Challenge Bahrain Cancelled!

Yes; my main race goal of the year has been cancelled! In many ways this is a complete disaster. However, in other ways it is ok because the IM 70.3 event is only 2 weeks later on 5 Dec 15 - also in Bahrain. I suspect that there is a huge amount of politics behind the decision and it looks like Bahrain has sided with the IM brand, with Challenge being ousted! The impact on the majority of entrants to the Challenge event will be mightily upset as they would have had hotels, flights etc booked for the event. Anyway, it is all change for me and the race date moves to 5 Dec 15. The 70.3 differs from the Challenge race in that it has a split transition and the normal early start. The bike leg finishes with 5k round the Bahrain International Circuit (F1 race track). Kind of cool and hopefully the fastest 5k of the race!

The Biggest Triathlon in Saudi?

After finally putting together 3 weeks of uninterrupted training together I raced the Riyadh Triathletes Standard Distance Triathlon on 2 October 15. Although Saudi is a big country, it is a closed country - it is not easy to visit or nip across to race! I think that I am correct in saying that Riyadh Triathletes is the biggest club in Saudi. Hence the Standard Distance race is probably the biggest event also. The club bills it as such and the atmosphere and anticipation at the race was great. All club events are organised by volunteers - no chip timing or event management companies here! For me, this adds to the enjoyment as it really is grass roots racing. The competitors (and especially the spectators) are just as enthusiastic as those you would find anywhere in the UK.

Essentially, I was using this race as a build up event for Challenge Half Bahrain on 20 Nov 15. Hence I had a set power level to ride at on my bike to simulate the race pace for Bahrain. This meant that I should have been dismounting into T2 quite fresh, having only covered 40k, rather than 90! That was the case and a 1:04 bike split was actually very pleasing considering the effort level. A power NP reading of 234W seemed perfect and I am hopeful of a bike split around 2:25 at Bahrain if conditions are decent. My run at this triathlon felt controlled and smooth. I upped the pace after 4k but was disappointed with my run split around 42 min for 10k. It seemed that I could not engage the speed sufficiently. I am not sure if the heat had a part to play but I am shooting for a sub1:30 half marathon at Bahrain. So I need to be strong and reasonably fast. The temperature at Bahrain should be cooler; maybe that will help. Or maybe I am just getting old and slow 8-( My swimming has been going well in training and that was reflected in my swim in this event. The 1500m was short but I averaged 15:56 per k pace by my Garmin. Happy enough with that. Some work on hip rotation and lock-n-load at the key phase of the stroke seems to be working for me. The other main aspect stimulating gains is the 3 month swim programme that BigFish Dave Lowe - my buddy from Cornwall, now working in Saudi at Dhahran - has provided me with. This has now forced me into turning up at the pool knowing what to do. Previously I was just making it up when I got into the H2O! Not great bit that is the way I roll. . . . . Anyway, onwards and upwards. The race win meant a Garmin 500 as a prize! That was very surprising; I had know idea that there were prizes like that. Plus I actually really need a dedicated bike computer as I just have my Garmin 910. Well, do we ever really need these gadgets?!! That's what we tell ourselves. I am extremely grateful nevertheless. Time to get some more key session completed and focus on not overtraining. . . . . cough. . . . . I never do that. . . .

Key Workouts (Pre-Half IM)

Anyone training for Challenge Bahrain on 20 November now is the time to get those key specific sessions completed. Ease back on the volume and be fresh to complete the big key workouts. Then eat sleep recover repeat. For example my workout this morning: Warm up on turbo, including some 2 min 90% efforts to wake the legs up. Then complete 5 sets of 12 min turbo as 3 min at 87%, 1 min spin. 3k run as 1k slightly slower than half IM run pace, 1k slightly faster than half IM pace, 1k at target half IM pace. That is one set of bike/run work. Repeat this 5 times. These key sessions work! Plus they us confidence. Hope this info helps someone! You can scale the session down if your goals are shorter distance races. Train smart!

A Triathlon Race!

Last Friday I completed the latest race in the Riyadh Triathletes series - a triathlon of 1.2k/35k/8k. This was my first triathlon since The Outlaw Ironman in July 2014! It actually felt quite hard, even though it was a short race. It did make me wonder what Challenge Bahrain (half) would feel like! I have done many half IM distance races but this feels different after the year I have had out here in Saudi. The Riyadh Triathletes are a very enthusiastic and friendly bunch and I am grateful for the chance to race. But I am not sure where my form is right now. My biking seems under par but I have no base level to measure. Normally I would have done some TTs by now and know where the speed is coming from. I have a few health problems that will not go away. The arthritis is still there in my knee and I now get hip problems that affect my running more than the knee ever has - not good. Anyway, the race went well, even though I was not happy with the run pace I maintained. I was hovering around 4:10 per k. I wanted around 4:00, which would point to the possibility of my holding 4:20 per k over the half at Challenge Bahrain. When I got home I came down with a sore throat and a yukky feeling. I suspect I may be a bit under par. Add to that some bad blisters on my feet from not wearing socks and I basically feel like very detached from the good form and fitness I had last year. Let's see how things go over the next month. . . . .

Riyadh Triathletes Double Duathlon

Last Friday was the long awaited Riyadh Triathletes double duathlon. This event is billed as the hardest of the season due to the continual switching between bike and run. I have to admit that I did not find this format terribly difficult as this type of session is bread and butter for me. The intense heat could have been the big leveller. Hence I managed to complete all run legs at spot on 4:00 min per k pace. This was a notch down from full race effort but still a hard session. The bike course was much the same as the previous duathlon race. It was hilly and technical and finding a good tempo was impossible. But the effort was sufficient to take the win. I had best not get used to winning as there will be bigger races to focus on where winning will not be an option! But these Riyadh races do serve a purpose to hone the form and train hard. Unfortunately, one of the guys racing collapsed and died after the event. Not sure of the reason but the heat must have had a part to play. Hence reduced effort in these races is a must. A sad sad occurrence.

Short Biathlon - A Race!

The end of July saw my attending my first Riyadh Triathletes event. It was only a short swim, run race of 500m/4k. A 7:55 swim was ok for me. With the fastest swim a swift 6:15 I had no chance of catching the leader with such a short run. However, he was not a great runner and constant 3:45 kilometres saw me catch him after 2k for the overall win. Most enjoyable race! I have some photos and will post these shortly. Following this race I attended the next event last Friday at the funky named Ranco Farm, which is South of Riyadh in the Dirab region. This was my first race with a bike involved since the Outlaw Ironman in July 2014! Where has the time gone. I have no idea what shape I am in for cycling but I have been able to string together 3 weeks of decent power based sessions on the turbo. Using the vector Garmin pedals - did I report that I now have these? - I am now trying to scientifically train myself to decent bike form for the Challenge Half Bahrain Triathlon on 20 Nov 15. Anyway, I digress.

The Duathlon consisted of 6k run, 25k bike, 4k run. The bike course was technical and hilly comprising a 4 lap route. I felt ok on the first run and wound up the pace to finish in 22:29. This 2 minutes faster than the next guy; so I had quite a lead. I probably nailed the first bike lap too hard but I was just enjoying the race really. By the 4th lap I was in the groove and was sure that nobody was catching me - then it was time to dismount. The second run was that familiar yuk feeling and I felt like I was crawling. I had such a lead that I was never really pushed. I was surprised that I maintained 6:20 per mile pace really. Racing in Saudi is hard due to the heat. It gets so hot that you struggle to breath and it hits you like a slab of concrete when you get off the bike. Anyway, a most enjoyable race. The next race is a double Duathlon of 4k/10k/3k/10k/2k/10k/1k. Now that sounds like fun!

Crumbling Joints!!

As August approaches I cannot believe how chaotic 2015 has been. Training has been inconsistent, although there have been flashes of feeling strong and getting fit – only for those times to slip away because of various domestic crises. Being in Saudi has not been great for my health or racing ambitions. After a good 2014 and a decent ironman finish I really wanted to keep the momentum going. The opposite has happened and the body has started to crumble! Strangely, during a 3 week visit back to the UK during May when I was unable to train at all I started to get various niggles. The worst occurrence was knee pain. To cut a long story short it looks like I have some sort of Osteoarthritis or body immune system malfunction that is attacking my joints. My knee is swollen and my wrist is giving me problems. I have had an MRI that confirms the problem and inflammation within the synovial lining of my joints. All this is not good, though the advice from the medical folk is that exercise is good; maintain doing what you can. The result is that I can cycle and run ok but it takes a while to warm up the knee and feel ok(ish). Swimming is ok but I struggle to push off with any force – not really a problem with the important racing being open water swims. I am due to see a specialist back in the UK to identify the best course of action. It could be that I will have this problem for ever. Not happy. It makes sense that I have probably had this problem for some time; however, because I train so consistently I have naturally sort of kept the symptoms at bay. Then, with a prolonged period of inactivity the problem hits home. So how do I approach my goal of Challenge Half Bahrain scheduled as my main goal on 20 Nov 15? I just need to crack on and train the best I can. If I feel pain, rather than intense stiffness then I do not train; or I change the specific training that I am doing. I am not yet sure if running makes my joint worse. Cycling certainly feels ok once I am warmed up properly but sometimes that takes over 30 mins. My feeling is that I will need to limit running as much as possible whilst maintaining the potential to run sub 90 mins for the run at Bahrain. I am pretty much in that run shape now. So, bike monster time! Thanks to the RAF Sports Lottery I now have a lovely set of Garmin Vector pedals to monitor my bike training using power! This is a major shift in my training as I have always used ‘feel’ as my barometer for bike training and racing. The last few sessions that I have completed on the turbo using power as a guide have been very interesting. Not only am I monitoring the Watts; I am also completing different sessions. For example, I would pretty much use the same system to get bike fit each year – say 5 x 5 mins as hard as I can manage. These are basically VO2 Max sessions. So I have never completed targeted training levels based on FTP. Yesterday I did the main set as 60 mins at 80 – 83% of FTP with surges every 3 mins to 115% of FTP (lasting 10 sec). This was hard but I can see the benefits. Hopefully, I will have good bike legs for Bahrain and it will not matter too much if I am not running to potential!