Eat. Train. Laugh.: Challenge Melbourne

So, as I publish this post....there is 5 more sleeps left until Challenge Melbourne. It is a 1.9km/90km/21.1km distance triathlon. It is not a WTC event so we officially can't call it a Half Ironman or 70.3 as WTC own the Ironman name. (Marvel and Kelloggs also own the name but I don't know the rules about it to explain it properly).

The Challenge Series is another set of long course event which covers these distances but managed by a different company. I guess I chose this race over Geelong 70.3 as I had never done a Challenge Series before and have done the Geelong course on several occasions.

So in this event, there is a 1.9km swim, a 90km ride and a 21.1km run. For me - it will be a training event and ticking off some lessons before the big race on the 23rd March.

The swim is one lap of a rectangle course. I have a feeling that it is an anti-clockwise course (with left hand turns). Depending on where they have the timing mats for the swim course, I am aiming to get time of < 40min. This is based on how comfortable I am in my own open water swimming abilities. Brighton can be a difficult swim too based on our past training sessions in not-so-perfect conditions. When it is windy, the waves are high (as it gets deep quickly off the shore) and it did take me forever to reach the buoy. Lets just say I am not comfortable about swimming there by myself. On Monday (26th Jan), I did a super long swim at Mentone, covering 3 sets of (2 x 500m) and so I am comfortable about long distance swimming. If the water is deemed to warm for wetsuit, then I will also be OK (actually preferred).

The ride is 3 laps of Beach Rd from Brighton through to Mordialloc. If there is a southerly, you will encounter a tail wind heading towards the city and on the last lap towards T2. If there is a northerly, there will be a head wind into T2 and the hard thing that I will need to remember is to not-over-doing the bike as soon as I leave T1. I am hoping to ride an average of 28-30km/hr to get a time below 3:15 for 90km. The temperature is fore casted to be hot-hot-hot so I might store an extra bidon of salt solution on the bike just in case. For 90km, I have never drank more than one bottle (struggle) but will have more than one just in case.

Now, for the 21.1km run....fingers crossed that it can be a good one. I don't think a run can be as bad as my Shepparton 70.3 as currently that is my benchmark for "a run that fell into pieces". Lessons from Shepparton is that I have trained and will race with more salt so my legs and toes won't be seizing up. Based on the long run I did on Sunday, I will need to remember to take gels at every 4km and timing it with the aid stations on course. The great thing about Challenge is that the aid stations are about every 1.2km (give or take). So I will take a gel at every 3rd aid station (like what I have done at training). This is my plan and will not suit everybody.

My wave start (looks like it is all the female age groupers) at 6:30am (10min after 6:20am). Fingers crossed to be done by 1pm!

Before the race, there are still a few training sessions. Windtrainer tonight (yay!), pool swim on Wednesday and Friday, swim/bike/run on Thursday. Will assess how long I am out on the road for on Saturday. As much as Challenge Melbourne is a training day, I don't want to race it exhausted and with tired legs. I will need to drop by to pick up race kit and to also do the briefing/walk through to know the course better.

Looking forward to racing with the new bike and ticking off another challenge (pun-intended).