Race report - Cotswolds 113

Another 6 weeks, another blog post. This is becoming a habit but that may not be such a bad thing! In the middle of June I decided to call in the help of a professional so I hired a coach to help me with my monthly training plans. After searching for a while I found the blog and website of Russ Cox and after reading about his history, approach to training, racing and the science behind endurance sport I decided to get in touch.


http://www.trainstravels.co.uk/about/


I really like Russ' no nonsense approach. Once he delivered his first couple of weeks of training I knew that it was the start of something very good in my quest to be the best endurance athlete that I can be. The most notable changes were scaling down on my run volume, increasing my weekly transition run frequency to two sessions and increasing the intensity on two mid-week bike sessions. With two races done in the last 6 weeks, training was quite focussed on threshold, strength and endurance sessions. 


Before I started doing any kind of serious bike riding you would have had a hard time convincing me that bike riding increases run fitness. I am now converted as I have some pretty satisfying training and racing results to prove the theory. The first race on my calendar was the Bupa London 10000. I did not really know what to expect as the bulk of my running consisted of steady 30min run sessions after one threshold and the longer ride of the week. I would have been happy with anything sub 40, but I ambitiously set off at sub 38 minute pace. The first 5k came up in just under 19 minutes, and the second 5k was a different story and much harder. Not being the strongest of runners, I lost a bit of form but still managed to hang on for a 38:24, a new PB with very little run training. That is quite promising for things to come and points to something very close to a sub 40 for an Olympic tri run.


The second race on my calendar was the Cotswold 113. The 113 is supposed to represent the sum of the distance of the three events - 1.9km swim, 90km bike and 21.1km run. My wife and I booked into a spa hotel a couple of miles from the venue, and registration was on the Saturday afternoon. After registration I took an easy spin and run session to settle some of the nerves as this was my first triathlon since doing any proper training. After doing a lot of planning I was confident that I had all of the items needed to get me from start through the transitions to the recovery drinks afterwards.


The plan was simple, complete the race in under 5 hours. My planned splits were something along the lines of 35 minutes swim, 2h40 for the bike and a sub 1:35 run with about 10 minutes for transitions and a small buffer. 


The morning before the race started with being sick interrupting my 2 hours of sleep because of a bad dinner choice. Lesson learnt, but no harm done. Breakfast consisted of oats, a banana and a Herbalife shake with a coffee and some energy drink.


Before the swim start I took a gel and sipped energy drink up to 10 minutes to go. With a short warm-up I placed myself towards the front of the pack. I am not a strong swimmer, nor am I comfortable swimming in groups, so the only reason for my placement was experimentation and trying my luck in maybe catching the back of a fast group. It was misty and cool at 6am when the gun went off. The first couple of minutes were spent trying to keep away from other swimmers as things were quite manic. I quickly found some open water, unfortunately that meant I swam off course, and had to change direction to get back with the other racers. This turned out to be a reoccurring pattern and I even swam past one of the buoys so I had to turn around to stay legal. I came out of the water in just over 34 minutes, so all thing considering I swam a lot better than I could have hoped for even though my goggles fogged up within a minute from the start. 


T1 was quick with my shoes clipped into the bike and in minutes I was passing people on the flat course. The aim was to keep my heart rate about 10-15 beats below my threshold, so the target was 130bpm. 


The whole bike section felt relatively controlled and I managed to average around 35km/h. I struggled to keep my heart rate below 135bpm and as a result I also did not manage to take in as much nutrition as I would have liked. In the end I went through 2 bottles of energy drink and 4 gels. Avoiding the packs and relaxing through the last 10km I came off the bike feeling tired, but ready to tackle the (mostly) off road half marathon. The only slight mishap on the bike was on the end of the first lap where I missed a turn and cycled 300m down the road before a spectator screamed and made me realise that I was off course.


Bike split 2:27 (85km ....5km short) ave around 35km/h.

Notice the clipped in shoes!

Transition 2

End of the first run lap of 3

T2 went in under a minute and I was off feeling very happy to be out of the aero position. I was advised to keep it really easy for the first 10km but the excitement of passing people got the better of me. I was averaging under 4:20 min/km for the first half and 10km came up in just under 43 minutes. The second part of the run was really hot, and I managed to force the third gel down with about 40 minutes to go. I passed about 18 people during the run and came 17th overall with a total time of 4:35 and a run time of just over 1h31. If the bike course was 90km the time would have been 4h42 so I came in 18 minutes under target.

Bad spelling should have read - Nico van der Westhuizen

Finish chute 

I am very happy with the result. Recovery has been good, and I am looking forward to a threshold turbo session followed by an easy 30 minute run tomorrow evening. My next event is a 3.8km open water swim in a couple of weeks, with the Hyde Park Olympic tri in August. The swim will be something new as I have never swum further than 2km without stopping.


Things look good for Ironman Cozumel at the end of the year, and the plan is to slowly start building my weekly long ride and long run whilst keeping things simple and manageable. Next week I will try and register for Ironman Austria 2012, so fingers crossed as I would really like to do that race. It might be my first chance to have a go at a sub 10 hour Ironman! Cozumel at the end of the year might be a bit tough as it is a very hot race, and having trained for less than a year I would put unnecessary pressure on myself to aim for such a steep target in Mexico. The swim is non-wetsuit, and the heat + winds make it one of the toughest Ironman courses, not dissimilar to Kona from what I have read.


Hope you enjoyed the report, until the next post.

Post race massage

Bring on the Ironman

It has been just over 6 weeks since my last blog post. I have been meaning to write more frequently, but life has taken over to some extent. My training on the other hand has not been so bad.


There has been a sportive ride (whilst recovering from flu), numerous century rides with transition runs and a trip to Luxembourg filled with hills, hills and hills.


My infrequent and easy running sessions on the treadmill have been replaced with some sunny and harder runs around the neighbourhood and Richmond Park. I have been able to slowly increase the mileage without aggravating my ankle as it still swells up when I do really long rides followed by a run.


In the last week of March I did my first long ride on the aero bars, and although it felt good from a power/aerobic perspective I experienced some serious discomfort after about 2.5 hours in the aerodynamic position. I am very happy with how the bike is set-up, I just need to toughen up, as going aero for longer than an hour requires conditioning. That means that I will have to do a lot more rides with my TT setup as opposed to my road configuration. A good sign was that after my first long ride staying aero I managed to hop off the bike and do a very brisk 7km, without feeling it in the upper legs. That means my position is good and my hip angle is not too constricting for a powerful run after a 90km or 180km bike for the middle and longer distance races coming up.


With 7 weeks to go to my second triathlon I am planning to do a lot more running combined with more intensity on the bike and in the pool. Swimming has taken somewhat of a back-seat in the last couple of weeks, and my training hours have mostly consisted of cycling, running and gym work. Heron lake, a popular open water swimming venue for multi sport athletes opened for some post winter wetsuit action. I looked forward to see what it felt like going back there as I did three open water swim last season, and managed to swim 41 minutes for two loops of around 2km. 


This morning I took things easy and it took about 3 minutes to really be able to get my head in the water as it was coooold! The two laps took 39 minutes, so considering it took me the better part of a lap and a half to start feeling efficient and that I was swimming very easy I must say things are looking up in the swimming department. I have only been to one master swimming class in the last 6 weeks, but I managed to keep up with the fast group in a very tough session, although I have to add it was still nothing on the faster sessions on Thursday mornings. It will take a couple of months before I will brave that again ;-)


To sum up my totals for the last 6 weeks


- 1 week of skiing and overindulging
- Biking: 52 hours on the bike covering more than 1400km
- Over 10 hours of running with most of it done in the last 2.5 weeks
- Just under 5 hours of swimming (this is bad)
- Two hours of core and strengthening work (need more as I can feel how it helps my running posture)


The biking volume has given me a breakthrough in terms of fitness, and my running has also benefited as I am able to stay aerobic on most of my runs, whilst being able to push the pace. Runs longer than 15km are still not that easy, but only a weekly long run of 20km will solve that.


The trip to Luxembourg included quite a long day of climbing hills sandwiched between two easier days with the latter also including a 12km very hilly transition run.  Luxembourg is a great place for long bike rides, the weather was good and the tarmac is ultra smooth. Throw in almost no flat sections and you have a cycling masochist's paradise. I love the Luxembourgian countryside so much that I would seriously not mind moving there, it really is beautiful. The motorists are also very friendly, and do not mind slowing down to ensure safe passing between the rolling hills. I suffered with some mechanical problems, and ended up snapping my chain twice, once going up an 18% gradient hill. This happened in Germany and it must have been the lunch of rump steak and beer that we enjoyed before heading back to Luxembourg. I was very lucky to have a couple of spare chain links and a chain tool with me. The same thing happened to me on the last day, and I was not so lucky to get away with only greasy hands. This time the chain wrapped around my front mech and bent it around the bigger chain ring to bring things to a grinding halt. After removing the front deraileur we were off and I was stuck in the smaller chain ring for the remainder of the ride. No problems though as we were taking things relatively easy when not climbing.


I am still without a structured training plan (wish I could afford a coach!), but have been building up the running and biking to a level where I can now execute a plan to get me as fast as possible for my half Ironman distance race on the 26th of June. I would love to go under 5 hours, and that would mean a fast bike followed by a half marathon between 1:40 and 1:35. Provided I stay healthy this should be possible, so I am quite excited to really get stuck in and see how I can mix in some intensity and more running in the next 4-5 weeks before a brief taper.


I have just completed a recovery week with only 8 hours of training, and 3 days off. Today included the open water swim, a steady hour on the trainer (with a brand new front mech and chain!) followed by a steady aerobic 16km session in my running paradise aka Richmond Park.

German pork neck steaks + beer for lunch on day 3

No more marathon

I am not doing well at keeping the blog up to date, and before I leave on a skiing holiday I deemed it appropriate to do a brief roundup of what has been happening recently.

Training has been going really well, and the ramp-up in distance and time spent training have left me quite exhausted. Work has been taking its share of my time and energy so I have probably bordered on over extending and inevitably overtraining myself.

Last week I had to make the tough decision not to run the London Marathon on the 17^th of April. Physically I can still do it, and finish in a respectable time, but I just do not want to increase the risk of sustaining an overuse injury for the sake of a race that means very little in the bigger scheme. By raising enough money for my charity Asthma UK, I have also been offered a place in their team for next year, so I will make my assault on a solid sub 3 hour run at that even. I will probably end up having a more challenging goal, but as I have not gone below three hours yet I will stick with that goal until I start the specific training next year.

While we are on the topic of running, I have so far managed to run more than 50km in the last 3 weeks, with my longest run of 13km last night in about an hour. My average heart beat was 130bmp showing just how good my aerobic fitness is coming along. I just have to work on my running specific base, and that won’t take long as in January when I got injured I was obtaining some decent pre-build form.

Most of my recent running has been on the treadmill apart from two half hour sessions after the last two Saturday long bike rides. It is incredible how good it feels to start a run after 5+ hours on the bike. Saturday saw us doing a very long and easy ride of 140km that took around 5 ½ hours. My average heart rate for the ride was 124bpm so the run afterwards felt easy and the heart rate also stayed very low although we were doing 5min/km for about 25 mins to complete a 5km brick run.

The ride itself was a great tour of Surrey and Surrey hills (thanks Edo). It was a sunny day and most of us managed to leave the overshoes and rain jackets at home. The ride’s main purpose was to get in proper base miles under the belt, so we were chatting all the way and only during the last 40km did we do any drafting and faster riding. The increase in speed was only brought on as our bodies and not our legs started to complain.

This week is generally a bit easier as I clocked up more than 16 hours of training from Monday to Sunday last week. The worst session was definitely a masters swimming class where I could not even stick with the faster group during the 500m (!!) warm-up. This was down to a couple of heavy sessions leading into Thursday combined with the inability to keep form when getting fatigued. I will have to work on my general conditioning and technique as my running and cycling are miles ahead in terms of ability at this stage.

My first event (not race) of the season is a 100 mile sportive in April, so for that reason I am very happy that the cycling miles have been building up in my training log. Next week will hopefully be a great week of skiing which should leave me fresh to continue building a solid base for the summer months ahead.

Finally running again, and ramping up the training hours.

Last week has been my first full week on a new structured training program. Things have been going well with 13 hours of training squeezed in. I have been a little nervous to start running again, and have been putting it off for a couple of weeks to make sure that the ankle is in good nick. Since I ramped up the swim and bike training, the ankle rehabilitation exercises have taken a bit of a backseat. This is slightly worrying, as flexibility is still severely hampered, and the joint still swells up after harder sessions in the pool and on the bike.

My newly acquired program is in the 4 week preparation phase before proper base training starts. This week has been challenging in some respects and I can honestly say that the ramp in training hours can be felt. The program specifies close to 3.5 hours of running in the first week, and so far I am happy to report that I have been able to do about two hours of running without too many problems. Thursday night I went to the gym for a gentle 20 minute swim before jumping on the treadmill. I have never had a workout on the treadmill before, but running on a treadmill carries a couple of advantages. The first is that you don’t actually go anywhere, so the ankle became sore I could just hop off.

Another advantage is that the impact of running on a treadmill has nothing on pavement pounding, so I will try and do most of my running on the dreaded indoor running tool for the next couple of weeks. The first run was good and I set the pace way below my usual recovery outdoor speed. It felt good not having to worry about pacing, and I finished the 6km run in 35 minutes with an average heart rate of 120bpm. It must have been the slowest 6km I have ever done, but it felt really good to be running again. As far as the ankle goes, I could feel that the joint was fragile, but the run was pain free and quite rewarding. I think that run served as confirmation that I will be running the London marathon after all, so that is quite a relief. The sad part is it will be on very little training, so it will be a long slow affair, not the sub 3 effort that I have been building up towards before I smashed my ankle in the dreaded cross country race....oh well. Sunday night saw another swim/run double and I managed around 12km in just over an hour, so a good first week back onto the running train.

After missing out on an outdoor session last weekend I was happy to ditch the turbo trainer. The aim was to get up around 8am and head out for a 120km loop around Box hill and then towards Windsor. On closer inspection we worked out that it would be closer to 120 miles, we opted for a flat 100km to Windsor and back. The pace was quite brisk and we averaged around 30km/h for the whole ride which is probably a bit fast for the base period. The 3.5 hour bike was closely followed by a 5km shuffle to start getting used to running off the bike. It was my first proper run after a long training ride, and I can now see why athletes say they look forward to the run in an Ironman, as the different posture and position when running actually feels quite comfortable after hours in the saddle.

Last 2 weeks of training, click on image to see a larger view

Next week is more of the same and I will try and do even more running with a couple of quality Masters swimming and spinning sessions with another 4+ hours ride planned for Saturday.

Swim baby swim

It has been a while since my last post. The reason has been two-fold. Things are really busy at work, unfortunately that is not something that I have any control over. The other reason is I have been ramping up the training hours and that is a good thing! 


Between all of the waiting to start running again I have done a fair amount of reading on triathlon and endurance training in general. What most experts seem to say is that if you are injured and it is possible you should concentrate on your weaknesses as much as possible. Unable to do anything about my inability to get up before 6am, I decided to go for the other low hanging fruit and tackle my swim stroke. 


Having swum 6 days in the last 7 I can say that I feel a lot more comfortable and economical in the pool. My swimming started with a masters swimming session at my local gym two weeks ago, and I was given some good advice on improving my stroke length and efficiencies in the water in general. My sessions have mostly consisted of easy 100's with drills mixed in for good measure. Two weeks ago I had a real hard time keeping up with the faster group. Tonight was a different story, and although I still felt like giving up halfway through the 200 repeats I felt much better in the water and know that things are improving. I will keep focussing on taking things easy as technical flaws are just reinforced when swimming faster than a comfortable pace.


Apart from swimming I have also been getting back into the saddle with a bit more than a few pre-season eBay purchases to make sure that my rig is ready for a lot of spring mileage. Cycling currently consists of commuting to work and back with a couple of spinning and turbo sessions mixed in. I am looking forward to joining my regular riding buddies this weekend for a medium to long ride.


Training summary for the last 3 weeks:


week 1 - 9:20 (mixture between long rides, gym work and swimming sessions)
week 2 - 5:25 (no long workouts with flu interrupting training on the weekend)
week 3 - 9:07 (more strength and core work, at least 4 hours of swimming and a solid 2 hour base session on the turbo on Saturday)

Swimming, bike fitting and cycling.

5 weeks have come and gone since I sprained my ankle. I am not back to full fitness, but have at least kicked my dependence on painkillers into touch. This week saw a resemblance of a return to training with 3 swimming sessions, a spinning class and a very long bike thrown in for good measure. Tomorrow will be an easy swim followed by a strength session in the gym.


Last weekend I joined a gym. What a pleasure to be able to walk 5 minutes and be greeted by a massive, well equipped gym that's even got 12 indoor tennis courts and 2 pools. There are master swimming groups and a number of spinning classes every week, so I will definitely visit them as often as I can. I have always seen gyms as a bit of a luxury, but since I got a glimpse of what it will take to realise my goal at the Ironman Cozumel I can see that a gym within walking distance is not only a luxury but also a necessity.


Since I bought my bike last year, I have never been fully happy with my riding position. I found out about a talented and friendly bike fitter in West London and booked my session with Richard from Freespeed. After four hours of chatting about all things triathlon, I felt happy that we nailed both positions for the foreseeable future. My primary objective is to convert my road bike into a time trial bullet whilst ensuring that I stay comfortable and relatively aerodynamic for the full 112 miles. Another challenge was to ensure that my legs are able to do a 26.2 mile run after the bike.  I took my aero bars, tri saddle and tt seat post to the session. These items allow for a road set-up to be transformed into an aerodynamic and still powerful position (on a budget). Richard was great and it took a couple of hours to get the best out of my equipment.  What was also very helpful is that Richard has a wide range of saddles and aero bars in his studio. This gave me the opportunity to trial a different position which was good as I now have a proper pair of aero bars on my shopping list :-)

My new aero position for the Ironman.

Ironman here we come!

Thursday night was my first session at my triathlon club's swim group and my first ever coached swimming session. I struggled with all the drills but managed to stay with the group throughout the hour swim. I can now see that swim classes is the way to go. My own swim workouts were never structured enough, and I always managed to find an excuse not to go all the way.


I emailed my weekly riding buddies yesterday to ask what the plan was for today. I had a busy week, so I was oblivious to the fact that London was going to be wet. I learnt that the plan was to take train to Southampton at 6:10am (apologies to my wife for waking her) and arrive there for 8am to start our 80 mile ride in the (hopefully) dry. All went well apart from Edo that forgot his over-shoes. A pair of shopping bags had to do and we were off around the south coast and through the New Forest. The plan was to finish in Basingstoke, but we ended up catching a train back from Andover. The ride itself was out of our comfort zones and we suffered in turn as we ran out of energy and took turns to complain about the other guys not taking their turn at the front. The ride took a lot out of us, and the train ride back was very quiet as all three of us fell asleep.

The route, Southampton to Andover.

My legs feel fine and I am very happy about the fact that I can push things when it comes to cycling. The 5 hour ride really took it out of me, and my aerobic fitness is nowhere near where it was before my accident. I am feeling confident however that this will change, and I am excited about another week of swimming and biking. I will also try my first run towards the end of the week, but that would just be a bonus, I do not want to risk making it worse!

The road to recovery, long bike ride...done!

After four weeks of sitting around with a solid two and a half week stretch reliant on crutches, I can celebrate some success. The ankle gave me all of my days especially at night when the pain woke me at times. 


A group of friends were going out for a medium long ride this morning +- 100km. I decided to go along, and tested the ankle on the turbo trainer last night. The foot felt fine, so I prepared my rig for the Saturday morning ride. The first half of the session was easy as we had a couple of extra (slower) riders with us. I was not so lucky after we said goodbye to them at the half way point. 


My two riding companions, clearly making the most of the 5 weeks since I last joined them on a long ride rode steady into the wind on the way back to London, and I was soon falling behind. 
Watching them stop and wait for me about 3 or 4 times made me decide to spare my legs/ankle/pride and head for the nearest train station to complete the journey by rail. I completed 75km and I was quite tired, but happy that I was back in the saddle...and about to get out of it! 


The journey back was a little bit of a train smash, not literally :-). I first discovered that I would have to travel about twice the distance back as there were no direct trains to my stop. After buying my ticket and crossing the footbridge, I took out my phone to call my wife to explain why I would be two hours later than expected. My bank card flew out with my phone and floated right onto the track! All I can say is sorry to the passengers on the line, and those waiting to buy tickets, as the kind man at the ticket office abandoned his station and got the train signallers to halt trains on their way past us so that he could jump on the tracks to retrieve my card. 


My ankle feels good tonight, and walking has become easier during the past week. My guess is that it can be attributed to my wobble board, and persistence at doing stretches and strength exercises for about an hour every evening. I will continue to do this, as it has been proven to be invaluable for recovery. I am also convinced that it will strengthen my ankles to make them more robust than ever before.


I am quite excited about this year, as I have just finished re-reading the Triathlete's  Training Bible by Joe Friel. The book gets quite scientific, but that is what I love about it. The reason is to work out my training plan for the Ironman Cozumel in November. Currently I have a marathon, some sportive rides and a fair amount of triathlons as B and C races planned in the run-up to the big daddy. The goal is to be as well prepared for my first long distance race as possible, the rest will just be done in preparation.


I hope to be back and running in another two weeks, so I should (hopefully) be documenting and updating my blog as proceedings gather momentum!

My bike getting some well deserved rest, and sun.