First Road Race

Last weekend was my first ever road cycling race. I was pretty nervous about going into the race as there would be no teenagers racing and me being 15 years of age, I would be the youngest competitor. I went into the race with an open mind just trying to do my best. The race went straight up a hill and there were no flat sections on the course. As im a very good hill climber I knew just do my best and I thought I would have a good result. About 5km or 6km into the race I made a move off the front of the pack and never looked back. I extended my lead over the course of the race to finish with an astonishing result of 1st place. I was stoked with this result as it was my first road race and because I was the youngest competitor in it.



This is my race. I am on the right hand side with the white shirt on.

Update

Over the past few months I have been unable to write about my recent sporting achievements. Two main events have happened since my last post and weeks or hard training has also been accomplished.

Firstly an update on Regional Triathlon race results. This year was the year the everything finally went to plan, there was no sickness or injury. I took each leg of the triathlon (swim, bike and run) one step at a time. For me I just had to get through the swim and take it from there which was exactly what I did. I closed a very large gap on the bike down to about 10 seconds. This race all came down to the run. In the last kilometre I vomited but still manage to hold myself together. In the last 750m I broke away and was able to claim victory for the first time in three years. That race together was a great achievement in itself.



This was me on the bike leg during Regional Triathlon 2012

Regional Triathlon

On Sunday I have my regional Triathlon trials. I feel that I have done everything right this year and touch wood I will not be sick. I feel a lot more confident this year than last year and I feel that I will be able to take out the victory. It is a challenging course but I truly believe that this will suit my style.



This is me in last years Regional Triathlon

I will keep everyone updated on my preparation and my results for the weekend.

Some Things You Just Don't Want To Do

There are some things in life that you just do not want to do. This morning was a perfect example of that. At 4:40am the alarm goes off and all I wanted to do was keep on sleeping as I had not slept that well during the night and I felt that it was a little bit cold. But anyway I had decided to keep the promise that I made to myself and drag myself out of bed and get ready for swim training.

Thankfully my coach had decided that today was the day that we were going to have an easy session in the water. Nothing was hard at all, my coach said not to go hard it is all easy and I will praise him forever if that's what he want because today, my coach Bill Evens made my day.

Back Into Training

It has been a while since I have last up dated. No races have take place since the Townsville Triathlon festival so I have been on a short break. I am now happy to say that I am back into full training, preparing myself for the upcoming Regional Triathlon. This will be held in about three weeks up in Tinaroo, I think that I will make the team although the course will be tough. The bike ride has a number of hills to conquer and same with the run. But if I am mentally as well as physically prepared, I believe that I will be able to make it onto the regional team comfortably.

Townsville Triathlon Festival Results

Yesterday I competed in the Townsville Triathlon Festival, I raced the sprint distance and I had two goals which I hoped to complete. These goals were to improve on my placing from last year (which was 5th) and too hopefully improve my personal best time. I knew that I had improved a lot since last year and I thought that these goals were realistic.

I sent into the swim feeling confident and quickly found the toes of a local triathlete and decided to stick with him. I came out of the water in a good position and knew that I was now able to get comfortable and push the bike and the run. I pushed the bike to my max and got into a small group where we road hard right to transition. I hit the run feeling really good, I took off fast and going onto the second lap my legs started to feel like jelly, but I kept pushing on and I kept the same fast pace for the rest of the run.

Thankfully my results have proven to be worth the effort, coming away with a 3rd in under 19's I was absolutely stoked and picked up $100 prize money. I am hoping to go back next year and improve even more.

The weekend turned out great, along with a great result, the whole race was run really well and I am really happy with how everything turned out.

Tomorrow Morning's Race

Tomorrow morning I am racing in the Townsville Triathlon Festival competing in the sprint distance. I am in a tough age group racing under 20's again except this time I have all the Junior ITU kids to race against. Last year I finished 5th in my age group and I am hoping that I am able to better that this year. I feel I am strong enough to accomplish this goal as I am so much stronger in the swim leg and I have improved in both my ride and run.

I will update again tomorrow night to explain in detail how I think I went.

My Bike set up for tomorrow's race in Townsville.

Swimming Session

Cairns has a relativley warm climate but this morning the pool was rather cold. The air temperature was 20 degrees however the water was cooler. For me I found the water extremly cold and as my second swim session back was really tough.

Today my session consisted of a 600m warm up, the main set was 10 x 200m and a 400m warm down. Thankfully my coach was allowed me to do my warm down the heated pool which was so nice of him.

This weekend I will be travelling to Townsville for the Townsville Triathlon Festival and I will be competing in the sprint distance. I will keep you posted throughout the week on my training and the lead up to the race.

Training Ride

Today was not an easy day. I was awake early to put some energy into my bike training. I have not really done any bike training for a while and with the Regional Triathlon in a few months I thought it was best that I got back onto the bike and start building up the kilometers and the speed.

I felt rather good although it was a little cold. I was riding into town for the Saturday morning group ride which usually goes for about 60km plus about 20 extra kilometers riding in and out of town. So I thought as my first ride back I would just go down the back and take easy. For me that is easier said then done, because before long I was on the front having a go at the pace making.

As I'm not a bad hill climber we hit the hills and I was off again attacking off the front. Little did I know was that all I was doing was burning myself out. In the last part off the ride there is a sprint to the finish in town, usually we ride about 50km/h but I put so much effort into the earlier part of the ride that I just slipped out of the group and had to ride back into town by myself.

I think that there was a great lesson in the ride today, which was that when I start training again, slow down until I get stronger before I start taking on the adults.

Training Session

WOW!!! what a hard session today. Although it was worth it, I'm getting back into full triathlon training now, so my whole training schedule has just increased.

Today's run session consisted of two 800m, then a mile followed by two more 800m. It wasn't to difficult but it really hurt. The session was designed to run at lactic threshold.

My coach Jill Boltz has to be the best coach in the world, she has a silver medal from the Commonwealth Games. She knows exactly what she is doing and has managed to get one of the junior girls to nationals. We work hard weekly and since I have been running with her my times have really increased.

Thanks Jill

Tri Port Triathlon Festival

I know I have not been writing lately, but I have been in a number of races over the past few weeks. But I only want to talk about last weekends Tri Port Triathlon

Last weekend I had the Tri Port Triathlon Festival. My Mum had entered me in the under 20's age group as that was the lowest age group. Being fourteen I did not think that I had much of a chance as I had not done any swim training and only one ride in the week leading into the race. I had a mate who I knew would be tough competition and went into the race thinking that he was going to win.

To my surprise I smashed my 750m swim PB by almost three minutes swimming 11:21. Once the swim was out of the way I knew that I just had to start winding people in on the bike and run. Amazingly I caught my mate on the first lap of the bike and when I came off the bike I in was in 3rd place. I had a fast transition and then went into the run hoping to bring back some more people. Well thankfully I caught one other male competitor who was in second overall. I came across the line in second and had won the under 20's. I'm very happy to come away with that result in my first race back.

Pyramid Race Results

Yesterday I had an awesome race. It wasn't as hot as last year which was good and I didn't end up with

the ambulance. On a slow course I ran 22:40 and finished 3rd overall and I won my age group. 

Me finishing off my Race Yesterday.

Clio (My training partner) and I at the completion of our race. She finished 5th overall and smashed all the open female runners.

Pyramid 5km

Today I have a local 5km race. I feel like I am in good shape and have a chance at winning my age group. Last year when I raced I had to get the ambulance because of heat stroke and I'm hoping that will not happen again this year. I'm rather excited to run as there is prize money up for grabs, and I'm hoping to get some money after last year finishing second in my age with a very poor run. It is not a PB course so the times will not be fast at all maybe around 20:30 for 5km. All in all it should be a great race that I'm very excited for.

Results

I had Inter-School athletics carnival today and I did not race to my standards. I went into the 800m not expecting to do that great, but I set myself a time to run which was 2:17. To my surprise I beat my personal best by 7 seconds running a 2:15 and was up the front and ended up coming second, losing by under 1 second.

In my 1500m I was expecting a gold medal and took off hard, I led the whole race and got pipped on the line to finish second, losing by 9 one hundredths of a second. On a positive note I broke my track personal best by 8 seconds and my overall personal best by 2 seconds. Although I managed to get some awesome PB's I wish I had won the 1500m, but all credit goes to the winner who ran faster than me on the day.

Goals For Athletics

I am going to the Inter-School athletics carnival tomorrow and I believe that I have a good chance in winning the 1500m and I hope that I am toward the front of the pack in the 800m.

I have set myself a few goals which I hope to achieve at the meet and these are.......

• to win the 1500m as well as run around the 4:40min mark; and
• in the 800m I hope to make it to Regional competition as well as run a 2:17min

Wish me luck! I will keep you posted on how the events go.

Mo You Legend!!!

How did I know, well I am not too sure but all I know is that Mo Farah won the Olympic gold and that he is the best runner that I have ever seen.

Mo Farah winning the Olympic gold in the mens 10,000m at London 2012

Olympics

The Olympics have started today and its really exciting. There are a number of races that I am very keen to watch, which include the Triathlon, Athletics and Cycling. I have a few winners in my mind already who i believe will take gold. These include

Triathlon:
               - Mens: Alistair or Jonathon Brownlee
               - Woman's: Helen Jenkins or Erin Densham.

Athletics:
This is a little bit harder because there are so many events but for the 10000m I pick Mo Farah and for the 800m i pick David Rudisha.

Cycling:
>-This really depends on the course but if it comes down to a sprint I believe that Mark Cavendish and i also believe that Cadel Evans has a good chance at the title after having a not so good performance at the Tour de France.        

Mo Farah, who I believe will take the 10000m title.

School Athletics 2012

Had my school athletics carnival today and had entered myself into 400m, 800m, 1500m and high jump. After having a not so long recovery after State Cross Country I went into the morning's 1500m backing myself for the win, lucky enough I was able to run an easy race into first place and get my position on the school team and running a 4:50. After suffering from an extremely sore calf muscle I pulled out of high jump to focus on my 800m. I took the 400m really easy as the 800m was almost straight afterwards. I went into the 800m thinking I was going to win and picked up a fast pace into the first lap, but a hard surge from one of the other boys shortly after shattered me. I ended up finishing second but running a nice PB (Personal Best) of 2:22. All in all I was able to get myself onto the school team for 1500m and 800m.

 This is me on my way to victory in the 1500m

State Cross Country, The Race!!!

I had my race on Sunday and it was not the easiest course that I have run. There was one hill that we had to do twice and that was a killer and there was a lot of wind. Despite not having the run of my career I managed to run myself into 31st position and a time of 15:30 for 4km.

After having a light 20 minute run this afternoon I have discussed with my coach that by the end of this year I would like to be able to run un 18 minutes for 5km.

Tomorrow I have school athletics with consists of 400m, 800m and 1500m and high jump but to be honest I may not be at the best of my ability after pulling up with really sore legs after last weekends State Titles. But despite all of this, I have a strong feeling that i will come out of tomorrow with a few wins.

Me hurting on my way to the finish 

in the 4km

State Cross Country 2012

It is only one more sleep until I fly out to race the fastest people in QLD and I can feel the nerves starting to build up. I'm not too sure if they are good or not, after last years not so good performance and a disappointing 32nd place overall. I race my 4km cross country on Sunday with the relays (1.5km) on Monday before a flight home.

Flying out in the morning and I'm starting to get a little nervous....hope I can get some rest.

Introduction

Hey, I'm Cahn and I am dreaming big to excel and make it to the top of the world in either running or triathlon. This blog will be used to express emotions and share the joys of glory as well the the difficult times of defeat and injury.

                                

 This is me in the 800m at North QLD games in early July 2012.