Tour of Bright - the (s)low down

The silly season has descended upon us all, and for the embattled triathlete/fitness freak it's all about balance this time of year. Trying not to mix too much beer with bourbon, nor eat too much crap food, that is unless you have been unbalanced and drank too much the night before and you need Dim Sims to counteract the effects of the alcohol. Balance I feel is definitely the key! It was with this inhand and a very counterweighted training regime of social drinks with mates - 2 parts, versus training rides - 1 part, that I set off in search of fitness at the Tour of Bright.

I've been looking at this race for a long time. There's something about Bright that I really love. It is probably the hills and being close to the snow, the weather - hot in the summer and bloody cold in the winter. A little bit like Cooma where I grew up. The race is a 2 day, 3 stage race consisting of Stage 1 on Saturday morning, a 105km road stage from Bright to Ovens then over Rosewhite Gap into the Kiewa Valley before going up over Tawonga Gap and back into Bright. Stage 2 on Saturday afternoon was an Individual Time Trial of about 16km length along a rolling road to Wandiligong. Stage 3 was a Sunday morning start from Bright straight up to Mt Hotham summit, a climb of over 1600m in 55km. I was slotted into Masters 2, which in triathlon terms is the 35-39 age group. Masters 1,2 & 3 all raced together, making this a massive field of approximately 90 racers varying in age from 30 to 45 years old. Apart from the elites racing in A grade, this is probably the next most competitive group with times very similar to B grade although the riders are a lot smarter which tends to compound any other riders weaknesses. A great thing about riding in the Masters bunch was the bikes, this is where the money definitely is, high expendable incomes etc. saw heaps of high end bikes that had me in awe as I rolled around in the pack.
Stage 1 started well with the pace being pretty quick after a neutral start through Bright. We hit Ovens with an average around 39km/h, although it was pretty easy sitting at the front 1/3 of the pack. After the turnoff a few attacks started and a small group managed to get up the road. I decided after a few km's to try to bridge accross to them - BIG mistake...... I was on the limit for 20 km trying to chase them back only to have the peloton catch me at the foot of Rosewhite Gap. Being on the limit for so long, and with all the ensuing attacks that were rolling off the pack for the 'King of Mountain' left me absolutely shattered for the climb. I tapped away and tried to limit any loss as best I could, once up the top the main pack had split into 3 smaller packs with me at the back of the 2nd. A crazy, lightening fast descent saw us all regroup before the turnoff onto the Kiewa Valley H'way. We hung a right onto the H'way then a massive turn of pace came on, it was surge and recover for the next 6 - 7 km's until the front guys had broken everyone. I was shattered and still had Tawonga Gap to climb. I went as hard as I could along the valley and up Tawonga, again descending like a madman and finished in a messy bunch sprint with 8 other riders from various grades. In the end I was already 12:46 mins down on GC finishing in 45th spot with an ave of 33.89 km/h, not bad for a hilly stage.
Stage 2 was the ITT complete with a proper 'le Tour' style starting ramping, beeping clock and a 5 to 1 countdown from the race commissaire. Whoosh down the ramp and through the large crowd of what was the start/finish line of an out and back course. The first 3km were horrible, I went anaerobic straight away, couldn't breath, my legs felt shit and there was a 4% climb coming up that was 600m long. I hit the hill as hard as I could when an amazing thing happened - the legs clicked into gear, the heart rate stabilised and pow, off I went. It was like riding with a tail wind but there was none. I was sitting 0n around 50km/h on the flats, my speed dipping on the rises slightly, and finished really strongly in 18th spot for the stage with an average of 40.1 km/h.
Stage 3 is the stage that defines this race. All riders know this is where it will happen and the race will more than likely be won or lost here, the expectation is huge, the thought of climbing one of the biggest mountains in Victoria on shagged legs is not a great one. A massive drama 15 minutes before the stage when I punctured near the start line while warming up had me sprinting back to our tent to quickly change it. I got back to the start line with only a few minutes to spare, a very solid warm up indeed! I didn't have time to reglue the single (tyre) so I just had to be sensible on any descents and not corner too hard. The race started but was neutralised for 5 km until 2 fellas caught up after puncturing. It was pretty cruisie into Harrietville, even slowing down to 25km/h while everyone fuelled up and drank in readiness for the climb. I hit the 1st part of the climb and settled into a nice rhythm. My HR was just below threshold, just where i wanted it to be, my speed was also quite good as I was pulling strong turns at the front of my pack of about 12 riders. This pack stayed together through 'The Meg' right up to the Toll gates where the road again steepens. I was still strong so powered on by myself through the last 10 km's to finish the stage in 27th spot with an average of 25.14 km/h.
My overall position in GC was 35th, 20 minutes down on the race winner. A result that I'm ok with, it could have been better but for the amount of riding I've done I'll treat this as a positive.
Until my next installment, which will probably be about some of the training rides I have planned over the next 4 -5 weeks as well as the Alpine Classic, Take it Easy and have a Merry Xmas and a happy and Healthy New Year.
Cheers, Matty

Up and Running - Again

G'day, I'm back ! I thought this blog might drop off after Kona, it has generated a lot of interest with people telling me that it was great reading and want to know what I'm up to next. I decided I may as well keep it going if people are getting something out of it.
I'll concentrate mainly on my training and racing but will add what Marie and the kids plus the other members of 'Team Lewis' - Stevo, Fee & Rochelle are up to in our travels and stayovers during my races. As you have all read there are plenty of 'shenanigans' & 'frivolity' happening behind the scenes.
Last Saturday (15/11) we (Team Lewis) made the trek up to Shepparton for the 'Shep 1/2 IM'. We had to leave a bit later than usual due to Tommy's basketball, well worth it as the St. Bernards U14's had another solid win. Actually it was a great weekend for the Lewis kids as Tilly found out her tryout for VUT Flames State netball team was succesful, this'll be a huge step up for her - she will do it, she reads the game so well & has great balance, she only has to work on getting a bit fitter to be a great package.
We hit Shep around 3pm setting up camp and putting the bike together. With both done pretty quickly it was off to race rego to check in and drop my baby (Shrek - my bike) off for a camp out under the stars. I think she wouldn't have been real happy about this as it was pretty cool & windy - the last time she slept under the stars was on a balmy 22C night in some place called Kona !
A quick yarn to some WSTC members - Gregory, Mitch, The Riddler, Choatie, Vinnie, Watto then back to base camp for one of Stevo's famous BBQ's. We got stuck into our tucker and washed it down with a few beers, jeez they tasted good! Only problem was too good! I polished off 1/2 dozen of them and jumped into bed. Waking up was not pretty !! Oh shit, I had a bloody hangover! I was as dry as the outback and had a headache. What? I thought back and realised I didn't drink any water at all on Saturday then put 2 & 2 together - dehydration.......

I haven't really trained much since Kona and went into Shep with no expectations. My training really revolved around 'cafe' rides, a couple of light runs and 4 swims in 5 weeks. I was really hoping I had some residual fitness left in me from Hawaii.
Pre race was the usual, over to the WSTC tent for the usual jocularity, then over to the swim start. A pre start warmup of 5 minutes to fire up the diesel engine, blow out the cobwebs (& hangover) and get the cranky left shoulder moving was good then up to the start line. I didn't here a hooter or a bang but everyone started swimming so I followed! The swim was pretty good, no real biffo but I reckon my navigational skills sucked. Hit land in a touch under 32 minutes then into T1. A very clumsy transition had me chuckling a bit as I headed off onto the 3 lapper ride. Had a bit of a yarn to Steve Backhouse before moving off and getting into a good rhythm. The 1st lap was getting the legs and HR all going while trying to keep the speed up. Lap 2 was horrible as I caught up to a massive drafting pack of about 15 riders that totally disrupted my race. As soon as I passed the pack they sat on my wheel then repassed me back, and as I dropped back to be legal, some other wanker would jump into the gap & before I knew it I would be at the back of this 'slow' moving train, I gave them all a spray but to no avail. I caught up to Mark Komarnycki who was as dumbfounded as I was about these cheats. He gave them a spray - it fell on deaf ears as well, it was good to find another athlete out there who had the same thoughts as I and not give me the lamest excuse of "everyone else is doing it", what bullshit.
It got to the stage where I was sick of it and I put the hammer down to get away from the rabble, some of whom were the poorest cyclists with the poorest form I've seen in a long time. I averaged about 42 km/h for the last 15km, rode as hard as I could to get away from the cheats and couldn't give a shit if I blew up as I had it set in my mind I was pulling out of the race at T2.
I got into T2 absolutely seething ! I virtually walked in, put my runners on and walked over to have a yarn with the Team. I told them I'm pulling out of the race to make a stand against the cheats and to go give the Race Director a spray. Stevo basically said to 'Finish first then deal with it', it was a moment of clarity in a haze of hatred so off I trotted, running angry. The first of 3 laps is always easy, I spent this trying to spot out who was in front of me. Lap 2 I narrowed it down to Sean Foster and Scotty Foreman. There's always the possibility of an unknown interstate fella being in front so trying to work out where you are in the field is an event in itself. I noticed Foster was starting to have some dramas and passed him towards the end of the 2nd lap. Possibly only Foreman in front - push, push. I eventually caught him about 400 metres after the turnaround on the last lap, the same point that I passed Campbell Maffett last year to take over the lead of the 35-39 AG. Unlike Campbell last year I didn't overtake, rather I chose to sit about 5 metres behind him as he was motoring along pretty well and I didn't have the grunt to get past. I sat there until we hit the lake where he stepped the pace up, he noticed I was close by, aided no doubt by Team Lewis running along yelling out 'Go Dad'. With about 250m to go he upped the pace again. Shit this hurt, I didn't have the grunt to go around him so I just had to hold on. The pace kept building until we hit the finish chute where it developed into a full on sprint. We went shoulder to shoulder until about the last 10m where I pulled away by a couple of metres. I won my Age Group by not even a second, Foreman only realising I was in his AG when we started talking in the recovery area.

My overall time was 4hrs 19 mins & something seconds. A time with which I have mixed feelings. I'm happy to rattle off that time with little training over the last 5 weeks but disappointed as it could've been quicker, I reckon I lost 3 -4 minutes on the bike slowing down to remain my legal 7 metres. Another great victory for the day was WSTC taking out the 'Most competitors' Corona's and esky. Another indication the club is going from strength to strength.

Next on my agenda is the 'Tour of Bright', Dec 5th & 6th - a 2 day, 3 stage 'Open' race that has some big climbs - Tawonga Gap towards the end of the 105km 1st stage and Mt. Hotham (3rd stage) on the 2nd day on tired legs will be a challenge. The 2nd stage is a 17 km Saturday afternoon TT which will be good to crank up 'Shrek' for a quick burst. I don't know my grading for that yet but will hopefully be B grade. I'll keep you all posted - it's sure to be HELL !!!

Thanks again to all my sponsors who make my life a touch easier - Rapido Cycles, Elemental Nutrition and the City of Moonee Valley.

Cheers, Matty

The last time from Kona :-(

Aloha, this post will be my last from Kona. Since the Ironman Its been pretty hectic, so far we've had the Endura afterparty (Sunday), a day of snorkelling and watersports with the family (Monday) and today (Tuesday) was spent going for a kick of the footy with Stevo & Tom on an American footy field, impressing the locals with a few mighty torps and some centimetre perfect drop punt passes, after that we walked back to the condo absolutely dripping with sweat and discovered a small part of Kona that I never new existed, it is private complex very close to the King Kam motel and is full of these massively exotic houses with awesome sea views. I'll go for a ride through there tomorrow and post some piccys up as it looks to be Kona's answer to Toorak. Very luxurious to say the least!

My body has pulled up pretty well since the race. The only concern are my feet which are covered in blisters and are pretty painful - although not painful enough to stop me from kicking the footy. This will be my last IM race in Asics runners, they chop my feet up badly, so the quest for finding a new type of running flat starts ! I think the Newtons may be the shot, or maybe these ones from K Swiss - Very me!I'll add a heap of stuff I've written down over the past few days and list them in point form below.

• Endura Afterparty was awesome, we started at 12:30pm and didn't pull up stumps until 10:30pm. We were with Tony from Endura who is a fantastic fella and spent a lot of time picking his brains on nutritional stuff. Bloody big hangover as well !
• We missed the IM awards night which as it turned out was a good thing because the whole show went pear shaped when it bucketted down rain for 3 hrs !!
• 'Team Lewis' all survived race day really well. Dehydration & sunburn took its toll on a lot of spectators as well as athletes. The junior members of the team are below!Left to right - Rochelle, me, Tilly, Meggie & Tommy.
• The kids were stars on the day in their own right. As you can see by the team issue they are very patriotic and were getting their pictures taken by Triathlon mags, newspapers and supporters all day.
• All my race gear worked perfectly, no hiccups from any quarter with all sponsors and WSTC getting great coverage as you can see below.
  
• I checked my bike in at the same time as Chrissie Wellington. As previously mentioned she is 'the chick!' again taking time out to have a yarn and a laugh at what is usually quite a stressful time for a lot of athletes.
• The little bit of sunburn I got during the race is bloody painful ! I took time out on the bike and run to put sunscreen on because of the blistering sun, although there were some parts I couldn't quite reach as I was pedalling at 35km/h. OUCH !!
  
• The bike and equipment count pre race is awesome. As you check your bike in you have various bike & component manufacturers, web site editors, bike and tri mag dudes all having a squizz at your bike and all the bits on it as they all take official tallies of everything that goes into transition.
• The presidential race even had an effect on the race! Obama had a manned booth set up on race day handing out policy information, t-shirts etc. What they look to be targeting is the people who don't turn up to vote and work hard on persuading them that they (and Obama) will make a huge difference.
• Ambush marketing is alive and well in the lead up to race week. Even though Gatorade and Powerbar are the nutritional race sponsors, other companies such as Gu, Beastie Milche, Cytomax, Clif Bars etc. pop up throughout race week and flood areas with sample products & merchandise. Bloody fantastic I reckon...
• Tom and I have been flat out snorkelling over the last couple of days. Tom bought an underwater camera to take some photos of all the tropical fish so fingers x'ed they all turn out good. We even had a run in with a giant turtle who wandered over to check us out as we were floating about.
• It's amazing what the Ironman race ID wristband does - It elevates you to celebrity status! A lot of people stop you and ask you how the day went, people in shops ask you to sign posters and merchandise, the greatest buzz has been signing the huge race poster in the West Hawaii running club store that will be up on the wall along with 30 other posters from every year!

I must hit the sack, it's 1:30am local time and we leave for Honolulu in 13 hrs, I haven't even packed my bike yet. I'll do a quick update from Waikiki then will probably see you all over the next couple of weeks.

Mahalo, Matty

Bloody tired, bloody sore, bloody happy !!!!!

Aloha,

I'll make this a short one, then post up some photos tomorrow once downloaded. As for the race, I'm absolutely bloody stoked! Jeez it was a tough one. As previously mentioned my Heart rate monitor has decided it doesn't want to play anymore. Fine, I'll race by feel! So off into the swim I go, brand new Orca skinsuit on and I'm ready to rumble. Well I didn't rumble as the swim just flowed rather smoothly. I didn't cop a knock until the turnaround boat, gaps seem to appear everywhere so I took the opportunity to fill them. After the turnaround I latched onto a set of feet for half the way in, he tired so I picked up another set, this time a chick who had a great stroke and a nice light kick, perfect. I was wrapt to hit the shore in 1:09 but am a bit disappointed I wasn't far off the 1000th person out of the water......
The ride started smoothly, no wind and the sun starting to warm things up. Did the little loop on the Kuakini Hwy, up Palani hill which was absolutely huge! Very Tour like with the people peeling away about 2 metres in front of you, there were thousands there, then we headed out onto the famous Queen Kaahumanu H'way. It was pretty well plain sailing until near the Waikoloa resort where a head wind greeted us. It was a Sth Westerly which turned into a massive side wind on the way up to Hawi. Strewth it was hard. There was virtually 1 hour of riding where you couldn't take a drink as it was too dangerous to take your hands off your aerobars. I saw Faris Al-Sultan nearly come a gutsa going downhill at one section. Also saw a dejected Macca doing something to his bike and was looking pretty angry. The flip side of this was it gave us a 'slight' push going back but this turned into another headwindfrom Kiholo to near the airport were speeds picked up again for the bolt home. I had a drama on the bike where my Endura Opti and Electrolyte drink went off because of the heat. I ditched this and relied on Gels and water to keep my calorie intake up. I dropped the bike off with another 'fastish' sub 3 min transition saw me off on the run. Things didn't start real well on the run. My stomach was all over the joint. I was burping and farting and this was taking my mind off the job at task. At the 3 mile marker I had the biggest chuck ever. I mean an out the nose as well type chuck. I was shaking so had to walk for a couple of hundred metres while I spat and snotted chunks out of places where they shouldn't be. At the next aid station I spent a bit of time cleaning myself up, guzzled a few cokes then off I went. My splits were pretty were ok to that point but I thought I may have lost a bit of time so upped the pace a touch before settling into a 7:30ish mile. I had a few more gastric dramas - 3 more chucks that were only liquid. I don't know how much time I lost overall but it felt like a couple of minutes. The run from the Energy Lab, where it had thankfully 'Vogged over' and dropped the temperature substantially, back into town was about trying to get back into town under 9:40. This didn't quite happen as the last km went a bit pear shaped. I crossed the line not long after Pete Jacobs, Belinda Grainger and Bec Keat did a song and dance routine and was caught by the catchers. They asked how I was with the only words coming out was "take me to the bushes I'm gunna be sick" so they happily escorted me over to some shrubs where I yodelled all over them. Straight to the Med tent for this Black Duck. I was put under observation, had blood tests and from this diagnosed as slightly hyponatraemic. This is a condition where you drink to much water and it dilutes your blood sodium levels to dangerous levels. Death is the worst case scenario. But Mr. Death is scared of Ironmen who have just rattled off a 9:42 at Hawaii and mine was diagnosed as a 'mild case'. An injection was administered and I was cherry ripe in 30 minutes. The Med tent looked like a war zone. They said of the 150 or so finishers 28% had been in with some sort of ailment. This will only get worse as the day progresses. It was a tough day out there, my toughest yet most satisfying IM yet. It had everything, a 'good' albeit slow swim, a good bike with legendary Hawaiian trade winds, a curve ball thrown in with a nutritional plan change, some sickness, a run that was good but could have been better and finally my first ever visit to a Medical tent.
Gotta go, must watch the fireworks as the race has 10 minutes left. I can still hear Mike Rielly going nuts. It sounds like Chrissie Wellington has been down the finish line since the 12:30 hr mark. She is 'The chick' ! I've never met anyone so friendly and willing to talk to a mug age grouper. Gotta go - 9 mins left.

Mahalo, Matty

The Countdown has begun.

Aloha,

Thursday night, and yes I should be at the carbo party, but food sitting outdoors in the high 20's for a while has a touch of the '07 Faris & Norman's about it. I prefer play it safe and put the feet up as they are pretty sore from hoofing it everywhere with the kids 'n crew.

First up I have made a mistake. I have some photo's up from a previous day of a Cervelo P4. I even commented on the beefy BB. Not so, the offending beefy item is actually a startegically placed water bottle. What this does when the water bottle has been removed is make the frame look like a Great White has taken a nip out of the frame. Check it out sans waterbottle below. A thousand apologies Mr Cervelo. Still looks friggin' weird though.Wednesday was a funny day. A 50 min swim in the morning was totally awesome. Any predictions from myself of a fast swim went out the window as it was a bit up & down out there and bloody hard to get a good rhythm. If it's like that on race day it will be a looooonnnnggg swim for me. Oh well, so be it ! A major drama started before the swim with the trusty old Polar S720 heart rate monitor. It wasn't picking up my HR. A quick ride up the hill after the swim to one of the bike shops to get a new chest strap was fruitless, I tried a new one on but still no response, bugger..... A quick (2.5 hrs) of running around trying to find someone to test it confirmed that she's stuffed. So another couple of hours were spent looking at Garmin watches. The new 405 looks good but has to many bits that are unfavourable for Multisport so I looked at the 305. Many more Tri friendly functions on the 305 but the size of the face is the same as the width of my skinny wrists! So I've made the decision to not worry about my HRM and I'll do the race without it. As Tom say's I'll have to 'use the force' !! The day ended off with Fee & Marie getting stuck into another $2 Mai Tai, Martini and Margaritas at a happy hour, with DIRE CONSEQUENCES - See below (Marie downing a Martini in record time!).

Thursday (Today) started off with the famous 'Undie Run'. It is an absolute scream!! For the uninitiated it is a 'piss take' against the Germans who prance around Kona wearing their Budgies as normal every day clothing, much to the disgust of the Hawaiian locals. The 'Undie Run' was born to take the mickey out of the Germans and all proceeds go towards West Hawaiian Athletic development. About 400 people turned up wearing their undies and joined in on the Fun run. The crowds were HUGE, I think it was mainly due to Stevo running in his new Bundy Bear boxers and Compression socks. I turned up with Aussie flag boxer shorts and my ever present sponsors behind me (on my butt actually !!)

The big fella & I enjoying the sights of Kona and as you can see there is a lot to look at. The one over Stevo's right shoulder was pretty tidy for all the fellas reading this.

Finally here is a photo of me, as Marie calls it 'in skun rabbit mode'. All shaven up and ready to go. All my race stuff is nearly ready. I'll do a quick post tomorrow night then will have a few days off for obvious reasons. I may stick up a quick post the day after the race, of course this all depends on how the race and afterwards goes (Endura Afterparty etc). Until then, chill.

Mahalo, Matty

More photos of TT bikes - so much to look at !!

More Argon 18's than you can poke a stick at, as mentioned previously they are going in BIG TIME. Great looking bike.
Bugger, I hate it when the bike you own gets a major upgrade ie: complete new frame, tube profiles etc. Here is the new Q Roo, very sexy.
Cadels bike swinging in the afternoon Kona breeze.
Yesterday I said that the LOOK was the most awesome looking bike around. I'll retract that - FUJI have unveiled this rocket ship, and what an absolute beast. It has more curves than a Hawaiian hula dancer and I must say looks as good Jen Hawkins. Yes, I do love my bike porn.
This baby slots into No.1 as the best looking bike I have seen in Kona.

Mahalo,
More later

Photo time - check these out the all new Cervelo P4...

Phil White from Cervelo spruiking the virtues of the new P4
Very beefy BB, hidden rear brake, better in the wind tunnel yada, yada, yada
A close up of the beef, note the little sticky outy brake bits !!
And, yep - this is the front, actually he's a bloody good speaker
The sunset was just to the right of this, it was absolutely spectacular !!

Not too sure what to make of the first 'public' unveiling of the P4. Apart from Mr White (1/2 of the Vroomen White Cervelo team) saying that this is the most tested bike in the wind tunnel etc etc, it looks - well um, I dunno, heavy ?? Surely a BB doesn't need another 6" of carbon fibre to stiffen it up ? It looks boxy and bulky. The expo opened straight after the athletes march which started at 5pm. Every bike manufacturer who wants to be noticed is there, it is absolutely massive. More updates later.

Mahalo, Matty

Scorcher in Kona.

Aloha !

Dropping in again to say g'day. It's 8:40pm local time and about 25 Deg C, very nice indeed. Today has been the hottest by far and if it's going to be like this on race day things could get a little fuzzy. Just got in from a bit of a stroll around and grabbed a coffee at the local - a quaint little shop called 'Hula Bean Cafe'. Not as good as Strudel's coffee, I don't think they have the wizardry of Robbie Taranto but they do have a great product to work with. Hawaii grown coffee is pretty tastie stuff but the variances in quality from shop to shop baffles me.
Since I'm confined to the odd coffee, water and Gatorade, the other adults in the party have made up for my share in the alcohol stakes. Marie, Fee and Stevo have done a great job in sniffing out happy hours and have come across some great bars with equally great scenary. They've been going pretty solidly since we arrived and their itinerary is full untill Monday next week. I'll list their findings below:

• Sat 4th - $2 Budweisers @ Pancho & Lefties. This is quite often seen in IM dvd's as one of the last bars before the finish line on Ali'i Drive, it's quite prominent with its Power Bar flags out the front. Result - Chicks: Game Over, Stevo: Just warming up !!
• Sun 5th - Kona Brewery for lunch, 6oz sample glasses all round to taste many of the different brews - all very nice as well , then onto Kona Inn for Pina Colada's for the chicks and Mai Tai's for the big fella. Result - Chicks: Game Over again, Stevo: starting to hit his stride.
• Mon 6th - Sushi El Segundo for $2 Mai Tai's. This place has some of the best views in Kona. Photo's to come. Result - Chicks: Need a bit of down time, it's starting to catch up with them, Stevo: Looking dazed but powering along.

Tomorrow night is a night off for the trio as it's the Parade of Nations. They'll be watching with the kids then running on down to the expo as it opens straight after the parade rolls through. It's a massive freebie night so the kids will no doubt be feeling like they have just come back from the Melbourne show with the amount of showbags, samples, brochures, food, drinks etc. they will get for knicks - the competition is on between them! The parade is HUGE and fair dinkum gives you tingles. It's great for myself and the fellow Aussie athletes to be all wearing the same colours (thanks IMG who gave us all a polo shirt !) and marching under the Australian flag. The crowds are so much bigger this time around so it promises to be massive.

As mentioned the crowds are getting big. I rode out the Queen K this morning for a 2.5 hr ride & rolling past the pier on my way out, man, what a crowd. This was at 6:45am and I reckon there would have been 300 people swanning around watching, with close to equal numbers in the water swimming. On my return it was easily double !! A lot of riders out on the Queen K on what was a relatively calm but stiflingly hot morning. My training is going well with my heart rate dropping to where it usually sits for any given effort so my acclimatisation has worked well. Training is really scaling down now with only a few swims, a short ride and a few runs left before this Saturday.

Observations & Ramblings!

I'll continue to do this, as you see a lot of things around here that are common, right through to the outlandishly ridiculous. so i'll keep on adding them in RANDOM point form on every post I put up.

• Haggled to get a pack of 24 Power Bar gels (Cafe Latte of course!) down to $26.40/box or $1.10 (USD) each. I don't need them of course as I am looked after by ELEMENTAL NUTRITION - www.afan.com.au who have supplied me with my nutritional needs for the race.
• The Orca skinsuit works !! Well it felt like it anyway. I won't tell you my time but I made it out to the 1.2 mile marker buoy in PB time, then negative split on the way back !! I won't tell you the time preferring not to put the moz on myself for raceday.......
• Sat next to Ben Fertic's (WTC Pres) table last night at Kona Inn. He said hi after I gave him a nod on the way out.
• I have not seen one Giant TT bike about. This is great and the word should be spread that NO-ONE rides them and they should be recalled as a fashion faux-pas, they look horrible. Personal view of course !
• Xentis wheels are HUGE. It's probably weighted unfairly at the moment as the majority of athletes getting around at the moment are European where Xentis looks to be by far the favoured wheel. This will no doubt change when the Americans armed with their Zipp wheels start arriving en-masse over the next couple of days.
• Cervelo P3C's are by far the most popular bike. Scott's are everywhere as well, TREK look to be the 3rd most favourable,next would be Kuota & Specialized then the rest. The Specialized TT bikes aren't to my flavour either. They look like the geometry has been designed around the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
• Of the rest I've seen a handful of Felt and BH's around, both fantastic looking machines.
• Argon 18 are doing a huge push, they have a massive fleet of demo bikes and you see an endless stream of them going out along the Queen K to the airport and back. They are an awesome looking machine.
• Best looking TT bike thus far would have to be the new LOOK. Saw one yesterday and the finish is unbelievable. You virtually had to line up to get a look at this dudes bike.
• Saw Cowman out on his bike, yep - they're REAL HORNS !!
• Spoke to Chris Lieto yesterday (yep, it was him I saw the other day). A nice bloke who has got stuck into road racing to improve his cycling - my type of athlete. We spoke a bit about racing and from what I could understand he started off the summer riding a grade that was similar to Oz's 'A grade' and was getting spanked. By the end of his racing season he was winning comfortably. Great talking to him about some of his races and he even asked what the Aussie road scene was like. A friendly reminder that we had more riders in this years TdF than the Yanks had him believing that it was pretty strong.
• Pete C - Thanks for the tip on Fuel Belt and Lava Java, I'll grab one of those !

If anybody is after any specific merchandise, stick up a comment and let me know.

Next post is due not long after the Undie Run. I'll have this photo bit worked out by then so there will be some photos up - Rated PG of course !! The Big Fella is participating and putting on his new Bundy Rum boxers for the event, so watch out weedy triathletes !!

Mahalo, Matty

Aloha from Kona !!

G'day all,

Today is Saturday Oct 4, we all made it safe, the luggage made it in one piece and we are now settled into our condo for our first full day in Kona. The weather is very warm - I'm currently sitting on our lanai (balcony) in just boxer shorts at 9:50 PM !! The swim start (Dig me Beach) & the race finish line are a mere 300 metres over my left shoulder. Back to the weather - Kona is currently enveloped in a haze, or what is known as 'Vog' - Volcanic fog. This morning was quite clear but when the trade winds pick up it blows the vog from Mt Kilauea which is currently going through some quite violent eruptions, this morning was quite hot then by 11am the vog blew in making the temperature drop off but had the added effect of lifting the humidity - sweat city ! I got badly sunburnt on my 3 hour ride this morning, I headed down the Queen K for 1.5hrs then turned around and headed for home. I was back by 9:30am but this was long enough to do plenty of damage.
It was quite an interesting ride down the Queen K, I made it to somewhere around the turnoff to Hawi. On the way out I thought it was calm but as soon as I turned around this wasn't the case! I was going down hill at 29km/h having to stand up to push harder! I had 2 head winds and a tail wind on the way back, the ride ended up ok with an average of 32.3km/h. The roads are just beautiful over here - Billiard table smooth, you are fair dinkum spoilt.
Star spotting is going very well - saw Stadler and his German cronies doing a photo shoot on the pier. Meg and Tom did their bit to get on German TV news, doing butterfly and breaststroke in the backdrop of the interview. Also spotted Macca and Luke Bell on my evening 1 hr run down Ali'i Drive, spotted Natasha B on her unique carbon 'winged fighter' bike down on the Queen K - an unprompted big smile and wave from her put a smile on my dial, what a chick! Saw some others that are a bit harder to identify, Rutger Beke and Chris Lieto, I could be mistaken though. I've also ran into Bruce Baddely quite a few times, Niall Mai from Knox Tri Club and a heap of other Aussies who are all very very friendly.
Off for a 45 minute swim tomorrow, it is still quiet in Kona town, but this will all change over the next couple of days. I'll test out the new Orca swimskin and give you all the low down on its performance.

I thought I'll add a few quick points below:
You know your in Kona when.......

• You're riding along and you hear the rumble of what you think is a truck, but turns out to be a Toyota Hilux 4WD with MONSTER WHEELS & TYRES. So big that you can see the gearbox and diff and all the rest of the drivetrain whilst in the aero position on your bike.
• You buy a serve of teriyaki chicken and rice for $10 USD and you get 1 kg of cooked rice with 4 massive chicken breasts sitting on top and smothered in half a litre of teriyaki sauce. And no I'm not joking.
• Powerbars cost the equivalent of $1.50 AUD.
• You see Japanese IM athletes swimming in their compression socks ??
• You get to see the latest tri products that you would never get to see in Oz until next season.
• You go mad buying the Ironman World Champs merchandise - and the stuff looks absolutely brilliant this year.

I'll work on getting some photo's up over the next couple of days. Until then, chill.

Mahalo, Matty

Random thoughts on training

Now seems as good a time as any to throw down a few random thoughts about my lead up to Kona. There’s been plenty of time to ponder over things as we’ve now been flying for nearly 10 hrs. The flights have been pretty non eventful, apart from Tom’s inevitable travel sickness and a cracking storm about 30 minutes out of Sydney en route to Hawaii with bulk amounts of lightning, spectacular to say the least. Bloody warm in Sydney though – 36 deg C when we landed!
Back onto training! It probably started in earnest about 4 months back, and it didn’t start that well. A crash at speed down the bottom of Waverly St. in Essendon in the wet saw me hit the deck in the high 40’s (km/h) according to the trusty old Polar, and slid right through the Holmes Rd intersection on my side. It was a good thing I had the green light otherwise things might have been a bit scary. Damage was limited to a stack of bark off the legs and elbows – luckily very little damage to the bike.
On the bike it was a tough winter, bloody cold and even though the Victorias water levels don’t really indicate it, it was always raining. It made it pretty hard to sometimes muster up the courage, put 4 – 5 layers of clothing on and hit the road. The track wasn’t really an option this time around, time is getting scarcer, even though I did go a few times and as usual enjoyed it. Amongst all this there were some great rides – The WSTC Bright training weekend where we (GSP and I) climbed Hotham, Falls Ck and Mt. Buffalo on successive days. It had a bit of a Giro d’Italia feel about it – pounding away at the pedals with metres of snow right beside you, absolutely awesome!! GSP is a marvel, he hadn’t trained since coming back from Ironman Switzerland and despite being on blood thinning medication for the deep vein thrombosis that he suffered from the flight back from Europe, he was nipping at my heels the whole way. The Rapido ride on Sunday mornings was also a ride I really looked forward to. Robbie’s plucking of destinations ie: Kinglake/Humevale climb in the pouring rain and single figure temperature, Wildwood during Magpie swooping season and various others kept us on our toes. The endless sledging that goes on during this ride is what makes it, Pete & Shane baiting each other, Rob Taranto doing his best Muslim impersonation wearing a burkah on the cold mornings, hanging it on Robbie Bell about his ‘Dancin’ shoes’ – shiny black leather Nikes, setting up the young fellas just to watch them explode later in the ride. It all takes your mind off the numbing amount of miles that you need to clock up and makes training a lot more enjoyable.
Running was a joy, I really enjoy this pursuit and relished my long runs along the Maribyrnong River to Brimbank Park. My longest was 2 ½ hrs and that was at a solid 4:30min/km pace, well above race pace. Even though the volume has come down on my running, it seems to be going from strength to strength, last Saturday (GF day) I rattled off a brick (3Hrs ride/1Hr run) and was sitting comfortably at 3:40 –3:50km/h pace with my HR sitting at 150ish – Promising signs indeed.
Swimming – well that was swimming, still like a brick with no style or technique, just muscle through the water. My left shoulder that was dislocated at the start of the year flared up about a month out but it should be fine. I’ve got an Orca skinsuit to use for the swim, they’re very similar to the BlueSeventy brand and the claim of the material being 50 times slipperier (is that a word??!!) than skin is big and the time saving of approximately 4-5 minutes over an IM distance will be most needed.
My fears for the race are probably the usual – not enough training. I look at my last months training and it has been erratic to say the least. During September I was in Warrnambool for 3 days, NSW for 1 week, did not train for 1 1/2 weeks due to the flu, to say training was interrupted would be an understatement! In the end I missed 3 weeks out of 4 for my BIG VOLUME month. It’s unfortunate, but work has priority and the flu was unforseen. How this will effect me will only be known this coming Saturday 11th October.
Until my next bit of waffle, Chill !

Mahalo,
Matty

G'day All,

I'll start this off so that you guys can follow me over in Kona. I'll put down what I'm doing training and social wise, I'm planning on updating this every couple of days and put some of my thoughts and meaningful stuff in. Hopefully I can work all this blogging out, post some good stuff and put heaps of piccy's up. Tilly & Tom are blessed with quite good IT skills so I'll be leaning on them quite a bit.
As it stands I'm struggling getting some of my sponsors logo's up. I think my Major Sponsor http://www.rapidocycles.com.au/ is the only one missing out at the moment - sorry Robbie, I'll get this fixed !! On the subject of sponsors I must thank them - Robbie & Steve at Rapido Cycles, Pete & Paul at Elemental Nutrition http://www.afan.com.au/ , Stuart, Shane & Paul at Moonee Valley Council and of course WSTC who I always owe a hell of a lot to.