Japan IM. Geelong 70.3 - 180km time trial.

I decided a couple of days ago to not compete in the Geelong 70.3. It was a tough decision to make, this was the one we were aiming for since October to do well at as it is the only race in Aus that has Clearwater spots up for grabs. But with my recent knee injury I am not confident in its recovery yet. Only 3 weeks out I can still only really run solid for 7kms or so. If I go down I could either not finish the race due to a bad knee or finish but damage my knee and have to have a few months off running. Long term there is only one real answer to skip it.

So with this upset I really needed to think of another goal, set my sights on another race. The current thoughts at the moment between my coach and I are to try and find my first Ironman so I can focus on it. I am looking around still but the idea of Japan in June has been tossed up it looks ok, so if I can get together the funding I will definitely have a shot at it.

With this in mind, I set out on Tuesday Morning on what I hoped would be a 180km time trial. You may have seen me twitter about it, so may already know the result. Let me also clarify being brought up as a swimmer I refer to anything you do for time as a time trial. Apparently some of you guys and pure cyclists get a little confused about this as some cycling races are called time trials. Whenever I say time trial, I mean by myself on the road seeing how fast I can go, if it was in a race time trial I will let you know haha!

The course was to be the same as my recent 120km ride I blogged about where I recorded my fastest ever average speed of 33kph. The intention was to go a little further to the Spit which is about 8km past where I stopped last time, then to do a loop out where I did my first Half Ironman then return home.

I set off as I normally do at 4:20. Why 4:20? I get up at 4, and by the time I have driven to the pool and set my bike up etc it’s normally 4:20 - 4:30. I start from the pool as the 13km from my house to the pool is laboriously slow so I skipped that part. I get up at 4 because 1 min earlier would be in the realms of 3am and I really don’t want to do that yet!

Things went a lot quicker than the 120 I did a week prior. I have certain checkpoints I know and tally off if I am ahead of the previous ride or not. Eagleby roundabout - 45mins or so, Dreamworld 1hour 20mins, Southport 1hour 53mins. Anything ahead of this and I am on PB pace.

Well the first half I was definitely on pb pace, I really hammered it. This time I approached it differently to the 120. The 120 was really about making it, but now after completing that and the mountain run in big chain I knew i could go at least 120. I shot past my check points early, 40mins, 1hour and 10mins, 1hour 45 and had got to the 68km turn around point by 2 hours and 1min exactly. Average speed 33.5 pb pace definitely, but I could easily drop from that. And honestly I was hurting quite a bit.

From the spit I rode back into a bit of a headwind with a rider I had picked up on my tail for a bit of a ride, he peeled off after 6kms thanking me and I began my return trip to Brisbane, quickly stopping at McDonalds to refill my bottles.

I surmised in my head that if I could go back as fast as I did on the 120 (I had gone to the turn around at 31kph and managed to do the last half at 36kph) I would complete at least 120 at around 34.5kph which would be outstanding. Doing this proved to be a lot more difficult than I had anticipated!

I don’t know if I went into a headwind (I think at times I had some) or I just died but it was tough. I decided when I passed the breakaway point for the extra loop I would have to do that I didn’t have the legs for a 180km time trial at this pace. I really wanted to do a PB pace ride.

So i continued on, pushing hard up the hills checking off my average speed as I went. It wasn’t budging, which annoyed me. Great that it wasn’t dropping but I had visions of grandeur in the back of my mind. Phenomenal speeds and that average speed just getting faster and faster.

115km's average speed 33.5kph time around 3:27 from memory. I was in Struggle Street. Not blow up cant continue, but definitely that average speed was in jeopardy. I pushed and pushed as hard as I could all that was in my mind was the Ironman. I want to hold 33kph in my first race or something to that tune anything over 30kph would be great so I have to train hard.

At around 6km from my end point, 130kms my tired popped. Maybe it was a sign from god that I should not continue, or maybe I was just clutching at straws to finish this, but that was the end of my ride. I changed the tired quickly, and went to inject a c02 canister into it only to discover the tip wouldn’t work. For some reason it wasn’t puncturing the canister so I couldn’t fill my tyre with air. I called Dean, he came and got me and that was the end of my first attempt to do a 180km time trial.

130kms, fairly flat road with a few rolling hills. By the end I had dropped to 33.2kph a total time of 3hours 54mins. Pb pace again for longer distance so that’s a great achievement. Next time I ride, I will be riding to finish. More than likely start at 31kph or so, and just make sure I get the 180 done. It will be slower than I like, but I think before I can time trial it properly I need to know how I handle it, and also know the check points etc along the way so I can gauge how I’m feeling.

More practise to come, and many more long rides, things are coming together my legs are getting bigger and more toned. Call me vain but being a skinny swimmer with small legs I can help by look in the mirror and be happy that I am starting to actually have calves and quads!

Hopefully soon some great running blogs!