70.3 Gurye and IM Taiwan

It all started after placing 18th at 70.3 Worlds. I had a good race and knew I needed to go make good on my fitness. So another crazy double was planned!!

Two weeks later I traveled from Boise to Gurye Korea for the 70.3
Unfortunately my flights were delayed for 24 hours leaving me with just 36 hours in Korea before race start. A little less than ideal.

After a hectic Saturday getting my gear organised and orientated with the race we were lining up for a one lap swim. I felt pretty good in the water, but eventually lost Eric Watson's feet about 1.2KM into the swim.
I exited in 2nd with Antony Costes right behind as soon as we started riding I knew my bike legs were still on the plane from Seattle, but I tried to keep an even head about it and pushed as hard as I could.

I ended up losing 3:30 or so on Antony and came off the bike in 2nd, I started running knowing the runners would be coming but also confident in my running form.
As it turned out Eric Watson and Simon Billeau both caught be around 16KM, they both passed me, but with 2 KM to go I decided I was going to REALLY embrace the hurt and began running at max for the hope of a podium finish. I caught Simon with 300 meters left to run and when I passed him I felt my feet and fingers tingling due to the effort. The good news is I didn't pass out and managed to finish in 3rd place. Only 50 seconds separated 2-4th on the day.

I was really happy with the result!!

Then that night i started traveling to Taiwan for IM.
I arrived about 36 hours later after an overnight stay in Seoul.

At about the same time I arrived in Taiwan so did a Typhoon. We went into full lock down in the hotel until it passed.
For me it was perfect timing as my body needed to recover from the 70.3 and the rest was welcomed.

In refection race week went by quickly although when your in the month it seems to take forever! :)

Race day rolled around and it was set to be a hot one with the real feel in the low 40's for the duration of the day.

I had a good swim exiting the water in 5th (although I thought I was 3rd) I started the 2nd loop of the swim in 3rd and thought we'd gapped the field a bit, but we choose the long line through the age groupers and I came out of the water 5th. It didn't matter in the end as at about 90-100KM on the bike it all came together and then 50KM later a split happened and the lead group was dwindled down to 4 of use. Myself, Patrick Evoe, Jordan Bryden and eventual winner Daniel Fontana.

I felt great on the bike and was even holding myself back, I knew it was going to be a HOT run.
Once onto the run I knew it was going to be a hard day. My body temperature kept rising and my pace kept slowing. I battled on through a very hot and hard conditions determined to finish for myself, my sponsors and my athletes at GKEndurance. I came across the line in 8th.
 lol :)

The crew at IronmanTaiwan is always so good to us and we're lucky to race there on a regular basis.

Now I head to Kona to help blueseventy and my awesome sponsors out, It's always exciting to be in Kona race week.

There is still plenty of racing ahead for me this year!! I'll keep you all up to date!

Thanks team

Guy

Back for More

Carrying on from Malaysia 70.3
We came home, then two weeks later went and raced a non drafting Olympic in Geraldton then had our engagement party the following weekend and after that raced 70.3 Busselton...  AND I was lucky enough to get a chest infection.... It was real nice!!..

I guess I could leave you with the sentence above as it pretty much sums up the month. However I feel the need to elaborate.

Geraldton Batavia Olympic distance:
They have a great triathlon community and club up in Geraldton  which makes heading back up there each year an easy choice. The added bonus of a pro prize purse attracts most of the local talent/professionals. This year Robbo (Peter Robertson) came up, Robbo is probably one of the best and most accomplished Triathlete's Australia has seen.(Winning 3 ITU world championships) I wasn't sure how he was going and I'm not sure he knew either. But to save you the blow by blows of the day I'll sum it up. We swam together, I went really hard through transition to try and get a gap (should have known better) 3x ITU world champion, he's probably got me covered in the transition department. Rode together for the first lap of the bike and then I managed to get away from him on the second lap , Probably because I had finally managed to process all that lactic acid from T1. The gap got out to about 1min and I thought, "I have a chance here"!! I ran strong but couldn't flick the switch to FAST. ( I was in struggle street) At 5KM Robbo caught me and gave a lesson on how to surge some-one, I tried to go with him but it was simply to quick and after about 500m he'd put about 15sec into me. If I wasn't chewing on my own tongue at the time I would have been impressed. For the remaining 4.5KM he put another 15sec into me and I finished 31sec back. All in all I was happy with my run, I even split the 10KM which was great and I hope I didn't make it to easy on Robbo. Rounding out the podium was Alistair Caird who spend the day chasing and Thank-fully ran out of realestate.

Engagement Party:
I'll start with the Monday after Geraldton.
I woke up feeling like death warmed up. The Immune system had taken it's final hit in Geraldton and my body succumbed to the deadly "manflu" Lucky I didn't have an engagement party to plan..... hang on.....YES I DID....... To be fair Kate and Karen did mostly everything.... But I still had to be awake and activity looking busy. I Think I moved a pot 47 times before some-one said "wasn't that pot just over there?"After which I made an escape outside where I couldn't been seen.
I went to chemist for the manflu and if you've ever been drug tested you'll know you can't take cold and flu tablets or loads of other things people would deem normal to take when they have the flu (or daily for that matter) Not that I'm complaining here, I think it's a good thing!! So after a few checks on the ASADA website we were off with my immune defence system pills. (Which was good because my immune system was on holiday)

Anyway enough whinging about how bad my man flu was......... But it was BAD... ha
The Engagement party itself was amazing. We had it in Margaret River the weekend before Busselton 70.3 and I'll let some of these pictures do the talking for me. Needless to say it was an amazing day and I couldn't be happier... Better Marry Kate before she changes her mind...hmmmm.

70.3 Busselton: The week leading into it I spent nursing the man flu. I ran once or twice for about 30min. Not that Kate considered what I was doing was running!. She said my IM shuffle was faster. My friend Ruth told me the night before the race "I hope you don't die tomorrow" flooded with confidence I went and had a beer!! :)

THE RACE: I warmed up as per normal and then went to the beach and waited for the gun to go off... Why did I even start?.....Kate made me...... Just kidding.... You never know whats going to happen and I thought maybe my body will be ok or maybe today I won't make the cut off time... :(

BOOM (thats the gun going off) The first 400m is ALWAYS fast but after that things thinned out I managed to get on some feet, felt my heart rate drop and I was comfortable. YAY... Things were going much better that I thought. I stayed in about 5th-6th position for the remainder of the swim. Happiness!
THE BIKE: We got out of T1 and onto the bike and I felt terrible but over the course of the next 10KM I started feeling better and better.
Then once through 50KM Matty Burton hit us riding REALLY hard and myself and 3 others managed to go with him, leaving 10 or so guys behind. Surprisingly the legs were feeling really good. Into T2 and the 4 of us had about a 1min lead over the chasing group. I hadn't really run for about 10days and usually that would make me super cautious but today I threw caution to the wind and went out of T2 like a scorched cat. "Nothing to lose" I held the lead till about 6KM when I was passed. (apparently 3:30's Is slow) sitting in 2nd at the turn I could see the masses coming. Crowie and the others runners were on there way. As I expected Crowie and few others caught me but I wasn't to worried I was going to run as hard as I could to the finish. at 17KM I was in 6th place and beyond MAX. I could feel my body struggling with the effort and my form must have looked like I was having a seizure. I was passed in the last 3KM by 3 others leaving me to finish in 10th place with a time of 3:48:14. OUCH. Not the way I wanted it to go and Perhaps a little more run patience might have changed the outcome. But hind site is a wonderful thing. I went much better better than I thought and in the end I don't think being sick held me back.

I'm happy with my race and I know there wasn't anything left in the tank at the finish.

Thats me on the left, On my knee's trying not to throw up.

WHAT NOW: Well thats for asking. We are training and preparing for our over seas adventure. We will be hitting a few more 70.3's and then heading off to Boise Idaho (our second home for the northern hemisphere season)

Thanks again to the wonderful people and sponsors that help me on a day to day basis. This hash tag is for you #thebest

Guy

70.3 Malaysia

The Video Blog from 70.3 Malaysia. Yes it was a hot one. I went for it on the run and got myself to 4th but then overheated and ended up in 9th. Tough day with some close racing.

Taiwan 70.3

Taiwan 70.3

Well it didn’t start off to plan

Our flight leaving Perth was delayed which meant when we landed in HongKong we were in a mad rush to board our next flight. (Perfect way to start the day after an over night flight)

The good news we made it, the bad news the weather was to bad to land in Kaohsiung which meant we had to land In Taipei re-fuel before returning to Kaohsiung. Bad times because that meant we missed our train connection to Taitung. (Still I’d rather miss a train than plow into the air field in a ball of flames, So i shouldn’t complain. )

Once we landed in Kaohsiung we made our way to the train station (massive thanks to the Ironman Taiwan team for helping sort our connections and tickets) we grabbed the train that saw us arrive in Taitung at 7pm that night. While unloading our bikes from the train which made traveling through airports with a bike case a dream I lost my iPhone. Which almost put me over the edge. As you know losing a phone these days is MEGA PAINFUL especially when social media is part of your work. Still I held back the tears and carried on with only huge amount of complaining… ha…. 

What topped it off was the next day we were drying our clothes on a rack and I looked at a bag underneath these dripping wet clothes and through “ha that looks like the bag that carries my passport” BECAUSE IT WAS.. I pulled out my dripping wet passport and proceeded to have a small melt down… Kate and Ruth took control of the situation and dried it out. We think I’ll be alright to fly to Malaysia tomorrow… (Time will tell)

But the Positive:
I LOVE coming back to Taiwan. I’ve had some of my best races here, the Ironman team of Renny, Shiang, Queena ,Joe and the rest of the team treat us extremely well and we’ve always enjoyed racing, training and being a tourist while in Taiwan.

This time round I was wearing race number #1 which was a privilege. I was really pumped, it’s not often you get the number ONE bib so when you do it’s pretty awesome!

                                               

I knew i was fit even though I’d raced IMNZ Three weeks earlier. I felt the body had bounced back quickly and I was ready to give it my all on race day. 

We participated in the swim leg of the 5150 the day before the 70.3 which was a lot of fun, packed our gear and went to bed early. I slept for nearly 8 hours which is crazy and most likely because the overnight flight and stress was catching up with me. 

RACE DAY

I woke feeling refreshed, which was great because the previous day I felt like 14 buses had simultaneously run over me, then all of them had reversed.

race day saw cooler than usual conditions for Taiwan, which I wasn’t disappointed about. 

The swim was smooth, I felt a little flat but wasn’t to worried, exiting the water I heard I was 2min down to Peter Kerr, but in 2nd place. 

Freddie Cronenberg was with me out of the water and we pushed hard on the bike to try and make a dent into Peter’s lead. To my surprised at 65km a group of 3 caught us, I thought I was holding good power, but obviously not high enough. We rode out the last 25km together and then the real fun started. By fun I mean running near max holding as high a heart rate as possible and trying not to blow up. YAY GOOD TIMES!

THE RUN:

5 of us started the run close together with Peter 90 seconds or so ahead.
Freddie and I started running together in 5th and 6th place. If you know Freddie you know he’s a quality runner and I thought if I pace off him I’ll make it close to the podium. We ran shoulder to shoulder or single file for the entire run. We both thought we’d bring back a few runners in the late stages of the run, but it wasn’t to be our day with 2nd- 6th all finishing within about 2min of each other. Freddie knew we were fighting for 5th and was surging me relentlessly in the last 5KM of the race. In hind sight his ability to change pace so often is impressive although at the time the word Impressive wasn’t what i was thinking.:). He was putting me in the hurt locker again and again, but on that day I felt like we were tethered together and in the final 200 metre’s I launched the best attack I could muster. This resulted in my adductors cramping and Freddie closing the gap back up just as we hit the finish shoot, I gave another surge and got a VERY SMALL gap on Freddie and finish is 5th place. The worse part was Freddie finishing in 6th, he’s a great guy and we’ve had many battles over the years. Usually it ended with Freddie running me down or running away from me, It seems we are both becoming more even over the 3 disciplines. 

This will go down as one of my most memorable triathlon battles. The other being last year in Taiwan with Christian Kramer. (Taiwan seems to be the home of epic battles for me)

Freddie and myself post race

Me post race. Probably could have chosen a better back ground.

Renny and the guys chilling post race

In the end I’m happy with the performance, sure I would have liked to be a few places further up the field but I gave it all I had on the day and I'm happy with the result. 

In other result news, Kate finished in a very close 4th and had a good all round day. Our friend, travel companion and GK Endurance Athlete Ruth Chang finished in 2nd in her age group (just 46sec off the win) putting together her fastest ever time and grabbing a spot to 70.3 Worlds in Australia this year. I think Kate was more excited than her!!

The last 48 hours we’ve spent at awards, riding, site-seeing, eating, talking, socialising and of course packing our bikes up. Good news Ruth lent me her spare iPhone so until I lose that i’ll be back on social media which I might have an addiction to!!

We are racing Malaysia 70.3 on the way home to as we thought it was a good choice to hit two races with one set of flights. (Although when I look at the weather app and it says, 38 degree’s but feels like 46 degree’s I think we may have made a bad choice!) I’ll keep you posted on that one. If you don’t hear from me I’ve probably melted or forgotten who I am due to heat stroke.

Thanks again to the Ironman Taiwan team for the support and of course all my awesome sponsors . Until the next time, which happens to be in 5 days. )

Guy

The swim course

Kate, Ruth and myself soon after Ruth stomped home a PB 

Kate right after her 4th place finish

Ironman NZ

 IMNZ

Taupo NZ. No Filter, which seems hard to believe doesn't it? Probably the best sunset of my life or at least my memory!

The IMNZ GK Crew from left to right, Anthony, Justine, Kate, Mick and Guy

Race day doesn't get much better in NZ, Light breeze, 13-26 Degree weather. You couldn't have scripted a better day for an Ironman race. (IMNZ has had it all too)

My Prep has been absolutely awesome. I've been riding and running faster and further than ever before.

The GK Endurance crew Plus Kate and Jeff have really helped me get into shape and I know the season ahead will be my best yet, this is in no small part thanks to them.

Our accommodation in Taupo was "Sweet as, Choice and Mint" all rolled into one awesome word which currently doesn't exist.

Kate on the balcony, The run course and swim course are right out the front. The start just 1.7KM to the right.

The Rocket ship ready for battle.

THE RACE:

I woke up to a still morning and thought I was in the twilight zone. "Taupo, no wind? WHAT"

The usual pre race check went to plan, I chatted with Callum Millward before the start and he kept me entertained with his witty one liners until it was time to get in the water.

GO TIME

The Swim start was fast and for the first 2KM I felt like we were moving really well. (My perceived effort my high) then on the return journey the pace dropped and I was swimming comfortably behind Paul Matthew's.(I know this due to his kick pattern under the water, yes it's strange.. Sorry Barny) I soon figured out why the pace had dropped when I saw Clayton Fettel slowing moving backwards through our group (Kinda shark like). I figured he had enough of towing us round and was letting some-one else do the work, Unfortunately none of us come from the same swim pedigree as Clayton, so the pace stayed comfortable for the return trip. At one point I felt Clayton Grab my leg and I thought" Is he going to drag me under or use me as a propulsion device"? But to my surprised he pushed me forward and basically shot me ontop of Paul. It cracked me up and I had a chuckle in the water to myself. I never got to ask him why that happened but I figured he was making room for himself as we were swimming single file .

With a 46min swim under our belt we exited the water and ran hard to T1. I was trying to limit the amount of lactic acid I produced during this 500m Barefoot run. ( I didn't succeed.)

Onto the bike and we quickly settled into a hard sustainable effort. Terenzo, Paul and Dylan were just up the rode and I was in a group of 4 riding strong until about 45KM when Cameron and a group of 5 other riders caught us. Then things got a little crazy!!  It wasn't until we caught the front of the race at about 60km did the pace settle back down again.  I paid close attention after that, So I way always close to the front. At about 130KM our group which was 12 Plus guys (after lap one) had dwindled to 6 riders.  I looked at my watts and thought "hmmmm, this is pretty hard"so I covered my screen with a gel wrapper. That's normal right?

heading back into town from Reporoa turn around 150KM (I think) Is that aero?

Callum Millward and I sharing a moment about 100km into the ride.  He looked over to find me staring at him, then looked away and back again to find me still staring at him, then we both started laughing. 

Coming into T2, I felt good, I had a spring in my step and was happy with how the day was unfolding. I went out onto the run holding 4min/k or just over and thought this isn't to bad. Until I saw the spilt at 14km and realised that holding just over 4's mean't I was 5min down to the front. WTF? Still I kept my cool and held my pace, This race was about me getting the best from myself. By the time I hit 21KM in 1:29 I knew things were getting ugly still I braved it out and said "it will get better" hahaha... I flat out lied to myself. The next 21km was an emotional roller coaster, I kept hurting myself and pushing myself but the legs weren't moving as I had hoped they would. I lost 20min over the next 21KM running a 3:19 marathon. I made my choices on the day and I  still think they were the right ones. I feel like we are so close to that "Great Ironman" and I'll keep battling on till we get it. I got to the finish line  and hugged my family. Mum, Grandma, Brother, Sister, Kids, and extending family who had come to watch us race, this was for them as much as it was for me.

1st lap 10KM, Running and pretty happy

Second lap 23-25km sort of running and pretty un-happy

The Finish line, giving my nephew Ben a high 5. Back to being happy again!

                                               
I finished in 11th in a time of 8:43:28

My horizons have changed since winning 70.3 Taiwan last year, I know what it take's to get back on the podium and I plan on making it there! Ironman NZ was a stepping stone for the rest of the year and I know I'll gain the benefit's of a hard early season IM soon.

Big thanks to my training partners for getting me ready to rumble. In particular Brad Kaye for getting me bike fit again, Kate and the GK Crew for the constant motivation and dailey support.

My family the Crawford / Bevilqaua's and my family of sponsors, You are all amazing and the relentless support you give is second to NONE!! Thank-you!!

Next up is 70.3 Taiwan in just a few weeks. Stayed tuned and thanks for being the legends that you are!

Below are a few pic's for our travel's in NZ.
Cheers
Guy

Kate is afraid of the cold water! Me and the go pro aren't.

Chateau Ruapehu 

heading up the Ski-lifts. falling out would be VERY unforgiving this time of year!

Karen and Kate at the highest cafe in NZ. 2030m 

US

Getting my selfie on. Our Accommodation. 

Another selfie blueseventy style, water and sun!!

Taupo water make's for some great underwater pic's. Kona eat your heart out!

Clouds below us on Ruapehu 

GK Camp 2016. "The Campers"

Camping... But not in the tent/wilderness type of camping. 

This type of camp is the " I have a Ironman/ triathlon coming up soon" or the "I need to get fit and find my mojo again camp" 

What does that mean? It means Kate and I flog you over 4 days of swimming,biking, running, rolling and stretching. 

Kate myself and our GK Endurance crew did just that last weekend. We scheduled our camp from Thursday-Sunday with a bit of everything involved.

Our campers bought there best and gave it 100%. We couldn't have been happier with the effort they put in over those 4 days. The hard work will pay off!

Big thanks to the Wattie INK crew making us look good. We've had a lot of comments on how great our kits look and how much we stand out!!  Doesn't hurt that they are super comfortable and fast too!!

I won't bore you with the details of each training session, but I will show you the pic's that tell our camping story!! Picture books are the best.

Day one: the time trials.

Pre Time trial

I'm stoked because I'm coaching and not doing the TT's

Thursday morning, Post bike Time Trials.

From here is was off to Margaret River (roughly 3 hours south and out to the wilderness  lodge for the next 3.5 days)

We chose this location so there were no distractions and very different from the cabins we usually rent. Yes it could house 18 and yes it would be cozy but fun. It was great for the entire team to be under one roof.

Part of our wilderness wonderland

After an evening run we had a relaxed BBQ dinner with lots of laughs before hitting "the hay" .

Day Two: The long ride on Friday morning. We found a great section of road that was long enough and hilly enough to challenge every rider on our camp. Without going into details, the ride and run off the bike was enough to set the mood for the camp. This wasn't going to be easy. 

Nutrition and hydration was going to play a massive role. Lucky most athlete's were using  INFINIT Nutrition Australia products or had access to them.

Start of our long ride day

The ride among the tree's of the south west.

Paul, Just before he comes in for some refuelling.

You only get our yellow friend George if you do something silly. Renee got George because she forgot her cycling shoes.(not to worry she managed to find her shoes and pass George on to another lucky camper) 

It's wasn't all pain and suffering. After our evening open water swim we got to enjoy some fantastic sunsets while having dinner.

Day three: The part every one was waiting for. Swim and Double run, tears and happiness rolled into one. Every-one got through this day and from a coaching perspective we saw a lot of breakthrough efforts.

The site for our PM long run!

One of the many footpaths/trails Margaret river has to offer.

Just when the campers thought they couldn't have any more fun we dropped this little pearl of a session on them.  Swim/bike/run x3 or x4 OUCH!! We had use of the pool, thanks to Dylan and the Margaret River Rec centre. The trainers set up out the front and a mix of paved and dirt trails to choose from for the run.

Vic giving every-one a final high five which also signalled the end of there session and end of the camp!

The team, minus Janine who's behind the lens. 

 Camps are great for building a close training group, sparking that motivation you may have lost and finding out you can push yourself further than you thought possible. Our experience was awesome from the coaching side. It was great to see people push there limits. As an athlete it's great to be pushed and you only get out of it what you put in. A week of recovery and suddenly you find your fitness and motivation is back and your hungry for more!

Massive well done to all our campers and supporters!! Wattie INK, Churchill Cycles, Infinit Nutrition, Mizuno Australia Ruth Chang Physio, Janine Kaye Photography (For all the shots you see above and most of our websites) Dylan Brown and the Margaret River Rec Centre.  

Until the next one!!

GK Endurance