World Championships Done. What's Next?

Me, racing the slippery wet roads of Hyde Park.

Well the World Triathlon Championships are done. That took a bit of work. I even managed to train with Aussie Elites in Spain, at their training base for the Northern Summer, before racing in (a rainy) London. I didn't win, but I did some personal bests. (I was initially elated then depressed then felt I had accomplished something.) It's a weird world, the head of an athlete. So I can tick that box. But what do I move on to? After full time training for a few weeks I was my fittest ever. It's going to be a challenge to maintain that leanness and eat everything I feel like. (The joy of 4-6 hours per day of training!) But I loved the training environment and the fact I didn't have to work or do anything much else. It did sap my creative energies though, hence a sparsity of posts here. I feel that coming back a little now. 

I was cycling with my brother today and he asked what was my next exercise goal, after the last I have race coming up in a few weeks in Noosa. I hadn't really thought much of it. I was contemplating doing nothing much at all, which for me is probably still more than most, but maybe it's time to think of something different. I'm never going to be a world champion triathlete for a host of reasons. So maybe look at something else? Persist just for the sake of it, and push my limits? It's certainly a great way to keep über fit. But maybe there's something out there that I'm missing that would be perfect for me... 

I'm open to suggestion.

Surfing White Butts

We've all seen guys with shorts hanging half way down their arses. Some of us have even been those guys I'm sure. But I've seen a whole new trend, one I'm hoping will catch on through the southern summer. Swimming in the surf I noticed a white flash surfing the wave next to me. I thought I was mistaken but a tanned blonde surfer was catching a wave with his board shorts exposing the entirety of his extremely white hot butt. He was laughing all the way, and paddling back out into the surf with the same white beacon beckoning. Again and again. He was trying to get a little attention from some people on the beach and achieved success beyond his expectations.

The water was crystal clear, the waves divine and I'm going back for more. Regularly.

(photo sourced from L'HOMME EST UN CONCEpt)

Noosa Triathlon Chaos

Me - far left - at the bike-run transition.

Last weekend was the focus of my training for much of the year. The Noosa Triathlon.

And what a weekend it was to become!

The first thing one notices when you arrive in Noosa on this particular weekend of the year is the mass of bicycles EVERYWHERE. And they're not just standard bikes. They're the carbon fibre / time trial / über expensive variety in all manner of shapes, colours and weights.

While they may be the first thing you notice they are by far not the predominant feature. The hot, fit men that abound is enough eye candy to create visual diabetes. And while I'm tempted to say I'd be happy to made ill from the abundance, that's a little too close to the bone for me for this particular weekend.

Pre-race preparation is all consuming - a combination of physical preparation / equipment organisation / hydration and rest. I find myself phasing out of conversations as I focus on my race plans and preparation in my head.

But this year things, all kinds of things, go horribly wrong, from way in advance right through the weekend. We'll start with my brother having to withdraw as result of his bike-car crash earlier in the year. A fews days before the weekend I develop a sore throat and cough, this was not in my pre-race plan. As the weekend arrives we discover that my partner and his team are in fact not registered for their team event. A technical glitch that wasn't a fun discovery for the team especially for the cyclist who had her own newly purchased über bike all prepped up with no place to ride. On Saturday Qantas grounds its entire fleet and our exit from Noosa becomes uncertain. Not that I'm too worried as staying in Noosa longer is never really a problem.

But wait, there's more.

Sunday, Race Day arrives and at 5am I'm awake and in preparation, pre-hydration and setting up gear in the transition zone. My race starts at 6:52. The swim is good, but I'm feeling a little congested with the cold I've developed, so not perfect. The cycle is hard work, more than I remember, but at the same time I'm feeling pretty strong and confident and I push myself hard. My legs don't feel as fast as they have been in the past few weeks though, not the strength I'm used to. Transition to running is easy, but by 2km the run hurts and there's 8 to go. I know I'm in a good position though with one or two ahead of me. But each km feels harder and harder. I'm loving the hose spraying locals who rain on me but the rehydration stations aren't frequent enough. It's getting close to the end, just 3 km to go. I'm feeling a little faster, but it' still hard work and then the next thing I know I'm in an ambulance, sirens and all, what the hell happened?

The ambulance officer comes in and out of blur. He asks me if I can see clearly yet. I wonder if he can read my mind but realise this is not the first time he's done this. He tells me what's been happening, I've collapsed, dehydrated with next to no blood pressure but never unconscious, though I recall nothing. He updates me on what's happening next and I close my eyes because it feels better that way. But that prompts him to ask me if I'm okay , or "keep with me" which he doesn't actually say but I hear it, so I keep my tired eyes open as he buzzes around me keeping going. We shake and shudder and wind our way to the emergency department by which time I've had 2 1/2 litres of fluid and where I then have another 2 more before leaving later that afternoon, somewhat dazed and very tired but still a little bit thirsty.

My support crew doesn't hear about me nor my whereabouts until 2 hours after I was due at the finish line. They're accordingly freaked out, but happy to discover I'm alive and deliver loads of big hugs when I get back to Noosa. It's big Pizza dinner, a lot of fluids and early to bed. How we get home is something for tomorrow.

Training Partner?

I've lost my training partners.

I've lost my coaches.

Some have moved out of the area, some are temporarily in the Northern Hemisphere, some just don't train any more. And too many have been hit by cars. On bikes. Bloody Drivers.

My brother is still out of action in a training sense from his accident, and my swim coach is in hospital in a coma.

I've always been an independently motivated guy and so I go on and push myself to go better, harder, faster on my own. But I like people and I like working as a team, or even just working independently but connecting with someone along the way. I miss them all. The people who would just be there and do stuff, and push hard, and sometimes not but still have fun along the way.

And so I'm looking out for new people to fill the void. They may or may not look like the guy in the picture, but so long as they challenge me in some way I really don't mind. I just have no idea where I'm gonna find them.

Byron

I'm hooked.

I've just completed my 4th triathlon and I'm already calculating how to better my times and be more competitive, even though I came home with gold.

It has been our tradition to head to Byron Bay to compete in their Ocean Swim race the first Sunday in May each year. It's usually a fun weekend and a last hurrah to summer as the heat disappears northwards.

This year it was a fun week, and a distinct end to summer. The triathlon follows on the next Saturday and this year I decided to hang around and do it. It was very worthwhile. While I used to enjoy the ocean swims because of the competition as well as the eye candy, triathlons have an exponentially improved eye candy quotient. Sometimes distracting but always welcomed. The race itself is a lot more taxing both physically and mentally, and I love it. My legs may hate me for it but I love the feel of getting faster and becoming the runner everyone thought I wasn't. Including me.

There are loads of interesting people in or passing through Byron and the beaches and surrounding hinterland. A week spending time watching the waves and turning off the world is an excellent option, even if there is some serious energy expenditure bookending it.

It also turns out there are a hell of a lot of gay guys getting into triathlons.

Who'll be joining me next year?

Telephone Calls from Disaster

You know those telephone calls you get? They come out of the blue on any normal day, in the middle of doing normal things. But they're not anything normal. They're entirely extraordinary. They're phone calls you never want to answer but you don't know it until you do and then it's too late.

I got that call on Friday morning on my way to do a house call. My normal Friday work day. The patient I was going to see was dying, but the call was about my brother. He was hit by a car training on his bike. He was in the emergency department.

I'm horrified, but the voice of my sister-in-law is calm so it mustn't be too bad. But then, they hadn't let her see him yet. I'm rifling through the possibilities - and I don't like the connection of car and bike with my brother in between. I have many questions but none of which can be answered right now. Shit. I'm thinking more words but I'm a little uncertain of where to go and how concerned to get. He's in another city and I'm due to see a host of patients myself. I don't know whether to cut and run or hold off and wait for more news. I don't really concentrate well with my patient but I get by.

More news and he's alive - he's concussed but has some fractures. Okay that's not so bad.

He has 18 fractures, many involve his neck and back. Oh god that's not so good. Can he move? Does he have any spinal cord injuries...?

He can move, but he's in a lot of pain oh and he's punctured his lung. Brilliant.

It turns out the driver who pulled out in front of him from a stop sign "didn't see him" (he was wearing fluoro yellow) and was upset about his car mirror being smashed up. Lovely.

He'll be months in a neck brace and his Iron Man Triathlon in March is off.

I'm at once pissed off at the bloody driver and trying to be the supportive medically trained family. Thankfully he's in good care. But it's just so unfair.

People, keep a look out on the roads!! I don't want to be the next casualty.

Smashed Sprint

I'm smashed.

Those who've been following superchilled will know I've been embarking fiercely into triathlon competition. This weekend was my second race 'TriTheGong', in my home town and a sprint distance triathlon - ie 750m swim, 16km cycle and 5km run.

I'm not sure I like the hellishly early starts (I was up a bit after 4.30am) as I'd prefer to be going to bed then than getting up, but I was up and racing by 7.30am as was my brother and primary competition. The race was hard - I pushed myself harder than my first race in Noosa and tried to increase pace to fit the 'sprint' title. It turned out that I did very well, managed a podium finish in my age category, beat my brother by 2 min (he beat me in the prior race) and had a great time.

I really didn't expect to be so high in the rankings, but it shows that when you tackle the areas that need work and persevere you can make progress. So right now I'm feeling shattered and contented all at once. I'm going to have a break from competition for a little bit now, but I'm loving it. There will be more.

Has anyone else tried triathlon competition?

Keen to try?

I'm curious.

2:20:08

Two hours twenty minutes and eight seconds.

That's how long it took me to finish my first ever triathlon, in Noosa.

Swim: 1.5km Cycle: 40km Run: 10km

I stuck to my game plan, did a great swim an okay cycle and a better than planned run to a sprint finish and had an awesome time! I'm hooked. The transitions were fun the whole thing was fun actually. And Noosa was just chock full of hot men. HOT FIT MEN.

I'm definitely going back, so long as I can get into the event again which has reached epidemic popularity. With good reason.

All the training to get there was worth it. I'm fitter than ever, feel great all round and am confident I can do another one of these triathlon things and soon. In fact I'm lined up to do one much closer to home (in fact in my home town) in early December, a sprint distance triathlon which should be quite interesting. So I have to get back in training again... I've avoided running for a week. I'll call it recovery.

My brother beat me in the race - by just under 3 minutes, but I think I can improve for the next one. I just need to get into training mode again. Though this time will be easier. I think.

Triathletic Toddler

Run at race pace, repeat, then cycle, vary the intensity, some hill climbs, some flat grinds and then into the pool and pump the water, hard. Check the bike, get the transitions right, race tactics sorted, gear, nutrition, hydration, stay well, don't overtrain, don't under-train...

While training for an actual triathlon is intense in its own right, coordinating work, family life & the actual training is the behind the scenes triathlon; only considerably more intense. Just like a triathlon you have to work at each element to make it fit in with the others or they all fall into chaos. And so goes my life of living at the edge of my capacity. It's been a lot of fun, though in the past few days I've found what it's like just over that edge, my body has spoken and it said 'too much' so I've been forced into relative rest for a few days (you see you can never really truly rest if you're serious about triathlon). While you can rest from training it's a lot more tricky to rest from work and family especially as the growing toddler (above) doesn't know what stop means (a bit like her daddy). Now confidently walking (and swimming of course) she is taking her own directions, sometimes on her tricycle making her technically the triathletic toddler.

And now my race is just 5 days away. It's been a long road and I've done the best I can for the time and limitations I have, I think. But it's not over yet, there is still more work to be done and a race to be won, or at least to be pushed to the edge. And then I will really rest, and the rest will be sweet, fleeting, but sweet.

Faster Higher Stronger Smarter

It's been a long time between posts. It's not like nothing's been happening because it has, so much so that I've seriously had no time to even think about posting. There was a brief shot on location in Hollywood, some political lobbying in Washington DC and a little bit of altitude training in between. Amélie has started running around, and saying words and doing things that make as stand in awe, or just laugh, a lot. Our house is undergoing renovations, so we are living in a construction zone, but the progress is awesome and I'm looking forward to the finished product.

I'm training as hard as ever, actually possibly harder, to the point of trying to manage the pain as much as the training. Training smarter. But the pain gets less and less, and the fun more and more. I found myself at the pool after training the other day surrounded by all manner of beauty in the form of elite athletes and surf life savers (the iconic ones). In the showers.

Fun indeed.

And the fun promises to continue. Racing, training and a great summer ahead.

Drinks on the deck set to be a new and improved regular event as the summer heads on in.

I can feel it now. I can feel it in my legs now too - a huge inter-city cycle and later run today mean it's time for a nice, long rest.

Keep well until next time.

The Road to Noosa

Run, Cycle, Swim. And repeat.

I have days when I love running, days like Monday when I feel my legs twitch with abundant energy, ready to get out there and pound the pavement, grass and sand. I arrive home to a sunny warm day and get into my running gear, pop in my earphones and off I go, the last stretch along the beach with waves rolling in making me feel like I'm in an ad for something. Something good.

And then there are the days when my brain says "must do the required number of sessions for the week" and my legs say "get stuffed". Invariably the brain wins, and the legs suffer to be tortured with the addition of cycling to the mix. At the end though the somewhat prolonged shower is heavenly relaxation.

Cycling is reliably fun. I'm used to the lycra cycling gear now that I never used to wear and which makes me look like a pro. I'm also used to the Frenchman's chant "be careful on the road" usually following more reports of people who have crashed their bikes. Tightened helmet and flashing lights I'm off; and when not I'm cycling on rollers in my living room with considerably less gear, but all these points of pressure have given me new understanding of neuroanatomy and I'm very thankful that the rather regular genital numbness is only transient.

The pool however is a stress free event, no concerns, no worries, I can't get enough. Love it, it's my superchilled element. Needless to say, it's the area I least need to be in preparation for this triathlon that rapidly approaches.

I have a laundry basket filled with sweat-scented shorts, shirts, singlets, towels, bike gear and hyperchlorinated swim gear. There are a collection of grease stains on too many of my clothes, showing up along side young Amélie's food bits at times when I least expect them.

Despite the super-training I've been increasing in weight. I expected to lose a few kg but have gained 3.5 . But I feel leaner than ever.

Oh, and my brother's training is also going well, which means I have to train harder! I'm the underdog right now but I need to make sure I'm not after the race! I'm not sure I have the numbers I need just yet, but I have until October 31st. The road to Noosa continues.

Extreme training

With just over 10 weeks to go until Noosa Triathlon I'm stepping up my training. I have a lot of improvement needed in my run times and a little extra speed in the cycling too, with my swimming yet to return to its normal standard (so I'm working on that too). So far I've been getting faster - esp in the running, and my calves are paying for it. But it's nice to see some stepwise improvement. I would like to make those steps a little bigger though... so I'm increasing everything. Surprisingly I've also gained some weight despite getting leaner - I guess those legs need more muscle for all that extra activity.

The weather is strangely warm here at the moment too - daytimes are like mid-spring which makes training easier and it feels like everything is locking into place. Now if I can just manage to run sub 4minute km's...

Go Go Go

It was HOT, damned hot. The Northern summer has roasted & toasted me, and spat me out. And it feels good. Back in the Southern Hemisphere it's cool and I'm loving it. I feel like I've been warmed up to withstand the local cool, superhot here at superchilled. But it's extra so because I'm on a mission, one that I thought I'd no chance at. But more of that later.

During our travel...

Our luggage travelled better than we did

We discovered translations that made us question our safety

and some that made us laugh.

And then there were the ads that encouraged us not to smoke.

And that was just in Japan. There's more. And a restaurant that sells, well, I'm not quite sure what but it deserves its own post.

On arriving home an email arrived...

It seems I've won the lottery. Not a fake Nigerian one, and not a million dollars.

A lottery for a competition entry (bizarre but true) and the result: I'm competing in the Noosa Triathlon in October!! So I'm back in training - full on - until it hurts.

More to come.

All dressed up with no place to race

As you may know I have been in training... (see One Step Closer ) Finally doing all training for all three disciplines of the triathlon I had decided upon racing in Noosa in October for my first (and rather large) event as an individual triathlete. My brother also entering the event in the same age category made it a must-do event and has given me extra motivation to train hard.

Entries opened last week, and as it's a very popular event we had both arranged to log on exactly at the time it went live, but the site crashed and entries rescheduled for this week. Same story this week, we log on - but it won't let us in.. try and try again (for hours) until FINALLY I'm in and I'm entering the race until I get to the screen half way in that says "entries now closed".

NO!!! It's not possible! I've been trying all morning, even had my brother trying for me until he had to leave his office. I've been training and getting equipment arranged and training tips and running a LOT - and running is not something I'm in love with. But no they've closed it - have all the entries they wanted. This really sucks. I'm so pissed off I don't know what to do. So pissed off I really want to tell them where to stick it, and so happy that I didn't organise flights and accommodation already as I'd been very close to actually doing.

It turned out my brother had another friend logging on for him while he was out of office. SHE got him in! So he's already won. And I'm trained up with no pace to go. Time to look for other races to start my triathlon career, but it's not going to be quite the same. Bastards!! So now I'm thinking of all the money I'll save and where I can go instead...

One Step Closer

These are my newest fashion accessory... Well, sporting accessory at least, and calculated from a test cycle just now these babies have improved my speed by approximately 4%. I literally ground my last set of pedals to pieces, so to replace those rather last century leather strap contraptions I've joined the real cyclists with clip on ones. Now that I'm cycling in addition to swimming and running I'm going to be asked a lot more now when I'm starting competing in triathlons... that hasn't been decided upon, but I'm tempted. But where to begin?

It's a sensational day today. I'm so glad not to be working, and prior to the cycle I hit the water for an epic swim with some friends a little farther south of home. Right now I'm enjoying babysitting the sleeping child and watching the waves roll on in while the Frenchman has gone in for a dip himself. Ah bliss...

Awesome Weekend

So I've woken up at 7am, at the latest, every day (including Friday) this weekend, and it has been such an intensely FULL weekend. I love it. I absolutely loved it, not all aspects mind you, but the overall rating is certainly way up there. The not so fab bits, well, they weren't all that bad in the grand scheme of things. The fab, oh so good.

I feel like I need a shower, though I've only recently had one. It's that feeling you get when you've been at the beach much of the day, a little bit of sun and wind making the skin feel that little bit, hmm, summerised. It was my first ocean swim for the year, and I powered through it and surprised myself with a placing. Big smile from me the rest of the afternoon. And what an afternoon. Weather they pick out for postcards and travel ads. Cocktails on the deck watching the waves, the setting sun, and a summer barbecue to finish it all off. The Frenchman managed to find the solitary blue bottle in the whole of the ocean on this perfect day today, and it attacked him like a frenzied shark (well, ok , it hurt). But he made it through like a trooper, finished the race and achieved a lot more.

Saturday night I escaped to see Jay Brannan in concert. He was fantastic. The warm up act was so so, and everyone was chatting like it was just background music at a bar (and in that time I caught up with friends and met someone from way back who quite surprised me). Then Jay came on and he had everyone's complete attention. There were no conversations happening, full on focus on the man of the moment on the last performance in his world "I suck at life" tour. I love his humour, though some may not. His music is a lot of fun, sometimes moving, some times hilarious, and the live performance was sensational, a natural and easygoing performer with stunning vocal ability. I'm so glad I managed to get there and had some friends who took me in.

Amélie had her first sleep over without her mum on the weekend. Stressful for her mum, but exciting for her dads! It was a lot of fun. She's always a lot of fun and so easy. It's so easy in fact it feels like I'm not really being a dad at all, it's supposed to be hard work isn't it? I mean there's a lot to do, but once I'm awake, it's not so hard.

I'm voting for more of these weekends, and more of the people who take them that step above the ordinary.

photos from the bondi to bronte ocean swim site

North Bondi Ocean Classic

It was a picture postcard Sunday at Bondi Beach. We woke to a day they predicted to be extremely hot, with fires roaring in the far south and more sizzling heat to come, but it was a stunning day here on the coast. We headed to Bondi where we expected hoards of people and parking nightmares, but the traffic was absent and the crowds cute. The sun warm, a cool breeze and an ocean the azure of a deserted sand island.

The race began and we dived into a waveless surf. My goggles instantly fogged up, the water hellishly cold!! Just the day before it was beautiful, not warm but refreshing, today an icy 16C. I thrashed to keep warm but it was not my best race start. By half way I wasn't so cold any more and the fog had cleared revealing the ripples in the sand below, but my toes started to feel numb. I kept to my race plan and powered to the finish, but I think I lost it at the start, still a reasonable time and good fun, we'll be back next year. A well run race, always, and the eye candy certainly makes it easy to hang around for the race results.

Lunch after a race is of course a great feast and a new (to us) cafe created the perfect meal to share with friends. I could have stayed there there all day. 

Now I need to up my training a little to get a bit more competitive in the water for the upcoming races. But at the same time I have a million other things going on. Where is that 36 hr day?

The Matt Mitcham Files

For all the Matt Mitcham-ophiles out there - The Advocate has a feature on him in their latest edition (technically the March edition I believe). There are more photos and videos too. You can experience the whole multimedia feature here.

ouch

FootVolley - Rio Style

In the past I have played a lot of beach volleyball and loved it. Over the New Year in Rio though, I noticed the newer version of FootVolley taking over the beaches. It's basically the same as volleyball, only you can't use your hands or arms.  I guess with the popularity of football/soccer in Brazil it's not a surprise that this is taking off. The guys playing it have to be quite fit and in general they look incredibly toned and athletic, which makes watching a game not very difficult at all as you'll see in these photos. (sigh) I have enough trouble being able to use my arms, but these guys make it look easy, I imagine it would be as easy as playing tennis without a racket.

It was mostly men playing, but obviously not always.

They all seemed to be having a lot of fun, but I guess, they were on the Beach in Rio, it's hard not to. 

Click on images for larger versions.