Injury Monster Visits😟

After my last positive post things have taken a turn for the worse. The injury monster has visited. I have 2 issues - though these issues may actually be related. I have a pain that just appeared in my left sit bone region that has made cycling rather painful. I’ve backed off the long rides, for obvious reasons but maintained consistency as best I can on the turbo and rollers. No idea what has caused this or whether it is bone or soft tissue. I’m actually hitting some decent power numbers. Staying in an aero position helps so at least I’m getting a good length of time in the aero position. Linked to this sit bone problem is the return of an old injury niggle - glute/hamstring insert pain. I’m kind of kicking myself for not maintaining the prehab routine. So it’s back to glute hamstring rehabilitation again. I decided not to race the Manchester Duathlon the other week due to these problems 😖. I’ve eased up on the track sessions also and rested more this week. So actually feeling a bit better at the moment. So I’m almost ready to race tomorrow at the Alsager 5! I’m grabbing a bike ride there and a spin back. So a tasty session in total. I’m just not sure how hard to push on the run. I’m feeling old and slow and know I cannot run constant sub-6 min miles anymore. All this has lead me to reflect on previous races. A 25:24 for 5 miles back in the late 80s. How was that possible?! I’d be stoked to run sub-30 min now. More realistically, a 31 min clocking is possible. But I’m struggling to accept this slowing due to age 😢. Oh well. The focus has to be staying healthy, rehab/prehab, strength, and focus on the main goals. I’ve entered the London Duathlon long distance now and I also want to have a shot at the National Duathlon Champs in April. Until next time . Z z z

Training Status - VO2 Max Baseline

Two weeks into 2020 and training has continued. I had completed some decent training over the Christmas period - mainly as I was not at work. So I wanted to maintain the momentum into the New Year. I have had a couple of decent turbo sessions and also a good long road ride that included a big effort up the Cat & Fiddle climb in the Peak District. Last Wednesday was a return to the track in Bristol with Bristol West AC. I am also trying to fit some strength and conditioning into the mix. My problem is that it takes me so long to recover from hard sessions - running, cycling or/and strength stuff - that I struggle to maintain the strength sessions as these would impact the upcoming run or cycle sessions. I guess I just need to crack on and train tired. The track session last Wed was good for me as it was based on shorter reps. I want to get the old legs running at a significantly faster than my goal 5k pace of around 3:37 per kilo. As I found out, the faster pace pretty much wrecked my legs. But I did maintain a faster pace for all reps, despite feeling like I imploded on the last rep. My ambition to run 5k under 18 min seems a bit of a stretch target right now. But then I have to remember that I normally race far better than I train. So i look forward to my next attempt at a Parkrun 5k. Today I hit the turbo with the aim of logging some extended time in an aero position on the tribars. It was a seriously icy morning that suited being off the slippy roads. I had taken a couple of easy days due to the track session wrecking my legs. It seems that 2 days was not sufficient! But I pushed through with a GCN 3-session mash-up of Warm up, The Escalator and the standard VO2 Max set that I have completed a few times over the last year. I was hoping to hit 300+ Watts for the 2 min max efforts. I was constant across the 6 sets around 285 Watts - so no where near really! But I have to remember that I was into the second hour of the session and my legs were fatigued before I had started. I definitely feel that I have 300+ Watts in there somewhere if I start the session fresher. So let's use the VO2 Max figures above as the baseline for a subsequent test session. Next key session is a track session on Wednesday and, if the weather is o, a low key race at the next iteration of the Manchester Duathlon - a Go Tri event - on 26 Jan 20. Onwards and upwards. . . . .

2020 Race Plans

It is nearly the middle of Jan 20 and I would really like to have a decent year of racing, with some specific targets to build the training around. As I blogged previously, the focus is duathlons. I am enjoying the training and have managed to consistently hit running every other day, with regular track sessions to try and boost the run speed. I was not that happy with my 5k test run on 1 Jan 20 but there is time to get the 5k effort below 18 mins - I hope! Originally, I was going to focus on sprint duathlons. However, at my age, I think I need to use my endurance and build the distance through the year to race a longer duathlon in Sep 20. Although I have qualified for the World Sprint Du Champs in Holland, I really object to the huge costs involved with age group representation. So, the plan had developed! Early season goal: National Standard Distance Duathlon Champs at Bedford Aerodrome: Mid-season build event: Pitsford Duathlon, 10k/40k/10k Main Goal: London Duathlon 20k/77k/10k I have a number of shorter local duathlon races to sharpen up the for. Additionally, I intend to enter a good amount of bike TT events to hone the longer distance aero position speed. So that is it. Hopefully, I can keep to this plan. Entering events is a good motivator. i am in decent shape now and if I stay injury free I hope to be competitive. Onwards and upwards.

Into 2020 at The Wammy Parkrun

So yesterday was The Wammy Parkrun that I listed as a 5k blast to see where the fitness was coming into 2020. I finished in 18:25, which was exactly the same time I recorded back in March 19. I am a little disappointed as I had hoped that a focused 3-month period of track sessions would have yielded some speed improvements. However, I have to accept that I have quite a lot of domestic stresses right now. It is hard to know what affect these stresses have on performance and I also have to consider that I am simply getting slower and slower as age catches up with me - sad but inevitable.

I have a tweak in my left hip; is the injury monster visiting again? Anyway, I still want to be running this Parkrun sub-18 min, with a stretch target of 17:52 to get the age group record! Improving by 34 seconds whilst fighting the onset of declining performance due to age will be a big ask! Let's hope when I pen the final Blog entry of 2020 that I can recap on a target achieved! Talking of targets, as much as I would like to rave in Almere at the world Sprint Duathlon Champs in Sep 20, the cost for a sprint event is absolutely massive! So my thought now is to aim for the British Standard Duathlon Champs in April 20 at Bedford Aerodrome. Then regroup for a longer distance race in September 20 at the London Duathlon over the distance 20k/77k/10k. That sounds a real tough test. Now all I need to do is enter and get into shape. I feel that I am in a good place (if this niggle in the hip clears up) now and can build fitness further. Until next time. . . . If anyone actually reads this Blog now?!! I think not; but it is a good diary to look back on 8-)

11 Years of Blogging

It is nearly 11 years since I started this Blog. Time has flown by! So much has changed in my life that has impacted my racing ambitions. I do feel like my personal Tri community has shrunk somewhat since leaving the RAF in 2017. I have found the transition from RAF to civilian life incredibly difficult - mostly due to the fact that my departure from the RAF was somewhat of a 'cliff-edge' drop, rater than a calculated leap into a planned phase. But as I have said so many times in this Blog, the focus is training and racing; not an emotional dumping ground! So let's look at the end of 2019 and look ahead to 2020. Crikey! that date sounds almost science fiction! The fact that I am still racing is a success in itself, I suppose! But enough of reminiscing. The end of 2019 is today. As far as racing goes, it has been another low-key year. I started my 'second career' in March 19. A last minute opportunity to work with the Leidos, supporting the MOD arose. This job was a better prospect than joining DE&S as a civil servant. This meant my working in Bristol during the week and returning to Newcastle Under Lyme each weekend. This dynamic has taken some getting used to. In fact, I don't think that I will ever get used to it. I had tried to target a middle distance triathlon but illness, work, 'life' etc etc put pay to that. I managed a few 10 mile TTs, a disastrous 25 mile TT, a few sprint Triathlons and a few Duathlons. At best, I maintained some sense of fitness. Then, in August, I caught a bad chest infection. Any aspirations of a late season middle distance triathlon were binned as the illness dragged on for weeks. As October came, I started to focus on running more, and started track sessions with Bristol West AC. I also joined Newcastle (Staffs) Tri Club (NTC), recently voted THE BEST TRI CLUB IN ENGLAND!!! Awesome. So now the focus is to hit the age group duathlon races and see what can be achieved. I have not been in the pool for months and do not really miss it. The track sessions have been consistent and I am hoping to see some progress on the run speed. Add to this, regular conditioning sessions and I hope to start 2020 It's Parkrun day tomorrow. Let's see where the run fitness is. The track sessions tell me I am not ready to break 18 mins for 5k. . . . .

Run Focus

Well, nearly the end of 2019 and another underwhelming year of competing. I completed a few events and was pleased to qualify for the 2020 World Sprint Du Champs. The decision to focus on duathlon next year has been quite refreshing and motivating. I am enjoying track run sessions and the last few sessions have seen a few positive sensations where I actually felt as though I could be making progress. The last couple of sessions in Bristol have been completed in frosty conditions. The track was very slippy, yet my times were not too bad. I have entered a couple of road run races to test the run form. Firs, the Kidsgrove 10k on 12 Jan 20. Secondly, the Alsager 5 mile race on 2 Feb 20. Let's see how these event turn out! I could do with testing the form over 5k at the local Parkrun before these races. Maybe over the Christmas period when I will be a bit fresher for not being at work.

Winter Go-Tri Duathlon

Last minute decision to race the winter iteration of the Manchester Airport Duathlon last weekend. I raced this venue back in March and quite enjoyed it. The weather forecast told me there would be no ice; so off I went early Sunday in the Tri-van with road bike loaded up. I didn’t fancy the TT bike for this race. Plus if I was going to race some draft legal Duathlon in 2020 I had best dial in to the road bike position to run off my evo2max. Both runs are short for this race, at 2.5k. The start was split into 5 waves only 15 sec apart. Being in the last wave I could see about 120 runners up ahead. The run course takes you through tunnels under the runway, which is kind of cool. But the path is narrow and overtaking slower runners is difficult. As normal there were some folk starting off way too fast and I met them go and burn out. Sure enough they drifted back and I managed to pull away to lead my wave into T1. I wasn’t sure how many runners I had past from earlier waves. So I hopped on to the bike and tried to pace the speed round the country lanes. I half expected a hoard of TT bikes to come past me but nobody caught me. Into T2 and as I approached the turn round pint of the second run I saw the first runner ahead of me. So I must have been in 2nd place overall. There looked to be some fast younger runners closing in, as I saw them after I turned for the return part of the run leg. But I was flowing well and confident I could hold them off. And so it was 2nd overall for me. I’ll take that! It was a low key race but still got to be pleased with an overall podium. The run legs felt good. Maybe the track sessions are starting to pay off. Let’s hope so!