Nathan Dunkley was back in the mix shortly after his Bateman’s Bay race for the Triathlon New South Wales club championships. The following is a race report in his own words:

For the 2nd year running the NSW club champs was held at Forster on the central coast. A great spot with significant triathlon heritage it being the original IM Aus location back in the 90's. This is purely team event with a point score system for placing, attending, marshalling etc Competition between clubs is surprisingly fierce with many drafting pro's for the day meaning you get a strong field at the top end with a total field of 700+. It's a club distance event (1,30,8) which I've grown to like as a comfortable middle ground, not crazy fast like sprint and not quite as long as OD which would put a lot of people off racing.

The swim was super fast being held in a sheltered lake, the top guys coming out in 12's, I cruised a 14:22 on the back off a reasonable pack. For some benign reason they had my wave 30-34 going off last therefore we had to swim over and bike round everyone else’s dregs… The ride was flattish, bad seal, 2 lap course. 700 people over 15K lap obviously meant the usual traffic, bad riding and drafting… Ideal course for me really, I came off the bike first in my wave with a cat fasting 47, top boys were doing 46's but their wave went out first therefore that's where I'll say I dropped my min. The run was a XC and road mix so pretty slow; obviously this is where you really get to some of the young pro's show their colours. My club (Coogee Tri) had x3 of the NSW junior dev squad racing all coming in at 31's, I got pulled out for undoing my helmet 2s before racking my bike by a fascist TA exerting his will power.. I had a OK run at 32 getting run down by some of the usual suspects finishing an eventual 5th in my cat. Honours for the day went Matilda Reynolds for the ladies from spots local squad with a 1.38 and Sam Appleton winning the men's in 1:26 surprisingly beating Michael Murphy in to 2nd who's won most of the OD and sprint racing in NSW this year. I came in 20th over all with a reasonable 1:33.

Clubs Champs is as much about the pissup as it is about the race so quickly after returning to camp all the clubs proceeded to start off season recovery procedure being excessive beer and general inebriation… Balmoral took the big club win this year, smashing all contenders (Hills and Cronulla), they seemed to have at least 2 strong contenders in pretty much every cat.. Coogee Tri took the medium sized club victory much to the pleasure of club president Matty Dymond. The victory meant additional recovery inebriation in to the small hrs of the morning and the chances of a 4hr ride the next day increasingly unlikely..

 Needless to say the ride never happened.

April 27/28, 2012

Dalford once again switched his Tri kit for his bike racing cape to contest the Twilight Criterium. Labelled the most insane crit in the U.S. this race is full on even before the start. With a category upgrade to Cat. 2, “Dalfreddo” was to race with the Pro 1, 2 big boys in the morning and try to qualify for that evening’s race which is held on the famous “downtown” circuit. His strategic placement in the mornings crit finished him at 15^th place qualifying him to race in the amateur finals which is raced at warp speed 10+!! With only about 5 hrs. Of recovery time, he had to be ready to race again at 6p.m.

That afternoon in a field of over 75 riders on a tight 1K course, he finished an amazing 12^th place! Although this may look like an ordinary result, it is highly doubtful the other 98.9% of the field also ran and swam during the week for training. The following is a video made by one of the poor buggers in the back. Seeing all the landmarks of my old stomping ground’s gets me a bit homesick. This is one of the stepping stones for aspiring future professionals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su-uQLLGQOE

Bateman’s Bay Ultimate

Nathan “Ned Kelly” Dunkley toed the line at the latest edition of the Bateman’s Bay ultimate triathlon http://www.ultimatetriathlon.com.au/batemansbay/ on the beautiful coastline of NSW. The day promised more than a few surprises as Elite energy’s ongoing new format of this Triathlon long course distance.

Coming out of the chilly swim and on to his new Specialized Shiv planning to April fool the field, he ripped a 3:30 and some change on the 120k bike! Coming off the bike in a 6^th place in his age group, he was hungry to chase down the leaders. However, nutritional distress started to rear its ugly head (as it does sometimes) and Nathan had to slow a few times to deal with a bad gut shutdown.

However, despite losing a couple places and the fighter that he is, he managed to hang on and finish in the top ten (8^th in age group) Way to go hammer!

He had a great day setting a new PR by over 3 minutes and running a sub 42 min. 10k on a hilly run! He will be heading to Byron Bay triathlon for a bit of more warp speedwork before heading to Cairns 70.3

I tried to look for him here on the video highlights, but only saw a blur of him around 2:00 in to the coverage.

http://www.usmevents.com.au/Triathlon___Multi_Sport/Mooloolaba_Triathlon_Festival/Media___Gallery/2012_Video_Gallery.htm

American athlete Dalford England blazed a quick sprint tri to work on his fast twitchers for the day. Coming out of the beautiful world class Ramsey center swimming pool in to frigid conditions, he blazed a super fast bike and despite lack of any fast run training over the Winter, survived a foot numbing run in order to get back to the warm confines of a fireplace. 4^th overall for the day in under an hr. just missing podium by 13 seconds. Great way to start the season!

   Dalf sportin' the BIG GUNS!!!

It was a beautiful day in beautiful Jervis Bay. The weekend full of different triathlons, swims and runs made for a fun weekend for the whole family. I feel Elite Energy still has some issues to touch on in their organisation of some of their events; However, they still give it a go and overall, produce a solid time for all.

Due to the food poisoning holocaust that forced the Cannibal out of last week’s Australian National Championships in Falls creek, Clint Arizmendi was contemplating racing on this day. However, he smartly chose to do battle another day as his system was severely weakened by the bug that set up camp in his intestines. Never the less, he and I decided to have a weekend of it and make the drive down to Jervis Bay. Clint kindly volunteered part of his day to marshal some of the race and I just hung back and watched and Pete Jacobs and Mitch Robins went 1 – 2 in the Pro men’s field.

However, the highlight of the weekend was catching up with a few of my old mates from Leeton. It was special seeing some of the people who I first met when I moved to Australia permanently over 2 years ago and who I have not seen in about a year.The whole Tri crew made it over for the long course race. One athlete who I still work with in Leeton, Nathan Wood, had a smash day despite his claims his bike could have been faster. For such a big person (a very lean 100kg and 195cm. or so) he can really move. If he would have chosen to race the Clydesdale category, he would have won. However, he chose the “gentlemanly” way and raced his age group. He had a great day finishing 25 out of 219 for the day. The almighty "Woodsy" post race

System Jake athletes Ken “Dirty Diesel” Enright and Clint “Cannibal” Arizmendi made it down to Falls Creek, Victoria for some high altitude, cold water lovin’. These two have had this race in their sights to make selection for the Australian National Long course team and race this July in Spain for the ITU Long Course World Championships.

The weather all week leading up to the race was looking dismal at best. Race organisation was not sure how to handle the turn of weather and ultimately decided on race day to go on with the full race.

Unfortunately for Clint, a hi-fever and food poisoning struck him down just a few days out from the race, preventing him from maintaining any nutritional input into his body. Being the hard charger he is, he still decided to have a go of it. The morning temp was 14c water and 8c air which would make for an interesting T1 and first 30 minutes on the bike. As Clint came out of the water looking for scalps, he started the bike. However, the combination of the cold water and his stomach flu prevented him from keeping anything down in terms of nutrition. He pulled the plug about 40k into the bike after giving it a go and I immensely admire him for the effort.

On to Ken. Ironically, Ken also came down with a bug just about 10 days out from race day. Although not food related, it was more of a “catching someone else’s” germ type of sickness that just saps your energy and adds misery to good health. However, Ken was able to manage a really well executed race despite missing some training days and not fully stocked in terms of energy levels. Being from the warm climes up in Queensland, he managed the cold well and had a great day to finish and a lot to be proud of!!  (That's Clint on the left and Ken on the right)

Well, the American Cycling road racing season got underway with Dalford England travelling down to Gainesville, Florida and competing in a series of three (2  Collegiate “A” races and a Pro1/2 ) race. Despite not doing any specific bike training, he had a great weekend of good results which left him questioning whether to get in to cycling on a more full time basis or continue in his quest for National Triathlon stardom.

He has some big goals in Triathlon this year, so he is going to stay concentrating on that. However, the bike racing only adds to his strengths. It works on his reflexes when he is in the pack, strategy when making race moves and works on his overall ability to suffer. Cause when you are up the road in a small break and the group is bearing down hard, staying off the front can be very painful. He also has gained respect in the bike racing community who sometimes have a negative thing or two to say about triathletes.

It was the day of the Big blokes on for this inaugural race in country Australia. Elite Energy put another race in their Long Distance qualifying series. The Wagga “Ultimate” promised to be a tough day as for the two days prior, the rain was coming down in buckets and the temperature dropped to the low teens (Celsius) just as athletes were starting to acclimate to the heat, Mother Nature pulls another one of her change ups. (Typical Female).

However, as race day dawned the sun was shining but with a howling wind to let us know who really is in charge. As I made my way down to what was my first race (long course) in two years, I eyed the beautiful chocolately milky lake that had a serious chop to it. I saw some old mates and was also there with some other athletes that I work with. The Cannibal (Clint A.) brought  his usual can of whoop a$$, new sign on Nathan Dunkley was eager to chase down T. Berkel and none other than “terminator” Nathan Wood was there I think just to tease and taunt me to add to my upcoming pain.

After waiting over an hour for the gun due to a course muck up to get straight, we got started. My lack of swim training and fitness showed straight away as the front pack dropped me. The good point was I kept good sighting and stayed hydrated by swallowing the bits and pieces of beautiful Lake Albert. At least when I got out of the water, there were still a few bikes on the racks.

On to the bike and it seemed like a tug of war was happening just trying to stay upright on the bike. This was to be a day where being a Semi-Clydesdale would prove beneficial due to the wind not blowing them around like it was everybody else. As I made my way through the field, my good mate Troy Pietsch was kindly working the water feed zone and started to give me time checks on where Woodsy was up the road. I told myself I was not going to get drawn into that battle, but on each go round, the time started to drop, (6 min./4 min/2 min.)my God I thought, did he have that big of a gap on the swim? so I thought maybe I can have a go at the big Diesel. I caught him just before transition and we headed out on the run together. This was an unexpected surprise and I felt good so far. As I was running out, coming in on the return was Nat “Ned Kelly” Dunkley (another biggie) who seemed to be in the top ten and looking smooth as butter. Nat would eventually finish 5^TH OVERALL and win his age group!!

That is until about 10k to go in the run. It seems (although I am not sure) that my stomach started getting some bad cramps and felt really bloated. I was not sure, but think because I am lactose intolerant and drinking the chocolate milk lake water eventually did me in. It was this point that I found out Woodsy was gaining on me and said a hearty “G’day” as he floated by. After what seemed like an eternity of walking and running, I caught whiff (or rather he smelled blood) of Clint “Cannibal” Arizmendi. He was coming on strong for the kill. Fortunately for me, the finish was just ahead and I struggled in just ahead of him.

Wow, despite getting a bit sick, what a great day and better yet a great feeling to be out there again celebrating a day of good health. We take times, wattages, etc. for granted but at the end of the day, we are very fortunate to be out there having a go of it. Till next blog….

As warmer weather approaches, the internal mechanisms in our bodies start to crave lighter, less dense foods than what we were eating in the winter. This can be good or bad depending on your diet during the winter. It is sometimes harder mentally to just eat a “salad” when it is cold outside when we crave a big piece of meat with some potatoes and cheese. Warmer climates naturally bring our bodies to a better nutritional place with the sunshine and heat that accompanies it. There are plenty of nutrient dense foods that are light on the palate. And the best part is these are what we should be eating year round anyways.

If you have not yet, go ahead and start planting some veggies in your garden. If you don’t have one, make one. It doesn’t have to be big or fancy. You can even have some plants in your house by an open window that gets good sunlight. The bottom line is that you are eating good, whole foods that you added a “personal” touch to. Some easy going veggie/herbs to grow are tomatoes, peppers, basil, oregano, eggplant, etc.  Add some chicken, fish, or roo (Buffalo in America) and you are primed to go hard!! Don’t forget the krill oil!

In terms of hydration, drink lots of water (filtered if possible). I know this is old news, but when you start to get busy at work or are out there flogging away on a training session, it's all too easy to skip drinking. Before you know it, performance starts to decline and that's all she wrote. Get in to the habit of regular fluid intake and you'll recover and feel better at the end of the day.

As the American season winds down, all the good (or bad) food starts to tempt. Again, self control and reasonable thinking will guide you. It's ok to delve off a good diet and eat some tasty treats (on occasion), just use common sense and self control by limiting the input. Putting on extra weight requires extra work to take it off, so instead of that extra helping of cheesy, buttery, creamy whatever, use the discipline you have learned and just say no thanks.

Thanks,

Jake