Noosa Olympic Race

I've been in and out of training the past few weeks with work seeming to get in the way, but hey, I need to work to pay for my expensive habit. Today was my first Olympic distance race since 2006 and I wanted to break 2:30. My previous best was 2:50 with an appalling swim time of 40 minutes. Here's my race.

We needed to be there at 6am for the 6:30 start. As this was a club race, there was only 150 people, not the couple of thousand you would normally see up in Noosa. The only problem with this smaller crowd, is the majority of these people were good.. I mean really good. I would have to have a good day, just to save face and not embarrass myself. With the World Championships (short sprint and Olympic) just over a month away, there was a number of squad members there who would be competing and they're fast. I think we had close to 20 at the race, which was really cool to see.


My race plan seemed simple: swim 30 minutes, ride 1:15 (including transitions), run 45...Easy, just do this and 2:30 was mine.

We jumped in the tidal canal and did a quick little warm up. I was feeling good and popped my head up to get ready for the start...as I do 3,2,1, GO! Shit! I got going and was in a bit of a mix and exchanged hits/kicks and elbows with my fellow competitors. After about 250-300m I was lactic, I was pushing too hard and hyperventilating. I stopped, did 4 strokes of breast stroke, deep breaths and back at it. I slowed my pace until I could breath normally again. I then started to pick it up. was now around the back of the island and the women (who started a few minutes behind the men) were starting to pass me..man they can hit hard.. Once the faster ones went by, I picked up the pace. A right hand turn which was a short out and back (200-300m each way) and I picked up my pace again. There were still people around me, which was encouraging. Once I rounded the buoy, the sun was directly in your eyes and it was almost impossible to see anything. I tried to site off the shore off my right side and just kept going. I was swimming faster now and it was feeling good. The glare broke and there was transition. I swam until my fingers touched and out I got. A quick look at the watch.....27 minutes (I didn't see the exact time, but this was 13 minutes faster than the last one. I could have a crap race from this point on but I wanted more.


I went into transition and a quick peel of the wetsuit, don the skid lid and I was off. Out I went for the ride which would be a bit challenging as the course was open to traffic.


I quickly brought my bike up to speed and settled into the tri-bars and just kept moving. I wanted to maintain a quick turnover but my cycling is not quite up to strength yet. I tried to keep the average arounf the 35km/hr mark and think I did okay with the exception of a few times where I was either held up by traffic or a bus...I was on my way back of the 2nd of 3 laps when a city bus pulled out in front of me and was very slow. I was a bit peeved at him but what can you do with an open course. I had to follow him at a slower pace for close to 2 kms. Once he got out of my way, I got out of the saddle and quickly was back up to over 40km/hr. I tried to make up for lost time, but quickly realized this would not be a good thing, so backed it down to my pace. I came back in, completed my 3rd lap (this one was a bit shorter) and back into transition. I pushed it fairly well and averaged my HR close to 80-81% which was right on target.


Rack the bike, grab the shoes and hat, and head out for the 3 lap run. My time was pretty good too, all things considering and pretty much on target.

On the run, I wanted to maintain a 4:30 min/km average which would bring me in at 45 mintues for my run. If I could do better, I would, but off the start of the run, my right foot again was numb for the first 1-2kms. This happened the last time I went without socks on the bike and run, so not sure what's going on here. Once things felt good, I was into a good rythum and kept looking for people to pass. Once I could see someone in front of me, I gave myself a certain distance/time to pass them. This kept the mind of the body and gave me some determination. I kept passing people and was feeling good. The second lap was a bit of a let down possibly as I seemed to let my mind wander a bit and I found myself a few times running at slower pace than what I was wanting to do (or at least it felt that way). I gave the head a shake and headed out onto the 3rd and final lap with the mind set, I would not let that happen again. It seemed to work well and I finished strong. I crossed the line and I had run in a time of 45:02....right on target.


I looked at my time and it said 2:27:22! A massive pb and I've broke the 2:30 barrier.

Looking back at the race, I nailed my plan and I gained a ton of confidence in the water. If I can keep this up, things will be good for Perth. If I can carry the same effort and results from today over the long course distance, I will be a very happy camper. I would never of thought I could consider swimming 3km in under and hour, but after today, it's definitely on the radar.

The only bad thing about today was the chaffing. BAD chaffing. Now the bit around the underarms was my own fault for not putting a bunch of body glide on before putting the tri-suit on, but the chamois was done but still I chaffed. Very bad. I guess leaning over on the bike and the seam of the tri-suit in a particular 'area' do not mix. Said nether region is going to be painful for a few days, I just hope it doesn't scab.

Cheers
Rich