With a couple months of training for the Ironman underway the summer triathlon season was fast approaching and my first race was ready to roll. My first race was race 1 in the Gatorade Series www.supersprint.com.au at St kilda over the distance of 500/ 20 /5 . Swim in the bay the bike leg along beach road and the run also along the walking track in front of the St kilda sea baths. The Gatorade series attracts big names and also massive numbers of competitors across all divisions. The race area is a small city and a hive of activity.
Entered into my age group of 35- 39 in total of 131 entrants come race day. I was in the second wave approx 50 people on the start line so my previous open water swimming training getting used to people bumping and crashing into you helped settle into the swim once the gun fired. Started to one side of the pack to get my rythym and stroke rate comfortable but that only lasted a short time as everyone was heading for the same swim marker. Swimming isnt my greatest strength but was mid pack most of the swim in my wave group so come out of the water with some work to do. Finished the swim in 11.05 and the next faze of the day is about to begin getting out of my wetsuit while running to transition. You think running up the beach to get on the bike would be fairly routine but struggled a little bit getting my breath after the swim. Once in transition i went through the motions of preparing to get on the bike, wetsuit off, shoes on, helmet on ,un hook bike then away we go. The bike leg up and down iconic beach road was always going to be quick and with 1500 atheletes was going to busier than the normal sunday morning beach road loop. Out onto the bike and tailwind straight away the TT bike felt great and floating along with some good race wheels under me. With time trialling not my strongest fortee in cycling i got into the groove nice and early and strarted to relax on the bike. With the course a 2 lap course i started to go through the field looking for numbers that were in my category but was not sure who was in the first wave or second wave but passed a few with the same category markings so was improving on my swim postion. Hydration i focused on during the bike to ensure that i had enough fluids on board for the run as always very hard to fill up during such a short run. I entered the bike transition and felt good with a time of 31.56 avg 38km/hr which i was happy with because i had not pushed the bike at all. Into run mode quick transition and out onto the run course. On the run i was passed quickly by faster runner in my division so i used this as a perfect chance to pace myself early on to get tempo rolling along. Watching my garmin i could see that my pace was increasing as the run went on. Heading for home the last 2km were my quickest getting close to 4.10m/km pace so fastest i have run since i have taken on this journey of preparing for an Ironman. Down into the finish area and crossed the line in 1.08.53. This being my first race i didnt know what to think of my time the suprising feeling that i had i was not totally smashed and felt good so encouraging signs early on.
Now was time to go home and look at all my info from the race and start picking it apart for improvement.
Results
http://www.supersprint.com.au/results/201213-series/gatorade-triathlon-series-201213/gatorade-triathlon-series-201213---race-1.aspx
I have now taken on a coach to acheive my goal of completing an Ironman and no better person than someone who has competed at the highest level for all Ironman atheletes (Kona) i now have the guideance of Xavier Coppock from www.triathlonandmultisportcoaching.com.au as my coach and look forward the challenges he has set heaing into the unknown.
Not sure what the next race is at this stage but i will update in coming week.
Thanks to all that are following this journey and all the positive comments.
Cheers Damo
Sunday, 2 December 2012
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
Stepping up the volume
A question asked by some many people when you explain what you are training for is ,
How do you find time?
Coming from a cycling background over the last 20 years and concentrating on one discipline the leap to train for an Ironman is a very challenging obstacle to overcome. Habits are the hardest to break and being a cyclist is the feeling you have to be on the bike 6-7 days a week and the old attitude there is no substitute for kilometers. With three disciplines to engage and focusing on long distance events will always be a juggling act.
In the recent few weeks i have had good fortune of getting solid training in the bank (money saved now is cash to spend later) across all three sports. Slowly building up to prevent injuries incurred in steeping up the load. I personally have had a good run with injuries over the years but thats as a cyclist. Once the running load increases the impact is a lot more savage thnt pedalling round on the bike. One bonus of living in Melbourne is being spoilt for choice across all disciplines to train either in a group or squad or even solo and so many options.
My current weekly training consists of 3 swim sessions ,4 bike sessions and 4 run sessions so currently going from 5 training sessions a week to doubling that with approx 10 - 12 sessions a week no training for an Ironman. All this to fit round my normal day job as a project manager currently working 45- 50 hours a week with www.mcelligotts.com.au at Eastern treatment plant Carrum which is 50 minute drive each way currently to and from work.
This last week has been really good with better weather and some spare time with Melbourne cup public holiday mid week really help step up the workload.
Weekly Training schedule last week Nov 5 - 12
Monday am 1.5 km swim set 70 km bike pm 8 km run
Tuesday am 90 km bike 2 km swim pm 8 km run
Wednesday am 2km swim set pm 12km run session with tri group
Thursday pm 60 km bike including Footscray cycling club crit
Friday Rest Day
Saturday am 85 km bike pm afternoon at the races Emirates Stakes day
Sunday am 90 km bike pm 14km run
Weekly total Swim 5.5km Bike 395km Run 42 km and a few power naps in between.
I will be happy if i can maintain solid consistency like last week over the next few months to build for www.ironmanmelbourne.com .
It can be done but as we all know each week throws up suprises.
Damo
How do you find time?
Coming from a cycling background over the last 20 years and concentrating on one discipline the leap to train for an Ironman is a very challenging obstacle to overcome. Habits are the hardest to break and being a cyclist is the feeling you have to be on the bike 6-7 days a week and the old attitude there is no substitute for kilometers. With three disciplines to engage and focusing on long distance events will always be a juggling act.
In the recent few weeks i have had good fortune of getting solid training in the bank (money saved now is cash to spend later) across all three sports. Slowly building up to prevent injuries incurred in steeping up the load. I personally have had a good run with injuries over the years but thats as a cyclist. Once the running load increases the impact is a lot more savage thnt pedalling round on the bike. One bonus of living in Melbourne is being spoilt for choice across all disciplines to train either in a group or squad or even solo and so many options.
My current weekly training consists of 3 swim sessions ,4 bike sessions and 4 run sessions so currently going from 5 training sessions a week to doubling that with approx 10 - 12 sessions a week no training for an Ironman. All this to fit round my normal day job as a project manager currently working 45- 50 hours a week with www.mcelligotts.com.au at Eastern treatment plant Carrum which is 50 minute drive each way currently to and from work.
This last week has been really good with better weather and some spare time with Melbourne cup public holiday mid week really help step up the workload.
Weekly Training schedule last week Nov 5 - 12
Monday am 1.5 km swim set 70 km bike pm 8 km run
Tuesday am 90 km bike 2 km swim pm 8 km run
Wednesday am 2km swim set pm 12km run session with tri group
Thursday pm 60 km bike including Footscray cycling club crit
Friday Rest Day
Saturday am 85 km bike pm afternoon at the races Emirates Stakes day
Sunday am 90 km bike pm 14km run
Weekly total Swim 5.5km Bike 395km Run 42 km and a few power naps in between.
I will be happy if i can maintain solid consistency like last week over the next few months to build for www.ironmanmelbourne.com .
It can be done but as we all know each week throws up suprises.
Damo
Monday, 12 November 2012
Open water swimming
Another task added to the long ongoing list of items to complete prior to competing in my first ironman is to get used to the open water swimming in the ocean . With summer on its way (not sure when) it was time to get a wetsuit purchased and start getting in some hours in the open water. The crew at www.xosize.com.au fitted me up with a suit from www.rocketsciencesports.com and instantly felt comfortable on and had no restriction in the shoulders which for my poor swim stroke is a must. So all was in place to attend monday night open water swimming session with www.triathlonandmultisportcoaching.com.au coach Xavier Coppock
http://xaviercoppock.blogspot.com.au/ . Weekend weather in Melbourne had been fantastic mid to high 20 degree days woke up monday morning and still warm but a howling wind at 5 am getting ready for work so i knew that the evening session would be interesting. By the time the session rolled round the wind had swung around from the south so the swells had started to roll in some awesome sets of waves.
Suited up and we headed towards the water crew of a dozen or so committed or stupid people jumped into the water and got set for the nights session. Coach had instructed to swim out to a buoy couple hundred metres off shore and head back into shore to practice some deep water starts. This is where the fun begins. Started to head out off shore and the waves were smashing us all over place 50 m forward then 50 m back this continued several times all we could do was laugh and keep pushing on. Finally i had to abort this mission and headed back towards the calmer waters in the shallows. With a few other first timers also there we all shared our battle stories. As the session went further into the evening so did the amount of surfboards getting peeled off cars roofs and even surf boat from local surf lifesaving club was out.By the time the session finished we were dodging surfboards so was time to call it a night.
Great learning curve every open water swim will be a breeze after this session.
First race of triathlon season will be on in just under 2 weeks time Race 1 of the Gatorade series in Melbourne over a sprint distance format so will be nice to have a full race hit out to see what i need to work on in the next few months heading into Ironmn Melbourne in march 2013.
http://www.supersprint.com.au/events/gatorade-triathlon-series-201213/race-1---st-kilda.aspx
Will keep you posted with upoming events and results as the season progresses.
Damo
http://xaviercoppock.blogspot.com.au/ . Weekend weather in Melbourne had been fantastic mid to high 20 degree days woke up monday morning and still warm but a howling wind at 5 am getting ready for work so i knew that the evening session would be interesting. By the time the session rolled round the wind had swung around from the south so the swells had started to roll in some awesome sets of waves.
Suited up and we headed towards the water crew of a dozen or so committed or stupid people jumped into the water and got set for the nights session. Coach had instructed to swim out to a buoy couple hundred metres off shore and head back into shore to practice some deep water starts. This is where the fun begins. Started to head out off shore and the waves were smashing us all over place 50 m forward then 50 m back this continued several times all we could do was laugh and keep pushing on. Finally i had to abort this mission and headed back towards the calmer waters in the shallows. With a few other first timers also there we all shared our battle stories. As the session went further into the evening so did the amount of surfboards getting peeled off cars roofs and even surf boat from local surf lifesaving club was out.By the time the session finished we were dodging surfboards so was time to call it a night.
Great learning curve every open water swim will be a breeze after this session.
First race of triathlon season will be on in just under 2 weeks time Race 1 of the Gatorade series in Melbourne over a sprint distance format so will be nice to have a full race hit out to see what i need to work on in the next few months heading into Ironmn Melbourne in march 2013.
http://www.supersprint.com.au/events/gatorade-triathlon-series-201213/race-1---st-kilda.aspx
Will keep you posted with upoming events and results as the season progresses.
Damo
Sunday, 30 September 2012
Duathlon Race Day 23-9-12
With a couple months since last Duathlon with Western Suburbs Tri club was time to see how or if improvement had progressed in the last couple months. With busy times with Genesys Pro Cycling team and work commitments juggling the training has been a great learning curve on what will intensify over the next 6 months heading towards Ironman Cairns 2013. In the last 2 weeks the health been very ordinary and have had no real consistant training block after putting in a few solid rides during the Tour of Murray week was going to be a test.
My running has been improving slowly getting my times faster / km and a lot more comfortable. The week leading into this race i had only managed to get one run of 6km is all week. Not ideal but it is what it is. Headed out saturday morning with training partner Daniel Hopper for our usual 80-90 km on the TT bike and legs were suprisingly ok and with the weather starting to warm up was even better not to be rugged up to the hilt. With bike leg only 18.5km long in the race the intensity would be the killer after a crap couple weeks of training.
Woke up sunday morning after a late night saturday and was on struggle street but i knew that i needed to get down early so i could get a solid warm up and with the wind that was howling the bike was going to be tough. Registration done online made for a quick easy number pick up and get out and warm up. Rode for 25 mins to get the legs rolling before i decided to pull on the running shoes..com Pulled on the new race suit from www.champ-sys.com (Thanks Andy) and headed off to get the run legs on. With all the warm ups done it was time to race.
Countdown was done and we are off and the gun runners were into it and i was eating there dust very quickly. The lead guys are very quick so settled into my own tempo (dont have much choice) was running at 4.15 min/km which for myself was improvement from 4.40 at last race. After first turnaround i felt in ok condition so just monitored my pace on my garmin as the run went on i slowed to 4.30 pace at the back end of the run. First run completed in 21.26 a 1min.34 sec improvement from previous race so considering the amount of training i had missed in the last couple weeks was happy. The hardest decision of day do i start with bike shoes already clipped in or not , went with standard cyclist response put shoes on first. Was postioned half way along transition area so required minimal running and after watching previous people taking ages to get going was the smart choice as we were straight into a headwind so all the power was needed.
Bike leg was straight into a strong headwind so had to get straight into a good cadence so the legs could feel half normal. With dark storm clouds starting to form the idea of the Uturns was going to be fun. Once we hit the tailwind section speeds around 50 km/hr along the Altona forshore dodging speed humps was a good buzz on the TT bike in full swing.One poor starter hit the deck and was taking a nap on the grass as we came past. The headwind section each of the 3 laps was hard going but the reward was ripping tailwind coming back. Bike leg was over very quickly and had made up a hand full of positions.In the back half of the last lap on the bike start preparing the legs for final run. This section of the race was going to hurt the most due to my lack of training in previous weeks. Headed onto the run and the first kilometer felt resonable so got into rythym early and wanted to keep pace even then after 2nd km was starting to feel the pinch and slowed during the middle section of the final 5 km rum.The next 2 km felt like i was dragging a car tyre behind me and my pace was around 4.40 min/km in this time i was passed by the few i had rounded up on the bike leg and was in damage control as i headed into the headwind towards the final turnaround point. Once i hit the final turnaround i pushed on and pace increased to 4.20min/km for the last 1.5 k to finish off strong. With final run complete in 23.08 was fair bit slower than first 5 km run leg but a 40 sec improvement on previous race . Total race time of 1.16.58 was a 3 min improvement on my first race earlier in the season.
Summer season fast approaching this means crits and triathalons a plenty coming up.
Damo
My running has been improving slowly getting my times faster / km and a lot more comfortable. The week leading into this race i had only managed to get one run of 6km is all week. Not ideal but it is what it is. Headed out saturday morning with training partner Daniel Hopper for our usual 80-90 km on the TT bike and legs were suprisingly ok and with the weather starting to warm up was even better not to be rugged up to the hilt. With bike leg only 18.5km long in the race the intensity would be the killer after a crap couple weeks of training.
Woke up sunday morning after a late night saturday and was on struggle street but i knew that i needed to get down early so i could get a solid warm up and with the wind that was howling the bike was going to be tough. Registration done online made for a quick easy number pick up and get out and warm up. Rode for 25 mins to get the legs rolling before i decided to pull on the running shoes..com Pulled on the new race suit from www.champ-sys.com (Thanks Andy) and headed off to get the run legs on. With all the warm ups done it was time to race.
Countdown was done and we are off and the gun runners were into it and i was eating there dust very quickly. The lead guys are very quick so settled into my own tempo (dont have much choice) was running at 4.15 min/km which for myself was improvement from 4.40 at last race. After first turnaround i felt in ok condition so just monitored my pace on my garmin as the run went on i slowed to 4.30 pace at the back end of the run. First run completed in 21.26 a 1min.34 sec improvement from previous race so considering the amount of training i had missed in the last couple weeks was happy. The hardest decision of day do i start with bike shoes already clipped in or not , went with standard cyclist response put shoes on first. Was postioned half way along transition area so required minimal running and after watching previous people taking ages to get going was the smart choice as we were straight into a headwind so all the power was needed.
Bike leg was straight into a strong headwind so had to get straight into a good cadence so the legs could feel half normal. With dark storm clouds starting to form the idea of the Uturns was going to be fun. Once we hit the tailwind section speeds around 50 km/hr along the Altona forshore dodging speed humps was a good buzz on the TT bike in full swing.One poor starter hit the deck and was taking a nap on the grass as we came past. The headwind section each of the 3 laps was hard going but the reward was ripping tailwind coming back. Bike leg was over very quickly and had made up a hand full of positions.In the back half of the last lap on the bike start preparing the legs for final run. This section of the race was going to hurt the most due to my lack of training in previous weeks. Headed onto the run and the first kilometer felt resonable so got into rythym early and wanted to keep pace even then after 2nd km was starting to feel the pinch and slowed during the middle section of the final 5 km rum.The next 2 km felt like i was dragging a car tyre behind me and my pace was around 4.40 min/km in this time i was passed by the few i had rounded up on the bike leg and was in damage control as i headed into the headwind towards the final turnaround point. Once i hit the final turnaround i pushed on and pace increased to 4.20min/km for the last 1.5 k to finish off strong. With final run complete in 23.08 was fair bit slower than first 5 km run leg but a 40 sec improvement on previous race . Total race time of 1.16.58 was a 3 min improvement on my first race earlier in the season.
Summer season fast approaching this means crits and triathalons a plenty coming up.
Damo
Tuesday, 28 August 2012
Taking the plunge
One sunday afternoon was perched up down St Kilda beach watching the Melbourne Ironman only 50 metres from the finish line made me take the plunge and enter Ironman event in 2013. With several Ironman events selling out in record times choice was not an easy option. With being in Melbourne the most obvious race to do was Ironman Melbourne. That choice vanished in 4min. 52 sec record sellout time wise.
Option 2 was to try for Cairns Ironman 2013 ideal place for a nice mid winter break and having lived there, knew the area and course which provides great knowledge to make that first plunge into Ironman racing easier (logistics anyway). So the day had come for online nominations and after missing out on Melbourne i was loaded ready to go. Bang first try i was into the registration pages and then came the ultimate commitment PAY NOW click . Now the road begins to compete in my first ever Ironman. Along with the entry to Cairns 2013 was 50 lottery spots for a selected Ironman of your choice. Whats the chances with over 1100 entrants of getting a lottery spot , well my number came in and now i have a lottery into Ironmn Melbourne in march 2013. Have not made my desicion on Melbourne but will need to in teh coming weeks.
Time to transfer from a cyclist to the dark side a triathlete. I always enjoy a great challenge and now taking on this Ironman game there is no greater challenge in the world to complete 3.8km swim 180km bike and 42.2 km run in one single day. To co ordinate training for 3 disciplines and heavy work load and my involvement with Genesys wealth advisers pro cycling team will be a challenge in its self. In the last 2 months i have been slowly building up running km and consistent bike km to start the process. Each week over the last couple months i have avg 25-35 km a week running and 300km on the bike to get the body used to the work load.
This is why i went down this process of starting this blog to record my thoughts along the way to completing my first Ironman.
Option 2 was to try for Cairns Ironman 2013 ideal place for a nice mid winter break and having lived there, knew the area and course which provides great knowledge to make that first plunge into Ironman racing easier (logistics anyway). So the day had come for online nominations and after missing out on Melbourne i was loaded ready to go. Bang first try i was into the registration pages and then came the ultimate commitment PAY NOW click . Now the road begins to compete in my first ever Ironman. Along with the entry to Cairns 2013 was 50 lottery spots for a selected Ironman of your choice. Whats the chances with over 1100 entrants of getting a lottery spot , well my number came in and now i have a lottery into Ironmn Melbourne in march 2013. Have not made my desicion on Melbourne but will need to in teh coming weeks.
Time to transfer from a cyclist to the dark side a triathlete. I always enjoy a great challenge and now taking on this Ironman game there is no greater challenge in the world to complete 3.8km swim 180km bike and 42.2 km run in one single day. To co ordinate training for 3 disciplines and heavy work load and my involvement with Genesys wealth advisers pro cycling team will be a challenge in its self. In the last 2 months i have been slowly building up running km and consistent bike km to start the process. Each week over the last couple months i have avg 25-35 km a week running and 300km on the bike to get the body used to the work load.
This is why i went down this process of starting this blog to record my thoughts along the way to completing my first Ironman.
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| Finishline Melbourne Ironman 2012
Option two was to try eneter
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