Harwich Olympic Triathlon

Another good blast this weekend on the way to Ironman Switzerland.

I've not completed an Olympic distance triathlon since Swanage in 2007 so I was eager to give it a really good crack. Looking at the field I knew local vet Roy Young would be strong and Toby Radcliffe was due to start, so that might be fun! Also my good buddy and training partner George is easing himself out of injury and decided to have a crack, so we were bound to have a decent scrap, especially in the water. Then last minute another training mate Darren Treadaway entered, so things were looking tougher!

With the race kicking off at 10am it was a leisurely drive over (thanks Alex for the lift) and we had plenty of time for a nice warm up run and to sort everything in transition.

George, Darren and I were all in the first wave (of four) and with small number in each wave we were quickly off from the beach start. I few jostles of the beach and I got in a group of three (one George) very quickly.

A solid swim, just losing George at the final turn buoy left me out of the water 5th in our wave. I slipped through T1 though and came out just on Darren's shoulder in 3rd. I watched Darren ease away on the bike for 20 mins and then he seemed to slow, I kept the pressure on and at about 40mins I went past him. Unfortunately that was te kick up the &ss he needed to then charge back through me and take a minute out of me in the last 15k - gutted!

Around T2 Darren took the fast swimmer guy for the lead and had me for a minute or so, and George was maybe 2.5mins behind me battling for 4th. I had 2nd place in my sights the whole run, chipping away at his minute lead as best I could. I found my legs in the 2nd (5k) lap and pushed on, eventually ending in a sprint finish where we finished shoulder to shoulder.

So in our wave Dazzle was first, me joint 2nd and George got pipped back to 5th.

Hanging around for the awards Darren secured the win by a country mile, I got pushed to joint 3rd by local hero Roy Young and George slipped a couple of slots to 7th.

The swim and bike were long, so the time was of no consequence but I was pretty pleased. I clearly have a lot of sharpening to do to be competitive at this distance, but that's not were I'm aiming at the moment!

Weymouth Middle Distance - 4th Place

It's been a while since I've updated the blog, but then it's been a while since I raced!

This weekend was the first 'tri' of the season, one of only two before I head out to Ironman Switzerland next month.

I wanted to find a middle distance tri early June and in the end Weymouth was the best fit with various family commitments.

After the last few weeks of great weather arriving Saturday afternoon was a bit of a crash back to UK summer reality. 25mph winds, torrential showers and 3 foot of wind swell in the bay were not exactly what I was hoping for. But it would be the same for everybody. I got myself registered into the 7am wave with the quick boys, got my numbers and headed over to Devon for an afternoon 60th birthday party!

Coming back to Weymouth early evening the weather seemed to have deteriorated, my mate Ed and I got some food and an early night.

Incredibly the wake up call at 4:30 brought sun coming through the thread-bare curtains. The sea was gently lapping at the cobbled beach, roads were dry and things looked a lot more favourable.

As I'd moved wave I didn't have a slot in transition, so the Ref placed me against the fence of the tennis court. I set the bike up right next to Bike Out in prime location, pulled on my suit and went for a quick warm up swim.
Apart from feeling like I still had a couple of kg's of carbs sat in my guts I was feeling great.

I lined up with mate and rival Justin Webb (Optima RT) and only 10mins later we were off.

It was a simple swim, out to a buoy, turn right, swim 900m's parallel to the beach, turn-around, swim back, left around another buoy and into the beach. Rather than my usual fight to get clear water and breathing under control I didn't worry. I took a breathe every 2nd stroke and went for it. 5mins in I was top 20 (or so), then got into a rhythm, trying to keep my arm t/o as quick as possible and started to move through the packs. By the furthest turn-around buoy I was inside the top ten. I took some feet for a few mins, then pushed on again. I took one or two more in the last half of the swim and exited the water in 33 mins.

With only one person going under 30mins, I'm pretty sure it was long, so I was very happy with the swim.

A quick fall in transition (slippery steps!) some irritation fumbling with my number belt and I hit the road in 34:54 (my target was sub 35!). My tactic on the bike was to really go for it - complex plan! Not quite the level of my 50m TT last weekend, but certainly pushing it more than I historically do in Middle distance.

The only real climb of the course was the first 5miles out of Weymouth, were I took a couple of the fast women from our waver (Yvette Grice, etc). Onto the dual carriageway and I took a couple of guys and got taken by eventual winner Edward Charlton-Weedy. I stuck within 50 yards of Edward for 15mins but then he started to drift away, finally just before the first turnaround at around 50mins, I overtook Toby Radcliffe and he confirmed I was in second place - I must have taken a few more in transition.

I saw the back of Edward as I came back onto the dual carriageway from the flyover and that was the last I saw of him. From 55 mins I was on my own, I gave a shout to Ed and team mate Adam at various turnarounds and timed to see Justin was 5mins back.

Maybe it was the sea water I drank, maybe it was the extra effort, but I struggled to get any water or food down in until 75mins. I had a bad patch then and forced a gel and some cake bar down.

The rest of the bike was uneventful, rolling dual carriageway in and out of the wind and a shower and then a fun decent back to Weymouth and T2.

Target was 2:14 for the bike and I got through with T2 in 2:15:24, so still pretty much on schedule. As I rode the final 500m's into transition I saw Edward running out the other way (I later heard he was 7mins up) - impressive riding.

Onto the run, the legs felt like lead. It wasn't a hilly run, but was rolling. I'd targeted 6:15/miles but try as I might couldn't get much under 6:40's. My excessive carbo loading was maybe taking the brunt! At 2 miles I got taken for 2nd, and again try as I might I couldn't get back onto the guy. I manged to hold a 30 sec gap for the rest of the first lap, but there was no impression to be made.

The next 10miles I ran on fear, knowing I wasn't running quickly and that Justin and Co. would be chasing me down. Justin was in form to run 6:15's and at 25secs a mile I wasn't sure if he'd quote get me. Toby Radcliffe has run 3hrs off the bike in an IM so he's no slouch.

I pushed on at the same pace to the last mile and rolled through the line in 4:15.11, I'd wanted to go under 4:12, so please enough. It was great to have some supporters at the end and better still to see Justin had worked his way all the way through the field to come in 66 secs behind for 4th (3rd in wave) and Toby another 80 secs behind that.

In the end Matt Hammerton, who went off in a later wave, had a great race to finish in 2nd, leaving me in 4th and Justin in 5th.

Still good preparation for Switzerland. Several lessons learnt.

1. Force yourself to eat
2. Don't kill the bike if you want to run fast! (I had a 154 Av HR on the bike, compared to 155 on the run)
3. You can overdo Carbo loading / race prep eating!
4. High arm turnover makes me fast open water

Harwich Olympic distance on the 21st, then a taper for Switzerland on the 12th July!

New Race Team - University of Essex Human Performance Unit

After protracted negotiation on package I am pleased to annouce that this year I will be racing for The University of Essex Human Perfomrance Unit





I have been working with Dave Parry and Tom Cudmore over at the HPU since 2005 and am really excited to be part of the race team that they are putting together.

For details on the coaching and testing services available at the HPU, see www.essex.ac.uk/hpu

PB at Barcelona Marathon

I’d talked up the fact I was trying to go under 2:50, but I really wanted to go for 2:45, so there was no hiding from the job at hand when I toed the line for Barcelona Marathon yesterday morning.

The plan was simple, run a 1:22:00 first half and then keep going and do another the same. In the end it worked pretty much perfectly to plan.

Up early on Saturday I landed at Barcelona airport late morning, took the train into the city and wandered up to the Expo to pick up my number and get some excellent free pasta. Thankfully my hotel was within a 5minute walk of the start line, so 30minutes wandering around with a map and I was there! A few hours nap, a very short run with some pick ups, some dinner and I was ready for an early night. My first ever night in Barcelona and I was in bed by 9:30pm...

Having a hotel so close to the start took away all the stress of dropping a bag and finding toilets; I went for a warm up run, nipped back to the hotel, stripped to my vest and jogged up to the start line for 8:15. Five minutes later I’d necked a gel and was 12 rows back from the start counting down the last 10 minutes with some very excitable Spanish hype. I was surprised at just how frantic the first couple of miles were, I thought I was far enough forward to avoid the jostle but everyone seemed to go off at 5k pace. Remembering the last time I ran a standalone marathon (3:36 in 2003) I avoided the temptation to do any weaving and stuck to the pace of the pack. My plan was to run under 6:15/Mile pace, the first two miles passed in the high 6:20’s but the legs felt incredible and I kept reminding myself I have over 2.5 hrs to get back a few lost seconds. Concentrating on ‘Loose is Fast’ (mantra of the day – thanks Ed) I started to ease up the pace, mile 3 was a bit quicker and I went through 5k in just over 20mins. By now the crowds of runners had cleared and I was cruising through some heavy breathers - what were they going to be like in 3hrs if they were that knackered at 5k?

I found the course fantastic, a proper city marathon route, big roads, no acute changes of direction and very little in the way of inclines and the views were spectacular. It actually felt like there was more downhill than up. 30k passed without incident, I ran my own race the whole way. I joined a of groups, and a few guys tagged onto me at times, but each time I ended up moving through them. There was one local guy I ended running with for the majority of the last 20miles and a guy from Ely who was also trying to go under 2:45 but we lost him at about 15miles. I was wearing the Garmin but soon found that it didn’t correlate very well with the official k markers, I ended up having to run 6:06/Mile average on the Garmin to stay on target for 2:45 pace. I think my official ½ marathon time was 1:22 and 20 odd seconds, the Garmin had it at under 1:20.

I promised myself a gel at 55mins and 1:50 and I was ready for it at 29k, the caffeine in the SMART gel did the trick and I pushed on from the little group I was running with, again the only guy that came with me was the local chap. We caught a couple more and another group formed as we dropped to the coast and ran into a headwind towards the old town, me leading on caffeine power! About 36k the caffeine started to disappear and I had my only low point, it lasted about a k and my local friend got 15/20metres on me. I went back to the mantra ‘loose is fast’ reminded myself I only had 5k left and that was less than 20mins, you can do anything for 20mins – yea? By 37/38k we were into the heart of the old town, the roads narrowed and the crowds grew, I concentrated on keeping the pace even, not getting excited by the crowds and on slowly reining in Mr Barcelona. The hilly finish I'd been warned about didn’t appear, there was a bit of a drag at 40k, but by then I was home and dry, I pulled back another 4 or 5 in the last k and finish directly behind Mr Barcelona.

All in all a very satisfying day. I felt I was running within myself the whole way, I stuck to within a few beats of my target HR and pace and it paid off. According to the Garmin, I ran 1:20:19 for the first 21k and 1:20:22 for the second, pretty even splits for a marathon. I don’t think I could have done much more without risking an almighty blow out, but there is certainly more to come if I can do a 2:44 off the back of 5 weeks running and 5 weeks eating and holidaying. I guess there is still some good base left from Ironman Arizona.

So now I have a decent standalone marathon in my back pocket when I get off the bike in (Ironman) Switzerland in July. I’ll be trying to ingrain an easier pace so I can come off the bike and get straight into the grove. If I could run 3:10 off the bike in Switzerland going sub 9:15, and that Kona slot, start to look more plausible.

Too much snow...

It's been a tough month and I haven't quite had the preparation I had hoped for coming up to Barcelona Marathon. The man flu lingered into the 2nd week of Jan and it was only 3 weeks ago that I really started training again.

I have a few decent weeks in the bag now, the run mileage has crept up to a steady 50+miles and I've picked the bike fun up.

We've seen a load of snow this week, which has hampered things a little, so the mtb has seen more action than normal. The pictures are of my ride to work on Monday!

Just 3 weeks tomorrow until Barcelona, from the point of view that I want a motivator to get the run miles in, it's worked well. In terms of running my best possible standalone marathon this isn't going to be the occasion...

It may be I end up running the race as a long training run. I'll let you know in 3 weeks.

(below: David enjoys the snow - it was fun for a day!!)

2009

so to 2009.

I've got through a fantastic period of downtime and Christmas with only a few extra kilo's and hopefully not too much lack of fitness. I picked things up again in mid December with some easy running and swimming. Christmas week I'd hoped to ramp things up a bit in the work downtime but I got a decent dose of Man-Flu, so I've spent the last 5 days housebound.

After a good chat with coach Dave in December the plan is to take the fitness from Arizona, add a bit of strength and then build on it as mush as possible to really race Switzerland. Looking at previous qualifying times (and I have good experience of how dangerous that can be), it's looking like I will going to need to go sub 9:20 and realistically under 9:15 at Switzerland to stand a good chance of getting a Hawaii slot this year. The bike at Switzerland is undoubtedly tougher than Arizona, so I'm looking at having to gain 33 mins over a tougher course.

6 hard months ahead then...

The next 3 months are really going to be about strength, working on my core, running and swimming. To motivate me on the running I've entered Barcelona Marathon on the 1st March, which I intend to run as a confidence booster and a motivator to keep consistent 80k+ weeks going through this tough time of year. If I can run under 2:50 at Barcelona then going under 3:15 off the bike in Switzerland shouldn't seem impossible?!

That just leaves 5 mins to find on the swim and T1 and another 15mins on the bike!

Happy New Year...

Ironman Arizona

The days before the race I sorted out a couple of minor problems with the bike (thanks to a local bike shop and the guys at Isaac UK for the last minute headset help!) and I was good to go. Then with 3 days to go I woke up with a stinking head cold. I blame the flight…9 months without so much as a sniff. Then I ease back on the training and bang I’m full of cold. By race day I wasn’t too bad, plenty of caffeine and adrenaline and I certainly wasn’t thinking about it.

The Race
The sun was just coming up as we were called into the water at 6:45am. The locals were moaning about the water temperature, 19C, but it felt fine to me. I got in, got happy with my goggles and took a gentle swim over to the far side of the start. For those that have never experienced an Ironman swim before, imagine 2,500 human sized animals all thrown into a lake at the same point with only have one way out - 2.5miles the other end of the lake. The first minutes can be hell and truly terrifying, they call it The Washing Machine and it is. All of a sudden 2500 friendly swimmers change from chatting nervously treading water shoulder to shoulder to lying horizontal and thrashing like mad to swim in one direction - there is a lot of overlap. And that means punches to the head, neck, back, shoulders, legs, hips everywhere. Your legs get grabbed, other swimmers take a stroke and their hand lands in the middle of your back, in their eagerness to get themselves safe (a natural reaction) they push down into the middle of your back to propel themselves forward.
I’ve done a lot of work on my swimming and I can generally get ahead of the worst of the washing machine. My plan was to take off hard and try and stay ahead of the main bulk. Talking to many other participants after the race it seems I was one of the few for which this tactic worked. I tore off the front at a stupid pace, got 3 minutes out and did everything I could to relax and get into my rhythm without slowing too much and letting the throng behind me swim over my head! Apart from the startled safety canoeist who didn’t hear the hooter that I had to duck dive under. It was a dream swim.

Miraculously within 5 minutes I found myself on a great line, following the guide buoys into the rising sun and spent most of the first half hour in clear water, with the throng behind or to my right hand-side. The course was a huge ‘U’ shape out and back, I hit the turn in 28 mins (just under half way) and was over the moon as I knew if I kept the same pace on the return leg I should exit very close to my one hour target.

The swim back was uneventful, I spent a lot of time trying to keep my breathing regular and maintaining the effort levels. I struggle to maintain pace within the swim leg more than any other time in the race as you get no feedback on pace. No mile markers or bike computer to help.

I got heaved out of the water by a couple of the 4000 Ironman Arizona volunteers at just over 1 hour and crossed the timing chip for a swim of 1:00:31 and 229th overall. I had no idea of the swim position at the time, but judging by the crowds around I knew there were plenty ahead. As the swim is my weakest discipline I was always going to have plenty of work to do.

A quick jog through the park to get my bag of bike clothes, a few minutes in the changing tent and I was out onto the bike course, incredibly I'd moved up to 198th - people really are slow in transition.

The bike has historically been my strongest discipline but the tactic for Arizona was slightly different from normal, rather than using the bike to get back up towards the head of the pack I was to keep it as steady as possible. The target time of 5:15 should have been attainable without taking too much out of my legs, allowing me to hit transition 2 and the marathon fresh enough to run a fast(ish) marathon.

The bike leg at Arizona really suited me, it was 3 out and back lap into the desert, on dual carriageway style roads with only a slight hill in the last 3 miles up to the turn around. I hired an SRM for a few months up to the race and had exclusively ridden my low profile time trial bike so I was conditioned to be comfortable in a low aero position for the duration. It turned out on race day there was quite a head wind going out to the turnaround, making the first half of each lap, up the hill, a lot slower. I used the SRM and heart rate to moderate my effort and took it steady for the whole ride. I went through a lot of riders, but quite a few went through me, noticeably a large pack of riders in a group. I had a good scream at them for cheating – the bike is meant to be non-drafting – so each rider must maintain several meters between them and any other rider. Thankfully several of the cheaters got drafting penalties, including one guy who got a 4min penalty whilst sitting on my wheel.

With the wind behind us on the way back to transition I knew as soon as I got to the 3rd turnaround it was going to be a cruise, so mentally it felt like a 90mile bike leg with a 20 mile cruise, which was fantastic. I stuck to my eating strategy, taking on a gel or bar every 30mins and drinking like it was going out of fashion.

Avoiding the temptation to push the last half of the final lap I rolled into transition 2 with a 5:11 bike split (21.6mph average and 189th overall on the bike). Applauding the crowd and getting a shout from Lynz and Anna boosted me as I quickly changed my socks and got out onto the run.

Leaving transition 2 in 6:18 and 146th position overall and 18th in category. I saw Lynz and Anna again and they let me know I was 18th in my age group, with only the top 7 placers guaranteed a slot at the Hawaii Champs I had my work cut out on the marathon.

After a few hundred meters sorting my number belt and gels out, I took a gel and got down to the business of running 26 miles. The agreed target was to run a 3:30 marathon, so 8min miling, but I’ve been running well through the lead up and thought I might get closer to 3:15 (7:30min miles). After an overly excited 6:10 first mile I settled into averaging around 7:30’s. The run was three laps of 8.7 miles and I couldn't believe how good I felt, I went through the half marathon with a huge smile on my face in 1:39. At this point I still thought I had taken things easy enough to run a negative split in the second half of the marathon and finish in the low 9:30’s.

I’d been running cat and mouse with another guy for most of the run, overtaking him in the aid stations and then he’d catch me in the next mile. We got chatting which helped a few more miles pass, but by 20miles we had separated and I had slowed to 8 min miles - the smile was fading! I struggled for 3 or 4 miles, with the 23rd mile being my slowest, slipping over 9 mins. With 2 miles to go the crowds thickened, the smile returned and I picked things up, taking a few more athletes on the way. I had no idea how many from my age-group I’d overtaken, but I was pretty sure I hadn’t done enough. In the end the 2nd half marathon was 1:51 giving a full marathon of 3:30 and a finish time of 9:48:56, 96th overall and 12th in my age group.

Just 3 mins outside my target time, every part of the race went perfectly to plan: I have nothing to complain about. Phoenix was a wonderful location and we had a brilliant holiday afterwards.

I was 14 mins behind 7th place in my age group and qualifying, at the half way point of the marathon I still felt a 9:30 was possible, but on the day it didn't happen. On reflection perhaps I took the bike too easy. I certainly could have ridden under 5hrs, but how much would that have hindered my run? Maybe the head cold was worth a few mins too?

I learnt a whole lot from the race and getting a sub 10 in the bag has given me the confidence to actually race this distance - rather than survive. I’ve got a place at Ironman Switzerland in July so I can have another crack at qualifying there.

I want to take a moment to thank the loved ones, friends and colleagues who have offered me so much support and tolerance in the last few months/year(s)!

Special mention to my coach Dave Parry and the guys at Essex Uni Human Performance Unit- just 4 years of steady training and we're seeing some results. Ed for being at the end of the phone to hear my constant moaning about everything, especially training in the damned UK weather. George and Helen for making me swim faster, David for motivating me to train, mainly by guilt! Clare for some horrid massages and a dis-proportionate amount of dinner cooking! North Road and Darren for making me ride faster, GCR for making me run faster and my work for understanding my mood swings, tiredness and occasional poor performance!!…but mainly I must thank my fantastic girlfriend Lyndsey and my family for trying to understand something that is incomprehensible and not seeing them as much as I'd like...

See you in 2009!