Alberto Puccini - Bunbury Olympic Distance

Bunbury OD, Disastro. What Not to Do - Alberto Puccini

Seasonal Goal

It all started at Perth Airport on Tommaso’s return from School Sport Nationals last April. Tommaso did not have a good race as he made a mistake in T1 and lost the bike pack, so his race was over very quickly.

He was disappointed, but determined to do better this year, so when I met him at Perth’s airport he was all about training more and better for next season so that he could have a great race at School Nationals 2020 (fast approaching).

I had just completed my first OD in Bunbury with a time significantly faster than my expectations (this proved not to be a good thing for this year’s race…) and, when still waiting for Tommaso’s luggage to appear on the conveyor belt, in the excitement of the moment, I said to Tommaso: “Next year you win your race at Nationals and I do a Half Iron Man…”. He accepted and we shook hands… Deal Done.

Now, I haven’t been fair to Tommaso, as despite all the effort he can put in his training, winning Nationals does not depend only on him, so I am prepared to not hold him accountable for that, and so, in trying to be as good as a parent as I can, I have tried to not put any pressure on his performance at Nationals and I have suggested him to focus on enjoying his race in Hervey Bay and the time he will get to spend with a significant contingent of young athletes half of which are of the opposite sex…

For me though, that deal counts, as finishing a Half Ironman this season is on me and on me only…

The plan

I spoke to Grant and asked if he thought I could do a Half Ironman this year, and he said that I might be able to, if I was prepared to find the time to add some long training sessions including some 6-7 hour long rides. I thought that I should be able to do that, however leaving those very long sessions closer to the actual Half Ironman event.

My plan was to repeat a training and competition plan similar to last year’s until the Bunbury OD in February, then finish Bunbury’s OD slightly faster and less exhausted than last year. In my plan, Bunbury OD had to be an intermediate step towards my seasonal goal, Half Ironman.

Following that I would have to talk to Grant again and make a more detailed short term plan for the Half Ironman event (I am still aiming to do that soon).

I still had to decide which Half Ironman to race, and I had shortlisted two events, Busselton in May or Cervia (in Italy on the Adriatic Sea) on 20 September. Unfortunately this week I realized that the Cervia event (calm waters and flat ride…) is already sold out, so I have to select another one or go for Busselton…

I implemented my plan very well as I raced most of the events that I did last year to which I added a Half Marathon (Perth Running Festival) and replaced the Cottesloe Mile with the Mullaloo 2.5 km Open Water.

Below is a table with my races this year and last year and a comparison of the times:

		2018-2019		2019-2020
Event	Discipline	Distance	Time	Distance	Time	Difference
Duathlon State Championships	Duathlon	Enticer	58m53s			N.A.
Perth Running Festival Half Marathon	Run			21.095 km	1h58m03s	N.A.
Cottesloe OWS	Open Water			1.25 km	32m57s	N.A.
Left Bank Triathlon	Triathlon	Sprint	1h17m17s	Sprint	1h20m50s	+3m33s
Mandurah Interclub Championship	Triathlon	Sprint	1h34m52s	Sprint	1h39m17s	+4m25s
Lake Leschenaultia	Triathlon	Super Sprint	N.A.	Super Sprint	N.A.	N.A.
Coastal Quest Triathlon Hillarys	Triathlon	Sprint	1h42m08s	Sprint	1h33m18s	-8m50s
Mullaloo OWS	Open Water			2.5 km	1h16m22s	N.A.
WAMC New years eve 8 km	Run	8 Sponsors