QAS Training Camp Video

3 weeks of training and hours of footage cut down into about 16 minutes for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy

Christmas eve swim session

Christmas eve swim sets in our squad are usually notoriously long (typically 100X100's) however this year we had a more relaxed session of 500 metre efforts after a long 3 weeks at the training camp i previously blogged about.

 Coach Mossy's son Charlie giving assistant QAS coach Josh his present

 Charlie getting his from Josh.

 Sam Speechly being Sam Speechly

 Group shot.

QAS camp 2011 - a pictorical

The QAS December camp has been somewhat of a pilgrimage for me over the last 6 years. Usually 2-3 weeks of long steady km's. This year however I was sidelined for the majority of the training still trying to over come my 2nd stress fracture for the year. I managed to do a few swims here and there and made use of my downtime by putting together a video of the camp and also snapping the odd photo.

Below are a few happy snaps from the camp. Stay tuned for the video which I will post up soon.

On the last day we headed to skirmish/paintball. Dan Wilson copped a good one to the face and head. 

 Sam Speechly

Photo's from the BBQ on the final night.

Planet Cycles Launch

Last Sunday was the Planet Cycles store launch and I headed along with my Dad to check it out. The morning was an amazing success with so many people turning up to show there support for the store and all the amazing staff (that, and the $10,000's worth of random draw prizes on offer). Planet Cycles has been helping me out for a while now building all by bikes from Specialized and taking care of anything and everything I need so it was great to see the shop doing so well. It was also great to catchup with a few of the team from Specialized Australia who fly up for the launch as well as all the amazing staff from Planet Cycles. The new shop really showcases the professionalism and attention to detail that Planet Cycles and all the staff strive for.

 Rollar race to 500m which was cool to watch.

 And attracted a crowd as well.

The shop was packed upstairs and downstairs with everyone wanting to get a look at the new shop design and layout.

 Dad enjoyed the champaign that was on offer!

Bike + Car = This

Two days post the Noosa Triathlon I headed out for a nice ride to help recover the legs from the weekends race. This would be the final ride on the TT bike for several months as I would be stepping back onto my Venge road bike the very next day in preparation for the long training miles that lay ahead over the next few months in preparation for the races that lay ahead for me in 2012. On the final few km's of the ride heading home someone decided it might be a smart idea to open their car door (without even looking) into the bike lane where myself, a friend and my brother were riding. Fortunately for me I escaped relatively unharmed. However going from 30kph to 0 in less than a second didn't agree with the bike (and their car door, which they had trouble closing)

A big thank you must be given to my training partner Sam Speechly who was great at getting their details for insurance purposes as I was wasn't in the best shape to be dealing with the situation at hand.

Specialized Venge

Sexy isn't it! What you are looking at is my new ride for this coming season all thanks to Specialized Australia. From the few rides I have been able to do thus far on this amazing machine I can report that this is an absolute weapon!!! So stiff, light and very, very aero.

Thanks again to the amazing team at Specialized Australia for their support and you can see all the details on the Venge on their website Specialized Australia

Noosa Triathlon

First up, I knew this year it wasn't going to happen for me in regards to getting the result that I had been hoping/dreaming of all year. It came down to a combination of not doing much run training due to my stress fracture earlier this season and also only just getting back to a reasonable amount of swim and bike training kms. I really just was racing for fun this year and to see what I can pull out of the hat with minimal training.

I had an amazing start in the swim and completely avoided the carnage that formed behind me by sitting in 3rd (see photo below) for around 600m. From there it went backwards for me and I just couldn't settle into a rhythm and get comfortable and unfortunately dropped off the first swim pack. I swam the remaining swim portion stuck in no mans land between the 1st and 2nd swim packs.

I rode the first 10km solo still stuck between packs until finally getting caught by the 2nd bike pack which included multiple Ironman World Champion Chris McCormack.

In our group it only seemed to be myself, Macca and Paul Ambrose willing to do any work trying to bridge the gap back up to the leaders. We must have stung the legs of most the the group as after the turn around we dropped many of the riders who couldn't keep up with the pace being set. We also caught some of the riders who dropped from the first pack on the road just after the bike turnaround which was good motivation to keep pushing hard.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to run well enough to be a factor and decided to call it a day after 2km into the run. I still have a lot of work to do training wise until I am able to really be race fit so pushing it too hard just wasn't the smartest move for me at this stage of the year. Better to be safe than sorry!

Noosa Saturday

I've been racing at Noosa for over 6 years and have always loved the unique atmosphere and energy the race brings. For me its one race that I look forward to every year no matter what.

The day before there is always a lot of do for every athlete and for me I try and stay off my feet as much as possible however still trying to soak up that which is the Noosa Triathlon.

The day before the race I always head for a small ride of around an hour out along the course after which a quick coffee stop and breakfast then onto check in. However not before getting some final tuning of the bike with some new bar tape for race day thanks to the guys at Specialized Bikes.

 Onto the mandatory bike racking

Always great to catchup with the team from Oakley. They are an amazing sponsor which I have been lucky to have for over 5 years and completly decked me out for race day!

 The afternoon jog and last session before sunday race day.

Specialized Transition - aka Noosa assault weapon

 A thing of beauty isn't it.... All decked out and ready to go for the Noosa Triathlon bright and early tomorrow morning.

 Zipp 808 front and 900 disc on the rear with a 11/23 cluster.

 I'll be using the SRM Power control as well which shows everything you need including wattage/power output.

Long ride to Hope Island

Its thats time of year sports fans! Its when triathletes starts to rack up the km's in preparation for next seasons racing. For me that meant that today would be entail another long ride. Rather than the usual ride loops we do the group decided to mix it up a bit and we headed out to Hope Island on the Gold Coast. The distance was 160 kms for those interested.

My trusty Specialized Transition was the bike of choice for the ride

 Nutrition of choice: 2X Dextro Sports Drinks, 2X Water, 3X Dextro Chocolate Bars, 2 X Dextro Tabs.

This was the half way stop at Hope Island. Great view out across the water. 

 There was an abundance of golf carts which seemed to be for the locals to get around. Laziness millionaire style!

 Boys digging into the food.

 Tripple Berry Muffin. Very impressive.

 Matt was so stoked about the choc muffins.