Top Ten excuses for an average race…..

Top Ten excuses for an average race…..

10. The swim was choppy and the pack I was following couldn’t see the buoys

9.  I had to slow down for the camera man in the middle of the road, as I was afraid I’d kill him if I hit him at 50-55kph

8. It wasn’t hot enough

7. Rode too hard

6. over trained athlete syndrome

5. under trained athlete syndrome

4. Blue kinesiology tape doesn’t work as well as beige kinesiology tape

3. After teaching transitions on Saturday, I got a penalty for not dismounting before the line…bahaha

2. My beetroot juice was faulty

1. It was a B race

A bit of fun, but City of Perth wasn’t a bad race and it wasn’t a good race either. I just didn’t have the run legs yesterday. It was still fun competing with the state’s best again and it shows the depth in WA in that my run was a bit off and I finished outside the top ten.

Race Report

I was a bit nervous before this race after a good result at Champion Lakes, but also confident of having another good result. Most of January’s training has been shorter than normal with a focus on high intensity work. I’ve enjoyed the intensity!

The first half of the swim, we had the chop behind us and I felt good with a measured effort off the start line. The 2^nd pack weren’t swimming straight, so I went out on my own straight to the buoy about 10m to the left of the pack. Turning, the pack got on my feet, sighting into the chop and morning sun was difficult. I let a few come by, take the lead and struggle to sight. The last yellow buoy was missed and we all had to sharp turn back to the buoy which cost us some time. The back half was a weaker, but I was quite happy to sit in.

I was about 2 minutes back from the lead leaving T1 and set about going hard early. I usually need a little warm up, but I need to take advantage of the tail wind. Felt good and towards the end of the first lap Kenty came by and I settled into just staying in contact with him. Heading out onto the 3^rd lap I went back ahead and worked a bit harder. In hindsight keeping the consistent pace would have been better as I lost a few seconds on the last lap.

The little pace changes is something I’m working on. In the past I’ve come out of the water on my own and had to chase by myself, usually a nice consistent effort. But this season I’m coming out of the water with Kenty and Brynt who are also strong cyclist and getting used to working with them or just staying in contact is a little different.

Into T2 and I over shot the dismount line by 6 inches and got a penalty (I did well not to swear!). Last year’s race was wrecked by TO’s and this was just another case of over officiating.

Onto the run and I eased into it, maybe 200m behind Kent, Lajos and Johan. I was thinking I could run them down, but my legs just didn’t have it in them today. I had a couple run past me and tried to go with them, without success.

Finished in 2.01.16 and 11^th place. My knee (excuse number 11) gave me no dramas in the race and seems to have pulled up well, which is a positive :)

Well done to Paul Mackay and Flic for picking up the wins and good work Trievents for putting on a good event.

The next month is all about training. I’ll be spending a bit of time on the bike in the hills and continuing to build the run as January hasn’t included a lot of running. If it all goes well March’s races in Albany, Singapore and Karri Valley should go alright.

CYA

MG