I was very happy to pick up my Bar-One manhunt Nissan X-Trail and pack my bags and head off to East London for the weekend to race the 70.3, which is a Half Ironman, a 1.9km swim, a 90km bike ride and a 21.1km run after that.
We got a bit lost going there and drove about 2hrs extras, if you ever doing the trip remember to take the split just after bloem and don’t keep driving towards cape town as its the wrong way.
Leading up to the race i felt ok, but not great, i have done quite a bit of biking and so knew i was strong but hadn’t done much swimming or running due to the show and then being on holiday so i knew i was going to be in for a long day. I was very excited though to race my new bike for the first time in the race. A Argon 18 E-114
The swim was a huge field of around 1400 men and i did well to exit rather unharmed and without spending too many calories. I was quickly on the bike and felt strong and so started to race my game plan. But soon disaster struck as i vomited up my first gel…i turned the half way point in around 97th place overall and was looking forward at riding hard back to town.
At 70km my race day ended as my body gave up, i hadn’t been able to get calories in and then the rest of the day became survival…the only thing that stayed down all day was a bit of coke on the run. So ended up with a 5hrs 36min race which isn’t too bad considering i only took in about 500 calories all day.
Well done to all of you who were out there surviving the day as the weather and course were all hard.
Thanks again to the wonderful guys who sponsor the cool gear i use, Orca Wetsuits and Apparel, Puma Racing and Training Gear, Argon 18 Bikes, Suunto Heart Rate Monitors, Troi Sport and Under Armour Compression Gear
You guys rock
Its not everyday that you get some sweet new SWAG…today i got my pressie from Suunto. I have been with these boys for about 3 years now and love their stuff.
But it is the first time i am getting to use the T6, as i have been using the T3 and T3c for the last few years.
My first impression is that its not as chunky as it looks and not as heavy either, i have worn it around the whole day and havent noticed it there much, ok, it is RED but then there are only 20 of these in South Africa so you got to love the LTD edition factor.
This is what the cyclingnews review had as its final sentence after testing it :
Overall the t6c is an excellent training tool for those that just aren’t totally ready to make the jump into the power meter pool. It’s markedly less expensive than any direct power meter currently on the market yet still provides usable guidelines for the quality of a workout and the effectiveness of recovery time, while also doubling as a wristwatch, too. All in all a very solid unit worth considering.
Suncoast Olympic Distance race took place in Durban Yesterday and a lot of the fast boys were out to show off there winter training fitness when we got to the beach for the start of the race. Team Whasp where also there with their new kit and even a few new faces with Michelle van Zyl and Tanielle Mandy joining the team so 3 girls in total along with Samantha Ferreira.
The boys only had Collin and David Hadenham in team colours. With almost perfect conditions the swim got off to a blistering quick start, Sean Dias was off the front, previous winner of the midmar mile and Jeff Norton giving chase, these 2 swimming just over 16min for the 1500m swim, David got out the water in 6th place and headed onto the bike with the rest of chasing left chasing hard just inside the top 20.
Onto the bike and i was feeling good and decided to push the pace, with my new Specialized TT bike and ZIpp wheel combo i was flying and was just checking my heart rate on my new Suunto T3 heart rate monitor to keep it at around 85% of my max.
It was hot out there and the women were all close, we had 2 pure life athletes out front and the then 2 past winners of the even and then the 3 whasp ladies.
Onto the run and in our new Puma Silver races and New Orca Trisuits we all settled into our running pace and tried to close down the gaps ahead of us.
David ended the day with a 9th place with Collin coming in 13th, which i was happy about considering i haven’t had the greatest winner, Samantha finishing first of the team girls in 5th place which is a good result for her followed Michelle and Tanielle.
So a good days racing was had by all and we now have good yard sticks to use for the next race in 4 weeks time.
Thanks for all your support and we looking forward to great things.
Racing and Training | admin January 19, 2010 | 
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