Tuesday 19 March 2013

Mooloolaba number 5

Mooloolaba has not always held the happiest of memories for me, but despite this over the years it has come to be one of my favourite races, if not my favourite race on the calendar. Despite being only 1 week after Wellington, I was eager to come back for my 5th year in a row. That is, until it came time to race. Backing up after Wellington was always going to be a big ask but it was made even more difficult by the fact I came down with a slight head cold mid week. Coming into the race I was not feeling enthused to race, and come race morning I found myself not wanting to race at all.

Due to large surf earlier in the week and the threat of now ex-tropical cyclone Tim, the swim was moved from the beach to the Mooloolah River, swimming around Minyama Island, with a long 500m run to transition. This could potentially change the dynamics of the race, allowing slower swimmers to catch up coming into transition or for a breakaway through transition.

Starting only 1 minute behind the boys the start procedures were rather rushed - lining up in ranking order, selecting a spot on the start line, then we were off! I had a good start reaching the first buoy in 3rd but couldn't sustain the pace and slipped back into the pack finding some feet to sit on. Swimming around the back of the island I could see a small gap opening up ahead. I tried to surge to close the 1-2m gap that had opened up between the front swimmers and the girls I was swimming with but didn't have the kick and the gap slowly grew. I slotted back into our pack and sat in 2nd to conserve as much energy as possible through the rest of the swim. I knew I didn't have my top end spark and I would have to be very smart with how I raced to get through the 40km ride and 10km run.

Lined up to head to the start line

I exited the water in a pack of girls including Jaz Hedgeland, Britt Forster, Ellie Salthouse and Holly Grice. We were 30 seconds down on the 3 strong pack of Grace Musgrove, Laura Wood and Penny Hayes and more than a minute back on race leader Maddi Allen. I had expected the long run to transition to play to my advantage, having gained ground out of the swim in most of my previous races however I really struggled and lost 10+ seconds on Jaz, Hollie and Ellie through T1.

Once on the bike though I found my legs again and caught the girls in front. By 2km into the ride we had caught the front pack of 3 girls and shortly after caught Maddi Allen, forming a pack of 8. Much to my relief, and a nice change from last weekend, the pack worked really well together continuously rolling turns most of the way. The bike being my strongest leg I like to attack and breakaway where possible to get an advantage heading out onto the run. The Mooloolaba course is a straight out and back course however, making breakaways quite difficult as I learnt the hard way last year. Because of this and how flat I had been feeling in the swim I decided just to roll in the pack and not initiate any breakaways. Attacks by both Hollie Grice and Ellie Salthouse throughout the ride made it clear that both of them were keen for a breakaway. If the three of us worked together it was possible we could get away but I wasn't going to initiate it, or go too early in the ride so just worked with the pack to counter the first few attacks. I waited until after the 20km turn around until I attempted to break and work with them. A few quick words were exchanged between us and then Ellie attacked. We opened up a small gap but were quickly caught again by the pack. Another unsuccessful break initiated by Hollie and I decided it wasn't going to work and went back to rolling turns in the pack. It felt odd having been so unaggressive on the bike but it was definitely the right decision.

Coming up the last hill into town I attacked to make sure I would have the best ride into transition. The last few hundred meters of the ride are narrow and technical and I didn't want to be held up at the back of the pack and lose precious time going onto the run. The move worked and I was first into transition. Being a little too enthusiastic I ran a couple of meters past my transition spot but only lost a couple of seconds, exiting T2 in 6th. Grace Musgrove and Jaz Hedgeland took off up the road at a fast pace and I followed after, moving into 3rd position. I had gone out too conservatively in Wellington last weekend so decided to try going out harder at the start of the run to see what I could do. I wasn't able to stay with Grace and Jaz but opened up a sizable lead on Ellie Salthouse in 4th.

Leading the charge into transition

Being a hot and sunny day I made sure to take water at all of the aid stations. I managed to hold reasonable pace and form for the first lap of the run but by the 7km mark I was really starting to suffer. I broke the run down into sections concentration on making it to the turn, the next aid station, and the next, the top of the hill, past the vision tent, down to the finish chute, under the first arch, through the world cup transition and finally to the finish line. My body desperately wanted to slow down but I knew that if I let myself my body might start to shut down...

Heading down the last part of the hill into the finishing straight

That finish line could not have come soon enough! I crossed the line in 3rd, promptly collapsed and was hauled off to the medical tent. A distressing occurrence the first 2 times it happened but after having been here before (and the fact I was still fully conscious this time) I wasn't bothered. I say that, but having a temperature of 40.1 is never pleasant no matter how many times it's happened before. Once my temperature was back down, I'd finished the bag of IV fluid, stopped cramping and stopped vomiting, it was time to head off to medal presentation. Thankfully for me, another competitor collapsed across the line with perfect timing and required the wheel chair just as they were about to force me into it to be wheeled out... I did NOT want to be wheeled up to the podium! Sorry to Grace and Jaz for making you wait! To top off the ordeal I was selected to be drug tested again! Thankfully the drip helped with that...


Somewhat recovered on the podium (although the medics were watching closely to make sure I didn't collapse again)

After collecting my bike from transition area I was a little dismayed by how much fluid I still had left in my drink bottles. When time trialling I usually finish all of the fluid in both my bottles no matter how hot or cold it is. I had obviously underestimated how hard I was working while drafting in the pack and been negligent with my hydration, something I've been very careful about ever since a certain infamous incident in Noosa... No serious harm done this time though, and a reminder to be careful next time!

On the Saturday and Sunday afternoon respectively the mens and womens world cup events were held and it was great watching some of the best in the world battle it out. I particularly enjoyed watching some of the girls I've raced over the past few weeks race in the world cup. There were also inspiring performances in the age group ranks with para-triathlete Bill Chaffey smashing the world record by 5 minutes and legend Markus Hanely finishing his 20th Mooloolaba triathlon at 80 years of age just to name a few!!!

Despite not wanting to start the race I yet again enjoyed my Mooloolaba experience (with the exception of the last km or so and my trip to the medical tent). I'm now having a week off to recover from the intense last few weeks of racing before getting back into some solid training. I've now accumulated enough ITU points to do a world cup and it's time to start planning some overseas races in my bid to be selected into the Australian U23 team for worlds! It's not going to be an easy task though with a strong contingent of Australian under 23 girls including Grace Musgrove who won the Oceania Cup race on Sunday and Natalie Van Coevorden and Charlotte McShane who finished 5th and 7th respectively in the World Cup.

Until next time,
Gillian

Tuesday 12 March 2013

Wellington Oceania Championships

After two Oceania races in Australia it was time to head over the ditch to Kiwi land for the first Olympic distance race of the year; the Oceania Championships in Wellington. I have been to Wellington once before, in 2010 to race the junior Oceania Champs and had good memories of a stunning and challenging course despite the dismal weather that year. I remember being in awe of the athletes racing in the Elite/U23 race and hoped that one day I might be able to race in that race.

Racing as a junior in 2010

Upon arriving we were greeted with uncharacteristically good weather (beautifully clear skies and not a breath of wind) and my recollections of the course did not disappoint, looking even more stunning in the sun.

Riding over the course on Thursday evening; the hill
The bike course was a 6-lap course incorporating a 500m climb with a technical descent. A course holding much potential for splitting up the field on the bike and allowing breakaways. I was excited to see what damage I could cause on the bike and hoped to get away with 1 or 2 other girls with a nice lead coming into the run.

Race day dawned with wind and overcast conditions leading to a cool race.

The swim was held in the Wellington Harbour, at a chill 17 degrees - definitely a wetsuit swim. As the junior men and women started 30 and 25 mins ahead of us respectively we were to be finished our swim warm-up and out of the water half an hour prior to our race start. Not wanting to cool down too much prior to starting and debating the benefit of a specific swim warm-up more than 30 mins before swimming, I opted to do a cycle/run warm up combined with some arm drills to get the blood moving closer to start time. It seemed to work.
We lined up in transition for introductions, jogged the long way down to the end of the jetty and lined up along the pontoon ready for the start. Without too much ceremony or waiting around the starter went off, we dove into water and the fun began.

swim start

I've been in some pretty messy swims before but this one would have to be one of the worst! I had a good dive and so started towards the front of the pack, expecting to clash arms a little as people jostle for positions and the pack spreads out but then settle into a comfortable swim stroke. Not so this time, it felt like everyone was trying to swim on top of each other. I had girls grabbing my arms, legs, head, tugging at my wetsuit, kicking, pushing me under, pulling me back... And it didn't calm down, continuing until the first turn buoy 350m out! I'm just glad I'm used to people pulling my legs while I'm swimming so it didn't phase me, but it did make it hard work! After the first buoy I swum up the side of the pack moving up a few positions to sit in the front 3 of the pack and had some clearer water to swim in. Heading back towards the swim exit I moved off the feet I was following believing I was taking a better line (which I probably was) but instead of gaining any advantage and moving ahead I slipped back a few places when I dropped out of the slipstream. I realised my error and moved back into the pack sitting in 7th where I stayed for the rest of the swim. It probably didn't cost me anything this time but could easily have meant missing a break out of the swim. Lesson learnt.

Exiting the water on the pebbly beach it was a long run up to transition, but just as well as I had difficulty undoing the unfamiliar Velcro on my new wetsuit. I wouldn't usually use equipment I had acquired only 3 days before a race but having ripped my old wetsuit in Devonport, I didn't have much choice! Thanks again to Huub and Micheal Wise for getting me my wetsuit at such short notice in time to take to Wellington! It was great to swim in.

My new Huub Aura wetsuit

Kate McIlroy had the fastest transition establishing an early break on the bike. By the end of the first lap of 6 the main pack of 9 had formed and we were 30 seconds down on McIlroy. The pack was not working very well from the start but with some encouragement from Sam Warriner most girls pulled their turns and we started to make up ground. Frustrated with the pace but not wanting to try for a break so early I did more than my share of turns at the front to try and help bridge the gap. The second time up the hill I lead the pack and unintentionally opened up a gap on them. I could see McIlroy only 100m or so ahead so decided to try and bridge the gap, bringing it down to 9 seconds at the start of the 3rd lap. With the added motivation of 2 riders out in front, the pack worked and caught me before I was able to catch McIlroy who we then caught before the end of that lap. In hindsight if I had been more aggressive up the hill I may have bridged the gap and we may have gotten away but I hadn't been expecting to open up the gap in the first place.

As soon as the catch was made the pace dropped and girls refused to take their turns at the front, wanting to save their legs for the run. Being a strong swim-biker, getting stuck in a pack that refuses to work on the bike is not ideal; in fact its really frustrating. I continued to try and make the girls work, hoping to tire their legs by increasing the pace, but probably only tiring myself. In a pack of 10 the draft advantage is so great that it's pretty hard to do damage to someone sitting at the back of the pack without going extremely fast at the front. Once at the front the others didn't not want to roll around me and a couple of times I actually had to sit up, move right over and stop pedalling to get off the front - not a great way to keep the pace up! A few others were getting frustrated with the Sunday morning coffee ride we were going on and attacks came from McIlroy, Abram and myself but no breaks were established. I dismounted my bike at the end of the 40km having expended a lot of energy trying to get the pack to work and trying to get away but with nothing to show for it. Sometimes it's probably just best to sit in the pack and do the same work as everyone else, and this was probably one of those times.


I had a quick T2, out onto the run in 2nd but was quickly overtaken by the others in my pack as they all ran out like a bullet. I stuck to my own pace, not wanting to blow up at the 5km mark and hoping to run a consistent pace for the 10km. I didn't run as fast as I had wanted, finishing in 9th position and 3rd in the U23 category with a 38 min run but it was still a 10km pb and a decent result. My efforts on the bike took their toll; my race tactics did not work but I learnt many a valuable lesson! In the end I enjoyed myself and that's what matters most.

We had some time to kill on Sunday morning before flying home at 4 that afternoon. We rode up Mt Victoria for the view over Wellington before breakfast.

Opening of Wellington Harbour; Wellington airport; Wellington Harbour; Huge gulls at Oriental Bay

After packing up we headed up another hill to the botanic gardens, this time on the Wellington cable car and got views from the other side of town.



I have one more Oceania race left; this time in Mooloolaba on Sunday. After that it's time for a break before working out my overseas racing calendar for the year!!!

Gillian

Friday 1 March 2013

Blood, sweat and tears - Devonport Oceania Championships

What a week! Coming off a great race in Geelong two weeks prior to Devonport, I had recovered well and had planned a solid weekend of training before tapering off again to race on Saturday. I had a cracker session on Saturday and was fired up for another long hard session on Sunday but the slippery conditions on the road had other plans for me. Despite telling myself I needed to be careful on the wet roads my need for speed got the better of me and 45km into my ride I slid on some oil going around a bend and landed hard on the road taking bark off my hip and my elbow. Not the best thing to do 6 days out from a major race. Feeling sore and sorry for myself I rode home rather slowly but glad that everything was still in one piece and got patched up once home with the help of my training buddy Michelle. My attempts at training over the next few days were rather feeble but I tried to stay positive reminding myself that I still had 5, 4, 3... days for the swelling and bruising to go down and the stiffness and pain in my shoulder to go away. However hard I tried though it was hard not to get stressed, angry and upset at myself with several sessions ending in tears. Bring in the coach. Cath reminded me of a conversation we had following Geelong about how I had shown I could pull off a great race when everything in my preparation goes to plan but that if I wanted to really become a good athlete I needed to learn how to pull off a good race regardless of the circumstances - things are not always going to go to plan, especially when travelling to races! Here was the perfect learning opportunity and all of a sudden what seemed a horrible misfortune became a challenge; a chance to test and to prove myself.

With copious amounts of Arnica cream and massaging, and a bit more positive thought, my shoulder loosened up enough to swim with only a little pain on Tuesday afternoon. By Thursday morning I could run with discomfort rather than constant pain from the bruising - just in time with only 2 days til race day! I was still feeling flat though but just had to trust that with the adrenalin of race day my body would be firing again and I wouldn't feel a thing.

Then came the travelling, and with it more stress with delays, cancelled flights, lost bikes and no pump. But that's a whole other story. I had my bike (Clare wasn't so lucky, hers arriving at 6am race morning before a 7.45am start!!), and eventually thanks to the junior boys from WA pumped tyres, made it to race briefing in time (just), and even got a quick ride over the course before heading back to the hotel for dinner. Phew!

Coles Bay beach along to bike course
With another post lunch race start, this time at 2:15, it was a nervous morning of waiting in the hotel room as the hours... or minutes... ticked slowly by. A phone call from mum, several calls to coach Cath and a 30 minute walk had me feeling slightly better by the time 12:00 rolled around and it was time for me to get ready and go.

The race was again only sprint distance with 750 swim, 20km bike and 5km run. Just as well as the conditions were tough and I was very glad not to have to turn around for a second lap of the swim like the age groupers who all raced Olympic Distance earlier that morning. We pros are just soft ;)

Warming up I knew I was ready to race; as I had hoped I couldn't feel a thing with the adrenalin, my body was feeling light and fast. I practised a few ins and outs, duck diving under the waves on the way out and body surfing on the way in. The surf didn't seem too bad and I was confident that I could get out past the breakers fairly well then settle in to my swim.

The challenging surf conditions (Photo courtesy of Triathlon in Pictures)

The race started with a beach start and a long run of 100m or so down to the water. I was one of the first girls to hit the water and had a good start, taking advantage of my height to run and duck dive a little further out into the water than some of the other girls before I had to start swimming. And that's where any advantage stopped. My lack of experience swimming in the surf showed and I slipped back a few places through the field. Contrary to what I expected, it was actually harder to swim out past the breakers as the waves got bigger and were combined with chop. The constant waves were disorientating and I felt like I was swimming in a washing machine (although, I've never actually tried swimming in a washing machine...). Knowing how important your mind state is to your race performance I reminded myself to remain positive thinking everyone else is getting thrown around too, and even if I have the worst swim ever there's nothing stopping me having a cracker bike and run.

Approaching the first swim buoy I started to feel a little more comfortable and regained a bit of lost ground. On the way back in the gaps in the field were constantly changing with some girls catching waves and others not. One moment I was being swept on top of the girls in front and the next they were 10 or so metres ahead. This yoyoing continued all the way back in to shore and I managed to remain semi in contact with the girls in front. Eager to get out of the water I got a little too excited when I thought I saw the bottom and put my feet down to start duck diving only to find I was still beyond my depth... A silly mistake that cost a few seconds. I usually never stand up until my hands touch the bottom while swimming but it can be difficult to judge with waves. One moment you're in 50cm deep water and the next 1.5m deep as a wave washes through. I got my momentum back and eventually made it to shallow enough water to run. Relieved to be out of the swim, Devonport had one last trick to play on me and just as I thought I was safely running in calf deep water I found a hole to tread in and promptly landed face first in the water. Slightly embarrassing but funny at the same time I laughed it off, jumped up and ran onto the sand. Run up the beach, wetsuit off, helmet on and I was off onto the bike.

I caught Natalie Van Coevordan who had come out of transition just ahead of me and we worked together to catch Gwen Jorgensen and Lauren Parker about 3/4 of the way around the first lap of 4. There were 3 girls ahead of us; Jodie Stimpson and Aileen Reid working together about 10 seconds in front and Maddi Allen by herself in the lead after a dominating swim. We worked well together however given Gwen Jorgensen's running speed the girls ahead would never have let us catch them easily and put time into us every lap. A large group containing almost the rest of the field was 30+ seconds behind us but riding well. On the third lap I sensed the other girls starting to tire a little and the main pack was starting to put ground into us. Knowing that some of the girls in that pack could out run me I wanted to get to transition with as much lead off the bike as possible. My legs were still feeling good so I broke away in the last lap and put 12 seconds into the girls I was riding with.

Riding with Gwen Jorgensen and Natalie Van Coevorden (Photo courtesy of Triathlon in Pictures)

I headed out of transition 30 seconds behind the race leaders and set my sights on catching Maddi Allen who had been caught by Jodie Stimpson and Aileen Reid part way through the cycle. I was passed by Gwen Jorensen within a few hundred meters of the run, moving down to 5th on the road but shortly after caught Maddi putting me back into 4th, and the leading U23 and Oceania athlete. Just after the turn around to begin our 2nd and final lap of the run I was caught by Charlotte McShane, also an Australian U23 athlete. None of the other girls had put significant ground into me and it was clear that the race would be between the two of us for the Oceania Championship title (Jodie Stimpson being from GBR, Gwen Jorgensen from USA and Aileen Reid from IRL were not eligible for the title). I stuck with her for the second lap, taking turns to dictate the pace from in front. Not wanting it to come down to a sprint finish I put in a surge with about 600m to go but she came with me. We ran on for another 100-200m before she surged and I wasn't able to go with her. I crossed the line 8 seconds behind but stoked with 5th place and 2nd Oceania and 2nd U23. I had passed the test and backed up with another good result, proving to myself that my race in Geelong was not just a fluke, and this time relying on what has always been my Achilles heel - the run!

Oceania Championship podium (Photo courtesy of Triathlon in Pictures)

Devonport will always be a special place for me, being where I did my first draft legal race and first ocean swim at the Australian All schools triathlon championships 5 years ago, shortly after taking up triathlon. It was here that I decided that I wanted to become a professional triathlete (rather than swimmer which is what I had aspired to throughout school) and it seems fitting that it is on this course that I have now won my first Elite medal. I will definitely be back again next year!
Thanks again for all the amazing support I recieved over the weekend, and sorry to anyone who had to put up with my post crash woes!

My next adventure takes me across the ditch for the Wellington Oceania Championships, this time Olympic Distance next weekend.

Gillian

** Thanks to Anne-Marie for the photos