Over the last few weeks I've been really getting in to mountain biking. There's a bike park in Auckland (well, it's more the "greater Auckland area" and about a 140km round trip from home) that has around 60 or 70 trails, and I've been there every weekend for the last few. I really enjoy the combination of exercise plus the quite intense adrenaline rush of fast downhills, jumps and such, plus it's much more social than running or road cycling - probably helped by the fact that a lot more of my mates do it, probably because they look at it as "fun" rather than training or exercise.
A jump at Woodhill, from Google image search
The trails at Woodhill forest are a great set up - they have a series of map stations with several different trails providing the routes between each. Most of the trails have jumps and/or wooden structures on them, with each rated by difficulty and usually with a bypass to avoid it if needed. The trails are mostly sand-based, which means they don't get too boggy when it's wet, although you do still get some decent mud puddles on the busier trails.
Another Woodhill shot from Google images
I've seen small increases in my skill, and disproportionately large increases in confidence - which is great, each time I go I'm tackling harder jumps and structures, going at increasingly absurd speeds on the descents, and finding my limits (i.e. falling off) more regularly. No real injuries other than the odd scrape or bruise yet, hopefully I can keep it that way
River crossing at the Hunua Ranges mountain bike trails (Google images again)
Yesterday we went out to the mountain bike trails in the Hunua Ranges, just south of Auckland. The trails there are quite different to Woodhill - largely dirt or clay with gravel laid down, a lot tighter and narrower, not as highly maintained, no man-made structures or jumps, and generally a lot fewer trails (maybe 5 or so?). It was still great fun, it was pretty wet so we all ended up incredibly muddy and quite saturated; the river was high which meant carrying the bikes through nearly waist-deep water at times. I would say I still prefer the trails at Woodhill, but Hunua does make a nice change (and being only a 100km round trip it's moderately more convenient)
I think mountain biking is likely to become a staple of my winter training diet. Especially during bad weather, it's much more enticing than getting on my road bike to dice with cars on Auckland's roads, and I do like to get a bit battered, bruised and muddy every now and then :)
Vibram Five Fingers
I wanted to add a brief note about my VFFs. I've been steadily increasing my running in them, last week I did 3 runs of 6.5, 7 and 10.5 kms in them, and I'm really enjoying it. Last night I did the 10.5km in pouring rain and it was great fun - the lack of cushioning and increased feel underfoot really makes you feel more connected to the experience than running in normal running shoes. I now don't even think about my stride or landing in them, I just run and it all comes very naturally. My calves still get quite sore by the end of a long run, but they're fine the next day and feel fully recovered 2 days later. I think I'm going to sign up for the next race in the Xterra trail run series and do it in these.
Song of the Day
Oops, forgot again. Keeping with my current tradition of posting a pretty diverse range of music, here's some dubstep - one of my secret, dirty pleasures. Last night's run I was listening to a bunch of Skrillex, streamedfrom my laptop to my phone thanks to Audiogalaxy (awesome program), here's one of his tracks called Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites
I haven't been able set aside time to write a blog entry here in a while - work has been uncharacteristically full-on and I've had a few other things on my plate. Unfortunately blogging is near the bottom of my list of priorities so it's the first to be dropped when time is really tight.
Huntly Half Marathon
About 14km in, looking serious
So I ran my second half marathon last Sunday. I devised a training program with a sole focus on running to span the 5 weeks from my last triathlon to the half marathon. My main goal was to improve my run-specific endurance so that I could maintain a relatively fast pace for the full 21.1km. I started with a 44km week, built to 60km/week. I was cautious about avoiding injury (although I did break the 10%/week rule), and ended up cutting the distance down in my second to last week when my legs were telling me they'd had enough.
My original goal for the race was to go sub 1:40 - having run a 1:47 at my first half marathon. My run pace in the Olympic triathlon (sub 4:30/km) and the pace I was able to hit on mid-distance training runs made me think I might be able to get close to 4:30/km pace for the race, which would be 1:35. It seemed a bit ridiculous because to me that kind of time is getting into the realm of "good" runners (and is faster than my 5K pace was in December).
Finish chute
The first couple of km's of the race I was running about 4:15 pace and told myself to calm down and slow down. As each successive km marker went past, I found I was managing to hold a sub 4:30 pace without feeling like I was pushing particularly hard. About 14km in I decided if I was still feeling good I'd pick up the pace at 16km. I actually started gradually picking up and by the time the 16km marker went by I was pushing a decent pace and passing a lot of people. The last km I picked up further and actually approached my 5k pace, to finish with a time of 1:31:04. Unfortunately the organisers later announced they had screwed up their calculations on the measurement wheel, and the whole course was 600m short! They adjusted times for the additional distance and mine was 1:33:57 - still a time that I'm immensely proud of.
I actually wonder if I would've gone faster if the course had been marked correctly - the slightly short km's meant I thought I was running faster than I was, and forced myself to slow down a bit. I also wonder how things would've gone if I hadn't been wearing a stopwatch and monitoring my pace, and had just run to RPE.
Going through the GPS data I recorded (with more accurate distance), I ended up running a decent negative split - first half (only 10.25km) was 46:31 and second half was 44:33. In fact I did the final 10km in 43:37 which is about 4:20/km pace and a 10km PB for me. So now I have a new goal (which I wont be testing until near the end of the year) - sub 1:30. Requires a 4:15 pace but I think I'll be capable of that after a winter of marathon training.
O'Hagans
I've run the O'Hagans 5k every week since early April - I had posted earlier about how I was consistently dropping my times. Two days after the Oly I managed a 19:22, but since then I haven't come close. The following week was 19:5x and then the last three weeks I've run either 19:38 or 19:39. I can't decide if this is due to fatigue (my initial guess, but during my taper before the half marathon I didn't get any faster) or if it just reflects the change in the intensity of my training. I also won a $100 bar tab as a spot prize at one of the races...that went down well :)
Five Fingers
I tried to incorporate a short run in the VFFs each week, usually 4 or 5km. I really enjoy running in them, I think perhaps over the next few weeks where I don't have any specific events to be training for, I might get out in them more and build my distance in them further. Actually since it took me so long to finish this post, I ran the final O'Hagan's run of the series yesterday in my VFFs. Found them to be a little slippery in a couple of spots (it was raining), and my calves felt alright at the end (sore today though). My time was 5 seconds slower than my last runs in the Kinvaras, which is better than I expected to do in them.
Other Stuff
I've done very little riding and no swimming for the last month or so, have done a bit of mountain biking and think I might try get out and do that more regularly over winter.
Song of the Day
Nearly forgot. Bit different from my last few, Sound Check (Gravity) by Gorillaz from their first (self titled) album
Yesterday I completed my first Olympic distance triathlon, which has been the primary goal of my training for the last 17 weeks. For a more structured race report with times and such, you can read my report on BeginnerTriathlete.com here
After completing my first triathlon, the Sprint distance at Mission Bay last December, I decided I wanted to do the Olympic distance being held at the same venue at the end of the season. It's a great spot for a triathlon, based around a small, popular beach with a large grassy reserve, near Auckland City and surrounded by cafes, bars and restraurants. The course for the bike and run is dead flat, with a nice smooth surface. It's also probably the most popular triathlon in Auckland, largely due to the central location and welcoming atmosphere, but also helped by the severe lack of well organised triathlons in Auckland.
In preparation for this event, I've been following one of the free training programs from Beginner Triathlete, the 16 week Olympic 3x Balanced program (meaning 3 workouts for each discipline per week, with an even emphasis on all three). I followed the program pretty closely, I missed a couple of workouts when I went away over New Years, and stretched one of the weeks out a bit around the North Shore Coastal Challenge. In the peak week of the program I swam 7.2km, rode 170km and ran just over 40km. I was very happy with how my speed and endurance progressed over the program, and felt well prepared for the race.
The Race
I was up at 4:30am to get ready, giving myself plenty of time to eat, shower, dose up on caffeine and drive in; arrived in heavy darkness at the venue just before 6. It was nice to be there early enough to get a park real close to transition, and a great spot in transition: there were probably only 10 or so bikes racked when I arrived.
The sun had just come up when the race started at 7:05, the start actually came up sooner than I was expecting and I commented to my mate Oly (who I've shared the triathlon journey with) that I didn't feel prepared - in a short term/mental kind of way. I hadn't got myself into a preferred spot for the start, so I was roughly in the middle of the lineup and a few people back from the front. This put me right in the thick of the busiest swim start I've been in. Fortunately I'm not too phased by crowded starts, but it's still not my preference and I got quite frustrated by not being able to settle into a steady pace. I think I have a lot to learn about how to get the best out of myself in a busy open water swim.
Anyway, my swimming is still at a point where I'm mostly thinking about getting to the end, and thankfully the 1500m went by quite quickly, and I was into T1. Apart from being slightly held up trying to get around some dudes who were walking to transition, T1 was fast and smooth. Had the wetsuit around my waist by the time I got to my bike, quickly got it off and my helmet and glasses on and I was out of there. Blew past a bunch of folk standing on the mount line trying to get clipped in as I jumped on the bike and pedalled on top of my already clipped-in shoes as I got up to speed. Slipped into the shoes easily and I was quickly hammering along at a good rate.
Crossing past the transition area on my second lap
I took a GU gel, calmed myself down and tried to get my heart rate down below 165. I knew this was going to be a tri of massive draft packs, further to my post complaining about drafting in this series I had found an official description of the events as being geared toward participation rather than rules compliance, so accepted it would happen but decided to stick to my guns and ride my own race, head on into the wind at all times! Apart from a bit of rain making things a bit damp, I really enjoyed the ride. I maintained a pace I was very happy with the whole way and was clearly closing the 3 minute gap that Ollie had put on me in the swim.
Unfortunately on the third lap (of 4) I saw Ollie at the side of the road fixing a puncture, meaning there would be no epic battle between us on the run. I was a lot more assertive on the bike this time round, in terms of warning people I was coming through or asking them to make way, possibly because I was actually overtaking a significant number of people (probably mostly doing the Sprint), and was not interested in getting caught up in a crash due to a lack of communication. Any time that I came up behind someone or a group of people who I was only marginally faster than, and thought there was a chance they'd try to jump on the back, I increased my speed enough to not give them a chance to get in to my draft, which proved 100% successful in keeping my ass free of leeches.
This picture is from my first race here in December. I find it interesting to see how much worse my position was then. Also, note the leeches (those guys didn't even try to take a pull)
On the final lap of the bike the wind started to pick up a bit, and I was starting to really feel the burn in my hamstrings and glutes after close to an hour in the aero position at a high level of effort. I started to wonder if this was going to hurt me significantly in the run, and if perhaps I'd been pushing too hard, but I think I needn't have worried. I sucked down a second gel shot about 2km from the end of the bike.
Coming in to T2 I was feeling pretty good and psyched for the run. I'd already slipped out of my shoes, and to avoid knocking them off the pedals I carried the bike slightly off the ground with one hand as I ran to my rack, overtaking a number of very tired and spent looking people on the way through. Again, things went very smoothly. I racked the bike front-first by the brake levers, slipped into my magical Saucony Kinvaras, and ran off, putting my race belt on as I went. I'm not sure why, but I didn't feel anywhere near as bad as I usually do coming off the bike, and was running strong from the beginning.
Although I no longer had to worry about Ollie, I'd been keeping an eye on a third person with whom we also have a bit of a running battle with - Mark, an Engineering Faculty member who lectured us both during our degrees and who is now Ollie's supervisor for his Masters project. He's a very quick runner and has thoroughly routed us both in the run of the last two triathlons we all did, and at the O'Hagans 5K races. I was guessing I had about 2 minutes on him at the last point I'd seen him on the bike, and expected he'd be up to 5 minutes faster than me on the run.
As soon as I hit the run, I started overtaking people. I was feeling pretty good, but was weary about going out too fast and running out of legs before the end; so I sat at what was a comfortable pace, and progressed through the crowd. The run course is 2.5km out along the bike course, then back again, obviously with 2 laps to make it 10km.
About 1km into the run I saw Ollie go past on the bike, at the point I knew that there would be no miraculous comeback and I'd have a hollow victory on that front. After the first turn around I saw Mark and guessed I was around 500m ahead of him, he was looking strong and I was sure he'd be upon me in no time. I crossed Ollie at about 3.5km, we high fived and shouted encouragement as we passed. Coming to the turn around at 5km I ran through the central area and saw my family who had come along to support me. I'd caught brief glimpses of my dad while on the bike but this was the first time I'd spotted my mother and sister too. It's always great to have support!
Didn't get in many pics, but here's me in the background. Most of the people around me were in the Sprint distance
Since about 4km a guy I passed had been sitting right behind me. We'd had a couple of brief exchanges and he seemed like a nice guy, but around 7km I decided I had enough in the tank to pick up my pace significantly so decided it was time to bring the pain. I had been running with HR around 158 (lower than usual, was feeling limited by muscle tiredness more than aerobic ability), and stepped it up to 165+. I'd guess I went from a pace of 4:35-4:40/km to 4:15-4:20. I lost him quite easily, and began catching a few reasonably quick guys and girls who had been just ahead of me. Some of them tried to keep up but I think I'd paced myself really well because none could hang on. After the final turn-around at 7.5km, I crossed Mark at roughly the same point we'd crossed on the first lap - shortly after it was the same with Ollie! Apparently I was running at close to the same pace as these two who are significantly faster runners than I in open runs - very pleased and feeling great. Around 9km I was overtaken by a very speedy woman, probably in the 40-49 age group - I was well impressed by her pace and had no intention of trying to keep up!
Coming through the 5K mark with my new buddy on my heels
Coming through the last couple hundred metres I gave my last kick - unfortunately nobody ahead worth trying to chase down, but I wanted to finish knowing I'd given it all I could. Coming across the finish line I found I'd finished in 2:27:xx - comfortably under the 2:30 I'd predicted. My time for the run was 44:47 which is faster than I expected, and is now my 10K PB.
Because this post is getting quite lengthy, I wont go through my post-race activities, but I will say it involved a lot of high carbohydrate foods, a giant Belgian beer, a spa, and about 4 hours sleeping on the couch in front of the TV.
So the next challenge is a half marathon in 5 weeks. My aim is sub 1:40, but based on how I ran yesterday I really wonder if I might have more like a 1:35 in me.
Song of the Day
To go with the rest of this post, I wanted to pick a song that's been heavily featured in my "run" playlist as I've trained my way to this race over the last 4 months. This does mean you probably wont like it, as I do like to listen to songs with some guts to them when I'm running. It's not my favourite song, but it really motivates me when I'm pushing through the end of a fast training run. The song is "Bradley", by the now-defunct band Coal Chamber
Yesterday I ran in the O'Hagans 5K, which I believe I've mentioned in previous posts, and happily managed to maintain my previous record of PBing the 5K every time I run one. My 5K PB record has progressed as follows:
Nov: 22:30 (training run)
Dec: 21:43 (training)
Jan: 21:00 (first 5km race, bit of a hill)
Feb: 20:57 (same race as previous, eased off on the final hill to keep heart rate down = error)
later in Feb: 20:05 (O'Hagans, flat course, possibly up to 30 seconds short)
Mar: 19:51 (O'Hagans)
Apr: 19:27 (yesterday)
I was amazed at how much I was able to pull off my last time. Although the previous two 5Ks I'd run had been during low-volume/recovery weeks in my program, I'm now fully in taper mode so perhaps that helped; it was also my first race in my new, feels-so-light-and-fast Kinvaras.
I suspect the biggest difference is actually the reason why I've been racing as often as I can, which is just getting better at executing a race. I felt like throughout this one I was able to stay focused and as a result not allow myself to ease off in the later half of the race when the discomfort levels are getting steadily harder to ignore. My average heart rate from the race was 171, and max 183 - both of these are the highest I can remember having seen (I have suspected for a long time that I'm a low max HR person).
I had a nice little sprint finish too, I'd been slowly closing in on a guy who'd overtaken me about 1km in to the run, and managed to really put the hammer down over the last 100m to close the ~5-10m gap and just edge him out. I was beaten by a friend of mine from uni who has been doing the series barefoot! He's made rapid progress over the last month or so since he first entered, I think his times have dropped from mid 20's to high 18's. I followed him quite closely for most of the way to the turnaround, but when we hit a section where there was grass he could run on rather than pavement, he absolutely flew and left me for dead.
Song of the Day
As promised, here's the obligatory song to accompany my post. It's another NZ band - this one is a now defunct group called Push Push. The song is nearly 20 years old, with a 80's hair-metal type of sound. I hadn't heard this in a long time but it appeared on a music channel on TV recently and I was reminded of its greatness. The song is called Song 27, I'm going to embed two versions, the longer one with no video has much better audio, but I thought I'd include the version w/ video too since it's not the same without video. Enjoy!
I completely overlooked this in my introductory posts, but I've been reminded of its absence by a couple of recent posts on the Beginner Triathlete forums. Music features very heavily in my life, unfortunately not by participation in its creation - I've tried to pick up a few instruments in the past and had little success, I lack the creativity to really conceive music, and my singing is just straight up terrible. But I do love listening to music - a reasonably broad selection but it's largely centered around rock and neighbouring genres (although I will admit I'm currently listening to dubstep mixes on youtube)
Music played quite a big part in getting me to where I am with my athletic endeavours - the reason I did my first half marathon was because I'd flown to Melbourne to see a band I'm very fond of (Alexisonfire), and my Melbournian friend I was going with was doing the half while I was there. Having great music plugged into my ears helped get me through a lot of the more difficult runs I was doing before I had found the joy of running.
So anyway, what I thought I might do is include a Song of the Day at the bottom of each of my posts. I will aim to bring something that the majority of readers will have never heard before - hopefully someone will find something new they like (it's always such a nice surprise when you hear a new band that you like).
I'm a bit torn between a few songs I've recently been enjoying, but I think I'll start off with the one that I think will have the widest appeal. The band is called The Thomas Oliver Band. They're a modern blues group from Wellington, New Zealand. I caught them at a gig around the middle of last year and was very impressed - I love their sound. The song is called Baby, I'll Play and it's off their recently released album of the same name. Enjoy!
Oh and a final note, tonight I registered for the adidas Auckland Marathon in October. I'm looking forward to the challenge, and as usual I'll be looking to set a decent time, rather than simply aiming to complete it
I've read that the fourth discipline in triathlon is buying cool shit, and I have to agree. Between the three sports there are so many potential avenues for spending - bikes and associated componentry can easily be the biggest contributor, but with swimming there's wetsuits and assorted training aids, and then there's that huge running shoe market. There are many blogs out there that can cover the reviews of such items in much more detail than I care to (Runblogger is one of my favourites, and I've heard good things about DC Rainmaker), but I still wanted to share some of my latest purchases and my opinions of them.
I should also add - although I'm not really cheap, I pretty much refuse to pay the retail prices I see in shops here. I would like to largely blame this on pricing in NZ being hugely inflated in comparison to many other countries (which I'm gonna talk about a bit further down), and the fact I want to get as much cool shit as I can without bankrupting myself. The result of this is that a lot of what I buy is second-hand, from NZ's only worthwhile online store (Torpedo7), or imported.
ISM Adamo Racing saddle
ISM saddles are a bit funny looking at first, but for me the shape seems to make perfect sense. The design allows the rider's weight to be supported on the tuberosity of the ischium, aka the sitz bone or sitting bones (thanks Wikipedia! BTW If you look that up, have a good look at the second picture, it's quite startling when you realise what you're looking at!).
I found that as I had adjusted my bike fit to have a large drop from saddle to bars causing my hips to rotate forward, there was increasing pressure and discomfort on my perenium, that seemed to be greatly relieved by sitting slightly offset to one side. The Adamo line of saddles achieve the same thing but with the weight supported on both, rather than one sitz bone, and the cut-off nose seems to allow the wedding tackle to sit in a more comfortable position too. The saddles are unisex too, and I would imagine they would be even more of a revelation for a woman, as my guess as to what I would've been sitting on in the old (also unisex) saddle if I had lady parts suggests high levels of discomfort.
It is usually suggested that there will be a bit of an adjustment period after switching to an Adamo saddle - my first ride was around 2.5 hours and it felt great! There was some discomfort afterward (similar to light bruising), but after about 300km on the saddle I seem to be fully adjusted to it. The saddle is not quite as cushy as my old one when riding in a more upright position on the hoods or flat of the bars, but I do 90% of my riding on the aero bars anyway, so this doesn't really bother me (and when I'm grunting up a hill my legs are screaming louder than my ass anyway).
I don't see myself changing to a different style of saddle anytime soon, and would definitely recommend the Adamo line of saddles to any triathlete who has a roughly horizontal-torso aero position.
Saucony Progrid Kinvara running shoes
When I first started trying to run about this time last year, I suffered terrible shin splints that prevented me from being able to run for much more than 5 minutes. After taking a trip to a local running shoe store, and outlaying an awful lot of money ($270NZ) I was running in Brooks Adrenalines - moderate to heavy pronation control shoes, and I was cured!
Having run somewhere around 700km since then, and recently done a considerable amount of research into running biomechanics (another post I hope to make, when I have time!), I decided I wanted to give the Kinvaras a shot. The key reasons being the excellent reviews they've received, reduced heel-to-toe drop (4mm vs the 12mm of my current shoes), ridiculously low weight, good pricing and absolutely blingin' appearance! The hope was that with all the running I've done over the last year, I will have been through sufficient anatomical adaptations that shin splints should no longer be an issue and could handle a "neutral" shoe, while the reasonable level of cushioning would make them more forgiving than my VFFs while I develop my stride.
I bought the shoes online from the US for about $80NZ, and the total cost to have them air-freighted here was $130 - a mockery of the retail pricing on them in NZ (if you can find them). Although I appreciate that local retailers wont have the economies of scale nor the relatively low overheads of a large online store, I don't see where the extra $100NZ+ comes from when you buy them locally.
Anyway, onto my impressions of them...
First run in the shoes was great, I did 11kms at 4:40/km which is a reasonably quick training run over that distance for me. The reduced weight (about 40% lighter than my old shoes) was nice, and I definitely felt I was able to more easily land roughly on my mid-foot, although I think I was still heel-striking to some degree. The nice thing is that as the shoes are still quite cushioned, this wasn't punished as heavily as it would be in my VFFs. I suspect the fact there is still a bit of heel-lift prevented me from being able to get a really nice landing on the forefoot like I can with VFFs.
The sizing and fit felt pretty good - similar to my Adrenalines in the way they felt perfectly matched to my foot (the few other running shoes I've tried have felt just a little odd). I did feel a little cramped in the toes; this may be improved by running sockless, will have to try that next time. I also suspect they will stretch a little.
I have recently been experiencing a bit of a niggling pain in my left knee - it almost feels a bit swollen and like it's been getting jarred a bit; that was non-existent while running in the Kinvaras, and I hope this is due to the shoes. My calves felt a bit tight but I'd been experiencing that a bit recently, so not sure if it was due to an altered landing or just normal. At one point my right ankle was a little sore but that was while running on a laterally sloping path and it went away pretty quickly.
My current running shoe collection
Overall, I'd say - so far so good. I look forward to putting more distance on them, and I'm particularly looking forward to doing a 5K and my first Olympic distance triathlon in them next week.
Brooks Trance 9 The Brooks Trance is basically a more expensive (better?) version of the Brooks Adrenaline, designed to perform the same job for the same type of foot. I bought these because the online store I got the Kinvaras from was clearing the old stock at a ridiculously low price (~$75NZ), my Adrenalines are due for replacement and I was concerned I might not be able to get through my planned winter marathon training solely in the Kinvaras. Given the price of Adrenalines here vs the USA, I would expect the Trance to retail around $350NZ. Again, ridiculous.
Malcolm, shut up and tell me about the shoes
Trance on the left, Adrenaline on the right
Ok. Looking over the shoe and comparing it to my old Adrenaline, it looks like there was a design group working on each shoe, except one group spent the first 6 months drinking and then copied the other group's design, making small changes to make it look different. I think the group that was doing the drinking were the ones that designed the Adrenaline, because they're half a size undersized compared to virtually all other running shoes.
Comparing with my well-worn Adrenalines, the Trance have a certain stiffness/firmness to them, which I presume is mostly because they are new. They feel a bit more cushy under foot. Otherwise, the fit is very similar between the two, although my old shoes feel much more like they are perfectly shaped to my foot (again, probably due to wear).
I took the shoes out for a 12km run this morning, and I feel kinda like I've been spoiled by wearing the Kinvaras. The Trance felt a little clunky, the landing was frustratingly heel-heavy, and the upper felt so stiff. My left knee was feeling a bit dodgy again by the end of the run, but I'm hesitant to blame that on the shoes. I did the run sockless (which I prefer to do when possible), which was possibly a poor choice in a new shoe; I ended up with quite a bit of rubbing along the top of on my little and 4th toes on my right foot, where the edge of a stiff piece of rubbery material is on the shoe.
I think I will try wearing the shoes around a bit more to try and break them in and loosen them up a little. I love the comfort of my Adrenalines, and would still like to give these a chance to be a replacement for them.
This morning I competed in my third triathlon, a sprint distance at Maraetai Beach, part of the Panasonic People's Triathlon Series. I don't want to make this blog another training and racing blog; I enjoy reading such blogs, but feel I have nothing new to offer on that front so will try to include only the more interesting/important events. If you would like to read my report on the race, you can view it here. What I'm going to discuss is the drafting that goes on in these events.
For the uninitiated, let me cover the basics of drafting in triathlons. The majority of amateur triathlons, and as far as I know all long-course triathlons (i.e. Ironman and Half-Ironman) are non-drafting events, meaning you aren't allowed to draft other cyclists on the cycle leg (as you usually would in most forms of bike racing). The idea is that triathlon is an individual time-trial event. There are some events that are draft-legal, such as ITU events and races at the Olympic Games - as well as the odd event such as the Contact Tri I did in Takapuna a month ago. In draft-legal races, different rules exist around the bikes you're allowed to use - basically your bike should be a road bike, as opposed to the bikes used in non-drafting tris which are basically time-trial bikes (which are way more awesome).
So anyway, interestingly I don't seem to be able to find any rules or links to rules on the website for the People's Triathlon Series, but as they're listed on the Tri NZ website I would assume they're operating under the Triathlon NZ rules which state that the event should be non-drafting. However, having done two races of the three so-far for this series, and having watched the other, I can say that drafting is rife in this series. The first event I did, I joined in the drafting since everyone was doing it, but this time I decided to take a stand and that I would have no part of it. The annoying thing though, was that I was probably the only one. The result was that when I came up to overtake someone (I had a great bike leg and did a lot of overtaking), they would simply tuck in behind me and stay there for as long as they could, conserving energy and being towed along faster than they were capable of riding. I was a bit bothered that I was working reasonably hard riding along at ~35km/h at the front while a gang of slackers sucked my wheel for the majority of the 10km return leg of the ride. I think I lost them all on the run though.
What was more annoying, was some people would sit behind for a while - having a bit of a rest, then put on a bit of a burst, get in front of me for a short while until I overtook them again and then the cycle would repeat. In a properly-regulated race, the cyclist being overtaken has 5 seconds to drop back outside the imaginary drafting envelope, which extends 7m behind the front wheel of the lead bike. In this situation it is much more difficult for the rider who has been overtaken to re-take their position, unless they really are capable of riding faster than the person in front (or are willing to ruin themselves on the ride and have a terrible run). This rule is a joke if only one of the parties is following it, however.
I think the problem comes down to the culture within the competitors in general. Marshals can (and should) penalise people for breaking the rules, but if the rule breaking is sufficiently rampant then it becomes difficult to police; really you need the competitors to know the rules, to want to follow them (in my opinion it makes for fairer racing), and then hopefully the situation will police itself: if there was one person hanging off my wheel and everyone else was obeying the rules I would happily tell them what I thought of their parasitic attachment to my slipstream.
I suspect the problem comes down to the boom in the popularity of triathlon - there are a lot more people involved who have probably never familiarised themselves with the rules, and possibly not a sufficiently strong/influential community to spread the word and pressurise the masses into obedience. While I'm part of the new crowd, I always like to think of myself as the exception to the rule and usually spend a lot of time educating myself about whatever my latest obsession is.
Just to get a feel for how common this is, I put a poll up on the Beginner Triathlete forum - of the 12 responses at the time of writing, 8 have said they often see illegal drafting in triathlons and it often goes unpunished, 2 have said they occasionally see it but it's usually punished, and 2 people's cats have breath that smells like cat food (everyone loves Ralph).
I want to try and include a photo or two into each post I make, so here's a couple of pics from today, linked from the official event's website that help to illustrate my point (I'm actually reasonably sure the two in the first picture heading the other way were part of the group who followed me home today)
