Finding my feet

Hello! You're reading Aero Oats! The Triathlon newsletter especially curated by me - Aero MaccaFrodownlee to read while you eat your morning Oats.

Today's newsletter contains:

• Battle Scars Review: Tauranga Half in New Zealand

• Shaving legs for: No races coming up this week

• Social Stalk of the week: Mariella Sawyer, the Pro Triathlete and Dietitian

• Tube Releases: GTN, Harry Palmer, Robert Norman

• Tri Toys: Bike re-sprays, Nike Tempo Next%

• Tri AI: A Shakespearean tragedy about early morning swim training

• Tri Meme: You are an Ironman, Qualifying for Kona and Festive Fitness

Battle Scars Review (aka race results)

It slipped under my radar last week but New Zealand just hosted the storied Tauranga Half distance triathlon which featured a potent field.

The women's race was a real tussle with eventual winner, Rebecca Clarke, having the advantage after the swim. She gave up time to 2nd and 3rd place on the bike but then smashed the run to take the top spot. An impressive result given how strong Amelia and Hannah are at the moment. Hannah is a local to the area so may be slightly disappointed with not winning but will be motivated over the next month as she trains for IM NZ.

Women's Results:

1. Rebecca Clarke: 04:07:48

2. Amelia Watkinson: 04:10:12

3. Hannah Berry: 04:10:45

Braden Currie made a statement by leading from the gun. Not only did he have the fastest swim and run of the day, he also broke the course record! Expecting big things from Braden in 2023 and to hopefully see him making up for a disappointing Kona last year due to illness. Great interview with him on Inside Tri Show here.

Men's Results:

1. Braden Currie: 03:37:47

2. Mike Phillips: 03:40:37

3. Jack Moody: 03:42:37

Javi Gomez was initially tipped to toe the line but that unfortunately never materialized - we're going to have to wait another day before we see the new father show us where he's at. I'm desperate to see him have his long distance race that he deserves and I'm very interested to see how he gets on with Dan Plews having coached him for the last few years.

Apart from the racing, this is the first race to use the "anti-drafting" technology called Race Ranger. Matt Sharpe has a little explanation in his Newsletter here.

Shaving legs for (aka upcoming races)

Nothing this week but the Tasmania 70.3 is coming soon for the pros and 70.3 Oman for age-groupers.

Social Stalk of the week

Pro triathlete and dietician Mariella Sawyer is always putting up great meal ideas on her Instagram. The best part is that they are all practical and easy! Her hubby is a photographer so her profile also features some great triathlon training shots. Nutrition and training motivation...winning. Below is an example of one such post from 2022 where she actually shows you in a short clip how to prepare it. Link to her profile here

Tube Releases

Triathlons YouTube game is strong! Here are some that caught my eye this week:

• GTN takes us through some amazing races that should be considered for your must-do events. It's a slightly unique perspective with James having done (won!) several of them. Good time to watch this if you haven't quite finalized your 2023 plans yet:

• GTN is worth mentioning again for their 10km PB Challenge video where Heather tries to break her PB. Even though it's an Advert for training software it came across as incredibly sincere with Heather mentioning wanting to break her record before she gets too old, some reality of being a GTN presenter as well as the rollercoaster of feeling pressure and being vulnerable during a race. I also didn't realize how quick she is! Kudos! On that software...Humango, HuMango, HumanGo?

• Harry Palmer is an up and coming Pro and has been documenting his Lanzarote training camp. The series is full of some great British banter between the camp attendees but this particular video made me chortle and shift uneasily in my chair! At around the 3min mark, French athlete Arnaud Guilloux takes aim with some spicy banter at Kristian Blummenfelt and Lionel Sanders:

• Robert Norman released a short video in early 2022 titled "A Cinematic Triathlon Film". It's short but a great example of story telling taking you through the adversity that young New Zealand triathlete, Luke Scott, has recently gone through and his road to comeback:

Tri Toys

Nothing new but some personal experience:

• Bike paint: We're often ogling over the latest bikes and how "sexy" they are. In 2021 I had a "wandering eye" and decided to rather look at renovating my steed by re-spraying her. At my first race post re-spray, I heard someone from the side-walk say "now that's bike p0rn right there!". Safe to say I couldn't be happier and haven't once even had a glance at another bike since. Plus I'm sure it's made me faster too :) Have a look at Carbon Craft and Phil Callow for ideas. Let me know if I should post a before and after of my bike.

• Nike Tempo Next %: This is a bit of a rant. I've been a massive Nike fan boy for many years and have generally loved all of my shoes. Even against some negative reviews I decided to buy the Tempo Next %. They're like the little cousin of the uber carbon racing shoes but designed for doing speed work and not specifically racing. I have had some good runs in them BUT they are disintegrating in front of my eyes. After 3 runs the sole started to tear by the air pockets and now the upper is starting to split from the sole. I'm 150km in and not sure I'll make it to 200km at this rate. Back to my trusty Pegasus for speed sessions on the road.

Tri AI

In the style of a Shakespeare tragedy, write a soliloquy by a triathlete who has to get into a cold pool to swim train:

Meme's

Here are the meme's i've created and posted this week. Check out my Instagram profile for context:

That's it for today, now finish your oats and get back to training!

Yours in low CdA,

Aero MaccaFrodownlee

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