With a quick stop off in Melbourne (quick
as temps were 2 degree C/35F ) to see the family and for Lucy to spend some
time at home with Matilda I was off to the Gold Coast to finish off those long
hard miles that everyone posts about leading into Kona. Only a stones throw
away now as the days tick by.
Being on the Gold Coast and Mooloolaba only
a 2hr drive away (also being the 2016 70.3 WC course) I decided to break up the
training with a weekend away with friends for a hit out. It was never going to
be pretty with no rest and in hindsight I should have realized that lead in
races never fare well for me.
The course is spectacular and with an ocean
swim and add in some waves, it made for a more enjoyable and interesting swim
than the standard races. From the gun I
was on the rivet to hang onto the lead guys setting the pace and things did not
change from there. Onto the bike and the body decided not to turn up to play.
The high end threshold rev limiter exploded soon after T1 and as we rolled onto
the motor way hitting speeds of 55-60km/hr and I watch the guys disappear up
the the road. Tim Berkel, Terenzo
Bozzone and Luke Mckenzie had a close and cracking race for the podium
positions. These boys had turned up to
race while I had chosen to keep things rolling in the build to next month. It
is always hard to predict where and what your competitors are doing one month
out from Kona.
This past week involved a few days easy
recovery before getting back into the final 10 day block before resting to absorb
all the hard work. To give you an idea
of what things have looked like, the past few weeks have included some long
rides ~200k (124 miles), some solid riding behind the motor bike pacing at
45-50k (~30 m/hr) to deal with the top end speeds and descent from Hawi, Some
LSD runs to harden the legs along with solid tempo sets. There are 50m pools
and squads a plenty up here on the Gold Coast so there is never a shortage of
surf swimmers to keep you honest and kick your butt in the pool.
All in all, things have gone well, training
has been hard but enjoyable and the time up here has been productive. Today it
was nice to head down to Byron Bay to catch up with a few of the boys (Tim
Berkel – 7th Kona 2014, Tim Reed – multiple 70.3 Champion and
Clayton Fettell) for a long run through the forest and looking for whales!
Laughs a plenty, what it is all about.
From here it is wrapping things up and
trying to live by my 3 simple rules. Be consistent, don’t get sick and don’t
get injured. Lucy, Matilda and myself look forward to getting on the plane and
getting to the sun, sand and surf of Hawaii.
Luke J
