Japan 70.3 Race Report.

Today was the first 70.3 (1/2 Ironman race in Japan at Centrair in Nagoya). Japan does many things well, and something's rather badly, I was desperately hoping this as going to be in the former camp, alas it was not to be. A swim course that was poorly marked, a bike course that on parts a MTB would have been more suitable, and race organisation that missed the ball on more than a number of occasions. However that being said the volunteers and course marshall's did an amazing job keeping the race flowing and this was ultimately about seeing how I would fair after my 11 day training session in Hokkaido.  Would all this training and hard effort actually help my performance or was it going to leave me with many unanswered questions?

Thankfully I was very happy with my result coming 55th overall and posting my fastest ever 1/2 marathon (1:42:12) in a 1/2 ironman event after a very hilly and technical bike ride and on a hot day! I have changed my tactic's a lot thanks to my new coach Woody, and it already seems to be paying dividends.

The swim 34:04
I was in Wave 2 and we kicked off at 7:35am. For some reason the race organisers failed to use enough buoy's to mark  the course properly and the 3 they did use were all so small that spotting the most direct course was very hard, especially as the current was strong in places. I didn't feel particularly fast for some reason, and had a few goggle issues and I knew coming out of the water that it wasn't going to be a great time. To see a 33 handle I was rather disappointed, but coming into T1 I saw Bevan and he is a fast swimmer so maybe everyone had a tougher swim than normal?

The bike 2:48:57
We had been warned at the race briefing that the first 7km's of the ride were dangerous (The race organiser's words not mine), so I had taken a quick look the day before to see how bad it was and although the surface was pretty horrendous  it looked ok. However I had done that ride at a fairly leisurly pace, and after exiting T1 this morning and coming out at race pace I felt the full force of this horrendous road surface. My bike is 100% carbon so is amazingly fast to accelerate and incredibly light weight, the downside is you feel every seam in the road, and today we didnt have seam's we had gaping wounds in the road. By kilometre 3 I had had both bottles jetison off my rear cages 3 times, on the 3rd time going up a bone shattering incline, I lost one at the bottom and retrieved the 2nd and got on my way knowing that there was only going to be 1 aid station.

The road surface improved but was now replaced by the most technical bike course I have ever done in a 70.3.  There must have been approx' 100+ 90degree turns some on incredibly narrow roads, finding a rhythm was proving hard and I was already starting to think bad thoughts about the race organisers for putting a race on such a poor course.

However everyone had to deal with it, so I followed my coaches advice and broke my 90km into 3 taking the first 1/3 relatively moderate then increasing the intensity into the 2nd 1/3 finally laying it all down on the final 1/3. A major difference to today's plan was to put into practice all the hard gear training I had been doing. I normally ride with a high cadence 90~100 in an easier gear and use my lungs to power me through, today was all about riding a harder gear, lowering the cadence to 75~80 and using muscle power not lungs. The effect is a much lower core temperature, something that has doomed me many times before. I worked hard to keep the cadence between the prescribed frequency, as it certainly sneaked up when I wasn't paying attention. With over 1,000m's in total climbing I was pleased that my legs were strong from all the riding in Hokkaido. I was happy with the time 2:48 and an Av speed of 31.96 km/h, not bad considering the course.

The Run 1:42:12.
I landed into T2 feeling rather batterd and bruised from the bone shaking ride, and after downing the now mandatory redbull, out I went. I was determined that what ever happened I was going to use the first 3 or 4 km's to find a rhythm, it didn't matter if it was just above walking pace I just had to find something. So I was amazed to feel my core wasn't that hot...after Suzu a month prior where I left T2 in the red zone, today I felt comfortable...shit I felt comfortable enough to run properly.

The tactics from Woody were to run every 14:30mins then walk 30sec's, but after 2km's in I knew that I could do better, I felt good and I wasn't going to be walking when I felt this good. Added to that my mate Bevan who is generally much faster than me was only 500m's ahead...that was striking distance. I tried to calm things down and not worry about Bevan but get myself into the zone, after running through a stitch at 3km's we were off. I had been hoping to run 5 minute km's, and saw that I was at a steady 4:45min pace. I immeditealy changed my tactics (you always have to be flexible to a changing race) and broke the course into 5 block's 4 * 5km's and 1*1km and planned to try and hold this pace and drop the hammer in the 4th 5km and catch Bevan.

The first 5km went down in 23:31,  the 2nd in 23:22, a small negative split. I was drinking coke at every aid station and had come armed with 4 shot's to keep the carb's up. The 3rd 5km was starting to hurt, and by now I could feel my 2 big toe's starting to blister. I was wearing my running flats today, again another change in tactics, to get me better positioned for fore foot striking, like I learnt in Hokkaido. I had to walk through 2 aid stations, and finished that 5km in just over 25min's. The fade had started...I wasn't gaining on Bevan, but I wasn't loosing ground either.  It was all about holding it together for the final 6km's. I focused on fore foot striking and keeping my cadence high, every time I did this I came out of my shuffle into a proper running stride. The 4th 5km came in at 24:43 and now it was just time to hang on for the finish.

I was chuffed to run a 1:42, my fastest ever run split by a decent margin. Was it the bigger gearing? was it the running flats? coke drinking? probably all of the above...either way it had worked and  I now have a decent platform and tactical awareness to base the world championships off.

Final time was 5:08:49 55th Overall, 14th in my Age group.

Journey's in Hokkaido

I had been planning to a bike tour in Hokkaido for many years, and finally I had the time! I managed to combine a 6 day tour with a week long triathlon camp organised by the Tritons Tri club in HK.

After taking the train North to Hachinohe I took the overnight ferry to Tomokamai.

Day 1. 96km - Cruisy ride.

Perfect cycling country.

I headed east along the coast, hoping to find the much talked about roads that were perfectly paved, had no cars, and were surrounded by glorious Hokkaido countryside. So I was rather disappointed with the first 30km as all I had managed to find was large industrial roads with no decent hard shoulder and too many fast cars...what had gone wrong? The spectacular riding I had heard about where was it?

Then at the 30 km mark I decided to make a sharp left, it was a life changing left turn, the roads became empty, the scenery turned into rural Japan, the sun was shining..I had found it cycling nirvana.

I road through to Hidaka, where 90% of Japan's horses are bred and trained. Settled into the youth hostel for the night and started my 2nd journey into the basics of Kanji.

Day 2. 70km - Hardest gear all the way.

About 30m visibility...Great!!

Hokkaido is a big island (most people tour it on motorbike's) so it was impossible for me to get all the way round in this trip, but I was damn sure I was going to hit at least 1 corner, and as I was already east so  cape Erimo Miyasaki it was. I took the train as far as I could and started my ride, unfortunately the weather didn't play ball, and after getting drenched, I got to the cape to see a curtain of mist/fog/rain/cloud.

I had ridden through quite a few villages along the coast, and was surprised to see how poor and quiet they were, the average age looked to be 70+ and most people were fisherman drying out seaweed by the roadside, not the picture of modern Japan you would expect.



Day 3. 65km - Hilly ride, 45mins in hardest gear whilst on the uphills.

THX 1138

I left a bright and sunny Tomokamai to ride to Lake Toya, this was going to be a hard ride up through the HoruHoru national park. It was a large change in scenery from the horse farms and coastal towns of east Japan, I was now into the mountains with all the waterfalls, and greenery that Japan does best.
That was until I came across this amazing futuristic tunnel at the top of the national park, it was like something out of THX-1138...only in Japan!








Day 4. 73km - undulating, cruisy pace, with 8*10secs ALL OUT.

Rode from the cloudy shores of Lake Toya and headed north to Hirafu for the start of my triathlon camp. Definitely felt a bit sore and tired on the power cranks. I have been to Hirafu many times during the winter I had never seen it in summer, it was not a disappointment. Yotei greeted me (well at least the bottom of it did) as the top was covered in cloud, here it is on day 7 in all its glory, a cracking sight.




Day 5. 52km on the bike (16km Lactate threshold time trial), 30minute LT run, Easy swim
First day of the triathlon camp, and not an easy one to start. We rode out to the farm roads near hirafu and after a decent warm up, did a 16km lactate threshold TT, I rode in 25:18. Then on the afternoon another LT test but this time on the run, it was a 30minute hard pace run. My results were 155bpm for both bike and run. The run felt a bit low (but probably due to me being tired). Easy 1km swim in the pool.

Day 6 . 95km ride, 1.5km swim in lake Toya
Rode from hirafu back to Lake Toya today, took some amazing fast flat empty farm roads, perfect for TT racing. Had my 2nd swim in lake Toya the visibility is amazing and no wetsuit needed. The ride on the way home not surprisingly hotted up on these perfect roads, myself, Bevan, Graham, Nick the coach and Jess were gunning it all  the way home, I ended up falling off the back of this pack, but was happy to average about 37kmh all the way home.

Day 7. 117km Long ride. Open water swim 1km.

Early start today as a long ride was planned. We rode from Hirafu through Konbu towards the very impressive Windsor hotel where the G8 summit was hosted in 2008. After some super fast flat roads, we encountered 18% gradients getting up to the hotel, we were rewarded with a pretty much empty 5 star hotel, that had a great bakery. Only in Japan do they let 7 gaijin into such an amazing hotel in our cycling gear.
We finished the day with a 1km open water swim, and underwater running drill set...starting to get tired....


Day 8. 20km easy ride, run conditioning session, 1km swim drills
Easier day today and needed it aswell. The run conditioning was all about fore foot running, increased cadence and slightly shorter stride.

Day 9. Race day. 2 sprints (500m swim, 13km bike, 3km run).
Time to put all of this training into practice. I was disappointed at first not to do a longer race at least Olympic, the sprints actually turned out to be good fun. The swims in lake Toya


Day10. Long run 1:30hour's.
Last day of the camp today, long run, and a good brunch. Managed to get a good sports massage in aswell. 4 hours of Kanji practice and then a few beers for the Bledisloe cup...cracking day.


Day11. 82km Cruisy ride.

My last look at Yotei.

My last day of the tour, with the camp finishing yesterday I left a very quiet Hirafu. Rode up to Annupuri to go and check out Annupuri village and the new Capella resort. Big money is certainly changing hands in that region.
It was a windy ride into Lake toya, where I took the overnight train back into Ueno. Harder ride than I wanted for my last day 82km's into wind on the power cranks...ouch.








700km + over 11 days, with over half being on power cranks, not a bad session. I certainly feel a lot stronger in the saddle, will get to test that next weekend in Japan 70.3. Studied all of JLPT level 5 kanji.....bring on level 4.