GK Newsletter Jan

It's been far to long since we've reached out with a GK newsletter. So with that said,  we will endeavour to keep you all up to date often with what's happening in the world of GK Endurance. 2018 was a great year and we are excited about what 2019 has to offer. Needless to say there is lots of exciting stuff going down, some of which we will highlight today! YAY

COACHES CORNER So what's happening in the Coaching Corner....We do have some new and exciting additions to the GK Program. As you all know we provide programmes that are individual to you. BUT we do know there is a strong social side to training and sometimes that brings out the best in you.  So in addition to the Thursday morning intervals, we now have the following sessions available thanks to coach Janine. SWIM - Monday/ Wednesday and Friday morning from 530-7am at Arena Joondalup. If you are interested in attending these, please contact Janine and she'll be able to give you the low down. You will have lots of company at these sessions!!  - Sunday: OWS morning in the shark net at Sorrento at 6am (45min-1hr) with wetsuits. Meeting in the carpark in front of the net. Followed by a long run along the coast per your personal plan BIKE - Tuesday AM  Cycling interval session starting from Hillary's Marina boat ramp side at 5:30am (See the map on the private facebook page) - Thursday AM: Shelley Foreshore Intervals (Meet at the raffles at 5:30 am) RUN - Thursday PM : Run session at MacDonald Park, Forrest Rd, Padbury at 6pm. Suitable for all levels and working on your speed and VO2 max More details of the sessions can be found on the GK private facebook page or you can contact your coach for more info.  aThere has been a lot of talk recently about the "Keto Diet" and in particular for athletes.   Should you go zero carbs? We aren't dieticians, and if looking for professional advice, you should seek out a qualified Dietician. That said, we have had some experience in this area, and can tell you what worked for us and what didn't. Hopefully that will help answer some questions you might have. Try not to listen to everybody who has an opinion on dieting and the do's and don't. Listen to your coaches or as I said, seek professional advice. Keto: I write this from my personal experience. It totally sucked (this is Guy btw)  Straight to the point - I hated it! My muscles ached. I was grumpy. My training suffered.  I was just all round miserable for the entire 3 week experience. I would rather NOT do it again.  WHY? Well because my body relies on sugar to burn energy, and it wasn't very good at burning fat. A lot of you might think "but your skinny". Yes I am, but that doesn't mean I burn fat well. I burn energy at a fast rate due mostly to genetics.  So I changed my diet and kept to low carbs. Why? Well because I want to burn fat. But I also want to be able to train and not be grumpy all the time.  So how did I go about changing my sugar burning body to fat burning.  Here's what I did and I believe it worked: 1) For 1 or 2 sessions per week I would only have a black coffee before working out.  Now - I don't want you to get carried away here. These session are low intensity and if longer than 75min then I would incorporate carbs of some sort.  Anything of high Intensity I would eat before hand.  2) I swapped out my bad carbs for good carbs.  I eat a LOT of bread. I love it, but it doesn't help the fat burning process. Our dietitian recommended using Sourdough. So now I eat a crap load of that!! No white or multigrain anymore. I eat Sweet Potato, Pumpkin, cous cous etc.  3) I also time my carb intake.  Typically I will eat carbs immediately after training and limit them at dinner.  4) Snacks.  I used to go for a packet of Tim Tams or a loaf of bread (anything that had sugar in it), and I sometimes still do, because I have little will power! But now I try my best to snack on nuts and seeds, coconut yoghurt, avocado and I love Peanut Butter!  Kate and I make our own cereal with an assortment of nuts and seeds, and add almond milk, dairy free yogurt (as there is next to no sugar in it ) and crunchy peanut butter. It's super tasty and really filling.  These simple changes allowed me to keep training properly and also start metabolising fat better!! For me, this was a good compromise. A lot of triathletes have A type personalities and will take the fat burning diet too far so taking this approach was a healthy middle ground.  Side note: I also have a cheat day every week where I eat whatever I want. Why? Because life is too short not to have a Tim Tam.   G GKE ATHLETES OUT & ABOUT!  Great to see so many athletes representing GK Endurance during the off season and abroad. It's always brilliant to see a flash of red and black pass you by! GEAR THAT CAUGHT OUR ATTENTION The Obsessed triathlete website,  is a great resource to compare Ironman and 70.3 race course difficulty and overall trends. If you're a data nerd like me I promise you'll especially love the 'stats' element on the site. GETTING TO KNOW YOU 10 Quick Questions with Tracy Denning How did you first get involved in Triathlon? My former boss’ daughter had signed up for her first 70.3 at Yeppoon in 2011 and my boss said ‘you can run and swim and you also teach spin classes - you can do it too!’ So I signed up several months before the event but only got a coach and an actual training program 6 weeks before!  I really enjoyed the 6 weeks of training with swim, bike, run up til the event and luckily for me I had some base fitness (through running marathons) so I was able to JUST get things together in time for race day. I had no idea about nutrition or gear - I cramped badly on the run (the one and only time I have had to actually stop and walk due cramps in a race). I finished it though! And I fell in love with the sport. What are your goals for the coming year? I am still in a bit of disbelief when I type or say ‘Im racing Ultraman Australia in 2019’. Ultraman is my one and only focus at the moment. I am not sure what goals I will set after that event but I have a lot of mini goals to achieve before May to ensure I get to the start line prepared. What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you at a Triathlon, running, swimming or cycling event? This wasn’t really an event but cycling related embarrassing incident. Very early in mine and Al’s relationship we decided to go for a romantic get away to Bright in Victoria. The trip was in June so it was winter, freezing and not suitable for riding up the mountains. I was still a very green rider (had been riding 9 months only) and wanted to impress my new flame by riding up Mount Buffalo while we were away. Long story cut short - I had to phone my new boyfriend for rescuing while I sat shivering at the top of Mount Buffalo. I got up the mountain ok - but the carbon brake pads didn’t work on the icy road on the way down! What is your favourite movie? Too hard to pick one movie! Favourite book is much easier - Tully by Paulina Simons Where is your favourite place to relax? Bright in Victoria What is your best characteristic? Committed What is your worst habit? Al would say not putting lids on things properly, but I would say my worst habit is stressing about time. I get so tense when I am ‘running late’ (even though running late means only being 5 minutes early) and I also get frustrated at others who are late. It exhausts me a lot of the time and I get annoyed at myself as I know I am highly strung about it! What is your favourite "go to" post race/event meal? Eating hot chips of course! Dad and I always get fish and chips after I race and share stories of the days events. Do you have any pre-race rituals? - Dad always buys me x2 mars bars before big races. They sit in the fridge and wait to be eaten after the fish and chips post race. - Braided hair (two braids) What are you most afraid of? Pooing my pants in a race and Spiders.  We are planning this for our next GKE OW session - any takers??

Where the heck are ya?

I owe you this one. 

Where the heck have I/we been? Well I'm glad you asked. 

The answer is EVERYWHERE. Vague enough for you?

Well lets go on a journey that leads from where we were to where "The Heck" we are!!

Not to worry this is a picture book for the most part. 

In my last post (back in 1952) we had just raced Challenge Taiwan and were preparing for our wedding, yep we got hitched. So lets start from there and break this down in Months.

May: I  raced 70.3 Busselton (The 8th time in a row for me)

Ended up 6th and surprised myself with a 1:19 half marathon after doing an Ironman a week earlier. I thought I was going to run a 2:19 so this was a pleasant surprise. 

Sadly Kate didn't race as she got an inner ear infection which then gave her vertigo. (BAD BAD TIMES)

Our GK Endurance Crew prior to race day in Busso

Me enjoying the run in Busso. Crowd support is AWESOME

Then on May 13th we got married. YEAH

Kate road this to the service, I found the handlebars rather comfortable. Thanks Profile

Then we had a few days celebrating with friends and family down in Margaret River before jetting off on our honeymoon. We went from Perth to Dubai, Athens, Mykonos, Santorini and then back to Boise USA to start working off our honeymoon weight!!

May-June

Just the one picture from our honeymoon. yep it was amazing.

Once back to Boise USA  it was time for some hard work and fun.
 June-July

Our first race back was Rolf Prima Tri At The Grove in Eugene OR. Loads of fun! They even had us doing some very different stuff in T1 and T2. Like riding children bikes.

July-August

Then we raced Emmett Triathlon. A classic event that is also the state Olympic distance champs for Idaho. Very happy to come away with a win and see the fitness start to come back.

August: We flew to Bintan 70.3 where we stayed in the MOST AWESOME place and were really spoilt by the team at MetaSport. I ended up finishing 4th and Kate came 3rd.

September

The week after Bintan we flew to China for 70.3 Qujing. The race started at 6300feet which made for a brutal swim. A tough day and a sprint finish left me finishing in  a very close 6th place. Kate finished 3rd (2 podiums in two weeks)

From here we went back to Boise for a little recovery before heading to 70.3 Worlds. Sadly I was a bit sick and didn't start and couldn't have a crack at bettering my 18th place from the year before. But the positive is I got to support our GK Endurance athletes who flew from round the world to be in Chattanooga for the event.

Coach Kate making sure our athletes get the best out of themselves. 

October

Before we knew it. We were back in Taiwan for Ironman on Penghu Island. Last year I thought I was the hottest I've ever been in my life. But maybe this year I got hotter. 2 IV's later and I started to function properly again.
I finished 5th and Kate finished 2nd. (Always out doing me)

Then we were Kona bound. I worked for blueseventy and helped my other sponsors out as much as I could during what is always a fun and busy week.

After a quick trip back to Boise we were Perth bound before we knew it. We were lucky enough to be selected for a race that involved jumping out of a plane at 1400feet and sky diving first then doing a triathlon. It was an amazing experience that hopefully you'll all be able to watch on TV very soon.

November

Some of the cloud to coast crew!! (me, Jonney, Kate and Beau)

THEN is was back to Asia. This time to Phuket to race the Laguna Phuket tri and then the following week 70.3 Thailand. At this stage all the travel had caught up with me and to this point it had been a successful year. But when your fried it is even harder! The mind and body rejected the effort leaving me quite far down in the pecking order at the finish line. Kate did ok for Laguna Phuket tri finishing 4th but like me had a rough race at 70.3 Thailand. We made it to the finish line though. YAY

December

Back to Perth WA and down to Ironman Busselton to support our crazy crew of GK Endurance athletes tackling the 70.3 and IM.


And that ladies and gentleman is a wrap for 2017.
Since then we've spent our time training hard, working on GK Endurance. Re-signing with our awesome team of sponsors and catching up with friends

February

We've also been tackling some local events and last weekend I managed to snag a win at Sufferfest Bunbury. Good to see the hard work paying off in a race environment. 

So coming back to where the heck are ya.  The Answer is Perth, WA , Australia but not for much longer. Our next adventure starts on Sunday the 25th of February.

Thanks for taking the time to follow our journey. Hopefully my next post doesn't take 7 months. (sorry)

Guy and Kate

A big few weeks

With a wedding on the horizon it may have been a crazy idea to decide to do an Iron distance race at Challenge Taiwan, but with fitness in the bank and a wedding we want to enjoy coming up very soon it seems to be the only option.

A crazy option, with our home town race just 1 week later at 70.3 Busselton. (Which is now done and dusted, post to come)

Before we knew it Kate and I were on a plane again heading for one of our favourite race destinations in Taitung, Taiwan. This marked my 9th time racing in Taiwan and I find myself comforted by the fimlarlity of things. I know where to eat, how to get around, what the accommodation is like. So it makes the travel experience less stressful on you mentally and physically.

We got in a good 3 days before the race and I was surprising relaxed.
Having had a few injury niggles over the past 5 months with a stress fracture in my foot, shin splits and a bicep tear, my race fineness hasn't quite been there!!
I knew with the work I'd done between March and the end of Arpil I was getting close to being "race fit" again.


Race day
Swim: Got a great start and then Ritchie Nicholls, Freddie Cronenberg and Myself worked together to build a 5min gap on the rest of the field.
Bike: I was happy to start peddling and find that my legs decided to show up for the party. Sometimes I do everything right and they just disappear on race day. BUT NOT TODAY!! YAY

Ritchie dropped off around 40KM as he wasn't having the best day, then Freddie and I swapped 10KM turns at the front for the next 140-KM. We worked well together and built a lead to around 8-9min at T2.

Run: Over the Iron distance the run has proved to be my nemesis.  I went our steady and knew I was racing myself for a podium finish. I kept saying "don't do anything stupid Guy, just keep running" I held myself back for the first 20KM and when Dougal Allen passed me he said "don't worry mate they'll have to run a 1:15 second half to catch you" I immediately thought "unless I explode and start walking".  I got that thought out of my head and kept trucking on as fast as I could. I finished the marathon in 3:13, by no means a fast run, but solid enough to keep me in 3rd place with a finishing time of  8:23:47

Finish: After a bout of sickness and an IV, I felt MUCH better and was able to enjoy the awesome vibe of Challenge Taiwan.

Thanks again for all those that help me do what I do. You are all legends.

 

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.