QTS Gatorade Series Race 3

Medal from the Gatorade Series Triathlon Series

The Event Crew who run the Queensland Tri Series, Sponsored by Gatorade held race 3 of the series at Raby Bay, QLD.  As  a quick race brief there were Jelly fish, delays as we waited for boats to clear the marina and the heat came to those who had a later wave start. Though this is not what I want to tell you about.

The day before the race I was lucky enough to attend a sports psychology session at Revive Ashgrove. The presenter was Mat (Mental Notes Consulting) . This to me was a new experience, while I had previously trawled through the internet and had an appreciation for the mental aspect, I had never really had to confront the challenges I hold, let alone be thrown in to talk about them in a group environment. The thing that I believe that held me back was not the willingness to suffer, but the ability to suffer for an extended period of time.

This brain works as a safety system to protect our body, and unfortunately it kicks in well before our body actually will break. This was the main fact I took away from the session as well as a visualisation technique and the notion of self confidence (believe to achieve).

I was able to utilise the visualisation during the extended break before the race as we waited for the marina to clear of boat traffic (and yes there was the one or to muppets that ignored and still got in). I was determined to suffer, to be able to go beyond where I was used to.

I did, I dug deep in the run, my least favourite, my toughest leg. I was able to run a PB off the bike and finished 3rd, which in turn now has me leading my category for the series. These three immediate  extrinsic factors quickly reenforced how suffering paid off, but now on reflection I feel more confident now in my own ability, which really out weighs the instant gratification as I still look towards taking my racing further.

For this I would like to thank not only my coach, but Pete Ledwidge for letting me know about this session at  Revive Ashgrove, and to Mat (Mental Notes Consulting) for starting me on a stronger journey towards a more complete racer.

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Landmark running

Inspiration for running is sometimes hard to find, especially on the slow weeks where there is a lot on and your starting to get tired, on holiday, or just generally un motivated, out on the road this week I have found a great idea to get you through those moments…Its called land mark running. It is a small session based on the goal of running a land mark, be it a hill, mountain beach, specific location, look out or my favourite a bridge. The session is not about hitting times, distance or efforts, but just completing it and remembering that just getting out enjoying it is a really big part of anything that we take on. Today I found my self away from home had a couple of days with nothing and it was very grey and miserable looking. So I pulled on the shoes to hit one of these landmark runs. I had been wanting to do this one for quiet a while and am glad to have had the couple of hours free (it doesn’t have to take this long) to complete this run.

THE SYDNEY HARBOUR BRIDGE AND OPERA HOUSE

It was spectacular and well worth it, by the time I was running along the bridge looking down at the harbour with all of the yachts and the opera house!

Bingo the inspiration was back! this can be applied to cycling as well, or swimming if you are into adventure swimming, but either way it is a good quick fix to break a routine and add some spring back into your step!

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Triathlon – Legal Age Group Drafting

Have you spent time in the ' sin bin' at triathlon for being busted for drafting?? Well this article is for you. I found this the other day and have to share it I think you will appreciate it as it details how to draft better and get more out of your race....

draft better by SwimSmooth.com

Drafting is swimming directly behind, or to the side of and behind, another swimmer. Studies show this saves 18 to 25% of the energy expenditure of swimming. In a race it makes perfect sense to capitalize on this source of free speed.

When it comes to drafting technique, once again practise makes perfect. If you want to become good at drafting then you need to devote training time to it. Look at drafting either as a way of swimming faster than normal by sitting on the toes of someone faster than yourself. Or, by swimming behind someone of the same speed as you, leave yourself super-fresh for the bike and run.

Effective drafting can be done in one of two ways:

1) Directly behind someone so that you are almost touching their toes.

This is the traditional way of drafting. It requires a bit of 'sneaky' technique, get too close and tap their toes and you might get a foot in your face as feedback.

Or you could slow them down by disrupting their rhythm or even sinking their legs with the contact.

When you are drafting someone nicely in a race it sometimes feels too easy. But be careful, pull out and try and overtake them and you might notice how much benefit you were getting from the draft. With experience you will be able to judge this but it's often better to sit in there, take it easy, and benefit from feeling fresh and fruity on the bike and run.

2) Swimming to the side of someone but very close.

You'll be slightly behind so your head is in line with their chest. Youget a drafting benefit because you are still swimming in their wake which extends to the side of them. This technique requires much more skill but can be even more effective than swimming behind. This is because the biggest part of your body - your torso - is getting much closer to their body which is making the hole in the water.

We recommend you practise this with a partner before races. You need to be as close as possible to them so that when you breathe your head is by their chest. We recommend breathing to one side and towards them so you can keep a close eye on things. You need to time your stroke with theirs so that you avoid clashing arms.

Get this technique right and you'll be zooming along with little effort

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12'-13' Season Race 2 - Robina

An early start, what a surprise, in fact I must digress. Its nearly insulting to anyone who reads this to start off with such an bluntly obvious comment, so i will refrain from using it in the future as we all know Triathlon is synonymous with the pre dawn ritual that is embedded with triathlons.

The roads had dried and the humidity grew, but there was another storm ready to roll in from the west so the swim got underway a bit early, unfortunately this means no warm up. I came out of the swim not far down on the leading three, which to me was astounding given my lack of enthusiasm for swimming in the preceding weeks, so much lacking that I didn't train. Not ideal preparation, but everything going to plan rarely happens, and learning to adapt and accept is the key. (a post to come on dealing with the "preparation monkey")

Here is an exert of my post wrap up email to the coach so you dont have the old fashioned boring i did this, this happened account of the race. Its pretty boring that way. ( this is me being flexible in telling the tale of the race)

"Solid race today, I didn't go as well as last time performance wise, but I feel it was a more solid race. I backed it right off on the ride to try and save something for the run because I still have a hacking cough after exercise and more snot than is comfortable.
I had a really enjoyable day out, and I don't think I have had that much fun before which was nice. Have a few things to work on with my transition and getting my feet into my bike shoes, but nothing that a bit of transition practice couldn't help"

Ok so it turned out not the best race, but I wanted to share with you how enjoyable it was, and it was the most fun I have had during a race. I think it was because I am progressing from a "completer to a competer" and am starting to know more people who I do these events with. 

Trying to out run Victor's brother in law Ben Mack who you can see on the path behind me. He got me by 1 second.

Just for those who are interested, I came off the bike shoulder to to shoulder with the lead bunch, but couldn't hold on in the run and finished 7th :)

The photos are coming im just awaiting my Fiance' to email them to me- you can read more about her here at LivingLoving Grace ** monday i have the photo, but feel free to still pop over to Living loving grace.

Cam

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Where have I been the past 2 weeks?

3 days after Noosa I caught a cold. Not any old cold, but the man cold. As I explain to people who struggle to understand the severity of this situation ( this some how seems to be only the girls who don't get it), if I was able to bring myself to get out of bed and dare go outside with this condition, to go to the local doctor, they would shake their head and say " I'm sorry I have bad news, there is nothing I can do for you" these words strike fear into the heart of the toughest man. There is nothing, I'm a lost cause, will I come out of this alive?

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Noosa Triathlon Race Week

This was a great week for training, socialising, being inspired and racing.

Taking the time to spend the week at Noosa, made it the most memorable triathlon thus far, being able to soak up the atmosphere, be involved in pre and post triathlon events, casually mingle with some of the best in the business an most of all to be able to relax and spend time with friends.

Noosa Beach on arrival - having a diet coke on the deck

I only raced in a team on the Sunday for the triathlon, as mentioned in my last post with my training partner Will. He raced the previous weekend at Port Macquarie in the Ironman 70.3 and to his credit much kudos for taking 50mins off his previous best to record a 4:54.03 . With this race in the bank for him it was never going to be a super serious team.

Transition - Im going to lose my bike

We placed 18th overall in the teams. I rode a 1:01.48 for the 40km (rack to rack measured on my Garmin) and 1:05 including transitions. It was a really fast (despite the 3km uphill KOM section),  but technical ride course, with lots of round abouts and 90 degree turns. Also greasy roads with a little morning rain and a ranging in abilities on the course at once led to me taking a dive twice. Both within the first 2km. On the second little mishap I managed to snap/crack my seat post as I high sided my self and loose all my onboard fluids which was not great at all. As I continued my ride I was unaware of this seat post issue and the bike felt as if i had broken spokes or cracked the seat stay as I have previously done both before. Lucky for me it was the seat.

Out on the bike course - You can see the bow in the seat post

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Post 1.

I guess post #1 is like pulling on the running shoes at the start of the season, something that is both inevitable, but challenging. What makes this thought more daunting is a quote that appeared on my Facebook Timeline,
"it never gets easier, you just get faster"

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