Gravel Ride?. . . . Longing for Dual Carriageway TT RIde!

Today I took a rare excursion outside on the Merlin Gravel bike. No real plan to the ride other than just explore. I had about an hour to ride until I was due at the pool for a drill set. So with small rucksack on carrying trunks, goggles etc I pedalled off in search of gravel tracks. The Merlin bike is a gravel steed and it actually feels far better off road than on the tarmac. Whilst it is heavier than my other bikes, you don't really feel the weight on the tracks. I found Silverdale Country park, which is about 5k from my house. It was a real find as there were plenty of tracks to explore and it is quite lumpy too. All in all I really enjoyed the experience (and I didn't fall off!). It's a great option to ride off road just to get the miles in. I do, however, yearn for a decent dual carriageway to hit on the TT bike. Maybe in the summer I can return to the TT circuit 8-)

9-Day Training Week

Getting older has certainly shown me that I cannot recover half as quickly as I used to when I was in my 40s. The 50s has seen a rapid decline in recovery abilities. So during this Christmas period I have been re-thinking how I could train productively. The answer is more recovery. I have read about the 9, 10, 11-daytraining week for older athletes; this theory could suit me. We, in general, tend to plan everything based on the 7-day week. I am looking at moving to a 9-day training week. Now this doesn't mean cramming more into an extended period! It means more recovery. This recovery could be in the form of complete rest or active easy days. With a 9-day week I aim to include 3 hard sessions. So the schedule looks something like this: Some weeks will encompass 2 weekends, whilst other weeks will only have 1 weekend. I have yet to see how my new job will impact training routine. So there will be more tweaks to come. For now, getting organized is the aim and this is quite motivating. I ran for 14k yesterday and the legs were complaining - hamstrings/glutes specifically. The legs were tired prior to running; so I kind of expected this soreness but it is quite intense! Doh. This shows just how much recovery I need! But I cannot spend 3 days waiting for good legs to complete what is a low intensity run! Slightly frustrated!

Eyeing a New Start

New year round the corner, new job to commence. . . . . New training and racing focus? I hope so. It struck me recently how important being mentally robust and secure in 'normal' life actually is to producing tangible physical training. Over the last 2 years, since leaving the RAF, 'life' has been tough. As a consequence, training and racing has been very difficult. Lack of racing and training productively adds to the mental strain and so the vicious circle perpetuates. Hence a fresh start for 2019 is really needed. To begin this, I have recommenced my online training diary and kick-started my Strava recording of sessions. Recent training sessions indicate that I am not in bad shape. I have not completed many long sessions and this will be an element to build through Jan/Feb. Swimming is actually in a good place and I am confident of swimming a 6:20 - 6:30 400m if I raced. The majority of bike training has been on rollers, using my Garmin Vector pedals to monitor power levels. Yesterday, for example, I completed a set of 40/20 efforts as 30 min (215W), 5 min RI, 15 min (219W). The effort certainly rasised the steam levels!

Whilst these power levels are nothing great, they are better than last winter equivalent session on the turbo. Running is ok over short blasts. However, the tight glute/hamstring issue remains. I am completing rehab sessions daily - nothing else to do but continue.

End of Year Push

As 2018 draws to a close I have been pushing to build strength and endurance in preparation for racing in 2019. Quite what races I'll end up doing is an unknown. As my work situation is finally firming up I feel like I can try to focus on some racing. Early season duathlon races are favourable and I think I'm in some sort of condition to actually finish a duathlon and enjoy the experience! I'll settle for that! The last few days have been a steady training load comprising a decent roller session producing some reasonable power levels. After this session I followed it up immediately with some kettlebell conditioning. The next day was an hour run session as 5 min warm up, 8 min half marathon pace, 2 min jog, 6 min increased pace, 2 min jog, 4 min upped pace again, 2 min jog, 2 min fast, 2 min jog. Then repeat this descending set aiming to maintain or increase the pace. This run session left the troublesome hamstrings tight. I'm still building the rehab for this problem but it's annoying! Anyway, the back to back sessions have been tough for this old man! But I'm confident I can build on current physical condition and compete in a few months - if I can settle with the work and domestic situation. Today was a longer easy endurance roller session followed by rehab. A swim set tomorrow will see me to a day off 25 Dec. Something happening that day....

A Reasonable Week

After pushing for Consistency last week, it's been a reasonable 7 days of training. I have completed more research on my tight hamstring problem and the thought now is to focus more on glute/hamstring prehab. So I have completed some sort of focused conditioning exercises every day. Today I completed my normal longer/intense session and the tight hamstrings seemed slightly better. I'm not sure if this was down to the fact that I ran for less overall time today than last week. The running this week, however, was more intense, completing only 5k of running as 4 x 1k increasing the effort each rep. Each rep was broken by 7 mins of sweetspot bike effort on the rollers (with 30 sec flat out every 2 min) and 10 min kettlebell conditioning. So the running was carrying quite fatigued legs. Overall, I was happy enough with the run pace for each kilo: 4:04, 3:59, 3:56, 3:51. Whilst not super quick times, the cold and twisty course did impact the running (not forgetting jelly legs!). So let's see how the right hamstrings are tomorrow. The aim is for a swim session to assist recovery. More on swimming next post as, surprisingly, swimming is going OK.

The Quest for Consistency

So what's been the landscape of the last few weeks in my training? Illness, some stress and at least 2 attempts to get back on track with consistent training. The main focus is just that; consistency. But also strength work. The strength work has centred on body-weight exercises. I've really got enthusiastic about kettle bell work too. In particular, kettlebell cleans, Turkish get up and single leg deadlifts. This strength work will help injury prevention and help minimise loss of muscle - remember, I'm old! I'm still finding that I am suffering from tight hamstrings, especially after running. What's the answer? More stretching? More strength work? I don't know to be honest. As normal, suck it up and crack on! Nearly 2019 and no race plans as yet. I really want to race but can't plan or enter any events until I know what my work location will be. It's looking like I'll be located at Yeovil but not sure when I'll start. So maybe some short duathlon race focus would be good. That said I'm really enjoying swimming, even though I'm only swimming once a week. Let's see what happens in Jan 2019.

Gravel Bike Trend

The latest development for my job situation is that I am not returning to Saudi. Such a weird situation based on a simple admin error. The Saudi authorities would not budge and I was effectively banned from entering KSA for 3 years - I will not be returning at all. The upshot is that BAE cannot employ me if I cannot be in-country. So I am back on the job hunt. Whilst I sound 'ok' with this situation, in truth, I am devastated. We had completed many domestic changes to prepare for the Saudi venture. To have everything fall through has caused so many issues. But, as I have said before, this Blog is about my triathlon journey (not really going anywhere at the moment!), not a portal to detail life in general. So enough of that. One issue as a result, however, is that I have a bike (trusty Specialized Langster single speed) and swim gear out in Saudi that I had sent out early with a colleague. Got to work on getting this stuff back! I have been watching lots of GCN - Global Cycling Network - whilst rolling along on the rollers. I had not realised the huge interest in gravel bikes (or adventure bikes) at the moment. Over time, I have become quite intrigued with these bikes. They just look like great go anywhere bikes. Good for commuting or a winter training bike. So I took the plunge and got one: This is the Merlin Cycles Malt G Gravel Bike. It isn't a top end high tech bike for sure. But it is sturdy and reliable and a great deal from Merlin Cycles. I have ridden this bike on the roads and gravel/mud/grass/tracks and it really is simply fun to ride. It does feel heavy for sure. But that is good training, right?! Where it feels best is on the gravel tracks and it eats up the uneven surface really well. The thicker tyres soak up the bumps and it is has a solid feel. Overall, I am very pleased with this bike. Those thicker tyres also make the crappy UK road surface far easier to negotiate too.