TT Pain

Yep it's been TT pain time. Did the club evening 25 TT on the N1 course last Wed and clocked a course PB of 58:53. very happy with that as I had been feeling pretty tired before the start. With 17 roundabouts to contend with, it ain't a fast course! I did 59:17 last year and I was certainly gpoing better on the bike in 2009 - well I think so!

Today was a big training day with a 20 mile commute to work, followed by 5 miles running off the bike. Then a nails 2.8k swim set at lunch. This included 10 x 100m on 2 mins all way under 1:30. fastest was probably around 1:22. 16 x 50m on 1 min all around 42 - 43 sec to finish with just about finished me off. Then it was a steady ride home 20 miles. get this bloggers! I am having a day off tomorrow!!

The Tour de France starts this weekend so I am off to get all jobs done to hopefully get some viewing time for Le Tour!!

Regrouping

Greetings Blogland. It’s been a while since I have visited! I have so many things pulling on my attention that I am struggling to complete everything – especially the enjoyable aspects like non-essential computer work! Also, I still do not have internet access at home. . . . . GGRRRRRRR!

Whinge over! A quick overview of what has been going on in my Tri-Life. I rode a semi-decent Open 10 TT the other weekend, which indicated that I was finally recovering from the beaver Triathlon. Then, I raced at the RAF Odiham Sprint Tri last Wed. As previously, I took it easy on the run and managed a decent result. So happy with that. Then it was The Dambuster Triathlon last Saturday. This was the RAF Champs, as well as a World Champs Qualifier. The good news is that I would have qualified by finishing 2nd in my age group. Yep, after 5 years of trying I finally received a Pacesetter Events top 3 plaque – awesome! The bad news is that I had a bit of a stinker in the swim and bike. I could go into details but I have decided not to because in triathlon there is always something that does not quite go to plan (well there is in my world!). The result is the result and that can’t be changed. Back to good news! Many of the RAF competitors really upped their game.

Daz Sharpe stormed round to win the RAF Champs in a silly time of 2:05 something. Really good to see him win as he has had many set backs. Also, new vet on the block, Paul Fullalove, finally put a back to back swim, bike and run together all at once to take the Vets title. He has made fantastic progress and good on him; I know the hard training that he has put in and he deserves the improvement. Here is a pic of me gurning nicely:


More good news: the dambuster race T-Shirt design was most pleasing! For those of you that remember Mr Ben, (or Mr Benbuster in this case!)check this out:


There were many other great performances at the Dambuster but I simply do not have the time to dissect them all (see above whinge!).

I am regrouping for the Vitruvian so watch out middle distance racers! I am shooting for a good race in September! Ok, watch out old middle distance racers!

Moving Fatigue!

This week I have been completing my 3rd house move since Jan 31st. It is only across the road but the key point is that we are moving using our own steam – no removal men. So, it’s just me and Julie, apart from my brother in law who assisted with the big heavy stuff yesterday. I have had a day off work to complete the ‘heavy move’ items, but apart from that it is business as usual at work and move jobs in the evening. With the Beaver tri last weekend leaving me somewhat fatigued, I can honestly say that I am absolutely spent now. So tired today. I will be very glad when all this moving stuff is over.

I have a 25 mile TT entry in for Sunday but I may not make it out of bed! I am telling myself that all will be ok for the Vit in September, but in reality I am not happy with all the interruption and fatigue. My legs are still shot from the run last Saturday and the pic below reminds me that I can still run! This was taken at the Beaver and I think I am smiling! The next pic shows the dreadful rain that dumped on us during the bike leg. A wet day! (Draft Pics from Phil O'Conner Photography)I hope the guys racing at Weymouth cope with the other extreme ok this weekend – hot and dry! Race well. I will rest well!

So Busy

Not sure where 2010 has gone so far. With so many moves I just feel so disorganised. And another result of these moves is my internet and phone connections has been lousy at best. Hence the rather infrequent posts on here. Right now I am posting using my Pam Pre. It' a cool gadget but you need fingers the width of match sticks to work the qwerty keyboard.

Anyway, a quick update. I raced Brize Norton Sprint Tri last Wed. I say raced but I jogged round the run to save my legs for the Beaver middle distance tri the following Saturday. Andy Fisher won looking very fit. He really was streets ahead of the rest. Some good results from youngsters coming through, which is nice to see. And great to see Brad Goggin racing so weel for 2nd place. I bagged 4th and was happy enoigh. But the day was hit by tragedy as our President sadly died as he was finishing the run. There have neen many testimonials for Sir Christopher Moran and I will say no more than I was very affected by the incident because I stopped and asked if he was ok when I saw him sitting on a bench with his head in his hands.

Saturday was The Beaver midde distance tri. Having not completed a triathlon since 200c due to my achilles injury, I have now completed 2 in a single week! The Beaver was the toughest race I have done. This is mostly due to the very hilly run. However, the wet weather did not help. The bike couse was 4 laps and had some silly fast parts and a nasty climb that had me usingmy 23 sprocket and 39 chain ring for the first time ever on this bike. I managed to win my age group and am happy about that. Jase went very well and was only 20 sec behind me, despite just testing his Ironman nutrition. Andy fisher won the entire race and was simply scary on the run.



I camped the night before the race

Race Time

It's been a while since I blogged. I have been extremely busy with one thing or another and computer time has had to be dropped in order to train!

It's the RAF Brize Norton Sprint Tri this Wednesday and i am looking forward to that. However, with the Beaver Middle Distance Tri the following Saturday, I will have to take an 'easy' race at Brize. I plan to just go for a PB 400m swim and then enjoy a relaxed spin and jog to get my T Shirt!

As part of my prep for the Beaver I did my first 50 mile TT last weekend. Man what a pain-fest! Everything hurt by the end! I have raced over 50 mile many times in triathlon but somehow a full-on TT is just different! I wanted sub-2 hours and I would have taken 1:59:59.9999!!! But I clocked 2:01:58. The final 11 mile stretch was into a headwind and it really ruined any chance of a sub 2 hour clocking. Nevertheless, it was great training for the Beaver. My running is still in 'get by with the bare minimum' mode. So I may suffer on the run.

The evening 10 mile TTs have been going ok and the return of the warm weather brought a season best 23:18 last Wed. my PB on this course is 22:52, so the biking is not too bad for may. My new 'A' Race is the Vitruvian and I hope to rescue my run form by September and peak on the bike too. My improved swimming seems to be fading!! This is what has happened in the past and I have no idea why I get some decent swim form and then lose it a few weeks later! Totally weird but I am not stressing over it.

After years of using Campag on my bikes I have recently been trying Shimano. So which is best? I have to say that Shimano gets my vote. The changes are crisper and you do not need to apply half as much pressure on the shifters as you do with Campag.

Anyway, got to jump on my bike and get some of this sunshine!! I do love the good weather!

Train well Bloggers

Don't you just love PBs!!

1k swim

15:24

Game on!

Training Schedules and Training Log Books

The title of this post describes 2 important aspects of triathlon training - right? So why don't I have either?!! True, I have a very loose schedule in that I do the club evening TTs on Wednesdays and try and do a longer run and bike once a week, but that's it really. So is this good or bad? I am not sure! It can be good to be flexible! All my house moving stuff has made it impossible to have schedule. But I suppose I should keep a log, if only to look back and see what works and what doesn't.

Some recent sessions:

Bike commute to work 20 miles. Swim at lunch. Bike commute home 20 miles

Brick session as 35 miles road on the TT bike as 25 min warm up then continuous alternating 2 min hard, 3 mins tempo. Run 6 miles with the first 5 at sub 7 min miling.

Brick session as Club 10 mile TT followed by 6 - 8 1 min run efforts on the grass.

Brick session as 20 miles road on the TT bike hard, 5 miles sub 7 min miling run, 20 miles road on the TT bike faster than the first 20 mile effort!

I have done plenty of commutes to work on the bike and tried to keep the effort when riding steady. i mostly use my single speed and this helps to keep me spinning. In the pool, a recent 6:00 400m swim using my wetronome was very nice to complete. I use the wetronome a lot and am trying to push my threshold pace at my perceived best strokes per minute (58 SPM) for longer distances. I may attempt a 1k swim TT this week. Now if I maintained the 6:00 min 400m pace I would be on for a 15 min time! Err, maybe a bit too much of a stretch for me!!

Just edited this post as I had stated 58 strokes per length!! I meant per minute! Wow! 58 strokes per length would be some going!!