Race Week

On tuesday 28 April:
Had an easy ride with the group ...nearly everyone was racing on the weekend so we rode met up at Nedlands and rode round the river via stirling highway.It was a wonderful morning and for a change just a relatively leisurely pace by the front riders standards.It seem a touch fast for me but manageable.
Did the ride in just under 2 hours with my ride out to Nedlands.

Wednesday 29 April 2009
Had a swim session in the morning and swam 2.2 km with a solid block of 2 x 600m swims
(not exactly sure of the configuration of the sets we did )
In the evening did a 1 hour run round light street park in dianella.

I had a rest day on thursday and spent the evening getting the bike ready and getting my gear together .

I drove down to Busselton on friday morning with the family and got in before noon and had time to do a short 30 min ride , 15 min run and a 10 min swim ...lots of stingers and got a larger red welt on my neck.

The Race
As always race morning is a surreal experience ...it is dark with hundreds of people milling around .there is excitement and fear .So many things can go wrong in a race and yet i don't really think about it much .I do enjoy the atmosphere and I now know alot more people and there was alot more support although the family was fast asleep when the race started.

I did see my boss and his family , and lots of fellow North Coasters and guys i train with.

Got my bottles on my bike, pumped the tires and got into my wetsuit .took one carboshotz gel at 7am and hoped everything would go smmothly.
I was in the 3rd wave and all too soon we were off.i felt very comfortable in the water and it was a perfect day.The water was mill pond flat. just before the turn , I got overrun by the lead girls and literraly climbed over.before that I did get a few hits in the face and one kick but Iam getting used to it now...no panic.

Got round the bouy and the next buoy approx 50 metres ahed before the return swim to the beach.
i got out of the water in 36 mins and a new PB for me.

The T1 was ok but I was a little slow taking 3.46 to get out .

The bike stage was 3 laps of 30 km and it was packed and I found it difficuylt keeping the regulation distance and then riding round masses of cyclist.It probably did take its toll and I do have to learn to be a more consistent cyclist able to maintain a consistent pace .the stops and starts did not help .

I finished the bike leg in 2.35 although I was hoping I would be able to do it in 2.30 That is achievable and will be the goal next year.

The T2 was a disaster ...got lost trying to find my spot and took 2.46 .
Once on the run I settled down to a steady pace and took a gel at the end of the first 3.5km.It went downhill after the first lap and my heart rate drifted down to 90 bpm and i thought the coke would sustain me but i just didn't have enough energy .I struggled after that and it was only after the race that I realised i did not have enough on the bike .
i worked out that I had taken
electrolyte 50g
2 gels on bike 60g
1 gel on run 30 g
3 dates and jelly beans 15g
That meant I was short by about 200g of carbo atleast.
the coke on the run might have made up some of that but probably not that much
just did not take the nutrition too seriously for the half...lesson learnt.

Finished the race in 5.15 a new PB for me and i think with the hard weeks and short taper was a pleasing effort.
I pulled up ok and did my regulation ride the next day without much pain.