Sunday, November 16, 2008

Lessons worth Learning

a Dave thought...
I got back this afternoon after competing at the Shepparton Half Ironman. The event consists of a 1.9km swim, 90km bike & 21km run. I was pleased as I improved my time from last year to complete it in 5 hours & 51 minutes. Some think I'm crazy with this obsession I have with Ironman but it gives me an outlet to keep myself fit and enjoy the company of other athletes.

Being a complete Ironman amateur I discover that every race I go in I always learn a few new tricks which help me improve my race. Again I was not disappointed and at the Pasta Party last night I was advised to put shampoo in my goggles and let it dry cloth free the night before the race to avoid fogging. The other trick I learnt was to pump my tyres up to 115-120 psi rather than the standard 110 on colder race days as the more air you have in your tyres the less of the tyre surface area hits the road which results in slightly more speed. But perhaps the greatest lesson I learnt was at 2pm yesterday as I drove into the Shepparton Motor Inn, I mean literally. As I travel with my bike in an upright position on the roof racks it is important not to drive into standard size garages or awnings - like I did. So there was a big bang and the bike popped off and smashed on the ground, well the damage was minimal and except for the embarrassment of doing this in front of some seasoned triathletes I was lucky that my roof rack and bike escaped unscathed. Anyway it is always good to learn something new.

Just a thought.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hilarious.