Team Reports Australia Day 2022
Jan 27, 2022
COACHES REVIEW
these days when it goes to triathlon I do very little hand holding unless it the first race and experience and confidence is needed but for every one I’m coaching ATM for triathlon I don’t need to do any thing on race day because every one know what they needed to work on since the last race and most but the time in to focus on there weaknesses it actually takes years of coaching to make the changes needed to become a consistent athlete and put every thing together, good athletes also perform well on race days no matter what the conditions/ excuses / or the stuff that goes through your mind that can put you off, experience has tough me how to perform NO MATTER WHAT……
A special mention to justin for completing his first triathlon ever, along with working on his journey he managed to get it done very well and will be progressing to the larger course ASAP
But a big well done to every one who showed up and gave it there best. SOOOO GOOOOD.
Race begins
Australia Day Race Report
Got up early, had my breakfast, loaded the car and headed to Adelaide to pop my cherry on the West Lakes events. Pulled up in the car park to find a dirty great big ‘three corner jack’ hanging out my front wheel. SHIT! Checked my kit to find that I didn’t have the correct tyres. After a major panic and Aaron coming to the rescue, I replaced my tyre and ran to transition.
I set up for transition just in time and calmed my nerves for the main event.
The Swim
Well, the water was like warm arse juice, disgusting to say the least. The field was the busiest I have swum in. People everywhere, swimming over people and people swimming over me. I started to wonder if this was the reason I have been practising in the pool with fists, maybe to create some space in events like this. Overall, the swim was uneventful albeit quite busy.
Bike Leg
The bike leg went ok and I averaged just over 34km an hour. During the 2nd lap, came across a bike crash with people helping the person on the road. Others were there so I didn’t stop. 3rd lap and approached the crash with an ambulance on site. At which point the taxi behind the ambulance decides he is going to overtake the ambulance, straight onto my side of the road. After anchoring on the brakes and having a chat with the driver through the medium of gesticulation, I continued on my way.
Run Leg
Again, not much to report here apart from it being hot. Ran the course just under 5 min/km and all went to plan. Total time of 1hr 18mins although my official time is 52 minutes flat. Whilst I would like to claim the 52 minutes (which means I beat my Coach), it didn’t happen.
Positives from the race are probably being quicker through transition and slight quicker in all three legs. Negatives are probably that panic set in when I realised I had a flat tyre, the water quality and by the time I had finished, there was no water left at the aid station.
James Clegg
Only coming out of isolation from the dreaded black lung disease, I probably didn’t have the lead up intended for this race. Nonetheless, I prepared fairly similarly to normal and tightened up my nutrition in the weeks leading up to the race. During ISO, it was a fair difficult getting time in the pool, and any cardio wasn’t done at the same intensity as normal. Even after leaving, the lungs still were slow to recover in the days of freedom. The lungs did feel like they recovered about a week out and I had a little issue with the recovery side of things.
The day before the race I stuck to my staple pre-race feed, had a solid 8hrs sleep and woke up early pumped and ready to rock. Snagged a good position in transition upon arrival so no excuses here.
My plan for the swim was to keep a nice and steady pace and not overexert myself. The field was tight and congested for the most part with a few other racers obviously not utilising the art of sighting, although who could when the lake was poo brown…. I exited from the water slightly more buggered than usual feeling more lethargic than the last few races, not knowing if it was the covid coming back to haunt me, or I had swum a faster pace; I believe it was an even mix of the 2. During the ride I pushed hard which ended up my quickest pace over the distance, the lungs were taking a pounding and I failed to get the HR a bit lower than intended. Into T2 I was a tad slower chucking my socks on but I have since gotten over this travesty. The run started off quick coming out the gates @ 3.40pace realising I was going too hard. I l slowed back down to around the 4min km mark but by halfway through the leg my chest was burning and feeling quite tight, covid remnants kicking me in the arse. During the 3-4km I slowed down and mentally I was hurting but tried to push myself through. I gassed the last 600m which ended in a sub 20minn 5km which was a tad faster than the last event at WL back in October. I was feeling the pinch straight after the race and it took me a tad longer to recover my breath but not long after was feeling great again. Bring on Silversands to hopefully achieve another PB from last year.
Shaun Roche
WEST LAKES TRIATHLON #3 – AUST DAY 2022 – Amanda Carne
They say you shouldn’t change too many things prior to a race, but this race was on a new bike and with new running shoes. I had trained with both in the weeks leading up to this race, so felt okay that though my new TT bike needs some bike-fit adjustments, the shorter bike distance meant I should be fine.
I arrived early. Racking my bike and set up ready to race.
The heavy rain over the past few days had made the lake very brown, murky, and not very inviting. There were rumblings that it could be turned into a duathlon (with no swim)!! No!!! (-says the swimmer)
The race directors decide that the format will stay as swim-ride-run (yay) and wetsuits were optional for age groupers (double yay!).
At the Saturday pre-race training swim at the Lake with Aaron, the water seemed it would be a good temperature come to Australia Day – and it was. So I chose no wetsuit for this race.
After our pre-race warmup and dynamic stretching, it was time to get down to the water to acclimatize. The water temperature was perfect – just don’t look at the colour!
After my warm-up swim, and pointers from Aaron, I set up straight for the buoy.
The Open and two Men’s waves are always first, with the women one minute after. I got off to a good start. Powered 200-250m to the white rowing lane markers. Navigating the slower male swimmers in my beeline to the buoy, I kept a good strong pace. It was a “washing machine” – punch and be punched. It was hard to get any clear water anywhere. It was here I realized my watch band had come undone…OMG (Please don’t fall off, please don’t fall off!) I thought about rolling on my back to re-thread it but things were hectic, so I powered on. At the last buoy I kicked it home with finally some clearer water, hit the beach and raced up the path to transition.
My T1 was nice quick coz I didn’t have to remove a wetsuit. Helmet on, race belt on, sunnies on, grab the bike and go!
It was a clunky but steady mount on my new TT bike, but I powered off, got my feet into my shoes relatively well and settled into find my rhythm. Congestion again, where I got stuck behind bikes of a similar pace. But I dug in and powered out of the corners. I may need to make some bike-fit adjustments to find my ‘sweet spot’ for racing – but I felt good cornering and was able to do a 2-minute PB on the bike leg! Woot!
Once again, a clunky but measured dismount so I didn’t crash, T2 was uneventful. Racked bike, removed the helmet, new race shoes on and go!
I headed off to settle into a good race pace. The humidity was a killer. Here is where my upper chest started to tighten, a bit of a wheeze and I felt like I couldn’t get air in! (what’s going on!?) I was sitting at a good pace and took some measured breaths (in through the nose, out through the mouth), but nothing would open me up. (Did I need to find an asthma puffer? Are there First Aiders at the race today??) As I ran through for the start of the second lap… my running pace started to drop. My legs were heavy and felt I had ground to a halt. I dropped to a manageable pace to finish the 5ks in a reasonable time.
There was great weather at the start, but that humidity…! I was spent.
On reflection… another good day and another good race. Final time: 1:11:20 – a 1min PB on the October West Lakes race, a no wetsuit swim, 2mins faster bike leg, and another age group win.
Thank you Aaron for the coaching. Things are coming together.
