National Middle Distance Champs Soon!

Tick tock. Countdown to The Cowman national Middle Distance Champs taking place on Sunday 3 July. So I am in my taper week. I have had 4 BIG weeks of training and feel in good shape. If this taper thing works and I don’t have any unforeseen hiccups I am hoping for a top 5 finish. Secretly, I want a top 3 finish but it all depends on who turns up!

The bike course looks slightly lumpy and at 92k slightly long. This is good. The run is 4 laps, which, again, is good as I like to wind the run up on a lapped course.

I have been doing plenty of long sessions, particularly bike/run sessions. Last Sunday was THE warm day of the summer and I was caught in the intense heat doing a 60 mile IM Pace bike followed by a 12 mile run. It got seriously hot, which I like. But I did suffer with some tummy issues on the run and had to visit the bush 3 times. I wasn’t getting slower but the tummy was not right. Not sure if this is the heat or the nutrition protocol that I was testing for Ironman. I am thinking that the gels were upsetting me and and I need to switch to Isotonic High 5 gels. On the bike I was also sipping on High 5 Extreme (not a great deal was consumed but I think that this is potent stuff). I was sipping water every 5 mins (on a timing bleep) and this seemed to keep me well hydrated. Anyway, let’s see how the race goes on Sunday. I will use the same gels and water but ditch the Extreme. I alternate gels with half a Trek bar feeding every 25 mins. Then switch to gels only on the run.

After The Cowman I have 2 months before the IM Distance race in Holland. Eeeeek! Really looking forward to this race but my focus on making a time is worrying me! Trying to focus purely on the nutrition plan and let the finishing time look after itself!

Race report after Sunday to follow!

Will it be a happy race report:



Or a angry race report!

Dambuster Tri 2011

I was waiting to get some pics from the Dambuster Tri before I posted a race report. Not many pics to choose from but there were a couple.
Anyway, to the race.
The Dambuster was never a goal for me but that doesn’t mean I didn’t push hard! There was no easing down prior to the race and certainly no rest after the event – a 4 hour bike completed the day after!
The swim was better for me. True, the time was not great but I am starting to feel better in the open water. The open water training is starting to pay off and I really should be under 23 mins for a 1500m swim. Let’s see how it goes over 1900m at the Cowman in a couple of weeks (I will be easing up for that race!)
The bike was ok(ish). I was being blown all over the place, as were most people. Where I normally go crazy no matter what – descents, corners etc – I eased right back for this race. I just couldn’t take any risks. Hence the bike was quite slow. Nevertheless, I felt strong.
I hit the run and cruised the first mile or so to the Dam. Then I tried to pick up the pace. I felt strong throughout and came home in 34:40. This is by far the fastest Dambuster run for me and was actually the fastest run in my Age Group. Happy with that!
I finished 6th in my Cat, which is kind of cool for the National Champs. But the National Middle distance Champs is more of an aim for me. With under 2 weeks left before that race, this Sunday I will finish a 3 week block of training consisting of over 50 hours of training. Then it’s ease up and see if I can make the top 3 at the Cowman!

TT 'Tastic!!

A good couple of weeks of training now completed! Happy with the progress at the moment and looking forward to some longer races. After Odiham I bagged some big days on swim, bike and run. This culminated with a full on 50 Mile Open TT on the F1 course Sunday morning. The route is basically up and down between Sandy and Buckden. This is the same course that I did my last 50 Mile TT on a few weeks ago. That ride was done in 2:01:43. yesterday, I managed a new PB of 1:59:23!! Yeehaa. It has been a long time goal of mine to break 2 hours for 50 miles and I am a happy chap! I even ran for an hour off the bike and managed a decent pace too. Sub 2 hours looked to be unmanageable as I went through the first 25 miles in 59:57. The Southerly wind was rising steadily and by the time I turned for home with about 12 miles to ride, the wind felt very strong. That last 26 odd minutes seemed to last forever. Actually managing a negative split was very pleasing.

I don’t plan on easing down for the Dambuster Standard Distance Triathlon this weekend but I have some domestic stuff to take care of that may mean some lost training. Either way, I will be happy to just race on Saturday (please, please let the weather be warm and dry!) and focus on 3 July 11, when I will race the Cowman Middle Distance Tri.

Off to stretch my Achilles!

Odiham Tri

Quick update on RAF Odiham Sprint Tri yesterday. I very nearly didn’t attend this race due to work and trying to focus on some longer training sessions. However, I though that some short lung bursting efforts would be enjoyable. I was quite tired prior to the race and the frustrating ride home from work Tuesday evening did not help. I rode into freshly laid tarmac and got my tyres all glued up. Every stone and piece of grit on the road proceeded to stick to my tyres after that and I had a mare removing it all. Then a bridge on the busway was totally closed. This meant a lengthy detour and 2 hours after leaving work I arrived home at 1900.

Anyway, that’s all my pre-race excuses, I think! The race went ok really and I perked up once the race head was on. My swim was the normal 6:08 but I was happy because it felt good and I was held up a bit by other swimmers in the previous wave. Daz Sharpe, Brad Gogs (minus Speedos) and Paul Fullalove were in my wave so it was always going to be a tight race in my wave. Typically, I was last out of the water, but not by much. Brad was long gone when I hit T1 but Daz was just leaving and I got out onto the road before Paul. I had Daz in my sights and I stayed within shooting distance for a while. Then, somewhere amongst the twists and turns he drifted away and the elastic was broken. He was simply too strong for me. I was expecting Paul to come past me but he had taken a wrong turn on the bike.


Shortly, I saw Brad standing on the side of the road. He had punctured, probably due to the very heavy rain that we had just before the start. There was grit and all sorts of rubbish all over the small side roads that we were riding on. It was game over for Brad. As I came into T2 I saw Daz leaving and I realised that I was not that far behind. The bike had been quite tough and there were some scary moments with traffic and pedestrians, seemingly oblivious of anything on the road that is not a car, just bumbling out in front of me.

I hit the run quite hard and the legs felt good. I am really enjoying running off the bike lately! The out and back course gives good visibility to see how you are doing against other waves. After a while I saw Mal Rose and Jase Walkley battling it out on the run. I figured that I was probably in with a chance of getting revenge on Mal after his great performance at Brize, but it was going to be close! A while longer and I saw Daz returning after the turn point. My spirits lifted because I was actually closer than I though I would be. But there was no way I was going to gain time on him. The return leg of the run is tough and the slight gradient really bites. In the distance I saw Nick Harris thundering along. Boy was he shifting! He is a real find this year and he seems to have no weaknesses and the best swim in RAF Tri by some margin.

I dug deep and finished in 1:05:06, by my watch. This was good enough for 3rd place and first Vet. Mal was only a handful of seconds slower and it looks like we will be up for a great battle at the Dambuster in a couple of weeks. This should be fun, but I can always play my age card if all goes wrong! Unsurprisingly, Nick won, but Daz was only seconds behind in 2nd. This is good for Daz as his training has been focussed on long course this year. The same can be said for Jase Walkly, who finished 6th, behind an army dude. Jase is all long this year and this was his first Tri of the year.

All good stuff and I am pooped today. A 22 mile spin into work was enjoyable this morning but the wetsuit swim in the pool at lunch time was boil in the bag time! Worth it for the constant 75m reps in 58 sec going off 1:20.

A quick mention to Steve Green. Steve bought my Merida Warp 4 bike off me a few weeks ago and yesterday was his first Tri. So well done to Steve; he has great potential so stick with it!

Next Training Race

Time marches on and, following the Beaver Tri I have moved straight into some big volume training. I plan to race RAF Odiham Sprint Tri tomorrow but there will be no easing up for this one – it’s just a hard training session! Sunday now sees my prime IM workout. I complete a big bike/run combo that is rather pacey – none of this aerobic long distance stuff! Well I suppose it must be aerobic or I would not be able to keep going for 5 or 6 hours! Last Sunday was a 3:22 bike and 1:29 run (12 miles covered). Next time it will be 14 miles but I will be only doing 50 miles on the bike as it will be an open 50 mile TT on the A1. I so hope that the wind stays calm!

As for Odiham tomorrow, I reckon Mal Rose will do well again. However, Pete Norris and Daz Sharpe may be racing – the big guns are out so best I play my OAP card 8-)
It is also great to see Brad Gogs in fine shape lately. maybe he will go the whole way and race in Speedos again?!

Speedy (Not) Beaver Tri

This Beaver report is somewhat late, mainly because I wasn’t too happy with the race and didn’t really want to analyse it too much. However, the bad races probably help us learn more than the good ones.

The race was a sprint distance – not my current focus and I simply have not done the turbo work to be sharp over these shorter distances. This wasn’t the main problem though. A 5th fastest bike split in my Cat isn’t bad. Put a 3rd fastest run to that and you know what’s coming! The swim was a mare for me! I have been going quite well in the pool but the open water has always been a struggle for me. This time I was well beaten up and just seemed to go backwards. Actually, I sort of went side to side I think! Navigation wasn’t good but all thoughts of smooth technique seemed to go out the window and I resumed my open water thrashing style, fighting off other people and forgetting about my own swimming form.

So, the plan has been hatched! I am commencing regular open water swimming training. It is logical to do this but I have never done it regularly before. Crazy, I know! But the logistics of getting to open water venues has not been easy. I have joined the local club as a swim member and I hope to transfer my pool swimming to open water. The mis-match is stark. Take today, for example. In the pool I did lots of swim smooth drills and then some main sets. One, of which, was 10 x 75m on 1:25. All of these were completed between 1:00 and 1:02. In fact the last one was 59 sec. And I was not pushing that hard and it was smooth. This equates to at least 1:25 100m pace. Hence I should be much more competitive in the open water than I am.

Whinge over. I am addressing this problem and moving on! My training has really taken on a long distance slant. Next event is a 50 mile TT. This is really just training as I intend to ease back and make it a hard ride with at least an hour of tempo running off the bike. Quite enjoying this long distance focus – how times have changed!