One of the best things I did. They are very friendly and keen to help beginners. We all had to predict what time we would do the event in. I predicted 6:05. In reality, I had no idea. How much would the swim tire me out, would I get timed out in the swim?? how fast could I run after getting off the bike. All questions I would have to get answers to.

This was all new to me. Bikes had to be checked in on the Saturday with the race starting Sunday morning.

Sunday morning dawned with overcast cloud, hot, with the promise of winds picking up later in the morning.






Transition set up and pre event nervous chat filled the first part of the day before heading down towards the start.

The lake looked daunting, but at least it was not choppy. The buoys were a long way away. To get to the start there was about a 200 metre swim. As I was walking down the narrow finishing chute with all the 'pink' caps I head someone say it was only 4 minutes to the start. Oh dear, at best, it was going to take me that long to get there. So head down, tail up, I was off - swimming as hard now as I would in any part of the race. I got near the start line and identified a spot to head to and stop. Got there, bobbed up to look at where the first buoy was, and the horn went off. No time to compose, just go for it now.

This was ok, for a short while, then I got this real panicky attach. I could not do this. Who was I kidding. Can't do it. Get out of the water. I had to stop a couple of times - even looked to see how I could get out of the water, but no chance. On we go, let's have this conversation later. I have a personal rule in Audax riding. Never pull out by going backwards, head onto the next control and then see how you go - unless you're too injured or your bike is broken.

Same person, same rules, go forward.

A short while later I was in my rhythm and slowly churned through the course with only a couple of arms to the head. Apart from the first leg, navigation was pretty good.

I was out of the water in 48mins. Slow by most standards but I was stoked. 50 mins was the best I could have dreamed of at this stage.

Transition 1 (T1) was going fine, until I tried to get a tight tri top over a wet body, with very tired arms and shoulders. Next time wear the top under my wetsuit or have a full zip tri top. A few minutes wasted (which gave me the opportunity to show Hugh where his bike was as he was running back and forth looking) and I was off on the bike.

90km on the bike. Not far by Audax standards, but this was a race pace, not riding all day. A different experience for me. The course was changed to 5 laps as there were considerable road works on part of the course. This had two impacts. First, the major hills were removed. Second, the drafting distance had to be reduced to 7 metres instead of the normal 12 metres for this distance event. Both would not worry me as I didn't really know any different.

Each lap the wind got stronger and stronger. It was a headwind in the first quarter (and a bit of the last quarter) of the loop. Largely the leg went without incident. Bottle changes occured without issue, some people were getting done for drafting. Some were going slow, some were going fast.

What is it that has people overtaking and then sitting up to have a drink?!?. You have to slow down, move out of the draft zone before you can overtake them. This happened quite a few times.

T2 into the run went without incident.

By now it was pretty hot and the three lap run went along the edge of the lake. Directly into the wind for half the lap, then a tail breeze. Very little shade.

I was surprised at the number of people walking. Clearly a lot were using a run/walk strategy - just as I had planned to do. What I had not planned on was the outside of my right foot getting really sore about 5km into the run. I stopped to adjust my sock in case that was causing it - no. Sometimes it was very painful, other time not so much. Very puzzling. Anyway, I was going to finish so I slowed a bit and focused on the finish line.

People were cheering from the side lines and an added bonus on having your name on your bib is that they could call out your name - even though they did not know you. Very cool. Also very cool, was the fact that the Carillon (bell tower) was playing Christmas songs on the bells. I wonder how many other competitors noticed that?

Run/walk/run and at 6:08 after the starting horn went off, I was finished. Picked up the Ironman finishers towel and Ice-cream and Fruit Salad. Only three minutes off my made up time.

Loved it. A great experience and will certainly consider coming back next year.

Huskinsson Olympic Triathlon

need to complete this...