So it’s been a few weeks since Ironman South Africa 2018. Yes, I am an Ironman. I must say that I have been so de-motivated to get back into the swing of things and back to training that I almost can’t even remember doing the race!
So in an effort to get some mojo back, here’s a little about my race journey: April 15th 2018 marked my second Full Ironman race. What a fabulous day it was indeed! My race weekend started out like every other event: We got to PE on the Friday; went straight to registration and strolled through the expo (trying not to buy unnecessary crap). We then checked into our B&B, unpacked our bags and washed the bikes. We do always make an effort to stay a block or so away from the race venue as things get very loud and there’s too much excitement.
0 Comments
I have had 2 months to have my entire Kona experience run through my mind over and over again. Before I continue I want to define 'experience'. Think about going on a night out to a fancy restaurant - the 'experience' would be everything from arrival, greeting, décor, music, waiter attitude & competence, food, drink etc. Lets be honest - you don't go out only because you hungry!
That's what I want to write about here - my Kona EXPERIENCE. I have told most people in conversation that ask what was Kona like, that the experience was awesome but the race wasn't all I had dreamed it would be. Don't get me wrong - it was memorable for so many reasons. So why was the overall experience so great and the race less so? The 12 rules of Christmas: Christmas tips to survive the food and frenzy - by Andrea Cullen12/13/2017 I am going to make the shock assumption that most hard-working triathletes know how to eat a balanced and supportive diet to reward the hard training that their bodies agree to.
But just in case here is a reminder: A well thought out nutrient dense diet is imperative if you want to go long and hard for a long time without injury, illness or burn-out 😊 All the various vitamins, minerals, plant and food based antioxidants, amino acids from protein, fatty acids, resistant starches from specific carbohydrate foods, prebiotics and compounds with long names that research keeps identifying in natural foods are important for our health and for the cells, organs, brain, muscles, tendons and ligaments, tissues and even our gut microbiome to function optionally. Instead of the usual race report and because 2017 was very much a build year I thought I'd just share some learnings. These are in no particular order.
After 7 months off and a few failed starts due to lack of interest and health, I finally committed to putting a 12 week block together for Dublin 70.3. Lucie and I had planned to give serious racing a miss in 2017 but at the same time make sure we qualified for the 2 championships so that we could focus 2018 solely on Kona. The first 3 weeks were hard but it wasn’t long before the body started to remember the routine. Consistency up to Dublin and then for another 5 weeks up to Italy was great. Averaging just under 15 hours and just over 10 sessions per week. Shortest week 8 hours after 70.3 Dublin, longest week 20 hours the week after that. Packed and on my waySo the day of departure has arrived – I am not going to say ‘finally’ as it has suddenly come so quickly. 11 months ago I qualified and thought it would be aaaages till I actually go to Kona. As always, in hindsight, it all went too fast.
With all the excitement (and stress) of getting ready for a trip literally to the other side of the globe, comes the dreaded bike packing. This was made more interesting this morning when I struggled for over an hour trying to get my new BMC Time machine into my bike bag. I have never packed it before and owning a ‘SUPERBIKE’ comes with its challenges. Family & Friends
D-Day is getting closeI cannot believe that just short of 11 months ago I qualified for Iron Man, Kona. I thought that was a big build up and a huge crescendo – it was. The build up to Kona however has been bigger than I could have imagined. Everyone who knows anything about triathlon cannot help themselves from giving advice, stories of experiences, words of encouragement and admiration, and just simply passing on strength and well wishes. It is an amazing thing to have experienced – and I consider myself extremely fortunate to be living this dream. I have been to World Champs in the Olympic distance and Long distance and raced at Challenge Roth (voted many times over as the best triathlon in the world and probably most supported from a spectator number point of view), but still nothing compares to the attention one gets when telling a fellow triathlete you are training for Kona, Hawaii. It is only now that I am so close to actually doing to race that I realise how big it is and how people view this event. I have promised myself that I am not going to let the occasion get the better of me – generally races don’t – I just get very excited and love the moment. I am however going to “chase my own best” – words from our own Chad le Clos. Consistency in trainingSo I am on the road travelling for work for 2 days again and last night I went to bed feeling terrible that I had eaten too much and not trained. 2 days no training is going to destroy my race. NOT! For those of us that have ‘normal’ lives – actually fitting the triathlon part of the life in there probably makes us abnormal , but we have jobs and families and other responsibilities so having some forced days off is part of preparing for a race – even at 16 days out from the biggest race of my life – Ironman Kona.
Inside or outsideSo what do you prefer – swimming in the local gym pool or getting out to a lake, dam or the ocean? Admittedly the local gym pool is more accessible for most of us, unless you live right next to the ocean. Then there are the obvious differences like the water generally being cleaner in a pool and a black line directing you in the pool. I would still have to say, that if you can get over the fear of swimming in open water – it is a far better experience. If you are relatively swimming fit, the open water swim actually becomes therapeutic – I suppose there is something about being close to nature.
Most open water swims will have some form of natural beauty surrounding you and what can be better than to have the sun on your face every time you turn to take a breath. Ever tried swimming when it is raining – that adds a whole different perspective. If its a heavy Highveld thunderstorm, then it can get abit scary as the drops splashing off the water mean you can see only 2-3 metres ahead of you. However if its a light rain, it makes for an awesome experience. Today I swam 3.8km’s at Cradle Moon Game farm (previously Heia Safari), and it ended my weekend and training week perfectly. Triathlon is about experiences – my goal is to race as many different races as possible as each race brings something different. Whether it’s the water, the bike course or the run course, every race can bring a new challenge or a never to be repeated experience. Go out and enjoy what nature has to offer! PreparationNot sure what your view is on preparation but I prefer to leave nothing to chance. Triathlon involves three sports and travelling literally to the other side of the globe requires some decent preparation. Not much needed for the swim as it certainly won’t be wetsuit legal, and the run doesn’t require that much either (the new Nike Air Pegasus were purchased at the beginning of the year already), but with the bike we all know it’s not that easy. Not that Hawaii is a third world country where finding bike spares or buying nutrition or clothes would be difficult, but in my case nothing is ever easy to get as nothing is ‘normal’ – size 14 shoes, XL bike frame etc. Triathlon like lifeSo with all the frustration around my knee injury and then my hamstring pain that have hindered my running since the beginning of the year and then getting flu twice in August – I have had my fair share of a mental & physical roller coaster in the lead up to Kona. My coach Lucie, told me in her wisdom that triathlon is like life – it sometimes throws us unwanted or unplanned curveballs. That’s no lie. At a time when my cycling is stronger than ever and my swimming form feels great, I am probably in the worst running shape I have been in, in a couple of years. A total of 250 km’s of running since I was allowed to start running again in May. Hard work – 30 Days to go!So after a tough session this morning on the indoor trainer and a long day at the office I am sitting here not knowing what to write about in my next blog – after all tomorrow I am into the 20s days to go! Cannot believe I am so close. Then I remembered a saying that I heard for the first time a few years ago while chatting to Roland Schoeman, Olympic Gold Medallist and an awesome guy, judging from the couple of hours I spent with him. “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard”. He mentioned that it is was up on a wall at the University in the USA where he spent many hours training. I had to think about it for a while before it sunk in. Soon afterwards I wrote it down on a piece of paper and then transferred it to my diary. I then saw it again recently at the Sports Science Lab (SSL) in Pretoria run by Neil DuPLessis – an incredible sports scientist who has helped me with 2 fairly serious injuries. I reckon, that I live by this. I am not particularly talented – I was 4th Team rugby captain at high school and tried my hand at just about any sport on offer from tennis to squash to cricket to action cricket, athletics to volleyball to swimming to bmx’ing to canoeing to water skiing and throw in some golf. Not often did I achieve anything amazing, but I loved every minute of being outdoors and exerting myself in some way. Then I fell in love triathlon – WOW have I worked hard at this sport and enjoyed the journey immensely. Note I said journey, and not every single session or moment. The other day I was so far over y limit on my indoor trainer that I thought I was going to throw up. I didn’t, but I know that hard work will pay off in Kona. Nothing in life comes easy – work hard and you can beat those talented individuals out there! Balance? Bull dust! 32 days to goThat question that we all grapple with – is there a perfect balance between work, family, friends and triathlon? I am not even going to call it ‘health’ because when you hit the Iron Man distance there is NO balance and its not for health reasons. As my wife Sharon once said – “Iron Man is a cult”.
Triathletes mind set 200km mark
Its psychological I suppose and anyone who cycles will know what I mean. Even the pros do it – I remember riding with Jan Ullrich in Stellenbosch, SA back in Dec 2014 and we ended a ride just short of 100km and as we arrived back at the hotel he was spinning his front wheel to ensure the clock clicks over to 100km’s.
I’m certainly feeling good now that I have done the 200km’s, better than what I would have felt if I had done 198km’s !
Indoor PowerSo people keep asking me how I manage to spend so many hours on my indoor trainer? The answer is simple I suppose – time and results! When it comes to my indoor trainer I have literally spent hundreds of hours in my ‘man cave’ , ‘torture chamber’, home gym – call it what you want. It was even part of the plans of our brand new house that Sharon & I designed at Monaghan Farm. It wasn’t me that pushed for the training room – Sharon said it must be part of the plans. Thank you my darling!
Amazing how a big goal like Iron Man Kona can create an emotional roller coaster. As mentioned previously, I have had my fair share, in fact more than my fair share, of injuries during my build up and unfortunately the neural hamstring strain is not going away. I envisaged having my biggest training week ever this week – around 24 hours. That was thrown off course on Monday evening after a 10km run were my hamstring flared up to the point I could hardly walk on Tuesday morning.
Tuesday night was a huge low point for me – I was ready to pack it all in and give up on the Kona dream. I literally cried myself to sleep wondering if it has all been worth it. In desperation I turned to something I have never tried – Chinese therapy: KONA Countdown - 38 days to go So I came back having qualified for Kona at 70.3 Xiamen, China and headed for an inguinal hernia operation. Something I knew I had coming but told no one as that would have meant not going to China and having a chance to qualify for Kona. Stupid – yes, but we do these things!! 4 weeks post the operation, 1st week of January 2017, I was back into training. This was going to be the real start of my Kona journey. In reality I have been on a very long triathlon journey for the past 20 years! Well, that 8 month journey has been one of many highs and lows. As my coach Lucie, put it – “it’s a thing called life!” Smooth is not the way it goes, well for most of us anyway. About 2 weeks back into training I got what was later diagnosed as ‘massive bruising’ of the femur. Basically resulting in serious knee pain when running. That meant only cycling and swimming and seeing what ended up being 9 different specialists, physiotherapists, biokinetisists, massage therapists, sports scientists, not to mention advice from every person who had ever had knee pain. Many, many hours of rehab and specialised strength training and many thousands of rands later. I have so many people to thank for their time and patience. First and foremost my wife, Sharon, my coach, Lucie, Sports scientist and super amazing man, Neil DuPlessis, Dr Jon Patricios, physios Noelle & Sidisha, massage therapist Nico and a few others along the way. With the recent launch of GARMIN's latest Premium GPS running/triathlon watch, we asked Trifactri athlete and GARMIN Brand Ambassador Jade Nicole to give us a little insight to this incredible training device.. "23km of swimming, 300km of cycling and 80km of running in a week. This is the training load I log during a solid block in my program. The one piece of equipment I cannot go without and feel ‘lost without it’, is my Garmin technical device. I was one of the first athletes in the country to be given the new Garmin Forerunner 935 Triathlon/ Multisport watch.
Oh, the classic Swim, Bike and Run- I would say that we are all pretty familiar with the drill. The fourth discipline is fondly known as Transition, sometimes forgotten and neglected, yet when mastered can shave minutes off your time. (I speak for myself, who basically sets up camp in transition.)
My 5th discipline is called Type One Diabetes (T1D) and without careful attention to this domain, completing a triathlon would be a pipedream. T1D is an autoimmune disease that manifests after the body self-destructs its own insulin-producing cells of the pancreas, resulting in the complete loss of carbohydrate metabolism. Talk about self-sabotage. There is no cure and I play full time pancreas- balancing administering insulin injections and carbohydrate counting. Durban 70.3 2017
I entered this race for one goal ..okay maybe two and that was to get a slot for worlds 2018 in PE as well as dance somewhere on the podium, this was no secret to anyone who knows me or cared to listen. I’m not very talented but I’m as stubborn as a goat. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard … and boy did I work hard. Early Hours, Late nights, Long Weekends. Day in and day out … all greens where I could help it. You know how it is leading up to a race, “are you ready?” “How has the training been?” “Are you nervous?” “How is the body feeling?” and for the first time in a very long time my answers weren’t, “ah we’ll see on the day won’t we,” “The training has been ok hey,” “Nnnaaaa not very nervous,” “Ya the body is fine thanks,” it was, “Yes, I am ready,” “The training has been really good thanks,” “Yes I am very nervous,” and “The body is feeling great!”
The training was consistent and I was as ready as I could be, but an athlete’s worst nightmare before a big race is either getting sick or getting injured. On the Tuesday before the race I did my EASY indoor, you know how tapering is ;) and as I started my EASY run my hamstring did something funny. Needless to say the next few days it was a continuous repetition of ice, heat, ice, heat, panic message to Lucie, ice, heat, ice, heat, transact patch, pray, ice, heat, ice, heat… well you get the picture! If anyone had said to me that before I reach my big Four Oh, I would have completed a triathlon, I would have divorced myself from the friendship immediately with a heartfelt laugh! And yet, today I’m writing this blog having completed two triathlons and one of them being Ironman 70.3 Durban.
Prior to joining Trifactri, my only goal was to fit in my clothes (comfortably) and to look good by the time the big Four Oh arrived. Each day I would go to the gym and essentially plod along (can one truly do anything properly without a coach? Nope). A fellow running friend of mine asked if I wanted to join him for training sessions as he is training for Ironman 70.3 East London. Having nothing to lose and frankly there is never anything wrong with running behind a man who has killer legs for motivation, I agreed and unbeknown to me, the triathlon journey began. Walking onto the beach on race morning, you can just spot the swimmers. They’re an elite bunch. It’s like they smoothly and confidently stride towards the sub 30min self-seeding board with their wide shoulders, narrow waists, unusually webbed feet and mirrored goggles firmly secured by a second swimming cap. *Shivers up my spine*.
Six years ago, I was living in Mozambique. I am missionary and I was making a project to suport 300 poor kids with food, medicine, school and sports.
.I’m still on cloud 9 after winning the Standard Bank Durban 70.3 Half Ironman, my first big win as an athlete. It’s been an incredibly journey so far this year, where the long hours of training and the extra effort put into working on my weaker areas are now finally paying off. Its never easy to be on top form all year round, so selecting key races and wanting to be at my best for that specific goal is the way I like to do it. When I look back to what I put down at the beginning of this, and what I wanted to achieve, I can tell you I am on my way to achieving the goals I have set out for myself.
|
Authors:Where Trifactri athletes get to tell their side of the Swim, Bike and Run Archives
May 2018
CategoriesCategories |