Hello, August! Apparently I have been aggressively ignoring my 19 for ‘19 list, as I missed a blog update for June and July (and let’s face it, my May post was really about my April marathon...). Maybe I’ll double up (or double down?) the next few months to play catch-up! ;) It’s been a funky summer. I went on a 5k spree in May for funsies, using my hard-earned winter marathon fitness and some

NEXT EVENT:

Ironman 70.3 Japan

Challenge Roth - Germany

Here is just a quick re cap for those of you that were interested in how my race went at Challenge Taiwan full distance. Swim - It was a non wetsuit swim for us as water temps were 24-25C (age group could still wear suits, mainly for safety reasons in Asia) I treated it like a 70.3 swim to hang onto Dylan McNiece who is on exceptional swimmers in our sport (Has led the Hawaii IM out of water) - time 48min.

 Bike - smooth roads and a rolling hilly course along the coast, actually a very nice bike course Dylan and I wanted to keep pace high as #1 we raced last weekend or 6 days ago actually (Challenge Melb half...not ideal but part of a "package" with Challenge) and knew fatigue would set in later no matter what #2 we wanted to hold off the "king of asian racing" Freddie Cronenberg. It rained a little during bike so although there was cloud cover the humidity was quite high, still air temps around 30C... not good coming from Melbourne.
Bike times:
Through 90km - 2.08
180k - 4.20 (wind picked up on second lap)

 Run - Dylan and I ran together for 20km at a steady clip (on track for a 2.55-57 marathon) that we thought was comfortable and manageable in the 'warm, humid' Taiwan conditions.... not record setting but it didn't need to be. However, and I think mainly just due to fatigue (2 races 6 days + travel) I cramped up in left adductors..This has happened a few times before. From there it was trying to manage cramps home so made for a little longer back end of marathon and quite a few stops to stretch it out... humidity didn't help either with incased sweat rates. Anyway Freddie caught me at 32km and I slipped to 3rd where I stayed. Time - blew out to 3.12 (not ideal but best of a bad scenario)

 Lesson from race!
- Back to back races in hard/painful!! or a Half and a Full in 6 days in 2 different countries.
 - The swim is in a man made lake or more like a 1.3km long swimming pool.... water is filled by a fresh spring so clean, see the bottom all the way as 2.5m deep. Amazing.
 - Course was fantastic swim bike and run were all quite nice interesting and never boring.
 - People here are crazy and lover the sport. Over the weekend there are 4k+ athletes racing as there is a Full, Half (Saturday) Olympic and Kids race (300 kids) Sunday,
 - I did see some people riding in Crocs with pedals on $10k bikes
 - I did see some people running in rubber thongs with socks.
- The aid station that I thought had coke on it ended up being Ice Tea!
 - I may now have eaten my weight in Dumplings.....

 Thanks for all the well wishes, It was a blast. Luke

Saturday 24th March the Tri122 triathlon right here in Costa Teguise, next door to Sands Beach Resort. So great to have such a special race right on the doorstep. A really brilliant course, lovely swim in Las Cucharas, then an … Continue reading →

Thanks for the nice feedback from various media channels. TV RTL Luxembourg WATCH HERE RADIO RTL Luxembourg LISTEN HERE PODCAST Tri-Oraklet with Lasse LISTEN HERE The Brick Session with Mark LISTEN HERE Fitter Radio NZL with Bevan LISTEN HERE IM TALK with Bevan & John LISTEN HERE  TRISPECIFIC with Kristian LISTEN HERE    REPORTS Endurance […]