Faster, Higher…Stronger.
General
Back to normal…
Jul 28th
Let’s see, the World Cup is over, the Tour is over and the sleep patterns are slowly finding there way back to normal…With that said though you can only but wonder how we managed to fit it all in.
We’re still on track for the City to Surf Marathon and the Melbourne Marathon guys & girls are going great guns… If anything in BYL land is to change then it will be a few more regular updates on the site.
A few races to watch out for in August -
- 8th August – Perth Half Marathon
- 29th August – City to Surf 12k, Half & Full Marathon
A few quick points -
- New Elite Run Tops are in at the printers. For those running out of dry clothes in winter, then this is your perfect chance to get more gear! Thanks to the guys @ 2XU Subiaco, we managed to get a great buy on the Super Elite Range, same colour but better breathing material!
- Bike Jerseys are nearly here, 1 week to go for delivery and a special launch event @ 2XU Subiaco! Stay tuned!
- A new page will be added shortly to the Break Your Limits home. Inspired by Gumtree & EBay (and to Michael for the idea), you’ll be able to pickup your favourite BYL gear. Gear available will include Shirts / Singlets / Compression Socks and K~Swiss Shoes!
That’s it for now, but stay tuned for an interview with our very own Mitch Anderson!
To always push through…
Jul 23rd
Photo by Rob Wilmott, TDF.
During this years Tour De France there is a man who wont give up. Meet Jens Voigt. A tour legend and one who will do his utmost for him team, Saxo Bank. Last year Jens crashed and missed out on the opportunity to finish the tour. This year, he crashed again on one of this epic stages. Somehow I don’t think he wont be finishing -
This is an exert from the bicycling.com website.
I came over the top only 20 seconds down on the front group, but about 2 kilometers into the descent my front tire blew and I thought, “Oh God,” and I went down. Just one year after my horrible crash, and there I was tumbling on another mountain descent. And let me tell you, about the only place that feels good right now is my right ankle. The rest of me is all road rash. Plus I’ve got five stitches in my left elbow and then there are some ribs that are not in the right place! I may have to get x-rays, but I hate x-rays (the radiation), and plus, if I’ve got a fractured rib, what can anyone do about it?
The worst thing of all was that I almost got forced out of the Tour for a second year in a row. The problem was that the first team car was behind Andy Schleck, and the second had decided to go up ahead to hand out water bottles at the foot of the next climb. As a result I had no bike, because mine was shattered.
So then the broom wagon pulled up and was like, “Do you want to just get in?” And I said, “Oh no, I don’t need YOU!” But there I am with blood spurting out my left elbow and no bike. Finally, the race organizers got me a bike, but it was this little yellow junior bike. It was way too small for me and even had old-fashioned toe-clip pedals. But that is the only way I could get down the mountain, so I had to ride it for like 15-20 kilometers until I finally got to a team car with my bike.
Then, I still had to get up to the grupetto. All I can say is that that desperate times need desperate measures, but I got up there. And once I did it was grupetto all day long.
Needless to say, I had plenty of time to come up with a fitting book of the day. It’s from the Disk World series by Terry Pratchett. In it, the protagonist is Conan the Barbarian, who is a 70-year-old who has just survived everything. At one point he, and his other old warrior friends capture this village, but then they find that they are surrounded by an army of tens of thousands, and his only reaction is, “Oh man, it’s going to take days to kill all these people!” And that’s the way I was today when I was lying on the ground. I just thought, “Oh no, I’m going to Paris this year, I’m going to Paris. There’s just no way you are going to get me out of this race for the second year in a row!”
The night to fall asleep…
Jul 20th
I was proud to say I haven’t missed a stage of the Tour De France, well, that was until last night.
Falling asleep at 40k to go, I would miss the epic battle, the chain incident and then Alberto taking the yellow jersey. I woke up to the sultry sounds of Mike Tomalarris discussing the stage albeit in a daze as to what just happened and thought, bugger, I have missed another epic stage in this years Tour De France, but what happpened. The short of it, Schleck’s chain fell off, Alberto kept climbing. Should he have waited??? Right or wrong the jury is still out, but lo and behold the epic battle in the Pyrenees will continue in ernest tonight.
A new plan of attack at Le Tour headquarters though, I will watch the tour standing up, that way if I fall asleep during the event, at least I will wake up hitting the floor!
A positive from the sleep was that I managed to make the 6am run this morning, however, the list is growing for those who are blaming the tour on ‘sleeping-in’, soon I will start naming names!
Checkout this small piece that ‘Wu-man’ found on cyclingnews.com, quite amusing -
Top Ten Gift Ideas For Andy Schleck’s 26th Birthday*
*by Alberto Contador
1. A signed yellow jersey
2. A new groupset
3. A dream holiday to somewhere other than Curaçao
4. An apology
5. DVD highlights of stage 15 of the 2003 Tour de France, Bagnères de Bigorre – Luz-Ardiden
6. DVD highlights of stage 2 of the 2010 Tour de France, Brussels-Spa
7. The Lion King soundtrack, particularly track two – “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King”
8. A bicycle repair manual
9. A new Spanish pen-pal
10. A dog-eared copy of “How To Lose Friends And Alienate People” by Toby Young
Quote of the day
Astana directeur sportif Giuseppe Martinelli in Bagnères de Luchon: “The most important thing for me is to have a clear conscience and I have that tonight. I didn’t tell him to wait, that’s for sure…”
Good news, Alberto – you don’t even have to tell us your radio wasn’t working this time…
Bike Skills For IM Training Camp
Jul 18th
Raymond wants to incorporate this session at the IM training camp…
The 48 hour holiday…
Jul 13th
Whilst some of the crew were out running the Wally Cairns XC I decided to join the Haddleton clan down in Margaret River for the annual school holiday pilgrimage . No, I didn’t want to learn the ins/outs of child rearing or wish to offer my baby-sitting duties, but take some time out for a little training and try and kick start the next program for the CIty to Surf Marathon.
With the training, came a little R&R and a woodstoked fire, both of which were enjoyed with a glass of red in front of a TV watching the Tour. What more could a man ask for! Managed to acheive a couple of good runs whilst away with one that included a spectacular loss of direction (the Mararet River ‘river’ should have a name change). The long and short of it, I thought I was headed back to town, but the gang found me running towards the sea. Still don’t know how this happened.
The other run included a hailstorm which unbeknown to me, can sting right to the core! Having run in all kinds of conditions, this would have been up there, with both the wind and hail… Headed towards the main break in Margaret River, I could see it approaching and it was truly spectacular to watch and then feel it! Geez, I can definitely choose the weekends.
Needless to say, mission accomplished, some hard training completed and furthermore I even saw Paul out training as well. Yes, this does occur sometimes.
All in all, a quick 48 hour holiday, but a great weekend had with great friends!
Rain
Jul 9th
With the wet weather well and truly set in, the BYL treadmills have been working overtime. This is the time of the year when it’s very easy to say it’s too hard, too wet, too cold but trust me, if you train hard now you will reap the benefits later in the year!
This weekend sees the running of the Wally Cairns Cross Country and once again quite a few if the BYL team making the outing. With a 5k, 10k and 15km on offer there is a distance for all. Head to the Synergy Parkland in Kings Park for a prompt 8.00am start!
Just a reminder that the 2XU-BYL is going great guns at the moment, with quite a crowd now gathering on a Tuesday morning it does make those cold mornings a little easier to handle. We generally cover 8-13k for the session, so it’s definitely a worthwhile calendar item!
The TDF is still going great guns and whilst some still have no idea why people would ride around France for a month, there are others who stick glued to the nightly coverage.
Ironman France
Jul 8th
I never know what to write about after a race but I guess I can hardly whimp out of this one given the tremendous support I have received from all of you in recent times. So here goes….
From my point of view the race was a big success for many reasons, some of which may not be apparent from a quick scan of the results page. The goal of 9hrs in Nice was just that – 9hrs flat – not 9hrs 17min or so but I am not dissapointed for I feel that I raced well and raced pretty close to my ability.
However, while I blogged away about the ’9 in Nice’ challenge, for Claire and I, the deeper and perhaps more audacious goal that was kept secret for nothing more than fear of going public was for a top-10 finish. A goal that I thought would be a pretty fair test. Certainly tough to reach but in my heart I thought it doable. Certainly it was a goal that did bring its share of race day nerves particularly as the strength of the pro field seemed to steadily grow in both quality and quantity during the weeks leading to race day.
Still I knew I was training well. After getting smacked around in plenty of early season races, my form seemed to come good in the last 2-3 weeks before race day. Some good results started to come my way and some rock solid training sessions were carried out with a hint of relative ease. Good signs.
I did not reach my goal of top-10 but as they say, shoot for the the moon and you never know, you might land among the stars. 12th place is something that I am very happy with.
Most of all though, I am happy with how I raced. Ironman France was my first Ironman in 18 months. And it was my first Ironman with a bike course that included more climbing that a sherpa family holiday. In the weeks before the race I had many sleepless nights and awoke many mornings nervous with butterflies flying rampant in my stomach. Mainly because it is just so different racing on courses like these and I did not know how I would go. Also because I knew that to do well in Nice, I would have to really ‘race’ the ironman and its competitors rather than just pace my way through a long day as I had done in my past ironman campaigns.
On a course like the one at Nice, it is just the way it is that sometimes you have to bike hard to make a climb or stay in contact with others ahead and sometimes you have to know when to sit up and wait for support from behind. You have to know how to ride the flats, the short climbs, the long climbs, the descents, the corners, and the wind. And after this, well you still have to run a marathon.
So as I say, I felt I raced well and it is for this that I am most happy with. My taper worked well. My nutrition worked well. My pacing worked well. I was able to race and make some good decisions along the way. And my intensity and desire that had been missing in action during some early season races were where I needed them to be on the big day.
So to all of you who have emailed, texted, called, sent positive vibes or even just read my ramblings – Thank You – all of you help me to stay motivated and race hard, perhaps more so than you think.
To Claire, my number one supporter, I need only say this, we did it together! Thank you very much my love.
To Ray who has helped me under the auspices of BYL for many years, thank you so much.
To Nico, JB and Gill at ESP. You guys have been the brains behind this whole operation. Thank you. It is hard not to do well with guys like you in my corner.
To all at Triathl’aix who have welcomed me warmly and helped me settle into the training and racing life in France – merci beaucoup!
And to my team of Aussie bike mechanics and a willing mule who carried a set of wheels over 14,000 km just so that I could have have the luxuray of a choice of wheels to use come race day – a huge thank you! Looking forward to a cold beer with you all once back in Perth.
Next stop – Embrunman. If you don’t know it, check out www.embrunman.com
And this time I will say it – the goal: top 10.
Tour Fast Facts Update # 2
Jul 7th
Another 5 hour night but what an epic stage it was… With Fabian back in Yellow, here is the second installment:
Fact 9 – Of the 198 riders that started the tour, there have already been at least 6 withdrawals due to road crashes
Fact 10 – The tour mandates that a minimum bike weight is to be of 14.998 pounds (6.81kg)
Fact 11 – In yeterdays epic Stage 3 cobblestone battle, the yellow jersey wearer had to change his bike 3 times due to mechanical problems
Fact 12 – One of the Tour favourites, Alberto Contador, rode the last 18km with his back brakes jammed against his wheel
Tour De France Fast Facts
Jul 6th
For all those struggling with the Tour De France concept, this post is for you. Some may find useful, others may still show no interest, but for this month I will endeavour to give you a few fast facts to get you onboard. Be aware though, you will have sleepless nights and live a life of very little sleep for July every year.
- The Tour De France is made up of 1 Prologue and 20 Stages.
- The prologue, stage 1 and stage have already been completed, Fabian Cancellera won the prologue and Allessandro Pettachi won the 1st stage, Sylvain Chavanel won the 2nd Stage
- There are 4 jerseys on offer throughout the tour, Yellow – The General Classifcation, Green – The Sprinters, Polkadot – The Climbers, White – The Yound Rider (under 25 years of age)
- This years tour will travel 3642km
- Stage 3 winds it’s way from Belgium to France, another epic 213km journey but this time with a notoriously bad 13.9km cobblestoned section
- The Tour is made of 22 teams with 9 riders in each
- Ray’s average nightly sleeping hours through the tour will be approx 5 hours per night
- Shao Wu and quite a few others will blame the Tour for missing the Tuesday morning run sessions, although he just wanted to sleep in
More to follow tomorrow and all are more than welcome to add to this list!
SBS – Fantasy Team Competition
Jul 3rd
With the Tour due to start in the next 10 hours excitement is building…
With this excitement comes another BYL competition, who will be the BYL Tour De France champion.
SBS and Rabobank are holding a fantasy TDF competion and as such thought it would only be fitting for all those cycling buffs out there to get involved.
It’s easy, just choose 9 riders, 1 team and a bonus stage and you’re away.
I have created a mini-league called BreakYourLimits and the p/word is swimriderun. Enter your team before 10pm WST and you’re away!
Go to www.sbs.com.au/tdf2010/fantasy to register!
2XU Subiaco
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