My First Oly - Panasonic People's Tri Mission Bay

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

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)

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.