Trains, Travels

I’ve been so busy this week I’ve not had time to blog. Ok, that’s a big lie. I have had one of my laziest weeks in a long time and not much to write about! That little ITU event has taken some recovering from that’s for sure. The small bouts of training I have done have generally left me far more sore than expected.

With various comments about getting some rest and racing well in Ironman Western Australia I succumbed and backed down the training plan. It didn’t take much to tempt me. My plan now revolves around getting back to things when I arrive in Busselton on Monday. I’ll have three to four weeks to prepare myself well. I’m not going to develop real fitness, so get myself in form, back to race weight and ready to go.

I’m not going to bore you with details of time spent in coffee shops or the movies and TV I’ve seen. Instead I’ve video from another swim analysis session with Paul Newsome. He coaches the Perth based Team Core club and also runs Swimsmooth. Based on last year’s session I’d worked on technique and felt I was swimming more efficiently. Admittedly no faster! I wanted to see whether my work had paid off at all and get some idea of what to do next. I want to break the hour for the swim in Busselton to set me up for a fast race after all.

That’s my annual video upload done!

Overall things had improved. The errors were largely similar to last time, but reduced in magnitude. I still have that little flick kick out to the left when I’m letting my left arm touch across the midline. Also my left arm tends to catch straight and gets a poorer hold on the water for it. I’l be revisiting some balance drills a lot along with a bit of doggy paddle to work on these elements over the next month. The emphasis is on getting that left arm catch right.

Aside from more technique work I gained a new toy. A Wetronome. Basically a timing device I can use to help work on stroke rate or to help me work at pace. It’s pretty simple, basically a programable beeper that goes under the band of your goggles. You set it to beep to a certain number of strokes per minute or a certain number of seconds. The former is great for making you work at a particular stroke rate, whilst the later can be used to help pace an interval set.

In terms of stroke rate I seem to naturally work at around 60 strokes per minute. We did an experiment using the wetronome to try some other rates. As I’m wanting for content I figured I’d publish the results!

As stroke rate goes up unsurprisingly my speed over 50m increases. The stroke count gives a good indication of distance per stroke, as you can see it’s a little over a metre. As I work at higher rates than my baseline 60 strokes per minute the stroke rate very slightly drops. So at the higher rates my stroke shortens just a little. For this slight dip in distance per stroke my speed for the 50m has increased. Nobody is giving out prizes for distance per stroke so the faster I’m going the better.

This works to a point. The jump to 80 strokes per minute was too far for me. At this point it’s much harder to maintain my stroke and perceived exertion shoots up. You can see this as my stroke count goes up more so distance per stroke is falling further. I definitely couldn’t sustain that effort for any length of time.

Whilst technique is one thing I’ll be working on, learning to swim at a higher stroke rate is another. Training to comfortably swim around the 70 stroke per minute mark is potentially 5 or 6 seconds gained per 100m! That would be massive over the Ironman distance. Of course whilst it’s easy to hold a higher stroke rate over 50m it’s going to take time and work to hold it over 3.8km.

Which brings me to the final piece of swim training I’l be focussing on. It’s something I honestly knew I should be doing, but haven’t much since leaving the Gold Coast. Threshold work. I need to be regularly swimming at my threshold pace to raise this up and improve my ability to swim hard for longer. Right now I do far too much easy swimming, which is great for endurance, but does little for speed.

A big part of the Busselton training plan is swimming. Plenty of open water sessions round the jetty for endurance. Plenty of time in the pool to focus on the drills and that threshold work. They’ll be a couple of threshold sessions, a couple of technique session and some stroke rate work every week. Hopefully it’ll translate to a good swim in December. Over the longer term I’m looking for bigger improvements for my 2010 races.

A topic for another post is how I see threshold work as an increasingly important part of all my training. I’ve logged many hours and made great gains in fitness and performance. The next step though needs me to work that bit harder still.

I’m pretty much convinced that I won’t try this experiment again. Two weeks between two big races doesn’t work so well for me. Not least with all those miles spent in the air in between. I’d committed though and I’m not one to skip out on races lightly. Besides I figured what better way to kickstart myself back into training?

Being based with friends a little way out of Perth CBD has plenty of advantages. On the other hand come race morning I have to get a taxi in. Not a huge inconvenience, but it means committing to going to transition earlier. I’ve been spoilt by my Kona experience! I turned up at 6:45 and was done in five minutes as usual. Leaving me with over an hour and a half before my race start. Fortunately the sun was out and it was a pleasant morning. All the waiting had the benefit of letting me calm any nerves.

Eventually the swim start came around. We were being set off in relatively small waves. Unusually male 30-34 was going right near the end. Potentially lots of people in the way down the line! There were a couple of bizarre wave starts where the horn sounded and nobody went. The announcer having to repeatedly tell them to go! By the time you got to my age group this was never going to be a problem. Plenty of drifting forward before the start.

Such a small group and a nice wide start minimised the issues of where to place myself. I figured behind the front line with the bulk of the swimmers. The theory being I’d have a good chance of catching a draft. The theory worked well for the first few hundred metres and then things started going wrong!

My first mistake occurred before I even got in the water. It was a true rookie error. As we stood in the pen waiting to enter Swan River I put my goggles to my face. This was when I discovered a nice big smear over most of the right lens. The left was fine though so I’d cope. Once in the water a combination of opting for a dark tint, the smear and a little bit of fogging and sighting became a nightmare. Add in a strong easterly wind picking up lots of chop to make things harder still!

I’d love to know the exact course I took. The way I weaved about must be pretty entertaining. I remember at times realising everyone seemed to be way over to my right only to find them all way over to my left five minutes later. I must have zig-zagged the entire course! The aforementioned chop added to the difficulty and then there was he occasional jellyfish too. Mostly just a little unpleasant to touch though I’d swear one did sting me right on the chin.

A lot of the return leg of the swim involved hoping the next buoy was the final turn buoy. After four or five that weren’t I eventually arrived at the swim exit. Looking down at my watch showed 56 minutes. Definitely not a fast swim, but who knows where that places me. Into transition and the bike rack is emptier than I’d like. Of course with wave starts that wasn’t entirely unexpected. Having debated wave versus mass starts in the past this race has started to turn me towards mass starts more.

I was pretty leisurely in transition. Something to work upon for the next race. Perhaps I should set a goal for transitions in Busselton! It was uneventful though and I was soon out onto the bike course and getting up to speed. That strong easterly was still blowing, but at least it was a tailwind for the initial portion of the lap. The bike course was flat, not quite Busselton flat, but close enough.

Straight away I started to push hard. Whilst I’d really not set any goals I was keen to at least try to do a solid bike. The heart rate sky rocketed, but I stuck with it and decided to see what would happen. Not unexpectedly over time my heart rate dropped and to an extent so did my power. I’ll save the numbers for another time, but I’m not too disappointed with the drop off that occurred considering. Downloading data later did reveal that despite perceived exertion and heart rate my average power was really in Ironman territory. It’s fair to say I’ve had better biking performances during training.

One success of the race was testing out my bike setup for Ironman Western Australia. Nothing radically new, but the addition of a Wheel cover to my Powertap training wheel. It’s a little quirky and by no means as nice as a real disc wheel. Value for money though? I’ve got power and the aerodynamic benefits of a disc for a fraction of the cost. There seem to be some minor issues with the largest cassette rubbing on the cover. Effectively you can’t really use that gear during a race. Not an issue when it’s a flat course, but something to consider. I’ve opted for a white cover which is great for spotting in transition, but shows up dirt in no time!

I quite enjoyed the bike course. Four laps made it easy to monitor performance. Whilst I was seeing drop off on each lap it wasn’t unacceptably large and I seemed to be moving forward relative to the field. Hard to tell though when there are so many different waves out on the course. I witnessed some shocking drafting from a pair of pros out there. Blatantly working together. I’m pleased neither of them made the podium even if they’re in the top ten.

A solid bike done (with that caveat of perceived exertion versus actual performance) and it was back into transition. Leisurely again as I messed about with compression socks. All ready and it was out onto the run. As with the bike there were four laps ahead, each of five kilometres. I thought that should make pacing relatively easy. The heat had built up and the wind was dying down by now making for hot conditions out there. Perfect for me.

The first lap went well, I was on the sort of pace I wanted. Unfortunately my legs didn’t have it in them to sustain that sort of effort and the pace dropped. Rather than running close to my half-marathon pace I was hitting closer to my Ironman run pace. Disappointing, but I couldn’t get anymore out of them. I was overtaking plenty of people, but yet again had no idea of relative position.

I just kept on working pleased to be running so comfortably when I’d effectively had a couple of weeks break from it. There was a worrying moment in lap three where a dead turn set off some pain in my left shin. I began to have fears of shin splints and wonder how stupid I was for racing! Fortunately it soon vanished and let me continue worry free.

I tried to push the last lap. It was another case of perceived effort going up whilst pace remained the same! All accept the last couple of kilometres where I managed to focus enough and get myself going. The motivation of just getting it over with is a powerful thing! I crossed the line, clueless of my position other than I’d managed to take back one more place in my age group in the final 500m or so.

I was glad it was over. I’d not been greatly motivated beforehand, but had still managed to work as hard as I could. I knew I’d not had a great day in terms of relative performance, but I also knew why. I’ve already mentioned taking some positives from this in my mini-report. The bike performance was pretty solid and leaves me optimistic for Busselton. As does the run to be honest, if I can manage that pace now then I should be able to for a further 22km in December. The swimming is disappointing and really needs to be a focus in the coming months.

So I wouldn’t recommend doing a big race two weeks after Kona. Though having finished this report I’m a little less certain of that. It was in a way fun. Just turning up and seeing what would happen. I think I’d opt for a smaller race if I was to do it again. Really I’d like to see a better performance at a World Champs! I’m taking it easy today, but you can consider my Busselton training kick started!

It feels like a tradition to post a quick report after a race. This time a long while after the race, but still…

Not my best day out there. Swim was a shocker, felt tired and having dirty/fogged goggles didn’t help either. All over the place! So having lost lots of time there I tried to hit the bike hard and did a relatively good job of it. That said looking at the power file I was only pushing Ironman pace on average. Certainly far from my best performance in racing or training! On the run I managed an on-pace first lap then slowed! No energy to really push harder and my legs didn’t feel great.

Final result was 4:37:30 and only 18th in my age group! Yep, definitely not where I’d hope to be.

Rather than wheel out excuses some positives can be taken from the race. Firstly my bike split on a flat, but very windy course gives me optimism for a good ride in Busso. Especially because I’ll go in bike fit and tapered. Secondly my run pace would be solidly in the lower end of where I hope for Busso. Seems manageable to me. Trained, recovered and tapered I think I can get under 3:10 there. Of course there’s the swim. Silly errors like dirty goggles and fogging aside there’s work to be done, but I’m going to be addressing that one as much as I can.

Detailed report to come tomorrow. I have data too – the Powertap wheel with Wheelcover was a success.

Another weekend, another World Championship race! This time the ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Champs held in Perth. The race is O2 distance so a 3km swim, a flat 80km bike and then a flat 20km run. With Kona only two weeks ago I’m glad it’s no longer. Frankly that’s going to be enough of a struggle!

Flying back round the world and changing near enough as many timezones as I can has taken it’s toll on training. Not quite on zero hours, but pretty close. I have to hope that a couple of spins on the bike, a few trips to the pool and as of yet no running is enough prep. Fortunately I’m starting to feel quite good. It’s about the right timeframe, but whether that makes me ready to smack myself around is another question.

I’ve settled back into the Aussie lifestyle after a couple of days in Sydney and a few in Perth. Every time I visit Sydney it grows on me a little. I’d not want to live there it looks too much of a nightmare for bike training, but it’s fun to visit. My time is spent trawling my favourite coffee shops or hunting out new ones. I’ve come away with three I’d recommend for the coffee and a couple of places for the cakes. Cakes were still on the menu. Totally non-Paleo I know, but I had a certain cafe’s cheesecake to consume once more before I could switch back! It was worth it, I saved it as my last carb loaded food.

Something I’ve noticed more this visit is how much temptation there is here to stray from the diet. It was easy to be Paleo in Hawaii and it’s easy back in the UK. When I go out here though temptation is everywhere! Cafes are full of delicious looking cakes… Massive, dense muffins… Cheesecake… The list goes on and it’s all right there by the counter. So far my will power has been strong though and I’ve steered clear!

I’ve not just spent my time cataloging the prime coffee spots of Australia’s cities. Though if anyone is interested I do have recommendations for both Sydney and Perth. I made sure I visited one of my favourite Sydney pools – the North Sydney Olympic Pool. Fifty metres, outdoor and right at he base of the harbour bridge. It’s a pleasure to swim in with such a fantastic location. As with so many pools here go during the daytime and you’ve a lane all to yourself too. That was my total training for my time in Sydney!

It wasn’t till I arrived here in Perth that I rode my bike since Kona. I took a quick spin along the beaches up to the northern suburbs. I was quickly reminded of Aussie drivers and spent a lot of the early part on a bike path. The Perth highways aren’t a great option for cyclists as there’s plenty of traffic to deal with.

Past the highway and onto the Scenic Drive route things quiten out. You can get back on the road and pick up speed. The views are fantastic. I’ll be honest and rate the Gold Coast beaches higher, but these are still pretty fine. I just followed the coastline north until I ended up at a dead-end in a recently built housing estate. I figured it was as good a turning point as any so headed back to base.

On route I popped into the local bike store, Blazing Saddles. It’s a small place, but very helpful. I’ve since been back and borrowed tools to fit my new wheel covers onto my Powertap. The guy who runs it is very friendly, though some of his stories are a little tall! I can’t complain he let me use the tools and take up his workshop for twenty minutes for free! Don’t think I’d get that from the bigger shops in the city.

I spent Friday running around on pointless errands. First up the essential team meeting in the morning. My original plan had been not to come in till the evening’s Opening Ceremony, but then this meeting was announced. I managed to make the trip worthwhile stopping off at Beatty Park pool for a swim. Nothing impressive mind you, but the arms work! A long walk in from there took me past a very nice, high-end bike shop. I dived in for a few accessories I needed and got a reminder of why you buy this stuff before you come to Oz. The prices for bike kit here are extortionate.

The meeting itself didn’t tell me anything new which was frustrating. I got back home as soon as I could and relaxed. Returning in the evening for the Opening Ceremony I was optimistic that at least I’d be well fed. Didn’t happen! The event started late and the dragged on with welcome speeches before getting to the food. It was severely under catered for the numbers and when I checked Paleo man was going to go hungry. I went home for chicken salad instead! I am back to being fuelled by chicken by the way!

So it’s my final day before race day and I’ve not too much to do, with luck I’ll be finished by the afternoon and able to chill. You might have noticed that I’ve not posted lots of pre-race plans and analysis. I think the take away message of that is this race just isn’t that important to me. Don’t take that the wrong way, I want to perform well, but I’m also aware of the potential limiters on that performance. Had Kona not gone so well I think I’d be more motivated to be in race shape, but as it is I’m looking forward to Ironman Western Australia more.

If I’ve any goal for Sunday it’s to race my best on the day. Really vague and wishy-washy I know! I’m aware that my body may not be up to it’s fastest yet. It’s only just getting used to moving again. If I look at the numbers in my Performance Manager Chart then I’m in no shape for a great race. That TSB is way too high! Still we’ll see. Mentally I’m actually fired up to race well. Post-Kona confidence has left me with an attitude that I can be right at the front of these race. I find myself thinking about my age group podium at Ironman Western Australia quite a lot!

So no time goals, no cunning plans, simply go out there and see what happens when I push. Hopefully something good! The main priority though will be to avoid injury or anything that might delay me getting into Busselton training. There’s a four week build due once this is done and I have ambitious goals!

Time for some data analysis from the Ironman World Champs! Having lost two days to travel there’s nothing else to blog about right now. So instead a look at some run and bike data. I’m pleased to say I’ve mile splits for the run this time so some kind of pacing record for once. For the bike I only really have speed, heart rate and altitude to work with.

The Bike

Two pieces of data plotted against time. In red with values on the right hand axis is my heart rate and in blue with values on the left is my speed. There’s two lines for each a moving average trend line and a linear trend line. The former gives a slightly smoothed view of the changes throughout the race, whilst the latter gives some kind of overall trend.

Assuming you read the original race report than you’ll know I felt strong around the top of Hawi and felt I rode the second half of the course more strongly than the first. The top of Hawi comes somewhere around the 170-180 minute mark. When you see that big blue spike a bit over halfway along that’s descending back down! Yes it was a lot of fun.

From what the data shows there was a slight increase in my heart rate over the course of the ride. Pleasingly it isn’t particularly big and I suspect largely a consequence of me working harder in the second half. When I say I felt stronger, that may correspond to being able to work at a slightly increased heart rate.

It’s worth noting my average heart rate for this ride was 134, higher than Roth and I think Ironman UK. One factor may be the higher temperature, though with 14 days on the island by race day I think I was acclimatised. If I take the average heart rate for the first half and second half of the ride then there is a jump up from around 132 to 136. Confirming that I was working slightly harder on the return journey.

It feels a little chicken and egg in nature. Did I feel stronger because I was working at a higher heart rate, or was I working at a higher heart rate because I felt stronger? I’m not sure what the limiter was. I know on the return with a headwind and the undulations I felt I had something more to work against. Perhaps that’s all it was, the conditions suited my riding more.

If I take anything from this it’s that I want to work on starting out my rides stronger. I think I take too long for my legs to come round and one cause might be the way I tend to ride. Perhaps by not starting out so easily on rides I will get myself used to working a bit harder from the go. I’m not sure, but it seems worth a shot. I’ve experienced rides before, usually with others, where the initial pace is higher than I’d opt for, but I stick with it and soon settle in. Maybe when racing I can start going slightly harder and settle into a slightly harder pace. Worth a shot at least.

The Run

For the first time ever, I’ve both successfully recorded my splits during the race and copied them to a spreadsheet later. Which leaves me able to plot my pace against the profile of the course.

This time the run pace, or mile splits are in red with the left axis for values. The elevation is given in green with the right axis for values. When looking at the pace line remember I only took mile splits so it’s simply interpolation between the miles. One of the reasons I’ve added on the profile is so you can see how a slower mile pace often corresponds with the presence of a climb.

I’d actually go so far as to say that my pacing was pretty even throughout and most variability can be traced back to the terrain. Sure the first half is faster, but Ali’i Drive is much easier terrain. You can see how smal the undulations are. At about the ten mile mark we had to run up Palani Road to the Queen K. It’s the big climb and unsurprisingly the result is my slowest mile.

The later dip and climb around mile seventeen corresponds with the Energy Lab. From that point on I was trying to work harder and I think that accounts for a gradual improvement in mile pace after mile twenty. Well at least till the final inclines before descending on Palani again. It’s worth noting the apparent slow pace of the final mile comes down to the fact the split is for 1.2 miles. If you look on the athlete tracker my final mile was apparently a 6:20. I definitely sped up in that final mile.

Given the conditions on the day I’m hoping this means I should always be able to go faster than this in cooler conditions. I clearly felt I was suffering on the run, but not the usual way. It’s hard to describe really, it was just draining. Not muscle fatigue as such, but everything became increasingly hard work. Take out the heat and the humidity and I don’t see why I can’t hold closer to my early pace.

My running goal for the next year is to make progress towards a 3 hour run. I’m aiming to go under 3:10 in Western Australia. The run course there is pan flat and three laps. No terrain features to slow me down and the laps should help with pacing. One of the objectives in terms of improving my run time is to work at being able to push sooner. So rather than the last 10km I’m going for the final lap, a little over 14km.

The Taper

Those are the Performance Management Chart tables for the Hawaii taper. If you compare with the plan you’ll notice I actually hit pretty close to all my numbers. I’m pleased with that and base on results it seems to have worked. On the other hand I played about with the workout schedule quite a lot in the final week. I dropped a lot of runs and did slightly longer, harder sessions when I did (thanks to Roger!)

My feeling during the final week was that my legs really didn’t feel good until the last day or so. Right at the last minute that started to feel like they were in race shape. Pretty late in the day and how much that contributed to the soreness early in the bike I’m not sure.

I think my run TSB values were too low. Given how tired I felt early in the run that’s what I’m blaming! Clearly not so low as to be a problem, but I would have liked to have that a little higher. I never managed to work out a way to achieve it though, at least not without stopping running and heavily dropping run CTL. Ten seems to be the best compromise I could manage.

If this wasn’t already so long I’d post my final taper schedule so you could also see how that varied. Mostly changes were minor. It really did come down to dropping the number of runs because my legs felt so bad. Biking tended to be shorter than planned, largely because every ride I did had far higher TSS than estimated! Basically the final week was really slack.

The conclusion I’m taking forward is a two week taper period is fine, with quite a heavy first week (26 hours in the case of Hawaii) and a very big reduction in the final week. Essentially ramping down day-on-day. I’ll be planning the Western Oz taper along these lines with an aim for a little more rest on the run.

Enough analysis. I’m enjoying some relaxing time in Sydney before I head to Perth. There I’ll be hoping that maybe my body will start to return to normal and I might be able to race. Sunday isn’t looking a whole lot of fun yet!

It’s been a flying visit home. I landed Thursday morning at 6:30 and now I’m finishing packing to take off for Oz at 9:30 tonight. a year of travels has refined my packing to an art so stress has been minimal despite the rush. Not unpacking the bike helps too of course!

Given my transitory state I’m doing a reflective blog to let people know what lies ahead for me. My as yet unchanged About Me page really set Kona as a major goal. There’s a big tick through that one, but still lots more to come. My schedule is up-to-date for my major races at the moment so check that for a guide to what’s happening too.

Obviously first off it’s back to Australia for a while. I’m going to be spending most of my time there in Busselton home of Ironman Western Australia. On route I’m stopping off in Perth to race the ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships. Coming only two weeks after Hawaii I am promising nothing! Let’s just see how that one goes.

I’m getting a nice four weeks of build up to Ironman Western Australia. My aim this time – smash my previous race time and get on the age group podium! There I said it. Put it down to some post-Kona confidence, but I’ve those two goals in mind. I want to get as close to nine hours as possible something I think is achievable based on last year’s performance. I also want o be on the age group podium again, I liked it at Ironman UK! It’ll be challenging there’s plenty of decent athletes out there and you never know who will turn up on the day.

After that it’s off to New Zealand to stay in Wellington with a good mate. Slightly different training environment to last year, but should give me plenty of opportunity to get stronger on the bike. I’ve got the length of New Zealand Epic Camp to start off the New Year. Then it’s building up over a couple of months for Ironman New Zealand. It’s been a while since I’ve had a solid period of just training and I’m really looking forward to that. I’ve learnt a lot this last year and I think that’ll be my best chance to use that knowledge.

All being well one of those two races will provide me with my Kona slot. I will be taking it and heading back to Hawaii again. That does necessitate me earning a bit of money in the next year though. Funds are coming to an end and besides this was originally just a year out! I’ve a few things coming up and potentially some exciting ways to earn. The focus will be on trying to avoid a return to a full time office job, but instead find ways to earn and maintain the lifestyle. I’m not going to get rich by any means, but I’m happy if I can keep myself enough to train and race.

There’s already my coaching services available. I’m looking to have a small group of athletes to coach at the moment. Too many and it becomes difficult to give everyone the attention they need. There’s still openings for athletes should any of you be interested!! I’m also involved in some training camps that will be happening next year. Details will be announced sometime in the next few months. The aim is to provide a well supported training environment with a guide to help you get the most of your time.

Sorry, enough self-promotion and back to my racing. I’m racing Ironman Lanzarote again and the goal (again) is sub 10 hours. Last time was a disaster, next time I want to be in good fitness on the start line and able to race my best. If that’s the case then I think I can do it. All being well I’ll also get a decent month of training over there just like last time. It was one of the more significant fitness boosts of the year.

Once Lanza is done and assuming my Kona ticket is booked I have four months to prepare for the big race. This time I’m keeping the racing load light. No more Ironman events until the big day. I want to go to Kona with a second longer build period under my belt. The aim after all is to be in even better shape than this year and to set a new Hawaii PB. I’ve looked at times and places. The dream would be to get in the top 10 for my age. Certainly tough so we’ll see how the year goes. I told you my Kona result had boosted my confidence.

In summary the next year is about three things – training more and harder, racing less, but faster and making this lifestyle sustainable. None of them will be easy and I have no idea how I’ll do with each of them. You’ll all get to follow how it goes in this blog though.

My packing is done. It’s not too long before I head to the airport. I’m nervous and excited once more. Lots of new things to see and do over the next few months… No idea exactly where life will take me… Should be fun!

(Today’s picture is from the movie Things To Come. Bit of a classic I enjoyed as a nerdy teenager, but haven’t seen in years.)

Today’s post comes from a far colder climate. I’m sat at my parent’s house in Reading and it’s pretty damn chilly far as I’m concerned. I’m not feeling too bad for hours of flying though I do have massive cankles once more. Just hoping that the swelling will have all gone in time for my next race, it’s only round the corner.

After all the excitement of the race I had a couple of days left in Kona. Time to chill out, relax and most importantly recover. Also as this blog will reveal time to compensate for months of denying myself sugars in a mass binge! I’m now more of the opinion it’s important to relax things a little after my races. I know I can get back on track quickly and mentally it’s good.

It’s rare that I sleep well after a big race. My legs are usually just a bit too stiff to comfortably lie in bed. This time I woke at about 3:30 in the morning and was absolutely starving. A midnight feast followed as I raided the fridge along with the remains of the pack of bagels. Once the hunger was gone I managed a couple more hours before I gave in and accepted I was up for the day.

After further essential snacking I headed down to the pier at around 7am and went for a swim with Steven and Jo. Swim seems a bit of a grand term for the 15 minutes of splashing about I did, but it’s the thought that counts. With arms feeling better than legs it wasn’t too bad just not fast.

Far more important than the swim was the buffet breakfast that followed. After the previous weekends two and a half plate meat fiesta I paced myself a little bit better. Mixing in carbs in the form of pancakes along with a lot of meat added a bit of variety too. I did my best to ensure I got my money’s worth at least.

Everyone’s plans largely revolved around relaxing as much as possible. That said Steven, Jo and I headed up Ali’i Drive on our bikes for a spin. It took most of the length of the Drive to actually feel OK and none of us were willing to go up the short, sharp climb at the end of it. We returned quite quickly, not sure if that was a tailwind or the draw of coffee and cake at Lava Java. If you ever want to overdose on sugar I recommend the Tear Cake. It’s massive and coated in toffee and icing. Delicious and possibly enough to fuel an entire Ironman.

The evening brought race events to a close with the Awards Ceremony. As with the Opening Banquet food was pretty good, though I mainly focussed on the cakes this time. I think the caterers were expecting this as they seemed far better stocked than at the opening. I worked hard to ensure I’d taken in a months worth of sugar by the end of Sunday. The ceremony itself wasn’t too bad. With so many age group awards it can drag a little, but none of the speeches went on too long.

As it finished the skies open and rain poured down. Those who’d been here the year before could now smugly break out their rain jackets. The rest of us got wet! We headed down to Lu Lu’s for a while, but by the time it was livening up I felt too tired to do a thing.

Another night of poor sleep led into Monday. At least this time I didn’t need to eat a meal to get through the night! Swimming started my day with another solid 15 minutes of effort! Then it was breakfast at Splasher’s. At this point my aim for the day was to return to Paleo so my usual Meat Lover’s omelette was ordered. We followed a long breakfast with a long coffee.

It was the next coffee break at Lava Java where my Paleo intentions collapsed. I could try to blame Steven for offering to get me a cookie, but the speed with which I accepted makes it nobodies fault but my own! It was delicious I’ll give it that. I made the decision to worry about the diet once I’d got home and relaxed a little. Most of my weight gain is fluid anyway.

An early dinner and a stop off for ice cream was followed by goodbyes to many of my Kona companions. People were either heading home or to other islands. I was definitely a little jealous of the latter group! I had a quiet evening of bike and kit packing ready for my own trip the next day.

What a lazy final day Tuesday was. I didn’t swim and I didn’t make a pretence of being on a good diet. Sure I still had the meat lover’s omelette, but I added a side of French Toast. Splasher’s French Toast is delicious and I’m pleased I could tempt Rachel and her boyfriend John into having some too. It’s better to be bad in company!

A morning of shopping for my nieces followed. I spaced it out by consuming chocolate coated macadamia nuts, delicious! Lunch consisted of two, yes two, incredibly dense Lava Java muffins. Not quite the sugar bomb that the Tear Cake was but filling in their own right. Highly recommended to try if you’re out here. After race day of course!

Sadly all the remained was to head for the airport and home. I’ve grown to like Kona a lot. Sure there’s not masses to do right there in town. I love the climate and pace of life though. Chilling at coffee houses is my thing after all. It’s not the most varied training venue on the other hand so once you’re back to real life and not race week it might be tougher.

It was a fantastic trip and experience. I had a great result off the back of it too. I’m not sure it’s really sunk in yet. Really enjoyed spending my days training and relaxing with so many friends. I know I have to go back again next year!

(For those interested I’ve another Kona race report on Tri247)

Time for the Kona race report. This could be a long one after all it was a long day. I figure if you’ve been following my blog in Kona you can cope though!

Let’s start it all off be saying it was an amazing day for me. There have been times the past couple of weeks where I’ve been excited because I’m riding the Queen K or running Ali’i Drive. All those moments were rolled up into the race. On the one hand it’s hot, humid, windy and it hurts, but on the other I’m racing on the Queen K! I’m also really pleased with my result here and feel it really validates and builds on the work I’ve been putting in. I wouldn’t call it the perfect race by any means, but it was well executed and my pacing worked. Pacing is key!

Pre-race

I’m lucky enough to be staying in a hotel literally across the road from transition. It does have its downside when they’re testing the PA system the night before the race. Race morning though it comes into its own.

Slept reasonably well, waking on occasions, but nothing unusual. Typical mildly surreal race related dreams too, but unfortunately all forgotten now. Breakfast was a bagel, jam, cheese and chicken. Add a powerbar too and that was about it. Once that was in the system I had plenty of time for a relaxing shower and to start getting ready.

I wandered over to body marking and transition when it opened. That was once again an example of the efficiency of the World Champs. So many volunteers meant minimal waiting. My number was on my arm in minutes and my bike was set up in a few more. All done so straight back to the hotel for a lie down. A real luxury being able to have 30 or 40 minutes of dozing to the sounds of the Ironman announcer outside.

About 30 minutes before the pro start I headed back to transition with the lightest pre-swim bag ever. Again the hotel paid off as I realised I’d forgot to take my anti-diarrhoea tablets so had to go back. I debated how much they’re a placebo with Jo last night. Really couldn’t say, but they’re part of my prep at least!

Still with plenty of time it was swimskin on. Tons of bodyglide to minimise chafing and then watch the navy demonstration and pro start. All that out the way and it was time to get into the water. I bumped into Roger on the beach and we headed out together.

Swim

There’d been a fair amount of discussion amongst our group about where the best place to start the swim was. If you’re someone like Steven it’s up near the front, for the rest of us it’s less certain.

‘This seems as good a place as any’ were Roger’s fateful words. I happily agreed, but we would both be proved wrong very shortly. We opted for a few rows back, knowing with a stacked field we weren’t even second row material. The problem was we also opted to be over to the right hand side of the start. What neither of us knew was the surfers would be funnelling us over to the left of an orange buoy a bit further out.

So when the cannon fired and the race started I set off and at first was unsurprised by the bashing I received. Once we started getting pushed over left things became really cramped. Each marker buoy was a nightmare to get through. Everyone crushed together and there was no clear water. You weren’t so much swimming as scrambling over people.

Like my experience in Ironman Australia earlier this year I looked around me and couldn’t see any way to break free the crowding was too dense to all sides. It continued on near enough every buoy to the turn around. I can’t blame it entirely, but it certainly didn’t help me. Hawaii has to be the roughest mass start swim I’ve done.

Hitting the beach and seeing 1:09 on the clock I wasn’t entirely surprised. I think being prepared for that helped keep my head in order as I got ready for the bike. Transition involves quite a bit of running, but I got through it at an orderly pace and was soon mounting up.

Bike

The bike course starts with a little out-and-back in town. It’s got a bit of climbing in, nothing too extreme. The main thing you’ll see is everyone hammers it! Look at the splits for bikes in the athlete tracker. I’d say pacing was a strength of mine, but even I went harder than I should!

That said I didn’t go overboard and held back as people went past. Despite knowing my swim had me well back in the field a long day lay ahead of me. My legs ached, particularly below the knee, down the sides. I wondered if this related to how tight these regions are when massaged or given ART. Perhaps something to look at in the future – whether some focussed stretching could ease this.

The first hour or so felt terrible though, I kept reminding myself I usually pick up as the race goes on. Easy to say, but I really wanted to see something happen. I kept pushing and kept focussed on keeping the heart rate where I wanted. I was also slowly reeling in more and more competitors so things weren’t that bad.

I started to feel a bit better around the halfway mark. It took a while to come, but as I climbed up to Hawi my legs felt good. Come the turn around and the fast descent I knew now was when I’d see the results of sticking to my pacing strategy. Somewhere around this point I encounter Jo and also Nick Rose. I was pleased to see Jo was going well. Both asked me what I was doing back there! I have to apologise to Nick as I was a little snappy with him at that point.

Turning back onto the Queen K it was straight into a relentless head wind. Whilst most people struggled for me the lights had come on and I just pushed. I ground out a big gear for the next couple of hours to bring it home. If you look at my splits I manage my highest average speed in these sections! Compared to many where the times start dropping off. I was pretty pleased with how the ride finished and pushed to try and get under 5:15.

I missed by 21 seconds! But good enough and I was in T2 in under 6:30 so in theory the sub-10 was on. I didn’t overly rush T2, but without too much to do there it didn’t take too long either. One disadvantage with compression socks is removing the chip to put back on over them, especially when you’ve safety pinned them as advised! So maybe it could have been a little quicker.

Run

The first mile clicked by way too fast so I tried to settle into a more reasonable pace. After a couple more miles Roger caught up with me and we chatted and knocked off 7:15 minute miles for a while. I wasn’t feeling my best even though the pace was far from hard and eventually in one aid station I let Roger take a small lead.

It soon grew and I wasn’t feeling up to closing it. He held back a little and kept checking for me which at that point just irritated me! Eventually realising I wasn’t going to be joining him he got on with things. I continued my low patch for about three miles then suddenly around the seven or eight mile mark I felt great again. I was excited to be racing here in Kona and couldn’t wait to experience the Queen K!

I passed Steven walking an aid station and was a little shocked at how quickly I’d caught him. I’d seen him going the other way and he’d looked pretty good. He tells me this was shortly before he started getting his cramp issues and really suffering. I’m glad I didn’t catch him at that point. I’d also seen Jo on the run and the way she was going at that point I thought she’d catch me for sure.

Up Palani and it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared! Then onto the Queen K. At first it was great, but soon the heat started to get to me. I wasn’t really that interested in my gels anymore, but forced a bit down every so often. I switched to using more Gatorade at aid stations. In fact taking on plenty of fluids and ice. Aid stations became less about nutrition and more about keeping cool.

The energy lab seemed a long way to go. Though at least there was the boost of seeing the pros coming the other way. Some of them looked fantastic. Crowie was dominating over a tight male field. Chrissie was smiling as usual and near enough in a separate race to the other women. It was great to see Rachel well up there too.

The Natural Energy Lab is as nasty as they say a hot descent followed by the climb back out again. The main thing driving me on was the knowledge it was the last real climbing I’d have to do. An American guy caught up with me near the top and we ran together from that point on. His goal was sub-10 like mine and we helped each other towards it. As the miles clicked over I’d work out the pace needed to break ten hours. It didn’t take long to ensure we’d make it.

Perceived effort was way up, but funnily the result was basically the same splits I’d been seeing early in the race. The speed I’d seen elsewhere wasn’t coming. That said we were claiming plenty of places. It was a true war of attrition now, all about who slowed the least. We went through aid stations doing our best to take in a little bit of energy from Gatorade, but to keep cool. Attentiveness varied and one aid station saw me chuck Gatorade over my head drop a cup of ice, swear in front of the kids handing it out then swear in apology!

There was no slowing though. I pushed hard up the ‘little’ rise to the top of Palani. Except it’s not so little once you’re on it and by the top I was gone. My running partner dropped me and I just pushed as hard as I could. Not as strong as I’d hoped, but enough to grab ten or more places in that last mile. A spectator yelled I should be smiling as I made the final approach up Ali’i Drive. I tried, but at that point I was working flat out to get the best time I could.

Over the Line

There was the line. It was all over. Once final push and I was done in 9:47:30. My first time in Kona and comfortably under 10 hours! Leanda Cave finished just in front of me and clearly in a very bad way. We were helped through to the recovery area where I caught up with Roger. Turns out I’d held the gap at about a minute the whole of the race! We were both pretty pleased overall though Roger hadn’t quite made the podium like he’d hoped. Still good days all round.

Plenty of pizza and ice cream was then consumed. A quick chat with Bevan and John which turned into an interview for the IM Talk podcast, go check it out. Then I quickly checked out the bike and took advantage of the closeness of my hotel to go get a real shower before heading to Splashers for an obscenely large burger and lots of fluids.

Yes I tried Volcano ice cream and yes it was as good as Steven had promised. I spent the evening alternating between eating and drinking and feeling sick with how full I was! The plus side was I was fully hydrated by the time I got home and felt pretty good for it. Getting that well rehydrated does a lot to speed up recovery for sure. Before I got back to the hotel we watched the last finishers home and the fire dancers and closing song. It was a great finish to a great day.

A very quick post just to say I’m done and hit my goal. I crossed the line in 9:47:30! All this despite a shocker of a swim. I chose my start very poorly. I took ages to warm up on the bike, but was good once I did. The new position works very well. As for the run, I felt I needed more rest, never had quite the zip I’d expect. All the whinging done it was a fantastic day and I’m very happy with the result!

I’m off out to indulge myself in all the stuff I normal deny!

Thanks to the ability to schedule publication of post this may well go up whilst I’m in the final minutes before the race begins. What you read here will be what I plan to do after the gun goes off. Then only time will tell how well I follow this plan or how well it works. For those who want to check what’s happening you can follow me on the Athlete Tracker at ironman.com. Race number is 1492.

This is going to be brief I’m afraid. There’s nothing really grand in the plan, I’ll be building on what I’ve done in the past. Besides right now I’d rather be relaxing!

Swim

Even now I’m not 100% sure what to do. There are far more strong swimmers here than in other races so I’ll place myself a bit further back. I’m thinking I’ll opt for the centre and see what comes. Hopefully most people looking to avoid the melee will head to the sides and the middle will be empty! I’ll be in my swimskin and I think that helps a little even if it’s psychological.

Plan is to keep focussed and working throughout the swim. Be aware of my breathing and ensure I don’t go too hard in the excitement though. Generally rely on my ability to build into a good pace and then draft as much as I can. Time goals? I really don’t know, hopefully around 1:05 or better! Should be able to go under 1:10 for sure really. We shall see on the day.

Bike

What’s going to be different here is how many people will already be out on the road. I need to use this to help keep me pushing. There’s plenty to pass during the day. That said I have to stick to my smart pacing plan. I know the sort of heart rate I work at and hopefully I’m acclimatised enough that heat will be less of an issue. I’ll focus on that mid-130s to low 140s heart rate and keeping a strong effort in my legs.

The aim is to build into it, not go out too hard. Use the early town stage to settle into things and get comfortable. Then as the legs come round and I know they always do start to push some more. Hopefully I can move through the field and make some real gains here. Time goals are simple, try and break 5:30 with transition included. Nutrition is the usual combination of a few Mule bars, a bottle of High 5 gels and water from aid stations. Given heat and humidity I’m very aware of the need for hydration too.

Run

This should be where I’m in my element! Now’s when I hope to really move through the field. Heat and humidity are factors so I just need to stick to a sensible pacing strategy going by feel. The goal is to be running somewhere around 7:10 to 7:15 miles. If I can get close to that as my comfortable starting pace then I am looking at a potential 3:10 marathon again.

Somewhere around the turn around at the energy lab I’ll start thinking about pushing things. The aim is to try to get there in shape to pick up the pace for the last 10km once again. If things go well I’ll finish the run strongly yet again. My last couple of runs have been good confidence boosters for sure, but I’m aware of the heat.

Nutrition will be from two bottles of High 5 gels in my pockets and primarily water at aid stations. Hopefully this will work as well as it has done in the past couple of races. I’ll take on gels from early in the run as I come to aid stations. Once I’m into the final 10km and hopefully going harder I’l stop taking nutrition and stick to fluids.

Time goals? I’m hoping with transition this will be under 3:15.

Add those all up and I’m ambitiously aiming to go under 10 hours in my first time in Kona. I’l stress once more that the aim is to enjoy the day and to experience this race. Finishing Kona is the first priority. That said with the amount of work I’ve put in and my experience of racing I should know what I’m doing and set myself targets.

Next time I post it’ll be with the results. Thanks to everyone who’s sent messages of support I hope to deliver a great race!