4th Win in Busselton Half!

May 6th, 2008

On Saturday I won my fourth straight title at the Busselton Half Ironman, in Western Australia, from the start gun. I lead the swim, and dropped the pack from my feet after about 100 meters, then rode hard to hold them off on the bike, and started the run with roughly 1min 30second lead, and ran comfortably to win by 2 and a half minutes.I have been in a swim squad for the last 5 weeks, which I hadn’t done for years, opting in the past to swim on my own during the day or evening. But I found a squad that suits me, and I’m loving it. I felt the benefits of those squads in the swim, and swam hard, but comfortably, to lead out of the water by 1min 40secs, in a time of 22:50.

I’ve also been doing strength work on the bike the last 5 weeks, concentrating on building muscle and activating the correct muscles on the bike and during my core work sessions. I felt that strength in the race, and had the 3rd quickest bike time in 2:07:55, and helping me achieve my main goal of the day which was to have the quickest swim/bike combination (first off the bike).

I haven’t run much since IM New Zealand 2 months ago, just a few longer runs and shorter recovery runs, so I was happy to have felt as comfortable as I did and run 1:17.

I set a new course record of 3:50:01, a very pleasing time, and it’s a real boost to my confidence to see the clear improvement from last year, and to have felt the improvement also.

I’m very proud to have won the same event 4 times, and to have shown real progression and results from the training I have been doing. There is 10 weeks until my next race the Quelle Challenge Roth on July 13. I have never been so fit and strong 10 weeks out from an ironman and will continue building strength for 2 or 3 weeks before I start my more familiar Ironman training sessions, and focus on fitness, run speed, and bike endurance and threshold work on my time trial bike.

Thanks for all your support you give me in Busselton, and congratulations to everyone who finished.

Cheers
Pete