Friday 30 January 2009

Off on a road trip to Goondiwindi !!

Hi All,

Well the training has been coming along nicely. I have concentrated on a lot of strength and endurance work but no speed work as yet. I am driving up to Goondiwindi for the "Hell of the West" triathlon on Saturday. It is about an 8.5-10hour trip I have been told. I have a partner in this escapade, Andrew Sawatske from High Tide Photography. He is the official photographer for the race and lives on the Central Coast. We will start our road trip from Newcastle. I think registration is in the late afternoon followed by a pasta feed with the organisers. This race is a little different in that it is normally high 30's-mid 40's degree celcius during the race. We start early (3am check in and 5am swim start) but by 8am the temperature is already 35. The non-wetsuit 2km swim is up current in the local river for 1km, then turn with the tide. The 80km bike is an out & back on large blue chip with very strong winds to work you hard as the mercury climbs. The 20km run is a 3 looper out/back so that the whippets can chase you down. Sure to be nice & tough especially after driving up the day before. I am looking forward to a good test knowing that I have a good training base behind me know with 5 weeks to NZ IM needing only some fine tuning and speed work to be done. It will be interesting to see how my IM strength/endurance goes against the speed work of others focusing on this race. I hope to also get some good photos from the race.

Cheers,
Bevan.

Tuesday 13 January 2009

Finally wireless and another cycle road race win

Hi Guys,

Well, we finally have wireless at the house. Oh the freedom it gives you. Bless the Telstra technician that decided to drop by unannounced by accident. I was tempted to rush to the cellar door and give the man a case of beer. We can now actually view the internet again properly. I will be able to publish some photo's of Frankie for all.

I picked up another win this past week. I had a good day of training with a long tempo run and 4km swim before the race. Legs were heavy and a bit fatigued, but that is the best way for me to use the road races as training for my triathlons. I took off from the start and time trialled the whole way for a good win in gusty conditions. I was able to back up the next day with a good 5 hour ride and run off the bike with no residual soreness. I have now been banking consistent training for the past few weeks and look to continue this through to March.

Congrats to an old acquaintance, Pete McDonald, who had the legs to beat out Michael Rogers and Adam Hansen in a sprint to win the Australian elite men's road race and get the "pretty" jersey/outfit to wear for the year. Awesome work and great to see a local team have the Australian jersey again to help with sponsors and exposure.

Enjoy the good weather for training,
Bevan.

Wednesday 7 January 2009

Happy New Year and Update

Hi All,

Happy New Year. I wish you a successful and safe racing season. May it bring new trips to lovely locations (and hopefully you can stash the bike in for a race :) ), much fun and happiness, and continued good health.

I am now settled in Newcastle. Training has been going great. All sessions have been completed. I have had some extra time for training of late as '3 Sports' closed in early December. I have also made good use of the time to spend it with Sam and Frankie. I have ridden all over the Hunter district taking in some good challenging rides. Running at Glenrock State Park with its numerous trails and hills has kept me interested and without need for music tunes. I destroyed my back wheel on a 4hr ride and limped home on the weekend. But I must thank Brett from Hadley's Cycles for organising a quick fix so that the bike was fully serviced and returned in less than a day.

I am presently job hunting in the Newcastle region for some Physiotherapy/Personal-Gym Trainer rehabilitation work. I am also looking for new sponsors due to my sponsor 3 Sports closing its doors. So, there is a lot on the table at the moment organisational wise.

Frankie is growing and seems to become more aware each day. It is amazing how much children pick up from what you do and others around. She is now 60cm long and 5.3kg and we have daily play conversations/mumbles. I now have some Frankie photo's up on my facebook page but am yet to be able to post photo's here due to Telstra taking there time in fixing wireless for us at the house. It has been since late November since we were told 4 days and it would be on. Hopefully, wireless will be on soon and I can post more.

I will be racing in Goondawindi at 'The Hell of the West' triathlon on February 1st in preparation for the New Zealand Ironman Triathlon on March 7th. All training is directed at a good performance in NZ and I am looking forward to successfully executing a great race.

Train safe,
Bevan.