Racing with Integrity

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)

Week of Racing!

Big week this week, ran a "5K" on Tuesday, 2km of open water drowning tomorrow, and a sprint tri on Sunday.

The 5K went well, it's the 4th open 5k I've done and I set a new PB - 19:51. Unfortunately my GPS thinks it was 4.88km, so which makes it 4:05 pace or 20:25 for a full 5k (which is still a PB). It's also the first time I've had a good battle for the finish. In the final 500m or so there was a guy and a girl within about 20m ahead of me, and a woman just behind me (had been there for about the last k and sounded like she was suffering quite a bit!). As the two people in front were for me, I think I was the target for the woman behind: she made her push and drew up beside me but I was pretty sure she was pretty much spent. I'd paced myself well and felt like I had quite a bit left and made the push for the two in front. I got past the guy first, then slowly managed to draw in and get past the girl. With around 200m to go the guy caught up again so I gave my final kick and hammered home the finish, stronger than I ever have finished, and held the guy out by a few seconds. Good stuff! This 5K is quite a cool event, it's run by a pub down on the waterfront, costs $7 to enter and you get a free pint at the end! It's held every Tuesday evening and I think I'll look to do it a lot more frequently next year. It also draws decent field - around 130 people this week, and the winners are usually around the 16 minute mark (a bit more competitive than the first two 5k's I did where the fields were larger but I came in top 5 overall!).

I've really enjoyed the last 6 weeks or so, where I've made an effort to race in some way every week. I love competing, not that I'm highly competitive at the moment but it's a great excuse to push yourself and establish some performance benchmarks. Also, as a newbie to this game, regularly competing has been a good way to generally feel more comfortable and at ease in a race, to practice my rituals and find out what works and what doesn't. The way I see it, there's effectively free time available by executing a race well, from preparation to pacing, in similar manner to how in motorsport it can be easier get faster by making your driver faster than by trying to make the vehicle faster. In this case, my mind is the driver and my body the vehicle.

The 2k OWS I'm doing tomorrow is part of a series that runs every Thursday evening during summer; they offer 500m, 1000m, 1500m and 2000m distances every night. My first proper OWS was at this event in early December, I did the 500m in preparation for my first tri which was that Sunday. Since then I've been two other times, and stepped up the distance each time. This is the last event of the summer and it seems like it would be rude to not do the 2k! Last time when I did the 1500m it was a definite struggle: for me it's mostly a mental battle as there's just nothing to distract you from the fact that you're hundreds of metres out in the harbour, swimming a distance beyond what you've done before, that you've probably got another 20 minutes of work to go before you'll be on dry land again. Compounding that, time seems to pass agonisingly slowly, you feel very alone, and it feels like you never make any progress. I guess with time, as I continue to do more swims and become more confident in my ability I'll be able to relax a bit more and just get the job done, but I'm not there yet!


Finally, I thought I'd share this. Can you tell the difference between these two garments? One is a compression singlet, the other - my jammers.

Apparently I can't, because on Monday I went to the pool, got my concession card punched, went to get changed and discovered I had apparently chosen a compression singlet as the day's swimming attire. On further consideration I decided it might be a bit risqué, and decided to abandon the swim

MalcolmG the Car Enthusiast

In my introductory post for this blog, I said I would introduce the various aspects of my life to provide some level of context for future postings, so here's another:

I tend to feel a little embarassed or ashamed to admit to having a love for cars and motorbikes, as I feel I run the risk of being stereotyped in a way that I don't think reflects who I am. Nevertheless, since as far back as I can remember, they have always been a fairly prominent part in my life (I wonder if I can find the picture of when I was 7 or 8, proudly sitting with my vast matchbox car collection?)

Around the age of 16, shortly after getting my first car and long before deciding I wanted to pursue a career in mechanical engineering, I started to get interested in the technical aspects of cars - learning to do all my own maintenance and repairs, trying to understand the fundamentals of operation of the various systems, and learning about the aspects that affect a vehicle's performance. Before long, my car (or cars) would spend increasing amounts of time in more pieces than is typically useful, as I worked on the latest modification, repair or upgrade. My increasing interest in the technical and theoretical aspects of vehicle operation and performance eventually lead me to realise that mechanical engineering was the best candidate I'd come across for what I'd like to do 5 days a week for the next 40 years (well...the best one that I would get paid for)

My current toys: Honda CBR600RR (red), Kawasaki ZXR250 (green), Toyota MR2 (um...it's the car)

By the time I had enrolled to do a Bachelor of Engineering, about 5 years after dropping out of school at the age of 16, I had spent considerable time (and money) working on and learning about all things automotive, and had gathered a decent practical skill set and reasonable understanding of the way things worked in the mechanical world, which ended up being a significant help as I tackled a university degree without having anywhere near the academic background that most students did.

Behind the wheel of one of our older FSAE cars, sans bodywork

It wasn't all about the technical side though - I thoroughly enjoy driving, especially racing (or pretending I'm racing). From the first time I drove a go-kart I was hooked, and would've relished the opportunity to get into motor-racing at a young age if my family had the money to do so. Instead I had to wait until I was working and able to fund my own way through such ventures - which still hasn't amounted to me doing any regular racing. As with many things in my life, I've dabbled - I have quite a bit of drag racing under my belt, plenty of driving in my mates' race karts (but never in a proper race), as well as a significant amount of time behind the wheel of Formula SAE cars.

Behind the wheel again, this time in the 2008 FSAE car at the Australasian comp in Melbourne

Wait a second, WTF is a Formula SAE car? Having spoken about the subject ad nauseum between 2006 and 2009, I almost just can't be bothered any more! But in a nutshell, they're cars built by university students (predominantly engineers), as part of a global student engineering competition. It was an activity that dominated my time at university - an awesome experience through which I grew tremendously as an engineer, a project manager, and as a person. I had the privilege of being the Chief Engineer for my last two years, and learned more than anyone would care to read about during my time in the team. It sparked a number of fires of areas of interest to me, nearly all of which will likely require me to head overseas if I want to pursue them as careers (the supply of interesting engineering jobs in NZ is tiny - I'd have to be very lucky to pick something up locally that tickles my fancy). Unfortunately, I quite like it here, so I'm in the midst of an internal debate about whether I should stay or not.

2009 FSAE car, my second as Chief Engineer

Before I finish up, I need to mention the joy that is motorcycling. I'd never really given bikes much thought until I got to university, where it seemed half the people were motorcyclists. When I eventually discovered the joy of riding, I was hooked. I have only been riding for a couple of years so far, but I just love the freedom you feel on a bike, and the connection between bike and rider - making you feel so much more a part of the experience than driving. It also helps that you can pick up an insanely fast sportsbike for just a few month's pay :) All that, combined with the ease of getting through congested motorways on the daily commute to work, have often lead me to think that I am a much less stressed person than I was 7 or 8 years ago, when my day consisted of 10 hours of work and 2-3 hours of commuting for the privilege...

2011 North Shore Coastal Challenge, race report

What an amazing race to write my first race report on here for. I'm going to format this in a way that gives all the useful facts and information first, followed the long-winded tale of the journey for those who want the full reading experience.

Race: North Shore Coastal Challenge, 33km Full Monty event
Date: Saturday 5th March, 2011
Race Description: 33km adventure run down the coast from Arkles Bay on Whangaparoa Peninsula to Windsor Reserve in Devonport, featuring considerable wading, rock-hopping, and a few swim sections.
Time: 4 hours, 10 minutes, 37 seconds
Placing: 49th equal of 118
Weather: Varied from overcast to heavy rain, temperature low 20's

Pre-race nutrition: Cup of coffee and 4 pieces whole grain toast for breakfast (2 peanut butter, 2 marmalade), 700ml of Powerade
Race hydration: Carried a 2L Hydra-pak (consumed ~1.7L), 150-250ml of Vitasport at each of 4 aid stations
Race nutrition: 1 GU Jet-blackberry gel 10 mins before race start, 4 Leppin Squeezy sachets, total ~2000kJ (plus Vitasport) and 480mg of sodium

Physical exertion: Hardest thing I've ever done.
Mental exertion: Right up there, pushing through the pain for the last 10km or so took some massive willpower
Would I do it again? Definitely.

The Race:
This race was recommended to me by my friend Lucy, who had done one of the shorter events previously (they also offer 6, 11, 16 and 22km races). Lucy has been quite a useful person to know as I've been getting into this competitive athletic lifestyle, she's done a few various runs, triathlons and such, and she always has some useful advice for me, and being recently incapacitated by impregnation she's been a spectator/supporter at a few events too (it's always nice to see a familiar face in the crowd when you're suffering through the last few kms of a hard race!).

The event website has a detailed description of the first 11km - the leg you only get to do if you're doing the 33km, and it sounded like a load of fun. There was also a recommendation from someone that you decide which distance you think you can do, then do the next longer one. I figured I could do 22km, having done a half-marathon a few months ago, so it seemed the only option was the full 33km - it can't be that hard, right?

Supplies taken on the run (ditched the sunscreen though)

For a change, I managed to have a pretty good sleep the night before, probably nearly 6 hours before waking up at 4:45am to get ready. Picked up my partner in crime: Ollie, who I had conned into running it with me, and headed to Devonport. The organisers put on a bus from the finish up to the start, to avoid the logistical issues of a point-to-point race, which unfortunately meant being at the venue two hours before race start. We arrived at Arkles Bay as daylight had just about fully taken hold, but with the overhanging gloominess of heavy rain clouds and light rain. The make-up of the fellow competitors was somewhat typical: mostly males, and mostly aged between 30 and 50 - that's not to say there wasn't still a diverse minority present; plenty of much younger, older, and more attactive faces in the bunch too! Everyone looking in good shape and all that we spoke to were friendly and in good spirits, despite the miserable weather.

Rounding Arkles Bay

At 8:30am, about 20 minutes before high tide, the hooter went and we set off along the beach, toward the first spit (I had to look this up to confirm I had the right terminology). Almost immediately we came upon what I had already discovered to be the most annoying of obstacles during the training session we'd done the week before: submerged rocks. There were significant wading portions throughout the race, and you would frequently be blinding stepping forward, not knowing if you were on a large rock and about to drop, or standing on a flat and about to trip over a rock. The first 4km was almost entirely wading in water between knee and waist deep, with a couple of short sections of rock-hopping over some very slippery rocks.

The nature of the course means that you're frequently moving in single-file, which in the first few km - before the group of 150 entrants had shuffled into order of pace, meant quite a bit of time stuck behind slower/less confident people, and some interesting/dodgy manoeuvres to get around people. This was actually quite fun, scrambling around the un-favoured path to try and get beyond someone before you reached the next point where you were reduced to single-file again.

Looking back across the first swim

In the water, part-way through the second swim

We hit the first of the two major swim sections at around 20 minutes in. It looked like probably 70-80m across - not much of a hurdle but pretty slow going when fully clothed with a backpack and running shoes on! Me and Ollie had both taken goggles with us so we could swim properly with our heads fully submerged for a nice, efficient body position. The hard part with this and the following swim was knowing at what depth to stop wading and start swimming, with swimming being marginally quicker once you got deeper than about your navel, but seeming to use more energy. The second swim came at around 45 minutes in, and was much longer - it looked like at least 200m to me. In both swims we seemed quite a bit quicker than those around us, largely I think because of our reasonable proficiency in swimming and the fact that we elected to swim a lot more where others would wade until they couldn't touch the ground. The second river crossing still took about 10-15 minutes (amazing considering I can do 200m in a pool in around three and a half minutes). Some cheeky bastard got picked up by the IRB (inflatable rescue boat) and ferried to the other side for both swims, despite the course descriptions being adamant that you should be capable of swimming 2x 200m if required.


We hit Long Bay, the 11km mark at around 1:30. My memory of many of the sections of the run is quite hazy, but I do remember there were a decent number of people gathered along the beach, huddled under raincoats and umbrellas, to cheer on the competitors - that kind of thing really makes a difference to me, I always get an amazing buzz and my spirits pick up immediately when a complete stranger is encouraging me (this was one of the things I loved about the Melbourne 1/2 marathon). At Long Bay a young fella, probably 13 or 14, started his leg of a team's relay as we were coming through. It can be quite humbling doing events like this, and having someone so young out-pacing you, but fortunately I'm pretty used to it. The little guy did slow down a lot once we got to the more technical parts shortly after Long Bay, we (mostly Ollie) helped him over a couple of tricky parts, but he disappeared some distance behind as the terrain got worse (he did eventually catch us sometime later). There were some very deep wading sections around rock faces between Long Bay and Browns Bay, with the tide now on its way out there were some quite strong currents to content with (we commented a few times that we didn't think the little guy would get through them, but apparently he did!). The other occurence that became increasingly regular on this section, as the rain began to come down a bit heavier, was falling of rocks, dirt and debris from the cliffs on our right. We were showered by some lighter stuff, and witnessed a few football-sized rocks come rolling down in front of us, which made us a little nervous.

I think it was shortly before we reached Brown's Bay, the 17km mark, that one of the more memorable events occurred. I was following Ollie along a narrow shelf of rock, elevated about 1.5m above the water and rocks below. Suddenly I heard a rumble and stopped just in time to see an enormous rock, roughly the size of a beach ball, come tumbling down from above and land directly at my feet, breaking in two. The rock and the debris it brought with it hit me in the arms on the way through, and scraped my leg, leaving me with a few minor cuts and bruises. It was a very terrifying moment, particularly as I began to consider the consequences had I not stopped in time, or if it had fallen just a split-second sooner or later. We continued on, a little shaken and a lot more nervous about getting too close to the cliffs.

Doing my best to look happy, 25km in

As we continued on we came across more and more of the slower runners and walkers doing the shorter distances, so many that it became a rarity to spot someone else doing the Full Monty - easily identified by the pink wrist tags we were wearing. We'd usually have a bit of a chat when we saw another Monty, check how they were doing, ask if they'd done it before - bit of small talk but noone really had the energy for much more than that.

We hit Milford Beach, the 22km mark, at about 3 hours. There was a short crossing there that is very deep to allow boats to get in and out to a slightly inland marina, and the current was absurd, I must've travelled at a 45 degree angle as I went through. I remember thinking that if this was the end, I would be very glad to stop running about now. 3 hours beats the longest I've done an athletic activity continuously by a good hour or so, and my legs were feeling very heavy.

The run from Milford to Takapuna is around 5km, largely along beaches and walkways, and despite suffering most of the way, it seemed like the time passed very quickly. I was surprised when we reached Takapuna beach, and actually thought the organisers must've screwed up the distances because I was sure I hadn't done 5km. Just by the Takapuna boat ramp there is a small camping ground, and again my spirits were lifted by a number of people sitting outside their tents and caravans, cheering us as we went through.

I do that a lot with my hand when I run

I barely remember anything between then and making the turn off the beach and onto the road for the final 1km or so. I do remember commenting to Ollie that I was really pleased that despite having been running for so long, and my legs feeling absolutely ruined, we were still regularly passing people and, important to me, I was very pleased that I hadn't given in to the pain, and was running all run-able sections.

It felt great to hit the road for the short final section, to run on some nice solid ground that doesn't slide away underfoot, or have an angle left to right that puts more weight on one leg. I tried not to think about finishing and stick to the mental strategy I've settled upon for long runs and swims - assume you're just going to keep going indefinitely and don't consider the thought of finishing until you have a minute or less to go. Finally, the finish line was in sight, I mustered all my remaining energy and picked up the pace a bit for a good finish.

Crossing the finish line was such a huge relief, I was immensely proud of what I had achieved, and greeted the ground with enthusiasm as I collapsed onto a nice soft patch of grass immediately after finishing. We stayed on the ground for probably 5 or 10 minutes, shared congratulations with a few competitors we'd chatted to during the run, and generally enjoyed the feeling of not being on our feet!

The run was a great experience, everything it promised to be, immensely challenging and accordingly rewarding. I'll be back next year, and hopefully with another year's endurance training I'll be ready to smash some time off this year's effort too.

Me, Ollie and one of the buddies we met along the way - enjoying the ground.

MalcolmG the Athlete

I always hated running, dreaded the day of cross country at school, ending up walking at least three quarters of it, and never made any attempt to push myself. I guess I would say that all the sport I played growing up was more skill-based (i.e. cricket) rather than intensely athletic.

By the end of uni I found myself in worse shape than I'd ever been, carrying a bit of extra fat and no longer doing anything remotely active, so I set about changing it. This started off as going to the gym 2 or 3 times a week, doing mostly weights with a bit of cardio after each session. After a few weeks, I decided I was going to give running a crack - it started off as 5-10 minute sessions on the treadmill, eventually in April I managed a 20 minute session, doing about 4km - easily the longest distance I'd run in my entire life.

Things progressed over the next couple of months, and in August I decided I was going to run a half marathon in October, while I was in Melbourne on a brief holiday. That came and went, with 6 weeks of training I managed a 1:47:23, which I was immensely proud of; I really enjoyed the run and was hooked. Unfortunately, I still didn't really like running, but at some point got the idea in my head that I might like to give a triathlon a go.

Getting in to swimming was by far the hardest part; although I'd learned to swim at a young age, I'd never been fast or competitive, and I was most intimidated by the swim portion of my upcoming triathlon. Initially I would swim one length of a 33m pool before having to stop for a breather, but after about a month I was able to string together a 500m set. Moving to open water swimming in a wetsuit was a massive shock, but fortunately after a couple of weeks of regular outings at St Heliers Bay I got to a point where I was able to get through my first sprint tri without too much trouble.

Since that first triathlon, I've been training hard to compete in my first Olympic length tri (1500m swim, 40k bike, 10k run). My swimming has come a long way in the few months since then, and I've already managed several competitve open water swims over 1000m. I'm at a point now where I usually look forward to a swim workout or race, and somewhere along the way I've started really enjoying running, too. Interestingly, cycling - which was initially my favourite of the three disciplines, is probably the most dreaded for me now, largely due to the much longer time that I have to dedicate to a cycling training session (they're double the duration of the swim and run workouts in my program).

My desire to compete is high now, as is my desire to broaden my horizons somewhat and tackle some new challenges. Before 2011 is over, I aim to run a sub 100 minute half-marathon, run my first marathon (tentative goal of 3:30), and prepare myself to be much more competitive for the summer of 2011/12 triathlon season.

And because the question does pop up with semi regularity - yes, Ironman is a major long-term goal for me; in the coming months I'll have to make the decision whether I want to tackle Taupo 2012.

I hope this suitably sets the scene for future postings on my various athletic experiences and endeavours, without my common issue of waffling on too much.

An Introduction

Well, in the event that somebody discovers this blog, I feel it's appropriate I should provide some form of introduction - plus it's an easy way to make my first step into the world of blogging.

My name is Malcolm, I'm a mechanical engineer in my late-ish 20s working for a university research group. While engineering is something that interests me greatly, and has actually had quite a profound effect on my life and how I view the world around me, it is unlikely this blog will discuss anything relating to my work or engineering.

At some point in my teen years I decided that the phrase, "Jack of all trades, master of none" described me quite aptly. I consider myself to be pretty good at most things I've tried my hand at, but I've never really stuck with one thing enough to really excel. This is (obviously) where the name for the blog came from, and basically describes how the subject matter is likely to pan out. I'll be writing about the various things that interest me/feature in my life enough to warrant comment, which at present will largely relate to triathlon (and its constituent sports), training/nutrition, and probably the odd bit about cars and motorbikes. I'll probably make some sort of introductory posts about these interests of mine, just to set the scene/provide the backstory to provide context to what I write in future.

There's also a good chance some more personal subject matter could find its way in here, as a single man I do find that thoughts around dating and relationships sporadically receive a lot of air time, and I have some strong opinions on regard to religion and spirituality - although as I usually do in real life, I may keep these quiet for the sake of avoiding argument or controversy.

I partially look to this blog as an excuse to write, as writing is something I enjoy a lot, but until now have no outlet for other than forums and training logs (where it never seems appropriate to write a lot). I enjoy collecting my thoughts and trying to structure them into something cohesive and concrete, it always seems to cement your thoughts/understanding of something better than if you let your brain waffle on in a pointless internal monologue.