DTR Sports Management’s Luke Whitmore races hard in the first couple of months of the year.
Please enjoy as Luke takes you through his experience:
My first season racing as a long course Professional is coming to a close. It has been a season of significant learning and improvement. I achieved my aim of finishing in the Top 10 at the Busselton Ironman and set PB’s across all distances including a 4.04 Half Ironman and 8:56 Ironman. Not quite the progress I had hoped for but still a move in the right direction.
After Christmas I set myself the goal of racing 7 out 8 weekends, with the aim of getting as much ‘race training’ as possible. I had no intention of peaking for any event but simply wanted to get in a solid two month block of speed work and lots of swimming. It started with the Victorian Olympic Distance champs and Sandringham where I had an OK swim followed by a despicable transition, which put me in the fourth pack. I worked hard on the bike with fellow new pro Richard Thompson to catch the third pack, which was about a minute up the road. I then consolidated with a good run but had lost too much time in the swim/transition to finish anywhere near the front.
I then continued to progress racing draft legal races twice more but was still just off the pace in the swim putting me around the second pack each time. Late in the season I struck disaster and was involved in a bike crash preventing me from training for 10 days and putting me out of Geelong 70.3. I snapped a bike frame and took off lots of bark but was extremely lucky not to break any bones. This was very disappointing.
After recovering from this race I went to Maryborough to race the Central Goldfields Triathlon after two days back training. I had a solid first run entering T1 with Griffin, Halverson and Huggett. Unfortunately my limited training would cause my race to go backwards from here and I had nothing left for the bike and finished in fifth position. Dave Meade also past me on the bike, he ended up catching the leaders and finishing second behind Leon Griffin. The next week I raced the Victorian Sprint Distance champs. There was no Open category so was allowed to race age group. I finished second behind a strong Nick Conway who put too much time into me on the bike but hung on to second in my age group and fifth overall not too far behind race winner Kristian McCartney.
Last weekend I raced the BRW triathlon for Charter Mason with fellow Team Degani team mates Stephen Hadley and Brett Archibald. Out team managed to get the overall win in this race after recording the second fastest time. This was a fantastic effort by our team who beat some really good competition. Brett led us out and had a really solid race to put us in 6th position overall and three minutes down from the leaders. Stephen Hadley then consolidated and some, to post the third fastest time of his wave and move us into 3rd position overall. I had 1.10 to peg back to finish second and four minutes to first. To my surprise I had made the time up to second by T1 and then worked hard to hold second and was putting time into first but was unable to catch him. Team Giant Pro finished an estimated 90seconds to two minutes ahead. To our surprise we were announced the winners (Steven Bradbury style) after team Giant Pro had failed to finish with there baton / timing chip. A great way to finish the season.
My next challenge is that of being a father. My wife Tarryn and I have our first baby due next week and I can’t wait to embrace this magical moment. This will mean an early pre season for me. I will also be doing some work in the new Team Degani Cycling Café opening next week down at the Docklands so come down and say G’day. On the triathlon front I am planning a big winter in the pool. I need to make some inroads into my swimming if I am to be more competitive and will also be targeting the domestic duathlon season in a bid to improve my speed on the bike. I then hope to race another Iron distance race sometime in first few months of 2011, were I’ll be aiming to improve on my 8th placed professional from Ironman Busselton this year.
A big thankyou once again to you my supporters, sponsors and coaches, who have assisted me in beginning to make the transition from age group athlete to professional. I am once again confident of significant improvement in 2010/11.
(P.S I might try and sneak in a race at State Aquathon champs this weekend and Off Road Tri champs in a couple depending on when the baby comes. This will be a day by day assessment.)