6th at World Champs

Howdy Folks

I finished 6th place today at the ITU World Championships here in North Carolina

I executed a solid race but missed a break late in the bike which saw me enter transition 10 sec behind a group of 9. Only eventual winner Jarrod Shoemaker got past me on the final run and I recorded the 4th fastest last 5km. The medallists all ran quicker than my split so I was not quite physically ready to claim a medal even if I got on the right side of the break.

It is clear that my strength running off the bike is getting better and better and I was very happy with my first 10km split- which apparently was accurate for once- of 30.30.

I must say a huge thanks to Lianne and Sebastian, my family, sponsors and supporters, plus my fantastic homestay here in NC (Cody and Jana) and Matt Blackwell who flew down from Virginia to give his vocal and much appreciated support.

My improvement curve will hopefully continue next year in Edinburgh and I can realise my dream of being World Champion which is now less than 30 seconds away......thanks for tracking my progress

Regards
Radar

Arrival in North Carolina

Howdy Folks

Well quite a journey to finally make it here to North Carolina and after delays in Atlanta it was over 36 hours of total transit time. I was however impressed with Delta airlines who are now flying out of Sydney to LA and it was comfortable flying with decent food and excellent inflight entertainment.

My bike and bags didn't arrive with me but hoping they lob up shortly so I can get out and test the bike and start to zone in on Saturday's World Championship. With a few triathletes in the mix I am sure the first run will be very quick as a couple of new faces always stirs things up

It is very humid here but thankfully with only moderate temperatures in the mid 20's. The town I am staying in is Belmont on the western fringe of NC and the small town feel is really nice. In the heartland everyone seems to say hello and the door to the house stays open all day due to the low crime rate....a throw back to the good old days!!!

For those interested I expect there will be live coverage at www.triathlon.org

Running Regards
Radar

Off to the USA

Well crew it is game time!

After training solid since late last year the big show has arrived and the World Duathlon Champs are on next weekend in Concord, North Carolina. I am actually excited to get to the USA and get a cultural feel for the place again as alot has changed since I was last there in 2006.

In terms of the race I have had a great build up and trained very hard so I am excited to race hard. The biggest difference this year is the cumulative miles of the preceeding 3 years and the ever increasing base and strength.

Running Regards
Radar

Pemberton Training Camp

Greetings all

Awesome effort to all our Front Runners at the World Tri Champs on the Gold Coast- some outstanding efforts across the board and super proud of everyone....on the weekend Paul Mackay came down with my family for a small scale (2 participants) Powerman Pemberton and we didn't dissappoint Lianne and Sebstian with a great display in torrential rain!!!! Macka is a tough cookie and we got some solid training done on the weekend. I am very excited for the World's now and will hit the race in the best shape of my life.

Very much looking forward to the contest now

Running Regards
Radar

City to Surf Media Coverage

Howdy Folks

I have been amazed at how many people have asked my opinion on the quality of journalism and general media coverage of this year's City to Surf.- particularly the Sunday Times lift out last week.

Summarising, in my opinion the coverage was the lowest quality I have ever seen or encountered in an event of that size, anywhere in the world. Simply put, it was completely unprofessional. There was no research on athletes, little historical or relevant comparitive data and overall I thought it reflected negatively on the event, sponsors, athletes and the publishers.

After plenty of discussion on the training track, the top WA's top runner in each event (Hamish McElwee, Steve Stingemore and myself) will be meeting organisers to discuss how this can be improved in the future for the benefit of this great event.

Running Regards
Radar

Weekly Update- 3 weeks till Worlds!

Howdy Folks and Happy Fathers Day to all the Dad's out there!

With 3 weeks to go till World's this week ended up being relatively light on quality as my legs were very beaten up from the race last weekend and are just coming good again today....that was until 23km at Helena Valley beat them up again. In total, just over 100k of running and around 300k on the bike dodging showers. The key ingredient between now and world's is a little extra rest and race specific work and I will head down to Pemberton this Thursday to start to focus on the race. I then fly out to USA on a Sydney-LA-Atlanta-Charlotte schedule on September 21st.

I will not have any scheduled racing until the event so the sharp training and extra recovery will now be the primary focus to tune up the final 1-2%.

Good luck to all the Front Runners and other West Aussies racing on the Gold Coast next weekend....I hope it is a great success and your hard work pays dividends

Regards
RADAR