Latest News

1/10/08
Training / racing tip

Carbo loading can save your race. Too often athletes training for Half Ironman or Ironman races spend hours training for the race. They spend fortunes on their bikes. Aero helmets, skin suits, the latest wetsuits, every aerodynamic accessory available. Then they go into the race with “less than a full fuel tank”.

As dedicated endurance athletes we deplete our systems and reload every week. In fact if we didn’t continually reload with carbs, after each workout, we just couldn’t do the work.  We would run out of fuel. In a normal week of training we refuel but never get back to “full”. The reason for this is that it takes a couple of days to fully top up the fuel tank. That’s a couple of days of very little activity and regular consumption of high carb meals.

Most of us would have no trouble completing a half Ironman race with three quarters of a fuel tank. In fact we do this regularly in training. But in order to really make a statement on race day we need to have everything going for us.

Light training (small amounts at race pace, light in volume only) stimulate the body to load up when we refuel after the workout. So doing nothing on the two days before the race is less productive than doing small workouts in each discipline, each morning. So long as you reload right after the workout.

Reloading can be done with regular food, rice, pasta, potatoes etc. But there are advantages in refueling with a drink such as Endura rehydration formular or Endura Optimiser. If either of these products or a drink similar to these is used, the greatest advantage of carbo loading will be reaped.

When the body stores carbohydrates in the muscles and liver, for every gram of carbohydrate stored, two grams of water are stored with it.

Using liquids to carbo load not only loads the muscles with energy but the body is super hydrated. YOU WILL GAIN WEIGHT WHEN YOU CARBO LOAD, BUT YOU WILL GO FASTER. The extra weight is water stored in your muscles to be used in the race.

On a hot day, and it will be hot, believe me. It’s almost impossible to absorb as much water during the run portion of the race as you lose in sweat. So on the bike, drink as much as you can. I personally will drink four bottles on the bike. I intend to start the run fully hydrated.

Then as the run unfolds, drinking as much as I can at aid stations, I’ll start to use the reserves held in my muscles. The ideal situation is to finish the race at close to the same body weight as you are today. Carbo loading will raise your starting weight, and then you’ll use the excess to prevent dehydration as the run unfolds.

The benefits of carbo loading will show up in your run time. A small percentage of weight loss caused by dehydration can drastically reduce the runners speed on a hot day.

More tips at aptriathlon.com

25/09/08
There will be NO gels on the course. H.E.E.D will be available at all aid stations and on the bike course. Hammer Nutrition will be selling gels at the Saturday Expo prior to race day to all competitors @ $2.00 each. Or you can go to their website and buy direct at the same price.

25/09/08
Competitor Race Booklet available online View

The two key areas to position the club popup marquees at Calypso Bay will be along the crowd control fence line opposite from the expo marquee (view run, finish & presentations) and out along Harbour Boulevard past the roundabout (view cycle & run). USM Events will not be allocating spaces, just overseeing the positioning

18/09/08
Competitor Acceptance List available online from Monday 29 September

USM Events is working with the Gold Coast City Council to identify the pot holes and badly affected road surfaces along the cycle course. These are scheduled to be fixed during the week before the event. The road works section along the Old Pacific Highway near the Pimpama Jacobs Well Road intersection is scheduled to be resurfaced on the Friday before the event.

16/9/08
Layout Changes

As the competitor numbers for the 2008 are very strong, we have made some changes to the layout of the home base area.  These changes will reduce the amount of congestion around Harrigan’s Drifty Inn and provide more spectator opportunities along the course.  A site map has been posted on the maps page.  Stay tuned for more updates – not long to go now until the first race at the new and exciting Calypso Bay venue! View map

16/9/08
Parking

The parking areas for the Half Ironman at Calypso Bay is the large grassed area at the end of Harbour Boulevard (the long entry road).  If you are going down to train from Calypso Bay, we kindly ask that you park your cars in that area.  The Harrigan’s Drift Inn is extremely busy on a Sunday morning so we want to avoid parking cars in that area.  Thank you for your cooperation.

16/9/08
‘Feeding plan’ by Allan Pitman

The fastest athletes are going to finish this race in less than four hours. Others are going to be still out there on their feet for up to seven hours. The longer you spend out there on the course, the more fuel you’ll need. If you were going to drive for seven hours, you’d probably stop for a meal along the way or carry a swag of snacks with you to keep your blood sugar levels up and to maintain concentration.

That’s sitting doing almost nothing and you need feeding along the way. Imagine how many calories are burned swimming, cycling and running for between five and seven hours. The most important consideration when formulating a feeding plan is hydration. Running low on fuel can cause you to slow down and can cause your muscles to hurt more.

To the less experienced athlete, the simplest plan is best. Drink one large bottle each hour (minimum) take one gel per hour for the first hour and one each half hour after. Each gel should be washed down with 150-200ml of water. NOT SPORTS DRINK

If you wash gels down with sports drink, you run the risk of consuming too rich a carbohydrate concentration and shutting down your stomach. That is, you stomach says THAT’S TOO STRONG, I CAN’T ABSORB IT. Once this happens, your stomach will not even absorb fluid and you risk dehydration.

The answer is quite simple. Keep the mixture rate of carbohydrates and water at 6%. Most sports drinks are mixed at this rate. So drink sports drinks on their own. If you take gels, wash them down with water. If coke is offered at an aid station, dilute it with equal parts of water, one coke to one water. Coke is approximately 12% sugar.

More half Ironman and Ironman races have been ruined by too much fuel than by too little fuel.   

More tips at aptriathlon.com

10/9/08
Course Familiarisation THIS SUNDAY

This is your chance to familiarise yourself with the new course.
Mark Turner, Head Coach of the Brisbane tri Squad will be conducting the session.

Where: Harrigan’s Pub, Calypso Bay
When: 7am, Sunday September 14

Harrigan’s Pub is offering a breakfast special – Triathlon small bites for Breakkie

• English Muffin and Coffee - $8.50

Choose from one of the following fillings:
- Poached Egg and Ham
- Sausage and Hash Brown
- Bacon and Tomato with Spinach

Sauces available – Hollandaise, Tomato Olive Chutney, BBQ and Tomato

• Raisin Toast - $4.50

Half Ironman and Ironman racing is heavily dependent on running strength.

Most of our run training should be geared toward endurance building. But the addition of strength building sessions is very important. Every weeks training block should include at least one run off the bike.  Two would be better.

The ability to transition effectively from the bike to the run is developed a little at a time. The more occasions which it’s practiced between now and your race day, the more smoothly it’ll happen on October 5th.

Long bikes can be followed by shorter runs, and shorter bikes can be coupled with longer runs. A good example would be a three hour endurance bike followed by a twenty minute run. Or harder, hilly bike of ninety minutes followed by a ninety minute run. None of these workouts should be treated as races. Remember the race is on October 5th, this is just preparation for the race.

A lot of triathletes use fun runs as a chance to try a little race pace work and test their feeding plan. E.g. Pre race meals. The Bridge to Brisbane run is coming up in September and it’s an ideal distance to test how the training has been going.  A lot of Ironman and Half Ironman competitors have used this run to build strength at faster than triathlon pace and then jogged back to pick up their cars. Extending the endurance building effect. No wonder people think we’re crazy.

More tips at aptriathlon.com

19/8/08
‘Doing the basics right’ by Allan Pitman

Make sure your body will go the distance. This doesn’t mean doing a whole Half Ironman in training. I mean be able to run for two hours non stop. Keep the heart rates low, in the range of 50-80% of max HR. If you don’t own a heart rate monitor (it will be one of your best investments) running at a pace where you can continually talk is usually below 80%.

Another way to be sure and to improve concentration skills is to count the number of foot strikes per inward breath and per outward breath. Three foot falls per inward breath is a pace you could expect to hold for a long endurance race. Also when you’re counting steps per breath, it fills your mind and time passes quickly. Before you know it your long run is over. You’re not running along thinking about “how bad things are”. It’s not a bad thing to take your mind away from the discomfort.

Long endurance runs should be done easily. Long endurance building bike rides should also be done easily. They’re not meant to be time trials. Time trials have another special place in your training program, but not in building endurance.

Endurance building bike rides and runs are the perfect time to practice race day feeding (my next article will be dedicated to that aspect of long distance racing)

Make sure you have at least two bidon cages mounted on your bike and experiment with energy drinks before race day. Remember the average stomach can only absorb a 6% carbohyrdrate solution. Too strong and you’ll suffer stomach cramps or dehydration.

Swimming endurance is also an important component of your race. It’s important to be very strong through your swim stroke mechanics. Swimming with pull buoy, paddles and a rubber band around the ankles will force you to over load your swim muscles. Doing this for sets of 50, 100, 200m with short breaks (5-10sec) for a total distance close to race distance will ensure you have the strength to hold your stroke together for the whole distance. Start with shorter distances and build. Also start out with the smaller “finger paddles” these will cause less strain on your shoulders.

Overall, endurance is going to be your greatest fitness need on race day. Endurance is the ability to keep going without slowing down. More tips at aptriathlon.com

10/4/08
NEW Year… NEW Distance… NEW Location!

2008 will see the Gold Coast Half Ironman taken to a new level with a faster course, a new sprint distance race, and a stunning new location on the Gold Coast.

After five fantastic years at Coomera Waters development of the resort is now in its final stages and unable to cater for our ever expanding numbers and spectators. We are very grateful to Body Corporate, residents and Austcorp for their generous support of the event.

The good news . . . we will be moving just 7km down the road to Calypso Bay and is easily accessible from either the Gold Coast or Brisbane.

The new location, Calypso Bay, is a unique new waterfront development set beside the calm and sheltered waters of southern Moreton Bay at the far northern tip of the Gold Coast.