We’re just over two weeks out from the race that is for many, a culmination of a season’s worth of training and racing. For some, it is an annual ritual. For others, like my good mate Stuart Charman (@stucharman), it is a venture into the unknown – an introduction to the Ironman experience.

I say “experience”, because taking part in an Ironman event doesn’t lie in just what happens on race day. As you know, there are months of preparation that lie beforehand, and as race day draws closer, the little things get magnified and as an athlete you naturally question and scrutinise every single little thing you do.

If I can give you one piece of advice – trust your own experience and have faith that you have what it takes to achieve your goal.

This post is basically a collection of useful links and videos that you may find helpful in the lead up to Port Macquarie.

• 3 Weeks till Ironman Australia, make them count – 5 easy ways to get your body in race ready shape between now and May 1st.

A few of my posts relating specifically to Port Macquarie:

• Ironman University – Two Weeks Out… – a few of my tips to get your prepared.
• The Curse of the Ironman PB - ok, this post didn’t lead to the result I hoped, but it might help you!
• 6 Ways To Help Save Triathlon – just a few things you can do whilst in Port Mac to help keep the locals smiling!
• My Top 5 Ironman Triathlon Mistakes – read these and avoid learning the hard way.

Here are four videos from Mitch Anderson and the crew at FirstOffTheBike.com (keep in mind the course has changed in some parts this year, although much of it will be the same or similar):

This little video provides a short introduction to a small section of the course.Whilst it doesn’t show much, I find any vision I can get of a course before arriving in the town helps visualise what it will be like.

If you only look at one video, make it this last one. Thanks to TriSpecific and Urban Ninja for bringing it to my attention! If it doesn’t make you want to get out there and give it your best, I suggest you quietly pop your race gear back in its box and go put your feet up. Everyone else, get out there and race!!!

I hope you find some of this information helpful. Success in Ironman is about hard work, specific training and intelligent racing. Get to it!

It’s been a few weeks now that I’ve been testing the Skins A400 Compression Half Tights and I’ve got to say that are at the top of my running gear pile!

My training time has been quite limited lately, so most of my runs have been quality sessions – either short intervals on the track or longer fartlek work on the local trails. In the past I’ve only been able to manage one intense run session per week but having cut back the volume, I am handling the increased intensity quite well. At the same time, I’ve switched to lighter shoes for training – Asics DS Trainer – which in the past have left me with tight and sore legs afterwards but have recently felt more comfortable than my older, heavier training shoes.

This improvement in my run training is indicative of taking care of the factors that actually allow me to run in the first place. Eating healthily and regular Trigger Point therapy applied to my body is increasing the speed at which I can recover from these harder sessions. Also playing a role are the compression half tights I’ve been wearing during the sessions.

I’ve used Skins compression tights previously for recovery purposes but these half tights were the first compression garment I’ve used during training.

Have you ever seen the super slow motion footage of tennis players as they lunge for a baseline shot? Well, I imagine that it’s probably pretty similar, if not worse, every step of a training run! Continue Reading “Review: Skins A400 Half Tights” »

I’ve been lucky enough to be given a pair of Skins A400 Compression Half Tights to test out. I’ll provide a full review after a few more runs but I can already tell you that these are some really comfortable shorts for training in.

The packaging is quite impressive – they come in a slide out box, sure, that has no impact on performance but when you’re in store and buying some gear, it’s always nice when something comes nicely packaged rather than folded up in a bag. When you’re investing in some compression gear, I reckon that’s a nice touch.

Aside from some tight fitting triathlon gear, these are the first dedicated compression shorts I’ve run in. Now, I’ve only been for a couple of runs in them so far but having tried many different brands in the past, these shorts are the most comfortable by far. There are no uncomfortable seams inside or out, they have a smooth feel about them and there have been no chaffing issues whatsoever (so important!!).

I’m looking forward to giving them a run on the track for some speedwork – being around the 80kg mark, my quads usually suffer once I’m running sub 3:30min/km pace. From how they’ve felt so far, these shorts feel like I’ll have that extra bit of support I need to get some decent sessions done; and be able to back up the next day! I’ll let you know how it goes!

Note: Skins Australia are not a sponsor of mine but have supplied me with this product to trial and review – all views within this blog post are mine, and not those of Skins Australia.

Sometimes I learn the hard way. Having been through the “old-school” path of working up through the triathlon ranks to the Ironman distance, after sixteen years I’ve made my fair share of mistakes.

Some say that the best way to be successful is to learn from your mistakes. Others believe learning from failure is overrated and you should emphasise learning from your successes instead. I’ve formed the opinion that if you attempt to learn from all experiences – positive and negative – you’re on the right track.

As you may know, Ironman can be a fickle beast. One minute you feel on top of the world, the next you’re scraping the bottom of the energy barrel. Little errors produce little effects. Little effects gradually accumulate and have the potential to ruin your day.

I have selected five mistakes I’ve made in Ironman racing – some big, some small – but all have impacted negatively on my racing at some point. Own their own, some of these mistakes might not amount to much, but when you combine a couple of them you suddenly have a recipe for a bad race.
Continue Reading “My Top 5 Ironman Triathlon Mistakes” »

Boring! That’s what most people are probably thinking when they read the title of this post. The fact that you are reading this sentence means you probably have some appreciation for healthy nutrition. It’s a shame those others don’t realise how much performance you can gain through changing simple eating habits!

Over the years, I’ve been to coaching/nutrition courses, training camps, and nutritional seminars. All pretty much drill the same old spiels into you. As a teenage triathlete I would sometimes eat huge amounts of pasta, bread and cereals, simply because that’s what I was told was the best thing to do by those “in the know”! In fact, I would go as far as saying that there is almost a binge eating issue in some circles of the sport. I speak as an former example of that.

Long training rides were a lead up to a post-training refuel that consisted of eating as much as I could, a lot of it high in sugar. It’s no wonder that the following day saw me feeling incredibly lethargic. My body was still struggling to process all of the rubbish I’d stuffed into it. Sound familiar? Continue Reading “Taking Responsibility Of Your Nutrition” »