Tour Down Under

Last week was a fairly big training week as we were stationary in Adelaide. I did 86 km of running with 2 long runs of 20 km each at 4:30/km pace and a 10x1 min speed session. I’m really enjoying my running now, especially not following any kind of schedule and just running for as long as fast as I feel like. As we are staying near the see front I’ve also been swimming quite consistently in the sea with a total of 8km last week and a nice speed session in a local pool.

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Sunday was the last day of the Tour Down Under. There’s been some good action at the tour, but the big continental teams were controlling the race closely so none of the breakaways succeeded and all stages ended in a bunch sprint. The sprinter on fire at the moment seems to be the German Andre Greipel from the High Road team. He won 4 out of the 5 stages and brilliantly defended his 8 seconds lead to win the overall classification from the Aussie Alan Davis.

Team CSC were ripping things apart at the front on Sunday

The Adelaide circut provided some tight racing

The King of The Mountain classification winner - Philip Gilbert

4 - times stage winner and the overall winner - Andre Greipel on the podium with Indurain

Adelaide Classic Pro Cycling Race

The picture this week is me on the Great Ocean Road – one of my favorite from this trip.

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The last two weeks of training have been quite good. 57km and 50km running respectively. The key sessions were 4x1km at 3:40 pace in Melbourne and 4x1 mile at 3:40 pace last Saturday in Adelaide. I’ve also had a couple of good swims in Melbourne with my buddy Brendon. It first I struggled to get into it, but after a while I was lapping at just sub-2min/100m LCM, which is not bad considering I’ve not really swam since October. In total 3.1km swimming one week and 4.9 the next week. Starting to feel the water again.

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Last Sunday I went down to watch the Adelaide Classic pro cycling race in Glenelg. The race is a warm-up for the Pro Tour Down Under race starting on Tuesday and all the big teams were there. The sprint was won by a German rider from the High Road Team (formerly known as T-Mobile, before the sponsor withdrew support after the drug admissions last year from some of the old riders). Here are some pictures from the race.




… and a picture of some nice Cervelo’s.

Second week of January 08

Today I’ve looked at my training dairy for the last year. For the statisticians here are the sums: 1,944km running (average 37km per week), 6,579km cycling (127km per week), 204 km swimming (4km per week). The average week was just under 11hours of training (10h45min). They say the devil is in the detail, but sometimes the sums and averages can paint a pretty interesting picture too. It should not be a surprise that my running has been declining and my swimming has not improved in the last 2 years.
Have a look at your training diary (and if you haven’t got one, it definitely a good investment of a few minutes each day to keep one), maybe it’s trying to tell you something…

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This week has been pretty mellow in terms of training. I run every day except Tuesday when it was raining heavily in New Zealand. On Monday I had a nice open water swim at Lake Taupo, but only 20 minutes – it was sooo cold!

Year One

First week of 2008 is gone and I’ve just come back from a morning run in Taupo along the Ironman course. Taupo is the location of Ironman New Zealand – an iconic race, alongside Hawaii and Ironman Canada, on the Ironman circuit. The bike course is generally quite flat, 2 lap course, with one steep climb coming out of town. It looks like it could be windy on a bad day. The swim is one lap in the clear waters of the Lake Taupo. The run course has some undulations but no ,major climbs and it’s basicall 2laps out and back along the lake shore. Looks like it could be a good course to race on.
Last weekend watched the Nez Zealand Long course championships at the Port of Tauranga Half Iroman. Great race, you can read my race report in the post below.

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Last week I promised to write about what year 1 of my 3-year plan includes. Here it is:
Year 1 is basically getting back to some structured training. October to March is running only and getting back to some kind of running fitness, which is what I was lacking for the last couple of years. The target is to be able to run a sub-35 min 10k, 1:15 half marathon and a sub 2:45 marathon, but most importantly just enjoy running. In April I have the London Marathon and the Tour de Flanders (260km bike ride in Belgium) with my team mates. May and June are going to be about getting some miles in on the bike. Mid June I will have a good test of fitness at the 70.3 UK half ironman. After that it’s getting ready for Ironman Austria in July which I will treat as a training race and then Ironman Canada at the end of August. Already looking forward to getting back to Ironman racing.


I’ve looked at my training diary and since October I’ve run just over 700km at an average pace of 4:40/km (that Garmin 305 GPS is invaluable). Not bad, I didn’t realise I’ve been running that well. Maybe it’s not that impressive, but It’s certainly more than I did during the same period in the last couple of seasons.

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Last week’s training was quite good. Total 65km running and one 2km swim. Running is going well and on Thursday I run some 800m reps (4x800m) on a grass track at Auckland. On Sunday I run 17.5km at a good pace. The rest of the running was quite mellow. While in Auckland I’ve managed to get in a swim at an open air pool. I felt like I haven’t swam in ages (which is true) and I thought I was going quite slow until Alex has told me that the pool was 60m long, not 50 like I thought. Maybe not that slow after all…

The Port of Tauranga Half Ironman race report

The Port of Tauranga Half Ironman is New Zealand’s oldest and most prestigious Half Ironman each year attracting some of the world’s best long distance triathletes.
This year the event, once again hosting the New Zealand Long Distance National Championships, took place on Saturday 5th January 2008 and Trisportnews were there to report from the event.

Transition area

The day started overcast with ideal conditions for racing and the expected high winds on the bike course never really materialised. The 2km swim was a 2 lap rectangular course with a turning point on the beach before entering the water for the second lap.
The gun went off at 6:30 am and over 700 individual competitors started the swim with almost 200 relay athletes following 30 minutes later. Very quickly a group of 8 swimmers established, led by a Kiwi rising star Ironman Kieran Doe and containing most of the pre-race favourites, but missing most notably the 8-times winner Cameron Brown.
The group extended it’s lead on the pursuers and after a lightning fast transition first onto the bike was Stephen Sheldrake with Kieran Doe following closely behind. The second group lead by Cameron Brown was over 3 minutes behind.

Kieran Doe starting the bike leg

The bike course was fairly flat with one long 56km lap and two shorter 17km laps around the Port of Tauranga. Kieran Doe rode very aggressively, using the “praying mantis” position pioneered by Floyd Landis and subsequently banned by the UCI, but evidently still allowed in triathlons. Kieran’s impressive ride gave him a 4 minute lead over the next competitor into T2, Stephen Sheldrake and crucially over a 6 minute lead over Cameron Brown, who has moved through the field into 4th. In the women’s race New Zealand’s Joanna Lawn used her fearsome bike skills to move quickly into the lead and came into transition 2 minutes ahead of Australia’s Kate Bevilaqua.

Cameron Brown on the bike course

Kieran Doe first off the bike

Cameron Brown is one of the best runners in the sport and one of the most experienced and consistent long distance triathletes, but it was going to be a very difficult task to make up the 6 minute deficit in the half marathon that followed.
Onto the run course, which consisted of 2 undulating laps around Mt Maunganui, Cameron Brown was moving quickly through the field with Nathan Richmond also running strongly and Kate Bevilaqua also closing the gap to Joanna Lawn in the women’s race.
In the end Kieran’s lead was enough to give him his first victory in the Port of Tauranga Half Ironman in a fast time of 3:56:41. Cameron Brown finished second in just under 2 minutes behind and another Kiwi Nathan Richmond took the third spot on the podium a further 2 minutes back in 4:00:04.

The winner - Kieran Doe

Cameron Brown finishing second

The first three men - Kieran Doe, Cameron Brown & Nathan Richmond

In the women’s race Kate Bevilaqua eventually passed Joanna Lawn with just under 2km to go and won the race. Joanna finished second just 10 second back, but in the process won the New Zealand Long Distance Championship title to her consolation. Third place went to New Zealand’s Gina Fergusson.

Ladies winners - Kate Bevilaqua & Joanna Lawn

Overall the race was a great success and the organisers have done a good job of putting on a well organised event. Mt Maunganui is a great location for such the race with plenty of good accommodation options varying from a nearby campsite through to rental apartments and some great restaurants within the walking distance from the transition. The course seems fairly tough despite the flat bike course and the only drawback was a relative low number of spectators for such a famous event.

The 3 year plan

The picture this week is me cycling on a rented mountain bike in the park in Mendoza, Argentina.
As it’s the beginning of the new year, a time of big plans and resolutions this weeks update is about The Plan.

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My other half – Alex always laughs at me that I always like to have a plan. Yes, admittedly, I do like to have a plan. No matter how unrealistic or badly designed the plan is, I need to have a plan – I’m lost without one.
So this is the beginning of the 3 year plan and the goal is … Ironman Hawaii World Championships 2010 and the plan started in October 2007.
I went to Kona in 2005, having qualified at Ironman Germany earlier in the same year. It was an incredible experience and no other race even compares to Kona. Each year over 2000 of the best age group and professional triathletes descend to this small tropical village to follow the footsteps of the legends of the sport: Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Paula Newby-Frazer, Natasha Badman to battle the ocean waves, the fearsome winds and to suffer running a tropical marathon. C’mon – just ask any triathlete in the world about it and he’ll e able to spell out the names of places that he may have never been to, like Alii Drive, The Lava Fields or the Natural Energy Lab, all the legendary places synonymous with the Kona Ironman.
When I went to Kona in 2005 I was in a great shape, having raced well all season, with a good PB of 9:32 and I thought I was ready for it. Nothing further from the truth! I had one of the worst races ever, having to walk most of the marathon and finishing in 10:40, well of the pace of the top of my age group. I was very proud just to be there and having finished. In the same race my good friend Nick Kinsey had a great race and finished 5th in his age group in 9:30. Having seen him on the podium at the closing ceremony has ever since been an inspiration for me. I came close at the 2006 70.3 World Championships finishing 8th in my age group, but not close enough. Besides, doing well in Florida is not the same as doing well in Kona.
It’s always dangerous to state your goals publicly, because the disappointment of not achieving the gold will be greater this way, but I’m going to say it anyway: my goal is a podium place in Kona in 2010. I don’t know how realistic this is and weather I will be able to even get close to it, but certainly I’m going to enjoy the journey and I’ll be happy just qualifying and finishing the race. I might be the first Trisportnews athlete to compete in Kona…
Next week I’ll reveal what Year 1 has in store for me.