Oliver Milk

Racer's psychology?

2012-01-05T17:40:00.003Z

Earlier this week I found myself on the treadmill - it's a punishment I put myself through seemingly once every six months as a reminder that running outside is actually quite fun. That and the fact that it was blowing a gale outside and my current run form makes it feel like a constant headwind anyway....

What struck me about this run was the way that for 45 of my intended 60 minutes it was a slog. Going out of the comfort zone takes some adaption and after many months of road running it seemed a little bit alien and a little bit tough on the treadmill. However, when it got to the last 15 minutes and everything was already getting a blurry and increasingly difficult it suddenly became fun to ramp up the speed every 60 seconds, first by 0.1, then by 0.2 and 0.3kph. So what had been tough at minute 45 turned out to just be a jumping off point to a whole lot more speed and discomfort.

This tends to be the way my head works, and I think it's a vital piece of the puzzle to try and get to the top of a tough sport. The ability to actually be able to ignore those sensations telling you you're hurting and you can't go on, and enjoy giving it absolutely everything even when you feel there's nothing more to give. It's easier to push yourself into this place when you're with a group - running on the track etc, but killing it for a solo treadmill session gives a certain sort of satisfaction....

Checking In

2011-12-31T16:25:00.002Z

31st December, and my first blog post in 6 months - ouch. At least if I post an update today I'll feel like things are on their way before we hit 2012....

My last race of 2011 was way back in September in the New Forest - Bucklers Revenge Triathlon. In effect it was a Half Ironman but was a bit short at a 1.9k swim, 68k bike and an 18.4k offroad run. Again though, I had a solid race despite some really awful weather and came away with a solid win to finish the season on.

Anyway, I won't pretend that it's worth going back too much to the 2011 season, being a few months down the line now. I really can't complain with my results. I came into the year unsure of whether my body could handle the Half Ironman distance, but came out of it with wins across all distances (Sprint, Olympic, Half Ironman) - a British Age Group Standard Distance Championship, a Regional Sprint Champs win and plenty of pleasing performances.

.................................

So, 2012. Much of the same really. Year on year I aim improve myself and my performances based purely on refining of my training techniques. I'm self employed and the business tends to take up the bulk of my time. I've lost count of the number of times I've intended to get out for a session, then something goes wrong/a last minute shipment needs packing/a customer calls with a problem etc etc and *poof*, it's gone. I take the running of my business very personally - unfortunately, it's retail based and the last couple of years have been beyond tough. It's not always easy just to switch off and get out the door, especially when money's tight and stepping out the door could mean further loss of income. It's stress really, and very hard to combat.

I had a chance to look back over previous year's training logs.... Through 2011's pre and race season (Feb to September) I averaged 10.5 hours per week training (+ a little bit of gym work etc), roughly as a 5.5h bike, 3h run, 2h swim split. Year on year I've generally managed to add around an hour to this average - but this counts as seriously low mileage. 2012 will be much the same - this is as much time as I can commit, so I need to make sure I use that time to the best of my ability. In this blog I will try to report on this as best I can.

I will be competing in a couple of races this year as a Pro. I'll be racing them anyway, so why not be in with a shout of winning some money if I'm there! I'm doubtful of whether there'll be many Pro's training on much less than 18 hours, let alone a little over 10 - so I don't hold too many fantasies of podium topping Pro results. However, I know how the hours I can commit, and I'll take any scalps I can.

I haven't dared put the Garmin on yet, as I can then kid myself that I'm running a little bit faster and further than I actually am! However, I'm always late in getting pre season training under way due to solid work commitments through November and December so don't need to start fretting yet. I'm currently making sure my week's contain all the elements - solid sessions across all disciplines with the priority being consistency. I will continue to wring out the minimal hour training flannel for all it's worth and see what it can bring me in the coming year.

1/2 Ironman number 2

2011-07-27T20:24:00.003+01:00

Since Dambuster my race schedule has been relatively quiet - lucky really as there's been so many other things going on that the training has been a bit stretched to say the least. Work based stresses mean that tri has had to take a bit of a back seat and I've had to race partly on "training fumes" as it were.

Early on in July I did the Steelman Tri at Dorney Lake - I was training right the way through with decent sessions in the days leading up to it, and managed to pull out a halfway decent performance. Having a bit of a battle with Charlie Pennington throughout the race he blitzed me on the run, but that was to be expected as he's a top drawer runner. 1.57.56 overall was a good time - accurate bike and run distances but strongly suspect that the swim was long as I came in with a pack on a mid-21 and we'd all been expecting sub-20.

Fambridge Yacht Haven Middle Distance Tri - 24th July
1.9km / 91km / 18km
This race summed up what I was aiming for this season - nice low key races where I could just do my thing and enjoy it. This was the first running of the race so as I'd been in the area a couple of weeks beforehand I drove the bike course to make sure there were no unpleasant surprises.

Race morning started crazy early with a 4am alarm call for a 7am start. It was only my second middle distance so preparations and nutrition etc were still a little bit experimental. 2 bowls of porridge for brekky (not huge though....), a pre race banana, on the bike 100g of malt loaf, 1 bottle of energy drink (with added salt), 1 bottle of water (with added salt), then gels as required on the run. My issue/worry is always dehydration after previous bad experiences, so there's also some serious fluid intake pre and post race....

The swim was tidal in the harbour, and as I swam out across the waves I could not recall my last sea swim - 2 years maybe?? Good start. The swim was 2 laps - out into the waves against the tide through the moorings, then getting pushed all the way back. On the way out I found the feet of the leader and we pulled a decent distance on the rest of the field immediately - there was a lot of swell making breathing quite difficult, but it's the same for everyone. As soon as we turned for home on the 1st lap I took the lead and cruised through the rest on my own, coming out in 22.16 (swim later measured at 1.8km....)

The path in and out of transition were very stoney, so shoes went on in T1 and out I hobbled. The bike course was a 2 lapper, good road surfaces but fairly lumpy and quite exposed to the wind. I had my first attempts at peeing on the bike - great fun, next time must learn how to avoid getting it over drinks bottle etc.... My first lap was good and comfortable, but as usual I started getting chronic back issues on the second lap - this ended up with me having to sit up for a large percentage of my second lap, adding minutes onto my split. I caught a couple of backmarkers but saw no sign of anyone else. My biking hasn't been mindblowing this year so I was pleased to come into T2 in the lead.

What I hadn't accounted for was just how off-road the run was - a 4 lapper make up of about 60% fields/paths/seawall etc. I don't do a lot of off road work so this was a real shock for a whole variety of rarely used stability type muscles. The support through the village was great, and this was a real help as psychologically multi-lappers are pretty tough. After 2 laps I was told that I had 5 minutes in the bank on 2nd place - this was very welcome news and the foot came firmly off the gas for the last 2 laps!

Overall - 4.08.44 (1st)
Swim - 22.16 (1st)
Bike - 2.28.08 (4th)
Run - 1.16.37 (2nd)
No complaints really (well, lots actually - my body felt like death the day after, but apart from that...) - happy with the result. With less back problems I could have knocked chunks out of the bike time, and the compensations I had to make in position on the bike likely added a couple of minutes to the run as well.

Dambuster British Triathlon Champs, 18th June

2011-06-22T11:11:00.005+01:00

Pre-amble

Same old story - ages since an update, but let's not dwell on it...

Up to Lisbon 1/2 Ironman at the end of April my focus had been on longer distances and getting the miles in the bank. The intention was then to switch this from the middle of May so I could race well across all distances and get a little bit of speed back in the legs.

Much against my original intention of increasing my training volumes this year they've actually gone down due to time constraints - being self employed isn't everything it's cracked up to be. I don't think averaging 80 minutes a week in the pool is ideal for anyone! So 2011 once more is an experiment in how to try and maximise every minute spent training...

Build up races

Speedy Beaver National Sprint Championships, 29th May. What a waste of time this race was... I was looking for a good result here, but after a solid but thoroughly unpleasant swim (the murkiest water I've ever swum in) I got 10 metres out of T1 before realising that my front tyre was flat as the proverbial. A faulty valve and race over.

Fritton Lake Sprint Tri, Eastern Region Sprint Championships, 11th June. This was intended as a sharpener before Dambuster the following week, but I knew that the competition was pretty good and I would need to be on good form to take the win. As it was I ended up with 2nd fastest swim split, plus fastest transitions, bike and run to win it. The times were slightly slower than 2010, but I know that the run was 300 metres longer and am sure that the swim was longer than the previous year... We work so hard for every second, so every second lost needs to be justified!

The dampener on the result was 2 sprained ankles. Unfortunately my ankles seem to be getting weaker and weaker, so I need to spend more time on rehabilitation - 6 sprains in 6 months is not good. However, these weren't too bad so just 5-6 days off running this time.

The Race

Dambuster British Standard Distance Championships, 18th June. Although this race was intended to be my main focus of the year and I diligently tapered and cut my training down accordingly (always happy to do that...) I didn't go into the race with a huge amount of confidence. I know I'm strong across all disciplines but there's no real standout. There have been no leaps or bounds since 2010 so I would have to hopefully rely on a solid performance across the board.
The weather didn't look kind with plenty of rain around and a stiff breeze blowing. As it was though it couldn't have been better (well, it could...) with the rain stopping 90 minutes before the race and not starting again until the journey home.

Swim - 19.37. Well it didn't feel fast, but evidently it was! I knew there would be plenty of fast guys so opted to stay right out of trouble. As it was I found some feet to get towed behind and had a pretty trouble free swim. 10th out of the water I was reliably informed by my wife.

Bike - 1.05.39. This is the leg I'm least happy with, although I was only beaten by about 5 guys I'm not happy to have lost 3 1/2 minutes to Ben Howard the eventual winner. I was very uncomfortable on the descents - the crosswinds were playing havoc with my deep front section wheel and I spent the downhills sitting up, feathering the brakes and clenching my arse. I made it up to 4th but then got nervey on the descents and came into T2 in 6th.

Run - 34.00. The run is a little bit short at around 9.5k, but I'm happy with this split. I made it into 5th pretty quickly and just felt comfortable all the way round. I'd opted for a new (and minimal) nutrition strategy and it was absolutely fine - a gel at the start of the run left me confortable and strong through to the finish.

Overall - 2.00.58. Was aiming for 2.02 so very happy to go under.

It was quite a wait to find out the results, and I didn't know who may have finished ahead from the 30-34's, or who may have pipped me from later waves. As it was - no-one, and no-one. 5th overall and 30-34 British Champion. I'll take it.

Lisbon Half Ironman - 30/4/11

2011-05-02T22:46:00.003+01:00

My first attempt at a Half. I can't say I wasn't dubious going into it as I was imagining quite a few potential problems (nutrition/fluid intake/a distinct lack of 2011 mileage and many other things...) but although I knew what I'd like to achieve I was aiming to keep the race relatively low key and just get through. Based on my times in training I suspected the best I could possibly achieve would be a 4.10, but that would be a perfect race at max effort - which would not necessarily be the way I'd race on this day.

The race was almost over before it started - jumping into the water for the start I landed on a submerged rock and split my heel. A nice cut and a bit of bruising but I guess it was an extra incentive not to heel strike on the run?!

Swim - 26.31
Had no intention to push hard in the swim as I didn't want a overly eager swim to haunt my race later on - I've not been able to put too many hours in in the pool and am roughly where I was last year. This was my first o/w swim of the year and first in a wetsuit for nearly 8 months so it made it interesting... Had a strange swim, every time I got onto the feet of someone I seemed to lose concentration and got dropped straight away. Guess that's just a lack of open water practice for the year - felt good in my nice new Sailfish G Range wetsuit though and was out of the water in a good 10th place.

Bike - 2.23.58
I had rather a leisurely transition as I was convinced I was going to be sick! 20 seconds holding onto the railing sorted me out though. The bike was a closed circuit relatively flat one with a tough 1.5-2k climb at the far point of each (x4) lap, and 5 dead turns. Although the weather was turning, with rain and a pretty strong wind I'd figured the bike was the part of the race that I could do fairly well on. I pushed hard for the first lap and got up to 6th, then it dawned on me that I was only 1 hour into a 4hr+ race so had better ease off a bit (looking back at my splits, if I'd have carried on at my first lap pace it would have been a 2h15-2h16 bike leg).
A couple of people went past on the 2nd lap and I just let them go, easing off and making sure I was right on the money with my nutrition (125ml of GO and 30g of malt loaf per lap). By the middle of the 3rd lap I was getting real back problems - this is something I suffer with on the bike, and with my longest ever previous ride on the TT bike being 42 miles I was pretty well expecting it. I had to keep sitting up for the last lap and a half and lost a few more positions.

Run - 1.21.46
Despite a solid half marathon a couple of weeks before this was where I had my real worries. I often suffer from stomach problems on my normal runs, so was worried at what could go wrong on this leg - nutrition/dehydration (a big problem of mine)/cramping etc. Again it was a 4 lap run which I started in 13th place. As I'd gone into the race with no real expectations I decided to run within myself and make sure (as much as I could) that I got through relaxed and problem free - rather than push early to knock another minutes off and find that I didn't have as much as I thought in the legs.
Immediately from the first lap I felt pretty good - the back problems were not causing me any issues on the run. I had socks on and my comfortable (not racing flats) Mizuno's with lashings of vaseline to try and ensure a lack of blistering - and all was pretty well in half mara world. My splits ended up very pleasing for the run - 20.12/20.31/20.26/20.29. Very little deviation and very little drop off.

On getting over the line my body just seized up - so much discomfort from so many areas! Strangely I've never actually had a massage before, so the shock of having a massage by 4 people at once in the recovery area left me pulling some fantastic faces! But left me able to (just) walk which I don't think I'd have been able to otherwise.

Overall
I'm happy with the result. I didn't suffer in the ways I thought I would, and if this was my 2nd/3rd/4th race at this distance I would have felt more comfortable to push a lot more - I think 4.10-4.12 would have been very achievable. I may not feel this good every time but it was a nice start. It's renewed a bit of my enthusiasm for racing too which I was really looking for - it felt like much more of a test against myself than a sprint or standard distance. If something goes wrong in a middle distance race, like a slow transition, or a missed turn on the bike there's plenty of chance to put that right. Whereas in the shorter events your race can be ruined by things that are completely out of your control.

A couple of days complete rest now followed by a couple of easy ones then I need to get myself tuned up for some shorter distance racing...

Race season under way

2011-04-17T11:48:00.002+01:00

As usual - crazy time between updates. Last time out my training was just getting under way, now in a mere blink of an eye my races are under way and I'm within 2 weeks of my first Half Ironman in Lisbon.

Training has been pretty consistent over the last 8 weeks. I've had a few work commitments which have knocked training on the head pretty well, but I've managed to plan around them to minimise the impact.

As with last year I scheduled a training week in the Pyrenees which I came back from a week ago. It seems to fast track my cycle training a bit, and the week this time around was fantastic. It wasn't an organised camp, but a focussed cycling week with a couple of triathlete buds. Although it was a little early in the year to get up the big climbs we had fantastic weather, and I find that benefit of doing 40 minute climbs is pretty great anyway... 400 biking miles in the legs for the week was very pleasing.

Bungay Half Marathon - 10/4/11

We arrived home late on the Saturday night and I'd scheduled my first half marathon for the Sunday - obviously I need to be able to run on tired legs.... The other two guys were struck down with some sort of stomach bug which I miraculously managed to avoid.

I went into the race dubious not because of the preceeding week but just because of the distance and unchartered territory of it. I'd run the distance a few times in training, but generally at 1.30 pace - in an ideal world I'd be looking to get under 1.20, but I knew that wouldn't be at this race.

I finished in 7th place, 1.23.30ish. Pleased as this certainly isn't the fastest course. Distance-wise it felt comfortable, the big preceeding week just meant that there was no kick in my legs - maybe missing the top 5% of what my legs should give me. Faded a little in the last couple of miles, but my pace over the course of it was between 6.09 and 6.28 per mile - not a lot of variance there.

VC Norwich 25 mile TT - 17/4/11

I do this race every year and have pretty consistently knocked a minute off my time every year. Felt really nervous going in this time though. To be honest the results of this Time Trial kind of define which way my season is heading. I've not done any real speed work up to this point so the thought of holding 26mph+ for an hour seemed like a tall order.

Woke up to a perfectly still 'float' day which should bring some pretty good times. Can't say I felt good in any way - really nailed the first 8 miles and suffered through the rest with some real discomfort in the hip flexors and core.

Finishing time 55.20ish. Very pleased to have knocked another 90 seconds off my PB from the same race last year. Again the splits were pretty consistent throughout (the 4th one has a big long uphill drag back form the turnaround point) - broken down into 5 mile splits my times were:
11.11
10.46
10.56
11.34
10.59

Next 2 weeks

It's a little bit scary to think that Lisbon is only 2 weeks away. My training plan has had to be adjusted a bit as I didn't start any sort of consistent training until late-January. Consequently I've not been able to touch any speed work yet. Have just had an easy week after the Pyrenees - the intention this coming week is to dial up the intensity, a crash week. The aim for this is to shock the body into a mini peak which will hopefully arrive on the morning of 30th April...!

Steadily picking up

2011-02-26T22:28:00.002Z

My 2011 season's training is now into a fairly full swing, and looking at the days flying by on the calendar it needs to be.

It was a rest week a couple of weeks ago, planned in on the basis that I was away for 6 days and training was going to be tricky. Unfortunately on the following Tuesday my wife got ill with cold and throat infection - I held out for a couple of days but by Thursday afternoon I'd caught it, and it really knocked me out. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were completely written off but the sofa was very very comfortable....

Unfortunately the illness meant I wasn't able to get to HPU for my pre-season lab testing. It was a bit disappointing to not make it - the intention being to get a pre-race season baseline for my fitness and give me some good V02 max figures etc to work off for the next few weeks. I'll hope to get along there soon as it's nice to have figures to work from - not just to be working off heart rate and 'how it feels'.

I'm now only two months away from my first race of the season. I'm a little bit behind where I was last year in all disciplines, but I hadn't actually been doing any more than 4 hours per week for 8 weeks up until 21st January, so have only now got 4 solid weeks behind me. I've been putting the long runs in and managing to hit some 6 minute miles on the way back, and on my interval sessions have been hitting sub 3.30 per km. That's where I was at this time last year in terms of speed, but with the added bonus of 12 miles average for the long runs instead of 8.

Swim and bike are a little bit off, but that's to be expected. Those were the two that really suffered with my 8 week sabbatical so I know I need to put the work in. Will be looking to push the swim and bike for the next couple of weeks and see where that puts me by the middle of March.

It's been a while...

2011-01-30T09:56:00.002Z

Well I guess the reason for the first post in 4 months is that I'm getting back into training again (for the first time in 4 months!) Due to work and holiday commitments I've had roughly an 8 week gap in my schedule, so am starting from roughly zero. It's been a long layoff so 2011 is going to be an experiment in how vital a solid winter base really is...!

Going into this year I was looking to race a little bit more low key. With the Europeans and Worlds last year I put quite a bit of pressure on myself, so in 2011 am looking to mix up the distances a little and give the year some variety on all counts.

The year will be starting with Lisbon Half Ironman at the end of April. This will force me to train long for the 14 weeks beforehand and hopefully give me a good platform for the year. From there there'll be a variety of sprint, olympic and middle distance races - all UK based, alongside the usual smattering of run races and TT's.

Right now I've got a pretty solid 10 days under my belt and am not feeling too bad about things. The bike and run are off pace, but I know that with some consistency the speed will come.

A big positive is the swim, I had my first real session back last night and was faster than through all of 2010. With having an enforced period of no swim training I'd been trying to brainwash myself into making some stroke adjustments - hoping that time out of the water would help my body forget certain errors of it's ways and replace them with the new info I was telling it. It will need a couple of sessions to reinforce, but I'm feeling pretty positive that I've made a bit of a breakthrough (2 to 3 seconds per 100m is a decent breakthrough). I'm not going to be moving up to club swimming so know that I need to make my improvements through stroke efficiency and tweaks rather than volume and coaching.

World Championship Tri Bronze

2010-09-22T14:30:00.008+01:00

Waveney Triathlon 2 - 5th September, 1st

I'd entered this race purely as last minute sharpener for Budapest, coming as it did 6 days before the big race. I'd only raced it once before and was looking to try and get a course record. However, with no running under the belt for more than a week before due to a dodgy foot I wasn't really sure how it would play out.

The weather was spot on, lovely and sunny with very little wind. My race certainly wasn't the most balanced, but it got the job done - didn't get the course record, but was only 30 seconds off, and with my aero helmet and disc wheel on their way to Budapest I'm pretty sure it was within my grasp.

I ended up really going hard on the bike leg, and then not getting the legs turning over fast enough on the run. But it was a confidence builder for Budapest. The outcome with the foot is that it's OK in a straight line but hurts turning corners. Absolutely fine - Budapest is a point to point run so no corners...!

Budapest Sprint Tri World Championships - 11th September, 3rd

This race had been my focus since the start of August. Overall, my season seems to have spluttered and not got going as I'd hoped, but having this race big on my calendar helped me out in the preceeding 6 weeks.

We arrived late on the Wednesday, with the race on the Saturday. Our hotel wasn't near the team hotel or race centre - which was great for touring the city, but meant we got to take full advantage of the pretty fantastic Budapest public transport system to get registered/go to team briefings etc.

From Thursday lunchtime it rained constantly without let up which meant our hotel room become a giant laundry room of clothes and footwear that wouldn't get dry. The day before the race was the team briefing and it was announced that disc wheels would very likely be disallowed due to potential thunderstorms coming in. As soon as this was announced my stomach just dropped. I should have learned from them being banned at the Euros. On that occasion I had a spare wheel - on this occasion I had nothing.

After some frantic begging I managed to get a potential loan of a rear wheel. But I wasn't going to being able to get it until the Saturday. And wouldn't know whether I could use it, or whether it would run right (different gearing) until about 60 minutes before my race. Cue a sleepless night, and me pretty much resigning myself to: wind=no race for me. :(

Saturday morning - pouring with rain but no wind. Something to moan about but I could race!! I set up in the rain, wading through a waterlogged transition and before I knew it was waiting on the pontoon for the start....

Swim
The water was cold - very cold. I picked a place in the middle, started strongly and never really let up. I was hoping to find some fast feet to latch onto but ended up being the fastest feet! I put a couple of hard bursts in and broke the tow of the toe tappers behind me. It felt good to exit the water and come running into transition in first.

Bike
I came running out of T1 looking for the bike mount line - one point that would have been handy in the briefing was that there wouldn't be a mount line, just a woman with a red flag shouting "hop, hop...". The bike course was simple - 2 x 9.94km, and the road surfaces not as bad as rumour had been dictating. I led the 1st lap but as my poor cycling this year has dictated dropped back to 4th on the 2nd lap - albeit with 2nd and 3rd right in front of me.

Run
The moment of truth. I've heard athletes quoted so many times saying "4th is the worst place to finish" - coming out of transition in 4th I knew they were right. I would kick myself for ever more if I didn't gain a position. I went hard for the first km and was up behind 3rd place, a Brazillian guy. Decided to kick straight past - go as hard as I could for another km and see if I could break him straight away.... success.
It was the longest last 3km I've raced. The route was right against the river all the way before crossing over to the other side at the end. I'd walked it a couple of times and was just counting off the bridges as I ran - pretty constantly looking behind, scared that suddenly some whippet would come flying past. But no, the finishing chute appeared and I crossed the line in 3rd!

Despite the bike leg not being great, whatever had happened I would have had to run way beyond my current level to get into the top 2. The winner runs 15 minute 5k's, and that's beyond where I'm at unfortunately. I raced the best race I could on the day, and was very very happy to come out of it with a medal!

PB & Injury - highs and lows

2010-09-04T10:05:00.002+01:00

Well this could very easily be described as bad timing. I'd had a relatively solid 4 weeks of training after London tri, but unfortunately seem to have aggravated something in my ankle a little over a week ago which has put me completely out of running and in a bit of discomfort on the bike.

With Budapest coming up next week this really wasn't what I was after, but will just have to see how it takes me. I'm also due to be racing Waveney Tri tomorrow - this was intended to be a final sharpener for Buda, but I will now see how I feel when it gets to T2 as to whether I continue or not...

For the Sprint Worlds there's such a small gap between positions that everything has to be spot on. I think if I race like I did a couple of times at the start of the season I can be right up there - top 3. This has proved itself to be my distance, so I just want to do it justice and really nail the race.

Earlier in the month I did a 5k PB in 16.50. I'd run 16.58 during a 10k so knew I should be sub 17, but reassuringly I know there's more time to come. It just felt a bit rushed and my form felt a bit poor, but if it's another 3 years before I run a 5k like it was this time let's hope it's a bit more than a handful of seconds I knock off.

London Triathlon 8/8/10

2010-08-11T11:06:00.001+01:00

First let's bring things a little up to date:

European Championships - Athlone
Came out of this race disappointed. I can't say it felt like a bad race, and in reality it wasn't, but again I had such a poor bike leg that it put me completely out of contention.
Swim - 20.46, 9th
Bike - 58.26, 8th
Run - 38.39, 4th
Overall - 2.02.14, 6th in age
Whilst my split was one place higher in the bike than it was on the swim, I simply can't live with losing 3 minutes on rivals on the bike.

July training
Unfortunately after coming out of Athlone knowing I had work to do, July was always the month in the race calendar where my training was going to die a death. 7 days on holiday, 6 days away on business and another 4 without bike or water meant that I would be swimming against the tide just a little.

London Triathlon 8/8/10
I put this race into the year as I knew I couldn't race the Nationals the following week, and wanted to see where I was at after the rough July mentioned above. Last year I'd finished 7th overall in 1.58 after having a pretty good race.
Swim - 21.26
I was determined to find some fast feet. Unfortunately I picked the wrong feet and thought I'd missed the boat - saw a couple of guys further ahead but despite a big surge for 150 metres or so I couldn't make up the gap. Disappointed. Ended up swimming pretty comfortably in a large pack with what I thought was 4 guys up ahead somewhere. It felt a bit tougher than it should have because of the surges at the start, but the splits afterwards showed I was in the lead pack.

Bike - 1.00.14
After a mammoth transition I was out onto the bike. Once more it didn't feel slow, but in reality it was slow. I cycled the whole thing with Mark Yeoman behind (in a non drafting manner though). We passed maybe 5 guys and got told there were only 2 more in front - pleasing.
Unfortunately coming into T2 the cones were out in a silly manner and I ended up taking the wrong way - had to skid to a halt, climb off the bike, down a wall and remount while going uphill. Many many seconds lost. See pic.

Run - 40.43
I didn't enjoy the run at all. It felt tough because I'd put a lot into the bike, but with it being reduced from a 2 lap to a 4 lap the congestion was a nightmare - the course was very tight and there were times when there was simply no way past groups of runners and you'd need to wait until they were through certain sections. There'd been 4 bikes in transition when I came in so I knew I was actually 5th. Ended up being overtaken by 1 guy but coming past 2 more, so ended up in 4th.
Overall - 2.07.22
Was supremely disappointed with the time, but subsequently found that everyone was around 7-8 mins down on previous due to the run being much longer, and much more congested. The only leg I really lost out on compared to last year was the bike.

I've got a couple of little races coming through August/start of September, but it's all about Budapest. At the start of the year I had big hopes for this race - I still don't feel I'm too far off but need to have a quality month in the bank...

Pre-European Championships

2010-07-01T13:21:00.002+01:00

Where does the time go? I'm sitting with all my gear packed up around me ready to head off to the European Championships in Athlone, Ireland......

It's only been a month since I raced at Fritton but it's not been an easy one to get the balance of training/competition right. After racing triathlon for 5 years it's amazing how the body can continue to confound and surprise - not always in a positive way!

After Fritton I was away for a week so training was zero. This was always planned (although not ideal), but the following week I attempted to make up for this shortfall in time and rather overdid it. I raced two 25 mile time trials over a weekend in the middle of June, and put in the worst two performances I think I've ever done. It didn't take a huge leap to realise that I'd overtrained, but it surprised me that I could hurt my body so much in only 5 days of training (albeit very intense training + a day of food poisoning.....)

Since that week I've had to drop the training and intensity quite a bit, and just take it a lot more on feel. This meant a DNS at Dambuster Triathlon unfortunately as I didn't think that racing it would do me any favours. However, I did a 10 mile Open Time Trial on my local dual carriageway course and wasn't a million miles (30 seconds) off a PB in 21.57.

.....So that leaves me sitting here with all my gear around me. I'll see what the race holds - I certainly would say I'm where I planned to be by this point at the start of the season, but we can never quite plan for everything. July is going to be very tough to fit in any meaningful training at all, so I'll give the race my all and see where it gets me.

Fritton Olympic Tri 30th May - 1st

2010-06-10T20:27:00.005+01:00

Well that's the first full distance race of the year all done. Going into the race I knew that all the pieces of the triathlon pie were roughly in place, even if they were unlikely to be anything spectacular.

The weather was a little unpleasant beforehand but the rain eased off from around 7am and left damp but drying roads. The course is an always fast swim, plus 2 laps of a roughly undulating/slightly short bike course and a cross country run. I didn't think a target of 1.57 was unrealistic...

The swim was pretty uneventful - I was off in the 3rd wave and felt pretty comfortable throughout. Practiced a little bit of drafting in the water which felt pretty good, but when we started passing peeps from previous waves I went back to swimming on my own. Out of the lake in 2nd place in 20.12 (always quick swims here though).

T1 was fairly speedy, then out onto the bike course which I know pretty well...unfortunately I had to stop twice during the hour as my rear wheel pulled over onto the brake pad on acceleration and made it instantly unrideable. I haven't checked how long these actual stops took, but certainly not less than 30 seconds each, and it felt like the brake was rubbing through other parts of the ride. 2nd fastest bike split.

Coming into T2 I still figured I should be on for the win, even if a decent time had gone out of the window. It's a cross country run which had been changed the night before to a 2 x 5k route as parts had been deemed unsafe - I was pleased with this as people had got lost on previous years (myself included). It's a tough little run with some steep undulations, but the footing was pretty good and I enjoyed it. 36.31 for a supposedly 9.7km off road course was pretty fair.

Finishing time was 2.00.04 - 1st place. Target was pretty much achieved I think bearing in mind the problems. A few points to work for Dambuster and beyond, but everything's ticking over...

Since the race my training has been erratic. I had a week off following the race due to being away on business on the other side of the country (long hours with no chance of wheels or water) - this was followed by a bout of food poisoning that's taken a little bit of the wind out of the sails. But I've done my best to eat back any weight that I inadvertantly shed...!!.. and am looking forward to my next race - Dambuster tri on 19th June.

Newmarket Sprint Tri 1st

2010-05-28T12:24:00.002+01:00

Well it's been a difficult couple of weeks with a close death in the family defining things a little and throwing things up in the air as life has a habit of doing.

Training

This has been fairly consistent. I've been fighting off a few niggles but am now fully aware that this is standard practice. I've never had massage or seen physio or anything else so should expect nothing else!! My only tool to fight off the niggles is stretching, so let's hope it continues to keep things at bay...

I've had to split my training into blocks for the year. With the nature of the business I run it means I'm going to have some periods when I'm simply not going to be able to train - June and July are the most difficult months (November and December I can do basically nothing, but they don't count as the season's done and dusted then....) and so I've had to make some allowances. Fritton Tri on 30th May will herald the end of my first major 16 week training period, so I'm following it with a very light, almost non existant training week - enforced by the fact that I'm in Bath for the week working very long hours with no access to bike or pool....

Newmarket Sprint Tri - 16th May

I'm pleased to say that I came out of this with the overall win, but it was bloody close! My main competition was always going to be Jack Peasgood, winner of Waveney Tri the week before and the guy going 30 seconds after me - so to actually get out of sight was always going to be tough.

The distance was 400m/20k/4k. The swim was neither here nor there - I didn't put a lot into it as it was never going to define the race. The bike started with me missing the first roundabout - great start, 20 seconds lost. I then lost another 20 at the first foot down stop with the car in front of me not pulling out - boo. The bike course itself was a dragstrip really - very fast. I decided that the best course of action was to go all out, try and break the string to Jack and demoralise the poor chap! I pretty much managed to do that until I came to the second foot down stop - the car in front of me just wouldn't pull out. Consequently I had a frantic talk with the marshalls while waiting to go to make sure they wouldn't disqualify me if I went round the car - they said fine, so I went, 40 seconds lost. Unfortunately in my eagerness to get away I accelerated so hard that my badly fitted (by me, the day before) tub on the rear slipped and created a lump - I was convinced I had a puncture so limped the last 1/2 a mile back to T2 losing the remaining gap I'd built up, and coming into transition 10 seconds up still :(

In a nutshell, I gave everything on the run - I knew I had to pull another 20 seconds or I wouldn't win. Finished absolutely spent with the fastest run split - I think it was a pretty accurate 4k, so to run 3.32 per km on and off road with a steep hill in the there was very pleasing.

Am glad to have had this race before I do the bigger distances and more important races, but I really should have flushed out a few of the bike problems by now??!

New kit

Within the last couple of weeks I've received some lovely new kit from my sponsors Human Performance Unit and Sailfish. Everything fits perfectly and looks fantastic, and just gives that bit of renewed vigour knowing you've got the support behind you. Sailfish have given me one of their top of the range G Range wetsuits (+ tri suit and other bits) which is the same as I had last year but with so more in the way of funky logos. I got a chance to try it last week and it feels fast fast fast....

Fritton Lake Olympic Triathlon

Well this is the next race on Sunday, and my first full distance for the year. There are a few worries going into it, but I've done all I can to arrive here in good shape. I just need to remember to calm the speed down having done 3 sprints so far this year I need to remember it's a tri, but it's twice the distance so I need to conserve some energy... The biggest worry for me is course markings for the run - getting lost has up to now been a common problem at this event, and I'm hoping it's not one that afflicts me. If all goes to plan then I know it's possible to get well inside 2 hours, but we shall see. To be continued...

Worlds Qualification + run PB's

2010-05-14T09:58:00.006+01:00

It's been a fairly decent couple of weeks for results and so forth. Training has been fairly consistent, but I was chatting to someone this morning about how much harder it is to add 10-15% to your training in terms of intensity. While I'm not putting in any more hours (a bit less in fact) than I was over winter I'm having to enforce a rest day each week just to give the body a chance. Up to now I've been coping with a day off every 10 days or so, but at the moment that just doesn't cut it - and I need to listen to the body now and ignore the training schedule when I feel I need to.

Touch wood I'm relatively free of injury. Unfortunately I've had a very worrying knee pain for the last couple of weeks (bike related), but hamstring troubles that have been loitering around for 6 weeks or so seem to be fading a little, I hope....

Grand East Anglian Run 10km - 2/5/10
This was my big hope for a run PB. This was the 4th year I've raced it I think, and the course is pretty fast. Target was 34.40 which would have been a 40 second PB. I was well on for it at halfway going through in under 17 minutes, but really faded in the second half coming in in 34.58. 21 second PB - is 2.1 seconds per km what I've been working for a year to achieve?? Yes it is I guess.
I should have been doing a 10m TT the following morning, but didn't fancy riding it in the gales that were blowing that morning, so stayed in bed.

Grendon Sprint Tri - 9/5/10
Big early season race. I've always done well in sprints and bearing the fact that I seem to go downhill from August onwards I fancied the thought of doing this race to qualify for the Budapest Worlds in September - giving me the chance to decrease the volume in August and still have a big goal at the end of it.
I needed top 4 in age and thought it was do-able. The worrying factor was the weather - I have terrible circulation and am really pretty awful with the cold. As it was, it was pretty windy and on the morning there was an air temperature of 7 degrees and a water temp of 12 degrees - ouch.
Anyway, I was first wave. Exited the water in about 6th with feet like blocks of ice. Goggles had leaked and I just had problems breathing throughout - think it was the cold + first wetsuit outing.
Bike was a course I should have excelled on - under my wetsuit I had my one piece + a two piece top, thermal long sleeve and arm warmers. I'd been so concious of my fingers leaving me that I wanted to try and keep some warmth. Through the 23k course I was fighting the urge to vom all the way but went past 4 people so figured I had to be near the front.

Coming into T2 I saw my wife waiting on the side of the road for me - when she realised it was me she started bouncing manically and screaming - evidently that meant I'd overtaken everyone and got to the front! The run was solid if unspectacular, but I extended my lead a fraction and came in 1st from the 30-39's.
A very disappointing time, but it seems that everyone was about 4 minutes down on last year due to the wind and cold. 7th overall and qualification done - big hopes for September now with some focussed sprint training later in the season....

Great Yarmouth 5 mile run 12/5/10
Just a little that I've not done for a while. PB stood at 28.30 and I figured I should be good for somewhere between 27.30 and 28.00. In the end I finished with 27.58. Faded again but not quite as dramatically as in previous races.

Next is Newmarket Triathlon on 16/5/10. Should be interesting against the Waveney winner and some other decent bods.

HPU Training Camp and start of race season

2010-04-28T13:09:00.003+01:00

Mr Regular Updates returns. April has definitely had some positives....

Good Friday Bungay 10k
As per my last update I was aiming for a sub 36.30. Certainly nothing spectacular but it's not a fast course and my previous best there was a low 37. So what did I get...? 36.29 by my watch and 36.30 officially! At least my predictions match my leg speed.
Timewise I was pleased, but the splits were a bit disappointing - whereas last year they were almost to the second on the way back (out and back course) this year I really dropped off. Points toward some longer runs required....

HPU Training Camp Girona
All in all what a bloody great week. Highlights are too numerous to mention but I had an excellect week. Total of 340 miles biking (including a 97 and a 102 - never done a century before) plus a few k of swimming and a little running.

The facilities were superb and the riding and the roads were really a lot better than I had hoped. I rediscovered my mountain legs and dragged my oversized carcass over the Pyrenees in pretty good style.
N.B. A climb up Rocacorba in 38.02 is a pretty good time, despite the fact that Dan Martin's record is 28.15 (and Will Clarke esq did it in 35....)!!

All in all a great week, great company and fantastic location. Huge thanks to Dave, Tom (for never quite letting me get away on the climbs) and Anna.

25 mile TT PB
Very pleasing result - on my local course. Had given myself a scare earlier in the week with a godawful performance at a local 10. Proved later in the week that it was hopefully a freak incident (possibly caused by 15 miles pretty hard running the day before....?) though with a PB of 35 seconds over the 25. 56.54. Not mind blowing, but good.

Wattisham Triathlon
First tri of the year - when will I stop getting a fluttery tummy before these things??!! Done this one for the last 2 years so it's a good chance to gauge current form. Last year I did 52.28, 20 seconds outside the winner who'd done a course record. This year the aims were:
- Win
- 51 minute course record
Pleasingly I did both, despite the fact that the course had had to be extended with a little windy section - 30 to 60 seconds extra possibly?
Finished in 51.20, so that's over a minute up on last year with the potential for more based on the course differences. I would say that the wind was certainly kinder than last year, but my 5k was 30 seconds up, so definite improvements there.

Cycling - baby steps, but 30 seconds up on last year for a 25
Running - not feeling fantastic, but the times are coming despite a lack of speed work
Swimming - eurgh

Upcoming races
Kings Lynn 10k - 2nd May, a target so scary I can't even bear to type it....
10 mile TT - 3rd May
Grendon Sprint Tri World Qualifier - 9th May
Newmarket Sprint Tri - 16th May
Fritton Oly Tri - 30th May

April fool

2010-04-01T14:35:00.002+01:00

And so we enter the month of April - that time of year when lazy weekends (as if) get replaced with competition and all that it encompasses.

March was the month when I can say that my training actually clicked into second gear and started to cruise a little. I'm pleased to say that I stayed illness free for this block, and just have the slight worry of a hamstring niggle which has been hanging around for the last month. I've chosen my usual tactic of attempting to ignore and hoping that it will go away - although I'm dreading the first time that tactic backfires properly...

This week has been a rest week. I break my training up throughout the year into 4-5 week blocks, building the intensity and reducing the volume through the block with the last week being a chance to recover a little and have some easy training with some time trials in all disciplines to check on my progress. I didn't employ this tactic for my first couple of years in competition, and ended up a complete mess by August each year. Building in the rest periods allows more recovery and the chance to come back stronger. However, I always find it strange that the easy week seems to leave me feeling the most tired and lethargic!?

I had my swim TT this morning - timing myself from a push for 400m, then after a little rest a 200m. Certainly didn't come out of it with times to set the world on fire, but have progressed since last time - and that, as they say, is the aim of the game. Tomorrow is my first real 10k of the season - I've done this race for the last 2 years (possibly even 3) so have a definitive marker on where I'm at at this time of the year. My best is around 37.20 here as it's a tough course (35.19 elsewhere) - I only ever like aiming for times in my head, but here goes - aim is sub 36.30. We shall see - hamstring and awful weather forecast will attempt to play their part I suspect.

Then on Saturday it's a week in Spain with the HPU guys. Hadn't really given it too much thought but now it's arrived and I'm really looking forward to it. With so much seemingly going on on a daily basis it will be great to have a week with just training on the mind and no distractions.

Mid-March already

2010-03-17T21:23:00.003Z

It's that time of year where I'm watching the calendar fly along at a hectic pace, but still can't decide quite where the time is going.

My last update was back the wintery wonderland of January (although Feb turned out to be just the same). The intention since then has pretty solely been to build the miles - my usual scarily late build faze only really commenced around the middle of January, so I've given myself the feeling of playing catch up.

The last 3 weeks have given me cause to relax a little into my training. February was a large "anti-Milk" conspiracy with a variety of illnesses and ailments thrown my way, but everything is settling now and recent training has been good. The swimming and running have been consistent, and I'm now starting to bring the biking online.

Got my fixed wheel baby out at the weekend for it's first jaunt in a few months!

It was the usual white knuckle affair with a couple of out of the seat moments when I forgot I was fixed, but other than that a nice ride in the warming weather. More to come.

Very much looking forward to the Girona training week at the start of April with the HPU team. I'm never someone who does huge miles on the bike, but the last couple of Saturdays have been very good and given me some lovely niggle free cycling. Looking forward to getting away from the stresses and strains for a week and get some good mileage under the belt.

Hoping to slip a 10k in before I go. There's a Good Friday 10k I've done for the last couple of years and I always like to repeat previous year's early season races to get a good gauge of where things are at. Training times are one thing, but it's always a reassurance to have some good race times under the belt.

Wymondham 10k 24/01/10

2010-01-25T17:02:00.002Z

This race was a re-run of the New Years Day 10k which had to be cancelled due to the rather white Christmas and New Year that we suffered. I wasn't due to run the original race as I was out of the country, but bearing in mind that the race start was half a mile from my house running on my usual training routes I couldn't really do a no show!

My running form has been lagging a bit over the last couple of months. I've been working with some new running drils from HPU and have been trying to incorporate the new techniques into my running. Whilst I can feel the benefits, it's amazing how difficult it is to force yourself out of bad running habits. Consequently I've done plenty of easy running and drills, but very little high intensity work also (a reflection of my training schedule at this time of year).

The weather was good although chilly, and the turnout was very high for this well run event from my club Wymondham AC. My PB is a very low 35, but I've never actually gone below 37 minutes before April as that's when I start ramping up the intensity on the training.

I started out quite hard averaging around 3.32 for the first 2km and managed to get space to run on my own. Although I felt that I was dropping off all the way after that my times didn't reflect the same and I held fairly steady between 3.35 and 3.43 per km all the way. It's a bit of a lumpy course, but as I run it day in day out I knew exactly what was coming.

Finished in 36.34 - target had been a mid 36, although I didn't think that was realistic - so was pretty pleased. Finished 7th overall, 1 place ahead of a chap who beat me by 30 seconds when I PB'd last May in 35.19. Hopefully that's a reflection of my training rather than his - gives me a little bit of confidence now that I've started full training for the year.

No cliches, but new year new start....

2010-01-19T13:11:00.000Z

And so it begins - training and blog. After rather an enforced hiatus on the training front I have nothing else now lying between me and a rather large stack of races this year.

The intention from November had been to get a solid 3 month block of endurance training in to form a solid building block for the year. However, with a change of work circumstance and a bit of a change in priorities over winter it's meant that Wednesday 13th January constituted official day 1 of this year's logged training.

The last week has given me a chance to plan out my races for the year, and get a little bit of fire in the belly to finally get the ball rolling.

The main priorities are the European Championships in Athlone in July and the World Championships in Budapest in September. Will also get a chance to finally race Dambuster this year and overall to build on what was a pretty pleasing 2009.

Change of work circumstance means that I'm not now working for anyone else, but giving a real go to making a success of our business importing and wholesaling. This will probably mean I'll be working very long hours, but will also give me the chance to have a bit of flexibility with my training schedule. Will have blocks of days where I can't train at all, but compensated by times I can get out during the day - when this was never ever an option before.

Roll on fitness, and roll on good weather!