Trains, Travels

We’ll see how this breaks down, but as I approach the end of race recovery and the start of next years block of training it’s time to start writing up goals and the plan to get there. I have my 9:20 Ironman in the bank. I’m drawing plenty of confidence from it though I know it was a fast course to do it on. The aim now is to build on this and start recording solid results in my future races. If I can do this then I firmly believe that come October next year I will be in Hawaii.

I’ve learnt a lot over the past few months in the run up to Ironman Western Australia. Add to that all the free time I had during my taper and you have ample opportunity to come up with future plans. Some things have changed in the overall plan compared to earlier in the year.

I’ll be racing fewer races than I’d intended. In fact I’ll only race one or maybe two races in the run up to Ironman Australia. The first 3 months of the year will instead be focussed on solid, consistent training building up to my major race. This means I’m not going to be racing the Australian Long Course Champs or the Gold Coast Triathlon. Instead I’m substituting in a training trip down to Geelong to spend a week with Toby Radcliffe another Brit currently racing Pro.

However I will be racing a lot once we hit the main part of the season. If I get to Hawaii I am likely to be racing 5 or 6 Ironmans next year. Yes, I know, that’s a lot. We start with Australia after a 3 month build. From there it’s 7 weeks to Lanzarote which should give enough time for a little more training. I’m fortunate enough to have a little break and won’t race again till Quelle Challenge Roth in July. Then here’s the big test for me, 3 weeks later it’s Ironman UK. That’ll hopefully leave me with a couple of months to recover and prepare for Kona. I may race the Long Course Worlds, but I’m not sure on that one. I have every intention of returning to Busselton though and finishing out the year with Western Australia.

Sounds busy… I’m well aware this is going to be challenging, but also believe in my current position I am ideally set-up to attempt this racing load. I am very closely watching recovery right now to see how I am going. There’s good and bad. I’m feeling pretty recovered, but as a short run and massage revealed today my muscles have a way to go. For future races, more massage post event and better application of stretching and compression are called for. I eat well for recovery (anyone will tell you I eat well!), but could use more sleep. I’ll put more details on this in a future post.

As I see it from a training perspective the year will give me a few build cycles leading up to blocks of big racing. January through March is the major training block of the year. This is where I really aim to establish a new level of fitness for my year’s racing. I see the most significant work and improvements happening in this period. Ironman Australia will give me a chance to test the results. The aim here will be to repeat the 9:20. With Port being a tougher course than Busselton I’m looking for a step up in performance again.

Straight after that race I’m briefly back in the UK then off to Lanzarote for a month. There’s a short period to get a little bit more quality training in before I taper down for Ironman Lanzarote at the end of May. It’s 7 weeks between the first 2 races I’ll be testing out some new recovery strategies and then aiming to go under the 10 hour mark in Lanza. Ambitious for sure, I’ve heard plenty of people tell me how tough the course is. So I’ll be looking to put in a respectable bike, but really crack it with a fast run. My experiences with heat over here suggest that temperature won’t be an issue for me.

Then I’m back in the UK for a while, hoping we’ll be having a nice hot summer with plenty of sun. If it worked I’ll put my new recovery plans into play and get myself in a few weeks of training before I head over to Germany and Roth. This one isn’t part of the Ironman brand so there’s no Hawaii place on the line here (though hopefully that’ll all be resolved by then). Fast, famous course though, my objective is to put together a good race and get a time down near the 9 hour mark. If you’re going to go to a fast course, might as well aim to go fast. My ability to do this will depend on the fitness I’ve achieved by Lanzarote and the quality of my recovery.

This is the really new (as of this morning) bit, Ironman UK. A mere 3 weeks after Roth so the aim will be to recover and get myself into racing shape in that time. You won’t build anything in that gap so it’s not even worth trying. This will be really new territory for me. Two races that big, that close will be a new challenge, but I hope to have nailed my recovery processes by then. Without a course announcement it’s hard to judge what a realistic goal will be. The bike course is claiming to be fast by UK standards at least. Let’s say sub-9:30 and watch this space when the route is announced!

I’m going to briefly mention that if it’s there I’ll have a couple of months to build for Hawaii. Not saying anymore as I don’t want to jinx things! (That’s why I never put Hawaii in the schedule, not even as a tentative.) I will say I’m planning to book my trip to Hawaii early whilst it’s cheap, nothing like a financial incentive to motivate you!

The final Ironman of the year will be Ironman Western Australia again. My favourite Ironman and a chance to go back and attack the 9 hour mark! That’ll be the goal next time a better swim, a better bike and a better run. Simple. This time podium in my age group and secure a trip to 2010 Hawaii early.

That’s the coming year on the line. The goals, the periods to train for them, the lot. I’ll post later on some of the details of this plan. How I’ll approach training and recovery. Objectives with my weak points, things like nutrition and my swim.

Five days since the race and so far all I’ve done is swim about 500m. This was whilst having some swim analysis done by Paul Newsome of Swim Smooth. Having yourself filmed as you swim has to be one of the most useful things you can do for your swimming. Even without the insight from a coach I could see some of the problems with my swim. Pleasingly there weren’t massive issues, but I’ve got some drills to work out to correct what problems were there. It’s amazing how a few minor corrections tidy up a whole bunch of interconnected issues. I’ll be working on these drills and focussing on Paul’s advice over the next few months. Hopefully combined with the high swim volume I can cement myself into sub-1 hour Ironman swim territory (55 minute swims please!)

Aside from this I haven’t really had the time to train. I’ve had the inclination, at least when I got back to a beautiful sunny day on the Coast yesterday. A ride would have been great, but my legs still ache a little too much. I did manage to fit in writing up two race reports, one for Tri247 and one for Jaggad. Mostly though my time has been spent travelling, a brief stop off in Perth for that swim analysis, to catch up with friends and see a little of the city. Then back to the GC and move into my new place. I think it’s going to make a good base for training. There’s a good yoga place not too far away, opposite the dodgiest looking motel I’ve seen. Not far from all my usual rides or run routes and a very short walk to the beach!

Perhaps more dangerously it’s only a 10 minute walk from the Cheesecake Shop! Which brings up the topic of indulgence. This week I’ve let myself eat largely what I like, which does include quite a bit of cake. I’ve tried to keep things healthy, but let treats in as much as I could too! Whilst next week is still recovery, then plan is to start getting things a bit more under control. I will be making a trip down to Sydney for a few days to catch up with old friends. I’ll be staying at the same place I did last year which means I’m very near a cafe with the best coffee and cheesecake I’ve had! Fortunately I’m also off to the bush for a night’s camping when cheesecake will not be on the menu. In fact the menu may depend on what we catch.

Once all this is done I’ll be back from a 2 week break from strict training and it’ll be time to get back into the swing of things. Christmas is no excuse not to train so I’ll be building myself up to my basic week over a couple of weeks and then repeating that until Epic Camp in New Zealand. Hopefully I’ll go into that fitter than last year and without the illness that plagued me. I want to see what I’m capable of managing this time, hopefully without detonating! My schedule may alter then and I’ll opt for another training trip in February instead of Jervis Bay and the Australian Long Course Champs. Which will bring me back to March and the final build and taper for Ironman Australia. Doesn’t seem that long now I type it out.

Rather than bore you all with the mundane life of a recovering athlete I’ll keep this one short. The picture at the top today is one from the Jaggad photoshoot. It and some of the others will be used on their site in the future. It’s at the very least a good reason to go browse it or better to go buy some of the kit with a comment you only did so because of how good it looked on the model! Just saying… I’ve also put the pictures on my flickr account and in facebook for those who might want to see more! As the next few days won’t bring too much news I’ll be planning some training based posts until Sydney.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I have some sponsorship! Yep, I’m now part of Jaggad’s Technical Development Team. I’ll be racing and training in their kit and providing feedback to help with future developments. I’ll have a profile page up on their site and be providing race reports to them too. I’m pretty excited to have my first ever sponsor, it’s another step in the journey!

I tried out Jaggad last year when I first came out to Australia. They’re an Aussie company and we don’t see them much back in the UK. Their kit quality is excellent, the shorts and top I bought last year have got a lot of use. They’re also a little bit different, quite distinctive in design and with a neat external leg gripper on the shorts. It is probably the most comfortable leg gripper I’ve tried, no marks or digging into my leg. Anyway, check out their site, they do ship worldwide if you want to try some. I think TriCentral in the UK stock Jaggad too.

I really need to get to the pool now, though the way it’s raining I’ll get wetter on the way there than in the pool itself. Going to be a fairly easy 3K session. Pretty tired after a 7 hour bike and 40 minute run off the back of it. The bike route was awesome, I extended where I went last week and had a more interesting start thanks to a guy called Brett I met on my way out. He showed me a few more hills on the way to Murwillumbah. I’ve also picked up a few more places to stop off on when I do the pictorial/coffee shop tour.

So here I am a few days into my next 3 week training block and to be honest I’m stuck for things to write about. Well technically I’m stuck for new or different things to write about and I’m lacking in new pics for the site. Really this is just to warn you now that you may experience a sense of deja vu during the course of this post.

It’s funny how training ideas evolve during their execution. I came out here with a notion of a basic week of training week in, week out. Then I planned in bigger weeks, along the same structure, but doing more. Which led onto a weekly timetable for the whole of the next year. Now as I execute the first basic week of this training block I find myself planning my daily hours and how this fits around the races I have each weekend. It’s not quite as simple as I imagined.

It has however left me with a lot to consider over the past few days. I’ve advocated a plan of racing a lot, believing it helps eliminate my race nerves, provides good intense training and is a chance to see new places. The flip side of this is it disrupts the training program. You obviously lose a day or some aspect of a day to a race, but what you really have to factor in here is the travel. For example the Port Macquarie Half requires a 7 hour car trip each way along with spending the weekend there. When I plan a big week straight after it I’m losing 7 hours on day 1, that’s hard to make up (though the extra rest time is perhaps a bonus).

It looks like Port has become a solo trip too with the others I knew who were doing it pulling out. Work and life easily make it hard to train and race, I’ve experienced this myself, but you start to forget this when your full time. After all training and racing pretty much is life, if it’s not those it’s eating and sleeping! Being a solo trip also is a reminder of the financial cost of racing, motel rooms, travel expenses, food… It soon adds up to an expensive weekend away.

I think I mentioned a article by Gordo a while back on what was needed to live the pro-athlete lifestyle. He talked of the travel and time impact of races on training and how this can disrupt consistency. Similarly the financial impact involved and the money needed to live as a full time athlete. It’s an interesting read and over a month into the life style I’m starting to appreciate the points much more. I’d regard the Gold Coast as my perfect training location, whilst back home in the UK is the cheap training base. I’ve developed a schedule aiming at consistency over the long run and now I’m reviewing my race and travel plans.

Taking the training disruption and the financial impact, especially as travel cost spiral I’ve slightly altered my schedule. I’m dropping the two Challenge Series Olympic races, as each would provide a weekends interruption to my training and a fairly expensive trip. A more difficult choice, but ultimately sensible one is to also drop plans for the Busso Half-Ironman next May. Financial and logistical issues of moving all my stuff to WA then flying home from there for Lanza aside, with 7 weeks separating Ironman Oz and Lanza I don’t need a race in there. This probably means I’ll come home a bit earlier and head out to Lanza 3 weeks before the race now.

Whilst I’m lightening the load of my racing here I’m still considering what I do with the summer back in Europe. After Lanza I have the whole of June to train in before Roth in July. Then if all has gone to plan it’s time to recover and build towards Hawaii. I’m thinking of a training trip to France, 3 weeks out there in the mountains would be good. Nothing definite in mind yet though. I guess I’ll see how things are going, but if anyone has thoughts on doing some big training during the June and August period I’d be interested to hear. I am considering the Ironman Germany 70.3 in August just to see how I’m going, but if I have the Hawaii slot I’ll not compromise training for that race. I might consider a UK Half in that time if there are any, it should work out cheaper.

As scheduling seems to be the topic of the day I also noticed that the ITU World Long Course is on the 25th of October, far closer to Hawaii than I thought. I may have to start reading up on approaches to doing two long course races in quick succession, I think TeamTBB have some views on that. Not ideal, but if things work out I’ll be doing both. I vaguely entertained the idea of going for a slot for the ITU Worlds on the Gold Coast too, but I’m not sure I can compete with those short course guys! There’s time to reconsider that next year though, I’m likely to be here when the race is happening.

What do you know, a lengthy post anyway. I was going to write up my long ride from the other day. Back through Murwillumbah, down through a place called Mooball and back up the coast. Some quiet roads, beautiful scenery and nice little towns with enticing coffee shops. Plus a vicious headwind and some of the worst road surfaces I’ve been on here. I’m going to save it all though, my plan is to redo the ride when I’m back from WA and take my camera. There’s some fantastic views, not just on the coast but inland in the cane fields. A long ‘easy’ ride with stops to take pictures and definitely checking out a coffee shop or two along the way.

We are out of coffee here, well there is instant if you count that! I may have to squeeze a coffee shop detour into today’s plans and probably a trip to the stores to get some more. Some things are essentials to the endurance athlete!

No, I’m not quitting the 1 year plan and heading back to real employment, but today is the last day of easy week. From tomorrow it’s back to the basic week for 2 weeks and then another big push week before I head into my taper. So I’m trying to make the most of it before I get back into solid training. I think a final cruise to a coffee shop in the afternoon may be in order. It’s a beautiful sunny day here and the whole week promises more of the same. Can’t wait!

I’ll keep this post relatively short, been blabbing enough lately as it is. Recovery week seems to have worked. I’m having to hold myself back on the bike a little at the moment reminding myself I’ve 3 weeks of hard work to come. My legs don’t feel entirely dead on the run, which is a bonus in itself. I have plans for a lot more running over the coming weeks so it’s good they’re at least starting out fresh. Swimming continues much the same as before, my fitness is improving as I can knock out 4K sets day in, day out. My aim for the next few weeks is to take that improved fitness and work harder in the water.

One of the challenges of the next 3 weeks is that each week ends on a race. So to hit the goals with a race and some travel in there will be a bit trickier. Next weekend I race at Noosa, one of the more famous olympic distance races. However like many of these big races numbers are so high that drafting is a big issue. For me it’s a C race I’m doing to experience the event and be able to say I’ve raced Noosa. As such I’m going to race on my training wheels and take the opportunity to collect some power data from a race. Who knows where I’ll come, but I’ll enjoy a weekend away, training on the Sunshine Coast.

Following Noosa I then have Port Macquarie Half-Ironman, as with the Gold Coast Half I don’t intend a proper taper. I’ll cut volume a little on the Friday and Saturday so I’m not entirely exhausted. I’ll race Port in full race set-up as a practice run for Busselton. My goal? Not to have a flat and so beat my time of last year! Breaking 4:30 would be good though, if I was greedy maybe a top 5 in my age group there. Travelling back from that race will be a bigger issue, it’s a 6 hour journey and likely to happen on the following Monday. Effectively taking 1 whole day out of my big week! I’ll sneak in a workout before we leave and something when we get back, then it’s hard training everyday.

I’ll finish my big week with a local sprint race. Should be good fun. That’s fun in the sense of hurting a lot! A part of me was tempted to race it old school in speedos! Fortunately a bigger part of me has more sense. It’ll start the last big day of training with a really intense session, which I’ll follow up with a few hours on the bike and a bit more swimming and running. If all goes to plan I’ll hit over 40 hours again in that last week.

So some challenging times ahead, but that’s what I’m here for. There’s a few things I’ll be working on to help support the goal.

• No internet in the morning - I waste too much time when I could be getting to the pool.
• No more Klondike - stupid solitaire game on the ipod! Once I hit $10000 that’s it I’m done!
• Get to the pool as soon as possible after breakfast - by not doing number 1 this should be easy
• Take an afternoon nap when you can - yeah, I know it’s a tough life
• Afternoon stretching sessions before that nap - really tough.
• At least one 5K swim set a week, with more in my big week.
• At least one 6 hour ride a week, with 2 in my big week.
• Lots of running, but a little bit more quality each week.
• Run (more) off every bike - it seems to be working.

There’s plenty to do and lots to achieve. I hope that I’ll come out the other side of these 3 weeks in better shape than I went into Switzerland. Then I execute a good taper and on race day in Busselton it’s good-bye 9:40s, hello 9:20s.

Not so short after all! Easy week has been good, I’ve indulged myself a lot as I know it’s back to the ‘monastery’ for the next 3 weeks. Lots of food, a few kit treats and back to work to earn them. I’ll just mention my first trail run from the weekend - it was great fun. A lot more than on the road, even if I did manage to trip up once and cut my hand! All good though and it really works your leg strength. The plan is that once I’m back from WA, Pete and I will be regularly hitting the trails to work on run strength. A bit more variety is always good and if it makes me stronger, even better!

P.S. New shoes number 2!