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.

Pain and suffering!

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...

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…

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!

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.