Payback time

As a triathlete I spend a lot of time focussed and working towards my goals. I am paying closer attention to my diet and am spending a lot of time on various race courses. Each time I'm out there, or whenever I hit a tough patch, there has always been someone there to provide support or advice.

Being part of a team has really helped me achieve the level of success I have to date.

Now, it's payback time.

If you'd have asked me mid last year about racing the Corporate Triathlon again you would have received a resounding No. Even as late as August I was still holding firm that I was done with the race. Don't get me wrong, it's a great event and the team aspect adds a whole new, cool dimension to triathlon. It's just that I was not feeling up to the challenge of finding staff members to fill the team spots and again, trying to secure a budget for company branded race kit. The year before, delays in the approval process were compounded by Chinese public holidays and mailing address errors, and that was before the parcel got held up in customs! We actually took delivery of the kit on the Friday before the race weekend.
No, I had a rematch with the Shepparton 70.3 and a little thing called Ironman to focus on, I did not need the added stress of recruiting and negotiation to add to my plate. Therefore, it come as a little surprise that last week we not only fielded and completed the Nissan Corporate triathlon with more teams than ever before (5 in the main event, plus one in the Sprint) but also brought our largest contingent of first-timers to the sport.
In the lead up I worried that I hadn't provided enough info to the rookies, every time I spoke to one I would remember about ten new details I hadn't discussed before. Many an email was sent with snippets of tips, discussions of the rules and links to articles on what to bring and what to expect. Having been doing this for a few years now, though, I'm sure there are things I take for granted as common knowledge but aren't obvious to everyone.
Race day eve arrived and I still had the headcount to fill all the team spots (although I had become the cyclist for the sprint team due to an injury to the original owner of this position). I was still making phone calls to set meeting points and timings for people the arrive and get set up.
Race day was met with a bit of nervous excitement and I was impressed that, not only did all my guys manage to complete their race, they also said they'd enjoyed the experience! So much so that a number of them already have their sights set on suiting up again for race 6 in St Kilda.
I'm glad they enjoyed the race and stoked we were able to achieve the results together. Though this race was firmly in the "too hard basket", I'm glad I pulled my head out of my own little siloed world long enough to support these guys.

A weeke earlier still was the Geelong Triathlon Festival. The vast majority of the group I'm training with for Ironman Melbourne were using this long course race as their lead up to the big race. I was not going to be suiting up for this event, almost a year ago I had made a different commitment. One of the girls from the club had confided in me that she was going to debut her long course in Geelong so, the family and I were going to be there to support her.

Pam-Tastic T-Shirt!

Early on race day, we drove up to the Geelong foreshore in our supporter tees and arrived in time to catch up with the crew. The wife and I dropped off the bags in the tent, deposited the kids with the other teens and tweens in attendance and settled in to a day of playing spot the speeding triathlete and work out who it is in time to call out their name. I must admit, I got better at this game as soon as a I gave up going for bonus points by trying to capture their photo as well. The added difficulty of spotting them, then finding them in my phone's view finder and then following their movement to get a clear pic was a little above my ability. I settled instead for calling out the names I knew and clapping for as many of the athletes as I could, whether I knew them or not. As I watched and cheered there were moments that I wished I was out there with them (actually, mostly whilst watching the bike leg) but mainly, after an hour of cheering, I wished we'd remembered to bring the cowbell. Note - constant clapping is hard work; rewarding, but hard.

It was a great day out, the sun shone brightly, we were repeatedly thanked by participants who received our support and I even gave out a few high-fives. My friends were rewarded for their efforts with another achievement, some knew lessons learned, or at least the fortune of knowing, it was better to break spokes here rather than 45km down the Eastlink freeway. It's good to give back sometimes; and my mate that we went to support?
Let's just say, a picture tells a thousand words...

That moment when

We were promised there would be a moment.
We'd be in the middle of a long ride or perhaps whilst completing a key run set, maybe it would happen after battling through a tough patch to "come good" again.
It was different for every one, but the moment would come, the moment when you knew you were going to cross the finish line. When you knew you were going to be an Ironman.

We were told this moment would happen for each of us putting in the hard work on this journey.
Ironman Melbourne is now 44 days away and I'm not sure the promise has been fulfilled yet.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not nervous about finishing the event. I don't worry that I'll find myself lacking somewhere along that 140.6 miles of racing. To date I have remained fairly consistent in my training, Our swim sessions are regularly close to, if not longer than the prescribed 3.8km of the first leg. In the past I have completed a 5km open water swim in under the Ironman's cut-off time.
The thought of a 6 hour bike ride does not scare me as I've proven to myself I am capable of spending that time in the saddle many times before. Several long rides in the various steep grades of Victoria as well as training rides in the garage on the windtrainer have shown this.
I'm not a great runner but I am a fairly efficient runner. I may take a bit longer but, since working on my run technique I've become a lot more comfortable with the final discipline of triathlon.

All of the above tells me I will get to experience the voice of Ironman, Mike Reilly, calling out my name in St Kilda's Catani Gardens. My pause though is, I've been overconfident in my abilities before.

Have I already had my epiphany, is it yet to come?

You may have read a couple of my older posts entitled Tale of Seven (part 1 and part 2) which discuss my strong belief I could tackle Victoria's mountain rides. You would have also noted that, though I technically made it to the summits, I was not exactly triumphant in my efforts.
When I first started training with Tri Alliance it was as a part of their "Try-the-Tri" program. I had signed up for my third season of racing and had taken the leap to the longer "Sprint" distance events. Being eager, I had been one of the first 100 to sign up and was rewarded with the 6 week beginner program. With two seasons already under my belt I figured I'd pretty much rock this triathlon rookie crowd, perhaps extol some of the lessons I'd learned as a graduate from Fun distance racing. I'm not sure if it was whilst floundering in the pool with a band around my ankles; during a run session whilst I lagged behind again; or the skills session where it took me a little longer than most to get the hang of jumping onto a moving bike. Where ever it was, I soon realised I wasn't living up to the image I had fixed in my head.

What I'm getting at is this; I've been certain of an outcome in the past and I've been proven wrong.
How can I know this time is different?

I look to my results and they are promising, granted.
For many years I worked to break the 2 hour barrier for a half marathon - now I do so on a regular basis, in races, on long training runs and even my last half Ironman. My swimming is also improving, I'm yet to take up residence in the advanced lane but the technique is better than ever.
Last weekend I competed in the Sandringham Olympic distance triathlon. My plan was to treat it like a training day and just roll through. My swim was good and the run up the hill to transition also felt pretty strong. On the bike we got smashed with heavy rains with a storm front that literally sat in one place and pummelled the road with water. Two laps on the bike done followed by 2 X 5km loop with Coach Greg sitting at the top of the steep pinch of a climb (bugger). When I got the official results I was surprised to discover I had cut 5 minutes off of last years time. More startling was that I'd clocked in a sub 50min run.

Are these the cues I should be using?
Is a good result in a longer race indicative of what I'm really capable of?

Perhaps the real clue I need is that, for the first time I am questioning my blind faith that I can conquer the challenges I set myself.

We were also told, a long time ago; "You need to respect the distance".
I first heard the phrase as I was preparing for my first 70.3 race. At the time I knew I could do it, a month later as I was forced to walk a considerable part of the run, the phrase returned to me.

Now, as we approach March 24th, it is JC's words I choose to focus on.
I will continue to put in the effort and time and will try to interrogate the basis of my confidence and I will respect the distance because Ironman is a whole different ball park. I will not merely assume I've got it covered.
It deserves the respect.

Maybe my moment has come from committing these thoughts to the virtual page.

Five into Two

So, when does five go into two?
Mathematically it doesn't work.
If you overlay the digits you might get some funky looking 8 - so that doesn't work either.
Basically, five shouldn't go into two, but as I look forward in my calendar, this is the problem I see.

In the next two months I have scheduled in five races.

Talk about the fat end of the season!

Add to that, one of those months is the shortest we have in the year. I said it before, from the time I started this sport I was hooked, so, when the call out came for Gatorade entries I jumped onboard for for the ride again. After working the Ironman Melbourne for the full 13 hour shift and supporting everyone that passed through (from Crowie to Barnie) I knew I had to experience it from the other side of the drinks table. When entries were available, I jumped at the chance.
All through the past year I was adamant that I wasn't going to do the Nissan BRW Corporate race again this season. Organizing the teams, chasing down corporate funding, helping out newcomers, etc all sounded too much. Wasn't going to happen again, some one else could do it. No one else did and suddenly I've got 6 teams racing in the next edition, more than any other year and many more first timers than ever before as well. (besides, I do get a kick out of helping them out and achieving their goals)
The Geelong Long course event is coming up, here I put my foot down. I will not add this event to my calendar. I will attend merely to support the team and cheer from the sidelines.
After making this decision I learned that a lot of the guys building to IM Melbourne are using Geelong as their lead up race. Choosing to stand by my early decision I had some supporter t-shirts made and booked in the family road trip - and also booked an entry into an alternate long course race in Warrnambool, a race joyously named "SUFFERFEST"

The above series of events has resulted in the following set of weekends
Olympic Distance
Geelong for support
Nissan Corporate (fun distance)
No race
Sufferfest Long Course
No race
Portarlington Sprint distance
Ironman Melbourne

Admittedly, since my "A race" for the season is the Ironman at the end of this group of events I plan to treat the others as brick training sessions, and it's good to get in some practice with a mass start swim. The hectic nature of a large group of competitive blokes all hitting the water at one time is a difficult thing to replicate in training! Also, it should give me a few opportunities to trial some of the new gear I have recently acquired before the big show. They say you shouldn't do anything new on race day but I'm sure that only relates to races where you're shooting for the result. The result I'm after is a solid race, injury free, get my nutrition and gear selections right and to enjoy the day.

So there you have it. That's how you end up with two being divided by five..
Maybe next season I'll be smarter about my calendar and dial it back a bit. Given that I've just signed up again for the Shepparton 70.3 race and already have designs on the Canberra 70.3 and next years IM Melbourne, it's unlikely...