HI guys,

So I just finished the Eagleman 70.3 in Cambridge, Maryland this past weekend and by “just” I mean “just”… I almost couldn’t make it to the finish line.

I came into the race as the defending champion from the past 2 years and after a second place last weekend I thought I was in good shape to defend my title.

After the Rev 3 triathlon last weekend we spent a few days with the Clif Bar team getting some footage for a video piece. We met up with friend and Ironman world champion Chris “Macca” McCormack in New York City, which coincided with his book launch “I’m here to win” and the announcement of the New York City Ironman triathlon in 2012.

The temperatures over on the East coast have been super hot and Eagleman is renowned for its Kona like temperatures so this was going to be a good test to see where things were at. We managed to have a few relaxing days to speed up the recovery before we hit it hard again.

The race kicked off and I felt good in the swim. Although I wasn’t able to hold the feet of John Kenny the arms felt strong and I led the chase pack. There were a small group of us that came out of the water together and onto the 56mile bike. TJ Tollakson who would later go on to win the race took off at the early stages of the bike and showed his strength.

I felt strong on the bike, the legs were turning over well but the heat was starting to get to me. By the last 10miles on the bike I knew I was in a little trouble. The watts had started to drop and the body was tightening up.

Fellow Kiwi and training partner James Bowstead after a tough swim managed to bridge back up at the end of the bike and led the group in transition. We were still 4 minutes down on TJ. Off onto the run I tried to keep up with Bowstead and Big Matty Reed, but the legs just didn’t want to turn over. By the 3 mile mark there was nothing, the heat was too much and my body didn’t want to move forward. I couldn’t get enough ice and cold water and the finish couldn’t come quick enough.

I am so glad that I stuck it out and made it to the finish, I experienced the most amazing thing ever. Due to the nature of the course we ran 6.5miles out and 6.5miles back along the same route. In doing so I ran past a large number of age-groupers on their way out and the amount of athletes who made the effort to cheer me on and give me encouragement was overwhelming.

I ended up finishing in 9th place. Thanks to everyone for the support out there and to the volunteers for doing an amazing job in keeping everyone hydrated.

Congratulations to TJ for taking out to win, Richie Cunningham in second, Stanislav Krylov, Matty Reed and James Bowstead for finishing off the top 5 and
Mirinda Carfrae, Tyler Stewart and Sam Warriner for the top three girls.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend.

Rev 3 Half

Hey Everyone,

On Sunday I raced the Revolution 3 Half distance triathlon race here in Quassy, Connecticut. While the rest of you had the day off, I was out busting my guts!! As you all know I have been struggling with an Achilles problem so this race was going to be a good test to see where my recovery was at and how it was going to hold out. WOW, I was pleasantly surprised but paying for it now!!!

Race morning was beautiful but the air temperature was on the colder side of things, which made it hard to get going. The water was only just non-wetsuit legal at 69 degrees Fahrenheit so getting in was very nipply. The start gun went off at 6.50am and the pace was on from the start by Matt Reed (USA), thankfully I was able to jump on his feet and stay with him. Kenny (USA) then came through at a ‘Phelps’ crazy fast speed but we could not match it and he took off out the front. We then formed a small chase group for the remaining part of the 1.2 mile swim in Lake Quassapaug.

We then exited the water in a time of 24.04 minutes, into T1 we headed, this was a little crazy but made sure I had a lightning fast transition so I could stay with this bunch. So, out on to the bike with Reed, Cunningham, Starykowicz and Matthews. Far out it was cold, It took me about 20 miles to warm up on this crazy tough undulating bike course. At mile 40 I started to feel better and managed to form a breakaway with Joe Gambles, James Cunnama and Dan Hugo and we were in hot pursuit of Andrew Starykowicz who was 4 minutes ahead of us.
Arrived into T2 with Joe Gambles and Paul Matthews ready to chase down Cunnama and Starykowicz. Started the run at a safe pace as I didn’t know how my Achilles were going to hold out on this tough 13.1 mile run course. Felt really good half way through the run so I decided to push the pace and Gambles came with me. Around Mile 11, we caught Starykowicz but still no sign of Cunnama….bugger!! At mile 12 Gambles and I were still racing side by side so I decided that I needed to make my move now if I wanted any chance at grabbing 2nd. Finally made the break and now I was in the hunt for Cunnama who was 70 seconds in front. As I broke away from Gambles I was gaining on Cunnama and he was hurting. In the last mile and half I put 1 minute into him. All of a sudden a started to realise I may have a chance at the title but unfortunately it wasn’t my day, coming in 2nd by 8 seconds. Really happy with this result as things have been a little rocky with the Achilles but I think I’m back on track.

Congratulations to James Cunnama for taking out the win and Joe Gambles coming in 3rd and rounding out the podium.

Also on other Triathlon news: Congratulations to fellow Kiwi Nicky Samuels for taking out the Escape from Alcatraz title and Chris ‘Macca’ McCormack for winning Challenge Cairns.

Next race will be Eagleman 70.3 this weekend, where I’m hoping to defend my title.

You can also see some other footage from this weekend at the below links.
Pre race show- http://vimeo.com/24649421 (skip to the second half to the video to go to the mens stuff if you like)
Transition - http://vimeo.com/24679171
Bike update - http://vimeo.com/24681287
Finish line - http://vimeo.com/24686043
Race recap - http://vimeo.com/24723325

Regards
Terenzo

A different thought on Cross Training

You may have read my last blog which was about ‘The Dreaded Injury”. If you did then this next blog follows on quite nicely from it. If you didn’t, not to worry, as this post is totally applicable on its own, but I do recommend going back and reading my last post.

One of the good things about the sport of Triathlon is simply that it involves 3 sports in one, and this point alone is good for multiple reasons. The point I would like to highlight is cross training. Whilst recovering from my Achilles injury I was forced to take some time completely off running. For any triathlete, especially those that really enjoy running this is extremely tough news to deal with. This brings me to my point; I still had swimming and cycling to train. A little juggling of programme changes and I had 2 sports to put all my energy into. For many sports an injury can mean having to take time completely away from your sport, but because of the cross training ability in triathlon, this is not always the case.

Becoming the best triathlete you can be is a lot harder than just giving 110%. It’s a fine art. Balancing three disciplines, getting adequate recovery, nutrition etc. For many this is where a coach is invaluable. They can help you take out the guessing of when to space key workouts, how many recovery days you need and how to generally structure your short and long term programme.
This idea of cross training virtually never leaves a triathlete with nothing to do (remember recovery is doing something) and so being able to train across multiple sports is beneficial in the injury setting, it can also be a double edge sword, that leads us to getting injured.
To be a top triathlete, you would like to swim like a swimmer, cycle like a cyclist and run like runner. Many world-class triathletes can hold their own against a world-class athletes in a single discipline. But we can’t train a full swimmers programme, a full cyclist programme and then a full runners program… trust me have tried. We must take into account the significant cross training benefit in order to be a triathlete and allow ourselves the right balance in training and recovery. For many age group athletes, I believe that means cutting out a lot of junk miles they do not realize they are doing. I’ve seen many age groupers that are just as fit as me, but yet they never go anywhere near as fast. I believe this is partly to do with quantity over quality.
Thus my next point I am making here is Quality. We are triathletes, we train a lot! Understand that we are getting gains from cross training and reduce some of those junk miles, and put quality into it. Instead of a long steady-hard swim set, put in some max/threshold every now and again. I can hear people already saying “but im not a sprinter”. Correct, you are not, but doing one or 2 quality speed sessions a week in each discipline does not make you a sprinter, but what it might do is increase you max speed ability, raise your natural comfortable speed, and raise your threshold pace. It also gives the body and mind a different stimulus to hours and hours of the same thing.

Give it a go. Change one session in your swim, one in your cycling, one in your run from a medium long format at a steady pace, to a short sharp intense session. Space them out across the week, allowing recovery time, and it might just spark you into life and out of the funk you may be in and send you towards PBs.

I realize this may be a different angle created by thinking about cross training than you may be familiar with, but that’s why I am writing this. It may scare triathletes to get out of that regular rhythm they are used to, but that’s not a bad thing. New Stimulus can do great things. Be adventurous. Get stuck into it.