Where have I come from?
My triathlon history is a bit patchy. I raced my first triathlon about three years ago, at West Lakes, in South Australia.
It was a 'tinman' distance, 300m swim, 21km ride, and a 3km run. I did almost no training, turned up with a road bike, jammers, and goggles, and had a blast. The swim was short enough that I could just power through it (lots of energy, zero style), but then ran into problems. See, I am incredibly short sighted, and at that time, I didn't have glasses. So, I had to run through to transition blind. I remember struggling to get my socks on (I never ride/run without socks!), and then flying through the bike leg. I didn't have any aero bars, so it was just a matter of turning the cranks. Finally, the run was a short 3km lap, at about 5:30/km. I loved it, couldn't wait to do another, but, that was the last tri for six months! I finished in 54:33, coming 34th overall, and 4th in my age group.
After that, I gave some intermittent thought to training, and by the beginning of the next season, had whipped myself into some kind of shape. I'd bought some clip-on aero bars (that didn't grip), and had practiced transitions. I'd even done a few laps of the pool! In October 2016, I completed another 'tinman' (slightly longer bike leg), where I placed 15th overall, and first in my age group! I decided at that point that I should be doing the longer distances.
My first 'challenge' distance (800m/27km/6km) was six weeks later, and I somehow managed to survive the swim. I remember spending more than a little bit of time bobbing around, breaststroking to catch my breath. The bike was fantastic, and I averaged 34.7km/h. Finally, the run, I managed to keep 5:06/km for the whole distance, a pace I wouldn't improve upon until the last race of the season.
That first race was a bit of an anomaly, because my next three tri's at the same distance were at exactly the same (or slower) pace for each of them.
The Australia Day tri, on 26/1/17, was a longer distance, covering 1.2km/34km/8km. I wente into this with a bit more training under my belt, and managed to improve my swim pace, ride speed (35km/h!) and kept my run pace at 5:04/km.
For the rest of the season, I practiced a few things, but never did any really structured training.
I was training separately for pedal prix, and so I was doing heaps of work on the bike trainer. Lots of long, steady HR efforts, put me in a really good position for the bike leg, and by the last race of the year, I averaged 36.6km/h. I also bought a proper wetsuit, which took nearly 2 minutes off my swim.
However, that pretty much ended my traithlons for a while. I got heavily into bike racing, mainly criteriums, and I focused my training much more on that sort of sharp, repeated efforts, rather than the long, steady zone2 efforts necessary for a tri. I had heaps of conflicts of scheduling, including holidays, time trials, other races, and I just never got back into the triathlon untiln near the end of the season.
One of my friends, who is a personal trainer, decided that he was going to start triathlons, and I had been coming out to support him at races I wasn't doing. We decided that it would be a great idea to go do an Olympic Distance! I will do a report on that elsewhere, but that re-sparked my interest in the sport.
The last race of the season was a revelation. My swim was another 3 minutes quicker over the same distance, my bike was almost as fast as my PB, and my run was at 4:34/km, nearly 30 seconds/km quicker than my previous best. I crossed the line at a dead sprint, feeling like I could do the whole thing over again. I crossed in 10th place overall, 2nd in my age group. I had my highest placing ever in the swim, and came 11th overall on the bike, which, considering I have a basic road bike with clip-on aero bars, was quite satisfying, especially when I passed people on full aero TT bikes.
And then the season was over.
I began to hatch an ambition to run a half-iron man, after completing the OD, and that's kinda where the story ended. The winter was all crit racing, cycling, pedal prix training and racing, and occasional long runs with a mate. But, now, with less than 3 months to go until the Barmera 1/2IM, it's time to get serious.
It was a 'tinman' distance, 300m swim, 21km ride, and a 3km run. I did almost no training, turned up with a road bike, jammers, and goggles, and had a blast. The swim was short enough that I could just power through it (lots of energy, zero style), but then ran into problems. See, I am incredibly short sighted, and at that time, I didn't have glasses. So, I had to run through to transition blind. I remember struggling to get my socks on (I never ride/run without socks!), and then flying through the bike leg. I didn't have any aero bars, so it was just a matter of turning the cranks. Finally, the run was a short 3km lap, at about 5:30/km. I loved it, couldn't wait to do another, but, that was the last tri for six months! I finished in 54:33, coming 34th overall, and 4th in my age group.
After that, I gave some intermittent thought to training, and by the beginning of the next season, had whipped myself into some kind of shape. I'd bought some clip-on aero bars (that didn't grip), and had practiced transitions. I'd even done a few laps of the pool! In October 2016, I completed another 'tinman' (slightly longer bike leg), where I placed 15th overall, and first in my age group! I decided at that point that I should be doing the longer distances.
My first 'challenge' distance (800m/27km/6km) was six weeks later, and I somehow managed to survive the swim. I remember spending more than a little bit of time bobbing around, breaststroking to catch my breath. The bike was fantastic, and I averaged 34.7km/h. Finally, the run, I managed to keep 5:06/km for the whole distance, a pace I wouldn't improve upon until the last race of the season.
That first race was a bit of an anomaly, because my next three tri's at the same distance were at exactly the same (or slower) pace for each of them.
The Australia Day tri, on 26/1/17, was a longer distance, covering 1.2km/34km/8km. I wente into this with a bit more training under my belt, and managed to improve my swim pace, ride speed (35km/h!) and kept my run pace at 5:04/km.
For the rest of the season, I practiced a few things, but never did any really structured training.
I was training separately for pedal prix, and so I was doing heaps of work on the bike trainer. Lots of long, steady HR efforts, put me in a really good position for the bike leg, and by the last race of the year, I averaged 36.6km/h. I also bought a proper wetsuit, which took nearly 2 minutes off my swim.
However, that pretty much ended my traithlons for a while. I got heavily into bike racing, mainly criteriums, and I focused my training much more on that sort of sharp, repeated efforts, rather than the long, steady zone2 efforts necessary for a tri. I had heaps of conflicts of scheduling, including holidays, time trials, other races, and I just never got back into the triathlon untiln near the end of the season.
One of my friends, who is a personal trainer, decided that he was going to start triathlons, and I had been coming out to support him at races I wasn't doing. We decided that it would be a great idea to go do an Olympic Distance! I will do a report on that elsewhere, but that re-sparked my interest in the sport.
The last race of the season was a revelation. My swim was another 3 minutes quicker over the same distance, my bike was almost as fast as my PB, and my run was at 4:34/km, nearly 30 seconds/km quicker than my previous best. I crossed the line at a dead sprint, feeling like I could do the whole thing over again. I crossed in 10th place overall, 2nd in my age group. I had my highest placing ever in the swim, and came 11th overall on the bike, which, considering I have a basic road bike with clip-on aero bars, was quite satisfying, especially when I passed people on full aero TT bikes.
And then the season was over.
I began to hatch an ambition to run a half-iron man, after completing the OD, and that's kinda where the story ended. The winter was all crit racing, cycling, pedal prix training and racing, and occasional long runs with a mate. But, now, with less than 3 months to go until the Barmera 1/2IM, it's time to get serious.
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