The LEAD UP: Almost to Philly

   The build up to the Philly Marathon was starting to take shape about 6-7 weeks out, I have reached the magic fitness line of 60 miles in a week and I was progressing. As a lead up to the week of our “Training Camp” at Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia I came down with something pretty rough in the form of a cold. It was a rough weekend of riding and running, my veins were flowing with all kinds of western medicine to knock out this nasty sickness. 2 weeks passed by and I was still holding onto this sickness, body aches, headaches, running nose, coughing, it was time to finally rest. 3 days off in a row made a big difference and it appeared to finally subdue my ill-timed body draining sickness.

    Just days after making vast improvements I thought it would be a great idea to jump in with a workout with Billy and Paul. Up to this point I had basically done almost all of my long runs solo and hadn’t been able to do any hard workouts with any of the top marathoners in town. The morning was chilly but I knew I had to treat it as a race in itself, so I went to bed early, woke early and went through my race morning routine. We set off for 10 miles with a large group to get the wheels moving along, it was quite nice to run with a group again, I really miss that dynamic. Once we hit 10 miles Paul, myself and Billy took off to run the next 10 at Marathon pace. Running through the center city was difficult with construction and lights so our first mile was slightly off of pace but we kept pursuing on. The 3^rd mile consisted of a long line of people dressed in pink whom where participating in the Breast Cancer walk, kudos to them for being out in large numbers walking in the cold and raising money for a great cause.

    Billy kept pushing the pace down further and further, “I feel good” is a familiar phrase Billy has always said and today was no different. We were at 6:05 pace for a couple miles then just under 6:00min pace, after 5 miles we were in the 5:50’s, then over the last 3 miles I was struggling to keep up with Billy as he appeared to be hammering home to simulate the finish of Thunder Road. 5:49, 5:41 and 5:47 were my last 3 mile splits and Billy was moving away from me! On the last mile I was making a hard push to catch Billy but I could tell something was off and I was swinging my left leg out wide, something just was not right. Later after numerous visit to Laura at Carolina Sports Clinic, she reiterated the fact that I needed to take a couple days off because my body was just rebelling against the training I wanted to pursue. 3 weeks out from the race I had to accept the fact that I was not going to run a PR L and perhaps not even finish the marathon. Two weeks out on an easy trail run with Matt Jaskot and Mike Beigay my right Achilles locked up on me 10minutes in. After this happened, I began to really think about the road to running a properly peaked marathon, I have never been there and I am not sure that I ever will.

   Lucky for me I actually listened to the advice from Doctor Laura and essentially aqua jogged or rode my spin bike over the last 3 weeks with 2-3 days of running per week. As any runner knows this is the LAST thing that you want to be doing while leading up to a goal marathon. My last 5 weeks of training were pieced together as if I literally had no experience running in my life. Though I ran very little, the goal was to focus on keeping fitness, not gaining fitness. Each of these days I was trying to hit the foam roller while also doing some of those irritating minimal exercises to work on lower leg stability as well as a major focus on glute strengthening.  The last thing to figure out was what to wear of course, I had numerous options concerning clothing and footwear, now what to do.

   

   As any seasoned runner would do, I packed quite a few options for the marathon, including pre-race throw away gear, race attire and post-race clothing to keep warm. One of the shocking last minute decisions that you never make is tossing in a brand new shoe into the mix. Fortunately for me, the Under Amour sales rep sent me a couple pairs of their latest gear to test out and one pair really hit the spot. Perhaps the best racing shoe I have ever worn, well after one test, I thought so. This speaks wonders to the innovative design team at Under Amour given that I have been fortunate to sample the industry’s best running shoes over the past 10 years.

  The shoe in question is the Under ArmourSpeedform and I have provided some of the bullet points concerning the shoe. One interesting factor that I found with a visit from our sales rep is that this shoe was the first to be approved for racing by the legend Chris McCormack and the 2 ^nd, the upper was created in a bra factory to form fit to the foot, giving the shoe a stretchable concept.

The fundamentals

• Regular: A slimmer athletic cut that delivers better mobility by eliminating the bulk of extra fabric.
• Seamless heel cup for anatomical fit
• Silicone heel grip for a more streamlined feel
• Smooth, ultrasonic seaming so you feel nothing but fast
• Micro G® cushioning in the heel rebounds your impact into forward momentum
• UA Light Speed Grip is strategically placed on outsole for the ultimate in ultra-lightweight traction
• 6 mm drop
• Super-lightweight: 6 oz.

 

   As I firmly decided that this was in fact the shoe to race in one week out from the marathon, many were shocked and disapproved but I honestly thought this was an amazing shoe. At only 6 ounces this was a very lightweight shoe but the thing that stuck out to me was that this was not a minimal shoe per say. The “zero drop” concept was not incorporated it is in fact 6mm which in my opinion could be possibly the perfect drop.  The “Speedform” is more aggressive than a standard training shoe but not as aggressive as most of the racing flats in the industry. This I thought would be very beneficial in the later stages of the race, as it would not stretch my calf or Achilles like some of my other shoes. Another factor that stuck out for me was the snug fit of the heel cup, it is very minimal as it is lined with a thin piece of fabric BUT is has an embedded silicone heel grip with works exceptionally.

Take a look yourself at the Speedform RC

   After deciding on such an integral part of my race concerning footwear, all I had to do was select my outfit. On the table were my brand new “EC3D- Compression Shorts” as well as the trusty “2XU Compression Shorts” that have served me very well over the years. My sock choices were the sweet new “EC3D- twist compression socks” vs“ 110% compression sleeves” the pair that worked so incredibly well at Wineglass last year. The accessory choices consisted of “Mizuno- breath thermo gloves” vs. “ Gore Windstopper gloves” and concerning my head gear I had 3 choices in “Mizuno- Breaththermo winter cap”, “Timex Dri fit hat” or a fitted “2XU- winter cap”. What to do what to do….Next update coming soon, I promise!(laptop broke while flying hence the delay)

I am NOT a Spartan: Carolina's Spartan Race

  Like so many of us ingrained in this media culture, I get daily emails from Groupon, Livingsocial and Homerun showing me the latest and greatest deals available in m local area. One day I noticed that there was a Groupon advertising the "Spartan Race" over 8 months away and I figure why the heck not? The marketing guru's behind this event must be making some serious dough as this seems to be the #1 trending sport in our nation. After signing up I have had other goals along the way, nearly forgetting that I actually was registered for this race up until about 2 months ago.

  In order to get somewhat motivated for this race, I began taking some classes at "Fight Gone Mad" and started to institute my own strength regimen 4-5x per week at the YMCA. As a runner I typically would avoid all of this "Strength" work, but over this past year I have had a change of heart I would call it and have decided to spice up things more. While instituting some minimal running to retain aerobic conditioning I hit the weights more and more. From the video's I had seen online, this Spartan race could pretty legit and I did not want to take it for granted in any way. I began to institute stabilization training into my routine with each session making it more and more difficult with heavier weights and uneven surfaces. One of the key workouts that I found really worked a hard burn was my 1 - 10 workout, which consisted of 1 hard mile on the treadmill then immediately hoping off and doing 10minutes of strength with a max out of pull-ups while I was about 20 steps away from the treadmill.

  As the days approached I felt very confident in my overall fitness level, no I was not in tip top running form but in decent enough form to slug through 4 miles I believed.  2 weeks out from the race I decided to really push my anaerobic/aerobic thresholds at the McMullen Greenway with the goal of running under 40minutes for 6 miles. The catch was that the 6 miles had a variety of taxing exercises along the way including (in order); 15 explosive parallel bar dips, 10 pull-ups, 3 miles, 30 push-ups, 25 dips on bench, 15 lunges, 1 mile at 90%, 12 pull-ups, 2 miles to finish in 39:24. After this workout I used the bars to do some additional work and thought to myself that I am in the best overall shape that I have ever been in my life. LET'S DO THIS SPARTAN WARRIOR!

  The forecast worried me on race day, 39 degrees and raining, what would this mean? Those of you who know me, know I have the WORST circulation in my hands and have been known to use gloves in 50 or even 60 degree weather, how could I pull myself up ropes and across bars? Oh well, no time to worry about that! As I pulled up to the US National White Water Center I remembered how much I really liked this place and also that this was a legit event that I was about to partake in. I would guess that nearly 1,000 people were already at the race at 7am and running around with camelbaks, crossfit shirts and compression garments. I had a little time to check in and do a few drills before I had to rush down to the start area. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't really get on the front of the line as there would always be a new guys or two showing up to hop up front. As I looked around, I felt as if I was the only non-military guy up at the front as each were chatting about their drive from this base and that base. The race started with some guy screaming lines from the movie "300" that I vaguely remembered and then all of a sudden everyone took off.


Starting Line - you can see me to the left in Red

  Where was the starting gun? This was something new to me, I missed my chance to make my way up front and push the pace early on. Instead I had about 60 people in front of me on thick gravel while I had to hurdle several guys who were trying to make their bid to be champions. We hit a bridge crossing about 200m into the run and a few more guys face planted on the slippery wooden planks, all the while I was thinking, " I may not have the mentality for this race, this guys are running for their lives, literally". We get into the single track section of the woods and I am SUPER frustrated, I am coasting behind heaps of guys who are about to blow a lung and I cannot pass anyone no matter how hard I try. At every little opening I quickly realized I had to sprint as hard as I could and pass as many guys as possible. We began hitting our first few obstacles from what I remember as mostly water/mud pits through the Catawba River. The barb wire was pretty high and I thought this would be a cake walk until I was knee deep in mud and swimming through it the best I could.

Rock Pull up the Power Line Hill

  The next section of the Catawba river was the most miserable as it took me several minutes to slog through this freezing water where I was neck deep. After I hit land and caught my breath I kept moving my way through the field confidence increasing. The next major obstacle was pretty interesting in my eyes, we had to scale two 7 foot walls and then finish it off with an 8ft wall. This does not sound very difficult until you are tired, dripping wet and numb. After conquering this challenge our next battle was 50 yards away. We had to drag concrete blocks up this mega hill with Metal chains attached. This was the only time I could actually see where I was place wise in the Elite race. I counted a total of 10 guys in front of me finishing this obstacle as I was beginning. After this was complete, I surged over this next running portion as hard as I could passing several more people and making my way towards the front. As I passed the 3 mile mark I was thinking, "Almost there, you can get this top 10 Chris, Come on!!!". At this point I was completely solo and hit the 40yard barbwire mud crawl, wow, 40 yards! This was so much incredibly harder than I anticipated; it was up and down, mud pit, rocks, so many variables. The worst variable was getting my shoe laces caught in the barbwire and failing to detach. I was waddling around in a freezing pit of mud while my foot is dangling on a metal wire and I look like an idiot waving my leg around the best I can to release and continue.

Sandbag Carry, down the hill
into the woods and back.

   The pit was brutal for me, but I finally got out after what seemed like an eternity. After about 400yards of running I saw my demise in front of me as I approached. This past summer I was 3rd overall in the Davidson Mud Run due to the fact that I slipped on the monkey bars and had 10 push-ups while I lost m 2nd place. When I approached the bars, I wiped my hands off the best I could and tried to gain some composure. I knew that if I did not make this all the way across I had 30 burpees ahead of me and that would wreck my chances of finishing well. I grabbed the first bar with my numb hands and fingers, it felt so weird, I saw my hands grasping the bars but just did not feel anything. Moving across the bars slowly I was making my way towards the end thinking " wow, you really can do this". Reaching to the 2nd to last bar I knew I had no grip but nowhere to go but to the ground. "Great! freaking monkey bars". 30 burpees at the gym isn't so bad but after all of this it was like death! Thankfully I breezed through the next 4 obstacles but that was all she wrote. The weighted rope pull, tunnel crawl, net climb and sandbag carry helped me gain back a few more places, but when I approached this black standing wall, I thought "this must be a freaking joke". They expected me to climb across this board of dripping wet 1x4 and 2x4 tiny slices of wood, spaced far apart without falling off! NOT - 30 more burpees for this guy!

30 Burpees Please (this was from the course, see the ropes in the background)

   The next challenge was the spear throw, something I of course practice on a daily basis (sarcasm). My toss was solid as it hit the hay bail and of course promptly bounced off and onto the ground. Guess who had 30 more burpees lined up? That's right ME! At this point I had given up all hope on being in a competitive battle. After my torture I jogged on to the next obstacle, a rope climb that starts in the middle of a deep pit of muddy water. AWESOME! I knew my arms and hands were really fatigued, this would be a true challenge for me to say the least. Taking my time while people were flying up and down these ropes somehow, I was slowly climbing to the top. Here I was about 1.5-2ft away from ringing the bell at the top and I honestly thought I just have no more strength to hold myself up from falling straight down into the pit. As people were cheering me on, I knew it was about to happen and then I just let it happen, splash! Climbing up the muddy hill a nice woman greeted me with "30 Burpees over there, 30 burpees!" Dammit, this really sucks! After my 30 burpees, I have to pick up this MASSIVE tire two times forward and two backwards, this was much more difficult than it would seem but I got through it thankfully.

Our ropes went higher but this
is the basic premise

   Broken mind and broken body, I literally walked to the next obstacle, looking back this was a bad idea, I should have continued to press on, but I just was over failing and doing burpees. One more water pit and a rope climb over a wall and I was done finally. Trembling, shaking and just pissed off, I typed my # into the results and it showed that I finished in 57:04 and was 55th overall in the Elite race. Honestly I don't know the last time I was not top 50 in a race, the only race that comes to mind would be the Boston Marathon in 2007 when I was top 400. I am not sure how to react after this race, where did I lose myself and how could I let myself perform at such a bad level? Should I have picked up a pair of XC spikes after all, should I have taken the gamble and pressed through the crowd at the start to get ahead of everyone and use my strength on the run? Given the day, things just did not work out for me, I even lost my free beer ticket and then was told to leave the locker room because I could not use the showers. As any competitive person would feel after a performance like this, part of you wants to really conquer this challenge in the future while the other part of me wouldn't mind avoiding all of the cuts and bruises all over my body and just calling it a day.

Feel the Pain!

   One of the final points of this rare post, relates back to a article that on facebook bashed, which referenced the Spartan Race and it's test of true fitness. To be honest I was a big skeptic as well but after this race I can truly say that this was the hardest race that I have ever done despite the burpees (I think). Just minutes after the race I was so incredibly sore and today (sundayy evening) I am even more stiff. My Overall result was 55th overall and 15th in my AG! What a bonk! The Spartan race is LEGIT, no doubt about that, I challenge anyone to give it a shot, especially runners as we are often afraid of injury, don't knock it until you try it!!

FYI: I am supposed to get m personal pictures from the Spartan race at the end of the week, can't wait to see the pain and agony! Also, a Shout out to David Bolger for managing to complete the race, even though he opened a gash in his leg that required 9 stitches, after the race. Wendy Norvell who killed the course and finished as the 5th overall woman, while managing to better my time as well! John Chambers who also slayed the course and came out of it with a smile, ready to do another, I have some hardcore peers, great work and thanks for keeping me motivated!

HBF: Run for my Lung 4k

HBF Run for a Lung 4k



CL, Microwave (marc), and Cody



After two weeks of attempting to stuff myself with ice cream post Half Ironman, I decided it was time to race. Since I coach a group on Monday evenings who was preparing for the HBF Run for a reason 14k, I decided to sign up. At the last minute Cody convinced me to sign up for the 4.5k race, because I could most likely win some $ for a top 3 finish. Well I can go around and call myself a dreamer because that was far from the case!

I attempted a short speed session just 3 days out from the race to see if I could get my legs to turnover at all and it was minimally successful so I had a bit of false confidence heading into the race. Since January I had been training specifically for the Half Ironman and of course the half marathon distance, which did not include sessions of short intervals, so the 4.5k was a bit over my head. The goal was to line up with Thomas Bruins and Marc See, run on their heels as long as possible and to hope for the best to get 3rd place. Marc and Thomas had both recently over 1500m with times of 3:44 and 3:49, so naturally I thought I could hang with these guys(buzzer sounding reeeeeeeeeennnn).

Not the case, as we warmed up together I realized Chris Dale was also doing the 4.5k, as was Ben Green, all of whom are accomplished track runners to say the least, as well as they have an extra 8 years of fresh leg turnover on me.  Just before the start I unveiled my best Raf "Radar" Baugh impersonation, with his 10 year old EMBROIDERED singlet that said "RADAR" on it, everyone had a laugh.



Marc See pushing the pace in front of Risely, Gregson and Roff at Nationals!



Inside the WACA at the finish

The gun goes off and so does the lactic acid throughout my body as my lung began to collapse. Holy crap, we are flying and I am, maybe…in 10th place about 1/2m into this run, “this was a mistake” and then “come man, focus” were thoughts going through my head with thousands of people on my heels. I hit the 1k mark in 3:02, then I caught up to Greeny finally at around the 2k mark, thinking my patience had finally paid off. Just as we approached the last mega hill, he just crushed me! My arms felt like I was carrying a baby on each side while I was running and my upper back was in pain, it almost made me forget that I also was not breathing ha-ha. Before I knew it we were entering the stadium and the finish line was just in front. Thank the lord it was over and done with but, come on, really, that was 4.5k? Greeny came over to me as I crossed and said we did like 12 minutes mate, that HAS TO BE SHORT. So here I was, running a race that was way out of my fitness and it was even worse because it was shorter than advertised, it was 4k!

Lesson learned, if you go into a race with expectations but you know what you have been doing (in my case, NOTHING) then prepare to feel the pain! I was 5th overall in 12:30, I was actually pleased with my time considering but at NO POINT was I relaxed or settled into a pace. What reason did you run for?Video<

After a month or two of consistent running the hope is to be able to run sub 16 comfortably again but at this point, I have decided to take a very non critical view to my training regimen. Next up is a 10k in Auckland, New Zealand, more my style at this point.

"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

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