Swim- 37.20x t1 5 min > Bike 3h05 t2. 2min Run 1h 52.5x
Looong Version:
For those of you unfamiliar with this beautiful part of the world, Wanaka is situated in the South Island of NZ a groovy town situated by a large freshwater lake fed from glacial rivers and nestled amongst mountains. Weather in summer is one of two patterns - Southwesterly which means littl wind, clear skies and very hot days. Or northwesterly which means very windy and/or heavy rain which causes the lake to rise.
The two days preceding the race were clear, calm and hot. However, a norwester was forecast for Saturday. Metservice website said the wind would pick up in the afternoon so we were all optimistic that by the time the wind got strong(er) we would be well off the bike (unless you were doing the full distance).
So the alarm went off at 4.45am on Sat morning, brekky of 1 and a half bagels with peanut butter and 1 and a half bananas plus 2 cups of coffee. Followed MM's advice that I needed more calories for breakfastso forced it all down. Listened to my Ipod and my prerace psyche up songs (this is a new thing I am trying out!!)
Applied first layer of sunscreen/stretched my shoulders+rotators and put some muscle rub on my neck and shoulders too.Decided to head outside since it was getting light and check out the weather. UH-OH.......its NOT a good sign when the trees are swaying ferociously at 5.30am!!
We headed down to transition and got numbered and into wetsuits and headed across to the lakefront as the full distance competitors were about to start. As expected the lake was choppy with lots of standing waves ( tho was relieved no white caps at that stage!). Oh well, at least the water temp was 17 degrees this year and not 13 like last year ....I have to admit I had a bit of trepidation as I have always been lucky enough to have smooth conditions in all the major races I have done. Stood in the water for a bit and assessed where the hardest work was going to be - we were swimming in an anticlockwise direction so heading out into the chop, a surf on one side and side on chop back to the big orange buoy then 100m to shore. Had a good warm up, once the men started I headed out as the women were starting 3 mins later and its a deep water start.
I lined myself up in a good position closer to the small orange buoys on my left, of course once the gun went off the usual melee occurred but there were heaps of people doing breaststroke already- i was feeling quite assertive so just kept pushing on remembering MM's instructions that I was to go hard from the start - just had to keep poppong my head up every 3rd- 4th stroke to see over the top of the wave and keep the buoys in sight. Made it round 2/3 of the triangle with a good line - the final stretch heading back in was the hardest part - side on waves meant I kept swallowing water ( but this lake water is highly drinkable - the lake is clear like Taupo so you can see the bottom apart from the really deep bits ) and every time I sighted it felt like the bouy was not getting any closer. The whole swim i was aiming for high turnover and short punchy stroke, kept telling myself I was just in the pool doing MMs fast 25s with BB and counting my strokes. This seemed to work and I passed a few AG men.
Was expecting to see 45 mins on the clock but highly pleased to see 37.17(37.22 to the timing mat) on my watch, last year i did 37.07 but the lake was flat.
Swim- 37.22 avg HR 164 (!!).
T1- 5 mins.
Out on the bike and the first 35 km are an out and back to Hospital flat which is a pleasant leg by the lakeside and lots of rollers. My race plan was to let everyone zoom past up the road to the turnaround and force myself to take it easy and let my stomach settle - good practice for IM anyway. After a study of Going Long and Hunter Allan';s book I set my Power caps to be 190 for the small hills but aiming to hold 150-160 W (which =80-85% of FTP). I had no choice but to do this anyway asi could feel the lake water sloshing away in my stomach ( at least I would be well hydrated
) and had to burp a few timesbefore I came right. This section passed uneventfully and quickly then it was back thru town and up the hill out then a left turn towards Hawea. More rollers and then a decent climb up to Hawea dam (^50km mark) straight into the wind. Worse to come was riding across the dam with my bike being blown towards the centre line as I tried to stay upright. THANK GOD I decided my Powertap was more important and had my 32mm Eastons on!Steepish climb out of Hawea and then a few more rollers and a small uphill (still with crosswind) made this hard work and my Garmin was beeping like mad as I couldnt keep the watts down (!). The reward for this tho was a huge tailwind on the slight downhill along Hawea Flat to Luggate Bridge (this section of road has the roughest chip ever!).I kept hammering away at the pedals tho and used the time to get some more food and drink in - where I felt safe enough to reach for my bottle...slightly scary drop down to Luggate Bridge and then a sharp climb up and eventually hit the right turn back towards wanaka where a longish climb back into the wind ensued before a gradual descent into town. Robbie Ventura's mantra of "Go fast when the race is slow" had been ringing thru my head the entire ride and here was the prime place to prove that theory..passed a lot of people up here and kept the pace on, knowing that the last 5km were all downhill, albeit into the wind. I hit 75km/hr on my aerobars down here and managed to beat my bike time from last year by 1 minute in much worse condtions. So I was quite chuffed when I got into T2
Bike time 3h05 total ascent 697m avg power 141 ( think Normalized power would be quite a bit higher) avg HR 157.
T2 2 mins
Out onto the run- its a gradual uphill (into the wind) by the lakefront then along the lakeside on a gravelly track and then thankfully a bit of shelter on the Clutha outlet track where finally had a bit of reprieve from the wind. I was running 5.30ish/km which was ok..I was in a nice rhythm and couldnt go faster or slower.The track is quite undulating and about 11km you pop out of the track and have a long uphill (Gunn Rd) then a long 4 km slight downhill (into the wind again!) down Aubrey Road which I have always found a mental slog.. This year the course had changed so no in and out section here - just straight up 2 steepish hills to the park then back to Beacon Point (into that b****y wind again!) to make up the extra distance (which seemed a LOT longer than the previous in and out on Rata St!). Once out by the lake YAY only 2 km to home and the wind behind me....played a bit of cat and mouse with a woman in the age group above me and manged to outsprint her to the line.
run - 1.52.5x avg Hr 167. 1st 10km in 53.52 11km in 59.08. Pleased I kept my run pace relatively consistent.
Nutrition - 2 gels, bag of GU chomps and most of a bag of cola flavour Powerbar Gel blasts + 2 bottles of water w Nuun.
Coke + water only on run. No issues at all
Thoughts?
Am pleased as went 3 mins quicker than last year in very testing conditions. Mostly pleased as I was in very good headspace for the whole race and didnt waste any energy stressing about the wind or the waves. I had listened to an old episode of IMtalk where the boys interviewed Mark Allen a few weeks ago - his message about focussing on the moment really struck home and I said to myself at the start line that I was really grateful I was fit and healthy enough to be able to do this especially in these beautiful surrounds; I was going to enjoy every minute and I know that my Dad would have been really proud. Yes, I know that all sounds really cheesy but on Saturday I got the "flow" and its a great place to be in
This was also the first time I had raced a longer race with my Power meter - I couldnt stick to the power caps on some of the short steep climbs but where I gained the MOST use of it was when I slacked off (despite thinking I was working) a bit and could see that I could put more effort in. My sole focus for the bike was staying within my power parameters and making sure I ate every 30 mins; the ride would take care of itself and surprisingly I was a minute faster than last year.
I would have liked to run less than 1.50 but maybe its hard to do on this course? I was pleased with relatively even pacing and didnt walk any of it.The wind was very tiring on the run; more so than the bike. The swim was also tiring but my strength has definitely improved and can see all the pullbuoy/paddle work Ive been doing is paying off.
Looking forward to St George now - the longer steady climbs suit me a lot more than steep short rollers. At least the roads there are a lot smoother than here in NZ.
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| New helmet -old one had a crack and failed the check. |
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| Day before the race=perfect weather! |
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