Xosize Race Report

With my main races (Noosa and Geelong) over it was time to have a little fun, I wanted to do another Tri before the season was over. My first choice was Portarlington but the cost of another weekend away wasn’t in my budget, so I picked the Xosize at Sandringham.

I picked up my race kit yesterday and walked into transition but they had not finished labeling the racks but you could work out that Row 6 is where I should be.

Race day very different to my last 2 races. Previous you had rack your back the day before not this time it was case of lining up,  get my arm numbered then heading into transition. It was a little crazy people everywhere, as I racked my bike I noticed that the rack height was lower than my seat. This meant that I would have to tip my bike to one side to get it out of transition. OK not much I can do about that just deal with it. I setup my transition area and headed out and catch up with Jo Jo and we headed down to the  beach to see what the water was like. Sometime Sandy can be nice and sometimes bad today was flat as.

Ahhh Sandy Flat and fast

Jo Jo and I before race start

We watched the mini race swim start and exits but before too long it was time to change into our wettie’s and get ready to race. I got in the water and did my warm up swim and the water felt nice and warm almost a non-wettie swim. I lined up with everyone else the horn sounded and off we went. The first 80meters or so was the washing machine style start people on people. I tried to find clear water but could not I had to swim over the top of people to find clear water. I pushed on at the first can I finally found clear water and pushed hard to the second can. I could see the swim finish and I push hard to the shore, then followed by the nice little 800m run into transition, to be honest Sandringham should be renamed Swim, Run, Bike, Run. The run for the mini and sprint guys is always longer than the swim it’s self.

Coming out from the swim

Once in transition I got off my wetsuit, on with the helmet and sunglasses grabbed my bike and ran out of transition, one I hit beach road I could not see the mount line and yelled out to a marshal where is the mount line another marshal started to wave his hand on where the line was. I ran over the line hopped on my bike and headed off. I found the course fast and not much wind around. On my second lap I passed another Tri Alliance member,  Sarah,  as I passed I said to her, come here often and she replied keep going. As I headed back to transition approx 500m away from the dismount line I got my feet out of the shoes and rode with them on top. I did the ye-old step off the bike and ran back into transition, re-racked my bike, and put on socks and my runners. Normally I don’t use socks but as they were brand new shoes I felt this was the best way. My legs felt really heavy and sore. My right quad was feeling it and the run was going to hurt. At approx the 2km I had to stop stretch out the quad before continuing. Shortly after Kate, a friend from Couple on the Run run’s group, passed and said hi. At the turn around I grabbed some water to cool me off as well as getting some fluids on board. On the run back to the finish line  my quad felt a long better. I crossed line loads and caught up with Ellie, who came along to support me and the TA Crew who were racing, Kate and others we call compared races stories.

My Time was 1hr 27m and 08s. At first I thought not my best time, but when compared it to my previous race at Sandy I had sliced off over 4mins.

Another successfully race to a great racing session.

Heading out on the run

Race done

Cerberus Race Report

Cerberus Race Report

One week on from Geelong OD my body has feeling good. I had done a few walks a gym session and an open water swim and not too much else. Saturday saw me complete my 10km recovery run at Elwood with my TA team mates followed by watch some transition practice. After training I headed off to pickup Ellie then head down to Half Moon Bay for the swim around the rusty boat (aka Cerberus). The race start was 12:30pm for the 1.2KM we got there around 10:30am just in time to see Steve (another TA member) head off for his 2.5KM swim. We had a lot of hanging around to do as my wave start was 1:15pm and Ellie’s 2pm. We kept busy watching the 2.5km races before too long it was time to change into our wetsuits, warm up and get ready. My swim would be over before Ellie even started hers. The sun was warm so once the wetsuit was on into the bay for a warmup and keep cool. I lined up the siren sounded and off we went. Out towards the first can and the was the typically washing machine start, people everywhere. As soon as I could find clear water I push, I noticed that the water at Half Moon was very clear for change. I found I was being pushed towards Sandringham away from the first can I changed my aim and passed the can with in ½ meter, up to the second can and again I could feel the push away from the swim course. At the second can it was up behind the rusty boat (aka Cerberus) I felt a bit of a bay chop until I rounded the third can and straight line into the beach.

I crossed the line in 21m 45s.

Rusty Boat aka The Cerberus

At the start of the 2km Swim

TA Crew who swam

Post Race Feed, Beer and Music.

Geelong Race Report

Geelong was going to my second Olympic Distance Tri, the first being Noosa in 2012. My race program this season was very different to last year. I didn’t do the full race series, I trained and complete just one Tri (Elwood) prior to Geelong. Thursday before the race I did my final run with Coach Emma who was pleased with my progress. She commented that if keep this up next season I’ll be fast as, great to hear few days out from the race.  Thursday night saw me complete the last combo session with TA at Elwood. Was a great session, no running, no grind session just tick the legs over on the bike. After the bike came the swim I put my wettie on and pulled the zip up, then the zip came out the top of the wetsuit. Not part of the plan, lucky for me I had a spare wetsuit.

I had arranged to take Friday and Monday off to making it a 4 day weekend, I headed off to 2xu in Hampton to drop the wettie off for repair. I saw my mate Rees, he asked when was my next race, which I replied Sunday, and I said I had a technical issue with the wettie. He commented that the suit would not be fixed in time, which I knew anyway. I left the wettie with him and then packed all the Tri crap up and picked Ellie along with all her crap and head off to Geelong, 2 TT Bikes, boot full of crap, 2 tubs of Tri Clothing and bike spares plus clothes, etc…. Car was full and we head off Geelong for 4 days of Triathlon.

The weather for the weekend was going to be prefect, not too hot on Sunday and when we arrived in Geelong the below pic is what we saw, perfect. We had some lunch then checked out the run/bike turn around and then checked into the Apartment which was just 1km from the finish line. Friday night saw us catch up with Steve (another TA triathlete in Geelong for the weekend) for dinner. Followed by a somewhat earlier night.

Friday in Geelong

Saturday morning saw the standard TA program, a ride, run and swim. We meet at the TA Taj and went for a ride with the coaches out along the Point Henry Road and then back to the TA Taj and little run followed by a slash, nothing too serious. After the session we headed back to the apartment, quick shower for me and out the door as Ellie had signed up for the 1km open water swim.  This was her 3^rd  open water swim but good experience. After her race I collected my race kit for the Tri and we got some lunch and then back to the Apartment to prep my bike for the race. Ellie had also offered her services as lead bike for the 10km run, she had to be down at the transition area at 3pm for briefing and run through the course, at the same time I drop off the bike. One of the nice things you can pick your own racking spot with in your age ground and this I did. The final rack in the of the TA Taj. As they say, position, position, position.  After racking the bike then headed off to the race briefing along with registering with Subaru for a free race belt we headed to Coles for some shopping then back to the apartment. We chilled out for bit and then walked down got some pasta for dinner and earlier night.



Saturday morning pre race session

1Km Open Water Swim Start



Position, Postion, Position.

Alarm went off Sunday morning – race day, breakfast, shower, etc. standard race day prep. Then a walk to transition and setup the bike for the race. I drop the air in the tyres over night, so re-pumped up the tyres, put the spares, water and the feed bag on, laid out my transition area then headed off to the team tent. The long course guys headed off for their start before too long it was time to put on the wettie and head off for a warm up swim.

In our race there was only going to be 3 waves. These would be big groups so the swim will be a be rough but that’s ok arms out. My warm up swim was good I felt ready. We lined up the horn sounded off we went, the water was a little dirty but flat. As soon as I could find clear water I pushed hard, I came out of the swim feeling good. I ran into transition, off with the wettie on helmet grabbed the bike and headed out. I jumped on and way we went. I got into my bike shoes well before the turn and headed up the hill. Geelong is a very technical course from a bike and run point of view. Once I got through the park and out on the Portarlington road I got into the air position and pushed. With the road being opened it subject to winds, in this case the wind was blowing from the South which had it a side winds. Never much fun with a TT bike and Aero Wheels these act like a sail and subject to being pushed to the side.

Swim Done

Head Out on the bike

Heading up the hill

Pushing hard

Finish Line

Kept on telling myself control what you can control and don’t worry about the rest. I came back into the park through town and up to the turn around and back towards the transition. I re-racked my bike off with helmet, on with the shoes and out for a run. Again the run was through the park area. The first km hurt, I needed to pee badly at the first had station was a public toilet I run in to the toilet pee’d, there we a few other triathlete’s doing the same as well. Back out on the run course up and around through the park and then back down towards the transition, past the finish line along the shore line up to the turn around and back down the hill to the finish line. Around the 8km mark I felt the blister that got me in Noosa start up again, but not as bad. I pushed on to the finish line. I reached the finish line saw Ellie on the way through and looked at my time. I had just taken 10mins off my second Olympic Distance event. 10 MINS! OMG! This was huge. I headed into the athlete’s finishing area. I caught up with a few other TA gals and guys who had finished. Lots of high 5’s and congrats.

I headed back to the TA Taj, and saw coaches Sarah and Oillie. Oillie was happy with the effort and time taken off, he pointed out that Geelong is technical and hilly where Noosa is flat. So good effort and Noosa  this year should be quicker again. Once Coach Emma was back we had a chat and time to work on the run. I agree with her my run does need some work. Over all I happy with my time and effort for my second Olympic  Distance. I spent some time in the tent have chat with other Athletes and catching up on race stories.

After grabbing my stuff and shower we headed out for a feed and beer and watch the ITU race which was full on but fun to watch. I crashed early that night and had a sleep in the following morning. After breakie and shower we went for a walk. My body felt pretty good, but was not too long before we had to pack all the crap back into the car another race weekend over but well worth the effort.

ITU Race

Monday morning Geelong Style

Next race 1.2KM Open water swim and Half Moon Bay