Group Riding

I went out for a ride with the local cycle club (CCB) on Sunday. They were very friendly and I was encouraged to join the “A” group as opposed to the “B” group. This group has a higher average speed and towards the end they race home so it is possible (read probable) to get dropped. My major concerns with going out with this group were: will my poor group riding skills cause problems for everyone and will I get dropped early. Well, pretty much both happened but I don’t think either were cause for major concern. Group riding requires a
number of skills which just cannot be learned when riding alone: Pacing, riding in a close group and drafting are all skills that take a while to be acquired. Pacing was the biggest issue for me as I foolishly ended up leading the group three times. The first time up front I was paired with a relative novice and we went out way too fast and rapidly tired ourselves out. The second and third occasions I was with an experienced rider and they managed the pacing for me which was very helpful. The third time was towards the end of the ride and it completely wasted me, as we finished our turn, I got dropped on a hill and was helped back to the group. I accepted the inevitable and told the group to leave me behind on the next hill which they duly did. I managed to convince a riding buddy to stay with me as we had 10Km to get back to the finish and then a further 10Km to get home and I was shattered and needed help. A total of 115Km at around 30Kmh which was not too fast by my standards so I think the last few weeks off the bike have taken their toll on my fitness. This gives me a great goal now – to stay with the group and maybe get involved in the sprint to the finish. As I rode home, I realised that there were a good number of riders in the group who never took the front; a lesson learned there!

Biting the Bullet

Right I have decided to bite the bullet and address my swimming: I am slow, I have poor technique and a low level of endurance. Apart from that I am a great swimmer! I will swim 1500m in sub 30 mins next year. That is my #1 training goal. To that end I am following the Swimsmooth 11 week program. A simple training plan tailored for people of my ability who want to target 1500m/1900m Triathlon swims. Knowing how bad I am at going to the pool, I had originally thought the 11 week program will take me 22 weeks but so far I am still on schedule after 2 weeks. Admittedly I am not doing much other training so it is easier to get pool time in. Once I finally get back on the bike and treadmill properly then I am sure it will get harder. So far so good: I actually like the swim sessions and I am motivated to go to the pool, the sessions are varied and appear to be making a difference to my stroke already. I am now intimately familiar with Popov and 6/3/6 drills! I did a 200m time trial last week so I will be keen to see how that time improves throughout the period of the course.

The swimsmooth website has a downloadable console called “Mr Smooth” which demonstrates their ideal stroke and a valuable visualisation tool for all swimsmooth students! It event works on your iPod so I can take it with me everywhere.

Here is a screenshot (with acknowledgements to SwimSmooth!):

Getting the balance right

There appears to be a general rule about the amount of training time required to be “successful” at triathlon; I am not quite sure what “successful” means though. Naturally the amount of training time required depends upon the length of the event with Ironman events needing the most training. Last year I trained for l’etape du tour which was a 180Km (or Ironman distance) ride, this entailed a good deal of endurance riding to be in a position to get round the route in a respectable time. The Triathletes Training Bible by Joe Friel suggests the following training hours:



I reviewed may last 12 month’s training diary and I calculated that put in around 350-400 hours training which is below bottom end of the range for half iron-distance events. I believe that I was racing at a relatively “High Performance” in my events if I look at my Age Group finishing positions: 6th at Eton, 8th in the New Forest and 27th in the National Sprint Championships. I was better than a “finisher” although “High Performance” is difficult to evaluate. Certainly I could have gone better with more training and an investment in “gear” would have made a difference. Just looking around during the events, I was top (or close to top) finisher in those events on a normal racing bike as opposed to an expensive Tri-Bike.

When it comes to 2010 I shall not be “going long” so I can reduce my training time and spend more time at home. With that in mind I have been planning my goals for the year! I have an event plan in mind which shall be refined over the next few weeks. The main event for me shall be partially social and partially competitive. The Alpe D’Huez Triathlon is rapidly becoming the triathlon to do in Europe and I have entered for next year. I suspect that it will soon become an event that is so over-subscribed that it will require qualification so it is good to get it done sooner rather than later. The Alpe D’Huez Tri takes place at the end of July and I have discussed with the family and “the men” plan to make a small holiday of it and go for a few days mountain biking in the Alps afterwards so it will be a combined Triathlon/Holiday, Jane may join depending upon how we organise it.

Other events for the summer are looking like the Vitruvian in September and The Cowman in June. I would love to do a Big Cow sprint again next year and also a New Forest event so I need to get my calendar out.

2009 Review

I have just had a look at the season targets I had set back in December last year to see how well I did:



Although I missed two out of three I think I did OK. I was very close on one and I suspect I would have beaten it if the weather had been kinder. The real reason for setting targets is to have something to act as motivation during training. That is the main reason I started Triathlon in the first place to give me a reason to keep relatively fit. Clearly triathlon is addictive because “being fit” soon becomes “being quick” or more accurately: “being quicker” :-) It is a vicious circle whereby there is always someone ahead of you at the finish line.

I am pretty happy with my results this year especially as I dropped off the training quite a bit after l’etape so the result for the NFMD which is known as a “slow” race was pretty good. I shall try and train a little less this year and train a little smarter (note to self: look that up on the interweb to see what it actually means). The reality is that enjoying triathlon is very much about getting the balance right and in my case that means being competitive whilst still enjoying family time and going out with friends. Hopefully the two are not mutually exclusive.

Hiatus

Wow – no blog posts for weeks and no real training either, my mind and body have been elsewhere with family and work which has been fab. The New Forest Middle Distance triathlon was a blast. It was a tough one to pick as a first half iron-distance race but the atmosphere was grand and the scenery stunning. My times were acceptable (with the usual exception of the swim) and I am keen to do a few more events of that distance. Here is a brief summary:

Swim: 50mins. I had deluded myself into thinking that 4 swims between June and September would be adequate preparation for a 1900m OW swim and hence I quite rightly had a poor start to the event. There were many positive things about the swim that I can look back on; I was still in a pack after 1K and was flitting left and right to grab a tow off someone. In my Sprint Triathlons I am usually dropped after 300m so I was feeling good. At the end of the first lap my left calf cramped up rapidly followed by my right calf. Having suffered this before and the subsequent muscular pain I struggled with for 2 weeks afterwards I was more concerned with finishing the Tri than getting a good time and hence I concentrated on clearing the cramp and not on swimming. So for the second 1000m I focussed on holding my feet in a position that eased the pain which meant I was quite slow and I emerged 36th out of 43 in my age group. T1 was very slow with a lot of time spent trying to get compression socks on over sand covered feet. I managed that in just under 5 minutes and got out on the bike.

Bike: 3:01. I had targeted a 3:15 bike in order to hit my 3:45 goal but as I had such a poor swim I decided to hit it slightly harder. The first 75Km were great as I overtook people. I calculated that I overtook around 150 people on the bike or around half the field. I passed a few people I knew on the bike leg and we had a brief chat which was great. The last 3-4Km involved a slight downhill into T2 and knowing I had pushed harder than planned I took it easy for this section. I caught Leo on that drag and we came into T2 pretty much together. Whilst changing from bike to run gear I overheard Leo telling the race marshall that he had hit a cow at 60Kmh and was in pretty bad shape. He looked OK to me so I didn’t feel too bad when I had a little giggle.

Run: 1:52. I had originally planned a 1:40 run but re-evaluated that when I heard about the run profile: “add ten minutes to your normal time” was the general advice. The first and last 1Km was on road then it was “on safari”. Through woods and plains the run was tough but very pretty. Some of the climbs were steep and up sand and I adopted a run walk strategy where I walked the hills and ran the rest. I caught around 30 people on the run and ran the 5th fastest in my age group to come in 8th out of 43 and 92nd of 330 total entries in a total time of 5:52.

I was shattered at the end and the event convinced me that I have no desire to enter a full Ironman race. It would take too much training and would hurt too much! After a bit of a rest a bunch of old friends came down and we stayed over in Poole for the night and went out on the town. The following day we went for a walk along the Dorset coast which was spectacular and ended up being around ten miles! Not an ideal warm down but great fun all the same.

Full stats for the New Forest Middle:

I am Mark Spitz

Well maybe not but at least I can swim a little. I paid my first trip to the lake last night with a plan to swim 1600m at race pace prior to some longer swims in the run up to next weekend. The weather was glorious with the low sun shimmering off the water as the ripples gently lapped at the quay. I have planned to try and up the intensity on these (rare) long swims to see how much more I could push without using up to much energy. During the swim I was noticeably straighter than previously and was able to put in some fast bursts with no ill effects. I probably managed 5-6 intervals where I increased stroke rate, hopefully without sacrificing stroke length; very difficult to do in my opinion but all good swimmers seem to do this with ease. The result was a 35minute 1600m which is personal best by 3 minutes. Not bad considering the last time I swam in the lake was on the 2nd July. I seem to put in my best times after not swimming for a while. Interestingly I was chatting to one of the great guys who manage the lake and he said that he swims 1:15 for an Ironman no matter how much swimming he puts in. So I reckon my 42 minute 1900m goal is in sight and I can probably beat that if I can get a good draft off someone. I am now at a point with my swimming where I can enjoy the peace and quiet of Open Water swimming, just methodically stroking, breathing easy and relaxing; thinking things over in the same way as people normally do when they run or cycle. I never thought I would have got to that point ever when I first started swimming. I will definitely get some lessons over the winter and try and gain 5 minutes off my time for next year.

One Last Effort

One week of heavy training to go then I can hang my kit up for a few weeks. I am really looking forward to not training which may sound odd but it means I can spend more time with the family and chill out a bit. By not training I do of course mean dropping down to three or four times a week as opposed to six to eight. I think the key to all this triathlon and cycling lark is getting the balance right. I know I could hit some pretty good times if I put the training in, certainly I think I could get close to 60 minutes for a sprint and 2:10 for an Olympic but I would have to train far too much for mine and my family’s liking. This is also the reason I cannot see myself doing an Iron Distance event. If I entered then I would not be content just “getting round” I would need to target a sub 12 hour and that would take too much training. Unless I come into a million or two of course and can afford to take a year out of work! If I that happened, here is the plan: I would get a coach. Swim every day and get my 1500m down to 25mins. I would join the athletics club and do a lot of track work which would drop my 10Km time down towards 39 minutes. More time on the bike and a structured Time Trial plan would get my 40Km time down to 60minutes quite easily: That makes 2:04 plus transitions would make it sub 2:10 which would be pretty high up in my age group. There you go, I have done it already and it was easy  As it is, I have three hours commuting every day and other priorities. So a rest will be welcome on September 21st.

I resolved to put one last effort in for the summer so as to not let myself down on my debut HIM distance race and had a massive training week last week. The only down side was a lack of real swim practice due to work commitments. I hope to resolve that tomorrow with a long Open Water session. I had two bike rides in the Surrey Hills as well which was great although the last one was done whilst suffering the ill-effects of a dodgy seafood meal on the Friday at a client lunch. Heart palpitations and an inability to hold down any food was slowing me down a little. In hindsight I shouldn’t have gone out but when I left home I felt OK. As it turned out, my HR was 40 bpm higher than normal and I was at the back of the climbing group a few times but I really loved the ride – 7 big hills over 80Km with a final timed ride up Box Hill to finish (5% for 2.4Km on poor tarmac). I made it in 9mins 57secs but I know I can do much better. I shall use that time as a benchmark going forward and measure my improvement with it. Rumour has it there may be a TriTalk Time Trial event up Box Hill which would be great fun although I am unsure whether I would prefer to marshal it than ride it, I do need to put something back.

It look like I need to definitely revise my goals for the New Forest Middle. Apparently it is a hilly ride and a hilly off-road run which will slow everyone down. I will try to hit 5:45 and see where I go from there. A few of the guys I ride with have done it and they were very complementary about the race but said the bike and run were hard. Maybe I should have chosen the Vitruvian instead as the bike is 5Km less and the run is easier. Too late now – I shall enjoy the NF middle as it is. I am still suffering from food poisoning so I shall have a day of and start my final big training week tomorrow.

Back on the gas!

I have been very tardy in updating my blog, I have been busy and travelling too much although that is not a good enough reason as I could write on the plane. We had a great holiday in Egypt; way too hot for me but very relaxing with the family. Eight whole days together and not one argument shows that it must have been relaxing. The snorkelling was good fun and the pool and local beer was refreshing. It was averaging around 39 degrees each day and much too hot for exercise. I set off on a 40 minutes easy run on the first day


and almost expired after 20 minutes and had to stop. All the locals were looking at me as if I was stark raving mad. The hotel gym was poorly equipped with CV gear, the gym bike did not work properly but there was a treadmill. I made sure I went for a swim in the “Olympic” size swimming pool each morning prior to a wet lunch and chill out. My lap times were terrible, as expected after a few weeks off swimming. Even after a couple of sessions I wasn’t even close to the times I have hit before even though I felt I was swimming well. So I paced out the pool: 75 good paces which makes it at least 65m long by my reckoning. No wonder my lap times were so poor! So in the end I had yet another week off cycling and running which makes it around 2-3 weeks of poorly planned training.

Only 3 weeks to go to The New Forest Middle Distance and I am in pretty poor shape. My interval sessions are not as long as they were and I push less power than I did 1 month ago; so I plan to make a concerted effort over the next 3 weeks (2 weeks if I rest on my last week). My plan to enter the New Forest Middle as a way of encouraging me to continue training through the summer has failed completely, I shall learn from next year and plan to have my last “A” event in July. That “A” event looks like being the Alpe D’Huez Long Distance Triathlon: 2.2Km swim, 115Km ride over 2 peaks then a finish up the 21 hairpins of the Alpe’Dhuez followed by a half marathon at altitude!



The longest Tri I will have attempted and probably the hardest one around. I think now is the time to do this event as it looks like it will soon be the “Kona” of Europe with everyone trying to get to enter. I fancy mixing this event up with a family holiday to the Alps back where we used to live which would be great. Just need to convince my family :-) Then I may have a year off Tri completely, after retiring from rugby this year and cricket last year, it looks like being a chilled year after Summer 2010.

We have my niece and nephew staying for a few days at the moment, I have forgotten how tiring a 5 and 10 year old can be, they demand so much attention all the time. I am every so appreciative of Jane and the kids who are doing a great job of looking after them. I have no idea how anyone can train for an endurance event and have small children at the same time. Saying that, I have been grateful for the solitude of the open road after a few hours with the kids. I am really too old and too impatient for young kids nowadays.

I have been travelling far too much recently: Japan, Germany, Egypt, Portugal all in the last 4 weeks with a trip to Amsterdam planned the week before the New Forest Middle: Not ideal timing – would be great to chill in Amsterdam after the New Forest Middle... The travelling in itself is not too bad but if it is a day trip then there is no training possible due to early starts and late finishes and if it is an overnighter it is in the lap of the gods if there is a decent gym available which usually means I plan an endurance run on the street and hope they are clear enough to get decent session.

Training done since coming home from Egypt: Bike: 90Km Z2, Run: 40 Minute Z2, Run: 60 Minute Z2, Bike 3x8 Interval; Run: 3x8 interval; Weights; Bike: 60Km in the Surrey Hills.

So much to do so little time.

Things have been busy over the last 2 weeks and as a result I have done little training, and little blog writing! I have been busy at work and I am also aware that I need to spend more time with my lovely family as I tend to get wrapped up in other things. So I now plan to have a few days off completely and then hopefully come back refreshed and re-motivated. My recent goal of sub 5:30 for the new Forest Middle Distance Tri is now out of the window and I shall target either a sub 5:45 or a sub 6hour time depending upon how training goes for the next 4 weeks. My endurance should be OK from all the etape training but I have lost running speed and have not entered the water for 4 weeks. As they say in the office: “It will be fine”!

Japan

I had a quick visit to Japan last week, out on Monday and back Friday. It turns out that the “Fitness Corner” at the hotel was exactly that. A couple of pieces of CV kit and a view over Tokyo. Not ideal for spending much time training.




I managed a 90 minute “ride” on the gym bike the day I arrived but it was so boring (even with the view) I couldn’t face any more than that. As it turned out the trip was packed busy with full days and late nights and I didn’t manage to wake up early on any of the days I was there so I didn’t get any other sessions in. Sessions of the fitness kind that is, I did end up having several food and drink sessions with clients and business partners which were great fun! Sake, Sushi, Sashimi, Shabu Shabu and Sapporo are so much nicer in situ. Do all Japanese food and drinks begin with “S”? Ah no – the Kobe Beef Carpaccio was great.

Back on the MTB

On Sunday we participated in a TrailTrax (orienteering on a bike)event with my youngest son, Ben. He has been keen to do one of these for a while so we entered in the “Family Pair” category. The event involves mapping a route to try and collect as many points as possible by riding to marked locations. We overestimated how far we could travel in the 2 hour time limit and as a result made a poor route choice and gathered a much lower points total that we had hoped. We also had a mad dash over the last 2 miles to get back to base within the time limit which was fun, Ben was slipstreaming me on the road back for the last mile as we upped the pace. We got back with 2 minutes spare and finished a credible 2nd in the category and 5th overall (albeit amongst a small field). If we had picked our route better we would probably have amassed enough points to have won. Next time we will know better. There is another event planned soon so I think Ben will be keen to do that one as well. He seems to be as competitive as me – the poor soul.

Bike Position

I found a few photos from the London Triathlon and noticed that I look very upright on my bike. I have always felt quite comfortable
when on the Tri bars and that in itself has worried me. Seeing the photos has just emphasised my opinion. I hope to get out on a ride with some of the TriTalk folksin Surrey soon so I shall garner their (generally) wise opinions. If I am too upright then I guess I shall need to lower the handlebars, I have considered doing this already but I suspect that I need to saw off some of the stem which I am reluctant to do as it means no going back. I shall review this once I get feedback on my position. I may post a picture of my position on the TriTalk website for broad constructive feedback laced with acerbic ridicule which is very humorous for all concerned...

Holiday

We are off to Egypt next week and a chance to do some snorkelling. The hotel has a 50m pool so I shall finally get back in the water and do some proper sets. Looking forward to the whole holiday if not the flight on Monarch!

Post Etape...

Recovery from l’etape was pretty quick, which just goes to show I did not go hard enough! Work and home have been very busy since France with the school hols and lots of business trips. This belated update is being written on the Narita Express train from Narita Airport to Tokyo where I shall be for the next few days. Another week and another hotel will surprise with grand descriptions of their gym facilities. This one is described as a “fitness corner” I have absolutely no idea what that means but I expect to be running through the streets of Tokyo as opposed to working out in a salubrious fitness centre.

The London Triathlon was last weekend, apparently the largest in the world with waves spread over two days. Having won an entry to the event last year and postponing it I eventually decided to participate with two mates as a relay. Unfortunately we were entered in the sprint event which meant that there was a lot of effort to get to London and sort out the logistics for a short race but we all treated it more as a bit of fun. We finished 8th overall (out of 324) so that was not too bad but reflects more on the lack of decent competition more than our team performance. The wave had around 200 people in it and I really didn’t envy Tony who had manfully agreed to do the swim section. He never managed to escape the washing machine during the 750m and spent more time fighting off people and trying to navigate a clear route through the melee before finishing in a credible 16mins. T1 was mayhem with a lot of swimmers coming in together and the three people per team all getting in the way of each other crammed into three small bike rack rows. Tony did really well getting out of the wetsuit and running upstairs and into the transition area which was an exhibition hall, we had the 4th fastest T1 overall which was cool but even that was over 3 minutes. I was nursing a “right and proper” hangover from a unexpectedly late night out the night before but managed to overtake over 100 people on the bike to get back into T2 in 6th place leaving Rob to run his first ever 5Km race. He had been “sandbagging” about being a slow runner but I knew differently, I have seen him running around the village and knew he had a handy 10mile time in a recent village fun run. He was hoping to not let the side down with a targeted 24 minute run but eventually he smacked a sub 20 minute 5.1Km which was great. With all the hassle of getting there it was a shame that we had to leave pretty quickly and I tried to see a few friends finish their Olympic relay but unfortunately I couldn’t find them and with the venue being huge it was nigh on impossible to bump into anyone unless pre-planned.

So I have update my Event list below and only have one event left.




I am now suffering my familiar high summer lethargy spell and lack of motivation for any training. This was the exact reason I picked a September Triathlon to ensure I have something to keep me going till later in the season. So duly motivated I am back in the swing of things for September 20th and the New Forest Middle. I went out for a long run for the first time in months on Sunday and after daydreaming for a while realised I had accidently ran 20Km in 1:34 which was supposed to be an easy pace. Cracking! Actually that would be close to the pace I am hoping to achieve in the New Forest. I am not sure how realistic this is as I have a half marathon PB of 1:30 I need to do some research and find out what I can expect for my half marathon time at the end of a Tri. Updates as soon as I can get the answer.