Appreciation..

So, the day draws closer, the excitement builds, the nerves gather.

The inaugural Ironman Melbourne is only a few days away and the hype is building. Plenty of people claiming that they are going the smash this, smoke that, people talking up there chances of going to Kona, PB's everywhere etc etc.

One thing people forget is the fact that there might just be better athletes out there on race day. People who have been in the sport longer, have a history of competing at a higher level or even just racing pro.

With all this in mind, just because you might not achieve your dream, doesn't mean that you haven't had a great day out there. If you do get the pb but still miss out on a Kona spot, well so be it, be happy. If you don't get a pb, don't go around making excuses, just maybe it was the day for you. There is nothing worse than listening to people making excuses for why they didn't make it.

I am really looking forward to the challenge of Sunday and after talking to a mate today, he made a valid point. The best age groupers in the country are racing Sunday (see previous post) which means that the competition is tougher and the times will be

faster.

Not only is the competition tougher physically, but more so mentally as these guys know how to get the job done. These guys don't crack when things might be going wrong, they just change their plans during the race. These are also the guys that take defeat graciously and never take away the better achievements from the others. They don't make excuses, don't complain about poor nutrition, equipment failure or blame volunteers, they are professional in their behaviour although racing age group.

Which one are you?

What I am trying to say here is just go out there do your best, have fun and appreciate what you have achieved. Many people wish they could do it but never will. Others just will never have the opportunity to. So for the rest of us, we are lucky, we are special, we are the ones who are able to achieve such a significant result no matter what the finish time is. To have that finishers medal hanging from your neck after crossing that finish line is somewhat an extraordinary achievement.

Enjoy it, remember it and love it.

Do you really think the following guy in the pic really cares about times etc? I am pretty sure he appreciates the fact the he can still compete.

Enjoy yourself, smile at loved ones who have made the journey to watch you, or been along for the roller coaster ride that we call Ironman Triathlon.

For me, having all my family coming to watch is amazing. I was lucky enough to have most of them there at Hawaii and am thankful that they really enjoy and understand to sport. This is amazing but there is 1 person that I am really racing for on Sunday. For those who have followed this blog, you will know that it is my Mum taken away 5 years on Sunday. Mum was there to watch my first 1/2 Ironman in 1999 up at Cairns and loved it. Or maybe she just loved the weather. Hard to tell as she was smiling all day.

With this in mind, I am going to remember that for the entire race, when I am hurting I am going to push harder, when I think that I have pushed for long and hard enough, I am going to push on more. The only time that I am going to stop is once I cross that finish line. I have 2 perfect motto's for my race and they are below.

If I am ever at the point of breaking, I am going to look upwards and know that she is there willing me on.

The next one is just ideal, makes so much sense and is so so true!

So, not only for myself, but for anyone out there, just think of how lucky we are to have numbers on and just the fact that we are the lucky ones.

This one is for you Mum...(25/12/53 - 25/03/07)

PS. I will blog again tomorrow which could be my final one before race day. Have to dedicate a few hours to my bike, well in need of a clean!!

The Contenders

So, after posting my tips on twitter about the my rough tips for Ironman Melbourne, I thought that I would do a more comprehensive run down of guys in my age group.

I know that I will miss 1 or 2 that I am unsure about however I think that I am aware of the main guys that I need to watch out for.

Hayden Armstrong - This guy is solid, have race him a few times and just have the wood on him, however I know that he has come to Melbourne to repeat his 14th Outright at IMNZ 2011. A 9hr 28min Kona means this guy demands respect, we had a good chat climbing Hawi last year and also after Yeppoon 70.3, great guy to boot.

Pablo Safrana - Pabs is a guy who I admire, just seems to race all the time and continually gets the results. We rode together back in 2009 & 2010 @ IMWA. He finished Hawaii 2011 in 9hr 23min. Would still have included him even if IMNZ was a full.... Finished 7th in the 30-34 in the revamped race. He has been to Kona plenty of times and no doubt wants to go back.

Rob Creasy - 9hr 17min @ IM Hawaii 2011 speaks for itself. Very consistent across all 3 disciplines & will at the pointy end of the field when it counts.

Tom Bakowski - 1 word = GUN, 8hr 59min @ IMWA 2011 with a 3hr 9min marathon. I have raced him a few times. Has 3 great disciplines and is my pick to stand on top at the end of the day in under 9hrs once again.

Tim Carpenter - Prob suited better to 70.3, however is a quality athlete. Goes around the 9hr 30min mark. Might just give the leaders to much start going into T2.

Gene Bates (Pro cyclist) - A pro cyclist. Unsure about this guy, but anyone who can ride pro, is worth the mention. No doubt with a solid swim, should be in contention heading into the marathon. But can he run??

Dane Heaysman - Have to mention this guy, made it to Kona and had a tough day, but the hardest part is making it. If I didn't know he was a new dad I would be sure that he would be knocking on the door once again. BTW Congrates mate.

Brad Manczak -5th @ IMWA 2011 in a time of 9hr 32min, his swim def lets him down, might just give too much start to the front runners.

James Monahan - A solid performer who doesn't have a real strength, however I know that he has been training the house down. Has to be 100% on race day to have a chance. Unsure if he has the ability to really trouble a few boys mentioned above.

Tristan Parker - My pick to have the fastest 30-34 a/g bike split. However in this sport, you still have to run a marathon. TP will need a good 10min lead to try to hang onto going into T2 to be any chance. (The Chris Lieto of 30-34) Since moving to MTC, am sure he has learnt a fair bit.

Hugh Peck - Finished just behind Bakowski (2nd & 3rd) at Port Macquarie 70.3 2011 in 4hr 22min and just in front of Hayden Armstrong. A couple of sub 10hr Ironmans, but has been a fair bit behind Pabs when it goes long. Could be a long shot.

Andrew Reynolds - Another Hawaii 2011 Finisher in 10hr 29min and was a 9hr 46min IMWA 2010, and a 9hr 48min IM Port 2011. Times seem a little off however, he knows how to get to the Big Island.

And then there is me, I would like to think that I am a chance, however as you read above, I have mentioned 12 genuine athletes who are going to challenge for a spot. I may have knocked off these guys in my previous races, however in Ironman, that counts for nothing. I know which athletes I will have to monitor when I get onto the bike and which athletes I can let go. I am not in my 9hr 9min Kona shape, however I know that I am not far off.

The only thing that I know is come Sunday, I will have nothing left when I cross that line and whatever the result, I will be proud as I would have given everything that I have. Don't get me wrong, I am going for a Kona spot, but so are the 12 listed above along with so many others. IT is going to be a really tough race and the finer details over the next few days regarding equipment and tactics will decide my race plan.

If I can be off the bike in the top couple, I know what it takes to churn out a solid race. Can I go sub 9hr? That is a BIG BIG question, a few of the above boys have an that's who I am chasing. Give me some wind on the bike and it will be game on.

This one is for you Mum (25/12/53 - 25/03/07)

Misleading

After re-reading my last blog entry from Thursday night, it seems as I was really down.

This was not the case at all, everything is going really well. On reflection I know the reason why it might have come across that way.

So, after a great Run session Wednesday evening I was going to the local shop to grab myself a drink. Walking up to the door and seeing the attendant on the other side I was in my own little world until....

I walked straight into the glass door. Unsure of what just happened, I had a brief thought that maybe the shop was shut. I was looking straight at the guy and then bang.... After I hit the glass, the door kindly decided to open for me, little late there!

Being dazed, an egg instantly appeared above my right eye, probably very close to splitting. Once the realisation on what just happened, I just burst into laughter. I received many apologies from the store owners, however my laughter turned into embarrassment very quickly.

15min later I was on my way. Drinks in hand....Tail between my legs. I was very flat all Thursday as obviously the knock to my head was rather hard and effective in knocking the wind from my sails.

After a good nights sleep, Friday was a different day. Up at 4.15am for a treadmill session before I headed to swim squad. Another treadmill session followed Friday night and I felt like I hadn't missed a beat.

Today has included an hour run with a 2hr ride following and this afternoon is another 2hr run followed by a 2hr ride.

A few comments that I have received with a late taper have included:

Machines work better if they are used frequently!

&

never to late, come in hot not fried

So with this in mind and the program for Super Coach, things are still looking great. At the end of the day I want to end back here:

Not only do I want to get back, I want to go back with some of my closest mates and have a great time with them all.

Now that's a true indication of where things are at, thinking clearly, able to wear goggles also, makes a big big difference.

This one is for you Mum (25/12/53 - 25/03/07)...

A few days closer

So after a Magic weekend at great mate Watto's wedding and having 4 total days off training, I was ready to get going again Monday.

A long ride and hard run with Benny Hughes gave me just the session I needed. Backing this up with another long run on the Tuesday and I feel like the ball is still rolling my way. The following 2 days have been a perfect mix.

This gives me just over a week until race day. A few more days of quality and then all systems are off until Melbourne.

Not much to really report. Back into the pool tomorrow for a week and then a monster weekend again.

This has been the most interrupted prep that I have had, however with the expertise from Andrew, things are still going along ok.

I am getting more excited for the guys that I coach and the conversations that I am having with them regarding their first Ironman Adventure and I could honestly not be happier with where they are and the goals they are setting out to achieve. All things going well, we are ALL going to have a great day.

I will endeavour to blog again over the weekend!

This one is for you Mum... (25/12/53 - 25/03/07)

Getting close to the 5yr anniversary :-(

This is going to drive me to push even harder on race day.

Family grows again!

So, after the recent additions to the family early in the week, my sister was next due. The original date was 21/03/12. Due to a few family reasons, which I am so happy about, the baby decided to arrive early.

So in the space of 1 week, both my brother and sister have babies. Throw in my Best mate and their addition, things have been hectic.

Training has been going well still and the body is coming good. This might chance this weekend as flying to Perth for a wedding is going to be great.... But maybe not beneficial.

The challenge that I have is when to start taper and how many more big days I can squeeze in before it is too late. That is a discussion to have with Coach.

Now back on the family. Naomi not only has 3 kids, she has also decided along with her husband to enter Shepparton 70.3 for later in the year. People think what I do is amazing and motivating, however going through the next 8 months with them is something that I truly cannot wait for. If I cannot draw some inspiration out of that, something will be wrong. We have already mapped out a game plan around the kids, work and training and the end result is going to be plain and simple.

Fantastic!!

I have added 2 photos included mum & bubs. Things just keep getting better. I even must say how good my sister looks in this photo as it was taken no more than 2hrs after the birth.

There is a moral to the story.... To my dear Brother, Sister and best mate.....Start training for Ironman and all this "carry on" will stop.....lol

This one is for you Mum...(25/12/53 - 25/03/07)

Heads or Tails

The way the coin fell could have been so very different. Heads I go back to sleep, tails I get up and go to swim squad.

Why was it this way?? Well last night, for some reason unbeknown to me, I just couldn't sleep. I saw midnight on the clock and must have drifted off not long after that. So when the alarm went off at 5.20am, the thought of heads (head back on the pillow did cross my mind) , but no, I got up, feeling pretty ordinary and headed off to swim squad. 4k set, 2k of speed work later I was a happy little camper.

I knew that I was going to have a long day at work and all I was determined to do was look forward to my afternoon session.

So after work, I was so excited to get in the car and head home. The plan was to get going straight away before I had the chance to kick back and relax, put the cricket on and then lose motivation to train.

Home, changed and out the door was the way it went. My usual 14k loop which has been taking me just over the 70min mark is now down to 60min, legs feeling great, the hill at the end is not as challenging. And throw in the fact that I am loving it all, it is so easy right now!

Not long ago, heads and back to sleep would have prevailed especially after a night of minimal hours sleep. I need and crave 10hrs most nights, so this was a big big win for me..

Taking that confidence of being able to win this mornings battle means that every time I think that way, I know that I can get up and perform ..

I read a quote today which went this way, "Experience tells you what to do; Confidence allows you to do it"

When you have the experience from good and bad, you know what you are able to do and what you are not. With this, Andrew and myself and very confident that what we are doing for this preparation will work.

This one is for you Mum... (25/12/53 - 25/03/07)

Even when you are not there to respond, I know you are there to listen!

2 days of fun!

So after a great Saturday on the bike (not the punctures, but getting through it) Sunday was my long run day.

Sleeping in a little meant that I was going to run doing the middle of the day...Perfect for running training for an Ironman as every Ironman I have ever done, I am always running after midday. So I set off at 11am with a plan to get as close to the 3hrs as possible. Nothing fancy just a good long run.

So I loaded my fuel belt and off I went. Felt weird wearing one again and I know that my shape is not as good as Kona due to the belt just being a little tight ;), must lay off the chocolates again!

Getting to the 1/2 way mark and having ticked off just under 19k's I was rather happy as I was moving along rather well for me. The nutrition was working well and the legs were going along just fine. My feet were letting me know that I was running, but nothing of a concern.

At the 32k mark I started to battle a bit, prob not enough intake for the conditions, however I was surprised that my legs and body were still feeling ok. Finishing up with 37.6k in the 3hrs was awesome and was really happy with it especially after a big day on the Saturday.

This capped of a great week for me..just on 19hrs training, with a run focus and ending up with 110ks in the legs (my 3rd biggest run week ever). To my surprise even my feet pulled up well, maybe it is not to late to achieve what I want!

The big goal is to replicate that for another week 1/2 before I taper. Throw the wedding in this weekend and it is going to be a battle.

The motto for now is the song below. A Queen classic!! Sums up just about all my training to date.

Today included a sleep in to recover and then a 2hr Mag trainer this evening. I was rather

surprised how much I loved it, could have just kept going. But at these times you really have t

o know where the boundaries are and know how close you can push them before you fall over. I am finding them and giving them a good old fashioned nudge.

Tomorrow I am back in the water and then will get the legs going gain tomorrow night with a mid length run with some intensity.

Time is running out and is waiting for no-one. I am on the IM Melbourne train and it is coming to town fast. I can either decide to jump aboard and see where it takes me or let it go by and start wondering. I am All Aboard!!

This one is for you Mum... (25/12/53 - 25/03/07)

On another note and very special for me, my brother Brian and his partner Livy had their first baby over the weekend, Harrison James. Now that was the second special thing for me over the weekend. The first one was my best mate and is as close as a brother as my blood ones are, Paul and his wife Erin had their 2nd baby, Lily Maya. Photos are below:

Harrison James on the left & Lily Maya on the right.

This takes my tally to 2 children, 2 God children, 2 nephews, 3 nieces and with another one due this month, it is all happening around me!! The best way to be, as we all know babies are cute, but better when you hand them back!! hehehehe

Back in it for the long haul

So, after a pretty solid week I was looking forward to a long ride with the lads today. A few softies pulled the pin after the weather forecast... Not mentioning anyone!!

We headed out nice and early with a solid 6hrs the plan. After 40k's I hit some metal and shredded my tyre...see below.

This put a slight hold on the ride, however with Darz spotting me a $50 to fix the hole for the ride. So back into and then Jas punctured. That fixed and we were off.

Getting into Geelong for the turnaround, another puncture, I had ran over a staple and had a slow leak. Lucky for us, Fos lives near by, so a quick pitstop, change tyre, restock tubes and we were off. Darz then realised that he had lost his spare bag, no buggy at the time...so we thought.

After 10k's back into the ride, more punctures. This time I had to ride back to find his spares bag as we were out of tubes, canisters and anything else that could possibly help repair the tube. After a bit of time we were back going, the weather changed and we were getting wet. For some bizarre reason, I was having a ball out there today, loving riding into the wind, the punctures did annoy me a little bit, butt just really loved the long haul.

Once back to the cars and 185k's later we headed out for our run. My legs were feeling really good so I thought that I would have a bit of a dip. Getting the first k done in 4min I thought that I would just do the same for the 40mins. 9.5k's later and legs feeling really good the run was done. The smile on my face was evident that I was really happy with the result of the days training. My body felt good, my feet held up well.

The afternoon was a quick bite to eat and then a massage, geez I needed that, after chalking up 75k's running this week and my long run tomorrow, I was sore in lots of spots, but very happy to have had the body tampered with!

So that brings me to tomorrow.... I am hoping to get through a really solid long run and have a ride off the back of it to finish a great week. The weather is not going to stop me, maybe make me look like a drowned rat, but none the less I am going to have a great time. Fingers crossed the feet can handle the 100+ k's that I would have pumped into them by the days end. Then to see if I can repeat next week.

Am glad to be making some inroads again. I am no where near my Kona shape but working towards it. Probably about 75% of it right now with a few more solids weeks to go I am hoping to get 85-90% of where I was. This would be a great result!

This one is for you Mum...(25/12/53 - 25/03/07)

Easy Day..

So today commenced with a solid 3.5k in the pool for me with a few solid efforts. I was surprised the pace I was doing for them and that I was holding my own in the fast lane. Things going ok in the water for me.

I decided to have a leg rest evening and just get some r&r before a big big weekend. So nothing really to post about today.

So in the rain, hail or shine I will be out there tomorrow suffering. The below might just describe the day!

But if I don't go one thing is slipping away, and that thing is time. Time to get more k's in, time to get some more fitness and most of all time to get to the start line in the best shape that I can. As the saying goes:

This is true in so many facets of life and something that I am going to follow. The other is the below. It is so so true, just another motto I am going to follow. What is the worst that could happen?? The answer is no, you don't get what you want, and you stay in the same place. But if you don't try, you just never know.

This one is for you Mum...(25/12/53 - 25/03/07)

Just rolling with it...

Because any time soon it could go pear shaped.

So with that in mind and the guidance of Andrew, I am just playing things by war, trying to add some cramming in with my training without going overboard. Trying to get the run legs back without destroying my feet. Just trying to find that balance! Going close to the edge to get the most out of the time remaining without taking one step too many.

I have nothing to really lose at this point, but so much to gain. And it is the gains that I am seeking. Over the last few months, there have been different strategies that we have applied and they have not worked, so by mutual decision and fantastic guidance, I am confident that things are heading in the right direction fast.

We are learning about what my body is coping with and what it isn't. The goal is to try and get 100k's of running in the legs for the next 2 weeks, kinda make or break. I know cramming isn't the best method, however at this late stage and with such an interrupted build up, there is no other option. I am never one to go in half cooked and if things don't go to plan, I cannot say that I didn't try.

By doing this method, the running frequency is mixing really well with speed work and endurance. The combination of treadmill running and running outdoors is giving me a good mix of get some really good speed in the legs and also easier runs in the fresh air. I am finding that I have no where near as much speed in the legs as what I did in my Kona build however, I also know that my base is still there. When trying to run at that intensity, I am often out of my comfort zone. I LOVE THIS!!

As we enter the last few weeks, the emotions for me are growing in the absence of my mum. Someone who used to take me to my sports when I was younger, support me through every sport that I tried, who flew to Cairns to watch my first 1/2 Ironman amongst so many other things. Dad and I are like 2 peas in a pod, both love our cycling, compete against each other...still, although Fos is trying hard but not quite at the same level at what he was. (Keep trying it might come back!!) hehehehe

Mum, although was a sportsperson in her own right, it wasn't really the sports I played, so to have that support when I was younger is invaluable now. I just know that come March 25th 2012 (5 years to the day after your passing) you will be watching down on me giving me all the support like you used to.

Although the sport is addictive and consumes a whole lot of my life in both as an athlete and a coach, there are times where I just like to let my hair down. This is what makes the sport more enjoyable for me, the ability of switching it off and going back to being a 33y.o who loves to party and getting amongst it. I have already organised a few Lionel nights after IM and am looking forward to that as much as I am securing another Kona Spot.

With this in mind, the next picture does contain an offensive word, however sometimes it is just the best way to think.

Tomorrow is back in the pool and if the feet are up to it, another run in the evening. I am really looking forward to the weekend and seeing how the boys go in New Zealand. I am also hoping that the weather is nasty just to get out amongst it is going to be GOLD!

This one is for you Mum...(25/12/53 - 25/03/07)