Ironman Western Australia Race Report

Well, here it is Coach. It's a long one. I know I've said this about previous reports but this one is in a class of its own, so enjoy!


I had been waiting for this trip for so long. When I got into triathlon a little over a year and a half ago, the thought of doing an Ironman was a dream I thought would take me years to realize. But it's amazing how much one can progress in a year and half with the guidance of a wonderful coach, the support and advice from the best team-mates, and a wonderful family at home, and even great support from co-workers.

Ironman Western Australia was my first Ironman event, following 1 Half Ironman, 3 Olympic distance races, and a dozen or so sprints. I felt confident though, especially after Antwerp 70.3 in early summer. I had a good training block throughout the summer and managed to overcome most of my running injuries. I finally had 3 solid months of run training, something I hadn't been able to do since I got started into the sport.

As I waded into the water on Sunday morning, I was thinking about how surreal this was. 2 years ago, I couldn't swim 50m without stopping, hadn't ridden a bike in 15 years and had never run more than 5k in my life. And here I was shooting for a sub-13hr Ironman. It gave me goosebumps just thinking about it.

But enough emotion for now, and let me start with how this trip unfolded.

I flew out direct to Perth on Emirates, arriving late afternoon on Wed. I breezed through immigration and customs, and didn't have to face the notorious scrutiny of Australian Customs (they did ask me if my bike was clean though, but accepted my answer without checking). The rest of the logistics were handled by Endurance Sports Travel. Those guys made the trip the easiest ever. They picked us up from the airport, took care of the hotel booking, provided shuttle services from hotel to race venue multiple times/day during the whole week, and opened up their suite all day long for athletes to eat, hang around, etc. They also had a good bike mechanic on hand. This all made for a relaxing build-up for the race. 

The days leading up to the event included a ride on the bike course, a few swims on the course as well, lots of $ spent at the expo, bike and gear check-in, etc. The pasta party was a nice event too, with some Kona videos on the largest TV screen in the Southern Hemisphere, and interviews with a number of pros, including Pete Jacobs, Timo Bracht, Kate Beliquava, Hillary Biscay, etc.

Having Benny there also made things a lot easier. We had some laughs around town, and did the 15s early on Sat morning, and then went to town for lunch. That's where I made a rookie mistake that cost me big time in the race: I had a massive plate of surf and turf with garlic sauce and a lot of french fries. It was delicious, but quite heavy. I thought I had plenty of time to digest it but it turned out I didn't.

We turned in early on Sat night, and I went to sleep around 9, only to wake up at 1, with no chance of getting back to sleep. I was starting to get nervous, and went through the checklist more than a dozen times. I knew I didn't miss anything, my preparation was good, and there was no reason for me not to hit my targets. Had some breakfast around 2:30, grabbed my gear and headed to the EST suite where I hitched a ride at 4am to the race venue with a few other athletes. Benny had already left on a previous shuttle. I arrive to transition and the place is buzzing with people, music, and volunteers. It was a fantastic atmosphere. I found my bike, pumped the tires, prepared my run special needs bad (didn't use one on the bike), handed in my street gear bag, put on my wetsuit and proceeded to the swim start. Benny, me and a few other athletes stood around as the pros went off at 5:30, then we proceeded down to the waterline.

The Plan
I had a pretty thought out plan that I had also gone over with Coach before I left: 
- Swim: targeting between 1h15 and 1:20
- Bike: targeting 1h55 on each of the 60k loops for 5h45 total
- Run: as close to 5hrs as possible on a 3x1 run/walk strategy


3.8km Swim - 1h17min - AG Rank 146/210
The water seemed calm from the beach. We later discovered that it was pretty choppy farther out. In fact, many of the pros later tweeted that they found the swim to be challenging because of the chop and the westerly current.

The swim was a single loop around the pier: 1.9k out and 1.9k back, counterclockwise.

I had bought a new blueseventy wetsuit from the expo and swam in it a few times during the week and knew it was faster than my old one. I still decided to race in my old trusty Orca instead, just to be on the safe side.

This being my first Ironman and a mass start of 1,400+ athletes, I positioned myself in the middle and to the far right, away from the pier. I figured with almost 2k of straight-line swimming, being 50m away from the pier wouldn't matter so much (plus the current would push me towards the pier anyway). Some people were waist-deep in the water (including myself) and others were still standing behind us on the beach.

As the horn went off, I braced myself for the washing machine of knees and elbows typical of a triathlon start. However this was the most civilized swim I've ever been in: hardly any aggression at all, all very nice. I tried to go out a a bit hard to catch some feet but was held up quite a few times with slower swimmers either breaststroking or simply standing up. Wasn't too bad though.

I settled into a rhythm and started swimming quite comfortably and making my way through the field, shooting for the end of pier. The chop started becoming stronger the further out to sea we were, and by the time we were 1k out the waves were picking me up and slamming me down on top of people. I managed to keep my rhythm though and moved closer to the pier, where the waves were slightly weaker. The turnaround came quickly, and that was the only point where I needed to be a bit aggressive as it was getting crowded around the buoys.  I glanced at my Garmin and noticed that it had taken me 40min to make it to the 1.9k turnaround. Not good, so I decided to pick up the pace on the way back.

The swim back towards shore wasn't exactly parallel to the swim out: we swim back at an angle, moving away from the pier as we get closer. This, coupled with the sun being in my eyes and the waves and a reasonably strong current meant that going off-course was inevitable at some point. I wasn't sighting as often as I should have because of the sun and chop and ended up going around 70 meters off course. We were still 1.5k away from shore so I couldn't see the beach yet. Never realized I was swimming off course until one of the surf rescue girls on a kayak blocked my way and told me about it. I must have lost at least a couple of minutes there.

I was angry at making such stupid mistakes and hammered it back the rest of the swim, eventually finding feet in the last 500m.

A quick glance at my Garmin and I was reasonably happy: bang on target.

T1 - 5min

Ran through the swim exit and showers, wetsuit came off quite easily, grabbed my transition bag and into the tent. I had all my bike nutrition in the pockets of my cycling top which I put on, along with gloves and ran to my bike. I was happy to see that most bikes around me were still there. 

180.1km Bike - 6h12min - AG Rank 140 - Avg HR 77%
I got to the mount line with the bike and it was a bit crowded, so I ran a bit further and jumped on. I stayed out of my shoes until I cleared some traffic and picked up some speed and then got into them and tried to get into my rhythm pretty quickly.

My nutrition plan was all gels/liquids given my history of GI problems: 200Cal / hour in the first 4 hours then 300/hr for the remainder, with 700ml of water and 2 salt tabs / hour. I'm pretty disciplined when it comes to these things so I knew I could stick to it. This also meant that I would only have to call on aidstations twice: at the beginning of the second and third laps to grab 2 750ml water bottles on each. Based on Coach's advice, I had 2 750ml bottles on the bike already, enough for the first lap.

I knew from riding the course earlier in the week that the road surface in some places was pretty rough. In fact, I think 2/3 of the course was on what Coach described as "gravel mix". The vibrations were annoying and I saw a noticeable increase in my speed when my wheels hit smooth tarmac (the reverse being true of course). I saw lots of kit coming loose from other athletes, including bottle cages, puncture kits, etc. Thankfully my bike held up well throughout.

The first lap felt good. Kept my heart rate steady at around 77%, took in my nutrition, salt and water on time, and completed the 60k in 1h54, right on schedule and feeling quite comfortable. As soon as I hit the turnaround to start my second lap, things started to go downhill: the stomach problems I was dreading started pretty much immediately, forcing me into the first of 8 portaloo stops I had to make during the remainder of the bike. It was tempting to try to make up time after each stop, but that would have meant riding at 80%+ heart rate for 100ks, so I stuck to the plan instead.

At the same time, a storm front was coming in, bringing with it increasing winds, which at one point on the last lap brought my speed down to 22Km/h. It was pretty hot too, and I was covered in salt, so I upped my salt intake to compensate and drank a bit more (that was the only deviation from my nutrition plan).

I was hoping to make up some time on the way back to town on the last lap, but then the wind turned and I never got any tailwind, and had to deal with a crosswind and some rain instead.

This is the first time in a tri when I was actually looking forward to getting off the bike and start running... I finally reached the end of the bike, jumped off the bike into T2.

As I was jumping off the bike at speed, I heard Captain Carl calling my name. It was a big relief to see a familiar face, so much in fact that I almost tripped over my bike. 

I handed my bike over to the volunteers and ran towards T2.

T2 - 10min

I grabbed my run bag and ran into the tent. Socks and shoes on, sunscreen and hat on, stood up and BAM! Another athlete walking by spraying deodorant sprayed me in the eyes. I couldn't see anything at all and my eyes were stinging badly. I had to wait for a medic to arrive and rinse my eyes out, which took a while. A few minutes later I finally managed to put things back together and head out on the run. WHO BRINGS DEO SPRAY TO TRANSITION??? I MEAN SERIOUSLY!!!!

42.2km Run - 5h48 - AG Rank 164 - Avg HR 75%

I felt surprisingly good as I started the run. I popped a couple of stomach pills (well more than a couple) and hoped for the best. 

The plan was to go on a 3x1 run/walk strategy. Coach's orders were to commit to a run/walk plan at the beginning of each lap and stick to it. My nutrition plan was to do gels and salts on the first 2 laps, and then switch to water/coke/salt for the second 2 laps.

Lap 1: went well I think. I stuck to a 12min/4min run/walk the whole way, stuck to the nutrition plan, and felt great. It was very very hot but plenty of ice on the course. Halfway through the lap, I saw Benny on the other side of the road. I figured he was finishing his second lap. He looked ok but not the running stride I'm used to seeing. I realized trouble was ahead. But that's when I saw Captain Carl and Noeline. They were sitting in a restaurant right on the run course and were shouting my name. Amazing how much energy one draws from this kind of support. I can't thank them enough for making the trip to support us!

Lap 2: I just could not swallow another Gu. I was already quite nauseous, it was brutally hot. I switched to my backup strategy: coke/water/ice and repeat. Went to a 9min/3min run/walk and stuck to it for most of the lap. Cooling down was a challenge. I was chewing ice, stuffing ice in my cap, dumping ice down my tri top, and holding ice in my hands as I ran

Lap 3: it started well, then halfway through, stomach probs came back with a vengeance. Had to stop another 6 times on laps 3 and 4. To make things worse, half the aid stations ran out of Coke!!! I couldn't take Gu anymore and with no Coke, things started to go downhill pretty quick. I think the absence of Coke probably played with my head too, as I had no backup plan for that!

Lap 4: As the beginning of the lap, I saw Captain Carl and Benny shouting at me. I asked Benny if he broke 10hrs and he said "no". That played with my head too I suppose as it meant I was in for a brutal 4th lap. Captain Carl kept saying "1 more lap 1 more lap!". So I dug deep once again and shuffled along. This was the only lap where I walked for 5min straight. Then half the aidstations ran out of ice and cold water! I tried to cool myself down by running on the grass and shade wherever I could find it. People who lived along the run course were also wonderful, spraying us down with hoses as we ran by. Finally, I found Coke at an aidstation with 3km to go to the finish. I downed it and decided to run the rest of the way to the finish no matter how much it hurt. At that point every step felt as if someone was stabbing me in the quads with a red hot knife.

I have no idea where my legs came from, but I managed a decent run pace for the last 2km, faster than any pace I held in laps 3 or 4 (Garmin says 6:10min/km for last 2Km). Grabbed the last wristband and ran down the finish chute. I was savoring every second, high-fiving people on both sides of the chute, hearing my name on the speakers and seeing the flashes from photographers as I crossed the line with absolutely nothing left in the tank...

226km Ironman Western Australia: 13h35min

The next 10 minutes are a blur. I remember being led to medical for a weight check (I lost 3.1Kg during the race). I felt absolutely fine though. I grabbed my street gear bag and finisher T-shirt, changed, stretched for 10min or so, spoke to Lauris, then went to get my bike and transition bags and hitched a ride back to the hotel. I had 2 packets of Gu Recovery in my bag, they stayed there! I was still replaying the race in my head, and all I could think about was :I WANT A REMATCH!!!. It's amazing how you forget the pain the moment you cross that finish line and you want more... Bring on Roth!

On Monday, I packed my bike and then headed to town and met with Benny to exchange war stories over a massive fry-up and beer. Damn that tasted good! Whether at the hotel or elsewhere, I was taking huge detours to avoid stairs (I'm still doing that). The awards dinner was fantastic, what a great atmosphere. These guys know how to put on a show! What blew me away was the sight of the top 2 AGs in the 75+ age group receiving their awards. Both Japanese and both finished under 16 hours!!! What an inspiration!

Oh, and the most entertaining thing in the after party was watching Jason Shortis (who finished 3rd and still course record holder) dance with every girl on the dancefloor. He didn't seem to be having much success though... I'm impressed: he managed to dance non-stop for 2 hours after a tough race (he said to the media that conditions on the bike were the toughest he had ever seen in Busso).

Benny, tell them the story about McD!



I owe a big debt of gratitude to so many people for helping me complete this challenge, so forgive me if I omitted anyone here.

Coach, I won't hesitate to say it: you changed my life in the past 18 months. I was never the athlete and I never knew I had this in me. I keep surprising myself month after month and that's all thanks to your guidance.

Captain Carl and Noeline: I can never thank you enough for making the trip to Busso to support us. Your presence there made a bigger difference then you'll ever know.

So many people on the team have given me so much advice, and I truly believe I drew on every single one of them to help me finish this IM. 
It was based on Ed's advice that I paced the race, and also his advice based on which I selected the wheels for my bike. 
It was based on Simon's advice that I selected the right tire pressure to deal with the rough roads of Busso. 
It was based on Johan's advice that I stuck to the plan and made sure not to deviate from it. 
It was based on Ali's advice that I resisted the temptation to push the bike and try to make up lost time when I had to stop so many times. 
It was based on Captain Carl's advice that I became aware of the conditions of this particular event, the swim, the run, the sun and heat...
Neil's and Venny's advice about the run/walk strategy was ringing in my ears every time I was tempted to extend the walk portion "by just a little bit"...

And Benny!! What a difference it makes to have a top athlete around to harass all the time! It calms the nerves... :)

So many people on the team have also helped me train, especially in the past few weeks. A special thanks to Boom and Suz for those swims, I honestly feel it made a big difference. Thanks to Ali, Liz, Beej and Benny for those long bike rides. 

A massive thanks for all the team members who've been encouraging me throughout my preparation: Venny, Guy, JT, Roy, Marc, Ben S, Gazza, Capt J, Didge, Glen, Jordo (despite making fun of my running!!!), and especially Stuey, who I look up to, and everyone else. I owe you all big time. And thanks to all the other team members who've sent me messages before and after.

I also have to thank Crowie. He spent a lot of time giving me advice on how best to prepare and navigate my first Ironman. He gave me advice about running, orthotics, and dealing with injuries. He's a legend and a true champion, so thanks Crowie!!

I would be remiss not to thank Wolfi and his team. The bike was superbly prepped for a hard hard bike course in Busso. I was seeing punctures and mechanical failures everywhere on the course. So thanks Wolfi and team.

Finally, the biggest thanks of all goes to Lauris. She's had to put up with stupid training hours, lonely nights and weekends, and mood swings for weeks on end (especially during taper). There is zero chance I would have been able to do any of this without you. And the fact that she stayed awake on the chatroom during the whole event is testament to the kind of support I'm lucky to have at home.

Looking forward to the next one! Abu Dhabi Long? pffff, just a bike ride, on smooth asphalt no less...


Tony

P.S. Oh and Coach, I think I figured out why you Australians are so good at sports: you have to keep moving otherwise the flies will get you!!!

Taper time!

Well here we are, 2 weeks away from Ironman Western Australia, on Dec 4.

How has training been going? Not ideal, but not bad either over the past few weeks. I've managed to put in a very good 10-day training block though, and I noted a significant improvement in all 3 disciplines. It may have to do with the weather cooling off a bit in Dubai, but I've also lost quite a bit of weight recently as well, and feel stronger and faster overall.

I'm beginning my "taper" tomorrow, which means that my training volume is going to start dropping quite dramatically over the next 10 days or so as I get closer to race day. Coach Pain was telling me over the weekend that I will probably start feeling very tired (CHECK!) and increasingly edgy and irritable (CHECK!!!!).

It's amazing how the human body and mind interact. After a period of very heavy physical exertion through training, the body gets used to a certain pace. When you back it off and get more rest, both the body and mind can't adapt quickly enough. I've seen many of my more experienced teammates going through their taper before big races, and noted how they become irritable, prone to getting sick, and feeling generally lethargic. I'm looking forward to it (not!).

It should all come together on race day I hope (fingers crossed!). I'm feeling confident, and I'm really looking forward to rushing into the waters of the Pacific Ocean on December 4!

I fly out early on 30 Nov to Perth (around a 10-hour flight), and then onto a 4-hour drive to Busselton, in Western Australia. So my next update will in all likelihood come from the land down under!

Struggling with motivation, going Gluten/Dairy free, but with some confidence boosting performances

I have to admit that it's been a tough couple of weeks in training recently. I've been warned about this but it doesn't really make it easier to go through: I've been struggling a bit with motivation and fatigue over the past couple of weeks. It's the first time in months that I've felt the need to drag myself to go and train, but I think I've managed to not miss or cut short too many sessions.

It's funny how the mind works. I'm only 5 weeks away from my race, which actually means only 3 weeks left of "hard" training (I will be tapering down in the last 2 weeks). I should be working the hardest during those 3 weeks but yet my mind just isn't "in it". I'm confident I'll pull myself out of it though. A training camp with 5-time world champ Craig Alexander should help (that will start tomorrow, for 5 days of twice/day hard training).

The other big change over the past couple of weeks is that I got the results of my food intolerance tests back: heavily intolerant to Gluten (bread, pasta, and all wheat products) and dairy (all kinds, including milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.). It's been a challenge to maintain calorific intake while maintaining a GF and DF diet. I'm still not 100% convinced it's working to be honest. I've been on it for 2 weeks almost, eating GF breads and cereal, soy/rice milk etc.

Lauris has been immensely supportive in that she did tons of research and drove around half of Dubai trying to find me all these products and preparing me really delicious GF meals. I don't know what I would have done without her support in this.

To be honest though, I'm beginning to doubt that benefits of going GF: my energy levels have been steadily declining, even though I've managed to maintain stable calorific intake. I feel weaker overall and I'm having digestion problems. I've definitely felt it in my performance: my endurance has dropped as has my intensity level. I'll consult a few doctors and give it another few days, and if it doesn't get any better I'm abandoning it, especially so close to the race...

Okay enough complaining! On a more positive note, I did register a couple of excellent / confidence-boosting performances in training too! I did my first 180k bike ride a couple of weeks ago, in 5h29min! That's a really good time, which I was very pleasantly surprised with! I followed that the next day with an excellent sea swim, where I managed to keep pace with teammates I had no business matching in the water. Those 2 sessions gave me a big boost of confidence in my biking and swimming. My run is starting to improve well too, a long way from where I want it to be but it's getting there...

Ok, so let's try to get that spark back and try not to embarrass ourselves in front of the world champion at the training camp this week! It won't be easy juggling 5am/6pm training sessions with work and family time in between, but I welcome the challenge!

And to end it on a laugh, here's a link to the story of my life!!!

 

5 weeks to go!

Tony

7 weeks to go & update from World Ironman Championship, Kona-Hawaii

Well, another week of training in the bank. Before I get into it though, a quick recap of the historic World Ironman Championship that took place last night in Kona Hawaii.

The World Ironman Championship is the pinnacle of triathlon, where every triathlete in the world strives to go. There are the professionals racing there for the world title, of course, but also more than 1,500 non-pros (age groupers, like me). For age groupers to get to go to Kona Hawaii for the World Championship, we need to qualify by placing very high in an Ironman race somewhere else. It's a massive achievement to even qualify for Kona.

So, it took place yesterday, and it was unique in many ways: Craig Alexander won his 3rd Kona title, breaking the course record in the process, which had stood for 15 years. Chrissie Wellington claimed her 4th title as well, despite a bad swim and average bike.

On a more personal note, what made this race even more special is the fact that 4 of my teammates were there! They qualified earlier in the year and trained even harder to race in Kona: Aja Stevens, Edward Hawkins, Simon Marshall and Neil Flanagan. They all finished a grueling Kona Ironman in under 11 hours, despite fighting the hot and strong winds and blazing sun in the lava fields of Kona. A massive congrats to all of them.

Here are some pics of the world champs.

Craig (Crowie) Alexander - Winner and course record holder: 8hrs 3min 56sec

Chrissie Wellington - Winner: 8hrs 55min 08sec

Ok, now back to my week. Another good week of training in the bank, 7 weeks away from my first Ironman. The swim and bike are coming along nicely. I'm still having problems with my run due to the injuries I had earlier in the year, but I'm making slow but steady progress. If I can get to the Ironman and put in a sub-5-hour run I'll be happy with that, considering.

This week's tally: just under 16 hours of training.
- 2 hours of swimming
- Just under 10 hours of biking
- 2hrs45min of running
- And 1hr of strength training.

Not a bad week but a bit below the targeted 19 hours. Mainly due to cancelling 2 swim sessions as I felt myself fighting a cold, and my long run on saturday was cut short due to bad circumstances.

Amazing how much water and calories one consumes in this sport, and I'm still losing weight! This is a pic of what I consumed during one bike/run session on Friday (5hr bike 1hr run): 5.5L of water and around 1,300 calories consumed...

Till next week!

Introduction

I decided to start this blog hoping to inspire others to focus on the most important things in life: family, health, and the immense sense of satisfaction and well-being that comes from challenging yourself and succeeding in the process.

I'm immensely thankful for being blessed with a wonderful partner in life: my wife Lauris, without whom I wouldn't be able to pursue my goals.

I apologize if the first blog entry is so long, as I've had to recap everything that's happened since I started! I promise, future ones will be much shorter!

Well, I'm now 8 weeks away from my first Ironman: Ironman Western Australia, taking place on the 4th of December 2011.


The First Steps


2 years ago, I didn't know what a triathlon even was, let alone an Ironman. The extent of my participation in sport was 2 or 3 hours per week in the gym, focused mainly on some resistance training. Growing up, I played some basketball in highschool and some martial arts between highschool and college, but was never really an active athlete in any sport.

For those not familiar with the sport of triathlon, it consists of a swim/bike/run race, done in succession and without a break. Triathlon races can take place over a number of distances, the most common of which are the following:

- Sprint distance: 750m swim, 20k bike and 5k run
- Olympic distance: 1.5k swim, 40k bike, and 10k run
- Half Ironman: 1.9k swim, 90k bike and a half marathon run (21.1k)
- Ironman: 3.8k swim, 180k bike, and a marathon run (42.2k)

Before getting into triathlon, I couldn't swim the length of a swimming pool without running out of breath and stopping, I hadn't ridden a bike since I was a teenager (and that was a mountain bike!) and the longest I had ever run was 10-15 minutes.

I stumbled onto triathlon by chance, after running into a friend of mine who had just completed an Ironman race. I went back to the office, all 89Kgs of me, go onto the internet and started doing research on triathlon and the Ironman (go to Youtube and search for Ironman Triathlon, trust me!). That was back in April of 2010. After a couple of days of research and a few conversations with my better half, I decided that triathlon was exactly what I needed. I've always needed challenges to keep me from getting bored, and that was the perfect fit: a challenge against oneself, a competition between the mind and the body.

And that's how the journey started: in April of 2010, I went to Wolfi's Bike Shop in Dubai. After chatting with the experts there on buying a roadbike vs. tribike, I decided to jump in with both feet and invest in a good quality triathlon bike. And that's when I became the proud owner of a Scott Plasma 2. The "Batbike" (more on that later) and I have spent countless hours together over the past 18 months, and our relationship remains strong!

Then I went and registered myself for some swimming lessons with Speedo Dubai. The instructors confirmed what I already knew: I was an absolutely horrible swimmer (kind of embarrassing when surrounded by kids who zip up and down the pool).

Run training was easy: get a pair of shoes, go to the running track at Safa Park and start running!!

I did that for a couple of weeks, swimming with Speedo Dubai, biking by myself in Nad El Sheba, and running in the park. Of course, there were the occasional mishaps, most visible of which were the few "crashes" on the bike, given that I had never ridden with clipless pedals before...

Then I realized I had no idea what the hell I was doing, so I decided to search for a coach. I had heard from friends that there were a couple of coaches in Dubai. I, once again, jumped on the internet and googled. I found the website for Tri2Aspire and owner/coach Jason Metters. I contacted Jason and we decided to meet on a Friday mid-morning at Ibn Battuta mall for a coffee and a chat. So, I met Jason there (he had just come back from one of the Golden Tulip Triathlon races in Ghantoot, Abu Dhabi), and a couple of phone calls later the real journey started.

Setting my sights on London

After meeting Jason and having a few chats, we agreed that the London Triathlon, taking place in early August 2010, would be a nice challenge to work towards. It was a daunting goal at the time, as it was an Olympic distance event with more than 20,000 participants. Let me tell you, scary stuff!! But I was looking forward to the challenge, even though back in May 2010, I was nowhere near ready for that.

Soon after I met Jason and took a couple of private training sessions with him, I registered for my first ever triathlon: Golden Tulip Sprint Distance Triathlon, in May of 2010, in Abu Dhabi. It was a sprint distance race (well almost, the bike was 26k and the run 5.5k), and I had swum 750m in training, could easily bike the distance and figured I could manage to run 5k! Oh how wrong was I. That race was to be an eye opener for me, a baptism by fire as they say...

So, on that morning I will never forget, as the clock ticked to 6:00am, I jumped into the water of the Arabian Gulf with 200+ other athletes. I positioned myself towards the back, not completely at the rear though. The tension starts building, you can feel it in the air. The airhorn goes off and I find myself thrashing around in the middle of a washing machine, trying not to panic and somehow move forward. 50m into the swim and I can't breath. I have to stop, and I start swimming breaststroke (a slow, very slow way to swim). Athletes around me disappear into the distance. After a few minutes, I settle down and start swimming properly again. I manage to finish the swim in an embarrassing 19 minutes, second to last swimmer out of the water. I run to transition, pick up my bike, and start cycling. I manage to catch a few people and things aren't going too bad. Soon, the bike is over and I drop it off in transition, put on my running shoes, and start running... for 500m that is, because that's how long it took me to start a 35min run/walk routine. I eventually finished the race in just under 2 hours, second to last person to finish... like I said, eye opener. How the hell was I going to race in London in 3 months at double the distance and 20,000 athletes???

So... I manage to shrug that race off the get back into training.  I start building myself up mentally, realizing that confidence was a big factor in triathlon. I couldn't believe it when only a month later, at the last Golden Tulip Race for the season, I manage to finish the race in 1h40min, a massive 20-minute improvement on my time. The trick I learned then: have the confidence to start the swim in the middle of the pack, and realize that every single swimmer there is in the same washing machine, so why should you be the one to panic?? I swam under 16minutes that day, it changed everything.

Injuries, more lessons learned, and the London Triathlon

While my swim confidence was building, I started facing my first set of physiological problems: I started getting really bad knee pain when running. I ran though the pain but it only got worse as the days and weeks went buy. My right knee was driving my crazy, and with London approaching, things were not looking good. I finally reached a point when I was hardly doing any running at all. After seeing some specialists, I discovered that my ITB was inflamed (a common ailment affecting people new to the sport). It's a symptom of the body adapting and doing too much too soon. Running through the pain only exacerbated the situation, but London was close and I was too worried about my run fitness to stop running altogether.

So... the end of July beckons. Lauris and I fly to London, bike and race gear in tow... Lauris was immensely supportive. I was doing my best not to freak out, and was trying my best to hide it when I did! To give you an example of how inexperienced and freaked out I was: I had the guys at Wolfi pack my bike for me, had a bike shop in London assemble it back together (at a high cost!), and booked Lauris and I in TWO hotels: one for the duration of our stay in London and another for the night before the race (a hotel within walking distance of the race itself, in the Docklands of London).

London Triathlon, Race Day: I woke up at 4am on race day, feeling more or less ok. Maybe it hadn't yet sunk in completely. I prep my bike and gear and Lauris and I start our walk towards the race venue. It was pitch black, 10C degrees. We get there and the access to the transition is not yet open, so all athletes are sitting around, some on chairs, most on the ground. I felt like the only "newbie" there. All around me were "fit" people, chatting and laughing. Yikes!!

Finally, at around 5:30am, the doors open. I kiss Lauris and shuffle into the transition area, with all my kit and my bike. I find a nice place to rack my bike and set up: all looks good, not too scary after all, even though there were hundreds if not thousands of bikes being racked around me... My race start was at 6:45 and it was a wetsuit swim, so I need to put on my wetsuit. I had never done that before, so it was going to be an adventure. I walk back to where Lauris was waiting for me. I find a bathroom and try to "go". Every triathlete will tell you, the importance of "going" before a race is of utmost importance. But I was so nervous that the chances of that happening were in negative territory. I give up and wrestle with my wetsuit to put in on. After about 20min, I'm sweating profusely but the wetsuit is "on"!

Finally, they call us. I walk  back to my transition area, pick up my goggles and swim cap and go to the swim start. They give us a briefing. Shit! everyone in my group looks so fit, all 500 of them!!! (what I found later was that Jenson Button was in our group too...). We walk to the edge of the water. It looks black and cold! (It was cold!, 13c water temp cold!). I jump in, for the shock of my life! It's so cold I can't breath. I'm gasping for air, my heart rate is at 180bpm. How am I going to swim????

Fortunately, I manage to calm myself down a few minutes before the start and the wetsuit does its job: I begin to warmup (or became too numb from the cold, I don't know). I position myself in the last 1/3rd of the 500ish group and wait for the airhorn to go. And then the washing machine starts! Except this time, I was a bit more experienced. I decide to stick to my own rhythm, swim slowly and steadily. To my surprise, I start overtaking people! A lot of people! hey, wait a minute, what's going on?? I was loving it. Before I even realize it, the swim is almost finished. I climb out of the water and look at my watch: 32min for a 1.5k swim! Fantastic! ha! spoken too soon. As soon as I stand up, the cold water in my ears did their job: I was so dizzy I couldn't even stand. Some volunteers help me take off my wetsuit (okay now I'm freezing!) and steady me as I walk towards the 2 flights of stairs to my bike. Along the way, I find my darling wife Lauris shouting words of encouragement and taking photos (a sight for sore eyes I can tell you that!).

Aaaaanyway, I somehow get to my bike, throw my wetsuit and swim gear on the ground, put on my race belt (carries my race number), helmet, sunglasses and run with my bike to the mounting line. I get on the bike and go. Okay, so by now it was a little after 7am. It was still freezing cold, the sun wasn't up, I was dripping wet from a cold swim, all I was wearing was a very thin trisuit, and I was zipping at 30kph on a bike. You can imagine how I felt. So I pushed hard, partly boosted by the good swim and partly to just warm up. I enjoyed the bike, especially riding towards Big Ben etc. Soon the bike was finished and I was back at transition. I look at my watch, it was coming up to 2 hours. I was ecstatic: I had a very good chance of breaking 3 hours at my first ever Olympic distance triathlon event! I put on my shoes and start running, feeling great. A few minutes into the run and problem 1 strikes: my right knee start to hurt badly (so soon???). I decide to push through, no choice! A few minutes later, my LEFT KNEE start hurting! (WTF????). So, 15min into the run and I'm already wobbling painfully. 30 min in and disaster strikes: my stomach decides to stop cooperating completely (now you know why you need to "go" before the race). I guess the combination of nerves, cold swim and freezing bike were finally catching up with me. I end up walking / shuffling for the entire 10k, at one point screaming at Laures asking her if she had any stomach medicine (she did and they didn't help). Eventually, I finish the 10k run in 1h20min, and my first Olympic distance in 3h20min. Disappointed, but once again, massive lessons learned...

Working towards a bigger challenge: Half Ironman Antwerp, July 2011

Fast-forward a few months into early 2011 and my commitment to the sport was getting stronger and stronger. My knowledge about the human body and sports nutrition was reaching new heights, I've had many adventures (including being attacked by bats during a training ride and earning my triathlon nickname: Batman).

I was training well, but still suffered a range of running injuries: in Nov of 2010 I injured my ankles running for too long too soon and in the wrong type of shoes. Nevertheless, I raced my second Olympic distance race in 2h49min (31min faster than London 4 months earlier!!).
Another lesson learned, and in January I started running again. March 2011 and I got injured again with Shin Splints (common running injury due to, guess what? running for too long too soon!). Recovered from those shin splints in May of 2011 and started focusing on my first "long distance" race: Half Ironman Antwerp on July 25 of 2011.

It still amazes me how my goals changed from "I want to finish a triathlon" to "I want to finish an Olympic distance triathlon" to "I want to finish a Half Ironman" to "I want to break 6 hours in a Half Ironman", all in 15 months! What a journey that was.

The date for the Half Ironman (also called Ironman 70.3) in Belgium arrived and I flew there on my own (I didn't want to drag my already super-supportive wife through another nerve-racking international race). I arrived in Antwerp and met up with a few of my teammates who were also racing there. What a difference it makes to have people you know around you: we recced the course, swam in the same lake as the one for the race venue, and had a few hilarious adventures...

Without getting into too many details, suffice it to say that my performance in Antwerp 70.3 was a massive boost of confidence: conditions were difficult: cold and extremely windy. I still managed to swim 38min for 1.9k in what was a violent swim, very comfortably biked 90k in under 2h55min in very windy conditions, and ran a half marathon in just under 2h30min, again quite comfortably. I crossed the line in 6h15min. I didn't break my 6h goal but I crossed the finish line feeling comfortable and confident. I had just run a half marathon for the first time in my life, and it was after a swim and a tough bike. I was happy.

Crossing that finish line in Antwerp feeling this way once again changed my goals: I was already registered for my first Ironman event: Ironman Western Australia on 4 Dec 2011. Antwerp changed my goal from "I want to finish an Ironman" (which is the goal most people have when participating in an Ironman) to "I want to break 13 hours".

And today, as I plow through 20 hours of training per week, I'm 12Kgs lighter than when I started this journey, and my aim remains to break that 13-hour barrier.