Belated Melbourne Marathon Report and Noosa thoughts

As I sit here in Noosa getting ready for the Triathlon this weekend I thought I would type a race report for the Melbourne Marathon.

The Melbourne Marathon was always going to be a B race and a good lead in to Noosa.

The morning was chilly but would warm up quickly so T-Shirt, Shorts and light arm warmers where called for. With over 30,000 people racing my running buddy Ellie and I headed in early and found a park around the Tan on Anderson Street hill. Approx 15mins walk to the start line. So we headed off on the way a quick bath room break along the Yarra, I always hate queuing for the Portaloo’s  let along the smell.

We got to the start line did a warm up and stretch and waited to go.  I looked at the course map the night before but I must say it didn’t give a good layout of the course just the start and the finish any with this in mind I became a sheep, just follow everyone else.

As we started it was the typical walk for a bit before you could get really running once I held a pace that I felt good about and let the rest “run off” I’ve always had a problem of running out too quickly then paying for it. Over the last few runs I’ve been better that fixing that mainly due to Mr Garmin.

We headed up from Rod Laver Arena towards Flinders Street and down to St Kilda Rd and around the Arts Centre back under St Kilda road up around the Tan back to St Kilda up to Fed Square and out the walk way to the MGC. Down and loop around and up along Bunton Avenue to the  turn around then back to the MGC and then on to do an almost lap of the MGC to the finish.  As I came around towards the finish I heard from the grand stands someone yell out “Go Simon”, later on I found it was Narelle one of the TA team mates waiting for Hubby to finish the full Marathon.

The race was solid not super fast, I was happy with my time of 56:48.

8km heading toward the MCG

On the MCG near the finish line

The next week saw me come down with a head cold so I took the week off and the following week did a little ride with the group on the TT with a run off the bike which was the not the greatest as I was still a bit sick. So kept it simple and didn’t over do it for the week. Last weekend saw the last full hit out. A few of us headed sound to Safety Beach for a Ride/Run/Swim training session, Ride was to Portsea and back followed by a run off the bike then a Open Water Swim. The session felt great the water was cold but once going was good to get an open water swim in.

Safety Beach Training Camp

Bike Turn around at Portsea Race Bike ready to go to Noosa

"The Players" post open water swim

TT was  packed up the bike into it’s case ready for the trip up north. So I passed bike packing 101.

So yesterday we got to the Airport bags checked in, bike checked in and the plane with 9 other TA crew for up to the Sunshine coast.  When we arrived and while waiting for the bags to come off the JetStar flight came in with another bunch of the TA crew. Our bus driver said that in the Virgin flight there were some 18 bikes and we know another 45 on the Jetstar flight. So it’s going to be a big weekend.

Once I arrived my first thing was to check out the bike I didn’t want any surprises. The bike had arrived in one bit no damage, so the bike was re-assembled. I had officially now passed Bike flight 101 and Bike re-assembly 101. Thanks to Coach Emma for some tips.

Bike back together in one bit

Coach Sarah had sent out a training program for us. Yesterday was swam the swim course (non-wettie) and it felt great water was not cold, but you could not see too much, but I felt good in the water.

Today’s plan is for a ride over the course and this afternoon a run. The ride was great the course is interesting but the ride felt good. I feeling good about the weekend I have only two goals for this weekend. 1 to finish and 2, to have a good time. So far the trip is a blast the place I’m staying in, The Outrigger Noosa, has been built right in the middle of the National Park with great views.

 

Bags Packed and waiting to head to the Airport

View from my room

Knox Duathlon

Today I raced out at Knoxfield at the Knox Duathlon put on by KnoxTri Club.

As I said in my previous blog my Mojo had taken a little break, today was both a mentoring as well as getting my game face on for Noosa. Friend of mine is interested in Mutli-Sport events. Good spot to start is a Duathlon, so we both signed up in the mini. Well 5 months off mutli-sport events, so yesterday I unpack the Transition Bag, my Tri-suit and found my race belt.

So the alarm went off at 5am this morning out of bed, breakfast, shower, etc. then I started my normal race day program, stretching, foam rollering, etc. On with the Trisuit and a t-shirt in the Tri Alliance colors. As far as I knew I was the only TA person racing. Loaded the car up and headed off to pick up Ellie and then had out to Knox. We arrived early but there were a heap of people ready to race. Ellie and I were talking about how to jump on/off the bike Tri style. As we were earlier the car park was quite I show her how, but suggested this being her first race not to try the Tri style mount/dismount until she had did some practice. We grabbed our gear and headed off to registration, after picking up race number, timing belt, etc we headed for transition. As we are entering in transition I saw Sheridan, another TA member, who was doing her Technical Officer roll today. We headed into transition found a nice sport to setup our bikes and gear.

Once everything was right we headed to race start, listened to the briefing, then a little light run. Time to turn on Mr Garmin to Mutli-Sport mode and race. The horn sounded and off we went for a little 2km race, now I was racing with 2 blisters on my heals from some new shoes. I did have bandaids on but still sore as, the run was good, not too much pain, the first run felt hard but the times showed it was sub 5kms. I was happy with that, enter into transition off with the shoes on with the helmet, graded the bike and headed out. Run over the mount line, did the Tri Style mount and off I went, nice fast pace. The Knox bike course has lots of turns but did manage a good speed, came back to the mount/dismount line off I got and run back into transition re-racked the bike off with the helmet on with the run shoes and off we went for the last run. 

The run was not quick as the first run but still good I finished the 1^st and only duathlon of the year in 36m 39s.

Over all happy with the race.

MoJo

Wikipedia states Mojo is magical charm bag used in hoodoo, which has transmuted into a slang word for self-confidence, self-esteem or sex appeal.

Well my Mojo has been on holidays for some time now, but it’s back and it’s feeling refreshed and relaxed.

Where did it go ? Well after doing the Half Marathon in July  I took it easy to allow the body to recover and I think it also took a longer rest than my body needed. Don’t get me wrong a Half Marathon is not easy it’s hard lots of training on the race does take it out of you too. This certain showed in the 10km Sandy Half event in August, while the time was ok four training runs certainly was not enough. I have been training, swimming, riding, gym and little running certainly feeling strong. On one recent training ride in Kew my back felt a little funny so I went for an alignment check with Dian Parry at Hampton St Osteo. Good news my alignment is 100% ok but my left QL is tight which is related to not enough movement in mid back. I was little concerned about Noosa and if I could complete the event, but Dian said that with some new exercises it shouldn’t be an issue. Well two weeks on my back feels good and my Mojo is back from holidays.

Noosa has been paid for, new bike is coming this week, I’ve signed up for a Duathlon this weekend and Noosa is back on track. Life is good.

Have you ever lost your Mojo?

Team Meeting

There is always something special about Team Meetings. To me it great to catch up with people and the coaches outside the normal training circles. They are also a dangerous place as they always seem to have special offers on new stuff.

  

Tuesday night was no exception Ollie and Sarah in the last few days before packing up and heading over to Vegas and then to Kona for World Championship and then the big one for Ollie Kona! Ollie works very hard behind the scenes to bring us the members some great stuff.

  

He had the new Giant 2013 bike range on display and some great deals. Needless to say some of us purchased new bikes.

  

Meet my new ride, the Giant 2013 Trinity Composite 1 TT bike.



Trinity 2013 TT Bike at Tri Alliance Meeting

Direction from Giant's Website

Anyone want a Fuji Aloha 2.0 ’09 – low Km’s one season of racing.

I want to thank Ollie, Tri Alliance, Giant Bikes and Bicycles Inc for putting this deal together.

In other news I’ve started my build for Noosa along with signing up for the Hazelwood Triathlon at the end of September as a lead up race to Noosa.

  

Sandy Half (10km) Race Report

This third time I’ve run this race. My lead up to this race was not the greatest to be honest I’ve only run 4 or 5 times since completing the Run Melbourne, Half Marathon in July, I have been working on bike and gym work instead.

This morning was not a cold morning but it was overcast and there was a wind blowing around 10km from North / West perfect conditions for running. After parking the car I saw an old friend Steph. I yelled out a big hi then I did my warm up run from the car to the start line followed by some stretching  then lined up ready to start. Once the race started I headed off down Beach road towards Sandringham my pace was fast an strong I felt good. At the turn around I noticed a bit of a head wind as we headed back towards Brighton.

On the way back I saw a few Tri Alliance gals & guys out on their Half Marathon, waves and thumbs up were the order of business.

As I came past the Start/Finish line we needed to head up towards Dendy street and turn around again to head towards the finish line. I crossed the line in 54m 08s

Not bad with next to no training.

My First Triathlon

A few days ago a friend of mine (Shannon Roberts) placed a tweet up on Twitter . “Competing in a running & triathlon event is both terrifying and exhilarating. And therefore, addictive. #run #triathlon” which I replied with “I remember finishing my first tri. Totally exhausted on the grass and 5 mins later wanting to do it all again right now”, she retweeted the comment.

I spent the day thinking about my life as a Tri-athlete/athlete and how I got here. Story goes back to 2009. The company I work for put on a in-house training program for staff on Time Management the instructor was an American lady a cross between Dolly Parton and Lucy Ball. She was a very funny lady and got us all thinking not only about Time Management in the work place but in my private life’s too. She said you need to set a goal and aim for that set a timeline and stick to it.

My story goes back earlier than that, my back had been playing up for some time. I could not stand up for more than 5 minutes without massive lower back pain. One of the girls I work with put me onto an Osteo and after she started to correct my back she suggest I lose some weight and build my core. With a gym only 50m away from work I joined the gym, got a personal trainer or three, stopped drinking over 2 liters of coke a day and eating crappy fatty food. For the record I didn’t stop day one I changed my habits over the course of 3-6 months. I got fit, I ran, did weights, swam, spin class and I lost some 15+ kg of weight. My back felt better and I saw the changes for the better my only regret is that I didn’t start this process earlier on in life.

After the Time Management training day I started to think about Triathlons. I’d seen a few on tv so what better to do is to go see one up close and personal. Xosize had a race on a Brighton so I went along on race day and watched and took notes on the whole event, I loved the idea of the challenge. So I started to train for a Triathlon, I ran, swam and did more spin class didn’t have a bike yet and had not rode in years. So I got myself a Mountain Bike and started to ride the tracks around home, found out how to change the tyres from mountain bike tyres to road tyres, ok hybrid tyres. Next on my list was a Trisuit and Wetsuit started to swim in the bay, all this would do for the my first Triathlon.

I felt ready so I signed up for my first Tri  the Xoszie race at Sandringham I remember it well. I went down on the Saturday collected my race kit, walked through the transition area made sure I felt ok. Xosize put on a training session at Brighton Baths which I went too for some open water swim training, I remember it was hot as we all could feel the heat in our wetsuits and couldn’t wait to hit the water.

The following day was race day. I race and I ran that 800m run from the beach up the hill to transition, may be Sandringham was not the best race to start doing Tri’s with. I rode, I ran. I completed my first Tri! I remember getting over the line sitting on the grass and my girl friend at the time said “You did! And how did I feel?” I replied “stuffed”, but after 5mins I want to go again, right now! no waiting, no delay I wanted to race again.

I was addicted to this new thing called Triathlons!  After completing my first Tri I got a road bike and completed the last race of the session better than the previous race. The following session I signed up for 5 races Xosize races and then 3 with Active Feet. I had a mixed session mainly my open water swims were not great but still loved the sport getting better and learning new skills all the time.

The last year I started to get serious about my training and joined Tri Alliance, with Tri Alliance I’ve completed a full season of Sprint Tri’s, signed up for Noosa and complete a Level 1 Triathlon Coach course.

Running Event, Road Race or Triathlon are all a race against the clock for the individual it’s exhilarating and addictive sports, like a drug and once you hooked it’s not something you can let go. To anyone who is reading this blog and is not a part of a Tri Club, Run Group or some group fitness find one join in. All I can say is I have meet some really good people who are keen to share your goals and help you reach them

Just want to thank Sharon for tweet  and getting me thinking back over the last few years.

Run Melbourne 2012 Race Report

This story goes back months ago when I set a goal to complete my first Half Marathon. It came after some training session with my running Buddies, Sue, Ellie and Andrew. I presented this idea to my PT (Alana) who commented that soon? So after a email / calls to Start to Finish I up’d my entry 10km to Half Marathon and trained my ass off. During my training I slowly started to add Km’s from my 12-14km base to 15km, 16, 18km, 19km and then 22km in one hit. This drew some comments from Coach Sarah about me peaking too early, but I dropped the Km’s back down to the Tri Alliance group Half program and rebuild.

The last 4 weeks are busy at work being end of financial year, coach training and some crappy work weeks lead me to question myself if I was ready last week. I had been keeping up my training, I was feeling I wasn’t, was this just nerves? Not sure hey I committed this goal and second of complete it in sub 2hrs sux it up and get one with it.

Last weekend I completed 2 x 80km rides on the bike and on the Monday started the final week of Half Marathon prep and taper the week called for 5km on Monday, 8km on Thursday  and 5km run yesterday. So Monday I did 5km, and my legs hurt all the way – oh no! between the work crap and bad weather I didn’t get my 8km run in until Friday, ok last run before the Half. So Saturday saw me with a 20min walk and the Treadmill and hour long stretch session at my gym. Little off plan but ok roll with it.

Saturday night saw be with a big bowl of Spagbowl and a beer, prefect way to carbo load before a race. Followed by a event Tour de France PAR-TAY at The Bike Lab put on my Tri Alliance. Here I was keeping out of trouble drinking water. Part of the night was a sweepstakes for rides, so I purchased 5 rides for $20.  Shortly after the live telecast started I headed home for bed. I had to be up at 4:45, feed, showered, changed and pick Ellie up at 6am for a 7am race start.

I slept fairly well woke up once or twice heard the wind blowing I rolled over and went back to sleep. The alarm sound, race day OMG felt good. I had some breakfast, showered, check the weather did some stretching and foam rolled my back and glutes, got changed and out the door. I picked Ellie up and we headed into the race.

After parking and pick toilet stop we walked up to the race line. I bumped into a few TA people said our hi’s and good luck, then Ellie and did a bit of warm up, good jog and a stretch. During our Stretches I saw one of the guys I work with and his girl friend. She was completing her first Half too, again wished extra other good luck. Ellie and I lined up and waited for our wave to start, Ellie asked me how I felt, I replied Shit is real now! As we moved up to the start line we saw Linda (TA Team mate) she took this photo of both of us.

Ellie and I at the start of the race

The horn sounded and off we went all I had to do was to hit the target of 5:30 pace per KM to reach the second goal. I felt good from the start I worked my way through all the traffic we headed up around the Tan then down Domain road back to St Kilda road then up Toorak Rd and finding our way back to Domain Rd, I passed another TA Team mate (Eleesha) we basically played tag most of the race, then head up Anderson Hill  and back around the tan before heading back towards Anderson Hill and crossing the Yarra and down towards Swan Street bridge and around Rod Laver Stadium and crossing the foot bridge by the MCG and then heading up to Federation square along Flinders st.  There was a water station I slowed down to grab and drink, OMG half way there! We headed back down St Kilda Road for the second loop, as headed up Anderson Hill I saw Eleesha she had cramped up I asked on the way through if she was OK, she was so I kept going. As we headed down along the tan there was Shearden (Another TA team mate) who give me a big wave. At this point I was hurting I felt my I wanted to vomit my feet started to hurt, blisters for sure. I pushed hard when I felt good, pulled back when I didn’t (again part of the plan) the final hill hurt at the top I picked up speed and headed for the finish at the final turn there was Lisa  (Another TA team mate) we ran to the finish line crossed it. I had just done my first half, in 1 Hour 54min and 50 seconds. I was wrapped no major soreness except for my feet. We headed through the showbag area and head back towards the car. On the way out we caught up a few TA team mates so who raced and some who didn’t, swapping stories and thanking people. After the quick car park change we headed down to The Bike Lab for coffee and debrief of the race.

While reading Facebook at The Bike Lab on the ye-old Iphone what do I find? I won the  Single Speed  bike from last night’s Tour Sweepstake. Crappy week = really good weekend.

After getting home and having a shower I planned recovery session with my couch which I spent the rest of the day there in compression on recovering from the race.

There is a long list of people to thank. First to Ellie my running buddy – thank you, to Alana, Kim, Sue, Andrew, Ollie, Sarah, Emma, Tony and the rest of the TA coaches thank you for your support during training/run technique sessions. To Lidia, Shearden, Lisa and the rest of TA support out on the course thank you for support. To my follow TA team mates who completed the event your waves, smiles, thumbs kept me going - thank you and well done in your events. A special thanks to Eleesha who we both kept on passing each other during the event. To friends and other supporters thanks for your support too, sorry just too many names to list.