Off-season

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mike.

BHF London to Brighton Off Road

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

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

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

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

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

Ironman Canada

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

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

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

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

Recovery and the London Triathlon

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

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

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

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.