Hawaii The Long Road to Queen K Highway Part 1

So let the extraordinary journey begin.

Well after a nice three week lay off after my Iron Man New Zealand , it was time to set my sights on Hawaii and get back into training.

The next question was what to do. Do I continue to train and coach myself or do I look outside for help?

I was very lucky to have my physio Katie Flatters from Shepparton move down to Melbourne for work at Physiohealth. Katie introduced the idea of talking to Mat Tippett (Captain Triathlon) from Elite Triathlon Performance Australia (EPTA) with which physiohealth is affiliated. Mat contacted me the week before l left to N.Z and I told him my grand plan which was to win the race!

After a good discussion I slightly altered my game plan which luckily enough on the day all come together.

The day I arrived home Mat was again on the phone to me and I hit it off with him so from that day forwards I always going to move to having a coach. Problem one of my journey solved.

Phase 1 Strength -

So let the training begin.

First thing on the agenda was a Run and Bike Screening at Physiohealth with Katie and Poly.
Problem number one my Glutes don’t work running or on the bike. Problem two my core is no where near as strong as it needs to be to produce a fast bike and run split. The positive side of this is I still had the second fastest amateur bike split of the day followed by a decent run spilt at N.Z so things can only get better.

St Kilada Gatorade Race

I was given my exercises which at first I thought were very unusual and very different and wondered what are these going to do but followed the process. Every 3 weeks the exercises have evolved and now after 9 weeks I feel like I have a new and improved body. It works in a totally different way. My glutes are activating strongly and my core is extremely strong and hard and my running style has totally changed.

First evidence of this was at the last St Kilda Gatorade race only four weeks N.Z ironman. I had only been on physio exercise program for three weeks and only one week back into running training since New Zealand. Sub 18 minute run for 5 km off the bike and fastest run for the day in my age group. Not bad for some one that for the previous 3 months had been training for distance not speed.

Second proof was the Puffing Billy race, 49 min flat for the 13.2 km and 37 overall out of 3200. A lot of these guys are not triathletes they are runners. Faster average pace than my best 10 km split by six second per km and not only was it longer distance, it was all hills no flat at all.

My bike has always been my strength. Thanks to Leigh at Leigh Egan Cycles, all the ergo sessions we did even made it more of a weapon in N.Z which is what I based my race plan around.

The ergo sessions fitted with Mat’s approach to bike training so I purchased a Lemond Revolution from Leigh and between what I have learnt from Leigh Egan in all the ergo classes and from Mat’s new approach to ergo, my plan is to get to the next level on the bike and go even faster.

In four weeks on Mat’s strength phase program I have already increased my functional power threshold (FTP) by 5%, so things are headed in a positive direction.

One point I would like to make is if you want to be strong and ride fast, hills are good for pacific training but the time and petrol we waste driving to find hills could be put towards ergo classes or buying an ergo trainer. Used with a quality program and you will see more benefit I’m sure.

Well I now move into my next training phase which is going to be even bigger on the bike so I will be excited to do another FPT test after it.

For this phase I will be in South Korea to see how my body is going to cope with the acclimatization and will also bring some hard steep hills into the training program as well as the ergo trainer session.

So looking forward to the challenges to come.

Hawaii The Long Road to Queen K Highway Part 2

So the extraordinary journey continues

My journey has come to the halfway point with 12 weeks to go till the big day.  I can’t believe how fast the last 12 weeks have flown by.  Feels like only yesterday I was sitting back thinking I have 24 weeks to go plenty of time. 

Like every athlete I start to doubt have I done enough.  Am I going as well as I wanted to be?  The answer is probably no but this is probably a good thing with 12 weeks to go.  If I was flying now I probably couldn’t hold that form till race day.  To bring my mind to rest I go back and check my diary for last 12 weeks.  194 hours training completed in last 12 weeks.  So far Swim 117km Bike 3500km and Run 290km.  Wow mind is at rest in 12 weeks leading up to N.Z race swim and run were basically the same but I have done twice as much on the bike and I still have 12 weeks to go.

I have some other exciting news happening.  I have been lucky enough to pick up a few sponsors so I’m currently in the process of making my own race kit to wear in Hawaii.  This will allow me to show off my sponsors brands and support them for all there help.  So far I have two new guys on the on the scene EPTA (Elite Triathlon Performance) and Physio Health as well as my original Leigh Egan Cycles.  

Mat Tippet at EPTA  has devoted a lot of extra time at pool with swim stroke correction and on the phone multiple times a week making sure we are both happy with the ways things are going and my body and head are both where we want them to be .

Katie Flatters and Poly Dhar at Physiohealth have created my new stronger body as well as kept my body in the best shape we can as I punishes it week after week with the big training load.  There expertise is amazing and it seems there is nothing they can’t fix.

 Leigh Egan has been working with me from the start.  Working with Leigh gave me the confidence and the strength to achieve the smashing bike splits at both Shepp 70.3 and N.Z Ironman.  I couldn’t think of three better sponsor and supporters to have on my side.   Leigh Egan Cycles have proved to me why buying local and having that service and support is so important.   The night before leaving to race Ironman W.A my Di2 electric gears stopped working.  6:30 pm that night I contacted Leigh who was out riding tell him my problem and I needed it fixed before I leave at 6am next morning.  Within an hour Leigh was back at his shop with another bike which he had borrowed to use parts of to get me going.  11 pm that night my bike was fixed and ready to race.  You can’t put a dollar value on that support.

Shepparton Tri Club does an amazing job for a small local community.  I’m extremely happy and excited to be able to represent my local club.  We all need to get behind local clubs so our sport can grow and prosper.  It was hearing about the awesome achievements of local member  such as Miah Franzmann and Anne Maclean that attracted to me this sport.  I just hope my achievement can inspire some people in the same way.   

 I couldn’t think of a better network sponsor and supporters to have on my side.

In the 6 weeks since my last entry there have been plenty of highs and lows.  Not everything has gone exactly to plan.  I had a massive training block planned in Korea.  This was to set up a massive base to build on in the last 12 weeks.

 The morning before I left I did something I have not done for a long time.  I decided to go out and ride with the Leigh Egan famous Area 51 group.  Thought this will be a good chance to see where I’m at as there are plenty of strong guys out there.  Half way around the ride it was on single filed out and everyone hanging on for grim death them all of a sudden that terrible sound.  BANG I looked up and all I could see were bikes going everywhere.  I just had enough time to think No I cant crash this cant happen I have to much to lose then before I knew it,  I was tumbling across the bitumen. 

15 riders had come down in the bunch and only 4 had missed the crash.  There were Bodies and bikes everywhere.  I couldn’t believe what had just happened.  Was I just unlucky probably only the second time in 6 months I had road in a group and here I am with cuts and bruises all over me. 

Actually I was probably the luckiest of all as there were many broken bones and a lot of people worse of than me.  At first I thought this is it my big training block in Korea is over, my knees were swollen up like balloons and I thought I won’t be able to walk tomorrow.  I got home and posted my pics of the crash on facebook.  Within minutes my coach Captain Triathlon (Mat Tippet) was on the phone wondering how I could of done that damage doing an indoor trainer bike session which was on my program (busted).

Not long after, my physio Katie Flatters was also in contact not really impressed with what she had seen either.  Between Mat and Katie we organized some emergency treatment at Physiohealth as I only had 24 hours before I flew out to Korea.  When I walked in I was limping swollen and sore.  Between Katie and Polly I was there for over 2 hours cleaning and re-dressing my wounds.  Checking and straightening back out my body as well using the ice compression machine to reduce the swelling in my knees I walked out feeling 90 % better.  I thought wait till tomorrow though you won’t be able to move.  Come the next morning I woke up got out of bed and couldn’t believe yes I was still a little sore but nothing like I thought I would be it was amazing.  I started to see now how professional athletes can crash then get back up the next day.  They have amazing people like Katie and Polly at Physiohealth looking after them everyday. 

Phase 2 Build Base

The last 6 weeks I have been is a massive base building program.  I told Mat about how I was having 3 weeks of to train and heading to Korea.  This was a good chance to get some big kms in and see how my body coped with the heat and humidity.  Before this Base phase my biggest week ever had been 16 hours in total and biggest bike week 10 hours and total 300km distance.  The week before I left Mat sent through my program to have a look see what I thought.  Wow was my first impression is he serious.  It was 2 big weeks in a row which was around 25 hours in total of training each week.

 The Bike made up the biggest part with 19 hours on the bike each week which adds up to about 550km of hills.  Out of that there were 3 massive sets which included 3 hours of power on the  Mag Trainer.  I have named this set the ball breaker 8* 15min set spinning above cadence of 100 as well as a 2* 20min threshold effort in the middle and at the end.   After spinning that fast for that long your balls are numb and broken. 

A  2 hour hill repeats set followed by 2 hour t.t then on the last day of the week 5 hour t.t set.  I also completed 3 easy 3 hours rides at a higher cadence.  In Korea though bit different to Shep, hard to have a totally easy ride where there are hills every where no flat roads. 

The last day of the 2 weeks after completing 1000km already I was to complete a 140 km t.t set with an extra 3 kilos weighted to my bike.  I asked Mat if the 3 extra kg I had put on since arriving in Korea counted from all the food I had eaten.  He didn’t agree so I added a extra 3 kg of weights to my bike.  I set of my legs feeling flat tired and crap.  It didn’t take long and I started to warm up and my legs were starting to feel ok.    It was a 3 loop course which there was no flat and 2 decent climbs which topped out above 10% and the rest was up and down.  I finished the first lap thinking I had done pretty well after all the km I had in my legs.  I continued on and the further I went the better I felt and the harder I could push.  I negative split the whole 3 laps with the last lap the fastest I had done in the whole 2 weeks by over 3 minutes carrying the extra 3 kg of weight.  I had avg 34km/h and 240 watts which I was super happy with after all the work I had done in the 2 weeks before. 

My running had gone nothing like I had hoped.  After an amazing first 6 weeks of training now my running was basically non existent.  When I crashed I had belted both knees up pretty hard on my cross bar.  This stopped me from running the whole time I was in Korea and set me back about 5 weeks.  Last week was the first time I actually completed my first quality run set.  In this time I couldn’t run I continued doing my strengthen exercise.  To my surprise after basically 5 weeks of no running I hadn’t lost to much of my power and speed and with still 12 weeks to go I’m confident I will be running much better come Hawaii than I ever have been before.

In the last 6 weeks I had traveled down to Melbourne multiple times working with Mat Tippet on my swim stroke.  We did some under water videoing so I could see what was actually going on.  To my surprise my stroke looked nothing like it felt.  1 week after this session I completed the exact same set I did the morning before I seen Mat.  Using the exact same stroke rate I completed the same 5*200m swim set which the morning before I avg 3m 15s this time I held 3m 05s.  I was so happy finally it had clicked and my stroke was a lot more efficient.   After my crash, I was out of the pool for days 10 days and my stroke got sloppy.  I was getting frustrated with my swimming when I was in Korea.  Once home I saw Mat again and within 1 lap he was able to pick up what had changed and head me back in the right direction. 

 Im never going to win the race in the swim but I  do need to be as close as possible so I don’t hurt to burn to much energy on bike early trying to get up to the front.   After having a good chat with Jarrod Mackin 1 of Shepparton’s top open water swimmers, I’m hoping to train 2 times a week with him to help push my swimming along.  This will be extremely challenging but hopefully before I know it, I will be flying up and down the pool.  Which will hopefully have me coming out of the water not at the front but with in chasing distance.

All in all the lost 6 weeks have been an emotional roller coaster with many highs and lows.  The crash really set this off as I couldn’t swim for over a week and very frustrating not being able to run at all for such a long time.  On the high side I completed two epic weeks on the bike and finished strong where on paper I would have thought I would be lucky to push the pedals over.

I found some new limits mentally and physically as well the drain fatigue can put on your body.  Now as we move into the next 6 weeks Build Phase the real works start.  The next 6 weeks is where we are going to really set up what my race will be like.  Luckily enough everything seems to have come back on track last week with swimming and running so the exciting times continue…..