Chris_McCormack

Under Armour racing shoes

Its early race morning here in Hawaii and I have to lace my shoes for the Lavaman race in a couple of hours. This will be the first time I have ever raced in Under Armour shoes and I a pretty stoked about it. This has been a 3 year process and I have worked closely with the UA team to develop a high performance racing flat for myself. This is the last prototype and I am about to give it its biggest test. This is a hit out in hot humid conditions in Hawaii. It doesnt get much tougher on a shoe than this, and it is also the exact conditons I will be racing in Kona in October, so the feedback will be imperative from that stand point. I have done some solid run training sessions in these shoes, but nothing tests a product like racing and that is the purpose of todays event.

Under Armour has a focus and a drive like no company I have ever been associated with and their commitment to developing the best products for athletes is real. They have taken 2 years to develop their shoe range and their attention to me and the feedback I have given them has all been taken on board and they are pushing forward with shoes that are perfromance driven. It is an exciting time to be associated with such a cutting edge company. I have loved the process and thank te entire development team for their attention to detail and the drive they have committed to in getting these shoes perfect.

Anyway I have to get down to the race and prepare for the event but thought I would upload a little video again to give people a look at the final prototype of the shoe I hope to wear to victory in Ironman Hawaii in 2009. It is really a nice feeling, very responsve, light racing flat. I like it. I will upload a video of the race tomorrow so pop by my site again and I will give you some feedback on how everything went. I have some tough guys to beat, but am after the course record held by Olympic Champion Simon Whitfield. It will be tough as it is super windy today and extremely hot, but Simon has held this record for 6 years. It is time for a change. Fingers crossed we will see how it goes.

Cheers,

Macca

Training in Hawaii - Enjoying Oahu

 

Well the last two days here have been a lot of fun. Tim and myself have got some nice training done on the south coast of Oahu and fly across to the Big Island today. I have the Lavaman triathlon to race in on Sunday and am looking forward to a tough windy hitout.

The jetlag has been a little tough this time around flying across from Singapore but overall I have enjoyed the training here and have enjoyed being in Hawaii again. Here we have uploaded a video of our ride yesterday on Oahu. This was from Waikiki across the south shore and along the coastline. We manged to get a good 3 hours in and enjoyed the sun and wind. Oahu is actually a great place to ride. I was pleasantly surprised.

Enjoy and I will write again tomorrow. We have so many small videos and photos to share so check them out over the next few weeks.

Safe Training,

Macca

I love Hawaii

Well I just arrived in Hawaii yesterday and have been staying in Oahu with my good mate Tim Marr. He has a house on Diamond Head and we have crammed in a couple of nice training days. It has been great. We are heading off to the airport now to fly to the big Island for the Lavaman triathlon on Sunday. The Olympic distance race has 1500 athletes competing this year so it should be a buzz. I have uploaded another video thanks to Biestmilch of our arrival here in Oahu. It is a little scattered but they were rushed for time. Enjoy and I will write again from Kona. I love the lifestyle of Hawaii. It is so laid back. I could get really used to living here.

Macca

Ironman 70.3 Singapore

Well I am actually back home after a relatively pleasing result in my first hit out for 2009 in Singapore. I got exactly what I was looking for in a very hot, humid race. Crowie touched me up on the run and to be honest I did not have the run base yet to match his fitness at this time of year. I felt very good on the swim and bike and was by far the strongest cyclist in the field doing the lions share of the work on the tight, flat course. I really wanted to see how the body would hold up if I kept the bike pace solid and then had to run in hot conditions. I was really not concerned about the guys sitting back off the pace and paid no attention to the  7 guys that came along for the ride. My instructions and plans were to ride a good hard tempo in my first race of the year, and to "test the engine." I felt really good and am happy with the position changes we have made on the bike. On the three lap course, 1 by 1 the group broke apart until it was a small little group of 4 guys which included Crowie, Colluchi, Watt and Myself. The two surprise casualties were Jacobs and Thompson, who both lost contact about 60km into the bike course. Rhodsey had dropped about 20km earlier. I very much enjoyed the bike course. Despite being tight, flat and a litte conjested, for a major city event it was nice. It was always going to be tough to get away on a course like this. I knew this coming into the race, but enjoyed the attempt none the less. I have to go up against the faster bikers this year in Europe so it was a good dress rehersal.

 I have to give a shout out to young Aussie Cameron Watt who rode really hard yesterday and raced the event in tough conditions. He really had a hard go on the swim and bike and melted on the run a little, but I was really impressed with his racing attitude and his go for it mindset. It was great to see in a young guy. I managed to grab some footage off the Biestmilch crew again of some of the behind the scenes stuff during race day. All in all a great race. Crowie was a step above on the run at the moment and is in his own words, "exceptional condition" for this time of year. Australian Olympian Simon Thompson, who won the event last year finished 3rd and Australian Long Course champion Pete Jacobs rounded out the top 4. It was a great day for the Aussies. Well done boys and good luck to Thomo and Pete who are racing Ironman Australia in two weeks.

I am back in Sydney and fly out for Hawaii in two days. It is great to be back racing. A few more events and the ring rust will be blown away and I really feel like my strength and power will be substantial this year. I love it. I will write before I jump on the plane for Hawaii on Wednesday.

Thanks to all the guys in Sinagpore for your unbelievable hospitality. Bobby, it was great to finally meet you and your family mate. I hope to catch up with you all again later in the season. To Nick, Graham and the Team who put on the race, honestly, you did a wonderful job organizing an event of this stature in a major hub like Singapore. Well done. I can only imagine how difficult the logistics must have been.

Cheers

Macca

Arriving in Singapore - First Race for 2009

This video was supposed to be uploaded yesterday but the Internet access here is a little more difficult to get too. I am here in Singapore to start my 2009 racing season. I am very much looking forward to a tough, hard race in very hot humid conditions. We selected Singapore as a race venue this year as we have made some big changes to my pre-season training and wanted to start our season much later. The choice of events for us were about racing in very hot, humid conditions in our early season events. Singapore was perfect for this. Next week I will race in Hawaii, and the week later in New Orleans. I will then fly to China to do an event in mid April. The feedback and the information we will obtain from doing these events will be key in our preparations for later in the year and our Kona block.

As it turned out, Singapore is a stacked field. The arrival at the airport was a big buzz with the media. I have a German film crew following me for most of this season and filming a documentary on my season and preparations. I have uploaded here a snippet of some of their filming. The film crew have labeled the project Macca09 and I will have access to lots of their footage that I hope to upload on my new site. YouTube will also have a lot of this footage before the final film will be released next year.

Enjoy

Packing up to GO

Racing around the world is lots of fun, but now on my 14th year as a professional and now a family guy with two wonderful children, the preparation for a trip away is much more daunting than 10 years ago. I am currently packing up everything for my first race of the season in Singapore this weekend.

It will be nice to blow the legs out and see where I am at. All the guys i am racing are a few events into their season so I am expecting it to be a tough challenge for me, but it is the beginning of my 2009 racing campaign and that is exciting from a racing and competitive perspective. I am in solid form but intend to really race myself into peak condition over the next few weeks for a really focused European campaign this year that will begin in St Pollen Austria for the Ironman 70.3 race and culminate in Ironman Germany and the European Championships on July 4th. Our focus has been about a very heavy European presence this year and some very tough European racing to lay down the foundation for my Kona block in August and September.

As my girls get older they start to understand what I do more and are now realizing that daddy will be gone for a few weeks. This is tough on them and on me as well. It really makes the time away tough and gives me the drive to ensure that anytime away is productive and solid time.

Even after 14 seasons I still hate packing my bike. I thought I would get a small blog done before I started the process. I really wish their was a simpler way to do this. You have such a nice bike and no matter how well you pack it, after a good season of racing, they always end up a little beaten up and scratched. I better get to it.

Will write from Singapore.

The last month

The last few weeks has been pretty tough. One of my close friends passed away last week which was devastating news. Tony was a childhood mate and we spent a big portion of our lives hanging out and running together. He was an amazing athlete and an amazing guy and when I received the news of his passing I was floored. It was a really sad time.

I sort of floated by the past week our so and was a little on auto pilot after the funeral. I still got up and did my job, but it was the times alone running and riding that I really reflected on the great times Tony and I spent together. He was an amazing guy and will be missed by so many people.

The last few days I have really settled into my training block and am feeling amazing. My fitness is sound and my motivation is really high. I am thoroughly enjoying my workouts and the group of guys I am working with. We have a great little training crew and the results have been awesome. One of the young guys who has been training with us this summer just captured a third place finish at the Australian Long Course titles in only his first attempt at the distance. He was only caught by Craig Alexander with 2 km to go on the run and it was only his inexperience that cost him the Australian title. Michael Murphy is a great little training partner and a great little talent. We were all stoked for him with his result at the Aussie Championships last week and I really think he surprised a lot of people.

Anyway our seasons are set, Murph will be joining me in Europe for a stint this year and the boys are all getting ready to race the Northern Hemisp here summer. I am off to Singapore in a few weeks for my first hit out of the season and to be honest I am really looking forward to racing again. I just ant wait to pin a number on my jersey and mix it up. I live for that and love racing so much.

Jonathan Toker from Salt stick has been out here for a few days and joined us on a few rides. Here are some photos from today's long bike session. Anyway that's about all I have to report. Will write again in a few days. I am looking forward to my new website. You are going to love it. It will be unreal.

Cheers,

Macca