105 days to go!!!!!

After what has been a frustrating 3 weeks with injury, the weekend has been a relief (on the running front and cycling) and inspirational watching others race!

Inspiration came from friends competing (and doing amazing things) in the amazingness that is the 240 km Coast to Kosci ultra trail run, ni the brutal conditions at the Lorne adventure race, the spectacle of Challenge Bahrain (that brought online viewing to a new level), and Ironman WA.

And i'm massively proud of Claire for running a 5k PB in the Sussan Classic this morning!!!

I went out for a run this arvo, with my leg sore from standing/walking around at little aths yesterday determined for it to be ok. For the first 2km i set about trying to work out during which bit of the stride it hurt. It appeared to hurt when i pushed off, well why don't i lift my leg instead of pushing off ... WOW!!!! It didn't hurt, so i spent the next 6km running through mud, long grass and formed tracks, focusing on lifting my foot from the ground, not using it to push off.
Initially I was running quite slow, so just to see if this technique could be a long-term fix I ramped up the pace ... and it felt awesome!

Looks like i'm back on track for IM Melbourne in 105 days!!

Hopefully i pull up ok tomorrow and can continue to ramp up the miles!!

16 weeks out - update

Again, i've been a bit slack in updates.

However, with only 16 weeks to go until race day, i'm thinking a weekly update will be pretty easy from here on in.

The last month or so has been a little all over the place.

November was supposed to be a big month, with Noosa Oly distance, followed by Shepp 1/2 IM 2 weeks later and Mornington 1/2 IM two weeks after that (yesterday).

Well, it didn't quite work.

Noosa was a great race, as it always is and I was pretty happy with my time.

And here's a few happy snaps from Noosa ...

During the swim - (centre of shot, left arm out of the water)

Heading out on the ride

Heading out on the run - with my now famous turtle hat

But after that i needed a break and mentally couldn't get up for Shepp. I gave myself 2 weeks to get back in the right headspace and was going well. A solid week of training done ... then boom!! Injury!!

So yet again i'm missing race through injury. After chatting with my physio, I could have done Mornington, but it would have risked a month of training. Pretty easy decision really!!

So now here i am 16 weeks out, injury pretty much ready to train on and about to enter the Christmas Silly Season. I'm just going to get through until Christmas, doing as much as my life allows.

Following Christmas, i've got 11 or so days at home. I can see that time as a great chance to get some solid sessions, as well as quality family and sorting the garden time in.  Then it's away with some friends for a week holiday...YAY!! That week might be a little light on, maybe a good recovery week.

From there it's 10 weeks ... It's getting scarily close!!!

Anyway, i best go clean up from dinner, so i can get to bed and get some zzzz's before the alarm goes off at 4am!

Cheers Tim

The Hazelwood Hardman... My First Long Course Triathlon.

I haven't been updating this page as frequently as previously, mostly because i've been using my Facebook page -->> https://www.facebook.com/TheJourneyToBecomeIronTimbo as i find it accesses more people.

But i thought last weekend worthy of an update, as i finally completed my first long course triathlon, the day after an Olympic distance. So here are the write ups from my FB page.

Cheers Tim
 

Update from Day 1 of the Hazelwood Hardman.

Today was the (almost) Olympic distance race - 1.5k swim / 36k ride / 9k run.

My plan for today was to race comfortably; not dig too deep at any stage, not look at the watch and generally just get around, so i don't pull up sore for the longer race tomorrow.

I was hoping that on both days i could just blend in with the crowd doing each of the events - but nup, that wasn't going to happen. We arrived to find a separate (pro style) transition for the 14 people entered to do the Hardman, complete with carpet and name plates in transition! We also had different colour swim caps and an "H" on our numbers to distinguish us as insane!!

I was pretty happy with how the race went, for a nutritional, pacing and energy expended point of view.

The swim was about 5 minutes faster than i did at Noosa last year (which was the last Oly i did), and i felt comfortable the entire time - except for my right calf, which cramped as i tried to stand up at the end. It's still a bit sore now. Hopefully all's well in the morning!

The ride was a little interesting at times. I was umming and ahhing about which front wheel to use - as i'm still a bit uncomfortable with the 50mm carbon in a breeze. The breeze wasn't too bad today - but came in a few times, which made me a little nervous. I may have been a bit too conservative on the ride - but wanted to make sure i would be ok for tomorrow.

I was really pleased with the run. Again, i didn't put any pressure on the run, stayed in control in 1st gear the whole time. The hill on the course is a nasty little rise - averaging about 7% for 600m, because it's a multi-loop course, we had the pleasure of doing it twice...i'm really looking forward to doing it 4 time tomorrow...

All being said, i'm really happy with the day - hopefully i'll wake up tomorrow ready for Day 2!

Also a massive shout out to Mick from Back In Motion in Patterson Lakes, for opening late on a Saturday to give my legs and lower back a going over in prep for tomorrow.

 

Ok, it's time for the Day 2 update of the Hazelwood Hardman, which is almost as long as the race itself!!

Today (or yesterday, or whenever it was relative to when this is being read) was the Long Course triathlon, comprising a 2km swim / 81.5km ride / 17.5km run. It was to be my first long course race - why i chose to do it after an Olympic distance is one for a psychology class

As one of my fellow competitors told me just before the race, how i would go today depended on what i did last night.

After i finished the race on Saturday, i made sure i refueled and hydrated, but also had a massage. Yep, i made my physio open late Saturday arvo just for me (thanks to Mick from Back in Motion http://www.backinmotion.com.au/practice/patterson-lakes). I was quite glad he did, as i had a massive knot in my calf.

I woke on race morning feeling pretty good, but really nervous. I knew i hadn't gone too hard on Saturday, but nonetheless my legs knew they'd raced the day before.

My plan for the race was quite simple ... don't go too hard, if it starts to hurt slow down, walk the steep pinch on the hill on each lap, and FINISH!!

The start of the swim was quite uneventful, it was only a small crew going around, so it was easy to find your own water and get into a rhythm. My shoulders felt a little sore from the day before, but nothing that caused any distress. I managed to get around the swim at about the same pace as the day before. Again nothing quick, but i felt relaxed and comfortable.

Exiting the water, my spot in transition was quite easy to find, as most of the Hardman rack was empty. Taking off my wetsuit turned into a chore, as my calf cramped as it was half off. So i finally managed to get ready and off on the bike i went!

I was pleased with my ride. My legs were tired, and i had to not force the issue to hold pace up the little rises, for fear of not being able to run. I managed to hold pretty much the same pace for the 5 laps.

I haven't decided whether i like the 5 lap set-up or not. From a negative point of view, it was kind of depressing being lapped (by the winner) on my first bike lap! (But in my defense he swam a 25min / 2k, and then smoked the bike course averaging 42k/h for the 81.5k!) On the positive side, it was great to have the continuous support of people each time round, and it's great for the spectators not to have to move. It was also good in the fact that for most of the time there were other cyclists around (most of whom were flying past me...but that's irrelevant ).

So onto the run...

This was always going to be interesting. The run was a short dash to a 4 lap loop, then back to the finish. Another indication of how i was placed relative to my chances of winning... As i was about 500m into the run, pro tri-athlete and race winner Tom Rodgers, ran by the other way to collect the win!

The 4k run loop can be broken up as follows... 2k flat, aid station, 1km long hill - directly from hell, nice 1k roll down, aid station, repeat. Mentally, i set myself to run to the top of the hill 4 more times. After the first cresting i told my self i'd gone up 3 times this weekend, so i was half way there. Claire and the kids and my sister in law Prue were at the aid station at the bottom of the hill, and it was great to have that support! After the second lap Claire had to leave to catch a plane, so there was a pause for a 'G-Rated see you on Wednesday night kiss and cuddle' then back to the run.

By this time the run started to hurt. A headwind had popped up, making the 2k long straight flat mentally tougher than the hill... this wasn't helped by fresh roadkill baking in the midday sun - the stench was fairly ordinary!!

By the 3rd time i hit the aid station at the base of the hill i was struggling, i wasn't totally done, but i was fading. I've read numerous times, that flat cola is great for the back half of the run in long course racing. It didn't give me an energy boost, but i think the sugar and caffeine may have just switched my brain back into gear, this allowed me to regain focus and get up the hill!

The last time up the hill was still hard, but i with my brain buzzing from caffeine, i knew i just had to get up and then it was all down / flat to the finish.

And what a welcome sight the finish line was!!

So after 2 hours 28 minutes and 55 seconds on Saturday and 5 hours 12 minutes and 27 seconds on Sunday i was done!!

It was a great learning experience, both in terms of advice from more experienced athletes, and what i found out about myself mentally, physically, and nutritionally (I should take this opportunity to thank Steph from The Natural Nutritionist - http://www.thenaturalnutritionist.com.au/ who i've been working with for a month or so. The changes definitely worked ). I was also very happy with my bike set-up - thanks AJ! Just a few minor tweaks to do.

I've also realised which bits of my game in need to work. Now that i know i can get around a long course, i want to know how fast i can go... i think this may started some form of addiction (Sorry Claire what was it you said on Saturday night ... triathlons for Tim = diamonds for Claire)

It was a great weekend of friendly, yet competitive racing, and i would thoroughly recommend to any way of any standard (this is just my way of saying, would a few more back of the pack athletes join me next year )

One last comment. Thanks to Noel Fenn,the LV Tri Club ( http://www.lvtriclub.com.au/ ), and the volunteers for putting an such a great race! Grass roots triathlon at it's best!!

The "It's been a while" update...

Howdy sports fans!

It’s been a while between blog entries. A few eventful things have happened in the 5 or 6 weeks since my last update.

Firstly, I competed in Xterra Great Ocean Road (off-road triathlon) down on the picturesque Surf Coast region of Victoria (same area as the Surf Coast Century for the ultra-distance trail running fans out there). 

Xterra GOR linky

In theory, this race sounds fun. A 1km ocean swim, followed by a 26km MTB ride, and a 10km undulating and beach run to bring it home. In practice, it was a different story.

I’ve done a number of Olympic distance triathlons and this was easily as hard, if not harder, than those. At the end of the day, I was happy that I had the fitness to get through the race – but, a little more race specific training (intensity and duration) wouldn’t have gone astray!

I’m not going to give you a blow by blow description – but let’s just say, that after spending way too long on the MTB my quads and calves were screaming! This ultimately made the run, which comprised a substantial length of soft sand, together with steep tracks up and down (to get over headlands) a very hard task!!

The weekend after Xterra I was supposed to line up at the Mordialloc Olympic distance triathlon.  This was going to be awesome.  It is a 10 minute drive from home and I work across the road from the start, so i had a carpark.

Unfortunately, the weekend before had left me both mentally and physically shattered, and I pulled the pin a few days before the start.  On the upside, the various distance races were our tri-club’s Club Champs, so it was great to go down and cheer on the crew. (Note that this was 2 weeks after IM Melb, so there was a large contingent of the IM crew also cheering from the sidelines, which made for some hilarity!!)

A few weeks ago, another local long course tri was added to the calendar, Mornington Triathlon.

Mornington Triathlon Linky

This promises to be a ripper of a race! Being so close to home, I will be able to train on the cycle and run course all winter.

Unfortunately, it has made my November somewhat crowded…

·        2 November – Noosa Olympic distance (1.5/40/10)

·        16 November – Challenge Shepparton (1.9/90/21.1)

·        30 November – Mornington Long Course (1.9/90.1/21.1)

On the upside, it’s going to ensure that I have a solid winter’s training and will leave me in no doubt as to how my IM training is going!!

So with the Puffing Billy Great Train Race done and dusted (more on that later), it’s time to look forward.  Next on the agenda is the City to Surf, and for the first time in my (less than glorious) athletic career, I’m going to seriously follow a training plan in the lead up to a race. 

The plan is a 10 week plan, with 2 quality sessions, 2 recovery/easy sessions and a long run a week.  I’m also planning a 6 week off-season 70.3 triathlon plan.  So I’ve melded the C2S plan into the tri plan and I’ll see how it goes. I’m thinking I may need to lower the intensity of one of the quality run sessions – but I’ll make that call when the need arises.

This plan starts in 3 ½ weeks, so I’ve got that time to get over my latest injury (which we’ll come to shortly) and build the fitness to be able to handle ~10hrs a week.

Before I get to Puffing Billy and my new and exciting injury, it would be remiss of me not to mention the Family 5km Showdown, or as the race organisers prefer to call it Run the Rock.

This was the highly anticipated race between my wife and our son (9), and the trash talk had been high from both sides. Claire sensed trouble when the youngster ran a sub 5 min k at the little aths cross country the previous weekend, and snagged a 3^rd at the school 2km cross country qualifiers on Thursday. She was hanging onto the hope that he’d go out too fast and have to walk most of the race.

But before I get to that, a big shout-out to little miss 5, who (along with myself) did the 2km run at Run the Rock.

Now back to the main event.  And as Claire predicted, young J went out of the gate fast…however, unfortunately for her, he just kept going!

The next time we saw J, at about the 3.5km mark, he was powering up the hill, giving it a bit of “mum’s back there somewhere”.

The lad stopped the clock at about 26:45 (a not too shabby 5:21 min/km), with Claire about 5 minutes further back. It was a great run by both of them, considering the course comprised almost 2km around a wet, muddy, soft, long-grassed horse racing track; as well as having some steep little rises.

Now…hello steam train!! It’s time for the (and my 4^th annual man against steam machine, Puffing Billy Great Train Race. The PB GTR is a 13.5 km hilly sealed road race (with minor gravel tracks), with the aim of the faster runners being to beat the train. The time which the train takes is quite random, and generally between 52 to 60 minutes.

As has become expected, the conditions, were cold, wet and windy – so, near perfect running weather!

Unfortunately for me, that’s where the near perfection ended.  My time for the race had been getting progressively faster (pretty much in line with my running fitness over the past few years). This year, after a number of good hilly training sessions I was hoping to go low 60 minutes…but that wasn’t to be…
The first 4-5km felt good, and I considered I was on my target time. Then at 5km, I turned the corner and the hit the long hill, and things began to unravel. I tried to hold pace up the hill, but my lower back was screaming to stop! And this became the story of the day. The uphills were a slow jog / walk / stretch the back, and the flats I was stuck in first gear. Every time I tried to ramp up the pace … nup … my back had other ideas …

In the end I was disappointed with my time, but still happy to get out and run the fantastic event!

Tuesday morning a physio visit was in order, and it turns out I’ve got an aggravated / swollen disc in my lower back, combined with tight hamstrings. The physio commented that he was amazed I actually managed to run the race.

The blame has been fairly and squarely pointed at poor posture – predominately sitting hunched over behind a desk all day.
So together with concentrating on sitting straight when working, I need to work on my uphill running technique. I think that when I go uphill, I tend to lean forward from the waist – this needs to change, so that I’m keeping my body straight and leaning forward from my ankles.

So that’s that, and I’m back to the physio tomorrow & hopefully he gives me the go ahead to ease back into things again.

Happy Trails J

The year to come...

With the disappointment of not racing Ironman Melbourne behind me, it's time to focus on what's next...

IRONMAN MELBOURNE 2015!!

With online entries not opening until next week, i went up to St. Kilda on Monday morning and attended Ironman's "Come and enter while you're caught up in the excitement, and not thinking straight" onsite entry!!

And with that, the next twelve months have pretty much been sorted.

4 May 2012 ... Puffing Billy Great Train Race - 13.2km fun run
10 August 2014 ... City 2 Surf - 14km fun run
2 November 2014 ... Noosa Olympic Distance Triathlon
16 November 2014 ... Challenge Shepparton 1/2 Iron Distance Triathlon
1 February 2015 ... Challenge Melbourne 1/2 Iron Distance Triathlon
22 March 2015 ... Ironman Melbourne!!!

Oh, and not to forget the next two weekends...

30 March 2014 ... Xterra Off-Road Triathlon (distance ~ Olympic)
6 April 2014 ... Mordialloc Olympic Distance Triathlon

These two upcoming events may hurt a little more than they should, as i've been doing a bit too much liquid carb loading (if you know what i mean...) and not really enough training!

Cheers Tim

Getting back into it...

It's been about 5 or 6 weeks since i pulled the pin on Ironman Melbourne this year, and it's fair to say my training in those weeks has ranged from recovery to i can't really be stuffed.

But now that i've got Xterra back on the agenda in a scratch under 6 weeks (and Mordialloc Oly distance the week after that), it's all systems go!!

I've managed 12 training sessions in the last 2 weeks, even though they haven't been long, i can feel my fitness coming back.  I managed a trip out to Lysterfield (my favourite nearby run trail) over the weekend and managed to get a 13 hilly km done.

While i was there the locals came out to say Hello...

Lysterfield Lake Park is a great spot for all (well most) of your outdoory type stuff, including running, walking, MTB riding (from kids to elite competition trails), kayaking, small boat sailing --->>> Linky to Lysterfield Park on the Interwebs

I'm planning to get out there on the MTB next weekend to get some technical trail riding under my belt. In fact i'm hoping to get out there every weekend until Xterra for some riding and running.

Anyway, until next time... hope you're getting out and enjoying the great outdoors :)

Playing support crew for the day ...

Last Sunday i played support crew / child-wrangler, as my wife, and several hundred other women swam, rode and ran around MSAC and the picturesque Albert Park Lake, in the annual Pink Triathlon.

This race was my wife's first triathlon. Like a lot of people she never considered doing a triathlon because of the open water swim. But this tri was different - it had a pool swim!!

I think it's no secret, that she was still slightly terrified of the swim, but she got through it! And once she got on the bike she even began smiling and ended up thoroughly enjoying the ride and run!!

She did an awesome job, and i couldn't have been prouder :)

Best part is, she's talking about her next triathlon, upgrading her garmin and bike... 

Not this year...

After a couple of days of serious internal deliberation, i've decided that i'm going to pull the pin on IM Melbourne this year. 

At the end of the day, it really wasn't a hard decision...

My ongoing injuries have meant that the first 10 weeks of my 20 week plan have seen me complete about 25% of what i should have completed, and i have no intention of turning up to the start line knowing i'm physically underdone.  All that will do is smash me mentally before i start. 

The plan for the rest of the season is going to involve some shorter (Sprint and Olympic) races, and maybe have another crack at Xterra Great Ocean Road.

The target is now to build my running legs slowly again from scratch.  I'm going to get my running gait properly assessed and run in the shoes which will allow me to run long.  Hopefully the right shoes, a slow build and running strength training will allow to return as a stronger runner.

I'm also hoping IM Melbourne will return in 2015 (it always sells out pretty quick, so i can't see why it wouldn't) and i'll have another crack at entering.

Next season will, hopefully, look like:

Noosa Olympic
Shepparton half IM
Challenge Melbourne half IM
Melbourne IM!

Fingers crossed!!

Thanks everybody for your support thus far, and good luck to those of you who are now less than 10 weeks (or less for those doing IMNZ) away from IM glory!!

Keep chasing your dreams peoples!!

Cheers.

10 weeks to go...

In 10 weeks time, if all has gone to plan and that's my plan - not some alternate crappy plan which appears to be hijacking my plan!! - i'll be lying in bed ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED, trying to get sleep as the gun will be going off in less than 9 hours!!!!

As i write this, i've got some strange lower leg issue (appears to be more than a niggle) that is causing a bit of pain. The most frustrating part is that it isn't stopping me from training but i don't want to push things in case it's doing damage.  I haven't had it looked at yet, as we were on holiday and i hoped that rest would heal all ... um, not really.  

So first thing Monday morning it's a call to the physio to make an appointment and get his opinion.  As far as I'm concerned there are 3 possible answers:

1) Don't train - you'll do irreparable damage ... which probably means, no IM :(

2) You can train - but it won't get better until you rest it ... Cool, that's why they invented post IM months ... GO!!! :)

3) It's nothing ... you're making it up ... GO NUTS YOUNG FELLA!!! 

Once i know the answer, you guys will be the first to know :)

I'm feeling quite confident that given the next ten weeks to train i'll be good to go on the day.  I haven't done as many long sessions as I'd have liked to by now - so I have already re-assessed my goal and changed it from a time to finishing sub 17 hours!

...
 
And in other exciting news - i'll be racing as part of the Heart Kids QLD team at the Noosa Triathlon later this year.  Once i get all the details sorted i'll do a separate blog post (or 2) on this subject, and why i'm proud to be part of this team.

Cheers Tim