Trains, Travels

Honestly that’s not the reason I’ve been quiet the past week. I’ve had plenty of time when I could have written something, but not much inclination. Partly because life is simple and repetitive right now – I get plenty of sleep and train quite a bit too.

Finally I made myself stop and take a picture with my new phone. When I got the new phone there was a plan behind it – get a decent camera and then you can take pictures out on your rides. The reality is I’m not big on random stopping when riding. What tends to happen is I think a view would make a good picture, but then I don’t really want to stop. I make deals in my head to stop at the next 5 minute mark. Then when I get there I decide there’s no where good to stop or more likely the good view is long gone! Today’s picture of some sheep was made possible by looping back on my route and timing things so I could stop for a pee at 2 hours and get the photo. Cunning!

I’ve been pretty lucky with the weather though. I mean it’s not hot, but it’s sunny and not so cold. Despite that I routinely go out wearing slightly less than I ought to. I’m reminded of a coffee shop owner on the Gold Coast telling me how everyone there would moan it was cold in the winter, but nobody wears more clothing. Living in shorts becomes habitual! Still I’ve enjoyed the weather and been getting out on the bike plenty.

Even open water swimming has been fine. My fourth time in the lake since I’ve been back, no idea what the temperature is, it’s colder than Oz for sure, but fine. It amuses me to see so many people putting on thermal caps or wearing base layers under their wetsuit. Really, it’s not that cold, if I can cope I’m sure it can’t be. I braved all of 50m without the wetsuit at the end of today’s swim then decided that if I swam the 200m to the buoy it just meant I had to swim another 200m back and it was cold!

I have been very carefully doing hour long runs over the past week. I seem to have worked out most of the calf problems I was having and currently my only concern is a tight ITB and hamstring. My run focus hasn’t been much on pace, but more on keeping up a high cadence and good technique. The result has been no drop off in pace, but some comfortable running. With two more weeks of training prior to the taper I hope to build this up well and maybe even thrown in a little bit of run focus.

It’s four weeks today that Lanza happens. I fly out there in 2 days time and get to practice on the course for the following few weeks. Hopefully that’ll work as well for me as it did in Busselton. I’m keen to get out there and really focus on training for a couple of weeks. Not expecting much in the way of internet connection so updates may be sporadic and brief. Might stop me rambling!

And to avoid that I’ll stop now.

I’ve had a few days to settle in to life back in the UK now. After six months away things haven’t really changed much, except for all the little things that are different. But then a lot of that is just me and what I’m used to now. A few more days and once again not coating yourself in suntan lotion before going for a swim will seem normal. I’ll come back to swimming shortly as it’s one area where some differences will never feel right!

The weather has been pretty nice (though that seems to be about to change). A little bit colder than I’m used to and I have to admit I keep making mistakes with clothing either a bit too much or too little. Once out there I’m riding well though, nothing too long yet, but at a decent pace. Not having had a chance to properly buy food yet I’ve been fuelled by Hot Cross Buns mid-ride. Pleasant, but possibly not the best energy food!

I’ve been exploring some of my favourite short routes in the area. It’s nice to discover some of the roads have been resurfaced. On the other hand for all the repairs there’s a lot more potholes than I remember. I’m no longer certain that Aussie roads are worse than UK roads. Whilst we don’t have much open chip roughness we have massive potholes all over the place. Traffic is definitely higher and so far I have a few close encounters with other road users. I particularly appreciate the business removal truck who needed to get past me so much it was happy to nearly push me off the road today.

What is fun though is how some of the steep sections I remember don’t seem so steep anymore. That sort of difference I like. My hill climbing and particularly my ability to handle short sharp rises improved a lot down under. The local rolling terrain seems a lot less rolling now – I guess after kiwi rollers most other terrain is flat!

I’m sneaking running back into the training. It’s the easiest way to get to and from the pool each morning whilst I’m too lazy to fix up the fixie. It’s not too far, about 3km each way which is ideal right now as it’s too short to do any harm, but gets me running. New trainers too which means all of a sudden I have cushioning again!

Once I enter the pool this is when I really miss Oz. Firstly there’s the cost of swimming I’m paying at least a pound more a session here. If that got me amazing facilities I’d not be complaining. As it is I’m back at my local Victorian pool which I’ve used since I was a child. I forgive it some of its flaws out of sentimentality. There’s the quirk of it’s 27.4m length meaning I do 110m reps rather than 100m. You have to get used to adjusting everything by 10%. It’s temperature a little bit too high sometimes, cold others or like today with a nice strong gradient one end to the other. The poor guttering and lane lines ensuring the water is constantly choppy. I could go on…

However what really makes the pool are the inhabitants. In fairness so far it’s been fine really, not as busy as I feared. Labelling lanes according to speed seems pointless as a few people seems to choose entirely on a whim. They’ve not complained if I swim by though so that’s fine. The oddest experience so far is the old man obsessed by my watch.

Usually I don’t wear a watch in the pool. Shamefully this was for an even tan in Oz! Really yeah, I was that vain! Aside from that I just prefer swimming without one. For some reason I ended up swimming with it on yesterday. Not a big deal.

In the fast lane is a young woman doing slow breast stroke, me and an old guy swimming slow front crawl. Things seem fine and I wonder if it’d be OK for me to get the paddles out. The young woman stops at the end of the length and stands in the middle of the lane. Then the old man comes down and very awkwardly turns taking the time to tell her she should stand to the side or it makes it confusing to turn at the end. Fair enough, I prefer that. I try to give him a look to show mutual appreciation for his concern. Unfortunately it seems I have made an error too.

He says to me “that’s a dangerous weapon to have on your arm”. Apparently he’s quite concerned I could hit someone with my watch. I assure him I won’t (for a start if I did I’d have also hit them with my hand), but no with people going different speeds anything could happen. I think better of suggesting with his wide kick and sweeping arm recovery I’m in more danger from him and get on with swimming. I guess paddles would definitely be out.

At the pool again this morning and he turns up. Upon seeing me he pointedly says hello and comments that I’m still wearing the watch. I agree I am and he rolls his eyes and chuckles to himself as if to say “you’ll see”. I have to admit I’m now wearing the watch simply because I know it bothers him. It’s petty I know, but in my months in Oz I have swum with all manner of pool toys being used by me or others. Not once did I see anyone manage to cause injury to another. Suppose I did manage to hit someone with my watch, I’m thinking that it might hurt, but that I’ve also hit them with my hand and that’ll have hurt them too. I can’t really leave my hands behind when I swim either. So I’m happy to be armed and dangerous in the pool and secretly enjoy worrying this guy.

I’ve spun that into a long story to say I miss the quality and freedom of the pools in Oz. When the lake warms up enough I’ll be there as much as possible. I’ll take a territorial swam over pious swimmers any day!

Looks like rain tomorrow, it may be my first time on the turbo trainer in many months! This may be the first time I’ve looked forward to that too.

A month or two ago I quite optimistically commented that after Ironman Australia I planned to practice the active recovery approach I’ll need later this year. Actually maybe I commented on this to someone in person rather than here, I can’t remember. With Quelle Challenge Roth and Ironman UK in the schedule and only 3 weeks between them there’s going to be a definite need to recover quickly. Anyway, I say optimistically because by the time it came round I had realised that a week where I migrate back to the UK with all my possessions was probably not the best time to try it out. So the end result is a week off.

Despite the lack of training to worry about it’s been a pretty hectic week. On Monday I stayed in Port Macquarie to watch the Hawaii roll down (you never know!) and for the Awards Dinner. It was pretty relaxed really as I put off doing any packing or anything particularly productive. This set me up for an early Tuesday morning rush on the packing. A tighter squeeze to get everything in than on the way out, but somehow it fitted.

The rest of Tuesday was spent driving South to Sydney. It’s not the most exciting drive in the world. The Pacific Highway is fast and clear in this section, but there’s not much to see. I planned a stop off and chose Newcastle as the halfway point. I chose poorly, the place is a bit of a dump! The weather having taken a turn for the worse didn’t help, but there was nothing there at all. OK I was missing the heat and humidity of the Gold Coast already.

I had a single plan for my day in Sydney a trip to my favourite coffee shop. I tried to throw in a bit of proper exercise with a trip to North Sydney Olympic Pool. However I failed by forgetting my goggles and there was no way I was paying out for a new pair just for a short swim. Instead I went and had that coffee and far too big a slice of Cheesecake. My exercise for the day was wandering around the CBD window shopping. Given I don’t spend out on much these days shopping is pretty pointless, but when you can’t train and your in the centre of a big city what can you do? Sure, more coffee shops – I did that too!

That was pretty much it for Oz. After 6 months and many hours of training it was time to go home. It felt a little odd to leave, I’d grown used to living there. Of course the prospect of 24 hours on a plane didn’t help much either. Checking in I learnt that not only can I fit all that I need to get by in 2 bags it all weighs less than 55kg. OK, not revolutionary, but I thought it was cool to think that in that small amount of stuff was everything I need to get by. So far since returning I’ve not actually used anything that wasn’t in those bags.

I arrived back early Friday. It was cold, grey and damp. It still is. I miss the sun. All that aside it was good to be home and to see family again. The rest of the day was spent working. Yep, for once I did some honest work to earn a little money. I’m not sure if anyone who reads this is of the right demographic, but I’ve been putting together a site for Scott Molina, his new training camp – Fitness Over Fifty. Apart from earning some cash it’s been a learning experience. My previous work rarely involved the front end of web pages so it’s taken a while to get back up to speed on CSS. Man it’s a bitch though, when I finally got to testing in IE I learnt it has it’s own way of interpreting CSS.

Today I thought I’d go to the lake and get a swim in. I went to the lake and spent an hour chatting and avoiding getting in the cold water. It was freezing enough on land, forget getting in 12C water! The ride there and back was the first proper exercise since the race. So I guess that brought the week off to an end. I’m pleased to say it didn’t feel too bad at all so I can start back into a routine over the next week. It’s good to know that even with all that travel my recovery is pretty quick these days. I now need to figure out where and when is best to go swimming. I know I’ll be missing Miami Pool, no more 50m lanes to myself for a while.

The break’s over now I’ll build back into training over the next week. I guess I should also update some of the sections of this site. It’s not strictly about training in Oz now after all! Oh and finally my race report is up on Tri247. That includes pictures of the new, very bright Jaggad kit.

Not the title I wanted for my race report, but this time it’s the one I’ve ended up with. If things had gone to plan then I would have got the Hawaii slot, but they don’t give those out for planning a race. I was optimistic in the weeks leading up to this race, but still on the day the outcome wasn’t what I anticipated. I realise it can seem odd to be complaining about a sub-10 hour Ironman, but at this point I expect more.

The week leading up to the race really didn’t go to plan. My training was off. I felt lethargic and my motivation was low. Early in the week I had a day or two of stomach issues which didn’t help either. The end result is I didn’t train too much in the build up. Whilst there’s good in extra rest in this case I think there wasn’t enough training. On the other hand on the couple of occasions I went for a run I had serious tightness and discomfort in my left calf and leg. I can’t say why these came on yet, but suddenly running was an issue. None of these things were encouraging prior to the race, but I decided not to dwell on the issues.

My time in Port Macquarie has been great. I got to catch up with a few friends from training and racing around Oz. I’ve done another photo shoot with Jaggad in my new kit. Again great fun to do, never thought I’d add modelling to the resume! The kit looks great, very bright and gets you a lot of attention. Also confuses the Aussies when you’re wearing Aussie colours with a kangaroo on, but your helmet has Union Jacks plastered on it! I helped out at the expo too which is great too and you get to meet lots of different athletes. Other than this I spent my time relaxing as much as I could. I carbo loaded the day before, going the route of eating a lot of energy bars in addition to normal meals. However I think I didn’t really consume enough food in the run up and relied too much on the bars.

I slept pretty well both the night prior to and the night of the race. Despite this I felt pretty tired both days and I woke on race day wishing for a few more hours in bed! I found eating difficult, far more than usual and probably consumed less calories for breakfast than in past events. Whether there were sufficient calories in it my diet prior to and during the race caused no stomach problems for a change. I’d been very efficient in setting up my kit so getting ready was simple and I had a short lie down before heading to transition.

I was in the water about 5 minutes before we were due to start. The exact start time seemed a little unclear as the announcers were clearly hurrying us to be ready for the start. I placed my self towards the outside edge of the swim and right at the front. Or at least the front with a couple of minutes to go. Slowly people started drifting forward until the cannon went. Foolishly I didn’t so when the gun went I was swamped and blocked in. Also I should note I chose my position poorly. The first half of the swim was spent trying to find any kind of space. I was blocked on all sides and could only go with the flow. It was obvious that swim technique was out the window.

I had no idea of pace other than the fact I was stuck with the white caps all round me rather than my own blue caps. By the start of the second lap I started to find clear water as people slowed. With clear water I could finally find some kind of rhythm and at least attempt better technique. The second lap progressed comfortably, but I don’t feel I pushed enough when I could. Getting out of the water I was disappointed, but not entirely surprised to see a time of 1:05 on the clock. Whilst some aspects of this were out of my control my choice of position at the swim start and a lack of open water practice of late probably contributed to the poor result.

I didn’t panic just reminded myself there was a long day ahead. I will admit I was less optimistic than normal. I squelched through the muddy transition. Severe rains on the East coast have caused some major flooding though in Port Macquarie the worst they’d done was create a lot of mud.

Onto the bike and things felt fine at first, nothing to worry about. The course starts with a few sharp hills and I definitely took these too hard. Once out on the flat I started to move past the groups that were ahead of me. I had a lot of people to work through after such a poor swim. Conditions were windier than I expected and there was a good dash of rain in there too. Not ideal for fast times, but I worked to my heart rate goals. As I’ve come to expect in most races there was a fair amount of drafting going on amongst age groupers. I spent some of the second lap with a small bunch persistently overtaking me then slowing. Eventually I let them go and took on some gels.

Towards the end of the second lap I finally started to feel good. For the first time in the race I didn’t feel too bad. Sure things were sore, but I started to move up the bike field a little more efficiently. I think adding a couple of bars to my bike nutrition certainly helped and gave me a few more calories. This is certainly one area that I got right on the day. The third lap, whilst actually slower than previous ones went quite well. I reeled the irritating bunch back in and left them behind without having to dig too deep. I was glad for some confirmation that sticking to my own race plan rather than racing a bunch paid off.

When I came in from the bike I was pretty much on my 5:15 goal. That meant that the closer I could come to 3 hours on the run the closer to my overall goal. I was feeling a bit better and perhaps even a little optimistic. Not having compression socks to deal with I was a bit quicker through transition. The muddy, wet conditions made it impossible to avoid leaving with wet shoes and socks.

Almost immediately I felt bad on the run. I was clicking off the kilometres at a pace for a sub-3:10 marathon, but my legs were sore. It didn’t really relate to pace, they just ached. This was definitely new, usually I feel great for the first 5 to 10km and need to hold back. I was not in a good place and was mentally quite withdrawn not really taking in my surroundings much. Despite this I kept good pace till around 30km. I was carrying my own nutrition for the run for the first time and it had worked well so far. At about 90 minutes into the run my first bottle ran out. The flavour in the second bottle turned out to be vile! I’ve used it before, but right then I couldn’t stand it. From that point on my energy intake was a bit low. Having my own calories however works very well as long as I have enough for the run!

Those last 12km were agony, I can only think of one other time I’ve hurt like that in a run. At World Long Course last year where I gambled on not needing much nutrition. Whilst running out of palatable gels certainly impacted the run, the soreness had been present in my legs from the start. I’m a little concerned as usually the run is my strength, but I was struggling. My pace was all over the place in the final stretch and most concerning was my normal strong finish was gone. I had nothing and practically limped home. I can’t honestly even remember the finish chute properly!

So that’s it. Not what I wanted or expected. Despite this I’m still feeling pretty positive. I know I can race better than that. I’m sure it was a bad day rather than my best performance. I admit I had moments where I’ve questioned that, but I have to keep moving forward and trusting in what I’m doing. I take some encouragement that my position in this race was much lower than in my recent major races. To me that’s a strong indicator that I wasn’t on form. I have no definite answers as to what went wrong, but I have a lot of ideas. With seven weeks till Ironman Lanzarote my priority is to recover and to deal with my run issues. I will have a few weeks to focus on some quality training and hopefully get myself back on track. Next time I want to finish with a more positive post.

Ugh!

This is going to be quick… I have no idea what happened today. Let’s just say nothing really felt right all day. I had a terrible, terrible swim getting boxed in early on (because unlike most of the front group I didn’t drift beyond the start line) and losing a lot of time in the first lap to this. Whilst things improved in the second lap, it wasn’t enough.

I didn’t feel good on the bike until the third lap and having started further back than usual that didn’t help. Though I did hit my target here it just didn’t feel like a good bike I was uncomfortable, my legs were stiff and my back sore.

Then on the run I started out at a good pace and whilst I never had stomach issues or an energy low. Kilometre by kilometre my legs ached more and more and my pace started to slow. I haven’t raced with that much pain that I can recall.

Positives? My gel strategy seems to work, I possibly still need more and may have started the day low on calories. However a fuel belt on the run seems to work well. I learnt that it’s the coke at aid stations that particularly unsettles my stomach. I also learnt it’s easy to pee on the run. I was also going to claim it was the first race without any chaffing, but the shower I just had has changed my mind. Probably if I peed on myself less it wouldn’t be so bad. My bad day was still sub-10 – 9:53:31 according to the athlete tracker.

Negatives? Well that brought me in 111th overall and 21st in age which pretty much guarantees no kona slot. So I really need to hit my goals and be spot on in Lanza. Also I have no idea what was wrong with me today, I felt sore and lethargic to be honest and motivation wasn’t running that high. I can’t say why… I hope I can put this race down to a bad day and look to other recent results as better indicators of actual form.

Time to crash out and hope there’s a crappy movie on TV… Tomorrow I’ll start to think this over more.

With only a few hours left before I turn in for an early night pre-race I’d better get the plan up. Good news is daylight saving is coming to an end so the clocks change and we get an extra hours sleep! Best as you can sleep the night before a race anyway. Everything is checked in now, I’ve not yet laid out my kit for tomorrow, I’ll do that when I’m done here. Then it’s just a little race to do tomorrow.

So starting with the swim my plan is pretty simple here. Place myself towards the front to the far side of the course. I have no idea how I’m going in open water, I have a fair idea of how I’m doing in long course pools though. In most of my races I think I tend to feel rushed and tense through the swim and the result is poorer stroke technique. So one aim is to keep calm, not to bolt too hard and to focus on keeping good technique. With that in mind I want to get on a good set of feet to help pull me round under the hour. We’ll see how this goes!

I’m going to be happier once out of the water, that’s always the case. The bike is three 60km laps with a hilly section leaving the town, a long exposed flat and then some undulations at the far end. I’ve experienced most of the course in the half so have a fair idea what to expect. Current weather report has relatively low winds so they shouldn’t be a major factor. My objective is to go under 5:15 on the bike, that may not seem ambitious, but I’m really not sure of the course. I did a 2:38 for the half in strong winds and with my training set-up. So I’m betting on improved fitness to allow me to perform better on this course. As with WA I will be watching and controlling my pacing according to heart rate.

Two big changes for the run – no compression socks and a fuel belt! Firstly I’ve decided to save a minute in transition by not having to struggle with socks. Also whilst they certainly help the legs feel good in the marathon I’ve managed lots of runs without them before. The fuel belt is so I can carry my own gels with me and regulate my energy intake. I’ve mentioned before how nutrition was an issue in Busselton so this time I’m trying to tackle it head on (I also have a couple of bars with me or the bike). It’s three laps again hilly at one end otherwise mostly flat. My experience of the half is that the run is surprisingly fast. My aim is to hit around 3:10 here, this really should be within my reach.

Adding it all up, allow for transitions and the aim is to break 9:30 here. I believe the way my training has gone this is quite plausible if I put together the day I’m capable of. Guess we’ll see tomorrow. Thanks to anyone who’s wished me luck, sorry if I’ve not got round to replying yet. It’s been a busy few days with packing up and travelling south. Then there’s another photo shoot to talk about, working the expo, catching up with a lot of people and I got to spend the Carbo party in the VIP area! It’s been fun so I’d better back it up with a good race.

Oh, and of course I’d like a Hawaii slot too!

Just a quick one from my motel in Port Macquarie. I left the Coast this morning, nice and early so I could get the long drive out the way. Have to say I’m a little sad to be moving on there’s a lot I love about the Coast. I’ll be missing the hot weather, the sunshine, the beaches and their views! Having a 50m lane to myself at Miami pool and long sunny rides through the Tweed Valley. Vintage Espresso with the best coffee on the Coast…

The New South Wales coast has been hit by heavy rain. Major flooding in some places though fortunately for the race not in Port. That said could be a wet race. We all face the same conditions so I’m not too worried about that. More about the race in the next day or so. I’ll put up my race plan and goals so everyone can see if I live up to my expectations!

Tomorrow looks to be a busy day for me. Up early and off to swim in the river. Then a bit of modelling again with a photoshoot for Jaggad in the new Team kit. I’ve been working on a new look, but I don’t think it’s quite ready yet! The new kit is great – very, very bright! I spent some of this afternoon at the Jaggad stand wearing some of it and it does draw attention.