The Easter Epic

Easter Sunday, a day full of epics*

*No guarantee anything found in this post is actually epic



Epic 4AM wake up


Epic flame throwers

Epic panorama

Epic M-dot pool (these guys are really opening themselves to litigation here)

Epic mug

Epic ride home from baloon flight (Hatton Vale - Coominyah - Esk - Coal Creek - Bryden - Dundas - Mt Glorious - Samford Valley then epic complications & DNF)

Epic scenery

Epic illustrations

After 115km of rollers, I hit the Western face of Mount Glorious (epic)

25mins of epic gradient got me near the top

And a double flat on the descent on the Eastern side left me in this valley, 30km from home. With mobile phone coverage having eloped with my tyre pressure, I had to make a nice with cyclist-prejudiced motorists so I could hitch back home. EPIC.

The final resting place

So... if you've gotten this far, I salute you for your undivided attention, but alas duely appologise for any suicidal or self-harming thoughts you may have in the hours/days/weeks following your perusal of this colloquy.

Adventurecyclingregards,


Burg

 

Flo Cycling Interview

For those who haven't come across it yet, I did an interview with independent aero wheel start-ups, Flo Cycling. I will be riding Flo wheels in 2012 for all my non-drafting events and I welcome them as my newest supplier. If you haven't heard or seen these wheels yet, head over to their website to have a look.

....

FLO: You just recently became Singapore 70.3 champion. First, how does it feel and second, walk us through the day.
Josh: Thanks Chris, it feels a little surreal to be a 70.3 champion considering this was only my second 70.3 competition. I was a late entry into the race, entering only 3 weeks prior. During the Australian Summer, a lot of my friends were doing very well in domestic long course races. I have been training really well and knew I had a great long course performance in me too, so just like that, I registered for the Singapore 70.3!

Race day started early, like always. I caught a taxi to race site, and the first thing to do was set up my transition. Being an unknown to this style of racing, I felt there was no pressure on me as all the pros were crammed into the racks setting up their transitions. This made me feel relaxed and ready to set out in the inner mongrel come race time. The heat and humidity in Singapore was going to be the most testing aspect of the race, so I decided to skip a cycle or run warm up, and headed down to the beach for a light swim.
Once the gun went off, there were four of us that cleared out quickly in the swim including myself, Dylan McNeice (NZL), Dennis Vasiliev (RUS) and Christian Kemp (AUS). Dylan, Dennis and I are amongst the best swimmers in the ITU style competition, so I predicted their company, but to have Christian there was a little surprising and intimidating because he was probably the best runner in the field. We swam conservatively and exited the water with a little over a 2 minute lead. Onto the bike, I was on the front from the start and pushed hard to try and abort the plans of the other athletes I swam with. Even though I went through 40km (25miles) on the bike in 55minutes flat, I couldn't drop the guys behind me. The flat course was certianly fast, but probably not challenging enough to be able to drop the weaker cyclists. We remained as a bunch the whole 90km and we put a further 6 minutes into the chase pack. I made sure to keep well hydrated because the run was where the race would be won. Onto the run, I knew Christian Kemp would be the strongest so I set about sticking with him for as long as I could. Surprisingly, I found myself surging on him and dropping him at the 1km mark. The rest of the run was on my own out front, putting further time into those behind and trying to keep hydrated and smooth to avoid getting crushed by the humidity.


Head over to the Flo blog for the full interview!

1st in Singapore 70.3

I flew in and out of Singapore on the weekend for the 70.3, an annual event that has been won by some of the sickest names in the sport these past years (Kris Gemmell, Craig Alexander x2, Simon Thompson). While most big names were absent this year because of IM Melbourne (although Ronnie Schildnecht *first sub8 IM in North America* was set to race but withdrew), I couldn't write anyone off because of my acute misunderstanding of how to actually race a 70.3, let alone the fact that I'm not really training for one.

Ubiquitous in Singapore each year though is enough heat and humidity to make you sweat your own spinal fluid & on occasion a little bone marrow. I've raced and won an ITU Conintental Cup here before, one of the most metally testing races I've yet to do. Natually I was a little anxious but certainly ready to let out the inner mongrel to redeem last weeks travesty in Devonport.

As said, while the start list was missing some big names of the past, it was still lined. Lots of 70.3 regulars, some 70.3 champions and some ITU swimming buffs namely Dylan McNeice & Dennis Vasiliev (I have a good history against this chap, a tuff' Russian who always travels on the express pain train service). Just as ITU swimming & the racing overall has really stepped a level the last half-decade, expect the 70.3 level to do the same with the ITU athletes now starting to make regular appreances. Myself, the aforementioned ITU swimmers & Gold Coast 70.3 champion Christian Kemp easily gapped the chase pack by 2+ mins.

Our party of four really took it to the chasers again with a quick bike. Christian and I did the bulk of the work around the flat fast course while Dylan was forced to pick & mix some turns and the Russ' did the honors for a breif 20seconds or so (with a dirty Brukhankov style grimmace). I knocked out 55minutes flat for the 40km, a time I'm yet to be consistent with around a short course racing (a good portent for the season ahead chaps). When we saw how much time we were putting into the chasers, we backed off a little and went through the second 40km in 56.60. Our final ride split was 2.06.28, a nice reward considering the amount of time I've spent on the bike this year. The cycling data has been made public below...



Christian was easily the strongest runner amongst our group, so I was expecting a tough running duel served cold with a side of laborious mental strain. I put my Garmin on, exited transition just started to run for feel. I went toe to toe with Christian for about 500m before I lost patience and threw out 'holding back' paradigm. I thought for a second that I has just signed my own DNF certificate, but Christian lost my feet straight away and like that I was on my own out front. By the first lap I already had 2minutes or so lead which grew to 5 by the end of the half-marathon, and I jogged my way in to win my first 70.3 in 3hours, 54mins. You can watch a video of my finish below!

Cheers to those who've passed kind words onto me since the race, it means a lot. From here I'll go into a good months block of training and then head Stateside for the first 5150 of the season!

Endurancetriathlonregards,
Burgs

With Belligerence I Ride (+ swim & run)

While this digital edition of 'Burg's abode' has been undoubtedly senile this year, I've been putting in big training miles, with 35hour+ training weeks becoming as ubiquitous the increasing value of my self-indulgent underground vinyl collection. Yet ultimately, we train to race, so I opened up my Olympic Distance season on the weekend down in Tasmania for the Devonport ITU Oceania Champs. I had an unambiguous goal to race as well as I could, knowing I hadn't exactly prepared adequetly for a draft-legal, fast & malovelent affair. I'll spare all excuses and disclose that I posted a big fat acrimonious DNF.

I swam well & normal, coming out second in my choice Rocket Science wetsuit. I've been riding back to back 500km weeks on the bike for 2 months now, so I was expecting to be belligerent & brutal with my tactics, hard and fast establishing a nice lead by T2. Unceremoniously, a combination of things had me up shit creek by 20km into the bike, and I dropped out of the race with lactic acid spilling out my nostrils. A slow start to the season for sure, but it's something which is easily adjusted by bringing some more intensity into my strength based miles.

I'm lining up this weekend in the Singapore 70.3 for some redemption, and will definately be bringing out the belligerence for this race to try and get some early points for Hy-Vee in 2012.

*pictures as always, reproduced without permission*

Caloundra Ritural Teil Zwei

For part one, wind my posts back two years ago. Refer to this post for the present day race report...

The format: 400m swim, 7km cycle, 1.8km run, 200m swim, 7km cycle, 1.8km run.

While these numbers seem completely arbitrary, the speed of the race wasn't. It was hard from the gun, likeareallad. It was a small field, but a quality one, with identities such as Atkinson, Good & Fisher toeing the line.

My current training load is nearly as big as a Captain Ahab era leviathan, so I wasn't expecting to be super quick, but I was certainly expecting to be strong. I lacked only a few seconds of leg speed on the first run to put myself back in the mix for the second round, as three athletes were a wombat's dick up the road. I was relegated to the second pack by default to finish 5th, but was still less than 60 seconds behing Courtney who took the win.

The evidence....

Results

 

Revive me please....

Small fish

Small fish

Big fish

 Small yabbie

Small fish

  

Big fish of wellbeing.

I'm happy to share that I'll be working with Brisbane's Revive studio for the next 6 months for all my physio, massage and (a new one for me) pilates treatments.

If you're living in Brisbane and need a good metaphorical iron out, you should check out Revive.

In other Burgs news, I've decided for a late entry into this weekend enduro event at Caloundra, with the format set at 400/7000/1800 - 200/7000/1800. The dogmas of the conventional triathlion have fallen with this unorthodox format, and I'm sure it will be fast because I'm feeling pretty fit :) 

Check back for a race report in the new week!

Absu (I'll push you then you push me back)

I've just come off a three week block of some long steady miles on the bike. The night I had my last session, I made my solemn way into town and treated myself to a performance of the touring 'mythological occult metal' band Absu from Dallas Texas. The band is 22 years in existence and this was their first ever show in Australia, so naturally it was a pretty special moment for the humble Brisbane metal scene. After the supports cleared away, it was time for the black & thrashing soundscapes of Absu to bleed awaiting eardrums. I was standing third row amongst a crowd of maybe 150 lads & lass', when one of the said lads next to me started to windmill headbang, with my face as the unfortunate collateral damage. As progression took hold (during Pillars of Mercy), he courts me and kindly asks if I would like to start a mosh. Thinking of my tattered legs from 3x600km back to back bike weeks, I whimpered something at him to which he spoke over the top "I'll push you, then you push me back". Without hesitation, he executed his commitment, to which I duly reciprocated. The mosh was on!

From this action and the course it followed thereafter, I can canvas some brief simalarities between Triathlon and a sweaty, hot, filthy, thrashingly brutal Absu show...

• When the metalhead or the Triathlon pushes you, you have to push back
• Sweaty hair stinks, & should be trimmed & cleaned accordingly
• Spilling beer on the floor of the mosh is like a wet descent, the wrong tread and inappropriate precaution will cause stumbles & crashes
•  If you get kicked in the face during the mosh or the swim, it's likely you will bleed internally & externally from the lip
• There is always an encore...

*the maps below are the cartographical reproductions of the four hilly 140km+ loops I have repeated in the past weeks. This week I'm recovering, then I'll do it all again*

D'Aguilar Loop

Fernvale Loop

Mt. Coot-tha 6 laps (not 140km, but rather 80km + 2,500m of vertical climb)

Numinbah Loop

 

Nth NSW mix & match

Triathlon's 'Best of 2011'- An Arbitrary Account from J.Amberger

 The festive season not only brings together family, friends and children with jovial fat red men with sacks in shopping centres, it also spews forth copious amounts of fickle and arbitrary lists of 'best of's'.

So here's my own list, prehaps also as fickle and arbitrary as the rest.

^disclaimer- I generally give more attention to mens races, so I have withheld a list of female performance as a bastion against my inadequate knowledge and likely speculation. If you don't like my list, make your own!
              
ITU

• Best performance of 2011- Javier Gomez in Sydney WCS
• Best swim of 2011- Richard Varga in Hamburg WCS
• Best ride of 2011- Reinaldo Collucci in Kitzbuhel WCS
• Best run of 2011- Joao Silva in Yokohama WCS
• Best overall athlete/s- Brownlee, either one
• Breakthrough athlete- Vincent Luis
• Best course- Geneva Euro Cup
• Best crash- Laurent Vidal in Sydney WCS (video- watch from .30 in)
• Best quote- Alistair Brownlee post-Kitzbuhel: "It was a funny race today, the swim was really really slow, I was a couple of guys back...and I thought these guys are going really slow so I just swam to the front. It didn't seem that hard"

Non-Drafting

• Best performance of 2011- Greg Bennett in Hy-Vee
• Best swim of 2011- J.Amberger in Hy-Vee*
• Best ride of 2011-Ben Collins in NYC 5150 or Hy-Vee
• Best run of 2011- Javier Gomez in Dallas
• Best overall athlete- Paul Matthews
• Breakthrough athlete- Billiard Bertand
• Best course- Hy-Vee
• Best crash- Cam Dye in Minneapolis, "An age grouper came out of transition and tried to do a flying mount onto his bike, however, from lack of practice or body control he began to go through the line of cones and into my lane. I slammed on my breaks and road over to the left as far as I could to avoid him but my C75 met the curb and I did a slow motion flip over the bars and onto said curb."
• Best quote- Cam Dye post-Hy-Vee, telling me I cut the bouys and cheated in the swim!

  *Have to get some credit for it

70.3 & Iron Distance

• Best performance of 2011- All three records, first Marino Van Hoenacker at IM Austria, Andreas Raelert at Challenge Roth & Craig Alexander at Kona
• Best swim of 2011- Pete Jacobs in IMOZ
• Best ride of 2011-Andreas Raelert at Challenge Roth
• Best run of 2011- Pete Jacobs in Kona
• Best overall athlete- Craig Alexander
• Breakthrough athlete- Clayton Fettell & Andi Boecherer
• Best crash- Tim Reed in Phuket 70.3, "On the final climb of the day at a bit after the 80km mark I felt the heart sinking feeling of a tyre getting very squishy as glass had sliced the tyre and tube... I decided to just ride slowly on the flat tyre until the support vehicle caught up. There was a minor descent where I was able to pick my speed up a little... as soon as I hit the corner at the end of the descent I came down hard stupidly forgetting that I wouldn’t be able to corner with a flat tyre".
• Best Quote- Andy Potts after Vineman 70.3: "Anytime you can get to smell the finish line, and you're shoulder to shoulder with you know, the top guy, and you're in the lead, all that's bringing you towards the finish line. It's like a tractor beam, pulling you in and you got all this adrenaline, and I'm thinking, let the tractor beam, let it pull me in let it pull me in..."
  

On the whole, 2011 was a good year for me, with some definate highlights but also some downers. I had my first injury of my career, which set me back four months of cycling & running from December 2010 until April. I had a short while to recover and condition myself before the international season began, which of course made things tough. I tried some shortcuts to fitness, which obviously worked for my early races in Klagenfurt, Zurich & Geneva, but held me back from long term conditioning for New York, Hy-Vee, Noosa and Port Mac. I introduced new styles of racing, non-drafting Olympic Distance and 70.3, and will certainly continue this into the future. The triathletes I admire are the ones that can do it all, and that's my blueprint. It was also my first season where I took care of everything myself; training plans, racing schedule, training bases, homestays, nutrition and funded myself 95%, the other 5% going to my only cash sponsor. A bit of a bleak figure, but I guess this margin can only improve. At 22, I think I did an okay job of managing all of these things. I learnt a lot and I understand I still have a long way to go, but this is the challenge I love.

...In 2012, I will be smarter, and I will be better. Cannot wait!

Twitterlad

Get at me on Twitter! @JoshAmberger

I expect those that read this blog would actually follow me on Twitter as well. If not, you'll most certainly get hit with the poo shovel, at any given time.