Matty White

Challenge Cairns

There are only a few ironman races in the world that can captivate us athletes, and, draw our minds away from our pain, and Challenge Cairns is one of those races. With a bike ride showcasing views that are unparalleled anywhere in the world, along the most majestic coastline in Australia if not the world, sometimes it was difficult to stay upright on the bike as my attention was drawn to the crystal clear blue waters which crest the coastal ride all the way out to Port Douglas.
The inaugural Challenge Cairns race lived up to its pre race hype and expectations bringing with it a huge prize purse and some of the best long course athletes from Australia and New Zealand. Headlining the act was two time World Champion Chris MacCormack, along with other ironman winners , Tim Berkel and Jamie Whyte plus Graham OGrady, Clayton Fettell, David Dellow and John Hotchkiss. With the late withdrawal of 10 time ironman NZ champ Cameron Brown, I believed the door had opened for a podium or a possible victory for me. In the week leading up to the race there was a lot of talk in the local media about Macca questioning who would step up and challenge the world champ. Macca, who is never shy of talking up a good game really put the challenge out to us younger guys to step up over this new course. On a personal note, I managed to slip under the radar and stay relatively stress free in the days leading up to the event which really helped my mindset and focus, I did this by deciding to stay out of Cairns in beautiful Palm Cove, where I enjoyed the great weather and beaches which is what North Queensland is famous for.
I was feeling really confident in the lead up to the race having won the SA state half marathon the previous week, in a PB time of 1.09 so I knew that my running legs were firing. I was familiar with the Cairns course after having spent six weeks there on a training camp in 2009 in my lead up to Hawaii. I knew the run would play a huge factor in the race because the first half of the run was in the full sun along the Captain Cook Highway, and due to the distance between T2 and the finish line, we couldn’t see the majority of the supporters until the 19km mark when we arrived in Cairns- so in a way it felt like a reverse Hawaii, with a tough Queen K highway run! I had upped my running mileage in the weeks lead up to this race clocking on average 100km per week including some good quality sessions.
Race morning began with a 6.45am start at Yorkeys Knob beach, the water temperature was a perfect 22 degrees, and with wetsuits allowed, it made for a comfortable swim. I settled in to a rhythm mindful of the fact that superfish Fettell and O’Grady would be out in front. I exited the water with Berkel and Whyte in 49 minutes, a shade under 5 minutes behind Fettell and about 2 minutes down on Macca, Dellow and O’Grady. I was feeling really comfortable in the swim and was right on track with my race plan, the only issue was knowing that Macca was further up the road riding with a few strong bikers. I managed to find a good rhythm on the bike and shared good company with other strong riders such as Hotchkiss, Berkel and Whyte. We picked up Dellow at the 30km mark but we were losing to time to Macca, Fettell and O’Grady. The ride was out to Port Douglas and back twice which made the ride one of the most picturesque courses I have ever competed on. The fact that the road was fully closed to traffic made it extremely safe all the way back to T2. I was lucky enough to get a few time checks on the course from my wife, Danielle, who was racing the half ironman and who, in no uncertain terms, told me to move my A@# because the gap from me to Macca’s group was about 5 minutes.

Heading into T2 at Yorkeys Knob, the wind picked up, as did our pace and I noticed Berkel begin to struggle off the back in the last 5km. I actually thought Tim’s day was done as we came in to transition, I would later be proved wrong when he caught me at the 30km mark of the run! I hit T2 still 5 minutes down on Macca’s group and I had company with Challenge Wanaka winner Whyte, Hotchkiss and Dellow but, after a quick transition, I went off in hunt of the guys in front. I didn’t know what to expect from Fettell and O’Grady as it was their debut ironman and, being extremely talented athletes, they are capable of anything but, during a hot, tough ironman anything can happen. I knew it was inevitable that the fast pace on the bike would have hurt the lead guys, so for me, the key was to run a solid yet consistent pace into town and let the crowd carry me home in the last hour.
In the first 17km of my run, I hit my target pace and felt really good, I managed to pick up O’Grady at the 10km mark, followed by Fettell at around 15km, finding myself in second still about 5 minutes down on Macca. I knew Berkel was about a minute behind and was coming back after his horror last 5km on the bike, then Whyte, Dellow and Hotchkiss all vying for a piece of the huge prize money on offer. I hit the 20km mark of the run and started to feel cramps coming on even though I was running well, and as most athletes know cramps can play havoc especially after about 7 hours of racing in hot conditions! Berkel was gaining on me and I hit a little bad patch for a while. When Tim caught me at the 23km mark I let him go, I knew I was still running at a solid pace but I didn’t want to push too hard in case cramp ended my day. So I kept plugging away and concentrated on my nutrition- chugging down some SIS gels and fluids, coke, ice and anything else I could get my hands on. I started to feel better and found myself running alongside Berkel at the 30km mark! Despite being friends and training together, running with Tim is not ideal for me because I know Tim can run a fast marathon and I didn’t want to face a running race with him in the last 10km. While we were running the second lap of the three lap course together Tim asked me if it was our last lap, when I told Tim we still had one lap to go I could see the mental anguish on his face when he realised we had to run around the esplanade again. I took this opportunity to make a few surges into the headwind and finally managed to drop Tim then pick up the pace with a tailwind back into town.

At this point I was about 10min back on Macca and feeling the pain, Tim was hovering about a minute back just waiting for me to cramp up and then there was a gap to Whyte and Fettell who was having a great ironman debut. Coming into the last km in Cairns I knew I had 2nd place in the bag as I knew Tim was hurting as much as me and the crowd has an amazing effect in dispersing the pain, so I really got to soak it up and enjoy the great atmosphere of downtown Cairns, running passed all the cafes and pubs was awesome with people stacked 3 deep, and hitting the famous Challenge red carpet was something I would never forget with balloons and spectators going nuts. I crossed the line in 8.28 about 12 minutes behind Macca, Berkel tumbled across the line a minute behind me having given everything out there, Jamie Whyte came home strong in 4th and Fettell finished 5th showing everyone in no uncertain terms that he has unfinished business in ironman.

For me now its all about rest and recovery after a great 12 months on the triathlon circuit, I have made some great friends and experienced some fantastic places along the way, but without a doubt Challenge Cairns is a huge highlight of my year and an excellent way to finish off my OZ season. I feel privileged to be part of the Challenge family now and it was really great to see the way they embrace the whole family concept, allowing competitors to run down the finish shute with family members and loved ones, so a huge congratulations to the Challenge Family and USM for bringing this new event to Australia and I am sure with the worldwide exposure it is going to be even bigger and better next year.

Matty

SA Half Marathon Championships

This weekend I competed in the SA State Half Marathon Championships in the beautiful Barossa Valley town of Tanunda, for those of you who don’t know Tanunda is nestled in the heart of wine country in SA and plays host to numerous wineries all around the district.

I decided to race at the last minute as opposed to doing a last hard run by myself the week before challenge Cairns, and I managed to convince my mate Josh Rix to come down also for a run.

The race was designed along a new course with a straight out and back section with a slow gradual uphill until the last turn then a gradual downhill and a long flat section to bring it home. I had been running quite well in the lead up to this race with some good kms and some good quality sessions. It is pretty rare that I get a chance to test myself over a straight out running race when I am at close to full fitness so I was pumped and ready to roll with some hardcore Lady GAGA on my ipod top get me through!

I was hoping for a fast time, but certainly didn’t expect to cross the line 1st in a 1.09, with Josh not far behind in a 1.12 making it a triathlon 1,2. I managed to break away at the start of the race so to run that time in a solo effort is really encouraging, also a big shout out to young triathlete Krystal Smith who won the females in a slick time of 1.22! also making it a huge triathlete day out.

The last few weeks have been lots of fun for me being able to mix it with some of SA’s best bike riders at the road and TT champs and then win the State Half Champs, but I am looking forward mostly to racing Challenge Cairns next week. I have not raced an ironman since Busso in December last year where I finishied 2nd.

Thanks again to all the SA runners who cheered me on in the run yesterday, it sounded like every second person was cheering and really lifted me.

I will check in again next week from sunny Cairns.

Matty

PAINFEST 2011

Last weekend I competed in the South Australian Road Race Titles for a bit of fun and some good training for my upcoming assault on Challenge Cairns ironman on June 5th. The Saturday consisted of a 40km Time Trial around Langhorne Creek which is about 45min from Adelaide, the roads were not great and there was a slight head/cross wind but I still managed a credible 2nd place in 54 minutes which I was really happy with, even after the tech officials at Cycling SA threw my seat back about 7cm due to regulations. Hence to say it was the most uncomfortable 40km of my life!

Next stop was the road race titles which were a headcracking 16x10km laps with some little bergs thrown in each lap! I was definitely feeling the effects from Saturdays TT effort and looking around the bunch of teh elite men I didnt recognise hardly anyone who raced the previous day, the pace was pretty cruisy for about 120km yet my legs did not feel great. I decided to test them out at 130km and did half a lap on the front and before I knew it I had a small gap with a few laps to go. I decided to give it a red hot go at this point and try and get something out of this long ride so I ended up extending my solo lead out to 30 seconds with about 10km to go! with about 5km left I actually belived I might grab a state road title (imagine if a triathlete won the SA state road titles!), unfortunately the hard work of some of my mates managed to reel me back in with about 1.5km left and I ended up in about 6th place. I was really happy with the weekend on the bike with some huge quality kms and some big HR numbers. ( my Garmin had me above 180BPM for 54min on the Saturday)

If you are a triathlete I thoroughly reccomend to get out there and do some bike racing to mix things up a bit, and I guarantee you will hurt like nothing before.

I have another week of ironman CRAM training before Cairns but the signs are good, the main thing now is just to stay healthy and injury free.

Here are some pics from the Road State Titles…check out the pain on the last photo.

Matty

Busselton 70.3 Race Report

It’s amazing what a week can make in this sport! After really suffering with illness and having a mechanical issue at Port Macquarie 70.3 I just rested and recovered by doing nothing all week in the lead up to Busso 70.3 as I really wanted to redeem myself as Port was not a true indicator of my current form. So my first swim bike or run session was race morning at the race! I still was not 100% with a bit of a chest infection hanging around but feeling 80% better than I did leading into Port 70.3.

The field was a cracker as was last week with a few of us backing up with sore legs and bodies.Tim Berkel, Tim Reed, Josh Rix, Ollie Whistler, Jamie Whyte, Leon Griffen etc where going to make the pace fast over this course, I knew race times were going to be quick as Luke Mckenzie posted a 3.47 the year before so the win would be around there if not low 3.50s. Race morning was bloody freezing as it was only about 8degrees C during the night, but the sun was coming up and and I knew it was going to be a clear day.

The swim started quite fast and I settled into a good pace swimming with Whistler, Griffen, Berkel etc coming out the water about a minute down on Guy Crawford and Bryan (don’t do your quid at the pro briefing) Rhodes and David Dellow. Due to being sick and not feeling great all week after Port I decided to conserve and really focus on a good run and just keep everyone in check. Toward the end of the bike things got a bit congested as we caught the age categories and that was when Rixy and Whyte made a small 30 seconds jump toward transition, myself and a few of the other guys had no idea as things were so congested on lap 2.

I managed to have a good transition and hit the run into a solid head wind all the while keeping Berkz in sight. I was caught at the 3km mark by a beer loving gnome like character Tim Reed and a heavy breathing Dellow and Leon Griffen and I held onto the back of these guys for the remainder of lap 1. I noticed Griff drop back and Dellow looked like he was hurting and so was I, so I let the boys go and just concentrated on my own pace knowing that Tim Reed had raced hard the week before and I thought the effort might catch up to him. At about the 10km mark I ran passed Dellow and noticed a small gnome creature up ahead who I was gaining on. I started to feel great and really light on my feet passing Reed who had run out of gnome juice for 2nd place and holding on to the finish line in a time of 3.52 just over a minute behind my good mate Tim Berkel who had his first 70.3 victory, Tim Reed had a great day in 3rd and Rixy proved that Adelaide is working for him by finishing in 4th place.

So another 2nd place in WA after finishing 2nd in Busso Ironman in December! I am very happy to be healthy and racing hard again and it was so good to see such a good pro field racing both 70.3 races, lets hope this is a sign of things to come now we have more 70.3 races in Australia. A quick mention must go out to the fantastic effort from the Triathlon WA crew by treating all the pro athletes like superstars all weekend and getting us involved in the whole festival, right from the VIP breakfast, the chat with the pro evening and the Kids Triathlon.

For me now its time to Buckle up or as my good mate Dirk Bockel says “BOCKEL” up for some hard training in prep for Challenge Cairns in 4 weeks. I am also racing the SA State Time Trial Championships on Saturday which I am really excited about then backing up with the State Road titles the next day..OUCH! so I will keep you in the loop.

Thanks Again for all the support it really means a lot.

Matty

Pretty Happy about finishing 2nd

Port Mac 70.3 Race Recap

Well, everything that could go wrong did go wrong this weekend so let’s hope that its all out of the way ready for my next race at Busso 70.3 on Saturday. It started early last week when I decided to taper up for this block of racing after a really great prep when I felt a slight head cold coming on, then things started to get really bad after flying all day Friday and arriving at Port Mac in a snot drenched mess! I decided to race nonetheless and would see how I would go.

Race start was great as it was a 9am kick off which enabled me to lie in and go and watch the Ironman swim which passed my hotel, and got to see Pete Jacobs gap the field considerably. I made the liesurly walk down to race start and had to endure the carnage of having to navigate my way around a blocked off street in order to get into the 70.3 Transition which only opened up after a 30 minute delay causing a lot of anxious athletes to wonder around aimlessly pondering their day.

I didnt feel great in the morning but kept telling  myself I was ok, plus I needed to finish this race for points in order to get to Hawaii. My swim flet surprisingly good considering I had a major coughing fit 2 minutes before the start coughing up all sorts of glob. I felt comfortable and came out the water leading the 2nd pack with Joe Gambles, Berkel, Reed, Rix and Griffen which was right where I wanted to be positioned as my bike riding has been great of recently I decided to drop the hammer and start charging. Gambles set a cracking pace out of tranistion and I managed to stay with him going up the first few hills before disaster struck when I changed down into my small chainring. It got caught in my crank and caused no end of grief as I watched the heavy hitters ride away into the distance. I struggled to get going again having to mount up on the steep hill and lost about 1.30min to the main group, so sortry to the spectators on that hill who must have heard all types of language come out of my mouth.

As disheartening as it was I pushed very hard to the trunaround to see what the damage, I placed myself on the rivet for about 50km and managed to catch the group containing Rix, Berkel and Reed, this gave me a lot of confidence as I knew I was not 100% but still managed to catch some strong athletes after a setback. In saying that I got off the bike in a terrible way with heavy legs and breathing through a straw! Suffice to say I still tried hard for about 3km before I realised I was doing more damage than good especially knowing that I am racing Busselton 70.3 6 days later, I decided to drop the level down and ended up jogging home with Griffo who was also having a bad day for the last half of the marathon coming through in equal 8th place.

A big Congratulations must go to Pete Jacobs who lead from start to finish to take out the ironman and also my mate Joe Gambles who is in devastating form as he leaves to the states.

The next day I felt terrible and managed to get into see a Doctor who prescribed me some antibiotics and the good news is that I am feeling about 80% better, so all signs point to a happy healthy Matty White at 70.3 Busso which I am really looking forward to as I have never raced the half ironman over this course and having my career best ironman result there in December is still fresh in my mind. Also keep an eye out for me as my cool sponsor Scody has designed me a new kit which I will debut at the race, its a really new design and will definitely turn some heads.

I am also racing the SA State Titles and Road Race the next weekend in South Australia which I am really looking forward to as I was 3rd at the TTs a few years ago and I defintely am a different bike rider since then so fingers crossed and it should be great fun and great training for the Cairns Ironman in June.

Thanks again for all teh support over the weekend, it was great to see so many South Australians competing and doing well. I will post again after Busso with some better news!

Matty

Port Mac and Busso Prep

Hi everyone, I thought I would check in and let you know how things are going in the lead up to Port Mac and Busso 70.3 events in a few weeks, I am pretty excited about hitting these races especially after coming off a tough win at Triman Half Ironman a few weeks ago so I know the form is there and it has just been a matter of fine tuning since then. The legs did not recover that well from Triman especially after the long drive home to Adelaide, so my recovery was really hampered and basically wrote the next week off as recovery week.

I have recently signed with BACK IN MOTION Physios who provide me with state of the art care each week and they were much needed the last few weeks especially after cranking the running mileage and also trying to recover from Triman. I also am happy to announce signing on with SPIDERTECH Kineosology tape, for those of you who don’t know this tape provides great relief for all injuries/aches and pains, recently I have been struggling with calf/Achilles tightness and this tape is really helping. Just before Triman I also signed with SIS (Science in Sport) nutrition, I have used this product before when I was in the US racing and really enjoyed the flavour and diversity of the products. Things have been pretty busy lately with signing on with new sponsors and re-signing with my existing supporters which I am really happy about, such as SCODY, RYDERS and COMPRESSPORT (who are releasing a new Matty White exclusive product at Port Mac so keep an eye out for this one).

As for training the last few weeks it has been going really well with a few 120km plus running weeks and more swimming, I have found that since I started training with WATTBIKE my riding has improved immensely, I actually really enjoy it as it is so time efficient and precise that you can monitor your efforts 100%, plus being so smooth it beats the old ergo or wind trainer hands down. I also have been combining this with my Altitude Training Machine and the results have been speaking for themselves.

I really can’t wait to race the next few 70.3 races, both fields are packed with great triathletes and whoever podiums will have their work cut out for them, I just hope the weather is good, especially as its starting to get cooler and darker in Adelaide at the moment. I am really looking forward to not be curled up in the fetal position after Port Mac Ironman and cant wait to test the new 70.3 course in Port as well as racing Busso Half which I have never done before. It will be a tough ask backing up 2 half ironmans in a week but I have done it before in the US so hopefully that experience will help.

Good luck to everyone racing in the Ironman in a few weeks and hope the prep is coming along nicely and enjoy your taper.

See you out there

Matty

Triman Race Report

As I am writing this my legs are aching after an epic travelling weekend at Triman in Torquay Victoria, initially I never planned to race this new half ironman event, but a phone call from Anthony Marchesani the week before twisted my rubber arm. So I planned the trip over and decided to use the race as a bit of a form finder and really try and get as much out of it as I can, plus I have never been to the surfcoast before so it was a good opportunity to see this beautiful coastline of our great country.

It is always new and exciting competing in a first off event in a new location and the best thing is that whoever is the winner gets to claim a guaranteed course record. The weather leading into the event was quite windy and cold to say the least especially for the athletes who travelled down from the northern states such as NSW and QLD. The mens field was surpisingly peppered with some quality athletes all chasing a Triman  title, they included a youthful injury free Mitch Anderson, ITU long course winner Jimbo Johnson, Joey lampe, Luke Whitmore and a beer loving gnome like character called Tim Reed. Race kick off was at 6.45am and as I attempted to do a warm up swim I was surprised how cold the water was adding to that the shoreline was littered with rocks which made the beach start rather tentative, but thanks to the local lifesavers we were guided away from the dangerous section.

My start in the swim was unusually slow for me as I generally get a good start in the beach starts and I blame that on the cold as I felt I was running on the spot for the first 5 seconds, but I managed to get going and dive into the 18 degree water in a good position. Luckily I had my Scody Sleeve one piece suit which I was thankful for in the cold conditions.  One of the negatives of first off races is the “teething problems” there are a lot of knockers out there who retrospectively have a crack at race organizers, but from a personal point of view I have organized triathlons before and things go wrong it is human nature, its just whether we learn from these mistakes or not the lesson will lie! So in saying that the 2 lap swim course was carnage for me as I was sitting in 2^nd place with Tim Reed and at the start of the 2^nd lap we hit the age groupers who had started their 1^st lap and I have never had to swim through so much mayhem so I apologise for anyone who I elbowed or kicked. I came out the water with Reed about a minute down on Lampe which was no surprise as Joey is a great swimmer. The swim was definitely short  as I exited in about 18minutes and proceeded to climb the Alcatrazesque steps toward transition.

Once on to the bike I found my legs quite quickly and put my head down into catching Joey who I could see up the road. I knew I was riding well as I broke the course record at a local event the week before by over a minute on a 26km ride. I found myself riding up to Joey at the 15km mark who stayed with me until the start of the 2^nd lap where I found myself riding solo with Johnson about a minute behind and Anderson who was looking strong about 3 minutes back. Once I saw the deficit at the turn point I decided to drop the hammer at the start of the 2^nd lap and see how far I could gap the field, and at the last turn point I turned into the blustery wind and noticed that I had extended my lead which gave me confidence heading back into T2.

I got off the bike with a healthy 3.30min lead of Anderson, so I slipped into my Saucony racing flats and hit the tough windy 21km run (or 22.5km) according to my Garmin but lets not go there! The run course was a slog as there was a considerablye uphill section and coming back there was a headwind along the coastal path so it definitely was not a fast run, but I did enough to capture the win with a 2.30min to Mitch Anderson so I was happy with my race, my legs really started to struggle in the last 5km due to my bike efforts so I took the throttle down a notch to avoid cramping and I was lucky enough to cruise home and enjoy the great finishline.

The podium was rounded out with Anderson, Johnson, Reed and Whitmore so I was in good company. Overall the race was a great confidence builder for me leading into Port and Busso 70.3 events in early May. Obtaining the fastest bike split against solid riders such as Anderson and Johnson in tough blustery conditions tells me that a little tweak in my training has had great effects so I thank Wattbike Australia and ATS for helping me get the power down to the pedals.

Next up for me is a solid block of training and I hope to hit the early May races with fast feet, so thanks for all your support and I will see you out on the race track.

Thanks again to Anthony and the Triman crew for putting on a great race, the atmosphere was excellent and I am sure this event will be a highlight on the calander for 2012.

Matty

Winning Triman 2011

2011 Schedule and Update

I am starting to get back into the groove of things after getting back from a whirlwind Abu Dhabi trip, and as most of you know by now it was a tough hard race and full credit to the guys that toughed it out in the harsh desert conditions. The conditions really bought out the best in the stronger cyclists who dominated the event, after the event we went to Dubai and saw some of the awesome sights such as the Burj and the water park which was unlike anything I have ever seen so I certainly made the most of the trip. When I got back home I really didn’t feel to flash at all and had come down with a slight gastro bug so I took a few days off and planned out my year of racing which I have included in this update, I later found out the pool I was swimming at had been contaminated with a gastro problem and was closed for 3 days to refill and rechlorinate so I guess that is where I caught the bug from.

After having a few days off I started to train again and feel really good so I decided to have a race on the following weekend more so for a solid training hit out. The race was a little bit longer than a sprint so I decided to go max out and get some good numbers and data to go by for training purposes as I don’t usually race with a HR monitor. I managed the win in a new course record by over 3 minutes and won the race by nearly 4.30min so it was really good for the confidence after not feeling great at Abu Dhabi and the following week, so am back on track and really looking forward to my next race which will be the new TRIMAN half ironman event in Torquay Victoria. I initially wasn;t going to race this but was convinced by the race organizer last week and couldn’t say no, so after some juggling with work commitments I will be there. I will have race updates on the day on my twitter @mattywhite77 so jump onboard.

2011 is a big year with a big season of racing coming up with the key objective qualifying for Kona and World 70.3 worlds, so the next few 70.3 races in Port Mac and Busso are quite important as part of the qualifying process and getting a headstart in points. I am looking at going to the US in late July after challenge Cairns and focus on preparation for Kona in Boulder again as I feel it worked well last time. I have some good news on the sponsorship front after just signing with SIS sports nutrition, I am really happy about being part of this team as my good mates Timmy Berkel and Mitch Robbins are also on board and have nothing but good things to say about them, I tried the products in the US last year whilst living with Tim so I have tested them in training and racing which gives me a lot of confidence in the product.

I also have a project in the pipeline with my mate Dan Peters, Dan does my website photography and we are planning something unique which we will be filming next week so when it is done I will release it on here but with Dan’s talent it will be special.

Here is my 2011 schedule so hopefully it stays on track and I can get to Kona but at the moment things are on track and on target so fingers crossed.

2011 Schedule
April

3rd – Triman Half Ironman

May

1st – Port Mac 70.3
7th – Busselton 70.3
17th – SA State Time Trial Championships (Cycling)

June

16th – Challenge Cairns Ironman

July/August (USA)

14th – Lake Stevens 70.3
21st – Timberman

September

11th – 70.3 World Championships
18th – 70.3 Cancun

October

10th Ironman World Championships

November

Shepparton Half Ironman

December

Busselton Ironman WA

Take Care

Matty

Tri 220 Mag

Compressport Full Leg Compression

Recently I was sent a set of full leg compression garments from Compressport Australia and was really happy about it as I have been after a full leg garment from Compressport for a while. The best advantage is that they can also be used as a full leg warmer in colder conditions and also add to that the advantage of compression too.

The main advantage of this product is that it accelerates recovery by accelerating venous production in the muscles of the legs, making your legs feel ultra light when wearing them.
You can find out more at COMPRESSPORT AUSTRALIA and if you want optiumum recovery through the best compression on the market you need to jump on board.

Rudi from Compressport will be at Port Mac Ironman and Busselton and he will be more than happy to size you up, I also have some exciting news from compressport which I will announce shortly.

See you out there.

Matty

Your legs will look like this after one use

Abu Dhabi Race report

The desert is a brutal unforgiving place, and I found that out on Saturday after riding a leg crushing 200km in the blistering heat with sidewinds, headwinds and sandstorms, not to mention the hottest field in triathlon outside of Kona! I was not alone out there though as I was amongst 25 pro males who did not finish the race due to the harsh conditions out there.
On a personal note this race is unique, firstly the distances are 3/200/20 meaning that all the uberbikers on the planet are here, also the other difference is that the race organizers really look after the pro athletes like royalty, right from the 5 star hotel to the guided VIP tours around the tourist attractions such as Ferrari World, the 3rd largest Mosque in the World and the world renowned falcon hospital. So it was an amazing experience.
The race itself started at 6.30 in the morning and I am not going to list the names of who is competing except to say that if you took the whole field of kona minus the Raelert brothers you will come close to the field at Abu Dhabi! When the gun went off I had a solid start, but the pace was on as I knew it would and I ended up coming out of the water in a group with Gambles, Berkel, Rix, Lanos, Bracht with Macormack and a few others just 15 seconds up the road. As soon as I hit the bike the pace was on and I was not having a great day with the legs screaming as we bridged up to a group containing Macca, Tissink and Vahoneaker etc. I actually thought this was the main group on the road but actually Crowie and another group were a further 2 minutes away.
A major highlight of this race is getting to ride on the YAS marina F1 circuit and to be honest with you it was truly awesome, as our group hit the circuit things got really fast as we tried to catch the lead group, the roads are A1 smooth and hotmix so speeds of 50km/h felt easy! Once I exited the circuit things got really crazy with Macca turning the screws to 60km/h for about 35km, during this time I was fixated on my front hub with my head down praying for the pace to ease up and keep these guys in sight. As we approached the end of lap 1 I spoke to Macca and he said his day was done and he was heading to the hotel! Thanks for that.
At about this time a gap opened up and about 5 guys including Tissink, Lanos, Brown and Vahonaker bridged across to the front and left us all languishing in sandstorm hell! And that it was as we passed other pro athletes with their heads in their hands on the side of the road. I decided to keep plugging away with Tim Berkel, Josh Rix, Joe Gambles, Ben Hoffman etc but it was fruitless as we were all smaller guys getting buffeted by the big cross head winds, it seemed the bigger 80kg guys could plow through a bit better in these conditions and I think that showed in the final results!
I decided to call it a day at about 160km mark, but managed to finish the bike leg with my mate Tim Berkel. It was such a hard day with conditions that I have never experienced before, but with the amount of pro guys dropping out it certainly says something. Overall I was not too disappointed as I gave it my all and it just wasn’t my day. Next on my agenda is Port Mac 70.3 and Busso 70.3 so I am looking forward to getting into some shorter stuff as I have been developing a big base during the first few months of this year.
Thanks for all the support and enjoy the photos I have posted, but most of all Abu Dhabi is a cool place to visit and a must do travel spot for anyone wanting to experience culture and vast wealth combined!

Matty