The Ramblings of an Iron Rose

New season, new coach, new plans.

2011-12-06T21:48:00.008Z

New Season - Winter !

Its the time of year a lot of athletes dread, getting out of bed early in the morning, cold, wet, snow, ice and darkness. Getting your head around the fact that you are going to wake up to this for the next 2 months will make it easier to train, I find it so much easier to get everything ready the night before, no excuses when you are tired if your bag is packed and ready for the pool.

Just keep telling yourself, the athletes that you are trying to compete against are probably already up and you just lost an hour, see how that plays with your mind :-)

It doesn't help that the last few years have had some awful weather this time of year so even though you might want to get out, take care.

New Coach

My season has started, a fresh start no less, I have moved to a new coach. I was starting to hanker for a change and once that settled in, I got it in my head I needed to move on. I wanted to be pushed differently, try something new. My time with Lawrence proved very beneficial and we broke many of the targets I set for myself, including a number of sub 10's at IM and Kona qualification, we worked well together and became good friends. He still coaches a number of friends of mine and will continue to help them improve. A good 7 years that I have a wealth of experience from, I hope to use that going forward in next years racing.

I am now under the watchful eye of Simon Ward, it was a natural move, working with Simon and Computrainer and then moving to full coaching has worked out well, I can continue to work on my improvements with the CPT (more on that in a minute) and I have a coach I can work with to target the new year. Simon is also only as hour away for 1-2-1 sessions on technique and strength. The winter will look to target strength and core work with plenty of focus on improvements in my non tri-specific sport side of things too, sleep, nutrition, stretching and recovery. That, and he's trying to kill me in the pool as he knows I don't like it !!
I am looking forward to a great year.

New Plans

COMPUTRAINER UPDATE

As you will know I did my first 20 week PIG plan leading up to my race season with the final test in June this year. After 5 months I had improved 8.5% overall. Taking into account my IM focused approach to the sessions, this wasn't deemed a failure of the system, although I would have got my money back !

The raw figures were

Day 1 292w
4 weeks 304w
8 weeks 311w
12 weeks 316w
16 weeks FAIL
20 weeks 317w

Onto the new set of PIG sessions. Over the next 5 months I will be lucky enough to be using the new PIG2 plan.Its an updated version with more info and the ability to take all session power targets straight off your CP20 test. I want to follow this as much to the letter as possible.
Having Simon as my coach makes that easier to fit into an IM plan but I am finding this works anyway especially this time of year when I can focus on specific areas.

After IM Wales in September I pretty much did nothing for 6 weeks until my first CP20 at the start of November. I did a handful of outdoor rides and a few spins on the CPT but they were at a slow pace with plenty of coffee, I therefore wasn't looking for any miracles but I wasn't expecting the result I got.

I used the saved file from my 20 week result in June, with a target of 317w as my pacer. I was gutted to see him fly off into the sunset as I struggled to maintain anything near the same pace for the 20 min test. I dug in and by the time the 20 mins finished I was spent, and the result ?

279w, I wasn't a happy camper.

Gutted, I tried everything to squeeze out more but couldn't on the day, maybe a bad day, but I felt fine, it was just poor. I couldn't believe the nearly 2 months off had lost me that much power. I was determined to start back and hard.

I dialled in the sessions on the PIG2 plan and started that week.

It became apparent in the first week that during my first 20 weeks earlier in the year I hadn't trained hard enough in the intervals or gone light enough in the recovery sets.
This was a whole new type of hurt on a turbo, and wierdly, it spurred me on more, for example, in the first week I had a set of 6 x 2min reps at 135% of my initial CP result, around 335w, I ended up standing on the last one to keep the pedals turning, 3 weeks later I was doing 8 reps and seated the whole time, it was coming back.

Yesterday I completed the 4 week CP20 test again, result 299w !!!!!!!!! 20 watts increase, I am back !!!!

Now, I already feel gutted about my initial test and power I lost but I don't know what the going rate is for power loss over 6-8 weeks of downtime drinking beer, catching up with family and relaxing :-)

My problem is, I need to show progression, I want something to show for the 12 months, so I will keep the figures as they are but I am going to baseline this 2nd set of PIG improvement on last years initial result, i.e. 292w instead of 279w. If I don't and I improve by 10%, what have I gained ?

By using 292w as a starting point, getting 10% improvement will show a gain of another 1.5% but I still want more. I want to be at 330w in 20 weeks. This will show a marked improvement on summmer this year and give some level of credence to the 2 tests I have just done. This will equate to 13.5% on 292w and therefore match my expectation of what is possible.

Yes, I would love to be starting at 317w and aiming at a 10% improvement from there but the season isn't a 12 month deal for me, family makes it so. If I do manage to get to the magical 350w then I will be over the moon but small steps, well 20 of them to be precise.

That aside, showing what can be done in the last 4 weeks of solid training lends more weight to the Computrainer as a tool to motivate. Due to the level of feedback it didn't take much for me to get back on all fired up, because everything is calibrated and saved, you can see at any time the improvement in black and white or the areas to work on.

I will be applying the same principles to my run and swim, I know the improvements will come, repeatability and recording will enable motivation.

Whats next ?

A solid programme of sessions over the winter to stay strong, I have targeted a 1/2 marathon in March to break 1.25 for the half, with 2 build up races that should be achievable, I have set a more realistic swim improvement target of 6.15 for 400m, that should keep me going in the morning.

As for the bike, I will be adding the required sessions to the plan for each week and am determined to use this tool to make me a much stronger cyclist come Mallorca 70.3 and IMUK.

As usual, hope the training is injury free and Xmas brings you a lovely shiny Computrainer :-)

Rosey.

Reflection and anticipation

2011-10-20T21:38:00.007Z

With a clear month since IM wales a lot has been going on. Not so much on the training front as this is normally my time off to recover from the year and relax with family and historically a few days of golf abroad.

The golfing trip to Portugal was a fantastic break (the golf wasn’t stellar but the craic was !) with some great friends with only one disappointment of the week, nobody knew it on tour but Saturday night was a little sad for me, the Ironman World Championships were being played out on the other side of the planet while I drunk the night away in an Irish bar in Vilamoura, I never even knew who won til the Tuesday.

The result although not a foregone conclusion didn’t throw up too many surprises, many think Pete Jacobs coming runner up was a surprise, maybe you don’t follow IM as closely as I do, the boy is on fire and it just showed that the swim/runners worked some magic in the year to bring their 'weaknesses' up to a level playing field and beyond. A reminder to any AG athlete who wants to know how to improve ….. work on the weaknesses, til they become the strengths.

Most recently in my come back, I managed to fall of my bike, nothing serious at the time but its 3 weeks ago and I am still in pain, the ribs apparently take while to repair when you clatter them at 20mph. Biking outside and on the Computrainer starts in earnest today.

As part of my rest I also try to plan out the next years exploits and breakdown what went right and what went wrong with the previous one.

What went right ?

Being injury free was a real bonus, it enabled me to have the 'ability' to train consistently.
Computrainer - this gave me a new element to my training and one that I intend to continue with in anger over the winter and into next season, a superb tool and I feel that my cycling improved - just not enough.
I got married - yay ! Family is very important and the balance is sometimes a hard one, having a great wife who supports me is awesome, until I take the pi55, then its someone who can put me in my place. Balance :-)

What didn't go right ?

I may have been able to train consistently but I didn't, I didn't use the time I had effectively. I don't know why, but the stats don't lie. Below is the weekly volume of training for the year. The bars should really be going up in a linear progression from May and you can see the weeks where this didn't happen. Life and work got in the way or maybe I just made excuses, not this year, I want that to be a consistent chart.

True, I got married and there is a lot that goes into that, having the 2 week break for wedding and honeymoon impacted the build up phase but I would never have had it any other way. We also headed to Disneyland Paris for Kellys birthday weekend, the coach wasn’t happy about the timing but this sport is not just about me, its all encompassing for Kelly and Teya.

I suppose one way to externalise the inconsistency is to blame those events but we can all work around these things if we are determined enough, time management is a wonderful thing used correctly and this year I should try to put all of those management courses I have been on over the years and execute some of the theory ! Not find excuses.

However, importantly, when it comes down to it, there are priorities. Mine was getting married and enjoying that experience.

Once back the focus turned back to Hawaii qualification at Wales.

I gave it what I had on the day and the results will show a missed slot by 57 secs but this is just paperwork, the 2 guys in front of me would never have relinquished those places if they had known I was coming so it’s a bit misleading in terms of how far I was away from Kona, the reality is, I was too far outside qualifying to justify being disappointed.

Placing at IM Wales ? I suppose its not a bad showing but no, not happy, next year is all about winning, not looking for the last place in the slots and wondering what time I need to get, but giving the podium a crack, why not ! I shouldn’t settle for the last slot, I need to be aiming higher. Go out and give it everything and if its not good enough at least I know I didn't settle for mediocre.

Looking to the new season I have worked with Kelly on finding the balance to racing and holidays and because the main race is going to be IMUK we are off to Majorca in May to do the Mallorca 70.3 half Ironman.
I will be entering in November all going well with the rest of the season so far mapped out. Lawrence has warned me about deviations next year, we need to decide on a plan and stick to it.

So with that in mind my race season so far looks like this

November - Get back up to speed gradually in all 3 disciplines.
December - XC races and potentially a race or two to stay sharp.
January - Helsby 4 villages 1/2 marathon
February - Wrexham 1/2 marathon
March - Wilmslow 1/2 marathon
April - Return of the Fudge Packer camp. Already decided to be in Lake District again.
May - Majorca 70.3
June - Cotswold 113 Half IM
July - IMUK

October ?? who knows .........

I have also decided that this year is time to start looking after the body, strength and conditioning and core work will be part of my training for the first time, I will be working with Simon Ward using his workouts - and paying for them of course - to improve the core strength I feel that I need to maintain the training I want to do as I get a little older.

For now, let the body heal and work back up to fitness, over the years I have ended up injured this time of year trying to get back to speed too hard, too early, I am learning, build slowly, train smarter.

Most importantly I will be supporting my sponsors, Phil at D&M Cycles is very encouraging this time of year, my IMUK slot is down to him and I owe him to work hard to prove it was a good investment, the races that we plan out for next year and the winter training is very much based around the at the shop and we have a great group all itching to get started. Most of them are doing Lanzarote and I hope this will encourage the early season banter and hard work.

Simon is also investing in my support and feedback, I will be starting the new PIG programme come November and working towards improving my output on the Computrainer and then making sure this is reflected in the races for next year.

All in all I am very positive about next year and it starts today, none of this 1st of the month crap, get out now, start as soon as possible, there is no time like the present etc etc.

I hope to get an update on the Computrainer starting watts and Majorca 70.3 in the next week or two, keep you all posted.

Rosey.

Ironman Wales 2011 Race report

2011-09-17T23:00:00.007Z

Race report IM Wales 2011

Swim 56:44
T1 + 1k run 10:06
Bike 5:55:52
T2 03:53
Run 3:22:19
Finish time 10:28:51
Overall position - 65 of 1134 finishers (1287 starters)
Age Group (M40-44) Position - 10 of 246

After the surprise announcement of the new IM Wales race my decision to try to qualify at a race that has a slot for the following year took a different direction. Prior to this I was looking at going to either IM Arizona or IM Cozumel, the discussions now centred around why we would do this if I could jump in a car and travel 5 hours and race on home soil.

The course looked a challenge, the earlier test event in June proved that ‘anything is possible’ as a large number of the field had to be rescued in the swim event. The bike was also reported as ‘tough as old boots’, right then, off we go.

The bike course changed a few times as happens with new events but was always going to throw in some good climbs and a large helping of coastal riding.
The run was the only real unknown element until closer to the event but by all accounts there is no real flat for long in Pembroke so there was no surprise as to what this could hold for us.

My mum had decided she wanted to come and has been to quite a few events now, so on Friday all 4 of us set off for Tenby, 5 hours+ of driving is the shortest bar Bolton I have spent getting to an IM and we all got to our base at Kiln Park without too much trauma.

There were a lot of people I knew racing over the weekend, many I had raced against but one of the main mini battles that would be unfolding over race day was the ‘Fudge Packer’ smackdown. Gary and Adam have been mates for many years now but we hadn’t had the chance to race against each other for a full IM before (We started one in 2007 in Lanza but Gary decided to park his bike in the open door of a marshals vehicle on the descent off Timanfaya !) So with the 3 of us working hard in training and keeping in touch via the odd training camp (hence – FudgePackers) and emails giving more encouragement and blatant abuse we were looking at IMW as the decider on ‘top dog’ status for 2011. We had also picked up another FP’er in Gordon Croucher so he was thrown into the fray.

In my AG I also had the added bonus of battling against Lordy, Tim Bishop (just gone 8.56 at Copenhagen) and good mate Jeff who had battled with me in Roth and since then the 2 of us have trained many hours together.

It was also great to meet up with lots of pirate mates too, this has got to be the best support element to any race, as was to be proved on race day, new faces and old (yep you FB lol !) it was great to meet all of you over the weekend.

Friday afternoon, myself and Gary drove the course, made a few wrong turns during our recce but at the end, the ever ‘over exaggerating’ Fegan announced on twitter later, ‘it’s a bit tough’, I concurred.

On the Saturday morning we met up for the practise swim at the newly located start on the North Beach. The South beach was not safe enough for the majority of the swimmers and it turned out to be a good call, this meant a 3rd transition point for trainers to run the 1k to T1. Walking into the water I clumsily stood on a rock on my heel, afterwards as I was walking normally I could feel it, very painful, slightly worrying but I would test it later.
The water was fresh and frisky, deep swell and unknown currents but all in all a pleasant experience, straight out and coffee.

Made me and Adam laugh that the café had cooked up a hot plate full of sausages and bacon only to see no-one indulging, I wonder why ?
My second mistake of the weekend followed, parking ticket on the main road over the North Beach, arse, without a moments hesitation though, all the lads thru in a donation, cheers guys.

For me the rest of the day was spent sorting the bike, new tubs on, bike extras mounted, test ride and then a 10 min test run, thankfully the heel was fine when running – no walking then !

Next error in pre race judgement followed, I decided at 1.30pm (racking shut at 3pm !) to change my cleats on the tri shoes with the ones from my road shoes, I just couldn’t get the damn cleats off the tri shoes, it didn’t stop me trying and sticking the pointy end of a flat screwdriver up my thumb nail, not once but 3 times and then crushing 2 other fingers as the pressure I was applying closed the multi tool on me a few times before I gave up and decided I would be racing in road shoes. A black nail and 2 crushed fingers would keep my mind focused though ……

After racking and meeting up with the ‘Angel of transition’ Claire, I met with Adam at the race briefing, the same as all the others, it seemed to be a very happy tent so it looks like all the questions over changes to the course were being taken in and accepted by the competitors. Well done to the organisers, issues averted with good communication and promptly, nothing to moan about pre race at all.
On the way home I decided to drive the run, mistakes were beginning to be a theme here and this was a corker, I would describe it as fairly hilly and of a consistent nature. Time for bed methinks.
Good night sleep for me, don’t have a problem with this, bed at 8pm, woke at 3.30am.

Race Day.

Breakfast consists of ham and cheese sandwiches, banana, malt loaf and 2 strong coffees, I then use a weak 4:1 solution in the walk up to transition. The coffee started to work nicely and the transition experience was painless and thankfully didn’t have the same issues as Trentham where I was a lot more rushed.
Myself and Adam strolled down to the North beach, you could tell the support was going to be good, there were hundreds out already and the whole atmosphere was buzzing, and to top it off the weather was brilliant, the sun had come out to play, the wind was still up, as were the breakers.

I hung my trainers on the shoes transition hook and added my Garmin 405 to the bag, I normally put this on when on the bike but I had a 1k run to fill with things to do, time saved.

We walked down across the timing mat and I went in for a quick dip to flood the suit, this is mainly to fill the suit with water and then squeegee it so the suit sticks to my body preventing loads of water swirling around. Then we entered the holding pen.

Comedy moment followed when it came over the tannoy that if you hadn’t gone over the timing mat you weren’t entered into the race, at least 150 people moved as one, back to the entry to the beach to make sure lol.

Swim

This is where things got a little surreal, at the furthest point in the swim pen there were railings marking the end of the swim area, they ‘almost’ went into the water, this meant that as the pen filled people started to overflow past the railings. About 10 minutes before the start, a large number of competitors just started walking down the beach, as if drawn in by singing sirens on the faraway cliffs, the strong of us resisted but eventually they got us all, start walking too, chatting to Adam saying we would all be coming back. Then over the tannoy we were called back, so made the beeline for the nearest point to the railing and held my position waiting for the start, Welsh national anthem was followed by a silence and then BOOM we were off.

Tenby Cycles' Swim picture

I raced into the swell, dolphin dived a few times and felt the water surge over me, clear swim, start breathing to the left, what I saw then almost stopped me dead, orange hats moving down the beach, breath again, no, they are running down the beach, WTF ! cheating bastards, just keep swimming, lots went through my mind, including getting out ! yes, I actually thought that as I felt I was losing so much time, then I started to focus on my own race, this was interspersed with many other thoughts, including, hoping all the stronger swimmers got cramp in the run down the beach and that all the weaker swimmers who gained a few minutes now found themselves in the wrong place at the turnaround, it can be rough at the sharp end, I know, childish but I was angry and I had to get rid of the feeling as I knew it would ruin my race. Sorry.

To be fair, it was the easiest swim outside of Roth as I was only swimming with about 300 people. The turnaround came, a little rough as people who had run down the beach met swimmers from my direction, then into the hardest part of the swim, the back straight was just a case of turn over the arms and breath at the right moment, that meant when you weren’t under water, hard to judge when you were falling off 3 foot breakers. The fishing trawler parked in the middle of the back straight was a bit weird but I made a line in between that and the floating dinghy. The last leg into the beach was fun, body surfing and trying to catch waves was a new one for me.

Coming into the beach was a little scary, I knew if I could get the right wave I could body surf in, I got my wish but it was by pure luck, others were being sucked back out and I got the right breaker, the downside to this is I was flying thru people hoping not to hit them travelling at about 15mph and you know what happens when the wave hits the beach, my journey will end abruptly!

If you check this YouTube video at 2mins 43secs you will see what happens to me, the wave picks me up and by the time 2mins 50secs is on the screen, I am the furthest person to the left lying on my back like a dying fly, I had to flip on my back in case I landed on my wrists, the downside to this is the impact of the landing ripped a 4inch hole straight across the bottom of my suit where the zip starts. The second lap was a painful affair as the suit was now full of sand and rubbing me like sandpaper.

However, this lap was a breeze, back straight a little rough and made drafting tough but the tide was helping so came out faster than I hoped, 56 mins and change on the clock.

The run up to the town starts from the beach, onto the zig zags, pick up trainers, take off wet suit and then start the 1k run to transition, the support was excellent and I hope they keep the swim on the North Beach. Garmin watch on and just try to get a rhythm. Saw Kelly and my mum on the way in, they could now start to help me with numbers, first request, count me out of T1 and shout a position, shouldn’t be too hard.

Into T1 and the Angel appeared as if by magic, ‘well done Nick, you need a hand ?’, ‘yes please’, sorted, kit out, kit on, ‘Angel’ packs for me, I am off, out of T1 in 1.06 plus change. Shout at Jeff across the tent as I leave, he follows with some abuse reminiscent of Jack Nicholson in ‘The Shining’, I know he means it too, I’m scared, no slacking.

Bike.

Coming out of T1 was great, so many people, support was great all day but this was a wonderful start. I missed my mum and Kelly and apparently they missed me, they were looking for the pirate top and I had put on a gilet, after 12 mins or so they were getting concerned and my mum was up to 300 people, another few minutes, my mums tally was 400 and Kelly announced that they had probably missed me, lol, never mind. My mum showed me the race book later, it was like Papillons prison wall.

onefivenine's bike piccie of me

My plan for the ride was use power, my ride wattage was to be between 230w and 250w average for the race, the reason for the range is that my FTP is based on the Computrainer figures and the SRM had a slight difference in the range of 10-20 watts, this meant that I could push up to 250w for good periods and not be over my goal average but if normalised power was high I wouldn’t burn myself without knowing. I also allowed myself to go up to my FTP of 300w for the climbs with bursts over if I felt OK or someone was sucking my wheel, I also wanted to stay seated for every climb on the first loop of 70 miles.

Nutrition, start with aero bottle of 4:1 and a bottle of water for the gels, take a gel every 30 mins and pick up Gatorade at each station, when my water runs out, get another one, this worked well. In the past I have carried far too much and worried about it, its not necessary and this is the way forward for me.

The first 20 miles out to Angle had a fair bit of wind but the pace was fine, I was in amongst other riders joining various pace lines, I had no idea where mates were except Jeff so I stuck to plan, the choice of wheels for me was right too, I had the choice of rear 404 (mine), 808 (thanks Dan) and disc (thanks as always Paul), I chose 808 rear and 404 front, I think I am strong enough for the disc but it just wasn’t the conditions.

Coming into Castlemartin proved me right, the 2 riders in front on discs were at 30 degree angles on the far right of the road trying to stay upright, the gusts were a bit hairy even for me, I was looking forward to turning back to Pembroke, the wind behind would be great.

There is a short stretch where we see the riders on the out and back to Angle, I saw Adam coming towards me and wave at someone in front, its Gary, 3 bikes ahead. Game on. As I draw up I realise 2 things, the game will be starting early and it will only make him more focused. I also learn his front derailleur cable is broken and he’s having to hold it in place or it drops to the small ring. Gary and mechanicals are as regular as the sun setting so this didn’t surprise me at all.

The hills aren’t too hard for the first 40 miles, it all starts later in the loop so speed was up to over 20mph ave at this point. Myself and Gary danced a few times, apparently my sticking to watts up the hills was beginning to play with his mind as he kept coming up to my back wheel and then worrying about getting pinged for drafting, so on one big hill he left and I let him build a big enough gap not to worry about but could still see him. I would push on the second lap.

The main climbs were Narbeth, excellent support, steady climb but rewarding just from the crowds, I was 20 seconds behind Gary over the timing mat, that should keep the onliners happy watching the smackdown. The roads then got very technical as we started the move towards the coast, coming round one sharp left hander we’d driven the day before a rider was just picking up bottles and bike on the side of the hedge, shit it’s Gary, just recognise him as I shoot past, he looked ok but I didn’t have time to ask, I just kept going, knowing he will be back.

Signs for Wiseman’s Bridge appear, a fast descent into the bay and then back out on the 16% climb, pirates everywhere, a very welcome sight, lots of cheering once they realised it was me but with a gilet on, welcome relief from the slog. Onto Saundersfoot, 2 steady 10%+ climbs dropped us into a well supported town centre and then we hit the newly named ‘Heartbreak Hill’ (every IM has one) it was reminiscent of the IMCH hill of the same name, loads of great cheering. Made me smile all the way up, from there it’s a 1 mile climb to the main road and then down to Tenby to start again.

Kiln Park marks the start of the 2nd loop and this is where I had asked Kelly and my mum to stand to call out my position on the road, just to give me an idea of how many riders in front. As I passed I got the shout ’24 !!’

WTF !! 24 what ? It took me an age to work out that it must be age group, well impressed they manage to do that and probably thought it was Emma online helping them out with the timing mat info at Narbeth. Now I am grateful for the amazing support my mum and Kelly gave me ALL week and especially that day but the story behind this made me howl afterwards.

What actually happened was this ……

Kelly and my mum get to KP late, its hard to get a child everywhere and me and Kelly are always late, no change there then, as I came thru Kelly shouts ‘well done’ and my mum shouts ‘24’

Kelly ‘what did you shout that for ?’
Mum ‘that’s how many people I counted’
Kelly ‘but we’ve only been here 5 mins, he won’t have a clue what that means !’
Mum ‘he wanted to know how many were in front of him and I counted 24’
Kelly ‘but we were late and we missed loads, god, what will he be thinking?’
Mum ‘lets just tell him that’s how many cans of beer we are carrying round for him at the end’

Bless them both, calm restored.

So now, I can get rid of the thoughts of the beach runners as I have to try to work out what the hell 24 meant, I resolved it to AG, which made me annoyed as I was losing touch. It had the right effect though, head down.

The road to Pembroke the second time was hard, as I passed Penally I was doing 14mph up a false flat thinking I needed to get on a pace line, the wind was so hard I knew 10m behind someone was going to help, the problem was, I was on my own. I just pushed on, even these smaller hills were going to take it out of the best riders so I stayed with it. This is where I made my first mistake in the race, I changed down to the small chainring and went down the rear sprocket as well, chain falls off, momentum wasn’t enough to keep going but I manage to get the chain on before I stopped completely, quick push with my cleat and I am off again.

This mistake cost me my power meter, the sensor is crank based and by dropping the chain and trying too aggressively to get it back on, I snapped the sensor off the mounting point inside the crank. What to do ? Well the reason for the power was to keep myself in check for the first 80 miles, job done, now just go on feel, no issues.

The second lap of hills was hard, I was tooing and froing with some cheating French tosser who was 1 metre off anyone he could find and Henning the Great Dane - the guy who’s video I linked to earlier - (I just kept thinking he was Torbjorn Sindballe to keep me amused), I can descend but he was a unit and a half and was flying down faster than me, we played cat and mouse for a few miles, he was very strong but I knew if he got away I would get him on the run.

We also got rid of the Frenchie, I let Henning get 50 metres away, drew the frenchie into my back wheel and then snapped his umbilical up the next climb, left him in no mans land while we descended into Wiseman’s, oh and in true Lordy fashion I told him at least 3 times he was a cheating tw*t as loud as I could to anyone that could hear, and that included most of the people in Narbeth. :-)

Wiseman’s bridge had grown supporters and was great to see mates again, Bassy giving his usual banter of ‘HTFU Rosey and put some work in’ lol, love the pirate support, Saundersfoot didn’t disappoint second time around, out of the saddle for this one. Then I worked on trying to get to T2 in under 6 hours, IronMike had pointed out that not many will do this in under 6 hours, I like to prove people wrong.

The run into T2 was very well supported and I came in with a big smile on my face.
As usual I took my feet out of my shoes as I enter T2, BAD decision, I don’t know what the floor was made of but shit, that hurt more than the bike ride, had to put my shoes back on. Into T2 to be greeted by my Angel.

‘Well done Nick, do you want any help ?’
‘No thanks’
‘OK’ – she fends off another helpful assistant, ‘he’s fine and he’s mine’ lol

Get my kit out on the floor, grab hat, gels, shoes on, ‘Angel’ picks up after me, wishes me luck and I am off, as I run out I hear Jeff’s cackling voice and he is still ‘after me’ lol, this is great banter and I set off well.

Run

I set watch to show HR as I know this course will be a grind to the end and I need to keep the first lap steady, aim for 155, also shows me lap times for each mile and lap pace to keep me honest. Although Jeff already has thoughts on this.

Nutrition is 1 gel every 30 mins, I am carrying 4 and Kelly and mum have 4 more at the hand off station in town. Coke from the start and water, Gatorade was a no-no, experience tells me I don’t need energy drink at this stage and would make me hurl anyway.

The pirate top is now out and getting amazing support, everyone knows who we are, local races in the UK are A-MAZ-ING for this and I would like to thank everyone who shouted for me and then rest of the ship, oarsome, thanks.

onefivenine's run picture

The route drops north out of Tenby and hits the climb up the main road to Twycross roundabout, we then turnaround and have a little extra out and back to the New Hedges Tavern and then head back down to Tenby, you then climb back into town and taken straight out past the RNLI station, up a short 1-in-4 stinger, under the town walls, down some steps and drop back into the centre. The next bit weaves through every parallel street Tenby has to offer, very confusing but extremely well marshalled and signed, so during the race no issues but I couldn’t repeat again without the crowds.

The first loop means I can gauge where people are, Jeff less than 2 mins behind, Gary on his tail, that is ominous but I can only run my race, I spot Lordy who gives me the most encouragement of a fellow competitor all day, I mean excitement that gives me a real lift, after reading his race report I was surprised that he didn’t know where he was (3rd at the time) or he might not have been quite so vocal.

The ‘high fiving’ mates stopped after Jeff nearly broke all my fingers, saw my work colleague Dave running well as I made the descent to town, he was smiling and gave me great encouragement and thankfully had a great race. The aid stations were excellent, all of them but I knew Glyn was on the Army one at 4 miles, loads of shouts and plenty of great pirate support, thanks guys. I was holding my place and my pace so I knew I was running well and its nice to hear too.

In town the atmosphere was amazing, Kelly and mum at the aid station have regrouped and the info is good, I was 16th off the bike, get a move on, I am working through the field. Its very difficult as there are no AG markings so I set about taking anyone that looks old enough and has the same amount of bands.

The second lap is always hard, you have 3 left and normally set off too quick in lap 1, its all tough, get a grip Rosey, on the way up to Twycross I hear the voice I knew was coming, ‘whoever made this course up either needs hanging or a medal !’ Fegan cruises by, I say well done and watch him create distance, I need to focus on me.

See Adam on the way back to town, he isn’t having the best of days but was still strong on this lap. Quick stop for me in the loo, the downhill’s aren’t helping in my quest for peeing on the run, best to do it properly and get going again. Take a drink thinking its water, damn its Gatorade, nearly throw up on the spot, more coke please, say thanks to the great marshals.

Into town again, support is breathtaking, especially the central point where the lady is on the tannoy, NEWT supporters have adopted us as we have the same colours, thank-you, thank-you, struggling to say thanks to everyone as the wind is trying to blow my hat off and I have pulled it down over my eyes and am watching the road 2 metres in front of me. Kelly and mum still there, I am now in 13th and doing well. Another band for lap completion and off again.

3rd lap brings slightly slower uphill running but I know this is where moves are made by stronger runners so aim to push harder this lap, stomach is holding but I can feel an ominous rising with so many carbs in my system and coke swilling around, water only on this lap to dilute the carbs. I pass Lordy and he is still giving me the best support.

The wind gets stronger and it starts to rain, cold and wind, lovely, still concentrating on people in front with 2 bands. Back into town to get band 3, no advance on 13th as tracker’s not working, the girls shout they will see me at the finish, I am now on the way home.

Its at this point I see Tim, after his Copenhagen race I had gifted him a slot before we started, always unwise, anything can happen, he had nutrition issues for 25km of the run, I follow for a while then decide I can make a move, he may see me and push but that’s the chance I take, bit presumptuous that he recognises me and that proves right, he doesn’t, on the way out to the far end of lap 4 we chat briefly about placings and Hawaii slots and getting back there (we’d walked together in Kona in 2009 at the athlete parade), he tells me he has struggled today but getting better with each lap, I try to pick up pace and he stays, at the turn I am still chasing people with bands and I know I have one of my competitors with me but I can’t shake him.

Lordy comes the other way on his final lap and gives me loads of encouragement again, then the second mistake of the day,

Tim - ‘where are you in your AG?’
Me - ‘no idea’
Tim - ‘I'm just outside the slots’
Me - ‘That makes me the same then’
Tim - ‘you in my AG ?’

Me - 'yep'
Me thinks ‘Oh f*ck ! – he didn’t know I was in his’
Tim kicks – he doesn’t need a foot race with 2 miles to go, I try to respond but he slowly pulls away.

So, the last 2 miles, downhill and in town, hard, hard , hard, pushing so hard I can’t feel my legs, I don’t want to lose a place, I also might catch someone, weaving in town is hard, shooting past people, shouting ‘on your right’ doesn’t seem right in an IM but the course dictates a close proximity to guys going slower and I don’t want to slow down myself or knock anyone over. Hit the cobbles, feel like I am sprinting, then I know where I am, one more corner, I know someone is behind me, I’m offered my white band, he misses my arm ! ar5e, the guys chases me because I’m not stopping, hit the promenade, give it 50 metres before looking back, no-one, yes, I can milk the finish, pass my wife and mum in the last 100metres, see the clock, 10.28, not bad, spin the positive by getting under 10:30. Cross in 65th overall and 10th in my AG.

What a race !

What of the Fudge Packers ? Well Gold went to Gary, an awesome run of 3.11 gave him a 7 min lead on me with a 10.21 finish, Silver for me with Gordon bringing home the Bronze in 10.42. A bad day for Adam running in at 11.39 but he'll be back, after only giving up 15 minutes to Gary at Embrunman 5 weeks ago there is more in that engine to come. Well done guys and well done Gary for the bragging rights for 12 months.

Aftermath

I spent the next 45 mins in the medical tent as I couldn’t stop shivering, very cold, goodness knows how the guys later on kept warm in the driving rain.
Fully recovered I find out I am in 9th in my AG, there could be 9 places but its all about who starts and by all accounts, 60 people didn’t in my AG, there goes 2 slots.
The next day I find out I am 10th and we have 7 slots, the field was stacked with fast euro’s over for slots, it will not roll but we go anyway, it rolled one, I have no regrets, I will work harder, one day I will get into the slots and not have to worry about roll down, that’s the aim for next year.

I want to thank my mum and Kelly for amazing support on the build up and the day and Kelly for the previous 12 months.

Phil at D&M Cycles, my sponsor for everything I need for the race and a lot of training and banter from the shop, I have a new sponsor for this year and Computrainer has worked out very well, in such a stacked field I had plenty of running in my legs after a good bike, I will use it to even greater effect for next year.

And the support both on the course and online, I can hear you on the course and I can feel the online support as I know its happening, the course was amazing for support, pirates, Chester Tri, competitors and locals, the race was a winner from the first buoy in my eyes :-)

I will be back.

Rosey x

Why a Computrainer ? A mini review

2011-08-20T19:27:00.006Z

I said to myself I wouldn't 'sell' the Computrainer and I still hold that in a little reserve but something I read this week has prompted me to write this, one of the reasons I hadn't owned one up to now was buying it outright was outside my budget or justification to my partner, I would have preferred the option of interest free credit, it has never been offered - until now !!

Don't misunderstand, as I said, I am not here to 'sell' the CT, they sell themselves and its Simon's job anyway, my aim was to use it, tweet and blog about it and hopefully encourage a few to buy one because of the results or usage. However, I have had mails from friends/triathletes asking for advice/feedback, so as the offer of interest free credit runs out at the end of the month, here is the info I have passed on to others.

A year or two before I became the amateur face of Computrainer for 2011 owning one had been in the forefront of my mind, I love the indoor trainer, I love the toughness of sitting there mentally knocking out hours, knowing the hard work pays off. I also love knowing in the really crap weather I can happily sit there for 3-4 hours, yes its tough, but so is Ironman.

If you need any convincing on the uplift in indoor training and the benefits just do a search for 'triathlete indoor training' and it's the new outdoors lol, the pro's copied me I am sure Indoor training

In winter, it's easy to justify using one, summer not so for some, but when you are a family man like me and getting fully kitted up for a 2 hour ride can add that 15 mins you don't have, I would rather get 2 hours indoors than 1.45 outside and then spend 5 mins of that with no data due to freewheeling or traffic lights.

Having a machine you can replicate terrain and 'pain' indoors makes this type of session an easy choice, especially in my case if my partner is out at kickboxing, meeting girlfriends or working late and I am the designated babysitter, I can't go anywhere, the garage is 1 minute away and the baby listener comes with me.

In the brief review below I have tried to simplify the first 7 months with mine against others I have owned. This is also a cut of the mails I have sent a few times to people asking me for feedback.

Pros

Software, awesome and thank god -SIMPLE, I have had expensive Tacx turbos in the past and they are very time consuming, can be very buggy, don’t fully test releases causing issues if you set your computer up to automatically accept updates.
If you look at the websites for Tacx they are full of people moaning about how inconsistent the software is. CT is a piece of cake to load, currently I am using a laptop with Vista (which everyone knows is rubbish !!) and haven’t had one issue in recording data or uploading it to Training Peaks.

Hardware, I use my full aero TT set up (not TT helmet :-)), before I got the CT on any other turbo I previously owned, cheap or expensive, once you fix the rear wheel and get on and lean forward onto the TT bars, the roller and tyre have some separation, plenty of squeaking, not on here, the way its clamped, its not too tight to squeeze the rear stays but has a locking mechanism that stops you from moving. Means I have been using my full race position set up for months now.

Roller - I liked my Elite Mag Wireless roller but this is better, about as good a roller I have ever used, solid, runs true and makes practically no noise.

Feedback - the main thing with the CT is the ability to calibrate each time so you know its a consistent recorder of info to base your training on. This builds up over time and you can then repeat sessions against yourself as it allows you to ride against previous workouts. Improvement is easy to gauge.

Training Applications – 4 types
Headset, out of the box you can put it together, no PC and set up the head unit and use it like a normal turbo, it stores power, HR, speed etc and you control the power from the head unit - schimples !!

Coaching Software – CS – this is headset driven with you controlling power but linked to a PC you have a readout in graph form, a bit like the ones I have been putting on my blog, in real time though, you can see ave/actual/max for everything and the graph scrolls past as you cycle.

3D software – this is a visual representation of you on a bike in a virtual environment and you can load any course you want, the software comes pre loaded with all IM courses and around 25 other famous races around the world along with ramp tests, TT’s and other courses, like mad mountain stages. The power and resistance come from the course elevations etc and you use your gears to control the cadence you need.

Real Video – this is a paid for optional extra, you purchase a DVD of an IM course you want to do and it puts you on the course as a rider and as the course changes the power resistance changes to take in the course, awesome to ride and gives some variability to the riding in the winter when you want to do 3-4 hours, and I have done a few. I think all CT’s come with one, you can probably request the one of your choice, I have tried Wisconsin, St. George and Lake Placid, yes all hilly but its not supposed to be easy.

Purchase terms – the reason I am writing this blog entry - I would like to be in the market for one right now, I have always had to resist as I couldn’t afford one outright but before the end of August its interest free on monthly terms, always a bonus in my eyes.

Support and after service – Simon is extremely approachable and is always at the end of a phone/mail/tweet etc. He is very outward in his social networking and prides himself on customer service, whereas with other major indoor trainer manufacturers, you need to deal with the retailer and then the supplier who just play one another off. Plus it has a decent parts guarantee.

Cons

The price, it can scare people off, its is expensive if you think of it as just a turbo.
It's not, I know now, it's an investment, I can't guarantee by paying a premium for it will make you will use it more but it's actually the options available that make you want to use it more.

Looks - not really a con but if you think you are getting something that looks like it came from the starship enterprise then you are barking up the wrong tree, this is functional, solid and looks like a turbo.

And lastly, it pretty much needs to stay up permanently in the garage, there are a couple of cables to connect up to get it all working, cadence, power, HR. Taking it apart each time you use it would be a ball ache. Yes, it can be taken down each time if you have a small house, but then you will have wasted all the time you saved over getting ready to go out on the road !

It will take the heavies from Simon to get mine back lol, but if you want more info, please call him, the number is on his Website, for anyone in the US, don't know if you can get the same deal but call RacerMate

I have read a number of other reviews of the CT and they are all clear on one thing, if you want focus and improvement, it's a clear choice, choice is yours.

You won't see anymore selling from me, just using, and man I am using it !!

Rosey

Mid season Update

2011-08-08T21:10:00.006Z

After a lovely weekend in Euro Disney its back to the training and with the countdown to Wales hitting 5 weeks and moving swiftly downwards its a serious part of the season.

Euro Disney was a great distraction from work and training and was for Kellys birthday,

If there is anything I have learned over the last few years, the partner buy in is the most important part of your season and it doesn't stop just because they said yes to you entering and training for the race, so a bit of lactic pain after a few days off is the least I could put up with.

Ironman Wales is on the 11th September and this provides me with a bit of focus for the next month or two, I have been ticking over the cycling and the Computrainer has come into its own time and time again, more about that in a bit.

Swimming has started to click, my 8 x 400m set last week was the first time I managed to ever complete all of them off 7 minutes and that was giving me a reasonable recovery.
My running which was going very well up to the wedding reception has taken a bit of slump, a week in London on a treadmill every other day and then the trip to see Mickey meant I hadn't run properly for nearly 2 weeks, last week I jumped straight into an 11 mile steady run and have paid for it all weekend. Its easing now but with 2 big weeks coming up, I could well do with being fresher.

To the next 2 weeks, I have told my coach I am taking a week off work and to work around that and give me everything he thinks I can take, build in enough recovery to benefit at the same time, BAM !! - 2 biggest weeks of the year, a 20 hr and a 24 hr week. I am really looking forward to pushing myself and as a precaution have ordered a new bottle of XEndurance :-) I am not getting any younger, use what you can !

I am still having to travel but am working my training around the travelling and taking my trainers when I can and then working in the swimming in the evenings when I get back.

To my favourite piece of kit, the Computrainer, over the last 30 weeks I have used it just over 80 hours, thats over 2.5 hours per week usage, and I have been on honeymoon for 2 weeks, in London for 2 weeks and I travel each week for at least 2 days.

It just shows how useful it can be for the midweek recovery sessions, interval sets and longer rides when the weather is bad. Yes, I like the turbo and some don't but the versatility of the different sessions means its not as boring as people make out. And doing a 2 hour session means my legs get a good 2 hours, no traffic lights, idiot drivers, rain, punctures :-) its not hard to see this as a useful tool in the triathletes armoury.

Onto the Computrainer and my CP20 tests, with the Ironman looming, doing all out tests hasn't been top of my priority recently and with me riding for 4-6 hours at the weekend I can't really give a good account of myself at this level of intensity while I am working on my endurance and strength. So with this in mind my approach for the rest of the years sponsorship will be this.

I'm concentrating on IM Wales from now til September 11th. I will still be using all the tools in my armoury to improve but I won't have space for much testing.

I will then restart another 20 weeks PIG plan for the second time this year, this will take me past my years sponsorship with Simon and Computrainer but I love this turbo that much I will actually rent it from him for the duration of the 20 weeks after Xmas.

I will also commit to trying to follow the plan to the letter, the PIG guarantee is something I didn't do to the letter in the first half of the year. I had interspersed the use with my own coaches training plan. Simon would have been willing to give me my money back if I had been a paying customer so this time I will show how strong that guarantee is by sticking to the plan.

One of the things that will affect this schedule slightly is that I have entered London Marathon for 2012, if I get in that will start the run training in October too, I hope to be a very fit bunny come March lol !!!

With less than 5 weeks to go the fun and games are about to start, bring the rain !!

Rosey.

Trentham Big Half Race Report

2011-07-13T21:36:00.010Z

The 'Gatorade' Big Half is nestled in the Trentham Estate near Stoke and fitted in nicely in my build up training for IM Wales in September. After the Swashbuckler in May I needed to use another half iron distance race to seek out any improvements and keep myself on a consistant path to the 'A' race.

Myself and Dan had decided to check out the course the weekend before, it nailed a 60 miler and also meant I got a heads up, talk about a surprise, I was led to believe this was a flat fast course, looks like they changed it due primarily to the issues with traffic lights but maybe due to the negative feedback I found about the boring nature of the cycle section in 2010. This was a great lumpy test, a good one for Wales, even though that hadn't been the aim.

So to race day, slightly less manic than the drive to Swashbuckler as I already had all my kit ready the day before and it was only a 45 min drive at 4.30am with not much else on the road for company.

Talking of Swashbuckler, a quick thanks to Matt Molloy, or @ahoysavaloy on twitter, he won the Swash race and then put in a superb debut IM result at Austria (9.02) with a deserved Kona slot, his race report from Austria is the type I love to read, on course info, how hard you had to work and lots of stats, lovely stats, lol, which I had a good read of and used to some extent in this race, by the amount of comments he gets and occasional banter on twitter he also comes across as a really good bloke. Best of racing luck in Kona dude.

Anyway, I had checked the entry list the day before and not recognising too many names thought I might be able to get into top 5 or so. Walking across to register I bumped into Paul Hawkins who mentioned Martin Cain was also racing, expectations of top 3 going out the window I decided to just race my own race and see what happened.

Registration was painless, transition looked well set out, breakfast was working its way through and I thought I had plenty of time to sort everything out. However, the lack of toilets in the estate on the way to the swim meant I was still queuing with 10 mins to race start and I preferred to take my time normally :-) Job done, got to race start with a few minutes to spare.

There is a very long run from the swim exit to the T1 area so there is a 'shoe transition' at the swim exit where its compulsary to have some form of footwear to get you from the swim to the bike, probably around 400-500m I reckon, sorted this too and got into the water.

The swim was 4 laps of a triangle shaped course, I set off on the front line, never one to worry about a bit it argy bargy at the sharp end but it was surprisingly calm as I settled in behind a few pairs of feet for the first loop. It was becoming obvious I wasn't going to hold them for much longer so I just concentrated on long body and faster tickover of arms and wait for the next person to come by, I had a few taps on the feet so knew I was being drafted but when we rounded the nexct buoy I had a sneaky look to see a line of about 8 people, I am not the best swimmer, these guys needed to come round really. At the end of lap 2 someone did, so I jumped on them. I did hold these feet for a while longer but that became difficult when we started to meet up with the back markers.

Swim time was recorded as 36.34 but this was the swim, the long run to T1 and then T1 time, so I reckon closer to 31 mins, however the sharp turns on the swim course slowed us a little and the extra traffic didn't help so I am pleased with the improvement from May.

T1 was painless although I had remembered during the swim that I hadn't plugged my SRM unit in so it didn't pick up the push to registration earlier and set off the recording, so I had to sort that out. I also forgot I had put my Garmin on Auto Resume and proceeded to turn that off by pressing start thinking it wasn't recording, another error which I sorted at 5 miles in.

I exited T1 in 8th.

I settled into my bike position and set off at target watts of 250 ave. From about 4 miles into the bike I could feel a pain in my side, under the rib cage area, the one that normally says 'trapped wind' but this didn't feel the same, it was the more ominous, I need to stop for a toilet break, one I couldn't and certainly wasn't prepared to engage in on the move ! I have only ever had this once and that was the end of Bala a few years ago and I needed to go straight to the public toilets after the finish line. Never this early on the bike, I knew why straight away, I hadn't prepped well enough and I was paying for rushing my pre race routine.

By the time 10 miles came I really knew I had to stop, I found a layby, protected by a lot of trees and down came the shorts, I now know what the ridges are for at the front of your cycling shoes on the carbon sole ! to hold onto when there is nothing else around to stop you falling over having a number 2 in the woods lol !! An overly aggressive gingerbread man visit later and I was sure I had finished, shorts up, stood up, oh no, not finished, repeat, aaaaaaaaannnnndddd repeat again. All in all with the Garmin on auto pause but recording static time, I know I lost 3.35.

Not my finest nutritional display but a lesson learnt.

While I had been attending to my own private T1(a) I had noticed 5 cyclists go by me, I knew not to go after them aggressively but you don't always listen, I started off with a target, I did however stick to my target watts as much as possible and take the hills below 300w. By 22miles I had overtaken all of the guys who had passed me, I knew I was back in with a shout.

The rest of the bike course went without issue, I am very happy with the cycling right now, use of the Computrainer is certainly showing good results in the consistency I am getting and towards the end I was still feeling strong with no noticeable drop off. The course is pretty hilly but in my stats there are periods of 20 minutes where I am doing an average of 25mph so there was definitely a call for TT bike. Rolled in to T2 after 2hr38mins with 8th fastest bike, without the 'crappy' stop it would have been 4th, so still good result.

The run was something I hadn't been able to check out, what is slightly unfriendly is that due to the event being run in a country estate your supporters can't get access to the run unless they pay entry fee, while this isn't a great deal of money it would make for a better race if you had the option to add tickets for the estate as part of your race entry at a reduced fee, more support, estate gets money, convenient too.

Anyway, its the same for everyone so into transition and by the shout on the way in I was in the top 10 at this point but he wasn't sure if it was 6th or 7th so I forgot it and decided to work this out at the turnaround on the first lap.

The course is 4 out and back loops of just over 3 miles each loop, breakdown in my head was easy, what wasn't so easy was monitoring who was chasing and who was in front after lap 2. I set off at around 7m/m pace and for a while struggled to get the HR down to below 165, in the end I gave up, it was only a half IM and I knew I could survive the whole run at this and the pace didn't match the HR so I felt I wanted to stick to pace and see how long I could last. I was still reeling at the lost time in the woods, I wasn't sure if I could have caught the guys in front but it certainly brought the chasers closer to me and running is not the strongest discipline at HIM distance, the 1/2 marathon tends to lean towards the faster runners.

After lap 1 I realised I was in about 6th place but it took me a while to work out that Martin Cain and Paul Hawkins were actually a lap ahead so they kept appearing in the wrong place, more like they were behind me than in front. The guy who overtook me on the bike was running well and I was being chased by 3 others who looked strong, I worked out that if I could hold 7-7.30 pace they would need to get down to 6.30m/m to pass me before the end.

Lap 2 passed OK, lost another minute or so on the chasers and passed one of the guys in front who was struggling, it later transpired he finished in front of me but 'could' have cut the run short but was actually DQ'd for only doing 3 laps of the swim ! The banter with the marshalls was great, very good all round all day but it lifted me a little on the run leg.

Lap 3 was hard, tired already, the only thing keeping my pace was that I was still ahead of the 2 faster guys chasing, no way I was catching the ones in front but they could have issues and you never know.
The pace was now out to 7.30m/m and HR was no lower (work needed over the next few weeks) but I still felt OK, gels going down just after each turnaround and making me feel all round better :-)

I really wanted to push harder on Lap 4 but I think what really happened is my HR went up by 10 beats to stay at the same pace knowing the guy behind me needed to run a 6 min mile to catch me. It was hard to maintain but I kept thinknig it was only 3miles, funny how 3 miles seems forever when you have already run 10 at pace.

Coming down the finish line, quick look behind and relax. Was a bit confused over the line when I was told I 'might' be in 5th ! Turns out the guy who I mentioned earlier had been DQ'd and I was in 4th, woohoo ! I won my AG too, so even though nothing for top 3 but got some goodies for AG win. Run time was 1.36.45 without T2.

Now, you can only race who is there but what made me feel better is Martin Cain who won is an elite athlete racing at the World Champs ITU race in London in August and 2nd place was Paul Hawkins - winner of Outlaw and WTC professional, so 2nd AG overall for me. Even happier.

Thought the location of Trentham was lovely and the grounds are great for a race although the swim could do with being stretched out and reduced entry for supporters it didn't matter to me on the day. Bike has changed a lot and felt this helped to make it more interesting. Vic and his team put on a great race and will use this again as a build up for later IM races.

Thats all my races done now before IM Wales, plenty of training to come, build on the work so far and see what happens.

Rosey

Computrainer - The first 20 weeks

2011-06-22T13:42:00.015Z

Firstly apologies for my tardiness, I got married 2 weeks ago abroad and its been a lovely few weeks off but my final CP20 test was done just before we went and I haven't had time to blog.

RECAP

In December I won a competition to be the amateur face of 'Computrainer' in the UK, the competition was also run in the US and my counterpart across the pond is Maria Simone, her blog is here, she is more of a blogger than I will ever be but I am trying not to be completely overshadowed lol.
!
Since then I have using the Computrainer to help improve my cycling (and ultimately triathlon) and then blog about it.

My main aim of using the Computrainer as an Ironman athlete is to increase my endurance and speed and thus increasing the watts I will eventually try to hold at an IM race in September in Wales. Part of the Computrainer package they provide you with is a PIG (performance improvement guarantee) thus by using the trainer and following this plan the aim is to gain 10% on your CP20 score. This guarantee also has some caveats, using it 3 times a week to consistantly improve and then proving that you have used it are pretty much fair game in my eyes.

However, 'my' aim was to try to achieve this while at the same time train as an Ironman athlete using my normal coached sessions, this meant I didn't have 3 turbo sessions a week but 2 at the most and an outside long ride at weekends (the bonus is in the UK that could be on the Computrainer if the weather was bad as the CPT is that good).

My 20 weeks.

So to the challenge, 2% increase per month for 5 months.

On day 1 in December, I posted an initial wattage of 292w for my CP20 test, a little green behind the ears in terms of TT'ing but I couldn't push any harder at the end.

After 4 weeks use I tried again, this saw a superb increase in the initial 292w to 304w, an increase in the first month of 3.75%. Looking good

Month 2 again saw a steady increase and one which I think was also down to consistency of training in all 3 disciplines. The figure had gone up to 311w, an overall increase of 6.1%, not the large increase of the first month but good progress.

Month 3 showed up the break in training I had for a cold, the new figure of 316w although an increase the jumps were decreasing and this now gave me an improvement of 8.2% from December. Still ahead of the target but with my aggressive goals not what I had wanted.

Month 4 was a disaster, I have wondered how to put this into words but to be honest there is only one way, I failed !

Yep, I had put myself under pressure to perform the test before I went to the Lake District for the Fudge Packer camp and I wasn't feeling 100% in the build up. I needed to post a number and if I left it to after the camp I would need to recover and that would basically mean leaving it 6-7 weeks between tests, not what was required.

I lined up my previous months test as a ghost rider, an awesome feature of the Computrainer which is explained in more detail here. This was to enable me to pace and then beat the previous month.

I set off well, in fact I know I went too fast but after 5 mins I was up on the ghost rider. After 10 minutes I was struggling but I was at 317w and the ghost was still at 307w. From this point though it went a bit pair shaped, I couldn't push any harder or maintain what I was doing. I already knew that the ghost was going to get stronger as I had had a good last 3 mins in in the previous month, at 16 mins my legs were burning and the ghost had caught me. At 17 mins as the ghost moved away and I knew I couldn't chase I bailed, yes, I gave in, demoralised I had to concede that I wouldn't be improving my position that day.

Don't misunderstand the point of the pacer/ghost, it is an awesome tool to use but at that very moment I understood where I was, and it wasn't on par with the previous month.

To the present

Month 5, the 20 week test, once again as an Ironman athlete I was still training all the time and didn't feel like I was as fresh as I could be but I was off to get married in 2 days time and I needed to post a figure or I would be delayed by a good 2 weeks.

I removed the ghost for this one as I wanted to focus on the figures. I still hadn't got the hang of TT'ing yet and going off too early was my downfall but I needed to concentrate.

I set off knowing I had to hold a good 310w for the first half and then build, and build I did, I was approaching the 15 min mark but I could feel the pain building again and memories of the previous month came flooding in but so did an article that Simon Ward had sent me that morning, THIS article popped into my head.

Simon had spoken to me the day before and we had chatted about the testing, we had gone thru the failure of the previous month which on a positive note he didn't see as a failure, it was something to build on, everyone has a bad day. I have no idea whether it was good timing on Simons part but even as the 17 min mark came up and I felt like my lungs were burning and the legs were giving way and although I knew I wasn't going to make my magical 321w target I couldn't give up. Post a figure, thats all that counts.

I tried to hold, the watts went down (as you can see from the chart at about 18 mins) as I fought to regain some power for the last 2 mins, I had nothing to lose, Kelly actually came into the garage to see what was wrong as I had my headphones on but I was shouting at myself not to stop, my final watts stopped on 317w.

You can see on the image below on the wattage line that at 18 mins I nearly failed and then had to put in an almighty effort to finish, the hard way to do it and nearly upchucked at the end but I feel good for completing the test.

My conclusion to this point.

I have not followed the PIG plan to the letter, I have trained like a normal Ironman athlete, swum, biked and run, and when relevant (Jan-Feb = essential) I have used the Computrainer as my indoor trainer for longer rides when the weather is bad.

I have STILL increased my CP20 wattage by 8.5% in 20 weeks.

To put a tiny perspective on the results, its difficult to put a time reduction on an IM course as they are all different and its also hard to say what the 8.5% at CP20 will result in over an IM distance but for arguments sake, based on an existing time of mine, using only half of the 8.5%, so 4.25% reduction on the IM Wisconsin course I did in 2008 in 5hrs15min, would have given me a 13.5 min faster time and if I had run the same I would have qualified for Kona. Thoughts welcome .....

Its not the target I set myself of the 10% even though I wasn't on it 3 times a week but at my level 8.5% is great.

For those who are considering a power based turbo, it is not the only indoor trainer on the market but I have had a few and some pretty hefty ones, all with power and this kicks butt. The plan to improve your cycling and power needs you to do the work, nothing comes for free but the CPT actually makes you want to get on it, the 'toys' that help you focus encourage the use, yes its nice to train outdoors and I do regularly, however, only yesterday I did a 2.5 hour solid race pace effort on the Computrainer as it was bucketing down outside and we are now in June - the UK weather isn't as predictable as we would like.

It doesn't stop there though, I have spoken to Simon and I will be going again from the start of 20 weeks with my new figure as the starting point. I have the same aim, general improvement but now I have a target for me to chase, beat the 8.5% gain the next time !

And finally, for those that like to train indoors and feel that they want the tools to improve but aren't sure whether its going to give them enough to compete, have a look at this article sent to me by a triathlete friend.

Training indoors is good for you

Til next time, Rosey x

Race Report - Swashbuckler New Forest HIM

2011-05-25T10:10:00.006Z

My approach to this race wasn't a classic, well maybe a Rosey classic but I wouldn't recommend the buildup.

The last month saw a great volume of training, with Fudge Packer camp well and truely over and the following week a natural down week I decided on the Tuesday before the Swashbuckler to hit a local race series in Bedford and do their 6 miler instead of a steady 45 mins planned. Officially I was clocked at 39.03 but my watch had the important bit, 38.56. I felt good but my calves were still tight after every run I was doing and I needed to stretch out a bit more.

The rest of the week consisted of spinning, swimming and pre race shake down of my kit, which I didn't get to complete until the Saturday morning of the Sunday race.

The journey south was going to be a long one, I live in Warrington, race is in Beaulieu and more specifically the New Forest National Park based out of Bucklers Hard. I had arranged to meet one of my old school mates over the weekend and he asked me where I was racing, I said Fiddlers Yard which got a silent response til I mentioned Nelsons armada, numpty, anyway, lovely location and historical to boot.

So to the journey, from HELL ! I faffed so much putting race kit together as I hadn't used some of it for 12 months, I never left til 10.30am. The race brief and registration was 3pm, it was going to be tight.
All was going well til I hit a traffic jam on the M40, lots of effing and jeffing found me in the sticks and a 40 min diversion, at least I was moving.

I arrived at registration at 2.30pm, actually before the local lads I was meeting, Adam, who I was staying with, Loz and Piercy who were also locals I knew, and a few of the pirate massive, all looking lean and ready, well most of them :-)

Race briefing was in a lovely location and the sun was beaming out at us. The organisers were all athletes and had prepared a good race, yes it went on for a while but you had no excuse not to know the rules and the routes.

After the briefing myself and Adam decided on a drive round the bike course and to to find a place to park the 'love bus' for the night.

The course was, on the face of it, quite complicated but come race day very easy, 2 loops, one long, one shorter. Adam had recceed the run and apart from the run up the centre of Bucklers Hard there was nothing to report of any difficulty.

Once back, the next 2 hours were spent faffing, again. The piccie is our abode for the night, great van and excellent for this type of race.

We decided to go and have a quick walk around the finish area to walk off dinner, this is Adam with the finish chute up the hill behind him, a small killer in a sprint finish, I was hoping I wouldn't need one.

Morning arrived with an unbelievable change in the weather, pouring rain and a strong wind slowly rising. It wasn't hard to get up and get sorted, we had done most of the faffing the night before, we moved the 'love bus' out of the car park 500m down the run course and sorted the porridge and coffee out.

Prepped up we set off for transition, it was miserable but I decided once I got in the water all would be fine, I took arm warmers but would decide at the time whether to use them. We all said our 'race well's' and entered the water at our own start positions.

We funnelled into the water around 5.10am for the 5.15am start and you could already see the current as the canoes were moving quite quickly down the river towards the turnaround. I positioned at the front and the right and waited, the horn went and it was all I could do to make sure I stayed heading in the right direction, I was trying to follow the line of the boats but everytime I breathed to the left poeople were moving further away, I realised I was following the wrong line and moved across to the melee to get a draft, once in I managed to sight some of the grey buoys that now appeared out of the froth of swimmers.
I stuck to a few in front, especially at the turn as the chop on the way back was against the tide. It thinned out at the halfway point and finding people to draft became harder, the better swimmers had gone and I was catching others who weren't fast enough to sit behind. On the final turn my prayers were answered and a swimmer, who I thought was the first woman, came past me wearing a white hat and I decided that was my tow home, it was actually a male so goodness knows where he had been but I didn't care. Exited the water, no idea on time up the hill to transition making sure I didn't lose any places and hoping Adam wasn't there already.

Bonus however, was Lawrence still was, so I decided to say hello, just so he knew I was there, he should be minutes ahead at this point so that made me feel better. I had a bit of a faff though trying to put on gloves over wet hands so left the arm warmers, that was a mistake for the first 30 mins as it was very cold early doors.

The bike course has a compulsary foot down right turn that I managed to skid all the way to as my front brake wasn't working, next time, check the adjustment lever to make sure its down you clown !!
Settled into a rhythm and set about holding my target watts of 250w for the ride. I played cat and mouse with a few guys making sure I was at least the right distance away from them but using a few to pace before making a move on a hill or fast flat piece. I enjoyed the first lap but felt cold for a good 10 miles, happily it warmed up a bit after this as that could have had quite an effect later on.

It took me 30 miles to catch Lawrence, amazing how long 2 mins takes to bridge. We exchanged a few words of encouragement and also started to pace together legally. It was a bit more incentive to push when you were feeling down and if one of us was stronger then so be it. The distance we kept gave no advantage that I could see on my SRM but I had a target in front of me and I am sure Lawrence felt the same. The next 19 miles went by quickly, the wind was picking up and it was a completely different experience into and against but I tried to keep the watts steady, going from 12mph to 35mph pushing the same watts just shows the effort you can waste or over reach when you are not using a plan.

We came into T2 together, this was the part of the race that was now dependant on how my legs had coped with the set wattage on the bike, we exited together, Lawrence getting a lot of support from the locals that he knew and raced with. I settled into a HR of 150 and this hovered us around 7.10 pace.

I immediately started thinking to the end of the race, images of Cartmel v Bayliss at HIMUK in my head, then reality came back and I stayed in the moment, both of us knew that potentially the biggest issue was Adam if he had a good bike would be taking 30-45 secs a mile out of us, we needed 6-10 mins and it was only a HIM, the race was on.

The first loop was bang on 7 miles and the rise up thru Bucklers Hard and past the finish line split myself and Lawrence up for the first time, I wasn't naive enough to think he was gone but I relaxed a little after the hill and it wasn't long before he was back shoulder to shoulder.

We had been told on the first lap we were 18th and 19th just as 2 guys flew past us (real runners - lol) so I knew we hadn't been passed by many others at this point so we were still around the 20th mark. I was still trying to work it out when we came up to the next feed station at 9.5 miles, I shouted water, then again and by the time I was there all she had was isotonic, forget it, I am not stopping.

Lawrence had gone for a drink, the 'Macca' move had happened, not on purpose but the 10 sec gap stayed, a few minutes later Lawrence wasn't back with me, I try to not look back in a race, so I had to imagine he was either working his way back or the elastic had snapped, I pushed on by 15 secs a mile, give a little surge, feeling strong and I can still see the guy that had overtaken me 2 miles ago, by this point there was 3 miles left, I knew I could go to a HR of 170 now, so I stepped up again.

This part of the course is gravel through the trees so you can hear people coming and you know the ones in front can hear you, I started to catch and target people on their first lap, incentives to keep me going. I had a sneaky look over my shoulder on a 90 deg turn, no-one for a while, good.

The chase up the finish hill was great, I wondered if Adam was closing in and had to look around me with 300m to go, just in case someone was sneaking a final place, no-one to worry about, great support, turned my number and smiled for the camera.

I had come in 22nd place in 4.27.

Very happy with result so early in the season, my race strategy was based around the bike work I had been doing, my aim was 250w average and then see what pace on the run I can hold after I got off.

Swim 35.12
This included the long transition so I reckon around 32 mins, OK for May.
Bike 2.11.20 SRM data
This worked out at about 22.5mph average and my average power was 266w, a bit more than I was expecting but happy with the result.
Run 1.41.24 Garmin data
I know this includes the T2 time but I also know I timed it at 1.40 so that works out at 7.13 miling

As an overall race I was chuffed but was happiest about the biking, with the Computrainer use over the early part of the season I have had a focus and application I have never had in the colder months and this is definitely showing up in the consistency I am seeing, this is also showing in the way I can run off the back, my SRM data of 266w on the bike leg cannot be compared directly to the outputs on the Computrainer until I do a side by side comparison but to be holding a target wattage in a race and be able to focus on this feedback has given me some confidence.

My CPT wattage at the start of the year has improved by over 8% with my final CP20 coming up this week to hit the target 10% so I can see having this kind of incentive and focus has made a difference I want to carry into the rest of the season and to my A race in September. I have run well too, the race in the week shows the pace I can carry and that would have been an official PB in a 10k for that extra .1 mile.

Next blog will hopefully be good news on my 20 week Computrainer improvement, I need to do this before the weekend so fingers and legs crossed ;-)

Fudge Packer Camp - Day 4

2011-05-13T20:26:00.006Z

The last day has arrived, well it did on Monday gone, day 4 of a great weekend.

After the Etape ride of 110 miles we were feeling very good, superb weather and a great scenic ride meant that we really wanted to finish off the weekend well but by staying in the Lakes we were running the risk of making it brutal instead of pleasurable. We also had the situation that 4 guys had to get to Bournemouth afterwards and 4 had to get to Stranraer for the ferry to Belfast.

I suggested to the southerners that we could cut their journey time by 2 hours by getting up earlier and heading to mine in Warrington, doing a leisurely country lane 70 and then they only had 4 hours to drive home, at the time I also thought the Irish were heading home from Liverpool so made the suggestion to them too. They declined (obviously - as they were going in the opposite direction) but the lads from darn sarf loved the idea. We could also pick up Dan who had left on day 2 for a last spin after his rest day on Day 3.

So set off for Warrington, arranged to meet Dan at mine and settled in for a very different ride than the previous 4 days.

Decided to take them on the 'Cheshire Set' tour, Warrington, Warburton, Dunham, Hale, Wilmslow, Alderley Edge, Peover, Knutsford and then back thru Tatton Park to Lymm and then into Warrington again. 63 miles in all.

Swiss Hill was on the route and proved a bite after the previous 3 days but nothing we couldn't handle, Dan was feeling strong after his rest the day before and was pulling at the start trying to gee us up. Our only detour of the day saw us cyclo crossing over to the Edge after I suggested it might be a good place for a picture, comedy fall by Loz over a tree root but no damage, picture taken and off again.

After the climb over Alderley Edge its all flat, just nice country lanes, no real traffic and the weather was for the moment behaving itself.

Dan had booked a massage at 3.30pm so he headed off direct to mine while I took the lads on a more scenic route back to Knutsford where we decided to have coffee, the choice was Costa or a cafe in the pedestrian precinct, guess what, Costa might have not had the seats outside but it wouldn't have cost us a mortgage for a bowl of pasta and we might have got more than a spoonful of coffee, lesson learnt for next time but the break was nice.

The worst part about stopping in the dry, is starting again in the wet, the heavens opened 2 mins into the ride back, I was the only one with a jacket, loz had no arm warmers, a quick swap and jacket on, we set off, it only lasted 15 mins and we were travelling with the wind now so no hardship.

Back though the ridiculous traffic in Warrington and home to clock up a 63 miler and all in one piece, bonus !

SRM data - this is mostly irrelevant as the SRM was playing up for 1/2 of the ride and the power is wrong.

Garmin data - this is normal but you can see the break in the middle where we waited 45 mins for expensive pasta !!

So to the weekend

4 days
27,500ft climbing
353 miles
lots of bars and gels
2 broken chains
1 rear and 1 front derailler
4 punctures
1 snapped spoke
4 'off's

3 people completed the 4 days, as defined by the 3 of us - obviously !!

Others rode for 4 days, just not with us, some made 2, some made 3. Whatever happened it was a very memorable weekend for all the right reasons and one that will be remembered in amongst the ones that have gone before.

Thanks to all for attending, even if you didn't make it all the way thru, to next year.

Rosey.

Fudge Packer Camp - Day 3

2011-05-08T21:58:00.010Z

2 days down, Fegan was without a bike and was heading home, not happy, him OR us, he had pulled his weight for the previous 2 days, when his bike was working !

Dan was heading back, another great person to have around, 2 days of hard riding had paid a heavy price, missed as well.

Due to the rain and hard riding yesterday, noises started before the end of the ride of not travelling all the way to Yorkshire to ride in the rain but by the end of the Fred we made a decision buoyed by the weather at the end of the ride and a good bowl of chilli, we would be up by 7am to be on the road to Grasdale to ride the sportive Etape du Dales

This is a 110 mile sportive taking in 5 climbs up to 500m and totalling around 8000-8500ft of climbing.

We started at a pub called the Moorcock Inn at Garsdale Head which turned out to be an inspired choice.

The downside is the steepest climb on the route called the coal road, an infamous brute was 5 minutes into the ride, school boy error but it got us warmed up. We knew the climbing wasn't going to be as harsh today but we were not on a flat ride, however the mood was good and it became apparent the idea was to work together and stay together for as long as possible. Ribblehead and Silverdale climbs came and went and we were soon into the area near the official start at Grassington. 40 miles covered, coffee break called for. Tiffin and Lemon Drizzle cake were also on the menu nom nom !

Grassington High St

Refuelled we were off again and the bonus was now we were heading north the wind was behind, plenty of back roads to ride today, it truely was an amazing day to be riding in the Yorkshire hills.

The next hill at Fleet Moss was a gruelling climb. Another picture opportunity to let the others catchup, I had come in a close 3rd behind the Meenan machinen and Gordon.

The climb had a decent that was worth the whole weekend, an AWESOME drop into Gayle which I managed 62.4mph top speed, closely followed by Adam at 59.5mph and the rest lifting all of their high limits a few mph. It was also the last time Lee walked down a steep part, we talked him into using his brakes for the rest of the day, poor lad, he was one of the few that was responding to the training immediately, his climbing was great today but his descending hadn't followed the same pattern. He is doing an ultra in Poland later in the year, has a 2.50 marathon pb at Snowdonia ! and a 31.15 10k pb, now on a bike and killing it up the hills too, engine made of granite !!

This brought us into Hawes which looked a great village, loads of bikers, bunting, fish and chips and we just sailed straight through. 'Bodybag' John (he is 110 - and decided by the end of the weekend he might end up in one !) riding his 20kg Peugeot was splitting off here and taking in a good 70 instead of the whole route, we waved bye, maybe feeling a little jealous and cracked on.

Mechanicals had been few and far between today so we decided to have 2 at exactly the same time, as we started the climb up Buttertubs I had a slow puncture (its getting expensive in gas cannisters) and Gordon snapped a bladed spoke on his rear wheel, seeing as it only had about 12 spokes in total that led to a few issues in the true running of the wheel, brakes released he was off again and rode this comedy wheel for the next 40 miles with one good brake still staying up towards the front. Not having a rear brake did mean you could have cooked an egg off his front wheel rim though, rather him than me.

This is the sort of thing that greets you regularly, the barriers can be a little bit disconcerting.

Adam ready for the off

I think of all the climbs Tan Hill was the most anticipated, the highest pub in Great Britain meant at least some climbing even though we were starting at nearly 300m after Turf Moor it was very open and exposed and we were now against the wind, it also started getting a bit silly, myself, Adam, Gordon (still wobbling) and the 'machinen' were going thru and off and trying to make mini breaks - uphill and into the wind ! Myself and Meenan broke first but after seeing the 3.5 mile sign to the top eased off a little and chatted, but still pushing to find weaknesses in each other (sneaky), Gordon caught us up and claimed a false KOM before the Tan Hill pub !

We re stocked on coke and chocolate and regrouped, a few more pictures and then set off on the last big hit to Lambs Moss.

Tan Hill Pub

Meenan, Me and Adam.

Lambs Moss was a cruise compared to the last few hours but the bonus was the descent into Nateby, 45mph+ for a few minutes, excellent cruising, only punctuated by the sheep dotted on the road and not knowing which direction they were going to run when you got there, the adults not so bad, the lambs were a bit skittish and on a few occasions it got a bit cat and mouse, not a good thing at that speed but thankfully no 'offs' today.

The last 10 miles to the Moorcroft Pub we were accompanied by 'bodybag' John in the Phoenix CC support car, although not close enough to get a draft we TT'ed back to try to get under 7 hours, hard riding we shelled all but myself, Meenan and Gordon 5 miles out and set off for the sanctuary of the pub, as soon as it was sighted, shouts of relief as the rain started and a good handshake, superb ride, great hard effort and great bunch of lads to do it with.

Garmin data

SRM data

As I said before, the pub was an inspired start/finish. Excellent food, cold Guinness and iPhone chargers too. And to top it off the Phoenix CC boys paid for it as it was their turn to make dinner, thanks lads.

Tomorrow we have decided to head to Warrington to help the southerners get a jump on the traffic but ride from mine and do one of my 60-70 mile loops around the lanes of Cheshire, I will try to keep it flattish but it would be rude not to take them to Alderley Edge and up the Swiss Hill cobbles lol !!

Swiss Hill

For now, ciao.

Fudge Packer Camp - Day 2

2011-05-07T21:17:00.005Z

Day 2 was hopefully going to be more about the riding as we knew the route (sort of) and less about the first day incidents.

Fegans bike was fixed this morning, new chain and rear derailler fitted, Gordon fitted a 12-27 cassette to improve on the spinning options from the 25 block yesterday, Lee did the same, those 12-25's were not the easiest to turn over on the steep ascents. I think both benefitted from the change.

Dan and Lee who were a bit slower yesterday decided to set off first and got a 20 mins head start, we started the ride at Ambleside and the first climb hits you straight away over Holbeck. The ascent up Kirkstone was from the easy side and no problems on the descent either, myself and Adam both managed 54.5mph as a reward for a steady climb.

The next few miles were a bit more friendly and we settled in to a nice pace with wind behind and some good group riding. It took us 23 miles to catch Lee and Dan, problem was, as soon as we joined them we hit the Keswick road and the TT'ing started, this seemed to eject them both straight out of the back. We knew they would find their way as Dan had the Garmin.

The approach to Honister is eerie, entering the village of Seatoller tells you its not far, being able to see the slate mine in the distance backs that up. Tough, back breaking but wierdly not as bad as I remembered, maybe my brain had got used to the steep ascents now

Well earned coffee break on the way down and a few piccies. Dan caught us back up there and we found out he had lost Lee at Keswick, Lee DIDN'T have a Garmin, #groupridefail lol

This is when it started raining, and real Lakes rain, it came quickly and it was brutal, the climb up Newlands became one of the hardest of the day because of the wind and rain, Chris was blown off his bike, Gordon attacked, Fegan dodged him giggling as he went and followed Gordon, Irish John fell off at the top trying to unclip and had to fix his gears for the rest of the ride but it was just a horrible experience.

The descent was more of a punishment than a reward, 25% decline, I was doing 20mph into the wind pushing 350w, I gave up the pushing and just let gravity work its magic. 5 mins later was the first puncture for me for the day. it really saps the moral, piss wet thru, freezing and having to fix a tube, things can only get better.

Whinlatter came and went, this is where we ended up splitting the group again, Irish John was having loads of issues with his gears so they regrouped and sent us on.

The second tough part of the ride was Cold Fell, wind, rain, open moors, it took all I had not to lose it there, shouting into the wind at no-one in particular, it made me feel better to be surrounded by like minded drowned rats ! I was praying for sunshine over Hardknott and Wrynose. By now everyone was out of food, we really needed a stop, found a pub, restocked, the Irish lads caught up again and we headed to Gosforth to grab more food.

From here the main climbs are Santon Bridge, Hardknott, Wrynose & Hawkshead, almost home but the tough climbing to come.

Unbelievably the sun came out, glorious sunshine, we had been blessed, you could feel the warmth and the mood lift. I managed to get a jump on the lads up to Hardknott and gave myself 200m lead into the climb, Gordon and Fegan chasing, Gordon passed me halfway up and I could feel Fegan approaching.

I shouted a bit of abuse, sounded like an attack of tourettes but it was more to lift my spirits than anything else but the next thing I heard was a crash, Fegan had wheelied up a steep part and fallen off trying to get the front wheel back. No harm done, back on and he was chasing again. It was here that I passed Dan, doing a bit of walking, still chirpy.

The descent brought my second puncture of the day, I had to wait for Fegan and Dan as I had no tubes left. Fixed, I set off for Wrynose. This is hard anyway but 95 miles into a tough ride its punishing. All the lads were waiting at the top for a good couple of piccies again.

We all congratulated each other on a good day, some forgetting that getting up to the Coniston road and over Hawkshead was still to come. 4 of us made it on this train home, me, Gordon, Adam and Fegan. Adam decided quickly that he was happy getting back on his own, the other 3 of us tried to burn every match we had left that day and for tomorrow as well. TT'ing all the way back, hard pushes, 30mph thru and off, Hawkshead was like watching Schleck and Contador fighting it out (only slower !) the descent into Skelwith Bridge was great.

We were now home but Fegan still had a jinx up his sleeve, 400m from home still pushing a big gear for no reason whatsoever he snapped the new chain and the resulting whip thru ripped the front derailler clean off and smashed it in half.

It has to be pointed out (by Fegan) that Loz and Lee didn't complete the full course as we left them at Wrynose and they followed signs back to Ambleside - I reckon its a bit harsh to be fair but this isn't a knitting camp !

Everyone made it back, all in one piece but we have issues for Sunday. Fegan has no bike and no-one wants to lend him any more bits, Dan has decided to go back today - the official quote is 'I am f*cked!'

Garmin stats for Fred Whitton

SRM stats for Fred Whitton

Sunday is Etape du Dales, we are currently sitting here trying to talk ourselves into it, aim to leave here at 8.30am and see what the weather brings.

Happy trails.

p.s. Added the stats today for the Fred from my Garmin and SRM.

Fudge Packer Camp - Day 1

2011-05-07T07:09:00.008Z

First day of what is going to be a training camp with some great mates and a few new faces started yesterday.

History.

The camp started a few years ago with myself, Gary (Fegan), Adam(Crab) and Chris (Meenan), a mix of pirate triathletes who decided on some 'extra' training in the build up to Ironman. We started in 2007 with an Easter camp by cycling from Warrington to the Lakes on the Friday (95 miles) Fegan actually cycling 130 miles from Edinburgh as he is north of the border, then a long run and lake swim on the Saturday, the infamous Fred Whitton sportive ride on the Sunday (104 miles, 4000m ascent) and then cycling home the 95 on the Monday. Fegan had to get a train at Carlisle as he had a slow puncture but good effort for trying. The camp has been running since 2007 and has happened in some form or another either at Meenans in Belfast, Fegans in Edinburgh or Adams in Bournemouth.

Fast forward to this weekend and we have 11 with us. 4 from Belfast, 4 from Bournemouth, 2 from Warrington and Fegan.

Day 1 -

Myself and Dan set off at 8ish from Warrington to arrive at the FP camp for the first ride at 11 ish.

This was planned as a warm up, 70 miles with around 2100m of climbing, I had actually forgotten that the main part of the ride was Wrynose and Hardknott in the first 12 miles but the other way up from the normal route the Fred Whitton takes. We found the ride here, it gives a much better image of the route and some great photos.

We arrived on time to find it raining quite heavily but the Irish lads (Meenan, David, Gerry, John) who are all cyclists were getting cabin fever after staying the night and were going out for a cheeky hour before the main ride. The Bournemouth lads (Adam, Loz, Gordon, Lee) had gone for a 3k swim at the local pool, Fegan arrived around 11am with enough kit for the whole hostel, food and clothes !!

We decided we needed to be out for 12 to be able to complete the ride before dark. Its only 70 miles but the lakes can be hilly, so the ave speed wasn't expected to be high (which it wasn't)

The Irish lads had come back looking like drowned rats, just as the rain stopped, so they decided to shower and wait for the rain to give up, it did, by the time I got down 2 flights of stairs to mount up, it was dry, bad timing ? or good luck on their part ?

So 8 of us set off, the first climb up Wrynose is a 25% drag, the field split and it was everyone for themselves. What a wake up after 8 miles, the descent was a bit more dramatic, Meenan set off on the 25% downhill and by the time he was at the first corner he was sideways, one foot clipped out screaming like a girl (not really but it sounds more dramatic - the girl bit anyway, he was defo sideways !!) I was behind him doing 40mph, slowing down wasn't easy, I unclipped trying not to skid off the side of the hill, then I heard something I didn't want to hear in the first hour of a weekends riding, Adam skidding along the floor behind me on his new Cervelo. I stopped to see him on his feet, picking up bits of the bike and checking his gears. A few scratches as shown below.

The next climb up Hardknott wasn't as bad as I remember it but was still difficult with transit vans coming up the other way. Ave 20% with bits of 25% & 30% certainly wake up the legs early doors.

The ride settled down for a few miles until we hit Corney Fell, bear in mind we had only done 35 miles and we had been ridiing for nearly 2.5 hours and Fegan stomping up a steep climb snapped his chain, this was Adams bike, no issues for 1000 miles and the jinx has snapped the chain 35 miles into the first day.

This started the 40 mins of Rosey (me) trying to fix a chain for the first time ever, after working out how to use a chain tool and get the chain off, I had taken the wrong link out, then had to shorten the chain again by another link to get the right links together, great, chain put together, bollox, we had put the chain together and not put it thru the chain guide, we had to split the chain again and redo it. Sorted, short chain, 40 mins wasted, Meenan by this time had come the 2 miles down the climb to see how we were getting on, burning more leg 'matches' in the process.

So Fegan has a short, weak chain and we are averaging 14 mph, not the best day so far. Then the jinxster added to the carnage, at the next set of lights forgetting he had a short chain Fegan gets into big ring at the back and big ring at the front, the result ? the rear derailler gets pulled into the cassette and split the jockey wheel bolts in two.

So, with no real tools we managed to find a bolt to get him started again but that put paid to the ride for a few of them, they decided to head back at the halfway point and ended up covering 50 miles, Fegan had to walk once on one of the steeps going home but with a new chain and derailler is ready to rock this morning.

The other 5 of us set off for the rest of the ride, the miles ticked by slowly, slow up hills, great descents, no real dramas. The scenery was fantastic, the riders worked well together and we got back in around 5 hours. Job done.

Today is Fred Whitton ride, its the official ride tomorrow so we are doing it when its very quiet, long day planned, hopefully no mechanicals but with Fegan around, who knows lol !!

Below are my readouts for the ride yesterday.

This is the Garmin data

This is the SRM data

Not that interesting but the HR on the SRM shows a lot of work.

Last night was finished off with a paddle in the Lake for the weary legs, a massive pasta bake by the jinxster and a cold Guinness in town.

All in bed by 10pm ready for this today

Fred Whitton

p.s. Saturday morning, 7am, Fegan has been lake swimming, Adam is an insomniac and up since 5.30am, dinner is done and prepared and only a small cut with a blunt knife, at least we won't see it as its chilli tonight !!

Easter Weekend Madness.

2011-04-21T15:37:00.004Z

So the plans for a nice weekend of riding as much as I can over the weekend is upon me and the plan is to do the longest ride I have ever done in a single day.

Ride to my mums in Bridlington from Warrington, its a grand total of 236km if I stick to the route but if the main roads get a bit hairy I will have to zig zag a bit, as long as I keep heading east I reckon I should be OK.

Below is the route and elevation, if anyone finds a cyclist passed out along that route in Chester Tri top that could be me, just feed me jelly babies and a glass of coke and send me off in the direction of the North Sea.

Then on Sunday I have found a 10km offroad run at Helmsley so I might do a 50 miler to Helmsley, then do the race and hope to be picked up afterwards.

Have a good weekend.

Rosey

March Maintenance

2011-04-01T13:34:00.008Z

I come to you a slightly disappointed bunny, the month of March has not been the most consistent, illness and a rather full on effort at a stag do meant my month was somewhat interupted.

My hours for February stacked up at a reasonably consistant 47 hours, for me, an average of 12 a week is about right, I tend to do the right stuff and not pad out with volume, something I will hope to do over April with the better weather but this is good early volume. March took a hit, I was ill for a week and a half and this knocked 10 hours off the previous month and took me a good week after that to get back into the swing of it. 38 hours banked for March. Still OK but no cigar (and a few too many beers !!)

Swimming volume has been hit hard, bear in mind, 1 dropped session a week sees a 50% decrease :-) but this is picking up again. My times haven't improved and my 100's are still around the 1.40 area but I feel the stroke is better, just not strong enough.

Running has been hit as well, with flu-like (not man-flu obviously !) symptoms and a sore back this has meant a few headaches and sore muscles, not really good running territory but I needed to maintain a reasonable tickover so put in a few runs a week but not nearly enough. I have noticed this week I am suffering for this as I build back into it, the calves are very sore after each run, need to keep up the stretching and core maintenance as well as the 3 main disciplines.

Cycling has once again been the saviour, not just the Computrainer but getting out in the reasonable weather and trying to use some of this new extra power I have gained. My scores have improved again, remember the initial test of 291.9w and then last month I hit 311.6w. This months scores

316w !

An overall improvement of 8.2% so far this year.

In the cold light of day, not the 2% increase from last month I wanted to achieve but I have forgiven the slight decrease on two factors, missing 10 days of decent training, then having to build up, and secondly, doing the test 4 days after a hilly 101 mile ride over the Cheshire Cat course. This may have taken more out of me than I realised and according to Simon would still have been in the legs ! Oops, must remember next time, stick to testing on Saturdays prior to the hard weekend ride and long run.

Below is the performance report from the ride.

There is good news, I have now hit the first of my targets for this year, I have an FTP of 300w, that should be a good time to test over a 25mile TT course. I also have the new CTT handbook so I have no excuse for attempting to test the theory officially.

The next month is a move on increasing the training volume with focus on maintaining the good biking, getting more pool time (I will get to report one month that this has been achieved) and I hope to up the run speed.

Have a good month

Rosey.

Fantastic February Update

2011-03-08T20:29:00.021Z

Time for an update on the power training and specifically the Computrainer.

I have known for a while that power was the best way to train on the bike, to track improvements and monitor race pace, I have had a few turbo's over the years that used power, I even had an SRM power meter for my bike in 2007 that I borrowed off a mate for the season. It was a great piece of kit but I never really got into the whole analysis on feedback and how to improve.

Since December last year I have been able to consistently train both indoors and out, my overall fitness has seen a marked improvement in the position I am normally in this time of year and I hope to continue with this pattern in all of the 3 sports.

Its the results on the bike and specifically the testing I am doing to track this that are giving the most remarkable results.

As part of purchasing a Computrainer you are offered a structured 20 week training plan to improve the watts (power) output from Day 1 to Day 140 and the 'PIG' (performance Improvement Guarantee) says you can achieve at least 10% if you follow this plan. Well so far ( and fingers are crossed for continuous improvement) I am well ahead of mine.

I know a little late but this is the 2 month status report on how the Computrainer is helping to improve my overall cycling and how I intend to use it going forward.

Roll back to December 2010, selected to be the Face of Computrainer 2011 was a great boost to the confidence and a superb way for me to start the year with added structure to my coached training going forward.

So I did the the first CP20 which resulted in 291.9 watts average (originally thought to be 293 - explained below), the idea is that you hammer the test for all you are worth for 20 minutes and the average is recorded. I wasn't really sure what to expect but I knew the pedigree of the turbo and it was going to be pretty accurate.

I also knew I was going to learn 'how to ride a CP20' once I had done the first one, everyone said I would go off too fast, and they were right, when you are not used to time trialling you inevitably go out too fast and suffer, I am still doing it a little even after 3 but I can see the light so to speak.

I have never really been a time trial maximum effort kind of guy, I always leave room for the run, its instilled in years of IM training and racing, its hard to shift, but I am learning fast.

So after the first test I have now completed 2 more, Jan and Feb/Mar, I have put the Performance Reports in a side by side comparison below. The watts are slightly different from the Coaching Software screenshots further down but long as they are consistent I will base my outputs on the performance reports.

This is the performance report output from the 3 tests side by side.

I have highlighted 3 parts

1- this is the important info, shows the ave watts for the test, the ave HR and ave cadence. For the purposes of the test the main aim is to increase the watts by 2% each month.

2 - This is the calibration of the Computrainer, I have to keep this as accurate as possible across the tests to ensure I am working to an even playing field.

3- This is the largest fluctuation I have so far in all the inputs, my weight, as you can see I have lost weight over the 3 months, this then gets fed back into the user data so I can stay consistent, just for clarity, this is my weight plus the weight of the bike.

While you are testing you are faced with a 3D simulation of two cyclists, me and a 'pacer', I can use the pacer to show what I did last time or just use him to keep me occupied during the test. The actual output showing all the relevant bits of data is below, this is a very useful tool that your coach can use to follow the whole test, I get one of these for every session.

December 19th

Jan 22nd

Mar 1

The screenshots and performance reports seem to report slightly different figures as the report looks at a more accurate figure and I have to make sure I stop the test immediately after the 20 mins so I don't incur the drop off as I pass out ! I will be using the watts on the Performance reports as they look more accurate, by doing this I also get a consistency going forward.

So the figures, 291.9w initial test to 311.6w at the 1st March. A 6.74% improvement and well ahead of the 4% PIG target, what's more remarkable is that I am not just a cyclist, I am also swimming and running in amongst these sets, I am not solely concentrating on the bike, if I was I am sure I could be pushing this higher.

Future

In terms of future and how I see the improvements going are largely based on my aims for this year, I am using the CP20 as a test for improvement but at the end of the day I am an IM triathlete, selfishly I want to see the improvement over the 5-6 hours I am on the bike. This is also part of their improvement promise, I am already noticing the on-the-road difference, hills and sudden bursts are easily coped with, my overall HR is dropping for the longer rides and I have no issues next day with recovery.

I am so impressed with the data from the Computrainer I am getting I have decided to buy a second hand SRM crank to use on the road, I am importing the CPT data I have into Training Peaks and WKO+ and having the extra road info will prove very useful. I will be doing test number 4 at the end of the month and certainly hope to be heading in the same direction.

SO what does the CP20 data equate to, the result on 1st March gives me 311w or an FTP figure of 295w. This is what I could potentially hold for an hour.

If I want to relate this to an IM, according to Coggan/Allen in their book on training and racing with a power meter I need to look in the range of 68%-78% of my FTP for an IM. This is my ultimate goal, pacing an IM correctly. I normally use HR but this is a huge variable on the day, I have done well up to now in races but to have power as well will be a great advantage.

Their calculations give me a range of 200w to 230w. I would say that at the moment I would struggle to hold 230w for 5+hours but I suppose this is why the range is there to work from.

Conservatively I would go for the middle ground and aim to hold 215w.

I now have a target, what I want to increase that figure to in the next year will be in my hands. If I get my 10% PIG improvement I will be looking at a figure of 223w for an IM. This is where I should be in May, my god, I have until September for the IM, I will not be stopping, improvement is addictive.

Computrainer Deals

If anyone is considering getting one of these baby's then they have deals to break the cost up, no VAT increases, they have finance deals and you can even rent one to decide if its for you.

Happy training, til next time, Rosey.

Motivation ... Its the 5th discipline !!

2011-02-16T19:29:00.007Z

Over the last few weeks I have either spoken to, listened to or read about people struggling with motivation, sometimes its a break in the training and then trying to get back into it, the longer the break the worse that can be. Sometimes its not being at the same level that you were last year 'immediately' and that starts to grind, others just get out of that routine and then force it.

But mostly, its just gone. 'I've lost my mojo' is a favourite.

I have been there, what I suppose I came to realise is all the methods I describe below are great in theory but you have to have motivation from inside, even a faint spark, a burning desire to do something, anything that will get you moving from point A to point B. But it must be yours.

Its that time of year again, February comes round, if you are a regular gym user you love it, the New Year resolutions have broken and the gym is empty. Unfortunately if you are one of those at home and not in the gym this might not be the best of times right now.

If this time of year is you just starting back the initial push to get your mass, that once was a lean, mean training machine is very slow and downright difficult to shift. It takes me almost 2 weeks to get back to the enjoyment stage rather than the drudge of 'having to do it'. You know if you don't, you will regret it in 6-10 weeks when you say, I wish I had started 6-10 weeks ago.

Just take the leap, leap of faith really, you probably did the same last year, and if like me you have been around a while, this could be an annual jump start. Yes, its dark outside, yes its cold but if you keep telling yourself your competition is still in bed and you are getting the jump on them you may just break the cycle.

If on the other hand you have been training steadily and are just exiting January and the enormity of the upcoming season has just hit, you might not be getting the improvements you think you deserve after battering yourself for the whole of December/January or even worse, you have been going so well and now you have a cold/injury. Don't despair.

Injury can be a terrible de-motivator, the next step is recovery and mending, far too many seasons have been ruined by pushing too hard, too early. Listen to your body and try to move the focus on another of the 3 disciplines to keep that momentum moving in the right direction.

The season can be a long one and its not many an athlete that can hang onto fitness year in year out. Its hard to stay focused permanently, you don't just need motivation, you need goals. If your A race is 9 months away, that's a long time to focus on one thing, mini goals may sort that, a couple of half IM races, some early season TT's or some punishing 10K racing. It may not have to be sport based, having a break from training at the right time can be a great mental healer and having a holiday goal to refresh body and mind can be as rewarding as any PB.

Personally I use everything I possibly can to encourage my own motivation. And I don't just mean beer at the end of an IM ! :-)

Here are 2 posters I have up in my office, they have been up since the push for Kona and I keep them there as a reminder that things get tough, apologies for the crudeness in one of them but this just highlights another point.

I personally like a more direct approach, softly softly doesn't work with me.

Being told you are are an arse for not getting out is more effective than telling me everything is going to be OK.
There are many coaches with different styles, we are all different, if you are looking for one, find one that knows how to push your buttons, there are many that won't work for you but don't despair. When you find the right one, you'll know.

I love to motivate others.

That one really makes me feel good about myself and if by helping someone out I perk up a little, then great. I don't go out on purpose as a crusader and goody two-shoes, I just love this sport and love talking about it, if talking about it makes a difference then wonderful.

I have been through the period of post IM more times than I care to remember, a huge hole appears, the 'recovery' lasts longer than you planned and its so hard to get back into it, family want the time, work want the time back you stole last year. And you give in, slowly at first, then it seems easier to not fight, but fight you must, and learn from the previous year, learn to make time and keep that 'mojo'. Get the family on board and they can be the only external motivation you will ever need !

One single comment from someone can change your current mood too, a well done, a remark that puts your lack of motivation into context, it's akin to racing and someone cheering you on, they may be thinking that shouting, 'well done, looking strong' or 'Go Nick' doesn't mean much but I'll tell you, it bloody does. I may not react to say thanks everytime but its a huge lift.

I also love motivational videos, below are a couple of my favourites, the music in the video is the key, watching the video and then using the music in your playlists can give you a great boost as your memory links back to what is in the video.

2008 World Championships - Music Guru Josh Project - Infinity

2009 World Championships - Music David May - Superstar

There are plenty of motivational pieces of music and videos that don't have triathlon in them, for me that's what I like to use, running, cycling, effort and a place to dream about, all the time feeling the music. I use the two songs above in my playlist twice !!

To help my running or cycling (turbo) my playlist runs for about 1hr 30mins, enough for me to get thru a good session, sometimes this alone can be the reason for finishing a hard set strongly. I have plenty of tunes to make me move my butt out the door. OK, you can't always use iPods in races but use every tool you can, when you can.

I also read about others.

And heres the rub for those that get this wrong, I don't read about others and think I should be doing more, I don't read about others and think they are better than me, I read about others and feel inspired to do better, to train harder and to get off my bum and get out the door. Twitter and FB are great for that.

There are loads of great people to follow in Twitter world but as an example, @emmanews, I have known Emma for a while, we have competed at races together, we have trained with the same coach but over the years its apparent to me that if you want to see motivation, look no further. Currently I think self coached and she is one of the first I look for in the morning to see what time she got up and trained before my Lumie even sparks into life. She trains well, eats well, sleeps well and talks sense. I sometimes do one of those and not always well, and I certainly don't talk sense !
Yes, I follow pro's and AG'ers alike and also a couple of people who tweet great quotes but I draw what I want and I ignore what I need to, its about you (well me) and motivation starts at home ! or is that charity ?

Remember though, motivation may come in many guises and from some unexpected sources but if it doesn't start from within you are already onto the slippery slope.

If you think you can do it, you can.

Rosey.

Its starting to pay off .....

2011-01-22T22:06:00.007Z

Observational snippets for the few weeks.

Runners in London don't say hi !
Cyclists in London are nuts.
Belkin customer support is pain free
In a year I have used my bread maker 3 times - Kelly said I would and I ignored her
Getting up in winter is hard !
Running gets harder the more you do it
Swimming gets harder the less you do it.
I don't suit a tatty grey beard
I don't suit long hair - get it cut !
Hawaiian coffee is ace !

To the present......

Life's a bit up and down at the moment, with the wedding coming up, having the chance to do overtime can't be missed but most of what I do needs to be done at the weekend, so the family time and training volume can suffer. Its a "Catch 22" but one I can't complain about, with uncertainty in the market for peoples jobs, to have that choice means I have to be positive on both counts. I suppose the key to keeping all the candles burning is plenty of rest and eat well, a couple of new targets for the rest of the year.

As for the training, over the last 4 weeks consistency has been the key, I have consistently not been in the pool :-) but the other 2 disciplines have shown signs of life !

Swimming

It's a hard slog trying to get to the pool but I should just HTFU and get on with it, no excuse, time management is the key, late nights and not getting up in the mornings is a cycle I can't break at the moment but its on my shitlist to sort out for next month, my swim coach is on the case and this week I have already swum twice, woohoo !!! My aim, 4 times a week, training plan has been adjusted already. Finding a 50m pool with a tri swim session on a Monday night is a real bonus.

Running

I am happiest about my running, this time of year my weakest historically as I come out of the 'fat' period over Xmas. I have managed 4 runs a week consistently over the last 4 weeks. With two competitions running on the web, 'Jantastic' and the RW transatlantic challenge to motivate me and lack of pool time I have kept the work up, in 4 weeks I have clocked up 116 miles, so nearly 30 a week.
Yesterday, the work paid off. I PB'd at Helsby with a 1.27.30. Previous best was at Helsby 2006 in 1.27.41. I also negative split with a 43.58/43.32. All in all very happy with the running. It was also great to see the Warrington lads out with Phil from D&M Cycles pulling out some good early season results.

Cycling

To the bike - as you can see from the new sponsor logo, I am now officially sponsored by Computrainer for 2011, very pleased. Got an email from Simon Ward this week bigging up the new year to all of the sponsored athletes and hoping for great results etc and I was in very esteemed company, Leanda Cave, Philip Graves, Yvette Grice and Rachel Joyce to name drop a few lol! Don't quite fit into their league at all but as I have been reminded, a sponsored athlete is a sponsored athlete.

So, lets explain the Computrainer goals, 'schimples', using a baseline test called a CP20, improve your average wattage output for this test by 10% over a 5 month period, or 2% every 4 weeks.

The CP20 (20mins all out) is used to work out your Functional Threshold Power (FTP) which is the maximum average watts you can hold for an hour. By doing a CP20 you can work out a percentage of FTP without knackering yourself up for a few days. Just use 95% of the CP20 watts, so CP20 * 0.95 = FTP. Have I lost you yet ?

The first test I did was on the 19th December, results were.
Watts - 293w HR ave - 163 RPM ave - 92

I redid the test on Saturday just gone and after 4 weeks the results are.
Watts - 304w HR ave - 158 RPM ave - 86

I have got to be happy with a 3.75% improvement and the heart rate has dropped as well by 5 beats. Definitely going in the right direction. With the December result as my baseline I am basically aiming at 322watts by May 21st. Watch this space.

To be able to jump on the CPT for 3 hours steady or a 1 hour interval session has made all the difference to early season winter training. Its a great tool and over the moon to be using it this year.

Next step is to send a decent picture for Simon to use in the marketing for 2011, god that will be tough, finding a decent picture mmmm, not easy.

Future

Short term goals over the next 4 weeks, the main targets are CPT improvement, maintain 4 runs a week and get in the damn pool ! All while working and putting family first, just as well I love this triathlon lark !

I am also going to plan out the next 6-8 months of racing, Helsby has given me the bug back and I like the feeling, might not like the recovery but that's what happens when you average a race at 167bpm but finish on 181bpm, trying not to throw up - even pacing Mr Rose next time !!!!

Rosey.

Literary Success and a thirst for consistency

2010-12-16T18:52:00.010Z

It has been 7 long weeks since my last confession and I feel like I have been reborn, ok, far too many religious images there for me but I have had a few very good weeks recently.

OK, in brief, the training for November, it wasn't the most consistent, I had a good first week, then I was in London for a week on a course, after what seemed like a good idea attending an aerobics type tabata session on the Tuesday I couldn't walk for a week, school boy error, my own fault, but you learn, hopefully.

After restarting my training I was interupted with a bout of illness, and I mean REALLY ill, I lost 9lbs in 24 hours, bad food that did me no favours in the training stakes, I battled on for a few days but had no energy for the next 2 or 3 days even though I had my appetite back. I chilled until the weekend, hoping mates on the long ride would help me get back into it, no such luck, family comes first and family called.

After this 2 weeks of not training I was hit with the dreaded CBA'itis ! Its a killer, I just didn't want to do anything, lost it completely, training took a back seat to family, my work and beer again.

What to do ? well what can you do ? I didn't fight it, I waited for the good voice in my head to kick in and tell me that I was being an idiot, that took about 4 days, ever since then I have built back up to the last fortnight, consistent and even-paced. Swimming was the hardest to come back from, the weather has been very bad and getting up early doors is not my favourite, I love my turbo and running (on the treadmill mostly at the moment) so that was easier, I really wanted to get to the pool though and I think I won that battle.

OK, so to December and why so happy .....

I got to see my mum for the first time since Kona 2009, she has moved to Scotland near my brother, so myself, Kelly and Teya packed up and visited for the weekend, it was lovely, Teya was doted on the whole weekend, was great to see my brother and family, we had a great laugh in the snow. My mum looked after everything for us and made us really at home, love her loads xx she also got involved with the next bit of amazing news.

Nick Rose (yes, little old me) is going to be the amateur face of Computrainer UK for 2011, woohoo, unbelievable, I won a competition run by Simon Ward of TheTriathlonCoach.com to use and train with a CompuTrainer for 2011.

I am a gadget monster and was gutted when I had to sell my Tacx Cosmos to afford to go to Kona in 2009 so I entered the competition thinking I probably wouldn't win but what have I got to lose.
I wrote my piece while I was in Ayr with my mum getting the final review lol ! I sent it off and hoped for the best.

Then 10 days later I had the call from Simon, 'I would like you to be the face of Computrainer for 2011" he said, I was doing cartwheels while trying to remain professional on the phone, "and all I ask in return is for you to beast yourself regularly using a great bit of kit and then tell a few people how you are improving"

Noooooooooo problemo !!! :-) My winter just got easier and harder at the same time.

The last 4 weeks have been hard for triathletes (well most athletes really) in the UK. I am sure if you come from Canada or Boulder (like anyone over there is reading this lol !!) what we endure is a snow flurry in comparison but to the UK, it has been the end of the world as most people knew it.

So step to today, I have done most of my running in the garage on what now has got to be classed as purchase of the year - Tunturi treadmill and I now have my brand spanking sexy CompuTrainer set up next to it. Below is the picture of me accepting it from Simon in Leeds last week.

Also got to say a great big thanks to Phil at D&M Cycles as he has helped me with a bike specifically to use on the CT as it means I don't have to keep uncabling my road bike everytime we go out, in March I will probably start to use the TT bike on the CT more often to get the position dialed in.

So, Xmas departs and the aim to improve my CP20 by 10% starts here, my initial test is 293w so my aim really is to get to 330w or thereabouts to crack the predicted hour 25mile TT.

I will also be looking at a slightly smaller blog but on a more regular basis to keep up with the training and improvements.

I hope everyone had a great Xmas and the calories are starting to be burned off, looking forward to a great New Year.

Rosey

First Injury and Ironman Access

2010-11-03T22:51:00.005Z

Injuries

Arrrgggghhhh, the first injury of the season, training must be kicking off in earnest. Woke up 10 days ago having had a bad nights sleep and not being able to straighten up.
I managed to create a rather large panic (only in my head) when I thought I had trapped a nerve in my back, lying prone on a foam roller that morning trying to stretch it out probably didn't help but I was gutted I could have done this by having a bad nights sleep, as of a week ago it still wasn't too bad but I could still feel faint twinges, so I had a full day off.
It was a wierd one, I had managed a gentle run Thursday night and bike Friday morning after it happened but couldn't stand up straight and extend or arch my back. Thanks to most people who sent advice and no thanks :-) for others who sent me horror stories of 6 months laid up with no training ! Thankfully I am back to normal I hope, physio couldn't find any residual mess so a full weeks training has followed this week.

Ironman Access

The biggest piece of news for triathlon in the last week or so was the introduction by WTC of the Ironman Access program, this caused a public outcry and the normally tame social networking sites went bonkers !
In a nutshell it was advertised as a premier tier membership costing $1000 for people who don't like standing in line and meant you could enter an Ironman branded race a week early, you still had to pay the race fee but the $1k meant you jumped the queue and then got 2 VIP tickets for that race and a number of other small tokens. Well talk about pissing off your entire target audience. Have a look at the Ironman FB page for the carnage that ensued.

The initial explosion of resentment was further stirred up by the next delivery by WTC stating the reasons for this apparent commercial suicide, it was to stop people entering 3-4 ironman races and then pulling out once they had raced one and maybe qualified already, thus restricting the places for others who might have just wanted to do the 1 race.

Couple of things here, have a decent refunds policy, maybe deferring to the following year, it seems to work for major marathons well enough, might mean a bit of extra admin for our £350 but that wouldnt go amiss anyway to make up for the crap rucksacks ! (ed - I have just thrown away 3, one from Austria 2004 !!)

The other way to solve this helps both parties, on the day after the refunds policy closes, open the registration to a waiting list to fill up the supposed 10-15% drop out, effectively selling the place twice and making Joe public happy, add £30 premium to account for admin, race organiser happy, full races. Its not difficult.

What 'is' difficult is getting into certain high profile races, as to how to change the race entry criteria process, thats a hard one.
Wisconsin has a policy that if you marshall one year you get to join a preferred queue at the race venue the day after the race to enter, once that queue is gone, then it's opened to people who want to queue up at the race venue that day too, so reducing the online entries available.
For some of us that don't live there and rely on internet entry this can be a bind, however if the races had an allocation for international entries, say 50 and they were done on ballot it would open a few more doors. I used this for Wisconsin and found the process superb.

I am sure the perfect solution won't magically appear or it would have done already.

Training

Done OK over the last 2 weeks, I missed 2 swim sessions with the bad back and the long run last Saturday with the day off but I feel OK for it.
This week just gone has been much better, I had a coached swim on Thursday with Chris. We chatted about his swim gala the previous weekend, if I can remember right, highlights in my head were, 4.23 for 400m free, and 2.16 for 200m fly in amongst the 5 races he did over the weekend. I don't think it was his best swimming as he is coming off a year of long distance but they look good to me !!
Anyway, to my swimming, technique getting better, need to use my legs more. This suprised me but I seem to have a half decent kick so I will use it. My flat out 100m time hit 1.31 with the recent changes so down from the '1.27' 2 weeks ago but I have had a week out of the water with bad back so not too unhappy. More work for the next 2 weeks.

Running sees me in a new pair of trainers, Asics Kinsei 3, thanks to Phil at D&M Cycles for getting me those in, straight out to do a 10 miler and felt great, few niggles with new lace up pattern but that can be sorted.

Cycling, along with the midweek turbos I have had 2 good weekends, held a good pace (20+mph) for the longer Sunday run last week with a 1.15 run off the back, then today I had a good ride with mates in Chester for just over 3 hours. All in all doing OK. 20 hours over the last 2 weeks with a few missed sessions is not bad going but I have yet to do a FULL week and I am determined to get one before the end of November.

Final but of good news is the eventual purchase of the treadmill, YES ! Sorted it yesterday, had to travel 6.5 hours to get it there and back but I have just set it up and I hope its worth it, its for myself and Kelly, me so I have no excuse in bad weather and for some pace training, Kelly as I wouldn't let her go out on her own now in the dark and we can't both go out with Teya, its too dangerous in the evenings. I will still go out as often as I can to run outdoors, its not a substitute for that, its a helpful tool for the days we are not able to, and when I am babysitting and can't leave the house, my options are now not limited to the turbo, woohoo !

Anyway, train well, and for those of you out on the bike in the crisp sunny mornings, get those LED lights on, might be bright but cars still can't see you, until next week.

Rosey.

Commitments made. And alcohol !!

2010-10-22T09:40:00.005Z

Over the last 2 weeks we have committed our lives to events next year. Both very exciting.

Family wise, we have set our wedding date, 9th June 2011. This is going to take a lot of organising, I would like to say on both of us but I can imagine that Kelly will make sure I am toeing the line, so her organising will involve organising me, yes, carnage !!
We are both looking forward to it and with our bridesmaid in waiting Teya growing day by day we will all get to play a large part in the special day.

I have also paid up for the inaugural IM Wales in September 2011. The race is a qualifier for Kona 2012 so lots to do and maybe a bit of luck again and you never know. In last weeks blog I put my thoughts on the way I thought the entry might go, still nothing concrete in terms of competition to really go on as there is only about 400 entries in total, a few names I recognise but early days.

So in order for the year to run smootly I have to make sure priorities are right, the wedding and the preparations come first, managing the various elements to come together for one day will be challenging but we can work together for that for the most part.
The race is important but I can fit training around everything else and its 3 months later in the year so no conflict.

The training is still going well (apart from last week - read below) and to some extent, around 4 months earlier than normal when I would kick start my structured training of any substantial volume or quality.

Mmmm BEER !!

However, over the last fortnight, training has taken on the footie familiar saying of a game of 2 halves. 2 weeks ago at the start of this period I had a few beers on Sunday and decided that Monday would be rest day. So Monday I had another couple of beers on my rest day and this just kicked off the inevitable downward spiral, setting the tone for the rest of the next 6 days.

I didn't want to get up Tuesday to swim as I felt rubbish, so I would train later that day, as I was travelling to Northampton on my weekly round trip I couldn't do 2 sessions, so I bumped one to the next day, and so it went, sessions moving, rejigging the structure, by the time the end of the week came, alcohol, which had been the catalyst to a bad start was then taken over by a hectic week at work and by the end of Friday I had loaded the weekend to 3 sessions on both days !!

As most experienced triathletes know, this is counterproductive, if you miss a session, let it go, so even though I had the best of intentions to keep up my hours I saw sense, I extended my long ride on Sunday and quit being stupid for the rest of the weekend and overloading myself. I also decided to test the following 7 days with an alcohol free week to see the difference.

NO BEER !! Booo

This last week I noticed something else. Obviously no alcohol, but I was waking up feeling like I had had 5 pints. Its just become very obvious how little water I am drinking during the day. I am fueling for the sessions I am doing each day but with the fuzzy head in the morning it can't be anything else other than dehydration. I need to start drinking more in the day as I am probably losing quality out of my sessions by being under hydrated most of the time.

Volume in the last 2 weeks has been standard, 5hrs swimming, 13 hours cycling, 5 hours running. Not bad for the time of year. Its not everything I should be doing, the swimming is needing the extra time in the pool and the running has just started to ramp up a little so its coming together. I am not worried, as I said, its very early in the year and a long way to go, I want to come out of winter firing on all 3 sports and I am heading there.

A few bits of exciting news.

Winterswim is back, for anyone that doesn't know what that is, get over to Toms Williams site to find out.

But, I am still slow in the pool !

Changing your stroke takes some commitment, mine is being tested at the moment, I have my 400m time for #winterswim sorted for Week 1 before the end of the month but I need to put in another effort, I did the 400m effort after a main 2600m set as I didn't want to interupt the session but I will be making a real go at another 400m before the end of the month.
Its a great way to keep the motivation for swimming going over the winter, hence winterswim, I think Tom has his work cut out this year as its popularity has snowballed but the uncommitted (like I was last year) will fall by the wayside to maybe ease the pain a little.

Secondly, Lawrence is moving into the electronic age and we are using Training Peaks from this week. I already use Garmin Connect and can upload all of my training to it and provide him feedback but I have heard a lot of good things about the TP options so I hope its a step in the right direction. I love gadgets and if I had a power meter I would already have started to use this as a training tool but its never too late as they say.

On to next week and the run in to Xmas, yes, Xmas is in the shops already, its not even Hallowe'en and Kelly has a bedroom full of toys for Teya, in fact I think she has finished her Xmas shopping already !

Anyway, more consistent training, less alcohol, more water, new gadgets and an improved winterswim, can't wait.

Rosey.

Kona delivers again - Looking forward to 2011.

2010-10-12T20:47:00.009Z

This week brought the end to the current Ironman season, culminating in the race of champions, all of the qualified professional and AG athletes in the greatest racing spectacle in our multi discipline sport.

The 'IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS' in Kailua Kona, Hawaii

Congratulations to Chris McCormack and Mirinda Carfrae for their wins.

For anyone that follows triathlon I don't need to elaborate, its triathlon, its the pinnacle, enough said. And what a race this year produced.

For those that want to remind themselves, this is the link to the entire 18 hours of coverage, I have no idea how long the link will be valid but it works as of today. Highlights include -

3h55m into the video is the point where the last swimmer is informed she can't carry on as she has missed the swim cutoff - gutting.

9h11m is the finish for Chris MACCA McCormack, great to see him triumphant again after winning in 2007 and then his mechanical in 2008.

9h57m is the point where the lovely Mirinda Carfrae takes her first world title, awesome result

In light of Chrissie Wellingtons (current world champ) withdrawal on the morning of the race Mirinda will always be questioned by the press regarding the question, 'would she or wouldn't she have won if Chrissie had raced ?' who knows, thats not the point, she won an awesome race, on the given day, put in a great run again and deserves every accolade a true champion should, well done the Aussies, made for a great night of viewing.

Can't believe its over for another year but the race was epic and watching it and knowing every inch of the course just makes the desire to return burn more.

Well done to some of the Brits that I follow too, links to their reports may interest others to see what athletes go through in this, one of the toughest races in the IM calendar. Steven Lord, Jo Carritt, Russ Cox, Iain Hindes.

Nick's 2011

Now to my own masterplan on how to get to this amazing dance floor in the next 2 years.

Its a dilemma that has until this week prevented me from entering any race for 2011. I am working on the assumption that I will do enough to be on the cusp of qualifying at the race I pick, I am not a 'top' age grouper, that title is taken by the group of athletes that have the enviable position of calling themselves 'full time' age groupers. Yes, its an oxymoron but its a common sight in IM racing. I know a couple of guys that have this privileged existence, they might not think like that, as its a job to them, but to people like me its a great job and one I would love to have.

To the choices then, we now have 2 IM races to choose from !! Not something you may have heard 2 or 3 years ago in the UK but true. The 2 in question for me are.

IMUK - 31st July 2011 - 50 slots for Kona 2011 (up from 30 slots in previous years)
IM Wales - 11th September 2011 - 50 slots for Kona 2012

With the wedding coming up in June, we are saving all of our money for this, I want to race IM with the intention of qualifying, the best way to try to qualify for Kona without costing a fortune is race one year (2011) and qualify the following year (2012)
This type of qualification was until 3 weeks ago only possible if you travelled to North America or Mexico. Then came the news of IM Wales on 11th September 2011.

All my prayers answered on my own doorstep. Or are they ??

Alongside this announcement, the astounding (read - controversially timed) news that IMUK upped their allocation from 30 slots to 50. I qualified in 2009 when there was 30 slots overall and we had 3 slots in the M35-39, with this news there could potentially be 7 in my new AG. This would however, qualify me for the same year, racing the 'worlds' 11 weeks later. More cost.

Scenario 1

IM Wales fits our plans for 2011, if I qualify we have 12 months to save and we get to visit a truely remarkable group of islands again with a better understanding of what to get out of it as a holiday as well as the race of a lifetime once more.

Problem is, the race is going to attract athletes who wouldn't have set foot in Wales had the race been staged pre Sept.
It will attract many top AG'ers from Europe that would have gone to the US for a late race to qualify, no need now, stay in Europe, cheaper, no jet lag.
It will attract more of the professional AG'ers that will want to qualify early for 2012.
Finally, I believe it will be used as a back up race for a large number of top Euro athletes who may miss out on qualifying in say, Austria, Germany, Switzerland.

On the plus side, the date will eliminate anyone who has qualified already and wants to race well in Kona 2011 as the 2 races are too close to each other to recover.
Also, most people who want to race IM in 2011 will have already entered a race by now in Europe or the US as they fill up so fast the decision had to be made early, mostly 12 months in advance.

Scenario 2

It has got to be the best year for a qualifying chance at IMUK. The race is right on my doorstep, no travel costs, roll out of bed on race morning and be there in 30 mins, its a tough course, no drafting, no let up, just how I like it and I think the best chance to qualify is in 2011.

With the new race in Wales taking a lot of the top age group athletes looking for a late qualifier, IMUK may well be overlooked, IMUK has over the last few years been tagged with a slightly negative vibe by certain groups in the UK and has already forced many into the arms of the Outlaw and the new Challenge Henley race. Personally, I loved the experience of IMUK and this year they made in roads into the moans levelled at them in 2009 and won over plenty more support. I think in 2011 the race will be even better.

With the extra slots the attraction for someone who can afford to go to Kona 11 weeks later is a massive draw. The catch 22 is, even if you can't afford it, you would be mad to turn it down. Ask anyone that's tried to qualify and just missed out, what they wouldn't do to get there, its about picking the right race primarily, then getting there fit, making the decision to say 'yes' is for after the race, it won't dawn on you til the awards/rolldown about the decision that needs to be made. By then you have already talked yourself into it and taken out another credit card !

The downside for this scenario is the calendar of races that need to be entered and paid for to follow this path.

31st July 2011 - IMUK (£350) - qualify - pay out £350 for Kona
8th Oct 2011 - Kona

Thats a lot of money in 2011. £750 in race entry before the £3k for Kona. And if you need the fall back option of IMW, thats another £350.

They have worked this so that if you want to book a slot for this year at IMUK, its pretty impossible to do IMW successfully to qualify for 2012. If you do IMW you miss the opportunity to go to Kona again via IMUK.

Bugger.

The decision

The two major factors for my decision are the wedding, the cost of this pretty much prevents a family trip to Kona in 2011. Secondly, how I think I will do against increased competition in Wales.

I also have a few good friends that I know will be racing at each race, that has also swayed my decision a little, smackdown to follow, you know who you are !

The answer, you have to beat the best to qualify, no matter where you are, decisions are made for you to a certain degree by current circumstances and finances and you go with the flow, I have thought about all the options and I only really have one unless someone leaves me a LOT of money in the next 6 months.

Ironman Wales it is. I just hope some people will have the same thought process as me and go to IMUK as an option to race well and ignore IMW. We shall see.

The Garmin DIY disaster.

Be warned, having a training device that can be maintained by you is a bonus, gone are the days of having to send your Polar away for 2 weeks to be serviced, now you can change your own batteries in the HR belt of a Suunto or a Garmin of which I use both.
There is a danger though and this image is the result.
Please pay attention, when replacing the battery use a coin to get the retaining plastic cap off the belt, I used a screwdriver, flat head but not wide enough, as it slipped a few times it created 2 little spikes each side of the groove, didn't seem too much of a big deal at the time, 10 miles later after my run, the picture is the result !!

Training this week

Going well, 12 hours this week spread evenly over the bike and run. My swimming is still coming on but only 2 swims this week means I won't have improved, just maintained a feel for the water, if I am serious about this improvement I need to be looking at 4 swims a week, something I will be discussing with Lawrence.

Sunday brought a wonderful ride in the sunshine, you won't hear that for long, its getting colder by the day.

After 2 hours I got a puncture, no big deal, pull over, take off tyre, most of the time after feeling around the inside of the tyre you never work out what caused it, this time was different, I almost impaled myself, it was so big I had to take a picture, much to the amusment of the cyclist who passed asking if I was OK.

The hedge trimming has started, looks like I will be packing 3 tubes for each ride for the next few weeks.

Anyway, sorry about the ramble and the lateness of the blog, I promise not to be so tardy again.

Oh yes, Fegan ! you are going down dude !

A week of ups and downs.

2010-10-03T18:52:00.006Z

Its been a fun week, I have been riding the rollercoaster of ups and downs so to speak - nothing life threatening but it's been interesting.

I am however still here, its all good. I certainly need to improve my amount of sleep so the downs don't get blown out of proportion, even though I am tired after getting back into swimming more I have only myself to blame, plenty of AG athletes do more hours but they get better sleep, time to change the 'start' and 'stop' clock on my sleep pattern.

So, Saturday last week I had a coached swim session in the endless pool at TriCentral in Trafford Park. I know I am not the most efficient and certainly not the quickest swimmer but it's now official, I am also not the prettiest either (stroke, not bone structure).

Watching your stroke back is akin to watching the cringworthy contestants on X-Factor, you know its awful but you can't help watching just in case it gets better, this was indeed an eye opener, when I swim on my own it's tough when someone with a worse stroke than yours is swimming 1-2 secs per length faster, you wonder how, try the video approach, it all becomes clear, so the down, realising the enormity of my next 6 months, but ....... the 'up', knowing now how to visualise the way to correct it.

Into the week, I took part in the Roade Sprint Triathlon in Northampton, its a late season blast and its also where I work part of the week. Firstly, I am not a sprint triathlete, I can say that after I get my backside handed to me by younger and faster athletes but its true, I prefer the longer distance, so this was supposed to be fun.

My employer, iPSL, use this local series of races to encourage staff who are maybe non triathletes/single-sport athletes in work to either do the relay or take the plunge for the whole thing. However, one of my bosses takes it quite seriously and we have a little bit of competition between us. He completed IMUK this year in a very respectable time and this was our chance to race together head to head. It turned out to be a very close affair. The result, I beat him by 24 secs and managed to not get chicked by Yvette Grice, my second 'up' of the week.

Now the 'down', I managed a respectable 59.44 but was royally spanked by a fair margin, I was hammered by 6 mins by the winner over a sprint distance, even though its end of season and I have been training 4 weeks, that still smarts.

Next was more an international down for me, we all woke this week to the headlines,

'Contador tests positive for clenbuterol'

Oh come on, not again, for the love of ....

I didn't think I would have a massive opinion one way or another but it damages a sport I love, regardless of how he ingested the said drug, most people will see the headlines and just switch off with their mind made up. It makes it all the more apparent that this news has already made peoples minds up when the majority of athletes I follow on twitter setting up for Kona next week spent most of the week deriding professional cyclists, who in their eyes should just put in harder work, they have a point, I just hope no-one in triathlon tests positive as the shadow over cycling is one I never want to see over my sport.

On the 'up' side, I became a world record breaker this week, woohoo, with a couple of hundred other people when we went all SQUIDGY with Soreen at the Manchester Velodrome, I put my stint in around midnight on Friday for 2 hours and loved being part of something that raised money for good causes and meant I got a good workout. Well done to all the cyclists and organisers, I feel more challenges of that type coming up.

And to the last, we got the great news that this week we were eventually getting our french doors fitted, superb, we have saved and waited for months to have these put in, really should have been for the summer and Teya but better late than never. As the guys arrived to start I picked up the morning post and put it on the side and made them a drink, then retreated upstairs to start work for the day.

By lunchtime they had finished, as you can see they did a great job and its already got plenty of use by Teya now she knows its a door to freedom.

As they leave, I make myself a cup of tea, stand back to admire the doors and open the post from this morning,

'INTENTION TO PROSECUTE'

WTF !!! The trip to Northampton for the triathlon had delivered more than just a win over my boss, a bitter sweet ending to the week rounded off with a speeding fine on the M6 in a 50mph contraflow. And yes, it was me, bugger.

Training

10.5 hours this week, I was cut short a little by the horrendous weather on Sunday, spending hours on the turbo wasn't my idea of fun but I managed 90 mins. I feel tired but my legs don't have any pain, they are a little heavy but I need to make sure I am resting better and recovering with more sleep.

I was happier with my swims more than anything else, I learnt 2 main things to correct on Saturday in the endless pool and have applied both of them to the sessions. Its slowly getting easier but I am still drinking mroe than I should do.

Things will take time but I know that, I am very excited about the winter season coming up and under no illusion that it will be as bad weather as last year and the main focus is to HTFU and just get out there.

Coming up this weekend is the culmination of the long distance IM season with the World Championships on Saturday in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, 12 months ago we were there and its an awesome place to be. I will hopefully be watching from 5.30pm Sat on Universal Sports who should stream the whole thing live.

And just for those that need a reminder, I have watched this video more times than I can remember in the last 12 months - the aim, to go back.

IM Hawaii

Go full screen and loud !!

The prodigal blog returns

2010-09-24T20:26:00.007Z

Wow, where do I start, miss me ? Nope ? OK read on.

I have successfully managed to achieve my goal for the last 12 months, no IRONMANS ! It was a year of rest, reflection and spending quality time with Kelly and Teya. Unfortunately it also meant my blogging went by the wayside after Kona.
So a catchup, what we’ve been up to, where I feel I am now and what to look forward to for the next 12 months.

Family

We are making plans for getting married in 2011, June is the proposed month and we are probably (99%) going to get married in Cyprus, details are still sketchy as dates for accomodation don’t get released til October this year, I will update on that in the coming weeks.
This obviously comes before any racing plans but needless to say, any dreams of faraway IM racing will be on hold for another year, however with the amount of racing on our doorstep in the UK now we are spoilt for choice.

Teya is now 17 months old and acting like a 5 year old, the words are coming thick and fast, she now runs flat out without falling over and can get from one end of a Toys 'R' Us aisle to the other in the blink of an eye. However, I think we also have a touch of the terrible two’s prematurely as it can go from Miss Nice to Miss Grumpy quite quickly, although not in public, everyone else just thinks butter wouldn’t melt lol, but she is the centre of everything we do at the moment.

The year of training post Kona

Starting in October 2009, I decided to have a few weeks off after we got back and then start into a challenge I called November Run, the basic premise was to run as many km’s a day as there were numbers in the day of the month, so 1k, 2k, 3k ..etc to ..30k so right the way through to the final 7 days which was going to be around the massive 190km of running for the week. Well, lets just say after realising the enormity of the task I tried to even out the running to do an average of 16km a day instead. I got through 2 weeks of running and tweaked my calf on more than one occasion and then was just runing for the sake of it, I was also going too hard too early after Kona, challenge halted.

During this period I also entered Edinburgh marathon with the hope of breaking 2.50, November run put paid to the best part of a month of decent training and then Xmas reared its ugly but enormously tasty head and we were into January.
The weather this year was horrendous, snow, ice, cold, wet, you name it, we got it, not the best to encourage an already flagging mental attitude to step it up.
To make me kick back into life though, I targeted a local league road race of 5 miles in the first week of January, the weather was bad, bitterly cold and snow everywhere, the race was cancelled but undeterred I joined a hardy local bunch who had joined together at the last minute and we went for an off-road run around Burwardsley, result, pulled ligaments in my ankle as the snow and ice got the better of a sharp descent. Bang went another 6 weeks of running until that repaired.

At this point I could have settled for improving my swim as this would have been a great time to do it, but I still had a marginal dislike for swimming and having a year off triathlon doesn’t give you the oomph to get back in the pool, so I opted for the bike, from March onwards I decided to concentrate on improving my bike, dropped Edinburgh and entered a couple of triathlon relay legs at Bala Middle and Challenge Roth. I actually thought I would spend more time on the bike than I did but as it turns out I probably did the same amount of biking as I would have done if I was full on IM training, around 4-5 hours a week and when the spring arrived the longer rides took that up an hour or two.
Work was getting in the way and because I wasn't full on racing, I didn't mind. The 2 races I did were a great break from serious training and racing and meant I could enjoy the craic with others, Roth was a blast again and we had a great family break as well as I wasn’t quite as uptight as I normally am before a big race. We also did loads of other days out that we wouldn't normally spend time doing, picture below is Teya and Kelly in Blackpool.

Now

Fast forward to 4 weeks ago and my biking is OK, my swimming is like trying to wade through treacle flowing DOWNhill and my running, well, that hurts after 3 miles …!

The challenge is on to get back to the former glory, and to be better. They say the tide waits for no man, athletes just keep getting faster and times are coming down further. Time to step up.

The next year

As I sit here today, I read another UK based IRONMAN (Wales)has just been announced, that means we have 2 official qualifiers, a Challenge race and at least 3 other iron-distance races in the UK to pick from for 2011. The success of the Outlaw means that non IM races are no longer thought of as second rate in the UK by the badge hunters and getting a result there will be as hard in the next few years as any branded IM.
I will be doing one or more of these races next year mixed with a few 1/2 IM races in the UK.

Training wise, I aim to improve my swim, I am working with Chris Malpass who aside from being a top bloke is one of the best swimmers I know and even though he has given some good targets to achieve over the next 6 months hasn’t actually seen me in flight (or not !!) as yet, that’s tomorrow at the endless pool in Tri Central.
Getting out of an IM swim in 55-56 mins is my goal, watch this space.

I am still being coached by Lawrence Oldershaw who has coached me on and off for nearly 10 years now, we will be working on changing the focus a little and keeping the training interesting, challenging and yet still somehow painful !

Cycling and running go hand in hand for me, one relates to the other in terms of overall result at IM, get off the bike in a good state leads to a good run, work on the bike to improve the speed and get off in the same shape, even better.
And then there’s the word consistency, something I haven’t had for a while and something I maintain will be the way to make that next break thru for me, as long as I can stay injury free, which it my age now seems to be getting harder, I will be able to give it a good go.

The blog

Hopefully I will be maintaining this blog weekly with anything that catches my eye or an update on training as I move towards aiming at Kona again, over the next few weeks it will be a bit of training and then the incredible build up to this years World Championships, watching a few mates compete and wishing I was there again. I might try a few different races during the year as well to keep the interest over a longer period going. I missed the Nokia Coast to Coast this year but if you read another blog of a friend of mine (Les Kennedy)you will understand the attraction, and if you are reading this and don’t do multisport or endurance sport, maybe you won’t !

Til next week.

Aftermath to Kona 2009.

2009-10-29T20:39:00.027Z

Well, its now 3 weeks after the race and what are my thoughts ?

Gutted !!! But still a happy man.

So, why am I gutted ? Its over, Kona is now a distant but utterly amazing memory.

If you have ever got married or planned a day for so long you may know the feeling, you put your entire effort into something for months, nay years, then in 10-17 hours its over. I know I always have this down feeling after every IM holiday but this one is different, a lot of effort went into this one, 3 years of IM efforts, family sacrifice, early mornings, disappointments, addition to the family - that was most certainly a highlight, I definately got my return out of it, I think you can tell that, but I still feel like I am hanging onto something, maybe its because I have decided not to do IM next year, 18 months until summer of 2011 sounds a long time.

I will concentrate my efforts again but from a greater height and distance, well actually the same 3 years it took last time, from now til 2012 hopefully, until then nothing in triathlon terms will replace the feeling I had the first 2 seconds of that race, and certainly nothing in a race will compare to the last mile. Life, however moves on and there will for me hopefully, be another Kona, it will just have to wait til 2012.

So, to the memories.

Race day, what a day !!! Seeing all of the athletes all day on the course, for me, bobbing around waiting for the cannon to go off was just breathtaking and awe inspiring yet scary and exciting. The Queen K, the media caravan following the pro's all day, the desolate lava fields versus the mass of spectators on Ali'i Drive, all brilliant.

You are not supposed to have regrets about racing, or at least make them positive, I have spun this into a positive but I still only have one regret around the whole race, and this happened in the last minute, you can see in the finisher video I have put up that Mark is right in front of me, he is the one that looks like he is trying to throw up and struggling to get to the line, you can also see his slow response to turn round when he hears my name, disbelief that we were that close all the way round myself. If you read my race report you know what I was feeling at the time. We discussed it afterwards, all I had to do was call out his name in the last 50 yards and we could have crossed the line together, it would have been a great end to his race and mine, travelling all that way to finish together after all the racing hours done over the years and on that day, not to be, but we are still talking about the finish line so its left an imprint, magic.

Support, to have people supporting you half way round the world is an amazing feeling, quite surreal hearing your name shouted as you come out of transition 8000 miles from home, friends appearing when you least expect them, Andy and Jeff on the Queen K, Sian out as far as the Energy Lab (how the hell she got there I still don't know - if she walked, good effort !!) All my family and friends at various points in town on the bike and run course. And lastly the online support, RW pirates, family that couldn't go and various forums following the GB athletes, thanks. As an aside to the race, the support I had from Kelly all year and my mum and Roger while we were there means I could do what I did, it wouldn't have happened without them so thanks to them as well.

New friends, we made many, it was great having other Brits around to chat to, Glyn and Vicki who we met at IMUK and then spent time with in Kona, Liam Dolan who we met thru Mark, Bevan and John from IMTalk, infectious enthusiasm, although I didn't really need any myself, the parade of nations brought a few of us together but it was more international than that, many people are there for the same reason so conversations just grow out of brief eye contact, the odd wry smile here when you pass past another athlete, trying not to be too obvious when you are stood behind Timo Bracht in the Walmart queue on Sunday after he has just had a top ten finish in the World Champs lol !!

The holiday, well at the end of the day we were in Hawaii, it would be rude not to have a look around ;-), a beautiful place even if the race wasn't on, we are after all there to enjoy ourselves as a family.
As Kelly doesn't race she puts up with a lot before and its only right to correct that afterwards, she is the best sherpa ever but still has requirements out of our travels.

The island is amazing and I am glad we got to see a lot of it the week after the race. Speaking to the local islanders its very quickly obvious they are so welcoming of tourists in more than a cash cow way - well thats how it seems, I am sure Kona relies on the revenue of those 2 weeks for most of its year but I loved the friendly people and we weren't just in Kona, the whole island is lovely. Travelling around the island in one day was a great adventure with my family and the lads, 220 miles in one day, fuelled by intrigue and caffeine lol !
The helicopter ride and helping Kelly fulfil one of her lifes ambitions to fly in one, seeing her nervous for the first 5 mins and then relaxing into a great 45 minute voyage.

The wedding, Paul and Jans wedding day on the Friday before we came home, we were lucky enough to still be on the island and to be invited to spend their superb day with them, the ceremony was lovely, the priest (i think) was so into the whole thing he really made it. I have put a picture of the happy couple, we loved being part of the day and wished we were staying afterwards for a few more days as we were just getting used to relaxing lol !

Seeing Teya grow over 2 weeks, she was amazing over the holiday, still the princess we took away, only complaining when we get feed time wrong but smiling forever, everywhere we went and winning over hearts of strangers and friends alike.

Finally, as always, my love and thanks to Kelly, for putting up with the endless training, the ruined weekends, the travelling and supporting me, the endless triathlon sh*te that I talk (secretly she loves to talk tri sh*te as well), my triathlon mates - of which they are all her mates now and for just being ace xx

Sitting here now its all good, I am setting out onto a challenge for November which I will post about later but for now IM will take a few weeks out.

Til next time.

Ironman World Championships 2009 - Race Report

2009-10-21T01:26:00.012Z

10th Oct 2009 - Kailua Kona

Pre ‘pre’ race

If you have been following my blog you know how this trip and qualification came about. Landing in Kona was the start of an amazing 2 weeks, ‘cruising’ Ali’i Drive the first morning we arrived at 6.30am after 5 hours sleep was never in doubt, I wasn’t missing this. I lapped up the first swim, I then spent my first morning in the famous Lava Java coffee house, shoulder to shoulder with pro triathletes, most I didn’t recognise but you just ‘knew’, it was a buzz thing. Then as the week went on and more people turned up for the swims the excitement built, I cycled the course, I felt the heat, I paraded with my nation, I met with the Kiwi podcasters and I ran along the ‘Royal’ drive.

I didn’t feel any pressure, I had a goal, lap it up and finish, we all know though, ironmen don’t ‘just finish’. I knew come race day I would put enough pressure on to do a good time but right now, it was a second thought, it’s a long way to go to ruin it by being in awe of the whole thing and missing out on actually enjoying it.
I had advice from people I know and trust, thanks guys, and it helps to level out the thoughts, I also could have got carried away with enjoying it ‘too’ much, as each day ticked by I knew that couldn’t happen, the number and quality of athletes arriving started to put me in my pecking order, I had finished in my qualification race in 33rd, I was under no illusions, top half out of 1800 was what I wanted or I would be gutted, better is good. Top half in my AG was the next aim, you know what, go out to smack it and if the wheels come off, crawl to the damn finish line, if anything I’ll get on the DVD !!

Pre race

As I have had nearly a week to put this into words you would think that I would be able to rattle this off with ease, perfect recollection and a story worthy of Shakespeare, neeeeever gonna happen. However if I manage to put across 10% of the emotion and feeling of the race in this report I will be doing well.
Looking back at my finish time I would have taken it on the day no question, another day maybe not – I would have wanted quicker - but this was a toughie and its not just my opinion, there have been hotter and there have been windier, certainly more humid but we got a good mixture of all of them. However, I suppose it all pales into insignificance when you realise that Chrissie broke the record that has stood for some 20 years, in fact what AM I complaining about!!!

This was the race of all races for me, 3 years in the planning, the unexpected qualification slot was offered, I didn’t hesitate, well marginally untrue, I knew it was going to be expensive but its supposed to be a once in a lifetime eh ?

The build up to the race had been good, qualifying at IMUK gives around 9 weeks of refocus and training, the planning of the trip however was another story, trying to sort out the Kona travel and accom was more stressful than the training, as it turns out we did OK on that front.
I took a couple of weeks off work to push the volume a little and recover better but never really got to the hours that the pros train for, still, I gained a bit of confidence that I could give a good showing of myself.

I think through my blog over the last week I have managed to explain enough of the way the day would hopefully pan out. Gold, Silver and Bronze were the mantra for the darker periods. This is Hawaii though and everything can change on race day. I knew my tired muscles and sore throat during the week before would slip away unnoticed the morning of the race as my focus moved to the job at hand.

We had after all put my mum in quarantine for the last 2 days as she had come down badly with something, she was very good about it fortunately, so hopes were high. The support here by Kelly, Roger and my mum was great, they cooked food, tried to prevent me from doing too much around the condo, generally looked after me and got into the race spirit, same for the lads when they came out, mind you, they just got into the race spirit lol, no house cleaning for them.

I had been sleeping in the living room for the week to acclimatise as the girls had the bedroom with the A/C on. Waking up at 3am Saturday I didn’t need to disturb anyone, made my ham and jam sandwiches, put the coffee on and sat down to read for an hour while I had my breakfast. As experienced as I am I could feel this was a special morning, I wasn’t nervous yet, from all accounts and in my own head, I had nothing to prove with it being the first time here, its reckoned you will always try to come back and if you do, that’s when the pressure is on, to beat the previous time, I decided today was the day to lay down the marker.

All of my kit had been handed in the day before, racking bike and handing in transition bags my kit was no different than a normal IM, all I had to do was take all of my nutrition, techno kit – bike computer/Garmins, swim stuff and clothes for after the race. I felt as ready as I needed to be.

We headed to Kailua Kona at 4.45am, picking up Phil and Jeff on the way. I felt bad about not picking up the many number of athletes and families thumbing a lift down Ali’i Drive, we were heading for Paul and Jan’s apartment complex and not to the race start initially and I couldn’t face picking up a non English speaking athlete and having to explain it. I did redeem myself though, we caught Liam thumbing a lift 2 miles out of town, so stopped for him, he proceeded to moan about everyone with huge cars not picking up athletes hitching, what did they think he was going to do, break into Lava Java with his track pump !! I just had to smile.

The place was buzzing, only 5.15am and it was like the whole town had already come out to support the athletes. All of the pre race necessities were run like clockwork, check in special needs, get my race numbers stamped on my arms, few pictures and then work my way to the pier where transition was.
The pier was alive, a moving but quietly eerie mass of athletes, mostly getting themselves prepared for the day ahead, more than a few were already sorted and sitting around the outside chilling, stretching or listening to music. In a way this is where it differs from the standard IM, about 95% of people here are experienced IM racers, they may still look around at the uber athletes ripped from the eyebrows down, some may get a little nervous before the swim but they know what needs to be done come race morning and you won’t find many give their energy away needlessly.
I bumped into Jill, Liam, Glyn and Mark all preparing. Then I was ready. Over an hour to go, mmmm, toilet queue and then waste 30 mins before the Pro start.

The pro athletes go off 15 mins before us but most of the athletes, AG and pro alike are in the water together so as not to get stuck at the top of the exit stairs, Mike Reilly was on the PA system reminding us to stay clear of the start line etc etc, I walked down the steps with Faris Al Sultan (how often do you get to say that lol !!) and wished him luck, he set off and I sat on the harbour wall with Stephen Lord and Glyn watching the Navy Seals parachute in for the start, yep, a few of them were actually sky diving in, then competing. Then the national anthem, 30 secs after this, the race started for 150 pros and the day then got very real for us AG’ers.

Swim

My plan was start over on the left, try to get clear water and nominal draft for the first 1.2 miles and then work back with everyone, as we swam the 150 metres out to the line it dawned on me that I had watched this so many times over the years – and recently over and over on youtube, damn I could even tell you the names of the fish under me.
My goggles decided on this day of all to fog up for the first time, a few attempts at cleaning didn’t work so I just put them on, I knew they would clear after a while of swimming. I tried to spot my supporters on the harbour wall but I also knew they wouldn’t have been there early enough to get a place, it was mayhem, and 4 deep the whole way round the bay. From the competitor point of view is was awesome to see.
The holding line wasn’t as mad as I thought it would be. We were all treading water 10-15 mins before the start, the banter was amusing, bobbing around in the Pacific talking to someone about where you are from, trying to shout above the helicopters, trying not to get kicked in the shins, it all just seemed to while away the minutes. I kept moving around to get clear water and obviously meet as many people as possible lol.
We had been told to put our chips on and then put a safety pin in it, the swim was mental, you will lose it if you don’t pin it, check !

Then the cannon went off.

It was calm, so calm I thought I had immediately gone off course, I was in my rhythm straight away, breath every stroke, long efforts, still not being able to see the buoys I just swam with everyone else. I had started on the far left and probably had the easiest first 400m open water swim yet, loving every moment, I just kept thinking don’t get complacent, this is going to get worse, minutes went by and it didn’t come.
Around 10 mins in though it started, somehow I had managed to get from the far left to the inside right track, I have no idea how but it was mentioned afterwards that the canoeists had herded us across to the right, I had just followed others grabbing empty space. The assault on my whole body was relentless but I kept telling myself it wasn’t malicious. I was struggling for breath, swallowing water as people grabbed my arms and legs, it’s the first race I have ever kicked out, I had to free myself from under at least 3 people in the space of 30 metres, it was easy now to understand the panic that some people have in open water. Each time we neared a buoy it got worse as I had drifted inside them and had to come out to my left to get round them, many of the swimmers were coming straight up the line and I had to come out into their way and this was breaking into their personal space, I had my goggles smashed across my nose but managed to find free space for 30 secs to put them back on, that unnerved me a little as I have never been punched in the face in a swim either, I swam a little more protectively for a while. I had thoughts of trying to get out to the far left again but this was crazy talk, just get on with it you pussy !

Annoyingly, I had also started to chaff across my neck badly, the salt was already stinging and we weren’t halfway, earlier in the week I had used my race set up to check what might rub, I had this morning taped up the areas that chaffed the first day, pointless !! I tried to change my stroke and breathing side but that didn’t help, I tried to ignore the building pain, I was sure the salt would heal as I go. If it didn’t, I knew something else would hurt before the end of the day anyway.

The turnaround came without warning and my spirits lifted, I was still telling myself where I was, this was Kona baby !!! and it didn’t matter what happened, I was doing it !
Going wide was going to give me a better swim home, we were still channelled into a thin strip by the canoeists on one side and the buoys on the other so I tended to stay around the same people, I wasn’t really aware of the time at the turn but I became aware at this point of the swell we were in against the backdrop of the boats, at least I wasn’t getting punched so much.
About 1km from the finish I ended up in a big group, someone was touching my feet constantly, it was a girl or a bloke with long nails and it was annoying the hell out of me, I am not the best swimmer so just go round me for f*cks sake, it was really getting to me, so I started swerving away, they just followed, after 3 or 4 minutes I rolled over to check how many there were, I was leading a group of about 25 people, so I just slowed and waited, stuff this, I am joining the train, not leading it. I jumped on for the last stretch as we aimed for the pier.
I couldn’t believe the clock said 1.09, I didn’t know whether this was the pro time or ours 15 mins later, so I either had a crap swim or the best swim of my life, I told myself the latter but I knew it was the former. The thought was gone immediately, it was probably a slow swim, I was only 4 mins outside the bronze time so I had something to chase. I call it externalising, if I swum 1.09, blame something else and move on.

T1

Swimskin off, grabbed bag and into tent, the guy asked me if I wanted help, I just poured everything onto the floor and got on with it, he grabbed my goggles, hat and skin and stood waiting to see if I needed more help, arms coolers on, watch on, shades on, race number and gels. The run to the bike is miles, all the way around the pier til you get to your row and then cut in. Helmet on and grab bike and off. Almost bumping straight into Irish Mark on the way out, we had both swum 1.09. That lifted me, he is an hour swimmer as well. My good mate in his IM swansong was side by side with me again.

Bike

The support on the way out of T1 is breathtaking, people everywhere, I heard people shouting my name, huge smile – halfway around the world and I had support, love it, don’t fall off, go dude !!
First part of the bike is an out and back loop around town, a chance to loosen the legs, check the shoes and get a drink, myself and Mark climbed together until he slowly pulled away, it was the fastest part for me on the timing mats too, it’s a gentle climb up to the turn, Jeff and Andy giving me a great shout of support, hit the turn and then a kamikaze bomb down to the bottom before turning up Palani Drive, see Kelly, quick wave to Bevan and John and out onto the Queen K.
I just tried to take it easy, I knew from Bolton I had more chance later on if I evenly split all of my timing mats, I was splitting the bike into 60km loops again, it just makes sense to me.

Going out onto the Queen K is another step through the IM history archives for me, I had pictured this for ages, I had done a few rides in the week before but now there were people everywhere, some at my speed, others piling past me – shit swimmers - and then the good swimmers I was passing.
Almost immediately there were groups forming, we had been warned that the draft zone was the distance of the gap between cats eyes on the road side, easy to adhere to you would think. For the first 10 miles I played swapsies with other riders, I would move to the front of a group and sit there at my speed and then someone would come past and slow down forcing me to drop off and get my distance, then more would follow, bit annoying but it passed the time.
The draft busters were around constantly, doing good work, 2 of the girls we had in our group blatantly sitting in on wheels were carded early on and it split the group a little. However, if the bike marshals didn’t all ride Harleys there may have been more penalties, you could hear them coming from miles away, some people were using this to their advantage, I must say though for the most part, it was pretty honest.

My fuel strategy for the race was simple, racing lighter than usual, start with 2 bottles of 4:1 on the frame, at the third aid station start to use Gatorade, then after that pick up 1 Gatorade and 1 water to drink, then take as much extra water as I could grab and pour it on me. I was using gels every 30 mins on top of the mix of fluids. I didn’t realise until the first bottle went over me how hot it was, the wind into us wasn’t hard, just a constant reminder we weren’t being helped but as soon as I poured water on me the breeze warmed it up, it was only 9am but I knew we were in for a hot day and that meant pouring water on me was as important as putting it in me.
In fact after the race it was mentioned that the tarmac temp was hitting over 130F, not sure but it was certainly a hot one.
The feeds stations on the way out to Hawi (pronounced Harvee) were coming thick and fast, every 7 miles and they were huge, twice as long as any other race, I think I managed to get at least 3 bottles of water each time. I wasn’t getting through as much Gatorade as would have hoped but they were serving it in the retail bottles which were a pain to open on the move and the aero bottle was being warmed constantly before I could drink it, this makes it hard to replace with cold drink, I was having to pour iced water into the top to cool down the Gatorade and then blow through the straw to mix it, I covered myself in sticky liquid more than a few times.

I went through 60km in 1.40, ave speed was 21.9mph and HR 147bpm. This was just above the overall aim but I take the extra speed when I can, I felt good and I knew the hard bits were to come.

The road to Hawi is the only real climb, around 18 miles from the bottom to the town at the top but it was mostly rolling along the way, it didn’t feel as easy as it did in race prep the other day but I tried to stay aero for as much of it as possible. I kept thinking of the ‘matchbox’ that Glyn uses, the idea is that each time you have to push over your ability or outside your power levels you strike one off, start with a book of 20 and strike the last one as you get into T2, I was trying not to burn matches I didn’t have, so I reined the speed in and sat at my HR, I knew the way down would even the speeds up.

Halfway up the climb the media cavalcade started to appear over the hill in front of me coming the other way, helicopters, cars, motorbikes and then the pros, I hoped to see Gravesy at the front but it was a Trek athlete (Lieto) powering down the hill chased by a few of the top pros, then a group 30 secs back, then another, all working together, awesome to watch. Gravesy arrived a few minutes back so gave him a shout of support.
Just before the turn at the top I decided to get off as my knee was starting to give me jip again, the heat when I got off was nuts, the town was protected from the side winds and its like someone switched on a hair dryer but from the road upwards off the tarmac, this meets the air temp at about head height, I knew I needed to drink more and pour more on me, anyway, I stopped 20 yards from the mat and tried to click the knee back, no luck, few more attempts and failed, so back on bike, 1 min rest was all I needed and off, hit the mat in 2.37 which is 60 miles. This is when I started to calculate in my head my expected finish times, however, I had been warned, currently I was looking at a 5.00 split, this could be true til 10 miles from the end, it can still turn into a 6 hour split at that point. So I was only projecting, not hoping or aiming for anything other than get to the end.

The hill down Hawi is great, up to 35 mph for long periods which evened up the 15mph going up, it shows in the averages, I was a clear 2mph average better going down the 18 miles than up it. The cross winds we had been warned about in this area where mild and not really affecting me much, I stayed aero and stuck out left in the road a bit in case a gust carried me right off the tarmac.
The downside to coming down is we need to climb back up again and at Kawaihae this is where it got a bit ugly, 2 miles of hot, sticky, sweaty climbing back to the Queen K. It was really sapping my strength, I could feel the wind off to the right so I knew we now had a headwind on the way home too.
I had caught Jo Carritt about 3 miles from the bottom, she is a better climber than me but I am about twice her weight so descend faster, we swapped places for a while until we hit the Queen K and I left her behind, she didn’t drop far back as I was to see her again on the run.
I also was passed here by Russ Cox, I did ask him what he was doing back here which he wasn’t impressed with at the time but it was a back handed compliment really, we discussed it afterwards and there was no hard feelings, I think when I saw him I started to wonder if I had gone out too hard but seeing him disappear up the Kawaihae climb with ease, I knew he had paced it just right for himself and I was fine.
The turn onto the Queen K back to Kona is as much a mental battle as it was now a physical slog into the head wind, it wasn’t fierce but it was constant and a reminder on the long drags that we were in for a long 40 miles home.

I did the 60km to 120km in 1.47, still steady, HR was not soaring and I felt OK, I was hot but my speed was constant, the heat although stifling when climbing up the short drags was being counteracted by the wind on the flats and downs. Each aid station was now coming slower, 7 miles is a bit longer on the way back lol, I was still grabbing bottle after bottle of water and pouring it over me, I could have put out a Californian wild fire blaze !! I think on one aid station it went on for so long I kept grabbing bottles, emptying them on me, throwing them and getting another one, 6 bottles was my record the line was that long.

I was also feeling good about myself, everyone I passed dropped off me straight away, I only got passed once in about 30 miles and he had been with me for most of the race. I passed more people as we hit the flats, the wind was now against but off the right so I was riding at a slight angle and as far out left as I was allowed without blocking, I didn’t need anyone riding with me in an echelon.
This is where I was trying to concentrate on the next stage, I remembered that through transition I would have to take off my chip to put my compression socks on, so I remembered I had a safety pin in it, next downhill, take the pin out and put in pocket, 30 secs saved.

Although I was fully aware where I was I was also getting a little bored, mile after mile of straight lumpy road can do that and I really wanted to get to the run to see the pros again. The last 10 miles I started to smile as well, the recalculation over and over again had gone from 5hr split to 5.30 to 6.30 (honestly, the hills can do that) and then back to 5.30. To see 5.23 on the clock as I came into the transition was a heart warmer . That meant I had done a 1.55 last 60km, that was a tough return.

I was now up from Bronze to Silver.

I lapped it up again, the cheering from the crowds was so loud, I undid the shoes and stood on them, as I turned the corner onto the pier, stood on one pedal and freewheeled to the bike catcher.

T2
I know going on about how famous this place is can be boring for some but not for me, I had pictured this run for months, not often you can say you know the way through transition before you even get there, you have to run the whole circumference of the pier, its loooong, I used the loos on the way through and then grabbed my bag as I entered the tent. I took my time to have a breather and then take off the chip, put on socks, chip back on and then get sun tan cream all over my bare bits. Looks a long time but a few minutes making sure I had everything was a good thing today, it was so hot now and I needed to bring my HR down. The helpers were amazing, water, Gatorade, sunscreen, bag help, nothing too much, encouragement was handed out in spades, I loved this race and the people that made it happen, right concentrate, on with the job

Run

Once again the atmosphere as you run out onto the start of the marathon is too much to take in all at once, I had my head down trying to sort out my Garmin which was now soaked and the bezel was playing up, pain in the backside ! However, you run up Palani Road take a right and along Kuakini H’way so I had plenty of support to keep me occupied, its 4 deep again and the pirate top was getting plenty of shouts.

This initial loop before you drop onto Ali’i drive takes a few minutes and then the run pans out like this,

Run 4.5 miles to a turnaround up Ali’i Drive following the coast, then back.
Retrace the initial loop onto Palani Hill, climb the Hill, then take a left onto the Queen K highway.
Run along the Queen K for 6.2 miles until you get to the left turn to the Energy Lab.
Take a left into the Energy Lab complex for 2.2 miles, hit a turn around, back up the hill another 2.2 miles
Take a right back onto the Queen K and kick for the last 6.2 miles home.
Lap it up for 800m along the famous finish chute on Ali’i Drive, easy eh ?

In fact it is, mentally it’s a great course, but the description lends itself to make up an image that doesn’t really do it justice, for example, what does Ali’i Drive look like, well, it’s the coast road from the pier that heads south, its not a drive at all, it’s a main road.
From the finish line going out to the turnaround at 4.5 mile marker the town initially starts with bars and shops on both sides for the first mile up to Lava Java, rocks and crashing waves on the ocean side, it then winds down the coast for another mile or so with hotels of all standards. Then the condos start. As the drive goes further out of town it weaves to and from the shoreline giving glimpses of the beautiful bays, black sandy beaches and crashing waves and then moves away as you run past shoreline properties, its so varied that the run was never boring.

And what IS the Natural Energy Lab, I always had images of a hill that you ran down, did a loop in the heat and then headed back out, I also thought this was in town !! Wrong.
The Energy lab is an industrial area off the Queen K Highway between the town of Kona and the airport, its so called the Energy Lab as it harnesses the natural energy of the island by utilising the sun and I assume the heat from the core, so you can see it coming as its massive solar panels are the give away. The image you need, is a downhill road from the Queen K, heading towards the coast with natural foliage and lava rock on either side, it gently turns right just before the beach front, we run along there for another mile, turn at the cone and head back. Oh, and it’s a bit hot !!

Sounds complicated, its not and it’s a great way to break down the course.

So, onto the Ali’i Drive, the road is constantly rolling, lots of support lined both sides of the run course, the first mile was 7.30 and although I felt OK I knew it was adrenaline fuelled, so I checked the HR, 165 ! Oops, rein it in again, I needed to slow to 8’s to get it down to 155 which is my run HR. That little exercise took 5 miles to achieve as the heat was making it hard to control.
I passed the pirate support at 1 mile, Kelly was on the balcony 2 floors up shouting, on the road were my mum and Roger with Paul and Jan, just after this there was a great chalk marking say ‘Go Admiral Rosey’ on the road, orsum !
I was concentrating on pace and wanted to stay around 8’s, the heat was telling me this wasn’t an achievable time for the whole 26 miles but I just tried to run as well as I could in the temperature.

I could feel the arms and neck burning, the suntan cream they put on in T2 was being washed off with the constant covering of water and ice at each aid station, my god it was good to get cold water and ice, even the coke was ice cold, the aid stations and helpers were amazing, so bubbly, you almost forgot each time you went through one how much it hurt.
I remember going through the 2 mile marker thinking, shit, I have 24 more of these to go, then the 3 mile marker I thought, shit, I have 23 more of these to go. I had to stop thinking like that. I passed Glyn walking at mile 3, he was smiling and gave encouragement as I passed, he knew it was going to be a long day before he started as he had knee problems from weeks ago, the mind was strong but the body had stopped, for now.

the 4 miles to the turn went => 7.44, 8.01, 8.22, 8.16

The locals of Ali’i Drive also get into it, there were at least 2 hose pipes being pointed at us each mile, enthusiastic kids hoping to get high fives, all I could think was to keep cool, my feet were soaked during the bike leg and they were getting a good soaking here as well.
The aid stations were about each mile, I wanted to keep running but as the water from the last feed wore off it became obvious that the heat was not only coming from the sun but bouncing off the road and making it hard to breathe, so I made the decision that from the turn around I would power walk the aid stations.

My fuelling strategy for the race was this, coke and water in me at every aid station, a gel every 3 miles and if I could stomach it, a sip or two of Gatorade, that happened once, never to be repeated, minging !! And as much water and ice as I could put on me.

Hitting the turnaround I chalked off target number 1, just another jog back into town and the real hard work starts. Not long after the turn I realised all of the water washing off the suntan cream wasn’t just affecting my arms and neck, my lips were killing me and burning by the minute, I couldn’t think where I was going to get some cream, there were shops but I had no money, obviously !
I could also feel that my ‘try something new on race day’ was going to bite me on the ass by the end of the run, my new arm coolers had an elastic top to hold them in place, this was now rubbing under my arm pit and each time I threw water on me it stung, that wasn’t going to look good later either.
At mile 7 I saw Jason coming the other way looking for me to support, superb, I asked him to ring ahead to the pirate guys to get me some suntan cream and high 5 me so it didn’t look so obvious I was being aided. You know, at the end of the day it was something they gave out in T2 so it wasn’t like I was borrowing his bike for the rest of the run but I still didn’t want a fuss made. He set off back down the road ahead of me. Result.
As I crested the hill coming back down to the area the guys were stood I could see they were ready for me, although a bit obvious as Jason was walking towards me with a big bottle of suntan cream in one hand and cream in the other, I think I said something along the lines of don’t make it obvious and high fived him, just enough to coat my mouth and then across my neck. I didn’t mean to sound harsh to Jason but the last thing I needed was a card for outside assistance, it would only have been a yellow card (3 and you’re out) but you don’t need the worry. I apologised after the race but he was fine with it. I still have the blisters on my lips now, who knows how bad they would have been.

The return 5 miles had clocked in at 8.25, 8.31, 8.16, 8.29, 8.31.

This is where the leader Craig Alexander passed me going the other way, I had done it, RichM had told me to get back to the climb before the winners come home and you get to see them as they are finishing, he was at least 2 minutes ahead of Chris Lieto. The parade of guys coming back home is long and famous and I got to see them all, cool.

Once you leave Ali’i Drive it’s a climb up past hot corner (so named as it’s where the athletes pass by so many times in the day) and onto the Queen K highway. This is a mental battle and damn hot, the highway is 6.2 miles straight out, lots of rolling elevation changes to contend with and just enough bends in the road not to able to see all the way to the energy lab, but you knew it was far. The heat off the road and lava fields was ridiculous, it was probably only 95-100 but the reflected temperature back to the athletes was what turns this race on its head.

The aid stations were every mile, the mile markers were in between this, I was feeling hot and hazy at mile 12 so I decided to reward myself with something I never normally do, walk in between aid stations, I gave myself 30 seconds of power walking, a mental release, I had just started walking when I heard ‘Rosey, get to the next aid station and take the rest while feeding, come on buddy !!’ PMSL, damn the decision to put my name on the back of my shirt ! I started running again, ‘Good Jawb Rosey !’ I really needed that moment, his shirt said something like Team Psycho, I remembered it for later  as he went past.

The next 6 miles were 8.49, 9.06, 8.39, 9.00, 8.30, 9.12.

This was the toughest part of the race to string together and keep moving, its zombie zone, its just before you get to halfway so you are still fighting the demons of negative thoughts, but once you get past 13 miles you get a lift, then you realise at 16 miles you still have 10 to go lol !! I had to concentrate on the water and aid stations to keep my mind off the games, then behold, a little ray of light, an English Rose !

At around the 17 mile the helicopters started again, I knew who I would see first coming over the hill, I started singing to myself, ‘Whats that coming over the hill, its Chrissie Wellington, its Chrissie Wellingtooooooon’ and repeat, it was making me really smile and she was doing the same back, real lifting stuff, I gave her a shout, she just kept smiling and running. Love it.

The energy lab was next, going down the hill the wind was against, pretty much evened themselves out, there is a feed station just as you go in, I took at least 8 waters, I had run out of personal gels now so I grabbed a Powerbar gel and took it, the special needs station was at the turn around so I had 4 more of my own gels coming my way, bonus, mmmm, Smart Gels are the way forward lol !!
Nearing the turn around I spotted Irish Mark, I had closed the gap of 1 mins he had on me on the bike, to be honest I never thought I would see him again he set off that fast but he was within distance now, we took the turn together, he said hi, I responded, then obviously with a little interest now sparked he upped the pace a little, I stuck to my pace and walked through the next aid station and picked up my special needs, he slowly disappeared up the hill as we left the energy lab.

The energy lab miles were 8.23, 8.45, 9.13, 8.47, that’s 2 down, 2 up, I was actually picking up the pace and I knew it.

At the athlete welcome party we had been told that as you exit the energy lab you have 10km home, that was a feeling I wanted to have, this was the time, the body had other ideas though, I really wanted to go for it from here but even though I was passing people and the time splits were coming down slightly the body still didn’t feel too good. My neck and shoulders burned, the rubbing under my arms was now numb and bleeding and I could feel from the sloshing around in my shoes that I had 2 massive blisters, one on each foot. But what’s that in front, I could see Team Psycho, lol, a target to lift the senses. It took me two damn miles to catch him as well but I returned the favour at the next aid station, ‘Come on Psycho, not far to home, picture it mate, come on keep moving !!’ I even got a smile. Those 3 miles went 9.00, 8.49, 8.52, it felt faster lol !!

The last 3 miles were amazing, I smiled the whole way, I even ran through the last 2 aid stations, I knew it was downhill once I reached Palani, steep too, wet feet and trying to slow down on that slope don’t mix, I just had to freewheel. I don’t think the smile left my face the whole way down, people were everywhere, I started to catch more runners too. Turning into Hualalai it was another downhill and the last road before Ali’i, all the aches were gone, I felt bad overtaking all of these guys but if you had the adrenalin I felt right there it soon became a distant memory, turning onto Ali’i was amazing, like a finisher chute but 800metres long, I was now striding out like it was a 10km run.
One of the guys tried to go with me, so I encouraged him to give it some and out sprint me, I think his hamstring snapped right there as looked like someone had shot him in the backside, the scream was proof he was walking the rest of the way, I could see the pirates shouting, 400metres to go, I could see Kelly and I could see my flag, don’t stop, in fact, shit I could see Irish Mark too, he was 50 yards in front of me, I was going to catch him right on the line, I couldn’t do that to him, I wanted a good finisher picture and I was sure he did.
It wasn’t until that point that I knew my time, I had fought for the last 6 miles to get under 10.40, I really didn’t want 10.45 so push harder !!! I could see the time on the clock, this time I KNEW it wasn’t the pro time, could I ‘be’ any happier.
I slowed to let Mark get his picture, only slowing a little after I checked behind me for sprinters. I heard his name called by Mike Reilly and then immediately my name, I could see Mark look round in surprise, I just raised my arms aloft and shouted at the top of my voice !! Wooohoooooooo !! And then gave Mark a hug.

My last 3 miles were 8.35, 8.51, 7.09 !!

A 3.40 marathon and finish in 10.21. I had got to Gold

I have no regrets but I have a marker xx

I did it.

The day before tomorrow - 1 day to go !!

2009-10-10T03:34:00.012Z

Friday 9th October

Its the day before and its just dawned on me that tomorrow is the race I have dreamt about for 3 years. Some people don't know that I started in 1999 (Lewis has pointed that out in the comments on yesterdays blog) doing a sprint, I had given up smoking that year, its taken a while but triathlon has changed that life 360 degs. It has never been a real dream to get to Kona until 2006/2007 when I started seriously but its still been a passion to follow for many years, tomorrow it hopefully will all come together - (so Kelly can get her bathroom at last !!)

So this morning, I didn't have the real sleep I needed the day before the day before but for me its about staying fit as well. We went down to the swim, 8.30 this morning, a bit more of a lie in but I was tired. Faris Al Sultan was getting out, said hi lol. He looks good too but hoping to do top 10 this year apparently.

On the way to Lava Java I stopped off and bought a couple of pairs of Newtons, one for me and one for Fegan. More IM porn yay !

Today is racking day too, after building the bike and setting all of the bags up with essentials it was time to go to transition. Check out the bike decals and what I will be wearing in the race, have decided to revert back to my old bike shoes however as the new ones are custom fit and I have no idea how much my feet are going to swell so I can't take the chance. The pirate purchase has already been worn out here so that will have to do for now, sorry guys.

Racking was about as painless as it gets, no queue, no waiting, personal helper to walk you round the whole transition explaining everything, man you have to run a long, long way to get to the bike and out, I'll be knackered !!!

My helper took this piccy too

Then out and off to relax in Lava Java and write this for you lovely people lol !

By the way, this is how the finish straight looks the night before, not many people and a wonderful view.

Race stuff ...

I suppose now is the time for thoughts about tomorrow, I am never shy to say what times I am looking for and I will by the end of this ramble have given some idea of what I hope for but heres the rub, its an unpredictable place. The forecast for wind tomorrow is now 10mph+ but calmer early on and then by the time we get to Hawi it could be a little hairy.

Also the run heat has been oppressive, its only 90 degrees but it feels like 110. I did Germany in 40 degs and Nice was 40 degs but this feels hotter, I know that sounds bonkers but I suppose it must be the humidity too as I have never really run in it before. The heat off the tarmac will be tough as I find out every time I stop at lights on the bike.

Swim

So, to the swim. Its supposed to be the toughest there is, with most people in the 55 to 65 min range that’s going to be true but I will be staying out left at the beginning and then move across by the 1000m mark, I breathe to the left so the clockwise circuit would normally be an issue but the water is so clear that when I have my head straight I will be able to see for 20 metres in front of me if its clear, it won’t be but visibility will be good. For those uninitiated, there is no wetsuits here either, this normally helps me as my body position isn’t that good in the water, I have a skinsuit (thanks Gavin) for this one so it will be a help, these are made of the same sort of material but as thin as a tri suit but faster in the water than bare skin.

Goal time is Gold = 60 mins, Silver = 65, Bronze = 70.

Bike

The bike, lol, such a fast course apparently that without the wind and heat it would probably be one of the fastest on the IM circuit, unfortunately Madame Pele may have other ideas on race day. The roads are like glass but with the lava rock shards blowing across the roads the chance of punctures is slightly greater. I will be aiming to get out onto the course in a good group of pace line riders which won’t necessarily help (this is a non drafting race after all) but will be good for pacing, I have my own pace to go but we have been warned by the officials how far the zones are for drafting and this is the cats eyes markers in the road, like our UK motorway chevrons, leave a full gap and you will be safe. The course is an out and back with a little loop in town first to warm the legs. I really want to see the pros coming the other way on the Queen K with the full camera entourage, that’s the dream I have seen and I want to see it in full flow.

Goal time is Gold = 5:15, Silver = 5:30, Bronze = Sub 6 hours

Run

Now the run, this one is hard, I am sitting here in the apartment with the aircon off and still struggling to breathe properly, laboured and short, it has been for 2 days, maybe I will be clear tomorrow but for now I can only use this to guage how my breathing will be on the run. Its gonna be a hot one, whatever way you look at it, its very hot all day, about 90 degs and the humidity is about 60% but if it rains the temp drops and the humidity goes up, you can’t win, the lads have been running today, Jase made me laugh, they did 6 miles and he reckons he couldn’t get his HR below 160 the whole way. Its also the lumpiest flat first half of a course I have seen for a while, rolling lumps all down Ali’i drive, same for everyone so just deal with it. I have a good record for running in the heat so I am hoping for a reasonable go at this one.

Goal time is Gold = 3.45, Silver = 4:00, Bronze = 4:30

Conclusions and Wrap Up.

So, as you can see I don’t mind putting myself out there, at the end of the day we all have aims, the main one this time is to enjoy and finish but I am too competitive to do anything other than enjoy and compete lol !!
So best would be 10 hours + transitions and worst (this is my hopeful worst) might be 11:40. I know there is a lot of variation in there but this is not a course you can just say, I want a sub 10 or I want to do 10:xx. I will be fighting for every minute out there, tomorrow will tell.
I know want to say thanks to everyone that has either text me, twittered me or left messages on the blog, and the runners world guys on the forum as well, superb support and I will be thinking of all of it in the good moments and the bad, I hope there won’t be many bad as the idea is to enjoy but to be honest knowing you have virtual and on course support is a huge addition to the mental power it takes to get round these events.

The next time I blog I will hope to have heard for the 11th time Mike Reilly saying ‘Nick Rose, you ARE an Ironman’ bring it on, I love this game, can you tell ?? If anyone wants to say hi, please text my personal number as Twitter is too expensive to leave roaming on all day. If kelly gets wifi then she will tweet, otherwise, check out this 'PSOF Race Day' and you will have all the links you need.

Night night xx

p.s. I would like to thanks 'Rocky's Pizza and Family Dining' in Keauhou for the use of their wifi while I am sat in the car outside posting this tonight ;-)

Rosey is a groupie - 2 days to go !

2009-10-09T09:40:00.007Z

Thursday 8th October

Today started with a swim at 8, met with the lads who have been up since 4am, then 5am, then 6am lol !! and picked up Jeff along the way. He had been standing on the side of the road as we drove up, we had both just separately seen Hillary Biscay who we both like, running down the road, much to the bewilderment of the other 3 in the car as we rattled off famous people we were spotting.

Myself and Jeff have bought the ‘30 years of Ironman World Championships’ book by Bob Babbitt (and no he isn’t the guy who had his willy chopped off, as someone tried to make out earlier today !!!) and we are slowly trying to outdo each other with famous signatures. So far I have

Mark Allen, Peter Reid, Bob Babbitt (obviously), Hillary Biscay, Natascha Badmann, Craig Alexander (yep !!) and Phil Graves

Anyway, its good fun and keeps us out of mischief.

The swim ended up at the Coffees of Hawaii boat, we had a chat with the Albernator and looks like we have ended up on the front page of Day 3 here IMTalk Day 3 I think that will change each day, so it’s a one time offer so to speak.

Over for breakfast and another spot was these 2 guys, Dave Orlowski (3rd) and Tom Knoll (6th), they are the places these guys were in the original 1978 first ever IM in Oahu. Orsum, Tom Knoll is in yellow and Dave in blue, Jeff is with me.

Then onto the expo and some shopping, this is where I was cornered by Bevan and John from IMTalk, I came bounding over as they were mid stream talking into their microphone and ended up getting interviewed, brilliant, having listened to these guys for years it’s a treat for them to recognise me now lol !! love it.

My enthusiasm was short lived however as we had a small emergency today, Teya had to be rushed to the medical centre with a temperature of 39.4Deg. Not good for anyone especially her age, the long and short of it without being so dramatic, even though it was a the time as she was unresponsive and very very hot is that she was just overheating and once we got her settled her temp dropped, the bonus for us is that this happened while we were waiting for the doctor to see her, so I just asked for my credit card and ID back and we left. If Kelly’s mum is reading this, its all OK Suzanne, honest xx

Once we got her settled I headed back to the expo, I know this sounds bad but when Kelly rang me to tell me the news I was talking to Mark Allen and had to cut him off and tell him I would catch him later lol !! he looked a bit shocked a normo would cut him off mid sentence but I had a family to look after, he wasn’t there when I got back, how rude haha !

The boys were still there waiting though and a quick piccy before they were picked up was taken

Right bought my last few bits and off to the pasta party, this is the view at the moment as they are building the grandstand.

The pasta party was superb, open air so no sweaty tents, lots of huge screens and we got to see old DVD’s, inspirational stories from 80 year old competitors to double amputees (by the way there are 41 over 70’s in the race Saturday !!!) nuts !
Phil Graves was taken up as the youngest in the race and interviewed, had a good laugh as he explained he was going to take a few scalps on Saturday, gotta love him, I wish I was watching as well as competing now as that is going to be something to behold unfolding if he has a good race.

As I was at the pasta party Roger has picked up Paul and Jan (Slummo and Bendy to the pirates) safe and sound, they have a great apartment by Lava java, will be picking them up in the morning.

Day over, its been a long one and tomorrow is chill out day, honest, just putting my new tubs on to race bike, pictures tomorrow of race set up and race gear. I really need to go to bed now as I have plenty to set up tomorrow,

Night night x

The road to Hawi - 3 days to go

2009-10-09T03:03:00.003Z

Wednesday 7th October

Had a lie on today, no swim, still up at 6 to feed Teya but she slept all night so no reall issues there.

Came into town to chill out and have breakfast in Lava java with the family, still great to watch everyone, also gave me a chance to use the wifi to download the IMTalk Kona special - Day 1.

The main session today was the road to Hawi, there is a turn around 18 mile from the turnaround that starts to climb up to the village, this isn't as bad as it sounds, its mainly false flats with a bit of climbing but has a bit of respite as well. I went up with Glyn, the lad who finished in 5th at IMUK in my AG, we did a steady ride up using his power meter at 250 watts, everytime I pulled away he was giving me the 'speech' about how I was wasting matches I didn't have, and its right, he can see the immediate power usage and how it climbs to say 350 without thinking about it.

We averaged 20mph there and back, felt good and the hilly end of the course now isn't such a mind game.

To be honest now I am feeling a little better in my own mind, I still have a house full of ill people, Kelly has a cough, my mum and Roger are all feeling under the weather and aching muscles and I am getting paranoid about being in the same room, daft I know but I don't need the worry, its all psychosematic (sp) I am sure but hey, its my psycho ok !!

Then off to pick up the boys at the airport, they had all had a long journey, all looked like zombies, Phil tried to get in the wrong car at Walmart and Jase stood looking at his change for 5 mins deciding what he had been given, its a quarter Jase, lets go !!

Back to apartment, homemade Cottage Pie and bed, short one today as the lads are getting impatient and I need to get to the pasta party in a sec, speak soon

Til tomorrow.

Hanging out' with Bevan and John – 4 days to go

2009-10-07T19:29:00.015Z

Tuesday 6th October

Swim at 7 was my best of the week, swam with Jilly and we decided to go for 15 out and 15 back, we got to the 3rd buoy in 11 mins, about 2 mins ahead of her best swim so far and she could feel it but we both felt good for it, we kept going for another 3 or 4 and then turned to head back.

Stopped off at the famous Coffees of Hawaii catermaran boat for a drink, seriously, the boat is moored 400m off the pier and serves hot coffee shots as you bob up and down chatting to people, classic. There is also a lovely looking girl on the beach at the pier with a sign (picture the 'GOLF SALE' type efforts in major cities) for coffee, pointing into the water lol.

Mum and Kelly had brought Teya down for the first time as well and thought the atmosphere was great. Lots of buff men to oggle, and a few not so nice, mmmm.

Registered after the swim at 9am, very slick, painless and another step closer to the race done.

At 2pm I went down for the arranged IM Talk ride with Bevan and John of podcast fame and anyone else who turned up, there was a few Epic Camp regulars, Steven ‘Madman’ Lord, Jo Carritt, to name a couple. It was decided to do 40 mins out and 40 back, bit of a fast paced tempo ride really with a few TT moments in there, we weren’t hanging about but it was nice to chat to Bevan and John when we got to ride side by side.

Back after the ride to cold Coffees of Hawaii with the Albernator and a stand around and chin wag with a few of their friends. Even arranged that if they are in the right place at the right time I might get interviewed on the run course, now that will be a challenge, run and talk in that heat mmmm,
IM Talk photo.
I even managed to get my photo taken.

Quick rush back to get changed for the Parade of Nations, basically a little like the start of the Olympic ceremony with all nations led out by cars and selected athletes, ours was Philip Graves in a typical British Car !!

Myself and Kelly joined the other Brit representatives for the parade in provided athlete shirts.

The parade went on for around 30 mins and ended up at the Expo, get the athletes to spend more money I say lol , myself and Tim Bishop were at the front for most of the way chatting about the race, I did make an effort to get the pirate name into the GB parade, check me out in the skull sarong lol.

Then onto the expo, very big, lots to check out, including this, a specially made TT bike by a Trek engineer for his 8 year old daughter, hand made one off !! very cool

The amountof IM porn was great, I purchased the 30 years of IM World Champs book by Bob Babbit, famous compere of the event, he signed it, then I found Natascha Badmann and Craig Alexander wandering around the Newton tent and got them to sign it as well, Kelly wasn’t as impressed as me obviously so just stood around taking pictures

So we left and enjoyed a nice sunset before heading back for dinner and checking on Teya being looked after by Nana

Til tomorrow …..

Its getting busy - 5 days to go

2009-10-07T18:57:00.006Z

Monday 5th October

Bit late for the swim at 7 so ended up my own for the 30 mins, out to have a chat with Kit Stokes who says 'hi' to the pirates from Switzerland, something about party and beer but he can’t remember much lol !

Met with Chester Trier's Jeff, Jill and Andy Wilkinson and had breakfast overlooking the bay, very nice, I could get used to this Kona Coffee, expensive to import for us but check out 'Coffees of Hawaii' having a free shipping month I think, worth it.

Next job was to sort out the car seat for Teya, work this out, $12 a day to hire for 14 days, plus taxes, works out at about $195. So we went to Walmart and purchased one, we could have got one for $60 but decided to go for one for $135 that doubles as the next one up when she is a toddler and then up to age 4, saves us paying at home for a £200 new car seat and we are still cheaper than renting one.

She is a very happy chappy now ;-)

Then a bit of relaxing with the munchkin in the pool, check out the new swimming kit !

After that I went for my first run of the week, 6 miles at about 6.30pm, it is still very warm and the sun goes down at about 6pm, the issue there is it takes about 10 mins to go from light to dark, I hope I am finished before 6 as its going to be VERY dark and lonely with just a glow stick for company lol !!

Running down Ali’i drive with bikes on the hard shoulder with no lights on and cars blinding you is not fun but I needed to get out, 6 miles in 45 mins and it felt OK, HR was about 145 and pace was about 7.40, the best bit about training down the end of the drive I am at is the 2 feed stations they have set up. One Gatorade and one GU stand, out on the road, always ice cold energy drink and free, just left there for the whole week for the athletes in training, orsum effort by the organisors, during the day the GU one is manned with people giving out free gels and bars as well.
This place still isn’t letting the side down.

More tomorrow. …..

Soaking up the atmosphere ... 6 days to go

2009-10-06T22:39:00.008Z

Sunday 4th October

Its early, left the others in bed, Teya got to sleep at 5am, Kelly on night duty, it will take a few days to change her pattern but she is still a gem so far, as long as she is fed every 4 hours when needed we are managing to get the night turned into day.

So the famous Ali’i Drive, Ali’i means Royal by the way. I left the apartment at 6.40am, people were running all up Ali’i drive, we are 6 miles from the Kona Pier.

You know when you have a picture of something in your head, I had expectations of this place being the Mecca that it is, everything is like I imagined, and better, it is amazing, people running, cycling, all shapes and sizes, all ages, I think I have got to race weight for this, well my GOD, its like watching a fashion show for the 'Do I look good naked' programme, lovely views, houses and condos lining the whole drive, years of IM history is here and you can smell and taste what it feels like just driving it. It was a moment for me that I will savour, 6 miles of IM heaven, sad some might think but for me it means I have arrived, and I think I was meant to come here, at least once.

The Kona pier is buzzing, Gatorade have the stand up, I met Mark, Liam – 2 Irish friends and Simon Ward a well known UK coach for our swim, Simon gave us the lowdown on the course and we set off. While swimming I decided for the first time ever to bilateral breath in an open water swim the whole way, all I wanted to do was keep looking down at the ocean bottom, fish everywhere, lava rocks, sea creatures, LOVE IT.

Another moment was had right there, I had met Mark 7 years ago at IM Switzerland, we arranged to meet to drive round the course, now here I was 7 years later with a now very good friend swimming in IM Mecca halfway round the world in our most important week, orsum lol !! Unfortunately the swell was so big that we got lost in the water cos the orange buoys kept disappearing so we ended up swimming the whole course when we were only going out for 40 mins, we got back to the pier over an 70 mins later lol !!

Coffee in Lava java and back to apartment to build bike.

Queen K highway is the main road for the bike course so we set off for a ride, out an hour and back an hour, we ended up doing 3 hours in total, about 57 miles, a couple of things to note, the wind we had on the way out won’t be up at the time we will be riding in the morning but we live in hope, on the way back its harder, wind against so must conserve energy. And when we stopped at the traffic lights on the way home you notice the heat hit you hard, its mainly coming from the tarmac so more of an issue for the run but riding into a hair dryer on full for 5+ hours means I will need to be drinking loads and pacing well.

I slept well this afternoon. I was woken up by the others coming home and thought it was the middle of the night, it was only 6pm, maybe the ride was a bit long. Dinner and bed.

Til tomorrow ......

We have arrived ...... 7 days to go

2009-10-06T06:43:00.005Z

Saturday 3rd october.

Travelling day, the aim is to get to the airport 4 hours early to get a sky cot for Teya, mission accomplished, just as well as they only have 1 per plane !!

I have to say American Airlines were superb, booked us all the way through, sorting out seats next to each other, got us sky cot, each persons baggage was just waved on, bike on no issues, marvellous considering I am not allowed (by Kelly) anywhere near a check in desk after the ‘incident’ in 2003 and numerous altercations since then to do with bikes and excess charges lol.

Teya has been amazing for the whole journey, she had a 10 min session crying at 7pm UK time when it was time to go to bed, mainly as the cabin was very bright. She fell asleep on both take offs and was asleep for both landings, we are truly a lucky couple so far.

Although having to do the parent thing even though there were 4 of us meant I never got to see one film all the way through even though I started four, booooo. And for the record, my mum and Roger have been a great help on the flight and the whole travel thing.

After landing at 8pm local time 24 hours after leaving, thoughts of having a 9 hour bike leg and running in the cool of the night went out the window with our arrival, its still 80 deg at 8pm. So we collect our luggage and head off to the hire car place, due to us having lots of baggage, midway through us getting on the bus, the driver decides he will only take 2 of us to the car hire place, no problem, got on, queued up, argued a bit about extra fees, got car, head back.

Then the first drama of the whole day, I noticed one of the bags was missing, big 120litre Oakley roller, lots of confusion, claims starting, Kelly in tears as its her bag, last chance saloon is to go to the car hire place, it turns out the driver had grabbed one of our bags and loaded it on the coach and then just unloaded it at the rental office unbeknown to us. They had been trying to ring me for 15 mins when they realised they had it, drama sorted but that could have ruined the trip before it started.

So off to apartments, we are in the Country Club Villas, we are so lucky, its huge, everything we need and this is the view. Obviously the next day as we have arrived in the dark !!

Once we unpacked it was necessary to go out shopping for food fo rthe morning, everyone still awake, so off to Walmart, stocked up just before midnight, then the last action of the day, breakfast at Denny’s, a 24 hour diner, everyone was starving and the breakfast at 1 am went down well lol !!

Back to apartment by 2am for a few hours kip.

Night night……

Less than 2 weeks ....

2009-09-30T10:06:00.007Z

My race team(s)

First things first, a little explanation of the team(s) I race for. My first claim club is Chester Tri Club, I have been with them for years, originally living in Northwich it was the closest club, and what a club, very strong sociable side, very good range of athletes, into about as wide a range of active sports as you can imagine as well as triathlon and about as active a club in terms of events and sessions as you could get, anyone in the NorthWest area close to Chester would be well worth having a look at the website

This is who I am affiliated to and will race for them for as long as they'll have me ;-)

During my Ironman events however I wear the yellow skull and crossbones of my pirate team 'The Pirate Ship of Fools' or PSOF. This is a virtual team consisting of a group of athletes/people who by being members of the Runners World UK forum have become a racing team, there is no 'da management' etc as its just a team of likeminded people who want to race, to read about it, go here, an enlightening read that will either make you laugh or potentially join lol !! you have been warned.

Now, to the aforementioned Pirates !

I visitied MK this week to catch up with Meldy about training and gossip after her run at the JWUltra. To my surprise I was presented with a card from all of the pirates and inside a rather tidy sum of cash donated by the PSOF massive, to say I was surprised would be an understatement, moved and humbled might be more like it. I have said my thanks on the forum but wanted to mention their kindness again, I know a lot of them will be watching online on the 10th.

The money has gone towards my purchase of new tri shoes, a picture of which are above. And below, the culprits, well most of them.

Training

This week has been work, exam prep and training tick over, because of feeling ill I have curtailed the training to the extent it feels like the final week in terms of volume and intensity, I am not going to gain anything anyway but I prefer the confidence booster that comes with taper freshness.
I also think a little bit of something without going into high HR's is going to be good to keep the heart and lungs working. I was due to be doing a sprint race in Roade on Sunday gone but resisted even though my 90 min session Sat night felt strong, it was just the thought of pushing outside of the comfort zone for an hour and pushing my already down immune system over the edge. So, I went out for a 3 1/2 hr ride and 3 mile brick run instead. Total hours this week were just over 9, should have been more but sensible head meant two full days off again.

How do I feel ...

Having a cold isn't the end of the world but I have worried about it since it broke, apparently they last for 7-10 days, this is now 12 days and I still have tickly throat and running nose, not serious but thinking about going to docs for antibiotics if it looks like going chesty. From what I know a cold is a virus which won't get touched by AB's but if it goes south, the chest infection could last weeks. Positive thoughts tho, it will shift soon enough, just keep drinking plenty of water and Vit C.
Am also on Echinacea Tincture, have dropped the Beechams, the guy in Boots this morning told me that Beechams etc only masks the effects of a cold to make you feel better, they don't actually shift it, your body has to do that, so I have come off it so I know where its at so to speak and I can fight it head on, we'll see, not overly worried but if I still have it for the race it just means a slightly longer day ;-( I remember Nigel at Chester Tri doing Nice with a cold that broke that week, gutted for him during the week as it was hard to see someone put that much into training to know you wouldn't shift it by the weekend of the race, he finished but it was a hard day at the office.

Race Wheels

Kelly has just rung me to firstly complain that the baby weaning book I ordered for her last week still hasn't come but so far I have received, wheel stickers, spare chargers for the DVD players for the plane, new goggles, replacement headphones from Shure (more on that later) and my new race kit has been posted today to be here tomorrow.
So by tomorrow I will have been able to have a go at blinging up my new wheels. Tai has also sent me a load of samples for the pirates to check out as he is definately interested in getting some bulk orders going for bike stickers etc.

Logo on kit

I decided last week that I would get my kit logo'ed up with sponsor and put my name on the back, an indulgence I know but hey, payback for Phil at D&M Cycles. Marcus did a mock up on the logo for me and how it would look, I then found a place on the web and hey presto. I just had a call from Richard Stannard who runs www.nameonkit.com to say he was posting my pirate top back today and should be with me tomorrow with sponsor and name logos done, can't wait and will post that up as well.

Tracking me in the race

A few people have asked how to track me in the race, I will know nearer the time and will post a few websites up but I have a feeling that the race is streamed live and there is an athlete tracker on ironman.com

My coach

A word on Lawrence, I have been coached by Lawrence Oldershaw for many years now, we have worked together to try to target Kona and to be honest we were both surprised this year. However, just a note of thanks to him, we have worked very well over the last 4-5 weeks prepping for this, more contact than we normally have to make sure everything is right and we are well prepared for each days training, I think he is as excited as I am and it shows in the encouragement and conversations we have every other night, his website is here, to be honest needs a bit of an update but if anyone is interested in being coached it can point you in the direction you need to start.

My race number is ......

2009-09-23T21:18:00.006Z

1245

I am not a number lol, well actually I am, '1245'. I have been allocated my number for Hawaii, bit of a relief really, if you knew the process for registering for the race you would understand, by qualifying and paying for your entry you aren't actually 'in' until you complete an online entry on a date specified by them using a specific code etc etc and if its not done right you could forfeit your place. So a relief.

My week of training

I had another week off to train, bit of a confidence week again really, get some bike mileage in and not have to worry about work etc. The same thing happened as last time though, I did my training, still checked my emails 10 times a day, worked most days to clear little things I didn't want to see when I got back and I didn't get the rest I really needed. Not to worry.

I actually managed 15.5 hours training from Monday to Sunday with 2 days off. I had a rest day on the Friday as I was due to do a 50 mile TT in Yorkshire on the Saturday. I actually didn't know up until the Friday night at 9.30pm that I had a place as I was on the reserve list.
So I used the Friday as a take it easy day, we went to the cinema for the first night out in 5 months together without Teya, before the cinema, had a couple of pints and Mexican meal, very nice. During the film I got a text from the organisors of the TT saying I had a place at 14.08 the next day. Regretting the 2 pints I texted back to say thanks, see you there.
I woke up the next morning with a horrendous sore throat, running nose and headache, not a good sign, spoke to Lawrence and we decided to leave the TT and have a day off. Good decision I think, I still got a 4 hour ride in Sunday but at a leisurely pace and managed to take in 2 triathlons in Cheshire as a spectator.

How do I feel

To be honest, right this minute, like shit, but thats the cold talking, I still struggle later at night and early in the morning, all 3 of us have it and until we break the cycle its going to linger, so plenty of Vit C, plenty of water and eating sensibly, oh and keeping off the alcohol obviously.

I think so far I have had a few thought provoking moments with the training I am doing in the lead up to the race, I follow a lot of the pro's on Twitter and a couple of the AG'ers that are going as well. For anyone that knows me, really knows me, I don't do more than say 10-12 hours a week training, I may get set more by Lawrence but work or family get in the way and I survive on the good sets.

Everyone is doing loads in the build up, don't misunderstand, I don't look at Macca and think, god I must do what he is doing, but its an eye opener, and I am sure on the day when I see him go back past me on the Queen K highway at his speed I will understand why, so I have had to reel in the mental images of massive sessions over good sets and recovery.

Back to me, to be doing more than my normal 10-12 hours in between the 2 IM's I have this year is a bit alien to me, I know its an important race but I have to take a step back and say, why should I do anything different to what I normally do. Taking time off to relax before the most important race of your life is good but not to kill yourself getting in hours of training, the 2 weeks off have been beneficial.

Thoughts on the pro's

I can almost see how it would be to be a top pro with a full time job of training and recovery, but man, it must be tough most days when you know you have to go out and smack yourself to stay competitive, I can now also see the benefit of the teams that are springing up all over the pro ranks now, Team BB, ActivInstinct, etc, because to do this day in and day out on your own must be mind blowing.

Would love to see Gravesy and Chrissie paint Kona with the Union Flag (actually any Brit to be honest) but its a hard race to comprehend winning, I know Chrissie is expected to win but that must be as hard as Philip going over there as a young contender wanting to do his best with the expectation of the exceptional cyclist he is. We shall see. I have followed some of his training online and looks like he is really putting the work in, best of luck to all of our pro's.

What now ...

Well, I am back at work for the next 7 days and we are flying out on 3rd October, my mum and Roger are flying on from Spain on the Friday to join us in London and we then leave together Saturday. Its a long flight to be taking a 6 month old but we think a great experience and one which I am so glad we are doing together now. My aim is to acclimatise for a week, we have AC but I will be sleeping in the living room to make sure I get the benefit of none and Kelly and Teya have the AC to themselves, top tip apparently lol. The lads, now there are 3, will be out on Wednesday, and then Paul and Jan will be coming out on Thursday.

I hope to update my blog regularly when we are out there on a daily basis, as honestly as I can, try to give some feel for it. We will have a lot of friends who can update on the progress but now you have my mumber it will be easy.

Interesting blogs

Another couple of guys that might interest you in blog land are linked below, the first 2 are both competing at Hawaii and actually have a much more scientific basis around training, Steves blog is very interesting as he is a very good triathlete who trains some bonkers hours but has some incredible results from it, Russell I have started following recently has a very structured approach to training and results feedback and when he isn't training he is analysing a lot of info.

And last blog, a friend and Kona finisher, Rich Melik did a blog along with partner Jenny in 2006 that has helped me visualise a lot of what to expect and it worth a read. Cheers Rich

PSOF Website

JD has been working tirelessly on this for a few weeks now and has links to my blog and also a followers thread in the RW forum so a link to that is here as well for those that want to follow virtually on the day. Its here.

Right, thats it for now, back to work, well actually to sleep and then back to it tomorrow, thanks for the good wishes so far, if you want more immediate updates follow me on Twitter.

Less than 4 weeks to go .....

2009-09-16T08:29:00.008Z

Just looked at the countdown ticker which says 23 days to go, its getting very real, very quickly.

Training Update.

So, last weeks training catchup, I was working again so during the week managed around 9 hours with focus around the last 2 hour run on Friday. I decided as I was going to be missing the rest of the weekend due to travel and work I would hit it reasonably hard, 1 hour out, 1 hour back, negative split and see how it looked. Well I don't think it was that impressive, covered the 8.3 miles out and negative split on the way back by 30 secs but HR out was 156, HR back was 165. No real drama but just shows I have plenty to work on in the next year, Kona is too close to be worried about HR's now.

This week I am working Monday and Tuesday and then off for the next 7 days, 22-25 hours planned this week to Sunday for last push including a 50 mile TT in Yorkshire, I am still on the reserve list so might get in yet, if I don't I will have to do my own up and down the A49 lol !!

Fame, but still no fortune ...

I have had a piece published in the Chester Chronicle from the 3rd September, one of the guys from Chester Triathlon (Dave Taylor) is always helping to get us publicity in the local press. Still haven't got the paper copy to keep but the online link is here and apart from my crap statement about things being really 'good' its not a bad piece, I really must get my agent to quote better lines lol.

Race wheel bling.

I have been toying with what wheels to use for the race, a good friend of mine has offered to lend me his 808's but that would only be for the rear and I would use my 404 for the front. In the end I have decided to go with a 404 set up front and rear and get my own wheels blinged up with the pirate colours, they are 2004 Zipps and the stickers are looking a bit worn so emailed Tai at TaiGraphx to see what he could do, and this is the result.
They are now ordered and awaiting delivery., :-)

And finally ...

I have added my company iPSL to my short list of sponsors, this weekend iPSL put on a complete family day in Northampton with 'Its a Knockout' (to keep the adults entertained lol), kids entertainment, dodgems, food and drinks and as part of the day held a raffle. Phil at D&M Cycles put up 2 mountain bikes and alongside the many other prizes organised by iPSL, the company have offered me a portion of the raffle profit, I have no idea what this will eventually equate to but I appreciate any help in softening the blow to my credit cards for the Kona trip, so many thanks to the organising committee at iPSL and the many people who made the day a success. Myself, Kelly and Teya all travelled down on the day and by the look of the number of people involved and the many staff at the day it was a huge success.

Kona Countdown - 5 weeks

2009-09-07T16:07:00.006Z

Well this week was the 'pro' week, take the week off work and train as much as I could without trying to get injured. The idea is really to get a few more bike miles in, having the baby has really put paid to good long 4-5 hour rides that I can recover from and this has been the payoff, so a few more miles now in the run up won't do me any harm and I won't be breaking any records but its good solid endurance with some speed thrown in.

So this week has been

Monday - 4 hour bike, 70 miles inc Cat and Fiddle climb
3000m swim set
Tuesday - 2 hour rollers set working on cadence and form
3000m base build swim
Wednesday - 4 hour rolling bike, 75 miles around IMUK course, 20min brick run
3000m swim speed set
Thursday - 2 hour flat run, steady 8's offroad, keeping form
Friday - Rest Day
Saturday - 1900m swim in 30.30 - 52 mile bike in 2.20
Sunday - Work !! boo

So only about 18 hours but most of them on the bike and I also got to spend a bit more time at home with Kelly and Teya which at this time is important as she is really growing up fast.
What was a little frustrating for me was the time I wasted, finding I had more time at home meant I didn't plan effectively enough to go out and get the sessions done so I could relax and stay at home a bit more, we would get up, mess around, answer a few mails, have breakfast, then think, right must do this or that, then train. I am taking another week off in 2 weeks time and I will be more focused on that week for time and making sure I put aside specific periods of the day to train and rest.

This picture was taken by Carl Barthorpe, full credit for a superb piccie, taken just as the sun was rising over Rutland Water.
This was the triathlon highlight of the week, The Vitruvian, I was only doing the swim and bike in a relay team for Team PSOF but it was a chance to see a few old faces and some new ones as well. Myself and Debbo came 2nd team which was good in itself but it also gave me a chance to test out a 50-odd mile TT before I do one in Thirsk in a few weeks.

On a more family orientated high this week, I managed to get time to take my daughter Teya swimming for the first time, I know BAD daddy, I swim all week long and it takes me 4 months to take my own daughter !!! ;-( She absolutely loved it and it was superb to be there.

So for the rest of the this week the plan is to get back to work, train like a muggle and hit the end of the week hard, a 3 hour and a 4 hour ride on consecutive days should sort me out lol ! I have 17 hours planned, in fact the same as last week but I took 2 days off last week, no such pleasures this week, just the one day in Northampton, then back to it.

10 weeks training to Hawaii

2009-09-03T09:57:00.004Z

From IMUK to Kona its 10 weeks, the plan is to do it this way,

1 week total rest - stock up lager levels and generally eat well
3 weeks of build back to a level where I can function at the right HR's again.
3 weeks of moderate volume with a bit of speed and intensity.
3 weeks normal taper.

Week 1 - well that is going to go well all day long, never got a problem drinking and eating, job well done

Week 2 - 6 hours
Week 3 - 9.5 hours
Week 4 - 8 hours

This was a bit like starting again after Xmas and New Year, sluggish and with mixed emotion, I know I have to get fit again as I have one final goal this year but I would normally have gone into post season meltdown. I enjoyed the riding but with the foot injury the rest off running is making it worse each time I go back to it as I want to run faster but have to resist.

In amongst all of this was work which entailed a major project on week 3 and working away each week for 2 days. Normally I would run while I am away but thats hard to do when you are trying to build one day and recover the next.

Week 4 had no Saturday training as we were at Wembley all day watching Warrington Wolves win the Carnegie Cup, however getting up on the Sunday after for a 3 hour ride just goes to prove how evil beer is lol !!

So we are now up to date and the next 6 weeks will be updated on a more regular basis with better info on training. I have decided to take 2 weeks off work over a 3 week period to train and recover full time, its more about getting the confidence in the longer rides than trying to gain much in this short space of time. We'll see how it goes.

Hawaii Roll Down - The aftermath

2009-08-26T21:03:00.007Z

I think the night before and up until we got to the Bolton Arena in my mind I wanted it very badly that I couldn't show excitement in case it didn't happen again, our AG only had at this point 2 slots and I was 6th, thats a long way to roll.

On the other hand, if I did go, this was going to be expensive and could we afford it ?? the dilemma was don't wish too hard, it might come true lol !!

Sat at the table in the awards ceremony I was still trying to put across to anyone that was paying attention that it couldn't possibly roll down to me but actually I was hoping like mad inside that it would.

I had found out the night before that 2nd place Anthony Hough wasn't taking his place, we then found out that Mark Stenning in 1st in my AG wasn't going to take his via the power of the blogs. That meant I only needed one more.

Let me briefly take you back to the night after the race and the next morning, the conversation was played out more than once with Kelly, we really didn't plan for it this year, really, not that I couldn't do it if I had a good race but I was resigned to the fact that 2 slots just wasn't enough (we ended up with 3 at the end) but we inevitably had the conversation regarding 'what if ....'

We had a 3 month old child and it was a long way, it was too expensive for both of us to go and my mate Phil had already said he was going, nope, Kelly had decided it wasn't for her, she had seen me qualify and was happy with it, and plus she had heard Kona wasn't as good as other IM's (really ? lol !!) At the end of the day we didn't have the money but if I really wanted to go then she would be happy to let me.

Fast forward to the 30 secs before our slots are read out, 2 guys are on the stage, so I know Anthony was genuine about not going from 2nd place, now what. Mark declined ..., I needed one more. Javier takes his place in 3rd, lots of cheering, he was a friend of the guy that ran 38 miles the day before after taking in an extra loop of Bolton, lots of mirth over that one !

Then 4th, he wasn't there, it was like a false relief, a flood gate even but on slow release, then it started to build, I had wanted it for so long but still couldn't believe it was actually happening, I hadn't planned it like this, we had planned to qualify the year before and have loads of time to train again and save up, well you know what, f*ck it, I stood up and said yes.

I really had only thought about the here and now, the money it was costing me for the slot, nothing more, that was a bad thing, in my mind I thought, if it gets too expensive at the end of the day I didn't have to actually go, I could just lose the £350 for the slot. OMG, no, did I really say that out loud, what a disgrace to the triathlete world that would be, how could I take a slot and then not go and take it away from the person behind me, no, I would find a way.

So, we are now 3 weeks later and this is the current situation.

Kelly and Teya are both going, yes, the once in a lifetime has been realised by Kelly and she wouldn't miss it for the world, it didn't take too much persuading to be honest, my Mum and husband Roger are coming, Phil and Blairy, two good friends are also going. Thats my own entourage, how fantastic to have family and friends so far around the world when you compete in something so great.

What makes this year an even better year to qualiy is I have a number of really good friends that will be there too, there is Jill and Andy Wilkinson, Jill qualified at Florida, she is a member of Chester Triathon Club and they are both good friends.

Jeff and Julie Nagle, Jeff is one of my great training partners and very good friend, they were always travelling to support Jill but Jeff was doing IM Switzerland and I hoped would qualify as well but not this time. In their entourage is their two mates and then Jills sister Carolyn and friend Sian - who I also know.

And then finally, my long time friend from Ireland, Mark Riseley and his partner Una will also be there, Mark qualified in Germany with a storming 9.18. Its also his swansong and will be good to be on the start line with him.

We have the condo, the car, the flights and the travel arrangements sorted, it took a while but we are there, its not the cheapest thing I have ever had to arrange at short notice but I am selling stuff in the house like mad and doing overtime when it comes up, by hook or by crook we will be going and it won't be hanging over us for years. I want to enjoy this for all the right reasons and getting there is step one.

Lastly a few thoughts about the rolldown and how I feel, last year I missed the slots by 2, the year before by 1, both would have been a rolldown anyway and I said I wanted to qualify by right, I still hold by that, I would have loved to have come second or third in my AG this year but it didn't happen, I am forever grateful that I have the chance and sorry for the guys that aren't going for their own reasons (Anthony has a child due in October and I wish them all the very best) at the end of the day I didn't really hesitate to take the slot rolled down and I was hoping by all the gods that 4th or 5th wasn't there, maybe I got lucky, I think you make your own, I made mine by getting up that morning and going to the ceremony, talk about being the right place at the right time wooohoooo !!!!!!!

I will update next about the training planned.

Ironman UK 2009

2009-08-13T20:47:00.007Z

Ironman UK – Bolton 2nd August 2009

Race report

Swim - 1:07:21
T1: Swim-to-Bike - 5:11
Bike – 5:35:53
T2: Bike-to-Run – 4:21
Run – 3:21:53
Finish time – 10:14:40
Overall position - 33 of 1370
Age Group (35-39) Position - 6 of 254

Pre Race

Firstly lets get the bags of sand out of the way, I have even had this from Kelly because I played this year down, we (Kelly) had our baby daughter 15 weeks ago, a lot of people said to me at the time, ‘Oh that’ll be the end of the training for IM, responsibility is the baby now’, Well, at the start, not really, the baby was in a good routine so getting an hour swim or turbo or run was easy, it could be planned, it was just a case of making sure I scheduled it in. The longer rides in the early stages were OK as well, people wanted to visit, so I set off on 4-5 hour rides and as long as I wasn’t leaving them on their own I was OK.
Well I am sure it was Rosey denial but I merrily went along with this for a good few weeks until one day it came back to bite me, Kelly saw her ar5e big style, and with good reason, when I initially signed up last year I said I would fit the training in with the baby and I was now pushing my limits, I was neglecting my responsibilities and I needed to sort it out, so gradually IMUK became just a race to do, a ‘B’ race as it were, I was looking forward to it, no pressure, for me, I wasn’t bike fit for IM endurance but I was loving 1/2 IM racing as this was the core training I was doing. I was getting good 2-3 hour hard rides in and this extra time I wasn’t on the bike I was working on my running.
I did a few early sprints, couple of top tens, couple of half’s (Bala and Eastnor) and good results there as well. Come the IM, I was pretty chilled about it and although was still in serious mood (shaved legs/haircut/full bike service etc) I had no expectations, I wasn’t IM trained and there was only 2 slots in my AG, it was a no brainer.
The only deviation in my head from how I felt was that I always ‘race’, I love to race and this lack of preparation wasn’t going to stop me, in the days leading up to the race I think I told a couple of people I was going to ‘smack’ it on race day and see what happened.

Race Day.

Pre race prep for me is pretty standard, get up, eat brekkie, baguette with ham and jam, malt loaf, drink coffee, couple of energy bars and then sip weak Hi5 til 30 mins before the off.
This year being in Bolton it was a little weird driving to the start but it seemed to work out well, plenty of time to do what we do well, faff. I sorted out the bike with gels, check tyres, fill bottles and put shoes on with elastic bands in the right place.
I caught up with a few people I knew in transition but kept it to general chit chat, no one likes an over enthusiastic triathlete first thing in the morning, smile and be supportive, if someone is looking nervous, don’t make them worse, that sort of thing. The usual trip to the portaloos and then I was done. The guy on the tannoy was beginning to annoy me so I settled into getting my kit together, put on my wettie and join the throng to get down to the water. This was about the worst organised part of the day for me, stood around waiting for someone to open the gate to let 1500 swimmers into the water led to a 10 min delay to the start. It didn’t make many around me happy but we just had a few jokes with the guys near me and tried not to wee in our suits on dry land (unsuccessfully if I remember !! lol)

Swim

Had a quick hello with Capt Morgan on the way into the water when he got this picture, how does anyone look good in one of these things !!

I left everyone I know to get to the front, far enough right not to be in the fast swimmers way, got to bear in mind the front line are looking at 55mins and I am not, no need to be a hero. We ended up treading water and getting cold for about 15 minutes before someone had the decency to sound the horn, I never heard it but everyone started to swim so I just went with it, the swim was 2 loops up and down the Rivington Reservoir.
The only time I had any issues was at the first turn, took my usual wide berth of around 3 metres but everyone else had the same thought, I am sure there was no one by the buoy !! I also thought I saw the familiar windmill action of one of my mates who I didn’t realise was doing the race, Jase, so I thought, right I will get on his legs, he’s an hour swimmer, draft all the way around. Just as I tried to get closer to him I got a smack in the face to remind me I was still on the outside of the throng and if I wanted to get to the inside line of buoys I was going to have to fight for it, that knocked me off stroke for a few seconds and by the time I recovered he had made 10 metres on me so I didn’t bother, this was just as well as on the first ascent of SHL Jason was supporting on the first bend, so it wasn’t him anyway lol.

I did find myself following one of the tips I picked up earlier in the season, at each turnaround flex the feet at the ankle so you don’t get cramp on the end of the swim, I noticed my calves were tight so I did this at each white buoy, I knew we had to run up a steep hill after the swim so I was keen to keep flexing, no cramp so it might have worked but who knows.
The rest of the swim was quite smooth, I think I fought the water down to the second turn around and then the next lap I was in my stride, the buoys seemed to be moving with the wind which can be seen on this photo (should be a straight line from white buoy to white buoy) which looks like it contributed to the slower swim times but I just went from buoy to buoy so it never really bothered me. Round the last white buoy for the second time felt great, then I just headed to the slipway, it wasn’t clear if this was the way to go but I just followed others.

T1

I have done some long transitions (IM Wisconsin) so this wasn’t a problem for me, people get caught up in how much time they will lose, it’s the same for everyone, just get in, get changed and get out. The problem here was the uncarpeted 80metre steep slope that had to be climbed first and then the dash another 200m across concrete to the transition, hard on the feet but all I could concentrate on was the superb crowds at the entrance to T1, just made me think, actually this is going to be a great day, the support was already out in force and I love support, big smile as I entered T1. Just kept thinking ‘where did all these people come from !!’ WOW

What had been a mystery to work out in the days before was now simple, the route to the bikes, marshalls guided you to your bags, into the tent, throw everything on the floor and get out of wetsuit, I decided on arm warmers but no gilet, it was cool but not cold, just perfect in fact. Helper finished packing my stuff and I set off. The transition had been drenched in the days leading up to the event. They had put matting down but I was soon running through inches of mud, I had prepared an extra bottle on the bike to carry to the exit and wash down my feet before getting on the bike which worked a treat. I decided to go with the popular ‘running jump’ start, BIG MISTAKE !!
I use a rear seat bottle carrier and I never quite managed to get my leg over !! 2 bottles straight onto the floor and now look a complete idiot, calm down, pick up bottles, climb on bike, set off, no damage done.

Bike

The bike course was a 3 lap route tracing out a scenic if undulating course around Lancashire and touching into Cheshire I think, as I came out of T1 I knew the padowen (Nam) was on the first bend, she gave a great smile and wave and was then drowned out by the rest of the supporters on that corner, loads of people, this was seriously going to lift people, down to the reservoir and up to Sheep House lane for the first time, I still couldn’t believe the support, it was ace, I had decided to spin up the whole hill, so I started to drop the gears one by one as the cadence dropped until I was in the 2nd or 3rd lowest cog I had, sit down and spin, you will need it later, no need to showboat because of the massive crowds.

I was obviously surrounded by a few more experienced IM’ers as no one really shot past in the early stages, most content with spinning knowing it was going to be tougher later. The climb was well supported again and lots of familiar faces and shouts, thanks. My first hairy moment came on the bottom of Sheep House Lane as it turns into Belmont, I know my bike handing is fine but I wasn’t prepared for them to have cut the exit onto the main road in half, I was coming in WAY too fast, cones in the middle of the left lane meant I had two choices, shoot straight through into the house on the other side and hope I miss the cars or brake hard, I chose option 2 and proceeded to skid round the corner, through the cones and just released the brakes to keep the momentum going up the hill, no cars, job done, won’t be doing THAT second time round.

First loop was to be done to HR, around 140, problem was it wasn’t working, or it was but I was lying down in bed, 45bpm, then 80, then 110, then 50. Bollox, it wasn’t working, so I had to go on feel and keep trying to adjust the belt to get it back, it did eventually start reading something around what I might expect but never for long periods so I resigned myself to picking a speed and maintaining it but going on feel for the hills. The support was great in the villages, the locals were out, a few thumbs up, smiled a lot and generally chilled, my knee issue had come back for the first 15 miles but I knew if I just persevered with it, it would go, I really need to learn to stretch as part of my training !!
I managed to maintain a good pace for most of the first lap, spinning up hills, picking off the good swimmers and not being passed by anyone for ages. First lap was done in around 1.45 which included the messing around outside T1 so I was happy. The ‘pirate’ corner at the start of lap 2 was a bit more energetic (read – disturbing) this time round, SA was there in full voice with a huge flag and lots of energy, I thought he was going to run into me at one point as I turned the corner he was being so animated, just picture one of the really vocal supporters with a huge flag on Mt Ventoux this year at the tour and you are nearly there, what a lift, the amount of people was great, all lined up round the corner, loads of noise and plenty of encouragement, I smiled all the way down the hill each time to then get another boost at the café end where the other large crowd was.
A few of the Chester guys had camped at the bottom of SHL this time round and plenty of banter exchanged, then the shout I didn’t expect from the Warrington lot, Steve shouted’ you’re about 20th, come on, doing well !’ I think my facial expression said a thousand words so he repeated himself. This was in my mind for the rest of the climb, I still decided to spin up the hill as I wasn’t being passed by anyone and now I felt lifted but somewhat concerned as I might decide to be more competitive, so I reigned the thoughts in and set off up the hill, the support at the corner of SHL near the top was great and the pirate top gets loads of shouts, I even had Jase run with me for a bit, it was TT corner as well which was even more impressive, loads of good cheering, plenty more smiles from me.

The corner into Belmont was a little slower this time but as I exited and started to climb I heard a pop from the front wheel, to begin with it sounded like a puncture but the tyre wasn’t going down so I just kept going, then I heard a ‘ting’, ‘ting’, ‘ting’ against the frame and had to stop.
I had snapped a spoke, no problem, just break it off !! lol, what a palaver, the spoke isn’t fixed at the hub so it just kept twisting, I was getting nowhere and I was getting more frustrated as the 5 or so faster guys I had passed in the previous lap were disappearing off into the sunset.
Someone came over to help after a few mins and held the bike, he suggested wrapping it around another spoke, which I ignored as I was still trying to yank the spoke thru the hub like an idiot, he helpfully suggested it again a minute later, so I stopped panicking and wrapped it carefully around the nearest spoke.
Sorted, cheers mate, span the wheel to check it didn’t hit the forks and the wheel didn’t spin, it was buckled, only 16 spokes on the front meant it was holding a lot of pressure, so I had to release the front brake completely and try again, sorted but buckled, that will do. Thanked the guy, he pushed me off and I set about chasing down the other 5-10 who had passed me.
This was probably the reason I didn’t loose too much time on this lap but loads on the last, I went too hard, I was determined to get back my position, I managed to claw back around 3 places I lost and then calmed down, getting off had aggravated the knee and I knew I needed to conserve energy.
Lap 3 started with the great crowd again at Rivington, the support all the way up the hill was less populated but still vocal, I grabbed 4 bottles at the top of SHL as I had dropped both bottle at the last aid station immediately after picking them up, just as well the aero bottle was full at the time or I might have struggled.

Lap 3 was a nightmare, people have said what a good bike leg I had, well you should have been there on lap 3. This is what I was afraid of from the start, lack of solid endurance, I was also paying for chasing the guys down on lap 2, the wind had picked up and I was feeling shite, thoughts creeping in of blowing up and me just saying ‘well, you told people it wouldn’t be fast this year !!’ I decided to do a couple of things, try to keep eating gels, it was hard but I needed to be fit for the run, try to maintain my position in the race and on the bike and never give up. It was hard but the last thing was the most important, I pushed harder on the flats and downhills but rested on the uphills. I got to see Kelly and family at Pepper Street and that lifted me but I was really fading, I had 10 miles of the lap to go and I needed another pee, this was a good excuse to ease off, hill after hill I tried, they weren’t long enough to get the free wheel I needed, I was slowing up, then climbing, them slowing, eventually I got off, threw my bike down and tried to pee, and waited, and waited …. Nothing, shit, get back on the bike, wait until T2.
I knew I was OK but it took a few short sharp words to myself to deflect the anger of losing time to a school boy error and just get on with it. Coming up the last set of hills with 2 miles to go I was passed by a train of 4 riders, pacing each other and going past like I was walking, I let them go and said I know have a target for the run, this was were I was abused again by a few of the pirate massive haha

the final ride past Rivington corner was superb, pirate support was great, SA screaming like a banshee, Mike and Emma were at the main road, it was over and I really needed a sit down.

T2

All I wanted to do in T2 was rest, I was goosed. The crowds at the entrance to the farm road were great, as I entered the catchers were there for the bikes, Neil gave me a good shout and encouragement, I couldn’t see many bikes so I was lifted again but this was going to be hard
I picked up bag and ran to tent, emptied all of the stuff on the floor, I wanted to wear my compression socks and decided this was the best way to rest but pretend to be doing a normal transition, recovery was quick, by the time I had got hat, glasses and socks on I felt better, jumped in the loo on the way out to make sure I was refreshed and off. More good encouragement by Neil who reckoned my picnic in T2 was gonna let Phil catch me up, I didn’t have the heart or the time to tell him he wasn’t going to finish as I had seen him on the bike course supporting on lap 3 !

Run

Getting into a stride normally takes me about 2 miles, I suffer the legs and back till I get my heart rate down and then stop for 20 secs to stretch, coming out of the farm again it was going to be tough to stop, the cheers to encourage you were deafening, Mike and Emma were still there and they were shouting some great words of encouragement again, small collision with a marshall at the turnaround and back past the farm, Marc found me then and ran with me for 100m finding out how I was, I used it to bring down the HR a bit more and then he was gone and I started to concentrate.
I was still confused by the run layout but had decided not to bother with a recce, one cos I couldn’t find the course and secondly, on the day I was just going to follow the directions.
The course was a ‘virtual’ 3 laps, which I prefer, out, back and then out to finish suited me as mentally when I got back to the crown I was 2/3rds of the way there.
Brian and Diane were at the downhill before the Crown the first time and yet another ‘you are about 30th’ shout meant not everyone could be wrong, so I started to count people passing me and being past to try to keep my place.
My Garmin was registering the pace and HR so I wasn’t bothered by the lack of mile markers, just try to hold HR, which was now working and keep a good pace..
My pace was steady on the way to Queens Park, seemed to be more downhill overall on the way out along the main road which was good for leg 3 but not the return, the problem was the extra hills that kept cropping up. Steep declines and rises off the main road and back to it meant the rhythm was disprupted. And then Queens Park !! whoever thought of that needs shooting, down to the marshall, struggle up to the feedstation dead turn, back down to the marshall and then down again to another dead turn and then back to the main road, I had to run walk.
There was a lot more people on the course now, I continued my strategy of gels every 35 mins, in the aid station take water and 2 cokes and make sure you get it down you, this meant power walking for 20 secs each time as it was getting warm and I didn’t want to miss anything. I think I only broke this rule once and missed the coke as I didn’t shout early enough, school boy error again, fuel is important – slow down !!

Saw loads of friends on the way back to the Crown, the only real incident was a driver pulling out looking the other way and I had to jump across his bonnet while shouting obscenities, I felt really bad but he really could have caused me serious damage, those thoughts went as I got a few shouts of encouragement from the next pub about how I told him good and proper !! pmsl for the next mile.
At the turnaround it was the party atmosphere again, great feeling, marshalls gave great encouragement and I spotted a familiar face, Calf. I caught him up and started goading him about free beer that he was going to owe me, he had done an IM 3 weeks previous and I think it was showing, we ran together for a bit until a mate of his came past on an MTB, before I knew it he was off into the sunset using the pace of the bike, it shows how much of a lift that can be as 10 mins later without his mate I passed him again as he had settled back into a rhythm of his own, I said I would wait for him at the end with a beer and he gave me a good shout to keep going.
I was counting down the miles, thinking about the hills in Queens Park and not quite knowing what to expect, the extra runners on the course made for good targets, my mates were all at the first road drop onto the canal path and got a great shout, not far to go.
I decided I could wait til 6 miles out to really push, the 20 mile mark is a great feeling and I still felt OK, hip hurt, ankle hurt and I was slowing a little but I felt fine, last gel at 21 and I mentally set off again harder than before.
Coming into Queens Park all I could think about was were the hell am I going, I started to call out to each marshall as I got to them where the finish was so I didn’t get misdirected, all clear responses back, I had another loop of QP to do. The Chester guys were at the bottom along with a few of the COLT guys giving support, when I got the top end Emma was there, apparently I was 5th or 6th , looking good but I needed to step on it as I was being chased, my watch said 1.8 miles to go so it was going to be a long last stretch but I liked my position and wanted to keep it.
Thanks to Emma and set off down the hill, more shouts of well done pirate and Rosey, still confused about where to go but went with the directions, then the greatest shout of the day, I still had 1.6 miles to go on my watch but the marshall shouts ‘Only 0.7 to go !’ OMG, fantastic
I knew I was being tracked but I didn’t know how far and I never look back, so I cheated lol, I shouted at the next marshall to tell me how far behind he was, ’50 meters’ that was enough for me, it was the South African guy I had passed 2 miles ago and he shouldn’t be there and I hadn’t checked his AG, so I sprinted, no really, I set off like a stung horse.

The finish was great to see, it was long road once you turned onto the main entrance, I was powering up the hill and started to look behind me, he wasn’t chasing too hard but I couldn’t stop now, kids were trying to high five as we started through the long line of barriers, I missed the first group only to get booed, haha, so I started to high 5 after that. The relief coming up the carpet shows in my picture and for a brief couple of mins all of the pain left me, the noise was great, I could hear Whit calling my name and the pirate top was mentioned and then it was all over, 10.14, why I was disappointed for a second I don’t know but I knew it was a tough day so it didn’t last long, I just needed to lie down, so I did lol.

Aftermath

I still had no idea where I was in the field but I knew I had done well, the dream of Hawaii is always there in the back of my mind and even more so now I thought I had done OK. There was only 2 slots in my AG so there wasn't any hope surely, I had missed this for the last 2 years by minutes and the odd slot, this was too far again really.
I found out pretty quickly I was 33rd overall which I was astounded at, it had been the run, it is normally waekerr than the bike but not this time, the extra miles had paid off. I met Kelly who had stayed at the finish line and got a great spot as I had come in and some great pictures, she was so proud and her family who had come to watch were very supportive and loved all of the day, Bolton had put on a show for those not normally associated with this type of thing and it had worked for the non athletes following me so I was buoyed by this as well.
There was so much anticipation about the Monday roll down it was a bit of a haze, we arrived early as it doesn't matter how much you tell yourself it won't happen, I was still hoping. We found out that the M70-74 guy hadn't finished so we now had 3 slots. I had come home in 6th so still a long shot.
I had read the night before that number 2 was going to reject, then on the Monday 10 mins before it got to our rolldown someone on Twitter said that number 1 was going to reject, I just needed one more.
Well come in lucky number 4 !!!!!! I was in 6th but at this point I nearly wet my pants, the last 3 years just came flooding back in around 20 secs of 'OMG, what do I do now ??' I didn't really have much of a choice, both in my mind and everyone of my mates sat with me.

It was never anything other than ...... 'Nick Rose, do you want your slot ?'

YES !!!!

Thanks to everyone on the day, it was orsum to wear the pirate top, what I didn't realise was the overwhelming partisan crowd that basically all knew the pirates, and for all on here, the virtual support was amazing, thanks, the texts of congratulations after the awards, I am still replying now.

There is also one other person I want to say a special thanks to and thats Phil, owner of D&M Cycles. I refer to him as my 'sponsor', I am not good enough to be sponsored as it were but he looks after me like I am, servicing my bike, supplying my fuel at cost and generally giving me credit terms on kit I need that would send his bank manager to an early grave. He is a great source of encouragement when I don't want to go swimming in the morning and also a bad influence when I do want to go to the pub in the evening, publically I want to say thanks, your help is well appreciated.

And to Kelly, as always xx

The Cheshire Triathlon 2009

2009-06-12T20:42:00.003Z

Another sprint, this time to get one in the bag for the Chester Tri summer league, its one of the downsides of being a long distance athlete that in our summer league you need 3 events to count as an average percentage for the year, each 1/2 IM counts as only one (your best) and the IM is the same. But thrown in the pot is a number of sprints and Olympics, so pick one and theres the 3.

Another well run event, this time the swim another 500m effort was outside in a brine pool, not too bad, 16 lengths of the 33m pool. The bike course is well known to me and fairly mundane with a good blast on the home stretch, the run again was off road.
Great support by the pirates (after I had finished) they were all in bed lol, I had an early start ! Pleased with result as wanted Top 10.

Position First Name Last Name Sex swim split bike split run split total time
1 CHRIS JOYCE Male 23 00:06:06 00:34:03 00:17:55 00:58:04
2 Nick Riding Male 33 00:06:49 00:32:44 00:18:31 00:58:04
3 Marc Laithwaite Male 37 00:07:45 00:32:51 00:17:31 00:58:07
4 Ian Roberts Male 29 00:07:23 00:33:29 00:17:39 00:58:31
5 Tim Johns Male 42 00:07:43 00:34:21 00:18:20 01:00:24
6 Andy Bentley Male 43 00:07:19 00:34:23 00:18:45 01:00:27
7 Anthony Hough Male 35 00:08:16 00:33:07 00:19:54 01:01:17
8 Dominic Sanderson Male 29 00:06:47 00:37:30 00:17:07 01:01:24
9 Nick Rose Male 38 00:08:07 00:34:05 00:19:19 01:01:31

Nice picture of me here but once again copyrighted so I won't infringe.

Event is well supported and one of the biggest in the area, Vic Bickertons lot do run races well and have done for a few years now, if you can get your head round the brine pool its a good beginner event as well as a good blast for the faster guys.

Anfield B.C. 100 mile TT

2009-05-25T20:34:00.000Z

Well, what can I say about time trials, before this nothing as I had never done one, so 100 miles for the first, tough, mentally tough, took a lot to keep my form on the aero bars, still didn't manage it but after 3 hours straight I wasn't really used to it and started to fidget, arms ached, back ached, pointless wearing an earo helmet if you are going to keep looking down at your Garmin as well !!

My best piccie for this is here and even though I am not publishing it I will give credit to Kimroy for the picture, may even buy it myself lol !

My Garmin output is here, pretty even race, did the 50 in 2.17 and finished in 4hours 33mins on my clock. Would have liked faster but a few more 50;s and I might stand a better chance of pacing it harder and smarter.

Lymm Sprint Triathlon 2009

2009-05-05T20:08:00.001Z

The first tri of the year for me and as it was close decided to do Lymm as a warm up. Can't stand pool swims but needs must this early in the season, not being the best swimmer when I haven't got a wetsuit on does make a difference !! As proved by Chris taking 2 minutes out of me in 500 metres !!

Results are here

Result for me was 6th.

Pos Forename Surname Gender Swim Bike Run Total Time
1 Chris Standidge Male 0:06:40 0:41:52 0:17:17 1:07:39
2 RogerWitz Barnes Male 0:06:27 0:42:27 0:17:47 1:08:35
3 Alan Copland Male 0:06:55 0:43:22 0:17:31 1:09:28
4 Beau Smith Male 0:06:07 0:43:52 0:17:46 1:10:16
5 Christian Preece Male 0:07:42 0:46:35 0:17:14 1:13:14
6 Nick Rose Male 0:08:34 0:44:42 0:19:37 1:14:41

Overall I thought the event was well run, its a small town/village and there seemed to be a good amount of advertising on the web from the local community, the marshalls were very helpful, if sometimes a little preoccupied lol !! huddled down out of the wind on one of the junctions made me laugh. Results out pretty quickly and the attitude of the organisors very good for a beginners triathlon, very friendly, would recommend.

Back again !!

2009-04-06T21:16:00.002Z

Right back to the land of the blog, will be updating this again with various exploits over the next few months, have been busy with training and the baby is almost here, due tomorrow to I am assuming like all good first children it won't be on time.
More to follow.

Four Villages Half Marathon 2009- Helsby.

2009-01-19T09:35:00.005Z

Great weather, good turnout from Chester Tri and loads of good support, thanks. pic courtesy of A.White.

Well done to the D&M Cycles runners as well, everyone put in a solid run and beat their targets.

Time : 1.37.03, bit down on last year but OK for this time of year.

Pregnant ? Yep, 3 month scan.

2008-09-23T12:55:00.003Z

Apologies to those that have RSS feeds to this and expect triathlon chat all the time. This ones off topic.

This is the 3 month scan, everything healthy, fingers crossed, and yes, there is only one for those hoping for our lives to be even more turned upside down than they already will be.

No idea on sex or names but just checking all is OK. Mum is doing fine and not moaning too much yet but I am sure thats to come. ;-)

IMOO Race Day. Race report.

2008-09-09T23:33:00.020Z

OK, so its now Tuesday so I have had a few days to let things calm down and soak in. I am still in a little pain (read, lots of pain, legs are killing me !!) This is a long report as usual with a few pictures. At least you don't need the build up this time as the blog has been continuous.

Can I also just say this is an AMAZING event to do, they had 3500 volunteers and the day couldn't have been organised better in my eyes, I loved the day, the course was tough but fair, the spectators superb and at the right locations at the right time. Wisconsin is beautiful and the race exploits the chance to show outsiders what else there is outside of the town of Madison.
Kelly loved the US for a race and we will be back to do others, I only wished I had others to race with as thats what makes it special for me on race day.

Race morning.

The hotel wasn't doing breakfast early enough so I had my pre bought Subway ham sandwich and banana washed down with Gatorade Extreme and a chocolate Hi5 sports bar. Tried to do this by 4.30 so I could settle down and get my swim clothing ready and hopefully go to the toilet at the hotel rather than queue up for ages at the race venue.
We had sneakily left our car at the Monona terrace the night before as there was no parking allowed on the day, as long as it didn't get towed it would give Kelly somewhere to sleep and rest during the long day instead of having to come back to the hotel each time. This worked a treat as she could uses it to drop gear as well and after the race I got to load everything including bike into it.
So we got on the bus laid on for the athletes and I was setting up my bike within 30 mins, very well organised and painless. It was very busy at 5.30am, so we made sure we got some scenery in as well.

Got myself changed and down to the swim start, due to the small entrance into the water they try to get you in really early, the pro's were going off at 6.50am but I was in the water from 6.40am, the bonus was I went straight to the ski ramp and hung on for 19 mins otherwise I would have been knackered.

Swim.
The start can be a bit frenetic ...

Doesn't look a lot of people but it felt tight ...

I think Kelly has captured the swim course here which shows the rectangle course..

The swim start plan was to swim from the water-ski ramp and try and get a free spot as soon as we swam past it, I was kicked in my right ankle 3 secs after we started which I felt the whole day, it didn't affect the race at all but gave me something to think about for the next hour. The unusual feature of this IM swim is the continuous swim too, no rest after the first lap and no beach run.
My breathing was pretty steady even though I got beat about for the first 1000m, nothing untoward, I was trying to just swim long which isn't easy when you are being swum over but after the first 1000m I found a bit of space and the rest of the swim was pretty lightweight to be honest, it got a little bit more physical in the last 600m but that was because by that time I had got to the inside line and was protecting my drafts. I forgot to check the clock as I exited as I wanted to get my wetsuit off before I got to the suit strippers but I was out in 1.01, I don't think I will ever be happy until I get a 58min swim but I will take it here. From looking at the pro and fast AG's times it looks a pretty accurate course.

T1

What can you say about the transition area, except its, well large. You get to the strippers after about 100m, then you run up 3 stories of this

which is a 3 storey car park ramp with lots of support on it, spectators pack this out like a TdeF styley hill which is quite cool as your heart rate is sky rocketing and you are wondering why the run started so early ! This takes forever, then in through the doors of the convention centre to Room 1, pick up bag, run out to room 2, helper shouts at me, I sit down, dump my stuff and put everything on, grab water on the way out, exit the convention centre and towards the long bike park, Kelly is shouting at me so I give a wave and continue. The actual bike area is massive so its a bit bambi like in the shoes but by the time I get to my bike, its already waiting and then handed to me.

Time in transition is 6 mins, over the moon, my target was 7, which means I am now back on track for being out on the bike in 1.07 ;-)

Bike

I thought the weather today was going to be pretty much perfect for the bike, its not too hot, can't feel too much breeze and I feel good, haha, shame I didn't have a crystal ball.
After exiting the helix you go about a mile before you hit the 'no pass' zone which lasts about 3/4 mile and gives you a chance to get the hear rate down, this didn't really happen and that pretty much set the tone for the first lap. I should have been down to around 140-145 but was still at 155+ after 10 miles, I knew the course was tough and the hard parts were still to come. The course layout is a 14 mile ride out to a 42 mile loop that you do twice and then return. Its described as tough, rolling with 3 main climbs on each of the 42 mile loops. To be honest the climbs aren't really the issue, its the fact that there are continuous hills in between the climbs ! This is the elevation from my Garmin.

The first lap I was constantly looking at my speed, the plan was to get above 20.6 mph, that gives me a 5.25 split and then I could hit the run aiming at a sub 3.30. Problem was I was feeling good and after the first lap I was still averaging 21.7 which is more like 5.08. The climbs were slow and steady but not tough and the down hills were great, the undulating in between bits were OK, I started to think why did I even consider this course as a beast, this was easy. I got to the second main climb on the first lap and some guy shouted that I was 60th, that lifted me, I was feeling OK but cos I was pushing so hard I at least wanted to know it was worth it, and now it was.

Coming through Verona for the next lap I was hoping Kelly had managed to get the free shuttle bus put on the for the supporters, as I cruised down the main street I saw her in her pirate top shouting, I felt good to know she was OK and out on the course, right, next lap.

At this point the wind was starting to pick up and as I left Verona the first signs of going out too hard were starting to show, slight head wind and slight uphill and the speed was coming down to 18mph, I suppose if I had used power I would have realised that this wasn't an issue as the course conditions were getting worse. I was still fuelling well but coming to the end of my own gels I grabbed a couple off one of the feed stations and used one straight off, chocolate, lol, I nearly puked there and then, I forgot Powerbar made chocolate and latte gels and I hadn't used them before, I just rinsed my mouth with water and carried on, must remember to grab more than 2 and hope I get a plain one next time.

After about another 5 or so miles I started feeling a pain in my right knee, its the 'no ACL' knee so it sometimes gives me jip, just not in a race, its wierd, all I have to do it twist the knee so it clicks and releases the pain but it took me 10 miles to decide to get off and waste a minute with my feet on the floor, this also gave me a chance to get my heart rate down as well, in fact it was then that I realised that my HR was already down, I felt like I was pushing hard and my legs were in pain in the quads but my heart rate was around the 135 mark, the only way I could get it to the right level on the final stretch was going up hill and even then it wasn't high enough, I still don't know what was wrong, but I knew I just wanted to get off and the end couldn't come soon enough, the average was dropping as the wind was increasing, downhills were becoming hairier, riding a disc and 808 made some of the descents uncomfortable but the speed was needed to get up the other sides so I couldn't really back off.

The second loop completed , it was the final 14 miles home, this was a blessing as most of it was with the wind and I needed the help, I started to think of the run, I knew my legs were hurting but I also knew that different muscles were gonna come into play now so I was still positive. As we hit the 'no pass' zone again on the way home I passed a guy running with his bike, shoes off and a flat front tyre, we must have had 2 miles still to go, he was either not thinking straight or had run out of tubes, I felt for him but couldn't help so just kept on. I must pray to the Tri Gods a number of times a race not to have punctures and got back to T2 this time in one piece.

My time was 5.15, which I was over the moon with, I had averaged 21.6 at Roth which is a lightening fast course supposedly but I made it 3 miles short so this was way better as the course was 112.5, just needed to bang out a sub 3.30 now.

T2

The second transition isn't as bad as the first as we get to cycle up the helix on the way, in, the bike was taken off me and I was sent into the convention centre, pick up bag in one room and then to the next room, dump my stuff, the guy says I am in the top 40-50 which makes me feel good, glasses, hat, trainers, socks and out. As you exit the centre I was jumped on by about 8 girls who covered me in suntan cream, fantastic and then into the toilet. time was just over 3 mins, again, happy.

Run.

Starting out at whatever pace comes means that if I start quick I can bank a few minutes, the pace is about 7.15's but I know I need to stop to stretch out my back as I did in Roth so I did this early. The pain in my back lasted about 3-4 miles but didn't really slow me. The course is fairly flat except for a significant climb each lap, it takes in the best of Madison town and we even get to run around the pitch at the famous Camp Randall college ground twice, this was orsum !!

obviously it wasn't full but it is HUGE !!

At mile 5 and 18 we got to run up Observatory Hill, this was steep and was going to hurt so I power walked up it both times, this was my plan before I started and I didn't feel like it made a huge difference in time and I don't run uphills too well anyway so worked for me. I was trying to stay under the 8 mins per mile pace which before the end of the first lap started to slip away from me around mile 11, it heads uphill in the last 2 miles per lap and I felt if I could just get to the halfway mark in 1.45 I would still be there or thereabouts. I think it was also about mile 12 I noticed I was overheating, it felt hot but I knew I had run better in hotter weather, this was the bike leg coming back to bite me on the ass, I was feeling dizzy and couldn't push any harder.

So I changed my targets, make them more short term, first one, get to the turnaround.

The second lap wasn't something I was looking forward to, I knew I was tired and getting hot, I kept thinking about the 'kick from 8 miles' speech I had given myself the day before, this was NOT going to happen, I had to get to that point first without walking, I was determined to do 18 miles before I walked, I had to push so hard to keep the momentum, I was now taking 4 cups of water at each aid station, 2 in me and 2 on me, I had to cool down, light headed and tired I had to think straight. Lack of concentration could really cost me the place I wanted for Hawaii. I still didn't know where I was in my AG.

I got to the Observatory Hill again and power walked it, while climbing here I decided that I had enough in me to kick from 5 miles out and it was a good target as it was the final far point turnaround, I would reward myself by walking through each aid station between now and then, that gave me 3 stations and I knew it would result in a loss of another 3-5 minutes, I now knew the sub 10 had gone, I had done the first lap in 1.45 and at the turnaround I saw the clock, I worked out I had to do a 1.46 return to get under 10, so the new target was do not let anyone in my AG overtake me. What I haven't mentioned yet is that you have your age marked on your calf so as I got to people or they overtook me you knew whether they were in your AG. Problem was on the second lap I didn't know if they were on their first or second so I just decided to overtake as many as possible.

At mile 21 I mentally put myself on my favourite 5 miler at home and promised that I wouldn't walk, the pain in my quads made me laugh, I knew for the next week I wouldn't be able to walk properly but I didn't care, once over the line it was over. the mantra was, 'How much do you want this slot ?' repeated over and over, in my head I possibly thought it was gone but last year was 10.13 and I was under that.

On a positive note I was passing loads of M35 age groupers and overtook a couple of female pro's, maybe I wasn't doing that bad, it was a hot day afterall, possibly the times would be slower, at one point I even talked myself into being as high as 3rd in my AG, lol ! anything to keep it going. Last 2 miles, I turned my number to the front, I was getting irked at being called 'skull man' so I decided I needed some encouragement by people calling my name, that worked, 8 min miles were back, still overtaking M35's, I counted at least 8 in the last 5 miles, it turns out only 1 of them was on the second lap as he came in 50 secs behind me, thing is, that could have been the one I needed.

The last mile was the hardest and easiest, there was no way I was going to stop and walk but the pain was excruciating in my quads, I knew a collapse was inevitable over the line, just don't ruin the photo haha. I was searching for Kelly at the end, she had the Union Flag, blew her a kiss and grabbed the flag and sprinted down the chute in case I was being chased, I could see the time and didn't know if it had been adjusted for the pro's yet, 10.05, I hoped it hadn't but I really knew it had.

I crossed the line and was rescued by 2 helpers, in a very short space of time I had been handed a t-shirt, a hat, my finish times/splits and placings on a sticker attached to my hat, a space blanket, a stationary finisher photo and then deposited in the athlete village, this was EXCELLENT organisation. I met up with Stephen Lord in the food area who had come 3rd in our AG and was happy with his race. I also spoke to one of the female pro's who had had a hard race and wasn't feeling too cool, it wasn't just me then.

By now I knew I was 12th in my AG which gave me a positive outlook as there had been 11 places last year and it had rolled to 13th.

Aftermath ....

This was possibly one of the hardest IM's I have done due to the combination of the bike and run elevations and the aim of trying to qualify, I went out too hard on the bike and suffered for it on the run, lessons learned again, I seem to learn something new every time, one of the biggest things is I have to stop telling myself when I miss a training session I am getting a good recovery, I have to find the middle ground.

Qualifying for Hawaii.

The search continues, because of the extra entrants in other age groups our slots were reduced to 8 and rolled to 10. But this isn't the point, if I want to get there I have to get into the slots, roll down isn't the place to be, it would be a bonus at best. I have already made noises about doing Switzerland next year, Chester Tri and the pirates will both be there so lots of support and good banter but a tough track to qualify from, aren't they all !! I am not so upset as last year at Lanza, I didn't deserve this one, I got it wrong, I needed the same split on the bike but to be in better shape to run off the back. I will be back.

Finally, the support once again was orsum ! from Chester to friends, pirate to family it was great to see all the texts, threads and emails afterwards wishing me luck, watching with baited breath to see if I made the slots, I really appreciate it and love the thought of people watching while I am racing, it really does make a difference, even if you can't push any harder it stops the slow down.

Thanks, Rosey.

IMOO Countdown - 1 days to go ...

2008-09-07T00:40:00.008Z

OK, last post before the race, checked in the bike and one of the bags but we got there at 3.01pm and they locked us out of the bike to run check in, funny really, it did say 10am - 3pm for check in but there were loads of people still milling around so I didn't rush, anyway they told us to come back in the morning, I think I might rebel and just not bother lol !

Transition area is a BIG one ......

This is from one end

and then this is the other end from the bridge over the middle

So we drove the monster today and to be honest, its tough but there are no real tough hills, there are just loads of them and they will be leg sapping after a while, Kelly decided to do the David Bailey bit while I drove.

There are 2 main areas of climbing, on the way out and on the way back ;-) ahh, whatever, its the same for everyone. I have nailed it down, get back before 371 guys in my age group and I will be fine.

Then we went for a quick stroll round, this place is seriously lovely, Wisconsin is one of the nicest places I have been to in the States and Madison has loads going on, today was the College football game with the 'Badgers', (yep, thats the Badgers !) hosting the game, at least 60,000 at a college game, the town was buzzing after they won 51-14. And there is a SoCo concert across the road for free tonight, then a small event tomorrow to wake the whole town.

And this is the state capitol.

Anyway, tomorrow is creeping up, just to say thanks for the support and I hope tomorrow brings me what I am aiming for. If I am finished by about 5pm local time you never know.

IMOO Countdown - 2 days to go ...

2008-09-06T02:01:00.003Z

Well the rain didn't last long, today it started a bit rubbish and by 11am the sun was burning down.

Got out for a run around 7am for 30 mins, legs feel OK, just trying to stay loose.

After breakfast we did the official stuff. Registration was a bit of a chore but still well organised, then we hit the shops lol, its like Ironman porn !! cups, dog leads, badges to hang on your towbar, there is nothing these guys haven't thought of.

After picking up a load of gear, we turned round to see the queue to pay and then decided it was all tat and left it haha.

In between going back every 2 hours to fill the meter on the car I did get a swim out to the 800 m mark and back again to do some sighting, talked to a number of guys out on the swim, one of them set off so fast I thought my stroke has turned to shit overnight but it turns out after the chat he was due out in around 51 mins and I didn't feel quite so bad. We talked a bit about the bike and how tough it was, I have no illusions but I will still drive it tomorrow.

Kelly was getting a bit tired at this point so we headed off for food, State street at the top of town where the University grounds are is cool, and I found a shop that sells caps, visors etc and will also embroider my own, will get that done for tomorrow.

Then she dragged me back to the shops to re purchase everything we left, it was all still there ;-(

I dropped her off for bed, at 7pm, yep, she is that bad with jetlag and headed off to the race briefing, now back, finished building bike and ready to test it tomorrow.

Thoughts, well everyone I speak to has a view on the course and how tough it is, swim should be straight forward but the bike is either a bitch, son of a bitch or 'man, its the worse course I ever rode', I did ask why he was back but he mumbled something about not finishing the bike ... The run, well everyone who qualifies gets a 3.30 or better so I don't really have an option.

On an lighter note, the pirate story is reaching many corners of this quaint town, well I can't have strangers shouting 'come on skull man' I need pirate shouts, get it right or not at all lol !

Update tomorrow.

IMOO Countdown - 3 days to go ...

2008-09-04T23:07:00.003Z

Stateside, woohoo, safe and in one piece.

Just got to the hotel, currently 18:36 and Kelly has just gone to bed, well it is half past midnight at home and we have been up since 6am. This staying on UK time won't be as hard as I thought but having to go to the race briefing at 19:30 could be pushing the boat out tomorrow ;-)

Flight was painless, got searched a few times but what do you expect with Dhekelia in your passport as your birthplace as you check in for an American flight, it was mentioned at least twice, I think the Americans think Cyprus is in the Middle East, still it was all very pleasant and the 8 hours went by quickly enough, and the bonus ....kit arrived OK,
Car is great and fits everything. Hotel, very convenient and as usual the locals are very nice and extremely helpful + free t'internet which is always nice.

Only one real talking point, and believe it or not its not the cold or sore throat (they still linger but getting better I think).

Nope, its the weather, its like doing Roth all over again, its pissing down, this was on the way here ...

I have no problem with the weather as the race in July will serve as a good benchmark for any race to come, however the water here will be affected alot more than the Roth canal and they are expecting a weather warning for the weekend, that'll sort out the wheat from the chaff hehe.

So thoughts, drinking plenty, need to find a decent place to eat tomorrow for main meals as I can't handle barbecue meatballs in the hotel even if they are free. Build bike in the morning, if I get to bed in the next hour I should be up by 4am, build bike, then out for a run for 30 mins or so to flex the legs a bit and then find somewhere for breakfast, Denny's will have to wait til after the weekend.
Probably then do my planned 45 mins to check out bike and the drive the course after lunch.

Madison looks quiet, even for an IM town, I am sure if it wasn't raining and we were closer to the centre of town it would be buzzing but we will find that out tomorrow.

Off to bed, update tomorrow.

IMOO Countdown - 4 days to go ...

2008-09-03T17:20:00.000Z

So sitting here at about 7pm, just finished up work and ready to start packing lol !!

Dropped bike off at Phils earlier and its all built and working as it should ready for me to dismantle and pack.

Got legs waxed as well, I am sure anyone from work reading that now will have a different view on me totally, never mind.

I have checked the weather for the area and its like this at the moment ...

Saturday - Partly sunny with a 20 percent chance of rain showers. Highs in the lower 70s.
Sunday - Partly sunny with a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms. Highs in the lower 70s.

Nothing will ever compete with Roth so I am not overly concerned but only taking one set of wheels means if its windy, its gonna be a bit hairy ;-)

Also my plan while I am over there is to stay on UK time, basically going to bed at 8pm local time and getting up at 3am. As I don't have time to adjust to the jetlag I am not going to bother, just stay on UK time and on race day when I have to get up at 3am to eat it won't be any different, once the race is over we can adjust for the trip to Chicago for a few days.

I just want to say thanks for all the good wishes from everyone on text, email and on the forums, I know there are a lot of other races going on this wekend, I have mates at Helvellyn, IM UK and Vitruvian, so all race well, good luck and have a good drink afterwards, I know I will. I really appreciate the support too, I think there may be a few people in Mongolia who don't know I am racing so if anyone sees them I don't think the me, me, me thread has reached far enough to cover the globe lol !!

I have put on a couple of other links on the right hand side,

The runners world one will have a few people updating from the IM site so if you can't track me, just link to that.
The live tracker will be on the Ironman Live site, commonly known as 'ironman dead', I have linked it straight to Wisconsin in case you want to follow the site. My number is 848.

I should be starting around 1pm UK time and hope to be finished by around 11pm UK time, or thereabouts.

Right, gonna go and pack, will update tomorrow when we get there, sad I know but I am looking forward to the hire car, its a Jeep Jubilee ;-) boys and toys eh ?

IMOO Countdown - 5 days to go ...

2008-09-02T16:34:00.000Z

Days are getting less and less, throat is getting worse, which before I get shite for going on about it, could be a good thing, had a massage earlier tonight and this will undoubtedly push the toxins out of the body and start to shift fluids around, possibly speeding up the cold and sore throat, hopefully by the weekend it will be gone, positive thoughts, no point in dwelling on it, but if I don't complain about something I wouldn't be me !

Louise, my massage lady kindly supplied me with some Echinacea tincture as she didn't think the tablets would work quick enough, worth a try.

So currently I am overdosing on Echinacea, Vitamin C and drinking 10 litres of water a day lol !! I have a headache from thinking about it. And a full bladder.

Hour turbo this morning, which always blows away the cobwebs, a short run tomorrow and that will be it before I fly out, feel a bit sluggish but that is normal in the week before, it wil be up to me to wake myself up on the Friday and Saturday before the race just to get it right for Sunday.

Have just got back from picking the disc wheel up from Slummo, cheers again mate, we had a good chat about his and Jans race in Almere, sounds like a tough day at the office, imagine having to swim 4km and getting out after doing 4.7km (reported by a number of people as about the average) and looking at your watch, it would be like WTF !!! Where did I lose 25 mins !! Needless to say it doesn't set you up for the day ahead. I have seen what the water in Lake Monona can be like so I will just take it as the day unfolds.

Also got to thinking earlier, this is the first IM race I have done since 2003 on my own, I mean literally no-one there that I know, I know Kelly is there and she is a star but she doesn't want to hear tri shite all day, I have no-one to bounce off and it felt a little lonely earlier, this year was great at Roth, even if you didn't want to contribute at breakfast it was lovely having friends there to listen to and laugh with, and last year at Lanza, we were there for a week before with some really good guys, top holiday, never mind, I will just have to find some random and force a pirate top on them whether they like it or not ;-)

I think though having the support on the forum at home and friends who know (that I haven't bored to tears already) about what I am doing, they'll be watching and this is enough to spur me on, plus at 30k I will just imagine Jeff chasing me down again and kick for home, cold or no cold, I have nothing to lose. Plus, with a number of close friends aiming at qualifying next year I don't want to be the one not there.

IMOO Countdown - 6 days to go ...

2008-09-01T08:10:00.002Z

Shorter swim today, about 2km and then a steamroom to try to sweat this cold out. Amazing really that we are as unorganised going to the US for 10 days as ewe are going to Slovenia for 3.

The race pack arrived by online link today, I am race number 848. Had a quick look through the list of M35-39 to see how many there were, about 381 and I need top 10. Not too bad when you look at the professions of some,

Bionic Man - I could be in trouble there
Blimp Pilot - well he can't have much time for training surely
Goat herder - gonna be a good runner
Jigsaw puzzler
Fluffer - well thats a 4th discipline
And finally the body double for the Rock

Good sense of humour, but lets hope they can't cycle eh ?

Picked up the 808 wheels from Jeff which look great and are very light, even lighter than my 404's which are a few years older so thats always a good thing. they also run well as the hubs are so smooth. Still thinking of taking 2 sets of wheels to give me the option but now I have to find a double wheel bag !! Why do I leae it all to the last minute, I suppose if you don'thave it you can't take it which means the options are limited.

Was mentioned as well at work today that my normal miserablitis on a Monday isn't present, must be cos I am going on holiday, either that or I am saving it ;-)

IMOO Countdown - 7 days to go ...

2008-08-31T22:04:00.000Z

Well its Sunday the week before the race and lots of things to do this week.

1. Pick up bike box
2. Pick up disc
3. Pick up 808's
4. Book car hire
5. Ignore sore throat

Taper madness is a common ailment in IM triathletes and I am no different, after doing so many you would think I would feel differently but I suppose one day the ailments you get in the week before will still be there when you wake up on race day, not this time please.

Did my last longish bike, quick 2 hours, felt like cheating really, even stopped off on the way home with Phil for a brew at a butty van, very un-athlete-like but I just need to cut down on fat so stopping off for a brew isn't going to do any harm.

Thought for today, its just as well I have 18kg allowance for my hand luggage, I will need to top up in WHSmith on the other side to get enough water to stay hydrated for the 8 hour flight. Its not like they are going to give me free reign to a drinking tap on the plane, will they ?

Just got a text from Phil, swim at 7.30, I need to buy that man plenty of drinks when I get back, he is the only reason I am swimming at the moment, good swim partner to have.

Aug 28th - Aug 30th - Trip to Slovenia

2008-08-30T06:49:00.001Z

So smack in the middle of taper we were invited to one of Kellys good friends to attend their wedding in Slovenia, it gave me the chance to chill and have a couple of runs in nice surroundings, I would have managed a swim as well if I hadn't removed my goggles from the hand luggage whilst protesting to Kelly that it wasn't my wetsuit that was making her dress smell of rubber !

When we got there we found it was that nice I might as well have left in the goggles as you didn't need a wet suit.

We landed in Klagenfurt, home of IM Austria, after a quick hop across the border to Slovenia, I went out for a run round the lake, just the right size, 3.7miles around, did a couple of laps before we went to meet the others for a pre wedding drink.

Our hotel was superb, right on the side of the lake and under a lovely church

The wedding day was idyllic, weather fantastic, lots of lovely people, mininal drinking for me anyway, the couple had a great day, I have put a picture of them but as its not my wedding I can't really be pasting loads of their pictures over the net, maybe they have a deal with Hello and I could be costing them millions ;-)

To be honest nly being there for the short 3 days we decided to try to make the most of the last day which was travelling home so we drove early to Austria to have a lunch around the Maria Worth area of Klagenfurt which is on the lake they use for the event, shown below

Then Kel decided to get fancy with the camera and take us back to occupied Austria !

So short 3 day, 2 night trip, beautiful area, well worth visiting on bikes and using it for a base camp for a longer holiday but maybe next year.