IMUK 2014

This year has been a strange one so far, I began the year hungrier than ever to smash last years races and put the time in to get some strong results. It all seemed to start off pretty well, my running was quicker than it ever has been (still slow by most standards) and my cycling had taken on another level with the use of a power meter. However it was about 4-5 weeks out from IMUK I felt like I just didn't want to be doing this anymore. Training sessions were a drag, and my only motivation seemed to be not wanting to embarrass myself completely on race day. This wrapped up with the fact that my peak weeks were mixed in with some unavoidable social events meant preparation did not go to plan, Instead of a peak week of 20 hours, it was actually 2 hours :( . In the end it looked like I was in a similar position to the year previous, having not quite capped off my long cycle or run sessions. Swimming was another thing altogether. Even post race I've only swam 29km year to date.

So after the peak weeks that never happened race week arrived, and so I was just hoping that I'd maintained some semblance of fitness in order to complete. My only saving grace was my own assurance that an extra years Ironman training endurance had to be worth something. The extra fitness had seemed to come through in my half iron warm up race, so this was positive at least. I only exercised up until the Wednesday prior to the race to keep myself as fresh as possible. On Friday I left to get up to Bolton nice and early in order to register, get set up and then relax Saturday prior to the race on Sunday.

I arrived up at the newly named Macron stadium at around 2pm after a long and slow car journey, to the new T2, and registration tent. All the usual expo stuff, and simple registration, a much better transition bag given out this year though which is always a nice touch. After registering I headed over to the stadium for the race briefing, which was much the same as the year before. I was made to feel like a bit of an old hand, being the only guy on my table who was coming back for a second serving! All the other competitors were Ironman virgins so to speak.

After registration I settled back at the hotel with some pizza, got to love carb loading prior to race day.

Saturday arrived and it was time to get over to T1 with my bike and bags. Sadly it was pretty much raining all day, so I headed over in the wet to rack my bike and get the rain cover on asap to stop c.£5k's worth of bike getting sopping wet. Had a quick look around to familiarise myself but pretty standard stuff. Wandered over to the lake in order to gee up some pre race nerves. Which as with most of my races this year had not been present, at least not until the start line. Breaking news though, the swim looked long. To add to which it would be the longest swim I would have done this year by approximately 1800 additional metres. Superb prep work! I was suitably nervous in that moment. Especially given my swim last year (Read last years IMUK report, not pretty).

After this I caught up with a friend also racking his bike. Since IMUK had changed the bike course this year for a 2 lap course rather than 3 shorter laps (more on this later) and I had not seen the new course (another prep fail) Jason and I wanted to take a look at the course and suss any dodgy points etc.

Well driving round the course at 60mph in the pouring rain probably isn't the best preparation, for course knowledge, nerves, or the body. It was kind of Jase to drive me round though, and I felt at least I had a better feel for areas of concern and just the course in general. Several sections I thought would be carnage, but actually riding them turned out not to be so bad, guess driving and cycling don't transfer too well.

Back to my hotel and I settled down for a night of sleep, not before applying a few layers of sun cream. Despite the unrelenting rain all day Saturday, Sunday was actually forecast to be sunny!

The alarm was due to buzz at 3:15am but I was awake at 3am. I whacked the kettle on to get some porridge on the go and while I waited applied my sexy number tattoos to my arms. Two porridges and an energy bar later I put my race gear on and got ready to head out of the door. With everything I needed in the car I drove over towards Pennington Flash once more. Parking at the Morrisons nearby necessitated a 5-minute walk through the back of the country park towards the flash. In what I hoped would be the scariest portion of my day I navigated my way along a pitch black path through the woods, alone towards the lake.

Upon coming out the other side I was greeted with a familiar train of nervous athletes making their way towards the lake, I'm guessing they were the sensible ones who took the well lit roadway. I got to my bike and set nutrition and Garmins up. Interesting to be racked adjacent to the pro field in order to oggle their bikes and them in general. :blushes: A quick hello to the parents who had made the journey to spectate and it was time to get the wetsuit on. Nice and early. Trouble with it being so warm was that it was tough to even slide the wetsuit on, but an absolute sweat fest when it was on! Needs must though as I wanted to get in the water nice and early to place myself exactly where I wanted.
Nerves build and I jump into the water, I swam over to the very far right and placed myself at the very front in order to try and avoid any carnage.

The buzzer sounded and they're off, in all my open water mass start experience, this was one of the cleanest start I'd had. Lesson learned, get to the front, maybe at the side! I settled in pretty nicely and was well on my way. The first lap went without incident, and I actually had the first lap done in 34minutes. Second lap was a bit choppier due to the volume of people moving through the water but the journey out to the far turn buoy also passed without incident, save for beginning to feel my neck chafe. On the way back in I began to fade pretty bigtime though, the lack of long swim training was showing now! I finally jumped out of the water with a 1:14 swim. Not too shabby all things considered.

I jogged towards transition, and for some reason my attitude by this point was pretty poor, I was struggling to motivate myself to even get changed for the 112 ride. I slowly managed to sort myself but was then out on the bike after 7 minutes of faffing.

I jumped on and pedalled out of the country pack towards the main road, negotiating the speed bumps on the way, as well as every type of spilled energy bars, gels and drinks you could care to imagine (Do people purposely try and balance food on their top tube and hope it'll stay put for the durations?? or do they just not try using bottles and food on their bikes in training!?) I also passed a cyclist who'd decked it on one of the speed bumps, he looked ok though thankfully.

Out onto the main road and I went to apply some power but felt horrific! I had some odd pain in my left groin I'd never experienced cycling before, and generally felt sub par. I tried to get as much drink in me as possible hoping this was the solution. After 15 miles or so I was ready to drop my bike and wander off the course, but I had a word with myself and cracked on. By this point I was climbing sheep house lane, into the mist and rain, which did nothing for my mental state. My visor was so fogged by this point I had to tip the helmet right back and peer under the steamed visor. I climbed sheephouse steadily and without incident and was beginning to feel a little better by this point. I used the fast decent following the climb to try and air out the helmet which helped a touch.

At the top of the Sheephouse climb

Climbing Sheephouse, complete with very foggy visor!

I began to settle into the ride, but it wasn't until an hour in that I began to take on food, possibly  no definitely a mistake. 30 miles in I felt better for having nutrition and gels etc. and began to crack on a little. The nature of the course however is that its incredibly bitty. Loads of climbing, lots of dead corners, and bad surfaces to attempt to maintain speed over. Which all adds up to a huge variability in power output. Now my training rides I could usually pick a course I could settle into, getting a Variability Index (VI) of close to 1.00 (1.03-1.05 in most cases), I ended up with 1.30 here! This all added up to a mild blow up around 90 miles in. I started to feel pretty sick, and was probably dehydrated. I tried to force food down as I knew I'd need it for the run but it was seriously hard to swallow. My target for the bike leg had been around 200w, but I was struggling to get around 150w out by this point. Afer 6:12 on the bike T2 finally loomed and I wheeled my bike up to a friendly volunteer who relieved me of its presence, before tottering over to the change tent and my run bag.

Bombing towards Sheephouse for the second climb, love this section, approx 35mph at this point.

Same place, different angle

I grabbed my bag, then a seat in quick succession. At this point all the muscles in my legs began to spasm and cramp rather nastily, I ignored it at the time but I'm figuring it was down to not taking on enough water during the bike, which was in turn probably another reason for the 90 mile mini bonk. Run shoes on I headed out onto the run course, and surprisingly felt reasonable maintaining a very steady run pace. It was on now, there was no chance I was given in now. Numerous times during the day up to that point I'd considered quitting, but strangely as soon as I was running it never even crossed my mind.

Almost looks like a smile at this point, early days!

I jogged in towards Bolton and felt reasonable. After a couple of aid stations I arrived onto the remainder of the 3 loop course. The 1000 mile stare was well in use by this point and I just tapped away, walking the aid stations, the big hill and a few bits in between. The support was pretty monumental though, and that helped a great deal, as did the on course nutrition. A couple of times I came close to running out of food before just making it to an aid station for as much water, coke, gels and pretzels as I could stomach. After 3 laps of much the same I was finally able to make my way into the finish chute.

1000 mile stare in fine operation - IN THE ZONE!

I'm gonna finish it! Sucking up the atmosphere at the finish, and loving it

Still loving it...

I high fived my parents and a bunch of spectators on the way in and sprinted down the chute arms aloft with that feeling you just don't get anywhere else. Finishing an Ironman, with a healthy pb for good measure. I even managed to crack a 5 hour marathon. I should really try and do one without a bike ride first one day!

YOU ARE AN IRONMAN, again...

12:41 (40mins better than 2013)
Swim - 1:14
Bike - 6:12
Run - 4:58

So that was IMUK 2014. Plenty more lessons learned and things to take away in order to improve in years to come. On finishing happily I was reminded once more why I entered in the first place, and why I spent all that time training.

Finishing any triathlon brings a nice sense of accomplishment, but Ironman is something quite special, I realise how lucky I am to have had the opportunity to have done two now. However at this point in my life (I'm still only 26) I think I need to take a break from it for a year or two. Its a sport which does not lend well to having a social life, something which I like to think I enjoy having!

So watch this space, I'm sure I'll be back doing IM distance in the future (a nice fast flat course like IM Barcelona tickles my fancy at the moment) but I think for next year at least I'll be working on run technique, cycling more and maybe doing the odd sprint or oly distance tri for fun.

Outlaw Half 2014

I awoke the morning of Sunday 1st June in a sweaty state at 3:50am, 20 minutes before my alarm. I was fully awake now anyway and wasn't going to sleep anymore so decided to get out of bed and begin to prepare for the days racing. I felt seriously dehydrated, not sure whether this was the previous nights food, the stifling hotel room, or a mixture of both not good. Immediately I started drinking a load of water in order to feel normal again!

Two pots of instant porridge later and I packed up the hotel room and made my way downstairs to the car, and a painful 40mph (average speed cameras) drive across to the National Water Sports centre. The conditions however, could literally not be more perfect. Cloudless sky, and windless conditions. Excellent.

When I arrived the centre was already a hive of activity and I found myself a parking spot and began to unload all of my gear I would need for the day. I found it strange this year I wasn't really particularly nervous, but was becoming nervous for fear of not being nervous enough if that even makes sense. Worried I was becoming over confident!

I got to transition which was a pretty cramped affair and managed to set out my stuff the way I wanted it, and put my wetsuit on. It was by this point I was in severe need of a toilet stop, which I began the long queue for at 6:10am, the race was due to kick off at 6:30am. 10 minutes later I was still queueing and the organisers were beginning to gather my wave at the water! One seriously quick toilet stop later and I was jogging down to the water front still grappling with my wetsuit to try and get it on, now I was getting nervous!

I finally managed to get the suit done up, hat on, goggles sorted and in the water with a couple of minutes to spare. One of the great things about this race is the wave starts, and the space you get. I seeded myself in the faster group to the left hand side, with ample room to spare. 1 minute to go, watch ready googles sorted, ready to go. 10, 9, 8... you get the picture! We were off, immediately I found a good amount of space and was swimming nicely with room either side, perfect! The water itself absolutely stank though and was seriously full of weeds. At times it felt like you were fighting through it slightly.

The long outward leg was fairly uneventful, and due to this set to be the longest swim I'd done all year I wasn't expecting too much in the way of pace, eventually the halfway mark came without incident, I steered clear of the buoys to prevent any biff, and was shortly round the second turn buoy and back towards transition. Quick check of the watch showed 16 mins which I was more than happy with. On the way back in I managed to find a great pair of feet to follow in which I'm sure saved me a minute or so. I throttled back a touch in the slipstream and felt good.

Eventually the swim exit loomed and I began to kick to wake the legs up slightly, up and out of the exit feeling decent, albeit with a bit extra weed plant life attached to me! Swim time 33:34

T1 was a fairly sedate affair, bit of a struggle to get the wetsuit off without cramping up my calves, but eventually fine. Helmet on, number belt, nutrition in the pockets, bike shoes on and off out of transition onto the bike course in 3:51.

Now the bike has always been my favourite discipline and given the conditions I hoped this would be no different, especially as an already fast flat course. I managed a 2:47 here last year so hoped to better this. I set out riding to a fairly inspecific power goal of around 220-240, managing it as I went and comparing power to heart rate so as not to over exert myself. The bike course was brilliant fun and went mostly without drama. My garmin decided to enter a sort of diagnostic mode a couple of times which was a bit annoying but nothing a quick reset couldn't sort. I felt good for most of the bike, and was on top of my nutrition nicely. I had to make a toilet stop at the first aid station which cost me a minute or so, this was as a result of waking up so dehydrated and drinking so much in the morning! Toward the latter end of the bike my quads began to become a bit full of lactate, which was annoying as they really shouldn't have considering I was going reasonably easy. I began to push a bit more the last 10 miles, as I was coming up on a bit of traffic and wanted to get past, and I was still feeling really good by this point. Much different to last year where I was falling apart at this stage!

Thumbs up! Feeling good. 

Eventually onto the last mile and I did a few short bursts out of the saddle to wake myself up a bit. Into T2 with a bike split of 2:36, 10 minutes improved from the year before. 22mph average with an average power of 214w. Quite a bit less than what I was expecting to ride to, possibly as a result of the morning dehydration. Happy nonetheless to come in quicker and with plenty left for the run. T2 was dealt with in
2:07 and I was off out onto the run course feeling pretty good.

I started off the run at sub 8min mile pace which was probably too quick but I felt good so just ran by feel, I ended up turning off my garmins HR warning as I was pushing 168bpm by this point. High, but I felt good so just rolled with it. A couple of miles in and still feeling well. The run went largely without incident and felt as good as you can throughout. Had to make two toilet stops for a minute or two each time which was a little frustrating but something I've come to expect consuming so much caffeine. I concentrated on a rhythm and just kept tapping away. Walking aid stations where I felt I needed to.

The grass section was a bit energy sapping and the toe path was congested at times, especially with members of the public still being allowed on!

The last lap of the lake was tough and the sun was beating down by this point, but I was still feeling ok so began to push a bit on the last leg. I knew I'd probably just missed out on a 5:10 finish but under 5:15 was still on the table and a sub 2-hour half, so I kept going.

Down the finish chute, and you just can't beat that feeling. Smile says it all!

Overall a pretty well executed race in great conditions. The main aims where obviously to complete, and better last years time of 5:39 which I did pretty comprehensively throughout the race so I was super chuffed with that. I think just having the extra years endurance in the body helped so much all over with that, as well as the experience to know roughly how I should be feeling.

Looking forward to the next BIG block of training now IMUK is very near indeed. Need to get three or so big 100 mile rides in the legs and a couple of big runs before the taper. Started back to try and train today but only managed a 500m swim and a couple of minutes running, due to picking up the biggest blister I've ever seen on my left foot. Something I didn't notice on the run, but definitely did afterwards! Product of not changing socks in T2 I think. Lesson learned!

Training Update

So its been a while since I 've penned any updates, about time. Anyone would have thought I'd lost interest in triathlon! Thankfully as I write training has been going very well, as always with a few caveats and exceptions! Last year my main weakness was my running, which was something that I specifically concentrated on over the winter. The technique work is now paying off which is great fun to see. More detail on that later!

Swimming

There has been none! Last year the plan I followed concentrated a lot on swimming and I kept up with it for the most part at the beginning of the plan, then I got so bored with the volume I let it drop off before the race which was rather silly. This year I've gone the other way and tried to keep a couple of sessions going before ramping up towards the later months. I've always been able to maintain a reasonable base of swimming so am hoping this plan works.

Cycling

This has been going very well. I've been hitting all my volume targets weather permitting and now that the clocks have gone forward getting out after work for a good length ride is so much easier. Training with power this year has really brought my riding on another level. As has having a very good new position on a correctly fitted bike! This is being reflected in my power numbers, and more importantly my training ride times. I've also been able to maintain close to 20mph averages for almost 70 miles at the moment, something which I was quite far away from last year. Hoping this should also improve given race conditions and aero wheels and helmet!

Running

My main area for improvement this year is going well. All of 2013 I barely set a PB as my running became gradually more and more inefficient. I was heel striking and doing it slowly. My main long runs were around the 9:00min/mile pace if I was lucky. I've chopped almost a minute off that pace, so my times are coming tumbling down, and as a result I've already set 3 new 10k pb's this year. This feels great, and is exciting. The last pb I felt like I was just out on a tempo run until the 5mile point, at which I realised a pb was within reach, so I all but sprinted the last 1.2miles. Not the most efficient way to get a pb, which fills me with yet more confidence given I'm sure I could go faster if well paced.

All of this is fairly meaningless over 10k distance when related to the IM distance, so I'll need to shift a focus onto doing some slightly longer distances over the next few weeks. It'll be interesting to see how this speed translates into splits in my coming races though.

Less than a month now until my first race of the year which is a sprint distance, so over the coming weeks I'll be concentrating on bringing up my swim volume and pretty much maintaining everything else. The bike distances will also start to pick up quite considerably too.

Looking forward to it. Another positive to note this year is my general outlook. I've been concerned that as I've completed the IM distance that I'd lost some of the fear that pushed my last year. I'm very aware that I do not want to become complacent. But I think being more laid back about training and striking up more of a balance between social time and training time has left me in a much better position. Last year I was fairly anal about missing sessions, and often pushed myself to being burnt out or ill, even injured. I've managed to avoid those things so far, yet am still performing better than this time last year, which is really positive.

I'll be looking to do some more analysis soon to try and quantify exactly where and how different my fitness is year on year.

Jan Training update

So training through January has been going pretty well so far.

Swimming volume is pretty minimal still but that's always been the plan. Will be looking to pick this up in the next few weeks.

Cycling volume is average at the moment, didn't quite manage 200 miles in January but power is fairly good, I'm looking forward to cracking on with this in Feb weather permitting.

Running is where the real progress is coming at the moment, having been running midfoot/forefoot strike now I'm really seeing the benefit. Manage a "long" run of 8.5 miles on Sunday at an average pace of 8:10min/miles with the last three splits being 8:01, 7:41, and 7:08. Talk about finishing strong. I also managed to top a two year old 10k pb in Jan so the new one is 47:08 (Too early to aspire to a sub 45 this year!?). Both these things I just could not have done a year ago, which is super exciting for the rest of the year. The run has always been what has held me back from some competitive results.

The first week of Feb has been a bit of a write off though as I've been out with a nasty cough/cold. Better to just suck up the time off an recover quickly that to try and train through it and prolong it, having taken experience from last year. Really looking forward to training again next week.

I've also replaced my old Boardman with something a little newer to keep me motivated on the bike! Still dialling it in, and only done a little ride on the rollers and 20 minutes out on the road to check everything over. Initial thoughts are that it feels seriously quick. Hydraulic brakes are also awesome.

Happy training all!

Training update

So quite a bit has happened since my last update. I've now completed my first four week block of base training which overall has gone pretty well.

At the end of last year I had specifically been working on changing my running technique as it was always something that I knew had slowed me down. I was a clear heel striker which is quite obviously a very inefficient way to run, essentially braking yourself with each step you take, the video below gives a nice explanation:

All the work and painful calves at the end of last season are now paying off, as I feel massively more effortless when I run, and my speed is also picking up with the same effort which is a fantastic feeling. I even managed to pick up a 10k pb on a recent training run without too much extra effort. This even included a pretty big hill so could have been even faster! 

In bike news I sold my Boardman bike recently. It was a great bike but was not ideally suited to my body shape. I bought it based on the normal size for your height method which seems pretty common nowadays. I decided I did not want to make the same mistake again and so invested in a bike fit with Ten Point in Amersham. The whole process from start to end was absolutley brilliant. Every small change was talked about and explained to me, and we worked for almost two hours through the F.I.S.T fitting protocol to get the perfect position. (Check out Slowtwitch.com if you want to know more). After this process I was given the crucial stack and reach figures that were most suitable for me and we went through some bikes that might be a good fit. I had been secretly hoping Cervelo frames were within my range and happily they were almost perfectly suited to me :) As a result I've decided on the new P3. Pictures to follow!

Training wise the bike has also been going well, and my power is now starting to come up. My 20min power has even improved on last years best, which is encouraging at this point of the year! 

Swim training is the weak point at the moment, and I've missed a couple of sessions recently. I'll be hoping to pick this up this week and start to see some improvements hopefully. I've always held reasonably good swim fitness so its not something I'm too concerned about at this point of the year.

Thanks for reading guys, train strong!