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!