2012 Geelong Olympic Triathlon Swim 1.5km / Ride 40km / Run 10km

1. Penny Hosken deserves special mention – she was the 1st female outright in a time of 2:15.14. Clearly she has amazing talent and a good work ethic. • Liz, Kaz and Claire also deserve special mention – taking out the Female Team WIN! • Pauline showed her talent, posting a 5:38 in her first ever Long Course Tri and running a strong 1:47 off the bike, all the while with a smile on her face. • Many thanks to all the other Yarra Tri people who helped with the tent, food etc – Tony and Shaun and the others did a great job. • I was once again beaten by my nemesis – Stewart Sheffield, but the margin was smaller compared with Canberra and once again it came down to the swim. Looking at the results below, despite beating Stewart in T1, T2, Bike and Run, none of this was enough to counter his swim…but it was good enough for 9th in AG and some handy qualification points. 2012 Geelong Olympic TriathlonSwim 1.5km / Ride 40km / Run 10km

2. Observations • Geelong was slower than Canberra. Both Stewart and I were 3 - 4 mins slower. The course was harder (windier with undulations as opposed to flat and wind free). • Unlike Canberra, I didn’t really make any costly mistakes. I just couldn’t go any faster…the onlythings I could have improved were: • - RH runner was done up too tight. I did try it on before hand, but didn’t run in it, as a result I had to stop and loosen off the elastic laces. • - I got a bit of chafing in my nether regions – body glide would have helped, but I haven’t needed it before so didn’t bother. I put it down to my “aero” position and high cadence, which sees my legs close together. • - On the run, I ran through a muddy patch, instantly getting thick sticky mud on my shoes (I could feel the added weight) which I then had to scrape / stamp off whilst I ran. No point having light weight race shoes, if you add 200g of mud! I should have gone around the mud, but was obsessed with taking the “shortest” path. • I thought my run speed slowed down at the end – it certainly felt like it. There were only two people who passed me on the run. One was a 2:41 marathoner who passed me with 4km to go and the other passed me with 300m to go. So my take was “You’re slowing down – fix it” But a look at the Garmin 310XT data show the opposite. Highlighting the danger of basing your performance on a comparison with others. See splits below. • My 1km run spits were: 3:55, 4:09. 3:59, 3:49, 3:40, 3:48, 3:52, 3:58, 3:50, 3:38. • As you can see – I did not slow down in the last km, I actually got faster – just not fast enough to take on the guy who passed me with 300m to go!

3. Tips / Tricks I used to go faster. • Swim – frequent sighting, if I couldn’t see the buoys, I steered for the centre of the group in front. I also tried to draft where possible, and duck dived on the way in and out. I took a gel 15 mins prior, washed down with water. I also did a swim warm up. • Transition – Run hard through it – don’t dawdle. If possible pick a vacant bike lot – I actually bent the rules a little but applying a liberal interpretation of the where the AG / Team location was, thus stashing my bike in the fairly vacant “Team” area. Before the race, I suggested Stewart Sheffield do likewise but he chose not to and subsequently had issues in T1. He was later good enough to admit he should have done what I did as he burnt time unnecessarily. • Run – Not going out too hard. The first 5 - 7km felt hard but controlled. Use of lightweight shoes helped, but in truth I was on the border of going too hard on the bike and hurting my run performance (being a strong rider can be a double edged sword). • Bike Tips (Various): • Shoes on bike mount with rubber bands worked well. • Ride hard from the start but do not over gear. I did not use a HR monitor or Powermeter. I rode by “feel” but tried to keep cadence between 95 – 105rpm (apart from hills). Riding by feel is OK, but you must know what you can / can’t do and must not let your ego get in the way. • Nutrition and staying aero: I ran water in my aero bottle, with 3 x ‘High Five’, non caffeine gels mixed in. Thus taking on gels with water whenever I drank - a perfect combo. By the 30km mark, I’d gone through all water / gels whilst remaining aero. I then sat up, emptied my 600ml down tube bottle into the aero bottle and went back to riding aero. Take away: I only left the aero position once for drinks / nutrition. Unlike others who sat up frequently to fumble with gels, water etc, while loosing time. You may think I’m all about aero – well the other problem with coming out of aero for drinks etc – is most people back off pedalling when they do so – so they no face more wind resistance AND with less power. • Remain aero as much as possible. I remained aero through most corners (not turnarounds), whilst climbing, whilst drinking, whilst going downhill at 60+km/h etc. It’s only 40km – you want to be aero as much as possible. If you want to test this for yourself – next time you go up a hill, start aero, then stand up – you’ll typically see the speed drop when you stand. As a general rule, being aero offers the fastest “sustainable” speed, on gradients up to about 5% gradient. (I am not talking about ‘sprinting’). • Where possible, take the shortest path and cut all corners. Eg. On windy road, I will take a straight line, rather than hug the left the whole time.

4. Notice how cadence is typically high (around 95 – 100 rpm). Over gearing tends to destroy your legs for the run – running a higher cadence tends to reduce the load on the legs making it easier to run, but it generally taxes your aerobic system more. Rough roads on way out, then smooth roads on the way back. Tail wind assisted until turnaround (blue downward spike) then head wind on the way back. Riding through the botanical gardens – tight turns made an even cadence impossible.

5. Riding sins you should not commit. • I saw many horrible examples of how not to ride – make sure you are not doing any of these: • Cadence under 80rpm on the flat. Some people I saw appeared to be riding at about 70 rpm – way too low, does not make enough power and wrecks legs for the run. • Riding a TT bike, “upright” on the flat – if you can’t hold aero for at least 90% of the time, get a bike “fit” and make the position more comfortable. Having the worlds most aero position, that you can only hold for 5 mins is pointless if you then spend then next 60 minutes sitting upright! • Riding with your knees splayed out – not only does it look dorky and is very non aero, more importantly, it reduces power and places undue stress on the knees. You produce best power when you legs and knees are kept over the top of the pedals. • Coming out of aero for every corner, descent, drink etc – the whole point of riding a TT bike is that it allows you to remain aero. • Not looking through the corners – bikes tend to go where the rider is looking. • Wearing an aero helmet and then riding with your head down – firstly you can’t see where you’re going when you are looking at the ground 2m in front of you and secondly it’s pointless wearing an aero helmet, if you are going to stick the tail up in the air, in fact it’s worse than doing it with a non aero helmet. Aero helmets should be worn with the tail close to your back.