Now's the time when everything should be coming togeather leading into the European season with a bucket full of races in a short space of time. In a couple of weeks I head over to Germany for seven races mostly Olympic distance and a couple of Half Ironman events all in the space of 10 weeks. ( You will be able to follow my races and results from my events column shortly)
Training seems to be going really well after recovering from a heavy chest infection the last couple of weeks, I managed to win a race on the weekend in outback Queensland and have been putting some really solid training sessions togeather. My first real test will come on the 9th of May when I head back over to Noumea, a race I have won the past two years and I would love to win again.
To make things even more exciting my partner Danielle and I recently announced our engagement and are expecting our first child later in the year. We are yet to put a date on the wedding but will most likley be some time next year.
More news soon.
Aaron.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
AIS Testing for Time Trial World Championships
Its on again, the AIS is running a study to determine the best pre-cooling strategy for the World Time Trial Championships later this year in Geelong and I was invited to take part.
The study involves four time trial efforts on the compu-trainer in the AIS lab over the Geelong course with four different strategies in varying heat.
Time trials are hard at any time but I find sitting in the lab trying to do it so much harder mentally as your just sitting in the one spot for the 46km watching the TV screen. The goal for us is to ride the fastest time possible consistently over the four time trials and to make it more of a challange we wont be able to see our heart rate, power output or overall time untill the end of the study.
For me its not just about trying to help our guys like Cadell and Mick out for the race but we also get alot of feedback from the study such as sweat rates, VO2 levels and a good look at how I react under different situations, which is all handy information to have in the memory bank as all my races have different conditions which call for different preparation.
I had my first time trial yesterday and will try and knock one over every week for the next four weeks leading into the European season.
Training seems to be going well now, I'm just trying to get some speed back in the legs and some decent km in the pool. My next race is next weekend up in QLD then I head over to Noumea on the 7th of May for my final race before heading back to Germany.
Farlow
The study involves four time trial efforts on the compu-trainer in the AIS lab over the Geelong course with four different strategies in varying heat.
Time trials are hard at any time but I find sitting in the lab trying to do it so much harder mentally as your just sitting in the one spot for the 46km watching the TV screen. The goal for us is to ride the fastest time possible consistently over the four time trials and to make it more of a challange we wont be able to see our heart rate, power output or overall time untill the end of the study.
For me its not just about trying to help our guys like Cadell and Mick out for the race but we also get alot of feedback from the study such as sweat rates, VO2 levels and a good look at how I react under different situations, which is all handy information to have in the memory bank as all my races have different conditions which call for different preparation.
I had my first time trial yesterday and will try and knock one over every week for the next four weeks leading into the European season.
Training seems to be going well now, I'm just trying to get some speed back in the legs and some decent km in the pool. My next race is next weekend up in QLD then I head over to Noumea on the 7th of May for my final race before heading back to Germany.
Farlow
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Abu Dhabi, Singapore double
Just got back during the week from a two week trip firstly to Abu Dhabi then on to Singapore 70.3.
Both races went reasonably well and I was happy with many of the improvements that I had made leading into these races, I was especially happy that I got my nutrition right for both an extremly long race in Abu Dhabi followed by a very hot tough race in Singapore.
Abu Dhabi was a new concept with a 3km swim 200km bike and a 20km run so for months leading into the race I was doing alot of hard long miles on the bike and some huge training days, very similar to the preparation I would do leading into an Ironman.
The race was offering $250000US prize pool so attracted most of the big name guys that I had only ever seen on TV or read about, I though this was a great opportunity for me to see where I would fit in to the Ironman scheme of things without actually doing an Ironman.
I made the lead group in the swim and just tried to hold my threshold on the bike. To stay in the lead group I had to ride slightly above what I knew I could hold and sure enough at the 90km mark I just had to let the group go and find my own pace. This seemed to be a good move as I held a constant pace for the next 110km and was able to concentrate on my nutrition and hydration that was going to play a major role later in the run. Getting off the bike, even though I averaged 40km/h for the 200km I was a long way from the lead and a long way from a top 10 position which was where the money was going down to so the run was really just for pride and to prove to myself that I can handle the distance. I managed to pick up a few places on the run and finished 16th, a pretty good result.
So after this I had to try and recover enough to be competitive in Singapore 70.3 eight days later.
I was'nt sure if I could do it but I was determined to give it a go, the field was no where near as strong and I thought that top 5 would be achieveable, thinking that there are always alot that drop out in Singapoe simply because of the conditions and there were only 15 of us to start with.
I had one of the easiest weeks I've ever done, alot of stretching,sleeping and just enough to keep the body rolling over and by Sunday I was feeling like I wanted to race again!
The swim and bike turned out similar to the week before, I made the front group in the swim, we caught one of the guys that swam off the front, and two guys caught our group from behind so after a very flat fast 90km we rolled into t2 as a group of about 8 guys. The weather was warming up and I did'nt know what to expect from my legs over the next 21km but I thought if I just keep hydrated and get my nutrition right I'll surley be able to get through it. Within the first half lap Craig Alaxander had put about a minute into most of us, I felt terrible but I seemed to be moving along ok and soon enough guys started to crack and I found myself in second position still only about 1min down on Crowie, I thought this was great, surley I could finish top 5 if I could just get through the next lap and a half (10km).
I ran better than I thought I would be able to and after a long battle with James Cannama came over the line in 3rd place totally spent and looking for some recovery. That was my best result in a 70.3 so far so I was wrapped.
So now I start to prepare for the European season and alot more shorter races in the coming months.
Massive thanks for the Dobson family who let me stay with them over in Abu Dhabi and my cousins in Singapore thats now become more like a second home.
Aaron
Both races went reasonably well and I was happy with many of the improvements that I had made leading into these races, I was especially happy that I got my nutrition right for both an extremly long race in Abu Dhabi followed by a very hot tough race in Singapore.
Abu Dhabi was a new concept with a 3km swim 200km bike and a 20km run so for months leading into the race I was doing alot of hard long miles on the bike and some huge training days, very similar to the preparation I would do leading into an Ironman.
The race was offering $250000US prize pool so attracted most of the big name guys that I had only ever seen on TV or read about, I though this was a great opportunity for me to see where I would fit in to the Ironman scheme of things without actually doing an Ironman.
I made the lead group in the swim and just tried to hold my threshold on the bike. To stay in the lead group I had to ride slightly above what I knew I could hold and sure enough at the 90km mark I just had to let the group go and find my own pace. This seemed to be a good move as I held a constant pace for the next 110km and was able to concentrate on my nutrition and hydration that was going to play a major role later in the run. Getting off the bike, even though I averaged 40km/h for the 200km I was a long way from the lead and a long way from a top 10 position which was where the money was going down to so the run was really just for pride and to prove to myself that I can handle the distance. I managed to pick up a few places on the run and finished 16th, a pretty good result.
So after this I had to try and recover enough to be competitive in Singapore 70.3 eight days later.
I was'nt sure if I could do it but I was determined to give it a go, the field was no where near as strong and I thought that top 5 would be achieveable, thinking that there are always alot that drop out in Singapoe simply because of the conditions and there were only 15 of us to start with.
I had one of the easiest weeks I've ever done, alot of stretching,sleeping and just enough to keep the body rolling over and by Sunday I was feeling like I wanted to race again!
The swim and bike turned out similar to the week before, I made the front group in the swim, we caught one of the guys that swam off the front, and two guys caught our group from behind so after a very flat fast 90km we rolled into t2 as a group of about 8 guys. The weather was warming up and I did'nt know what to expect from my legs over the next 21km but I thought if I just keep hydrated and get my nutrition right I'll surley be able to get through it. Within the first half lap Craig Alaxander had put about a minute into most of us, I felt terrible but I seemed to be moving along ok and soon enough guys started to crack and I found myself in second position still only about 1min down on Crowie, I thought this was great, surley I could finish top 5 if I could just get through the next lap and a half (10km).
I ran better than I thought I would be able to and after a long battle with James Cannama came over the line in 3rd place totally spent and looking for some recovery. That was my best result in a 70.3 so far so I was wrapped.
So now I start to prepare for the European season and alot more shorter races in the coming months.
Massive thanks for the Dobson family who let me stay with them over in Abu Dhabi and my cousins in Singapore thats now become more like a second home.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
