JP Morgan, Nepean and Narrabeen 50k

It has been a while since the last post and a bit has happened...

JP Morgan Corporate Challenge 5.6k - 21:36 (3:51)

After doing 30k on the Sunday and limited speed training, I wasn't feeling confident of beating last years time (21:20). The first 2k were done quite fast: 3:45 and 3:40 but I was struggling. The 3rd k is a little down hill and all I could manage was a 3:55. Battled it out for the last 2.6k - really hurting and doing my best to have any form at all. Nearly saw my lunch again after the finish line. The ING teams both came 3rd which was a little disappointing. Still it was a good night with the BBQ and a few beers afterwards.

Nepean Triathlon - 1k Swim, 30k cycle and a 10k run - 2:05:38 (22:18, 60:17 & 43:01)

The 2008 nepean triathlon was my first triathlon and I was nervous. Mostly about the swim. Whilst this years event was only my 3rd triathlon I was much more relaxed and really looking forward to the day. I had two goals. one was to better every leg split from last year (21:53, 57:59 & 43:31 - 2:03:24) and the second was hopefully to break 2 hours. The day's events showed that I was totally deluded.

I turned up with Paul to the good news that it was a wetsuit swim. This made me feel even more comfortable as last year was a non-wetsuit swim. When it was my wave, I jumped into the middle of the pack. The plan was to try and keep with a bunch of swimmers and hopefully get into a slipstream. The plan went well for the first 200-300m however the pace was just too hot and I got dropped. The rest of the swim was done by myself. I was pushing hard a feeling good. I was totally surprised to look at the clock to see that I was slower than last year (and with a wetsuit)

I was completely stuffed in T1. I really pushed it on the swim and my breathing and HR was high. Onto the bike and within a km I knew it wasn't my day. I was pushing fairly hard and only holding about 32km/hr. Must be a head wind I thought. Turned around and realised that there was no headwind - bugger. Kept pushing pretty hard the whole way and it hurt and I didn't seem to be very comfortable on the tri bars.

Off the bike and onto the run and the legs were really heavy. I remember last year jumping off the bike and flying - not so this year. I didn't have the Garmin, but I knew I was going slow. It could even be called a shuffle. I seemed to gain a little momentum toward the ed of the 1st of two laps and then got sight of R's ratdog so tried to chase him down. At about 6-7 k mark I caught him and we surged ahead together. I had drastically picked up he pace. It was hurting, but I was excited to be moving at an acceptable speed again. Ratdog had a Garmin and said we were moving faster than 4min k's!

I was however glad to come around the final turn for the finish. I was a little disappointed to go more than two minutes slower than last year, however I was really happy with the 2nd half f the run. I was a bit melancholy until I compared last years log with this years. I thought I was doing enough training this year to match last year, but the km log tells a different story: In the 6 weeks before this years race I did 9.5k swimming, 400k cycling and 185k running. Last year it was 20.8k swimming, 717k cycling and 173k running. I was training for a half ironman.

Narrabeen training run - 50k in ~4:45

Not much training was done the week after nepean with the exception of a 32k run on the Sunday. This week saw a couple of easy runs and a couple of rides. Nothing too strenuous as I was thinking of Saturday night's run. I was planning to try to run 50k ad get some confidence for B2H.

I set out a little earlier than the others at 6pm. It is a 5k loop around the edge of Narrabeen lakes 10 laps sounded doable. For the first 3 laps, the skies were clear and running around the water's edge was picturesque as the sun started to go down. Other runners started to turn up (10 in total) and inhisshadow and Trailtrash joined me. Immediately, the rain (and hail) started. It rained in spurts the rest of the night. Just as we would start to dry, another storm would come through. The boys stopped after they did 30k leaving me alone to run the final 5k by myself. I was hurting but felt strong and the pace wasn't waining too badly.

The first lap was done at just over 5 min pace and the pace slowed throughout to about 5:40 pace which I am really happy about. Whilst I was tired, I felt as if I could have kept going if I had to. Very happy with that and gives me some much needed confidence for B2H.