Miyazaki World Cup

Coming off the high of a World Championships atmosphere and back into a "home" environment is always an odd feeling.

For most elite athletes the World Championships weekend is a rare opportunity to let your hair down and go a bit wild for a night (post race of course). If you’re selected it is generally your biggest event for the year. Like-minded people surround you and you’ve all been stringent for months on end. So, naturally, you’re ready to let loose. Though the biggest race isn’t always the last race. With no imaginable doubt, did I not enjoy this occasion.
For most Aussies it’s a couple of months overseas capped off with worlds, so coming back home is most certainly nice, but it’s also extremely difficult if you are getting back into the swing of things for one last race or two. For me, it’s not home, home time either. I had to stay in Melbourne and subsequently away from my family for another month and a half, almost rounding out a whole year of not being there. So I found it a lot harder to keep upbeat about the hard yards to come before the final World Cup on the ITU circuit.
The weeks leading into Miyazaki were off to a good start, unfortunately a few weeks in I had developed a slight plantar fascia issue. So I was unable to run for about a week and couldn’t risk any work at pace in case I over did it and tore something. Our physio advised not to run at all. After consulting with Danielle, our strength and conditioning coach and the physio we decided I could run as long as I was doing isometric exercises 3× a day every day, and the pain wasn’t worsening. Fortunately this did help me keep up a minimal amount of mileage.

Getting into Miyazaki I was feeling relatively confident. I managed myself on the flights quite well and I felt good. The training days leading in left my foot feeling quite sore, I wasn’t able to travel with a Smith machine and 70kg of plates so I relied on gravity and used my own mass, for the first time ever I wished I was heavier. Most mornings and most jogs my foot felt stiff and sore but it was what it were. I was going to get through the run and I knew that.
Marcel and I had spent many hours together leading into this race. We worked really well and got in some great quality work in the pool and on the bike. I was confident in my swim-bike and I knew that I just had to pace it and build through the run to try not aggravate my foot too early on.
Like I have been throughout the year, I swam, ran and rode to the race site the morning of. I’m still modifying the formula but I feel like I’m getting close to what primes my body the best.

I got down to the race site with plenty of time to spare, it’s always interesting riding around trying to figure out the maze of areas we’re granted access to, and of course how we actually get into the athlete lounge.

Eventually we made our way in and I got through all the check in procedures quite quickly. I spent a few minutes sitting down and planning out my next moves.
I grabbed my water bottles and put them in my bag to keep them out of the sun, threw on my joggers and went out for a 10-minute trot to get things moving freely again. Did a few strides to just below race pace and headed back into the athlete lounge.
I didn’t want to go for another swim because it’s not what I had usually done but I decided to jump in the water and did about 100m or so just to roll the arms over.

Once I got back into the lounge it was about time to head over to the athlete introduction area.
Before long everyone was in line and headed down to the water.
This was a strange start, I’m unsure as to why but there was no pontoon. It was a deep-water start.
Everyone had chosen a number on a line and eventually we were ushered into the water.
I was wearing number 15 and somehow managed to sneak into 14th on the line up. The inside line was more direct so the closer to number 1 I could get, the better.

It was a long and chilly wait in the water but before long the music suddenly cut and turned to the infamous heartbeat thudding which resonated through my body. Anxious as ever, the entire crowd silent, the air horn sounds.

Generally I make my way to the nearest to outside as possible. 14 in proved to be a relatively daunting position, it’s always rough as hell for at least the first half of the swim so the clearer of waters I can get - the better it is.

The better it is, is purely out of fear of being absolutely pumped in the water. I’m not sure what made me change my mind but about 100m in I just thought to myself, "fuck it, sit in" and I did my best to use my elbows as make shift bumpers. Fortunately there weren’t too many people drifting left and right and I didn’t get receive too many feet grabs within the first 200m. As the pack began to narrow and line up for the battle of the first buoy I began to be knocked around a bit. I did my best to stand my ground and do mini surges to keep my elbows at other athletes’ eye levels rather than the other way around but I soon lost a fight for a position. I copped an elbow to the eye, stuck my head up and got the returning windmill of an arm straight to the cheekbone. This rattled me a bit and I fell back a body length, in a panicked rush I swam across 2-3 athletes and got to the inside and clear of the mayhem.

Rounding out lap one was far more settled than the initial 300m. It was, however, relatively chaotic nonetheless. I held my position and found myself running out of the water after lap one, at about mid-pack. After I rounded the turning buoy on land I darted to the left and changed sides as I ran back into the water to dive in.
Of course this was a great tactical move for the one buoy we turned left at. The rest of them were right-hand turns so it was an error that did not help me for the rest of lap 2. Fortunately, I swam well and moved up a tiny bit.

Running into transition was not treated with as much haste as I usually would because I knew I was close to the main pack. I did not know there was a small breakaway group of 8, but the run to transition would not have seen me gain 25 odd seconds.

I jumped on the bike and railed myself for the first 5 or so minutes so that the weaker riders could not get an easy tow. Eventually a large pack formed and we weren’t working well at all. It was quite windy so nobody wanted to pull turns into the wind. There were long and solid turns made and short bomb-like attacks happening quite frequently and it was not helping our group gain any time on the break.

I was trying to be conservative all the while throwing in a few turns to keep the pace even and rich but it wasn’t fruitful. Halfway through lap 3 I found myself leading into the U-turn into the headwind. My roll wasn’t far from the U-turn so I hit it pretty hard and accelerated solidly out. A Japanese athlete stayed with me but we opened up a 2-3m gap just from the turn. Initially I didn’t think much of it but shortly after it opened up to about 10m and nobody was doing anything about it. The Japanese athlete came around me to pull a turn and I turned to see what was going on, we had opened a small gap and nobody looked to be doing anything about it. As I rolled back through to take another turn I found myself dropping lower and lower on the cassette and ramping up the pace.

350...380...420...480...550... All of a sudden I was pushing almost 600 watts. No one was on my wheel and I could tell I was closing the 20 seconds or so gap to the front group. It was into a tailwind so I knew that they would be hooking, but I had an opportunity and the way the pack was working; I knew I might regret not taking it.
After a couple of minutes it levelled out to about 500 watts and I was grinding in as low a gear as I could without dropping below 90rpm.
As I was nearing the exit of the highway I knew as soon as I took the left hand bend the crosswind would make me pop something ridiculous. So I dropped another gear and buried myself again.

I came into the left hand bend way to hot and as I exited I came within centimetres of the median strip. It gave me a slight rush of adrenaline and I hopped out of the saddle and sprinted. It was a short 300-400m stretch of road until another left hand bend and subsequent block headwind.

It took some serious grit to close the final 15-20m but I got on just after I hit the head wind.

It took a fair bit out of me so I spent the next half lap trying to recover. I could tell the group was working well so I wanted to start rolling as soon as I could.
I did a turn or two on the 4th lap, was gearing up to begin rolling and tried to take a gel but unfortunately I dropped it. Nonetheless I jumped in and did what I could to keep the group motivated.

We rolled really well for the next lap and a bit but into the headwind we began to fall apart.
Not long after that the main pack must have gotten into a rhythm and they caught up.
As they did a lot of athletes began to roll around our group. I was fairly cooked but I knew I had to stay near the front at least. So I picked it up and went around on the nearest wheel that came past.

The next few laps were pretty up and down. Same thing, nobody wanted to work into the headwind but through the technical sections there were intentional attacks to panic the athletes at the back. However, it would soon bunch up again.

It was quite manic coming down the long tailwind assisted straight for the final time. Everybody wanted a good position and it wasn’t going to change much after we exited the highway.
I did my best to stay near the front but some dodgy moves were made and I found myself about mid pack. I knew I might have a chance on the narrower roads, the crosswind meant people would be putting it in the gutter on the left. So if I attacked up the right I could make a few positions, and so I did.
I still didn’t enter transition very high up which was detrimental but there wasn’t much more I could have done.

Staying composed is something I’ve finally picked up so my T2 was smooth and fast. I headed out onto the run at a quick but build-able pace.

It was tough watching athletes gradually move away from me throughout the first 2km. I knew that I had to let it go if I were to run well. I could feel the strain on my left plantar fascia as I went in any direction other than straight so I had to be carful around the corners and bends. I would lose a bit of time at each bend but it was crucial to take it easier in order to actually finish without doing some damage.
Before long they began to pop and over the next 3km I was beginning to pick up places. I found myself running with and taking turns into the headwind with an athlete from the Czech Republic, we were both running a smart race and made a lot of ground over the 2nd half of the run.

With about 1.5km to go he attacked and it was just after I had taken a turn. It was also into a head wind so he timed it perfectly and put a gap into me that was enough for me to lose contact. I knew I could keep pushing as it was into the headwind so I back off and built toward another Japanese athlete just ahead.

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I sat on him for about 5 seconds and realised I couldn’t do this for long and went around. He jumped on me despite my best efforts and sat there the whole way in the headwind until the final U-turn. I tried peeling off but he wouldn’t come through, I didn’t want to slow down too much to force him to take a turn so I just pushed at the highest sustainable pace as possible.

As we turned and began the final 600-800m stretch to the finish he came around and kept pushing and building until eventually he managed a to open a small gap. With about 200m to go I kicked again and tried going around but he had another gear as well. We were gaining on the Czech Republic athlete too but unfortunately I narrowly missed edging in front of the both of them.

I ended up in a solid 15th to round out a successful year. A lot has been learned and I’ve had some great results and some great educational experiences concerning racing. I’m looking forward to doing it all again next year on an even bigger stage.

Huge thanks to the network of people and companies that allow me to represent them on a world class level.

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2016 Chengdu World Cup

The months preceding Chengdu had left me feeling slightly down on myself. However, shimmers of good form had begun to arise.
After pulling out, basically due to fatigue, on my 5th race in 5 weeks - I wasn't feeling very confident. However, at the very same race a glimmer of hope had shone through. 
Over the past few years my run has been a weakness and it's something I've been working tirelessly on with our strength and conditioning coach, Harry Brennan, and coach, Danielle.
Each week since the beginning of base training in November I have been feeling stronger and more confident with my run, all the while getting stronger on the swim and bike too.
Chengdu was a breakthrough performance and I finally ran how I do in training. I know I shouldn't be hung up on the run but seeing as it is a weakness I'm stoked to be reassured that it's definitely coming along.
I only had 3 weeks between the 5th race weekend and Chengdu. So basically, just enough time to recover, get a two week block in and taper.
Things were looking really good in training, Danielle set a plan in motion slightly different to normal. It's something she had been planning for a while, and we executed it perfectly with the help of Harry and the Victorian Institute of Sports, Sports Scientists - Rod Siegel and Alex Bauer.
Once we arrived in Chengdu I was feeling slightly sore from a sharpen-up-session on the track, more than likely amplified from the long haul flights, but I did my best to relax and not let it affect my prep, mentally.
I had been completing the sessions target paces, watts and times etc. so that at least helped me stay calm with the tightness I was feeling.
Race morning crept up quite quickly which I was both really happy with and really annoyed with. I was unsure whether my preparation was going to be enough but I kept reminding myself that I had more than just 2 weeks behind me.
Of recent times I have been leaving the warm up procedures till later so I have less time to sit around and waste nervous energy. This enables me to focus on visualising the start-line-to-first-buoy, and focus getting what I need done during the warm ups.
Not sparing a second to think about scenarios and outcomes of the race has proven to be beneficial for me. 
After the swim warm up I went and took my wetsuit off and jogged back over the the athletes line up. At this time all the nerves and anxiousness begin to creep up on me. I did my best to stay composed and remain focused on that first buoy.
The names begun being called out and before long I was jogging along the pontoon to the start line.
I had all of about 3 seconds to assess the start and who was where. I could see that the better swimmers were off to the right. Although, there were less athletes on the left and a huge gap in the middle - which is pretty standard.
I chose the left side because I knew it would be an absolute shit fight trying to get out quick enough to then move over and get the inside line around the buoy(s). Being on the outside of the buoys is a sure fire way to lose many places in the swim.
I feel that this tactic worked really well for me, throughout the swim I could tell I was closing gaps to athletes by being on the inside.
Another thing I noticed is that I was accelerating more at different times, when necessary, which shows that I'm handling the change of pace work we are doing.
Coming out of the water I knew I wasn't near the front, so I ran through quite hard to try and gain time. I made up a few places and would have shaved off a few seconds to the group I was to eventually be with.

Running out of transition with my bike, as always I checked in front of me and set myself up for the most free line and went absolutely nuts once I jumped on the Basso.
For those number crunching frothers - straight out of 1500m of swimming pretty damn hard my peak power for roughly the first 3 minutes was ~400 watts. At 67 kegs. Painful, but definitely one thing I pride myself on being able to do. Urgency is always key. 
After that, things cooled down and I managed to remain in a mind-numbing position for most of the ride. With exceptions, moments after gel intake. I did roll a few turns here and there but I knew if I were to run well and in turn do everything I could to help myself with World Championship selection - I had to keep a lid on it.
Where it mattered I was either near or on the front and I remember saying to myself a few times that I wouldn't be surprised if there's an accident around that corner.
Lo and behold on two occasions there was, so I was happy with my positioning to say the least.
Rolling around on the final lap things always get a lot more sketchy so positioning was important and I made sure I was never getting boxed in and shelled to the back. I managed to dismount in 4th or 5th, I think. That meant running through transition was less about haste and more about nailing the process. I got to my rack and slotted the wheel in well, took off my helmet and threw it toward the box. Unfortunately I missed but I carried on with the process and once I had my shoes on I quickly ducked to the other side of my bike and put my helmet in the box.
Despite the minor error I was still out onto the run in about 5th, 3rd or so from our pack. Two athletes had broken away roughly halfway through the bike.
I quickly went to the front and was setting the pace. I wanted to be as comfortable as I could be and I find that comfort by setting my pace. I was holding back slightly and I kept telling myself to be conservative - especially because it was like kilometre 1 of 10. I was feeling really good but I knew I still had a way to go.
I basically lead for the first 2km until Wian Sullwald came up beside me. We ran shoulder to shoulder until basically 4km.

Running down the straight to complete lap 2 of 4 is when I found myself a few positions back, in about 4th in my group. We had caught one of the two athletes that broke away so essentially I was 5th at the time.
After lap two I was still feeling quite comfortable. I had to keep telling myself to relax, stay composed and hold my technique together. This definitely helped me get through the 3rd lap.
As we rounded the u-turn to head out onto the 4th and final lap a few of the athletes from behind crept to the front and upped the pace slightly. This is when a gap began to open up. Pevtsov of Azerbaijan had broken from our group and was 10 or so meters up the road. Followed by Wian, Ron Darmon and Martin Van Reil. Then another 2 meters I was doing my best to remain composed and hang on. I was tense and that was having an impact on my technique so I relaxed and let my legs move more freely and before I knew it I had bridged back up and we were meters from the final u-turn.

As we neared it I accelerated, not by choice. It just happened. I went around and remember thinking f*** that was way too soon, what have I done!
However a further 400-500m later I was still on the front driving the pace. This made me realise that everyone else was hurting as much as I was.
I lead through the chicane section and onto the final straight, this is when I knew the attacks would start. First Martin Van Riel went and nobody else came through. Halfway down the straight Ron Darmon and Luke Wilian came around me too as well as another athlete - I can't remember who.
Once Luke and Ron came around I said to myself that I can hang on to them - I accelerated slightly and got in contact with them. After about 100m sitting on Luke's shoulder I glanced to the left and saw Danielle and made out the words "come on matty hold on".
At that moment all I can remember is thinking that this already hurts, immensely, but I'm not just holding on. So I sprinted around Luke and Ron, and was gaining on the third guy very quickly. I didn't give the u-turn into the finish straight a single thought and I hit it at full speed, I went super wide and lost a meter or so on 4th place.
As soon as I was able to straighten up I went straight back into full gas and didn't stop until I was face down on the ground over the finish line. It was by far the best I had ever felt running in a race and I left absolutely everything out there.

I only found out the next day that I was only 1 second off getting on the podium, but I had no idea in the moment. I was just going as hard as I could, and my best on the day was 4th. 
I'm already looking forward to the next training block and the races to come. But for now my body needs a tiny bit of down time. Back to the illustrious Central Coast for a week or so 
I want send a thank you to our support at the Victorian Institute of Sport. The staff and facilities are undoubtably unparalleled and they've most certainly helped me improve. We may have a tight knit group within the triathlon program but we're pushing each other everyday and it's a dream come true to be a part of it all.
Also a huge thanks to my family. I know they're always proud of me but it's nice to get a result that I can be as proud of as they always are.

No Expectations, Only a Burning Desire.

Atmosphere Nepean Triathlon 2015

Considering the history that would be behind the veil of Australia's oldest triathlon it almost feels like a privilege to be able to attend this event. Let alone compete in the professional men's race as history is being made.

I'd always dreamt of doing the Nepean Triathlon at the end of a season. There is something extremely enticing about entering a non-drafting event where you still race against guys you have been competing against for years in the draft legal format.

Timing was always an issue for me when the Nepean triathlon came around. Coming home from a long European stint physically and mentally worn down, the last thing I felt like doing was continuing training solo at home for another month or more to then jump into another race equivalent to World Cup level of exertion.

Admittedly it is far from a World Cup; in terms of the depth of athletes. However, in terms of exertion it's certainly is equivalent. At least I thought so anyway.

It seems as though the non-drafting scene is a game of strengths. With the exception of Jan Frodeno of course, it appears as though you need to play to what you're best at in order to perform to your potential.

Every now and again in draft-legal races I find myself going easier than a maximum-sustainable-effort over the given distance, especially in the water and on the bike. I suppose you could say there are higher-highs and lower-lows in terms of how much it hurts. With non-drafting it's just a different kind of hurt, more levelled and consistent. Which I wasn't used to.

Pre race training in Brisbane prepared me for a hard swim. As soon as the whistle blew I pulled through hard and began sprinting...for longer...and longer...and longer.

Ben Shaw was right on my hip, eventually I began to fade a tiny bit and he noticed this and shot off to the left where Aaron Royle and Ryan Fisher were ahead and gaining. Without a second guess I darted straight across and sat on Ben's hip.

I was slipping further and further back and by the time we'd gone round the first buoy and again the second, I had dropped to Ben's feet. I had gone absolutely mad at the start and it was beginning to affect me as the swim dragged on. We were approaching 300 or so meters to go and all I can remember saying to myself don't you dare f***ing drop off now. Like I said about strengths earlier, I knew I had to play to this so I pushed harder than I ever have in a swim to maintain contact.

Coming out of the water I had dropped off about a meter, knowing that fisher and Ben are both strong riders, I knew could miss them by a matter of seconds if I didn't get sorted and consequently have to expend a lot more energy to catch back up. So I ran through transition and got to my bike as quickly as possible, and I managed to jump on right next to them.

We went out pretty solid and tried to gain on and gap as much as we could to athletes ahead and behind respectively. It was tough to gauge whether or not we were doing so. At about 30 minutes into the bike we saw Aaron heading back and, after we turned, Matt Pellow and Jake Birtwhistle on the chase pretty close behind.

There was a certain element of complacency within our group, we didn't necessarily want to rail ourselves but none of us wanted to get caught. Eventually we were caught by Jake and Matt ultimately because of the lack of will to dig deep on the bike. That being said it was still a tough ride considering we weren't allowed to draft off each other so as much as we were relatively complacent we still rode strong-ish.

After Jake and Matt bridged up things became a little cruisy. Eventually Jake moved toward the front to which that ignited some motivation and fisher began to roll up as well. Eventually Matt got sick of sitting and went to the front and pushed the pace as we headed into T2.

The dismount wasn't as manic as most races we do but there was still a sense of urgency and we all shuffled around and ended up dismounting quite close.

As we were running to our racks Jake almost parked up in my spot, I laughed on the inside and said "that's mine man"

The struggle of having half the field in Asics!

Any who. As we ran out I knew that having the u23 world champ hot on our heels meant it was going to be a quick 10k from the get-go.

He passed me as we were running over the bridge and his long legs got the better of mine as he descended the other side. Jake quickly caught up to Ben and fish and I was holding pace about 20m back. Eventually Ben began to fade and I caught him by the 2km mark. As we approached 5km, much to my surprise I hadn't lost much time on Jake and fish. I had started out fairly conservatively so with that in mind and because I was feeling strong I kept telling myself I can hold them there, which was roughly 30m ahead.

I had no idea where the chase group was at and if anyone was gaining on me so I just kept looking forward and running as hard as I could. With about 1 kilometre to go I began to feel myself fading, at this point I gazed back and noticed a black figure which I knew to be Brendan Sexton.

I had a moments hesitation and almost confided in an easier pace. Thinking that Brendan was too far back to catch me, I almost let auto pilot take over to cruise me in. But knowing that when he is having a good day he can run like the wind I regained focus and didn't take any chances. I pulled myself together and pushed to maintain the pace I'd held for the past 9km.

It wasn't imperative for me to have a good race at Nepean, ultimately I just had a burning desire to prove to myself that world championships was just an off day. In the end I feel like I did just that so I am reasonably content.

All in all I was pretty stoked with how I performed and it has made me all the more excited to head to Noosa for the final race of this season.

Gatorade Race 3

Following a short lapse in running, due to a mere overestimate to readiness-for
-progression, I found myself lining up on the shores of Melbourne's Elwood beach for race 3 in the Gatorade Triathlon Series.

Among preparations for the short term goals it was decided, quite uncertainly, that I would enter for this race. Only, with conditions.
Considering the little niggle I had, it was a question of whether or not it would be worth racing. I desperately wanted to have a race before I headed to Devonport for the Australian Standard Distance Championships so eventually Danielle gave me an ultimatum. Either throw elastic laces (or leave normal laces) into joggers for the run, or I wouldn't be racing. So off I went to Rebel Sport in search for orange elastics to match my new Kayano's.

Unfortunately I missed registration on the days prior to Sunday so I rocked up under assurance that I'd be fine entering on the day. To my pleasant surprise, I entered without any dramas.

As goes the old adage "what can go wrong, will go wrong". Due to no registration catastrophe I was concerned what would go wrong. So, I found myself setting up transition with Kayano's on feet staring at my transition area thinking that something was up. I looked to my feet and back to the bare grass and said
It was bound to happen, this morning's first mistake has been made. Fortunately I had enough time to jog then put shoes in transition.
Lo and behold concentration was the cause of drama #2
Of course it wouldn't be normal to be without a #3. That one just came down to pure idiocy.

Despite leaving it a bit late I managed to get in a long enough swim warm up and before I knew it we were walking up the beach with a clock displaying 2:30 till go time.
We lined up and filtered through to the starting area and I picked my spot off to the right. Minimal chop, current and the sheer lack of numbers in the field meant that starting place would be dependant on where the strongest swimmers went. That, there was few of so Pete Kerr, Ryan Fisher and myself were far right and slightly on the inside of the buoy so a quick start was crucial in order to merge in front rather than having to charge through the guts of the field.

#2 - Concentration
No clear indication (from my recall) was given about a start being imminent so there I was standing more so upright with a short bend in my front leg.
The horn went and I did the classic elbows up and lean back as I attempted moving forward. I Found myself at the back with no direct path through anyone so I did my best to follow Pete. As we started swimming I got myself between athletes and on Pete's. Knowing how he swims in the open water I wasn't panicking, I just needed to stick to his feet.
Not long into it I got a glimpse of where Fisher was up the front and I knew I had to get closer to him so I began making my way around the inside of the field. By the time we got the the first buoy I was sitting comfortably on Fisher's hip.

I figured the majority of the pack would still be on us so I didn't look behind after the first buoy.
As we rounded the second one, I had a look and saw we had about a meter between us and Ben Anderson. We were cruising along quite comfortably so I thought I would try and go around Fisher and take over for a bit, as I did we were coming up to a sighting buoy and I was at his hip. With enough room to squeeze between him and the buoy I continued swimming up to the front and all of a sudden he shot to the right and forced me in the direct path of the buoy so I had to quickly manoeuvre around it and as I came back I figured it was his way of saying
Don't worry, I've got this.
So I found his feet again and sat there till we hit the shore.


Running through to our bikes wasn't very rushed, I was just trying to focus on the processes of transition. Once I got to my bike I stripped the wetsuit down to my knees and continued getting it off by the usual lifting one leg after the other and standing on the wetsuit. Whilst doing so, putting on and clipping up my helmet.
Fisher managed to get out quicker than me so I found myself sprinting all the way to the mount line to try catch up lost time. Once I passed the mount line I swung my right leg over and pushed off the ground with my left and tensed as usual to reduce the shocked of impact.
No matter how many times you do it there is always that moment of uncertainty for the future of your family jewels.
I accidentally slipped half of my right foot into the shoe, I either had to pull it out and sit it on top or grab the strap and put my foot in. So I lost a bit more time trying to put my foot in while moving at quite slow speeds.
Eventually I got it in and began sprinting up to Fisher. I saw him looking back waiting for me to catch, so without a seconds thought I yelled, Let's go, as I was meter's away from shooting past.
He jumped out of the saddle and eased his way onto my wheel as I came around.
I glanced back to see if he was on and also who was chasing. I saw one athlete behind us and I wasn't too sure of who it would be. There was no chance I was going let anyone get a free ride so I began ramping it up and settled into a solid pace.
It wasn't communicated but we both knew that given at least 10km of rolling turns as well as no ground being made from the chase packs that they would eventually switch off.

I wasn't too sure if we would extend our lead by much but the idea of this race was to just go for it from the very start so Fisher and I just put our heads down and held a solid pace.
Before we got the the first turn around I was making my way around to pull another turn and I heard Fisher say, sorry mate, I'm ******.
This didn't bother me I just figured I'd sit on the front till he wanted to come around or just call him through for a turn when I needed it. So throughout the next 15km that's what happened. I tried to make his turns on the downhills and flatter sections as it would have been easier, mentally at least, to push himself and feel like he is getting something out of his effort speed wise. Nevertheless, whenever he came through he made it count.

Surely enough a 40 second gap at 5km stretched out to 1:10 at 10km. And through to roughly 2 and a half minutes by the end of the bike.

#3 - Idiocy
As we came up the the final u-turn, 100 or so metres from the dismount line, I had my feet on top of my shoes and between the u-turn the left hand turn into the car park adjacent to transition I had swung my right leg over ready to dismount. I remember looking at fisher and thinking, shit he's leaving it late.
As it turns out, we had to round the corner before we dismounted. So inside leg down and leg poised ready to jump off I was coming into the left hand turn. I panicked and threw my leg back over, turned the corner like a beginner and made it to the mount line slower than when I mounted the bike only 29 minutes ago.

So Fisher had opened up a little gap at this point, and of course - it got worse.
The run through to transition was ok, when I got there I went to put my bike, front end in first like usual. But the finish chute and fencing was blocking my front wheel so I couldn't rack it. I pulled back and turned the bars to try make it fit but that didn't work either so I had to pull my bike back out  and spin it around and put it in the other way. By the time I had done all that Fisher had his helmet off and shoes on.
I got my shoes on eventually and as I started running I noticed he had at least 100m on me. I didn't want to sprint out to try catch up but I went solid enough to make a little bit of ground..

As planned Fisher pulled up about 400m in where Danielle was waiting. So I continued on running.
In the back of my mind I knew there was no chance of the other athletes catching me. Even though I had my joggers on I still wanted to have a hard hit out to see how I'm running off the bike so I went out strong. Once I hit the turn around at about 2.5km I began to pick it up a little more.
I ran a solid 400m after the turn around before I saw Jesse Featonby running toward me.
This cemented the thought of not being caught so I put my mind to my technique.
For the first time in God knows how long I was feeling strong, comfortable and in control.

Feeling like I did the week prior to this race and finishing off like I did gave me a great deal of satisfaction. Knowing that the months of hard work, as tired as I was, has paid off.
It had given me a slight confidence boost for the Australian Standard Distance Championships the following weekend in Devonport.
It was good to dust off the cobwebs at the SuperSprint event and get my mind back on track and thinking about the finer details of racing for D'port.
For the opportunity I would like to thank SuperSprint, perfectly timed event and perfectly run. Can't wait to race again in the great city of Melbourne under the organisation of SuperSprint.

Fast & Furious F1 Format

Not long into the new year a series of races in elimination format gave me a chance to open up all cylinders and see what I could produce.

The historically recognised racing format, TriF1, has made a triumphant return and fittingly - race two was help at the Formula 1 track in Phillip Island.
As it was so many years ago we competed in a super sprint style eliminator where there were 3 rounds of a 250m swim, 6km bike and a 1.6km run. and roughly 45 minute breaks between each.

I wasn’t sure how to approach this format but I figured it was basically a training session so I’d approach it as I would any other tough brick session.
For race 1 I was fairly relaxed, there was only 15 athletes so I knew getting to the first buoy wouldn’t be a mix between a WWE royal rumble and WWII. Of course I was wrong in thinking that… I ended up swimming on a 45 degree angle for at least 3 quarters of the swim, avoiding the heels and fists. the  final 100 is meters I managed to get onto the inside and found a bit of clear water to bring myself back toward the front.

the run to transition was frantic, I was a bit down from the leaders and I knew 6km wouldn’t be much to catch and recover so I ran through transition and out to the mount line as fast as I could without risking a stack around the corners.
as I jumped on the front pack was no farther than 50m ahead so I used whoever was around me and we made our way up.
Not much happened throughout the next 5 laps around the tight hotdog course, I wasn’t sure what to expect so I did what I had to and got a feel for the intensity.
As we neared the dismount line everyone was still together, the usual attacks were made in order to dismount first, as expected, and I waited for my moment and managed to get off second and ran through to my spot in the position. My transition wasn’t fantastic and I ended up running out of T2 in about 4th.
Heading out to the first turn I saw Marcel just in front and I was holding pace with him, I looked down momentarily and as I glanced up he was a slightly smaller figure in the distance and was noticeably moving much quicker. I knew I wasn’t going to catch him so I focused on Chronis and reeled him in. Once I made that gap I noticed Brendan Sexton was still hot on my heels and Marcel had finished extending his lead, I maintained a 50m gap to Marcel down to finish lap one. I was feeling pretty strong but I knew I still couldn't make up that time so I did my best to hold pace as well as being slightly conservative in case I needed to have a sprint-off with Brendan.

Nothing much changed on the return to the final u-turn and I was waiting for an attack but none came. Brendan and I rounded the cones and got back up to speed heading into the finish and suddenly his foot steps were getting fainter and fainter. I knew I was in the clear for a 2nd place finish with about 200m to go so I kept pushing through to the line.

Following a light jog and resetting of transition round 2 was upon us.
I was expecting a heavy arm and fatigued feeling in my arms as soon as we got going again but as we lined up in the deep water and the whistle went I noticed I was feeling strong so I went hard and didn’t slow up.
I hit the first buoy in second and held that place around the next and into shore. I jumped up quickly and managed to end up leading out and through to T1.
As we got through I was second to mount the bike, I knew there would be other athletes behind me so I didn’t drop the hammer straight away. Everyone stayed together and almost rolled turns evenly throughout the first half but I wasn’t letting anyone take it easy so I began to ramp it up on the fourth lap. Not long after that a break had formed and there was four of us working together. the pack held a gap for the remainder of the 4th lap but began to look at each other after than and eventually lost a fair bit of time.
Coming into T2 I was 3rd and ran out in the same place. Again, I aimed to catch up to Chronis and once I did I figured I’d see if I could take the lead and hold it.
By the first turn I had created a small gap and didn’t want anyone catching me so I picked it up on the downhill.
As I hit the u-turn I looked ahead and saw I’d extended my lead so I held the same perceived effort and stretched out my lead over Chronis, Declan and Brendan.
It wasn’t much of a win considering it was round 2 of an eliminator but it was good to finally play to my strengths and put something together and end up coming on top in a pretty tough heat.

I knew I had gone quite hard but judging off the feeling of race 2 following race 1 I knew two things. Everyone was hurting and that I can still recover enough to perform well after an intense 15 minute session.

“When you’re all ready we’ll get going”… one of the more strange things I’ve heard a starter say. Anyway, eventually we had all lined up again for the final time.
Before I knew it, we were off. I felt the same as I did in race 2 so I managed to get a good position and hold feet throughout the swim. I wasn’t necessarily being conservative but the swim did feel slightly easier. By the time I realised this we didn’t have much further to swim so I stayed put.
The run into T1 was faster than any of the other 4 transition runs so I knew it was going to be full throttle on the bike.

I mounted in about 2nd or 3rd and took time to see who was in the pack. I wanted to really smash this bike and make it as tough as I could seeing as it was a training session.
After about two laps the group had been split up and I took time to get to the rear of my group and as I did an attack was attempted. i sat back and waited to see who was going. eventually Brendan and Declan had ramped it up and there were now three away, after the u-turn to begin lap 3 I attacked around the group and caught up the break, I knew I couldn't just sit up and start rolling when it was my turn so I immediately went around and everyone got on my wheel.
I’m not sure when it happened but starting lap 4 there was only 3 of us. Brendan strategically lead into the u-turn and started us off on lap 4, He had created a 2 meter gap from an outstanding turn but by the time I’d caught him he’d slowed up too much and I went past. I put my head down and realised I he was out of the saddle and he wasn’t quite on my wheel, so I stayed seated but dropped it down a gear and ramped up the pace. After the turn I noticed I had a gap into a head wind so I used that to my advantage and pushed as hard as I could. Starting the final lap I had about a 15 second gap and I didn’t want to slow up. I jumped off the bike with about the same gap and lead out onto the run.
I was seriously feeling the ride in my legs, I knew I was going to struggle but I didn’t think it was going to be as much as I did. the run was pretty average but I just tried holding my form together and I ended up finishing 4th. It wasn’t my happiest moment but nonetheless I’m glad I did what I did because at the end of the day it was training for me and as usual I put in 110% in all 3 races.

TriF1 is an exciting format and it really provides a spectator friendly event so I’m glad I had the opportunity to be apart of the return of the F1 series.

It was the first triathlon I'd done on my Avanti Corsa DR and it performed incredibly well on the tight course. I cant wait to race on it again.
Huge thank you to the organisers and volunteers for making it such a great event.