May 2012
7 posts
“If it wasn’t fun I wouldn’t be here. I don’t need a job, so I need a challenge...”
– Lance Armstrong
One Hundred
I don’t usually log my training miles (although it’s a habit I should probably get into), but thought I would this time because it’s the first time I’ve cracked 100 run kilometres in a week.
Monday: Port Melb-St Kilda Return - 8.1km
Tuesday: Port Melb-Elwood LSC Return - 15.1km
Wednesday: Port Melb-St Kilda Marina Return - 10.1km
Thursday: Port Melb-Anderson St (x3)...
April 2012
4 posts
I'm a Rocket Scientist! (Well, kind of, anyway...)
I’ve been lucky enough to be selected to be a part of the Team Rocket-XOSIZE Ambassador Program for the 2012/2013 season. If you haven’t heard about it yet, the program is an initiative by Scott from XOSIZE to extend some of the benefits of sponsorship to everyday athletes. Like any sponsored athlete, the ambassadors will be expected to help spread the word about Rocket Science...
March 2012
2 posts
Race Results: Run for the Kids
I haven’t done a flat run for a while, so was quite looking forward to this one. The Run for the Kids course is one of the best too, going through the Domain Tunnel and over the Bolte Bridge (although the tunnel did mess with my Garmin a bit). All up, I’m not entirely happy with the run; I was hoping to average a bit faster than 4:26/km and I got a bit of a stitch around the 12km mark...
Race Results: Gatorade Race 6 - Portarlington
My last race for the 2011-2012 season and one of my favourite courses. Despite not having had the season that I wanted, I was feeling pretty good leading into this race; I’d managed to get a pretty solid block of training in and wasn’t carrying any injuries or niggles.
Despite all that, I came out of the water a bit slower than last time I raced here (back in 2010, the last time there...
February 2012
3 posts
Race Results: Gatorade Race 5 - Elwood
For the first time in a while I went into a race with a decent training block under my belt, and was feeling ready for a decent race. Mother Nature seemed to be in a good mood as well, with near-perfect conditions for a triathlon.
Swim (500m): 00:10:32
T1: 00:01:18
Bike (20km): 00:32:48
T2: 00:01:10
Run (5km): 00:22:41
Overall time: 01:08:32
After a couple of disappointing rides recently, I...
Race Results: Gatorade Race 4 - Sandringham
This was a bit of a last minute decision: I hadn’t really thought of racing an OD race until Victor Harbor in March, but after some peer pressure was applied at training, I folded and entered Sandringham.
Swim (1,500m): 00:34:55
T1: 00:02:28
Bike (40km): 01:11:45
T2: 00:01:36
Run (10km): 00:48:09
Overall time: 02:38:53
Apart from the crazy wind on the bike, I kind of enjoyed the race,...
January 2012
3 posts
Race Results: Great Australia Day Swim
My third time competing in this swim, and my second attempt at it on very limited training. Still, I went around faster than I had in my previous two goes, so can’t be too unhappy about that.
Overall time: 00:25:49
Race Results: Xosize Race 3 - Elwood
This was the second race in as many weekends, but one that I was quite looking forward to since it was also my first enduro format tri — it’s basically the same distance as a normal sprint race, but done in halves, so you do two swims, two bikes, two runs… and five transitions. Pretty good fun.
Swim 1 (250m): 00:05:25
T1: 00:01:04
Bike 1 (10km): 00:17:18
T2: 00:01:29
Run 1...
Race Results: Gatorade Race 3 - Brighton
My second race for the season, and first triathlon in quite a while. I’ve actually been training pretty consistently for the last couple of months, so wasn’t too worried about my fitness level going into this event, but still wasn’t really expecting too much.
You can imagine my surprise when I checked my times this morning and found that I’d done a four-and-a-bit minute...
December 2011
1 post
Race Results: Gatorade Race 2 - Elwood
My first race for the season and first in quite a while. Due to the bad weather we’ve been having lately, the swim leg was cancelled and replaced by a 1.4km run, turning the event into a duathlon. I’ve only really been building into a proper training load for a few weeks prior to this race, so was a bit unsure I’d be race-ready.
Run (1.4km): 00:05:24
T1: 00:01:06
Bike (20km):...
March 2011
2 posts
Race Results: Gatorade Race 6 - St Kilda
After my last couple of races, I’d more or less decided to write the rest of this season off - at least as far as heading out to race well was concerned. After all, my training for the last eight or ten months had been focussed on IMWA, and I’d raced that better than I’d thought I would. So with that rationalisation for not training under my belt, I lined up for the last Gatorade...
Race Results: Gatorade Race 5 - Elwood
Despite the realisation from my last race that I needed to do some training, I still hadn’t managed to get back into a solid routine and it showed (again!). I felt pretty good for most of the race, but the run really hurt, and running 24-and-a-half minutes for 5km - even off the bike - is pretty crap.
Swim (500m): 00:10:42
T1: 00:01:41
Bike (20km): 00:34:54
T2: 00:01:31
Run (5km):...
February 2011
1 post
Race Results: Gatorade Race 4 - Portarlington
My return to “racing” two months after Ironman WA, and my times reflect the amount of training (or lack of) I’ve done since then. On top of an almost-zero training load, some heavy rain meant that the water quality was too poor to stage a swim, turning the race into a duathlon (which I’d never done before).
Run (2km): 00:08:11
T1: 00:01:37
Bike (26km): 00:45:32
T2:...
December 2010
5 posts
2010 Racing Review & the Year Ahead
In racing terms, 2010 has been my biggest year yet. I took on my first (and second) Olympic and half Ironman races and my first Ironman, as well as setting new PBs over 14km and half and full marathon distances. I also raced in my first ever open water swim earlier this year… 12 months ago, if someone had told me I’d be entering a swimming race, I’d have thought they were a bit...
Race Report: Ironman Western Australia
Now that I’ve had a week or so to recover from my first Ironman experience, I think it’s probably time to jot down a few thoughts before I start forgetting the details.
I arrived in Busselton on the Tuesday before the race, and apart from the big billboard as you turn off the highway and the banners on the streetlights, there wasn’t much of an indication of what was about to...
Race Results: Ironman Western Australia
I won’t go into too much detail about the race just yet - I’m working on a longer race report - but overall, my first Ironman was an amazing experience and one that I’ll never forget.
Swim (3.8km): 01:09:54
T1: 00:06:27
Bike (180km): 05:31:28
T2: 00:04:58
Run (42.2km): 04:22:08
Overall time: 11:14:55
November 2010
1 post
Race Results: Shepparton Half Ironman
The last real hit out before Busselton; one more week of proper training, then the taper. I raced this at the paces I’m expecting to race in IMWA, so was very happy to come away with a new half iron PB (and sub 5 hours… just!).
Swim (1.9km): 00:36:07
T1 (est): 00:02:00
Bike: (90km): 02:33:14
T2 (est): 00:02:00
Run (21.1km): 1:46:06
Overall Time: 04:59:27
All up, I’m...
October 2010
4 posts
Race Results: Noosa Triathlon
A new Olympic distance PB for me, which I’m pretty pleased with, given that I didn’t really prepare to race this one - my training has really been around timing to peak in December for IMWA and there was no taper leading into this race. Despite all that, I was very happy with my swim in particular - I knocked 5 minutes off my previous Olympic best, and this was a non-wetsuit swim.
...
Tri Alliance Long Run →
Tri Alliance Combo Session →
Race Results: Melbourne Marathon
A much better result than last year, knocking 40mins off my previous time (admittedly, I wasn’t running injured this year, so expected to go significantly faster). I was aiming for 3:30, so am pretty pleased with the time, but still need to do a bit of work on my pacing; my half marathon PB is 1:33, so to go through halfway during a marathon at 1:35 was probably a bit too quick (which showed...
June 2010
1 post
Had a body fat percentage test this morning; currently at ~14%. I need to lose ~940g of fat to get to my 13% target.
April 2010
1 post
All Good Things...
…must come to an end. The last month or so has been pretty quiet on the training/racing front (with one notable exception) — it’s our annual rest and recovery month. All this is drawing to a close however, and it’s time to start thinking about the winter running season as well as next summer… and Busselton is only 223 days away.
I’m actually really looking...
March 2010
3 posts
Race Results: Gatorade Race 6 - St Kilda
The last race of the season, and definitely one of the most fun. I actually raced pretty well — despite having backed off on training pretty significantly after racing Ironman 70.3 Geelong last month — setting my best bike and run splits for the distance and sitting near my peak swim pace.
Swim (750m): 00:13:10
T1: 00:01:32
Bike (20km): 00:35:17
T2: 00:01:24
Run (5km): 00:22:31
...
Run for the Kids →
February 2010
12 posts
“Ironman is every person trying to find out what he can do. Swim 2.4 miles, bike...”
– Commander John Collins USN, Ironman founder
Race Results: Nissan BRW Corporate Triathlon
Due to one of my team members falling ill, I ended up going around twice - but given it wasn’t a long event, I wasn’t too upset about that. On the whole, I wasn’t overly happy with my times; the first time around, I probably went a bit conservatively; and my second go really showed up my lack of training since racing the 70.3 in Geelong a few weeks back.
Swim (400m): 00:07:46
...
Bring the Pain
Just a quick one: after consulting a few people (and most importantly, my coach!), I’ve re-jigged my race plan a bit and signed on to do Ironman WA in Busselton this December.
Yes, it’s a bit ambitious (especially given I only did my first triathlon a couple of months ago), but after Geelong, I’d already decided that I wanted to go the full iron distance and the course at Busso...
“Swimming is the worst part of a triathlon: if you stop pedalling on a bike you...”
– Unknown
Tri Alliance Run Session →
Race Results: Gatorade Race 5 - Portarlington
Definitely not my best race, but then backing up from the half Ironman last weekend was always going to be a bit tough. And the half bottle of Bollinger I drank on Saturday night (the winnings from a bet on the results from Geelong) didn’t make racing any easier.
Swim (800m): 00:13:45
T1: 00:02:18
Bike (26km): 00:47:52
T2: 00:00:57
Run: (8km): 00:36:23
Overall time: 01:41:14
Still,...
Race Results: Ironman 70.3 Geelong
My fourth triathlon and first half iron distance race. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect given that I hadn’t attempted anything like this before, so had set 6 hours as a time I’d have been happy with and 5:30 as a stretch target.
Swim (1.9km): 00:33:11
T1: 00:02:32
Bike (90km): 02:43:31
T2: 00:01:57
Run (21.1km): 01:48:45
Overall time: 5:09:58
Needless to say, I was...
Tri Alliance Run Session →
January 2010
9 posts
Port Melbourne - St Kilda Easy 10km →