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First I`ll apologise for no recent blogs, but to be honest I have nothing really exciting to talk about so thought I wouldn’t bother.

Second I`ll answer a couple of question I keep getting asked.

Yes I am still alive.

No I am not racing Busselton

Yes I am still training, managed 7 swims and 2 gym sessions last week.

And yes I will be back.

Have entered Yeppon 70.3, so when get back on track will continue blogging. 

Finally good luck to everyone racing Busselton 70.3 in less than 2 weeks. See you all down their.

Back into the swing

Things are back on track for me now with two solid weeks of training and no more pain in the hip. The last four weeks I have being doing strength training in the gym with Andrew Ivy. Andrew is the head strength and conditioning coach at the Perth Wildcats. Andrew is also an excellent triathlon coach, who coach`s many of Perth top endurance athletes. With over 30 years in the industry Andrew is defiantly the man for anyone looking for a strength program specific to triathlon.

For triathletes, the benefits of strength training are many, from increased stability in the water and on the bike to a faster metabolism. Stronger muscles can work longer before feeling fatigued, making strength training indispensible to endurance athletes. Every triathlete wants to be faster, so most need to add strength training to their program to help them get there.

So with just over four weeks till Busselton half  I am really happy with where I am at. From now till Busselton I have a race on every Sunday to help get some speed back into my legs. My first race will be this weekend at the Asics bridges 10k fun run. Not sure how I will go in this one, definetly not in PB shape at the moment, but it will be a good hard hit out and if I can run anywhere around 35min I`ll be happy.

Thankyou for checking in and I will update early next week with a race update.     

Singapore not to be

First of all thank you to everyone for the good wishes leading into Singapore 70.3. But unfortunately time was not on my side and I was unable to make to start line. I only made the hard decision not to race two days before I flew out. But looking back, I definitely made the right decision. I have now had plenty of time to rest and am now back into running and riding pain free. The injury has taught me a big lesson that I need to take more care of my body. So since the injury I am now doing 4 core/glute sessions a week, 1 gym session a week, weekly massage, heaps of stretching and even thinking about taking up yoga. All of these things I have been neglecting in the past.

So for me it was a total different experience watching the race, but also very enjoyable especially with such a large group of West Australians competing. There were many amazing result by the West Aussies especially –

Rachel Smith 7^th Female overall

Kelly McCombie 1^st  30-34 and first female age grouper overall

The entire 18-24 male age group podium was made up of West Aussies

1^st Matt Burton, fastest age group bike split and 2^nd fastest male age grouper overall

2^nd Andy Tyack

3^rd Mark Luckin  

Caitlin Bridgeland 1^st 25-29, first female out of the water

So for me it’s time to look forward to Busselton 70.3, I have a few running races and TT I will be doing in the lead up to get me back into shape and am really looking forward to a big race on the 7^th May.  

Update

Quick update as I have not blogged in two weeks. Unfortunately since my last blog things have not been great, so I’ll keep it short. I have managed to pick up a niggle in my right hip. This is giving me a lot of pain whenever I run and ride. The good news is I think with the help of massage and needles I am finally on top of it. This means that I am going into Singapore with a lot of uncertainty. On the positive side I will be very fresh, and since I have been doing limited running and riding I have been doing extra swimming and feeling great in the water. On the negative side confidence levels are low, as I have done no quality sessions for at least two weeks. So I'll keep my fingers crossed that I can get a few good sessions in before I leave and I may surprise myself come race day.

Finally I must mention some of the Perth athletes who raced New Zealand Ironman. Congratulations guys, they all had an awesome day and everyone mentioned qualified for Hawaii, but not all took their spots.

Jason Nuttman, Johan Boarg, Helen King and Janine Willis.  

New Wheels

 I am very pleased and excited to announce that I have just signed a deal with Specialized to be riding their bikes in the 2011 season. I was lucky enough to have received my Specialized Tarmac today (pictured bellow). This will be my training bike for 2011.  

I am also really looking forward to picking a new time trial bike in the near future. However there are no stocks available in my size at the moment. So unfortunately I will be riding the old TT in Singapore. But fingers crossed the new TT will arrive later in the year before the Busselton half.

I must take this opportunity to thank Nick and the Guys at Garland Cycleworks for their support in helping the deal go through. I have only recently developed a relationship with Garland Cycle and the service I have received has been amazing. I will again take this opportunity to highly recommend the store to anyone, either for a world class service or for the biggest Specialized dealership in WA. Nick is very committed to helping the needs of all triathletes in WA and is very passionate about the sport. So I am really excited about the relationship I have established with Nick and the guys.

I am now looking forward to some quality training and racing on the Specialized bikes and I hope to have a lot of success on the bikes racing both nationally and internationally.

Bold Park

When I mention Bold Park, most athletes will think of either hard riding up Reabold hill, hard running on the Zambia trial, or some may even think of swimming at Bold Park pool. However the last thing most of us would think about is that smack in the middle of all these locations is a natural amphitheatre. On Monday night I was lucky enough to see a group of athletes performing at Bold park amphitheatre that were world class, and would challenge any of us local athletes that regularly train on these grounds.

By now most of you may have figured out that I went to the Ballet at the Quarry Amphitheatre on Monday night (valentines days). Unfortunately for some I am not going to sit here and write a review on the performance, because to be honest I know nothing about Ballet. But what I can do is highly recommended the night, it is a beautiful setting and a fantastic event. So any guys out there wanting to impress their lady friends, step out of that square and do it. You may even enjoy it, I know I did. 

Back to training front. It is now just less than 5 weeks till Singapore 70.3 and I am really happy with my progress over the last few weeks. I’m also pleased to say that I had another good race over the weekend at the Point Walter 16k fun run. I managed to run 16k in 56min in very windy conditions, on very tired legs with an average pace of 3min 30sec per k. I have an easier week this week which I am looking forward to and then one more block before the race.

Really exciting news to come on my next blog about new bikes for 2011.

Time Trial

Another weekend done and another race completed. Last Sunday I competed in my first ever time trial run by ATTA. As you can see from the profile below it was no easy race.

The race start was in Toodyay with the finish line being in Gidgegannup. The entire course was run on Toodyay Rd, so there was no chance in getting lost. ATTA had organised a shuttle bus for you and your bike to the start in Toodyay. So all you needed to do was turn up at the finish in Gidgegannup, jump on the bus and it takes you straight to the start. The conditions for the day were less than ideal, with very gusty conditions and a lot of branches on the road from the wind. The race distance was 44k and it felt like you were continually climbing, and if you weren’t continually climbing you were hanging onto your bars trying not to get blown off.

So after 44k of pain I was happy with my race with an average speed of 39km/h, I had a 6^th place overall, with a few big scalps. Managed to beat the world champion female TT and a male pro tri athlete who recently had a top 10 finish in Ironman Switzerland. Both athletes are training in Perth to get away from the European winter.

So after the TT the day was not done, having not done a brick session for the week it was time to strip out of the cycle gear and jump into the running gear. So with a solid 10k on the programme it was time to lose the cycle legs and find the running legs, and that I felt I did successfully.

Summing up I was happy with the race. But I still need to do a little work on the TT bike before Singapore, in less than 6 weeks. The race was very well organised and I am really looking forward to doing another, in the not so distant future.