November - The Month That Eludes Me

For the 19th time, the illustrious MO was non-existent.

Despite the disappointment experienced with 'Movember' there is good news. Copious amounts of good. Albeit in two forms.

Firstly. I've had some positive feedback after getting in contact with the Highly regarded BONT Cycling who are supporting me for the upcoming 2013/14 Triathlon Season.

Secondly. Training is well underway.

The end of November, as it shall be referred to from now on (until I can produce a decent moustache), marked 4 weeks of consistency. Being a fan of new things and intense sessions, training has been mundane. Long rides here, long runs there, kay's for days in the pool. Nothing much has changed week to week, thats base for you though. However, the alone time on my Giant is second to none.
However, motor-pacing (sneakily jumping on a postie bikes wheel in this case) is a good way to derive fun out of the 3rd hour of ridin' solo.

... Not exactly on his wheel, fun to imagine though.


I am sure Keiran is just about sick of me and my ceaseless requests for a solid run session. A local running group have quality sessions every Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Every single instruction I was given for the last 4 weeks a response was conjured within milliseconds. "Run on Tuesday" "Can I run with the boys" "No, not yet". "Run on Thursday" "Can I run with the boys" "No, not yet". I kept telling myself, it'll work the next week.

Seasons planning's saw me racing Forster mid way through the month. Im going to go with fortunately here. Fortunately Keiran advised against it. I was feeling fit, but certainly not race fit. back to the drawing board.
After much deliberation we decided that the best aim will be mid January at the earliest. For me this is weird. I grew up racing at every opportunity I was presented with. My thought process stumbled upon, "Think long term, Matt. Think long term". So that I shall do.

Many hours spent exhausting my slow twitch fibres lead me to sitting in coffee shops pondering...

... "What is coffee. WHO ARE YOU? Who am I?"

December will bring many more joys. things to look forward to:
- Buying a kitten
- Some intense training
- More coffee
- My December update.

Oh.. and Christmas!

2013 Meizhou Asia Cup

For those of you who have talked to me about and/or read my recent blog detailing, in as fewer words as I could, my trip to Europe then my sincerest apologies. Unfortunately I’ll be bearing more bad news (performance wise) in this report.

So, despite having a training camp for 10 days and at least another 3 days either side of the camp it seemed like I had spent 2 days max at home and I was at the airport once again setting off on another “business” trip.

The camp was in mine, and Keiran’s, mind an excellent thing. Coming back from Thailand having lost 6 kilos and having no training done for 10 days due to falling ill I needed something to get me as fit as possible before this Asia Cup. 2 days before leaving I was in a deep, deep hole. Fortunately, for my mental peace of mind, I didn’t realize it. I figured it was just fatigue from training hard and I’d be right for the race.

To avoid boring you with useless information I’ll skip all the flight shenanigans because the funnest thing that happened was putting my legs up and getting in trouble for it

We touched down at the Mei Xian Airport in China. While waiting for our bikes we got to know a few of the Dutch athletes. For an airport the size of my house and one single airplane on the entire tarmac, which was barely one third full on the flight over, they seemed to take an awful long time to get our bikes out. Probably due to the fact that they had no heavy lifting machinery, forcing them to man handle the bikes out of the hull.

Once all was sorted and the bus driver had crammed as many bikes as possible under the bus and the rest strewn across the inside of the bus, across and over chairs we were finally ready to leave for the Yamng Lake Resort. On the drive there things weren’t looking great, I was certain we would be sleeping with all kinds of ungodly vermin.

However, things were gradually starting to look more modern and clean. Suddenly we were ascending a mountain along narrow roads with steep drops mere meters away. The bus driver was fearlessly taking the shortest line and repeatedly beeping his horn on the blind corners, pretty much just saying move or we’ll have a head on collision.

Thankfully, we got to the top and everyone’s jaws dropped. The scenery was absolutely stunning.

I had other things on my mind though. Like the fact that the ITU website said flat ride and run courses. I knew there was not one single chance that there would be a flat 6-kilometer loop within the entire establishment, let-alone a flat 2.5-kilometer loop.

Normally I’d be jumping for joy, but given that I’d been on Struggle Street, I began to worry about whether I’d even last 1 loop on the bike.

Following our arrival, of course, there were dramas. Exactly how many days we were supposed to be staying at the resort was unclear to the staff. Much to our delight however, the Italian team had already sorted out the accommodation catastrophe and we didn’t have to communicate through one English speaking volunteer to 10+ receptionists who were crowding around one passport at a time as they moved without ease through the check-in procedures.

Finally we were up in our rooms. After the volunteer insisted on an unnecessary tour of the apartment and our rooms Mitch and I got our things sorted and went for a ride.

Unfortunately we didn’t exactly know the bike course, we had a look at a course map, which we spotted on the drive in and it was simple enough. An easy-to-follow oval shaped loop. After we had made approximately 20-25 sharp corners, each turn being no more than 150m apart from the next. We decided to turn around. Despite the fact that there were no turn offs along the road, we thought there’s a chance we could have gone wrong somewhere.

Race day was less than 24 hours away. Mitch and I decided that we didn’t want to have assorted domestic animal meats and noodles along with other local cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast especially on race morning. Oh and being quite obviously laughed at by the entire wait staff at our feeble attempts at using chop sticks Didn’t make us overly keen on going back 3 times a day.

So we grabbed a volunteer and organized a taxi to a supermarket. After three stops, and visits to four of the closest-to-western food stocking shops we could find we had oats, honey, bananas, bread and milk. Happy days!

Race morning was upon us. Unfortunately there wasn’t one day or a single training session that I wasn’t feeling utterly terrible. My entire lower body was aching and the only time I wasn’t in pain was during strides and still they felt very uncomfortable as I did them.

So as you can imagine during the warm up, registration, nervous wait in the athlete holding area, the run down to the pontoon and the wait for 60 odd athletes to be called down there was quite a lot of doubt running through my mind. However, I did what I believe I do best and changed my focus to the processes of what is to be done rather than the outcome and how terrible I felt.

The buzzer went and we were away. I had an amazing start and found myself out in front. Not long toward the first buoy a few athletes came passed me and before I knew it I was mid pack and dropping further back. Not good!

Turning the buoys wasn’t too bad, not many people were swimming over me and throwing punches and kicks. On the way back in either I managed to find another gear or others were dropping off fast. I hit the ramp within sight of what was to be the lead pack. I knew I had to be fast up to transition if I wanted to be in the front pack so I ran hard and managed to gain valuable time.

As I jumped on my bike I couldn’t see where they were mainly because you couldn’t see 150m down the road before there was a sharp corner. So I just put my head down and chased hard. Being unsure of how sharp each turn was, and unable to judge from who was in front of me I took caution with each one. Therefore having to accelerate harder out of the corners. A few others and myself caught the front pack after roughly 4.5km and pretty much stayed there the entire ride. Getting to the front was more difficult than you could imagine. The pack was using the whole road to navigate corners and if you weren’t in the front 5 then you weren’t getting there easily.

Surprisingly, the hill on each lap proved an advantage for me. I moved up it with ease in comparison to the speed and perceived effort the other athletes were putting in.

Before I knew it we were running through T2. I felt good and ran well straight off the bike so I was feeling pretty confident at this point. Running out of T2 I repressed the aching my legs were giving me and tried to finish the race strong.

Less than one kilometer into it Matt Brown came flying past me. Then a big, tall, beefy lookin Dutch bloke came past me as well. The sudden realization of how I was running hit me. Many things ran through my head, none of which were positive.

However, within seconds I seemed to have forgotten about all the negatives. And I can only recall some points of the run. So I guess I just switched off, went through the motions and got myself across the line. Barely.

Which brings us to the present, planning has been done and priorities have been organized. Focusing on next season and getting myself back to 100% saw me having to pull out the Nepean race, I was really looking forward to this one but as it has been put to me; (here’s that negativity) doing your HSC and trying to make a World Junior team, not making it, then trying to work full time and make a World Junior team, not making it again. Having your wisdom teeth out and losing fitness just days before going overseas, then getting a chest infection, just making it back to reasonable fitness, then competing and setting yourself back to square 1 – unfit and unhealthy – then playing catch up with every race all the way up to this Asian Cup race and including two world championship level races.

Stress levels for the last 2 years were through the roof. So yeah, currently in my final days of a break. Skipping Nepean and hitting next season mentally and physically refreshed. Can’t wait!

2013 European Junior Triathlon Tour / London World Championship / Eton Dorney / Tiszaujvaros

I’ve left it kind of late because I figured that there was no point recounting my less than desirable race experiences. However, that was it – the race experiences – that were stopping me from sharing the entirety of my travels with everyone. Therefore I’ve decided to stop whining and take the bad with the good. Amidst the general report I try to mix it up with the callous competition remarks across the four races just to avoid becoming a monotonous, negative Neville. It'll be focused on the races but I'll throw in some other things you may enjoy. 

I will be starting from plane trip No.1 so I feel the length of this recap will be the equivalent to that of a J. K. Rowling Novel, most likely the 5^th, and longest, addition in her Harry Potter series. Enjoy!

Sitting on the plane in Sydney I thought that I better get some photos just so I could share them and have some memories. On second evaluation of said photos I will not be sharing a single one because I look awful, and yes they were self portraits of my excitement. I’ll use my outstanding descriptive writing skills to paint a picture…

I was alone in my row, praying for the hostesses to begin the pre departure shenanigans before the seats around me filled up, I raised my head and looked behind me I cast my eyes from left to right only to catch a few watchful sets of eyes staring back into my soul, I had never seen less people on a plane, I was shocked, excited and a little bit optimistic for every other flight I were to be on. From that moment I fell in love with the upper deck of aircrafts, I didn’t know how many were on the lower deck, didn’t care though this was a big win for me. During the 6-hour flight I was getting fidgety so I got up and did some stretching. As I was stretching my peck I caught the eye of one of the air-hostess’ and she must have thought I was trying to open the emergency exit door, as she looked absolutely petrified and scared for her life. I gave her a cheeky smile and a little wave of a semi flaccid the arm and all was well, I think.

The first, of many, flights was done and I was eagerly in search for the rest of the team in Singapore’s, Changi Airport. Without technology this task could have taken days, that place is huge. Eventually I found them and we said our hello’s and all that junk then before I knew it we were on the next plane toward an exuberant yet unmistakably ghost-town-like Tiszaujvaros.

Not much exciting happened on that flight. I didn’t have as much room as the previous flight and I was next to a bloke who lived 40 minutes away from me, in Sydney. Funny story about him but I wont go into that. Gotta keep the rambling to a minimum.

After a long and tedious 13 hours we arrived in Frankfurt. The wait there was great – Wi-Fi !!

The team, minus Joel, got lunch and waited till it was time to get on the next plane. Again nothing exciting happened.

After this, it wasn’t long until we touched down in Hungary. We were all very eager to get into Tizzy and see what it was like. As soon as we stepped outside my first words were – “Dayum!”. It was a huge shock, the exhausting heat that struck us and we hadn’t even stepped out into the sun. However, there were smiles all round. Hello European Summer.

After we were all settled in and had our things unpacked and bikes put together there wasn’t much to do but lay in our 5 foot long beds and fry in the little sauna like rooms. Likewise for the coming days leading into the race, apart from training and the evening trip to Mamma Rosa’s for dinner. I’ll skip those trips though, nothing special there.

The day was upon us. Race one of our preparations for World Championships. All had not gone to plan for Matt but I certainly was excited to give it a good crack.

Plan – be fit and have taken necessary steps to avoid any dramas from traveling.

Actuality – had niggles from the NTA camp which prevented me from running when I needed it, didn’t avoid dramas from traveling and had Wisdom teeth out mere days before I got on the plane (under instruction from the team doctors due to pain I was experiencing on the NTA Camp).

Any who, all that aside. Lining up for introduction I wasn’t thinking about any of the above dilemmas I was just keen to smash it. I’ve always gotten a bit nervous for the swim start and there was no exception this time – I was packing it!

We were all called down and ready to start etc. then for some ungodly reason I stood still as the starter yelled “on your marks” and I took a step forward as the horn went. Good news was I still managed to react fairly quickly. Bad news was during my impeccable streamlining I could hear two athletes battling it out right above me. As I came up, to my expectation and their shock, one bloke’s hand landed right on my shoulder and the three of us were in a tussle. Sadly it was a losing battle, them Belgians are big. Of course by the first buoy I was in last position, given how I was swimming this is definitely not where I wanted to be. Unfortunately the swim was much shorter in this race because there were heats and finals instead of the usual sprint distance. Despite my mistakes I wasn’t dead last out of the water but I was certainly at the tail end. Things weren’t looking great and I was stressing about it. I was in no mans land between the second pack and the stragglers behind me, again not where anyone wants to be. Eventually I gave up trying to catch and let the group behind pick me up.

Then came run time, I went out way too hard and I could feel it, but as far as I knew my body could handle it for at least as long as it took to catch the few guys just ahead of us.

Unfortunately, there was no hope for me. After roughly 1500m I hit the wall hard. I was basically jogging and had never felt more horrible during the run leg of any race I’d ever done. Being the only one on the Australian junior team to not make the final and having raced as I did, you could imagine how I felt. Thankfully my coach, Keiran put it into perspective for me and noted the conditions of the race compared to what I was used to at home and the circumstance I was in. From this point my focus was get to Spain and prepare as best I could for World Champs.

Easier said than done, and of course – more misfortune headed my way.

Finally we arrived at the next destination, the one I was most looking forward to. It wasn’t as I had pictured it; I suppose it never is, but nonetheless a beautiful place.

The rooms were really good and had everything we needed, except a kettle – an athlete essential. Luckily there were copious amounts of coffee shops within walking distance.

In the first few days we were doing a lot of exploring and we found some pretty cool places and saw some cool things in the small Basque country of Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Not long after we had gotten settled in and had a few recovery sessions and started to get stuck into the solid side of training I noticed I had difficulty breathing. Apparently there had been a few athletes who have suffered from this when they first arrived in Vitoria. I had a talk to Ryan Bailie on a long run that we did and he noted some symptoms he had and that he was diagnosed with sport induced asthma. My symptoms were very similar so I talked to the medical advisor and organized a ventolin puffer. That didn’t seem to work so we headed to the local doctors and had an assessment done. Nothing out of the ordinary showed up there. However, the doctor said I could have a mild form of bronchitis given what I had been experiencing and the color mucus I was coughing up. Sorry guys, I couldn’t figure out a less gross way around mentioning that.

Once that was all sorted and I had a few days off training I was able to scrape in one brick session before it was time to start tapering for the Junior European Cup in Eton Dorney. Mind you, I wasn’t allowed to go too hard incase I wrecked myself.

I wont go through the days of taper, that won’t be much fun.

The next adventure begins – off to Eton Dorney. I wasn’t expecting much of the hotel we were to stay at in Windsor, as it turns out I was wrong again. It was the nicest. By the nicest of course I mean the best bed and buffet combination. For any athlete those are two of the biggest deal breakers between a good hotel and a bad one.

This race was a first for me. Usually when things go wrong I panic and continue a downhill spiral.

The pontoon position was one of the most unfair that I’ve ever been on. First position was a dead straight line to buoy 1 followed by two 90-degree right hand turns and back to the swim exit. So me being number 58 on the far right I was a long way away from the desired line.

Figured ‘it-is-what-it-is’ and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it so I found my spot and listened hard for “take your marks”. I was actually pretty happy, both athletes beside me were scrawny, but I was still pretty nervous about being drowned like I was in Tizzy. All went well and I had a good start, gained half a body length on the two guys next to me and swam hard through clear water. Only mistake I made was that I gauged off the athletes to my right so I didn’t need to look up and I swam in a dead straight line…

After a good 250-300m I looked up and noticed we were not far away from the first buoy and I was very far over. Because of that mistake by the time I made it across there were dozens of battlers hitting the first buoy and I was very wide. This threw me out of at least getting in the second pack. So I was pretty upset about that but to my surprise I forgot about it and swam hard back into shore, then focused on doing absolutely nothing on the bike… Sounds like a dog act but I have my reasons! I needed to be confident in running well off the bike and Tizzy did not provide me with that confidence and when you think about how horribly unfit I was I had to prioritize and save as much energy as I could. So I was a prick and sat on and pulled a turn every now and again. Made it even worse by attacking the last few kilometers and getting into transition first. Probably could have done without the accelerations in doing so but I had never gone into transition with a large amount of people and I didn’t want to be involved in any accidents.

I hit the run and was feeling remarkably good, but I contained my excitement and adrenaline and kept it together. Not long into the run and as expected a few athletes came around me, some I sat on and others gapped us slightly. Things were looking good so with the tailwind I picked it up slightly on the return 1.25km. Without any dramas in that I did so again on the 3^rd quarter of the run. This was into a headwind so it wasn’t a pick up in pace but in effort. I saw that I was catching some of the athletes that had passed me in the first 1.25km and that gave me motivation to continue pushing. Coming into the last 800m the few that I bridged back up to accelerated and my fitness stopped me seconds after I tried to go with them. The run wasn’t exceptionally quick by any stretch of the imagination, but it was controlled and solid which was what I needed.

We didn’t have many days to spare before and after the race so that trip went pretty quickly and all of a sudden we were back in Spain with 10 days until the big one. The next few days were recovery focused followed by a couple of hard swims and a couple of solid rides and runs. There was one particular swim session which I felt incredible in and I knew I was back to where I needed to be with the swim, unfortunately the impact of running and thus fatigue in my legs for the final solid bike session knocked me back down a little.

Things were progressively looking better. By the time we were to fly out to London my health was almost back to one hundred percent. Unfortunately my fitness was far from where I wanted this close to a World Championship event. But once again I didn’t let it bother me. I had my strengths that I figured would get me into a decent position to push through the remainder of each of my races.

Reflecting on it now I think that doing the both Aquathlon and the age group sprint races was a bad idea. Thought I’d be all right but in the end I struggled a fair bit. Just a quick recap on the two then we’re done!

Just a little dilemma though, what would preparation be without them? The day before the race I was taking off my wetsuit and basically 3/5^ths of the calf tore at the seam. Not good at all! All was sorted out with the guys at the Blue Seventy tent though, brand new wetty. Win!

I was most confident for the Aquathlon, I was in a good state mentally which triumphed and kept my mind off my physical state. Shortly after we were called into the athlete holding area they started introducing the athletes, I had no idea and therefore became extra nervous when I heard the introducer announce “2012 ITU World Aquathlon Champion and London Olympian, Richard Varga”.

Nevertheless, nothing I could do about it so a big smile came across my face as I realized I could really give it a good crack and see how things are going in the water. We were denied a swim warm up, not exactly ideal but hay, everyone missed out. Luckily for me I brought resistance bands and went through my routine at lighter resistance followed by harder resistance. It worked a treat!

Grabbed an excellent spot on the pontoon and before I knew it I was underwater. With incredible urgency I kicked hard and popped up half a body length in front of my competitors, all except one – Varga!

Alternating looking up at the buoy, then over to my right every second stroke my eyes glued on Varga, he was edging closer and closer as we headed for the first turn, I was exactly where I wanted to be and it was an awesome feeling. I had an excellent line and didn’t zigzag one bit, coach would be proud. We hit turn one, two then turn three and were on the back straight. By the time we got back in line with the pontoon, roughly 650m, he had gapped me slightly. Expected.

Around 850m a couple of the elite and u23 guys came around me and I jumped on their feet, such a relief! But by this time my arms had, had enough of swimming that fast and I blew up slightly. Still managed to come out around 4^th or 5^th position in 11:46 – a whole 1 second quicker than my pb in the pool, I was fairly stoked about that!

Onto the run… felt good, actually ran horribly. Not much more to say about that. Clearly I was much more excited about the swim! In the end, I came home with a second place in the World Junior Aquathlon Championships, cannot complain.

Mere hours after that race I tried to sit on a park bench. Nothing I have tried has ever been more dismal than those 2 seconds of simply taking a seat. My ITB’s were hammered, not a good feeling less than 30 hours before another World Champs race.

Tried my best to recover and before I knew it race 2 came around. I was feeling ok compared to the previous day still not fantastic though. Once again we had no swim warm up. I assumed my bands would do the job as they did for the Aquathlon. I foolishly gave more room to the spectators then they needed and as I was very rushed – all the other athletes already standing in the athlete holding area – I double over my bands to do my warm up, without at least giving my arms a light activation.

Adrenaline was pumping through my body though so I thought nothing of it, until I got 100m into the swim. I felt awful and didn’t even make it to the buoy first. I sat on feet for the majority of the swim and toward the end a few athletes came around me. I did make an effort to make sure I was with them though, considering how fresh these guys were I couldn’t miss being in contact with them for the ride, especially given that the bike course was 2.95km long.

Things weren’t looking great but I was gaining on the gap a few had as we ran to transition. For some unknown reason some nitwit put plastic boards down on a sharp corner and as soon as I hucked a left I fell straight down and hit my knee pretty hard. Although, I did recall hearing “slow down people are falling here” as I got up… gee thanks!

Anyway got up and into transition not too far behind the handful of athletes in front. Jumped on the bike and just stayed in contact with whoever was first at any given time. Some guys started to come past and I noticed they were in different age categories but it became difficult to keep track of who was who. After the race I found out that some kid managed to get 90 seconds ahead of us. Thought I did well keeping track of em all, obviously not!

There was a few of us who jumped off the bike together, I was pretty relaxed and tried to keep a high cadence leading into T2 so I was as fresh as possible. The run in was disgustingly muddy and slippery, as we were running down to our racks I nearly slipped over on several occasions and could barely get any speed. Then, just my luck, I started to feel both my calves cramp. At this point I was filthy! If I had to stop and stretch them out it wouldn’t have been nice being another athlete and hearing words come out of my mouth at ridiculous decibels.

Thankfully they didn’t cramp but god they were tight the whole run. It was amazing the confidence I got running past people out of transition rather than losing places, this made me feel pretty damn good and I focused on catching the next guy, and the next guy, and so on. Not a whole lot of that happened though. I began to fade toward the end, my shoulders felt heavy and tight, my knee was hurting with every stride and my ITB’s weren’t giving me any relief. Given all that knocked me back in the lead up I finished off strongly with a run time I was happy with despite my lack of confidence after seeing the run time from the Aquathlon.

All in all, the trip was excellent and there were many positives taken. Never a dull moment with triathletes, wouldn’t have had it any other way (with the people and international experience, of course).

Huge thanks to everyone who was apart of it, there were many humans involved in the process so I won’t name them all, forgive me but you know who you are. Not just the athletes and coaches but family and friends. I envy the patience and understanding you all have.

Till next time.

DEVONPORT - 2013 AUSTRALIAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

DEVONPORT AUSTRALIAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

Three or four days leading into Race 3 of the Australian Junior Championships to be held in Devonport I was doing everything I could to keep my mind off the race. even playing games with myself just pretending it's a holiday. If you ask me I think it worked perfectly! But of course that wasn't going to last very long. While I waited in the gate lounge I saw one by one some of Australia's best athletes enter the lounge to board the plane and I began to feel nervous and remember the conversations with coach Keiran about this race and it's importance for me, then the reality of it started to kick in.

Waiting for our bikes and bags in Launceston Airport I was able to calm my nerves a bit by talking to other athletes and coaches about everything and anything other than the race that was to take place in less than 48 hours.

Friday, the day before race day, was a very cruisy and fun day. The "sleep in" was great and made me feel a lot better than the day before which was excellent. I started the day with a nice and short ride down the race area and along the bike course. After assessing the turns, U-turns and determining the perfect lines to take I was able to let go of a bit of the pre race stress. After that I went for a nice and slow 20 minute jog just to loosen the legs, it was definitely needed after a massage 2 days before which left my legs feeling too heavy for my liking.

The next couple of hours I spent sitting down saving as much energy as possible while I waited for the rest of the Triathlon NSW athletes to arrive. Due to their delayed flight we were pushed for time and had to squeeze a quick swim in before briefing.

We got down to the water about 12:30pm as planned - wanting to be there around the time of race start the following day - put our wetsuits on and went out for a quick warm up then began assessing the currents, tides, possible start positions and things to sight on the way in which ended up being the giant blue inflatable swim finish banner, mainly because there was no way you could miss it! We then practised a few starts running into and out of the water and the fun part - catching some waves in.

Following this we headed up to uniform check/briefing.

Having had dinner with the New South Wales Institute of Sport athletes and packed my gear for race day it was time for bed.

The morning of the race was finally here. It seemed like only yesterday Keiran and I were preparing for what I'll need to do for this race. I was extremely excited and couldn't wait to head down to the race area. Once again and as always the atmosphere was incredible but as I've been practising I held myself together and stayed focused.

I planned my run warm up perfectly and allowed for time to put my wetsuit on and get out for a quick swim and reassess the currents and tides. Once this was done I collaborated with Keiran and picked the perfect start position.

At last we were lined up and ready to head onto the beach. One by one all 40 odd of Australia’s best juniors were on the line and ready to start.

The horn went and I had an awesome start sprinting with control into the water. A few long and high leaps over some little waves and I had gotten to the perfect depth to take a dive. I did so and after that a few dolphin dives and I came up took a few strokes had a look around and noticed I was in clear water so I sighted the buoy and did what I was told to and gave it to ‘em in the water.

After a few big waves rolled through I was able to get another glance at the buoy and for some strange reason I thought I was aiming at the 2nd turning buoy and I started to head further left but thankfully I saw a swimmer a bit back and to my right, as I took a breath, heading straight for the first buoy so I made a sharp right and hit it hard to get there without losing any more ground. I was second or third to turn and held feet to the next buoy and stayed there most of the way back in. There were a few decent waves rolling in and just my luck, I missed them all! There were 4 athletes who managed to get on a wave and ended up having up to 35-ish meters gap.

Going through transition I made sure I wasn't wasting any time and I was putting my helmet on and taking off my wetsuit at the same time which id also practised because I never used to do it, this proved valuable as I was in and out fairly quickly. This also helped me extend a 3-5 meter gap out to about 10 on the athletes just behind me which in turn prevented them getting on my wheel and me dragging them to the breakaway group.

The race leaders had about a 250m advantage over me that I had to close so once again I put my head down and didn't stop till I caught them. A quick 3 quarters of a lap and I had managed to bridge the gap. I stayed on the back for no longer than 20 seconds through the little technical section and with the gap we had to the main pack in mind I knew we couldn't fall asleep otherwise they would catch us in no time. So as soon as I caught my breath I rolled to the front and helped Matt Roberts, Angus Gibson and New Zealander Taylor Reid extend our lead. Gibson and I were swapping solid turns and ever so slightly gaining seconds on the main group. Coming into the start of the third lap I heard Keiran shout “don't fall asleep boys” and thankfully at that time I was on the front and realised that I wasn't pushing as hard as I should be so I dropped it down a gear and started hammering it.

Starting the final lap I was yelling at the boys encouraging them to push it for the last lap. Gibson was pulling fantastic turns and finally we had Reid putting in some solid turns too, which really helped. Overall we gained about 10 seconds on the main group, which was a good effort from 3 of us.

Coming into transition I was running as quick as I could but I could feel that my legs were struggling with the stride rate I am supposed to hold. And I was definitely feeling the effect that the bike had but I knew I'd done the work and all I had to do was pick up my cadence and believe in ability. The pre race talk with Keiran was mainly focused on my mental state on the run. He suggested I try a few things that he and his wife Nicole Hackett worked so hard on when she was racing on the professional circuit. So out on the run I was focusing on racing to the next pole...  And to the next pole... And to the next pole, and so on rather than stressing about who's chasing me down. He also suggested that I forget about the pressure of who is behind me and just run with perfect technique. I think he said that mainly because this would take my mind off the race going on behind me.

On the return of lap 1 I could feel myself start to slow down and I knew I couldn't stop now if I wanted to win so I picked up my cadence and relaxed my body just like I do in training. This helped and I was able to pick it up again. Coming into lap 2 of the run was a surprise to me, so far I hadn't lost my rhythm and I didn't feel like I was going to. 

Half way to the U-turn for the second and final time I was beginning to feel the effects from the incredible ride the boys and I had. Fortunately for me Michael Hooper offered encouragement and mentioned that I still had a good gap, this clicked my mind back into the race that was going on and as I turned and saw the gap, I could see that Birtwhistle had made a lot of time, and I could also see the Sam Ward another New Zealand athlete was also having a fantastic run and was chasing hard. But they hadn't caught me yet and I still had the lead. So I picked it up again this time thinking about what Keiran had said - don’t worry about the finish until the final 2km. So I held a solid pace to the U-turn. On the way back with approximately 800m to go I could hear that Birtwhistle had caught up. I was waiting and waiting for him to come around but he just sat for a little bit. Then as expected he surged past making sure I wouldn't be able to go with him. Unfortunately having the excellent swim, ride and run I had, had so far and he being the fantastic runner he is my legs wouldn't let me go with him. He managed to put in a decent 20m, which I was able to maintain for the next 300 - 400m but then I began to drop off.

I ended up holding 2nd place and finishing up having improved on my performance from Geelong and having had the best race of my season so far.

It was good to be with the Triathlon NSW athletes and coach Jonathan Grady as I hadn't been with that squad for a while. With the experienced coaches Jono and Keiran both by my side I was provided with excellent advice pre race regarding tactics in possible scenarios. With their personal experiences and knowledge with similar conditions that Devonport had put on show I was able to execute little things perfectly which saved me energy and helped me have an almost flawless race. So I would like to thank Jono and Keiran especially for their help and also to Angus and Michael during the race who really helped me believe in my ability and in turn finishing up 2nd in the under 20 Australian Championships.

Also big thank you again to Giant Bicycles; the bike just keeps surprising me, It was able to handle everything I threw at it on the course. It's fast and handles well in crosswinds, which was a huge advantage in his race.

Bring on the fourth and final race of the Australian Junior Triathlon Series to be held in Wellington in 2 weeks time, can’t wait!