Life since Ironman Melbourne.

Well, it really hasn't stopped.  I had committed to going away with the Family to Maryborough (Central Victoria) for Easter and to do some Road Racing there with the Veterans. 

Yes the Headstem has since been cut down!

Yes, unfortunately I am in that category now.  So I had entered 5 races across that weekend ranging from a 300m Sprint (pfft, me sprint?!?) to a ITT, a Criterium race and 2 x 65k road races, one being a scratch race in my category and the other being a handicap on the final day.

43kph ave was still not enough to win the TT.

For a full run down and a great read, check out Shane Millar's blog below. He handed it to me in every event, so better reports form him.

http://gplama.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/vets-south-pacs-maryborough-victoria.html

Was good to have such a gun cyclist there, not only to show me how far off I am, but also to learn a lot from him.

I prob should have ticked the legs over post Melbourne before I went straight into a road race and an attack 7k in....

My legs finally came good in the handicap, was placed off 3rd scratch 4min ahead of scratch and when 3 riders failed to show, 1 wasn't up to it, having 4 of us try to chase 9 was going to be hard so we made the decision no to kill ourselves but to pace ourselves until scratch & co caught us.  I rolled in with the scratch group as it was safer than sitting near the back of the 70 rider peleton.  I then decided to save my legs from about 15k to go until the final attacks started to happen and was going to have a crack at the sprint.  In the end we didn't catch all the riders, but I still managed 6th in the bunch sprint, great end to the weekend.  

From there, I entered, along with a few of the athletes in the Geelong Half Marathon.  All the talk was whether I was going to be repeat my time of 1hr 18min from a few years back, but I decided to help pace Jody to as close as we could to 90min.  We compromised and decided on 92mins (4min 20sec per k).  Her instructions were to just run with me, no watch, no garmin, just run.  2 gels and focusing on running a very even 1/2 Marathon. 

Almost done

The plan was to start out a little slower and work into it.  

The splits were as follows:
 Km  Time

1	4:24.0	1.00	4:24
2	4:22.5	1.00	4:23
3	4:24.6	1.00	4:25
4	4:20.7	1.00	4:21
5	4:09.3	1.00	4:09
6	4:17.3	1.00	4:17
7	4:16.0	1.00	4:16
8	4:14.3	1.00	4:14
9	4:20.0	1.00	4:20
10	4:19.3	1.00	4:19
11	4:15.7	1.00	4:16
12	4:16.9	1.00	4:17
13	4:13.8	1.00	4:14
14	4:24.8	1.00	4:25
15	4:13.5	1.00	4:14
16	4:18.6	1.00	4:19
17	4:16.4	1.00	4:16
18	4:17.6	1.00	4:18
19	4:28.3	1.00	4:28
20	4:29.1	1.00	4:29
21	4:17.3	1.00	4:17
22	:56.3	0.23	4

One final time check to make sure we hit the mark!

This was a time of 1hr 31min and 36sec...right on the money.  And speaking of money, that's what Jody got, a 1st place finish in her age (won't disclose) and her fastest 1/2 Marathon time in 15 years.  Happy people all around.  Tim, Daniel, Paul and Harley also ran with Harley breaking the 2hr mark and recording a 25min pb.  Well done mate!

Just telling Harley to get to the finish!

From there I hit a few sessions with Scott Slater (doing his first IM at Port) and we rolled around for a few hours (5 1/2) and ticked off just under 180k's.  Throwing in a run and he is in for a good race in the upcoming weeks. 

A few days off and then back to Vets racing on the weekend.  I signed up Geelong as Dad has been a member there and it is an amazing feeling being able to compete with and against your Dad in a sport, so I was a bit overwhelmed about it all.  He is also a Club Legend there....Big shoes to fill!

Just tucking his laces into the new Giro Bike Shoes!

We were both in A Grade and I had the no. 1 on my back, not much pressure there.  Dad left his bike shoes at home, so was never going to last long.  I knew who I had to watch as had a bit of insight from the Fos and proceeded to play the cat and mouse game for a while until the main break went and I had to close the gap and move with them  The pace remained high for the 43k and after all the attacks, it finally go the better of me and I got dropped by the 2 leaders.  Not to ever give up, I tried to settle into a rhythm and chase them down. 


I could see a bit of fluctuations up the road and was positive that I could ride them down.  Steve Young noticed me closing the gap and jumped away, all of a sudden it was a 3 way Individual TT to the end.  I closed in on 2nd and now had my eyes firmly set on Steve.  I was closing in ever so slowly until Steve hit the tail wind.  

Nek minut....... He was gone.  I continued to the end and tailed in about 1min behind with the same gap to 3rd.  The bunch rolled across the line about 1min further back.  So a good entry into Vets racing.  I will be back at Footscray again soon and with a few other tweaks, I am looking forward to a solid winter's base heading to Hawaii.

The athlete numbers are continuing to grow which I look at as a compliment & reward to the work I put in and the results that are coming through.  Planning with other athletes about how to move forward post Ironman and how we plan for them to improve and it has been a pretty hectic time.

I do just love it though.

Throw in a few interstate trips for training and supporting at some races and the build will be up and going before I know it.

Back to planning and looking at ways to improve.

For now...

X-Man