Ironman 70.3 World Championships

It just wasn’t my day.

Unfortunately, my first ever World Championships did not turn out as hoped. I came in with expectations of a high placing in my category. Despite having a really good preparation before heading to Canada, a range of other factors came into play and, ultimately, I wasn’t able to perform to a level which I had trained for.

My result was as follows:-

Ø  Swim – 32:21.

Ø  Bike – 2:26:10.

Ø  Run – 1:34:49.

Ø  Total race time – 4:39:34.

Ø  97^th in Male 25-29 age group.

Ø  600th overall from 2300+ participants.

Let me just point out that the following is my personal analysis of the outcome. It is really important for me to do this because I am always looking for ways to get better. I am hard on myself and I prefer it that way. It helps me to continue striving for improvement.

I am not satisfied with this performance but I am not down in the dumps about it either. I am just looking for what I can take from this race so the next one will be a lot better.

Many wonderful people have provided encouragement and given best wishes for the occasion, which is hugely appreciated. Also, a few even stayed up late, in Australia, to keep track of me. This is truly great to know I have people who have a genuine interest in my aspirations and achievements. No matter how I do, they will always be proud and/or impressed. I would be much worse off without this. My wife, as always, was right by me supporting all day.

I, on the other hand, must take this hard line approach with myself because being proud or satisfied with a performance which is not achieving the goals that I have set out for and trained so hard to reach, will not contribute to my future improvement and success. I need to continue being hungry for those goals and not settle for anything less.

I understand that this will not makes sense to some people. After all, I qualified and participated in a World Championship triathlon event and got to do this in an unbelievably spectacular location of Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Canada. The experience itself is special. However, I trained harder than ever before and travelled a long way to try and achieve a dream and came away with a tired, below par performance for my ability and standard. With good reason, this doesn’t satisfy my athletic being. I’m hoping this helps you understand the way my mind works and how it’s purely a personal thing which I work very hard on from a psychological point of view to keep pushing myself.

OK, now the race itself.

It was a perfect day for racing. It started off cool at less than 10 C at 6:00am while we did final checks and placed drink bottles and nutrition on our bikes. I then headed back to our room which was just 500m from transition and my swim start time wasn’t until 8:40am. I had some more to eat and drink before doing some stretching and other warm up movements, applying sunscreen and getting into my wetsuit. At 7:45, my wife and I made the 10 minute walk to the swim start at beautiful Lake Tremblant. At about 8:20 I did a short swim warm-up then lined up with my age-group for the start.

After this, there’s not much to tell. My swim was not an improvement on any previous Half-Ironman races. This was a disappointment but I just remained focused on my strengths being the bike and the run. Fortunately, the temperature had risen to approximately 16 C by the time I was on the bike and it reached 20 C later on.

Unfortunately, the bike and run didn’t go much better. As soon as I began pedaling, my quads indicated a lack of strength and a lot of fatigue. I felt OK on the flatter sections but as soon as the road started going up, which was quite often, my quads wouldn’t cooperate. They lacked their normal power and endurance and threatened cramps most of the time going uphill. Although, I wasn’t able to ride at my best I feel it still indicated that my training for this race had been excellent. My bike split of 2:26:10 is only 4 minutes below my personal best 90km bike split, so, I know I would have gone well below my PB if I didn’t have any issues.

The run was a similar story. I wasn’t able to push the same kind of speeds that I normally would and going uphill was very difficult. Also, at the 6km mark I had to stop as I got some shooting pains going from above my right hip all the way down my right leg. I stretched my glute and massaged the painful area above my hip as hard as I could. This worked and the pain didn’t return for the rest of the run. However, this was a perfect indication that my body was not in good shape.

A few positives from the event were:-

Ø  My bike time wasn’t horrible, despite my legs, which showed good training.

Ø  I ran a consistent speed on the run with a very slight negative split, which indicates good training.

Ø  My nutrition was very good. I didn’t lack nutritional energy at any point and I was well hydrated all race.

I can confidently conclude that the following were the major factors in my poor performance. Sitting on a plane for 14 hours Melbourne to LA and trying to get comfortable for sleeping has really thrown the alignment of my body out, as well as the 5 hours LA to Montreal. This was the main reason for my pain during the run and also contributed to my fatigued muscles when cycling. My spine and pelvis were definitely well out of alignment which is something that tends to happen when I sit for extended periods, like I do at work. My regular chiropractic treatment is what ensures that my body is in its best possible condition for training and racing. Without having this treatment after the long travel, my body was nowhere near its best condition.

Also, the jet lag was horrendous. 6 out of the 7 nights before the race, I only got between 3 and 5 hours sleep. This drained me mentally and physically and made for a very difficult race week. I finally had 9 hours sleep two nights before the race but then only 5 hours the night before the race. All week, despite minimal exercise and being very focused on my diet, my body was fatigued and for some reason I couldn’t stay asleep. It was beginning to drive me crazy.

I don’t consider these excuses for a poor performance. For me, they are exact reasons for it but brand new variables for me to consider and learn from to increase my chances of better outcomes in future races. I need these to be a better athlete.

Finally, I am not proud of my overall performance and result in this race. I will take things from it but I am extremely hungry for redemption in my next race at Ironman 70.3 Ballarat, on November 16.

I am proud of my training for this race which gives me confidence for Ballarat. Also, I am proud of qualifying for these World Championships and grateful to have had the opportunity and the way I focused for so long on training for it. So, I have things I can take from the whole experience to help my continued development.