Monday 9 February 2015

Two Halves means it must be time for a Full!

The start of 2015 saw me lining up for my first two races of the year. Having raced Challenge Forster in Nov, and Ironman Western Australia in Dec, I knew I was by no means starting the year fresh!

First up was Tauranga Half Ironman. After taking a 2 week break following Ironman WA, then cramming in a couple of week's training over the Christmas/New Year period (of which routine and diet went a bit out the window!), I lined up on the start line knowing I was lacking a bit of speed.

I got dropped before the first turn buoy in the swim, but managed to stay at a solid pace, exiting the water in 5th place and not too far back.
I managed to move up to 4th on the bike, but I knew I was riding at Ironman pace, while the top 3 girls were smashing out some decent bike splits.


This was my first race on my new BH bike though, and despite my legs being a touch slow, I loved riding this machine! Super smooth and responsive - if only I could give it something to respond to!

On to the run, I ran out of transition holding 4min/km's - but promptly died once I hit the base track of the Mount. From here I grovelled my way around the rest of the run, posting up my slowest run split in two years. A good 8min slower than last time I raced here!! 



I finished up 4th overall, with a good indication of what I needed to work on!
It was great to see other Fitness Locker athletes delivering some awesome performances out there, the product of some hard work over the summer.

After Tauranga it was straight into a big training block to prep the body for another Ironman race. Off the back of 3 big training weeks I lined up at my annual pre-IMNZ hit out, New Plymouth Half IM.

This is such a well run race, on an honest course, with an awesome vibe. I love racing here. Despite some brutal winds on Friday, race day dawned promising light winds and sun.
I was on the start line with three speedy girls, including super star Sam Warriner.

I had another good swim, exiting not too far back from the leading three. However 3 big training weeks soon ate into my legs when I hit the hills on the bike. I seemed to have forgotten my climbing legs at home (as well as my socks -  more on that later!).

 I came off the bike nearly 7min down from 3rd. Having forgotten my socks (rookie mistake!!), I shoved my shoes straight on and prayed for the blisters to hold off as long as possible. My goal for this race was to enjoy the run. After some very average run performances, I felt the need to redeem my running ability a little. Also, my grandfather had passed away a week before. Having run multiple ultra's, he has always been my biggest inspiration, and I wanted to run to remember him.
I hit the run course feeling good. Until 5km in.
1. I really, really needed to pee
2. I could feel I would finish the race with less skin on my feet than what I started with.

There was only 1 portaloo on course. Of course it was busy when I got to it. I stood around for 40sec with my legs crossed, before deciding to keep running and hope to spot something (a bush, a fence.... anything!). Luckily I spied a public toilet in a car park, which I veered off to.

Having dealt with 1, I knew there was nothing I could do about 2, so tried to ignore the sensation of my skin being rubbed off in various spots on my feet. My legs felt good and I held a decent pace for the rest of the run. I finished in 4th, 90sec behind 3rd, having run up a pretty good deficit. I am pretty sure that 90sec would have been my toilet break!
I posted up the fastest run split of the day, despite bleeding all over my Asics DS Trainers in several spots.



All up I am happy with how the half panned out, given the workload I put in prior to it. Backing it up with another couple of decent training days has given me some good confidence my race fitness for IMNZ is there.

Stay safe & see you all in Taupo - be it on the start line or the sideline!



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