Geraldton Olympic Distance Race Report/Glorious return to racing report

Greetings and Salutations

Wow-wee a race report, this is a novel experience! Time to dust of the olldddd joke book and see what hilarious buffoonery, mummery, tomfoolery and drollery I can bust out for what promises to be a lack luster at best "race report" (I am a little rusty)

It was time, time for me to make the jump and get back into the racing scene. I had three choices, Karri Valley where I would be facing the likes of Guy "it's not a perm, it's real" Crawford (may have used that joke before...), James "I could actually survival backstroke on land faster than you could run" Lewin and Andrew "our house doesn't actually have carpet it's my loose chest hair" Tyack, not a good first option.

Then there was Hillary's the next day. "Hrm" I thought. "Series final, triathletes vying for the win, actual talent...I AM STEERING THE HELL AWAY FROM THAT RACE"

There had to be something else, something. Total Tri to the rescue. It just so happened my good mates Dan and Chad were heading up to the port city of Geraldton for the annual Olympic Distance Tri. Excellent I thought to myself, I'll sneak up there and with a little luck possibly even grab a cheeky podium in my glorious return to racing!!

My lovely girlfriend Paige and I reached Geraldton around 7pm after attending the wedding of the century a few hours earlier (congrats again Luke and Rachael). A quick feed and we checked into the sweet digs the guys had organised. This gave me a chance to spend about 4 hours looking at this pretty, bad boy, tonight Paige was sleeping on the couch. 

After a night filled with dreams everything Slice related I was up early and prepping to race! It was around this time that my dreams of victory were CRUSHED. Why Mark tell us more!! Well ardent reader let me drop 3 names for you. Courtney Ogden, Brad Wall and Ben Lyons, feck. This was going to be a killer race

Before I knew it we were lined up on the beach for a 2 lap, calm beach swim. The horn went and Ben had actually already finished the swim, seriously that guy is an axe in the water. I attempted to jump on Courtney's feet however I'd missed the boat trying to get Ben to drag me clear of the pack. As a result I settled in on a mate Dougals feet for the rest of the swim. As we excited the water he was nice enough to give me a tap on the back and a good luck. I ran up ripped the wetty off and mounted my trusty new steed for my first ride ever on her!! (yet to be named)

I was onto the bike in 5th behind Ben, Courtney, Brad Wall and 4th-y. I was flying on the way out and feeling GOOD!! Until the turn around. "Sweet baby Jebus" I exclaimed to myself, there was quite a headwind heading back into town. I pushed through and unfortunately passed Ben Lyons on the side of the road at about 19k. He had a flat, I was genuinely disappointed for him and/or anyone who had made the trip to only get a flat that couldn't be repaired. Through the town a quick wave to my fans and I was heading out again, engaging warp speed!!

Again happy to have the tail wind behind me I hit up my super secret caffeine recipe for the return trip home into the wind tunnel. The slice was handling beautifully and for my first ride I was stoked. The ride was pretty uneventful and I was just focusing on limiting my losses (fairly unsuccessfully). Finally I reached T2 after a nothing unsuccessful battle with mother headwind and with a quick transition and a cheer I was off seeing who, if anyone I could run down.

Fortunately for me my running legs were at least with me. Hurrah!! I went out at what seemed like a sustainable pace and felt good. Just past the aid station about 3k in I moved into 5th passing young uber bike mc wilson. The gap to 4th was still fairly reasonable so I continued to push.....can't think of another joke so INSERT PICTURE!!

With a couple of k to go on the run it was pretty clear I wasn't going to catch 4th, so I eased up a little and enjoyed the run home clocking up the second fastest run behind Courtney. I crossed the finish line in 5th overall behind some quality competition. Geraldton Tri Club really did a great job with this race, great organisation, set up and volunteers. I will be back next year fo sho!!

Next up for me I am heading to Kalgoorlie Olympic Distance for a final little tune up before the Busso Half. Thanks for checking in!!

Motivation baby!

Good morning, evening or night avid reader

It's been a while, a while since I've written something in this blog. Funnily enough that leads me to the theme of this post

GREAT SEGWAY MARK

When thinking the other day "wow that one guy from Mexico who thinks I am actually Marky Mark from the Funky Bunch keeps bugging me to write something new" I thought to myself, why haven't I been writing lately?? Truth be told because I haven't had a lot to write about, why? WHY MARK WHY? AND WHY AM I YELLING AT MYSELF!?

I digress, so let me pre empt the above with a little story.

Pre Vegas 70.3 World Champs I was on top of the world. I was the fittest I'd ever been, I was swimming riding and running faster than I ever had. I was confident and ready to race. I was ready for a big result.

It didn't come, I had a terrible day at Vegas and from that race haven't been the same up until very recently. One thing I've noticed about Triathletes is that most of us are obsessive compulsive type personalities. We get introduced to the sport, get addicted and commit ourselves to the sport completely (not everyone but certainly the competitive group of triathletes)

This is great, it gets us fit, healthy, more attractive to the opposite sex exceptwheninlycra or ifwepeeourpantsontherun (ladiessss) and (after parties exempt) it saves our cash going towards expensive nights out. But what do we get when things don't go our way, when we spend the whole winter preparing for one race and we don't get the result.

Some people get annoyed, depressed and unmotivated. It happened to me and I did NOT see it coming. It's been a long road back for me so I thought why not share my experience as an age grouper. I read a lot of articles from professionals but I find it easier to relate to age group friends going through the same thing.

So I present below

Lucky's top 10 super happy awesome fun helpful tips to get you back in the pool on the bike running again and looking super fit for the ladies or men and getting super awesome finisher medals again
(pretty good title eh?)

Tip 1:
TAKE A BREAK
I got back from Vegas, got food poisoning and tried to race Mandurah 70.3 this was the start of a few month long spiral for me. The best advice I can give to an age grouper post a big race that DOES or DOESN'T go your way is take a break! Let your body absorb all of that training, let it recover, let your mind recover!
Have a drink, remember those friends that don't race? Catch an appletini with them (whatttt I don't drink appletini's...)

Tip 2:
When you are ready to return eassseeee in. Hot tip, you probably won't set a new FTP test max you first ride back, or your second ride....

Tip 3:
LISTEN TO YOUR COACH
I wish I'd started doing this earlier, when my coach told me to take a break and I didn't I suffered, they know best, would you pay for service and not use it? In essence it's the same as a coach

Tip 4:
When you start back up again, do the sessions that you really enjoy doing, love riding? Easy runs along the coast, always the easiest to get back too

Tip 5:
Don't push it!! It's taken me a lot longer to get back and really motivated but that's ok. I tried to push myself into it earlier and it did NOT happen for me.
A lot of talk revolves around listening to your body, but listen to your mind also, if your not enjoying it maybe you need a couple more sleep ins

Tip 6:
BUY SOMETHING PRETTY
Totally works for me all the time, seriously, nothing more motivating than a new piece of kit to try out, whether it's a sweet new pair of runners or a brand new bike. I know a really great bunch of guys at Total Tri that might be able to help you out with that ;)

Tip 7:
Remember why you are doing this.
I don't think I've ever met anyone who after their first Triathlon said "I'm doing this to be world champion" that comes over time for some, but for most of us it's the enjoyment, being fit and the social scene, base some sessions around that.
I love my coffee rides :)

I don't claim to be an expert on this whole process but these few pointers have certainly helped me now I am back training properly again. Also I apologise for the fact that there are only 7 tips, feel free to email me more

Next up for me, Geraldton Olympic Distance!! Lucky is back racing!!!

Cheers :)

Where's Lucky??

Where has Lucky been?

Great question reader who accidentally googled 'Mark Luckin' instead of 'mark luck in'

Firstly, unlucky! Just press back and you can be on your merry way, or perhaps you'd like to read on? I guess the most simple answer would be work, a little break and life in general. After Vegas 70.3 worlds, simply and honestly I was a damaged man.

Racing in 42 degree heat, having a day go not nearly as well as planned and putting so much into the race for the previous 5 months hit me pretty hard! I raced Mandurah 70.3, but for fun, I raced in speedos with a couple of friends and had a great time.

 

Post this race I took time off. It was time for a break! Plenty of catching up with friends, a few parties and a lot of work. Post Chrissy training was sporadic at best.

 

Then I got the call up that every under trained triathlete dreads... "lucky! can you run in our team for the Albany Half?!" It was the Total Tri boys and I couldn't say no. 'I better head out for a run on Thursday' I thought to my self. It was a shock to the system to say the least

 

What a mess....we'd managed to put a QUALITY team, well 2 out of 3. NJ swimming and professional Johan riding I was fricken' stressing out. I did NOT want to let the team down!

 

NJ managed the fourth fastest swim time over all, and Johan had held his spot of an impressive time. Pressure was on and as I saw Johan ride in, after a super quick transition, I was off

 

'I FEEL GOOD!!', I thought to my self. 'World record?!' I thought to my self. I went through the first 10.5k somewhere around my usual half pace. One more lap to go, here we go! And then.....BLAMO! I detonated. DET-O-NATED, and then, with about 5k to go I actually started walking. It was humbling to say the least! At least I managed to hold onto 4th for the team, we were happy with the day.

 

 

What a fricken beautiful bike

 



Albany was a good wake up call for me. But I needed one more thing to get the blood pumping so I went to the Total Tri Australia Day Triathlon. Seeing some of the top boys duke it out, was the final piece of the puzzle (also I got to do a little commentary, it was awesome fun)

 

So I'm back! Next up for me? Well I'm just confirming that but I can't wait to race again, after getting a little fitter first perhaps. Chrissie is at the shop with the Total Tri boys currently getting a tune up so lets dance!

 

Thanks for you interest if you are having a read and I hope to bring some good news soon, lets get training!

 

Cheers :)