Ironman New Zealand

Ironman New Zealand Report coming soon!

Ironman Western Australia 2010

It’s been a long year and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’m glad it’s behind me. My final race for this year was Ironman Western Australia a place where I surprised myself two years ago with an 8hrs 32 Ironman on Debut. I went into the race this year questioning whether I had the ability to back up my previous performance with a similar effort but I was prepared to do everything within my power to give myself every chance of having a solid result. I felt good race morning; I felt fresh and relatively relaxed considering what was ahead of me. After my bike was setup in transition I headed over to the swim start for my warm up, usually when I warm up I use it was a gauge of how I’m feeling on the day and I can honestly say I was feeling pretty good. I started the swim along side good friend and Coach Courtney Ogden who in the days leading up to Ironman WA was emitting this energy that was different to previous Ironmans at which I was in his company. I felt comfortable and thought that it was well within my ability to stay with the lead group for the majority if not all of the swim but this wasn’t to be. From about 500m into the swim I just started to feel like I was fighting with my wetsuit and found it impossible to get my stroke rate up. This is something that has happened to me in the past and is always in the back of my mind before every wetsuit swim because time lost in the swim can be the difference between your best ever race and making up the numbers.

As we approached the half way point of the swim I was off the back of the lead group and the gap was continuing to get bigger as I found myself falling further into no mans land. On the second half of the swim I just felt like I had not done a single ounce of swim training and with a few hundred meters to go I was picked up by the second group where I managed to pace off the leader of the group. I stumbled as I entered the change tent and fumbled my way through my gear. It was sloppy and I was glad to hop on my bike.

Once I was on my bike some wise words that were given to me the night before the race ran through my mind, “No matter what happens keep your head in the race”. With the swim behind me there was nothing I could do to change what happened but I do have some control over what happens on the bike so I set out to ride the pace Courtney had trained me to ride. Early in the bike there was a new out and back section where I was able to see the damage that was done in the swim and to be honest I felt it could have been much worse. As I approached the first out and back turn around it was obvious that there were guys that I would not be able to catch during the bike leg but at the same time there were a couple of guys I new I could and with about 165km to go on the bike I just stuck to the plan and tried to put my body through the least amount of stress possible. After the second turn around in Lap 1 I was picked up by a couple of riders one of which was really moving and I decided to take a little bit of a risk and use him as a pacer to get upto a couple of guys who were dropped by the chase group who at this time were in pursuit of Luke Bell, Pete Jacobs and Courtney Ogden who was quickly closing in on the two leaders.


As we finished the first of 3 60km lap I was feeling really good, and once again my performance in Busselton was providing me with a pleasant surprise. Early in the second lap of the bike we picked up one of the per race favorites Scott Neyedli and Guy Crawford, at this point I decided that these guys were riding at a tempo that closer to what I had trained to do and it was in my best interests to get back to sticking much more closely to efforts Courtney had trained me to race at. As we progressed though the second lap Of the bike I hit a rough patch at 100km and for a split second the thought crossed my mind that oh man I’ve over done it again and it was going to be Ironman Canada revisited but I focused on fuelling and in no time I was on the other side of the rough patch and I was feeling relatively good again. Once again I had this positive feeling of exceeding my expectations and I was starting to think that another top 10 was well within my grasp, that was until about 2km out from the turn around for lap 3. In the 8 years I have participated in triathlon I’ve been lucky in the way that I have never experienced the unpleasant surprise of a flat tire, on December the 5th 2010 that all changed. 2km out from starting Lap number 3 I found myself wrestling with my rear tire trying to get it off and for anyone who hasn’t experienced a flat tire in a race it feels exactly how you imagined it would, It’s like someone pulling the rug from under your feet. I felt like I was standing on the side of the road forever and once the group I was riding with headed back out of town the feeling sunk in that my day of exceeding expectations was over.


After 15mins on the side of the road I decided to jog back into town and call it a day, or so I thought. After I jogged 1km up the road one of the support vehicles did a UTurn and offered to change my tire, I informed the guys that I was calling it a day when they insisted that I didn’t want to end the day on a flat. Within a couple of minutes they wrestled my tubular tire off the rim and put my spare on, inflated it and I was on my way. I went round for lap 3 well over 30mins behind but after the guys changed my tire I couldn’t possibly just stop the race there. Heading out for lap 3 I was not riding as well as before the flat and after about 10km into lap 3 I got really hungry, I developed this craving for a hamburger but all I could do was take a couple of mouthfuls of Gel and I picked up a bottle of coke to try and curb my craving. Unfortunately after 140km it had become clear to me that my day was over , I was struggling to maintain any kind of tempo that represented goal Ironman race pace and I was starving. At the end of lap 3 my head was no longer in the race and I called it a day.


After pulling out of the race my attention turn to supporting Courtney and when I say supporting Courtney that means hiding so he doesn’t see me because I knew he was on his way to his second Ironman Victory and that was at the half way mark in the marathon!
Heading out for lap 3 Courtney was still trailing Luke Bell who was running well but after leading the race from the gun had the inherited risk of racing from the front of BLOWING UP! At the end of lap 3 Courtney was in the lead and I knew that from this point there was no way he was going to let anyone take this race away from him and 7km later we got see Courtney Claim his second Ironman victory.
In Penticton Canada in 2009 it became clear to me that if I was going to continue to progress as an athlete I needed to make a change and after seeing Courtney claim yet another podium finish it was clear to me that he knows what it takes to win an Ironman. After another 12months of just missing out on that top step it is so good to see Courtney finally claim the victory he has deserved for so long.
Normally it is quite the mood killer falling such a long way from your goals but with Courtney’s victory and some of the awesome people we met over the week it was impossible to not enjoy yourself!

Now I would like to make some special mentions:
First I have to thanks Sue and Greg Mackenzie, Sue and Greg welcome my girlfriend Katie and I into their amazing home in Busselton and could not of made us feel anymore welcome. Greg has been a long time Supporter of Courtney through Pharmacy 777, his down to earth positive attitude no doubt has a positive affect on Courtney and his racing. I look forward to hopefully visiting Sue and Greg at the Mac Shack again sometime in the near future!

I also have to send a shout out to the legendry members of THE OG SQUAD, The Brads, Viv and his lovely wife Emma, Simon, Rick and Rachel. I have never had so much fun at an awards party where I didn’t drink and didn’t race well, You guys made the night and I look forward to seeing you all again.


I apologies to anyone I left out, it doesn’t mean you are any less legendary I just have a poor memory!
As always I have to thank my parents for supporting me from the very beginning and I have to thank my Lovely girlfriend who puts up with me waking her up early in the morning before deciding to sleep in and just swim during the day.
Finally to sign off on 2010 I have to Thank Courtney and his lovely wife Raija, when I contacted Courtney 12 months ago I had serious doubts of whether I wanted to continue with triathlon an after talking with Courtney everything felt fresh and new again. 2010 threw some challenges our way that once again had me doubting my ability and the whole way through Courtney has shown faith in me and my abilities and kept me looking towards the future. I have a huge amount of respect for Courtney and seeing him succeed inspires me more then watching past Hawaii videos. I look forward to working towards my goals with Courtney and have no doubt that with his guidance I will once again excel on the race course!


I also have to that Rob from Kestrel for helping me out with my Airfoil Pro this year, I love my bike and every Triathlete should have one.
I also would like to thank Barb and Gunter From Skinfit Australia who are my main sponsor for remaining positive through such a tough year, for anyone interested you can order a catalogue from Skinfit.com.au!

Here’s to 2011!

Japan 70.3

Hey Guys,

So Japan 70.3 has been run and won and unfortunately for me my race just didn`t go to plan. I woke up feeling good, a little nervous but good none the less. On arrival to transition the announcement was made that the water temp was 24.5 degrees only just cold enough for it to be a wetsuit swim which in my opinion and many others is way to hot!
I went out conservatively in the beginning of the swim because I have a history of really struggling in wetsuit swims in warm water, today was no different but I just did what I could to make the end of the swim without killing myself. By the end of the swim I was absolutely cooking but managed to get out in 5th place and to my surprise just in front of Cameron Brown.
The first 8\10km was very technical on narrow bumpy/cracked paths and was rather slow, by the end of this portion of the course I had managed to loose both my bottles of water and was only left with my sports drink and gels. In most events this normally would not be to much of an issue because most 70.3`s have aid stations on the bike roughly every 10mile and have ample bottles of water, sports drink,Gels etc. this bike course only had one drink station you passed twice(40kand 70k) and it only had screw top bottles of water which as it turns out were not necessarily for the athletes.
So between 10\15km Cam and I caught 2 riders Balazs Csoke and I`m not sure of the other guy, now that there was only one athlete just up the road and I had no water my plan was to get to the aid station and grab a couple of bottles at 40km. Skip a few kilometres and I'm about 100m away from the aid station and Cam was about 50m ahead of me and I could see the leader up ahead of Cam and the two guys we picked up early on had dropped off. Finally I was about to get some water or so I thought!
The aid station went a little something like this, I asked for water and pointed to the big pallet of water bottles, they point to the small cups on the tables. I ask for more water bottles desperately for obvious reasons because I am in a race for money!!! Then some of the people behind the aid station begin to laugh at me, I continue to yell give me the "Flipping" water bottles repeatedly. At this point I was looking for anything and I saw the bottles of the people working the aid station but the were half full at best and I needed lots more water then that so I threw the half full bottle at the pallet of bottles and demanded water bottles at which point the aid station king pin grabbed my bike. after more yelling I finally got 2 bottles of water got back out onto the bike course and any advantage I had from the first 40km of the bike was gone. Once back on the course I was a little bit angry but I put it behind me because I had a job to do, I rode the remainder of the bike with Balazs Csoke but by the 60km make I could feel I wasn`t riding quite as well as I was at the beginning of the bike. As we approached the aid station for the second time I was prepared and because they were busy supplying water to many age groupers for their tea party, I just grabbed a bottle and kept on going.　Not a lot happened for the remainder of the bike, except I think I lost a lot of time. I was trying to remain as optimistic as possible but when I got off the bike and heard the the group behind was actually right behind us I was a bit disappointed. After T2 I headed out onto the run in 3rd but my stomach was feeling a little bit sketchy, I persevered for as long as I could but at 2km my stomach was like one big cramp. I`m sad to say that the next 10km were slow and painful, from about 12km I started to feel a little more comfortable then early on and I managed to run a bit better. Not good, Just better. I ended up finishing 11th a long way back...
In the end it was a disappointing result, I felt good going into the race and this race is deffinatly no indication of where my current form is at. It was just one of those days where a combination of tough conditions and a bit of bad luck made for a disastrous day!

The race a side Japan 70.3 has deffinatly been a unique experience, I can`t think on many airports around the world where you could run a triathlon.

Anyway I arrive home midday Wednesday, and my next event will be Gold Coast Half Ironman where I am expecting there to be a really tough field.



Until next time!



Gav

My time on the side lines are hopefully almost over!

Hey Guys,

So my wait to get to a start line has just gotten longer, it’s not all bad news though as I’ll probably back to normal training in the next week and a half. Unfortunately time has run out for me in terms of being ready for Ironman Canada but there is no point in dwelling on things I can’t change and I just have to look at what I can do.
I’m flying over to WA for a quick break where I’ll discuss my options for the remainder of the year with my coach Courtney Ogden who recently came second in a stacked field at Ironman CDA. The most likely scenario will be the Australian Half Ironman Series and I’ll finish up with Ironman Western Australia but I may try to jet out for a quick race in Japan for the inaugural running of Japan 70.3.
I’ll update my schedule as soon as we make some rock solid plans, if you’re in need of some new Cycling or Race apparel check out the new web site for Skinfit Australia. I’ve raced in Skinfit garments for years and they are the leader in all things Cycling and Triathlon. Check it out at www.skinfit.com.au or contact me with any questions.

Cheers
Gav

Dicky Knee!

So just an injury update, I've been dealing with a knee injury for a bit over 3 weeks now which lead to me pulling out of Ironman Japan a week before the race was cancelled. Progress with my knee has be extremely slow and I'm hoping for some serious progress soon because all this sitting around is driving me crazy. Hopefully with the continued treatment I can have some idea of when I'll be back to training and hopefully getting to a start line.

Cheers
Gav

Byron Bay Triathlon 2010

Hey Folks,

So we’re about half way through my block for Ironman Japan and there is no better way to break up day in and day out of training then a low key Local Event. I arrived up at Byron Bay after lunch on Wednesday as the trip was also a rare opportunity to catch up with long time family friends The Slee Family.
Being up at the race venue that couple of days before the race started wear thin with so much time and so little to do and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was feeling some nerves with this race being the first I’ve done since August last year with a number of strong athletes.
The start of the race went pretty much to plan, I think most of the guys ran down to the right of the start line which ended up being the slow route past the break and we were about ¾ out to the first buoy of the M shape swim course before the strongest swimmers in field Clayton Fettell and Joey Lampe came past me. After turning the first buoy I just settled into a group with 3 other athletes and I was content on staying with these guys for the remainder of the swim. We exited the water about 2 1/2mins down on the leaders and I was itching to get on the bike, for some reason though my quads had a feeling extremely lactated.

Jumping on the bike I set out to do what I usually set out to do and that is to gain time on everyone I can, unfortunately this time around my legs weren’t feeling all that cooperative and riding to what I believe is the most of my ability was a real struggle. After the early rollers Adam Holborow who was having a strong race came past and I saw this as an opportunity to get away from the other two guys we got out of the water with. I knew if it came down to a foot race with the current state of my legs I knew it more then likely would have been a losing battle on my part so when Adam cleared out a little bit I made my move to bridge up to him and then I could focus on getting some time back on the leaders. Not long after the half way point we picked up Joey Lampe and that’s how it stayed for the remainder of the bike and we entered T2 with the second place male in our sites and Clayton Fettell still of the front with his lead cut down to 1min 50sec.
Heading out on the run I had a brief moment where I thought I might of tricked my legs into feeling fresher then what they had previously been on the bike leg and I moved into 3rd place on the run but this was short lived as shortly before the end of the first last Adam Holborow came past and any freshness I had at the beginning of the run had vanished and I was doing everything I could to survive and to at the very least consolidate my 4th place position. As the run progressed the eventual winner Bryce McMaster took the lead during the second lap of the run and on the 3rd Lap Adam Holborow past a struggling Clayton Fettell for second place and even with a final lap adrenaline burst I feel short of 3rd place by 10seconds.

Despite the way my legs felt for the majority of the race there were no real surprises on the day. I swam to my expectations and I felt relatively strong despite the lactated feeling in my legs, the day defiantly served as a good indication of where I’m at in my Preparation for Ironman Japan which is now 5 weeks away.



The Results for the day went like this:

1st Bryce McMaster 1.50,40
2nd Adam Holborow 1.52,01
3rd Clayton Fettell 1.52,50
4th Gavin Scott 1.53,00
5th Adam Fitzakerley 1.53,40

Now I’m back into Training for the remainder of my Ironman Japan Preparation and Courtney informs me that my days are only going to get a whole lot tougher which I am extremely excited about!
I’d also like to thank Oceana Bicycles the importers of Kestrel Bicycles and Carbuta Australia the importers of Oval Concepts a products that I have used for the last 7 years, I will be an ambassador for both of these companies and they will be assisting me in my endeavors for the 2010 season and beyond. I will elaborate at a later date on the equipment I will be using for the 2010 season in the next couple of weeks but after a handful of rides damn it feels good!

So until next time!

Gav

The Dreaded Flu!!!!

Hi Guys,

So a bit of an update on what’s happening, Unfortunately after my big hit out on the 28th of Feb I fell victim to the dreaded flu which a week after the race had me out of action for a week then last week was spent trying to get the wheels rolling again. As a result of this Courtney and myself decided that it would be in my best interests to skip Sparke Helmore Olympic and focus on getting back to consistent training after being sick. While I was sick I was shocked to find out that both NSW Club Champs and Byron Bay Triathlon had both Sold Out but luckily I was able to get a start at Byron Bay which will serve as a good chance to see where things are at with my Preparation for Ironman Japan.
At this point in time I am full of anticipation as I’m am looking forward to the arrival of a new bike in the near future I hope and I am also 5 weeks away from the conclusion of work for 2009/2010 which means my season will officially kick off on April 23 at 5pm and all things going to plan the remainder of the year will be fully focused on making 2010 a nice long, consistent, successful year!

Until next time!

Gav