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