Sydney Duathlon Race 2

Up at 5.45am this morning for race #2 in the Sydney Duathlon Series at Parramatta, a 3.2km run, 20km bike, 3.2km run event. I always have something to eat before I race and for early races I usually have a couple of slices of gluten-free toast with peanut butter and a cup of tea. The energy from this light breakfast usually kicks in around 8am which is perfect as this is the start time of the race.

A rather chilly morning of 8 degrees at Parramatta so you have to keep nice and warm and make sure to warm up properly. This is a sprint distance race so getting the heart rate up prior to the start is a really good idea. In the colder weather I leave a t-shirt on for the first 3.2km run leg after which I have warmed up for the bike. Arm warmers are a good idea in these conditions and today I kept them on for the entire race. Clocked a good time today of around 1h 8m which should give me a top 3 finish.

I get home around 10am and have a nice brunch, usually eggs for the protein with GF toast and coffee. Looking forward to training this week with some longer sessions.

Musical equipment

I'm enjoying my new Roland Cube 80XL guitar amp. I have long been a user of valve amps but the lugging around got a bit tiresome due to the extreme weight. This new solid-state amp is lovely. It's about half the weight of the valve combos and packs a real punch. I love the on-board effects and amp modelling. It's an extremely versatile unit with plenty of tone control and sound options. Recorded a new YouTube clip on Friday using the amp and my '85 Fender Stratocaster with EMG pickups. I took the Beatle song "I'm Down" and gave it a bluesy shuffle feel. Check it out on my YouTube channel.

Winter schedule

It's the triathlon off-season so my focus is on keeping up the core strength work with gym sessions and racing in the various duathlons and running races that come up at this time of year. I wrapped up last season with the Australian Ironman Triathlon in Port Macquarie followed by the NSW Club Championships in Forster where my club, Warringah, were looking to make it 5 State titles in a row. We took out 2nd place to Cronulla this year in a very close finish.

I have my race program pretty well sorted out for winter. There was the Balmoral Burn in May followed by the 10km Mosman Minimosmarathon road run in June. I came 5th in age group in the Burn and 2nd in Minimos with a PB. On June 5 I took out 2nd place in Race 1 of the Sydney duathlon series at Parramatta Park, an excellent event run by the Hills Triathlon Club. Race 2 is this Sunday then race 3 on July 31 which is the NSW State championship event. I'm doing City2Surf again in August and looking to improve on my PB from last year and clock around 65 minutes.

My first triathlon of the new season will be the Forster Ultimate event in October, a 2km swim,120km bike and 20km run. Looking forward to that. Then in November the Nepean Triathlon comes up and that's always a great race on a fast track.

I have been enjoying my new Cervelo P2C triathlon bike and the Easton Tempest 2 carbon tubulars are a joy to race on.