That Was 2009

It’s the time of year when we look back at the season and reflect on what went well and what went not so well. Seeing as I could not race a single triathlon due to injury, I was going to give the end of season report a miss this year. However, a 2009 brain dump may prove useful for me and motivate me for next year.

2008 had been a decent year but my swimming had been dire! So, during the winter I completed a 10hr coached swim course at SwimShack. By Feb 09, the DVD footage showed that my balance and body position had improved. However, I had been doing virtually zilch full stroke swimming – drills and more drills! Hence, by March I was finding it very difficult to swim fast!

Lesson 1: Don’t neglect swim fitness during the winter!

During the winter I had also been trying to raise my bike power by gradually increasing the power output for threshold intervals sessions on the turbo. This is intense work and a bit of an experiment. I was hitting over 330W for 6 x 6 mins on the turbo during the 2008 race season. My goal was to raise that to 350W. You could say that the experiment worked, but not in a good way! Try as I did, I just gradually got slower! I ended up struggling to maintain 300W by Jan 09. It wasn’t all bad because, by April, I was biking as well as ever. By May, I was flying and posting PBs in time trials.

Lesson 2: Ease off the bike intensity during the winter and build back up.

My first race was the National Duathlon Champs at Milton Keynes. As I had moved up an age group to the 45-49 old git category, I was hopeful of placing well. A 3rd place finish made me very happy and things were heading the right way. A few weeks later I raced the Cambridge Duathlon and won my age group quite comfortably. I had ambitions of racing at the World Duathlon Champs but my Achilles had other ideas! I had tweaked it during the race and it didn’t feel good!

Between 19 April and 2 August I did not run – could not run! I really should have sought treatment straight away but I thought it would clear up. It wasn’t until July that I turned up at Headley Court for assessment and rehab.

Lesson 3: Injured? Get treatment asap!

During the 4 months of zilch running I hit the biking big time! I was sucked into the time trial scene and ended up riding the local club evening 10 mile TT every week and then, more often than not, a weekend early morning Open TT. My times started to tumble and I hit PBs of 21:23 for 10 miles and 55:49 for 25 miles. All the regular TT racers say the same thing: If you want to get better at TTs, ride loads of TTs! I was able to consistently ride under the hour for 25 miles, even on slow courses. One of my best rides has to be the evening TT 25 on the N1 course. I clocked 59:17, which is not fast but there are, wait for it. . . 16 roundabouts to negotiate! Mind you, I must learn to hide the pain when riding my bike!


Lesson 4: Do loads of TTs to get the bike form for triathlon.

In June I replaced my race bike with a lovely Specialized Transition Pro. I know I could be seen as copying Westy, who was ripping up bike splits in triathlons on his Transition Pro, the truth is I got a great deal at Grafham Cycles and it is a class bike. Can’t wait to race it in a triathlon next year!

My swimming really tailed off during that 4 months too. With no triathlons to train for, I just had no aim. Why swim for an hour when I could bag an extra 30 miles early morning on the bike?


I had a great week in the French Alps in July. It was a family holiday but rising early enabled me to bag a col a day!

On 2 August, after 6 weeks of rehab stretching on my Achilles, I started running. . . very slowly!! I built up gradually and was soon running 6 miles. However, my Achilles was not cured and I was managing it rather than free and easy. In truth, I am still managing it! But the experts tell me that as long as I continue to do the rehab work, and the pain does not get worse, I should still build up my running. I raced the Honington 10k at the end of September and was well chuffed to clock 37:49. I reckoned that I was 2 min down on normal run speed; I will take that for now!

Lesson 5: Biking keeps you quite fit for running but running may not keep you fit for biking!

For the last 6 weeks I have been swimming much more and it’s coming along fine. I am even enjoying it!! As for 2010, I am scheduled to move to Bristol in March, which is bad timing because I should be ramping up the training intensity by then. Moving always disrupts everything and I am normally absolutely pooped for a few weeks. As for races next year, I really am not sure. I would like to do Almere IM distance but I can’t commit right now. I may just wait and see what happens. As long as I can actually race triathlons next year, I will be happy!

Thanks for reading

Basics

It's been a week since my last post, which is quite a gap for me. My training has been back to basics, with little intensity. My swimming continues to feel good -it's not fast but I am doing more distance along with technique.

My achilles is good some days and not so good other days. The rehab exercises continue and I think I will be doing them for the next 30 years! Most of my cycling has been on the turbo with some heart rate stuff and single leg drills.

So there you have it! I am officially old and slow!

I helped with the Henlow 10 road race organisation last Wednesday. I coordinated the results and timing. Man, I felt as though I had actually ran the race by the end of the day! The race was won in a relatively slow 58:02. It turns out that most of the RAF fast boys had been racing at the Amsterdam half marathon the previous weekend; hence the reduced entry from the top RAF runners. I find it confusing that RAF Athletics requested that the Henlow 10 race be brought forward to mid-October (the day before the Spadeadam half-marathon) and then send all their runners to Holland the weekend before - why? it's a shame that Daz Sharpe couldn't make it (house conversion problems) as he is running well.

As for this weekend, it's more steady turbo stuff and a reduced long run to save my achilles. Instead of a 1hr 30min run I will do an hour run and 30 min turbo.

Best wishes to Mal Rose, who undergoes some hospital vein work on his legs. . . Yuk! Recover well and come back stronger next year (but not too strong dude!)

H2O and Wiggo's Book

Be prepared blog readers! I am going to make a statement that has not been heard since young JC helped me with my training in 2006.

I have training plan!! Yep, you heard me correctly! The plan is even in a folder! And the folder has tabs!! You can't get better than that eh!! The comfort associated with a plan is very reassuring and I am already feeling relaxed about training. My swimming feels good and I feel smooth in the water. I am still not speedy but I should gain some speed by the summer. My biking is reduced in preparation for some steady periodisation. My running is much the same - reduced in volume (well I was starting to do too much). Not sure what I will do next year but I know that I will plan to do as many bike time trials as possible. By time trials, I mean organised club or open TTs. In my opinion, there is nowt better to improve your biking.

Recent training:

Sunday: 10 mile easy run that felt awful! Achilles was 'so so'.
Monday: Swim and easy turbo
Tuesday: 34 mile steady pre-work road ride. Lovely and crisp in the morning air. Easy 30 min run after work.
Wednesday: Swim in morning and turbo technique at lunch. Swim sessions building up now:

Warm Up: 6 x 150 20s RI mixing drill and full stroke
Main Set: 2 x 600 as 1st rep swim. 2nd set pull. 65% effort that felt hard at the end for my unfit upper body!
Warm Down: 100 super slow. Some 50s bilat breathing.


Been reading Brad Wiggins' book In Pursuit of Glory. It is a good read if you like bike stuff. Having seen most of the stuff he is talking about, it makes for motivating stuff. And, you realise just what a fantastic pursuit rider he is/was! He has had his share of personal problems too; I can relate to that!!

Mr Smooth

Lately my mind is full of various tri methods and training stuff to try out. This can be a good thing. Or, it can be bad, as it all gets jumbled up in my highly disorganised training. . . . . I was going to say training plan, but I don’t have one.

Anyway, firstly, news of training. After my big bonk last Monday I actually started to feel quite strong. An easy swim and a steady treadmill session on Tuesday felt ok. So, on Wednesday, after a swim in the morning, I indulged myself and did a hard turbo followed by 6 x 400m run efforts with 30 sec recovery. I was aiming for 6 min miling pace on the 400s but settled into a quite comfy 5:40 pace. This is a good sign, especially as the recovery was short between reps. Hopefully the running is getting back to where I was back in April. The Achilles is still not right but it continues to improve by minuscule amounts each week!

I am swimming more and more now and. . . . wait for it. . . I am enjoying it!! This is partly because my good friend Mr Dave ‘Big Fish’ Lowe passed a few excellent and timely tips. Dave helped me immensely whilst I was at RAF St Mawgan and we still keep in touch. Anyway, body rotation is good but too much body rotation is not good. Beginners tend to lack rotation but I certainly feel better for reducing my rotation. Also, I have had a wee scan at the SwimSmooth website. There is some great stuff on there and tips that could help even the most experienced swimmer. There is also a virtual swimmer on there called Mr Smooth.



He is a cool swimmer! You can study him in slow motion and break the stroke down to any aspect you wish. He has zilch body hair though and that obviously helps him slip through the water; best I get down to Boots for a years’ supply of Imac.

Bonk Rd

Been feeling very tired since the Honington 10k. Not quite sure what is going on but the legs just don’t work. I did some easy bike spins and drill swim sessions on Thursday and Friday. I took Saturday off completely (really had to force myself for that day off!). On Sunday I thought a nice easy long run would be called for. I set off and instantly knew that the legs were on a go-slow day. Never mind, I thought, as once I loosened off I would be able to run easy. Easy never came and I struggled terribly all the way round. Once home, I jumped on the turbo and spent 15 mins spinning the legs off.

Today I cycled to Henlow for a meeting. I managed to set off at 0530 and arrived in time for a swim session. Didn’t feel too bad. After the meeting I set off back for Wyton. Somewhere along the way I took a turn towards Bonk Rd.


I was in a right state – my mouth watering at the thought of a full roast beef dinner. I was seriously bonking and my feet felt so heavy. . . couldn’t feel my legs at all; it was just as if I had heavy feet that were attached to nothing. Weird eh?!!

This experience has put me off a possible Ironman attempt next year. All that aerobic stuff, pacing, thinking what to wear and what to eat bla bla. . . . . I am confused as to which direction to go in next year. Maybe I should just stick with the normal short, hard and full-on stuff? Make use of time trialing for bike speed and hang on for the run.

My depleted body is too fatigued to think straight right now, so it’s off to try and bag some rest.

Even Paced Running

A lot to be said for even paced running: It makes your running enjoyable (especially when racing), you have a target time, you feel fresh for the first half of the race and you feel as though you are getting faster because you pass all the people who have started too fast!

This is what I did at the Honington 10k yesterday. Armed with my Garmin to keep my pace in check, I started off steady. I passed the first mile in 6:04, feeling very fresh. Mindful of my achilles, I decided that I would not attempt to up the pace; I would aim to run continually at 6:04 pace. That is what I did and finished in 37:49. Very pleased with that considering my lack of run training and absolutely zilch hard running since 19 April! My achilles felt good and feels good today also. I am a happy bunny. The legs did begin to tire at 8k (to be expected I suppose) but I felt controlled and could have whipped up a storm over the last 2k - glad I didn't!

I also concentrated on my cadence and maintained between 87 - 90 single foot strikes all the way. The faster cadence is already beginning to feel more natural and I have great expectations for next year now!! By great, I mean that I actually hope to compete in a triathlon in 2010!

Other news: I have been foolish. . . very foolish 8-( Gone and committed to the Tour of the Peaks Cycle Sportif with Jase Walkley. The ride is in 3 weeks time and consists of 96 hilly miles. The furthest that I have ridden since April time is 42 - flat miles! Check out the profile of the route:



It's either up or down! Not much flat! And that very steep looking peak at 80 miles looks very threatening to me! I am scared. . . very scared!! I like time trials on flat dual carriageways!! Just hope it doesn't rain.

Off to cram in some bike miles. . .