Latest happenings – March to April

Oceanside 70.3 28^th March

I was hoping to finish my US campaign on a better note than 11^th place but it wasn’t to be.  Learning is all good but you do get to the point where you should have learnt it all and I do kind of feel like I am there now.  Oceanside was a fantastic event, a tough course with so many great athletes fronting up.  From the gun I got into a good pace and was leading the swim till just after the halfway point but knew things were going ok and I could conserve sitting on the leader’s feet.  Out onto the bike it took a few kms to get the blood to the legs but I was pretty comfortable in the lead group which expanded to a dozen riders.  It felt like a bike race, there were points where the pace was so slow then the next minute it ramped up.  In the last 25km I made my way to the top 5 places which eased the yo-yoing feeling being further back and put me into a nice spot heading into T2.

I came off the bike in 3^rd and managed to pick up 10sec with my ITU style transition so was out in front of the main pack.  With so many stellar runners I knew the pace would be fast, so I tried to settle into my pace and not worry too much about what was going to happen around me.  Things were going well, there were a few changes in positions early but at 18km I was in 6^th although starting to suffer.  Then what very athlete worries about finally happened, I popped, my run was reduce to a slow hot crawl pushing well back into 11^th place.

After the event my partner and I had a little ticky-tour around Texas which was a lot of fun, I am usually seeing these places at events so time is limited to actually enjoy the culture.  This time the bike stayed in the box for a couple of weeks while we ran our way around Texas from Dallas to Houston.

 

Noumea International 28^th April

With a couple of weeks training in the legs it was off to Noumea to race an Olympic distance event.  I planned to use this race to help kick start my build for Cairns 70.3 sometimes there’s nothing better than shocking the body with a fast standard distance race.

I didn’t expect there to be such a competitive field so I was a little nervous standing on the start line unsure if I would be able to handle the pace.  As always once the gun goes its time to push and I managed to come out of the shortened swim in 2^nd position.  Onto the bike the rain was teaming down and the wind blowing a gale.  I hit the lead and was trying to push and get away from the fast runners as they were enjoying a little tow into the wind.  Tim Reed was flying and came past early, I tried to stick with him but my legs just wouldn’t cooperate and slowly drifted off the pace about 15sec back.  Still in second I started to pull back a little time until I bailed on the final round-about on the slick roads.  Was a bit gutted but got back up checked the bike, the body got the drink bottles that were scattered over the road, thanked the spectator for seeing if I was ok then set off again surprisingly still in second but not by much.  The rest of the ride I was a little more cautious and a little frustrated but at least I was still in it.

Onto the run it took me a while to get going and by that time I had dropped to 4th place and remained there till the end.  The crash aside, the results were probably a good indication of where I was feeling my fitness was at. 

 

Am really looking forward to getting home now, there’s been a lot of time away from where I love.  Am looking forward to getting back to the home training ground and cranking out some good sessions – in the cold no doubt!

Time Fly's

San Juan 70.3

I raced San Juan 70.3 a couple of weeks ago but there wasn’t too much to report from that race.  After having such a good outcome at Alcatraz I was confident that over the half distance I would be even more competitive however my body sure showed me.

I swam sitting in the front pack, my theory was to conserve my energy for the bike and so that I could have good run, I knew the weather was going to be hot, which is still not optimal performing conditions for me (but I’m working on it). 

The bike began and I had nothing in my legs, they felt like they had been wrung out already!  Into the first kilometre and I started going backwards, I felt great but the legs just wouldn’t cooperate.  It ended up being a steady training day ride and kicking in to the run the weather picked up to 30deg heat, I was cooking so I just focused on keeping my heart rate down and pushing through, I was glad that I finished and got another half into the legs and have put it behind me as a learning experience, I’m not going to give up on these hotter races, will keep working on performing better in the heat!

 

Taper, Taper, Taper

These taper weeks seem to have been a regular occurrence lately with my busy race schedule this season, don’t get me wrong I don’t mind tapering but am starting to go a little nuts with the sensation of training easy and waiting, all I want to do is go and smash the pavement for a while!  I guess it’s a good feeling to have and I have another opportunity to finish this racing block on a high note with Oceanside 70.3 coming up this weekend.  Its another full on stacked field so am looking forward to lining up again and the race itself is pretty special as we get to track through Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base.

Will keep you posted.  Or catch updates on Ironman.com

Escape from Alcatraz - 2013

This has to be one of my favourite races in the world, one tough course, enthusiastic competitors, great organisation and an awesome location.  I have competed here a few times with mixed results but today’s race was probably one of my best.

With the Americas cup taking over the bay for the middle part of the year the race was brought forward a couple of months which meant we would be swimming in 10.5deg water temperatures and 12deg air temperature but hey what are wetsuits for!  The hardest part of any event I find is waiting for race day to come round; it’s a lot of sitting and waiting, conserving energy, channel surfing and checking emails.  The night before the race I found myself watching Ali to get all inspired and forked out a whopping $7 for rice and chicken, a pre-race staple.

Race day was as expected cold and windy.  It’s a unique event where there isn’t all that much point in warming up because you end up on a bus at 5:45am then a boat at 6:30am with a start time of 7:30am its sometimes a worry as I do like to get a good warm up in before the start but when you realise everyone is in the same boat (excuse the pun) you realise its probably going to take everyone a little bit to get going.  By the time the gun goes, all you can concentrate on is getting to shore as fast as possible.  This year the field really split with everyone picking different lines, I ended up on my own all the way and was able to exit the water only a couple of seconds from the lead.

A half mile run to transition is a great way to warm up before the cycle leg however when you are trying to keep up with Gomez it’s not that much of a warm up more of an all out sprint and I still managed to lose 15 odd seconds before jumping on my bike.  Last year I punctured on the cycle portion of the race so this year I was extra cautious of rough patches in the roads as I didn’t want a repeat.  I worked hard and managed to ride into second place still 20sec down on Gomez which remained constant the entire ride.  It’s a strange sensation to be riding flat out and not making any inroads on the lead, not really even seeing the leader and then not being aware of what’s going on behind you.  As it panned out we extended the gap to around 90sec on 3 rd place which was a good buffer well maybe for a 29min 10km runner but myself I still had some work to do.

I set off hard and tried to keep a solid pace throughout, you never know the leader might fall on the technical trail run, knock himself out on the dwarf tunnel or crack on the sand stairs.  I just hoped that that wouldn’t be me doing those things!  I ended up having a good run, holding my 2^nd position off the bike to come in 1min 10sec down from the lead. 

Pro Men Results

1. Javier Gomez (ESP) 2:04:27
2. Graham O’Grady (NZL) 2:05:39
3. Jesse Thomas (USA) 2:06:40
4. Pete Jacobs (AUS) 2:08:33
5. Jason Pedersen (USA) 2:09:32

Next stop is San Juan 70.3 in a couple of weeks.  So I have a bit of time to tick over and what better place to do it than in Santa Cruz.

Graham