With some sweet new kit and a very generous BG bike fit, there's nothing stopping me from smashing out more crazy bike splits in my races..
There are a few changes and improvements being made this year so 2013 watch out because this is my year.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
New Sponsor- The Cyclery!!
Thank you to my newest (and first) sponsor, The Cyclery bike shop, Lonsdale Street Braddon and Fyshwick. Visit their web page at http://thecyclery.net.au/
With some sweet new kit and a very generous BG bike fit, there's nothing stopping me from smashing out more crazy bike splits in my races..
There are a few changes and improvements being made this year so 2013 watch out because this is my year.
With some sweet new kit and a very generous BG bike fit, there's nothing stopping me from smashing out more crazy bike splits in my races..
There are a few changes and improvements being made this year so 2013 watch out because this is my year.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Shepparton 70.3 - 18 November 2012
Race number 3, I had time after Port to actually train a bit, and work on my run.
I was very lucky to have such awesome people here in Canberra to help me out. I approached Daniel Green to help me with my run technique which was invaluable, skipping to the detail he helped me drop to a 1.33 half time, 2 little technique cues and that was only with 3x 20min runs a week- Potential?? I hope so..
Brad Hisko was able to keep my screaming Obturator at bay and gave me exercises needed to adopt the new technique. Thanks guys!!
The Race
My swim at shep was crappy. I started with the pack then i think i got a little too comfortable and got dropped at about the750m mark, I was alone. As annoying as this is I'm not one to harp on things that happen, I put my head down and kept going. In the end it wasn't a terrible time but I had a good couple of minutes to catch up to the 2 leaders Bec Keat and Lisa Marrangon.
Onto the bike and a few niggling cramps forced me to start slow but once again they left me (thank god) and I was able to start pushing. It seemed like forever before Bec Keat came into view, Due to dead roads and lots of turns but once in sight I passed without hesitation. Unfortunately Marrangon never came into view which did deter me slightly, I really couldn't tell if I was riding well or not. In the end I had the quickest time by a minute, I guess I was riding alright.
Onto the run, and as I brushed on earlier I felt good!!! :) I did not think I would be saying that so soon, but for once I actually felt like I could push and not just ' get through it' , I pushed the entire way, hips forward, striding back wards not forwards and I was moving- forward this time!! I was stoked not to get caught, I was only passed by Bec Keat who went on to win, and Lisa stayed in front only being passed by Bec also but no one else, as hard as Sarah Crowley was trying I don't think she expected such a big improvement in the run from me, but then again neither did I. It was nice to be able to use the engine in the run. Can't wait for future races.. I am excited about my run improving. So exciting.. So finished up in 3rd again. happy.
I was very lucky to have such awesome people here in Canberra to help me out. I approached Daniel Green to help me with my run technique which was invaluable, skipping to the detail he helped me drop to a 1.33 half time, 2 little technique cues and that was only with 3x 20min runs a week- Potential?? I hope so..
Brad Hisko was able to keep my screaming Obturator at bay and gave me exercises needed to adopt the new technique. Thanks guys!!
The Race
My swim at shep was crappy. I started with the pack then i think i got a little too comfortable and got dropped at about the750m mark, I was alone. As annoying as this is I'm not one to harp on things that happen, I put my head down and kept going. In the end it wasn't a terrible time but I had a good couple of minutes to catch up to the 2 leaders Bec Keat and Lisa Marrangon.
Onto the bike and a few niggling cramps forced me to start slow but once again they left me (thank god) and I was able to start pushing. It seemed like forever before Bec Keat came into view, Due to dead roads and lots of turns but once in sight I passed without hesitation. Unfortunately Marrangon never came into view which did deter me slightly, I really couldn't tell if I was riding well or not. In the end I had the quickest time by a minute, I guess I was riding alright.
Onto the run, and as I brushed on earlier I felt good!!! :) I did not think I would be saying that so soon, but for once I actually felt like I could push and not just ' get through it' , I pushed the entire way, hips forward, striding back wards not forwards and I was moving- forward this time!! I was stoked not to get caught, I was only passed by Bec Keat who went on to win, and Lisa stayed in front only being passed by Bec also but no one else, as hard as Sarah Crowley was trying I don't think she expected such a big improvement in the run from me, but then again neither did I. It was nice to be able to use the engine in the run. Can't wait for future races.. I am excited about my run improving. So exciting.. So finished up in 3rd again. happy.
Port Macquarie 70.3 - 28th October 2012
So after my more than competent return to racing, I decided I just couldn't pass up another opportunity to race, in 7days. Because of the lack of running I had been doing in the lead up to Mandurah I was- to dull it down a little- slightly sore, I just concentrated on getting myself able to walk again by Sunday.
It's kind of nice racing back to back, I didn't have to train so much just recover well. I got myself to Port Mac ready to go.
The Race
I had a good swim at Port, coming out first with Kiyomi Niwata (officially 2nd by 0.1sec ). It felt reasonably easy too so happy with that. The bike was awesome, no cramping, so I was happy to put the smack down right from the word go. I managed to put 11.30 into the next girl off the bike. Yep, 11min 30, I should be able to hold that lead right? Wrong. I ran on the spot. I quietly hoped I would be able to run better at this race after my long hard training session exactly 7 days earlier but no, I ran terribly with a 1.43 half. Britta Martin managed to run 19 min quicker and took out the race, Rebecca Hoschke also had a Stella run coming in 2nd, I held on for 3rd. I was content, the fact I could hold it together with so little running and such a short training block coming back into it, I was convinced that this was my chance, my body was finally giving into my stubborn head and letting me do this.
It's kind of nice racing back to back, I didn't have to train so much just recover well. I got myself to Port Mac ready to go.
The Race
I had a good swim at Port, coming out first with Kiyomi Niwata (officially 2nd by 0.1sec ). It felt reasonably easy too so happy with that. The bike was awesome, no cramping, so I was happy to put the smack down right from the word go. I managed to put 11.30 into the next girl off the bike. Yep, 11min 30, I should be able to hold that lead right? Wrong. I ran on the spot. I quietly hoped I would be able to run better at this race after my long hard training session exactly 7 days earlier but no, I ran terribly with a 1.43 half. Britta Martin managed to run 19 min quicker and took out the race, Rebecca Hoschke also had a Stella run coming in 2nd, I held on for 3rd. I was content, the fact I could hold it together with so little running and such a short training block coming back into it, I was convinced that this was my chance, my body was finally giving into my stubborn head and letting me do this.
I'm back- Mandurah 70.3 - 21st October 2012
It's been awhile since I've posted anything, but then again it has been awhile since I've raced and pretty much since my last blog in mid 2009 I have been to hell and back...
I might get into what has happened the last few years in a future post but for now let's keep in positive- I am back doing what I love, racing :)
Since studying for uni, in particular biochemistry I happened to stumble upon a life changing piece of information, which has appeared to have cured me somewhat of my mysterious cramping up in races and inspired me to come out of retirement where in typical Kat Baker style, I took it too far and worked up to 80hr a week for 4 different companies in various different jobs. Agh I just can't help myself. It was end of july and i decided i would just get back on my bike and make sure i still new how to ride, then August 1st i would follow a specific program i would write for myself, which i had been doing since the beginning of 2009 anyway. Port Macquarie 28 October looked like an achievable first race back. There was a slight problem though, back in September 2011 I had torn my Obturator Externus, on my last 'comeback' and it still wasn't healed, and would limit my running making Port questionable but possible, I decided to just keep it in the back of my mind as a possibility. As the race grew nearer I found out there was another race, Mandurah 70.3, the Australian Pro Championships none the less, which was Oct 21st, a week earlier. I'll do both. Again, a questionable decision, and I said to myself at least enter both then if there is any problems at least you'll have another to do as back up.
So against all odds and against what Brad Hisko- my awesome therapist helping me with my hip, would have said (I may have failed to ask him if I could race, I was only up to 20min of running at this stage), I got to Perth in reasonably good nic.
The Race
In the swim I did ok, definitely better than previous years. This I put down to my change of stroke in the month leading up. I came out in 5th just a bit behind Lisa Marangon who was slightly behind Annabel Luxford, Liz Blatchford and another ITU girl.
Onto the bike where unfortunately I did cramp up a little, preventing me from smacking it from the start but I got there eventually the cramps went away and I dug deep passing all the girls who had passed me while I was cramping up and all the girls who had beaten me out of the water. I was on fire, and it felt good.
Unfortunately i didn't pass the leaders until the end of the ride and I started taking my feet out of my shoes a little early, so the girls who had managed to stay with me (Blatchford and Marangon) passed me and got into transition first but I was right there with them but as I expected only having run 20min in the lead up they quickly ran away and I was passed by a few of the fast runners.. But on the
bright side I didn't do too bad, managed to hold onto 6th and ran a 1.36, with an overall of 4.19- one of my best! ( how does that happen???). I was back.
I might get into what has happened the last few years in a future post but for now let's keep in positive- I am back doing what I love, racing :)
Since studying for uni, in particular biochemistry I happened to stumble upon a life changing piece of information, which has appeared to have cured me somewhat of my mysterious cramping up in races and inspired me to come out of retirement where in typical Kat Baker style, I took it too far and worked up to 80hr a week for 4 different companies in various different jobs. Agh I just can't help myself. It was end of july and i decided i would just get back on my bike and make sure i still new how to ride, then August 1st i would follow a specific program i would write for myself, which i had been doing since the beginning of 2009 anyway. Port Macquarie 28 October looked like an achievable first race back. There was a slight problem though, back in September 2011 I had torn my Obturator Externus, on my last 'comeback' and it still wasn't healed, and would limit my running making Port questionable but possible, I decided to just keep it in the back of my mind as a possibility. As the race grew nearer I found out there was another race, Mandurah 70.3, the Australian Pro Championships none the less, which was Oct 21st, a week earlier. I'll do both. Again, a questionable decision, and I said to myself at least enter both then if there is any problems at least you'll have another to do as back up.
So against all odds and against what Brad Hisko- my awesome therapist helping me with my hip, would have said (I may have failed to ask him if I could race, I was only up to 20min of running at this stage), I got to Perth in reasonably good nic.
The Race
In the swim I did ok, definitely better than previous years. This I put down to my change of stroke in the month leading up. I came out in 5th just a bit behind Lisa Marangon who was slightly behind Annabel Luxford, Liz Blatchford and another ITU girl.
Onto the bike where unfortunately I did cramp up a little, preventing me from smacking it from the start but I got there eventually the cramps went away and I dug deep passing all the girls who had passed me while I was cramping up and all the girls who had beaten me out of the water. I was on fire, and it felt good.
Unfortunately i didn't pass the leaders until the end of the ride and I started taking my feet out of my shoes a little early, so the girls who had managed to stay with me (Blatchford and Marangon) passed me and got into transition first but I was right there with them but as I expected only having run 20min in the lead up they quickly ran away and I was passed by a few of the fast runners.. But on the
bright side I didn't do too bad, managed to hold onto 6th and ran a 1.36, with an overall of 4.19- one of my best! ( how does that happen???). I was back.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Kansas 70.3 June 14 2009
My first 70.3 race. Micko and i were to be staying with yet another fantastic homestay in Kansas city, 45 min away from the race. We started our drive to Kansas from Boulder for some really strange reason thinking it was going to be a 6 hour drive. Kansas is not 6 hours away from Boulder. 12 hours later (including the time zone loss of an hour) we made it in the rust coloured roof dodge caravan.
It turned out the field was a lot more packed than we initially expected. Chrissie Wellington, Pip Taylor, Jo Lawn, Nina Craft among others. The men’s field was just as good with Luke Bell, Tim O’Donell, Paul Matthews, Tim Deboom, Simon Thompson. It was going to be a fun race.
Race day was expected to be stormy and wet and the morning of just supported that. There was lightning and a bit of rain at 4.30am when we were driving out. Luckily though, it looked ok at 5 when we arrived. The park where the event was held was hectic. There was one road in- no road for the pros who were off first and we found ourselves in a 45min traffic Jam. As we were starting to panic a little, i saw a porta loo on the side of the road while we were waiting in traffic- this seemed like a good idea so we didn’t have to wait in lines down in transition, we pulled to the side and switched off the car- bad move. A few minutes later, when we were back in and ready to keep moving the rocked dodge caravan wouldn’t start. Oh well, Leave it. I scribbled on some paper ‘Car wont Start’. We grabbed our stuff and ran to transition. We reached T2 to put our shoes down at 6am. We were scheduled to start at 6.30 and T1 was down by the lake a 20min walk away. We put our shoes down and continued running. Quickly setting up our bikes and putting on our wetsuits we hurried to the start. Just in time.
The swim for me was disappointing. I just have trouble sitting on feet. My swim 2 weeks ago was 26min and i was off by myself. The swim here was 28min while i was trying to draft. I think i’m just going to swim by myself next time. I came out in about 7th or 8th place. I was excited to get onto the bike because i had had some awesome training and the ride was going really well for me- i really wanted to ride! I jumped on the bike and rode strong- one of the top ride times. I laughed when riding along the only road going in and out- our car was right next to an aid station. They had banners around it and bins. I passed quite a few girls including ironman champ Nina Craft. I rode myself into 4th place. Still ahead was Chrissie, Pip and some other girl who finished very well- who were all riding very well together. Unfortunately for me my run is still just coming along and it was inevitable that i would get passed by the stronger runners. That i did and i finished up in 8th. Not bad for such a packed field. I have improved on my last race however and i know the next race will be even better. Chrissie won by miles and Pip was 2nd. The other girl was 3rd and Jo Lawn 4th. Luke Bell won the Men’s race.
The story doesn’t finish there. We collected our stuff after the race and walked to our car hoping it had composed itself and would finally start. Crossing our fingers and after explaining what happened to the people at the aid station we tried....it didn’t start. Shit. A lady came up to us and said some officers were coming to help us- meantime people were still running the course right next to the car- it was the run turnaround, grabbing and throwing cups, gu’s and sponges at the car (kinda- the bins next to it anyway). A few guys came to help and they concluded that it wasn’t the battery- oh oh. One of them was talking to the other and mentioned something about fuel. “it was on empty!” I said. It turns out, the angle that the car was slanted on because of the slight ditch we were parked on the side of, meant the fuel in the tank was on the opposite side to go into the engine. One guy left to get us a jerry and then a few national Weight lifters came to our aid and we pushed the car onto the flat. After refuelling it started and we were off to go get petrol!! We were applauded by everyone at the aid station and our other helpers. What a debarcle.
We assured them we wouldn’t park there again next year. Sorry about the lack of actual race coverage. The car was the interesting bit. Kansas was nothing like we expected. It was so green and full of rolling hills, beautiful actually. A bit different to the brown, dry, flat desert we were told it was going to be.
Next is Buffalo Springs, Texas in 2 weeks time.
It turned out the field was a lot more packed than we initially expected. Chrissie Wellington, Pip Taylor, Jo Lawn, Nina Craft among others. The men’s field was just as good with Luke Bell, Tim O’Donell, Paul Matthews, Tim Deboom, Simon Thompson. It was going to be a fun race.
Race day was expected to be stormy and wet and the morning of just supported that. There was lightning and a bit of rain at 4.30am when we were driving out. Luckily though, it looked ok at 5 when we arrived. The park where the event was held was hectic. There was one road in- no road for the pros who were off first and we found ourselves in a 45min traffic Jam. As we were starting to panic a little, i saw a porta loo on the side of the road while we were waiting in traffic- this seemed like a good idea so we didn’t have to wait in lines down in transition, we pulled to the side and switched off the car- bad move. A few minutes later, when we were back in and ready to keep moving the rocked dodge caravan wouldn’t start. Oh well, Leave it. I scribbled on some paper ‘Car wont Start’. We grabbed our stuff and ran to transition. We reached T2 to put our shoes down at 6am. We were scheduled to start at 6.30 and T1 was down by the lake a 20min walk away. We put our shoes down and continued running. Quickly setting up our bikes and putting on our wetsuits we hurried to the start. Just in time.
The swim for me was disappointing. I just have trouble sitting on feet. My swim 2 weeks ago was 26min and i was off by myself. The swim here was 28min while i was trying to draft. I think i’m just going to swim by myself next time. I came out in about 7th or 8th place. I was excited to get onto the bike because i had had some awesome training and the ride was going really well for me- i really wanted to ride! I jumped on the bike and rode strong- one of the top ride times. I laughed when riding along the only road going in and out- our car was right next to an aid station. They had banners around it and bins. I passed quite a few girls including ironman champ Nina Craft. I rode myself into 4th place. Still ahead was Chrissie, Pip and some other girl who finished very well- who were all riding very well together. Unfortunately for me my run is still just coming along and it was inevitable that i would get passed by the stronger runners. That i did and i finished up in 8th. Not bad for such a packed field. I have improved on my last race however and i know the next race will be even better. Chrissie won by miles and Pip was 2nd. The other girl was 3rd and Jo Lawn 4th. Luke Bell won the Men’s race.
The story doesn’t finish there. We collected our stuff after the race and walked to our car hoping it had composed itself and would finally start. Crossing our fingers and after explaining what happened to the people at the aid station we tried....it didn’t start. Shit. A lady came up to us and said some officers were coming to help us- meantime people were still running the course right next to the car- it was the run turnaround, grabbing and throwing cups, gu’s and sponges at the car (kinda- the bins next to it anyway). A few guys came to help and they concluded that it wasn’t the battery- oh oh. One of them was talking to the other and mentioned something about fuel. “it was on empty!” I said. It turns out, the angle that the car was slanted on because of the slight ditch we were parked on the side of, meant the fuel in the tank was on the opposite side to go into the engine. One guy left to get us a jerry and then a few national Weight lifters came to our aid and we pushed the car onto the flat. After refuelling it started and we were off to go get petrol!! We were applauded by everyone at the aid station and our other helpers. What a debarcle.
We assured them we wouldn’t park there again next year. Sorry about the lack of actual race coverage. The car was the interesting bit. Kansas was nothing like we expected. It was so green and full of rolling hills, beautiful actually. A bit different to the brown, dry, flat desert we were told it was going to be.
Next is Buffalo Springs, Texas in 2 weeks time.
Kat
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Thursday 11 June 2009
Well we made it to Boulder. 2 weeks later we are off again to Kansas for my big 70.3 Debut. I bought some Zipp 808’s just the other day so i’m excited about giving them a hit. It should help having race wheels. Training in Boulder hasn’t been the best because it has been fricken raining the whole time! Apparently unusual- it hasn’t been that fun riding. Swimming has been going well though as has gym and running pretty good. Because of the altitude though we cant go too hard- we haven’t done the mile repeats yet for example.
Kansas is 8 hours away and we are just in the middle of the drive now. Its dead flat and very boring. It will be interesting to see how we race off training at altitude and having a race under our belt now. Should be fun.
Kansas is 8 hours away and we are just in the middle of the drive now. Its dead flat and very boring. It will be interesting to see how we race off training at altitude and having a race under our belt now. Should be fun.
Monday, June 1, 2009
To Boulder!
Well the Half has been run and won. I was estatic to find out i had broken the course record by 25mins! I had a killer bike. The swim was pretty good, concidering i wasn’t sitting on- it was all me. The run was actually a bit of a disaster because i was cramping in my quads the whole time but i trucked on and actually managed a reasonable time on that particular course. I am very happy with how well our training has prepared us. We are off to Boulder now in the big Dodge Caravan we bought for $500! It is rock solid with a V6 engine, very powerful and ensures that we don’t get dropped on the climbs. Unfortunately the first car we bought, a Subaru loyal pretty much blew up on us 4 times, so we decided not to use it last minute and bought this. Money well spent on the dodge. Its also cool because we figured out too that you can drive it without the key! Ha. You just start it up by twisting the key hole. Pretty cool- especially if you tend to loose keys. So we are half way through our trip- staying in a cheap hotel we booked on hotwire in Salt Lake City.
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