week 1 of training on the Gold Coast

When I first arrived here on the Gold Coast, I was a bit sceptical about it being triathlon paradise as the roads were so busy, cycling just seemed so dangerous. However since I've started training here with the local tri club South Port, I've found that it really is a great place to train. Last week I notched up 25hrs on training in my first week here, all of it in glorious sunshine.

Swimming with the South Port guy's has been great fun, the ausies really know how to swim, no wonder though when they have the facilities. We are training at The Southport School which has a 12 lane 50meter out door pool and a 25meter pool. These guy's are so lucky they get all 12 lanes for the 50 strong swimmers coming along to the sessions. Beats our 3lanes at the commie that's for sure. So far all the sessions I have done have been between 3.5 and 4.2k in length and I have never used my fins and paddles as much as I have here. ERC guy's watch out as when I get back I will be bringing a lot of the swim sets from here back with me, so get those fins and paddles out and dust them off.

One think which I thought I would struggle with out here was the early morning training, however it's been easier than I thought. If I'm training on my own then I'm up at 6am and out for 7 to bike or run. If i'm training with the tri guy's I'm up at 4am and out for 5 to meet up with them for a session. It's nice biking along the waterfront watching the sun rise, plus your training is over and done with so early. On Saturday past we did a 150K bike with a 45min run off the bike and were finished before 11am, perfect that meant I could spend the rest of the day reading my book in the sun and watch the Ausie rules football grand final in the afternoon. It couldn't really get any better. Yesterday I went on a long solo ride on one of the routes Emma Snowsill recommended, and it really was hilly. I thought if anything it was going to be rolling, not hilly like back home, man I was wrong. At the start of the hills there was a 14% climb for 800m, then the road went up and down for a while varying from 8-10% and finished with a 2.8k 10% climb, I'd have to say I was missing my 25 sprocket, after only bringing an 11-23 with me as the race courses I'll be competing on are going to be flat. Other than that though it was some great climbing with good descents and no traffic so you could use both sides of the road. I think I'll do that route again.

Running wise I've done several runs on my own just heading out along the water front and back, the sights are pretty nice, not only the sun rise and bikini's but I've also seen whales playing out in the water when I was running one morning, that was pretty cool. On Sunday when I was out with the group the TV crews were on the beach filming something. We thought it might have been a whales as one of the guy's thought he saw one surfacing, then again it was a hot day so we weren't sure if he has just dehydrated. However when I got home I heard on the news a whale had been trapped in the shark nets just off the beach where we were running, but thankfully it got away safely. I've been running well while I've been out here with some good track sessions and a good hard interval sessions on the road on Monday morning at 5am after a long hard weekend, so I'm really looking forward to Perth as training is going well. But before Perth I have a local race this Sunday at Colypso Bay, it's a bit of a strange distance, 1k swim, 33k bike and 7k run but I'm looking forward to it to see how I'm going. Plus a lot of the guy's from the club are going up to the race as there is also a half Ironman on at the same time so it should be a good day's racing. After the race I'm going to head down to Sydney for a few days to do some sightseeing, do the bridge walk, visit the zoo, have some good food so hopefully that will be a nice wee break after a good hard race.

I'll let you know how the race goes next week.

Holiday over, now it's down to business, well maybe

Well thats me back on the Gold coast now after being away in Carins and Uluru for the past 5 days. Both trips were amazing!! I went diving off the great barrier reef, that is so much fun, I now your not a big fan of the but it's so peaceful and beautiful down there I really think you would love it. What are the chances though, my dive instructor was a Scottish girl, not only that but she was from Edinburgh, what are the chances? A trip to Carins must have been the think to do after the worlds as on my boat there were 4 of the Mexican team, a guy from the Brazilian team who was my dive buddy and an American guy. I also went on a rain forest trip which I though was going to be really good, however most of the day was spent in the tour bus with only a few short stops a different locations, what we saw was pretty amazing, nut to much time on the bus for my liking. I tell you made full use of the week off training and eat plenty of junk with some good food, there are so many good Thai restaurants out there I just couldn't help myself, I love Thai food.

After Carins I flew to Uluru for 2nights, that again was pretty spectacular although at times too hot for me, thankfully not when we were walking round the rock more so in the afternoon. I happened to get chatting to a group of Girls from Brisbane who were out there for one of their 40th Birthdays and they have invited me up to Brisbane for the weekend to show me around which should be cool. One of them is a sailor with her own Laser so she might even take me out for a sail, I'll have to try and remember as much sailing chat as possible. Unfortunately it's not much, the fact that I guest her boat was a laser was about the extent of it. I also met a really nice English couple who I left my Cairns hostel at the same time as, sat beside them on the plain to Uluru and then ended up sharing a dorm room with which was a bit strange. They were telling me about a website Couch surfing that they have been using while travel, which is basically like face book but instead people invite you to stay at their place when you are there and it's all free. They made the way across the US doing this and absolutely swear by it, so it might take a look into it for when I'm in Melbourne and San Fran as I don't have any accommodation sorted out yet. The last night we were in Uluru there was a guy playing live music, he was really good and myself, Steve & Donna (the English couple), Lynn our other dorm mate and the 3 Brisbane girls (Lisa, Suzanne and Anna) ripped up the dance floor all night long, it was an amazing night I've never had so much fun with a group of people I've only just met. My trip to Brisbane should be fun as those girls are mad.

As I said I'm now back on the Gold Coast for the start of training and I did my first bike ride this morning, 3hrs in land which was really nice, although I was starting to struggle near the end, not sure if it was the heat (prob about 21-22 at 7am when I went out), not having done anything for the past week or that I've been eating shite and drinking shite over the past week or more likely a combination of the lot. Starting to feel good now I've eaten and been out the sun for a while. Got my first swim session with the Surfers Paradise tri guy's tonight so looking forward to that and getting to meet some new folk.

Also can't remember if I posted this picture but thought I'd add it anyway, seen as it's not everday I get to meet and an Olympic champion :-)

world Champs

Saturday was the World triathlon championships here in Southport, Gold Coast. After the Aquathon on Wednesday I was feeling really positive about the race as I ran and swan really well.

After all the Ausie talk about the water temperature being 22oC all week it's strange how come race day morning the temperature suddenly drop to 19oC so it would be a wetsuit optional race. When it's optional everyone wears them as you can swim faster with them. I was rather gutted as I was looking forward to a non wetsuit swim for a change, plus I'm a half decent swimmer so not having a wetsuit on wasn't going to slow me down as much as the weaker swimmers.

Over 100 Male 25-29 athletes were lined up on the start line on the beach all in wetsuits, and we were made to stand there and back in the morning sun for 5mins before the start, they wouldn't even let us into the water to stay cool. The hooter went and we all charged into the water for the 200m sprint to the first turn buoy. It was carnage everyone was on top of each other, I just couldn't seem to get into any rhythm and to top it all off I had the breathing problems that I had been get in the past few races back home. My breathing just went so erratic and the only way to calm it down was to break out the pack and do some head up breast stroke stroke until it calmed down again. I really don't know what is causing this, I thought it might have been the cold water back home, but that obviously isn't the case. I really need to get to the bottom of this as it's really starting to piss me off as it's killing my races. Once I got my breathing back to normal I was able to get a good pace going and start to pull back so of the Field, however the fast guy's were already out of sight and I ended up coming out of the water in 23:07 (78th place), I knew I had a lot of work to do on the bike and run if I was to get any sort of respectable time.

The bike course was pan flat and was going to be fast. With the course being so flat the race turned into team time trails with massive packs chasing each other around the course. It was impossible to get round the course without drafting, unless you were going to sit on the front of the pack and let everyone sit on your wheel. For the first lap of the bike I was busting a gut to try and get away from everyone and pass anyone I caught on the course, but then I would turn at the turn point and see 20 guy's behind me or have a group of guy's come past me. I know your supposed to drop back when riders come past you, but if that were the case I would of had to freewheel the whole course to try and stay out of the draft zone, and I'm just not going to let guy's get away, not when the whole field are riding in packs, it was just getting silly and dangerous at times. So much so that there were some horrific crashes. Frank Boyne told me of one that he just managed to avoid. A rider from a pack heading back to the start of the loop swerved out to the right for some reason and went over the white line the collided with and oncoming pack, even worse though, the draft buster motorcycle was behind them so he slammed on the breaks and ended up coming down and sliding into the back of the already mangled pack of cycles on the ground. I've not heard what injuries came from that crash, but I can imagine they were pretty serious.

Thankfully my bike was uneventful and came off the bike in a large 25-29 group (82nd) ready to run as many folk down as possible. I was feeling great on the run, possible due to riding in a pack for most of the bike, then again so had everyone else, and started to work my way through the field. It was starting to get hotter on the run course, but thankfully there were 4 water stations the 5k loop. I could really see how the heat was affecting me as once I had gone through a water station and soaked myself I was able to up the pace again, which would tail off slowly until I made it to the next water station. As always there was great GB support on the bike course cheering everyone on which always help when you are starting to tire at the end of a race. I was able to keep running hard all the way to the line ending up in 62nd place in 2:06:51. Not great as I was really hoping to be further up the field than that, it was a competitive field and who knows if I had a good swim how would that of changed things, no one will ever know.

Watched the Elite men race yesterday, man Alistair Brownlee is amazing. When we saw him exit T2 with a 1:06 deficit we really though this wasn't going to be his day, but with in a lap and a half he, Gomez and Fredeno had already ran in to the lead. I don't know what time he did for his 10k but it must have been fast as he was motoring past us on every lap. Today is juniors and Elite women, hopefully we'll see some more British success with us also taking 1,2 and 4th in the women's U23 on Friday.

It's now a bit of chill out time for me before I get stuck into preparation for the long distance champs in Perth in October, so I'm heading up to Cairns on Monday to do some diving and sightseeing and then heading to Ulluru for 2 days. I'm really looking forward to getting away from training for a while as it's been a long season and with Perth it will be prolonged by a month from what I would normally do.

I'll keep you posted on how the tans coming along :-).

1 race down 2 to go

I've now been in Oz for almost a week and settling in well. My accommodation is perfectly located to the race venue and is really nice as I have my own entrance, living space, bathroom it's just the kitchen that we share. Jo my flat is really nice, a hyperactive Kiwi who loves her rugby. I finally found out that she's a touch judge not a player, as I was getting confused when she emailed saying she was a goal assist, I couldn't figure out what sport that was from. I've impressed my self already, I was only in the country a few hours and I'd managed to get a bird back to my room.



It's hard no to like it here when the weather is so nice, it's just a nice temperature warm but not too ridiculously warm that you can't train. I've meet up with a few guy's from the GB team, Dean who I met on the plan and the rest of the Scottish guy's that are out, Brad Gilbert, Craig Dale, Graham Cox, Shona Girdwood and Dan Sims and we have been out for a few easy swim, bike and run sessions. With the race on Saturday I'm not wanting to do too much, just enough to stay fresh after the 20+hrs of traveling.

They have a great set up for training here, especially swimming. The first day I arrived I headed down to the local pool with some of the team, there was a 50m pool, 25m pool and a diving pool with 25m lanes in it as well, all open air. It really does put us to shame, with our 1 50m pool which is closed. Along with the great pool, there is a 100m shark proof pen in the sea where we have been doing most of our swims. It's not Porty but it will do :-)



Today was the World Aquathon Champs (2.5krun, 1kswim, 2.5krun). I figured it would be a good short, but fast race to give me one really hard session to help get my body into race mode for the week, and I'm really glad I did. going into the race I really wasn't sure how my running was going, I know I was swimming well as I had some good hard sessions before I left home. The start of the run was the most Bizarre thing I have ever seen at a race. My wave was made up of the male 16-39 athletes. When we got to the start line everyone did the usual and found a place on the start line ready to go. This obviously isn't the way the aussies do it. We were told to form a line in number order, smallest to largest. with me being 1198 (1000-1200 racing) I was pretty far back at the start. Once we were put into order we were allowed to enter the start pen, where I was still about 15 rows back, not impressed. When the horn went, the start pace was so slow due to the massive pack, I'm sure I go faster at the start of marathons. I managed to work my way through the field over the first run and enter the water fairly high up the field, I think, it's hard to tell when there are that many people racing. The swim was great, water temperature was 22.5oC so swimming without a wetsuit was really pleasant and a first for me. And I'd have to say I wish I could do more often as I made up a lot of ground on the swim as those fast runners were missing the buoyancy of their wetsuits. Coming through transition for the final time I was adamant that now one would pass me on the run. I felt great coming out of the water and wanted to test my legs out and push the final 2.5k as hard as I could. I felt great, I must have picked off more that 30 folk and nobody came past me. I really feel like my running is back to where it was at the start of the season. I've not seen the results yet, but I've been told I was fairly high up, hopefully things will go that well on Saturday, if the water stays the way it is it will be a non wetsuit swim, fingers crossed it is.


Me and Craig before the Auqthon.

Anyway I thing that's been more than enough for today, I'll post again after the worlds on Saturday.

mg