Recovering

I've  had a bit of a tough week for training this week with the Grafman taking a lot more out of me than I thought it had. I went for a very gentle run on Wednesday and had to stop after 20 minutes with my legs completely fried. It was a bit better then next day but my heart rate was through the roof for such a gentle exertion.

On Saturday I had an Open 10 tt so bimbled gently over to Dorking on the Argon with the aim of doing 40 ish miles with the tt sandwiched in the middle. It was pretty horrible with a fast out leg, with the wind at my back and then a very stiff headwind on the way back. I gave up towards the end, as again I had no gas at all. A 24:45, a full minute down on two weeks ago.

So all in all, a very quiet week. I need to start building up again over the next few weeks and make the
turbo my friend.

Grafman Triathlon 2014

Just a quick one about the weekend's race.

Pre race.

Had a stomach bug on Wednesday and Thursday. Not ideal but felt ok by Friday. Simon and I, along with a club mate of his, John, camped over on Saturday night. The wind was pretty strong during the afternoon but died away so it looked like running the deep section wheels would be fine. Lots of carbs the night before. Felt ready to go and do my first triathlon in three years.

Swim. 37:xx

It's a very pretty swim. The water looked a bit murky but tasted ok, I know this as I swallowed quite a lot of it. The course was one large lap followed by one small one. I lurked at the back trying and failing to find feet. My main issue was leaking goggles so I had to roll on my back a few times to empty them. Sub optimal but it gave me a rest. I tried to keep my stroke nice and long which worked for the most part but by the end of lap two I was starting to feel a bit tight in the shoulders and was looking forward to getting out. The time was quite a bit down on what I know I am capable of but I can't complain, considering how little swimming I have actually done in the last six months.

Bike 2:31

Once I left T1 there were not many bikes left in transition and I spent the first 10 minutes not really feeling the love. My legs felt very heavy after the swim and I just wasn't used to transitioning from one discipline to the next. After a while I got my head down properly and started to overtake a lot of people; relatively easy when you are quite a way down after the swim, but I made sure I was not
pushing hard.  The road was quite bumpy at times but it was a flat, fast course with a few technical
bits at each turn around point. There was some drafting but not much, conspiring how busy it got at times and when the road opened up most people seemed to behave themselves.

My nutrition was shotblocks and I had a pack an hour washed down with some nuun and at the last feed station I took a bottle of water. This left me a little light on calories but it went down ok and didn't come back up. I think I'll think about some savoury snacks next time, just to make the rolling buffet a little more interesting. When I came off the main circuit it was another few miles back to T2 and I slowed down too much here, losing time because I was looking for the entrance back to Grafham Water rather than concentrating on the race. So I got back into T2 in a tad over 2.5 hours feeling quite fresh. It was all looking rather good.

Run 1:50

Dam and blast! Another rubbish run. The writing was on the wall almost straight away as I ran out of T2 feeling great, I mean really great, but then after 800 metres my legs started to cramp up and brought me to a halt very quickly. I literally could not walk a step and spent a few minutes massaging my left quad and right hamstring to get them to free up a little. I then managed to get walking before resuming a slow shuffle, on my way to the first aid station at the turnaround point on the dam. I think this was a combination of two factors. My longest ride on the argon in a fairly aggressive tt position and not taking on board enough electrolytes. Aerobically I felt great and my legs did not feel very fatigued but they were very knotted with cramp, so I made the decision to ensure that I was taking on water and high5 at every station. The second half of the run course takes you back to transition, then out again through woods and paths to the second turnaround. By this stage I was going through a black mood, frankly very bored with the whole thing, but I think the energy drink must have kicked in as I perked up and was able to run more freely.

I had one lap to go with exactly 1 hour to get a sub 5. So just over 6.5 miles in an hour. It gave me something to work for so I resolved to run all the way to the feed station on the dam and I managed it! Game on. Ok, now. Time to run all the way back to the water station at transition. I did that too! So it was still on. I necked more water and got running again but I could feel what little energy I had in my legs finally seeping out. The harder I tried, the slower I was getting and it got to a point where I was virtually quicker walking. With about a mile to go I was still just within sight of a 4:59:xx time but without warning both hamstrings cramped and wouldn't let go. It really hurt and I spent another couple of minutes massaging them to get them moving again. It was very, very frustrating.

I jogged across the line in 5:03. I am really delighted and really disappointed at the same time. That's
a 12 minute pb on the time I did at my last middle distance race in the Cowman in 2010, which is obviously great, and I went into this race not expecting to go sub 5. But to get so close and not make it is frustrating, especially when I think that the cramps are something that maybe I could have controlled.

Never mind. Onwards.

Almost evens

I have had a lovely couple of weeks' training. Everything, and I mean everything has gone right. First of all, swimming. With the Grafman Tri at the end of this week it dawned on me a couple of weeks ago that it might be necessary to a) buy a wetsuit, and b) use it.  :-/.  I didn't have time to go and try a load of different types on so I took a punt on an offer from wiggle and got one from there. Thankfully it fitted like the proverbial (rubber) glove so last week I headed off to Heron Lake with Simon to do my first two proper open water swim sessions in a couple of years. A couple of kilometres per session  and I felt really good about it. It was a bit of a plod but much, much better than I thought that it would be. I had a tough sprint session with Kingfisher last night and I'll try to get a gentle set in on Thursday. And that will be me done. About 10 kilometres so far for the year; I don't want to overdo it too much. ;-)

Running has been steady, injury free and relaxed. A little bit of fartlek to mix things up and some long runs of 10-11 miles.  The best bit has been my cycling. I have managed to get out for some mid-week rides after work and the tt season is in full swing. Last week I got a personal best over 10 miles with a 23:45 which I was so happy with; the first time that I have gone over 25 mph average for a tt. It just so happened that four days later I had a 25m tt. A 25mile TT is a great test of aerobic endurance and it has a wonderful mathematic symmetry. 25 miles in one hour equals 25mph, or 'evens'. Back in the day, this was a very hard feat with steel bikes, spoked wheels and no aero benefits. These days it is undoubtedly easier to achieve but it's still seen as quite a milestone for cyclists to aspire to and  similar to a sub 3 marathon for runners.

My pb from last year was 64:45 on the Van Nic, so a long way off but with me on my Argon I knew that I should be able to better this with a fast morning and I thought that a low 62 would be a good result and achievable with my current level of fitness.

The morning was fast with very little wind but the course, G25/53 is not a particularly fast one, with a few long drags at the end. I hit it pretty hard from the start and was pushing through the whole event and by 19 miles I thought that I had blown up as I climbed towards the Hop Oast roundabout. Thankfully, the last 5 miles are fairly flat or downhill and I was able to keep pushing a pretty big gear.  I went purely on rpe and didn't have a clock on it as I didn't feel that I would be particularly close to the hour, so I was really shocked and pleased to record a 60:56! On a faster course, a bit more aerobic endurance work and with a cycle computer I reckon a sub 60 25 should be on the cards. It's quite a nice feeling knowing that I can do it rather than hoping that I can.