Sunday Oct 21 |
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| Event: Moore River Multisport
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 | Multisport race (Moore River) 3:33:46 [4] 38 km (5:38 / km) | |
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| TriEvents first foray into the latest craze of renaming any event with a partial offroad component as an 'adventure race'. They did a pretty good job with a new venue, single transition and good prizes!
1.8km swim/16km mtb/12km paddle/10km run was the advertised distance. I think in reality my race was 1.8km swim/18km mtb/11km paddle/9km run. It was a 930am start but the wind was howling and it was pretty chilly.
1.8k swim, 24:12, 40s behind Sean O'Neill. I held the front pack of 5 for about 100m before Sarson went clear leaving, Sean, Keegan and somone else in the second pack. At the first of several dolphining sections I managed to catch-up and made my goal trying to hang on. Managed to till about 200m to go when my two tug-boats sped up and I couldn't go with them. Still, 4th out of the water was pretty cool. I had a leisurely transition and geared-up with hydration pack, Carboshotz bottle, socks (was expecting some jogging) sunnies.
The 16km MTB was awful. 1:25, 5mins behind Sean. 3 or 4ks of bitumen/limestone and then into a lupin paddock which had a two wheel-ruts in it from a 4WD. The paddock also had about a billion small bush flies that coated your face and body. After a couple of ks of riding through long grass I was confronted with a large bovine blocking the track watching me ride laboriously towards it. It watched. I rode. It watched I rode closer. In the end about 20m away I called out "Hello Cow!" and it chat itself and ran off. Somewhere around then I caught a glimpse of someone ahead and a spark of motivation came back. Then the course seemed to leave the paddock and go into soft, fine grey sand littered with double-gee thorns (tetra pointed hardy bastards). Fortunately I ride with tyre liners in and although I collected a few double-gs the tyres withstood the onslaught. The bike became a jog-slog with pushing the bike up over crests, jumping on and trying to get some momentum up till the next sandy bog. I knew it'd be worse for the heavier guys, and the people who haven't had the misfortune to confront this sort of shit before and I backed off and just concentrated on moving steadily onward. I caught and past the big unit Brendan Sarson, fresh back from his Cooloongatta epic - he was bloody strong and actually riding ok for a big fellow, but not much finesse. Moments later I unexpectedly caught Keegan - and promptly lost my front wheel sideways on a sandy bit and fell onto him!
We did the rest of the MTB together, including the bit where the course markings disappeared. Sars caught up and we randomly chose "right" at a fence corner, then "left" at the next junction as we could see a sponsors banner up there. Then we hit the bit we'd ridden before they turned left - but I noticed a heap of tyre tracks and called them back and said go right as we'd already done the left bit! Sars then got a flat tyre and keegan and I continued on the wrong way back to the road and back to transition. Turned out we added a few kilometres, as did a few people following our tracks but behind them a race official found that signs had been removed and most people did the correct course. It was terrible, hot and not fun. In one of those quirky thoughts you have sometimes I remember thinking "Red Bull lends you wings" - but although I had a thousand bushflies on my face I hadn't been drinking Red Bull!!
Into transition far enough behind Sean that he had paddled out of sight. Keegan beat me through transition and in the run to the boats and I settled into minimising my losses on the paddle and hoping Sars had a decent long hard-to-fix flat tyre! Expecting an hour-plus paddle we were surprised to see Sean coming the other way only 20mins out. Turns out afterwards that he turned around at the 4k mark instead of the 6k mark. Given he was so far in front they "massaged" the results to keep everyone in the dark. My paddle time seems artificially quick too, and Keegan's, weird. Who cares? After the MTB debacle it was pretty academic. I got dropped with a km to go and again was about 250m behind out of transition.
10k run, 43ish, Left the camelback and just ran with bottle and belt. Waved to Jen as she headed out on the paddle. The run was good fun and I caught up with Keegan through the scrub and dunes before the helter-skelter descent to the river swim and pulled away from him over the remaining distance which was easier running, cruising home pretty slowly as I started thinking about the rogaine and Anaconda. Crossed the line about 30mins behind Sean, but my run time was ok and I felt good on the run. Almost as fast on the run as RobbieJ who did his first multisport race. $300 for coming second and a suitcase, nice! |
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| C • expecting an ???? 1 |
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| C • ... 3 |
Friday Oct 19 |
| Paddling (River) 1:10:00 [2] | |
| shoes: Ski, Mako 6 |
| Easy paddle from Freshwater Bay towards Freo into the wind and then back. I detoured into the wake of a couple of the Rotto ferries for a few minutes of flat out skate-chasing. |
Thursday Oct 18 |
| Road Bike (Commute) 31:00 [2] 11 km (2:49 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Gary Fisher mtb |
| Left home late so went the short way. Included 1km or so of technical jaw-dropping buttock-clenching single-track with radical drops around the hilly edge of Herdsman Lake. Feel fine after yesterday's run but will treat today as a rest day so I don't over-cook myself before the next 3-weekends of events. Ahh, wind-down time! |
| Road Bike (commute) 45:00 [1] 13 km (3:28 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Gary Fisher mtb |
| Tired physically and mentally. |
Wednesday Oct 17 |
| Swimming (Squad) 1:00:00 [3] 3 km (20:00 / km) | |
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| Still felt a bit flat this morning but had a maintainable pace. Problem was a the others in the lane had heard I swam well on the weekend and so wanted me to move up in the lane. They just don't understand that i do try at training but the absence of a wetsuit and it not being a race mean I just don't go as relatively fast. Eventually they got sick of being too close behind and I assumed my rightful place about 5th back. Main set 5x400 with the last 3 at 'threshold' pace. My last was my quickest at 6.05. Now to spend the day eating and recovering.
Apparently no girls have entered the Moore River race this weekend so Jen is looking forward to walking and cruising around for $500. I reckon a clubbie may make the trip up for the money - I certainly would if I had any abiliity and was female! In the guys Sean O'Neil will win the $500 barring mechanical failure plus $80 x at least 3 legs for the fastest Swim, Ride and Run! |
| Running long 2:45:00 [2] 30 km (5:30 / km) | |
| shoes: Brooks Beast |
| Long run of 90mins with the pleasant company of Jen, Rob J, John and Wil. Then I ran over to meet Jen at her parent's place in Nedlands, slight misunderstanding here hence the extra long run today. Had no worries with the run although I got pretty hungry. |
Tuesday Oct 16 |
| Road Bike 1:38:00 [3] 50 km (1:58 / km) | |
| shoes: Bike, Kestrel |
| Easyish ride today, tried to stay away from the front bar the roll-thrus and didn't hammer any of the hills, just rode steady. It's quite a different way to ride. Had fun after Boltboi was rude and dropped me on the way home by drafting off a truck by catching the same truck later and letting it suck me along for about 2km along Empire Ave. Not often I ride up that hill in my big chain ring, and never comfortably!! |
| Running intervals (Beach) 20:30 [4] 4.2 km (4:53 / km) | |
| shoes: Barefoot |
| 8 x 600m with 2.5mins rest. Big group tonight, Ben, Simon, me, Liz, Saz, Ian, John, Wil, Jen, Lynda, Bea, Meg, Dawn. I felt a bit awful in the warm-up, legs pretty heavy. It didn't improve in the set and Ben and Si blew me away with Ben running 2.30 or under for all of them.
2.36, 2.42, 2.45, 2.45, 2.42, 2.49, 2.59
And yep, I bailed from the 8th. |
| Running warm up/down 20:00 [1] 3 km (6:40 / km) | |
| shoes: Barefoot |
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Monday Oct 15 |
| Paddling (Bicton) 1:00:00 [3] | |
| shoes: Ski, Mako 6 |
| Slept for 10hours last night and then went for a paddle on the river at Bicton - a beautiful morning, light easterly blowing and basically did a steady paddle with a few surges thrown in to make sure I was paddling with good technique. Jen was on the fibreglass boat and was markedly faster than the lavender tub she normally paddles, technique improved too. Days like this I really don't want to head into work - but after a busy weekend I really can't go out and train instead!! |