A Hed wheel review

Before leaving for Vegas 70.3 I was in a predicament. No race wheels. I didn’t want to take my disc over to the hilly course that is Vegas. I needed something light, aero and fast. Total Tri had me covered.

Enter the Hed Stinger (6 and 7)

I’ve been using a variety of wheels for races over the last 4-5 years, but these new Heds are something else. They are far and away the best wheels I’ve used, why? Read away!

I’ve been riding these wheels for almost 2 weeks now, in training and in a prep Olympic distance triathlon for Vegas 70.3 worlds. The rolling resistance in these wheels are incredible. I honestly feel as though these wheels are giving me a much larger amount of free speed than I have ever experienced from a set of race wheels. Smooth fast and confidence inspiring, exactly what a light guy like me is after in a set of wheels.

The R & D put into these new wheels in prevalent as at speed I feel like I’m putting out less watts. Actually all I have to do is look at the data, I am putting out less watts. In fact last weekend I had one of my quickest bike times over an Olympic distance race. I raced an unknown course, a couple of days after 30 hours of travel and out rode everyone on the course, love it.

I’d love to say this is all due to my fitness, but that would be a lie, I have to thank Hed for that increased in speed.

Like I touched on before, being a smaller guy I have suffered in the past from being thrown around by a set of race wheels. I was absolutely stoked when I rode this set for the first time and on subsequent rides after and did not suffer like usual. I’m confident in the wind in the aero position, a refreshing change (that said I’m sure these wheels would be a superior ride for all weights).

As well as them being incredibly fast in a race environment, for a race wheel they have been bullet proof to train on an extremely comfortable ride. Climbing, rough roads, aero position, descending you name it, I’ve been comfortable on these, a complete package I have found to be very rare on a set of race wheels.

Simply if you are after a comfortable, smooth, confidence inspiring and fast ride. Look no further. Oh and boy they look good ;)

 

 

Great wheels.. Thank you Total Tri and Hed for the opportunity.

McCall Olympic Distance

Dear diary....

Lucky here reporting in from Boise Idaho after a great weekend in McCall with Guy "it's not a perm it's natural!' Crawford and Kate "I let Mark win as I feel sorry for him" Bevilaqua, racing the McCall Olympic distance triathlon.

McCall is the most beautiful town I have ever been too (I'm not that well "travelled") with stunning woods and an amazing fresh water lake. Oh also it's at 5000 feet

After a really enjoyable night of celebrating Guy and Kate's birthday at this amazing place on Friday night, we were up at 5.30am for the 2 hour drive to the race. It was PAIN but we made it there without a hitch. Upon arrival Guy decided due to a nagging cold he would be dns-ing. To say I was excited was an understatement

No but seriously I wasn't actually happy for him not racing, I was looking forward to see whether I would be in his zip code, but it did increase my chances of over all victory!

This race was a super small 'rack your bike anywhere' kind of country race. After a bit of a rushed set up Kate and I were ready to roll. With a lot of travel under my belt, 'the sniffles' and 5000 feet of altitude I had no idea what I was in for. It was a mass start and after a quick briefing we were lined up ready to go

The gun went and I took of like a *insert funny and appropriate analogy here*. It was a 2 lap swim out and back with a small run in between. I managed to get a small gap at the end of the first lap, where I was joined by a team swimmer, 'Teamy McSwimmington'. Unfortunately I managed to loose her feet a few hundred meters from the end of the swim but managed to come out with a little gap on the rest of the field which included Andy Potts, Clayton Fettel and Michael Phelps swimming in a team (true story).

After the worlds slowest T1 according to Guy, I was off onto the 40k of PAIN. Unfortunately I had neglected to bring my bike Garmin to the states so I was riding without power. They say your learn something new about yourself in every race. Well in this race, I learnt, I have the worst internal gauge of perceived power in the history of personnel power perceiving people who try to personally perceive their own power ever.

Guy advised me to race pretty hard, so heeding his advice, I went for it hard on the bike. The course was absolutely STUNNING but there wasn't much time to view. I was riding like a Jack Russell on speed and the road was quite bumpy and pot-holey. Also I had Chris Lieto and Norman Stadler trying to out ride me.

I reached the 20k turn around in "record time" according to the polite marshall and headed for home. I saw I had a gap of maybe a couple of minutes on the next couple of competitors that included Kate, who thanks to the $740 I paid her earlier was keeping the agreed upon distance back.

The rest of the ride was pain mixed with stunning scenery mixed with squires mixed with "oh cool a squirrel" mixed with pain. I made it back to T2 and after a quick dismount the running shoes were on and I was off for 10k. The run down hill made me feel like Usain Bolt's world record was in reach, next up Mo Farrah was in my sites. The next 6 meter 1% small hill dispelled any chance of that, oh dear, pain was back.

The run took us through some suburbed area then onto some cool but extremely taxing trails. I saw Guy a few k in, and it looked like he was taking a video on my phone. As a result I ran closer to him and yelled "HI MUM". This resulted in an extremely awkward embarrassing photo of me mouth wide open waving mid stride. Smooth.

After completing the first lap it was back out on the same to finish up. I pushed pretty hard in the last 5k and some drooling and funny noises ensued. However I managed to stop these as Kate and I crossed paths, I had to maintain my 'image of ultimate coolness' in front of her....yep, that's probably the worst joke of the whole blog.. here's a picture to ease your pain..

Finally I reached the finish line and boy was I glad to get there! It was a tough day but it was great to blow the cobwebs out. Kate crossed the finish line a few minutes later she also had a tough one. After the race we hung around for presentations and free beer! (Rocking the Total Tri hoody below)

So what do you do as a triathlete when you have been suffering for 2 hours? GO AND GET PANCAKES FROM THE PANCAKE HOUSE. Boy that was awesome but the inevitable carb high that followed was short lived, I crashed soon after and managed a good 12 hours sleep.

So now it's 2 weeks until vegas and I have a really good week or so before taper. I'll write another post before that. Until then thanks for the sympathy laughs when reading my jokes.

Cheers

Geraldton Half Marathon

"Please mark come with me to Geraldton, the trip won't be as nearly as enjoyable with out you, I need you to come! Also you are the best triathlete I know and have you considered male modeling?"
These were the final words from my good friend Andrew Tyack that convinced me to make the trip up to Geraldton this weekend gone for their annual Half Marathon and Marathon race.

Andrew, Big T, T-unit, T-dizzle, Andy pants or the big A as he is affectionately known and I made our way up to G-town on Saturday around midday. After about an hour of driving and awkward conversation (I mean seriously, how many times can you comment on the weather? (note: Andrew and I are actually like brothers so that last sentance was my poor attempt at a "joke")) we both decided it would be a FANTASTIC idea to start making a short series of quick videos to document the weekends happenings. These will be put together and shown in the next blog.

Anywho we reached Geraldton after about 5 hours of driving. We drove straight to out accomodation at the Best Western that Lucky had booked about 12 hours earlier. Good news. We had hit the jackpot with the honeymoon suite.

Ok so this may or may not actually be a photo of the "suite", also, we may or may not have actually booked the honeymoon but I had every intention of making it as awkward as possible for my mate Andy. A quick trip into town for some dinner and we were back in the room to watch the remainder of the tour. The race started at 8 so we were ready for a late start by triathlete standards! A quick video update and we were off to bed.

After a solid sleep we were up and after the usual pre race breakfast we were heading down to the start line. In the rain. And wind. Oh god it was windy. After watching the marathoners start Andy and I had a quick discussion about pacing and the race. We both had no idea what-so-ever what kind of pace we should go out at as we have both been running complete base mile pace only for the last couple of months.

As we lined up we had a laugh and waited for the start. Boom the gun went and I quickly found my self leading from the front. About 300 meters in I heard someone yell out from the back "I don't think this pace is sustainable Mark!" It was Andy, I laughed and heeded his advice, slowing right up and popping in behind someone for a couple of k.

After a couple it seemed things were going a little slow so I went to the front to push the pace. To my delight Andy came with me and two other competitors. I settled back down and myself and "that guy in the red shirt" put a little gap on Andy and "that team runner".

As we hit the 7ish k mark (two 10.5k loops) we hit a fairlllyyyy strong head wind. Immediately my red shirted friend jumped in behind me. To be honest I straight away thought "bugger this I am not going to let this guy sit behind as I work into the head wind" so I dropped the pace pretty substancially (or as the cool kids say "I dropped some *insert pace here* bombs". (up until this point I had been running approx 3.50's). I'd love to say it was 3 minute per k pace, but it was closer to 3.20's - 3.30's for about 1 - 2 minutes.

Thankfully I managed to gap my friend, I was happy now at least he was working into the headwind like I had too. To be honest after this effort I thought I would really struggle, but I felt really excellent and settled into the previous pace. I continued on a fairly uneventful course, and really enjoyed the scenery with the occasional look behind.

When I reached the final turn around and started running for home I was stoked to see Andy had moved into 2nd place. I crossed the line with a 1.19 in the end according the Garmin, which I was really happy with. I ran a really controlled, smart race and put the effort in when I needed to. More importantly I honestly felt excellent duing the whole run. I was really happy. Andy crossed the line about 3 minutes later also with a PB. A Freo tri club, Total Triathlon, Honeymoon suite sharer one two.

After the race we headed back showered and hit the town to re load on the carbs. Man i love coffee

We headed back to the surf club for presentations. As I arrived I remembered that there was $300 for first place in the half! Wow I thought to myself, I'm going to be a millionare!! We hung around to cheer the last people over and I was eventally called up with Andy to accept a trophy and the cash. As you can see by the photo I was pretty stoked (rocking the Total Triathlon polo)

My On racers were beautiful to run in, my Ryders sunnies were kept on for the entirety of the run and I could hear the boys from Total cheering all the way from home ;) Thanks all for your continued support.

It was back into the car for some shared driving home. On the way I had some time to reflect on the prep for Vegas so far. Sure I've had some set backs with the (fake) broken wrist and a serious bought of the man flu, but things are really good considering. I am happy and for someone working full time and managing full time work and training am giving it my all.

I think it's important in this sport to not only not get too obsessed but, especially for us more competitive age groupers, get some perspective. I'm under no illusion that I'm some world class athlete (yet) but I'm doing my best I can do now, as an age grouper who works full time, while trying to stay grounded and make some people laugh on the way. I think we'd all enjoy the sport a little more if we took it a little easier.  I've seen too many people lately get way to involved and worked up about training and racing. Enjoy it! :)

For now, it's back to training I'll check in soon. I'm off for a run

Also if I find some actual run pictures from the race I'll post some.

End of Season update

Well it's been two weeks of no training and it's official. I'm fat

Ok, so it's not quite true. But I've had a great couple of weeks. I've celebrated my birthday, moved out of home and had a few great sleep ins. I've also had...far out like FOUR hang overs. It's been great, I've recharged the batteries, had a think about the season that was and have started to put things in place for my assault on my up coming aim, but more about that later :)

In quick summary I think I had my best season ever (2011 - 2012). Some quick highlights are listed below.

Port Mac 70.3. For me this was a massive mental breakthrough. I had a great swim, followed by a TERRIBLE bike, normally this would be race over for me but I rallied and came back with a super strong run to run back into second place in my age group at the Australian Age Group Champs. A great start

Next up was a bit of a dream come true my first race in the Professional field of a half ironman distance race. Port of Tauranga Half. It was made 10 times better by the fact Paige was able to come over and watch me race. I learnt alot in this race. I need more work on my swim. If you are riding in a pro bike paceline don't loose attention for a second otherwise you will be spat out the back in a millisecond, even if you have been riding in it for 60k. And I felt 10 times more awesome with my name on my race bib and not a number :D

These guys race on another level and I have a long way to go, but it was an awesome, amazing, dream come true experience and I can't wait to go back there next year. I also set a P.B. 4.25

Next up was Singapore 70.3 the highlight of my season arguably. I swam well, rode ok and ran for the win. Finally I managed to snare my first 70.3 age group win. I was PUMPED :) I put a lot of hard work into the prep for this race and it paid off, it was an amazing race. I also fullfilled a dream and finally took my spot to the 70.3 World Champs in Las Vegas

(Side note: I've managed to qualify for the 70.3 worlds for the past couple of years with 2nds and 3rds but promised myself I wouldn't take a spot until I won my age group)

Here I think I should have ended my season, but I couldn't, Busso 70.3 was on the horizon. I was tired, physically and mentally but I wanted so bad to have a good result at our home race. I trained through but ultimately the race day result spoke for itself. I swam well, but half way through the ride my day was over. I was so lucky to have my mate Sean Jermy there on the day to help me through the run, what a legend.

That's platinum friendship right there :)

Other season highlights include, finally getting to race my first draft legal race and the Kalgoorlie Olympic Distance race, what a laugh :)

Over the season I've been lucky enough to have some amazing help from some

woah woah woah hold up. I saved this draft one night intending to finish it the next day HOWEVER, I had an unfortunate bike spill.

For a week and a half I was in cast with a suspected broken wrist, no wait a broken distal radius, no wait a broken scaphoid. To be honest it was a very challenging couple of weeks for me and I was pretty down but the good news came recently after 2 x-rays and a CT scan that nothing was broken!! :) This time made me realise pretty quickly how I need to appreciate being healthy day to day and having the ability to train.

So now for me it's back to pre season. I've got a long hard slog ahead in the prep for Vegas worlds with some pretty lofty goals but I cannot wait to give it all a real go. It's all helped by some amazing people I have behind me. Thank you to everyone for their support and look forward to writing a little more over the winter

Cheers :)

Busselton 70.3 - not to be

Yep, I can rhyme - awesome (see title)

As you may have deciphered from the title unfortunately I didn't end my season on a high. But that is the magic that is racing! Please find below a re cap of my day

I headed down Thursday morning solo and comfortably settled in for the day, no training just chullin. We've (Luckin's and Tyacks) stayed in the same place 2 years in a row now and it's amazing great house and great location. The weather was nothing to write home about. Actually that would be the case if you were from NZ, for us Perth desert dwellers it was CRAAZZYYY. All this wet liquidy stuff was falling from the sky, and I found my self having to wear what is apparently commonly known in other parts of the world as a "jumper..?"

Friday was not much better with more rain falling, the nervous vibes were high, so after some face time at the Total Tri tent I found my self heading home after an easy ride and run with Jono, Lisa, Andy, Andy and Tom.

Later in the arvo I headed back to check in and get some taping done on my troublesome back by SUPER RUTH (the computer won't actualy let me type it in lower case). By Friday night I was checked in and packed, ready to see what my body could do on Saturday.

I woke Saturday morning after a rain interupted sleep, feeling good. I went through my usual pre race routine and found my self at transition with Seano as soon as it opened. I like doing this as it leaves nothing to chance.

I was set up pretty quickly and proceeded to warm up and get the new Orca Alpha wetty on (thanks total tri). With renewed confidence in this wetty I was looking forward to a solid swim. I lined up to the right near favourite (in my eyes) big Andrew Tyack (he's not big as in fat, I just call him big for some reason...), Luke Burton and some other gents.

The horn went and we were offskies into the rough swelly ocean. This was by far the roughest the swim in recent history of the race, so it was going to be interesting fo sho. I got off to a good start and rounded the first bouy in a good position. From here I set my sight on the furthest turning bouy and thought "haha suckers I am off!!" yep what a fool! It was I who was headed to the wrong bouy and had to make and emergency late turn. Smooth move Lucky! I was pretty frustrated and this played on my mind when I rounded the last bouy to shore

"Gah I must be so far behind", "I bet I've swum 4608 minutes" and "does my bum look big in this new wetsuit?" were just some of the thoughts that went through my mind when I finally reached the shore. I was however pleasantly surprised when I came out about 2 seconds behind Andrew "hairy chest" Tyack and only less than 30 seconds behind Luke "dammit I only beat Paige by a few seconds" Burton.

A quick T2 and I was actually onto the bike first out of us three. Andy came around and signaled me to come with him about 5k in. "Ok here we go Lucky!" I thought. I was ready to roll. Ready to launch a great attack on the bike, lead from the front RIDE SUB TWO HOURS, COURSE RECORD YEAAA BABY

I turned the proverbial throttle and we were off! Sorry, Andy and Luke at that 6 year old girl on her huffy was off. I was not. Not at all. Oh god how I wish that girl on her Huffy didn't beat me. (please see below a picture of her actual bike)

I had nothing, nothing at all. To be honest this wasn't a complete shock and I think it was a long season (for me anyway) catching up. I proceeded to ride the next 90k's as fast as my spaghetti legs would carry me. Haha reading this must be a real let down, but this is an honest acount! :) It was a dark ride for me, but I continued to plug away.

Finaly I reached T2 in 2.28 at least 10 minutes slower than expected/planned/I am able to ride. I dismounted and threw my new On Cloud Racers on. God they looked good, realll good. I strolled out of T2 and tried to hit half ironman race pace, 3:50's. I ran at what felt like sprint pace for almost 2k's. It just wasn't happening. I tried so many times on the bike to get myself going and on the run but it just wasn't my day.

I stopped put my hands on my head and had a little cry. During this time Paige ran past me in the opposite direction, she was having a blinder. During this time I also came up with a cover story "I'm not crying, two small birds just flew into both of my eyes at the same time while I lifted my glasses off my head momentarily and they made my eyes water..." Yep. Smooth.

Moments later my knight in shinning armour (not gay) ran past, Sean "I make Mark hurt the most out of everyone" Jermy. Before I knew it I was running again. We both were having shockers so we decided to help each other out. (read Sean helped me out)

We proceeded to run together for the next 19.1k's. What a legend. In hindsight this was a great opportunity. I got to run the next 19k's running spending every second looking for other people I knew racing cheering them on. It was a great feeling and I was glad to be able to give a little bit of support back for once.

About 4 hours and 40 mins after we started Seano and I ran down the finish shoot together. We crossed and I gave him a big manly not girly hug. I'm not sure I would have had the guts to finish without him. The photo below about sufficiently sums up my feelings from a visual perspective after the race....attractive

Seconds later I saw Paige, she did brilliantly and I was so proud. Mainly because she had done super well and not beaten me, nice.

I was pretty gutted but was reminded by a few people about my season before this race. To hit 3 out of 4 goals was pretty awesome. Before I knew it I was showered and I had a beer in my hand.

So the race didn't go to plan but like I stated at the start that is racing. Result or not I wouldn't of been on the start line without help from my supporters Total Triathlon, On shoes, Ryders Eyewear, SIS. Further Brian Kempson my coach and Guy Grawford and Kate Bevilaqua who I have been bugging for some great advice recently. Further further, my family and their ever lasting support.

A big congrats goes to Luke Burton who I train with who made it onto the podium. Nice race mate :) Andy Tyack, we started racing together and you are still kicking my arse, haha dammit! Seano and Jono the two boys who get the most out of me in training and have to put up with everything else, unlucky but cheers boys :) Finally Paige who has to put up with much more. In her first 70.3 and she podiumed in her age group, honestly no surprise to me and I am so proud :)

Well after this blog I am going to put up a quick season review which always makes me think :) for now I have 2 - 3 weeks of easy happiness and sleep ins :) then build for VEGAS :)

Until next time thanks for reading :)