With her blisteringly fastest bike and superb performance earning her 3rd female in a super elite PRO field at IRONMAN Sunshine Coast 70.3 on Sunday 11th September 2022, we thought it high time our Professional Triathlete Penny Slater gave us a life and race update. We're so proud of how far our champ has come in a year peppered with frustrations. But it's time to focus as she tries to relax during the final few days before her first outing at the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona, Hawaii on the 6th October. If you're not following Pen on the socials, then DO:
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Penny reveals her FOHER Co PRO triathlon kit in Kona Hawaii before her debut at the IRONMAN World Championships. Pic credit: Two 26 Professional Sports Photography
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Hi all!
Since returning home from my stint racing overseas I’ve been worrkkinnng harrrd. I mean I like to think I always work hard, but this was next level. After racing the best in the world at the Canadian Open we decided that I needed to step up my training and that my mind and body were ready to hold up to it. It’s no secret that after IRONMAN Cairns last year I got injured, struggled to overcome disordered eating patterns, and had to take a step back from the sport to look after my mental health. I was told I wouldn’t be able to race in the first 6 months of this year and my training load had to be managed closely.
Pic: It's been a tough and frustrating year at times for our champ Pen. Photo credit @hikingrat
Although I did race it’s safe to say I wasn’t at my best and I found myself getting really frustrated in comparing myself to others and previous performances. It was tough getting my ass handed to me by girls I’d previously been in contention with. It’s one thing knowing what you’re capable, it’s another trying to get to that point and execute it on race day.
Pic: Pen laying it down during the Canadian Open. Photo credit Professional Triathletes Organisation.
But FINALLY at the start of August I was at a point mentally and physically to really try and push the boundaries in training. Long course triathlon is all about consistency and managing fatigue. The first week I looked at my 35hr training week and thought I’d be dead by the end. No joke!
I didn’t die, I was tired, but I managed it and then the weeks ticked by, and I was able to put together 4-5 weeks of this. My relationship with my body has always been tremulous - I hated it at the end of last year when I was injured. I spent years battling my body to try and make it leaner, all the while depriving it of the fuel it desperately needed.
Slowly this year that has begun to change. The past 5 weeks I have been in awe of what my body has accomplished, the resilience it has shown, its ability to recover and show up for me day after day. I put this mostly down to fuelling it adequately. I no longer look at food and think shit that has too many calories in it, I look at it and think I’m going to eat that because that’s going to make me train better tomorrow. It’s like somethings clicked in my brain and now I can really see the performance benefits of fuelling my training properly. Yes, I’m 3-4kgs heavier than when I was at my leanest. But I am so much healthier mentally and physically now because of those extra kilos. AND I can train like a Monster! :P
New life motto ‘Eat like a Monster, Train like a Monster’.
Pic: Pen had a brilliant race at IRONMAN Sunshine Coast 70.3. Photo credit @polizzi
This leads into having arguably one of the best performances of my career at Sunny Coast 70.3 last Sunday. The week leading into the race was a bit terrible to be honest. After what’s already been a tough year the loss of my beloved Aunty on the Sunday before the race knocked me for six. I spent all of Monday in bed, I couldn’t mentally bring myself to face the reality of real life. In previous years I would have tried to push through that and continue to train - but I’ve realised sometimes taking a time-out is exactly what needs to happen for me to then move forward.
I made it up to Sunny Coast the Friday before race day after managing to get some solid training in (not really a taper for this race). Race day came and I felt relaxed - because after the week I’d had in the great scheme of things this race didn’t really matter.
Come race day, I refused to get up before 4.15am much to the disgust of my coach, so my transition setup was rather rushed! Whoopsie.
No time to get nervous when you’re desperately slapping on Gooch Goo and trying to wiggle into your wetsuit without rolling up the suit legs under a time crunch!
Now the worst part of my day was the swim. I have no idea what happened, but I appeared to have lost the ability to swim in a straight line. I think poor Kirra who was next to me legitimately thought I might have been drunk based on how wobbly my lines were! Anyhow I stayed with the main group until 500m to go, then I flaked - lost concentration, and let the feet go. ROOKIE.
Although I was disappointed and knew I hadn’t swum well, I was feeling really confident about my bike and planning on just sendin it. Smooth T1 meant that I was able to catch the group of girls in front of me relatively quickly. No power on my screen this race, just let it rip. I managed to catch Hannah in 2nd by half-way through the first lap. I decided to take a few minutes (okay maybe 10-15mins :P) to settle and get some nutrition onboard. By this time, we were about to head out onto the second lap of the bike. Which turned out to be very frustrating, we began to swap turns and looked like we both were keen to try and catch Lotte in 1st by the end of the bike. We got within 40 secs of her. Unfortunately, a train of AG males came through and that made it really difficult for Hannah and I to continue our groove without the risk of getting a penalty for slotting in - as it appeared the males were not into letting us go on the front for a change! I became really frustrated as I felt the pace wasn’t high enough, but it was also too difficult to pass 6 riders, who were not keen for you to pass them. So, me and Hannah really had no option other than just to sit back. I found myself getting angry - as I always want a fair race. We all work so hard to be professionals that all I want is to race hard against my competitors without interference. I could see it was also happening to the girls behind us, so we were all in the same boat really - I just hoped everyone was doing the right thing and keeping the draft distance in our field.
Hannah and I entered transition 2mins down on Lotte in 1st. The first few kms of the run went smoothly and I kept pace with Hannah - apart from when an AG guy who exited T2 with us decided to elbow me off the path so he could run on Hannah’s feet. As you can tell I was stoked about that!
Disaster struck at km 3 when my elastic shoelace came undone, I decided I had to fix it at the top of the hill, the risk of eating some pavement was too high. That meant Hannah pushed on and was out of sight quickly. I was so happy to finally not feel like crap getting off the bike that I just pushed as hard as I could and soaked up all the awesome support and people yelling ‘sendit’ at me!
Two more shoelace malfunctions later and a fast-closing 4th place saw me FINALLY get on a podium at a big race. It was such a relief to finally be able to put a performance down worthy of the hard work we put in and do proud all the people who have steadfastly supported me the past year.
Pic: A well deserved podium at IRONMAN Sunshine Coast 70.3. Photo credit @polizzi
Next up KONA BABY! 😊
Pen
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