Archive
Out with the old, in with the new.
10 02 2008
The aftermath from Wanaka has been far better than expected. I have a small problem with the ol’ ticker so I have an appointment with the cardiologist later this month. Hopefully it will clear some stuff up and make sure that it isn’t going to happen at my next race.
So when I returned from New Zealand the weather was pretty dire… And in a way it has been pretty hit or miss the last few weeks. Up in the high 20s or absolutely lashing down. Something like 80% of last years rainfall fell in the last fortnight. Although as I type that out it seems a bit much to be honest. But it has certainly been very wet in stages and very warm and dry in others. There are no water restrictions for the next fortnight which is the first time that has happened for 6 years! Crazy. So I might even wash my bike this week… Who am I kidding?! It aint going to get washed for a while!
I also have a new flatmate. A strange Scottish fellow by the name of Scott Neyedli. You may know him… Apparently he won some race in England last year? Rumour has it he has also appeared on the hit TV Series ‘The Biggest Loser’ but those reports are unconfirmed.
The other day I was thinking what I was doing this time last year. Stuck in limbo wondering what I was going to do with myself. To think I have ended up in Australia and I am actually sticking in and making a go of it is pretty surreal. Every day I wake up and think how lucky I am to be here and in particular to be surrounded by a group of athletes who are so motivated and out to get the best out of themselves. Good motivation and a great laugh.
So the next block of training is about continuing my transition to becoming an Ironman athlete. I can already feel it a bit in the pool as anything over threshold burns! But I can tick along quite nicely long course now without too much hassle. Occasionally I have taken on the swimmers but from expierience this doesnt help the rest of the day/weeks training! And NB - Surf swimmers are fast! My biking is getting stronger all the time as is my running. Lets just say after 4 months I am a very different athlete to the one that staggered off the plane in September.
Still enjoying my training.
Still enjoying the weather.
Still fit, still focused and still hungry to become a walker and less of a talker.
Stu
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You gotta have heart
22 01 2008
So my first long distance triathlon at Lake Wanaka.
My day started off well. A 7am start in one of the most picturesque settings you could imagine. Crystal clear water and mountains surrounding us the horn went… Or didnt. I was in the second line of athletes in the swim at the start. I didnt want to lead the swim out combined with a fear of the unknown, but anyways someone announced that the race would start in 30 seconds. 30 seconds later we still hadnt heard anything but Chris MacDonald started swimming and the rest just followed.
I found myself close to the front early on. My preperation had clearly worked well as I was sitting on the hips of Dragstra and Vabrousek comfortably. I sat in for 1.5 laps when Gina Ferguson moved to the front and at that point I picked up the pace a little although still felt very comfortable. I took the swim leg in 49 minutes over an accurate course although I really hadnt planned it. I came out of T1 with Dragstra after a mix up with my transition bags.
Onto the bike and I let everyone go. I was on a long training day and not trying to compete with the pros on my first try. After 2 hours on the bike I was sitting in 4th ticking along nicely and at about 80k I was caught by a chase group of Marc Pschebezin (my room mate and eventual winner), Petr Vabrousek and Keegan Williams. I went with them and felt good. We caught Granger pretty quickly and I sat with them til ~140k. Then they got a gap and rather than killing myself trying to keep up I eased off and focused on surviving until T2.
I came in twenty minutes down in ~8th place and started my run. I had lost a lot of time in the last 40k of the bike! I took a couple of scalps pretty early on and I was running strong. However at 13k disaster struck. I got to the top of the steep hill on the run course and my heart rate went through the roof. A spectator asked if I was ok and wether he wanted me to tell a marshall. I told him no but he still did. Two ambulances later getting ECGs done and blood glucose etc and I was told by the run coordinator and race director I wasnt allowed to continue. I broke down and couldnt believe that they could take this away from me.
I have DNFd in the past because I havent done the work or I havent been willing to push myself hard enough but for someone to take away something which I had worked so hard for didnt go down too well.
So as you can imagine I was very dissapointed. But I think for someone who has only trained seriously for 4 months and for my first crack at the distance I gave a good account of myself. I am looking forward to the training over the coming weeks and my next race.
You can look at a live account of the race at http://www.challenge-wanaka.com/Live.html There is also a link to the overall results on that page.
Thankyou to my homestay family, the Fergusons, for making me so welcome. The day after the race is something which I will never forget. Jet boating, jet skiing, quad biking, clay pigeon shooting and a helicopter ride went a long way to making me feel better. Also to Victoria Murray-Orr and race director Felix for their heartfelt speaches. I think I got more coverage than the guys who finished in 2nd and 3rd.
If you are going to be in New Zealand early next year you cannot miss this race. By far the best event I have ever competed in http://www.challenge-wanaka.com
“You are only as good as your next race.” - G.Obree
Stu
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My first event
16 01 2008
The goal for this race is to finish with a smile on my dial and think to myself that perhaps some time in the future I could race one of these things.So not many of you guys knew that but to be honest I think the messages leading up to it of good luck, as much as I would have appreciated them, would have got to me a bit. And its a training run… not a race! So I dont need people egging me on thank you very much ;)I am looking forward to what will be a big challenge for me. Its a long way but if I stick to my plan I will come home in control and I will hopefully have enjoyed the experience!
The race website is http://www.challenge-wanaka.com I am actually listed as one of the ‘top contenders’ but I think thats more because I am on the pro start list rather than the age group one.So you can follow the race live or you Stirling Tri Club members can wait until after the Saturday morning swim and I should be finished. So you can pick my race to bits and try to tell me what I did right/ wrong and all the rest of it.I will let you know how it goes.
CheersStu
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2008
2 01 2008
It was good to get a change of scenery for a while. Sometimes bike routes can get a bit tiresome and I think that you can develop certain attitudes to rides and sessions which arent necessarily good. By doing the same sessions over different routes with different people it can give you a fresh perspective and it has left me raring to go again now I am back.
When I arrived it was close to going below 20 degrees which, to me now, is like the arctic. Leg warmers were bought as soon as I got into town! It was a refreshing change from high 20s day in day out and towards the end of my stay it ended up 40+ degrees. I thought it was going to singe my hair! It is also a very different type of heat in Victoria than Queensland. Its very dry and radiates all around whereas up here it tends to be quite humid and saps your energy. Whereas 40 degrees just knocks you flat.
We spent Christmas in the house (after I had done some training) and had a big spread. I have actually lost a bit of weight over Christmas which is a bonus as I certainly wasnt expecting it. But I stayed healthy and trained well during my stay. We went on a couple of wee trips, most notably up Mt Hawthorne (I think thats how you spell it) which is the highest road in Australia. You can also ski there in the winter. We also went to a small island near Lakes and saw over 30 koalas which I enjoyed. For New Year we went to a place called Lakes Entrance where we watched the fireworks display. Im not usually a fan of fireworks but these ones were ace.
On the 1st it was time for me to leave. We took a trip to a wildlife sanctuary and I finally got to see a duck billed platypus. I have been waiting a while for that! Frank was kind enough to drop me right at the bus station in Melbourne which saved me the navagation of the train network which over the last week or two has been in a bit of a mess. I said me goodbyes and dragged myself onto the bus. I was (very) sad to leave but glad I hadnt hung around too long or else I would have never left. So it was back up on the plane (after talking my way around paying excess baggage for my 34kg bike box! Thanks Virgin Blue!) and I arrived to the sound of wind and rain which made me think about everyone back home! Hope the weather isnt too miserable!
So its back into the bubble that is life as a full time triathlete. I was glad to see Lisa and Carolyn again and thankfully Carolyn didnt kill me for breaking her scooter. As it turns out it was just a flat battery so she didnt have to put ‘the pain’ on me!
And thats about it! I am just about to go to the shops to restock the cupboards and I am looking forward to seeing an old pal from back home this afternoon, Scott Neyedli who is coming out to train with Darren. This will be my last post for a while as I am going to slip back under the radar and do some more good work with my coach and improve some more.
I hope everyone has had a great festive season. I have uploaded some pictures which you can find under the photos section. There will be more to come when I get round to it! As always you can leave a comment or get in touch with me through my email address triathlonstu@gmail.com Another big thanks to Andrew Bell of Andrew Watt Ltd for his continued support and to the McShanes for making me feel a part of the family. I should also thank the bank of mum and dad for helping me book all my flights and managing the logistics from the other side of the world.
Train hard and never stop believing.
Stu
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Ho ho ho
22 12 2007
I realise it has been a while since I last posted anything but I think Darren’s comment below pretty much sums up why.
So I am in Melbourne for Christmas staying with my second family, The McShanes. It is a lot colder here than The Gold Coast and I think most of the flys in Australia live in the town I am staying in! I have been training with the local swim team, East Gippsland Waterdragons, and also doing some bits and pieces with Riviera Tri Club who I would like to thank for giving me a club tri suit. Its a very similar club to Stirling in that everyone was very friendly and also enthusiastic about the sport. Its not so much about competition but more about just enjoying the sport. I think we can get caught up in the competitive aspect of our sport so much that sometimes we forget that it is a hobby and we are supposed to enjoy it. If I get good enough to make a living out of the sport then that would be superb but money and results arent my motivation. I am just enjoying my training and working hard and looking forward to getting out of the sport, what I have put in.
It has been good to get a change of scene and also weather coming down here. Frank and Linda treat me like I am one of the family which is great. I am also trying to motivate Frank to get back in some training so that he and John Lunn can have the face-off that they have been ‘talking up’ for the last 12 months.
So thats all for now folks. It is raining really hard just now which is making me slightly apprehensive about my running this afternoon but I have put up with much worse than this back in Scotland! These Australians don’t know how good they’ve got it.
Keep checking my photos as I am updating them regularly. I will be back on The Gold Coast on the 1st of December to continue my training and also to give Lisa and Carolyn (my flatmates) their Christmas presents which I haven’t yet bought.
So I hope training in Scotland or wherever you are reading this from is going well and thanks again to everyone at Riviera Tri Club, please make sure you check out their website, their is a link at the top of the page.
Have a merry Christmas!
Stu
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G’day
12 10 2007
WARNING: You might need to bookmark this and take it in phases. This is Scott Poole long.
The flight… long… sleep deprivating… boring. On the plus side I had a guy a similar age sitting next to me for the whole way and he was a good laugh. I also got the ‘world traveller plus’ tv option for some strange reason so I watched on the way down… wait for it… Shrek3, The Flying Scotsman, Pirates of the Caribbean3, Spiderman3, Surfs Up, Oceans 13 and several episodes of The Simpsons. Stop over in Thailand then on to Sydney.
Well I arrived safely in Australia and spent the day in Sydney on arrival. Nice city, shame about the smell. For some reason the place seemed a bit wiffy but I carried on nonetheless. The mission was to check all my gear into the train station then wander about for the day before leaving for Brisbane in the afternoon. I had a wander down to the Opera House and had some brekkie looking over the harbour to the bridge. Nice place. It was a Sunday and early so very few places were open so I did my fair share of wandering.
I contemplated going on the Harbour Bridge Walk but apparently the whole ‘expierience’ takes 4 hours. I am assuming that ‘expierience’ translates as sitting in a wee room getting shown safety videos and what to do if the old dear took a tumble… Not for me.
So I went to the phone shop, got a mobile. I then sat at the station for a bit waiting for my train. Incidentally the weight limit for one piece of luggage is 20kg. Cue lots of pissing about that morning trying to buy a bag to put excess weight in. Stuarts Top Tip - Never take a bike box anywhere. If anyone wants to buy it off me they can. I want a bike bag! So on the train I hopped. I had a sleeper carriage for the 12 hour journey and as you would expect I had the fellow traveller from hell in there with me. Telling me all about his expieriences in Bangkok and how girls there just wanted to ‘be with him’ no strings attached. Luckily he didnt attack me and I awoke the next morning feeling very travel sick.
Off the train at Roma St in Brisbane and then onto another train. Due to the baggage handlers putting my bike box in completely the wrong place. So I sat in the station for a bit. I was hoping for the 7:15 train but had to wait til the 7:45 service. Station by this time has started getting mega busy and Im wondering how the locals are going to feel about some immigrant disrupting their journey with a bike box and suitcase. I was also wondering how I was going to carry the box on then get back in time for the suitcase before the train pulled away. But I made it on. 2 hours to Robina station then into a taxi.
Cue the first of several people to hit me with… “So how is Ireland this time of year?” Bastards. Every time I politely reply “Oh no actually I’m Scottish… Kilts… Haggis… Shortbread?” to which everyone replies “Aah I have relatives from Scotland.” The two baggage handlers in Sydney were a classic example… One had an ex wife from Bute and the others mum was from Dundee. You have no idea how hard it was not to say Scumdee!
Anyway after a conversation about how much I loved his taxi… This thing is a Holden Commodore and has a 5.7 Litre engine! He dropped me off at my new residence. I got unpacked, settled in and scoped out the water for crocs. I didnt realise that you dont get crocs this far south. Better safe than sorry I thought. Got rid of some mozzies and tidied up. Nice area. Tallebudgera is probably the same size as Bridge of Allan but spread out over a big area. Friendly people and great weather. So I have been training away and working hard. These next few months arent about being the best in the world but being the best I can be. It sounds like a kop out but Im not going for results. As long as I know I have got the best out myself then I cant ask for anything more. If the results come with it then that is great and I will keep at it. But the main thing is I am enjoying the work and looking forward to seeing what comes from it. This is me 4 weeks in with a long way to go and hopefully lots more improvement and lots more learning. Watch this space.
The other thing I should probably mention is the wildlife which is far different to the kind of beasts you get wearing skirts in the Fubar. I have seen Iguanas that stand up on their back legs and run at you… I have been attacked by Magpies (although thanks to my trusty pump its Stuart 3 - 2 Magpies!) and on a longer ride recently there was a snake wandering down the hill towards me! Apparently the real big ones arent poisonous. I wasnt hanging around to find out!
My most recent spotting was a Kangaroo. Yes a real life one out in the middle of nowhere. It jumped out in front of me, stopped and looked straight at me. “Oh shit” I thought. I can see the headlines now… Scotsman battered by Skippy. It was a good few inches taller than me and his gunshow was far more impressive. Luckily he hopped away. No doubt away to tell the police someone was stuck down a mineshaft. So I carried on with the ride, slightly shaken (not stirred) and managed to finish the ride.
So thats about it. I am going to post some photos and videos when I get the cable to my camera. I think Im getting it posted to me which should be interesting with the postal strikes going on! But for now thats yer lot. I am focusing on walking the walk and not talking the talk so Im not going to post very often but I guess it wont hurt to update it every few weeks. I hope training for everyone is going well and that the weather is utterly miserable 
If you want to get in touch you can post a comment or drop me an email at triathlonstu@gmail.com
Stu
