Home ground advantage

In sport they always say that there is a home ground advantage and I've never really bought into whether it is an advantage, until I started racing more 70.3 triathlons and one popped up right on my doorstep.

For me 70.3 Western Sydney probably couldn't be any closer to home, based out of the Penrith Regatta Centre, as the crow flies it's about 3km from where I grew up and about 15 minutes drive from where I currently live, it also means that the roads you ride on, the paths you run on and the water you swim in are all places that I have frequented and sometimes even train on, so if there was going to be a home ground advantage this would be the race.

This year Western Sydney will again be the fourth 70.3 race I have done, which is part of the plan I started last year of having a race to do every 3 to 4 months so that I maintained a level of fitness for racing. That approach has largely worked with all of the races I have done this year being a solid improvement on the performances that I had last year, so it appears that I am back to the days of having a solid foundation of fitness.

I don't really remember last years race but I do recall that it came after a few weeks of my final uni exams, in fact I remember having to get my race pack on Saturday and go straight to an exam at Sydney Uni and not having the time to rack my bike, which luckily I could do on the Sunday morning. I had also been doing classes 3 days a week to try and speed up finishing my degree so I had a reduced training volume compared to what I would like, so as they say, you generally get the time that you deserve, and based on my efforts a 6 hours 17 was what I deserved. My splits being 39 minutes for the swim, 3 hours 3 minutes for the bike and 2 hours 29 minutes for the run (melted on the run).

The good news looking back at this is that I feel like I have maintained a better level of training in the lead up to this years race having only backed off training for 2-3 weeks in late September due to an injury. My previous race, 70.3 Sunshine Coast in September resulted in a personal best of 5 hours 28 minutes, so if I have maintained form I should be able to have a similar race this year.

So what's the plan of attack?

Well last year I was swimming consistent 39 minutes for the 1.9km, comparatively I think so far this year I have been doing 36's and possibly one 35, so I am aiming for a similar time, though there could be a chance that it's a non wetsuit swim (all the others had wetsuits) but the regatta centre generally is pancake flat and with good visibility, so that might balance those factors out.

Looking back I'm not at all surprised with my time of 3:03 for the bike, around the 3 hour mark is my normal performance and even this year I have done a 3 flat in New Zealand, 3 flat in Port Macquarie and a 2:55 on the Sunshine Coast, so a time of hopefully somewhere slightly under 2:55 is expected given I have done a little more speed work than before Sunshine Coast but not quite as much distance. Hopefully there is also a slight advantage in knowing the course like the back of my hand, even if only mentally helping with knowing what distance there is to go, road surface etc.

So the run. There is a saying I like about triathlon, "you ride for show, run for dough" and I think that pretty much sums up how some of my races have gone. When you aren't in super shape it is easy to over stretch yourself on the bike to achieve your goal bike split, but you pay for it on the run, and when I look at all of my results for the last few years this is what's tended to happen, when I'm not in shape it shows on the run.

The positive is that my bike has become a little more consistent and so has my run, this resulted in my best run split of 1:52 on the Sunshine Coast which is the first time I have really ever run sub 2 hours, and it was off of a solid ride. So I am optimistic of hopefully pulling a similar run time, the only things I have to factor in is the heat which can be high, and hydration, but I'm feeling stronger than I did leading into Sunshine Coast so I should be on track.

So, if, and it's a big IF, I can put all of these elements together I should be on track to have a similar performance to Sunshine Coast in September, I haven't done any significant training that makes me think I will lift my performance but it should definitely be maintained, and maybe the rest can come from home ground advantage ;)