Trains, Travels

All going to plan this time next week I will have finished my fourth Ironman and set a new PB. I’ll be in the recovery area trying to decide the priorities between taking on some food, getting in the showers or having a massage before too many athletes start to arrive. Last year I got the massage and shower in first whilst there were no queues and almost passed out from hypoglycaemia! So as part of this years plan, it’s food-massage-shower-food. But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’ll admit I’m blogging more out of a need for consistency than out of news or updates. The title is true, I have a lot of time on my hands and as the days go on it just increases. This is not good for my coffee consumption nor my bank balance. Ironman events typically boost the local economy - I’m doing my bit in the numerous cafes in town. Long blacks are back in favour and the Cappuccinos (or Mugocinnos as large cappuccinos tend to be known here) are limited to one a day. Similarly I’m tightening up the diet, all good foods no wasted calories. It’s tough though, my stomach wants to eat like a 30 hour training week still, but that’s a road to serious weight gain right now!

So other than probably achieving new PBs in caffeine consumption what have the past few days brought? Well I finally fixed the small tear in my wetsuit, had it for ages and now suddenly had the time to deal with it. I also cut the legs a little shorter which did prove to make removal much easier. I had a fantastic swim this morning the water was once again dead calm so I couldn’t resist doing the full Jetty swim. Calm conditions and clear waters meant you could see all the native wild life. Running a little late and so not going out with a group meant that sharks were the wild life that mainly occupied my mind! Again, no sightings.

The weekend has provided some reassuring training sessions. Yesterdays group ride went well for me, I sat on the front most of the time and controlled my effort by heart rate. Conditions were calm with little wind to speak of and I found that I could hold a good Ironman pace very easily. I can only hope for a similar state of affairs next weekend, right now the long range weather forecast changes by the hour so who knows. Ask a local and opinions will vary from it’s going to be perfect weather through to we’re due a storm. We shall see and whatever the day brings rely on the fact that we’re all in the same boat.

This mornings swim apart from being an excellent wildlife safari was also another reassuring session. A bit of fiddling about getting the wetsuit on and spending a lot of time positioning it before I set out seemed to pay off. Shoulder fatigue was at a minimum and I felt pretty comfortable. Still lacking a watch means I don’t know an exact time, but it was around about an hour for close to the Ironman distance. As the swim is the stage I’m most uncertain of in my predictions it was good to be close to my race day goal. More importantly feeling comfortable in the suit was a relief, with all the time I could want to worry about things I had been debating purchasing a long john wetsuit for the race. Searching the web however reveals a general consensus that whatever you may feel as a swimmer a long john is slower than a full suit.

I will be out for a lap of the run course shortly and I hope another positive session to make me feel ready to race. Compared to my memories of the run up to Switzerland I’m feeling fresher and ready to go. This is where I realise I blog and so what I was feeling 7 days out from Ironman Switzerland is there for all to see! So yes I’m feeling much fresher and fitter than before. Were the race tomorrow I’d probably be about ready to go. I hope that doesn’t mean I’ve peaked too early! I’m also a lot less anxious, only the most minor hint of race nerves that creep in when I state my goals.

With race week beginning I’ll have a bit more to do so the time should pass a little easier. I’m saving detailing the race plan or mentioning some of what I’ll be up to this week for future posts. If I don’t things will get really sparse round here for a while. There’s a few exciting things on the cards at least. Well, you know, I’m excited by them.

However I want to end with two confessions. Firstly I hate Marmite, but as I discovered last weekend Vegemite is OK. My first taste was in front of half the tri club all keen to provide me with tips on how it should be eaten. Anyway, it’s actually all right. Secondly I caught myself finishing sentences like they were questions, with the Aussie style upwards inflection. Not confessional, but also I think the British need to relax and go with the flow more. Seriously, they’re far too uptight about things over here, it all works out… I fear I’m turning native.

Taper madness is truly setting in. I have far more time on my hands than I know what to do with. Every little twinge or niggle fills me with fear that perhaps I’m falling apart. Am I getting enough sleep? Going too hard? Too easy? Have I run enough lately? Was that massage too deep? Am I eating too much? The questions are endless as is the time to mull them over it seems. On the plus (maybe) I have rediscovered crosswords and made big headway in completing my current book of them. Yes, it is an exciting and glamourous life I lead.

However if crosswords were all that was going on I don’t think I’d bother to write a blog post. Instead I’m going to put aside all the niggles and talk about why Ironman Western Australia is a race everyone should fit in their schedule. I admit that for most of the world it’s a bit out of the way, even for Australians it’s a fair way to go. However my experiences this year in the lead up make me feel it’s worth the effort. I’ll concede that arranging a local homestay, getting here over 2 weeks early and getting involved with the local club makes all the difference. If you’re coming from overseas and you get in touch they’re really accommodating and go out of their way to welcome you.

The past week I’ve biked, swum and ran with the locals and of course joined in the coffees that happen afterwards. I’ve been introduced to loads of people a good 50% I can’t remember the names of! I can only apologise, I’ve never been good with names and when you get 10 at a time there’s no chance. I’ve been quite open with my time goals even though, as I commented to someone on the ride today, if things don’t go to plan they’ll be way off. Everyone is very encouraging and likes to hear about someone taking the chance on a year’s training. It’s a real boost on the mental side of the race as I feel I’ll have a lot more backing out there and will probably know people at the aid stations!

Outside of the club which is unsurprisingly keen about the event many of the locals love it too. The shops are encouraged to put Ironman decorations up in their windows. New banners are up in the street all for the Ironman. As I was out doing my final long run on the course yesterday a bunch of school kids riding home wished me luck! I have to confess that now more athletes are starting to turn up it’s almost disappointing. Like my secret training spot has suddenly been discovered! Still I’ve really benefited from the local knowledge and support so far and it’s helped make the final taper training more interesting.

The real highlight of the Ironman course itself is the swim round the jetty (be very clear it is a jetty, not a pier). Conveniently the jetty is about half the length of an ironman swim, so an out and back works perfectly. From the athlete’s perspective sighting is easy as, just keep the jetty on your right and you’ll be fine. Much as you should be focussing on your swim technique as you swim out and back the shallow bottom is always visible letting you watch the sea life swim below. This morning I swam round the jetty with another Russ, the conditions were near perfect, ideal for race day. One warning though, last Friday I swam with the club and the sea was pretty choppy and that’s certainly happened on race day before. Then it’s a battle to get out to the end of the jetty, though the return isn’t so bad. The occasional little stinger jellyfish is a slight pain, but fortunately no sharks so far!

Most of the club rides don’t follow the Ironman course, instead going out on Sues Road to one of the local ‘hills’. You’ll not improve much as a climber here, choices are limited. For the race it doesn’t matter, it’s pan flat and potentially fast. I say potentially because the winds will really dictate things. Whilst Tuart (don’t pronounce the a too hard… I’m getting lessons from the locals on how to say there things!) Road is sheltered by trees most of the course is quite exposed. Large flat expanses give plenty of room for the winds to build up and if they’re anything like Sunday you’ll be flying one way and grinding the other. Wind aside the only other issue likely to occur on the course is stiffening up from holding the aero position so long. With no undulations you need never move. I’ll concede at 3 dead flat laps it’s not the most exciting of routes, but I think the swim and run make up for this.

My final long run was a lap and a half of the run course. It stretches along the beach front for roughly 7Km making for three 14Km loops on race day. As with the bike course it’s flat as again making for potentially fast times. Last year I had a bad run really, this year I’m aiming to set a new Ironman PB! I hope the stomach issues of my training run yesterday weren’t a bad omen! Again it’s exposed so can be a bit windy, I actually felt running into the headwind was tough going yesterday. Once it was behind me it was great, though if the heat is up it won’t be so comfortable. I’m feeling fairly good in my running right now, it’s all about holding form right till the end.

The race expo and centre is being set-up at the moment. Tents are being put in place and excitement for the race is definitely building. Athletes are arriving now, I chatted with a couple from Switzerland at the cafe this morning. They thought I might be Swiss as I was wearing an Ironman Switzerland T-Shirt. They’ll be a few more people I know or rather know of and will get to meet in the next week so should be good. I foresee much more time spent indulging in coffees and resisting the cakes (whilst making a mental plan of all the things I’ll let myself eat in my recovery weeks!). Speaking of which I have a cycling magazine I need to read over a coffee on my way to my massage.

I’d better use some of this extra free time in my taper to get on with that second month review. I had a quick look back at what I wrote a month ago and the second month has been a very different experience to the first. Perhaps I’m exaggerating a little, but the first few weeks here were definitely a honeymoon period. Don’t get me wrong the last month has still been good, but a little more reality has crept in.

So firstly I occasionally alluded to some personal issues that were interfering with my training. It should be said the impact was purely a mental one, my motivation was sapped to an extent by some unrelated circumstances. I am however moving past those and the issues are dealt with. When I return to the Gold Coast in December I move into a new homestay set-up which should provide all my needs and let me get on with training as I want.

Importantly lessons are learnt from this. I came into things with my typical passivity, going with the flow. This works only so far and then if you’re lucky. To make my plans happen I have to be proactive, not reactive and I can’t rely on others. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not discounting the help I receive from a lot of people, but rather recognising that I can’t afford not to put in the work to make things happen. Both inside and outside training. I describe training as my job, but clearly haven’t always treated it this way. I’ve dealt with the issues now and am moving on from them. They will not be an excuse over the next training period.

Motivation did prove to be an issue in my second block of training. Partly from the external stresses and partly from fatigue. Errors were made here again. Firstly one of my best workouts in the last 4 weeks was on the last day of my easy week. I was starting to feel fresh and because I went out with others I used this to go harder than I should. Secondly I cannot race as much as I did and train as much as I did, with or without the travel. Races bring out great performances and I don’t discount the value of the data I collected or the fitness benefits. They also make it hard to keep the consistency of a heavy training load. Next year I will not be racing quite so much, I will have some big races, but not so much in between.

Recovery is my weakness. I can apparently go out and ride solo for 7 hours, but can’t spend 40 minutes stretching with the benefits of a TV or iPod to distract me? The 7 hour ride is important, but so is the stretching. Right now if I have any key concern prior to Ironman Western Australia it’s a tightness in my left ITB, glute and hamstring. Better recovery management would have helped prevent this. I should also note that I cannot afford to skip a weekly massage whilst in training, least of all when I raced at the weekend. I will be addressing these in the next month, including regular yoga classes to help that stretching.

I have learnt what cumulative fatigue is. Not that it’s necessarily new to me, but I finally start to see the effects of training blocks and poor recovery. Whilst I managed to perform my basic week structure and get racing in too week on week my capacity to train well was reducing. When I came to do one final big week prior to the taper I was spent. At that point my body couldn’t deliver the kind of performance needed to make the week worthwhile. My big week eroded down to another basic week. Let’s not be entirely negative here, I got a bit more quality out of a few sessions in exchange for the lower volume. Being that fatigued though had a negative impact on motivation as well. I need to avoid that kind of feedback into my training as it creates a poor environment for training.

There is only so much you can train alone and recently I’ve been doing too much of that. Most of the training partners I know on the Coast work as well limiting their availability to train. Fortunately I’ll have a bit more opportunity to train with one or two of them over January and I have some potential contacts for more training partners. Whilst I have no general issue with training alone, it can be a bit isolating when 90% of your time is spent that way. Also the motivational benefit within a given workout can be massive, you push each other to better results. All being well for the next few blocks of training I’ll get a bit more time with others.

Swimming is still a mystery! I’ve taken a higher volume approach to my swim training and to be fair there’s some benefit. I can swim further and for longer quite comfortably. I feel my stroke is tidier and more controlled, possibly a bit more efficient. What isn’t happening is an increase in speed. It’s almost like I just use a bit less energy to go the same as I did before. Once I’m recovered from IMWA I am tackling swimming head on. I’ve some stroke analysis booked and will hopefully come away with pointers on technique and training regime.

All this said I am fitter than I’ve ever been. Honestly. This is probably the best prepared I’ve been for any race. I feel I’m getting beyond a lot of the mental issues that have plagued and stressed my previous key races. Physically I’m in great shape too. My running feels solid, good form throughout and comfortable at around the marathon pace I want. I can go well on the bike when I’m rested so with my taper I should go into the race ready to ride. My swim may not have got faster, but that efficiency gain should benefit me and I need to use it. It’s all there to go around 9:20.

A rougher month than the first, but one that has shown me a lot of things to change and deal with. For the sake of those who read my posts in full I’ll save details of the plans for my Ironman Australia build up for another time. After Busselton I’ll have a couple of weeks of recovery before I start building up for the next race. Once I’m back though, it’s time to live up to the pro-Ironman lifestyle I aspire to.

The 2 month review will come later next week, sure that’s over 2 months, but let’s not be picky now. I’m back in Busselton tapering down for the big race and I have to say I’m really glad to be back here. I had forgotten just how beautiful the region is. As a destination race I really recommend it. As a race I really recommend it too, the community gets behind it 100% they’re already building up for it.

Before I get to the past day or two over here I have to say I had one of the worst journeys of my travels to get here. The night before I left more storms hit SE Queensland, the thunder sounded like explosions at times and went on throughout the night. I got up early, not very well rested, but hoping for a relatively straight-forward day. My taxi driver had little concept of being quiet when he picked me up, talking loudly even when I told him people were sleeping! I was already irritated and I’d barely left the house.

I got to Robina station with plenty of time for the first train, caught it without a single problem. After a slow start the driver announces that due to the storms we will be restricted to 40kph for the first half of the journey. So I spend the train journey trying not to check my watch too much because there’s not much I can do about it anyway. Then 1 station before the airport they terminate the train! Everybody off and wait a few minutes for the next one. I got to the airport 35 minutes before my flight, 5 minutes before cut off for boarding.

Turns out I’ve packed everything, but the kitchen sink as my bike bag weighs in at 33kg! So I pay up for the weight and wait whilst they phone to check if the baggage handlers will accept it (they can refuse over 32kg). Fortunately there’s no problem and I’m straight off to board the plane. Our flight is late to take off and then we have a headwind the entire journey which adds an hour to the trip! Once I’m in Perth I catch a small shuttle bus to the city busport and learn they’re as scary to ride as they are when you’re a cyclists near them. At the busport the lift and escalator is out of order so I have to lug my bag upstairs to the coach office. Fortunately I can leave it there and go an find food in the city. From then on till I arrived in Busso at 9pm it all went relatively smoothly!

My terrible journey aside I’m loving being back here. I have excellent homestay, they’ve been really good to me and the location is perfect. The weather has been good so far, though a little cold now I’ve acclimatised to the Gold Coast! The views are spectacular and the people friendly as. I built my bike up on Friday morning and popped over to the bike store that’s 3 minutes away. They discounted every single item I bought for me! Maybe everything is just priced up, but it seemed I was getting some bargains.

A moment to mention some training details I’m afraid. I decided to ride for a couple of hours and head west to the next town in Dunsborough. It was a pleasant ride, though the road is pretty busy at times. The winds weren’t too strong and though I don’t have the powermeter with me to gauge it I felt I was going well. Based on heart rate and speed a nice and easy 120bpm was comfortably getting me 35kph! It was a little bit of a confidence boost for sure. The ride today was a bit different, but I’ll come to that shortly.

I had my lunch at a local sandwich shop and whilst I waited thought I’d look at the local paper. The headlines included a ‘2 Weeks to the Ironman’ banner and some more details inside. So I went to look at that, impressed that it was already getting featured. To my surprise the photo used in the article had me in the background from last year! I decided that had to be a good omen! Another article talked about how in the first year one local entered the race and now 84 have. Later that day I’d be chatting with that local over coffee after a swim along the pier.

One of the great things about the community involvement is they love having people from all round the world visiting and encourage they get involved with the local community. It’s through this scheme I’d sorted my homestay and also had been given all the information I might need to train with the local athletes. So Friday evening was a 2km swim out into a choppy sea and back. It was hard work, a real slog and certainly nothing like my memories of last year’s swim! I’m not very experienced at sea swimming, but hopefully I’ll get some good practice the next couple of weeks. After the swim the group had coffee and I spent a lot of time chatting with Max the veteran triathlete of the area. He’s raced all 5 Ironmans there and this year is really taking it seriously.

Today I met up on a chilly (18C for those in the UK!) morning. I joined the fast group which proved to be good fun. We went out at about 32kph and we came home a lot faster. Strictly speaking I should have been doing a long steady ride, instead it was a shorter hard effort! I haven’t hammered myself that hard in a while. We rode fast to the base of the local ‘climb’ and I jumped off the front, I was reeled back in, but it was worth a shot. After the climb the pace picked up a little until the turn-around at which point people go for it. I did some far too long pulls on the front at over 40kph until I’d really got the lactic acid flowing. Ultimately I blew up about 15k from home, missed the tail of the lead group and tried to work with a smaller group to catch them, but it wasn’t happening.

My plan to ride another hour was aborted for coffee and a chat with the group. My plan to head off shortly after a coffee and get the rest of my ride in kept getting postponed. The group here is really friendly and I kept putting off leaving till I was one of the last there. I left with a local Mick and a Scotsman Alex, we popped in on Max and had a chat there and then I rode over to the place Alex was renting for more coffee and conversation. Ultimately I did ride that extra hour or so I wanted, though it’s value is questionable given it was interrupted every 15 minutes! Still I more than made up for duration with intensity and just hope I didn’t over do it. I’ll be riding with the group for the next couple of weeks, but taking things a lot easier.

I’ve wandered the town since then, on tired legs it had to be said. Had lunch and coffee and started planning my next block of training in a little notebook. I think of it in terms of how I need to put aside some issues from the past month, step up to the task at hand and start truly living the pro-athlete life. You have to live the way you want to be, not just think about it. I’m also trying the same in my taper, though what with meeting friends I’ve not seen in a year tonight I may have to excuse myself a little!

OK, 2 month review to come next time, and then hopefully some good posts about life over here in the West. Feeling pretty positive about things. My legs are sore and stiff, but I’ve got some massage lined up and have been recommended someone by the group here. I’ve been told it’s the House of Pain and very effective. Hopefully I’ll be getting a work over sometime later next week. The training I’ve done this week has been less than intended, but the last 2 days I also think there’s signs fatigue is shifting and I’m getting stronger. And finally the friendliness of the group here just encourages me more. I openly admit my race goals and hope I can live up to them.

Very brief post, not much to say since last time. I’m pretty much all packed and ready to head over to Busselton. A full day of travelling ahead of me starting with a taxi at 4:45am and ending at 9pm in Busselton. Should be a lot of fun!

My taper has yet to provide much to put on a website. I have been feeling very lethargic the last few days, taking Monday off completely and putting in the minimal work Tuesday. Right now I’m trying to persuade myself to get my arse in gear and out the door for a taper reduced long run. I’ve not run since Sunday and don’t really feel massively like it. A massage yesterday confirmed how tight and messed up my hamstrings and left ITB are. Still this is what a taper is supposed to be like, right? Seems a bit early to be feeling like this though!

Proper blog post with the 2 month review once I’m settled in Busselton. Apparently I can look forward to more rain over there.

The hard work is done, it’s time to start the taper and let the body recover ready to race! Things come around fast, it doesn’t seem that long ago I arrived out here and started training. Actually it’ll be time for a 2 month review very shortly. I wonder if anyone ever enters their taper feelings that they’ve done enough? I have to admit to doubts in the back of my mind about whether I’m ready. It’s too late now though so I just have to put them aside and get on with it.

I finished off my last bit of training by racing at the other end of the scale to usual. A local sprint tri so just a 400m swim, 15km bike and 4km run. All I can say is that was bloody hard work give me 9 to 10 hours of racing (preferably closer to 9) any day! Still on the plus I can stick with some of the faster short course guys still so it’s not all bad! Oh, and my Polar HRM broke! I can’t stop the timer anymore. I really don’t need to have to buy a new one right now, but it’s kind of an essential.

My swim was a bit of a disappointment. I thought I was going fast, but looking at my watch when I exited the water apparently not. A humble 7.5 minutes for 400m apparently, I hope the course was long, because I cruise that distance in the pool faster than that. I’ll be getting some swim analysis done on my way back from Busso, hopefully it’ll find something I can work on to get me past this plateau. Consider it a project for next April, the goal is a comfortable sub-1 hour Ironman Swim. Let’s not be shy, I’d like to be putting out a 55 minute Ironman swim. I’ve 3 months and largely unlimited pool and open water access to achieve that one in.

I have a long course approach to transitions, so lets skip over that bit. A 15Km bike course is a bit like a warm-up really! Normally I don’t warm up by going as hard as my legs can manage though. I have to admit they weren’t at their best, they’ve been getting better as the week goes on, but need some more time. I’m just making excuses here and as I write this I have no idea how I actually did! I put in a solid effort can’t say I was overtaken much that I noticed, but with 1500 competitors in numerous waves it’s a little hard to tell. What helped a bit was a couple of mates further up the road I’d see at each turn around. They’re short course focussed and it spurred me on to try to catch up with them.

Another transition to skip over though this one was one of my faster T2s! I’d opted for the Zoot shoes again and this time they worked better than in Noosa. 4Km is a tiny run so it was a case of hit it hard and hope you can hold on. My legs started hurting a few hundred metres in and that pretty much set the tone. Again the mates up the road were there to try and reel in, but it never happened! I don’t think I was running my best, but I had a good turn of speed out there and claimed a few more places in my age group for it.

Over the finish line and lots of fresh fruit to refuel on, a few cups of gatorade, a cappuccino and then ride home. I’ve since done an easy ride out and about with a lunch break in the middle of it. Storms have rolled in though and so my training options are pretty much done. The week wasn’t anywhere near as big as planned, it was still a solid effort though. As I said at the start of the post, it’s too late now. There’s some expression about money in the bank or something or other that’s probably relevant!

For those that skim the training posts I realise that’s been pretty much every post for the past couple of weeks. With the taper starting and some travel lined up I’ll get some other stuff up here for sure. Hopefully some decent photos from out West. At least I need to test out my modelling skills with my sponsors kit. I don’t think I’d mentioned that my page on their website is up! Fame at last!

On that note time for some rest. I have a lie in to look forward to tomorrow and some easy training. Plus prep for my trip out west, 3 more days to go and I’m off. There’s going to be a few changes when I’m back, but more on that in December.

Last times I posted about the difficulties in planning training and then executing that plan. I think it was all a secret precursor to admitting that this big week was going off track. What looks good on paper doesn’t necessarily work well in practice and 2 heavy races, some travel and a lot of training have taken their toll. I spent a day in denial, but when I couldn’t put out a reasonable power on the bike the signs were there.

What put the final nail in the coffin was a trip to the massage table. I think it was hard work for both of us! It certainly took longer than usual and didn’t clear everything up. I’ll be making another trip shortly I think and it’ll be twice a week in the run up to Busso. As I said the main focus of my taper is to clear fatigue and get myself fresh for my race. Whilst I’m not into that taper yet I think it’s best I go with how I feel and train as best I can. To put that in perspective I’m still putting out at least 4.5 hours a day, but I’m watching the quality and cutting back where I don’t see benefits.

So the big week becomes another basic week, well of sorts I can’t say I’m entirely on the schedule. Just getting in what works from swimming, cycling and running. I’m hoping that with a good nights sleep I’ll be up tomorrow and able to put in one decent long run to finish that side of things off. I’ve been running 1 hour easy and feeling I could go longer so it should be fine, it’d just be nice to have a little zip in the legs. On the cycling side of things, I’ll keep up a fairly solid effort, without too much pressure. The race in Port showed me my legs are ready, if I can’t add much now then so be it.

I already find myself thinking beyond my taper and Busso. Whatever happens I’ll have a roughly 2 week break from serious training, just keep the swimming going as best I can. Then it’s a matter of a good month of putting that basic week into practice, slowly building it up till Epic Camp in February. That’ll be my first big week of the New Year and if my experience in Italy is anything to go by, it’ll be very big. They’ll be a couple more cycles and then it’s back to Port for the Ironman.

Ok, I’m trying to squeeze a post out of not much news. I’d say what this latest cycle has taught me is how difficult it is to put together quality training along with lots of racing. I think I’ve dealt with this for the coming year with the schedule cut backs, but I’m far more aware of the issue. The January to March build up for Ironman Australia will be my biggest chance to develop next year. After that I will be looking at month long cycles between my main races. There’s opportunities to improve there, but not so much. I think I’ll also have to consider the issue of genuinely having training races. That’s to say not completely hammering myself in all 3 disciplines if the cost is to a planned training block.

Let’s not make this all negative, I’m tired because of quality training and racing. I think it’s fair to say I’m probably in the best triathlon shape I’ve achieved so far. I’m learning from my experiences out here and it’s going to make me a better athlete next year. The next stage of the process is the taper, I’m sure I’ve something to learn here, but I’m doing my best to make the learning curve steep.

I’ve just completed a plan for my Ironman Western Australia taper. So I think a post on the difficulties involved in planning and executing training is pretty appropriate. Sorry for those who read for non-training stuff, I’m only back a day from Port and I didn’t stop off to get a picture of the giant Lobster or Macadamia Castle (for those with a love of both medieval architecture and nuts).

I’ve said before one of the toughest aspects of training is fully trusting the plan will work. That’s either going to be trusting your coach or your own ability to put together a plan. I’ve already put my plans up online for my basic week and recovery week. They seem to be working for me, based on races so far a cycle or two has seen some progress. The consistent high volume approach does seem to be slowly working, though I’m well aware I have a way to go yet.

Putting together the plan definitely fell into the black arts though. I’m pretty well read up in terms of training systems, I’ve a fair amount of experience of training and I’ve listened to a lot of different people. Actually distilling that knowledge down into a program though is a nightmare. There are tons of questions, how much intensity? How close together should sessions go? Do I have the time in the day for that? Is there enough recovery? Etc. To be honest the only way to answer any of them was to write down a program and see what happens. I had some intuition of what I could do which guided me a little, but until I did a week or two I had no idea what it would be like.

All things being equal execution should be the relatively easy part, but things are rarely equal. On the second cycle of training weeks a number of things have disturbed the plan a little. Simple matters in my home life through to obvious issues like 6 or 7 hour journeys to race venues. I end up making sub-plans and then not quite following them either! Swimming suffered the most last week, a pitiful 11km! Now I’ve entered my last big week of training and with travel on Monday and trying to arrange a new place to stay it became a rest day. Not really part of the big week principle, but having raced the day before I hope the result will be better training for the rest of the week. I still have 6 days to get 40 hours of training in anyway, no problem!

The taper was my inspiration for today’s post though, because of all the training plans to me it’s the hardest to construct. A good taper is a fine balance of recovery and maintenance. Your body repairs and compensates for the training you’ve done. You do lose a little bit of fitness, but more than compensate with fresh muscles ready to race. But the hard part is stepping down the training to control this process, you don’t just stop. The questions of is this too much? Or is this to intense? Suddenly become more relevant. Worst is the little voice in the back of your mind telling you you need to keep those hours up to be fit!

I ignore the voices in my head though and put together a plan that sees me doing less volume each week in the run up to Busselton. Rest days every week and lighter training as time goes on. I’m pretty happy with them and find myself looking at them thinking is this too much not I need a bit more in there. I have boldly claimed that getting the taper right is going to be the difference between hitting my goal or getting another 9:4x! Apart from the fact you don’t know what race day will bring to be saying that, I stand by that sentence. The goal for Busso, if I haven’t declared it here before is 9:20.

I will qualify that a little. Last year I went 9:42 there and didn’t feel I was in perfect shape for the race. It was my second Ironman and the second one that year. I never recovered well from the first and I trained sporadically in Oz. That time was good for the condition I was in. This year I did 9:44 in Switzerland on a tougher course (no hills in Busso) overall and in tougher conditions. Again I wasn’t in the condition I needed to, this time because of the overly intense training in the last month or two and a poor taper. Busso is a fast course, if I’m going 9:44 on a tougher course when fatigued, well then, get the taper right and I can go faster.

That’s the theory, I’ve done the work and constructed a plan of sorts. I’m attempting to execute all my plans as well as I can, though admit I’ve let life derail things a little the last week. At least in a taper should things go off track and I end up doing less it’s possibly a good thing. All being well I’ll be blogging early in December celebrating a new PB at Ironman!

Noosa may struggle to get results out on time, but Port Macquarie Half-Ironman had the results online in a matter of hours! Which makes it much easier to get on and do a race report on the day. I very nearly wrote another piece last night as I waited for the race, I wasn’t entirely happy with the last post. Some of that will end up in here instead as I’m starting the report with the day before the race.

Preamble

After arsing about trying to decide what to do for training I ended up going out on the bike. I rode most of the course, would have ridden it all, but for a puncture. Yet again the Aussie roads take their toll on my bike, this time a thin piece of glass buried in the tyre. One puncture wasn’t enough though, I rolled back to town and registered for the race. I get back to my bike on the rack and the rear wheel has punctured again. After an awkward walk home with the bike I decide the rear wheel needs an overhaul. Fortunately there’s a cycle shop a minute from my motel so new tyre and tubes were easy (but expensive) to get. There are so many cuts in my old tyre I couldn’t rely on it anymore, I’d spend the whole race paranoid I’d puncture again. Back in the UK amongst the bike bits I left behind is a box of about 20 spare tubes… Here I’ve run out and they cost twice as much! There is a conspiracy between the Aussie roads and the bike shops to keep us buying.

Needless to say everything got sorted, bike into transition and relax. Once again I got everything ready early on in the evening so I’d not have to rush and then tried to chill out. My pre-race nerves remained at a reasonable level and I considered the objectives for this race. Last year I raced Port and came in around 4:42 (checks own results page!) if I had any objective this year it was to beat that. Other than this I wanted to make the top 10 in my age group.

I should qualify a couple of things about that 4:42, firstly I was riding a tri bike with Xentis TT wheels and my aero-helmet. Secondly I punctured and experienced my first emergency tubular change and then rolled my ankle on the run (they’d filled in that pot hole this year). I’d made the call not to race with aero equipment and instead go for power data again. I just hoped the nasty headwind I experienced returning to town wouldn’t be there race day. I’ll come back to this particular choice later on. Opting to go with no aero gear had a potential impact on my bike performance, but aiming not to roll my ankle could only help my run! To add a little bit more to the challenge the race would take me up to 60 hours of training and racing in the past 2 weeks! I’m very aware I’m far from fresh right now.

Race Day

Enough preamble, onto race day. Firstly another alarm based apology. I’d like to apologise to anyone staying at the motel who got woken by my smoke alarm at about 4:45 in the morning. What can I say it’s clearly very sensitive, there wasn’t any smoke, it was just the toaster! My motel was ideally positioned about 10 minutes from transition so I wandered down and set-up without fuss.

Water temperature was 21C so nice and warm, but meant I got to use my wetsuit for the third time since I arrived here. Port is a mass start in the water with a self-seeding system based on estimated swim time. I have no idea what I estimated, but it put me up the front just behind the pros. As it was I swam 29 minutes which isn’t particularly impressive. I really don’t seem to be making progress with swimming, well rather in performance. The odd thing is my comfort in the water had improved markedly. I am definitely lacking top-end though, not having a good squad to swim with hasn’t helped here. Something I noticed in the swim was I struggle in the first part, finding I come off badly in the initial frenzy and tend to flood myself with lactic before the first few hundred are over. I clearly need to work on this and find a way to minimise the impact of this initial stage. Once I’m in clear water and my breathing settles I get into my stroke and start to move up the field a little. For long distance swims I’m not actually in too bad a shape, but clearly the skills of swimming in a bunch is something I need to work on.

Onto the bike and I can’t say I felt great! At the same time the powermeter told me that I was putting out a reasonable effort for me. Riding with a powermeter is great for controlling your race. I spent a lot of my time reminding myself to hold back and measure my effort. Initially this meant I watched a few people go by. Later though it started to pay back dividends as the second lap I picked up a lot. My power output seemed to increase a little and I was able to push more on the hills. I started to take back a few places I’d lost and move up the field. The previous days wind was gone and replaced by a headwind in the other direction. This really cut the speed as you headed south, again with the powermeter I knew how hard I was working and didn’t let this worry me.

Unsurprisingly packs formed though I was shocked on lap 2 when a guy invited me to join his group of 4 working together! I politely declined and powered away. I was a little worried the group would come flying past me, after all they had an advantage, but I’m pleased to say driven on by anger and feeling better on the bike I never saw them again. I have to say that was the most brazen attitude to drafting I’d ever encountered in a race. I raced clean to finish the bike in 2:40 according to the powermeter. The heavy winds this year made the bike course much tougher so whilst I did my puncturing the day before the race this year I wasn’t surprised not to have gone faster than last year.

I’ll admit I am left wondering what difference an aerohelmet and my Zipp 404s might have made over my normal helmet and open pro box rims. Enough to try to look up some information online and not get any clear answers. I think I can fairly safely say I would have gone faster with the aero stuff, possibly by several minutes. I can’t really say how much faster so it’s all speculation. The way I view it though, this race and power data is great feedback on my condition at the moment. Come race day in Busselton the bike will be set-up with the aero gear and I’ll be ready to reap the benefits when it matters.

T2 was once again a slow affair on my part. I wasn’t racing the Zoots after the problems in Noosa so had opted for the knee length compression socks with my Saucony type As. The socks add at least 2 minutes to my transition times though! That said I felt great the whole run, not sure if they contributed or not, but my recovery should hopefully be quicker too. I don’t have too much to say on the run. I took 1:26 which isn’t my fastest, but isn’t too bad on the course and again with fatigued legs. I felt pretty strong throughout and wasn’t feeling tired when I picked the pace up towards the end. I wondered how much longer I could keep up that feeling and pace… I’m looking for a sub-3:10 in Busso, I don’t need to run that fast, but can I keep a slightly slower pace for the whole marathon?

On the run I used the women pros as markers to pick off, managed to beat all but the winner Charlotte Paul. She had a couple of minutes on me in the end. My time was 4:38, so I achieved the aim of improving on my previous year’s time. I was also 10th in my age group so that gets me the top 10 position too! Overall I’m pretty happy with that result. I think I’ve put up enough excuses for reasons I might be slow, but that was a solid enough performance. I’ve some good race data on the course for one of my Ironmans next year. I also know I can run well here which gives me a lot of confidence for next year. My run was 17th fastest overall, I think a slight improvement on last year. Generally I think that whilst I’m tired and my muscles are tense my performance is definitely on the up and hopefully ready to peak in December.

This is getting long so I’ll save further thoughts on the race and the data I’ve collected for another time. I drive back tomorrow and try and get some decent training for my first day of my big week. So I’ve tried to eat plenty of good food (feeling a bit too full now actually!) and next to get plenty of sleep.

I’m typing this on a very British day in Port Macquarie. A nasty drizzle has descended and the skies are grey. My intentions of a 2 hour bike with a run off it have kind of gone out the window as it doesn’t look like a good day to be out there. Especially when in your packing you’ve neglected any kind of rain jacket. This pretty much sums up my week!

Training has not gone quite to schedule this week there have been a few lows both on a personal level and a physical level. The personal stuff won’t make it here I’m sorry to say, but it’s not that interesting anyway. However if I learnt anything from it it’s how even as a full-time athlete life can impact training. To be honest if I stick to my principles of training as my ‘job’ I shouldn’t have let things affect me as they did. I could go further than that and say I shouldn’t let a bit of damp stop me getting out there on my bike! Putting those issues aside, I’ll just add they are pretty rapidly coming to a very positive resolution.

Physically the week really has been up and down. Monday I struggled through workouts clearly fatigued from my effort at Noosa (still no results up for me!) Tuesday I had a fantastic day with a really solid long ride, run and swim combination. Wednesday it all went to pot, fatigue was heavy in my system and the other issues had cropped up. Then Thursday I was back on form again and had a respectable if unremarkable training day. Finally yesterday was largely lost to travel, it takes a long time to get here from the Gold Coast and driving all day takes its toll. In my case the toll is mainly knots in my glutes!

So it’s the day before the race, my training this week hasn’t gone to plan and today looks to be following that pattern. It’s too late to worry about the past though, just got to take what I can from it. There are positives amongst all this, from the very trivial fact I got a good long sleep last night through to feeling like fatigue is finally shifting. I can go into Sunday’s race a little fresher than I perhaps intended and finish the week really strongly. Sure I missed one or two key workouts this week, primarily my long run, but a solid Half-Ironman is worth more to me right now. If we went purely on hours then I am still within that target area for a basic weeks training anyway. I’m not losing condition that’s for sure.

The drizzle gets worse! My plan for today, roughly anyway, is to wander over to the race expo and sort out a few bits and pieces I need for race day. After that it’s back here and rain or shine an hours run, I figure a run in the rain is easier than a bike. After that it’s time to register and drop the bike into transition. I’ve opted to stick with the training set-up for this race too. With the weather not looking fantastic for race day I don’t really want to have all my best gear out there for a B race. Also it’s another opportunity to get some power data over a slightly more relevant distance. Sure the lesser aerodynamics might cut into my bike time a little, but I can cope with that.

I’ll try and find the local pool on my run as I want to get a swim in later today. Swimming has suffered a little this week in terms of volume, I’ll at least try and keep regularity up. Then with all that done it’s just a case of chilling out and relaxing till race morning. With a short walk to transition I shouldn’t need such an early start to get things ready this time.

That’s the end of this rambling post. The week has gone a bit off track, things have been missed out on and problems have been encountered. But I’ve dealt with them, moved things along and hopefully will be better for all this shortly. I’m less fatigued than I expected to be and can give a bit more to my race tomorrow. I’ve missed a workout or two, but put in some solid efforts in the week and still done some decent hours. I’ll go out there tomorrow and have a great race and that’ll be ample compensation for a few missed sessions. Then next week is my big week and I promise to be back on track because I know when it’s over it’s time to recover and taper!