Thought I would put some links to my race reports from the Hawaii Ironman in 2008 on this blog.
Three main links are worth noting.
Race report in pictures:
http://ironmanchris.wordpress.com/2008/10/18/the-hawaii-ironman-experience-in-pictures/
Race report
http://ironmanchris.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/chris-aylen-you-are-an-ironman
Getting a spot in the event
http://ironmanchris.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/the-journey-begins-aloha-lottery-winner/
Cut and paste those links into the browser for the links, else try www.ironmanchris.wordpress.com etc .
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Ironman Western Australia 2010
Having had two very poor IM events in late 2009 (Canada and WA), but a great marathon in between the two of those events, I changed focus and concentrated on doing marathons and ultra marathons in early 2010, finishing two official marathons, the Comrades ultra marathon in South Africa and many other marathon and longer training runs and unofficial events.
2010 also saw my first DNF during the Gold Coast 100km run, when my hips basically seized up and I could barely walk and couldnt get up a set of stairs out on the course. Even I know its time to DNF at that point....I couldnt crawl 45km! (well not in the time limit anyway!).
Unfortunately that injury meant I had substantial time off training and with a miserably wet and cold Melbourne winter, motivation to get out of the central heating to swim, bike or run was at an all time low.
From 23 May til 10 October (20 weeks), I swam a total of 25km, biked a total of 790k and run a total of 367km (of which just over half - 186km - were in Comrades, GC 100 attempt and GC marathon). This was hardly the traiing required to complete an ironman which was just 8 weeks away!!
And then the Hawaii Ironman happened. I watched the event unfold on my PC, reading all the updates, getting caught up in the excitement of the event, with memories back to 2008 when I was out their on the course myself. It was a great result for Australian triathlon and the motivation switch inside me flicked to "on". I had a lot of work to do, my swimming was terrible (1km in 25 mins), I was averaging 25kph on short bike rides and I was having significant trouble with shin splints on the run.
So I needed a plan, a cunning plan, and I decided I would try something different. Conventional ironman training wouldnt work, so I went back to what always worked at school when you had a test coming - you crammed.
So I set about a "balanced cram" program. It had to be balanced as I didnt have time to get injured and recover before race day.
The plan was to increase the cycling first (non weight bearing so would be good for the shins and taking it slow should help the hips), then the running and finally the swimming. There would be no speed work, it was all about getting the distance in the legs.
For the next 7 weeks, my training distances increased sharply:
Swim Bike Run
Week 1 (km) 5.0 78 13
Week 2 2.2 339 30
Week 3 5.0 226 19
Week 4 3.0 323 46
Week 5 5.5 190 37
Week 6 5.7 374 50
Week 7 8.5 134 24
At the start of this block, I thought I might finish, but it would take a bloody long time and I would be a mess. As time went on, I was thinking I would finish, and it would be about 14 hours.
During this 7 weeks I had done three 150k bike rides (one with a 10k run off the bike) and three runs of over 20km (the longest at 28k).
I had a two week taper. Week 7 was the start of it and the distances biked and ran dropped substantially, replaced by more swimming. Week 8 was race week, and there was NO running at all in this week.
Monday of race week was a 4km swim, Tuesday was a travel day, Wed & Thurs 30 min swim on the course in the wetsuit and 30k bike ride, Fri a 10 min swim and that was it.
That taper did mean that Jill and I were able to see some of the local sights around Busselton in the days before the race.
We headed down to some beautiful beaches (below is Bunker Bay)
IMWA is the last event for 2010 and what a year it has been.
And also stopped into a chocolate factory to sample some of their finest!
This was the first year that the World Triathlon Corporation was running all aspects of the event, and they pulled out all stops to make it a good show, including a whizz-bang set up for the welcome party on the Friday night before the event (race day is Sunday).
For the first time in the 7 year history of the event, the finish line would be in the main part of town (not a nearby park as in the previous 6 years). And the finish line area looked great. The run course was a 4 lap course, passing through town each lap, so you got a chance to feel the atmosphere each time before heading back out to the main part of the run course.
And then finally the final preparations were down, and it was time to put the bike and gear bags into transition.
RACE DAY
The forecast for race day was kind, low 20's, mostly cloudy with a chance of light rain/drizzle, and moderate winds. I say kind because it had a blown a gale the previous 5 days, and been 38 C the previous year and was 37C when we arrived on the Tuesday before the race.
A time goal didnt really matter, but I thought given the conditions and how well the cramming training plan had gone, I might be able to do 13.30. Splits to do that would be around 1.20 swim, 10 min T1, 6.30 bike, 10 min T2, 5.20 run.
Swim conditions were good, there was little wind and current, although for the last 500m it seemed that trhe current picked up and was heading out from shore (like it did all week).
Race start was 5.45am, so the alarm went off at 2am to get some breakfast in, and other things out (!) well before I had to go down to transition for body marking etc.
I did a quick warm up swim and had a great view from the front of the field looking back at a sea of swimmers all with their red caps and the crowd behind. Such a gorgeous view. Shame there was no photographer there.
The swim start was good, I placed myself towards the back and didnt get bashed.
The pro field started 15 mins earlier than the age groupers, this is the leading swimmers coming in. Great swimming conditions.
And then at 1.15 and change on the clock, I am out of the water. A great swim, much better than expected.
A nice casual 8 min transition and then its out on the bike for the flat, three lap course. Given I wasnt really racing for a time, I did a full change into clean, dry bike gear in transition.
I also had a much better bike ride than expected. I went through the first lap in 2.05 and than included a stop for a pee. The race drink out on the bike course was Gatorade which the volunteers mix in big vats and fill up bidons (water battles) - as opposed to racing in the US where they just give you the usual pre mixed bottles. The Gatorade seemed a little strong and I was beginning to get stomach issues on the second lap and could feel myself feeling less well. Still I went through the 2nd lap again in 2.05.
At the start of the third lap I stopped for a toilet break, which helped sort my tummy even only "bottom trumpet music" happened and to my great "delight", there are photos of this great occasion!
And I have to say that the farting worked a treat. While the stop probably cost me 3 mins, I rode better on the third lap than the others, and caught and passed the people who were riding around me before the loo stop. Pretty amazing for the third lap to be the quickest but I felt great and my heart rate was right where I wanted it. I finished the bike course in 6.16, with a third lap of 2.06 including the stop and was making more ground on my target time.
Another 8 mins for the bike to run transition for another full clothing change.
The run course is great. Its along the coast and then into town, 4 laps and dead flat.
Below is Luke Bell running on one part of the glorious coastal path. He led off the bike and held on for 4th.
Highlight of the event was the first time win by the gorgeous Kate Bevilaqua.
It wasn't the fact she won that was the highlight, it was HOW she won. Behind on the swim, made ground on the bike and then ran away on the run... only to falter with 2kms to go. Legs gave out and she came to the finish chute area with nothing left. The crowd was going nuts as she grabbed the finish chute railing and hauled herself towards the line, with failing legs underneath her. Unaware whether she was going to (a) make it to the line or (b) whether someone would catch her.
Almost at the finish chute there is a ramp which takes you up to the finish line, and while she tried to walk up it...
Her legs gave out and she crawled over the line. Now that's an awesome finish!!
As for my own run, it started off ok, just doing a walk / run and keeping my heart rate down, but a lack of nutrition on the last lap of the bike (no Gatorade) and the same on the run told and the third lap became a real struggle.
The first lap took about 71 mins, extending to 77 mins on the second lap and then out to 85 mins on the third lap. At the end of the third lap I grabbed my secret weapon from the run special needs bag... an ice cold 1.25 litre bottle of Sunkist (I had a little at the end of the 2nd lap but clearly not enough) so I walked and drank in this orange golden nectar for a while at the start of the fourth lap and felt better. Despite the walking and drinking, the last lap improved to about 81 mins and finally I finished the run in about 5.17, again faster than expected.
Coming through town early on the run
Getting tired but still trundling forward
Coming back through town
And then finally, it was all done, no more laps, no more wristbands to collect and into the finish chute for a DAYTIME ironman finish. Woo hoo! Finish time 13.04.56 which was well under my target time. And I felt great...
And there was a fair bit of pride in this one. From where I was only 8 weeks ago, a 13.05 seemed completely out of the question. But with an effective training plan that worked, and with good race day decisions on pacing myself, it happened beautifully.
Putting this finish into context, I have only broken 13 hours three times before and this was my 18th ironman event. Although this was the third time I have finished between 13 hours and 13.05...., so it was my 6th best result out of 18 tries.
And from where I was only 8 weeks ago, that made me a VERY happy camper...
It was especially pleasing to be able to share the experience of this event with my beautiful girlfriend Jill.
So that's all from Ironman Western Australia 2010. There have been 7 events now at this venue and I have managed to keep the 100% record intact, completing all 7. Roll on 2011 and IM WA number 8.
2010 also saw my first DNF during the Gold Coast 100km run, when my hips basically seized up and I could barely walk and couldnt get up a set of stairs out on the course. Even I know its time to DNF at that point....I couldnt crawl 45km! (well not in the time limit anyway!).
Unfortunately that injury meant I had substantial time off training and with a miserably wet and cold Melbourne winter, motivation to get out of the central heating to swim, bike or run was at an all time low.
From 23 May til 10 October (20 weeks), I swam a total of 25km, biked a total of 790k and run a total of 367km (of which just over half - 186km - were in Comrades, GC 100 attempt and GC marathon). This was hardly the traiing required to complete an ironman which was just 8 weeks away!!
And then the Hawaii Ironman happened. I watched the event unfold on my PC, reading all the updates, getting caught up in the excitement of the event, with memories back to 2008 when I was out their on the course myself. It was a great result for Australian triathlon and the motivation switch inside me flicked to "on". I had a lot of work to do, my swimming was terrible (1km in 25 mins), I was averaging 25kph on short bike rides and I was having significant trouble with shin splints on the run.
So I needed a plan, a cunning plan, and I decided I would try something different. Conventional ironman training wouldnt work, so I went back to what always worked at school when you had a test coming - you crammed.
So I set about a "balanced cram" program. It had to be balanced as I didnt have time to get injured and recover before race day.
The plan was to increase the cycling first (non weight bearing so would be good for the shins and taking it slow should help the hips), then the running and finally the swimming. There would be no speed work, it was all about getting the distance in the legs.
For the next 7 weeks, my training distances increased sharply:
Swim Bike Run
Week 1 (km) 5.0 78 13
Week 2 2.2 339 30
Week 3 5.0 226 19
Week 4 3.0 323 46
Week 5 5.5 190 37
Week 6 5.7 374 50
Week 7 8.5 134 24
At the start of this block, I thought I might finish, but it would take a bloody long time and I would be a mess. As time went on, I was thinking I would finish, and it would be about 14 hours.
During this 7 weeks I had done three 150k bike rides (one with a 10k run off the bike) and three runs of over 20km (the longest at 28k).
I had a two week taper. Week 7 was the start of it and the distances biked and ran dropped substantially, replaced by more swimming. Week 8 was race week, and there was NO running at all in this week.
Monday of race week was a 4km swim, Tuesday was a travel day, Wed & Thurs 30 min swim on the course in the wetsuit and 30k bike ride, Fri a 10 min swim and that was it.
That taper did mean that Jill and I were able to see some of the local sights around Busselton in the days before the race.
We headed down to some beautiful beaches (below is Bunker Bay)
IMWA is the last event for 2010 and what a year it has been.
And also stopped into a chocolate factory to sample some of their finest!
This was the first year that the World Triathlon Corporation was running all aspects of the event, and they pulled out all stops to make it a good show, including a whizz-bang set up for the welcome party on the Friday night before the event (race day is Sunday).
For the first time in the 7 year history of the event, the finish line would be in the main part of town (not a nearby park as in the previous 6 years). And the finish line area looked great. The run course was a 4 lap course, passing through town each lap, so you got a chance to feel the atmosphere each time before heading back out to the main part of the run course.
And then finally the final preparations were down, and it was time to put the bike and gear bags into transition.
RACE DAY
The forecast for race day was kind, low 20's, mostly cloudy with a chance of light rain/drizzle, and moderate winds. I say kind because it had a blown a gale the previous 5 days, and been 38 C the previous year and was 37C when we arrived on the Tuesday before the race.
A time goal didnt really matter, but I thought given the conditions and how well the cramming training plan had gone, I might be able to do 13.30. Splits to do that would be around 1.20 swim, 10 min T1, 6.30 bike, 10 min T2, 5.20 run.
Swim conditions were good, there was little wind and current, although for the last 500m it seemed that trhe current picked up and was heading out from shore (like it did all week).
Race start was 5.45am, so the alarm went off at 2am to get some breakfast in, and other things out (!) well before I had to go down to transition for body marking etc.
I did a quick warm up swim and had a great view from the front of the field looking back at a sea of swimmers all with their red caps and the crowd behind. Such a gorgeous view. Shame there was no photographer there.
The swim start was good, I placed myself towards the back and didnt get bashed.
The pro field started 15 mins earlier than the age groupers, this is the leading swimmers coming in. Great swimming conditions.
And then at 1.15 and change on the clock, I am out of the water. A great swim, much better than expected.
A nice casual 8 min transition and then its out on the bike for the flat, three lap course. Given I wasnt really racing for a time, I did a full change into clean, dry bike gear in transition.
I also had a much better bike ride than expected. I went through the first lap in 2.05 and than included a stop for a pee. The race drink out on the bike course was Gatorade which the volunteers mix in big vats and fill up bidons (water battles) - as opposed to racing in the US where they just give you the usual pre mixed bottles. The Gatorade seemed a little strong and I was beginning to get stomach issues on the second lap and could feel myself feeling less well. Still I went through the 2nd lap again in 2.05.
At the start of the third lap I stopped for a toilet break, which helped sort my tummy even only "bottom trumpet music" happened and to my great "delight", there are photos of this great occasion!
And I have to say that the farting worked a treat. While the stop probably cost me 3 mins, I rode better on the third lap than the others, and caught and passed the people who were riding around me before the loo stop. Pretty amazing for the third lap to be the quickest but I felt great and my heart rate was right where I wanted it. I finished the bike course in 6.16, with a third lap of 2.06 including the stop and was making more ground on my target time.
Another 8 mins for the bike to run transition for another full clothing change.
The run course is great. Its along the coast and then into town, 4 laps and dead flat.
Below is Luke Bell running on one part of the glorious coastal path. He led off the bike and held on for 4th.
Highlight of the event was the first time win by the gorgeous Kate Bevilaqua.
It wasn't the fact she won that was the highlight, it was HOW she won. Behind on the swim, made ground on the bike and then ran away on the run... only to falter with 2kms to go. Legs gave out and she came to the finish chute area with nothing left. The crowd was going nuts as she grabbed the finish chute railing and hauled herself towards the line, with failing legs underneath her. Unaware whether she was going to (a) make it to the line or (b) whether someone would catch her.
Almost at the finish chute there is a ramp which takes you up to the finish line, and while she tried to walk up it...
Her legs gave out and she crawled over the line. Now that's an awesome finish!!
As for my own run, it started off ok, just doing a walk / run and keeping my heart rate down, but a lack of nutrition on the last lap of the bike (no Gatorade) and the same on the run told and the third lap became a real struggle.
The first lap took about 71 mins, extending to 77 mins on the second lap and then out to 85 mins on the third lap. At the end of the third lap I grabbed my secret weapon from the run special needs bag... an ice cold 1.25 litre bottle of Sunkist (I had a little at the end of the 2nd lap but clearly not enough) so I walked and drank in this orange golden nectar for a while at the start of the fourth lap and felt better. Despite the walking and drinking, the last lap improved to about 81 mins and finally I finished the run in about 5.17, again faster than expected.
Coming through town early on the run
Getting tired but still trundling forward
Coming back through town
And then finally, it was all done, no more laps, no more wristbands to collect and into the finish chute for a DAYTIME ironman finish. Woo hoo! Finish time 13.04.56 which was well under my target time. And I felt great...
And there was a fair bit of pride in this one. From where I was only 8 weeks ago, a 13.05 seemed completely out of the question. But with an effective training plan that worked, and with good race day decisions on pacing myself, it happened beautifully.
Putting this finish into context, I have only broken 13 hours three times before and this was my 18th ironman event. Although this was the third time I have finished between 13 hours and 13.05...., so it was my 6th best result out of 18 tries.
And from where I was only 8 weeks ago, that made me a VERY happy camper...
It was especially pleasing to be able to share the experience of this event with my beautiful girlfriend Jill.
So that's all from Ironman Western Australia 2010. There have been 7 events now at this venue and I have managed to keep the 100% record intact, completing all 7. Roll on 2011 and IM WA number 8.
Roth, Tab Ultra, Athens Marathon, Coast to Kosiosko
My hips were completely shot after my attempt on the Gold Coast 100km, and while I thought I had healed enough to have a crack at the Gold Coast marathon, sadly they broke down again during that run, but I was close enough to the finish line to walk it in. If I was a horse however, I would have been put down out on the course!
However that meant some serious time of rest, so these three events were all cancelled, as was any attempt at qualifying for the Coast to Kosciosko event for this year.
However that meant some serious time of rest, so these three events were all cancelled, as was any attempt at qualifying for the Coast to Kosciosko event for this year.
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