Portarlington Long Course

Portarlington Long Course!

Last Sunday I had the chance to test my form after a solid four week ‘camp’ block of training at Supersprint’s famous Portarlington Triathlon. This event now also boasts a long course option (2, 80, 20), and is held over an honest yet spectacular course. Supersprint, as always run a great event. They have done a great job of creating an event which is run with the same professionalism as some of the bigger events around the globe but retained a ‘country’ feel. I highly recommend putting this one on your to-do list.  

Cold, wet and windy pretty much sums up the pre-match talk Sunday morning. (Post race many prided themselves on being ‘hard men’ after racing in the aforementioned conditions, however such thoughts seemed ridiculous after watching the Milan-San Remo highlights this morning)

 

                                                                                                                   

This race for me was a lead in event, for my main goal, Ironman Port Macquarie in seven weeks. It came at an opportune time for me with Ironman Melbourne next weekend, meaning a small field. This really gave me the confidence to execute my race without getting caught up in chasing others (which I should do anyway, but often don’t). There was also a nice little bit of pocket money up for grabs for the winner.

 

Despite the horrible conditions the renowned Portarlington swim course remained pristine as the wind was blowing off shore meaning most of the course remained relatively calm as it was protected by the land mass behind. The six of us starting in the Elite male category took off together and stayed in a tight pack for the entire 2km swim. Lead by Monty Frankish and Tom Rodgers (I think) I battled away on their feet and was quite uncomfortable for the whole swim but managed to hang on.

Into T1 I was hurting from the swim, but happy I was able to hold the pace of the leaders. This made for a tardy T1 by me and I slowly made my way out onto the bike. Tom took the race by the scruff of the neck and really hit the start of the ride hard. I wasn’t too stressed as I thought once I settled my HR down I would be able to slowly bridge up but this wasn’t the case. For some reason I was super tight in the Hamstrings and Quads, heading out into the rain and headwind I thought I was in trouble. After 20km of Head / Cross wind we were blessed with a very solid tail wind, and for some reason that tightness sorted itself out and I was able to work myself into a rhythm. By the end of the first lap I had lost a couple of minutes to Tom. My next two laps were much better, in terms of speed and power. I finished the ride having negative split the second half. For the data geeks (which I am becoming one of) I was able to finish with an average power IF of .94 (.94 of threshold power) and VI of 1.01 (Normalised Power / Average Power) meaning I maximised the amount of actual power put through the pedals for nearly the least metabolic cost. For those of you who have just switched off it means I basically rode as efficient as I ever have, conserving more energy but this also resulted in a personal best overall output and left me a lot fresher for the run.

Into T2 my wife Tarryn was there to tell me to get a move on and let me know Tom was 4min up the road. So basically he had just over a km on me. I knew Tom was a solid runner and it was going to take a good run to peg that time back. I found myself working into a good rhythm straight away and for the first few kilometres sub 3.30 pace felt quite comfortable. As I progressed the body was feeling better and better and I was able to even split the run, holding the same pace for each of the three laps. I caught Tom at the 16km mark and was able to put enough buffer in on the way home to enjoy the finish. Congrats also to age grouper and hard man ‘Dave Meade’ rounding out the podium with a solo effort starting a few minutes behind us.

 

 

It was great to get the win and collect some prize money, but I was most happy about getting my pacing and nutrition spot on and consequently producing personal best efforts for long course / half distance with power on the bike and pace on the run after a hard swim. This gives me good confidence leading into the next 6 weeks of training that I am on target to achieve my goals in Port Macquarie. Thanks again to my great sponsors Peak Cycles, Saucony and Ryders Eyewear.