Physiological Fitness - Economy
15 years ago
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
The Climate is not Great
I was planning on riding l’etape with 2 friends. That would make the ride more enjoyable and a lot easier. Unfortunately one has lost his job and as he was riding for his company team he will no longer be allowed to enter. He has opted to spend some time in Asia doing charity work which is great. He will have a blast and help others at the same time. My other buddy has also lost his job and is naturally considering whether he can fly over from the US to take part. A difficult decision for him and his family. It looks like I may be “Billy no-mates” on the start line on July 20th. He is a great guy and I am adamant he will be back working again in a matter of weeks, he already has some contract work come in. So watch this space.
Learning from the Hampshire Hilly Hundred.
I finally did some desk research (and asked some questions on the very good TriTalk forum) and I have some answers to my questions from the HHH. Why did my heart Rate descend and why was I unable to get it high towards the end of the ride? There are three possible reasons for this: 1) I am not fit enough, 2) I went out too fast, 3) I did not warm up. Well, 2) and 3) are definitely true so that is easy to fix – Yeah! Unfortunately 1) also appears to be true which is not so easy to fix. Back on the road for more LSD miles or I will not get to finish the Mt Ventoux.
Altitude Training Again...
...or another trip to Denver for a series of meetings. Another small altitude week; well 2 days actually but I can probably get in three sessions whilst over here as the jet lag shall ensure early starts. 
I missed out another swim session this morning prior to my flight, I keep getting a blocked nose when I Open Water Swim and I didn’t fancy sinus problems on a long haul flight so I gave it a miss (the best excuse so far for skipping a swim session). I must go on Saturday or I shall not have had a proper chance to practice before my first “A race” of the summer next weekend. The Big Cow Sprint has been designated the UK championships this year so I am preparing to come a little further down the finishing order than normal despite my improvements.
I missed out another swim session this morning prior to my flight, I keep getting a blocked nose when I Open Water Swim and I didn’t fancy sinus problems on a long haul flight so I gave it a miss (the best excuse so far for skipping a swim session). I must go on Saturday or I shall not have had a proper chance to practice before my first “A race” of the summer next weekend. The Big Cow Sprint has been designated the UK championships this year so I am preparing to come a little further down the finishing order than normal despite my improvements.
Grrr. My T5 Rant
London Heathrow Terminal 5 infuriates me every time I use it. For a brand new terminal there is so much wrong with it that I get in a bad mood before I even get near to a plane. It appears to have been designed to encourage the retail experience rather than to get passengers smoothly through. As usual there were no queues at check in yet security took 20 minutes to get through. I almost lost my laptop at security as the snazzy automatic tray took off before I had time to re-pack my strewn items. The last time I went through T5 one of the security girls swore at me as I was fighting my little battle with the pilotless trays. Charming. Once through, passengers have to walk half the width of the terminal to get to the escalators. The departure gate is not showing which means you have to assume the flight will leave from the main terminal. 
This entails a 2 escalator schlep to get to the BA lounge, which eventually gets me in a bad mood and have to concentrate to be polite to the lounge staff. I cannot be the only person that feels this way surely? The gate is announced and will leave from an annex terminal which requires five more escalator rides and one tram. The tram incredibly takes almost 5 minutes to complete its carefully orchestrated operation to travel approximately 150 metres, a distance that can be walked in less than 60 seconds. If you visit the lounge in the annex that makes ten escalators in total prior to boarding. TEN! It makes me think of shopping at Ikea – once you get in it is almost impossible to find out where you are until you have passed every item for sale before being spat out by the tills. The flight is full, but I have my usual window seat where I cocoon myself for the next 10 hours. Rant Over
This entails a 2 escalator schlep to get to the BA lounge, which eventually gets me in a bad mood and have to concentrate to be polite to the lounge staff. I cannot be the only person that feels this way surely? The gate is announced and will leave from an annex terminal which requires five more escalator rides and one tram. The tram incredibly takes almost 5 minutes to complete its carefully orchestrated operation to travel approximately 150 metres, a distance that can be walked in less than 60 seconds. If you visit the lounge in the annex that makes ten escalators in total prior to boarding. TEN! It makes me think of shopping at Ikea – once you get in it is almost impossible to find out where you are until you have passed every item for sale before being spat out by the tills. The flight is full, but I have my usual window seat where I cocoon myself for the next 10 hours. Rant Over
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
First Triathlon of the Season
Mid May is Eton Super Sprint weekend, this comprises a series of short open water Triathlons (400m swim/ 20.4Km bike/ 5Km run), the event is set at Eton Rowing Lake, the venue for the London 2012 Olympic rowing regatta. The event is popular particularly with novice racers and those who are weaker swimmers. There are usually 2000 competitors over the two days and they set off in age group based waves of 100 or so. Two years ago this was my first ever triathlon; an eye opening experience which for some reason did not deter me from continuing. I entered this year just to get back into competing and to be able to see where I am compared to last year.
Well the rain held off which was contrary to the forecasts but the wind was forceful to say the least; 20mph and gusting pretty hard. The water was choppy and the bike leg was going to be tough. Back in January I had convinced Andrew, my brother in law to enter this race as he was looking for something athletic to do. He turned up with a borrowed wetsuit he had never worn and no open water swim experience. I was a little concerned for him. We got to the venue pretty early as I wanted to make sure Andrew was all sorted out in Transition and knew what he needed to do. As we registered, I was serenaded with a verse of “Happy Birthday” by the crew and I had a birthday card in my race pack – so nice it made my day! The chap behind me in the queue was entering the over 60’s age group and it was his first Triathlon: “the kids are entering so I thought I would have a go” he said. Huge respect for the man, I hope he had a great day.
Swim
The biggest difference between this event and any previous event is that I was not nervous about the swim. For the first time I was not hesitant getting into the water and I even felt confident enough to have a warm up swim prior to the starting gun. I opted to start right in the middle of the pack for the swim with a goal to grab onto someone’s feet and get the benefit of the draft. Having practiced this behind Tony in the pool a few times I know how much benefit there is to getting a good draft in the water.
As soon as the gun went off I managed to find someone’s feet and followed him for the first 150m, I found myself battling with someone else who was trying to tail the same man which required a little aggression and made me smile inside.
I lost my “pilot” at the first turn and found myself alone for a while but soon picked up someone else and tailed him into the shore. This is the first time I have succeeded in drafting towards the end of the race because normally by then I am behind the people who keep stopping for a breather, these people are impossible to follow so for the first time I had the benefit of the draft all the way through. The guy I followed in was a little too slow for me but I opted to stay behind him and save a bit of energy for the bike/run. The result was I got out of the water and felt fresh, far too fresh really but better to be fresh than wasted as I normally am. I saw Tony was still in transition which pleased me as that meant I had swum a good time. That stroke technique work has really paid off.
Bike
The bike leg was hard because of a mighty cross wind for most of the lap. The ride felt great, I pushed hard but should maybe have pushed harder. I overtook dozens of people on the first lap and I thought I must have been quite high up after the bike. As it turned out I was 5th but the later finishers from the previous wave prevented me from seeing the leaders. I noted that I was overtaken by only one person and he was on bling Cervelo P2 Time Trial bike worth a few grand, a small pang of jealousy there. Trying to keep the bike on an even keel was interesting and watching riders on the route bent over to the side as if they were going round a corner would have made a good photo. My eventual bike time was better than last year but much slower than I had hoped, I imagine the wind was the primary cause of that.
Run
The run is two laps out and back which means that on the 1st lap you can generally see where you are in the wave but the wind meant that the race numbers were flapping about, rendered unreadable and with people from the last group still out on the course it was hard to tell who was in my age group and hence what position I was in. No-one overtook me on the run and I actually ran the 3rd fastest time of the wave. I passed Andrew and Tony on my second lap as they set off on their first, I was happy to see that Andrew had clearly made it out of the water OK and looked like he was on for a good time as well.
I bettered all my times in each discipline which considering the conditions was great, I came 6th in my age group and 92nd out of 950 competitors which is a major improvement on my 249th place last year. We wrapped up afterwards and then popped into the local pub and had a couple of pints of Guinness (all in the name of carbo recovery of course) and a lunch with Andrew and his family which was a grand way to finish off the event.
Well the rain held off which was contrary to the forecasts but the wind was forceful to say the least; 20mph and gusting pretty hard. The water was choppy and the bike leg was going to be tough. Back in January I had convinced Andrew, my brother in law to enter this race as he was looking for something athletic to do. He turned up with a borrowed wetsuit he had never worn and no open water swim experience. I was a little concerned for him. We got to the venue pretty early as I wanted to make sure Andrew was all sorted out in Transition and knew what he needed to do. As we registered, I was serenaded with a verse of “Happy Birthday” by the crew and I had a birthday card in my race pack – so nice it made my day! The chap behind me in the queue was entering the over 60’s age group and it was his first Triathlon: “the kids are entering so I thought I would have a go” he said. Huge respect for the man, I hope he had a great day.
Swim
The biggest difference between this event and any previous event is that I was not nervous about the swim. For the first time I was not hesitant getting into the water and I even felt confident enough to have a warm up swim prior to the starting gun. I opted to start right in the middle of the pack for the swim with a goal to grab onto someone’s feet and get the benefit of the draft. Having practiced this behind Tony in the pool a few times I know how much benefit there is to getting a good draft in the water.
As soon as the gun went off I managed to find someone’s feet and followed him for the first 150m, I found myself battling with someone else who was trying to tail the same man which required a little aggression and made me smile inside.
I lost my “pilot” at the first turn and found myself alone for a while but soon picked up someone else and tailed him into the shore. This is the first time I have succeeded in drafting towards the end of the race because normally by then I am behind the people who keep stopping for a breather, these people are impossible to follow so for the first time I had the benefit of the draft all the way through. The guy I followed in was a little too slow for me but I opted to stay behind him and save a bit of energy for the bike/run. The result was I got out of the water and felt fresh, far too fresh really but better to be fresh than wasted as I normally am. I saw Tony was still in transition which pleased me as that meant I had swum a good time. That stroke technique work has really paid off. Bike
The bike leg was hard because of a mighty cross wind for most of the lap. The ride felt great, I pushed hard but should maybe have pushed harder. I overtook dozens of people on the first lap and I thought I must have been quite high up after the bike. As it turned out I was 5th but the later finishers from the previous wave prevented me from seeing the leaders. I noted that I was overtaken by only one person and he was on bling Cervelo P2 Time Trial bike worth a few grand, a small pang of jealousy there. Trying to keep the bike on an even keel was interesting and watching riders on the route bent over to the side as if they were going round a corner would have made a good photo. My eventual bike time was better than last year but much slower than I had hoped, I imagine the wind was the primary cause of that.
Run
The run is two laps out and back which means that on the 1st lap you can generally see where you are in the wave but the wind meant that the race numbers were flapping about, rendered unreadable and with people from the last group still out on the course it was hard to tell who was in my age group and hence what position I was in. No-one overtook me on the run and I actually ran the 3rd fastest time of the wave. I passed Andrew and Tony on my second lap as they set off on their first, I was happy to see that Andrew had clearly made it out of the water OK and looked like he was on for a good time as well.
I bettered all my times in each discipline which considering the conditions was great, I came 6th in my age group and 92nd out of 950 competitors which is a major improvement on my 249th place last year. We wrapped up afterwards and then popped into the local pub and had a couple of pints of Guinness (all in the name of carbo recovery of course) and a lunch with Andrew and his family which was a grand way to finish off the event.
Friday, 15 May 2009
Nice Weather for Ducks
Well my first Triathlon of the season will be tomorrow, on the day of my 45th birthday. Most of my friends think I am mad, especially as the local 6 mile road race is on Sunday and I have the "Over 40s" title to defend. This means no heavy celebrations for my birthday. Actually I seem to remember the same situation last year and I managed the run after numerous pints of Guinness and a Curry the night before so maybe I shall adopt the same pre race nutrition strategy.
The bad news is it looks like this will be my third consecutive Triathlon in the rain.
There will be 15mph winds as well which will be channeled nicely down the Eton Rowing lake where we shall be riding. As with last year it looks like being a bike ride at 20kmh against the wind and 45kmh with it.
The bad news is it looks like this will be my third consecutive Triathlon in the rain.
There will be 15mph winds as well which will be channeled nicely down the Eton Rowing lake where we shall be riding. As with last year it looks like being a bike ride at 20kmh against the wind and 45kmh with it.
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Not Unhappy ;-|
The Hampshire Hilly Hundred is now completed with a silver award in my back pocket, a cyclist sun tan on arms and legs and a very sore “saddle” to show for it. This Sportive is a beautiful ride in the Hampshire countryside with only around 1 mile on what you would call a major road. The rest is on country lanes and minor roads showing off wonderfully what England can be like on a sunny day. I was pretty happy with the ride even if I was saving a little for the coming birthday weekend which will be celebrated with a Triathlon and a 10Km road race. We departed in a group of eight with me promising my wife I would look after her boss as he had not ridden more than 60 miles before. It became clear that he would have struggled to maintain our starting pace for the whole hundred so I dropped back to ride with him. We subsequently rode together up hill and down dale for just over 6 hours at an average speed of 26Kmh which is good considering I held the front for just under 6 hours. My original plan was to smack the hills as training for l’etape but clearly my definition of “smack” needs reviewing as I was often passed by faster climbers whilst struggling to turn the pedals in 1st gear, a gear I now know well. 
I know it sounds naive but they really don’t call it the Hilly Hundred for nothing. I have the impression that every bend disguised another climb and the number of hills with false brows was getting tiresome towards the end. A total of 2400m climbing in 160Km is actually comparable to the first 160Km of l’etape which I think is 1900m followed by the 1600m climb up “the Giant of Provence”. There was one 15% climb which started at mile 68, that was the only real “grin and bear it” climb and it wasn’t too long but the thought of doing something close to that for 22km fills me with dread.
There is plenty of food for thought prior to l’etape, not least a need to do more hills and build up the leg strength. I shall also be reviewing my gear ratios this week, I spent far too long in 1st gear for my liking and am too proud to get a Triple which leaves me with the option of changing the rear cassette to give me some room. I will struggle to ride at this pace for 150Km and then climb Ventoux so I will need to review that as well. I noticed that I was comfortable riding at a heart rate of 145bpm for the first half of the ride but then the legs got tired and I struggled to raise my HR above 135bpm for the remainder, I actually averaged 137bpm (10bpm lower than when I did the Gorrick Enduro). I guess that is down to either a lack of fitness or poor nutrition on the ride. I shall do some desk based research and find out.
I know it sounds naive but they really don’t call it the Hilly Hundred for nothing. I have the impression that every bend disguised another climb and the number of hills with false brows was getting tiresome towards the end. A total of 2400m climbing in 160Km is actually comparable to the first 160Km of l’etape which I think is 1900m followed by the 1600m climb up “the Giant of Provence”. There was one 15% climb which started at mile 68, that was the only real “grin and bear it” climb and it wasn’t too long but the thought of doing something close to that for 22km fills me with dread.
There is plenty of food for thought prior to l’etape, not least a need to do more hills and build up the leg strength. I shall also be reviewing my gear ratios this week, I spent far too long in 1st gear for my liking and am too proud to get a Triple which leaves me with the option of changing the rear cassette to give me some room. I will struggle to ride at this pace for 150Km and then climb Ventoux so I will need to review that as well. I noticed that I was comfortable riding at a heart rate of 145bpm for the first half of the ride but then the legs got tired and I struggled to raise my HR above 135bpm for the remainder, I actually averaged 137bpm (10bpm lower than when I did the Gorrick Enduro). I guess that is down to either a lack of fitness or poor nutrition on the ride. I shall do some desk based research and find out.
Friday, 8 May 2009
# 2138
2138 is my recently allocated l'etape rider number, I am now officially entered. I will have to get out and ride around the hills again to build up the legs. I have the Hampshire Hilly Hundred this weekend; 160Km with 2400m of climbing which will be a great test of where I am. Updates early next week with a smiley face or a sad face depending on my performance.
I went Open Water Swimming again yesterday evening, twilight lake swimming is so much nicer than waking up at 5:30am, crawling out of bed and into a chlorinated swimming pool. I even improved my best 800m time by a good 90seconds so am pretty hopeful of not disgracing myself in the water this season. Still a way to go to hit my sub 30 minute 1500m goal but I am getting there. Needless to say Tony is a good bit ahead and improving even more then me, I am really pleased for him - the git.
I had a lunch at Shoreditch House this week, a very trendy private members club filled to the brim of vaguely (to me vaguely) recognisable faces lunching and doing media deals. They have a rooftop bar/restaurant with a 17m long swimming pool, annoyingly I keep forgetting to take my swim gear when I go. I sat and wathed a few swimmers doing lengths and it made me realise that I am actually a pretty good swimmer now and am just comparing myself to Triathletes and not normal people. It gave me another reason to dip into that 2nd glass of wine as a reward.
I went Open Water Swimming again yesterday evening, twilight lake swimming is so much nicer than waking up at 5:30am, crawling out of bed and into a chlorinated swimming pool. I even improved my best 800m time by a good 90seconds so am pretty hopeful of not disgracing myself in the water this season. Still a way to go to hit my sub 30 minute 1500m goal but I am getting there. Needless to say Tony is a good bit ahead and improving even more then me, I am really pleased for him - the git.
I had a lunch at Shoreditch House this week, a very trendy private members club filled to the brim of vaguely (to me vaguely) recognisable faces lunching and doing media deals. They have a rooftop bar/restaurant with a 17m long swimming pool, annoyingly I keep forgetting to take my swim gear when I go. I sat and wathed a few swimmers doing lengths and it made me realise that I am actually a pretty good swimmer now and am just comparing myself to Triathletes and not normal people. It gave me another reason to dip into that 2nd glass of wine as a reward.
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
More XC - this is becoming a habit
Training has been average (or “ordinary” as they say in Australia) over the last two weeks. I picked up a sinus problem the last time I went Open Water Swimming which put me off training. I have also been a little “chesty” which has brought on other problems which arise when I up the intensity. So I spread my last week of training over ten days and will have a week off this week. I was talking to a buddy today who had the chance to spend 20 minutes with Jo Friel (a very well respected Triathlon coach) over the weekend and he suggested that triathletes of a “certain age” would benefit from a complete week off every 4 weeks. That theory actually matches my training plan although I would normally plan some easy sessions during my rest and recovery week. So I feel much better about my break now.
To add some further variation to my training, I entered the Gorrick Enduro on Sunday. This is a endurance based cross country mountain bike race which takes place over a number of ten mile laps. I had very good intentions last month to enter the 4 lap race which I expected to take between 4 and 5 hours but as I was not on top form I opted for my usual 20 miles. It was a pretty fast course with some wide fireroads and good climbs with the last 4 miles dominated by sweeping single-track with deep berms enabling the rider to maintain speed through the turns. It was less technical than the previous races and suited fitness over handling skills. I came in 14th place out of 69 in a time of 1hour 53mins which I was pretty happy with, it was in line with my annual progression from 32nd in 2007 to 25th last year. I could have kept up the same intensity for another lap I think which was good to know. I was pretty pleased with myself until I noticed I was 28 minutes behind the winner – probably a young whippersnapper but all the same 28 minutes is a huge gap. I re-checked the results and noticed I was 5th out of non-sponsored riders which is a pretty good result. The 7 lap supermen and women were generally completing their laps quicker than me which was a little humbling.
To add some further variation to my training, I entered the Gorrick Enduro on Sunday. This is a endurance based cross country mountain bike race which takes place over a number of ten mile laps. I had very good intentions last month to enter the 4 lap race which I expected to take between 4 and 5 hours but as I was not on top form I opted for my usual 20 miles. It was a pretty fast course with some wide fireroads and good climbs with the last 4 miles dominated by sweeping single-track with deep berms enabling the rider to maintain speed through the turns. It was less technical than the previous races and suited fitness over handling skills. I came in 14th place out of 69 in a time of 1hour 53mins which I was pretty happy with, it was in line with my annual progression from 32nd in 2007 to 25th last year. I could have kept up the same intensity for another lap I think which was good to know. I was pretty pleased with myself until I noticed I was 28 minutes behind the winner – probably a young whippersnapper but all the same 28 minutes is a huge gap. I re-checked the results and noticed I was 5th out of non-sponsored riders which is a pretty good result. The 7 lap supermen and women were generally completing their laps quicker than me which was a little humbling.
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