Training Log Archive: brycec

Pre-Race
Well as eluded to – just dropping off the equipment was knackering – particularly the kayak. I actually saw someone carrying their boat down and I offered (to carry his tail and him the noses – not thinking how much heavier mine was… Really highlighted to me the difference since mine felt about 10 fold heavier. He kindly helped me out. Had a chat to Kevin (from work) and Andrew M at the race briefing and had agreed to meet Kevin in the morning at 7 for a lift to the lighthouse – mainly so I could leave my keys at their campsite. Had an ok/average lasagne for dinner at the pub in margs and my spag bog wasn’t the greatest breaky either for a change. Oh well at least good slow burning fuel.

So was up at 525 and off by 610 (yes it was a slow start) and down to flinders bay for last minute kit prep and to meet Kevin. Was hunting around from 650 and started getting a bit flustered a few minutes to 7 I couldn’t figure out how to get through to the campsite and the vols where just saying its straight through there (impenetrable bush) – would have been nice if one said there is a path over there. Instead I ended up running along a single trail (yes running before the race). Eventually found a way through to the campsite off the main road about 5 past. Was running around the site – good god its numbering isn’t logical and by the time I found the site map it was 10 past. One last ditch effort to get tho their location #fail. Stressing now and have been running for 15 minutes (not the start I wanted). Out to the main road 30 minutes to start time. Flags a car and gets a lift – guess I am carrying my keys! Good chat to the lads in the car giving me a lift up – giving me some advice. Got to start line with about 10 mins to spare and found Andrew M. Lined up with him and prepared for torture.

Run Leg
Ready for a nice slow steady start… pressed start on garmin – oh wait was supposed to be multisport… stop reset restart as scrambling downhill. AM who was next to me had disappeared into the field and it was on for young and old. The rock hoping was trying and often conga lineish – and I was glad for those 1.5-2km to be over. Had managed to maintain a 8min km at this point and felt that was reasonable – problem was I had a stich so broke into a fast walk to try get rid of it – after a short while I realised it was going to be persistent and I would just have to deal with it so took to a slow jog until I hit the beach section – sand was super soft and it wasn’t long until I was walking again. Took a note of a few people around me – and then started doing intervals as long jogging as possible then walking a short way and repeat. Was tick tacking with an English girl bib 125 who also thought the run leg was going to be one of her stronger legs… Also had an old timer come past – “man its soft this year this is the hardest its been” – great just what I wanted to hear.

Wasn’t long also into the leg that my salomons got wet and I really could see the benefit of some lightweight running shoes! The beach was a long pain in the ass and was met with frustration as the first 3 team runners caught me as I was just coming off of it. SIGH. Ducked into the toilet block at the marina for a drink as was feeling taxed. At last some trails – maybe I can kick into a nice slow 7min km. Not to be – I struggled to get any rhythm going and was up averaging 9min km. I was barely getting 250m running at any point. Also had one of the guys who gave me a lift to the lighthouse pass me and say – wish I could give you a lift now buddy – keep pushing. Was in really poor form. Started to focus in on distance left and getting the average down and just worked hard at chipping it away. Also took my keys and medical pack out and held them as they were swinging in my pants and pulling down the left side – was very annoying.. Must say there is a lot of support from other runners which was really nice.

I wanted 8:30 by the time I finished and managed to get it down to 8:27 pushing hard for the last 1km or so. Also beat 125 in (just). Time was 1:44:35 and I had predicted 1:30:00 so not horrendous but was 15 mins off what I wanted.

TA1
Felt cooked after the run so whislt getting into wetsuit (this was difficult and may have been a tad on the small size?!) I had a snickers and a caffeinated gel and then waddled down to the water. Had given myself 10 mins for it and did in 7:43 so roughly 12 mins down. That’s ok.

Swim
I was glad to be in the water it was cool and nice – saw some nice fish at the start and also got a much straighter route to the first bouy that all these people going wide right. Turned the bouy and couldn’t see where there next where – googles had fogged a bit so just had to aim at people and swim. Swell was pushing me around a bit and couldn’t hold a straight line so there was lots of looking up and figuring out where the hell I was. Off course a lot. It was on this section I took a bit of salt water on and with the gentle wave motion and my motion sickness… was not a good combo. Had a five minute cycle of breath small vom, small vom, small vom, small vom, breathe … repeat. Also had some calf cramping at this point… Was pretty horrible and was certainly a low point. Also really struggled holding a line… Overheated a number of times and had to let water into the suit to cool off. Also got owned by the Velcro on my neck. Was seriously looking forward to the end of this leg!

Garmin says it wasn’t 1.9 I am not complaining. Still took me 41:13 to the beach (where I considered transition starting) - I think AAR consider it at the timing mat at the TA. Anyway I was 1 min slower than predicted so still sitting 13-14 mins behind schedule.

TA2
As soon as I was on the beach I ripped off the top of the wetsuit to discover I had left my HR monitor on – oh well its stuffed now – hopefully will dry out and start working again. Got my kit back on and started at a very slow jog down the beach… oh no wait. VOM – brown?! That’s different – think I shocked the person behind me ‘U right mate’ - “yeah its just gonna be a long day” – Walked a fair bit of this leg – turned out to be longer than I expected – there was some light jogging but not much.

Had a sip of water at the TA before getting into paddling kit – had a nice vol help me out with my boat to the water and getting my bib on and onwards we went. 16:25 instead of 15 budgeted – pretty much exactly 15 mins down on schedule.

C • Brown 5

Paddle
Out onto the leg I was most nervous about. I knew I was down on time but then I had no idea by how much I aimed to do it in 2:30 which I knew would keep me safe. Nearly grounded myself in the river trying to take a shorter line – whoops. That aside had a good start with a 8:45 and a 8:06 – Then hit the old river mouth which was a good 150-200m portage. Dragged my boat the whole way it was truly knackering may have been easily to lift it but I didn’t have the constitution at that point to do that. Luckily the weather was being friendly and the seaside wasn’t rough just rolling swell – but before I got to it I had to get over the breakers – just walked my boat out abdomen deep – waited for a few to go through, there was a short flat section – jumped in and started paddling – was a bit dicey (the jump in wasn’t as smooth as I had hoped) but made it ok and didn’t go for a swim #happydays – over a few waves and opted to go out further to get past the real breaking areas. This km as 13:16 and pretty much put my average back to 10min km.

Set in for the long leg into the wind to the turning point – which was about 6km away. A guy passed me and said I had good balance and technique and to keep plugging away and as he went past I said hey – I know you. He looked over and said did I paddle with you yesterday – no I said – I think you fixed my boat – he was like no not me… hrm I though - oh no wait you carried my boat with me yesterday! Oh yeah he said – had a brief chat for 2 minutes and then he speed off (clearly had an outboard). Had to turn in a bit to go through the double bouys – had clearly gone out a bit too far whoops. Kept plugging along and my splits where consistent – Was trying to aim for 10min km because that got me in well under allowance and whilst there was some waves it wasn’t particularly choppy – but for when the jetskis and boats went past, The wind strengthened a bit but was all pretty good. Was also nice watching others fall in and staying high and dry for a change head wind splits:
10:37
10:39
11:02
11:16
11:04
10:22

Had a very wobbly moment around the bouy inc a legs over the side dump – closest I got to falling in since getting in the boat. Probably from talking to the support boat there rather than focusing on my job at hand. Struggled to get them back in and get going but managed eventually and from there with the wind and waves behind me its was really nice.
8:12
8:16
6:28 (750m)

GPS had the paddle as 11.75km second leg that gps came up short by a bit – I certainly wasn’t complaining. Budgeted 2:35 done in 1:58 – this put me 22mins infront of budget – woohoo (again had no idea that this was the case)

TA3
Dragging boat out of water was a pain as was getting off the paddle kit – massive thanks to Ricky for his PFD/flare though – I didn’t realise until I got home but I only had 1 more mouthful of fluids in the 2L pack so was pretty much perfect. Anyway changed into cycling kit, smacked my head into the metal bar holding the bike up – ouchies, got some food on board and dried off and got going. Transition time was 20s in front of budget so doing well there. 22-23 mins in the bank for the ride.

Mountain Bike
Went out thinking this would be my strong leg – had been pre warned by Andrew M – the hills are a bitch and expect it to take 2hrs. eek I didn’t budget that much. Lots of road climb before the first descent – just slowly plugged away at the first two road climbs – was glad to hit the descent off skippy road and let the bike go full tilt down here even though it was sandyish.

Around the base of a hill with some small climbs which where annoying and then turned the corner and ZOMFG what is this – hike a bike up a friggen mountain. Legs and soul didn’t like this – took ages compounded by the fact an old lady with a tutu and a Garfield helmet walked past me. I was unimpressed. Once at the top of this I really pushed hard on the downhills giving them everything I had. Pulled in countless people on this leg – was the only leg of the day I was catching and overtaking people so was feeling good – but the time was looking like 2hrs for the 26km. Overtook a few solo people on the NW section of the course and was alone as I hit the bottom of the mountain again. Then in the distance I spotted another lonely soul up the hill – worked hard both on the bike then on hike a bike to catch up just so I had someone to talk to on the climb… shortly before I caught him – he turned around it was Andrew M. Chatted to him all the way up the hill about different bits of ‘fun’ we had experienced race to date. He also said the next descent was the one we had been warned about.

Meh I thought – I had gone full tilt on all the others couldn’t be that bad. Left him at the top by maybe 50m as I started the descent. Determined to make good time after the climb I was out of the saddle and going as fast as I was comfortable. The ground was sketchy at best – very sandy with deep sections as well as some decent roots and also eroded channels. It certainly was technical. Technical enough for the rider infront of me to have got off to walk in the middle of the track. I came very close to clearing him out – couldn’t put breaks on much more than they already where as I was coasting on them most the way down and still getting very good speed. Disc had headed and expanded by the time I hit the bottom and was squealing in its bracket – was quite happy (maybe the wrong term) to hit the mud patch and cool off the pads – even though that put sand and crap in my gears. Bike was generally pretty squeaky from this point however I was alone both infront and behind no one to see. Kept working hard. 2hrs came and went as did 26km GPS says 28.56 which probably means it was 30km. I eventually came in at 2:10 a full 35 behind the budget which also put me 13 mins behind budget again.

Would to have loved to have HRM working for this leg but it was still gone from the swim :(

TA 4
Was originally going to get changed but opted to run in my lycra – kinda wish I had changed now would have been much more comfortable. Got my car keys out and had a muesli bar then off I set.
Wasn’t feeling amazing at this point should have put on my hat too. Feel like something else happened here but can’t recall. 3 mins actual vs 5 mins. 11 mins down on budget with 1 leg to go (not bad budgeting really)

Run
Final run leg was horrible – a lot of walking along the beach – got double chicked and nothing I could do about it – over took a few people walking on the bits I spurred on a jog but realistically it was slow and difficult and had a lot of walking. Coming into the last section certainly was a lift though and was the best I ran all day – going along Albany terrace footpath and into the finish felt awesome.
Time was bad 25 mins on a budget of 20 putting me 15 mins behind my budget – pretty much held that all day!

Have to say a tad disappointed there is no finishers medal – particularly since the mini was getting them the day before?!

Post Race
A long 2.5km walk back to transition – passed Andrew coming into finish as I was walking down the terrace gave him a quick spur on. Found Kevins campsite and had a quick chat then went and packed up my car at TA1/3/4 – A nice helping hand from the vols to get my kayak on my roof then off I set.

Was weird got emotional when I first sat in my car – never got to the point of emotion from exertion before was quite glad that passed quickly. Chatted to people frequently on the leg to Bunbury then stopped more to stop than requirement. Put $10 of fuel in, got a sausage roll, went to toilet, cleaned windscreen… felt fine so off I set again for the leg back to Perth. Felt completely fine for drive na d getting home. Slept ok. The wetsuit has certainly scratched up my neck, a few sore spots in my muscles but generally pretty good, a small bit of sunburn but again pretty good. Fairing reasonably well.

Day after – a bit tender, main complains is the velco burn, I have a few brusises from I don’t know what and a bit of sun burn but otherwise in good shape – oh and the toenail si yet again threatening to leave the toe.

In no particular order:
To Tooms – his glutes exercises = no leg numbness in the paddle! Winner winner – but sorry I have missed 3 days in a row now – will recommence tonight.
To Ricky/Tash for the PFDs
Juffy – for tolerating my paddling and teaching me to float and for ze paddle
Andrew M – for letting me beat him :P jk – mind you it would have been bad having a 50yo take me down. But was good chatting to you out on course.

C • Well done 20

Knackered from equipment drop... I'm screwed - lol

Oh and 22
http://rapidascent.us2.list-manage.com/track/click...
Or
http://rapidascent.us2.list-manage.com/track/click...
For those who want to watch my paddle implosion

Still suffering some neck stiffness today from weekend past - but I think I have finally worked it would with a spikey ball so hopefully good to go.

Focusing on weekend - goal is no longer sub 6hr its just finishing ranked - the paddle is scaring me. good news is it looks like it will be a 15knot head wind on the longest section of the open water paddle - and I am good with that!

Predictions below:
Awesome:(never going to happen but what I wanted)
Run - 1hr 20
Transition - 7
Swim - 35
Transition - 12
Paddle - 1hr 45
Transition - 7
Ride - 1hr 15
Transition - 4
Run - 15

Total 5:40

Likely:
Run - 1hr 30
Transition - 10
Swim - 40
Transition - 15
Paddle - 2hr 35
Transition - 10
Ride - 1hr 35
Transition - 5
Run - 20

Total 7:20

Paddle is going to break me.

Wanted to get out on water this morning - but shouldn't/neck still stiffish so opted to give it longer - but that pretty much chi going to put me too close to want to go train... sigh

Guess ill be learning brace stroking on the day haha.