Motivation - Duathlon & TTs

In line with the regrouping theme, I found these pics from 2014: a lovely 100 mile TT and a standard distance duathlon to remember.

Re-grouping. . . . .Again

Well, 2018 will be the 10-year anniversary of this Blog. In recent years I have not kept it up to date as much as I would have liked. The idea has always to focus on my Tri-Life and keep other aspects away. It is kind of impossible to split this Tri-life from my everyday life - one impacts/affects the other constantly. This has been the case in 2017 and there has not been much Tri-Life to report! It has made me sad, frustrated, angry, upset. . . . And so it goes on. So as the 10-year Blog milestone arrives, I am going to re-group (no matter what hits me!!) and sustai this Blog better - no doubt there will be good and bad periods through 2018. But let's see what can be achieved. I simply cannot plan anything right now. So an aspiration to race more than I did in 2017 is as far as it goes! Structured training started today with a decent turbo set: Warm up of 5 min spin. 7 min of 30 sec efforts with descending recovery intervals (RI) Main set: 3 x 8 min continuous increasing power whilst decreasing cadence, 200W/100rpm, 220W/90rpm, 240W/80rpm, 260W/70rpm 5 min spin 20 min sweetspot with 10 sec sprint every 3 min A decent set completed and a baseline to build.

Conditioning Paying Off?

It's been over 4 months since I started conditioning sessions in earnest. The progress has been steady and almost stealthy! I am now nearing the point where I am approaching 90% of bodyweight for cleans. This is significant for a a triathlete of... Senior years! I really feel the need to maintain the strength work as the old age threat looms! Yesterday completed a 2 hour hilly ride. That's nothing significant but I have not ridden over an hour for some time and most rides have been spins to work. My health has not been great so I have kept the effort low but consistently maintained conditioning. The conditioning sessions are always preceded by a turbo set of 40 - 45 mins consisting of various efforts to 105% of ftp. I then mix treadmill 1k tempo runs with the weights and core exercises. So a session looks something like thus: Turbo efforts Run to gym Conditioning as: Squats/cleans Box jumps Treadmill 1k Core Upper body press exercise Repeat This is a great session that has the specificity of bike and run, but focuses on strength using mumti-joint exercises that are dynamic. I may hit my peak at age 60.

Yet again time has piped by and my blogs have been few and far between. My domestic situation continues to make any consistent training difficult and I am ticking over at best with no real fitness or goals to focus on. That said I have been consistent with conditioning and my cleans are getting better. Hopefully, I will carry some strength into 2018 and actually get a few races completed. Not knowing what my work pattern will be means I cannot commit to a big event like an Ironman. I don't even know if I will be in the UK as recent job applications have turned to positions in Saudi Arabia. The weather has been pants recently too and I have been banished to the turbo shed - as then pics show. Most sessions have been early morning with no real effort. However, the weekend has seen some sweetspot efforts and I may building to an hour of sweetspot constent. I could do with an ftp test but can't face the poor result that would show a dismal power!

Consistency, Late Season Race Reversal and 2018

Despite my intentions to grab a couple of late season duathlons, I have decided not to race this year. There are simply too many stresses surrounding y domestic situation and I do not want to rave full-bore and end up injured. I know that I would race to the max and not just cruise around. However, I have been training consistently over the last 3 months. The volume has been low but that does not matter at the moment. Presently I am focusing on strength and conditioning. When I returned to this type of training I was shocked at how weak I had become. I think that my age certainly means that strength and conditioning work must be maintained consistently. I am completing a routine that is built around my old favourites of 20 rep squats and 20 rep deadlifts. Other elements are core, plyometric movements such as bench jumps and TRX squat-jumps. I have an ambition to compete at the Outlaw Iron distance in 2018. Not sure if I will make the start line due to my work situation but it would be nice to race again. I even have the Outlaw training jersey:

2018 will be my last year in the 50 - 54 age group and I hope to hit 2019 as a young 55 year old who can still go for a low 10hr Ironman.

New Addition

After a 2-month wait the latest steed has arrived:

This is the Evo2max Nebula R9 - funky name huh?! It really is a dream of a bike. It's extremely aero and very smooth. The power transfer is awesome, especially when the hills appear and you get out of the saddle. The aero wheels purr along too and this bike will eat up a rolling course. I have some training wheels to put on it but these kind of spoil the aero effect:

Nevertheless, I have learnt by bitter experience that the carbon aero wheels need to be saved for the serious racing most of the time - 2007 sportif crash wrecked my Corima carbon wheels. This bike will be great for those technical and hilly courses. Until I can do it justice, I will get some dry miles in and enjoy the riding. The saddle will have to be changed as the middle cut-out style of perch just does not suit my behind! I have sourced a vintage San Marco Triathgel saddle on Ebay and that arrives soon. Why do all the decent bits of kit get binned by the manufacturers?!

The 7 Week Training Cycle - Has Been to Decent Shape?

After 4 weeks of decent training I now have 3 weeks until my first race. I hadn't realised just how out of shape I was. I guess an odd ride at the weekend just isn't sufficient to maintain race fitness. No shocks there! After week 1 I started to feel accumulated fatigue and any session seemed hard and the legs were extremely heavy. I knew it would be a case of just pushing through and remaining consistent. Only this week have I started to feel any where near sharp. I am trying to complete a mini reverse periodisation and then ease up the week prior to the Darley Duathlon. Today I completed sweetspot efforts on the turbo and mixed in some single leg TRX squats. The sweetspot efforts felt better than last time whilst achieving similar wattage. I also threw in 30 sec ftp efforts every 3.min. An overall weekly total of 12+ hours is also my largest volume for some time. I plan to race the local 10 mile TT soon to gauge my fitness on 2 wheels. Onwards and upwards! Oh yes. Note to self-start swimming!

3 Weeks Consistency

3 Weeks consistent training completed. Feeling fatigued as the lack of regular training takes its toll on the old bones. It's another long sweetspot intervals followed by a 7 - 8 mile alternating pace run at Rocester tomorrow. Let's see how a longer session feels after 3 weeks of short relatively hard training. Some reverse periodisation here may just put me in some sort of shape for the Darley Duathlon at the end of August. I'm confident of running aeound 6:20 mile pace off the bike. Just not feeling the speed on the bike yet. Maybe next year! As for today it's another turbo technique session.

Consistency for First Time in 2017

Well, a small victory but that's what it feels like to complete a full week of training. Included in that week was a brick session, a tt of 10 miles with an increase in ftp of 16W, a TRX conditioning session and a steady run. And now I'm tired! Just on the turbo doing a level 2 session prior to tomorrow's brick session which will be longer as 3 x 8 miles on the single speed at sweetspot followed by a 6 mile alternating hard/steady run. Whilst I know I could get into shape quickly in the past, it feels different this year. Too much down time and stress. The TT this week was an improvement and more controlled. If I crack 24 min by end of August I'll be happy.

A Race!

Well in terms of triathlon and all things multisport 2017 has been a massive write off. I am not in any type of physical shape to race. I have completed some weekend sessions and minimal tick over training during the week. The underlying problem is that I am just too tired from long work days. There are over afoot to change my work pattern and this should help with training and recovery. I have set a target to compete at the Darley Duathlon at the end of August. This is a local event and pretty low key. Not sure what shape I can get myself in but I will aim to gauge fitness with some key sessions and some local evening time trial events over 10 milew. In the past I have been able to get in reasonably decent shape quickly. However, the last 5. Have taken a huge toll on my physical well-being. Let's see what can be done and not aim for the world! The long game is the. Way to go and that means aiming for the Outlaw 2018 to get back in the game. Then, when I move to my next age group in 2019, I take a serious shot at getting as close as possible to 10:15 for the Outlaw. Training updates dates to follow.

Trying to Train

A month on from my last posting and I am not really any further ahead of where I was in terms of training structure or volume. The pace of work needs to ease before I manage my proper training. I have had a couple of decent bike sessions on the single speed fixed wheel, maintaining a 21mph average on the Rocester dragstrip. I use this 7 mile flat circuit to get the aero position dialled in. It worked well in 2014 for the Outlaw training. Best I get more of these sessions done! For extra motivation one of these machines I on the way.

Tick Over. . . . Just. . .

It's 15 May 2017. So much has happened in my job/domestic life since Dec 16, I don't know where to start really! In short, I applied to leave the RAF, returned from Saudi, looked for job, looked for UK home, found civilian job, left the RAF, rented house that was too small, started civilian job, tried to train to tick over, had various psoriatic arthritis flare-ups, tried harder to tick-over training, got frustrated at lack of racing. And that is where I am now. It is clear that 2017 will not see any racing. I may be able to squeeze some time trials on the bike later in the year but only maybe. I have a desire to get everything sorted and start training proerly for The Outlaw 2018. That will be my last year in my current agae group. So I will use 2018 as a consolidation year to het the 55 - 59 age group hard. The tick-over training should help me to stay fit(ish), though I really need to swim as I have not seen the H2O since Dec 2016. I'll be back. . . .