Trains, Travels

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!

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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!

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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.)

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