Quality Training Morning

A good week so far includes Saturday 3600m open water swim, Sunday 14 mile run, Monday about 10 mile of mountain biking on technical tracks in the afternoon followed by a 4 mile run in the evening before a 2700 open water swim. On Tuesday I did a 35 mile hilly bike taking on the mighty Staxton climb followed by a 3 mile run and in the evening a 1200m swim at the pool. This morning was the monster session, 0700 hrs was the start of the 3600m open water swim, followed by a 50 mile bike on a fairly flat course but quite windy, and at the end of the bike it was trainers on for an 8 mile run. Thursday and Friday will be quite short and steady stuff in preparation for the 100 mile sportive ride on Saturday morning and I plan to take the trainers and do a quick (probably not that quick) 10 k run at the end of it. I hope the weather is favourable for it. That's all for now I will post how the Saturday ride goes at the weekend.

Awsome new bike provided by my sponsor - Hilderthorpe Cycles

The new bike is here!!!! Its been very kindly provided by Paul and Lisa at Hilderthorpe Cycles www.hilderthorpecycles.co.uk my local bike shop and sponsor. I will now be riding the top of the range Giant TCR Carbon Advanced. Its super light weight carbon with the seat post built into the frame for strength and weight saving. Kitted out with a full Dura Ace 10 speed groupset and a light weight set of ksyrium sl's but as you can see in the pics its currently running on my Cosmic Carbons with the new sponsors web address graphics which were created earlier this week. I just need to get the tri bars off the Kuota and fit them and get a couple of bottle cages as I don't think the red ones off my other bike will suit it. I just hope I can do it the justice such a fine machine deserves.

A change is as good as a rest!

Well they say a change is as good as a rest. Its true. After the IS race and the ride home the day after the race I tried a run on the Friday. I felt tired from the off. For the first time in a long time I decided that I needed some rest. I took the Saturday and Sunday off and did no training for the 2 days. On the Monday I did a 30 mile bike ride and felt great, its the first time my legs felt fresh for weeks. I pushed hard and later in the day I did a 4 mile run before doing a 3600m open water swim. On Tuesday I did a 6 mile run with the dog and then another 30 mile bike taking in Staxton hill which is 3/4 mile long at 17%. I also got a quick 1k swim at the pool but was tired from the previous nights swim. Late on Tuesday Anthea and I got an overnight ferry to Belgium for a days cycling. Anthea said I had to use the mountain bike so I wouldn't leave her behind. We took a steady ride around and in glorious sunshine over the day we clocked up 60 mile at social pace. This morning was another 6 mile run and then off to the hospital for a routine check up. I have to have blood tests every 3 months as there could be side effects from the medication that could affect the liver. I was also informed that my condition was slightly more advanced than they thought and that I am at higher risk of bowel cancer due to my illness and will have to have check ups periodically. They were however pleased with my recovery from the flare up earlier in the year. This evening I got out with the local cycling club for the first time and 7 of us did some good paced "through and off" over about 25 mile. I really enjoyed this as I never get to train with anyone else. I hope to do a bit more of it as it reminded me of my days as a road racer before I moved to Cyprus in 2001. Tomorrow I might be taking Anthea up to Dalby Forest for a days mountain biking and I hope to swim and run as well at some point.

IS Race - Tallington 2008

It amazes me that the British Forces has so many people with the ability to balance work, family, OOA commitments and training/racing, yet still be able to produce such a high level of competition. I would say that the IS race at Tallington must be as high if not very close to National Champs level. Its fantastic to see so many people at a race that are all from the services both military and civilian. So how did the race go? For me personally I had a fairly good race, I exited the water on about 24 1/2 mins with Debs and Jase (I think) and then started the 3km run to transition or at least it felt that long. I had opted to put my shoes on before getting on the bike due to the gravel after the timing mat, I didn't want stones in my shoes on the bike. I passed Jase struggling with his shoes after about 10 meters or so and started the bmx course doing my best not to destroy my carbon wheels. Finally we got onto the main road and I could get down on the tri bars and start racing. Jase came past after about 3 miles and I kept the gap of around 10-12 meters before having a go back at him. I passed him but he passed me later on and we were starting to close in on Andy Reardon just as I got to the road works. I had to stop at the red light. This is where I got angry and frustrated at the Army cheats who all went through the red forcing cars to swerve out of the way. Jase also went through (bad man) I expressed my disgust to Andy whilst we sat there for about 20 seconds. The lights changed and I was off again, eager to close the gap on those that had wronged me. I passed some of them on the small climb and then eased up on the decent for the dangerous corner. I watched and cringed as a Navy guy flew past still in his tri bars and then he realised and grasped for his brakes locked the back wheel and went straight across the wrong side of the road and scrubbed his wheels along the kerb narrowly missing the Army bloke who was picking his bike up off the floor (idiots!). I closed in on Jase again and passed him on the fast part of the course that had the tail wind with some 53-11 action. On lap 2 Andy passed me again and I was sitting about 15 meters back when lucky Daz was stopped again at the lights. This time it was for longer and yet again the cheating Army riders went through the red light. Jase came up behind and was slowing down as the light went amber so got through without a stop. I had to pass him again, this time more effort up the hill got me a bigger gap over Jase and Andy and I made up some more places on the fast bit back. I closed right in on Pete Norris as we entered transition and passed him over the timing mat. The run was the worst part of my race that day Greg Macdonald was about 20 seconds up the road and I was hoping for a re-run of the last time we raced. It wasn't to be as I could not do anything to close the gap and on lap 2 he extended the gap. I made a bit of an effort to stay ahead of Pete and crossed the line about 40 seconds down on Greg and about 4 or 5 seconds ahead of Pete. All in all I was happy with my race, it was great to see everyone and great to see Dale back on the circuit despite his injury. I am happy that I had both the integrity and more importantly the sense not to be tempted to cheat my way further up the field by jumping the red light. No race is worth risking you life over! The day after I had to take the MT car back to work and then complete a 12 hour day shift, this meant all I had to do was gentle 40 mile ride home off the North Yorkshire Moors back to Bridlington finally arriving home at 9:40 p.m. I might have a rest day today (Friday) maybe?

Cranwell - what went wrong?

Well Cranwell wasn't great for me. I might as well have been riding the bike in the picture that's made of bread. It was always going to be an unknown as to how well I could recover from the Half IM at the weekend. I felt fine and was ready to go but as soon as the swim started it was obvious how I felt that it was not going well. I was slow in the swim, in to T1 I got the helmet and number belt on and I was away. This was yet another failing on my part and I just had nothing in the legs. I could barely push a 53 x 16 round let alone get down to the 12's and 11t sprockets. I struggled round and into T2 and that was the biggest disaster of my triathlon career to date. I ran to the wrong rack and stood there getting more and more furious trying to work out where my shoes were. After about 30 seconds I seen my shoes under the other rack and ran round. By this time I knew that I was on a bad day and threw my Teddy's out of the cot along with my helmet and glasses. I was so annoyed with my self. I set of on the run and closed the gap on Sags quite quickly but once it got to about 20 seconds Sags knew I was there and increased his tempo and held onto his narrow gap and beat me over the line by about 18 seconds. Andy Fisher took the win but I would have liked a pop at him on fresh legs, though I think he still would have beat me. I have punished myself for my weakness by going on a 57 mile bike with transition to a 3 mile run the day after Cranwell and then I took the MT car back to work Thursday night and cycled the 40 mile home on Friday morning in the pouring rain. Raining again, wow that makes a change!

Cleveland Steelman (wetman) Race Report

Definitely the wettest race I've ever done!

I went to this event without being sure of my form over the longer distance having only done 2 sprints and 1 Olympic distance this year. The weather was in form and it was raining on arrival, much to my dissatisfaction. I set up transition with my run shoes, cap and cycle top in a plastic bag to keep them dry. The lake was the cleanest I've ever swam in, you could see the bottom even in the deepest areas. The race started and I was off on the 2k swim. I swam well for me and was satisfied with a 29:44. I don't know if I could have kept that pace up for 4k though (thinking ahead to the worlds) although there's still time yet. I had a quite slow transition trying to get my cycle top on over my wet tri top but I'm glad I did. On to the bike and it was 2 laps covering 58 miles. The first 9 miles or so was fairly rolling and with a head wind. I felt I was struggling on the bike and didn't seem to get going very well despite passing other riders it just didn't feel good. The rain hadn't really got going on the first lap but as we went past transition to start the second lap the heavens opened. I can't recall ever racing in rain as heavy as that. It was torrential, there was about 1/2 an inch of water across the roads it was like riding through one giant puddle. I started to feel stronger as the ride went on and the last 8 miles I was flying passing 6 more riders. I came into transition and had another slow one struggling to get dry socks on wet feet. I ditched the cycle top that now weighed about 4 lb and set off on the 12 mile run. I made up 2 places I had lost in transition but after 1.5 mile I decided to empty the bladder. After that I felt a lot better and got back up to speed. It was then that I picked out another RAF tri suit about 30 seconds up the road. The run course had an out and back section and then a loop at the other end to take you back round to start the next lap. It was 85% off road and the tracks were in a terrible state. I started to close in on Greg Macdonald towards the end of the first lap catching him dead on the end of the lap. I passed him and continued to pick up places running from 15th (half way round the first lap) to 8th by the end of the race putting just short of 3 mins into Greg. I'm happy with the result and my times. The Half IM is 70.3 and this was 71.4 so well pleased with a 4hr 22min. Splits are as follows

Swim 29:44

Bike 2:34:57

Run 1:14:50

I feel fine today (Sunday) but will find out how tired I am on Wednesday at Cranwell. See you there.

Cleveland Steelman on Saturday (Half Ironman distance)

I've been feeling tired since the Dambuster and Allerthorpe races. After the second race on the Sunday I had to work Monday dayshift instead of nights which meant I had to take the MT car back Monday morning and then cycle the 40 miles home after a 12 hour dayshift and did not get back until 10p.m. Tuesday I had to rest. Since then I have not done lots just a few bits here and there. I did a 3hr MTB ride in Dalby forest on Friday last week, a 2700m open water swim on Saturday and a Half Marathon (training pace - 1hr 24) on Sunday. This week I've only done an hour MTB on Monday, rest Tuesday, Wednesday was 28 mile bike with transition to 4.5 mile run, then swam in the afternoon. Today was a 25 mile bike and a swim. Tomorrow I plan to run about 5 mile but really steady pace and then sort out all the kit for Saturday. I am planning to do the race at a steady pace unless i'm in contention for a good overall place then I might go for it. Its really just a fitness test and build up for the worlds at the end of the day and I don't want to peak to soon this season. Then I have a few days (3) before Cranwell??? not sure why as I hate sprints with a passion. Just seen the forecast for Saturday and its not good - windy and heavy rain :-(

That's all for now, race report should be on line on Sunday.