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, butI 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.
"If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared – most of all – to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself….then truth will not be withheld from you. Or so I’ve come to believe.”
---side note--- for those aussies who don't like actual content in a blog, you may want to skip the read.
This is a quote from a book that I read while on my journey to Australia from way on the other side of the world. We all have phases in life in which we are truly trying to find out who "we" as people really are. What makes me tick, what are my true flaws that I have been ignoring?
Yesterday I was fortunate enough to go for my 2nd run of the day just before sunset and reflect just a bit on the situations and outcome of my life thus far. To some, it would appear as if I am a lost soul wondering the world in search of my "existence" and yes this is true in part, but I honestly believe that my life has been such an amazing lesson. Everyday I attempt to absorb what is going on around me, the people, the sights and the concepts of success. At an early age I saw how my family was struggling and the #1 focus going into adulthood was making $ and plenty of it. Now, I have come to terms with the obvious necessity of $$$ but also the tortures it can sometimes bring with greed.
Sometimes I feel as though I am wise above my years, especially based on my how old I actually look, when other times I feel like a rambling 16 year old kid searching for answers. I can see what is important in life, it's not training for a triathlon or beating this guy, it's relationships. Sure through avenue's such as sport or business we can mix with people and began to mold ourselves to understand the inner being of others, but the actual act is not important. It's the in between chatter amongst people, your friends, co-workers and loved ones. I have realized that I am in one of the most beautiful places in the world, its breath taking at times even, but it's missing something. On my journey away from those loyal friends, loving family members and caring colleagues, I have finally stumbled upon my existence, why I am here and what I am supposed to be.
The day I arrive home and greet my family in the little 3br 1 bathroom house I grew up, I like to think I will feel on top of the world. I may not be on the white sands of some exotic beach, but I will be where I am supposed to be. Sharing my life and my experiences with my family. Traveling 16,000 miles away into a new life is all it took me to realize where I need to be. It's funny, as I am building towards one of the biggest races of my life, I have been less and less focused on the competitive nature of it all, but more so on finishing off a couple more goals before heading home to pursue my real goal.
Recently I took a holiday down south with a close friend of mine from the states(Karin Helmbrecht). We had an amazing time and saw some incredible sights along the way. I decided that since I had a fair amount of video clips I would just speak through them. Enjoy, hope you like the it!
The AWESOME general store we went to every morning
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
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 holidayChris" 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!
