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.
Saturday 31 December 2011
Wednesday 27 July 2011
1/2 Ironman number 2
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.
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.
Wednesday 22 June 2011
Dambuster British Triathlon Champs, 18th June
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.
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.
Monday 2 May 2011
Lisbon Half Ironman - 30/4/11
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...
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...
Sunday 17 April 2011
Race season under way
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...!
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...!
Saturday 26 February 2011
Steadily picking up
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 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.
Sunday 30 January 2011
It's been a while...
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.
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.
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