Victor Race report, March 2022

Absolutely pristine conditions at the Victor harbour triathlon on the weekend we truly couldn’t have asked for better weather and perfect conditions to hit a personal best.

the week leading into for me was super busy with work, study and life but minimal training of 6 hours was going to set me up for a good race, I’ve always said that I’m a fragile triathlete and minimal sleep in the week from overworking make me into a little flower petal (absolute pussy is my words) but everyone knows good athletes can put it together on race day.

This race is always a late starter which gives plenty of time to warm up and prepare, with the different setup this year had thrown people slightly especially if you had don’t this race for the last 10 years, but learning and adapting is what this sport is all about.

getting the bike set up in transition and talking to other athletes then doing an easy warm-up all I was thinking about was visualizing how my race was going to go,  Hard swim, hit the hills hard on the bike but spin easy on the flats, start the first 1kms on the run easy and bring it home steady and not go too deep if it didn’t need to but I also still wanted a PB, not asking too much right?

SWIM

9:44 was my wave start I heading in the water about 9:30 am for a warm up to get the feel of the water and add in a few race pace strokes, before I knew it they were calling my age group to the start, with a reasonable big wave I got to front a centre to see if there were any challengers, when the gun went I started hard and fast looking to left and right to see who was around me after 200m I settleted and started to relax I was at the front of the pack with only 1 guy on my right he seemed reasonable good he got about half a body length in front of my so I decided to sit right behind him and get some draft but before I knew it I was touching his feet too much and came back up on the left and proceeded to keep a steady pace and then It was almost like he stopped and disappeared, obviously blowing him self up he couldn’t hold the pacve (rookie mistake) I turned the first bouy with a nice lead on the pack then started catching the next wave my sighting skills being used very well zig zaging through gaps keeping a nice pace, tuning around the half way point I really started to kick hard and gain some more speed passing more waves, which felt like 4-5 different coloured caps, coming out the water in 21mins I knew I had a good start on the bike.

BIKE

I know this course very well but seriously forgot how rough the road was with potholes etc, I hit the first hill reasonable hard then flew done the hill hitting 70KPH using my bike skills to maneuver where I needed to be (racing motocross for 7 years thought me this) I found a really good flow with my race cadence and manages to save energy where needed (mainly for a run) coming into the second lap one of the tempo guys passed my and I though a great opportunity to get some free speed unfortunately for me, he couldn’t hold that pace and dropped off before the last turn around, 40kms goes very quick after smashing out a half iron man a few weeks before, jumping off the bike into 2nd transition I actually felt really good in the legs ready to run. 1:05mins.

RUN

Starting really steady here just focusing of relaxing and keeping good technique I started to build after 1kms and could see my competition as we weaved through the back streets of the victor, my cadence and speed started to build as I felt good no real sigh=ns of fatigue as I held a really good pace, the second lap I made sure I drank all my nutrition and really focused of form and staying relaxed, on the passing points I could see people phasing out looking sloppy, I comp[osed my posture and increased my speed the last 5kms knowing that I still had the 1st position in my age group, the last 1kms on one of the turns around I seen someone that could of been in my age group so decided to hit it home hard, finishing the run in 41mins was pretty good for this heavy 41-year-old, total time was 2:12:09 and the guy in 2nd place came in 7 secs after.

Now to recover for Melbourn half this weekend.

thank you for reading to the end