Mike's Training Blog

Madeira 2011

2011-05-04T05:11:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since the last post from Mallorca. After a good training camp things have not exactly gone to plan. I've done some early season road races and time trials with pretty average results. I'm reasonably fit, but so far have failed to convert this general fitness into race fitness or any results to speak of.

For the long May bank holiday weekend we were due for a short break to Madeira and I decided to take my time trial bike in an effort to find some race form while enjoying the sunshine.

In the end it turned out to be a nice holiday, but one of the worst places to do any time trial training.

Firstly, the terrain is VERY HILLY. I normally don't mind hills, but there really isn't a flat bit of road in Madeira and the road either goes up or down. And the hills are steep... Generally anythigng less then 10% isn't even considered steep here. With my TT gearing I had to resolve to grinding up the gradients with a cadence that would often drop down to 50rpm and legs screaming of lactic acid. A typical 90 min ride would end up with about 1000 meters of climbing.

The road surface is bad. That's the only way to describe it. Potholes, old uneven tarmac, you name it.

I even managed to find some long stretches of "Belgian cobbles".

There is one road on the South side of the island where there road surface is new and smooth. Unfortunately the majority of this expressway seems to go through tunnels. These range from a couple of hundred meters long to 3km long, with the vast majority being over 1km long. Some have decent lighting, some are dark. One thing for sure - none of them seem safe with trucks going through them at 90km/h.

Finally, the weather. Being so close to Africa and the Canary Islands one would expect the weather to be similar, quite dry, sunny and hot. Nothing further from the truth. It rained on most days (making the roads even more tretcherous with the tarmac not being laid out for the wet conditions) and the temparature was around 16C at sea level. Given that the temparature goes down about 1C for every 100m of altitude climbed it made the mountains at 1400m feel very chilly, particularily if you add the cooling effect of the clouds typically sitting atop these mountains.

All in all it made for an environment not ideally suited to time trial training to say the least. Not surprisingly during our 5-day stay I only spotted one other cyclist on our last day and he looked as out of place as I must have looked on my TT bike.

If you're planning a trip to Madeira and are thinking of bringing your bike with you my advice would be to bring a mountain bike. Or better still, leave the bike at home and enjoy the other attractions the island has to offer.

Mallorca - 2011/02

2011-02-13T01:40:00.001-08:00

Sadly my first PBscience Mallorca training camp has come to an end. We had great 7 days in the Mallorcan spring sun and I've learned a lot. Mostly about the fact that more isn't always better.

The weather was fabulous for this time of the year - every day it was around 15C and sunny. The camp was organised with military precision and professionalism typical to PBscience but also with enough flexibility to allow for plans to be modified to suit our goals.

We had a group of 15 athletes, all very fit, as our mountain time trial demonstrated, but with some very different goals at different times of the year, which no doubt provided a challenge for our coaches to plan the daily activities to suit everyone. They did a sterling job and I think everybody left the camp on Saturday having fulfilled their camp goals.

The coaches guided us carefully and with a great degree of knowledge and professionalism in the direction that would provide the best return on our time investment in reaching our season's goals, but left the decision to follow these guidelines to us. All decisions have some form of consequences and the time will tell whether we made the right decisions or not - this is all part of the learning process.

Of course there was also a fun element to the camp and some of us provided some additional entertainment in a form of a "washing up in the dishwasher" incident or similar. There was some serious coffee drinking too - after training ;)

Personally I couldn't be happier with the outcome of the camp. I'm leaving stronger than I was when I arrived but also less tired, having been recovering really well - remarkable. The training was less volume orientated but with better quality and a big focus on recovery. My personal favourite day was the "mountain" ride including Col de Soller and Puig Major.

The mountain time trial to Lluc provided some additional excitement...

... and quite a bit of suffering:

As for the numbers, my time trial time was 24:1 and I averaged a 298W. A couple of weeks ago I didn't think this wold have been possible, but the camp was a real eye opener.

I hope better things are yet to come this year.

Lanzarote - 2010/12

2011-01-03T01:32:00.001-08:00

Lanzarote is one of our favourite training destinations. It has some great swimming and running facilities at Club la Santa and great bike riding around the island. The area is hilly and always windy and hot which provides challenging conditions all year round.

This year we managed to get away for our trip to Lanzarote for the Christmas period week. Unlike in the previous years I concentrated mainly on cycling with some good riding doing base miles, but trying not to completely destroy myself so early in the season.

My favourite climb is the Tabayesco road to the top of the Haria mountain:

This year I did the climb twice, both times as part of a long ride.

Towards the end of the week I was starting to feel quite strong and the second time up the climb I posted a time of 36 minutes flat averaging 252W. I was happy with that given that it's still very early in the season.

In total I did just over 300 miles over 5 riding days, 10km of swimming over 3 swims, one good run and a few good core conditioning sessions. A good training week.

This time we were staying at a resort in Puerta del Carmen, which was actually very comfortable and located a little bit away from the busy areas with a 3km walk to town. It was nice to be located in a quiet place and be able to get some good rest.

As usual we enjoyed our annual Lanzarote trip. It was so nice to get away from the cold UK weather and spend some time outside in the sun and get some decent training done. We came back relaxed and I'm not even as tired as I've normally been after a training camp so I'm looking forward to another 3 weeks of training at home and then a trip to Majorca.

Winter training wonderland

2010-12-19T14:11:00.000-08:00

We've had quite a bit of snow recently, which made bike riding conditions "challenging" to say the least.

This is how the approach to the top of Box Hill looked like this morning:

And this is the famous 20 minutes queue for the coffee atop:

The coffee and cake tasted so much better today...

Looking forward to some sunshine now.

Helly Hansen Adventure Race

2010-12-12T13:40:00.000-08:00

It was such good fun to break up the winter training by doing an event that was "different". And it was different in every way...

It was a team event and we had 2 teams and decided to dress up for the occasion:

I was off in a team with Neil and Chris. The event was in a format of a Run, Bike, Canoe, Bike, Run. The weather was perfect and we decided to take it out hard, while still having a good time:

The Canoe portion admittedly wasn't our strongest discipline:

But we rode our bikes hard and made up time on the mountain bike section despite some "wardrobe malfunctions":

In the end we finished in 13th place out of over 100 teams. We all had great support along the course and at the finish by Alex taking pictures. The event was great fun and we laughed throughout the whole event and for hours afterwards.

Winter Training

2010-12-06T14:06:00.000-08:00

The winter wonderland has descended upon us making training conditions "challenging"

Upon returning from Mexico I started my winter preparation for next season, concentrating mainly on cycling. In the first week after we got back I had my first "lab test". Needless to say I didn't break any records and the results were fairly disappointing.

Since then things have been getting better and my fitness is slowly improving, but it will be a long winter and it's a slow improvement process.

That's how I'm spending quite a lot of my time at the moment:

Last weekend was the end of my first 3 week block of training and on Saturday I broke my record at enduring the Chinese torture of turbo training by sitting for 3 hours and 10 minutes on the damn thing. That's my reward afterwards:

Otherwise not much to report, other than looking forward to the Christmas break now.

End of season review

2010-11-06T10:50:00.000-07:00

It's a beginning of November and after my end of season break it's time to get back to training and also to reflect on the last season. I took me a long time to get to write this bog entry and I actually even considered if I should.

The last season was one of the most frustrating ever. It wasn't that I was unfit, but I just was never fit enough to reach my objectives, always racing just below the level I needed to be at, all the time on the back foot. But let's start from the beginning...

At the end of last season I raced the Florida Ironman in November. I finished in 9:28, missing on a Hawaii qualifying spot, but considering I was still carrying a hamstring injury it wasn't a bad result. After coming back I felt good and very fit for November, coming off an Ironman race, and decided not to take a break, but to keep going and build on the fitness I had. That was the first mistake. Throughout November and December I felt good an was going well. Alex and I went for the New Year to Lanzarote and I did some good bike riding. When we came back an opportunity came up for me at work to go to the US and I took it up and have thrown myself at work hoping that my hard work would get some recognition in the company. I spent January, February and most of March flying between Detroit and London and when not on the plane most days were 12-14 hour work days. I tried to run most days, but did no swimming and very little biking. I would go out for a club ride if I was spending a weekend in London and we would hammer it every time as if it was a race.

In March I did the Ballbuster Duathlon and came 11th Overall and 2nd Vet, despite a puncture on the last lap. I was happy with that.

Shortly after that was the Reading Half Marathon and I actually run quite well - 1:19:20 and things seemed to be on track.

Then over the Easter weekend I did 3 races in 3 days: the Milland Hill road race, the Cutmill road race and the Steyning Duathlon. I got dropped quite early on Milland Hill, Cumill was slightly better, but I still got dropped and Steying was a struggle and I finished way off the pace.

Then came the London Marathon and after 1o miles I realised that the hamstring still wasn't right. After 16 miles it pretty much locked up and I eventually finished in 2:57:36. Oh well, at least it was under 3 hours.

After a couple of weeks break I got back into training and started my triathlon season's racing:

- 2nd overall at the Eaton Human race sprint distance in 1:05:59

- 143 in 4:31:56 at 70.3 Austria St Polten

I also did some local 10M time trials and Surrey League handicap races with mixed results but still seemed to be making progress.

My big goal for the season was Ironman Germany and a Hawaii qualification. On one of the hottest weekend of the year and with a controversy of a non-wetsuit swim and which tri suits are legal I got quite battered in the swim and finished in 10:00:21 and missed a rolldown slot by 2 minutes. It was a big disappointment, but there was no time to dwell on what could have been.

After some recovery I got back into training and did some handicap road races and I was even going quite well, just missing a little bit of a top end at the finish. In one of the races I was in a group that stayed away and was sitting 6th wheel with 600m to the finish when I heard the dreaded bang noise. I managed to stay upright but on a flat tire there was not much I could do other than walk to the finish.

In preparation for my next big goal - the World ITU Long Distance Championships I did another Eaton spring race and finished in 1:04:45 second overall again and 1st Vet.

The World Championships didn't go as planned. I strained my back before the race, swam and biked as hard as I could on a very hilly course and had nothing left for the run and finished well off the pace in 7:58:45, 98th overall and 20th in my age group. I was very dehydrated and my legs were shot, but at least I knew that I gave it absolutely all I had and there was nothing else I could have done.

It took me a very long time to recover from the World Championships, both mentally and physically.

I finished the season with a 3rd place overall and age group win at the Brighton Olympic distance triathlon (2:11:03), 4th place overall and age group win at the Long Course London Duathlon and a 3rd place overall and 2nd place age group at another Eaton Olympic distance event (2:11:05). I was relieved that the season was over.

It was a season of near misses, second places and generally lacking little bit extra. It was also a season if some classic mistakes - where do I start?

- not taking a break after the season's end

- getting into hard training/racing lacking base training

- over-racing at certain times

- changing priorities

It's clear that in order to achieve the progress I'm expecting and believe I'm capable of I need to change quite a few things for next year. More about this soon...

London Duathlon

2010-09-19T14:02:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was my penultimate race of the season the Long Course London Duathlon at Richmond Park.

The race was run over an unusual "long" distance of 20km run 77km bike and 10km run in a beautiful setting of the Richmond Park over roads closed to traffic.

Give the lack of training over the last couple of weeks before the race due to work commitments and our trip to New York it was always going to be a tough race but on the race morning I felt especially tired. I'm not sure if it was jetlag catching up with me or lack of training but I was very apprehensive. It looked like a great day, though, and I decided to give it a go and just try to do my best.

I started the run at a fairly conservative and comfortable pace clicking at about 4min/km pace. On the second 10km lap my lack of training was starting to show but I managed to keep the pace despite arriving into transition with big blisters in 11th place overall in 1:22.

After a quick transition I was glad to be on the bike and to give my feet a little bit of rest. The course was quite congested, but I was passing a lot of people, particularly on the fast downhill section where with no traffic we were going at almost 60km/h. I tried to keep each of the 7 laps consistently between 19:45 and 19:15. A couple of people passed me on the climbs but I was always able to drop them on the downhill. I finished the bike in 3:16, now in 6th position overall.

The last run was always going to be tough and a case of survival more than anything else. I was hoping that everybody was going to be feeling tired and running slow. The first couple of km were really slow and my hamstrings and lower back were really tight. As run progressed I started to feel better and picked up the pace. Soon enough I passed the 5th and then the 4th
man. Unfortunately 3rd was still way in front so the last couple of km were just about getting to the finish as by then my legs were cramping up pretty badly. Run time 44:30.

I finished in 4:26 in 4th place overall and 1st in my age group. I was very tired but happy with the result considering my condition and lack of training. It was one of the toughest duathlon races I've done, but I really enjoyed it and would like to do it again at some point.

One more race left for this season - the Vo2 Olympic Distance race at Dorney lake and then onto some well deserved rest.

ITU World Long Distance Triathlon Championships

2010-08-02T07:32:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I raced at the ITU World Championships in Immenstadt, Germany as part of the British age group team. As I didn't qualify for the Ironman World Championships this was going to be my ocassion to measure myself against some of the best triathletes in the world in my age group, so I wanted to do well in this race.

Immenstadt is located in a beautiful area of Germany called Algau, in the mountains, approximately 100 mile from Munich.

My preparation going into the race wasn't ideal as we've been quite busy recently. My last couple of training races went quite well though and I did a good ride at the Richmond Park 10M TT and a week ago came second overall in the Eaton sprint triathlon, improving on my time from May.

To make the situation worse on thursday on my way back from work my chain on the bike broke, which meant that I didn't get back home till 11pm and on Friday my flight to Munich was delayed by almost 2.5 hours and when I eventually arrived in Immenstadt at 2am I was very tired.

The team GB was staying in the comfortable Algau Stern Hotel, 12km from Immenstadt and it was interesting to stay with the rest of the team and see their preparations.

The race was very well organised and it was great to be able to rack the bikes on race morning and not having to worry about doing it a day before.

On the race day I woke up feeling relaxed and ready to go having had an unusually good night's sleep. We arrived at the start with plenty of time and I even had time to take some pictures. Just before the start as I was warming up I felt sharp pain in my back and it immediately went into a spasm and I could hardly breathe. There was no time to do anything about it with 10 minutes to the start and I was worried that I might get into trouble in the water, so I wasn't sure if I should even be starting the race. Eventually I decided to get in the water try to relax and give it a go. Somehow when I got in the water it felt a little bit better and was able to breathe and swim.

The swim was fairly uneventful, I had a conservative start as I wasn't sure how hard I was going to be able to push with a locked up back, but I had clear water and managed to stay out of trouble. On the return leg of the 4km loop I pushed a little bit harder and came out of the water in 1:12:20. Not bad, considering the circumstances and I was happy with that. Quick transition and I was on the bike, but my legs didn't feel great, so I decided to keep it steady hoping that it may improve. The bike course was simply brutal - up, down, left, right on some narrow roads. Luckily it was dry and the road surface was good, so descending wasn't a problem. The 2200m of climbing recorded by my watch doesn't really do the course justice - some of the climbs were so steep that I had to be out of the saddle for the entire climb pushing 300W just to keep the bike moving. There was 8 climbs recorded on the official course profile and about 10 other unclassified "bonus climbs". Of course such a tough bike course had one advantage - the drafting was non-existing so it was a fair race. Somehow I was really enjoying this bike course and I was even descending well, overtaking loads of people. Whenever passing a GB athlete I also tried to shout some encouragement. I went though a bit of a bad patch after about 40 miles, but recovered fairly well and was even able to push a bit harder on the second, shorter lap. Unfortunately the back was still very tight, which made climbing and riding hard on aerobars quite uncomfortable. After another exhilarating descent into Immenstadt I was finally happy to be back in transition in 4:17, which I though was a reasonable time given the nature of the course.

Onto the run and unsurprisingly legs felt quite tired after all the climbing and suddenly it was very hot. Nevertheless I locked into a solid 4:25/km pace and tried to take in some gels an as much coke and water as I could get from the aid stations. My plan was again to try to take it steady for the first of the 10 laps and try to push it for the second and third lap. Solid strategy but this time it wasn't going to work as almost immediately after I started the second lap I started to feel very weak and was getting cramps in both legs. Quads first, calves and then hamstrings. Whenever I tried to pick up the pace I would get a cramp and was reduced to a gently shuffle. I walked through a couple of aid stations trying to get as much fluid as possible but it wasn't helping, so I had to resign to running a 5min/km pace. As I started the last lap I calculated that if I kept that pace I still has 2 minutes to spare to get in under 8 hours and this become my next target. Over the next 8km I've even managed to make up another 2 minutes which was just as well because as I entered the stadium it turned out that the finish was not at 3okm, but another 500m further. Eventually I finished in 7:58:45 with a 2:26 run split. This gave me 98th position overall and 20th place in my age group. Not what I had imagined and hoped for, being already 8th in the world twice, but a respectable result nevertheless.

Am I happy with my race? Mixed feelings again. It was a truly epic race with a fair, tough course, very well organised and possibly one of the most beautiful bike courses I've ever done. The whole town was clearly behind the race with posters everywhere and the course lined with spectators, particularly on the climbs. Being 20th in the world in my age group, on a course that theoretically did not suit me is a respectable result and I've beaten some good athletes and as a 4th GB athlete home. Many athletes would be very happy with that. On the other hand the result also shows how the sport has moved on in the last few years, how much more competitive the age groups are and how the gap I have to the top age-grouper has grown. I haven't really improved my swim in the last few years, my bike is similar to what it was 5 years ago and my run results have not been consistent. It was great to be a part of the GB team and the beers (perhaps a few too many) and banter after the race was great, but is that all I really want? It's pretty clear that I'm not going to acheive my goal of winning a World Championship medal.

Where to from now? Was this my last international race? I'm not sure - I'll give it a few weeks before making a decision. It may not be a bad time to refocus on other things and say I'm happy with what I've achieved. No regrets.

Ironman European Championships

2010-07-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

So close yet so far away... This pretty much sums up my performance at the European Ironman Championships in Frankfurt on the 4th July.

This is one of my favorite races on the Ironman circuit and the race where I qualified for Hawaii in 2005 so I was going into the race with a clear objective: qualify for the World Championships in Hawaii in the 40-44 age group. My preparation has gone well, despite having only 6 weeks of hard training, but I was feeling strong, rested and confident.

We arrived in Frankfurt on Friday, before the German World Cup game against Argentina. It was a hot couple of nights, both weather-wise and with the electric atmosphere after the German win.

The day before race the organizers announced that the water temperature in the lake reached over 24C and it will be a non-wetsuit swim. They've also announced a new rule that any race suits that contain silicone will not be allowed. This caused a great deal of consternation to both all the retailers and athletes as nobody knew what will actually be allowed on the race day as this contradicted previous rules. I decided to go with my old and tried 2XU suit.

The night before the race day was hot and sleepless as usual, this time mainly due to all the Germans celebrating the World Cup win, but on race morning I woke up rested and ready to go nevertheless and the weather was cooler than in the days preceding the race.

I got to race start in plenty of time for a change, pumped my tires, took care of "nature call" and even had plenty of time to relax. I wanted to get into the water in plenty of time so I proceeded to the start early but got stopped by a referee saying that my tri suit is illegal and I will not be allowed to start. There was a growing group of athletes who have also been stopped. After much discussions, stomping and cursing in German, English and Spanish we were eventually allowed to go to the swim, but by then it was too late for any warmup or start place selection. I knew that with 2300 athletes starting it was going to be a rough swim but had not much choice but to position myself in the middle and try to move as forward as possible.

The gun soon went off and it immediately felt like I was in a washing machine. I've never been in such a rough swim. I went under water several times, drank plenty of water, got hit and kicked and goggles knocked off twice. I was hoping that it would get better after a couple of hundred meters, but then the swimmers from the right and left side decided to converge in the middle it after a while I was loosing all hope. I got out after the first lap and was shocked looking the the watch showing 45 min for the first lap. Fortunately the second lap was a bit better I had a bit more space and picked up the paces slightly coming out in 1:24. Still by far my slowest swim ever, even slower than the Hawii non-wetsuit swim.

Onto the bike and I felt immediately better and much happier having survived the swim. The bike was fairly uneventful. I rode strongly but within myself on the three climbs and picked up a lot of places on the descents. 5:14 bike split for 185 km as the course was extended by 5km because of roadworks. Happy with that as the extra 5km was worth at least 7 min, which would make it close to my best time on this course.

The run is 4 laps, flat and fast and I knew it was going to be hot. I started conservatively and after the first lap Alex told me I was in 90 place in my age group and passed 30 on the first lap. I try to keep the pace going throwing down as much coke as I could and an occasional gel. I went through a bit of a bad patch at half way but after some extra coke and some red bull I got a bit better and was able to push through to the finish. 3:17 run split - not my best, but respectable.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to pass enough runners to get into the qualifying places (24) and ended up in 35th place in my age group with a time 2 seconds outside 10 hours.

In the end I missed the automatic qualifying spot by 10 minutes and a roll-down slot by just over 3 minutes. Disappointing not to achieve the big goal of the season of qualifying for Hawaii, but that's racing and that's how it goes sometimes. No excuses, though, I had a reasonable race, except for the swim, but just wasn't good enough to contend. Next race - ITU LD World Championships in Immenstadt.

my travel blog: http://alexmike-travel.blogspot.com/

Austria 70.3

2010-06-06T07:20:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Chris and I raced the 70.3 St Polten Ironman in Austria. I was using the race as a preparation for the upcoming European IM Championships in Frankfurt and didn't really taper for the race, but wanted to go hard and check my form.

The race was held in a small town town 1 hour drive from Vienna in a rural location. We stayed in a local guesthouse 10km from the start in a rural location. It was basic, but comfortable and adequate..

Leading up to the race I wasn't feeling well and felt tired and sluggish with some hayfever. In the last 2 days we all slept a lot and managed to avoid the usual pre-race nervousness, despite the fact that we arrived in transition 5 minutes before it closed.

The race course is quite unique with the swim starting in one small lake and finishing in a different lake with a 300 meters run in between. The bike course is on good roads, completely closed to traffic and contains a nice and fast motorway section as well as 2 significant climbs with some technical descending.

The swim went quite well, I got to a clean start immediately from the gun and felt quite relaxed all the way to the exit. I thought the run might affect the rhythm of the swim, but after the run and a jump into the second lake (in my case I just fell in) I still felt good and I came out of the water in just over 33 minutes, which I was happy with.

Onto the bike I was feeling quite strong and passing lots of cyclist. A couple of strong bikers came up and we rode together until we hit the hills and I just didn't have the power to stay with them. I came into transition in just over 2:20, which again I was happy with, but as I tried to run my legs were very tired and didn't want to cooperate.

Here is the power date from the bike:
Duration: 2:24:54 (2:26:38)
Work: 1796 kJ
TSS: 204.4 (intensity factor 0.92)
Norm Power: 221
VI: 1.07
Pw:HR: -22.31%
Pa:HR: -8.35%
Distance: 87.008 km
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 621 207 watts
Heart Rate: 34 178 149 bpm
Cadence: 29 101 82 rpm
Speed: 9.8 70.8 36.0 kph
Pace 0:51 6:07 1:40 min/km
Crank Torque: 0 121 24.8 N-m
Temperature: 15 25 18.0 Celsius

After a few kilometers of the run was feeling a little bit better and tried to hold 4 min kilometers, which was reasonably comfortable, but couldn't go any quicker. I finished the run in just over 1:26 for a total time of 4:31 and 143rd place overall which gave me a 17th place in my age group.
Overall I was happy with my performance, but a little bit annoyed that I didn't have the power to stay with the strong bikers on the hills or run a little bit quicker as 5 minutes quicker overall time would put me in the top 5 in my age group. Something to work on over the new few weeks before the Ironman.

Oh, and a week before the race in Austria I raced a sprint triathlon at Eaton and won my age group. Good start to the season.

my travel blog

London Marathon

2010-05-11T13:55:00.001-07:00

Another London Marathon done and dusted for this year. I finished in 2:57:36 which is my personal slowest time. The result is slightly disappointing as I thought my preparation actually went reasonably this year. I felt well rested and capable of going under 2:50, but just didn't have it on the day – no excuses

In the last days leading to the race day went well and I was feeling good and loose. The weather was good and it looked like it was going to be a hot race day. What a change on the race day – when I woke up the sky was overcast and with it my legs felt quite sore somehow. By the time we got to the start it was raining and it felt quite cold.

This year I was starting from the red “good for age” start which follows a different route for the first 3 miles. Despite being late I managed to get right to the front and was in the first line. Soon enough the gun went and we were off.

The first 5 miles, as usual, were quite quick, perhaps a little bit too quick, but felt very comfortable. After 5 miles quite suddenly my hamstring locked up and the pace immediately dropped by 30 seconds per mile. Just like this, no warning, no gradual slow down, it just happened and the race for time was over. From that point I knew it was going to be a long 20 miles to the finish, shuffling along. I think Jim passed me at about 10 miles, but I was in a world of pain and didn't even recognise him.

I got to 20 miles in 2:14 and had to pick up the pace to make sure I got in under 3 hours. Why? No reason really but 2 things I really didn't want to do was to drop out or finish outside 3 hours. The last few miles were not so bad and even actually quicker than last time I run the marathon. Seeing Big Ben and then Alex at 800m to go and eventually the finish was a welcome relief. It was over for another year, I didn't drop out and was in under 3 hours!

Very sore now on the plane to China for some well deserved rest. On reflection happy to have finished and I think the training done and completing the marathon is going to pay off later in the season. I've made some mistakes in the lead up to the race, for example slightly low on mileage, not enough race pace preparation and only completing one half marathon in spring. Something to learn from for next year.

Easter 3-day

2010-04-07T14:04:00.000-07:00

The official annual Easter 3-day Surrey League cycling race was cancelled this year. To avoid disappointment I created my own version of the 3-day event. It comprised of
- Surrey League race at Milland Hill on Saturday

- Surrey League race at Cutmill on Sunday

- The Steying Duathlon on Monday.

Due to my lack of bike fitness it was always going to be a difficult challenge but it turned out to be a real lesson in suffering.

The first race started with me arriving late after a drive in torrential rain and making the start line with a minute to spare. Luckily once the race started the rain eased up and the conditions were reasonable. I felt quite comfortable in the bunch until we got to The Hill, which turned out to be a fairly short climb but topping out at 25%. I got over the hill in the bunch but I knew straight away that I didn't have the legs to do it 6 more times on each lap. I tried to get away from the bunch with a couple of riders on the descent to get to the hill with some time to spare, but we were caught before the hill and sure enough I couldn't hold the wheel on the climb and got dropped. Unable to get back on the descent I rode hard for the next 5 laps on my own with nobody from behind catching me. In summary: a tough day and a big mistake even entering.

The next day was another Surrey League road race, this time held on the Cutmill course. This time the hill wasn't as steep but it was quite a bit longer and the course was dotted with big potholes in many places and featured a nice hairpin bend covered with gravel. Even before the start I knew that I didn't have the legs to race this after the previous day, but decided to give it a go and try to stay in the bunch for as long as possible. This time it turned out to be 4 laps as I got dropped on the 5th ascent of the hill and this time it was like someone just turned the lights off - darkness and I couldn't even go steady anymore. I've managed to ride easy for 2 more laps on my own without being caught by the bunch to make sure I finished what I started, but it felt like a very long 14 miles. To add insult to injury I was marked as the dreaded DNF in the official results. Another mistake to even enter this.

Easter Monday featured the Steyning Duathlon. After 2 days of racing I knew this was going to hurt. Right from the gun my legs refused to cooperate, I tried my best but my pace just wasn't there. Onto the bike hoping that things might improved and straight away I made a mistake and my velcro strap in one of the shoes came out loose and I couldn't put it back in so I had to resign to riding with one shoe open. The course was quite windy with some rolling hills and I never really got into a rhythm. My power was down by about 30W to what I expected, so I just had to try to do the best I could with what I had left. Coming into transition I was so tired that the lights switched off again and I couldn't see my run shoes for about a minute. Strangely enough this probably gave me a little bit of much needed rest and I felt better on the second run. I was even able to pick up the pace a bit and was finally passing some people. To little too late though and eventually I ended up finishing in 44th place overall an 6th in my age group.

Very hard weekend , but I guess what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Now a little bit of rest and putting in some final touches to my preparation for the London Marathon.

Winter Training

2010-01-21T14:27:00.000-08:00

Training has been going so-so since Ironman Florida. I took 2 weeks recovery and started getting back into the swing of things slowly.

By mid- December I was actually getting into quite a good shape. Chris and I did our usual "Ballbuster" training session, named after the infamous duathlon race held typically in November. The course consists of an 8 mile run followed by a 24 mile bike time trial and finishes with another 8 mile run. Taking in the fearsome zig-zag climb 5 times the course features over 1500 meters of climbing and then descending and the last run is usually particularly strength-sapping. This time I felt good on both runs, and despite suffering a bit in the hands (or should I say legs) of Chris who is a much better cyclist I was happy with completing the whole course and within a reasonable time of 3h 30min.

Unfortunately due to work commitments things have not been going so well since. I've been spending a lot of time travelling on business and I found being away from a familiar surroundings not very conducive to training. I had a good 5 days of training when Alex and I went to Lanzarote during the Christmas break, covering about 400km cycling, 12km swimming and about 50km running. Since the return from Lanzarote, however, things have not been going so well with work commitments and travel again. While away my objective is to do "something" every day. It may be a yoga class, a short run, a gym session or sometimes even a longer run. It keeps the fitness at a reasonable level, but I don't count it as training.

Hopefully things will get better now as the weather is improving, days are getting longer and if I can only reduce the amount of travel the motivation and form is bound to return.

Chris and I are due to do another "Ballbuster" session on Sunday and this will give me a better idea of where I am fitness-wise, but I'm not looking forward to it - it will be painful. Pain is only temporary though and you can learn to accept it and deal with it. Hopefully I will on Sunday...

My travel blog

Ironman Florida

2009-11-08T20:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I finished Ironman Florida in a personal best time of 9:28:08, but I'm leaving with mixed feelings as I've not achieved my goal of qualifying for the 2010 World Championships in Hawaii.

My pre-race preparations have gone well, but I knew coming into the race that I was short of training as I've only managed 3 good weeks of high volume training, yet I was hoping that this will get me through the race in a reasonable form.

We arrived in Florida on Saturday and the week before the race had gone very quickly and was unusually relaxing with just enough training to keep loose and no last-minute disasters except for a swollen foot 3 days before the race.

By the time we realised the race morning was upon us and I was feeling well an had my whole support crew behind me.

The race morning started with a fairly warm temperature, but unlike the previous few days there was a bit of a chop in the Bay of Mexico where the swim was taking place. It actually didn't look too bad from the shore, but as soon as I got in the water it was up and down all the time and you couldn't see the buoys. I decided to start far on the right hand side of the anti-clockwise rectangular course and I had a fairly clean start until the first turn-around buoy where I got kicked a few times, but overall the swim was fairly clean. I exited the water in 1:08, which was disappointing, but as I later discovered the conditions made the swim 5-4 minutes slower than usual for everybody.

The bike is flat with some long straight sections typically with some strong head and tail winds. As soon as I got on the bike I tried to get into a good rhythm and keep a steady pace. Unfortunately he nature of the course meant that drafting was always going to be a problem and soon enough large packs of riders started forming. It's pretty impossible to drop a large pack of drafting athletes of similar abilities on such a flat course so I decided to stay on the back of the group with a legal distance of 10 meters, which still gives you enough benefit to be faster that riding solo. I had to work a little too had on some rolling sections up the small hills and then coast downhill to stay legal. I came into transition with a 4:50 bike split which I was happy with, but my legs felt tired.

Starting the run I didn't feel too good, but decided just to keep it steady and see what happens. I had to walk through some aid stations to make sure I get enough fluids on board. A few people passed me and I've had to let them go. I finally started to feel a little bit better after about 10 miles and started to pass people back. the last 3 miles were difficult but my support crew gave me a lot of encouragement along the route and there was good crowd support in the last 2 miles which kept me going. I finished the marathon in 3:18, very tired and with nothing more to give in the tank.

My time of 9:28:08 was good enough for 62nd place overall and 18th place in my age group, some 12 minutes short of the last Kona place. I was happy with my performance and given my training I don't think I could have done any better. I wonder what the result would have been if everybody was riding solo because as soon as a marshal pulled alongside our cycling group and started giving out warnings the gaps opened and I found myself off the front the he group. Unfortunately I don't think enough penalties were given out. There is no point in dwelling on it, though, I'm happy with how I performed, but unfortunately it wasn't enough to get a qualifying spot. Maybe next year in Germany.

That's it for this year. Time for some R&R...

Mike.

My travel blog: http://alexmike-travel.blogspot.com

London to Brighton

2009-10-05T12:48:00.001-07:00

This year again I joined a few mates from work for the off-road London to Brighton ride. The ride is mostly flat with a couple of gentle hills and I've even managed to convince Alex to join us. We all had a really good time and the good weather definitely helped. It took us 10 hours in total with about 6.5 hours riding time and a few stops. Hopefully we can do that again next year.

The next day was the Run to the Beat half marathon in Greenwich. I did some pacemaking for this race last year and as a result had a free entry into the "elite" field. Unfortunately my performance was nothing but elite. I felt OK at the beginning but after 4 miles my legs completely sized up. Eventually I ended up somewhere around top 50 in 1:27, some 25 minutes behind the Kenyan winners. I was a good training day though.

The week after Chris and I did a mini-Ballbuster brick session on Saturday and on Sunday I joined some of my teammates for the annual Ride of the Falling Leaves. We were lucky with the weather with clear skies and little wind as it usually rains during this ride. I missed the 4-hour gold standard time on both of my previous attempts so I was hoping that finally I might be able to finish in under 4 hours. Things were going well, we were keeping a good pace and my legs felt good. Unfortunately when the hills started our group got split up and we were in danger of missing the 4 hour mark again. Jim and I decided to press on and eventually made it back in 3:54 after some strong riding. Another good training day.

It's 4 weeks to Ironman Florida now and I'm getting a little anxious that I've not really done enough training to race it properly. Whatever happens I just want to go and have fun. It's been a long year.

The Vitruvian Middle Distance Triathlon

2009-09-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

I competed in the The Vitruvian triathlon last weekend trying to get some more racing done before the UK season comes to a close.

It was a tough day for me. It started off OK and even a 4am wake up time on a chilly September morning and a swim in the murky waters of The Rutland Water were not as bad as they may seem. I was off in the water at 6:40 in the mens AG35-39 wave and had a reasonable good swim. As soon as the gun went off I found some clear water and got to the turn buoy with the leaders. Unfortunately I lost them at the turn and swam the rest of the 2 lap course on my own exiting in 32min 40sec, which I was happy with.

I went off reasonably hard on the bike hoping to catch some people. Surprisingly there were a few tough hills on the bike which I didn't account for and after the first lap the wheels came off. I must have lost about 10 minutes on the second lap and was not able to raise my effort, heart rate or power.

On the run I immediately felt that my legs didn't have anything more to give so I just cruised through the 2 lap course walking through some of the aid stations to get some drinks and gels on board. It was great to have the support from Alex and Jim's wife .... In the end I finished in 4:33, in 21st place in my age group and 53 overall - disappoining result. To top it off I had some alergic reaction after the race - not quite sure what caused it.

Jim went like a rocket and won his age group with a speedy bike and a fantastic run. Very impressive.

Now it's time to recover and change things for the Florida IM, although I'm not to hopeful now...

Onwards...

Wiesbaden 70.3 Half Ironman

2009-08-23T11:11:00.000-07:00

Wiesbaden hosted this year for the 3rd time a middle distance triathlon as part of the 70.3 Ironman series. The event is very well organised and run over a challenging course with over 1500m climbing on the bike and a challenging run finishing in the centre of Wiesbaden.

This year my teammate Chris with his wife Lisa and Alex and I decided to make the trip dow to Wiesbaden to see what the fuss is all about. The drive tuned out to be rather long and we arrived just before 6pm after an early morning start. Wiesbaden turned out to be a really nice typical German town with lots of little restaurants, coffee shops and expensive shops.

The preparation before the race went without any major incidents and the time passed quickly. Sunday greeted us with a really warm and windless weather and the additional bonus was a lay in due to a relatively late start at 8:55am. The race was run in waves with over 3000 athletes competing in total. We were placed in the AG35-39 wave, but unfortunately the organisers decided to place some of the best age group athletes from all waves (including our age group) with the professionals. This meant that they would have the opportunity to draft and pace of the pros while we would have to fight through the congestion on the course.

We arrived in transition with plenty of time for a change and after the usual faffing around we were off in the warm water of River Main at 8:55. The swim went well for me, there wasn't too much pushing and shoving and I had someone to draft of most of the way. I was quite happy coming out of the water in 34:15, having had one of the easiest swims in a long time.

Quick transition where I've managed to pass Chris and onto the bike and my legs didn’t feel too good. I was going through the motions and passing quite a few people but never felt totally in control and was going up the first climb of about 8km quite steady. The bike was certainly much more hilly than I expected with some long steady climbs. After about half way I started feeling better and was able to push a bit harder. Some of the descent were quite scary, especially the run back into town where we hit over 80km/h. Bike time 2:51 which I was Ok with considering my condition.

Once I got of the bike my legs felt really heavy. I took my time in transition and after a couple of km of the run started to feel better and picked up the pace hoping to run at least a decent half marathon. Unfortunately it wasn't to be and after 2 laps I started to slow down considerably on the hot run and congested run course. Eventually I ended up running 1:31 for a total time of 5:02, 117th place overall and 24th place in my age group. At the finish I had absolutely nothing left and felt more like I've just completed a full ironman than a half.

Overall I guess I'm happy with how I've executed the race, but it shows just how much of a gap I have this year to the top guys. The standard of racing over the last few years has definitely improved in the European Ironman races and it looks like I have some catching up to do.

Next race will be the Vitruvian middle distance race in the UK in September.

The London Triathlon

2009-08-11T14:15:00.000-07:00

What can I say, the The London Triathlon is one of my favorite short course events and another one has come and gone.

I had a good day and came 27th overall in the sub-2:30 category. It was fun riding past all the London landmarks, particularly the Tower Bridge and the Parliament and the sub 2:30 wave format provides some exciting racing and is the next best thing beside racing elite if you can't swim sub 18 min for 1500m.

I had a reasonable swim, although I was upset with myself for loosing the pack I was in at the turnaround buoy and coming out of the water in 26:30.

The bike was much better and I went full gas straight away and was passing easily. A planet-x sponsored athlete came past me after the first lap and I tried to stay with him but couldn't, so I just kept my rhythm and finished with a 1:02 split.

I felt good on the run straight away and just got quicker as the run progressed - 33:52 run split.

Total time 2:07:41, which as I recollect might be my PB and is certainly my quickest time on this course.

Next on the list is the 70.3 Half Ironman in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Ironman France

2009-07-04T07:52:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-03T07:25:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-15T13:52:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-25T11:09:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-14T16:21:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-05T11:55:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-14T16:10:00.000-07:00

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.

Recovery and the London Triathlon

2008-08-13T13:18:00.000-07:00

I’ve been pretty tired since Ironman Austria. It took me 3 days to start feeling human again and be able to eat normally. I started some light training 5 days after the race and by the end of week 2 I was starting to feel better. I was planning a big weekend with a long ride and a long run for the weekend 3 weeks after the Ironman and then starting to taper for Canada. As it turned out Chris wanted to do a 2-up time trial on Saturday and I’ve agreed to ride with him, hoping that riding to the start, the race and riding back will be enough of a workout. And what workout it was! I’ve not ridden a bike so hard probably for about two years. Chris is pretty strong at the moment and had to wait for me on the hill. To cut the long story short we ended up in 4th place, in 1:08:06 and I averaged 255W (271 NP!) and 164bpm heart rate. Needles to say Chris was pretty happy to bag another 6 BCF points and get his 3rd CAT license. I ended up with 90 miles in 4:53 for the entire ride on 215W NP. On Sunday I did a long run in Richmond Park with Alex keeping me company on a mountain bike. The run actually felt quite good and I’ve managed to keep a good pace with some hard efforts, but I was shattered afterwards. I had to take it fairly easy for a couple of days afterwards and was going into the London Triathlon, held on the following weekend, feeling somewhat apprehensive.
The London Triathlon is always one of my favorite events in the calendar and the weather has typically been very good for the event. Despite heavy rain on Saturday it cleared up a bit on Sunday and the only problem was quite a strong wind. The swim started well for me and I’ve managed to find some clear water and get into a rhythm quickly. Unfortunately after the turnaround I’ve managed to get dropped by the group I was in and when I looked up everyone was 100 m up the front. The return leg seemed to take forever and eventually I came out of the water in almost 28 minutes, making it my slowest swim on this course. Onto the bike and I was struggling to get going. After the short first lap on the way out to Wesminster I started to finally get into it and was making good progress through the field. Bike split 1:03:06, not great, but reasonably solid in the windy conditions. On the run course I immediately felt 100% better. Running relaxed I was now passing many people and getting more and more confident. At the finish I felt quite fresh and was surprised when I saw the run split – 34:52, making it my quickest run on the course ever. The end result was 2:10:08, good enough for a 27th place in the sub-2:30 category. The run split gives me a bit more confidence ahead of Ironman Canada in 10 days time, but I know that I will struggle on the swim and the hilly bike course, so I will go with no expectations and just try to enjoy the day. Next update after Ironman Canada on the 24th August.

Ironman Austria

2008-07-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

It’s been two weeks since the race and I’ve just about recovered enough to write about my race experience. The last few weeks of training leading up to the race went well and I was hoping for a reasonable race despite having only trained for 12 weeks leading up to the race.
We arrived in Klagenfurt on Friday late afternoon after a flight to Vienna and a 3 hour drive. Klagenfurt turned out to be a very pleasant town located on a beautiful lake in the hilly Kärnten area of Austria. The Ironman seems to be quite an event for the small town and everyone who we talked to knew about the race.
This time in the last couple of days before the race we were unusually well organised and managed to sort out all the gear in a space of a couple of hours, thanks to Alex’s help with the race bag, which has left us with some time to relax on the nearby beach on the lake. On Saturday, the day before the race, I’ve done my usual short run and a short swim and Alex and I rode the bikes to the next town for lunch and back.
When we got up at 4:30 am on the race day it was clear that the weather has changed, the last few days were hot and sunny, but on Sunday the temperature has suddenly dropped and the sky was overcast. Nevertheless we were in good spirit and after a big breakfast (the hotel had a full breakfast for athletes at 4am!) we walked down to the start.
When we got there the transition area was a chaos – the surrounding area was not designed to accommodate 2800 athletes. It took about 10 minutes to enter the transition area and the queues for the portaloos were at least 30 minutes long.
After the experience at Wimbleball I was a bit paranoid about punctures and I must have checked my tires at least 4 times in addition to loading the bike up with 3 spare inner tubes, 3 CO2 cartridges and a Vittoria PitStop canister. After all the fussing around in transition and a toilet stop I finally deposited my bags and walked down to the swim start.

At the beach you could really appreciated the effect of increasing the field size to 2800 – there were athletes everywhere and any warm up was out of the question, so I just lined up in the second row on the beach and waited for the gun to go off, but … it never did. At some point all of a sudden everyone started walking into the water and then started swimming towards the pro’s who were about 100m in front. I expected us all to stop behind the pros and wait for the gun, but it never happened – everyone just kept going, so I followed. It was certainly the strangest swim start I’ve ever done.
After another 100 meters I swam onto somebody’s feet and was rewarded for my efforts with a prompt kick in the face which knocked off my goggles. I stopped to put them back on, but as there were already full of water they never stuck on properly and I resigned to swimming with goggles full of water and not being able to see very much for the rest of the swim. Luckily the swim course was fairly straightforward and I was able to follow people in front hoping that they are moving more or less in the right direction, although on the way back the course enters a narrow canal and I’ve almost missed the entry and swam straight onto the shore. The last 800 m in the canal were quite fast, but not very pleasant as it was shallow and not exactly very clean, but at least no chance for me to go the wrong way. Out of the water I looked at my stopwatch and was quite happy seeing 1:04 – a new swim PB and a job well done.

With so many athletes out of the water around the 1 hour mark the transition area was in a state of chaos and it took me a while to find my bike bag – not being able to see clearly having spent the entire swim with water in my goggles didn’t help. The change tent was very crowded, so I didn’t even bother entering and just took my wetsuit off outside, helmet and the number belt on and onto the bike.
Once on the bike I felt reasonably good and was moving well through the field on the flat section around the lake. The bike course has about 800m of climbing on each lap with 2 fairly sharp hills followed by long steady descents, which makes it quite fast. I’ve decided to back off a little bit on the climbs and leave something in the tank for the flat sections on the second lap, so I just enjoyed the climbing and the crowd’s support. As we got into the hills the weather deteriorated and it was raining heavily and it got quite cold. I got worried about punctures again, but luckily I didn’t get any and managed to warm up after we descended back into town. The special needs station was just in front of our hotel and I was looking forward to getting my second bottle of Infinit drink, but the volunteer had other ideas and was looking in a completely different direction as I went past and only just realised he forgot to hand me the bag after I’ve gone past him cursing. I considered for a second going back for it, but decided not to and carried on without it. I always knew that I was going to suffer on the bike, having not done the mileage and sure enough I started suffering on the second lap and wasn’t able to eat or keep the fluids down. All I could do was to concentrate on keeping a good rhythm and trying to at least drink water at the feed stations. Once I got over the climbs I knew the descent into town will be easy and I was hoping to be able to recover a little before the run. As I rolled into transition I saw 5:04 on my stopwatch as the bike split and was satisfied with it. Ave power 192W, NP 211.

I took my time in transition putting my run gear on, but unfortunately still wasn’t able to take any nutrition on. Onto the run course feeling bloated and low on calories I knew I was going to have to take it relatively easily just to get to the finish line. I tried drinking some coke at the aid station, but it came back pretty quickly and I was running on empty. To add insult to injury the heavens opened and it was pouring down, but I had bigger worries to occupy me. After the half way mark I was forced to make a toilet stop and eventually it looked like my stomach was working again. The wall usually comes around the 30km mark in the marathon, but this time I was actually just starting to feel better at this point and able to take on some coke and some gets. My splits started to improve and eventually I’ve managed to finish with a 3:18 run split, which is not too bad.

Overall time 9:36:01 – 4 minutes outside my PB, but way down in general classification and in my age group. In the end I’m quite happy with the result and if someone told me before the race that I was going to do 9:36 on 12 weeks of training I wouldn’t have believed it. Deep down, however, I know I could have executed the race better – maybe next time. On the positive note I’ve really enjoyed the last 12 weeks of training and getting back into fitness after a break. I’ll be back stronger for the next race.

Two weeks to go

2008-06-29T15:04:00.001-07:00

Today it’s two weeks to go to the big day at Ironman Austria in Klagenfurt. The last few weeks of training have been a bit of a mixed bag. A week after posting the last blog entry I did a 100 mile time trial. Despite not feeling great, the rain and cold weather I did 4:23:29 on 198W average power, which turned out to be good enough for 8th place overall. I was a lithe bit surprised and quite happy with that.
The week after Chris and I did the Dorking 10M road running race. My running has been very consistent recently and despite being tired after hard ride the day before I did 1:02:45 on an undulating course.
The weekend after I joined my friend James for four days of big training in Lanzarote. Somehow I’ve managed to squeeze 24 hours of training in four days including a 10km race and a mini duathlon.

Needles to say I returned feeling a little bit tired, which was not a good sign a week before the first serious race of the season – the 70.3 UK Half Ironman in Wimbleball. Despite that I was quite positive before the race and was hoping for a reasonable result.
The race day did not start well. When we arrived at the lake start venue the temperature was about 4C and the fog over the lake surface created a really eerie sight. When I got into transition upon close inspection I discovered that my rear tire blew overnight and I had a flat no track pump with me and only one spare inner tube on my bike. Having fixed the puncture I suddenly realised that I was the only person left in transition and everybody else has already been lead out to the swim start. I downed my wetsuit and sprinted down to the lake as a warm up. The swim didn’t actually go too bad – I started wide on the outside in the first row and after a couple of fast guys coming from behind swam over the top of me I actually managed to find some clear water and get into a nice rhythm. The rest of the swim was fairly uneventful and I exited the water in about 34 min. Thanks to some good tips from Chris how to strategically place my gear in transition I had a very quick change and must have passed at least a couple of hundred people in T1. Unfortunately when I got to the bike I discovered that the spear inner tube and tire leavers Alex bought for me while I was swimming have been strategically wedged into my saddle by some genius official and I though cycling with tire leavers stuck into my backside would be fairly uncomfortable, so I decided to stop and carefully remove all offending objects from my saddle. The bike at Wimbleball is quite tough with 52 hill on course and I was working quite hard, but actually moving quite well through the field. It was getting colder and colder and before the first lap was over it started lashing down with rain. All the grit was being washed onto the road and you could see many people fixing punctures at the side of the road, including me – twice. Having used all the spares and CO2 cartridges I finally decided that it wasn’t going to be my day and rolled back to transition on a flat tire. Disappointing as it was it’s a lesson for the future to be better prepared, change the tires before the race, carry more spares etc.
Since Wimbleball I’ve been feeling pretty flat, with sore legs and not able to complete my usual bike interval sessions. I has a reasonable long run – 20 miles in 2:14, which was encouraging, but it seems to have left me with a lot of residual fatigue and soreness.
This weekend I did another 3rd Cat road race at Chertsey and this time I felt much better. Comfortable for most of the race I was trying to be fairly active, moving up and down the bunch with ease an getting into a couple of short-lived breaks. None of the breaks came to any fruition and when everybody realised that I was going to end up in another bunch sprint with 90 riders the last lap was very nervous with pushing and showing and riders on the gravel. The final sprint was always going to be dicey and unfortunately the crash happened just in front of me with bikes and riders flying up in the air. Luckily somehow I’ve managed to avoid most of the carnage, stayed upright and only been hit by a flying bike in the knee. Amazingly nobody was seriously hurt. In the end I averaged 219W (248NP) for the 40M race, 20W up on last time.

Today I did my last long ride with some good tempo efforts and now all I can do is just to look forward to the race in two weeks time. I’ve done some reasonably consistent training in the last few weeks, but have had a mild cold in the last few days - a clear sign of pushing it a bit too far, so I’m glad the training is done now. In Klagenfurt I’m just going to enjoy the race experience and see what happens. I don’t have any targets, other than finishing, and I know it’s going to be hard racing on 12 weeks of training so I have no expectations. We’ll see how it goes.
Next update probably after the race.

Mike.

Chertsey - first race of the season

2008-05-18T16:16:00.000-07:00

Hi! It’s been a while since the last post. I’ve discovered that big training weeks and working full time are not very conducive to doing other things so everything else had to be put on hold. I’ve made a conscious decision to limit my internet time, including reading and blogging, which is helping to maximise my recovery. Anyway, back to training:

After the 2 big weeks of training following our return to the UK I was feeling a bit spent so I decided to take a little bit of a rest. It was a great coincidence that Alex has organized a surprise long weekend is Spain for my birthday, which gave me a good excuse to take things easy – I only did one long run 24km while in Spain.

Upon return Alex & Audrey had another surprise in store for me with a surprise dinner and group of my friends waiting at our place hidden in the living room to jump out as soon as I came in. It was quite touching - I was speechless for the rest of the evening!

Once back from Spain I felt much better and my wattage numbers started to come back to normal. I did 3min14sec on my test hill at Crystal Palace at 324W average, which was 20 sec better than on a couple of previous attempts and almost back to where I was last year.

On Saturday I did my first race of the season - the Chertsey 3rd Cat cycling road race. The day started with nice sunshine and the forecast of 26C, which was a pleasant change from the cold and we drove to Chertsey with plenty of time to spare in time to see my teammates Lisa and Chris who were doing the women’s and the 4th Cat races respectively. Lisa did a fantastic job, coming in 3rd, but Chris unfortunately was caught up in a crash on the last lap. Before the race start I realised that in all the excitement of getting ready for the first race of the season I’ve forgotten my helmet, but fortunately Chris came to the rescue and let me use his. The race started very nervous, especially in a field of 100 riders, and I almost got dropped in the first couple of laps coming off the bend too slowly and having to chase really hard just to close the gap. After about 5 laps things have settled down a bit and I felt much more comfortable in the bunch. I even tried I little dig off the front, which lasted for all of about 200m after which I realized that I just didn’t have the legs for it and decided to sit back in the bunch. With about 3 laps to go I thought it was about time to move up near the front and sure enough I was in a good position in the top 20 with a lap to go. Unfortunately I got a bit boxed in on the final straight and by the time I had some room to maneuver the top 20 riders were gone, so there wasn’t much point in sprinting so I ended up finishing in about 55th place out of a 100 according to the official results. All in all not a bad start of the season, I did 20 laps (40 miles) averaging 41.8kph and 200W (NP 226).

A 12km run in the evening and a 130km hard ride to Ditchling with Damien rounded off a nice big 15h week of training with 63km of running, 264 km of cycling and a pathetic 2km swim.

Last week was a huge week of training – 21.5 hours with 90km running 283km cycling and 8.1 swim. Most of my running is steady state and my aerobic pace has steadily been improving and I’m almost where I was last year. 90km is pretty big for me and it left me pretty tired – I did my long run of 26km on Thursday and my legs were completely shot when I got back. Saturday was a long bike and I managed about 90M in the rain on the TT bike, averaging 186W and 20Mph. Sunday was a nice social MTB ride and as a prize for my 3 weeks of suffering I’ve managed to beat Damien up the BoxHill climb, having been beaten by him to the line on the previous two occasions on the road bike. I’ve not been up BoxHill on the road bike for a while, but I reckon I should be well under 7 min for the climb now.

Next weekend sees the 100M time trial for me which I’m not really looking forward to, but I’m just going to take it steady and use it as training for the Ironman bike leg.

Pain and suffering!

2008-04-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while since my last post, so here is a brief overview of what I’ve been up to lately.

After flying back to London from Bangkok we were greeted with some cold weather and it was a bit of a shock to the system to have to adjust from 36C to 4C in a space of hours. Nevertheless I picked up my number for the London Marathon on Friday and was ready to go on Sunday morning. The plan was to run to half way only, but try to keep a decent pace. I didn’t like the idea of a DNF next to my name, but unfortunately there was no way I was going to be able to go the whole way so I had an option of either watching the race or getting a good training run done by going half way, so I opted for the latter. We got to the start without major disasters and after my usual warm up I lined up on the green start behind the celebrities. As the gun went off I wound myself in the lead having passed the aforementioned celebrities and running comfortably at 6mi/mile pace. Sadly shortly after I got to the 5 mile mark in just under 30 minutes the wheel came off. Eventually I got half way point in about 1:22 and as planned called it a day.

The good thing was that having only completed 21km I didn’t need an extended recovery and I was able to hit the next two weeks pretty hard as far as training is concerned.
The first week ended up being 18.5 hours training with 45km run, 335 bike and 5km swim and I suffered every minute of it. I suffered in the hands of my training partners in the pool and on the bike. It’s funny how the mind works – even though I knew I’ve done little training in the last 6 months subconsciously somehow while training I preserved an image of myself from 6 months ago, from when I was probably the fittest in the whole of last year. It’s disappointing when the mind says “yes”, but the body says “no”. Fortunately my recovery seems to be good at the moment, perhaps as a direct result not being as lean as I was before.

The second week ended up being 16 hours of training consisting of 55km running, 271 km cycling and 4km swim. Still a pretty good week, but it left me quite tired as I was back at work full time. Things started to look a bit better on Saturday when I did the “7 hills ride” (85km) with Nick and then followed with a good run of 12km in the eve – on the run it was probably the best I felt for a long time. Unfortunately on Sunday when I went out on the bike I felt very flat (the rain didn’t help) and quickly abandoned the idea of doing a solo TT and just rode steady for 70 km.
As for the numbers (for the data orientated) my FTP (functional threshold power) on the bike is 25W down from 270 last year to 245 now and these numbers fit in with the times up the BoxHill climb (6:45 last year, 7:30 just after returning to London, 7:10 last week). It looks like I have a bit of work to do on the bike if I want to even complete IM Austria, let alone race! I’ll explain next week the test I do to test my bike FTP and typical bike sessions, but now I’ve gotta go and run and it's getting late! See ya…

100 days to go...

2008-04-08T18:29:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was exactly 100 days to go to Ironman Austria. It’s not a lot of time to prepare coming from the state of being fairly unfit, but it might just be possible. I will have a little reality check and a small taste of things to come on the 15th June as I kick off the triathlon season with the 70.3 half ironman Wimbleball.
I’ve looked at my training diary and since the beginning of our trip I’ve run just over 1000km and swam about 40. I suppose it’s not too bad considering that it was supposed to be a training break and we’ve been traveling constantly. The good thing is that my weight is fairly stable now, after gaining some and then loosing it I’m back to 71kg as of yesterday. We will see what kind of shape I’m in once I return to the UK. It’s difficult to gauge fitness by heart rate here in the 35C temperature due to heat stress and I’ve not really done any measured training or racing.
In the last few days we’ve been staying in Bangkok and I’ve been using the gym facilities at the hotel with a nice hill session on the stationery trainer. On Saturday some of my teammates from Trisportnews were riding the Ronde de Flanders sportive in Belguim. 260km over cobbles in wind rain and snow! Hat’s off to everyone who finished or even attempted it. Must have been a hell of a tough day – I wish I was there, although I do prefer the sunshine. LOL. To join them in misery I did an extra long hill session on the trainer in the gym, imagining I was going up the Muur…
Just a short update – have to go to the gym and then a long flight back to the UK awaits.

Back to the swing of things…

2008-03-29T02:07:00.000-07:00

For the last three weeks I’ve been slowly getting back into some training, taking care not to aggravate the tendonitis. I’m up to 50km a week running now, which for me is not great, but at least reasonable. When we were in Vientiene, in Laos, I found a great local running track so I was able to do a good running session and measure my progress. The session was one of my favorites: 2x4km at threshold measured with 3 min break and a good warm up and cool down. I managed to run 15:31 and 15:34 in 36C heat, which I was happy with. This session is my benchmark session and at my best I was able to do these in under 13:30, so I’m a long way off that, but that was when I was running 32 min 10k.
For the last few days we’ve been staying on the lovely Phi Phi Island in Thailand and I’ve run 6-10k every morning, swam every day and we have a yoga class every day in the evening. Yoga is great for flexibility and core strength, which helps both with a low aero position on the bike and running off the bike. Today’s running session was 5x800 reps at 3min pace on the beach – hard work in lovely surroundings. Soon we’ll be back in the UK and there is just over 100 days to Ironman Austria.

It's March already!

2008-03-07T08:09:00.000-08:00

The picture this time is me trying to learn surfing at the Kuta Beach in Bali. I certainly didn’t break any surfing records, but I’m convinced trying to balance on the surfboard improves bike handling skills :)

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The tendonitis is finally getting better and in the last few days I was able to start running again. I want to take things slowly this time – the last thing I want is to start doing too much and have to rest it again, so I’ve been trying to run 6k each day and so far so good. Other than that a couple of gym sessions on a stationary trainer, some weights and some swimming in Bali have kept me going in the last couple of weeks.

Busselton

2008-02-17T19:43:00.000-08:00

The tendonitis is not getting any better so I decided to take it easy for a couple of weeks to see if things improve. I run about 50 km in the last 10 days, mostly just easy or steady running. My steady pace is just below 4:20/km which is actually quite good so I hope the tendonitis will bet better soon and I can get some longer runs in and start some faster running again.

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While we were in Western Australia I couldn’t miss the opportunity to check the Ironman WA course in Busselton. Busselton is a pleasant little town on the West coast of Australia and it really embraces the Ironman event. It’s small enough that I imagine the athletes take over the town during the race week, which creates a great atmosphere.
The race course itself looks pretty simple. The swim is a one lap around the 2km long jetty, starting from the beach to the left of the jetty and finishing on the right. Sounds like a nice sea swim is the sea is calm. In choppy conditions it probably can be quite a tough swim. The bike course consists of 3 out and back laps and it’s completely flat. The only difficulty could be the wind on a bad day as there are long exposed sections of the road along the beach. The run is also 3 out and back laps along the seafront. It’s a flat course and partially shaded, but can probably get very hot. Generally should be a reasonably fast course in the right conditions.

As I didn’t have a bike and there didn’t seem to be too many rental opportunities around I decided to check out the swim and the run courses only. As I was getting into the water one of the locals pointed out that I ought to be careful as it’s a stinger season. I didn’t make much of it and jumped in. Needless to say the swim had to be cut short as I got stung pretty badly within the first 400m and another two times on the way back. Dammit, these jellyfish can really hurt you!

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I didn’t realise how much I miss cycling until I read and emails from Karl and Nick. I guess that’s a good thing, though. I will have so much more motivation when I get back! I’m really looking forward to getting some miles in on the bike when I get back. Sorry Karl - no chance of beating me up BoxHill when I get back!

Training ... or the lack of it...

2008-02-06T19:31:00.000-08:00

The picture this week is me looking a bit porky, coming out of an open water swim at the Semaphore Beach in Adelaide. Yes, I guess I did overeat a bit in Adelaide…
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Last week’s training was quite light: 45km running and 3.2 swimming, mostly open water. My tendonitis was getting a bit worse so I had to give the legs a bit of rest and we started traveling again. I had a good run on Tuesday, though, with a main set of 3x2.5km at 3:50/km pace.

Tour Down Under

2008-01-28T03:58:00.000-08:00

Last week was a fairly big training week as we were stationary in Adelaide. I did 86 km of running with 2 long runs of 20 km each at 4:30/km pace and a 10x1 min speed session. I’m really enjoying my running now, especially not following any kind of schedule and just running for as long as fast as I feel like. As we are staying near the see front I’ve also been swimming quite consistently in the sea with a total of 8km last week and a nice speed session in a local pool.

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Sunday was the last day of the Tour Down Under. There’s been some good action at the tour, but the big continental teams were controlling the race closely so none of the breakaways succeeded and all stages ended in a bunch sprint. The sprinter on fire at the moment seems to be the German Andre Greipel from the High Road team. He won 4 out of the 5 stages and brilliantly defended his 8 seconds lead to win the overall classification from the Aussie Alan Davis.

Team CSC were ripping things apart at the front on Sunday

The Adelaide circut provided some tight racing

The King of The Mountain classification winner - Philip Gilbert

4 - times stage winner and the overall winner - Andre Greipel on the podium with Indurain

Adelaide Classic Pro Cycling Race

2008-01-23T18:31:00.000-08:00

The picture this week is me on the Great Ocean Road – one of my favorite from this trip.

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The last two weeks of training have been quite good. 57km and 50km running respectively. The key sessions were 4x1km at 3:40 pace in Melbourne and 4x1 mile at 3:40 pace last Saturday in Adelaide. I’ve also had a couple of good swims in Melbourne with my buddy Brendon. It first I struggled to get into it, but after a while I was lapping at just sub-2min/100m LCM, which is not bad considering I’ve not really swam since October. In total 3.1km swimming one week and 4.9 the next week. Starting to feel the water again.

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Last Sunday I went down to watch the Adelaide Classic pro cycling race in Glenelg. The race is a warm-up for the Pro Tour Down Under race starting on Tuesday and all the big teams were there. The sprint was won by a German rider from the High Road Team (formerly known as T-Mobile, before the sponsor withdrew support after the drug admissions last year from some of the old riders). Here are some pictures from the race.

… and a picture of some nice Cervelo’s.

Second week of January 08

2008-01-18T22:00:00.000-08:00

Today I’ve looked at my training dairy for the last year. For the statisticians here are the sums: 1,944km running (average 37km per week), 6,579km cycling (127km per week), 204 km swimming (4km per week). The average week was just under 11hours of training (10h45min). They say the devil is in the detail, but sometimes the sums and averages can paint a pretty interesting picture too. It should not be a surprise that my running has been declining and my swimming has not improved in the last 2 years.
Have a look at your training diary (and if you haven’t got one, it definitely a good investment of a few minutes each day to keep one), maybe it’s trying to tell you something…

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This week has been pretty mellow in terms of training. I run every day except Tuesday when it was raining heavily in New Zealand. On Monday I had a nice open water swim at Lake Taupo, but only 20 minutes – it was sooo cold!

Year One

2008-01-12T15:51:00.000-08:00

First week of 2008 is gone and I’ve just come back from a morning run in Taupo along the Ironman course. Taupo is the location of Ironman New Zealand – an iconic race, alongside Hawaii and Ironman Canada, on the Ironman circuit. The bike course is generally quite flat, 2 lap course, with one steep climb coming out of town. It looks like it could be windy on a bad day. The swim is one lap in the clear waters of the Lake Taupo. The run course has some undulations but no ,major climbs and it’s basicall 2laps out and back along the lake shore. Looks like it could be a good course to race on.
Last weekend watched the Nez Zealand Long course championships at the Port of Tauranga Half Iroman. Great race, you can read my race report in the post below.

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Last week I promised to write about what year 1 of my 3-year plan includes. Here it is:
Year 1 is basically getting back to some structured training. October to March is running only and getting back to some kind of running fitness, which is what I was lacking for the last couple of years. The target is to be able to run a sub-35 min 10k, 1:15 half marathon and a sub 2:45 marathon, but most importantly just enjoy running. In April I have the London Marathon and the Tour de Flanders (260km bike ride in Belgium) with my team mates. May and June are going to be about getting some miles in on the bike. Mid June I will have a good test of fitness at the 70.3 UK half ironman. After that it’s getting ready for Ironman Austria in July which I will treat as a training race and then Ironman Canada at the end of August. Already looking forward to getting back to Ironman racing.

I’ve looked at my training diary and since October I’ve run just over 700km at an average pace of 4:40/km (that Garmin 305 GPS is invaluable). Not bad, I didn’t realise I’ve been running that well. Maybe it’s not that impressive, but It’s certainly more than I did during the same period in the last couple of seasons.

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Last week’s training was quite good. Total 65km running and one 2km swim. Running is going well and on Thursday I run some 800m reps (4x800m) on a grass track at Auckland. On Sunday I run 17.5km at a good pace. The rest of the running was quite mellow. While in Auckland I’ve managed to get in a swim at an open air pool. I felt like I haven’t swam in ages (which is true) and I thought I was going quite slow until Alex has told me that the pool was 60m long, not 50 like I thought. Maybe not that slow after all…

The Port of Tauranga Half Ironman race report

2008-01-12T15:12:00.000-08:00

The Port of Tauranga Half Ironman is New Zealand’s oldest and most prestigious Half Ironman each year attracting some of the world’s best long distance triathletes.
This year the event, once again hosting the New Zealand Long Distance National Championships, took place on Saturday 5th January 2008 and Trisportnews were there to report from the event.

Transition area

The day started overcast with ideal conditions for racing and the expected high winds on the bike course never really materialised. The 2km swim was a 2 lap rectangular course with a turning point on the beach before entering the water for the second lap.
The gun went off at 6:30 am and over 700 individual competitors started the swim with almost 200 relay athletes following 30 minutes later. Very quickly a group of 8 swimmers established, led by a Kiwi rising star Ironman Kieran Doe and containing most of the pre-race favourites, but missing most notably the 8-times winner Cameron Brown.
The group extended it’s lead on the pursuers and after a lightning fast transition first onto the bike was Stephen Sheldrake with Kieran Doe following closely behind. The second group lead by Cameron Brown was over 3 minutes behind.

Kieran Doe starting the bike leg

The bike course was fairly flat with one long 56km lap and two shorter 17km laps around the Port of Tauranga. Kieran Doe rode very aggressively, using the “praying mantis” position pioneered by Floyd Landis and subsequently banned by the UCI, but evidently still allowed in triathlons. Kieran’s impressive ride gave him a 4 minute lead over the next competitor into T2, Stephen Sheldrake and crucially over a 6 minute lead over Cameron Brown, who has moved through the field into 4th. In the women’s race New Zealand’s Joanna Lawn used her fearsome bike skills to move quickly into the lead and came into transition 2 minutes ahead of Australia’s Kate Bevilaqua.

Cameron Brown on the bike course

Kieran Doe first off the bike

Cameron Brown is one of the best runners in the sport and one of the most experienced and consistent long distance triathletes, but it was going to be a very difficult task to make up the 6 minute deficit in the half marathon that followed.
Onto the run course, which consisted of 2 undulating laps around Mt Maunganui, Cameron Brown was moving quickly through the field with Nathan Richmond also running strongly and Kate Bevilaqua also closing the gap to Joanna Lawn in the women’s race.
In the end Kieran’s lead was enough to give him his first victory in the Port of Tauranga Half Ironman in a fast time of 3:56:41. Cameron Brown finished second in just under 2 minutes behind and another Kiwi Nathan Richmond took the third spot on the podium a further 2 minutes back in 4:00:04.

The winner - Kieran Doe

Cameron Brown finishing second

The first three men - Kieran Doe, Cameron Brown & Nathan Richmond

In the women’s race Kate Bevilaqua eventually passed Joanna Lawn with just under 2km to go and won the race. Joanna finished second just 10 second back, but in the process won the New Zealand Long Distance Championship title to her consolation. Third place went to New Zealand’s Gina Fergusson.

Ladies winners - Kate Bevilaqua & Joanna Lawn

Overall the race was a great success and the organisers have done a good job of putting on a well organised event. Mt Maunganui is a great location for such the race with plenty of good accommodation options varying from a nearby campsite through to rental apartments and some great restaurants within the walking distance from the transition. The course seems fairly tough despite the flat bike course and the only drawback was a relative low number of spectators for such a famous event.

The 3 year plan

2008-01-04T17:58:00.001-08:00

The picture this week is me cycling on a rented mountain bike in the park in Mendoza, Argentina.
As it’s the beginning of the new year, a time of big plans and resolutions this weeks update is about The Plan.

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My other half – Alex always laughs at me that I always like to have a plan. Yes, admittedly, I do like to have a plan. No matter how unrealistic or badly designed the plan is, I need to have a plan – I’m lost without one.
So this is the beginning of the 3 year plan and the goal is … Ironman Hawaii World Championships 2010 and the plan started in October 2007.
I went to Kona in 2005, having qualified at Ironman Germany earlier in the same year. It was an incredible experience and no other race even compares to Kona. Each year over 2000 of the best age group and professional triathletes descend to this small tropical village to follow the footsteps of the legends of the sport: Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Paula Newby-Frazer, Natasha Badman to battle the ocean waves, the fearsome winds and to suffer running a tropical marathon. C’mon – just ask any triathlete in the world about it and he’ll e able to spell out the names of places that he may have never been to, like Alii Drive, The Lava Fields or the Natural Energy Lab, all the legendary places synonymous with the Kona Ironman.
When I went to Kona in 2005 I was in a great shape, having raced well all season, with a good PB of 9:32 and I thought I was ready for it. Nothing further from the truth! I had one of the worst races ever, having to walk most of the marathon and finishing in 10:40, well of the pace of the top of my age group. I was very proud just to be there and having finished. In the same race my good friend Nick Kinsey had a great race and finished 5th in his age group in 9:30. Having seen him on the podium at the closing ceremony has ever since been an inspiration for me. I came close at the 2006 70.3 World Championships finishing 8th in my age group, but not close enough. Besides, doing well in Florida is not the same as doing well in Kona.
It’s always dangerous to state your goals publicly, because the disappointment of not achieving the gold will be greater this way, but I’m going to say it anyway: my goal is a podium place in Kona in 2010. I don’t know how realistic this is and weather I will be able to even get close to it, but certainly I’m going to enjoy the journey and I’ll be happy just qualifying and finishing the race. I might be the first Trisportnews athlete to compete in Kona…
Next week I’ll reveal what Year 1 has in store for me.

Another season has gone ...

2007-12-27T14:42:00.000-08:00

Hi and Welcome to the start of my training blog. Over the coming months I will be sharing here the training I’m doing in preparation for racing Ironman distance triathlons.
I will also be sharing some ideas and my experiences on training, overtraining and what it takes to be competitive in this difficult sport.

First of all a little bit of background: I’m 37 years old and have been racing triathlons for about 5 years. Since I was young I’ve always been active and competed, mostly in running races. At my best I was a 2:30 marathon runner, 1:10 half marathon and 32 min 10k, but I’ve never really been able to step up to a national level. I have a full time job, but have always been surrounded by some supportive people, especially my girlfriend Alex, and now I’m fortunate to be a part of the successful Trisportnews Racing team.

Today it’s Boxing Day and Alex and I are traveling in South America, so it’s probably a good time to reflect on the last season before looking forward to the next one.
Last season was a bit of a transition season for me, but I’ve had some good results early and I’m happy with the way it went. The previous 3 years of Ironman racing have left me quite tired, so the aim was to take a break from the long distance, have fun in some shorter races and try to do some of the things I don’t get a chance to do during an Ironman season, like bike racing.
I started doing some bike races in December with an aim of getting comfortable racing in a bunch and hopefully getting some BCF points. After 4 races at Hillingdon and finishing 3rd from a breakaway I accumulated enough points for a 3rd cat license, which was much sooner than I expected.
In March I went to Lanzarote with my friend Nick and Jim for a week of training and we had a great time. It was nice not to do my usual high mileage and focus on some shorter sessions and have fun.
In April my teammate Chris and I did the Ronde de Flanders cyclosportive in Belgium and it was a ball. Basically over 5,000 amateur cyclists doing the 260km route (well, 270km for me as naturally I went of the course J) of the professional classic race spiked with short “bergs” and cobbled sections.
Two weeks later I run the London Marathon in a relatively slow time of 2:53, still tired after Flanders, I guess.
After April my focus shifted to time trialling and I achieved both of my goals of sub 60 min 25M TT and a sub 2 hours 50M TT within a space of 3 weeks.
Then came the disappointments of the Wibmleball 70.3 half ironman distance race and the week after the European Long Course Championships in Brasshat, in Belgium.
In Wibmbleball I had a good swim for me and was feeling OK on the hilly bike course until I tried shifting down on one of the steep hills and my chain snapped – finding someone with a toolkit and fixing it took ages and the race was over at that point so I just cruised for the rest of the day enjoying the scenery.
The week after, armed with a new chain (I should have changed it months ago, but I guess I’m just a cheapskate) I went to Belgium with my teammate Chris to race for the British team in the European Championships. It was a frustrating day, as I’ve had a great race, executed very well and couldn’t have done anything differently, yet finished well of the pace in 21st place in my age group. Having finished 7th the previous year I was hoping for a podium spot but it wasn’t to be. As usual I came out of the water with some time to make up, but due to the nature of the narrow and flat course, and the format of the race (this year despite protests from many of the top athletes the distance was shortened to 2xOl: 4/80/20) I was not able to catch big packs of riders that were clearly drafting in front of me. No excuses, though – my swimming has let me down again.
After the European Championships I did some team time trials and a couple of road races with no significant results.
The season finished on a high note with my best ever time in the London Triathlon of 2:07 (with a sub-60min bike split) and a 3rd place overall and an age group win at the South Coast Triathlon in Seaford, which was a great season ending race for Trisportnews with my teammates sweeping many of the prizes in the sprint races.
As I said the previous 3 seasons of Ironman racing have left me quite tired so before building back up to high mileage training I’m taking an extended break to recharge my batteries and get my body ready for another 3 years of training.

All the best for the 2008 season.

Mike.