Tim Berkel

It’s been over a month since I’ve given my last update, and I sincerely apologise for that. Life has a way of getting ahead of you, but really there’s no excuse. I last left off with a bittersweet update. I got engaged to my sweetheart Belinda Coates, but I also faced a disappointing DNF at the Abu Dhabi Ironman. I simply wasn’t prepared for the extremely high temperatures we faced over there.

As an athlete, you never quite know how to approach a situation like that. I was as prepared for that race as ever, but no amount of preparation can get you ready for something so unexpected. After a DNF like that, you tell yourself to train harder, but that isn’t always the best solution. In triathlon, it often makes things worse.

So I just kept charging on, trying to put it behind me in the best way I can. I went up to Lennox Head to do some training with Team Aeromax and I spent a good four weeks with Clayton Fettel, Mitch Robbins, Joey Lampe, and Josh McHugh. My training for the Port Macquarie 70.3 started five weeks before the race, so I had plenty of time to prepare and get my mind off of things.

The Bussleton 70.3 was six days after the Port Macquarie 70.3, so I had to be a little more careful about not wearing myself out. I got back to Port Macquarie one week before the race to do a little light training, visit with the family, and get fully recovered before the race. Much thanks for Coastline Chiropractic for the adjustment, and of course to my mum for her amazing home cooking. Exactly what I needed to get race fit.

2011 Port Macquarie 70.3
The field was fairly well stacked for the Port Macquarie 70.3 this year. At the top, you had Joe Gambles, who has won several 70.3 events in the past few years, and 10 time New Zealand Ironman Champion Cam Brown. All of my favorite Aussies were there too. Matty White, Josh Rix, Leon Griffin, and Tim Reed all made an appearance.

Overall, I was happy with the way the race progressed. I came out of the swim with the main contenders, Gambles, Cam Brown, Tim Reed, and Matty White. I knew I had four people ahead of me, but that didn’t matter too much. The run is my strength, so as long as I was close enough by the time we got there, I knew I had a chance at victory.

Port Macquarie had a new bike course this year. It was a single lap 90Km course. The first 45Km put us right into a strong headwind, and I lost my pace with Gambles and Brown somewhere around the 13Km mark. My legs were exhausted, but I managed to pull off a strong ride back into town. I gained on a few of the other guys, except for Gambles who looked like he was on a mission from God.

Right around the transition from bike to running, I was in fifth place with Gambles a good 5 1/2 minutes ahead of me. There were four other guys in the transition area with me, and as we exited, I made a wrong turn. It took me some time to correct it, and by the time I did, I was back to ninth place.

That’s when I got frustrated and really started to push it. At the end of the first 2 and 1/2 Km, I was back in fifth. It wasn’t too long before I pushed past Joey Lampe and Leon Griffin, putting me in third place.

I kept pushing. Somewhere around the first part of the second lap, I overtook Christian Kemp for second place. By then, I knew Gambles had won the race, but I still managed to get a good three minutes into his lead. Aside from the mishap at the beginning of the run, I’m still very happy with the results. I had the fastest run of the day and ended the race in second place.

Everyone wanted to party after the Port Macquarie race, but I knew I had to stay within reason. The Busselton 70.3 was just six days after that. I also knew I had to fly out to Perth on Wednesday to meet with a group of 20-24 year olds who show promise in the sport. They invited me to visit a nearby high school to, talk to some students, and do a few drills with them. Time flew by, and before I knew it, I was racing the Busselton 70.3

2011 Busselton 70.3
I’ll admit that I still felt a little fatigued at the start of this year’s Busselton race. I kept telling myself, “you’re a little tired. Don’t do anything stupid!” The swim felt good, and just like Port Macquarie, I came out with the main pack. Guy Crawford had a phenomenal swim and appeared to be on his own program for the entire bike leg.

A part of me suspected that Guy would eventually “pay the price” for his lead, so I didn’t pay much attention to it during the bike. The transition went well for me this time (no wrong turns!), and I had all of the top runners in my sights. I put in a big surge to give myself a gap on them, and I managed to hold onto it!

At this point, there was no looking back. I could hear them. They weren’t too far behind me. I overtook Jamie about 500 meters into the run, and then I caught up with Josh Rix somewhere around 3Km. That only left one person. The mysterious Guy Crawford who hadn’t yet paid his price. I caught him at 6Km.

By the end of the first lap, I had Dellow, Reed, and Matty White about 50 meters behind me. Just for good measure, I surged ahead some more to put a little extra space between us. The run felt really good as I slowly pulled away from the other guys. When I made the final turn towards the finish line, I saw that nobody had gained on me, so I eased up and enjoyed the win.

Now the Port Macquarie and Busselton are done, I’ve got my eyes on Challenge Cairns. It’s less than four weeks away, and there’s plenty of work to do. Before I go, I want to thank WTC for putting on two fantastic events. I also want to thank the organising committees and Triathlon Western Australia. You always do a great job of looking after the athletes!

See you in few weeks.

I’ve got a big race year planned and one of the most challenging triathlons on my list is the Abu Dhabi race this March. What makes this race so different? For one, it’s the only Ironman I’ve ever raced with a full 200km bike section. That’s more biking than I’ve ever done, so it’s going to require a special kind of preparation.

So here’s the plan. My training program starts this Monday, and it goes all the way to the week before the race. During this time, I plan on gradually increasing my weekly distance on the bike, up to a point, and then leveling off right before the competition. I’ve used a similar approach for other races, so I know it works. It’s simply a matter of seeing what happens.

I’ll be keeping the same running and swimming distances each week. I’m only going to change the biking distance. During week one, I’ll be biking 650km, week two will be 850km, then 1000km for week 3, 600km, and finally 500km. The final week will be the most relaxed. I’ve found it’s much better to recover and do the race fresh than to try and push it one week out.

Week 3 will be the most challenging. I don’t think I’ve ever biked 1000 kilometers in a single week, and just so you know, I’ll be doing that on top of my other training. It’s certainly something I know I can do, but it won’t come easy. I’ll keep all of you posted on how it comes together.

This year’s new gear will certainly help out. I’ve got the 2011 [intlink id="522" type="post"]Canondale Slice[/intlink], and the [intlink id="522" type="post"]Shimano DI2 [/intlink] electronic gear shifting system. I like the Slice a lot because it reduces the shock from the rear, which basically means I don’t get tired as fast as I used to. And the DI2 makes gear shifting much smoother, another big time saver. I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do for me.

I’ll also be doing some competition preparation out in Lennox head, where my coach lives. We’ve been spending a lot of one-on-one time together, mostly working on swimming. The biking is a big part of the Abu Dhabi race, but you can’t take everything else for granted. You still have to work on the fundamentals.

I’ve signed up for a few more races in the coming months. I’m registered for the Port Macquarie 70.3, the Bussleton 70.3, and the new Challenge Cairns Ironman. After that, I’ll be heading off to the USA to train in Boulder Colorado. As you can expect, I’m definitely going to do Challenge Copenhagen in August, and after that, it’s hard to tell. I haven’t signed up for anything that far out, but I definitely plan to do a few more races.

And that’s it for my training schedule. The most difficult week isn’t that far out, so I’ll let you all know how it goes with the biking.

The ironman race in Copenhagen is finished, and what an impressive event! The guys from Challenge took up an enormous task when they decided to host the race in the middle of a major city. And, as if that weren’t enough, they were hit the heaviest rain Denmark has received in 25 years. The roads were flooded, and there were blockages throughout the city. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be in the organiser’s shoes. They did everything in their power to make the race a success, and they persevered.

The course was a little unusual for an Ironman. I’m used to small country roads and big hills. This was entirely different, but still very challenging. Instead of dealing with long climbs, we faced sharp turns and a single 72 metre hill we had to climb twice. When you added everything up, this wasn’t something that was going to be won easily.

I’ve also gotta hand it to the organisers for managing to cram every scenic destination in Copenhagen into the course while still giving us a run for our money. We passed by Amalienborg Castle, New Harbour, and the Opera before finishing at the Danish Parliament. It was truly great to take everything in.

Copenhagen is one of the few big cities where you can actually swim in the harbour. More and more people are doing swims there every year because the water is so clean. The swim course weaved its way under crowd-filled bridges. This was unlike any other Ironman swim. We could hear the roar of applause as we swam between the pylons. Adam Molnar and Martin Jenson made an early break from the swim and proceeded to put 2 to 3 minutes on the rest of the contenders. I put in a good effort and came out at 49.28 in 5th place.

The day started off overcast, and It was raining by the time I got onto my bike. My pace was not as fast as usual. There were a lot of smaller hills that were difficult to climb because you were slipping all over the place. What a difference the weather makes! We expected sunshine this time of the year, and we got one of the wettest Ironman’s yet.

It was kind of funny. A few of the guys were actually crashing on the slippery roads! We all had to contend with the highly technical course and infuriating “Denmark Flintstone.” It wasn’t going to be easy to get through this. Guys like Jimmy Johnson, Martin Jenson, and my own team mate Timmy Reed all suffered punctures.

I was lucky enough to make it through the bike section. With Martin out of the race, I broke away from the group at the 120k mark. I felt bad for Martin. I know how hard it is to DNF and have a bad race in your own hometown. I know he’ll get through it though. You just have to suck it up when that happens. You’ve gotta move on.

I ended up building a of 2:58 into T2 and riding the fastest time of the day 4.28.01. The whole time, I remember thinking, “what the hell? I’m going off the front? Well this is unexpected” I’m always surprised when I make a big break from the pack. I believe in my running ability, but it’s an entirely different thing when you see the results of that belief. I knew I still had a good Marathon in me at the start of the run.

The crowd on the run course was phenomenal. I was feeling good. I had Sebastian playing on the iPod, and it was keeping me in check. At the halfway mark, I had a nice lead of 6.27 over Keegan Williams. I’ve known Keegan for years, and he’s always been a solid runner. He was putting forward a great effort at Copenhagen!

Of course, you can’t keep the same pace forever. It wasn’t too long before I hit the wall, and believe me, the wall almost flattened me like a pancake. It all happened around the 36k mark. My energy was so sapped that I was nearly down to a walk. It was going to be a difficult recovery.

Thankfully, there were 125,000 people cheering me on. With that kind of support, you simply can’t stop running, no matter how you feel. It’s truly exciting to be a part of something so big. If it weren’t for that crowd, I wouldn’t have made it to the finish. It just goes to show how important your support is for all triathletes. You don’t need to do much. We just like seeing your faces at our events.

With 2k to go, all the pain went away. I started to pump my fist and blow kisses to the Danish girls! ha-ha. The organisers setup the most electric finish I have ever seen. Everyone was going crazy, and guess what song they played? I’m too sexy! Ha-ha. Genius! This is the same song they played when I won the Ironman in W.A.

I broke the tape in 8 hours, 7 minutes, and 38 seconds. My total run time was 2.46.54. Keegan Williams also ran brilliantly with a 2 hour 46 minute marathon. He came in 2nd place. Jens Grobeck took 3rd with all around solid performance.

I’ve gotta give a shout out to my girl Bek Keat for winning the women’s race. Her performance was fantastic, dipping just under 9 hours for the 2nd time in a few weeks.

Thanks again to the organisers. Thomas, Andreas, and Kim, we couldn’t have done this without you! The Challenge crew certainly know how to look after their participants, especially their professional athletes. They put on a very memorable race. I know I’ll never forget it. Well done guys!

Today I did my third 70.3 race since arriving in North America. Today’s race was in Providence, Rhode Island. I did this race back in 2008, which was the first year that they held this event.  For any of you that have been following my career, or my race reports, from back then… this is the race where I came out of the water, and found someone else’s helmet on my bike. It was a very nice gesture, because another pro had loaned me his helmet because they were going to disqualify me because my helmet was not approved by the USA sanctioning body. I got fifth place that year, which was one place better than the guy who loaned me the helmet. He’ll never do that again…

This year the quality of the field seemed a bit better than it was back in 2008, and the man to beat this year was Terenzo Bozzone. The swim was uneventful, and I came out of the water in sixth place. I was just off the back of the main group of pros, so I had to work pretty hard for the first 5 km to get back on to that group. Once I caught on to the group that contain Terenzo, I settled in to see who was going to try to set the pace. We were rolling along at a decent pace, and then Paul Ambrose edged away from us, and nobody went with him.

The bike course is a beautiful one-way journey towards Providence with undulating hills along the way. With a few kilometers to go before the end of the bike, I edged away from the group that contained Terenzo, Richie Cunningham, and Graham O’Grady. I might have only had about 20 or 30 seconds lead on the main group, but it was enough to be out of their line of vision. As I was approaching the transition area, I had already taken my feet out of my shoes.

There was a photographer on the back of a motorbike in front of me as I was approaching the dismount line. I was alert and focused, but then the motorbikes started to slow down. I was only coasting towards the line, but I needed to go around the slowing motorbike. Just as I was coming around the back of him, he swerved across the front of me to pull off the course, and I smashed into the back of his motorbike. I went head first over my handlebars, and not so gracefully onto the pavement. I rolled my foot as I came down, and my bike and handlebars got scratched up a bit as well.

The photographer was really apologetic, but the guy who owned the motorbike, was going off his nut that his Motorbike got scratched.  Being a Triathlete, approaching a transition area, whilst a triathlon was in progress, I was pretty certain that I was supposed to be there…  But nevertheless, it could’ve been a lot worse, had my feet still been strapped into my shoes. I tried to get myself composed and get back on my bike. I didn’t have far to go, but once I got moving Terenzo came around me and made it into T2 ahead of me. The others that were riding in his group also followed us into the transition area.

Coming out of the transition area and onto the run, I could feel a pain in my foot where I came down awkwardly from my mishap with a motorbike. My race had been going quite well, and I was afraid that I was going to have to pull out because of my foot. Terenzo and the other boys were out in front of me, but I still had them in my sights.

After the first few kilometers the pains in my foot began to lessen, and I picked up my pace to catch Terenzo and the group he was with. A few of the other guys had dropped off the pace, and I pass them as I was making my way up to Terenzo’s group. I finally made it up to Terenzo around the 5 km mark, and we ran together for the next 8 km.

Paul Ambrose had about a three-minute lead coming off of the bike, but I think we had almost run two minutes into him in the first of the two lap run course. Terenzo was running stride for stride with me, but his breathing sounded labored to me, so I decided to go around and see if he was going to stay with me… he did.

As we are heading on to the second lap we hit a section of Hill, and he put the hammer down, and pulled ahead of me. I kept him in my sight the rest of the run, but I just didn’t have enough energy to surge back to try to take back the lead. Shortly after we started the second lap, first Terenzo , and then I pulled around Paul Ambrose to take first and second respectively. I crossed the line in second place, and I was only 50 seconds behind Terenzo. All in all, I am very happy with my race, and now it’s back to Boulder for a few days, then I will be racing and Racine Wisconsin next weekend at their 70.3 event.

Cheers,

Tim

It’s been a busy week, traveling back from [intlink id="405" type="post"]New Hampshire[/intlink] on Monday, then only having a few days to get myself situated back in Boulder, before having to head out to today’s race in Boise Idaho. Today’s race was one of the toughest I’ve faced in a long time, and it doesn’t help that I’ve only had five days of rest since my fourth-place finish at [intlink id="405" type="post"]Mooseman 70.3[/intlink] in New Hampshire.

Racing on a Saturday is always unusual, because they tend to have afternoon starts, so this race didn’t take off until 2 PM. Several of the guys that raced in New Hampshire, were at this race, as well as some of the biggest names in the sport like Craig Alexander, and Chris Lieto.

The swim was in a reservoir, and they told us at the pre-race briefing that the water temperature was 11°C. Since it was an afternoon start, the weather had already started to heat up before the swim, so it felt good when I first jumped in. But that quickly turned to numbness, and I could not feel my toes. Nevertheless, I went through my normal routine to warm up for the swim, and then all of us pros went through our normal routine, of jockeying for position while the starter is trying to hold us on the line.

There were no major dramas in the early portion of the swim, but then about three quarters of the way through the swim, I dropped the feet of the guy in front of me, so I lost a little bit of time coming out of the water. I came out of the water in 8th place, but I was with seven other guys, which included Tim Reed, and some of the best cyclist in the field, such as Matt Lieto, and Ben Hoffman.  Matt’s brother Chris was out of the water about a minute ahead of me (and my roomy Matty White was with him).

As cold as I was in the water, it didn’t take me too long to warm up once I got on the bike.  This race has two different transition areas, and the swim is up at the reservoir, and the cycle course is rolling hills which descend down to the town of Boise. The afternoon heat, and winds, were incredible and I quickly forgot about the cold water swim. It was a beautiful, scenic course, which had some tight spots which made it difficult to manoeuvre around the other athletes.

At one stage we passed Matty White who had punctured out on the side of the road. Not long after we passed him, he must of gotten the repair from the spares vehicle, and he flew by us to make up some of the ground he had lost. Both Ben Hoffman, and Matt Lieto had put several minutes into me throughout the bike, so I knew that I was going to have to push hard to regain a decent finish. I came off the bike with a few others, and I got the jump on them out of the transition area, but Tim Reed gave it a big surge, and I was unable to keep up with his pace. The heat and the wind had taken its toll on me, and I was almost ready to pull the pin on the race, but then I decided to see if I could run through the pain, and see if it passed.

Not long after that, I started to come good, so I picked up the pace to see if I could get back up to Tim Reed.  I was off the bike in ninth place, but when Tim surged ahead, I was running in 10th place. As I started to close in on Tim, I went by Kevin Everett, who had been reduced to a walk. Also some of the friendly Boise spectators informed me that Chris Lieto was out of the race. My strength really came back and I was able to overtake Tim Reed, and not long after that I passed Bryan Rhodes.

I could see Jamie Whyte ahead of me, and I knew that if I could overtake him I would be in fifth (which is where the prize money starts…). But as I got close to Jamie I realised that he was running along with Matt Lieto, so I was doubly blessed when I overtook those two guys to move into fourth. By then my spirits had totally lifted, and I felt I had a good rhythm in my stride. With less than 2 km left in the run, I could see Matty White in my sites, and he was struggling. I overtook him with about 1 1/2 km to go, and I had run my way into third position.

Aussie pro Tim Berkel got himself onto the podium with a sharp run - first off the bike

Craig Alexander and Ben Hoffman had built up a commanding lead throughout the race, and in very difficult conditions. I think the entire field of professionals had to dig deep, and I’m glad I stuck with it to finish on the podium.

I am looking forward to a few more 70.3 races in North America, before I venture off to Copenhagen to race in the Challenge (Ironman distance event) in August. I’ll keep you posted with my next few races.

Cheers,

Tim