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.

Feeling the love again

I guess it has a lot to do with the improved weather, but cycling has become a joy again after spending the last couple of months or so feeling that I was getting nowhere. Saturday was a little frustrating. After my unexpected pb the Wednesday bafore I was entered for the SCCU 10 time trial, which was to be my first ever 10 not on the G10/42 course. The G10/57 is meant to be a much faster course and it was a beautiful morning with very little wind. It looked like my first sub 24 was well and truly on. I had picked up my number, got my tt bike prepped and swung a leg over it to spin the 10 minutes to the start, only to be told the event was cancelled after the first few riders had started as some unexpected roadworks popped up. Although it was a 30 mile round trip, I was much more annoyed about not starting and getting a time. Safety first and all that, but frustrating all the same.

I helped marshal a road race in the afternoon, which was a new and interesting experience. I thought that I would just be pointing the peleton down a road, but no. At one point I was standing in the middle of the road, hiding behind a large red flag as a car drove at me a 40 mph. Thankfully, he stopped. :-)  The bike outriders were grumpy and so was the commissarie, who may have forgotten that I had given up almost my whole Saturday to help out (unpaid). I don't expect eternal gratitude but the odd 'please' and 'thank you' wouldn't have gone amiss.  Think I'll stick to tting. A much more friendly bunch.

I saw this picture on Facebook the other day.

How not to ride up Boxhill.

Only yesterday I was cycling up and over Boxhill on my commute home when a lovely little canard microlight flew directly overhead. I was completely transfixed for a few seconds and very nearly did exactly the same as this fella. At least there was no one around to see.

A bit chuffed

It was the second evening tt last night and I got a pb! 24:04, which is a 3 second improvement on last year, addmitedly on a full tt outfit unlike last year, so there should still be a lot more to come. I really want to see 23:xx before the season is out.

An update

I have been ticking along with my training, enjoying a few different sessions but not really pulling up any trees. I’ve had lots of other things going on so it’s been a case of just do what I can, when I can. I suppose the really nice thing has been my first evening 10 of the season aboard the Argon in full tt trim (although I have managed to lose my tt helmet, doh). The deep section Planet x wheels felt great and I really noticed three things. Any form of cross wind makes for a dicey situation when running the 80mm deep front wheel. Tubs roll beautifully and the ride through the aluminium frame felt a lot smoother. And lastly, they are very slippy through the air, which I noticed most on the couple of rises on the G10/42 course with the bike carrying a lot more speed through the down hills, requiring less effort when stamping on the pedals climbing up the other side. I achieved a 25:02, and while I gave it a good go and that's almost a minute down on my best time last season, that’s a time I am really please with in light of my current fitness and I am confident that I will be going sub 24 before too long.

I have had a few Sunday rides with Simon and we cycled out to the G10/42 course again and 2-upped it, trying to drop each other off our wheels. He was too strong for me at the end but it was a proper hurtbox session which I need plenty more of, sandwiched into a solid 50 mile ride. I am trying something new on the turbo by mixing up my standard long interval sessions and including some much higher intensity sets with maximum efforts over short 30seconds-2 minutes intervals with a longer recovery. I just fancy trying something new and seeing what effect that it might have and whether more lactate threshold work will benefit my 10 / 25 / 50 tting.

The other bit of news I have is that I will be doing the sprint version of the Alpe d’ Huez race. This is down to logistics of getting there in time; having enough time to register and set up camp. The sprint race is on the Thursday so gives us a lot more time to get to the Alps and enjoy the experience. It’s all relative in terms of it being a sprint as I still have to drag my lardy carcass up Alpe ‘d Huez, but I will have a couple more days to recover from the Thunder run too. I have entered the Grafman Half Ironman, and while my cycling and running are steadily improving, swimming, once again, has gone awol.  Time to go to the pool.

The blues

I'm desperately trying to summon up some enthusiasm to train but it's proving hard. I'm definitely not firing on all cylinders which obviously doesn't help but even with that as an excuse/reason, I'm just not very good at the moment. I tried to kick-start some mojo by going out with Simon on Sunday around a lumpy and scenic route that we have ridden quite a bit in the past. It takes in a lot of short, steep climbs up Coldharbour, Holmbury Hill, Coombe Bottom and Crocknorth, and we normally finish with Boxhill. It is a very pretty route and normally this is enough to take my mind off any problems that I might be having but this time I just couldn't get into any form of rhythm when going uphill; constantly changing gear, my position on the bars and even stopping on a couple of occasions to remove or put on items of clothing, just as an excuse to stop. It was a solid 50 miles which normally would leave me with a happy glow, but I wheeled my bike into the garage when I got home and was glad to see the back of it.

The organiser of the SCCU Sporting 21 TT which I (barely) completed a couple of weeks back, was kind enough to send me a picture of my suffering. It made me realise that I need to lose some timber around my middle if I want to get a bit faster this season.



Suffering

A slight change of fortune

After a few weeks of very little training I was going to get firmly back on the horse last week only for me to pick up a sore throat and ear ache. Nothing major, I think mainly due to feeling run down and stressed out at work, so I took the decision to kick back and let itself sort itself out before doing anything major. Thankfully I was over the worst of it by the time Sunday came around as we had a long ride to Worthing and back scheduled. This was going to be my first long ride of the year (over 50 miles at any rate) and with my dire performances in the time trials so far this season I was a little apprehensive about how it would go. The idea was that Kingston Phoenix would have 2 groups setting off, one 15 minutes before the other, with the faster group starting second and then hopefully catching the slow group en route. There was a healthy number set out in the slow group but the fast group consisted of only Simon and I, so situation normal. It was a shame that there were not more with us but it gave us the opportunity to work hard. I ensured that I was really fuelled up and ate loads of carbs the night before and had an enormous bowl of porridge in the morning. I didn't want to bonk again like I had a few weeks before.

The weather was grim; cold rain for nearly the whole ride and a stiff headwind all the way out. So it was a simple task of working at a good tempo effort for as long as possible, sharing the work with Simon and getting some good quality dual carriageway miles in the bank. I was fully expecting my legs to go pop quite soon but after the last few weeks I was in a fairly belligerent mood and just thought, 'stuff it'. No point sitting up taking it easy when I've got a full tt season to do and the Alpe d' Huez to climb. Do your worst A24.

I loved every minute of it. It was one of those rides where everything just clicked and even the hard bits felt good.  We caught the other group at Dorking after they had stopped to pick up a few more riders and then pushed on by ourselves. Simon is in great form and where I was able to be glued behind his wheel coming home with a healthy tailwind and clipping along at an effortless 27-28 miles per hour was a real blast. I took my turns on the front and they were tough but being hunkered down on the drops trying to make myself as aero as possible, forcing myself to push a bigger gear was what I needed.

Maybe it was being back on my road bike? Maybe I just expected so little from the ride and any form of improvement would be a blessing? Maybe it was just a change of attitude? I don't know, but I enjoyed every hour of it (especially the coffee and chicken sandwich on the way home) and it has been a massive confidence boost. I did tire quite a bit in the last 10 miles and Simon skipped effortlessly away from me as we climbed up and over the hill outside Dorking, but with 70 miles done already and the first signs of real fatigue in my legs I was a happy chappy. 80 miles in total in just over 4 hours were numbers that at this stage I am very happy with. Onwards.

Taking a hit

Fast bike, slow rider

The last three weeks have seen my training stall completely with me only managing a couple of hours each week. This has mainly been down to work and life stuff which I just was not able to balance up; having to work late meant that I was just too wiped to do a session at night. This has also led to me eating absolute rubbish as well, which is a complete double whammy. Virtually zero training and a steady gain in weight as I attack another pack of crisps, does not make an endurance athlete, even a mediocre one.

There will be a few changes in the Wheezy household next year and I am going to have to change the way and time that I train accordingly. I am going to have to start trying to get some sessions in early in the morning before work so that I can have my evenings free for concentrate on family and work commitments.

My bike fitness has really taken a dive. I did a 25 mile tt three weeks ago which although was slow, felt fairly comfortable, but then last week I did a Sporting 21TT. 'Sporting' in TT terminology means 'lumpy' or 'slow'. I was very, very slow. The first 10 mile loop was uncomfortable with the second one just being downright awful. To add insult to injury I properly bonked on the 15 mile cycle home trying to say on Simon and Brian's wheels as we spun slowly home and I couldn't even do that. Today was a little better at the SCCU Sporting 10. I was able to hit it a bit harder but a long 28 when I should have been doing a low 26 is pretty hard to stomach. Tomorrow is the last SCCU Sporting event of the early season, the Sporting 25. I intend to get there early and try to get a few miles in before the start to bulk the ride out a bit and then use the tt as training. I am simply finding it too hard at the moment to push any form of hard effort without red-lining very early.

I have the Alpe D'Huez triathlon in a few months time and I am going anaerobic on the smallest rise in the road. I am going to hit the hills really hard over the Easter break and try to claw some fitness back;  I think that I might even need some double bike days. The last month or so has shown me that in cycling, at my level at least, nothing beats volume.

Owned

With the sun shining it was time to get the Argon out of the shed and get some tt miles under my belt, So Simon and I headed out early this morning to take in part of the 25 route that will be the first tt of the year, next week. This was the closest I was able to get to Simon all morning.


On the Mickelham Bends below Boxhill

I had absolutely nothing in the tank at all and it's just down to not getting enough volume done on the bike, so the first few time trials of the season are going to smart a bit. Simon was looking pretty bombproof again, making it all look so easy. I'll be playing catch up again this season.


It was great being on the Argon though; the downhills were a lot of fun. A couple of hours with 36 miles on the clock including a stop for a bulging tyre. Very odd.

Running continues to progress with my legs feeling strong. Still not doing any speedwork and just concentrating on solid, easy miles.

Exciting times

As I said at the end of my last post I still had not entered a triathlon. Well now I have. :-)

The original idea had been to go to friends who live in France and then do Embrunman but unfortunately we just couldn't make it work for reasons I won't bore you with. Anyway, while sorting out our holiday it became clear that there was a possibility that I could do the Alpe d'huez triathlon before doing the rest of the holiday.  There was a bit of a problem with this plan however, in that I am already committed to the Thunder Run which takes place on the Sunday with the d'Huez triathlon on the following Wednesday. Oooffff. That's quite a heavy workload and I spent a week or so thinking about it before signing up. At the end of the day I want to enjoy myself and I am not fussed about how fast I go in France. I just want to ride up some really big mountains and enjoy myself so I ll just stick the Van Nic in the 28 sprocket and winch myself up. Simples.

I am very excited.

February

The weather has definitely dampened my enthusiasm to get out and play on the bike in the last couple of weeks. I have been getting one or two turbo sessions in per week, continually fiddling and tinkering with my tt position but I have not actually been out on a bike in a couple of weeks. My usual commute rides have not happened with a mixture of cba and having to carry lots of luggage to and from work. Even with a Ti framed bike, that's not conducive to a good training ride so the turbo it is. Yesterday I managed my first commute ride over Boxhill; my standard 1 hour ish ride home when I have the time. I felt completely rubbish. I actually got off my bike to see if the rear brake was rubbing, but it wasn't. I just seemed to have very little power to turn the cranks. My bike fitness just seems to have seeped away somewhere.

However, My running is going well, probably too well. Something is bound to happen soon but at the moment I am riding the crest of a wave. My #Jantastic three runs per week remains intact and last week I even did four runs, with an additional 20 minute dreadmill run on Friday. On Sunday I ran 14.5 miles with Paul, a friend who is running London in two months and we bimbled around Altringham with a few of his mates on one of the few dry and sunny mornings of the month. It was a very easy steady run, over hills and dales, running new trails and afterwards I felt great.

I have entered the Abingdon Marathon in October with some guys from Tritalk who inhabit the 'Sub 3 hour thread.' I have been a serial lurker on there for a few years and while at this stage sub 3 is not likely a 3:15 gfa time would be a good thing to aim for. I'm looking at a much longer lead-in with less intense training in a bid to get to the start line fit. I was worried that three runs would not be enough but I seem to have achieved a nice balance of work and rest and in particular my lower legs do not feel continually battered and sore.

Other than the Abingdon Marathon I have been very lax about entering more events as I am saving up for some deep section rims for the Argon but I need to think about a final event for the #Jantastic challenge. At the very least I could go for a 5km Park Run but a half marathon would probably be more useful, but to predict a time at the moment would be pretty hard to do. I genuinely have no idea where I would stand. Ultimately, I don't really care as I am swimming, cycling AND running for the first time in a long while. Happy days.

First race of the year

I took part in my first running race yesterday since I did the London Marathon in April last year. Woop woop me. It was the Human Race Iceman 16km trail run on the Army training grounds in Frimley. I had entered it a few months ago as something to give my running a bit of a focus over the winter and I wanted to do something a bit different. Human Race events tend to get a bit of a bad press for the cost of their events and at £27 this was not cheap for what it was, but it was a very well organised event over an interesting and tough course.

My major problem on turning up was that I was not wearing running shorts, instead opting for lycra leggings which I normally never wear except on the bike, over cycle shorts. I looked ridiculous and resembled a skinny beetle with weak lower limbs. I was very self conscious.

I knew it was going to be fairly hilly and with only a handful of 8 and 10 mile runs over very flat terrain under my belt, the plan was simple. Start very steadily, stay running steadily and then see how I was feeling over the last few kilometres if it was possible to push the pace a bit. So on the hooter most of the field left me standing while I set off at a trot. We all spent the first few miles trying to avoid the puddles before we all realised that this was going to be impossible and we might as well just run through. The first large loop started easily enough before we encountered the first few hills. They were all very short and very steep and before long people were walking up them. This was where I found I was able to begin overtaking quite a few people who had gone out way too fast.

After the first loop I was feeling very comfortable and then came the next loop, run twice, which was apparently the hardest part of the course. It started with a wide flat bridle path that was gently rolling, followed by quite a narrow technical section through woods. After this came the hills. Well, actually it was one hill but we ran up it about 6 times. Once per lap I had to walk as people had stopped in front of me and as it was single track there was no way around them until we reached the top. The first time was a lot of fun and I was overtaking people steadily and even picking up the pace steadily on the flat sections. The second of the small laps did start to sting a bit, but I just kept picking people off and even had enough at the end for a sprint finish. 32nd out of 270 and 6th in my age group on minimal training, but most importantly my achilles and calves held together over a tough course and I had a lot of fun. Maybe, just maybe, I'm getting my running legs back.  :-)