Boulder - Week 1

Boulder - Week 1

1st week down in b-town and i'v done heaps so hope you got your reading glasses on :)

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK  

   

Meeting Mirinda Carfrae

Day 2 - Tuesday

After waking up from a nice sleep in i was jet lagged as hell so the lads and I decided hit up a traditional south american breakfast at a local diner. It was the first meal i had got from the states and it lived up to all my expectations.... 1 million calories and huge haha! I wish i got a photo for you all to see but never got the chance coz it was demolished pretty quickly after having crappy plane food for the entire previous day.

Later that day I unpacked my Transition S-works and headed out for a ride out of town for 2 hours towards the town Lyons along 36th highway. It was a cruisy ride with my coach Tim Reed and 2 of the other lads joe and al from livestrong and jelly belly. Joe and Al had only arrived back into boulder a few days earlier than me after competing in europe so we all were happy to just spin the legs. I learnt pretty quickly you need some strong sunscreen around this town coz i came back home after only 2 hours abit like a cooked lobster. 

Not living in the new house yet we all went out for a sushi dinner in town. I though we had good sushi back home but this place knocked my socks off. We were in a private asian style room like booth with the thin walls and a dinning table that was just above floor height. The menu was abit different with weird names like the dragon ball. They brought the sushi out on a big wooden boat and it was awesome, i even ended up going back and having it for lunch!

Day 3 - Wednesday

The best thing about Boulder is we get to watch the tour de france in normal day hours unlike back home in perth. With the town being full of athletes and hardly any 1 working we get up when we want to cruise down to the local coffee shop and watch the end of the tour before heading out for our ride which is usually around 9am. 

Back home i was up at 4:45am most mornings so im already loving this lifestyle :)

I was lucky all the boys were on their taper week otherwise i was in for a spanking...

Later that afternoon it was time to put on the speedo's and hit my first swim session at altitude. We went to the north boulder rec centre which isnt to far away from were my new house was to be. They have an indoor 25 except its an american 25 so its a about half a meter or so shorter than back home which means  you always gotta do the math and add up so your not short and with my math skills im lucky reedy's there to do it for me.

My first dive in i quickly figured out what the altitude does to you in the water with having 2 gasp for air for the first 5 strokes. After that it wasnt to bad until you got to the wall for a tumble turn. I ended up with a 2.5km set in the bank.

After the swim and some food joe, al and ike picked me up to help me move into the new house. With renting an un-furnished room we had to go bed shopping. After thinking bout it the easiest thing to do for now was to get a blow up mattress until i get a proper bed so we headed to target. The idea kind of bit me in the bum after waking up in the middle of the night to find it was deflated and i was sleeping on the floor :( until i realised the next morning i didnt put the cap on properly.. idiot i know

All in all the house im in is in a great spot where i dont have to cycle through town and theres plenty of shops and everything i need pretty close.

  

Day 4 - Thursday

It was back off to amante's coffee shop for 9am to meet the boys, watch the end of the tour and roll out on the bikes out of town. There were a few more people this time with the lads from the avanti team joining the group. Its been great here meeting a lot of people and most of them have actually been aussies.. I only had 2.5hrs on the program so kept on the flats when the other lads headed up left hand into the mountains. 

Day 5 - Friday

After watching the tour again reedy came to pick me up n we were off for a few chores including my first food shop. I couldnt believe my eyes when i seen banana's for 55cents when back home their $18 per kg.. everything was cheap as chips with my total coming to $70 which got me everything i needed for more than a week which blew me away! 

On the program was an easy swim at the rec centre for another 2km and then it was time for lunch! I was in for a treat as Reedy took me out for my first american burrito at Qdoba. This thing was the size of my head haha and by far the best burrito iv had!

Later on that arvo I put the runners on and headed out for an easy 30min run. The legs felt reasonably good but the effort in to out was definitely negative even tho i was only running 5min pace the lungs were feeling it. All in all i enjoyed my first run and did it around town getting my bearings right and looking around.

Day 6 - Saturday

With the race 2moro it was an easy day on the cards to make sure i was all loose after hitting up a 1hr ride and jumping on the foam roller before heading down to transition at the res for registration. The 5150 series puts on a great expo for an olympic course compared to back home so it was good to spend a little bit of time down there and check a few things out we dont have. 

Later that day i got another 30min run in the legs with a nice stretch back at home and was in bed early after making a nice pasta dinner and getting the bike and gear all set up.

Day 7 - Sunday 

Boulder Peak 5150 

The Boulder Peak is the most high profile olympic race of the year for this town. 

Now run by WTC and labelled as a 5150 series race it attracted over 1000 athletes and is one of the best run short courses I have seen and competed in. A unique part of this race is that they plan the wave starts for the pros to set off last. With the first wave starting at 6:30am and then a roll down to the the pros at 9am.  It was awesome to have the event set up like this as my wave was at 6:55am and i would be finished for the pros just coming out of the water and heading on to the bike. 

It was an awesome race to watch with alot of the top pros racing. They had altered the run course to a shorter 3 lap for the pros for it to be more spectator friendly.

TRAINING LOG

Week 1 = Altitude Adjustment

(graph = Total hours of training)

Boulder Peak 5150 race report coming soon

:)

Thanks to all my Sponsors for continued support

 

 

Boulder Colorado - Jumping Into The Deep End

Boulder Colorado - Jumping Into The Deep End

Well the weeks and months have flown passed and im finally over in the states living in Boulder Colorado for 5months of full time training and racing. 

I am a pretty lucky kid right..?

All I can say is I have been here for 3 days and this town is awesome :D 

After having a nice going away lunch and drinks at Benny's Bar and Cafe in Fremantle on Sunday it was time to grab the bags and head to the airport for the long journey ahead. I had 23hrs of flying including transit. By far the furtherest plane fight of my life, hence why i had my going away drinks on the same day in the hope to get some ZZZ's on the plane. I would like to thank all my family and friends that came to Benny's to farewell me off and also a big thanks to the boys at Benny's for putting on some great food and drinks. 

So back to the journey. It started with the first flight to sydney leaving perth at 11:50pm and arriving at 6am sydney time. I had a little time up my sleeve for a nice breakfast after getting the transfer bus to the international terminal. Upon my second check in i walked away an un happy man after getting slugged $135 for excess luggage.. i was only 4kg over but had to purchase another 32kg's... insane i could of brought my whole bedroom if i knew that! after floating about until 10am i was on the next plane direct to LA. It was a 13.5 hr flight... I managed to watch 5 movies, 2 episodes of two and a half men and 2 episodes of how i met your mother. For some people thats a normal saturday or sunday. It drove me nuts haha but i was in LA and most of the pain was over with a 2 n a bit hr flight left to denver. ( 1 quick thing if you ever go to LA and have a connecting and have your bike make sure you check it all the way through... i learnt the hard way when the lovely security guys had to open my bike box letting everything go every where and then had to tell them how to re pack it... complete nightmare). 

Back to it. The flight to denver went pretty quick and I had the boys waiting to pick me up. A big thanks to Matty Shipard, Joe Lewis, Ike Lewis and Al.

As it was July 4th its independence day (america day). Like aussies on australia day its just an excuse to have a party, get pissed and let off some fireworks. So why not experience it properly.... We dropped the bags off, went to the liquor shop n went to a party. Straight away I met some awesome people and turned out half the party was aussies... The sun stays up pretty late in boulder this time of year and by the time it went down at about 9pm it was time to go 2 CU to watch the fireworks.

Im finally all moved and settled in to my new place in north boulder about 1.5miles from the town centre which is perfect for getting on to the highway and hitting up the rides without going through town. Being 1.5miles from town its only a 5min ride to the town to pearle street mall and theres plenty of shops all around the place. 

So far i have banked 3 rides 2 swims and a run. All my training will be pretty easy for the first 2-3 weeks whilst getting used to the altitude. I have a local olympic distance race this sunday which is the Boulder Peak 5150. All the boys think im crazy for doing it this early after getting in to town but il be out there for fun and will take any result i get.

until then keep checking in as i will post the weeks training on sunday night boulder time 

(monday morning perth time)

if you need my us number its +1 720 289 6656

;) enjoy

Busselton 70.3

BUSSELTON 70.3 - MAY

I know its late but better now than never right...

The best race of the season had arrived and i was determined to have a good race after posting my first ever DNF at singapore in march. 

My training leading up to busselton was ok but could have been better. Whilst in singapore catching up with the boys at racers toolbox for some fitness testing beno put the idea across to make the move to a full time triathlete for a few months. After speaking to my coach Tim Reed the plan was set and I was to head off to boulder colorado for 5months being july - november. This is where the training could have been better. I decided to move back in home with the parents before I left to save for the trip and that also meant i needed to work my butt off. Everything was full on and i worked out i was banking approx 60-70hr weeks all up leaving me with no relax time.

However coming into the race week I was feeling good but still knowing i wasnt peaking in my fitness. I had worked a lot on my swimming technique with my coach and guy crawford so i knew i would be able to post a good swim. I ended up with a swim time of 0:28:58 which I was happy with as last year i was in the 30mins. I started next to fellow mate andrew tyack and sat next to him until just before half way when he surged. Soon after i spotted mark with his trademark super fish kick and we ended up swimming all the way in together after even sharing a smile on a few strokes. 

Straight out of the water and in to T2 I quickly emptied my guts of some sea water and headed to the bike exit. Unfortunately i didnt have the best mount on my bike with my shoe and chain coming off. Whilst this happend i lost mark and luke which i was hoping to ride with for the 90km ahead. I quickly re focused and decided to race my own pace in the bike and eventually caught mark on the second lap near the turn around. The wind on the second lap picked up and it was head down bum up with alot of the spectators apparently hearing the whole swearing vocabulary from the urban dictionary. I am sure there are alot of great photo's of angry athletes along certain parts battling through. My bike time was 2:29:34. I would of liked to go low 2:20's but thats just wat happens some days and i was feeling pretty good for a solid run so i was hoping to cut a little time to make up.

Off the bike and in to T2 it was easy to find my rack, the shoes were on and i knew i had to put the pace on as marks and a few others behinds strength was the run. About 2.5km in i caught luke coming out of the toilets and ran with him for a whilst until  about the 3.5km mark. I ran the first 3-5km pretty hard which was not the smartest thing as it lead to cramps. From there on the mind set was just get to the finish line. 

I ended up placing 11th in the 18-24 age group which is the first time i have not placed in the top 10 in a 70.3 race. I was a bit disappointed however i took a lot of things out of the race to work on. One being i need to stop cycling out of my threshold during races to set me up for a better run. All the races i have done so far has been just go hard till you blow which is how i landed the nickname 'Sonic" (as in sonic boom). Two its time to start a proper running block and build these legs into a running machine. 

For now I have a 2 week break to rest up before my running block and pre boulder prep starts. 

I would like to thank the following sponsors for looking after me 

GARLAND CYCLEWORKS - HOME OF SPECIALIZED BIKES PERTH

&

SCIENCE IN SPORT NUTRITION

Make sure u keep posted as i will be posting weekly in boulder!

arriving 4th july