Trains, Travels

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.