It was a challenging walk with most of us carrying 10kg in backpacks. My backpack was around 5kgs so over the 21kg distance I got off a fair bit lighter than the others. On the way out to Hewett’s Hill was fairly comfortable and the temperature not bad. We set off at 7.45am and got there at 10.30am.

We had our lunch packed and met up with another day hiker at the hut. With our best ‘Mantracker’ instincts in full flight, we ascertained that there were other hikers that had set out before us and likely well ahead of us.

The return trip was a lot warmer and we savoured the opportunity for shade. There were lots of undulating parts of this return trip. Plenty of loose rocks. We had a large kangaroo very close to us, stopped off at the Camel Farm in Paull’s Valley Rd, went through 4 bags of jelly snakes. I ran out of my 3 litre camelbak of powerade around 25mins before the end of the walk so that was bad planning.

This was the second time we’ve done this walk but it was much tougher this time.

I will now ramp up my swimming for the Busso Jetty Swim in early Feb and a half marathon run the day before this also in Busselton.  Hot weather will make preparation for the swimming a little easier. Not so for the running training. That’s the way the mop flops!!

Regards

CHRISTO

I’d have to rate Painathlon as one of the toughest things I’ve done. My guess is that there will likely be a lot of people putting their hand up to do this event in 2009 and my prediction is over 300.

I have set a few goals this year for 2009. One of them is a sub 5hr Busselton Half Ironman. The other is a sub 3hr30m marathon (mainly because my running coach thinks I’m capable of it). I would love to do a time trial with a 40kph average (doesn’t matter what distance) but I am realistic here. My new wheels may give me 2 to 3kph faster but that won’t quite give me the 40kph average.

I reflect on my Busso Ironman marathon and wonder how/why my body shut down so quickly after 25kms of running. Those last 17kms were horrendous but I had such a bright start to this event. More training and gym work is part  of the answer as is proper nutrition and hydration.

There’s a whole load of 40 and 80km time trials coming up so I guess I should get someone to glue on the back wheel. The front one was a ‘labour of love’ for Phil Ingpen from Runner’s World. It’s great to see a batch of new people getting into time trials. The likes of Mouse and Lorraine Shutz (and quite a few more) are surely bearing the fruits of nurturing ATTA over the last 20 years in such a spirited and professional way.

Dee is off to Kilimanjaro in 2 weeks now. Her fitness is phenomenal and her determination to conquer ‘Kili’ is great to see. The human body is capable of great things and feats like climbing Kili and Ironman WA just prove that.

I’ve had a good break now over Christmas and have just returned from several days at Busso. Even still, we brought the Colnago and Trek along.  I want to be a ‘doer’ and not a ‘talker’ this year and I hope to let my performances speak for themselves. I can ‘t see me being ready for the Busso Jetty swim of 3.6km however this is on early Feb (7th or 8th I think). There is a half marathon run on the day before so  a bit of determined training over the next 4 weeks may see me being able to do both.

Couple of days ago, we went home from Busso via Myalup to drop in on Dee’s brother. Had a great time there in a sleepy little coastal town. It’ll be great for me to catch up with family in Melbourne in mid January including two brothers, a sister and , of course, my parents. Cheap flight via Tiger Airways helped out with this decision. $118 Perth to Melb and $120 Melb to Perth.

This Saturday, we do a 21km bushwalk along the Bibbulmun in fairly hot conditions. Will be a solid test so good hydration will be important as will preventing blisters and other abrasion.

My daughter Melissa and her mates get ready for the Southbound concert experience and Matt has Big Day Out coming soon. Can’t wait to see what all the young folk make of Neil Young. Saw the Heart of Gold concert on Foxtel and is was magical. He’s a great muso.

Had a great day yesterday watching all the English Premier League matches and also watched Perth outplay Mariners only to lose in the A-League soccer.

Anyway, set some goals for yourself and achieve them. No excuses, no laziness. Just achieve them because you’ll feel better. I had a great moment when I found Lance Armstrong’s book ‘Its not about the bike’ in a Busselton second hand bookshop a few days ago. Needless to say, its been a great motivational read for me. I should also mention that we now plan on doing half the Bibbulmun track in November 2009 after deciding that we couldn’t really take 6 weeks leave to do the whole thing. Still, doing half the whole track will be around 20 days of hiking.

Reservoir

CHRISTO

Yesterday’s BFSR ride was a pretty tame affair with 10 of us along for the trundle. I missed a set of traffic lights and missed the Riverside Drive sprint as a result. I did a fair bit of work but I missed the jump at the end of Shelley as well. Richard Kelly and Steve (?) went hell for leather at this Shelley sprint. Luke Hardy rode off for a training ride elsewhere.

Today, I did a 2.5hr ride. I dropped Dee off for another session of Jacob’s ladder and a long walk around Kings Park with her trusty backpack. I cycled about as far south as I could along Kwinana then turned around to come back again. I averaged around 33kph on the way down (slight headwind) and around 38 to 39kph coming  back. Well satisfied with this and my TT position feels strong.

I lent my trusty Colnago to one of Matt’s mates for the City of Rockingham triathlon. Trent King is his name and he finished a credible 7th out of over 100 in the WAFL category. He finished as 3rd fastest cyclist in this category so the old Columbus tubing, the Profile windjammers and the gears on the downtube didn’t let him down in the end.

Congrats to a whole bundle of Front Runners including Macca who won, Brynt McSwain , the Duffield Girls and a host of others. Good to see names like Twine and Illingworth bobbing up in the juniors. Its a great sport.

Only 25 days till Dee’s Kilimanjaro trek now. Christmas nearly here. My big goals for 2009 are the sub 5hr Busso Half Ironman and a 1hr 30m Darlington Half Marathon. Both lofty goals but you may as well make them memorable if you’re going to set them.

I now have the front Gravity Zero wheel on so I’m just searching for a tyre to put on the back wheel. No rush for this.  My sincere thanks to Bikeforce Southern River for preparing my little Christmas gift to my nephews (the Haro F3 bike). It’s come up a treat.

Dee has now broken in her DS trainers and my thanks also to Runner’s World for all their help recently with these and with the wheels. Finally, my thanks to Siena’s restaurant in Leederville. Once they found out our whole family were bluebaggers we got our 25% discount and the option of using our voucher for another visit. Top place for a feed.

Come on the Gunners against Liverpool tonight. Hopefully they will play as well as the Perth Glory did against Sydney today (4-1 winners)

Dee and I went to Ikea today - need a flamin’ GPS it’s so big!

Reservoir

CHRISTO

RACE DAY
Dee and I ordered some pasta from a place just next to the Bayview and set the alarm for 5am on Sunday morning. We had to pack up ‘camp’ so we got to the start at around 6am, just in time to see the professionals set off on their swim. We followed Emily and Ashleigh out along the jetty and watched around a third of their swim as they made their way to the end of the jetty for a right turn then back again. I saw everyone coming in from the swim: Emily (our team swimmer) with a great 77min effort - the clock may show 80mins however this will always be slower as it includes transition. Great job Em - the youngest competitor out there. Stung by jellyfish and all!! It was pure elation as she tagged with Brendan McSweeney. Ash Davis had a giant stingray gliding a few metres underneath her. That must have got the adrenalin going.
Now, I raced along the fence and saw Brendan depart the bike transition. Dee and I watched along with Liz McSweeney and we all missed Brendan come through on his first lap (how is it possible for us to do that?). Naturally we thought, after not seeing him at all at 10am, that he’d had some major problems on the course. How wrong was that! It ended up that he was on his way to smashing the bike course in a time of 4hrs38mins. Words fail me at how far Brendan has come as a cyclist in the last 18mths. But to post what was nearly spot on a 39kph average was a massive effort. With a headwind greeting most cyclists on their last 20 to 30kms, it was a memorable effort. I tagged with Brendan and felt good as only 7 teams had departed in front of us. He was understandably rapt in his effort and Dee got a great picture of him straight after tagging with me.
I checked my watch after the first 14km lap and I had this done in 65mins, well under 5min/km pace. Naturally, I thought I was on 3hr30m pace at that point. My second lap was marginally slower but I still thought I was somewhere between 3hr40 and 4hrs.  I ran a good portion of the first and second lap with a lady called Bridget. She ended up with an awesome IMWA result so I’m glad I didn’t try to stay with her the whole run. Then, at around 28kms, I had a couple of unscheduled ‘pitstops’ and a huge wall came up out of nowhere. It freaked me out a bit because I’ve never experienced such a dramatic ’shutdown’. I tried to recall what I’d eaten in the lead up or, indeed, what I took on board in terms of food and fluids for the actual run. I knew I was well hydrated.
At the start of the finish chute, I tried a gallop but, unbelievably, my first cramp set in at this point. I got over it after about 50metres, managed to give Dee a big smooch and then started the dancers on a YMCA routine at the finish line. Little was I to know the next 3 mixed team runners came in less than 2mins behind me. As soon as I crossed, I felt very faint and felt quite unwell. I managed to get into the massage area and spoke briefly to Terry Cameron ( a bloke I had done a lot of running training with in my last IMWA preparation) and Rob Suriano. A 40min massage on my legs probably saved them from totally seizing. Well done to all the Curtin physio students. A massive effort in organising massages for so many people.
As I left the recovery tent, I immediately had to lie down for about 20mins. I just crashed and felt dizzy the whole time. Even after Painathlon, I never felt this bad and it was a salutary reminder for me to respect the marathon effort and, perhaps, to prepare a little more for it next time. The 10 to 15km training efforts didn’t really cut it and my cycle commute doesn’t really prepare my running muscles that well. From thinking I was ’sailing’ to a 3hr 30m effort to being a whole hour slower was very sobering and a little embarrassing really. I wished I didn’t have the Front Runner shirt on as I definitely didn’t do it justice. Next time I will.
My eventual run time of 4hrs 32m was very disappointing and only 15mins quicker than my Rotto effort. But I’ve already built the bridge and over it. Thanks to Emily and Brendan, our mixed team was second in its category although we were a good 30mins behind the first placed mixed team.
KUDOS
Well done to Steve Hammond (got a nice shower scene photo as you came out of the swim), Hannah Lawton (solid 11h30m effort), Stuart Durham from Eclipse Fitness (setting up his team runner Johan Borg for a second place team effort overall - I had a chat to Johan and asked him what time he was hoping for. When he said ’sub 3hrs’ that sort of finished the conversation), John Janssen on his first Ironman, Terry Cameron on a super 10hr37m including a 3hr45m run, Todd Panietz for his first Ironman (good luck in Sweden , Toddy. We’ll all miss you over these 6mths mate), Amber Morrison on filling in for Tim Roach and putting in a 4hr 48m first time marathon at very short notice (all one day of it), John Pantelis on being an Ironman again, Peter Clark on being an Ironman again - solid preparation and supreme fitness, Paul Prottey on an amazing 5hr30m bike effort given his limited fitness and preparation after the bad accident he was involved in - not easy doing a 180km bike with a dodgy shoulder, very well done mate.
Best team name goes to ‘Does my bum look big in this’. Fantastic.
Frank Stapleton’s job as tech race director goes largely unheralded but such a massive effort. He was once a 2hr37m mara runner and I’m sure harbors dreams of doing Ironman. One day Frank - well done mate.
Mitch Anderson did a great job with Pete Murray at both the swim exit and the bike exit. Very funny and edgy. Also very noble in learning that Matt Illingworth had broken his bike record.
To all the supporters. I learned that Shannon, Carolyn and several others were cheering on the last few competitors to ensure they sneaked in under the cutoff time by a mere 30seconds. That’s what its all about and I’m sure they will never forget your encouragement.
The solitude of the 180km bike effort, the meditative meanderings of the swim when you’re past halfway, the interminable 14km run laps, feeling sorry for the aid station folk at the back as noone ever takes their water, coke or Hi5 drinks, the town centre support as you go around the roundabout, the family who let me use their toilet when a portable was nowhere in sight, the great chalk messages of support on the footpath and cycle, the two girls dressed as the Iron Man character all day, the afterburner of Jimmy Johnsen as he tried to make his move on the last lap, the running cadence and pure grit of Berkel as he shook off Jason Shortis’ challenge with 5kms to go, the high 5’s I got from Dave Koopu, my workmate, on all my run laps. It all adds up to a great Ironman WA and I think all those involved should really take a bow.
It takes a lot of teamwork, organisation and planning. I heard some overseas competitors marvel at just how many volunteers were involved with the event.
To Mark Batten, Lisbeth Kristensen, Tom Bakowski, Courtney Ogden,Tim Roach and scores of others whose day didn’t go exactly to plan in spite of their exquisite preparation, your day of triumph will surely arrive.
I will dream about how many nice bikes were in transition and how I want a set of the latest Zipp Flashpoint wheels at $2300 a pop!

 
THE FUTURE
Tonight, some of us have a 15km time trial to wake up our legs again. This is an ATTA event at Champion Lakes. I ended up marshalling at this and young Travis Meyer put in a blinding 18min result. Most people I’ve talked to are on board for Busso Half Ironman in early May 2009. Training for you guys will start just after Christmas. Don’t forget, earlybird entries from Mid January. And Raf Baugh has a 9 week training course for those of you wanting to sharpen up your half marathon in time for the Darlington Half Mara in mid April 2009.
That’s it for now. What an event. I ended up crashing at Brendan and Liz’s digs in Busso on Sunday night after being in no shape to drive home. Set the alarm for 3am and drove home Monday morning in time to get ready to go to work.

And, lastly the ’sly old fox’ reference. ‘What the…?’ I hear you ask. Well, a person who sets out to finish an Ironman deliberately a few seconds before the cutoff time. That’s my definition of a sly, old fox. An awful lot of effort to go to though!!
Reservoir
CHRISTO

How the heck are we all? It was a weekend where the priority was staying about 100kms away from anyone with a flu or cold. That achieved, the weekend started with a solid BFSR ride of 60kms. It was our usual ride but I can feel myself getting stronger as a cyclist. I sprinted a little prematurely at the end of Shelley. At Riverside Drive, once Clarky had swung out as ‘lead out’, Luke, Richard and Rob were thrashing it out at front. I tried to get on but they tucked in behind a little white van which took the sting out of my effort to catch them.

Unfortunately, Brendan had a puncture and didn’t manage to rejoin the group. Todd Panietz and Peter Clark both look lean and fit. Good strong efforts from both of them on the bike. The taper will only build their reserves of strength now.

I put in strong efforts against the breeze though and felt a real quad burn going up ‘Gino’s Revenge’ along Garden St. I then went out for a 12km run with a slight detour pat Kelly’s Café to greet my fellow cyclists as they were sipping on their latte’s. I hadn’t really hydrated that well and took a good 5min break at Bannister Rd which was my 6km turnaround point. We had a Mt Kilimanjaro afternoon as we invited some friends to watch the DVD we had ordered from the USA.

On Sunday, I had set myself a time of 1hr 7m30s for the 15kms (2 laps of Deepwater Pt). As I drew close to finishing my first lap, I could feel a bit of pain in my right knee and decided to do just one lap. I managed this in just over 33mins so I was still on the 4min30s/km pace. Tim Roach managed a very credible 30m30s effort to be just fractionally over 4min/km pace. Jo Youd finished around 1hr 8mins for the 2 laps. She was going to be my benchmark as she finished around 1m40s ahead of me on the 10km Peninsula run. She was around 1min behind me at the first lap but would no doubt have caught me on the 2nd. I also saw the Poss (Amanda Smith) who also gave the 7.5km a go. There’ll be a good number of us on board for Busso Half Ironman this May.

Based on both my time and Tim’s, I would reckon him to be around 15 to 20mins quicker for the full marathon effort. Its interesting but Toddy said that he and Peter Clark could also race against our two teams as they will have a 15min headstart on us. In truth, they are both very quick at all 3 disciplines so its hard to see where , as teams, we can make significant inroads against them.

Still, I think it was wise to nurse the knee at this stage. I’m cycle commuting this week up to Thursday. I will also plan 5km runs from today to Thurs as well.

Emily Panietz, our team swimmer, did the Cottesloe swim on Saturday as a good test of the ‘washing machine’ phenonomenon. In reality, both her and Ashleigh should benefit from being in the team swim as their group is only a max of 70 and they start a good 15mins behind the individuals.

I see that those of you unable to make it down to Busso will be able to watch it on live streaming, including interviews, on

www.ironman.com. 

I know you are all keen to see what the weather holds for Busselton for the Ironman on Sunday. Now , my initial thoughts on all facets of the weather are that it should be close to ideal. You wouldn’t expect a day totally free of swell on the water or free of wind in the bike and run. So here’s the prediction on

www.seabreeze.com.auSunday Swell Wind

6am 1m 16SE

730am 1m 15SE

900am 14SE

1030am 12SE

1200pm 10SSE

130pm 12S

300pm 14SSW

430pm 17SSW

600 20SSW

The temperature range is 11min to 26max. This means the swim should have a slight swell but, with an Easterly dominant, should make for a decent swim without any real chop. The bike will be interesting as through most of it the wind will actually be dying off. It will start as 15SE but down to 10SSE by midday. This is probably about as good as can be expected for Busso for the 180kms and the cyclists should be reasonably happy with this. If there is any headwind, it will likely be on the southward sweep toward the Bussell Hwy turnaround and perhaps from the marina back toward the Busso city centre. With extra southerly in the breeze as the day progresses, the wind will get a little cooler so it should also be ideal for the runners.

Diet is progressing well and I should get to the start line at 76kgs which can only help (compared to my 81.4kg weight a few weeks ago).

By the way, I did tell all of you the one of Matty’s good cross country running mates, Kieran King, would get picked in the draft. And, at number 81, he was indeed picked up by Brisbane. Well done to him and all the other WA draftees.

Arsenal also winners over Chelsea (and unfortunately Man Utd over Man City). Lets hope West Ham get over Liverpool to even out the top few teams a little.

Stay healthy,happy and focussed.

Regards

CHRISTO

The Dwellingup Caravan Park are very gracious with walkers using their carpark. Obviously they like it when walkers actually use their accommodation at the front or back end of a trek. There were only 5 of us this time and , as usual, we’d packed lots of stuff into our backpacks. One of us was trying out some Backcountry meals (freeze-dried) available from most camping stores. We had been careful to adjust our shoulder straps and hip straps. We’d all waterproofed our boots, brought hiking tents and lots of snacks.

For those of you who haven’t given hiking on the Bibbulmun Track a go yet, it’s very taxing yet very satisfying. The track is well-marked with the yellow waugals (or wiggy-wiggy’s as we called them). It’s very reassuring to see them every few hundred metres or so. We started around 10.30am and it took us around 4 hours with a few breaks thrown in for good measure. We saw noone else on the track. Once we got to Swamp Oak (some 13kms south of Dwellingup) we gathered some dry firewood ahead of the rain and set up our tents. We listened to Australia succumb to the New Zealand All Blacks on the rugby league. It rained from midnight to 5am but we all managed to stay dry. I was responsible with the rubbish and walked it down to the Charlie’s Flat (we heard the familiar ‘doof, doof’ of leavers at that campsite)

It’s bizarre but as soon as we dropped a scrap of food in the hut, little field mice would scoop it up. We left a big sage-scented candle, some tuna packets, a diary entry , a large toilet roll and some matches. Always good karma to give the next group of hikers something to use.

Went for a 15km run yesterday and another this morning at 5.30am. I’ve also had the bike commutes to work that I’ve been trying to work hard on. I have another 4 days of hard intermediate run efforts (15 to 20kms). I’ll do the Front Runner training on Thursday and still on to do the Sunday Deepwater Point 15km run. This will be the final hard run effort before Ironman WA. A one week taper should do the trick. I’ll do the Bikeforce Southern River ride on Saturday morning. A lot of the regulars are involved in IMWA so it shouldn’t be further than our normal 60km effort.

I think I’ll put down aboujt 3 double whoppers straight after this. I’m down to 77kgs now and I’ll try to be 75kgs by the time I do the IMWA run. Our team cyclist Brendan is certainly in the zone and our swimmer is only 17 but is 18yo just 2 weeks after IMWA so has been given special permission to compete. I think her older brother, Todd, is one of the youngest males doing IMWA and I really think he’ll do well.

It seems such a long time ago that I did IMWA but it was only last year. I swore off doing it ever again yet I have it pencilled in for my 50th birthday in 6 years. Dee and I received a Kilimanjaro dvd that we saw today. She’s getting very excited about the trek in January. Matt’s had a mixed time at Leavers. i think pretty poorly of the WA Police for issuing him a $100 fine for a bald tyre. He’s just bought the car after having a friend write off his previous one and he’s been very responsible down at Dunsborough. I don’t think the police win any friends by issuing on-the-spots when warnings would suffice (heck, he  could have bought a new tyre with plenty of change with the money he’ll now have to pay the fine with. He’ll get over it but it just sort of sours his experience a little (and a little harsh by the police)  My little turn on the soapbox.

Good luck to all you prospective IMWA folk (especially the first-timers). There’ll be lots of overseas visitors too. Can’t wait for it.

Reservoir

CHRISTO

ps A friend gave us a conundrum. Try it out on your friends. See how long it takes for someone to come up with 3 words starting with ‘dw’. Apparently there are 55 words in the English language. Hard to believe!….And googling is cheating!!

Tonight, I worked hard on my running with Front Runner. There are so many good male and female runners in this group and a new guy called Macca that Raf introduced me to that will be a newcomer to the WA tri scene after a 10yr hiatus. Brynt McSwain also there with Sally O’Dea and most of the regulars. Many did very well in the recent Hillarys and Bunbury triathlons either winning or placing second in their age group.

Tonight, I ran most of my kms at just over 4min/km pace. I feel I’m edging closer and closer to that elusive 4min/km pace for a 10km effort. It will come but not easily. We hike the Bibbulmun track this weekend and I’ll try to get some extra distance in as we inch closer to 7 Dec.

Many folk at my work are now cycling commuters which is heartening to see. Also a very effective way of saving money in tough financial times. As I’ve said before, I’ll give myself a one week taper into the marathon effort at IMWA. Good luck to all my teammates doing the 2 x laps of the Great Perth Bike ride. Its a frenetic effort near the front and one of my friends has nominated in the 40kph+ category.

It’s all happening as they say in the classics. Mel’s in Queensland, Matt’s off to Leavers soon. Dee’s Kilimanjaro trek gets closer and closer. I’m off to Melbourne for a week in early Jan 09 to visit family. Dee is still ripping up her Jacob’s ladder efforts and staying very fit. I’m still losing weight and getting very close to my 75kg goal.

A bit of wet weather in Perth but hopefully fining up soon.

Reservoir until later when I’ll hopefully have a bit more news.

CHRISTO

Sat AM was a solid 60km effort with BFSR cycling into some very windy conditions. I can’t help think of all the folk doing their cycle training into these winds as they prepare for Ironman WA. I was happy with the effort and after an early puncture (see the Stercus Accidit saying) I worked hard for most of the journey.

On Sunday was the 10km Peninsula run as part of the WA Marathon Club. I was hoping to sneak under 45mins but 46mins had to do. A few friends had done the Bunberri triathlon in Bunbury with some 42min run efforts at the end of an Olympic Distance triathlon.

Just half an hour of swimming last night and some solid cycle efforts. A 20km run this evening should finish me off today. We’re preparing for our Bibbulmun walk track effort from Dwellingup this coming weekend. Its a 13km trek to Swamp Oak hut - a walk we’ve done a few times. Staying overnight this time.

The Gunners lost to Aston Villa so the Man Utd supporters move a little further ahead with a game in hand. Looks like Ben Cousins will get a green light at AFL level. Remember I told you all to look out for an AFL draft prospect called Kieran King - a great footballer and runner.

Funny that the third placed runner in the WAMC Peninsula run was one of my son’s running teammates, Josh Tedesco. The others, Paul Berenger, Jace Collingride and Adam Bastick all still doing their middle distance running. I’m sure my son will get back into it.

Reservoir. Not a lot of news for now. Just less than 3 weeks to go till the Ironman WA run leg as part of our team. Our rider posted a solid effort in the Chidlow ATTA time trial and our swimmer still powering along. It’ll be great to go to Busso without the burden of doing the whole Ironman this time.

CHRISTO