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| » European racing and trainng (09/06/2006) |
Hi All
Sorry this has taken so long, but I have had very limited email access.
Well it has been a bit of a mixed month. After Roth and a good to weeks break I bounced back in to training very quickly, so decided to head to Europe and race Embrunman- dubbed as the hardest long distance tri in the world.
Embrunman, was situated just outside of Gap in France. What a beautiful place! But on race day I had a bad day in the office.It was pretty darn cold (air temp was 8 degrees) and the swim began in the dark, which made for an interesting time in the water! All was going well as I came out of the swim in first place and began the tough bike. Boy that ride was mean! It had 3 mountains to climb and I was loving every minute of it. I was situated in the lead pack when I got a puncture at about the 70km mark. I was pretty quick about fixing the puncture and managed to get back up to the pack. But then just past the 90km mark I received another 2 flats at the same time! One on my front tire and one on the back. Because I was only carrying 2 spares I had no choice but to give up, as I wasn't allowed to receive help from bystanders. I am really disappointed because I had a really good lead up and was feeling pretty chipper going into the race. Also this was the 2nd race of mine this year that got cut short due to mechanical difficulties. I decided to find another race to make up for this one.
From here I went and spent some time with my coach, Macca, training in the Alps in France. I have learnt so much from him to date and I value the time I get to soak up more knowledge. This guy seems to have a PhD in ironman distance racing I swear! I spent two weeks doing some big miles in the mountains and it was the best riding I have ever done.
I decided to race Monaco 70.3 Half Ironman before I returned back to San Diego. There was a great starting field with 41 pro athletes lined up. The day started well. I had a good swim by breaking away from the pack and exiting with a 30sec lead and a new swim record. I was then onto the bike and we rode straight up a 23km climb. I pushed hard to open up my gap. I felt really strong and returned to T2 from the bike with a 4min 35sec lead and a new bike record.
The run was 4 and a half laps with a huge hill in each lap. I wanted to pace myself and run each lap evenly. I achieved this and was even able to run each of the 4 laps quicker than the previous one, but the 4 guys behind me were flying. On the last half lap I was passed by all four, with the time gap from first to fifth been only 1 min 30 sec!
Even though I was disappointed at my lost lead and finished fifth I was happy that I raced as well as I did. I felt really strong after a lot of slow big miles in the mountains and this is all part of my build to my next race= the World Championships in November.
I am now back in San Diego and am off to race Cancun 70.3 next weekend (17th Sept) before heading back to NZ in the first week of October.
I will keep you all posted, thanks once again for all the support.
Kind regards doeboy
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