Ironman France

Ironman France takes place in Nice every year typically on the last weekend of June.

The race is considered one the hardest on the Ironman circuit with almost 6000ft of climbing on the bike and a hot, exposed marathon course.

This year I was going to use the race as a preparation for the second half of the season leading up to Ironman Florida in November.

My preparation leading up to the race was good during the last 8 weeks with some consistent training and some big mileage done in Lanzarote, but I lost 2 months of training in spring and due to all sorts of running injuries I'v not been able to do enough run training so I knew that I was in for a tough day. Nevertheless before the race my weight was down to 69kg and my threshold power on the bike was up to about 250W. With 3 weeks to the race I did the Weymouth middle distance race and finished 14th in 4:23 which I was happy with and a week before the race i set my PB on the local climb up Box Hill with 6:35 averaging 331W which gave me some confidence going into the race.

The travel and gear set-up before the race was unusually stress-free and I woke up on the race day relaxed and ready to go. A bit of a drama unfolded in transition as I ripped the valve off my front inner tube and only just managed to get it changed with 30 seconds to spare before I had to leave transition. I hindsight I probably didn't even pump my tires up enough, but at least I had a bike ready to ride.

The swim was a 2 loop course with a beach start. First lap was very physical with 2500 athletes fighting for position and I got beaten up pretty badly not really able to get into any kind of rhythm. Second lap was a bit better and I exited the water in 1:07 - not a great time but it was a fairly comfortable swim and all the times were several minutes slower, so I was happy with that.

The bike started well with a fast flat stretch and I immediately felt good and was passing loads of people. The first couple of climbs went well, but on one of the descents I lost 2 of my water bottles which left me with one drink bottle for the 20km main climb of the day. Once I got to the top I knew the rest of the day was going to be tough as I was feeling already dehydrated, disorientated and not comfortable. I lost quite a few places on the descents and never really felt comfortable for the rest of the bike leg. The views were spectacular and I tried to concentrate on enjoying the views to shut off the pain. Bike split 5:38, 178W ave power.

Needles to say I was happy to arrive in transition and get off the bike. When I got to the transition it was already very hot, but I set out on the run trying to keep a nice and comfortable stride cadence. The legs didn't feel too bad at the beginning and I was starting to pass a few people. Unfortunately after about 15km my right hamstring completely locked up and I was reduced to a shuffle. From this point it was just a case trying to keep going to get to the finish.

Coming down the finishing straight I walked the last 200m enjoying the atmosphere and the crowd's support. Run split 3:30. Finish time 10:27:18, 249th place overall and 59th in my age group.

It was a really tough day and I felt really dehydrated and tired for the next two days. A spectacular race though and a tough course which will hopefully toughen me up for the rest of the season. The biggest surprise was not how tough the climbs were, but how difficult and technical the fast descents were. In hindsight the course is definitely more suited to a road bike than a time trial bike because of the technical descents and you can't make up the time even on the flats as there are big groups bunched up that the marshals don't even try to break up

Anyway, time to recover a bit, he next race for me is the London Triathlon Olympic distance and then Germany 70.3 in Wiesbaden.

The winter gone and forgotten!

The winter is almost over and the racing season has begun. Running season is well underway with people training for spring marathons and most major UK half marathons taking place in March. The cycling season kicked off with Surrey League races at the end of Feb.
I jumped into some early season racing with a cycling E123 handicap race at Chertsey. The first race of the season is always a bit nervous for me, not knowing if I'm going to be able to hang onto the bunch and not knowing if I still have the nerves to ride at high speed in a close bunch of riders. Chertsey was no exception and the first few laps were nervous and a big crash happening quite early on didn't help the situation. After a while things calmed down a bit and as the race progressed I was getting more and more comfortable. 10 elites and first cat riders got away quite quickly and with nobody willing to ride hard to chase them we were left to ride for the minor places. With 3 laps to go I saw a couple of strong riders attack and I jumped onto their wheel but the bunch didn't give us too much time and we all gave up fairly quickly. The sprint was uneventful and I was pretty spent from my previous effort and ended up safely at the back of the main bunch. I was happy with that for the first race and lucky to have avoided the crash.
The weekend after I went along with one of my teammates, Jim to Ramsgate for the annual pre-London Marathon warm up race - the Thanet 20. My running has not been going too well recently and I hadn't run that far for a long time so I knew that I was in for some serious suffering. And suffer I did. The first 13 miles were actually not too bad with no wind and quite good running temperature, but after 14 miles I didn't have much left in the tank and was just happy getting to the finish line. I ended up in 15th place in 2:12:24. The best thing about the race was a big fry up breakfast we had at a local cafe - even I was quite satisfied.
I took a couple of easy days after the race and lined up on Saturday for another running race - this time a 10M at Battersea Park. The Battersea Park races are always some of my favourite with a nice flat course and a low-key atmosphere. At first I seemed to be going quite well with 5:55 miles, but it seems that the 20-miler took a lot out of me and 6 days recovery wasn't quite enough as after 4 miles I completely run out of stem and was reduced to jogging back to the finish. Finish time 1:02:14, 9th place and missed out on the trophies. I hope I can recover enough for the Hastings Half Marathon on the 15th March.

Mallorca 2009

Last week we were lucky enough to leave the British winter behind and go for some warm weather cycling in Mallorca. The weather wasn't actually that warm, but it was still great to get out onto some open road with no snow. The winter this year has been particularly harsh and my cycling fitness is a long way off where it should be at this time of the year so I took the opportunity to do some long base miles and take on some of the best climbs Mallorca has to offer. This time we were not staying at the usual location in Santa Ponca, but on the other side of the island at Puerta Pollenca, which I think is a better location for training.
On the first day after a short flight from Gatwick and unpacking the bikes we took the bikes for a short spin to the nearby Cap de Formentor.

The second day was the start of the professional cycling race at Palma de Mallorca and after a ride down to Palma we were able to watch some good racing action from the criterium, eventually won in a sprint by Gert Steegmans, before returning back via the climb to the Lluc monastery.

During the next days we've managed to see the race three more times at various places around the island, but unfortunately we missed it at one of my favorite climbs to Col de Soller.

After a short ride in the mountains in the morning on Wednesday it was already time to pack the bike again and return to the snowy London.
The five days on the island passed very quickly, but I've achieved my objective of kick starting my cycling with some base miles and I was happy having done 570km. This should give me a good base to start some intensity training as soon as the weather improved in London.

Canterbury 10

Last Sunday I made my annual trip to Canterbury. Not to see the Cathedral, but to run the 10 mile road race. The course is undulating through the Kent countryside and it’s a good way to kick start my running in January. The weather is usually quite temperamental for the race day, but this year it was particularly bad with gale force winds and lashing rain with some deep puddles on the run course.
After a 3 hour hilly bike ride on Saturday my legs felt tired before the start and I wasn’t looking forward to running for an hour in the rain. The first couple of miles were tough, but about 3 miles into the race I’ve managed to get into a steady rhythm and was running at a reasonable pace. A couple of runners went past me in the last 2 miles and I wasn’t able to increase my effort to go with them, so in the end I was content to finish in 22nd place in 1:02:22. It’s only 20 seconds quicker than last time I run this race in 2007, but given the conditions I’m happy to have given it a 100% effort.
In the last blog entry I’ve mentioned that I’ve changed my training approach this year and promised a bit more detail, so here it is:
I’m focusing more on quality of training than before. In practice it means that I’ve cut out most of the “junk mileage” I used to do. Gone are the runs to the pool, easy bike rides with no purpose and the endless coffee stops. Every session has a purpose. It doesn’t mean always going hard, but most sessions have a speed, strength or technique element. I also try to mix longer aerobic efforts with some fast repetitions to target different muscle groups and energy systems. I’ve also cut out most rest days. I think the idea of rest days mostly comes from single sport background and I’ve used them to a good effect when I was only running. I think in triathlon training gives you the opportunity to target different muscle groups in different sports and as long as you’re not always stressing the body aerobically you don’t really need complete rest days and by resting completely you’re not only not recovering as effectively but also wasting an opportunity for some valuable training. I get pretty tired sometimes, but by keeping the overload moderate at the moment I can manage fatigue and it doesn’t seem to be adversely affecting my training levels.
I’m just finalising my race schedule for 2009 and I should be able to post it in the next update.
Mike.

Off-season

It's been a while since the last post. The last couple of months have past pretty quickly. I tried to get back into training in October and ended up with a torn hamstring. Nobody to blame for this one, but myself I'm afraid. I tried to run a 10 mile race in Battersea Park with no training, no warm-up and being pretty tired generally. I should have known better, frankly. I've managed to last for 9.5 miles until my hamstring gave up.

Daily treatments and Alex's help with stretching it meant that I was able to run again after only three weeks recovery. Just as well as I was required to run as a pacemaker for the Run to The Beat Half Marathon. Before the start I was worried that the hamstring wouldn't hold as it was cold and absolutely poring down with rain. Luckily I was required at a reasonable pace of 6:53 per mile aiming at getting the pacing right for 1:30 finishing time. We went off at a steady pace of about 6:50 per mile and by half way we we about 30 seconds ahead of our target I don't quite know where we lost that time but we had to run the last could of miles pretty hard just to come 10 seconds under 1:30. The hamstring tightened up towards the end, but managed to hold to the end. Our pacing and the race itself was a success despite the inclement weather and the delayed start due to the underground problems. The event run to life music in the centre of South

London is a great idea and I hope to be back for the next year's event.
Since the half marathon I've been gradually increasing the amount of training I've been doing. This season I'm changing slightly the approach to training with slightly lower overall mileage, but much more of a focus on quality. I'm not doing virtually any easy training and every session has a purpose. I'll expand a bit on the new training approach in my next post.

The next event in my schedule was the annual Ballbuster – an event held at the infamous Box Hill near Dorking. The event consists of an 8 mile run, 24 mile bike and an 8 mile run and goes up the notoriously tough Box Hill five times in total. It seems like I've not had much luck with the weather in this year's races and the morning greeted us with cold weather and pouring rain again. The rain has transformed the transition into a mud bath and mad the cycling conditions treacherous. The race started OK, but I wasn't feeling great from the start and about five miles into the race my legs completely seized up. It was really strange and has never happened to me before, one minute I was running well and the next minute I was reduced to a jog. I've never really recovered from it and was just going through the motions on the bike and the second run. Eventually I ended up in the 24th place with 3:05, which I think is my slowest time ever on this course.

Since the Ballbuster this have been going a little bit better, despite pretty bad weather we've had. Running has been going OK and I've recently run 50:45 at my aerobic pace over my usual 12km course, which is a life-time best for me. I've made some great progress in the pool and my times over 400m have dropped in training to 6:50 in a short course pool, again a life-time best. The biggest surprise is perhaps my cycling – despite not doing too much cycling my threshold (FTP) has improved to about 260W and I was recently able to complete 2x20 min intervals at 267W. I've been riding my fixed wheel bike since October and I think the increased strength it's given me is starting to pay off.

That's it till the next update, the festive Christmas season is upon us and I don't know how much training I'll be able to do, but I'm hoping to at least keep my run frequency up. Watch out for the next update about the plans for 2009 and my new training programme.

Mike.

BHF London to Brighton Off Road

Since Ironman Canada I've been keeping things pretty low key, but after a few weeks I was already getting pretty edgy. Luckily a few months earlier I signed up for the London to Brighton off-road bike ride and since I was doing it with Bill, Karl and Luke for a charity - The British Heart Foundation, there was no way I was going to let the team down and not turn up for the ride.

There I was then on a cold foggy Saturday morning lining up with my three mates for the 73 mile journey to Brighton from Roeahampton. The route was going to take us from the Thames Towpath to the North Downs Way down the Downs Link, which is a flat path following the old railway line, over The South Downs and down to Brighton.

I think we were all a little bit apprehensive of the journey ahead, but once we got going though Richmond Park and along the Thames Towpath we soon warmed up and were moving along at a good pace. Perhaps I got a little bit over-confident and a momentary loss of concentration cost me a very sore elbow and a bleeding hand as I made some close-up contact with the towpath. The small incident didn't dampen our spirits and after a quick cleanup we were on the way again.

The rest of the ride went without further incidents and once the sun broke through the for around mid-day we were rolling along just enjoying the last day of summer. One pub stop later ( for some essential sports nutrition in the form of a pint of some great British bitter, which tastes much better then gatorade, trust me on this :)) we got over the only serious climb of the day up to The South Downs and dropped down to Brighton's sea front.

We all had a great time and, more importantly, managed to raise over £650 for the worthy cause of the British Hear Foundation (mainly due to Karl's marketing). The ride is reasonably easy and I would definitely recommend it if you want a bit of a challenge and raise some money for a worthy cause. Hopefully I will be back for it next year!

Ironman Canada

So the Ironman Canada has come and gone and… what a day it was! Before I go into the details about the race I have to say that I had the best day and I couldn’t have asked for more.
We arrived in Canada on Friday, 10 days before the race and spent a couple of days in the US and a couple of days in Vancouver before driving down to Penticton. We were staying at the God’s Mountain farm, recommended by my friend Nick, and it was a great place. Set on a hillside, overlooking the lake, the house had no TV and music and it was very peaceful, except for all the athletes chatting about their preparation and fussing over their bikes. I tried to avoid getting caught up in the pre-race atmosphere and we spent most of our time quietly reading books and cooking our own food. I did some easy training sessions and was feeling fairly good, but still a little bit apprehensive about the race day, given my recent form.

On the race day we woke up early, had breakfast at 4am and arrived at the start with plenty of time to spare. I was unusually relaxed, prepared my race nutrition, pumped the tires and even had time for a coup of coffee before heading to the swim start.
After checking my bike again and making sure all was fine I headed down to the water. The water seemed so cold at first! I figured it’s the same for everyone, thought, and headed out for a short warm up. The pros went of at 6:45 and we all waited for the age group start. At around 7 the gun sounded and we were off. I made a decision to swim on the right hand side, hoping for some clear water, but evidently I wasn’t the only one who had this idea and the fight for some space was on. It turned out to be probably the most physical swim I’ve done. I got pushed under the water a couple of times, had a bit of a panic attack the second time and decided to back off and swim out of trouble. I didn’t manage to find any clear water until after the turnaround. I’ve managed to get into some kind of a rhythm on the way back, but probably too late, as I saw 1:09 on the clock when I stood up on the beach. It turned out that perhaps I took it a little bit too easy, averaging 123 bpm heart rate.
After a steady transition and running though the ladies changing tent by mistake, I got on the bike and started at an easy pace. I knew the difficult part of the course was going to come after the first 60km and I wanted to save some energy for the difficult bits. Some people passed me going up the first steep climb up McLean Creek Road, but I just concentrated on taking on drinks and nutrition and riding steady. We had quite a strong headwind and I didn’t want to be expanding any extra energy, so I concentrated on stating in the aero bars and keeping a good rhythm. After 60m we got to famous Richter’s Pass and expecting a tough climb I decided to pace myself and almost immediately got dropped by everybody who was riding with me on the flats. It turned out that Richter’s Pass was not as tough as I expected and I got to the top feeling quite fresh so I’ve opened up the gas a little bit and was now passing everybody who dropped me on the climb. My 54x11 gear was working wonders on the down hills and I was riding strongly through the rolling hills on the out and back section and event the Yellow Lake climb didn’t prove to be too difficult. I rolled back into town still feeling good, but happy that the bike section was over. Bike split 5:10, which was a nice surprise as I was hoping for about 5:25, but the bike course turned out to be easier than I expected. I think I averaged 186W, NP 201, HR 134, making this probably the easiest IM bike ride I’ve done.

A quick transition and onto the run and the legs felt heavy and tired. I knew that the difficult part of the run comes after about 10 miles, so the plan was to keep it easy until then and push on the way back if I still had some energy left. The headwind on the way out was so strong and gusty that at times it felt like we were going to be blown across the road. A runner passed me after 10k and that made me angry, but I let him go hoping that I can get him back later. Sure enough he didn’t pull away too far ahead and I caught him just after the turnaround. I counted at the turnaround and there were only 22 age groupers in front of me. That gave me some extra motivation and I was catching people quickly. It was great to see the legend – Peter Reed on the side of the road commentating and shouting encouragement to athletes. As I got to the 20 mile mark my legs were gone and I knew the last 6 miles were going to be a struggle. The support along the route was fantastic and somehow it got me though to 24 miles and I was even able to pick up the pace for the last 2 miles, giving it everything I had. I crossed the line in 9:42 with a 3:15 marathon split and was taken straight to the medical tent by some over-enthusiastic volunteers. After 15 or so minutes I was feeling better, but the great thing about being taken to the medical was that some volunteers fetched my bags and I was able to get changed and keep warm. They’ve even let Alex into the athlete’s area. I was feeling pretty weak, but 6 cups of chicken soup and 4 slices of pizza worked wonders and I was good as new (almost).

I had a fantastic race experience all day and I was happy with how the race went and I can honestly say that I left nothing on the road and was able to give it everything I had. In the end I ended up 42nd overall, 12 amateur overall and 7th in my age group. It’s a shame I wasn’t able to take my Kona slot this time, but I hope I will be able to go in 2 years time.The Ironman Canada race is very well organised and the support is fantastic. The course is great – a fair, honest course with some decent climbing and a tough marathon. There was definitely not as much drafting as at some other races I’ve done and the 15 minutes head start makes it a fairer race for the age groupers with no drafting off the pros in the swim. I would definitely like to come back one day.