Back in Action! Savannah 26.2 Miles to Rock N Roll

   This is my 1st time posting since my return back into the states and it is an exciting post to say the least.  I am sitting at my work station at the Hampton Inn in Savannah, Ga just a couple hours before I turn in for a good nights rest before my extremelly early 4:30am wake up before venturing to the Savannah Mall to take a shuttle in to town for the Start.

   For those who do not know I signed up for the Rock N Roll Savannah Marathon months ago while still in Australia hoping for maximum fitness by the time I arrived back into the US. My surprising brush with death that ended with a shattered arm, expensive bills, and a pretty slow recovery is where I am at right now. My comeback has been pretty good as my miles haven't been over the top as sometimes I GO FOR IT and increase my mileage rapidly to get my fitnesss caught up, but this time I didn't.

Race Website

    The game plan for the morning is to drop into Kent's Hotel room before the race for a quick bathroom break and to drop off some clothes before snaking my way through 24,000 people towards the front. Say my goodbye's to Karin before I start my long journey and hopefully find Joe Lanser in the crowd. Either way by the mile, I should see Joe as we plan to pace together as long as possible. My hopes are that we can maintain sub 6:15's and then pick it up as the race progresses. My training has not pointed to those results for the Full Marathon but I have foolish hope and optimisim that i will be able to out something fairly decent with my lower mileage weeks.

     Karin is also running in the half marathon, fresh off of a Half Marathon PR in NY but unfortunately after the race in NY her PF problems caught up with her. She is running the race for fun, but I wish her the best and hope that she can truly enjoy the Rock N Roll experience. Look for the both of us as well as Carolyn Maye, Dalena Custer, Michelle Hazelton, and Alex Wernikof out on the course with I freshly printed "TrySports" black and white team singlets!

Special Thanks to TrySports for providing some awesome racing gear, The Running Centre in Perth, WA for providing me with some Sweet Saucony Racing flats and to Mary jane, Stan and Wayne Lamperski who traveled to Savannah to cheer me on!



Australia: Home or Holiday?

          As the time has quickly approached for my departure back home with stops in New Zealand, then San Francsico, I have had a lot of time to reflect. When I arrived in Western Australia, I was so excited to meet the people with the funny accents, to see some beautiful beaches and check it off on the list of things to see. After a couple months of gathering an understanding of the culture a bit, I hit the Triathlon season with a furry and my life was consumed to finally put forth the work in order to come out on top at the end of the season at Busso 70.3. Post Busso’s unfortunate happenings after the culmination of hours of sweat, fatigued, pain, and suffering, I have been able to take these last few weeks to reflect on life; life in Australia and the thought of a lifelong stay in Australia.

            Spending much of my time in Australia on a bike, running or swimming, I have met so many unique people, people whom will stick with me until the day I die I am sure.  These unique people sacrifice many of the facets in life that I really appreciate including nightlife, especially hitting the dance floor as many know. One thing we all have in common is the fact that we want to push our individual limits while motivating others along the way. As previously mentioned, I am leaving for New Zealand in less than 1 week time, where I am sure I will meet a few other interesting personalities, but for some reason I am not sure it will top my Australian experience. As Cody began to set up my “Farewell Party” or as Cody calls it “1 Less Bogan” (“1 less redneck” for the Americans reading), it truly hit me that I will undoubtedly miss this place. Thinking about the people I see on a daily basis who approach me with a smile, a handshake, or a hug makes me a bit sad.

            While living abroad and attempting to create opportunities back home in the US, I have realized it is certainly difficult, especially with the time difference for communication. While I have dropped the bomb that I am leaving to many of my aussie friends, they asked me when I was coming back, as in coming back for good.  Hmmm that’s an interesting thought to say the least, live in AUSTRALIA forever? What is holding me back, why shouldn’t I? It sounds like pure bliss sometimes, I can’t lie, but the fact of the matter is that I really miss those people who share my blood line and have the same surname. Perhaps there will be an opportunity to come back to my 2^nd home again in the future but for now I am concentrating on arriving back to the states in the coming months. Wait a second, home?

 

           Home where I will be faced with the daily pressure from our corporate society and looked upon as a failure if I choose to enjoy life as opposed to working an infinite number of hours at an office? Wow, I can’t wait to get back to the rat race and worry more about the type of car that I am driving as opposed to opening my horizons with time spent next to my loved ones.

 

            Recently I had a very interesting chat with a couple other “foreigners” who now call Western Australia home and I could just feel how passionate they were about living here. This place just does something to make you free, free in spirit and in mind, maybe it’s just the change that some of us need to reach our state of NIRVANA? Either way, I can see how this very laid back, coffee sipping, cocktail slurping culture can draw people into its web of natural beauty. The people I have encountered make my Australian experience the most grand in so many ways. My friends truly make training apart of their lifestyle in every way and the great thing is that their families/partners openly accept their dedication to improve upon themselves through sport. I have been in relationships myself where my companion just could not quite grasp the concept of leading a life of ambition to push the boundaries of my mind and body, but it appears as if most people are switched onto that notion here.

Northbridge Piazza

             

              As a reference to how ideal this place is for me, I will simply state “NORTHBRIDGE”. Northbridge is the mecca for the nightlife in Perth, as it has more than enough to offer a person who enjoys getting out and socializing to the pulsating sounds of music. Pubs, eateries, clubs, even an outdoor movie area in the middle of the square, this place is what Charlotte’s “The Epicentre” wants to be. Minus the normal weekend occurrence of some drunken fights and a few glassing incidents, this place is pretty awesome; I just wished I had been here when I was about 19 and it would be absolute heaven! One thing I dread when heading home is the guys that sit in the toilet on a stool, bumping gangsta rap and asking for a tip to hand you a paper towel, it just doesn’t happen here. In fact I have recently experienced the comedy scene that Perth has to offer, then several different stops which many of my friends like to call their home base, each one just great and perfectly suited for the area.

             

                Home? Home is where the heart is? Well is my heart here or there, another wrench tossed in my plans of course. Well my decision is final, this place is GREAT, and it’s certainly almost like a heaven on earth in several ways for me, but my heart is with the people who have been an integral part of my life, well, forever, FAMILY. I have been to some incredibly breathtaking places while being abroad and at times it hit me how much more fascinating it would be to have my mother or my little brothers here to share it with. Taking the biggest leap of faith and moving to Australia, even for the short amount of time I have been here, was the best decision I have ever made. Obstacles in my future have been knocked down just that much more, now knowing that I can succeed to the far corners of the world.

            I can NEVER show enough appreciation to those who have taken me in as family since being in Perth. The Angell family has been the guiding light to get me through the dark, pitch black cave of life and out on to the bleached white sands of optimism.  The gang at the Running Centre have been amazing as well, kudos to Raf Baugh for letting me grab some of his extra confidence, Jason Nuttman for giving me just a bit more swagger, Nathan Doig for finally enlightening me to something called style, and the members of Club Helena Valley for flogging me on those 2hr runs through the hills, then degrading me at the IGA for being a soft yank, I LOVE YOU GUYS!.  I could, and perhaps will, write a book about my experiences here, from the amazing dedication that my coach Paul Mackay revealed, to the inspiring words from 2:13 Marathoner Ray Boyd provided me(poof), or perhaps the in depth conversation with Australian 1500m record holder Ryan Gregson about the state of my home NBA team the Charlotte Bobcats. So many memories, so many people; young, old, insightful, on the piss, flogged, and intense, in every fashion thought possible. In closing I can say without a doubt in my mind, I WILL BE BACK!!! I may not be coming back “for good” but expect a visit in the next 2 years. 

Going to miss running along the river daily

IF YOU ARE READING THIS, THANK YOU FOR PRETENDING THAT I AM COOL ENOUGH TO TALK TO YOU WHILE IN PERTH and if you are ever on the East Coast of the US, message me, mi casa es su casa!

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"Dance Floor" Lamperski's trials and triumphs at the Ironman

2011 Busselton 70.3 Winner

Trash Talking the day before

    It’s Thursday around lunch time and the mystery remains the same, “how am I getting everything to Busselton for the race?”. The last thing that needs to be on my mind is how to arrive at the race, but that’s the only thing that concerns me for obvious reasons. Thankfully some friends offer to assist me, my bike leaves with the Angell family on Thursday, I am set to leave with Lisa Seen on Friday morning and Katrina “the hurricane” is my race wheels, aero helmet, suit and computer. It may sound like a lot of stuff but after all, it’s an ultra triathlon event essentially and I opted to take more than enough for the trip.

 

     Friday afternoon we arrive at the race expo extra early, hang out a bit with everyone who set up retail shop at the race. Hit the water for a solo 15 minute swim to make sure the wetsuit is fine and everything is just right. Katrina arrives sooner than expected and I go for my 20 minute shake out run while she moves her car so I could grab the remainder of my goodies. The Specialized bike mechanic transfers my cassette to the Zipp 909 disc Justin Ghosh let me use for the race, accompanying the Cosmic Carbone front wheel I swiped from Troy Main, thanks guys! Bike is checked in, wow this event is legit, and there are so many bikes in transition that have mega price tags! The event tops any triathlon I have ever done with the organization, maybe even better than the Duathlon World Championships that I competed in 2 years ago.

Busselton house backyard

Lil Wayne

    Night comes, we all arrive for the “mandatory” meeting in which they mostly discuss the new drafting policy which has been extended to 12 meters, something of which everyone has been discussing for months anyways. I am freezing my butt off and head home for the final checklist of items, lining up my nutrition for race day then it’s off for a good night’s rest in my bunk room. 5:30am text from Raf wishing me luck and I am up, eating toast with cream cheese along with one perpetuem solid and 3 glucose tablets. Janna, J-murda and I pack the car, hit the road and arrive at 6:15am to hit the transition before the 6:45am closing time. Macka, Johan, and Sean O’Neil start at 7am with the Pro’s and the open field including Bean, Lajos, Big Brynt, Matt Illingworth, Katie Gibb and Rachel Smith leave just 2 minutes behind at 7:02. It was a huge boost watching my training partner/coach Paul Mackay jump out of the water in the top pack of pro men in 24 minutes, my focus was centered to understand my fitness levels and to finally rise up.

Macka

     Its 8am, time to jump in the water for a quick splash, take a few pictures and then to start the race. Jason Rhine darts out in a blaze of glory as someone yells and he mistakes it for the horn, no worries J, I won’t DQ you! The horn sounds and we are off, guys throwing blows left and right, it’s a mass of chaos, I am swimming over people, I am getting kicked, it’s crazy. After about 400m, the waters clear a bit more and I begin to finally press on and make my way up my group a bit. At one point I could not tell if I was way off course or not as the buoy seemed directly ahead but I appeared to be the only one taking the same line, except the one guy who keeps zig zagging, bad mistake #1. I hit the beach and look down at my watch, 31:01, ahh not too bad, I had hoped for about 30:00 but it was my new best time by over 2 minutes for the distance anyways. Time to show the work I have been putting in on the bike, I remove the wetsuit, grab all of the nutrition in my helmet (flask, extra gel and powerbar) toss it in my tri top, toss on my helmet, sunglasses and rush out of T1. Everyone is stopped at the mount line with no forward progress, so much for my stellar running mount that was planned. Nonetheless, I am on the bike and moving finally, passing people right and left.

Just after my 100m warm-up

     I notice one of the guys that frequents the running centre and rides the hills with our group is just in front of me. I quickly pass by him and begin my assault on the course, or so I thought. 5k into the bike when I am finally settled I decided to go ahead and have a sip of my roctane flask to stay on top of my nutrition so that I can actually negative split the course as planned. Wait, nothing is in that pocket, S#*t!!! nothing is in that pocket either, what happened? I lost ALL OF MY NUTRITION at some point between T1 and the 5k mark apparently, what to do now? All that races through my mind is the video of Luke Bell at Ironman Hawaii when he dropped his nutrition bag and continued anyways, ultimately passing out and being rushed to the hospital. Should I keep attacking with just water or scale it back? Ok, just stay with these guys at a safe distance, then try the E3 sports drink offered on the course at 35k, check. On the way back my average jumps since we finally don’t have the mega headwind, thank the lord! I hit the E3 station at around 35k and take a big swig of the bottle. This stuff sucks, I have never tasted it before but it’s my only option, another sip, 3 minutes go by and then it all comes back up. Sweet, I am vomiting on the bike, only have water and can already feel my glucose levels starting to plummet. The 2nd loop is a forgetful sight, I was somehow passing people the whole time but I felt like a turtle, I had no cadence and just felt like I was in some insomnia daze just wishing for T2 to get closer.

Trying to finish strong

     Note to self, next time you decide not to tape extra gels on the bike, change your mind!!! All of those hard earned miles on the bike in the early morning hours, totally wasted, I cycled faster in my 1st half ironman attempt last year with one month of cycling under my belt! Staggering into T2, I knew the run could be very very iffy, so I Took my precious time to inhale a few glucose tablets I laid out “in case” along with some endurolytes. The lights are coming back on!!! Ok Chris, those long bricks you worked so hard at are going to come into play, relax and keep it consistent. Legs are burning a bit, lungs feel quite good actually, and energy seems to be coming around. I am afraid to look at my watch once the 1st K split beeps but I do anyways, “3:43”, wow, how did that happen? Keep it going buddy, maybe your race isn’t blown, you can still PR even though everyone is out of sight. As I pick people off on the course, I hear some remarks about my pace and how I will soon die, but it only motivates me. I fluctuate between 3:48 & 3:54 each K through 10k’s when I begin to slow a bit hitting mostly mid-upper 3:50’s until a random 3:46 at 15k which looking back was another bad mistake. After catching up to a younger guy who was a relay runner, he just tucked behind me to block the wind, I eventually asked that he perhaps jump up front since I had been racing well over 3hrs and he had been out there for 20 minutes but he refuses, so I drop the hammer for about 200m to break him, success, ahhhh yea that doesn’t feel so great now.

     Nearing the finish of my 2nd lap, I noticed Steve Gleeson up ahead and surge to catch him, he is rolling and I throw some encouragement his way and tell him to jump on board. Mr. Gleeson had a heck of a race and he rolled past me with 300m left in his race to finish very strong, but I had another lap remaining! As I make the final turn past the finish line, I turn back to look for my race rival, Jason Rhine, expecting him to be well behind me, he literally is about 60m back! Surge or slow down and let the race come to me? I kept pace for a bit then decided that it may be best to slow it back a bit and just push in with Mr. Rhine. 6k to go and we are swerving in and around people on this narrow path along the beach stride for stride. Stay relaxed, we are hitting low 4:00’s, not too bad but slower than I wanted. As I hit the 2nd loop I could feel my upper left quad really begin to cramp and I kept telling myself anything I could to not give up. “USA, USA, USA, come on brother!!!” Here Jason and I were having pretty much awful races for both of our standards but we found enough deep inside to give whatever we had left to test our limits.

Macka and I

     Several times I drop a surges thinking I would lose him but he always fought back stronger each time. Wow, this guy has some guts, I need to make sure I dig deeper than ever to pull this day off the best I can, hopefully winning this classic duel down under in Busselton while most of the athletes had no clue what was taking place. We begin to push the pace harder and harder hoping to break each other at this 4+ hr mark into our race but no one gives an inch. Less than 1k to go, come on Chris, all year this is one of the guys you have wanted to beat, dig dig!!! The crowd was fantastic, but as we approached the finish, many athletes were continuing on for their remaining laps and Rhine shot out like a dart when he saw his opportunity down the Shute as I mixed between people. I knew this would happen, but I also knew I had another gear I had been holding back and as we hit the grass I gun it. I was flying down the home stretch for my disappointing 4:30 finish, but in delight that I at least conquered one goal on the day. Somehow I was able to stagger home enough after my hamstrings massively cramped 5 meters from the line just in front of Jason. Looking back Jason and I dropped the pace from 4:11, 3:57, 3:49 and 3:43 on our last 4k’s in an effort to break each other, our own “Iron war”.

Institute of Sport celebrating

      What a day, it let me reflect on so much in general, here I was concentrating so much on this day and look what came of it. One tiny mistake, if you call it a mistake even, mishap, misfortune or bad luck, either way, one small glitch in the system and things shut down on me, crazy. After the race, I thought about how running literally was so much easier, no swimming goals, or long cycles, just running, it’s simple. You can’t flat, your goggles won’t break and you won’t need to pack a lunch in your cycling jersey to complete a day’s training. After a warm shower, some much needed junk food and a nap, I felt much better and prepared to take on the next goal. I am not done with this 70.3 distance until I have conquered my goals of finishing a race the way I should, solid in every discipline. Today’s race was an ultimate failure in so many aspects but two components were in place, I finished and I even finished with a 7 minute PR.
 
Men’s Top 10:
1) Tim Berkel (Port Macquarie, NSW) – 3:51:27
2) Matty White (Magill, SA) – 3:52:50
3) Tim Reed (Lord Howe Island NSW) – 3:53:59
4) Josh Rix (Glen Iris, VIC) – 3:56:05
5) Jamie Whyte (Auckland, New Zealand) – 3:57:10
6) Guy Crawford (Napier Hawkes Bay, NZ) – 3:58:15
7) Mitchell Anderson (West Melbourne) – 3:59:55*
8) Leon Griffin (Kangaroo Flat, VIC) – 4:00:09
9) Lajos Varga (Perth, WA) – 4:01:14* - Worked his way through the pro field
10) Paul MacKay (Wembley, WA) – 4:01:28 - cracked the top 10!

Janna finishing

      The night was wrapped up with, a chance meeting with some stoners next door, then to Varga’s for a funnel entry, before heading to the awards ceremony with a fashionably late entrance to swipe up a hot plate of food from the buffet! Congrats to so many people who competed on the day, but most importantly to the Mackay Institute of Sport athletes Janna Angell and the man himself, Paul Mackay. Janna knocked out an amazing bike split of 2:50 in her 1st attempt at the distance, and Macka defied all the odds to wrap up a stellar season with a 4:01, earning him Triathlete of the year honors and 8th in the Pro field. Shout out to Matt Illingworth who took out another stellar field with a 2:06:09 bike split! After the awards presentation, the real party ensued with the DJ pumping the tunes for a few more hours. Everyone hit the stage including “Dancefloor” Lamperski himself, suited up, skinny tie, stunna shades and dancing shoes. It was just a blast to see so many hardcore athletes finally letting loose and having a blast. Some of the events of the night will never be forgotten, some may not be remembered but it was truly epic in every sense of the word.

Amazing Busselton 70.3 Highlight video

5 DAYS FROM GLORY

     My race is for the people who doubt me, for those who might have seen a kid years ago who was seemingly brought up on the other side of the tracks and written off as worthless. This will be dedicated for everyone who has dreams in life, I may not attain my direct goals on the day but I would like to think I stand as a role model for hard work and taking that huge step to grab my dreams.

     It is upon all of us, just 5 days away from the race that many of us in Western Australia have been working towards, 70.3 Ironman Busselton. So many of my mates have spent countless mornings waking up while its pitch dark outside heading to the swimming pool for a squad swim or to the roads for a group ride. How many times did we pump up our tires the night before and lay out all of our gear ahead of time, thinking about the long day that would lie ahead. Hammer bars, roctane’s, shotz, endurolytes, shotz, lollies, everyone has had their fare share of nutrition to get them through those 4hr rides followed by a moderate run directly after, then maybe an open water swim in the late arvo.

     This race will show who has been putting in the hard work, as well who is fully prepared, physically, mentally and emotionally. I wish that we all put together our ideal race on the day but there are sure to be a few casualties along the war path. Pushing our bodies to these new heights really brings out the most amazing aspects in each of us. I would find it hard to believe that too many of us thought when we were kids that we would be out riding a bike for hours, then running for hours and also swimming for lengthy periods, but we are all doing it. Goals will be achieved and many will be at the finish line with the biggest ear to ear smiles as their goals were just smashed, meaning it’s time to nap the day away followed by partying the night away.

     For once in my life, I can say, I am not shooting to beat this guy or that guy, but I am aiming to perform to the best of my abilities. Time goals are always in play, but with wave starts, weather, and malfunctions of the wildest kind, sometimes its tossed out of the window. I am racing for myself and my loved ones on the day.

  

         Good luck to everyone who is competing at Busselton this weekend, may we have no swells, the wind to our backs and a light mist during the run. You will see me at the Awards/After Party, make sure you present me with a smile and the realization that each of us are blessed to have the health and option to even participate in such an amazing event.

PS: For those interested in tracking my results, you can go to Ironmanlive.com and there are updates along the way. I will post my race # on facebook once I check in on Friday.



Albany, Western Australia: Long rides, triathlons, and motels

Visit to Albany


Weeks ago I decided that I wanted to travel to Albany, one of the southern most points on Australia's coastline. From my conversations with Cody and Janna, they loved the scenery of the small town, which I didn’t think would be too much different than Perth but I was way off. In route to Albany with Brandon, we were speaking about the triathlon we were soon to be competing in and he spoke about it being pretty hilly, one major difference from Perth which is fairly flat until you drive to the hills on the outskirts. The following is the recap of the weekend events, which includes as much entertainment as I could include within reason containing pictures and videos. (If you want to avoid the Triathlon recap and just want to see pics keep scrolling down!)

After some much convincing; Brandon agreed to meet me at my house around 6:15am on Saturday as opposed to 5am which he adamantly proposed!! Boom, we are on our way to one awesome weekend with friends in Albany! This place is not close, let’s just start with that, it’s a solid 5hr drive and to my delight it actually rained a fair bit and was cloudy, something I am starting to miss back home in North Carolina, clouds, rain, THUNDERSTORMS! As we traveled along, I wasn’t quite prepared for the recently turned 18 year old behind the wheel and his stellar racing, I mean driving skills with his Hyundai sedan. Let’s just say that double lines in the road mean nothing, driving with your knees at 120k is OK and drafting 1 meter behind another car is perfectly acceptable. I think the kid was a little too much in race mode as we moved along Albany highway but I knew he wouldn’t allow us to wreck so I just always made sure my seat belt was fastened appropriately just in case, thanks for the ride Brandon!

Once we finally arrived to our accommodation at the Metro Inn, we promptly found out that check in was at 2pm, it was 11am, what to do? Glad we woke up early and made a rush for our hotel haha. Oh well we changed in the GRAVEL parking lot at the motel and then hit the road to cycle the bike course a bit and look over the 10k section of the run for the race. We could tell the bike course would be alright as most of it was flat or gradual, with a couple hills and turn-a rounds and the run course would be fairly difficult with the rollers it had. After we were finally able to check into our room, we went for a swim shortly after we unloaded everything. The water was filled with seaweed for about 15 meters on the beach but got clear as we made it out further. One thing was certain, the water was much cooler than back in Perth, but I loved it! It reminded me of the water at the Lake Lure triathlon, a bit colder but similar. The reason it’s so cold is because the water feeds from the southern ocean which is in between Antarctica and Australia, along with the addition of actual cloud cover and cooler temps in Albany. Macka, Brandon and I swam out to a pontoon and designed our own practice course for the swim and dove into the cool water, I felt so much better than normal in the water, and I actually felt comfortable! We swam around a mini course and then practiced catching waves into the shore in case we had the opportunity during the race.



Ueli, Janna, Cody, Stevie

 After resting up a bit back at the motel, we then met up with Cody, Janna and Kate for a nice jog along the path where the run portion would be. As we were running I noticed the most magnificent and full rainbow I had ever seen, which start at one end of the shore and ended on an island, AMAZING! (in Indonesia we found out, as opposed to being a pot of gold at the end, there is a “fairy castle” apparently, thanks Cecilia!). Back home again, shower time and then to search for a place to eat in this town, which seemed nearly impossible, especially since we had 9 people in our group! We quickly found a nice café which had outside seating and the night ended up being a success, I even ordered a “Smoked Salmon salad” with no extras to keep it simple and healthy!

After a bad night of sleeping, I awoke at 5am with Brandon and he was jacked up and ready to go as he hustled around the room preparing for the race. Fortunately I laid most of my stuff out the night before and just decided to keep a cool approach to the race, with no big expectations and therefore I was VERY relaxed, yet confident. We were blessed with some rain showers while warming up before the race, so everyone’s stuff in transition got soaked, which could make for a bad day sometimes. Onto the race itself, after climbing into my Orca wetsuit I recently acquired from Jason Nuttman, I was in the water, feeling pretty dang confident. Brandon, Macka, Sean, Ueli and Brynt raced in the open division, so they all got to go off first with just one wave of men behind them for all age groups. This was the first swim were I got pretty physical in the water with a few elbows and flying palms to make way in the water. I nearly panicked in the 1st 200m as we were all so cramped but after that I settled and tried finding some feet. I remember thinking, I am actually enjoying the swim portion and thinking about how I would be almost too soon on the bike! Breakthrough for me in my opinion, still not a top notch swimmer by any means, but I felt at home in the water and set a nice PB for the O distance at the same time.


Sunrise as I walked onto the beach Race Morning

   Onto the bike, I knew with the course being 3 loops, I would be able to see all of the open racers after the 3 turn around points, which was motivating. My goals were to get as close as possible to the open athletes before the run if at all possible. I noticed Macka was pushing the pace up front which was no surprise to me and then I noticed Brandon and Ueli mixing it up a bit just a bit behind Macka. I was rolling past people initially and then realized that I actually beat some decent triathletes out of the water and a group of about 5 riders where pacing behind me while I was doing all of the work solo on the sweet set of Flash Point wheels that Scott Mison let me use. After some quick thinking, I pulled out a page from the Ryan Baugh/James Haycraft playbook and slowed back to let a few of them pass me and then I just stayed with the group for a good remainder of the race. It’s all about learning right? Why not save some energy for that run off of the bike and use some bodies around me to keep me pushing along during the bike? The best part about race was, knowing I was where I needed to be at every point in the race, on feet in the water and around people on the bike course. Over the last 8k I decided it was time to just set sail with some guy whom was wearing every aerodynamic product on the market including a disc wheel. My fastest portion of the race was the 16k and I ended up riding everyone in that small group off of my wheel pretty easily, did I leave too much on the course? Possibly….

     The run was nice and smooth, I opened a bit quick with a controlled 3:22 1st k but kept it in the 3:30ish range from then on out with a 3:24k at 8k when I was breaking one of my rival age groupers. I felt very smooth but at times, I felt like I was honestly going too slow for the race, because I have the mindset of longer course races of which I am trying to understand pacing and patience. While running I was able to see everyone as it was an out and back 2 loop course, so I quickly noticed my coach Paul Mackay, better known as Macka, had a substantial lead into the run, until he missed the turn around and surrendered his lead momentarily. It was great to see Janna, Kate, Brandon, Brynt, Mick G, Stevie and Ueli out on the course; it always gave me a little boost. In the end I passed an age grouper that ended up being 3rd in my AG with 800 meters remaining thankfully. All in all, everyone came away with some positives from the race in one aspect or another. I know that from now on I am going to try “Glucodin” tablets in the morning before the race because it really got my glycogen up and the body prepared for battle. As a quick recap, I swam under 24 minutes for 1500m, biked right at 1:05 for 40k and then ran a 35:06 for the 10k portion, finished 2nd in my age group(missed the $) and set over a 2 minute PR in the Olympic Distance with roughly a 2:04:50. It great to see my training is really coming around and having my 1st taper week in training paid off big time!

After the race and the awards we hit the town for some coffee of course and a bit of food. For the 1st time since the 2nd night I was in town I had fast food and I went for it(4 months)! Hungry Jacks combo meal with a double cheeseburger, chips, frozen cola, and a sundae, it was well deserved! Once we hit up some local tourist shop, then next stop was off to the Natural bridge and cliffs.

WOW, how beautiful was this place, beautiful water, amazing rock formations and mountains at the edge of the water which were covered with the bright green arrays of grass and bush. I was able to soak up this place a lot and I made sure that I had more than enough pictures of everything. Watching the waves crash into these huge rocks was amazing, especially when the water splashed anywhere from 20-25 meters into the air!

After hanging out at the cliffs, when had an eventful drive to the wind farm just down the road. I have included some pretty cool pictures of this place, which I never really see back in the US. It makes perfect since to conserve energy with using natural resources to assist in powering a town. Just thinking about one of the blades falling off seemed pretty terrifying as we would have nowhere to go and everything in sight would be CRUSHED! Brandon snapped a pretty amazing picture of me at the windmill, which may be the new update to my facebook profile! The remainder of the day and night, Brandon, Ueli and I hung out, venturing the city a bit and settling into some great Italian food in town. Thanks to Ueli for providing us with some laughs and motivation with the wide range of videos you have on your computer!

After a too early bedtime at 10pm(Ueli and I are both night owls, while Brandon is an early bird), I awoke at 6am and decided to knock out a run with Ueli before breakfast. Upon leaving the motel he quickly pointed out the highest hill/mountain in the area and said “let’s go there, Yes?”, with hesitation I nodded. After climbing up the mostly gradual hill, we arrived at a lookout point fairly quickly and the views were great of Middleton beach. Ueli is traveling to Rottnest Island this week and we had a nice chat about what to expect and I highly recommended that he must snorkel! After showering, breakfast, Brandon and I hit the long road ahead back to Perth, with Ueli taking the scenic route with Kate back home. It was a great weekend all around, I was glad to have good friends around me as well as even more motivation to improve and prepare for the Busselton Half Ironman with Coach Mackay.

Looking ahead into the future for my blog post, I am going to compare and contrast two AMAZING triathletes of whom I have been able to train with recently, one of whom is my coach and current Triathlon WA Open points leaders Paul Mackay. The other will be Ueli from Switzerland, whom competed in Albany and I have mentioned several times in this post. One comes from a professional career in short distance triathlon and the other is solely an Ironman distance athlete who prefers the distance longer and the terrain more difficult. Two Professionals with 2 different mind sets

Transformation: Triathlon Style

Dave Scott and Mark Allen battle: The best Ironman athletes EVER

  15.7% to 8.6%: Referring to my body fat % when I joined up with the “PM Institute of Sport” to my measured reading last week. (Measured 4 weeks in a row on the same Tanita scale)

75.1 Kg to 76.3 Kg: Referring to my weight distribution with arriving here and my weight as of last weekend. (1.3Kg gain)

 In a brief synopsis, I have lost 7.1% of my body fat, all while gaining 1.3 Kg in the process, meaning I am burning fat but gaining muscle. My guess is that the muscle is accumulating on my legs mostly as I have been riding much more consistently, spending hours in the saddle.  I attribute this to my coach, my training partners, and the volume of my training as well as my new housemate whom helps me keep in check with my dietary habits. (note that after receiving the 8.6% reading last week, I gave it my best effort to gain it all back over a couple heaping dinners haha)

BEDSIDE PRE-RIDE

Upon my decision to arrive in Western Australia months ago, one of the short term goals was to put together a decent Half Ironman Race if it was possible. To this point I have done a variety of triathlons ranging from the super sprint to one 70.3 distance at the inaugural TryCharleston race in May 2010, which was a heat wave!  Now that I realize it, it will be almost exactly one year to the day that I will be doing the Busselton 70.3 Ironman in Western Australia, from my 1st experience with the distance. Ever since then, a lot has changed and one of the main things that has progressed positively concerning the race is my all around training. 

   Just 5 weeks out from the 70.3 distance last year, I was notified of a comp entry into the event because I was on the staff for TrySports, whom was the main sponsor. As a challenge to myself and the staff, I gladly accepted the entry and decided I needed to buy a bike and perhaps starting swimming again. Needless to say, the event was a HUGE learning experience for me and as I crossed the line I said "never again". Well now I am ready to take on the challenge but this time I realize there are no real short cuts as I was optimistic about last year. To make myself put forth a proper effort I have even gathered a coach whose intensity in training is renowned all over “Dub A” aka Western Australia.  To prepare for racing years ago he actually did 101 1/4m repeats on the track in a single day, just because Zatopek did 100 so he wanted to give it a crack!

  The true transformation of my triathlon experience has affected several factors in my life, one of which is socializing. For those of you whom may know me from back home, I have always been a pretty social guy, trying to squeeze in that last bit of time to see friends or maybe to host some random party. Here I am in a place where I know few people and the ones I do know are so wrapped up in their training habits, besides the morning 1hr coffee break no one really has nightlife besides calling it an early evening. Sacrifice is something that many of us struggle with day in and day out. Are you trying to save up for that dream house or maybe that shiny BMW, what sacrifices will it take in order to make it happen? Same goes for triathlon; early bed times followed by an early wake up are required in order to satisfy a proper training regimen supplemented with adequate recovery time.

  Fortunately for me I am able to train with some pretty stellar athletes who are dedicated to the cause and to making these sacrifices. It's very interesting to take a step back and look into the world of an endurance athlete, plain and simple, WE ARE CRAZY. But that's what I love about it, we aren't afraid to push ourselves to a new limit that so many fear. After reading an interview on slowtwitch.com about Kyle Pawlaczyk , I realized that I in fact cherish the fact that I am able to do so much in the world of sport. In short Kyle is an up and coming triathlon star whom slept on a blow up mattress for years and firmly says    " I wouldn't trade it for the world" even though he actually has his masters degree. One hurdle that I see so many athletes face is having a significant other and spreading themselves thin in order to appease every facet of life, but thats a completely different blog post! Over this last year of my life I have made a point to take a step out of my comfort zone with any and everything in my life that I could. My logic in this is that by taking steps into numerous directions with my living situation, career, and athletic hobbies, it can only get easier from here in life. 

Macca grabbing a GU in the Hills

  Often times I am at a struggle against myself as to step out of that door at 5:30am in order to knock out my bike interval session or to hit the pool. We all have days of struggle but I have been working intensely on making this as a lifestyle by choice to see how far I can go. As people have asked me "Aren't you on a working holiday? There is a reason it's called a holiday Chris" I tell them that its life, hard work is a part of my existence. I will be posting later about my swash buckling career in the Australian workforce, but as a brief glimpse into my life I will provide a recap of the last 2 weeks for me, in terms of training and working. 14 days in a row I have worked one job or another or 2 to three jobs in the same day while fitting in my training sessions. It has been one heck of a run but I think I may be signing off at one of my casual jobs due to the fact that I never have time to see friends, see the country or even get the proper training in. Often times, I am waking up at 5:20am to head out the door and eventually riding my bike back home into the night to arrive at 10pm and right to bed. (as a side note, I have been busting my butt in order to save up some $ for an upcoming mini holiday session)

   Thus far I have really transformed my lifestyle to mimic that of a champion or so I hope! People are in awe when they find out that after one job, I am riding my bike to the next, but its the grind and its apart of me. Some may judge me for this or that, but those who know me, know that putting in a 50hr work week isn't that unthinkable, even on a working holiday across the world or as some would say "Paradise". Thank you to all of the people who have had faith in me back home to push me to this new place and thank you to those new friends I now see on a daily basis. Let's see how this whole Triathlon thing wraps up on May 7th at my Half Ironman!

The Philosopher 

City of Perth aka "THE MELTDOWN"

“City of Perth: Cyclones & Bloody Heat”

   Sunday was an epic day to put simply, it meant so much and so little at the same time. This would be my first Olympic Distance race since August when I had a stupendous swim, solid bike and a great run, today’s race was slightly different in several ways. My conflicts began pretty early on when I could tell the Tylenol sleeping pill was still holding its effects on me and I felt as if I were in some dream world while warming up with my mates. All the heavy hitters were in attendance, Macka, Jimmy, Sean O’Neil, Ryan Baugh, Jason Nuttman, Brynt, and a relay team of Matt Illingworth and Cody, so I knew that the race would be up to the caliber as it was at the Western Australia sprint championships. Now the funny thing is that I had no clue that this was the Western Australian Olympic distance championships until I received a text message from Ryan Baugh after the race.



   The good news for me was that I actually won my first age group award while in Australia shockingly to me, especially after I got hammered at the sprint championships. As it lay out at the finish I was 3rd in my AG, missed 2nd by a mere 1 second and was off of 1st place by 1minute exactly. This is a huge confidence boost for me, because I can firmly say that if my T1 and T2 difficulties would have been avoided, I would be neck and neck with 1st in my AG. Now I include my recap of the overall race experience as well as the many conflicts I faced in transition from the officials.

    Starting off at 8am were the elites, wait, its 8:06am and they are still talking to all of us about the race course changes and etc. The longer we get behind, the hotter it is going to get as it is going to be a scorcher at 38-39 degrees (100-101 for you Americans). The course has about 10% of shade otherwise it is completely exposed to the sun and its brutal effects on the body. Finally in the water around 8:15am, about the time I am supposed to start, and then I make my way to the start buoys. People begin to sneak in front of me just before the gun goes off and its chaos. Kicking, pushing, bodies on bodies and as usual, I resort to just falling behind instead of fighting my way through. Falling behind a couple guys for the 1st half of the race, I am thinking to myself, “you aren’t even swimming hard, this may qualify as going through the motions at BEST”. I could tell that I needed some body glide in a bad way as the salt combined with the rubbing of my tri top ended badly. Finishing up the swim at the very end I have one person from the wave behind me blow past me, the last thing I wanted to see.



    Out of the water, running to T1, I have my gear ready to rock, and hopefully rock out my best bike portion yet. This week I put in over 400k on the bike, as I have recently moved to the other side of town and ride to work everyday. My legs were not super fresh, especially Friday and Saturday but I just had to get over it. While I nearly doubled my highest bike mileage ever, this also gave me more confidence with the time on the bike. Back to the race; I have the fastest T1 ever it seems and I am essentially out of transition when I hear people yelling at me. Official -“You need your bib number, your race belt”, Me – “no I don’t, that’s for the run, why is my body marked with numbers all over me then?”. Official – “its required, go back and get it or you are DQ’ed!”, Me- “this is Bulls**t, WTF, this is crazy” (imagine a very livid picture of me after a horrendous swim) . So I run back, with no bike to look for, but simply a navy blue towel, “oh that’s the wrong row, wait where was my bike mounted, uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”, I finally find my transition area pop my # on and head out to my resting bike.

     If any race officials are reading this, I wanted to issue an apology for the explicative language that I used. Alright onto my bike; about 1k into the ride, I hear “come on Lamperski”, it’s Jason Nuttman, whom earlier said he would pass me on the bike and I said NO WAY. He proved me wrong quickly as did Ryan Baugh who passed just seconds after Jason. I regroup and decide to commit to their rapid pace, we are going 46+ on some portions and I am able to hang with them for 2 of the 5 laps, then kaboom, I somehow lost them in the crowd, out of sight. Nuttman was on a mission to spank everyone while Ryan held on as long as he could. Despite everything, I believe this was my best bike section in a triathlon, I finished strong and was ready to catch some people on the run.

Nuttman in Action, attempting and succeeding in Buring me.

      Heading into T2, I am running around the other bikes and the same official screams at me, “you need to stop and buckle your helmet again, it’s a safety issue!”. I am inside the damn transition area, jogging with my bike in hand at a not so rapid pace, after my best running dismount EVER. Of course I stop and have to buckle my strap again, before she lets me move. After a quick shoe change thankfully I am running out of T2 and needless to say I am still irritated slightly. Unfortunately the explicit language intensified at this point while I am running out of transition basically bagging the whole Australia Triathlon rules system to any and all who could hear me.



    Onto the run, by now its about 36 and the sun is nearly unbearable, Cody yells out to me “everyone is dying on the run”, so quickly I decide to back my pace off and keep it at 3:30’s because after ½ way everyone will die and I should be able to maintain. Passing at the turn arounds, I see Ryan and Jason a nice bit in front of me, could I catch one of them? I kept the pace consistent all the way through and even used Cody once his relay caught up to me in order to catch Nuttman and give him a “good job” pat on the butt. Ryan outdistanced me a bit and I was unable to catch him, but there is always NEXT time Ryan! At every stop I tossed a cup of water on my head and neck to keep my core temp down and it was fairly effective. Once we entered the last straight away, I had a guy in my sights, which I know I could blow away as he kept looking over his shoulder, but for some reason at that point of pain and immense heat exhaustion, I decided to let him go. That in fact was Mr. 2nd place in my AG! After crossing I get dizzy and luckily get escorted to a nice shaded seat where I can relax with an ice pack.



     All in the entire race was great; it certainly left me with some notes for my memory bank going forward. It was motivating to feel a butt whooping out there with no clue as to my finish placing. The heat was just crazy intense and reminded me of the 2009 Duathlon national championships, its indescribable, as I thought about those people who run 26.2 miles like this is Kona, sounds INSANE. I had to rush off to work after the race and BARELY made it in as I was pumping up the hills with all I had not to fall off of my bike. After several calls and text, it made my exhaustion feel much better once I found out I placed in the Western Australia championships and infact won a 6-pack of beer, that I could not collect and they even pronounced my name correctly at the awards. Going forward I will be training with the PAUL MACKAY INSTITUTE OF SPORT, (he was 2nd in the elite race) which sounds like it will be very pressing with all of the training in preparation for the Busselton Half Ironman in May. After sending my weeks status on training, my new coach quickly pointed out how I tapered amazingly for this race with doubling my cycling mileage, increasing my swim distance and managing an insane treadmill 5k 4 days out, when most people were tapering. Crazy how motivation works huh, what motivates you?

Shout out to Janna Angell for a great race even through the heat, keep it up girl!!!

PS: sorry I have no real pics available of the race due to that fact I wrote this from work the day of the race. If I get ahold to some I will post, hopefully they will show how miserably hot it was.

Rottnest Island: Adventures in Snorkeling and Sunbathing

 
After my arrival to Australia a couple months ago, I was greatly encouraged to visit some phenomenal place called "Rottnest Island" which is 19k off the coast. In short, this place was amazing as several pictures show below (if you want to cut to the chase you can simply scan for pics).In a brief summary of the island, here are a couple exerts from our friend Mr./Ms. Wikipedia:


The island was given the name "Rattenest" (meaning "rat's nest" in the Dutch language) by the Dutch fleet captain Willem de Vlamingh on 29 December 1696. De Vlamingh described the indigenous marsupial, called a quokka, as a large rat.^[6] Ten Aboriginal prisoners were sent to Rottnest Island in August 1838. The Colonial Secretary announced in June 1839 that the island would become a penal establishment for Aboriginal people, and between 1838 and 1931, except for the period 1849 to 1855, Rottnest was used as an Aboriginal prison to "pacify" local natives. Aboriginal men were imprisoned for offences including spearing livestock, burning the bush or digging vegetables.
It has been estimated that there may be as many as 369 Aboriginal graves on the island. Rottnest was the site of an internment camp in both World War I and World War II. In WWI it was mostly used for German and Austrian enemy aliens, before being closed towards the end of the war due to poor living conditions 


   Upon researching information for this post I didn't realize that some many people were basically captive and/or tortured on the island getaway, crazy what they can turn into a vacation hot spot huh? Moving FORWARD, my good friend from the states Glenn came to Australia for a visit just a couple weeks back, so I knew we had to make a trip to Rottnest while he was around, after all when would he be able to do this again? After a very hectic couple of weeks, the decision was made to head to the island since I actually had a day free, so BOOM here we go! Screw planning this trip out days in advance as most do, we were going to wake up, walk to the train station, hitch a ride to Fremantle , buy our ferry ticket and spend the day hopping (not literally) around the island. Of course with this lack of planning we managed to miss our 1st train, then the ferry we planned on was full so we waited a bit longer, but all in all we still managed to make it in the AM time frame.

  Upon arriving to the island, we noticed heaps of large boats just anchored next to the island were most had small rafts to take into shore after they finished off their floating margarita's. Next stop was finding a bike hire and after some frustration of losing our way, Glenn and I found the shop to hire some sweet single speed bikes. My bell was broke as well as my seat kept sliding down, what an awesome piece of machinery! Glenn was the navigation expert, so trusting his eagle scout instincts, I followed suit. We noticed loads of people walking their bikes up the hills and basically decided that we had to ride up the hills harder while making it look as effortless as possible, CHECK.

Great Hangout area

    On to our adventure, we managed to ride the entire island by bike and then come back for more racking up 36K+ on these rag tag bikes, all the while toting around our full back packs, wearing sandals aka "thongs" in down under slang, and rocking it shirtless. The water was amazing and so clear, heaps of people were at the beaches, it was time to hit the water. After bailing out on paying another $25 on snorkel gear, we decided that our swimming goggles would be just fine, so we hit Little Salmon for the dive of a lifetime. I was hit by a small wave walking into the water because it was so clear it caught me off guard and nearly knocked me on my A$$. Upon further inspection (going under water) I took a single stroke and saw a school of fish in front of me, "WOW THIS IS AWESOME!". I found Glenn and mentioned that I wished we had a snorkel because I just can't hold my breath underwater like some people and then I hear a nice English woman say, " I have a snarkel on the beach, let me fetch it fa you!!!". Sweet I got a snorkel and manged to suck in about half of the Indian Ocean up my nose because I breathed w/o clamping my nose shut, OUCH, BURNING, BURNING!

Little Salmon Bay {favorite snorkeling spot} G$ on the far right

  I figured it out thanks to my above average intelligence level and then explored. Without an underwater camera, the scenery is impossible to accurately describe. The corral and the varieties of fish were amazing, to simply put. We lost time and snorkeled for quite awhile before exploring the remainder of the island. We also realized that because we were caught up with exploring we completely missed lunch and hadn't ate since 7am!  By the way there was only one water spout outside of the main jetty, so we were drastically dehydrating ourselves into nothing. After snorkeling a few other spots, we made it back to our 1st snorkel spot, where we were told promptly not to go because of the waves crashing against the rocks in the afternoon was dangerous. Naturally, Glenn and I had to dive in and see what it was all about, the warnings were pretty accurate as the waves really pushed you around especially if you stayed near the crest of the water line. Fortunately we were able to snap a few pictures of us snorkeling and even a funny video of Glenn falling onto some rocks.

Myself snorkeling against the waves

  All in all this trip was great, we rushed back to make our 5:30pm bike drop off time and decided we should jump over to the hot showers in the villa section of the island. SUBWAY it was for dinner, along with a JUG of orange-mango juice we found at the grocery for $2 and a Mocha milk for $1!!! We decided to change plans and not take the late night 9pm ferry back into existence, so we managed to hop on the 6:30pm ferry home. The ride was rough with the boat bouncing from side to side, but our fatigue began to set in at this point, as well as our sun workout, which mostly soaked up my back. On the way back we were able to witness some amazing drunk ramble from some locals to the police as well as make new friends with 3 women, 2 whom were from Germany visiting and another who works at the mines and encouraged us as everyone else does to apply for a position within the mines to BANK some serious money.

  In recap, this was an amazing trip, the pictures will do little justice, but I am fortunate to be able to say that I have experienced this island with one of my best friends. I hope to continue my adventure around Australia moving forward if things line up in order to allow me to do so. Up next, maybe a trip to Asia? Who knows, once I find that money tree, I will pick it dry!!!