MSC Latest News - April 2007

The business end of the season downunder is in progress. Over the past few weeks we have seen some great racing at the Mooloolaba triathlon - age group and ITU World Cup in Queensland as well at the final of the Bribie Tri series in the Penny Croft Triathlon. During April we have the final event of the QTS and Ironman Australia at Port Macquarie. Of course many athletes choose to race year round in a climate as good as we have in south east QLD. While it is tempting to do so it a great chance at seasons end to take some down time - even have a total break to give mind and body a chance to recover. There are always plenty of other activities to partake in to keep mobile and maintain fitness.

We can't be 24/7 athletes as age groupers and we need to take time out to keep the balance. Break the year up and make the end of season recovery time part of the cycle just as you do the base, strength, peak and race phases any structured program should have. In this months news we also include a great insight into one of our MSC squad athletes adventure of a lifetime with an assault on Everest to be undertaken sometime in May - if all goes well. Dereck Davey has included a brief account of some of the preparation and other climbs he has undertaken in his 18 month preparation to get to this point. Train Smart and never give up! Nick

Recent Squad Results

IM NZ (3.8 / 180 / 42.2) - March 3
Peter Seldon - 12.15.33 - IMNZ PB
Melissa Gaudart - 13.42.43 - First IM - Congrats Mel!!

Florida (USA) Tri (1.5/40/10) - March 18
Kim Fabian 2:20:03 - 1st 30-34

Penny Croft Tri (750/20/5) - Bribie Island - March 18
Jess Fleming 1.04.21 - 1st 30-34
Nicola Gregory 1.04.44 - 2nd 30-34
Neil McPhee 1.07.07
Maddie Bartholomew 1.08.35 - 1st Junior Girl
Geoff Bartholomew 1.10.56
Catherine Spiteri 1.17.09
Angelika Hannon 1.18.57
Brian Hannon 1.19.40
Annie Jennings 1.20.01

Mooloolaba Tri (1.5/40/10) 25 March
Jay Patterson 2.03.02
Dan O'Rourke 2.08.13
Jason Cheshire 2.12.53
Tom Mewing 2.14.10
David Chick 2.15.03 - ran extra 3km!!?
Jess Fleming 2.15.47 - 3rd 30-34
Nicola Gregory 2.16.16 - 6th 30-34
Adrienne Willing 2.20.31 5th 35-39
David Coulter 2.26.04 4th 60-64
Carl Schmidt 2.27.37
Peter Brown 2.28.40 - 50-54
Leonie Pedrazzini 2.32.56 7th 45-49
Geoff Bartholomew 2.34.25
Peter Degnian 2.36.58 - Clydesdale
Mark Powell 2.42.35 - 50-54
Catherine Spiteri 2.43.19
Karen Artis 2.47.55
Annie Jennings 2.51.15 50-54
Angelika Hannon 2.51.24 45-49
Brian Hannon 2.52.09 45-49

Teams - 1st junior Mixed
Sean McPhee
Maddie Bartholomew
Dan Fox

Triathlon World Championships (TWC) - 1.5/40/10 Qualified for Hamburg Germany 2007

Nicola Gregory
David Coulter

Future TWC
2008 Vancouver Canada
2009 Gold Coast Australia

IMOZ - April 1st
Squad Results are still coming in so a full wrap with Squad members will be in next months news


Latest News
Below is a story and photo reproduced in last weeks Noosa News and Sunshine Coast Daily as a pre Mooloolaba Tri lead in. Featuring Catherine Spiteri and her journey to get to this years Mooloolaba Tri.

Catherine Spiteri, with coach Nick Croft, trains at Noosa for this weekend's Mooloolaba Triathlon after losing 36kgs to compete.

Slim, trim and fit
How triathlete Catherine lost an amazing 36 kilo's
By Peter Gardener

It is the sort of trade-off worth going through a stack of pain barriers for - the loss of 36kilos for a tonne of self-esteem.

And hopefully for Catherine Spiteri, losing so much of herself will mean a personal best in this Sundays' Mooloolaba ITU World Cup triathlon.

The trigger for the lapsed triathlete to turn her life around was one look at a less-then-flattering photograph of herself.

Catherine, 33 suddenly realised that she was running out of time to do something about how she looked and felt.

The stress of a busy career in Melbourne had meant skipping exercise.

But a move to the Sunshine Coast in February, 2004, and that damning photo print spurred her on to regain her zest for life.

Now the Lend Lease manager is about to tackle her second Olympic distance triathlon full of confidence.

In 2005 she joined the ranks of the Noosa Triathlon Club where she continues to revel in thew hard training under coach Nick Croft.

"At first I started out training with a personal trainer and a nutritionist," she said.

"I'm the sort of person who needs to set themselves a challenge - for me just going on a diet and doing a bit of exercise wouldn't have worked.

"I used to do triathlons and really enjoyed them so I decided I would do the BWR Corporate Triathlon on the Gold Coast."

Her comeback training run last year lasted just a kilometre.

But Catherine had the advantage of knowing that she had been fit before and, with determination and encouragement of people like coach Nick, the kilo's started to peel off.

"The first couple of weeks I lost three or four kilograms - that was the most significant weight loss," Catherine said.

It was more gradual after that with a steady reduction of a kilogram or two week in week out.

After a crash 16-week training course, Catherine successfully completed her comeback "baby" triathlon, over a 400 metre swim, 10 kilometre bike ride and four kilometre run.

Since then the challenges become harder as her body toughens up as a result of the rigours of triathlon racing and training.

"I still weight in with a nutritionist every week and now it's more about getting leaner - I would love to have a body fat content of 18%."

(Catherine went 2.43 at Mooloolaba - a 20min PB over her Noosa effort from last November.)

Climbing Everest….Dereck Davey

Approximately 18 months ago I decided to see if it was possible to climb and with some luck summit the North Face of Everest through Tibet. I had since my childhood wanted to attempt a summit of Everest , but had never done any high altitude climbing before and had no idea of what this involved. Much has happened since then and in a few days I will be leaving for Tibet to make this dream a reality. In the last 12 months I have climbed Kilimanjaro, (highest peak in Africa), a few 4500m mountains in Kazakhstan, Elbrus in Russia, (highest peak in Europe) and Ama Dablam in the Himalayas, together with my wife, Anne and two boys, Jonathan (11) and Benjamin (9) who climbed to base camp (4600m) with me. But none of these climbs compare with the challenges climbers face on Everest.

These include altitude sickness from insufficient oxygen to sustain our normal body functions, physical exhaustion from burning +5000 calories per day during a 5 day summit attempt, extreme cold and wind (-60C) and the discomfort of living on an unforgiving mountain for 60 days. In preparing for this climb, I have sought advice from Nick Croft, who amazingly prepared me for the Ironman in less than 8 months from a zero base, to assist me with my physical and mental preparation and INCLINESPORTS for advice on nutrition and hydration, which has been invaluable.

The most important lesson I’ve learnt so far from my limited climbing experience is that one has to climb the mountain on its terms, which means one must be prepared for everything and anything as conditions on the mountain can change in a few hours and become life threatening for even the most experienced climbers. Add to this dehydration, frostbite and insufficient oxygen, protein and glycogen to feed the muscles and each step on the mountain becomes an act of survival. The most dangerous part of the climb is most often in the descent, evidenced by the statistic that 1 out of 7 climbers who manage to summit don’t make it back to base camp again. Physical preparation in itself does not mitigate these risks as it is the body’s ability to create millions of red blood cells during the acclimatisation phase which transport oxygen to the muscles to enable climbers to continue their climb.

The body does this in response to the reduced oxygen in the air and the faster this process starts the quicker the climbers will acclimatise to high altitude. Highly trained athletes often experience difficulties with this phase because their bodies have learnt to function without oxygen from training at their anaerobic threshold and so take longer to adapt. Interestingly Lance Armstrong slept in an altitude tent to simulate the altitude conditions in the Alps during his preparations for the Tour de France. I thought about doing the same, but with a price tag of USD10k, decided against it…! Thanks Nick for your help and encouragement, I look forward to briefing you on my expedition when I return.

Below please find link to Northface Everest route, which we will hopefully be climbing in a few days – just let the pictures load fully

http://home.comcast.net/~biggreeneverest/Maps.html