Moving onto the races, Ill head
backwards first and start with Cairns 70.3 and now nearly two weeks past I have
to say that my thoughts on the race have changed quite a bit from the few days
following. As could be expect when you
have a bad race or if everything doesn’t go quite as you would have liked or
expected you end up being a little bit down or question yourself and wonder
what happened. But I have to be
realistic. I went into this one knowing I was either going to go well or I was
going to be a train wreck. As it turned
out having the biggest training (including the biggest run week) of my life had
a pretty big impact on my race. Not
having put together the kind of training together consistently week after week
meant that I assumed I would be able to freshen up in a day or two and compete
in the top end of the race. Rather
ambitious I now see but overall I didn’t really know how fast I could recover
to put in a solid race effort. As I
found out I needed much longer than I thought.
The Tuesday night track session earlier in the week was a ague I suppose
and I struggled to even put together a couple of 1km efforts. I knew I was in a
hole. All I hoped was that I was going to recover in time.
Onto the race. . . . .
Before arriving in Cairns
I was already in trouble having to leave my no.1 supporter and most important
member of my team back in Newcastle. It was a little sad as this was the first
race where Alicia hadn’t either been there to watch or competing herself since
I can remember.
We arrived in Cairns to the torrential downpours that can be
associated with the Nth Qld tropics. To
me I didn’t think it was that bad. Only
here for the race, rain meant it was at least a little bit cooler and would
definitely provide a way to keep the 88kg motor cool. Unfortunately however when I needed mother
nature to be nasty the weather turned and the hot Nth Qld sun belted down in
full force all day on race day turning parts of the run into more of a sauna
than a run course. This led to my pre-race worries . . . . If this temperature gets up near 28-30……. I’m
cooked. Literally!!!
The SWIM - wasn’t too bad. I mean I didn’t feel great. Normally I take a bit to get going but I was
struggling to grab feet and find a rhythm, this was the first sure sign that I
was going to struggle. The last time I
felt like this was in Germany for the European 70.3 a week after I had
destroyed myself at the tristar 111 in Estonia.
I know I wasn’t anywhere near as fit then as I am now but I knew what I
felt. But I soldiered on and was out of the water just on 27 min. Not the
greatest but it will do. 
The BIKE – My aim here was to ride solid and consistent,
which is what I did. I am happy with what I learned from the bike here. Knowing I was tired, being able to put that
bike together riding an even paced 90k was satisfying. It gave me a good indication of my current
bike fitness. Really happy, not to mention the first time ive ridden under 2:20. Maybe there is also a concidence with it bieng my first proper race outing on the Shiv, she does look fast though ;-D hahahaha.
The RUN - Well here is the fun part. Or not. The answer to my run is simple, I wasn’t
ready and hadn’t recovered from the training, and once the heat got up it was
all over. Racing here in this part of my
prep I knew there was risk I wouldn’t have recovered. But that is all part of the sport, learning
and developing from the mistakes and using these mistakes to further develop
your performance. Although I was struggling I decided it was best for the next
few weeks of training leading into Roth if I turned the motor off, so to speak
and just wander home. Even struggling I
could have toughed out a high 1:30 run, but at what cost. In that heat and the state of my body I could
have put myself out of action for two weeks and taken a massive blow to the
Roth prep. I took the safer option. Plus
I got to have a sit down chat with a couple of young spectators. Hopefully they want to get into the sport
after our little sideline chat ahahhaha.
Overall I am pretty happy, I have never been off the bike in
a 70.3 in under 2:45 before and In the 8 races I have competed in this year
this is first one I have failed and I know the reasons why. If I didn’t then it would be a different
story. The downer for the day would have
been the bad sportsmanship shown by one athlete. It is disappointing to see people who claim
for themselves to be presenting a professional image but somehow think it is ok
to harass and badmouth athletes and coaches during an event. This is not what the sport is about, it is
not something people want to see or be associated with when trying to simply
enjoy the achievement. 
Moving onto the fun stuff, I have to say the highlight of
the weekend was definitely watching the other Trinova crew racing the 70.3 and
the IM. Big mentions go out to Nikki and
Emily both completing their first ever half IM distance races, while Nath and
Liz backed up from Melbourne to punch out solid IM times, Clarkey smashed
himself again to finish second in his age group and book another ticket to the
big island. Cheering Chrissie Cook
(better half of my coach) come home in her first IM in 10yrs. a very very solid
effort and although there was once very important person missing from the
weekend it was a good weekend, another successful day for Trinova Multisport
and Compeat Nutrition and post-race, regardless of the result there was nothing
a few jugs of beer with the guys couldn’t fix. Just like this one.... Thanks for the pic Nikki!!!!! J
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