Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Well, thats a wrap!!

This will be my final post in regards to Tri reports for some time as I have officially finished up for the season.

The road trip to Murray Bridge was a cracker with Dennis, Princess, Benny and Pistol and I look forward to many more of them next season.

I finished my season on a high with a good result for me over the 2km swim, 60km bike and 15 km run.

Pb the swim : 29min 16sec,
Had the 6th quickest bike time for the day, which enabled me to make up some good places, and
as per normal plodded along like a diesel train in the run.

The bike course was a tough one with the weather, road surface and course in general. The run was flat, except someone put this nice (well not really nice!!) hill on the course in which we encountered 3 times, once per lap. Ever seen a fully loaded semi climb a hill, well that's me, very slowly!!!

Finished up in 3 hrs 12mins which fit in the bracket that I set for myself, so happy days!!

The wheels, well what can i say, travelling 50+ kph comfortably on the return trip speaks for themselves, was very very happy with them. The only thing now is the price tag, a lazy $4800!

Might leave that decision til next season.

From here, a few weeks of to enjoy the "offseason" with a few functions coming up that I am going to let the hair down for.

The road season starts this weekend and have a little itch that is going to drive me to be competitive in A grade by the seasons end, another tough ask.

For now....

X-Man

Monday, March 16, 2009

1 More Race for the Season.

This weekend bring a wrap for my tri season for 2008/2009. I know that I am ready for the end also.

I am heading to Murray Bridge with Princess, Benny, Pistol and Dennis to race over a 2km swim 60km bike and 15 km run.

This is also the last chance for me to accumulate points to qualify for the worlds in Perth later in the year.

I have also decided that this will be the last race in which I will be on a structured training program as I am going to "bring back the fun" into my training. I will be training but doing what I feel like at the time for a while to have an "offseason" for 4-8 weeks before I get back into it.


Back onto this weekend, I have organised to ride a set of Zipp 808's for the weekend, which excites me as if I am happy with these wheels, I look to purchase a set for the new season. The lads at SALTER CYCLES have been generous enough to lend me the wheels to test. Cheers Adrian.
With all the talk about Zipp Wheels, I will be curious to rate their performance against my Token 85/50 wheels and my Gravity Zero Disc/ 5 spoke......To be discussed after the weekend.
Once completed this race, the road season kicks into gear, so as they say: One door shuts, another opens!!
For now..
X-Man
Ps. My running has been coming along ok, and swim squad has already found improvements in my swim stroke/time.


Saturday, March 7, 2009

32min 40 sec for 8 km is a starting point.

I completed an 8k fun run this morning with Dennis and Princess and above was my time.

I was happy with my run as it was 2 & bit laps around the tan track in Melbourne which has a cracker of a hill (Anderson St) which sorted me out on the second lap.

Managed to get around the 1st lap in 16min 05 sec which was satisfying and then to hold on to run 32min 40sec was a good starting point for my winter of running.

Princess cruised around in 30min 20sec and Dennis in 31 odd min (can't remember exact time).

The time I ran today gives me an indicator for future runs around the same course to see if/how much I am improving along the way.

From the run, the three of us jumped on our steads and cruised to Frankston and return with a few efforts along the way. Was a good solid morning of training.

Tomorrow morning will probably sort me out a little as I am going to play in the hills with a few mates.

For now..

X-Man

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Take care of your GEAR & your GEAR will take care of you.

GEAR = Body, Bike & Other relevant equipment.

I write this blog after noticing that a little TLC goes a long way. After spending the weekend with Komo a few weeks back and seeing how he goes about looking after himself and his equipment, I thought that I might just give it a go.

My TT bike has been getting all the love of late and after riding my roadie on Tuesday morning in the horrendous conditions and wanting to race on it tonite I decided to give it some love.

First of all, I got my body treated last night by Jason (my myo) and got put some pain to which I felt like vomitting. I can say that I felt terrible last night but was spot on today, Thanks again Jas!

I turned to my roadie today and under close inspection, I was disgusted at the 5mm grime that was covering my chain, jockey wheels and cluster. Out came the degreaser and after totally covering the named parts and washing it off, I actually saw some light at the end of the tunnel. After repeating this anbother time and getting the trusty toothbrush and giving the chain a good working over I was quite pleased with my efforts. A few drops of lube and I was set to take on the crit tonite.

As soon as I heading off on my way, I noticed the difference instantly of no resistance in the pedal stroke, compared to previous. So getting a good warm up in I felt satisfied that I would finish the crit tonite.

As always the 1st lap is under control and once we started the race proper it didn't take long for the pace to increase and the race was on. My plan was just to sit tight and get around in one piece. After seeing a few harmless attacks take place I thought I would give my legs a good test to see where I was at. I had a hard attack which was reeled in soon after, but I was satisfied with how my legs and bike were feeling. The race continued with a few more unsuccessful attacks by myself and others and when there was 1 lap to go I decided to attack into the wind to see if I could gain enough advantage to hold onto the finish.

One guy jumped on my wheel and upon peering behind us and seeing a good 50m gap I thought at worst I would place 2nd. So I continued to "lead" the other guy out hoping the bunch wouldn't catch us into the head wind in the final straight. I gave up the room for him to pass and take the win and for myself I felt like I had just jumped onto a mag trainer cause I was going nowhere fast. With 100m to go another 2 guys passed me and I held onto 4th, which was a very pleasing result considering I hadn't finished with the bunch on my last 3 attempts.

My point to the story is that if you take care of your GEAR it goes along way in getting the most out of your performance. Lesson learnt for me and thanks
KOMO for showing me how easy it is to look after your GEAR. Regular maintainence makes the job a lot easier.

For now..

X-Man

PS. My running is coming along ok and my weight is down below IRONMAN weight. Good signs for now.