Can you believe it's already Easter!?
I guess this entry is long overdue as Ironman Melbourne was several weeks ago and we are now half way through the end of race season "fun month". It's also true I've put this off for a while as well but I wanted to take some time to collect my thoughts.
So, here goes.
2014 was my second trip around the Melbourne Ironman course and due to poor conditions and circumstances beyond our control in '13, my first attempt at the full distance. Throughout the course of the year I had recruited a sports nutritionist (dropping 5kg and close to 10% body fat), had a professional bike fit for my race bike and dropped some dollars on a new training bike in order to nail some quality hill rides. By all indications my investments were paying dividends; ok, my swim times in the pool went backward (I'm blaming a loss of buoyancy) but I still swam my fastest first legs at the long course races in Shepparton, Canberra and Warrnambool. (Wetsuit correcting buoyancy issue). My annual circuit around Kinglake was probably half an hour faster than any other time and I was annoying close to breaking the 4 hour barrier for the marathon (officially out by 56 seconds). It's safe to say, I was feeling pretty confidant that my this year I was looking to do big things on the big race day.
March 23rd arrived and, unlike a year ago, the weather was perfect, light winds and the water was flat and I started wide and slightly back from the front runners so I could find some unoccupied space to swim in, as did everyone else, apparently. The first 3 turns of the course and most of the "open water" between them were a mess of limbs and torsos, all anonymously clad in black neoprene. Turn 4, I swam straight past before cornering and finally I had room to swim. An hour and a quarter after air horn launched me into that washing machine with close to 3000 others I stood up in the shallows and found that, among the handful of other competitors close by were two friends. That was a cool stroke of luck as we were able to share the moment and gee each other up.
On the bike the plan is to keep a medium high cadence with a perceived effort too match, drink steadily and constantly and eat every time the Garmin tells me it's time. From experience, the big risks here is overdoing your effort, becoming dehydrated and losing too much sodium and cramping up later in the race. On the first length of the out and back course I found a new great risk. In order to decrease my bike's wind resistance I have an "Aero Jacket" cover on the back wheel, basically a pair of plastic shield that fully conceal the spokes and simulate a more expensive full disk wheel. The thing is held on via a series of interlocking press-studs. As I raced into the tunnel that precedes the turn-around and the gradient becomes steeply negative I tucked in and pedaled furiously when suddenly there was a loud sharp report, then shortly followed by a second one. Startled by this I sat up a bit and tried to work out what the hell had just happened.
It took a little while but I believe it must have been rushing wind getting into the wheel covers and distorting them, then snapping back. In hindsight I was lucky there weren't any Technical Officers in the vicinity when this occurred as I think I was close to being pinged for "public toilet". Needless to say I was less furious on the remaining descents for the race.
On the final return to Frankston a head wind picked up and those of us who were more reserved early got caught fighting it.
Time to run and thankfully my short trip from the bike dismount to the transition change tent was ever so slightly less ridiculously rigid and stilted, so there's that I guess.
With just a marathon to go and the leg where I'd seen the most improvements during training I was kind of looking forward to this. Here's how it played out. Two "Ks" in and I was running comfortably and waaay too fast (5:15/km) and consciously backed off to holding 6min kilometres.
An hour later I was still holding this pace but did notice a few occasions were there were a handful of seconds displayed on the wrong side of my target pace and I had to pick it up to keep on track.
Just over half way, where the hills kick I began to have to fight to hold pace, then fight to keep it under 6:30/km.
30km in and nearing the last of the hills and my focus has shifted a bit and now I just racing the sun. I had initially had a vague hope that today might have been the day to go under 4 hours for this run - that idea is gone and I'm trying to calculate what the time must be (I have actually forgotten this information is accurately available at the press of a button on my wrist) as I sort of committed to a friend to reach her aid station before 7pm. Why did she have to be at the very last one!?
40km, the pace is back on and I do grab my drink from Stella (though I later discover she doesn't remember the event) and the sun is still above the horizon.
Eleven hours and forty-three minutes after starting it's over and I have my second Ironman Finisher's medal and towel around my neck.
It was a good race and I'm happy I completed it in under 12 hours as this had been my original stretch target a year ago. That day a reduced distance swim meant that I can only guess what time I would have recorded and whether that change had a large contribution to the awesome time I recorded. Having said that, I didn't really have the race I wanted. The goal I had put forward was to go faster this year whilst still completing the full distance, a goal I missed by close to an hour. Looking at my times, I rode and ran slower this year instead of improving. I stated in my last entry, when you get to the end of that final training build you begin to count the number of times you didn't get to a scheduled training session, did you really need rest or did you find an handy excuse. After the race I am still doing the tally and have pretty much concluded I became too comfortable that I had it covered and didn't get all the work done. The plan had always been to sign up for the race again because I enjoyed the challenge. The day after the race was done and before I had retrieved my bike from the compound in St Kilda I had done just that, but with new purpose. This year and the build towards 2015 will be dedicated to speed. I've always had the "diesel engine", it's time to shift gears.
So, here's the deal. I am committing to a renewed dedication to following the training regime that I have subscribed to with Tri Alliance. My program includes a number of sessions I have struggled to get to because the Snooze button has been more attractive. Each week there are strength and flexibility sessions prescribed (to do at home) but I have rarely attended to them. In fact, though the information for the weekly sessions has always been available, I have rarely checked it, preferring instead to just arrive and follow instruction. I had planned on breaking 10:48 for Ironman Melbourne this year but I never really vocalised it, it was always an internal and largely private marker.
With this in mind, I present the following contract:
I will complete Ironman Melbourne, 2015 within 10 hours and 30 minutes
I will achieve this by taking greater responsibility and accountability for my training, knowing the content and purpose of the scheduled sessions, attending each session I am able to, completing them singularly when not. I will focus on building strength and following the prescribed home sets where in the past I have not bothered, and I will also work in consultation with the coaches to ensure I remain on track.
When I achieve this goal I will celebrate by purchasing a new race bike
This the goal I am committing to
Signed:
Andy Wood-Rich
Feel free to "witness" this agreement within the comments
There, that's the serious part done, it's late and I still have 1200 more "mountain climbers" to complete before the end of the weekend
(yup, that's fun" month)
I guess this entry is long overdue as Ironman Melbourne was several weeks ago and we are now half way through the end of race season "fun month". It's also true I've put this off for a while as well but I wanted to take some time to collect my thoughts.
So, here goes.
2014 was my second trip around the Melbourne Ironman course and due to poor conditions and circumstances beyond our control in '13, my first attempt at the full distance. Throughout the course of the year I had recruited a sports nutritionist (dropping 5kg and close to 10% body fat), had a professional bike fit for my race bike and dropped some dollars on a new training bike in order to nail some quality hill rides. By all indications my investments were paying dividends; ok, my swim times in the pool went backward (I'm blaming a loss of buoyancy) but I still swam my fastest first legs at the long course races in Shepparton, Canberra and Warrnambool. (Wetsuit correcting buoyancy issue). My annual circuit around Kinglake was probably half an hour faster than any other time and I was annoying close to breaking the 4 hour barrier for the marathon (officially out by 56 seconds). It's safe to say, I was feeling pretty confidant that my this year I was looking to do big things on the big race day.
March 23rd arrived and, unlike a year ago, the weather was perfect, light winds and the water was flat and I started wide and slightly back from the front runners so I could find some unoccupied space to swim in, as did everyone else, apparently. The first 3 turns of the course and most of the "open water" between them were a mess of limbs and torsos, all anonymously clad in black neoprene. Turn 4, I swam straight past before cornering and finally I had room to swim. An hour and a quarter after air horn launched me into that washing machine with close to 3000 others I stood up in the shallows and found that, among the handful of other competitors close by were two friends. That was a cool stroke of luck as we were able to share the moment and gee each other up.
On the bike the plan is to keep a medium high cadence with a perceived effort too match, drink steadily and constantly and eat every time the Garmin tells me it's time. From experience, the big risks here is overdoing your effort, becoming dehydrated and losing too much sodium and cramping up later in the race. On the first length of the out and back course I found a new great risk. In order to decrease my bike's wind resistance I have an "Aero Jacket" cover on the back wheel, basically a pair of plastic shield that fully conceal the spokes and simulate a more expensive full disk wheel. The thing is held on via a series of interlocking press-studs. As I raced into the tunnel that precedes the turn-around and the gradient becomes steeply negative I tucked in and pedaled furiously when suddenly there was a loud sharp report, then shortly followed by a second one. Startled by this I sat up a bit and tried to work out what the hell had just happened.
It took a little while but I believe it must have been rushing wind getting into the wheel covers and distorting them, then snapping back. In hindsight I was lucky there weren't any Technical Officers in the vicinity when this occurred as I think I was close to being pinged for "public toilet". Needless to say I was less furious on the remaining descents for the race.
On the final return to Frankston a head wind picked up and those of us who were more reserved early got caught fighting it.
Time to run and thankfully my short trip from the bike dismount to the transition change tent was ever so slightly less ridiculously rigid and stilted, so there's that I guess.
With just a marathon to go and the leg where I'd seen the most improvements during training I was kind of looking forward to this. Here's how it played out. Two "Ks" in and I was running comfortably and waaay too fast (5:15/km) and consciously backed off to holding 6min kilometres.
An hour later I was still holding this pace but did notice a few occasions were there were a handful of seconds displayed on the wrong side of my target pace and I had to pick it up to keep on track.
Just over half way, where the hills kick I began to have to fight to hold pace, then fight to keep it under 6:30/km.
30km in and nearing the last of the hills and my focus has shifted a bit and now I just racing the sun. I had initially had a vague hope that today might have been the day to go under 4 hours for this run - that idea is gone and I'm trying to calculate what the time must be (I have actually forgotten this information is accurately available at the press of a button on my wrist) as I sort of committed to a friend to reach her aid station before 7pm. Why did she have to be at the very last one!?
40km, the pace is back on and I do grab my drink from Stella (though I later discover she doesn't remember the event) and the sun is still above the horizon.
Eleven hours and forty-three minutes after starting it's over and I have my second Ironman Finisher's medal and towel around my neck.
It was a good race and I'm happy I completed it in under 12 hours as this had been my original stretch target a year ago. That day a reduced distance swim meant that I can only guess what time I would have recorded and whether that change had a large contribution to the awesome time I recorded. Having said that, I didn't really have the race I wanted. The goal I had put forward was to go faster this year whilst still completing the full distance, a goal I missed by close to an hour. Looking at my times, I rode and ran slower this year instead of improving. I stated in my last entry, when you get to the end of that final training build you begin to count the number of times you didn't get to a scheduled training session, did you really need rest or did you find an handy excuse. After the race I am still doing the tally and have pretty much concluded I became too comfortable that I had it covered and didn't get all the work done. The plan had always been to sign up for the race again because I enjoyed the challenge. The day after the race was done and before I had retrieved my bike from the compound in St Kilda I had done just that, but with new purpose. This year and the build towards 2015 will be dedicated to speed. I've always had the "diesel engine", it's time to shift gears.
So, here's the deal. I am committing to a renewed dedication to following the training regime that I have subscribed to with Tri Alliance. My program includes a number of sessions I have struggled to get to because the Snooze button has been more attractive. Each week there are strength and flexibility sessions prescribed (to do at home) but I have rarely attended to them. In fact, though the information for the weekly sessions has always been available, I have rarely checked it, preferring instead to just arrive and follow instruction. I had planned on breaking 10:48 for Ironman Melbourne this year but I never really vocalised it, it was always an internal and largely private marker.
With this in mind, I present the following contract:
I will complete Ironman Melbourne, 2015 within 10 hours and 30 minutes
I will achieve this by taking greater responsibility and accountability for my training, knowing the content and purpose of the scheduled sessions, attending each session I am able to, completing them singularly when not. I will focus on building strength and following the prescribed home sets where in the past I have not bothered, and I will also work in consultation with the coaches to ensure I remain on track.
When I achieve this goal I will celebrate by purchasing a new race bike
This the goal I am committing to
Signed:
Andy Wood-Rich
Feel free to "witness" this agreement within the comments
There, that's the serious part done, it's late and I still have 1200 more "mountain climbers" to complete before the end of the weekend
(yup, that's fun" month)
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