World Triathlon Championships - Abu Dhabi, UAE - 2022

Abu Dhabi World Aquabike Championships Race Re-Cap & Thoughts

Being my first international triathlon event, I really wanted to enjoy the process of being in a new environment and racing athletes from all over the world. I had prepared well in the lead-up to the event, fitting in as much quality and quantity training as much as life would allow me to. Being a self-coached age group triathlete, there are a lot of variables in play to manage the dynamics of the sport (nutrition strategies and fueling for both racing and training, planning sessions, bike maintenance, repairs and aerodynamics, heat adaptation, strength and conditioning, recovery strategies, and the list goes on). All these small components contribute towards the bigger picture that is triathlon, or in my case Aquabike for this event (Swim followed by Bike). The discipline that is required to perform well in triathlon is what makes me get out of bed every day, and I am incredibly humbled to have had the opportunity to race last Saturday in the UAE.

In the week leading up to the race, my immediate travel party had come down with sickness. I thought to myself that if I were to succumb to such sickness then that would be an unchangeable destiny. My first training ride in the heat of Abu Dhabi from an effort perspective was relatively normal. The red flag was my abnormally high HR (>165bpm for what should have been a largely aerobic ride). I thought to myself that this must be a side effect of travel, having been on a 16hr flight only days beforehand. Later that day I went for a swim in the hotel pool, only to reach 15 minutes in before my head and neck felt this incredible surge of pressure and pain and nausea. Before I knew it I was lying in my dark hotel room with wet towels on my head wishing for tomorrow to come around.

I knew in the lead-up to racing in the UAE that heat would play a large role. My primary strategies for heat training included sauna/steam room exposure as per Purple Patch Fitness Matt Dixon’s heat acclimation protocols alongside indoor heat rides without a fan. The only area lacking was being in an actual hot environment when training (e.g. Darwin). I knew this wasn’t a feasible option so I did what I could. Alongside heat acclimation, I knew my nutrition and hydration had to be completely dialled in. I use Precision Hydration for my training and race fuelling, alongside Pillar Performance Triple Magnesium powder, and was consuming these during the flight & in the days/evenings when in Abu Dhabi alongside at least >4L of pure H20 consumption per day.

My crazy migraine settled by the next day, and I decided to take the whole day to rest. By now it was Wednesday, so race day minus 3. Thursday included a very easy 30-minute ride, getting comfortable with being aero and familiarising myself with parts of the course. This time I got out on the roads well before the heat of the day, and the temperature would not have exceeded 28 degrees. I layed down a few moderate effort surges on the flats, reaching 42km/hr which felt comfortable, but my HR again was telling me otherwise. This was obviously the game I was going to be playing with my body, and whatever it felt up to doing on race day was totally out of my control at this stage in the preparation.

The morning of the race came around, and I was producing some ghastly mucous in the hotel bathroom. I thought to myself that if I were in Australia, I would likely pull out of the race, but given how far I had travelled and the extent of the sacrifices and commitments taken to be here, I was racing whether I felt like it or not. I showered, stretched, ate and genuinely felt a hell of a lot better.

It was now time to race.

My bike was racked from the day before, and luckily my tyres hadn’t disintegrated in the heat overnight when I arrived in transition.

The race comprised a 1.5km rectangular out-and-back swim in the flat Yas Bay, followed by a 500m run into transition, with just shy of a 40km, 2 laps, flat bike circuit around Yas Island.

My race plan was to go out strong in the swim, ideally sitting with the front-pack swimmers holding <1:20mins per 100m. Given how my chest was feeling that morning, I knew I needed to ride based on my body’s response to the race, and leave any other plans for another day.

The swim began very abruptly, with 1/4 of the athletes not even lined up ready to start the swim. I went out strong, gaining some clear water between myself and the first-turn buoy. After hitting the first, then the second buoy (~750m), I could tell that things weren’t going overly well. My swim cap had come off, and I had to shove it down the front of my race suit. My stroke rate was slowing, as was my stroke quality. I also put this down to being ill-prepared for open water swimming by not getting enough long course metres in (e.g. pools that are 50m in length). Out of convenience, I train mostly in a 25m pool. This is great for pool swimming, but for a 1.5km, open water swim it is less transferrable. Anyway, my plans shifted from strongly controlling the swim to now just “getting it done”, and focusing on the bike leg. I arose out of the water in a bit of a daze (as I usually do after an open water swim), then gathered myself to run 500m into T1.

I got a quick squirt of my precision hydration P90 gel down my gob, getting ~45g carbs immediately into my system ready for the bike. Onto the bike and out of transition, I was ready to go.

The first lap of the bike was uncomfortably comfortable, but I very quickly realised that my HR was going to be the limiting factor of this race. It was averaging 180 bpm, and I never saw it go under 175 bpm. Yikes. In training, it would take practically a maximum VO2 effort to get anywhere near 180 plus BPM, and reaching this in the race wasn’t ideal. Yes, it was 30-plus degrees in the middle of the day in Abu Dhabi, but something wasn’t right. I managed to hold my place strong on the bike, without too many competitors overtaking me. My actual legs didn’t feel too bad and was holding 39-42km/hr with an RPE of ~7/10. Onto the second lap, I could feel the length of time working at such a high heart rate was really starting to get to me (as shown in picture below lol). My concentration was reduced, and my thirst for water was growing rapidly. I had just shy of 1L of hydration on the bike, filled with ample sodium and CHO, but I really was just craving pure H2O. (Something I’ll know for next time). It came to the last 10km of the bike where a fellow Aussie passed me, giving me some words of encouragement. This picked my morale up a bit, and we worked together for several kilometres towards the end of lap two.

Making it into T2, I couldn’t for the life of me find my spot to rack my bike, with what seemed like minutes looking for my spot was probably more like 30 seconds.

I exited T2 and ran barefoot down the Aquabike finish shoot, grabbing a mini Australian flag from one of the Australian spectators to carry across the line.

I had finished what was definitely the hottest race I have ever completed. A race that had come down to two choices.

1. Play the survival game and make it through the race safely.
2. Play the reckless game and potentially end up in a UAE ED on a drip.

1/2 way through the bike I knew I needed to opt for option 1. If I was in Australia, and the temperatures were cooler, I probably would have opted for option 2, going #beastmode until the end.

Copious amounts of water and half-time oranges were consumed at the finish shoot, and I made my way to greet my Dad and Hannah. I stopped my Wahoo Elemnt and my ride summary showed my average HR of 181 for 60 minutes of cycling….. Sheeeeeeesh.

Fast forward to Thursday, 5 days post-race, I’m sitting on the couch watching Australia dismantle West Indies in the Cricket. What now makes so much more sense as to why my HR was so high during the race is my positive RAT for COVID-19. You bugger of a thing!

Even though a pesky flu may have dampened my performance, I am humbled by the experience over in the UAE. ALOT of sacrifices have to happen for a race like this to occur, and I am forever grateful for those in my inner circle to allow me to do what I love.

Despite a small age group contention, I came away with a silver medal which is certainly nothing to sneeze at! (no pun intended hehe).

Onto 2023 and beyond!

Happy triathlon training!

Gus Shaw - Physiotherapist. Triathlete. Researcher.

Sources & Handy Links

1. https://www.precisionhydration.com/au/en/
2. https://www.aidstation.com.au/products/pillar-performance-triple-magnesium-powder
3. https://www.purplepatchfitness.com/freetrainingtips/improve-triathlon-performance-in-the-heat-with-the-sauna-protocol-heat-acclimation-training
4. https://open.spotify.com/show/4gjZJMzMev7LvylirVjIGD