The Race to get Race Fit

Time has inched forward since my last brief post that confirmed my arrival in KSA. Yet again, there have been numerous ‘stressful incidents’ that have prevented our settling in to any type of routine. As normal, I will not detail these aspects as this is my triathlon journey. Whilst it is unavoidable to not be affected by personal and domestic ocurrences, I will remain true to the training and racing focus of this Blog. So where am I now with my triathlon ventures as we draw towards the end of March 2015? Well I am training regularly and have now received my bikes from the UK via the shipping company. Thankfully, no damage to anything. So I have 3 bikes here now: the old Caygill, which is permanently on the turbo, the Holdsworth road bike and my trusty Specialized Transition Pro TT race bike. Now that I am here, I wish that I had brought my single speed out also. It would have been ideal for riding round the compound. The only outdoor road riding I can do is round the compound, which is a 2.7 mile circuit, complete with speed humps that can be missed by sticking close to the curb. The circuit is totally flat; hence the single speed would have been ideal. It can be dusty here too; so the low maintenance on the single speed would have been well suited. Anyway, I am pleased to have my bikes and commenced regular pedaling! I had been off the bike since mid-Dec14! Now it is a race to get some bike legs back! I am building outdoor rides to around an hour and a half currently. But the bulk of bike work is on the turbo. I have some sufferfest sessions that I never seem to tire of and these are a great help to make the time fly by on the turbo. I am also maintaining strength and conditioning work in the gym, but always mix this up with tri specific sessions. For example, the last session was as follows: 25 min turbo build warm up 2 mile tempo run (6:30 mile pace) Strength and core 2 mile tempo repeat 12 min turbo efforts 2 mile tempo repeat Strength and core repeat 2 mile tempo effort 10 min turbo efforts 2 mile half IM pace run to cool down So you bag 10 miles of running with shredded legs!! My running is in a good place and far ahead of where I was this time last year. Despite the chaos of moving and regular ‘life trials’ I seem to have maintained consistent running and that has paid off. Last week I managed to get to a local 10k race at a different compound and somehow ended up winning it in 36:59. Whilst his is not a fast time, and the standard of the local running may not be strong, I was happy to be running at this pace at my age! With no speed work completed I am confident that a sub-36 min 10k is possible. However, and it is a big however, I have just thrown my name in the hat to race at The Outlaw Ironman again! This is back in the UK on 26 July 15. The big question is can I gain sufficient bike fitness over that distance to be competitive? I am confident that I will be in good run shape as long as I stay healthy. I have a good endurance base built up over many years and I am hoping that this fact will enable me to keep the bike sessions around 2 – 3 hours max completed at a decent pace. That should enable me to cruise a 5+ hour bike ride at the Ironman. Only time will tell if it works I suppose! As for swimming, I am totally spoilt for pool access! I have a 25m indoor pool that I can use whenever I want. I also have an outdoor lagoon pool that is not heated but ideal for wetsuit swimming, with a 50m stretch to complete laps. I am swimming every day and feeling good in the water. But I am concentrating on technique and I am not particularly fast in the water at the moment. I am banking on getting faster nearer to the race. Looking further ahead, I really want to race Challenge Bahrain in December. This is a half distance race and could be more suited to my abilities. I can drive there from my location and that greatly helps the logistics of traveling with bikes and equipment. So onwards and upwards! I have a 5k handicap race on Friday and would like to run around 17:45 if the course is fast. It will be the weather that is the deciding factor I reckon as the heat is building now as the year progresses. I must get some pics recorded on here; so stand by for that.