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IRONMAN 70.3 St Croix

Happy with 3rd at IRONMAN 70.3 St Croix today – race report to follow

Hawaiian homestays, gazelike run splits and 8th in the world, a whirl wind 3 weeks

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ready for the world once again

As the season swings into full noise a stack load of racing has confronted me to the forefront.
Definately on a welcoming note, my approach is one of difference fueled by real fire to prove bigger and better things to myself and get inside the still illusive top ten in the WCS.

By the end of the two completed WCS races I sit 8th on the WCS rankings, a career best and have a credible 11th finish and 12th place finish to my name after Auckland and San Diego.

My race in San Diego went much to plan bar the swim, it was on with Tommy Zafares lighting up the water, Varga and Brownlee close on his feet they opened up a solid 30sec gap out of the water on me with a smoking swim split of 16mins.

I had a solid swim, but had to work hard with thankfully some solid and strong cyclists, with Frodeno from Germany, Rana from Spain, Murray from South Afica, Vidal from France and fellow kiwi Bryce Mcmaster keen to bridge us up to the leaders we pulled hard and managed to bridge the gap by 20k.

I need to make this break out of the water though, my swimming has come a long way in the passed three seasons, but still needs little changes to ensure I am there or definately closer out of the water to be in the chase from the word go, to allow me to be in the forefront of the race earlier, to allow me to be able to use my bike which is definately risen to another level after a year of non drafting racing.

I ran solid off a lot of work on the bike, but still was a good 25 secs off cracking my 31mins for the 10k, Brownlee was smoking the whole field with a sizzling 29.30 odd 10k, kids got wheels and he backed up his ability run a ridiculously fast 28.30 overnight in the Stanford 10k track run.

Yeah he is at another level for now, fortunately I cant see this kid maintaining so much aggession until 2016, with his focus already on the Comm games in the 10k, all will be revealed to see if he can hold such an incredible level for soo long.

I had my own battles on race day working with one of the Vassiliev brothers in the run and David Mcnnamee managing to drop Ivan at the end of the run and be dropped by David whom ran a smoking final 3k, he clocked a 31.04 which from what I can see in order to top 10 a sub 31min ten k is needed to top ten now.

I moved onto St Croix on the following thursday, after a small sprint race midweek organised by Lars Finnanger, a great little supersprint.

After a hard race in San Diego I simply hadnt recovered, I grovelled home in 7th place in a six strong field, holding off a few american juniors to collect some much needed bike fee money for the plane.

Cathy the super host

San Diego as always was a brilliant experience another race better off in the rankings and Cathy Holl our amazing homestay looked after us like kings and queens, an awesome passion to support and believe in all of us and this lady just gives and gives, awesome stuff K dawg will miss you much and Steve for those sunsets.
Daniel and Nadine put Laura and I up for the first week also, an awesome couple keen to help us out with transport and let us burrow their car for race week, awesome people with such a sweet dog Ophelia the amazing retriever to make us feel at home race week.

This year Laura my girlfriend had the chance to come along with me as I tried to convince her San Diego had it all and a trip to Seaworld and some of San diegos amazing beaches I think her arm is being twisted slowly.

Onward to St Croix, another ace homestay have spent the last few days settling into this place, adapting to the weather which alone is bringing a lot of heat and humidity and plenty of wind.
A bit of a switch in distance to a half ironman this time round, but such is the beauty of being seperate and solo to the national system, I am free to race when and where I want.
This race is really being done to prepare me for the monster of Kitzbuhels mountain later this season in the ITU WCS anyway, so is still relative to ITU in my eyes.

This course is super solid and demands respect and calculated preparation, with a 1600m climb in it named ‘the beast’, its a killer averaging a gradient of 15% a mere 30kms into the race, after the beast you continue to battle the island winds around the back part of the island with plenty of rolling hills to keep you working right to the end of the bike.

back of south shores the hills still demand focus and respect after the beast, this is lil beasty

happy with new tt bike that climbs really easily compared to other tt rigs

The bike is full of pot holes and twists and turns, so I am still experimenting with my drink set up, the main goal being not to loose bottles in this heat is crucial.

So roll on race day I guess this Sunday, I am sure some timing and results will be posted at www.ironmanlive.com
Feeling good then onto Europe, love the tropics:)

Godspeed
Clarky

Clarky

great views for training, love it

beginning of the beast

Onward and upward to the Northern Hemisphere

So another flight, another airport, but always exciting as before if not a little more than the passed knowing and seeing my results go above and beyond previous seasons performances in the off/pre season time of racing in NZ and greater Australia.
Sitting in Los Angeles airport waiting for my last on route 40min flight to San diego, my home for the next ten days.
Now is a good time to reflect, force you to think of deeper conviction and meaning to tripping all round the world and questioning your motives to pursue and grow in another ITU, elite triathlon season of racing.
Mooloolaba in March was a great kick off mentally and physically to international racing, a few minor hiccups and bad decisions made to break away on the bike at slightly the wrong time led to a strong run, but slow start, my edge was taken away slightly and even though I kicked home hard from 5-10k mark in the run, it was far too late to make podium, finishing sixth.
Mooloolaba had always been a big bone of contention for me though to break into a single digit result, for the last six years, with an 11th, 16th, and 18th finish in previous seasons.
I have tried and tried again there for the last seven seasons, the swim is a hard, the bike is challenging going over Alexandria headlands eight times both sides and the run is hot a similar but shortened format of the bike.
So to get that result out of the way knowing I can top ten comfortably there now coming home in sixth place and finishing within 30secs of race winner Javier Gomez was an awesome confidence boost to what dreams may come in 2013.
I carried Mooloolabas momentum through the next three weeks training in Wollongong, NSW, until AKL World Champs series, training smart and honestly under the watchful eye of head NSWIS coach Jamie Turner.
Jamie’s kids have a strong work ethic, cut no corners in training and are monitored in a smart yet not intrusive way by the coach.
I learnt a lot from Jamie and his junior pros, daily being impressed by the approach of his athlete’s attitude and determination to better themselves in daily training work.
I rolled onto AKL with a good solid amount of speed work in the legs, undoubtedly a little over trained but knowing I was in form to have a solid race, knowing intense speed work training takes time to settle in a body and come to the forefront in an athlete’s performance.
The race went really strong, I lacked top end speed but made up with it in strength endurance, listening to the body and using my strengths.
I ran in a negative split fashion off the very hilly, aggressive and tough bike course AKL had to offer.
The difference from my 1st k off the bike 3.06 was a mere two seconds in 3.08. So although I am strong the goal leading into the next few ITU races, San Diego and Madrid is to seek and work on my first two k off the bike, which I am currently losing over 30 seconds to the race leaders, only to have to aim to claw it all back at the end.
You really can’t afford gaps at any part of the run at this level of racing though, seeing two guys finish on the podium running under 30min 10k pace in Auckland only highlighted the point of developing more ready to go speed off the bike and then working into a more even pace run.
People, mostly close friends and family always ask me why I share my secrets, my planning and ideas in my blogs.
The main answer is that it’s one thing to have the knowledge to know how to change and better yourself, but it’s a completely different scenario executing that knowledge daily, making it grow and being accountable for that progress.
I feel from the last few months I am definitely on track and keen to see a lot more single digit results this season and make it happen, also known as executing that knowledge.
Godspeed me to great heights and thanks to all for well wishes abroad, making cupcake feel at home in New Zealand the past six months we have grown together and may the fruits begin to fall off the tree I have grown so well in the NZ off season.
Clarky