As promised, here is the report from Mooloolaba.
In short, it was fantastic. The conditions were ideal for racing and the day was a milestone in my journey.
It was a perfect day and the conditions were as good as they get; approximately 22deg C with no wind, water was warm and resembling a pond. My setup in transition was fine and I walked alone down the 800m beach to the start with still some concern about cramping in the swim, but it turned out great; no sign of cramps and I felt comfortable and kept a good stroke all the way. The only negative was the outgoing tide was slowing me down towards the beach but nothing too bad. I hadn’t done very much swim training to be honest, so I was more than pleased to have made it without a problem. The jog to T1 was long but ok, however I decided to take more time in the transitions to make sure things were right. The bike was also great, with no wind to speak of and my bike performed wonderfully. It felt fast although the time isn’t
anything to brag about, but there were no dramas and as with the swim it felt like the best bike I’d ever done. But that’s where the fairytale ends. T2 was particularly slow as I cramped bending over to change shoes, so I had to sit down. Then I just had no energy left and my bad leg started to ache. So my run was in a word woeful; I just didn’t ever get any pace up. Now I know that just being there was good enough and the very fact I could run 10km should be worth celebrating, but it was so arduous that I didn’t have any fun. The hill was hard work and I was really feeling the 165km bike ride back from the gold coast the week before at this point and so the run was not much more than a shuffle. The last time over the hill was torture and I cramped badly on the downhill into the finish, stopping twice to pull the cramp. The end result was 2:44 which has bothered me a bit, with the run being almost an even hour, which is a far, far cry from my pb of 2:16 at Noosa a couple of years ago. But that was then and this is now. So I have a starting point and am determined to improve on this time at Noosa in November this year.
This is basically the end of the triathlon season here in Queensland. There are a couple more races in other states but I'm done for now. I have my work to do in the off season, which by comparison is pretty tame, i.e. no snow or sub zero temperatures to train in. But mark my words; come Noosa at the end of the year, I'll be running off the bike like a demon.
Bye for now.
In short, it was fantastic. The conditions were ideal for racing and the day was a milestone in my journey.
It was a perfect day and the conditions were as good as they get; approximately 22deg C with no wind, water was warm and resembling a pond. My setup in transition was fine and I walked alone down the 800m beach to the start with still some concern about cramping in the swim, but it turned out great; no sign of cramps and I felt comfortable and kept a good stroke all the way. The only negative was the outgoing tide was slowing me down towards the beach but nothing too bad. I hadn’t done very much swim training to be honest, so I was more than pleased to have made it without a problem. The jog to T1 was long but ok, however I decided to take more time in the transitions to make sure things were right. The bike was also great, with no wind to speak of and my bike performed wonderfully. It felt fast although the time isn’t
anything to brag about, but there were no dramas and as with the swim it felt like the best bike I’d ever done. But that’s where the fairytale ends. T2 was particularly slow as I cramped bending over to change shoes, so I had to sit down. Then I just had no energy left and my bad leg started to ache. So my run was in a word woeful; I just didn’t ever get any pace up. Now I know that just being there was good enough and the very fact I could run 10km should be worth celebrating, but it was so arduous that I didn’t have any fun. The hill was hard work and I was really feeling the 165km bike ride back from the gold coast the week before at this point and so the run was not much more than a shuffle. The last time over the hill was torture and I cramped badly on the downhill into the finish, stopping twice to pull the cramp. The end result was 2:44 which has bothered me a bit, with the run being almost an even hour, which is a far, far cry from my pb of 2:16 at Noosa a couple of years ago. But that was then and this is now. So I have a starting point and am determined to improve on this time at Noosa in November this year.This is basically the end of the triathlon season here in Queensland. There are a couple more races in other states but I'm done for now. I have my work to do in the off season, which by comparison is pretty tame, i.e. no snow or sub zero temperatures to train in. But mark my words; come Noosa at the end of the year, I'll be running off the bike like a demon.
Bye for now.
