2011 Africa Champs Maputo Race report

Maputo, Mozambique was the venue for the 2011 African Triathlon Championships and it was the first time that a triathlon was held in this beautiful country. The Mozambicans did not know know what these skinny athletes were doing swimming, riding and running around in these funny tight suits

We stayed at the Southern Sun host hotel which was a really nice place and when inside it was hard to imagine that a busy African city was just outside the door. It was good to meet up with my old friend Richard Murray who has been racing all over the world trying to pick up some ITU points, his most recent victory being at the European Cup in Brasschaat.

The day before the race the weather was amazing, no wind and some nice warm sun – perfect weather for racing. I checked out the race route and thought about how I would race. The bike course was a very hilly and bumpy one, on some bad road surface and there was a mean hill on each lap which we would have to do 8 times in total.

Race day

The race was starting unusually early at 7:30 and so we needed to be up at 5:30. This is normal for me but for the other athletes it was crazy early. After waking up I had a look out the window to see that a big wind was up and the sea was going crazy! Richard and I have a theory that if the weather is good the day before the race then race day is definitely not going to be good! Warm up went well and we were ready to go. As we were being called up they were still struggling to keep the buoys in place. As they put the first one in it took off and headed north to Inhambane! That should give you some indication as to how crazy the sea was. They managed to get one buoy to stay still and had to make it an out and back swim that would only be 1200m.

We were off and I had no idea where I was, I was just swinging my arms and looking for other athletes. Only once I had finished the swim did I realise that I was in the front pack. I rocketed through transition with what felt like half an ocean in my stomach, onto my bike and headed to the hill. I was definitely the fattest in the pack because every time we went up the hill I was huffing and puffing like a bufflo running up a hill! But coming down the hill was a different story and I flew past the guys like a bird gone crazy, or maybe it was just my MTB skills kicking in. Abrahm Louw from Namibia was racing like a true champ. He had a gap coming out of the swim and he stayed away the whole bike. Amazing performance from him – well done!

On the last lap of the bike Richard attacked and all of us went with him. I was 3rd out of T2 just behind Richard and Hendrik de Villiers. The gazelles quickly pulled away from me, while I was struggling to get into a rythmn.

I ran as hard as I could and it was good enough for 2nd place in u23 elite. I was really happy with that result. I wanted to win, but it was not what God had planned for me for this race. My time will come. Praise God for my second place.

Now it’s time to knuckle down with World Champs, in September in China, in mind

‎​After the race we went to a pub to enjoy the local beer, 2M. This is the only beer in the whole world that I will drink.

We triathletes just can’t sit still and relax, we always have to do something! So we played some darts. Good fun!

You know you can’t come to Mozambique and not have some seafood. It was so fresh and tasty. But the 2M beer didn’t go so well with it……..:(

There you have- it my trip to Maputo was a lot of fun. God has blessed Africa!!!

Here is a slide show I made of the trip.

10 out of 10 to ATU and TSA for hosting the event. You guys did a great job. Hope to see a World Champs in Africa soon.

Untill I blog again.

Keep on

How to fix a blister in 24hrs

I got a really big blister for running on the track on Tuesday. First it was a small one then I just left it. But then it got rally big and very sore. In the end it got as big as an golf ball and was struggling to walk.

The next day I made my way to the doc at the HPC for some advice. African champs is next weekend and I really need to fix it before then. The doc said here is a needle and a syringe. Oh ja and some alcohol strips to clean my foot. So the doc told me what to do. He didn’t have all the stuff to do it for me. I when and got some Merthiolate. Had no idea what that was till I saw it is highly flammable! I was like oh my greatness!!! This is not going to be fun!

I call this the blister kit! the PVM bar is the for you to put it in your mouth when you injected the Merthiolate in to the blister.

Step 1: clean your foot NB!
Step 2: drain all the fluid from the blister. Clean again after!
Step 3: draw up the Merthiolate in to the syringe. Clean the needle.
Step 4: injected the Merthiolate in to the blister. Wait for it wait for it ok now you can scream!!!!!!!!!!
Step 5: Wait 2-3hrs and do that again. The next day you will be ready for training again.

in it goes!

Wait for it wait for it ok now scream!!!!!!!!! ;-(

Job well done:

Was training the next day.

Race Report on my 2nd place at the Momentum iFlex Duathlon Kameelfontein

It has been a really long time since I last did a duathlon. This race came at just the right time as a bit of race preparation 3 weeks before Africa Champs. A good opportunity to test my legs and to see where I am at.
Racing is so good for you; it is the best training that you will ever do. Race intensity is just on another level and can’t really be recreated in training.

The race venue was just outside of Pretoria close to Roodeplaat Dam at a school called Kameelfontein. This area is like my backyard as I do a lot of training here. The run route was long and hilly and the cycle was a very hilly out and back course.
The race distances were 5km run, 40km cycle and another 2.5km run on broken legs.

The gun went and I found myself running in the front with Brand du Plessis, Travis Johnston, Abrahm Louw, Chris Felgate and Johan Pretorius. I really didn’t think that I would be able to run with those front guys, but there I was, even controlling the pace. At the halfway turn it was just me, Travis, Brand and Johan. The so-called “2.5km” on the way out was very hard as it was trudging up a constant drag. On the way back Travis moved next to me and we ran side by side until he put in a couple of surges, but didn’t get away. We were all in transition together and out onto the nasty, hilly, windy 40km bike course. Here is the race profile from my race on power agent from CycleOps. Blu is Speed and Red is Elevation.

Up to the first turn around we were riding like a bunch of girls. At the first turn Abrahm caught up to us and from there we still rode together like a bunch of girls.

On the way back on the last lap I started to think about the final run and I saw that Johan was still with us. He is an ex-1500m SA Champ and not someone that I wanted to run the final 2.5km against. So on a long hill I went to the front and picked up the pace a bit. I saw that we was taking strain so I dropped a gear and picked up the pace again and that’s when he dropped. I then went to the back and rested a bit for the remainder of the ride. Then just before the end of the bike leg there was another little hill so I thought “let’s have some fun.” I attacked and Travis came with me. We only made about a 5-10 sec gap on the rest, but it allowed me to get into and out of T1 first.

Oh boy! When I hit that second run I felt my legs burn and all the hard training I had done that week came flying back to me. Travis came flying past me so I dug deep and bridged the gap and we ran to the turn-around together. I was thinking man we are running fast now until Travis dropped a gear and pulled away from me. That guys has some serious acceleration!. He made a 15sec gap and kept it to the finish. I was very happy with my 2nd place! Praise God!!!!

Well done to Travis- he is the new SA Duathlon champ.

The top 10.

Event #4 Final Results – Roodeplaat – Pretoria – (Road) – 12 June 2011
Mens Time
01. Travis Johnston 01:31:17
02. Theo Blignaut 01:31:33
03. Brand du Plessis 01:32:02
04. Abrahm Louw 01:32:31
05. Johan Pretorius 01:35:16
06. Chris Felgate 01:36:08
07. Jean-Pierre Ten Napel 01:37:07
08. David Labuschagne 01:37:40
09. Gavin Salt 01:38:31
10. Patrice Gautier 01:39:36

Keeo on

CycleOps Trainer Session from Hell!!!!!

This morning at 6am I got on to my CycleOps fluid2 trainer knowing that it’s going to be a nightmare. Lindsey Parry gave me a killer set to do on my trainer it was 8x5min zone 4 that is 300watts. Oh boy it was so hard. Really happy that I did it and I stayed in my zone 4 for all of them. My legs are still broken from the weekends race but no rest if you are coached by mr Parry! I love my Power tap It’s so hard training with it but you can see the improvement. In the end it’s all worth it. Thanks to bicycle power trading for this amazing sponsor. Power training is the way to go! Get your CycleOps Power Tap today at: http://www.bicyclepower.co.za/ CycleOps the leader in POWER!!!!

Have a look at my profile from this mornings session.
The yellow is the power “watts”, Speed blue, Green cadence, Red hart rate, So every time you see the yellow line goes up in means I am dyeing!!!

Here is a short clip of me doing my set this morning. Thanks to my house hold Lettie for the amazing camera work!!! All she said was “hey boetie jy lyk moeg” and I was broken.
Keep on

2nd at the Momentum iFlex Duathlon

It was a really good day for me today at the Momentum iFlex Duathlon. I went in to the race to test my legs and see how’s the training going. Man I am so happy. Praise the Lord our God for my 2nd place. All Glory to Him!

I will post a full race report soon.

Keep on and praise God!