Wishing everyone a belated happy new year! The start of the year hasn’t exactly turned out they way I had planned. Training’s been inconsistent and I had have to make the hard choice to not race both Challenge Melbourne, and South West Sufferfest. I made the choice based on the fact that I’m not interested in going to races at 50%, and that I believe in giving a race distance/event the respect that it should. The reason behind the lack of training is current work load thanks to Melbourne’s heat wave and and the industry I work in. Nothing I can do about it, you have to take the good with the bad, and I have learnt to deal with it.
As for the year ahead, there’s going to be of a change up with racing and focus. For the next few years, I’ll be going back to focusing most of the year on cycling, with a block of triathlon racing thrown in towards the end of my season. There are a number of reasons driving this choice. One being I love to race and cycling is the easiest way for me to race often. The other is that the peak of triathlon season and the peak of my work load clash. It’s all about making work, life and sport work together as best I can throughout a year.
I’m currently still working with my coach on planning out my season and race program. At this stage it will feature a number of Club, State, and NRS races on the cycling side with a few long course tri’s thrown in late in the year. As for training, its about getting on the bike whenever I can, and practicing the thing I haven’t had to worry about over the past few years, like sprinting. Believe it or not, sprinting is not as simple as just stepping on the pedals as hard and fast you can. There’s a lot of little things like body position, gear selection and timing of when you apply force to the pedals, that slowly add up to gaining some critical meters.
Well that's all for now, until next time
Hopper
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Getting Back into the Swing of Things and Moving to the “Dark Side”
Its been a few months now since the events of Powerman Zofingen and my last update. Not a great deal has been going on since that race. Trainings been inconstant with back to back races thrown in for fun and experience.
The first race of of my back to back weekends was MurrayMan long course triathlon. The plan for the race was simple, get through the swim, have a solid bike as a test for the following weekend, get through the run without to much muscle soreness and most important of all finish! I can say that I achieved all of these points. One thing I can say about the event as a whole is that its a must do race. Its a relaxed, well run event.
The following weekend it was off to Shepparton 70.3 where i was doing the bike leg in a team. the plan for this race was even simpler, ride a solid even paced 90km and dont go out like your riding a 6km prologue. I was over the moon with my ride based off, a) hitting my targets and b) riding 2:15 based of the current fitness levels. Also was able to gain experience working with other riders legally, and I mean legally. I was sitting around 15m back from the wheel in front just to be safe. This is usually something that I don't get to experience that much with how far down I’ve come out of the water in the past and my bike strength.
Looking forward few the next 6 months, my race schedule is just about locked in. My next race is Challenge Melbourne, then its followed by Southwest Sufferfest, maybe Challenge Batemans Bay finishing up with Cairns 70.3 being the goal race for the first half of the year. Each race building up to Cairns is about gaining experience and executing the goals set out.
Motivations been up and down since coming back from Zofingen for one reason or another. Today was the best session I’ve had in a few weeks after dealing with being on call. Strangely enough the motivation came from hearing about to new Powerman events in europe and watching video from this years Powerman Zofingen. I guess long course duathlon is what still really drives me the most, unfortunately I don't see myself being able to get across to europe to race anytime soon so its up to me to find new motivation points.
Ok time to move to the big change Ive made recently in an attempt to improve my performance. My Diet as been turned upside down and I have decided to give the Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) approach to eating a serious go. Now Im not going to go into the whole argument about why everyone should or shouldn’t do this but I will explain some of the driving factors in why I have gone down this road. If you want to know more about it all, I’ve found Dr Tim Noakes is probably one of the best sauces of info on this subject. There are plenty of podcasts out there where he goes into great detail in a non complex way about the subject.
First driving factor behind this was during exercise fueling. This never used to be an issue for me until the last big stage race I did as a cyclist. Suddenly I was struggling getting in the fuel on the bike and actually had better results from taking very little to nothing in. Now move to triathlon, its still something I’ve had issues with and now that I’m racing over 4hrs all the time it becomes important to get it right. Eating and adapting to a LCHF diet will basically allow me to race with minimal carb intake during an event, virtually eliminating the chances for GI distress and minimizing the chances of bonking.
The other big driving factor is weight or more correctly body fat management. I have always had to high a body fat % for the level that I was competing at. the leanest I’ve ever gotten was around 15% in my cycling days, which at my body weight still meant i was lugging around 7-10kg of excess body weight thats doing nothing for me. This diet should allow me to help reduce my fat stores as my body will be primly looking to burn fat as an energy sauce.
There are a couple of cautions to this diet that I will point out that I’ve come across. Firstly its prob best to start this way of eating in the of season. It takes time to adapt, upwards of 4 weeks, so start slowly on the training load as your body will still be looking for glycogen to fuel it. Your performance will also potentially go backwoods for starters as well due to this but once adapted should the increase above previous levels in most people. This is something I’m testing, its going to take time but everything I’ve seen on it the mid to long turn gains outweigh the few short term losses.
Until Next Time
Hopper
The first race of of my back to back weekends was MurrayMan long course triathlon. The plan for the race was simple, get through the swim, have a solid bike as a test for the following weekend, get through the run without to much muscle soreness and most important of all finish! I can say that I achieved all of these points. One thing I can say about the event as a whole is that its a must do race. Its a relaxed, well run event.
The following weekend it was off to Shepparton 70.3 where i was doing the bike leg in a team. the plan for this race was even simpler, ride a solid even paced 90km and dont go out like your riding a 6km prologue. I was over the moon with my ride based off, a) hitting my targets and b) riding 2:15 based of the current fitness levels. Also was able to gain experience working with other riders legally, and I mean legally. I was sitting around 15m back from the wheel in front just to be safe. This is usually something that I don't get to experience that much with how far down I’ve come out of the water in the past and my bike strength.
Looking forward few the next 6 months, my race schedule is just about locked in. My next race is Challenge Melbourne, then its followed by Southwest Sufferfest, maybe Challenge Batemans Bay finishing up with Cairns 70.3 being the goal race for the first half of the year. Each race building up to Cairns is about gaining experience and executing the goals set out.
Motivations been up and down since coming back from Zofingen for one reason or another. Today was the best session I’ve had in a few weeks after dealing with being on call. Strangely enough the motivation came from hearing about to new Powerman events in europe and watching video from this years Powerman Zofingen. I guess long course duathlon is what still really drives me the most, unfortunately I don't see myself being able to get across to europe to race anytime soon so its up to me to find new motivation points.
Ok time to move to the big change Ive made recently in an attempt to improve my performance. My Diet as been turned upside down and I have decided to give the Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) approach to eating a serious go. Now Im not going to go into the whole argument about why everyone should or shouldn’t do this but I will explain some of the driving factors in why I have gone down this road. If you want to know more about it all, I’ve found Dr Tim Noakes is probably one of the best sauces of info on this subject. There are plenty of podcasts out there where he goes into great detail in a non complex way about the subject.
First driving factor behind this was during exercise fueling. This never used to be an issue for me until the last big stage race I did as a cyclist. Suddenly I was struggling getting in the fuel on the bike and actually had better results from taking very little to nothing in. Now move to triathlon, its still something I’ve had issues with and now that I’m racing over 4hrs all the time it becomes important to get it right. Eating and adapting to a LCHF diet will basically allow me to race with minimal carb intake during an event, virtually eliminating the chances for GI distress and minimizing the chances of bonking.
The other big driving factor is weight or more correctly body fat management. I have always had to high a body fat % for the level that I was competing at. the leanest I’ve ever gotten was around 15% in my cycling days, which at my body weight still meant i was lugging around 7-10kg of excess body weight thats doing nothing for me. This diet should allow me to help reduce my fat stores as my body will be primly looking to burn fat as an energy sauce.
There are a couple of cautions to this diet that I will point out that I’ve come across. Firstly its prob best to start this way of eating in the of season. It takes time to adapt, upwards of 4 weeks, so start slowly on the training load as your body will still be looking for glycogen to fuel it. Your performance will also potentially go backwoods for starters as well due to this but once adapted should the increase above previous levels in most people. This is something I’m testing, its going to take time but everything I’ve seen on it the mid to long turn gains outweigh the few short term losses.
Until Next Time
Hopper
Friday, September 13, 2013
Powerman Zofingen Race Report
Well after another 24hrs of traveling I’ve made it back to Aus. The trip back home was not a fun one at all after the results of the day before. Guttered and frustrated are a few words to describe of how I was felling with my performance.
I woke up raced day morning and felt excited and nervous. Made sure I got to transition fairly late trying to spend as much time in my hotel resting so not to waste to much nervous energy mucking around down at the race HQ. In and out of transition in under 5min then back to the hotel room for a little more feet up time. thats the advantage of having the hotel within 5min of the race HQ. After going through my final little pre race warm up It was time line up for the start.
At 9:02am the gun went of and I literally strolled of the start line. This was pretty much the plan, even if it was a little extreme. I started towards the back of the pack and was not interested in getting caught up in the normal first 1km hustle for position. The plan was to get through the First lap slowly and build from there with a +40min run split the aim. Felt sluggish the first lap which I was expecting. First 4km lap done in 20.02. Built up the pace on the second lap as the legs started to feel alive and with a quick nature break went through the second 5km lap in 23:22. With a fairly quick T1 (would have liked it a little quicker) I was out onto the bike.
The bike started well and to plan. Coming down the Bodenburg the first little issues happened. Rear cassette came loose which was a new one to me. 4min lost on that lap and another 1 or 2 lap on the next lap but not the end of the world by any means. I kept my cool and went through the first lap done in 1:33 (the aim was 1:30). At the top of the Bodenburg for the second time things went down hill fast, and it wasn't the bike. It was like someone flicked a switch. My energy was gone. I pushed on for the rest of the bike hoping that come the run I may start to feel better. It didn’t happen and found myself walking within a km of leaving T2. With my body totally spent I pulled the pin, walked back to my hotel room and slept for 13hrs.
After a post race debrief with my coach Xavier and going though a few things of what happened race day it looks like nutrition/hydration issue, or more accurately me falling to nail and execute my plan on race day after the first time up the Bodenburg. Its really frustrating for me. I went in with what I thought was a solid plan. Was it a brain fade, was it my mind drifting after my mechanical, was it the drop in body temp when the rain hit on he decent, I’ll never no. What I do no is its back to the drawing board. I have already started to pencil out a new plan, totally separating fluid intake and calorie intake even more so then a standard gel and fluid system.
With this result there is also a slight change in my race scheduling for the Aussie summer. Ironman Port Mac is now off the table. Without being able to nail down a long course race its time to go back to basics and focus on races up to half IM distance this summer. Doing this will allow me to race more often and give me more practice racing as well as get a solid base of training into the body. As for Powerman Zofingen, I don’t know when I’ll be back I will be back, although under different circumstances. I’m starting to work out particular markers that I will aim to meet before entering again.
Its now back to light training for me with a bike and swim focus at them moment.
Until next time
Hopper.
I woke up raced day morning and felt excited and nervous. Made sure I got to transition fairly late trying to spend as much time in my hotel resting so not to waste to much nervous energy mucking around down at the race HQ. In and out of transition in under 5min then back to the hotel room for a little more feet up time. thats the advantage of having the hotel within 5min of the race HQ. After going through my final little pre race warm up It was time line up for the start.
At 9:02am the gun went of and I literally strolled of the start line. This was pretty much the plan, even if it was a little extreme. I started towards the back of the pack and was not interested in getting caught up in the normal first 1km hustle for position. The plan was to get through the First lap slowly and build from there with a +40min run split the aim. Felt sluggish the first lap which I was expecting. First 4km lap done in 20.02. Built up the pace on the second lap as the legs started to feel alive and with a quick nature break went through the second 5km lap in 23:22. With a fairly quick T1 (would have liked it a little quicker) I was out onto the bike.
The bike started well and to plan. Coming down the Bodenburg the first little issues happened. Rear cassette came loose which was a new one to me. 4min lost on that lap and another 1 or 2 lap on the next lap but not the end of the world by any means. I kept my cool and went through the first lap done in 1:33 (the aim was 1:30). At the top of the Bodenburg for the second time things went down hill fast, and it wasn't the bike. It was like someone flicked a switch. My energy was gone. I pushed on for the rest of the bike hoping that come the run I may start to feel better. It didn’t happen and found myself walking within a km of leaving T2. With my body totally spent I pulled the pin, walked back to my hotel room and slept for 13hrs.
After a post race debrief with my coach Xavier and going though a few things of what happened race day it looks like nutrition/hydration issue, or more accurately me falling to nail and execute my plan on race day after the first time up the Bodenburg. Its really frustrating for me. I went in with what I thought was a solid plan. Was it a brain fade, was it my mind drifting after my mechanical, was it the drop in body temp when the rain hit on he decent, I’ll never no. What I do no is its back to the drawing board. I have already started to pencil out a new plan, totally separating fluid intake and calorie intake even more so then a standard gel and fluid system.
With this result there is also a slight change in my race scheduling for the Aussie summer. Ironman Port Mac is now off the table. Without being able to nail down a long course race its time to go back to basics and focus on races up to half IM distance this summer. Doing this will allow me to race more often and give me more practice racing as well as get a solid base of training into the body. As for Powerman Zofingen, I don’t know when I’ll be back I will be back, although under different circumstances. I’m starting to work out particular markers that I will aim to meet before entering again.
Its now back to light training for me with a bike and swim focus at them moment.
Until next time
Hopper.
Friday, September 6, 2013
Powerman Zofingen: 1 Day To Go!!!!!!
Well here we are finally. Tomorrow is race day! I can not wait to toe the start line as I haven’t had real race since IM Melbourne. Its something that I’m slowly getting used to coming from racing 40-70 times a year as a cyclist to racing less than 5 as a duathlete/triathlete.
The main objective for today for me is to make tomorrow and Monday as easy and stress free as possible. Just the little things like having all my bags virtually packed so all I have to do monday morning before flying out is pack my bike. May sound a little full on but when you cant walk the next day every little bit helps. And I know I will be struggling to walk Monday, that is something I came to terms with mentally ages to go to be able to push my body closer to its physiological limits and not just to its psychological ones.
For anyone wanting to track me on race day, follow this link to the Powerman Zofingen website. The one to best follow me would be the DS live service which provides splits from out on course. I haven’t followed this race live so cant comment on how good it is although I think you get splits every half lap on the bike and every 2-3km on the final run, from memory thats where there were timing mats anyway.
As for my race plan, its simple. Control the controllable and be patient. It was the plan laid out 20 odd weeks ago by Xavier and my whole training has revolved around that idea.
Until after the race
Hopper
The main objective for today for me is to make tomorrow and Monday as easy and stress free as possible. Just the little things like having all my bags virtually packed so all I have to do monday morning before flying out is pack my bike. May sound a little full on but when you cant walk the next day every little bit helps. And I know I will be struggling to walk Monday, that is something I came to terms with mentally ages to go to be able to push my body closer to its physiological limits and not just to its psychological ones.
For anyone wanting to track me on race day, follow this link to the Powerman Zofingen website. The one to best follow me would be the DS live service which provides splits from out on course. I haven’t followed this race live so cant comment on how good it is although I think you get splits every half lap on the bike and every 2-3km on the final run, from memory thats where there were timing mats anyway.
As for my race plan, its simple. Control the controllable and be patient. It was the plan laid out 20 odd weeks ago by Xavier and my whole training has revolved around that idea.
Until after the race
Hopper
Pre Pre Race Day
Well its pre pre-race day here in Zofingen. This is when the nerves really start to kick in for me, although its a slightly different look on my face compared to what my training partners usually see. Normally its me with a glazed look on my face often looking out over the water shitting myself with the fact I have to get through the swim first. Here its more a feeling of I'm ready for this. Going through my head I’m playing out the race, not the results or times but the little processes I need to nail to get the result I want. All about controlling the controllable. The nervous feeling is a good thing, it means I want to compete. If I didn't get nervous before a race I don't think I would be racing anymore as I would have lost that drive.
Yesterday saw me do my last real sessions of this taper block. A nice easy ride to the top of the first climb and back with Oscar in the morning and a 45min run in the afternoon with some stride and 2 500m tempo efforts to keep the legs open. Today sees me with a day off before a easy 30min spin and 15min run tomorrow.
Today I also start on the long list of little things I need to do before race day. Things like lacing up 2 pairs of run shoes with elastic laces, changing my brake pads, giving my bike a wipe over, making race bottles, register, shopping for pre race breaky food etc the list just goes on and on. By giving myself as much time as I can it allows me to be a little less stressed through the process and save energy.
Until next time
Hopper
Yesterday saw me do my last real sessions of this taper block. A nice easy ride to the top of the first climb and back with Oscar in the morning and a 45min run in the afternoon with some stride and 2 500m tempo efforts to keep the legs open. Today sees me with a day off before a easy 30min spin and 15min run tomorrow.
Today I also start on the long list of little things I need to do before race day. Things like lacing up 2 pairs of run shoes with elastic laces, changing my brake pads, giving my bike a wipe over, making race bottles, register, shopping for pre race breaky food etc the list just goes on and on. By giving myself as much time as I can it allows me to be a little less stressed through the process and save energy.
Until next time
Hopper
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Zofingen Day 3
Hey all, Its now 3 days out from race day for me here in Zofingen. The towns slowly starting to fill with athletes now, which for me more English speaking people to talk too.
The Body is starting to feel better and better everyday now which is a positive sign that the bodies responding well to the tapering. Yesterday was a double day for me with a ride in the morning and a run in the afternoon. The ride was about an 1hr long nothing special with a few more 5min race pace efforts and 1min hard efforts thrown in to keep the legs happy. Just focused on the false flat section out of town to the first climb for this.
In the afternoon I just did a nice easy 40min run. nothing crazy here just rolled the legs over. Also jog/walked the first 1.5km of the first hill on the second run up to where the first and second run courses meet up just to remind myself with how steep the hills actually are. This year I’m not scared of the hills thanks to the amount of work I’ve put into my running since being with Xavier, both volume and hill work, but still do respect them as much as ever. They are unforgiving these hills and if you get it wrong early you don't lose secs/km you lose massive mins/km.
After the run I meet up with Columbian Oscar Mendoza for a bit of a chat and to give him a little help with understanding the course.
Today for me sees another ride and run before my final rest day tomorrow.
Until next time
Hopper
The Body is starting to feel better and better everyday now which is a positive sign that the bodies responding well to the tapering. Yesterday was a double day for me with a ride in the morning and a run in the afternoon. The ride was about an 1hr long nothing special with a few more 5min race pace efforts and 1min hard efforts thrown in to keep the legs happy. Just focused on the false flat section out of town to the first climb for this.
 |
| 10m draft zone makers |
 |
| the 5km mark on the bike course. |
In the afternoon I just did a nice easy 40min run. nothing crazy here just rolled the legs over. Also jog/walked the first 1.5km of the first hill on the second run up to where the first and second run courses meet up just to remind myself with how steep the hills actually are. This year I’m not scared of the hills thanks to the amount of work I’ve put into my running since being with Xavier, both volume and hill work, but still do respect them as much as ever. They are unforgiving these hills and if you get it wrong early you don't lose secs/km you lose massive mins/km.
 |
| the climb just keeps on going |
 |
| Where the 1st and 2nd run meet |
 |
| The last 200m before the finish stadium |
After the run I meet up with Columbian Oscar Mendoza for a bit of a chat and to give him a little help with understanding the course.
Today for me sees another ride and run before my final rest day tomorrow.
Until next time
Hopper
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Zofingen Day 1 and 2
Well after a quick 50min train trip I arrived in the race town of Zofingen. Its a old walled town founded in 1201 with a population just short of 11,000 people. Now that's enough of a lesson for now. I’ll upload pics of the town in later post.
Not a great deal to update here today. Monday for me was a rest day and was about settling into my room. Im staying in the Hotel Engel here in town, about 500m away from race HQ and transition. Got to the hotel the 2 main staff members here that run the hotel remembered me from last year and even put me in the same room! Now thats service you don’t get every day but sure makes life a hell of a lot easier.
Tuesday was my first ‘training‘ day here in town. A 25km ride to the top of the first climb and back into town. The main focus of the session was to start opening up the legs a little. 2 5min effort at race pace, then 2 2min efforts at threshold. One thing I have learnt over the years on the bike is my legs need a little intensity during the taper after I have around 5 easy days just to loosen the up and make sure they remember what they are doing. They other focus of the session was really starting to work out benchmarks for the first part of the bike leg. By benchmarks I mean how slow i should be going in those early stages. This is done by riding at around the lower end of my HR race zone for on the bike fresh. I’ll use this number with some speed guidelines as well as my HR is usually 10bpm higher across the board on race day. Add to that a 10km run before hand , your HR could end up anywhere. My race plan relies pretty heavily on getting the early sections of the race right so this is key.
Today another ride is planned as well as a short run. Below are some pics of what the first km of this race looks like. All I can tell you is this hill starts solid and gets stepper as it goes.
Until next time
Hopper
Not a great deal to update here today. Monday for me was a rest day and was about settling into my room. Im staying in the Hotel Engel here in town, about 500m away from race HQ and transition. Got to the hotel the 2 main staff members here that run the hotel remembered me from last year and even put me in the same room! Now thats service you don’t get every day but sure makes life a hell of a lot easier.
Tuesday was my first ‘training‘ day here in town. A 25km ride to the top of the first climb and back into town. The main focus of the session was to start opening up the legs a little. 2 5min effort at race pace, then 2 2min efforts at threshold. One thing I have learnt over the years on the bike is my legs need a little intensity during the taper after I have around 5 easy days just to loosen the up and make sure they remember what they are doing. They other focus of the session was really starting to work out benchmarks for the first part of the bike leg. By benchmarks I mean how slow i should be going in those early stages. This is done by riding at around the lower end of my HR race zone for on the bike fresh. I’ll use this number with some speed guidelines as well as my HR is usually 10bpm higher across the board on race day. Add to that a 10km run before hand , your HR could end up anywhere. My race plan relies pretty heavily on getting the early sections of the race right so this is key.
Today another ride is planned as well as a short run. Below are some pics of what the first km of this race looks like. All I can tell you is this hill starts solid and gets stepper as it goes.
 |
| top of the climb before we hit the forest paths. |
Until next time
Hopper
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