w/c 03/06/13 Back to the grind

So Outlaw half has been and gone and its back to the grind. Motivation has definitely been renewed by my latest race, and I really what to get into the final leg of my IMUK prep.

I started the week with a slow run on the Tuesday which was really difficult. My whole body was still in pain, but I stuck it out. I think these sessions almost count for the most, and feel great once done. This was no exception. Still pretty baked from the race I only managed around 1500m in the pool that evening at no great speed.

Wednesday came and I got out on the bike which felt ok. Missed the following run due to pure tiredness.

Thursday and up early for the swim of which i managed 2500m. I felt much better now, and had largely recovered muscle ache wise. I also managed to get out on the TT bike, and hit a few PR's on strava despite it being pretty gusty out. Bike legs where feeling much stronger by this point.

Now, I should have made it clear that this was not going to be the usual blog update as this weekend my Sister was getting married on the Saturday. This was at our local church and then the reception was at home, with a large marquee on the lawn.

A lot of Friday was spent as Thursday prepping stuff for the wedding, mowing lawns, general odd jobs, and collecting people and things from various places. As a result I always accepted my training would take a break over the weekend which I had no problem with.

I did manage to get out Friday afternoon and had one of the best runs I've had in ages, I felt really strong and  the legs felt powerful. Hopefully an after effect of the half iron distance. I only stayed out for an hour but it was really good.

I woke early Saturday and began to get the last remaining things for the wedding. No training today, just had to be in the church to be Usher for half 1. This was followed by the reception at home.

Quite honestly one of the best weekends of my life, I've never seen two people quite as happy in each other as my sister and her new husband which was pretty humbling (soppiness over). The party that followed was also amazingly good. Brilliant time. Unfortunately I think I'm now suffering with a bout of post wedding blues if that even exists for brothers of the bride!

Its Tuesday and I've just about recovered from this and managed another decent run this morning. After a week of eating like an absolute pig (I don't want to see another cake ever again) I'm geared up more than ever to attack my last bit of training before the big day. Really can't wait to crack on now.

Swim, Bike, Run: Our Triathlon Story - Alistair Brownlee, Jonathan Brownlee

Just thought I'd add a post for the titled book. In my short time so far as a triathlete I've read quite a few books and biographies as a source of inspiration. I may well do a reading list of sorts for those interested as there are a few bibles included that I constantly refer to.

I've always been in admiration of the Brownlee's as I'm sure many of you have as well. But this is honestly one of the best triathlon books I've read. Truly inspirational, and something I just couldn't put down.

Absolutely priceless in terms of its capacity to build motivation and inspiration as well!



Swim, Bike, Run: Our Triathlon Story

Outlaw Photos

Thought I'd just post a couple of these up. I'll blog again to cover this week this evening!

Outlaw Half Iron Distance Race Report - Blood, Sweat and Tears

So, last time I blogged I was tucked up in bed pre Outlaw. I am now half an Ironman! hopefully I can be one and a half in 9 weeks time.

I had a great race weekend and thoroughly enjoyed what was a brilliantly organised event. The setting of the national water-sports center is perfect for it, and the course overall was brilliant.

My weekend started on the Saturday morning when I loaded all my worldly triathlon possessions into the car and set off for Nottingham. The weather was looking great which was a massive bonus, and the wind was looking calm too, all the better to use 100mm carbon wheels in. After a long 2 and half hour drive up to Nottingham I arrived to the centre and registered. Wandered round the expo and made some necessary last minute purchases too, as I'd stupidly left my goggles and neoprene swim hat at the lake during the week. (So much for not trying anything new on race day). Then really stupidly went off to my hotel room without going to the race briefing. So, drove back to the watersports centre to catch up. Luckily nothing too critical, mostly just safety stuff, and nothing that wasn't really in the race notes.

So retired back to the hotel room after some quick shopping for race morning breakfast and my evening meal. I'd been consciously eating more than usual during the day to try and carb up, and had a craving for salty chips, so went for a fish and chip supper. Definitely not the most nutritious but I figured it would be ok. Tasted good anyhow!

I've had worse views

After some bike prep and some tv in the hotel room I settled down with an alarm set for 4:45.

In the past I've struggled for sleep before a big event, mostly in worry that i'll miss my alarm, which is stupid considering I set about 5 of them. The night before this race was no exception and it was pretty restless sleep, mostly out of excitement more than anything else really. As I finally get to test myself for real after all the training, and get the race buzz again. I woke at 4:30 and decided as I was pretty awake just to get up.

Breakfast was a pot of instant porridge, a yoghurt and banana. I tried not to eat too much as I didn't want a full stomach sloshing around all day. All my stuff was ready so I checked out and jumped into the car to head over to the race. Luckily I knew the route by now and it was only a 5 minute drive.

Morning race fans!

Parked up and brought all my stuff to setup my transition, which was busy by now. I love walking through transition just to check out all the kit people have and the setups they are using. Find it so interesting (Geek!).  Was great to get back in on a big race too after having done a pretty minor sprint as my last one.

I kitted up and queued for the loo, and before I knew it it was time to wetsuit up, and get in the water.

Jumping into the lake after watching the first wave set off at 6:30, the water was a lot warmer than expected, and definitely warmer than my local open water lake. I seeded myself pretty much in the middle of the faster group towards the left so I had an easy out if I couldn't keep up. Nervous chatter with some other competitors and then the five second count came. I was off. This part of the swim is always nervous as you never know if you are going to find a gap or get completely mugged by everyone. Luckily I found the gap, and had to get past a couple of people, but found a guy to work with and we pretty much swam together the whole way out to the halfway turn. That was pretty cool as I've never had that before. I felt decent at the turn and checked my watch as 17 minutes. Not too bad, and I felt like I wasn't pushing too hard. I lost my swimming partner on the turns, but soon found somebody to stick with on the way back in. So much nicer to swim with people, less sighting is needed, and i'm sure you work at a more consistent pace.

Before I knew it I was hauling myself out the water with a swim time of 34 minutes. Jogged through transition and just took it pretty easy to get my stuff on. Jumped on the bike and set off round the lake. Began to check my heart rate at this point and it was up around 175bpm, I knew that wasn't right for the effort level, so assumed this was just an after effect of the swim and transition. Thankfully it began to settle out around the 155-160 level I'm more accustomed to. Now I knew I needed to nutrition up now to get in shape for the bike ride and run to come. So I swallowed a gel and took on some fluid.

**
Now as you can see in the pictures of my bike I decided on using a profile design aqua rack for my IM races this year. My thoughts being that I could have tools and essentials in one bottle, and fluid in another to supplement the speedfil. Well safe to say I won't be doing this again as I'll explain later on. Luckily I decided against this and added a small top tube bag before the race for a couple of gels and my puncture kit. My spare tub would still be attached to the rack, and I left it empty of bottles so I could pick some up in the feed stations along the way
**

I felt decent coming out of the water sports centre and on to the road so started to increase the effort level a little, and was soon overtaking people on a regular basis. I worked with a few people too and we were alternating overtaking each other. The course was nice with some decent roads and no major inclines bar one. This was interesting though, as I now had the compact installed I span up it at a good pace, and had to resort to the other side of the road to overtake people, as people had really slowed here. Guess my hill climbing isn't so bad! I concentrated the rest of the ride on riding to heart rate and feel, and taking on nutrition regularly.

Early on in the ride I was overtaken by Luke Dragstra, I could not believe the speed he came past at. ( I believe he was first out of the water but was held up in transition and then had a puncture soon after, eventually finished 12th). He came hurtling past and was literally gone within seconds, it was incredible to behold. Made everyone look like they were out doddling around.

I was looking good for a sub 2:45 ride before I slowed to collect a bottle at the second feed station. I grabbed the bottle and went to reach to put it in the rear bottle rack, which wasn't there?! Now remember by tub was attached at this point, as was my 2 spare co2 canisters. (luckily my tools etc not). I slowed and jumped off to see what was going on, and the rack was hanging right down all loose. I whipped my multi tool out of the top tube bag and attempted to tighten it up, but the spare tub, which I had ziptied to the rack was in the way. So at the time I thought I had no choice but to rip the thing off and dump it at the feed station. It did occur to me that I could have just left it hanging, but I didn't think it was fair to have it potentially fall off at some point on the course.

Luckily the build quality didn't seem to great so it eventually came off after some twisting and pulling, not before slicing a couple of my fingers, and getting blood all over my nice new white bartape :( . After all this I filled my speedfil with the bottles I had and set off again, with no spare tub or co2. So if I had a puncture at this point it was going to be over. Looking at the garmin data I estimate to have lost 3 or 4 minutes faffing with this before I set off again. I attempted to make back up some ground and put a burst of speed on as I was still feeling good. The last 6 miles or so of the bike course the wind seemed to really pick up and my pace slowed a bit, but I was fine with that in order to prepare the legs for the run. Before I knew it I was a mile away from transition. Annoyingly, putting aside the feed station debacle, the last mile or so was a real average killer. It was almost a gravel track at points, with a load of speedbumps. I'm amazed most people stayed upright, as it was sketchy at best. But I made it back into transition with a bike split according to the results of 2:46. Still pretty happy with that all things considered.

Bike GPS data

Remains of the aqua rack

I racked my bike back up and set off round the lake for my first of two laps. It was at this point I realised not having applied sun cream was a massive error, as it was seriously warm out, and I could feel the back of my neck burning. Teamed with a nice bit of wetsuit chafage, my neck was going to be in a bit of a mess after. Lesson learned for the big race! Pace felt reasonably as I set out of transition with a first mile in 8:30 or so, but it just got slower and slower. I stopped for a loo break at one aid station, and then after my first 6 mile lap I would walk the aid stations to maximise getting fluid and nutrition on board. This seemed to work but I was still putting out 10-11 minute miles. Seriously slow going. I'd raced previously with elastic laces as I was today, but I think I'd pulled them in tight as my feet were in agony for most of the run. I tried to alter my footfall but it wasn't really helping, so I resorted to running on the grass verge where I could at points.

I was still feeling solid throughout the run, and not finishing was never a danger but it was just tough going. I didn't wear a HR monitor on my wrist although I recorded it using the garmin in my back pocket, so was just running on feel really. Looking back at the data I can see I was a couple of points below my optimum of 160bpm for most of the run, so in all honesty could have and should have stepped up the pace really. Chalk up another lesson learned for the big race!

Finally I was homeward bound and on the last mile of the run, managed a sprint down into the shoot and was greeted by many cheers. I was doing the race solo with no support as my family have been busy preparing for my sisters wedding next weekend. So to have people being able to see the name printed on your number and shout personal encouragement was brilliant. So good to hear people shouting and knowing they are encouraging you on. Crossing the line in 5:39:16 was fantastic. I'd roughly wanted to go sub 6 hours, so this was great. I was handed a finishers medal and t shirt, and then walked through to an area that was serving free food and cake to all the other finishers, bonus! There was also free massage (with a long queue). I tucked into a nice chilli, and then hobbled my way over to transition to get my stuff and get home.

Nice to get an actual decent finishers top, can actually wear this training as its decent training type material

A two and half hour drive home isn't the best way to recover from a half ironman effort either in case you were wondering!

So, overall a fantastic event which I thoroughly enjoyed. Not as hard as I was expecting it to be, but it was all about economy of effort throughout in order to finish. Some good lessons learnt for my A race, and the experience is always useful. Definitely a race I would do again, and a distance as well. Long enough to be seriously tough, but short enough to be not completely destructive on the body.

Overall my splits were something like the below:

Swim: 34:13
T1: 2:52
Bike: 2:47:41
T2: 2:30
Run: 2:12
Total: 05:39:16

So blood was spilt, sweat was most definitely sweated, just the tears to come! Definitely been boosted by this, even though its brought home how difficult the full Iron distance will be, I'm positive I can attack the coming sessions and make it work. Really looking forward to getting stuck into the next training block now.

Thankfully I've got this week off work so I should be able to get some quality recovery and training time in, the sensational weather we have at the moment is a massive plus. Need to try and rid my sexy tri suit tan lines too!

Not too shabby

Boom!

Thanks for reading!

Outlaw half, pre race

Outlaw half is almost here, all my stuff is pretty much ready. Alarm is set for 4:45!

Not the most nutritious fish and chips dinner before bed but it was tasty! Looking forward to the race, a little unsure what to expect pacing wise but we shall see!
Was great to get around the expo and have a bit of a splurge. Stupidly left my swim neoprene hat and goggles at the lake during the week so replaced them, and also bought a new tri suit.
Nice to also watch some of the sprint races that were going on as well.

Update!

So I've been getting really slack lately (Not just updating this blog!), I've written about lack of mojo before now, but unfortunately I'm really struggling at the moment, certainly less than ideal exactly a week before I'll be running the Outlaw Half Ironman Distance race. I'm beginning to think its a triathletes true calling to constantly be self analyzing and never being happy about current performance. I've also been finding my actual desire for the final IMUK goal waning, probably mostly down to pure self doubt, and being unhappy with training, rather than not wanting to race.

I'm more than happy with my swim fitness and technique. I even managed 1500m in open water this week to try out the 2xu wetsuit I got at Christmas time. Quite a bit different to my old Orca S4 which went missing at London Tri. Much better fit, and it seemed a lot more bouyant than I remember the S4 being. Could just be a bit of placebo though. I only stayed in for two laps, as it was seriously cold on the face! For sure I'll be going back for some more though as open water is so so much more enjoyably than pool reps! 1500m was done in under 25 mins, so looking at around 1:40/100m which I'd be happy to do at IM, and Outlaw! Faster than my time at London Triathlon last year too which is pleasing.

The root of the worries are still the bike leg unfortunately. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my bike fit, and the improvement that it made. Certainly it was a move in the right direction but I since did a few 60+ mile rides, every time I would get near the end of the ride only for my quads to absolutely give up. Something I've never really had on my road bike, where I'd be comfortable to go 100+ miles and not feel too shabby after. Something which could possibly be conducive to a decent IM performance!

So I decided to try and eliminate the differences in the road bike to the TT bike and bring them a little closer together, my thinking is that this will help things. So the first thing I did was change something completely unrelated, the handlebars!  (Sensible is my middle name!)

In fairness its something which has dogged the bike from day one, while flat extensions do look the dogs danglies, unless you have double jointed wrists they aren't the most comfortable for long distances. So I managed to get a set of Bontrager bars with J bend extensions, which are so much more comfortable, leaving your wrists at a natural angle. Also much lighter than the outgoing bars so a nice weight saving too. Bonus.

So arm comfort improved, another aspect that has varied from road to TT bike has been the chainset. Now I ride a compact 50/34 with 172.5mm arms on the roadie, and can spin circles very nicely, and the reason my quads don't feel smoked after a long ride on the roadie is that I activate my hamstrings  a lot more much more to spin circles, result they pain is shared more equally across all the active muscles. Something which I have since realised just doesn't happen on the TT bike, which has a 54/42 chainset with 175mm arms. Now, I have changed the 42 for a 39, to aid climbing, but it still doesn't allow the best climbing, and I always have to get out of the saddle for steepish climbs, so its something that has always been calling for change really. I've decided to now change this to a compact (50/34) with 172.5mm arms to match the roadie. Hopefully this will improve matters. Although due to delivery problems this will be debuted during Outlaw half. Hmm :/

The third thing I've recently changed is the saddle which was also causing me grief over distance. Now I've dabbled with ISM's before and got on fairly well, but the Prologue I have at the moment is just not working. Initially they always seem great, and work well, but over distance it just chafes the inner thigh way to much. Having worked out that I have narrow sitbones (no idea how as I seem to have plenty of junk in my trunk if you catch my drift) I just don't think I'm compatible. So in further quest for comfort I've gone back to a conventional specialized toupe. Another much lighter component than the outgoing item, Bonus 2.

All these weight savings have however been largely nullified by the addition of the profile design bottle cages I added to my seat however. The speedfil is only big enough for a couple hours riding so I needed another cage for extra, so I've dumped the saddle bag, and have tools in one bottle and drink in the other. Looks snazzy too!

Anyhow, I managed to get out this Saturday to try the new saddle (not the crankset, grrr) and to my delight it was much more comfortable, and whats more enable to me to engage the hamstrings and spin much better circles due to the alteration in position. Something which must have been thrown out due to the ISM saddle. My thoughts are that it just move me much too far forward. So changing to the compact should improve this even more hopefully.

Picture below, looking better than ever in my opinion. (I prefer the new crankset too, so once that's on it'll look even better. Important for it to look good, even if I am dog slow riding it.) Also undecided on what wheels to use for Outlaw, tubulars, or clinchers?!

The ride on Saturday was not my best though, I only managed 50 miles as I just wasn't feeling the full distance I had planned, also due to fiddling with the bike all week I set out without the ability to shift into the big ring (fail). I couldn't be bothered to stop to try and correct as it would take a while, so I spent the whole ride on the inner ring. Not too big a deal as the 54 ring is only really used on the very flat and or downhill but just another mental thing to wear me down.

Ride link: http://app.strava.com/activities/56192756

So I managed 50 miles in just under 2:40 which seems OK, and should see me to an Outlaw bike leg of just over three hours. My legs didn't feel too shabby afterwards either so all the improvements seem to have made a something of a difference, but I haven't had any time to really build confidence so its still a massive unknown.

Running, various life events, weddings, illness, work stress and long hours (Something which is relatively new to me, having recently moved to a new job) have all added up to my run volume being somewhat reduced. Usual Friday sessions have pretty much fallen by the wayside and run pace has been steady to say the least. Having said that I did manage a half marathon one past Sunday recently as a confidence builder. Slow and steady (2hrs) but I felt decent throughout. The subsequent Sunday I didn't run at all though, through just being a sloth and lack of motivation.

This week has been slightly better however, I've hit all the sessions, not the full distance on each that Fink prescribes but I can't expect to build from having done little one week to full again next week. Another reason why Outlaw is going to be a bit of a baptism of fire.

The way I see this at the moment though is that all of this drivel is going to result in two outcomes this time next week.

Option 1 (The preferred): All woes will be forgotten, after a great swim, a top bike leg with minimal fatigue and great average speed, followed by a decent run leg and a finish in sub 6 hours. I'm bolstered by this, my training for the full IM kicks up a gear and I begin to hit all key sessions. 

Option 2: The swim leg goes as expected, I all but blow up on the bike, and I shuffle around 13.2 miles of half marathon in severe pain and a time of a million hours. I'm completely washed out and have no confidence for the full distance, training takes a dive, and I write a blog crying about it!

So, tune in next week where I'll reveal my fate! Oh my days, why didn't I just stick to Olympic distance.

EDIT 28/05/13:

So Sunday had a really decent run, felt good throughout and finished with a strong last 3/4's of a mile, so that made me a bit happy to end the week with.

Also finally got the necessary spacers to fit my new s900 sram compact chainset which I'm pretty happy with. Here is to hoping it does me well, and the crank arms are an improvement. Love the exogram x-glide design too!

w/c 29/04/13 and Sprint Tri Race Report.

So this week began a little differently to those prior as I was due to be competing at my first race of the year, a sprint triathlon. So in all it was going to be a week mostly spent taking it pretty easy.

The weekend before however I visited a friend and took a whole weekend off exercise. So on Monday I felt so sluggish I had to hit the gym, and ended up doing 5k on the treadmill with some weights and a bit of core work. Great. Although this started to show on Wednesday after my other sessions that I was paying for Monday and hurting. I pushed through the sessions until Friday, and decided to skip the scheduled run as I was just beat.

Saturday was a pretty interesting day as I went to get my bike fit done on the Boardman TT bike. I had an hour spent in their studio on the turbo playing around with my position. In the end we didn't move too much, but its made a massive change to my comfort and power on the bike which is great!

Race Ready, looking good!

So along came Sunday and race day for the Sprint Tri, my first in this format (400m swim, 20km bike, 5km run)!

I got to the race nice and early to scope everything out and get my bike racked. I set my transition area up nice and tidily although it was a bit of a squeeze next to a lot of other competitors. Luckily the weather was great, sunny and around 15 degrees. Although there was a bit of wind, it would be a tailwind on the outward leg of the bike, and a headwind on the way in. Not too bad as it was mostly climbing on the way out and downhill on the way back! After I racked I got into my trisuit and went down to the swim. It all got going pretty quick and I was soon in the pool and away on my 16 lengths.

I'd submitted an estimate 400m time on the online registration of 07:30, although having then tried this in my gym pool I found I was actually capable of a 06:30. I let my other competitors in my lane know, and they agreed to let me past if I was at their feet. Within 4 lengths I was passed the other two people in my lane and on my way. I felt decent all the way through and paced well. I was soon jumping out the pool looking at my watch I had swam a 06:14! I jogged out towards transition and got my stuff on. Transition went smoothly if a little slowly. Probably could have got away without socks! But it only took 1:32 in all. I was then out on the bike, and feeling good. It was fantastic to really not have to worry about pacing as I knew I could pretty much go all out for each of the disciplines.

I loved the freedom of that, rather than being constrained for fear of blowing up later on. The bike went really well and I before long I was overtaking the wave that had set off before me! At the turnaround I suddenly had a lot more wind in my face but it wasn't too bad and I kept pushing on. The course overall was a nice out and back on a well surfaced and wide road, so traffic wasn't a problem really.

Back into transition and a nice quick 45 second stop to get my running shoes on and grab a gel. Off onto the 5k run round a field and housing estate out and back. I felt pretty decent on the way out so paced back a little to get a rhythm going after having been on the bike but the legs felt really solid which I was happy about. Started pushing a bit and was soon on the way back in. Sprinted the last 400m and felt strong. Really happy with the performance and didn't really feel tired after which I guess is a good sign for the extended distances to come!

Overall the results look like below:

Swim (inc 150m run to T1): 06:33
T1: 1:32
Bike: 35:47
T2: 46:85
Run: 23:05

Total: 01:07:45

Really happy overall, and nice to get some race practice in!

As the weather was so nice for the rest of the day (18 degrees and sunny!) I decided to go for a quick recovery spin on the road bike. Ended up getting a bit of a blowout/pinch flat at about 48mph descending a steep hill which was pretty interesting! Luckily its a straight descent, so I managed to slow the bike, and the tyre was completely flat by the time I was going about 20mph. I continued to slow and managed to stop with the tyre still on the rim! Quick repair and a co2 canister later I was back on the go, and managed 15 miles in the sun :)

Looking forward to the next couple of weeks now, and in particular the Outlaw Half!