Results

I'll make this brief, as the pub is waiting...

The girls did a triathlon, Carla got 28th, Shae got 40th.

The organisers then changed it to a duathlon, (more on that later, grrrr)

George got 76th (Georgie ran a pb) and I came 39th.

These results are provisional, as there are a few suss times out there, the first two Mexicans apparently did a 22 min 10km......

More later, we are off to rehydrate in the best possible way....

This just in-Part 2!!

The sun has come out!!! It rained this morning for a bit, but was beautiful and sunny this arvo! We went out and did an easy lap on the bike in the arvo, loving the sunshine, and cruised up the hill, stopping to take a couple of photos on the way.

We even had a busload of Australian tourists get off a bus and ask us if the Degani Bakery kit we were wearing was 'The Degani Bakery' from Melbourne! So George's plan for worldwide domination in the cafe market is in full swing!!

We had a very cruisy day, ticking the arms over in the nicely heated (26 degrees) pool down by the beach, and followed by a very short run. 

We're all ready to rock in the morning, for those of you that want to follow us online the website is www.triathlon.org and there is a link to the live timing and video feed.

Our numbers are: Shae - 223

                                Carla - 443

                                George - 2097

                                Brett - 1805

The only problem for those of you back in Oz is that both the girls start at around 12.15-12.30am Sunday morning and George and I start at 2.25am and 2.45am respectively!

Thanks for all the posts on here wishing us good luck, we will be going as hard as possible and hope to kick some butt!!

This just in.....

We have just been informed that the official water temperature has now dropped to 11.9 degrees!

The race director has decided to shorten our swim to 900m as they believe that the the people with the slowest swim times may spend up to 40mins in the water (for 1500m) and may be at the risk of hypothermia.

This may be a very valid risk, as two of the junior females were treated this morning and we have heard that one is still in hospital.  However, even though I hate cold water and found it very tough training in it yesterday, and in the end I may be thankful for the shortened distance, I am a bit disappointed and pissed off.

Every single person here should be at their peak level of fitness, and if they cannot handle the conditions, whether they be arctic, or heatwave, then it should be their personal decision on whether or not they want to start the race, or pull the plug halfway. 

This is a tough sport, and I believe that the results should reward the athletes who have put in the time and effort training, and who can produce the best result on the day whatever the conditions or distances. I have never believed or liked the altering of a course due to conditions or circumstances.

However I have also never swum 1500m in 11 degree water......

World Champs start!

George and Shae rolled outta bed early and headed down to watch the junior women start things off at 7am. It is still pissing down, pretty much has all day today and this was the first event of the World Champs. The girls battled freezing water and rain and Australia's Ashleigh Gentle ran her way into second for the second straight year and Emma Jackson came 5th. 

Carla and I had a sleep in and wandered down for the junior men, which started at 9, along the way buying an umbrella from 7-11 for 6 bucks, the best $6 I have spent for a while! The guys were just hitting the beach as we arrived with a lead group of 3 guys out in from including Australia's Joshua Amberger. This group stayed away for the entire bike leg and headed out onto the run with the Russian Vasilev having a big fall on the blue carpet in T2. Amberger also lost 12 seconds in transition as he was unable to undo his helmet and get his shoes on due to the cold. He eventually came out third and was unfortunately run down in the last few hundred metres by Jonathon Brownlee from Great Britian, eventually taking fourth.

Victoria's own Jamie Huggett had a slow swim and was in the third pack on the bike, he finally warmed up a bit and posted the 5th fastest run of the day to take 18th. 

Hotel bound

Rain, rain and more rain..... Yesterday morning we all dragged ourselves outta bed to head down for a swim at 7am. As it had pretty much rained the entire time since our previous swim the water temperature was now at a bloody freezing 13 degrees!

For those lucky people who have never swum in anything like this when you get in it takes a few minutes for you to be able to immerse yourself fully in it, and it takes several times of dunking your head in until you can keep it there. 

In addition to this your heart rate absolutely skyrockets at first when you start swimming as your body struggles to pump blood to your shoulders and arms whilst also sending blood to your vital organs to keep you alive. This is a very ordinary feeling and it took around 15-20 mins of being in the water yesterday to start to feel comfortable. 

This makes me realise even more why I had such a shocker of a swim at the World Champs in Hamburg last year, when the water temperature was 16 degrees but I had a sleeveless wetsuit on, big mistake!

We had the team breakfast after the swim, team photo as well and caught up with a lot of people who I haven't seen since last year. Headed out for a couple of laps on the bike course in the arvo, and let me say this, it will be quick! I did an effort for only half a lap, mostly the uphill / downhill part and the 10km came in at just over 17 mins. I think a bike time under an hour for the 40km will definitely be needed, and possible to place well on Saturday.

On the second lap I stopped to take a couple of photos up the top over Lions Gate Bridge and the harbour, ran into a couple of athletes I know from South Africa and had a chat. Had the downhill to myself this time, so pushed it and found a smoother line that I could stay on the aero bars the whole way down and around the bottom corner, it was well worth doing. 

Temp today (Wednesday) is 11 degrees, but it is forcast to hit a fine and sunny (with the possibility of showers) 15 on raceday! If it rains though, it will be carnage on the bike course... 

Random pics

Shae, Snowy and George

Who wouldn't want to swim in that?

What else can you do but smile?

What the???

Isn't triathlon supposed to be a summer sport? Part 2

Well its been pissing down here in Vancouver here today, a top of around 11 degrees, we had a very chilly swim this morning, local water temperature in the bay  is somewhere between 13 and 15 degrees!!

Had a soggy run tonight with a couple of efforts thrown in and felt pretty good. Then we had a great feed in a local pub that we think may be the site of the pre-post race party! It is around 100m from the finish line so will be perfect for post race beers on saturday arvo.

 

Squirrels and Jet lag

Now in Vancouver, bloody cold, but awesome hills and I can't wait to get out tomorrow and cut some laps on the bike course, today is just about staying awake and seeing some sights....

By the way, that's George there enjoying 'lunch' with us at around 11am....

Isn't triathlon supposed to be a summer sport?

It can be a little unnerving when the first part of Canada that you see out the plane window is the snow capped peaks reaching through the clouds......

Current temperature in Vancouver: 14 degrees 

Expected water temperature: 15 degrees

glad I've been training in melbourne

Planes....

Travelling is a bitch at the best of times, but even more so when you are travelling with a bike, there is just so much more scope for things to go wrong...

Luckily this time I have my trusty steed packed away in a new top of the line Scicon hard bike box....about time after a few years of borrowing friends and using cardboard boxes.

We headed to Sydney late sat night, as our flight to Vancouver left direct early sunday morning, passed the time late sat night by myself and George heading to the Casino, I was up $200 at one stage, ended up losing it, Georgie was down $600 at one point, but got it all back, anyway, it killed a couple of hours ensuring that we were tired heading onto the plane on sunday morning

The beginning..

Well, after thinking about this for a long time, procrastinating, and moving house recently, I have finally got my blog up and running! To all of you that cast a glance over these pages, I hope that you find it easier to see what I am up to with training and racing rather than me email every single person in my address book!

The past 3-4 months have been flat out with me trying to cram as much training as humanly possible into my spare time for the upcoming Triathlon World Championships in Vancouver, Canada. 

Hopefully this blog will follow this trip, as well as the training and racing for the coming summer season, and then onto a potential 6 month trip racing in Europe next year, but more on that later....

Having just set this up, I have also just finished packing the bike box, and all associated gear for the race in Canada, believe me, that was the easy part...