Tinman Olympic Distance Tri. NZ 09

The Cervelo's final race :-(... I have a nice new bikeseee coming to a race near you soon... once the Bro's put it together... so lazy???

Right here we go with the Tinman Race report...

I have to say I was a little bit nervous before this race... yes even laid back, cruisey me a bit nervous...?? My last race was the Worlds in Perth when I had the heart thing go on, since then I'd been sticking to some good aerobic training with the HR kept under 155 apart from a few 'race prep' efforts the week before... it was time to race and rev that engine up to 170HR+++, puke my spleen up and hope she'd hold together :-).

So the swim... normal carnage but my new found 'Triathlete Swimming' as opposed to 'Swimmer Swimming' was working a treat as fought through the melee nipping from one pair of feet to the next... out I popped at the end with the 15th fastest swim... wicked... in a race with plenty of young Tri Swimmer Fishes... now my swim will never be up there with them because I am still a bit rubbish at swimming... but it's good to be still improving even though it's been 13 years since I first learnt to swim... you don't swim as a kid in Birmingham...

Off onto the bike... over taking the usual "yeh you can swim Bro but you bike like my fricken Grandma" guy's... :-) Tried to push the pace a bit but did feel the lack of anaerobic training take effect in my quads... they didn't like that lactate feeling in them so I had to back off a little. Continued the ride on my own for most of it but couldn't bridge the gap to any of the top guy's... John Hume (racing in a team) came past me with about 5K to go... sweet, I sat nicely behind him (legal distance of course) watched my effort drop by about 5 bpm as he took me to T2... dam I could of just cruised the bike... waited for him to catch me and had a much easier ride... still that's racing... It is a mistake to believe that triathlons are drafting free... even if you remain legal you can still (and should) get the benefits of the draft... I advise athletes to approach most races as if they are draft legal because in the end they are.

So off onto the run... cautiously... nervous that something bad would happen... a team runner over took me... I wasn't too happy with this as he was running like a bit of a spaz (sorry, I grew up in the 80's) he didn't look that efficient put it that way, but I let him go as I'd just done a bike and swim... however he started to come back to me as I settled into my rythm which HIS ego didn't like and he started attacking me with little bursts of pace... WTF? Anyway I felt good at the turn around so I put it into my last gear and cruised away from him... dam I felt good... cruising at a fast pace... hurting but holding the ship together... :-)

Running around the Mt for the last few K's is sooooooooooo painful... up and down... jeez pain, pain, pain... some of the athletes out there commented on the views, which are very nice but WTF?? All I could see was the inside of my eyelids?!?! AND what is it with all the people going for their Sunday Stroll... getting in my way... funny but when the crimson mist has fallen I could have trampled to death anyone who got in my way... I resorted to shouting and snarling very loudly as I spat and snorted out sea snot and bits of jelly fish at any poor unfortunate Sunday Stroller... most of them kept clear...

Ah... the finish... cool... 9th... happy with that, almost fastest run of the day by 5 seconds... it always amazes me how fast you can go on pure aerobic training... "training not straining" :-)

It was a great day in all... cool to catch up with all the tri folk from around the North Island and I have to say an amazing well done! To all the athletes I coach who did the race... All did very well... even Clay who spent his whole pre-race trying to cro-bar his car open???
What I was impressed with most was that all you guy's enjoyed it...! Many people loose site of the main reason they race... because we enjoy it! No point in doing it otherwise... chasing a position or a time is all good but pointless if we're not enjoying ourselves... our greatest successes will only come with enjoyment.

A final note from the race is that I did it without any hydration. I don't normally drink much anyway in Olympic distance races and indeed some of the research I've been doing into hydration states that hydration is overated. So I didn't take a bottle on the bike, the only nutriton I had was a gel on the bike... most of which ended up all over my bike anyway and no fluid at all... I felt fine and didn't fade in my run so I reckon I'll have to try this out more often.

It's good to be on track... always good to get that first race done... I always recommend racing to everyone... it's why we do the sport... nothing can prepare you more for a race then ermmm racing... hopefully I'll keep this fitness going for Challenge Wanaka :-)

Right I'm off to Christchurch... going to cleanse the Great Unwashed South Islanders and their multisport / unshaven evil ways :-)

Westy xxx