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Monday 18 November 2013

Dinton Duathlon race report

I saw this advertised some months back, but an impending house move made the schedule unsure. I bit the bullet in the end and signed up for it. Of course a delayed house move meant only a week between the move and the race. Work also got their 2p in with me flying to the US on the Tuesday evening and landing back in the UK Saturday morning. How would I fair with such tiredness and stress?

It was very local and only took a few minutes to get there and register. A quick spin up the road and back then time to rack the bike. The advantage of having a surname beginning with A is often a low race number. #2 in this case.

Found my spot and racked the bike and attached my shoes. I seemed to be the only one doing so; admittedly the ground was a little damp but I didn't think it would be too bad. I deposited a pair of trainers at the rear of my bike which garnered some odd looks, then went for a warm up run. Back in time for briefing.

We lined up and watch a mini-helicopter take a video of us and then we were off. The pace was a little tasty and so I reigned it in a bit and started to get overtaken a few times. The run was a 5.3km loop around the lakes of Dinton Pastures near Wokingham. After a few km I began to reel in some of the overtakers, moving from one to another and so on. Throughout I kept an eye on the pace and I didn't want to overcook the first run. Just before km 4 there was a little lump in the trail, then another. Both upset the pacing but the short downhill afterwards was a blessing. 
I went through 5km in 19:39 it didn't seem like the usual hard effort for that pace, especially as I had earned a short-lived 5km PB on a similar course at Dinton in February. Run#1 done in 21:00 in 11th place.

T1 was a very swift 21s (second fastest!) and on to the bike. The LH strap had come undone so I got some speed up then managed to sort it out. Not easy with gloves on. After a few minutes I heard the whup-whup of a disc and was left standing as another tri bike came past. I was then alone for the next 8km before we hit a motorway bridge. I hung back as I didn't want to attack on a hill. A few guys came past me like a chaingang and hung off the back of a few in front. For the next few km we played cat and mouse. Each time I dropped back out of the draft zone. When I overtook, the protagonist typically sat on my wheel. After one overtake I even saw him throw a gel wrapper in to a bush.
Towards the end of the bike leg I was overtaken by the guy again and left it there. He'd take a while to catch me in the first place so I knew his run wouldn't be much. As I came to the mount line a swift dismount saw me overtake the guy and I beat him in to T2. 
20km Bike was 34:18 and 12th place.

T2 was a pedestrian 34s as I put on my second pair of running shoes. This did save some time overall even though I had trouble getting in to the shoes.

The second run was the same course as the first. There was a good first km and then I had to keep pushing to stay on the pace. I was overtaken twice, then after a few km caught up with one of the guys. Shortly before the 4.5km point I was overtaken again and there was no way at that point I would be able to kick and stay with him. That said I managed a ramp and then kicked at the 5km marker. As I came round the final bend I saw 1:17:56 on the clock and gave a good sprint hoping to fall in under the minute.  Second run in 21:44 and 10th position on the run.

The combined time was 1:18:00 exactly and 10th place overall. This was 8th Male Senior and I reckon 4th M35-39. Not a PB, but then not a flat/slightly short course like Dorney and not a qualifier either. I wasn't racing for a particular time, but racing tactically for positions.

It's always interesting to dissect the results of multisport and see where I came on each leg compared to others. For example the guy who came 7th had the 28th fastest run#1, 15th fastest run#2 and a shocking T1. However his bike was very good!
As I have said, I didn't push as hard as I could on run#1 and I was fairly conservative on the bike. I pushed where I knew I could and the course would allow but otherwise not going too hard. I did burn a match at a compulsory stop where I left the bike in the wrong gear! This did work out with only a 44s increase on run#2. The bike numbers also tell a similar story with a Normalised Power and Average Power of 240W for the bike leg (VI of 1.00 obviously). Best 20minute power was 241W for both compared to 258W at a qualifier earlier in the year where my second run suffered by over a minute.

As an event Dinton was great. Good grass roots with a lot of first timers coming from both run and bike backgrounds. Lots of MTBs and team entrants too. Will be nice to see how this event flourishes next year.


Tuesday 29 October 2013

Prompted, stage left

I was recently told by someone that they followed my blog, which instantly brought about some guilt of a recent update. Sorry!

So this is week 17 of being back running. And week 2 of my training for Wokingham Half-marathon. I am loosely following the Furman Institute's FIRST plan. The crux is 3 runs and 2 lots of cross-training (read: cycling). Each of the 3 runs is a quality run; long, track or tempo they're fast and can hurt.

The balance comes in the cross training. It's a risky program and I got injured last time doing something similar. This time I know where I went wrong and I'm listening to my body much more. Common sense really. It's almost obvious that one cannot fit in 5 or 6 quality sessions per week. 

I'm enjoying some easy paced cycling in the week and some longer rides at the weekend. They help to offset the training load from the running. Every now and then I'm throwing in a harder turbo as a tester. Tonight was TrainerRoad's Raymond, a 4x5min at 108% FTP.

I'm looking forward to my first duathlon of the season, the Dinton Duathlon. I'll have been back from the US for less than 24 hours by that point so we'll see how it goes.

I've also entered Althorp sprint duathlon in Oct 2014. Far away but I got an early-bird deal as it is the 2015 European sprint qualifier.

Monday 7 October 2013

A week of good hurt!

This is the 14th week of being back running.

I've had a good build up of easy miles and left it until last week to inject some faster paced work. I'd also started to add some quality bike work.

So Monday was a TrainerRoad session.

On Tuesday Finch Coasters had a 2x20 minute session which I aimed to run at fast tempo (4:15/km). A little fast on the downhill way out (just shy of 5km in just shy of 20min) and suffered a little on the way back. All in all it was a good tempo session and I remained under HM pace on the return leg. The entire session was a real confidence booster as I hadn't had a fast run since taking some time out.

Wednesday was a morning recovery run then an evening FTP/VO2 session on the bike. Thursday another club run which on analysis was 'Easy' though felt like a tempo session at the time. Probably due to pacing!

Friday was a rest day, which left the weekend.

Saturday we wandered to Woodley parkrun as a family. First time we'd tried that one. It was a pacing event and my wife was hoping to go to 34 minutes. Unfortunately she went of way too fast and then suffered! My plan was to take things easy and use it as a faster session in my LSR. Unfortunately my ego got the better of me, especially after Monday. I overtook the 20 minute pacer not far in to the first lap. The second began to hurt and I had to dig on the final lap. Garmin was under-reading and I came in at 20 minutes exactly, and 9th man. Didn't get chicked! This was another confidence boosting session, especially as I had not intended to run that fast. Coupled with WU, CD and some extra mileage at lunch that was 14km in the bag.

Sunday was a great 3 hours XC MTBing on my new build.

All in all a really good week, with some quality build added in. Today was an easy 10km, followed by entering some local races. Dinton Duathlon (November) and Wokingham half-marathon (Feb 2014). As usual the HM was the cheaper of the two. I'm all about supporting local races, but the online registration companies really take the biscuit. £3.28 for a service fee to allow me to enter a £35 race? Daylight robbery from Active Network.

The grand plan is to have a good XC season whilst building for a good spring HM. Some added bike work will see me do well at Dinton and some other low key duathlons. Spring Ballbuster in March followed by PowermanUK in May.


Sunday 8 September 2013

Catch-up

It's been a month or so since I posted last. 

In that time I have been increasing my running steadily and also getting some good bike rides in. I turned 35 and became a Veteran at Parkrun and PO10. I also got food poisoning and lost 4.5km in one week!

This obviously affected my energy levels, but they're getting back up there. Slowly slowly catchy monkey. I'm looking forward to the cross-country season and some winter duathlons. Just need to build some run speed up.


My wife has also embraced running and she Parkruns every week without fail!

Friday 9 August 2013

Time trialling again... and running!

A busy end of July & early August. Holidays, work travel.

Last night was my first outing on H10/10 this year. A lumpy kinda exposed course. First TT since the beginning of July too.


I'll admit it was hard. I prefer to TT with a visor rather than sunnies as the vis is better; the sweat dripping off my nose is not.

It's not a fast course, so a half-respectable 25:02 (ouch) was the result. The usual "if I'd known I'd have broken 25..." followed. 

In other news I have been running again for 4 or so weeks. It was a bit 'interesting' to begin with but the body has settled back in to the groove. Plus over 100 eccentric heel raises/drops each day. Building calf strength.

It's great to be out there again. This week I have increased to 26km/week spread over 4 days. Following a Finke/Daniels/Pfitzinger 3 week hold followed by 1.5km/day increase. 

Long run is now a huge 10km. Looking forward to getting some miles under my belt then hitting the track end of Sep/early Oct.

Happy days.

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Running man - learning from mistakes.

I'm back running (again, I think).

Four weeks off, complete with ~100 daily calf raises has helped. My first 3 km back was not pretty. It took a long time, the heat notwithstanding. A few days later I followed it up with a 6km. Sunday, in the heat I did 10km. This actually took forever, and I wished I'd had water. I hadn't run that far with water since starting running. It was a hot day though. Weekly total some 20 km.

Both Pfitzinger and Daniels (I believe) recommend holding distance for 3 weeks before adding a maximum of 1 mile (1.6 km) per weekly running day (3 days = 3 miles, etc). My achilles injury really means baby steps and I'll keep this in mind. It may even be more than 3 weeks. 

Daniels also recommends maintaining this weekly mileage when adding a day. Whether 3, 4 or 5 days a week running he recommends a 1, 2, 3 split. Normal, or hard runs are a distance of 2/2 (i.e. 1). Easy runs are 1/2 and long are 3/2. So for a normal run of 10 km an easy run would be 5km and a long run would be 15km. Regardless of weekly distance this ratio is maintained. 

As I'm returning to running I wasn't sure what my weekly distance would be. Perhaps I should have averaged my mid-week (4.5km average). What I should not have done was my 10km run. It still hurt yesterday. This morning's 5 km certainly didn't help. My comeback plan calls for a 6km on Thursday but we'll see how that feels. I may reduce the Sunday distance. We're camping with my running club this weekend and my focus will be on fun rather than run.

Watch this space.

Wednesday 10 July 2013

Time trialling - Interclub, Club champs & a PB

Last Thursday was another TT on the H10/2 in Berkshire. TVT club champs and also the annual inter-club between MDCC and TVT.

I cam straight from Heathrow, and would have been very early though by the time I'd found a cashpoint I was running late and ended up with #28 - a 2013 start time.

A good warm up on the course with a few others then a little time to relax...

Soon enough I was on the line and being counted down. After the last TT where I smashed the first few km despite trying not to, I kept a lid on it, watching HR and time to ensure I'd got about 4 minutes in before laying down the power. It is at this point that I suddenly feel like I'm not moving and everything is hard work. Well, it is and I had to get on with it.


The outbound run is downhill but in to wind It wasn't very long before I overtook my minute-man. The turn point is always a question of up on the base bars or stay aero; managed aero on the warmup but after 7 km ended up on the base bars for the TT - I think I can corner better and lean over more.

The inbound leg is uphill but downwind, so some help, but the upflats are noticeable. I caught a club member a few km after the turn point. Up the lumps and still feeling strong. Round the large roundabout near the start. 

One other thing that helped this time was my Garmin 310XT. IN previous weeks it has stopped recording at 2-3km. I have a speed/cadence sensor on the bike but don't run a magnet on the rear wheel. The Garmin should default to GPS but for some reason does not. This only happens on the TT bike though strangely on the road bike the speed sensor is broken so only picks up cadence and does use GPS for speed... This time I'd fitted a wheel magnet and had a good record of my distance and how far to go. This enable me to pace much better and then really give it the beans for the last km, half of which is an upflat with the final effort flat. 

Bars gripped tightly, mouth wide open trying to get oxygen and push push push.

Official time was 24:15 and 18th overall. Of the TVT members I came 5th. Happy with that result and an obvious improvement due to the TrainerRoad sessions earlier in the year. TrainingPeaks data here. This also includes the ride back to HQ. Note that the best 20 minute power is also the first 20 minutes. The downhill I guess.

Watching the Tour de France TT today I was intrigued to see that the riders all sit up for the final push. I wonder what difference this makes?

Sunday 23 June 2013

Man up, cupcake!

It's been a while. After more Achilles problems I decided to not run for a month. This led to a training funk where I just CBA with anything.

A swim, a walk and a cycle, followed by some days of nothing. I wanted to TT, but had had enough of wet and windy TTs. I finally made it back out on the Friday, after committing to 16 km (10 miles) on the bike per day during the week, and something longer on the weekend.

After a great day out with the family on the Saturday at Beale Park (in the rain, grrrr!) I got out on the bike. The next day I went over to Pangbourne via Bradfield, and went up Whitchurch Hill. Not as bad as I thought, and a good 70 km.

Throughout the week I swam, and did easy 16km rides. Tuesday was a hard club chaingang, starting with the fast group. After a stint of the front it was my turn to rotate to the back, unfortunately I missed the join and fell off the back. By the time I caught up with the 'last-man' she'd been dropped too. Then a third man. We had a good effort round the course until we were down to two of us. A final sprint back to the start and probably a better workout that hiding in the bunch. 

Thursday was a local TT on H10/2. The pre-TT warmup saw me and two other club members in a team-time-trial style ride. Great fun! For the actual TT I knew not to go out too hard, but ended up doing so anyhow. I was a bit worried about that and also concerned I had overcooked the warmup. Luckily not. Despite a positive split by 24s I managed to set a new PB (again!) coming in at 24:36 for the 10 mile course. There may be some pictures too; I'll have a look.

Yesterday I volunteered at my local parkrun whilst wife and kids ran. In the afternoon I rode to a friend's bbq, via a lumpy 60 km route: Frimley, Guildford, Shalford, Godalming, Millford, Elstead, Frensham, Alice Holt. Instead of loading a route up on the Garmin I simply wrote the town names on toa piece of paper and taped it to my top tube. No route to follow, no path to lose. Make it up on the way.

Today I went for an easy 40 km around the back of Bracknell/Ascot. We're moving over that way later in the year so I thought I'd have a quick look-see.

One takeaway from the recent riding is that my hill climbing seems to be getting stronger, and I don't need a large cassette as I once thought. Little lumps don't exist and the long ones can be spun up fairly quickly with ease. The wind and rain don't seem to be too much of a problem either, once I'm out the door.

~228 km this week alone, without much thought or effort.

Sunday 9 June 2013

Water water everywhere, but not a chance to swim

I had a nice relaxing half term with the family down in Kent. Did some running, including the Margate parkrun where I came 3rd, and my wife did her first parkrun. Then it was back to the airport last Monday for yet another flight to Germany; Munich this time.

I'd checked the weather for my destination and saw that heavy rain was predicted over the weekend, but hadn't thought much beyond this. I picked up the hire car and started to drive to Austria and then the phone rang "Where are you? Still in London? Don't travel!". The vast amount of rain had caused the Danube to burst its banks in Passau, causing a catastrophic flood, and contaminating all the drinking water. Slightly further downstream at my destination, the river had risen 8m overnight and flooded the lower part of the town. The flooded field below used to be a couple of hundred metres from the river.


I made it to my customer, who then informed me they had other panics going on, but they'd see me the next day. I drove towards town where a policeman asked me to park my car about 1km out of the town, and walk to my hotel. The rain was still heavy and I was a little damp when I arrived, but the hotel was warm and dry (just). I did feel a bit silly arriving in town when most others were trying to save their houses and livelihoods. Hey ho.

In my last visit to Schaerding the hotel had given me a running map with a few choices of distances and routes. Unfortunately most went along the riverbank, which was now 8 m below the water's surface. The green blobs below are tall trees in a back garden.


I did get my running kit on and head out for a slow jog taking in a few dead ends caused by flooding and I was shocked at what I saw. I also noticed that my Achilles was starting to hurt again. Most mornings I was stiff and walking like Robocop. 

After a few busy days I ran again on Wednesday evening. By this point the water level had dropped quite a lot and the clean up effort began. The sun was out and hot and weary fire crews were sat around drinking beer in the evening sun. I found a small section of the riverside that was accessible, but it was extremely boggy and I turned back. The Achilles hurt again and I knew I had some decisions to make.

The next day I was flying to Dresden, another flooded city (nothing to do with me!), and I put out some feelers as to who may want my place at the Bristol sprint tri qualifier for the 2013 London World triathlon championships. I need to take at least 2, probably 4 weeks off from running to solve my Achilles problem. It had caused problems at Grendon and I would not be on form for Bristol at the end of June. A tough decision to make, but one that I'd been putting off for a while.

After some meetings in Dresden it was time to get some dinner and to wander around the town, where I saw the scale of the flooding. On the railway bridge there were locomotives sat equal distances apart. I found out the next day they were placed over the pilings of the bridge, to stop it being washed away.



The next day we took the kids to the local parkrun where they did one 2.5 km loop and my wife did her second parkrun.

Sunday 26 May 2013

Grendon tri - race report

As I mentioned before, I'd had a busy week. I'd not had time to get nervous about Grendon. Strange, as I had thrown my £10 in the BTF aiming to qualify for the 2014 European champs. Whilst I knew getting in the top 4 of my AG would be very tough, I was aiming for the sub 120% of AG winner time. This would put me in the rolldown list.

Kit was packed up the night before. I was picked up my some club members at 0530, and the journey up was uneventful. Registered, racked and ready to go. Last minute toilet stop, then wetsuit on.

Swim - 750 m
I was in the green-hat wave: M35-39 & M40-44. We got into the lake and had a few minutes warmup, then were called back to the start line. The water was very cold, but the warm up helped to control the breathing. Plenty of face splashes to get used to the cold!

Once the hooter went there was some biff, but not too bad. Managed to get on to some good feet and sighted towards a pylon in the distance. Got to the first buoy, assuming it to be about the 350m point. We had been instructed to turn 3/4 of the buoy then head towards the fallen-over orange buoy. It was hard to see and certainly not 3/4 of the way round the first buoy. At some point between the two buoys I was caught in a gap; the front swimmers had moved ahead and I'd pulled away from the group behind, but not as much as the people following. In short, no drafting! At the final turn buoy we went round and I picked up the exit arch in the distance, with the sun shining in to my eyes. Kept plugging away and the swim seemed to go on and on and on. Finally to the exit ramp and then out on to the matting. A long run of a couple of hundred meters to T1 followed. Including run 16:57 unsure what the actual swim time was.

T1
I knew with the long run that the water would drain from the wetsuit. This often gives the opportunity to get rid of the suit by the lake then run, rather than de-suiting in T1. I chose to go to T1. Of course, my suit got stuck (despite having removed inches of leg from the suit last year). Once I was out of my suit I put my helmet on, grabbed the bike and ran to the mount line. 1:30 shocking.

Bike - 23 km
Elastic band trick worked well.
The road out of Grendon lakes had many sharp speed bumps, so took it easy. On to the main road and up the first hill. Immediately I felt like I had nothing to give. My legs felt tired. I remained positive in my mind but was definitely struggling. A few downhill and downwind sections made me feel a bit better but ultimately I wasn't on form. It was also unusual to ride in sunny and warm conditions. I had pre-empted this and had a bottle on the bike. Not for drinking during the ride, but for the beginning and end, to save time drinking in T1 and T2. Average Power 245 W.
A depressing 42:33.

T2
LuckilyT2 was a bit swifter. My new ASICS race shoes came with their own elastic laces which I used in preference to the ones I had used many times before. I struggled to get my feet in to my trainers quickly, but got them in, grabbed pirate visor and off I went. A glacial 1:03.

Run - 5 km
The run course was a 2 lapper. Out from T2 past the lake to a pylon, then back diverting past another lake, then through the finish area to restart. The surface ranged from tarmac to gravel to stones to grass. Very interesting. The loop by the second lake also had a lump in it. After the usual jelly legs I got in to a good pace. Of course I knew that I wasn't going to qualify but still aimed to hit the 120% time. Even so, the body once again failed to react. I did manage a final sprint to the line. Run time a leisurely 22:47.

All in for 1:24:52. Was aiming for something a tad faster, Safe to say I missed the 120% time.

Reflection
The event, course and organisation were great. I cannot fault that at all, it was really good.
So was sitting in the car for 1000 miles the week before beneficial? We all have to work. Was I fully recovered from the 8 days in California challenge? Was running 3 times in the past 4 weeks ideal (one of which was a poor 10km race)? The lack of adrenaline and nervousness the week before and the day before are interesting.

So onwards and upwards. Swimming won't improve too much, but let's stay regular. Running off the bike must improve and I think some rest and easy cycling will solve the bike problems. Let's build towards Bristol tri in June, and then the duathlon qualifiers at the end of the year.

Think positive.

Saturday 25 May 2013

Random Update

It's been another busy week for me. After flying out to Germany early Tuesday morning, then sitting in the back of a car for 1000 miles, I got home in to Heathrow Friday evening. Apparently I was lucky to get back home after the interesting day at Heathrow. Once through security in Frankfurt I wandered up to the earlier flight and managed to get on. Happy days.


So back to the 8 days in California

Day 5 was an early climb with flattish finish. 20 second and 30 second power record.

  
Day 6 was the Time Trial. Ouch. Scraped a 15 minute power record. I wasn't looking to set a 20 minute one, that's for sure!


Day 7 was the biggy, the Queen stage. over 1h30 long it took a lot of effort, and on one of the sunniest days for months! 30 second, 60 & 90 minute power bests.


Day 8 was the final day, circuits with sprint finished. A good effort but the legs were hurting so managed to finish, but with no panache or style. No bests either.


Back to last week:
I managed a 7km run in Austria along the river Inn, then Thursday night I did a few lengths in the hotel pool. It was a 15m pool but arm time is arm time. The run was strange. After 2 days sat in the car for 4-5 hours a piece my quads were sore, and both cramped on the run. So much so I had to walk for a bit. Then some unfamiliar geography caused me to do some XC running to get back over the river Inn to Austria.

My kit is packed up ready for tomorrow's triathlon. Qualifier for the 2014 European championships. Looking forward to it.

Monday 20 May 2013

8 Days in California - done

I finished late last night. I'm on an early flight tomorrow morning, so I'll update later. Needless to say it was great fun, but hard work.

Today I managed my first run in 2 weeks; no achilles pain. Tonight was a swim.

Wednesday 15 May 2013

TrainerRoad's 8 Days in California

So TrainerRoad rolled out their 8 Days in California turbo trainer challenge last Sunday. To blatantly rob their spiel:
"8 Days in California simulates what an 8 day stage race might be like in California through TrainerRoad.com's software. Workouts will simulate a live race with a story overarching the entire event. Riders will be challenged to cover breaks, bring up water bottles and protect their team's GC contender.
The challenge will consist of 8 workouts over 8 days. Workouts will last between one and two hours. There will be flat stages, mountain climbs and even a time trial."

The opening ride on Sunday evening was tough - a mountain stage with an intermediate sprint and a final KOM. Earned a new 5 second power best.

 

Monday lunch was another Mountain stage with a short uphill finish. I hid in the pack today and ignored all sprints and KOMs. I still managed a new 15 minute power best. I swam in the evening with the tri club to ease the legs. After Friday's pool swim and Sunday morning's OW swim my arms were aching.

  
Late Tuesday evening I got on the TT bike again and rode day 3 - yet another mountain stage but with a downhill finish. On the climbs I made an effort to use big gears. I completed the sprints but ignored the KOMs. New 5 second & 10 second power bests!


Tonight (day 4) was a shorter stage with sprints and KOMs of which I did all. I was duly rewarded with 4 power bests! 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 20 seconds and 2 minutes.

  
I'm looking forward to tomorrow's 'easy' day, and I have really enjoyed re-discovering my music collection. A good build up to Grendon tri in a few weeks (Euro 2014 qualifier).

Saturday 11 May 2013

Weekly update

After the bittersweet PB at Shinfield I took it easy....not!

Tuesday night was the tri-club chaingang. A new thing for me, so I set off in a group of people I've ridden with before. It wasn't long before we were overtaking most other groups. As the 2 riders on the front tired they'd rotate to the back, and everyone would take a turn.

A few attacks here and there around the 30km course, then a big final push where I completely emptied the bag then limped back to the finish, absolutely spent! Good fun, and our group finished in about 55 minutes for the 30 km loop. We'd taken it easy as it was the first week!

Wednesday was a gash rest day.

Thursday was the Maidenhead CC 10mile time trial. I've done a few, though this was the first time on course H10/2. I signed on as number #11, then went for a 10km warmup looping around two roundabouts in a business park.

The course was an out-and-back along the A4. The course trends down on the way out, and up on the way back. To make it interesting a strong wind was blowing. Weather was:
Rain, 10 °C, SW 23 mph, 1005 hPa, Rising
So in-to wind on the downhill way out, and downwind on the uphill way home.

I took the first km easy, as going all out here has caused problems in the past. Last km was a big push, and I came in at 25:38 - second overall. Winning time was 25:13.

Tuesday 7 May 2013

Shinfield 10km race report

Landed back home on Satruday morning. Rain and traffic on the M25 - welcome home! Family were very glad to see me, and the kids were trying to break in to my suitcase to see if I'd brought them anything.

Usual Saturday afternoon at the in-laws for tea and cake, followed by a very early night. Sunday was a local Christening followed by a quick 4km run to test out the new ASICS.

Monday was the bank holiday 10km at Shinfield - very local to me. I'd signed up before I flew out to the US. I thought it would be good to benchmark where I am for that distance. I've not run a 10km race since last July, when I was on the back of Ironman, so it hurt. I PB'd the year before (2011) at 46:04 so was looking for some improvement.

What I came away with was a healthy respect for the 10km distance...

For my warmup I cycled to the event - about 10km away, then did some running with a few pick ups to get going. Much like Horst my legs felt heavy. The sun was beating down and I felt very warm.
I started about 3 or 4 rows back, and saw a sign saying 40-50 minutes. There was not room to move forward to the sub 40 rows, though the start was like a cross country start.

The hooter went and I was over the line 5s afterwards. There were a lot of people trying to get moving and on the first corner I got barged and flew out of the pack, being caught by a fellow runner. Thanks for keeping me upright.

First km was fairly speedy, then we turned on to a gravel track with a slight incline. By the 2km sign my Garmin was beeping way in advance. I was pegging at 4 minutes/km and hoping to get some time in the bag for the second half Unfortunately I hit the 5km sign at 20 minutes exactly. Not good for my goal. From this point onwards the Garmin beeped earlier and earlier and the pace dropped more and more. Throughout I was neck and neck with a guy who was had been employing a run/walk strategy since 1km. He was hurting from the go and hanging on.

The last km was downhill and we put in a sprint. Despite my best efforts I did not overtake him, but gained a place outright and crossed the line at the same time as a female.

Due to the vagaries of the Gun vs Chip timing used in running races I placed better than the run/walker even though I finished after him; he'd taken longer between the start & finish lines. I also finished ahead of the 3rd female. The quality in a running race is often higher than a triathlon or duathlon.

Splits were: 3:43, 3:59, 3:58, 4:02, 4:13, 4:23, 4:12, 4:19, 4:27, 3:56, 0:02

I came in at 41:13 chip time and 69th of 691. A great PB by 4m53s, but not near the sub 40 I was after.  Obviously this is because my run mileage has been extremely poor of late - just ticking over for the Europeans. Last week in the US didn't help either. Mental attitude is also another factor; perhaps I didn't want a sub 40.

Still, Yateley 10km series coming up, so a chance to redeem myself.

Tonight's recovery was a tri club chaingang :)

Friday 3 May 2013

Home time!

Sat at San Francisco airport waiting to board.  I've had some pretty serious back problems the past couple of days. Plenty of ibuprofen and paracetamol to relax the muscles.
Hoping the 11 hours on the plane goes quickly...

Wednesday 1 May 2013

Local run

Yesterday I returned my bike and ran back to the hotel. Achilles seemed ok but I found it hard to run with the backpack.


I ran tonight with Tri-Valley Triathlon. It was a bike/run session, but I did a run warmup - 4km on a rolling out and back course. Rolling as in ~140m loss out & ~140m gain on the way back! I followed this up with the brick that everyone else was doing.

30 minutes - 3 x (8.5 minutes easy + 1.5m race pace). Unsure what the easy pace was but for the race pace hit ~3:55/km.

After a 10oz rib eye steak at lunch I had a huge sandwich and a slice of cake this evening. Happy days.

Monday 29 April 2013

Some time to relax

I have been in northern California now for 5 days. I flew out to San Francisco on the Tuesday from Heathrow and up to Thursday hadn't done much other than work; absolutely intentional. It's always good to get some time off after a period of build|peak|race.



I hired a road bike locally on the Thursday. It turned out to be an Saxo Bank Specialized Tarmac S-Works SL2 ex-team bike that belonged to Jurgen Van Goolen. BLING! I rode it to work and back on Friday; my second ever bike commute (first was many many years ago)!



After dumping my bag back at the hotel on Friday I explored the local area by bike. 
Saturday was the big tourist day and I went in to San Fran by the BART - Bay Area Rapid Transit. Even though the sun was shining I'd chosen to not wear shorts, and when I got to the coast it paid off as it was a little chillier. I walked from the Embarcadero, past the San Fran Ferry Terminal (below) and I had some lunch at the famous Bubba Gumps on Pier 39, then took an open bus tour around the city. 


By the time we got to the Golden Gate bridge I was freezing. Note: I am no longer known for my photographic skills. The towers of the bridge were enveloped in fog.



The bus rolled back in to town, and I jumped off at Pier 33 and wandered through Union Square. As I was still cold I got back on the BART to go home. Once I was back in the car I drove to the ASICS outlet in Livermore where i picked up some Tri Noosa trainers for racing in. I also got a couple of shirts. Dinner was a large Pizza Hut meat feast (or local equivalent). This would last me until Sunday's dinner too. Don't fret my suite has a kitchen with fridge.

Sunday I braved the waffle machine at breakfast, then drove to Pleasanton (nice place!) to meet with the Tri-Valley Triathletes crew for a swim session. They're all tapering for the WildFlower next weekend so the swim session was a chilled one. More so for me as it was in an outside pool, crystal clear water, hot hot sun and the smell of sun cream all around. Fantastic!

Back to the hotel for a quick lunch, then bike in the car and off to Livermore to meet the Tri-Valley team again for a bike ride. I'd planned a fairly long bike ride but the temps were hot so we did a shorter route through the local vineyards of the area. Pretty cool.

Thursday 25 April 2013

ETU European sprint duathlon champs race report.....long overdue

I've finally had a chance to sit down and write my race report!

I spent most of the morning before the race stewing in the hotel. I'd have liked to go in to town earlier but I had a transfer package booked with Nirvana, so waited with a few others for the transport. I took great delight in seeing that Sufferfest had changed their Facebook banner to my picture below.


We were dropped off, and made our way through the town to transition, where we showed our numbers and were allowed in. Bike were racked using the upright gaps in crowd fencing. To keep the bikes upright we had to push them quite far in, which made it difficult to get the bike in/out with shoes attached. We were also each given a transition box, similar to the WTS. Plenty of faffage ensued. Had a gel 30 minutes before the start, then joined up for the team photo.



A good run warmup was had. Taking in some of the run route and seeing the elites and juniors do their thing. Plenty of pickups and strides. After dumping my last bits of kit I wandered to the start and found a quiet back street to do some heel flicks, high knees and more pickups. Soon I was surrounded by other athletes doing the same.

We got to the start line, but the race was delayed as the female junior race had over-run. Not just over-run but run-past; the marshalls hadn't clocked 2 Russian Federation athletes miss the finish chute! Once they were correctly herded, the start horn went off. I'm not sure anyone was expecting it!

The run course was 2 laps of a twisty-turny 2.5km course. The starting gate was some 3m wide, and it was cross-country rules. So many people in such a small space. 


As the athletes spread out we took up the width of the road and pavement. It was like a parcour run. We streamed around bollards and jumped over kerbstones. As the run went on the field began to thin out. First km was 3:30. There was a part of the course where the run went through a grassy area with path. I stuck to the path but saw that a few were running a straight line on the grass.

Throughout the run I kept the pace strong and stuck with those around me. The first run in a duathlon is tricky - too slack a pace and you lose a lot of places. To fast a pace and there is nothing left for later. Run #1 for 18:26.

T1 went very smoothly initially, straight to bike, helmet on, grab bike and go. I got to the end of the bike rack and realised I still had my trainers on. Shit! Leant the bike on the fence and ran back to dump my shoes. I was expecting about 45s for T1, but this schoolboy error cost me 1:31 in total, and 16 places.

Out of T1 and I jumped on the bike, slipping my right foot straight in to my shoe. After a few turns of the cranks I tightened up the strap, span a bit more then got my left foot in to the shoe. Strap tightened again after a few more turns of the cranks. After this phot was taken I turned my race belt round.


Normally at this point it would be down on the aerobars for the next 20km, but Horst had a town centre course. Like the run it was 2 laps, though each was 10km this time. Each lap wound through the town until we passed under the motorway. Then we could nail the bike until the 180 degree turn point, then back in to town. On the return we wandered around Horst again before finally making it back to the centre to start the second lap.


With so many people on the course there was inevitably some drafting going on. The draft police were out in full force, and I saw some people being put in to the penalty box for drafting. Once out on the open road for the first time the field did thin. From this point onwards it was a war of attrition and technique. Pulling close to the bike infront but not infringing the 8m box, then pushing on past for the overtake, before dropping in front of the bike, causing them to drop back out of the box. All whilst not infringing the draft box of the bike in front. At one point I did a triple overtake. Because of all of this, the ride was not a like a true TT and the power was a lot less that I thought I'd do. Average Power was 244 W, and Normalised was 247 W. This gave a VI of 1.01. Cadence was a lot lower than normal at 92 RPM.


I'll happily admit that I am not the best technical rider. I'm fast in a straight line, but corners can be tricky. At one point I was sparring with an Irish guy. He'd overtake every corner and then I'd hammer the exit and overtake again. After many corners I managed to get far enough in front for it not to be a problem any more. One final turn in to town and I removed my feet from my shoes and rolled in to T2. Bike carefully shoved in to the correct fence gap and helmet carefully thrown in to my transition box. Bike 35:20. I'd managed to pick up 9 places.

T2 was happier and I exited after a speedy 48s.

The second and final run hurt.

The pace started off shockingly low, every step a jelly-legged effort, but I pushed on. Out on the run, no longer the parcour course of before but a lonely trudge. I lost a few places initially, but as the legs began to warm up the pace began to increase. This allowed me to edge closer and closer to the pack in front. At the same time I could hear footsteps behind. As we came around the corner past transition I pushed the pace and dropped the GBR athlete behind. The final corner was where the GBR team manager was based, with a large bunch of GBR flags. I fumbled the pickup so continued. I moved on to the finish chute and fumbled another flag pick up, Finally I shouted out FLAG!!! and grabbed a GB flag from a random spectator (Thanks!).


There was another GBR in front, but he seemed out of reach. One last big push and I'd take him. 


All that was left was to cross the line (and stop my Garmin).



Run #2 worked out at 2.8km, as the sprint transition was moved to create more room. The last run took 10:49 and I finished 13th in M35-39 age-group.

So sitting back afterwards, what are my thoughs on the AG system?

I really enjoyed myself. Yes, the cost can take away some of the enjoyment and quite a few in the hotel were eating their home-brought food instead of paying the €14 for breakfast. However we were there representing our country. Pretty much the pinnacle of our athletic careers. I met some great people and had an absolutely fantastic time.

Many thanks to all that supported me, especially TrainerRoad for keeping me true on the turbo throughout my training!

Tuesday 23 April 2013

Horst results

A quick update before I jump on a plane to the US. The European champs were great. 
First run lap like a parcour course due to crowding,  but it eased off.
Bike was twisty and technical,  a war of attrition for placing without drafting.
The last run was short and hard.
All in for 1:06:53 and 13th M35.
A great race,  great result and a proud moment.
Full report to follow.

Sunday 21 April 2013

Race day wibbles

Yesterday was nice. Bounced out of bed early, sorted my bike. Walked to the local McD for some coffee and ate some croissants and bananas in the sun.

Met up with the team and we cycled to Horst (~10km) for a course recce and briefing. Got registered. Fairly eventful ride around town and course. Rode home.

Pasta party, then a detour to get some carbon brake blocks (don't ask), and in the fitting encountered some safety critical problems with my front brake. Now solved (don't ask).

Breakfast this morning with my parents, and a quick spin on the bike. Sat here in kit waiting for the transfer to Horst to rack and race.

Absolutely cacking it!

Friday 19 April 2013

Travelling

Thursday at last! After dropping the kids at school I went for my short run, then loaded the car up and drove down to Folkstone to get the tunnel to Calais. Sun was shining, very nice!

On to the train!
Ate some sandwiches during the journey then filled up with cheap French fuel in Calais. The tunnel is a very efficient way to travel.
Unfortunately from this point onwards it was all down to me, so I selected the hotel in my GPS and off I went. All was well until I hit Brussels at about 5pm, and got stuck in the commuter traffic. Lost of people heading home to Leuven, home of Stella Artois.
My car could do with re-gassing the air conditioning. In the static traffic the car began to heat up :(. Once everything started to move a little seed of doubt began to grow in my mind. I shouldn't have been near Brussels. I checked the GPS. Despite selecting the correct town, the GPS had chosen a hotel of the same name some 85km South-East. Luckily I picked this up before the road split, so it only cost me another 60km from this point.

I finally arrived at 7:30 pm, unpacked the car then settled down to some work and a takeaway pizza - athlete food!

Today I visited some customers in the area, and then returned to the hotel to work, via Horst town centre.

 At long last the work clock finished, and I'll be off to meet my GB team mates in Horst for dinner.


 

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Almost there

I was working in Essex Monday and had packed my bike and turbo for the hotel. I rode Sufferfest's Long Scream on TrainerRoad. Short and hard.

Yesterday was a short run, some of it with my running club. Some good speedwork in there. Tonight was a quick 20 minute power interval: Half Dome on TrainerRoad. On the past 3 turbo sessions I've set 6 new power records, so it bodes well for the weekend.

Tomorrow is a morning run, followed by the long drive to Horst. Then a day of work in the Netherlands on Friday; which will also be a rest day.

Monday 15 April 2013

Boston

I've just heard the news about Boston marathon. My thoughts are with those affected by this tragedy.

Sunday 14 April 2013

Lighting the taper, and new trisuit revealed!

It's been another busy week. I got out on the TT bike in the sun last Sunday. It was a pleasure to ride some country routes without wrapping up like an Eskimo.

Monday was going to be busy with work so I went out for an early morning run, in the sun again! I had to pick up a colleague up from the airport and managed to drop in to Blade printing on the way to hand over my Adidas tri-suit for printing, in case the Z3R0D suits were not available. At the same time the team received an email telling us to order the new suits online. After some confusion we were then told to order them direct from the BTF.

Tuesday started at a hotel in Essex where I tested out the gym bike with Audiofuel's Ride Harder#1. 40 minutes of pyramid intervals - good stuff. I washed this breakfast down with a 15 minutes treadmill brick, then went to meet my colleagues for a proper meal. After a couple of busy days I got home late Wednesday, just in time to go to the track. Our club coach had planned 3 reps of the following:
  • 1200m at HM pace
  • 400m at 10km pace
  • 200m at 5km pace
All good fun. Thursday I was going to do the local time trial, and the weather looked ace. Unfortunately work upset the schedule, and having been away a lot recently I decided to stay in with the family, sort the kids out and read them a long overdue story. Turned out to be an impromptu rest day. The aim therefore to be up early Friday to turbo.

That slipped until Friday lunch time. I rode Sufferfest's The Wretched on TrainerRoad. A good way of keeping true to power.

I also received my Z3R0D GB trisuit at last, all printed up. Very proud!



Saturday was an early run before a wedding. It was my turn to drive as it was a friend of my wife. Next time she can drive! Today was finished off with a good session on the TT bike.

Taper time now. Shorter sessions but just as intense. Heading out to the Netherlands on Thursday.

Saturday 6 April 2013

Testing times

So following on from my last post I said I would take a week or so from running, which I did. I also did the early morning Threshold turbo session - TrainerRoad's Goethe.

It was strange doing such a session first thing, a few minutes after waking. This season most of my training has been in the evening and my body had to wake up rapidly this time. HR was lower than usual but was to be expected. It was nice to know the workout was done and out the way. This freed up the evening to go to a tri-club curry night, with a coaching discussion.

Wednesday was an active recovery turbo in the evening, followed by the first cycling Time Trial of the season on Thursday. I woke with a sore throat, and it had got worse by the evening. Work had overrun, and I left the house in a panic. I'd planned to cycle a lap of the course as a warmup, but in the end did some small loops. Not enough unfortunately. All I could do was shiver.

I signed on the line and was given #22. The first lap was OK even though I knew the last part of each lap was in to wind. The second lap became a lot harder halfway through. Post-ride analysis from my PowerCal shows the best 20 minute power was minutes 0-20! It was a real struggle to put out any power towards the end. Normally a TT is hard, but this was something else. After crossing the line I had an easy pedal up the road and back again, got in the car and went home, still cold. The time was horrendous and not what I had expected.

My NP for the TT was 259W and the AP 256W. More than both duathlons but not by much. Overall I was 10th of 22 riders, and the 14 knot wind didn't help. On the plus side I tried out a visor I'd bought for my TT helmet back in August! Reminded me a bit of flying, with the visor that far from my face - I'm used to riding in sunglasses.

All evening I was shivering and my muscles were sore. Friday I awoke with a headache, sore throat and sore muscles. Not happy, and didn't do any training.

Today was much better and managed to get out in the sun (yes, sun!) for a nice run, mostly track and trail. A bit further than 8km; some tenderness in the Achilles to begin with but it soon dissapeared. A tad tender afterwards but nothing to write home about. 

Next week is a busy week with travel so aiming to bike long tomorrow, bike Monday before work then run Tuesday before work. Back to track on Wednesday, though not too hard a session.

Monday 1 April 2013

Quarterly review

2013 - what a year, and we're only 3 months in!

It seems that January was mostly spent indoors though the number show otherwise. A minimal amount of running, most off-road due to ice and snow including a good XC league race at Tadley. Lots of turbo cycling though - great quality and quantity. 

February was an improvement in running volume and quality though the biking was reduced due to tapering and racing. Some good duathlon race results at Dorney and Althorp and of course qualifying for the ETU champs.

March was a bigger month all round with some great quality bike (road and MTB) and run sessions. The month was finished nicely with a ~4 hour club ride finishing at the cafe at Dinton Pastures, where I refulled with a sausage roll, chocolate fudge cake and a coffee.

With hindsight I wish I'd had some quick tracker so I can separate turbo and road rides. Perhaps something for me to add to my TrainingPeaks metrics.

April started with an easy 30km road ride, where I took in a lap of the HCC234 time trial course. My TT season starts there this Thursday. Tomorrow morning will be a good threshold TrainerRoad turbo session and Wednesday will be a 30 minute recovery ride to spin the legs out in readiness for Thursday. I'll swim Friday.

No running for me this week. A tight calf has caused my Achilles to become sore. Knocking running on the head for a week will not affect the goal for me. I will also stop my daily hamstring stretched as I have an inkling that the stretches are also contributing to the problem. Shame, as I was enjoying the track sessions. More time on the foam roller needed.

Even though it was a busy training weekend, the extra two days holiday meant some really good family time was had. We didn't do much - visited the in-laws Saturday for more cake, and then back over for Sunday lunch. Friday and today we chilled at home. Daughter leant to play draughts and is already beating me. One day I'll win against my wife too. Here's hoping at least!

Thursday 28 March 2013

A run focus

Last week was bike focused; this week is all about the run.

Monday was a club swim. Tuesday was a tempo run with my running club. A good distance for the tempo section at a good pace. Unfortunately my elastic laces caused my feet to start slipping in the shoes and the day after my feet were really sore.

Each toe has a blister on the end and the underside of my feet are quite sore too. I replaced the elastic laces with normal laces for Wednesday's track session. Another good session with 3 sets of decreasing reps. My left Achilles was a tad tender afterwards too, but nothing the foam roller can't cure!

Tonight saw me back on the turbo, doing a TrainerRoad sweetspot session to get the legs going, and watch some of a Harry Potter film.

Tomorrow I hope to get outside, or I'll hit a threshold session on the turbo.

Sunday 24 March 2013

Weekly update

It's Sunday evening so time to catch up on the week since my last post.

Wednesday was the start of the tri-club's track-brick sessions. After a good warm up and some drills I did 3 reps of 6 min bike and 800m track. Each bike rep was high cadence and the 3 800m reps were very well paced. Slightly slower than my usual 800m target but taken easier as I'd raced at the weekend.

Thursday saw an hour on the turbo riding Sufferfest's Fight Club on TrainerRoad. A good session especially with the sprint intervals within each interval rep. I'm not a big fan of big-gear low-cadence work, but it must be done to build strength!

Friday was a warm, sunny lunch time easy run, with some added pick-ups to keep me race-pace aware. Some trail, some road and some very muddy XC section. My XC shoes had only just dried after Marlow!

Saturday morning a parcel arrived in the post for me. It was the flag and stickers that Sufferfest had donated to me. Thanks Sufferfest!


My wife and I knew we had a busy weekend ahead of us. Both children had parties to go to plus the usual visit to the in-laws for cake. Normally I'd cycle over with a long detour though the logistics for the children meant that I'd not do it this week. That, and with the weekend weather forecast looking grim I'd planned to ride Sufferfest's new video, Blender. However I thought I should get outside and took the opportunity to ride my rarely-used MTB. I knew that Swinley Forest was being reworked in to a trail centre so I decided to take a snowy look. 

Once my daughter had been collected I cycled over to Swinley with a friendand  we spend an hour and a half trying out the new trails. The trail work is very impressive with some good surfaces and a noticeable lack of surface water despite the waterlogged forestry all around. A quick cup of Bovril and flapjack in the cafe, then a further hour rolling around Swinley before heading home for a warm cup of tea.


A really enjoyable session and back in the nick of time; we arrived just as my daughter was being dropped home.
 
This morning I left the family to their lie-in and headed out with a few friends from my running club. We ran deep wet muddy XC trails and climbed a few hills before heading back in to woodland trails and more mud. We parted ways after about an hour and I did another 30 minutes on my own whilst they went of for some longer mileage. Even though it was cold and lightly snowing it was a good run. I'm so lucky to have such a vast amount of running and cycling terrain on my doorstep.

I got home to find that my wife had baked a lovely cake, ideal recovery food from a run. I also found out that my son's couple of red spots had turned in to full blown chicken pox overnight. Unfortunately for him he would not be going to any party today, and had unwittingly jeopardised my daughters own birthday party scheduled for this week. Other than being very itchy he doesn't appear to be suffering and still tore round the house like a barbarian all afternoon.

Another good week of family fun and 9 hours quality training.

Tuesday 19 March 2013

Recovery and reflection

Marlow seems to have taken more out of me than I thought it would. The extra hilly 5km on the bike and the extra 4km run have taken their toll. Yesterday was a 30 minute recovery spin and a club swim in the evening. I have just finished an hour on the turbo, doing TrainerRoad's Ericsson. 4 x 8minute sweetspot intervals. Sweetspot gives a great training stimulus but doesn't hammer the body as much as Threshold work. Great for recovery.

Comparing previous year's results I finished 26 places higher than 2012, where I finished 49th. A great improvement. I think this says a lot about base training; the bulk of the training I did for the Outlaw Iron-distance tri was all in heart-rate Z2, low effort, endurance based training.

Here is the Marlow bike leg on TrainingPeaks viewer. Compare this against the bike leg from Althorp. Both have the same training stress score (TSS) though Marlow was 5km longer and almost ~80m more climb. It seems obvious now the reduced effort I put in on the bike leg at Marlow.

Just waiting on the pictures from Marlow now!