Too hot. Too cold. Just right....
I was trying to think of a clever title, and the Goldilocks reference just popped in my head. I'll explain...
Thursday was the final 20km Tribe bike TT of the season, as it was the last week with enough daylight. With the switch off daylight savings this weekend, the sun goes down about 6:30 now. As it turned out.. Thursday was also the hottest day of the week, with temps in the low 30's. Late, low cloud cover held in the moisture to make it hot and muggy at the start time of 6:15. I managed to hitch a ride up to Woodside this time, instead of riding. I was hoping some fresh legs would help knock out a solid time. Well... it was just too hot. Despite giving it all, and feeling the fittest since I arrived in Adelaide.... a 31:04 was the best I could do.
The hot weather was followed by a change the next day, which brought in cool weather and rain. Adelaide received a much needed 10mm on Friday, but less than what was forecast. In a drought.. rain is the most welcome weather. I spent Friday helping a temporary roommate move into our spare room. Our friend here was given the boot by her landlord, as he sold the house she was living in. With accommodation very difficult to find, and us looking to save a few dollars, we offered her the spare bedroom for a couple of weeks while she finds a place to live.
Saturday I took it easy.. I haven't been training much in the last couple of weeks, giving my body some rest before I dive into the Canadian tri season. I also wanted to be ready for the 4k Captains Cup swim Sunday morning. Saturday night, the temperature dropped to the lowest value since my arrival in Adelaide.. 11C. It was downright cold.
Upon waking on Sunday, both Heather and I thought, NO WAY were we going to swim in open water without a wetsuit in this! We biked to the beach anyways, where I decided to change my entry from the 4k to the 2k swim, and at least try. The water temperature was maybe 19C and a cold easterly wind chilled to the bone. About 1200m into the race, I knew I was done, I swam directly to shore and ended it. With less than 5% body fat, I just can't handle the cold. I should have just brought the wetsuit. My teeth wouldn't stop chattering for about 25mins after I got out. I had to admire the 4k swimmers, some of them looked blue as they exited.
Today, the temperature is "just right". A sunny warm day in the high 20's, perfect for a ride in the hills, and then a run session at the track.
Tribe Triathlon Club World Champs
Raced the Tribe Triathlon Club World Championship yesterday. WOO! Ok... it was nothing big, but 40 or so of us met at the pool in Woodside for the season finale. A new course had been laid out, the distances: 400m/16km/4km.
Unfortunately Saturday was St. Patricks day, and Heather and I HAD to go for few drinks in town. The bar strip was busy, with the Fringe festival in full swing, St. Paddy's Day, and the World Police and Fire Games in town. So, when we got up at 6am to ride up Greenhill Road (a solid 30min climb) and out to Woodside for the tri.... the legs weren't feeling that great. And it was also COLD! There was dew on the ground and the air temperature was around 14C BRRRRR! A sure sign that summer is over... cool mornings and cool evenings. By the time my wave started, it was already 20C or so... nice for riding.
It was a good hard session, I managed to get within 3-4mins of Scott, although he is a bit shelled from his preps for IMOZ which is two weeks away. Heather won the womens race pretty handily, but did not have Helen to chase this time. Helen had an unfortunate run in with a car and fractured her ankle. Ouch! Everyone stuffed themselves with pancakes, eggs, bacon and fruit afterwards... yum!
I'm not sure how other triathlon clubs work here, but the Tribe works very different from the "coach-centric" system we seem to have back home. The club only charges $25/year for membership. You can choose to come out to scheduled training sessions, for free or a cheap drop-in, free TT's, or pay a whopping $5 to do the club tri. :-) I think we could have a lot more clubs in Canada with a low-frills system like this?
The last Tribe 20km bike TT of the season takes place this Thursday. I've gone out twice already... with times of 32:37, and 30:49. It a fairly flat course, with one hill, and few tight corners where you have to slow down and watch for oncoming traffic. I'm hoping I can finally break the elusive 30min barrier.
I've also signed up for the Captain's Cup for this coming Sunday, a 4k open-water swim race along the beach in Adelaide. I'm determined to get more comfortable swimming in salt water... and what better way than to race! As always.. wetsuits are not allowed.
Also, a congrats to my friends Alan and Evarne Rees, who competed in IM South Africa yesterday. I've trained a bunch of long runs and a few long rides with Alan before they left for SA. They both had spectacular races on what seems like a difficult course.
And finally, pending confirmation from Qantas, I will be flying to LAX on April 23. I will spend one week in Newport Beach, then on to Calgary, April 30 or May 1. I am trying to find temporary (and cheap) accommodation in Calgary for a few weeks in May while I get things sorted there. Anyone have a spare closet they're not using? It is very likely I will not be living in Calgary again... and moving to Penticton (or area) at the start of June. Because of the extreme inflation in Calgary brought about by the boom, and after living there for 8 years... it just seems time to move on. I'm sure I'll miss Calgary when swimming in beautiful lakes, running up mountain trails that start from my back door, and riding along in 30C+ and sunshine. :-P
Victor Harbor Triathlon
Another great weekend of racing in beautiful South Australia! This time, in a great resort town about 80km south of Adelaide. Arriving the day before the race, Heather and I had some time to look to visit Granite Island, which contains a colony of penguins. I'm not sure what penguins are doing this far north and in this hot of climate though... don't they like the cold water and ice? On our short tour of the island we found one hiding from the mid-day sun in a burrow. Cool... I've seen a real live penguin now.
Anyways... the race was the largest of the season here.. well over 500 people, with 200+ in the Oly distance. Once again, I decided to race in the "open" category for fun. Ooops. Probably not a good idea, as the lake temperature was 21.7 degrees, meaning open category wasn't allowed to wear wetsuits. I had a plan to go like hell at the start and hang onto a set of feet for as long as possible.. and hope the pace would slow. Umm.. yeah. I was dropped in about 20sec. It was a nice lonely swim until the 750m buoy when the lead women blew by. I tried to hang onto their feet... that lasted about 20sec too! I came out of the water in just under 24 minutes. Not bad for me, given a non-wettie swim... but I'm a little pissed at it. Needless to say.. I need to work harder on my swim.
With all the open men long gone from transition, I was racing with the lead women. There are some darn fit elite women here in South Australia... the third place girl dropped me like stone on the first hill. Did I mention the "change" in weather? Yep, seems every time I have a race or a long ride on the schedule, the usually perfect SA weather goes to crap. Well... it wasn't a bad change.. the air temperature was cool for fast racing, but the cross-winds on parts of the bike made things a bit squirrely with the Zipps... sometimes I wish I weighed a few more kilos to steady the bike.
As it played out... I didn't get passed all day. I just held my position on the bike, eventually bringing the 3rd place woman back, then played leap-frog with her on the run before finally pulling ahead in the last 2km. My run felt a lot better than my bike this time.... a bit of speedwork has helped for sure.
Tribe club championship coming up this weekend, then a 4km ocean swim the week after that... woo! Good thing I have all this racing, as I'm getting a lot less training in, due to being extremely busy with work for the first time in several months. I guess I can't complain... I need the billable hours.
That's all for now.. bedtime!
Clipsal 500
Went to see some car racing with Scott on Saturday. Scott, being the sports editor for the Adelaide Hills newspaper, The Courier, grabbed the media passes, which gave us free entry and access to the paddock area (behind the pits). I've never been to an auto race before, and I have to say... it was pretty cool! I found out that the Clipsal 500 is the largest auto race in the world with 4 days of racing, concerts and more. Watched the main race that day, the V8 Supercars doing 250k (78 laps), then a mini-car race (small but FAST!), then a GT series race... with Porsches, Lambo's, Ferrari's and a Lotus.
