World Champs on Power Bar Gels

I was fortunate enough to race the 70.3 World Champs in Clearwater this weekend. Although i must say that i am left with a slightly bitter taste in my mouth. You see the race is called ” The Drafting World Champs ” and it really lived up to its name. There were bunches of 30 or 40 athletes riding together at any time on the course, i was being out biked by 8 or 9 minutes by guys who were cheating and this felt really crap when i was being honest and riding the best that i could.

I over heard a guy at dinner saying ” my bunch ” rode the first 45km in just over an hour and laughing about it. The thought that had at this point is how you can feel proud about a race or result when you rode in a bunch for the whole bike leg on a very fast bike course.

Anyway back to my race, the week leading up to the big day i was feeling good and the day before i was still feeling ready to go out there and do the business. On race morning i woke up feeling good, my right hamstring was a little sore as i had tripped 2 days before and hurt it a little, but i put it to the back of my mind.

We got to the race venue at 5.30am and my wave was the last bunch to start at 8am so i had lots of time to do whatever i wanted to, my bike was fine and ready to go, so i just cruised around staying calm and staying focused, a had a kick ass tune playing in my ipod thanks to my mainman Raoul de Jongh and i was on a good vibe.

When it came to my start i was feeling relaxed and even had a Heartrate of 105 5min before the start, i was calm and i knew what i had to do, the water was beautiful and i was super comfy in my Orca RS1, quickly becoming a favourtie weapon of mine. The gun went off and we all rushed into the water, this is where the fun began, its was a dog fight and i was so calm it was almost funny, i just eased my way through the pack, not getting caught up in any fights. My plan was to swim tempo till the turn and then take it up a notch, swimming right next to me was Rohan and we were protecting each other from bad swimmers which was very cool , to have my boy swimming next to me, like 2 warriors going into battle.

The turn came quickly and i finally had open water, this is when i dropped the gear and started to swim hard back to the beach, we were swimming into the back of other groups now and i was feeling great, i wanted to swim under 30min and i hit the beach in 29.48min which was perfect. I exited the water feeling very good and didn’t swim too hard so felt i had lots in the tank.

In transition i put on a compression long sleeve top as well as long compression socks, i had chosen to race in a one piece Killer Orca trisuit and it was perfect, it sits so nicely on my body that i don’t even think about it the whole day. i ran out onto my bike and cruised through the first few twists and turns, i could hear my new ZIPP TT wheels already singing on the road as i eased up the first bridge, i looked back and couldn’t see anybody as i started to settle into my pace.

At 20min into my bike , i looked back to see Rohan who had a great swim and was started to bike, my plan was to try and bike with him as long as i could, without drafting of course, then i went over rail track and lost all of my gels, they were in my aero bottle which bounced out, i was doing 40km/h odd and decided not to stop for it.

Then my weird day started, every time i started to push a bit harder i got dizzy and slightly blurry vision, i decided to see at what Heart Rate this happened and then to stay about 4 beats under that. I was forced to take Power Gels from the first aid station, i took one and 5min later it was repeating on me, weird, so now my stomach was playing up. Again i stayed calm, i have raced a lot of races and stayed in my zone, i had lost Rohan when i had to stop dead at water table due to a person in front of me slamming on brakes to stop.

Then every time a big bunch caught me i would sit up and let them pass and then get back into my pace. I was happy and greeted every person i passed, although not many said anything back to me. I knew i wasn’t going to beable to go balls to the wall as i hadn’t done enough training leading up to the race and so i was focused on staying on my limit. The bike was going well and i was making good time. My 2nd and 3rd Power Gels repeated on me and i felt nauseous and so stopped taking gels and just drank water until the end of the bike.

I soft pedaled the last 3km on the bike to get ready for my run and still biked a 2.24min which was a  37.5km/h average. I started my run HOT, the weather had heated up and with no clouds in the air it was going to be a very interesting run as i hadn’t run over 25km per week for the last 6 months and have hardly done any brick work.

The first aid station i took more water to take with my gels, i back onto whasp and happy to be almost done, i was 10min ahead of where i wanted to be and still happy, my stomach started to cramp a little and i had to run into bushes to take a leak, i got back and stopped at station and drenched myself in water from sponges and cups and drank some coke. Going up the bridge i could feel i was going to have to stop again for a different release.

I knew even my gels weren’t going to sit today, so i threw them over the edge of the bridge into the water and settled into a pace which i thought i could cope with and started planning on running on only coke and water. I am very grateful to have quite a bit of experience and this plan worked well, i ran equal splits on the run, even though i had 2 more toilet stops. I had to dig deep and go to a happy place as i muscled my way through the run, its wasn’t pretty but i am proud to say i didn’t walk at all except at aid stations.

I got to the line in 4.50.06hrs and was just happy to beable to sit down and stop moving forward. It was a PB by 3min although it should have been about 15min as i needed to run more leading up to event to back up the swim and bike time. This is a very fast course even if you don’t draft and defiantly a place to do your life time PB.

So that was my day, weird as there were a lot of things going on and i was able to stay calm and just keep moving forward. If i had to look back and see that i hardly averaged over 10hrs a week for the last 6 months, i moved cities and never ran over 25km per week i am happy to still go as fast as i did.

I ended up 622 out of the age groupers who raced which placed me in almost the exact half of the field on the day.

So now its time to have a easy 2 weeks until i get home and back into the swing of things and decide what i want to do next.

Cool Post Boxes along our first run

This is the coolest postbox i have ever seen, every street is full of USA flags and postboxes and some are coolest than others.

We went for a nice easy run to loosen our legs this morning with a few strides to sharp, we were all up early as still getting used to Time changes so needed to do something, Rohan and i were playing around , telling everybody they had post when they didn’t..he hee

Here is the 2nd placed postbox on our run this morning. The other things we seeing all over TV, gardens, cars and buildings is Election stuff, we lucky to be here this week when i new president gets elected, i got speaking to a local this morning and he was telling me Obama is going to win, then get assassinated, apparently everybody thinks this. Interesting, time will tell. Anyway off to go swim on swim course in new Orca RS1.