IMPORTANT NOTES

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Sarah Jane Mayer

The Presidential Platform

Hey team! 

What a way to close the season! I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Busselton spectating and witnessing some amazing results for our club. It was so energising to see everybody giving all their best to the race. Well done to all our club participants and congratulations to Nick and Jonney for giving us a taste of what the future of triathlon in Western Australia will look like... amazing! Well done Flick for dominating the field and claiming her 4th Busso Championship and congratulations to Alex for crowning herself as the long distance champion in her age group. Have a look below at some inspiring race reports. 

Here are the latest updates: 

• Gym memberships - We have gym memberships available for club members. $160 AUD for a whole year is such a bargain that you definitely don't want to miss out on this. Please email me if you are interested in grabbing one. 

• The AGM & Wind up event is fast approaching. We are looking forward to you joining us in celebrating another great season. We will have our Club Awards presentations, the AGM and some additional surprises that Oggi and Jonney have been preparing for us. It is $10 per person or $20 per family. Friends, family and significant others are most welcome, please make sure to register here. 

• We will take a break from training. After a fanstatic year of good training, our coach Steve deserves to take a break. We will take two weeks off from training after the AGM (24 May - 6 June) coming back to training on Tuesday 8 June with the usual training sessions. Let Steve know if you are keen on continuing training over those two weeks so he can arrange some alternative sessions via our wonderful Foundation Coaches.  

• Lights on! It's getting darker out there. Please make sure to have good lights on your bike to ensure you are able to see the road and others are able to spot you too. 

I'm looking forward to seeing you all on the 22nd! 

Gaby Villa 
UWA Triathlon Club President

Sports nutrition tip - Brought to you by  

Mindful eating and the endurance athlete 

Now that the season has come to an end and training is easing up it could be a good opportunity for you to incorporate some mindfulness into your eating. Mindful eating can support you in achieving a healthy and long-term relationship with your food and get more in tune with your body. 

Follow these 5 tips to increase your mindfulness when eating. 

1. Eat and cook your food using your five senses. Pay attention to the smell, texture, look, taste and enjoy silence while you are eating. 
2. Slow down. Savour every bit of food you eat. 
3. Remove distractions. Avoid using your phone, working, or watching TV while you are eating. 
4. Choose delicious, healthy, and tasty food. 
5. And most importantly… Stop judging what you are eating. Enjoy your food regardless of what you are having. Feeling guilty will only make things worse. 

Do you have any nutrition questions... Send them through! gaby@intenseatfit.com 

Follow @Intenseatfit for more triathlon nutrition advice 

Townsville Multisport World Championships

Townsville Multisport World Championships to be held in August 2022—organisers of the Multisport World Championships have today announced August 2022 as the new date for the event. The 10-day event will take place in Townsville North Queensland between 18 and 28 August 2022, with thousands of athletes expected to take part.

Find out more

UWA Student Athletes achieve podium placements at State Triathlon Championships

UWA Sport article mentioning a number of our awesome club members and their performance at the State Triathlon Championships in Mullalloo 

Read here

All about... races!

We are skipping the 'All about me' section this month to allow more space for our race reports 

2020/21 Club Races

All now completed! Keep an eye out for our 2021/22 Club Races once we announce them.

Triathlon Western Australia Annual Awards

Triathlon WA Annual Awards are back for 2021. The event will be held on Sunday 30th May from 2- 4pm at Public House in Perth.

Nominations are now open for the following awards

• Service to Sport
• Coach of the Year
• Community Coach of the Year
• Life Membership

More information

Latest race reports

Manama Jeff - Busselton 70.3 2021 - by Jonney Sammut and Nick Thompson 

The muchly anticipated 2021 Busselton Half Ironman was finally here. Despite covid lockdowns, pool closures and race postponements, the final race of the season was to be thankfully going ahead. The race would be hotly contented by a contingent of WA superstars with the likes of Matt Burton, Kurt Wesley, Blake Kappler, Adam White, Guy Crawford, Nick Baldwin, Mark Radziejewski. The UWA young guns Nick and Jonney had their work cut out for them if they were to podium. 

In the week leading up to the race, there were a lot of external factors playing on the minds of all the athletes. Would the race be cancelled, would we have to race it on another weekend? Would we have to encounter torrential rain and wind? It was a stressful situation. But with the go ahead on Tuesday morning all systems were a go. 

The morning arrived, the wind was calm and the weather looked to make for a fast day. Jonney was having a great start to the day having forgot his race nutrition back in Perth however fortunately the ever prepared (not) Nick Thompson came to the rescue with some back up nutrition. Fast forward to 7:25 - 5 mins prior to the start of the race – both lads still did not know the swim course but just decided if they swum in the general shape of an M , it would look legit on Strava. Just Kidding! They set out on the swim course with Jonney setting up his race well leading out with just Guy and Kurt on his tail. Nick, limited his losses in the swim to retain a 90 second buffer to the front. Both the lads were on for a decent day! 

On to the bike both Nick and Jonney felt pretty sluggish and it wasn’t until 45km in where they started to feel their bike legs. Despite this, Burton was already working his way through the field, passing Nick in the first 10km, and Jonney with 10km to go. As a result, both Nick and Jonney would have to put together a pretty great run to take down Matt who was clearly firing on all cylinders. 

Into transition and on the run both the lads set out at their paces. Jonney was feeling okay but knew he would need to be feeling a lot better to catch Burton who was around 30 seconds ahead. Nick set out at his race pace, looking down at his watch he was thinking “Brad Kahlefelt look out, I could be on for the run course record here!” Looking back, that is exactly what he would have needed to do to catch Burton, but this never eventuated. 

There was a feel good moment half way through the run course where the two boys ran side by side and some words were exchanged : Nick : “Come one mate all you have to do is get through it” Jonney : #@*&@*#!* 

The last lap ended up being a grovel to the finish line, both the lads relieved that they had finished their first half ironman relatively intact, it was just an added bonus that they managed to hold on to the two minor spots on the podium. Regardless of the results, the boys were pretty ecstatic that their training had paid off enough to allow them to have plenty of energy left in the tank to have a big night at the pub.

p.s all triathletes are now banned from The Esplanade Tavern. 
 

Expect the unexpected - Busselton 70.3 2021 - by Oggi Zurzolo

This was not the race report I was hoping to put pen to paper, but it’s the race that happened. 

I tried to hide the anxious mess I was in the lead up to Busselton (a minor lockdown surely didn’t help). It reminded me of how I felt before I embarked my very first triathlon about 16months ago. It wasn’t until the day before the race, while going to check in and absorbing the atmosphere that I started to feel pumped and ready to rumble.   

I remember twiddling my thumbs while I waited to be the last wave to start. I had time to watch the elite field go off and journey down to the half-way point to cheer Jonney, Nick & Flick as they exited the water. I clearly remember hearing Ralph commentating something about me as I approached the start, but at this point my heart rate had increased to a deafening level. The start of the swim made me feel like how a t-shirt feels being tossed in a washing machine, but eventually I found my so-called rhythm. I tried to find some feet to draft off, but I ended up getting kicked in the shoulders, so I opted for different feet. The swim was over before I knew it, and as I exited the water, my concentration was focused on not tripping over as I tried to get half the wetsuit off while running into T1. 

I was most anxious about the bike leg, because I knew this was where things could go wrong for me. However, my mind was focused more on things like going out too hard too early, not eating or hydrating enough, or getting a flat, I didn’t expect what was to come. Somewhere between the 30 – 40km mark I started to get uncomfortable pain in my lower back. I remember dreading the bumpy roads on the course, as that didn’t help the situation. With the pain on the forefront of my mind, my nutrition and hydration plan went out the window, as my stomach seemed to shut down. I just remember telling myself to hang in there, to let go of any goal you initially had and to focus on just finishing the damn race.

The run was originally the leg I was looking forward to the most, and I was somehow wishing as I ran the pain would alleviate and disappear. I started the first km a little fast at 4:10 pace, and for a moment I felt good and thought I was in the clear, but by the second km the pain returned, I managed to push and hold onto the pace for only about 3km’s, and then I started to get a radiating numbness down my right leg. From here every km my pace was dropping 10seconds. I managed to finish the first lap but on the second my right leg went numb, my back was aching, I was dehydrated and probably on the verge of bonking and I came to a standstill. I pushed myself to at least walk, with the intention of starting to run again. I thought I would just try and do what I could to finish, and there were so many people, some I knew, some complete strangers offering words of encouragement as they passed me by. The mix of everything physically happening and my own internal critic made be breakdown in tears. Charles stopped and walked with me for a bit and helped me stretch it out, and I was very grateful for his help, but with the pain not subsiding and only getting worse, I ended up calling it quits just at the 10km mark. As I endured the walk of shame back to transition, secretly hoping that no one would see me, Steve spotted me. Steve helped me realise that I had made the right decision, as hard as it was to bear. That was my first DNF and as utterly disappointing as it was it still was an invaluable experience. 

1. When your coach tells you to get a bike fit, go get a goddam bike fit
2. All the training leading up to this race, was not wasted. I enjoyed every moment of it and the progress being made. Whether that be the training with the club or with mates, I wouldn’t change that for the world.
3. I may not be a half-ironman finisher yet, but I now understand a lot more clearly what it takes to be one, and no matter how prepared you think you might be, always expect the unexpected. 

It may not have been the way I wanted to end the triathlon season, but in all honesty the journey has been a blast. Now to quote Terminator ‘I’LL BE BACK’  

Busselton 70.3 - Run, Alberto, Run - By Alberto Puccini

I have said this already in my previous race reports but I want to state it once again because this is the WHY without which I would not be writing this race report.

1. My health. The only way to commit to training is setting a specific goal to be achieved within a specific time, this year my specific goal was Busselton 70.3, however my end goal is always my health;
2. Lead by example. I am trying to teach my children that, if you set a difficult goal and you make a plan, as long as the goal is realistic, if you stick to the plan, you achieve your goal. As kids do not often listen to their parents, I have decided to show them that I am right.

The specific goal of completing a Half Iron Man triathlon comes from a deal with Tommaso which was made in April 2019 on his return from School Sport Australia Triathlon Championship in QLD.

Last year I was not able to honour my deal with Tommaso because after the Covid-19 lockdown and a hamstring injury I was really unfit and I deemed the time available prior to the October’s 2020 Half Iron Man not sufficient to get ready.

I have trained pretty well all season under Grant and Steven’s guidance and I have achieved a few good PBs including:

• Mandurah Sprint Triathlon (1h20m21s, 18m56s PB on previous year);
• Rockingham 2.5 km Open Water Swim (1h04m49s, 11m33s PB on previous year);
• Fremantle 10 km (49m41s, first 10km in sub 5min/km).

The Bunbury OD triathlon was delayed due to the COVID lockdown early February, that helped me in deciding to commit to the Busselton 70.3 and I signed up to make sure of not having second thoughts.

I met with Steven, I upgraded my subscription to a plan and started increasing the number of weekly training sessions.

My weekly training schedule in the twelve weeks prior to Busselton 70.3 was:

1. Monday a.m. 30 km Ride, generally from UWA to Mt Henry Bridge and back;
2. Tuesday a.m. Riding Interval session;
3. Tuesday p.m. Running interval session;
4. Wednesday a.m. UWATC swim squad;
5. Wednesday p.m. Kings Park Hills ride easy session with Rebecca
6. Thursday a.m. Skill and Wind Trainer session;
7. Friday a.m. UWATC swim squad;
8. Saturday long ride (increasing distance every week) and run off the bike;
9. Sunday long run (increasing distance every week).

I got myself some “new” (mostly second or even third hand) gear including a TT bike, an aero helmet and Running shoes.

At the beginning of March, I had a couple of issues with my bikes, I found a crack in my third hand TT bike near the seat-post (I might have put too much torque when tightening the bolts) and soon after, on the road to Muchea, I was trying to stay too close to Phil’s wheel, I touched it and I had a bad crash. I was very lucky to not get injured but I lost the front ring shifter of my road bike, I had to ride 45 km back to Perth at huge rpms on the small front ring trying to keep up with the rest of the group and I found myself bikeless for a week whilst both my bikes were being repaired.

I managed to not miss any training session as I used my vintage bike for a couple of sessions.

Week after week I was feeling better at training, it was time to go and see Gaby for a Nutrition Plan, everybody (especially Phil…) was telling me that nutrition is the key for these endurance events (and I had learnt a lesson myself at Bunbury OD last year…).

Gaby gave me a nutrition strategy and plans to be tried during long rides and runs and during the race simulation planned three weeks prior to the event.

Gaby’s plan seemed to work pretty well and did not require too many adjustments for the big day.

Since the beginning of the season I had also improved the quality of my sleeping thanks to the CPAP machine that I started using following a sleep study undertaken under Kate’s precious supervision.

Training, Nutrition, Sleep, a few boxes were ticked…

Read full race report

New Hamish Delorenzo - Busselton 70.3 Alberto Puccini - Bunbury Olympic Distance Older Tony Smith - Great Southern Ultra Challenge Gaby Villa - 70.3 Los Cabos 2019 Alison Smith - ITU Lausanne 2019 Justin Ghosh - 70.3 Philippines Rahul Jegatheva - Aquathlon Nationals All race reports

📷Tony Smith

Have your own race report to share? See the website for some instructions on how to send it through.

HELPFUL PLACES TO FIND INFORMATION

** See official UWATC Facebook page for most up to date information

** See swimming Facebook page for swimming specific info

** See the UWATC website for training and payment information and season calendar

** See Facegroup group 'Who wants to go (for a swim/ride/run)' for uncoached/informal group sessions

** See UWATC Strava group to check what training everyone is up to

** Any queries/feedback, message via the official Facebook page or email committee@uwatriathlonclub.com.au