Swim Smooth Perth Blog: Weekend's Results and Nutrition Notes

Dear All

Well it was a weekend of wild weather up here in (sunny) Perth! The brick session was rained-off for the first time ever and we took a group decision to instead complete the session in the infamous "Sweat Shack" - yes, all 2h30 of it on the wind trainers and then 60 mins of running in the pouring rain! It was tough but everyone made it and funnily enough, appeared to enjoy themselves too!

Nutrition Seminar:

Notes from the nutrition seminar will be available in due course. I'd just like to extend my sincere thanks to Nicola Holmes for running the seminar on friday night and for providing us with a superb insight into what nutrition is required to see us through our race.

Race Results:

So, it was a big weekend of racing with athletes from the team competing at the Australian Ironman Championships in Port MacQuarie, the Point Walter Olympic Distance Triathon in Perth, The Bridges Asics 10km Fun-run, The British Duathlon Championships in (snowy) Swindon, and the UCC BHAA 10Km running race in Ireland.

Ironman Australia:

Janet Musker, Clint Doak and Andrew Menschelyi travelled over to Queensland to complete their 2nd, 3rd and 2nd (respectively) Ironman events at the National Championships. After a double-peak program covering some 26 weeks of consistent training, the guys were ready to race:

After a very comfortable "smooth" swim which bettered last year's performance by 30 seconds, Janet went on to knock off 14 minutes off last year's bike split and a further 10 minutes off last year's run split to give her a new P.B time of 12h25. Janet also ended up placing 9th in her age-group which is a simply fantastic result at a National Championships! Consistency in training = results! Well done!
This was Clint's 3rd Ironman with # 1 being completed in 11h36 (IMOZ '06), # 2 in 11.01 (IMWA '06). Clint went on to record a new personal best on what is now a much harder Port Macquarie Ironman course of 10h56. What was particularly impressive was that Clint managed to P.B even after a puncture on the bike which cost him over 10 minutes!! The ability to keep your focus like this after 150km of hard, hilly riding, is a testament to this young athlete's tenacity!
Whilst Andrew only had a shorter lead-up to this event than both Janet and Clint, he did successfully complete the distance in 12h32 and whilst not as fast as his IMWA outing in 2006 (12h19), posted P.B times for the swim and (we believe) run disciplines. One of the big steps between HIM and IM racing is the strength endurance required for the bike leg. With a shorter lead-up time this makes things tricky, so to get through the event and then run faster than his previous best marathon time is pretty good going in my book! Well done that man!

I'm sure there will be more stories that emerge from this event in due course and it is hoped that we'll have an evening to celebrate these athlete's achievements in the next few weeks once back in Perth. Janet excitedly left a message on my phone last night saying that she had just spoken to Chrissie Wellington (World Ironman Champion) who commented that the new Port Mac course is even harder than Hawaii...and if you know how hard that is, you'll be impressed!

Point Walter Triathlon:

Early reports from Ian, Jane and Trevor suggest that whilst the course was still a little slick from the evening's rainfall, that the race went quite well. Ian reports a personal best on this couse of over 5 minutes (nice job!) with Jane equalling her time last year but "feeling comfortable" and "strong on the run". Trevor got through the event despite a niggle to his achilles which we now need to keep a good eye on over the next few days!

The Bridges Asics 10km Fun-run:

Helen Cuthbert was in action despite an evening of pizza-loading the night before (with the coach it has to be said! ;-)) and recorded a comfortable sub-49 minute 10km performance. Well done Helen!

Swindon Duathlon:

After her impressive Bath Half Marathon race a few weeks ago, Georgia Wood was mixing it up at the British Duathlon Championships. Over a testing course which saw the athletes trudging through snow and slush (even in April!), Georgia forged ahead to finish 9th female overall and 4th place in her age-group with a very quick 36.58 first 10km run split! Nice job. Well done that girl!

http://www.triferris.com:80/results/swindondu08.html

96 4 48 Georgia Wood Bath Amphibians F E 00:36:58 61 01:27:40 127 00:19:25 43 02:24:03