I have however been working VERY VERY VERY hard on putting things right. I've been religiously sticking to my periodisation training, eating sensibly and now converting the immense mileage into intense speed sessions.
It all seems to be working out, I've lost 8kg in 8 weeks without starving myself (in fact having 3-5 small meals a day) and I surprised myself over the last couple of weeks in the Thursday night rides (very high intensity rides with sprint finishes at the half way point and the finish) not to mention the tri training this weekend at PD.
An excellent training camp run by the ever energised Mr Chan. This year we had full police escort on the ride and run not to mention TV3 and TV7 camera crews following our progress. Oakley even sponsored a pair of the new Radar sunnies for a lucky draw at the end. All very impressive stuff and another clinic at the same venue scheduled for two weeks time DON'T MISS IT - IT'S HUGE FUN. The swim is a new course starting from the beach and then around the headland into the marina and back again rather than in previous years where it was just in the marina - very different so I strongly suggest that you come to the next clinic just to get your bearings.A quick precis of the morning: -
The SWIM, it went very well for me other than appalling navigation - this new course really will take some getting used to and I will definitely be trying it out again before race day.
The BIKE, we were led out by police cars, motorbikes and the TV camera cars. We tootled along at about 20kph for the first 5k to keep everyone together and to get out of the traffic before we turned right and then all hell was let loose. Speeds quickly were up to 40-50kph (or so I'm told - my speedo wasn't working but I could see my heart trying to burst out of my trisuit).I stayed with the front group and I guess things thinned out behind us. We got to the turnaround and there was just myself and Shahrom left with a chasing pack a couple of hundred metres behind. Shahrom decided to wait for them and I decided to go for glory - Arrrrgggghhhhhh that was a painful decision.
With just 3k left the Shahrom juggernaut came past me (DAM he's good). Apparently he tried to get the group organised to catch me but gave up in the end and mowed me down himself. We had a few sprints to the finish but he was just playing with me!
So off we went on the RUN and Sam (57 years young) took off like it was a 1k sprint. In the end he got fed up running by himself and literally waited for us! The leading pack got to the turnaround (4.5k) grabbed some water and back we came. A Kenyan guy was out in front, then Shahrom and then the rest of us. The two junior boys took off after them and then Sam came past like I was standing still. The worst was yet to come - Kevin Chan moves up on my shoulder with a big grin on his face. I now realised that rather than jogging gently home I was going to have to hurt badly to get rid of Kevin.
I put the accelerator down, caught up with the junior boys, reeled in Sam and then amazingly went past Shahrom (photo) - I finished with just the Kenyan guy in front of me (I think he's Kenyan anyway - I apologise if I've got that wrong). Sam did point out afterwards that Shahrom can run considerably faster than that - and come to think of it he probably could beat me hopping on one leg but it didn't do any harm for my confidence and most importantly Kevin was nowhere to be seen.All in all a great day's training/racing (Thank you Mr Chan) and I'm all set up now for the Miri triathlon this weekend. I came 2nd (in the sprint) and 5th (in the Olympic distance) last year. I'm not expecting to improve on that but I am looking forward to feeling at least semi-competitive in my first race since "the Accident".
Watch this space to see how everyone gets on next week.
(Photos courtesy of plagiarism from Hairul's site www.pipot.com)
1 comment:
good show simon - you were looking pretty good on the bike. see you at the next swim lesson or PD clinic,
adrian.
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